Speaker 1: Be Around the NFL Podcast, doesn't two Purple History History
Speaker 1: is Welcome to the Around the NFL Podcast, the first
Speaker 1: ever Week eighteen preview. Rejoice. Dan Hands is here with
Speaker 1: Greg Rosenthal and Mark Sessler. My heroes get excited. Hey,
Speaker 1: I don't care if it's the first week eighteen or not. Like,
Speaker 1: just it's worth rejoicing that we've hit the end of
Speaker 1: the regular season. This is this is a flash point.
Speaker 1: We uh, it's the beginning of the end. You know,
Speaker 1: it's of the end of this year. The playoffs are better.
Speaker 1: Our little weekly format will slightly change next year, I
Speaker 1: mean next week. Like that. These are all things to
Speaker 1: celebrate as our um, the retirement of all these teams
Speaker 1: out there that we know longer want to talk about.
Speaker 1: At least they're seasons. Yeah, I think that some of them.
Speaker 1: You know, we've tried to give every team it's due
Speaker 1: to some degree, but when you really really rot um,
Speaker 1: the storyline has become a bit you know, redone overcooked,
Speaker 1: and we are ready to send some of them back
Speaker 1: into the kitchen. Let's work on this dish again and
Speaker 1: present it in Yeah. Yeah, that's well said Mark. I
Speaker 1: think it's uh, it is part of the cycle, every
Speaker 1: team must die, some don't die until Super Bowl Sunday. Um,
Speaker 1: only one team could be immortal and live forever. So
Speaker 1: I know this is by the time you get to
Speaker 1: this part of the season, if you're gonna be a
Speaker 1: because we're not gonna some of the games. You know,
Speaker 1: we have all thirty two teams playing on Sunday, and
Speaker 1: you know, not all these games are bangers. A lot
Speaker 1: of these games are gonna feature two teams that gain
Speaker 1: nothing other than worst draft position by winning. So not
Speaker 1: every team is gonna get the love that you may want.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, you're probably burned out on
Speaker 1: this team if they're already eliminated. Then you get to
Speaker 1: spin forward to the pods in a couple of weeks
Speaker 1: a month or so, when it's all reborn. It's all reborn.
Speaker 1: That's the cycle of life, that's the cycle of the NFL.
Speaker 1: It's very organic. Um. And you know, I know for
Speaker 1: some people that have been following a team that you
Speaker 1: know died two or three months ago. I UM, I'm
Speaker 1: adding a little element just to this Week eighteen preview,
Speaker 1: Dan like it's just a little a little a little
Speaker 1: bit of spice. UM. Each game will have its own
Speaker 1: um unique tagline. And what why I am doing this
Speaker 1: is because a lot of our listeners love to communicate
Speaker 1: with us on a Sunday, for instance, about let's say
Speaker 1: the Jets Bills game, and they go into rich detail
Speaker 1: trying to get our attention with you know, Jets quarterback
Speaker 1: Zach Wilson through a real zinger right there, beautiful out
Speaker 1: pattern and a completion like, don't even worry about that.
Speaker 1: What you do is because we you know, we diligently
Speaker 1: look at every every tech tweet that comes our way.
Speaker 1: Each game will have a very sustinct um tagline. You
Speaker 1: just simply say, like guy in green through nice past.
Speaker 1: Then you insert the tagline that I will give you
Speaker 1: before the Jets Bills game, for instance, and we'll sort
Speaker 1: it out on our own, on our own time. If
Speaker 1: I see the tagline, I'll say, oh, Jet guy in
Speaker 1: green must be Zack Wilson. You don't need to add
Speaker 1: the rich detail. I'll I well, well, we will do
Speaker 1: the work for you. If that makes any sense at all?
Speaker 1: Did you follow that? Not total sense? But I like
Speaker 1: the idea that Mark's got a new bit and that
Speaker 1: he's got a tagline for each game. I don't really
Speaker 1: need to get into the twitter of it all personally.
Speaker 1: That's for the listeners. That part of the bargain we
Speaker 1: may not hold up, but you will get a tagline
Speaker 1: for each game. Also, Guy in Green seems a lot
Speaker 1: harder to write than Zack Wilson's I'm not sure like
Speaker 1: what you're getting out of that. That's I don't know
Speaker 1: if that's hell right. That part of it needs maybe
Speaker 1: a little bit of um work shopping. But you know
Speaker 1: with the suddenly it was noon here and we're taping,
Speaker 1: so and just like in the spirit of unsolicitated advice here,
Speaker 1: if you're setting up a bit thus, Lee, just say
Speaker 1: I got taglines for each game. Yeah, I mean I
Speaker 1: you know how I'd like to add a layer of
Speaker 1: complexity that maybe I've not thought out completely myself, Um,
Speaker 1: to muddle the show, slow it down, and leave us
Speaker 1: in an awkward place. So mission accomplished. Okay, it's okay.
Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to it. We're all looking forward to it.
Speaker 1: Uh And I should correct myself. Not every game is
Speaker 1: on Sunday. We have two games on Saturday. No Thursday
Speaker 1: night football, no Monday Night football, but two games Saturday
Speaker 1: so we're gonna do our draft as we always do
Speaker 1: for the last time uh this season, and let's start
Speaker 1: with the Saturday games. I guess we'll we'll hold the
Speaker 1: Saturday games and the Sunday night football game out of
Speaker 1: the draft. That makes sense, right, So let's start with
Speaker 1: the Chiefs at Denver Broncos. Um. You know, the Chief's
Speaker 1: coming off a disappointing loss at Cincinnati. But let's not
Speaker 1: get two lost in the weeds here. They were in
Speaker 1: an eight game winning streak before that game. They got
Speaker 1: picked up by a field goal against the team that
Speaker 1: just was playing out of its mind on offense, and
Speaker 1: now they get the Broncos. I don't know if Teddy
Speaker 1: Bridgewater is ever gonna come back this season. And okay,
Speaker 1: so they just moved Teddy out. Drew Locks got a
Speaker 1: bad shoulder. We'll see if he's playing, um, but Greg
Speaker 1: will start this way. UM, I don't know if this
Speaker 1: game is gonna be able to tell us anything about
Speaker 1: the defense. But did what happened against the Bengals? Uh,
Speaker 1: kind of shake your confidence in Kansas City's ability to
Speaker 1: get a big spot in a couple of weeks because
Speaker 1: it was like it was Steve Spagnola believing in his system,
Speaker 1: like a little too much and the wrong matchup. I
Speaker 1: think if they played the Bengals again, they should play
Speaker 1: it differently, like don't leave, don't leave the guys in
Speaker 1: in man coverage. But overall they're a good defense. They're
Speaker 1: not a great defense. I don't think you know any
Speaker 1: of these a f C defenses are incredible. The bigger
Speaker 1: takeaway from me for that game was their Their offense
Speaker 1: looks as good as it looks all the season, and
Speaker 1: so does Patrick Mahomes. That even the stops in the
Speaker 1: second half, if you go through each one, that there
Speaker 1: were reasons for it. Uh. For the most part, he
Speaker 1: looks as comfortable as confident as Patrick Mahomes as he's
Speaker 1: been all year. And the offensive line is so good,
Speaker 1: and they have depth, like they were down a couple
Speaker 1: of players last week and they played awesome. I more
Speaker 1: than any time all year. I actually feel like the
Speaker 1: Chiefs are the Chiefs, and it makes sense. It's a
Speaker 1: team that's, you know, made it to a couple of
Speaker 1: straight Super Bowls. Here maybe they're cranking it up at
Speaker 1: the end of the year. They're five and oh against
Speaker 1: Vic Fangio. By the way, there's no Patrick Sirtan, There's
Speaker 1: no uh Ronald Darby in this game. They couldnt make
Speaker 1: this line big enough. It was ten points I saw earlier.
Speaker 1: I guess I'm gonna have to make it rain here.
Speaker 1: I wasn't even playing. Oh god, I feel confident in
Speaker 1: the Chiefs. Just putt oh wow, five and one this year, right,
Speaker 1: six and one six six one Hameda hammeda. Good for you,
Speaker 1: And that was impulsive, But I do feel that very strongly.
Speaker 1: They would be one of my top two or three
Speaker 1: for sure. It's interesting, Greg, because um, the Rainmaker is
Speaker 1: doing so well and yet your your struggles in the
Speaker 1: lock competition continue to the point where do you locked
Speaker 1: the Browns and I talked you out of that good thing?
Speaker 1: So you jump to another team, the Chiefs, and locked
Speaker 1: them and they lost too. So as bad as you've
Speaker 1: been in the locks competition, in the Rainmaker land, you're
Speaker 1: as hot as ever fire. I mean, I've I've learned
Speaker 1: by being in various you know different ways of picking
Speaker 1: things over the years. You can be great in some
Speaker 1: bad in the other and uh and since almost all
Speaker 1: luck and by the way, Mark isn't sitting out this
Speaker 1: conversation he's having some tech difficulties. I'm sure we'll just
Speaker 1: keep talking. I just as assuming he's gonna be back. Yeah,
Speaker 1: once I heard there was a computer restart involved, there's
Speaker 1: like a kid cover for the guy, you know, a
Speaker 1: little pullback the curtain. Sometimes that there's a tech deaf
Speaker 1: in a big spot. We just roll through it and
Speaker 1: that person pops back in. But it's been too long,
Speaker 1: had to alert the audience. Have no regrets about it.
Speaker 1: This isn't much of a game anyways. Really, um, I
Speaker 1: want to say we should for all these games in
Speaker 1: week eighteen, Uh, the stakes here, the Chiefs will be
Speaker 1: the number one seed in the a f C. And
Speaker 1: with that, of course comes the first round by in
Speaker 1: home field throughout the conference playoffs. So the Chiefs will
Speaker 1: be the number one seed with a win at Denver.
Speaker 1: And they're gonna win at Denver. And and this is
Speaker 1: the hard part, a Tennessee loss at Houston. So they
Speaker 1: both have the same record, the Titans and the Chiefs.
Speaker 1: But the Titans beat the Chiefs seven three back in
Speaker 1: Week seven. That that's the crazy thing, Greg, that like,
Speaker 1: and I agree with you. I think the last couple
Speaker 1: of weeks with the offense just looking free and natural
Speaker 1: and free and easy. That's such a huge development in
Speaker 1: our league. Um So I don't I don't worry about
Speaker 1: their attack anymore. But that's how bad it was. Back
Speaker 1: in week seven. They were scoring a field goal for
Speaker 1: an entire game that offense. That was crazy. It is
Speaker 1: to think back. And also, you know that what you
Speaker 1: broke down for the number one seed, it's why they're
Speaker 1: gonna play this thing to win. I've heard there's some
Speaker 1: talk of like what they because almost everyone else is.
Speaker 1: You know, there's a lot of teams that might be
Speaker 1: resting players this week. But I do not see them
Speaker 1: resting players unless they're up by four scores and they're
Speaker 1: you know, they're playing Saturday, obviously. In the Tennessee Houston
Speaker 1: game is a early game on Sunday, so it's gonna
Speaker 1: be all in front of them. They get to beat
Speaker 1: up on the Broncos and then sit on their couch
Speaker 1: and hope to get fortunate. All right, let's move to
Speaker 1: the other Saturday game. The Dallas Cowboys travel to Philadelphia
Speaker 1: to take on the Eagles, and uh So, Mark, if
Speaker 1: we just like did the rest of the podcast, I
Speaker 1: think you'd like I don't know. He's prepped, he's got
Speaker 1: his taglines. We need to certain We'll circle back for
Speaker 1: his Saturday taglines for sure. UM. Anyway, so we have
Speaker 1: the Philadelphia Eagles hosting the Cowboys. UM. Both teams going
Speaker 1: to the playoffs. So the Eagles clinched that playoff bid
Speaker 1: um with their fourth string. When I angered Eagles Nation
Speaker 1: Greg with a tweet on Monday, when I was watching
Speaker 1: all the games as part of the power rankings process,
Speaker 1: when I noted I went through their schedule and I
Speaker 1: was like, Okay, when's the last time they beat a
Speaker 1: good team? And then I was just I kept on
Speaker 1: going up and going up and going up. It's like, hot, damn,
Speaker 1: they have a beat a team that has a winning
Speaker 1: record right now. And then I said, I think these
Speaker 1: Eagles are the NFC Dolphins. And oh the Eagles fans
Speaker 1: weren't happy. They didn't want to hear that. They and
Speaker 1: I get where they're coming from. It's funny actually how
Speaker 1: Twitter works. Like at first, all the people were more
Speaker 1: like Gonzo like, which was while you're right, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: we're the best of the not very good, and it
Speaker 1: was very sensical. But then of course it probably showed
Speaker 1: up on like a some type of blog or something.
Speaker 1: At some point I got tweeted out and then all
Speaker 1: all the maniacs came and I'm not afraid of you.
Speaker 1: I'm not afraid of you Philadelphia from New York. I'm
Speaker 1: not scared, Greg, but I do feel that way. I
Speaker 1: think their cannon fodder most likely in a couple of weeks. Well.
Speaker 1: One of the things I've always thought about you is
Speaker 1: that you're from New York and you're not scared. I
Speaker 1: think they're different than the Dolphins just a little bit,
Speaker 1: but it's clothe. I mean, I I see what you're
Speaker 1: getting at. But I just by the eye test and
Speaker 1: what they have personnel wise, and their strengths in terms
Speaker 1: of their offensive line and for the most part getting
Speaker 1: pressure as a pass rush, I just think they have
Speaker 1: a little more um to worry uh an opponent. It's
Speaker 1: probably gonna be the Bucks. They are gonna rest in
Speaker 1: this game. The Eagles like no team has ever rested before.
Speaker 1: I mean, they got COVID. A ton of their starters
Speaker 1: got COVID this week. It was implied on our air
Speaker 1: that they a lot of players took the COVID test
Speaker 1: on Monday, to get the positive tests out of the way,
Speaker 1: which it's like it's like COVID analytics um, which is
Speaker 1: crazy because you only have to test if you self
Speaker 1: report symptoms. Uh so there's a ton of good starters,
Speaker 1: and I think they were gonna sit everyone. Anyways, I've
Speaker 1: heard some talk that the Cowboys might sit players to
Speaker 1: Tyranne Smith has COVID, Michael Parsons is out COVID. But
Speaker 1: I think the Cowboys want to get a good feeling
Speaker 1: about their offense, and I think they want to win
Speaker 1: this game because there they could be the two seed.
Speaker 1: There's a big difference between the two and the five seed.
Speaker 1: First of all, you don't have to play, you know,
Speaker 1: the Cardinals in the first round. That's nice. But if
Speaker 1: you can have a home game in the divisional round
Speaker 1: as opposed to go into lambeau Field, to me, that
Speaker 1: seems absolutely worth playing. Uh three quarters of this game
Speaker 1: with dark Prescott. Guess what we have developing news? Mark
Speaker 1: Sessler's back. So we're actually on the Sunday night game. Now, Mark,
Speaker 1: you're ad two weeks in a row. I've somehow dodged
Speaker 1: all responsibilities on the Thursday show. I don't know what happened.
Speaker 1: A router exploded in my home and like we you know,
Speaker 1: we started it. We'll see what happens. Hey, quarantine life.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, Um, if you have no
Speaker 1: idea where where you are, so I will just I
Speaker 1: will use context clues. Did you say happy wife, happy life? No,
Speaker 1: I said quarantine in life. You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: I wish happy life. All right, we did miss your
Speaker 1: tag though. Let's Bronco. So let's get that because we
Speaker 1: were in the middle of Eagles. Okay, Ricky, get our
Speaker 1: tag little SoundBite please. The tagline is snow Day at
Speaker 1: Baxter College for women. Like that? I like? I like, Um,
Speaker 1: you're being a leader right now to Mark. You know,
Speaker 1: people talk about like what what his leadership isn't making
Speaker 1: like the big speech before the game or No, it's
Speaker 1: leading by example. He's showing us right now week eighteen.
Speaker 1: He's not phoning in, He's coming up with new material.
Speaker 1: He's gaining energy as we get to the fish. I
Speaker 1: miss the show, so I don't know what phone in
Speaker 1: would qualify as. I would just say what Greg is
Speaker 1: saying a spot on true leaders It's actions, It's not where,
Speaker 1: it's necessarily, and I think you've caused us all, uh
Speaker 1: to lift our game. And just so, just so I'm
Speaker 1: aware of how this works. There's no explanation. It's just
Speaker 1: this is the tagline and we keep moving. Or are
Speaker 1: we supposed to ask what the hell that just meant? No,
Speaker 1: you can, You're allowed to. But it is not my
Speaker 1: intention to bog the showdown or at an extra eighteen minutes.
Speaker 1: As I suggested at the top, it would be these
Speaker 1: are quick taglines we can just ignore and move on
Speaker 1: for further use. We're gonna let that one sit and
Speaker 1: marinate for the listening public. All right, So back to
Speaker 1: the Eagles and Cowboys. Mark, you missed that. Eagles fans
Speaker 1: are mad at me on Twitter, But I ain't afraid
Speaker 1: because you know, I'm up there in the Bronx slinging
Speaker 1: pizza dough, listen to Frankie Valley playing stickball on my
Speaker 1: day off over here. Now, well, I'm very I'm very
Speaker 1: glad for you. So you've you've annoyed them, and then
Speaker 1: but you just you're you don't think about them. But
Speaker 1: the Cowboys, Greg, it was a good point. I believe, Uh,
Speaker 1: they need a nice win here to go into the place.
Speaker 1: They don't need it, but they could use it. And
Speaker 1: I mean, the offense needs to show up if they're healthy,
Speaker 1: if they're on the field, and score three touchdowns, four
Speaker 1: touchdowns and go to the postseason feeling like you have
Speaker 1: a weapon um that people can't stop on that on
Speaker 1: that side of the ball that feels like important. Doesn't
Speaker 1: it work? Yeah? I mean I I I'm a big
Speaker 1: proponent like going back and watching teams that go into
Speaker 1: the playoffs in the right way and what it means.
Speaker 1: And you're gonna obviously be dealing with an Eagles team
Speaker 1: that could be sitting all sorts of players. They've got
Speaker 1: a ton of people. As Greg mentioned on the COVID list,
Speaker 1: Dallas does too. But you'd like to say, maybe we
Speaker 1: take this narrative of these slumping Dallas offense and put
Speaker 1: it away for a for a bit, because three of
Speaker 1: the last four weeks for Dallas on offense have been
Speaker 1: a problem. That Washington game was a total fireworks show.
Speaker 1: You'd like to see that happen again as a tune up,
Speaker 1: because it does matter where you wind up seeding wise,
Speaker 1: like they can improve their situation there. So this game
Speaker 1: has a big impact for the Cowboys. They're most likely
Speaker 1: locked They're not locked in, but they're most likely Dallas
Speaker 1: the number four seed in the NFC. The Eagles can
Speaker 1: move up to as high as the sixth or the seventh. Um,
Speaker 1: we'll see what happens. All right, any other thoughts there
Speaker 1: before we move it to Sunday. All right, let's move
Speaker 1: it to Sunday. Let's move into the draft and mark
Speaker 1: the thing you're back? Oh, where's your tagline for that game?
Speaker 1: I'm sorry? The tagline? Quick Erica the sound boss. It's
Speaker 1: Paula Poundstone online too? Like that? Is that the disgraced
Speaker 1: comedian with the giant pants? Yes, that's the that that
Speaker 1: would be her. All right, let's move to Sunday. I'm
Speaker 1: enjoying them so far too for two um draft style, Mark,
Speaker 1: you have the first pick in the final proper draft
Speaker 1: of the year. Well, I'm gonna go. Um, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go Patriots at Dolphins. I'm intrigued by this game. I
Speaker 1: want to see New England come in. Now. New England
Speaker 1: can still it theoretically grab the number one seed if
Speaker 1: some other stuff happens. Um, they can still win the
Speaker 1: a f CS. If Buffalo ever were to tumble against
Speaker 1: the Jets. So there's there are multiple you know, factors
Speaker 1: here for New England to go in and play the
Speaker 1: best game they can. And I you know, I don't
Speaker 1: trust Miami's offensive line in this game against New England's defense. UM.
Speaker 1: I thought the meltdown against Tennessee kind of Uh to
Speaker 1: your argument for week stand unmasked the Dolphins as a
Speaker 1: non playoff contender. Their defense is spicy, but they got
Speaker 1: run over by Tennessee a week ago, and I know
Speaker 1: that game took place in ugly conditions which affected to
Speaker 1: us play. Uh. This will be in Miami, obviously, and
Speaker 1: I mean the I don't know how much to give
Speaker 1: faith to these things, but Bill Belichick's record against the Dolphins, uh,
Speaker 1: since two thousand has been a problem compared to how
Speaker 1: he's dealt with the Jets and the Bills. These games
Speaker 1: in Miami, in the road in South Beach have been
Speaker 1: an issue. They they knocked them out of the playoffs
Speaker 1: a year ago, they knocked them out of the by
Speaker 1: two years ago. And these were not, you know, necessarily
Speaker 1: starry Dolphins teams. They're not different than this year. So
Speaker 1: I guess you just want to hope that the dolt
Speaker 1: that the New England has learned whatever lesson from that
Speaker 1: um and doesn't have some sort of a hangover. I
Speaker 1: don't expect them to. I think they'll run the ball
Speaker 1: really well. It's probably not a huge mac Jones game
Speaker 1: for me. I think, if anything, you don't want to
Speaker 1: put it into his hands. You just want to do
Speaker 1: what you do, keep it clean, keep it vanilla, and
Speaker 1: try to punish a defense that's gonna know you pretty
Speaker 1: well blind. Brian Flores is one of the few like
Speaker 1: kind of expats coaches that seems to understand how Belichick's
Speaker 1: mind works and and affected on game day. Right. I'm
Speaker 1: not I'm not concerned with like the record of Miami
Speaker 1: over his career, but the fact that Brian Flores as
Speaker 1: a winning record is absolutely instructive because this team, this
Speaker 1: Dolphins team is similar in its strength and weaknesses as
Speaker 1: as they were in the past couple of years, including
Speaker 1: Week one where they beat him. You know, took a
Speaker 1: fumble late in Dolphin's territory, but who knows that was
Speaker 1: a nip and tuck game where two teams look very even.
Speaker 1: It was a long time ago. I think the Patriots
Speaker 1: can show that they're a better team. They're more complete.
Speaker 1: I mean, they can run, they can pass, They're pretty
Speaker 1: solid against the run. They have playmakers in terms of j. C.
Speaker 1: Accent and bar Moore who's just playing out of his
Speaker 1: mind right now. They gave Adrian Phillips, who has been
Speaker 1: a great pick up at safety, a contract this week.
Speaker 1: I thought was smart. They get agil Are back. They
Speaker 1: really missed Kendrick Born when he was out of line
Speaker 1: of piece back. So they're like a better team overall.
Speaker 1: But I kind of expect this will be close for
Speaker 1: a while, just because Miami generally is that team. If
Speaker 1: the Patriots are really taken off though, like maybe maybe
Speaker 1: they do wax him it just it would it would
Speaker 1: really change. I think the to a conversation in the
Speaker 1: off season, as silly as it is, I think how
Speaker 1: to a plays in this game will matter. Like if
Speaker 1: he plays awesome and they win, I think that'll that'll
Speaker 1: that'll help point out a lot of the positives that
Speaker 1: he had this year, because the last three weeks have
Speaker 1: been really ugly for him. So I don't think it's silly.
Speaker 1: Well it's silly if you're saying it all comes down
Speaker 1: to one game. But I think what's happened now that
Speaker 1: we've had a full season of too uh and we've seen,
Speaker 1: you know, the slow start by the team uh and
Speaker 1: to A and then they got hot and he had
Speaker 1: some good games in stretch, but he's never really felt
Speaker 1: like a transcendent first round talent that they wanted him
Speaker 1: to be. Uh. And then with the season essentially on
Speaker 1: the line, when they finally face a big time team
Speaker 1: in Tennessee, he does nothing. The team does nothing. So
Speaker 1: part of me is like, man, I wonder if it
Speaker 1: already was sealed that Tennessee game, Like they're like, we
Speaker 1: want to when when Deshaun Watson has traded to the
Speaker 1: Dolphins in a month or two months or whatever it
Speaker 1: is a couple of months from now. Um, I really
Speaker 1: think that Tennessee game, maybe it will seem unfair. But
Speaker 1: I think that might have been the straw that broke
Speaker 1: the camel's back in terms of two his long term
Speaker 1: viability in Miami. But maybe he lights up the Patriots
Speaker 1: and that helps us, helps him, But I don't know
Speaker 1: if that's gonna happen, because I don't think we've seen
Speaker 1: enough from two in the Dolphins offense to think that
Speaker 1: they could hang with the defense like this. The Patriots
Speaker 1: defense first and points per game allowed, third in total
Speaker 1: yards allowed, fourth and opposition third down percentage second in
Speaker 1: an opposite opposition passer rating. They're holding quarterbacks this season
Speaker 1: to a pass rating of seventy two point four and
Speaker 1: there and they are third in takeaways. All that seems
Speaker 1: to set up to me in a game that the
Speaker 1: where the Patriots are playing for the division. Hopefully for them. Uh,
Speaker 1: I think this is going to get away from Miami,
Speaker 1: and this feels like to me that that would that
Speaker 1: would be a a great sign for this Patriots team
Speaker 1: going into the playoffs. Because I know it was the
Speaker 1: Jaguars a week ago, but that doesn't I don't think
Speaker 1: matters to the players there. They had two games where
Speaker 1: they were not playing well, and they came out of
Speaker 1: last week's game feeling like they're absolutely back and they're
Speaker 1: back and refocused. And I think to the team, which is,
Speaker 1: you know, I think the worst Patriots team maybe that
Speaker 1: won the Super Bowl, that team lost two games in
Speaker 1: our own December, and then they beat up on some
Speaker 1: Patsy's the last two weeks of the season and came
Speaker 1: into the playoffs playing well. I don't think this team
Speaker 1: is headed to a super Bowl necessarily, but I think
Speaker 1: they have a shot. Like I think, I think basically
Speaker 1: almost every team in the ANFC that makes the playoffs
Speaker 1: I think has a shot. But I don't think. I
Speaker 1: don't view the Patriots have had that much worse of
Speaker 1: a shot today than I did in Week eleven. I I've,
Speaker 1: at least as a fan, I've been kind of consistent
Speaker 1: where I I think they got a shot, but they're
Speaker 1: gonna They're gonna need some breaks, They're gonna need some
Speaker 1: great game plans they I mean there are thing is
Speaker 1: they don't trip up against lesser opponents. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: the Jacksonville game is instructive that they went and just
Speaker 1: absolutely took them apart. I know that's a bad team,
Speaker 1: but I would be shocked if Miami pulled another trick
Speaker 1: scenario here. You're not gonna have Ryan Fitzpatrick, you know,
Speaker 1: having someone jump on his back and carry him off
Speaker 1: the field like it was a year ago. Do I
Speaker 1: have to say instructive now? In the next five minutes
Speaker 1: the rule of threes? Oh? Did Greg also say that, Yes,
Speaker 1: we've just become one being Do you want the tagline
Speaker 1: for this game. We always want the taglines Ricky hit it, tagline,
Speaker 1: colon tell me I'm bad. It's like another router just exploded. Well,
Speaker 1: it's a nice window into Mark's subconscious enjoying it. I
Speaker 1: think he likes to be told these bad ideally by
Speaker 1: a female trained assassin. Must not trained though. If the
Speaker 1: assassin is untrained, do not tell him dead. If she's
Speaker 1: been highly trained, yes, there, absolutely, thank you for saying that.
Speaker 1: All right, let's take a break and then we move
Speaker 1: to Greg. Alright, we're back, Greggy, you're on the board.
Speaker 1: Psych got your baby because I'm chumping you chumping your baby.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is uh a classic, a classic move
Speaker 1: by a guy who forgot to use it in a
Speaker 1: better spot wakes until week eighteen. You know, it's like
Speaker 1: the second pick. It's like you just checked in your
Speaker 1: your free ice cream cone coupon was running out today.
Speaker 1: You're not even hungry, but you just gotta use it now. Anyway,
Speaker 1: I'm enjoying one of the it's it's now being remembered
Speaker 1: by football historians and podcast historians. Is like the herschel
Speaker 1: Walker trade. Whatever it was that Greg gave to me,
Speaker 1: I gave to Greg it always building towards us. I've
Speaker 1: jumped him three times. I remember what it was. It
Speaker 1: was a Ravens Bengals game. Um that the Ravens got waxed.
Speaker 1: And now here we are. Somehow Mark doesn't take the
Speaker 1: best game off the board. He he stuck around in
Speaker 1: the a f C East. He loves Belichick worked out
Speaker 1: for me, So obviously I'm going to grab the game
Speaker 1: of the week, one of the games of the year,
Speaker 1: the forty nine at the l A Rams NFC West
Speaker 1: on the line huge steaks. That is when I would
Speaker 1: have taken by the way. I just transparency. I want
Speaker 1: to show that in future, you know cases when I
Speaker 1: deny that you got me like this is I'm frightful here? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Of course. What what's with your whole trying to sell like, oh,
Speaker 1: you got your little ice cream ticket? No, bro, this
Speaker 1: was well orchestrated and carried out. Do you think that
Speaker 1: maybe I'm nice enough where I I left that for
Speaker 1: one of my two fellow pasters. Okay, but I am
Speaker 1: looking forward to your tagline. All right, here we go.
Speaker 1: Interesting game, fascinating game, Greggy. Where are we at on
Speaker 1: Jimmy Garoppolo? I know he was practicing this week, and
Speaker 1: you know Kyle Shannon wants Garoppolo to play. It's it's
Speaker 1: been laid out there for weeks and weeks that he
Speaker 1: trusts Jimmy G on some level more than the kid.
Speaker 1: What are we hearing? You know that he practiced, he
Speaker 1: was limited, that he's still feeling pain. But there was
Speaker 1: some video of him throwing the ball and to my
Speaker 1: untrained I look look pretty good. Well, maybe we're watching
Speaker 1: the same video where George Kittle was taking passes from
Speaker 1: each of this, but it's like, I don't know, he's
Speaker 1: out there throwing. So he makes the catch and then Kittle,
Speaker 1: who's a w W E character, it's like, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: that was a good ball. That's funny. Um, so let's
Speaker 1: say Jimmy G starts. Um, I think that's where this
Speaker 1: is heading. But don't discount Trey Lance having a big role,
Speaker 1: whether it's coming in or some type of tandem thing here. Um,
Speaker 1: the Rams, it's all in front of the Rams here. Uh.
Speaker 1: They win their first NFC West title since two thousand
Speaker 1: eighteen with a win here, and what I'm looking to
Speaker 1: see here in San Francisco has got a top five
Speaker 1: rank defense this year. Um, Which version of Matthew Stafford
Speaker 1: shows up in this game? Because the turnover late in player,
Speaker 1: that's a problem. In the playoffs, they're going to the
Speaker 1: dancing either way the Niners. Where are we at on
Speaker 1: the Niners? There nine and seven they will clinch a
Speaker 1: playoff birth of the win or in New Orleans lost
Speaker 1: at Atlanta in week eighteen. So those are the stakes
Speaker 1: in this game. They're very high. Which version of matt
Speaker 1: Stafford shows up? Mark Well, I think that you know,
Speaker 1: the Matthew Stafford experience includes both. I mean the pick
Speaker 1: six um stuff happened. It started in that romp, the
Speaker 1: San Francisco romp, where basically it put it put the
Speaker 1: Niner the Rams into a fourteen nothing hole that they
Speaker 1: never escaped from. And that was because of the Stafford
Speaker 1: mistakes and also San Francisco's ability, um M. Shannahan's ability
Speaker 1: against Sean McVeigh to orchestrate long clock chewing drives that
Speaker 1: really kept the Rams in that game, specifically in the dirt,
Speaker 1: and it was the game that kind of left people
Speaker 1: wondering or the Rams finesse. Now, I do think that
Speaker 1: Stafford last week, after the initial mistakes, I mean, he
Speaker 1: went what fourteen for fourteen, he was pretty pristine down
Speaker 1: the stretch. So I think it's the other part of Stafford.
Speaker 1: I'm with you a pcent because if it's Jimmy G,
Speaker 1: it's also a quarterback whose mistakes could unspool this team.
Speaker 1: And we've seen that a couple of different times. So
Speaker 1: I'm wondering if we get a little bit of Jimmy
Speaker 1: G and maybe a little bit more of tray Lance
Speaker 1: because I know it. I know that games started a
Speaker 1: little rough for them against Houston a week ago, but
Speaker 1: I thought the tray Lands started to really feel more
Speaker 1: comfortable as the game went on. See see the field
Speaker 1: a little better and that touchdown a Deebo Samuel, It's like,
Speaker 1: do you want that X factor in a game like
Speaker 1: this when the Rams have very little tape on this guy,
Speaker 1: I think it's just a t B D. And I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, Shannahan said that this is gonna be a
Speaker 1: game time decision at quarterback for competitive balance reasons. So
Speaker 1: I wonder if we finally get that mix that we've
Speaker 1: been looking for. Yeah, I I would be afraid of
Speaker 1: Trail Lance a little bit if I was the Rams,
Speaker 1: because that's how the forty Niners have beat him over
Speaker 1: the years. For the most part is the running game
Speaker 1: and Trey Lance, Elijah Mitchell and Deebo Samuel together on
Speaker 1: the same field. That's a lot to deal with. When
Speaker 1: when tray Lance was starting earlier in the year, players
Speaker 1: were injured, auk wasn't up to speed, Mitchell wasn't Mitchell,
Speaker 1: Kittle wasn't himself. And I think it's tough and I
Speaker 1: think we will see more of tray Lance even if
Speaker 1: Jimmy G does start. Now, Jimmy G's undefeated against the Rams,
Speaker 1: He's five and Oh McVeigh hasn't won a game against
Speaker 1: this forty Niners team. One of the reasons I think
Speaker 1: is they haven't been able to hold up defensively, and
Speaker 1: that's where I've seen the biggest change with this Rams team.
Speaker 1: I know Von Miller hasn't like lit the sky on fire,
Speaker 1: but he's great at setting the edge. He's been a
Speaker 1: plus starter. And you've seen Leonard Floyd, a Sean Robinson
Speaker 1: gains and then especially Aaron Donald going from like good
Speaker 1: Aaron Donald season, which is you know, pro bowler, all
Speaker 1: pro to otherworldly Aaron Donald again, which is you know
Speaker 1: where he is and like the Inner Circle Hall of Fame,
Speaker 1: and that's the kind of runnings on now and so
Speaker 1: I think that's a problem for the forty niners. Uh.
Speaker 1: And a difference between when these two money pushed back
Speaker 1: UM on power ranks this week, I had the Rams
Speaker 1: at number two overall, UH, and I actually put I
Speaker 1: put a lot into UM how that game ended. I
Speaker 1: thought it was very interesting, UM that they had this
Speaker 1: game where they struggled, where the quarterback was making bad throws,
Speaker 1: and then for them to be able to close the
Speaker 1: way they did, it was a championship close. Uh. The
Speaker 1: seventy five yard drive. Uh. And Mark, you kind of
Speaker 1: hit on this, like the precision that Stafford through the
Speaker 1: ball with and that every ball was exactly where it
Speaker 1: needed to be ending with the Beckham touched that. And
Speaker 1: then von Miller is Greg mentions he's um he's had
Speaker 1: a positive impact on this team. He's not von Miller
Speaker 1: two thousand fifteen, but he doesn't necessarily need to be.
Speaker 1: He makes the biggest play of his Rams career, that
Speaker 1: crushing sack of Tyler Huntley keeps Justin Tucker off the field.
Speaker 1: So while that was an imperfect game, that closes what
Speaker 1: really good teams do even on days that aren't so hot,
Speaker 1: And isn't it fair to think that it was going
Speaker 1: to take time for Stafford to kind of find his
Speaker 1: way in this offense a little bit? I mean, I
Speaker 1: just think when you see the Rams in that in
Speaker 1: that late period of that game, the Rams at their
Speaker 1: heights are a super Bowl team. Now, if you get
Speaker 1: bungled up with a bunch of mistakes, and we've seen
Speaker 1: it happen a couple other times where they the Stafford
Speaker 1: issues um which shouldn't come as a surprise to longtime
Speaker 1: Stafford viewers, they could not overcome those. And so I mean,
Speaker 1: the Niners I think are a bad opponent. If you
Speaker 1: get mistakes plus the Niners executing on offense, that's the
Speaker 1: Rams team. That's the team the Rams have not been
Speaker 1: able to figure out and solved, which would be the
Speaker 1: scary you know, end of the of the bargain here.
Speaker 1: But I think this you're right that its Game of
Speaker 1: the Week material if it plays out as expected. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't I sometimes look at these games and think, actually,
Speaker 1: this game could be thirty eight to ten and the
Speaker 1: third quarter to the who's winning though, Who's winning that game?
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go with my heart and goes San Francisco three.
Speaker 1: That hard has betrayed you this year. Mark. I took
Speaker 1: the Rams on my game picks on the site four,
Speaker 1: which is a thread the needle. It's like under the
Speaker 1: point spread which started at five, and I think it's
Speaker 1: down to four and a half or four now. But
Speaker 1: this is such a coin fla. They could play again
Speaker 1: next week to like if there is a scenario if
Speaker 1: the Saints lost, especially in the Rams one, that they
Speaker 1: could play again next week, which would be highly annoying.
Speaker 1: And uh, I think that the man knocking out the
Speaker 1: would be an emphatic way to end this little streak here.
Speaker 1: And I do think the two seed really does matter.
Speaker 1: Dan the Cowboys would pass the Rams if the Cowboys
Speaker 1: one in the Rams lost um and and who knows
Speaker 1: if the Bucks could pass them to uh potentially, I
Speaker 1: think they think the Rams have the tiebreaker there. It
Speaker 1: depends on if it's three, because they beat them but right,
Speaker 1: but if it's a three wave comes down to conference
Speaker 1: record and the and the Cowboys get it. So it's
Speaker 1: a lot at steak for both teams. I got thirty Rams,
Speaker 1: but I think this is gonna be a really good game. Um.
Speaker 1: And if the Rams do get in with a win
Speaker 1: and all that and the momentum that goes with that, um,
Speaker 1: look out they really cam Akers could be back. We
Speaker 1: should mention cam Akers, who I think as good as
Speaker 1: Sonny Michelle has been, he is not a pass catching back.
Speaker 1: Acre is a little more complete. So I think the
Speaker 1: combination of those two guys would would be great for them.
Speaker 1: But I would give you a little. I'll give you
Speaker 1: a little. Gregg is Um the Niners the number two
Speaker 1: run defense d v O A wise right now, So
Speaker 1: that's a small factor. Um bummer though about that, Greg,
Speaker 1: because you actually stepped on tagline there his tagline for
Speaker 1: this game as cam Acres could be back. No, it's not.
Speaker 1: You want to know what it is? Well, yes I do.
Speaker 1: Ricky hungry for chocolate, Okay, all right, there's there's definitely
Speaker 1: a an uncomfortable sensuality that's really creeping into the that
Speaker 1: is diet, Harry item. I mean most children enjoy Chocolate's
Speaker 1: got some sensuality. Pop, you're adding your own. You're adding
Speaker 1: your own. Not my thing. I don't do that. You're
Speaker 1: adding that's not where it is. I didn't come in
Speaker 1: with that layer necessarily. Greg's wife's a chef. I don't know.
Speaker 1: Tell me now you're up, Greig third pick. Yeah, you really,
Speaker 1: you really have a boxed me in a corner here,
Speaker 1: because you know the best games are in the afternoon,
Speaker 1: and yet it doesn't matter. I gotta admit the game
Speaker 1: I want to watch it's called Jags, and I know
Speaker 1: it could be a blowout, but I don't care. It's
Speaker 1: the game that matters the most in the early window,
Speaker 1: and it's also the game where if it is close
Speaker 1: in the third quarter, it's easily, uh, the most important
Speaker 1: game of the week because if if that happens, then
Speaker 1: suddenly the Ravens and Steelers are alive. Uh. It changes
Speaker 1: the steaks for the Chargers. It also would be like
Speaker 1: an epic uh disappointment for the Colts to even be close,
Speaker 1: and and the tension could be high. So even though
Speaker 1: I kind of think it will be a blow I'm
Speaker 1: gonna take Colts Jags, and remember that the first time
Speaker 1: these teams played it was very close. I made a
Speaker 1: mistake on the podcast previously. I was thinking about a
Speaker 1: Colts Texans game, the Colts Jaguars game back and I
Speaker 1: think it was Week ten was maybe the most complete
Speaker 1: game the Jaguars played all year. They lost it by
Speaker 1: six points. There was a punt return touchdown by the Colts.
Speaker 1: It was one of the better games by the Jaguars offense.
Speaker 1: The Colts offense did nothing after scoring a touchdown early
Speaker 1: and then getting this punt block touchdown to go up big.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's necessarily telling, but I think
Speaker 1: it's more telling than the fact that, you know, they
Speaker 1: haven't won in Jacksonville in six years. I don't care
Speaker 1: about those old Jaguars teams, but this one did play
Speaker 1: its best game of the year against the Colts. And
Speaker 1: you know, could Carson Wentz be squeezing the ball a
Speaker 1: little tight coming out a halftime? If if this game
Speaker 1: is actually close, I'm curious to see at least, I mean,
Speaker 1: the Carson Wentz thing came back had COVID. We're now
Speaker 1: familiar in this podcast realm with the effects of COVID
Speaker 1: and it is crazy. There's This was reported um Stephen
Speaker 1: Holder from the Athletic Um. One of the things that
Speaker 1: NFL training staffs are learning this year is that the
Speaker 1: after effects of COVID are felt most when the body
Speaker 1: is pushed to its limits. I think we underestimate its
Speaker 1: impact on the entire NFL this season. To be perfectly honest,
Speaker 1: I thought that was a good tweet. That was interesting.
Speaker 1: Um it made me think of Tyreek Hill when he
Speaker 1: came back from COVID a couple of weeks back and
Speaker 1: had o roll or made no impression in that game
Speaker 1: for the Chiefs on a day where they, you know,
Speaker 1: lit up their opponent offensively, And it just makes me think, man,
Speaker 1: we're all it's I know, I'm like, maybe too much
Speaker 1: of a defender of Wentz, but at the same time,
Speaker 1: he's one of those guys where he just people don't
Speaker 1: like Wentz. They and they, there's a celebration when went struggles.
Speaker 1: I think it's a little bit of confirmation bias for
Speaker 1: all of Twitter when he struggles, and I think maybe
Speaker 1: not enough was put into him coming back as quickly
Speaker 1: as he did, uh from having COVID not being vaxed.
Speaker 1: And I'm just wondering, like, is that a throwout game
Speaker 1: or is that more reason to be concerned that he's
Speaker 1: an up and down guy Because before he got sick
Speaker 1: in Arizona, he led them on a couple of drives
Speaker 1: that were absolutely money and had me feeling super sky
Speaker 1: high about the Colts. I'm willing to maybe before that
Speaker 1: was one of his worst games of the year, you know,
Speaker 1: I kind of mask so that he's been consistent this year.
Speaker 1: I think overall he has not been that roller coaster,
Speaker 1: but the last three weeks he's in that roller coaster.
Speaker 1: I mean, that was against the Pats, though, I will
Speaker 1: say that, I mean, that's one of the best defenses
Speaker 1: if you if you knew, like because we spent all
Speaker 1: offseason projecting Carson Wentz as a potential success because of
Speaker 1: the environment, frank right, all that stuff, if you looked
Speaker 1: at his overall season, we would call it a success.
Speaker 1: I just think that his low moments kind of have
Speaker 1: the ability. You know, we just talked to Matthew Stafford.
Speaker 1: If you get too many low moments of Wentz in
Speaker 1: a game, that's the end of the Cults when they
Speaker 1: get into the playoffs. In this game, I think the
Speaker 1: X factor, I mean, it's it's not don't even nope,
Speaker 1: it deserves a letter. But the Jacksonville offense has just
Speaker 1: been getting worse and worse and worse, and the season
Speaker 1: cannot end soon. Enough for Trevor Lawrence. They are defunct,
Speaker 1: they are inoperable. I don't see a game playing out
Speaker 1: the way it did last time when I called Jacksonville
Speaker 1: the Berserker team after that close Cults game, because it
Speaker 1: really made you think were they coming together finally? But
Speaker 1: they were not. And if I'm Indie, I just like, basically,
Speaker 1: you ride Jonathan Taylor early, you get an early lead
Speaker 1: in this game and you never look back. It's inexcusable
Speaker 1: to lose this. And I don't think they were they
Speaker 1: they know, Darius Leonard said, we were practicing much better
Speaker 1: this week. Last week was lack of days ago. Darius
Speaker 1: Leonard who who West always loved him some? Darius Leonard.
Speaker 1: He's forced ever been a part of twelve turnovers this year.
Speaker 1: Darius Leonard punch from an off ball linebacker position. He
Speaker 1: could be in the mix of defensive player of the
Speaker 1: year mixed too. I mean he's not quite there for
Speaker 1: me with with Donald and Parsons and what, but he's not.
Speaker 1: He's not far off. He did it again last week.
Speaker 1: It didn't result in a turnover, but it almost was huge.
Speaker 1: Um just punching that ball out. He has that skill
Speaker 1: like Peanut Tilman that it's just it's such a weapon,
Speaker 1: and you wonder why more guys don't do it. It's
Speaker 1: probably hard to do um Trevor Lawrence to your point, Mark,
Speaker 1: he had that garbage time screen pass touchdown at the
Speaker 1: end of the Patriots game and that ended a streak
Speaker 1: of one eight four pass attempts without a touchdown. I
Speaker 1: don't think any team has a more important offseason in
Speaker 1: front of it then the Jaguars and the playoff scenario.
Speaker 1: The Cults clinch a playoff birth with a win over
Speaker 1: the Jags, so that's the easy way in, or they lose,
Speaker 1: which would be, as we're saying, it would cause chaos
Speaker 1: in the a f C. If they lose, they only
Speaker 1: make the playoffs if Pittsburgh loses at Baltimore and New
Speaker 1: England loses at Miami, plus Chargers lose it Vegas. So
Speaker 1: basically Cults are cooked if they don't win this game,
Speaker 1: but they should. You got a tagline, Mark, Yes, Ricky
Speaker 1: Aircraft to cheer Nobil, Aircraft to cheer Nobil. I get
Speaker 1: that one. By the way, Ricky privately messaged me saying
Speaker 1: it's starting to annoy her that you keep calling for
Speaker 1: the drop she's a professional. She'll hit it once. I
Speaker 1: t you up, don't let's I'm listen Like this is
Speaker 1: a new project. I'm open to um in progress critique
Speaker 1: and I will I will attempt that next time. And
Speaker 1: she told Dan that she was annoyed. Why not just
Speaker 1: tell me Betrade your confidence there? But I just want
Speaker 1: to make sure we're running a very soon, wasn't Yeah,
Speaker 1: that wasn't exactly what I said. Um, but I was like,
Speaker 1: doesn't you don't have to say Ricky every time? Mark
Speaker 1: Like I get timing of a drop because gorgeous gorgeous
Speaker 1: girls do their job the right way. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: I stand heavily corrected. It was not a necessarily a
Speaker 1: take on your ability to do what you do. But
Speaker 1: now Ricky, I get your teen reference. Yeah, thanks Bud.
Speaker 1: Gorgeous gorgeous girls, stay up with the pop culture. Erica
Speaker 1: trying to convince Dan to do it before the show.
Speaker 1: But it's funny because you're an old dad. All right,
Speaker 1: let's see, it's back to the old zoo, sir. In
Speaker 1: the big spot. I will take jets of Buffalo. Same
Speaker 1: kind of vie here obviously with Indy Jacksonville. Is it
Speaker 1: a great game. No. Could it be a blood by
Speaker 1: the end of the first quarter, Yes, but what if
Speaker 1: it's not. What if it's not the Jets coming off, Yes,
Speaker 1: they got their hearts ripped out there um at the
Speaker 1: end of the game by Tom Brady. It's happened many
Speaker 1: times in franchise history. It's just he's wearing a different uniform. Now.
Speaker 1: It doesn't hurt the same when it's when he's not
Speaker 1: wearing a Pittre uniform, I gotta say, but still not pleasant.
Speaker 1: Did help them in terms of keeping them in the
Speaker 1: top five of the draft, So I try to keep
Speaker 1: that in perspective. And most importantly, Zack Wilson and Greg
Speaker 1: we talked about it last Thursday. That did not set
Speaker 1: up well for Wilson to play well with Todd Bowles
Speaker 1: coming in and and the Bucks having all their UH
Speaker 1: playmakers on defense. Well, the boy fared very well in
Speaker 1: that game, and in fact, when it ended the way
Speaker 1: it did on that controversial fourth and two call where
Speaker 1: there was a bit of a miscommunication and led to
Speaker 1: a QB sneak that failed, that's set up the loss.
Speaker 1: That bumped me out because I really thought, you know,
Speaker 1: let Zach win this game in the fourth quarter, but
Speaker 1: they really kind of reined him in, so we didn't
Speaker 1: get to see that really dramatic ending. But I thought
Speaker 1: that was his first clean, good game. Positive. But one reason,
Speaker 1: you know, they he didn't throw as much, it was
Speaker 1: in short yards because the running game was so good
Speaker 1: and they had reason to believe in it. And and
Speaker 1: they've had a pretty good running game in general this season,
Speaker 1: especially the last month, and in in that and Wilson's confident,
Speaker 1: that was not just his best game I thought. I
Speaker 1: thought it was by far because he was just so confident, comfortable.
Speaker 1: Maybe it was the running plays a week before just
Speaker 1: like gave him this feelings like oh yeah, I'm a badass,
Speaker 1: I belong here. And he just started, you know, throwing
Speaker 1: the ball much better. Um. I really love that for him,
Speaker 1: and I want to see him have another good game.
Speaker 1: This is another really tough test. But you can look
Speaker 1: good this week, man, you just have. This is what
Speaker 1: late season football can be about. For losing teams, to
Speaker 1: go into the off season with two games like that
Speaker 1: or three games like that would be really so. I
Speaker 1: also think like he lacked some confidence after he was injured.
Speaker 1: I mean like they verbally acknowledged that looks like a
Speaker 1: different player last week, and if you look at this game,
Speaker 1: it's like the Bills romp on bad teams. Talking about
Speaker 1: run game, I think Buffalo has been able to run
Speaker 1: the ball better. Their offensive line against New England and
Speaker 1: last week against Atlanta has come together. I think it's
Speaker 1: a big good It's a positive sign for the playoffs.
Speaker 1: I mean, they ran for two hundred plus a week ago,
Speaker 1: so I like that element of Buffalo's offense becoming a
Speaker 1: little more balanced. But they kind of remind me of
Speaker 1: teams were saying like Dallas, like some of these others
Speaker 1: going with some momentum, Like I think that they're determined
Speaker 1: to drop a mega hammer on New York and get
Speaker 1: out of this thing, winning the division and kind of
Speaker 1: getting back to where people viewed them a couple of
Speaker 1: months ago before some ups and downs. That would be
Speaker 1: my pick two in the Desert thinks that as well.
Speaker 1: I think the Jets are close to fifteen point underdogs
Speaker 1: or the second straight week um. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: I was deeply unimpressed by the Bills against the Falcons,
Speaker 1: another team you thought they were going to trounce in
Speaker 1: their building and Josh Allen through interceptions on three consecutive drive,
Speaker 1: Stefon Diggs dropped a touchdown pass. Uh, they the Falcons
Speaker 1: could just execute a little bit better in a couple
Speaker 1: of spots. It's a totally different game. I mean, so
Speaker 1: the fifteen I think it was final score was misleading. Um,
Speaker 1: we'll see. And just to uh put a bow on
Speaker 1: the Wilson talk. From my end, not only has he started,
Speaker 1: he hasn't done an interception in four games, which is interesting.
Speaker 1: He also has not um he's starting to hit the
Speaker 1: layups as Solid calls him. And he had a couple
Speaker 1: of a couple of throws where it was like, oh, damn,
Speaker 1: there it is. That's the throw. Those are the throws
Speaker 1: that we saw and heard about where he threads the
Speaker 1: needle and throws an absolute laser. So again, as I said, Greg,
Speaker 1: I Mark, you weren't here for it, but I I
Speaker 1: said that I I'm scarred. Obviously as a Jets fan,
Speaker 1: I maybe jumped the gun on on writing the boy off,
Speaker 1: just trying to take a more of a macro viewpoint
Speaker 1: and and sit back and let it develop more because
Speaker 1: I know how much around him this structure is not great.
Speaker 1: Around him, But seeing these signs really makes you hopeful,
Speaker 1: and we'll see what happened against the Bills. Does anybody
Speaker 1: else agree that the Buffalo The Buffalo performance against the
Speaker 1: Falcons was a little dicey, and you wonder if that
Speaker 1: team could show up in a couple of weeks. Yes,
Speaker 1: I felt that way about Buffalo for months that said,
Speaker 1: I'm not I don't I'm gonna personally choose not to
Speaker 1: overreact to the three picks and four passes because you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's there's a tickdown with Josh Allen on
Speaker 1: some levels from from his year ago. But I kind
Speaker 1: of feel like this is sort of who you're gonna
Speaker 1: get at moments with Josh Allen, and he still is
Speaker 1: essentially the sun. They revolve around one like picular game,
Speaker 1: I'm not that worried about. Yeah, he's like Pete Cam.
Speaker 1: We're better because he's a little better as a thrower
Speaker 1: in that like his baseline is still high because they
Speaker 1: won that game partly because of his running ability. That
Speaker 1: once they threw those interceptions, they stopped throwing the ball
Speaker 1: and he had eighty two yards rushing. He's such a
Speaker 1: good red zone runner. He's such a good runner in general,
Speaker 1: and and Mark, I think your point about them getting
Speaker 1: their run game together is big because on days like that,
Speaker 1: well maybe when Alan's not feeling it, maybe you can
Speaker 1: still win a playoff game because of his legs, because
Speaker 1: of their running you can you can only survive like
Speaker 1: one of those games. And I was gonna say, I
Speaker 1: don't know if I buy into their running game based
Speaker 1: on the Atlanta game, just like if he's taken off
Speaker 1: ten times, he's the frightening guy. He's and it happened
Speaker 1: against New England to some degree the week before too,
Speaker 1: so I mean it just arrow up after it was
Speaker 1: a big issue. Al Right, Greg, you're hold on, Oh sorry,
Speaker 1: make sure Mommy signs your report card. There's a theme here.
Speaker 1: There's a theme. What that's just that's something that happens
Speaker 1: when you're when you don't you're a responsible child. You
Speaker 1: make sure that. Yeah, but you made it sound um yeah,
Speaker 1: you a sensuality back and listen to I'm not i
Speaker 1: don't have a lot of experience at reading taglines, so
Speaker 1: I'm probably learning how to be. I'm not trying to
Speaker 1: put my own emphasis on it. You're just naturally essential guy,
Speaker 1: and it's coming out in these taglines. I haven't done
Speaker 1: it yet, but I will. I'm going to ask that means, well,
Speaker 1: it just was something I was thinking about that when
Speaker 1: you were a child, remember getting UM one one grade
Speaker 1: that was quite hideous in you know, not shocker. I
Speaker 1: don't know. I understand that. I understand that. I mean,
Speaker 1: I understand the idea of having to take a report
Speaker 1: card home to your mother that maybe is the dicey
Speaker 1: grade or whatever. But like, how does that connect to
Speaker 1: the game in Orchard Park this weekend. Well, that's not
Speaker 1: up for me to decide. I did not claim that
Speaker 1: they all have like sort of deep gridiron links to
Speaker 1: the actual UM just looking for any lenk. That's Zach
Speaker 1: Wilson's report card matters. He has proved some of his grades.
Speaker 1: There you go. I like it, all right. I promised
Speaker 1: not to ask anymore. You don't have to explain about
Speaker 1: that one. I was just more curious about Greg. I'm
Speaker 1: going to take the Seahawks Cardinals, uh, which is an
Speaker 1: important game for the Cardinals still trying to win UH
Speaker 1: the NFC West. I don't think there's like a lot
Speaker 1: separating these two teams right now. I like the way
Speaker 1: that Arizona stood up last week, but it also just
Speaker 1: took a lot of extraordinary plays and I don't know
Speaker 1: if that's a repeatable thing. The way that Seattle's been
Speaker 1: moving defenses in terms of their offensive line for Rashad
Speaker 1: Penny has been pretty impressive. They've been an unlucky team
Speaker 1: this year. Obviously, Russell Wilson hasn't been at his best,
Speaker 1: but he's coming off his best game of the year too.
Speaker 1: And I'm just curious about this Cardinals team going into
Speaker 1: the playoffs. They should get Connor back. It sounds like
Speaker 1: this week he's been limited in practice, but now Chase
Speaker 1: Edmonds looks like he's out again, so they haven't been
Speaker 1: able to stay healthy. And I wouldn't be totally shocked
Speaker 1: if the Rams were able to back into winning this division.
Speaker 1: Because the Cardinals lose this game, well, I guess you
Speaker 1: were waiting to see it. With ron Dale Moore, who
Speaker 1: was you know, he's practiced on a limited basis. They've
Speaker 1: they've been without some of these guys, and I still
Speaker 1: see a Cardinals offense that they can dazzle you, but
Speaker 1: they are working through some of their own issues at
Speaker 1: a weird time in the year to be doing that.
Speaker 1: It wasn't a nice performance last week for the most part,
Speaker 1: but they still at times UM leave you a little
Speaker 1: bit guiled, and they feel like a team that could
Speaker 1: get picked off. UM in this playoff phrase, they're just
Speaker 1: they they feel like they peeked, like when's the last time,
Speaker 1: by the way, just you brought him up, like when's
Speaker 1: the last time Rondel Moore made a play? Well, he's
Speaker 1: been out of the mix, but you're right that he wasn't.
Speaker 1: He seemed to be like the juicy X factor that
Speaker 1: made their offense overwhelming at times. But you take him
Speaker 1: out of the mix, there's no DeAndre Hopkins. It seems
Speaker 1: like they've got injured running backs every week, and you
Speaker 1: know they were missing Rodney Hudson as center. I thought
Speaker 1: that created a ton of chaos. He's back at least,
Speaker 1: but they're not the healthiest team and they don't seem
Speaker 1: to be the most UM in sync. That was an
Speaker 1: important obviously vitally important for their confidence. But I'm I'm
Speaker 1: with you, Greg, I think Seattle and I'd like them
Speaker 1: to lose because I wanted that that draft picked to
Speaker 1: stay in the top ten. But it feels like playing
Speaker 1: with nothing to lose. They're gonna be loose. They just
Speaker 1: had that game where they got the offense going in
Speaker 1: a big way dropping the fifty burger. Um, we'll see.
Speaker 1: I've been kind of doubting the Cardinals all year after
Speaker 1: that seven or no start, and it's been correct for
Speaker 1: the most part. And I guess I'm doubting them again.
Speaker 1: So I if I was in the Greg Rosenthal, I
Speaker 1: have to pick the game mode. I am picking Seattle
Speaker 1: here to win. Um, and they are like six point underdogs,
Speaker 1: so you know, you could, you could really, you could
Speaker 1: really clean up if you take take that the money line,
Speaker 1: you know, just as a straight upset. Now, that's you.
Speaker 1: I don't put a raincoat on. That's you. That's your world,
Speaker 1: and I stay away from your your your realm, and
Speaker 1: you know, and I respect it. I mean it's not
Speaker 1: like totally you know, if you like them to win,
Speaker 1: you like them. But I love that. I love that.
Speaker 1: I love them yet covering that for sure, that's pointing
Speaker 1: for Arizona if that becomes a reality. Very all right,
Speaker 1: do you have anything else that? Yeah? Just the tagline?
Speaker 1: Did you have any Oh? Yeah, just the tagline of course. Actually,
Speaker 1: before the tagline, Well know, what's the drop happens? Is it? Well,
Speaker 1: you can we're into the tagline tagline two plus two
Speaker 1: equals Hey there, sailor. Okay, let's see there's a theme here.
Speaker 1: They're gonna have to put some type of mature rating
Speaker 1: on this podcast for this episode the Beholder. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, Tipper Gore may not like it, but someone
Speaker 1: else might. I can't wait for the Senate hearing where
Speaker 1: d Snyder of Twisted Sister is he's testifying on our behalf.
Speaker 1: There's no like of our listeners are are not into
Speaker 1: the Tipperger reference. Well, it's you're right about your all right,
Speaker 1: let's take a break and we will continue the draft.
Speaker 1: All right, we are back. It is Mark Sessler on
Speaker 1: the board. Alright, I'm gonna go Titans and Texans. It
Speaker 1: kind of feels to me like the Brother or Sister
Speaker 1: game to cults Um Jaguars work and I just can
Speaker 1: I just jump in real quick. This week is kind
Speaker 1: of annoying because it's like all these teams with a
Speaker 1: lot on the line, playing these stiff teams where if
Speaker 1: just things, I mostly blame the Browns and the Ravens. Honestly,
Speaker 1: if we just had a couple other teams step up
Speaker 1: in the last couple of weeks. This would have been
Speaker 1: a wild considering the way this year went for ninety
Speaker 1: five percent of the season, we should have had a
Speaker 1: Week A team that was the craziest Week A team ever. Instead,
Speaker 1: we're like, well, maybe the Houston Texans will pull it
Speaker 1: together and pull off a major upset. It's like, now,
Speaker 1: probably not. There's not a lot of juice here. There
Speaker 1: should have been more juice. Alright, there's like two great games.
Speaker 1: You're right, there's two like really important games, and the
Speaker 1: rest of them. You're right, you're quick fix like league.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think we could have even like known,
Speaker 1: at you know, eight months ago, Let's have the Texans
Speaker 1: play the Jaguars. Uh, and let's have the Cults play
Speaker 1: the Titans in Week A team but I mean, just
Speaker 1: like I like the division game aspect, but we knew
Speaker 1: the South. We knew what the South was, so this
Speaker 1: is relatively annoying. Um. I would say this is different
Speaker 1: though than playing the Jaguars because this Texans team, I
Speaker 1: think we kind of thought we knew what they were
Speaker 1: for a long period of time. But in that David
Speaker 1: Culli was maybe a dead man walking. I mean, they're
Speaker 1: weeks removed from putting it on the Chargers, and they
Speaker 1: played the Niners tough, like they like they're just they
Speaker 1: hang around and and like they're not incompetent and they're
Speaker 1: they're playing real hard. So the Titans, you know, they
Speaker 1: you've got a g Brown back. You're gonna get Derrick
Speaker 1: Henry back at something very soon here, Like we're beginning
Speaker 1: to look at the Titans team that we once knew.
Speaker 1: And I would just remind people because I know there's
Speaker 1: all this hubbub about should they get the number one
Speaker 1: seat or not, and that if they falter here, someone
Speaker 1: else steps in and probably grabs that. But this is
Speaker 1: a team that in four consecutive weeks when they had
Speaker 1: everyone beat the Bills, the Chiefs, the Cults, and the Rams.
Speaker 1: I mean that's a playoff run. That's a super Bowl
Speaker 1: run right there. So I take them seriously. I think
Speaker 1: that we've seen them heat up. I mean, they were
Speaker 1: so physical against Miami last week on defense, the way
Speaker 1: they ran the ball on Miami, which is a good
Speaker 1: run defense right there, that I don't think that this
Speaker 1: is a make pretend necessarily. Number one need we just
Speaker 1: they're early wins put them in this position they've done
Speaker 1: and now the rounding into shape. I don't there's this
Speaker 1: there's an idea not to keep going back to the
Speaker 1: Titans fans being upset, but like there's an idea that
Speaker 1: people don't think they're deserving number one seed. I don't
Speaker 1: think that. I think a lot of people that are
Speaker 1: following the the league they don't think that it's kind
Speaker 1: of worked out in a positive way for them. But
Speaker 1: once we do get to January football and the playoffs,
Speaker 1: the playoffs, I think they could beat any of these
Speaker 1: teams in the a f C, especially this year. But
Speaker 1: the difference is like when I look at the number
Speaker 1: one seed in the NFC, the Packers, like that's a
Speaker 1: powerhouse and teams having to come into their building to
Speaker 1: beat them in one of two games. That's gonna be
Speaker 1: very tough. I don't feel that way about the Titans.
Speaker 1: But it doesn't mean I don't think they're a real team,
Speaker 1: or I think they're a paper champion, none of that.
Speaker 1: It's just it's there. Is there levels they're like, it
Speaker 1: doesn't have to be black or white, it could be
Speaker 1: somewhere in the middle and that's where I am on
Speaker 1: the Titans. Maybe they're just h have scar tissue, these
Speaker 1: Titans fans, not just from being overlooked by the national media,
Speaker 1: but from two thousand and eight one of the weirdest
Speaker 1: number one seeds of all time Carrie Collins Tennessee Titans
Speaker 1: thirteen and three. Uh and that was the storyline that year,
Speaker 1: was like, is this Titans team really any good? And
Speaker 1: then they went out meekly in their first playoff game
Speaker 1: to the Ravens. Uh So, So maybe it's Titans fans
Speaker 1: remembering all the way back then. I don't think they
Speaker 1: have to worry too much about this week. But they
Speaker 1: did lose to the Texans, you know, fairly convincingly the
Speaker 1: first time around. Now they were they were about at
Speaker 1: their low in terms of player availability than a G.
Speaker 1: Brown wasn't in and out of that game. But that
Speaker 1: was the week Ravel like wasn't even practicing because they
Speaker 1: couldn't They couldn't, you know, fill an entire roster of
Speaker 1: healthy players. It wasn't COVID. It was like injuries and
Speaker 1: it was a turnover fast. Tannehill ended up throwing a
Speaker 1: bunch of picks right at the end of that game
Speaker 1: that the Texans defense has been pretty tough to the
Speaker 1: point where you could imagine it being somewhat close for
Speaker 1: a while. But I'm with you, Mark, like there's so
Speaker 1: physical on both lines. They should just like push the
Speaker 1: Texans around and and make this thing, this is a
Speaker 1: playoff game, for like, make this thing very boring because
Speaker 1: you win this game, you advance around in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: That's what these teams like your to your point, You've
Speaker 1: got a team with something that has to go and
Speaker 1: accomplish something, verse a team that's sort of, you know,
Speaker 1: got a bunch of people thinking about the fact they'll
Speaker 1: be in a rubat, you know, twenty four hours later
Speaker 1: after after the final whistle blows. You cannot falter here.
Speaker 1: You just gotta take care of business. It's a The
Speaker 1: rest of the football world is completely forgotten about the
Speaker 1: Brett Farve was on the Jets season, but Jets fans,
Speaker 1: there are moments of that season that were so much fun.
Speaker 1: And one of them is when the Jets went um
Speaker 1: to Tennessee and beat up the Tennant, oh Titans, handing
Speaker 1: their first loss of the year. I remember that game
Speaker 1: like it was yesterday. Watching that at Birds in West
Speaker 1: Hollywood or in Hollywood. Um, that was a nice memory.
Speaker 1: The other one was the Thursday night game against the Pats,
Speaker 1: Greg which I know you remember the Matt Castle Pats
Speaker 1: Um then at all I was there. I was there.
Speaker 1: That was the last game I went to as a
Speaker 1: fan until this Rams game with the family. Is that
Speaker 1: Matt Castle Jets game catch at the end of regulation
Speaker 1: to send it to overtime and then um, I think
Speaker 1: Nick Folk hit the field goal for the Jets to
Speaker 1: win the game. But that he is, all these years
Speaker 1: later Patriots legend. He is a great kicker. N Folk.
Speaker 1: All right? Any other thoughts about this game, gentleman, No
Speaker 1: other than Donte Foreman. I think will be a factor
Speaker 1: in the playoffs, even if the Derrick Henry's back. Henry's
Speaker 1: practicing a little bit this week. Foreman has been great.
Speaker 1: This was a high draft pick that was coming on
Speaker 1: late in his rookie year Torres Achilles a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago. He's a pretty talented guy. I don't think
Speaker 1: he has been a fluke, and so I think with him,
Speaker 1: when Henry is back, you don't have to give Henry
Speaker 1: the ball thirty times necessarily. Maybe Foreman is mixed in
Speaker 1: he's been really I don't think it's just been the
Speaker 1: old line. He personally, he has been really good. I
Speaker 1: don't know how many running backs have come back from
Speaker 1: an achilles scenario look as powerful and fast as he's looking.
Speaker 1: And it took him a few years. I think that's
Speaker 1: what explains why why is was this guy on the
Speaker 1: streets because he didn't look very good coming off the Achilles.
Speaker 1: But now he's a few years removed from it. I
Speaker 1: think it's two and a half years removed from it.
Speaker 1: The Tennessee offensive line is healthy and all together for
Speaker 1: the first time now, so these it all seems to
Speaker 1: be kind of coming together for them. And that's one
Speaker 1: thing I don't think most people realized, even when they
Speaker 1: were kind of scuffling before these last two wins. The
Speaker 1: run game has pretty much been there all season with
Speaker 1: or without Henry, So it can only get better with
Speaker 1: the big Dog, and you never ever fade the big Dog. Mark, Oh, Mark,
Speaker 1: give us a tagline, breezy shopping spree in Eastern Iran
Speaker 1: shopping eastern night? Right? Is the Are you relating Houston,
Speaker 1: Texas too? I ran it feels like a blowouts, so
Speaker 1: people of uh Texas in the Houston area. That's what
Speaker 1: he was saying. I'm gonna to code that for you. Well,
Speaker 1: I would typically want to counter that, but we can
Speaker 1: move on. Do you think I had that right, Greg?
Speaker 1: I think you nailed that. Yeah, well, okay. I like Houston.
Speaker 1: We went there for a super Bowl, had some amazing seafood.
Speaker 1: I bet a couple of super Bowls in Houston is
Speaker 1: a nice, nice super Bowl town, nice super Bowl town.
Speaker 1: All right, Mark Snakes, do you Lancer line took us out?
Speaker 1: Lance knows Houston? Yes to that UFO bar with with
Speaker 1: West and the crew too, had a wonderful time there.
Speaker 1: I do not consider it the equivalent of Iran. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go Packers at Lions early game bust. Not much
Speaker 1: at stake here, all right, this schedule is rough if
Speaker 1: this is getting drafted, but at this point I'm looking
Speaker 1: at here, um, I mean, look at the line. Still
Speaker 1: have a chance for the number one pick. If the
Speaker 1: Jags ever, you know, won that game against the Cults.
Speaker 1: I don't see that happening, but I you know, I
Speaker 1: guess we'll just we'll see how long. For me, it's
Speaker 1: like how long did the Packers play? I guess you
Speaker 1: got Aaron Rodgers. You know he's practicing. It sounds like
Speaker 1: they're gonna essentially be out there to start get a lead.
Speaker 1: You think it's manageable and just roll because there's no
Speaker 1: reason to put anyone into harm's way, I mean longer projection.
Speaker 1: It's like David Baktier's practicing Jaire Alexander has come back,
Speaker 1: I mean at some point here. So they're getting healthier,
Speaker 1: and they've done all this with a bunch of guys
Speaker 1: not playing. So this is a nice little warm up
Speaker 1: to what comes ahead. And I thought it was interesting
Speaker 1: that Aaron Rodgers said, um today or there's at least
Speaker 1: comments that I read today about Brian Goodencoust that it's
Speaker 1: been a really nice fall in winter, that he appreciates
Speaker 1: his approach, how it's been. So there we are. I
Speaker 1: think this. I think, you know Greg Mention the other night,
Speaker 1: that's just the way that Aaron Rodgers is talking. It
Speaker 1: sure sounds like he's sticking around. And uh, I thought
Speaker 1: some of these comments might have might have sealed it.
Speaker 1: He said the grass is greener where you water it.
Speaker 1: I don't know if he got that out of his
Speaker 1: one of his books, but did he use it. Well,
Speaker 1: did you see I hope you give credit to where
Speaker 1: he said that on the Atom Shine podcast. That's right exclusively. Wait,
Speaker 1: Shine got Rogers. Yeah, Shine got Rogers, And I read
Speaker 1: those quotes and he asked a good question there. You
Speaker 1: know that you know about GOODA Cuns very specifically in
Speaker 1: their relationship, and yeah, he said he really appreciated how
Speaker 1: Goodacuns met him halfway. I don't know exactly what that meant,
Speaker 1: but that that was promising for Packers fans for sure.
Speaker 1: Did you see the thing that um Rogers really doing
Speaker 1: a lot of media. By the way, Rogers was doing
Speaker 1: his weekly spot on the Pat McAfee show, and he
Speaker 1: told McAfee that he put the Atlas Shrug Book in
Speaker 1: his background and referenced it just to trigger people who
Speaker 1: who he thought would go after him as they then predictably.
Speaker 1: Did Did you see that? I did? I mean we
Speaker 1: I think it would have helped if we had caught
Speaker 1: that before our Tuesday discussion. But um, you know that
Speaker 1: was the next level troll move there that seemed to
Speaker 1: um get the desired effect by Rogers. Right. That's well,
Speaker 1: that was news. That's news to me. I didn't hear
Speaker 1: that um, that seems like just something you would say
Speaker 1: after the fact, don't you think too like he he
Speaker 1: he has. He has put himself out there politically as
Speaker 1: like a libertarian and Joe Rogan fan and stuff in
Speaker 1: that book is like a bible to libertarians in the
Speaker 1: political views. I'm saying, he seems like a person who
Speaker 1: has lost enough to because he feels small in that moment,
Speaker 1: then to make up a new thing and and say
Speaker 1: like I did that to trigger Peter calling him a liar. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean that is obvious. He he says, lies Roger,
Speaker 1: he's a liar. So Ricky could pull that quote. We don't.
Speaker 1: We don't want to make Greg here go now to
Speaker 1: one and Greg he has this deliberately misled the public
Speaker 1: about his iron Rand views. Is it iron? Is that
Speaker 1: what it is? I think it is? Yeah, I'm not sure,
Speaker 1: but yeah, all right, that's good. Good talking that game.
Speaker 1: Let's move on tagline hurts rental vehicle taken out by
Speaker 1: laser fire. I hate that game. How do you put
Speaker 1: that game? Where is laser technology? Yet? By the way,
Speaker 1: didn't you think by now by two thousand twenty two,
Speaker 1: there'll be a bunch of soldiers just like eviscerating each
Speaker 1: other with laser fire. I don't want to see war
Speaker 1: seem like it never really it never really advanced past,
Speaker 1: like the guy with the laser pointer in the stands
Speaker 1: at football games that occasionally, you know, a noise ref
Speaker 1: by lasers. Santa brought the Boys Nintendo Classic. It's like
Speaker 1: a mini Nintendo that has comes loaded with thirty of
Speaker 1: the classic games. And I've probably played it more than them.
Speaker 1: Um and Contra is one of the games, and and
Speaker 1: and it's follow up, it's n sequel, Super Contra. I mean,
Speaker 1: these are great games. They had lasers in that, and
Speaker 1: lasers were absolutely you know, you want to take care
Speaker 1: of some aliens, you shoot your laser gun, which had
Speaker 1: to be earned. You had to work up to get
Speaker 1: to the laser. I would just say, like the U. S.
Speaker 1: Military and all it's might at some point if we
Speaker 1: could develop laser tech, yeah, maybe we won't have to
Speaker 1: worry about isis anymore. Maybe we won't have to worry
Speaker 1: about you know, certain military skirmish is going sideways. And
Speaker 1: I think you're also you know, to the Super Contra point.
Speaker 1: Um you're telling aliens or alien technology like we're on
Speaker 1: your level, like we we can bring a weapon which
Speaker 1: we are unable to do. It's quarter to what we know. Instead,
Speaker 1: they come down in the UFOs and they just look
Speaker 1: at our military facilities and laugh. Lasers lasers. Humans have
Speaker 1: no lasers. They go back to the New Year's resolution
Speaker 1: for the United States Military more lasers. All right, Greg,
Speaker 1: I'm up. Let's let's wrap up with Steelers Ravens. Greg
Speaker 1: sits out the laser discourse. I didn't have much to add.
Speaker 1: I thought it was fun, you know some some of these.
Speaker 1: You gotta let the heavy hitters take take the ball here,
Speaker 1: Steelers Ravens. What a rivalry, what a matchup? I I
Speaker 1: think this is Uh. I think this is gonna be
Speaker 1: a game where everyone in the a f C North
Speaker 1: gets a moral victory, even the Browns. Maybe this week
Speaker 1: with with Case and playing against the Bengals backups, we
Speaker 1: haven't gotten to that game yet. But I think this
Speaker 1: game matters more to the Ravens. I think they felt
Speaker 1: like the Steelers, that is that they kind of won
Speaker 1: their playoff game on Monday night. It's a short week. Uh,
Speaker 1: there's no Deante Johnson, he's on the COVID list. They're
Speaker 1: starting center who they were also without Monday night, so
Speaker 1: that they're used to that. Kendrick Green also onto the
Speaker 1: COVID list for Pittsburgh. And I just think the Ravens
Speaker 1: are a little bit better of a team anyways, and
Speaker 1: that they have a better quarterback right now. I liked
Speaker 1: what their defense did last week in terms of playing
Speaker 1: against type, playing very conservatively, got the running game going,
Speaker 1: which should work against the Steelers. I mean, why not
Speaker 1: just lock this game up? Why not let's lock up
Speaker 1: the Ravens? Are you locking him up? I forgot about
Speaker 1: the locks? And uh, this seems nice. It's all right.
Speaker 1: You are not alone on this one. Let's check in
Speaker 1: with Westling Lock Company. Hello, heroes, it's Nick and I'm
Speaker 1: back after a three week hiatus last week, you guys
Speaker 1: mentioned has done the last three weeks and is getting
Speaker 1: a little stale. I want to apologize for leaving you
Speaker 1: with the boring brother. You aren't the only ones asking
Speaker 1: where the rest of us are? People reached out from
Speaker 1: all over asking what happened Nick? Where are you? We
Speaker 1: can't listen to the monotone sounds of your brother anymore.
Speaker 1: And by the way, what happened to Tim and Larry well,
Speaker 1: you loved them, and I thought Chris had six brothers
Speaker 1: to the other two even exist. People want answers. First,
Speaker 1: I can't confirm there are six brothers. Second, I reached
Speaker 1: out to the other four Ed, Tim, Larry, Am Mike.
Speaker 1: They issued a joint statement which reads as follows, no
Speaker 1: longer will the four of us allow the oppressive A
Speaker 1: t M podcast use our voices without proper compensation. The
Speaker 1: bound downloads up said podcast have consistently increased since the
Speaker 1: Westling brothers evelyn their voices without even a hint of
Speaker 1: monetary recompense. Close quote, What the hell is monetary recompense?
Speaker 1: What the hell is going on? Who are these people? First?
Speaker 1: N I l deals in the n c A. Now
Speaker 1: this I don't even know what's going on, but did
Speaker 1: get me thinking should I join in this boycott of
Speaker 1: the podcast? Ask through it. We're taking the Ravens over
Speaker 1: the Steelers. Lock it up, all right, guy? That's twenty
Speaker 1: two is better than one From your lips to God's ears,
Speaker 1: my friend. Well, they become difficult. They're becoming more difficult.
Speaker 1: That's good though, they're like they need you know, it's
Speaker 1: important that they understand their value and their employer or
Speaker 1: the people that provide the platform respond to that and
Speaker 1: take care of them. They've also done a terrible thing
Speaker 1: because it's like you're gonna get paid a certain amount
Speaker 1: of money, but you're gonna have to split it between
Speaker 1: like two people. It's like that you it's I mean,
Speaker 1: it's too many by six? What is that? Well? Zero
Speaker 1: by six carry the one. Oh, you're getting nothing, Nick.
Speaker 1: We do give them an international platform to give people
Speaker 1: an insight into just this wacky world. That's like, first
Speaker 1: you get that, then you have lifetime or whatever coming
Speaker 1: to you to do. Like how about you know the
Speaker 1: wall Burgers that the Wallberg family opening up a Hamburger business?
Speaker 1: What if we do with the Westling's like that, we're
Speaker 1: providing you the platform to gain a higher level of notoriety.
Speaker 1: Like does that have value? I think it does. There
Speaker 1: are a lot like the Wahburgers. If you're just missing
Speaker 1: like the international movie star and the member of like
Speaker 1: one of the biggest boy bands ever. But other than that,
Speaker 1: there's there's a couple of Donnies in there. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: say there's a Mark. I don't see a Mark, all right, Mark,
Speaker 1: I see you with a tagline tagline, here we go,
Speaker 1: oh you oh, Ricky was laid on the queue and
Speaker 1: Mark gave an eye roll. That was good. Well we
Speaker 1: knew it would happened, but it's but she's done in
Speaker 1: an exemplary job. Tagline chewing on plums from the seventh dimensions.
Speaker 1: From the seventh dimension, that one feels like class class
Speaker 1: accessler or nonsense. I don't think there's any way to
Speaker 1: tie that to the game. No, unless j J or
Speaker 1: t J. Watt were to, you know, somehow get the
Speaker 1: sack record, maybe we'd all be doing that. This is
Speaker 1: this game does have something at stake. We should just
Speaker 1: point out the scenario for the Ravens, because the Ravens
Speaker 1: have not been knocked out. They need to win. They
Speaker 1: need the Jaguars to beat the Colts. They need the
Speaker 1: Pats to beat the Dolphins, and they need the Raiders
Speaker 1: to beat the Chargers, you know, the the Jags part. Obviously,
Speaker 1: it is important to to the Steelers to the Steelers
Speaker 1: stay alive. If the Jags beat the Colts and the
Speaker 1: Steelers witness games, crazier things have happened than the Steelers,
Speaker 1: you know, winning this game and making the playoffs. The
Speaker 1: Ravens are really counting on on a lot, including those Jaguars.
Speaker 1: But if they got the first one, it put a
Speaker 1: little extra juice even into that that Sunday Nike. The
Speaker 1: most simple or the most likely outcome, of course, is
Speaker 1: that the Cults are blown out the Jaguars in the
Speaker 1: second quarter. And this game also one pm Eastern. Everyone
Speaker 1: knows it, and by the second half, it's just like, alright,
Speaker 1: see you later, big Ben, you know, like hard bought,
Speaker 1: and I don't know, I feel like they want something
Speaker 1: to celebrate here. This is this is kind of their
Speaker 1: super Bowl, after all these close losses against pretty good teams.
Speaker 1: Get this win and at least you feel a little better.
Speaker 1: I don't need another week of Pittsburgh, but we we
Speaker 1: are in that reach of that eight eight and one scenario.
Speaker 1: Just to track that what we need, we need a loss.
Speaker 1: That's I mean that you talk about things that are
Speaker 1: very doable. The Steelers losing this game is very doable,
Speaker 1: and we have all right. Finally, I'm thinking about the show,
Speaker 1: of course, but I can't imagine bringing myself to watch
Speaker 1: Chicago at Minister Oda or Washington the Giants. I just
Speaker 1: can't do it. Um So I will grab and I'm
Speaker 1: surprised still here, but I know Nick Shook will have
Speaker 1: eyes on it. But I want to. I want to
Speaker 1: watch New Orleans at Atlanta because this is fun. Greg
Speaker 1: you love the NFC South, You love the Saints and
Speaker 1: the Falcons. Rivalry is nasty, they do. Those fan bases
Speaker 1: do not like each other at all. And I think
Speaker 1: back two after Marty Gros. New Orleans was a couple
Speaker 1: of days later and it went viral that they actually
Speaker 1: had a the Young and the Ringless Marty Grass float
Speaker 1: in New Orleans and a big pictures you know, was
Speaker 1: a artistic rendering of Matt Ryan's face and Julio Jones's face.
Speaker 1: The Saints completely devoid of any Super Bowl heroism, the
Speaker 1: self out of the playoffs by that point. No super
Speaker 1: Bowl ring was the Patriots, of course, who won the
Speaker 1: Lombardi that year, and yet they had a parade float
Speaker 1: celebrating the Falcons, lowest moment in the history of their franchise.
Speaker 1: Fast forward to the present. Now, Atlanta, you're a bad team.
Speaker 1: We all know you're a bad team, but you've won
Speaker 1: a lot of close games and then you have a
Speaker 1: chance here to just absolutely break the hearts of Saints Nation,
Speaker 1: get some revenge, Get petty as hell, go for it
Speaker 1: in your building, knock off the Saints and their season.
Speaker 1: No Kyle Pitts in practice this week is a big concern.
Speaker 1: This offense is is limited. We saw it when they
Speaker 1: were without Cordail Patterson. How just taking one piece away
Speaker 1: because to me, you know, Patterson, Gauge and Pits are
Speaker 1: the entire offense and that hurts and the Falcons. One
Speaker 1: of those closest wins was against the Saints earlier this season.
Speaker 1: But I think what's different about this Saints defense now
Speaker 1: it wasn't the case early in the year. Was their
Speaker 1: pass rush is just so much better now. Cam Jordan
Speaker 1: went from just very quiet for half a season to
Speaker 1: wreck and shop Davenports out of practice. But he's been
Speaker 1: amazing and that could have a pass rush with this
Speaker 1: much to play for. I just think there's a much
Speaker 1: better chance than people realize that the Saints playing on
Speaker 1: wild Card weekend, even if no one wants to see it,
Speaker 1: because I I kind of wish I locked this game up.
Speaker 1: Maybe I will, let's switch it. I don't even know,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter exactly, I keep switching it. Uh, they're
Speaker 1: gonna I think they're gonna win this game. And uh,
Speaker 1: and I think the forty Niners are fifty at best.
Speaker 1: You know, they're they're an underdog in Los Angeles, and
Speaker 1: that's all the Saints need to make the playoffs. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, their path is as clear as anyone's. And
Speaker 1: and you know, I think Atlanta and Arthur Smith, I
Speaker 1: give them credit for the close games they've won, that
Speaker 1: they've hung around, and they've done it kind of week
Speaker 1: after week with you know, you never had Calvin Ridley
Speaker 1: at post London game. You've been compromised. I mean, Cordarrell
Speaker 1: Patterson fried the Saints and kind of beguiled that defense
Speaker 1: the first time they met. And I don't think that
Speaker 1: has a chance of happening a again, just because the
Speaker 1: Saints defense is rounded into such a nasty being. But
Speaker 1: also if Kyle Pitts isn't in there, it just I
Speaker 1: don't know, you just want the bodies and they can't
Speaker 1: stop the runs. So I mean, I don't like this
Speaker 1: New Orleans offense on any level. I mean, we get
Speaker 1: that they're super compromise. They've scored like thirty points in
Speaker 1: three weeks. But that said, maybe you can run the
Speaker 1: ball against a terrible run defense and win a game like,
Speaker 1: you know, fifteen to nine or something. That's how I
Speaker 1: see these Saints games. I'm keeping my eye on this
Speaker 1: one too. I knew shook was so I'm you know,
Speaker 1: I still am going to I mean, I know, I
Speaker 1: gotta gotta watch this. Tastem has been better you get
Speaker 1: you know, you guys used to be on the tastom
Speaker 1: corner and I was against it. He's getting too much.
Speaker 1: I'm taste some agnostic. I've never had a real taste.
Speaker 1: I just like him in the role he what was
Speaker 1: before where he added a lot of creativity and juice
Speaker 1: to the office. It was you and West versus me,
Speaker 1: I guess back in the day. But West would also
Speaker 1: look at this and says played himself out of starting
Speaker 1: quarterback conversation at this point. Outside to the outrageous contracts
Speaker 1: they keep giving them. Getting a little better though, is
Speaker 1: what I'm trying. This is a great lock, Greg. It
Speaker 1: is too little, too late for you, but it's still
Speaker 1: I think this is money in the bank. Maybe the
Speaker 1: rainmakers involved here, I don't know. Because the Saints have
Speaker 1: allowed less than ten points a game for the last
Speaker 1: four weeks. The Falcon's offense stinks. Now. Kyle Pitts did
Speaker 1: return to practice on Thursday in a limited fashion, but
Speaker 1: that's a hamstring. It's late in the season. We'll see
Speaker 1: what if he plays, or how much he plays, or
Speaker 1: if he's able to stay on the field. I just think, um,
Speaker 1: this is going to be a game where the Falcons
Speaker 1: are gonna have a lot of trouble scoring ten points.
Speaker 1: And as much as I don't love the Taysom Hill
Speaker 1: led Saints offense, I think the urgency of it all. Yes,
Speaker 1: this this feels like a twenty four to nine type win.
Speaker 1: Maybe Matt Ryan's last game as a Falcon. Probably not,
Speaker 1: but something to keep an eye on there. I haven't
Speaker 1: really heard much about that recently, but they seem to
Speaker 1: be a team that could go in a different direction
Speaker 1: as Arthur Smith goes into year two. Um, but I
Speaker 1: do like the Saints a lot here, and then they
Speaker 1: need help. As you said, we'll see if they get it.
Speaker 1: All right, I got some few more games to get
Speaker 1: to and then we'll hit the Sunday night football all right.
Speaker 1: Need tagline? Yeah, No, I'm just I've been doing it
Speaker 1: one way for like twenty years, so I'm not used
Speaker 1: to the tagline, so don't take it. Doesn't mean I
Speaker 1: don't want to hear it. I really do, I just forget.
Speaker 1: I also told you, you know, minutes before the show
Speaker 1: that this anyways, the tagline is head of cabbage patch
Speaker 1: doll found in gutter. Doesn't sound good for the Falcons.
Speaker 1: You can read in the fans. Fill that building. I
Speaker 1: know you probably don't want to or don't plan to,
Speaker 1: and it's gonna be a lot of Saints fans there,
Speaker 1: but fill that building and get some revenge. This is
Speaker 1: your chance. They're that building. Yeah, probably not. Probably not.
Speaker 1: That's why I'm trying to implore them to greg and
Speaker 1: really make life hard for the Saints who have designs
Speaker 1: on a playoff Berth. All right, let's take a break
Speaker 1: and then finished the games. All right, here we go,
Speaker 1: let's hit the a f C. North Here the Bengals
Speaker 1: at the Browns. This game means nothing because Cincinnati is
Speaker 1: not going to play Joe Burrow. They're not playing Joe Mixon.
Speaker 1: The Browns aren't playing Baker Mayfield. Case Keen and finally
Speaker 1: gets in the lineup and the season's over. That that's
Speaker 1: still that annoys me. But that's the road they decided
Speaker 1: to go down. Um, so there is a possibility here, Mark,
Speaker 1: with Baker going under the knife, that he's already played
Speaker 1: his final game as a Brown I still don't believe it.
Speaker 1: Greg Fields the other side, Uh, do you want it
Speaker 1: to be do you want it to be over? No?
Speaker 1: I don't you know. I was thinking about like that
Speaker 1: there were for all the ups and downs with Baker
Speaker 1: and the and some of the poor play that I
Speaker 1: just think it's who he is that there have been
Speaker 1: moments that have been the best quarterback play the Browns
Speaker 1: have had in twenties something years. I mean, he looked
Speaker 1: as a rookie, like the next big thing, and I
Speaker 1: thought that what he did last year it kind of
Speaker 1: just to me as a Browns fan. It's like, for instance,
Speaker 1: today Mary Cake Habit put out a story basically saying
Speaker 1: that Baker Mayfield must resolve his differences with Kevin Stefanski
Speaker 1: soon if they want to coexist next season. It was
Speaker 1: the tweet and then Baker I will read his response.
Speaker 1: He you know, he quote tweeted her and said clickbait.
Speaker 1: You and many other Cleveland local media continue to be
Speaker 1: drama stirring reporters with no source or facts. Don't put
Speaker 1: words in my mouth, so you can put food on
Speaker 1: your table. I'm not your puppet. Now. I like, I
Speaker 1: like the wording, I like his tweet ability. But it
Speaker 1: just kind of because at one point Brandon Weed and
Speaker 1: of all people, quote tweeted Baker Mayfield to say, you
Speaker 1: know stuff about Mary Kay Cabot that he had got
Speaker 1: got lost under the American. They've found him, he's emerged,
Speaker 1: and I mean in this scenario of all things. So
Speaker 1: it kind of just takes you back to um, the
Speaker 1: darkest possible place where Cleveland is dysfunctional. If anything, it's
Speaker 1: the contrast of who you're playing this week, the team
Speaker 1: that had been more dysfunctional, you inside of your own state,
Speaker 1: the only bragging rights you had, and the ben those
Speaker 1: do have something to play for. They can still get
Speaker 1: the number one seed if a bunch of other stuff happens.
Speaker 1: But they look to me like the the next big
Speaker 1: thing in the a f C, which is what Cleveland
Speaker 1: was meant to be, and cannot get out of their
Speaker 1: own way. The wrong is Joe Burrow maybe playing. No,
Speaker 1: he's out there. They don't care about the game. Well,
Speaker 1: they know to the Chiefs will they'll know what's up
Speaker 1: Saturday night too. Yeah, they'll clinch being ahead of the
Speaker 1: Bengals in the standings. Now they can and probably will
Speaker 1: fall from the three to the four. Uh. And then
Speaker 1: if like the a f C favorites East, favorites one,
Speaker 1: or if the Bills won. You know that that basically
Speaker 1: locks in a Bengals Patriots game. So that's interesting, just that,
Speaker 1: not that they're going to try to like set up
Speaker 1: their opponent, but they will fall in the in the standing.
Speaker 1: The Baker thing, though, I don't love him hitting out
Speaker 1: at the at Mary Kay that much because ultimately she's
Speaker 1: reporting something which she also did about a month ago,
Speaker 1: and she one thing he left out Mark was that
Speaker 1: she said that you know, he might, uh, he might
Speaker 1: request the trade if if things don't get cleaned up.
Speaker 1: She's reporting what Michael Silver said on our air a
Speaker 1: year ago in the off season actually, which was kind
Speaker 1: of like that he liked the idea of Alex Van
Speaker 1: Pelt as a play caller more than than Kevin Stefanski
Speaker 1: for whatever reason. Uh, she's not coming it's not coming
Speaker 1: out of nowhere. She's been doing that job for twentysomething years.
Speaker 1: She's getting that information from somewhere. It's probably not a
Speaker 1: secret to Kevin Stefanski. They're probably very annoyed to see
Speaker 1: these reports. Now, whether it's from Baker Mayfield's camp or not,
Speaker 1: who knows. Maybe it's something that's just been passed around,
Speaker 1: but it's very possibly from you know, Baker Mayfield's camp
Speaker 1: that the information is even coming or started to go
Speaker 1: around in the first place. So it reminds me a
Speaker 1: little bit of the Russell Wilson stuff last year where
Speaker 1: he starts blaming the media for things that he his
Speaker 1: agent literally put up. Now that was on the record.
Speaker 1: This is not who knows who her sources are, but
Speaker 1: I ultimately trust that she didn't make get up, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. So it seems like split right
Speaker 1: if anything. I think the Browns are will be ready
Speaker 1: to move on if they at all can, and Baker
Speaker 1: he's in his feelings right now, which is totally understandable
Speaker 1: considering where he's at. Tagline, Mark, nobody knows about my
Speaker 1: hidden second apartment. That's just like a fact. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: just Mark wish casting about a reality that's an impossibility.
Speaker 1: But he did have that motel for a little while
Speaker 1: early in Can you even imagine let's say we got paid,
Speaker 1: you know, and like the equals like the reach of
Speaker 1: the show is how we got paid. Imagine Mark's other apartment.
Speaker 1: I mean, where would it be? Is it in l A.
Speaker 1: Is it in the outskirts of the city. Is it
Speaker 1: up in Malibu like a little shack. He obviously has
Speaker 1: a second residence. Um, that's just for him. But where
Speaker 1: is it? That's the question. I think it would be
Speaker 1: Um in the Hollywood regions to some degree, the vibrant
Speaker 1: part of the city. You want to be where action is, Yes,
Speaker 1: but it's not. It couldn't be from reality. It's like
Speaker 1: I'm meeting like pizza crossed off my children's plate. That's
Speaker 1: you really want to be the forty six year old
Speaker 1: guy rat to two kids that gets the apartment in
Speaker 1: Hollywood to be where the action is. Yeah, I do.
Speaker 1: But I also would say that it would be It
Speaker 1: wouldn't be a secret. I wouldn't invite many people around
Speaker 1: to it. It would just be a second like operations center,
Speaker 1: Like I love I love that too, But I just
Speaker 1: I understand where I am at my life now, and
Speaker 1: I just I'm not saying you don't I'm just I
Speaker 1: definitely do not so like I would definitely mine would
Speaker 1: be the Malibu kind of little hideaway. It's very leafy.
Speaker 1: It's almost like, whoa, there's some there's a place back there,
Speaker 1: and that's it's my little place. But my children will
Speaker 1: never see it. Mine is super chick one like looking
Speaker 1: down over all of Los Angeles. You know, I spent
Speaker 1: all of my life living down there, and now you'd
Speaker 1: be living high above it in the Hollywood hill. Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm talking like Beverly Hills, Hollywood Hills intersection where you
Speaker 1: can just hear like a pin drop in the middle
Speaker 1: of the night. So it's not like room place. It's
Speaker 1: way better than your actual place. It would be way better.
Speaker 1: Mark where you at these days. I'm right behind the
Speaker 1: viper room. Uh, it's really loud and dangerous. But higher up,
Speaker 1: higher up in the hills. Baby, all right, let's move on.
Speaker 1: Bears Vikings. Are both of these teams looking for new
Speaker 1: coaches in a week? Greg? Yes, wait, Black Monday's coming up.
Speaker 1: Darn shoot, we haven't even I thought about that. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be busy. Next week will be busy. Kirk Cousins
Speaker 1: is back. Justin Fields is not. He's on the COVID list.
Speaker 1: Andy Dalton's gonna start again. It looks like good timing.
Speaker 1: Kirk way to go, Bud. I'd be kidding me, dude,
Speaker 1: doesn't It feels like the game the Vikings are gonna
Speaker 1: win like forty to ten and show us how much
Speaker 1: potential they had. It was this was the worst primetime
Speaker 1: game of the year about four weeks ago. Remember, I
Speaker 1: thought about locking this game and I was like, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: that's just residual echo of when I liked the Vikings
Speaker 1: and I thought they were capable of doing special things.
Speaker 1: But it also is very on brand that the Vikings,
Speaker 1: like Mark saying, would absolutely savage the Bears, and Kirk
Speaker 1: would pad the hell out of his stats to get
Speaker 1: to thirty four thirty five touchdowns and Jefferson would go
Speaker 1: over two hundred and it wouldn't mean a damn thing,
Speaker 1: but it would definitely help Kirk Cousins, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: bargaining when he gets back to the table, whenever that
Speaker 1: may be. I think Kirk is more likely to be
Speaker 1: back with the Vikings than Zimmer, but they could easily
Speaker 1: both be gone. What about Kirk Cousins on the Browns Mark.
Speaker 1: You know, I've seen little reports about like that the
Speaker 1: Fancy that you know, what kind of quarterbacks I like
Speaker 1: and don't like, And if if, if they take the
Speaker 1: team that I grew up with and stick Kirk Cousins
Speaker 1: on it, it's a hard out. I don't want to
Speaker 1: put you in the tough position because I know this
Speaker 1: is a knotty question, But Kirk Cousins or Deshaun Watson,
Speaker 1: who do you want? Well, from a player angle, the
Speaker 1: answer is easy. I think that I would rather the brownsation.
Speaker 1: I mean I don't. I don't well, I mean I
Speaker 1: would I don't know, Like if if Deshaun Watson was
Speaker 1: found to have done nothing, which will not happen, I
Speaker 1: would want to Shaun Watson. I don't really like that
Speaker 1: for the Browns because it will probably turn ugly anyways,
Speaker 1: He's not gonna want to go there. And what does
Speaker 1: it say about in the front office that I thought
Speaker 1: highly of. I'd rather just stay away from that, to
Speaker 1: be honest. Yeah, My thing is that the Fancy is
Speaker 1: not going anywhere. This front office isn't going anywhere. Neither
Speaker 1: one of them brought in Baker that that's part of
Speaker 1: the that's part of the equation. They try to make
Speaker 1: it work um self realization on al Qaeda Avenue. All right,
Speaker 1: I think I followed that one Washington football team the
Speaker 1: last game as the football team. Maybe maybe they announced
Speaker 1: now that would be an amazing troll job, Greg if
Speaker 1: they do this whole like build up to the February
Speaker 1: second reveal and it's like we're keeping the name, like,
Speaker 1: I don't think that happens. I mean I would like that,
Speaker 1: but man, I don't think many people would. That would
Speaker 1: be the equivalent of you know, your your rails collapsing
Speaker 1: and you're falling all over your fans. I don't know.
Speaker 1: Are both of these teams mark replacing their head coach
Speaker 1: in a week we're looking to Well, No, Washington, I
Speaker 1: think is is absolutely dug in with Ron Rivera, and
Speaker 1: I think that he's, you know, he is this important
Speaker 1: head coach in terms of what he does. Is anyone
Speaker 1: in the league, because like there's direction list without them,
Speaker 1: So no, the U, the Giants. M hmm. I think
Speaker 1: the Giants that because because you know what we talked
Speaker 1: about with Matt Rule, it was like, just keep your
Speaker 1: head down, get out of this season, and don't do
Speaker 1: anything else. That becomes like a meme or goes wild
Speaker 1: like the Joe Judge speech from you know, coming out
Speaker 1: of last week is exactly what we're talking about. He looks,
Speaker 1: he looks nutty to most people and disengaged, and he's
Speaker 1: making claims about the Giants that don't on any way
Speaker 1: line up with the product we've been seen for years.
Speaker 1: On end, I'm looking at the NFL Research Week eighteen notes,
Speaker 1: which is a great tool, uh in my position, and UH,
Speaker 1: they usually have they have, you know, a breakdown of
Speaker 1: the schedule and where they rank in various team rankings,
Speaker 1: and then below it the first category storylines, and then
Speaker 1: they usually have three different storylines that, you know, all
Speaker 1: things to keep an eye on in the game. For
Speaker 1: this game, it's just one bullet, uh, and the bullet
Speaker 1: reads as follows matchup of eliminated NFC East Phols. Well,
Speaker 1: it's like it's like I could always be worse game.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think Washington's gonna wipe the floor with
Speaker 1: the Giants. I'm not gonna rainmaker this, but I do
Speaker 1: like the Washington win by a lot. It's like they
Speaker 1: they're gonna feel good about themselves because they're not the Giants.
Speaker 1: They are keeping their coach, They are a more functional
Speaker 1: football team at the moment, they have a much better quarterback.
Speaker 1: You're right, that Judge rant the Jojo Drant I think
Speaker 1: had the exact opposite impact of what he intended. Like
Speaker 1: Will Brinson and Bill Barnwell on Bill Barnwell's podcast, an
Speaker 1: entire podcast just breaking down that's what which is like
Speaker 1: hilarious and a great, great idea, great content, um, but
Speaker 1: it's just like it's just it's just a disaster. At
Speaker 1: one point during that raint, I had missed this the
Speaker 1: first time around. He said he was on a staff
Speaker 1: where everyone was gonna the two thousand eighteen staff, which
Speaker 1: he was on the Patriots, where everyone was getting was
Speaker 1: getting ready to fire us. We we're all going to
Speaker 1: be on our way out. But we we stuck together
Speaker 1: and we rallied and then we won the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: Like what you had just made it to two straight
Speaker 1: Super Bowls and you had a like a pretty good
Speaker 1: record the whole time. I mean, it was never like
Speaker 1: a disastrous So he's literally just like making things well,
Speaker 1: that's well. Your boy from the Boston Globe, Ben Vellin
Speaker 1: did chime in on that and said that there were
Speaker 1: there's a lot of behind the scenes menace that season.
Speaker 1: Patriots care I'm just saying I'm from somebody that was
Speaker 1: their boots on the stretching, and just why are you
Speaker 1: talking about this stuff? I hope we see Will Brinson
Speaker 1: here in l A for the super Bowl. CBS doesn't
Speaker 1: send Will. I hope we see the super Bowl here
Speaker 1: in l A. And the super Bowl. It's like, I
Speaker 1: didn't want to talk about that storyline, but you're right,
Speaker 1: all right? Tagline mark a little little slow, like a
Speaker 1: beat slow, Ricky. Let's let's clean it up at the text, okay.
Speaker 1: Tagline man asked wife, do I look fat in these jeans?
Speaker 1: The man asked the wife, yes, you know, because I
Speaker 1: didn't go well, you know, you shouldn't say. It's like
Speaker 1: the man is asking if he if he appears that way.
Speaker 1: You've definitely have you asked Simone if you've ever looked
Speaker 1: fat and jeans? Have you ever asked her that? What
Speaker 1: about fat? But I've occasionally asked, like does this match
Speaker 1: with this? And I wouldn't call either one of us
Speaker 1: like fashionistas. And sometimes there's not a very clear answer,
Speaker 1: and I might have to think about going elsewhere. For
Speaker 1: feedback on that front, taking shots. And I think I
Speaker 1: lacked skills in many areas, and I like we all
Speaker 1: as humans, we all sometimes do and we have skills
Speaker 1: in other areas. Different needs. Carolina at Tampa Bay Final one, right,
Speaker 1: this is the last one before Sunday at football. The
Speaker 1: Panthers are one of the very worst teams in football,
Speaker 1: led by Sam Donald, who is not you seeing the offense.
Speaker 1: It's a big old mess. Matt Rule another guy who
Speaker 1: could be in a little bit of trouble here. We'll
Speaker 1: see how the off season shakes out. The Bucks, of course,
Speaker 1: coming off that big comeback win over the Jets. And
Speaker 1: let me just check in here. The Bucks enter Week
Speaker 1: eighteen at twelve and four. They're the three seed in
Speaker 1: the NFC. They can move up to the two seed
Speaker 1: with a win and a Rams loss to the Niners,
Speaker 1: so that is in play, and I think that could
Speaker 1: matter to them the NFC. I think all these teams
Speaker 1: should want to win too, because the Rams are just
Speaker 1: such a possible l in in Week eighteen and they
Speaker 1: play in you know, in the late afternoon window at
Speaker 1: the same time as this game, and getting a two
Speaker 1: seed for a team that's undefeated at home and is
Speaker 1: a past happy team and like warm Weather. To me,
Speaker 1: that totally matters rather than possibly getting stuck at the
Speaker 1: four seed and going to Green Bay. So I think
Speaker 1: I think Tom Brady will play a lot of this game,
Speaker 1: maybe play the entire game, and that they'll be careful
Speaker 1: with guys who are already hurt. I mean, Shack Barrett's
Speaker 1: going to be out again, Jpps out, Lavante David has
Speaker 1: been out. They definitely missed those guys. But otherwise, I
Speaker 1: think the Bucks are gonna try to win this game,
Speaker 1: and they should. They've They've beaten the Bucks their panthers
Speaker 1: and under bat rule by at least twenty points every
Speaker 1: time they've played them. So that's that's a pretty good
Speaker 1: little And if you look at Tampa's home in a way,
Speaker 1: splits like there's something real to it. We have a
Speaker 1: full season to look at it, and I think they
Speaker 1: absolutely want every possible home advantage they can have versus
Speaker 1: going to unfriendly weather. I mean, this should be a
Speaker 1: layup for them. Like if you look at you, I
Speaker 1: know they're banged up and everyone talks about that, but
Speaker 1: right Robby Anderson was not practicing Thursday Terrace Marshall's on
Speaker 1: I R. She Smith is on the COVID list. It's
Speaker 1: like d J. Moore and a bunch of maybe like
Speaker 1: practice squad guys catching passes from a quarterback who's totally
Speaker 1: in f behind a terrible offensive line. So if you
Speaker 1: can go do what Tom Brady did on that final
Speaker 1: drive with the guys he was throwing too, I see
Speaker 1: no problem with them taking care of business here in
Speaker 1: a game that they It only puts the Carolina Panthers
Speaker 1: in deeper darkness. Seven losses in a road to close
Speaker 1: the season would be as ugly as one could imagine. Uh,
Speaker 1: this will be a slaughter. The Bucks will take care
Speaker 1: of business. They of course, we're a wild card last
Speaker 1: year and won three road games to get to the
Speaker 1: super Bowl, which was played in their building. Uh in Tampa,
Speaker 1: So there they can win on the at home or
Speaker 1: on the road. But you're right, you always want to
Speaker 1: play in your building when you can. Just to put
Speaker 1: a button on the Antonio Brown Melo drama. Brown came
Speaker 1: out and said the reason why I left is because
Speaker 1: I was essentially fired on the sideline for refusing to
Speaker 1: go back in the game on a bad ankle and
Speaker 1: He's been all over with a long statement on Instagram,
Speaker 1: all very exhausting. But that was his side of the story.
Speaker 1: And then Bruce Arians came in for his press comments
Speaker 1: on Thursday and gave his side of it, which sounded
Speaker 1: very much like the truth. Let's hear that. Obviously, we
Speaker 1: let Antonio go today. Um, just to clear you up
Speaker 1: on some things that happened. At no point in time
Speaker 1: during that game did he ever asked the trainer or
Speaker 1: a doctor about his ankle. He never went through. That's
Speaker 1: the normal protocol. You go through protocols during games. I
Speaker 1: was never notified of it. So obviously that was the
Speaker 1: disturbing thing. When we were looking for him to go
Speaker 1: back into the game, all right, we always had uh.
Speaker 1: He was very upset at halftime about who was getting targeted.
Speaker 1: Got that calm down, players took care of that. It
Speaker 1: started again on the sideline. We called for the personnel
Speaker 1: group that he had played in the entire game. He
Speaker 1: refused to go in the game. That's when I looked
Speaker 1: back and saw him basically wave off the coach. Um.
Speaker 1: I then went back approached him about what was going on.
Speaker 1: I ain't playing. What's going on? I ain't getting the ball.
Speaker 1: That's when I said, you're done, get the f out
Speaker 1: of here. And that's the that's the that's the end
Speaker 1: of it, and we're working. We're working on Carolina. That's
Speaker 1: the end of the story and hopefully it ends today.
Speaker 1: I guess that that's the price he's they're paying the price.
Speaker 1: Note the bill always comes due an old frances is Um.
Speaker 1: The bill came do here for the Bucks and they're
Speaker 1: having to do this ugly clean up. And now it
Speaker 1: certainly seems as if Brown is going to enter into
Speaker 1: some type of litigation to try to get his money
Speaker 1: from the Bucks. So they're paying the price for getting
Speaker 1: in bed and being loyal to a guy who's never
Speaker 1: been loyal to anyone but himself. That's where we're at. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they cut him officially too. I I don't I don't
Speaker 1: doubt any of that particular sequence as it happened during
Speaker 1: the game. I don't doubt the Brown brought in all
Speaker 1: this stuff that he was playing through torn ligaments and
Speaker 1: felt pressure to play, which a lot of NFL players
Speaker 1: kind of feel in general role and he's gonna have surgery,
Speaker 1: Like I don't doubt that he was playing injured, but
Speaker 1: it seems pretty clear that if if players are having
Speaker 1: to calm him down because he's not getting enough targets
Speaker 1: during the game, that whatever you're talking about, what the
Speaker 1: injury message and that you never called the trainer over,
Speaker 1: gets totally muddled. Plus, we had feet on the ground
Speaker 1: in the Meadowlands last week by special Around the NFL
Speaker 1: correspondent Mike burk Awitz, who said he was about five
Speaker 1: rows up watching this whole and he said Bruce Arians
Speaker 1: did not do a throat slash gesture like Antonio Brown
Speaker 1: said that. He pointed to the locker room, which you
Speaker 1: can can see in the video too. He points to
Speaker 1: the locker room, like go to the locker room. You're
Speaker 1: you're done here. Well, And one little thing, it's like
Speaker 1: Antonio Brown is on Instagram calling out Alex Guerrero Brady's
Speaker 1: TV twelve guys. It's like it's the classic thing where
Speaker 1: he is hitting out at the people that, if anything,
Speaker 1: try to support him. And so it's it is, you're right,
Speaker 1: the bill has come to You could argue, I'm not
Speaker 1: saying that they want a super Bowl because of him,
Speaker 1: but he was a contributor to that. I would think
Speaker 1: that from a football angle cool, but at this point,
Speaker 1: like this is not that shocking, and I hope we
Speaker 1: don't discuss this guy again for a while. I just
Speaker 1: it's on Brady though, to be fair, I mean it really,
Speaker 1: you know, he didn't face too much tough question now,
Speaker 1: and it's like Brown was kind of his responsibility. He
Speaker 1: pretty clearly strong armed arians who had terrible track record
Speaker 1: with him into doing it, and yeah, it worked for
Speaker 1: a while, and then it didn't work. And now he's
Speaker 1: he's saying that Alex Guerrero, Brady's trainer, didn't do anything
Speaker 1: for the hundred thousand dollars that Brown gave him. And
Speaker 1: it's like, oh, this is this is what you get, taglinemark?
Speaker 1: Ok is this a was that a bit to make me? Wait? Okay?
Speaker 1: Uh please give me a domestic chore to accomplish. We're
Speaker 1: getting back into the realm of the uncomfortably sensual or
Speaker 1: just the grievances of a frustrated man or just take
Speaker 1: out frustrated middle aged family man. Um. Finally, Sunday night football, Oh,
Speaker 1: Sonna and I I the Chargers. Here we go, Superchargers.
Speaker 1: It's all in front of you, a star crossed franchise.
Speaker 1: Uh An organization with a fan base that's understandably fatalistic.
Speaker 1: And you look at this game and you say, oh man,
Speaker 1: we're going to Vegas. They've won three in a row.
Speaker 1: It's a winning in. This is the first true playoff game,
Speaker 1: even if it's not officially a playoff game. This is
Speaker 1: the playing game like they have in the n C
Speaker 1: Double A, the playing game to get into the bracket.
Speaker 1: That's what this is. Chargers Raiders, and um, I'll start
Speaker 1: right here, boys, Chargers of the better team, the Charges
Speaker 1: of the better quarterback. Why every one of the Raider
Speaker 1: games this year I wrote them off a month ago.
Speaker 1: I was wrong. But I also it's important that we
Speaker 1: have some nuance to this conversation about the Raiders. They
Speaker 1: get absolutely stomped by the Chiefs. They're cooked with the Browns.
Speaker 1: Uh going to Cleveland. The Browns get absolutely savaged by
Speaker 1: COVID and injury and all that. They somehow steal that game,
Speaker 1: and then they do it essentially two more times, getting
Speaker 1: breaks every step of the way. This three game winning streak,
Speaker 1: as much as it's been commendable, even the Colts win,
Speaker 1: you're getting Carson Wentz and all the drama around the
Speaker 1: COVID diagnosis and just making it back into the lineup.
Speaker 1: What was the week before that? What was the break
Speaker 1: they caught? They got Drew Lock, basically. I mean, now,
Speaker 1: I don't know if they're it's an argument for Teddy Bridgewater,
Speaker 1: but they got a defunct. They got Drew Lock, who
Speaker 1: hasn't won a game in his whole life. It feels
Speaker 1: like I'm probably wrong about that, but I'm sure it
Speaker 1: doesn't have a ton of wins. Um So, in my mind,
Speaker 1: the Raiders are in my mind, the Chargers are gonna
Speaker 1: have a moment here in my mind with the lock
Speaker 1: championship within sights, I'm locking up the Chargers to take
Speaker 1: care of business. Football Gods be damned, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do, because I was going to lock a
Speaker 1: different team, but I at this point I have to
Speaker 1: throw the hail Mary to even stay alive in this.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna rob. I don't believe they're gonna win. I'm
Speaker 1: just doing this for weirdness. I'm locking the Raiders just
Speaker 1: to see what happens. Very interesting. I think it's a
Speaker 1: it's I guess it would be a sensible PA. I'd
Speaker 1: love to hear what the um what like the analytics
Speaker 1: community would say about this because you're two games back
Speaker 1: right now, he's only two back? Is it okay? And
Speaker 1: if if I, if I win a lock off here,
Speaker 1: it's pretty much a wrap. It's almost like this is
Speaker 1: the super Bowl of the lock Championship. Um, and if
Speaker 1: that's the case, I do like my chances. Well, I
Speaker 1: think it's you know, let's continue to add juice where
Speaker 1: we can to Week eighteen. UM, I know I could
Speaker 1: take it, you know, for three more three games back
Speaker 1: mark three backs. So yeah, I'm three So it's like
Speaker 1: I have to be honest, Like um, our organization behind
Speaker 1: the scenes is kind of we're looking towards the offseason.
Speaker 1: On one level, it's felt there's been a calm not
Speaker 1: having to worry about the locks. But if this occurs
Speaker 1: on two back, and I'm going to take a different
Speaker 1: strategy in the playoffs, right because there's you know, there
Speaker 1: are five playoff weeks and those are not necessarily easy
Speaker 1: games to pick either. The Raiders aren't huge underdogs here,
Speaker 1: so it's not a crazy idea. They're three point underdogs.
Speaker 1: It feels like the right line for this game. Uh.
Speaker 1: When the Chargers of the Road team and the Chargers
Speaker 1: are the better team overall, but I do think if
Speaker 1: they could get it, you know, to the latter stages
Speaker 1: of the fourth quarter, I'm not worried about like the
Speaker 1: Chargers mojo. You know, I know they had a tough
Speaker 1: loss and against the Chiefs, but they've had some good
Speaker 1: late wins too. But I do think the Raiders have
Speaker 1: a positive late game mojo that that could matter here.
Speaker 1: That they feel confident in their quarterback and the way
Speaker 1: they've closed games out that would really help them if
Speaker 1: they're in a spot where they get the ball down four,
Speaker 1: you know, with a couple of minutes to play at
Speaker 1: that point, I would be I would be worried if
Speaker 1: I'm back in the Chargers and I am hoping the
Speaker 1: Chargers win this game. They just got to attack. You
Speaker 1: look at the Raiders cornerbacks. They're playing Brandon Facon, He's
Speaker 1: a guy who couldn't make the Chargers. He's like it
Speaker 1: was like their sixth cornerback. And they're playing Desmon Truffont,
Speaker 1: whose career was all but over. Um, you know these
Speaker 1: are their cornerbacks. And you've got Justin Herbert, you got
Speaker 1: an aggressive play you know, play caller. I think this
Speaker 1: is a game where they handed to Herbert and he's
Speaker 1: going to throw it about forty five times, and they're
Speaker 1: gonna see if the Raiders can keep up. Because in
Speaker 1: this whole Raiders winning streak, everything's been six fourteen games
Speaker 1: like that, and if the Chargers can put up a
Speaker 1: lot of points, I don't think the Raiders can keep
Speaker 1: it with you did you pull every a f C
Speaker 1: playoff team and ask them which team they want to
Speaker 1: win this? They don't want the Los Angeles Chargers in
Speaker 1: the playoffs because on the right day, I think they
Speaker 1: could puncture anyone. The Raiders I'd see them like as
Speaker 1: the team I'd much rather less see one more week
Speaker 1: of Although I give Derek Carr, I mean he's kind
Speaker 1: of tugged them this whole way. You know, this has
Speaker 1: not been a full job like those other seasons. It's
Speaker 1: a different narrative. They missed Corey Lindsley last week. The
Speaker 1: Chargers have a Pro Bowl center in Corey Lindsey. He
Speaker 1: was not out. And what's been a strength for them
Speaker 1: or a big improvement in terms of their offensive mine
Speaker 1: looked a little leaky. That could be a bit of
Speaker 1: a problem for them this week. Um. Yeah, the unless
Speaker 1: the charges offense completely shoots itself in the foot and
Speaker 1: doesn't show up um or COVID steps up and rears
Speaker 1: its ugly head. I just don't like the Raiders as
Speaker 1: good as the defense has been the last three weeks.
Speaker 1: And again the opponent has to be factored into that.
Speaker 1: Since the week ate by. Here are their point totals.
Speaker 1: This is how much I've scored sixteen fourteen thirteen. Yet
Speaker 1: the thirties six against Dallas on Thanksgiving and in fifteen nine,
Speaker 1: sixteen seventeen. They just can't Smiler is practicing, which is
Speaker 1: huge if they but he's also not just the injury.
Speaker 1: He's coming off COVID. And again we're seeing these guys
Speaker 1: coming off COVID. You can't just pencil him in to
Speaker 1: immediately be impact guys. Yeah, Bosa too said, who is
Speaker 1: coming off Codavid COVID and his unvaccinated said he was
Speaker 1: struggling to get his breath back this week. He admitted
Speaker 1: it in practice. Um while accepting the Good Guy Award
Speaker 1: for sportsmanship and dealing with the Los Angeles media. So
Speaker 1: applaud Joey Bosa for that. And by the way, uh sportsmanship,
Speaker 1: there is a sound bite if you go back to
Speaker 1: the first meeting between these two teams where Bosa goes
Speaker 1: out of his way to titanically buried Derek Carr and
Speaker 1: he makes a comment along the lines of, we you know,
Speaker 1: we know he's had a good year, but we know
Speaker 1: the way that guy is. If we put a little
Speaker 1: pressure on him, he goes into a shell, like just
Speaker 1: savaging car uh and calling him out essentially as a
Speaker 1: weak professional football player. And I'm saying I like that stuff.
Speaker 1: I think there's not enough of that in sports anymore,
Speaker 1: just players mixing it up and having fun and just
Speaker 1: you know, you're playing football here. Uh. But it it
Speaker 1: certainly was notable because I remember Car when you know
Speaker 1: he was asked about it, he was like, WHOA, did
Speaker 1: this guy watch the wrong game? Because in the first matchup,
Speaker 1: the Raiders came on strong at the end of the game,
Speaker 1: they didn't fade as things went. It was what was
Speaker 1: the final of that game, lost to the Chargers. So
Speaker 1: that was that lightning um lightning delay game. I do
Speaker 1: like that. Bosa didn't back off it too much this week.
Speaker 1: He was just like, yeah, I just think um kind
Speaker 1: of goes into a show when he gets hit. Like
Speaker 1: a lot of quarterbacks, it's like, okay, very interesting, he's
Speaker 1: all right. I mean he's probably right, right, Mark, That's
Speaker 1: that's huge. That's the championship right there. Yeah. No, I
Speaker 1: and you know, I reserve the right to change my pick,
Speaker 1: but I don't see myself change. I think that's smart.
Speaker 1: I think analytics would say that's a good stat It
Speaker 1: is three. It's a three point spread. You're down three
Speaker 1: with six to go. You know, it was much more.
Speaker 1: It was much more controversial if it was two games.
Speaker 1: But once you said it was three, yes, that it
Speaker 1: does feel like it is time to hit the emergency lever,
Speaker 1: in this case, back the Raiders and their fugasy winning streaks.
Speaker 1: So I feel good about this. How about a tagline
Speaker 1: kitty bites? Yeah, you knew he's saving that one for
Speaker 1: the gross So gross? How does it gross? Maybe? I
Speaker 1: don't know. Maybe Erica says that I don't find it gross,
Speaker 1: but when you do, oh well, I don't think in general,
Speaker 1: i'd be. It's something that I would jump. I think
Speaker 1: the learning to read these lines. Everybody clear the runway, Erica,
Speaker 1: I'm doing a test. It's an A B test. Mark,
Speaker 1: you go first, say it again, kitty bites. That's not
Speaker 1: all right now, Ricky Okay, Dan, close your eyes. Oh,
Speaker 1: kitty bites. Obviously that's preferable. Thank you, gorgeous, gorgeous girls
Speaker 1: love to say kitty bites. That's a w for Hollywood.
Speaker 1: All right. That's it. That is Week eighteen. That is
Speaker 1: the first ever Week eighteen preview. How about that? Well,
Speaker 1: it's the longest season ever. It's the longest preview show ever.
Speaker 1: I don't know what it is about us at home.
Speaker 1: We're just can't can't stop talking. We're lonely man who
Speaker 1: need need to get back together. We want to get
Speaker 1: back in the studio. We're just looting for the go ahead.
Speaker 1: Just so everybody knows. We haven't been given the clearance yet.
Speaker 1: But once we do, we'll be back together in person.
Speaker 1: But that's not happening yet. All right, anything else? Oh,
Speaker 1: no TV show this week? Also, COVID related that that
Speaker 1: we're working on the show is going to be back
Speaker 1: for sure next Friday, hour long format breaking down each
Speaker 1: of the playoff rounds. So make sure you check in
Speaker 1: the DVR next Friday if you don't see it on
Speaker 1: the DVR or you're hearing like the West coast, for instance,
Speaker 1: and you get up at three am and you put
Speaker 1: a pot of coffee on the kettle there, and then
Speaker 1: you gotta sit down and watch your favorite football show
Speaker 1: is not coming on. Don't panic, don't panic, don't throw
Speaker 1: your coffee on the ground, don't scream and run into
Speaker 1: the street half nude. Just understand. We'll be back next Friday.
Speaker 1: Peter Schrager's son is going to be very disappointed by
Speaker 1: this development. Well you you show him a repeat, because
Speaker 1: our true fans will go back and watch what we
Speaker 1: had to say in week eleven perhaps or or prior
Speaker 1: to that. Alright, good stuff, all right, everybody, we'll see
Speaker 1: you on Sunday. Enjoy the football, heed the call. S
Speaker 1: S S S S S