Speaker 1: Be Around the NFL Podcast knows you can beat Brady
Speaker 1: with pressure off the middle. That's true, That's true. Welcome
Speaker 1: to another edition of the Around the NFL Podcast and
Speaker 1: you could beat him next week in fact, presented by
Speaker 1: the United States Marine Corps. My name is Dan Hansus
Speaker 1: and I'm joined in the room filled with heroes Mark Sessler,
Speaker 1: Chris Westling, and Greg Rosenthal. What is up is hey? Dan? Wow?
Speaker 1: Fifty games in the can first UH year or first
Speaker 1: Sunday Night rather all year that we're wait waited till
Speaker 1: the final Sunday Night game of the season to talk podcast.
Speaker 1: And what a game to wait for. Absolutely the Seattle
Speaker 1: Seahawks and San Francisco Forts. They went down to the
Speaker 1: last play, well the second to last play and accompanying
Speaker 1: video review after that play. It should have been reviewed,
Speaker 1: it wasn't review. We're gonna get to all that, but
Speaker 1: let's start right here. The playoffs are set. Here they
Speaker 1: are wild Card weekend. The number five seeded Buffalo Bills
Speaker 1: head to Houston to face the Texans. That's a four
Speaker 1: thirty five start on ESPN slash ABC Eastern time. Of course,
Speaker 1: also the late game. This number six Tennessee Titans at
Speaker 1: the number three New England Patriots. The Patriots playing on
Speaker 1: wild Card weekend for the first time in ten years.
Speaker 1: That's an eight fift pm Eastern primetime game on CBS.
Speaker 1: You know what that means, Greg, what Tony Romo and
Speaker 1: Jim Nance means a lot of things. And then on Sunday,
Speaker 1: so all a f C on Saturday, NFC on Sunday.
Speaker 1: The number six Minnesota Vikings at the number three New
Speaker 1: Orleans Saints. That's the one of five Eastern Fox game
Speaker 1: with Charles Davis, Joe, Troy Akman, Greig what's going on
Speaker 1: in the late game? The number five Seattle Seahawks at
Speaker 1: the number Philadelphia Eagles. That's a four forty pm Eastern
Speaker 1: kickoff on NBC AL Chris and Michelle. Yes, playoff football
Speaker 1: is ready after week seventeen and uh and I couldn't
Speaker 1: be more excited. How about you guys? Oh yeah, West
Speaker 1: of Its which you guys know, is the annual since
Speaker 1: two thousand eleven, day of the Bengals losing on the
Speaker 1: first weekend of the playoffs, the Festival of Slights Texas
Speaker 1: have officially overtaken them. This is six times in nine years.
Speaker 1: The Texas played in that sad early Saturday time slot.
Speaker 1: All four times Bill O'Brien has made the playoffs, They've
Speaker 1: stuck them in Texas, Texass Texas. It's the festival of slights.
Speaker 1: You stick him that are only Saturday game. It's not
Speaker 1: a showing of respect, not at all. But one of
Speaker 1: those teams are gonna come out of that game with
Speaker 1: a chance to win the Super Bowl. They'll be in
Speaker 1: the Elite eight. As it were. We were wondering because
Speaker 1: it's the pretty rare occurrence of two a f C
Speaker 1: games on Saturday and two NFC on Sunday. I couldn't
Speaker 1: remember that it had ever happened, but apparently it happened
Speaker 1: in so, I mean, everything is a mental hey is
Speaker 1: at this point, it's fine. So we're gonna go through
Speaker 1: all the games, and like Greg said, we're changing it
Speaker 1: up a little bit. We always customarily um handle the
Speaker 1: Sunday Night Football game last, but because the stakes were
Speaker 1: both so high and also what it meant for the
Speaker 1: rest of the NFC and the seatings and all of that,
Speaker 1: we will start with Sunday Night Football, a huge game
Speaker 1: at the clink. Four down, here's your game, here's Russell
Speaker 1: Wilson back. Wilson throws called Hollisters hit over gold line
Speaker 1: to drop our Dray Garade Law. He is short. Forty
Speaker 1: Diers come away with the ball. The forty Diters have
Speaker 1: stop Tollister on the goal line. The forty Diners I
Speaker 1: gonna win the game and they are the number one
Speaker 1: seed in the NFC. And that feels great, baby, what
Speaker 1: a football. Great call. Great called by Greg Papa and
Speaker 1: Tim Ryan of k n b R. Yes, the road
Speaker 1: to Super Bowl fifty four in the NFC, it's gonna
Speaker 1: go through San Francisco. It's been a while, in fact,
Speaker 1: it's been twenty two years since you could say that.
Speaker 1: The four Niners get the stop at the goal line.
Speaker 1: Jacob Hollister catches a pass and Russell Wilson but gets
Speaker 1: stood up by rookie linebacker Dre Greenlaw. The fourth and
Speaker 1: goal play ends the game. After a review to make
Speaker 1: sure he just missed crossing the goal line. It was
Speaker 1: the right call on the field and they confirmed it.
Speaker 1: UH final score after a QB sneak to end it.
Speaker 1: UH the Niners wine over the Seahawks and as we said,
Speaker 1: that's the number one seed goes to the Niners. The
Speaker 1: Seahawks have to drop all the way down to five
Speaker 1: and play next week, and Greg, uh, you know it
Speaker 1: worked out because the Niners, it did seem for most
Speaker 1: of this game, were the better team. However, the Seahawks
Speaker 1: had it right in front of them, including Marshall and
Speaker 1: Lynch running onto the field at the goal line before all.
Speaker 1: Michael's called it one of the worst penalties of the season,
Speaker 1: the delayed game that pushed him back ahead of that
Speaker 1: um in completion to end the game. There were there's
Speaker 1: so much to get to and the forty Niners deserved
Speaker 1: the number one seed. But to me, the fact that
Speaker 1: the NFL did not look at the potential pass interference
Speaker 1: got to look at it on third and goal from
Speaker 1: the five yard line with fifteen seconds left to Jacob Hollister,
Speaker 1: was a total failure of the league and the system
Speaker 1: of replay that the league put in place for exactly
Speaker 1: this moment. I haven't criticized the replay process throughout the
Speaker 1: year because it just doesn't seem as important to me
Speaker 1: compared to what happens on the field, But when you
Speaker 1: look at what happened in this game, this was the
Speaker 1: reason they put that role in place. This play, like
Speaker 1: this exact moment was the reason they put that this
Speaker 1: rule in place. And when you looked at the replay,
Speaker 1: it seemed clear and obvious to me that he held
Speaker 1: Hollister's arm back. But even if you weren't gonna overturn it,
Speaker 1: the fact that didn't look at it, what did we
Speaker 1: just spend their whole off season season or that was it?
Speaker 1: So that opens up Pandora's bucks. If you look at
Speaker 1: the replay, what standard do you use? The one from
Speaker 1: week three, the one from week thirteen, or a new
Speaker 1: one that you're making up as you enter the playoffs.
Speaker 1: And in forty Niners fans, all of you and my
Speaker 1: mentions who are saying, well, what about the delay a game?
Speaker 1: It looked like, oh, you know when the Seahawks scored,
Speaker 1: or what about the Ben Garland Like, shut up, that's
Speaker 1: not what we're talking about. We're talking about a failure
Speaker 1: of the system. I was hoping the forty Niners we're
Speaker 1: gonna win this game because I thought their season was better,
Speaker 1: that they deserved it, that they're more fun team. But
Speaker 1: that's not the point, Like, I'm more concerned about the
Speaker 1: process and the fact that the process completely failed in
Speaker 1: the biggest What possible explanation can they offer? Alright, Mike
Speaker 1: Santo the Athletic actually has one the NFL resting Al
Speaker 1: river on from ahead of the playoffs. Maybe it was
Speaker 1: one of those situations where I thought you had a
Speaker 1: lot there's no answer, Go ahead, Mark no, I it's
Speaker 1: just a problem to Greg's point that for all the
Speaker 1: drama and rather amazing play that happened for both sides,
Speaker 1: that that's the talking point. It's a totally inexcusable flub
Speaker 1: by the league, and it seems like this is every well,
Speaker 1: I mean, who's not going to be discussing that just
Speaker 1: I don't know, there's a lot else to talk about,
Speaker 1: and you know, I don't know if we need to
Speaker 1: hammer that that forever. It seemed pretty clear the Seahawks,
Speaker 1: as Al Michael said, botching that situation with the delay
Speaker 1: of game and out is a pretty running onto the field.
Speaker 1: And who knows that they end up begetting the delay
Speaker 1: a game. Maybe it's something with Marshall Lynn which coming
Speaker 1: out and field late. We don't know, we'll get probably answers.
Speaker 1: Um I was seeing like a glowing green hat. I
Speaker 1: don't know. I don't know, but the moment was so beautiful.
Speaker 1: Of course, the most infamous moment in Seahawks franchise history
Speaker 1: is the decision not to give it to Beast Mode.
Speaker 1: He comes out of retirement, uh for this game, and
Speaker 1: it wouldn't have made the Super Bowl forty nine and right,
Speaker 1: but it was. It was cinematic. And then for them
Speaker 1: not to get the playoff pushes in back five yards,
Speaker 1: no longer goal line situation, Lynch goes back to the
Speaker 1: sideline where he stays that was a huge mistake. And
Speaker 1: then the Hollister play he put you know, Russe Wilson
Speaker 1: puts it on him and like I said, the linebacker,
Speaker 1: you just gotta give him credit. That's a great play
Speaker 1: in a huge stock spot that can save a team,
Speaker 1: and it could be the difference between the four and
Speaker 1: Niners winning the Super Bowl and being one and done
Speaker 1: in the playoffs. The NFL is so resistant to clarity
Speaker 1: and grand sweeping statements about what just happened at the
Speaker 1: start of that drive. I wrote forty Niners defense para
Speaker 1: shifts in the first half of the season, but below
Speaker 1: average statistically. This is a big test here, and it
Speaker 1: feels like they passed the test. Because green Law decleted
Speaker 1: Hollister right at the goal line. But all that happened
Speaker 1: in between there, there's no clarity is that game could
Speaker 1: have gone in so many different directions just by the
Speaker 1: vicissitudes of what was going on. That the stuff that
Speaker 1: you can practice in terms of situational football, I think
Speaker 1: should bother Pete Carroll I had like I had a
Speaker 1: smarmie tweet. I'm glad I did not send out. But
Speaker 1: immediately when they took that delay a game, I thought
Speaker 1: that's why Belichick didn't call the time out in the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl, because Pete Carroll gets so excited, over excited
Speaker 1: about everything. They're just like, oh, what do we do here? Oh,
Speaker 1: let's get lit it, Like, let's do that. They took
Speaker 1: a delay a game, not after they're injured. Player George
Speaker 1: Fan had to run up to the line and spike it,
Speaker 1: which was also a mistake. Ultimately, you only have four
Speaker 1: plays to win the game you would love and you
Speaker 1: have plenty of time. You would have to call a
Speaker 1: play there and run it and throw a ball into
Speaker 1: the end zone. That after that spike, they still didn't
Speaker 1: have enough time. They also burned time outs late in
Speaker 1: that spot when they got to the one yard and
Speaker 1: they got a first down that went past the two,
Speaker 1: and they didn't have a time out to use because
Speaker 1: they just burned a couple of them. I mean, I
Speaker 1: would say also, though Seattle in the second half three
Speaker 1: straight long touchdown drives, they deserve credit for showing up
Speaker 1: with a banged up roster. And you know that a
Speaker 1: few little things go in the other direction. We're talking
Speaker 1: about Seattle having won the visions, and that's why it's
Speaker 1: so crushing for the Seahawks to lose in this manner
Speaker 1: and they're so banged up right now that they're really,
Speaker 1: to me, their only hope was to get a bye,
Speaker 1: get a home game or two, and use that clink advantage,
Speaker 1: and they lose that now. And to me, they're not
Speaker 1: a team that you could expect to make a deep run.
Speaker 1: I could see them going out as soon as you know,
Speaker 1: six days from now. Well, they only stopped the forty
Speaker 1: niners offense twice the entire game days two punts. And
Speaker 1: now you're going into Philadelphia team that I'm not saying
Speaker 1: they're clicking on all cylinders on offense, but they found
Speaker 1: something to hang their hat on over the past month.
Speaker 1: This is a big test. I didn't expect to think
Speaker 1: the Seahawks might be the underdog in their first playoff games,
Speaker 1: right me, me and either and yet you're you're so right.
Speaker 1: Mark to point out after their scoreless at halftime, dominated
Speaker 1: and they go touchdown, touchdown, touchdown. Jimmy G and his
Speaker 1: offensive line shows up in in in a game where
Speaker 1: they didn't really run the ball well, A place stands
Speaker 1: out to me. With about seven that's left, they have
Speaker 1: third and five. That's the point where you you think
Speaker 1: the Seahawks are gonna get off the field, maybe force
Speaker 1: a field goal, and Jimmy G has all day to throw,
Speaker 1: finds Deebo Samuel for an easy first down where he
Speaker 1: beats Shakil Griffin and they score a touchdown on the
Speaker 1: very next play. Their offense, for the most part, answered
Speaker 1: the bell time after time. The average eight point three
Speaker 1: yards per play, which is outrageous. I mean, that's it's
Speaker 1: far more than the Seahawks. So it's just two really
Speaker 1: good teams and one team in the Seahawks. It's been
Speaker 1: lucky over and over and over, and sometimes when you're
Speaker 1: counting on luck, like it just doesn't go for you.
Speaker 1: And tonight they were unlucky, alright, So San Francisco gets
Speaker 1: it done. They're the one seed. Let's talk about a
Speaker 1: team that's gonna actually be playing next week. But you
Speaker 1: can argue that we might be looking talking about the
Speaker 1: greatest number three seed in NFL history. Uh, they are
Speaker 1: the Saints. So a third down and seven answers, bring five,
Speaker 1: bree has time in the pockets, throws when there has
Speaker 1: Taysom Hill light over to the forty thirty five thirty
Speaker 1: twenty five blocker in front, fifty cups. Thats n fun
Speaker 1: touch down. Tightsom Hill, what Tanta man do? Who gets
Speaker 1: out in front for the block? There? Mike Thomas and
Speaker 1: Michael Thomas brings a block down at the ten yard
Speaker 1: line and Taysom Hill does the rest forty five yards.
Speaker 1: Drew Berri used to Taysom Hill, Zach Streep and US
Speaker 1: McAllister with a call for w w L. Taysom Hill
Speaker 1: delivered an exclamation point and sandwiches for Mark Sessler with
Speaker 1: his eight touchdown of the season. The final score and
Speaker 1: the Seahawks forty two to tend win over the moribund
Speaker 1: to Carolina Panthers at the Superdome. As I said, the
Speaker 1: Saints entered Sunday hoping to get a bye and be
Speaker 1: set up with the Superdome. It didn't work out that way,
Speaker 1: but Chris Westling despite that, and it is a bit
Speaker 1: of a bummer day if you're a Saints fan or
Speaker 1: you're inside that building. Uh, they have to be feeling
Speaker 1: good about themselves. As we turned the page to turn
Speaker 1: the Calndar over to January, Yeah, it wasn't It wasn't
Speaker 1: hard to uh see the juxtaposition, the contrast between the
Speaker 1: Saints and Packers. I thought watching this game, the Saints
Speaker 1: look like the grown ups sitting at the head of
Speaker 1: the table carving up the roast beef at Holliday holiday time,
Speaker 1: and the Packers are relegated to the folding wobbly card
Speaker 1: table in the corner with the kids because they were
Speaker 1: messing around with the Lions, while the Saints came in
Speaker 1: and just took care of business with the Panthers to
Speaker 1: the point where a few minutes into the game, the
Speaker 1: only suspense was is Mark going to get his Taysom
Speaker 1: Hill Sandwiches? And will Christian McCaffrey joined the one thousand,
Speaker 1: one thousand club. That happened in the third quarter and
Speaker 1: Mark's Taysom sandwiches came in the fourth quarter the Saints.
Speaker 1: This was a well round a game. Once again Camara
Speaker 1: had t tds and once again he ran through a
Speaker 1: big hole with great blocking. And we don't know if
Speaker 1: he's back to his normal self or not. I'm not
Speaker 1: seeing a guy who's two thousand eighteen explosive. But this
Speaker 1: offense is getting it done right now. You go back
Speaker 1: to Week ten, were they the Saints fell to Atlanta
Speaker 1: nine to two. Nine. Since then, their offense has been
Speaker 1: on fire. Thirty four points, thirty four points. That's why
Speaker 1: I'd already yes, every team would like to have a buy.
Speaker 1: I don't have a problem with some teams having to
Speaker 1: go that extra game, that extra journey. And I think
Speaker 1: that they're gonna wax Minnesota next week with very little issues.
Speaker 1: Saints of average forty points per game over the final
Speaker 1: four weeks of the season. That is outrageous. And the
Speaker 1: way it's set up, they still are, you know, in
Speaker 1: the packers lane because if they beat the Vikings, they
Speaker 1: will be going to Green Bay. So even though you
Speaker 1: wanted the home game, you still would like to be
Speaker 1: in the packers lane versus it could have worked out
Speaker 1: in a way where you were playing hosting the forty
Speaker 1: nine ers in in the second week of the right playoffs.
Speaker 1: This isn't that batters the benefit when you talk about
Speaker 1: the three seed or the four seed. The three seed
Speaker 1: means you avoid a one seed until the latest possible
Speaker 1: stage of the conference playoffs, which is the championship game.
Speaker 1: I mean, the Saints aren't the first team I'd want
Speaker 1: to throw into like negative thirteen Windschill in Green Bay necessarily,
Speaker 1: but this is a little bit of a different Saints teams.
Speaker 1: And you would think that even more if you saw
Speaker 1: the deep ball that Drew Brees tried to throw the
Speaker 1: Tech Gin today where he put his whole body into it,
Speaker 1: and I don't I think it might have been trade.
Speaker 1: Boston had all day to run under it. And I'm
Speaker 1: not doubting that guy after the last month of football though. No,
Speaker 1: he's played well, and I believe if my calculations are correct,
Speaker 1: he has a career high and passer rating this year
Speaker 1: one sixteen point two big us upset of the day
Speaker 1: though the leading receiver of this game, anyone want to guess,
Speaker 1: how about Brandon Zelstra six for six for the Panthers
Speaker 1: Kyle Allen coming in off the bank this that was
Speaker 1: not a good audition for Mr Greeney went out of
Speaker 1: this game with a foot injury or correct well, he yes.
Speaker 1: It was ugly early for him, and I think the
Speaker 1: Saints did him a favor by putt him out of
Speaker 1: the game. One of our listeners City looked like he
Speaker 1: had a thousand yards stair coming off the field, and
Speaker 1: that was putting it mildly, a guy that had seen
Speaker 1: too much at war. That team crumbled about as about
Speaker 1: as ferociously as one could imagine. This Saint's team has
Speaker 1: been through a lot. The fact that they could go
Speaker 1: undefeated without Breeze. They lose two starting offensive lineman three
Speaker 1: weeks ago, four weeks ago. That hasn't slowed him down there.
Speaker 1: They're unlucky that they get the thirteen and three. I
Speaker 1: don't know, it just is they feel like there is
Speaker 1: mentally psychologically tough as any team in the league. And
Speaker 1: they get to take out some Minneapolis miracle revenge game
Speaker 1: next week. That's nice. One quick note before we get
Speaker 1: to the Green Bay Packers, we have for the first
Speaker 1: time ever, our own television so on NFL Network that
Speaker 1: will premiere on Friday. This Friday at what time three
Speaker 1: pacifics six eastern, three Pacific. The around the NFL Show
Speaker 1: and NFL Network, they're giving us thirty minutes each of
Speaker 1: the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, so three
Speaker 1: shows leading up to conference championships. So that's very exciting.
Speaker 1: Like the network is finally into generating some ratings and
Speaker 1: are doing and they're replaying it all the time. I mean,
Speaker 1: just just season pass it, DVR it, just watch every
Speaker 1: time they play it too. I love it. It's your job, alright,
Speaker 1: the packers, we're gonna we're gonna head over the kids table. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's the paper plates out and the styrofoam cups. People
Speaker 1: are playing with their food. Yeah. The kids, you know,
Speaker 1: they're not even they're not they don't even appreciate what
Speaker 1: they have. There's a dog sitting at the table, and
Speaker 1: there's one crazy kid who won't even sit down. And
Speaker 1: you want the other parents to be like they're the kids.
Speaker 1: Parents to be like, hey, put the boy in line,
Speaker 1: get a beat on that child. His hands have cranberry
Speaker 1: on him. Now he's on the couches. It's my couch.
Speaker 1: That's the past. That's why no one comes over to
Speaker 1: my house. Let's check it out. Here we go. He
Speaker 1: has a chance to win it for Green Bay. Here
Speaker 1: we go, down on wondering arm extended. Here the snap
Speaker 1: high snap place, the main j place. God it is God.
Speaker 1: He Mason Crosby has said it a dagger and the
Speaker 1: Packers are into no worse than the number two seed
Speaker 1: in the NFC playoffs and a week off Free Bay.
Speaker 1: He's into the divisional round of the playoffs. Wayne Laravy
Speaker 1: with a call for w T M j Yes after
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers, Aaron jones is thirty one yard catch and
Speaker 1: run moved the Packers into field goal range. Mason Crosby
Speaker 1: kicked the thirty three yard field goal, this time expired.
Speaker 1: It lifted the Packers to twenty win over the lines
Speaker 1: at Ford Field, the game that the Packers fell behind
Speaker 1: two touchdowns before finally waking up and mark This is
Speaker 1: a game that Aaron Rodgers could not look worse early on.
Speaker 1: His numbers were some of the worst of his career.
Speaker 1: At halftime, but the Packers credit they're not playing as
Speaker 1: well as some of these other superpowers. They found a
Speaker 1: way to get the job done, and that happened a
Speaker 1: lot this season, as their thirteen and three record illustrates. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, maybe, you know, if you want to look
Speaker 1: at it from a positive standpoint, that they they're working
Speaker 1: out the Kings finally before they head into this postseason journey.
Speaker 1: But Aaron Rodgers over the first twenty seven minutes of
Speaker 1: this horrific Packers first half, had twenty nine air yards
Speaker 1: and just looked completely out of sync with his wideouts.
Speaker 1: And you know, it's Detroit has made uh cottage industry
Speaker 1: of blowing games. No team in the league has blown
Speaker 1: second half leads more than Detroit Lions under mat Patricia.
Speaker 1: And so you know, it was not surprising to see
Speaker 1: Green Bay kind of finally find the rhythm and get
Speaker 1: back into this Rogers, you know, and I went on
Speaker 1: we went on Sky Sports, and I basically said how
Speaker 1: the Packers looked done to me? And two seconds later, Rogers,
Speaker 1: you know, hits an absolute dart to Davante Adams for
Speaker 1: a touchdown, then hilt Alan Lazard some beautiful throws. So
Speaker 1: it's like, I don't want to over worry about the Packers.
Speaker 1: They don't feel to me like a thirteen and three team.
Speaker 1: They don't, and I'd be a little bit concerned. Now
Speaker 1: they have a break, which is nice, but they lost
Speaker 1: Brian Bloga to a concussion. Corey Lindsley, their center, went
Speaker 1: out with a back injury. Came he was okay apparently after,
Speaker 1: but they were real banged up. You know, the Lions
Speaker 1: to me, do not deserve to be toying with Green
Speaker 1: Bay for thirty plus minutes of this game the way
Speaker 1: that they were. I mean, you know, big day for
Speaker 1: the blowhards, almost almost, but more adversity a hand gredades.
Speaker 1: My friend, this stat feels like who the Packers are.
Speaker 1: They have led for zero seconds against the Lions this
Speaker 1: year and won both games. That's crazy, it is, And
Speaker 1: I you know, Dan Orlovsky, who does a good job
Speaker 1: with this analysis on ESPN, said after the game, if
Speaker 1: you have to pick a quarterback likely to go bonkers
Speaker 1: in the playoffs, look for Aaron Rodgers, because you know,
Speaker 1: he just missed a couple of a series of beautiful
Speaker 1: throws on Sunday. We say this almost every week. He
Speaker 1: throws beautiful downfield passes and they just miss a lot
Speaker 1: of them. That's not the issue. The issue is feast
Speaker 1: or famine. What do you do when you're not hitting
Speaker 1: the throws, and usually their offense goes in the tank
Speaker 1: for long stretches, and he was protected well, and he
Speaker 1: just he didn't have an answer for it. After the game.
Speaker 1: He just said he was missing like some some weeks.
Speaker 1: He he can't explain it. But I mean it was
Speaker 1: one of the worst games, as you mentioned, just in
Speaker 1: terms of accuracy of his career. ESPN tract them for
Speaker 1: sixteen overthrows. That was the most in a game, or
Speaker 1: tied for the most since they've been keeping track of
Speaker 1: the stat in two thousand six, tied with Josh Freeman's
Speaker 1: one start for the Minnesota Vike against the Giants exactly.
Speaker 1: One of the ferments is ever, not that Rogers was
Speaker 1: in that category, and they do get some credit for
Speaker 1: finding a way to actually win, but it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: the Lions didn't even have GOLLA day in this game.
Speaker 1: After a little while, I just I don't know if
Speaker 1: their fool's gold, because I mean, they played a very
Speaker 1: complete game against the Vikings last week, so you know,
Speaker 1: listen that there. I just I would have no, no,
Speaker 1: not be surprised that they if they were the team
Speaker 1: that in the you know, the divisional of lost at home. Well, no,
Speaker 1: no one's gonna if if the Saints beat the Vikings,
Speaker 1: no one's gonna expect the Packers to win that game.
Speaker 1: Whether whether in no one you know that's off the
Speaker 1: contents is often wrong, but everyone is going to expect
Speaker 1: the Saints to go to in Bay. It depends totally
Speaker 1: on what the weather is like. Yeah. One one. My
Speaker 1: last point about Green Bay is I feel the same
Speaker 1: as you Mark, and I guess Greg and I think
Speaker 1: we're all on the same page. Can you kind of
Speaker 1: fake your way to thirteen and three or at a
Speaker 1: certain point that they just get they do a nice
Speaker 1: job closing out games, and that that means they should
Speaker 1: be taken seriously. I mean, it's just puzzling. They just
Speaker 1: don't feel like a thirteen. But you know, you don't
Speaker 1: take our next team, the Patriots, seriously at twelve and four.
Speaker 1: And it is just about the eye test and a
Speaker 1: lot of times the regular season I test doesn't carry over.
Speaker 1: And and the Packers are one of four teams that
Speaker 1: get next week off. That is pretty huge. That is huge.
Speaker 1: All right, let's move on first down. First here, it
Speaker 1: sucks down unbelievable four seconds left about Mike and Sicky
Speaker 1: back to the end. Zoe running right down the middle
Speaker 1: back to the end. Zo Fitzpatrick puts it right on
Speaker 1: the money. Holy smokes. Oh indeed, indeed, Jimmy, Bob Greasy
Speaker 1: and Joe Rose with the call Ryan Fitzpatrick more like
Speaker 1: fits magic. Am I right, Greg through a five yard
Speaker 1: touchdown pass to Mike Sicky seconds to play. The Dolphins
Speaker 1: stunned the Patriots to twenty four when the Costs the
Speaker 1: Paths the first round by for the first time in
Speaker 1: a decade. Greg uh This was first of all, this
Speaker 1: whole scenario was foretold by someone on Thursday Show, But
Speaker 1: who cares about that. After years of taking advantage of
Speaker 1: other teams late season stumbles, the Patriots stumbled himselves and
Speaker 1: it has cost them dearly. They're playing next week, Yeah
Speaker 1: they are. It reminds me of two thousand and fifteen
Speaker 1: when they also lost in Week seventeen, lost home field
Speaker 1: advantage also to the Dolphins, and that was a team
Speaker 1: that felt like it was on their last legs, and offensively,
Speaker 1: this team is certainly that way. The fact that Tom
Speaker 1: Brady played his worst game today I think was the
Speaker 1: most notable part of this result. The defense didn't play well.
Speaker 1: They didn't force it turnover, you give up a big
Speaker 1: drive at the end. Fitzpatrick was the best quarterback in
Speaker 1: the division all year. He's better than Sam Donald, better
Speaker 1: than Josh Allen. I think he was better than Tom
Speaker 1: Brady when you consider this game. But Brady's missed throws
Speaker 1: and seemingly the punishment that Bill Belichick was giving Brady
Speaker 1: or the offense by not even trying to score at
Speaker 1: the end of the what was going on using time outs.
Speaker 1: I think it was his way of saying, we don't
Speaker 1: want to give the Dolphins the ball back, we don't
Speaker 1: really trust our offense. We're gonna run a lot. And
Speaker 1: it was a very strange moment and a lack of
Speaker 1: confidence in this offense. Would you can understand why there's
Speaker 1: a lack of confidence, but it seemed like cutting off
Speaker 1: his nose despite his face. Patriots desperately wanted this game.
Speaker 1: We heard Belichick tell his players the playoffs start this week,
Speaker 1: and they they played their hearts out and still lost.
Speaker 1: And credit Ryan Fitzpatrick. I feel like this game was
Speaker 1: the microcosm for a wild season, and this season was
Speaker 1: the microcosm for a wild career. It just like everything
Speaker 1: came to a head in this game. He was supposed
Speaker 1: to be a tackling dummy. He was the old quarterback
Speaker 1: that was being sent out to slaughter on what was
Speaker 1: supposed to be the worst team of all time. And
Speaker 1: week after week after week, he's been keeping this team
Speaker 1: in games and winning games. And yeah, this was the microcosm.
Speaker 1: This was the culmination of what yes at five and
Speaker 1: eleven is not what the Dolphins wanted because they wanted
Speaker 1: to get Joe Burrow wherever the quarterback finished five and four.
Speaker 1: They beat two division winners in December, so the Patriots
Speaker 1: weren't the only team that's gonna be hosting a game
Speaker 1: in the playoffs and lost to the Dolphins. In December,
Speaker 1: they beat the Eagles. I saw someone note on Twitter
Speaker 1: that New England lost to the four best teams in ANFC,
Speaker 1: with with Miami being being one of them at this point.
Speaker 1: And you go back, you look at the journey for
Speaker 1: this team. Week one losing fifty nine to ten, Week
Speaker 1: two to the Patriots forty three to nothing, Week three,
Speaker 1: thirty one of six, and they went on and on,
Speaker 1: and it was like they looked like one of the
Speaker 1: most disgraceful operations around, and I guess I would trade
Speaker 1: in the whole first round pick thing for the concept
Speaker 1: in the idea and the belief that you have a
Speaker 1: really good coach. And Brian Flores, who did a lot
Speaker 1: with a little. He could have left Josh Rosen in
Speaker 1: for the season and said, hey, we we know we're building,
Speaker 1: we know we're not playing for this year, and instead
Speaker 1: he went. He tried to win games, he tried to
Speaker 1: play good football, and they the last drive thirteen play
Speaker 1: seventy five yards and that for all the struggles of
Speaker 1: Tom Brady in the offense. And you know, the one
Speaker 1: thing that Patriots have had all season is this defense.
Speaker 1: And it hasn't been a It hasn't been as historically
Speaker 1: dominant as it was in the first half when the
Speaker 1: Pats were an oh and they finished twelve and four,
Speaker 1: So even I could do them if they were five
Speaker 1: hunder team in the second half and they couldn't get
Speaker 1: the stop. And even even the great Stefan Gilmore who
Speaker 1: um may win Defensive Player of the Year, Davante Parker,
Speaker 1: he had his way with him. You're cackling in he
Speaker 1: had a fourth quarter. This is the biggest moment of
Speaker 1: bands decade, I would say since we've had the podcast,
Speaker 1: except for that um Ryan Fitzpatrick when they won or
Speaker 1: know what they lost in week seventeen, but they won
Speaker 1: ten games that year. This was the right from It's
Speaker 1: amazing because Fitzpatrick does this with no running game. I mean,
Speaker 1: they have absolutely no rank game. I found it stunny.
Speaker 1: Ryan Fitzpatrick ran the ball more this year on called
Speaker 1: passes than any quarterback in the league, more than Lamar Jackson,
Speaker 1: more than anyone else, and he was effective doing it.
Speaker 1: And today it was a great example why the Patriots
Speaker 1: had twenty nine hurries on Ryan Fitzpatrick. So many times
Speaker 1: they got rushers a lot of times free rushers in
Speaker 1: his face and he got out of the way of them.
Speaker 1: A lot of what they've done defensively, especially the cover
Speaker 1: zero where you're blitzing like crazy, just hasn't worked that
Speaker 1: well in December, and they've made a living off a
Speaker 1: turnover differential all year. They didn't force a turnover. They
Speaker 1: ended up minus two. One of those was on the
Speaker 1: last play of the game, but either even then they
Speaker 1: were gonna be minus one. Today it was Tom Brady's
Speaker 1: pick six on a weird throw and that was kind
Speaker 1: of the difference. In the end, Brady like led them
Speaker 1: back from Ted Nothing got the key touchdown. It was
Speaker 1: a full team loss, but not a not one that
Speaker 1: was undeserved. These looked like two very even. The craziest
Speaker 1: statistic of the entire football season is that Ryan Fitzpatrick
Speaker 1: is the oldest player in NFL history to lead his
Speaker 1: team in rushing, and he had about two hundred and
Speaker 1: forty something yards rushing. To your point that the Dolphins
Speaker 1: cannot run the ball for his life all season and
Speaker 1: he stay alive. And now factor in what he did
Speaker 1: with the Bucks offense last September and tell me this
Speaker 1: guy shouldn't be a starting quarterback in the NFL. He's
Speaker 1: under contract with the Dolphins, a team that's gonna draft
Speaker 1: a rookie quarterback, draft a quarterback and presumably want him
Speaker 1: to play immediately. I'm not ready to say goodbye to
Speaker 1: Ryan Fitzpatrick. He see you know one thing though before.
Speaker 1: I don't want to get too carried away, because he
Speaker 1: always finds his way back into the starting lineup. I
Speaker 1: just would rather him go compete somewhere. But I don't
Speaker 1: know if teams are like that with him at this
Speaker 1: point where they're going to say they'll bring in Fitzpatrick
Speaker 1: for a chance to start. He might be better in
Speaker 1: Miami and like a tutor role and end up getting
Speaker 1: starts out. Would be surprising to see someone want to
Speaker 1: trade for him, and there's no way that the Dolphins.
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess someone would for the for a
Speaker 1: really low price, but you would expect him to be competing.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's with two of the Dolphins didn't even lose
Speaker 1: any in their draft slot today by winning, so that
Speaker 1: was another bonus. They stayed at the number five pick.
Speaker 1: Obviously they're going home and the Patriots is the bigger
Speaker 1: repercussion because this team, which was so limited all year,
Speaker 1: really needed that by I think more than any other team.
Speaker 1: And I kind of thought when they beat the Bills,
Speaker 1: maybe that's their moment and their next big game is
Speaker 1: gonna be against Kansas City, which was gonna be a
Speaker 1: big time uphill battle. Now there, if they try to
Speaker 1: make it to the Super Bowl, you're gonna have to
Speaker 1: win a very tough wild guard games. You're gonna write
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to win on the road in Kansas City.
Speaker 1: That seems like a death sentence even for a team
Speaker 1: as resourceful as the Page to win the first game.
Speaker 1: The sense of justice is that the a f C
Speaker 1: is correctly seated the Patriots. I don't care about the record.
Speaker 1: They are not the one of the two best teams
Speaker 1: in the level. I I agree, and it I feel
Speaker 1: like as a Patriots fan, a you're it's really hard.
Speaker 1: You can't come. It's hard to complain when you've just
Speaker 1: watched the greatest run and they're still in it that
Speaker 1: any American you know, professional sports team has ever been
Speaker 1: on what you're gonna wind because you've got a three seed?
Speaker 1: I really, I really do see I'm saying in our
Speaker 1: in our lifetime, in our lifetime, and to me in
Speaker 1: in the NFL, it's such a unique thing to do
Speaker 1: it over twenty years, nothing's been close to that. But
Speaker 1: the fact that they've managed to scrape out twelve wins
Speaker 1: with a pretty bad team like that, somehow winning is
Speaker 1: such in their bones that they still managed to have
Speaker 1: a twelve win season, which four about twenty franchises in
Speaker 1: the league would be the best year they've had in
Speaker 1: a decade, is almost to be a testament to how
Speaker 1: good they are. It doesn't make this team any better, though,
Speaker 1: they would have been ten and six with a tougher
Speaker 1: rec Greg's and denial. But he has a really good
Speaker 1: attitude on the surface. You are not you. You have
Speaker 1: a positive outlook on the surface. Not everyone is feeling
Speaker 1: as positive on the surface or beneath it. Here's Ricky
Speaker 1: Hollywood right after the game, Patriots stink. I can't believe
Speaker 1: how old are you? Er uh, you're allowed and you've
Speaker 1: known nothing, You've known nothing but glory. And after a
Speaker 1: season ends twelve and four. Look at the Chiefs fan
Speaker 1: right next to your Bartlett two twelve and four, you're
Speaker 1: saying the Patriots stink. How about you eat some humble pie? Lady,
Speaker 1: What do you mean, just you know, take the loss
Speaker 1: like a woman. I got a text from my dad.
Speaker 1: You just not wait until like Adam Gates or the
Speaker 1: Jets have like one ten one season so we can
Speaker 1: get back at the end one of day. How is
Speaker 1: a woman supposed to take a lost person today? And
Speaker 1: did you see that stat a f C E standing
Speaker 1: since week nine, Patriots are in last place, heading in
Speaker 1: the road where the Browns? What about your Rams West?
Speaker 1: What about Broncos? Hit me, I'm not walking around celebrating
Speaker 1: the Browns. Where's your head coach? Mark? All right? Oh
Speaker 1: my good to get to that spoiler alert. Uh and
Speaker 1: you know, since we're here, I'm curious how Scott Zolak
Speaker 1: is taking that. It's magic touchdown. So let's let's let's
Speaker 1: check that out. What a great day? This is? Sick
Speaker 1: you to the right this istation stuff. He's looking to
Speaker 1: the middle. He talking to the back of the end zone.
Speaker 1: Cap by get sick. What a troge down in Miami.
Speaker 1: Twenty four seconds to go and the Dolphins have taken
Speaker 1: the leave. What an unbelievable drive by Miami. Credit Chado
Speaker 1: Sha and Ryan Fitzpatrick more poorly divine day Parker, phenomenal
Speaker 1: playmaker down the right side, you get it, calling on
Speaker 1: a big twenty nine yard the past receiving tight end
Speaker 1: with the big touchdown catch to take the lead late.
Speaker 1: What are you measured? Professional? But sure? That's like, I'm
Speaker 1: so annoyed that I didn't listen to this before we
Speaker 1: played its sportsman he is growth. I don't know if
Speaker 1: maybe he's hurting right now. He was hissing at me.
Speaker 1: Maybe I'm saying maybe Zolac is in the same place
Speaker 1: watching this game, and it's like, I don't know, there
Speaker 1: is a piece to it. If if if they don't
Speaker 1: if they're not a good team, they're not a good team.
Speaker 1: I don't think you and Zolak have ever been in
Speaker 1: the same place watching it. I thought the same thing
Speaker 1: Greg's saying, or a similar thought that Zolac you give
Speaker 1: I give him, We give him a lot of heat.
Speaker 1: But he's plugged in, he knows that team. That sounds
Speaker 1: like a guy that understands that this team isn't a
Speaker 1: great team. And I think one of the most jarring
Speaker 1: newsroom proclamations I've ever heard out of Greg's mouth mouth
Speaker 1: was that no matter what this Patriots team does, they'll
Speaker 1: always have Week sixteen against the Bills the season was making.
Speaker 1: I thought that was their moment. It was a nice man.
Speaker 1: That is so depressing. The are a lot of things. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, psychologically, Greg is going through some stuff. So
Speaker 1: I'm sure Brady's gonna put that Week sixteen win on
Speaker 1: his mantel next to the Lombardi and we get one
Speaker 1: more loss the season. Oh it's coming, you know it's coming, Greggy,
Speaker 1: No parade this year. Let's move on to one four
Speaker 1: deal kick taking three archdep in the n jone left
Speaker 1: shod return pay back. He's got some room at the
Speaker 1: stage on his feet cuts it back. Mcconel Hartmann five
Speaker 1: touchdown Kansas City one hundred and four yard kickoff return
Speaker 1: by the Pro Bowl return Specialists. But Cole Hardman Mitch
Speaker 1: halt Is Kate see f X with the call. Mitch
Speaker 1: does a good job. Nice class stop glass we call
Speaker 1: Harvny gave the Chiefs a massive boost when they needed
Speaker 1: it most, right after a Charger's go ahead touchdown got
Speaker 1: the people on Arrowhead nervous. A hundred and four yards later,
Speaker 1: Kansas City's ahead to get a harder over the Chargers.
Speaker 1: Suit of their credits showed up here, but it wasn't
Speaker 1: enough with the game in hand. Uh. The Arrowhead crowd
Speaker 1: went into a frenzy when they learned that Ryan Fitzpatrick
Speaker 1: and the Dolphins that shocked the Patriots, allowing Casey Now
Speaker 1: to grab that number two seed. Friend of the show,
Speaker 1: Kevin Harland, by the way, painted the picture calling two
Speaker 1: games at once and his latest master work. Do we
Speaker 1: have that? Meanwhile, Miami has first in Gold down by
Speaker 1: four seconds left. Here Bucker kicks the extra point and
Speaker 1: Ricks tat Ricks throws in the end zone touchdown Miami
Speaker 1: that the Dolphins have just scored. Kisiki the tight end
Speaker 1: got a laser in the back of the end zone
Speaker 1: by Miami quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick to take a lead with
Speaker 1: twenty four seconds to go, and mcrown now knows it.
Speaker 1: What a strong guy fitz Patrick. What a touchdown run
Speaker 1: by Williams. On the last weekend of the regular season
Speaker 1: in the NFL. If the Chiefs when and New England loses,
Speaker 1: the Chiefs will be the two seed, they'll get the
Speaker 1: bill and they'll have a home game the next weekend.
Speaker 1: I'm getting confused. What game are you calling? I'm calling
Speaker 1: both games. CPS is going to send your two chests
Speaker 1: this week. I think I'm breaking every yet. CC rook.
Speaker 1: Kevin Harland, friend of the show, and remember when he
Speaker 1: was on our show. It was after his famous black
Speaker 1: Cat call where he was calling a Evan Ingram completion
Speaker 1: at the same time that the cat was running. There's
Speaker 1: nobody else in the business and I can do with
Speaker 1: Kevin Harland. And it's impossible to know how hard it
Speaker 1: is to even call what you're watching with your eyes
Speaker 1: down on the field in front of you, much less
Speaker 1: double dift the way he did. And there's no other
Speaker 1: play by play guy that ever, the course of every
Speaker 1: football season has four or five of like intense signature moments.
Speaker 1: You see his his voice, chriscend does with that. That
Speaker 1: guy is both games. Uh. It was an interesting game
Speaker 1: because it was while the drama was unfolding in Miami,
Speaker 1: the Chargers are hanging around in the Chiefs. This was
Speaker 1: hardly um their best game. Uh offensively, in fact, they
Speaker 1: managed just three thirty six yards of offense. They were
Speaker 1: out gained by the Chargers just barely. They ran only
Speaker 1: forty eight plays to seventy four by the Chargers, but
Speaker 1: two huge plays. You heard the McColl hardman kickoff return
Speaker 1: that gave them the lead back after they had fallen
Speaker 1: behind early in the third quarter following a Patrick Mahomes interception,
Speaker 1: and then on the next drive, Patrick Mahomes takes the
Speaker 1: ball sticks in and Damian Williams gut and he goes
Speaker 1: eighty four yards, breaking a tackle and then taking off
Speaker 1: down the near sideline for a touchdown. And I thought
Speaker 1: it was just kind of like symbolic and showed once
Speaker 1: again why I liked this Chiefs team's chances next month
Speaker 1: that that sequence, the kick off returned by Hardman, the
Speaker 1: run by Williams it wasn't Patrick Mahomes, and then the
Speaker 1: defense getting the job done closing out the game. This
Speaker 1: is not a one dimensional team and that's why armed
Speaker 1: with a buy and a home game that gets them
Speaker 1: to at least the a f C title game, perhaps
Speaker 1: they even get home field of the Ravens, stumble uh
Speaker 1: that this uh team has a real shot. Well, sometimes
Speaker 1: you need some luck to break what's been an unbelievably
Speaker 1: unlucky and unsuccessful playoff history that the Chiefs have had
Speaker 1: the last what four decades now, and they are so
Speaker 1: close right now to setting up what I think would
Speaker 1: be the bet like just on paper, the most exciting
Speaker 1: a f C title game matchup, like in memory, if
Speaker 1: you get Lamar twenty, you know, a second year m
Speaker 1: v P versus Mahomes, a third year quarterback who's also
Speaker 1: the m v P. Like, I can't think of another
Speaker 1: title game that would have more hype ahead of it.
Speaker 1: Maybe five Saints in oh nine when he was with
Speaker 1: the Vikings kind of reminds me of that and this
Speaker 1: Chief's team, Like you said at the end, like the
Speaker 1: way if they can win games like this where when
Speaker 1: the offense isn't at their best, like I at least
Speaker 1: think they're gonna get to that game. And as a
Speaker 1: football fan, I don't know, I think that would be exciting.
Speaker 1: I think another thing is a football fan. If you
Speaker 1: look at the history of the draft and the linking
Speaker 1: between Eli Manning and Philip Rivers, that Philip Rivers after
Speaker 1: this game, was asked basically about his future in Los
Speaker 1: Angeles and said, you know, this may not happen, but
Speaker 1: we'll find out. Yeah, well, let's hear what Rivers had
Speaker 1: to say. You could say, I think it's that I
Speaker 1: can I can say I gave it up everything I had.
Speaker 1: I mean every week, you know, so you know, and
Speaker 1: and maybe it means an interception on fourth and eighteen
Speaker 1: when you're down town, because I don't care, uh that
Speaker 1: it's gonna say two interceptions, you know, I really don't.
Speaker 1: It's just like I ain't quitting, So I think that.
Speaker 1: I think I think that that um doing it with
Speaker 1: so many guys over you know, fourteen years and going
Speaker 1: to the locker room win or losing. I can say
Speaker 1: that we're sure we felt we felt short but or
Speaker 1: we won you know, uh, but shoot, I couldn't try
Speaker 1: it any harder. So I think two different kind of
Speaker 1: elements there. But I think that's the two things that
Speaker 1: come to my mind. Does that sound to you, Greg
Speaker 1: like a guy who knows, uh a chapter in his
Speaker 1: book is closing here expecting it at least. I don't
Speaker 1: know if anyone there totally knows what like who's going
Speaker 1: to be there and who's not. But I think he's
Speaker 1: reading the tea leaves that this coaching staff might not
Speaker 1: be a huge fan. And he did say if some
Speaker 1: other team will have me, I'll be starting game, you know,
Speaker 1: number two fifteen in a row in the week one
Speaker 1: next year. So as he says, as long as one
Speaker 1: of the thirty two teams sees me as a start,
Speaker 1: I think someone I think someone would have I was
Speaker 1: just gonna mention that it's wild that we could see
Speaker 1: the end of Rivers in with the Chargers and Eli
Speaker 1: Manning in the Giants after the way that traft Day
Speaker 1: thing went down on the same day, many many men
Speaker 1: later in the same day, just because at this point
Speaker 1: with his injury, that what you we've heard no lock
Speaker 1: that we'll see him again. I never heard that Rivers
Speaker 1: to the Colts connection until brand Damn brought it up
Speaker 1: last week. But now I'm seeing it all over the place.
Speaker 1: I hope that has influencer. Oh yeah, that's the way
Speaker 1: I look at it. But I do think he could
Speaker 1: have good football and he's a guy you root for
Speaker 1: and you want to see him have and maybe a
Speaker 1: Montana final act where he goes to a team and
Speaker 1: it's fun and he has one more shot at it. It
Speaker 1: It would stink if he somehow landed with a team
Speaker 1: that you know, you know, pick a team that that
Speaker 1: was not a contender, or in Carolina, Panther just fades, yeah,
Speaker 1: into oblivion. We don't need a Panther's type team. Let's
Speaker 1: hope he lands on his feet somewhere and maybe it's
Speaker 1: still in the charges. You never know. One thing with
Speaker 1: the Chiefs, they Wan Thornhill, who was a safety on
Speaker 1: my All Rookie team, had a knee injury today and
Speaker 1: rap Sheet reported that they think he's gonna miss the
Speaker 1: playoffs with the injury. That's big. Um. All right, let
Speaker 1: us move on now and check in on the NFC
Speaker 1: East see how that all sorted out. Jones calling to
Speaker 1: the football, he fumbles it, he is hit the Flotballttle
Speaker 1: funckle the Eagles afterward and it is picked up a
Speaker 1: Tims recovered not talk the one by Fletcher Cox. Flincher
Speaker 1: Cox then about the one yard one as Daniel Jones
Speaker 1: lost the football for the eleventh time this season too
Speaker 1: many times. Merrill Reese w I P with the callei
Speaker 1: vertil from Merril Reese because the Eagles keep winning. Fletcher
Speaker 1: Cox scooped up Daniel Jones bumble. They put the Eagles
Speaker 1: in control and Boston Scott who Boston Scott had three
Speaker 1: touchdowns and well over a hundred yards from scrimmage and
Speaker 1: place something injured Miles Sanders as the injury ravaged Eagles
Speaker 1: beat the Giants thirty four to seventeen. The win, of course,
Speaker 1: clinches the NFC East title UH four the Eagles, who
Speaker 1: were in the playoffs for the third straight year. It
Speaker 1: was a four and oh close to the season for
Speaker 1: Philadelphia and head coach Doug Pederson, who deserves to me
Speaker 1: Coach of the Year consideration. John Harboll probably get it,
Speaker 1: but what he was able to ring out of a
Speaker 1: roster that's been decimated by injuries week after week after week,
Speaker 1: and it happened again today with Sanders going out, also
Speaker 1: Zach Ertz not playing in this game. Guard Brandon Brooks
Speaker 1: goes out with a shoulder, Sanders had an ankle, and
Speaker 1: they just kept finding ways to make it worth I
Speaker 1: at work, I think it's a combination of Carson Wentz,
Speaker 1: a great young quarterback, kind of uh taking his game
Speaker 1: to the next level, which is what truly great quarterbacks do,
Speaker 1: and a coach who knew how to make the most
Speaker 1: of a roster when it got the crunch time. Chris
Speaker 1: Wesley and I think an Eaguals team that's a veteran
Speaker 1: team with playoff experience, knowing that there was a sense
Speaker 1: of urgency maximizing its roster, you know, and basically whatever
Speaker 1: talent they had left that was healthy scratching its way
Speaker 1: into the postseason by hook or by crook. In juxtaposition
Speaker 1: to the Cowboys who underperformed and let the season slip away. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel like there were different type of Coach of
Speaker 1: the year arguments. There is the John Harbaugh, who I mean,
Speaker 1: Kerson wouldn't be in the top and he wouldn't, But
Speaker 1: I would say this that like what they he had
Speaker 1: guys on the practice squad, like I get it. Also
Speaker 1: under they underachieved for half a season, and they went
Speaker 1: nine and seven and they beat the Giants, Redskins. You know,
Speaker 1: at the end of the stock is absolutely but they
Speaker 1: were one of the most disappointing teams for half of
Speaker 1: this They also right, and they did an unbelievable job
Speaker 1: getting it all together. Don't get me wrong, but their
Speaker 1: defense for the most part has been healthy. They've been
Speaker 1: a very up and down team that got it together,
Speaker 1: beat the Giants a couple of times, beat the reds
Speaker 1: because they were all close games went was been unbelievable.
Speaker 1: I mean, they have been resourceful and it's nice to
Speaker 1: see a team that kind of has the d n
Speaker 1: A of playing well late in the season, no matter
Speaker 1: how that they got to that point, especially after that
Speaker 1: Giants game, it felt like, hey, we act, we got here,
Speaker 1: let's go win and who knows. I mean, they are
Speaker 1: not pretty doing it like they This game was in
Speaker 1: question for vast amounts of time. This is my lock
Speaker 1: and I thought this was the dumbest decision I made
Speaker 1: all year. Here's the stat that purpose that perfectly encapsulate
Speaker 1: what it means to be a franchise quarterback. So Whence
Speaker 1: became the first player today in NFL history to throw
Speaker 1: for four thousand yards in a season without a five
Speaker 1: hundred yard wide receiver, uh, which just tells you a
Speaker 1: couple of things. Tells you the injuries that hit this
Speaker 1: wide receiver group. They lost what their top three wide
Speaker 1: receivers uh, and Wentz staying healthy and continuing to find
Speaker 1: ways to make it work, especially in these last four games.
Speaker 1: Because yes, you can't completely divorce the first three the
Speaker 1: first three quarters of the season from the final quarter.
Speaker 1: But you know this is money time. We we joked
Speaker 1: about it, the season starts after Thanksgiving and but it's
Speaker 1: kind of true. And and now here we are in
Speaker 1: January and Eagles, I know they're probably not a super
Speaker 1: Bowl team, but they're one of the teams I look
Speaker 1: forward to most watching play because I'm wondering if this
Speaker 1: is a Cinderella situation, uh, in a different script from
Speaker 1: the one that led to their Super Bowl win. But again,
Speaker 1: is this a team to to completely count out? Uh? Anyway,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna do it. We'll see who's healthy next week.
Speaker 1: That'll be a big factor. Miles Sanders Brooks I mean
Speaker 1: those zach ERTs. Those are players that they are gonna
Speaker 1: be hoping that are available, and uh, you know if
Speaker 1: they're not. If nothing else, they're the class of the
Speaker 1: NFC East. I think that feels good that you got
Speaker 1: uh Cowboys to get rid of their coach. Probably by
Speaker 1: the time people listen to this, we don't know this,
Speaker 1: but it will happen. Like the Giants, that could be
Speaker 1: the same too. The Redskins, they're changing, like the rest
Speaker 1: of the division is a mess. And even with all
Speaker 1: these injuries, the Eagles end up on I would say
Speaker 1: plenty of Eagles fans would rather the Jason Garrett stay
Speaker 1: in Dallas too. So I'm glad you introduced that by
Speaker 1: saying Carson Wentz is a franchise quarterback, because every quarterback
Speaker 1: in the NFL goes through ups and downs. And we've
Speaker 1: had fans reach out to us on Twitter and say,
Speaker 1: when are you gonna take Carson Wentz to task for
Speaker 1: not being a franchise quarterback. Look, we've seen him play
Speaker 1: at an m v P level. We saw him raise
Speaker 1: this team. Next time he goes through a slump, we
Speaker 1: don't have to have and is this guy a franchise
Speaker 1: quarterback discussion because he's already proven it. I think part
Speaker 1: of it was even Eagles fans being a little salty
Speaker 1: about because Folds is the one that closed up the
Speaker 1: last two scenes, which makes this run, even if it
Speaker 1: ends next week, all the more meaningful that this was
Speaker 1: something Wentz can put his signature on. Alright, so let
Speaker 1: us now move on. You know the Dallas Cowboys, they
Speaker 1: were hoping to steal the division at eight and eight.
Speaker 1: It didn't happen. Let's check in on that game. Snap
Speaker 1: out of the gun on third down, they block it
Speaker 1: up over the middle. Cat first down, Gallop kept his
Speaker 1: feet twenty five up sideline tub five dancing in. Gallup
Speaker 1: walks the dog. Touchdown, Cowboys, What an athletic play. Hen
Speaker 1: Gallup takes it into the end zone for the second time,
Speaker 1: his second touchdown of the game. Brad Sham the sham God,
Speaker 1: Oh crime spree, drop the pen. This is what it
Speaker 1: is more forgett crime spring as the natives. No, No,
Speaker 1: it's to me. It's a decades old cop trauma like
Speaker 1: San Francisco streets, Bring us the Girl, It comes cons
Speaker 1: through the trees. That movie is not getting made in
Speaker 1: twenty night Now it's not nat I mean natives. We
Speaker 1: can't say natives anymore. Well you have so bring the girl.
Speaker 1: Sometimes that still feels off killed. That's natural. There were sacrifices.
Speaker 1: That was a thing. Don't try to erase history, Greg,
Speaker 1: I you you were answering a question. I didn't ask.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't know what you're talking about, but I'd like
Speaker 1: to know what's in your head. I'm not I know
Speaker 1: I was. I was talking about the cong of it.
Speaker 1: I don't even you went. You took in another direction,
Speaker 1: but it was nice. As the kids say a cell phone.
Speaker 1: I have no idea what you're talking about. All right,
Speaker 1: here we go. Dak Press got through four touchdown passes
Speaker 1: Sex for two thousand nineteen breakout wide up Michael gallop Steen.
Speaker 1: Cowboys win a win that meant nothing when the Eagles
Speaker 1: beat the Giants West. This game will further burnish all
Speaker 1: those impressive d v o A analytics for all those
Speaker 1: Cowboy heads out there. But like this game and ultimately
Speaker 1: means nothing. Eight and eight Mark and all covering this game.
Speaker 1: But I did see a Troy Eigman quote where he
Speaker 1: basically said the Cowboys are talented enough to be to
Speaker 1: beat any team in the league, and fans out there
Speaker 1: will say, well, any team can say that they can't
Speaker 1: any team cannot say that they're not talented. The Cowboys
Speaker 1: had the talent to beat any team. They also can
Speaker 1: play as poorly as any team and lose to any team.
Speaker 1: And that's been their season all year long. Yeah, this
Speaker 1: was the anti uh Chiefs, Dolphins Patriots Kevin Harland moment
Speaker 1: because as Dallas was romping over the Redskins, you know,
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter, you could see that the Eagles
Speaker 1: were pulling away and that this win was utterly meaningless
Speaker 1: and to your in West before about just their talent
Speaker 1: and how disappointing their season has been. They're different to
Speaker 1: me than the Eagles because this game showed flashes of
Speaker 1: total dominance from Michael Gallup. I thought Zeke Elliott ran really,
Speaker 1: really well. Dak Prescott had a couple of amazing throws
Speaker 1: and one gallop where he broke away from a Redskins defender,
Speaker 1: ran into another one and stiffed arm the guide to
Speaker 1: the ground, and you just went and when they're like
Speaker 1: the against a couple weeks against the Rams, when they
Speaker 1: explode and blow up and do what they can do
Speaker 1: your look at it, you're looking at a playoff team.
Speaker 1: This I would have taken Dallas at their peak as
Speaker 1: the NFC S team that could have won a playoff game.
Speaker 1: I don't feel that way about the Eagles the same way.
Speaker 1: I just think they're ceiling is different. But the Cowboys
Speaker 1: are so wacky that they're perfectly what you would consider
Speaker 1: an eight and eight team. One week this, one week
Speaker 1: this things are because things are well, They're kind of
Speaker 1: an unusual eight and nate and that most eight and
Speaker 1: eight teams are just kind of mediocre middle link teams
Speaker 1: that win one, lose one, win to lose to. This
Speaker 1: team showed an elite ceiling and then a floor that
Speaker 1: was just like gross finished this season with a plus
Speaker 1: nineties seven point differential, which is what you would expect
Speaker 1: out of a twelve and four type of team, eleven
Speaker 1: and five type of teams. I do wonder just because
Speaker 1: sometimes the how the season ends has an emotional impact,
Speaker 1: especially on such an emotional decision maker like Jerry Jones.
Speaker 1: If Michael gallups big finish will have and Amari Cooper's
Speaker 1: disappointing finish on balance will have any impact on Amari
Speaker 1: Cooper's quest to become, you know, the highest paid wide
Speaker 1: receiver in the league. Because all of this Dak Prescott
Speaker 1: messing around with his contract I don't think has been
Speaker 1: a huge deal because it's not like Dack's going anywhere.
Speaker 1: But if you don't get the deal done now and
Speaker 1: DA's got all the leverage in February, you can only
Speaker 1: franchise one of them. And if you can only franchise
Speaker 1: one of them, Amari Cooper is probably playing elsewhere this year.
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe the Cowboys won't mind that. I don't. You
Speaker 1: can use the transition tag too, we'll see, I mean, yes,
Speaker 1: you get an extra tag this year. That and we
Speaker 1: will you know, will hold off in the Jason Garrett
Speaker 1: job security talk for the most part because tomorrow show
Speaker 1: we'll have a special Monday edition of the podcast Black
Speaker 1: Monday Now excuse me, New Horizons podcast coming up tomorrow,
Speaker 1: and we'll dig in on the fate of Jason Garrett,
Speaker 1: which seems sealed but as of right now he's still employed.
Speaker 1: Uh well, he's not under contract in it now, he contracted.
Speaker 1: Jerry doesn't even have to fire his favorite employee ever.
Speaker 1: All right, let's uh move back to the a f C.
Speaker 1: There was a team that plays in Nashville that had
Speaker 1: a chance to do two things, to go nine and
Speaker 1: seven again but also make the playoffs. Did they get
Speaker 1: it done? During the late game tonight, as Henry gets
Speaker 1: the carry, he's to the fifty, tot to the forty,
Speaker 1: to the thirty, to the twenty, to the ten, to
Speaker 1: the five, to the end. So Henry to the house
Speaker 1: fifty three yards textdown Titans. He's over two hundred, he's
Speaker 1: over fift hundred, and he is the baddest mate in
Speaker 1: NRG Stadium today. Yes, my w g f X, Yes,
Speaker 1: you are a bad man. NFL rushing champion Derrick Henry
Speaker 1: ran for Season I two eleven yards and three touchdowns.
Speaker 1: I guess that hamstrings. Okay. The Titans beat up on
Speaker 1: the Texans reservesteen is the final, the Texans, of course,
Speaker 1: resting many key players ahead of next week's playoff matchup
Speaker 1: with the Bills. The wind clinched a wild card spot
Speaker 1: for the eternally nine and seven Titans. Titans, uh, and
Speaker 1: here's the difference nine and seven was it was a
Speaker 1: bit of a scarlet letter for this team. But this
Speaker 1: team is different right west, This team feels dangerous oh
Speaker 1: that is true. And this team, this game, you know,
Speaker 1: let's call it what it was. The Texans sat stick
Speaker 1: six starters and benched others throughout the game as the
Speaker 1: media carried water all week for for a coach who
Speaker 1: was going to perpetuate half truth as a pep talk
Speaker 1: for his team, and the media just let him do it,
Speaker 1: like they were like, he was really gonna play affs.
Speaker 1: Who didn't let him do it though, Chris Wesley, they
Speaker 1: really didn't. In Houston. They even as early as like Thursday,
Speaker 1: they said, well, they'll probably sit there, don't take down
Speaker 1: West's We bought it. A very a very solid national
Speaker 1: reporter was out at the forefront of the saying he's
Speaker 1: gonna play all his players, and you know, said national
Speaker 1: reporters should have seen through it. You know, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: he does not work. He works three ESPN and he's
Speaker 1: away anyway. This was the game of the triplets. Ryan Tannehill,
Speaker 1: to my mind, who has come back player of the
Speaker 1: year locked up a J Brown who has I think
Speaker 1: beaten Josh Jacobs by a nose at the finish line
Speaker 1: by averaging a hundred eleven yards in a touchdown over
Speaker 1: the last six weeks and Derrick Henry, the NFL's rushing
Speaker 1: leader who went over two hundred yards on a fifty
Speaker 1: three yard touchdown to seal this game. And at that
Speaker 1: point it was the Texans subs in the game. So
Speaker 1: we'll take from it what you will. My thing on
Speaker 1: the on the Titans, they are scary for the Patriots,
Speaker 1: very scary because of this offense, this averaging thirty points
Speaker 1: a game with Tannehill in ten games, uh and Tanney
Speaker 1: will Tannehill a note first quarterback in thirty years since
Speaker 1: Joe Montana to complete seventy of his passes at nine
Speaker 1: yards an attempt. Just a great hyper efficient showing of
Speaker 1: him this year. This team has defense issues and they
Speaker 1: allowed A J. Mccaren to go down the field on
Speaker 1: the opening drive of the game, and they allowed him
Speaker 1: to go down the field on the opening drive of
Speaker 1: the second half. AJ mccaren is not good and he
Speaker 1: held the ball too long in the pocket. That should
Speaker 1: not be allowed to happen. The Titans have cornerback issues,
Speaker 1: they have pass rush issues, and they have kicker issues. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not a great defense. So I think the Patriots,
Speaker 1: you know, think, okay, this is you know a defense
Speaker 1: that made the playoffs that we can actually score on.
Speaker 1: But the Titans offense is so explosive. They've are they
Speaker 1: I know it's a long time ago, but they beat
Speaker 1: the dry I'm out of the Patriots a year ago.
Speaker 1: And I just think when you look at the whole
Speaker 1: playoff field, like if I was power ranking, uh wait,
Speaker 1: a second playoff field. I think the Titans are better
Speaker 1: than the Bills. I think they're better than the Texans.
Speaker 1: I think they're better than the Seahawks. I think they're
Speaker 1: better than the Eagles, and they're probably better than the Patriots.
Speaker 1: And if it's a neutral field, I would say they're
Speaker 1: better than the Patriots. Like, I think the Titans have
Speaker 1: that sort of upside. So this is not a normal
Speaker 1: nine and seven sneak into the wild card type. I
Speaker 1: can definitely see a scenario where Bill Belichick closes this
Speaker 1: season having lost to two former employees. I imagine the
Speaker 1: Desert will be feeling the Patriots win this game. But
Speaker 1: I don't think anybody would be shocked. And you know,
Speaker 1: we'll get into this later, but I don't think anybody
Speaker 1: will be shocked if the Titans advanced beyond the first round,
Speaker 1: just because they're so explosive and and we just saw
Speaker 1: what happened with the Patriots of course getting beat on
Speaker 1: a final drive. That defense is not invincible anymore. That
Speaker 1: that is that is not only the Patriots fall out
Speaker 1: of the bye, they to get a hillacious first round
Speaker 1: track here, right. I think it's because there's nothing you
Speaker 1: can do to coach up against. To me, A J.
Speaker 1: Brown's physical dominance and John who Smith is athleticism and
Speaker 1: Tannehill is playing so great. It's definitely they have weaknesses,
Speaker 1: certainly on defense, but it's a pretty complete team. It's very,
Speaker 1: very different than the other nine and seven Titans teams.
Speaker 1: And you can look at it just by how they've scored,
Speaker 1: how they've played with Tannehill and their point the frenchial
Speaker 1: on the year. I mean, they don't have the profile
Speaker 1: of a nine and seven. I understand people who haven't
Speaker 1: watched the Titans on a weekly basis would be skeptical
Speaker 1: of Tannehill has maybe a one year wonder. But this
Speaker 1: guy is playing quarterback how we want it to be played.
Speaker 1: He is aggressive downfield, he is pulling the trigger on
Speaker 1: tight window throws. He has the athleticism to escape pressure
Speaker 1: and make plays out of the pocket. This is how
Speaker 1: we want swash buck swashbuckling quarterbacks to play football. I
Speaker 1: think it's probably people just can't get past what Tannehill
Speaker 1: was for so long in Miami and that's completely changed.
Speaker 1: And this team may have found a quarterback for as
Speaker 1: a long term answer. And this game coming up, and
Speaker 1: we've laughed at the Titans endlessly on the show, is
Speaker 1: one of the biggest games in franchise history. I mean,
Speaker 1: this could alter everything. You The current perception of the
Speaker 1: Titans for people aren't watching them weekly, would totally changed
Speaker 1: that they're going into England. We are mistaken. Left at
Speaker 1: the Titoons. This is not that team. That's fine, But
Speaker 1: even when they were, even when they were, yeah, even
Speaker 1: when they won a playoff game they've knocked off the Chiefs,
Speaker 1: it didn't stick, right, it didn't stick. You do wonder
Speaker 1: about the priority a little bit having Derrick Henry in there.
Speaker 1: Obviously didn't get tackled on that run because they want
Speaker 1: to get him the rushing record. He had thirty two carries.
Speaker 1: That the history of guys coming off of, you know,
Speaker 1: games where you have more than thirty carries the next
Speaker 1: week is pretty dramatic in terms of a decline, and
Speaker 1: they had him out there because they wanted the rushing
Speaker 1: yards he wasn't taken. He was dishing out more hits
Speaker 1: than he was taken in that second half. Al Right,
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh entered a week seventeen hoping to find a way
Speaker 1: in the playoffs. That didn't happen. They didn't find a
Speaker 1: way to win to close the season. That's a problem
Speaker 1: as well. Offensively, we'll have a chance to put it away.
Speaker 1: Barry from his five drops to snap, turns around his
Speaker 1: draw ball comes loose in the end zone. The Ravens
Speaker 1: recover touched down. The Ravens coming up with the ball
Speaker 1: is Brendan Trawick and falling on it in the end
Speaker 1: zone was Jordan Richards six. The play in the ball game,
Speaker 1: the hayze in the barn. I was waiting, now, what
Speaker 1: are you doing? I was trying to see you scored
Speaker 1: the touchdown. It sounds like Jerry Sandusky and Dennis Pitta
Speaker 1: of w b a L are so used to winning
Speaker 1: that it's just like it just seems tired. Didn't even
Speaker 1: need to put the hay in the barn, not not
Speaker 1: even take it outside. Not a lot of barns in Baltimore,
Speaker 1: by the way, just throwing it out there, but um,
Speaker 1: it gets it gets far me really quick though outside
Speaker 1: but not in the not in the city limits of Baltimore,
Speaker 1: or they're not not many. It's wire season six, it's
Speaker 1: on the farm. It would have been better than the
Speaker 1: way they ended it. A little wire talk for the
Speaker 1: wire button, please. The Ravens rested their starters against the
Speaker 1: Steelers team playing for the post season. It didn't matter Baltimore.
Speaker 1: Baltimore's defense shut down Pittsburgh the final Ravens finished a
Speaker 1: regular season a franchise record best fourteen and two. Up
Speaker 1: next to buy and prep for the divisional round. Greg,
Speaker 1: I'm sure John Harbor relish beating the rival Steelers in
Speaker 1: this fashion. He loved it. They were throwing bombs up
Speaker 1: with r G three on first down. Uh, they're going
Speaker 1: for a fake punt on their own eleven yard line,
Speaker 1: down up nine points in the fourth quarter, and they
Speaker 1: converted it. I loved it. Uh. It was a very risky.
Speaker 1: Why did they do that? They were up nine, it
Speaker 1: was fourth and one from their own eleven. They had it.
Speaker 1: They probably it's one of those automatic checks where they
Speaker 1: saw they just hiked it right to the guy who
Speaker 1: ran for it. It It kept the ball. That's my coach
Speaker 1: of the year. That I mean, that is the coach
Speaker 1: of the year stuff. And he said after the game
Speaker 1: how much the rushing title meant to them? The rushing
Speaker 1: record they broke a record that's been there since nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy eight. I know, people say, okay, a lot of
Speaker 1: inflated numbers in todays NFL. Just the fact that they
Speaker 1: played sixteen games and those teams only played well one
Speaker 1: of them. They almost I think they came in second
Speaker 1: for yards per game and it was very close West
Speaker 1: So actually the team, the team the seventy eight Patriots,
Speaker 1: they had played sixteen games too. Patriots today. Yes, you know,
Speaker 1: it's sorry to uh what is his name? How many
Speaker 1: people even knew they had that record? Sam the Cunningham
Speaker 1: Sam Bam Cunningham back in I think they made the playoffs.
Speaker 1: They Ravens are a defensive team and they did rest
Speaker 1: a lot of key guys, but the secondary was almost
Speaker 1: all in there except for Earl Thomas, their pass rusher
Speaker 1: was in there, and it was it was a treat
Speaker 1: to watch them just destroy Duck Hodges nine nine. I
Speaker 1: don't know. I just like dominance. They're the best team
Speaker 1: I've ever seen since I've been covering football. The Emino
Speaker 1: seven pay Striots would be the two. But they've closed
Speaker 1: the season much stronger than the OH seven page. But
Speaker 1: when you say that r G three was unfurling bombs,
Speaker 1: he had nine yards on this house, so he wasn't
Speaker 1: completely unfailing in completion up to ten deep down the field.
Speaker 1: Just like you could tell they were trying to rub
Speaker 1: it in. The Steelers deflated as a team when they
Speaker 1: realized Duck didn't have it in the Bills game. And
Speaker 1: I commend Greg for having his finger on the pulse
Speaker 1: of both of these teams. Going into this game. You
Speaker 1: said the Ravens backups would take it to the Steelers,
Speaker 1: and they did. And I don't think that you meant
Speaker 1: the Steelers defense has been bad all year, just that
Speaker 1: going into this game there they have been broken by
Speaker 1: their quarterbacks, right, and the and the Ravens running game.
Speaker 1: You know, Gus Edwards a hundred and thirty yards, r
Speaker 1: G three gets fifty on the ground. What a great
Speaker 1: sign without just sitting there, d I just think they're
Speaker 1: the system is so good that they're tough to stop.
Speaker 1: The Patriots when eleven and five their quarterback was Steve Grogan,
Speaker 1: who had touchdowns twenty three picks, completed exactly fifty of
Speaker 1: his passes. The different world they went one and done,
Speaker 1: got wiped out by the Oilers on New Year's Eve.
Speaker 1: So there you go. Uh, anything else in this game? Greg, No,
Speaker 1: I think that's it. T J. Watt with another force
Speaker 1: fumble maybe helps him in his Defensive Player of the
Speaker 1: Year race, especially on a really tough day for Stephane Gumar.
Speaker 1: Theyd have three penalties to t J. Watt, but he
Speaker 1: does that thing where he punches the ball out but
Speaker 1: sometimes he misses it. And he just swung and punched
Speaker 1: r G three eight in the in the biceps so hard.
Speaker 1: I was like, God, that looks like the high like
Speaker 1: a thirty yard penalty. That wasn't even a penalty. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's legal. You can punch guys in the arm if
Speaker 1: they have the ball. You know that should be reviewable. West,
Speaker 1: what do you think punching in the army. I want
Speaker 1: to see a pair of brothers in the history of
Speaker 1: the NFL win Defensive Player of the Year. That would
Speaker 1: be amazing. Big. I think Watt's got a pretty decent
Speaker 1: shot t J. Watt to plenty of teams aside not
Speaker 1: to draft him. Nice good luck to me on what
Speaker 1: well you want to see two brothers win defense player?
Speaker 1: I hope that happens for you. That is a goal
Speaker 1: of mine. I mean I have it's a purely vicarious want.
Speaker 1: Let's move on harm in the polling for you. Poor
Speaker 1: bank car looks for you and so pulls the ball.
Speaker 1: There's defecting and to a point conversion? Five? Yes, who
Speaker 1: Shelky Harris t pass deflection of the season seven secus
Speaker 1: left sixteen dever Dave Logan ko A with the call
Speaker 1: Derek Carr's potential game winning two point conversion temp batted down. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but you know who Shelby Harris who Greg alerted the
Speaker 1: group when it happened that he leads a league in
Speaker 1: those deflections ten on the year. At the line of
Speaker 1: scrimmage sixteen fifteen, the Broncos hold on um beating the
Speaker 1: Raiders in the final game for both teams. Oakland did
Speaker 1: not get the outside help they needed to remember the
Speaker 1: four coin tosses? Did they lose all four coin tosses?
Speaker 1: They were the Steelers lost they needed them, so one
Speaker 1: out of three is not gonna get it done. They
Speaker 1: were one out of four ain't gonna get it done,
Speaker 1: and uh they were. Their fate was decided by early
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter essentially, and um good vibes around
Speaker 1: the Broncos. They finished strong at seven and nine, drew
Speaker 1: lock wins four or five starts. Philip Lindsay becomes the
Speaker 1: first undrafted running back in NFL history to go over
Speaker 1: one thousand yards and back to back seasons to open
Speaker 1: a career. And we also had a charming little anecdote
Speaker 1: from the CBS broadcast team that Vic Faggio, who was
Speaker 1: spending Christmas alone because of the nature of the gig friends.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's one of those two Christmas Eve.
Speaker 1: He watched a Hallmark Christmas movie alone in his easy chair,
Speaker 1: went to the facility, did his coach work, came home,
Speaker 1: maybe grab the beer. I don't know what he's doing,
Speaker 1: sat back down, and then kept binging Hallmark Lifetime movies
Speaker 1: or Hallmark Channel Christmas movies. So not just a nice
Speaker 1: little feel good do you imagine Vic Fongio away from
Speaker 1: the family, got that Christmas cheer anyway, And it's just
Speaker 1: a nice little but what you look puzzled? Well, you know,
Speaker 1: so during the Super Bowl weeks when you get a
Speaker 1: chance to talk to these guys. Fongio was with the
Speaker 1: Niners at the time and I sat down. He was
Speaker 1: at a table with no one else, so I tried
Speaker 1: to sit down and ask him a couple of questions
Speaker 1: in the routes my time to do that. I don't
Speaker 1: think I've ever met a grumpier man in my left
Speaker 1: said on the telcast too. So the last guy in
Speaker 1: the NFL you would ever think would be taken by
Speaker 1: Hallmark Christmas changes. I'm not a man that's looking for
Speaker 1: intellectual stimulation with his entertainment outside of the game, but
Speaker 1: I understand it's a lot going on. Turn it off
Speaker 1: the brain, Yeah, yeah, turn it off the brain. But no,
Speaker 1: this was a nice back half of the season. Obviously
Speaker 1: the Broncos, who were totally lost in space in the
Speaker 1: first half. I believe they won six or eight to
Speaker 1: close the season. And it's still disappointing because of the
Speaker 1: Denver Broncos thought they could uh with Joe Flacco and
Speaker 1: all that. With Joe Flacco fields like a hundred years
Speaker 1: ago that they would be a team that would be
Speaker 1: in contention and perhaps playing next week. That never came
Speaker 1: close to happening. But West, if you squint, you could
Speaker 1: maybe see the Denver Broncos with some pieces Courtland Sutton
Speaker 1: among them, as being a team that can be turning
Speaker 1: it around in a quick fashion of some things go
Speaker 1: their way. I agree, and I don't think they played
Speaker 1: better in the second half of the season. They just
Speaker 1: got luckier in close games, right. This was a game
Speaker 1: where it's kind of abnormal for the year. The Raiders
Speaker 1: more than double their yardage. They were competitive in almost
Speaker 1: every single game they played and lost. The Raiders who
Speaker 1: got had a lot of good fortune. This seventh window
Speaker 1: doesn't make them Bowl eligible. They're gonna face off next
Speaker 1: week on Saturday in the West Bowl Broncos Cowboys Saturday.
Speaker 1: They're just both of those teams can look for it
Speaker 1: the next year. Anything else do you guys need to
Speaker 1: know about this game? Well? No, but I just think
Speaker 1: that we talked about this four coin toss for the Raiders.
Speaker 1: Like the Raiders have had one of the most disappointing
Speaker 1: final six weeks of any team in the league, and
Speaker 1: it starts with that. Jacksonville laws at home and as
Speaker 1: every sandwich by a bunch of other totally deflating results.
Speaker 1: That took a six and four squad that was something
Speaker 1: delightful at one point, and I, I don't know, I
Speaker 1: I but didn't really feel like stunning. When the wheels
Speaker 1: came off, it felt like they were playing but and
Speaker 1: they were a nice story, but this felt more like reality.
Speaker 1: And even so seven and nine for a team a
Speaker 1: disaster and had a year ago, I like, I'm back
Speaker 1: on Gruden and I think that you know, Maya died
Speaker 1: an excellent job with the draft, So there's there's reasons
Speaker 1: to be hopeful. But it's got to be frustrating for
Speaker 1: the people in Oakland to have watched this team spiral
Speaker 1: out of control over the last month. And there was
Speaker 1: a little moment right after the two point conversion failed.
Speaker 1: Gruden didn't even seem that upset. It actually helped. He smiling,
Speaker 1: He gave Paul Gunter put his arm around him, and
Speaker 1: then he gave Derek Carr a really nice handshake, and
Speaker 1: it seemed like a nice moment between the two of them.
Speaker 1: I I imagine they felt pretty good about how the
Speaker 1: season went, that they found some players that they could
Speaker 1: build around that. They have a bunch of draft picks
Speaker 1: coming uh in the first round and my boy Hunter
Speaker 1: renfro greg six or one two. Darren Waller went over
Speaker 1: a hundred yards again. You have, of course Josh Jacobs,
Speaker 1: who the injuries kind of cost him the end of
Speaker 1: the seat. Jonathan back next year with Abram coming back,
Speaker 1: Ahler is gonna win that comeback Player of the Year award?
Speaker 1: I bet, I bet it is, Tannehill. You want to
Speaker 1: talk about narrative based awards. I mean, that's kind of
Speaker 1: what the comeback Player of the Year is. And this
Speaker 1: was a guy on a hard knocks was going to
Speaker 1: uh A a meetings man, Tannehill. Turn the whole Titans
Speaker 1: franchise around there. Theren Waller got what goes over a
Speaker 1: hundred today to go over nineties something catches and eleven
Speaker 1: hundred yards of the season, just pure stats wise, one
Speaker 1: of the best received being tight end seasons of all time.
Speaker 1: And we have no idea what come back player of
Speaker 1: the Year is. It can be anything you wanted to
Speaker 1: be pure stats wise, Tannehill, I have one of the
Speaker 1: most efficient quarterback seasons. Why do you hate Darren Waller?
Speaker 1: I don't. I'm just saying it's way more impressive to
Speaker 1: turn a franchise around into a cruise stats. You have
Speaker 1: a good cruise stats, screw stats. Both of them are crew.
Speaker 1: All right, Can you at least give me the Dann
Speaker 1: Waller is a triumph of the human spirit. Guy, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna give you more than that. I wrote an article
Speaker 1: a month ago saying he's comeback player of the year.
Speaker 1: But things change and Tannehill is the guy. You gotta
Speaker 1: give us a link dot com slash westling. Well that no,
Speaker 1: that takes us to a jumble of articles and we
Speaker 1: have to search through that. So all right, let's see.
Speaker 1: Let's move. Let us now from like that. You sit
Speaker 1: three for three today from the right ash high snap
Speaker 1: pulled down by down. The kick is up and the
Speaker 1: kick is good. Freddie painetto ten seconds to go and
Speaker 1: the Bears back in front, leading one nineteen. I love Jeff, Johnny,
Speaker 1: I kids the pinetto. That's good again. That's pros bro.
Speaker 1: That's a pro bro w BBM with the call you
Speaker 1: drilled u pineto. Eddie's fourth field goal of the game
Speaker 1: came from twenty two yards out with ten seconds to play.
Speaker 1: They gave the Bears stop Bears nineteen win over the Vikings,
Speaker 1: who rested their regulars ahead of the playoffs. West. If
Speaker 1: you would have told Bears fans in August that their
Speaker 1: team won their final game of the season with a
Speaker 1: field goal the seconds to play, they probably would have
Speaker 1: guessed they had a parade coming up down the street
Speaker 1: of Chicago. Chicago, Chicago. Didn't quite work Main Street in Chicago,
Speaker 1: famous Main Street Park. It didn't quite work out that way. No,
Speaker 1: And I think it's a major upset that Eddie Pannero
Speaker 1: last the entire season. Is the kicker it is he
Speaker 1: hung on. It sounds like they were afraid to go
Speaker 1: down that road of trying to replace the guy mid season,
Speaker 1: so they stuck through it because Pinero hardly had a
Speaker 1: great season. No, but there were more questions asked about
Speaker 1: the quarterback position and whether he was gonna be yanked
Speaker 1: than whether the kicker was going to be covered. And
Speaker 1: I feel like this was a fitting end here for Mitchell.
Speaker 1: Fourth and nine game in the balance. All the Vikings
Speaker 1: have to do to get a win with Sean Mannion
Speaker 1: as your quarterback and Mike Boon against all the Bears
Speaker 1: starters is uh, stop Drabinsky on the fourth and nine.
Speaker 1: But Drabinsky makes a nice throw on a rollout, and
Speaker 1: now he's going to somehow like convince the entire organization
Speaker 1: because of that throw that we're bringing it back. Please,
Speaker 1: I'd say this. I think that was in the Gabbard zone,
Speaker 1: by the way, you know, against the Vikings backups. It
Speaker 1: was not a great performance. I think this every year,
Speaker 1: but I can't take any team seriously as a super
Speaker 1: Bowl contender if they entered the season with Seawan Mannion
Speaker 1: as their number two quarterback. This gout the third stringer
Speaker 1: at best. And that's been the case since he entered
Speaker 1: the league. Every time he plays, I'm thinking, how does
Speaker 1: this guy sell people on him as a backup? How
Speaker 1: about Mitch Drabinsky is the backup? He should be a
Speaker 1: back I think I hope that they should know that correctly.
Speaker 1: I don't want to hear an off season of hoop
Speaker 1: law about we're working on his footwork and Mitchell trip
Speaker 1: Bisky's had his screwed back on straight leave me alone.
Speaker 1: It is, well, they're not coming after you personally. Well,
Speaker 1: I don't know, but this is a this is a
Speaker 1: nice day where you get to you know, and we've talked.
Speaker 1: You get to wave farewell to a couple of teams
Speaker 1: that desperately need to get out of our world, and
Speaker 1: this is one of them. Go away. I don't want
Speaker 1: to hear anything else from the Bears for many, many weeks,
Speaker 1: or the Bears actually take a break from the Bears. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we could certainly take a break. And they have a
Speaker 1: decision to make. Obviously, this was a second overall pick.
Speaker 1: It was his third season, but there's so much ugly
Speaker 1: baggage attached to it. Um after him, it's almost like,
Speaker 1: if he's not showing you and you don't want that
Speaker 1: to be reminded forever and have this guy in your building,
Speaker 1: just start fresh. I imagine that's what's gonna happen. But
Speaker 1: we'll we'll see how it plays out. Uh, it might
Speaker 1: play out with they bring in an Andy Dalton type
Speaker 1: and Ryan Fitzpatrick and there's a quarterback portion m big
Speaker 1: bearded man in the streets of Chicago. Let's move Michigan Avenue, Michigan.
Speaker 1: After looking for amazing Michigan Avenue with the great architecture
Speaker 1: and one of the great cities, the second city, Go ahead, Aerica,
Speaker 1: you know, Horry. Why wouldn't they be play Clockett for
Speaker 1: shotgun from men jew I went on the river tour.
Speaker 1: The architecture is gonna be again. Frank Frangie and Tony
Speaker 1: Boselli with the call like you need to hear. A
Speaker 1: Jaguars highlight in Week seventeen w O k V with
Speaker 1: the score with the call there, Gardner, me and show
Speaker 1: Uh turned in a really solid performance through for two nine,
Speaker 1: five and three touchdowns, leading the Jaguars to a thirty
Speaker 1: eight to twenty win over the Colts. Means Shoe stands
Speaker 1: to have you know, stands a serious chance to be
Speaker 1: ja Sxonville's opening day starter in the question is, of
Speaker 1: course who will be his coach again? New Horizons Monday
Speaker 1: coming up. But this is you can avoid this this
Speaker 1: subplot around Jacksonville right now. Rap sheet reported early Sunday.
Speaker 1: And this is always a weird thing whenever I see
Speaker 1: this out there that today's game, the week seventeen meaningless
Speaker 1: game against it also ran Colts team could play a
Speaker 1: role in Jacksonville decision. Jacksonville's decision, well, they beat up
Speaker 1: on a Colts team that packed it in a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks ago. So now do you feel better about
Speaker 1: duck run. I just never understood that. I hope that's
Speaker 1: not actually what the front office is thinking. The same
Speaker 1: thing was happening in Cleveland. I agree that it's very
Speaker 1: awkward to suggest that this game of all games would
Speaker 1: be the the referendum on Doug Marone or anyone else
Speaker 1: attached to the Jaguars. And it was. I thought it
Speaker 1: was Minshew's best game and it showed again why he
Speaker 1: fit in this sort of mostly broken down offense much
Speaker 1: better than Foals. And it's not a knock on Foles,
Speaker 1: but he can he can move and he can escape,
Speaker 1: and he he needs to do that in this in
Speaker 1: this in this attack, to me, I like the Colts
Speaker 1: geez six and four at one point they have been
Speaker 1: absolutely they are like the Raiders have just been lacerated
Speaker 1: down the stretch. And I I left this game with
Speaker 1: with additional questions about Jacoby Pursett, who walked into a
Speaker 1: couple of sacks. Um had a terrible fumble in this
Speaker 1: game that really pivoted the contest in Jacksonville's favor, And
Speaker 1: you know, I know they're banged up. Marlon Mack looks great.
Speaker 1: I think he's the best player on the field for
Speaker 1: the Colts today. And you know, but you're here's a
Speaker 1: perfect example. And we've actually you've mentioned it Mark before,
Speaker 1: Doug Peterson. You know, Frank Reich, you know he leaves
Speaker 1: and as Doug Peterson a guy who can do it
Speaker 1: on his own. Well, Doug Peterson, with the true franchise quarterback,
Speaker 1: was able to see their way through the wilderness. Whereas
Speaker 1: the Colts with Jake Brisket, and I know Brisket had
Speaker 1: the knee injury. When the injuries hit the Colts and
Speaker 1: they were a team at the crossroads, they went a
Speaker 1: different direction. It's very easy to end up going the
Speaker 1: direction the Colts are going, which is why I think
Speaker 1: what Peterson and Wentz did together was so special. You know,
Speaker 1: they what team has been through more. You lose Andrew
Speaker 1: Luck in August and you have to turn around and
Speaker 1: they they look to me like one of the feistier
Speaker 1: a f C clubs for a while. But the injuries
Speaker 1: have taken such a toll in their defense has given
Speaker 1: up in the last four games thirty four and then
Speaker 1: today whatever the point total was today and they they
Speaker 1: had a nice game against the Panthers sandwiched in there.
Speaker 1: But that's ugly. So that's you know, that's not the
Speaker 1: way you want to season of one of the best
Speaker 1: performances about the Jaguars offense all year. Take note that
Speaker 1: Leonard four Nette was not on the field, right. I'm
Speaker 1: just do not make him the focal point of you're
Speaker 1: off now, and he won't be after that. He's under contract.
Speaker 1: But when he tweeted out, you know yes on Saturday
Speaker 1: that you know he hopes uh a lot of the
Speaker 1: his teammates are back with him next year, I was thinking,
Speaker 1: I don't know if Leonard Fournette's back next right. Then again, um,
Speaker 1: it was a big win because you know, you got
Speaker 1: the sixth win. That's only the second time in seven
Speaker 1: years under David Codwall you got the six wins. So
Speaker 1: that's a big that's a big euston. Why not bring
Speaker 1: the whole gang back together? Great rookie class and DJ
Speaker 1: Chark became a star this year. They do have some
Speaker 1: bright spots. That's fat dog, that's fat Josh Allen gets
Speaker 1: to the quarterback. They got some things, all right, let
Speaker 1: us move on off. You know, right around the time
Speaker 1: that the Patriots fell on the Dolphins, this went down snap,
Speaker 1: the Winston dropping straight back bros intercepted Dean Jones and
Speaker 1: the ball game is over. And that's thirty picks from
Speaker 1: pearl Boy Winston and Jamus. Winston throws his thirtieth interception
Speaker 1: on the first playoff overtime and Atlanta wins the game two.
Speaker 1: Westerham of the Callums Dave Archer that called James was
Speaker 1: an our boy. You know that as patronizing Dave Archer
Speaker 1: w z g C. Deon Jones intercepts Jameis Winston on
Speaker 1: the first play of ot returns to twenty seven yards
Speaker 1: of the house. Falcons win the sixth victory and eight
Speaker 1: games to close the season. We learned Saturday that Dan
Speaker 1: Quinn would keep his job. That's correct, right. That wasn't
Speaker 1: like a really sad dream that I had over the weekend.
Speaker 1: I believe that was That's real. Yes, thank you, uh,
Speaker 1: And now Quinn and the Falcons can look to the
Speaker 1: offseason with some optimism after the one in seventh start. Uh. Winston, Yes,
Speaker 1: he did it, he did it. He did it. He
Speaker 1: did at the first quarterback ever to go thirty thirty.
Speaker 1: Were on that four or five weeks ago. By the way,
Speaker 1: if that became a national story. Yes, um, not that
Speaker 1: he did thirty thirty thirty, but that I was on it. Yes,
Speaker 1: but Winston becomes the first Tampa Bay quarterback to pass
Speaker 1: for five thousand yards in the season. But they don't
Speaker 1: go anywhere again with Winston as their quarterback and Bruce
Speaker 1: arians Uh who that nobody had a worse final two
Speaker 1: weeks than Jamis maybe Duck Hodges, but like Jamis Winston
Speaker 1: h Entering week sixteen, there was a report out there that, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: the Bucks are ready, it's a in business with Jameis Winston.
Speaker 1: And then he goes out and absolutely craps the bed.
Speaker 1: In Week sixteen and seventeen, he threw six and NFL
Speaker 1: record seventh pick six. They lose both games, and it
Speaker 1: makes the decision with um, you know a Winston up
Speaker 1: for a new deal really difficult. He played the exact
Speaker 1: same those two weeks is the entire year though, if
Speaker 1: not better, I mean with worst receivers. That's that's what
Speaker 1: he is. That's siminitely not true. He was doing special things,
Speaker 1: uh in the that little three week run up to
Speaker 1: the last two weeks. But he's throwing two picks a
Speaker 1: week every week. They lost buzzer like, that's this is
Speaker 1: what they are. If they somehow fooled themselves into that
Speaker 1: that stretch was any different, they just had a couple
Speaker 1: of Yeah, the last two weeks took a toll in arians.
Speaker 1: Let's hear what Arians had to say. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: that's just there's so much good you look at, there's
Speaker 1: so much good, and there's so much outright terrible, out
Speaker 1: right terrible. Do you know what? I think it hurt
Speaker 1: Arians so much because he knows if they re up
Speaker 1: with Winston, he's gonna enter next season with that scarlet ratio.
Speaker 1: People are gonna think of him as the thirty thirty quarterback.
Speaker 1: They already think of him as this brilliant artist whose
Speaker 1: medium is turnovers. Like he's he's a fun quarterback to watch,
Speaker 1: and he leaves his fingerprints all over football games. But
Speaker 1: it's sloppy art. He's not a winner, he doesn't mean
Speaker 1: just has not been a winning team with him as
Speaker 1: their starter for four straight years. Super productive in one way,
Speaker 1: but what what team is winning games when your quarterback
Speaker 1: is turning over? It's not just the it's the fumbles too,
Speaker 1: It's not just even the interceptions. I mean he thinks
Speaker 1: he has leveraged. We'll see. Jamis Winston thinks he's I
Speaker 1: think that he would get that. Not only that, like
Speaker 1: that he would command a big salary that he's definitely
Speaker 1: gonna get tagged because there's no way they could afford
Speaker 1: to pay him. Doesn't not depend on who else becomes available,
Speaker 1: who's out there and what. Yeah, that is a big factor,
Speaker 1: but Tempo will have to make the decision before that. Well,
Speaker 1: we'll have plenty of his history. He's he's a person
Speaker 1: the owner would have to sign off on. Yea. And
Speaker 1: by the way, on the bus, we know that they do.
Speaker 1: I misspoke. Winston has been here five years now, and
Speaker 1: their record in those five seasons six and ten, nine
Speaker 1: and seven, five and eleven, five and eleven and seven
Speaker 1: and nine, So I mean, I get. I mean, well,
Speaker 1: I would say that a lot of you know, who
Speaker 1: else has been there that long. The general manager who
Speaker 1: continues to uh, you know, stick around with the team
Speaker 1: when they're not growing. The Quinn the Quinn decision, you
Speaker 1: like seeing some continuity. I think it really meant that
Speaker 1: they were keeping general manager Thomas Demtrof. I have a
Speaker 1: feeling I feel like if they were gonna blow it up.
Speaker 1: They were gonna blow the whole thing up. But it
Speaker 1: is interesting to me, like the way you measure teams
Speaker 1: and players is in sixteen game increments, and they went
Speaker 1: seven and nine in the last two years. So it's
Speaker 1: just it's an oddity of football to me that because
Speaker 1: they got to seven and nine this way, that's somehow better,
Speaker 1: But it's not. It's no better. There's no correlation between
Speaker 1: finishing strong in the next season period like it almost
Speaker 1: never happens. In fact, the Falcons are a great example.
Speaker 1: So ultimately, UH team that entered two years ago with
Speaker 1: a roster we all said was maybe the best roster
Speaker 1: in the entire NFL has gone seven and nine two
Speaker 1: street years. I think we know this about demotrof after
Speaker 1: all these years. He can build an offense, but what
Speaker 1: can he do about his defense? And it Jerry Jones is,
Speaker 1: you know, potentially susceptible to making an emotional decision at coach.
Speaker 1: I think Arthur Blank, who has been extremely loyal to
Speaker 1: people in the past, is tied ending we should have
Speaker 1: had a Super Bowl trophy with this organ with this regime,
Speaker 1: and they want a happier ending. Uh No, happy endings
Speaker 1: in the final game for the Rams at the Colosseum, well,
Speaker 1: actually kind of a happy ending, but that's it. The
Speaker 1: season's over. Let's check in on that game. Nail that one.
Speaker 1: Get the fitish out of wind the end zone. It's
Speaker 1: Tyler Hi with the December He'll never forget touchdown l
Speaker 1: A seventeen. The Rams are back on the highside. That's
Speaker 1: our boy. See, that's how you use our boy. J
Speaker 1: Blong with the call for KSPN. Congrats to j B
Speaker 1: and his wife just had their second baby. He's right
Speaker 1: back to work. Procreating bro Tyler Higbee and Robert Woods
Speaker 1: called touchdown passes from Jared Goff in the fourth quarter. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Higbee was a monster his final month, and the Rams
Speaker 1: said goodbye to the cal Seeum with a over the Cardinals.
Speaker 1: No playoffs of the Rams, but their third straight winning season.
Speaker 1: That's not nothing, West Uh. This wasn't how the Rams
Speaker 1: envisioned it ending, but their offense put mostly good tape
Speaker 1: out there in the final month. That's something to build on.
Speaker 1: I think that's how they probably want to look at it.
Speaker 1: That our offense finally jelled down the stretch and I
Speaker 1: don't know what's gonna happen with Todd Gurley next year.
Speaker 1: That is a huge question. But I do know that
Speaker 1: they can't allow Tyler Higbee to just be a blocker
Speaker 1: again the rest of his career. He's got to be
Speaker 1: a big part of the passing game. The way he's played,
Speaker 1: it's not just the numbers. He's looked good doing it.
Speaker 1: And then the Cardinals side, Kyler Murray didn't do enough
Speaker 1: for me for Rookie of the Year. He he just
Speaker 1: wasn't special enough compared to other quarterbacks. But you know,
Speaker 1: another game where he made a slew of impressive throws.
Speaker 1: He also made some turnover worthy plays. Overall, I think
Speaker 1: if you're a Cardinals fan, you're still pretty happy with
Speaker 1: the way the season ended. He put together a few
Speaker 1: few good games, and he looks like a unique talent.
Speaker 1: Let's not forget about the Mike Silver report mentioning that
Speaker 1: Wade Phillips future in question, some issues potentially with the
Speaker 1: front office, some movement there. So you know, I think
Speaker 1: there's a very intriguing, interesting off season coming up for
Speaker 1: they had their rise and they stalled out a little bit,
Speaker 1: and now they have to figure out what comes next. Alright,
Speaker 1: Two notes in this team. Larry Fitzgerald says will take
Speaker 1: a little time before making a decision, but he also
Speaker 1: said this was the one of the most fun years
Speaker 1: he's played with the Cardinals. I think that has a
Speaker 1: lot to do with Kyler Murray and Cliff Kingsbury and
Speaker 1: Chandler Jones. Had a couple of passes defense, tackle for
Speaker 1: lost quarterback hit, but did not have a act, which
Speaker 1: allowed Shack Barrett to lead the league in sex. Looks
Speaker 1: like he wasn't just kind of a flashing the solid,
Speaker 1: solid player, good athlete you're happy for. I am extremely
Speaker 1: happy brother has won the Defensive Players of the Year.
Speaker 1: I want to be with Mark in in Miami when
Speaker 1: they announced the Defensive Player of the Year because it's
Speaker 1: the excitement that's gonna spend all our time together, literally
Speaker 1: every day every week. What was that, Mark? Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: he wants he wants it bad. All right, let's move on.
Speaker 1: Do you have two points? Donald? Play acts it again,
Speaker 1: flips it in the end song Tamison Crowders got it.
Speaker 1: That's a chet touchdown off the play acts and fakes
Speaker 1: Sam Donald a little flip over the middle to Jamison Crowder.
Speaker 1: He makes the touchdown catch and the Jets take the
Speaker 1: lead back and they have scored the first touchdown of
Speaker 1: the game about nineties seconds gone by on the fourth
Speaker 1: form Bob was Shusan w e p n with the call. Yeah,
Speaker 1: not exactly a shootout in Orchard Park, Sam Donald Uh
Speaker 1: to James crowd Crowder was the only touchdown on Sunday. Uh.
Speaker 1: The end result of thirteen six win for the Jets
Speaker 1: over the Bills backups. The Jets finish the season like
Speaker 1: the Falcons, seven and nine after one and seven start
Speaker 1: that was so bad. You may recall that there are
Speaker 1: reports Adam Gaze he fired mid season, he'll be back.
Speaker 1: It sounds like, uh, that didn't happen. Uh. The Jets
Speaker 1: actually finished with their this is bad. Their best record
Speaker 1: in a season since two thousand fifteen, so I guess progress. Um.
Speaker 1: A cake schedule certainly helped in the second half of
Speaker 1: the Jets. But yeah, six and two after one and seven,
Speaker 1: that that is a nice way to close, even if
Speaker 1: it means they're draft pick isn't as good. I don't
Speaker 1: care as much about that stuff because you know, the
Speaker 1: drafts are crapshoot. Anyway, Anyway, on the Bills side, UH,
Speaker 1: the number one goal was staying hell they couldn't achieved that.
Speaker 1: Starting cornerback Levi Wallace was ruled out after suffering a
Speaker 1: pretty nasty looking ankle interception injury. On an interception offensive
Speaker 1: lineman Tie He aggravated an ankle injury and his first
Speaker 1: action since week eleven. So I was like, the only
Speaker 1: thing the Bills were trying to do is stay healthy.
Speaker 1: Of course, they're locked in uh for a playoff spot
Speaker 1: at the five seed. They couldn't do it, so hopefully
Speaker 1: those guys are able to play. I haven't gotten updates
Speaker 1: on where they're at. Josh Allen played one series and
Speaker 1: there really isn't much more to say about this game.
Speaker 1: It does feel to me and this is not the
Speaker 1: first time this has happened that the New York press
Speaker 1: has it in for gays to some degree. It feels
Speaker 1: like there are some sort of weekly stuff coming out
Speaker 1: that can paints them in a bad light. And I
Speaker 1: don't know, we talked about this is this is not
Speaker 1: the worst coaching coaching job the Jets have ever experienced
Speaker 1: that I don't know didn't take a step forward, and
Speaker 1: that's his job one, So that's the biggest concern. But yes,
Speaker 1: as Dan said, we'll have all offseason to tuck about
Speaker 1: the Jets. All right, let us move on to the
Speaker 1: Cleveland brown Dalton in the shotgun. On third down and
Speaker 1: goal from the five, the Bengals leading by six points.
Speaker 1: Dalton dropped back to throw from the twelve, looking around
Speaker 1: and scrambling out to the left, being chased handy trying
Speaker 1: to sprints from the part of yes, yes, if this
Speaker 1: is Andy Dalton's final game in a Cincinnati Bengals uniform.
Speaker 1: He has a touchdown pass and a touchdown run. Dave
Speaker 1: Horde Dave lap him. That was Dave lap him getting pumped.
Speaker 1: I love it, Dan Horde and Dave lap Dan Horde
Speaker 1: wave lap him, as we used to say, the lap dog,
Speaker 1: the lap dog. He got excited there on Dalton's run. Yes,
Speaker 1: Andy Dalton did throw for a touchdown ran for a
Speaker 1: score in what was likely his farewell as Cincinnati's franchise quarterback.
Speaker 1: It was a thirty three win for the for the
Speaker 1: Bengals over the Browns. That's a two and fourteen finished
Speaker 1: for the Bengals, who will get the number one overall
Speaker 1: pick and most likely that Joe Burrow guy who seems
Speaker 1: pretty good Anyway, the Cleveland Browns made headlines after the
Speaker 1: game when they fired Freddie Kitchens after one season on
Speaker 1: the sideline six and ten. The Browns were let's start there, Mark.
Speaker 1: You know, it was last March. I believe it was
Speaker 1: that we were at the owners meetings and we had
Speaker 1: that sit down with Freddie Kitchens, and he was delightful.
Speaker 1: He was a guy's guy. He was a dude that
Speaker 1: you know, he just seemed like a guy you could
Speaker 1: go get a stake with and have some drinks and
Speaker 1: he'd be fun and and hopefully that would be something
Speaker 1: that translated as a head coach, uh, that good old
Speaker 1: boy type vibe. But it certainly did not. It wasn't.
Speaker 1: It wasn't a bad move by the Browns ultimately, wasn't.
Speaker 1: I think they had to do this. And I feel
Speaker 1: like he lost this locker room a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 1: if not, if not previous to that. And I couldn't
Speaker 1: agree with you more that One of the things that's
Speaker 1: so disappointing as a longtime Browns fan is that I
Speaker 1: kind of felt like the drive to get Freddy Kitchens
Speaker 1: and the way he sort of has carried himself that
Speaker 1: he might have been in a way from another angle,
Speaker 1: the perfect guy too could have been right exactly like,
Speaker 1: and it went in completely the opposite direction. I think
Speaker 1: it's a it's a case study in when you know,
Speaker 1: if you look at his resume, he really didn't have
Speaker 1: a lot in his past suggesting that he was going
Speaker 1: to be a successful head coach. It was, you know,
Speaker 1: high the Peter principal hired above his skill set for
Speaker 1: where he's at right now, and then on top of it,
Speaker 1: trying to be one of these guys that calls plays
Speaker 1: while trying to manage an NFL game at the same time,
Speaker 1: and kind of always had an aura of being in
Speaker 1: over his head from the very first game until today,
Speaker 1: when you there's no excuse with the talent on this
Speaker 1: roster uh to lose to the Bengals or to lose
Speaker 1: half the games they lost. And you know, if you
Speaker 1: look at the Rob Kazinski is just a few coaches ago,
Speaker 1: a one year, one and done guy. And the Browns
Speaker 1: under the Haslems have had so many coaches at this
Speaker 1: point and tried so many different types of coaches, but
Speaker 1: they've never really had the veteran guy that has come
Speaker 1: with a track record from somewhere else, and I would
Speaker 1: imagine that that's the what they're attracted to right now,
Speaker 1: is not We'll see it could be we'll get into
Speaker 1: that down the road, but you know they want the
Speaker 1: opposite of what they've just experienced in Freddie Kitchens, which
Speaker 1: is a young, in over his head guy trying to
Speaker 1: figure it out. Good guy, yes, but the right guy
Speaker 1: to be head coach of this super players. No. It
Speaker 1: seemed like they settled on Kitchens last January against their
Speaker 1: better judgment, because they just decided what he did with
Speaker 1: Baker and Mayfield and setting a new rookie record for
Speaker 1: touchdowns and playing really well down the stretch, we just
Speaker 1: want to disrupt that. But that's yeah, that was emotional,
Speaker 1: terrible leadership, and he was so genuine is to seem
Speaker 1: almost guileless. And then when you see reports Sunday night
Speaker 1: that he thought he had the backing of the Brown's
Speaker 1: front office, that is guileless to not even know that
Speaker 1: as undisciplined as your team was all year, the lack
Speaker 1: of priorities every week, that it wasn't about anying and losing,
Speaker 1: it was about so many other things that you were
Speaker 1: so guileless to not know that you you were going
Speaker 1: to be out on the street after this. Well, he
Speaker 1: he had someone who hired him and John Dorsey that
Speaker 1: maybe he believed at his back. He had an owner
Speaker 1: who took over in what two thousand twelve was the
Speaker 1: first season, and they're gonna be hiring their seventh head coach.
Speaker 1: So this isn't on Freddy Kitchens. Freddy Kitchens helped their
Speaker 1: offense improved last year as a position coach. Like, this
Speaker 1: is the organization, This is ownership just having another huge
Speaker 1: swing in a miss. There's nothing else other than That's
Speaker 1: there else And I think any candidate has to look
Speaker 1: at this ownership group and have questions about this job
Speaker 1: versus no matter the talent, because talent coming still a
Speaker 1: job that would be appetizing, I think to a coach
Speaker 1: because of the talent level on the roster, which remains significant.
Speaker 1: It is, but I mean, no one they've had two
Speaker 1: coaches last for more than two seats. But Brown's coach
Speaker 1: is ugly as well. Yeah, that is you know that
Speaker 1: seems cursed at this point. I think one thing also
Speaker 1: to remember it seems so long ago now after another
Speaker 1: NFL season that in our league. Um, but how great
Speaker 1: Baker was, especially closing last season. So it might seem
Speaker 1: crazy now that they said, oh, we want to keep
Speaker 1: this guy in the building. But Baker was like ruling
Speaker 1: the world a little bit by the end of last season,
Speaker 1: and it was like people, but no, maybe from that's
Speaker 1: from our advantage point, that's it's also when you're unsuccessful,
Speaker 1: profoundly unsuccessful, as the Browns have been, when Baker does
Speaker 1: what he did to close out that season, I get
Speaker 1: how it happened. I totally do too, and I, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe I was the guy less one, but I thought
Speaker 1: that it was gonna work, and I had a good
Speaker 1: feeling about him as a person in general. And you know,
Speaker 1: nine d five percent of these things in Cleveland go
Speaker 1: totally raging lye South. So chapter new no, just another
Speaker 1: chapter of the same. It was sort of the easy
Speaker 1: decision to make. It was the one where you couldn't
Speaker 1: be faulted at the time for it, because if Baker
Speaker 1: had struggled like he did this year under a different coach,
Speaker 1: they would have blamed that on on ownership. To that
Speaker 1: there end point is that Baker ended up with twenty
Speaker 1: two picks, twenty two touchdowns, and one picks this year
Speaker 1: and took a pretty big step back around and is
Speaker 1: onto his fourth head coach. The offense was significantly worse
Speaker 1: four Well, I mean, I'm counting Greg Williams as a
Speaker 1: head coach during his I mean, well, it's it's the culture.
Speaker 1: You know, you've been back. It's funny because there's a
Speaker 1: there's a brown reporter. Well there's a brown reporter out
Speaker 1: there that that asked around, like some various people, who
Speaker 1: would they want and someone seriously mentioned Greg Williams. Not
Speaker 1: that they're gonna do it, but because that's how different
Speaker 1: of a sea change they want in their leader versus
Speaker 1: what Freddy Kitchens was doing this season, which we don't
Speaker 1: know of what was going on behind the scenes. And
Speaker 1: that is just a quick peek at New Horizons Monday,
Speaker 1: which you'll catch in full more like Nuclear Morning late uh.
Speaker 1: It will go up late Monday, and we'll have a
Speaker 1: full update on every all the comings and goings on.
Speaker 1: What is a somber day in the league. Congratsandy Dalton
Speaker 1: putting up thirty three points for him, and I hope
Speaker 1: he lands in a good spot too. And our boy
Speaker 1: Freddy Kitchens, I hope he lands he won't land as
Speaker 1: a head coach anywhere, But hopefully these guys get paychecks somewhere.
Speaker 1: The hasms are going to be paying him millions and
Speaker 1: millions of dollars for the next three years. They're paying
Speaker 1: like fo coaches right now. So what did Chuck begano say?
Speaker 1: They can't kill you. They can fire you, but they
Speaker 1: can't eat you. Freddy Kitchens will be all right, he
Speaker 1: might be happier doing something else. All right, boys, what
Speaker 1: what did we learn today? We learned so much? Uh
Speaker 1: and just and just remember again we got the playoffs
Speaker 1: coming up. That's fun. Mark twenty teams history, Bye bye bye,
Speaker 1: what harsh farewell to them all? See in late July.
Speaker 1: And now we got twelve dogs ready to rumble. Okay,
Speaker 1: and we we greg we achieve something here. We covered
Speaker 1: every game in the regular seas. We did it all.
Speaker 1: We covered every single game. I don't know if we
Speaker 1: ever did that before. Some games fell through the cracks
Speaker 1: and past seasons, whether it's a Saturday or holiday, we
Speaker 1: got every single game. That's an achievement. By the round,
Speaker 1: I thought you were gonna say that. We got on
Speaker 1: our network. Finally Friday, the Around the NFL Show Hubba.
Speaker 1: When are we three Pacific sixth eastern or three thirty?
Speaker 1: It's in that hour, does it matter? Set your DVR
Speaker 1: are on three straight Fridays. It's gonna be replayed up
Speaker 1: the wazoo. Set your DVRs for are you to watch it?
Speaker 1: It will keep us glorious. If you like this podcast,
Speaker 1: keep us on the air, and keep us employed by
Speaker 1: watching our Around the NFL show on NFL Network. We've
Speaker 1: never had our own show before, so we're very excited
Speaker 1: about that. And Yes, New Horizons Monday UH spectacular podcast
Speaker 1: on Monday. Sources confirming it is three o'clock Pacific six eastern.
Speaker 1: Some people like to call it excellent, so make sure
Speaker 1: again set your DVRs. UH. New Horizons Monday podcast lands tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Check it out. Thank you to everybody for listening UH
Speaker 1: and following along all season. We're heading towards the home
Speaker 1: stretch now January football is coming your way. Dan Hanson
Speaker 1: signing up for the Quiet Storm, the Mailman, the Old Boss,
Speaker 1: Rick Hollywood, and the entire gang behind the Glass until Monday,
Speaker 1: m