The Best of The Rundown with Desmond Johnson - Change My Mind - MLB Edition (10/5/19)

You the man. What's that mean? You the man. And now, ladies and gentlemen.

Well, now all of a sudden you're stepping up to the next level of competition.

Alright, alright, alright, alright, listen up, listen up. Welcome to The Rundown. Here's Desmond Johnson. Hoodie Weather has returned. Finally, Hoodie Weather has returned to the triad.

It's about a month behind. I think it was like 95 degrees outside the day before. But. A little drastic change in the weather outside. Welcome to the rundown.

I'm your host, Desmond Johnson. I'm joined by Johnny O., John Oszewski, Brandon Blakeney in the house. You did. Sawyer Dylan's my producer, Aaron Gabriel. We'll be with us shortly.

336-777-1600 is the number to call to chime in on any of our topics for today. Let's go ahead and get started. You can also hit us on Twitter at SportsHub Triad or at Sports Carolina One. That's the number one, Sports Carolina One. We're going to get into high school football here in a little bit.

Just know that on Sports Hub Triad last night, we had probably one of the best games of the season, East for Scythe and Grimsley. If you missed it, we'll get you the recap of that. Me and Brandon were out at Jameson Stadium last night covering that game. And then we had Southwest Guilford taking on High Point Andrews on the other side. That Guilford County team gave you guys a little scare last night.

Man, that Grimsley's for real. We're going to talk about because Grimsley is legit. They are for real, for real. But that sets up an even bigger matchup that's upcoming Friday on the Sports Hub. And we'll get into all that as well.

But I wanted to go around the NFL to kick us off on this Saturday, this kind of, I guess, overcast Saturday. It is cold day. It's cold. It's a little nippy out there. We all came in wearing like long-sleeve shirts and hoodies and things like that.

And we were all wearing shorts and whatnot just really 24 hours ago. But was poking around in the NFL. There's a lot of stuff going on this week. One of the biggest stories so far this week has been the. Dysfunction in Minnesota.

Are the Vikings getting tired of Kirk Cousins? I keep hearing that it's possibly they might just cut him when the season is over, but he was on a. A fully guaranteed deal. Like it was what, 90 million, 88 million? 88 million, guaranteed.

So, what's uh three years or something? I've never seen a situation where not one, but two wide receivers basically throw their quarterback under the bus in the same week. And uh, Stefan Diggs and Adam Thielen kind of. Kind of threw shade, but they didn't specifically throw shade. They were just like, you know, there's been issues with him connecting with them going deep.

And I picked Minnesota to win this division at the beginning of the year. I thought their offense looked great and their defense was going to be sound. But now I'm starting to have some doubts because Kirk Cousins isn't very good. I mean, against good teams. They looked better with Case Kainem last year, to be honest with you.

He's got 2,000-yard receivers and then a thousand-yard running back and Dalvin Cook right behind him. I mean, the way they're investing in this offense, fellas, they don't have time to work things out. They got to go right now. Kirk has always been so questionable in what he does, too, when he was with Washington, right? I mean, but he's just not getting it done.

But of course, the wide receivers opening up their mouths, man. I mean, every week now it's a new, well, two of them, right? Yeah. And what was up with the hoodie over the mouth when he was when Diggs was being interviewed? Did you guys see that?

No. Because he said he had a cold. Oh, because yeah, I think he's threatening not to play Sunday. I think he said he might not play. He said there's some truth to the rumors.

Yeah, truth to the rumors. That's a little odd because it's like. Don't say there's truth to the rumors and then be like, well, you know, not even address the original question that they asked you. But that wasn't even really what they asked. They were like, well, there's some truth to the rumor.

Like, it's not a rumor. Like, we heard Adam Thielen say these things, and we heard Kirk Cousins apologize for not being able to get the ball to him.

So it's not a rumor, it's out there. And he turned around and said that the media said. That statement. Yeah. We saw it.

I think we live in a culture now where people think that they can say things on TV and we won't remember that we saw it. Maybe it's the cold medicine he was doing. Kirk Cousins, he's 36, 39, and 2 for his career.

So he's literally like a 500 quarterback. And he had a stat going on for a while where it was like. I think he'd only won like... Two or three times against teams that had above 500 records. Yeah, he he has not beaten really good competitive teams.

And it looked like to me, I agree, Des, they were the obvious favorite in that division to take it. But the way the Packers are playing now, And then the Bears have a great defense still. Khlo Mack. And then, yeah, you're right. The Packers.

The Packers seem like they're kind of. I'm not really sure about them. I don't think they're going to win Sunday against the Cowboys. I mean, it's in Jerry World and. Um I just don't know about the Packers because I can't really name anybody other than Devontae Adams that.

Aaron Jones Rodgers passed the throw to Aaron Jones is having a great year in the backfield for them. I think this is the best Green Bay defense we've seen in years. Goodness. Moving around, we're just doing around the NFL, and we're going to talk about the Panthers matchup a little bit later on during the rundown. 336-777-1600.

Send them to call if you got a question about anything happening in the NFL currently right now. Pat Mahomes has thrown for over 1,500 yards in his first four games. He's currently on pace for over 6,000 yards in a season, which would obliterate the current season record held by Peyton Manning, which was 5,477. Me and Aaron were actually doing some football math in the studio yesterday to figure out what he would need. He would have to average 375 yards passing per game to get the 6,000 yards.

That's nuts. Can he do that? No, I don't think well, I mean, if he plays all 16 games and they all mean something, without a doubt, this guy is absolutely incredible. 6,000. But that's not going to happen.

I don't think it's going to happen. I think he will beat Peyton Manning's record of 5,477. I mean, that's unbelievable, too. It's ridiculous. Yeah.

But it all depends. You know, are those last couple games are Kansas City really going to need him? Who knows? You know, so that's a tough record to break, but boy, that would be kind of neat. If he hits 6,000, the NFL, well, the NFL is already completely changed, but that would change it even more.

He's getting some weapons back, too. And he can't get to the end of the day. He's getting Tyreek Hills coming back this week. I agree, though. By the time, you know, week 15, 16 rolls around, he may not even be playing that much.

Like you said, John, I mean, there are 12 games, 13 games, and you've already clinched the playoff spot. I could see them saving him for Brady and just, you know, getting ready for the playoffs. But if it comes down to it, he's definitely got the talent and the weapons. I mean, it's been next man up. Up for this group all year.

Whoever's out, they just fill in. What's up? That winning two-minute drive was pretty impressive by him last week. I mean, and Aaron's in the house. He's the resident Pat Mahomes fanatic.

Project Pat. It was quite a coincidence. As soon as we mentioned Patrick, I know he walked in the door. He popped in. That was crazy.

That was like Pat Mahomes lepre conference. It's like the perfect segment for Aaron. Like the Rick James smoke came up and everything. I was like, oh, man. Yeah.

I'm enjoying my vibe. I got to mention that. Let's move over to the NFC East real quick because last night while we were doing, I don't know if you saw this, Brandon, while we were out running around, and I don't know if you saw this shit either, John, but while we were trying to get home last night, a video popped up online of Washington Redskins coach Jay Gruden. Oh, yeah. What is that?

Apparently, smoking some dope. He's trying to get some yellow. He's like, yeah, he's got a. And it kind of broke it down. That's literally what's in the video.

He's literally smoking. It looks like he's smoking marijuana in front of a bar. This past week? Or was it? I think you're saying it's an older video.

There's no time stamp on it, so we don't know when it happened. It's his face closing up. Oh, and they're all yelling, Jay. Yeah, they're chanting. They're chanting the video.

It can't be anybody else but you. There's two clips. There's a clip of him outside. It looks like he's smoking like a joint. And then there's another clip of him with like a young lady sitting on a curb or something.

Yeah, like his legs are kind of out. And he just looks like he's just. He looked like two sheets. Yeah, he looked like two sheets to the wind. He's just high.

He's just high. He did. My question is: Will Jay Gruden still have a job come Monday morning? Because they were already talking about firing him before this came out. And now this is out.

And the other story that came out regarding Jay Gruden was regarding Dwayne Haskins about how he did not apparently want to draft Haskins. And Haskins knows this.

So now you got a situation in the building from the start of the season where the guy you drafted to be your future quarterback. has found out that you did not want him. And he has to go and listen to you every day and practice and see you. I mean, the advanced Colt McCoy is the starter for Sunday. Is Jay keeping his job?

Well, should he? We're on until noon. We're probably going to hear something before noon. Keep on Twitter, fellas.

Well, I don't know if they would fire him the day before a game, right? I mean, when they just let him choose that, that was an awful that little doobie he had looked like a cigar cigar doobie size for credit. Yeah, it wasn't fooling around. I know he was not. I think he's canned, honestly, fellas.

You're not winning games. You're 0-4. You're 0-4. The future of the franchise doesn't believe in you. You're high.

I don't know. Just checking things off the list. I'm winning, smoking pot. No one likes you. They want the quarterback.

And that was a young girl, too, man. Yeah, man. And I don't even know if she was feeling it. He got some charges coming up on that as well. Was John Gruden in the background at all?

It wouldn't surprise me. The brothers Gruden out for a night. See Antonio Brown pop out somewhere. The Redskins are 0-4. They've only scored 66 points the entire season right now.

It's not looking good.

So we'll keep an eye on that. And hey, the past couple weeks, things have broke during the rundown, breaking news.

So we'll see if something happens between now and. Noon. Who is the best team? Wait, just then, the marijuana he was smoking was for medical reasons. Ah, there you go.

It's Cataracts. Makes sense. It's Cataracts. He's stressed, man. Coaching the Redskins.

Coaching the Redskins probably need to also. He probably wants out by now. Yeah, maybe this guy. Maybe Jay leaked this. He's like, maybe I can leak this out, and then that way they can let me out of here.

I'm going to get to Antonio Brown media people.

So, how did you get out of Oakland? Because I got a situation in D.C. right now. Who was the best team in the NFC? Because after last week when the Cowboys-Saints match up, I wasn't really looking at the Saints as a team that was one of the best teams.

But now I'm looking at them more. They were built to win this year. And Teddy Bridgewater, I don't consider him a backup quarter. He's good. And he's been sitting underneath Sean Payton for two years learning the system.

Are the Saints one of the best teams in the NFC? They're three and one. And then when Drew comes back, holy crap, they're going to be good. And I know that. Kills you, man.

I know you're not a scientist. I don't know if Drew's gonna come back this year. And I don't think he has to, to be honest. He might be nice looking. I mean, Teddy B's out there, Harlem shaking through the pressure.

He's trying to stay in the league. And I've always liked him, man. I mean, and he had a couple good years. Who was he with? Minnesota?

Yeah, he was with Minnesota. He had a horrific leg injury. I can't believe he was running. And he was running a good year before that. That was like his second year, third year.

He was just starting to get into it. But you got it. Dallas still looks really, really good. I like Dallas. It would have been my one before that Saints game.

I also like the Seahawks and the way Russell Wilson's doing. I was hoping you're going to bring that up. Wow. Is that guy having a year? I mean, he's had just an incredible career, but he is.

He's a PP candidate. He's pitching a program. Oh, I think so. I think so. Oh, absolutely.

He's probably not. I mean, between him and Mahomes, it's a toss-up right now. Yeah, I mean, he's having the best season of his career right now. 12 touchdowns, zero interceptions. What is wrong with the Atlanta Falcons?

They're soft. They're one and three. Matt Ryan is throwing the ball all over the yard to everybody. Offensive coordinator ever since. You know, the thing that bothers me about Atlanta is I feel like they get a lot of national, like.

Rub that I feel sometimes that they don't give the Panthers. Like, it feels like every year they pick Atlanta and New Orleans to win the South, like the national media. And they stick us with the Bucs. Yeah, it's always like, they're always like, well, why are you picking the Fuck?

Well, they've got Matt Ryan. He's an MVP, former winner. They've got a good offense. The defense is going around. They got best receiver.

But then, like, you talk about the Panthers nationally, they just. They don't even talk about the same things. They've got an MVP at quarterback. They've got a defensive player of the year, middle linebacker. They've got a two-time coach of the year coaching the team.

I don't know. I don't understand why they don't get that. Like I said, we're going to talk about the Panthers because there's a lot to chop up with them. They're taking on the Jaguars Sunday on CBS at 1 p.m.

So we will also break them down as well. Is there a team in the AFC we should keep an eye on? Because right now it's breaking down into a two-way team. Uh, battle between the Patriots and the Chiefs for the best team over there, but everything else looks like 500-ish. Like, I'm just looking around, I'm trying to pick a team to come out of this pack.

Is it the Cleveland Browns? I think it could be the Browns, but I'm gonna throw it out. They got work to do, though. Yeah, the Buffalo Bills could be a team to watch, fellas. Good pick, that would be honest.

That's the only other one. I was, I'm hot because the Bills have a great defense, they have an awesome defense, and um, Allen is just playing out of his mind.

Now, is he gonna be available Sunday? Because didn't he get knocked out with a concussion last week? Yeah, he got beat up last week, so we'll see. But yeah, the Bills are 3-1. Their only losses to the Patriots, and they, if they cut down on the mistakes, they win that football game.

I mean, they were in it the entire time. After that, I mean, it is a complete toss-up. Yeah, the Browns are two and two, Ravens are two and two. The entire AFC South is two and two. Started to believe in the Ravens, but after last week's, I think teams have figured the Ravens out already.

They were averaging almost over 200 yards on the ground per game between Mark Ingram and I guess Lamar. Jackson and whatever else they're running, but I think Teams are starting to slowly figure them out. The Browns have a lot of stuff coming back. Like their whole secondary was injured. We haven't seen Christmas.

He's a Brown. People forget that. After six games, he comes back. Him and Bradley Chubb is a nasty duo. The Browns are fine.

All right, Nick Chubb. But again, they have a lot of work. Nick Chubb, Nick Chubb. The Browns have a little bit of work to do, but they looked really good last week. And I mean, again, I still like to see them.

make a move. You know, this is their opportunity because the AFC is Water. Yeah, literally, I'm sitting there trying to figure out. Like, the AFC South, every team is 2-2. Jacksonville's not bad.

No, and this quarterback is doing a heck of a job. Actually, I'll be up in the stands tomorrow night in that Panther game.

So, that's going to be kind of fun.

So, is it a 1 p.m. kick or a 4? It's 1?

Okay. I'm looking at the AFC South.

So, the Texans are 2-2. They've scored 78 points this season. They've allowed 78 points this season. The Jags are 2-2. They've allowed 84 points this season.

They've scored 84 points this season. No, I'm kidding. The Colts are 2-2. They've. Scored 94, allowed 102.

And then the Titans have scored ninety one, but they've allowed sixty two.

So It it just looks like all of them are bunched together in just one like group and I I'm just looking at on paper. The Browns should actually probably End up being a three or four seed when this is all over, but they can't keep going back and forth, win, lost, win, loss. They're going to have to put together like a five-game win streak or something. And how about Odell not getting any touches? None.

I mean, it's like they're not even looking his direction. How long before that explodes in their face? Oh, you know, Odell's not going for not getting away from two more days. Very quiet. I think, too, though, outside of the Browns, maybe the Chargers, they're getting Melvin Gordon back really soon.

Yeah. Starting running back. Oh, yeah. I think this week, Keenan Allen has been explosive this year. He's just got to stay healthy.

Yeah, I was going to say, hopefully, he can stay healthy. Northern Guilford products. Sawyer. How do you guys feel on Berfict suspended for the entire 2019, 2020 season?

Well, accumulation of hits.

Somebody made a great point yesterday talking to David Glenn. They were like, you know, like when you get your license taken away, the last point you get that takes it away, you don't get the license take away because of what you did on that last point. It's from an accumulation of points that you gathered on your record, and that's why your license gets taken away. And I understood it when the dude said it. The last, the dude, the dude was on his knees, and he clearly was aiming for his head.

I don't know about suspension for the entire year, but. if the there's been a lot of players that have been coming out saying you know this is a fraternity we don't do that like he's he's kind of crossed the line exactly so if the players are saying that then yeah you probably should go ahead and suspend the whole year now should he be available next year he's trying to end these you know careers i mean that's crazy i think i agree i see the license point of view he definitely i don't have a problem with him being out for the year just because of his past issues and we've this isn't the first time we've seen him but we've seen worse hits this season than that hit early on well yeah there was a worse hit uh that week um i think it was in the tampa bay game somebody got hit like right at the goal line was horrible blind blonde side and no i don't even think there was a flat call no no penalty no no ejection no suspension um i think von's just over the years he's kind of been known though as a dirty player kind of like you damaged a reputation but he still got to make a living and i think a two-year ban without any criminal charges or any failed drug tests that's a little ridiculous is it two years no but i mean if you're going to be available I mean, if he can't play next year, I mean, his career is going to probably basically be over. One last thing on hits: I don't know if you guys were watching the Seahawks game, but that Clay Matthews hit that kind of like saved that drive.

Well, how are you guys feeling on like these quarterbacks? Like, I mean He literally hit him as soon as the ball was out of his hands, and that gets a free first down, basically. And this has happened over and over and over. Clay Matthews has been. You know, they've been hitting him with some weird penalties the late.

I just saw he's going to be out. If it's the Clay Matthews, the same one, he broke his jaw. Yeah, Clay Matthews has a broken jaw. He's out at least a month. Not sure when that happened.

It happened sometime during that Seattle game on Thursday. And he was a percussion protocol. He got nailed down a couple of those penalties last year. Yeah, like two or three of them. I mean, just sacking the quarterback.

I don't have any pity for them, though, because I've seen Cam Newton take. Another combination. The Denver game season opener after the Super Bowl when they had to go out to Denver and Cam was they were trying to kill Cam Newton on camera whole season and no flags and a murder. No flags. No one's calling him and that and now people want to question why Cam's all banged up.

That might be. Eton Brady's playing at age 42. You know? And I mean, he, you know, you get a whole rule change because he missed that half a season with the knee injury. The guy fell on his leg.

Now you can't even touch quarterbacks' legs. Real quick before we take a break, are the Jets dumb enough to throw Sam Darnold out there with an enlarged spleen? It's got to sit out this week. I would think. I hope not.

We mentioned before. I mean, in the NFL, the midsection is the only place you can hit a quarterback. You can't hit him in the head or the legs. You've got to aim for the midsection.

So. Throwing a kid out there that just had mono with an enraged uh w when you hear the word death, you know, it's time to take another week off. Yeah, it might be a good idea. Uh what so we do have our Twitter poll up now. Uh Aaron, what is the Twitter poll question of the day?

This afternoon's Twitter poll question is: Will you watch tonight's UFC middleweight title matchup? Uh, between Robert Whitaker, who is the champion, and Israel Adesanya, new up-and-coming striker. Looks pretty exciting. I don't know if I don't know if I'll watch that, but I did stay up till about three in the morning last night when I got home from the football game and watched Friday Night Smackdown. Oh, gosh, don't even get me sorry.

I was so tired of it. Like, at 30 minutes, then I was like, I gotta turn this off. He loved it. The rock came out, it was awesome. The end apparently was very-I mean, I don't know if you saw this.

Cain Velasquez showed up at the end, yeah and basically punked Brock Lesnar. It was, it was oh, Cain Velasquez getting MM uh getting WWE Monday night. He needs to get in the gym. Like, he came out with no shirt on, and he looks just soft, like doughy. Like, it was weird.

Like, compared to Reuter, Brock Lesnar. Yeah, wait, what? Like, Brock was all like cowering, and like, he was like, I don't want no parts of this. He looks like Mr. Wonderful.

He's always kind of looked like he had an every guy's baud. He'd look like a croissant, like an unbaked croissant when he walked through. Chris cream cheese on him. Because at first, I was like, Who is that? Is that Rey Mysterio's older brother?

Because he came out with him, and the announcers are like, Oh, it's Cain Velasquez, Brock. This is the last time they knocked Brock Lesnar out. And Brock looks all like scared of him. And I'm like. Why is he scared of this dude?

This dude's like half his size. And then he gets in the ring and starts beating down Brock Lesnar. I'm like, so this is how we're going to do this because they gave Brock Lesnar the belt. Like. He beat Kofi Kingston last night in like five seconds.

Damn, Kofi didn't last, but took an F5 right out the gate. Right out the gate, took an F5, and it was over. And everybody's like, oh. That's how they're going to do Kofi after six months. WWE, though, I think they've got some new competition on Thursdays now with AW and Chris Jericho coming to town.

I find out you watch wrestling. We'll throw some wrestling in these rundown segments. I've been waiting for someone because John doesn't watch wrestling, Ronnie doesn't pop in and out. I think Aaron doesn't watch it anymore.

So I find someone that watches wrestling so we can talk about it. We got some high school football we need to discuss. Huge game last night. I can't wait to chop into it. Me and Brandon covered this game.

Let's go ahead and get into our top five. The number of the day scheduled to arrive, the number of the day is... Five! Top five. Top five.

Number five. Five top five powered by SportsCarolinaMonthly.com. These are our top five area high school teams from around the triad. And we had some movement. In the uh The top five here.

So let's go ahead and get that started with number. That would be East Surrey. They were actually on a buy. Uh, this past week, but they are 6-0. Came off a huge win against Reidsville last week.

Uh, Disney Reedsville got back in the winning column last night, but uh, had to show some respect to East Surrey. Brandon East Surrey's a 1A school, they are. And Jeffrey Boaz, they've got two ACC commits, though. Jeffrey Boaz, one of the top quarterbacks in the state right now, leading the state in passing, going to Carolina to play tight end. Then you've got his guy, Stephen Gosnell, who's going to play receiver at NC State.

And both these guys play quarterback and receiver, so they're out there rotating, throwing touchdowns. There's a great article that Brandon did on sportsconoffly.com on Boaz. If you want to check out this kid, he's what, 6'7? 6'7 in every bit of 6'7. Goodness.

Plays baseball. He's got a few scholarship offers in basketball. He plays some basketball. Roy might have him try to walk on or something. Man, I'm telling you, he's got some skills.

Let's hit the next. Four. That would be the Dudley Panthers. They are five and one on the season. They were also on a buy last night, but ever since they lost to West Versaith that beat down week one, they've been rolling and they've just gotten better and better.

My understanding is they're not really throwing the ball very much, they're keeping it on the ground. Yeah, the defense is playing really well. Miles Murphy, Peyton, Page, but I think they got to get Mike Wyman going here in transition. They got to get him involved in this offense. Not really throwing him the ball.

You got a USC commit, a top 100 receiver. Got to find some way to get him the football. Three. That would be the Reagan Raiders. 6-0 in the season.

One last night, 62-15 winners over Northwest Guilford. Reagan is out here just beating people down, and not a lot of people were talking about him. I will because Reagan is good. Gabriel Hollingsworth at quarterback. They got some studs over there.

And there's DJ Warrior, too, at running back, track champion. He's really good.

So Reagan is in the same conference as our number one and two.

So really, our top three are all in the same conference. Goodness. Two. Number two is West for Scythe. They take over that number two slot.

Last night they moved to 6-0 in the season. 26-7 winners over Paige. Page is having, they're going through some hard times, like Dustin Rhodes used to say. Hard times. Just going through some hard times right now.

It's the toughest of the time. What is it? One and five, I believe, right now. Yeah, Paige is uh, they're having a bad year right now, but it's all right. It's well, it's not all right, but it's it.

This too shall pass. Last time this happened, the next two years, I think they were in the state championship game or something. It was a couple years ago. I don't know if history has a chance of repeating this.

So West for Scythe moves to the number two spot, which means one. Number one is East for Scythe. Let's talk about this game for a second.

So, they were playing Grimsley last night. And if you recall, the last time on the rundown, Grimsley was the number two team in this poll. They were no longer in it. Not because of anything more than I just wanted to get East Surrey up in there because they're undefeated, and I couldn't figure out who to move out of it. Grimsley's probably number six right now, but.

He's for Scythe defeated Grimsley 21-20 last night at Jameson Stadium. Packed house. Jameson seats 10,000 people. It's one of the largest high school stadiums in the state, if not the largest, other than Memorial Coliseum in Charlotte's bigger. But Jameson Stadium has been around since 1949.

The Grimsley fans came out. The East fans came out. It was a great night outside. Just starting off the game. Uh, East for Scythe jumped out to an early lead, 21 to 0, and uh, they were doing pretty much whatever they wanted.

Both teams going back and forth down the field. Third quarter, though, Grimsley comes out, holds East for Scythe. No, does not score, had made East punt like three times, which was weird. Haven't seen East punt three times in a game in a while. Um, and then in the fourth quarter.

Their running back, Kwan Nora, and I didn't get the final stats for this. I probably should go look those up. But Kwan Nora is a grown man playing high school football. I think they said unofficially it was 229 yards on the ground. We were getting some stats in the booth as we were trying to leave.

And I think he had, I think he had 229 on the ground and another 60 plus there. I mean, just that kid is amazing. He looks like the best running back on the field. He did that against an East for Scythe defense that prides itself on not allowing guys to run up and down on him. And he was literally going through the middle of their defensive line like a hot knife through butter.

He had a 65-yard touchdown run where we haven't seen a kid that looks faster than the whole of the East for Scythe defense in some time. When he hit that hole and saw daylight, and there was no one really within five yards of him, like 10 yards after he got past the line, you could see from the booth that no one was going to catch him. Like he just literally separated from everyone as he was running down the field. That brought the game to 21 to 14. They hold East for Scythe again.

Offense to a punt, and then Brimsley basically starts on their own 20 with about. Eight, nine minutes ago in the fourth quarter. They keep the ball in this seven, eight-minute long drive. They get all the way down. Score touchdown on a quarterback keeper by Chris Zellis, who impressed me last night, also.

That made the score 21 to 20. East for Scythe then blocks the extra point with about two minutes to go. Um. It was Javon McAllister. He had a hell of a game last night.

He had a great game last night. He also had the fumble recovery for a touchdown, which accounted for the 21 points for East for Scythe. He had an interception last night. Yeah, he had an interception that he ran back for a touchdown, but he got called back because as he hit the end zone, he taunted the Grimsley band. Yeah.

Like as he ran in. He did something to the band, and the ref was standing right there. Like he pointed at him or something.

So they threw the flag for that. And then during the return, there was a block in the back or something. I couldn't find it on the replay anywhere. But we saw the flag go up right around the 40. But he ran it back for about 70 yards.

They called that back. East blocks the extra point attempt, and then it's 21-20. There's still about a minute, 48 left in the whole game. Grimsley kicks an on-side kick and they get it back.

So they're on the Eagles' 35-yard line. And from that point on, the East for Scythe defense did not allow a yard. Like, they literally did not go forward. Like, it was first and 10, second and 10, third and 10. Grimsley had to go forward on fourth and 10 just to keep the drive alive because it was too, it was like a fit.

55 yard field goal for maybe a little longer than that. The Eagles sacked Chris Elis on fourth down. The kids Dion Reeves played really well last night. Six, seven, seven, man. Just long body.

And East felt we were talking to Alan Plaster at the end of the game. We were leaving and We just kind of caught a vibe that it felt more like the Eagles never trailed in this game. They led the entire time, but you caught a sense that, especially in the fourth quarter, the momentum had shifted to Grimsley, and it felt like. East survived the game. Yeah, it really did.

And I think the players and the coaches and all of them would say that too. And I think they got a lot more respect for Grimsley today, waking up than they did walking into Jameson Stadium. Not that they took them lightly or anything, but Grimsley came to play. Oh, they did. And I'm telling that kick, Kwan Nora needs to have just about every school in North Carolina.

And like you said, you haven't seen anybody that's really faster than East defense or stronger. He's 6'2, 215 moving like that. I mean, he's kids. He's bullying kids. Even if it was like a four-yard or five-yard gain, he worked for it.

Like he was pushing piles and moving, like guys were hanging off of him, dragging them forward. I had not seen it before. Like the Easter side defensive line, they probably got. Touched up by Coach Willard in the locker room when I was in the middle of the day. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. I mean, because they weren't running. Usually teams try to outrun East by going to the left or to the right of the line and outrunning them to the corner. And East is so quick sideline to sideline that usually doesn't work. Grimsley said, forget that.

We're going to run right down your throat. And you just, we're going to do this. We're either going to, Zealous is going to keep it or he's going to hand it to Nora. Or he's going to pass it to Nora. That's really all we're going to do.

That's all they needed to do. And they had that, who was that tight end that Grimsley had? They had Albright, 6'4 kid. Yeah. And I wish they would have, he was out there on an island by himself a few plays.

I mean, East's defensive backs are on the shorter side. He had a matchup with Jordan Timmins, who's 5'9. Got your 6'4 tight end, and they don't even give him a shot at the fade on an island at that. Guys, with everything I've heard, okay, I mean, I've been listening to you guys, and it sounds like it was an unbelievable game. Grimsley was right with the state champion East for some impress with certain players.

This and that, and you drop them out of the top five? I got to question that.

Well, I mean, who could I take out? West Versife's undefeated. Reagan's undefeated and they're beating the brakes off people. But here's a team and one with your number one team in the world. And this would be like that Bama argument.

Yes, exactly. The only team I could drop would be East Surrey. And I think they just beat Reidsville. And I think you can't drop. I think that's one team you absolutely cannot drop is East Surrey.

Right. Just with that. Because I was like, I was going to put him in last week after they beat Reidsville. And I was like, let me think about it another week. I mean, we're talking about Reedsville.

Or who's. Who's number five? Uh, East Surrey. They beat Reidsville last week. And I mean, that look, Reidsville was on like a 50-game win, something crazy.

Yeah, something nuts. And then Reidsville just scored 45 last night.

So it's tough, but I feel like you're right, though. Grimsley sh They have a right to be in the top five. You should have had a top five. I'm at six. They're right at six.

I mean, yeah, they were. Man, Grimsley's tough, man. That was my first time seeing him. I'm just smiling, thinking about that game. It was so good.

It was just. Clap your hands and stomp your feet. Yeah. It's going to be one big party. Yama!

Back to the rundown with Desmond Johnson. Uh Check out the Triad Racing podcast with Randy Pettit each week on the Sports Carolina Monthly Podcast Network. Exclusive interviews with top racers from the past, present, and future. Current episodes now available via Spotify, Google, Apple, Anchor, and much more. That is the Triad Racing Podcast with Randy Pettit now available for streaming or download for listening on the go.

He's basically interviewed all the popular drivers at Bowman Gray and Ace Speedway out in Burlington. Ace Speedway is one of the sponsors for the Triad Racing podcast, and it's still going on, even though the seasons have ended. He's still getting these exclusive interviews with these drivers.

So definitely go and check that out. Let's get a Twitter poll update from Aaron. Remind us again what the Twitter poll question was and give us an update on where we're sitting right now. Today's Twitter poll question is, will you watch tonight's UFC Middleweight Championship bout? uh between Robert Whitaker and Israel Adesania.

64% of the listening public say no, they will not tune in to watch the Midway Championship. I don't even know who this people are. I'll be there. I'll be there. Sorry, a big UFC fan.

I don't even know who this people are. I think Forrest Whitaker is going down. Forrest Whitaker? Or Robert Whitaker. Robert Whitaker.

It's weird. You would watch Forrest Whitaker. I'd watch Forrest Whitaker. You might have seen Adesani. I don't know if you've seen him.

He's kind of built like Aaron. Tall, lanky. And Whitaker is. Is that a compliment or insult? I don't know what that is.

That's a compliment, yeah. But Whitaker is built like a brick, and he's short and stocky, so it's like two guys going at it. You know what I'm saying? I'm built like a killer machine, man. Oh, man.

You came here like you wanted to trade some hands for Brandon at LeBron. I'm in America. I'm so losing this, man. I keep telling this guy. I'm still sticking to it.

I move to ban to vote to ban Brandon from talking basketball. Like, we'll just mute his mic every time we talk to me. Every time we enter basketball, just Brandon's not allowed. Yeah, I'm going with the young up-and-comer, though. I'm going to bring you a Jordan jersey or something.

You just have to wear it like every Saturday or whatever. Just in shame. Just be shame. Be ashamed. The Panthers taking on Jacksonville tomorrow, 1 p.m.

kickoff. I have it written down here. It's on Fox. I was wrong. It's on CBS.

Christian McCaffrey was named the NFC Offensive Player of the Month for September. Is he the best all-around running back in the league right now? I'm going to say yeah. I think he's in a debate for sure. Like, who else would you put up there?

Like, all around running back, not just a. Definitely San Juan Barkley.

Well, he's hurt.

So, but he's out this game. Yeah, I mean, he's coming back next week, which is unbelievable. Yeah, he had an ankle sprain? Yeah, it was supposed to be like a six to seven week gig, and he's going to be back. Jumping around in practice already.

McCaffrey is unbelievable, man. And the Panthers are using. And I hate to use this word abusing him because they are going to use him as much as they can. I mean, he's in every play. Why not?

It's unbelievable. No, Emmett Smith. North Turner ran Emmett Smith like that. He ran La Daniel Thomason like that, too. And that's the way he wants it.

And they're both Hall of Famous. He's a football player. And I'm going to agree. I think he's the best in the game right now. He's definitely killed.

And the fact that, you know, you can easily lot him up at receiver, too. He doesn't have to come out of the backfield. He runs the best route tree of any running back in the league, like by far. He runs them like wide receivers do. Like, he's crisp.

He's always open. And he's got hands. That catch he made in the fourth quarter. He was diving where he dropped it bobbled it. Yeah, bobbled it and like caught it.

Man, the dude is unreal. That was incredible. I hope he gets his 200 total yards tomorrow. He's going to get an extension probably next year. Oh, even though he's still got a couple more.

They got to keep him on there. He's in second year. This is the third year. This is third year. Yeah, he's got, what, two more years on that rookie deal?

Yeah, and then they can tag him after that.

So, I mean, literally, he'll be like 29 before he can even. See, that's why I never had a problem with Zeke going after his money because with running backs. Especially first-round pick running backs, they have your rights for the first six, maybe seven years of your career. At that point, you're 30 years old. Yeah, you got to get that big money the second track.

And most of them haven't been getting that, so I don't mind that at all. Are you guys buying into the Gardner men shoe mania that's been so far?

So good. I like the stash. Yeah, he looks good in the stash. Yeah, the Uncle Rico out there. He's got the Uncle Rico.

That play the other week, you saw that where he juked out three, four defenders and lobbed it perfectly in the corner of the end zone. Bounding. I like Gardner. I do. He can't win this week, but I like Gardner.

I like his story. I like what it is. And he was a beast at Washington State, too, in college. He started at ECU. Yeah.

He was at ECU. Josh Graham covered him while he was there. And there's like this myth. This legend of Gardner Minshew, like all, like he used to walk around with a fit to Jack Daniels in his waistband. He's an odd dude.

He stretches in his jock strap in the locker room, jock strap only. Who would have thought a year ago Minshew versus Allen is the matchup tomorrow? Yeah. And I mean, and it's going to be an interesting one. Can the Panthers contain Leonard Fournette?

Because the Panthers have the number fourth ranked overall defense in terms of yards allowed. They actually have the number one ranked pass defense, which a lot of people aren't aware of, but the Panthers are banged up. And I need to go pull up their injury report because they've got a lot of people out. KK Short is on the injury reserve. They lost him for the first time.

He's going to have to have surgery.

So that moves Vernon Butler into a bigger role. And he. He's a former first-round pick, one of the few misses that Dave Geldman had in the draft for the Panthers, and he did not get extended for a fifth year. This is a chance for him to show himself to Tyree Pose in that defensive tackle rotation and Gerald McCoy, who they signed over from Tampa Bay. But Leonard Fournette, I think he ran for 200 yards last week.

Can they stop him? Can the Panthers defense come up with a game plan to stop Leonard Fournette? I think if any defense candidate he's faced so far, it would be the Panthers. But Leonard Fournette's been running hard. He looks healthy.

He looks slimmer, more muscular right now. He's fast. And that offensive line's really opening up some holes. It's going to be a tough task. And he can catch the ball, too.

Wait, my son actually got us the tickets. And when he said, I go, what game is it? He goes, it's a Jacksonville game. And at first, I go, and then I'm starting to think, this is one hell of a matchup tomorrow. I mean, because Jacksonville.

I don't want to say, well, I mean, they're a little bit underrated. I mean, they're a pretty good football team. They are. I don't think people know what to expect. You know, you get a backup quarterback.

Jalen Ramseys also hasn't been with the team playing.

So I think it was just a little unpredictable. Got my boy from Syracuse, Doug Marone, coaching him. Last week, Leonard Fournette had 29 rushing attempts for 225 yards. He was rushing for a 7.8-yard. Clip.

And he had 81-yard touchdown or 81-yard run that he almost scored a touchdown. I think it was weird. He had, what'd you say, 225? He didn't have any touchdowns. Yeah, no touchdowns.

It was just working. Kyle Allen, I like what I've seen so far. I do not like the fumbles. He's had five fumbles in two games and he's lost four of them. Is that something he can stop?

Or? Are you happy with his play so far? Because I make the mistake of going into Panther Facebook groups throughout the week. And I'm in the largest one on Facebook. It's like 80,000 strong in there.

And it feels like half the fan base just doesn't want Cam Newton to come back. Not because of anything other than just superficial, just dumb. We don't like his clothes. Yeah, he dresses funny or he only thinks about himself. Cam Newton's selfish.

Cam Newton's bad for everybody, bad for America. He's cocky. We don't like him. Don't belong here. A story came out, I think, like literally today or yesterday.

He took like 60 Panthers fans on a charity cruise that benefited his foundation, and his last words are. We ain't done yet.

So I think he's actually looking, he's ready to come back strong. Do we, did everyone see the video at this point, the Cam Newton video with the cigar and the scarf? And he's talking about him, you know, hiding the injury and all that. I didn't catch the vibe because I had been on the one on the train saying I thought that maybe he would think about retirement. I didn't catch that vibe from him at all in that video.

No, I think that's a good idea. It was total opposite. He's ready to come back. Like, he got something to prove. And I think probably around the San Francisco game, because the Panthers have a buy.

They have Tampa next week in London, if I'm not mistaken, and then they have a buy, and then after that, they have San Francisco. That's another solid three weeks. I think that's what he's targeting to come back at San Francisco. But I think you may have a problem, though, if Allen wins those three games.

So that's my question. If Allen keeps winning, say Allen hadn't lost a game and we get to the San Francisco game, do they just hand the keys back to Cam Newton or do they rob with the hot hand? If he's 100% healthy, I think you go back to Cam Newton. But that's not going to be. He has to be 100%.

There's no reason for him to play if he is not at max, 100% ready to go. You do not have to rush him. I agree with John. He won't be 100% healthy in November. I think you got to keep him out then.

And I mean, but look at that scenario you just came up with. Let's hope that it's that. If that's the only thing that the Panthers would be five and two.

So why rush him back? And stick with Alan, and then you know, see what happens. And you can let Cam sit to maybe December. Maybe get another game or two without Cam, you know, to heal. But your question was, are you happy with his absolutely?

Are you kidding me? Two wins, I'll take it. Bumbles are horrible. I give the Houston win to the game ball to the Panthers defense. They played very well.

They played very well. But he still is. I mean, he looks confident back there, and we're lucky to have a backup like him right now. He's making plays. He's making plays.

He didn't like this last year. He's grown in the role. And he's the backup quarterback. The most popular guy to the fan base is always the backup quarterback.

So everybody always wants to, you know. Have a Nick Foles type moment, Kurt Warner, that kind of thing. But if anyone thinks that the Panthers are going to win the Super Bowl with Kyle Allen instead of Cam Newton, you are crazy. You're hanging out with Jay Gruden. You're eating crazy.

Hanging out inside that bar with Jay Gruden. Because I mean, people just, I hate people throwing dirt on Cam Newton for things that have nothing to do with football. And they call him selfish. He's just ignorant. All the charity stuff he does, the stuff he does in the community.

He's a whole football league. Why would we want to stay? Like, I mean, it feels like people are trying to push him out of Charlotte. And I'm just like. Why?

Like, this is the best thing that's happened to this franchise since he got here. I feel like, I mean, if Cam can come back healthy with the defense and McCaffrey and, like, When I was watching that Seahawks game, like the decision-making like Russell was making, you know, on his like little short runs and then check downs. If that's to McCaffrey and you have Cam running, like that's almost unstoppable having that dual threat if he's healthy. That's what this has to like come back. He has to come back.

He has to be able to run. I think we learned that out of all this, that Cam cannot be just a pocket passer.

Well, it diminishes his talents. You're taking that away. Why would you take it away? Cam Newton with a sore foot and a sore shoulder is worthless right now. Yeah, it really, I mean, so we so I mean, get healthy, Cam.

We're in the Cam Newton fan club camp, so get healthy so you can get back. This team, I thought they had the potential to win the NFC South at the beginning of the year, and especially now with Drew Brees being hurt. Hand injuries, thumb injuries are tricky. I know they said maybe six weeks, but I'm excited to see that. He's even holding on to football.

What if that never comes back? Because that's potentially something that could happen, too. Who wins this game tomorrow? I'm taking the Carolina Panthers. I think they have enough to get it done.

They're hot right now, and I think they do have the defense to maybe not. Shut down Leonard Fournette, but they could contain him. Yeah. And Jacksonville has a good defense, too. I'm looking at 21-17 Panthers.

I was going to say, I'm like that too. I think it's going to be a defensive game. The Jaguars have a pretty decent defense. Colias Campbell, Jalen Ramsey's not going to play. That's good.

Yeah. Coles Campbell had a heck of a game, though, a couple weeks ago, man. He's been wrecking stuff. And I will say this about Kyle Allen. He spreads the ball around.

He hits everyone. DJ Moore, Curtis Samuel's been more involved. Greg Olson's been a factor lately. We got Hogan out there catching up. Yeah, Chris Hogan's running outs doing stuff.

No, he's out. He's injured, isn't he? He's out for the rest of the year. Oh, that's another injury. I hate him.

Oh, man. So, yeah, so that's what I was doing. I was like, the comeback caught like four passes and he picked up on the four, man. But what it comes down to, we just mentioned both defenses, you know, very good defenses. It's going to come down to turnovers, man.

And if Kyle Allen can keep the ball. No turnovers. Panthers have a real good shot. And if they go three and if they're three and two after this week, boy. It's a whole different ballgame, man.

The Panthers have ruled Dante Jackson out for Sunday's game against Jacksonville. He's got a groin injury. He didn't practice all week. They'll also be without two starters on the offensive line. Trey Turner is out with an ankle injury, and Greg Little, the rookie, left tackle rookie, he's out with a concussion.

Neither one of them practiced through the week either. Course, Cam Newton is out. Chris Manhurtz, the tight end, he has a concussion. He's out. Edge rusher Brian Burns, who's looked great.

Actually, he's a defensive rookie of the month in the NFC. He's got a wrist injury, but he did practice fully on Friday. He's listed as questionable. Eric Reed has an ankle injury. He was a limited participant Friday.

Gerald McCoy has a knee. He's questionable for Sunday. This is like the one season in the NFL where everybody's just banged up. Like, if you can get to the end of the year healthy, you're probably going to win the Super Bowl because every team feels like they've got 15 dudes that are just hurt. Half the quarterbacks are hurt.

It feels like that. It's nuts. And the injuries are lingering. It's keeping guys out for a lot of games. Changing predictions, too, in terms of who we thought was going to be good because everyone was on Pittsburgh's bandwagon and Ben gets hurt.

And so, I don't know. Interesting, though. But so good game tomorrow. We'll see what the Panthers can do with the Jags. Coming up, everyone gives their predictions on what will happen in the world of sports, the rundown hot takes.

Plus, I'm going to give my boys an opportunity to change my mind. Why should Dez watch the Major League Baseball Playoffs? I've got two guys in here that watch baseball, and they're going to attempt to get me hype for the baseball playoffs here next on the rundown. Yeah. Okay, let's go.

You're listening to The Rundown with Desmond Johnson. The Dixie Classic Fair at the Winston-Salem Fairgrounds, October the 4th through the 13th, celebrating its 137th year. Are you a fair foodie? Turkey legs, candy apples. I heard they have stuffed candy, uh, stuffed turkey legs this year.

I don't even know what that even does. I don't know. And Philly cheesesteak bombs. I don't know what it is, but I want. I'll take it.

That sounds good. I'll take some of those. Fried Philly cheesesteak like in a ball. Yeah, and there's doughnuts. Oh my God, I want that sounds interesting.

Doughnuts, candy apples, and more. Show us with your hashtag how do you fare and visit dcfair.com today. Fireworks, rods, and food nightly. The Dixie Classic Fair is in the house. They are in the triad right now for the next week and a half.

I said earlier in the broadcast that I was going to give my boys a chance to quote unquote change my mind.

So this is how it's going to work. And this might be something we do going forward each week. 60 seconds for each question for me. John and Brandon will attempt to answer these in the 60-second allotment for. Each one of the questions, sorry, if you want to throw on some music or something to kind of accentuate this, uh, we can make that happen as well.

Uh, set a stop clock for 60 seconds at the end of 60 seconds, give me a buzzer sound so we know where we are, and um. I'm going to ask these questions to my compadres here, Johnny O. and Brandon, the Major League Baseball Playoffs. Uh kicked off. This week, um, just real quick before we even get into that, let me run off the uh the scores uh and where they are right now.

And I should have been more prepared for this. Houston leads their series one to zero. They won yesterday six to two over Tampa Bay. Atlanta winners yesterday over St. Louis three to zero.

That series is tied at one apiece. Great series. The Yankees have a one to zero lead over Minnesota. They won big yesterday, ten to four. And the Nationals defeated the Dodgers 4-2.

That series is tied at one apiece. That's surprising, right there. I'm excited. The Nats are giving them a series. I think it goes five.

All right.

So, Sawyer, are you guys ready in there? Let's go ahead and get this going. I'm kind of curious to see what kind of music he picked for this. Before you even get started, I would recommend not watching the Major League Playoffs this year. The Boston Red Sox are not a participant, they are the defending champs.

They're sitting home and watching, I don't know, Netflix or something. All right, let's go ahead and get this thing going. Uh Okay.

Okay. All right, so change my mind. Fellas, are the Houston Astros the major league version of the Golden State Warriors? Why are they so good? Isn't Houston being so good over the past three years the exact same thing fans told me about Golden State being head and shoulders over the rest of the NBA for the past four years?

Doesn't that suck the suspense out of the playoffs? I don't think so. One thing that's different about them is they don't have a Kevin Durant. They took years to build this team from the ground up, and they surprised a lot of people because they were so young when they won the first year, the last year. I think they're really good.

They're beatable, though. They're definitely beatable. It's a toss-up in the world. Oh, it's a toss-up. They're not the Golden State Warriors of Major League Baseball.

Again, I just said, you know, the Red Sox won it last year. No, no, no. Yeah, and two years ago, they beat Houston, didn't they? Yes, they did. And Houston won it the year before.

No, no, no. They shocked everybody. They're close to it, though. Houston is loaded. And, you know, to watch them, Justin Verlander, their pitching staff is incredible.

Verlander, Garrett Cole, and Zach Grenke, which might not mean anything to you, but these are three. But real quick, Greg Maddox of the Atlanta Braves said those three are better than what they were at the Atlanta Braves back in the 90s, which is a huge statement. All right, so now you've piqued my interest a little bit. I was a fan of those Braves today. They are.

And if you watch the Houston Astros and Justin Verlanders on the mound, you get to see Kate Upton up in the stand.

So that's always a pleasant dice. I like how you threw that Kate Upton reference in there. He knows me very well. All right, so the Dodgers have made it to the past two World Series and they have lost both. Is this a win-it-all or bust season for the Dodgers?

It is. And I believe, and I'm picking the Dodgers to win it all this year. I think they got everything they can, everything that they need, and they are destined to win this one. Anything as long as they beat the Yankees. That's all I want.

But they're fun to watch. The Dodgers are loaded. And it's the year of the long ball, man. You need to watch these games. I do like home runs.

It's a lot of home, a lot of long balls, a lot of dingers going on. The Twins and Yankees series, not to get off of that, each team has over 300 home runs, which is record smashing.

Okay. That's an average, you know, when they're playing each other, that averages out to four or five home runs a game, and it happened last year. It did. But I'm going to have to stop you there, John. I don't think the Dodgers are going to get past the Nationals here.

They are a juggernaut, and it is winner-bust, especially when you're paying that much money. You've got that much talent. No, no, no, no. The Dodgers are a juggernaut. It is winner-bust for them.

If they don't win the title, it is a bust. They're paying a lot of money. They've got a lot of talent. They don't really have any glaring weaknesses, but the Nats match up with this group very well. They play them tough.

And the Dodgers gonna Dodger regardless. I know the MLB and everybody wants to see Yankees versus Dodgers in the finals. The Raidens really would sell themselves. But the Dodgers gonna Dodgers. LA going to LA, y'all.

I don't see it. Who's the best pitcher in these playoffs, and who's the best hitter? Best pitcher, Justin Verlander, hands down, right now, even over.

Well, Kershaw had a little trouble. Kershaw, yeah. You got Harrison. Burlander is it. He's like 8-1 in the playoffs.

He's a primetime pitcher, and he's just. He's kind of got that tenure like LeBron. I mean, Burlander's been doing this for a decade, man. Even with those Tiger teams, he's been an elite pitcher for a long time. Nothing, man.

I mean, the guy is a stud on the mound. You say he pitched for Houston? Pitches for Houston. And again, to watch him, you gotta watch. There's a lot of personalities in the game of Baseball, too.

They really are. Best hitter. Who's the best hitter in these playoffs? That's a tough. That's very, very tough.

Like, who's the guy that I should be? Like, when he comes to the plate, I should be. There's so many. I mean, for one, the Twins have a couple guys.

Well, Nelson Cruz is just smashing it. Let me rephrase the question. Who's the guy that I should be watching for in the playoffs? Like, who's that guy that has that it factor? The guy that has that buzz?

Like, when he comes to the I think Aaron Judge is one, too. Aaron Judge, I think. Aaron Judge is definitely going to be one. He's going to be one with the Yankees. Brandon, when he steps up to the plate, it's frightening.

I can't imagine being a pitcher when that 6'8 monster steps up to the plate. But as far as a great hitter, Jose El Tuve for Houston. And he's a little 5'6. He's a little bit. I repeat, 5'6.

And he hit one about 400 feet yesterday. Gold glove. Unbelievable. Him and Carlos Correa are incredible. Robert Acuna Jr.

for the Braves is another. Slugger. Freddie Freeman's another guy that can really knock the stitches off the ball. Gold Schmidt, who got traded to St. Louis this past year from Arizona, hit one 487 the other night that I swear is still going.

Oh, man. It hasn't landed yet. It's like the juice is back. Oh, baseball. MLB is back.

Speaking of Atlanta, it's a great segue. They're playing the St. Louis Cardinals in an NLDS. I keep hearing about how fun the Braves are. Why should I root for the Braves?

Because they're young and they're exciting. They are. And like you just mentioned, Nakuna Jr., 41 home runs as a rookie, right? Yeah, like he's breaking records as a rookie. You got arguably the best shortstop in the game, and Dansby Swanson out there, repping for the culture.

He's tough. Freddie Freeman, who's been around for a while now, but still putting up huge numbers. But back to Azuna, 41 home runs, Des 37 stolen bases. That doesn't happen very often. And as a rookie.

As a rookie. But he is kind of a personality, and he lacks hustle once in a while. He hit one off the wall. I saw that he didn't run it out or something. Yeah, he only got on it.

He could have easily been a triple. But he had three hits that day and a walk, and including a home run.

So, you know, do you bench him next game? No. Okay, so, and finally, who are the two teams you guys expect to make the World Series? Not who you want to make the World Series, but who do you expect to be there? I expect the Astros to be there, certainly, and you naturally expect the Dodgers to be there, but.

I think the winner could easily come from that St. Louis and Atlanta Braves, too, because the Braves have been a joker knot themselves. And St. Louis is playing some good postseason playoff baseball, and they're known for that. Yeah, they're known for that.

So who'd you picked? You played through like four teams. I think everybody expects the Dodgers. I think everybody expects the Dodgers. I think the Braves are the best team in the NL, though.

Top to bottom.

So you're picking the Dodgers. Or your Houston Braves. Yeah, Houston Braves. A lot of people picking the Braves. I'm going Houston and the Dodgers is what I expect.

But, you know, the Yankees might have a little something to say about that because that lineup that the Yankees have is off the charts. We didn't mention Juan Carlos Stanton. How's that? He just got back. Yeah, he just got back.

Yeah, so that'll be another big battle. He's just battening like the sixth slot. I mean. Every batter that comes up in that lineup is like, I can't imagine pitching against that lineup. A couple of these lineups, actually.

I mean, Dee De Gregarius has been really good for them too, smacking the ball. I mean, I'll give the Yankees credit, and boy, does that hurt. I just realized I'm going to put Sawyer and Overdrive in the segment because it's like three separate things that require music beds or some sort of imaging or something. It's just the way the show kind of ran out today because we still got hot takes to get to, and then we also still have one minute with Aaron that's in the segment as well. Let's separate this out and do if Aaron's ready.

Let's do the one minute with Aaron now. And then we'll, as I see them scrambling around in the control room, unless you want to do hot takes now, and then we'll do one minute with Aaron after. Aaron, you ready to rock and roll? If he's ready to rock and roll, let's do the one minute with Aaron and. If you're unaware of what this is, or if it's the first week you've listened to the rundown, each week I give my man, Aaron Gabriel, one minute to either rant or go off about something that he's seen this week in the world.

It doesn't have to be sports, it can be whatever. He gets one minute to kind of vent about it and get it out. No cursing. I do my best. Let's one minute with Aaron.

Let's go ahead and go. Speaking of no cursing. Kansas. In hot water with the NCAA for numerous violations and infractions, decided they would double down and let the NCAA know who the biggest gangsters on the block was. They invited the DOG out to their late night at the fog last night for a performance and then immediately had to issue an apology statement about his performance, which included scantily clad women, stripper poles, and apparently a money gun in which he shot Snoop Dogg dollar bills at women and at some of the K-State or Kansas basketball players.

Kansas is lit.

Now, here's this: so you hired Snoop Dogg. One of the forefathers of gangster rap to come and perform at your university.

Okay? And now you're surprised because he didn't put on a clean show. What world are we living in where you hire Snoop Dogg to perform and you're surprised that it wasn't a clean, family-friendly environment?

Well, maybe they thought he was going to drop the gospel album playlist that he got ran in the ray gauge. What is up with Kansas trying to reach the urban community? You remember Les Miles with Rick Ross like a year ago? Oh, yeah. When he did the phone call thing once, that's where the dollars are.

That's where the dollars are in the hip-hop community. I mean, the school is literally in a cornfield, like out in Kansas somewhere. You got to get something to get the kids to come out. I wonder how much Snoop got for that performance. A lot.

Yeah, I bet. Snoop ain't coming for no chump chain.

Well, you know that's Adidas money that went into Snoop's pocket. Apparently, I gave him a bunch of Adidas t-shirts. Bill Self, apparently in a promo video, wore an Adidas t-shirt with a money sign chain over it to promote for Snoop Dogg Coming. It's front page ESP in the middle. I'm looking at the right gangsters on the block.

Do something about it. They're about to gain a fan in me. That's insane that they would even think, you know what we should do to stay out of the limelight after all this stuff with NCAA? Let's let Snoop come in here and do late night and just let him do whatever he wants. Oh, he wants to bring strippers?

I'm sure there was one going there. Where there's like a family sitting down, probably somewhere near a courtside, they're enjoying the festivities, and all of a sudden, somebody goes. What is that smell? Smell that?

Okay. That's where Jay Gruden was. It's Pope Rudin. Jay Gruden's been out here running. He's down for that type of thing.

Let's uh I think we got time to do hot takes here. Let's go ahead and get into our rundown hot takes. These are things that we think will happen based off of what we have seen over the past week. Uh Sawyer, hit me with the fancy music. But now.

You're listening to the rundown. Take hot take hot hot hot hot drop it like it's hot Drop it like it's hot when the pigs try to get at you Park it like it's hot with Desmond Johnson Told you I was gonna have Sawyer working in the segment.

So, you know, kudos to Sawyer for handling that all smoothly. He was able to move in and out. And the Snoop Dogg transition. Snoop Dogg transition. Yeah, that was great.

Everything worked out flawlessly. That was fantastic. It's like we planned it or something. It was great. We're just going to do the three of us so we can save some time because Sawyer and Aaron have odds and ends after this to end the show.

So let's start with you, Brandon. You got a hot take. I will. And I already used one with the Washington Nationals. Think they're the dark horse to win.

But I'm going to go off of the lamb here a little bit. And I'm going to say my hot take is that SMU football currently ranked 25th, the first time they've been ranked since they got the death penalty, fellas, in 1986. Yeah, yes, sir. They had Eric Dickerson on the ground. I think SMU.

Beats UCF for the American Athletic Conference Championship this year. I think SMU's the big dog to come out of there. I'm wondering if Kansas is gonna get a death penalty for all the stuff they're being accused of. They probably wouldn't be mad if they killed the football team. No shade.

Les Miles probably would. Head coach. He'd probably be a little upset. Like, what do you mean taking away my football team? We didn't even do anything.

We're not even that good. God, John. Why y'all cheating? Why y'all cheating on me? I forgot the hot take this morning.

No. Last weeks was, you know, that Minnesota Twins are going to win it all. I don't have one for you right now. I'm drawing a blank. All right.

So I'm going to do this now because I didn't write one down either, but I'm going to put one together. It's in college football. I've already said on this segment before, I don't think Alabama is going to make the college football playoff. I am also going to now say, I don't think Clemson's going to make it either. Oh.

Woo! I'm gonna. I'm either going to gain a whole lot of friends or make people really mad, but I. I think Wake Force is going to beat them. I think Wake Force is going to go to Clemson and beat Clemson.

That's a hot. You just made a lot of Wake fans, friends. I mean, Wake has the number one offense in the ACC. Trevor Lawrence isn't playing all that great this season. Clemson's offensive lines had some issues.

Wake's got some talent on offense. They definitely do. Jamie Newman, he's the real deal. I mean, they got some ballers over there. And I think they can give, after seeing the Carolina Clemson game last week, and just kind of putting Wake Forest in that same spot that Carolina was in.

There were some throws that Sam Howell left out there on the field. There were some plays that Carolina left out there on the field. I think Wake is a little bit more disciplined at this point. And I think Wake Forrest, it would be the biggest win in school history. Oh, damn.

If he's back at Death Valley, and I agree with you, but I mean, they're in Death Valley, but there's something's going to click with Clemson, and it has not clicked yet. Yeah, I would say that. The same thing happened last year. Four or five games in. This happened last year.

They almost lost to Syracuse, and then after that game, they just started blowing people out. Yeah, look out for them. I think so, too. And they off this week is every year. Clemson is off this week.

They have Florida State on November, excuse me, October the 12th. All right, so there's their next Saturday. I think, too. Wake Forest has a little bit more depth right now than Carolina had to kind of battle some of those big boys that Clemson does. No, we got to wait a while because that Clemson Wake Forest game is the next to last game of the season.

It's November the 16th.

So we got to get through October 1st, and Wake's still got to, you know. Get through their schedule to even make that a game of indifference. But that's kind of, I guess, that's my take today. Alabama and Clemson are going to both miss the college football playoff. That could possibly happen.

I think I'm dead set on Alabama. Oklahomas and Oklahoma and Ohio State. Wisconsin's still out there floating around. Or Wisconsin. Penn State, even.

Penn State's undefeated. Notre Dame's got one loss, but if they get through the rest of their schedule, they're going to be sitting there at 10 and 1 or whatever, probably at number 4. LSU. I mean, there's a lot of teams. If we see enough losses, I'm just saying to Boise State's there at 16.

Maybe they. Wake four if Wake Forest beats Clemson and they're undefeated at that point, they're gonna be in the top ten. Oh, you're really hot taking that. Yeah, yeah. Like four is national champions, baby.

Um, let's take our final break, come back and do odds and ends, a rapid fire around. We get one minute to debate random topics that we have not seen before the show started. They are brought to us by our production team of Sawyer and Aaron.

So, let's get that going and go. What's up, dog? Think about it. Think about it. A party?

Are we having a party? Yeah. Yeah! Back to the rundown with Desmond Johnson. Download full episodes of the rundown at sportshubtriad.com, Spotify, Google, Apple, SoundCloud, and more.

Just search for the rundown with Desmond Johnson, download it, and go. I'm so proud of myself, gentlemen, because I left us with enough time to properly do odds and ends. I'm usually running up against it here at the end of the show. Let's set a stop clock again for one minute. Sawyer and Aaron came up with these topics before the show began.

We have no idea what they're about to throw at us.

So, rapid fire, let's go.

Alright, starting off, will Berfict play again in the NFL after his year-long suspension? How old is he? It's probably like 31. I'm going to go real quick. I don't think so because just the way he's been doing things and the players cannot be happy with it at all.

He's 29. He sits out this whole class. That's lovely.

So that is kind of the odd. He's had 13 suspensions in seven seasons. I'm going to say no. I'm going to say he's out. I'm going to say no too, because if the owners can all collude to blackball Colin Kaepernick from getting into the league and he's perfectly healthy, I would think that this guy, when the players are all like, man, this guy's a bad dude.

He's hitting people, blah, blah, blah. Although I have heard that off the field, he's a great guy. Like, he's not a mean bully type of guy. Just on the field, he's going to know how to tackle people. I don't think he's going to play again either.

I think he'll play. We've seen people come back from worse in the NFL and get other chances. He's on the right side of it. Like, what's worse than. Trying to kill people.

I mean, he come on. We've seen people have domestic issues off the field. We've seen drug issues. This is on-the-field behavior we're talking about. He hasn't gotten careers, so I hate that.

Yeah, if the players don't want to play with you, then that changes it. Yeah. So it'd be different if the players were sticking up for him. I think he's trying to go to the players union to get help. And they're like, no, bro, you're trying to hurt us.

We don't want you to. But his teammates, I've never heard him being a bad teammate. No, me either.

Alright, over or under. two games that Jay Gruden coaches this season. The rest of the season, you mean? Rest of the season, yeah.

Well, I'm going to do two more. I think we're going to hear something today. He. He is done today. I don't think it'll be the day because it's the day before their game.

Are they on a bye? No, they play. Yeah, but he can't be on the sideline. Can you imagine him on the sideline after that? Yes, I can't wait for it.

And guess who they're playing? The New England Patriots. Oh, my.

Well, Sunday at one, we won't have that game because we'll have the Carolina game. It's in the same time slot, 1 p.m. New England is not allowed an offensive touchdown all season.

So, this is not going to get better for Jay Gruden over this weekend. If he thought people were going to forget this, no, the Patriots and Bill Pelichik are probably going to make this worse. I think he's going to get fired Monday morning. I think Joe Gibbs is coming back. Oh, yeah, no, no, no.

Jake Rudin is canned. You're not winning. You're off the field. He's got his mind on, like you said, doobies and hotties. Doobies and hotties.

Wow. All right, next up. Let me use that. If this trend continues, will Odell become a distraction to the Cleveland Browns? Probably.

I mean... We have nothing else to go off of except for his track record and You can Did he get like this with the Giants where he started complaining about the ball? Oh, he did it. But they were losing. If Cleveland continues to win, you know.

At a pretty good clip, he probably will be okay. But I don't think this trend is going to continue. I think he's going to start getting balls. He still has Jarvis Landry there, his best friend, to kind of help him manage. And also, Baker Mayfield's not Eli Mannon.

He's got a quarterback that isn't afraid to stand up. Yo, Odell, you got to relax. You know, who would have been great for Daniel Jones in New York? Odell Buckland Jr. Yeah.

He missed the wave. But if you watch what's happening, Odell's being held every time he's, they were showing a pretty good clip on ESPN. Every time he's going out for a pass, he's being held.

So it sounds like he understands. He's building up this anger. It's going to explode on like a kicker's net or something like the next couple days. He does get a little disrupted. Flipping Skater Age coolers.

He had hitting the ball. I noticed this. He got into a fight with somebody. He was getting choked out. That's what it was.

He was choking him. Yeah. And that dude didn't get a flag. No. Or he was literally choking him.

And then you talk about trying to end lives on the field. Evo style, like in front of. Of the whole world is getting choked out. But Odell Beckham Jr., he does. Remember him and Josh Norman a couple years ago?

He runs around and tries to blind top people he's mad at, like a kid in high school or something. He just runs and sticks them when he can. And then remember, he wasn't choking Odell. He was trying to help him adjust his shoulder pads. Oh, that's what it was.

He was a little too tight. He was a nick pad. Remember when he went back to the sideline and he was fighting with the net? Yeah, he just does these weird things. But yeah, I mean, plus, he lives in Cleveland, so that alone might be enough to.

Throw him over the deep end.

Sorry. Our next question: we've kind of already talked about it. How far can Wake Forest go without a loss? I mean, I've got their schedule right here. Let's hear it real quick.

They got a buy this week. They have Louisville next, October the 12th. That's at home. Then they have Florida State at home. That's another win.

Then they have NC State at home. They're going to lose there. They're going to make it to 7-0 and get beat by NC State. Then they finally go on the road and they're at Virginia Tech. Then they're at Clemson.

Home versus Duke, and then they finish the season at Syracuse. They were only maybe two bosses. Clips is the only thing I really see on here that makes me kind of go, hmm. Yeah. Duke, maybe?

Because Duke is actually pretty good. Yeah, and they're rolling. They've won two or three games straight. But again, they're at home. They're at home versus Duke.

They're at home versus Florida State.

So. Where's the NC State game? It's at Wake. It's at home. Do they have any awake games?

That's what I'm saying. Like, they've been at home all year. I mean, I know they played Rice on the road, but other than B. They played Utah State here. They played Carolina here.

Elon here. Elon was homecoming.

So, yeah, I expect them to be undefeated when they see Clemson. I can see that. I'm going to audible in an extra question real quick for our last one. We've seen Daniel Jones start. We've seen Daniel Jones start and have 2-0.

Should the Redskins play Haskins or should they keep in the McCoy and Keenum? They already know what Colt McCoy can do. Not much. They need to fire Jay Gruden so they can play Dwayne Haskins. It seems like that's why he's getting benched is because Jay Gruden just doesn't believe in him.

But again. Jay Gruden out here, you know, smoking stuff and talking to underage.

Well, I won't say underage girl. He's talking to young girls. Talking to girls younger than him instead of worrying about the football team.

So. I think Haskell, I mean... Cam Newton broke that bowl with starting, letting rookies start. I know Pat Mahomes destroyed that by sitting a year and then came out. Aaron Rodgers was kind of the same.

Aaron Rodgers' side a year, too. But Dwayne Haskins, I mean, he threw for 5,000 yards at Ohio State. Let the boy play. All right, last one. Where does Candy Corn rank in your Halloween candy leaderboards?

In the trash. I like the candy corn. I really do. I mean, it's not a real, it's not a top three, but I think it's in my top five. I like those things.

I could eat those like, I don't know, like MMs for cars. Candy corn, really? Candy corn. What is candy corn? What's the flavor supposed to be?

Well, I don't even want to know, maybe. I don't even want to know how they make that stuff. It tastes like hopelessness and despair. Oh, thanks a lot, Aaron. I don't like it.

It's just, I don't know. I don't like them. They're candy corns. Yeah. Don't forget to check out sportscarolinamonphy.com daily for the latest news on your favorite sports teams in the in North Carolina.

AT, Norfolk State today at 1:30. Packers, Cowboys, 3:45 on the Sports Hub tomorrow. Colts, Chiefs, tomorrow night on Sports Hub at 7:30. We'll see you next Saturday.