Speaker 1: Here's Brissette gets a block and gets the touchdown, but
Speaker 1: blocked from the tight end. Jack Doyle and Jack called me.
Speaker 1: Brissette has his third rushing touchdown of the season. Here's
Speaker 1: Williams survives a hit, keeps on going to the end
Speaker 1: zone for the touchdown. Red Ardret McKennon couldn't bring him down.
Speaker 1: Watson end zone, Hopkins say hi to mom again. Touchdown
Speaker 1: Hopkins thirty yards to DeAndre Hopkins might be the game right.
Speaker 1: Here are a chance for the Colts. Brissette can he
Speaker 1: pick it up? He cannot play made by Scarlett and
Speaker 1: Brissette mark short of first down yardage in the Texans
Speaker 1: will take over. Those were our good friends, Joe Buck
Speaker 1: and Troy Aikman. I'm Greg Rosenthal with Chris whistling again.
Speaker 1: On Thursday night, the Texans wrapped up a twenty to
Speaker 1: seventeen victory over the Colts, which might just mean we're
Speaker 1: watching Deshaun Watson in that first Saturday ESPN Wild Cards
Speaker 1: slate because I think the a f C South is
Speaker 1: only getting one playoff team and the Texans are in
Speaker 1: first place at seven and four. There was a really
Speaker 1: tight game that could have gone either way and it
Speaker 1: was such a uh I guess showcase for the different styles,
Speaker 1: distinct styles of play that really UM channels their quarterbacks
Speaker 1: with DeShawn Watson going for the big play, hitting those
Speaker 1: long air yards play UM and you see the difference.
Speaker 1: I think Will Fuller and t Y Hilton were the
Speaker 1: two like injured wide receiver X factors. Will Fuller goes
Speaker 1: for seven and a hundred and forty I think, and
Speaker 1: t Y Hilton had those two third down almost catches
Speaker 1: that were big but didn't really wasn't much of a factor.
Speaker 1: Outside of that, Texans receivers dominated the game. Cultur receivers
Speaker 1: really didn't show up. No, that was the difference to
Speaker 1: me was Fuller in Hilton and then the guys throwing
Speaker 1: them the ball. You know, Hilton drops those two plays
Speaker 1: on a night where the Colts moved the ball pretty well,
Speaker 1: but they're gonna move it slowly. There weren't many possessions
Speaker 1: in this game. The first was just a clear drop
Speaker 1: and the second one again in in a second half
Speaker 1: where they only had the ball four different times. He
Speaker 1: ended two drives with two drops. He was not explosive.
Speaker 1: If you're not beating Jonathan Joseph one on one in
Speaker 1: man coverage. That's not the t Y Hilton that we're
Speaker 1: used to seeing, Whereas will Fuller had all the juice.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I'm not saying he's better than DeAndre Hopkins.
Speaker 1: He's not. You know, Nuke win for six, nine, four
Speaker 1: and two. He had a long touch a couple of
Speaker 1: long touchdowns, and a great sideline catch. But will Fuller's
Speaker 1: kind of the X factor. He's the little sizzle. He's
Speaker 1: the little ingredient. You know, when you're back on the
Speaker 1: big green egg, you know you gotta have your piece
Speaker 1: of steak. That's that's Watson and Nuke. But Fuller's that
Speaker 1: little ingredient that the only West Ads that puts it
Speaker 1: all together and actually makes it special. We we've talked
Speaker 1: about how much he means to this offense. That Deshawn's
Speaker 1: Watson's numbers are like best in the league when Will
Speaker 1: Fullers in the lineup and just plain average without him.
Speaker 1: And I saw next Gen Stats said that he's more
Speaker 1: than twice as likely to throw a deep ball with
Speaker 1: will Fuller on the field as he is when will
Speaker 1: Fuller sideline. It's all the difference in the world for
Speaker 1: this offense, well there. They were one of the worst
Speaker 1: teams in the league throwing vertically this year, which is
Speaker 1: crazy because you know, if you watched this game, you
Speaker 1: saw three of the prettiest deep balls that you'll ever see,
Speaker 1: the two to Fuller and then the second touchdown to Hopkins.
Speaker 1: The the only touchdown they got, you know, until that
Speaker 1: uh fourth quarter plate to Hopkins was on a total
Speaker 1: blown coverage. I actually thought the Colts defense, for the
Speaker 1: most part, did a good job. They stuffed to run
Speaker 1: most of the night. Hide and Duke Johnson had one
Speaker 1: good run each. But this looked like, you know, a
Speaker 1: game that was very even. It's just like, how are
Speaker 1: you gonna win? Are you gonna win throwing the ball,
Speaker 1: or are you're gonna win trying to run the ball
Speaker 1: down the other team's throats. The two Colts touchdown drives
Speaker 1: on one of them came off of a Deshaun Watson
Speaker 1: interception seven straight runs. The other one they ran the
Speaker 1: ball ten out of eleven times. And it's just a
Speaker 1: fine line. Jacobe Brisett did not look right. I don't
Speaker 1: know if they changed their game plan based on how
Speaker 1: he's playing or if he is just moving slow, but
Speaker 1: he certainly seemed to be like processing slow and not
Speaker 1: getting rid of the ball. And I saw some comments
Speaker 1: the Colts aren't winning in man coverage. Jacoby has gotta
Speaker 1: go give him, give him a chance, and I thought
Speaker 1: this was one of his worst games. He didn't look healthy.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you're throwing for five yards per attempt
Speaker 1: against this Texans defense who was missing almost their entire
Speaker 1: starting secondary, that that's a problem. Well, the Colts entered
Speaker 1: this game in passing yards per game and fourth in
Speaker 1: rushing yards per game. This is who they are. And
Speaker 1: I think if I try to get in the mind
Speaker 1: of Frank Reich, that game plan was not only is
Speaker 1: this who they are, but I've got a banged up
Speaker 1: quarterback who isn't moving quite as well, and also have
Speaker 1: a very depleted wide receiver corps. I can't count on
Speaker 1: them to win down field. So I'm gonna saddle up
Speaker 1: Jonathan Williams again. And it worked for for those two
Speaker 1: draws you talked about. It really worked when they imposed
Speaker 1: their will for two drives. But the bottom line is
Speaker 1: Frank Breich decided to live and die with the running game,
Speaker 1: and he died with it. I mean, you're you're gonna die.
Speaker 1: But against against the defense where the clear weakness is
Speaker 1: the secondary, one of the worst secondaries in the nf
Speaker 1: I mean, at one point this, uh you know, was
Speaker 1: something that John McClain tweeted that the venerable Texans Houston
Speaker 1: Chronicle reporter after that first touchdown that that Colts running drive.
Speaker 1: The Colts have taken the Texans manhood. The offensive line
Speaker 1: is humiliating the Texans front seven. Time for them to
Speaker 1: call their mommies. I want to see DJ Reader and
Speaker 1: Whitney Merciless and and uh, you know, face John McClain
Speaker 1: tonight in the locker room and say, you know, hey, hey,
Speaker 1: we called our mommies. We got some stops down the stretch.
Speaker 1: I love John McClain because he was so nice to
Speaker 1: me when I did the Love You Blue article the
Speaker 1: long form I did. But I do think he leans
Speaker 1: into it a little bit on these nationally televised game
Speaker 1: And though he's just getting emotional, you think he knows
Speaker 1: everybody's watching his Twitter on these games. Yeah, that might
Speaker 1: be part of it. The Jacoby Brisset injury though, I mean,
Speaker 1: he's wearing that huge brace and on you know, one
Speaker 1: of the key plays of the game, it's a fourth
Speaker 1: and seven. He drops back to pass again, he doesn't
Speaker 1: pull the trigger. Maybe maybe no one's open on that play,
Speaker 1: but he has a lane to go pick up seven
Speaker 1: yards and most starting quarterbacks are gonna pick up those
Speaker 1: seven and he picks up six and he's moving slowly,
Speaker 1: and even if he doesn't have that brace on, it's like,
Speaker 1: I think he's picking up that that first down on
Speaker 1: most nights, And that was that was a differ friends,
Speaker 1: And he's about a yard short and you don't know
Speaker 1: what's gonna happen. Then I totally agree. I think I've
Speaker 1: seen Jacoby Brissette make that play when he's healthy, and
Speaker 1: he could have also been more decisive and taken off
Speaker 1: a couple of seconds earlier and maybe had a better window.
Speaker 1: But you know, I look at this game and I
Speaker 1: see a Texas team that's gonna be riding high because
Speaker 1: they're in first place. That was a huge game. You know,
Speaker 1: they were calling it a playoff game. But the Colts
Speaker 1: you get, don't hang your head too too far, because
Speaker 1: next week you're you might have Devin Funchius in Paris
Speaker 1: Campbell back, t Y Hilton and Jacoby Prisette will presumably
Speaker 1: be a little bit more healthy. Uh, they were playing
Speaker 1: in the secondary without a couple of impact rookies and
Speaker 1: Rocky Scene and Cary Willis. Maybe those guys come back.
Speaker 1: They were They were a depleted team on the field tonight,
Speaker 1: and I think that was reflected in the result a
Speaker 1: close game where if they're healthy, it might have gone differently.
Speaker 1: Your your heart, your football heart is a very strange thing.
Speaker 1: You know. You were not into the Colts early in
Speaker 1: the seas, and I wouldn't say they've exactly lit the
Speaker 1: world on fire over the last month. In fact, they've
Speaker 1: lost three games out of four now, and yet watching
Speaker 1: this game with you at your house, I was pleasantly
Speaker 1: surprised to see that that you're a fan of the
Speaker 1: Colts suddenly once again. Well, their defense got me back
Speaker 1: in there. They're so young, they were playing four rookies
Speaker 1: regularly before those injuries, and they're fast to the ball. Uh,
Speaker 1: their pass rush did not show up tonight. That was
Speaker 1: a big factor. But I like watching their defense, and
Speaker 1: I went into the game kind of subconsciously rooting for them.
Speaker 1: But by the end of the game, it was such
Speaker 1: a close game that it didn't bother me to see
Speaker 1: either team. Here's here's my take away, though I'm not
Speaker 1: sure how dangerous the Texans are. I know Deshaun Watson
Speaker 1: is great, and tonight you saw a lot of what
Speaker 1: made him great with the deep ball and the throws
Speaker 1: on third down. But you also saw, you know, one
Speaker 1: interception that set up the Colts touchdown. You saw two
Speaker 1: interceptions that were dropped by the Colts, including what could
Speaker 1: have been a killer one in the fourth quarter, and
Speaker 1: he saw him fumble the ball in a situation at
Speaker 1: the end of the game we should talk about where
Speaker 1: the only thing that Texans had to do was not fumble.
Speaker 1: There in any fumble the ball, and the officials determined
Speaker 1: that he recovered the ball, and Twitter and everyone else
Speaker 1: was fired up that how could they not review that play?
Speaker 1: And it does look strange. I get it. We rewound,
Speaker 1: you know, the TV copy, and the official that's standing
Speaker 1: right on top of Deshaun Watson and had a better
Speaker 1: view than anywhere says it's Watson's ball, So he seemed
Speaker 1: to indicate that there was a fumble, and he indicated
Speaker 1: that Watson recovered the ball. And people are gonna kill
Speaker 1: them for not reviewing that. But I don't know, there's like,
Speaker 1: you can't overturn that. There are rules, and the rule
Speaker 1: is like, you can't overturn that unless there's gonna be
Speaker 1: some sort of clear recovery. And you're not gonna get
Speaker 1: a clearer view than that. I know, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna get called the company man here. This was and
Speaker 1: I don't think there was some controversy there. That's just
Speaker 1: it was what it was. There was. We never saw
Speaker 1: another view that showed that the Colts recovered. And if
Speaker 1: the guy standing on top of him says Watson's got
Speaker 1: the ball, what are you gonna do? You can't overturn that.
Speaker 1: I think they keep this purposely vague about when river
Speaker 1: Ron can just buzz him from New York and tell officials, hey,
Speaker 1: here's what happened. And my guess is in that situation
Speaker 1: said recovered that late in the game. River Ron buzzes
Speaker 1: in and says, hey, we got nothing here. There's nothing
Speaker 1: on on the replays that will overturn this. The Colts
Speaker 1: have the Titans bucks at at New Orleans home for
Speaker 1: Carolina at Jacksonville. That's a pretty good schedule, you know,
Speaker 1: the only game where they play a team with a
Speaker 1: winning record. The rest of the way is at New Orleans.
Speaker 1: The Texans, on the other hand, don't play, by the way.
Speaker 1: Neither of these teams play until December one. You want
Speaker 1: a little hey, this season is moving along again. Their
Speaker 1: next game is December one, and it's a home game
Speaker 1: on Sunday night against the Patriots. Then they have the
Speaker 1: Broncos at Titans at Bucks, and back home to the Titans.
Speaker 1: So they get the Titans two out of three times
Speaker 1: down the stretch. If I'm the Colts and I'm looking
Speaker 1: at that schedule, I don't feel too bad. You know,
Speaker 1: the Patriots, they both have one really tough game, and
Speaker 1: then they both have a bunch of toss up games.
Speaker 1: The Texans don't look unbeatable to me, But the Texans
Speaker 1: to me, are just a more dangerous team. But as
Speaker 1: as a home as a Patriots homer, I gotta say
Speaker 1: I expected to be really afraid of this Texans team.
Speaker 1: And maybe they will get better offensively over the next
Speaker 1: few weeks. They certainly passed protect pretty well. They're they're
Speaker 1: pretty complete offensively, but the defense to me, lacks so
Speaker 1: much juice. I don't know if they're really gonna be
Speaker 1: a that dangerous of and out even if they win
Speaker 1: the division. Yeah. I agree that Texans have a higher
Speaker 1: ceiling because of their quarterback and their stars on offense,
Speaker 1: but they also have a fatal flaw in that secondary,
Speaker 1: and the Colts don't really have a fatal flaw. Their
Speaker 1: ceiling just isn't that hot. Some some cold fans I
Speaker 1: follow in the timeline that are not fans of Jacoby
Speaker 1: Bersett with I would disagree with you saying they're limited
Speaker 1: by the QB. I think he can play better in tonight.
Speaker 1: I don't think he's a complete liability like the Texan
Speaker 1: secondary is. Well, you know who else is, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: not a complete liability. Dan Hansas, Mark Sessler, Cynthia Freeland,
Speaker 1: they're all our friends and uh we got together a
Speaker 1: little earlier today West and um, we wanted to get
Speaker 1: inside the mind. I learned a lot from this interview.
Speaker 1: I learned a lot. And Cynthia, I've been kind of
Speaker 1: intimidated by what she's going on with with her with
Speaker 1: her models there. Well, she's she's an intimidating figure, but
Speaker 1: apparently she was intimidated by us. She thought she thought
Speaker 1: we didn't like her. We get we get into that,
Speaker 1: we get into the personal thing and I and like
Speaker 1: I said on our preview show, if you haven't listened
Speaker 1: to this, I think this is setting up, you know,
Speaker 1: a character that we're going to have on in the
Speaker 1: future because I think that sort of analytical mindset UH
Speaker 1: is an interesting vantage point to get on the show.
Speaker 1: And I'm sure we'll have her down the line. But
Speaker 1: I'm excited UH to throw it over to Dan and
Speaker 1: in us UH to hear from Cynthia. So here you go,
Speaker 1: all right, as promised a special guest in the studio.
Speaker 1: She's become a friend of the podcast. She doesn't think
Speaker 1: so she leaves herself to be a foe to some
Speaker 1: of us. It's Cynthia Freelan. Welcome to the Around the
Speaker 1: NFL podcast for the first time. You know, it only
Speaker 1: took what this is my fourth season here. I think
Speaker 1: you guys hated me or I mean, now you're two
Speaker 1: of you are forced to work with me on a
Speaker 1: regular basis, so it's really broken the ice. But I
Speaker 1: thought you hated me. Let's dig into this a little
Speaker 1: bit because yes, the same way to start out there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I love this because Cynthia, I work on the Power
Speaker 1: Ranking show on Wednesday's, which you catch on YouTube or
Speaker 1: NFL dot Com at New and Eastern. Also, Cindy works
Speaker 1: with Greg Rosenthal on Game Debut, which is also a
Speaker 1: digital and that shows up on NFL Network over the weekend. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: we've gotten to know you better. But Greg, before we
Speaker 1: throw it to the Kissing Cousins, did you ever have
Speaker 1: any negative feelings towards towards No, that's present. I think
Speaker 1: you saying that you thought we hated you says more
Speaker 1: about you than it really really does about us. You
Speaker 1: know what, we run into issues I think because we
Speaker 1: don't really have many guests on the show in general.
Speaker 1: There are people that we've worked with a lot longer
Speaker 1: if I had, if I had to go through it,
Speaker 1: that we probably you know, have alienated. Well, No, I
Speaker 1: know you have something personal with Mark that's weird, But
Speaker 1: like the rest of us, I thought I would trust
Speaker 1: your instinct instincts on what is So where did the
Speaker 1: yeah with West and Mark specifically, where did things go Wrong's?
Speaker 1: I don't know where it went wrong. I just like
Speaker 1: we don't spend a lot of time, you know, It's
Speaker 1: it's just it's one of those to where it's like, well,
Speaker 1: I just don't think they like me very much. Well,
Speaker 1: you seem very busy from the to an outsider's for you,
Speaker 1: So it's like, you know, it's it's more about it's
Speaker 1: a Cynthia thing. Different NFL Network shows. I need number
Speaker 1: fourteen or else it's not going to be complete. We
Speaker 1: have Cynthia Freeland quotes hanging in my house. Well I
Speaker 1: didn't think you hated me. Let's thank you Cynthia all
Speaker 1: all but I pinched hit on the game debut set
Speaker 1: last week, and Cynthia all but beat Greg and I
Speaker 1: officially because Cynthia is a woman that gets what she wants.
Speaker 1: She's been doing it her whole career. She and that's
Speaker 1: why she's Uh, you know, your background is analytics, um,
Speaker 1: and you become the go to person in this building,
Speaker 1: in that realm, and you're you're famous, I would say,
Speaker 1: but when there's only one of you, you're inherently the best,
Speaker 1: the worst, and the most average. Now I mentioned this
Speaker 1: is my like rendering of your fame. As I mentioned,
Speaker 1: I was doing the show you Know with you and
Speaker 1: and Andrew Hawkins, and my dad immediately was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I know, Cynthia freelan and I was like, he doesn't
Speaker 1: watch any NFL network on the Sunday morning Game Day show.
Speaker 1: And now I'm not saying I want this, but one
Speaker 1: of my favorite things were going back. I go way
Speaker 1: back with Ian rap report, and I know I know
Speaker 1: his personality. Anytime we hire a reporter that's good. He
Speaker 1: gets very worked up. He gets nervous, he gets agitated,
Speaker 1: he's worried that they're going to get his insider corner. Uh.
Speaker 1: And sometimes his concerns are more, you know, worth merit
Speaker 1: than others. Uh. Do you have any concerns that someone
Speaker 1: else can come in from the outside a budd buzz
Speaker 1: light Year to your woody. I look, I'm like fully
Speaker 1: expecting it because that's just what happens, right, So I
Speaker 1: think it'd be really nice. Actually, if somebody else wanted
Speaker 1: to like do a lot of math and coming, then
Speaker 1: I'll you know, I'm like I already had. I was
Speaker 1: an investment bankery, did some other stuff, right, so I'll
Speaker 1: just go find something. I don't know. I guess it's
Speaker 1: like it's good. It's a compliment, right, It's a good
Speaker 1: thing to have. I'm not gonna get worked up. I
Speaker 1: actually want more people to come do what I do.
Speaker 1: You do a lot of things. You're a renaissance woman.
Speaker 1: I will say this too. What I just looked over
Speaker 1: your press release when you're hired by never embarrassing anybody
Speaker 1: else got a press release when actually I mean I
Speaker 1: was hired a three day a week ten percentially, So
Speaker 1: I don't I don't think that document will be clear.
Speaker 1: Let's be clear. I don't you know your big time
Speaker 1: if they tell you when things are renewed, that ain't
Speaker 1: nobody tell you when I'm renewed. That's when you know
Speaker 1: you're really That's what Colleen will, by the way, which
Speaker 1: is great. I have not said that on the show.
Speaker 1: Congratulations to college extension. I'm sure in the millions, and
Speaker 1: she deserves every sentence. So she is a star and
Speaker 1: we love you Colleen. Anyway, So when you were hired,
Speaker 1: it says here that you had completed this is four
Speaker 1: years ago, twenty marathons in twenty different states, almost halfway
Speaker 1: to her goal of completing a marathon in each state.
Speaker 1: Where are we at and based on your number, I'll
Speaker 1: let you know if you're doing well or poorly in
Speaker 1: the last four years. Yeah, now falling behind base, I
Speaker 1: know is it. I don't even know if we're on
Speaker 1: the opposite sides of the spectrum. Just you know, as
Speaker 1: good as yours at math, I am as bad on
Speaker 1: the opposite direction. So the best part about math is
Speaker 1: you could like say it and for the most part
Speaker 1: almost no one will know, so you could just you know,
Speaker 1: like you can just say it like who cares, right,
Speaker 1: like good advice. You know I won't. I'm not going
Speaker 1: to call you about we've become friends now. Maybe before
Speaker 1: having me on the pot, I would have called you
Speaker 1: out right Now, your math's perfect for me, so that Yeah,
Speaker 1: so you're twenty three months that's good. You're also what
Speaker 1: I've learned, Um, you know everybody. You're one of those
Speaker 1: people to the point where it becomes market negative. I
Speaker 1: think because she can't say anything bad about anybody because
Speaker 1: she's quote unquote friends with everybody. Not early friends are
Speaker 1: very right, Like I I don't like I know them.
Speaker 1: That doesn't mean have friends with them. Jump in with
Speaker 1: your comments on that, well, I don't have a comment.
Speaker 1: I mean I feel that you you know, that's a
Speaker 1: good way to operate. I don't know almost more than
Speaker 1: four percent of the people in the building, so coming
Speaker 1: from a very different place. I have lots of questions,
Speaker 1: but we'll get through the intro. Let's get through. Let's
Speaker 1: dig through the at the bullet points. There we are.
Speaker 1: We are in and around the NFL. Yes, we're kind
Speaker 1: of an insular group on the podcast, and I think,
Speaker 1: good job by you again by badgering Greg and I
Speaker 1: almost to the point of physicality to get on the show.
Speaker 1: It was not Mike too, so like other people are
Speaker 1: listening to, Oh, I looked, I was like, found my
Speaker 1: camera perfectly. Did you watch the replay? Because I like
Speaker 1: I nailed that right, like look right down the lens
Speaker 1: and like nailed it. Because we hear from I have
Speaker 1: a specific shadowy League figure that has come to me
Speaker 1: and said, x Y and Z are unhappy they're not
Speaker 1: getting on the show. That's the thing that's happening in
Speaker 1: this building. Well it depends who X Y and Z are.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I like the figure name x Y and Z. Yes, Wow,
Speaker 1: sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. I mean I just
Speaker 1: went to sorry, Steve Wis, it's been a few months down, buddy,
Speaker 1: We'll bring it back. Let's be honest. I all I wanted,
Speaker 1: like I went directly to I didn't go through any
Speaker 1: shadowy figures. I went right. I went right to you guys.
Speaker 1: That's advice you can give Daniel Jeremiah help. I'll tell
Speaker 1: dj alright, the introduction process, Mark is over. I just
Speaker 1: I you know, I hear a lot. I hear a
Speaker 1: lot of times about uh, your your I've imagine you
Speaker 1: up in your apartment wherever you live, with some sort
Speaker 1: of gigantic, uh computerized motherboard where you're running through all
Speaker 1: these facts and figures like I grew up playing uh
Speaker 1: like strat o matic, which to me tied at a
Speaker 1: very early age concept of football. Well it is. I
Speaker 1: feel like I'm in the presence of a fellow nerd
Speaker 1: potentially to some degree which I appreciate. And I just wonder, like,
Speaker 1: are you spending all day long, like just hitting this
Speaker 1: motherboard up for these facts and figures. I just want
Speaker 1: to see what it looks like visually or is it
Speaker 1: just a lot? What What is your program that you're
Speaker 1: running these games on when you put all of these predictions.
Speaker 1: It's called you called the model. Is it like it is?
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's a robot or if it's
Speaker 1: some sort of wall size type thing. I don't know it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel like I need answers. I think a lot
Speaker 1: of people would, in their own mind would wonder what
Speaker 1: it tame. Okay, so you imagine, like like I can,
Speaker 1: I'll take a picture of it. But there's several screens,
Speaker 1: so I have a multiple monitor and I run different
Speaker 1: things on each one. So imagine taking your game pass,
Speaker 1: feeding in all of the all of the coaches film
Speaker 1: because you have to see all the players, and then
Speaker 1: it draws like circles and lines and squares like it's
Speaker 1: you know how the the yellow line that shows you
Speaker 1: where the first down is. It's kind of the same ideas.
Speaker 1: That's it's computer vision. That's the thing that makes me special.
Speaker 1: It's the only thing. And you invented this, well, I
Speaker 1: wrote my own covert. A computer vision allows you to
Speaker 1: create the lines. I just say what do I want
Speaker 1: to measure? So that's that's the that's part of what
Speaker 1: I do. And then it's taking all those things and
Speaker 1: like looking for trends and doppelgangers, if you will keep
Speaker 1: it in our word reference. Of course, I live in
Speaker 1: that realm, so it's my realm too. So it's but
Speaker 1: it's like, what what are similarities. What are similarities? So
Speaker 1: is this defense operating like the eighty five Bears? Right?
Speaker 1: Like we saw a lot of comparisons this week between
Speaker 1: the Patriots current defense and the five Bears? So is
Speaker 1: that true? Yes or no? Did they operate against pressure
Speaker 1: with a lot of pressure or is it more the
Speaker 1: coverage from the back end? Like how? Because how a
Speaker 1: defense is effective is different, right, Like it either nets
Speaker 1: and points or it doesn't, but how it operates can
Speaker 1: be different, so you can't really compare, you know, like
Speaker 1: like we talked about home run hitters in in baseball, right,
Speaker 1: Like if you want to talk about how uh Barry
Speaker 1: Bonds you say him, maybe it's not a good one,
Speaker 1: but right, But you know, you can use these like
Speaker 1: sluggers with like a lot of power, or you can
Speaker 1: use it kind of like single and double hitters. Right,
Speaker 1: So you can't say yes, both get you know, have
Speaker 1: high on base percentages or things like that. But you
Speaker 1: what you want to see how they're doing it. Are
Speaker 1: they doing with power or are they doing it with
Speaker 1: you know, more efficiency? So and that's what you look
Speaker 1: for in football. What are the dopplic doppelgangers? So what
Speaker 1: about how does how is that all fed into what
Speaker 1: the model is to then predict like game scores each
Speaker 1: So you know how you like? Open up Microsoft Excel
Speaker 1: so like Excel looks like you ros right, Okay, Well,
Speaker 1: if you'd like to, it's on your computer. I'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure his columns and rows and basically that's that's a
Speaker 1: that's a program. That's a computer program. So I've written
Speaker 1: a program for my stuff that takes in a lot
Speaker 1: of different inputs and it doesn't look like Excel, but
Speaker 1: it's it operates like Excel. I ask it to do
Speaker 1: some stuff and it gives me a result kind of
Speaker 1: like Excel does if you were going to use it
Speaker 1: to create a spreadsheet for like your household income, right
Speaker 1: like like what you're doing around the house. So I
Speaker 1: created us the software that pulls in all these different
Speaker 1: data components and makes it so that I can visualize
Speaker 1: it so that I can use it to predict different things.
Speaker 1: And by the way, there are more than one model.
Speaker 1: There's multiple models, and they're all named after like old
Speaker 1: school rappers. Let's hear well, do you like sure? Okay?
Speaker 1: I feel like he's lying to me right now. Lots
Speaker 1: of music. I don't like being pigeonholed, and how did
Speaker 1: you know that? Greg doesn't like it's not ironic. She
Speaker 1: she makes a lot of like noise about Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't you know. I don't think you guys like
Speaker 1: me haven't been on the podcast. She's never listened to
Speaker 1: the podcast. That is completely untrue that she's building multiple
Speaker 1: high octane models. So I put on my headphones and
Speaker 1: I listened to some of my favorite podcasts, of which
Speaker 1: in okay, so I'm I like like I'm a tribe
Speaker 1: called quest kind of girl every time, like every once
Speaker 1: in a while, get mad at once, so like I'll
Speaker 1: name something like a little bit like like easy. Sometimes
Speaker 1: you love him, sometimes you hate him, stuff like they're
Speaker 1: you know like and obviously my favorite all time Christopher Wallace,
Speaker 1: which obviously is notorious b I g but you gotta
Speaker 1: his mother. You gotta go with what his mother nads him,
Speaker 1: so you gotta. So those are three of my favorites.
Speaker 1: Like the one that I referenced every week on our
Speaker 1: show is Christopher Wallace the Motherboard. Oh I get it, Okay,
Speaker 1: So to pick the games, let's let's just in terms
Speaker 1: of your model and the two thousand nineteen season, because
Speaker 1: We do talk about this a lot on the Power
Speaker 1: Ranking Show. Some teams don't whether there where the record is,
Speaker 1: where they're now rative is connected to them doesn't always
Speaker 1: drive up with where the model has them. What is
Speaker 1: a team that all season remains high up when you're
Speaker 1: talking about the best teams in the league that perhaps
Speaker 1: has been bouncing up and down the standings or in
Speaker 1: the view of the general public. So you know how
Speaker 1: like you always want to buy blue chip stocks, like
Speaker 1: you're gonna take an Apple stock. Maybe there's a down
Speaker 1: day or whatever, but like you're gonna take that blue
Speaker 1: chip stock to me, like the Kansas City Chiefs although
Speaker 1: they've had some down moments. The Chiefs and the Patriots
Speaker 1: are those two blue chip stocks there, You're Amazon your
Speaker 1: Apple that they're going to remain high even if there's
Speaker 1: some dips in temporary kind of like day trading, temporary dips.
Speaker 1: You want you want me to continue this? No? I like?
Speaker 1: But so the blue chip teams Pats the Chiefs even
Speaker 1: though they've lost games this year, and they lost a
Speaker 1: lot of games at home. And a big part of
Speaker 1: your model, the Christopher Wallace model, is the importance of
Speaker 1: getting a bye week in the playoffs when you're talking
Speaker 1: about Super Bowl probability, because then you remember, like if
Speaker 1: you think about it, if you if you kind of
Speaker 1: add together. So let's say tonight, so for the for
Speaker 1: the Thursday night game, right, like you, let's say there's
Speaker 1: like a fifty six, Like the winner is fifty six
Speaker 1: wins and fifty of the simulations. So the loser, what's
Speaker 1: the math there? Perfect, This is your backup if you
Speaker 1: go down. This is your backup on this stuff. That's right,
Speaker 1: pretty good, Like you're in the cloud. Now, let's go,
Speaker 1: let's put you in the cloud. Hands is in the cloud?
Speaker 1: Get so then you add to don't so not too late.
Speaker 1: So then you add together all the remaining like each
Speaker 1: game has those probabilities, so you add together those remaining
Speaker 1: ones to get the wind total. So if you think
Speaker 1: about it, if your wind totals are out of if
Speaker 1: like fifty six, then becomes one if you win or
Speaker 1: zero if you lose. But if you don't have that
Speaker 1: roll of the dice in the playoffs, then your number
Speaker 1: becomes like you have six games to play it out
Speaker 1: of instead of seven games to play it out of.
Speaker 1: So no matter what, you're going to be better off
Speaker 1: with a buy like, you know, even if it's that's why,
Speaker 1: it's just always more improbable, even if the better team
Speaker 1: that you think is better is not seated as highly
Speaker 1: and adversely and using that you know kind of parlance
Speaker 1: the blue chip stock, what's the opposite of that. I
Speaker 1: don't know that. Well, there's like like, look like you
Speaker 1: had a blue chip stock overvalued right now there's a
Speaker 1: little overvalued. Oh see, that's that's a good way that's overvalued. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so they're like stuck. I think you're probably looking at
Speaker 1: I mean, to be honest with you, We'll see, we'll
Speaker 1: see here. But I'm I'm curious what happens between this
Speaker 1: San Francisco and Green Bay game. One of those seems
Speaker 1: to be a bit I'm gonna say, maybe like a
Speaker 1: trading a little higher than maybe they should. I'm not
Speaker 1: saying their potentialist. I think the I think the loser
Speaker 1: of this one was maybe a little over is maybe
Speaker 1: now looking back, would be a little overvalued, right, Like
Speaker 1: you could argue, you could argue either way. Right San Francisco,
Speaker 1: you think about their defense, and then there we have
Speaker 1: a lot of questions on their offense. But then you've
Speaker 1: got Green Bay, and you're what's going on with their
Speaker 1: defense their offense. Aaron Rodgers always seems to give them
Speaker 1: a chance, so they could be a bit overvalued in
Speaker 1: terms of like super Bowl potential. And question on on
Speaker 1: these models, they obviously do so many things. I thought
Speaker 1: they were mostly numbers. You're telling me these models watch it,
Speaker 1: analyze game film every every single game. Well, I mean
Speaker 1: I won't be needed on this podcast any I watch
Speaker 1: it too, right. Like the point is is you want
Speaker 1: to have an I want to create an unbiased way,
Speaker 1: like I watched every single game too, right, But I'm biased,
Speaker 1: just like your biased. We're all biased, we no matter what,
Speaker 1: Like you can't not be bias your human being, right,
Speaker 1: some people are more biased than others, Like if you
Speaker 1: if you ask um. I used to ask Marshall Falk
Speaker 1: for help on certain things with running backs and picking
Speaker 1: up blitz is, and Marshall has a huge bias on
Speaker 1: running backs pick but he can't help it because that's Marshall,
Speaker 1: Like that's what he did, Like that's his area of expertise.
Speaker 1: So you have to learn how to take what Marshall
Speaker 1: told me and make that like something that helps, right
Speaker 1: as opposed to something that like makes me more biased.
Speaker 1: So when you measure things, and you measure actual distances
Speaker 1: from stuff, then you can say, hey, Aaron Donald is
Speaker 1: still getting within five ft of a quarterback. And by
Speaker 1: the way, we came up with that because when I
Speaker 1: was talking to coaches, it's like, most quarterbacks are about
Speaker 1: six ft tall, so their wingspans about six ft, so
Speaker 1: five inside of that your visions and thirty five degrees
Speaker 1: most people. So as long as like if your head's turning,
Speaker 1: but a defenders in your face, probably a good way
Speaker 1: to approximate pressure. So that's just to be more specific
Speaker 1: than like, oh they got through the old line, Okay,
Speaker 1: like does that did they really like did they have
Speaker 1: an effect? I don't know. So trying to like make
Speaker 1: things so that it's formulaic in a way where like
Speaker 1: if I just handed you the recipe, you could cook
Speaker 1: the cookies too, you can bake the cookies. I'm starting
Speaker 1: to think none of us are needed on this podcast.
Speaker 1: These robots that are that that are trained for war. Now,
Speaker 1: I mean, this is all happened, It's gonna be easy.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing. The better you the better your inputs,
Speaker 1: the better your output. So like coming up with that formula.
Speaker 1: You have to ask people who know so that you
Speaker 1: can come and then, by the way, you gotta keep
Speaker 1: making it better because the game evolves and the game changes,
Speaker 1: like everything changes. So the point is to just do
Speaker 1: it kind of quickly so you can do these like
Speaker 1: what if scenarios or make decision trees, but based on
Speaker 1: really smart mind. So like that, you're actually more valuable
Speaker 1: because then you become the person who informs what the
Speaker 1: robots looking for. The robot can just look through way
Speaker 1: more years of data faster than you because they don't
Speaker 1: have to category especially. I mean, you didn't have to
Speaker 1: go there. But it's the old it's the old Tom
Speaker 1: Brady scouting report thing too. I'm going to lean on here.
Speaker 1: The one ding they couldn't measure was right here. Okay,
Speaker 1: it's hot. You must have teams um reaching out trying
Speaker 1: to pull you away from NFL network and into their
Speaker 1: building as a singular employee. Ye oh, that's how you
Speaker 1: get paid names. I want names. I want organizations. Have
Speaker 1: you consulted with any teams they do? I actively consult
Speaker 1: with teams, But you don't hear about multiple income streams.
Speaker 1: Tell us get into that okay, So we got an annuity.
Speaker 1: And then it's the end of year, so you gotta
Speaker 1: consider what you're gonna be doing with your tax status.
Speaker 1: So we're in California, you gotta go make some donations.
Speaker 1: You're gonna pay a lot of tack. Smart aren't smart?
Speaker 1: So no, But what the what I like to do?
Speaker 1: The best team look just like everything else. If I'm
Speaker 1: listening to you and you're listening to me, and we
Speaker 1: can come up with something better together. I don't know,
Speaker 1: Like I know a bunch of people who like do
Speaker 1: like analytics or they say I don't even know what
Speaker 1: that word means anymore. But it's not a project, like
Speaker 1: they're just saying. They're just saying things. I see them
Speaker 1: on Twitter all the time. In fact, many times I
Speaker 1: have to throw my phone. My phone is always broken
Speaker 1: because I cannot stand looking at because these takes are
Speaker 1: so crappy. Like, of course you're gonna be better at
Speaker 1: passing the ball if you have Michael Thomas on your team.
Speaker 1: Then if you don't, like, I saw a whole thing
Speaker 1: this summer, and I don't care if this person listens
Speaker 1: and gets mad at me, But this whole thing I'm
Speaker 1: saying I'm a Lions fan, and they were saying that
Speaker 1: the Lions um were worse at passing now and because
Speaker 1: they've been trying to be a run first team. As
Speaker 1: it turns out, it's a tiny sample size, and you
Speaker 1: know what, it's better. It's easier to pass if Calvin
Speaker 1: Johnson's on your team then if he's not, like these
Speaker 1: are ridiculous, like these are ridiculous, like takes right. So
Speaker 1: instead it's like when I work with the team last year,
Speaker 1: I was asked by team to come up with an
Speaker 1: analysis of three or four, but three primary running backs
Speaker 1: that they think they could afford in this tier that's
Speaker 1: not a premier tier of running back. So back up,
Speaker 1: these are the Jets. No, it wasn't um. It was
Speaker 1: not the Jets, I will tell you that, But it's
Speaker 1: it's how do we how do we value these three things?
Speaker 1: And it was like, so I sat down with coach
Speaker 1: and I said, well, what kind of offense are you
Speaker 1: going to run? Is it going to be different? Like,
Speaker 1: what what is your strategy? What are the things you're
Speaker 1: prioritizing for? And all I did then was I organized
Speaker 1: everything that he said into categories and then analyze each
Speaker 1: of the running backs that they asked me about into
Speaker 1: those categories and made some cut ups because coaches speaking
Speaker 1: cut ups. Put it into biggie smalls and see what happens.
Speaker 1: And that was that was a different one. That was, yeah,
Speaker 1: I know it's these names are no no, no, but
Speaker 1: but you know, but exactly like you know, you put
Speaker 1: it in there and out with it just gives it
Speaker 1: like a great like this one's an eight out of ten.
Speaker 1: Or here the five clips that are exactly what you're
Speaker 1: looking for. Here are the five cut ups that are
Speaker 1: not what you're looking for. And here the five that
Speaker 1: I have no idea how to explain, but you should
Speaker 1: probably look at as a coach. Alright, So it's really helpful.
Speaker 1: Two things we focused. We gotta let Cynthia go. Two
Speaker 1: things we need to hit real quick. One, be careful
Speaker 1: with this with the With how much information pump into it,
Speaker 1: it becomes self aware. You've seen the terminator terminator franchise.
Speaker 1: Oh I know, sometimes it scares me. What it tells
Speaker 1: me AI is like legit. Just so you're saying the person,
Speaker 1: you know, the thing that could come into the company
Speaker 1: and replace Cynthia would be her own creation. That's what
Speaker 1: I'm saying exactly, And that could be the least of
Speaker 1: your problems. She could replace you, It could replace you.
Speaker 1: And always you're saying you're a great cook in the kitchen.
Speaker 1: Be careful how much information and pump into its hardware.
Speaker 1: Embrace the change it's going to happen. No, you just
Speaker 1: gotta be better than I told you the formula. You
Speaker 1: just have to be the one informing what it's looking at.
Speaker 1: Couldn't magine that? Te last thought, last thought, because we've
Speaker 1: got to get to our previous show. Here, the model says,
Speaker 1: who wins the super Bowl? Right now? The Patriots? Come on, yeah,
Speaker 1: but what's the percentage? It's right? See, that's the thing
Speaker 1: is people I saw yesterday on Twitter this it was like, alright,
Speaker 1: I'm making you know, it's like hot take alert. It's
Speaker 1: like this ex athlete says, the Patriots are done. They
Speaker 1: are not winning the super Bowl this year. And I'm thinking,
Speaker 1: and I'm thinking, well, the most optimistic assessment that the
Speaker 1: Patriots are the favorites in the NFL would say that
Speaker 1: they're not winning the super Bowl because no team would
Speaker 1: have a greater than fifty chance to win the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: Her favorite is that because stuff put We like the
Speaker 1: buttons on our show, don't we. I mean, look, it
Speaker 1: goes right now. It's Patriots, Ravens. What was third Chiefs, Chiefs,
Speaker 1: Patriot Ravens, Chiefs Saints. That was it. That's the button.
Speaker 1: It feels like you should be doing power rankings, but
Speaker 1: I'll leave it there. She does. She's more real on
Speaker 1: the field. Thanks for having me, Um, all right, Cynthia Freeland.
Speaker 1: Check her out on all different NFL network programming. And
Speaker 1: thank you for coming on the show. You know, thanks
Speaker 1: for having me as any enemies in the room, Marks
Speaker 1: like fellow nerds, all right, Cynthia Freeland, all right, that
Speaker 1: was Cynthia and uh the rest of us. You know,
Speaker 1: I thought we all did well in that interview, West,
Speaker 1: but you really stood out to me, Like what you're really,
Speaker 1: um incisive, You're an incisive guy. See I thought the
Speaker 1: opposite that she obviously has a natural rapport with you
Speaker 1: and Dan from being on shows with her, whereas Mark
Speaker 1: and I were kind of left of the circle a
Speaker 1: little bit. Uh. You know, well, what can I say.
Speaker 1: We've been working together. It's uh, it's been a lot
Speaker 1: of fun. People should check out, you know, If you're
Speaker 1: making it this deep into the Thursday night recap show
Speaker 1: and the interview with Cynthia, you're a real football head,
Speaker 1: you're a real fan, and uh, I think you'll enjoy
Speaker 1: game debut. Uh think nine a m. And midnight Eastern
Speaker 1: time on Saturdays. You can d v R and then
Speaker 1: watch it with your kids anytime until then, though, West,
Speaker 1: we we should get out of here. Let's get okay.
Speaker 1: They're going for Chris and Dan and Mark and Cynthia
Speaker 1: and the wonderful Ericatan Posey behind the glass. We will
Speaker 1: talk to you ascenday m