Speaker 1: Be around the NFL Podcast. No, you're gonna like it
Speaker 1: in their city, Our city, our adopted city of Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: will be the host of the Westling Bowl. Welcome to
Speaker 1: the town the NFL Podcast. My name is Dan Hansas.
Speaker 1: I'm in the studio, the stage, really Stage five here
Speaker 1: at NFL Network, filled with some heroes, Mark Sessler, Greg Rosenthal.
Speaker 1: Championship Sunday is in the books. And yes, somehow, some way,
Speaker 1: the football gods, whoever is out there, deemed it necessary
Speaker 1: that this year would be the one where the Cincinnati
Speaker 1: Bengals come out of nowhere in advance to the Super
Speaker 1: Bowl to face none other than the Los Angeles Rams.
Speaker 1: The Bangles, Mark Chris Westling's boyhood team, the man that
Speaker 1: he had such a difficult relationship with, ending with a
Speaker 1: divorce and a dossier, and now he's no longer with us,
Speaker 1: and we're wondering how west would feel. And then Lakisha,
Speaker 1: his loyal wife, that amazing woman who was a die
Speaker 1: hard Rams fan. Those two teams are playing for the
Speaker 1: Lombardi Trophy two weeks from tonight. I cannot think of
Speaker 1: anything that has happened during our podcast that comes anywhere
Speaker 1: close to these events. I've been watching football since. This
Speaker 1: is the most interesting development I can remember in my
Speaker 1: entire life. I'm a Browns fan, who is you know?
Speaker 1: And and a lot of people in Cleveland Bengals fans
Speaker 1: wouldn't be rooting for the Browns. Forget all that this
Speaker 1: is from somewhere completely different, um, a totally different realm.
Speaker 1: And just watching Lakisha's um reactions today on Twitter, on
Speaker 1: social media, and just to have it capped with the
Speaker 1: Rams win as well. I mean, this is one of
Speaker 1: the most improbable sporting conclusions to UH, to pre Super Bowl,
Speaker 1: any and any sport. I'm dumbfounded. I'm still processing the
Speaker 1: ring to be clear. It's like it's the Lakisha Wesseling
Speaker 1: Super Bowl. You know, the Westling Brothers. They they got
Speaker 1: the Bengals, They got no ties for the Rams. Lakisha
Speaker 1: travels with the Rams, diehard St. Louis Rams fans moves
Speaker 1: out here at the same time that they do, UH
Speaker 1: and lives and dies by them. But I don't know
Speaker 1: if she was rooting any harder at the stadium for
Speaker 1: that Rams game than she was um at her house
Speaker 1: where we watched the Bengals pull that game off and
Speaker 1: it's just like sports, Yes, sports are they're they're stupid
Speaker 1: sort of, but it's hard not to think of like
Speaker 1: Wes's um talk where he would be like, you have
Speaker 1: to you have to resign yourself about the what the
Speaker 1: ultimate meaninglessness is of like watching sports and watching which
Speaker 1: way an oblong ball bounces, and yet like it creates
Speaker 1: moments like that, Like that was an overwhelming moment. And
Speaker 1: it almost took a little while during that NFC Championship
Speaker 1: game to like get cranking back up because you're just
Speaker 1: you're just feeling a lot. You're feeling a lot watching
Speaker 1: that thing go through and and it's it's great to
Speaker 1: see Keisha, especially living that moment. Oh, it's so great.
Speaker 1: And yeah, like we you know, knew West so so well.
Speaker 1: So when everyone is celebrating the fact that Cincinnati's on
Speaker 1: this improbable run, um, you wonder how West belt. But
Speaker 1: Lakisha has obviously the way she she sees it as
Speaker 1: like that is West like still with us and connected
Speaker 1: to her and connected to us them going on this
Speaker 1: incredible run. So you know, yeah, and we'll get into
Speaker 1: the game, but I do since we're talking this now,
Speaker 1: like she brought out the sage I feel like she
Speaker 1: saged the Bengals. You know, you talk about speaking something
Speaker 1: into com into existence, which Kisha believes in that too,
Speaker 1: but she saged this into existion. She brought out the
Speaker 1: sage at fourteen three was not looking good at that
Speaker 1: moment for the Bengals. At various points when it also
Speaker 1: wasn't looking good in the second half, she would she
Speaker 1: brought it out the stage, and that stage was just
Speaker 1: cranking um towards towards the end of the century. I'm
Speaker 1: way into her, which like qualities. I mean, if the
Speaker 1: city of Cincinnati there's a lot of homes and mansions,
Speaker 1: I think you just give her a mansion at this point.
Speaker 1: I mean, she ushered this long lost team into the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl. Right. Tony really had this had this tweet
Speaker 1: last week the host of uh around the Horn and
Speaker 1: it was at the two minute warning of the Bill's
Speaker 1: Chiefs game. But I was thinking about as they were
Speaker 1: lining up for that kick in the Bengals game, and
Speaker 1: he just tweeted out while they were at the commercial break,
Speaker 1: like let's all live in this moment forever. And that
Speaker 1: was like like that sports to me is like there
Speaker 1: was that one moment in that in that Bengals game
Speaker 1: where you're just you don't know what's going to happen next,
Speaker 1: and everything that you've watched all season has led of
Speaker 1: this and you're just like totally pure being existence And
Speaker 1: when you got kicked fierce it on your side. He
Speaker 1: comes through and delivers unbelievable and you know we'll get
Speaker 1: into it, like I had a chance to lock up
Speaker 1: the lock title and I'm in an all time fade.
Speaker 1: But I'll tell you what, Like, how could I be
Speaker 1: rooting against Cincinnati during that comeback? I wasn't. It was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'd be cool if I have the trophy, but this
Speaker 1: is even better. And then for the Rams to win too,
Speaker 1: It's it's a really I think it's a really in
Speaker 1: what's been a tremendously difficult couple of years um behind
Speaker 1: the scenes for our show, just doing the show, uh
Speaker 1: in general has been a challenge of times, and just
Speaker 1: finding our footing for this to be the outcome of
Speaker 1: the first full season after we lost West. I don't
Speaker 1: it just you know, you can't. You can't make it up.
Speaker 1: It's it's the stuff of movies. And we get one
Speaker 1: more game to determine a champion. So we're gonna go
Speaker 1: through um. Both games will start with what happened at
Speaker 1: Arrowhead Field, and just from a pure game there is
Speaker 1: all this stuff that's all personal to us, but just
Speaker 1: from a pure game standpoint, that was one of the
Speaker 1: more mystifying games I can remember about how things can
Speaker 1: change in an instant. Um. So let's let's get into it.
Speaker 1: Let's head to Arrowhead Field and break down the a
Speaker 1: f C Championship game snapped. The Mahomes rolls the shoulder,
Speaker 1: now in trouble, now moving to his left, back to
Speaker 1: his right while he gives him a block to try
Speaker 1: to keep him alive. Now he fires light for the
Speaker 1: end dot right side Kelsey on the touchdown CHANCEA City'll
Speaker 1: Burrow back to throw short pass caught by p Ryan.
Speaker 1: P Ryan down to the thirty side, fun touchdown. Bengals
Speaker 1: shotguns snap to Burrow, throws it into the end zone
Speaker 1: for Chase. He leaves, He's got it. Cincinnati placement is down,
Speaker 1: Butker's kick is good and we are going to overturn.
Speaker 1: And now the Bengals will turn to the rookie kicker.
Speaker 1: Avin mc years four years ago. He was a senior
Speaker 1: in high school and tiny Fort Payne, Alabama. Now the
Speaker 1: Bengal Super Bowl chances rest on his right foot to
Speaker 1: kick his up good Coffin knows it is no fluke.
Speaker 1: It is a fact. The Cincinnati Bengals are headed to
Speaker 1: Super Bowl fifty six. Oh, Ricky, you went supersized on
Speaker 1: us and I love it now and the bong goes
Speaker 1: Dan Horne, Dave Lapham, k c k Y, w c
Speaker 1: k y. Also those bitch holtess on Chief's radio. Unbelievable,
Speaker 1: best Bungo game ever? Who day. Evan McPherson fearless kicked
Speaker 1: the thirty one yard field goal two left it overtime
Speaker 1: after the Cincinnati Bengals wiped up the biggest deaf sit
Speaker 1: in Championship game history on the road at Arrowhead, Cincinnati.
Speaker 1: By the way, three and oh all time and an
Speaker 1: f C Championship games advanced to Super Bowl where they
Speaker 1: will attempt to win their first Lombardi Trophy, sending the
Speaker 1: Chiefs home in stunning, stunning fashion and to the point
Speaker 1: that I was making just minutes ago, Greg, this game
Speaker 1: obviously turns in a way no one can imagine. Kansas
Speaker 1: City comes out of the gate like they you know,
Speaker 1: We're just picked up where they left off against the Bills,
Speaker 1: going up and down the field. They get ahead twenty
Speaker 1: one three, they give up touchdown, but they marched in
Speaker 1: the final minute of the half, and then Patrick Mahomes
Speaker 1: begins what for me turned into about a ninety minute meltdown,
Speaker 1: which I could have never predicted. One of the more
Speaker 1: surprising things. Like we talked about last sweak the um,
Speaker 1: the nature of the game, the Chiefs Bills game, I
Speaker 1: thought it was the best game of the a CNRA,
Speaker 1: one of the more mystifying things I could ever remember
Speaker 1: is what happened to Mahomes from that final pass of
Speaker 1: the first half short of the goal line, tackled. They
Speaker 1: go into the half with zero points. Leads to the
Speaker 1: momentum building for Cincinnati. They get back into the game
Speaker 1: and obviously come back to win it. But the Chiefs
Speaker 1: and the Mahomes meltdown on offense after being unstoppable early
Speaker 1: in the game. How do you make sense of it?
Speaker 1: I'm glad you started there in the last two plays
Speaker 1: of the first half. First thing goal Cincinnati one yard line,
Speaker 1: nine seconds left for the Chiefs. At that point that
Speaker 1: they're up, we can get into the Bengals drive before
Speaker 1: that later, which was an important drive. He he has
Speaker 1: an incompletion left at that point, there's five seconds left,
Speaker 1: and they decided to run another play, which I think
Speaker 1: makes sense. You can easily get get another play and
Speaker 1: if not, you get three and Mahomes fritz out and
Speaker 1: he he said after the game he knew the situation,
Speaker 1: although he did try to make a time out. It
Speaker 1: almost felt like that Tom Brady moment where he thought
Speaker 1: there was an extra down and he didn't know the
Speaker 1: time out situation, and he just wasn't cool. He wasn't
Speaker 1: in the moment. He he fritz out and he throws
Speaker 1: it to Hill in the flat, and that is just
Speaker 1: an incredible mistake. But it's still twenty one to ten
Speaker 1: and you're getting the ball in the second half. But
Speaker 1: they didn't. The Chiefs never returned in the In the
Speaker 1: eight drives starting at the end of that, you know,
Speaker 1: in the second half they went for eighty three yards.
Speaker 1: It's just it's just hard to believe. In the seven
Speaker 1: drives in the second half and overtime they go for
Speaker 1: eighty three yards. They have more than one first down
Speaker 1: one time, he throws two interceptions, they have three points.
Speaker 1: It's like that. It's just hard to believe that they
Speaker 1: went three and out four separate times, including an overtime.
Speaker 1: Uh and you had one first down and the other
Speaker 1: onese And they asked Andy Reid, what, what did you
Speaker 1: notice that the Bengals did differently in the second half?
Speaker 1: Defensively said they played a little bit more man coverage,
Speaker 1: but they didn't make any major adjustments. I thought it
Speaker 1: was the rare example of Patrick Mahomes with the events
Speaker 1: you just described it unfolded before the half, that got
Speaker 1: into his head. I thought that he was pressing in
Speaker 1: the second half too. It was interesting as I was
Speaker 1: watching the raw feed and Romo was sort of screaming
Speaker 1: at the production team, get me, get me a clip
Speaker 1: of what Mahomes eyes and what his face were doing
Speaker 1: after that meltdown before the half, because he wanted to
Speaker 1: see if he could notice of visual difference. And I
Speaker 1: think that this was Mahomes kind of crumbling. I mean,
Speaker 1: Tyreek Hill vanished in the second half, and the Bengals
Speaker 1: are this team that's been on this journey for week
Speaker 1: after week that if you let them back in because
Speaker 1: their offense has not been closing drives, they're imperfect too.
Speaker 1: This just became their game and it's just one of
Speaker 1: the more peculiar things we've seen because the Chiefs have
Speaker 1: been on such a hot role obviously, but it harks
Speaker 1: back to the quizzical performance on their offense earlier on
Speaker 1: in the year. We kind of got both Chiefs teams today. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and if you look at the splits of going back
Speaker 1: to the week seventeen Chiefs Bangles game, Mahomes and the
Speaker 1: offense disappeared in that game as well, But this was different,
Speaker 1: and I think, well, that's one of the great things
Speaker 1: about sports and the more mystifying things about sports. I
Speaker 1: keep on using that words because that's the only thing
Speaker 1: that I could the word that best describes how I
Speaker 1: I'm trying to make sense of that, because Mahomes was
Speaker 1: really at his very best, the best we've ever seen
Speaker 1: him throughout that Bills game, throughout the first you know,
Speaker 1: two quarters of this game, and he was on tilt.
Speaker 1: And like, if you ask me who in the league
Speaker 1: do I have to never worry about going on tilt
Speaker 1: in a big spot, Brady is gonna be number one,
Speaker 1: but my Homes would have been number two. And you
Speaker 1: have to give credit to lou and a Rumo and
Speaker 1: the Banal staff, because obviously there were adjustments that were made.
Speaker 1: But I'm just wondering how you process that because even
Speaker 1: even look greg like we can get into that the
Speaker 1: final series of regulation, right, I think if you can
Speaker 1: kind of combine those two series, that really tells you
Speaker 1: and you're you're figuring, Okay, they nearly gave this away,
Speaker 1: but they're whittling the clock down, they're gonna they're gonna
Speaker 1: execute here, score the touchdown with seconds left or whatever,
Speaker 1: and get out of there with the win. But the
Speaker 1: plays taking the sacks and then the last sack that
Speaker 1: led to the fumble, Like, man, he just took a
Speaker 1: fourteen yard sack or whatever it was and fumbled in
Speaker 1: the biggest moment of the season. It's like, this is
Speaker 1: Patrick Mahomes. I I still can't believe it. I can't
Speaker 1: believe it. That was a great play by Sam Himberd
Speaker 1: and it could have been the play that Bengals fans
Speaker 1: remembered for the rest of their lives if if the
Speaker 1: ball bounces a little different in the Bengals fall on that.
Speaker 1: But you're right, they had first and goal at the
Speaker 1: five yard line with a minute thirty to go there,
Speaker 1: trailing by three at that time. At that point, they
Speaker 1: were on the only decent drive that they had in
Speaker 1: all of the second half or overtime. Uh and they
Speaker 1: were trying to get the Bengals to get rid of
Speaker 1: their time out. So they run it on first down,
Speaker 1: which I think totally made sense. See it, see if
Speaker 1: you can get in. If not, you forced the Bengals
Speaker 1: to take their time out. Now there's one left. And
Speaker 1: and I do wonder if the talk with Mahomes on
Speaker 1: the sideline was like, don't throw it in completion, you know,
Speaker 1: do not let do not stop the clock here. You know,
Speaker 1: if you have to take a sack, you take it.
Speaker 1: And it was really a story in the second half.
Speaker 1: I thought, Okay, maybe they didn't adjust too much. I
Speaker 1: thought I read some and saw something that they played
Speaker 1: a little more man coverage. If you ever want um
Speaker 1: like the vindication of just rushing three, this was it,
Speaker 1: because this second half of this game, it was a
Speaker 1: whole lot of Russian three, dropping it into coverage and
Speaker 1: tackling better. The Bengals did playing coverage better. But then
Speaker 1: you get to the spot, yeah, where he takes a
Speaker 1: sack to back of five yards. Again that's Hubbard. I mean,
Speaker 1: so those are two massive plays by Hubbard in a row.
Speaker 1: They take the time out again and right he just
Speaker 1: was kind of running around lost. You have to give credit,
Speaker 1: but a lot of it I think was just like
Speaker 1: the situation being too much like trying to figure out
Speaker 1: what the situational football of it all was instead of
Speaker 1: just going and trying to score a touchdown. But that's
Speaker 1: what's so atypical about it, because this offense has been
Speaker 1: together for years at the highest mountaintops of the NFL,
Speaker 1: and for them suddenly to enter into a state of
Speaker 1: confusion is to your point, it's just totally mystifying. There
Speaker 1: is I mean, sometimes things just happen and there isn't
Speaker 1: all a logical explanation for it in the NFL, and
Speaker 1: this is one of those times. For me. It's something
Speaker 1: where we need like someone who's who gets the all
Speaker 1: twenty two and watches because I'm just curious, like what
Speaker 1: Mahomes was looking at in a lot of these plays.
Speaker 1: He held the ball so long for all the second half,
Speaker 1: So you have to give a lot of credit to
Speaker 1: the Bengal secondary, but it also was he being too
Speaker 1: cautious like we'll have and then you go after that
Speaker 1: meltdown in the red zone and Buckering bailed you out.
Speaker 1: It wasn't a hard kick, but it went from being
Speaker 1: either a touchdown to you know, twenty yard field goal
Speaker 1: to now he's kicking from forty five. Uh, and he
Speaker 1: splits the uprights. Buckers a great kicker. You go to overtime,
Speaker 1: they win the coin toss after all the talk that
Speaker 1: we've heard all week about how overtime is not fair.
Speaker 1: And he nearly throws a pick six that Eli Apple dropped.
Speaker 1: That I mean that talk about another play that would
Speaker 1: have He throws another one up for grabs, trying to
Speaker 1: force it to Tyreek Hill, who went invisible in the
Speaker 1: second half of this game, gets intercepted, and that is
Speaker 1: and the Bengals are an incredible story and I can't
Speaker 1: wait to watch him, and I hope they win the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl. Um, but I'll always remember Mahomes and the
Speaker 1: offense short circuiting. That's to me the thing that that
Speaker 1: is the thing that's great about sports but also will
Speaker 1: drive you crazy because you think you have things figured
Speaker 1: out and then something like this happens. The moment can
Speaker 1: get anyone, and I think it got my homes well.
Speaker 1: And I also think about Kansas City's defense after the
Speaker 1: Von Bell interception, where it was like, you know, you're
Speaker 1: you have a chance to squelched the Bengals as well,
Speaker 1: and Joe Mixon, who is not you know, necessarily thrived
Speaker 1: on the ground, and the playoffs at all ran through
Speaker 1: them over and over and over, and it's just like
Speaker 1: they seemed to me, they seemed like ghosts. At the
Speaker 1: end of this game. The Chiefs like, yeah, they they
Speaker 1: they won the coin toss and and they go crazy
Speaker 1: and the Chiefs twitter account says like we won the
Speaker 1: coin toss and there, no, I didn't what was that, Ricky.
Speaker 1: It was right when the coin toss happened and he
Speaker 1: called heads and it was tails. Josh Allen tweeted pain period,
Speaker 1: but like and like they were they won the coin
Speaker 1: toss and there was like, oh my god, here we
Speaker 1: go again. And I was thinking, they've just had eight
Speaker 1: straight drives where they haven't had a touchdown. They just
Speaker 1: had seven where where they had three points, and especially
Speaker 1: that the end sequence. I mean this, I think the
Speaker 1: Bengals defense has to get a lot of credit. Hendrickson
Speaker 1: was getting some pressure on him. He was in and
Speaker 1: out with with injury. Is Hubbard, like I said, played well,
Speaker 1: but this has been a veteran defense A. Woozier was
Speaker 1: one of the biggest free agent signings of the offseason.
Speaker 1: Von Bell Jesse Bates is the one who ends up
Speaker 1: breaking up the pass in overtime that turns into the
Speaker 1: interception that that Bell gets. He's an all pro type
Speaker 1: of player. Uh and even Eli apple Um, I'm I
Speaker 1: was happy for him because my immediate thought when he
Speaker 1: dropped that pass was if Chris was here, if West
Speaker 1: was here, he would be talking about the play he
Speaker 1: talked about more than any other as a Bengals fan,
Speaker 1: the Lewis Bill of play, dropping the pass in the
Speaker 1: in the end zone. But this time it didn't come
Speaker 1: back to bite well. And in that game that's Super Bowl,
Speaker 1: Montana throws the game winning touchdown right after, So it's
Speaker 1: like you're looking at the lost opportunity by the by
Speaker 1: the Bengals. This time around, they did it. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think I just I spent most of this game
Speaker 1: thinking that since he's offense too lacked the aggressiveness to
Speaker 1: come into this thing and just have put it all
Speaker 1: out there and for much of the game until like
Speaker 1: the second half really got cooking. They seemed real tight.
Speaker 1: I mean, at one point deep into the second quarter,
Speaker 1: Burrow had twenty eight yards and five straight in completions,
Speaker 1: which was not typical Joe Burrow business. He was at
Speaker 1: one point, yeah, go ahead, all right, boys, hold it
Speaker 1: right there, let's take a quick break. We'll be right back.
Speaker 1: And we're back now. It was six, and you know,
Speaker 1: he turned it on with the rest of the Bengals
Speaker 1: and now he's the you know, the hero of this
Speaker 1: team and the guy that is wearing a diamond chain
Speaker 1: and saying, I wait, I make way too much money
Speaker 1: for my diamonds not to be real. I mean, this
Speaker 1: man is feeling himself. He was after the game, he
Speaker 1: talked about being an Ohio kid now taking the Bengals
Speaker 1: to the super Bowl. That's something I'm really proud of
Speaker 1: being front Ohio, being a quarterback of the Bengals two
Speaker 1: and a half hours from my hometown. This was something
Speaker 1: I've always wanted playing the Super Bowl. And I couldn't
Speaker 1: be with a better group of guys. And we did
Speaker 1: see um Mike Brown also on the riser and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, we're talking about or we're texting about, like
Speaker 1: you know where whereas West coming down when he's watched ing, Uh,
Speaker 1: this situation and the Western Brothers we were texting with them.
Speaker 1: Uh and Greg, I thought you was summed it up
Speaker 1: well that he would have been feeling the moment until
Speaker 1: that happened, maybe exactly Brown. That's funny, Like does Mike
Speaker 1: Brown get credit for anything here or is it like
Speaker 1: the whole angle and like it's all a lot of
Speaker 1: it is just good fortune bad fortune. They had the
Speaker 1: worst record when Joe Burrow showed up as the number
Speaker 1: one overall pick Like how much is connected directly to
Speaker 1: just looking into that and then you know, you do
Speaker 1: a nice job building around him and things come together
Speaker 1: faster than normal. But as an organization like we had
Speaker 1: um Paul Daynard from the Athletic and he he explained
Speaker 1: some changes they were making behind the scenes to try
Speaker 1: to get more up to the times. And certainly it
Speaker 1: seems like they whatever they did has worked because they
Speaker 1: seem very set up now moving forward with I mean,
Speaker 1: if anything with Mike Brown, he's been he's given say
Speaker 1: power and influenced other people. And when if you go
Speaker 1: back even to that team, you could look and say
Speaker 1: that the best roster in the a f C. It's
Speaker 1: like the well. I think some of the stuff that
Speaker 1: West wrote that massive and collected that massive folder about
Speaker 1: was the fact that they were zigging in the wrong
Speaker 1: way when everyonelts was sagging. He had no scouting department,
Speaker 1: they didn't spend money in free agency. All that's changed,
Speaker 1: and I just I we don't know what West would think,
Speaker 1: but the one thing I'm sure of is that Joe
Speaker 1: Burrow changes everything for the Bengals historically going forward for
Speaker 1: the next fifteen plus years, and he I would struggle
Speaker 1: to think he wouldn't be totally enamored with the club
Speaker 1: that we've watched over the last couple of absolutely reminding
Speaker 1: me of when West was really into Duke Tobin. I
Speaker 1: don't know if you remember he wrote a whole piece
Speaker 1: about Duke Tobin. He actually went and asked Duke Tobin
Speaker 1: questions at the combine, which West was loath to do.
Speaker 1: And I think that's a really good point that Mike
Speaker 1: Brown has changed the style of their ownership in that
Speaker 1: I think he's let guys like Duke Tobin be a
Speaker 1: real GM even though he doesn't have the title. I
Speaker 1: don't believe be a real g M. His daughter Katie Blackburn,
Speaker 1: who who's actually has a lot of respect, you know,
Speaker 1: within the NFL and the organization kind kind of run
Speaker 1: the organization her way. Um And and you saw so
Speaker 1: many of those players step up today, and you saw
Speaker 1: their drafting step up. I mean not just Jamaar Chase,
Speaker 1: but I want to go through sort of how they
Speaker 1: come back, came back at some point. But one one
Speaker 1: catch that really stands out to me is the Higgins
Speaker 1: catch in overtime. His his arms are getting raked on
Speaker 1: that play. They weren't calling anything in this game. Defensive
Speaker 1: backs could maim the opposing receivers and they did to
Speaker 1: Higgins right on a potential touchdown in the first half,
Speaker 1: which which the Bengals were not happy with. And Higgins
Speaker 1: who had six for one oh three. I thought that
Speaker 1: was a theme today, Higgins and oh b j the
Speaker 1: wide receiver to showing man, if you have two guys
Speaker 1: on the outside, it is so tough to stop. And
Speaker 1: this was a Higgins day, and that catching overtime was
Speaker 1: very difficult and really was the key play in the
Speaker 1: in that winning drive before Mixing got a couple of
Speaker 1: big runs. Where do you go from here? If you're
Speaker 1: the Chiefs, that's something that's a tough loss. That is
Speaker 1: that's one that will stick to the ribs. Just like
Speaker 1: we talked about the Packers loss last week. Um, they
Speaker 1: now you know, they had that game in their back
Speaker 1: pocket one three and that's that's unbelievable. The tweets and
Speaker 1: the like. Just the feeling of that game, Like, don't
Speaker 1: you think the Chiefs felt like they were going to
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl that they there wasn't I think they
Speaker 1: think everybody felt out right right, It just seemed like, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is this was one what we talked about it
Speaker 1: on the Network show, like this felt like a close game.
Speaker 1: The Bengals could steal it potentially, but also there was
Speaker 1: a there was a possibility this was like game just
Speaker 1: because the way Kansas City looked they could run the
Speaker 1: Bengals out of that building and and it didn't work
Speaker 1: out that way obviously. Um, any other thoughts about the
Speaker 1: comeback or anything. The one thing that happened early to
Speaker 1: Kansas City and they got into that, you know, the
Speaker 1: time issue at the end of the first half was
Speaker 1: when Andy Reid challenge to play he got they got
Speaker 1: the challenge, but he took a time out beforehand, and
Speaker 1: its stripped them of an early time out that ended
Speaker 1: up costing them. I mean, you know, it's like Andy
Speaker 1: Reid used to get tagged with this time management thing
Speaker 1: all the time. He's escaped a lot of that because
Speaker 1: he has one of the best quarterbacks we've ever watched.
Speaker 1: But to your point about the where we thought the
Speaker 1: Chiefs would be at this point compared to where they were,
Speaker 1: it reminds me a lot of the two thousand and
Speaker 1: ten Packers, where you have Aaron Rodgers the sky's limit.
Speaker 1: They never get back there to win and they never
Speaker 1: win another title. And it just shows you how elusive
Speaker 1: it is. Because now Kansas City goes into an offseason
Speaker 1: having swallowed an evil pill. Well, there's some scarring on
Speaker 1: this team. Now you had the Super Bowl last year
Speaker 1: where Mahomes got abused and physically wrecked, and then you
Speaker 1: have this game which is something to to collapse, historic collapse,
Speaker 1: biggest um blown lead ever in the Championship Sunday. There
Speaker 1: is just this level of invincibility that Mahomes had in
Speaker 1: those initial seasons that now they don't quite feel that way.
Speaker 1: Now a team's gone again into Arrowhead in the a
Speaker 1: f C title game, and and now you have Burrow
Speaker 1: and the Bengals saying, listen, this is not your conference anymore.
Speaker 1: This is this is our time. And it snuck up
Speaker 1: on everybody because look where where everyone was picking Cincinnati
Speaker 1: before the season. Look where they were at the beginning
Speaker 1: of the season on my power rankings, Like this was
Speaker 1: a team that was not ready or supposed to be
Speaker 1: making this jump, and yet they had Look where they
Speaker 1: were when I, you know, like you know, I backed
Speaker 1: off this little bit pronounced that they were going to
Speaker 1: take over the conference back in like November. It's like,
Speaker 1: you know, I would. I would to see the nfl
Speaker 1: dot Com mid season predictions, and no one at the
Speaker 1: entire NFL dot Com media group, out of thirty people
Speaker 1: had the Bengals in the playoffs at mid season. Not
Speaker 1: one person had them even as a wild card team then,
Speaker 1: which it actually is disrespect. They probably were five and
Speaker 1: four that I think it was coming off their two
Speaker 1: games losing, so it's a weird timing um, but not
Speaker 1: one person even had them in the playoffs at that
Speaker 1: point that the Mahomes Stark speak on it, yeah, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: you didn't didnes. What's what's happening? You didn't even have
Speaker 1: him in the playoffs? Well? No, I mean I would
Speaker 1: say I my my directive would be, there's probably fifty
Speaker 1: five people that make those predictions fire, all of them
Speaker 1: start over with an entirely new collection of individuals. You
Speaker 1: do feel for for Andy Reid who has man he
Speaker 1: has taken some tough losses over the years, especially in
Speaker 1: the conference championship weekend. And look, not everything is about
Speaker 1: the Patriots, but I do think these sort of games
Speaker 1: do remind you how just brewed, how impossible it is
Speaker 1: for what they accomplished, Like how tough that will be
Speaker 1: to repeat, even when you have Patrick Mahomes because they
Speaker 1: have hosted four straight a FC championships, Like that is
Speaker 1: so Patriots, Like that's like this other level that even
Speaker 1: ahead of where the Packers are at, of like can
Speaker 1: you get the one or two seed every year? Like
Speaker 1: that's like the highest almost level you could reach, and
Speaker 1: the Chiefs are even above that, but even on another
Speaker 1: level above that, you have to actually like finish each
Speaker 1: one of these games out and get through the gauntlet
Speaker 1: that it's like, man, that's tough to do year after
Speaker 1: year twenty one to three, with two eighteen left in
Speaker 1: the second quarter in the Bengals got the ball and
Speaker 1: you mentioned how they weren't aggressive all day, and that
Speaker 1: was driving me crazy. They weren't throwing on first down,
Speaker 1: they were running a ton. They they had a play
Speaker 1: action pass on the first play of that drive for
Speaker 1: a big gainer up the field. I can't remember who
Speaker 1: was too either boyd or a tight end got that
Speaker 1: drive going and ended up scoring later. And then they
Speaker 1: did settle in and get a little more aggressive. But
Speaker 1: the thing that to me was just in the comeback
Speaker 1: most important about Burrow was he wasn't going down like
Speaker 1: he only got sacked one time in this game. And
Speaker 1: his legs and he said this after the game in
Speaker 1: an interview with Ross Tucker. Actually, I was listening to
Speaker 1: on the way in that that some people, you know,
Speaker 1: dismissed my legs, like they don't think I can run,
Speaker 1: And they ended up spying me a little bit towards
Speaker 1: the end of that game. And that really was a
Speaker 1: difference in some of these field goal drives, especially the
Speaker 1: play I mean, this is when you start to feel
Speaker 1: like the football gods are operating on a different level
Speaker 1: here when he evaded Chris Jones twice on that one
Speaker 1: play that I mean, they showed Chris Jones up close
Speaker 1: after and you could just see he knew that that
Speaker 1: thing had slipped away. Can I read one absurd tweet
Speaker 1: that came out of Kansas City after this? Um k NBC,
Speaker 1: I'm assuming that's a television station. This was their tweet
Speaker 1: after the Chiefs melted um in all caps, against all odds, Colin,
Speaker 1: we were never supposed to be here, We were never
Speaker 1: meant to make it this far, but against all odds
Speaker 1: we did. What a season. Thank you for the incredible ride.
Speaker 1: We will always be Chief's Kingdom. Wait a minute, excuse me,
Speaker 1: but every single sentient human being above Toddler level assumed
Speaker 1: that they would be here to look at it this way.
Speaker 1: And it's a news organization saying that it's just utterly bizarre.
Speaker 1: That tweet makes more sense if you imagine an idiot
Speaker 1: wrote it. Well, that's that's that's not who I insitions
Speaker 1: got into this thing of like everyone discounted us and
Speaker 1: everyone gave up on us, and like why why is
Speaker 1: that the thing that that gets you going? And like
Speaker 1: fires you because that's true, some people did, but like
Speaker 1: not many. I when I went back to look at
Speaker 1: that mid season think, for instance, everyone still had them
Speaker 1: winning the division and had many more people than not
Speaker 1: had them going to the Super We just simply saying
Speaker 1: we expect them to be nearly perfect, and they played
Speaker 1: a nearly perfect first half up until he h it was.
Speaker 1: It was a ludicrous sweep and I'm glad it went viral. Boys,
Speaker 1: would you like to step behind the velvet ropes because
Speaker 1: I think there's one other figure we need to discuss
Speaker 1: in the non Justin Tucker category. I can't remember ever
Speaker 1: seeing a kicker or more locked in than the rookie
Speaker 1: fifth rounder Evan McPherson. He went four for four again today.
Speaker 1: He went four for four. Last week, he went four
Speaker 1: for four the week before that. He is twelve for
Speaker 1: twelve in the play offs. Every week has had a
Speaker 1: fifty yard or massive fifty yard bomb in this game
Speaker 1: as well, and that is he is a legitimate Again,
Speaker 1: don't sleep on this weapon two weeks from Sunday across
Speaker 1: the street, because he is not that I ever get
Speaker 1: behind Jay Pheeley's analysis on CBS Delcast, but he made
Speaker 1: a point that carries across anything else. He has no
Speaker 1: battle scars on him. He doesn't know anything but success,
Speaker 1: and you could tell that's just blowing through him. He's
Speaker 1: been unbelievable for that. I was like, he kicked the
Speaker 1: fifty two it was a fifty two yard or to
Speaker 1: take the lead in the fourth, and I had no
Speaker 1: no worry at all, forget the thirty one yard or
Speaker 1: to win it, like of course that one's going in
Speaker 1: no concern at all. It changes how they play offense,
Speaker 1: because that was part of the comeback, was picking up
Speaker 1: three points in a couple in a handful of spots.
Speaker 1: They only had one touchdown actually during the during the
Speaker 1: second half, and that's why the Borough Brady thing. And
Speaker 1: I did feel like earlier this week they're gonna win
Speaker 1: this game somehow. I don't know how they're gonna win
Speaker 1: this game. And in the Bury Burrow Brady thing there
Speaker 1: it's maybe forced, but there are little things that I
Speaker 1: think winning plays, not just like the running and stuff like,
Speaker 1: but avoiding the sacks and making the smart decisions at
Speaker 1: the smart moments, and like that's where the luck is.
Speaker 1: That's well, if you want to call it luck, that's
Speaker 1: where the like I just you. You look at you
Speaker 1: look into the face, into the visage, and like it's
Speaker 1: like he's so he's so unflappable. I mean it's like
Speaker 1: you're the same way that Tony Romo has had run
Speaker 1: out of um verbal concepts to describe mahomes and it's
Speaker 1: you know, all the stuff he does. You're gonna get
Speaker 1: there with Burrow. I mean, they have Burrow and the
Speaker 1: new Justin Tucker. Who would have you would have bet
Speaker 1: houses in the opposite direction that the entire division would
Speaker 1: be looking up at the Bengals forever and that's where
Speaker 1: they are, right. Yeah, I do have a couple of
Speaker 1: I know you do. I know you do, Greg. But
Speaker 1: this this Tony Romo telecast coming off last week where
Speaker 1: I sang his praises and I thought he had an
Speaker 1: excellent Bills Chiefs game. He was not at his best
Speaker 1: in this game and he had his biggest flub to
Speaker 1: me since he's been doing uh television. Um when it
Speaker 1: was the last possession of regulation and the Chiefs are
Speaker 1: knocking on the door. It's first and goal from the nine,
Speaker 1: and he begins to tell the audience, this is our conduit,
Speaker 1: this is our expert, our former player he's telling the audience,
Speaker 1: audience should Cincinnati, even though they have a three point lead,
Speaker 1: let the Chiefs score a touchdown so they will have
Speaker 1: enough time to get the ball back. It's like, bro,
Speaker 1: this game, you're winning this game. You don't want to
Speaker 1: give up a touchdown to go behind, so you have
Speaker 1: forty seven seconds. That was I couldn't believe he was
Speaker 1: saying that. It's almost like he didn't know the score.
Speaker 1: That was an insane thing for Romo to say. In
Speaker 1: a normal game, you know, you knew where he was going,
Speaker 1: like if it was U the first Bengals Chiefs game
Speaker 1: and it was just all often back and forth. But
Speaker 1: that's even then. You can't think that way because there's
Speaker 1: there's Malcolm Butler. There's like too many times of doing
Speaker 1: exactly what the Bengals did. And then he was there
Speaker 1: was a red challenge flag or and he was thinking
Speaker 1: that they should challenge an illegal procedure like lining up
Speaker 1: the wrong way, which you can't challenge either. Well he
Speaker 1: got he got caught not knowing the nuance on that one,
Speaker 1: Like you you can't challenge it was a bad game.
Speaker 1: He was thinking like the worst possible scenario was giving
Speaker 1: up a touchdown with twenty seconds left or whatever it
Speaker 1: was gonna be, which which would have been? But you know,
Speaker 1: the best possible scenario is Sam Harvard forces a fumble
Speaker 1: on Patrick Mahomes, which is exactly what happened, and you
Speaker 1: gotta give your guy. Yeah, you can't even you can't
Speaker 1: even float that as a theory. When Cincinnati has like
Speaker 1: seven consecutive stops on defense basically before that drive, you
Speaker 1: can't be like, give up the touchdown to fall behind
Speaker 1: in the a f C title game in the last
Speaker 1: forty one seconds, right, they were owned. I mean the
Speaker 1: the drives were sixteen yards, seventeen yards, seven yards negative,
Speaker 1: two yards of four yards and then they had the
Speaker 1: three down over stunning. It is crazy. Um. I do
Speaker 1: just want to remind you that despite it looking dry
Speaker 1: on camera today, the rain was out in Cincinnati. We're
Speaker 1: out a day in two heater. The rainmaker forget plus seven.
Speaker 1: I should have gone money line and locked it up
Speaker 1: like Mark Sessler. But it all works out anyways. They
Speaker 1: want it, they want it. Does it get you a
Speaker 1: little uncomfortable? Mark? When Greg gets this giddy sometimes like energy,
Speaker 1: It's Gregg's materialism that gets on my radar. Just justice.
Speaker 1: By the way, the rainmakers coming back out, Grab that
Speaker 1: early Bengals plus four line for the Super Bowl because
Speaker 1: we're riving the Bengals to the end, Are you kidding?
Speaker 1: Make that line might change and and letty, I have
Speaker 1: an announcement to make. I'm gonna call my own press conference. Um,
Speaker 1: I am in the midst of a collapse in the
Speaker 1: locks competition. Listen, I have no I have no regrets
Speaker 1: about my strategy here in the playoffs. The strategy was
Speaker 1: get behind the best quarterbacks and the superior teams. And
Speaker 1: I thought that I was doing that, and yet Aaron
Speaker 1: Rodgers and the Packers let me down, and then Patrick
Speaker 1: Mahomes in the Chiefs let me down. And I will
Speaker 1: tell you this, Mark, and this is a show of
Speaker 1: respect to not just you, but the game. We will
Speaker 1: not have a tie. We will not have a tie.
Speaker 1: And I think, given the nature of my picks here,
Speaker 1: I'm going to seed you know the prediction. I want
Speaker 1: you to pick the team you want to win the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl or think they will. I will go the
Speaker 1: other way and we will find out who wins the title.
Speaker 1: If I'm gonna collapse, I want to collapse into a tie.
Speaker 1: I want either somehow survive like the Rams did last
Speaker 1: weekend in Tampa or going down in infamy. And I
Speaker 1: think it's a great sign. And I think I know
Speaker 1: who Mark Sessler's picking, and maybe, just for Luck's sake,
Speaker 1: we should keep it that way because you've gone against
Speaker 1: the Bengals Dan all three weeks here, so just for
Speaker 1: the luck of it, well, I have wherever remark goes,
Speaker 1: I have to go there, admirable, thank you that I'm
Speaker 1: like waiting for the kicker, like I'm waiting for him
Speaker 1: to be like psych Well, I think the kicker was
Speaker 1: that that entire speech was to set up Dan as
Speaker 1: a highly noble figure. I mean, I will I'm only
Speaker 1: in this position because I had a four game skid
Speaker 1: prior to your skids. So it's forced us crazy. Now
Speaker 1: you want to fully root for the Bengals in the
Speaker 1: super Bowl, you know, well, but Greg like that that
Speaker 1: we're saving that for later in the week. That's how
Speaker 1: you built drama. You built drama degree. But a lot
Speaker 1: of people are coming at you Dan also, and it's like, listen,
Speaker 1: we we've been doing this thing for years and it's
Speaker 1: like we're not like at each other's throats over this,
Speaker 1: like it's it's going to go down in proper fashion.
Speaker 1: We tied one other five weeks ago one Sunday show.
Speaker 1: There was one right there. I had been annoyed, but
Speaker 1: I was annoyed with my own epic failure. I'm feeling
Speaker 1: pretty good one Sunday night. Well there's I mean, there's
Speaker 1: a lot to be said to take this thing. But listen,
Speaker 1: the Packers. They got me mad lad because that was
Speaker 1: a gag job. The Cincinnati Bengals coming back an arrowhead.
Speaker 1: I could live with that. I'll take that out. And
Speaker 1: by the way, my other pick for this this weekend
Speaker 1: was the Niners. So again, it doesn't matter right now.
Speaker 1: And I'm like when I'm on a cold streak as
Speaker 1: you were, uh in December and to that point, like
Speaker 1: I like, I wrote down something to myself that I
Speaker 1: stopped asking for anything from the NFL and it started
Speaker 1: to give me a lot of great things. And like
Speaker 1: that's to me. I think something is happening here that
Speaker 1: we have no control over. I mean, we have no
Speaker 1: control over anything, but I'm along for the ride. That's
Speaker 1: why I'm I've decided I've tried to keep in control
Speaker 1: and playing is from ahead is the favorite to try
Speaker 1: to stay in control. I'm throwing my hands up and
Speaker 1: I said, do what you must, shove me, control, control
Speaker 1: and then me shape me. If you did, you must.
Speaker 1: If you didn't, um, you know, lose this lock. If
Speaker 1: the Bengals hadn't come from behind, though, we would not
Speaker 1: have gotten Chris Rose on NFL Network with a pretty
Speaker 1: cool moment tonight. They're picking it out dirt down. It
Speaker 1: was there. This was less awesome Chris Rose. We got
Speaker 1: to know Chris Uh this season on Sunday nights watching
Speaker 1: Sunday Night Football with him in the Big Theater. He's
Speaker 1: a really good guy and Uh and he's a brown
Speaker 1: span And so I think you're like everyone is just
Speaker 1: no matter who you are, who you were, who the
Speaker 1: Bengals were to you in the past, your heart needs
Speaker 1: to not even exist. There must be something dark and
Speaker 1: um lost inside of you if you can't kind of
Speaker 1: feel this Bengals team. And I do think it's one
Speaker 1: of those Super Bowls. And the Rams are cool too,
Speaker 1: but we're like people are gonna be like, We'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure who were into in this game? Here? Hearing that
Speaker 1: was there was something there's something about hearing that I
Speaker 1: was kind of like te and West at London that
Speaker 1: like hit me more than even anything watching at at
Speaker 1: Keisha's and everything. Something about hearing like on NFL Network
Speaker 1: him saying like this one's for West. It's just like
Speaker 1: it's bigger than just just West and the podcast and
Speaker 1: the Bengals. It's awesome and all the messages from everyone
Speaker 1: today has been awesome, very cool. Yes, and uh yeah,
Speaker 1: so many people feel the same way we do. That
Speaker 1: just something strange as in the air and as difficult
Speaker 1: as this is um been without West, this has been
Speaker 1: a nice little thing that we we've been able to
Speaker 1: enjoy together. All right, Let's take a break and talk
Speaker 1: about the game that produced the NFC champion and yes,
Speaker 1: the Cincinnati Bengals opponent in Super Bowl fifty six. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the Bengals called the Super Bowl. Let's take a break. Second.
Speaker 1: At thirteen forty, Niners go empty. Garoppolo looks right, throws
Speaker 1: debox on the screen block from jettings break cit Taco
Speaker 1: debo Sam your twenty fifteen ten five debo diving for
Speaker 1: the ends right up there, touchdown, Send friend Cisco to
Speaker 1: this out along the shockun I guess the four man
Speaker 1: ross clean platform head west side, Cooper Cup in the
Speaker 1: end zone. He's a cheat code. Touchdown, Cooper Cup, touchdown, away,
Speaker 1: hold down. The kick is on the way and it
Speaker 1: is breakdown in the middle. Came from thirty for a
Speaker 1: twenty to seventeen lead, was six remains, sat back to Garoppolo,
Speaker 1: pocket frumbling, he spins out. He's hit, He's wrapped up.
Speaker 1: He flipped it forward. It's deep. Hits intercepted, It's intercepted.
Speaker 1: It's intercepted. Eric Donald's got fresh ed on Garoffolo and
Speaker 1: Travin Howard twitches the NFC Championship game. Hey how about that?
Speaker 1: My buddy, my picnic pal J B Long with the
Speaker 1: call of his life. KSPN also heard Greg Pappa, k
Speaker 1: n b r up and the Bay Area and the
Speaker 1: Los Angeles Rams down seventeen seven and the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: the place going nuts, everybody in red. It felt like,
Speaker 1: and it seemed like once again that the Los Angeles
Speaker 1: Rams and their coach Sean McVeigh, we're going to get
Speaker 1: done in by Kyle Shanahan and those Niners would beat
Speaker 1: him six times in a row and now had a
Speaker 1: double digit fourth quarter lead, and yet the Rams get
Speaker 1: a big touchdown from Cooper cup who's been doing it
Speaker 1: all year, one of the greatest wide receiver seasons of
Speaker 1: all time. Then they get the big stop on defense.
Speaker 1: They are able to take control of the game, take
Speaker 1: the lead, and close it out with Yes, Aaron Donald
Speaker 1: and friends getting it done. Twenty seventeen, the final. The
Speaker 1: Rams are back in the Super Bowl for the second
Speaker 1: time and what is it three years with McVeigh four
Speaker 1: for for the second time in four years, and this
Speaker 1: one Mark had to be so sweet, and you could
Speaker 1: tell on Sean Nikpai's face to not only knock off
Speaker 1: Kyle Shanahan not only to get back to the Super Bowl,
Speaker 1: but all those demons Jordan Rodrigue talked about with us
Speaker 1: from the Athletic last week, all those demons exercise in
Speaker 1: a big spot at SOFI Stadium. Yeah, and it wipes
Speaker 1: away everything the Niners did to them before. It's like
Speaker 1: this was the one that mattered. It was mattered five
Speaker 1: times more than those six losses. And you could see
Speaker 1: the look on Sean mcveigh's face. I mean, this was pressure.
Speaker 1: This was pressure on the entire team, and they overcame
Speaker 1: a lot. They overcame, you know, the Matthew Stafford mistake.
Speaker 1: They overcame the fact that I thought the defensive line,
Speaker 1: the strength of the team did very little for much
Speaker 1: of this game. But where was von Miller for so
Speaker 1: much of it? That Aaron Donald's name was called at
Speaker 1: the most optimal time at the end to cause that interception.
Speaker 1: There's a lot to get into with this game, too.
Speaker 1: But the drive that I that I felt maybe told
Speaker 1: me the Niners are slipping away because we know that
Speaker 1: Jimmy g he is a journey I mean, and you
Speaker 1: you have to sign up for Yeah, I think I
Speaker 1: agree with you. Well yeah, but it's just like I
Speaker 1: feel like it's weeks in a row where you're watching
Speaker 1: and throw passes that were um, you know, I want
Speaker 1: to call him but desperate, um bordering on high risk.
Speaker 1: And he got away with a lot of that stuff
Speaker 1: and today he did not at the end. And somebody
Speaker 1: and we've been we had been calling for it for
Speaker 1: weeks that at some point it's gonna haunt him in
Speaker 1: a way that they're not going to be able to
Speaker 1: unhaunt themselves, and it happened today. The drive though for
Speaker 1: me seventeen seventeen, there's six plus left total melt job
Speaker 1: by Jimmy g in the offense. They took twenty three
Speaker 1: seconds off the clock when it would have been the
Speaker 1: patented time for Shanahan to get the ground game going,
Speaker 1: just to not even give Matthew Stafford in the Rams
Speaker 1: a chance back in and they did. I mean, they
Speaker 1: just they let this game away in the Rams. You know,
Speaker 1: you get a performance by Odell Beckham. It's like everything
Speaker 1: and you know, at this point this is not news,
Speaker 1: but all these moves they made. It was a year
Speaker 1: ago today that the Stafford trade was announced. To have
Speaker 1: known back then, a lot of people doubted that deal,
Speaker 1: that the Rams mortgage their future, that a year later
Speaker 1: they'd be here. It's like, and we all we had
Speaker 1: I certainly had fun with it when they had the
Speaker 1: tweet we're all in. After the moves that they made,
Speaker 1: and then they were a little they were a little bit,
Speaker 1: you know, on and off for a stretch there during
Speaker 1: the regular season, and it looked like, man, are they
Speaker 1: not only gonna never have any premium draft picks, but
Speaker 1: they're gonna go all in and they're gonna fall short.
Speaker 1: And yet here they are a nut like the Bengals,
Speaker 1: another four seed greg that got hot found themselves all
Speaker 1: of a sudden hosting the NFC Championship game and then
Speaker 1: executing in a way that San Francisco had executed against
Speaker 1: them and all those prior losses. Yeah, maybe they're better
Speaker 1: off playing from behind. I mean, sent seven entering the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter and you go touchdown field goal, field goal,
Speaker 1: and your defensive line in Aaron Donald and Von Miller
Speaker 1: in that group that had been quiet throughout the game,
Speaker 1: peasted three straight drives. So it's like, you don't need
Speaker 1: to we don't need to hear anything about this team's toughness.
Speaker 1: I don't think toughness was ever you know, the right
Speaker 1: word for it, because they they also have one, you know,
Speaker 1: been in some difficult spots this year in in one
Speaker 1: tight games, not always again to the top competition. But
Speaker 1: it was seventeen seven Stafford gets the ball back and
Speaker 1: it was just like bet and it was they went
Speaker 1: right down the field and it it was placed to Odell.
Speaker 1: It was it was third and six is to two. Cup.
Speaker 1: Really the whole game, I thought the difference was the quarterbacks.
Speaker 1: And I know Stafford until the end, his numbers weren't
Speaker 1: too flashy. And people are going to bring up that
Speaker 1: to Quiskey tart drop interception, and we can talk about that,
Speaker 1: but it's like Stafford played great in this game, and yeah,
Speaker 1: he'll give the other team a couple of chances and
Speaker 1: he'll make a couple of mistakes. But the reason they
Speaker 1: put up twenty in this game was all Stafford. Again.
Speaker 1: They weren't really running the ball again, they didn't really
Speaker 1: protect Most of his completions were excellent throws, like most
Speaker 1: of their points came from throws into tight windows. The
Speaker 1: touchdown the cup was awesome. The out route to cup earlier,
Speaker 1: that drive was was amazing. He had another one to Odell.
Speaker 1: It's just like Jimmy g is not making those throws,
Speaker 1: Jared Goffs not making those throws. Maybe there's seven or
Speaker 1: eight guys in the NFL that are making those throws,
Speaker 1: and Matthew Stafford is one of them. And I know
Speaker 1: it's not like a great home crowd here. It was
Speaker 1: definitely split. But that drive you mentioned where the forty
Speaker 1: Niners started turtling up like that was after the Rams
Speaker 1: just scored ten straight points and and the Rams fans
Speaker 1: were loud when when the forty Niners were on offense,
Speaker 1: and it was vice versa, and it felt like that
Speaker 1: was making an impact. And the forty niners were feeling
Speaker 1: at that point, and certainly Aaron Donald was feeling that
Speaker 1: the one thing, I mean, had they lost the RAMS,
Speaker 1: there would be it would be a really really rough
Speaker 1: couple of weeks for them, because I also found them
Speaker 1: to be and they got to clean this up, disorganized,
Speaker 1: pre snapped. These time outs they call when you know
Speaker 1: there when you're gonna trying to avoid like a delay
Speaker 1: of games scenario. It's just like, this should not be
Speaker 1: happening to this RAMS team under Sean McVeigh. They took
Speaker 1: a terrible challenge at one point that I don't know
Speaker 1: who's in Sean mcveigh's here. It went south, but it's like,
Speaker 1: how are those dec They had no timeouts for the
Speaker 1: last six fifty on the clock, which Terry Bradshaw mentioned
Speaker 1: when Terry Bradshaw was asking the question. First, the first
Speaker 1: thing he said to McVeigh was about the time outs
Speaker 1: and he got the facts wrong. He said, you only
Speaker 1: had one time out with seven minutes to go. No,
Speaker 1: it's even worse than that. They had no timeouts with
Speaker 1: seven minutes to go, And I thought that when he
Speaker 1: burned his final time out UM on a challenge of
Speaker 1: a fumble UM on a play it was fourth down
Speaker 1: and they had their punt team on the field San Francisco.
Speaker 1: He challenges it trying to get the ball back in midfield.
Speaker 1: It was a terrible challenge, Like Mark saying, desperate was
Speaker 1: he just desperately felt desperation, especially when you realize the
Speaker 1: payoff is because you're getting the ball back anyway. Like
Speaker 1: maybe it's like thirty or forty yards fuel difference maybe,
Speaker 1: but the the opportunity cost here is like or you
Speaker 1: lose the challenge and you have no time outs and
Speaker 1: you end up watching Jimmy g kneeling on the football
Speaker 1: for two minutes to end the game, Like it was
Speaker 1: that much. Now the thing that I'll i'll I'll think
Speaker 1: about two things. Uh, if I'm a nine fan and
Speaker 1: I'm dying, And by the way, we could talk about
Speaker 1: how the Rams did an I should have the fans
Speaker 1: filling up building. We're across the street in the newsroom.
Speaker 1: After the game was over, I went to the glass
Speaker 1: and looked out and it was all forty Niners fans
Speaker 1: just filing out. Now, maybe Rams fans are there watching,
Speaker 1: But I'm telling you, Greg, let's not. Let's not carrying
Speaker 1: the water here. Tens of thousands of San Francisco fans
Speaker 1: were in that building. Sounds like at best it was
Speaker 1: half and half, but it was probably more forty fans.
Speaker 1: But it's just wild. So that had for all the
Speaker 1: things that had to feel so good for McVeigh and
Speaker 1: the Rams. That was a tough situation to build up
Speaker 1: to this week about how there was gonna be all
Speaker 1: these forty Niners fans there. You sent all of them
Speaker 1: out of your building in a sour mood. Uh. And
Speaker 1: my other thing I think about is Kyle Shanahan at midfield.
Speaker 1: He put his offense back on the field after that
Speaker 1: lost challenge by McVeigh, and I'm thinking, man, that would
Speaker 1: have been an incredible kill shot, uh, to send McVeigh
Speaker 1: into the offseason. If you would have after he blows
Speaker 1: his last time out on a bad challenge and puts
Speaker 1: himself in a terrible situation for the rest of the game,
Speaker 1: if you then would have gave it to Deebo Samuel
Speaker 1: on fourth and two and converted a first down, then
Speaker 1: we could be talking on a totally different outcome right now.
Speaker 1: And he didn't do it. I thought that was conservative.
Speaker 1: It was a sloppy game and in many ways for
Speaker 1: both teams. So whoever lost is gonna go have a
Speaker 1: lot to think about. And if you're the Niners, it
Speaker 1: was a rough one. But to dance point on that
Speaker 1: fourth down it they hit that deep throaw to Odell
Speaker 1: Beckham another great throw. Uh. Two plays later they were
Speaker 1: back at the exact same yard line that Kyle Shannon.
Speaker 1: And it gets back to what I've been talking about
Speaker 1: on the show. Both of these guys have this weird
Speaker 1: inherent conservatism streak in them in terms of fourth downs.
Speaker 1: Even even McVeigh kind of played for the field goals
Speaker 1: on their last two field goal drives and and it
Speaker 1: worked and that's great, But there is something about them
Speaker 1: that's like a hell. They're progressive in terms of their
Speaker 1: view on offense and scheme, but in terms of like
Speaker 1: the tactician of like a game day, how I handle
Speaker 1: my team, they are a little conservative. Surprisingly. So can
Speaker 1: we hear sorry for cutting you off there, Mark, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna tee you up on this one, Mark, because yeah,
Speaker 1: the other thing that's gonna stick to uh Niners fans,
Speaker 1: of course, Uh Jaquisky, Jack Whiskey, Tart the safety. There's
Speaker 1: nine to play in the game and the Niners, I
Speaker 1: believe at this point, are holding onto a three point lead,
Speaker 1: and Stafford drops back to pass and throws a balloon
Speaker 1: into the middle of the field. I would like to
Speaker 1: hear the Niners call of this, because this was another
Speaker 1: huge UH moment in the game. Stafford back, it's hit
Speaker 1: as he froze deep down field for fair Jefferson and
Speaker 1: the Boss should have been intercepted. It was dropped. Jakoski
Speaker 1: Chart had the interception on the forty thirty two yard
Speaker 1: lightly dropped the ball and he is sick. The ball
Speaker 1: is under thrown in part flat out dropped and it
Speaker 1: couldn't have hit him any better than it did right
Speaker 1: in the neck. Great call there, Yeah, it was seventeen
Speaker 1: seventeen at the time. UH. And after that play, immediately
Speaker 1: after of this drop, it should be Niners ball with
Speaker 1: a chance to take back control of the game. He
Speaker 1: hits Beckham Stafford for twenty nine yards and then a
Speaker 1: penalty onward for necessary roughness. It becomes a forty five
Speaker 1: yard play. It leads to what ends up being the
Speaker 1: deciding points. Yeah, I think if you're a quarterback and
Speaker 1: you go. You know, Kevin Patra, our friend who wrote
Speaker 1: up the game, called it a yolo ball for Stafford.
Speaker 1: You know, you only live once, which I think we
Speaker 1: weird spot for a yolo ball. I think we also
Speaker 1: banned the phrase yolo. It's gone. Okay, it was gone
Speaker 1: from culture, and now you just brought it back in
Speaker 1: a big spot. So we gotta yeah, we gotta work back. Well,
Speaker 1: I referenced someone who brought it back. That's that's what
Speaker 1: I did. But this is the thing, like I you know,
Speaker 1: I know, it's like the one, the one thing about
Speaker 1: the NFL right now, like every Jimmy g is getting
Speaker 1: destroyed on Twitter and all this stuff. Like there's just
Speaker 1: a part of me that's like I feel bad for
Speaker 1: Jimmy Gay. I feel bad for Tart. I mean, who
Speaker 1: tweeted out after no excuses. I deserve all the criticism,
Speaker 1: my way, the opportunity to dream of I came up short.
Speaker 1: I let my brothers down. I mean, first of all,
Speaker 1: you're taking accountability. But secondly, I mean, yeah, he's gonna
Speaker 1: think about that every moment of every day. It's one
Speaker 1: of those Well, here's the well that play you mean specifically,
Speaker 1: or the drop tarts dropped interception. It's like that would
Speaker 1: have ended this and we'd be talking about Matthew Stafford's
Speaker 1: two killer mistakes in this game, versus saying Matthew, but
Speaker 1: that was that was there. There never from that point
Speaker 1: on their season slipped away because they gave up the
Speaker 1: drive and then Garoppolo then takes the hit and throws
Speaker 1: the ball up for grabs. That stuff you can always
Speaker 1: do that though, Like Jalen Ramsey had two potential pick
Speaker 1: sixes in the second half that he dropped, which like
Speaker 1: he would be living with that for the rest of it.
Speaker 1: He's such a competitor. I would imagine it's killing him
Speaker 1: right now that he did not make the big plays
Speaker 1: in the big moments when he when he could, but
Speaker 1: he had his defensive guys around him to step up.
Speaker 1: I really do think that's what makes this Rams team
Speaker 1: unique special, you know, potentially a championship team is this
Speaker 1: defense really is is great and I know it didn't
Speaker 1: feel like they were getting after Jimmy g that that
Speaker 1: much this game. They stuffed the run. I mean that
Speaker 1: that fourth down that they didn't go for Dan it
Speaker 1: was because Eric Weddle came up on a run blitz
Speaker 1: fit and stuffed them. And then the next down it
Speaker 1: was Gains and a Sean Robinson who stuffed them. And
Speaker 1: you look at Elijah Mitchell on the day eleven for twenty.
Speaker 1: This dude has been killing everyone all year. This running
Speaker 1: game is what got you. But give it, give it
Speaker 1: to Deebo and see what happened. But Deebo even seven
Speaker 1: for six. Like here's the statute point I wrote this
Speaker 1: down UH San Francisco UH and their first five playoff
Speaker 1: games with Kyle Shanahan averaged a hundred and seventy seven
Speaker 1: h point four rushing yards per game. That's five yards
Speaker 1: to carry average today and yards carry right and and
Speaker 1: like we I did the sky Sports hit going into
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter and Bald Bald is just talking about
Speaker 1: this is where like what's happening. Aaron Donald hasn't made
Speaker 1: a play all game. It's seventeen to seven at that point,
Speaker 1: Like Aaron Donald needs to be the one who makes
Speaker 1: the play if he's going to be on the sideline
Speaker 1: trying to fire everyone up and change. And he did.
Speaker 1: He had he had two QB hits in that in
Speaker 1: that fourth quarter and it's like everyone's gonna kill Jimmy
Speaker 1: g for throwing that pass. If he doesn't throw the pass,
Speaker 1: he's taken the sack, and it's fourth and game over,
Speaker 1: fourth and twenty and and if the guy doesn't drop
Speaker 1: it or it hits the ground, it's fourth and ten
Speaker 1: and they're gonna win the next down anyways, because all
Speaker 1: over them at that point. And then and they they
Speaker 1: stepped up. We we talked about quarterbacks stepping up in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter, Like those dudes stepped up. Let's hear
Speaker 1: from Aaron Donald. He our boy Steve Wish interviewing Aaron
Speaker 1: Donald on the field, and I think Von Miller crashes
Speaker 1: into the interview. Know that thing. I always wanted to
Speaker 1: be part of that thing. You win a big game,
Speaker 1: Well we kind of did with West and Company when
Speaker 1: we won the Shield titles. We were interviewed by Kwang
Speaker 1: Lamb on the desk, and I believe there was a
Speaker 1: that moment maybe West was being interviewed and I just
Speaker 1: like went over West shoulders, like we did it. Man.
Speaker 1: He's like, oh man, you're a real star. It's like, no,
Speaker 1: you are, bro. I think that moment might have happened.
Speaker 1: It was I think that, you know there was you
Speaker 1: kind of create You're you're sort of the person that
Speaker 1: showed us how to do that. Thanks Mark and Greg.
Speaker 1: You've got a trophy too. When we went back to
Speaker 1: back the Shield. Yeah, I was the general manager, do
Speaker 1: we not? I was Leo del Becco. Now they would
Speaker 1: have had to win a title. You know. I was
Speaker 1: a big free agent signing, and big sign we needed.
Speaker 1: Didn't get stale in the club. Let's hear Aaron Donald
Speaker 1: after the game with Steve wash what about the way
Speaker 1: the deep end held up. You go into the fourth
Speaker 1: quarter down seventeen and seven and you shut them out
Speaker 1: to give your offense enough time to rally. We brought
Speaker 1: I brought the guys that we talked. We got two
Speaker 1: much in the line to lose way too much on
Speaker 1: the left. Hey bye, bowled up, guys, start flying, roll
Speaker 1: and make big places we needed to. And also, lastly,
Speaker 1: the pressure you got on Garoppolo that led to the
Speaker 1: stack to seal the deal. What about that blunk? Just
Speaker 1: just being relentless, That's that's amazing passion. I love a
Speaker 1: great job by Why should a big spot there? And
Speaker 1: there was a great moment in the game. This is
Speaker 1: seventeen seven. Donald is one of the great players in
Speaker 1: the history of the sport. Um in his prime. He's
Speaker 1: been too near the mountaintop once, he's been to the
Speaker 1: super He's been part of some disappointing RAMS teams through
Speaker 1: the years, and you see him pulling those guys together
Speaker 1: on the sideline and giving them that exact message, and
Speaker 1: he just explained to why clearly. He's like, guys, we
Speaker 1: cannot let them move the ball again. We are better
Speaker 1: than this team. We need to win this game. And literally,
Speaker 1: from that moment when Fox caught that on the sideline,
Speaker 1: their defense never gave up another yard in that game.
Speaker 1: And they were like Donald, that happens sometimes. And you
Speaker 1: can see these players, you know, with all their bluster,
Speaker 1: and it's like the other teammates are kind of like,
Speaker 1: alright with no because they were like there, it was
Speaker 1: a moment of total sobriety. They were nodding along with
Speaker 1: him and never it changed them entire and the Rams
Speaker 1: in general have are an advertisement on team building because
Speaker 1: it's like, go get these stars, give them a little
Speaker 1: bit of time. They're gonna peak at the right moment
Speaker 1: and you're gonna have so many Odell Beckham disgruntled wide
Speaker 1: receivers and other players midway through next year, saying, get
Speaker 1: me out of this trash city and take me somewhere special.
Speaker 1: Let's talk Odell after the break. Let's talk Odell because
Speaker 1: he he really did. He profiled as an important guy
Speaker 1: in this game because the Rams need that, they need
Speaker 1: that secondary receiver. They lose Tyler Higbee to injury earlier
Speaker 1: in this game, so then Beckham becomes an essential figure.
Speaker 1: Cup is gonna do what Cup does. Eleven uh for one,
Speaker 1: two and two touchdowns on four teen targets. He is brilliant,
Speaker 1: he is, and he had a drop he even those
Speaker 1: numbers could even be bigger, but he made every other
Speaker 1: play in this game and is such a money player,
Speaker 1: one of the best wide receivers in the sport. But
Speaker 1: Beckham first one yard games since weeks six of two
Speaker 1: thousand nineteen with the Browns, and we had been waiting
Speaker 1: for Beckham to have this type of game. He didn't
Speaker 1: find the end zone, but he was nine for one
Speaker 1: thirteen and every time Stafford look for him on eleven targets,
Speaker 1: Beckham was there, ready to play and made the big
Speaker 1: plays that frankly so as someone who's been vocally critical
Speaker 1: of Beckham, and I still hate the way he kind
Speaker 1: of got his way out of town in Cleveland, but
Speaker 1: you have to give it up to him because he's
Speaker 1: now really proved himself Mark a guy that for all
Speaker 1: the ups and downs of his career when the spotlight
Speaker 1: was bright here with l A, he really has answered
Speaker 1: the call absolutely. Like I don't like the exit either,
Speaker 1: but that's secondary and that's in the deep distance at
Speaker 1: this point. To me, it's like he is. He was
Speaker 1: looking out I think for how he'd be remembered as
Speaker 1: a player, and we do think of him differently now.
Speaker 1: And I mean it took a little bit of time,
Speaker 1: but it's also Matthew Stafford's first season in this offense too,
Speaker 1: And I just I I give the Rams a lot
Speaker 1: of credit for honestly going for it and not in
Speaker 1: fullhardy fashion, and like the way that it's working for them.
Speaker 1: It's because someone like less Sneed chose to think totally
Speaker 1: differently about building a team than other teams do. I mean,
Speaker 1: Odell has found money, he got his way out of
Speaker 1: the Browns, but it's not like they had to trade
Speaker 1: for him, but they did. They did call him up though,
Speaker 1: and explain how they'd use them, Like it wasn't just
Speaker 1: about money or just where he's like, they made it
Speaker 1: clear to him that that was the landing spot and
Speaker 1: they were right, and then Robert Woods blows his knee
Speaker 1: out right, they did a great did a great job.
Speaker 1: They did a great job getting him, building a program
Speaker 1: to get him to the point. But it's sort of
Speaker 1: been lost in the shuffle, Like he's getting paid, you know,
Speaker 1: the same as like Will Fuller gets paid for eight games,
Speaker 1: Like he's just getting a half a season at at
Speaker 1: four million, four and a half million dollars. I mean,
Speaker 1: that is incredible. Now he's getting he keeps getting more
Speaker 1: bonuses as they win, and it was tied to winning,
Speaker 1: which is brilliant too. But it's like every team's got
Speaker 1: a weakness and all year it was like, how are
Speaker 1: the forty niners overcoming these cornerbacks? Like how are they
Speaker 1: do doing it? Like it just doesn't make sense, like
Speaker 1: Damiko Ryan's and the past rush are just overcoming at all.
Speaker 1: And I think today was the day where where it
Speaker 1: hurt them because you just can't cover two guys on
Speaker 1: the outside. They had to leave O'Dell Beckham by himself
Speaker 1: while Cooper Cup was getting doubled inside and Odell beat
Speaker 1: him over and over. Whereas the Rams weaknesses in theory,
Speaker 1: I don't think showed up as much some of their
Speaker 1: linebacker play where they try to get cheap Troy Reader
Speaker 1: had a tough day, but like they lose their two
Speaker 1: starting safeties during that collapse, and they bring in Nick
Speaker 1: Scott and Wettle, and those two dudes have been awesome.
Speaker 1: And I think that's why I get on McVeigh for
Speaker 1: some of the things he doesn't do as well. I
Speaker 1: get the feeling, like Belichick, he is about as good
Speaker 1: a tactician in terms of like practicing and building up
Speaker 1: their skill sets and fundamentals, and like getting guys into
Speaker 1: the right positions and knowing the roles and having a
Speaker 1: vision for those roles, and getting his coaching staff to
Speaker 1: all coach up the way he wants it to. Because
Speaker 1: they can lose guys they have so any like random
Speaker 1: guys that just most NFL teams don't have it, like
Speaker 1: minimum salaries, that just come up and play at a
Speaker 1: very high level, and like the coach to get a
Speaker 1: lot of credit. And I thought he did a very
Speaker 1: Shanahan type thing that I sent a message early and
Speaker 1: I love this. When they had an eighteen play drive
Speaker 1: that started on their own three yard line, ninety seven yards,
Speaker 1: they go over ten plus minutes and basically that's exactly
Speaker 1: what the Niners did. Added the gate to l A
Speaker 1: in that week ten smashing when when when Stafford threw
Speaker 1: two picks to open the game and everything felt lost
Speaker 1: for Los Angeles. People came out of that asking about
Speaker 1: their identity as they went into their bye week, and
Speaker 1: I think Sean McVeigh was embarrassed by that, and he's
Speaker 1: in a totally different place. Now. The Rams had eleven
Speaker 1: third down conversions eight team. I mean, that's and the
Speaker 1: Niners pass rush was working too. That's quarterback play. I like,
Speaker 1: I don't want to hear about the tart thing. And
Speaker 1: I know Stafford through behind Cup and it was a
Speaker 1: bad interception in the end zone early for set. First
Speaker 1: of all, they you know, square neck dropped the fifty
Speaker 1: yard touchdown, Cup dropped the potential touchdown. But that eleven
Speaker 1: for eighteen, like that was Stafford and that was like
Speaker 1: there weren't a lot of bubble screens on those. In fact,
Speaker 1: a lot of the seven third down, they didn't pick
Speaker 1: up We're because Sean McVeigh was like late in the game,
Speaker 1: like throwing passes that had no chance to go to
Speaker 1: it and wanted to be conservative like Stafford was money
Speaker 1: on the money downs. He was so good that this
Speaker 1: playoff run. This is interesting that square neck was only
Speaker 1: on the field because the Rams went no huddle after
Speaker 1: a third down conversion. He had come in for Odell
Speaker 1: to block and then he finds himself all all alone
Speaker 1: in the end zone and that was one of those
Speaker 1: would have been a great catch. But oh that was
Speaker 1: It was one of those plays. Watch it again, Mark,
Speaker 1: because it was like one of those plays where it
Speaker 1: hits the guy's hands and explodes off his hands like
Speaker 1: he was a guard. I was like, oh no, I
Speaker 1: felt bad for him. But obviously that was not his
Speaker 1: moment to shine, right. It was Stafford overcame it. But
Speaker 1: he wasn't perfect, right, so you can't like I'm not
Speaker 1: but he had first interception was he was off the
Speaker 1: market again. But even like the throws to get he
Speaker 1: wasn't perfect at all, but he was significantly better then
Speaker 1: every quarterback he's gone against, and like and just the
Speaker 1: the quality of the throws. I guess you can't underrate
Speaker 1: because he's doing things that that other guys can't do,
Speaker 1: Guys other than O'Dell and Cup, other than Kendall Blanton,
Speaker 1: who had a great game at at tight end had
Speaker 1: nine targets for seven yards. So like it was all
Speaker 1: Odell and Cup, you may have to do it again
Speaker 1: because it's you don't have Tyler Higbey necessarily for this game.
Speaker 1: We don't know what's going on with it with his
Speaker 1: but I kicker club scenario I would be concerned with.
Speaker 1: If you're the rams about mac A. I just does
Speaker 1: not seem reliable to me on any level that he
Speaker 1: missed the net with his first attempt. He did, you know,
Speaker 1: he to his even though they weren't difficult kicks per se.
Speaker 1: Hitting those two in the fourth quarter helped put him
Speaker 1: into the championship game. He's listen. I feel good about
Speaker 1: where the power ranks are UM going into the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: Very clearly the Bengals have the edge. There a lot
Speaker 1: of mystery around that. That's a big edge for Cincinnati.
Speaker 1: It is great. The Stafford story is, it's a great story.
Speaker 1: UM knowing everything about him and where he came from,
Speaker 1: Detroit and now either he's gonna win a super Bowl
Speaker 1: or the Bengals are gonna shock the world and go
Speaker 1: from last place to super Bowl champions. I think it.
Speaker 1: Things are really there are a lot of great storylines.
Speaker 1: This is a great storyline super Bowl, which is a
Speaker 1: nice thing for our show. And it's fresh. I mean
Speaker 1: this Rams team winning would be fresh. And this has
Speaker 1: been a long build. I mean, they've they were a
Speaker 1: top I think they were third and winds in the
Speaker 1: NFL since McVeigh has gotten there, behind the Chiefs and
Speaker 1: the Pats. So it's like they've they've been knocking on
Speaker 1: the door and now they're trying to get through. And
Speaker 1: nothing tops the Bengals, though, come on, you can't by
Speaker 1: the way, you can't get Trey Lance in there for
Speaker 1: one of these short yardage plays. I know this is
Speaker 1: they're gonna get September literally, Lands need see a doctor. Lance.
Speaker 1: Thing drives me crazy because the last couple of weeks
Speaker 1: in these games where you scored six offensive points last
Speaker 1: week and this week, you couldn't have used just could
Speaker 1: no more than we do. Greg and I don't talk
Speaker 1: short yardage. Short yardage, It's okay short I understand what
Speaker 1: you're saying. But I remember sharing this quote that I
Speaker 1: read somewhere that Shanahan didn't like mixing and matching the QBS.
Speaker 1: He thought it messed with the flow of the office.
Speaker 1: There was something about this. I don't think anybody could
Speaker 1: have predicted this is how the Niners first season with
Speaker 1: the number three overall pick would play out. Where he's
Speaker 1: in the mix for six or seven weeks, he has
Speaker 1: a spots injury, start, gets hurt himself, disappears, and then
Speaker 1: is no longer part of the team. Most about the flow.
Speaker 1: I just I think he's probably you probably also don't
Speaker 1: care that Leonardo DiCaprio was in the crowd, which that
Speaker 1: was essentially all I was focused on for much of
Speaker 1: the second half. Yeah, I mean that was a big
Speaker 1: moment for you, I think for I think for anyone
Speaker 1: with you into you're a little worried that he was
Speaker 1: not going to do the show because he was just
Speaker 1: gonna leave and stock Leo. He's like he had never
Speaker 1: been that he hadn't didn't wasn't aware that he did
Speaker 1: occur to me that he was like literally four football
Speaker 1: fields away from my my desk seat right before we
Speaker 1: started taping. I ran into Scott Hanson of Red Zone Fame,
Speaker 1: and Scott he told me a corker Leo DiCaprio story
Speaker 1: he had. Now I can't share details of it because
Speaker 1: I don't want to betray Scott's confidence, because I think
Speaker 1: we might have a growing friendship. Now, Um, it's in play.
Speaker 1: I think if you're the listener, let your imagination sore.
Speaker 1: It was that juicy of But he told me a
Speaker 1: winding tale of Hansen and DiCaprio in a big spot,
Speaker 1: in DiCaprio being on the wrong side of history, in
Speaker 1: a big spot, maybe, well he goes there sometimes. If
Speaker 1: you see me right side of history now, lifelong Rams fan,
Speaker 1: I mean he was living and dying with the Van
Speaker 1: Jefferson drops and everything. He's just like he's he's not
Speaker 1: he's not he's not technically big enough a football fan
Speaker 1: for Greg, so he's not allowed in them. If you
Speaker 1: see me um in Los Angeles this week, listeners, Uh,
Speaker 1: and I'm maybe sitting I'm saddled up at a bar somewhere,
Speaker 1: and you want to come up to me like I
Speaker 1: would like to hear the Scott Hansen story. Um about
Speaker 1: Leonardo DiCaprio I will tell you that story privately. Well,
Speaker 1: it should make Hanson feel very comfortable. I won't I
Speaker 1: won't broadcast it. But off the holiday at the tavern, Well,
Speaker 1: I think we're all we're all breathless at the concept
Speaker 1: of that. So all right, any other thoughts on the
Speaker 1: NFC Championship game, Greg, This is a moment for you now.
Speaker 1: I know you have a lot on your mind. There's
Speaker 1: any other thoughts, we're all but just button up, Just
Speaker 1: to button up the Jimmy Garoppolo that was, in all
Speaker 1: likelihood his final game with the forty Niners. Um, I
Speaker 1: believe there was a stat entering the game. He was
Speaker 1: thirty five and fifteen as a starter entering this game.
Speaker 1: So we're about to you know, the rubber is about
Speaker 1: to meet the road, and you're gonna learn more about Garoppolo.
Speaker 1: I think wherever he ends up next, because I don't
Speaker 1: think that accurately tells you who he is as a quarterback. However,
Speaker 1: I do think even if his value took a hit
Speaker 1: during this playoff run, there's gonna be a team that
Speaker 1: looks at that record and looks at, um the success
Speaker 1: the forty Niners had when he was involved and will
Speaker 1: say he's r QB one. Just you'd have to, like
Speaker 1: if you're a front office, also note that he's in
Speaker 1: the offense that is going to maximize every quarterback that's
Speaker 1: ever in an understanding. And oh there's a major buyer.
Speaker 1: Beware here. I'm just saying, I think there's a team
Speaker 1: out there and it's not a it's not a market
Speaker 1: flush with options for veteran quarterbacks that's gonna identify him.
Speaker 1: Whether I don't know Indianapolis, someone's trading for him, forget
Speaker 1: like him getting cut on that contract. Someone's looking at
Speaker 1: that contract and saying, yes, please bring him to Carolina
Speaker 1: or Pittsburgh or New Orleans or somewhere. And what happens
Speaker 1: it's after that we'll see. And I have my deaths personally,
Speaker 1: but I think he is a starting quarterback Week one.
Speaker 1: But it will not be for thet Now, is it
Speaker 1: Trey Lance? It has to be right. If it's not
Speaker 1: Trey Lance, there's something going on that we have not
Speaker 1: been privy. I don't know if anything has to be
Speaker 1: with the quarterback market in the NFL. At this point,
Speaker 1: this didn't feel as much like a Jimmy g game, though,
Speaker 1: like a referendum on that he's not the whole three stretch.
Speaker 1: I know they won two of the games, even yeah,
Speaker 1: even even the even the Week eight team game, and
Speaker 1: just that everything has to be to the middle of
Speaker 1: the field. I mean, there's just like nothing to the outside.
Speaker 1: I do feel bad for Nick Bosa and that whole
Speaker 1: group up front, And that's part of the reason why
Speaker 1: I'm honking about Stafford so much. As they were amazing
Speaker 1: Bosa beast Did Armstead beast? Did they? They had I
Speaker 1: think ten quarterback hits. They were all over Stafford, which
Speaker 1: is which is why I was so impressed. He's not
Speaker 1: gonna this would not be something he would share. Kyle Shanahan,
Speaker 1: Kyle shanhon But I wonder if he thinks about it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we had a ten point lead in the fourth quarter
Speaker 1: of then if seat time game, by the way, I
Speaker 1: think they had in the Super Bowl as well, and
Speaker 1: that that got away. But I wonder fourth quarter. He
Speaker 1: also was the offensive coordinator of the Atlanta Falcon That's
Speaker 1: not a certain scenario, but I wonder if he would
Speaker 1: ever think to himself when he puts his head to
Speaker 1: pillow man, if I wanted to put the kid in
Speaker 1: I don't know great Lance ever seemed ready for I
Speaker 1: don't know this. He never really got the chair. It's
Speaker 1: instructed to me that they rode this Jimmy g like
Speaker 1: roller coaster. He did, and they were about to go
Speaker 1: to him though. Remember remember he was hurt at the
Speaker 1: moment that they lost that Colts game in the rain,
Speaker 1: and it felt like that was He wavered and said,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if Jimmy's gonna start next week. But
Speaker 1: then Tree Lance wasn't even healthy enough to play. It
Speaker 1: was a it was a weird sliding doors. I was like,
Speaker 1: who's gonna say sliding doors, sliding doors? Give us a
Speaker 1: sliding doors siren, Rickey, here's the real sliding doors. And
Speaker 1: I know I'll sound like a Homer here and everything
Speaker 1: would be different. So who knows. But if you told
Speaker 1: me that the forty Nars would be in the super
Speaker 1: Bowl if they had drafted Mac Jones, I would I
Speaker 1: would buy that little Mac Jones had a really Kylen
Speaker 1: wanted Initially, um, speaking of mac Jones and Patriots, Homer's Yes,
Speaker 1: Tom Brady maybe retired. We that we felt like this
Speaker 1: show was a show that should be dedicated to the
Speaker 1: two games that determined the Super Bowl combatants and it
Speaker 1: turned into the Westling Bowl. Um. But yes, Tuesday's episode
Speaker 1: of the Round the NFL podcast, we will be diving
Speaker 1: deep on Brady. Hopefully we'll have some resolution on his status.
Speaker 1: But it certainly feels like now with the reporting, uh
Speaker 1: that he will be retiring after twenty two years, I
Speaker 1: will owe you guys, Sangwiches. I'm still surprised and I'm
Speaker 1: still not totally sold. I know everything is pointing to
Speaker 1: and rap Sheet even said rap She came out and said,
Speaker 1: oh f y, I he's still gonna retire. He's just
Speaker 1: now I'm paraphrasing, he's pissed at Schefter. He doesn't want
Speaker 1: Adam Schefter on a Saturday morning telling the world that
Speaker 1: he's quitting the most successful Arlington. You gotta put Darlington's
Speaker 1: name and Jeff Darlington put some respect on his name. Um,
Speaker 1: but he is going to retire still. He just didn't
Speaker 1: like the timing. He wants to announce it in this
Speaker 1: little TV Times, uh newspaper thing that he puts out there.
Speaker 1: There is an interesting discussion had about how this whole
Speaker 1: thing is played out in his his uh, his dad
Speaker 1: and his agent pushing back so hard. But we can
Speaker 1: have that discussion. We will talk about that Tuesday. We
Speaker 1: also talked about how the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will have
Speaker 1: the number one overall pick in the I don't know.
Speaker 1: You know what, if you're a Bucks fan, it was
Speaker 1: totally worth it, right for right back into the darkness,
Speaker 1: but a quick trip out of the darkness. I wonder
Speaker 1: if I wonder if we see Todd Bowles, you know,
Speaker 1: head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I read, I
Speaker 1: don't know if I want. I read Bruce arians apparently
Speaker 1: is telling all his coaching staff to go ahead and
Speaker 1: interview and take jobs, even if there's no promotion involved.
Speaker 1: Just go ahead. I told you he was not into this. Well,
Speaker 1: I don't know how I agree with you. All Right,
Speaker 1: you're gonna take sure. I will take credit for it.
Speaker 1: Take takes, never expire. We can also talk about, you know,
Speaker 1: Josh McDaniels is the Raiders coach. How about Brian Dable.
Speaker 1: Is this we can also talk about. So we're gonna
Speaker 1: hit all these big league storylines, of course, and then
Speaker 1: uh we we do like to do a show during
Speaker 1: the ramp up to the Super Bowl where we don't
Speaker 1: use the word or the words super Bowl. I don't
Speaker 1: know if that's Tuesday show, but at some point we
Speaker 1: might want to challenge ourselves because we got Thursday. Perhaps.
Speaker 1: I think that's often the time we have two weeks
Speaker 1: ramping up to the final game of the season. If
Speaker 1: you don't count the Pro Bowl, no, I do, personally.
Speaker 1: I know that's when you're gonna be ponying up at
Speaker 1: this bar telling anything about Scott Hansen's story that was
Speaker 1: told you bellied up at the bar, spilling house secrets
Speaker 1: West by the way. We would not watch a second
Speaker 1: of any Pro Bowl. So that's what I'm gonna do.
Speaker 1: Not watch a second of it. Sorry, NFL. I know it's,
Speaker 1: you know, touted as this high, high level event. Greg
Speaker 1: is not saying a word. He won't speak again instant.
Speaker 1: You know. For kids, I've decided about something totally different. Kids.
Speaker 1: My kids actually are really into the Pro Bowl. They
Speaker 1: look for They have been talking about it and looking
Speaker 1: forward to it, and they think it's a bigger deal
Speaker 1: than basically every game except we think about it. If
Speaker 1: you're a kid, the ideas every all the best players
Speaker 1: on every team are now playing in a game against
Speaker 1: each other. I mean it sounds great, except that every
Speaker 1: best player giving we get it. We're all on the
Speaker 1: same page. I will, I will, but the kids don't
Speaker 1: get it. I'll get in line and start. Do you
Speaker 1: think the kids are watching? Like the blocking schemes and
Speaker 1: the effort of the tackling. Mark, you could say to
Speaker 1: your kids, this is not a quality product. I'm going
Speaker 1: to teach you to watch a quality product. But that's Mark.
Speaker 1: Is that guy on Twitter like arguing against no one,
Speaker 1: like a take, like he's arguing against someone that you
Speaker 1: know you're gonna You're gonna chastise your children for watching
Speaker 1: poor quality football when they just want to see a
Speaker 1: lot of great stuff comes out of it. To the
Speaker 1: personalities you get to see, Like you know, when they're
Speaker 1: throwing I didn't realize I ran rough shot into three
Speaker 1: company men. I okay, it's like I like, you know,
Speaker 1: please company people, Mark be obedient. Alright, alright, the Pro
Speaker 1: bowls marvelous product and it will be treated as such
Speaker 1: on this program. Mark. Well, let's preview it on Thursday
Speaker 1: for minutes and that'd be quick. Well, it sounds like
Speaker 1: a dare. Let's do it. Then, if you guys actually
Speaker 1: feel this way, we have some time to fill. Now
Speaker 1: there aren't many games left, in fact, just the one
Speaker 1: in two weeks from tonight. I'll have a WiFi issue
Speaker 1: that day, we'll be there. We'll be there by the way,
Speaker 1: We'll be at the super Bowl. Can't wait. Um and uh,
Speaker 1: that is gonna be a great week. We're gonna be
Speaker 1: down at the Los Angeles Convention Center downtown. There's a
Speaker 1: whole like Big Ricky is a big set set up.
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio is is putting a bit. You know
Speaker 1: how you used to go to Radio Row and you
Speaker 1: see like the big serious XM sets or what was
Speaker 1: the big NBC this I hearts that blows up. We want,
Speaker 1: I want you have to be credited because previously I
Speaker 1: think there is no you can't come into the well.
Speaker 1: COVID is different, but like you can't come into the
Speaker 1: row area with our credential. But there is a part
Speaker 1: where yes, fans they roped off like animals essentially, but
Speaker 1: they yeah, they were within eyeshot of some of the
Speaker 1: activity within distant eye shot. In fact, there were a
Speaker 1: lot of fans watching West eat a softball pants that
Speaker 1: one time. That's true. There was there was a horde
Speaker 1: of individuals. One of our memorable Radio Row moments. They
Speaker 1: weren't maybe necessarily podcast fans, They were just watching the
Speaker 1: general goings on and we're like, there's a man over
Speaker 1: there eating a giant um hot dog with pieces of
Speaker 1: pants on it, So you know, that's our podcast in
Speaker 1: a nutshell. I always remember that well. West. The wager
Speaker 1: was if the Raiders win ten games. It was the
Speaker 1: Dennis Allen led Raiders that were a disaster, and he
Speaker 1: was they got out they won a couple at some
Speaker 1: point hated that team or he didn't think they were
Speaker 1: any good at all, but they this path that actually
Speaker 1: got them to the number of wins misremembering maybe a
Speaker 1: little of this, but whatever it was, it screwed West.
Speaker 1: And West was so confident that the team would fail
Speaker 1: um that he said I'll eat my softball pants. I
Speaker 1: think it was they wouldn't win six because they at
Speaker 1: some point, we're getting great, like they won fourteen games,
Speaker 1: and uh he did. We went after I think it
Speaker 1: was the New York Super Bowl and we found there
Speaker 1: was a hot dog stand with the largest hot dog
Speaker 1: in the world. Bought that sucker for bucks expense. That
Speaker 1: nailed it, and then we cut up the and there
Speaker 1: was like, West, this is the only thing you need
Speaker 1: to do. West, you must bring the softball pants. Make
Speaker 1: sure that this is pre Lukisha. It's like West. The
Speaker 1: one thing you need to do is when you get
Speaker 1: on the plane, have the softball pants. Reminded him fourteen times.
Speaker 1: Pants my pants, and he had to like run out
Speaker 1: and buy pants. And it was a whole thing. But
Speaker 1: he did take a bite of that hot dog with
Speaker 1: a chopped up There was even some zipper in there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a zip last ate more of the pants than
Speaker 1: he needed to write. Well, you know, he was a
Speaker 1: man of his words, sou So we're you know, thinking
Speaker 1: about West now, We're gonna be thinking about him forever.
Speaker 1: But now we have his his childhood team, his complicated team,
Speaker 1: the Bengals against the Rams, Lakisha's team. So that is
Speaker 1: the super Bowl and we will be here to take
Speaker 1: you guys to the finish line. Anything else before we
Speaker 1: say goodbye. Don't open it back up too late. I did.
Speaker 1: I threw it out one last time. I want like
Speaker 1: a Jawan Jennings break. No, not not looking for it now,
Speaker 1: all right, let's good, let's go. Good stuff. Wow, Bengals Rams.
Speaker 1: It's crazy. Emotions are total chicken will today the call
Speaker 1: s S S