Speaker 1: The Around the NFL podcast, getting Younger by the episode.
Speaker 1: Welcome to another edition of Around the NFL, Part two
Speaker 1: of our Super wild Card Weekend recap series one of two,
Speaker 1: and yes it is set. The best weekend in football
Speaker 1: Divisional round playoffs is set.
Speaker 2: Let's go through it.
Speaker 1: Saturday one thirty pm Texans at Ravens, Saturday five point
Speaker 1: fifteen pm Packers at Niners, Sunday noon Bucks Lions, and
Speaker 1: Sunday three point thirty Chiefs Bills. Give me it, Give
Speaker 1: me everything you got. That is a great slate of
Speaker 1: divisional round football. And to get to those matchups we
Speaker 1: had to get through and we thought we had gotten
Speaker 1: all the floating trash bags out. Well, we had to
Speaker 1: use this long weekend, this holiday weekend and Happy Martin
Speaker 1: Luther King Junior Day to everyone to sort out the
Speaker 1: teams that don't matter and the teams that do. And
Speaker 1: we're going to get into all that with the last
Speaker 1: two games that were played on Monday. Dan hanss here
Speaker 1: with Greg Rosenthal and Mark Sessler, and yes, boys, we
Speaker 1: did not get any classics on Monday. In fact, it
Speaker 1: was two pretty much one sided affairs, one more than
Speaker 1: the other. But we did do the business that we
Speaker 1: needed to do to set up what I think is
Speaker 1: going to be a brilliant week of football next week.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I appreciate you going Pacific time with all the
Speaker 3: times for next week. That was an cost best coast, Like,
Speaker 3: let's normalize that. And yeah, the average margin of victory
Speaker 3: this week for these six games was seventeen and a
Speaker 3: half points. The two games on Monday, as you mentioned,
Speaker 3: weren't like overly competitive, although they were both within one
Speaker 3: score at different points in the second half and never
Speaker 3: felt close. But I guess that's why the NFL still wins,
Speaker 3: or maybe I'm just an addict, is that even though
Speaker 3: these games, like they really weren't great, just the stories
Speaker 3: that kind of come with them, especially tonight watching the
Speaker 3: Eagles go down like that, to me, are just so
Speaker 3: fascinating in terms of the drama and everything that's gonna
Speaker 3: come next and everything that came before it to get
Speaker 3: to this point that it's still like you can't you
Speaker 3: can't stop watching it, even as it's a car crash.
Speaker 4: Yeah, because I think if you're gonna it can go
Speaker 4: two ways. And we're so used to so many of
Speaker 4: these playoff games going down to the final possession into overtime.
Speaker 4: This was a different weekend. If we're still in the weekend,
Speaker 4: I'm not sure it's still the weekend. It's Monday. It's
Speaker 4: a holiday Monday, but we didn't have school, so at least. Yeah,
Speaker 4: you're right, so I guess it is. It's a long weekend.
Speaker 4: But I mean, like when the Cowboys get dismantled utterly,
Speaker 4: and when the Eagles get their doors blown off, and
Speaker 4: when even Mike Tomlin is walking off the podium as
Speaker 4: he's being asked about his future, It's like we are
Speaker 4: getting storylines that are pretty impactful with some of the
Speaker 4: most deeply embedded franchises in NFL history.
Speaker 2: So I'll take it. I mean, I'll take that.
Speaker 1: Geez, those shots of Jeffrey Laurie in the Eagles owner suite,
Speaker 1: I mean, you can't tell me. You're looking at the
Speaker 1: way that those shots of Laurie's stonefaced and almost catatonic,
Speaker 1: and you're wondering what does it mean for Nick Sirianni,
Speaker 1: and of course, what does it mean for Mike McCarthy,
Speaker 1: and what does it mean for Mike Tomman. You're right, Mark,
Speaker 1: there's so many storylines on wrap ahead, But let's get
Speaker 1: to the games that were played today, including that Eagles game.
Speaker 1: But let's start. Let's go in order in which they
Speaker 1: were played. The Bills and Steelers were originally scheduled for Sunday,
Speaker 1: but a blizzard socked western New York. By today, they
Speaker 1: had the field looking pristine. The seats were still covered
Speaker 1: in snow, which must have been like probably like crazy
Speaker 1: annoying if you there, But we were watching it on television,
Speaker 1: so it was all cool for us and for Bills fans.
Speaker 2: Man, you're alive, You're alive, and well. The Orchard Park.
Speaker 5: Five on the play clock here on second and nine,
Speaker 5: takes his snap back to pass, fires over the middle,
Speaker 5: complete on a crossing route to Shakir, who gets away
Speaker 5: from the tackler down to the ten looking for the
Speaker 5: end zone, and he's in. Khalil Shakir did a disappearing
Speaker 5: act on the tackler who first his field and found
Speaker 5: the end zone. Unbelievable.
Speaker 1: If you want your child to go up to be
Speaker 1: a star linebacker, do not let him see tape from
Speaker 1: either game play today. So the worst tackling you will
Speaker 1: ever see, and Khalil Shakir stayed on his feet evaded
Speaker 1: would be Steelers tacklers and found his way to the
Speaker 1: end zone, the clinching score for the Buffalo Bills in
Speaker 1: a thirty one to seventeen win over the Steelers, who
Speaker 1: were nice enough I thought to take my strong hint
Speaker 1: that they weren't invited to next week's action, and they
Speaker 1: acted accordingly, well, you know, keeping it respectful. It started
Speaker 1: fourteen to nothing this game, with the Bills hitting the
Speaker 1: tight ends twice in the first quarter and Josh Allen
Speaker 1: looking locked in, and then Buffalo, as they've been known
Speaker 1: to do this year, start to get a little sloppy,
Speaker 1: start to kind of rest on their laurels. They actually
Speaker 1: let the Steelers back into this game, Greg Rosenthal, to
Speaker 1: the point where we're talking about a one score game.
Speaker 2: But it was one of those things.
Speaker 1: It was the Swingers game that we talked about earlier
Speaker 1: this year, Mark, and one of the Thursday night games
Speaker 1: where it was almost like the Bills were just toying
Speaker 1: with the bunny.
Speaker 2: They were a bear.
Speaker 1: They were just toying with the bunny, and when it
Speaker 1: was time to kill the bunny, that's what they did.
Speaker 2: The Steelers are that bunny.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they were down what twenty one to nothing in
Speaker 3: the first half, and there's a blocked field goal that
Speaker 3: that Steelers end up taking advantage of scoring a touchdown
Speaker 3: later on that driver. Else that they could have been
Speaker 3: down twenty four, but all the defensive injuries for the Bills,
Speaker 3: which will get who did lead to a point. It
Speaker 3: was twenty four seventeen in the fourth quarter, Bills get
Speaker 3: the ball and I was like, you, Dan, I never
Speaker 3: thought this was really a game because I just thought, well,
Speaker 3: the Steelers defense isn't going to stop them, and they didn't.
Speaker 3: And I think that drive at twenty four to seventeen,
Speaker 3: which finished with that Shakir catch we heard, was really
Speaker 3: all about what this Bill's team can do this year,
Speaker 3: which is they only threw the ball twice on that drive.
Speaker 2: They let Josh Allen run it a couple times.
Speaker 3: He had that big run on a Reid option where
Speaker 3: he plows into the defender, and I just have this
Speaker 3: image of the left tackle Dion Dawkins going up behind
Speaker 3: josh Allen after that play and making the flex that
Speaker 3: Josh Allen does and all the offensive linemen being so
Speaker 3: jacked up, and Josh Allen ends up running for seventy
Speaker 3: four including that long touchdown. It's like this is a
Speaker 3: tougher Bills team that they can match a team like
Speaker 3: the Steelers that also runs the ball well. And ultimately
Speaker 3: they made enough plays on defense this offense and Josh Allen,
Speaker 3: who played a very clean game, we get out of
Speaker 3: mark for you know, the the Josh Allen roller coaster.
Speaker 3: This is not a roller coaster game. This was just
Speaker 3: a very good game throwing in running the ball by Josh.
Speaker 2: Allen, Yeah, it was.
Speaker 4: It was, you know, methodical, and I thought that the
Speaker 4: you know, even though there was a one score situation late,
Speaker 4: I don't know, to me, it felt like it's at
Speaker 4: some point the Bills will do something to clean this
Speaker 4: up and execute the Steelers.
Speaker 6: And they did.
Speaker 4: And I thought, jos Josh Allen, like, you know, the
Speaker 4: running ability over the last month plus, really since the
Speaker 4: coordinator switch has been a huge factor for them. The
Speaker 4: second longest touchdown run fifty two yards in NFL playoff history.
Speaker 4: He's the perfect guy to do that. He dominated it
Speaker 4: in cold weather. Three touchdowns, no turnovers, Like they clean
Speaker 4: stuff up in the red zone for the most part,
Speaker 4: and they continue to get help from unlikely characters because,
Speaker 4: like you mentioned greg like Terrell Bernard goes down, Christian Benford,
Speaker 4: Toron Johnson, like that's a factor next week. But they
Speaker 4: survived today, and they survived pretty easily, Like the Steelers
Speaker 4: are going to put up a fight.
Speaker 2: But I don't know. I watched that thing.
Speaker 4: It felt like a low drama element to me, like
Speaker 4: it was just a matter of time until Buffalo did
Speaker 4: what they needed to do.
Speaker 2: I mean, the idea of the seventh seed being added.
Speaker 1: You have to take the good with the bet because
Speaker 1: you're gonna take a bad Steelers team within the prism
Speaker 1: of looking at postseason football, but you're also gonna get
Speaker 1: on the other side a team like the Packers, which
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people think is a team
Speaker 1: that has a chance to make a deep run in
Speaker 1: the playoffs. So the Steelers felt like they were really
Speaker 1: a placeholder for a Bills team that has now gone
Speaker 1: from six and six to twelve and six, and they
Speaker 1: had their postseason odds were under ten percent at one point.
Speaker 2: I think they were what was.
Speaker 1: It, were they tenth or twelfth in the playoff race
Speaker 1: at one point, and now here they are not only
Speaker 1: winning this game and getting once again to the second
Speaker 1: round of the playoffs, which they do every year. Now
Speaker 1: they're gonna be hosting the Chiefs in their building, and
Speaker 1: Josh Allen after the game talked about this topsy turvy
Speaker 1: year for the Bills and how the struggles of earlier
Speaker 1: in the season have kind of made them stronger now.
Speaker 7: Well, I mean, I think we're playing at a comfortable
Speaker 7: level because of the uncomfortable situations that we've been in
Speaker 7: this last six seven weeks. You know, it's almost a
Speaker 7: sense of our breath or fresh air and knowing that
Speaker 7: everybody's in the same position that we have been, you know,
Speaker 7: win or go home, and to be in that situation,
Speaker 7: like I said, the dividends that it's going to pay off,
Speaker 7: you know. I think you kind of saw that tonight
Speaker 7: of you know, we were cool, calm and collected and
Speaker 7: nobody nobody blinked, and we just kind of went out
Speaker 7: there and did our job. And we're going to need
Speaker 7: to continue.
Speaker 2: To do that.
Speaker 1: I think I know what he's saying there too, Greg
Speaker 1: that those games and you remember late in December around
Speaker 1: Christmas time, you know, while the rest of the league
Speaker 1: was either playing out the string or everyone had different
Speaker 1: levels of urgency, the Bills are playing for their lives
Speaker 1: week after week after week, and there's that must have
Speaker 1: taken a mental toll, and it's almost freeing now that
Speaker 1: they're just like everybody else.
Speaker 2: You win or you go home. And I love I
Speaker 2: love the.
Speaker 1: Bills chances against a vulnerable Chiefs team because of the
Speaker 1: confidence they're playing with now and the fact that they
Speaker 1: have a kind of stare death right in the eye
Speaker 1: and live to tell the tale.
Speaker 3: Well, and that they have Josh Allen and obviously the
Speaker 3: Chiefs have Mahomes, but Alan to me is unique the
Speaker 3: way he can run the ball, and that they're getting
Speaker 3: contributions from the rest of the offense.
Speaker 2: That was a big concern, Like you wouldn't have known.
Speaker 3: Gab Davis didn't play in this game, and hopefully he's
Speaker 3: back for next week, but that's a big loss for them.
Speaker 3: Shakir makes a great player two every week, like he
Speaker 3: has finally replaced Cole Beasley. James Cook is a legit
Speaker 3: running back. We've learned that he's a real RB one.
Speaker 3: He's a pro bowler. They're run blocking well. That catch
Speaker 3: Kincaid made on the first drive, like that's a wide
Speaker 3: receiver catch and that was a big play I thought
Speaker 3: in this game, I'm pretty sure that was third down,
Speaker 3: and you know they'd be punting away and zero zero. Instead,
Speaker 3: he makes the big catch in a tough situation and
Speaker 3: they end up going to score the opening drive touchdown.
Speaker 3: So they're getting contributions from everyone, but I'm a little worried.
Speaker 3: I'm with you, I'd be leaning bills and we'll have
Speaker 3: all week to talk about that.
Speaker 6: But you know, Mark mentioned it. Going into this game.
Speaker 3: They were already down Razula Douglas and Threll Bernard there
Speaker 3: who has been their best linebacker and their best cornerback.
Speaker 3: Then they lose Specter, who is one of the fill
Speaker 3: in linebackers. They lose Dotson, who has been starting all
Speaker 3: year at linebacker and playing pretty well like their second linebacker.
Speaker 2: That one looks serious. He was carted off.
Speaker 3: They lost Christian Benford, who's there CB one now that
Speaker 3: Tredevious White has been long gone. Toron Johnson left this game.
Speaker 3: He's their all pro slot cornerback. I could be wrong,
Speaker 3: but I tried to do the math here, and you
Speaker 3: know math is tough for me sometimes. I believe they
Speaker 3: were without their top four cornerbacks and their top four
Speaker 3: linebackers by the end of this game, and so just
Speaker 3: how many of those guys are coming back next week
Speaker 3: like that, that's gonna matter a lot. But they're an
Speaker 3: offense first team, and their offense is very healthy.
Speaker 2: Well, they're gonna have to put up a lot of points.
Speaker 1: It's a good thing they're catching the twenty twenty three
Speaker 1: Chiefs and not the twenty twenty twenty eighteen to twenty twenty.
Speaker 6: Two on a version of that team absolutely well.
Speaker 4: And you know this, their regular season five game win
Speaker 4: streak to close out the campaign started with them going
Speaker 4: into Kansas City and winning twenty seventeen. Then they went
Speaker 4: and took out the Cowboys, and they've done this in
Speaker 4: different ways. And it's like, I kind of feel like
Speaker 4: they're a team that while we've seen like the Eagles,
Speaker 4: for instance, and we'll talk about them in a minute,
Speaker 4: completely melt down under the weight of controversy and in
Speaker 4: house problems. Ever since that Tyler Dunn think piece came out,
Speaker 4: like the Bills have suddenly become this like completely resilient
Speaker 4: group that injuries have been badgering them for weeks and weeks,
Speaker 4: but you kind of just feel like there is team
Speaker 4: where like these secondary and third story characters rise up
Speaker 4: week after week and with Josh Allen, anything as possible.
Speaker 4: And they're hosting the Chiefs like, I don't know, they're
Speaker 4: a weird team and a weird AFC. It's like I
Speaker 4: kind of feel like anything is possible with them at
Speaker 4: this point.
Speaker 1: On the other side of things, So the Steelers and
Speaker 1: credit them. The schedule softened up for a little bit
Speaker 1: for them, and they made the necessary plays and the
Speaker 1: backup quarterback played well to get to ten to seven
Speaker 1: and make the playoffs. But the reality of the situation
Speaker 1: is that this organization has now lost five consecutive playoff
Speaker 1: games under Mike Tomlin. We were talking about how the
Speaker 1: Pete Carrol Seahawks seemed to be stuck in neutral in
Speaker 1: a way, and that organization made a move on a
Speaker 1: forever coach. It's only natural that and it's the responsibility
Speaker 1: I must say of the reporters at that site during
Speaker 1: that press conference to broach what is the future of
Speaker 1: Mike Tomlin, who just completed his seventeenth season.
Speaker 2: This is how that question and answer went.
Speaker 4: Mike, you had a year left under.
Speaker 1: All right, So if you're watching this on YouTube, you
Speaker 1: saw Tomlin, stoneface turn walk away, leave the press conference abruptly,
Speaker 1: and so he didn't want to talk about it, at
Speaker 1: least not today. A lot of frustration obviously for Tomlin,
Speaker 1: who has been to the top of the mountain.
Speaker 2: But it's been a while now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, some of the coaches that have won playoff games,
Speaker 3: I think I ever tried this out last year too,
Speaker 3: but heck played the hits, you know since before, like
Speaker 3: Mike Tomlin, Mike Malarkey, you're Doug Morone, Mike Zimmer that
Speaker 3: they've all all won playoff games more recently, and the Steelers'
Speaker 3: opponents have scored thirty one points at least in all
Speaker 3: those games, which is which is crazy that that question,
Speaker 3: just for a little context, did come after like a pause,
Speaker 3: and it was probably got It was the end of
Speaker 3: the press conference and so that was gonna be the
Speaker 3: last question anyways. But it was ESPN, you know, Brooke
Speaker 3: Pryor who asked it, so he knows who she has
Speaker 3: all this stuff like, he did not I want to answer.
Speaker 3: He's entering the last year of his contract. That no,
Speaker 3: but you just say no comment, Greg, No, no, no,
Speaker 3: I'm not. It's not a great look.
Speaker 2: Give him a pass. He's frustrated, but it's not at all.
Speaker 3: For whatever reason, the announcers Romo and Nance were like, oh,
Speaker 3: we talked about to Tomlin about his future in the
Speaker 3: contract being up, and it's like, he's not going anywhere.
Speaker 3: Why would anyone doubt that? And I I tend to
Speaker 3: think that's true. I don't think the Steelers would ever
Speaker 3: think about it. If there was anything but you know,
Speaker 3: brewing it would be is Mike Tomlin wanting to break
Speaker 3: or wanting to leave at some point. But even that,
Speaker 3: that to me would be very surprising.
Speaker 4: I mean, a week ago, he's a Coach of the
Speaker 4: Year candidate. I guess they lost the playoff game.
Speaker 3: And I think Tomlin, not by me, I mean, not
Speaker 3: by anyone, he would not be in anyone's top five.
Speaker 4: I think in general, like Mike Tomlin liked, I mean,
Speaker 4: what he's the fact that there's no losing record here,
Speaker 4: what he's accomplished, like, it's the last person i'd fire.
Speaker 4: But I would say he's one of these coaches, not
Speaker 4: unlike you know, Bellichick in recent years, floating through the
Speaker 4: ABYSS the NFL without a quarterback you can rely on,
Speaker 4: and like some of these floating trash bags. We mentioned
Speaker 4: on the Zumwalt intro in our last show, is like
Speaker 4: these teams that get cleared out that don't have a
Speaker 4: quarterback you can rely on, And that's like the Steelers
Speaker 4: are not to be taken seriously. Come you know, mid January,
Speaker 4: when you're dealing with Mason Rudolph, even if he's played
Speaker 4: well in the last couple of games, it's like, come
Speaker 4: on here, like I mean, I mean, but you need
Speaker 4: an answer at that position.
Speaker 1: And we'll get to some Belichick news that came out
Speaker 1: during the late game today at the end of the show.
Speaker 1: But I know, Greg, you kind of dismissed it when
Speaker 1: we were talking about the end of the Belichick Patriots tenure.
Speaker 1: But what if the guy the Pats get with a
Speaker 1: third pick turns out to be a CJ.
Speaker 2: Stroud type dude?
Speaker 1: Like the idea of getting rid of proven, battle tested
Speaker 1: coaches that have pelts on the wall when you're in
Speaker 1: a cycle where you don't have a quarterback, that to
Speaker 1: me is a mistake. I think the Steelers owe it
Speaker 1: to Tomlin for what he's given that organization to find
Speaker 1: him a true successor to Ben Roethlisberger. Belichick's a little
Speaker 1: different obviously, because Belichick was the guy that was making
Speaker 1: the personnel decisions for the most part for the Patriots,
Speaker 1: So it's a little bit different in that in that case.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, I think it would be
Speaker 1: a mistake for the Steelers to take these last few
Speaker 1: years of Mason, Rudolph, Mitch Trubisky, old Big Ben, Kenny Pickett,
Speaker 1: who's a middling prospect, and say, I mean it's time
Speaker 1: for a change at coach, but probably not gonna happen,
Speaker 1: But who knows, who knows what's gonna happen. It seems
Speaker 1: like the league is in a weird place with coaching
Speaker 1: and the owners having itchy trigger fingers.
Speaker 3: We will be spending probably more of late February, but
Speaker 3: especially March and then maybe into April than Mark wants
Speaker 3: to be talking about the Steelers quarterback situation.
Speaker 2: I have a feeling, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: You're just gonna be like, because they're like wide open,
Speaker 3: they're gonna it's not gonna be just bringing back Kenny Pickett.
Speaker 6: You can't, you absolutely can't do that.
Speaker 3: And in the Steelers defense, Steelers fans, I think we'll
Speaker 3: probably want to point this as like they were as
Speaker 3: injured on defense, and you see it in this game
Speaker 3: as the Bills too. So Toman was not including missing TJ.
Speaker 3: Watt of course, but at linebacker they were on their
Speaker 3: fourth and fifth linebacker. Still not a big their secondary, No,
Speaker 3: not a big time team, but just like he was
Speaker 3: trying to fight with a defense that that was not
Speaker 3: all there.
Speaker 2: And I'm fine not.
Speaker 3: Watching the Pittsburgh Steelers of the twenty twenty three season
Speaker 3: any longer.
Speaker 2: Really, I have the Pittsburgh Steelers of this whole decade.
Speaker 2: It bored me.
Speaker 1: But I want to give a little credit, a shout
Speaker 1: out to Mason Rudolph because he is a guy that
Speaker 1: was completely forgotten. Played a role, a major role in
Speaker 1: the making the playoffs, and I thought he played he
Speaker 1: I know he had a bad interception in the end zone,
Speaker 1: but he played a role in them getting back in
Speaker 1: that game. He was way better than I ever would
Speaker 1: have imagined over this last month. Not the answer, not
Speaker 1: the future, but in my opinion, neither is Kenny Pickett.
Speaker 3: So a lot of better than Kenny Pickett without questions,
Speaker 3: I mean, I don't think there was any question.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, let's see, should we take a break.
Speaker 1: Let's take a break and hit the other game played
Speaker 1: on Monday night.
Speaker 3: David Moore swings a motion billy left forty four yard line, makefield.
Speaker 5: Throws a ball to the right side court ball, a
Speaker 5: poop tackle five poor.
Speaker 2: To the forty Caeli forty five forty David Let's.
Speaker 5: Pray Palmer Palmer t touched down Tampa Bay touchdown, Talconiers
Speaker 5: fire the challenge.
Speaker 2: Tray Palmer doesn't gee decker Hof And it was that easy.
Speaker 2: It shouldn't have been this easy, and yet it.
Speaker 1: Was for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who get that trait
Speaker 1: Palmer fifty six yard catch and run TD. James Bradbury,
Speaker 1: playing the worst football of his life, toasted as he
Speaker 1: was missing tackles and bad and coverage really throughout the year.
Speaker 1: That put them up twenty five nine Tampa Bay. They
Speaker 1: end up winning thirty two to nine, eliminating the defending
Speaker 1: no longer defending conference champion Eagles.
Speaker 2: And the Eagles are.
Speaker 1: Obviously a big, knotty story line that we're gonna get to,
Speaker 1: but Mark, let's start with the Bucks, because man, we
Speaker 1: all had our fun with the NFC South this year,
Speaker 1: which was a bad division and one team had to
Speaker 1: win the division. It was the Bucks, a Bucks team
Speaker 1: that started out pretty hot, then was one of the
Speaker 1: worst teams in the NFC for about two months, and
Speaker 1: then kind of got their ish together to win that
Speaker 1: division at nine to eight, and then played this game
Speaker 1: like a team like we're seeing like we saw a
Speaker 1: lot this weekend. There are certain teams, which makes the
Speaker 1: next one of the many reasons why next week's gonna
Speaker 1: be so much fun. All the teams that are underdogs,
Speaker 1: for the most part, feel dangerous not to borrow Baker's
Speaker 1: line because they're playing with house money, because they have
Speaker 1: nothing to lose. In the Bucks, no one thought the
Speaker 1: Bucks were gonna make any type of dent in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: and they just stomped the Eagles, and now you get
Speaker 1: the idea of them going up to Detroit and they're
Speaker 1: gonna be free and easy, including the quarterback, your former quarterback,
Speaker 1: Mark who went twenty two for thirty six for three
Speaker 1: thirty seven, three touchdowns, no picks, average over nine yards
Speaker 1: per attempt, and just led this team in a way
Speaker 1: that Jalen Hurts and really everyone on the Eagles could
Speaker 1: not get anything together.
Speaker 2: Baker was the leader for the Bucks on this night.
Speaker 4: It's a great story for Baker Mayfield. It's not gonna
Speaker 4: be up there in the level of what happened, you know,
Speaker 4: in Detroit with Jared Goff. But if you've tracked Baker
Speaker 4: Mayfield's career, and I think you know, there have been
Speaker 4: these high moments and there have been a lot of
Speaker 4: low moments, and he's inconsistent. But the version of him
Speaker 4: tonight three hundred and thirty seven yards, three touchdowns, pretty
Speaker 4: much mistake free. This is the team a couple times
Speaker 4: this season that we saw and I think if you're
Speaker 4: gonna get this version of them, they're dangerous. I think
Speaker 4: it also helps, let's be real, they came up against
Speaker 4: a team that was crumbling at the seams, falling apart,
Speaker 4: and like I mean, two teams from Pennsylvania decided not
Speaker 4: to tackle today. But I think this was the most
Speaker 4: more avert of the two.
Speaker 2: The Steel over it.
Speaker 4: I'm with you, and like you know, it was interesting
Speaker 4: because like on the like on the Manning cast ray
Speaker 4: lewis not my favorite person on the planet, but he
Speaker 4: was going nuts about like the tackling angles. It's like
Speaker 4: you're just watching a team from the pure fundamentals fall apart,
Speaker 4: like when James Bradbury and Kevin Bayerd completely fell apart
Speaker 4: on that Trey Palmer fifty six yard touchdown.
Speaker 2: It's like, that's part of the story here.
Speaker 4: It's like the Bucks played a pretty flawless game and
Speaker 4: their defense. You know, the Eagles the first time they played,
Speaker 4: way back early in the season ran for two hundred
Speaker 4: and one yards on this Bucks defense, which is a
Speaker 4: pretty good run defense. Tonight two point eight yards per carry,
Speaker 4: forty two yards. They couldn't get out of their own way,
Speaker 4: And so a lot of it for me had to
Speaker 4: do with the Bucks obviously hitting the Eagles at the
Speaker 4: perfect time, but then handling their own job as well.
Speaker 2: Right, I think to start with the Bucks.
Speaker 3: So the Eagles, look, they're the bigger story, and that's fine,
Speaker 3: I mean, Buck, the Bucks understand that. But but to
Speaker 3: celebrate the Bucks because a win in the playoffs is
Speaker 3: a big deal and any time you can get it,
Speaker 3: I mean, even Bills fans should be thrilled. I was
Speaker 3: counting the numbers, guse I was like, I wonder if
Speaker 3: who's won more playoff games, Bucks or Bills since twenty
Speaker 3: twenty When the Bills started this run and.
Speaker 6: It's the Bucks. The Bucks are at six, the Bills
Speaker 6: are at five.
Speaker 3: It's amazing that the Bucks have now beaten the Eagles
Speaker 3: twice in the playoffs. They did it a couple of
Speaker 3: years ago and they won four that time, they won
Speaker 3: the Super Bowl, and they did it tonight with so
Speaker 3: many of the players that were coached by Bruce arians
Speaker 3: who you know, I don't think his advisor role.
Speaker 6: Does he still have their role? Maybe he doesn't.
Speaker 3: It is too active because he's on the manning cast
Speaker 3: during the game.
Speaker 6: Maybe he's not still getting the paycheck. I don't know
Speaker 6: how that works.
Speaker 3: That is that's the place you want to get in life.
Speaker 3: Let's face it. It's awesome. But they mentioned seventeen guys,
Speaker 3: which they were pointing out, It's like, oh, that's not
Speaker 3: that many.
Speaker 6: I was like, that's a lot.
Speaker 3: Seventeen guys are still there from a Super Bowl title
Speaker 3: four years ago, and I think it's six or seven
Speaker 3: of the defensive starters. And you saw like Levante David
Speaker 3: with a huge tackle for loss the third quarter because
Speaker 3: this was a game, it was a one score game
Speaker 3: in the third quarter that ends up setting up the
Speaker 3: safety and he was all over the place, and Vitaveyo
Speaker 3: was the guy who's stuffed the tush push and Jamel
Speaker 3: Dean is out there on single coverage like all these
Speaker 3: Bulls guys that have been there, and it was.
Speaker 2: A great plan. It was the perfect plan.
Speaker 3: It was a perfect opponent for Bulls, who's just like
Speaker 3: mister Blitz, and he got to face the team that
Speaker 3: had no answers for Blitz. Next Gen Stats had the
Speaker 3: number that they had ten unblocked defenders tonight, that is
Speaker 3: the most in any game of the Next Gen Stats era.
Speaker 3: Hurtz faced quick pressure, which is defined as less than
Speaker 3: two and a half seconds, on thirteen plays tonight. That's
Speaker 3: the most by any team all season. And it just
Speaker 3: felt like coaching malpractice. So it was a great coaching
Speaker 3: job on one hand, Bulls just completely flummoxing this team
Speaker 3: and a bad a terrible one on the other hand.
Speaker 3: And Peyton Manning, he's he does not like criticizing, but
Speaker 3: he was just sitting there watching like, I can't believe
Speaker 3: they're just staying empty with no extra pass protector in there.
Speaker 2: He's like, that is just being stubborn. They're just being stubborn.
Speaker 6: They're just doing the same thing, and it's.
Speaker 2: Something we watched for like two months.
Speaker 3: It's kind of it's kind of crazy that, more than anything,
Speaker 3: is why I think Sirianni's gonna get fired. And I
Speaker 3: think Bowls in this Bucks teams was weirdly like the
Speaker 3: worst matchup for him this or like the Vikings team
Speaker 3: would have been time. I mean, let's face it, like anyone,
Speaker 3: well that's anyone that matchup for your right Eagles everyone team.
Speaker 1: I think it's it's pretty unprecedented. Our buddy Kevin Clark,
Speaker 1: who works with the Peyton Manning brand over there now
Speaker 1: Omaha Productions, he he made a comment on Twitter that
Speaker 1: I was thinking, like the same time as I read,
Speaker 1: I was like, can you remember a team melting down
Speaker 1: like this without without a major quarterback injury or some
Speaker 1: type of injury that completely destroyed the structure of what
Speaker 1: the team was. And you know they weren't perfectly healthy,
Speaker 1: and not having AJ Brown was certainly an issue for them,
Speaker 1: but I just could have imagined I imagine AJ Brown
Speaker 1: moping his ass around the field in this game as
Speaker 1: well making a few plays. I think they were losing
Speaker 1: with or without AJ Brown in this game because there's
Speaker 1: something fundamentally broken with this Eagles team, and it is
Speaker 1: It is crazy to think that if the Chiefs don't
Speaker 1: get the benefit of a ticky Tack holding call at
Speaker 1: the end of the Super Bowl, we could be talking
Speaker 1: about the Eagles being a champion last year. And I
Speaker 1: don't think anybody's going to be surprised to Sirianni goes,
Speaker 1: because what I saw, and what I think a lot
Speaker 1: of people saw, was a team that had more or
Speaker 1: less packed it in and do not believe in the
Speaker 1: head coach and the coaching staff, and everyone's doing these
Speaker 1: three sixty windmill dunks on Matt Patricia. Listen, Matt Patricia
Speaker 1: was just a guy in the deep background on the staff.
Speaker 1: Sean Decide was the defensive coordinator that got promoted when
Speaker 1: Gannon left and then.
Speaker 2: The hired from outside the building.
Speaker 1: Yea, yeah, Sirianni makes the decision weird timing to dump
Speaker 1: decidh humiliate the guy in a lot of ways, kick
Speaker 1: him upstairs, and put Patricia in the spot. But it's
Speaker 1: not Patricia that's Maybe the scheme's not great, I'm not
Speaker 1: saying it is, but it's not Patricia that's embarrassing themselves.
Speaker 1: On the field with those mistackles and poor angles and
Speaker 1: just low effort performance. I mean, the Eagles got to
Speaker 1: wear this, and you can't just blame it on a coach.
Speaker 4: I would say, like to Kevin Clark's tweak because I
Speaker 4: saw that too that I was thinking kind of jogging
Speaker 4: my memory. There are certainly teams that kind of went
Speaker 4: like eight to one and then were revealed to be frauds,
Speaker 4: But there aren't teams like this that looked like they
Speaker 4: had turned the corner into the world of maybe being
Speaker 4: like an NFC East dynasty with a quarterback you could
Speaker 4: believe in for the next ten years that went through
Speaker 4: a personality switch like this over the course of a
Speaker 4: month and a half, because it was like an Eagles
Speaker 4: team that, you know, two months ago we were saying
Speaker 4: the front office is forward thinking, the roster is stacked,
Speaker 4: like the way they're built is the way you win
Speaker 4: in the NFC. And then like six weeks later, they
Speaker 4: seem to lack all confidence. The coaches are flum mixed.
Speaker 4: They clearly have missed both their coordinators. The players feel
Speaker 4: like there's on the edge of a total insurrection, and
Speaker 4: the coach could be gone in two days.
Speaker 1: Here is Nick Sirianni at the podium. We were kind
Speaker 1: of waiting on this and they just had the camera
Speaker 1: on the empty podium. When Syriani gonna show up, What's
Speaker 1: gonna happen is Jeff Lorii taking him outside, putting him
Speaker 1: in a basement somewhere and locking it up. You don't
Speaker 1: know what's going on with the once proud Sirianni. Here
Speaker 1: are his comments after the game.
Speaker 8: Oh, obviously we were in a in a big slide.
Speaker 8: And you know, anytime, anytime that's the case, I always
Speaker 8: look at myself first, and I didn't do a good
Speaker 8: enough job. And obviously we lost five of the last
Speaker 8: six and lost today, And it's almost like you couldn't
Speaker 8: get out of the rut. We we couldn't get out
Speaker 8: the rut we're in. And that's and that's all of us.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it is it is all of us,
Speaker 1: But it is the head coach.
Speaker 2: The buck stops there.
Speaker 1: And I thought Jalen Hurts his body language and the
Speaker 1: way he comported himself these last few weeks of really
Speaker 1: hold a story too, of a team that didn't have
Speaker 1: the proper leadership to help get.
Speaker 2: Out of the run either. Right.
Speaker 3: I think when Manning was talking about like the lack
Speaker 3: of protection there, and Jay Gruden gotten some heat for
Speaker 3: popping off about it on Twitter too, just because like
Speaker 3: if I ever let my quarterback like get brutalized like this,
Speaker 3: I hope people would come at me. And then RG
Speaker 3: three actually did come at him. He was one of
Speaker 3: his It was delicious, which is hilarious. But that's maybe
Speaker 3: a quarterback losing confidence in his coaching or what's around him.
Speaker 2: And a J.
Speaker 3: Brown this week, you know, deleted all the Eagles this.
Speaker 3: I did not know this during the week. I found
Speaker 3: this out tonight, but he did the whole like delete
Speaker 3: all the Eagle stuff, and he also did triple entire
Speaker 3: Twitter account. And it's tough. And I think it really
Speaker 3: was crystallized for me tonight because I've been on the
Speaker 3: side of like, yeah, well, but the offense hasn't really
Speaker 3: been the problem. It's been the league's worst defense been
Speaker 3: this and that. You know, the offense by the numbers,
Speaker 3: and like they've been good, they haven't been great, and
Speaker 3: Hurts has been good. He hasn't been terrible until these
Speaker 3: last three weeks, although it really turned into a snowball downhill.
Speaker 3: But then the start of the third quarter because this
Speaker 3: game will be remembered as totally one sided, and it
Speaker 3: really was. But the Bucks offense had been settling for
Speaker 3: field goals. They didn't get any points right before the half.
Speaker 3: And then in the third quarter, actually the Eagles defense
Speaker 3: for a minute settled down. They forced Baker into some
Speaker 3: bad sacks. They actually punted I think three straight times
Speaker 3: if I'm correct, and the Eagles offense had a chance
Speaker 3: to get back in this game. They're only down one score,
Speaker 3: and in those three drives after halftime against a Bucks
Speaker 3: defense it was highly mediocre all year.
Speaker 6: They had a total of zero yards.
Speaker 3: They punted twice, and then they had that sequence where
Speaker 3: they ended up going backwards like fifteen yards or whatever
Speaker 3: it was and hurts his holding onto the ball forever,
Speaker 3: and again they don't have answers for the blitz and
Speaker 3: he takes a safety that.
Speaker 2: Ends the game.
Speaker 3: And that that to me was like, oh yeah, I
Speaker 3: guess it really did turn into a full scale meltdown
Speaker 3: where nothing is right about this team. Absolutely nothing is
Speaker 3: good about this team. Not even the offensive line is
Speaker 3: like good about this team. And you're right, I can't
Speaker 3: think of anything like this in our run the Patriots
Speaker 3: in nineteen were fairly similar. They were ten and one
Speaker 3: and they but they just got old. It wasn't it
Speaker 3: was just like they weren't as good as the record.
Speaker 3: They just got old. It wasn't like this.
Speaker 1: And I'm not gonna kill Sirianni for this. Although the
Speaker 1: Flashpoint Focus series is I mean, I had the Emmy
Speaker 1: Awards tonight.
Speaker 2: My wife's at them right now.
Speaker 1: Actually they're proud of them.
Speaker 2: How do we not get an award for the series?
Speaker 2: At this point?
Speaker 1: We get the Eagles just never won again after they
Speaker 1: were the Flashpoint Focus and we broached the idea, could
Speaker 1: Sirianni potentially lose his job? And now here we are,
Speaker 1: it's it's kind of stunning and we're gonna see what
Speaker 1: happens there.
Speaker 2: But to pivot back to the.
Speaker 3: Meca, by the way, was watching this game with me
Speaker 3: because you know, we're hoping to move up in the
Speaker 3: world and whatnot. And she knows I'm just an associate
Speaker 3: producer to the assistant to the to the producer, yes,
Speaker 3: and she was seeing what was happening with this Eagles
Speaker 3: team and she was just like, ooo, baby, maybe we
Speaker 3: can get that new washer and dryer. Maybe we're gonna
Speaker 3: get a bonus at the end of the season. I
Speaker 3: told calm down, we'll see, we'll see.
Speaker 1: I credit wife is one of the great one of
Speaker 1: the great weapons for any man.
Speaker 2: Greg.
Speaker 4: She's literally never listened to an episode of our show though,
Speaker 4: so it's it's kind of hard for us to feel
Speaker 4: that she has an incredible sway over your position inside
Speaker 4: the you know the vehicle.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's fair.
Speaker 1: Tough, by the way, tough weekend for the NFC East,
Speaker 1: my own So Tom Brady, just to underline what an
Speaker 1: amazing year this has been for the Bucks, given where
Speaker 1: the expectations were. They had Tom Brady for one last ride.
Speaker 1: Last year, they go eight and nine and get white
Speaker 1: by Dak and the Cowboys in the first round. Now
Speaker 1: they're ten and eight and they are going to the
Speaker 1: second round of the playoffs to face the Lions, who
Speaker 1: are a very good team, a very fun team, a
Speaker 1: team that is very easy to root for, but they
Speaker 1: Mark Sessler are not quite a juggernaut either.
Speaker 2: And again, like Baker in this spot is going to
Speaker 2: be dangerous. When I woke up this morning, I think.
Speaker 1: He is going to absolutely play well in that spot
Speaker 1: and will will the Bulls Asance take hold and be
Speaker 1: able to minimize what Detroit does. We have a week
Speaker 1: to get into that game. But I really think that
Speaker 1: is a competitive game. I don't think this is the
Speaker 1: Bucks had their moment tonight and get the doors blown off.
Speaker 1: I think they're going to surprise people again with another
Speaker 1: good performance.
Speaker 2: They're not done yet. Yeah, I think we I mean
Speaker 2: we laid it out.
Speaker 4: There's a lot of players here with playoff experience, and
Speaker 4: I think they're going to be doubted a lot during
Speaker 4: the week, and there's going to be a lot of
Speaker 4: people jumping on the Detroit story. And whenever you get
Speaker 4: Baker Mayfield getting doubted over the course of a week,
Speaker 4: you're gonna get the better version of Baker Mayfeld. And
Speaker 4: just like think about the smile on Todd Bowles's face
Speaker 4: at the end of that game, Like this team is
Speaker 4: playing with house money, and that's a dangerous thing.
Speaker 1: In January, Baker're gonna get the Gino Smith contract rereg
Speaker 1: something like that.
Speaker 2: I don't think so, but I could be wrong. I don't.
Speaker 6: I don't think he's gonna get that much.
Speaker 3: But it's funny how these playoff games mean so much,
Speaker 3: because like let's say Antoine Winfield doesn't make that play
Speaker 3: where he knocks the ball out at the half yard
Speaker 3: line last week, and the Panthers end up beating the Bucks.
Speaker 2: You know, because the Bucks I think had.
Speaker 3: Basically no touchdowns over eight quarters other than garbage time
Speaker 3: for two weeks against the Saints and the Panthers like
Speaker 3: the Baker's not getting anything. But then you come out
Speaker 3: and you play great tonight, and you play great, great
Speaker 3: next week. Yeah, no, I know it, and it's been
Speaker 3: a good season. And yeah, I don't think you would
Speaker 3: get that contract.
Speaker 1: But but that because that's not I point that one now,
Speaker 1: because it wasn't overly lavish.
Speaker 3: It rewarded him and positioned Jim clearly as the he's
Speaker 3: talking guaranteed that would be surprising to me. But they
Speaker 3: they might feel some real loyalty, especially if he plays
Speaker 3: well in Detroit and it's a good matchup.
Speaker 1: Before we move on, let's hear from a Baker Mayfield
Speaker 1: after the game.
Speaker 2: We fought so.
Speaker 7: Hard to get to this point, to get a chance
Speaker 7: to be in the playoffs, and I'm so proud of
Speaker 7: this team tonight, the way we came out.
Speaker 2: And started fast.
Speaker 7: I'll just I'm so proud and so we want to
Speaker 7: give ourselves a chance, and now we.
Speaker 2: Did just that. We can play better than we did tonight.
Speaker 2: But it's on to the next one. So we're on
Speaker 2: a Detroit mm hmmm.
Speaker 1: Bakers won a playoff game for the first time since
Speaker 1: that Browns win over the Steelers. Mark so he is
Speaker 1: no stranger to the big stage and we will see
Speaker 1: what happens next. Weird, weird to see the Eagles, just
Speaker 1: bizarre to see them crumble the way they did.
Speaker 2: The same thing happened five years ago.
Speaker 3: They the people in it, like in their organization that
Speaker 3: have been there the whole time, have to be feeling
Speaker 3: such whiplash. I know, the team that defended the title
Speaker 3: was better than this. They were competitive in the playoffs.
Speaker 3: It wasn't a collapse quite like that, but they were
Speaker 3: nine and seven that that season after they won the
Speaker 3: Super Bowl, and then the next year the floor totally
Speaker 3: fell out and the guy they had given you know,
Speaker 3: all that money to, Carson Wentz, was like, is this
Speaker 3: guy even gonna stay on our team? And here we
Speaker 3: are again. I don't think Hurts is going to have
Speaker 3: that trajectory, But like I mean, but shoot, you think
Speaker 3: if it's along the same line right now.
Speaker 1: Forget about ten and one, Mark, Let's go back to
Speaker 1: last year's draft and when they you know, everything, everything
Speaker 1: they were doing was being hailed as genius and they
Speaker 1: were seen as this team that was just yes, they
Speaker 1: got beaten the Super Bowl, but this, this is the
Speaker 1: organization in which you strive to be in the modern
Speaker 1: NFL to where they are right now, it's it's going
Speaker 1: to be a fascinating seventy two hours I think around
Speaker 1: that organization. And Jason Kelcey, by the way, which I
Speaker 1: thought was maybe a little Listen. I like Kelsey, We
Speaker 1: all like Kelsey, good guy, great with the media, outstanding
Speaker 1: football center, but treating it like Michael Jordan retirement watch
Speaker 1: at the end of the ESPN telecasts felt a little strong.
Speaker 1: He left the locker room without speaking to reporters, and
Speaker 1: there's a lot of speculation that his career will be
Speaker 1: coming to an end even though he's still playing at
Speaker 1: a high level. So there's gonna be change around the Eagles,
Speaker 1: you know it. I thought Troy Aikman made some you know,
Speaker 1: good points and some kind of heavy comments that the
Speaker 1: idea of, like you could tell immediately that this team
Speaker 1: was checked out before the game started, and the only
Speaker 1: way to fix this situation is substantial changes to re
Speaker 1: energize the fan base and get the organization back on track.
Speaker 1: What will Laurie do, It's almost probably what he's thinking
Speaker 1: about when they're showing him in that suite.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I mean it goes beyond Kelsey too, because
Speaker 4: guys like Fletcher Cock, Brandon Grahams Watkins, DeAndre Swift, Zach Cunningham,
Speaker 4: Nicholas Moreau, and there's like fifteen other guys that are
Speaker 4: like pending free agents. So I think, no matter what,
Speaker 4: the Eagles are going to look functionally very different and
Speaker 4: with it while the team took a dip, and I'm
Speaker 4: not I'm not down on jail and hurts entirely, but
Speaker 4: I would say that like a year ago, he was
Speaker 4: like an overt MVP candidate and and just kind of
Speaker 4: to see what's happened to him over the last five
Speaker 4: or six weeks leaves you questioning like the entire future.
Speaker 1: And there were no questions going into this year around hers.
Speaker 1: Who knows his number one wide receiver might be asking
Speaker 1: out of town, Like there's a lot of.
Speaker 3: Things up to make big trades to be bold. And
Speaker 3: that's when I say they it's essentially Howie Roseman, but
Speaker 3: it's also Jeffrey Loriie, and.
Speaker 2: That it makes me wonder, like whose decision what?
Speaker 3: Like I don't necessarily assume it was Nick Sierry Andy's
Speaker 3: decision to even make the change with John decide like
Speaker 3: that might have been Jeffrey Lourie and or Howie Roseman.
Speaker 3: So the reporting that's been around the Eagles over the
Speaker 3: years reminds me of how baseball managers are very upset
Speaker 3: with the moneybollification in baseball, of like how the front
Speaker 3: office is basically telling coaches what to do. The Eagles
Speaker 3: feel as close to that as any NFL team, where
Speaker 3: they view the coaches as a little fungible and that
Speaker 3: Roseman and even Lurry is kind of kind of calling
Speaker 3: the shots in this org.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: So that's where we're at, one round complete in the
Speaker 1: NFL playoffs. Let's hit some news, starting with this broke
Speaker 1: in the second half of the Eagles Bucks tilt, the
Speaker 1: Atlanta Falcons interviewed Bill Belichick for the head coaching job.
Speaker 1: The team announced Monday that they interviewed Belichick. It is
Speaker 1: the first known interviewing done by the famous coach since
Speaker 1: Belichick and the Patriots mutually parted ways. Belichick has been
Speaker 1: a head coach of twenty nine seasons, twenty four in
Speaker 1: New England, five in Cleveland, and of course, maybe his
Speaker 1: most famous victory is Brady and company overcoming a twenty
Speaker 1: eight to three deficit in Super Bowl fifty one against
Speaker 1: the wait for it, Atlanta Falcons. So it's just everything
Speaker 1: about it is as a football fan strange mark because
Speaker 1: you just you can't imagine Belichick being on another sideline.
Speaker 1: You can't imagine him being part of an interview process,
Speaker 1: and it's kind of hard to imagine him on the
Speaker 1: Falcons after twenty eight to three. A great tweet tweeted
Speaker 1: the night by Nora Princiati quote tweeted the Falcons announcing
Speaker 1: that the interview is done above it. Can you tell
Speaker 1: us about a time you face significant odds and how
Speaker 1: you overcame them?
Speaker 2: Did you watch the game on Monday?
Speaker 4: Well?
Speaker 2: I love it. Yeah.
Speaker 4: It was kind of like like it's kind of like
Speaker 4: Meryl Streep having to like audition for like a local
Speaker 4: town performance of like Oklahoma. It's like we think we
Speaker 4: pretty sure she can do this, but I I like,
Speaker 4: I get it. I mean, you want to meet with
Speaker 4: the owner, and I think that that's an important thing
Speaker 4: to to Belichi. And I think Arthur Blank would be
Speaker 4: a good owner for Belichick.
Speaker 2: I really do.
Speaker 4: I think that's like kind of like the key thing
Speaker 4: for the final.
Speaker 2: Stage of his career.
Speaker 4: But then he'd walk into a situation not unlike Arthur
Speaker 4: Smith where it's like, what are you doing with quarterback?
Speaker 2: That's what we just did with Belichick.
Speaker 4: So I always the Falcons feel like a bit of
Speaker 4: a weird fit to me for for Bill Belichick.
Speaker 2: But uh, I don't know.
Speaker 4: I don't There aren't a lot of Greg There aren't
Speaker 4: a bunch of teams lining up to talk to him
Speaker 4: right now.
Speaker 6: From what we know, I thought it was interesting.
Speaker 3: Tom Pellisero, the pell Raiser, I think I had this first,
Speaker 3: and if he didn't, I apologize. But he definitely had
Speaker 3: the info that it was in person, which to me
Speaker 3: was was meaningful. Whether a it shows a seriousness to it,
Speaker 3: like you know, they're not messing around.
Speaker 2: We know how to do a remote camera setup. I mean,
Speaker 2: let's be fair.
Speaker 3: Now, I don't know if it was in Atlanta, so
Speaker 3: I was like, if Belichick's getting on a plane, it's like, shoo,
Speaker 3: he's probably taking the jobs happening. And if he's getting
Speaker 3: on a plane, if if Arthur Blank got on the
Speaker 3: plane and came to Foxborough, either the fact that the
Speaker 3: news is out there, that it's in person almost signals
Speaker 3: to me that like, hey, if there's anyone else that's
Speaker 3: gonna get in this, you better do it now, because
Speaker 3: you know, we just met in person and we might
Speaker 3: we might go ahead and do this thing. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 3: I just couldn't believe it reading the tweet that they
Speaker 3: tweeted it out and there was like a little picture
Speaker 3: with it.
Speaker 6: It's just like, what is just.
Speaker 1: It's almost as if that using the word interview just
Speaker 1: doesn't even seem right when it's Bill Belichick. Say, we
Speaker 1: met with Bill Belichick about our open position, Like right,
Speaker 1: if anything, he should be interviewing you.
Speaker 2: And maybe that's part of the uh if.
Speaker 1: There are teams and there are many teams looking for
Speaker 1: a coach right now that are apprehensive about entertaining the idea,
Speaker 1: it's just the enormity of the belichickness of it all.
Speaker 1: But like I'm like with you, mark On, I think
Speaker 1: the Cowboys. It's worth a very serious conversation at the Star.
Speaker 1: I think the Eagles should be talking about it if
Speaker 1: they're looking to make a big change potentially. I think
Speaker 1: Belichick is someone that any team looking to hire a
Speaker 1: coach right now should take advantage of the blessing that
Speaker 1: he's at least an option potentially and.
Speaker 2: Meet with him if you can.
Speaker 1: But you know, a lot of people have the option
Speaker 1: to engage in a potential business arrangement with Lamar Jackson
Speaker 1: and they galaxy brain their way out of that one.
Speaker 2: So this one had surprised me either. Same think with
Speaker 2: Tom Brady.
Speaker 3: By the way, no one, not any teams, particularly one
Speaker 3: him like the Chargers kind of did. And that was
Speaker 3: about it. Man, don't let Belichick go to the Eagles.
Speaker 3: I might have to just, you know, become an Eagles
Speaker 3: fan here for.
Speaker 2: Oh, that will make you become an Eagles fan, Greg.
Speaker 3: I love that for you know, it's all relative. I
Speaker 3: picked the Bucks tonight. I was I wanted this team
Speaker 3: to go away. This team was done though.
Speaker 2: I went five and one this week. I had a
Speaker 2: nice week overall. Job.
Speaker 1: They Cowboys obviously ding me and the rest of the world.
Speaker 1: But things you know the home team's played well obviously
Speaker 1: this weekend, except for Dallas, which is ironic because they
Speaker 1: were the best home team in the league this year.
Speaker 1: But next week will be another challenge in terms of picks.
Speaker 1: In other news, hey, hey, speaking of the Patriots. This
Speaker 1: went down in a funky timing in terms of our
Speaker 1: podcast taping schedule, but Gerrod Mayo was indeed hired to
Speaker 1: replace Bill Belichick as the Patriots coach. Thirty seven years old.
Speaker 1: He's a Patriot lifer. He's a linebacker for the team
Speaker 1: in the glory days, and it's been on the staff
Speaker 1: in different roles for years. He becomes the first black
Speaker 1: head coach in Patriots history, which is great obviously. And
Speaker 1: I guess the one question I have, Greg.
Speaker 2: Because I think you did share you harbored some.
Speaker 1: You were a little concerned about the idea of moving
Speaker 1: on from Belichick and then moving right to kind of
Speaker 1: a Belichick disciple and another defensive minded guy. I had
Speaker 1: a chance to start fresh. And you're obviously bringing in
Speaker 1: a quarterback, so it's not a slam dunk bringing in
Speaker 1: a hot shot play caller and then drafting a quarterback move.
Speaker 2: But it doesn't mean it can't.
Speaker 3: Work no, And Gerard Mayo is known as like an incredible.
Speaker 2: Leader inside that locker room.
Speaker 3: He was as a player in a great football mind,
Speaker 3: And I think that was just my first reaction was like, well,
Speaker 3: do we really think Belichick's the problem, like the total
Speaker 3: problem here, because all you're doing is like you're given
Speaker 3: one of his assistants a promotion.
Speaker 2: We don't know who the GM is.
Speaker 3: There's some reporting that they don't mind not having a
Speaker 3: GM till the draft, So I think it's this guy
Speaker 3: that's in house, which is Elliott wolf Ron Wolfe's old son.
Speaker 3: Is my guess is because obviously someone has to be
Speaker 3: the GM through the next regns, but they might not
Speaker 3: like officially make it happen or something.
Speaker 1: I mean, let's you could also connect the dots and
Speaker 1: Robert Crafts wanted this to be his show for a
Speaker 1: long time, and all of a sudden, Robert and his
Speaker 1: son might be able to be on all the shots.
Speaker 2: I mean, that would do the Jerry Jones, Stephen Jones, that.
Speaker 3: Would be concerning It would be Jonathan I mean Robert Kraft,
Speaker 3: who was pretty good on that press conference, I thought,
Speaker 3: all things considered, but he's eighty I think he's eighty two,
Speaker 3: he's eighty three. I mean those Jerry Jones. Yeah, it's
Speaker 3: a little it's a little worrisome. That said, he is
Speaker 3: the first one to get hired, and there are like
Speaker 3: people really do believe in him. James Palmer had a
Speaker 3: good thing on our on our show, the NFL Report,
Speaker 3: of how it would be different, how he has all
Speaker 3: these ideas. He's already interviewing like special teams coordinators. The
Speaker 3: guy from the Falcons, who's like respected as you know,
Speaker 3: one of the top ones in the league. Is like
Speaker 3: he's getting to do this before anyone else does it.
Speaker 3: So I guess they have a little bit of a
Speaker 3: head start and he's got some ideas. But I'm I'm
Speaker 3: a little skeptical. He is apparently trying to keep Steve Belichick,
Speaker 3: which is that to.
Speaker 2: Me his bizarre you know what?
Speaker 6: Those like that that they're close. They've worked together for
Speaker 6: like eight years now, so they're.
Speaker 2: Like best friends, like they consider each other.
Speaker 4: Steve Belichick called him like his like a he felt
Speaker 4: like his a brother to him.
Speaker 6: So it's like maybe he don't go with his dad.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well right, I think also, what's wrong with branching
Speaker 4: out on your own. I mean, and Dan you mentioned
Speaker 4: on the other show, it's like you don't want to
Speaker 4: be the guy that follows, you know, Belichick the guy.
Speaker 4: The only thing about this situation in particular versus coming
Speaker 4: off like a Belichick you know, super Bowl or something,
Speaker 4: is like the past couple of years with Belichick have
Speaker 4: been distasteful to Patriots fans and messy, and so it's
Speaker 4: not I don't think it's the quite as bad of
Speaker 4: a situation as like taking over for what we think
Speaker 4: taking over for Bill Belichick would be. It's like it's
Speaker 4: been a bad Patriots experience. His fresh blood. He's liked
Speaker 4: inside the building, if players like him, like, I don't know,
Speaker 4: I don't hate it. I kind of It's who Craft
Speaker 4: wanted for a year. He's been talked about for two
Speaker 4: plus years.
Speaker 2: So his guy tract.
Speaker 3: They didn't have to, right, They literally didn't have to
Speaker 3: interview anyone else, which you would have to with the
Speaker 3: Rooney rule, even though Mayo's black, that is a rule
Speaker 3: you still have to interview, you know, multiple candidates unless
Speaker 3: you have it written into your contract that it's a
Speaker 3: succession plan. And he did just like making up the
Speaker 3: rules as we go no like Eric Tacosta had it.
Speaker 3: The Ravens GM there was like they had like three
Speaker 3: exact examples of like times this has happened with GM
Speaker 3: or coaches that if you put it in, you can
Speaker 3: do it and that's it all right.
Speaker 1: Well, absence also makes the harco fonder and Patriots fans
Speaker 1: even though they grew listen. Part of great incredible success,
Speaker 1: like the Pats had is the fan base gets spoiled
Speaker 1: and expects it always to be that way. But there's
Speaker 1: gonna be pressure on Mayo to show that this thing
Speaker 1: is on track or it's just gonna be more then
Speaker 1: the fan base and the ownership like longing for the
Speaker 1: good old days, that those those nine super Bowl appearances
Speaker 1: and six titles are going to cast a long shadow
Speaker 1: that will last, you know, decades.
Speaker 6: That's maybe the rest of my life, you know.
Speaker 3: That's the Prosially, if Belichick is winning super Bowls with
Speaker 3: Jalen Hurts next year doing his Toush push and getting
Speaker 3: gaateaid back.
Speaker 1: Take it from a Yankee fan, like, it's not good
Speaker 1: enough to just make the playoffs. You need to continue
Speaker 1: to acquire chips, and if you don't, it's considered failure.
Speaker 1: So Mayo's got a big job ahead of him. But
Speaker 1: first thing they got to do is find a quarterback
Speaker 1: for him, or he doesn't have a chance in hell.
Speaker 1: Anything else in the news that you guys wanted to
Speaker 1: throw out there.
Speaker 2: Not really. You mentioned Harbaugh yesterday.
Speaker 3: The fact that he's already interviewing with the Chargers and
Speaker 3: he might take another one or two tells me he
Speaker 3: got on from Michigan and that's a fun one. And
Speaker 3: otherwise all these teams are doing a million interviews.
Speaker 6: But we'll wait till.
Speaker 1: All's quiet and Dallas still twenty four hours after the
Speaker 1: Cowboys meltdown.
Speaker 2: We also have I believe.
Speaker 1: The Dolphins giving some form of supportive words for Tua
Speaker 1: with his contract status uncertain. But we will be tracking
Speaker 1: all this stuff as it continues to roll out. We'll
Speaker 1: be back on Wednesday. Hopefully we'll get Connie unless he
Speaker 1: gets pulled into another nefarious three forty five Park Avenue event,
Speaker 1: or she's in hiding as an Eagles fan and doesn't
Speaker 1: want to do the show. I don't know what we're
Speaker 1: gonna find out, but the hope is that Colleen rejoins
Speaker 1: us because it's been too long without the tiny box.
Speaker 2: So make sure you're there for that.
Speaker 1: And until then, thank you to everyone for listening and
Speaker 1: we are one round, done.
Speaker 2: Three to go to Wednesday. Heed the call.