Texas Toast, Fantasy Murderers, Drake Maybe Back, Guess the Lines and MLB Playoffs With Cousin Sal

Bill Simmons (0:00)

All right, quick break. This episode is brought to you by Fire TV. You ever sit down ready to watch the game only to search and scroll endlessly? If so, you need Fire TV. It shows your live games from your favorite teams all in one place, right on the home screen. No more searching. Just sit down and turn on Fire TV. Separate subscriptions may be required. Feature and content availability may vary.

This is The Bill Simmons Podcast presented by FanDuel. Make every NFL week more rewarding with FanDuel Rewards Club. You heard me. Just bet like you normally would. Earn points and eligible settled bets win or lose. Keep collecting points, level up, and unlock bigger rewards. So keep an eye on your Rewards Club progress and see what you can unlock. This is your most rewarding season ever and it's with FanDuel.

21 plus select states are 18 plus DC or Wyoming. Game problem call 1-800-GAMBAR or call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut.

The Bill Simmons Podcast. We are live on Netflix with Cousin Sal and his Kidney Stones. I want to mention we have a new rewatchable coming tomorrow night. Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which I guess could have doubled for Texans Cowboys today, but the 1974 one, not any of the remakes. So yeah, me and CR are breaking that one down. We made producer Craig watch it. It was super fun. All right. We just came off of probably the worst Saturday night football game in a while. And yet it was wildly entertaining and there were 900 yards and zero turnovers and lots of points. But it was kind of fun to watch Collinsworth and listen to him do a bad game.

Cousin Sal (2:10)

Right? Yeah, it's true.

They kind of protected them a little bit with this Lions defense. I feel like they lucked into this schedule-wise.

The NFL, if they have to put a shitty NFC South team in primetime, tomorrow is the exception. But if they have to do that, the Lions defense is a fun option. Right? So they're always going to be... They should always be the must play for the NFC South teams because the D is going to make you look magnificent. Their defense is a set bound of the NFL. It makes everyone look great. It really does.

Bill Simmons (2:42)

Well, they almost blew the game. There was a lot of weird strategy stuff going on.

At various points, I was wondering which coach was good on both teams and what the hell was going on. But really weird near the end, Campbell, he's down 13 It's fourth and 10 inside the 15 Collins. Or it's not talking about it. Golf just takes a delay game. Campbell doesn't call time out for some reason. Fourth and 15 Then they get a start. Now it's fourth and 20

And then they just go for it on fourth and 20 from the 25, which I would say has like a 3% chance. You're basically hoping for a PI. They don't get it. They get the ball back touchdown. They get the ball back again. But now they need six instead of three. They need seven basically, instead of just being down three if they take the field goal and they lose. And Collinsworth didn't want to hear the argument for it. It was weird.

Cousin Sal (3:30)

I'm just so medicated. I can't believe they stuck me with the Panthers, Bill. I just, that's stuck in my craw there. No, there was seven minutes, 10 seconds left. They were down 13

And like you said, they're getting pushed back. So in Campbell's mind, he's got to have, at some point, it's not worth it, right? If they take starts all the way to midfield, they're not going to throw a Hail Mary, right? So to me and you, we were on this text chain, I'm like, fourth and tw- just kick it.

Bill Simmons (3:54)

Yeah, go down 10 with seven minutes left. That's fine.

Cousin Sal (3:57)

And Anthony DiBundo, who is my co-host, Fringa Wiseguy, is like, they're not getting the ball back twice again. Right now, between that and what the Raiders did with the point, I wouldn't hire DiBundo to coach my dog to his bowl to eat at this point.

But guess what? They got the ball back twice. I don't know if that would have made a difference, but there's nothing wrong with being down 10 with seven minutes left.

Bill Simmons (4:17)

No, it was just a weird game in general. They ran out of Ted McMillan kind of stuff to do by the third quarter. He just kept catching passes. It seemed like he was the only guy in the team. Anytime they needed to play, he made it.