Latest / The Mark Belling Podcast / Mark Belling Podcast #166: We're 47 days away from the Wisconsin Governor election; Mark sizes up where the race is right now and why Tom Tiffany can win even if it's a big national Democrat year. Milwaukee wokeness is reaching dangerous levels as the city moves toward turning its water treatment plant over to an unproven operator after it agreed to stop cooperating with ICE. And, we've got our weekly football preview and point spread picks.

Transcript

Mark Belling Podcast #166: We're 47 days away from the Wisconsin Governor election; Mark sizes up where the race is right now and why Tom Tiffany can win even if it's a big national Democrat year. Milwaukee wokeness is reaching dangerous levels as the city moves toward turning its water treatment plant over to an unproven operator after it agreed to stop cooperating with ICE. And, we've got our weekly football preview and point spread picks. · The Mark Belling Podcast

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  Speaker 2: We're just under five weeks away from the beginning of
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  Speaker 2: early voting in the election for governor of Wisconsin. I
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  Speaker 2: think in most of the states, the governor's race this
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  Speaker 2: year isn't the big deal. There's such interest in who's
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  Speaker 2: going to control the Senate and who's going to control
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  Speaker 2: the House that in the states that have an election
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: for the United States Senate, which of course is two-thirds
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  Speaker 2: of them, the Senate race may be getting more attention
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  Speaker 2: than the race for governor. But Wisconsin, we're in one
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  Speaker 2: of those, it's every cycle since senators are elected for
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: six-year terms. Two out of every three of the two-year
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: periods is a Senate election on the ballot in Wisconsin,
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  Speaker 2: but this isn't one of them. So all we have
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: are the state constitutional officers, the legislature, and individual hostess,
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: six-plus county offices, and whatever's on your local ballot with
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  Speaker 2: school referendums and so on. The governor's race is front
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  Speaker 2: and center. And I want to give you my analysis
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  Speaker 2: of where this race stands.
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  Speaker 3: Right now.
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  Speaker 2: Now, the national backdrop is everybody says this is a
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  Speaker 2: Democratic year. And indeed, 39 of the last 41 off-year
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: elections have favored the party that was not in control.
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  Speaker 3: Of the White House.
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  Speaker 2: Now, that 31 of 41, they measure it by pickups
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  Speaker 2: in the House and Senate. But I'm guessing the governor's
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  Speaker 2: race has pretty much tracked that. especially now because we
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: tend to have wave elections. Very few people split tickets anymore.
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  Speaker 2: We see that, for example, every four years, the governor
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: and the attorney general are on the ballot at the
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: same time. And whichever party wins the governorship, the attorney
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: general race is decided by almost the exact same percentage.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: Not only does the same party win, the percentage is
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  Speaker 2: almost identical. For example, four years ago, When Tony Evers
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: beat Tim Michaels, Josh Call beat Eric Toney for Attorney General.
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  Speaker 2: Both Democrats, and the margin was within a percentage point. Virtually,
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  Speaker 2: not everybody, but virtually everybody that voted for Evers voted
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  Speaker 2: for Call, and virtually everybody that voted for Michaels voted
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  Speaker 2: for Toney. So you have a national backdrop that would seemingly.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: Favor the Democrats. There are a few, and only a few,
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  Speaker 2: people who disagree with that. The most prominent is Newt Gingrich.
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  Speaker 2: Every time he does an interview, he says that the
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: Republicans are going to keep the House, keep the Senate.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: It's going to be a better year for Republicans and
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  Speaker 2: that they might win more seats than Democrats. Newt's a
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  Speaker 2: really smart guy, and he's an historian, and he's not
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: usually somebody that just spins things. So I always take
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  Speaker 2: what he has to say, and I'm interested in it,
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: but I don't see what scenarios are in place that
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  Speaker 2: would lead him to this. There are some factors, but
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  Speaker 2: not a lot of them. So let's assume that indeed
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  Speaker 2: the national backdrop is indeed favorable to Democrats. That certainly
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: therefore would be a big asset for the Democratic candidate,
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: David Crowley. However, I believe, and I've argued this for months,
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  Speaker 2: I believe that the Republican candidate, Tom Tiffany, has a
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  Speaker 2: very good chance to win. Even bucking up against this
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  Speaker 2: backdrop of this being nationally a Democratic year. Let's start
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: the analysis. I mentioned this briefly. I wrote about it
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: at length in my newspaper column, which is out in
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: the handful of newspapers, the Conley Papers that carry it,
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: that it came out yesterday. The plane crash, this unbelievable
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: crash that occurred on Saturday night in which Tom Tiffany
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: and his pilot in a small plane crashed into a
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: lake and had to be rescued by another plane as
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: they sat in the water in the dark until they
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  Speaker 2: could be saved. An incredibly dramatic and daring rescue and
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  Speaker 2: remarkable that these two guys, neither of whom are spring chickens,
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  Speaker 2: could survive. Anyway, that story has served to humanize Tiffany
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  Speaker 2: and gave maybe casual voters or people who aren't particularly
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  Speaker 2: familiar with him a better feel for the guy than.
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  Speaker 3: They had before.
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  Speaker 2: I know it sounds odd to say it this way,
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  Speaker 2: but I do think that the way Tiffany, the things
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: that happened after the crash, I think help people who
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: might have a feel for the politics of either of
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: these can just have a better feeling for Tom Tiffany.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: The data center issue. It is the driving issue in
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: governor's races all over the United States. And indeed, both
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: candidates are running tons of data center ads. Both Tiffany
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: and Crowley are accusing the other guy of being the
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: whore for the data centers. I think Wisconsin is the
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: rare state in which that issue is awash. Most everywhere,
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: the data center issue is benefiting Democrats because Democrats are
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: just saying, we can't have any data centers. And most
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: Republicans are not going that far. And right now, you
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: have a whole segment in this country that somehow thinks
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: that we're going to avoid economic ruin by having all
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  Speaker 2: the data centers in China and outsourcing all of our
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  Speaker 2: tech to China and not having any of it here.
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  Speaker 2: As you know, I think we have to work forward
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  Speaker 2: on data centers with proper protections and.
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  Speaker 3: All of the caveats that I've included in.
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  Speaker 2: Terms of proper siting, proper electric plant usage, proper figuring
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  Speaker 2: out of how you're going to use the water and
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: all of that stuff. But Tiffany isn't so much on
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  Speaker 2: the defensive on the issue as the normal Republican would
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  Speaker 2: be because Crowley has been a cheerleader for data centers
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  Speaker 2: his entire political career. He had this idea that Milwaukee
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  Speaker 2: County could become Wisconsin's hub for data centers. The ideas
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: that he's talked about were taking portions undeveloped of the
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  Speaker 2: county grounds and put maybe one or two giant data
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  Speaker 2: centers there. And he felt that this was a way
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  Speaker 2: to create a massive economic boom in Milwaukee County. As
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  Speaker 2: a result of this Crowley has received a fortune in
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  Speaker 2: donations from the tech industry and the companies that build
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  Speaker 2: data centers. They were banking on him winning the democratic
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  Speaker 2: primary for governor. Well, the primary for governor went on
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  Speaker 2: and Crowley was nowhere. He had a fair amount of money,
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  Speaker 2: but he was, he had no, he got nowhere. He's
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  Speaker 2: spinning his wheels.
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  Speaker 3: He dropped out of the race. And then.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: The candidate who is being endorsed, Sarah Rodriguez imploded. Everybody
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  Speaker 2: else is falling by the wayside. And Democrats were confronted
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  Speaker 2: with a communist nincompoop, Francesca Hong being their candidate for governor.
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  Speaker 2: They had to find an alternative. And they plucked Crowley
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  Speaker 2: from already having dropped out of the race, got Tony
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  Speaker 2: Evers and a bunch of other Democrats to endorse him,
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  Speaker 2: and they got him the nomination. So he got the
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  Speaker 2: nomination not because he had all this data center money.
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  Speaker 2: He got the nomination because the Democrats had to find
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  Speaker 2: somebody and he was the only option left. Nonetheless, he's
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: taken all this data center money and Tiffany has hammered
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  Speaker 2: him with this. So I think it's a wash. The
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: Democrats can run all the ads they want saying that
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  Speaker 2: Tiffany's going to whore himself out to the data center industry,
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  Speaker 2: even though he said repeatedly he won't. But it's coming
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  Speaker 2: from a party whose own candidate for governor has been
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  Speaker 2: financed through the wazoo by the data center industry. So
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  Speaker 2: that issue, which is just dominant in governor's races across
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  Speaker 2: the country, I think is a wash here. And because
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  Speaker 2: it's a negative for Republicans everywhere and not here, I
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  Speaker 2: think that that's a plus.
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  Speaker 3: For Tiffany. Next.
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  Speaker 2: You can't take the Milwaukee out of Crowley. There is
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: a reason that Milwaukee Democrats do not get elected to
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  Speaker 2: statewide office. We haven't had a governor from the city
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  Speaker 2: of Milwaukee.
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  Speaker 3: In decades.
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  Speaker 2: The only exception was Marty Shriver, but he wasn't elected.
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  Speaker 2: Marty Shriver was the lieutenant governor for Pat Lucy when
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  Speaker 2: Pat Lucy resigned to join the Jimmy Carter administration as
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: ambassador to New Mexico. So Schreiber moved from lieutenant governor to,
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  Speaker 2: we called it then, acting.
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  Speaker 3: Governor, which he hated.
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: Marty then ran for a full term and lost to
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  Speaker 2: Lee Dreyfus. So there hasn't been an elected Democrat in
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  Speaker 2: Milwaukee for about 100 years more. Now, clearly what happened 50, 70,
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: 90 years ago maybe isn't as relevant to now, but
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: if I think anything, the drag that a being from
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: Milwaukee has is is overwhelming. It's at this point that
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: people keep saying to me, what about Scott Walker? And
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: I say to them, do you not listen to what
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: I said? I said, Milwaukee Democrat. Scott Walker wasn't from Milwaukee,
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  Speaker 2: he's from Wauwatosa, but he was a Republican. Very different thing.
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  Speaker 2: Because Scott Walker became statewide famous because he came in
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  Speaker 2: and bucked the Milwaukee establishment. While he didn't run by
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: political party, he was already a Republican from his time
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: in the And he governed as a fiscal conservative in
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: a liberal county. And the fact that he was able
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  Speaker 2: to be successful in that environment is what impressed Republicans
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  Speaker 2: all over the state, figuring that if this guy can
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  Speaker 2: handle Democrats in Milwaukee, imagine what he could do for
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  Speaker 2: the rest of the state. So my point is relevant
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  Speaker 2: toward Milwaukee Democrats.
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: So there's that.
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: But if anything, the situation is worse. The impression the
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  Speaker 2: rest of the state has of Milwaukee is Sadly, that
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: we're a hellhole. Now, Milwaukee's not a hellhole, but it
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: has components of it that are. The crime problem is
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  Speaker 2: bad without regard to the crime stats. The municipal decisions
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: are bad, making the streets impossible to drive. The criminal
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: justice system is terrible. Doesn't matter how many times you
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: drive recklessly. It doesn't matter how many times you shoplift.
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: It doesn't matter how many times you get caught driving.
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  Speaker 3: Without a license.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: Doesn't matter if you're 40 years old and haven't had
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: a driver's license and have been cited for it for
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: 37 times. Nothing happens to you. And the whole state
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: sees this and realizes it. They also see Milwaukee as
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: the great vacuum cleaner that sucks the money out of
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: the rest of the state. the city of Milwaukee and
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: Milwaukee County get disproportionately more of their share of state
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: aid than the rest of the state. If you simply
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: gave the state aid on the basis of population, Milwaukee
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: would get far less, both Milwaukee County and the city
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: of Milwaukee, far less than they do, and really less
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: in terms of school aid. Yet despite the fact that
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: Milwaukee gets back far more than it pays in, Milwaukee's
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: local taxes are higher than anywhere else in the state.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: Four was, I think it's three now, Wisconsin counties don't
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: have a sales tax. Milwaukee's one of the 68 or
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: 69 that does. But Milwaukee is the only county that
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: has a double sales tax. Every other county with a
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: sales tax has it at 0.5. Milwaukee county sales tax
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: is 1%. And then in addition to that, the city
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: of Milwaukee is at 1%. So the rest of the
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: state sees Milwaukee sucking out all this state aid, even
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: though Milwaukee is taxing its own people to death. This
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: doesn't play well in the rest of the state. This
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: is weird, but it's true. Being from Milwaukee is more
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: of a drag than being from Madison. Now, Madison's more
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: Democratic than even Milwaukee is. And the Democrats in Madison
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: are really Lulu. And Madison is a crime problem. But
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: the rest of the state sees Madison, and they don't
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: see the same level. First of all, Madison is clean,
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: in part because all of its industry, most of its
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: industry is non-polluting. It's on the two lakes. It's got
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: the university. It's got all these white-collar jobs in state government.
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: And when you drive through it, it doesn't seem to
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: be as ratty as parts of Milwaukee are. So while
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: Madison is certainly, if anything, more liberal than Milwaukee... People
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: from the rest of the state don't necessarily view people
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: from Madison as being incredibly, insanely stupid. There are reasons
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: that Madison's economy does better than Milwaukee, and in part,
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: the fact that state government and the university never lays off.
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: They've got a lot of hospitals who, of course, aren't
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: laying off, and then they have the advantage of one
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: of the most booming private companies in the state of Wisconsin,
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: in Epic, being outside of Madison and Verona. Epic is
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: to the Madison area what? really Uline is to the
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: southeastern Wisconsin area, Kenosha County. So going out on my
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: point of Milwaukee, being from Milwaukee is a huge negative
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: for Crowley. And tying Crowley to Milwaukee is fair. It's
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: not unfair. He supports every one of the policies that
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: have historically been put in place in Milwaukee that has
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: created the problems that exist.
• 15:34
  Speaker 4: Next.
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: Next.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: Crowley's kind of a butthead when on camera. He did
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: an interview, which has quickly been turned into a Tiffany ad,
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: in which he said, gas taxes and sales taxes aren't
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: a big deal to the average voter, the average citizen.
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: Everybody's bitching about the price of gas. Everybody's bitching about
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: the affordability of everything. Crowley could, rather than say, and
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: say a message on the affordability issue. The fact that
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: our sales tax is higher than anywhere else in the
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: state of Wisconsin, nobody cares about that. It was just
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: a dumb, tone-deaf thing to say. And the message to
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: the other 71 counties is, okay, he's going to raise
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: all of our sales taxes too because he doesn't think
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: anybody cares about that.
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: In the meantime....
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: Tiffany is from northern Wisconsin, which I think is a
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: political asset. Everybody likes up north. Well, the big time
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: lefties don't. The big time lefties don't like hunting. They
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: don't like fishing. They don't like anything. They don't like it.
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: But most people have a fine feeling for up north
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: and they think that there's a level of sanity from there.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: I've made this point repeatedly and nobody ever picks up
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: on it other than me. I mean, nobody picks up
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: on my point, I should say. When the Republicans run
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: a candidate for governor from either western or northern Wisconsin,
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: they win. This history goes back better than 75 years now.
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: Those are the positives to Tiffany. Negatives. Well, the obvious one.
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: It's likely to be, in my opinion, a Democratic year. Second,
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: I have concern that the Republican Party can turn out
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: its low-propensity voters in an election in which Trump is
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: not on the ballot. While indeed people rag about Trump's
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: unpopularity rating right now, the reality is Republicans in Wisconsin
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: came out in droves three elections in a row to
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: vote for Donald Trump. Well, Trump lost in 2020, which
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: he disputes. He got more votes in Wisconsin in 20
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: than he did in 16. The difference is, is that
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: Biden got way more than Hillary Clinton. This is why
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: many people think that the election was stolen. If it
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: wasn't stolen, the explanation is simple. Because of the changes
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: in voting that the Democrats put in place during COVID,
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: this is the year in which mail-in voting exploded and
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: in-person absentee exploded and drop boxes exploded, that there simply
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: was a higher voter turnout overall. But my point is,
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: Trump got a massive number in 16, a bigger number
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: in 20, and then a bigger number still in 24.
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: What has not happened, however, is the Republican Party has
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: not been able to persuade That segment of Trump voters
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: who have shown up when Trump is on the ballot
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: to come out in other elections, it's resulted in a
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: disaster in the state Supreme Court. We hold the presidential
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: election in November. The Supreme Court election is in April.
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: And like 40% of the people who vote for the
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: Republican in the presidential election are sitting on their asses,
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: unmotivated to vote in the Supreme Court election. The drop
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: off of Democrat voters from presidential to Supreme Court is lower.
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: It's even happened in the governor and Senate elections. Tim
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: Michaels got significantly fewer votes running for governor in 22
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: than Trump got in 20 and 24. Now, the Democrat
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: candidate in 22, Evers, did get less than 22. Biden
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: got in 20 and Kamala got in 24, but it
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: wasn't as big a drop-off. Now, the reason for this is,
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: and I've talked about it forever, the Democrats have gotten
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: very good at voter turnout. It's the reason that they
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: pressed for mail-in voting, drop boxes, and all of this
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: other crap. Because they knew it would make it easier
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: to get every last Democrat to vote, including walking right
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: up to them, giving them a ballot, and say, hey,
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: mark it this way, and then putting a stamp on
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: it and put it in the mailbox or taking them
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: to a drop box or whatever it was that they did.
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: I certainly believe many of those ballots were then filled
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: out and the voters simply signed them, if that. The
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: Republicans simply haven't been able to match that in non-Trump elections.
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: They did in 24. 24 was the first election in
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: which you saw a sizable number of Republicans finally get
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: off this kick of voting on Election Day, and they
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: early voted. You saw in many rural and Republican areas,
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: the early vote numbers dwarfed that of four years ago.
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: And as I've explained any number of times, the advantage
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: of early voting, especially for a low propensity voter, is
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: you don't have to worry about whether or not they'll
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: show up on election day because you got them in.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: You got two weeks to find the people who hardly
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: ever vote and get them out to vote. The only
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: way you're able to do this is you have to
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: find these people and literally drag.
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: Them to the polls. It's harder for Republicans.
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: Democrats have advantages in this. Democrats live in big cities.
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: People are packed together. It's easier to just get to
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: lots of them than going from door to door in
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: farm areas. The Republicans had a surprise advantage in 24
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: when freshmen and sophomores who lived in dorms collectively in
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: Wisconsin voted for Trump. That's never happened before. So the
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: voter turnout of the dorms actually was pro-Trump in the
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: last election. So that inability to mobilize Republicans who've only
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: come out to vote for Trump is clearly a negative
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: in terms of Tiffany's chances. Add it all up, and
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: I think right now it's a wash. Either candidate can win.
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: I want to turn my attention to maybe the ultimate
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: Milwaukee woke story.
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: This is a huge story that a lot of people
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: aren't paying any attention to.
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: Despite the fact that many people are disturbed by the
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: amount of sewage dumping that we do in Milwaukee, we
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: dump sewage because the sewer systems in downtown Milwaukee and
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: Shorewood are not separated. You have only one sewer line,
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: meaning the sewage water and the rainwater go into the
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: same line. So when you get a heavy rain, those
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: lines are overwhelmed. And when you dump, you're not just
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: dumping rainwater, you're dumping rainwater and crap toilet water. So
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: we end up polluting Lake Michigan and the Milwaukee River
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: on the sites along the line that are on the river,
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: the release points.
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: On the sewage system.
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: We've had for the last 20 years a private company
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: that operates the sewage system. The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: contracts out the operation of the Jones Island Treatment Plant.
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: The company that's been running it for the last 20
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: years is Veolia. I would describe Veolia as having done
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: an average job marginally better than the company that they
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: took the treatment center over from prior to that. They
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: had the advantage of having seen the mistakes that were
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: made by the prior operator in terms of being able
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: to manage the plant. There have been some hiccups here,
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: but it's clear that in operating the sewage plant in Milwaukee,
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: the deep tunnel is such a deeply flawed thing. First
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: of all, it's nowhere near deep enough. And secondly, was
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: never the answer. The answer was to separate the sewers
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: in downtown Milwaukee and Shorewood as they are everywhere else
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: in southeastern Wisconsin. Nonetheless, Veolia has been okay in operating
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: the plant. A competing company is poised to take over
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: the contract from Veolia. This story is, I think, borderline scandalous.
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: The evidence is growing that the company that they're going
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: to give this contract to is incompetent. The competing company
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: Jacobs is operating sewage plants in far fewer cities than
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: the current operator Veolia. Jacobs is currently.
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: In Woonsocket, Rhode Island.
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: Woonsocket, Rhode Island is in court trying to break its
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: contract with Jacobs, saying Jacobs is utterly incompetent. So in Milwaukee,
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: we're going to be handing out a 10-year contract to
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: operate the sewage plant to a company so bad that
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: it can't handle the sewage treatment operation in a far
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: smaller community in Rhode Island. And what's the motivation for it?
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: This is again where wokeness comes in. There's a lefty
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: group in Milwaukee called Common Ground. They basically want to
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: socialize everything. They have been pushing to yank this contract
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: from Veolia. Now, I have not been given any inside
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: information on what Common Ground has against Veolia, but my
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: guess is that they just feel that they're not woken up.
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: Is it because they're not unionized?
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: But they feel they're not woken up. So they want
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: to hand the contract over to this company, Jacobs, and
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: Jacobs is making it clear that they're going to.
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: Do every lefty thing they need to do.
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: MMSD literally said to Jacobs.
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: Hey, Jacobs, if you refuse to cooperate with ICE, we'll
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: give you the contract. So Jacobs said, okay, fine, we're
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: not going to cooperate with ICE. If ICE wants to
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: come in and see whether or not any of our
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: employees are illegal immigrants, we're going to.
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: Deny them entry, all of that.
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: So they're basing the decision on who's going to operate
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: for the next 10 years, the wastewater treatment plant, on
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: whether or not the company refuses to cooperate with ICE.
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: Lake Michigan belongs to everybody. MMSD serves the entire metropolitan
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: Milwaukee area. There are some communities that are member communities.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: That's the close-in suburbs. For example, Wauwatosa is part of it.
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: And then you have communities outside Milwaukee County that aren't
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: members of MMSD but are served by MMSD. Menominee Falls,
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: for example, contracts with MMSD to handle its sewage. So
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: the sewage from Menomonee Falls is sent through a bunch
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: of pipes and sent to downtown Milwaukee, and MMSD treats it.
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: Menomonee Falls, however, has no role in the governance of MMSD.
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: They're simply required by the DNR to use MMSD to
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: treat their sewage. So they treat sewage for the entire region,
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: and we're going to turn over the sewage treatment plant
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: to a totally unproven company simply because they've genuflected in
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: front of the altar of the radicals in Milwaukee and
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: said things like, well, we won't cooperate with ICE. I'm
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: telling you, as sure as I'm sitting here, if Jacobs
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: gets this contract, there's going to be an increase in
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: sewage dumping and there's going to be fiasco after fiasco
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: after fiasco. And nobody's going to be able to say, well, gee,
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: that's a surprise because they can't even run the sewage
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: plant in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. This is an example of
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: a story where you see the absence of leadership from
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: Crowley and and Cavalier Johnson in place. Neither of them
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: are on the MMSD board, but they both have appointments
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: on the MMSD board. Crowley is responsible for all of
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: Milwaukee County, and he certainly has a vested interest in
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: trying to make sure that we limit sewage dumping as
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: much as possible. But because the lefties want Veolia out,
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: he doesn't say a peep and is instead willing to
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: bring in a company without any proven track record at all.
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: So I think the lesson in this, for all the
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: talk that the lefties give you about caring for the
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: environment and all of this stuff, being woke and being
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: anti-ice to them is far more important than clean water.
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: If clean water was more important, there's no way they'd
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: be backing the alternative company. You're listening to the Mark
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: Belling Podcast. This is the Mark Belling Podcast. I have
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: a couple of stories to focus on here. They kind
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: of come from the popular culture, broadly speaking. They both
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: require you to step back a moment and sort of
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: look at things from the air. The WNBA has been
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: on break for three weeks because they've been playing this
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: international basketball tournament.
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: It's now resuming.
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: The WNBA season kind of runs when the NBA season
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: doesn't run. So the WNBA is heading toward its playoffs
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: right as the NBA season's about to begin. Training camp
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: is just about underway for the NBA. Talk about seasons
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: that are too long. Anyway, for the longest time in America,
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: the overwhelming majority of people in this country could not.
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: Name a single WNBA player.
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: I would say that the The two biggest names were
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: Candace Parker, just because Candace Parker is Candace Parker. Kind
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: of ubiquitous everywhere. on TV, so maybe people who didn't
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: know anything about the WNBA might know her. And then
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: when Brittany Griner came in, they knew about her because A,
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: she's so damn tall, and B, because she got thrown
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: in jail in Russia because she was so stupid to
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: think that she could bring pot into Russia. Anyway, I'd
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: say those were the only two that the average American
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: who isn't much of a sports fan even knew were
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: in the WNBA. You'd agree with that, wouldn't you? Can
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: you even think of a third? Somebody that, you know,
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: just a casual observer who doesn't really follow sports would
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: have heard of? Cheryl Supes, really? Do you think a
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: non-sports fan ever had ever heard of her? But do
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: you think, like, just somebody who hardly follows sports just
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: kind of casually.
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: Had heard of her? That's what I'm saying.
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: But I'm saying that the two, Candace Parker, just, you know,
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: she's been on a million fashion shows. And then Brittany Griner,
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: for reasons not, first of all, Brittany Griner's so tall,
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: you notice there. But then secondly, the whole fiasco about
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: her being stuck in Russia.
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: Anyway.
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: Right now, undeniably, The two biggest stars the WNBA has
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: are Kaitlyn and Sophie. Kaitlyn Clark, because she's a transcendent player.
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: She's the Michael Jordan of the WNBA. She's the player
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: that is so good at her sport that she has
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: attracted attention to people who otherwise would not have paid
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: attention to the sport. Just as when Michael Jordan played,
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: I would say another analogy to that would be Tiger Woods.
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: I mean, the TV ratings with regard to Tiger Woods
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: were just, you could track them. If Tiger was not
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: in a golf tournament, the TV ratings would be down.
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: And if he was in the tournament, but he wasn't
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: in contention to win, the Sunday ratings would be down
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: because they wouldn't be seeing Tiger. He's 11 shots behind
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: or whatever. When Tiger Woods was in contention on a Sunday,
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: the TV ratings were often like 60% higher. People who
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: were not huge fans of golf, A, knew who Tiger
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: Woods were and wanted to follow Tiger Woods. Likewise with
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan transcended basketball, and I would say
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: Kaitlyn Clark is at that level with the WNBA. She
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: got a ton of attention when she was in college
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: playing for Iowa. She was just a great shooter. In fact,
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: an extraordinary shooter. And People tuned in and followed her.
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: And she seemed like a nice girl. There were no
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: negatives or controversy with regard to her. So when it
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: was time for her to come into the WNBA, that
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: attention followed her. And she's gone into the WNBA and
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: she's been a very talented player. She's undeniably the biggest
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: name in the league. And then Sophie Cunningham. Part of
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: the phenomenon of Sophie Cunningham is that she's been on
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: the same team as Caitlin Clark and has had Caitlin
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: Clark's back when players on other teams rough Caitlin up.
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: But unlike Caitlin, who I think tries to keep a
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: lower profile and is not a diva, Sophie Cunningham realized
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: that she had struck gold She's embraced the whole anti-woke thing.
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: As the entire WNBA power structure seems to resent and
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: loathe Kaitlyn Clark, wondering, well, why are they all paying
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: attention to us now just because she's here?
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: What about all the rest of us? What about all the.
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: Rest of us lefty, woke, LGBTQ-supporting African-American women? And then
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: Sophie got the back of Kaitlyn Clark. and realized that
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: the fans of Caitlin Clarke loved her for that, so
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: Sophie's been milking it right and left. And she's very,
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: very good. In terms of just being an influencer, she
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: just has a knack for it. The famous point. She'll
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: pop off her mouth on populist issues. And she's attractive.
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: And I think key to all of this, she's white too.
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: The knock on the two of them from I think
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: about just about everybody in the WNBA and the media
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: is this just proves that people are racist and we're
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: not going to support these two athletes because doing so
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: would be racist.
• 34:34
  Speaker 3: I think that argument is so specious.
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: I just cited the two examples that I think you
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: could compare Caitlyn Clark to. One of them is black.
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: And the other is multiple races, but nobody would describe
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: him as white.
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: Tiger.
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: Michael Jordan is black. Tiger Woods is a mixed race,
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: but has darker skin color. Yet they were fully embraced
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: and adopted in the same way Caitlin Clark was. So
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: if the only reason anybody likes Caitlin Clark is because
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: she's white, how do you explain Michael Jordan? And how
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: do you explain Tiger Woods? In both cases, they were
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: athletes who became incredibly popular because of their talent and
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: the way they carried themselves among the general public, including
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: non-followers of the individual sport in the same way that
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: Caitlin Clark did. With regard to Sophie Cunningham, is her
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: popularity because she's white? Or is her popularity because she
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: stood against wokeness and stood up for the player who's
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: being tortured by the other athletes who resent that she's there.
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: Sophie Cunningham showed up at a NASCAR race over the weekend.
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: And by the way, look at this. Sophie Cunningham has a...
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: For this whole influencer thing, which I find kind of nauseating,
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: she's very good at it. She was everywhere. She must
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: have posed with every driver. She's in the garage. She
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: was at the pre-race ceremony. She showed up for the.
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: What do they call the other circuit? What do they
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: call the Grand National Series now? Who's the sponsor of that?
• 36:22
  Speaker 3: I should know this. It's not O'Reilly.
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: Is O'Reilly the truck series or is O'Reilly the secondary? Yeah,
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: I think it is Xfinity, yeah. Anyway.
• 36:34
  Speaker 3: Anyway.
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: So she's there all weekend and she was everywhere because,
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: first of all, she's not good enough to be in
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: this international competition that's going on. So she had two
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: weeks to go. She bops her out in a NASCAR
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: race and is just beloved. She has said that only
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: women should be able to play in women's sports, which
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: is a position that almost everybody agrees with. But the
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: WNBA players, the fan base and the media.
• 36:59
  Speaker 3: Don't agree with it.
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: So you have this odd situation in which there was
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: a sport that was just utterly obscure. The WNBA hemorrhaged money.
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: The only reason it didn't go under is the WNBA
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: is owned by the NBA. And they were subsidizing the
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: league forever, carrying it. And now suddenly there are two
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: players that people are interested in and want to watch,
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: but the WNBA resents and hates them, and so does
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: the media. They say Caitlin Clark is polarizing. I'll grant you,
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: Sophie Cunningham is polarizing. Sophie Cunningham does some of these
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: things that she does simply knowing that they're going to
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: hate on her for it because she's aware that the
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: vast majority love her for doing it, but Caitlyn didn't
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: do anything deliberately. It's an indication of the general massive
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: cultural bias that elitists have in this country toward anyone
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: who appeals to the rest of us. I'll use the
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: term flyover country. One of my, you would not believe
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: the number of times that this happens to me. I mean,
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: anybody who travels at all has had it happen to
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: them all the time.
• 38:06
  Speaker 3: One of my partners in.
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: Our outstanding two-year-old horse, USS Valor, his name, I won't
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: give his last.
• 38:13
  Speaker 3: Name, but his name is George. He's from New York.
• 38:17
  Speaker 3: He remembered me.
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: He's introduced, when we met in the paddock before the race.
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: He introduces me to, he dragged along, he's from New York,
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: so he dragged along a bunch of relatives from Saratoga.
• 38:26
  Speaker 3: This is Mark Belling. He's from Minnesota.
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: I mean, when I go to Florida, everybody confuses Wisconsin
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: and Minnesota. And I mean, I kind of get that.
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: We both have long-sounding names. They're both from up here.
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: I just always point out that the state that killed
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: George Floyd is not Wisconsin. The state that had all
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: the Somalians ripping everything off, that's not Wisconsin. The state
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: that has the governor that was giving away the tampons
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: wasn't Wisconsin.
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: Yet.
• 38:53
  Speaker 4: Yet.
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: Yet.
• 39:03
  Speaker 3: So when I said Wisconsin, he said, yeah, that's right.
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: I'm from New York. You're flyover country. He was kidding,
• 39:08
  Speaker 3: but that's the point.
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: The flyover country isn't just a geographical reference to the
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: people who live between.
• 39:15
  Speaker 3: The two coasts.
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: It's kind of a dismissive attitude that elitists treat toward
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: the whole country that hasn't embraced the wokeness that has
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: just been pervasive among the left. There's a condescendingness toward it,
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: and it extends now to simply disliking anything.
• 39:42
  Speaker 3: The rest of us like.
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: When Dolly Parton died, I talked about for the longest
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: time until about the late 70s, kind of when she
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: did 9 to 5. She then was accepted by everyone.
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: The condescending nature that people looked upon her, she's just
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: country and she's got the blonde wig and she probably
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: had the boob job. Just the loathing of that, anyone
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: who would do that. We have another contemporary example of this.
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: I've been, as you know, we can't play music on
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: my podcast, so I've not been able to play any
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: music for Ella Langley, who I have said is the
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: new Carrie Underwood. I'm not saying I picked up on
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: her early. She was already a superstar. But for people
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: who don't follow country music, Ella Langley is going to
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: be as big as Carrie Underwood and deservedly so. She
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: has an incredible voice. She's extremely talented. And I don't
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: know that she's trying to be, but she's got some
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: Sophie Cunningham in her, almost unwitting.
• 40:36
  Speaker 3: I would describe it more as.
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: Who's the hot actress that they got on for being Republican?
• 40:45
  Speaker 3: Sidney Sweeney.
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: She's got like some Sidney Sweeney in her in which
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: it just sort of kind of happens. Well, because Ella
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: Langley clearly appeals.
• 40:56
  Speaker 3: To middle America.
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: On social media and elsewhere, there's just this incredible detesting
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: of her.
• 41:04
  Speaker 3: Here's the latest.
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: Apparently floating around are some pictures of her from years ago.
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: I forget which state she grew up in, but it's
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: somewhere down south. She went deer hunting as a kid
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: and was posing with the deer she shot. Well, this
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: thing is now viral on social media. Ella killed a
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: defenseless animal. Again, hunting is very mainstream and flyover country.
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: Aside from all of the arguments that I can get
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: into that if we didn't have deer hunting, the most
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: miserable animals in the world would be deer because they
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: don't have many natural predators. In a state like Wisconsin,
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: there's almost no animal out there to kill the deer.
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: The majority of deer who die, who aren't killed, die
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: from being hit by cars or starvation. The deer herd
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: is overpopulated, and it's overpopulated in many states. Really, the
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: only predator that I knew of, I mean, I think
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: coyotes can take like fawns. Maybe a wolf can take
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: a big deer, but otherwise there's nobody to take them.
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: So they just swarm, particularly in the areas where hunting
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: isn't allowed. Man is the only predator of deer. But
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: how many others? when you consider where most country music
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: stars came from, particularly in the past, how many of
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: them hunted and fished when they were kids? Probably more
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: than half, probably two-thirds. But they have this picture of her,
• 42:41
  Speaker 2: so therefore they're going to hate on that. What they're
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: hating on is the way the other half of America lives.
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: And this hating isn't just from elitists on the coast,
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: it's from people who think like elitists. the one who
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: roll their eyes at people who are religious, the ones
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: who roll their eyes at people who oppose abortion, the
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: people who roll.
• 43:09
  Speaker 3: Their eyes at fans of UFC. I could go on
• 43:14
  Speaker 3: throughout the list.
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: The people who rolled their eyes at the people who
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: loved Carrie Underwood for the way that she was able
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: to improvise and sing God Bless America acapella when The
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: sound system didn't work during the inauguration. It was God
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: bless America, she's saying, wasn't it? Yeah. The cultural divide
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: in this country is one way. I think a lot
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: of us don't like the elitists and consider them to
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: be snobs, but we don't despise them just because of
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: the goofy things they like.
• 43:54
  Speaker 3: I think this is at the core of of the
• 43:59
  Speaker 3: hatred of MAGA.
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: The people who don't like Trump think Trump is president
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: not because of Trump. They think Trump is president because
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: all of us who voted for him were so stupid
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: as to do it. They think that in a civilized society,
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: a goof like Trump would never get elected. And they
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: think we did this to them. That we weren't enlightened
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: enough to take an elitist like Kamala or Hillary and
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: put them in there. There are a lot of people
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: who like the approval of the elites. I'm just telling you,
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: it's not worth chasing their love. I don't have time
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: to get to it on today's program, but I do
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: want to recommend some reading for you. For those of
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: you that are online, unfortunately, you might need a paid
• 44:53
  Speaker 2: subscription to hit it. The Wall Street Journal, WSJ.com. It's
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: the hinkiest website ever. They let you read some articles
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: for free, but not all of them. And it's just
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: hit and miss. Like, I've been able to direct people to, say,
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: an editorial in there, and they were able to get
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: it without going through the paywall. So I don't know
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: whether or not you'll find this or not, but if
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: you can get through the paywall, it's worth reading. Andy
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: Kessler wrote a column in the Wall Street Journal that would,
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: if I wanted to do a segment on it, it
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: would take, unfortunately, 45 minutes. The headline is, The AI
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: Luddites Are Here. And he goes on a great length to.
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: Just debunked this whole fear that he argues is irrational
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: for the growth of technology and artificial intelligence.
• 45:38
  Speaker 3: And he uses the term Luddites.
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: Luddites refers to a guy named Ludd who just thought
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: the Industrial Revolution was going to kill the world and
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: he's trying to stop it from happening.
• 45:46
  Speaker 3: Now, my take on it is.
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: You can oppose AI and you can oppose data centers,
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: but they're going to happen. When we have scientific knowledge,
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: it's going to advance. When we have the ability to
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: create a product, it's going to be created. The only
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: question is whether or not we're going to take advantage
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: of it. And he raises in his column, if we
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: turn up our noses at AI and data centers, they're all.
• 46:16
  Speaker 3: Going to be in China.
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: And the biggest industry in the world, and I think
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: the tech will be the top six biggest industries unto itself,
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: will be non-existent in the United States, and it will
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: entirely be in China. The biggest boost for the American
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: economy over the last 40 years has been China just
• 46:35
  Speaker 2: makes the stuff, but all of the important tech companies,
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: save maybe two or three of them, have been American companies.
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: The brains to invent Facebook and the brains to invent
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: Amazon and the brains to invent Google Alphabet, all of them,
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: the brains to invent Oracle, the companies that came up
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: with software, the brilliant geniuses who were able to take
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: coding and come up with practical applications for them, Jobs
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: of Apple, they were all American. And if we simply
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: say we're not going to do it here, we're consigning
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: ourselves to economic doom. Anyway, Kessler writes about tech issues
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: and he's kind of a curmudgeon. It's a very good column.
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: The AI Luddites are here. So if you have time
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: to try to track it down. Over the weekend, I
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: would highly recommend it. You're listening to the Mark Belling Podcast.
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: This is the Mark Belling Podcast. It's the final segment
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: on Thursday, and that means it's time for our Mark
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: Belling Weekly Football Preview and our Point Spread Predictions. And
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: I'll just tell you, we're recording this segment one day
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: early this week for complicated reasons. So if you hear
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: a reference that turns out to be outdated within the
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: next day, that's the reason for it.
• 47:48
  Speaker 3: All right, let's move forward.
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: What we do here is we preview some football games
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: to be played over the weekend, and then we end
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: the segment with point spread picks from Mike Merlett of
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: American Sports Analysts in Madison, from Jason, and from myself.
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: First of all, let's ask Mike. I know we're recording
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: early in the week. Would you like to suggest or
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: share any information about ASA for this weekend?
• 48:09
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I'd say just check out our website on Friday, asawins.com.
• 48:13
  Speaker 4: Twitter at ASA Wins is our handle there on X. And, yeah,
• 48:18
  Speaker 4: we had an okay weekend, 2-2 in college, 3-1 in
• 48:21
  Speaker 4: the NFL last Saturday and Sunday. We did lose our
• 48:25
  Speaker 4: college top game, which was the same game I gave
• 48:27
  Speaker 4: out on the air, which rarely happens, but I wanted
• 48:30
  Speaker 4: to win, and we got a loss on that. I'd
• 48:33
  Speaker 4: say just check on Friday. It looks like a good
• 48:35
  Speaker 4: weekend in both colleges. I like a lot of the
• 48:37
  Speaker 4: NFL games this weekend.
• 48:39
  Speaker 3: Just for my.
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: Own saving my record, I should start this thing in
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: Week 3 so I can avoid Week 1 in college
• 48:48
  Speaker 2: football and avoid Week.
• 48:49
  Speaker 3: 1 in the NFL.
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: I know I'm going to be wrong in both because
• 48:52
  Speaker 2: I always am each time, and indeed I am. Almost
• 48:56
  Speaker 2: every game I had an opinion on college or pro
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: this past weekend in the NFL. I was wrong about
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: the only game I was right about is I thought
• 49:03
  Speaker 2: the Vikings would beat the Packers, but that turned out
• 49:06
  Speaker 2: to be right only for the weirdest of reasons because
• 49:08
  Speaker 2: Green Bay.
• 49:09
  Speaker 3: Was dominant in the game.
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: So now we can get into the part of the
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: season that I think I have some understanding of now
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: that the first week is over. Let's talk about some
• 49:16
  Speaker 2: football games and let's start college football.
• 49:19
  Speaker 3: There is one.
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: College game that, aside from the fact that it's the
• 49:22
  Speaker 2: biggest game of the week involving two highly ranked teams,
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: the drama on this game is off the charts, and
• 49:29
  Speaker 2: that's LSU and Mississippi. The biggest diva in college football
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: is Lane Kiffin. Lane Kiffin brought Mississippi to national prominence
• 49:40
  Speaker 2: Quitt walked out of the team before the playoffs were over.
• 49:44
  Speaker 2: He's got a team that's in the college football playoffs
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: playing for a national championship. Quitt's the team, claimed he
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: wanted to keep coaching, to go to a school, a
• 49:53
  Speaker 2: neighboring school, right across the state line in Mississippi. And now,
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: here we are early in the season, Kiffin and LSU
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: go to play at Mississippi.
• 50:04
  Speaker 3: Mississippi. There's other drama.
• 50:06
  Speaker 2: Well, some of the players on the Mississippi team transferred
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: and followed Kiffin over to LSU, as did some of
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: the coaches. The quarterback for Mississippi, who's very good, Trinidad Chambliss,
• 50:17
  Speaker 2: he stayed at Mississippi. He didn't follow Kiffin to LSU.
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: So aside from the fact that these teams are both
• 50:24
  Speaker 2: ranked in the top 10, there's all this drama associated
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: behind the scenes. I think it's a good game in
• 50:31
  Speaker 2: terms of the drama, but it's also a fascinating game
• 50:33
  Speaker 2: in terms of matchups and who's better. I think the
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: game's a toss-up in my own mind. What's your analysis
• 50:39
  Speaker 2: of it, Mike?
• 50:41
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I would agree. I mean, this is the most,
• 50:43
  Speaker 4: you know, I've been doing this for 30 years. Just
• 50:46
  Speaker 4: as far as hyped games, this has got to be
• 50:49
  Speaker 4: the one of the most I've seen. Tickets are going
• 50:52
  Speaker 4: for like $ 1, 500 in the lower bowl, and it's just,
• 50:56
  Speaker 4: it's been crazy. And you talked about Kiffin leaving. Remember,
• 50:59
  Speaker 4: Kiffin's the guy that left in the middle of the
• 51:01
  Speaker 4: night from Tennessee, if I remember correctly. to take the
• 51:03
  Speaker 4: USC job and just left. So he's, he's quite the character.
• 51:08
  Speaker 4: I agree with you. I think it's an even type game.
• 51:10
  Speaker 4: I would lean Ole Miss in this game. They're a
• 51:13
  Speaker 4: three point underdog. And this look ahead line before the
• 51:16
  Speaker 4: season started was Ole Miss as a slight favorite. And
• 51:19
  Speaker 4: I think it moved so much because LSU creamed Clemson
• 51:22
  Speaker 4: in the first game. Well, Clemson's just might not be
• 51:25
  Speaker 4: that good. They're falling out. They, they struggled with Georgia
• 51:27
  Speaker 4: Southern last weekend. So they're just not a good team
• 51:30
  Speaker 4: this year. Interesting point here is the offenses have been
• 51:34
  Speaker 4: just great. 96 points in two games for LSU, 82
• 51:39
  Speaker 4: points in two games for Ole Miss, yet the total
• 51:41
  Speaker 4: is 58. So that's an interesting total. I would take
• 51:45
  Speaker 4: Ole Miss as a home dog. I don't know if
• 51:47
  Speaker 4: we'll use it, but I couldn't lay points with LSU
• 51:48
  Speaker 4: in this situation. Atmosphere is going to be insane.
• 51:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I relate this a little bit.
• 51:55
  Speaker 2: There are just sometimes when a coach leaves a team
• 51:59
  Speaker 2: for another team and that fans hated. It depends on
• 52:04
  Speaker 2: the circumstances here. But not only did Kiffin leave during
• 52:09
  Speaker 2: the playoffs, which just the way things are, you start
• 52:12
  Speaker 2: hiring coaches when the regular season ends. If you wait,
• 52:15
  Speaker 2: you're waiting until all the good coaches are taken. So
• 52:17
  Speaker 2: coaches leave before bowl games all the time. It's just
• 52:20
  Speaker 2: unheard of, though, to quit on your team when they
• 52:22
  Speaker 2: could win the national championship. And he leaves to stay
• 52:25
  Speaker 2: within his conference. And move next door. Now, LSU probably
• 52:30
  Speaker 2: has more money to pay than Mississippi did. But for
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: a lot of people, it might be perceived as a
• 52:35
  Speaker 2: lateral move. Two strong teams in the same conference. It
• 52:38
  Speaker 2: reminds me of here we are three years later. Craig
• 52:42
  Speaker 2: Council is still booed at American Family Field every time
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: he comes out of the dugout. It was a different
• 52:47
  Speaker 2: thing than just laterally moving for another job. It was
• 52:50
  Speaker 2: perceived as a betrayal. And I think that the Mississippi fans...
• 52:54
  Speaker 2: perceive it as a betrayal in terms of motivation for
• 52:57
  Speaker 2: the players. I mean, I think if anything, the, I mean,
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: what are the LSU players care about that? I just
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: think both teams, this game has national championship implications, conference implications,
• 53:07
  Speaker 2: all of that.
• 53:07
  Speaker 3: It's a conference game.
• 53:09
  Speaker 2: It's big game. I mean, the two quarterbacks involved Levitt
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: who came from Arizona, Arizona, Arizona state, Arizona state, Arizona
• 53:18
  Speaker 2: state came to LSU and Chandler's is the returning quarterback
• 53:23
  Speaker 2: at Mississippi. I, they're two of maybe the top five
• 53:26
  Speaker 2: quarterbacks in the entire country. So just everything in this
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: matchup seems to me to be really, really close.
• 53:35
  Speaker 4: Yeah, no, I, I agree. I'm surprised the line three,
• 53:38
  Speaker 4: I thought it would be closer to a pick them
• 53:40
  Speaker 4: when it came out. And it's probably again, LSU blew
• 53:43
  Speaker 4: out Clemson in the first game and Ole Miss struggled
• 53:46
  Speaker 4: a little bit with Louisville. That game was back and
• 53:48
  Speaker 4: forth and it was a close game, but Louisville is
• 53:50
  Speaker 4: better than Clemson.
• 53:51
  Speaker 2: And they both played cupcake teams in the last.
• 53:54
  Speaker 3: Week, so it was hard to judge off of that.
• 53:56
  Speaker 3: Let's turn our.
• 53:56
  Speaker 2: Attention to Wisconsin and Eastern Michigan. Two weeks into the season,
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: nobody knows what to make of the Badgers. They played
• 54:04
  Speaker 2: very good in the first half against Notre Dame and
• 54:06
  Speaker 2: very bad in the second half against Notre Dame. They
• 54:09
  Speaker 2: then played an FCS team last week in Western Illinois,
• 54:15
  Speaker 2: and they beat them decisively, but it wasn't an overwhelming victory.
• 54:19
  Speaker 4: Victory.
• 54:20
  Speaker 2: And there were times at which it seemed that Western
• 54:22
  Speaker 2: Illinois was the equal of the Badgers on both lines
• 54:26
  Speaker 2: of scrimmage. So Wisconsin now plays a team in between
• 54:30
  Speaker 2: the two. Eastern Michigan is clearly better than Western Illinois,
• 54:34
  Speaker 2: but they're clearly way worse than Notre Dame. It's the
• 54:37
  Speaker 2: last non-conference game of the year for the Badgers. Wisconsin's favored,
• 54:41
  Speaker 2: I believe, by 24 points.
• 54:43
  Speaker 3: In the game. What do you think of this game?
• 54:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's, it's, you know, I was at the game
• 54:49
  Speaker 4: in Lambeau and I watched the game last week. I,
• 54:52
  Speaker 4: you know, I've heard other people say this too, but
• 54:54
  Speaker 4: I think I was more impressed with them the first
• 54:56
  Speaker 4: week in the loss than the second week in the win. They,
• 55:00
  Speaker 4: they gave up more yards on the ground in yards
• 55:02
  Speaker 4: per carry to Western Illinois than they did in Notre Dame.
• 55:06
  Speaker 4: I think it was a, you know, in hindsight, flat
• 55:09
  Speaker 4: spot coming off their biggest game. They've been preparing for
• 55:12
  Speaker 4: Notre Dame all summer. Um, they didn't look good. Joseph
• 55:16
  Speaker 4: was banged up the quarterback. I hear people complaining about, Oh,
• 55:19
  Speaker 4: he's only completing 59% of his passes. Just, just keep
• 55:23
  Speaker 4: in mind. That's what he is. That's what he's done
• 55:25
  Speaker 4: his whole career. 59, 60%. The thing that he, they
• 55:29
  Speaker 4: need to figure out how to get him running the ball.
• 55:31
  Speaker 4: And I think they didn't last week because he was
• 55:33
  Speaker 4: banged up. He's got 36 yards through two games last
• 55:37
  Speaker 4: year through two games. He had 228 yards rushing, including
• 55:40
  Speaker 4: a game against Indiana. He had 180 yards rushing against Indiana. Uh,
• 55:44
  Speaker 4: I think the Wisconsin defense, final point here, Mark, they
• 55:47
  Speaker 4: need to start creating some takeaways. They're terrible at that.
• 55:51
  Speaker 2: They even said that all offseason that it was a priority,
• 55:54
  Speaker 2: and they still haven't been able to do it. I mean, Weston,
• 55:58
  Speaker 2: Illinois was moving two quarterbacks back and forth, and they
• 56:02
  Speaker 2: couldn't get either of them to throw a pick. I
• 56:04
  Speaker 2: want to go back to your commentary on Colton Joseph.
• 56:07
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think the Badger coaching staff is coaching
• 56:10
  Speaker 2: scared with Joseph. They have been so snake-bitten at quarterback.
• 56:14
  Speaker 2: And here Joseph comes into the season already not hurt
• 56:18
  Speaker 2: enough not to play, but banged up. And I think
• 56:20
  Speaker 2: that they've wanted him not to run. I mean, if
• 56:23
  Speaker 2: you were watching the Western Illinois game, the game plan
• 56:26
  Speaker 2: was just you stay in the pocket and we're going
• 56:28
  Speaker 2: to run up the middle and we're going to try
• 56:30
  Speaker 2: to establish the running game and have our offensive line
• 56:33
  Speaker 2: beat up on them. But I think in watching Joseph play,
• 56:37
  Speaker 2: I think two things about him and everybody's picked up
• 56:39
  Speaker 2: on the first one. He locks down on one receiver.
• 56:41
  Speaker 2: He doesn't scan the field and The higher the level
• 56:45
  Speaker 2: you're at, you just can't get away with having your
• 56:47
  Speaker 2: head focused in one direction.
• 56:49
  Speaker 3: You've got to look all over the place.
• 56:50
  Speaker 2: So I think he misses guys that may be open
• 56:52
  Speaker 2: because he locks down on the one guy. But the
• 56:54
  Speaker 2: second thing is the way he's played. He's a better
• 56:58
  Speaker 2: quarterback with accuracy when he's on the run. He's not
• 57:01
  Speaker 2: used to standing around in the pocket. Running is his
• 57:04
  Speaker 2: game and he's a great runner. But I think I
• 57:06
  Speaker 2: certainly understand why get the guy hurt playing Western Illinois
• 57:10
  Speaker 2: and maybe Why get him hurt playing Eastern Michigan? Because
• 57:13
  Speaker 2: they're so afraid of losing yet another quarterback. But the
• 57:17
  Speaker 2: thing that he brings to the table is he's very mobile.
• 57:20
  Speaker 2: He might be the best runner on the team, and
• 57:22
  Speaker 2: he throws better when he's running, and they haven't unleashed him.
• 57:25
  Speaker 2: One other point on Wisconsin. I think the problem with
• 57:29
  Speaker 2: Wisconsin is the same problem with the Packers. The offensive
• 57:31
  Speaker 2: line is just, to me, utterly unimpressive. And we knew
• 57:36
  Speaker 2: this was going to be a problem with Wisconsin. They
• 57:38
  Speaker 2: had a couple of guys that were banged up. It's
• 57:40
  Speaker 2: still not a veteran line, but when they ran successfully
• 57:44
  Speaker 2: against Western Illinois, it's because the running back was able
• 57:47
  Speaker 2: to either get outside, or in one case, Darion Dupree
• 57:50
  Speaker 2: did get a big hole in the middle, but otherwise,
• 57:53
  Speaker 2: this was an FCS defense that the Badger offensive line
• 57:57
  Speaker 2: wasn't moving around. I think that the offensive line is
• 58:00
  Speaker 2: the weakness on the Wisconsin team, and I think that
• 58:02
  Speaker 2: the defensive line is the second weakness.
• 58:06
  Speaker 4: Yeah, the offensive. I agree 100% with you on the
• 58:08
  Speaker 4: offensive line. I thought that was a game that I
• 58:12
  Speaker 4: understand what they're doing with Joseph and basically what you said.
• 58:15
  Speaker 4: If he was a little bit banged up, there's no
• 58:17
  Speaker 4: reason to run him around against Western Illinois. Well, they
• 58:19
  Speaker 4: couldn't run against Western Illinois. I thought they'd be able
• 58:21
  Speaker 4: to turn around and hand off and just run at
• 58:24
  Speaker 4: will and they couldn't.
• 58:26
  Speaker 2: Especially the first play of the game, Abu Salman runs
• 58:28
  Speaker 2: 80 yards or whatever it was without being touched and
• 58:31
  Speaker 2: you thought it'd be simple.
• 58:33
  Speaker 4: Yeah, no. He bounced that one out and Yeah, I mean,
• 58:37
  Speaker 4: they should be able to beat Eastern Michigan, but they're
• 58:39
  Speaker 4: going to have to get that offense moving, and they're
• 58:41
  Speaker 4: going to have to use Joseph to run the ball,
• 58:43
  Speaker 4: and I think you're right. I think they just, they
• 58:45
  Speaker 4: tried to against Notre Dame, but Notre Dame's defense is
• 58:47
  Speaker 4: really good and fast, and they couldn't, and they just
• 58:50
  Speaker 4: didn't want to last week, and the other thing, he
• 58:52
  Speaker 4: was banged up enough where they didn't want him to
• 58:55
  Speaker 4: throw downfield very much even. Their game plan was not
• 58:58
  Speaker 4: to throw downfield deep shots, so I think that'll change
• 59:02
  Speaker 4: as we move forward.
• 59:02
  Speaker 2: And their rest receiver, I don't know if you've heard anything,
• 59:04
  Speaker 2: but it looked like, maybe he evaded a concussion, but
• 59:07
  Speaker 2: Malachi Coleman, who I think is really good, their best
• 59:10
  Speaker 2: wide receiver, he got knocked out of the game early
• 59:12
  Speaker 2: and it was scary. I mean, his head hit the
• 59:15
  Speaker 2: ground and bounced. I mean, I hardly ever see that.
• 59:18
  Speaker 2: Did he go into the protocol or was he able
• 59:20
  Speaker 2: to avoid a concussion?
• 59:21
  Speaker 3: Do you know?
• 59:22
  Speaker 4: Well, he was in the protocol, I believe, but he's
• 59:25
  Speaker 4: listed on the depth chart this week. So I would
• 59:28
  Speaker 4: guess that he's okay to play this week, and he's
• 59:30
  Speaker 4: big and he's fast, and I agree. He could be
• 59:33
  Speaker 4: a great asset to Wisconsin this year on the outside.
• 59:37
  Speaker 2: One other point on Wisconsin. The number two position on
• 59:41
  Speaker 2: the depth, the Badgers are loaded with average quarterbacks behind
• 59:44
  Speaker 2: the number one, but it appears as though Ryan Hopkins
• 59:48
  Speaker 2: is a true freshman. In fact, he played at Football
• 59:51
  Speaker 2: Powerhouse at Mater Dei in California. He came in And
• 59:55
  Speaker 2: it was sort of mop-up duty, but they didn't have
• 59:57
  Speaker 2: him just hand off, even though they had a big lead.
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 2: They wanted him to play real quarterback.
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 3: He threw passes. He rolled out.
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 2: They wanted to see what he could do. They weren't
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 2: taking knees at the end of the game. They didn't
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 2: do anything radical like throwing a bomb or anything, but
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 2: they let him play quarterback. I wonder if especially if
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 2: they're not sold on the health of Joseph that they're
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 2: not confident enough in Hopkins that they might put him
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 2: out there before mop-up time. I think he's clearly one.
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 2: There's a transfer from Louisville named Deuce Adams. He's number three.
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 2: People forget about the two quarterbacks we had last year.
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 2: Carter Smith, who they started several games as a true
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 2: freshman last year. He's fourth in the depth chart. Certain,
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 2: I think, to transfer to another school. And they still
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 2: have Danny O'Neal, who was the quarterback in the middle
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 2: of the season last year. So they've got a lot
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 2: of quarterbacks that this kid, that this freshman has beaten
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 2: out and I know they're really impressed with him. If
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 2: Joseph's not 100%, could you see them turning to Hopkins, say,
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 2: in the second half on Saturday or maybe even playing
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 2: against Penn State?
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I know they wanted to play him in game,
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 4: in real games. I mean, not just scrap time. So
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 4: I think they're probably going to move forward with him
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 4: playing at times. And we have heard from people in
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 4: the know there that he's the best freshman quarterback they've
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 4: had in a long, long time. And the thing about him, too,
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 4: he can throw the ball, but he's 6'4, and he
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 4: ran a 10-6-100 in high school. But he's fast, and
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 4: he's a really good runner.
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 3: Why was he only a three-star recruit?
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 2: He reminds me of, I remember when Jonathan Taylor was
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 2: a true freshman. He came out of, I think, Fort
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 2: Lauderdale and was only a three-star recruit. And I heard
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 2: whispers from people like, you're in Madison watching practice, when
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 2: he was a freshman saying, this is the best running
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 2: back we've had here. since Ron Dayen, and that covers
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 2: a lot of territory, that he was just, the moment
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 2: he stepped on campus, that he was special. And you
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 2: heard the same thing about Hopkins, but when they signed
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 2: him as I think their only quarterback in the class,
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 2: nobody thought, oh, this is a coup, this is a
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 2: top five quarterback.
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 3: But he looks to be really good.
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 2: So maybe just the competition that he played out against
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 2: Mater Dei, he didn't seem as dominant as he.
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 3: Should have seemed.
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and he didn't throw for a ton of yards.
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 4: I don't think they threw the ball a lot. They
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 4: used them. They ran the ball, and they were dominant
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 4: at times, and they could just run the ball and
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 4: stuff like that. I don't think he had fantastic thousands
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 4: and thousands of yards passing, but just he's a really
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 4: good kid. He's big, physical, and fast. So I think
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 4: he'll get a chance to play as we move forward
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 4: here for sure.
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 2: All right, let's turn our attention to the NFL. Let's
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 2: open with the Packers and the Jets.
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 3: The Packers. I am at a loss to.
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 2: Assess the team because I watched the entire game, and
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 2: I'm just going to give you my take on Green Bay.
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 2: I think Green Bay is very, very good except at
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 2: two positions. But that except is just existential for them
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 2: because in critically important positions, their offensive line is terrible.
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 2: And their running backs can't run and they can't run block.
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 3: They can't do either.
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 2: The rest of the team looked very good. And, well,
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 2: you can focus on the fourth quarter collapse. The reality
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 2: is they had dominated the Vikings on both sides of
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 2: the ball. They dominated offensively. Love was outstanding. Excuse me, offensively.
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 2: And on defense, admittedly, it was against immobile Carson Wentz.
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 2: The Vikings weren't putting up any offense at all. Then
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 2: that fourth quarter dud came in where everything that could
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 2: go wrong happened. did, they fell behind and the Vikings
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 2: just blitzed on every play and the Packers couldn't do anything.
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 3: But it makes the Packers really hard to assess.
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 2: It wasn't like the whole team played bad because they
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 2: played three great quarters and an atrocious fourth quarter with
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 2: some explanation. They play the Jets, though, and I think
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 2: the Jets might be really, really improved. They had a win,
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 2: an easy win last week against soft competition. But I
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 2: think for the first time in the longest time, the
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 2: Jets have a team that actually fits and belongs as
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 2: at least a 500 team in the AFC East. Give
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 2: me your thoughts first on the Packers and then on
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 2: the game itself, the Packers in New Jersey to.
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 3: Play the Jets.
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 4: Well, you hit it on the head for the Packers
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 4: is what I talked about last week and we talked
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 4: about their offensive line. I don't understand how you have
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 4: a quarterback like Love and you put that offensive line
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 4: in front of them. I mean, you've got to have
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 4: a good offensive line to win in the NFL. You
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 4: just do. and they're bad, 66 yards rushing. He got
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 4: sacked 14, 15 quarterback hits on him last week, and
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 4: no one else in the NFL had more than eight,
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 4: I believe. You just can't win like that. They dominated Minnesota.
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 4: You said they outgained Minnesota by 2.4 yards per play
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 4: and by almost 200 yards and lost by 17 points.
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 4: You very rarely see that. Here's one thing concerning before
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 4: we get to the Jets game. And I'm sure you know, Mark,
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 4: you know about it. I'm sure fans know about it.
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 4: Green Bay can't close out games. They've lost six games
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 4: in a row now, dating back to last season. That's
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 4: their longest streak since 1991. They've led by nine or
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 4: more points in the fourth quarter in four of those
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 4: six games. They've been outscored 84 to 15 in those
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 4: six fourth quarters. So they're averaging less than a field
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 4: goal in the fourth quarter. and they're blowing leads, and
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 4: they're losing games. They need to figure that out.
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 2: I want to jump in on that. I give you
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 2: an asterisk to this game for a couple of reasons.
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 2: The coach made, and they've been ragging on LeFleur that
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 2: he coaches conservative down the stretch, and this has been
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 2: the criticism forever.
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 3: So he goes and overreacts in the other direction.
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 2: They're up 22-17, and if they kick a field goal
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 2: to make it an eight-point game, there is a penalty.
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 2: They take the points off the board, and they go
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 2: for it. on fourth and one. I thought that that
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 2: was a stupid decision. Eight points is sort of a
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 2: one score game, but not really. It means the other
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 2: team needs a touchdown and they have to convert on
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 2: a two point conversion. But secondly, they weren't on the
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 2: nine yard line and saying, let's go for it on
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 2: fourth down. We pick up the first down. We probably score.
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 2: They were on the 21. So it was still only 50,
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 2: 50 that they get into the end zone, even if
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 2: they do pick up the first down and Then they
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 2: called a stupid quarterback sneak in which they needed a
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 2: full yard behind it off terrible offensive line. So they
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 2: almost went up by eight. And secondly, that drive that
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 2: the Vikings had then to take the lead. Yeah, that
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 2: was I mean, it's that just can't be put on
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 2: the Packer defense.
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 3: There were three terrible.
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 2: I mean, I'm going to start on my Hockley thing.
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 2: I think when this Hockey League has a kid, he's
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 2: going to be a ref and we're never going to
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 2: be rid of those guys. They are flag happy. The
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 2: first Hockey League, Ed, was flag happy. His crew threw
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 2: flags all the time. And the kid is the same thing.
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 2: He's finding penalties where they don't exist. That roughing the
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 2: passer penalty in which they said that the guy slammed
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 2: the guy to the ground simply didn't happen. He clearly
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 2: raised his arms up to stop it from occurring and
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 2: the quarterback fell back on his own weight. There was
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 2: a pass interference call that seemed to me to be phantom.
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 2: The Packers, I think, stopped the Vikings on that drive.
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 2: And had they gotten the ball back with the lead,
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 2: the Vikings would not have been able to do what
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 2: they did later. They blitzed on every play because they
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 2: knew that Green Bay was passing. They couldn't get away
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 2: with doing that successfully until Green Bay was in an
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 2: all-pass mode. And then the score got run up with
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 2: the turnovers that were occurring because the Packers couldn't pass
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 2: block at all. But they were Had they not gone
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 2: for that field goal, or in the alternative, or even
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 2: either way, had it been a legitimate stop the next
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 2: time the Vikings got the ball and the Packers had
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 2: gotten it back with a lead and had another chance
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 2: to make it a two-score game, they would have won.
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 2: So I'll give them some slack on that, on the
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 2: closing out of the game thing. The bigger crisis is
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 2: that when they have to pass, every team now is
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 2: going to blitz. Love's going to get hurt. When they
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 2: kept an extra running back in the backfield to block,
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 2: I mean, Chris Brooks, I don't think he.
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 3: Can block at all.
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 4: Bad.
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 2: I mean, Josh Jacobs is a pretty good blocker. And
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 2: I don't know if Marshawn Lloyd can block because he's
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 2: never been able to get out of the field. But
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 2: neither of those guys, I thought, showed any running ability.
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 2: And they couldn't pass block. And I don't care what
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 2: the team is. The offensive, the quarterback's the most important
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 2: part of your offense. And the offensive line is second.
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 2: And everything else is 19 points behind. So I just
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 2: thought they looked very good. The corners were better than
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 2: I thought. The safeties had terrible calls put against them.
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 2: They had more of a pass rush without Parsons than
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 2: I would have expected. The receivers looked very good. Matthew
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 2: Golden has clearly taken a step forward. The only receiver
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 2: that disappointed me was Reed. The kicker, even though he
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 2: missed an extra point, looked like a really reliable kicker.
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 2: Love did a great job on his passes, but the
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 2: offensive line is what it is. You didn't talk at
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 2: all about the Jets because I talk too much. Give
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 2: me your quick thoughts on the Jets. I just think
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 2: they're a better team. Better team than they've been.
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 4: Oh, the Jets are definitely a better team. Yeah, yeah,
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 4: they're definitely a better team. We were on the Jets
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 4: as an underdog last week at Tennessee. Tennessee might be
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 4: the worst team.
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 2: Tennessee is– Well, no, they're not the worst team in
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 2: the league because Miami exists, but they're right. It's like the–
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 2: what's the division in the American League with two terrible teams?
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 3: Oakland and the Angels. It's like that.
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 2: The Angels and Oakland, it's hard to say which one
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 2: of the two of them are worse because they're both bad.
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 3: That's the Dolphins and Tennessee.
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, this would have been a game, Mark,
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 4: if Green Bay– We have this game targeted before the season.
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 4: If Green Bay would have won at Minnesota, then traveled
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 4: the East Coast, we would have got higher spread than this.
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 4: We would have taken the Jets. You know, it's four
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 4: and a half right now. It's dropped. It opened four
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 4: and a half, dropped to three and a half, and
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 4: now it's back to four and a half. So it's
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 4: kind of jumping around. Again, I'm not laying points with
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 4: Green Bay. This is a perfect spot to take Green Bay.
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 4: Playoff teams... From the year before that, our start 0-1
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 4: are like 67% in the second week against the spread
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 4: because they're good teams and they have to win. They
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 4: know they don't want to go 0-2. I just can't
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 4: trust them with the offensive line. We won't be on
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 4: this game at all this weekend.
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 2: I did not know that number that you mentioned. I
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 2: kind of think that the Jets are a no-brainer call
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 2: because they showed a good defense, but you're right. Tennessee
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 2: is a hard team to judge off of. And again,
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 2: you judge the Packers on the first three quarters, in which,
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 2: as I said, I thought they just looked outstanding. Or
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 2: do you judge them on the fourth quarter, which was
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 2: a total meltdown? I want to pull out one other game,
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 2: and it's kind of an obvious game for us to
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 2: stew on. The Vikings play the Bears. First of all,
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 2: I can't judge either team. The Vikings lost the quarterback.
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 2: I don't think Murray's going to be back this week.
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 4: No.
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 3: They had to use Wentz.
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 2: They were completely dominated in their home field with the
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 2: Packers for three quarters. And then one, the Bears put
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 2: up 59 points, but their defense was so putrid that
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 2: they gave up 37. It's the rare case of a
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 2: team that gave up 37 and lost. I think these are,
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 2: I don't know if the Bears are better than last
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 2: year or not. And I don't know that about the
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 2: Vikings because it was hard for me to judge either
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 2: team's game last week.
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 4: Yeah, no way. I agree. I know everyone's going to
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 4: overall the bears are the greatest offense in the world.
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 4: And 96 total points was the highest total point ever
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 4: in NFL history for a game 12th highest ever for
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 4: a full season. But you know, the bears average 7.9
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 4: yards per play. They gave up 7.7 yards per play.
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 4: So if you look at the stats that way, the
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 4: bears should not have won by 22 points. And normally
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 4: if you just look at that, it's a close game.
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 4: And Carolina's offense wasn't great last year. They ranked 27th
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 4: in total offense, 26 in yards per play, and they
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 4: put up almost eight yards per play on the Bears.
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 4: Here's what I find really interesting. And by the way,
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 4: Kyler Murray I don't think is going to play. I
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 4: think you're 100% right on that this week, so it's
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 4: going to be Wentz. Here's the interesting thing I think
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 4: in this game is the total. The line opened 49
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 4: and a half, which I thought it might open a
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 4: little higher than that because 96 total points.
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because the Bears scored 59 of their own last week.
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah. And the Packers and the Vikings combined for
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 4: over 60 points. So usually that's what happens. So it
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 4: opened 49 points, 49 and a half, and it dropped
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 4: to 48 and a half. So it's dropped a point
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 4: from where it opened, which I understand historically since 2000,
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 4: these teams have met 52 times. and only 10 have
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 4: reached 50 points. So less than 25% of the time
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 4: have they reached 50 points. So historically, division game, two
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 4: high totals last week, and the total drops this week.
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 4: That kind of is a signal. I would go under
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 4: 48.5 in this game for a total. The side, I
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 4: don't know. Chicago's favored by 5.5. I don't love Wentz.
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 2: I think Wentz is a statue. It's been his problem
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 2: his whole career. He has no mobility. He doesn't get
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 2: rid of the ball that quickly. And he didn't do
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 2: anything against Packers, as I said, until the fourth quarter
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 2: and the drive that put them ahead. It was just
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 2: a penalty drive. There's a reason Carson Wentz is a backup. Now,
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 2: they're fortunate in Minnesota. He's probably the best backup in
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 2: the NFL. He's close to being a starter. He's just
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 2: a bad starter, which is what a backup is.
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 3: Going to be.
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 2: The thing in the Bears is their head coach is
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 2: an offensive genius. He created that Detroit offense, and he
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 2: now appears to have replicated it. in Chicago, but there
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 2: have been a lot of cases, especially with these younger
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 2: guys that are offensive gurus. They flop as head coaches
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 2: because they don't know how to coach a defense. It
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 2: happened twice to Josh McDaniels when he became a head coach.
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 2: There are a couple of other, um, Kiffin flopped in
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 2: the NFL. There was another guy that his name is
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 2: escaping me right now. Um, the guy is the coordinator.
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 2: Now he was the coach at, uh, came from Texas
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 2: tech and went to Arizona. Cliff Kingsbury, yeah.
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 3: He couldn't coach a defense.
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 2: And I just wonder if the Bears, under that coaching staff,
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 2: have no real supervision of the defensive coordinator, and it's
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 2: not been the priority for the head coach because, as
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 2: you said, Carolina didn't have that great of an offense
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 2: last year. I think they're a decent enough team. But
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 2: they put up 37 on the Bears, so this is not–
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 2: This is not my parents. They're not even my Chicago Bears.
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 2: I'm used to a Bears team that's 13 to 10
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 2: all the time. They're a tough team to figure. So
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 2: I picked out a bunch of games that I think
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 2: are just inscrutable. So let's now go to the point
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 2: of our program where we try to make point spreads.
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 2: And I made a terrible error this season, Mike. When
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 2: Paul left as my producer, I decided to allow Jason
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 2: to participate in this contest.
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 3: And that's what I'm saying.
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 2: He's now 2-0 and the two of us are 0-2.
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 2: Recapping last week's picks, I just It's not surprising I
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 2: lost my game because I was wrong about everything. The
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 2: only game in my mind that I liked was I
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 2: thought the Vikings would beat the Packers, but that win
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 2: was fluky. Jason made a pick when he said it
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 2: at the time. I thought it was a great pick,
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 2: and he convinced me he was right before the game
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 2: was on, and it played out that way. The Giants
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 2: were three-point underdogs against Dallas, and they beat them kind
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 2: of decisively 28-20. I took USC to beat Louisiana or
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 2: Louisiana Lafayette. by more than 31 or more, and they
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 2: just didn't do it. 49 to 30, they gave up
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 2: a lot of points in the fourth quarter. I'm done
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 2: with this thing of taking USC early in the season
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 2: against Patsy's. Mike took Army a four-point favorite over South Florida,
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 2: and boy, that seemed like a good pick. South Florida
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 2: with a new everything, and South Florida won the game
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 2: on 28 to 24, so that one was wrong. So
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 2: everybody needs a win, and we need Jason to take
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 2: a loss on something. All right, our picks are downloaded
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 2: from scoresandodds.com. This is, as I said, we're recording this
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 2: on Wednesday, so some of you are hearing this. These
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 2: numbers might have changed a little bit by the time
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 2: you hear what we have to say. All right, Jason,
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 2: three wins in a row for you. Which game or
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 2: games do you want to hear the point spreads on?
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 3: Bears-Vikings.
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 2: Oh, the game we just talked about, the Bears and
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 2: the Vikings. He has an opinion on a game that
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 2: Mike and I both were a little stymied by, although
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 2: Mike seemed tantalized by the under. the line that we
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 2: have is five and a half. Bears are favored by
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 2: five and a half. And Mike was mentioning the total
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 2: here on the system we're using is down to 47
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 2: and a half.
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 3: Oh, okay.
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 5: I thought that was actually four and a half on
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 5: scores and odds. So why don't you, if you don't mind, Mark,
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 5: why don't you tell me about the Bengals and the Texans?
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 2: As I said, I downloaded these about four and a
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 2: half hours ago. And these numbers often are flopping around
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 2: all over the place. But this was as of eight
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 2: in the morning. What other game would you like?
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 5: Bears, I'm sorry, Bengals and the Texans.
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 2: Bengals and the Texans. Houston at home is favored by
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 2: three over Cincinnati.
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 5: All right, we'll play that one. I am going to
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 5: take Houdet Nation on the road. I think Burrow and
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 5: company at least cover that number. I think it'll be
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 5: a real close game. Bengals off to a pretty good
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 5: start with a week one victory. Give me the Bengals
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 5: plus the three.
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, one of the 19 million games I
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 2: was wrong about is I was convinced that the Texans
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 2: were going to beat Buffalo last week. And boy, what
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 2: a weird game that again, just a game with tons
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 2: of points.
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 3: And I was wrong on that.
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 2: So you're taking the Bengals to either win or lose
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 2: by less than three at Houston. So you like burrow.
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 2: What do you have any thoughts on, on Houston? I mean,
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 2: they always seem to be the best team in the,
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 2: in the South. Stroud's a decent enough quarterback. Um, Is
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 2: this more of a pick on Cincinnati or a pick
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 2: against you?
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 5: Stroud had two turns. He's good, but he seems to
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 5: turn over the ball at key times. He had two
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 5: turnovers last week. I also think it's a letdown spot
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 5: because the Texans came so close yet so far away
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 5: against the Bills at home. And actually, the Bengals defense
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 5: is a lot better, I think, with Dexter Lawrence in
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 5: the middle. So it's more of a play on the Bengals, actually.
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 5: One thing that scares me, though. Bengals have the Steelers
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 5: next week, the look-ahead spot, but I still think they
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 5: find a way to keep it close.
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 2: And there is that point that Mike made that I
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 2: was not aware of, that playoff teams, they start a 1-1,
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 2: win 67% of the time in Week 2. He makes
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 2: an interesting pick, and by what you said, I think
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 2: you were going to take.
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 3: The Bears over the Vikings. At 4.5, I was going
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 3: to take the Bears.
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 2: I was going to say you're a big homer because
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 2: you made that Northwestern pick, but you're 2-0, so we
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 2: can't ridicule you at all. Mike, any thoughts in his game?
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I I, I don't, I won't, we won't use
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 4: the game either way. I don't think Houston was a
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 4: close game last week, but if you look at the stats, they,
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 4: they almost lost. They almost got out game by three
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 4: yards per play. Buffalo was, the stats were way better
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 4: for Buffalo in that game. So that should have been
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 4: a wider spread. I don't like the fact that, like
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 4: you said, Houston's Owen one Cincinnati one and oh, Going
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 4: on the road against a team that was in the playoffs,
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 4: I have a hard time taking points or laying points
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 4: in that game right now.
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 3: Okay, let's get a game from Mike. Which game do
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 3: you want to hear the line on?
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 4: All right, just so you know, last week the Army game, Mark,
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 4: I don't know if you watched it. Army was up
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 4: by 10 with under four minutes to go in the
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 4: game and lost by four.
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 3: Wow, how did that happen? They must have been a
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 3: turnover or something, right?
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 4: Well, they were up 10, then they were up three
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 4: with two minutes to go and had to punt. And
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 4: then it was fourth down for South Florida from, like,
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 4: the 40-yard line through a 40-yard bomb for a touchdown
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 4: with under a minute to go, with under 30 seconds
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 4: to go, I believe.
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 3: There may have been cursing. It looked like we were
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 3: going to win by three.
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 2: You said that was your top play for your clients
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 2: as well in college football.
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 4: It was. It was. Anyway, I'm switching. I'm going to
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 4: the NFL this weekend. I'm going to look at– I
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 4: need a couple. I need the Jacksonville-Denver line.
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 2: That game is, we have a hinky line here. It's
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 2: the Broncos two and a half, and they lay extra juice,
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 2: but we can't factor that. The Broncos favored by two
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 2: and a half. I think some places it might be three.
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 2: But two and a half, Denver favored over Jacksonville.
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 3: The game in Denver.
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 4: And then the Monday night game, Giants at the Rams.
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 2: Giants at the Rams. The Rams are favored by seven,
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 2: coming back from Australia after that. beat down that they took.
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 2: The Giants, of course, beat Dallas last week at home.
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 4: All right, I'm going to take Denver minus two and
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 4: a half.
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 3: Two and a half, so you like the fact that
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 3: it's not three.
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 2: The Broncos got beaten rather decisively on Monday night by
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 2: Kansas City. Why do you like them over Jacksonville?
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 4: Yeah, first of all, they look poor on both sides
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 4: of the ball on Monday night. I think they bounce
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 4: back at home here. Jacksonville beat Cleveland. Big deal. I mean,
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 4: Cleveland's one of the worst teams in the NFL. They're,
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 4: they're fighting for the.
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 2: Way they deserve. We're talking about who's worse, Tennessee or Miami.
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 2: I forgot about the Browns.
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 3: It might be worse than both of them.
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 4: Yeah. And Cleveland's offense stinks. Their quarterback stinks. They averaged
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 4: 5.6 yards per play last week against Jacksonville, which is
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 4: pretty good. And Watson completed 72% of his passes last
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 4: week for over 200 yards. And granted, some of that
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 4: was from coming from behind. Um, but I like Denver
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 4: to bounce back here. Plus I like this situation. We
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 4: talked about playoff teams. Oh, and one Denver's at home, big,
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 4: big game to win Jacksonville, long travel in, in altitude.
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 4: And here's another thing I like last year, Denver lost
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 4: one home game last year. It was the Jacksonville and
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 4: Denver out gained them by a hundred yards in that
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 4: game out gained by almost two yards for play, but
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 4: lost because of turnovers. Again, it was their only home loss.
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 4: I think the Jags are a little bit overvalued spread-wise.
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 4: That game was two and a half. Or three and
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 4: a half, I'm sorry. Three and a half. Now we're
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 4: getting them under a field goal. The Jags have covered
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 4: nine of their last ten games. So I think they're
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 4: a little bit overvalued here. I think this should be
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 4: just over three. And with that under three, I'm going
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 4: to take Denver in a must-win spot.
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 2: Every year I carry on, don't overreact to week one.
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 2: Week one often turns out to be an irrelevancy. So
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 2: I hope I'm not doing anything. that here but I'm
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 2: going to the game I'm doing a lot of things
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 2: I don't like to do on this game but I
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 2: really need a win and I really think I'm right
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 2: I'm going to the game in which Miami plays at
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 2: San Francisco that line keeps moving up and the line
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 2: we have right now is 13 and a half the
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 2: 49ers at home are favored over the Dolphins and I'm
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 2: laying all of those points San Francisco both sides of
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 2: the ball dominated the Rams so that was in Australia
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 2: And a lot of people are saying that the San
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 2: Francisco decision to go out a week early, whereas Los
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 2: Angeles came in the day before the game, benefited them.
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 3: Maybe yes, maybe not. I don't worry about.
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 2: The travel back because that game was last Thursday. So
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 2: there's a full nine or 10 games of rest for
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 2: San Francisco when they're only going back to the West
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 2: Coast and so on. But my pick is mostly against
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 2: the Dolphins. I should have gone against them last week
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 2: in week one. I think on paper, and there's competition
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 2: because of the teams we mentioned as to who the
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 2: worst team in the league is. Miami lost everybody. They
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 2: gutted the team, and then they made the decision to
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 2: turn the quarterbacking position over to Malik Willis, I think
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 2: because they had to find somebody. I don't think Willis
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 2: is going to do well at all there. In Green Bay,
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 2: he had a very good supporting cast around him. Miami,
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 2: they have no supporting cast. All the receivers are gone.
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 2: Offensive line is gone. They've got a brand new coach
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 2: in Halfley who doesn't have any experience as a head
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 2: coach in the NFL. And the 49ers, you know, everybody
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 2: in the offseason was talking about the Rams because they
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 2: have all this talent. They're signing this guy and that guy.
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 2: The 49ers were close to them last year and were
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 2: perpetually beaten up. I think that they are so much better.
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 2: I think that they are at least three touchdowns better
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 2: than Miami. Even if you don't give home field any
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 2: credit whatsoever, I'm still laying less than two full touchdowns
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 2: against a team that looked better than anybody against just
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 2: a completely, I mean, it's a flat spot for the 49ers,
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 2: all of that stuff. Miami, I think the over-under that
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 2: they had on game wins this year was just like four.
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 2: They're not expected to win much of any. They have
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 2: no talent on the team at all. I just think
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 2: it's going to be a wipeout. So I don't normally
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 2: like to overreact to week one where The 49ers look
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 2: so good, and I don't like to lay big points
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 2: in the NFL, but in this instance, I actually think
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 2: I'm getting value if you made me say what the
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 2: line should be. I would say 21 or 21 and
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 2: a half, and you'd have an equal chance of being
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 2: right either way. So I'm going to do something Mike
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 2: never does and lay a lot of points in the
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 2: NFL and take the 49ers to kill Miami.
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 4: Well, let's put it this way. I would not take
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 4: Miami in that game. I don't know if we're going
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 4: to take San Francisco, but Miami, as you said, everything
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 4: we've heard out of Miami is bad. We've heard from
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 4: people in the know that their wide receiver core is
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 4: like a CFL wide receiver.
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's terrible. It's terrible.
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 2: I mean, Tyree Kill was hurt last season. They didn't
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 2: bring anybody to help him. They had two guys leave
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 2: in free agency. They have no receivers at all. And
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 2: here's poor Willis with no offensive line and no receivers.
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 2: And he came out of the green bay system.
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 3: The one thing.
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 2: LeFleur knows how to do is coach quarterbacks. I just
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 2: think he's going to be lost down there. When he's
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 2: forced to run, as he was in Green Bay, he's
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 2: not as good as when he's running by choice. I
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 2: think the poor kid's in a terrible situation. I'll recap
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 2: the picks off of memory here. Jason is taking the Bengals,
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 2: and I think the line was 2.5. He needs the
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 2: Bengals to either beat Houston or lose by less than 3.
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 2: Getting 3 would be a tie. Mike, as his selection?
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 4: I took Denver minus two and a half.
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 3: That's right.
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 2: So he needs the Broncos to win by three or
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 2: more in their game. And I'm taking San Francisco to
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 2: win by 14 or more over Miami. All right, that's
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 2: it for this week. Next podcast is coming around on Monday. Again,
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 2: asawins.com is the website for Mike Marlette, American sports analyst.
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 3: ASA wins. Check that out and talk to you soon.
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 4: Bye.
• 1:26:42
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