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Bears Contenders, NFL Playoff Pressure, NFC North Breakdown with Anthony Herron · Not So Fast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Not So Fast with Andrew Perloff and Paul Pabst,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: where two longtime friends challenge each other on the biggest
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: sports stories of the day.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Here's Andrew Perloff and Paul Pabst. Not So Fast, my friends.
• 0:17
  Speaker 3: Welcome to Not So Fast. I'm Andrew Perloff. He's Paul Pabst.
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: It's a meat Friday, the Dan Patrick Show, and a
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: football Friday. Who's got it better than us?
• 0:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah, big football weekend. Less college football, more NFL weekend.
• 0:28
  Speaker 4: And the World Series tonight, Jacob Mizorowski on, like, 12
• 0:31
  Speaker 4: days rest, big stage for him. Anthony Heron, my guy
• 0:34
  Speaker 4: from Fox 32 in Chicago to get last night's game,
• 0:37
  Speaker 4: the development of Caleb Williams. A lot coming up today, Pearl.
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: Absolutely. Let's start with the football game last night. Big game.
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: Bears beat the Patriots. And the discussion on the DP show,
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: and of course you dove into it as a Bears fan,
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: are either of these teams legit contenders?
• 0:51
  Speaker 4: As we always say, we look at these standalone games,
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: these national TV games, as national referendums on bowl teams.
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: If you look at the Patriots, they were in the
• 0:58
  Speaker 4: Super Bowl. They just don't feel like a team that
• 1:01
  Speaker 4: was in the Super Bowl.
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: A.J.
• 1:03
  Speaker 4: Brown was supposed to be this big addition to their team.
• 1:05
  Speaker 4: He doesn't seem like he's had a breakout game. He
• 1:07
  Speaker 4: doesn't seem that enthused on the field. Drake may play
• 1:10
  Speaker 4: pretty well, and they could have stole the game, but
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: it just doesn't feel like they have the horses on
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: either side of the ball.
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't even think there's a discussion. There is
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: one clear contender and one team who will be lucky
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: to stay alive.
• 1:21
  Speaker 5: A.J.
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: Brown coming off an injury. Maybe we give him a break.
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: But did they look like they were into it last night?
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: Real question. I thought they've been having trouble tackling two
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: weeks in a row. They couldn't tackle the Jets, and
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: then they couldn't tackle the Bears. It looked like they
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: didn't want to get physical, and that's a Mike Rabel team.
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: What's happening here?
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: Yeah, they look like a nice team. They look like
• 1:37
  Speaker 4: a non-threatening, not in danger of being a top five
• 1:41
  Speaker 4: draft pick type of team. But again... It was a
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: couple plays by the Bears, and they could have won it.
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: But look at this. There's no tackling here. There's running
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: through people all game. Luther Burton had like 130 yards
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: at halftime.
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and the running back. And take the other side
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: of the ball. They have a Ferrari in Drake May. Serious.
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: I know Caleb Williams is playing amazing, but Drake May
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: is right behind him. And Josh McDaniels, all he does
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: in the beginning of the game is run on first down,
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: run on second down. Then Drake May is in a
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: bad spot. Then he has these heroics at the end.
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: I think Drake May is a great quarterback. I think
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: the Patriots are in good position. But right now, I
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: don't feel like the way they're using him is perfect.
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: I look at Caleb Williams and Ben Johnson on the
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: other side. Then I see Josh McDaniels and Drake May.
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: And I think the Bears are much more promising.
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: And like you've been saying, the Patriots last year were
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: beneficiaries of the friendly schedule. No Lamar Jackson in the playoffs.
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: No Josh Allen in the playoffs that they had to face.
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: No Joe Burrow that they had to face in the playoffs.
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: It was like a perfect scenario. But nobody looks at
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: this team and says, hey, they're going to get back there.
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: It's just a nice team that doesn't get a lot
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: of coverage.
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: Do you remember a few years ago the Super Bowl
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: losing jinx? Whoever lost the Super Bowl... Reverts.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: The last few years, the Super Bowl losers have been okay,
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: but the Patriots... And let me say it about the
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: other team. The Bears are... bona fide Super Bowl contenders,
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: and there is no question about it. In fact, I
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: will go further. They are the second-best team in the
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: NFC right now behind the San Francisco 49ers.
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: Are you out-bearing me as a bear guy?
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: You can't say it as a bear guy. You're too close, Paul.
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: You're too close. You live and breathe this team. They
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: look very good to me. They just can't hold on
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: to a lead. They let the other team play with
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: their food, let the other team back in. They look
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: pretty good.
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: Their defense is opportunistic and occasional, which is not the
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: great thing for being.
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: The offense, they've done all the right things. Colston Loveland,
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: Luther Byrne, you saw a minute ago, the running game,
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: Menungai's out, but they have everything around Caleb Williams. And
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: Caleb Williams out for a few weeks with a hamstring injury,
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: whether it's intentional, whether it's play calling or whatever, what
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: you want to call it, he is staying in the
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: pocket more. He still can keep plays a lot, but
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: it feels like, I would bet, The amount of time
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: he scrambles now compared to four weeks ago is much less.
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it feels like he is sort of mind-melding with
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: Ben Johnson, the head coach, more. Remember, Ben Johnson had
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: great success with Jared Goff. Now you're getting a little
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: Jared Goff with Caleb Williams, and you're getting a little
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: bit of Patrick Mahomes with Caleb Williams. Although I have
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: to be honest, there is a throw. A couple throws
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: he made last night, I think maybe Mahomes and Josh Allen.
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: That's it. That's the only guy with arm strength to
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: make the kind of throws Caleb does.
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: That play you're talking about, I think it was third
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: and six in their own 20.
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: Third and nine.
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: Third and nine.
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: In the fourth quarter.
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: And so Roma Dunze, who's a bit of a dropsy
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: guy sometimes, and he went across his body and got
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: it on a Dunze. A Dunze made this freakish catch.
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: And like you said, it's Mahomes, it's Josh Allen, it's
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: Caleb Williams. Is there another guy who makes that throw?
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: No. Regularly. Jordan Love, maybe. I think I'm a big
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: Jordan Love guy, but no. I mean, the zip he
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: has on it. And this year, it's much more controlled, too.
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: So what do you think? I mean, I declare them
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: a Super Bowl contender. Are you with me?
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: Okay, I'm going to say I'm trying to find something
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: negative or something. Maybe you could say, like, hold up
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: a second, pump the brakes with the Bears. Can Ben Johnson,
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: who is a great play caller, I think everyone agrees
• 4:47
  Speaker 4: that he schemes his guys open sometimes, as they like
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: to say. Sometimes he gets a little cute. They were
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: in the red zone last night. They're in the red zone.
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: They're trying to get a touchdown, extend the lead. And
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: watch this. They do a handoff to offensive lineman Joe Tooney.
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: Not a fumble ruski where you put it on the ground.
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: Tooney turns, runs for a couple yards. The play was
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: not necessarily a disaster. But this play, as the refs called,
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: was illegal by definition. A quarterback can't hand forward, not pitch,
• 5:14
  Speaker 4: but hand forward to an offensive lineman. How did the
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: Bears not know that's illegal?
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: I'll tell you why they didn't know it. It hasn't
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: been called in 16 years.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: 16.
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: 16 years in the NFL. And I know it was illegal,
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: but it was still awesome because Joe Chuni wanted to
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: get him a TD against his former team. That's cool.
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: Put him in the backfield. Let him line up fullback.
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: Don't try to get too cute.
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: And he kind of hid like he didn't have the ball.
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: I liked everything about it except the fact that it
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: violates the rules. I'm actually wildly impressed that the officials
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: knew that rule. It literally hasn't been called, and never
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: in that situation. It was called. Often it happens on
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: an interception return because a guy tries to hand the
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: ball forward.
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: Because Herbie and Albino are up in the booth going,
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: I don't know if that's legal. And you can tell
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: someone's getting their spotter saying, I think that's illegal.
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, or somewhere Dean Blandino called in because I'm amazed
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: the officials knew that rule. Ben Johnson, you're right, he
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: is too cute. Listen, they blew a lead last week
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: against Atlanta. Are they able to put their sort of,
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: foot onto the other team's throat, and is the defense
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: a little sus?
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: Okay, completely sus on defense. I mean, they are opportunistic.
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: And I would say, though, the pass rush for the
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: Bears this year compared to last year, much improved because
• 6:21
  Speaker 4: it was nonexistent last year. Late in the game, Cairo Santos,
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: the Bears kicker, he's a good kicker. He's not a
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: deep kicker. His career high was 55. He had missed
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: earlier in the game. Because of a sack by Kayla Williams,
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: which was on him, They have to kick a 58-yard
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: field goal. While they're lining it up, do you think
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: it was the right decision by Ben Johnson?
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: Yes. I'll tell you what happened. Really? Because Caleb Williams
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: took such a bad sack the play before. I think
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: Ben Johnson did not want to hang out at Cal Williams.
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: He wanted to try and make that play right.
• 6:49
  Speaker 4: But you could have put Drake May, not a short field,
• 6:52
  Speaker 4: but a 55-yard field to get a touchdown to steal
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: this game.
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: Well, the second it hit his foot, you knew it
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: was in. What kind of kicker can't hit a 58-yard
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: goal kicker?
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: Kyro Santos.
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: Apparently he can, because that was easy for him. Yeah, no,
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: it did feel like they were surviving. But that's what
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: they do. They jump out to big leads, and they
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: let the other team in. And they got it, so
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: what's the problem?
• 7:11
  Speaker 4: So we'll talk more with the NFC North with Ant
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: Heron in a little bit, but do you feel right
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: now if you had to pick Bears or Packers? Let's
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: say those were the two teams who seem to be
• 7:19
  Speaker 4: playing well now.
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: The Packers came out of nowhere because I wrote them
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: off as dead, and they get Micah Parsons coming back.
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: Josh Jacobs back?
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: I'm still going Bears, but it's close. But both teams
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: are in the mix. Right now, again, San Francisco's playing
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: the best, and the Bears are right behind them. Can
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: I do my helmet sticker?
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: Let's do helmet sticker.
• 7:35
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: So my helmet sticker is important to what they're doing here.
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: I am going with cornerback Kyler Gordon. Oh, deep cut
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: by you. Not that deep, because he's awesome. He had
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: three sacks last week and had a sack this week.
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: The Bears are lining up their defensive backs right up
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: at the line, and New England had no idea what
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: to do. It was a huge play, because I believe
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: it was a third or fourth down, and Drake May
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: just did not see him coming. and he's a big
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: dude for a cornerback. He took him down.
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: Did you flex at me?
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I flexed. Like me, big dude. Four sacks in
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: two days for a cornerback, and that is all about
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: Dennis Allen with unusual blitz approaches, which I guess is
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: a trend around the NFL. A lot of teams are
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: using their cornerbacks and safeties to blitz, and it worked great.
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: Right, so Kyler Gordon is this hybrid defensive back that
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: they use in Chicago. He's been hurt for a while.
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: He almost plays like a Troy Palamalo-ish position where they
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: get him up and blitz him, And he's less of
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: a defensive back because he's like this rush back.
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah, why did the Patriots seem to have no idea
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: that he was coming at the quarterback?
• 8:31
  Speaker 4: Because they think he's not blitzing him? That's all he
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: does at the end. All right, my helmet sticker goes
• 8:34
  Speaker 4: to wide receiver Luther Burden of the Bears. Great first half.
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: He's one of those guys you need on your roster,
• 8:39
  Speaker 4: the guy who could break a game away, who could
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: take a screen and run for 25 yards and jitterbug
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: past a lot of people. Very good player. Year two,
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: getting past people all day. He's becoming a prime target.
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: And Colston Loveland had a couple drops. Dunes had a drop.
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: This guy's not a drop guy.
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: No, he catches everything. I think he is. He's close
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: to perfect on every target. I got to be honest.
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: You called him preseason. You were saying, watch out for
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: Luther Burton. Yeah, he adds another dimension. And the running
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: game is a little nicked up. And there were a
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: couple near injuries for the Bears. But they have weapons.
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: I think this is one of the most balanced offenses
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: in the league.
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: Where you just need a little bit of defense. It's
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: almost like the Cowboys situation, but they're winning, not losing.
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: Because the Cowboys supposedly had a lot of offense, not
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: so much.
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Let's turn to college football. I think the big
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: game of the weekend is Texas Ole Miss. Now, everyone's
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: down on Arch Manning in Texas. But let me tell
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: you something. Last year, Paul, everyone was way down on
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: Arch Manning. They lose to Florida. And then what happens?
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: Their running game comes back somehow. And then Arch looks better.
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: and they recover and have a nice end of the season.
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: Is that going to happen this year?
• 9:40
  Speaker 4: As much as I like to say this is more
• 9:42
  Speaker 4: of a correction game for Arch Manning, for Steve Sarkeesian
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: more than Arch Manning, it's his job to coach this
• 9:47
  Speaker 4: team to a win. It's not Arch Manning's job to
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: coach the team to a win. Let's make sure we
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: leave with Steve Sarkeesian, the guy getting paid over $ 10
• 9:54
  Speaker 4: million to win winnable football games. Ole Miss is 5-1.
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: They need this just as badly.
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: Ole Miss lost to Florida just like Texas did. Here's
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: the thing with this year's SEC, Paul. We just do
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: not know how good these teams are. I don't know why,
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: but it's really hard to pick. You wouldn't be surprised
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: if Missouri kills Florida, then Florida beats Texas. It seems
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: up and down.
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: You're 100% right. Nobody plays well two weeks in a row. Alabama,
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: four weeks ago, looks great. Georgia three weeks ago looks
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: like the number one team in the country, and they
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: give it up. So I would say for Texas, perception-wise,
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: not three home games, but the Cotton Bowl, you're playing
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: in Dallas. You're playing two home games. If you lose
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: at home to Ole Miss now, and somehow it goes bad,
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: they were the number one team in the country two
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: weeks ago. They could be unranked in a week.
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: That is.
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: That's hard to come back from. And the schedule does
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: not get a lot easier. There's toughies the whole way down.
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: No offense, but that's kind of Captain Obvious. Yeah. Texas
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: doesn't want to drop three games in a row.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: They're out.
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: If they lose their next game, they're out. Well, yes, exactly.
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: You're out.
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: And then the repercussions off that.
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah. The shark get fired. Right.
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: The shark get fired. The buyout's monstrous. I don't think
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: they would be in that position to fire a guy
• 10:59
  Speaker 4: who they believed in because they don't go scorched earth
• 11:02
  Speaker 4: down there. Usually in Texas, they are. They're more of
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: a patient franchise.
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: Can I ask you a question that three years ago
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: I think would have been unthinkable?
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: Go for it.
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: Who goes higher in the NFL draft, Trinidad Chambliss, former
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: Ferris State quarterback, or Arch Manning?
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: Right, because if we did this topic last January, Chambliss
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: would have been, oh, he'll probably be middle second round,
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: Arch's top four pick in the draft.
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: I mean, if we did it two years ago, he
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: was a backup that no one ever heard of.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: And here's the issue. The NFL doesn't think like the
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: college football fans do. They look at Chambliss and say,
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: I think that guy's 5'11. I don't think he hits
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: a six-foot mark. And Arch, as poorly as he's playing,
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: he's still 6'4, can run, and has a cannon. So
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: we'll see. I think everyone's writing off Arch a little
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: too early.
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: Up next in my warm take, I am going to
• 11:44
  Speaker 4: hit a little mock draft-ish shot. So I love that tease.
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: Okay, awesome. All right, we've got a lot going on today.
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: Coming up. I have an unusual tanking strategy in the NFL,
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: and we look at a must-win weekend for certain playoff teams.
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: That's coming up, Not So Fast.
• 11:59
  Speaker 4: I love when I don't know your warm takes.
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, you know I love tanking. A Sixers fan,
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: the process.
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: Do you think they're saving us chili out there?
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: They better be.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: They better.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: Man.
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: Back on Not So Fast, this is the midday pick-me-up.
• 12:15
  Speaker 4: Paps and Perl off a little something here for you, Perl.
• 12:18
  Speaker 4: You're 76ers. Slow start. 69-45. That's not good. And then
• 12:23
  Speaker 4: they righted the ship. LeBron more passing than scoring. They
• 12:26
  Speaker 4: end up getting the win at home in LeBron's home
• 12:29
  Speaker 4: Philadelphia debut. That's not the Spectre.
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: What do they call that place? The Wells Fargo Arena.
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: So I don't know how to contain myself, Paul. My
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: Phillies are out. My Eagles look down and out. I
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: think I'm all in on this 76ers team. And the
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: funny thing is LeBron's not one of the top three
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: players on this team. Not even close.
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: Well, he's going to pace himself. He's going to defer
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: to other people. He's not going to ball hog.
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: Even if he wanted to, there's just no way. He's
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: not as good as Jalen Brown. Joe Ellen beat Tyrese Maxey.
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: To me, this is like Tom Cruise having a supporting
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: role in a movie like Tropic Thunder. Like, hey, I'm
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: just going to come in here, help these young guys out.
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: I'll save a whole lot in the tank for the playoffs.
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: And once in a while, I'll try to take over-ish
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: a game if need be. Because I could crank it
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: up once in a while.
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: I'm not so fast on you. Tom Cruise stole Tropic Thunder.
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: There's no way LeBron is going to steal this.
• 13:18
  Speaker 4: I'm not so fast on you right back. Because LeBron
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: knows he can steal the spotlight now. in game seven.
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: He's not, he's not good enough to steal the spotlight.
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: He's not, he is, no, he's not. He is just
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: not that kind of player right now.
• 13:29
  Speaker 4: I think he can be in doses.
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: He can.
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: He's closer to Draymond Green than Steph Curry. Holy cow, man.
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: Are you going to go back home and say that
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: to his face?
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, good luck coming up with a warm take after
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: that fall.
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: I don't tell you anything. That's as warm as it gets.
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: One thing, though, I will say, my concern is the bench.
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: I think they had less than 10 points last night,
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: the Sixers bench. I mean, they're going to be calling
• 13:47
  Speaker 4: you up. You played at Dartmouth.
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: You can say all you want about the bench. I'm
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: never going to listen to you. You never do.
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: All right, it's time for warm takes here on Not
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: So Fast. I'll go first. A little warm one for
• 13:57
  Speaker 4: this October fall weekend.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: Here we go.
• 14:00
  Speaker 4: In the NFL, this is win or start going home weekend.
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: That works out well on the tees. Here are some
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: games this weekend with teams that are 2-4. Some teams.
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: The Houston Texans are a good 2-4 because they've kind
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: of gotten things back together. The offense more than the defense.
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: The Eagles are 2-4 facing the Cowboys who are 2-4.
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: The Falcons are 2-4, and that's a little bit of
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: a surprise. And, of course, the L.A. Rams are 2-4.
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: Nobody had that. All these teams had playoff hopes of
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: some level or another. I mean, the Falcons, people thought
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: they'd be pretty decent this year. Eagles, Cowboys, even the Texans.
• 14:31
  Speaker 4: Everyone liked the Texans. You're now in position, especially the Rams.
• 14:35
  Speaker 4: The Rams have Super Bowl expectations, and they're flirting with
• 14:37
  Speaker 4: missing the playoffs. If you go 2-5 this weekend, I'm
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: not saying it's over, but you're close to our done-done
• 14:43
  Speaker 4: segment because that means you have 10 games left. I
• 14:46
  Speaker 4: did the math here. You basically have to win 8
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: of your next 10 to secure yourself a playoff spot,
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: and that's not even guaranteed. So these teams, the Rams
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: are the most fascinating because the Rams face.
• 14:58
  Speaker 4: The Raiders this weekend. And the Raiders, this is kind
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: of last call for Kirk Cousins. He has a few
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: more games as a starter, and this is a big
• 15:05
  Speaker 4: chip for him to keep his starting job. This is
• 15:07
  Speaker 4: his last year as a starter in the NFL, likely.
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: So the Rams especially, okay, yeah, you can take down
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: the Raiders, you can take down the Chargers, you can
• 15:14
  Speaker 4: take down Washington, you can take down the Cardinals. That's
• 15:17
  Speaker 4: what you have to do. You must go 4-0 in
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: the next few weeks because look at the end. Seahawks
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: twice in the last three weeks in the season. So
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: it's win or go home-ish weekend in the NFL.
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: Absolutely. I disagree about Kirk Cousins. He'll probably sign a
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: $ 90 million year to start somewhere else. You never know
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: with him. The one that really interests me is the Texans.
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: The Giants, we don't know what the Giants are. We
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: have no idea. But the Texans, I still have as
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: a dangerous playoff team despite their record.
• 15:41
  Speaker 4: But that 2-5, people like to talk about teams that
• 15:44
  Speaker 4: go 0-2. I think that's such an overused stat. 2-5, obviously,
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: is nuts because you're running out of real estate to
• 15:51
  Speaker 4: play with. You're running out of games to play with. And,
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: of course, Eagles-Cowboys play each other.
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: Okay. I'm going to go to actually teams with zero wins.
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: And that would be two teams, the Miami Dolphins and
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: the Los Angeles Chargers. Now, every year somebody's tanking for something.
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: This is going to be the first year ever, Paul,
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: ever in the history of the NFL that teams are
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: going to tank for a wide receiver. You heard it
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: here first. Jeremiah Smith, the Ohio State wide receiver, is
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: tank worthy. Now, there hasn't been a wide receiver to
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: go number one since 1996, Keyshawn Johnson to the Jets.
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: Jeremiah Smith, in my opinion, I'm already seeing, is a
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: better player for sure than any quarterback. But you're not
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: going to like this, Paul. Todd McShay wrote that it's
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: looking like the 2028 class is where the quarterbacks are
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: going to be. Of course. It's always the year ahead.
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: But so does.
• 16:40
  Speaker 4: Jeremiah Smith benefit from the wonkiness at the quarterback situation? Arch,
• 16:44
  Speaker 4: Dante Moore, everyone's in wonkiness.
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, the consensus number one right now is
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: Drew Messamaker, who has had a lot of experience. I
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: know you're going to talk about Messamaker in a second.
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: But look at Jeremiah Smith. He is perfect for the Chargers.
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: There is no doubt if they have the number one pick,
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: they are adding him with Justin Herbert. I think the
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: interesting thing is, Paul, the Miami Dolphins obviously would want
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: a quarterback. They're only paying their starter, Malik Wills, about
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: $ 22 million a year. they would be a perfect quarterback team.
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: But are you really going to pass on Jeremiah Smith
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: for an inexperienced Drew Messamaker, an undersized CJ Carr, an
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: undersized Darian Mensah? I think this player is so special.
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: I've never seen a college receiver like him. I think
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: he's going to defy... Everything we know about NFL draft
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: and teams are going to be very interested in losing.
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: The Dolphins play the Chargers in Week 16. Do not
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: expect to see a lot of starters, and I think
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: Jeremiah Smith will be on both GMs' minds.
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: Jeremiah Smith should be on the field, and the loser
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: of that game should just wrap him up and give
• 17:41
  Speaker 4: him a big hug and sign him to a contract.
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: Give him a jersey.
• 17:43
  Speaker 4: Absolutely. Give him a jersey right there. You know, the Chargers,
• 17:46
  Speaker 4: it's obvious you would pick Jeremiah Smith. The Miami Dolphins
• 17:48
  Speaker 4: worry me because if they pass on him here and
• 17:51
  Speaker 4: he goes on to be a first-team Hall of Famer,
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: and you take a random quarterback when you just spent
• 17:55
  Speaker 4: a little bit, not a lot of money, on Malik Willis,
• 17:59
  Speaker 4: then I've got to question what your overall strategy is.
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: And the Dolphins, I'm trying to think. They've had good receivers.
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: I've never seen a dominant receiver like that. He would
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: look so cool in a Dolphins uniform in the Florida sun.
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you'd have to go back to Irving Fryer like
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: a generation ago.
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, listen, there are a lot of great
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: Florida receivers in college, but I think Miami to build
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: around a wide receiver would be interesting.
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: All right, let's stay with college football. Let's stay with
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: the draft, and let's go to our guy, Drew Mestermaker
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: of Oklahoma State. I saw a recent mock draft. I
• 18:24
  Speaker 4: think this was Field Yates over on the Mothership. He
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: had Drew Mestermaker going number two in the draft to
• 18:29
  Speaker 4: those Miami Dolphins. Mestermaker's path is really fascinating. It kind
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: of reminds me a little bit of Baker Mayfield. Different
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: type of quarterback, different size, different everything, but the path.
• 18:38
  Speaker 4: In 2025, Mestermaker was at North Texas, the mean green.
• 18:42
  Speaker 4: We love those guys in Denton, Texas. But that's not
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: like football where you can get noticed that well. He dominated.
• 18:47
  Speaker 4: He had 34 touchdowns and became this hot property in
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: the transfer portal. They ponied up over at Oklahoma State
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: and gave him the dough. He's playing really well. They
• 18:55
  Speaker 4: had one loss early, so he went off the radar
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: a little bit. But Oklahoma State could go on a
• 18:59
  Speaker 4: run here. This guy's a fantastic quarterback. He can run
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: and pass. He's 6'4. He's got everything you want. But
• 19:04
  Speaker 4: right now, he's the hot property. If the draft were today,
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: he's a top-five pick. Could he be the same guy
• 19:10
  Speaker 4: in a few weeks?
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: Who knows.
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: But everything's falling his way. Dante Moore, unfortunately, gets hurt.
• 19:15
  Speaker 4: That kind of takes him out of the mix for
• 19:16
  Speaker 4: a while. Mensah, people love but don't love love. Arch Manning,
• 19:20
  Speaker 4: I mean, that thing, it could be top five or
• 19:22
  Speaker 4: bottom five of the first round. So Mestermaker is the
• 19:25
  Speaker 4: safe pick, the likable pick, the hot property right now.
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: And we're a long way from this. And this exercise
• 19:31
  Speaker 4: goes month to month with mock drafts. But a guy
• 19:34
  Speaker 4: from North Texas could be the number one and number
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: two overall pick in the draft. Anybody can be there.
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: Well, it reminds me a little bit of Josh Allen
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: going from junior college to Wyoming. A lot of quarterbacks.
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: Aaron Rodgers went from junior college to Cal. So this
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: is a very unusual path. The issue with Messamaker is
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: he has not played a ton of football. Remember, what
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: position did he play in high school? We talked about this.
• 19:55
  Speaker 4: He played wide receiver at different points. He played on
• 19:57
  Speaker 4: the position.
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: I think he was like a punter, too. He was
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: not a big-time quarterback. So he's not in a position
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: where kids are playing from sixth grade on, playing every
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: day of the year. Mess maker doesn't have a lot
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: of experience. And there's one thing we know about the NFL,
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: and you're a Bears fan, you know this. A guy
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: does not have a lot of starts in college like
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: Mitchell Trubisky. They're dangerous.
• 20:14
  Speaker 4: But you want to be the new guy. You want
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: to be the hot property because some team will forget
• 20:18
  Speaker 4: that you don't have 30 starts. Because do your starts
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: at the Mean Green at North Texas, do they count?
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: I don't think they count.
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: They count technically with the NCAA record book, but do
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: they count with the Scouts because... If you look at
• 20:29
  Speaker 4: Cam Ward, he played at a few different places. Trinidad
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: and Cam. Incarnate Ward. Incarnate Ward.
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: But he stayed a little while in college. He stayed
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: a lot longer than Messamaker.
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: But then you'll look at.
• 20:41
  Speaker 4: Trinidad Chambliss, Ferris State, and then a lot of work
• 20:44
  Speaker 4: at Ole Miss.
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he's basically on the verge of retirement in the NFL.
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: He's so old right now. No, I hear you. I
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: think Messmaker reminds me a little more. I won't do
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: a Josh Allen.
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: No.
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: He reminds me a little more of Drake May, who's very,
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: very mobile.
• 20:57
  Speaker 4: Size and mobile.
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: Right, because he's not just as thick as Josh Allen,
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: but he's big and he throws a cannon. I like it.
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: I mean, I think he'll stay to answer your question.
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: I think he's going to be the top quarterback with C.J.
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: Carr being second.
• 21:07
  Speaker 4: Oh, he's going to stay at the top.
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: Stay at the top. Like you were saying, it's cyclical.
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: I mean, obviously, you're right. So much changes. We have
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: until April to chop this up. But I like his odds. Okay.
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: I'm going to go back to the NFL. You know
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: who we're not talking about, Paul? And I think it's
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: about time we have a long talk about them. The
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: Cleveland Browns. Four and two. You did two and four teams. Well,
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: what does 4-2 mean? According to Kalshi, that means you
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: have a 32% chance of making the playoffs. According to
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: ESPN's playoff tracker, you have a 60% chance. And according
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: to the Vegas odds for this week, you play arguably
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: the worst team in the league, the Tennessee Titans, who
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: could be looking at any of these draft prospects we mentioned.
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: They're only one and a half point favorites over the Titans, Paul.
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: So no one buys the Browns, and I get it.
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: It's ugly. But their defense has played awesome. They deserve
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: a lot of credit. Head coach Todd Munkin is amazing.
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: He's 60, never coached a head coach at this level,
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: and he just goes out every week, leaves it on
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: the table. His players play hard for him. I do
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: not think they are talented. I think their defense is
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: very talented. I do not think their offense is very talented.
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: I do not think they're a good team. But if
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: they beat the Titans, which is very doable, they will
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: be 5-2, and then it's on, baby. Because they always
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: play the AFC North tough. It doesn't matter if they're
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: way down. You never know when they're going to beat
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: the Steelers, which they already did this year, or the
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: Bengals or the Ravens. So I think we need to
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: start thinking about the Browns as a real team. That
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: being said, they could lose this weekend to Tennessee, which
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: is terrible. But Cleveland is going to win. have a
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: chance to sneak into the playoffs.
• 22:40
  Speaker 4: It's really interesting how Vegas looks at them, but how
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: the public looks at them. Because of Sean Watson's off-field issues,
• 22:46
  Speaker 4: they're never going to be that feel-good story. They're never
• 22:48
  Speaker 4: going to get the coverage. And people aren't going to
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: go to bat for them and say, hey, check out
• 22:51
  Speaker 4: the Browns. They're the feel-good story. They're the great story.
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: But Watson is playing decent football. I'm not going to
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: say great football.
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: Inconsistent, but decent.
• 22:57
  Speaker 4: Inconsistent average football.
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: How about that?
• 22:59
  Speaker 4: How about consistently average? He's 220 yards a game and
• 23:03
  Speaker 4: two touchdowns, avoiding picks and avoiding disaster. He's doing enough
• 23:06
  Speaker 4: to give you a 4-2 record that's based upon your defense.
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: No, he plays to the team. You're right. He's not
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: turning the ball over. And in the fourth quarter, he'll
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: start to run a lot more. And he's a big
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: physical runner. And can we talk about their best weapons,
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: their kicker, Andre Schmidt?
• 23:19
  Speaker 4: That's not a good sign.
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: Well, it is. They're a defense field goal team. And
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: they've won games. And they've won by a field goal.
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: Every game they win is by a field goal. And
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: I have a feeling this game is going to come
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: down to the end. even with Tennessee playing poorly.
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: All right, before we go, let's hit a few more
• 23:33
  Speaker 4: NFL games before the weekend. Let's do a little keep
• 23:35
  Speaker 4: it friendly, a little side bet here.
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: For you, Pearl.
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: You put 20 a game, real money.
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, let me actually pitch them to you first.
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: You go.
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: Okay, Bengals at Ravens. Ravens are right now a point-and-a-half favorite.
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: Okay, I'm going to take the Bengals to win and
• 23:48
  Speaker 4: win nicely. I'm going to pick them to win by
• 23:50
  Speaker 4: a 10 because I could see now ramping up the
• 23:52
  Speaker 4: pressure to bring Lamar Jackson back next week for the
• 23:56
  Speaker 4: Bills game.
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: Well, I'll tell you, at 1225 Eastern on Friday— there's
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: a report Lamar Jackson walked out to practice and is
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: playing okay.
• 24:02
  Speaker 4: He didn't jog out to practice.
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: No, but I think I'm reading the tea leaves and
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: our guy ESPN's Jamison Henley that it looks like Lamar
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: might play, which is a big deal. Okay, I'm actually
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: going Bengals with you. Packers at Lions, Lions three-point favorites.
• 24:17
  Speaker 4: Man, I don't think the Packers are going to revert back.
• 24:19
  Speaker 4: I think they're getting some people back. This is when
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: they go on their little run of four or five
• 24:23
  Speaker 4: games in a row. Lions, not enough defense for Jordan Love.
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: The Lions' defense is terrible. Their defensive backfield is awful,
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: and Jordan Love is hot. But the division matchup, really,
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: really interesting. I'm going to go Packers as well. I'm
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: with you. One more.
• 24:35
  Speaker 4: Okay, one more?
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: I've got two more quick ones. Rams or Raiders?
• 24:40
  Speaker 4: I'm going to take the Raiders. I think this is— it
• 24:43
  Speaker 4: just doesn't look good. I know every week we say
• 24:45
  Speaker 4: the Rams are going to right the ship, Rams are
• 24:46
  Speaker 4: going to right the ship. I think Kirk Cousins knows
• 24:48
  Speaker 4: this is one of his last chances to keep the
• 24:51
  Speaker 4: job here before— Things go south a couple losses in
• 24:53
  Speaker 4: a row, and then maybe they pivot to Mendoza.
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: I got the Rams big time in this one.
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: Because I know about the issues with Puka and Devontae Adams.
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: I just don't think the Raiders are that good. Okay, 49ers,
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: two-and-a-half-point favorites at Falcons.
• 25:07
  Speaker 4: This is where the Falcons win a game that they
• 25:09
  Speaker 4: shouldn't win. I know we're going to agree on this one.
• 25:11
  Speaker 4: The Falcons will win this game somehow. Everyone will look good. Penix, Bijan,
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: Drake London. And then we'll say... Why aren't the Falcons better?
• 25:17
  Speaker 4: That's what always happens with them.
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so I believe the Niners are on a short
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: week and traveling east against their body clock. Mike Evans
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: was a key to their win last week, and he's hurt.
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: I'm really worried about the Niners here. And by the way,
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: even if they do lose this game, and we're in
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: sync on a lot of these, I don't think it
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: matters because I just think they're worn out from a
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: short week. I think they could easily lose this game
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: and still be the best team.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: In the NFC.
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: They should be fine.
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: All right, coming up next, Anthony Heron from Fox 32
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: in Chicago to talk about the Bears and the NFC North.
• 25:47
  Speaker 4: He'll join us next. Stick around. Not so fast. Paps
• 25:49
  Speaker 4: and Perla. It's a classic Falcon Trap game.
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: I was talking about the good games. How about that
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: Browns-Titans game? You know something's going to happen. You have
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: to watch it.
• 25:58
  Speaker 4: I'm not watching it.
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: You're saying... Welcome back to Not So Fast. Andrew Perloff,
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: Paul Papps, NBC Sports Now, and Peacock. Ball still basking
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: in the glow of the Bears' win.
• 26:09
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it felt pretty good. It could have gone the
• 26:10
  Speaker 4: other way at the end, though. It didn't go the
• 26:12
  Speaker 4: other way.
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we've been chopping it up all show, and now
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: we're going to bring in Fox 32 in Chicago's Anthony Heron,
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: former NFL player, former Iowa star. Anthony, you've played a
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: lot of football. Were you aware of the rule that
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: you are not allowed to hand the ball forward to
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: an offensive lineman?
• 26:30
  Speaker 6: Fellas, that was a new one to me. I had
• 26:31
  Speaker 6: no idea that was a thing. And if I were
• 26:35
  Speaker 6: calling that game, I'd do a bunch of broadcasts for
• 26:38
  Speaker 6: Big Ted Network and for NBC Sports, and I had
• 26:41
  Speaker 6: no idea. If I were in the booth for that game,
• 26:44
  Speaker 6: how do you go about trying to explain.
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: What was wrong? Sometimes you just kind of let.
• 26:48
  Speaker 6: It breathe for a moment and wait for the official
• 26:50
  Speaker 6: to step in or whatever. You know, you get one
• 26:52
  Speaker 6: of the rules analysts to come on there with you
• 26:54
  Speaker 6: because there are so many rules in football. It's hard
• 26:58
  Speaker 6: to keep up with all of them. But it does
• 27:00
  Speaker 6: surprise me, really, that Ben Johnson, his offensive staff, that
• 27:04
  Speaker 6: for some reason in the weeks that they are very likely.
• 27:07
  Speaker 6: It's not like they just woke up and decided to
• 27:10
  Speaker 6: hand the ball to Joe Tooney. They've had that in
• 27:13
  Speaker 6: the offing for a few weeks now. Surprised no one
• 27:16
  Speaker 6: on Ben's team, no one on Ben's staff really got
• 27:18
  Speaker 6: with him and said, actually, there's something about this we
• 27:20
  Speaker 6: need to tweak.
• 27:21
  Speaker 4: All right, the Bears beat the Patriots. It could have
• 27:23
  Speaker 4: gone the other way, but it didn't. There's always a
• 27:25
  Speaker 4: national referendum on a national TV game by the media.
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: But locally today in Chicago, what level of boost did
• 27:32
  Speaker 4: this game give Bears fans, Bears supporters, even inside Hallis Hall?
• 27:37
  Speaker 6: There's a lot of joy about it right now. It's
• 27:40
  Speaker 6: an odd combination, Paulie, where you know how starved this
• 27:44
  Speaker 6: city has been for greatness at quarterback for so many
• 27:48
  Speaker 6: generations of Bears fans. And so there is this jubilance
• 27:52
  Speaker 6: that's there about what we're seeing from Caleb and having
• 27:55
  Speaker 6: this combination of Caleb Williams and Ben Johnson. But then
• 27:59
  Speaker 6: there are also a lot of folks who still aren't
• 28:01
  Speaker 6: completely sure if they can believe their eyes. You know,
• 28:05
  Speaker 6: they're lying eyes about just all the every full game
• 28:09
  Speaker 6: that Caleb has played so far this season has been
• 28:13
  Speaker 6: elite level quarterbacking, not just playmaking, because much of last season,
• 28:17
  Speaker 6: his second year in the league, first year with Ben
• 28:20
  Speaker 6: Johnson you saw elite level playmaking but there wasn't this
• 28:24
  Speaker 6: snap in snap out precision of true quarterbacking that we're
• 28:28
  Speaker 6: witnessing so far this season I mean aside from the
• 28:31
  Speaker 6: monsoon against the Vikings and that Brian Flores defense and
• 28:34
  Speaker 6: the hamstring you would be talking about a guy who's
• 28:37
  Speaker 6: legitimately smack dab in the middle if not leading the
• 28:40
  Speaker 6: MVP conversation.
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: Anthony, do you think there is anything that has helped
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: his game a little bit with the hamstring injury? I mean,
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: a lot of people are talking about this, that he's
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: in the pocket more. He seems like he's better at
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: that now than he was last year, at least. And
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: maybe kind of slowing down helped Caleb Williams.
• 28:57
  Speaker 6: I think it's a valid observation and curiosity. You know,
• 29:00
  Speaker 6: all these things have so many different factors in them.
• 29:03
  Speaker 6: But for Caleb, for the first time in his football journey,
• 29:08
  Speaker 6: to have to sit and watch someone else do his job.
• 29:10
  Speaker 6: Even that hamstring injury that he had back in college
• 29:14
  Speaker 6: against Utah, it was at the end of the regular season.
• 29:18
  Speaker 6: So he didn't have to sit and watch someone else
• 29:20
  Speaker 6: playing quarterback for him for several weeks as he had
• 29:22
  Speaker 6: to here recently. So with Caleb and Drake May, you're
• 29:25
  Speaker 6: still looking at two guys in the early stages of
• 29:28
  Speaker 6: their third year as pros after being three years removed
• 29:32
  Speaker 6: from high school when they became high draft picks. So
• 29:35
  Speaker 6: there's still a time on task that each of them
• 29:38
  Speaker 6: will need to really harness to be at their best.
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: But the way that Caleb is ascending, I do think it's.
• 29:43
  Speaker 6: A valid observation that the slightly diminished burst, the mobility
• 29:50
  Speaker 6: is there, his willingness to scramble still shows up, but
• 29:53
  Speaker 6: he's not really trying to turn the corner and burst
• 29:56
  Speaker 6: away from defenders in these first couple of games back
• 29:58
  Speaker 6: here between that. And sure, watching Case Keenum, just seeing
• 30:02
  Speaker 6: the game from that vantage point, seeing a veteran 15
• 30:05
  Speaker 6: years in, the way he was able to control the meeting.
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: Rooms and the practice, the game planning.
• 30:11
  Speaker 6: There was an ownership that Case Keenum took over that
• 30:14
  Speaker 6: process that I really see Caleb, who I began talking
• 30:18
  Speaker 6: about this over the offseason, a more demonstrative version of
• 30:21
  Speaker 6: Caleb would benefit the Bears more.
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: We're seeing a lot of that, too.
• 30:24
  Speaker 6: There's an agency to the way he's leading this entire
• 30:27
  Speaker 6: team that everyone seems to be feeding off of.
• 30:30
  Speaker 4: All right, Ant, you're in Chicago every day. You covered
• 30:32
  Speaker 4: the NFC North. Perloff does not believe in the Vikings.
• 30:35
  Speaker 4: I don't think many other people do believe in the Vikings.
• 30:38
  Speaker 4: Who should be the most concerning to Bears fans, Bears management,
• 30:42
  Speaker 4: the Packers or the Lions going forward?
• 30:45
  Speaker 6: That's honestly kind of the fascinating thing about the division
• 30:48
  Speaker 6: as a whole. where Ben Johnson won the NFC North
• 30:52
  Speaker 6: last year while not being good in the division. Right now,
• 30:55
  Speaker 6: even into his second year, he's 0-2 in the NFC
• 30:58
  Speaker 6: North right now. Everybody has proven to be a threat
• 31:01
  Speaker 6: to the Ben Johnson-led Bears. Is that because this division
• 31:05
  Speaker 6: had years to really be accustomed to the Ben Johnson
• 31:08
  Speaker 6: offense as he was the OC for the Detroit Lions?
• 31:11
  Speaker 6: Was that a part of the formula that people understand
• 31:14
  Speaker 6: a little bit better? Dan Campbell, his old head coach
• 31:18
  Speaker 6: slash boss kind of, owned both of those games last season.
• 31:21
  Speaker 6: He had to come back to win one of those
• 31:23
  Speaker 6: games against the Vikings. And you know how vital the
• 31:26
  Speaker 6: rivalry at the Packers is. But to put one team
• 31:28
  Speaker 6: at the top of the list, until further notice, I'm
• 31:31
  Speaker 6: going to go ahead and say it's the Green Bay
• 31:32
  Speaker 6: Packers just because of how much that rivalry means. And frankly,
• 31:35
  Speaker 6: because Ben Johnson went out of his way last year,
• 31:38
  Speaker 6: as soon as he got the gig, and then repeatedly
• 31:40
  Speaker 6: during the regular season to call out Matt LaFleur.
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: And so that's a locker room.
• 31:44
  Speaker 6: That does not lack for additional motivation in the least
• 31:47
  Speaker 6: when they face the bears and we saw that play
• 31:49
  Speaker 6: out a few weeks ago at lambeau.
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: Does minnesota have enough offensively to carry this out i
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: mean they've beaten a lot of bad teams can they
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: be good teams with kyler murray a quarterback i.
• 32:00
  Speaker 6: Believe they can and it's it's about a formula that
• 32:03
  Speaker 6: kevin o'connell ends up deploying here and As much as
• 32:06
  Speaker 6: I did have concerns, personally, just because we've seen Kevin
• 32:09
  Speaker 6: O'Connell win so many games and be sort of the
• 32:13
  Speaker 6: reclamation maestro for so many quarterbacks in the time he's
• 32:17
  Speaker 6: been leading things in Minnesota, but it's been with veterans.
• 32:20
  Speaker 6: It's been with guys who've already gone through that professional
• 32:23
  Speaker 6: development process, and then he's able to refine their game,
• 32:27
  Speaker 6: get more precision and efficiency out of them. So I
• 32:29
  Speaker 6: believe that's still going to be a journey that he'll
• 32:31
  Speaker 6: be able to take Kyler Murray on at this point
• 32:34
  Speaker 6: in his career. Part of that is because it'll be
• 32:36
  Speaker 6: bolstered by one of the best defenses in the sport.
• 32:39
  Speaker 6: And so when you can do that, when you can
• 32:41
  Speaker 6: continue to play with a lead and they've got so
• 32:43
  Speaker 6: much talent there on offense, I have a hard time
• 32:46
  Speaker 6: believing that an offensive mind like Kevin O'Connor won't be
• 32:49
  Speaker 6: able to come up with more playmaking from Jefferson and
• 32:53
  Speaker 6: Addison and even Kyler Murray, the multidimensional talent that he
• 32:56
  Speaker 6: still is. As a quarterback, yes, I do think the
• 32:59
  Speaker 6: Vikings are going to continue to be a real threat
• 33:02
  Speaker 6: because their offense should grow and improve.
• 33:03
  Speaker 4: All right, Ant, now you also have like nine jobs.
• 33:06
  Speaker 4: I follow everything you do. You also work at the
• 33:09
  Speaker 4: Big Ten Network. Real quick, we've got two things before
• 33:11
  Speaker 4: we get you out of here. Do you think Ohio
• 33:13
  Speaker 4: State's going to be okay with a backup quarterback going
• 33:16
  Speaker 4: forward and even in the playoffs?
• 33:18
  Speaker 6: Ryan Day, he was talking about it to his team immediately,
• 33:21
  Speaker 6: that 2014 team that won the national championship under Urban Meyer.
• 33:25
  Speaker 6: They went through three different starting quarterbacks. They've got an
• 33:28
  Speaker 6: off week right now to figure out Luke Fahey or
• 33:32
  Speaker 6: Tavian St.
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: Clair.
• 33:33
  Speaker 6: And he has them legitimately competing in practice. It's hard
• 33:36
  Speaker 6: to think Fahey would just give up the job based
• 33:38
  Speaker 6: off practice reps right now.
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: There's a lot of talent around him.
• 33:41
  Speaker 6: The run game for the Buckeyes will have to grow
• 33:44
  Speaker 6: to take some pressure off. off of the quarterback position,
• 33:47
  Speaker 6: but they've got a defense that's been getting better every week.
• 33:49
  Speaker 4: All right, Anson, before we get you out of here,
• 33:51
  Speaker 4: there's a thing we do here called Such Thing is
• 33:52
  Speaker 4: a Dumb Question. You played at Iowa for four years.
• 33:55
  Speaker 4: You played in the NFL. I look back at your
• 33:56
  Speaker 4: old Iowa pictures. In one season, you had one face mask.
• 34:00
  Speaker 4: In another season, you had a different face mask. Do
• 34:02
  Speaker 4: college and pro players, when they get their equipment, get
• 34:05
  Speaker 4: to choose what type of face masks they have?
• 34:08
  Speaker 3: We have no idea.
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: So the simple answer is yes.
• 34:12
  Speaker 6: Now for me, I was in a bit of a
• 34:14
  Speaker 6: unique scenario because I've got an enormous head. The only
• 34:18
  Speaker 6: teammate I ever had who had a bigger head than
• 34:20
  Speaker 6: mine was Aaron Gibson, being 6'9, 400-pound offensive lineman, exactly,
• 34:26
  Speaker 6: from Wisconsin. So he proportionally should have had a much
• 34:29
  Speaker 6: bigger head than me, and he did. Other than that,
• 34:31
  Speaker 6: nobody had a dome like mine, any squad I was
• 34:34
  Speaker 6: ever with. So you need a face mask that will
• 34:36
  Speaker 6: fit the dimensions of the helmet perfectly. For me, the
• 34:39
  Speaker 6: options are a bit limited. Like when I go try
• 34:41
  Speaker 6: to buy size 15 shoes off the rack, they can
• 34:43
  Speaker 6: be hard to come by sometimes.
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: But, yes, you do get to choose your face mask.
• 34:47
  Speaker 4: There you go, Pearl. We answer that question.
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: Well, when people say Anthony Aaron has a big head,
• 34:51
  Speaker 3: they literally mean a big head.
• 34:52
  Speaker 4: Yeah, no ego, just huge melon.
• 34:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah. Well, appreciate the time, Anthony, and good luck
• 34:58
  Speaker 3: with the rest of the season. I'm sure we'll be
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: talking bears for a while now.
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: No doubt. Appreciate you both.
• 35:03
  Speaker 6: Thanks, Ed.
• 35:05
  Speaker 4: Oh, that was fun. That's a question I've always wanted
• 35:07
  Speaker 4: to know. I assume you could pick your face mask
• 35:09
  Speaker 4: in the pros, right?
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: That's a great question. I had no idea. He had
• 35:12
  Speaker 3: his particular reason, and I love it. Gibson was the
• 35:15
  Speaker 3: first 400-pound guy, right?
• 35:16
  Speaker 4: Gigantic at University of Wisconsin. I thought you brought up
• 35:19
  Speaker 4: a good thing here I'd like to do a minute on.
• 35:21
  Speaker 4: The Caleb Williams hamstring injury unintentionally has given him more
• 35:26
  Speaker 4: time in the pocket, less time running, less time scrambling.
• 35:29
  Speaker 4: He could unintentionally become more of a pocket passer.
• 35:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, listen, he's not the only quarterback who
• 35:33
  Speaker 3: could probably use that. But he's been pinpoint accurate. Remember,
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: two weeks ago, he was perfect out of the pocket.
• 35:40
  Speaker 3: And he could also, last night, though, I did see
• 35:42
  Speaker 3: some bursts. So he can get the run game. I
• 35:44
  Speaker 3: feel the combo of him slowing down a little bit
• 35:46
  Speaker 3: has been great.
• 35:47
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's been a lot of fun. It's been a
• 35:48
  Speaker 4: really weird thing. Like, Josh Allen, I don't think if
• 35:51
  Speaker 4: he ever had an injury would ever change the way
• 35:53
  Speaker 4: he runs. But I think Caleb Williams, at the young-ish
• 35:56
  Speaker 4: point of his career, can still adjust things.
• 35:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, awesome. All right, coming up next, we have a
• 36:00
  Speaker 3: great sort of conspiracy theory from Mike Florio that both
• 36:04
  Speaker 3: Paul and I totally agree with. That's coming up next
• 36:07
  Speaker 3: on Not So Fast.
• 36:08
  Speaker 4: Florio is the king of these, by the way.
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think he nailed this one.
• 36:10
  Speaker 4: Yeah, the king of these, though. I would want one
• 36:12
  Speaker 4: of those Justin Tuck faces.
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: But I don't know what Nick Nurse's offensive philosophy is, given—
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: whatever LeBron's role is, and how much can you count
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: on Joel Embiid, and is this Tyrese Maxey's team?
• 36:29
  Speaker 7: Maxey is the best north-south player in the league today.
• 36:33
  Speaker 7: From baseline to baseline, there's nobody quicker. He had a
• 36:35
  Speaker 7: layup last night where he finished on a reverse, and
• 36:38
  Speaker 7: he didn't throw on the brakes whatsoever. If they can
• 36:42
  Speaker 7: win games based on their defense creating opportunities to play
• 36:47
  Speaker 7: in the open court.
• 36:49
  Speaker 4: That will be a lot of paint touches.
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: If they don't get a.
• 36:52
  Speaker 7: Dunk or a layup, they're going to get fouled and
• 36:55
  Speaker 7: go to the free throw line. They've been making their
• 36:56
  Speaker 7: free throws thus far. LeBron James is not LeBron James
• 37:00
  Speaker 7: of 10 years ago, but LeBron James last year was
• 37:02
  Speaker 7: the number two transition player in the league in points
• 37:05
  Speaker 7: per game. If they can play that style, I think
• 37:08
  Speaker 7: you have him continue to look like the guy who
• 37:11
  Speaker 7: can change the outcome of a game.
• 37:14
  Speaker 4: Back on Not So Fast with Paps and Perloff. That
• 37:16
  Speaker 4: was ESPN's Dave McMenamin, the NBA reporter. Talk about the
• 37:20
  Speaker 4: offense and the nuance of the offense with the 76ers.
• 37:23
  Speaker 3: LeBron is not fast, but he gets out on the
• 37:25
  Speaker 3: break because he's a basketball genius. He knows when the
• 37:28
  Speaker 3: guy's going to throw up a brick, and he's out.
• 37:30
  Speaker 3: It's unbelievable to watch.
• 37:31
  Speaker 4: And nobody takes a charge, even these days, on LeBron.
• 37:33
  Speaker 4: When he's coming down, when he's thundering down, it's fascinating
• 37:36
  Speaker 4: to watch.
• 37:36
  Speaker 3: It reminds me a little. Remember Karl Malone in the
• 37:38
  Speaker 3: Utah Jazz?
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 37:39
  Speaker 3: Always used to find a way to get out in front.
• 37:42
  Speaker 3: But the thing is, LeBron is definitely not one of
• 37:44
  Speaker 3: the top four players on this team. I am dead serious.
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: Last night, he had a plus 7, plus minus. Everybody,
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: all the other starters were plus 19. I say Joel Embiid,
• 37:53
  Speaker 3: Jalen Brown, Tyrese Maxey, and Edgecombe is right there with LeBron.
• 37:58
  Speaker 3: LeBron is great as a sort of added piece. He's
• 38:01
  Speaker 3: gravy on this team.
• 38:02
  Speaker 4: You're talking about this as if it's a problem. This
• 38:04
  Speaker 4: is exactly what LeBron wanted at his age. It's like,
• 38:08
  Speaker 4: I don't want the pressure. I want to be on
• 38:09
  Speaker 4: a team that can do it around me. I'm going
• 38:11
  Speaker 4: to be that point forward throwing the ball. I'll play
• 38:14
  Speaker 4: down low a little bit. I'll run the break a
• 38:15
  Speaker 4: little bit. I'm going to let the young fellas do
• 38:17
  Speaker 4: all the work for 82 games. I'll play 67 games.
• 38:21
  Speaker 4: And in the playoffs, again, once in a while, fountain
• 38:24
  Speaker 4: of youth here and there because he knows he can't
• 38:27
  Speaker 4: carry a team. I think the self-awareness here is admirable.
• 38:30
  Speaker 3: But I still read the headline, LeBron carries the Sixers
• 38:32
  Speaker 3: to a comeback.
• 38:33
  Speaker 4: But that's a bait headline writer. That's people who don't
• 38:36
  Speaker 4: watch basketball or don't know basketball who don't know what
• 38:38
  Speaker 4: the Sixers and LeBron is trying to do here.
• 38:41
  Speaker 3: By the way, David McVanderman said he's the best North-South player.
• 38:44
  Speaker 3: Does that mean he's the best player? Because isn't that
• 38:46
  Speaker 3: generally how basketball works?
• 38:48
  Speaker 4: And is the stadium, do we know, it's north-south going
• 38:50
  Speaker 4: up and down the court?
• 38:51
  Speaker 3: That's a great question.
• 38:51
  Speaker 4: We absolutely have to check that.
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: I mean, you've got to look around the league, each arena.
• 38:55
  Speaker 4: As a journalist, we're absolutely going to check that. All right,
• 38:57
  Speaker 4: Mike Florio, our guy, Mike Florio, he does our show
• 38:59
  Speaker 4: earlier on NBC Sports Now, one of our teammates here.
• 39:02
  Speaker 4: Mike loves to extrapolate things. Take little morsels and make
• 39:06
  Speaker 4: them into mountains from molehills, molehills to mountains, whatever it
• 39:09
  Speaker 4: may be.
• 39:09
  Speaker 3: He's a curious mind.
• 39:11
  Speaker 4: Curious guy. And so Mike Fleury took this thing about
• 39:14
  Speaker 4: a few teams, like the Bears, the Ravens, and the Cowboys,
• 39:17
  Speaker 4: all playing three straight games on national TV and what
• 39:20
  Speaker 4: the NFL might be cooking up.
• 39:24
  Speaker 3: Because, look, it may just be random.
• 39:27
  Speaker 4: It may just be.
• 39:28
  Speaker 5: But when that many teams are getting three in a
• 39:30
  Speaker 5: row in primetime, I wonder if they are experimenting with
• 39:38
  Speaker 5: having the same team in primetime for multiple weeks for
• 39:43
  Speaker 5: if and when they ever fully embrace Tuesday and Wednesday night.
• 39:47
  Speaker 5: Because if you do that, The only way to make
• 39:50
  Speaker 5: the schedule work is to have a team play Thursday
• 39:53
  Speaker 5: one week, Wednesday the next week, Tuesday the next week.
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: You're right, yeah.
• 39:58
  Speaker 5: To give them maximum time between games, you're going to
• 40:02
  Speaker 5: have to do this surgery to the schedule that has
• 40:05
  Speaker 5: the same teams popping up again once you have teams playing.
• 40:09
  Speaker 3: In the middle of the week.
• 40:10
  Speaker 5: And then maybe you cycle them to a Monday, and
• 40:12
  Speaker 5: then they go back to Sunday.
• 40:14
  Speaker 3: First of all, I love how Chris Simms begrudgingly said it.
• 40:17
  Speaker 3: I think you're right, Mike. This is a great theory.
• 40:19
  Speaker 3: It's almost bulletproof. Why else would Atlanta have been on
• 40:22
  Speaker 3: three nights in a row, three night games in a row,
• 40:25
  Speaker 3: if they weren't setting up something down the road?
• 40:27
  Speaker 4: Well, a couple things. First of all, Sims, make sure
• 40:29
  Speaker 4: you get this sticker off the bottom of your cup.
• 40:30
  Speaker 4: It's right there on the bottom of the cup. I
• 40:33
  Speaker 4: would say, though, 10 years ago, I wouldn't have entertained this.
• 40:35
  Speaker 4: I'd be like, no, the NFL will never do this.
• 40:37
  Speaker 4: The NFL has clearly said in the past five years,
• 40:40
  Speaker 4: there is no window we won't look at to put
• 40:42
  Speaker 4: a football game. Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Black Friday, a Friday
• 40:47
  Speaker 4: afternoon football game. They're looking for any other windows of
• 40:49
  Speaker 4: revenue because they've got Sunday cooked. They've got Monday. They've
• 40:52
  Speaker 4: got Thursday. They've got Sunday night football. You may say
• 40:55
  Speaker 4: to yourself, whenever you say someone will never do something,
• 40:58
  Speaker 4: they will absolutely do something because they're passing on prime
• 41:01
  Speaker 4: time windows. So I would say it will take a while,
• 41:04
  Speaker 4: and they'll deal with the blowback, but somehow they'll expand
• 41:06
  Speaker 4: the season two weeks, one game. and start placing these
• 41:10
  Speaker 4: Tuesday night, Wednesday night games. New packages, new partners.
• 41:13
  Speaker 3: I'll take it one step further. I think the Sunday
• 41:15
  Speaker 3: 1 o'clock window is the biggest waste of sports inventory
• 41:18
  Speaker 3: in the entire world.
• 41:19
  Speaker 4: Too many games don't get seen.
• 41:20
  Speaker 3: Why they spread out nine games in the 1 o'clock
• 41:22
  Speaker 3: window is a gigantic mystery to me.
• 41:24
  Speaker 4: The NFL is going to hire you. All right, it's
• 41:25
  Speaker 4: time for getting the Heisman, Pearl. We check on the Heisman.
• 41:28
  Speaker 4: Jeremiah Smith of Ohio State, no game this weekend. He
• 41:31
  Speaker 4: still will help himself. He'll probably still have 11 catches. Pearl,
• 41:34
  Speaker 4: what do you have on the high.
• 41:35
  Speaker 3: End this week? I got the hot guy and biggest
• 41:37
  Speaker 3: riser is Bear Bachmeier, BYU quarterback. Now, he's been great
• 41:41
  Speaker 3: so far. Led them past Notre Dame last week. Now,
• 41:44
  Speaker 3: here's the trick about Bear Bachmeier. I'm all in. at
• 41:48
  Speaker 3: plus 21.50. They have a tricky game at UCF this weekend,
• 41:53
  Speaker 3: and you know UCF. You never know what you're going
• 41:55
  Speaker 3: to get. They played Houston really tough, and they played
• 41:58
  Speaker 3: Oklahoma State really tough. So BYU is in that position
• 42:02
  Speaker 3: where we've seen a lot this year of an emotional letdown.
• 42:04
  Speaker 3: So Bear Bachmeier, he's really hot right now in the
• 42:07
  Speaker 3: Heisman odds. Can he keep it up?
• 42:08
  Speaker 4: And if they win this weekend, they could possibly face Utah,
• 42:11
  Speaker 4: two undefeated teams, probably game day coming back, in November 7th.
• 42:15
  Speaker 3: Oh, what a story. Bear Brockmeyer, great story. Obviously more
• 42:18
  Speaker 3: of a runner, but he already has six rushing touchdowns.
• 42:20
  Speaker 3: He'll put his numbers on that side of his game.
• 42:23
  Speaker 4: Plus, he's got the weird things. Bear Brockmeyer, great name.
• 42:25
  Speaker 4: Number 47, really weird number. Everything's working in his.
• 42:28
  Speaker 3: And BYU quarterbacks. We know they can win Heisman's.
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: Sure does.
• 42:31
  Speaker 4: Coming up, constructive criticism and bonus coverage. Mind readers before
• 42:35
  Speaker 4: we get out of here on a Friday. Stick around.
• 42:37
  Speaker 4: Not so fast. Pabst and Perloff.
• 42:39
  Speaker 3: That's right. Ty Deber won the Heisman, right? Yeah. Did
• 42:44
  Speaker 3: Steve Young?
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: No.
• 42:46
  Speaker 3: How is that possible?
• 42:47
  Speaker 4: No Robbie Bosco, no Sarkeesian. 47 is a great number.
• 42:50
  Speaker 3: All right, we're back on Not So Fast. Every week
• 42:54
  Speaker 3: we do something called Mind Readers, where we get inside
• 42:56
  Speaker 3: the head of coaches and players. All right, this week,
• 43:00
  Speaker 3: let's go to one of the stories of the year. Well,
• 43:04
  Speaker 3: at least in New York. Paul, I'm going to ask you,
• 43:06
  Speaker 3: what is J.J. McCarthy, the quarterback, Really thinking about being
• 43:11
  Speaker 3: the Giants starter.
• 43:12
  Speaker 4: How did I get here? How did I go from
• 43:14
  Speaker 4: being jettisoned to starting, and it's still October, on a
• 43:18
  Speaker 4: decent team in a muckled-up division that I have a
• 43:21
  Speaker 4: chance to play some B-level football and get this team
• 43:24
  Speaker 4: to a playoff spot? I mean, he's got to do
• 43:26
  Speaker 4: the work, but he just has to avoid disasters early
• 43:29
  Speaker 4: in his career.
• 43:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I was thinking, holy crap, is that Will Anderson across? Yeah.
• 43:35
  Speaker 3: You've seen this situation before. I think J.J. McCarthy is
• 43:38
  Speaker 3: going to run and put his body on the line
• 43:40
  Speaker 3: because he knows this is one shot, which risks injury.
• 43:43
  Speaker 4: Right, and he doesn't have to play great.
• 43:44
  Speaker 3: He has to win.
• 43:45
  Speaker 4: Win by a point, play decent football.
• 43:46
  Speaker 3: Okay, what is Kenneth Walker really thinking about playing his
• 43:49
  Speaker 3: former team, the Seahawks star versus the Chiefs?
• 43:52
  Speaker 4: Two bills. I want to go two bills. I got paid,
• 43:54
  Speaker 4: so I'm going to drop some bills on them. They
• 43:56
  Speaker 4: bailed on me. They wouldn't pay me. I want to
• 43:58
  Speaker 4: drop 200 on these guys. Feed me, feed me.
• 44:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, because the Seahawks basically said, we don't think you're
• 44:03
  Speaker 3: a bell cow. Here's the problem. Seahawks are the best
• 44:05
  Speaker 3: run defense in the NFL. They're the best defense in
• 44:08
  Speaker 3: the NFL. I said this yesterday. I think he goes
• 44:11
  Speaker 3: under 85 and a half yards, which is his Vegas total.
• 44:14
  Speaker 3: Seahawks are thinking the same thing. We're not going to
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: let this guy, our guy, beat us.
• 44:19
  Speaker 4: And then Mahomes will go crazy.
• 44:20
  Speaker 3: And then what is Sean McVay really thinking about the
• 44:23
  Speaker 3: state of the two and four Rams?
• 44:25
  Speaker 4: I got to call my agent because what's the best
• 44:27
  Speaker 4: media job in the offseason if we don't make the playoffs?
• 44:29
  Speaker 3: You stole my line. I would say Herbie looks like
• 44:32
  Speaker 3: he's talking a little too much college football on Thursday
• 44:35
  Speaker 3: night on Amazon.
• 44:35
  Speaker 4: Get yourself a dog and you'll be fine.
• 44:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it does seem like Sean McVay has one foot
• 44:40
  Speaker 3: in the broadcast booth, which is a shame because they're
• 44:43
  Speaker 3: my Super Bowl pick and I'm not giving up on
• 44:44
  Speaker 3: them yet, but he looks like he's out of answers.
• 44:47
  Speaker 4: Okay, let's do one more. A little baseball. World Series
• 44:50
  Speaker 4: starts tonight. What are the Brewers thinking going into this?
• 44:53
  Speaker 4: World Series. Brewers and their fan base.
• 44:55
  Speaker 3: The Brewers, I think, are very confident. I think they
• 44:57
  Speaker 3: think we're going to win. I don't think the thought
• 44:59
  Speaker 3: of them not winning has crossed their mind.
• 45:01
  Speaker 4: I think they wish they could have had the Guardians.
• 45:04
  Speaker 4: You know, Tampa Bay, you don't know much about. They're
• 45:05
  Speaker 4: this wonky team, but they won a lot of games.
• 45:08
  Speaker 3: I don't think so. I think they think we beat
• 45:09
  Speaker 3: the Dodgers, we can beat the Rays or the Guardians.
• 45:12
  Speaker 3: And I'll tell you what, I know what the Rays
• 45:13
  Speaker 3: are thinking. This is obvious.
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: What?
• 45:14
  Speaker 3: They're thinking no one believes in us. They are the
• 45:16
  Speaker 3: ultimate no one believes in us team.
• 45:18
  Speaker 4: No one's talking about us. No one's believing in us.
• 45:19
  Speaker 4: No one's going to celebrate us if we win it.
• 45:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, they're actually a likable team. I think
• 45:23
  Speaker 3: a lot of people are going to get to watch them, really,
• 45:25
  Speaker 3: for the first time. But they're definitely playing that card.
• 45:27
  Speaker 4: All right, Perloff, great week here on Not So Fast.
• 45:30
  Speaker 4: Let's get a little feedback from you guys. Constructive criticism time. Twitter,
• 45:34
  Speaker 4: social media, whatever you got. Here's the first one. Here
• 45:36
  Speaker 4: we go. Italian beef and pulled pork sandwiches are undisputed
• 45:41
  Speaker 4: 1 in 1A of underrated tailgate foods discussed. Yeah, if
• 45:45
  Speaker 4: you walk up to a tailgater, you host a tailgate,
• 45:47
  Speaker 4: and you have Italian beef and pulled pork, you're winning
• 45:50
  Speaker 4: in life, and you'd be my friend.
• 45:52
  Speaker 3: That's hard to cook Italian beef the right way. Pulled
• 45:54
  Speaker 3: pork you could do. Every year there's a guy named
• 45:57
  Speaker 3: Dino Gatto who runs a restaurant called Rayo's in New York.
• 46:00
  Speaker 3: You might buy their tomato sauce.
• 46:01
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 46:02
  Speaker 3: He has a special tailgate at Giant Stadium, and I
• 46:05
  Speaker 3: believe he does Italian beef, and he does lasagna, which
• 46:08
  Speaker 3: you wouldn't think of as a tailgate food, but I've
• 46:09
  Speaker 3: got to tell you, lasagna is always delicious.
• 46:11
  Speaker 4: I've never seen lasagna at a tailgate. That's wild, wacky stuff.
• 46:13
  Speaker 4: I would say, though, underrated tailgate food, bring donuts in
• 46:16
  Speaker 4: the morning so people can get a little bit of
• 46:18
  Speaker 4: a base coat. Just pick up some donuts. Okay, here
• 46:20
  Speaker 4: we go. Next question, and this one's definitely for me.
• 46:22
  Speaker 4: Tilly in Bloomington, our old buddy.
• 46:23
  Speaker 3: Oh, Tilly, what's up, buddy?
• 46:24
  Speaker 4: We are fully into fall season. Give me your top
• 46:27
  Speaker 4: three Oktoberfest fall beers. All right, I got a couple.
• 46:30
  Speaker 4: Harpoon does with one called Flannel Friday. That's a legend.
• 46:35
  Speaker 4: Dovetail out of Chicago. Vienna Lager, check that one out.
• 46:38
  Speaker 4: And Revolution, another Midwest beer, Oktoberfest. Those are three hammers.
• 46:42
  Speaker 4: You'll be doing just fine with those.
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 46:45
  Speaker 4: One more question, and this is the biggie from Tony. Chili,
• 46:48
  Speaker 4: beans or no beans?
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: Pearl, off you first.
• 46:50
  Speaker 3: I don't even understand this question. I mean, I do
• 46:52
  Speaker 3: understand it because I used to... put out pictures of
• 46:55
  Speaker 3: me making chili and there were beans in there. People
• 46:57
  Speaker 3: were like, this is not a real chili.
• 46:58
  Speaker 4: You used to upset people.
• 46:59
  Speaker 3: And if I put corn in there, then people would
• 47:02
  Speaker 3: unfollow me.
• 47:02
  Speaker 4: Okay, but do you not put beans in your own chili?
• 47:04
  Speaker 3: Of course I put beans in chili. I think it's
• 47:06
  Speaker 3: crazy not to.
• 47:07
  Speaker 4: I'm open-minded. I prefer my chili all meat, Texas style.
• 47:11
  Speaker 4: I don't want beans in my chili.
• 47:13
  Speaker 3: So what are you putting in? Just meat and sauce?
• 47:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and tomatoes and onions and all types of other stuff.
• 47:18
  Speaker 4: I would prefer, I don't have a hard rule in life.
• 47:20
  Speaker 4: If you hand me a bowl of chili that's good
• 47:22
  Speaker 4: that has beans in it, I'm taking it down.
• 47:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you put onions in there?
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: Sure. Tomatoes?
• 47:27
  Speaker 3: I don't know. I don't know. I mean, my wife
• 47:29
  Speaker 3: does not appreciate when I eat onions.
• 47:31
  Speaker 4: This is going to be our most controversial segment.
• 47:34
  Speaker 3: That's definitely not my form of chili. I put beans
• 47:37
  Speaker 3: in everything. Now, Chef Greg is here with RecTech. I
• 47:39
  Speaker 3: believe he made a chili today, right? Yes.
• 47:41
  Speaker 4: It looks like an all-meat chili.
• 47:42
  Speaker 3: Am I crazy, or did he shave Wagyu into that?
• 47:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah, he just took it like it was a cheese
• 47:46
  Speaker 4: grater and just started shaving Wagyu beef on top of
• 47:48
  Speaker 4: his chili. But he's a genius.
• 47:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't think we can make chili like that.
• 47:52
  Speaker 4: So Texas, especially in Texas, chili... Big chunks of beef.
• 47:55
  Speaker 4: They call it Texas red. That is the quintessential staple
• 47:59
  Speaker 4: of chili. But there's chili all.
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: Over the place.
• 48:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, obviously.
• 48:02
  Speaker 4: All right, here we go. It's time for the feel-good
• 48:04
  Speaker 4: before we get you out of here on a Friday.
• 48:05
  Speaker 4: Check this one out. Oh, Pearl, you picked this for me?
• 48:10
  Speaker 4: Look at that young fella doing it right. Growing a
• 48:12
  Speaker 4: mustache at that age, that's a commitment.
• 48:15
  Speaker 3: So this was the Bears' first home game, I believe,
• 48:18
  Speaker 3: right since Dick Capasta.
• 48:20
  Speaker 4: It is, but that is a normal showing of people
• 48:22
  Speaker 4: dressing a Dicka at any Bears game.
• 48:24
  Speaker 3: Well, I was amazed because last week there was tons
• 48:26
  Speaker 3: of Dickas in the crowd, too. Dicka costumes are universal
• 48:30
  Speaker 3: in a way. What do you think it's going to
• 48:32
  Speaker 3: be like on Halloween? Is everyone in Chicago going to
• 48:34
  Speaker 3: be walking around with a mustache?
• 48:36
  Speaker 4: They generally already do. Most guys in Chicago have mustaches,
• 48:39
  Speaker 4: and it's easy. You just get the sweater vest, but
• 48:40
  Speaker 4: you've got to get the glasses. You slick the hair back.
• 48:43
  Speaker 3: It's funny.
• 48:43
  Speaker 4: Sometimes you'll see women and children do it.
• 48:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, wouldn't it be cool if the Bears
• 48:47
  Speaker 3: made a Super Bowl run In the year that Dick Capaspi's,
• 48:50
  Speaker 3: I believe that was the last time they won. They
• 48:52
  Speaker 3: made it with Rex Grossman, but that didn't really count.
• 48:55
  Speaker 4: Except for the opening kickoff by Devin Hester and then
• 48:57
  Speaker 4: all downhill.
• 48:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, no, it's definitely a feel-good team. And I've got
• 49:00
  Speaker 3: to be honest, I know they're your team, but I'm
• 49:02
  Speaker 3: kind of into them.
• 49:02
  Speaker 4: All right, last one before we get done. I know
• 49:04
  Speaker 4: we kind of picked it. Rams this weekend. How big
• 49:07
  Speaker 4: and what happens?
• 49:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I know that you were really scared of the Raiders,
• 49:11
  Speaker 3: but the Rams are still a better team. And listen,
• 49:14
  Speaker 3: Aaron Donald is not going to let this team just
• 49:16
  Speaker 3: fall apart.
• 49:17
  Speaker 4: All right, tune in to enjoy the football, enjoy the baseball,
• 49:19
  Speaker 4: enjoy everything.
• 49:20
  Speaker 3: This weekend.
• 49:20
  Speaker 4: Enjoy some chili. Tune in to Not So Fast Noon,
• 49:23
  Speaker 4: Not So Fast right here, right after the Dan Pat Show,
• 49:26
  Speaker 4: 9 a.m. Eastern, Monday through Friday.