PMT DB
PMT DB
Playoff baseball has reached the point where every out feels like a personal attack, and PMT was watching the Padres and Brewers finish another instant classic before the show could even get moving. Mason Miller missing the game because his child was being born sparked a full PFT calendar-management seminar, including the bold proposal that closers should receive an organizational email explaining when it is safe to raw dog. The Padres won anyway, which is apparently all that matters.
Playoff Baseball Is Sicko Ball
Big Cat was ready to crown the White Sox the funnest team in baseball after they kept finding huge moments against Cleveland. Sean Burke throwing basically an entire game in relief, the Guardians having a lineup that scares nobody, and White Sox Dave allegedly helping the team identify tipped pitches all combined into a beautiful little baseball fairy tale. Big Cat, naturally, immediately tried to jinx it.
Big CatThe White Sox are going to finish off the Guardians
I do think that this series is over. I think the White Sox are just playing at such a hot level and they just have the momentum, and that counts for something in October.
The Yankees, meanwhile, were putting on a slapstick performance in Tampa. More errors than hits, a .086 team batting average, and a second inning that had Hank laughing alone on his couch. Big Cat’s diagnosis was less “temporary slump” and more “this is who they are.”
Big CatThe Yankees are the dynasty of coming up short
The Yankees are built—I feel like they have the greatest dynasty of being the second-best team every year. They're in the playoffs and every year they're good to win a series and then just fall apart.
The Dodgers got their usual playoff superteam treatment, with Yamamoto dominating on the road and Kiké Hernández apparently transforming into the greatest postseason player who has ever lived every October. PFT’s description of Los Angeles was not exactly optimistic for the rest of the National League.
PFT CommenterThe Dodgers are basically impossible to beat in October
They just—they're impossible to beat. You need outstanding starting pitching and a shutdown closer, and then maybe you have a chance in terms of fluking your way into three wins against them.
Lane Johnson Gets His Flowers
Lane Johnson retiring in the middle of the season turned into a rare moment of universal Eagles respect. Big Cat ran through the absurd numbers: Philadelphia is dramatically better when Johnson plays, and he has given up almost no sacks since turning 30. PFT and Max also made sure the conversation stayed focused on Lane the person, especially his openness about mental health and the way he made it easier for teammates to talk about their own struggles.
The Falcons Are Actually Fun
Atlanta turned Domecoming into a demolition, racing past New Orleans 45-24 and draining the emotion out of the building before halftime. Michael Penix looked healthy, Bijan Robinson looked like he was playing a different sport, and Drake London looked like a true No. 1 receiver. The Falcons went from dead-last offensive numbers early in the season to an offense that suddenly cannot stop scoring.
Big CatThe Falcons have a real chance to send two NFC South teams to the playoffs
There's a chance that the NFC South does get two teams. The Panthers and Falcons have looked really good and they have chances to be good teams.
PFT was ready to bury Detroit after deciding the Lions’ defense is made of something less sturdy than NFL-caliber material. The NFC remains wide open behind the obvious monsters out West, which means the Falcons might actually get to spend the winter making everyone uncomfortable.
PFT CommenterThe Lions are out of my Super Bowl conversation
They should be taking removed, I'm gonna remove them from my personal Super Bowl conversation. They got a doo-doo peepee defense right now.
Hot Seat, Cool Throne, Wet Robots
The Hot Seat/Cool Throne segment delivered its usual range: NBA salary-cap conspiracy theories, a debate over whether LeBron is secretly a deep-state asset, Ovechkin announcing his final season, and Dylan Brooks immediately starting a preseason fight. PFT believes Brooks is still fully committed to the craft of being the most annoying person in the building.
PFT CommenterDylan Brooks is still in midseason form as a provocateur
Dylan Brooks still has it. He's still got it. He's looking to put up career numbers in terms of objections this year.
Zac then introduced the nightmare of the week: Japanese researchers putting living human skin on robot hands. The skin has to stay wet, because apparently the future is just reverse Gremlins, and Zac thinks the grocery store will soon be filled with robots that look completely human. Big Cat’s proposed solution to the technological arms race was simple: everyone needs to chill out, get laid, smoke some weed, and watch a game.
ZacHuman-skinned robots will be walking among us within a decade
What would you guys say, timeline on full robot human skin? You run into it in the grocery store and don't know it. It's under 10 years.
Eli Manning Talks Quarterbacks
Eli Manning arrived in studio to settle the most important football statistic of all: quarterback slides. He wants slides officially tracked, believes self-sacks deserve their own category, and explained that a quarterback should slide and turn rather than present his face to a defensive lineman. It was the kind of extremely practical advice you only get from a two-time Super Bowl champion who spent his career mastering the art of falling down at exactly the right time.
Eli ManningQuarterbacks should slide and turn their backs to the defense
You gotta slide and then you gotta turn. So if someone does hit you, you don't just get taken to the shot to the face and get knocked out. The point of sliding is not to take a hit.
Eli also revealed that he sees some of himself in Baker Mayfield because Baker is willing to keep firing even after throwing three interceptions. That led naturally into the broader Manning family agenda: Arch should not make jokes to the media, Peyton’s arm is cooked, and Thanksgiving quarterback duties belong to Eli and Arch while Peyton gets demoted to offensive coordinator.
Eli called Josh Allen the best quarterback in football right now, then offered a fascinating explanation for why the Chiefs look better when Patrick Mahomes does not have to carry every single snap. The interview ended with Eli declaring Peyton’s rookie interception record unbreakable, which is a convenient position for a younger brother who has spent decades watching Peyton get credit for everything.
Eli ManningJosh Allen is the best quarterback in the NFL right now
I think Josh is the best quarterback in the NFL right now. His skill set, being able to run and make the throws, and be a fourth-quarter guy and throughout the whole game take over a game.
Eli ManningPeyton's rookie interception record will never be broken
That record will not be broken again. If any quarterback threw 10 interceptions in their first three games like he did, they're getting pulled and they're getting booed and called a bust.
Russillo Versus College Football
Ryen Russillo came in ready to admit that college football is the sport everyone understands the least, which is saying something on this podcast. The transfer portal and NIL have turned roster evaluation into a yearly Ponzi scheme, where a team can go from contender to disaster because three transfers did not fit together and a booster decided he was done funding the experiment.
Russillo thinks the SEC’s era of dominance is not over, only temporarily interrupted by the new money landscape. He expects the conference to start rolling through everybody again, while the Big Ten’s second tier gets better and more annoying.
He was much less charitable toward Lincoln Riley, pointing out that USC still needs a signature win instead of another season of looking soft whenever a real heavyweight shows up. BYU also failed to make the Russillo Trust Tree, despite being ranked eighth in both polls.
The interview somehow ended with Russillo ranking possible Eastern Conference contenders, admitting that the Embiid bet is bad if the standard is getting out of the East, and then being forced to name Charlotte as his tenth team. Max was not interested in hearing the list after that.
Flat Earth, Chargers, and Other Crimes
The listener-take portion began with Zac claiming that a suspicious number of pilots believe the Earth is flat. Big Cat countered with the scientifically rigorous idea that the planet is “60% round, 40% flat,” which is also how he evaluates most of the NFL after four weeks.
Hank then found the emotional truth of the early season: 2-2 feels like hope, while 1-3 feels like the franchise has already been condemned. The Chargers were offered as a possible 0-4 miracle story, but their upcoming schedule made even that cope difficult to defend.
The show closed with numbers, birthdays, and enough shouted guesses to make a simple segment feel like a hostage negotiation. Somewhere, a 45-pound weighted vest is waiting for its next victim.
