Football's Getting Weird Already

[00:00:00] I love it, take projection. Welcome everybody to Takin' On Sports, IMTD. That is Greg. Greg, how you doing, man? Man, I am good. You know, wild. It was a wild week of football. I should say that. It was, man. It's always fun these first couple weeks. NFL Open this week too. A bunch of wild results. We'll get to that.

[00:00:27] Yeah, I mean, yeah. Great weekend of football. And the best part is it was pretty much all on the field. Like, nothing too controversial. You know, one or two things maybe, but like... Yeah, everything was pretty much, yeah. Yeah. Nothing huge. No, you know, talk of the courts went away, at least for the most part, you know. We were actually just talking football, talking ball.

[00:00:53] Yeah, exactly. Talking ball. But as always, let's start with our boys and crimson. Alabama Kevin DeBoer's crew went up to Lexington. Always an interesting place to play. Yeah. And they were hyped for it. Great atmosphere. Yeah, great game. Yeah, great atmosphere. Great game for the second game of the Will Stein era. He was pumped about it. Of course, urging fans to come and cuss and holler. Yeah, I'm not mad at that.

[00:01:22] People are like, why? I'm not mad at that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. I mean, that should be required if you're student section, at least, you know. I mean, we were there early and... Yeah, I mean, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, there's supposed to be...

[00:01:48] Yeah, people forget it's supposed to be fun and like trash talk and that kind of stuff is part of it, you know. And yeah, there's a line, but it's, you know, like as long as you don't cross it and you have to get, you know, really personal or out of touch, you know. Yeah, I feel like if you're not being racist, if you're not threatening, you know, I don't...

[00:02:13] I mean, if you tell me, you know how bad they suck, they're dumb as hell, things like that, you know, you throw like a girl. Well, you know, just funny, you know, but yeah, you know, say not how your mom died or something, I don't have a problem with it, you know. Yeah. Yeah. You know, but... Oh, yeah.

[00:02:34] I mean, you gotta think, like, think of all the troll, especially in college basketball, think of all the trolling has been done in like, especially back in the day in the ACC with like Duke and Maryland. Oh, man. All the things of all time, like some shit now. Stuff that like Maryland and Duke used to go, especially Duke and Maryland, that's probably one of the most underrated rivalries. On the court. Hated.

[00:03:01] Like, that's one of the reasons it pisses me off that Maryland left for the Big Ten. Like, you're just leaving all these great rivalries, but specifically that one. Man. It was like... You know, everybody said, well, Duke Carolina is a great rivalry, the best rivalry. It is. But it's more friendly in a sense. It's... You know, it's not, but it's not to the hatred of Duke and Maryland, if that makes sense. Like...

[00:03:31] No, it totally does, because, you know, when you're in close proximity like that, you're like, that's your brothers and sisters, your, you know, family, your friend, your co-worker, you know. You see that every day. It's kind of like Alabama-Auburn. But yeah, Duke, Maryland, for a good spell there. It was brutal. Like, they would go and find out that your mom had cancer and laugh at you, remember? Yeah. I mean, yeah, there was some crazy ass shit back then. Yes. So, I don't have a problem. Yeah.

[00:03:58] I don't have a problem with a coach encouraging some middle fingers or something. Stuff that happens today, some of the trash talking, it's like, dude, that's a little... Like, it's funny. It's more funny and lighthearted today. Like, when we were in school, you know, man, in the early 2000s, there was some wild stuff that happened. Shit. I mean, yeah, man, step on a basketball court. Baltimore High School, man, you hear worse than you'll ever imagine, man. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:04:28] So, but... Yeah, all the people clutching the pearls about that, I just rolled my eyes. But like you said, great atmosphere, and it worked for them in the first half. The Wildcats came out on fire, and we looked shook and terrible. You know, honestly, I was thinking, it just feels like the damn Vandy game all over again. Yeah. It really did.

[00:04:56] I mean, they came out on fire, like we looked shocked, and then when... And early pick six, kind of early... I was like, oh, it's going to be one of those kind of days, huh? That's what we're doing. It's like, yeah, I remember that Milrow pick was not his fault, too. It was like a weird deflection or something. And same thing with this. I mean, you know, Russell just... He didn't know that defensive end was going to jump and make that play.

[00:05:21] I mean, you'd like to see him get it over, but also, if you get it too high, you risk someone else coming up and snatching it. Right, but he's just doing something smart. I was like, oh my God, what in the world just happened? Yeah. Yeah. I respect his effort trying to make the tackle, but no chance. Not that close. But yeah, then the fumbles, penalties, a bad...

[00:05:49] A terrible referee decision on that time we stopped on fourth down and they gave him the... They called it a fumble and then the rules experts saying, no, it's like, that should probably be an incomplete pass. Nothing was going... Nothing was going... Nothing was going... Yeah. The first half was about as bad as possible.

[00:06:15] And really, we were fortunate not to be... Sound like it has, but we were fortunate to actually be playing Kentucky. In that sense. We had been in Knoxville. Oof. Uh-uh. And we're going night-night. Yeah. And who knows? Maybe we'll... Go ahead. And that's no disrespect to Kentucky. Like, they're up and coming.

[00:06:45] You know, they're changing some things around. And, you know, I feel like he's going to get it going there. You know, I like his... I like his personality is, you know, I like everything about what he brought... What he's brought to Lexington. You know, he stepped into a weird role because, I mean... It's weird because Stoops, for the most part, had Kentucky at their prime that they've ever been consistently.

[00:07:15] But yet, at the end, it fell off hard. So, it's like he's rebuilding. But it's weird because I wouldn't necessarily say overall rebuilding because Mark Stoops said at Kentucky at Heights, they had never reached before consistently. So, it's kind of weird. But they did fall off at the end there. But the energy was great. Like, I mean, for as much as we only think about basketball in Lexington and Kentucky, man, that was a great football atmosphere. I thought.

[00:07:45] Absolutely, yeah. Like I said, second game of the Will Stein era. So, good on him for trying to get them hype, getting that atmosphere there. And it looks, you know, promising. Like you said, it's a good thing it was Kentucky. They just don't have the depth there. And, yeah, it was just like every Bama fan's worst nightmare out the gate. You know, a young quarterback. On the road. Yeah, on the road.

[00:08:13] In a hostile environment that shook, you know. DeBoer's track record of kind of losing these games to teams we shouldn't lose to. Questionable Ryan Grubb play call in. Yeah. Just, yeah. And unlucky bounces and stuff and things not going our way. Oh, my God. Yeah. And then, you know, popping up record, you know, stats at halftime. Saying, you know, Ryan Grubb has never, or excuse me,

[00:08:41] Caelan DeBoer has never won a game in Alabama where he's trailed at halftime. And then the second half happened. And it was a completely different team. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the defense was good all game. Yeah. They took it to a different level in the second half. Man, this defense is playing mean, nasty.

[00:09:07] Like, this is like, oh, this looks like mid-Saban Dynasty defense as far as how they're playing right now. Like, they're getting after it. They're not playing soft at all. They're getting after it. They're fast. They're aggressive. They're getting after the quarterback. They're attacking the ball, attacking whoever had the ball. Yeah, just absolutely won. You know, all game, yeah, they were great.

[00:09:36] And then the offense, it started clicking. Ran the ball well in the second half. We know that. We really did when we needed to. And it's such a good sign against an SEC caliber. Like we said, Kentucky doesn't have the depth yet that Will Stein would like. But to be able to control the game clock, run the ball. Get them tired. And that's so, in a way, old school, man. Like, we, you know, we beat them to sleep. And that's how we used to be, you know.

[00:10:06] It was methodical. You know, you look up. It didn't feel like you were really dominating so much. And you look up and, damn, we're up. You know, we're up two touchdowns now. You know, we're up. You know, they're getting tired. You know, we're taking their fight out of them. You know, the crowd is starting to, oh. You know, they realize, hell. You can sense the Kentucky realize, man, damn. That was our final punch.

[00:10:33] And that was really that fake punch was kind of their final punch. And when we stopped that, you just knew it was game time. It was about the – Yeah, it was really like sharks smelling blood in the water type thing. Yeah. It's like once we knew they were wounded, you know, it was over. Yeah. And, you know, viewing the game as a whole, then you really love that as an Alabama fan to see that team, that resilience. Yeah.

[00:11:02] See the coaching staff get that, you know, make the right adjustments, make the right, you know, motivational speech at halftime, whatever they did. Whatever they did. And it's good to see – The only thing that kind of – Are you going to finish that? No, I'm just saying it was kind of – The only thing that kind of was like, what was – He was like, well, we lost communication. Couldn't talk with the – And then my outfits got better. I was like, well, I don't know if that's better.

[00:11:31] Yeah, right. Yeah, they did clarify that a little bit more. They just lost the helmet communication with Caelan for a little bit. But still, you know, he was still – Ryan Grobe was still calling. They were able to call the plays down. So, yeah. So, yeah. Any Bama fans are like, see? No, it's Ryan Grobe is still calling the plays, guys. We just lost him. You lose it at 15 seconds anyway. Right. I mean, he was calling –

[00:11:59] He was better in the second half. Mm-hmm. But, you know, it's good. You know, we had – The crazy thing is the last couple of seasons, we've had so few 100-yard running days by a running back that it felt good to see one get put up there, you know? Yeah. And just see that momentum build and that confidence build and that line and the running backs too when you have those type of performances. That really helps you down the road. Absolutely. Yeah.

[00:12:28] And, like I said, speaking of confidence, it was the way we turned around and won it too. It wasn't like we just clawed and got back in the game and won the close one. It's just we flipped a switch. And, like we said, though, you know, once they realized they were wounded, once Kentucky realized, like you said, they threw their last punch, it was we didn't just take the lead. We took the lead and put them away. Yeah. Boom. Yeah. So, you had kind of a deceptive final score

[00:12:58] if you, you know, look at the game as a whole in the first half, but it also was kind of what Alabama earned with their second-half performance. Yeah. I mean, we shut them out in the second half. We put up over 30 points. Yeah. 32 to nothing in the second half. Yeah. So, I mean, that's exactly what you want to have happen because, I mean, of course we don't want to have a habit of having bad first halves again because that gets old. Right, exactly. We've had that problem.

[00:13:27] But, you know, I mean, I didn't know what to exactly expect just because, you know, it's your first road game for a quarterback in the SEC. I don't care whether you're playing at LSU or Kentucky. That's a learning experience. Overall, you know, I thought Keelan handled it well. He definitely has the right – he seems to have the right mental for it. He doesn't seem rattled by anything.

[00:13:56] You know, he never seemed – he never seemed out of sorts even when things weren't going right. You know, he stepped in and appeared calm anyway. So, I like that. You want to see that from your quarterback. Certain confidence. And then, you know, the defense was nasty. And, you know, the offense, you know, came around and, you know, matched the defense's effort in the second half, especially in that fourth quarter.

[00:14:24] So, overall, you know, it was a little stressful. But, you know, we've had much more stressful recently. So, I mean, at the end of the day, man, we went by – went by over 20-some and, you know, on to Florida State. You know, it was a learning experience. We're still working on things. But you saw a lot of positive there that can be worked on. And hopefully they, you know, take that going into this game Saturday.

[00:14:53] Yeah, exactly. You get to go back home in front of a crowd you know will be hyped because it's a revenge game. Absolutely. And you get a chance, too, to kind of continue this momentum. And, you know, it's similar to, you know, when we did it in the second half against Kentucky. You can see this Florida State team as a whole in the season kind of wounded, kind of, you know, Mike Norvell on the hot seat again, kind of grasping for air there after that, you know, SMU loss

[00:15:23] and a mediocre performance in their opener against New Mexico State. Right. And then, you know, they've had a whole bye week. Mm-hmm. And they have had a bye week to prepare, you know, so they're fresh. But – And then they've heard how bad they are for two weeks. Mm-hmm. They're terrible. But – And they've heard – Yeah, and they'll be motivated for sure, and they'll have confidence stemmed from last year. But, you know, two things you got to remember. No Gus Malzahn come play,

[00:15:52] so you don't have to worry about that voodoo there, Batman fans. Yeah. And a quarterback we've seen before in Ashton Daniels we've beaten before. And, like I said, all the factors that hope team the coaching staff, as a matter of their pride, should want to, you know, really come out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, win this game confidently, yeah, and execute flawlessly. There are a lot of players, you know, guys like Bray Hubbard, you know,

[00:16:20] who really, you know, took a burden of criticism after the game last year, looked bad, and then he admitted it, you know, to his credit. And that really turned around his season. Like, he took his team to a different level. Yeah, all-conference, all-American type player now. It's crazy. He didn't take anything for granted after that. He went after it no matter what was going on. And, you know, as you should as one of the, you know, leaders and stars of the team.

[00:16:46] But, I mean, so, I mean, I like where we're at right now. You know, main thing we got to, you know, you got what we've seen, you know, we got to think, look at what's gone around the rest of the country, and we'll talk about it. You can't take anything for granted going into a game.

[00:17:06] Everything was sweet, but in today's world, there's a lot more equality than the past, man. You can't – what happened, you know, a week or two ago, you've got to get that out of your mind because this is a different – it's a different world we're in right now. Yeah, I mean, yeah. Nick Saban, the 24-hour rule. Celebrate with 24 hours and then you're on the next one, and, yeah, take nothing for granted.

[00:17:34] You know, all the best coaches you will see, all the great coaches, they will treat every game, they will talk up their opponent like they are playing, you know, 2011 Alabama's defense combined with, like, the Tommy Frazier offense from Nebraska ran with 2,000 more minis players. Yeah. Right. You know, the funny thing is, you know, sometimes I roll my eyes at Nick Saban because he'd be playing Georgia Southern,

[00:18:02] and they'd be like, man, the way they ran that triple option last week, I'm a little worried. Yeah. Of course, they did run – they ran all around their ass. That's the infamous shit through a tan horn speech. But, you know, this is still a – you know, there's still a lot of talent in Florida State. We know that – we know they have a good – that running back is nice. I mean, obviously, Ashton Daniels has had his issues there,

[00:18:32] but you don't want to have – you don't want to give them a reason to build confidence, so we don't want to give them anything early. You know, there's still a lot of talent on that Florida State roster. There's a lot of pride there. I know you've had guys sitting around two weeks and people telling them they're trash. You know, they fired their athletic director today. So now I really want to know that they're obviously next.

[00:19:02] And, you know, something tells me, like, you know, outside the program – well, not even outside the program. You know, I know the fans don't like Mike Norvell right now and everything, but something tells me the players do. I don't think there's any – I don't – I don't sense there's any, like, you know, like, you know, some programs you have a sense that the players really don't gel with the coach. I don't think that's the case.

[00:19:28] I think, you know, after two weeks hearing the coach sucks, I think they're going to come out and give it their all there. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, we should not expect a cakewalk in this game. Alabama fans should not get overconfident. And, you know, I don't think – I mean, we can, but the players have to have their mind – can't have a fan's mind. That's true, yeah. I mean, we're not. Yeah, and if the coach's staff does their jobs, you know, they should absolutely know that from last year.

[00:19:58] And like I said, they should be just as motivated as players. Absolutely. They were embarrassed. Yeah, they were embarrassed last year in this game. Absolutely. We got embarrassed. We had a whole summer to get ready, and we were like shit. Except for that first damn drive. That first goddamn drive was beautiful. Yeah, that first drive was like, yeah. I thought we had – it was like Ryan Grubb was the best hire ever. It was like Ty's going to be fine. I mean, he was for a while.

[00:20:27] I was like, we are going to the ship. We were like lining up under center, running the ball. Just marched right down. And then we'd never do that again. It was less of the game. Yeah. And then again. Yeah. Yeah. So everybody should be motivated. We should be ready to go. Like there shouldn't be any – like, you know, it should be – I will say, you know, Nick Saban was always great in the revenge game.

[00:20:54] And so far, though, I would say Coastal Boar is a pretty good in revenge games. I mean, he's got a – you know, he got his revenge on Vandy. He's got his revenge on Tennessee. You know, he got his – so he's – you know, he's gotten some of his – Oklahoma. Oklahoma. Oklahoma. He did – it took two times to get the revenge, but he got the revenge in the biggest one. You know, the playoff game.

[00:21:19] And really, I mean, there were things in that – you know, and really he got – I went – that wasn't a coaching thing as far as what happened in the – last year against Oklahoma. I think that's just players messed up. You know, we had some bad turnovers. Coach the board didn't cause bells. You know, that's just, you know, got sloppy. But, yeah, I mean, overall, I think he's done very well in revenge games.

[00:21:49] I mean, I think he wants to come out – he'll want to come out and put 60 on him if he could. So, you know, I think everybody's on the same mindset. Hopefully the crowd comes in ready to go. And, you know, it's a great atmosphere and we're ready to go. Man, then we just have to kill the confidence early, man. Yeah, right. Yeah, no slow start in this one. Jump on him early and you can really – Jump on him early. Yeah.

[00:22:17] And, yeah, like you mentioned coaching staff, I did just want to add, like if Ryan Grubb is not the most motivated person on that staff, that was his first game last year. And, granted, the defense was a bigger problem than that one. So, you know, Kane Womack will be pissed off coming to this one, which is great. But, yeah, looking forward to it, 230 this Saturday for the Tide down at Tuscaloosa. Elsewhere across the country, man, it was a big Saturday. It was great.

[00:22:46] It was a wild Saturday. And, yeah, I don't even know where to start. You know, early on we had Michigan in a game that everybody thought Oklahoma was going to cakewalk in, myself included. Wolverine stunned Oklahoma, kind of dominated them, to be honest. But that was the ugliest, nastiest game you could imagine.

[00:23:14] I mean, it was old school, just a slobber knocker. I mean, both offenses looked like shit for the most part. They really did. I mean, some good stuff from running the ball from Bryce Underwood. Yeah. Especially that early touchdown. That was good. But they ran more than they passed. I mean, they ran more than they passed. I think he had more running plays on Saturday than he did passing plays.

[00:23:42] And then John Mater, I don't know why they have him 35 times a game. That's not his game. That is not his strength. Passing is not his strength. Like, his running is what opens up the passing game. And why they don't run the ball at Oklahoma at all anymore, I don't know. But they better figure that out or it's going to be a long season to Norman. Yeah, no matter who good that defense is. We saw it today. You know, they didn't play an awful game.

[00:24:11] Just, you know, a talented guy made a couple of big plays. That was the difference. I mean, you got to think about it, too. I mean, Mater put them in the bad spots as well. I mean, really, I mean, they gave up 17 points. So, I mean, it's not. They didn't give up a boatload of points. So, I mean, the defense did their job. I mean, anytime you only give up 17 points, you expect that your offense should be able to do enough to win the game. I mean, honestly.

[00:24:41] Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it was a terrible day for Oklahoma. And, man, a lot of red flags flying up now because, yeah, like you mentioned, how bad John Mater was, how bad the game plan was in the play calling. John Mater is one of those guys when he's off, it's bad. He has no middle ground at all. You need to get John Mater, good John Mater, or bad John Mater. Bad John Mater is horrible. Brutal, brutal bad.

[00:25:12] Like, it is not. It's not even. It's so bipolar. It's so night and day with him, and it's insane. Kudos to Michigan for, you know, coming in and, you know, hearing the whole week how bad they were. And how terrible they were.

[00:25:37] And they're not, you know, coming up that Western Michigan game. And they look completely different as far as the – they didn't look enough. I mean, the offense wasn't pretty, but they fed to their strengths when they needed to. They had some good series. Obviously, if they want to become a contender, they're going to have to become better and better each week because that offense isn't going to get them any quicker.

[00:26:06] But that defense is good enough to keep them in a lot of games. Yeah, absolutely. They'll have a chance to – Yeah. Both teams show that their defenses can keep you in a game. But you're worried if you're a fan of either team is your offenses are so bad that eventually the defense is going to break because you're tired. Yeah, exactly. And Oklahoma's got, you know, little time to fix things.

[00:26:36] They get New Mexico at home next week. And New Mexico, not a bad team. Not a bad team. But the next week they go to Athens. And, man, oof. And then after that they get a break and then they get Red River coming out the break. And a Kentucky team we just saw is kind of game. And they got to go on the road to a Mississippi State team that is putting up points. You know, it's not going to get easier for the Sooners. So they got to figure things out quick.

[00:27:04] I got a lot to figure out. And, you know, now it's back on their coach again because, you know, for whatever reason. And I don't – he just got an extension and before the season they gave him another extension. Like I don't know. And that really – and to come out with another extension and then you lose like that, that's not a good look. No, it's not. So they got a lot of questions with Norman right now and not a lot of answers.

[00:27:34] Yeah. Yeah. As far as Michigan's arch rival, they played Oklahoma's arch rival. And it looked – again, we talked about our game, a tale of two halves. Man, a tale of three quarters and then one quarter for this one. Like that one. Yeah. Wow. Two guys pushing them around in the first half. Jeremiah Smith doing Jeremiah Smith things.

[00:28:04] Julian Sane throwing darts. Third quarter cooled off a little bit. But like Wingo was dropping passes. Cam Coleman was dropping passes. Arch was actually not having a bad first half, but nobody could catch. Yeah. Just the talent not living up. And then we enter the fourth quarter, 23-3 Ohio State. Everyone's, you know, changing channels. Everyone's like, ah, you know.

[00:28:30] And then Arch puts his name in Texas lore. Yeah. Furious comeback. They score Hollywood. Smother scores a touchdown with about, what, 35 seconds left. And the Longhorns, the biggest win in that program. And probably since that win in Tuscaloosa a few seasons ago. That really put them on the map for that season and led them to the playoff that year. Yeah. Absolutely.

[00:29:00] But the biggest, man. But, like, because you almost felt like, man, if – It's going to be real dicey for Sark if they had kept on losing by 20-plus. And people were wondering, man, hey, you're a good coach, but when these big games, you haven't exactly lived up tonight. You know, you've had your – you've had your Georgia problems, and now you're about to have your third straight loss –

[00:29:28] third time to lose to Ohio State in a row. And it's gotten worse. Like, the first two were somewhat close. And this is because both of your best team out of the three, and you're down 20. Like, we're at home. Hey, what's going on? Yeah, there would have been big questions. And then they got a – what's shaping up to be a really good game in two weeks at Tennessee up there in Knoxville. Boy, that's a very interesting game now.

[00:29:56] Yeah, there would have been a lot of pressure on Sark had they got blown out. But now, turn around, they get UTSA at home next week, try to clean things up, and then they go up to Knoxville. And, yeah, that's shaping up to be a really good big game. It could be a very interesting game. Yeah. But the other big story of the day, Oklahoma State upsets Oregon.

[00:30:26] Man, something nobody saw. Maybe before the season you might have looked at it and been like, oh, man, you know, Eric Morris with Drew Mestemaker, maybe they can scare Oregon, put some points up. Yeah, you would think they'll put some points up. It'll be cute. You know, but after they lost to Tulsa, they not only lost to Tulsa, they got dominated by Tulsa. Like, the final score wasn't even a thing as far as how bad the game really was.

[00:30:54] All that talent on the offense and not even the talent from, you know, different parts of the country and they're trying to gel. Like, this is all people that played together last year. You know, they know each other and they know the system. And they can only put up 10 against Tulsa. And you're thinking, dude, this Oregon team that's hurt, did they suck all week because they lost? Well, it felt like a loss how, you know, they came out of the Boise State game.

[00:31:24] And you're thinking, man, they're going to go crazy on Okie State. Man, Okie State really beat the hell out of them. Yeah, Okie State pushed them around a lot. The rain delay, they beat the hell out of them. Like, they were dominant. And really, if Drew Messamaker doesn't have those two interceptions, it's not even as close as what it turned, you know? I mean, the score is no indication of how that game really was.

[00:31:53] Okie State beat the hell out of Oregon. Oregon looks soft. Their defense for a second week in the row looks atrocious. Dante Moore, you're wondering what's going on with him. His energy was trash. I don't know. Like, Oregon has some questions to figure out because they got one more cake game and then they can play USC. Yeah, in L.A. too. Yeah, down at the Coliseum too.

[00:32:23] It's another team with a big one in two weeks that they need to figure out. Yeah. So they have a lot to figure out because a lot of soul searching going on in Eugene right now because this is not anything that anybody expected. And it's all because I picked him as my national champion, obviously. I was about to say, it's a curse. You picked him as your national title. I picked him in the national title game. I got Dante Moore as my Heisman winner.

[00:32:52] So we warned you, Oregon fans, that that was bad news. We're sorry. But, yeah. Like, you know, it almost felt – I hate to say it, but it almost – right now it has that Penn State feel from last year on the brink. There's only two ways it could go. Either they right the ship or the bottom is going to completely fall. Yeah, it'd be interesting to see how Dan Lainey responds to this.

[00:33:21] I don't know because – but, you know, at the end of the day, man, like we always say, you know, what's up with these coaches. But it comes down to this. Yes, the coach has to have the people, you know, ready to go. But these players, they got to be ready to go themselves. Mm-hmm.

[00:33:46] And after the first two games, if you're an Oregon player, like you – if you don't have a motivation to want to come out and do better, I don't know what will motivate you at this point. Like, you got – you almost lost to – Boise. A G16. Like, no matter what, there's still a G16.

[00:34:14] Like, and when you're as highly rated as, you know, Oregon was at home, not only that, but you weren't even on the blue turf. And you were – you're a defensive suspect. And then you come and you play Okie State team. Now, granted, it's now nowhere near the Okie – you know, like the whole – it's a whole new team, basically. I mean, nobody was really on that team. It's on that team this year. Really won on that team last year.

[00:34:42] But, yeah, you beat them by 60-something last year. They're coming off a loss to Tulsa, and they beat the hell out you. Like, that is weird. No, it was for sure – it was a shocking loss. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, is it just one of those strange, weird days? Or is – I'm hoping Oklahoma State just was trash week one.

[00:35:09] Because I like what – I like Drew Messemaker. I like – or more – I like – I like the – I like that dynamic. I like watching them in North Texas. And, you know, we were excited for that going – we said, you know, I don't know how many games they win, but they should be able to put up some points. They're going to be fun to watch. And they were fun as hell to watch on Saturday. Yeah. And if they play like that and they clean up some mistakes, they can make some noise in the Big 12. You know, we always talk about the Big 12 is unpredictable.

[00:35:37] You never know where some team might come out of nowhere. Why not Oklahoma State? Yeah, if they play that defense, they can shut down an Oregon offense, especially if Oregon turns around and plays like they can and should, you know. This win could just get that much more impressive. Or like you said, it could be a sign of things to come for maybe a disaster season for Oregon. At this point, who knows? Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

[00:36:04] That's the thing about, yeah, this early in the season is you don't really know what it means until a few weeks or if not a couple months down the line. Right. Especially – you know, it's always like that in a sense, but even more so in the world of the transfer portal where, you know, in some instances, 50% of your team is somebody new. You know, you have five new starters and none of them were there last year. Right. You know.

[00:36:34] So, I mean, you can only practice against yourself so much that you're really never going to figure out, you know, until a game. You know. So, we shall see. But it would be interesting because, you know, you want to see can Oregon – you know, is Oregon dead in the water or they're going to figure it out, you know. I think it's going to – like I said, it's either going to be – it's going to be glorious either way.

[00:37:02] It's either going to be glorious as far as they're going to bounce back and they're going to run off a whole bunch of games on out and you're like, where was this, you know, the first two weeks of the year? Or it's going to turn into a complete and utter shit show. One of the two. I don't see any in between for Oregon this year. It's either going to be one or the other. Yeah. No, I agree. I think either, yeah, they flip around and this kind of gets them the kicking ass

[00:37:30] they needed or, you know, we're going, uh-oh, what the hell happened, you know, in December. When they're left out of the playoff or something. Elsewhere around the country, that was it for kind of the big upset of the day. Just some other interesting ones. Missouri and Kansas, Missouri, a winner in the border war after some fun pregame stuff. Kansas, the official Kansas scout, making a hype video, talking about John Brown and stuff.

[00:37:58] We were on the right side of history. They got a little beef, man. It was great. It was great. You know, some people were like, oh, they went way too far with it. Man, I thought it was funny. I thought it was great. Yeah, it was hilarious. I love it. We talked about it earlier, man. It's college football. They're supposed to be like fun games. Yeah. Absolutely. And, you know, Eli Drinkowitz was crying about it after. Yeah.

[00:38:25] But at the end of the day, by the end of the day, Mizzou looked damn good. They did. They did. They looked good. Now, they're not. And that's a team you were wondering. Well, you know, we were kind of wondering about their quarterback. You know, he kind of got pushed out with that injury and never, you know, got his another opportunity at Ole Miss. He looked great. He looked great against Kansas.

[00:38:52] If he looks like that all season, man, Mizzou, I'm glad they're not on the schedule. Yeah, right. Yeah. Maybe things are looking good for the Tigers and Columbia there. Elsewhere, a lot of blowouts, man. I mean, we saw one started Thursday night. Miami just, of course, ran roughshod over Florida A&M. Louisville, big win over Villanova. Virginia, big win over Norfolk State.

[00:39:22] And you got the set. Go ahead. No, dude. We all knew, fam, you, Miami was going to be ugly. Mm-hmm. But almost 900 yards of offense is stupid. Oof. That is stupid. Disrespectful. Stop it. Like, that is stupid. There should not be 900 yards of offense no matter who you're playing. This is not PlayStation. Stop it. I saw that stat line because I'm not even going to watch this, really. Like, there's nothing to watch here.

[00:39:52] No. Yeah. But that was stupid. Like, it was like 850-something. I'm like, my God. Yeah, 856 total yards, 426th of the year, 430 rushing. The crazy thing is you have almost 900 yards and you're that balanced. There was only four yards difference in your passing and rushing games. That's insane. That's insane. Just insane. They averaged 9.8 yards of rush. Yeah.

[00:40:20] They were 27 of 29 passing the ball. They said, fam, you, you're going to get this check, but you're going to pay for it. Yeah. Yeah. They, I mean, Darian Mintz, a 14 of 15 for 252, three touchdowns. Backup Luke Nickel came in, 8 of 8 for a buck 44 and three touchdowns. Even a third quarterback came in, Deron Coleman. He was 5 of 6. He had 200-yard rushes.

[00:40:48] Mark Fletcher, seven carries for 105 yards, two touchdowns. He had JV and Mallory, 10 carries for 142 yards. That was the thing. It's not like they had their starters doing all the work. That was the crazy part. Everybody was getting hurt. Mallory Cattoni just put in a quick shift, four catches, 96 yards, touchdown. All right, I'm done. I mean, just crazy. They weren't even being disrespectful, you know, playing the starters and shit.

[00:41:16] Like, they were, you know, it's one of them games. It doesn't matter who. It's one of those games and those opponents, it doesn't matter who's in the game. They might be. Yeah, they're, yeah. 17 different Miami players caught the ball. That's wild. But, yeah, elsewhere, yeah, elsewhere, Georgia, a big winner. They put 70 on Western Kentucky. Georgia actually blowing these teams out, like, complete games that they're supposed to.

[00:41:45] You know, this is kind of game Georgia usually. Yeah, that's how they've had some sleepwalks, like, where they're, you know, they end up winning 42 to 10, but it'll be, like, 17 to 3 at half. Yeah, yeah. You kind of, it's one of those games where you don't really doubt the end result, but you kind of, you might see the score flash on TV or checking your phone and you kind of see that, yeah, it'll be, like, you know, Georgia 11, you know, or 10 to 7 or something like that.

[00:42:12] And, like, with three minutes to go in the second quarter and you're, like, well, wait a minute now. And then by the start of the fourth quarter, yeah, it's, oh, it's 31. Yeah. Well, yeah, elsewhere. Go ahead. Yeah, Georgia's beating the hell out of folks. Yeah. And I'm talking about beating the hell out of folks. Yeah, it's going to, Saturday's going to be ugly in Fayetteville. My God. What is it? With them hogs. Yeah, Arkansas went out Salt Lake City and Utah.

[00:42:42] I think everybody knew that was going to happen, but it's one of those things, like, you knew it might get bad, but then it got that bad and you're, like, damn, I didn't know if it was going to get quite that bad. And you knew it was going to get bad. Like, I knew that, you know, when it was at 12 points, I was, like, yeah,

[00:43:07] they're definitely going to win by more than 12 because, A, it's a night game at Rice-Nickels Stadium. I mean, that's, that's, atmosphere is wild. Utah is a good team. And I don't know what the hogs are right now. This is not a good game for the hogs to have on the schedule there at all. No. Just a bad, all-round bad omen. And they got obliterated.

[00:43:33] And that's just, and that's really bad for their coach because nobody wants him there anyway. I don't understand it quite why there's such disdain for this man. But Arkansas already didn't like him coming in as the coach, and now he's getting his head knocked off. So, yeah, I don't know how this tenure is going to go in February. Yeah, it was, got ugly pretty quickly there.

[00:44:02] Big second quarter from the Utes. Yeah. And Arkansas, like you said, doesn't get easier for them. They get, Georgia comes to town next week. And, yeah. Their schedule is stupid. Their schedule is stupid. Elsewhere, you also had Notre Dame big winners, Indiana big winners, LSU big winners, took them a second. But they got up on La Tech. Charlotte, or excuse me, Ole Miss big winner was Charlotte.

[00:44:31] Texas A&M kind of close with Arizona State for a while and ended up winning by 28. Yeah. In the fourth quarter, they said, man, they took it to them. Yeah, 24.4th quarter there for the Aggies. And the one, the only thing I got right on all of them, on our pick, I mean, I went with them dogs from Starkville. They went up to Minnesota and dominated. Ooh, did they, man? Offense looking something serious right there for you.

[00:44:59] Like you said, the Bulldogs. Kamario Taylor, man, just, they got them to the quarterback. Who is this guy? Man, are we? Hey, that's one of them games. Dude. At first, I'm going to, the closer we get to that game, I'm like, wait a minute. It's going to be a Starkville. I don't know what time that game's going to be.

[00:45:29] But Kamario Taylor, man, that play, if they, man, that might be interesting. Now, we've had a, anytime, now we've had it where anytime we're Mississippi State, when Mississippi State gets a little hype, we beat the hell out of them. But I don't know. Kamario Taylor's something different. Yeah, we got a, we will actually, that game's on the third. That will actually be a early start.

[00:45:58] It's going to be either noon or, yeah, 11 or noon start time there. So we already know that's going to be an early one. They got a couple tough games before that. They got to go to Columbia, South Carolina this week. And then. That's going to be a very interesting game. Yeah. And then Missouri comes to Starkville the next week. So, yeah. We'll talk about next week's, like, just a second. Yeah. Elsewhere, Auburn big winners over Southern Miss. A lot of blowouts just everywhere. I mean, South Carolina big winner. Florida big winner.

[00:46:27] Vanderbilt, not, you know, only nine point win over Delaware. Yeah. Tennessee, an impressive win. They look really good. Went in Atlanta. Beat Georgia Tech. Granted, it's not last year's Georgia Tech team, but a good Georgia Tech program right now. And handled them fairly easily. 45-24 in the end. Ran all over them. Their freshman quarterback is looking better every week. You know, they're running.

[00:46:54] That's one thing Tennessee's done that people don't give enough credit for. You know, you think of them as a high passing team, but they run the ball very well. Yeah, they ran for 299 yards. They ran the ball well. So, man, the balls are looking good. Yeah, they have a Sunday game in Knoxville against Texas. Why that's an 11 a.m. game, I don't know. But I'm just wondering about it. No.

[00:47:22] But anyway, my game could be very interesting in a couple weeks there. Yeah. You know, you know, dude, the crap. Now, the craziest thing to me outside of, you know, some of the biggest upsets were some of our high-powered teams that we really think were good G6 teams got obliterated on Saturday. UNLV got their doors blown off by North Texas.

[00:47:53] Navy came back a little bit, but they got their doors knocked off by, was it South Florida? Yeah. Yeah. No, Army lost to South Florida. Navy lost to FAU. Yeah, FAU would be beating them badly. They made it look prettier than what it was. You have those two teams lose. You know, we had our other, you know, our G6 kind of elimination game with Boise and Memphis. Memphis went up 14,

[00:48:22] and then Boise obliterated them in the second half. Boise looked pretty tough. Yeah, so good bounce back for Boise. Yeah, looking in the American, there were some other interesting ones. UAB, a little comeback win over UL Monroe. They were struggling for a bit. Put 13 in the fourth quarter to win. Tulane, back and forth, a late touchdown, got them a win over South Alabama.

[00:48:52] Tulsa followed up their win over Oklahoma State with a win at Sam Houston. So, yeah, some interesting right there. Utah State played Washington very close. They did. They had the ball at the end of the game. They could have won it. And now you're wondering about Washington. And honestly, you're wondering about, honestly, as much trash as they talked all offseason, man, you weren't about the Big Ten in totality.

[00:49:22] I mean, this is a conference that's, you know, the Michigan game kind of saved face for them. But, you know, Mississippi State went up to a solid Minnesota team, obliterated them. You know, your big dogs, Ohio State and Oregon both taking a loss on the same Saturday out of conference there. Like, man, Big Ten is looking a little shaky. Yeah. Iowa close win over Iowa State. Of course, that game is always crazy.

[00:49:53] I couldn't believe it. And really, I probably should have put that on. I can't believe I didn't put that on the pick for our article because that line at 14, it's like, bro, it doesn't matter who Iowa State has on. That game is going to be low scoring and ugly. And, of course, it was low scoring and 16-13. Yeah. We'll hit the field with 30 seconds left or something. And you didn't even mention the game on Friday for maybe the worst

[00:50:22] power conference team, but Rutgers loses to Boston College. Yeah. Ooh, man, I think people. Rutgers, I don't think they're winning the game this year. Man, it does not look like it. I mean, you lose to UMass, first of all, which is a terrible, terrible loss. And then you lose to Boston College. Well, I will say, the only thing I will say in defense of Rutgers, we should have known the Boston College was going to win that game.

[00:50:52] Hey, it's the day before 9-11. The red bandana game, too. You should have known. And it was a fine time to get after Rutgers. They got after Rutgers. Yeah. Well, Rick Shiano's second tenure at New Jersey is not going to end very well. I believe. Yeah, and it doesn't get easier. They got USC coming to town next week. Yeah.

[00:51:22] And then in – But they do have – So, yeah, well, you give them the Howard game. Yeah, and then other than that, you kind of look at it and you're like, well, I don't know. Do they beat anybody else? Yeah. Based upon the team that I've seen the first two weeks of the season, outside of beating Howard, they're not beating anybody. No. You guys see – No.

[00:51:50] And then when the teams that you think they could beat, I mean, Maryland, Northwestern, Wisconsin maybe, they're on the road for all those games. Yeah. So, it's like, oh, shit. Sorry. Yeah. Like, yeah, I'm with you. I don't see it. So, yeah, like you said, rough week for the Big Ten. Overall, rough week for the Big Ten. But, you know, that's – Another fun week.

[00:52:18] Yeah, I mean, elsewhere North Dakota State improved to 2-0. Nevada goes down to Montana State. So, I think that, you know, an early FCS over FBS team right there. Of course, the different champions, Montana State. But still, but still in the time. I mean, it's still the difference. No matter how good you are at the FCS level, it's still a money difference. I don't care. Yeah. Well, especially Nevada.

[00:52:48] They looked – they had a good win last week. Maybe West Kentucky. I think a lot of folks were surprised by that, and they blew them out. They blew them. They blew out the Hilltopper. I was shocked by that score. I can't say I watched a lot of it, but every time I saw it, I was like, am I looking – am I seeing this right? Like, yeah. Because, you know, West Kentucky's had a solid run. Yeah. So, honestly, man, every week, man, every time I think, you know – and I know it's early,

[00:53:18] but I don't think anybody has anything figured out at all this year. We don't know what's going on in football this year. We just stay here for the ride, to enjoy the ride, because I don't think we know anything about anybody, because you've got to think about it. All the teams that we think are good that have had – have played a decent opponent have had a struggle game already. Mm-hmm. And those that are blowing people out haven't played anybody.

[00:53:47] So, I don't think we know anything about anybody yet. No. No, yeah. You know, we can say – I mean, we can say, oh, you know, we saw Texas hit that. You know, we saw Texas win. So, obviously, they're good. Did you see the first three quarters? There's a lot of questions in Austin still. You know, we'll say, oh, Ohio State, they're not nearly as good. But you have questions about them. Great, great first half. But then you have lots of 20-point lead.

[00:54:14] I don't care if you're who you're playing at home, on the road, against a great team in Texas, but there's no – a good team like Ohio State should never lose a 20-point lead. It doesn't matter. Like, that's wild. So, I don't think we – I don't think we know anything about anybody right now. No. Yeah. We have so many – there's no answers.

[00:54:35] This – and, man, this might – this almost – by the end of it, man, we might have that 2007 feel to this season. Maybe, yeah. Yeah, you'd like to see some of these top teams play somebody a little, you know, stiffer competition first, you know, like Miami. We want to see what they do against better teams. But, yeah, you're right, man. Turn that Notre Dame game.

[00:55:04] We're not going to know anything about them. No, yeah. We're just going to run through everybody. But, I mean, I guess what we get with Miami is if they blow out everybody, then I think that shows that they're as good as advertised because they're not playing around with people. And we've seen Miami play around with lesser competition the last couple years. If they don't do – if they blow out everybody this year, I think that we know who they are.

[00:55:32] But, yeah, tell that Notre Dame game they don't play anybody. I mean, you got to look at it. Georgia haven't played – they've been impressive. Haven't played anybody. You know, Indiana's putting up points. Haven't played anybody. You know, Notre Dame really haven't played – and they're a team until they play – you know, they have three tough games, but that's not for a while now. And really the Miami game more or less is one of equal –

[00:56:01] equality as far as the overall talent level. So, we really don't learn a lot about Notre Dame week to week. So, I mean, I think, yeah. I mean, business will pick up, though, for a lot of these teams, though, because we're going to find out about people eventually. You know, when you're in the SEC in the Big Ten, you can't escape stuff for too long, you know. And really the Big 12 was wide the hell open.

[00:56:30] Yeah, I was going to say, looking ahead to next week's schedule. I mean, Texas Tech hasn't looked – I mean, Texas Tech hasn't looked exactly pretty in their first two weeks. I mean, Oregon State gave them – They had to score two touchdowns late to win that one against the Beavers, yeah. And then they get Friday night. Friday night they host Houston. Yeah, that's a huge game. Huge game, yeah. And Houston, too. No, no, no, it's in Lubbock. It's in Lubbock?

[00:57:00] Oh, man. Okay, yeah, you're right. Yeah, it's in Lubbock. So, good for them. But still, I mean, Houston's a good – Yeah. You know, of course, they blew out Southern. You know, it's Southern. But that's a big early Big 12 game on Friday night. And, of course, Saturday, the headliner LSU at Ole Miss, the Kiffin Bowl. Oh, man. Going to be hostile there in Oxford. It is going to be hostile. You know, that's another one.

[00:57:29] I don't know what to expect from that. Because, you know, you look at it one way and you see signs that LSU can blow them out. Mm-hmm. But then you see signs as well as, man, their Ole Miss offense, is anybody going to blow out Ole Miss? I don't know. You know, we can – the other thing, too, though, Clemson struggled last week, too.

[00:57:59] They only put up, what, 22? Yeah. It wasn't great against Georgia Southern, no. Yeah. So, yeah, I think we're going to find out a lot about both these teams. Yeah. And one thing I'm interested in is to see – you remember the 2020 Alabama-Ole Miss game? And it was a heart attack for Alabama fans. Closest anybody played to Tide that year. Oh, my God. Yeah. Just Ole Miss, just two teams trading scores.

[00:58:26] And, you know, they asked Lane Kiffin about it, and he said, like, basically, when I was – you know, I just remembered everything that Nick Saban hated as a defensive coach, wrote it down, and that's just what I did that game. And so, to me, an interesting battle in this one is which coach, Kiffin or Pete Golden, knows – you know, better knows the tendencies and the weaknesses of the other.

[00:58:54] You know, can – what can Pete Golden do to stop, you know, the Lane Kiffin offense, or what can Lane Kiffin do to attack, you know, Pete Golden's defense there? And then, of course, you know, you got, like, Trinidad-Cambliss on the other side, you know, going the other way. So, it's going to be a fun one. And then in our afternoon, the big game in the afternoon, huge one in the ACC, SMU at Louisville. Huge game. Yeah, SMU wants to improve their performance.

[00:59:22] You know, they got the win in Tallahassee, but four turnovers did not look good. Maybe against a better team, they don't pull that one out. Louisville fought hard. Yeah, another close loss to, you know, another close loss in the big game of Ole Miss, but now the big ACC game. And like you said, at home, a great environment. Yeah. 230. I hate how many good 230 games are on because I'm not going to be watching any of them except our game.

[00:59:53] Yeah. There's a couple of – It's a lot of 230 games, and I'm like, man, I would really like to watch it, but I just don't ever try to any other games. Even in blowouts, I watch Bama. That's just what I watch. No, yeah. I don't ever switch. Might during a commercial, might at halftime for a second. But, yeah. I'll do it on my phone if I want to catch some book on my phone. Yeah. If the TV never switch, I'll Bama. I don't do it. No, I'm like that.

[01:00:21] Yeah, I might set up the laptop on a coffee table or something and peek down at it if there's like a really big game. But, yeah. I'm locked in. But, yeah, now that 230 slot in general is a hell of a slot on Saturday. But, yeah, I mean, Louisville, I mean, this is a big game for them. It's a big game for both teams because, you know, it's a big ACC game. And, you know, you're really trying – more or less trying to play that second best in the ACC

[01:00:50] because, obviously, Miami has that first unlock right now. So, you're trying to become the second team that makes the championship game. That's all you want to be. A huge game for both teams. I mean, SMU's kind of had their numbers of late, but we'll see. You know, this is a big spot for both teams. I think it might be a little bigger for Louisville, though. Oh, for sure, yeah.

[01:01:16] Already one loss in the season and so many close losses in the past couple years in the Jeff Braum era. They're just looking. They're desperate to get over that hump and get that really big signature win. This is another opportunity for them. You know, they can't close one, and this is another big opportunity. But this is a home game. And, yeah, on the other side of the SMU where you have four turnovers at Louisville and you'll find yourself down 28.

[01:01:44] So, you better hold on to the ball. And, yeah, we talked about this in our preview, but Louisville, no Miami, no Clemson, no, you know, this is their big game, man. This is a huge game. Big game for both teams. Yeah. So, if they can win this one, you know, the Cards can really set themselves up. And, you know, same thing for SMU, two teams.

[01:02:10] And, you know, possibly, I guess, you know, we talked about Miami. But, yeah, this is a big battle for that second slot. And who knows, possibly, if Miami does, you know, Miami and the ACC things. And maybe this is an ACC title preview. But two teams with playoff ambitions for sure. Absolutely. You know, what's the name? But keeping the ACC, I'm very interested in the Virginia-West Virginia game.

[01:02:40] Yeah, in Charlotte, in the Duke's Mayo Classic. Yeah, that's a – I think that's a very interesting game. I mean, you have a Virginia, you know, and they're – you know, we haven't talked about them really since week zero. I mean, they have – you know, they have the dominant win over North Carolina State. But we haven't talked about them since because I think they're off the week after that. And then they, you know, had a cakewalk last week.

[01:03:10] But now, you know, they play against what seems to have an improved West Virginia team. But, yeah, I think it's very – could be a very interesting game. Ten-point favorite right now. So, I don't – man, that's kind of a – Yeah, it's a big. Seems like a big number. Seems like a big number. No, that's for sure an interest. Another one interesting at the same time there in ACC, Virginia Tech at Maryland, which I guess Maryland's a Big Ten team.

[01:03:39] But, yeah, a good – Should still do conference again. But, yeah. Yeah, should still. So, meanwhile, Duke at Stanford is a conference game. And then, you know, Bill Belichick goes to Clemson. You mentioned a struggling Clemson team. Did not look all that great against Georgia Southern. Do they lose – do they lose – do they lose this game? Oh, man. Oh. That's – that's 11 o'clock.

[01:04:10] 11 a.m. They're at home. But, you know – you know it's – things are not really looking great when Clemson is only a three-and-a-half-point favorite against Carolina. Oh. Yeah. Three-and-a-half points. Yeah. Yeah. NC State Vanderbilt's an interesting game, too, in ACC. Yeah, yeah. Interesting. Yeah, ACC, SEC. NC State – Do you want to know?

[01:04:40] Yeah. NC State, obviously, you know, we're still wondering what happened in week zero. And they got absolutely obliterated, embarrassed. And, you know, of course, they bounced back fine last week after the bye week. But, you know, now they're playing a year. It's a Vanderbilt team. That's 2-0, but hasn't been the two prettiest of games. You know, they're still figuring things out.

[01:05:11] So, I mean, you know, could be a big win for the Wolfpack should they – you know, if they could pull this off, that would look really good for the Wolfpack. Yeah, absolutely. That would especially be a good rebound from that week zero performance. Oh, no. They just got dominated by Virginia. And the SEC, we mentioned that Mississippi State going up – they're going down to South Carolina.

[01:05:40] I like the bulldoze. Yeah, interesting road trip. And they're putting up points now. So, real good one. A big rivalry one that doesn't get played enough anymore at six. Florida at Auburn. A new coach special right there, John Sumrall and Alex Gorge. Both teams on the field right now. Yeah, both teams too, though. Florida's putting up a pro-roll on the point. Florida's offense has been – of course, they played Campbell Soup last week. Yeah. Florida Atlantic.

[01:06:10] But now that Florida Atlantic beat Navy, maybe that looks better now. You know, they were dominated for it. I – Yeah. Auburn's offense looked a lot better in their game against Southern Miss than it did against Baylor. Byron Brown, two touchdowns, no picks this time. Ran for another 88 yards. So, yeah, it'll be an interesting one. That'd be a good one to see there.

[01:06:41] Yeah. Anything else on the college game before we move on to the pros real quick? I'm trying to see. No, I guess that's – I guess that's kind of it, man. You know, it's funny. You know, everybody's kind of been waiting for this week three tussle in Oxford. But, man, it's going to be an interesting weekend for a lot of teams. You know, I think –

[01:07:09] It's kind of cliche to say we'll learn about teams this week, but we're going to learn about some teams this week a little more. You know, the – Yeah, we'll – You know. Yes, it's like your first test of the year of the semester in school. You know, it's kind of – Some people. You kind of get a little bit more of an idea of how the class is going to go. So, yeah, for a lot of teams, you get –

[01:07:35] We'll start to learn just a little bit more about who they really are this week. Absolutely. Yeah, let's move on. NFL, first week NFL started that terrible game on Wednesday, Seahawks and Patriots. Dude. No, go ahead. You got something on it. Man, like I'm not one of those people that – All the starters should play all the time in the preseason.

[01:08:04] I'm not one of those guys. Never have been. But you could tell like neither team, the starters hadn't played where – It's like – It was like the first day of camp or something. Nobody looked like they knew what was going on. Like everybody looked out of shape. Like it was horrible. And then we got all the injuries in that first game too. I mean, that's a – You know, for the Pats especially, I mean, they're –

[01:08:32] You know, Brown comes over there, didn't do a damn thing in the game, and now he's out for a month. Yeah. Gee. He's on the – He's on the puck already. It was an ugly, ugly game up there in Seattle. The champs won the rematch. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Seattle figured it out, got the win there. But that was about as bad of a regular season NFL game with hype that I've seen in a while. Yeah.

[01:09:01] You kind of hope it's bad enough for them to maybe go, you know, maybe we don't need a Wednesday game. Let's just do the Thursday one. The Thursday game though, not much better, at least for one team. Yeah. Down in Melbourne, Australia, and the 49ers just whooped the Rams. 27-7 final score. But the big story in that one was how the Rams flew there the day before, and the Niners had gone out early to adjust to time,

[01:09:29] and Sean McVay and the Rams talking about how they had it figured out. They did not. They looked like a team. They were jet lag, tired, and yeah. When they go 20 – And then like a day flight to Australia. It's a long one, yeah. It's a long flight. I mean, you're on an A-Web 29 hours before the game. Is that right? The day before, yeah. What are you doing?

[01:09:59] And their idea was like, well, we don't want to get all scheduled and play because it was 10 a.m. local time, I think. And they were like, well, we don't want to play a game at 10 a.m. We wouldn't play a game at 10 a.m. here. So, man, nah. Just dumb. I mean – Honestly, you do. If they go across the country and play an East Coast team at the 1 o'clock Eastern spot, I guess that's – That's a early game. That's a 10 a.m. game.

[01:10:29] Your local time. So, yeah. And then, you know, bad news got worse with the Rams as Miles Garrett's going to miss at least four weeks. So, that – Yeah. I'm like, was he hurt before? Who knows? Maybe. The Cleveland knows something. The Cleveland knows something. No. I mean, yeah. Of course, this could be like an NBA-type situation

[01:10:57] where they just get themselves in the playoffs as long as they get all their stars healthy. Yeah, as long as it – Yeah, the Rams regular season doesn't matter as long as they make the playoffs. Like, simple as that. There's no excitement in LA to go 12-5 or, you know, 13-4. No. If you're not making the Super Bowl, it's a failure. I'm sorry. Yeah. With all the hype.

[01:11:26] But big win for the 49ers there. Yeah, kind of reminded everyone, like, hey, motherfuckers, we're good too. Yeah. Yeah. You know, really, they showed me – What's his name? Was back home and he should have never left, obviously. Debo Samuel looked back at home in a 49er uniform. He had one weird year in Washington. Yeah, he was back at home and he looked good. Yeah, right.

[01:11:56] You know, maybe they patched things up there. I know. Niners fans hope so. So, Sunday, speaking of looking good, Ravens look like they should. Again, a lot of people were kind of thinking the Colts might jump up. And I saw a lot of people taking that Colts plus three and a half. Mal did on our picks column. And let me tell you, a motivated Lamar Jackson. He's listening to everybody all offseason. Talk about, you know, not ranking them.

[01:12:24] He was, what, in the, like, 57th or something on the NFL 100 list. What? Every show. What are we doing? Every show you watch, they did QB rankings where he was, like, seventh. All these shows talking about do the Ravens need to move on if they don't make the Super Bowl this year? Lamar heard that, y'all. He is healthy. He is motivated. Derrick Henry is still Derrick Henry. Zay Flowers. The Ageless Wonder. Zay Flowers. A lot of talk about his contract in the offseason.

[01:12:53] He put up 150 in the first half. Austin. Austin. Yeah, left the game with a hamstring injury. They did say today that's just a day-to-day thing. So, hopefully, that's not only good. At any time, one of the Ravens, y'all have had some bad luck with injuries. So, anytime one of the stars go down in week one, I know y'all are like, shit. Yeah, especially in that receiving core because it can get thin real fast.

[01:13:16] Promising rookie Jacoby Lane, he made a couple nice plays, too, but he fractured his wrist, so he's going to be out at least a few games. But he has won over a lot of Ravens fans with his preseason and his training camp. So, I think he even made a post right after the game talking about how he can't wait to get back on or something like that about him working to get back. So, he's endearing himself. And play calling just looked great. Did not miss a beat.

[01:13:46] They had 31 points at halftime. Defense was probably well. So, yeah. Y'all didn't – anytime y'all get a big lead, I'm like, oh, man, are they about going? No. I'm not. Yeah. Shocked. And, yeah, I guarantee you every Ravens fan at halftime coming in on halftime was like, oh, man, how's this going to go? But defense put the clamps on them. Yeah. So, yeah, good win there.

[01:14:16] I swear the Bills and Texans played a great one. And Bills pulled it out on the road down in Houston. The Bears and Panthers talk about a PlayStation game. Good Lord. What was it? The final score was, what, 59-37 or something? 59-37. Absolutely insane. If you had some of their guys on fantasy, you had a happy day, man. Oh, absolutely. I've had to show you that Bears offense.

[01:14:47] Yeah, defense might be a problem. So, offense looking good. Yeah, they look elite. They look elite out there. And, hey, a good performance for our boy Bryce, too. So, that's good. That's good. Nearly the shocker of the day, the Lions and Saints. Lions escaped with a one-point overtime victory after a furious comeback by the Saints and went for two in overtime. Couldn't get it. Went for the two. Yeah.

[01:15:17] That is one of them situations that makes sense to go for two. Oh, I agree. 100%. No one's expected to be there. If you lose, no one's mad at you. If you win, it's an exceptional start to the season. That's one of them situations that makes sense. You're the underdog. No one's expected to be where you're at right now. Have a comeback. You wish that it almost happened. And just, but, yeah, Jameer Gibbs had a great game. You know, now that he's the lead back there in Detroit.

[01:15:48] Yeah, 29 carries, 156 yards, two touchdowns. Added 30 through the air. Amon Ross, St. Brown, 10 catches. You know, what's new there? Not a lot of yards through the air for them. Only 206. But, yeah, good win for them. Encouraging loss. No more victories, but encouraging loss. For the Saints. They found out. They definitely have their starting quarterback. I'd say that. Yeah.

[01:16:18] 29 through the air. Yeah. Jets got them. Back has had that. Yeah, right. Jets got themselves a win on day one going down to Tennessee, taking that. Did they get an interception? Did they? They did not. Oh, wait. No, they did not get an interception. But. That's a neat one. Yeah. Still look for that. But, hey, they'll take the win. Bengals, six-point win over the Bucs.

[01:16:48] Got a little closer than probably should have. Yeah, probably with, what, four interceptions from Baker. They found a way. That's one thing. Baker. Not four. Four turnovers. They just have four turnovers. But Baker's one of those dudes, he could have a horrible day. And somehow, it seems like every game they find him, even when he's had a horrible day, he'll find a way to get back into the game. That's one thing about Baker. Yeah, it wasn't even him. It was four fumbles lost, actually.

[01:17:18] That's crazy. But then he always finds a way to keep his team in the game. I'll tell you that. He does. The whole NXC South lost. We talked about the ups and downs of the NXC South. They really hadn't even noticed that. The Saints lost. The Panthers lost. The Bucs lost. Yeah, and the Falcons lost to the Steelers. Although, closer than I thought it would be. I kind of thought Steelers might. It was a little closer than I went to that.

[01:17:44] Yeah, but, man, Atlanta's not going to be a mess all season, though, dude. Who would have thought? You know, you've had all this quarterback stuff going on, and yet your starting quarterback week one is Cooper Rush, the former Cowboys backup. The former Ravens backup. It was terrible in Baltimore, though. He was solid in Dallas. Yeah, he was. I remember the Ravens signed him. I was like, hey, all right, that's a pretty good backup quarterback right there. And he just, mm, terrible.

[01:18:13] He didn't even want that in a couple games for us as a starter. But, yeah, but, man, that's not who you want to be as your starter. No. At some point, Tula, you got to keep getting hurt, dude. You got to step away from the game. I'm sorry. It just has to happen. Mm-hmm. Yeah, for your future, man. There's life outside of football, bro. No, no. No, this isn't. I don't know anything about his wife at all.

[01:18:42] But my wife would beat the hell out of me if I kept going back to the game. Like, sit your dumb ass down somewhere. It's done. Like, we don't. We want you to know who we are in ten years, you know? Right. We're good. We got that bag. We got that one big contract. We're good. We're fine. We got multiple contracts. Like, no one's going to fault you if you step away from the game. But we don't want to end it bad.

[01:19:11] Like, step away from the game, Tula. Yeah, you don't want to be a vegetable before you're 40, man. Absolutely. So, maybe a shocking result of the day, Cardinals easy win over the Chargers. Yeah. Yeah. Brissette had a hell of a game. He did. He looked good. And they jumped out. And then a dominant fourth quarter. Yeah. Put him away.

[01:19:40] So, yeah, kind of shocker there. Everyone's darling. The Chargers. A lot of, I think, hell, I think I picked them in some contest to win the West at least. But Raiders got to win over the Dolphins. No surprise there. I think Dolphins are going to lose a whole lot of games this year. Yeah. Vikings were at a huge fourth quarter to beat the Packers. 22-point fourth quarter. Dude. That's all on the Packers. You took it.

[01:20:07] If anyone was watching that game, you took those points off the board because they thought you were cute. And when they didn't go for it on fourth and one, they stopped you and then they beat the hell out of you. But they kicked the field goal to go up by, at least say, I don't know. 22-10. Yeah. They took those points off the board.

[01:20:38] Yeah. No. Never take points off the board. I don't care. Unless you get, like, the first down. But they didn't even get the first down. It was fourth and one. They went for it on fourth and one and didn't get it. Got stuffed. Yeah. That's going to get LaFleur fired because you've had all these games where teams come back on you. Yeah. After big. Yeah. Like I said, they were up 22-10 with two minutes left in third. And then 29 unanswered from the Vikings to close out the game.

[01:21:07] We saw that last year against the Bears in the playoff games. Mm-hmm. Well, they're still going to win. After a starter, their starter, Kyler Murray went down, too. Carson Wentz comes in, plays a solid game. Yeah. But, man, but, dude, Kyler's probably thinking, man, what the hell? My luck is terrible. For real. What are the chances?

[01:21:31] Like, you, seems like, dude, I started them in two or three leagues. Yeah. Yeah. No. Luckily, I still won, though. I think I won. Yeah, you beat me. We played each other in our LMM take league. And despite, yeah, that, you still beat me. Yeah. Elsewhere, Eagles, close win over the Commanders. There's always one of those games is always weird. So, Jalen Hurts looked great.

[01:22:03] Then at night, game you don't want to talk about, but it's finally time. What are you? Your boys could not spoil John Harbaugh's New York debut. Dude, that was embarrassing. Like, as much as we heard in the all-off season and it all sounded beautiful, the defenses look, the defenses look no different. What was that? Like, we got deck. He can't even throw a ball to bounds. Like, he threw the pick.

[01:22:31] And at the end of the first half, they come back, scored a touchdown. I'm thinking, good God. Like, what are we doing? Like, in the second half, we had the ball only twice. I think we had the ball, like, two possessions. And we scored a touchdown on one of them to cut it to a touchdown. Yeah, just embarrassing. And we got absolutely dominated by the Giants and all facets of the game there. Yeah, could not get off the field. You mentioned only two possessions.

[01:23:01] It's like, Giants, three possessions in the second half. 12 plays, 74 yards, eight minutes off the clock, touchdown. 13 plays, 65 yards, eight minutes off the clock, touchdown. Yeah. 12 plays, 47 yards, last five minutes, 21 seconds of the game to ice it. Yeah. Yeah. It's incredibly frustrating. Yeah. I get it. 20. You have all this offensive explosion. Can only put up 20 points.

[01:23:32] Yeah. I got him in the full receiver. And, man, I don't know. That annoys the hell out of me. He's getting all this money. And, like, I know, like, but, dude, we were going, like, we're doing fine. Like, dude, you've been in the league for 10 years now. How do you not just chunk that ball out of bounds at the end of the second quarter?

[01:24:02] He floated that bitch and they picked it off. Then they go down and score a touchdown. At that point, I was a damn. That might be game over just because of how things are going. That was a terrible way to end the first half. I mean, it just got worse. But the defense, they got a lot of soul searching to do because that was terrible. Only bright spot that I take away from that game is Caleb Downs had a great game. He did. He looked the real part, man.

[01:24:29] And I will say this for the defense and then Jackson Dart. On that game, I don't really saw the end of it. So, in that game's ceiling drive, man, Dart was just making some perfect throws because there was a couple that Caleb Downs, like, it looked like he made the right read and he was right there on the guy's back, put his left hand out front, and just perfect placement by Dart.

[01:24:56] You know, if he had thrown it just half a foot, couple inches behind, you know, Downs was all over it. So, yeah, but he played a great game, bright spot for you all. But, yeah, I mean, and some of it, you got to give kudos to the Giants. I mean, they did what they needed to do. Jackson Dart, obviously. When Jackson Dart's having a good day, he's a hell of a quarterback. Yeah. If he wants to become consistent, they might be a scary team.

[01:25:25] Well, I mean, you know, as much as, you know, I got frustrated with the John Harbaugh era, especially the end of it there, and Greg Roman has his limitations as a play caller. He is offense coordinator. The league will adjust quickly to Greg Roman because his passing scheme is so out of date that it will eventually hinder that offense. But Greg Roman and John Harbaugh and Greg Roman in general has a history.

[01:25:54] When they first install all offenses, it really catches the league by surprise. And if they got the right combination, I mean, you look at 2019, he came in, installed the offense for Lamar Jackson. Lamar Jackson, unanimous MVP, 14-2 regular season there. He was the OC for Colin Kaepernick in San Francisco when they went to the Super Bowl. Greg Roman can come in and install an offense,

[01:26:21] and it's good for, like, a team to start out. It's good for young quarterbacks. Yeah. You know, it's a term to all these, especially if he's got a guy that can run, too. And there's no expectations. Yeah, he's got a – you know, he's a great running game coordinator. He just cannot, you know, as an offense coordinator, his playing calling and then his lack of a modern passing game eventually will hurt him. But, yeah, so, you know, I should have – Oh, that works.

[01:26:50] I picture Cowboys, too. I should have known better. I should have known, you know what, like, this early on, it's going to look real great. But I really do think that by the end of the season, the league, because they've seen it now a couple times before, you know, it took them a couple years to adjust in Baltimore, but they eventually adjusted in San Fran, too. So, I think now it might be quicker. But we'll see. And like you said, yeah, I hope for your boys that that offense, you know, becomes that offense.

[01:27:19] You've got to run Javante Williams more than they did. What, like 12 carries? He's got to get more carries. Got to get more carries. But, yeah, the main thing is the defense has to get out the damn field. Yeah. Even give the offense the opportunity. I mean, it's all they got there. They're one – I mean, we got the ball and scored, you know, to cut it to a touchdown. That's another thing. We got the timing, the timing thing, and I get it. But that's – I mean, you're down at that point. Don't sign the fourth quarter. But, dude, we're in the NFL.

[01:27:50] I think timing calls in the NFL are stupid. Yeah, I think unless, like – I think the only time it shouldn't be is, like, if they – you do something like get up in the guy's face, grab crotch, you know, something like that, stand over them. Yeah, stand over them. I get that, but it wasn't even that bad. Something that – like nothing that encourages, like, physical, you know, him, a physical retaliation. But, yeah, holding the ball out like that, man, come on. Like – Stop. Like, what are we doing? Like, these are grown men.

[01:28:20] If you're pissed off as a giant the next time, stop that shit. Yeah, that's like if – the equivalent to that is, like, in the NBA and basketball, if a dude, like, breaks somebody's ankles and then looks at him before he takes a shot, that they call that a foul. And, you know, you look at that and you're like, man, come on. Like, he earned that. Yeah. Sometimes you make a play and you earn a little, like, look at him and you're like, all right, man. Yeah.

[01:28:51] Got to remind – got to let him know sometimes. But – and then tonight, Chiefs are still the Chiefs apparently. Either that or Denver is overhyped. I guess we'll figure out which one. I guess what we did find out though is Kenneth Walker is that guy. I was about to say, yeah, anybody who has him on fantasy and anybody Chiefs fans, that was a great signing. Anybody who questioned that signing, he showed you why they did it. That was an excellent signing.

[01:29:20] Anybody who questioned that signing is an idiot. Yeah. I think that's kind of what they've been missing, man. Like – Running back. Yeah. As long as you can. These type of offenses, man. I mean, you think about all the great offenses. Like, even if they're not run first, they still have a great running back. I mean, you think – I mean, greatest show on turf, Rams. Yeah. You got Kurt Warner. You got Isaac Bruce. You got Torrey Holt. Ricky Holt. Marshall Falk. Yeah. Marshall Falk.

[01:29:50] Every great team has a good running back. And not only that, dude, he takes off so much pressure off Pat Mahomes. Yeah, absolutely. Takes off a lot of pressure off Pat. And it takes a lot of pressure off the offensive line. Because guess what offensive linemen like to do? They like to – more than anything, they'll pass block. But they love to run block. They want to knock you down. They want to run through you.

[01:30:19] Kenneth Walker adds a lot to the Chiefs. And, man, if they continue to run the ball like that, they're going to be a threat. They're going to be right back into winning the West again. Yeah, absolutely. It must be given their demise and they're down and out. And tonight anyway, and it's only week one, but they kind of made us look silly for that. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely.

[01:30:49] Elsewhere in the world of sports, Kawhi Leonard trade finally officially went through. So he will be going back to Toronto. They will be happy about that. The Clippers, they got hammered. Man, right? Lost all those picks. Five picks. In addition to all the picks you've given up over the years for people like Kawhi.

[01:31:17] So you don't – the next time they have a damn first-round draft pick is crazy. Yeah. Is it that serious? And then Steve Ballmer, he can't be around the – But that – not having a first-round draft pick in today's NBA for that amount of time, man, that is tough. That's crippling. And they're going to have to figure out ways to trade to get first-round picks.

[01:31:46] And I don't know that they don't really have it, you know? Yeah. No, yeah, no. That's pretty much – that's about as equivalent of a death sentence as you can get in there in pro sports. Mm-hmm. Like that just – The Clippers will be the Clippers of old for a long time with that, I think. No one's going to go there. No one's going to want to play there. Like they're going to be the –

[01:32:14] Man, that was about as bad a decision the league gave them as possible. Wow. Yeah, they're going to need to talk to old boy from the Rams, you know, fuck them picks. They're going to have to figure out how to do it without any picks. That's insane. Yeah. Elsewhere, baseball, of course, it's pennant race time. I was in Atlanta this past week and we saw Saturday night's game big win for the Braves, so that's good.

[01:32:42] They're close to clinching there. Your Yanks get three and a half. They're still there. Officially clinched a playoff spot anyway. White Sox a game and a half up on Cleveland. Houston a game up on Texas. Those AL races are still great. But I'm just like, dude, come on, little White Sox. Like, y'all have been there all year. Finish the job. Right.

[01:33:11] Wild card. You got Cleveland holding on that last spot with Toronto, Texas, Baltimore, all within three games. All right. They're in the NL. Like we talked about before, division races. Of course, it's over in the Central and West for all intents and purposes. Not officially yet, but nine and a half and nine game lead for Milwaukee and LA. Atlanta, two or three from Philly this week in Atlanta. So that's big. They're up four and a half. Yeah.

[01:33:41] So they're getting close. And in the wild card in the NL, not as many teams involved. And right now, San Diego is starting to pull away up three games on Arizona for that last spot. But I'm kind of right there for it. Anything else in World of Sports you want to touch on? Well, I mean, the U.S. women did win the whole FIBA tournament. So that's good for the country.

[01:34:09] You know, as much as they want to – as much as the media loves to portray that Angel Reese and let's them hate each other. You know, they seem to be going pretty good at the – Caitlin Clark, yeah. Yeah. So obviously that's just a push, you know. And, yeah. So – but that was good. I mean, you know, a lot of people thought France might beat them there.

[01:34:40] But, you know, without Asia there. But, you know, the U.S. big run there. Didn't lose any games there. So that was, you know, good for them. Been a little WWE talk, man. Sami Zayn is the champ again. Oh, that's right. I saw that. Sami Zayn is the champ again. You know, maybe this run will be a little longer. But, you know, it felt a little different.

[01:35:05] You know, we had, you know, Sami Zayn win the title on SmackDown. You know, Stephanie Vakura, the women's champ. And she won at a house show in her home country. Colombia. Chile. Yeah. Chile. Yeah, Chile. Yeah. So, really, you know, interesting spots, you know, to have titles change hands. I don't know what to do with that exactly.

[01:35:33] But, man, let Sami at least get a little run as a champ for a little bit. Don't do him bad again. Yeah. Yeah, right. Like, let him get a really – at least a meaningful defense. Defense, successful defense. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't know what happened to – I haven't watched Raw, but obviously the big match tonight, Roman Reigns and Pensa for the title. So, we'll see how that went. Yeah.

[01:36:04] All right, folks. You know, as always, continue to read our picks column Friday. I believe everybody went one and three this weekend. So, we're in mid-season form. Really? It was a – yeah, tough, tough, tough out. Sweet. Yeah. Other than that, Bama fans, it's Florida State hate week. LSU and Ole Miss, there's always hatred there.

[01:36:34] But, man, can't wait until that. It's going to be a great weekend. Yeah, got Lions bills on Thursday. That's a pretty good Thursday night game. That's about as good as a – and that's great any day of the week. Yeah. A Thursday. That's an awesome Thursday game. Yeah. Hopefully it lives up to the hype. Yeah. I think it will. A lot of points scored, I would think.

[01:37:01] Yeah, but we're in for another great weekend, man. But that – this kind of football weekend is going to be very interesting just because of so many big games. And we're going to start, you know, telling – we're going to start finding out about teams as they, you know, play bigger games, meaningful games, conference games. Yeah, it's going to be good. Absolutely. Can't wait, buddy. I will see you then. Yes, sir.

[01:37:31] Thank you once again for listening to Takin' On Sports. If you enjoyed it, subscribe, like, rate us, do whatever your podcast platform of choice tells you to do to let them know that you like us. Of course, you can check out our podcast and all of the Alabama Take family of podcasts on thealabamatake.com. You can also catch our creative writings there, such as our weekly picks column where myself, Greg, Blaine, and Mallory pick three college games and one NFL game against the spread

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