Speaker 1: The Around the NFL podcast. Now football is back from the.
Speaker 2: Chris Wesley podcast studio. It's Around the NFL the Sunday
Speaker 2: Flagship program, Week eighteen, the finale of the regular season.
Speaker 1: It is now all in front of us.
Speaker 2: Dan Hansas here with heroes Greg Rosenthal and Mark Sessler,
Speaker 2: and yes, here we are. It is set Sunday night
Speaker 2: football in the rear view. We're gonna get to that
Speaker 2: game first. We're gonna mix things up, but here it is.
Speaker 2: You ready, sesst Dog, Yes, here we go. Wild Card weekend,
Speaker 2: excuse me? Super wild Card weekend. Packers at Cowboys on
Speaker 2: Sunday afternoon, Rams at Lions on Sunday night, Eagles at
Speaker 2: Tampa Bay on Monday night. On Saturday, Greg Mark Cleveland,
Speaker 2: Browns at Houston, Texas.
Speaker 3: West of Visus back week case, Keenum involved again.
Speaker 4: We got an exclusive Peacock game for the cock fans
Speaker 4: out there. Dolphins at Chief Saturday fifteen pm. And then
Speaker 4: Steelers at the number two seed who would have thunk?
Speaker 4: At Buffalo Bill's Sunday one pm Eastern. With the Ravens
Speaker 4: and Niners both on bye, It's set. That is the
Speaker 4: road to Super Bowl fifty.
Speaker 3: Eight.
Speaker 1: See maybe Okay.
Speaker 3: I always struggle with numbers. Football is back. It always
Speaker 3: it's a little bittersweet always this week team it feels good.
Speaker 3: It feels good to do it for the last time,
Speaker 3: but also feels a little sad when you're seeing Scott
Speaker 3: Hansen say goodbye for the season. And my son I
Speaker 3: remember this feeling as a kid. He was kind of
Speaker 3: bummed out this morning that I was like, oh, this
Speaker 3: is the last one. It's ending, but the playoffs are had.
Speaker 5: It's I mean we were having that football as back
Speaker 5: conversation that was four months ago.
Speaker 1: I feel like that was two weeks ago at this point.
Speaker 5: By uh, I mean at this at the same point
Speaker 5: at the same time, like the end of the regular
Speaker 5: season is also necessary because we have finished the narratives
Speaker 5: with a bunch of these teams. I feel like this year,
Speaker 5: though it happened later for a lot of them, which
Speaker 5: was better.
Speaker 1: It's been a great regular season.
Speaker 5: And I don't remember like a wild card round with
Speaker 5: so many and we were talking about it like just
Speaker 5: like there's a and it could go a lot of
Speaker 5: different ways. Yes, these games, it's not like you know,
Speaker 5: there are.
Speaker 2: No quote unquote floating trash bag games, right no ham
Speaker 2: and eggers that are just gonna get picked off.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it.
Speaker 5: There are definitely some stronger than less, but like I
Speaker 5: see some intriguing matchups.
Speaker 1: It's there's a lot of unpredictable nature to.
Speaker 5: Me and there I really mean it, though I don't
Speaker 5: say that kind of stuff too much because of sometimes
Speaker 5: I just I'm not buying into it.
Speaker 1: I want to see what happens. But this is a
Speaker 1: weird wildcard round.
Speaker 3: Well wee K eighteen is satisfying the last weekend of
Speaker 3: the rate. It's satisfying because there are these through lines, Like, yes,
Speaker 3: some things have changed, some teams are falling apart injury wise,
Speaker 3: but there are these through lines. And we saw it
Speaker 3: in what I think that was a great way to
Speaker 3: cap the season in this Bills game. This Josh Allen
Speaker 3: roller coaster has been here from the very start of
Speaker 3: the very first big primetime game of the year to
Speaker 3: the very last.
Speaker 1: Yes, and that is where we're going to start. It
Speaker 1: is Super Bowl fifty eight. By the way, I mean
Speaker 1: you knew we nailed it, Yeah you that was close.
Speaker 2: Yes, the Bills have been really kind of a great
Speaker 2: symbol of this season. Unpredictable ups and downs. Just when
Speaker 2: you believe in a team, they turn their back on you.
Speaker 2: But then they come back around. And they had to
Speaker 2: win five in a row to win this division, the
Speaker 2: AFC East. The Dolphins, who had been in control all
Speaker 2: year long. But in Miami, in front of thousands and
Speaker 2: thousands of Bills fans, Buffalo put on a show. Miami's
Speaker 2: three receivers to the left, Cedric Wilson to the right,
Speaker 2: two in the shotgun with a chant two his right.
Speaker 6: Back to pass as the Bills fans get into it,
Speaker 6: buyers out.
Speaker 7: To the left sideline and it's intercepted by Taylor Rap,
Speaker 7: picked off at.
Speaker 8: The twenty three yard line.
Speaker 9: The pass was off the mark and Rap picked it
Speaker 9: off before it reached the sideline.
Speaker 7: An unbelievable play.
Speaker 2: Roberts, your team just won the division on Sunday Night football.
Speaker 1: Where are the damn bongos. I'm having some integrity today.
Speaker 3: I'm saving it, Okay, he just.
Speaker 1: Trying not to be biased. It's okay to be biased.
Speaker 1: This was a big time, a big spot. This would
Speaker 1: have deserved them. I gave them the bongos a couple
Speaker 1: weeks ago. Yeah, I think there was a more deserving.
Speaker 2: Okay, choice get a punt return for a touchdown, stops
Speaker 2: on defense, a touchdown scoring drive by the offense which
Speaker 2: been up and down all night, and then yes, that
Speaker 2: final stop on defense the interception by Wrap on.
Speaker 1: A float throw by Tua.
Speaker 2: And there was a lot of those in this game,
Speaker 2: and the Miami offense went ice cold when it mattered.
Speaker 2: Most final score Bill's twenty one Dolphins fourteen. They both
Speaker 2: finish eleven and six, but the Bills sweep the Dolphins
Speaker 2: in the home and home, which means they win the tiebreaker,
Speaker 2: which means it's the Buffalo Bills. As we said, that
Speaker 2: are the number two seed. After all of this mark
Speaker 2: the Bills find away and I thought it was as
Speaker 2: we're watching after they fail on that fourth in less
Speaker 2: than a yard on the QB sneak, which I hated
Speaker 2: the call, and you're like, jeez, are they gonna find
Speaker 2: a way to blow this game after they had it
Speaker 2: in their hands? It was like one of the most
Speaker 2: Billsy Bills game. And this time they find a way
Speaker 2: as they have in recent weeks, and they're the division
Speaker 2: champs as a result.
Speaker 1: They really are overcomers.
Speaker 5: I mean, to go through what they went through in
Speaker 5: the first and have Josh Allen have two end zone
Speaker 5: interceptions a fumble later on, and you're kind of just
Speaker 5: waiting for at some point for Miami to heat up
Speaker 5: because the injury list for Buffalo was starting to rack up.
Speaker 5: Razuell Douglas went out, Gave Davis went out, Dean Dawkins
Speaker 5: went out, and it's just like, can they survived this game?
Speaker 1: And they've been doing it all year long.
Speaker 5: A couple of weeks ago, it would have seemed completely outlandish
Speaker 5: that they would have won this division with the way
Speaker 5: that they were such such an up and down nature.
Speaker 5: But I think it's you know, if you're Sean McDermott,
Speaker 5: the reason that you're still the coach to this team,
Speaker 5: beyond Josh Allen is that the Sean McDermott defense needs
Speaker 5: to be a difference maker and to this Miami offense,
Speaker 5: which I think really misses jal and Waddle two weeks
Speaker 5: in a row, missed them tonight. They were out of
Speaker 5: sink in the entire second half. After closing the first
Speaker 5: half with two touchdowns, four straight punts and that pick
Speaker 5: to end the game, They had less than fifty total
Speaker 5: net yards in the second half.
Speaker 1: That is tough to do. The no show.
Speaker 5: It was a complete no show. It was a complete
Speaker 5: no show. And I know they were missing people. They
Speaker 5: are banged up too, but Buffalo. I thought the Josh
Speaker 5: Allen experience in in the final thirty minutes was truly special.
Speaker 5: It was a truly special version of Josh Allen.
Speaker 3: Him picking up that third and forever as a runner
Speaker 3: where there ended up being a penalty on the play
Speaker 3: on Miami, was Josh Allen him picking up all those
Speaker 3: short yardage conversions throughout the game until that last one.
Speaker 1: And I'm with you, Dan, I just.
Speaker 3: Thought, like, it's worked like six times or five times,
Speaker 3: is it gonna work one more?
Speaker 1: It's okay to run the ball. One of the reasons
Speaker 1: ten people in the box. You have to have something
Speaker 1: in your bag of tricks there.
Speaker 3: It just run the ball in a normal way. There
Speaker 3: are different runs, and I think that's why they won
Speaker 3: the game. First half, the Dolphins are able to run
Speaker 3: the ball well on those two touchdown drives. They have
Speaker 3: one hundred yards rushing at halftime. Second half, the Bills
Speaker 3: come out and they come out running consistently. In that
Speaker 3: first drive, they end up blowing it, but they run
Speaker 3: the ball well and the Dolphins can't do anything. And ultimately,
Speaker 3: like the Dolphins need to be a special offense. And
Speaker 3: I know they were without Moster and they really miss Waddle.
Speaker 3: You're absolutely right, but too many times in these games
Speaker 3: against good opponent it is a thing Dolphins fans. The
Speaker 3: offense starts out pretty well, in the second half.
Speaker 1: They're nowhere to be seen.
Speaker 3: This Bill's defense has really played special considering all the
Speaker 3: injuries down the stretch they earn this game. If Allen
Speaker 3: didn't keep turning it over. I know he's the one
Speaker 3: that set him up. They outgained him by a couple
Speaker 3: hundred yards in this game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Alan nearly got the Bills beat here with three
Speaker 2: brutal turnovers.
Speaker 1: You know, somewhere worse than others.
Speaker 2: There was we were talking about Eric that interception of
Speaker 2: the I think the second quarter where it was just
Speaker 2: like what world does this man operating in? But that's
Speaker 2: kind of been part of his DNA since he came
Speaker 2: into the league. But sometimes where he gets on tilt
Speaker 2: and he's just so desperate to make a play and
Speaker 2: then for the first half to end, for first half
Speaker 2: to end at the one yard line where he throws
Speaker 2: short of the goal line with no timeouts Sean McDermott
Speaker 2: and bad timing, but it's a contractual agreement between the
Speaker 2: league and the network. You're grabbing Sean McDermott thirty seconds
Speaker 2: after a brutal failure in the red zone and he
Speaker 2: calls out his quarterbacks like, we can't my quarterback can't
Speaker 2: throw short of this goal line in that situation.
Speaker 1: And great great group tackle by Miami though too.
Speaker 2: Great play by Miami's defense. And then in the third quarter,
Speaker 2: Alan gets the ball ripped away once again in the
Speaker 2: red zone, which is another great play by Miami's defense,
Speaker 2: but also Wilkins made a great play, but Allan's got
Speaker 2: to be better than that. You got to protect the ball.
Speaker 2: He can't let take anybody take the ball away from
Speaker 2: you in this moment. But to get the punt return
Speaker 2: was I think, you know, it kind of gets a
Speaker 2: little loss in the mix because so much happens in
Speaker 2: this game. It's really a pretty wild game. In fact,
Speaker 2: I think we're gonna make it our game of the
Speaker 2: Week on NFL Plus because it had so much twist
Speaker 2: and turns. In the fourth quarter, we're down, we're looking
Speaker 2: at a fourteen to seven score in favor of the Dolphins.
Speaker 2: When Deontay Hardy takes that punt ninety six yards to
Speaker 2: the house and it's one of the bigger punt returns
Speaker 2: in recent Bill's history, and it changed that game because
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, it went from the Bills feeling
Speaker 2: like in fans and again thousands of Bills fans in
Speaker 2: that building feeling like it's just another frustrating day for
Speaker 2: this team to okay, we got things even. And what
Speaker 2: happens the Bills when they get the ball back after
Speaker 2: another stop, they go right down the field eight play
Speaker 2: seventy four yards alan to Knox puts him ahead. And
Speaker 2: then when they need to get the stop after they
Speaker 2: can't finish the game off on offense, it is the
Speaker 2: Bill's defense with again to a thrown hospital balls there
Speaker 2: is there's just no execution from Miami's offense. But you
Speaker 2: got to give Buffalo's defense credit for getting the big stops.
Speaker 5: It's just stuff that wasn't happening to Miami on these
Speaker 5: special days where we were watching their offense and all
Speaker 5: because you've been you've you've hovered around Tyreek Hill all season.
Speaker 5: He had a bad drop Initially he had a second
Speaker 5: pretty bad drop on late in the game that would
Speaker 5: have been a big difference maker, but a Bill's DPI
Speaker 5: saved them on that one. But it's like Tyreek Hill
Speaker 5: was not Tyreek Kill tonight. He didn't look very healthy
Speaker 5: at the end of the game. Their running game vanished entirely,
Speaker 5: and it's you know, it's not just a two a thing,
Speaker 5: but it's like, I don't know. They didn't have a
Speaker 5: single drive of more than four plays in the second half,
Speaker 5: and it's it's Buffalo's defense, but it's like Miami couldn't
Speaker 5: find a way out of this.
Speaker 3: They started the fourth quarter. I'm thinking about the scenario.
Speaker 3: They started the fourth quarter with the ball and a
Speaker 3: touchdown lead, and you go back to how that sequence
Speaker 3: played out. Penalty on Armstead, supposed to be one of
Speaker 3: their best players, gives him a first in fifteen. Tyreek
Speaker 3: drops that pass that ends up making it a second
Speaker 3: and fifteen. They would have been close to a first
Speaker 3: down there. Then they have a penalty, you know, to
Speaker 3: a miss of the throw. But then they have the
Speaker 3: illegal blindside block and that ends up killing that drive.
Speaker 3: You give up the punt return, and then there's just
Speaker 3: more mistakes on these throws, and you're not getting any
Speaker 3: running either. They tried to go back to eight chan
Speaker 3: and it didn't work. And in big spots, you're throwing
Speaker 3: the ball to Cedric Wilson and then at the end
Speaker 3: of the game you're throwing it to Claypool and that throw,
Speaker 3: I was like, is this just a terrible throw? Is
Speaker 3: he expecting Claypool to cut it off a little sharper.
Speaker 3: Maybe that's possible, but they just haven't been in sync.
Speaker 3: And you're right Mark that, like they don't look like
Speaker 3: the Dolphins of those exciting moments, But like when were
Speaker 3: those moments, because like against the Eagles, let's say, in
Speaker 3: a big primetime spot, they don't have those moments.
Speaker 1: Really.
Speaker 3: They have seventeen points against the Chiefs in Germany, they
Speaker 3: don't really have those moments. Against the Cowboys, they find
Speaker 3: a way to get it done in a field goal game,
Speaker 3: and then you have this Ravens and Bill's game. So
Speaker 3: that's a pretty long resume in their biggest games of
Speaker 3: the offense just being okay.
Speaker 2: They should accomplish not quite. Now the Dolphins they are
Speaker 2: going to the playoffs and they get the Chiefs in Kansas, city,
Speaker 2: fun game, nice game.
Speaker 1: Interesting.
Speaker 2: So if the Miami Dallons would have found a way here,
Speaker 2: we would had a rematch, it would have been Buffalo
Speaker 2: going right back to Miami. But the way it works
Speaker 2: out now, after all of this, the Bills more or
Speaker 2: less were maybe a lot of people predicted them to
Speaker 2: be like the number two seed in the AFC, just
Speaker 2: not the route that we expected.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna gloat a bit here, guys.
Speaker 1: Go ahead.
Speaker 10: I've been following along the in season hard knocks, falling
Speaker 10: along the Dolphins. Uh uh, you know, I'm gonna pour
Speaker 10: myself a nice glass, picked my feet up on Tuesday
Speaker 10: night and enjoy the final the season.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you deserve that now, Dolphins fans waiting for
Speaker 2: me to the land to kill shot.
Speaker 1: I'm not, no, you don't, I mean you can't there.
Speaker 3: It's not that long ago that the Bills were the
Speaker 3: twelve seed in the AFC. I believe they were at
Speaker 3: six and six.
Speaker 1: I was.
Speaker 3: I think that was the same week the Jaguars were
Speaker 3: playing for the one seed on Monday night.
Speaker 10: Foot figure was on the panic button at several times
Speaker 10: this season, guys, and here we are division.
Speaker 2: And rightfully so this team has teetered multiple times, but
Speaker 2: they found a way.
Speaker 1: Nice timing for a five game winning streak. All right,
Speaker 1: they are banged up.
Speaker 5: Boat teams are like the one thing about Miami going
Speaker 5: against Patrick Mahomes, like Andrew Van Ginkel hurt tonight. You've
Speaker 5: obviously lost Bradley Chubb, Jayalen Phillips. They're down almost nothing
Speaker 5: at pass Rush.
Speaker 3: I think you have Ogba's there making a lot of money.
Speaker 3: You're right, and Ingram was out there. They were having
Speaker 3: to send the Blitz to make money. You mentioned though
Speaker 3: panicking sometimes. Josh Allen was panicking against the Blitz tonight.
Speaker 3: He eventually settled. But you know who didn't panic this week?
Speaker 3: That was me when Nick Westling came to me and
Speaker 3: he called me a coward.
Speaker 1: Wait, hold, wait, that's what I want to do right now.
Speaker 2: What Nick really did come for your manhood a little
Speaker 2: bit when he came in off the top rope and
Speaker 2: called you a coward and called you out. So what
Speaker 2: I want to do here, I'm gonna take video. Go ahead,
Speaker 2: You're going to reply to the camera that I'm pointing
Speaker 2: at you.
Speaker 1: I'm going to send this to Nick in real time.
Speaker 1: We'll get a response for him. Well, we'll also on
Speaker 1: the podcas right now.
Speaker 3: But the moment Nick called me a coward on the show,
Speaker 3: I didn't take that personally for some reason, I don't
Speaker 3: have the emotions, the feelings inside where that gets to me.
Speaker 3: But when he took the Dolphins, I knew that the
Speaker 3: lock competition would be over for the first time in
Speaker 3: history before the playoffs, because I'm not a coward. But
Speaker 3: I recognize someone who's bad at picking games when I
Speaker 3: see it, and that's Nick Wesley. So if he was
Speaker 3: taking the.
Speaker 1: Dolphin, that made me feel good about the bills. Get up,
Speaker 1: Mark looks like he's going on a kid. No, it's uh,
Speaker 1: I mean it's been like all.
Speaker 2: Right, I'm sending this off to the Westling thread right now,
Speaker 2: and I'll let the listeners know if we get a
Speaker 2: response before we sign on.
Speaker 5: Nothing is more enjoyable for Dan and I than to
Speaker 5: watch Greg gloat as he's destroyed all of us in
Speaker 5: the law competition.
Speaker 1: That's for eighteen weeks.
Speaker 3: Back to back years, four out of five years, and
Speaker 3: league sources have indicated that I'm strongly considering retirement, retiring
Speaker 3: on top so tough to see if.
Speaker 1: You want to retire from the show. Will we'll just
Speaker 1: bring Nick in just say.
Speaker 3: League sources have been reporting that they that, uh yeah,
Speaker 3: Team Rosenda just feels like it has nothing left to
Speaker 3: accomplish at this point out on tour in five years.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're a very likable person. That's That's what I've
Speaker 1: always said about you. Greg.
Speaker 2: All right, let's keep moving here and uh and I'll
Speaker 2: let you know if Nick gets back to us. Uh,
Speaker 2: let's head and check in on these other games of
Speaker 2: note in the AFC, and we're gonna go through all
Speaker 2: the AFC games and then we're going to hit the NFC.
Speaker 2: But let's go to a Saturday affair in Indianapolis where
Speaker 2: the Texans and Colts are battling with the division, the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Everything on the line. As big a play as you'll
Speaker 1: have all season. Fourth and one at.
Speaker 9: The Houston fifteen Minshew and the gun, Minshew to throw
Speaker 9: minshell side.
Speaker 7: Take up play, the Touxhaits take over on Towns put
Speaker 7: one oh three to go in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: Stop Colts can't complete it.
Speaker 8: Texans have it well, I mean, first of all, Phil's
Speaker 8: the Barns.
Speaker 1: I stand by it. I'm with you, Eric, this is
Speaker 1: it up. It is upstart Bongos team and the.
Speaker 2: Texans with the stop, the big stop that was a
Speaker 2: drop and a tough one. Mark vandermir Kilt with the call.
Speaker 1: CJ.
Speaker 2: Stroud throws for two hundred and sixty four yards and
Speaker 2: two scores. Devin Singletary scored the go ahead TD with
Speaker 2: less than seven minutes of play, and yes, the Texans
Speaker 2: get that stop when fort Goodson, the reserved running back,
Speaker 2: can't bring in a slightly errant Warner Meanshew pass and
Speaker 2: it is the difference. So that win for the Texans,
Speaker 2: combined with a Jaguars loss in Nashville, which we're going
Speaker 2: to get to, allows the Texans to win the AFC
Speaker 2: South and they will host Browns for Wildcard weekend. As
Speaker 2: we said, that is a tricky matchup for the Browns,
Speaker 2: but man, what a game.
Speaker 1: Mark Sessler and CJ. Stroud. I love that the game
Speaker 1: starts drops back.
Speaker 2: First throw is right in the first primetime game in
Speaker 2: our league, and he hits it for seventy five and
Speaker 2: they're off and running from there.
Speaker 5: I mean, we've seen like quarterbacks that almost hit like
Speaker 5: a Peter Principal type thing where it's like you're having
Speaker 5: a nice season you're a rookie. It's a great story,
Speaker 5: but you get to a moment like this and we
Speaker 5: learn that it's the step you need to take in
Speaker 5: the offseason to get to that next place.
Speaker 11: Like c J.
Speaker 5: Stroud just rolls onto the scene, executes on the first play,
Speaker 5: looks completely calm and comfortable, and then I'll go to
Speaker 5: the final drive where, I mean, in one of the
Speaker 5: biggest moments of his career, a very short career, in
Speaker 5: the game tied seven seventeen, he goes seven for seven
Speaker 5: for eighty two yards to orchestrate the I mean, he's
Speaker 5: just absolutely perfect in the greatest moment. And I think,
Speaker 5: like I've said all along, I really think like the
Speaker 5: Texans are this weird team that are extremely well coached.
Speaker 5: I know they're a little banged up, but with CJ.
Speaker 5: Stroud and what Nico Collins the way is playing, It's
Speaker 5: like I could literally see them winning multiple playoff games.
Speaker 5: It just wouldn't be that surprising in the AFC. A
Speaker 5: strange AFC. I think Stroud has made this team completely unpredictable.
Speaker 1: They're totally enjoyable to watch.
Speaker 5: Dimigo Ryans is someone that has changed the Texans organization
Speaker 5: from top to bottom and what happens next is anyone's guess.
Speaker 3: This game was why Stroud is just an outrageous talent,
Speaker 3: the best quarterback to enter the league since Burrow and
Speaker 3: Herbert and man I think his rookie year was more
Speaker 3: impressive than either of there, certainly than Burrow, but than
Speaker 3: Herbert too. And this game was perfect because the first
Speaker 3: half is going to get forgotten, but he combines the
Speaker 3: spectacular with the steady like an elite, elite quarterback.
Speaker 1: The first half, he didn't have one negative play. Everything
Speaker 1: was perfect.
Speaker 3: In the first half of this game, they did not
Speaker 3: have like a big lead, but every decision he made,
Speaker 3: every throw he made was perfect, and I was just thinking, Wow,
Speaker 3: this guy is locked in. There's almost nothing more he
Speaker 3: can do, even though he's missing No Brown, missing Robert Woods.
Speaker 3: And then the second half of the game, that's where
Speaker 3: he needed to be spectacular. On that drive you mentioned,
Speaker 3: there's a second and twenty where he's running for his life,
Speaker 3: throwing off his back foot under total pressure and hits
Speaker 3: Dalton Saltz for seventeen yards. That was a ridiculous play.
Speaker 3: And then later in the drive, the play I think
Speaker 3: a lot of people will Remember it was twenty three
Speaker 3: yards to Nico Collins just feathers it in there as
Speaker 3: he's getting absolutely hammered under pressure, and Collins makes a
Speaker 3: fantastic catch too. Collins goes for one to ninety five
Speaker 3: in this game. And that's CJ. Stroud like he can
Speaker 3: do it all. He's one of the best quarterbacks in
Speaker 3: the league right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and listen, you said Demiico Ryans changed the organization,
Speaker 2: and all due respect to Tomico Ryans, but it's not
Speaker 2: it's c J.
Speaker 1: Stroud. Well, it could be, it could be a combination.
Speaker 2: The quarterback is so important in the sport and I
Speaker 2: just if you put Bryce Young on this team, I
Speaker 2: just don't see it. But I think you put a
Speaker 2: guy like Stroud on this team. In the way he's playing,
Speaker 2: he has totally changed everything for this organization. And you know,
Speaker 2: we're just saying, like Tua and you know, having Jalen
Speaker 2: Wattle out of that game and that was a bad break. Well,
Speaker 2: Tank Dell was was Stroud's guy this season and you
Speaker 2: took him out and then you get him Stroud gets
Speaker 2: injured with the concussion and he's gone.
Speaker 1: For a couple know, Brown out take Robert Woods out.
Speaker 2: And they still find a way because he had. He's
Speaker 2: that special dude, and I think we we kind of
Speaker 2: So I agree with you, Mark, with you take out
Speaker 2: the Ravens, okay, because the Ravens are cut above in
Speaker 2: the AFC right now and then, and with all due
Speaker 2: respect to the Steelers, are going to take them out
Speaker 2: any of the other teams in the mix.
Speaker 1: Here are the five teams in the AFC.
Speaker 2: None of them would surprise me like beating up and
Speaker 2: going on a multiple game run in the playoffs. And
Speaker 2: I think the Texans are absolutely capable of that. And
Speaker 2: Stroud is a big reason why, any reason why.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's gonna matter what version of Will Anderson you get,
Speaker 5: you know, starting eye ankle next week, right, Like that's that.
Speaker 5: So when I say to Nico Ryans, like I think
Speaker 5: their defense has completely changed and a lot of young
Speaker 5: players have developed and grown. Yes, So it's like there
Speaker 5: is a coaching element, like Bobby Slowick really matters on
Speaker 5: offense and what he's done with various offensive line injuries.
Speaker 5: And you see someone like Nico Collins nine targets, nine catches,
Speaker 5: one hundred and ninety five yards and a touchdown, and
Speaker 5: it's like, yes, it was the seventy five yarder, but
Speaker 5: it's sort of the overall thing where it's like CJ. Stroud,
Speaker 5: like any good quarterback is gonna turn players around him
Speaker 5: into productive stars in like stars in the making.
Speaker 3: Nico Collins is gonna get twenty five million dollars a
Speaker 3: year this offseason if the Texans are smart. He's not
Speaker 3: a free agent yet, but he I haven't seen many
Speaker 3: players quite like and he's built like he looks like
Speaker 3: AJ Green when you just look at him. But he runs.
Speaker 3: He plays like a tight end. He runs over people.
Speaker 3: He makes a lot of he has great hands, difficult catches.
Speaker 3: So they have a one, they have a two in Dell.
Speaker 3: It was exciting. And yet despite all that, they're really
Speaker 3: banged up. They need to get Jonathan Grenard back. They
Speaker 3: need to get those receivers back, and late in this game,
Speaker 3: the Colts are driving and I'm thinking, oh man, the
Speaker 3: Colts are definitely gonna be in that early west of
Speaker 3: his spot when they're only what fifteen yards away?
Speaker 1: When they call that fourth and one.
Speaker 2: Fourth and one Houston fifteen yard line, one oh six
Speaker 2: to go, they call a pass play on a day
Speaker 2: when Jonathan Taylor is running wild, but they say minshew,
Speaker 2: get the ball to reserve running back Tyler Goodson, who
Speaker 2: I believe had six catches all year, and the the
Speaker 2: ball is not perfectly placed, but Goodson can't hang on
Speaker 2: to it.
Speaker 1: Do we have I don't want to do you have
Speaker 1: the Colts call? Let's hear what the Colts call was?
Speaker 1: Colts down by six mins.
Speaker 9: She's gonna throws drop ball, left, drop the ball.
Speaker 1: He had a first to the ball in the far flat.
Speaker 1: He could not bring in the catch. And it was
Speaker 1: well schemed.
Speaker 12: They had it.
Speaker 3: They knew they were gonna have Manda man coverage.
Speaker 1: He ran the swing pass out there. The linebacker couldn't
Speaker 1: get there. He was trying to run around the pick.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, heartbreaking. Feels so bad for the guy,
Speaker 2: and you never want to be And woke up this morning.
Speaker 2: I feel like I always see this every year cross sports,
Speaker 2: the ESPN headline stack, and it's like player X drop
Speaker 2: won't define me, or miss foul shot won't define me,
Speaker 2: and define me And here is Goodson after the game,
Speaker 2: who's you know?
Speaker 1: Stand up dude? And on the roughest day of his career,
Speaker 1: I worked too.
Speaker 3: Hard, So you know, just drop the ball like that.
Speaker 3: I got to accept that change, and that's okay.
Speaker 13: It still touch my hands.
Speaker 10: It's all good.
Speaker 1: It's all good, touch my hands. But next year I
Speaker 1: won't be in that position ever again.
Speaker 8: Ever.
Speaker 1: Get that feels so bad for me.
Speaker 2: Hopefully he does have a moment on the line and
Speaker 2: this he could look back on this, because that that's
Speaker 2: a tough way for a season to end and for
Speaker 2: for good.
Speaker 1: So that's terrible.
Speaker 5: I mean, I think it's I think it creates one
Speaker 5: of these conversations that you you get in big games
Speaker 5: like this where it comes down to like a short
Speaker 5: yardage final option here, and you've had Jonathan Taylor run
Speaker 5: for six point three yards on the day, one hundred
Speaker 5: and eighty eight ground yards and a touchdown, and it's like,
Speaker 5: wait a minute, we didn't give it to jump. We
Speaker 5: didn't just give it to your best player or make
Speaker 5: sure it goes to the to the person who's been
Speaker 5: dominating all day.
Speaker 2: Long, and you've had a bad day. He wasn't throwing
Speaker 2: the ball while he threw for one hundred and forty
Speaker 2: one yards, and if he who knows throw, they could
Speaker 2: have dropped it right in his hands. But it wasn't
Speaker 2: a great pass from Minshew either, so you kind of
Speaker 2: you chose with to use your backup quarterback and a
Speaker 2: backup running back over your star running back who had
Speaker 2: been having a big day. Those are all second thoughts.
Speaker 2: Of course, you could also say, well, the play was
Speaker 2: schemed up and it was perfect.
Speaker 3: Right, they're they're professionals.
Speaker 1: You got to hit that play.
Speaker 3: As a coach, I think it was a fascinating sequence
Speaker 3: because they did give it to Jonathan Taylor. I mean
Speaker 3: they gave it to him on that drive the six
Speaker 3: seven previous plays. Yeah, they gave it to him on
Speaker 3: third and two he got one yard. I actually thought
Speaker 3: watching Taylor there, who would come in and he had
Speaker 3: been ruled doubtful with the heel injury, even though he
Speaker 3: was getting yards, I was like, oh, they should bring
Speaker 3: in Zach Moss.
Speaker 1: It would take a lot of hood spot.
Speaker 3: But I thought he was running it not as explosive,
Speaker 3: kind of careful on his feet on that six yard
Speaker 3: game right before the last play, like he had a
Speaker 3: ton of room. And I thought earlier in the game
Speaker 3: Taylor hits that and would have picked up a first down.
Speaker 3: And it was fascinting because I think Steichen might be
Speaker 3: up there with the best coaches in the league in
Speaker 3: terms of game management, in terms of play calling, and
Speaker 3: he played that final sequence very interesting. He decided, like,
Speaker 3: we're gonna try to end the game here. We're not
Speaker 3: gonna even though we have three timeouts, We're not gonna
Speaker 3: play it both ways, which is how most coaches would
Speaker 3: do it, which is maybe score a little faster, but
Speaker 3: if it doesn't work, we get the ball back. And
Speaker 3: he decided to kind of burn his time out too
Speaker 3: before that play because he wanted to see what the
Speaker 3: Texans played their defense and knew what play was going
Speaker 3: to get called the perfect place, so I.
Speaker 1: Can't kill him.
Speaker 3: But then after using the time out, you basically have
Speaker 3: lost the game because you put it all on that
Speaker 3: one and they made me wouldn't have won the game either,
Speaker 3: like he would have been at like the seven yard
Speaker 3: line and they had four plays to try to score
Speaker 3: a touchdown.
Speaker 1: Oh brutal.
Speaker 2: But to the Texans credit, they get off the mat
Speaker 2: even with all the injuries, and they find a way
Speaker 2: to close out win the division when they get some
Speaker 2: help the next day. And here is a locker room
Speaker 2: that is a happy one with Dimiko Ryans at the front.
Speaker 1: Love you guys.
Speaker 3: Man, sir too.
Speaker 14: Man, you're proud of the determination. Man, you talk about determination,
Speaker 14: you're grit. Everybody fight to their last play. Yeah, that's
Speaker 14: what it's about. Man, And we plused our ticket.
Speaker 3: Very nice.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't mean to mean Tomiico Ryans. I just
Speaker 2: it's more about like the transformational, truly gifted young quarter.
Speaker 2: It wouldn't look the same about Stroud. I mean obviously,
Speaker 2: but he was like fire. That's football. It's like Montana Belichick, Braid.
Speaker 2: I just you got to give everyone.
Speaker 5: And it's not because the team is functioning in so
Speaker 5: many better ways all over the place. And like I
Speaker 5: just it's it's easy to forget where the Texans were
Speaker 5: like a year or two ago.
Speaker 3: I mean, it was like darkness, or even seven weeks ago.
Speaker 3: I'll loan up to it. You probably should have probably
Speaker 3: should have picked.
Speaker 1: Them as a team of a deal, you know, but
Speaker 1: well they were discussed, it happened.
Speaker 3: They were the two teams that came down to we
Speaker 3: caught Park was pushing for Texans.
Speaker 1: To his credit, we got we caught Dobbs fever. I
Speaker 1: mean because I was part of the Dobbs, no regrets,
Speaker 1: just saying it's fun. But they're a fun team. But
Speaker 1: Greg sometimes, why what enough? What do you much? How
Speaker 1: much do you want?
Speaker 14: Greg?
Speaker 1: What do you want? You want to slice? What do
Speaker 1: you want me to say?
Speaker 3: What do you mean?
Speaker 1: What do you want me to say? This isn't about me.
Speaker 1: I'm giving Mark some credit here. What do you want me?
Speaker 3: We gave him a lot of trouble and I was
Speaker 3: going for the Vikings and he wanted the Texans. He
Speaker 3: was right.
Speaker 1: I was wrong. I wanted Josh Dobbs to thrive. We
Speaker 1: I think Sobbs was and I signed off. Why do
Speaker 1: I think it litigated that way?
Speaker 11: We we?
Speaker 1: It didn't work out. It was it was just the
Speaker 1: way it was.
Speaker 2: But the Texans would have been nice. All of a sudden,
Speaker 2: we're acting like the Texans are a flawless organization.
Speaker 5: I have that orgization since the Texans did a very
Speaker 5: team of a high high high end team of atl
Speaker 5: type thing.
Speaker 3: I'm trying to give myself us the business the same
Speaker 3: way we gave him the business or the Vikings back
Speaker 3: in the day.
Speaker 2: It's it's it's all fun, very fun. You're right right
Speaker 2: as always, You're right Let's move on, uh to the
Speaker 2: next big game. Steelers and Ravens. Oh boy, Steelers have
Speaker 2: a chance to punch their ticket too.
Speaker 1: Third and four were Steelers from there. Twenty nine shot
Speaker 1: gun snap and it is Mason Rudolph.
Speaker 3: Tamon middle on his way.
Speaker 13: Oh take Junson thirty twenty five fifteen ten, He's gone
Speaker 13: for that Steelers touchdown seventy one yards Rudolph dub.
Speaker 1: Judson sweeter that Nellie's blueberry pie. Yes, I tell you again,
Speaker 1: it's every week, Nelly Bill. He'll grow up at the call.
Speaker 2: Mason Rudolph through a seventy one yard touchdown passed the
Speaker 2: Deontay Johnson on.
Speaker 1: The first play of the fourth quarter.
Speaker 2: Steelers grinded out seventeen to ten over the top seeded Ravens,
Speaker 2: who of course rested multiple key players, including MVP favorite
Speaker 2: Lamar Jackson. That Steelers win, combined with the Jags loss
Speaker 2: on Sunday clinch he had another playoff appearance for Mike Tomlin,
Speaker 2: whose team won three straight to close the regular season.
Speaker 2: My fearless prediction there was that they would not win again,
Speaker 2: but they went the other so credit to Pittsburgh and
Speaker 2: never doubt Greg.
Speaker 1: Mike Tomlin.
Speaker 2: It's a massive fu from Tomlin to everyone who doubted
Speaker 2: his team and his place in the organization after all
Speaker 2: these years of consistent success.
Speaker 3: They're just a ridiculous team. They are the I think
Speaker 3: only the fifth team in NFL history to have a
Speaker 3: negative twenty point differential and win ten games.
Speaker 1: Now got they got an extra game.
Speaker 3: To do it, but it's still like the Statistically, they're
Speaker 3: one of the worst ten game wins teams.
Speaker 1: Ever, so when we're looking at these playoffs, like they
Speaker 1: do look like.
Speaker 3: The team that stands out, although in this season, you're right,
Speaker 3: nothing would surprise me. The weather was a massive factor
Speaker 3: in this game. I've seen some analysis being like all
Speaker 3: the offenses and it's like the weather was as bad
Speaker 3: of a weather game as there has been all season.
Speaker 3: And to naj Harris's credit and their offenses credit, like
Speaker 3: it was a Naj Harris game, it was not a
Speaker 3: Jalen Warren game. I don't think they would have won
Speaker 3: this game without Nase Harris. He was like the definition
Speaker 3: of a mutter and he was awesome and he kind
Speaker 3: of took him yep, a couple of weeks in a row.
Speaker 5: He's been everything that you would have hoped he was
Speaker 5: when he was taken in the first round. And you know,
Speaker 5: if you found out before the game that you know
Speaker 5: Mason Rudolph was gonna throw for one hundred and fifty
Speaker 5: two yards fumble the ball three times, you'd think this is,
Speaker 5: this is a problem. Accept that the Ravens don't have
Speaker 5: Olamar Jackson. They're nose flowers. They're missing a bunch of guys.
Speaker 5: But I mean, the biggest thing hanging over this Steelers
Speaker 5: team right now is that at the end of an
Speaker 5: excellent two set game, TJ. Watt suffers it to a
Speaker 5: Grade two mcl sprain and according to jj Watt, it
Speaker 5: could be a couple of weeks of rest recovery. So
Speaker 5: it's like, you take jj Watt off this defense, it's
Speaker 5: like JJ Watt's one of these defensive guys that j TJ.
Speaker 5: Watt like wins games for you, and it's like they're
Speaker 5: just not the same operation without him. So that that like,
Speaker 5: that is that is like watching him walk to the
Speaker 5: locker room was like, ah, this is awful for Steelers fans.
Speaker 3: There was eight fumbles in this game. I mean, it
Speaker 3: looks this was an awful The Steelers picked up six
Speaker 3: of them, so like sometimes the game comes down to that.
Speaker 3: They did dominate yardage for the most part, like Tyler
Speaker 3: Huntley could not get it going. There was more starters
Speaker 3: in this Ravens game than I think people realize. Like
Speaker 3: the offensive lines and the defensive lines for the Ravens
Speaker 3: basically were in the whole game. There were starters throughout
Speaker 3: the defense for Baltimore.
Speaker 1: But Rudolph's been good.
Speaker 3: Like even on that touchdown, he had a shorter route,
Speaker 3: he could have thrown it too, and he always pushes
Speaker 3: it a little further. He goes further to Johnson gets
Speaker 3: rewarded with a big touchdown. He only had two incompletions
Speaker 3: eighteen for twenty for one fifty two. Like they've been
Speaker 3: pretty solid with Steelers, and there's this report that you know,
Speaker 3: Pickett is still their franchise quarterback from our guy in rapport,
Speaker 3: I'm like, what, they're literally going into a playoff game
Speaker 3: and he's not starting.
Speaker 1: That's he's not your card exactly.
Speaker 5: Well, it's like just don't stir anything up right now,
Speaker 5: just say yes, fine, everything's fine, But like come on.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah they're in an interesting spot, yeah looking forward,
Speaker 2: but it is really uh it's it's it's pretty crazy
Speaker 2: that they did go on this run with Mason r
Speaker 2: Off on top of everything else. So it's they're they're
Speaker 2: not the team. They're not the sexy team here obviously
Speaker 2: in the AFC. And I just said earlier that, you know,
Speaker 2: I kind of take them out of the mix of
Speaker 2: the teams that I think can win multiple games.
Speaker 1: But geez, I'm not going to doubt Tomlin. I'm not
Speaker 1: going to do the Steelers.
Speaker 2: You know, maybe they'll knuck another one up and find
Speaker 2: a way uh next week, because they you know, they're
Speaker 2: starting to believe in it.
Speaker 1: But the t J.
Speaker 2: Watt injury is is massive. I think that is what
Speaker 2: takes the most win out of the sales here one
Speaker 2: hundred percent.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's unfortunate, but it is an incredible division,
Speaker 3: in this division which ended up having so many winning teams.
Speaker 3: Everyone's a winning team, and the Steelers won five and
Speaker 3: one in it. I know there's some weirdness to it
Speaker 3: them playing backups including Huntley and Browning and in the proud,
Speaker 3: but they still went five and one in the best division.
Speaker 1: It's good and the Ravens that they get out healthy here.
Speaker 3: Trying to think uh. I think they pretty much did
Speaker 3: get out healthy.
Speaker 5: I mean, I guess one of the benefits of sitting
Speaker 5: your key stars on offenses they can't get hurt.
Speaker 2: So they will of course have the buy and then
Speaker 2: they will face the lotus lowest seeded remaining team in
Speaker 2: the divisional playoffs.
Speaker 1: All right, let's keep on moving.
Speaker 2: Oh let's head to Tennessee where the Titans team that's
Speaker 2: had a rough year had a chance to do something.
Speaker 2: Run arrivals year. That's always a good thing. Let's see
Speaker 2: if they did it.
Speaker 3: Riffed out in two.
Speaker 1: I think they did.
Speaker 15: I just Lawrence in the show.
Speaker 1: I want to spoil it looking firing in hell. Yeah,
Speaker 1: pass was.
Speaker 15: Intended for Evan Ingram Edmunds had good coverage and the
Speaker 15: Titans take over on downs at the thirty two, only
Speaker 15: needing to kneel to win this game.
Speaker 1: Mike Keith, I'm really happy I get that.
Speaker 2: Wonder if Mike Keith's one of those guys where it's
Speaker 2: always his full name, he only gets addressed by full
Speaker 2: name Mike Keith. With the call with Dave McGinnis the Jaguars,
Speaker 2: they just couldn't get it done. With the season hanging
Speaker 2: in the bounce, Trevor Lawrence sailed that pass incomplete and
Speaker 2: the last place Titans escape of the twenty eight to
Speaker 2: twenty win in Nashville. And the Jags started that season
Speaker 2: this season eight and three, but end the year with
Speaker 2: five losses in six weeks and they missed the playoffs
Speaker 2: and give the AFC South to the Texans. Mister Sessler,
Speaker 2: Mark Sessler, what a frustrating afternoon and season.
Speaker 1: For Lawrence and the whole Jags organization. The implosion is complete.
Speaker 5: I mean we've been sensing it and feeling it, and
Speaker 5: yet they still had a chance at the very end
Speaker 5: of this game to tie it up against the Titans
Speaker 5: team that was playing like with a tarow set on fire,
Speaker 5: and you have that poor past Evan Ingram just off target.
Speaker 5: It kind of looked reminded me of like the frustrating
Speaker 5: moments from Trevor Lawrence in the past, but this game
Speaker 5: had plenty of those, because earlier on that same drive,
Speaker 5: Calvin Ridley is wide open and Trevor Trevor Lawrence just
Speaker 5: basically overthrows him.
Speaker 1: It's just he's off. It's like he could have that
Speaker 1: would have been a touchdown. He could have sealed it
Speaker 1: right there.
Speaker 5: You There was a ricocheted interception early in the game,
Speaker 5: which wasn't totally on Trevor Lawrence at all, but he
Speaker 5: threw a bad interception of Sean Murvy button bunting on
Speaker 5: what was a clear communication.
Speaker 1: There was a downs that they went out on downs
Speaker 1: early on a where he.
Speaker 5: Throws short of the sticks on fourth and six, And
Speaker 5: there was a goal line stand where Trevor Lawrence is
Speaker 5: stopped at fourth and goal, you know, inside the one
Speaker 5: on a QB sneak and he stuffed and and the
Speaker 5: one thing about that play is that Trevor Lawrence switched
Speaker 5: into that play and he took it. He took total
Speaker 5: accountability for it. But he said, if I'm gonna do that,
Speaker 5: I've got to nail it. And it was just like
Speaker 5: this team had no margin for error without Christian Kirk.
Speaker 5: I really feel like they never were the same with
Speaker 5: Christian Kirk. And I never would think I'd say that
Speaker 5: about that player, but it's like it's something happened to
Speaker 5: this passing game. Trevor Lawrence obviously has not been healthy
Speaker 5: over the past month. He didn't look particularly hurt to
Speaker 5: me at all in this game, but something It's almost
Speaker 5: like something's going on because we got the version of
Speaker 5: Trevor Lawrence from early last season, and we know that
Speaker 5: he quietly has just been a massive turnover robot behind
Speaker 5: a lot of the because I think now it's just
Speaker 5: say he's such a great quarterback, we just expect him
Speaker 5: to be a star and maybe even like a top
Speaker 5: five guy. He's not played that way of late. And
Speaker 5: today was the Epican total meltdown. And it doesn't happen
Speaker 5: if their defense does not allow Derrick Henry for rumbled
Speaker 5: one hundred and fifty three yards off nineteen carries. He
Speaker 5: had a sixty nine yard run at one point. They
Speaker 5: just broke this Jaguars defense. So it was a complete
Speaker 5: and total team implosion that we've seen coming for a while.
Speaker 3: The Titans were up for this. Derrick Henry his last game,
Speaker 3: likely as a tight end. He spoke on the Jumbo
Speaker 3: Chawn after the game like thanking listen everyone.
Speaker 2: I thought this was interesting and fun for UH, one
Speaker 2: of the one of the great players in franchise history.
Speaker 1: Hi, man, I just want to say thank you.
Speaker 13: What the greatest eight years.
Speaker 1: Of my life.
Speaker 13: The ups and the downs, y'all been up and everything
Speaker 13: at Versity Washington, Garth and person and the player always
Speaker 13: supported me.
Speaker 3: I love y'all.
Speaker 1: I love seeing his pictures in the stadium. Hopefully ill
Speaker 1: was an information.
Speaker 13: To all the young kids and everybody in the community
Speaker 13: who is thank oh so much.
Speaker 1: Man, God is good and tighten o. What a class act.
Speaker 2: And the only reason I know he's gone beyond that
Speaker 2: speech was after the game during the press conference he
Speaker 2: thanked his avocado guy in Inville.
Speaker 1: So that's when you know it's over. You're you're leaving
Speaker 1: the neighborhood.
Speaker 12: Yeah.
Speaker 3: There was a great shot of him in Tannehill kind
Speaker 3: of having a quiet moment before going out for the
Speaker 3: game and him Henry was kind of emotional talking.
Speaker 1: About what a career in Tennessee. If that's it right,
Speaker 1: saying that's my dude.
Speaker 3: And it was fitting for him to run all over
Speaker 3: the the Jaguars nineteen for one to fifty three because
Speaker 3: he's been doing that his whole career. Fifteen hundred and
Speaker 3: sixty four yards against the Jaguars in fifteen games, which
Speaker 3: seems outrageous. He average over one hundred rushing yards in
Speaker 3: fifteen games. But then someone put the stat out Derek
Speaker 3: Henry's actually averaged over one hundred and eight yards from
Speaker 3: scrimmage against all AFC South teams, Like he has like
Speaker 3: dominated that division in a pretty special way for eight years,
Speaker 3: and the Jaguars just weren't ready for it. Like this
Speaker 3: division should have been there for the taking. There was
Speaker 3: a lot of reasons why, but ultimately Lawrence wasn't good
Speaker 3: enough in the end. That last drive was was tough
Speaker 3: to watch, like miss misthrow after miss throw, And maybe
Speaker 3: he doesn't trust in his teammates to get a yard
Speaker 3: in that situation, so he calls his own number, And
Speaker 3: I don't blame him. They couldn't get a yard all
Speaker 3: season in those spots, So like it's more than just
Speaker 3: Trevor Leewan.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I'm also gonna I'm not gonna bury Tua
Speaker 2: for the way he played in this game and then
Speaker 2: let Lawrence off the hook because he did he did
Speaker 2: make some you know, boneheaded mistakes and turn the ball
Speaker 2: over throughout the season. I just wonder how healthy he was,
Speaker 2: Like even going into into the weekend, you were seeing
Speaker 2: reports on.
Speaker 1: Saturday about his shoulder and how serious it might be.
Speaker 2: And he's a competitor who likes to stay in the lineup,
Speaker 2: so he forced himself in. I just I wonder if
Speaker 2: you're going to learn more about his health in the
Speaker 2: days after the season.
Speaker 5: He had three separate injuries, and it wasn't like, you know,
Speaker 5: he's hobbling around out there. It wasn't Joe Burrow with
Speaker 5: his calf situation. But it's like, you're right underneath what
Speaker 5: we can't see. It's like, is it affecting even mentally
Speaker 5: what you're thinking you can do, because I mean, I
Speaker 5: think we saw that, like justin Herbert a year ago
Speaker 5: when he was banged up. It's like it changes your
Speaker 5: mentality if you don't feel one hundred percent.
Speaker 3: I mean, they were in that division game last year,
Speaker 3: Divisional round game against the Chiefs. They had they really
Speaker 3: could have won that game because of the injury to Mahomes,
Speaker 3: but they had drops, they had untimely turnovers, they had
Speaker 3: some sloppy defensive play, and then that kept happening all
Speaker 3: year and basically this season for them was flipped from
Speaker 3: last year. They had that strong finished last year. This
Speaker 3: year they end up collapsing. And I do wonder if
Speaker 3: it's possibly last Mike Frable Game two. We don't know
Speaker 3: there's been a lot of insider reporting that feels like
Speaker 3: a fertile situation.
Speaker 1: For some drama.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, So the Jaguars go home and we see what
Speaker 2: happens next with them, and let's keep moving. Now, we'll
Speaker 2: head across the sidewalk where the Chiefs and Chargers did
Speaker 2: battle well.
Speaker 1: Se Den and Gold to go. Stick wants to throw it,
Speaker 1: He's gonna pump faked strabble. He's hit and.
Speaker 16: Goes down and fumbles it, picked up by Mike Edwards.
Speaker 16: Edwards at the thirty room to run Amena who.
Speaker 1: Knocks it out of Edwards trying to get a defensive score.
Speaker 16: Thirty twenty ten five touchdown chamsa city, Mike Edwards, the
Speaker 16: king of.
Speaker 1: The pick six, gets a scoop and score.
Speaker 2: Yes, Mitch Holtis with the call, big time scoop and
Speaker 2: score there for the Chiefs, and then they get a
Speaker 2: field goal from Harrison Buger with forty nine seconds to play.
Speaker 2: It's the difference in a thirteen twelve of courses is
Speaker 2: how the Charger season went ends thirteen twelve Chiefs over Chargers,
Speaker 2: and the Chiefs finish eleven and six and locked into
Speaker 2: the AFC's number three seed for the playoffs entering the game,
Speaker 2: so Mahomes inactive, Travis Kelcey a healthy scratch. Kelsey, by
Speaker 2: the way, finished with nine hundred and eighty four yards,
Speaker 2: so that ends has been for an eighth straight one
Speaker 2: thousand yard season. Me I want to play a series,
Speaker 2: give me that one thousand that get me out. But
Speaker 2: that's his call or the team's call or whatever. We're
Speaker 2: also big time year, big time year. I feel like
Speaker 2: we're Bonus celebrations really went mainstream this year. Yeah, Chris Jones,
Speaker 2: and we saw it with a Davian Clowney and several
Speaker 2: other places this week. But Chris Jones has a sack
Speaker 2: that triggered a one point two five million dollar bonus
Speaker 2: and he was on top of the world. So those
Speaker 2: are the things I will remember from this game. Otherwise,
Speaker 2: not really an overly consequential affair.
Speaker 1: In the history of the league.
Speaker 5: There aren't too many, as you would say, ultra moribund teams.
Speaker 1: This season.
Speaker 5: There's been a like, you know, you can trust them
Speaker 5: to kind of show up. The Chargers season needed to end,
Speaker 5: and it needed to end weeks ago, and it mercifully
Speaker 5: has come to a conclusion. And I feel like, like
Speaker 5: everyone from Austin Ekeler running for eleven yards off ten carries.
Speaker 5: Like everything's just bottomed out with this team right now
Speaker 5: and it's time for a long winter snapt, a.
Speaker 3: Lot of charges, a lot of Jim Harbor.
Speaker 12: Chatter.
Speaker 3: Jim's been trying to get back into the league for
Speaker 3: years through you know, dropping these sources. And he interviewed
Speaker 3: with the Vikings, didn't get that they gave it to O'Connell.
Speaker 1: And it's coaching in the National Championship Championship.
Speaker 3: On Monday, been suspended a couple of times. It really
Speaker 3: sounds like that'll be his last game with Michigan and
Speaker 3: that the Chargers everyone's saying is interested him. And I
Speaker 3: think if they're interested him and they want to hire him,
Speaker 3: I think they probably can. So that'll be the next
Speaker 3: time we talk about the Chargers most likely. I gotta
Speaker 3: think the Chiefs are annoyed though, at the way the
Speaker 3: Sunday Night game ended, because the Dolphins coming into town
Speaker 3: feels much more difficult than the Steelers coming into town.
Speaker 3: Like I'm annoyed at the Jaguars first of all for
Speaker 3: losing that game, because it made the Sunday Night game
Speaker 3: feel less important.
Speaker 1: It wasn't a win some of the Bills.
Speaker 3: It put the Steelers in early, so the Steelers weren't
Speaker 3: waiting to find out anything either.
Speaker 1: But the Chiefs, that's a tougher matchup for them Miami.
Speaker 3: I gotta think they're a little more concerned with a
Speaker 3: Dolphins team coming in there than the Steelers.
Speaker 1: I was hoping Jeff Smith was going to get a
Speaker 1: win before his interim run. Maybe just make him head coach.
Speaker 2: You could, But they close the season with five straight
Speaker 2: losses well, including three straight after Staly and Telesco got
Speaker 2: let go on December fifteenth. So the Chiefs, we will see.
Speaker 2: They are to me the kind of X factor in
Speaker 2: the AFC. If they're true to their form of this year,
Speaker 2: they'll have another disappointing offensive performance and they could be
Speaker 2: one and done and that would be fitting and that
Speaker 2: would make sense.
Speaker 1: I don't know, never know. It's kind of crazy. Then
Speaker 1: do you think it's also possible they go on a run?
Speaker 2: Absolutely based on sure, it's possible. A men's history. Like, yeah,
Speaker 2: a men's history. Yeah, I mean that's all it's about.
Speaker 2: It's not about anything we saw really this year.
Speaker 1: It would be surprising if they suddenly became elected.
Speaker 2: Patrick Mahomes is their quarterback. But we've been saying that
Speaker 2: all year. That's why they are a tough one to
Speaker 2: figure out. All right, let's take a break and then
Speaker 2: we will keep rolling. All right, let's keep moving here.
Speaker 2: Let's head to Cincinnati where the Bengals are looking and
Speaker 2: their season with a winning record.
Speaker 1: That Brown's nothing to play for his.
Speaker 12: First down in goal from the seven. Joe Mixon has
Speaker 12: one rushing touchdown so far here in the first quarter.
Speaker 12: He's in the backfield to the left of Jake Browning,
Speaker 12: running back at the twelve, ready for the snap. Catches
Speaker 12: looks left coast to Mixon.
Speaker 1: Just half a cell and he's into.
Speaker 3: The end zone.
Speaker 1: Touchdown Bengals by Joe Mixon with a touchdown run and
Speaker 1: a touchdown catch and the Bengals are up by two tds.
Speaker 2: Fun fact mark Dave Lapham gets paid three hundred and
Speaker 2: twenty seven thousand dollars a year.
Speaker 1: Just to go boom boom. Well, I don't know who
Speaker 1: else you can put in that spots knowing Yeah, Dan.
Speaker 2: Hord with a call with Dave Lapham with the booms
Speaker 2: w ck y Jake Browning through three touchdown passes. Joe
Speaker 2: Mixon rushed for a season high buck eleven and a
Speaker 2: score also cut that touchdown. The Bengals coast to a
Speaker 2: thirty one fourteen win over the Browns. The Bengals led
Speaker 2: this game twenty four to nothing at halftime on a
Speaker 2: day when Cleveland locked into the fifth seed of the
Speaker 2: afc rested their key players on each side of the ball.
Speaker 2: Mark since he misses out on the postseason, but they
Speaker 2: do finish nine and eight over five hundred, a nice
Speaker 2: achievement given the slow start. It was a horrendously slow start,
Speaker 2: and then of course the Burrow injury that ended his season.
Speaker 5: It's also because they have a winning record, the first
Speaker 5: time that this division has all finished with a winning
Speaker 5: record since the version of this division that goes back
Speaker 5: to like nineteen thirty something from something called the NFL West.
Speaker 1: I'd be curious how many divisions since the realignment.
Speaker 13: No.
Speaker 11: Two.
Speaker 1: I think it's very very many times it's happened. It's
Speaker 1: got to be this in the oh.
Speaker 5: So that's that's a nice finish for the Bengals. On
Speaker 5: that note, I mean, this game had me wondering, you know,
Speaker 5: in the old days, they would take like the nfv
Speaker 5: NFL title team and how them go play sometime later
Speaker 5: in the winner like.
Speaker 1: A collection of like college all stars. And that's what
Speaker 1: I thought. This game kind of was a test sample
Speaker 1: for a little bit.
Speaker 5: It was like everyone of importance for the Browns was
Speaker 5: not on the field, and like the most dismayed, annoyed
Speaker 5: person to me seemed like Jim Schwartz, who had had
Speaker 5: this like pristine defense and is watching like these marks
Speaker 5: like because you know they had, Like some of the
Speaker 5: stuff they've done goes back decades for this Browns team
Speaker 5: in terms of what they've achieved. After the first quarter
Speaker 5: was one hundred and fifty nine yards to zero, at halftime,
Speaker 5: it was two hundred and forty one to seven, one
Speaker 5: to seventy one. Jeff Driscoll throws an interception on the
Speaker 5: first pass of the game. Joe Mixon, I'm glad you
Speaker 5: mentioned him because he's one of them, all these players
Speaker 5: today and they really dug in on this on these broadcasts.
Speaker 5: But because he crossed a thousand yards, he triggered like
Speaker 5: a three hundred and fifty thousand dollars bonus. And there's
Speaker 5: a bunch of players that are going crazy like everyone's
Speaker 5: very and it's fine.
Speaker 2: Everyone's very open about with the celebrations. Now when they
Speaker 2: hit the trigger the escalator, I.
Speaker 1: Guess it matters. I mean I don't like honestly, it's
Speaker 1: like you guess it matters.
Speaker 5: No, I mean for some of their salaries, it's it's
Speaker 5: it's a portion, but like you know, bonuses are nice.
Speaker 5: We all feel like, I don't know what else to
Speaker 5: take from this game. It's like they just did their
Speaker 5: work and Cleveland don't have anything. It was it's my
Speaker 5: one thought was like, you can't have even though it's
Speaker 5: Week eighteen, you can't have too many of you can't
Speaker 5: have too many regular season games like this.
Speaker 1: It just was a weird setup.
Speaker 5: Like if you were if you paid a lot of
Speaker 5: money to go to the stadium, it's it was just
Speaker 5: a strange.
Speaker 1: At least it was in Cincinnati.
Speaker 3: You're gonna have probably over under three a year, and
Speaker 3: it's unfortunate.
Speaker 1: You're right, like you have to like the ticket payers.
Speaker 3: Either that's like the biggest game of the year, or
Speaker 3: it's a guy who is on the Cardinals practice squad
Speaker 3: literally two weeks ago draft with yeah they signed them
Speaker 3: and started this game, but yeah, that it's the last
Speaker 3: time we'll see the Bengals like this. That's my only
Speaker 3: thought that you know, mix In actually might be back.
Speaker 3: But Tyler Boyd, who had a big drop in this game,
Speaker 3: had a really tough year. Higgins like, this team is
Speaker 3: not going to be the same next year. And it's
Speaker 3: weird because that Taylor did a good job coaching, I think,
Speaker 3: and I agree showed that this year.
Speaker 1: It's also weird though that Jake.
Speaker 3: Browning like and quarterback wins is not a stat but
Speaker 3: they had a winning record with Jake Browning. They didn't
Speaker 3: with Joe Burrow. They were there five hundred with Joe Burrow.
Speaker 3: They were won over with Jake Browning. So it's just
Speaker 3: that sort of weird season. And yes, the injury was
Speaker 3: a big part of that early even the first though injury,
Speaker 3: that's what I mean. It was, That's what I mean,
Speaker 3: the first injury without heard of him, maybe Jack Jake
Speaker 3: Browning was playing early in the season. You let Burrow
Speaker 3: get healthy. They're in the dance, but they didn't and
Speaker 3: they're not.
Speaker 2: Let's move to Foxborough where it was a potentially historic
Speaker 2: end of an era for the home team.
Speaker 11: High Formation Breese Hall, the I back takes another hand off,
Speaker 11: runs left, buying some.
Speaker 9: Room, gets free down the side goes Brice Hall and
Speaker 9: the thirty and seven twenty Brights. The tackle ten five
Speaker 9: touchdown plans an icing on the cake jet touchdown for
Speaker 9: Brice Hall, snow Angels, and the offensive ends on for
Speaker 9: the Jets.
Speaker 1: Rots went away.
Speaker 2: I gotta say seeing Robert Craft kind of slinking out
Speaker 2: of the box on the CBS telecast. Yeah, it cost
Speaker 2: us draft pick standings, but it's nice to just win
Speaker 2: up there. I don't want to be part of Bill
Speaker 2: Belichick's victory parade out of town.
Speaker 1: Okay, No, the opposite occurred.
Speaker 2: Breese Hall rush for one hundred and seventy four yards
Speaker 2: and the clinching score on thirty seven carries. This Jets
Speaker 2: coaching staff drives me crazy, I think, because they're trying
Speaker 2: to get him a thousand yards, which he just missed.
Speaker 2: But thirty seven carries in Week eighteen as well, and
Speaker 2: the Jets snap a fifteen game losing streak against the
Speaker 2: Patriots with a seventeen to three win. It might be
Speaker 2: probably is Bill Belichick's final game with the team for
Speaker 2: which he's lifted six Lombardi Trophies. And nine trips to
Speaker 2: the Super Bowl, the greatest run by a head coach ever,
Speaker 2: and if this is the end for Belichick, and Jay
Speaker 2: Glazer of Fox reported Sunday morning that that is almost
Speaker 2: certainly the case here. It's just a matter of how
Speaker 2: it's going to end. It was a meek exit for
Speaker 2: the team that's just been a wretched team all year.
Speaker 2: They manages one hundred and nineteen yards of total offense,
Speaker 2: which is the lowest in Belichick's twenty plus years. On
Speaker 2: the sideline, it was bad weather there, but this is
Speaker 2: you know, it's not just about the weather. This has
Speaker 2: been a bad offense all year. The Patriots went four
Speaker 2: and thirteen, which is the worst record in Belichick's twenty
Speaker 2: nine year NFL coaching history, and after the game, Bill
Speaker 2: was predictably tight lipped on his future.
Speaker 17: You know, it's a disappointing year for all of us players, coaches, staff, tire, organization.
Speaker 17: Not anything that any of us are in any way
Speaker 17: content with.
Speaker 1: So but it is what it is.
Speaker 17: As far as the future goes, I'll sit down with
Speaker 17: Robert as I do every year at some point at
Speaker 17: the end of the season, and you know, we'll talk
Speaker 17: about things as we always do. Sure that'll happen. But
Speaker 17: that's really about all I have to say about that
Speaker 17: right now, because there's something else to talk about.
Speaker 1: Uh, there's plenty to talk about. But he was also sick,
Speaker 1: by the way, That's why his voice sounded that way.
Speaker 5: I mean, it doesn't sound like something that's going to
Speaker 5: happen like tomorrow morning, like. And also the other reports
Speaker 5: out there is I like, if they move on from
Speaker 5: like their long targeted replacement would be Jared Mayo, So
Speaker 5: it's like, you don't have to rush you're gonna rush
Speaker 5: out and hire someone else necessarily.
Speaker 1: He sounded defeated to me. Was weird.
Speaker 5: It was a weird site because it was obviously, like,
Speaker 5: you know, Belichick not wearing his normal hoodie's like in
Speaker 5: a parka with his entire body and face covered in
Speaker 5: a blinding snowstorm. And while the offense, which is not
Speaker 5: in twenty twenty three offense, is going one for fourteen
Speaker 5: on third down, you've got no answers to quarterback. Even
Speaker 5: if he were to stick around, there's a lot to
Speaker 5: work on.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just I never thought he was sticking around
Speaker 3: at any point in the last two and a half months.
Speaker 3: There's no reason to think that when Robert Craft looked
Speaker 3: out into the stands. If you're watching us on YouTube,
Speaker 3: we have a tweet of just what the crowd looked
Speaker 3: like in this game. And yes there's a snowstorm, but
Speaker 3: there's been a lot of snowstorms with full crowds. If
Speaker 3: they were playing meaningful football, there would be a full crowd.
Speaker 1: There were audible jets, chances, it was wild.
Speaker 3: It was empty at Jillette Stadium, as Bill Belichi, and
Speaker 3: it's fine. It's unfortunate it had to end this badly,
Speaker 3: but it usually ends badly. I'm, as a Patriots fan,
Speaker 3: just hopeful they kind of stick the landing of how
Speaker 3: this goes. That it's not ranked.
Speaker 1: You know, there's not a lot of rancor and drama
Speaker 1: and bad blood. And we'll see.
Speaker 3: He called a seven thirty am press conference tomorrow Bill
Speaker 3: Belichick to say, like the end of the year thing
Speaker 3: with the media on zoom. So, you know, Merry Christmas,
Speaker 3: happy that you're Mike Giardi. You're getting up early. I
Speaker 3: assume he's showing up for that because seven thirty am,
Speaker 3: you would you would think nothing's happened. By seven thirty eight,
Speaker 3: it's hard to it's hard.
Speaker 1: To imagine it.
Speaker 2: But like, you know, the Patriots first without Brady, but
Speaker 2: now without Belichick, if that's where this is gonna go down.
Speaker 2: And you know, I was on a couple of different
Speaker 2: fatalistic Jets text threads and everybody's like, oh, they beat
Speaker 2: the Pats and now that they're gonna get a big
Speaker 2: time quarterback, Well maybe they have a third overall pick,
Speaker 2: and maybe the Pats do, but they don't have Tom
Speaker 2: Brady anymore. They don't have Bill Belichick anymore. And it's
Speaker 2: a whole new error for the Patriots. It's not anything
Speaker 2: like it used to be. And they have to kind
Speaker 2: of start over most likely. And that's that's a crazy thing.
Speaker 2: That is a crazy thing to think about, because this
Speaker 2: franchise has been synonymous with stability and greatness for so
Speaker 2: long and now they're kind of like everybody else, just
Speaker 2: trying to figure out a quarterback, a coach, a decision
Speaker 2: maker when it comes to building a roster.
Speaker 1: It's a new day in New England, right.
Speaker 3: I look at the back on this podcast, in the
Speaker 3: history of our podcast, at least if looked at through
Speaker 3: one very specific prism, was the history of like saying
Speaker 3: that the Patriots era was over, and then it wasn't
Speaker 3: like at various points believing, oh, is this the end
Speaker 3: of the Patriots era? For it started in twenty fourteen,
Speaker 3: Is this the end of the Patriots era? Then we
Speaker 3: got to twenty eighteen, Wow they got another super Bowl?
Speaker 1: Is this the end?
Speaker 3: The next year when they lost to the Titans in
Speaker 3: that final game and the Dolphins in the final regular shay, okay,
Speaker 3: this is the end.
Speaker 1: And then it's like Cam Newton and Mac Jones.
Speaker 3: Now you look back and you think, wow, they had
Speaker 3: a winning record with Cam Newton and they made the playoffs,
Speaker 3: but back to that was actually a good coaching job,
Speaker 3: and it's like that's the end. And so it's just
Speaker 3: been like a successive like decline of decreasing returns on
Speaker 3: these endings, and I think it will be good. And
Speaker 3: that's why I'm not totally in love with the drawd
Speaker 3: Mayo idea, and not sure I even totally buy it either,
Speaker 3: because it feels like, maybe just start totally anew, start
Speaker 3: totally anew.
Speaker 5: I don't know, I thought, I thought, I don't know
Speaker 5: what what happened corner of the market with this one,
Speaker 5: you know, I thought, I'll I'll lock up New England.
Speaker 5: He was going to be a rousing final curtain call
Speaker 5: for Bill Belichick. And and you know, part of attach
Speaker 5: to that was like actually trying to wish well for
Speaker 5: the Jets, who would have a better draft pick. And
Speaker 5: you know, as you told me when you came into
Speaker 5: the office today, don't put any of your fortunes ever
Speaker 5: attaching them to the New York.
Speaker 1: Jets just a terribly fit. It's not going to give
Speaker 1: you what you want.
Speaker 2: They're not going to That is one I don't know much,
Speaker 2: but in my time on this earth, that team's not
Speaker 2: going to give you what you want.
Speaker 1: Even if it's a day where they won, they didn't
Speaker 1: give you what you wanted.
Speaker 3: They fell what yeah, from the sixth spot where the
Speaker 3: Giants will pick now ten spot, which is not insignificant.
Speaker 2: But I gotta say, like that was the first time
Speaker 2: they beat him since I remember being in the old
Speaker 2: newsroom in Culver City when they had that overtime walk
Speaker 2: off with Eric Decker from Ryan Fitzpatrick. It's just nice.
Speaker 2: It's nice to win. Maybe this is a part of
Speaker 2: getting older. I'm getting more closer to the Keith Hands
Speaker 2: side of things. I don't want them to lose all
Speaker 2: the time. I just even if it hurt him, like
Speaker 2: it was nice winning that game and not letting it
Speaker 2: be this Belichick and Craft party, because I saw way
Speaker 2: too many of those over.
Speaker 1: The last twenty years. All right, let's keep moving.
Speaker 2: Let's go to Las Vegas, where Antonio Pears was trying
Speaker 2: to end his successful internship with a win.
Speaker 9: O'Connell starts the fourth first and ten on the thirty
Speaker 9: three pump fix of the left, takes the shot deep
Speaker 9: down the left sideline, pumping that the five is Myners.
Speaker 1: Catches, walks in touchdown.
Speaker 16: Raiders ca pump fake froze the defense and Myers down
Speaker 16: the sideline.
Speaker 3: He has run one in, he has cut one.
Speaker 9: And the Raiders in full control here on the first
Speaker 9: play on the fourth quarter.
Speaker 2: Former Patriots Agobe Myers had a nice debut season with
Speaker 2: the Raiders. He had two touchdowns, and yes, Antonio Pierce
Speaker 2: does get yet another win to close out the season.
Speaker 1: Evan to fourteen.
Speaker 2: The Raiders beat the Broncos on a day in which
Speaker 2: Aidan O'Connell threw for two hundred and forty four yards
Speaker 2: and two scores. Zamir White went over one hundred yards,
Speaker 2: and that is eight straight wins for the Raiders over
Speaker 2: the Broncos, including all four wins since they moved to Vegas.
Speaker 2: So these are two teams eight and nine in a
Speaker 2: division that is still the Chiefs Division, but the Chiefs
Speaker 2: came back to the pack a little bit this year.
Speaker 2: The interesting offseason ahead for both teams, neither going to
Speaker 2: the playoffs.
Speaker 5: Neither intrigued me on any level in terms of, like
Speaker 5: what happened today. I've kind of been pitching, and I
Speaker 5: think that Antonio Pierce deserves a long look. I think
Speaker 5: we'll get one. Penn's who else is out there for
Speaker 5: Mark Davis to consider? I mean, they flat out just
Speaker 5: played better under him. I mean even to like lose
Speaker 5: Josh Shacombs and have someone like Zamir White come in
Speaker 5: and run the way he did.
Speaker 1: Their defense.
Speaker 5: We talked about, like leading in points per game allowed
Speaker 5: since he's taken over. These things are tangible evidence that
Speaker 5: the team's playing hard for him. Uh, you know, I
Speaker 5: to me, it's like, I don't know what else you
Speaker 5: could have asked an interim to come in and do.
Speaker 1: That still may not be.
Speaker 3: Enough, Right, He's five and four. Uh, as as the
Speaker 3: interim head coach. Neither of these teams deserve to have
Speaker 3: a winning record, so I like that he put that.
Speaker 10: They're just celebrating right relations to their peers. I've been
Speaker 10: sitting on that for weeks. It was Zaustria bump and
Speaker 10: I'm like, oh, I love man, I have a court
Speaker 10: bottle popping and I'm like, that's on me. I should
Speaker 10: have known because you did tell me that, and I
Speaker 10: love it. The Peers pop absolutely, and there's been a
Speaker 10: Peers pop this year.
Speaker 1: I do like that.
Speaker 3: Sean Payton said all week it was very important for
Speaker 3: them to finish with the winning record.
Speaker 1: This game mattered. I'll eat it to him and then
Speaker 1: he ate it.
Speaker 3: I think it's fair for Broncos fans to, you know,
Speaker 3: I wanted them to curb their optimism a little bit
Speaker 3: because I'm not sure where this organization is going to
Speaker 3: either one of these teams.
Speaker 1: But here's what I know, Broncos.
Speaker 3: Fans, if you lose eight straight games to the Raiders
Speaker 3: in the twenty twenties, you're a disgrace.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, they know eight straight to the Raiders. That's
Speaker 1: so ran. They know that they do better against the Chiefs.
Speaker 1: What what what bizarre?
Speaker 2: And the crowd was chanting AP with one on one
Speaker 2: to play. According to the AP, oh that's pretty cool.
Speaker 2: Uh yeah, And I'm the way into the stadium.
Speaker 3: All there were all these fans there that were like
Speaker 3: had signs up for Antonio Pears and all this stuff.
Speaker 1: As he's driving in, they know the way he drives in,
Speaker 1: and he.
Speaker 3: Parks his car, gets out of the car and goes
Speaker 3: around and hugs like fifty of them.
Speaker 1: That's the sign of a man who's like this guy, mother, Teresa,
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 3: He's just like, I don't know if I'm gonna get
Speaker 3: to do this ever.
Speaker 1: Again in my life.
Speaker 3: I'm going to enjoy it and thank these people very
Speaker 3: forgiving me some Pierce Pop Pierce Pop.
Speaker 2: All right, that is the AFC. We're going to take
Speaker 2: a break and then we'll hit the NFC side of things. See,
Speaker 2: it's a tournament's American Football Conference and a National Football Conference,
Speaker 2: and they have their own tournament, and the winners of
Speaker 2: their respective tournaments they play in the big one.
Speaker 1: I hope that there's someone out there that did not
Speaker 1: know that that you actually just taught them that that
Speaker 1: would be well.
Speaker 2: I've taught my sons, that and that kind of when
Speaker 2: you first become cognizant to the way the conference structure works.
Speaker 1: It's a pretty big thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're still trying to figure this out. It's so
Speaker 3: like both tournaments are very exciting, and then to have
Speaker 3: the winner of the tournament face off in a bowl game.
Speaker 1: In its own tournament, a tournament of one game, a
Speaker 1: super Bowl of champions.
Speaker 2: It's a super Bowl pretty out there, Mark, Do you
Speaker 2: want us to continue to talk about this?
Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely, Well let's take a break.
Speaker 2: We'll talk during the break about it, and then we'll
Speaker 2: hit the NFC, which is the other conference.
Speaker 1: Correct, All right, we'll be right back. Welcome back.
Speaker 2: Yes, we just took a stroll through the AFC, and
Speaker 2: this the final week of the regular season playoff football
Speaker 2: just ahead. Now, let's dive into the NFC side of things,
Speaker 2: and let us start with some business, the business of
Speaker 2: winning divisions. Okay, and that starts in landover with the
Speaker 2: Dallas Cowboys.
Speaker 1: And this is unlikely. Nobody saw this coming.
Speaker 2: The Dallas Cowboys, who seemed to be locked into that
Speaker 2: number five seat a couple weeks ago. Nobody realized the
Speaker 2: depth of Philadelphia's issues. The door opens for the Cowboys.
Speaker 2: All they have to do is beat the lowly Commanders.
Speaker 2: Could they get it done?
Speaker 1: Let's go.
Speaker 11: Prescott's in the gun, back to throw, looking right, scrambles left,
Speaker 11: still got it, scrambles back right, frozen the enzone.
Speaker 1: Cut for a touchdown in the back of the end zone.
Speaker 1: My CD Lamb, I see you, you see me?
Speaker 2: That is up with that one, Brad Sham the sham god,
Speaker 2: friend of the show, kr ld Dak Prescott to cede Lamb,
Speaker 2: unstoppable Lamb put the finishing touches on one of the
Speaker 2: great statistical seasons ever by a wide receiver, ply in
Speaker 2: thirteen passes for ninety eight yards and two more touchdowns.
Speaker 2: By the way, I think I said the other day,
Speaker 2: he scored in nine straight games. And running backs you
Speaker 2: see stuff like that quarterbacks. But a wide receiver scoring
Speaker 2: in nine straight games, that's wild. And the Cowboys roll
Speaker 2: the Commanders thirty eight ten, as they were supposed to
Speaker 2: to claim the NFC East title from those free falling
Speaker 2: Eagles who were going to get to in a bit.
Speaker 2: The two seat Cowboys will host the seven seeded Packers
Speaker 2: next weekend.
Speaker 1: And that is a spicy meatball. My friends, It is.
Speaker 3: An extremely spicy beetball and we'll have a week to
Speaker 3: talk about that. The Packers and Matt Laflour could get
Speaker 3: their old buddy Matt McCarthy fired if they win that game.
Speaker 3: But for todight, the Cowboys should enjoy it because this
Speaker 3: is progress, even though it's the Eagles that.
Speaker 1: Kind of o in a week, But enjoy this moment, right.
Speaker 3: Well, that's I'm not reporting anything in particular. No, it's
Speaker 3: out there chefter I and they're basically saying like it'll
Speaker 3: depend on how the playoffs go, so you can draw
Speaker 3: your conclusions. But this was a different Cowboys season. They
Speaker 3: did take care of big business in like important spots consistently.
Speaker 3: Dak Prescott just preposterous today. Five and five incompletions, four touchdowns, Yeah, and.
Speaker 2: He's thrown the ball with like ten minutes to go
Speaker 2: in the game and they're up three or four scores.
Speaker 1: And we had a good theory why the way.
Speaker 2: So I was wondering at a certain point because we
Speaker 2: saw it a lot this week with guys looking to
Speaker 2: hit escalators in their contract and hit certain numbers. I
Speaker 2: was like, are they trying to get him another touchdown
Speaker 2: in case, this MVP vote comes down to him versus
Speaker 2: La Marx. I think he is Dak probably not gonna
Speaker 2: win MVP, but I think he's going to come in
Speaker 2: second place.
Speaker 1: And he didn't get that extra touchdown, but he stayed healthy.
Speaker 2: That's a very important aspect of this for the Cowboys
Speaker 2: who get out of this game, as from what I
Speaker 2: saw as we are recording the shortly after the game,
Speaker 2: without any serious injuries. Michael Parsons laughing on the sideline
Speaker 2: in the fourth quarter, as I said, ceed Lamb, unbelievable
Speaker 2: what he's been able to do. And you know, it
Speaker 2: is a different Cowboys team, and we might be saying
Speaker 2: something totally different if they lay an egg next week.
Speaker 2: But this regular season was different because they did find
Speaker 2: a way to steal that division. They the team that
Speaker 2: took care of business today. I feel like other Cowboys
Speaker 2: teams in the past. This game is thirteen to ten
Speaker 2: early in the fourth quarter, and in this game, in
Speaker 2: the second quarter, the Commanders are ahead, but you get
Speaker 2: sense there was no panic. They go ahead on a
Speaker 2: long drive, get a turnover right before the half, and
Speaker 2: then punching it again with Lamb's first touchdown of the day.
Speaker 2: And the game's effectively over at halftime. So good job
Speaker 2: by the Dallas Cowboys and we see what comes that
Speaker 2: because I think I think one and done obviously would
Speaker 2: be totally unacceptable mark for this team. Do you have
Speaker 2: to get to NFC title game where they haven't been
Speaker 2: in twenty eight years? Is that what says Mike McCarthy's job.
Speaker 2: But I think there's some odd and off putting to me,
Speaker 2: and you know, I'm a Zadi fan that that's what
Speaker 2: we're talking about right now because they've had such a
Speaker 2: big time year and the playoffs are a crap shooting.
Speaker 2: They're playing a big time team next week. I think
Speaker 2: the Packers are a very good opponent.
Speaker 1: They are.
Speaker 5: I would say the reason that dynamic exist is because
Speaker 5: we see this Cowboys team as one that should win
Speaker 5: multiple playoff games.
Speaker 1: They really should. They are different to me.
Speaker 5: Last year's team tripped up against Washington in the finale
Speaker 5: and then stumbled in the playoffs in extraordinary fashion for
Speaker 5: the second year in a row. It would be pretty
Speaker 5: stunning if this team went and did that because I
Speaker 5: think that part of their DNA is not present right now.
Speaker 5: I know they've had some a couple of weeks that
Speaker 5: make you question everything. But to me right now, I
Speaker 5: think it was a question of balance with the Cowboys,
Speaker 5: like are you going to continue to get run over
Speaker 5: on the ground by teams with the ground game?
Speaker 1: And today, I know it's not a great Washington offense,
Speaker 1: but they put.
Speaker 5: The clamstent on that and I thought we saw a
Speaker 5: better version, least for stretches of this game of Tony Pollard.
Speaker 5: He's not the guy that you thought he'd be or
Speaker 5: who you'd win a huge first he did. He had
Speaker 5: like fifty seven yards and you know, he made a difference.
Speaker 5: And I think that aspect because they're going to get
Speaker 5: into some tight spots, like if you can be balanced
Speaker 5: in those two areas, it makes Dak Prescott, who is
Speaker 5: playing out of his mind right now, all that much.
Speaker 1: Better, right.
Speaker 3: Stefan Gilmore did have his shoulder pop out of place,
Speaker 3: he said during the game, and then he didn't return,
Speaker 3: but he says he popped it back in and oh yeah,
Speaker 3: he says he'll be fine for.
Speaker 1: Next He was in a sling on the sideline but
Speaker 1: he was kind of chuckling it up on the side. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he said after the game he should be fine. I'm
Speaker 1: with you. The run game matters.
Speaker 3: Seedee Lamb's numbers that you mentioned one hundred and thirty
Speaker 3: four catches, seventeen hundred and forty nine yards and twelve.
Speaker 1: And he caught all thirteen of his targets. That is
Speaker 1: an outrageous season.
Speaker 3: And it's hard to take too much out of the
Speaker 3: Cowboys here because this the Commanders have been the biggest
Speaker 3: dead team walking in the league. Ron Rivera saying after
Speaker 3: the game he didn't know when he was going to
Speaker 3: meet with ownership, but you would think that is going
Speaker 3: to come on Monday before we do our next show.
Speaker 2: The Black Monday Show, And after that Week six loss
Speaker 2: to the Niners is when. And they said it during
Speaker 2: the telecast today, which I hadn't heard. Maybe I did,
Speaker 2: but you know, so much stuff comes across our desk
Speaker 2: throughout the season that ceede LeAnn went into Mike McCarthy's
Speaker 2: office after they got blown out by the Nyers and said,
Speaker 2: you got to start treating me like a true number one.
Speaker 2: You got to get me the rock. And he had
Speaker 2: thirteen hundred yards after week six. I mean, this is
Speaker 2: that's an all time season. And if he doesn't win,
Speaker 2: an offensive player of the year, it wouldn't be a travesty,
Speaker 2: but I think I think he definitely in a very
Speaker 2: serious way now taking and that's a fair pink and
Speaker 2: Tyreek is a fair pick. But I think Ceedee Lamb
Speaker 2: cannot be overlooked at this point. One last note. On
Speaker 2: the Sunday Night football pregame telecast, Mike Florio your old
Speaker 2: boss Gregy reported that Commander's owner Josh Harris is quote
Speaker 2: enamored with the idea of Bill Belichick as his.
Speaker 1: Next head coach.
Speaker 3: Now heard this from different reporters, have just out there,
Speaker 3: your boss and different teams for a different you know,
Speaker 3: and maybe they all are.
Speaker 2: And he was once enamored with Greg Mike Florio and
Speaker 2: these are well things changed and then he was very
Speaker 2: much not enamored.
Speaker 3: When when things changed and I came to around the NFL,
Speaker 3: what a what a decision.
Speaker 1: What a flash point?
Speaker 13: That was?
Speaker 2: All right, let's keep moving on. So the Lions entered
Speaker 2: Week eighteen hoping to move up to the number two seed,
Speaker 2: which obviously now we know that the Cowboys are there,
Speaker 2: but it didn't matter. Dan Campbell is going to play
Speaker 2: as starters. And let's see what happened against the team
Speaker 2: of around the NFL.
Speaker 1: Jared takes turns, fakes, the gift sets in the pocket.
Speaker 1: Jared drifts left, looked. Look now he throws downfield.
Speaker 3: It is caught left sideline cutting back.
Speaker 1: That is I'm and Ross Saint Brown angleing get the
Speaker 1: twenty five to the twenty cut back at the ten.
Speaker 1: The five fighting at the two.
Speaker 7: Touchdown Detroit line, Oh baby water run by Ross Saint
Speaker 7: Brown anglely across the field, cutting it back seventy yards
Speaker 7: from Jared Goff.
Speaker 1: I just in court in my eye see Mark shaking
Speaker 1: his head dark, genuinely upset. I'm not upset at all.
Speaker 5: I actually just I just imagine like the actual announcing
Speaker 5: crew in the booth, and then you're just behind them
Speaker 5: like screaming something.
Speaker 2: I'm like the fans. Yea here under Dan Miller's voice,
Speaker 2: no drink dumped on you. I wish I had a
Speaker 2: drink right now. A mon Ross Ain't Brown from seventy
Speaker 2: yards out because Dan Campbell doesn't rest a starter. Dan
Speaker 2: Campbell doesn't rest period. Jared Goff threw a couple of
Speaker 2: touchdown passes, and the Lines close out a fine regular
Speaker 2: season with a thirty to twenty win.
Speaker 1: Over the Vikings.
Speaker 2: Yes, the three seeded Lions, so it ended up they
Speaker 2: couldn't move because Cowboys wouldn't let it happen. Still finished
Speaker 2: twelve and five, Greggy. That matches their nineteen ninety one
Speaker 2: team win total all time.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: Late an extra game this year, but still they will
Speaker 2: host a playoff game for the first time since the
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety three season.
Speaker 1: Mark. That's camp happiness, Trek.
Speaker 18: It is.
Speaker 2: It's back in that zen when they were playing at
Speaker 2: the old Pontiac's Silver Dome. Their opponent at Ford Field
Speaker 2: will be the Rams and a former franchise cornerstone, Matt Stafford.
Speaker 1: He gotta love that.
Speaker 2: But Gregi Campbell's aggressive decision to play his starters did
Speaker 2: prove costly.
Speaker 15: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Sam Laporta's injury to me was the most important part
Speaker 3: of this game. A knee injury that Dan Campbell said
Speaker 3: after the game was not as bad as they feared,
Speaker 3: but it was bad and the reporting indicates it's some
Speaker 3: sort of he They called it. A ian called it
Speaker 3: a bone bruise and something else hyper extension, hyper extension,
Speaker 3: But it cast.
Speaker 1: A few weeks.
Speaker 3: Sounded like he would probably miss a game, which is
Speaker 3: really disappointing, and it wasn't the only injury in this game.
Speaker 3: Brian Branch left but was gonna it, says after the
Speaker 3: game that he's going to be fine. And then Khalif Raymond,
Speaker 3: who played a really big part in this game, also
Speaker 3: was injured, and that one did not look good. And
Speaker 3: you think, Okay, Cleiff Ramon good returner, kind of a
Speaker 3: speed threat, but not that important. He was important today
Speaker 3: because Jamison Williams is also injured right now, and maybe
Speaker 3: Jamison Williams.
Speaker 1: Will be back, and Raymond was playing that role.
Speaker 3: And Raymond's punt return and his forty one yard catch
Speaker 3: were monster plays in a game that the Lions always
Speaker 3: felt like they had. They were up two scores most
Speaker 3: of the game, but it didn't look like two teams
Speaker 3: that were wildly uneven. The Vikings ended up tallying up
Speaker 3: in true Nick Mallins fashion four hundred and forty eight yards.
Speaker 3: He had three ninety six, and the two teams were
Speaker 3: kind of going back and forth and the Lions getting
Speaker 3: it done when they needed to.
Speaker 1: So that is disappointed. I don't kill Dan Campbell for
Speaker 1: playing his guys.
Speaker 3: It happens, but this was close to the worst case scenario,
Speaker 3: and as Lions fans, I can hear you in my
Speaker 3: head right now pointing out Cleif Rayman would have been
Speaker 3: playing in this game. Yes, you can't avoid injuries. Cleif Raymond,
Speaker 3: for instance, would have been playing Lynn Laportam. Maybe he
Speaker 3: would have been playing too, because they already have injuries
Speaker 3: at ti end. You can only sit so many players.
Speaker 3: But it was just and in fairness, yes, they were
Speaker 3: playing for something.
Speaker 1: Yeah you are. Yeah, they had a chance if things
Speaker 1: went to move up a spot.
Speaker 2: And if you're the two seed, you know you're one
Speaker 2: major upset away from maybe hosting the NFC title game.
Speaker 2: So it didn't work out. You understand the frustration by
Speaker 2: certain corners of Lions fandom, but ultimately it's this is
Speaker 2: the game and it comes with the risk.
Speaker 5: Well, and the Dan Campbell Lions have an inherently aggressive
Speaker 5: approach to everything, so it would have been a typical
Speaker 5: for them to pull your watching Philadelphia get waxed on
Speaker 5: the scoreboard and the Cowboys commander's game was closed for
Speaker 5: a stretch at least, and so you keep going with
Speaker 5: those guys. I mean, I cannot stand what happened to
Speaker 5: the Porto though, because this came on a day where
Speaker 5: his touchdown catch, his eighty second catch of the season,
Speaker 5: broke Keith Jackson's rookie tight end receiving record.
Speaker 1: He's been so important to them. The Lions just the
Speaker 1: way that they're built.
Speaker 5: They are four different players with ten plus scrimmage touchdowns,
Speaker 5: which is it's the second most by any team in
Speaker 5: NFL history. They're really balanced, they're really constructed. They've been healthy.
Speaker 5: Outside of losing some running back play here and there.
Speaker 1: They've been really healthy.
Speaker 5: So to lose Laporta like a week before the biggest
Speaker 5: Lions game in decades is highly unfortunate.
Speaker 3: Yeah, their run game was very blat today, so that
Speaker 3: was a little I wouldn't say worrisome, but it was
Speaker 3: atypical of what they've been throughout this season. But Gibbs
Speaker 3: did get a touchdown in him and Laporta are the
Speaker 3: first rookie teammates ever to have ten touchdowns in a season.
Speaker 3: But Aiden Hutchinson's I think had two of his best games,
Speaker 3: if not the best games of his career in back
Speaker 3: to back weeks.
Speaker 1: He was dominant in this game. So they do have
Speaker 1: a lot of positives.
Speaker 3: But I'm sure there's plenty of Lions fans out there
Speaker 3: that see Matthew Stafford on the horizon and they think, Oh,
Speaker 3: isn't that fitting?
Speaker 1: We have to get over this. How about that?
Speaker 5: There was one amazing little tidbit that happened in this game. Yes,
Speaker 5: that you know, and this is a very Dan Campbell
Speaker 5: thing too. He had Dan Skipper come in and report
Speaker 5: eligible and then he caught a pass on a drive
Speaker 5: that resulted in a touchdown a couples a.
Speaker 3: Couple of plays later, it was Dan Campbell in motion,
Speaker 3: essentially playing a tight end with a huge block that
Speaker 3: set up David Montgomery for the touchdown.
Speaker 1: Dan Skipper, that would be even more impressed. Sorry, yeat,
Speaker 1: it was the Dan Skipper drive.
Speaker 3: He gets the catch, he gets the block, and we
Speaker 3: say goodbye to you know what, wasn't the best decision
Speaker 3: in the world to go a team of atl for
Speaker 3: the Vikings, but you went some. It was some We
Speaker 3: thought we'd have justin Jefferson this all time, and he
Speaker 3: was a little in and out. He did get twelve
Speaker 3: for one to ninety two in this game. He has
Speaker 3: over a thousand yards. This stat is better than a
Speaker 3: lot of these Lions stats because all these stats are like, oh,
Speaker 3: we got the seventeen games. He's one of only three
Speaker 3: receivers in NFL history to top one thousand yards in
Speaker 3: ten games or less. And the other two were like,
Speaker 3: you know, like Connor O mcgillicky in like nineteen forty one.
Speaker 1: I'll say this real.
Speaker 2: Person And so Jefferson, this is from the thirty third
Speaker 2: team on Twitter. He missed seven games, as you said,
Speaker 2: he missed parts of two other games, right to still
Speaker 2: break one thousand yards and to to to put a
Speaker 2: a final period on the team of atn I think
Speaker 2: at the quarter if Dobbs continued to play, well.
Speaker 1: That's the whole other sit projecting and hanging her head.
Speaker 2: And I think they would have been they would have
Speaker 2: been one of the teams that you know, they could
Speaker 2: have been the Packers, but instead Dobbs faltered and then
Speaker 2: they they kind of ran out of jewe.
Speaker 5: So what's also what makes shepard since achievement that like
Speaker 5: he played with a total quarterback tornado.
Speaker 3: They collapse. I mean that this was the ultimate Mullins game.
Speaker 3: He got three ninety six about a couple of late touchdowns.
Speaker 1: Oh, Dan Campbell, Dan Skipper.
Speaker 2: Dan ansis also big news here because I'm on a
Speaker 2: roll now in the locks, and I think I just
Speaker 2: moved past the custog and the.
Speaker 5: Disaster occurred on my on my side of things, Daddy
Speaker 5: Rich making a move that silver badle. I'll actually glad
Speaker 5: it worked out for you. So we don't have to
Speaker 5: it's it's it's just it's better this.
Speaker 2: Way, all right, Let's uh keep moving. So let's what
Speaker 2: else is going on in the NFC. Yeah, those those Eagles,
Speaker 2: so they were at the mercy of the Cowboys. But
Speaker 2: it's important to know that the Eagles and Cowboys kick
Speaker 2: off at the same time. Eagles don't know what's gonna happen,
Speaker 2: you know. They they go out and take care of
Speaker 2: business against the Giants, and then you hope for the best.
Speaker 2: They did not take care of business. Everything everything that
Speaker 2: you can go wrong around the Eagles right now, it's
Speaker 2: Murphy's law. Taylor mistern last weeks, Taylor back to throw,
Speaker 2: he's underpression.
Speaker 1: He escapes to his Leckowt Pitchers at the Slaton. He's
Speaker 1: a ten to the five for the touchdown.
Speaker 7: Tyron in the last second, just throw it out to
Speaker 7: Slayton who was wide open.
Speaker 1: Darius Slayton's four.
Speaker 9: Touchdown catch of the season, and with one forty seven
Speaker 9: ago on a half, the Giants are taking it to
Speaker 9: the Eagles.
Speaker 1: It's now twenty three and to nothing.
Speaker 2: That kind of missed you in that call, Dan Now
Speaker 2: sounded so silent we knew seeing Ironically, I'm mad at
Speaker 2: you for talking over six.
Speaker 1: But Mark, I know where you're coming. There you go,
Speaker 1: perspective hits it again. Let's hit that again.
Speaker 2: Yes, flash point focus this week on the Eagles. How
Speaker 2: bad can it get?
Speaker 11: It?
Speaker 2: It keeps getting worse because they go down twenty four
Speaker 2: to nothing at the half at the Meadowlands to a
Speaker 2: bad Giants team and they lose twenty seven to ten.
Speaker 2: So they are on the road at Tampa next weekend.
Speaker 2: And Mark, I mean, listen, you tell us because we
Speaker 2: know there's injuries on top of this.
Speaker 1: AJ Brown goes out of this game. Jalen hurts.
Speaker 2: You can fill us in on all that, But how
Speaker 2: could you have any confidence in this team, healthy or
Speaker 2: not after what we've seen this last month or so?
Speaker 5: No, our flash point came at a at days before
Speaker 5: what would be the most concerning performance yet for the
Speaker 5: Philadelphia Eagles. Prescient and it's yes, because that's how that
Speaker 5: series works. A disastrous start to the game after they
Speaker 5: punt on their opening drive on the second march. After
Speaker 5: the Giants punted, they go down the field, A J.
Speaker 5: Brown makes a catch and is wired up in a
Speaker 5: couple of defenders, goes down and limps off the field
Speaker 5: with the knee injury. He's ruled as questionable and not
Speaker 5: too much later ruled out. And so suddenly you have
Speaker 5: a team that shows you what how they can get
Speaker 5: out of a jam when you didn't have DeVonta Smith
Speaker 5: to start in this game, you lose Brown, and the
Speaker 5: offensive line that we've trusted all along was barraged and
Speaker 5: ransacked by the Giants. They had like ten pressures on
Speaker 5: Hurts in the first twenty minutes of the game. I
Speaker 5: mean he was beat up. On the next drive, they're
Speaker 5: down three to nothing, and they go forward on fourth
Speaker 5: and three from their own forty eight and Hertz didn't
Speaker 5: misconnects on a pass to Dallas Goddard, and Hertz walks
Speaker 5: off the field with his like left pinky looking all
Speaker 5: crinkled and jammed up. And so it's like suddenly Hurts
Speaker 5: is going into the tent. He's banged up and jammed up.
Speaker 1: That does not say it.
Speaker 2: I mean it looked bad. I was like, I don't
Speaker 2: know if he's going to come back. And they look dislocated,
Speaker 2: is what it looked like. It was facing the wrong direction.
Speaker 5: He did come back in and in fact, like Nick
Speaker 5: Sirianni totally, he was somewhat like optimistic about hurts, like
Speaker 5: after the game, but what we'll see but in Brown
Speaker 5: for that matter, well, yeah, but Brown's looked bad.
Speaker 1: So I'm interested to see what happens with that.
Speaker 3: But Gariffolo says, not believed to be serious.
Speaker 5: Yeah, So it's like it's not just that though the defense,
Speaker 5: which has been run over left and right, I mean
Speaker 5: today it was different. Like Tyrod Taylor, who left the
Speaker 5: game multiple times too, is winging the ball down field.
Speaker 5: They put up two hundred and seventy two yards in
Speaker 5: the first half against the Eagles, who may and it's
Speaker 5: only one hundred and two of their own hurts.
Speaker 1: And the entire offense and most.
Speaker 5: Of the starters are pulled before halftime because they're watching
Speaker 5: the score of the Cowboys game and the score of
Speaker 5: their own game, and they're watching the starting quarterback be
Speaker 5: dismantled behind their offensive line.
Speaker 3: Right, you would have thought they would have pulled their
Speaker 3: starters because they had such a big lead. They pulled
Speaker 3: their starters because they were already trailing by so much
Speaker 3: they had no chance to win. And the Brown injuries
Speaker 3: concerning although you know Mike Careful again saying it's not
Speaker 3: believed to be serious. Red Blankenship, who's really important in
Speaker 3: that secondary, left the game with an injury, and Cam Jurgens,
Speaker 3: their guard, left a game with an injury. So they
Speaker 3: didn't even sit those offensive linemen until Hurts left. And
Speaker 3: I think we can say enough here. The Matt Patricia
Speaker 3: thing is it's not faster. Yeah, like it got worse.
Speaker 2: Stunner, So that I mean, and now listen, and we
Speaker 2: try not to be overly reactionary, but you asked the
Speaker 2: questions about what happens if the season ends worst case scenario, Well,
Speaker 2: we just completed a meltdown where they lose five of
Speaker 2: six to close the regular season. If they go down
Speaker 2: to Tampa and things stay ugly, the it can get
Speaker 2: catastrophic for people connected to that team. In a paid,
Speaker 2: It's like the fifth matter or sixth game in a
Speaker 2: row where you're just you're getting shots of Jalen Hurts
Speaker 2: on the sideline a thousand yards stare into a total
Speaker 2: abyss beyond an Orchard. I mean, it's just totally bizarre,
Speaker 2: like team to where they were a month and a
Speaker 2: half good here.
Speaker 3: Right, they always were not as good as their record,
Speaker 3: And I've seen some things as like, look, they were
Speaker 3: never that good. They were always you know, their point
Speaker 3: differential and their DVO was always like between eight and ten.
Speaker 3: It's like, yeah, but they weren't getting blown out by
Speaker 3: the Giants and losing to the Cardinals without a single
Speaker 3: without forcing a single punt like these last couple of weeks.
Speaker 3: It's gone to a whole new level of dysfunction. That's
Speaker 3: really rare for a team that had their record. In fact,
Speaker 3: it's unprecedented that a team that had a ten and
Speaker 3: one record or better finish the season this bat.
Speaker 2: And just like ten and one didn't seem right, this
Speaker 2: doesn't seem right either that they would beat this bad
Speaker 2: So the truth is somewhere in between. But the question
Speaker 2: now began becomes and this will be the biggest challenge
Speaker 2: Nick Syany Sirianni's had, is how do you get this
Speaker 2: team to flush this and show up and ball out.
Speaker 1: Now, the one thing we do know, and again we
Speaker 1: have a week to talk about this.
Speaker 2: They've been through the wars, they nearly won a super
Speaker 2: Bowl last year, and when the lights go on and
Speaker 2: they have a big playoff game, maybe things change. But man,
Speaker 2: it's at the point now where you can't be surprised
Speaker 2: if things don't change, because this just feels like a
Speaker 2: team that's inter free.
Speaker 1: It just feels like all aspects of the team are crumbling.
Speaker 3: Right. We should know Devonda Smith was not healthy enough
Speaker 3: to play this game, which that's a concern. DeAndre Swift
Speaker 3: had an illness which you wouldn't think would keep them
Speaker 3: out next week, but he also missed this game, so
Speaker 3: they were they were short quite a few of their
Speaker 3: skill players.
Speaker 5: All right, those Bob Poppawa mad coase. I mean, you
Speaker 5: don't they don't know what that would be the trouble
Speaker 5: you stuck. We don't, no, Like we never find out
Speaker 5: what that is when they say illness. It's not an
Speaker 5: era mad cow disease. That was quite a thing. And
Speaker 5: then Y two K came and that was like the
Speaker 5: other big story in that era. You know, it's just
Speaker 5: like all these things that we couldn't Well, that was
Speaker 5: a bit fo gazy.
Speaker 3: I usually think it's COVID, but for some reason, like
Speaker 3: they can't, you know, no one can say COVID anymore.
Speaker 3: We went from like all these rules of a million
Speaker 3: different things to follow to be able to play in
Speaker 3: the games, just you can't even admit it.
Speaker 2: That's the cleanest way to move on. Remember whether they're
Speaker 2: cloning Dolly. They cloned the Lamb too, right late nineties.
Speaker 5: Man, I'm sure they've been cloning all sorts of things
Speaker 5: we don't know. All right, we mentioned the Bucks.
Speaker 2: The Eagles will play the Bucks in Tampa, but the
Speaker 2: Bucks had to take care of their own damn business
Speaker 2: in Charlotte to win the division and punch their ticket.
Speaker 1: Let's go to that buccaneer defense speech to buckle up now,
Speaker 1: first fifteen Carolina good snapping chest, high pressure, coming.
Speaker 11: Pulled, shipped away, chipped away by the Buccaneers quarterback cycle
Speaker 11: Chase ts with a sack of a strip.
Speaker 1: How the Bucks recover those fall Dude Jean Digger off
Speaker 1: with the call. Chase Chase McLoughlin kick three field goals.
Speaker 2: The defense pitches a shutout, including that strip of poor
Speaker 2: Bryce Young, and the Bucks beat the Panthers nine zip
Speaker 2: to win their third straight NFC South title.
Speaker 1: Huh, that's a little surprising.
Speaker 2: But they were I think under five hundred last year,
Speaker 2: but they won the division and then got killed in
Speaker 2: the playoffs big time. Brady year the year before that
Speaker 2: was kind of legitimate, and this year they found away
Speaker 2: nine and eight.
Speaker 1: So they win the division even though.
Speaker 2: Greg Baker throws just for one hundred and thirty seven yards,
Speaker 2: and this is a game that going into the fourth
Speaker 2: quarter I believe is maybe six nothing, So not exactly
Speaker 2: how you want to punch your ticket, but ultimately it
Speaker 2: doesn't matter. The Bucks have and they get the very
Speaker 2: vulnerable Eagles in their house next week.
Speaker 3: If Baker Mayfield plays the way he played today next week,
Speaker 3: one of maybe the worst games of the year, I
Speaker 3: would say for Baker Mayfield three point three yards per play,
Speaker 3: Oh my good. In terms of their passing, does he
Speaker 3: look hurt? I don't think so, because he was throwing
Speaker 3: the ball so you got whacked fast. Yeah, the very
Speaker 3: end he did. Ever, he has this rib injury, so
Speaker 3: maybe that is all it. Some of it was decisions,
Speaker 3: some of them were just bad throws like missing deep
Speaker 3: throws by a lot. The Panthers actually got their hands
Speaker 3: on seven different Baker Mayfield passes. I counted four or
Speaker 3: five which legit could have been intercepted and this game
Speaker 3: would have been totally different. There's also some bad fumble luck.
Speaker 3: If you watch this game, you don't come away thinking
Speaker 3: the Bucks were any better than the Panthers. But they
Speaker 3: devoided big time mistakes. And yeah, that sequence we just
Speaker 3: heard that force fumble that was kind of the Panthers
Speaker 3: in a nutshell. The play before that force fumble that
Speaker 3: all but ended the game, the Panthers had scored their
Speaker 3: first touchdown since Christmas Eve on a running play to
Speaker 3: Chuba Harvard, but they called an illegal formation. It was
Speaker 3: the right call, but they had an illegal formation on
Speaker 3: like a thirty yard wrest So you went from a
Speaker 3: touchdown to the next play. Bryce Young fumbles at bray
Speaker 3: Ung did not top one hundred yards.
Speaker 2: Yes, I'm going to tee up here because I know
Speaker 2: certain people, if they align themselves with you going into
Speaker 2: this game, are feeling good.
Speaker 1: Yeah you have.
Speaker 2: So you have a touchdown that gets called back, yeah,
Speaker 2: and you have DJ Shark doing the old I'm leaping
Speaker 2: for the pylon and then getting the ball knocked away
Speaker 2: and then turning into a turnover at the goal line.
Speaker 3: That was the Antoine Winfield in one of the plays
Speaker 3: of the year. He did that early this season. Was
Speaker 3: it against the Falcons. I don't remember, and he did
Speaker 3: it late That probably should have been the highlight. Anton
Speaker 3: Wilfield saving the touchdown.
Speaker 2: So they have essentially two touchdowns, yes, wiped away. They
Speaker 2: lose nine to nothing. I mean, you have lived a
Speaker 2: blessed existence in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1: And the rain Maker he is just he is living
Speaker 1: it up as well, just like your picks. Half points
Speaker 1: no problem for the Bucks, no sweat. I got some
Speaker 1: great message. You really stepped in it this year.
Speaker 2: Man, you are having a wonderful season of good fortune
Speaker 2: and good picks.
Speaker 3: I mean this was good fortune watching it. They were
Speaker 3: very lucky. But it was great to hear from rain
Speaker 3: Maker Nation out there. Eric, I think we have some
Speaker 3: tweets we can fly out No. One One fan Richard
Speaker 3: says I can now fix my teeth, thanks Ice, Triple G.
Speaker 1: That feels good. That's foe.
Speaker 3: And then from David my eight year old being able
Speaker 3: to eat supper, Thank you thank you.
Speaker 1: You're feeling good. You're saving families, you're saving people's aesthetic.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 2: Look, I don't think there's anything to say. And it's
Speaker 2: your your season of picks, no matter what they may be.
Speaker 2: You've just been spot on. This one felt like money
Speaker 2: in the bank. But the Bucks finding a way to
Speaker 2: make it interesting. That is that's the game. I think
Speaker 2: that is the hardest for me to pick early on.
Speaker 2: Just so first glance Bucks Eagles, and feel like you
Speaker 2: can go in about five different because.
Speaker 3: Don't forget the Bucks got whacked by the Sayings a
Speaker 3: week ago too. Yeah, I mean it's too bad.
Speaker 5: You can like talk about the fact that, like you
Speaker 5: probably only need to score three points against the Panthers.
Speaker 1: They've been eight scoreless quarters in a row.
Speaker 5: That's ridiculous, and that in their season like nose dives
Speaker 5: into into darkness, and we get that. But like Baker
Speaker 5: Mayfield and Mike Evans and Godwin had a pretty good
Speaker 5: connection in chemistry throughout their hot streak of late and
Speaker 5: in the last two games it's been not that way
Speaker 5: at all. And Baker Mayfield today did not complete a
Speaker 5: pass over ten air yards.
Speaker 3: Oh for eight on those passes, maybe it is the injury.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 3: There's nothing that you would have seen with your eyes
Speaker 3: that you would have been able to tell, but he
Speaker 3: certainly missed a lot of throats.
Speaker 1: This is also who the Bucks and Baker have been
Speaker 1: this year.
Speaker 2: They've gone through their hot cold hot, and now they're
Speaker 2: a little bit cold.
Speaker 1: But they are in the playoffs, So that's that's a
Speaker 1: that's a victory.
Speaker 5: I will say when he's had upper body injuries before
Speaker 5: and he continued to play, like in Cleveland when he
Speaker 5: had that one season led to his dismissal, like it
Speaker 5: absolutely affected his throws and who he was in general.
Speaker 3: Right, There's some players that maybe play well through injury,
Speaker 3: and he should be appreciated that he's playing through injury.
Speaker 1: But there's other players that don't play as well through.
Speaker 2: And he's undersize, so you take away a little velocity,
Speaker 2: little zip, it could make a big difference, all right.
Speaker 3: I'm glad Winfield by the way he got that play
Speaker 3: and a huge sack in this game. He did not
Speaker 3: make the Pro Bowls, and yet I think he'll be
Speaker 3: the first team opro, so I think people will notice
Speaker 3: from this game.
Speaker 2: He was the difference in this game. All right, let's
Speaker 2: take a break and we will continue our way through
Speaker 2: the NFC. All right, welcome back. We keep on rolling.
Speaker 2: So we entered Sunday Week eighteen with a messy NFC
Speaker 2: South and both the Falcons and Saints in contention for
Speaker 2: the playoffs. Only one team was going to still be
Speaker 2: in contention after the game with the Superdome.
Speaker 1: Let's head there now.
Speaker 6: Second and chance from the thirty nine car play action
Speaker 6: stands now throw us towards the end zone and looking
Speaker 6: for Shaheed and Seed will come.
Speaker 9: Down with the football. Derek Carr first.
Speaker 1: To alarm, even to receit s.
Speaker 2: Mike As with a call ww Algreg, you will love
Speaker 2: to watch this game in real time. It was very
Speaker 2: interesting NFC South affair between two teams that don't like
Speaker 2: each other, and that's only going to get deeper after
Speaker 2: what happened on Sunday. After Derek Carr throws four touchdown
Speaker 2: passes to lead the Saints to a forty eight to
Speaker 2: seventeen win over the Falcons, Atlanta mercifully was put to rest.
Speaker 2: With the loss, Saints were alive until the Bucks beat
Speaker 2: the Panther, so both teams missed the playsffs, but it's
Speaker 2: the Saints that close strong nine to eight. I think
Speaker 2: it's probably gonna save Dennis Allen's job. We're gonna get
Speaker 2: to Dennis Allen in a second here, but let's start
Speaker 2: with what they were able to do in this game,
Speaker 2: which is what we saw down the stretch with Derek
Speaker 2: Carr and the offense just kind of improving in this
Speaker 2: last month. And Carr was very sharp in this game.
Speaker 2: Without Alvin Kamara, he was able to move the team.
Speaker 2: Chris Lave had another touchdown. You saw the Taysom Hill
Speaker 2: being worked in the way when this offense was going right,
Speaker 2: and he was making things happen. And when I think
Speaker 2: about this game, the other thing I'm going to think
Speaker 2: Greg is Arthur Smith. And there is a moment at
Speaker 2: the end of the game that we're going to talk about,
Speaker 2: But first I want to talk about when I think
Speaker 2: Arthur Smith lost his job.
Speaker 1: It is the inflection point of this game.
Speaker 2: It's thirty one to seventeen in the third quarter with
Speaker 2: three sixteen to play, and the Falcons have first and
Speaker 2: goal at the New Orleans ten. They line up Greg
Speaker 2: Denmark four times in shotgun and Cordell Patterson gets the
Speaker 2: ball twice on runs, Desmond Ritter passes to Drake London
Speaker 2: for a two yard game and then on fourth and
Speaker 2: two from the two yard line once again had a shotgun.
Speaker 2: Desmon Ridder throws the ball and Bjon Robinson kind of opened,
Speaker 2: but he throws it well behind Robinson who doesn't even
Speaker 2: have a chance and it's nearly a pick six turnover
Speaker 2: on downs.
Speaker 1: That was as close as Atlanta would ever get.
Speaker 2: And for Bijon not to touch the ball in that sequence,
Speaker 2: it was just like everything that's wrong with this team,
Speaker 2: everything that's wrong with a play calling and the usage
Speaker 2: of the best players I thought was on display. And
Speaker 2: sure enough, you kind of felt the air come out
Speaker 2: of the balloon for Atlanta, who just got spanked the
Speaker 2: rest of the way. And the game ends in a
Speaker 2: funky way because in the final seconds, it is forty
Speaker 2: one to seventeen, the Saints have the ball at the
Speaker 2: goal line. They are in a kneel down formation, but
Speaker 2: they hand the ball off to Jamal Williams, who set
Speaker 2: the lines touchdown record last season. I knew by the way.
Speaker 2: I was like, how did this happen? Because Dennis Allen
Speaker 2: says after the game that was not a call that
Speaker 2: knucklehead Jameis Winston's on the field.
Speaker 1: He's the perfect person. And the and the and the huddle.
Speaker 2: They decide Jamal, who doesn't have a touchdown this season
Speaker 2: after setting the lines record, we need to give him
Speaker 2: a touchdown. And that leads to this interaction between Arthur
Speaker 2: Smith and Dennis Allen at midfield in the moments after
Speaker 2: the game his career.
Speaker 16: Oh, and Arthur spicks hot that Dennis Allen scored a
Speaker 16: touchdown at the end.
Speaker 1: He is hot, He said, what are you doing? And
Speaker 1: he's going to Dennis Allen. You can read his lips,
Speaker 1: you know, and I think he's got it right by
Speaker 1: the way to do down.
Speaker 2: Hey uh, And it's effan bull s, he says. And
Speaker 2: then after the game, here is Dennis Allen on that
Speaker 2: final touchdown.
Speaker 19: We should have taken a knee right there. You know,
Speaker 19: they asked me about getting Jamal a touchdown at the end.
Speaker 19: I said, I wanted to take a knee. We put
Speaker 19: victory out there, and the guys kind of wanted to
Speaker 19: get him a touchdown and they did that on their own.
Speaker 2: That's not that's unacceptable and it's such a bad look
Speaker 2: for Allen, right, so you feel actually feel bad. And
Speaker 2: I'm not a big Arthur Smith fan, but you feel
Speaker 2: bad for Arthur Smith because he knows he's probably getting
Speaker 2: fired the way this season ended, and then to get
Speaker 2: kind of spit in your face in the last minute
Speaker 2: of the game that way. But then Dennis Allen is
Speaker 2: saying he's a poly said, I understand that he's saying
Speaker 2: to Smith at midfield, but Dennis Allen is showing that
Speaker 2: the players don't respect.
Speaker 1: Him and will just audible out of a kneel down
Speaker 1: to get their buddy a touchdown.
Speaker 3: I was a mess.
Speaker 1: It is amazing.
Speaker 3: It's so saying they finished their season playing their absolute
Speaker 3: best potent getting there, our tribal coach probably out fired,
Speaker 3: winning by thirty and yet and yet they aren't going
Speaker 3: to end up making the playoffs, and that this is
Speaker 3: gonna be the image that they have leaving the season
Speaker 3: apologizing for the last touchdown in a win. And I
Speaker 3: was I was kind of wondering because I had the
Speaker 3: same reaction to you, like, man, this makes him look
Speaker 3: like his players don't respect him.
Speaker 1: Am I over reacting?
Speaker 3: I saw this tweet from Ben Watson, who's a saint
Speaker 3: for a long time, a Walter Payton Man of the
Speaker 3: Year type of guy, and he wrote out, if your
Speaker 3: players are assistant coaches don't run the plays you call,
Speaker 3: you've already lost your team. If you're comfortable enough to
Speaker 3: tell the world about it, there's no turning back. And
Speaker 3: I think that does kind of sum up Dennis Allen.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think, like I don't know what's going on
Speaker 5: behind the scenes in terms of like why there's this
Speaker 5: presumption that like we don't take a hard look at
Speaker 5: Dennis Allen and what he actually is because this always
Speaker 5: felt like a team that was just sort of like
Speaker 5: we're we're willing to be milk toast this year, and
Speaker 5: he is the perfect coach for a team like that.
Speaker 5: I don't it depends on who becomes available, but why
Speaker 5: are you not always looking to get better? I would say, though,
Speaker 5: if for the bright note for the Saints, because like
Speaker 5: a month ago, the whole Derek carthing was becoming so
Speaker 5: ponderous and it was like talk about quarterback health, like
Speaker 5: he played through a lot of pain and it affected
Speaker 5: his play the same way we say with potentially with Baker.
Speaker 5: He's been really really good over the last five games,
Speaker 5: multiple touchdowns in each of those games. He looked lights
Speaker 5: out today, and so you go into an off season
Speaker 5: where you don't have to like have him be the
Speaker 5: center point of every conversation.
Speaker 1: There's other things to focus on. They won four or.
Speaker 2: Five to close the season, so that this is in
Speaker 2: defensive Dennis Allen. They did get the ship back on,
Speaker 2: you know, over the sea line. I don't know what
Speaker 2: that means. The ship was sinking. He was able to
Speaker 2: get it to the shore. And it doesn't matter because
Speaker 2: they don't get the help they need from the outside.
Speaker 2: But the stuff with Derek Carr is always frustrating me
Speaker 2: because I know he's not a superstar, but when he
Speaker 2: was getting buried during the season is like a what
Speaker 2: a bad teammate?
Speaker 1: What a bad quarterbacks?
Speaker 13: Like?
Speaker 2: There are a lot worse guys than Derek Carr. Now
Speaker 2: there are better guys, and they have to make a decision,
Speaker 2: I guess at some point, although I know this contract
Speaker 2: is he's gonna be, you want to shoot higher down
Speaker 2: the line. But like there are many other areas greg
Speaker 2: with this team that you can improve in the coaching
Speaker 2: staff is another spot as well that you want to
Speaker 2: maybe look at. But to their credit, they did get
Speaker 2: to the nine and eight and you know they're not
Speaker 2: going to the dance.
Speaker 3: But they close a lot better than the Falk then sure,
Speaker 3: and they had, you known, extremely easy schedule, and their defense,
Speaker 3: especially Dennis Allen to me, is getting very creaky and disappointing,
Speaker 3: and they have to figure out how to get younger
Speaker 3: and better on defense, because that's why they kept Dennis.
Speaker 3: Sounds like we got to keep this defense which has
Speaker 3: been so good year after year after year, and you
Speaker 3: saw the slippage start last year and then it really
Speaker 3: came home to us this year where they were average.
Speaker 3: I do just to button up the Jamis thing, which
Speaker 3: is it is amazing that it was Jamis. Eric McCoy,
Speaker 3: a team captain who's been there forever their center, said
Speaker 3: that it was not intended to be disrespectful, but for us,
Speaker 3: it was about getting one of the most selfish players
Speaker 3: in the locker room that essentially moved to full back,
Speaker 3: Jamal Williams. They basically asked him to play full back
Speaker 3: for a lot time of the season, busting his ass
Speaker 3: with a positive attitude. It was to get him a touchdown.
Speaker 3: He deserved it, and it wasn't he was saying it
Speaker 3: wasn't just Jamis. It was a collective all eleven. This
Speaker 3: guy deserves it, and if it wasn't a collective, we
Speaker 3: wouldn't have done it.
Speaker 2: So but that to me, So there's only a quarterback
Speaker 2: on the field, though the quarterback is an of the coaching,
Speaker 2: but there are nobody on the field.
Speaker 3: But McCoy might be the guy more than anyone that
Speaker 3: decides this. He's he's a captain, he's a center. He's
Speaker 3: the one hiking it. And they're all in the in
Speaker 3: the huddle and they decide we're not going to listen
Speaker 3: to Dennis Ol. That's worse than just Jamis decided. That
Speaker 3: was the whole team decided ten times ten, ten people
Speaker 3: worth right, right?
Speaker 2: But it is the center snaps it to the quarterback. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And I just think that is you can't can't do
Speaker 2: that and whatever. We'll we'll see what what what happens
Speaker 2: and what management thinks about how the season. It's almost
Speaker 2: fitting that's how the Saints season ends, even with a win.
Speaker 2: For all the melodrama, and I think people follow the
Speaker 2: Saints love the melodrama.
Speaker 1: You have this to chew on. Here's another episode of
Speaker 1: the soap opera for you what if he hadn't scored
Speaker 1: the touchdown? What if he were stuffed? That would have
Speaker 1: been even.
Speaker 3: Weirder than that would have been really weird. The yeah,
Speaker 3: you're right, they won. It's crazy. They won for the
Speaker 3: Nolan Care games convincingly well, but also because you remember
Speaker 3: the one primetime game which would have put them into
Speaker 3: the playoff. They weren't that competitive no, two weeks ago.
Speaker 3: So it's like, that's that's the same.
Speaker 1: It's kind of the best of both worlds for Saints fans.
Speaker 2: You get to knock out a rival, get the coach fired,
Speaker 2: enjoy wins, and then bury Dennis Allen and the staff anyway,
Speaker 2: So enjoy it. Heartblunk all right, harb blanche, I say
Speaker 2: blunk all right. To lambeau Field, where the Packers are
Speaker 2: looking to punch their ticket.
Speaker 1: Love unders and here's their handoff to showtime.
Speaker 9: Let's shock like tackles in inside the thirty five to
Speaker 9: the thirty one yard Chicago.
Speaker 3: There is your dagger, it is, Oh, there is your dagger.
Speaker 1: Great coach, who is that guy just screaming? Yes?
Speaker 2: One of my favorite tropes Wayne Larravie with the call
Speaker 2: that's Larry mccarrn.
Speaker 1: Yes, look at old all, liar. You always need a
Speaker 1: Larry around anyway.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's the clinching run, and Jordan Love continued his
Speaker 2: outrageous play down the stretch.
Speaker 1: He threw for three hundred and sixteen yards and a
Speaker 1: couple scores.
Speaker 2: Packers to the playoffs with a seventeen nine win over
Speaker 2: the Bears. The Packers have now won three straight games
Speaker 2: and they will get as we said, the Dallas Cowboys
Speaker 2: next week in Jared World. That is a nice one,
Speaker 2: all right, Greg, Jordan Love. Here's a stat I saw
Speaker 2: right before we came in. Eighteen touchdowns, one interception in
Speaker 2: the last eight weeks, so the season.
Speaker 3: When I think about the best games played by a
Speaker 3: quarterback this year, if you stack them all up, like
Speaker 3: the really memorable ones, Jordan Love played a lot of them.
Speaker 3: I kind of am having a hard time almost believing
Speaker 3: how good he is because just based on this second
Speaker 3: half of the season, he's playing like a top five
Speaker 3: quarterback or a future top five quarterback.
Speaker 1: That's the level that he's looking at.
Speaker 3: A defense which has played fantastic over the last six weeks,
Speaker 3: one of the best in the league, the Bears, and
Speaker 3: he's looking so composed when there's pressure, he gets rid
Speaker 3: of it. When they're playing soft, he goes short. When
Speaker 3: he has a play to make that's special, he can
Speaker 3: go make it. He had five incompletions in this game.
Speaker 3: Two of them were on improbably great throws that should
Speaker 3: have could have possibly been touchdowns. They also blew an
Speaker 3: end of the half sequence. They missed a kick. This
Speaker 3: was as dominant a seventeen to nine game as they
Speaker 3: could have possibly played four hundred and thirty two yards
Speaker 3: in only seven drives. They more than doubled the Bears
Speaker 3: in total yardage. They dominated this game. They closed out
Speaker 3: the Bears with the ball and just killed the clock.
Speaker 3: That's why you heard Wayne Larvy getting so excited. I'm
Speaker 3: just so impressed with Jordan. Love to me him and
Speaker 3: see j Stroud this weekend. We're kind of the two
Speaker 3: biggest stories, Like, wow, we have two dudes and in
Speaker 3: the biggest spots they really stepped.
Speaker 20: Yeah.
Speaker 5: And those seven drives, all but one went for fifty
Speaker 5: plus yards and a bunch went for way more. And
Speaker 5: it's like their offense, especially that Aaron Jones back, I
Speaker 5: think that matters a lot.
Speaker 3: He was awesome.
Speaker 5: Now, when your wide receivers are healthier than they've been
Speaker 5: through big chunks of Jordan Love's development this year. This
Speaker 5: is like a scary team and it's like a weird
Speaker 5: team for Dallas to have to deal with.
Speaker 2: Well, that's that's kind of what I was saying, like, Yeah,
Speaker 2: this is not some layup team for Dallas on their
Speaker 2: part too.
Speaker 3: I'm a little shocked here for touchdown to start. They
Speaker 3: get in early on that.
Speaker 2: Aaron Jones, as you said, rush for one hundred and
Speaker 2: eleven yards on twenty two carries.
Speaker 1: That's his third straight one hundred yard performance.
Speaker 2: So not only do you have Love kind of ascending
Speaker 2: to start him here, now the running game has put
Speaker 2: things together. Even the defense, which has been bad for
Speaker 2: most of the year, is putting together some Ever, maybe
Speaker 2: the competition is in that highway.
Speaker 5: Well, they held the Bears to one hundred and ninety
Speaker 5: two yards pay well to ninety one after happen, and
Speaker 5: that's a couple of weeks in a row.
Speaker 2: So the Packers are hitting the playoffs with a lot
Speaker 2: of momentum. On the Chicago side, a ball here, Greg Fields,
Speaker 2: you said they did not get into the end zone
Speaker 2: in this game.
Speaker 1: He got beat up a little bit. We talked about
Speaker 1: this as a final exam for Fields.
Speaker 2: Did you see anything here that would make the Bears
Speaker 2: pause if they were leaning one direction or another?
Speaker 3: Yes, because I think if you look at what Fields
Speaker 3: has done in the second half of the season, as
Speaker 3: he's played better, he still looked like justin Fields just
Speaker 3: sort of a better version of him, and today you
Speaker 3: saw some of the warts, which is holding on to
Speaker 3: the ball a lot. I think the Packers played really
Speaker 3: well defensively because in every key third down situation they
Speaker 3: were just winning up front Wyatt, Kenny Clark, and Rashaun
Speaker 3: Gary like that defensive line can save the rest of
Speaker 3: their defense if they're playing well, and so Field wasn't
Speaker 3: protected well. But you saw the limitations maybe of like, well,
Speaker 3: we got to count on defense and Fields being good enough,
Speaker 3: because today it was like Fields wasn't going to elevate
Speaker 3: them enough. And the defense defense in the NFL can
Speaker 3: come and go depending on the week if you play
Speaker 3: the wrong quarterback, and they were out class today. So
Speaker 3: I think it should make them pause a little bit.
Speaker 3: I've never I've been in the camp that they're probably
Speaker 3: going to take a quarterback there, but it shouldn't be
Speaker 3: just on This kind of.
Speaker 1: Makes you wonder if like Luke getzi Oc could be
Speaker 1: in some hot water. You never know.
Speaker 5: I mean I the one thing that stood out for
Speaker 5: this game late just a small note because it's the
Speaker 5: end of Chicago's season, but like Fields to me clearly
Speaker 5: looked like he had been concussed or suffered some sort
Speaker 5: of like head injury, and like he stays in the
Speaker 5: game and then they yank them like three plays later to.
Speaker 1: Check him after his head was slammed.
Speaker 5: I think it was clear to anyone watching it, like,
Speaker 5: wait a minute, check him right now, don't let him
Speaker 5: go three more plays and he and that probably should
Speaker 5: have been a penalty. It was one break the Bears
Speaker 5: didn't get. I felt like Bears were getting a lot
Speaker 5: of breaks just to stay in this game. This was
Speaker 5: maybe the best game the Packers played, I think as
Speaker 5: a as a team all season.
Speaker 2: And the Chicago Bears have the number one overall pick
Speaker 2: by virtue of that trade with the Panthers last year,
Speaker 2: and they also have the number nine pick, so two
Speaker 2: top ten picks, including number one, So not a huge offseason,
Speaker 2: one of the most important offseasons in the history of
Speaker 2: that proud franchise.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I really think it's gonna be with ebra Flus,
Speaker 3: which is risky. Tracy Wolfson, I thought had as telling
Speaker 3: a report about Eberflus as any woman. She talked to
Speaker 3: the president, Kevin Warren before the game, and Kevin Warren
Speaker 3: talked about how continuity is necessary for this team, that
Speaker 3: if you look at teams that can get it going,
Speaker 3: it's with continuity. And then he mentioned Dick for Meal
Speaker 3: specifically with the Rams, saying it took him till his
Speaker 3: third year till he won. So that's the president of
Speaker 3: the team is making the decision, all but saying ibra
Speaker 3: Flus is definitely back.
Speaker 2: All right, Let's now move to Arizona, where the Seattle
Speaker 2: Seahawks were looking to keep their playoff hopes alive.
Speaker 1: But they were gonna need help. They got some from
Speaker 1: the kicker as well.
Speaker 11: This is going to be to win the game. There's
Speaker 11: one second left on the clock. Do the Seahawks have
Speaker 11: a winning record in twenty twenty three?
Speaker 3: Hey, it's matter out right now.
Speaker 11: A fifty one yard field goal, a temp five trader
Speaker 11: off the left Hashmark Gillickan puts.
Speaker 1: It down, kick is away and the kick is no good.
Speaker 5: No good.
Speaker 2: Praider misses from fifty one Steve Abel with the call. Yes,
Speaker 2: Prader was wide right from fifty one out in the
Speaker 2: Seattle Seahawks hold on for a twenty one to twenty
Speaker 2: win over the Cardinals, who finished four and thirteen. The Seahawks, yes,
Speaker 2: nine and eight. We now welcome in a man who
Speaker 2: knows you got those pipes?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: For the field goal, Well, yep, we got some pipes here.
Speaker 2: Nick Shook your thoughts on today's affair. First of all,
Speaker 2: how are you? But I'm great.
Speaker 21: I'm imagining myself as an upside down goalpost right now.
Speaker 1: You could do all?
Speaker 2: We all, aren't, I feel like exactly shook. Uh So,
Speaker 2: obviously Seattle needed Green Bay to lose. They didn't, but
Speaker 2: you know, a nice way to end the season, and
Speaker 2: it was kind of a fitting way for the season
Speaker 2: and for the Seahawks ups and downs.
Speaker 1: A lot of close, close plays, close sub games.
Speaker 18: Yeah, very typical of the season for them. But you
Speaker 18: know what, the Cardinals, I got to give them credit,
Speaker 18: the PA people, the people who run the scoreboard, because
Speaker 18: they tried to engage in a little bit of mental
Speaker 18: warfare late in that game. The Seahawks have a one
Speaker 18: point lead and the Packers have won, and they display
Speaker 18: it on the scoreboard during a break right off the
Speaker 18: top that the Packers have won.
Speaker 21: Trying to take all that they go Homehawks.
Speaker 5: With like a banner and everything too. I mean it
Speaker 5: was like a pretty decoration, but the whole thing up.
Speaker 1: They really played it up. But good planning out of them,
Speaker 1: and the game like ended like thirty.
Speaker 3: The Packers game ended thirty minutes before the Seahawks game,
Speaker 3: so it went back and forth a while after. That
Speaker 3: just shows you know, the fighting ginos have a lot
Speaker 3: of heart in them. You can take the playoffs away,
Speaker 3: you can still get the win. They shouldn't have. Wonder
Speaker 3: missed a kick that would have put him up ten
Speaker 3: with thirty with about three minutes to go too.
Speaker 18: Yeah before that kick that we just rolled, Yeah, he
Speaker 18: missed another one that would have made it a ten
Speaker 18: point game.
Speaker 21: But you know what, you got to give a ton
Speaker 21: of credit to the Seahawks.
Speaker 18: This is you know, for all the games that they've
Speaker 18: lost this year in a variety of different fashions, they
Speaker 18: have been a team that's been able to pull out
Speaker 18: close ones, save for that last second loss to the
Speaker 18: Rams when Drew Locke was in there for one terrible
Speaker 18: decision of a throw. They've been a team that's done
Speaker 18: pretty well in these situations, and they did well in
Speaker 18: this one. And it's funny because the second half of
Speaker 18: this game they were lifeless. They had nothing, they could
Speaker 18: do nothing on offense, and they give up a touchdown
Speaker 18: to the Cardinals on the most interesting fake field goal
Speaker 18: I think I've seen in a long time, where the
Speaker 18: kicker is out there and then he's running to the
Speaker 18: sideline and suddenly Kyler Murray's taking the stap and throw
Speaker 18: a touchdown pass, but Gino gets down the field. They
Speaker 18: take advantage of the missed Prader field goal. They go
Speaker 18: down the field for play, they cover the yardist they need.
Speaker 18: Gino drops a perfect one in the bucket to Tyler Lockett,
Speaker 18: and the only thing I could think of in that
Speaker 18: moment beyond oh my god, I can't believe they completed
Speaker 18: that past that was a great throw, was God.
Speaker 21: I wish they could do this consistently.
Speaker 18: They wouldn't be on the edge of being eliminated from
Speaker 18: the playoffs, which they were eventually eliminated from. If this
Speaker 18: was just who they were for most of the season,
Speaker 18: they would have been a much better team, and yet
Speaker 18: they were still almost in the postseason. Now you think
Speaker 18: about all that, you think, well, the future's bright. They
Speaker 18: got a lot of young studs on both sides of
Speaker 18: the ball. They got sharpone, they got Kenneth Walker, that
Speaker 18: got a receiving corps that rivals some of the best
Speaker 18: ones in the league. And they got a defense with
Speaker 18: Devin Witherspoon and some other guys that you got to
Speaker 18: get really excited about. But then you wonder, is Pete
Speaker 18: Carroll going to come back and coach again or is
Speaker 18: this his time to walk away? So there's still some uncertainty.
Speaker 18: I was happy to see Gino lead that drive because
Speaker 18: it's been an up and down year for him where
Speaker 18: he's kind of been the new Dalton line and I
Speaker 18: feel like he's a better quarterback than that. He should
Speaker 18: have been better, well, Carol said.
Speaker 1: Carol said, he wants to come back.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we we have. Actually him getting asked after the
Speaker 3: will they want him to come Not sure it's the
Speaker 3: final answer, but that's what he said. After the game.
Speaker 1: You said, you love this team, do you want to
Speaker 1: run it back?
Speaker 6: Does it make you want to come.
Speaker 1: Back and coach him again?
Speaker 3: Of course, of course, of course I'd love to do that.
Speaker 1: Do you expected to do I do? I do?
Speaker 3: At this point, I do, Yeah, that does.
Speaker 1: Not sound like a guy that's concerned about his future
Speaker 1: with the team.
Speaker 3: There was there was like an assistant to the ownership,
Speaker 3: like or one of the people that kind of the
Speaker 3: executives that was sitting there in the second row watching too.
Speaker 3: I don't take anything out of that. Actually, I think
Speaker 3: in that we've seen it before. I just mean, wait,
Speaker 3: how did you know that? Because the Beat writers wrote
Speaker 3: about it or whatever, you know, they tweeted that out.
Speaker 3: They were like, it was pretty interesting that that he's
Speaker 3: sitting there.
Speaker 2: Like watching this because so laser focused on this situation
Speaker 2: and then the seating.
Speaker 3: Charge in there in this in this spot, I think
Speaker 3: if he was going to be going, he would say
Speaker 3: that no matter what. So I don't know, I'm not
Speaker 3: totally sure. There were the insiders were, including Ian kind
Speaker 3: of put it out there that maybe he would be
Speaker 3: walking away, but he seemed to tempt it.
Speaker 2: I was the comment I was making, was you equating
Speaker 2: Gino with the Dalton line, which the prime meridian of quarterbacks.
Speaker 2: Is there any question about his future quarterback? Or is
Speaker 2: that I think there's I think there should be.
Speaker 5: I mean, he was eleven for twenty two at one
Speaker 5: point in this game, and you know he didn't have
Speaker 5: that final drive and that was a very Geno esque
Speaker 5: and like it was very Seahawks offense esque too. But
Speaker 5: I'd say, you just have to look around and see
Speaker 5: what you have. I mean, it's just like I wouldn't
Speaker 5: say I get I think you think I see you
Speaker 5: think that Gino is like a better thrower than he's
Speaker 5: ever been in his career, and there's high quality things
Speaker 5: about him.
Speaker 1: He's a good leader at this stage. Like there's a
Speaker 1: lot of different elements to Gino.
Speaker 5: But it's like this is not a quarterback that you
Speaker 5: can feel like you can go win three playoff games with.
Speaker 1: I just don't feel that way.
Speaker 3: He just as the least of their problems. The dev
Speaker 3: I mean, I think they want to get younger at
Speaker 3: the position. It would make sense to pair him with
Speaker 3: a draft pick basically, and he's on the second year
Speaker 3: of he has some guaranteed money coming in. But he
Speaker 3: was like eleventh or twelfth in PFF's great last year.
Speaker 3: He's at the exact same spot, Like that's where he
Speaker 3: checks out to me, just like slightly above that median
Speaker 3: and playing well. Like he also tie or broke a
Speaker 3: record today, which that this surprised me even as a GENO.
Speaker 3: File the most go ahead touchdowns in the history of
Speaker 3: the NFL in the fourth quarter overtime this year, So
Speaker 3: by this measure, he had the most clutch season of
Speaker 3: all time.
Speaker 1: That's kind of crazy. It's pretty crazy. It also tells you.
Speaker 5: They weren't scoring a bushel of points before the fourth quarter.
Speaker 2: He's kind of like there's a correlation with him and
Speaker 2: Derek Carr in a way like, yeah, not the biggest
Speaker 2: problem on the team, but also like is he the
Speaker 2: future of your team?
Speaker 3: Is that the problem is you have a defensive coach
Speaker 3: and you just gave up four hundred and sixty six
Speaker 3: yards to the Cardinals And this happens week after week
Speaker 3: after week, And like, yeah, there's in nick one thing
Speaker 3: because it's like I feel like this is happening every week.
Speaker 1: But Jonathan Connor.
Speaker 5: Got started slow today and I thought Seattle was like
Speaker 5: promising because they were shutting down Arizona's ground game, like
Speaker 5: in the first quarter plus Jonathan Connor ends up with
Speaker 5: one hundred and fifty on the ground in two hundred
Speaker 5: and four total yards. Like it's like this guy is
Speaker 5: in the shadows on a team that no one's paying
Speaker 5: attention to, kicking people's butts on a weekly basis.
Speaker 3: Said Jonathan Connor. That would be like Jonathan Gannon and Connor.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, matched up together, which I like.
Speaker 10: I know.
Speaker 3: I think we need a new segment, and I guess
Speaker 3: we'll have to wait till twenty twenty five.
Speaker 5: Thinking Jonathan Gannon and James Connor. But like James Connor
Speaker 5: has just been a punisher on a weekly basis.
Speaker 2: I would give Jonathan Connor running as well as he's
Speaker 2: ever run.
Speaker 3: It's Connor Corner with Mark Sessler. It's a weekly segment.
Speaker 3: We have not gotten out of a card.
Speaker 1: It's a little work. I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 18: I was trying to get an uncomfortable situation that I'm
Speaker 18: glad Dan just builed me out of because.
Speaker 2: I'm like to correct lately, I wish I loved anything
Speaker 2: as much as Mark loves John Connor.
Speaker 1: This year, I love James Connor.
Speaker 18: Look, the Seahawks run defense has been terrible all year
Speaker 18: and I think they ranked thirtieth coming into today and
Speaker 18: like every notable metric when it comes to defending the run.
Speaker 21: So that's a big issue with them.
Speaker 18: That's a big part of why they have so many
Speaker 18: yards to the Cardinals and why they ended up being
Speaker 18: the team that they were.
Speaker 21: But you got to give a lot of credit to
Speaker 21: James Connor.
Speaker 18: He just had his first thousand yard rushing season of
Speaker 18: his career, and in a year in which they had
Speaker 18: to go through a couple of quarterbacks before they could
Speaker 18: actually get to the point where Kyler was healthy and
Speaker 18: available to play, they needed somebody to carry them and
Speaker 18: in certain games, the Dallas win being one of them,
Speaker 18: he did that. So I got to give him a
Speaker 18: ton of credit. He's had a good year. But if
Speaker 18: we really talk about the Cardinals as a whole, guys,
Speaker 18: this is not where I thought I would be with
Speaker 18: them when the season started. I thought it was going
Speaker 18: to be a disaster.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, go well.
Speaker 21: The vibe around this.
Speaker 18: Team, despite finishing four and thirteen, is about as optimistic
Speaker 18: as it can be going into the offseason.
Speaker 21: I think there's a lot of.
Speaker 2: I'm with you, and we talked about that on Thursday.
Speaker 2: Just feels like they're in better hands. Shooky always in
Speaker 2: good hands with you. You've been such an important part
Speaker 2: of our Sunday show for a few years now and
Speaker 2: he did that big lift for us with Lift nailed
Speaker 2: it pipe with Claybon when we were in England, and
Speaker 2: we'll be sure to keep you in the mix whether
Speaker 2: it's the playoffs or the off season.
Speaker 1: We thank you for everything you do for us and
Speaker 1: a great job on QB Index as well on a
Speaker 1: weekly basis.
Speaker 18: Thank you guys to feel privileged to be entrusted with
Speaker 18: this role both here in QB Index. It is very
Speaker 18: I'm very fortunate and I look forward to potentially seeing
Speaker 18: you in Vegas when we all contain now.
Speaker 1: Fit is strong.
Speaker 3: You know those playoff QB indexes, they'll test you. You
Speaker 3: know you're at the end of the season. You gotta
Speaker 3: you gotta stay sharp. You gotta stay focused. Like when
Speaker 3: you have to do leg day. You know it's like
Speaker 3: you just got to do it.
Speaker 18: Hey, you know what, It's one of the best things
Speaker 18: you can do for your body is back in legs.
Speaker 21: As a man, hit those gets a testosterone going.
Speaker 1: We got to do it.
Speaker 21: We gotta get that push in her face.
Speaker 2: That's how shit goes out. On the regular season, thank you,
Speaker 2: my man. Give them around laws, give robots.
Speaker 5: By the way, there's a QB Index that your charged
Speaker 5: with if you're doing the column that comes out soon
Speaker 5: where you have to rank not not every single quarterback,
Speaker 5: essentially the last one. It's like one hundred this week.
Speaker 5: This year, it's going to be like seventy eight people
Speaker 5: or something like.
Speaker 1: You know, we have We're going to get to our
Speaker 1: sandwich props later in the week.
Speaker 2: There's one that's connected to two long forgotten quarterbacks. And
Speaker 2: I was thinking to myself, how do you these guys?
Speaker 2: Are they even in the QB Index? But you just
Speaker 2: answer my question. Yeah, everyone's in the final one. Okay,
Speaker 2: all right, let's keep moving. It's time now for the
Speaker 2: Sunday Drive, presented by the first ever Toyota Highlander.
Speaker 1: Not a lot on the line for the Niners and Rams,
Speaker 1: but you know, pride matters. San Francisco twenty LA nineteen.
Speaker 20: After a twelve yard rushing score, the eleventh rushing touchdown
Speaker 20: of Carson Wentz career, his first start as a Ram,
Speaker 20: the Rams on the high side for the first time
Speaker 20: in this regular season finale.
Speaker 1: From the two snap play fake.
Speaker 20: Roll right, Wentz stups Wwentz throws.
Speaker 1: Back of the end zone, HiT's cots. Oh point conversion
Speaker 1: for Turbo to two mark, not even for JB. Long.
Speaker 1: For you, I really ranged it in there after what
Speaker 1: happened last week. Well you were going to reach out
Speaker 1: to him after what happened last week. I'm sure you
Speaker 1: did that. I didn't see him at the barbershop, but
Speaker 1: we're gonna cross paths.
Speaker 2: At the barbershop. Yeah, well, we'll all found that was
Speaker 2: a great call by our friend J. B. Long and
Speaker 2: a great two point conversion throw by one Carson Wentz.
Speaker 2: Remember that guy who played for Matthew Stafford resting in
Speaker 2: this game, and the Rams hold on for twenty one,
Speaker 2: twenty win over the Niners. The Niners obviously had the
Speaker 2: NFC locked up, they're the number one seed, they rested
Speaker 2: a bunch of their key guys, and it is the
Speaker 2: Rams that get their tenth win of the season. And
Speaker 2: I think again, these things matter, GREGI that Sean McVay.
Speaker 2: They wanted to get into that double digit win. And
Speaker 2: where does it put them in the playoff picture?
Speaker 3: It puts them in Detroit. So that two point conversion
Speaker 3: and this subsequent force fumble of Sam Darnold. That really
Speaker 3: ended the game. I didn't want that to be the highlight.
Speaker 3: Felt I felt negative.
Speaker 1: Change their destination.
Speaker 3: They would be going to Dallas, they would be in
Speaker 3: the seventh seed if they didn't win this game, and
Speaker 3: now they're in Detroit, they're the sixth seed. I don't
Speaker 3: know if that's a better or worse matchup, but it's
Speaker 3: a spicier set of matchups to me because it gives
Speaker 3: us the perfect.
Speaker 1: Revenge game double header.
Speaker 3: Here we love the McCarthy Cowboys and Stafford Rams and
Speaker 3: was impressive when sectually made some good plays in this game.
Speaker 3: He led the game in rushing yards fifty six rushing
Speaker 3: yards and seventeen attempts.
Speaker 1: That tells you what kind of game this is.
Speaker 5: I do like the idea of Stafford versus the Detroit secondary.
Speaker 5: I think that's a sure promising matchup for them. I mean,
Speaker 5: we've been talking about all these coaches of the year,
Speaker 5: and I understand what's happening in.
Speaker 1: The Desert, but like what Sean McVay has done.
Speaker 5: Honestly, from a year ago, at this time, it was like,
Speaker 5: is Sean McVay like walking away from football? Is he
Speaker 5: going to become an announcer is he burnt out? There
Speaker 5: was a think piece about how he felt he was
Speaker 5: burning other people out around the building. It's like what
Speaker 5: they've accomplished and what we could say with the Cardinals,
Speaker 5: it's like low expectations for the Rams. It was just
Speaker 5: assumed they'd go win five games or something and bottom
Speaker 5: out and then have to rebuild. And it's like, this
Speaker 5: is one of the better coaching jobs of the last
Speaker 5: five last half decade.
Speaker 1: In I know it sounds weird, but this game actually,
Speaker 1: I think proves that point.
Speaker 3: Because yes, it was a lot of backups in h
Speaker 3: Trent Williams Auk Debo. They all started, but they all
Speaker 3: left after one or two series, depending on which guy
Speaker 3: it was. And that was true for like the super
Speaker 3: duper stars on both teams. The Rams also sat a
Speaker 3: lot of people. Pukaakua played into the third quarter to
Speaker 3: get his rookie record. But just the fact that there
Speaker 3: was so much spirit into Walker h. Just the fact
Speaker 3: that there was so much spirit like they were getting
Speaker 3: they were all fired up, and just seeing the Rams
Speaker 3: backups compete with the forty nine ers backups and come back,
Speaker 3: like I was thinking that wouldn't have happened a year
Speaker 3: ago because the Rams starters weren't as good as other
Speaker 3: teams backups a year ago.
Speaker 1: They're just a better team.
Speaker 2: Yes, they've really built that thing on the fly and
Speaker 2: on the San Francis. I kept my eye on this
Speaker 2: game in the first half because you know, I'm a
Speaker 2: Sam Donald fan. I thought he played very well, yeah,
Speaker 2: and kept the offense moving and Rock Party is a
Speaker 2: starter if something happens to Rock Party. I think Donald
Speaker 2: has the ability to run this offense. And I thought
Speaker 2: you saw that in just the snapshot of this game.
Speaker 3: So twenty six yards for their offense after halftime, so
Speaker 3: that the Rams backups mostly although actually there was a
Speaker 3: lot of the Kobe turn.
Speaker 1: A lot of their starters were in there.
Speaker 3: They lost Jordan Philler, their starter, but they locked the
Speaker 3: forty hookah is down in the second half.
Speaker 2: After that touchdown, he's one yard shy of the rookie
Speaker 2: wide receiver yardage record and I think two catches and
Speaker 2: the rest of the first half, they're desperately trying to
Speaker 2: get the record to get them off the field, and
Speaker 2: they can't do it. They're trying to force it. In
Speaker 2: the final ten seconds of the first half, so they
Speaker 2: could just shut it down. Yeah, and then apparently, as
Speaker 2: you said that, he did eventually did get it in
Speaker 2: the third quarter and they could mercifully getting a coup
Speaker 2: out of the mix before he got himself hurt.
Speaker 1: So very good, very good.
Speaker 5: Tough day for Bill Groman, who previously had that record
Speaker 5: set back in nineteen sixty.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure where Bill Bill Groman didn't at this
Speaker 1: point can we give I don't know anything about the guys.
Speaker 1: And he did it in four for tho game.
Speaker 2: He could be like the Ty Cobb of the NFL.
Speaker 2: I don't know what his background is or whatever. So
Speaker 2: for he over praise him. But to have that record
Speaker 2: in nineteen sixty, are you kidding me?
Speaker 1: Offen that it's incredible.
Speaker 3: They had some they had some scoring back in like
Speaker 3: those AFL type team he was on, the Oilers unfortunately
Speaker 3: passed away three years.
Speaker 2: How many records, Greg, though, do you see not almost
Speaker 2: in the modern NFL that are your breaking records from
Speaker 2: nineteen six Everything's in the last ere next year, right,
Speaker 2: And he did it and then did it in fourteen games.
Speaker 2: So Groman, Groman, hey, you recognize you.
Speaker 3: You deserve it.
Speaker 1: Hope you were a good guy. I think you are
Speaker 1: still in the mix for the bet he receivers. Greg
Speaker 1: Exford us that he's passed away, but he's left us.
Speaker 1: We wish the best.
Speaker 3: I mentioned that. Check that out. He died during twenty twenty.
Speaker 1: Did you say rest in power? Yeah? I second that,
Speaker 1: all right?
Speaker 2: And that was the Sunday Drive presented by Toyota Let's
Speaker 2: Go Places. Learn more at toyota dot com slash Grand Highlander.
Speaker 2: Oh if it's the Sunday Night podcast after week eighteen,
Speaker 2: that could only mean one thing.
Speaker 1: Breaking news. Somebody's gone and it is Arthur Smith the Falcons.
Speaker 2: After it was reported by Tom Pellisero, the Falcons confirmed
Speaker 2: the dismissal of their head coach after three seasons, and
Speaker 2: here is a statement from Arthur Blank. Decisions like this
Speaker 2: are never easy and they never feel good. We have
Speaker 2: profound respect for Coach Smith and appreciate all the hard
Speaker 2: work and dedication he has put into the Falcons over
Speaker 2: the last three years. He has been a part of
Speaker 2: building a good culture in our football team, but the
Speaker 2: results on the field have not met our expectations. After
Speaker 2: significant thought and reflection, we have determined the best way
Speaker 2: forward for our team is new leadership in the head
Speaker 2: coaching position now.
Speaker 1: Additional reporting from Palsero here Greggie.
Speaker 2: The Falcons say the search quote will be led by
Speaker 2: Blank and McKay Rich McKay, with input from Falcons General
Speaker 2: Manager Terry Fontnau and several other appropriate members of Blanks,
Speaker 2: Atlanta Falcons and AMB Sports and Entertainment Organization. So the
Speaker 2: GM appears safe, but Arthur Smith runs out of time,
Speaker 2: and as we talked about earlier, a grim ending in
Speaker 2: New Orleans kind.
Speaker 1: Of set the table for this, and now Smith has
Speaker 1: to take a walk.
Speaker 3: You shout out to Rich McKay. I remember when he
Speaker 3: was on the hot seat as their GM, like twenty
Speaker 3: years ago or fifteen years ago, and then he somehow
Speaker 3: got kicked up to CEO. So he's actually making more
Speaker 3: money and has more responsibility and he's the one fiery
Speaker 3: and everyone steal how you do it.
Speaker 5: He also got flagged for piping in fake crowd noise
Speaker 5: into the Falcons facilities.
Speaker 1: That happened too, Okay.
Speaker 3: I know Rich mckayson that the centerpiece here them putting
Speaker 3: Fontinah in the statement is positive because I think Fontino
Speaker 3: has done a pretty good job. He's only been there
Speaker 3: three years. It was a total teardown. And we talked
Speaker 3: about it earlier when we were talking Arthur Smith. It
Speaker 3: was just like the point of Arthur Smith, what Arthur
Speaker 3: Smith was supposed to be, what he was supposed to
Speaker 3: do in terms of that running game specifically and his
Speaker 3: offense that and you saw it last year, you could
Speaker 3: see it. It was totally gone this year. And so
Speaker 3: I think that's what killed the more than anything. I
Speaker 3: think if they somehow were seven to ten or eight
Speaker 3: nine and they were competitive and they had the number
Speaker 3: three running game in the league and they had some
Speaker 3: good numbers for their stars, I think he might still
Speaker 3: be there. But his strength turned into their biggest week. Yeah.
Speaker 5: Like what attracted me to the concept of like this
Speaker 5: year's Falcons back in July and August was that there
Speaker 5: seemed to be a vision. It was like, even if
Speaker 5: the rest of the league's doing this, like Arthur Smith
Speaker 5: with Bijon Robinson and the rest of the crew is
Speaker 5: going to try to go do something different, and you
Speaker 5: kind of believed in it because we saw that blueprint
Speaker 5: in Tennessee with Derrick Henry with Ryan Tannehill.
Speaker 1: But the missing element like all along here and like
Speaker 1: if We're going to talk.
Speaker 5: About Tomigo Ryans being lifted up by the play of
Speaker 5: a young promising quarterback. Is that for years on end,
Speaker 5: like especially with like Marcus Mariota and then with Desmond
Speaker 5: Ridder this year, it's like the quarterback play. Whenever there
Speaker 5: was even an ounce of positivity, there are two or
Speaker 5: three incredibly frustrating things that seemed to happen every game,
Speaker 5: Like didn't every Falcons game sort of feel the same?
Speaker 2: Well, they're the image that I'm thinking of right now,
Speaker 2: because Ritter was Jackyl and Hyde on Sunday where he's
Speaker 2: pretty good in the first half and then just started
Speaker 2: making mistake at the mistake. And the image that I
Speaker 2: have that I'll remember this season is the shots of
Speaker 2: Arthur Smith after yet another devastating Desmond Ridder turnover. He
Speaker 2: rolls his eyes or puts his hands in his face,
Speaker 2: and yeah, that's and that's organizationally where I I don't
Speaker 2: Arthur Smith.
Speaker 1: I thought didn't do a great job this year.
Speaker 2: But I also when they put Desmond Ritter, gave him
Speaker 2: this former third round pick and all of a sudden
Speaker 2: say this is your guy in an offseason where there
Speaker 2: were other options out there, put him in a bad situation,
Speaker 2: and then when they couldn't get the running game going, Greg,
Speaker 2: as you're saying, it just kept on compounding and his
Speaker 2: play calling.
Speaker 3: Was suspect as well. It just it never came together
Speaker 3: for this team with him. I liked him as a
Speaker 3: character in the in the NFL, and he's not going anywhay.
Speaker 3: Sure he'll be an offensive coordinator.
Speaker 2: He'll probably highly into Madison OC because that's when he
Speaker 2: got the job at IT Tennessee.
Speaker 3: He was probably not going to do that the McAfee
Speaker 3: paid spots. I don't think he's getting you know, Aaron Rodgers' money,
Speaker 3: but he was.
Speaker 1: He was on there speaking of weekly, he was on
Speaker 1: there speaking of just media.
Speaker 5: It's a it is a tough stitch and I know
Speaker 5: maybe not the nation isn't plugged in this, but like
Speaker 5: for Georgia Public Broadcasting, like I mean, they took this
Speaker 5: whole story in a different direction. It wasn't you know,
Speaker 5: Arthur Blank was on their channel. But it's like that,
Speaker 5: you know, the whole story flipped that Silver Fox asked
Speaker 5: the question to the owner that needed to be asked. Yeah,
Speaker 5: while a few weeks later, oh there's a change at
Speaker 5: the top of.
Speaker 3: A breakup public trust really from Arthur Bank and he
Speaker 3: was getting he's getting the jump on it. The first
Speaker 3: report of this came out at nine o two Pacific,
Speaker 3: which would make it twelve oh two Eastern on Black Monday.
Speaker 1: So technically yes, it made it there and dismissal. Ben
Speaker 1: Bolan of the Boston Globe.
Speaker 3: Is the only one I've seen reporting this, but he's
Speaker 3: been piping Belichick to Atlanta possibility for weeks now, and
Speaker 3: so they have a gift opening.
Speaker 2: Well, Bill has what a seven am press conference East
Speaker 2: Coast tomorrow?
Speaker 1: Kid, you really guy or the guy who was the
Speaker 1: coach of twenty three.
Speaker 3: I don't know. It's just something feels funky, all right,
Speaker 3: So there you go, and a lot of disqualifying, but
Speaker 3: it just it's.
Speaker 1: A little weird.
Speaker 2: The week ahead is, uh, gonna be a lot of
Speaker 2: fun here. So we got we're gonna do a little
Speaker 2: Black Monday podcast. So that's another what are we up to?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 2: That's four coaches gone, but the first one after the season,
Speaker 2: after the regular season concluded, you.
Speaker 5: Could almost say we just sort of did a little
Speaker 5: bit of a tiny Black Monday episode.
Speaker 1: A little bit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe we don't need no, no, no, I think
Speaker 2: I think we you know, I feel like Ron Rivera,
Speaker 2: we're gonna learn about tomorrow and maybe a surprise or
Speaker 2: two or three.
Speaker 1: So that's what we'll be there for.
Speaker 2: Anything else you want to Oh, let me uh, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna check in a tankathon real quick now that we
Speaker 2: have the draft order.
Speaker 1: So just did Nick get back to you on a Oh?
Speaker 1: He did actually immediately.
Speaker 3: Very quickly. I thought he was going to send a video.
Speaker 2: I think, yeah, I think he's mad. I got your
Speaker 2: live I got your live reaction. Eat Greg, sorry, eat
Speaker 2: poop Greg?
Speaker 3: So okay, I love it. I mean I don't give
Speaker 3: him half the grief that his brother is, including Phil
Speaker 3: do for his picks, his takes, and it is very
Speaker 3: much on my radar now. A big race for second here,
Speaker 3: Hansas catching up and Hansas's radar too.
Speaker 1: He's only one back.
Speaker 18: Now.
Speaker 2: All I wanted was the silver medal out of this,
Speaker 2: and I'm moving up to old charts all right.
Speaker 1: Here is the I'll take care of last place for you.
Speaker 2: Twenty four NFL Draft order, Chicago, Washington, New England, Arizona Chargers.
Speaker 2: That's your top five Giants, Titans, Falcons, Bears, Jets. That
Speaker 2: is the top ten picks, with Minnesota and Denver on
Speaker 2: the outside looking in there.
Speaker 1: So that is to put a bow on the regular season.
Speaker 2: As even if you're if your team makes the playoffs,
Speaker 2: it's a a very exciting time. When your team doesn't
Speaker 2: make the playoffs, even when it's a depressing season or
Speaker 2: a frustrating season, you miss it because it's like you
Speaker 2: just went from three straight months every Sunday or you know,
Speaker 2: if you get a primetime game, having that to look
Speaker 2: forward to, and now begins the long wait whenever your
Speaker 2: team exits the picture, whether it's now or sometime this month,
Speaker 2: it's that long wait until you get football every week again.
Speaker 1: So another regular season of the books for us as well. Eleven. Well,
Speaker 1: you could follow another sport or two if you must.
Speaker 1: Eleven eleven regular seasons? Is that the number?
Speaker 2: Is that? That's it for our podcast, eleven. That's we're
Speaker 2: up to eleven. So thank you to everybody for listening
Speaker 2: to all regular season long. Thank you to Big Funk
Speaker 2: and Eric bind the Glass. These Sunday shows are a
Speaker 2: major lift and they've done great work all year. We'll
Speaker 2: be back Monday, full week of shows till then key,
Speaker 2: the call