Happy Thanksgiving. Thanks for tuning into Voyage. We've set sales seeking validation, vindication and Vikings, victory Vikings play host to the New England Patriots on Thanksgiving night, the first Thanksgiving game they've ever hosted. Very excited for that one. And yes, I'm brushing over the loss against Dallas, uh, on Sunday. We can forget about that one. What do you, what do you say? Yeah, I don't remember what happened on Sunday. I don't recall. Anyways. Doesn't matter.
Belichick comes into town. Should be a, a gritty matchup for the boys. I like our chances. I like us. And a bounce back spot at home. Um, on Thanksgiving. I will say, all jokes aside, I'm a little bit stressed out that we lost like that at home because we're currently fighting for home field advantage. And if we're gonna be able to play, have the capability of playing like that at home, that frightens me. It was a, it was a very tough loss.
Um, everything and, and, you know, you and I talked about this when we were at the game, but everything kind of set up for us to be in a letdown spot there. Coming off the big win against Buffalo, uh, Dallas coming in off the loss to, to Green Bay, they needed a bounce back spot. Um, but we, you know, there's no excuses for it going the way that it did. 40 to three, an absolute beat down. Um, but you know, this is the nfl.
If you don't come ready to play any given Sunday, you can, you can end up getting smacked down. Um, uh, yeah, it's important because we had a chance to, to keep, keep up with the eagles and, uh, remain one game back. But, um, you know, it is what it is. We will let it play out. We need to, we need to come back and bounce back. Now, this team hasn't faced this type of adversity yet. Kevin O'Connell hasn't faced this type of adversity yet as a head coach.
And so this is the litmus test for, for the Vikings right now. I mean, uh, we've had a few other tests throughout the year early that have been, that have been helpful, but this is the one where we need to prove that we can bounce back after that loss, you know, prove that that wasn't us, that wasn't who we are. Um, and, and this is, and this is exactly what we're talking about. Yeah. Right. What we talked about last week, Kevin O'Connell facing real adversity.
He's gotta be able to face real adversity. And what does that look like? Well, I can tell you what, I am very confident he's gonna bounce back and we're gonna beat the absolute piss out of the Patriots. Who's that loss on last week? Which loss? What are you talking about? Are you talking about, I mean, I know we got a short memory, but Oh, who was it on? Yeah. Um. Well, dude, it was a total, it was a total and complete meltdown by all, in all facets of the game.
It was not on any single person or any single position group, but I will say we lost the game up front from the very first time we got the ball Kirk at a strip sack on third down on our first drive. Our offensive line was not great at all. The whole day Daras started, but he didn't look right. Um, he probably shouldn't have played. you know, it just, it just wasn't good from the jump. And it, we got beat up in the trenches from, from, like I said, from our first possession.
So I think that's ultimately, ultimately who it falls on. And, and we weren't able to stop the run at all whatsoever. They kept getting into third down and short and, uh, they were able to convert on that. You know, we were given Dak some wide open passing lanes, let 'em get into a groove a bit. Um, but they really, they really started by running the football and we weren't able to stop the run. So we got beat up on, on the line of scrimmage. On both sides of the football.
So I hope that that's not a problem going forward. Um, it hasn't been, and we've played some good fronts. The Dallas front is no joke, so, you know, but, uh, but that's a team you're gonna have to beat if you wanna, if you want to get to Glendale. So it looked like we were tired. Um, they looked hungry. I mean, Micah Parsons is the best football player maybe in the National Football League, besides, that's not named Justin Jefferson. Yeah. you mean Justin Fields? No, dude.
Okay. But, uh, but you know, so moving on to, to this week, to tomorrow, to the New England Patriots coming to town on Thanksgiving night, it's, it's gonna be a slug fest. It's gonna be, it's gonna be a gritty game. I expect it to be a defensive game. That's kind of what everybody's predicting, expecting, a low scoring one. They. One of the top rated defenses in the league.
I saw something on FF two where the, the two highest rated edge rushing duos in the league will be squaring off tomorrow in Matt Judah and whoever their other clown is. And, uh, and then Zaris and Dan, they're the top rated edge rushing duos in the league. I expected to be low scoring. I don't want us to see, I don't wanna see us. Let Mack Jones get into a groove. We're gonna have to stop the run we're gonna have to just chip away on offense.
I hope we can establish the run better than we did on Sunday. and then, you know, take our shots when they're there. it's, it's gonna be a slug fest. The total is at 42. I'd, i'd, I'd lean under, I think I'm gonna make a prediction. Kevin O'Connell, young coach. Lots of ambition, probably big play book. He's got big balls. Watch out for a trick play here. Justin Jefferson, throwback to Hawkinson or some shit like that, that would be electric.
And I think that, you know, it's gonna be, I think I would've a, it's stepping back as a handicapper, it would be very hard to handicap this game. I feel like I would probably play the under and leave it at that. It's a late game. Neither team, both teams are gonna have a hard time blocking. I think both teams think that they can have an advantage running the ball. we just, we need to get back. We need to get back. Right. We need to get back playing good special teams.
We need to get back playing good defense getting in a rhythm on offense. We couldn't get in a rhythm. Yeah, it was terrible. And they had seven sacks. Yeah. It was bad. We need to get the ball outta Kirk's. We need to run some shorter passing concepts to get the ball out of his hand quick, get the ball into our playmakers hands, you know, on some short passing routes. But running the football is obviously gonna be key. It's been key. We've been preaching it.
we gotta be able to do a good job running the football. expect the Vikings to to, to have that bounce back though. I mean, I really do. I think, US Bank is gonna be rocking as long as trip to fan isn't an issue. everybody's gonna be larded up from their Thanksgiving festivities before the night contest. I expect the fans to be ready to go. I know we'll be ready to go, so I know we're gonna be ready to go.
We're always ready to go, and we will always sit in our seats until it hits 0, 0, 0. always. we did that on Sunday. It was bleak. It was, it was painful for a while. We, we kind of just resorted to laughing this one off. It's, it's tough. We've seen some, we've seen, seen some bad ones at the bank in our time, going to ball games and that was one of, that's that one's up there, the Bills game. Yeah. Bill, was that the second year? Josh Allen. It was Josh Allen's rookie year. Yeah. Rookie year.
Yeah. Second year of the bank. and then we had, uh, Colts, Colts debacle in the first year of the bank. We had, uh, Tate flipping in the edge, all that one heard. big, big time bounce back spot for us. We need it and, and I expect us to get it. excited to be at the bank on, on Thanksgiving. It's gonna be, it's gonna be special. Are you stressed about injuries and do you think that Dave and Thompson is gonna play Dave and Thompson listed as questionable? I don't. Know that he's gonna play.
I, I, I think if he's good enough to give it a shot, he will. I've been stressed about injuries. I feel like that was kind of a, a problem in the cowboy game. But we, we still got, we just got our asses beat. obviously the DeRisi injuries is huge. hopefully break. Blake Brando can step up and, and put together a full game here. A as he's prepared to be the starter for this one. corner. The corner injuries concern me a bit. We lose Caleb Evans and now Andrew Booth is out again.
looks like Duke, Shelly is in line for his first start We're just gonna have to help 'em out. We're gonna have to play good complimentary defense. The good thing about this is that the Patriots don't scare me, uh, from a passing perspective. I think that we can, we can get to Mack Jones and, and throw him off his rhythm. Just don't let him get into a rhythm. They're gonna try to run some short concepts. They're gonna try to establish a run. We gotta, we gotta stop it.
We gotta just, we gotta play good. D I'm certainly worried about stopping the run, and I'm certainly worried about, do and tomlinson's availability. What concerns me is that we're playing Duke Shelly over Chris Boyd That's, how does Chris Boyd not see the field here? He's, he's, he's too in, he's too into TikTok. He's not into the game film. He's too into TikTok. He's a good special teams player. That's. Well, but you might be right though. I mean, Chris Boyd might play, I don't, we don't know.
We know that Duke Shelly is playing. Okay. I don't think we know that for sure, but, uh, I, I would, that makes one play in Buffalo. We just automatically think he's playing. Well, what if he's a good player? He might be, I'm not saying he's not gonna be a good player. I'm just saying Chris Boyd has been on our team for a while. He's playing good football and he just gets hopped over by a guy named Duke, Shelly. It's, it's, that's a bad look for Chris Boyd. I'll tell you that.
Chris Boyd should be playing if he, if he expects to ever play cornerback in this league, he, to tomorrow night would be his opportunity to play. Right. So it's, it's, it's, it's, uh, it's an indictment on him, if anything. So, hey man, we roll the punches. It's, it's next man up. And that's why, you know, to go back to us dealing with adversity, you know, injuries are a part of it. Everybody deals with injuries. We gotta do what we gotta do.
We gotta find a way to win the football game and we gotta find a way to get back on track. it's at home and we should do that. We should take care of business. I know this Patriot's defense has only allowed six points in the last two weeks. They scare me a bit. I mean, they're, they're good, they're solid, they're well-coached. they got play makers at every level.
but like I said, it's gonna be one of those games that we've kind of seen throughout the middle course of this year where our offense, it might be tough sledding, but we gotta just stick with the run, be committed to the run, get chunk plays out of it, and then, hopefully wear 'em down a bit and hit 'em over the top with a few plays. It would be nice to see our defense or our offense.
Run plays such as screens or, so I don't even care if it's running the ball that works, to slow down the past rush anyway. And I don't care. There's so many different ways to do it, we gotta figure out a way to do that. We cannot let Matthew June on pin his ears back and come after us. We cannot let that happen like we did in Dallas. Or it's gonna get ugly.
It's gonna get ugly quick we're gonna, you know, well, that's why I was, I was a little bit confused why we didn't do that immediately against Dallas. We knew they were gonna try to pin their ears back and get after Kirk. Why did we not try to run some screen game, some quick pass game? some things like that early. I, I just, we didn't really do much to, to, uh, to mitigate that pass rush. And it became, it, you know, the deficit became too much to where we were even able to try some of that.
But I would hope that we come out with a different game plan in this one. to try to help us out with that, especially with the injuries we're facing up front. And I think what Dallas did was they just pressed it was hard to run those screen passes and stuff, and they ran man against us. So Kevin O'Connell rolled the dice and said, all right, we're gonna beat 'em with our guys, we just didn't have time. it is what it is, but I hope we can learn from it and move on here.
Well that's kind of one of the thing that scares me too, is and are you concerned about this? you know, when we face a man, a man, look, it seems like, feeling and Osborne are really struggling to get separation that we need him to get in those situations. Because if they're not able to get separation, then you don't really have another target besides Jefferson Hawkinson sometimes yes, but, and he dropped that one early in the end zone against Dallas.
But like, we need our guys to be able to get open against a man. Look, I trust O'Connell to have man beaters. Yeah, it'll be fine. I'm confident. I'm confident in our guy Koc. He's a good coach. He makes adjustments and we'll get right back on track here. I got, I had no worries at all. We're gonna have a win this game. We're gonna have a mini buy. Yep. We'll be all right. Other side of the ball. What do you guys, what do you guys think needs to be adjusted?
playing, I'd say kind of a middle of the road. new England offense, Stevenson's doing well, running the ball pass, catching back, doing, you know, having a pretty breakout season, in my opinion. Mack Jones, Bailey Zappy. Flip a quarter. Who do you want back there? Who would you be more afraid of seeing? kind of with some guys coming back from injury for the Patriots, like a Jacobi Meyer.
What do you guys think needs to be done on the defensive side of the ball if you're just giving up a 40 burger? I have no worry or stress about either one of those quarterbacks. All that stresses me out is running the ball and getting pressure on the quarterback. That's all we need to worry about on defensive will be fine. Stack the box. Sell out to stop the run. Make Mac Jones beat you. Then I think we'll be fine. We should try to go to a bear front.
Yeah. Yeah. Diman was in the US Bank Stadium stands yelling to go to a five two or was that Chris's idea? My dad texts. My dad texts me and says, Vikings need to go to a five two It is true though. We need to stop the running. We need to get pressure on the quarterback. Dak had all the time in the world and just piece us. Yeah, we need to sell out to stop the run. I think that's, that's gonna be key. So, uh, alright, well we're excited to get it, get back into the bank again.
You know, the good thing about losing by 37 is that, uh, we have no time to think about it. We have, we just gotta recollect ourselves and, and dive right back into the Patriots. Bill Belichick said an interesting thing in his press conference or he was talking on a radio show out in Boston. Early in the weekend, he said, uh, they, you know, they just came off a buy before they played the Jets at home.
And he is like, we already got a head start on the, on the Vikings because basically indicating that they were overlooking the Jets with Zach Wilson and, well, what do you know? Zach Wilson and the Jets weren't incapable of doing absolutely anything against them. And Zach Wilson looked terrible and he's benched now, so I've been saying it for weeks.
Zach Wilson might be the worst quarterback in the league and uh, uh, yeah, he's gonna have to ride some pine for a bit here and do some soul searching as they turn to Mike White in New York. So that was interesting. I actually love the Jets this week with Mike White Who do they play? They play us Hey all. I'm saying that's, that might be the easiest game of the season for the Bears. Dude, the jets are good. Are they? What do you mean? Are they good? Their defense is legit.
The only way that we lose that game has a Shep separated shoulder dude. He's got an AC joint injury. He came out and said if the game were on Wednesday, the game were today, nah, he wouldn't play. But guess what? It's not until fucking Sunday. That's not a good sign, dude, that's not a good sign. I mean, I might be max betting, I might be putting the bank roll on the jets. You're gonna put the bank roll on the jets plus six after. They just were a feeble. We're at three. No, six. Oh yes.
Six. They're at six. Yeah. More than yes. Yeah. I like it even more than more points. That's fine. You know what to make up for that. Uh, S sac State bet. Last night I think I might be putting like 20 units bears money lined. I think there's some value there. There's no value on a fucking minus 300 juiced favorite. What do they're dogs. The bears are six point dogs at the Jack. Oh, all right. All right, all right. Yes. The Bears are six point dogs. That's correct.
Uh, it's a plus two 15 money line. Okay. So you misled us. You were telling us that the Giants were plus six. Once again, Kane fails to read the lines properly. No. Once again, the two Minnesotans are drunk and can't understand English. No, no, no, no, no. I don't need any slander from you. Call of Duty, boy, they've got, they've got squeaky cheese in their ears. You call of duty boy, we employed you to be director of content and what have you done? Nothing Nothing. I directed a lot of content.
None. You haven't? Yeah. Of your own. You haven't pushed, you haven't pushed the project, brother. I'm pretty sure you went viral on pmt for, uh, posting one of the me I sent you. If that's not content, I don't know what is. Oh, there it is. One thing you've done. Name one other thing you've done lot of stuff. What about the website, brother? I want a blog. Busy season's over. I write about busy season is over. Oh, okay. But you have time to play call duty.
Yeah. Oh, I, I appreciate time with my friends. I don't, I don't have time to play Call of Duty. I appreciate time with my friends like Jordan Dec Crook. I know. I don't have time for Call of Duty. You should make some time. It's pretty fun. No, I'll pass. We saw what it did to Kyle Murray's career, so I grew up, we saw what it did to Kyle. Me. Hey, he's fine. Um, uh, jumping into the NFL last week, not a whole lot. The Motor City kits go on the road and uh, find a win in New York.
Um, That was an interesting one. Um, green Bay falls again at home to the Titans That's, that's a terrible look for 'em. Well, I mean, I mean, the Titans aren't bad. Yeah, they're not bad, but that's a must win for Green Bay. Oakland got the win. Oakland got a win. Derek was carb that with the win. Derek Carb. That was the best thing on Twitter all week. That was, I woke up on Saturday morning and that's the first thing I saw on Twitter, and I just could not stop laughing all day about it.
uh, the Rams are the most dead team, and Sean McVay is gonna retire and Matt Stafford's out now too. So they're, they're done. You can stick a fork in the Rams, the commanders, they're looking pretty. They beat a Houston Texans club, though. That stinks. So, and they, Houston Texans are now benching, uh, Davis Mills. Who do they got up next? Seriously? Who are they gonna play? Uh, isle, uh, what's the guy's name? Uh, he was in Carolina before Slaughterer.
No, no, no. Whatever the hell his name is. But they're benching Davis Mills. So it looks like they've got a problem. They've got problems. Kyle, Orton Could Kyle Orton be a step up for that squad? Uh, Kyle, uh, yeah. I don't know. Whatever. Some dude named Kyle. Yeah. Kyle Allen. Kyle Allen. That's, he stinks. That's tough. Thanks. All right. Let's look at the Thanksgiving slate. Tomorrow we got, uh, Buffalo at Detroit to kick it off. Now Buffalo is gonna play two straight games at Ford Field.
I think this is a, this is rigged by the nfl. I'm not happy about it. They moved the game to Ford Field last week under dire circumstances. Some would argue, but I You think so? I think it's bs. That's what I think. I think it's bs. They could have played the game in Buffalo and now they just wanna make, uh, the bills a second home in Ford Field and um, now they're gonna go back there and play again on Thursday. It's gonna be a defacto home game for them. I don't like it.
What do, what do the Bills do for Bill's Mafia fans who, you know, say they can't make it to that game in Detroit, which it's only a four hour drive, but not for everyone. What do you do if you're a season ticket holder there? Yeah, good question. I don't know. I hope they're giving refunds, but, uh, I feel like that would've been some of the greatest football content of all time.
If you have that game in Buffalo with six feet of snow, you've got that guy out in the parking lot trying to fucking make pizzas out of the, the filing cabinet. You've got people jumping through tables into lush. Lush snow. So there probably would've been significantly lower concussion rates and, uh, I think the wings would've tasted a little bit better in buffalo. Wait, I'm asking, wait, I'm asking you a question now.
Do you, do you think that concussion rates amongst civilians is high in Buffalo because they smash through tables? I think it's significantly higher per capita than the rest of the country. um, I, I, I'd put Philly right up there neck and neck with them because they're greased up, uh, grease up telephone poles falling off the top. Uh, well, and they throw batteries. Yeah, they throw batteries. Uh, they also put batteries and socks and batter you with them.
Um, but you know, I would also say that I would also say that concussion rates are some of the highest concussion rates in America are in the right field seats at target field. When Dylan Bundy's on the mound. Protest Switch Yeah. Where's the sound board? Dean That was sharp that we shared. I think one thing to say about this Buffalo game, sharp line by Vegas nine and a halfs of sharp line. I like the, I like the lions.
Um, and then we've got, uh, the Dallas Cowboys playing host to the New York Giants. New York Giants are plus 10 there as well. So we got two high numbers, uh, before we get to the late slate with your Minnesota Vikings. But I am gonna hammer the Giants. This is a huge letdown spot for Dallas, a big rivalry game, and the giants historically going to Dallas when everybody thinks Dallas is good and beats that ass. Yeah. Is this Chris Ditman infiltrating your mind?
No, no. This is just years and years of them being on prime time playing against each other. Right. That's fair. That's, I know he was in the, he was in the Voyage DMS this past week. Uh, I don't know if you guys saw it, said, fuck the Colts. We need this one. NFC Championship goes through the bank. Let's go. He did say that. Yes. Is uh, is Chrisman a curse to the Vikings? No. He's a, he was, he's a doubting Thomas dude. He's, he's just, what are you gonna say?
I mean, no, I'm just, I'm just the guy. His family grows up in New York and then he becomes a Giants fan, and then he moves to Minnesota and he tries to be a Vikings fan. But the guy is the most negative human being about the Vikings ever, ever. It's insane. I mean, it's fair when you've been chasing it as shit this long, you know, Chris Diman hates Jordan Hicks no more than anybody maybe in the world, and I have no idea why. I've heard he's an asshole and Jordan Hicks is an asshole.
Yeah. You don't know shit. Actually, no, I'm thinking of Aaron Hicks. Iverson in that statement. yeah. Different sport brother. Um, we're talking about football. Yeah. Not baseball season yet. Um, yeah. What other game do we got? Well, um, you know, we're starting to get to that point in this season where there's teams that are selling now, you know, it, it's, it's, some teams are, are, are dusted already. You know what I mean? So Vegas is accounting for that. There's a lot of large spreads.
Um, some more poor matchups. Um, uh, new Orleans goes to, uh, San Francisco. They've got no chance. Um, they, we've got Houston going to Miami. They have no chance. We've got Chicago going to New York. They have no chance. Uh, you know, and, uh, we've got the Rams. Without Stafford going to Kansas City, they have no chance. Um, what do you think about. Tampa going to Cleveland. Tampa going to Cleveland's an interesting one. I like the Browns in that one actually. Yeah, that's a three and a half.
That's, you know, Tampa's looked a little bit better in recent weeks, but I don't know, it just, that just feels weird. I'm taking Tampa. I think you're just saying that to, to mess with me. That way you can try to nab one from me and pick him. I like the Browns. Oh, oh. We're on the podcast talking about NFL football, and it comes back to pick Kid grabs first place back and then now, now he wants to talk about pick him Now he wants to talk about, pick him.
Hey, this is why you thinks you guys collude. No, no. We talk about it. I know who he's gonna pick. I mean, we talk about it on here every week. Thanks for listening. You will. Yeah. You, youll could just, yeah. Yu's model is broke. Aren't you ahead of him now? Oh yeah. I, I leapfrogged him. I'm. I mean, I'm, we'll, I think it's a good thing he didn't make the clown bet. Yeah, it's a good thing because I'm surging, but we'll talk about that later.
Let's, let's keep going on, uh, you know, this week in the nfl, maybe you, one day, maybe one day we'll make a documentary of what could have been about the clown bet. You know, I think, yeah, yeah. Let's, we'll have to make it, we'll have to make it like a 30 for 30 short on the clown. Be I think we should start in only fans with exclusive content. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard, dude. All right. What other games have we got? There's nothing else that I'm interested in.
So, um, you guys got anything? Chargers, Cardinals. That's a bad game between two bad clubs. Are we putting the Chargers as bad? I, I like the Chargers minus three points on the road. Did Chargers covered last week? Yeah, they covered it. I like the Chargers. I mean, they've, They've got Mike Williams back. I think Keenan Allen's back this week. I don't think he's, no. Keenan Allen. Keenan Allen was back last week. I think he's healthy.
But Mike Williams, I still don't think is a hundred percent, but I'll still take that over. Is Kyle, I don't even care if Kyle's playing that Arizona team is done. Cliff Kings version. Yeah, they're done fired. Didn't they fire their offensive coordinator? Yeah, they're done. God, he's such a cliff. Kingsbury is such a dumb ass dude. He'll be the next coach at, uh, Ole Miss when Lane Kiffin goes. He'll, he won't go above 500.
Not that it's an interesting matchup, but Denver Carolina, both teams stink. Uh, can we talk about, uh, Denver releasing Melvin Gordon? He fumbles too much. He's no good. No. Did you hear the actual reason he was released? What? And this is, this is very tmz No, this is, this is rumors that have been swirling on Twitter and I've seen multiple people tweet it. I've seen people who. I'm not gonna say they're valid sources, but I've seen a lot of accounts actually saying this.
Apparently after the loss, uh, he was upset. Melvin was upset with Russ's performance yet again, went back into the locker room and started playing a ton, just future, future music on repeat max volume. And Russ walked in there hear, and I did hear that, and I just thought it was fake. I mean, it very well could be, but I love the narrative. Yeah. Right. Right. Now that you say it, like picturing that happening would be the funniest fucking shit ever. I mean yeah.
Melvin's a dog and Russ is kind of a pussy, uh, for his wife, which Yeah, he's a pussy for his wife. But, uh, I mean that he's a pussy for his wife. Yeah. What does that mean? I mean, you gotta stand up sometimes and admit like, yeah, this is my wife's ex, but future still puts out good music. Like, I'll let the boys bang it if that's gonna get us a win. It's, it's the worst. It's one of the worst things I've ever heard in my life.
And the biggest reason why I'll never like Russell Wilson is because he doesn't let the Boys Bang future. Yeah. Is that should be, that should be a criminal offense. Yeah. You wonder why the team's playing bad. Some of the best hype up songs in our generation are by future just play anything by him. And it slaps. We've been saying for years that Russell Wilson can't win another Super Bowl because he doesn't listen to future. So yeah, he's a cock. He's a beta cock. Correct. All right.
So, uh, Let's go into our mail bag here. We got a, we got a couple of questions. Um, you all wants to talk about the Vikings. He said, he said Vikings are going to win it all, but if they don't, and the reason is, due to cousins not playing well down the final stretch of the season due, the Vikings take a shot at a one to two year contract with Aaron Rogers to see if he can get it done with the talent we have.
I like cousins and he shows stretches of promise, but at what point do we move on, especially with, with us having a roster that can win now before we have, uh, to start paying some of the young guys, JJ and others. So this is something that we've talked about on the podcast before. I think that this, uh, new front office has some questions to answer after this season. I am, I don't think that Kurt Cousins will ever be the reason that we're gonna lose games.
He's playing well enough for us to win any football game. If Trent Del won a Super Bowl, why can't Kurt Cousins? Uh, if Eli Manning won multiple Super Bowls, why can't Kurt Cousins? I think, I think we'll be fine the rest of this, this season, but I think ultimately they're gonna want to move on from cousins. Um, he's on contract for one more season, but they can move on from him after this year if they feel compelled to do so.
I think what ultimately happens, if I have to make a prediction right now is that, uh, this team would target a young quarterback in the draft that they like and go after him and groom him for one year under cousins next season, and then probably make the switch after that. Now, if they stumble upon an Aaron Rogers deal somehow, and he wants outta Green Bay, and it's, it's. It's, you know, an option for us. I mean, obviously why wouldn't you look into it?
There's, there's other options too, though, like Lamar Jackson. Um, so we'll see how the team proceeds after, after the season. Uh, I'm still in wait and see mode really. I think her cousins is more than capable to get it done for us now, but obviously there's a decision to be made, uh, in this off season probably. And, uh, and then moving forward there is, I would be in a torture chamber if we sign.
Aaron Rogers an aging vet who has regressed to a huge deal, takes up all of our cap and completely kills us. I would rather spend that money on Lamar Jackson. If there's anybody else other than that, we're gonna ride with Kirk Cousins. I don't believe that Kirk is gonna be the reason that we lose games, um, down the stretch. So I have faith in Kirk. I mean, do you guys know who, like what, what free Asian quarterbacks are out there next year?
Like aside from drafting and I'm, I'm not gonna say that the Vikings wouldn't sign Lamar, but Right. I, I don't see that happening. Like, I think that's a massive long shot. I can go back to Baltimore, but if something were to happen, that's what I would want to happen. I mean, you've got there, there's like, there's some decent guys that are free next year. Uh, Tom Brady, I think that's Farfetched Baker. Mayfield ass. Sam Darn as Jimmy G. No, I don't think that'd be a bad fit. Teddy. Terrible.
No, that would be a downgrade from Kirkus Head. Two blogs. I Shahan would say bring him back. Yes. Daniel Jones. No, dude. No. No. Gino Smith. No, no, no. All right. Drew Lock. Shut the hell up. No, I'm over it. Okay. Can I give one more that. I know this is who Danny was probably waiting for me to say it's his favorite guy from his favorite team in the nfl, the Dallas Cowboys Cooper Rush. Oh yeah.
Danny would probably want Cooper, he would probably betted on, you'll probably bet on the Cowboys, honestly. I mean like what are, what are the Vikings picks look like next year? I, I feel like they don't have anything that great in terms of No, we ride with, we ride with Kirk. Like I know he looks terrible. I get that. I get that. But thinking about the future, say, you know, this year doesn't pan out the way that it's gonna be. I think that we have ke until he is 30.
I think we have him for two to three more years. Okay. So two years of a grooming process. I think that's, that's ideally what you have when you're drafting a young qb. You have somebody sit behind someone's whose experience, who's good competent in the pocket, which that pains me to say about Kurt Cousins. But you know, if that were this year that they target somebody coming out of the draft. Who's gonna be available at the point where the bike is, they would've to move up.
Who's gonna be Richardson? Nobody will be available at the 32nd overall pick, but, but you can move up in the draft if you really want to. I mean, people have done it. It's not that big of a deal. Itt to be a late round guy like Anthony Richardson. It it could be, it could be a late round guy. But I'm, but all I'm saying is that you can move up in the draft. Yeah. If you really like a guy, there's stop this team from moving up in the draft to get a guy they really like.
I'd rather, but who do you give up? Who do you give up to get that back? You give up picks. You give up future picks, or you give up, you give up cousins and a pick and the future pick like I'm just maybe for Kayla willing it can be done. Yeah. But Caleb Williams, it's not even next year. Yeah, next year. Yeah. Well, that's what I'm saying. I, I wouldn't, I don't, I would rather have You want Bryce Young? No, I would be the number one overall pick. Do you want shroud? I don't really.
You want shroud? I'd rather have, I'd rather have Caleb Williams next year for sure. Correct. I mean, those Ohio State QBs are pretty good. No, they're not. All right, we got a next mail bag. Question is from, uh, our guy JD again. Let's go jd Consistent contributor to the program. And he is got one that we're gonna have to, we're gonna have to, uh, go off the cuff a little bit here because this is out of our lane. All right. He says The greatest sporting event in the world is upon us.
Let's dialogue gentlemen. US Men's national team honestly choked two points away today. Glad we got one point, but we should have won. Thanks to a Walker Zimmerman Foul in the box with Gareth Bales back to the goal ultimately resulting in the draw. I'm still optimistic we get out of our group, and Friday's game is huge to get a win over England, just like we did in 1776. What do you guys think about the World Cup? Have you seen the fans accommodations?
Comments on the fact that the hallmark of sporting events is being held in the winter in a country, roughly the size of con Connecticut and zero infrastructure to support herds of global footy fans. Any predictions on group winners? Golden Boot favorites. Who do you think takes the Crown USA all the way? Baby Uh, I haven't watched a single second of the World Cup. I've been locked into the Maui Gym Invitational amongst other college hoops.
Matchups, uh, I understand people are tuned into the World Cup. Um, and, uh, and, you know, I respect it. All right. I don't get that into it. All right. I think that, uh, yeah, the accom, the accommodations to start there are atrocious. We've got people risking their lives over one New England ipa. Uh, you know, I don't wanna, if I was there, you know, I wouldn't wanna, uh, risk a Britney Grinder situation just so I could drink a, an ipa. So, uh, it, it's atrocious what's going on there.
I believe that they said, you know, before the tournament started that they were gonna, they were going to have beer sales only Budweiser, since that's the official sponsor of fifa. Um, and now they, they don't even have that. So you can't even buy a beer there. I don't know why you'd wanna be there. Um, sounds terrible. And the infrastructure, yeah, I think that's an, a whole nother issue too.
Um, I think having the, the World Cup in, in the Middle East is, is a problem and they shouldn't, uh, shouldn't be doing that. USA bounces back with a win on Friday. They'll beat England. All right. I'm taking your word for it, jd. I'm taking your word for it, that they're gonna come out of the, the group as far as other predictions go, I, I'm gonna, I'm gonna go group by group here and give you prediction. I like the Netherlands to come out of Group A. All right.
They're the superior club there. Um, good matchup, uh, between them and Ecuador. I don't know if it's happened yet or not. I just, it's a good matchup. Whatever. Uh, USA comes outta group B, Argentina, uh, drop the tough one. But I like them in group C. They're one of my favorites to win the win the World Cup. Um, France is gonna come out of Group D. Japan is gonna come out of group E in a, in a massive upset over Spain.
I heard a story about Japanese fans cleaning up the stadium after their games. Uh, they're, they're, they're civil servants. All right. Japan should win their group and should make a run. Japan I don't know what I'm talking about, brother. Right? Go ahead. Group f I like Morocco. Okay. Don't know why I just like them. Group G Brazil is gonna win that group.
And then group H uh, they haven't started play yet in group H. I've got Portugal coming out of group H and my favorite to win it all is Argentina. Um, and that's about all I know. I don't, I don't know Jack about the World Cup brother. I told you I'd do some research this about as far as I can get into it. Um, this tournament's gonna be going on for some time deep into December. So I guess if you want to get into it, you still have time. Uh, I have no desire.
There's college hoops on, so as is really that long as John Rothstein would say. Uh, who needs a World Cup when you've got college hoops? Yeah, I, I could, I could probably talk for a while about this. I've been following a lot of the conditions over in Qatar on social media, TikTok, all that stuff. There was some, uh, segment that came out. I think it was like CNBC or somebody they went over and interviewed.
A bunch of people got there two days before it looked like the fire fest, if you guys watched that documentary. Literally, literally, literally, people living in FEMA tents, I guess the temperatures are over a hundred degrees Fahrenheit out there. They're giving people, uh, stationary fans. Um, they said that, you know, sitting in there during the day, it's unbearable. They're sweating, they're dying. Uh, the water is not potable water.
I don't, I don't think anyone's died, but no, nobody's died, but they're probably fucking close. But, uh, I mean there, there was this video in these people, like, they went over to brush their teeth outta the fountain and it started coming out like Flint, Michigan. It was brown, musty water Um, there's a problem going on. They were still setting up two days before when all the journalists and stuff arrived. Uh, the conditions were not great. Um, also to, to touch on the beer sales.
Yeah. They, they backed out saying, yeah, we'll let people drink here. We don't care. It's gonna be fun. So apparently since you can't drink there, well actually pivot. Only the people with v i p suites and diplomats are allowed to drink. So they're bending the rules for people with money. The 1%. Right. And uh, that's an embarrassment. Yeah, I guess there's like a warehouse.
A warehouse the size of like two or three football fields sitting over there with UNC cracked Budweiser, the king of beer. Um, and Budweiser came out and said, whichever country wins the World Cup, we're just gonna give 'em all this beer since we can't sell it. Like there's gonna be some massive lawsuit against Qatar, which they don't care. They've got oil money, they'll gladly pay a billion dollars to uphold their morals and values.
But another thing, I guess there's kicking people out for wearing, uh, for wearing rainbow flags. They made Belgium change their jerseys that said love on the inside because they're homophobic Um, there's, there's a lot of stuff going on over there. I also read, uh, I guess the only reason they got the World Cup is it's like a panel of 24 judges or whatever representing, you know, 24 countries. They paid eight people for votes, upwards of $1.5 million. Two of them were caught.
The other six, they just gave 'em a slap on the wrist, let 'em keep the 1.5. They still voted for 'em. And there was some metric between like Qatar, I think it was like England, Germany, and the US in terms of like who has the best infrastructure, who's our, you know, who's capable of doing safety. So you've done a ton of research on this, right? No, I've just seen a ton of shit on TikTok and it's mind blowing. Okay. I don't care. Okay. I don't care about soccer. It's a waste of grass, I agree.
Okay. I agree. So, onto the rundown of the groupings, we'll just skip ahead to that outta group A. Uh, Senegal, they're gonna turn around. Uh, England's coming outta group B. The US is terrible at soccer unless you're a female. Uh, that's all I've known my entire life, so I'm gonna stick by it. I like the Pollocks, uh, you know, Polska coming outta group C. Um, France is definitely coming outta group D. Um, group E is going to be, Not Germany. I believe they lost a Belgium today.
So I'm gonna go with Japan along with Cam. They have a, you know, a very gritty culture. Um, group F uh, Morocco. Morocco, I like them. Fun name. Uh, group G. Uh, don't sleep on the Serbians and group H. We're going to go with ua, um, to win it all. I've heard some, uh, heard some murmurs that France or powerhouses. I believe they won it four years ago. I hate the French, but they might win it all. And that's talking soccer take on it. Uh, I've done no research. I don't care at all.
In terms of the, uh, U US England thing, um, US stinks. I heard, I heard they blew it to whale. To whales. That's, I mean, that's how big is whales? How do we, we blow whales. Who cares anyways? Who cares? Let's beat the fucking Brits. They're stupid. They're whatever. They have soccer. They're, they're like, you know, they smoke too many six. Yeah, they're yuppy soccer guys. You know, I don't know. The Golden Shoe thing. Whatever. Who's gonna win it all? I'll take Italy. Are they in it?
I don't think so. they're out another country and I'll tell you if they can win it. Camero? Yeah, sure. That's out there. I thought you were gonna go with T Asia. No, I just wanted to see if they were in it. Yeah. Cameroon's in there. They're in Group D. They're going against the Serbs, Brazil and the Swiss. All right. That's a tough group. Um, who's gonna win it? Who's gonna win it? I'll take the Netherlands. I don't think they're in it. I think they are. No, they're okay.
Yeah. They're, they're in first place in group A. Yeah. I'll take the Netherlands. We move on. No offense, JD I, I, I, you know, the thing is, is, you know, it's okay if you like the World Cup, but I just don't fuck with it. So, and I'm not going to, I'm too busy watching college basketball, watching football. I think we should all place a future on the countries that we just said. All right. Just a, a little feeler. Who knows? It's early. All right.
Um, you got, you wanna go to the gambling corner now? Yeah. I mean, we might as well. The gambling corner you wanna start with? Pick em? Well, we already gave an update there already we're, Johnny and I are tied for first. Right? You came outta the cell. You're making a good run. Yeah. Second straight week outta the seller. I believe last week I was in eighth. I'm up to fifth. I'm proud of you. We all, we all, we all tied for first, uh, this last week, correct? No, I took first, I took first.
Okay. Don't take that from me. Are people are, do you think people think we're colluding? I mean, I kinda, I kinda hope they do. And then it's like, well, just I is dec crook up there? I mean, if we were colluding and I was 13 points back on you guys, that'd be terrible Collusion. I mean, cause I'm still 13 voy and you'll get all the NFL information you need to have success and pick em. Yeah. Just a quick rundown on pick em. Uh, so yeah, you guys, you two are in first to crook.
I'm sneaking up on him and Cohen, uh, Yules fallen the sixth, uh, two, three guys. I don't know. Uh, they're, they're rounding out seven through nine. And Willy uncharacteristically is in the cellar. Will Willie, the dude gets married any, but Willie's never been a threat. Well, I mean, he gets married and he just goes straight to the cellar, man. He's worried about the honeymoon.
I'm, yeah, I mean, I'm starting to wor, I'm starting to think like if he cares or not, you know, I'm starting to think about that with Yuel. You know, maybe Yu's given up and just moved to soccer. I mean, I'm just glad he didn't take the clown bed because halfway through and I'm, I'm on this much of a heater. I've gone from 37% correct. Of 47% over a couple of weeks. I know you said it's outta reach to, to win the clown be with you. 13 points back, you know, seven, eight weeks left.
What's my percentage? 55. What's yours? 47. Shut the fuck up. I've been climbing every week, buddy. Stink. All right. We'll see in a couple weeks. All right. So gambling corner. Uh, you want to give a handy capper of the year update? Yep. So, uh, Guest lot hasn't changed. We haven't had a guest on. They're sitting at six and one. They're great. Listen to our guests more than us.
Uh, shout out to Mac E and I believe you guys were with him last week at the Vikings game, or at least met up with him through some Joey Wings and a couple pints at the corner bar. John, you are in third place at 12 and 21. Cam. Cam you are in second at 15 and 18 and I am still grasping onto first at 16, 16 and one. Um, so that's where we're at and shadow to the corner bar by the way, because Johnny and I were in there for a few solid hours on, uh, on Saturday night.
And we had ourselves about 200 beers, about, uh, about two dozen Joey Wings, couple baskets of fries. And uh, we were, uh, we were. Our meals were comped. Our Be Beers were comped. Corner Bar always shows outstanding service. Uh, shout out to the corner bar free advertisement for them. Um, they're, they're up there at the corner of Washington and, uh, and, uh, what is it, Cedar? Yep. So hit up the corner bar before a Vikings game. Corner Bar Joey Wings, world Famous Joey Wings.
Um, uh, so, uh, shout out to them. So, uh, who can I say something about the corner bar? Yeah, I can, I was gonna bring this up at the pocket. Who is the, who's that bartender? You? Doug. Jeremy. Jeremy. Remember him? I was talking about Doug. Doug was our boy back in the day. The short guy. Oh no. I'm talking about Jeremy, the other, the tall. Okay. Jeremy the tall dude. Okay. So Ericsson and I moose the way over out of the Vikings game. Pissed off. Depressed.
Okay, we go, we have dinner at the corner bar. Okay. We're having dinner, whatever. That was when we made our mid, the mid-major top 20. Yeah. That was funny. Eric said, so we're doing that. We're just piss drunk. Okay. Right. Ericsson keeps going over to the bar, Jeremy walks over and he goes, how about one for old time sick? He just kept doing this. Sit on bomb. Yeah, sit on Ciro is up for old time sake. Right. And he looks over and he starts laughing at ge.
He just rolls his eyes and walking away. grab the funniest shit, dude. Oh man. I meant to give him some, uh, some voyage merch too. But tomorrow maybe if we, maybe if he, if they're there tomorrow. Oh yeah. If they're open tomorrow, we should probably stop in and hand him one. But cuz he was like, those hats are sick. And he was wondering what we were doing and stuff. So, um, but yeah, shout out to them. That was, that was electric. Gambling corner. I haven't been good.
I think I've given out, uh, one, one play that's won the last two or three weeks. Now I'm, I'm in a bad spot. Um, so I'm changing it up again. I'm changing up my entire strategy. I'm gonna give you three NFL winners. Okay? I've been good in the nfl. I don't know why I don't trust my gut here and just, just play it. So I'm gonna give you guys a winners Denver minus two at Carolina. Don't care that Denver stinks. Their defense is still solid. Sam darn is gonna start for the Panthers here.
He's gonna be seeing ghosts. All right, he's done. He has no business being an NFL starter, Denver minus two. They come away with win, at least by a field goal in that one. I'll take that any day. Um, Cleveland Browns plus three and a half. Don't let, don't know the line. It's a, it's a sketchy line. So I'm taking it. Browns win the game out right against the Buccaneers plus three and a half. Um, and then I'm going with the Thanksgiving matchup. All right. Not your Minnesota Vikings.
I'm going with the Detroit Lions to cover nine and a half at home against Buffalo. Bills don't care. Uh, too many points. Detroit will keep it close at, at, at home on Thanksgiving. They, they will probably lose this game, but they're, they're gonna keep it close. Um, I expect them to be able to score enough points. They've been playing good football the last few weeks, so there it is. That's it. That's all I got for you and I'm giving it to you with conviction. That's all I got.
Detroit plus nine and a half, uh, Cleveland plus three and a half, and Denver minus two. Now you're pointing to me. Is that what's going on, Ken? Yeah, I'll go. You're sitting on your thumb a little bit. What? Just go ahead. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I'm just gonna go ahead. Mississippi, they plus two at home in the Egg Bowl. I love them laying. CINs guys don't believe in him. He's leaving. He's going to Auburn and they're all thinking about where they can transfer. Louisville plus three at Kentucky.
I love it. I think Kentucky's weak. I think Cam Cam's guy will. Levi stinks. Louisville's defense is solid. I got Oregon State plus three at home in the Civil War. Okay. Oregon State, Oregon. I'm sure you didn't know that, but it's the Civil War. I don't think you're allowed to say that anymore, but I'm gonna say it. Washington State plus two at home against Washington. I love it. Take Wazo Vikings minus two and a half. Big bounce back spot. The Patriots can't move the ball. They can't score.
Mac Jones stinks. Giants plus 10 at Dallas On Thanksgiving, the fucking giants are gonna go in there and they're gonna win the game. Take a money line. Michigan, here's one I added. I'm gonna, I'm gonna ride aside on it. I decided tonight Michigan plus seven and a half against Ohio State and the biggest rivalry of the weekend. I like it. It's too many points. The line is too key. I like Michigan plus seven and a half. All right, great job yet again this week. John. I hate your last pick.
Uh, Michigan is frauds. I hate Harbaugh. He's a terrible coach. But best of luck. If you're putting money on it, I will back you because I will be staying away from that game. Um, Not to discredit you or anything. I love you. Um, Pittsburgh plus two and a half at the Indianapolis Colts. Uh, Matt Ryan, don't care. Jonathan Taylor. Don't care. TJ Wat is the X factor and he will be in Matt Ryan's face the entire day. Um, Seattle three and a half at home against the Las Vegas Raiders.
Um, they stand, I don't care. Uh, the Raiders are terrible. Um, Seattle's good frisky at least, I don't care. Seattle three and a half. Baltimore minus four on the road in Jacksonville. Um, another one. I just like it. Uh, you know, don't overthink it. Baltimore's a better club there. I think that's at least a touchdown. Maybe 10 points. That's a bad line. And my spicy Serrano spread of the week. We are up to six, four and one.
Um, I'm gonna back your Minnesota Vikings two and a half at home against the Patriots. I think that's a Guinea game. Um, I think, you know, last week was kind of a fluke. I don't think, uh, Dallas is bad. I don't think they're gonna do well down the road, but, uh, I think it was just a hiccup for the Vikings. You know, we saw, we saw Philly have that a couple weeks ago.
We've seen all the great teams in history except for the ones who have gone undefeated, which I think there's one in the history of the NFL that's done that, uh, all the way to the promise land. But, uh, I think the Vikings are the best club in the nfc. I, I think Philly's frauds, they're scrambling for a bunch of people. Uh, bringing Robert Quinn signing in Donan Sue, um, I know that's kind of a tangent, but the Viking two and a half, that's my spicy ERO spread of the week.
Hoping to move that to seven, four and one. We're on a roll, boys. Well, uh, I don't think anybody's tailing our picks at this point, and that includes college hoops. We've had a rough week. It's been a tough feast week. Um, but we're gonna bounce back. We're gonna, we're gonna trust the process here. And, um, so, you know, it is what it is. And, uh, before we wrap up the show here, I want to talk real quick about the twins rebrand. And, uh, it's not good. All right.
For those of you that think that it's good, you're mistaken. All right. The new m with the star above it is, is tragic. It's terrible. It's dis, it's a disgrace to the history of the franchise. It looks like shit. All right. The new M caps are terrible. The new Minnesota Word font on the front of the, the road jerseys and the alternate blues is bad. Um, don't like it. Looks too modern. Looks like something that was created by a couple of grade schoolers on Microsoft Word. Um, I don't like it.
All right. The, they brought back the pin stripes. It was a nice touch, but they got too much going on. They really tried to be the Padres with the, they've got the piping with the gray pin stripes. It's just too much. All right. Um, they needed to simplify those and, uh, and it doesn't look good. The best ones are the, are the Twin Cities, uh, jerseys, the cream ones. They look clean, they look nice. Um, It's, it's a nice change of pace.
I like the monochrome TC on the caps there, but, uh, overall it's a failed attempt to, to develop a new brand for this ball club. And, um, you know, we got, so in other twins news too, we got, uh, reports coming out that the Carlos Kare talks are not going well. And look, the Carlos Correa signing needs to happen, but even if it does happen, it doesn't move the needle for me on this franchise whatsoever. It, they're not going to sign a quality starting pitcher, and that's what's required.
If you wanna compete for a championship in this league, they're not going to do it. Regardless of if they signed Kare or not. I'd rather them sign a starter than Kare. They're not gonna do either. They're gonna come into 2023 with bargain bin pitching again, and they're gonna stink. So I'm still boycotting this club and I'm not satisfied with anything that's going on in, uh, In twins territory right now. So, uh, also on the jerseys they got rid of many and Paul. All right.
I haven't seen enough people outraged about this. They got rid of fucking mini and Paul, what kind of shit is this? All right? Oh, it's just, it's just infuriating. Okay. The, the mini and Paul thing, I don't think enough people are talking about that. And I totally agree with you. I think that's a staple in twins history. A twin's history that involves Rod Caru, Tony Oliva, Harmon kbr, Kirby Puckett, 91 87, Jack Morris, the list goes on. Ken Herbeck.
Tom Kelly, the list goes on and they just disrespect the franchise like that. Like could you imagine if they did this in New York or Boston? Yeah. Oh, people would say, well, they would never, so why are they doing it here? Yeah, we have a story French build on that. Come back with the white pin stripes. The M on the hat for away games. The TC at home. I like 'em both. It could be so simple. Yeah, it could. The players fit the jerseys how they want. Yep. Just go back to the originals.
They tried to do too much. The Johann Santana Blues. The Dark Blues. What are we doing? See, that's all I gotta say about it. I mean, what's the point in changing a jersey that's not gonna make the team better, that's not gonna make the team worse. The jerseys you guys had were. I understand why the jerseys had to be changed. I, I'm glad they got rid of the gold. It was a little bit mismatched. They had two different script fonts and they wanted to go cleaner with just one.
The new script is all right. It looks a little bit disconnected. It's just kind of a blend of the old one and the, and the, the two old ones. It, it doesn't look great to me. Doesn't look like a, a logo we can win with. It's just, I'm not, I'm not happy with the twins at all. Um, and people need to start waking up because nothing's gonna change here unless we, we start to, uh, insist on change. So I'm not happy. Quick touch on the state of the wolves. All right.
The wolves are playing better basketball. Um, I believe they've won three or four in a row, right? Delo needs to play better. It's that simple. Um, when he plays, when he plays better ball, this team has a better chance to win. Rudy Gobert, I want to touch on this. Rudy Gobert wants to come out and say, uh, he doesn't appreciate when fans are booing the team. Um, that's disgusting. I can't, I can't stand for that one bit. All right.
You're getting paid millions of dollars to go out there and do a job. And doing your job means winning basketball games unless you're playing better. Fans are continuing, are, have a right to continue to boo and they should. All right. Uh, Chris Finch, I think said something along the lines of, yeah, if you, if you don't wanna get booed, then just play better. So all that talk kind of pissed me off. Um, but I think the wolves are moving in the right direction.
They, they need to continue to gel on offense and figure some things out. But, but come on, man, if it, that is So Rudy Gobert coming out and saying that is, is so. Blind and deaf to what's gone on here with this organization for the better part of the last two decades, this team has been non-competitive for so long and we've gone through such bad stretches of basketball that we have every right to boo.
If this team isn't playing well, the expectations were high and fans should be pissed off if they're not playing well. If you don't want to get booed, then play better. And also who gives a shit if you're getting booed? Like I said, you're getting paid millions of dollars to go out there and do a job, zone out the noise and play better so that you don't get booed. Yeah, Delo needs to play better. What's going on with him and Rudy Gober coming out and saying this stuff? Yeah. I don't understand.
It's very simple. You don't like it. Be better. It's so simple. If you don't like it, just be better. It's unbelievable. You know, cats posting pictures on Instagram, him lifting weights, So I don't know. It looks like he's getting back in shape. Maybe you're getting bigger and meaty. I don't, I don't, I don't know. I mean, they delo. I mean, he stinks. The guy doesn't sub in with, he doesn't know when to sub in or sub out. I mean, it's terrible. It's horrible.
I've heard people coming at Finch too. I don't know. They're playing better cats making shots. I don't know. Hey, I'll tell you what though. This San Diego State Club knows where the gym is. Arkansas. Here's the problem. Here's the problem with Arkansas. Arkansas doesn't they, they follow too much. They're too aggressive. Yes. Yes. That's their problem. They follow too much. They'll come back here in the second half and make this again, very impressive.
Uh, little run here by Arkansas in the Maui gym, beating some quality opponents. Um, as a young, inexperienced team with a few potential lottery picks. They don't even have their best player right now. And so Arkansas has impressed me early. They're my favorite team. Yeah. Like, I don't think it's even close. Have you watched them? Kane? Yeah. I watched that game last night. What did you think? I think like, they scare me a little bit. The fact that they're missing their, they're so physical.
If they can learn to not fall and hit a couple shots, I mean their, their lights out from three, that's, that's what kind of pushed 'em back into the game last night. Um, knowing that they're. Down their best player and they're playing at this level against very good teams. Yeah, very good teams in Maui gym. Like, it's, it's, it's pretty scary. I think.
Uh, I can't think of who it was, uh, John Rothstein or somebody, I don't know who the hell it was, but he was like, this is the one team in Arkansas that can match up against Houston. Like he, he's all in. I said that, I mean, you might have said that, but somebody, I think it was John Rothstein on Twitter said that last night, dude, it's, they're so physical. They're, they're very good team. And knowing that they're down their best player.
Like if you, if you take the best player shooter, which is what they don't have right now, if, but they're still shooting great from three, they don't shoot enough though. Like their offense is more like they have a guy that hits like mid range, but I know what you're saying. Yeah, but they're, they're not making enough threes. No. No, but I mean, still the fact that they're down their best.
If you, if you took all the other like, top 25 teams and you removed their best player, I think that'd be interesting to see the level of ball that they would be playing at. I don't think it would be nearly as close as this Arkansas club. It's all, yeah. I think it's very impressive. I do think I've been impressed with San Diego State. I think that, I don't think that they're quite ready. They needed to, I think it was too early for them to be Arizona.
Not that they can't, but I think it was too early for them. They need to, this is good for them right now to be up nine in the first, uh, in the first half against Arkansas. Yeah. I, I think Who, who's their guard? Who's that little guard you told me about? Trammel from Seattle. Oh my God. Good. Great player. That guy's great. Um, yeah, they're good. The other team that's impressed me early on that I, I've fallen in love with, which I knew I loved him from the beginning was Texas.
Is Texas though. Uh, I mean, I think they look every part of a national championship contender smashing Gonzaga at home. And, and look, I'm not that high on Gonzaga, but, but Texas taking care of business in the way that they did against Gonzaga at home is, is huge. I, I'm looking forward to seeing Texas and some other key matchups, uh, the rest of the way here in non-conference play and into, into Big 12 play. I think they should, they should excel. Who's your biggest surprise or surprise?
Good, bad. Whatever. I'll, you're next can or you can go first? Can, if you I think I, I'm zoned in on Nevada being surprised. Good Nevada. Yeah. Nevada. Yeah. I, I think going into the season we all wrote 'em off saying them U N L V teams in the, in the Nevada area are historically, you know, as of late, they're, they're pretty bad clubs. And we wrote them off at the beginning of the season. We like brush over them. Didn't talk anything. Yeah. I, I mean, I get that, but.
They've been playing good ball. I think the statement win that I think Cam and I were against each other in basketball, uh, Nevada, Tulane and Nevada covered, well, it was a push with nine points, depending on where you got it. I think I got that at eight and a half. But they beat a good Tulane team. Uh, last night. You know, they lost two. Yeah. Case state in overtime, which I was fucking livid. I I was wa I didn't have the game on the tv, it wouldn't come on.
And I was following it through the app and I saw like Nevada one, they were up by like one or two points with zero time left. And then the next thing I know it says overtime, it's like what the fuck is going on? But I think that Nevada team is impressive, uh, along with K State. K state's playing good. Yeah. I think it's a testament to how good the.
The mountain west is gonna be, it's, it's a, you know, we, we kind of wrote Nevada off as kind of a middle bottom of the conference and they've come out and showed early that they might be even better this year, despite losing a couple key guys Sure. Field and whoever the other guy was. But, uh, I didn't really, I didn't think that Steve Alfred would have his group ready to go. But they've shown some nice, uh, nice key wins here in tournament, tournament play.
And then, uh, yeah, K State playing well with the new head coach. And so is Mississippi State playing, playing well with the good new head coach and Chris Jans there two good teams that might be sleeper teams in their conference are gonna be, uh, frisky all year. And then my, my team that I've been very surprised with, and I kind of knew this based on some of the research that I did. I didn't think they'd be this good this soon though, but it's Maryland.
They went out east and played in whatever tournament they played in out there and handled their business. They beat a great St. Louis team who I was high on up to that point. I'm still high on them, but they dominated, Marilyn dominated that game and then they bounced back the next day against another good opponent in Miami and they dominated them too. Uh, obviously I was on the wrong side in both of those games, and so this is why Maryland has surprised me so far early.
Um, they might, they might be a nice team in the middle of Pack in the acc. I will say this too, the Big 10, uh, the Big 10 conference has pleasantly surprised me throughout, uh, the early part of this non-conference schedule because they've picked up some key wins. I was down on the Big 10 as a conference and, uh, so yeah, I erroneously said Maryland is in the acc. They're in the Big 10 that they might be a surprise team, um, in the middle of PAC there.
So, but the Big 10 has looked pretty good so far. Yes, to jump off the Big 10, I think mine is, um, to wrap up here, mine is Michigan State and Ohio State. Ohio State beat a good Texas tech club. Michigan State's been playing good ball. They beat the top ranked Kentucky Club with the best player in the nation. Supposedly, they, they battled hard. They should have won that Gonzaga game. Michigan State is looking really good and Ohio State also is looking fantastic.
They're playing good basketball right now. I've actually got two other teams, um, one I'm just going to briefly touch is Utah State. Uh, I think they're playing good ball this year. Uh, you know, last night against Oral Roberts and Oral's, one of our good big Sky teams or, uh, sorry, not Big Sky Summit, summit. I know I, I love oral too, but they've been disappointing in me so far.
But Utah State last night, I remember when I posted that play, John, I think you might've been on the other end of that, but, Again, Utah state. Utah state, another club that gives more validation to the mountain west. The mountain west has looked really good early. Yeah. And they got, they're gonna have to sustain that moving forward.
Wyoming looks like a shallow themselves without Graham Eek, but, um, there might be a few other teams floating around in the middle portion of this league that are gonna be competitive. Yeah, it's, it's gonna be feisty out there. Uh, and my last team, well I guess one other, but the raging Cajuns in Lafayette, they're playing good balls so far this year, just knocked off smu. Um, not to say that that's worth shit down the road, but they're playing good balls so far.
I think they're five and o at this point. Uh, I believe five and o against the spread as well. Um, other team that I think we kind of wrote off when we did our college basketball preview, the Don. The Dons aren't looking bad. They're five and oh. To start the year they played, they got back, they got back one of the key pieces in their back court, which mentioned on the college basketball preview. They're playing good ball. Able to Shaer. Yeah, Shaer. But he's back. He's good.
That coach is solid as fuck too. They're playing good ball. Oh, they're, they're old coach from last year's at Florida. But this is a guy that was on the assistant staff there. They just kept it rolling. I don't know what it is there. They're, they're playing good basketball. I agree. Teams to fade. The golfers and Louisville did the golfers lose today? They play later. They're parlay, so they're down, they're down seven to U N L V early.
Good. The other team that I'm gonna give a shout out to here is Charleston. Uh, their only law so far is to North Carolina. Great team. They're gonna be in my mid-major top 10 now. They were receiving votes earlier. Uh, they, they won their own tournament that they were hosting first time. They've won that tournament since, uh, 2018. They beat a good Virginia Tech team in the final, and then they bounce back today with another home.
Uh, a tough home matchup against a good Kent State team, and they won that ballgame. Charleston is a team to look out for in the big South, so tip your caps to them. Um, we'll be transitioning this talk to our College Hoops podcast, which is, we'll be dropping our first episode, I guess next week now. Uh, we've been putting it off a little bit, but we got the holidays and stuff. All right, college hoops specific podcast episode one, dropping next week.
You can follow us on Twitter at voyage c. So we're gonna be posting content from there. Now going forward as far as college hoops is concerned, that way we can segment this out properly. So excited to get that going. Yeah, if you don't like making money, which is what we do with college basketball, not this early in the year, we're gonna segment that out into a separate short. But uh, yeah, you should follow it.
I don't know about everybody else, but I don't know how we're gonna do what's gonna happen, but we're gonna follow the hell out of it. And that's what we do. That's what we like. That's why I don't watch any of that fi fuck or World Cup crap No, it's okay though. Seriously, if you watch that stuff, that's totally fine. That's, I have nothing against you, jd. We love you. We're gonna have you on. I can't wait. Yeah. Thank, huge shout out to jd. I've never been a big shot.
Maybe we should effort JD on for next week's, uh, lid Lifter for the college hoop stops. Oh yes. Yeah, that and maybe, maybe even on the voyage episode, a little bit of talk in soccer with jd. Give a World Cup update. Yep. It could be fine. Yeah. If he wants to come on and spit soccer, I guess that's fine. Yeah. And that the only other thing I'll say on uh, some college hoops, we didn't start out last year that hot, and we ended up this season pretty darn well.
Not to toot our own horns, you just gotta wait a little bit, see who's who, back the data. The analytics. The analytics. I, you know, I've rebranded. I know last week I was talking about corporate ka this and that. I got Raz, I got jazz, I got fucked out. Um, I Now the spreading, what, what was that? I, I we're just gonna pass over that out. What that mean? You know, tomato, tomato. I'm now the spread inspector on Twitter. No, no, no. I don't, I don't understand what that means.
It was, it was a euphemism. I don't know what that means. But anyways, keep going. I'm just saying, uh, rebranded the Spread inspector, um, doesn't really matter. Just wait a couple weeks, maybe a month pops, uh, for some, some actual data to come out early in the season. Clubs are finding out who's who. They're not playing at their home court. They're playing out in Maui. They're playing in New Jersey. They're playing in random places throughout the country. In these, The Bahamas.
Yeah, The Bahamas in memorial tournaments. They're playing on fucking aircraft carriers. I don't care. Once you get into some home courts, some real environments, you start playing at the rack, you start playing wherever the fuck that stadium's at. St. John's plays that little thole instead of the square garden or whatever the fuck they play, you start to see who's who. You start to see fucking teams come out. You start to see fucking fans back in their teams.
And that's the environment that backs these fucking squads. That's why the spreads are great. That's why they fucking cover. We love college hoops. I'm fucking torqued. All right, well, uh, happy Thanksgiving to all. Um, We hope you have a great day with your family and your, uh, your drunk uncle.
And, uh, hope you get to take a walk out back with your cousins and, um, we hope that we get to cheer on a Vikings victory on Turkey Day and we're thankful for all of our supporters, however few they may be. Um, we appreciate you tuning in and taking the time to listen to VO Voyage as always. And, uh, until next week, we are signing off Skull baby.