Confounding NFC (Hour 1)

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Download the Odyssey app today. Throughout the 60s and 70s, cops hunted down key figures of the Dixie Mafia, including its enigmatic ringleader, Kirksey Nix. I'm in a rush to making money.

I'm not in a rush to hurting people. Fifteen years into Kirksey's life sentence, the Dixie Mafia was practically folklore, but that would soon change. I'm Jed Lipinski. This is Gone South, a documentary podcast from C13 Originals, a Cadence 13 studio. Season 2, the Dixie Mafia. Available now on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. Live from the police show, yet not overly ostentatious, studios of CBS Sports Radio here in beautiful New York City, sitting on top of the 10th floor of 345 Hudson Street. Welcome on in to a Monday edition of the Zach Gelb show across all of our great local CBS Sports Radio affiliates, Sirius XM, Channel 158, and that free Odyssey app. 855-212-4CBS is numbered to jump on in. 855-212-4227. And you can always get at me on Instagram where I'm straight flexing or via the good ol' cesspool of Twitter, at Zach Gelb. That's Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. We are coming to you live from the Rocket Mortgage Studios.

Need to know what it takes for a home to fit your budget and your family? Well, Rocket can, and coming up an hour from now, Liget Doosaball will join us. We will go around the NFL with the former National Football League defensive lineman, and also sprinkle in a little college football as well. What a big weekend it was. TCU just survives. USC outscores UCLA. Down goes Tennessee. Horrible news that Hendon Hooker is now out for the season for Tennessee.

Just a miserable way for really their season, which would have occurred up against South Carolina to come to a close. And then, oh yeah, by the way, yesterday in the NFL, everything we thought we knew, we really don't know much about. Heading now into what's going to be Week 12 early this week on Thursday. I know you have a game tonight. The 49ers up against the Cardinals.

Does it really matter? The Cardinals aren't going to start. Kyler Murray at quarterback, you would anticipate that the San Francisco 49ers are going to win the game. You know, you know some things in the AFC. Like I told you last week, it looks like the Chiefs are going to go to the Super Bowl.

You'd think that Patrick Mahomes is going to be the MVP of the league. Buffalo, you knew they were going to bounce back up against the Cleveland Browns, even with all the chaos of the traveling and having to change the sight of the game. Miami's a really good team in the AFC. They were on a bye week, so nothing they could really prove. The Baltimore Ravens, they didn't do this great job yesterday. The offense was bad.

Defensively, they're really good. They still have Lamar Jackson, so that's a team that can be trusted. And you just go through the AFC, you could start to see and really envision some teams that you have confidence in. And we know what Kansas City did once again when they were trailing up against the Chargers.

They put the knife in the back of the Los Angeles Chargers, and it was because Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce are really damn good at football. So all the things that you're starting to see formulated in the AFC, you then flip gears and switch gears to the NFC. And the NFC, there's no consistency.

And the NFC, you really don't have a firm grasp of who are the great teams in the NFC. Because Philadelphia started the year off 8-0. They were rolling. Then they lose that game to the commanders. And yesterday, they had to come from behind and give them credit.

They got the job done. Jalen Hurts really elevated that team yesterday. But they needed to come from behind up against a bad football team in the Indianapolis Colts.

You look around the rest of the NFC. Last week, we all know that the Dallas Cowboys choked a game away against the just lethargic Green Bay Packers. Gave the Packers for about 72 hours a little bit of hope before they lost to the Tennessee Titans on Thursday Night Football. So the Cowboys coming off a bad loss last week are then going up against the Minnesota Vikings. And the Vikings are coming off maybe one of the craziest wins you'll ever see up against the Buffalo Bills in that back and forth game. And I was expecting that to be a really good football game. And I leaned on the side of the Dallas Cowboys.

Just thought it would be a letdown spot. Dallas would need the game more, especially after the big win for Minnesota last week and Dallas coming off a loss. And that wasn't even a game. That was an absolute drubbing by the Dallas Cowboys. And now you look at Minnesota, where anytime Minnesota's going to drop a game, whether it was to Philadelphia or what happened to Dallas, because of how many games they've won that was by such a razor-thin margin against some not-so-good teams, now Buffalo is the outlier. People are going to say about Minnesota, oh well, the real Minnesota Vikings showed up and they're not this great football team as their record would indicate.

Then you go through the rest of the NFC, like Tom Brady's going to be in the playoffs. I can't sit here and tell you outside of Tom Brady that I feel really confident in this Tampa Bay Buccaneers team. The line's been bad. Receivers have been hurt. They've been dropping footballs left and right. And that defense has been extremely hit or miss this year. And then you get to the 49ers. I was really discouraged, and I know Hot Take Kiki was as well, by the way, who's producing this extravaganza so you can hit the sounder.

He's the producer, Hot Take Kiki. And last week, both Hot Take Kiki and yours truly, we were disappointed in the 49ers, even in a win, because they were going up against a Chargers team that last week had no Mike Williams, no Keenen Allen, you know Rashawn Slater is done for the season. They were missing both tackles.

And on the defensive side of the ball, they were down to three defensive linemen. And I'm not going to learn anything about the 49ers tonight. The only thing that could happen with the 49ers, it could be a negative outcome, really.

That's the only thing you could learn about them, because they should smoke a bad football team in the Arizona Cardinals. So I'm sitting here going into what is going to be the 12th week of the football season on Thursday on Thanksgiving. And I don't know who the heck to trust in the NFC. Hickey, like right now, if you had to hitch your wagon to one team in the NFC, and if you are a fan of the team that Hickey picks, you just know that your season is over, the way that he declared that the Denver Broncos this year were going to be March of the Super Bowl. I guess the only saving grace is they're in the AFC, not the NFC.

But you've had some big-time jinxes, some big-time mushes throughout your tenure here at CBS Sports Radio. But right now, the NFC is so open, and I've been saying this all throughout the year, we need to all adjust our standards, because usually you'd think a great team has to get to the Super Bowl. With the way that the Rams are fading, and now they're dunzo, the Packers are fading too, and they were supposed to be the top teams in the NFC this year, the way that we evaluated the NFC going into the season has to be altered. And I think we all need to come to the realization that maybe good is going to be the new great this year in the NFC.

And you may be saying, what do you mean by that? Because in past years, you'd think a great team needs to get to a Super Bowl. Well, I don't know how many great teams there are in the NFC or how many teams in the NFC that you could have an overwhelming amount of confidence in.

So it may just be, who's the very good team that rises to the top and gets to the Super Bowl? Because I don't consider the Cowboys a great team. I don't consider the Vikings a great team. I don't consider the 49ers a great team this year.

Philadelphia, the last two weeks, has displayed some warts. And the Buccaneers, you can't call a great team. So it may just be, Hickey, this year, whoever is very good gets to the Super Bowl. Because I'm not really seeing a picture formulate right now where I'm attaching and grabbing on to one team and elevating them above the rest.

Couldn't agree more. There's no clear team whatsoever. If I had to hitch my wagons right now, I can't say I feel great about it, but I would go with the 49ers. I think they're the most talented team.

I think the way they play travels. Good defensive line, really good defense, great running game, a lot of talent. I'm just going to hope that Jimmy G is not asked to make a few big throws.

Or if he is, he can make one or two and have that be enough to run through. Right now, like you mentioned, this is a decent to good but no great NFC team. So you're banking that the 49ers' talent and the 49ers' experience being in two out of the last three NFC title games. Being in a Super Bowl a few years back is really what's going to win out here in a year where everything just looks so upside down in the NFC.

And everything looks just so funky in the NFC. Because I really haven't been impressed one week yet by the 49ers, maybe other than their performances against the Rams. And the Rams this year are crap. So even though you say, OK, I was impressed with the way that they played the Rams twice, you kind of have to put that on a weighted scale a little bit. Because the way that we thought the Rams were going to be before the start of the season ended up being the complete antithesis.

So it's kind of nuts where I can't kill you, Hickey, for saying that the 49ers are going to get to the Super Bowl. But you would agree probably this entire season so far with them sitting at 5 and 4, there's really not been a week where you've gotten giddy about what they could be. Because a lot of these performances they've had this year, they've been head scratchers. Yeah, I mean the best thing to play with the Chiefs, they got run out of the building, so it's not exactly great. But the best thing for them is that the Chiefs are not in the NFC. But yeah, I mean, you're right. It's just been, even last week, you win. It's just, eh. Like they lost to the Broncos.

It's like they're sleepwalking a little bit. Oh, they did. And it's been one decent week, one bad week. They lost to the Bears in that monsoon. They did.

Now it was with Trey Lance. Now they beat the Seahawks before we kind of knew the Seahawks were the Seahawks. Yeah, but that was before the Seahawks even knew that they were the Seahawks. But, yeah, now you play the Cardinals side with no Kyler Murray, so it's even tough. You know, not the Cardinals are this great team anyway, or even a good team. But, with that being said, if the 49ers blow them out tonight, that's like the one thing you could say, okay, they finally took care of business the way that you would expect them to. If this, though, is a repeat of last week, where, and I know Justin Herbert is a great young quarterback, but with Justin Herbert basically with no one last week, and if you have Colt McCoy this week keeping them somehow in the game, the Arizona Cardinals, then it's eh, the 49ers continue to just be a football team that you say they have a lot of great talent. When you actually watch the games, you don't see that great talent either A, come together, or B, them really utilize and really just dominate an inferior football team. Because we haven't seen that yet from the 49ers, where everything has come together and worked at the way that people keep on telling me that the 49ers are this great football team.

And I'm hoping that over the next six, seven weeks that does come to fruition, but it's, again, it's more of a gamble and a hope rather than something concrete like I say, oh, I could definitely see this happening. You know when you will know who the real 49ers are? They play Arizona tonight, that's not it. Then they play the Saints, that's not it. They have a three-game stretch after that. Miami, Tampa Bay, and then a short week on Thursday Night Football out of Seattle. And they're in Seattle for that game. If they win two out of three, then I will start to understand what everyone else, like I get what you're saying about the 49ers, but I just right now, even with how open this is, can't buy stock in the 49ers because at least, for example, like the Vikings went to Buffalo, got the job done. The Eagles were 8-0.

Dallas just went to Minnesota and blew the doors off the Minnesota Vikings. The Buccaneers are different because of just who their quarterback is. They'll always have a shot. For the 49ers, you're right. Roster-wise, they're the most well-rounded team, but they haven't given me a moment this year where I'm like, okay, this is the 49ers that you keep on telling me about. And it's not just you, it's everyone else that keeps on saying how great this football team can be.

It's a little frustrating because they're not putting it all together. But on paper, again, when you look at a down NFC conference, I will bet on the talent winning out rather than the continuity or the expert play we've seen from some other teams so far this year. If I will hitch my wagon, too, and I didn't feel great about it yesterday, I'll go Philadelphia.

And it's based off one thing and one thing only. And sure, Philadelphia has a very talented team. We've gone through all the names on both sides of the ball. Jalen Hurts, A.J.

Brown, even though he had a little bit of fumbleitis yesterday, Devontae Smith, you'll eventually get Dallas Gotter back. You know when that offensive line is healthy how good it could be. You have all the names on defense, and they just added Linval Joseph and Ndamukong Su. The secondary is really good for Philadelphia as well, anchored by Darius Bigplay Sly. But if the Eagles get the number one overall seed, which right now they would. They only have one loss on the season, and I think they're going to get the number one overall seed.

That's the possibility of the road to Glendale, Arizona, traveling through Philadelphia. And even though you have not seen with this core some great playoff moments, sure you have Fletcher Cox, sure you have Brandon Graham that were part of that Super Bowl team, Lane Johnson, Jason Kelce, but A.J. Brown wasn't part of this team, Devontae Smith wasn't part of that Super Bowl team, neither was Jalen Hurts. Even though there's some inexperience there, this may be the year where just having to go into a raucous atmosphere like that could be the reason why the home team gets to the Super Bowl. But that's the answer that I give you based off 11 weeks of football.

It shows you how open it is. If that's the best we could do where my answer is based off home field advantage and yours is based off the hope that a team finally comes to fruition the way that you think they could play, even though they haven't displayed it through the first 11 weeks of the season. It's funny how you can build up and also knock down probably six or seven teams in the NFC and make a case for why they could be the team representing the NFC and absolutely make a case or a few cases why that's not going to happen.

It's a wide, wide open conference, kind of like we saw coming in the year anyway. And Dallas was scary good yesterday. And Tony Pollard, we've known this and we've been saying this for a year, he's better than Ezekiel Elliott.

And you saw a lot of people start to say that yesterday and Zeke didn't play a bad game, but Tony Pollard was just that great. Still though with the Cowboys, they had that stench of just what happened a week ago. But then, you know, a year ago, the Cowboys were rolling. People said the Cowboys were this great team. Then the first weekend of playoff football, wild card weekend, Mike McCarthy didn't have his team prepared.

And Dak Prescott couldn't play the quarterback position in a big time game. So that's why as much as I want to say, oh, look at the Cowboys, look at what they did yesterday. I still have a lot of skepticism and I take it with the grain of salt because I know they're capable of playing that way in the regular season. Can they play that way, though, come postseason time?

That's the great question, Ryan. I don't know right now why I could say yes. Like, I'll be honest, I bought into the Cowboys last year around this time. I think it was like week six or seven. Cowboys beat the Patriots. I was like, wow, that's a win where it's like that. Usually the Cowboys teams in past lose that game. You're right.

Show some nice resiliency. You buy in and then it's kind of round, you know, right around Thanksgiving time. And you think they lost to the Raiders in a back and forth game. That's right. When seesaw down the rest of the way, it's like so you're right. Like it's there's not much difference between the Cowboys team this year and the Cowboys team last year. And so you're like, I just can't buy in right now, despite the fact that, like I said, you're coming off of a win where they just left no doubt. Perfect definition of the NFC is what happened from week 10 to week 11. Because in week 10, the Cowboys blew it against the Packers. In week 10, the Vikings beat the Buffalo Bills and everyone was praising them. And then just fast forward a week later, everyone was saying the Cowboys stink and the Vikings are great. Are now saying the Cowboys are great and the Vikings aren't that great. That's the NFC this year. Who do you believe the most in the NFC? Hickey just gave really the kick in the you-know-what if you're a fan of the San Francisco 49ers. I'm going with the Philadelphia Eagles. How about you?

855-212-4CBS, 855-212-4227. When we come on back, Kansas City does it again against the Los Angeles Chargers. And something that I said last week was put right front and center for everyone to see on Sunday Night Football.

Wherever you are, whenever you want. And did we mention it's all free? Download the Odyssey app today.

Football season is here. The new Odyssey app lets you stay connected to your NFL team, your station, your shows. Follow your favorite stations and come back again and again. Get real-time updates on everything you care about. Miss your show?

Jump back to their awesome rewind feature. The Odyssey app is NFL football. Live and on demand. Wherever you are, whenever you want. And did we mention it's all free?

Download the Odyssey app today. What makes your skin crawl? No matter how absurd. I want to know. Tails without fur on them?

Such as rats or opossums? I'm Larry Mullins, the host of a new podcast called Your Weirdest Fears. You send me your fear.

I'm just so weirded out about the texture and how they can just move around and flop. And then I go to the experts to learn how to overcome them. Listen and subscribe to Your Weirdest Fears on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts from. Ross in New Jersey. Ross, you're next up on the Zach Gelb show. Go ahead. Hey Zach, new listener to the show. Actually been a great listen so far to actually take the call. Yeah, appreciate it.

What do you got? So I'm actually a Vikings fan from Jersey. I've endured a lot.

I'm only 15, but I've endured a lot of pain and misery with this team. But when you look at their 8-2 start, it's unfathomable how a team can be 8-2 and have a minus 2 point differential. So are people, you know, underestimating how legit or not legit this team really is? Because I know, you know, they say you can only, you are what your record says you are. But I mean, a negative 2 point differential, that's insane, man. Being what, 800 team? I mean, and you look at all their wins, they're like 3.1 possessions squeakers and their two losses to Philly and Dallas.

I mean, they're like 30 point transfers that are over like the first quarter. Well, Ross, I appreciate the phone call and thanks so much. By the way, he said he was 15. That is like the oldest sounding 15-year-old hickey that I've ever seen. I was impressed by Ross in New Jersey.

He has a deeper voice than I do. I'm jealous. Yeah, geez.

He definitely went through puberty before you did. Still trying to go through it. Some people say I haven't gone through it yet. Here's what I'll say about the Vikings to answer Ross's question. The Vikings are clearly still in it.

The Vikings are clearly going to win this NFC North. But you do kind of have a lot of pause on them, which is a shame when not only your defense gets annihilated like they did up against the Dallas Cowboys, but then your offense not be able to do anything. And fair or not, the Vikings will always have a stench around them as long as Kirk Cousins is the quarterback, because they're one of those teams that you say, oh, there's a lot of talent, but you don't really believe in the quarterback in a big spot.

And Kirk Cousins is a very good quarterback, just not a great quarterback. And it also doesn't help when the two losses were just so lopsided against not only the Dallas Cowboys, but also the Philadelphia Eagles, and the Eagles and the Cowboys are viewed as two of the top five teams in the NFC. It's kind of nuts, Hickey, how from one week, we give so much praise to the Vikings for beating the Bills, but it happened in such a bizarre, irregular anomaly type of way, where you don't want to take away from that performance, but it does stick in the back of your mind of, okay, they won a game where they probably should have lost, but they still beat Buffalo, so give them credit, but their two losses are just blowout fashion where they didn't have a pulse. And they looked anemic, they looked horrible, they look putrid against the Eagles earlier in the year, and then later on in the year, they had nothing against the Dallas Cowboys. I think yesterday was a nice wake-up call, because yes, their record is 8-2, and like you said, the game against Buffalo is amazing, but that's not sustainable. You can't continue to either come from behind and win, or get out to these big leads and then hold on for dear life when your defense can't get a stop. The defense is clearly the problem, they're one of the worst in the NFL, and if you are truly going to be a contender in the NFC, you've got to clean it up. If anything kind of put on blast and highlighted how much they have to improve otherwise, come playoffs on, they could be a one-and-done with how bad this defense is.

And I love the phone call from Ross in New Jersey. He said he's only 15 years old, so he has not seen a lot of years of Vikings football, but it already seems like a lot of years of Vikings football. Because he's already learning at a young age, whenever you expect something out of this team, even when it's unexpected success like what has happened so far through the first 10-11 weeks of the season, he knows in the back of his mind that they're going to let him down. And it's a shame because that Vikings team is fun with Kevin O'Connell, Justin Jefferson, Adam Thielen, Dalvin Cook, TJ Hockinson. You look at the defense, I love Zadarius Smith and Patrick Peterson, but it's impossible to not alter your expectations and alter your view on the Vikings.

And really, the only reason why the Vikings are still in this conversation outside of their record is because there's no one in the NFC that you feel great about. But if you're going to make an argument more so for the Cowboys now, Hickey, and we'll bring this back up into the conversation, I think the best argument for Dallas, even though you could have similar thoughts of the Vikings and the Cowboys where, oh, for Dallas, come playoff time, do you trust Mike McCarthy? No. Do you trust Dak Prescott?

No. Dallas, why they are still impressive, and we know what they did yesterday, was I take you back to the beginning of the season when they lost Dak Prescott. And they were able to not only weather the storm, they were basically able to defeat the storm and only lose one game. It was the last game that Cooper Rush started in Philadelphia, where they were able to really keep that chip from sinking. So now Dak is back, comfortable, has a bunch of games under his belt, and this is when, with the performance he had the other night, is really now the week of praise for the Dallas Cowboys, which they haven't had a lot of this year, even though the record's good. The ironic part about the Cowboys, if they just leaned into their true identity, this would be a really good team. They should be basically like the 49ers 2.0.

They have a really good defensive line, they lead the NFL in sacks, they cause turnovers, they have two really solid running backs, Tony Powell, I'm with you 100%, should be the lead guy for whatever reason, they don't want that to be the case, they don't want to lean into the run game as the first option when it comes to winning, but they could be a lot like the 49ers, they have the talent to do so, it's almost like they try to fight themselves in doing what works best for this team. Alright, let's get to the game last night, Kansas City and the Chargers. It is just such a game now, where whenever you watch Kansas City, and I know it's the Chargers, the same old Chargers, they're another one of those teams, they have all the talent in the world, and they just don't win enough games. And it's so frustrating, because when you watched that game last night, the Chargers, for a large majority of the game, just looked like they were the better team, and they weren't able to find the way to get the job done, but it has now become normal. And I don't care who you're root for, I don't care how much football you watch, but it is now a normal feeling when you watch Patrick Mahomes, and he gets the ball back, and Bills fans know this better than anybody last year, in 13 seconds, and that was against all odds, the craziest of all things, but with 1.46 left in the game, and he gets the ball back, Ryan, I'm thinking to myself, yeah, it's great that the Chargers just scored a touchdown, it's great that they just made the extra point, and took a 4-point lead, but there was zero confidence, even in a night where the Chargers defense was playing well, that the Chargers defense was going to hold Mahomes out of the end zone, and to make it even worse, since it was against the Chargers, and I know Travis Kelce dominates the entire league, but he really owns the Los Angeles Chargers, you knew Kelce on that drive was getting his third touchdown. It's too easy, and it's not even just a question of if they're going to get in the end zone, it's alright, how are they going to do so, who's going to be the hero, and then how much time is going to be left on the clock for a potential comeback, and it feels like every single time they're in the situation, not only do they score a touchdown, they do a great job of managing the clock, and not allowing an offense like Justin Herbert's to get any real time to stage a comeback, it's perfection.

And even with 30-something seconds left, when Herbert gets the ball back, I did think that Herbert was going to get him in field goal range last night, because they only needed a field goal to get that game into overtime, maybe that was more so of me hoping that the game was going to get to overtime, because that was really an awesome game last night, just to watch and see how it all unfolded. It was, it was, but it goes to show you, it's even more impressive at home, when you take away one of, what, top three wide receivers in the NFL? Look at last night, Pacheco, Sky Moore, they had two guys that weren't even playing last night at the wide receiver spot, it doesn't matter who they line up with, that dude just creates plays and does it at a video game rate, where at the end of the game, even if he struggles for the first half, even if the team's down by 10 points or whatever it is, and we've seen them have crazy comebacks throughout the years, you know they're just never out of it, and you feel like it's always going to end with your jaw just hitting the floor, and you're still mesmerized by it. Chiefs got worse, everyone in the AFC West went all in on getting them. The AFC West sucks. And you have one of the biggest division leads in the sport through 11, 11 weeks. The Broncos and Raiders yesterday was the battle of incompetence, and we'll get into Nathaniel Hackett and Clint Kubiak and Russell Wilson just being a bunch of bozos later.

The Raiders we know the only reason McDaniel's coming back next year is because Mark Davis basically has no money, or he has money, just not in the NFL circles of having money, and they're going to need to keep Josh McDaniel's around. And the Chargers, the Chargers are maybe the most frustrating. Even though the Broncos are so bad and the Raiders are so bad, the reason why the Chargers are probably so frustrating is that was right there for the taking this year, twice.

Twice against Kansas City. They had two opportunities where they could have won both games, and they didn't win either of them, Ryan. That's why, and Herbert's really good, Keenan Allen, I know he had the fumble last night, but then he bounces back with that ridiculous catch, Williams leaves the game, Austin Eckler is a stud, we know what they brought in defensively, Brandon Staley, he didn't mess up that game last night. They could have won the game, and they could have won the game going back to week 2, and to be sitting there and not having a win, one win and two opportunities against them, I hate to say it, but it just reeks of same old Chargers.

It's the only thing I can say. Not that I'm giving them a pass, I will give that more credit to the Chiefs and your playing basically Goliath in a situation. Sure, but you've got to beat them one time.

And you should, but it's one of those things where even when you, you know, you can't. Mahomes just does it to everybody. What else could they have done? But imagine, not that Herbert played a bad game, but imagine if Mahomes, with what he's able to do with these weapons outside of Kelsey, imagine if he had Keenan Allen and Mike Williams and Austin Eckler? I don't think they'd lose a game. That's how good that Chargers roster is. And they've got to find a way to put this together, because if they miss the playoffs this year, I don't want to hear how much of a genius Brandon Staley is.

Hey, you've got to get him out and get Sean Payton in. But the more and more you watch football this year, and the more and more you walk away week in and week out, and are like, ugh, I don't know how great I feel about this team, I don't know how great I feel about that team. I said it last week, I'll say it again, the team I feel the best about, the team that I trust the most, is Kansas City. And we all know Patrick Mahomes is winning the MVP this year.

I'm not going to say it's over right now, the MVP race, because as you learn with the Heisman, it could change from week to week. But if the Kansas City Chiefs, even with how good Buffalo is, even with how good the Dolphins are, even with I think the Ravens are going to get hot and going to have a really good record, if Kansas City's not in the Super Bowl, because they will have home field advantage, I would be stunned this year. And last year I know the Bengals beat them twice, and they were terrible in the second half, we saw they lost that Super Bowl, we saw they lost the AFC Championship game a few years ago, if you put a gun to my head right now and ask me who's going to win the Super Bowl, I don't know how you don't respond to the Kansas City Chiefs. And I know that wasn't your answer last week, is that your answer now, hot take hickey, in terms of Kansas City?

What are you talking about? That was my answer. Are you sure about that? To win the Super Bowl? Yeah. I thought you lied with the 49ers. No, no, no, no. Same outcome. Rematch, same outcome.

And you thought the 49ers would win? Yes, sir. Okay, so I apologize, sorry.

No problem. You have a lot of wrong predictions that it's tough for me to remember all the wrong ones, so I just assume that you're going to be wrong with most of the things that you say. Well, still a long way to go, but looking better after this week, that's for sure. One of the few things that maybe could be right.

So I apologize for putting words in your mouth that you didn't actually say. It is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. When we come on back, we've got to get into what was just an action-packed weekend of college football, and a lot of teams that you walked away just saying, okay, they survived, so they're still alive.

But we continue to see this college football playoff picture truncate, and once again, in another category of where Zach was right, as the weeks continue to go on, we see more and more reasons why the college football playoff should not extend and should not expand and go to 12 teams, which is just crazy. What makes your skin crawl, no matter how absurd? I want to know. Tales without fur on them, such as rats or opossums? I'm Larry Mullins, the host of a new podcast called Your Weirdest Fears. You send me your fear. I'm just so weirded out about the texture and how they can just move around and flop. And then I go to the experts to learn how to overcome them. Listen and subscribe to Your Weirdest Fears on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts from. And did we mention it's all free?

Download the Odyssey app today. and JJ McCarthy did not look good in that game. And for Michigan, they already went into the game, down a bunch of running backs, and Blake Corum leaves the game, and that looked like it was a nasty injury. Now Blake Corum, he did return to the game, but only played, I think, one or two plays, and then, I think it was one, and then went right out of the game.

And today, Jim Harbaugh gave no update on Blake Corum. In Ohio State, Maryland, you didn't really walk away feeling all that great about Ohio State. And oh yeah, we always thought that Tennessee was still going to make the college football playoff with one loss. I wasn't expecting South Carolina and give credit to Shane Beamer, Marcus Satterfield, and then also Spencer Rattler, who had not count them one, two, three, four, five, six passing touchdowns in the game. So, Tennessee is out and just horrible, horrible, horrible way. Not only when Tennessee loses the game, but then you find out that Hendon Hooker has a torn ACL, and you knew that injury was bad when you saw him laying down and their season was over, but you never want to see a young man like that or anyone get hurt, especially when he was having a Heisman quality season, even though the Heisman campaign for him lost a little bit of steam with the performance against Georgia, you thought he was going to be a finalist in New York. Now with them having two losses, what was such a great season for Tennessee with Josh Heupel, it's still a step and a major step in the right direction, but you do leave with a little bit of a bitter taste in your mouth with how things did go the last few weeks. So, where do you want to start, Hickey, when we go with college football? Because the only thing we know entering the last two weeks of the season is Georgia is in and the winner of Michigan-Ohio State is in. Where do you want to go from here?

I'll turn it over to you. I guess, should we start with a Tina you did not mention, but who's maybe got the biggest boost in terms of the college football playoff? Clemson, are they back in your mind?

So, yes and no. I think they have a chance, more of a chance than I thought last week. I don't think they're a good team, I don't think they're a great team, but with how everything has really shaken out the last two weeks, if other things go the wrong way, like TCU loses or USC loses, yeah, they got a shot. Now, I will say this, UNC, I know they're in the ACC title game already and they'll go up against Clemson. Them losing to Georgia Tech is going to take away the value of that win, but it will still be, from an optics standpoint, a one-loss ACC champion. For example, if USC wins out and they win the Pac-12 championship and TCU is undefeated in their Big 12 champions, Clemson's not getting in. The moment, though, USC loses, if they do, with two games left, you would think, or you have TCU go down, then that does open the door for Clemson, as long as Clemson continues to take care of business. Does the close calls for Ohio State and Michigan change now your thoughts on maybe a one-loss Clemson ACC champ versus a one-loss Ohio State and or Michigan? And let me be abundantly clear, because I tweeted this out and then some people had some pushback, oh, how could the Big Ten get two teams in, as if it was an inconceivable thought and as if I was smoking something. The way the Big Ten can get two teams in is if either TCU or USC loses and then it has to be Michigan beating Ohio State by the thinnest of margins, because if that happens that Michigan beats Ohio State by a two-point conversion or a field goal and you get either TCU or USC to lose, there's a chance that a one-loss Ohio State team with no Big Ten championship gets in. And the reason why it needs to be Michigan beating Ohio State for that to happen is even though they play a lot of the similar teams, the Ohio State schedule is just stronger than the Michigan schedule. No name win gets better and better each week.

It does. Now, USC and Caleb Williams, Lincoln, Riley, Addison, what they've done in year number one, even though we've questioned who they've played, they have one loss at this point. Their only loss is by 1.43 to 42 to Utah. I thought last week they were going to lose to UCLA. Now you have Notre Dame this week, and Notre Dame, that win for Ohio State against Notre Dame is looking better and better from week one.

Notre Dame is starting to find their groove under Marcus Freeman, their first-year head coach. After what I just saw from USC this past weekend, I'm going to trust Caleb Williams to beat Notre Dame. I thought they were going to lose one of these next two games factoring in UCLA. They survived against UCLA. Caleb Williams played out of his mind.

The defense made the play late up against Dorian Thompson Robinson. I know Notre Dame is getting hot at the right time of the year. I just don't think they're going to be able to outscore Caleb Williams in this USC high-octane offense right now, Icky. I'm not sure they're going to have to.

That's the thing. It's just like I like Notre Dame's physicality. They can run the ball. They play good defense.

I feel better if this game is at Notre Dame. I don't like the fact that USC's team is Caleb Williams, and that's it. Good receivers aren't going to be wrong, but they are reliant on Caleb Williams to have an insane game or they can't win. If he wasn't the best player on the field on Saturday night, by far, they'd lose that game. And maybe lose by multiple touchdowns. And he may have won the Heisman. We've got to see how it plays out the next two weeks.

And I called this a few weeks ago. I said the Heisman is going to come down to Blake Corum or C.J. Stroud.

Whoever finds a way to win that game this weekend, the game, Ohio State-Michigan. And then I said if it's not Stroud or Corum, it was either going to be Caleb Williams or Bo Nix, and I lean more to the side of Caleb Williams. Caleb Williams, though, now is the betting favorite to win the Heisman. You also had a Corum injury. I'm going to assume Corum plays this week, but that's just probably more wishful thinking.

I don't know if he's actually going to. And C.J. Stroud's had a really good season, but he hasn't been as impressive as the way that he's been built up. Like, he is a very good quarterback, but he's not the three most impressive quarterbacks that I've seen this year in college football is the way that I'll say it, Hickey. And the concerning part for Ohio State is what he struggles with the most is Exaco Michigan does the best.

Get pressure on the quarterback. And they have a lot of talent, Ohio State. So there's no reason for them to lose this game technically, especially when the game is at home. But they could definitely lose this game to Michigan. This is there's no doubt if we do not get a close grinded out type of game between both these teams, I'll be stunned. I think what we saw in the Penn State, Ohio State game is going to how this game is going to go. I'm not going to give you a thought in Michigan, Ohio State right now, because the last few weeks we have both been leaning Michigan.

I got to see what happens with quorum. But it looks like the college football playoff is shaping out to be Georgia, the winner of Ohio State, Michigan. I think after TCU survives again, I'm just going to say that they'll find a way to get the next two wins. And I didn't love the way that and I know there was like 20 something seconds left, but I don't like running your kicker onto the field when you run a play before. And it was a running play. That didn't make sense to me that have your kicker all mayhem break loose. Like when that's going down, there's no way you think that kick's going through. When he doesn't walk it off, I did get a little nervous. But to their credit, they look well coached.

No one panicked and the kick was drilled. No doubt down the middle. I think TCU is going to be in. And right now, with the way that Caleb Williams is playing, if USC didn't lose last week, I'm going to trust that they find a way to get the job done the next two weeks.

So where are you at with your four teams? Because for me, it's Georgia winner of Michigan, Ohio State. And I'm going to say after what transpired this past week and I thought both could have been an upset alert.

And the fact that both won. I'm going to say that USC and TCU find a way to get into the college football playoff. Georgia is an easy one. Ohio State, Michigan is an easy one. I'm with you on TCU.

I'm just saying, whoever wins that game gets a job. For this argument with the Blake Corman jury, I'll say right now, today, Ohio State. So Georgia, Ohio State, TCU. I'm going to go Clemson, honestly. So you have USC losing? I think USC loses. Obviously, LSU is going to lose to Georgia. And I think they'll put a one-loss Clemson team and over, in this case, a one-loss Michigan team. And then how would you rank those four teams? Would it be Georgia going up against Clemson?

Yes. TCU, Ohio State. What would the spread of that game be?

Georgia? I'm not even kidding. I was going to say like 17 and a half. I think they would make that like an outrageously big spread.

And honestly, I would lay the points. Because even though DJ's had a bounce-back season, we've seen him in two spots. The old DJ really emerged. That Clemson D-line, though, is good. I think they'll hold their own a little bit. Which is why I think the number will be maybe a little bit lower than their offense should have it be at. Very good defense. I like the running back a lot. But the quarterback play, you may need a benching and Klubnick to come in to get that job done. But that's asking a lot if you're going to take down Georgia. Yeah. So I'm going to go TCU, USC, get in. Also, Michigan or Ohio State and then Georgia.

Zach Gilp show CBS Sports Radio, Alicia Deuce Ball next. What makes your skin crawl? No matter how absurd, I want to know.

Tales without fur on them, such as rats or opossums. I'm Larry Mullins, the host of a new podcast called Your Weirdest Fears. You send me your fear.

I'm just so weirded out about the texture and how they can just move around and flop. And then I go to the experts to learn how to overcome them. Listen and subscribe to Your Weirdest Fears on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast from.

Thank you so much for watching. I'll see you next time. Is there something really absurd that skeeves you out? Getting a paper cut on my eyeball? A fear you can't shake? I'm going to leak ocular fluid down my cheeks. It's going to go into my mouth and I will perish. Whatever scares you, I want to talk about it. Join me, Larry Mullins, on my new podcast, Your Weirdest Fears. Listen and subscribe to Your Weirdest Fears on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast from. That's I-N-D-O-C-H-I-N-O dot com promo code fall update.