Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Speaker A: Booyah. And it's time for the Game Sports podcast. It is your host, David McCague Jr. The Game Sports podcast is powered by 91 N. That's 91 network and this episode is sponsored by Flawless Roofing Sure Seal Incorporated. Over 30 years in the business, Flawless roofing sure Seal Incorporated can be contacted at Flawless roofing Dot CA or on Facebook. Over 30 years in the business, residential, commercial, rooftops, doesn't matter. Protect your investment and start from the top. And as I mentioned in a recent episode of the Game Sports podcast, which took place on Monday, they are going to be retiring. That is flawless roofing sure sale incorporated. But they are still accepting jobs and still able to come visit you to meet your needs. So make sure you check them out and get in touch with them before they officially retire. Now, the Game Sports Podcast this is the Wednesday edition of the Game Sports Podcast. We recently had our Monday edition which was on Monday, November the 13th. This is now Monday, November the 15th and a lot of content to get into with this episode. Now, the third segment, as I had to think about that for a moment, the third segment of the show is going to have a different sponsor and I'm going to give them a shout out right now as it is going to be, well, a little spoiler. It's going to be our hot take segments, our popular segments, if you would say, in connection to what hockey is. Well, all of our segments, but obviously our longest running segment, the in the Pocket podcast. That segment is going to be sponsored by Sports Center Bar and Grill Susaper, Ontario's best sports bar over six years in a row. Great wings, great pizza. They actually used to have a game sports show pizza. Yes. When we were called the Game Sports show and we were recording there live in 2018, they had a pizza, pepperoni and hot Peppers. If you asked for the pizza, very cool story to share with you there. Nonetheless, that is the sponsor for the third segment and getting to the agenda that will tie into that, you got me here in the opening just teeing everything off for you. And if I do have a moment, I will try to get into a specific topic in the world of sports. I do have one in mind and I'm just going to leave it at that. If I do have the time, only have three minutes remaining here at this opener. So the second segment is going to be our strike zone segment. Yours truly and Connor Henderson. We're going to be talking about the world of baseball. We have some young winners. We're going to get into some discussion and some ludicrous topics about the Toronto Blue Jays, in particular about Vladimir Guerrero Jr. And Bo Bichette. Oh, what are we going to get into there? You're going to just have to see, and if you can see my expression of my face if you're on the video side, makes me shake my head. And we're also going to get into some local love there as I would like to share with you the local love, meaning that that's going to be some local discussion. If you're from Sioux St. Mary, Ontario, you'll know what I mean. If you're from outside of the Sioux, well, that means we are going to get into a little bit of college baseball recap. Connor Henderson was there to definitely get all the details that we needed for the Sioux College Cougars, their baseball team this past season that has obviously completed, and Connor's going to give us some review on that now for the third segment, as I mentioned, the in the Pockets segment, we're going to be getting to our pick them. We're going to get into last week's and this week's preview review and reactions and everything that you need to know in terms of the world of football here in the first segment. I only got about a minute 30 before I going to have to move on to the second segment and then go to the third segment. I am truly going to try to follow the time constraints here today. But there was one thing that I wanted to ensure that I brought up today, and that is going to be about hockey. It's about international play in the world of hockey. And I did have a second topic and it was going to be about basketball expansion, but I'm going to save that for hopefully next week's edition to do a brief little segment on that. But international play in the world of hockey. So you got, obviously the Toronto Maple Leafs and teams playing overseas, Sweden, and you got teams playing the outdoor Classic, the Winter Classic, the Heritage Classic, whatever it may be. And I wanted to give my opinion on the matter, to share this detail. I want to make sure that I tell you that this is full disclosure. I am a fan of the outdoor games. I truly am.
Now, wherever city they play in, they consider that a home game and it's used as a home game in the schedule.
Teams going overseas, I love the idea of seeing what they can see overseas. And it would be awesome if the NHL did go over to Europe and maybe the Swedish Elite League stopped and they were just more of a minor pro league and everything. It just was a worldwide league. Maybe that's something that we see in the future. But to play regular season games overseas, I'm not too sure. I'm really sold on that as of yet. I think it's cool. I think it's a great opportunity. It's hard for Canadians if we're trying to watch a game on a Sunday at 08:00 a.m. Like Sean plays Minnesota this weekend, but you look at the home ice for the road, a team that has home ice advantage, that's considered as one of those games over there. You lose a home ice, right? And home ice can mean a lot to a team. There's a lot of teams that don't play well at home. There's teams that play better on the road than they do at home. Nonetheless, I'm always a believer those 82 games are such an important factor in a season. I was a little bit hesitant about the Winter Classic, the Heritage Classic. Those have grown on me. I think it's a cool feature. The Heritage Classic is that Canadian devotion and the outdoor. The Winter Classic has been around for so long you're kind of just getting used to it. But nonetheless, playing overseas, that hasn't really drawn me yet. Like I said, think it's cool, but I think the NHL should maybe look at it from a different perspective. I think they should maybe focus on having maybe a World cup over there in Europe to see the participation around the pro hockey players there. Or maybe just sticking to the preseason games, being over there.
Like I said, world championships. Like I said, the preseason games. I don't think regular season games should be outside of either one team's city or the other team's city or outside of North America. But again, that could be an unpopular opinion. And I did have the same opinion when the Winter Classic started, but I was also not even ten or nine or ten years old. So now that I've been able to grow and be a part of the game from playing up to junior and now being in the media side of things after playing and coaching, I've learned that I think that home ice and that road, it changes. It matters. All the 82 games matter, and truly the overseas games for regular season games rather haven't really sold me yet. Unpopular opinion maybe we'll talk about it on a future Top Shelf edition, but we don't have the time. I'm already two minutes over. I said I was going to try to stick on time, so two minutes isn't too bad for our standards if you are familiar with our video recordings. So I'm going to take a quick break. When we come back, Connor Henderson is going to be joining yours truly here on the Game Sports podcast. Don't go anywhere. And welcome back to the Game Sports Podcast. It is your host David McCague continuing to host you here on the Game Sports podcast. This is the second segment of the Wednesday edition recording November the 15th. No matter when you're tuning in, if it's number the 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, it does not matter. It is always relative and electrifying content. This episode continues to be sponsored by Flawless roofing Sureshield Incorporated and of course powered by 91 N. That's 91 Network. Head over to the YouTube channel for all video portions of the Game Sports podcast. Now joining me, finally, it's been a couple of weeks because of schedules. We had some audio issues on all ends. Connor Henderson. Connor, my friend, great to see you. Great to hear from you. How's it going, Dave?
[00:07:53] Speaker B: The powers that be were trying to separate us for weeks and weeks. It was terrible.
[00:07:58] Speaker A: Terrible.
[00:07:59] Speaker B: Oh my God. It's good to be back.
[00:08:01] Speaker A: It is great. And the game fans, listeners, the viewers, they love hearing some Connor, okay. They don't want to hear just Dave. No offense to the other fellows, we all love them, but okay. They want to hear some Connor, okay. Because they know when Connor is coming on, it's going to be good content. But we know we're going to be talking baseball. And now it's November, so baseball season has concluded. It's almost winter outside. If know the weather's been actually really confusing here in the studio. But back on topic, it is the baseball segment here. And people used to know us as the Strike Zone podcast, where we used to do a podcast ourselves. Basically me and you would just have our own episode uploaded on a bi weekly to every three week basis, preferably on holidays or when there was a scandal. But now, as the Game Sports podcast changed the schedule around, this is the first official Strike zone segment that includes you and I. There was one with myself, Solo and EJ. And as much as I love EJ, you're the baseball guy. All right, so this I will count as the first official Strike zone segment since we used to have the podcast. So it's great to have you on. Now. We have little time and we're actually trying to follow time constraints here on this episode. That was a goal that I said on previous episodes. So we're going to follow it. We're two minutes in. Let's get into it already. We got about ten, maybe squeak twelve out of here, but we'll plan it out probably ten. But nonetheless, Connor, there's some news in the world of baseball. Okay, so what we're going to get to in this segment is, yes, we're going to give a little bit of local love and people wondering what local means. That'sioux St. Marie, Ontario, the Algoma region. There is a college baseball team. Connor is going to tee up a little bit of news and updates for you there. So they'll shout out to Sioux college athletics there. Also, we're going to get into some Major League Baseball news. Of course, there's a lot to dive into. There's award winners. There has been a World Series champion. We're not talking about that. But there's been some moves in the be. There's rumors this, rumors that, I guess, who knows, maybe Michael Jordan's coming to retirement to play baseball. That sounds. But there's rumors flying everywhere. Okay. So we're going to get into as much as we can, but we are going to start with the award winners. Now there's been Rookie of the Year, your cousin Connor Anderson. Just kidding.
It's obviously one rookie in the year and then Carol wins it. On the other side, you have some awards that were taken up, but today we got the announcement that Garrett Cole and Blake Snell have won the Cy Young. And Kevin Gosman, if you're a Trump Blue Jay fan, finished third in Cy Young voting very positive season for him, of course, and all the Blue Jays pitching staff. But we're talking about Garrett Cole and Blake Snell.
Garrett Cole doesn't really surprise me. Blake Snell kind of does. And let me explain why. He has been a good pitcher over his career, but he's had a lot of stock market kind of graphs when he's pitched right. He's had hot, cold, hot, cold, and he's had the ability to really bounce back and to win the sigh young on a team like the Padres that really struggled this, you know, got to give kudos to him, to a guy to be able to bounce back and do that, to win such a great award.
[00:11:01] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. I love Snell. I feel like everybody remembers that moment where he got pulled in the playoffs a few years back when he was dealing and I think we were in maybe the 6th or 7th inning and he wasn't getting hit. They go to the bullpen, probably a little premature based on what at the time was called an analytics move and the relief pitcher came in and blew the game. And Snell was very vocal about it. And it's that sort of like dog mentality. That people throw that phrase out a lot. Lefty pitcher got nasty stuff. He tore up the minors while he was coming through, and it's really cool to see somebody like him get this sort of award. And it just goes to show that unlike some sports like hockey, where sometimes an MVP award is tied to somebody's performance, but the team also hopefully should be doing well, doesn't necessarily need to be the case in baseball. Snell is a perfect example.
[00:12:06] Speaker A: It is, and I love the term that you use, analytic move. Go the bullpen. Does that not sound familiar to something that happened this year between a Canadian team in the playoff? As I tilt my head in a cycle away, I'm going to say it, Connor, screw. I'm not going to swear. I'm going to try not to swear. I'm going to say it very professionally. Screw the analytics. I'm almost at that point to a degree you need it. But there's some points when it comes to someone dealing. There's that old adage, keep it going. Don't fix what doesn't need to be fixed. Why am I drawing a blank? If it ain't broken, don't fix it. Right. That's the point. But Blake Snell, left hander, battled back. Dog mentality I do think Alec Manoa has a very dog mentality as well, and hopefully he does have that, because if he doesn't show that next year we're going to see a Ricky Romero 2.0. And that's not what Jays fans want to hear. But obviously Garrett Cole winning. Just going to say quickly here, listen, he's a prominent pitcher, dominant pitcher in the major leagues. It's unfortunate he's on the Yankees. And I say that because as a fan for a moment, but as a host, I will say professionally, the guy knows how to deal and he's a very good pitcher on a team. Again, that did not do well this year, you have two young winners that were on teams that did not have successful years but were on teams that were supposed to be very successful, the Yankees. I would say the Padres probably had more expectations than even the Yankees did this year. I know I always try to pull for the Padres, but I think I've learned my lesson to say that I don't think they're going to come out of the NL, not even next year.
Now, little limited time. So we are going to proceed, obviously not last week, last episode that everyone can check out. If you want to listen to the audio or video. I brought up a very interesting point. In my opinion, it's very interesting. And I said that I would bring this up to you. Okay. It was just me venting last week. In that first segment I was talking about refs and hockey. Then I started talking about baseball. I was just sporadic all over that first segment. So now it's good that it's devoted baseball. I recommended that the extra inning rules change. I proposed, not that I have submitted a proposition to the Major League Baseball Committee by any which means, but I stated, let's get rid of the second baseman in the extra innings. Runner on second is what I mean. Don't get rid of the second baseman, the runner on second base and have someone on first make it a little bit different. You can steal from first to second. Catcher is a bit more involved. Defensive alignment. Now the second baseman is a bit more in tune on that side of the field. It just involves a lot more of the field and it should still make the game quicker because you can bunt to sacrifice, you can steal. There's still ways to kind of get that run in for small ball. I want your opinion. If you think I'm in left field, tell me. Tell me if that's the stupidest thing you've ever heard, or if you want to be nice and support me, feel free. But I think Major League Baseball is an opportunity with the X earnings rule because it's so new to change things around with it to make it a bit more exciting. Now I almost don't want to see it anymore. I'd love to see an 18 inning game, but I don't think the players can do that. So you need that. And I think it'd be nice just to have something different and have someone at first instead of second.
[00:15:06] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's an interesting proposal. When there's a runner on first base to start an inning, there's typically more variety in the ways that the game can go. When you see somebody start on second base, typically the game plan is fairly simple. Get them to third and then hit a sack fly or get them to third. Move them over with a bunt, hit a sack fly.
One thing that they used to do with us when we were growing up playing rep, is they'd start a runner on second base, but they would do it with one out. And analytics, I know, we were just joking about analytics recently. Analytics actually say that a runner on first base with nobody out leads to a higher likelihood of scoring runs than a runner on second base with one out.
And that's why there's people who are against the sacrifice bunt for that very reason.
So when we would start a runner on second base with one out, I had this coach, we'd bunt over. This was in Bantham, we'd bunt over to third and then it's man on third, two out. And at that point you're almost praying for like a pass ball or something because you can't sack fly them in when you start with one out. So it was one know, not quite on par with the MLB. But I do like your idea with the runner on first base because it allows for more flexibility in how an inning can play out rather than a runner on second base, where there's less strategy involved.
[00:16:49] Speaker A: If no one knows what I'm talking about, if you're new to the show or new to baseball, then to be honest, I'm surprised you might be tuning into baseball. Maybe you want to learn the game. But what baseball does is they have a runner on second. And they started this extra names rule when COVID started because I imagine it probably almost would have started even if COVID wasn't around because it's always been kind of a discussion how to make the games quicker. But the old American history, right, of the baseball is that the old game is that you played all those games. So you finally get a run in, but you've had games against, look at Cleveland, Toronto, where they played 18 innings. You had Ryan goings going in and throwing a pitch, and then you lose the game. And hey, that one game that you lost might make you miss a playoff spot, right? So it is important. It is important. Just like when Marcus Samuel couldn't throw the guy at first from second when he was on the Jays, the Jays against the Tigers, and the Jays missed the playoffs by half a those every game counts in baseball to a degree. Doesn't matter how long the season is. But the last two things I want to get into before I let you go, a little shorter segment for Strike zone today, there's been something that I want to share to the table. The Toronto Blue Jays have come out. I want to make sure I give a little bit of Blue Jays love. There's been Ross, Atkins, Shapiro have come out to say flat out, there's going to be big change this year. Every Toronto Blue Jay fan is starting to emerge and everyone thinks they're going to go after Otani. Listen, I don't think they are. I think Otani is going to be a Mariner. I've already said that already. But that aside, the Jays are going to sign Vato, which actually kind of makes sense. But they're going to trade Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Or they're going to trade Bo Bichette to make a big splash. They're going to go after Juan Soto. And I was listening to a high media outlet. I'm not going to say their name and put them on the spot, but they were talking about Vladi getting moved. If you had to move Bo or Vladi, neither is my answer dumb. I don't think you move either of them. Even though Vladi made a bonehead move in the playoffs, that second place, he was telling Bo to calm down. Meanwhile, he's 7ft off second base. Get a map. I can't. I'm not going to go there. I've already vented. But those are two key locker room guys who would be there long term. Vlad, I think, is a better chance of long term than Bo. I think Bo is that Florida mentality. And as if you're on video, you see me play with my just I'm pretending I'm Boba Shet. But would the Toronto Blue Jays consider training Bo and Vlad? And if they did, which one? And if they did, are they crazy? Three part question.
Which one and are they crazy?
[00:19:22] Speaker B: I think the political answer is all options are on the table. Should they no to either? I would keep both. I mean, shortstop, if you have a good hitting shortstop, it's the most valuable thing in baseball, but you're not trading Vladi and coming out a winner in that. There's, there's no way this isn't just like, oh, we lost De Rosen situation in the Raptors case. Like Vladi, both with his father and with his early signing to the Jays, is the type of guy where you want to take him to retirement, even if it isn't necessarily the most strategic thing. Just as a statement to the city.
And if I had to keep one or the other, oh, jeez, I take the shortstop over the first baseman for sure, because when in know as they get older, you can move the shortstop to first base, but you can't really move the first baseman anywhere but DH. So shortstop is just a more valuable position. Though. I don't see a world where they would choose to keep Bo and part ways with Vladi. I just don't think that would happen.
[00:20:41] Speaker A: So they're crazy if they trade both, is what you're like.
[00:20:48] Speaker B: I like them.
[00:20:50] Speaker A: I think so. Now, I know we're 13, we're a minute over. I'm going to keep your time and respect your time, but the last thing I want to give to you, if you can give us, before I let you go, the Sioux College roundup.
If you could give us a little feedback about the Sioux college baseball season. The Sioux College team, again to remind listeners, is a team located in Siouximo, Ontario. They're through the Sioux College, obviously, which is a college here in Sioux Ontario. They have a baseball team. They play throughout Ontario and Connor had the opportunity to follow them a little extra and to represent the game and following them and talk to some of the players and he's able to give us some feedback. I'll give you the floor before I let you go.
[00:21:22] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. There's some great local guys on the team. I've coached a few of them myself and they've had some really good performances on the mound this year. The team as a whole had an excellent second season of existence. Their first season was a struggle. They got two wins and a whole bunch of losses. But this year they tripled their previous year's win total up to six wins, which was great for the city. And that's just an incredible second year because building these programs are very difficult. We've got a lot of local talent there. Some great performances on the mound from Cole Massey, Gavin Lamming, Carter Gallivan, some local guys who just lit it up on the mound, Nolan Tony also provided innings of work and Maddie Forzey as well. I know Connor Bruises is on their roster and it's great to see the local guys fueling this system. I know a friend of yours in the game, Jordan Ritchie, is also involved with the team.
[00:22:26] Speaker A: He's a panda back.
[00:22:30] Speaker B: It was a great season for them and hopefully they can build on that moving forward.
[00:22:34] Speaker A: That's awesome. And going into next year, we do have plans with the show as 91 N announcement from a few weeks ago would have told you. That has a lot of stuff coming. Of course 91 M, but the Game Sports podcast is going through a transition I'm sure people saw with the logo, the format. My backdrop is going to be changing. We're going to be looking at things, a lot of things coming up. So next year we do hope to have a little bit more face to interaction, a bit more content for the local listeners that are wanting that content, just so you know. All right, anyone who's outside the Sioux, look, I know you don't know what it is in terms of maybe what that is, but it's worth a Google, worth a checkout. Great games. If you're around the area and Sioux College is playing your local baseball team or university college, go check it out. They're worth the watch, both teams, of course, but especially the college. Great season by them and kudos to Sioux College program. I give them credit all around in all their sports. They've really grown the school, they've grown all their sport programs, baseball, hOckey. They promote their students. Not saying I'll go to U doesn't. That's a university here in the Sioux. They do well as well, but Sioux College has certainly stepped in the right direction and baseball this season was a great success for them. Connor Yep. We went four minutes extra, so I'm going to let you go. I know time is of value, but we had lot of great content and a lot of things to catch up on. So I want to say thank you for taking the time to come on and chat a little baseball. We'll have you on again within the next couple of weeks because pretty soon there's going to be free agent signings, there's going to be trades show, hey, maybe going somewhere else. There's going to be a lot to talk about, especially about your tires and of course the Toronto Blue Jays as well. So we'll have you on very soon.
[00:24:08] Speaker B: Thanks, Dave. Can't wait.
[00:24:10] Speaker A: Of course, Connor, thank you again. And listeners, don't go anywhere. We're going to be right back with the in Sports podcast. We have the in the Pocket segment right from baseball to football. What a transition. Don't go anywhere Game Sports podcast David McCag Jr. Continuing to host you here on this Wednesday edition of the Game Sports Podcast. This episode has been sponsored by Flawless Roofing. Sure Seal Incorporated. Over 30 years in the business, protect your investment, start from the top. And as I mentioned in the opener, they are retiring. So as they transition to retirement, if you want to get one of, if not the best in the right proper terms, flawless roofing. Sure. Seal Incorporated to come check out your roof, residential or commercial rooftop Thunderbase through St. Marie. Doesn't matter where you are, you can make sure you get in contact with them at Flawless roofing CA but this is the third segment and everyone knows it on Wednesdays. What the. Well, not the third segment every week, but the last segment of the episode, the in the Pocket segment, the longest running segment and podcast that we have here on the game. I say podcast because it used to be a solo podcast for over six years. We're now in our 7th season of in the pocket. That is a long time that we've been chatting football here on the game and we're excited to bring it to you every week. It is yours truly with Justin Heichel. Justin, my friend, how's it going? Another week of football to chat about another episode. You know how it is. How are you?
[00:25:41] Speaker C: You know, it was good. I had the early game last week. Got the pain out of the way early with the Colts and Patriots over in Germany.
Real Slobberknocker for the first three quarters. I think I can't lean this far back here. I almost launched my chair backwards.
[00:25:56] Speaker A: Yeah, we don't cover WSIB here on this. No, we don't know what WSIB is then we're not going to get into that.
[00:26:01] Speaker C: Anyways, it was like a San Jose Sharks quality hockey game score with the Colts and Patriots there. So real rough one. Mac Jones sucks. My God. My God. Is he bad?
[00:26:15] Speaker A: He is bad. And we're going to talk about him and we're going to talk about another quarterback that was hurt, maybe a receiver that needs to pull it back a little bit as well. And that receiver is on my fantasy football team and has literally carried me about three quarters of this season. But nonetheless, football. There's a lot of talk about from last week, when you think about it. There is, and dare I go, an episode to not mention about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey. But I can't because all they do is invade social media. First off, Travis Kelsey has a Christmas song coming out with his brother, like how the Eagles do their thing, I guess. Travis and Jason have a song, and I've actually listened to some of it on social media, I believe.
[00:26:56] Speaker C: Number one selling Christmas album last year.
[00:26:59] Speaker A: That is unbelievable.
Jason Kelsey almost wins Sexiest man alive.
Listen, I'm not talking about looks or nothing here, but I'm saying I don't know what planet we're on because I feel like I woke up one day.
You have Travis Kelsey dating Taylor Swift. You know what's going.
[00:27:26] Speaker C: That's.
[00:27:28] Speaker A: It's kind of that. She changed her lyrics and her song. Karma's a guy on the Chiefs in Argentina. Travis spent his time in Argentina for his time off and went to go hang out with Taylor and her dad. And Taylor, when she gets off stage, runs up and kisses him and makes it all PDA. Okay. And, you know, Travis looked like a baller with his clothes. You know, he's just loving life right now. The guy's living the dream. But a lot happened this week in the world of football. A lot of talk about a lot of meat and potatoes we can dive into.
[00:27:59] Speaker C: Yeah.
Josh Dobbs.
Can we start with that one? I don't even think he knows his teammates names yet. Really, we're probably ten days total into being on the Vikings now. And he lights out. Absolutely lights out. And really, I think Jefferson potentially this week or next week could be back. So the Vikings really only get better.
And to think here's a funny point. Josh Dobbs was one of the Cleveland Browns backup quarterbacks to start the OR in preseason. I may be incorrect to start the season, but he was definitely there in preseason and then I think maybe he got traded to Arizona. I don't know.
[00:28:40] Speaker A: But honestly, Josh Dobbs has a little bit of for teams that he's played with. And I brought this up. I'm glad you bring it up. And I have it popped up on screen so you can't remember all of them. There's a lot. He actually started with Pittsburgh. That's where I remember him because he backed up Big Ben then that was in 2017 to 2019. I won't name each year, but he then went to Jacksonville, returned to Pittsburgh for Pittsburgh. Yeah, that's it.
Did I just think of a new team? Anyways, he went back to the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2020 to 2021, went to the Browns. Then he went to the Lions, the Titans, the Browns to start this year, the Cardinals and the Vikings. Last year he played on three teams, Browns, Lions, Titans. This year he is also on his third team. He's been a backup, he's been a third. He's been a practice guy. He was originally drafted in the fourth round of 2017, 135th pick, and the guy is now with the Minnesota Vikings. And due to Kirk Cousins going down, Josh Dobbs is going to try to be the savior on the season for the Vikings. And did he ever look good in his debut?
[00:29:45] Speaker C: Isn't he like a genius too? Isn't he wants to go to space? It's not actually a joke. Like he could go work for NASA kind of thing.
[00:29:55] Speaker A: Yep. Smart guy.
[00:29:56] Speaker C: All right.
[00:29:56] Speaker A: Okay, smart guy. I won't read that point. But yeah, he has a very good education. I had that up. I'm not going to go back to it. He is a very smart guy. And now I tried.
Obviously, Deshaun Watson's out for the season. I'm very glad for those. If you're like me, I picked up a very good backup quarterback because I was worried about Watson's injuries. I picked up Jericho Goff, so I'm happy I have him. But as Watson went down and tried to pick up Dobbs, but someone beat me to the punch for fantasy. Of course that's going to be a tough one to snag.
[00:30:27] Speaker C: No comment on that one. But you can pick up Will Levi's, though. He's available now.
[00:30:33] Speaker A: Will Levi's. I actually went with Kyler Murray as my new backup. I thought that was a pretty good choice with Arizona, but Josh Dobbs era has started in Minnesota and you got to love it. Everyone loves this guy. Everyone loves a smart guy. He's a likable guy. He's battled from being a backup third. He's done all that nonsense.
Got to give him kudos.
[00:30:56] Speaker C: I mean, really, he's in a good position, too, because he kind of just showed up the start of the season. Yeah, Kyler's hurt, so you're just going to have to fill in. So expectations aren't exactly high. Blows them out of the water. Here we go. Gets traded to Minnesota. Everyone's down in the dumps because Kirk got hurt. Jefferson isn't playing. All of a sudden Dobbs comes out two games back to back and like, I don't know, he just shows up and looks good wherever and then all of a sudden he's on the bench. Understand? I don't understand it.
[00:31:25] Speaker A: Honestly, where I see Josh Dobsfield is that storyline that can motivate a season and it's something. Will he do that next year? I don't know, but this is that story in the year. It's going to be a fairy tale type story that could lead to Something.
[00:31:41] Speaker C: Kind of like the blind side, but real.
[00:31:44] Speaker A: But real blindside and everyone that talks about his eyebrows, let's leave that alone, okay?
[00:31:49] Speaker C: Doesn't he have alopecia? Doesn't he?
[00:31:50] Speaker A: Yeah, let's chill that out. Just a peeps. You know, let's just worry about how good he is doing on the field because he's looking pretty solid with Minnesota. Now, speaking of a quarterback that isn't looking too solid, I was going to make a rub comment, but I'm trying to refrain here as much as I can. The Deshaun Watson era in Cleveland has been very unflattering, to say the least. I don't know if that's a good word to use either, but I did. He is out for the remainder of the season. He's battled injuries for a good chunk of this season. He's battled injury, just battled battle, battled. This guy used to be a top five quarterback in the NFL. He has the potential still to be. If he can play a full season, he can. He's made like $92 million from sitting on the sidelines, just literally. The Cleveland Browns are without their starting quarterback Justin, what's your thoughts on this? Watson?
Is this just textbook Cleveland? Is this what this is? Is this a curse?
[00:32:53] Speaker C: I'm not sure if it's textbook Cleveland or if this one's just kind of karma.
I am of the denomination that maybe thinks Deshaun Watson is kind of a piece of shit. So whatever comes your way, say how you feel, man.
[00:33:13] Speaker A: Say how you feel.
[00:33:17] Speaker C: Allegations don't just pop up 27 separate times and not potentially one of them maybe is true.
That's all. I mean, we won't dabble any further than that, but you're getting paid $68 million or 64 mil or 63.8, whatever. You're getting paid several million dollars to.
[00:33:34] Speaker A: Do fuck all, sit on your ass and do a whole bunch of.
[00:33:39] Speaker C: Really?
Now he's got to go for surgery. He's got a rehab. Then he's going to have to shake the rust off again, which he just, by all accounts, as of the game this weekend, finally looked like he was putting it together.
Looked like he was the Sean Watson of old. Like the Houston Texans Deshaun Watson, like MVP caliber play out there and look solid this end. And exploded his shoulder, like, not just by all the sounds of it. It broke like car accident quality.
[00:34:11] Speaker A: Yeah. And the Browns are six and three after battling these injuries this year. It's almost like the Steelers. It's like, how do you wonder where they're at? Where they're at, right? Who would have thought the Bengals be at the bottom of the division at this point?
[00:34:23] Speaker C: I mean, it's a solid transition there. I mean, you look at the Steelers record and it's like, wait a minute, how is that what it is?
It is.
[00:34:31] Speaker A: And Deshaun Watson going down the Cleveland's got to do with the done all season. They're going to have to battle adversity, going to have to play on the defensive side. The ball, Miles Garrett's got to step up on defense. Their offense, Hamari Cooper, is not going to see the ball as clearly as much. But I think what they should stick to, to the game is not the gun like slinger ball down the field. Short slant plays, short plays, grind down the field, run where you can get those. That's almost like the Pittsburgh effect. Kenny Pickett's not going to throw a ball down 180 or 80 yards down the field, but he will give it to runners. If they're playing that day and they show up, or if you want to throw slow slants, you got Deontay Johnson. If you're Pittsburgh, you got Cooper. If you're Cleveland. Or obviously there's more on Pittsburgh and Cleveland. I'm just throwing names, short slant plays.
[00:35:13] Speaker C: And rely on your defense to or, sorry, Pittsburgh. Cleveland could probably still limp along to the playoffs. I mean, the backup quarterback play wasn't bad for them throughout the start of the season. This year they've got a still pretty solid tandem of running backs in Kareem Hunt and Jerome Ford.
Najoku is still playing well at tight end Amari. There's weapons there and the defense is absolutely rock solid. So I mean, you kill the clock by running the ball and your defense keeps the opposing offense off the field. You could still win some games. Are they going to be exciting? Probably not, but you don't need to be exciting. Wins a win. So if people don't like it, they can talk to you when you're in the playoffs.
[00:35:53] Speaker A: And if people are wondering why I'm looking down here, I'll bring it up at the pickham.
It says I haven't made all my picks, but I'm having a little bit of a technology.
[00:36:02] Speaker C: You're getting that error too.
[00:36:04] Speaker A: I'm getting that error. People are wondering on video why I'm looking down at a phone for a second. I'm really annoyed with the Yahoo app right now is what's going on. But as I go back to is obviously I'm trying to recall one more thing to bring up this week. Now that I'm drawing a blank. I know there's one more thing that we want to discuss other as that's bad for radio in terms of forgetting.
[00:36:26] Speaker C: We could dig two and O Digs. Yeah, no Digs. That's a juicier one.
[00:36:32] Speaker A: Digs. That's the other topic we'll get into before we have our Pickham and wrap up for the week. The two minute warning. We'll try to figure that out, what we're going to do for that this week, but we'll get to that in a moment. Now, digs Dagan, if you will.
This guy has been fantastic all year. Up until last few weeks he hasn't been himself and now he's pointing blame and not getting the ball. So where is that going? Where's that blame going to talk about Diggs. Justin, what's your thoughts? What's going on? Educate our listeners on what you're thinking of what's been going on with Diggs.
[00:37:09] Speaker C: I mean, it's not a good look when your brother is tweeting out. Get number 14 out of here.
Midway through the game.
I don't know from the outside looking in, as a fan of football, it kind of looks like Josh Allen's like a pretty easy to get along with, kind of mean, frustrated, obviously frustrated when he's not winning, which most professional athletes should be. I mean, that's what you'd kind of want out of your players, that you're paying millions of dollars.
But it really looks like there's a real disconnect with him and all of his wide receivers, really, aside from Kincaid, the tight end. And, I mean, we've seen this in previous seasons with, like, Dawson knoX. Last year, there was a point in the season where Dawson Knox was his crutch. And then in the playoffs, in fantasy, Dawson Knox disappeared and screwed everyone over because Diggs popped off.
I don't want to say cyclic there, but they kind of just call what's working historically, have no running game or not a very consistent running game, because last week, running the ball kind of was okay for them, even though they lost to the Broncos again.
[00:38:21] Speaker A: But they lost again.
[00:38:22] Speaker C: Yeah.
I don't know. I think really the baseline on all this is that Josh Allen just has to play a little smarter. I mean, he's got an absolute weapon out there in Digs, and honestly, maybe the popping off in the public doesn't really help the situation either.
[00:38:39] Speaker A: Never does. You can refer to so many sports when it comes to being open with your opinions.
I'm really looking at the world of basketball for a minute. James Harden, right? The harden effect. A guy is just a drama, drama, drama, drama. I saw a good one. As of right now, the Clippers are owing five with James Harden in his mouth. Okay? And having him there, I don't care. The guy has literally shown that he's a cancer. I'm sorry at me if I'm wrong. Don't care. Love the interaction, but we're talking football. Diggs is an elite running back. Nope, Elite, okay? And Josh Allen is an elite quarterback. I don't care what people say about the Bills. The Bills are truly a good football team. They have a championship caliber team and a championship caliber offense. If the Steelers are six and three, that can tell you that any team can win in this game, in this league. But you don't win on pure talent alone. You win the game not even just from players on the defensive or the offensive side of the football. You win games because of smart coaching, utilizing your players in the right way. Matt Canada does not count if you're a Pittsburgh fan. Mike Tomlin's the only guy that counts. If you're Pittsburgh but if you're in Buffalo, it all runs out of that whole staff. I think that offense has to run out of Diggs. It's like when Megatron was with the Lions. It's like when there's so many people I can think of. I'm not going to go there right now, but you have.
[00:40:01] Speaker C: The tricky part in that division, though, is if you're one dimensional, playing the Patriots twice a year, that's a bad beat because if you're good at one thing, the Patriots will take that away. The Patriots aren't very good at any things, but they're very good at taking away your one good thing because of.
[00:40:16] Speaker A: Belichick, the Belichick effect. The world of football is still great because, you know, great coach for the Chiefs. You got Tomlin, great coach for the Steelers. They know how to be coaches of the game and adapt where they need to be. And people know that. Allen's going to try to get Diggs the ball. Diggs is good in double coverage. He's going to catch a ball more often than not. But if I'm a quarterback, I'm not throwing it to somebody who's in double coverage in the deep side of the football because what's that going to cause Justin an interception? Well, it's going to cause incompletions.
[00:40:50] Speaker C: Allen's either fucked because he doesn't throw it deep to him and it gets picked or he's fucked.
[00:40:56] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:40:56] Speaker C: You know what I mean?
He's just in a bad spot.
[00:41:00] Speaker A: What has to happen is changing that game plan and the start that Diggs is doing with this, digging the hole a little bit per se, he's going to be just shooting himself in the okay. And you're just going to cause torment in between the team and you don't need that right now. You need to be smarter. You need to worry about winning football games and doing what you can to provide. And if that is just doing less runs, more slants or shorter pickups or sweeps or changing up the play call to be a little bit different. Like Justin said, when you play a team twice, they're going to catch on to you. You need to adapt, and that's what coaches and players and good players and coaches should do. And that's what Alan needs to do of sorts. But my blame is Diggs here. He's a little bit too much. This is bad luck and I don't think it's a good start going into this week against a team as much as spoiler. I picked the Bills this week because I think they're going to throttle the jets because I'm hoping for that bounce back that. But this is a trap game. I have a feeling this can also be a trap game for the Bills. And if it doesn't go the way that I'm predicting or the way that they Bills Mafia. I feel bad for you. And because it's not the fans fault, you got some tormenting between the team that needs to be addressed. And I hope Alan and Diggs lashed it out and Diggs, back up your talk next week and be what you were all year. If you're going to be a positive effect, leave it at that. I'll call it Stefan Diggs. I'll call him out. He's on my fantasy team. I got it right. I got to win a league and he could have had a better week and I would have won if he had a better week. Think of it that way.
He would say, well, I didn't get the football enough. I can just imagine what he would say. But nonetheless. Justin, we're at the 18 minutes mark. We were aiming for 20. We might go the two minutes over average is what we've been doing here, but pick them for the week.
[00:42:46] Speaker C: Let's fly through the pick them here standings. We had a lead change last week.
Mike Chubb is Miles long, is now in first with 96 points. Steelers Nation in second with 95 and hikes picks in third with 91.
[00:43:07] Speaker A: Pittsburgh, I might go with that as my team name for this week.
No, I'm kidding. I'm not pick them. I'll go first this week. I'm not in first so I won't do that. But I will start us off as Yahoo tells me. I haven't made all my picks. But let me remind you as you can hear all the games you're going to see that and here that I have made all my picks. Not really see because you don't have my screen. But you know what I'm saying. I am going with nope. See that didn't save right. I'm going with the Bengals over the Ravens this week. Screw it. Little upstep, Joe Burrow. Those guys got to get going. They got some injuries, they're battling. But I really feel like this is a game that the Bengals are heavily not favored in. And I like the ODs, especially if I'm betting I'm picking the Bengals. Steelers over the Browns. Love that. This week I'm taking the Steelers not because of bias, look, Tomlin effect. That's why Lions over the Bears. The Lions are going to throttle the Bears this week. It's going to be terrific.
I am also picking the Chargers over the Packers, Dolphins over the Raiders. Commanders over the Giants, Cowboys over the Panthers. I'm going to throttle them, too. I'm picking the Titans over the.
Whoa. Like that is a heavy call. I'm just going that route. I think Hopkins can have a big game. I think it's a little bit more of those trap games for Jacksonville. I got Tennessee in that game. Texans over the Cardinals. Kyler Murray looking good but not going to beat the Texans. CJ, is this MVP? That kid looking like the Niners over the Buccaneers. The Bills are going to throttle the jets this week. Seems to be the word of the segment. Seahawks over the Rams in a very good football game. Broncos are going to lose to the Vikings. They've won a couple in a row. I'm going to go against the Broncos again here. Josh DObbs effect, baby. That guy is going to lead the Broncos, or, sorry, the Vikings to win over the Broncos. And I picked the Philadelphia Eagles to beat the Kansas City Chiefs this year in another potential Super bowl matchup. Wouldn't we love to see that? Wouldn't social media love that too? Kelsey brothers, Donna Kelsey, Taylor Swift, Brittany Mahomes. Look, you got Carly. Oh, God, they would just eat that up.
[00:45:14] Speaker C: Maybe it's in the script.
[00:45:16] Speaker A: 28 21. Eagles over the Chiefs. Why not? Nice and close. Kelsey with a touchdown. That's Travis with a touchdown, not Jason. Vikings over the Broncos. 20 817 and the most points this week. I'm believing in them. Buffalo Bills. I'm going to say the Bills are going to throttle the jets so hard that Dicks is going to absolutely win fantasy alone for everybody this week. And the jets are going to be the poor victim of only getting, I'm going to say the least points, but I think they're going to get less than three this week. Three and under for the Jets. Bad week for the Jets, Justin.
[00:45:50] Speaker C: All right, well, Cincinnati over Baltimore, Pittsburgh over Cleveland, Detroit over Chicago, Chargers over Green Bay, Dolphins over Vegas, which I was tossed up on initially. And then Miami coming off the bye week. I'm going to take them. Washington over the Giants, Dallas over Carolina, Jacksonville over Tennessee, Houston over Arizona, San Fran over Tampa, Buffalo over the Jets, Seattle over the Rams. Minnesota over the Broncos and Philly over KC.
I got Philly 36. Kansas City 28, Minnesota 28, Denver 24.
Most points this week. Houston least points this week. The fucking Giants because they suck.
[00:46:37] Speaker A: There's a lot of games this week. Sorry as I had to throw my volume a little bit there. There's a lot of games this week where teams are going to get throttled. I might be wrong, but I think there's going to be some ugly games. You're going to see some 38 threes, some 40 212. I don't know. You're going to see some ugly scores this week.
This is going to be a pretty interesting week for fantasy if you got some of the top teams going that I said they're the with. I agree with the Texans for you there. The Lions, if you got got, and I'm playing against my friend Pat, who's a Lions fan. He's got three Lions on that team. So that's going to be tough going for me. The Dolphins, I think the Commanders, too. I think that's going to be one sided. Like you said, the score at least points for the Giants for you for sure, but the Commanders are going to get, it's going to be one of those 27 three wins. I think there's going to be a lot of lopsided wins this week. And I think next week we're going to be talking about how teams got absolutely throttled. That might be the name of this.
[00:47:34] Speaker C: Episode, throttle next week's American Thanksgiving Week. So we got a couple of Thursday games. We got a Friday game.
[00:47:40] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:47:42] Speaker C: Then a real lean lineup on Sunday.
[00:47:46] Speaker A: So interesting, interesting weeks coming up now. We are still waiting to get this promotion. Now this has been the in the pocket segment. We're not going do two minute warning here tonight. We don't have the time to do that because we're already three minutes over. So let everybody know that we, sorry that we're missing our two minute warning within the pocket segment, but it's okay. We will make up for it next week. More editions of the Game Sports podcast will be coming hopefully this week James Tabalski's episode finally be uploaded. We do have an episode on Monday of the game, obviously, as well. We'll have Wednesday back again next week. As Justin alluded to. A lot of games to talk about, but it's also my wife's birthday on Tuesday.
I will give her another shout out on Monday. But she will be turning 25. Yes, a little bit older if everyone really wants the clarification.
But nonetheless, I think she's going to.
[00:48:34] Speaker C: Be turning 25 for the rest of your marriage if you want to live a long life.
[00:48:39] Speaker A: Good point. But nonetheless, she's the thumbnail maker of our show. Anyone sees our lovely thumbnails, that's not me, that's her. So give her a shout out for that. But nonetheless, Justin, this has been an axe pack show, man. I know you weren't there for the second segment with Connor. My first segment talking about international hockey. I'm sure you would have loved to hear about that. Throw your opinion on that. You'll have to save that for another episode of segment of Top Shelf. But we've talked football here. We don't have two minute warning. We don't have any NCAA talks to talk about because we have limited time already. Five minutes over, as we conclude here. But, Justin, I want to say thank you for coming on for another in the pocket. It's always fun, my friend.
[00:49:16] Speaker C: Hey, no problem. Always happy to be here. And it was close on time. It wasn't that bad.
[00:49:21] Speaker A: No, we're actually good for a total amount right now. It's going to be ten. We're going to be at ten minutes over for the total show of all three segments combined. That's a record.
That is a record. It's not a total time record, but One time we did a three hour episode. Yeah, that happened.
[00:49:38] Speaker C: That was a bad one. It was good.
[00:49:42] Speaker A: Worst length episode of all time. I don't think I've went through Jugs of Beer quicker. I've never been so. Oh, my God. Fun times. Fun times. You can listen to that on potomatic if you know what that is. Great. If you can find it.
[00:49:55] Speaker C: Good luck.
[00:49:56] Speaker A: God speed to you. If you're driving to Sudbury from the Sioux, you got 3 hours of absolutely nonsense topics from when the game was just started in 2016. God, that's a long time ago. Goodness. All right, Justin, I want to say thank you to you again. I want to say thank you to everyone here that tunes into the game and also checks out the 91 N. Also, make sure you hit like follow and subscribe. If you're on the video portion, I'm pointing down, there's a like here, there's the subscribe here. If you're on Spotify, if you just open up your app, there's a star button at the top. If you're on Apple, there's a star there as well. Google or Amazon, you can rate wherever you're tuning in. Doesn't matter if you want to give any feedback, just a simple, like, simple subscribe. Either way goes a long way for us as we go into our big year. As I've been teasing for the past little while here, we're very excited for you to be a part of that also, but more segments of the games to be coming soon, such as episode uploads, as I mentioned, so keep an eye out for those. But in terms of an actual news show, a podcast show, our next one will be on Monday on the 20th with yours truly, and likely Dane and Alex will be talking a little bit of hockey, and if Justin has the time. But we'll have a nice segment coming up on Monday in terms of another busy week in sports, for sure. Nonetheless, I want to say thank you again to the listeners and to everyone. Thank you for coming on by. Again to Justin and also to Connor. Can't forget to say thank you to Connor. I'm here to remind you to keep your stick on the ice, swing your bats, catch your touchdowns, train your threes, and shoot your shots. Booyah.
