There are weeks where we have to look around sports and figure out what deserves to lead the show.

This was not one of those weeks.

Colorado football basically looked at us and said, “Don’t worry, we’ve got two hours of content for you.”

CU went to Lubbock, changed quarterbacks, threw interceptions like they were trying to hand out souvenirs, and somehow ended up in the middle of a story involving an alleged lost playbook at the team hotel bar.

Then Colorado State decided that wasn’t enough chaos for one state and relieved its defensive coordinator of play-calling duties during the game before the situation spiraled from there.

And somehow that was only the beginning of Episode 292.

The Broncos lost. My Bengals lost. We have three undefeated NFL teams worth figuring out. Fantasy football continues to ruin friendships. The Avalanche are back. Nathan MacKinnon apparently decided scoring goals wasn’t enough and started handing out ass-kickings too.

Oh, and for the first time ever, Niko and I drafted our NFL Pick’em teams against each other.

Welcome to sports nirvana, Benchwarmers.

CU Football Has Reached the “Of Course This Is Believable” Stage

I almost think that is the most damning part of this entire CU story.

It isn’t even whether the alleged playbook actually made its way into the hands of Texas Tech coaches. There is no point pretending we know something that we don’t know.

It is that when the story came out, neither Niko nor I looked at it and said, “There is absolutely no way Colorado could have done that.”

Instead, the reaction was basically:

Yeah. That tracks.

That’s where this program is right now.

Colorado was already coming off a frustrating collapse against Baylor. Then the quarterback situation changes, Isaac Wilson gets his opportunity, and the offense turns into a turnover factory against Texas Tech.

Then comes the report that a CU playbook may have been left behind at the hotel bar.

Not the entire offensive system. But enough information—scripted plays, situational calls, first-down material—that if I’m coaching the team and I know it is missing, I’m changing things.

Immediately.

I coach football at a completely different level, and even there, if somebody tells me a sheet containing the plays we planned to use that weekend disappeared, guess what?

We’re not running those plays anymore.

That’s basic operational competence.

And yet CU went out there and had the kind of game where even special teams struggled to get the correct number of players onto the field.

That is what bothers me more than any conspiracy theory about whether Texas Tech saw the playbook.

It’s the accumulation.

The penalties. The mental mistakes. The quarterback instability. The coaching questions. The roster turnover. And now we’re discussing whether somebody brought the game plan down to the bar like it was their wallet and keys.

There was a time when Deion Sanders made Colorado the center of the college football universe because everybody wanted to see what he was building.

Now they are still the center of attention, but for completely different reasons.

That is a much more dangerous place to be.

CSU Somehow Found a Way to Top It

You want to know how weird the weekend was?

CU allegedly losing a playbook was not even the most unusual coaching story in Colorado.

Colorado State relieved defensive coordinator Tyson Summers of his play-calling responsibilities during the first half.

Not Sunday morning.

Not after film review.

Not at the end of the season.

During the football game.

There was some debate on the show over whether calling it a “firing” is technically accurate at the moment the play-calling duties were removed, but the important part is what happened afterward.

The defense had been getting shredded for weeks, the change was made, and the relationship essentially disintegrated from there.

My biggest takeaway is pretty simple: if a head coach is willing to make that move before halftime, how close were you to making it before kickoff?

Because you don’t suddenly arrive at that level of frustration after three drives.

This had been building.

And for Jim Mora, I actually think what happened afterward confirmed that he had reached the point where something needed to change.

That doesn’t mean CSU suddenly becomes a good football team. It doesn’t erase the yardage and points that defense has allowed. It doesn’t magically fix the season.

But at some point a head coach has to decide whether he is going to allow somebody else’s unit to get him fired.

Mora decided he wasn’t.

Whether it ultimately works is a completely different question.

The Broncos and Bengals Found Two Different Ways to Ruin My Weekend

This was a fantastic weekend for me personally because both NFL teams I care about managed to lose.

The Broncos frustrated me because the offense still looks like it is trying to solve a puzzle that shouldn’t be this difficult.

The Bengals frustrated me because they can pile up offense and somehow still find a way to lose.

Pick your poison.

Denver: At Some Point, Run the Damn Football

The Broncos stayed competitive with San Francisco, but once again I came away from the game wondering what exactly Denver wants its offensive identity to be.

Because right now, I don’t know.

And I don’t think they know either.

Davis Webb has been handed an incredibly difficult opening stretch as a first-time NFL play-caller, and I understand that. Denver has been staring at playoff-level opponents basically every week.

But understanding why something is difficult doesn’t mean we have to pretend it is working.

There are weapons on this offense.

Use them.

There is an offensive line that is supposed to be one of the strengths of this football team.

Run behind it.

And if Denver continues struggling offensively, there eventually comes a point where Sean Payton has to ask whether letting somebody else call plays is helping the team—or allowing somebody else to coach him out of a job.

That conversation is not here yet.

But I don’t think it is nearly as far away as it was a month ago.

Cincinnati: Travis Hunter Stole Our Lunch Money

Then there are my Cincinnati Bengals.

Joe Burrow put up a mountain of passing production and it still wasn’t enough against Jacksonville.

And I need to give the Jaguars credit here instead of turning this into another “what is wrong with Cincinnati?” rant.

Jacksonville looks legitimate.

Their pass rush can cause problems. Their offense has weapons all over the place. Trevor Lawrence looks comfortable. And Travis Hunter looked like somebody turned the difficulty setting down.

He hit Ja’Marr Chase.

He made a huge play against Tee Higgins.

Then Higgins tried to make a tackle and Hunter hit him with a move that made the entire thing look disrespectful.

At some point I stopped being mad and started appreciating what I was watching.

That dude is ridiculous.

Jacksonville is one of those teams I normally spend September waiting to expose itself.

I’m not doing that right now.

They have my attention.

Three Undefeated Teams — But I Don’t Trust Them Equally

The NFL is down to three unbeaten teams:

Kansas City. San Francisco. Minnesota.

Kansas City is Kansas City. Patrick Mahomes looks more like Patrick Mahomes again, and the offense has enough around him that I’m done trying to predict when the Chiefs are finally going away.

San Francisco might be the most complete team of the three. They find ways to win, their defense makes life miserable and they don’t need every game to look the same.

Then we have Minnesota.

And Minnesota is fascinating.

The Vikings are winning games in a way that looks completely different from the other two teams. Their defense and special teams have been doing enormous amounts of the work while the offense has not needed to carry them.

That is both impressive and terrifying.

Brian Flores has that defense playing at a level where Minnesota doesn’t need perfect offensive football to beat you.

But eventually?

Somebody is going to make them score.

That is when we find out what kind of team the Vikings really are.

I’m not calling them fake. You don’t accidentally start undefeated.

But if you make me rank the three teams I trust in January?

Minnesota is still third.

Fantasy Football: Boom, Bust and the Punishment I Still Owe

Yes, before anybody asks:

The fantasy punishment is still happening.

I am not celebrating my birthday until I get it done. I have publicly put myself into that box, so now I have no choice.

Moving on.

Niko’s Boom this week was Romeo Doubs, while I couldn’t ignore what CeeDee Lamb did. Seventeen catches and nearly 200 yards is the type of performance where the defense knows exactly where the football is going and still can’t do anything about it.

We also had to talk about Bijan Robinson, because at this point you can make a legitimate case that Atlanta has built its entire offense around letting No. 7 destroy people.

If you have him in fantasy, congratulations.

If someone else has him in dynasty and is inexplicably willing to talk trade?

Send everything.

My Bust was the Philadelphia Eagles defense, a unit that entered the season with massive expectations and then couldn’t get off the field when it mattered against Los Angeles.

For Start/Sit, I’m riding with Garrett Wilson against Cleveland.

Niko likes Aaron Jones.

He’s sitting Jordan Love, while I’m avoiding David Montgomery.

Fantasy football makes all of us look like geniuses for approximately three hours before reminding us we know nothing.

The First-Ever FeOTB Pick’em Draft

This might be my favorite change we’ve made to the show this season.

Instead of Niko and I independently picking games and eventually ending up with some of the same obvious favorites, we turned the segment into an actual draft.

Once one of us takes a team, that game is gone.

You can complain that you wanted the pick.

You can say somebody reached.

You can tell everybody the team would have made it back to you.

But you cannot take them.

And since I have been getting my ass kicked in Pick’em this season, I received the honor of the first overall pick.

Here is how the first draft went:

I went Dallas at No. 1 because I trust what that offense has been doing more than I trust anything Tampa Bay is putting on the field right now.

Niko countered with Houston over Tennessee.

I grabbed my Bengals in Round 2—which is terrifying because Cincinnati has burned me in Pick’em more times than I care to remember—before Niko took New England over Vegas.

The third round gave us Minnesota and Detroit.

Then it got juicy.

I closed my draft with Jacksonville over Philadelphia in London.

After everything I just said about the Jaguars, I have to put my money where my mouth is.

Niko finished by taking the Broncos over the Chargers.

I now have the rare privilege of hoping Niko is correct.

The Avalanche Are Back — And Nate Dog Is Already Angry

There is no better time of the sports calendar than this.

Football every day. Playoff baseball. Basketball getting ready to return.

And now the Avalanche are back.

Colorado came flying out of the gate offensively, and Nathan MacKinnon wasted absolutely no time reminding everybody that he is not only one of the most terrifying offensive players on Earth.

Apparently he also decided he wanted to fight people.

Watching MacKinnon go after Brandt Clarke was one of those moments where I went from:

“Oh, cool, there’s a fight.”

to:

“WAIT. THAT’S NATHAN MACKINNON.”

I get scared every time he does this.

This is one of the best hockey players alive. I would prefer his hands remain attached to his body and not somebody else’s face.

But there is also something unbelievably entertaining about watching a superstar say, “No, I’ll handle this myself.”

That is why we call him Nate Dog.

He can skate through your entire team and score.

Or apparently he can decide somebody looked at him wrong and turn into a rabid Rottweiler.

Either way, the Avs are back.

And after what we saw from the power play and Mackenzie Blackwood early, there is a lot to like.

Players of the Week

Niko went to playoff baseball with Munetaka Murakami of the Chicago White Sox.

Murakami has become one of the personalities Niko has gravitated toward, but more importantly, he has been producing for a White Sox team that went from being one of baseball’s punching bags to playing meaningful October baseball.

That earns some flowers.

I went back to college football.

Ashton Daniels. Florida State.

183 passing yards.

136 rushing yards.

319 total yards.

Five touchdowns.

Florida State wins 38-7.

I’m not going to overthink this one.

When your quarterback accounts for five touchdowns and more than 300 yards while his team destroys a conference opponent, he can sit comfortably in the Player of the Week chair.

Benchwarmers of the Week

Niko went international.

His Benchwarmer is Manchester City, with the conversation centered on the massive financial case hanging over one of the biggest soccer clubs in the world.

I will freely admit: when Niko starts getting deep into world football, I am learning along with everybody else.

But when you start talking about more than 100 allegations, contracts, finances, potential punishment and what all of it could mean for one of the most successful clubs of the modern era?

Yeah.

I can understand that.

My Benchwarmer required significantly less explanation.

The Denver Broncos running back room.

Against San Francisco:

J.K. Dobbins: 11 carries, 40 yards.

RJ Harvey: seven carries, 25 yards.

Tyler Badie: two carries, seven yards.

That is 20 carries for 72 yards.

3.6 yards per carry.

And the longest run from a Broncos running back?

Nine yards.

Nine.

I don’t want to hear about having one of the best offensive lines in football if the running backs cannot get into the second level.

I desperately want this graphic to look stupid by December.

I want Jonah Coleman healthy and rolling. I want Harvey breaking games open. I want Dobbins producing. I want to look back and laugh at the fact that I made the entire running back room my Benchwarmer of the Week.

But right now?

They earned it.

This Is Why We Love This Time of Year

This episode is basically everything I love about doing this show.

We start talking about a college football coach allegedly losing a playbook at a bar.

Somehow transition into another Colorado program changing defensive leadership during a game.

Spend half an hour arguing about NFL teams.

Turn fantasy football into therapy.

Invent a new Pick’em format.

Talk hockey fights.

Jump into playoff baseball.

And eventually find our way to Manchester City.

That is The Far End of the Bench.

Same guys. Different views. Whatever sport gives us something worth talking about, we’re going there.

And right now?

Sports are giving us everything.

Football fans are living in nirvana. Hockey is back. Baseball is in October. Basketball is around the corner.

Enjoy it, Benchwarmers.

We’ll be right back at the far end of the bench next week.

Follow @FeOTBpod everywhere, subscribe on YouTube, and check out Episode 292 wherever you get the show.