The Odds Couple
Cam Skattebo's Peach Bowl Performance + Sugar Bowl Preview
Roser, Lang and CJ recap the CFP games so far, share their thoughts on the Sugar Bowl, and more.
start CFP recap
:47 PICKS!
start CFP recap
- Boise State v. Penn State
- Texas v. ASU
- Ohio State v. Oregon
- ND (-1) v. UGA
- Playoff scenarios
:47 PICKS!
- Duration:
- 51m
- Broadcast on:
- 02 Jan 2025
- Audio Format:
- other
Live from FedEx Forum, this is the Odds Couple on youtube at crime city media and the official crime city media hat. Cheers, Rob Fisher and Lang Whitaker! What's up everybody? Oh man, it is not a single on fish. It's single on John Rosa. Welcome everybody to the Odds Couple here on Grind City Media. I'm your host hosting today. John Rosa Rob Fisher is flying from Phoenix to Sacramento, California. The Grizzlies play the Kings to Moro Knight. It's the chapter 6, week 19 edition of the program. Coming up on today's show, CJ Hurts going to join me here in just a second. Also Lang Whitaker. He is at the Grind City Media Casino and Resort out in parts unknown. We'll talk all about the results that we've got from the college football playoff so far. Penn State, Texas, Ohio State all moving on. The Sugar Bowl getting postponed until today. We've also got an NFL week 18 and the playoff picture. First CJ Hurts is here. Hello CJ. What's going on? Happy New Year. Happy New Year everybody. Happy New Year, Lang Whitaker. You're also here. Happy New Year, Lang. Happy New Year. Yeah, I'm here at the Grind City Resort and Casino. I'm just hoping they don't kick me out of my room after after Ohio State killed that cover yesterday and after Texas messed around and blew their cover in that game. Yeah, I still think after all of our plays this year, I think you've still got a ton of free rooms, free nights available at the Grind City Media Casino and Resort. He knows some people. Yeah, we know some people. All right, let's go right into this. Lang, I know you got your game today. So I know you're antsy to get whatever your pregame ritual is. You want to get to that. So let's get into it right away. College football playoff games. Let's just go in the order that they happened. Penn State beat Boise State 31 to 14. This is just me watching this game and my thoughts were I felt like Penn State could have won this game by way more if they wanted to win it. I thought they had some shotty play calling at different times, especially that like third and one third and two where they rolled out. It was just very weird. It felt like if Penn State wanted to kill them, they could have. But they let Boise hang around maybe a little longer than they should have. C. J. Run the down football Texan with Darnell. And that was a thing like you're better than they are in the trenches. Why would you do anything other than just run the football down these dudes throats? Drew Allar has come a long, long way. Still leaves a time to be desired. Yeah. So why even put it in his hands? Why why do that to yourself as an offense? You're bigger, you're more physical, you're more athletic, you're stronger along the fronts. They're not going to be able to do much of anything. Run the ball down their throats and sure, maybe you get first and nine and second and eight, right? But you keep running it eventually. We saw this wears on the state. We saw this with Michigan against Ohio State and in their ballgame against Alabama. Eventually you look up in this third quarter, maybe midway through the third early in the fourth, those safeties, those cornerbacks, they don't want to come into the box and hit anymore after that. And that's when you take full control of the game and really put it away. I feel like you brought up the play call and Rosa gets spot on. They, James Franklin and Penn State should have ran the ball way more. What say you like? Rosa said I felt like Penn State could have won this game by a lot more. But I don't know if they could have. I think that was kind of the best case scenario for Penn State. And I'm still waiting for Drew Allard to impress me. Like, we're going to put the game in his hands. All right. Well, this is what you're going to get. I think like a best case scenario, they're going to, you might win this game by a couple of scores, but they've had the easiest road of anybody so far in this playoff. And I don't know if it's going to continue when they get to play in some tougher competition. I just, I'm not, I'm still not a believer in Penn State. Penn State's front, Penn State's front seven is really, really good. Like that's, you can tell watching them play in any given game. Like, Oh, they got dudes over there on that side. But like the rest of them, particularly on the offense and outside of the tight end, they leave so much to be desired over there on that side of the ball. And that's their limiting factor. How good is that offense? Really? And I don't, I don't think it's, I think it's good enough to win you 10 or 11 games to your point length. I don't think it's good enough to, to win you another game in the CFP. Yeah. Aller is, he's going to have to win them a game. If they're going to win the national championship, which none of us think they are, but no, if they are going to, he's going to have to make plays. And you are right. If they, they should have ran the ball more in that game, but I do get the other side of it. Yo, that guy's going to have to make plays if they're going to win the title. So they, you know, keep seeing and seeing if he can do it. Maybe the more and more experience he gets into it. We can take these chances with him because we can beat Boise. We know we can beat Boise to your point. The Allen and Singleton, the running backs carried it 29 times for 221 yards and a touchdown. And it felt like they could have carried it for over 300 yards if they would have given them the ball more and more. Yeah. And some of these games you have noticed it where it really is a, where there is a difference in these, these big power school power teams, the blue bloods, whether it's Notre Dame against Indiana, Penn State against Boise and our next game, Texas is defensive line against Arizona State's offensive. The trenches is where you really see the difference. A lot of these teams got skill guys. They've got fast, speedy skill guys. But up front is where you really see it. That quarterback from Arizona State yesterday, Scadaboo was amazing and he is amazing. That quarterback from Arizona if they did not have a quarterback that can move the way that guy moves. Like, if they had a mobile quarterback, not like an insanely mobile quarterback, like that guy was, like they would have been dead in the water so many times. But Texas beats Arizona State in overtime. It felt like this thing was going to get nasty early. Arizona State goes up three nothing. It's like, why are you kicking? And then Texas scores in two plays. Then Texas gets a stop at the scoring a punt return and it's 14 three to Arizona State's up three to nothing with eight 59 to go in the first quarter. And by the time there's like six 20 left in the first quarter. So not even a full three minutes left, not even a full three minutes later. It's already 14 to three. And it's like, Oh man, this is going the wrong way. Did that game say more about Texas or more about Arizona State CJ? I think it said more about Texas. I don't think they're that's good or bad. Yeah. Well, I don't think they're an elite team. I think they're good. Same thing with Penn State, right? They're not not one of those teams is elite, but they're they're good. They might be have great pieces on that team, but they're not elite. Here's a stat for you. Workplace slay. There it is all day. First, first workplace slay reference of the year. Texas led 17 to eight at the end of the third quarter while being out game 303 to 128 and out possessed 33 minutes to 11 and a half minutes laying. Like if Arizona State had the dudes up front Rosa, Arizona State is in full control of that game. And Texas gets eliminated. That game said a lot to me about Arizona State and you know, fish and I talked about last week. We both are big Kenny Dillingham guys like haven't watched him all season. That team plays hard for him. They believe in him. I was actually talking to one of our grand city media colleagues, Eric McMahon, who went to Arizona State. And we were talking about Dillingham being an Arizona State guy, like being from the area. And like, I was like, you know, do you worry about losing him one day? And he's like, well, he's from, he's from there and like people kind of bought into him. And it seems like the school's kind of like, we found our guy now. This is it. As long as we can keep him here for a while. And I think as long as they start investing in the NIL and being able to get some more players in there. But you saw like that team, when they got down 14, three early, I was like, man, this is going to get ugly. And they stayed in it, man. And they made it a game and took it to overtime. Texas got the gift of all gifts with that targeting that they didn't call down the stretch. You remember, they almost killed Georgia's backup quarterback in the SEC championship game. No targeting on that either. Like Texas gets some calls down in these games. I mean, against Georgia in the regular season, you remember that they changed the pass interference call because their fans threw so much crap on the field. Texas, it's calls Arizona State stayed in it. They had a shot to win that game going into the, to the over times. And I thought escape told me a lot about Arizona State Texas. I'm still not like, you know, they are, they're fine. Start, make some good play calls every once in a while. But then there's a lot of times where they like, they got up. You know, the first play of the game, they threw that slam pattern, they got bus open, they get that, they get a score. And then after that, they just kind of settled into just quenuers. When you were through for, I do believe over 300 yards, and it was the most. Oh, I didn't realize he was having a good game performance that I've seen all year. Well, they went like two and a half quarters without scoring without, not just without scoring, without moving the ball. Yeah, they couldn't do anything against Arizona State defense. That was just weird to me. I want to see what Willingham can do without that dude in the back field. He threw for 320, 30, 322 yards, almost 11 yards of completion, three touchdowns. And one pick. Look, look, it didn't feel like that. No, it didn't. It didn't feel like that. He did make a couple of nice win couple of nice. That touchdown pass over the top. Oh, the fourth down. You're rushing five or six dudes. You got to give that the way they blocked that was really, really impressive. Texas did. You got to get pressure on him. He's allowed to sit back, get comfortable in the pocket and just let it fly. I, I, yeah, there's something I'm with you about with the season. We say it says more about Texas. Texas is one of these. You watch them. You see how their players move out there. And it's like, yo, you see the talent. Like you see the, and there's some of these teams you watch and you see the talent. You're like, okay, this talent is different. Even watching them against Arizona state and you can Arizona state looks like they are literally, I mean, they did like scattabos vomiting on the sideline. It's like, that's how they have to play to have a chance in this game. And Texas does it because they are so incredibly talented. They pass the eye test with the talent, but there is just something like they just play loose. There's something that's just off the way they don't wear. It seems a way. Yeah, it's like you. This isn't Georgia, right? Georgia plays an inferior team laying and they beat the hell out of them. Like they jump on them early. They jump on them in the middle. They jump on them late. Texas be it. This Arizona state team that we all think they're more talented than Arkansas that game. Another one where it is. Why haven't you put these dudes away? They don't have that mentality when they get up. I'd say this, look, Texas passes the eye test with the talent. They fail the IQ test because like they don't play smart. They just do it's undisciplined stuff. There's just, yeah, they don't lock in. They don't. They don't. They're not able to just like they when Georgia when they lost the first time to Georgia, they couldn't run the ball and they all I heard going into the SEC Championship was like, oh, they figured out how to run it. They've got it solved. Now they're going to be able to run the ball against Georgia. They're going to run on the outside more in that SEC Championship game. They had like 32 rushes for 35 yards. Like they could not run the ball again. Like they they just have issues that they have not been able to solve. And you still got arch Manning sitting over there who's probably the better quarterback who's not playing. But you're you're committed to yours at this point. Yeah. So I just I feel like Texas is there. You know, they've they've gotten to where they've gotten. They're doing okay. Like, but I had a Texas alum buddy yesterday. The minute that game minted and the minute the Ohio State game minted, he was like, well, we had a good season. He was already thinking the past all right. Yeah, already think it both saw waiting on you now. And the other thing you say about the undisciplined thing with Texas, because the play that perfectly sums this up is when the level they hit Scataboo on the deep ball, where down the left sideline, where the Texas player commits pass interference. Okay, you got beat. You commit the passion or interference. And then to make matters worse, instead of just tackling him, because Scataboo catches it, you grab his face mask and pull him down and rip off his helmet. And now you take 15 more into it. Like that is just the undisciplined stuff. Like I think the face mask was he was holding on for dear life. He had he wasn't going to tackle Scataboo. Scataboo was gone. If he didn't grab the face mask, that was going to be there. You guys just going to carry him completely into the end zone. It's got to be like the one guy who we come away from this college football playoff. Like, is he like the most impressive guy to us? Like he's like a piece. I mean, that's a massive stage. That's a massive stage. And he is he is stepped up and then just he did it rushing, receiving and passing. He did it. It's David Roddy. If he's stuck with football, yeah, he's just fast and athletic and can catch and can throw and can run and all like we were all like texting yesterday. Like any of our NFL teams will take him right now. We'll figure out what to do with him. But like that's the guy you want on your team. No, it's just somebody you get the ball to him and you and the guy just makes plays. He makes things happen. I would like Jim Horrible would love that guy. Absolutely love that guy with the Chargers. You could it feels like you could play that guy at tail back at full back at like maybe a smaller tight end in the NFL. Like you he's just a guy you get on the field and just find a way to get him the ball and he'll and he will. Maurice Maurice Jones drew Darren Sproles like some of the smaller run. We're not we're not going to the way we compare these dudes. We're not going to compare him to players. He actually plays like because God forbid we compare a white man to a black one. Well, we we got to compare him to Mike All-Stott or Chris McCaffrey. And he's not those guys. He's not as fast as McCaffrey. Yeah, he's not as fast or agile. He's more physical, but he's not as fast or as agile as McCaffrey. He's not as big or as physical as All-Stott and he's got more shiftiness and more quickness than All-Stott. It is the small running backs who pack a lot of punch. It's been a while since we had just a bowling ball of a running back in the NFL. Tyler All-Jear right now, the guy who played in Utah, you like that. That's the kind of guy. Yeah. Except except he can catch and he can throw and do all this other. Who was that running back you had? The Falcons had the the bowling ball that played at Louisville. Michael Turner. And just a little bowling ball. But he's he's more agile than Turner is. No, no, no, no, no. I really think he's he's Maurice Jones drew. Scatterbo is a get dude. He is going to be a guy in the NFL that he is probably going to make it three to four seasons and they are going to be amazing. They're going to be an awesome three to four seasons and then the fall off is just going to be one season where it just totally falls off because that dude is going to get hit so many times in those three to four seasons because of how he plays that it's just when it falls off it totally falls off. That was the thing in the Texas game. It didn't feel a couple of times he ran the ball damn near 30 times. So in that you're going to get hit but a lot of the times when he's running the ball. He's the one doing the hit. He's the aggressor that you brought it up earlier roles that that Texas front was in the backfield. Constantly Arizona State couldn't block him. He's getting hit two three yards in the backfield and just running through the tackles because he's the one doing the hit and he's not the one getting hit the 30 yard run that he broke that he busted. He should be down. Yeah, he got hit a couple of times like no, I'm not going down yet and just kept kept his footing. And if he was in a little bit better shape, they brought this up. He hadn't played in the fourth quarter and God knows how long if he was in a little bit better shape, God knows what he could. He might have busted off 175 200 yards on the ground. No, he I mean that kid he's as fun as they get. He's just fun as it gets. All right. And then the third game that that took place. Oh my gosh. This is the one that we were all the most excited for. Maybe not you, CJ, you hate Ohio State. Yeah. But that the majority of the country was, I think the country was most excited for was the Rose Bowl Ohio State against Oregon, the rematch, Oregon one in Austin Stadium earlier this year. And we got the rematch yesterday in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Ohio State scored so fast. We didn't even get to see the first touchdown because we were all still watching Arizona State and Texas. Ohio State goes up 34 to nothing off the bat. They win the game 41 to 21. And CJ, you can go ahead and take credit for this because I think that Michigan game woke these dudes up and woke their offense up. Where the hell has this been? We all knew they had this level of talent and we all knew it. What are we doing here? That that's what made the Michigan loss so confusing for everybody, particularly Buckeye fans. Was you know, why we, why we got those those type of dudes on the outside? Why are we not trying to get the ball to them? I will say Michigan plays such a weird style of football brought it up on Jessica Benson show today. Everybody else is spreading you out throwing the ball all over the field. Michigan's like, damn that we're bringing you in. We're just going to run the ball at you, right? Like that's why how Michigan beat Ohio State. You think about two years ago and the Ohio State game was that same formula. Think about the Penn State game where they ran the ball. What? 30 something straight times at Penn State. You know, that's that's been the MO for for Michigan to pass three or four seasons. Nobody else is playing that way. So if you're going to try and get on the outside against Ohio State, you're not going to be able to do that. And they got too much talent out there. And when Ohio State decides, you know, we're going to get pit the ball in these receivers hands, let them go to work. I good luck trying to stop. I do think in the Michigan game, Will Howard took a big shot early in that game and he came back. But I don't think you could throw the ball. That's why they didn't push. That's that's the only reason I got asked why they didn't try and pit the ball on the outside. I have no idea in that game, but they came out against Oregon and a big 10 versus big 10 showdown at the Rose Bowl first big 10 big 10 matchup ever at the Rose Bowl. And they took care of business. So if you want to tip your cap to them, you can. I hope Texas beats the shit out. We've known they've had this level of talent all along, but we also knew they had this level of coaching all along. And I think we all kind of thought when they lose these games, you're like, yeah, it's Ryan Day. Yeah, you know, they're going to screw it up eventually. That's just what they do. Chip Kelly has been in his bag the last like two, three weeks. Offensive coordinator for Iowa State. They're like unstoppable right now offensively. And I think, you know, we talk about teams get hot at the right time. You see in the NBA playoffs every year and baseball in the playoffs feels like this is the team right now that's hot and they their defense. It looks great. Their offense looks great. I don't want to play them if I'm Texas, if I'm the whoever goes on that side of the bracket, like that's the bad draw for somebody. And it turns out being on that side of the bracket. But I'm like, man, I don't I don't want any part of Ohio State right now there. That's that's the team right now. It feels like that it feels like that 2014 team a little bit where they lost over they won the national title. They lost to Virginia Tech early in the year. And then everybody just kind of thought, yeah, they're just not really that good because they really because the Big Ten I think was down that year. And it really wasn't that impressive that the teams that were beating the Big Ten. It was a quarterback injuries. They had all the quarterback injuries and they played Wisconsin of the Big Ten title game and they beat them 59 to nothing. And then they played Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. And they beat Alabama by seven, but they pretty much ran the ball down Alabama's throat and do which they did the Alabama with nobody can seek out a massive game as he could well. He did what nobody thought you could do to Alabama and Ohio State did it and they went up 42 to 20. They went up two touchdowns on the fourth quarter and they ended up winning by seven. And then they went to the national title game and they killed Oregon. I think it's the Marioda team. Oregon had Marioda because Oregon beat James Winston in Florida State in the Rose Bowl or whatever they played in before that. And yeah, and it feels like maybe there's a little bit of that going on where, okay, now it's go time and they are awake and they pass the test everywhere when you watch them play. It is, okay, there's an NFL player. There's an NFL player. There's an, I mean, they got like three of them on the defensive line. They've got the Caleb Downs kid in the secondary. Oh, who's they got another corner and then on offense. Jeremiah Smith is I had an Ohio State fan hit me up. I said he is their best prospect. He's the best prospect, like as far as we're talking sure thing because he's the best we've had since Orlando pace. That he's that that he gets like, there's there's no way this kid's not going to be just absolutely insane. I said you could have him for 10 years next 10 years. Hammer Travis Hunter. Travis Hunter wide receiver saying they're playing wide receiver. Oh, they're only playing wide receiver. Travis Hunter. F O house. They I'm not doing this. Not enough to the kid had a good game. The kid had a good game. The kid had a good game. The kid had a 118 yards and a touchdown in the first quarter. Yeah. He had for the game. He had seven catches 187 yards and two touchdowns. Yeah, whatever. I saw he broke him, right? Yeah. He broke the freshman record of Chris Carter. Is that who it was? The freshman record? Probably. He was awesome. Yeah. I mean, I even throw Ryan Williams in the mix too, as far as freshman wide receivers who are incredible in the SEC. And I would say screw him too. Cause he's an Alabama guy and I'm a Georgia guy. But hey, did you know he was 17? Yeah. He's the first 17 year old to lose to Michigan in the, uh, in the citrus bowl, or whichever one of the outback roll, rely quest bowl is where Michigan was the toilet bowl, which bowl was that bowl game was weird. Then maybe of that bowl game was the rain that decided to vomit for like four minutes and then just stop. Like that was good stuff. They had a weird rain delay and they, I was, I was at a place down here at the Grand City Resort and casino. There was two tables of Alabama fans behind me watching the game. And so I was actually enjoying watching Michigan go up big early and just the silence from that table as Michigan was dominating the ball. I love Michigan running all over them. That was great. Yeah, it's always fun to see. If you could tell me, I'm not sure if you can win all of the games doing that. You do have to have a quarterback who pushed the ball down to feel some, but that's the best version of, of Michigan football to meet sugar bowl. It's going to happen today because of the tragedy in New Orleans, Rosa, who you like in that one. Yeah, that's where I was going next sugar bowl today. Um, the lines moved. It opened Georgia minus one, minus one and a half. And it is now Notre Dame. The sharps are on Notre Dame. Notre Dame is now the favorite in this game. I, I trust Kirby smart more than I trust Marcus Freeman in this spot. The wild card is the Georgia quarterback. Is he awesome? Is he better than Carson Beck? Lang, you're the Georgia guy. Yeah, here's what you need to know about Gunnar Stockton. When he was a middle schooler, he was tutored by Mike Bobo's father, who is now the offensive coordinator at Georgia. That was his coach growing up. He, he went to a small school in North Georgia. Carson Beck drove a Lamborghini this year. You guys saw that in the news, all that Gunnar Stockton drove a four to F one 50 with 300,000 miles and no air conditioning and no power windows. Oh, he's a real southern guy. He's a redneck. Like this guy is going to come in. He's, he's, his name is Gunnar because his great grandfather was a Gunnar in World War two. I guess shot down twice and survived. So they, his legal name is Gunnar G you in an ER, not AR. Yeah, most of the time is about, uh, he's like a, he's like a country dude who's like from, from the south and he, you guys saw it like already in that Texas game. He can run the ball. Like he's a dual threat guy. Um, he's also a really good passer. He broke all Trevor Lawrence's passing records for Georgia high schoolers when he was in high school. So he can throw the ball. You can run the ball. Um, you know, he came in in that Texas game and they basically had the Carson Beck offense that they had installed and they didn't really have any of the kind of dual threat plays for Gunnar Stockton to run. He had six possessions in that game against Texas. They scored on four of them, but one of them was three now, the other one, he threw a terrible interception. So that's enough to scare me a little bit. I think if Georgia's going to win this game, we're going to see what the fans have been asking for all season long. Just run the damn ball. I think Georgia's that they finally have some depth that running back ETN is healthy now. Roderick Robinson's healthy, Branson, Branson's healthy. Um, they still have Nate Frazier. They've got a, like a running back room of healthy players for the first time all season. The offensive line's healthy. Notre Dame lost their nose tackle for the season. They're all American. So like if I'm Georgia, yes, we might throw the ball a little bit, but this might be a throwback to like the 1980s Georgia Bulldogs and you're just going to run the ball down Notre Dame's throat. Um, you know, have a bunch of different options to run it. Maybe throw it if you hit stuck in third and sixth, third and seven. You have a lot of tight ends. You can use the wide receiver still aren't great, but if I'm Georgia, like that, that's my blueprint to beat this Notre Dame. I think if Georgia wins, it's going to be low scoring. They're going to win by two or three. The fact that Notre Dame's favor by one, I, you know, just take Georgia and take the points. I think Georgia wins. I just think it's going to be really tight. Yeah, I, I think we're probably looking at a really big defensive game. I don't trust Riley Leonard to do anything against Georgia's defense either. Like, I don't know how Notre Dame scores. Yeah. That's what I'm trying to figure out too. When you give Kirby smart this long to prepare also, like these are both defensive coaches, Freeman and Kirby. The wild card is like you said, so like there's no film on this kid except for like the Texas game for a little bit, like the SEC title game, but like that don't really tell you that much. So it's like, I, I think they're going to have a more Notre Dame's having a more difficult time preparing for Georgia than Georgia is preparing for Notre Dame. I like Georgia too. We've seen backup quarterbacks in the college football playoff come up big. Yes. We've seen that whole state team we talk about. Yeah. Two were coming in late in that, that Alabama, Georgia championship game. All right. And I think there's something to be said about, we haven't seen this guy yet while also giving that guy to Lang's point enough time to prepare. So he's ready to go. He had what two, three weeks to get ready for this. And you don't have any film on him being prepared. So that's going to be tough for for Notre Dame. I would also take, take Georgia in the under. I'm with Lang. That kid, the only thing you got to tell that gunner kid, just kid, you can not turn the ball over. If you don't turn the ball over, we will take care of business. I would also just say like, I think Georgia defensively has enough studs that, you know, Notre Dame might score a couple touchdowns, but Georgia's defense has been so up and down all season, but the biggest games they've come to play. And if they don't start off great, Kirby's been so good. And this is why I trust Kirby smart. I was telling someone this this morning. He's so good at making adjustments. Like we saw him go down 20 to three against Alabama and make the adjustments come back, take the lead. You saw him against Texas that first time, get off to a good start. Second time they had to make adjustments and come back like Kirby smarts really good at just staying in these games and figuring things out and getting back into it. I don't know if, if, if gunners sides and can lead you back from a big deficit, but that's why I think you try to control the clock. You try to control the time. Keep your offense on the field as much as you can. And then if you got the defense out there and you got Riley Leonard pinned the years back and let him come after him. And I think Georgia's going to win this same, but I think it would be close. Give me a score, Lang. What do you think? I'm going like 24 21 24. That's higher scoring than I thought. I will say I'm going to say Georgia wins this game 19 to six. I don't think Notre Dame's going to score. I don't think no to, unless, unless that kid throws a pick. I don't think Notre Dame's going to score. The one thing Riley Leonard likes to run the ball with Georgia. Georgia struggles against quarterbacks who can run a little bit. I will say you mentioned Georgia having the talent to get it done on defense. I did see Mel Kuiper's top 25 prospects as updated top 25 prospects list. Yeah, three of the top 13 are Georgia defensive players. So we've got guys at every level, too. There's like defensive lineman. There's linebacker Malachi Starks is probably the best safety in the country. There's so many good players on that defense and they've kind of had guys come in and out this year with injuries and you know, I think this is the first time in a while they've had so many guys who've been healthy and and Georgia had such a hard schedule. They've had a break now. I think that's a big deal to Georgia having the break. I think that's a massive deal. CJ score. 20 to nine, Georgia. 20 to nine. So you're with me. You don't think Notre Dame's going to be able to score. You don't think Notre Dame's going to be able to score. All right. Lang, enjoy the game from the grind city media resort. We'll let you go, man. Appreciate y'all and go dogs. Go dogs. All right. That's laying Whitaker from the grind city media casino resort. CJ, we're going to hit a break when we come back. We're going to do, we're going to, we're going to do NFL week 18. No, we're going to do NFL week 18. That's all next. It's a chapter six, week 19 edition of the Odds Couple John Rose or CJ Hurt. We'll be back on grind city media. Get the squad together for this year's junior Grizzlies three on three tournament presented by two came at the Billboard top practice facility inside FedEx for on Saturday, January four teams will compete in three games before advancing to single elimination play. Overall winners from the tenant under 12 and under at 14 and under divisions will win grizzly tickets, including exclusive access to the pregame team shoot around before the gris take on the pelicans January 24th. 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Ring in the new year at Southland Casino Hotel to win your share of over $100,000 in free play cash or a 2025 Lexus. On New Year's Eve, we're turning up the energy with incredible entertainment. Dance the night away to the beats of DJ epic Jerome Chisholm and the M town band and an electrifying performance from Troy Las. There's only one place to win when the clock strikes midnight. Southland Casino Hotel must be 21 plus. Play responsibly for help quitting call 800-522-4700. Welcome back to the odds couple on YouTube at grind city media and the official grind city media app. Here's Rob Fisher and Lang Whitaker. All right, we're back odds couple here. John Roser filling in for Rob Fisher. CJ Hertz with me. Lang Whitaker now gone. So just me and CJ, we're going to carry week 18 of the NFL is this weekend, the final weekend of the regular season. There's usually way more. I feel like there's always way more scenarios than what we have this weekend in the AFC. It's basically Broncos, Dolphins and Bengals playing for the final playoff spot. And then in the NFC, it's Falcons and Bucks. Whoever wins the division is going to get the playoff spot there. But the rest of the spots are already booked up. And there may be a couple of seating things here like the Steelers and Ravens are both in the playoffs, but there's which one to wins the division title that's still up in the air. But like, it feels like there's usually more scenarios for who's going to who actually can make the playoffs. And it I don't feel like we have a ton this year. So the the Buccaneers, if they win, they are, these are your scenarios this weekend. If the Buccaneers win, they are in. So Tampa Bay, they are going to be playing the New Orleans Saints. They're favored by 13 and a half. They win. They're in the more interesting thing. There's Mike Evans. Mike Evans has a roster bonus tight. He needs five catches, 85 yards. Also could be his 11th straight 11th consecutive 1000 yard receiving season to start his career hasn't been done since Jerry Rice. The Falcons, they need to win and they need the bucks to lose to the AFC. The Broncos win and they're in. The Dolphins need to win and then need the Broncos to lose and they get in the playoffs. And then the Bengals who play on Saturday against the Steelers, the Bengals need to win and they need the Broncos and the dolphins to both lose. Those are your scenarios in the NFL. I think it'd be fun. I mean, bonics, a rookie quarterback getting in there at the Bengals are the most interesting if the Bengals can get in. Yeah, just because of the offense, you'd have to say the Bengals in the NFC. I big Phoenix would be fun. If would you ever see? I would rather see the bucks. Really? Because I think the bucks could be a problem for teams. You look at it. I think without God, but I think without God, when it's not the same, those two receivers, man, we're so good. Evans and Evans and God were so good. It just doesn't feel like it's the same when you don't have both. It's it's it's not, but even still with the way they can run the ball, bucky Irving. I didn't see this coming from him. He's fun. He is a fun, fun player to watch in the backfield and a good player to give the ball to that bucks defense is is very, very good as well. We've seen this bucks team beat the Lions and the Eagles this year, if I remember correctly, like that's a bucks team that could get into the playoffs and and do some things where it is not scared. Whereas I'm the Falcons getting to the playoffs and they're getting bounced immediately there. I don't I don't have much faith in them and what they can do, but it would be be great to see a rookie another rookie getting to the playoffs. You've got Daniels and the commanders are getting in potentially both nicks are getting in. You throw pinnocks even though he started late into the season season was damn near done when he got his chance of seeing three rookies in the playoffs will give you the the feeling that Oh, then a fail rookie quarterback is using me seeing three rookie quarterbacks in the playoffs will give you the feeling that the NFL is in good arms or hands. So to speak. Yeah. And they've still got, I mean, it's still burrow. Mahomes and Allen are still and Lamar Jackson and Lamar Jackson are still. If this year shown me anything is that yeah, Joe Burrow needs to be mentioned with those other three. He said, I thought he should. But then last year happened and last year, the risk injury is the the issue that happened. I feel like there was some injury issues in 2022. But before that, Joe Burrow was amazing. And even in 2022, Joe Burrow was amazing. You get rid of the month of September for the bingles in Joe Burrow. They are so bad in September. That's every year, every season, every year they're terrible in September. And then you look up and they're one of the better teams down the stretch. And Joe Burrow this year is a large part of the reason why Jamar Chase don't want to like throw any shade to him because he's incredible as well. When you have that type of a weapon at wide out, you can do some really, really cool things as a quarterback. But Joe Burrow is if they aren't terrible in September, Joe Burrow is your MVP. That's who's going to win your MVP. Dude Jamar Chase Jamar Chase this season is he is 117 receptions, 1,612 yards and 16 touchdowns. Jamar Chase insane. They're so bad defensively, they screwed up so bad not paying Jamar Chase before this season started. That the money Jamar Chase gets now is going to be absolutely crazy. The biggest game of the weekend Vikings and lions, it's they're both in, but this is for the one seed. This game's for the one seed and it's Sunday night football. I think the lions, I think need, they need this so bad because they need the break. They've got so many injuries on defense. They've, it's so many freaking injuries on defense. You see their offense as so many playmakers, even when they miss David Montgomery, they're still fine, but they've got so many, they've got so many guys out on defense and they just need to get healthy. They have not had a bi week since week. Their bi week was week five. So they have been playing straight through ever since then. That's a travesty. The NFL makes these guys do that, playing an extra game. They give up by week that early and then they, yeah, double by weeks, get pit to buy. They're going to, but they're going to add an extra regular. They're going to play 18 regular season games eventually and give two bi weeks. That's what they're going to do. Come on, man. It's just going to extend the season even longer than it already goes. Yeah, Vikings, Lions played for the one seed. Sam Darnold, an amazing story. I think Sam Darnold is like, I've said this, he's like all a lot of these guys. Notice like brought party did not look as good this year when Christian McCaffrey was not healthy. The offensive line's terrible. And Brandon Ayuk is comes in out of shape and then tears his ACL in week three and he's done for the season. Like these guys, they, you give them solid coaching. You give them good coaching and players around them. Like Sam Darnold now has, he has good coaching last year with Kyle Shannon. He's got good coaching this year with Kevin O'Connell and they've got Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison and Aaron Jones and a really good defense and a good offensive line. And it doesn't mean, oh my God, is Sam Darnold now a 50 to 55, 60 million dollar quarterback? No, it doesn't. That is where the mistake is made is if you do that, you pay these guys, pay them, pay these guys. Some franchise is going to have to step up and say, okay, no, you're not. That's Mahomes, Burrow, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, money. And you're not one of those guys where those guys, it doesn't matter who you put around them. They lift those guys up. The leading receiver for the Kansas City Chiefs this year, wide receiver is Xavier Worthy. The leading receiver this year for the Baltimore Raven, Zayflowers, Zayflowers is a fine wide receiver. Nobody would call Zayflowers would say Zayflowers is one of the, I don't think, top five? No, you're not top 10. Yeah, you would say that the leading receiver for the Buffalo Bills this year is Khalil Shakir. Yeah, I mean, like, dude, those guys lift everybody up. I'm telling you, if that too, you give Sam Darnold to those or his receiver, nang, he ain't going to look as good. But he's got Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, Aaron Jones. You take these guys that are pretty solid players, and if you put the pieces around them, you give them a solid deal, and then spend more money on the guys around them, and you can have yourself a really good team. But the mistake is when you take those guys and you pay them the top tier quarterback money, like that's not... Cough, Cough, Kirk Cousins. Exactly. Cough, Cough, the 49ers are probably going to do it to bot party, and press is going to be... Yeah, it's like, would that press guy don't look the same when he doesn't have a run game? You know? Like a lot of these guys are pretty much... If they're not the top four guys we mentioned in the league, like they're all in this next group where, if you put good pieces, really good pieces around them, solid offensive line, good defense, playmakers, dude, they look pretty damn good, and you can win games with them. And you've got to... Jared Golf. Jared Golf. Everybody thinks Jared Golf is on. I promise you, Jared Golf. If you just put average talent around him, Jared Golf is going to look like an average quarterback. Yeah. Would Jared Golf have things rolling with the Rams? Todd Gurley was incredible. Todd Gurley was the best running back in the league. Incredible. Yes. That stretch play action that they ran, the stretch base outside to Gurley, and he was so lethal off of that. Yes. And golf was athletic enough to get out there, fake it, and then roll back out, and everybody's wide the hell open. You've got to be able to pay quality talent, and you're not going to be able to do that if you're giving all of the money to the quarterback. And it's a problem to your point, Rosa, if you don't have one of the four quarterback. Yes. Because those four, it doesn't matter. Yes. Those four, one of those four, got a stud receiver, right? So, pit him over to the side, but I don't think... The other three mohms, Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen do not have a stud receiver. Don't have a top five receiver. And that's no knock to anybody on their teams. That's just what it is. Tom Brady did it for years, the years he didn't have Randy Mullis. He didn't have anybody who was... I mean, he had the brief stint where Antonio Brown was really good, but you know, we forget about that. All right, we got to get the picks. We're going to do picks. Let's hit a break, and then we'll get the picks on the other side. Odds couple, John Rose or CJ Hurt, grind city media. Chris nation, it's time to send Josh, Jerry, and Des to the 2025 All-Star game. Oh, what did we just sleep on? Take three, take three! Pain for three. Bang off. This man's pain. Heating it up. What by Jerry? Most versatile power forward in the game today. At NBA.com/vote, the NBA app, or simply use the QR code on the screen to send your Grizzlies to the All-Star game today. Let's face it. There's a lot of trash talk in basketball, but the great teams let their performance do their talking. 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So next time you want to hit up a game, Ticketmasters got your back with tickets to every upcoming matchup. Whether you're catching the Grizzlies at home or on the road, you'll find tickets at Ticketmasters, the official Ticket Marketplace at the Memphis Grizzlies and the NBA. Keep putting that Jersey collection to use and get Grizzlies tickets today. There's no better brag than saying you saw it live. See you courtside again soon, Memphis. Back to the odds couple. On YouTube, add grind city media. And the official grind city media app. Cheers, Rob Fisher and Lang Whitaker. We are back odds a couple here. John Rozer, CJ Hurt, Lang Whitaker and Rob Fisher are gone real quick. We're going to try to get through the sugar bowl. He's starting soon. Do you have a little bit of news? Jalen Milro has declared for the NFL draft. Good luck to him. I don't, I don't, whatever. I don't get it either. Maybe Alabama's got somebody else they want to come in and we're like, we're not going to pay you the money to stay here. So, and then he's just, so he's just going to go to the NFL. I like Milro. I don't think he, he's not nearly accurate enough for the NFL. I do think there's a situation where there's a chance where you could turn him into, he's an athlete man. That guy's a hell of an athlete that you may be able to turn him into something if he can't play quarterback. Like, I mean, catch and run like my god, they do as fast as hell. Like, so, you know, we'll see. Good luck to him. I loved watching Milro. Like, he was one of my favorite players to watch in college football. All right. Top five are top five Super Bowl contenders. Just throw him up on the board. This is fish's top five. Screw the Chiefs. He's got the Lions, the Bills, the Eagles and the Packers. I'm not going to argue with that. Lang's, he's got the Chiefs. Screw them. The Vikings, the Bills, the Lions and the Ravens. I'm not going to argue with that either. I think we're all going to have similar teams. Mine. I've got the Bills. I've got the Lions. I've got the Vikings. I've got the Ravens. I've got the Eagles. I really don't know if I believe in the Vikings because I don't know if Sam, I just can't get it still kid into Sam Darnold Super Bowl champion. But then again, Jared golf could be one. And I didn't think if you would have told me that two, three years ago, I wouldn't have believed it either. But that'll be mine. And then CJ, your top five Super Bowl contenders. You've got the Chiefs. You can go to hell too. The Lions, the Bills, the Vikings. I like the, I like to see what's interesting. They're different when Pickens plays. I think they've been worn out. They've played a lot of games in a short amount of time. I think you could get a different Pittsburgh team come, uh, come play off team, come play off time picks. Go picks. All right. I'll go with the Bucks land in 13 and a half. They need to win this week and the Saints are just bad, bad. So give me that. Nobody's going to be playing for the Texans and this Titans Texans matchup Texans already locked up their spot in the playoffs. They'll, they'll play their guys. So maybe the first half of the quarter, maybe the first quarter. And then they'll start pulling them, which means it'll be a bunch of second stringers out there. Scoring is going to happen. The Titans, um, our Bismol offensively, they're pretty good defensively. But I think with the Texans playing a bunch of second stringers, we get a bunch of scoring in that one. I'll take the under and the bingo Steelers game because I think the Steelers come out there and win that game. I, I love what they can do to you defensively, particularly if what is on, on the field playing. We talked up Joe burrow and, and Jamar chasing that bingles offense, but that Steelers defense is really, really good. And they will play that time possession, field position game with you. I think they find a way to keep it under the 48. Although the bingles on the year 10 to six on the over. So I'm going against the trend there. I'll take the Chiefs plus 10. Speaking of them not playing anybody, I still just can't imagine the Broncos going out there. The fighting Carson Wences, the hell out of the Chiefs. You think the fighting Carson Wences? Yeah. We'll lose by less than 10 points. Less than 10 and then give me the Vikings lines in a battle of the two best covering teams this season in the NFL. I'll take the Vikings plus the two and a half here. I'm not sure if they win it, but I think it's a very, very close game, one point type of win for whoever gets it. All right. Who else has picked? Do we have fish and sea or fish and legs? Yeah, we got them. He's got who gives a crap about Ole Miss and Duke. He's got the Packers minus 10 and a half against the Bears. That's cool. The bills minus two and a half against the Patriots and nobody's playing in that game. The Eagles minus three against the Giants. Nobody's playing in that game. And he likes the lines minus the two and a half against the Viking Sunday night football. Everybody is playing in that game. That's those, the, the bills, Eagles picks are, they are because there's nobody playing yet. The Patriots and Giants both need to lose. Yes, because if the Patriots, the Giants screwed up in one last week, if the Titans lose, the Patriots could go from the one pick to maybe the second or third pick and the Titans jump up. So yeah, I guess I rock with that. Lang's locks Montana state. Montana, we're going to FCS. Montana statement is showing a half against North Dakota state. Holy crap. He likes the Bengals minus two and a half against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Saturday night. The Falcons minus seven and a half against the Panthers. That's not bad. The Falcons have to win. The commanders minus five against the Cowboys. Five's an interesting number. When you see teams favored by five, take the team that's laying the five usually. It's a weird, it's a weird thing. Like the team favored by five usually win at the Cowboys. I don't, I just don't know. Do the commanders have to win the game? They don't have to win the game. So they're already in. So I don't know. Eagles minus three against the Giants. It's another one. The fish had it too. It's weird. Nobody's playing for them. So yeah, those are. The Giants need to lose the Giants need to laugh purposes. Right. All right. In my picks, I'm laying the Chargers minus five against the Raiders. Jim Harbaugh, this is like a standard setting season for him that this is how we're going to do things here. They're not going to lay down. Chargers minus five, Chargers team total over 23 and a half. They want that seed. They want that five seed. The Chargers want that five seed and they're going to go for it. I'm taking Chiefs Broncos under the 40 and go under 40 in Chiefs Broncos. I'm going to go the last time the Bengals and Steelers played this score was 44 to 38. I'm still going to bank that they can get over 48 and a half. I'm going to go bingles, Steelers over 48 and a half. And I'm going to take it. Look, these teams probably can score a ton because the Lions defense is not great, but I'm saying under 57 in Vikings lines. That number is so freaking big. I'm going to take the under in the division matchup. Sounded at football under 57 Vikings lines. All right. That's going to do it for me. Thank you to CJ Herr. Thank you to Lang Whitaker. Thank you to Kyra. No thanks to you fish, but I hope I did a great job filling in for you. We will be back. Small show on Monday. This is the odds couple grind city media.
Roser, Lang and CJ recap the CFP games so far, share their thoughts on the Sugar Bowl, and more.
start CFP recap
:47 PICKS!
start CFP recap
- Boise State v. Penn State
- Texas v. ASU
- Ohio State v. Oregon
- ND (-1) v. UGA
- Playoff scenarios
:47 PICKS!