Payne & Pendergast
What's at stake in week 18
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So some good football stuff, but also the betting nuggets you're looking for. Sides, totals, trends, player props, throw those in there too, pre-game and post-game. We're going to be all over the post season. Subscribe to Cash the Ticket on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, we got the petty cast coming up at the top of the hour, Tuesday petty cast. Be ready for that. Lot of petties to get to and we'll, we want to hear yours, seven, one, three, five, seven, two, four, six, ten. So here's where we're at. Here's, here's where the NFL sits heading into week 18. There are still three divisions that have yet to be decided. Texans are fortunate. They're one of five teams to have clinched their division. So at least they've got clarity. It's not, I don't think the four seed was what everybody was planning for at the beginning of the season. But here we are in the playoffs four seed home game and we wait and see who the Texans opponent is. That is something that is still to be determined that is Texans related. We have the three divisions that are still up for grabs AFC North, which Baltimore is in the driver's seat for right now. They play, they play on Saturday at three 30, Baltimore and Cleveland. And then I think the assumption is that a lot of people assume Baltimore is going to win. And then if that's the case, then the subsequent Pittsburgh Cincinnati game really only has seating ramifications for the Steelers as a wildcard team. But big ramifications for Cincinnati, who's one of a couple of teams, them and the Dolphins are still in the hunt for that last wildcard spot. If they're fortunate enough to see Denver lose to Kansas City's backups, then Miami and Cincinnati kind of enter the chat here as a possible seven seed in the AFC. Yeah. There's still some things going on in the AFC right now. The Baltimore or Pittsburgh or Baltimore or Chargers conundrum. I feel like I want to see the Chargers, whereas the majority of your poll respondents would rather see the Steelers. The Chargers, for one, I think people just in general, if you have to take a straw poll of like, who do you trust more as a quarterback, Justin Herbert or Russell Wilson? Right now, people just trust Justin Herbert a lot more. But they were in a lull offensively until the last couple of weeks. They seem to have found their stride. Yes, I respect Justin Herbert as more of an overall threat. But what I fear with this Texans defense is the ability of Russell Wilson to connect with George Pickens just twice in a game. And that's the part that makes me nervous. Because that's been one of the Achilles heel for this Texans offense. But both of them, it's almost a wash for me. The other big aspect is something you brought up. The Steelers might end up having a home-filled advantage when they're on defense. Because Steelers fans travel so well and people are not all that bullish locally right now about the Texas. Yeah, I don't feel great about either matchup for totally different reasons. That is not insignificant. Like the crowd aspect of it. That's the biggest thing that spooks me about the Steelers. Like I know they have a good defense. Like you're going to all these teams, they're good teams at this stage. So they all have good aspects to them and the Steelers' defense is what they kind of hang their hat on. But yeah, I'm a little spooked by that crowd. And there is the element with the Chargers. Even with Jim Harbaugh as the head coach at this stage of the Harbaugh rebuild here with the Chargers. He's done an amazing job. Like he should be in the conversation for Coach of the Year, I think, in the conversation. I don't think he should win it, but he should be in the conversation. There's still an element to me like, okay, well, there's still the Chargers. He hasn't exercised all the demons quite yet. You know, and plus they only have like 100 fans nationwide, you know, so there it will be a it'll be a Texans crowd that's probably not nearly as hyped as they were for last season's wildcard round game was like, holy smokes, we're getting a home game. You know, we didn't even know we were getting a home game until literally week 18, you know? Okay, this is where you and I come into play because as much as we can and assist in the matter. The Steelers would be easier. It would be easier to drum up hatred for the Steelers than the Chargers. Chargers it's almost like we got to go through the whole education process before we even get to the level of hating them. Yes. Really easy, especially for Oilers fans from back in the day. Really easy to hate the Steelers. So it's a double edged sword because you're going to have a lot of Steelers fans in attendance, but in terms of just really, really, really wanting to beat your team and be an emotionally engaged in it for the Texans fans who are there, the Steelers might be a better bet than the Chargers. In terms of getting everybody back on board. Yeah, I can see that little more like emotional connection there and, you know, in an angry kind of way. That was also the game where in CJ's rookie year, where Vander Meer told all the Steelers fans to get out. Get out. Get out. Yeah. It's actually a hockey in there. If you see it in there, Byron, but Vandy yelling, get out to all the Steelers fans was, that was a moment. And that wasn't, that was the game too that, that CJ himself and others in the organization point to as like, okay, wow, he's arrived. You know, like they, they, they played that game against the Steelers. It's crazy. Go back and find the, the box score for that game, like the extended one where they list all the starters and go see who the starting offensive line was that day. Jeremy missed that game. That was Austin Deculus. Was your starting left tag? Yeah. Well, that's where, you know, that's where again, when we go back to with the Texans and all the issues, is it something people will say a lot of time is, all right, well, obviously, yes, the players are to blame ultimately for their poor performances. But it's important to remember though too that of a, the Texans have spent money and resources and draft picks on, on offensive line, but that there's plenty of really good solid offensive lines that don't have big names or any other, the Broncos, the Broncos are a lot like the Texans and the way their offensive line is composed. They've got a couple of high paid offensive tackles, then they've got a Ben powers. I don't think he was a marquee free agent. Right. It was like, he was like, he was a free agent signing. Yeah. But then they, Wattenberg, their center was a fifth round pick in 2022. Quinn Menner's, the, the, the, the right guard was a third round pick in 2021. They're just a good unit and they play it. They, they, they play as a cohesive unit. It's, it's, there's plenty of teams that don't have marquee talent across the board at offensive line. They'd have credible. The Baltimore Ravens, they get, it's a easier, like the bar is lowered because Lamar Jackson and Derek Henry make the offensive line look good a lot. But they don't, they don't have, you know, a plethora of huge names or whatever. They've scrapped it together with guys that are, that some of them are just kind of emergency replacements, but they get the job done. Yeah. They, Ronny Stanley at left tackle Linderbaum, the center, like are the marquee guys and the rest of the guys are just dudes. Yeah. They're just guys. So, so that's the AFC. The NFC picture is really interesting to me because there's still two divisions to be decided. The NFC South and the NFC North and the NFC North, it's not just the division that's at stake here. The winner of the game between the Vikings and the Lions, it will be the number one seed in the NFC and deservedly so to me, the story about that game is whoever the loser is, whoever the loser that game is, is going to go on the road to face the winner of the NFC South. They're going to go to either Tampa or Atlanta with as a 14 and three football team to be the five seed in the NFC playoffs, Tampa scares the crap out of me. So you just, what did you, I did not watch much of Pennix at all. Did you, did you get to see much? I didn't get to see much of them either. No, I didn't get to see much of them either. I don't want to go watch that game. Okay. I got to find some cut-ups. Yeah. Oh Atlanta. Yeah. Yeah. I wouldn't want to watch that game either. Yeah. Cause they played Sunday night against against the commanders. I did not watch that game. Yeah. Yeah. You know what though, but I do want to watch the commanders. Okay. That's what I'm watching. All right. Seth. I got to go back and watch. I still haven't watched JJ's color commentary on the Chiefs game. So I'm going to, I might go back and watch that. You know what I'll do sometimes is, cause I like to watch the TV broadcast, you get all the info and everything, themes of the game, but I watch it at double speed. Uh, just, uh, yeah, you got to do it and you got to do it in intervals. You got to sit down for 10 minutes and watch it at double speed and then take a break. Uh, just like you're running with, you know, you're, you're doing interval work on the track. You do a lot of podcasts, uh, not as much as I used to, but do you, do you listen to podcasts at an advanced speed when you listen to it? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Usually it depends. If it's something that's more conversational, I like to hear the natural pace of the conversation. Yeah. I find if I listen to too many podcasts at 1.5 speed or like audio books, I got to the point where I was listening to some of them at like, uh, like two and a half or three acts. Um, okay. That's, that's too much for me. If I'm listening to something for info or to get a general education, I'll listen to like audio books, a nonfiction audio book really fast. Yeah. Um, anything, the more conversational it is, the more I want it to be just at normal pace. I'm one and a half. There's your answer. It depends. I'm like, well, no, I'm, uh, I'm one and a half on everything. I'm podcast. It's just, it's just a better, no matter what, no matter what, even conversational ones. But if it's something that's supposed to be funny, the problem is that it messes up the timing. Uh, a little bit, uh, I don't know, isn't it like I'm, I'm still cool with when things are funny. I still laugh at them at one and a half speed. I've, I've noticed because I have a tendency to sometimes, uh, start talking faster than my brain can operate. Yeah. Or at least it's trying to keep up with all the different directions. My brain is going. Right. If I listened too much or you, uh, like exclusively at one and a half plus speed, I start really talking way too fast. Yeah. And I've got, you've got a nice laid back personality to begin with. I'm way too hyper. So I got to be careful on how much it's kind of like a, it's kind of like an alcoholic having, uh, having them a, just one beer. It's like, well, no, it's different for me than it is for, for other people. Yeah. I got to be careful about how much I imbibe. I get it. No, I, I get it. What's funny is like one of the podcasts, one of my favorite podcasts is a wrestling podcast that a friend of mine, it's his pod, it's Bruce Prichard's podcast. He's the creative guys with WWE and I've been listening to his, it's him and a host that just go back and forth on different things that happen in the history of WWE episodes about that. I listened to it at one and a half speed, but I talked to Bruce on a regular basis or I, you know, Amy and I are up in Connecticut. We go out with him and his wife and it's really hard to like sit and have a conversation with him because I'm so used to listening him every week at one and a half speed. Yeah. I'm like, God, what's wrong with Bruce? The point is really slow, like, is anything wrong with him? He's just, wow, he ain't just catching up to him. I don't want to, I'm sure there's a study for this, uh, that like what percentage of people do listen mostly at a higher speed podcast? Yeah. Because over time that's going to seep into, because people, I mean, like so many people listen to podcasts now, it's going to seep into the way people speak in everyday life. I think. Oh man, there's it. And the way people listen. Yeah. When advice people give about public speaking, I still, I wonder if some of it's antiquated because forever it's the advice is you got to slow down. But now we're in this world where social media, especially they'll, they hammer it to you that like those first two minutes, especially fast pace, hit it hard, get people's attention, dopamine, dopamine, dopamine, like at some point people kind of get trained for that. Oh man. And I think they tune out when they start hearing somebody speak slowly. Oh man. Uh, the Falcons commanders game is getting some love on the text page. It's getting a thumbs up. Go ahead and watch it. Seth. Good, good. Jane Daniels. My household duties for that. There you go. For the commanders and the Falcons. Sorry about it, Brandy. By the way, the winner of that division bucks or Falcons is on the text and schedule next year. Whoever wins that game, the Texans have a home game against them. So there's that. Uh, all right. Pain and Pentrogast with you heading into the eight o'clock hour, eight o'clock Tuesday. Get your petties ready. Send them in. 75 7, 2, 4, 6, 10, petty cast, people getting petty, me and Seth getting petty.
What's going on in the final week of the season!