VSiN By The Books | October 20, 2026 | Hour 3

Dave Ross (0:00)

This is VSiN By The Books on VSiN, the eSports betting network. Power hour set to begin right here, VSiN By The Books. I am Dave Ross at the Mint Gaming Hall, Franklin, Kentucky, inside our VSiN studio, overlooking beautiful circus sports behind me. He's our closer, Jensen Lewis, back home in Cleveland, Ohio. We are going to have Paul Kelly joining the program here in just a little bit, a lot of injuries in the NFL if you're trying to fortify those rosters. And again, look at those for, if you look as a prop player, he gave out some really good names last week that cashed a lot of tickets this week. So it'll be good to have Paul on, of course, our best bets before we say goodbye. But Jensen, we know it, we need it, we love it. Chaos in our sports daily lives. Let's get to it in this week's edition of our Chaos Candidates.

Jensen, you have won the coin toss this week. You have elected to receive your first Chaos Candidate is whom?

Jensen Lewis (1:08)

It's the layoff for the Brewers between sweeping the Dodgers in the NLCS and playing game one of the World Series at American Family Field on Friday night. Color me surprised if the Brewers win that one because as someone who's been through it, I know exactly what happens when you have this amount of time off between a team that is just rolling on all cylinders and then has to try and recreate it and get going again versus a team here in the Tampa Bay Rays where, yeah, it's Tuesday, you'll have off today. You'll have off Wednesday, you do the workout on Thursday and right back at it on Friday.

So keeping that continuity, that tempo, that cadence, it probably will be a likely play for me on the Rays to upset the Brewers in game one. I haven't gotten to the window yet on that. Going to wait for everything to be confirmed as far as the Miz and Andrew Rasmussen. That's what we expect. But Dave, old enough to remember when I was a wee lad, but a young champion at age 23, when we went to game seven of the American League Championship Series and we saw the Colorado Rockies still waiting, trying to simulate games through the snow there at mile high, we all kind of told ourselves, if we get through, we're winning the World Series. And so I think it's interesting to look at over time, you know, the trajectory machines, the ability to play live, you know, scrimmage each other. You can't simulate what you're going to see for the first World Series game ever at American Family Field on Friday night.

Dave Ross (2:39)

That's going to be a show. And right now, the Brewers obviously favored in game one, favoring that series, a $1.60 betting favorite right now over Tampa Bay Rays. Look, my first Chaos Candidate, all you ask for in this world as an athlete is certainly opportunity.

That opportunity is knocking right now on the door of Tanner McKee. Now, look, Tanner McKee is going to be the guy right now, and we don't know if he's going to be the long term solution there in Philadelphia. But Jalen Hurts, sadly, is not walking through that door to play quarterback. We all hope Jalen Hurts is going to be OK. Everybody is writing off Fly Eagles Fly, and you can understand why. You're on a four-game losing streak. I was with Jalen Hurts. And then all of a sudden now, Tanner McKee is going to be taking on the Dallas Cowboys on Monday night, and you're a four-and-a-half point home dog, by the way, on my birthday on Monday, I might add. So if you want to make for me to have a really sad birthday, Tanner McKee, go out there and beat one of the worst defenses, if not the worst defense in the entire National Football League. This is absolutely a great opportunity for you, Tanner McKee. You want to show that you could potentially be a starting quarterback in this league.

This is your chance. So whether or not you earn it, whether or not it's injury, you earn that roster spot, you earn the backup spot. They got rid of Andy Dalton.

This is your time. So Tanner McKee, what are you going to do with it? Because you've seen this league, it's littered with stories of guys that have opportunities and did not take advantage of them. And then you do have these other stories where guys come out of nowhere. Kurt Warner would be one example. This team will rally around Kurt Warner. Will the Eagles rally around Tanner McKee? We'll find out, but the opportunity against maybe the worst defense in the NFL, it's knocking Tanner and you have the chance to answer and open that door starting on Monday night.