NO REST IN THE WEST! 🏈 | 2026 AFC West Preview + NFL & College Football Week 1

[00:00:04] Sports Reports No Gimits No Clowns 2-5 Mr. Logical We Run This Town Real Talk Only No Chasing No Doubt From The East To The West It's The Order We Shout Mic Check Lights Flash Game Time Stay Ready Two Vets In The Zone Keep The Pressure Real Heavy Big Hits Big Blaze Yeah We Breaking It Down Truth Rings In Your Speakers Every Word Is The Crown From The North Side Hustle To That Southern Flame Midwest Grind West Coast Of The Game Sports Talk Kings Yeah We Wear That Crown Turn It Up Let Them Know It's About To Go Down

[00:00:34] Sports Reports No Gimmicks No Clowns 2-5 Mr. Logical We Run This Town Real Talk Only No Chasing No Doubt From The East To The West It's The Order We Shout It's About To Go Down

[00:00:59] Yes! Happy Tuesday Out There You Are Now Listening To The Sounds Of Sports Reports As Ordered And I Gotta Warn You The Sounds Might Get A Little Loud Tonight Cause We Gotta Talk About This Michigan Western Michigan Fiasco We Gotta Talk About LSU We Gotta Talk About LSU Potentially Getting Kicked Out The SEC We Gotta Talk About Mr. Logical's Favorite Closet Team The Kansas City Chiefs We Gonna Do It All

[00:01:27] Like Reviews Subscribe, Like Reviews, Share, Share, Do All The Free Things, Do All The Good Things, Liquid Death In Hand, We Are Everywhere That You Get Your Podcast, Check Us Out, Let's Get Right Into It. So Mr. Logical, Yeah, You Know What I'm Saying, I'ma Save The College Football For Later Cause We Gotta Get This Last Review Out The Way, You Know What I'm Saying, We Got The NFC, Or The AFC West, Where You Had The Denver Broncos, On The Brink Of The Super Bowl,

[00:01:57] You Know What I'm Saying, We Gotta Talk About LSU, And The The Chiefs, And The Chiefs, And The Chiefs, And The Chiefs, And The Raiders, And The Raiders, The Bottom Just Fell Out, Since 2009, Mr. Logical, You Know What I'm Saying, Only Two Teams Have Won This Division, Those Are The Broncos, And Chiefs, So First Things First, Is The Dynasty Over In Kansas City?

[00:02:25] Dynasty, I Think So, Because Like I Think When You Think Dynasty, You Think Like Consecutive Dominic, Like The Run They Were On, The Five Super Bowls In Seven Years, Seven AFC Championship Games, I Don't Think They're Gonna Make That Run For The Next Three Or Four Years, But As Far As Like This Year, I Have No Reason To Doubt Their Success On The Field For This Season, It's Hard To

[00:02:55] Repeat That Seven Year Run, Because I Think Even Brady At His Height, In The New England Patriots, I Don't Think They Had A Run Like That, Where They Had Five Super Bowls, And Seven AFC Championships, Like, I Think I Know Tom Had A Nice Run, But There Was A Ten Year Gap Between Super Bowls, Like Super Bowl Appearances, So, It's A Tough Thing To Replicate, So, Are They Gonna Be Able To Run The Next Three, Four Years, AFC Championship Games? Probably Not.

[00:03:25] But I Don't Think They, As Far As Like You Said, Only Two Teams Won In This Division In The Last 17, 18 Seasons, So, I Don't Think They Have Any Less Of A Chance Than Anybody Else In This Division Right Now. Well, I Mean The Good News For Them Is, You Know, Eric, The Enemy Is Back In The Building, You Know, That's When They Saw A Lot Of The Success That They've Seen, So, You Know, Maybe That Change Will Spark Something, We'll See. Is Bo Tom Real? No.

[00:03:53] I Mean, I'm Not Like, I Think What Happened With These Quarterbacks Recently Is That Tom Brady, Like, And I Mentioned The Great Tom Brady A lot, He Talked About How Like Some Of The Offensive Schemes Are Kind Of Being Dumbed Down A Little Bit, They're Being Assisted By The Rules, Like You Can Throw Guys In The Middle Of The Field And They Won't Get Hit. So, I Think He's Just One Of The

[00:04:21] Type Of Players That They Want To Develop. I Think It's Like A Lot Like Trevor Lawrence. They're Just Good Quarterbacks, But They're Not Force Multipliers. If The Defense Has An Off Day, They're Losing 31 To 20.

[00:04:39] Because Like, Bold Knicks Isn't Like, He Doesn't Make The Guys Around Them Better To That Extend, To The Level That They, To The Level That People Are Trying To Get Them To Send To Like This, Yeah. Because I Also Want To Say, AFC West Champion, AFC Championship Type Team, I Don't Think He Does That From His Position. Well, I Know The First Thing That Stands Out To Me With You Saying That, You Know, Is The Fact That The Broncos Went 9-2 In One Score Games Last Year.

[00:05:07] But On Top Of That, They Won 11 One Score Games Overall, So That 9-2 Was Seven Points Or Less. But The Game In Particular That Stands Out To Me Is The Giants Game, You Know, Where They Came Back, You Know, I Think It Was Like 32 To 10 Or Something. What Up Mike, Something Along Those Lines, And Bo Nix Brought Them Back. So I Would Say That He Is A Force Multiplier In That Way, And It Doesn't Hurts To Have. They Made Every Mistake Possible. They Made Every Mistake Possible In That Second and Fourth Quarter.

[00:05:37] You Still Gotta Take Advantage Of Those Mistakes Though. Florida State Had Four Turnovers. They Took Four Turnovers From SMU Last Night. They Didn't Win. Yeah. And I Get It. You Gotta Win. I Don't Wanna, I Don't Wanna Grade Them On That. I Just, What Does He Do Great That You Know Definitively Going Into The Game This Thing That Bo Nix Does For The Broncos Is The Advantage In The Game.

[00:06:04] So, So The Thing Is We Think Of These Quarterbacks Like Say Lamar Jackson And You Know, Back In The Day, Michael Vick. You Know, They, You Get Them In Third And Long, You Think You're Doing Something And Then Boom, They're Up The Field For 25 Yards On Their Own. Bo Nix Ain't Gonna Give You That Per Se. But What Bo Nix Is Gonna Do Is This Thing And Find Somebody, You Know What I Saying?

[00:06:27] Or He Will Take Off If It's Like Third And Sixth And So, But You Know, Like He Reminds Me, And Not A Direct Comparison, But He's Elway Like In A Lot Of Those Ways As Far As Just Keeping Plays Alive And You Know, Being Able To Find Somebody In The Middle Of Chaos. I Would Actually Say That He Thrives Better In Chaos Than He Does In Structure. So I Think That's What You Know, Bo Nix Brings To The Table.

[00:06:51] I'm Not Saying That He's A Top 5 Quarterback In The League Or Anything Along Those Lines Or Anything Like That But That's What He Does. You Know What I Mean? But Anyway, Next, What Do The Chargers Have To Do To Get Over The Hump? They Gotta Treat Each Drive As A Singular Drive And Make Decisions Based Off Of That.

[00:07:20] We've Seen Them For Years Not Take The Three Points Against Kansas City Because They're Worried About Kansas City Maybe Coming Back At It. It's Fourth And Three From The Five, Dog. Just Kick The Field Goal And Go Back And Play Defense. But They Always Seen To Find A Way To Create A Roadblock For Themselves. They Shouldn't. They Should All, They Should Be, They Should Be In The Running For The Super Bowl.

[00:07:49] But It's Always Something That They Just Trip Themselves Up. And Granted, You Have Injuries And Things Of That Nature, But They Always Seem To Put A Roadblock In Their Own Path When They Don't Need To. Go Up 6-0. It's Perfectly Fine To Be Up 6-0 In The Game Versus 10-0 In Your First Couple Possessions. Just Get The Points. And They Don't Get The Points. Then They End Up Down 7-3. And Now Panic Ensues.

[00:08:16] See, And Mike Making Me Mad Again Because Here He Is Out Here Not Sharing That Stuff Again. You Know What I'm Saying? He Not Sharing. You Know What I'm Saying? He Always Leaving Me On My Own. Okay, Last Question. Last Team In The Division. Are The Raiders In Fact An NFL Team? They, I Think They Get Some Of The Collective Bargaining Money. They Get The Stadium. You Can Pay A Million Dollars To Party In The End Zone.

[00:08:44] You Know, For Bottle Service, Lobsters, And Crazy Shit Like That. But As Far As A Team, They're Not A Well-Run NFL Team. I'm Trying Not To Discredit Teams, But They're Not A Well-Run Team. Right. And It's Granted, We Get Armchair Quarterback This Thing All Day, Which We Do Every Week, Twice A Week. But There Should Have Been Decisions That They Made That Made More Sense Over The Past Few Seasons.

[00:09:11] It Seems Like Every Year They Just Make More And More Decisions That Don't Make Sense To The Average Football Fan. Like Just Start Over. Like When Kansas City Was Good In The Division And You Know, You're Trying To Compete And It Didn't Work. And Then The Chargers Started. I Want To Say Clippers Because It Says LAC On My Paper. It Just Keeps Making Me Think Clippers. But They're Kind Of Like The Clippers In L.A. For That Matter. And Then Denver Got Good. Denver Got The Right Coach.

[00:09:40] They Got The Quarterback That They Believe In. Like I Said, I'm Still Waiting For This, For These Playoff Great Moments And Things Of That Nature. But The Raiders Should Have Been Like, You Know What? We Are Going To Start Over. We're Going To Trade Whoever's Worth Any Kind Of Draft Capital. Well, You Know They Tried That. Whatever It Is. Yeah. They Still, They Could Have Made Another Deal. They Could Have Caught Another Team. Like Why Bring Them Back? You Just, You Just, Hey, That Didn't Work Out. Now You Want To Make The Decision And Say, You Know What?

[00:10:09] Now We're Going To Play Him And Hope That He Looks Good. Well, I Mean, To Be Fair, They Did Add Some Stuff Around Him. We'll Get Into It. You Know, They Added Some Stuff Around Him. We'll Get Into It Later. But Okay, Let's Talk About The Denver Broncos Here. So, You Know, Denver Has A Very Fortunate Kind Of Situation Here. You Know, Because Patrick Mahomes Coming Back From The Injury. They Open Up With Kansas City. They Get Kansas City Twice Within The First Eight Weeks.

[00:10:37] So, You Get Them Off Your Schedule Before They Get A Little Bit Better As The Season Goes On As Well. Because Remember, The Chargers Were Sitting In The Catbird Seat Last Year. They Started Out 3-0. All Three Wins Were In Division. You Know, I Picked Them To Win The Division Last Year. And I Was Like, Hey, We Right On The Right Path. And Then, You Know, Things Went Awry. But, You Know, Broncos Had 12 Comeback Wins Last Year. I Absolutely Love, Mr. Logical, The Jaylen Waddle Pickup.

[00:11:05] I Feel Like That Does So Much For Their Offense. Like Just Having A Guy That Can Hurt You From That Level All Over The Field. And The Reason That I Think That Helps Is Because Courtland Sutton Is A Decent Receiver. You Know What I Mean? But He's Not A Big Play Receiver For What They Think His Skill Level Is And What He's Being Paid. So, I Think That Having Jalen Waddle Opens Things Up For Him A Little Bit. But Then On The Other Side... It's Kind Of Like Michael Pittman. It's Kind Of Like Michael Pittman Jr.

[00:11:35] Yeah, You Were Talking About That With D. With DK Metcalf. It's Like A Big Body That Can Make Those Big Body Plays. But Like He Doesn't Take The Top Off The Defense. You Know, Stuff Like That. But I Like This Move Also For Marvin Mims And Troy Franklin. You Know What I'm Saying? Because Like I Always Talk About Slotting. You Know What I Mean? They Get To Fall Down A Level Where They Belong. And They Can Make More Impactful Plays Because They're Getting Looks That They Wouldn't Otherwise

[00:12:04] Get Without A Guy Like Jalen Waddle On The Team. So, I Think That Their Offense, Denver's Offense, Could Match Their Defense This Year. Then You Look At... They Went And Got Jonah Coleman In The Draft. I Like Him At Running Back. RJ Harvey Year Two. You Know, Didn't Necessarily Like The World On Fire On The Ground Last Year. I Like Him A Lot Out Of Central Florida. But He's That... The Back That Catches The Passes Out Of The Backfield. Gets Open. You Know, Got Some... Get The Ball In The Hands Of Your Playmakers. Yeah. Got Some Gibbs In His Game.

[00:12:34] Then You Got J.K. Dobbins Coming Back. Who Feels Like He Was Injured For The 71st Time In His Career. So, You Know, So Hopefully He Could Get Through A Full Season. But The Change That I'm Interested About The Most In The Broncos Is It Looks Like Davis Webb Is Taking Over As Offensive Coordinator. He Was The Offensive Coordinator. But You Know, Usually Sean Payton Calls The Plays. So It Looks Like Sean Payton For The First Time In His Career

[00:13:03] Is Going To Give Up Play Calling. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Here Are The 75 Plays You're Calling Today. I'ma Tap You... He's The Schedule 2, Right? He's Just Gonna Hear Your Voice In The Headset. That's Funny. But, You Know, I Coach Drew Rees. I beat Peyton Manning The Super Bowl. I'm Not Giving Up The Play Calling To Davis Webb.

[00:13:32] The Backup For The New York Giants. Well, From Everything That I've Been Hearing, It Sounds Like They're Gonna Play A Little More Up Tempo This Year In Comparison To Last Year. I Mean, If... I Don't Know How Much The Elevation Impacts The Athletes That Are In The NFL. Like, I Don't Know If A Skilled Position Guy, Like... Any One Of These Wide Receivers That Have To Play A Game In Denver, I Don't Know How Much That's Really Gonna Impact Them As Far As The Elevation.

[00:14:03] To You And I As Regular People, We Talk About It... That Trip From Utah To Colorado Springs, It Felt Like I Was Running With A Brick In My Back. But, I Was Also Just A Regular Air Force Guy. We Call That The Draymond. Yeah, So... I Don't Know If They Really Have... But I Think In The Trenches, Like The Bigger Guys, Like These Defensive Tackles, If You Do Go Hurry Up, I Think It Might Impact Them A Little Bit More. And That's Where...

[00:14:32] If You Can Get Those Guys Subbed Out With Your Up Tempo, I Think That Works Just Because You're Used To The Altitude. That's That... I Talk About My... You Know... Lack Of Admiration For Sean Payton. I'm Trying To Use Less Negative Words. But, I Mean... He Seems To... Be A Good Coach. I Know I Was Trying To Compare Him To Mike McCarthy. He Seems To Have A Real Good Grip On The Game. And I Can't Keep Hating On A Man. I Just... First...

[00:15:02] I Just Don't... I Don't Like His Attitude. I Think He's Just Too Cocky. He's Like The NFL's Lane Kiffin. I Like That About Him. I Like That About Him. You Know... You Know... Um... The... So... The Broncos Were 16 Yak Last Year. You Know... So... What I Like... Another Reason... You Know... Going Back To The Jaden Waddle Point... That Means That They Can Turn 3 Yard Catches Into 12 Yards. You Know... Saying... Jalen Waddle Can Turn 9 Yard Catches Into 28 Yard Catches.

[00:15:32] So... You Know What I Mean? So... I'm... It's Still Interesting That Tyreek Hill Hasn't Been Signed By The Way. Random Thought... But Just... You Know... Um... You Know... He's Got All The Domestic Stuff Going On... So... That's... Gonna Be A Loss For Them... But They Have Depth.

[00:16:00] They Did Lose John Franklin Myers As Well... You Know... He Had 14 And A Half Sacks The Last Two Years... Dre Greenlaw Is Gone... He Didn't Really Play Anyway... But... You Know... Nonetheless... You Know... But They Probably Have The Best Secondary In The NFL... You Know... Secondary So Good That Jaday Barron Couldn't Even Really Get On The Field... You Know... As A First Round Pick... You Know... Um... They Had... Uh... Jaquan McMillan... Who Came Out Of Nowhere... You Know... He Had The Big Play Against Buffalo...

[00:16:29] The Interception That Ended The Playoff Game... So... You Know... They Got Talent Upon Talent Upon Talent... You Know... What I Mean... But That Early Schedule Could Be An Issue... Mr. Logical... You Know... I'm Gonna Get That On The Screen Here... And... You Know... So... I Think... Denver... Their Season Is Gonna Be Determined... How They Make It Through... I'd Say The First Seven Weeks... You Know... Um... Because... It Can Get Out Of Hand A Little Early... You Know... They Go To Arrowhead To Start Out...

[00:16:58] I Think They Win That Game... You Know... Saying... Just Cause I Gotta See Mahomes... Right... I Gotta See How He's Moving Around... What He Looks Like... Yeah... You Know... Kansas City... I Think... You Know... Rams. So, you know, right there, two of those games, that Jacksonville and Ram game are at home. So if they could start out 3-0, they might be cooking with gas. You know what I mean? I'm

[00:17:26] interested to see the Rams game in particular. Then they go to San Francisco, go to the Chargers. So realistically, I wouldn't be a hater. I might be wrong, but I wouldn't be a hater if I said that they could start 2-3. Because they very well possibly could. I don't see it, but I'm just saying

[00:17:46] they could. I have them starting 3-2. I got a loss to Kansas City just because it's at Kansas City. Arrowhead, Loud, I think Andy Reid, BNME, I think they can just game plan well. I think they'll take care of them. They'll protect Patrick. We'll make timely throws, and we'll talk about the roster and how youthful the roster is. I think that's a good thing for Kansas City because they can just

[00:18:15] kind of dumb it down. Keep it simple. So I got lost there. I got a win against Jacksonville. I got the Rams just terrorizing them up front defensively. Because we did our NFC West preview before the Aaron Donald return. I think that might change a lot of expectations. He's not traveling with the team to Australia this week, by the way.

[00:18:39] That's probably a smart move. Win at San Francisco, win at the Chargers. The thing about their schedule, and we're going to scroll down, I think you talk about the first seven weeks, they could probably go, if they went three and four, which would be, you know, it would look like the bottom's falling out. They got a five-week stretch after the bye with four layups. Okay.

[00:19:08] So you got to have you know, the Raiders are not a layup when it comes to the Broncos. That's not a layup. Yeah. If Kirk Cousins is playing that late, that means your rookie is probably not ready. And if the rookie's in there, he's going to have to take his lumps with the exotic defenses that he's going to be facing, especially from Denver. But you got Vegas at Pittsburgh, Miami, Jets, and then back to Vegas.

[00:19:36] That five-week stretch, whatever they got going on before the bye, if it's up and down, if there's tensions in the locker room, that five-game winning streak that I'm going to book right now will get them right back on track. No matter what their season goes off, it's discombobulated from weeks one up until week nine, and they come out of that five and four, four and five, they got five weeks in a row where they're getting wins. Okay.

[00:20:05] So I think that's probably the most favorable part of the schedule. I think I'm settling in on 11 and six. I'm dancing around 12 and five just because that stretch in the middle. I think that gets you right back on track. I think that gets everybody involved.

[00:20:24] You talk about the yak, especially after a bye, having those stretch of teams after a bye, because we don't know what Pittsburgh is going to be. I think we're assuming that they're going to be good because we're so used to them being good under Mike Tomlin. Well, I think that their defense is going to be good. And we've seen Dallas look terrible under Mike McCarley. Well, I think the Steelers' defense is going to be good this year. I think they're going to be a top eight, top ten defense,

[00:20:52] and I think that that's going to give them a chance to win games they otherwise shouldn't in most years that we've seen recently. And looking at this Denver schedule, I'll just go ahead and throw it out there. I got them sweeping Kansas City. I got them losing to the Rams. I got them losing to the Chargers on that road game. I got them losing to the Seahawks. And then from there, it gets kind of iffy, right?

[00:21:18] That Carolina game could be challenging just because of the whole West going East thing. You know what I'm saying? And we saw how well Carolina played the Rams twice last year. Like, realistically, they beat the Rams the first time, if I remember correctly. And, you know, and they pushed them in the playoff as well. So, like, going East is always going to have that. And that's the thing that you've got to take into account sometimes when you're looking at these NFL schedules. Because in my right mind, I wouldn't say that.

[00:21:47] I wouldn't be like, hey, Carolina's going to be tough for Denver. You know what I'm saying? But it's just that travel that you've got to consider sometimes. What? Maybe they'll travel earlier. Or maybe they go out there on, like, you know, get out there earlier. Acclimate. Maybe get out there Thursday. But to me, it's still dangerous because you're coming off of playing Kansas City, you know, which you're going to be jacked up for. And you're going into your bye week. So, you know, so you kind of got that. The highs of highs and the lowest of lows. Yeah. So you're saying you beat Kansas City?

[00:22:17] You beat Kansas City at home. And you can't lose to Carolina. But NFC South is probably going to be predicted as one of the least productive as far as wins of all NFL conferences. They're probably going to lose some of them. So you're probably thinking, like, oh, this is NFC South. We'll take care of business, go on our bye week. And then we get this five-week stretch when we're going to knock out these minor league NFL teams. So, yeah, I think the Carolina game could be a trap game. We'll see how they play against Kansas City.

[00:22:46] Yeah, we'll see. And then, you know what I mean, obviously that Pittsburgh game is tough just because it's in Pittsburgh. And, you know, it is a, you know, that's Black Friday. But the rest of the schedule doesn't look bad at all. Like, you get Buffalo at home. Going to Foxboro could be tough. You know what I mean? Especially, like, going up there, you know, that time of year. Even though Denver's used to the weather, you're traveling to go into that weather. You know what I mean?

[00:23:14] And then if it's – if their records match the prime time, you know, caliber, they'll move that game to a night game. So it'll be a standalone game. So it's going to be a little colder. We'll be looking at early January or, yeah. So Christmas is Friday. So they'll be playing that game, you know, second, third January, eight o'clock at night in Foxboro. Foxboro.

[00:23:43] Yeah, it could be nice to go. Because especially if their records are both, you know, 10 – if they're both sitting at 10 or 11 wins at that point, that's definitely going to be a prime time game. Yeah. I mean, it could decide home field advantage if everything, you know, breaks correctly. So, you know what I mean? There you go. So the Chargers, you know, last year and I guess both years of the Hall-Barr tenure, they finished second in the West. So this is why I was impressed with the Chargers.

[00:24:11] Obviously, I picked them to win the division last year. But before we even snapped the ball in the regular season, Joel Alt was hurt. Rashawn Slater was hurt. You know, there was the lineman that they had from the Jets. I can't think of his name right now. He got hurt. And, you know, so, like, to finish 11-6 with three starters off your offensive line out shows me that you're a well-run football team, the opposite of the Raiders.

[00:24:38] So, on top of that, they're losing Jesse Mentor as defensive coordinator. So, you know, the guy that's taking over, Chris O'Leary, is his understudy. You know, he played for him in college and he's been with him ever since. So, you know, I don't think a lot's going to change philosophy-wise, terminology-wise. Right. Like, I think, because he tried to go to college and be a defensive coordinator, but it was, but I think, if I remember correctly, he was at Western Michigan. We'll talk about them later, of course. But he was at Western Michigan.

[00:25:09] And I think it was one of those things where it was just like, you guys can't do what those guys can do. You know, so now he's back in the NFL. So, they started 3-0, like I mentioned last year. You know, three division wins. You know what I mean? But then they did one of the craziest things they could do. They went and lost to the Giants. You know, that was their first loss of the season. You know, one of the many games where Jackson Dart got rattled around and everything.

[00:25:36] So, my thought about the Chargers is they are a team in the very definition of the word team. They don't have a lot of guys that stand out in that way. You know, they got Derwin James. Khalil Mack's a year older. I think he's 35 now. So, he's climbing up the ladder. You know what I mean? They had Herbert, obviously. But when you look across their skill positions, Omarion Hampton missed a lot of time last year.

[00:26:06] They don't really have people that you look at and go, to your point about Bo Nix, like, oh, this is the guy that we got to be worried about. Like, the Chargers don't have that. They're just a machine that plays well-oiled football. Yeah, and Justin Herbert is, I mean, he's a talent.

[00:26:28] I think what the Chargers essentially get away with is that you can levy these expectations on them. A lot of people pick them preseason. Like, Mike has them going to the Super Bowl. And when they fall short, it's always going to be something. Like, I think last year they had, like, the 30th or 29th ranked offensive line. Again, you still got 11 wins. So, like, if you can muster up those 11 wins, then when it comes to the playoffs, you should be able to then deliver in the playoffs.

[00:26:57] Like, if you can get that far, like, you should be able to deliver. That's the part. They don't deliver. They just always look. I can't recall. I know it was bad. They lost that Foxborough 16-3. You know what I'm saying? Like, Justin Herbert can't get you in the end zone once. Like, I get that the line. That's valid, right? But, like, to your point, you went through the regular season, won 11 games, you know, beat everybody in your division at least once.

[00:27:26] You know what I mean? So, like, when you get to the playoffs, we knew what you were coming into the playoffs with. You have been playing like that all season. Now, granted, you know what I'm saying? New England had a great defense last year, and they're going to make life hard on you. But you held them to 16 points. Yeah. But that's the other piece with the Chargers.

[00:27:48] You get to see the dynamic arm and the rolling right, throwing it up the sideline to, what's the boy named? Johnston. He was having the drop seeds early in his career. But then, you know, they need a field goal to tie the game, and they need a field goal to win it in a minute left. Herbert can just make this play.

[00:28:13] And you rely on that all regular season long, then playoffs come, and you get nothing. Or when it's time to win that game to take a division lead in week 14. Like, hey, you guys are one game back. You win this game. Now you're tied for first in the division. Or you take control of the division late in the season. They don't win that game. It's just something about the fact that I think they're, like you said, they're a team. They don't have, like, a guy that really stands out, so everything has to go well.

[00:28:43] But in the moments that you need it to go well, you need your prediction of them winning the AFC West to come true. And week 14, I need you to win this game. I need you to win this game at home with Denver. And a couple of the wide receivers are out, and Denver still beats you. And you're like, damn. There goes your chance to win a division. And I'm looking for Omar Yonhampton to have a big year this year. Kamani Vidal as well as his second runner.

[00:29:12] Because they went out and got Mike McDaniel as their offensive coordinator. So from the standpoint of looking at him as a head coach, I don't think he was a head coach. You know what I mean? Or at least not yet. He did a lot of things that left a lot to be desired as a head coach. But if you let him focus on that running game, then I can't get to the Super Bowl like Mike's talking about. But they can be a threat. You know what I'm saying? Because go back and look at what he did with San Francisco a lot of those years.

[00:29:42] Remember that game where Rasheem Mostert went crazy on the Packers and Aaron Rodgers couldn't get on the field? That was Mike McDaniels. So I like what they got going on here. I think that they can make noise. I think that their red zone offense is going to get a little bit better because they were third lowest in touchdown right in the red zone last year. You know, obviously, like I said, Jesse Minter is gone. He's the new head coach in Baltimore.

[00:30:12] I like the Keaton Mitchell pickup. You know, he could be that third down Justice Hill kind of back. You know, I like that. Arande Gatson came out of nowhere last year as tight end. You know, that became Herbert's favorite target at some point during the season as well. They bring it in. David and Goku. You know what I mean? So like then you got Ladd McComkey. Johnston got better last year like you were mentioning. So the Chargers have weapons.

[00:30:39] But of course, it wouldn't be the Chargers if they went out and got Tyler Biotish from Washington. And here he is, offensive lineman, out for the season, you know, before we even get to the regular season. So they did go get Cole Strange from New England to help out there. Jake Slaughter in the draft. So that'll help out a little bit. But, you know, the Chargers bring back a lot of their defense. They did lose Adafi Owe. Thank you very much because he's a commander now.

[00:31:08] He had seven and a half sacks after they picked him up at the trade deadline. You know, first round draft pick, right? We've been talking about him all offseason. Akeem Mesador. You know, he's a little bit older. So maybe I would like to think that there may be less of a developmental gap there because he is a little older. He's grown into his body as is. So maybe it's a little easier of a transition. I'm going to think that.

[00:31:35] But like I said, Khalil's another year older. Tuli Tuipalotu, you know, he looked the part last year. So, I mean, they got things on defense as well. But Derwin James, I say this every single year, so I will not let this show go by without me saying it. Don't be a knucklehead this year. I mean, he got suspended last year for that hit on Friday. He's going to get one. Yeah, he's always going to get one.

[00:32:02] Because he's known for the big hit. I think some of his hits, they weren't bad. It's just his reputation got him a couple of extra calls and emails from the commissioner. Well, you know, it's like that play that Dylan Brooks had on Gary Payton in the playoffs a couple years ago. And he broke his wrist. I think it was his wrist or his elbow, something along those lines when he hit the ground.

[00:32:32] And people were like, the way they were reacting to it was based off of the injury that occurred to Payton. And I don't like that. I'm like, if the intent is there, if you determine that the intent is there, regardless, if he would have just got up and walked off, that should have still been a flagrant if that's the way you feel. And so with Derwin James, like, you know, his reputation does precede him. So he has to play within the lines sometimes. And I think that hurts a player like him. Yeah. So we'll see.

[00:33:02] I think sometimes he just says, fuck it, and just goes with it. Yeah. Yeah. Got to make a play. You got to make a play. Yeah. So just like the Broncos, Mr. Logic, 3-4-5-6. Look at that. At Buffalo. So they got to travel all the way to Orchard Park. So not only going east, but going way north, too. You know, then they go up to Seattle. You know, they get Denver and Kansas City back-to-back, one of those at Arrowhead.

[00:33:30] So the Chargers, if they're going to win the division, they got to go 4-2 at the very least in these six games to start the season. Now, I think they start 2-0 because they get the Cardinals and Raiders back-to-back. Nice preseason tune-up. Yep. Split those next four. I think you've got to split those next four. Yeah, I got 3-3. Okay.

[00:34:00] Because I had them losing too many games in a row, and I just kind of looked at, like, you know what? I think the surprise is going to be the game at Seattle. I think they lose at Buffalo. No, I think that's going to be a surprise win. I think people are going to probably – yeah. So I like them at Seattle to win that game. The home game against Denver, I think Denver gets them at Kansas City.

[00:34:25] And then the Rams just – just the defensive front, I think they're going to be tough to beat all year long. Right. But they have – They probably have – Look at this. Yeah. Houston at Baltimore? I think they have the toughest schedule of the division if you're looking at it. I think you go on – you go Buffalo, Seattle, Denver, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Rams, Houston, Baltimore.

[00:34:53] So up until week 10, I think they might have the toughest stretch. I don't know what the math is. But it don't stop because you still got – you know, you get New England a couple of weeks after that. Then you've got to go all the way to Florida. And last year when they went to Jacksonville, they got their pants pulled down and just straight up spanked. And like you said, sometimes the schedule can dictate the losses.

[00:35:22] 9-8, 10-7 isn't crazy, but the schedule is so tough. If they can make it through this gauntlet, like you said, if they can come out 4-2, head into the bye, then I think 11-6 for a second straight year is within reach. That's what I have on that. But they got to make it through this gauntlet. Yeah, so Buffalo, Seattle, Denver.

[00:35:47] Yeah, so Buffalo, Denver – or Buffalo, Seattle, Denver, Kansas City, Rams, Houston, Baltimore. 1-2-3-4-5-6-7. Yeah. You got to go 4-3 in that stretch. 5-2 would be overachieving, but you got to go at least 4-3. So I don't like, you know, just going off schedule. I mean, off of what we've been talking about. I don't like that at Buffalo, and I don't like that at Buffalo – I mean, at Baltimore.

[00:36:18] You know what I mean? Now, the good news with Baltimore, at least, is Jim Harbaugh should know how to attack Jesse Minter's defense. You know what I mean? Like, he's been in the building. He was your understudy. So maybe you have certain insights that other teams don't have right away. So I would like to think that they could win that game in Baltimore, but I just can't get there right now. You know, I do like Houston at home, you know, getting to Houston at home.

[00:36:47] You know, and we don't even know what Houston's offense is going to look like by that time of the year. You know, getting New England at home should be a good thing. Then you go at Tampa, but then at Vegas. So that's a tough turnaround. You know what I mean? Like, just to play those games back-to-back like that on the road. That's tough. Like, man, they should beat the Raiders, obviously. But I don't think the Raiders are going to go 0-17.

[00:37:12] Yeah, but I think with the Tampa Bay game, it's a 1 o'clock start. It finishes at 4-430. You're on the plane by 8. You're back in California like Monday at midnight, 1 o'clock at the latest. So you're back. At least you're back home for this versus like the one stretch. So you got an at Buffalo and then at Seattle. That's tough. That's tough. From L.A. to Buffalo.

[00:37:42] Do you go from Buffalo? Do you go straight to Seattle? Do you go back home to L.A.? You got to go to Seattle. Just to fly back up to Seattle? Like, you know what I mean? So are you, you know, so that's another piece. And don't forget, looking at all this, right? And I know, I know, I've been on record saying that I think they're probably going to be the worst team in the league. But you got to go to Miami, too. You know what I'm saying? At least that's 10 days. That's 10 days. I mean, it is, but it is, but you know what I mean? But no.

[00:38:12] It's a stretch. But yeah, I land on 11 and 6. You know what I mean? We'll see. We'll see. Then you got the Chiefs. You know, we were talking about the Dynasty earlier. So they were the antithesis. The antithesis of the Denver Broncos last season. Kansas City went 1-7 in games that were decided by 7 points or less. And it was odd, right? Because they were losing all the games that people would get upset that Kansas City would win. You know what I mean?

[00:38:42] And every time Kansas City won them, people would say it was the referees. Then Kansas City lost them and ain't nobody say nothing. You know what I mean? So it was like the reversal of fortune, right? Like, oh yeah, this is what would have happened if it wasn't for the refs. But now they're dealing with adversity on a whole new level because, you know, they're responding to Patrick Mahomes being hurt. And he got hurt late last year as well. So this isn't one of those things where he got hurt in week three or week four. And you've just been counting all this extra time. Like, oh yeah, he's going to be ready.

[00:39:12] Like, they named him the starter today. But this is still pretty recent, I would say. Like, relatively speaking, as far as the injury goes. You know, they're bringing back Eric Bien-Ami, like I mentioned earlier, which is awesome because they're bringing in the Super Bowl MVP, Kenneth Walker. So Eric Bien-Ami is going to be his best friend, which in turn, Walker is going to be Patrick Mahomes' best friend.

[00:39:35] Because now, Mahomes may not have to throw so much because you ain't got a broken dude like Pacheco back there that you only see once a month anyway. Listen, the man plays hard. Sometimes your bones... Yeah, he hurt right now too. Take a hit. You know what I'm saying? But last year, Patrick Mahomes had to average 30 yards per game rushing. That's not the formula you want.

[00:40:04] You want Mahomes to make timely runs, critical situations where he can just make plays. You don't want to have to rely on his legs. You know what I mean? But Jawan Taylor's gone, so you know what that means? No more holds and false starts in Kansas City. Or, God damn, he was never lined up properly. He was in the backfield like a fullback all the time. All right. You ready for the hot take now?

[00:40:35] Let me think. Let me think. What is your community hot take? I'm not going to say it out loud. All right, let's hear it. All right. They're bringing back their best receiver. Tyquan Thornton. Best receiver on the team. Because when I look at Xavier Worthy, he doesn't know how to leverage his speed. You know what I mean? For as fast as he is. Everybody was talking about his 4'2". You don't see him get open a lot. You don't see him make a lot of plays. He's not doing the Tyreek Hill things.

[00:41:04] He's not doing the Jalen Waddle things. You know what I mean? Then you look at Rasheed Rice, who has the talent. But I just feel like he's been disappointing. You know? He started out hot. He had a hot line saying Tyquan made it a hot song. You know what I mean? But with Rasheed Rice, he's almost at the point where I'm like, is he just going to be a slot dude? But he can't be a slot dude because you already got Worthy. Well, that's the thing.

[00:41:33] I think these guys are just in odd roles. Like you said, you got Thornton as the best guy. Make Thornton your wide receiver one. Rasheed your two. Xavier your slot guy. You're still working the hell out of tight ends in the different formations. You can make Worthy your gadget guy with the enemy coming up with Walker. And so I think they can make it work just because they have the offensive minds

[00:42:03] on that side of the field. And they have a guy with arm talent that can make it all work. Just couldn't get into blocking up front. But with a guy like Worthy, it's like, why am I not seeing more pick plays? Why am I not seeing just quick outs or, you know what I mean, like hitches and things like that? Like it just seems like they play him. He gets jammed a lot. Like he's not very big.

[00:42:30] And they just, I think they probably send either they help. So if you jam him and he beats you, but there's help, the time is already off. You know what Xavier Worthy is? He's, you bring so much to the table. But I just love the idea of you. But you in practice, this is not for me. That's Xavier Worthy. You know what I mean?

[00:42:59] But then here's a question for you. What year was the last year that Kansas City had a rusher go over 1,000 yards? Cue the final Jeopardy music on the dog. 2014. 2017. It was, and it was Kareem Hunt. So that's, so that's what it's been, right? You know, here you go.

[00:43:30] Here's your stat of the day. Hope you're listening up to this, Mike. So they talk about explosive plays, right? And, you know, explosive runs are like runs that are 10 yards or more. Okay. Last season, Kenneth Walker III had 42 explosive runs. In the last two years, Kansas City has had 44.

[00:43:59] So there you go. Kansas City will be improved. Dippers maker. They will be improved. All right. They also brought in Amari DiMicardo from the Cardinals. You know, he was one of their running backs all over the place with John Connor being, or James Connor being. They brought in my guy from my school, you know, Emmitt Johnson from Nebraska. You know, 1,821 yards, you know, and then they still have Brishaw Smith out of SMU starting year two.

[00:44:29] So there's your gadget guy out of the backfield catching passes down the field. Travis Kelsey is another year older. What does he have left, Mr. Logical? I think he's got enough left to where you can't leave him open.

[00:44:46] So even if all he has is 40 catches and 650 yards, as long as he's attracting attention or getting the other tight ends in position to run different routes, like there's only so much you're going to be able to squeeze out of a guy in a contact sport who's in their mid-30s. It's just like, I mean, father time is undefeated. I know we have some anomalies. But even then, the guy's record is billions to zero. Like he does not lose.

[00:45:17] So as long as it's not every third and seven you're looking for Kelsey because no one else can get open, I think he can have an outstanding season. But if you make him the focal point because these other guys can't get open or you don't have these guys in the right spot, guys come back. Just like that. Adrian Peterson came back. He had his surgery on New Year's Day and came back and wanted to be the next year. He does, right? So like you would think, yeah.

[00:45:46] So like a guy like Pat, you just tell him to throw the ball away, get down. You know what I mean? Yeah, like I talk about he did the quarterback sneak against Denver probably 2021 and dislocated his kneecap. Like it popped out. It popped back into place. They haven't caught a quarterback sneak for him since then. So they've managed to keep him upright and healthy. So I imagine coming off this injury. Don't even do that. Mike just wants Justin Fields on the play.

[00:46:16] Don't even start with that black quarterback stuff, Mike. What have been to run a quarterback power play then? You know, but even though they had a down year last year, you know, relatively speaking, obviously they didn't make the playoffs. They were still a top five defense as far as points allowed. You know, they almost won that Philadelphia game. You know, they had a bad turnover down in the red zone late in that game. That cost that game, for example. But with all that being said,

[00:46:45] McDuffie, gone. Jalen Watson, gone. Brian Cook, gone. Leo Chennault, gone. You know what I'm saying? So they say, when they drafted Mansour Delane, you know, who, you know, is going to be a top corner in the league in a few years. You know, Shamari Connor is the only other defensive back that they have of note, you know, that they're bringing back.

[00:47:11] Even though I say that, and I almost forgot to say, they brought back LeJarius Sneed. But what is he right now? You know what I mean? We saw him the last couple of years in Tennessee battling injuries. And you know what I mean? They still have Chris Jones and George Karloftis. So that's a good place to start from. The only problem is, I don't know what else is around them.

[00:47:37] You know, you got our Mason Thomas, you know, rookie, you know, who looked explosive in the preseason. You know, he came from Oklahoma. Oklahoma, yeah. They got Peter Woods out of Clemson, who I'm not very high on, but a lot of scouts seem to like a lot. So maybe they have a, you know, steal there. You know what I mean? And trust me, Clemson could damn sure use them again. You know what I'm saying?

[00:47:59] But if you do have a guy that's on those edges that I'm speaking of, Spags is probably one of the guys that you would like to have, you know, to get them, you know, coached up, teach them the ropes and everything. And you talk about you defensively is probably like as long as people know exactly what they need to do. Like I was talking to my son today and he has a he said they have like wristbands with the plays on it.

[00:48:27] But a couple of players just seem to kind of like get lost in the whole play call. So those players have their own wristband that says, this is what you do here. Like it's just a simplified like little part of the wristband. Like, listen, all this stuff is happening. You go here. And I think defensively is like, listen, all these words, fire zone, check this, blah, blah, blah. Hey, listen, on this is cover three.

[00:48:55] You've got to go from here to here. You're going to watch this area to this area. Get there. Have your eyes up. Make plays when you see them. Speaking of cover three, I'm telling you, Florida State was playing on cover one last night. But anyway. Oh, oh, this is biting on everything across the middle and covering really like stay deep. But they do. They still have drew tranquil and big gang Nick Bolton. So they're not bare.

[00:49:23] You know, I just don't know if they have the depth. Like if injuries hit, I think Kansas City is going to be in trouble. But I think that's a problem for most teams. Yeah, but I like the education piece. You have your core guys who've been to Super Bowls, who've made plays in Super Bowls, teaching the younger guys. I think I think they're going to be all right. I think you're going to surprise some people. Yeah, they're going to start three and one. You know, you probably got to start. You got to beat.

[00:49:51] I got to lose it on Monday night. You know, I don't know if Denver is the right defense. You want to play with him coming off that injury right away. But they get an early bye week. So that could be a good thing. Let him recharge a little bit as, you know, you get into the season late, you know, because he'll be he'll get better as the weeks go on. They get a couple of games where they're going to be able to control the clock against Miami and readers going to be able to work on some of some plays.

[00:50:20] Your install might be a little bit more creative than it would be normally going to your bye week. Check that film and you come back out and you start your season five and oh, you got six, seven and eight. Seven, eight is probably going to be tough. They're both on the road and it's going to be a byproduct of you play. You played a couple of like, I'm not sure what Indy is going to be.

[00:50:45] I don't think they're going to be a pushover team, but I think Miami and the Raiders are going to be tough. Yeah. Yeah. So you got the bye week. You seem to have the. The Chargers numbers, so to speak, over the last few years, like I said, they more than any other team that I'd notice because those games tend to be prime time. Definitely. You know, I get on my end. By the way. Yeah.

[00:51:14] Like they had a down year, like they had a down year. But if you think about years before, like I said, that whole going for fourth and three from the four, we thought it was just stately. Harbaugh was doing the same thing. It's like everyone's kind of worried about Kansas City's next possession. And as they lost weapons, I think they started, you know, team started playing a little bit more. But if they start off three, four and oh, you said three and one. I got them at four and oh.

[00:51:39] I think that those kind of decisions where it's like, whoa, they can see the offense really humming. Do we kick this field goal or do we punt this or do we go for it on fourth and one from the 45? You know, like those kind of decisions get made and then you end up giving up a possession where you should have just punt it, play field position. I just think that those kind of things happen when Kansas City's on the run.

[00:52:03] The same thing would happen to Peyton Manning's Colts and Tom Brady's Patriots back in the day. Teams would just kind of forget. Just keep it simple. And I think the Chargers is one of those teams that do that against Kansas City. And see, and Kansas City gets these little breaks, you know. So, like, let's go back to the top real quick. So, you know, you think they're going to start five and oh. But they get this Indy Miami Vegas, right?

[00:52:30] Then they do their tough stretch that we just talked about. Then they go Jets, Falcons, Cardinals before another tough stretch. Buffalo at all on the road, by the way. You know, at Buffalo, at the Rams, at Cincinnati. Then you get New England at home. It gets crazy at the end. And I think that's where their season falls apart. You know what I mean? I think that Kansas City at best is looking at 9 and 8.

[00:52:58] Just because the turnaround, you know, at Buffalo, which is Thursday night. I think that's Thanksgiving. Then, you know what I mean? Then you go at the Rams, at Cincinnati, New England, 49ers, Chargers, at Chargers. So, I think that schedule catches up really. So, they got to build wins on the front side. You know what I mean?

[00:53:23] So, by the time they get to the Buffalo game, there'll be 11 games in. So, I think they got to be something like 8-3. Yeah. So, up to Arizona. How will I tell you? Yeah. The number one Justin Fields fan. Yeah. So, the first 10 games.

[00:53:54] The first 10 games. I know, once again, like, these are just predictions and prognostication. They got to go 7-3. Yeah. 8-2 is better. They got it. Yeah. I got 8-2 with back-to-back losses at Seattle, at Denver. I think the home game starting off the year, Arrowhead, they get Denver. I think Indy, Miami, Vegas, you stick to your guns.

[00:54:23] I think they have a – I feel like they have a better opportunity getting the Chargers early, at home, fresh off the bye. And you know how Andy Reid is off the bye. Probably one of the best records of, you know, all time coming off the bye. And then, like I said, at the end of the year, it does get sketchy. But I think they're going to be able to stack wins. And that's where it gets rough. Because I think they beat Buffalo. But I think they lose those next two.

[00:54:50] You know, I think they lose Rams and Bengals. You know, New England's a toss-up. The 49ers, we don't even know, obviously, like, who's going to be on the field at that time of year. That's the thing with them. Yeah. Then you go out to L.A. McCaffrey's already 300 carries in. And McCaffrey's – well, if he's playing consistently and, you know, maybe he misses a game here or there,

[00:55:16] he's still 300, 350 touches by week 16. So – Yeah. So I got Kansas City 9-8 and just missing the playoff. 9-8. I got an optimistic 12-5. Oh, geez. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Like I said – Told y'all that was his team? I think – I just like –

[00:55:43] I like the combination of the young talent and the older, like, staple players. I think having – I think linebacker, defensive line, they help a young secondary by putting pressure on the quarterback. So you get – You get a little bit more pass breakups. You'll get more Aaron throws, maybe a couple of turnovers. I think that allows you to get your groove.

[00:56:12] I think the defensive coordinator who's kind of locked into being, I'm going to be the best defensive coordinator ever. So I'm just going to stay here. I'm going to ignore all job offers. I think the enemy's coming back offensively. He's going to – He's going to design some stuff up. You talk about worthy not getting open, if he's getting jammed at the line, figure out a way to get him in space. Free snap that way. If you see man coverage and you put him in motion and you quick snapping

[00:56:41] and he gets out in the flat early, because all he needs is one or two good blocks and one missed tackle, and it could be a home run. So, like, I think the enemy will pull that out. And, like, Mahomes, he's probably working his way back in. They're probably not going to do too much. You got the running game attack. Like I said, I think they – unlike how I feel about the Raiders kind of keeping pieces there that aren't going to help the new pieces grow,

[00:57:06] I think the addition of the new pieces in Kansas City is going to help these guys grow. All right. Well, one team left to go. Let's get to the Raiders. You know, so I'm sure the Raiders are happy to have a reset. But as Mr. Logical said earlier, the only problem is that they're not resetting. They never do. You know, they got Kirk Cousins in. You know, Pencil Den is the starter, it looks like.

[00:57:35] So, you know, we probably – what up, Rez? So, we probably won't see, you know, Mendoza until week eight, nine, maybe even a little later. You know, because I think Kirk Cousins, at his best, is still good enough to make you think that you have a chance to win some games as long as he's not turning the ball over. You know what I mean? Ashton Jensen, you would like to think, would have a better year this year.

[00:58:03] Even though, you know, the offensive line is still not so sure about. They did pick up Tyler Lindenbaum from the Ravens at center. So, at least the quarterback to center exchange should go all right. You know what I'm saying? Then you got Clint Kubiak taking over as head coach, which is another reason why I'm surprised that they're not starting Mendoza.

[00:58:25] You know, being that, you know, Clint Kubiak just coached Sam Darnold in a Super Bowl that made Mr. Logical call Sam Darnold top ten in the league. You know what I'm saying? So, why would – I'm going to paraphrase him here. I don't think I used those words. So, why we definitely had that argument. Yeah, I don't know if I used top ten in the league. So, why – You're probably right. So, because Mendoza is a winner.

[00:58:54] Like, I do believe that about him. I don't know if he's the most talented dude. I don't know if he's ever going to be a pro bowler or all pro or any of those things. But he's just the type of dude that does what's necessary to win. He's almost, in a way, in a way, he's almost like a lesser Bo Nix. Like, that's the way I kind of view him, as a guy that just gets things done. He's Kirk Cousins 2.0. He's up on the field. With the religion and everything, right?

[00:59:23] And the personality and the optimism and just a happy to be here and, oh, golly, G-Wow, gushing shucks and all that other stuff. Yeah. And I think – Hey, his brother don't look half bad either. Him being there with Kurt I think will help. Eventually, you're going to have to turn it over to him. I mean, you take him number one overall. You would want to start the season. Maybe you want to see him sit for a month as an organization.

[00:59:53] See what mistakes Kurt makes. See what the defense does. Because preseason, they talk about it all the time. It's very vanilla defenses. It's man. It's cover two. It's cover three. And that's essentially it. And he was throwing some bad interceptions into those defenses. So they probably go, sit down here, sit in the quarterback room with Kurt, go over this film and real live games from – Well, we got Vegas starting. When's their first bye?

[01:00:24] Vegas is – Their bye is late. Is week 13. Yeah, so you figure he watches a handful of games and then – it's just a problem. There's no – if you want to put him in, you got to wait until about week eight before you can start him. If you don't start him outright and let him just take his lumps, you can't put him in.

[01:00:53] And you're not going to start him before week three if you didn't start him week one. You're not going to put him in first game versus Kansas City. You're not going to put him in having him start his first game at New England. You're not going to have him start his first game against Buffalo. What's that, the Buffalo? Rams. You're definitely not putting him out there first game against the Rams. So you got to get all the way to November. So maybe he sits for two months and just studies film.

[01:01:20] And then that first game at the Jets up here in MetLife Stadium, you unveil 15 for the Las Vegas Raiders. So I think the Raiders are going to be a little bit better than a lot of people think. Maybe not from the standpoint of their record. But I think that they're going to play some games. I mean, remember, they beat Baltimore last year even as bad as they were. But, you know, but, yeah, they brought in Queedy Plipe.

[01:01:49] You know, they brought in N'Kobe Dean. You know, Quay Walker. You know, I like Gerard McCoy, the draft pick at corner. You know, trading Stooks out of Arizona. They brought in Teron Johnson of Buffalo Bill fame because he knows how to circle those wagons. You know, saying they got Eric Stokes and Darian Porter. I think both of them will be pretty good. Like, I think Porter has the higher ceiling, but I think they'll be good.

[01:02:15] But what hurts the Raiders so much, it hurts me so much, is the injury to Dante Thornton. You know, I thought he was going to break out this year at receiver. And you know what I mean? So now it's back to the drawing board of a whole lot of Brock Bowers. You know, because, of course, they traded Jacoby Myers last year. So there's not a lot there. You know, so I guess from that standpoint, Kirk Cousins doesn't hurt, you know, because you're going to be trying to figure out who your receivers are anyway.

[01:02:44] So, you know, but looking at the schedule, you know what I mean? Tough, tough, tough. You know, those first six weeks. I actually got them winning game one. I got them actually winning the first game. I think the, um, I got them losing that game.

[01:03:04] I just feel like Malik Willis will make enough plays to get them that 16-13 victory over the Raiders. A very thrilling 16-13 game. I just think, like, I think he'll just tuck in and run. Um, he did an interview on the pivot, I believe. And he was talking about how, you know, he barely got a real chance to, like, show what he could do in Tennessee.

[01:03:33] They drafted his replacement. Then he got moved to Green Bay. So it's like, maybe this is his opportunity. It's just unfortunate that. Malik Willis should have tried to see if he could go to LSU. Imagine if he had pros, right? Um, yeah. Yeah, so I got them starting off, you know, a healthy, a healthy 0-6. Oh, geez, man. 0-7.

[01:04:00] And I got them winning week eight at the Jets. I saw, I mean, like, convince me Miami, maybe New Orleans. But it's at New Orleans. I can't, yeah, the House of Horrors. That's what we call it. Those are your, those, those are the two that I'll believe you if you told me you think they can win one of or both of those games.

[01:04:25] But the other ones, there's, I can't, I can't imagine you giving me an argument saying that they can win any of these other games. See, see, here's the thing. Here's the thing. I can't. You know what I'm saying? But all I have on my side is history, right? The NFL is the NFL. You know, we saw Kansas City at the height of their powers host a game against the Raiders on Black Friday where, you know, the Raiders won the game with two turnovers. You know what I mean?

[01:04:56] Two turnovers in 14 seconds. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. So, like, things like that happen in the NFL. Things like that happen in division games. I mentioned earlier that Denver, if anybody knows, that no matter how great the Broncos are, the Raiders are going to give them a tough time. So, there's chances there. I do think that they beat, I think, I want to say they beat the Patriots to start last season. You know, or maybe, I don't know. I might be confusing seasons.

[01:05:26] I think a couple years ago they beat the Ravens with Gargian Minshew or something like that. Yeah, they did. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. These things happen. So, like, they could get Kansas City coming in, you know what I'm saying, if that defense isn't up to par, you know, right away. I don't think they could. They could beat the Saints. All it takes is Tyler Shook to have a bad game, which he is capable of. He's a young quarterback. You know, what's Jordan Tyson's status? I know he's got the hamstring. What's his status right now? You know what I mean?

[01:05:54] Like, Alave is bound to get a concussion at some point. Yeah. So, like, it could. A lot of out with Kamara that game. Well, no, they got ETN now. So, you know what I'm saying? Lots of ETN. Kamara's going to get a lot of touches. And then, you know what I'm saying? Then you got, you know, Buffalo and the Rams. Both of those are losses. So, you get your next chance against the Jets. You know, but there's that travel thing that we were talking about. You know what I'm saying? Now, 49ers Raiders, you might win the knife war. You know what I'm saying?

[01:06:24] Like, you might get out of the stadium, you know, with a little bit of shanks with you. And maybe you win that way, but you're not winning on the field. You know what I mean? Seattle. You know, different team away from home, but the Super Bowl champs. You know what I mean? At Denver. At Cleveland. Tough game. Cleveland is probably win number two. I'm going to go four and 13. I'm in the same boat.

[01:06:52] I got Jets, Cleveland, Arizona, Tennessee as their four wins. I'm bound to be wrong. They're going to steal one. Yeah, I think they'll be better. Like I said, I don't know if the record will show it. They'll still win the division game. Yeah. You know, because after last year, you know, like, well, last year, you got to imagine, right? Let me pull up their schedule. Let me look at last year real quick for a second.

[01:07:18] Because you also got to figure, right, that they had the guy that led the NFL in interceptions last season. Right? They had Chip Kelly and they had Pete Carroll who had no business being there. So, they started off with the win against New England, like I said. They lost on a last second field goal to Chicago. You know, who everybody wants to crown their asses, well, crown them.

[01:07:46] Then they came right back and lost 40 to 6. They did. They did. You know what I'm saying? That's. They lost. They lost to Jacksonville in overtime. You know, they lost that 10-7 game to Denver on Thursday night football. One of the ugliest games in NFL history. Correct. You know, they lost to Houston by two. You know, so, I mean, like, I think they could be better. You know what I mean? Like, at the very least. They went 3-14 last year. So, I guess technically 4-13 would be better.

[01:08:17] But they could possibly get the 5-12. You know what I'm saying? Possibly. Possibly. So, there's your AFC West. So, give me your one through four. Denver, Kansas City. That's going to be a tie-break situation. I don't, you know, I'm just going to go Denver with the tie-break. Chargers, Raiders. All right.

[01:08:46] Chargers, Broncos, Chiefs, Raiders. Very different. Yeah. Chargers, Broncos, Chiefs, Raiders. But they ain't going to the Super Bowl, Mike. So, all right. You ready for this, Mr. Logical? Yeah, I got a few minutes to chop this up. Or actually, well, actually, well, real quick, real quick. Give me them picks real quick. So, we got Seahawks, Patriots tomorrow. And then we got Rams, 49ers Thursday.

[01:09:18] Seahawks and Rams. All right. We both agree there. All right. Let's go. So, you know, there's always these philosophical questions that we end up with in life. So, here's one for you. Where does college football end and where does professional football begin? It's a very clear line. It's not even like an ambiguous concept.

[01:09:47] There's a whole different level of organization, a whole different process. Once you go and you're engaged in that process, you're with the team, you're signing some form of a contract because your health and safety is written into your contract. So, once you sign up for an NFL team, get a jersey and you are paying dues or you're involved with the NFL PA.

[01:10:13] Like, once you are dealing with NFL contracts and NFL coaches and NFL just that space, you're no longer a college student. You're no longer get to go back and play college football. I don't know why this is like, you know, blowing people's minds. You shouldn't be trying to go back to college when you're 24, 25, when you already had a cup of coffee in the NFL.

[01:10:41] Like, just stay there and compete there at that level because that's the level you need to be at. That's the level you're trying to get to while you're trying to go back to college. Well, I'm so frustrated because I didn't wrote out all these notes and about five minutes ago, I got a notification that Lane Kiffin is not going to add the guys to his roster. He's not going to put it. Oh, yeah. I think they said it last week. Yeah. I think they said it last week.

[01:11:08] I think he just was trolling just to get more attention to the game that they inevitably destroyed Clemson. But, well, you knew that was going to happen. Well, so on Thursday, so two days from now, on Thursday, the SEC is supposed to be having a meeting to decide if they want to vote on expelling LSU.

[01:11:31] You know, because I guess LSU has been so publicly defiant throughout this whole process that the SEC is basically like get down and lay down. And, you know, what I think the SEC is doing is because we've been talking about Super League, AFC, NFC, all that good stuff. What I think the SEC is doing is trying to test their limitations of what kind of power do we actually have? What kind of power legally can we use?

[01:11:59] Because, you know, so at some point you figure, can I get these other schools in line? Because, like, this thing ain't going to happen. But, you know, any time outside of this year, this is the only year that this is going to come along. You know what I mean? Because everybody else gets the 5-for-5 now. You know what I mean?

[01:12:24] But there was an instance this year where Alabama brought in a basketball player from the G League. A lot of teams did it. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Illinois' entire starting lineup is built up of pros from Europe. Right.

[01:12:43] So I think what's happening is because it was so ridiculous to even fathom the idea of bringing a guy from an NFL training camp back to college in August or September. Right. It's just like, yo, you're, like, they say on my favorite, my other favorite podcast, Shits and Gigs, you're taking a piss. Like, come on. Like, we have to sue you. Like, I have to take you to court.

[01:13:11] And get a judge to say no to this. Because you're being so ridiculous that you're not even operating with common sense if you think it's a wise idea to go get a guy who went to a different college last year that you coached and you left in the middle of the playoff run, which is already ridiculous. We already had to deal with the backlash of that. That team goes on damn near makes the national championship game.

[01:13:37] And then you go fleece the players from within conference from the team that you left. And then the guy goes to the NFL and he tries to pull him back. It's just like you're just doing too much. It's like if you're at a party and you're drunk and the cops show up, they'll let you get off a couple of like, man, why you always ruin the party? They might let you get off a fuck you.

[01:14:03] But when they tell you to leave and you still talking, it's like, okay, you've gone too far. Now I got to now I got to get the law involved. Now I got to make it a bigger deal to show other people like this is not how we're going to allow this to go. And I think that's what Lane Kiffin was doing. So how does that work if the cop tells you you got one second to get off one more comment? No, you just leave. That's the setup.

[01:14:33] That's the setup. You just leave. You're like, come out. Just go about your business. So how does one second work in Ann Arbor, Michigan? They better rescind it. I see Michigan's not in the top 25, deservedly so. They have to. The MAC commissioner or someone in their governing body did submit a formal complaint to the board.

[01:15:03] I think they have a real case. I don't know if there's a precedent for it, but I think they have a real case to say, hey, it is clear evidence that this game was over. There's not a precedent. So like as far as like someone taking a win like within the week because of a referee mistake, I doubt it. Once the victory is final, it's final. That's the rule. It's final. Yeah. I think this is an exception to the rule.

[01:15:30] Mainly because if they use the replay incorrectly or improperly, like if you're not allowed to review that type of play and you did it anyway, and then you added time and then the result. I think they should wipe it out. I think Western Michigan's record should be 1-0 and Michigan should be 0-1. Well, that's the tough part because they review time all the time. They did it. Just seconds. They did it.

[01:15:59] The previous play where they added a second on and gave them nine seconds. But that was because the clock kept running and they noticed the clock was running. They're like, no, you got to reset it to that. But that didn't go to review. Right. But if you noticed that the clock went down. But if you noticed that the ball – I'm just, you know, conversation. You know, if you decided that the ball hit the ground and you determined there was a second left, you would review that, right?

[01:16:26] But we all saw the clock at all zeros before the guy – they said the guy was in the out-of-bounds position, jumped up and touched the ball. He jumped from inbounds, first of all. Even if that's the case, if he would have hit it straight up in the air, does that give him a second back? Like, no, that's irrelevant. But it was still at zero before it even made contact. He touched the ball. Exactly. The game was over. The game was over.

[01:16:51] And, you know, but the thing about it is – so it made me think of Texas and Nebraska back in 2009. Big 12 championship game, Colt McCoy threw the ball out of bounds with one second left. They actually got that correct. You know, Texas did deserve – unfortunately, they did deserve the second. They got the game-winning field goal. They went to play Alabama for the national title. And it only triggered me because of, like, the stakes of that game.

[01:17:17] But in this Michigan game, what was odd to me, and I went back and looked. And to me, just to me, on that previous play I was talking about where they added the second, that clock looked like it went from 9 to 8 very quickly. I think it was at 11 when he snapped it. And he clocked, and it was 9. And it went to 8. And then they put it back to 9. Yeah, but I'm talking about when they snapped the ball.

[01:17:47] Like, that 8 came really quick. And so I started looking. And I don't know what to believe because there's so much out there, right? So there's people talking about, like, clocks that aren't synced and the referee's time and this and that. And then there's times where if you got 8.6, it rounds up to 9. So if you have .01, it rounds up to 1 second. This isn't NBA or college basketball. Like, that's not the clock we saw. We see the clock go to all zeros. The game was over.

[01:18:18] Conversely, Western Michigan, you were killing them when you kept the ball in the hands of your starting quarterback. Doing that little shift to Wildcat and then the bad snap, you just keep it simple, snap it back to the quarterback, and running to get that first down. You run the clock out of the game. Well, I wish it was just the clock, though. You got to make that play.

[01:18:42] I wish it was just the clock, though, because on that last third down, the face mask, there was the roughness of the kicker on the punt prior to that. There was a hold on the Hail Mary that did work. You know, that was pretty egregious. So, I mean, this game, and of course, you could always say, hey, Western Michigan, just make one defensive stop and you win the game. You could say that. And that would be valid, you know what I'm saying? But there was just so much. Because they did.

[01:19:12] They made the defensive stop. Right, they did. They made the stop. And then they gave them another shot. And I knew. And shout out Go Utes, by the way, J.J. Buchanan. Yeah, Kyle Winamp. I knew they were going to get it, too. And the thing that upset me the most, when Bryce Underwood was making the face up at the end of the game, I'm like, you played like donkey cheeks the whole game. And you made two throws.

[01:19:42] He had this, like, yo, you play like ass the whole game. And then you got a free extra second. And any Michigan player, I know they're not going to honestly say that. They know that game was over. Well, I'm interested, though, because Michigan's backup quarterback is C.J. Carr's brother. So, you know what I mean? Will we see him this weekend against Oklahoma?

[01:20:05] I do have an issue, before I let you out of here, I do have an issue with Lance Taylor, Western Michigan's coach. Because he had an opportunity to stand up for his players and stand up for his team. And I get it. Keep it classy, all that good stuff. Don't be a sore loser, whatever. But what I saw was, I might want a Big Ten job down the line. I'm not going to ruffle no feathers.

[01:20:34] What I saw was this. That man knew there was no time left for McClock. He know the world saw it. He knew by Monday or Tuesday, because of the holiday, there was going to be a real push to get this rectified. And I'm using the word rectified because I think they did get hosed. He knew it. And I think in his calm, he's like, listen. Like, I remember my son first played football.

[01:21:04] The coaches said, hey, 24-hour rule before you, if you're frustrated with the coaching of the gameplay, 24 hours. So I think he probably said, you know what? I'm going to go to the podium. I'm going to say all the right things. Because everyone saw that we were robbed of a victory here. It's like, I don't think there's a single person on Michigan's side. I know Scott Van Pelt was like, listen, it's good for the Big Ten because he's a Maryland guy. And he's like, it's good for the conference and it's good for the brand.

[01:21:33] But like, if you're Western Michigan, he said, I would have gone to, he said, if I was a coach, he said he would have gone to the podium and say, hey, here's my Venmo. Here's my cash app. Please donate because I'm about to get a hell of a fine. And he said he would have gone off. And I would have respected it. But I knew, I really felt like when it happened, I was like, they got to be able to submit something and get that reversed. But it still changed a lot. But it still changed a lot.

[01:22:03] Because in two weeks, Western Michigan goes out to Boise. And imagine the stakes on that game. You know what I mean? If Boise beats Memphis this weekend, of course. And Western Michigan shows up to Boise undefeated, only lost to, only Boise losses to Oregon. That's a college football playoff game in like week four. Yeah. And that's your argument at the end of the season.

[01:22:29] Like, hey, they beat Boise State. So what did you say? So what happens if they beat Boise and they're 11-1? You might have to put Western Michigan in the playoff. Listen, I say by Thursday, they need to go ahead and put that one in the loss column for Michigan. And then put the one in the win column for Western Michigan. I don't care. I don't know.

[01:22:53] We've had enough anomalies going on with college football and college sports where people are just creating things and making up new rules and making up new things to review. Now we're going to add one more thing. The refs got this completely wrong. I don't want you to go back and say, oh, there was a face mask, so we're going to replay the last down a week later. Like, no. You have 60 minutes of football. You have it there in front of your face.

[01:23:21] Now do the right thing. Give these young men their victory and tell Michigan do better next time. All right. Well, on that note, Mr. Logical is going to run. I got some more around the nation stuff to get to, so hold there tight. You know what I'm saying? Mr. Logical will be back on Friday. You know what I'm saying? No, it won't, baby. That's my birthday. We'll figure out something. No, you're going to be here. 9-11. 45, baby.

[01:23:52] 45, baby. It is 9-11, huh? Yeah. Never forget. Never forget. Anyway. All right, man. We'll talk in a few days. Wow. Later. So I'm going to start with last night. You know, I promise I won't stay on this very long. Florida State fan, I ain't going to stay on this very long. It just is what it is, right? So I mentioned it earlier. Florida State started a new defensive scheme.

[01:24:19] You know, remember back in the day, Monty Kiffin came through, cover two became all the rage. Florida State has started the uncover one, where you literally cover everybody but one receiver and just let him run loose. That secondary is awful. Yes, sir. That secondary is awful. Mike Norvell, awful. You can't run the ball every first down. And not only run the ball every first down, but have it be the same exact play, too.

[01:24:49] On top of that, you went out and paid $650,000 for... Oh, word. That's what we doing, Rez. Shout out to Yannick Smith. Shout out to Sammy Singleton. You know what I'm saying? But, you know, on top of that, right, you had a team give you four turnovers. And you couldn't cash it in. SMU still had over 500 yards.

[01:25:17] You know, Kevin Jennings looked like a Heisman candidate out there besides that interception that he threw. You know, I think that Ashton Daniels is one of the worst quarterbacks in college football. And I had that thought before the season started. So this is not one of those second-guess moments. Upset fan, jaded fan after the fact. I didn't want to do it in the first place. You saw last night exactly why. Deuce Robinson is this great receiver. But he never makes great catches.

[01:25:45] Remember the catch against Virginia that he blew last year? And then he blew a touchdown last night. But back to Trey Wisner. You know, $650,000 Florida State gave him. He didn't play one snap last night. He is not on the injury report. Where they do that at? You know what I mean? Randy Pittman, Florida State transferred to SMU. Five catches, 75 yards, and a touchdown. Guess what? He benefited from the uncover one.

[01:26:12] Florida State, two for 15 on third down. Now this is the killer right here because, you know, I mentioned the four turnovers, right? And that's why, you know, turnovers are variants, right? So you can't depend on turnovers per se. SMU averaged 8.7 yards per play. 8.7 yards per play, I said. You know, what was that two-minute drill at the end of the game? You know, like Mike Norvell looked like he never coached one.

[01:26:42] Ashton Daniels looked like he never ran one. Florida State in a nutshell. Anyway, is it time for Dabo Sweeney to exit stage left? You know, I'm going to say no, but we're getting very close. Because going into last year, you know, Clemson, you know, K-Klubnik, they ended up top five, ranked in the nation. And they came out, lost a close game to LSU. No shame in that, right? And then it all went to hell from there. It all went to hell from there.

[01:27:11] They ended up 7-6 to include a loss to Duke, you know, at home in Death Valley, where there might have been some inconsistent refereeing there. But 7-6 nonetheless. But Dabo was going on all these talk shows and on his own show, and he's arguing with fans, you know, some of them were probably plants or whatever. But Dabo was standing on what he stands on, and I respect that.

[01:27:38] The same way that Mike Gundy went out on his sword, right? I respect the coach going out on his sword. What I don't respect, though, is ranking teams because of their name. And this also is not a second guess. When the coaches poll came out, when the AP poll came out, Mr. Logical said, what's the first thing that stands out to you? And I said, why the hell is Clemson here? That was my reaction to the top 25. You know what I'm saying?

[01:28:07] Because Clemson, and I don't even know if it's that rare, because they still have some talent. Like, they probably have a top, I'll call it six, but probably higher receiver duo in the nation. You know, with Wesco and Parker. You know, I think that, you know, the running game has to be fixed. Because this is Clemson. You've got to have a running back. You know, you had Travis Etienne. You know, but then it kind of went crazy.

[01:28:35] They had a wide receiver convert to running back last year, Adam Randall. And then, you know, you had Phil Maffa. So, like, you've got to be able to run the football, have that balance, especially when you have a quarterback like DeZena, who I don't think very highly of to begin with. Now, I talked about it, right? They lost Peter Woods last year. They lost Terrell in the secondary. You know, Clemson lost a lot off that defense.

[01:29:02] So, that's why going into that game Saturday night, I gave Clemson no shot. Not because I thought LSU was that demonstrably better than them, because we hadn't even seen LSU in concept yet. You know what I mean? Now, to your point, Rez, Dabo actually did bring in 16 players this year from NIL, compared to three last year. So, we did see an uptick in that. You know what I'm saying? But some of these better teams that we're seeing,

[01:29:29] they brought in 30 or 40 players as well. So, you know what I mean? That's a whole other issue. But at the end of the third quarter in this game Saturday night, LSU had 507 yards to Clemson's 73. Clemson didn't even cross midfield damn near until the fourth quarter. You know what I mean? Like, LSU, that game was 51-10. That game could have easily have been 70-3.

[01:29:55] You know, Zach, because Clemson got the touchdown once Coach Baker took his defense out. So, you know what I mean? And obviously, like, you know, no, he actually doesn't. He's made the comment he doesn't have a problem with the players being paid. He just doesn't want it to resemble the NFL as far as basically free agency and teams changing year over year the way that they do. You know what I mean? Like, he went in the portal with those 16 players. He paid NIL.

[01:30:25] Like, maybe he didn't pay $3 million for somebody. But, you know, they paid money to get these players that are in there. I just think that Clemson, it's the end of a run. It happens, right? I went through this as a Florida State fan with Bobby Bowden's last five years. You know, Miami went through this. You know what I mean? Before they got Mario Cristobal. There just comes a time that your time is up. And that doesn't mean that Dabo can't go somewhere else and coach or anything along those lines. I don't know if he would. But that's not what I'm trying to say here.

[01:30:54] I'm just saying that college football runs only... That's true. You know, college football runs only last but so long. Like, remember Pete Carroll in USC? We thought that would never end. You know, Texas and Vince Young, they made another national title game with Colt McCoy. You know what I'm saying? Haven't been back since. Like, these things happen within the scope of college football. Dabo just has to get to a point where he has to get innovative, right?

[01:31:23] Because he keeps bringing in these same names at offensive coordinator, you know, Chad Morris, whose time was probably up 10 years ago. You know, Knowles isn't a bad defensive coordinator, but he's not Brett Venables. And you look at Brett Venables, right? Oklahoma made the playoffs last year. You know, Virginia. Tony Elliott, offensive coordinator for Dabo, went to the ACC title game last year, won 11 games, and look at what they did to NC State last week.

[01:31:52] So is this just a matter of he has the wrong coordinators now, and he just got lucky? Lucky is the wrong word, but you know what I'm trying to say. Did he just get the right coordinators before and now he gets the wrong coordinators? Because I thought Garrett Riley was a pretty good coordinator. And remember, I kept asking on this show, is that Garrett Riley's offense or is Davo putting his fingers on there and saying, like, run this conservative game plan? Because that wasn't the Garrett Riley that I knew.

[01:32:21] And now Garrett Riley's career is in question. You know, I mean, he'll be fine. He's Lincoln's brother. But, you know, but people were questioning Garrett Riley, and I'm not sure it was all Garrett Riley. Shout out to the Mac. You know, we just talked about Western Michigan and what they did. You know, I mentioned they go to Boise in a couple of weeks, win that game, and be on your way, Broncos. But UMass, 16 straight losses, went into the state of New Jersey.

[01:32:50] And my goodness, did UMass put it on Rutgers, outrushed them 230. How about that, you know, Zed? But also, how about the Mac? Bowling Green and Eddie George, head coach Eddie George, welcomed in Tarleton State, who should be in Conference USA. They lost. You know, the Citadel beat Charlotte. So all the talk we've been doing about UMass all these years, should they beat FBS? We might need to send Charlotte packing, too. We might need to.

[01:33:20] Idaho State beat Utah State. So that's three FCS over FBS teams, and we got Montana State and Nevada this week to keep your eye on. All right, so Ole Miss. My thoughts on Ole Miss are simple. They're going to crash and burn, and it might be in two weeks when LSU comes to calling. But even if it's not, they're not, I just can't, I don't see a playoff team here, because you've got Pete Golden, who is the defensive coach by the way,

[01:33:48] and you saw what Lincoln Keenholz was doing to them in his first game. I had a new school at that. But not only that, the problem with Ole Miss is Trinidad Chambliss has to be a magician every week for them to win. You know what I mean? Like, without him playing at the level that he played at Sunday, there's got to be three losses on this schedule. You know what I mean? They do come play Texas.

[01:34:17] You know, they play LSU, like I mentioned. So, like, they play Georgia again. Ole Miss isn't going to make it through this schedule if that's what Trinidad Chambliss has to do to get them. Oh, that's what's up. I remember that. I remember a couple years after that, Rez, I remember the Citadel had a halftime lead on Alabama one year. It was nuts, you know what I mean? But that style of football will do it to you. Auburn and Baylor.

[01:34:45] What I saw was two quarterbacks that have a lot of talent that just didn't have their best stuff. You know, Byron Brown, game-winning touchdown. You know, but he looked very clunky. He made a lot of mistakes that a senior should make, especially when he was taking sacks. You know, he would throw the ball away. He was just doing all the things that you tell your quarterback not to do.

[01:35:10] But DJ Lagway did not look like, for half of that game, did not look like he belonged on that field. But then, you know, the game came down to the wire. He made the plays that mattered. He had a beautiful pass. Beautiful pass that got dropped, you know, at the two-yard line. Came back a play later, threw a touchdown pass. And then Baylor decided to go for two. I have no problem with that decision. I know people are going to kill Dave Aranda, but you know what?

[01:35:37] His coaching job is on the line. You know what I mean? So I don't have a problem with him coming out and being aggressive and saying, Baylor football, baby, we're here. They just fell a yard short. Shades of Patriots and Colts on Sunday night football, fourth and two. You remember the play, you know, Belichick went for it. Colts won that game, 28-27. Yeah, that was what that play made me think of.

[01:36:06] Lagway did play his butt off on that final drive. But if he would have played like that the rest of the game, maybe Baylor wins. So much for Oklahoma State. You know, back when I was named Money Mike, you know, Saturday I showed up on the 300 pounds of college football, 300 pounds of football or sports knowledge. You know, with Will Martin, my guy, you know, he had Oklahoma State as one of his surprise teams, you know, and why not, right?

[01:36:34] Drew Messermaker, Eric Morris, Caleb Hawkins. They brought half that offense from North Texas with them. Got dominated by Tulsa in week one. And oh, by the way, going back home this week, 22.5 point underdogs to Oregon. Oregon, you say? Oregon, I say. So, Oregon and Boise, right? There were times that Boise looked like the better team in this game.

[01:37:03] You know, their defensive line was getting the push that they wanted. Their offensive line was preventing the push from Oregon. Boise State got outgained in this game, 497 to 274. Oregon had 10 penalties for 90 yards. I say all that to say we play this game tomorrow. Oregon wins that game by 21 if they play tomorrow. But they didn't play tomorrow. They played last week. This is where Boise lost the game.

[01:37:32] There was one possession that Boise had, Oregon, right where they wanted them, and they fucked it up. So, right before halftime, Boise gets the ball with about a minute 22 left. They punt it with about a minute 13 left. You heard what I said, right? And then Oregon came down, scored a touchdown, and, you know, it was a 17-14 game at halftime instead of 17-7 where Boise could have just ran the clock out and got out of the first half. You know what I mean?

[01:38:02] Get a first down or two and get out of there. They lost the game at that moment because once Oregon got that touchdown, it lifted everything going into the locker room. It made you doubt yourself just a little bit. You know, DeCorey and Moore got loose on that 69-yard touchdown to end the game. But Boise had Oregon right where they wanted them. You know what I mean? They just, I don't know. But nonetheless, Oregon, 16th straight home opener wins to start the season,

[01:38:31] and then 39 straight non-conference wins in a row, which leads the nation. But I want to look at some of that because how many of those games are, you know, Idaho or, like, you know, like Sacramento State or, you know, teams like that too. Virginia Tech, James Franklin's debut, 73-3 over the VMI key debts. In other words, James Franklin does not support the troops.

[01:38:59] You know, Penn State, on the other hand, 45-0 over Marshall. So both teams came out a-blazing. Louisiana Tech put up 80 points this week. Granted, they were playing Northwestern State, but 80 points is 80 points. How about UCLA and Cal? KGS at the end of the first half. That's the stuff that legends are made of. You know, hurt his ankle. He's limping up and down the field. Leads a touchdown drop. This game was 24-24 in the fourth quarter before it fell apart.

[01:39:28] UCLA, Bob Chesney told you keep your eye on them. They got a big one this weekend, San Diego State. If they can win that game, good things are coming for the Bruins. But I like that San Diego State defense, so keep your eye on that. Wouldn't be surprised if Coach Sean Lewis, formerly of Colorado, wins that game. Speaking of Colorado, that defense looks legit. But I had questions going into that game about Georgia Tech's offense, and that's why I picked Colorado to win that game.

[01:39:58] But, you know, Georgia Tech starting Mendoza's little brother. You know, they had Justice Haynes in from Michigan. But Buster Faulkner's down in Florida, and by the way, they put up 66 this past weekend. Aaron Filo, who was supposed to be the starter, is the starter at Florida. So Georgia Tech just had a lot of questions, but now Georgia Tech's season is on the line. Because they got the balls this week. Not to be confused with Rayjean Lewis. You know what I'm saying? They got the balls this week.

[01:40:25] At this neutral site, if I remember correctly, I saw the balls favored by 13.5. Brandon Faison looks the part. It was week one. FCS opponent. Not going to overreact. Tennessee was the other team that I looked at besides Clemson when I said, why are they in the top 25? Like, you got them in the top 25, didn't even know who their quarterback was going to be. You know what I'm saying? But anyway, I ain't going to call it SEC bias. How about USC with a shutout?

[01:40:54] 39-0 over Fresno State. You know what I'm saying? So we talked about it. For later, they get Ohio State and Indiana back-to-back. You know, they play Washington upcoming, who did not look good on Sunday in the Apple Cup. So I'm going to chalk that up because it's one game. I'm not going to overreact. I'm going to chalk it up to rivalry. And I'm going to chalk it up to being game one. Let's see what Washington got in store for us the rest of the year. Notre Dame came out sloppy, right? 13-10 at halftime against Wisconsin.

[01:41:23] You know, muffed punt, set up one of their early touchdowns. So Notre Dame pulled away late. But just something to keep an eye on. Just something to keep an eye on. So Friday, we might have our first loser leaves town matchup of the season. So I mentioned Rutgers. You know, they lost to UMass last week. BC went to Cincinnati and lost by multiple scores. Tom, Bill O'Brien.

[01:41:53] So Bill O'Brien, Greg Sciano, the loser of that game might not survive this season. And I'll just leave it at that. The games that only 2-5 cares about, border war on Friday. You know, said no Ahmaud Hardy still. So Missouri and Kansas. I think I saw a Missouri favorite by five and a half. I might be tempted to put some money on Kansas. I might be tempted. You know, said I'm a chill for now, but I might be tempted. But, you know, college football is here.

[01:42:21] You know, and, you know, last thing, you know, this whole expulsion thing. I can't see the SEC expelling LSU, especially now that LSU has decided not to play those players. You know, so I think that that saga might be over. But, you know, it's not like we haven't seen teams get expelled before or leave conferences.

[01:42:46] You know, like even going back to South Carolina back in, I believe it was 1969, they left the ACC. You know, Georgia Tech and Tulane left the SEC. You know, then you got Temple got kicked out of the Big East because of the state of their football program. So this is not necessarily unprecedented per se. But to do it in this way, I think would be they would need 11 schools to kick out LSU.

[01:43:14] And I can only think of one that would be in, you know, Ole Miss just because of hurt feelings and spilled milk. What other schools would actually vote to expel LSU? That might be an assignment that we could take up and come back with some answers in a few days. But, you know, the NFL is back. You know, we got the Super Bowl rematch tomorrow. You know, the Clippers got the hammer. There's just a lot going on, y'all. And I appreciate y'all for checking in with your boy, 2-5.

[01:43:44] Kicking it with me, you know what I'm saying, on a Tuesday night. You know what I'm saying? I guess I'll have to hold it down if Mr. Logical ain't going to be here Friday. But I will be here with you, 845 Eastern. Like, review, subscribe, rate, do all the free things, do all the good things. Liquid Death in hand. We are everywhere that you get your podcasts. Just like, say less, say more. Check us out. Sports Reports is ordered. Loves you. Thank you for your support.

[01:44:15] Remember, it's all free. Sports Reports is ordered. Out! Sports Reports. No gimmicks, no clowns. 2-5, Mr. Logical. We run this town. Real talk only. No chasing, no doubt. From the east to the west.