Speaker 1: Be Around the NFL Podcast. It's loose on one, Gens
Speaker 1: and Sudas four. Welcome to another edition of the Around
Speaker 1: the NFL Podcast. My name is Dan Ans, coming to
Speaker 1: you from a room filled with heroes, Mark Sessler, Chris Westling,
Speaker 1: and Greg Rostal. What is up, boys? Hey? Dan? Wild
Speaker 1: Card weekend is here. How exciting? How exciting? You guys
Speaker 1: look pumped? I am pumped. We've had a big day
Speaker 1: twenty eight weeks this NFL season is We're in week
Speaker 1: twenty four. These are the best, the best five, aren't they.
Speaker 1: It's the most wonderful time of the year. I would
Speaker 1: say another reason to be excited is and I don't
Speaker 1: agree with the decision they did. They made the decision
Speaker 1: upstairs to give us a TV show, and we've been
Speaker 1: waiting for a long time for that. You don't agree
Speaker 1: with the decision. I don't know if it's the right
Speaker 1: move by them, but they made the move. Rock Gossweiler
Speaker 1: clearly doesn't agree. They gave us a show. The on
Speaker 1: the NFL Podcast, You're on the NFL broadcast that premieres Friday,
Speaker 1: six pm Eastern three pm Pacific. Rearers A bunch of
Speaker 1: times leading up to UH playoff Action and it will
Speaker 1: air every Friday or premiere every Friday for the next
Speaker 1: three weeks, starting this week. We're very excited about it.
Speaker 1: We've been doing a lot of work this week, both
Speaker 1: in prep and doing some shooting, Ricky stretching, outer director
Speaker 1: legs Um and UH, it's exciting. We're very much like
Speaker 1: the an NBA player on a ten day contract, you
Speaker 1: know we have. We're trying to make it through these
Speaker 1: three weeks. Will they resign us for next year? Like
Speaker 1: that's that's the pressure for significantly less money. But I
Speaker 1: I heard um from a little birdie that what flipped
Speaker 1: the switch was that the people upstairs, these guys floating
Speaker 1: around in their cream colored corvettes on the weekends, that
Speaker 1: they caught win that we UH were actually named the
Speaker 1: best new podcast on iTunes in two thousand twelve. When
Speaker 1: they heard that, they said, this has to be something
Speaker 1: that we put on the air and show. And there
Speaker 1: is there is some some chatter I haven't heard from
Speaker 1: iTunes since where there I don't know they you know
Speaker 1: they got There has been some chatter wes out there
Speaker 1: in the streets, streets talking both on the A T
Speaker 1: and subreddit and a couple of tweets I've gotten and
Speaker 1: maybe some Instagram comments. Some fans, some of the greatest
Speaker 1: fans of our show, the biggest fans of our show,
Speaker 1: don't want the TV show to be successful because in
Speaker 1: what typically happens in our industry is the people that
Speaker 1: become the TV people dropped the podcast. Now, let's speak
Speaker 1: to that. Was that's a legitimate concern, that's the answer.
Speaker 1: Anytime I've been a fan of anything, I've had similar concerns.
Speaker 1: But I mean, I've given a lot of thought to this,
Speaker 1: Like if if my entire personal on this podcast is
Speaker 1: to watch Game Pass during the season and report back
Speaker 1: with findings, just wait until we're on TV, and then
Speaker 1: somebody's haying to me a research packet before we go
Speaker 1: on air because I don't have time to watch games anymore.
Speaker 1: I don't know what that answer was, But we're doing
Speaker 1: the podcast as much as we've always done it. Oh,
Speaker 1: no matter what, that's always gonna way to colm the
Speaker 1: public fears. If anything leimate, if anything falls off, it'll
Speaker 1: be our writing, So you know, I mean, that's that's
Speaker 1: that is currently happening. So in the tank all right
Speaker 1: around the NFL broadcast what's the big deal? All right,
Speaker 1: wild Card Weekend. It's a good thing. We're not celebrating
Speaker 1: our success before it happens. By the way, yeah, maybe
Speaker 1: we shouldn't count our chickens as they say. All right,
Speaker 1: So well that's what we're gonna do today. Uh, pretty straightforward. Actually,
Speaker 1: we're going to dig into all four games of wild
Speaker 1: Card Weekend. We'll start with the Saturday games, which are
Speaker 1: the a f C games. I will have a special
Speaker 1: guest involved, Mike gard who covers the past and does
Speaker 1: a great job for NFL Network, is going to join
Speaker 1: us uh to talk uh Tennessee, New England. Uh. And
Speaker 1: also we're gonna do some news because we do have
Speaker 1: some I've got some stuff to hit mark, including yes,
Speaker 1: more browns, more browns. This is like an exciting playoff
Speaker 1: format half time news. It's pretty big. Yeah, we're mixing
Speaker 1: it up a little bit, mixing it up a little bit.
Speaker 1: So let's get into it. Um, is everybody excited? Yeah? Thoroughly.
Speaker 1: Is Mike gi already available? Now? Should we start with
Speaker 1: the Patriots game? I'm realizing that his window availability might
Speaker 1: not be open yet. Well, we're starting, Why don't we
Speaker 1: start with a little Texans. Let's start with a little
Speaker 1: buffalo at Houston then better known of course as West
Speaker 1: of This. It's the most wonderful time of the for
Speaker 1: new listeners. What why why is it West of This? Well,
Speaker 1: we created the holiday to celebrate the Bengals annual elimination
Speaker 1: from the playoffs on wild Card weekend five straight years
Speaker 1: from two thousand eleven to two thousand fifteen. Since then,
Speaker 1: the Texans have taken over as the circuit most of
Speaker 1: his team, they always get that early Saturday window, which
Speaker 1: is the West of His window, that the game that
Speaker 1: nobody really wants to watch. They put him in there.
Speaker 1: The Texans have now played more games on West of
Speaker 1: US than the Bengals head So it shifts now, is
Speaker 1: this a is a Texans holiday? We can we can
Speaker 1: share it. Both Cincinnati and Texas known for chili. I mean,
Speaker 1: they've got some commonalities there. Well, you were openly rooting
Speaker 1: against the Bengals. That was part of the festival atmosphere.
Speaker 1: Was you hoping the team would Were you rooting against them?
Speaker 1: So that's that's why it was a party. You're not
Speaker 1: rooty against Texans. I can't, I can't get behind that's
Speaker 1: because you had all these friends and family that still
Speaker 1: supports the team, their chumps. Why are you still your
Speaker 1: friends and family? Why are you rooting against the Texans
Speaker 1: because they're not They're not as good as the Bills.
Speaker 1: I guess interesting, let's start there, then West. You think
Speaker 1: that despite the fact that the uh, well, these are
Speaker 1: two tenants six teams of course, right, and teams that
Speaker 1: have had some ups and downs. But you know, you
Speaker 1: could say that the Bills West have been the more
Speaker 1: consistent team this season. But is it fair to say
Speaker 1: at least this was that the Bills as consistent and
Speaker 1: you know, well coached, and they've been a strong team
Speaker 1: this year. Their ceiling is not as high as the Texans,
Speaker 1: is it? I mean? And by that and by that logic,
Speaker 1: the Texans should be able to win at home a
Speaker 1: team that has more talent and ability, Well, they they
Speaker 1: might not have more talent. The two big factors in
Speaker 1: this game, and the reason why the Bills I believe
Speaker 1: are going to win and maybe convincedly, is because will
Speaker 1: Fuller is a long shot to play according to our
Speaker 1: Tom Pellicero and J J. Is returning from a three
Speaker 1: to four month injury after two months of a torn
Speaker 1: pectoral and will be limited at best. If these two
Speaker 1: guys are healthy, it changes everything because they're two of
Speaker 1: the most impactful players on the field. They're not healthy,
Speaker 1: one of them probably won't play, the other one will
Speaker 1: play in a limited fast and and I think the
Speaker 1: Bills are the worst you if you had to draw
Speaker 1: up a team that you do not want to see,
Speaker 1: if you're the Houston Techans would be the Buffalo Bills.
Speaker 1: With that defense, the one thing you know you're getting
Speaker 1: in this matchup is a fundamentally sound shutdown defense. The
Speaker 1: Bills only allowed one team to score twenty five points
Speaker 1: this year. That's the lowest figure in the league. They
Speaker 1: just simply don't have bad games on defense. Since Week eleven,
Speaker 1: they have become one of the best sacking teams in
Speaker 1: the NFL. They become one of the best run defense
Speaker 1: teams in the NFL. You put your Davious White on
Speaker 1: DeAndre Hopkins, which is the best cornerback in the NFL,
Speaker 1: probably to put on a receiver like DeAndre Hopkins, and
Speaker 1: then you have great safeties and speedy linebackers to shut
Speaker 1: down Duke Johnson and anything else. This Texans team wants
Speaker 1: to go they're going to be suffocated by the Bills defense.
Speaker 1: I believe they're The fact that they gave up the
Speaker 1: fewest big plays in the league is a problem, especially
Speaker 1: when you don't have Will Fuller, because now, yeah, you
Speaker 1: have Kenny Stills who's a factor, and DeAndre Hopkins, but
Speaker 1: you're gonna need Deshaun Watson to move the ball down
Speaker 1: the field slowly. He struggled a lot when he played
Speaker 1: the Bills a year ago, had one of his worst
Speaker 1: games in two thousand eighteen against Buffalo. They're basically the
Speaker 1: same defense, but they also haven't really beaten anyone great
Speaker 1: all season. I mean they are a very limited offense,
Speaker 1: and in the playoff weeks, I always look for the
Speaker 1: opposite of kind of the cliche, you know, defense when championships, no,
Speaker 1: I usually just picked the team with the better offense,
Speaker 1: and the Texans, despite the ups and downs, were top
Speaker 1: eight in the league and yards per drive and points
Speaker 1: per drive, and the Bills were twenty four or below
Speaker 1: in both of those measures. There's no way you can
Speaker 1: look at the Bills offense and say it's anything better
Speaker 1: than mediocre. So you're having weakness on weakness. A week
Speaker 1: Bills offense on a week Texans defense, and then strength
Speaker 1: on strength when Watson. I feel like there are there
Speaker 1: an inordinate amount of Shawn's in the NFL coaching Well,
Speaker 1: I don't know, because they're all really great coaches. You've
Speaker 1: got Sean mcveigoh gets talked about endlessly, and Sean Payton
Speaker 1: for good reason. But Sean McDermott has someone that was
Speaker 1: essentially like the last interview for a bunch of teams
Speaker 1: before the Bills hired him. I think that he has
Speaker 1: produced a Bills team that is consistent week to week.
Speaker 1: They have consistent issues on offense, but they don't have
Speaker 1: that scenario where, oh, you can look back to week
Speaker 1: when they were blowing their doors were blown off by someone.
Speaker 1: They seemed to hang with every single team that they
Speaker 1: deal with, and when they when they go into Dallas
Speaker 1: and win on the road the way they did on Thanksgiving,
Speaker 1: I don't really care where the game takes place. I
Speaker 1: think with previous Bills teams that kind of got there,
Speaker 1: you'd need this game to be in Buffalo or wanted
Speaker 1: to be. It's the Texans to me that I don't
Speaker 1: know what team I'm gonna get from week to week
Speaker 1: I stimply don't, and I would have probably taken will
Speaker 1: Fuller a month ago and put thirty or forty massage
Speaker 1: therapists around him and just having them, you know, massage
Speaker 1: that soft tissue area all over what area, whatever area
Speaker 1: has soft tissues. But what environment are you talking about?
Speaker 1: I'm just saying. I'm saying you keep him. His body
Speaker 1: is prepared. You know, I didn't. I thought I was
Speaker 1: just thinking other parts of his don't know, cam strings.
Speaker 1: But whenever, I'm with you, by the way, and in fact,
Speaker 1: this game, if you put it in Orchard Park or
Speaker 1: in Houston, it changes nothing about how I feel. If
Speaker 1: this game would have been Houston going up to Buffalo,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't feel any stronger about either team. I think
Speaker 1: this is destined to be perhaps the closest game of
Speaker 1: wild Card Weekend. I don't see how this isn't like
Speaker 1: a fuel goal game, and not a very high scoring
Speaker 1: one at that, Because I don't. I think it's it's
Speaker 1: almost become cliche. Maybe it's only cliche to me slash
Speaker 1: us because we're so close to it. But yes, the
Speaker 1: impact of a will Fuller not being will Fuller and
Speaker 1: what that's meant to this offense. But to me, this
Speaker 1: has all the ear marks of seventeen and it may
Speaker 1: be coming down to a battle of kickers, uh and
Speaker 1: and we'll see how that how that plays out. But
Speaker 1: I think this is a toss up game. And West
Speaker 1: created this amazing West of this document and one of
Speaker 1: the great tenets of a West of his game, the
Speaker 1: three nothing scenario is a three oh lead to steep
Speaker 1: to overcome. Right, It's worth mentioning that Texans Deshaun Watson
Speaker 1: or flat out embarrassed in West of this a year ago.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was one of the worst performances, maybe
Speaker 1: the worst of Deshaun Watson's career was in many statistical
Speaker 1: the cults. The cults put it to them in a game,
Speaker 1: and that was not a result that we expected going
Speaker 1: into it, that it was gonna be that one sided.
Speaker 1: At the time, we said, well, imagine if Deshaun Watson
Speaker 1: had good pass protection, what would that look like? And
Speaker 1: now he's got it. I mean, they by any measure,
Speaker 1: they've had one of the best pass protecting lines in
Speaker 1: the league. They're pretty good run blocking, and when I
Speaker 1: look at the Bills, they're very sound defensively, They're fine,
Speaker 1: They're just the defense. I mean, they just gave up
Speaker 1: the best game to Tom Brady that he's had in
Speaker 1: about ten weeks. They're fine. I mean they They're not
Speaker 1: gonna shut down a guy who is making the right
Speaker 1: reads and his patient and I think Deshaun Watson can
Speaker 1: do that because he has that protection. They do not
Speaker 1: have much of a pass rush there, sound enough that
Speaker 1: they can send some blitzes and still hold up at
Speaker 1: the back end. But in terms of Shack Lawson and
Speaker 1: and Trent Murphy and Jerry Hugh, it's like they're fine.
Speaker 1: It's a fine defense. One of my if if West
Speaker 1: of US is my favorite tradition of playoff team, it's
Speaker 1: the Festival of Slights. It is My second favorite tradition
Speaker 1: is Greg picking the wrong team in West of This
Speaker 1: every single time and misreading the situation completely. There's a
Speaker 1: game every year where the more I dig in, the
Speaker 1: more I do research, the more I watched games, it
Speaker 1: becomes so clear that one team is better than the other.
Speaker 1: The Bills are better than a Yeah, I'm locking it.
Speaker 1: The Bills are better than the Texans and what we
Speaker 1: have with the Willfuller thing. I broke down the stats
Speaker 1: and Deshaun Watston Statistically is Patrick Mahomes with Will Fuller
Speaker 1: on the field running a Chiefs or Saints caliber offense.
Speaker 1: You take Will Fuller off the field, He's case Keenum
Speaker 1: numbers wise running a Cults, Lions, or Giants caliber of offense.
Speaker 1: It's that drastic of a difference with these two teams.
Speaker 1: I just think the Bills. You take a look at
Speaker 1: a guy like Devin single Terry and you can be
Speaker 1: smirched the Bills off and I think it's fullish to
Speaker 1: forget about what Josh Allen does in short yards conversion
Speaker 1: in fourth quarters, when he can out athlete a defense.
Speaker 1: If you don't give him credit for that, you're not
Speaker 1: You're doing a disservice to your analysis. Devin Singletary led
Speaker 1: the NFL in yards per carry. He is the best
Speaker 1: outside runner in the NFL. The Texans are the worst
Speaker 1: outside run defense in the NFL since J. J. Watt
Speaker 1: went down. Almost every single little matchup in this game
Speaker 1: goes to the Bills. I did think if you just
Speaker 1: kind of watch their two teams, the Bills have been
Speaker 1: better over the second half of the season, and most
Speaker 1: of the good memories we have of the Texans. A
Speaker 1: lot of those good numbers are from the first half
Speaker 1: of the season. They're pointing is worse than the Dolphins,
Speaker 1: even in their wins. You know the Bucks. The Colts
Speaker 1: win like some of their bigger wins down the stretch.
Speaker 1: You didn't watch that and feel like they were at
Speaker 1: full flight. I'm not someone that puts a ton on momentum.
Speaker 1: I just kind of look at, like Dan, the two ceilings.
Speaker 1: I feel like it's a coin flaw. It does make
Speaker 1: a big difference to me where the game is. I
Speaker 1: think Houston uh is A is a pretty good home
Speaker 1: crowd when they get going, and I wouldn't trust this
Speaker 1: team the Texans in Buffalo, and I give them a
Speaker 1: much better chance, And I just don't want I just
Speaker 1: to me the Bills don't feel like because they're on
Speaker 1: the road, they're gonna change. I get it what I
Speaker 1: get concerned if I were a Buffalo, if you get
Speaker 1: the hot version of Deshaun Watson for whatever reason, and
Speaker 1: I hear you, Wes, I think it's not a good
Speaker 1: matchup for them, especially without Fuller. But they get up
Speaker 1: fourteen nothing, then suddenly you have to have Josh Allen
Speaker 1: testing the field because what I feel like I see
Speaker 1: every game from him or two or three, if not
Speaker 1: four or five ridiculous overthrows or way off target passes,
Speaker 1: And what is the who is the guy that's gonna
Speaker 1: create electricity and pill and pull Buffalo back if they
Speaker 1: get into a hole. That's your one issue with Buffalo.
Speaker 1: Don't have that offense. I will I'll say this, I
Speaker 1: agree with that you're saying. Even you could point to
Speaker 1: the Texans biggest win of the last six weeks, which
Speaker 1: was going into Nashville and winning is not some dominant effort.
Speaker 1: But show me the Bills win that they've had this
Speaker 1: season in a huge spot that was bigger than what
Speaker 1: the Texans did going into Nashville and stopping a Titans
Speaker 1: team playing as well as anyone in the league. For
Speaker 1: a reason is that right after the Broncos blue their
Speaker 1: doors off. Well, you know, I mean, I just Texans
Speaker 1: are inconsistent, and I acknowledge you pick one loss in
Speaker 1: a stretch of five games where they won four though,
Speaker 1: and I mean they were they were outplayed by the Buccaneers.
Speaker 1: They they got they got blown out in Baltimore, and
Speaker 1: at least I agree they're an imperfect team. Deshaun Watson
Speaker 1: is fantastic and you you can do all the analysis
Speaker 1: you want and he can make you look really foolish
Speaker 1: because he's great. Can either of these teams being the
Speaker 1: AFC Championship Game in a couple of weeks. No, I
Speaker 1: don't think so, not unless another teams like goes off
Speaker 1: the cliff on a bus. Losing to Sean Gibson is
Speaker 1: a big deal to the Texans lost their starting safety,
Speaker 1: their deep safety a week ago. I like that secondary
Speaker 1: is so undiscipplined. They gave up tons of big plays
Speaker 1: and you don't see the Bills secondary doin anything like that.
Speaker 1: It means a lot, though, Even though I don't think
Speaker 1: either of these teams are going anywhere, it is worth
Speaker 1: like looking at what this game means to both franchise.
Speaker 1: It's pretty massive. Bill O'Brien pushed his chips in the
Speaker 1: table in the middle of the table for this year.
Speaker 1: I mean, he made those trades and they've worked out.
Speaker 1: Larry me Tunsel was a great trade and that will
Speaker 1: help the team for for years to come. But this
Speaker 1: is an important game for Bill O'Brien after everything he's
Speaker 1: done to kind of consolidate power. If you lose twice
Speaker 1: in a row too, pretty mediocre teams at home in
Speaker 1: the playoffs. I'm not saying he's important. It doesn't put
Speaker 1: his job in No, No, I'm not saying that. I
Speaker 1: just mean they need they need to show some evidence
Speaker 1: of of that they're part of the a f C
Speaker 1: power structure here and it would be very disciplined would
Speaker 1: I would just argue that from compared to last year,
Speaker 1: they're no farther ahead on that journey of for me
Speaker 1: of viewing them as an a pass, well, go go
Speaker 1: smack down the Bills, get to the divisional round and
Speaker 1: see what happens, and then you can get there the
Speaker 1: Bills on the other end, I mean when of the
Speaker 1: last time they won a playoff game, It's been twenty years.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is this would be a massive moment
Speaker 1: for the Bills and their fan base. It's it's a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago it was like we're happy to
Speaker 1: be here. This year, it's like, go go win a game.
Speaker 1: This is a very winnable game. Haven't beat the Texans
Speaker 1: in fourteen years and a lot of that stuff just
Speaker 1: non sense because it's different teams. But I hope J. J.
Speaker 1: Watts stays healthy. By the way he came back this
Speaker 1: will be sixty nine, had a big moment on West
Speaker 1: Visa before probably a tenant. Well, he's also returned. This
Speaker 1: will be his third return from major injury, and it's
Speaker 1: taken him three games each time to get a sack
Speaker 1: after his return. Not to mention, he's beating the typical
Speaker 1: time timetable, but by not days, not weeks, but like
Speaker 1: a month or two. And I would be, you know,
Speaker 1: obviously concerned. You don't want to see him get hurt again.
Speaker 1: How long does this return last? Is he pushing it?
Speaker 1: It seems like an injury that would be very easy
Speaker 1: to aggravate. But you know he's a super guy. Happy
Speaker 1: for him that he's playing. I mean, how many chances
Speaker 1: in life do you get to play a playoff? The
Speaker 1: sixty nine days from back from Sunday, he tweeted, my
Speaker 1: season's over and life is terrible and now here he
Speaker 1: is playing on Before we get to the Pats, let's
Speaker 1: pick the game formally with the score mark Bills twenty three,
Speaker 1: Texans locking it up. No, I know you have wait,
Speaker 1: were you going to suck it up before we kind
Speaker 1: of you know, pushed you into that are going a
Speaker 1: different Bill. Somebody pushes West into anything. Bill Texans, I
Speaker 1: like it. I got said as a field goal game.
Speaker 1: It's a field goal game. Texans seventeen at the gun.
Speaker 1: I think he'll be a lot of scoring Texans. I
Speaker 1: don't feel strong about this one at all, feel like
Speaker 1: this is okay. Let us now move to the Saturday
Speaker 1: night game. And this is the one that Greg is terrified.
Speaker 1: I don't even have to ask Greg what his peace
Speaker 1: scale is. Uh, it is through the roof. And he'll
Speaker 1: and he'll do the whole stick, like, well, why I
Speaker 1: couldn't ask for anything more after all these years, and
Speaker 1: and it doesn't matter, nothing matters, It doesn't matter East Champions.
Speaker 1: I'm riding off of that. You, sir, were stung by
Speaker 1: what happened on Sunday against the Dolbins, as was all
Speaker 1: of Patriot Nation, and now you find yourself vulnerable. It
Speaker 1: seems at home against the Titans team that nobody wanted
Speaker 1: to draw on the first round. Because a few teams
Speaker 1: in the NFL are playing as well as the Tennessee
Speaker 1: Titans right now. So this is a great game. It's
Speaker 1: in prime time. Greg has a birthday party, earlier in
Speaker 1: the day. You know what I messed up the weeks there,
Speaker 1: it's act that's next week. I oh, that's perfect. All day.
Speaker 1: You just get to sit and stew in it and
Speaker 1: realize this is this the end after this run that's
Speaker 1: taken up my entire adult life. Is it all over tonight? Right? Greg?
Speaker 1: Is a birthday party in the morning and the funeral
Speaker 1: in the evening. Saturday night dead, I got. I got
Speaker 1: some nice tweets where people are like, you really handle that,
Speaker 1: you know, dance being really hard. You know it's not
Speaker 1: personal Mike Giardi, who is totally personal, And it's coming
Speaker 1: back the next time the Jets blow a Week seventeen
Speaker 1: game and you're all crying and you come up to
Speaker 1: the studio, I can't do it. If you're telling me
Speaker 1: that it's like a right fits Patrick Laws, I can't
Speaker 1: do the show today. I playoffs, the playoffs. If if
Speaker 1: there's a scenario where the Jets are playing for something
Speaker 1: in week seventeen, I'll take it. I'll take that pain.
Speaker 1: Um all right, Mike Giardi is on the line. Mike
Speaker 1: does awesome work that Greg doesn't usually do voice work.
Speaker 1: I mean expect you shoot at Gregg. He's gonna shoot
Speaker 1: right back. Mike Giardi. NFL Network does awesome stuff and
Speaker 1: he's joining us for the first time on the Around
Speaker 1: the NFL podcast. What's up, Mike? Feel like a hug?
Speaker 1: I'm good. Greg doesn't like human touches. Is like a
Speaker 1: warm hug, you know from the Fox Borrow area. Mike,
Speaker 1: you are as plugged in as anybody into Patriot Nation
Speaker 1: right now. What is the vibe right now around this team?
Speaker 1: Do you sense nerves in and around uh the Patriot
Speaker 1: Way or is this team really buying into the revenge tour?
Speaker 1: Everybody's against us, so we have nothing to lose. Where
Speaker 1: Where are you picking up over there? Yeah? I mean
Speaker 1: I think the fan base is and is like right,
Speaker 1: they're they're nervous. You know, this is uh not something
Speaker 1: they expected. They figured they would have to buy to
Speaker 1: give that Oneman and Brady a chance to rest up
Speaker 1: the extra week. Anybody else's some nix and bruises and
Speaker 1: then you know, you come out a guns of blaze
Speaker 1: and instead you know you're in. You picked a team
Speaker 1: to draw that you didn't want. You get Tennessee, who's
Speaker 1: been playing propably as well as anybody in the a
Speaker 1: f C, which is playing something when you consider, you know,
Speaker 1: the way Kansas City and Baltimore rolling in terms of
Speaker 1: the locker room, I think they flushed that Baltimore game
Speaker 1: out pretty I mean, rather the Miami game out pretty quickly.
Speaker 1: But I do sense that there is a I don't
Speaker 1: know what we are kind of vibe about them right now,
Speaker 1: and that is again pretty unusual. I mean, we've had
Speaker 1: periods where maybe the offense doesn't know what they are
Speaker 1: the defense, but somebody had some idea, and I think
Speaker 1: right now, I don't think they know what they are offensively,
Speaker 1: and I don't think they know what they are defensively,
Speaker 1: which is kind of crazy to think after the first
Speaker 1: you know, seven eight weeks the season, when nobody could
Speaker 1: do anything against him, when we watched Brady play, and
Speaker 1: then you look at his numbers from the last three
Speaker 1: months where he is among the two or three worst
Speaker 1: quarterbacks in the NFL. He can't throw outside the numbers,
Speaker 1: He's terrible, and it's pressure at this point, do you
Speaker 1: see it as just a testament to his greatness and
Speaker 1: what he accomplished last January that nobody, and I mean
Speaker 1: nobody is suggesting he's completely washed up like two thousand
Speaker 1: fifteen Peyton Manning. Yeah, I think people are afraid and
Speaker 1: have been afraid, not just with him but with the
Speaker 1: team in general, of shoveling dirt on him. Because even
Speaker 1: last year, you know, you lose those two games in
Speaker 1: December back to back for the first time since it
Speaker 1: was two thousand something, outrageous, right, And then you know
Speaker 1: they get some easy wins over Buffalo and the Jets,
Speaker 1: and somehow those two games against two inferior opponents, and
Speaker 1: they were especially the Jets were really bad last year.
Speaker 1: Somehow bad allowed them to flip the switching game confidence.
Speaker 1: Uh um. So I think people are lea of doing that, um,
Speaker 1: because they have somehow answered the bell and all kinds
Speaker 1: of different areas in places, and Brady of course being
Speaker 1: one of those guys. And I just from a physical standpoint,
Speaker 1: he's not great. What's your gut what's your gut? Feel
Speaker 1: on his elbow right now? So he an the reporter
Speaker 1: a few weeks ago he asked tennis elbow, which is
Speaker 1: it's kind of a broad term, but why is he
Speaker 1: playing tennis? Exactly? He should be laying off all that
Speaker 1: stuff and just worried about throwing the football. But so
Speaker 1: it's a degenerative condition. But that doesn't mean like, oh,
Speaker 1: the elbow is about to fall off like Roethlisberger had
Speaker 1: happened to him earlier this year. This is one of
Speaker 1: those things where because of the amount of times he's
Speaker 1: storing a football and the amount of abuse his body
Speaker 1: has taken over years, that has sort of added up
Speaker 1: in some wear and tear there. And the way it
Speaker 1: was described to me basically was, he's kind of like
Speaker 1: any of us at this point of our lives, somedays
Speaker 1: feels better than theirs. So when we saw him against
Speaker 1: Cincinnati three weeks ago and he was a disaster, uh,
Speaker 1: throwing the ball all over the place, spraying the football,
Speaker 1: I mean just ducks coming out of his hand left
Speaker 1: and right. That that was a really bad day. And
Speaker 1: then he turns around against Buffalo and everything looks back
Speaker 1: to normal. Seventy eight, seventy percent completion percentage. However, there
Speaker 1: was one little caveat in that he didn't throw a
Speaker 1: ball over twenty yards in that game. Um, so it
Speaker 1: was almost as if, yeah, this is what we do well,
Speaker 1: but we also have to manage him a little bit.
Speaker 1: And I think again, you saw that last week against
Speaker 1: Miami where maybe it just didn't feel greater. Now there's
Speaker 1: more talk of injury. Uh. Scott Zolak, who does the color, comments, yes,
Speaker 1: spread exactly. Um, he thinks he suggested that there's something
Speaker 1: going on with his lower half. And the observation that
Speaker 1: I made was why he changed footwear, which is very
Speaker 1: odd for him to do. He's very much a consure
Speaker 1: of habit. But also he was jogging on the sidelines
Speaker 1: in the second half of the game, and I can
Speaker 1: tell you, honestly, I don't ever remember seeing him do that.
Speaker 1: Now I'm not saying he's never done it. I'm just
Speaker 1: telling you that, as someone who usually trains his eyes
Speaker 1: on Brady, you know, whether it's on the sidelines or
Speaker 1: on the field, I hadn't seen it. I asked him
Speaker 1: about that, um, and he said, oh good, you noticed
Speaker 1: that unopen deal. You know, he continues to insist that'll
Speaker 1: be great. Not that we expect him to say, hey, guys,
Speaker 1: I'm hurt. He's not going to do that. But um,
Speaker 1: so now you have that specter too, where not just
Speaker 1: the elbow is at the lower half and mechanically he
Speaker 1: was very unsound on Sunday, which is very unlike him.
Speaker 1: Um and I actually ran up by Kurt Warner and
Speaker 1: Kurt I gave Kurt like eight or ten throws to
Speaker 1: look at him basically, and every one of those Kurt
Speaker 1: was like, Yeah, his mechanics are he's not marrying his
Speaker 1: lower half with its upper hound and whether that's because
Speaker 1: of injury or there was some pressure early and as
Speaker 1: we seeing you know, Tom, especially these last few years,
Speaker 1: maybe I should get hit early. He doesn't settle into
Speaker 1: the pocket as nicely. But so I think there's a
Speaker 1: lot of play here that you know, I don't know
Speaker 1: what Tom Brady is gonna look like on on Saturday Night.
Speaker 1: I don't know that anybody who's watched him consistently over
Speaker 1: the last nineteen years as the starting quarterback of this
Speaker 1: team could say the same. Yeah, Greg but Ard, who
Speaker 1: does a great job writing about them too, said his
Speaker 1: his lower body mechanics he thought were totally off. And
Speaker 1: then I noticed you grilling him about it the Ard today.
Speaker 1: But you did that thing where you said, you know,
Speaker 1: long time Tom Brady watchers were pretty interested. Were you
Speaker 1: kind of just afraid of getting the deaths there from
Speaker 1: from Brady? There in a big spot. Um, No, I
Speaker 1: don't worry about him so much. You get the death
Speaker 1: there from Brady Belocheck all the time. I don't worry
Speaker 1: about him so much. But we were just kind of
Speaker 1: in that mode. He was messing around with Tom Kern's
Speaker 1: cell phone when he first got up there, and then
Speaker 1: I asked him the question about, you know, his health,
Speaker 1: and I pressed him by saying, I know you're gonna
Speaker 1: love this because hey, I know he's told us before.
Speaker 1: I think I had. I asked him me a month
Speaker 1: ago about his health and he joked like, I wouldn't
Speaker 1: tell you guys anyway, you know. So, I mean we're
Speaker 1: kind of in that place where, um, do you ever
Speaker 1: have that we're trying to do? Yeah, and we know
Speaker 1: what he's trying to do, so we're just kind of
Speaker 1: playing off each other. You ever have that moment like
Speaker 1: in the new movie The Irishman when Jimmy Hoffa's wife
Speaker 1: is afraid to turn the key of the ignition outside
Speaker 1: the teamsters in office after like a particularly contentious back
Speaker 1: and forth with Belichick? Have you ever been afraid to
Speaker 1: turn the key? Yeah? I mean I definitely look over
Speaker 1: the shoulder. Um, you know I've I've had friends take
Speaker 1: in my car just keep it to try to turn
Speaker 1: the key. I wait, I gotta go over here for
Speaker 1: a second. Hey, if mom, Michael Thomas can can break
Speaker 1: the single season receptions record, nobody right, One question for you.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know you're your Bill Belichick. You just
Speaker 1: lost to former employee Brian Flores. Now you've got Mike
Speaker 1: Rabel coming in is there? Do you think the Belichick
Speaker 1: um has to think about these types of games against
Speaker 1: former pupils that knew all the internal secrets much differently?
Speaker 1: And uh, and you know, assessing him this week, his
Speaker 1: irritation level on a scale of say one to one,
Speaker 1: how irritated is Bill Belichick with life right now? I
Speaker 1: would say he was about uh seven and a half,
Speaker 1: which which is no, no, no, how to chat? I
Speaker 1: was all right, I would put him, I would put him.
Speaker 1: I would put him there right. I think we saw
Speaker 1: him a couple of times earlier this year and the
Speaker 1: defense is really carrying the day um, and Brady was
Speaker 1: kind of scuffing along. He was super happy and cheery
Speaker 1: and like just You're like, why, maybe it's just because
Speaker 1: he just loved defense so much, or yeah, he's getting
Speaker 1: secretly he's getting a pick out of the fact that
Speaker 1: he's he was doing it without Brady being the local point. Um.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I think it was fairly normal for himself
Speaker 1: this week. I mean, you know, clearly the message was
Speaker 1: we gotta get past Miami. We gotta get past it quickly.
Speaker 1: I think when he in these games, and I think
Speaker 1: obviously Flurez and O'Shea and and something they as that
Speaker 1: he brought along with him had deeper institutional knowledge than
Speaker 1: Fable because Label has been gone for a long time, Um,
Speaker 1: but Frabel still has. You know, there are plenty of
Speaker 1: ex patriots there as well. In TPS was here as well.
Speaker 1: So I think I asked Belichick last week about the
Speaker 1: sort of the game you have to play within the
Speaker 1: game when you're coaching against someone who knows you as
Speaker 1: well as Lauras did, and I think it sort of
Speaker 1: holds true for this week too. It's like, well, you
Speaker 1: can't just look at the sixty five players they ran
Speaker 1: last week, because you know that they know that you,
Speaker 1: you know that whole thing of you know, they know
Speaker 1: that they saw. Then do I do this or do
Speaker 1: I not do this? And I think you get into
Speaker 1: that place and I think there have been times, for
Speaker 1: as great as the Patriots have been, um and particularly
Speaker 1: the offensive side with Josh, where it's almost like they
Speaker 1: fear you out and you're spinning the dial for a while,
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes in the second quarter, maybe late second quarter,
Speaker 1: before they finally decide this is what's gonna work and
Speaker 1: let's do it. And you know, when you do that
Speaker 1: against inferior opponents, you're usually not in trouble. When you
Speaker 1: do that again as good opponents. And I think Tenney
Speaker 1: he's a good thing. Maybe that's where you find yourself
Speaker 1: in some trouble. Michael Girardi will have boots on the
Speaker 1: ground for Tom Brady's final game with the Patriots. Uh,
Speaker 1: yes or no? Real quick there, Mike, last game for
Speaker 1: Tom Brady? Yes or no? Gut feeling, I say this
Speaker 1: is his last season. I don't know if this is
Speaker 1: his last game? Okay, interesting, all right? Yes or no?
Speaker 1: And I like that. I like that. Uh, but do
Speaker 1: you think this is the end? Alright? Interesting? Alright? So,
Speaker 1: like Greg Rosenthal in the bio for his Twitter profile,
Speaker 1: just as football, and that's a statement. Mike's making a
Speaker 1: statement like, Uh, first of all, I separate my personal
Speaker 1: life from my professional life. But also I didn't know
Speaker 1: there's no bs over here. I'm a football man, I'm
Speaker 1: a scribe, and I am a reporter that should be respected.
Speaker 1: That all checks out, Mike, absolutely all checks Maybe maybe
Speaker 1: Dan should give Giardi a follow here, I mean celebrated
Speaker 1: on podcast. It just happened, just happened. I don't know
Speaker 1: how that didn't happen. But now maybe Mike can follow
Speaker 1: me back. We'll be well, will be all good anyway, Alright,
Speaker 1: at Mike Giardi, thanks a lot for your time, buddy,
Speaker 1: and uh enjoy watching the end of the dynasty. All right,
Speaker 1: before we move on, let's unpack a little bit there.
Speaker 1: Anything surprised us because you were the one that said
Speaker 1: we gotta get Mike on the air, because you were
Speaker 1: really taken aback by some of that stuff about Brady's health.
Speaker 1: The reports from Giardi earlier this week, well you could
Speaker 1: tell from looking at his tweets that he believed that
Speaker 1: there was something legitimate going on with the elbow or
Speaker 1: with the health anyway, and I do think we heard
Speaker 1: some things. Some days are better better than others, and
Speaker 1: we know we know that old gen the aging players
Speaker 1: over the course of the year do worse in their
Speaker 1: bodies breakdown. But to me, that's how you can have
Speaker 1: a game like the Bills game that your body does
Speaker 1: feel better that day, and it's just it's coming out
Speaker 1: of your arms smoother, And like, who's gonna doubt that
Speaker 1: he can muster up a good day after the careers
Speaker 1: he said, I just don't want to be the one
Speaker 1: to doubt him. I'm not either, but I would say
Speaker 1: that like the like the concept of going into next
Speaker 1: season and managing this week to week if you're if
Speaker 1: you're the Patriots or you're Tom Brady and you're these
Speaker 1: little things are coming up at that age like this
Speaker 1: does feel like when he said sunset of He's been
Speaker 1: saying since he's thirty eight that he wants to play
Speaker 1: until he's forty five. But you don't know how you
Speaker 1: actually feel until you're going going through those early forties,
Speaker 1: and maybe he will that changes. He's forty two and
Speaker 1: he's starting to feel more and more beat up. He
Speaker 1: could play the September schedule until he's forty five, but
Speaker 1: I don't know about a full six and twenty games,
Speaker 1: can I be honest. I'll be honest here. I will
Speaker 1: miss him when he's gone. This is not gonna last
Speaker 1: forever as time goes. If you if your team, if
Speaker 1: the Browns are the ANFC East, you would also struggle,
Speaker 1: but with a little bit of distance. I will miss
Speaker 1: Tom Brady when he's gone, and it's gonna be gone
Speaker 1: sooner than we think potentially. Let's pick this game. Let's
Speaker 1: talk about this. I know he did a little g
Speaker 1: I mean, this is what we got other teams to
Speaker 1: get to. Yeah, I talk a little Titans like we
Speaker 1: didn't even been even talk about. Let's talk about that.
Speaker 1: I'll pick the game, will share a point mark, go ahead.
Speaker 1: This one is impossible for me to see ahead of time.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go New England Titans seventeen West. What do
Speaker 1: you guys, what are you thinking? This was the hardest
Speaker 1: game for me to pick, and I fall on the Patriots.
Speaker 1: After listen to Gardis comments, I was sort of going
Speaker 1: back and forth. I just think there are so many
Speaker 1: things that Belichick can exploit about the Titans, from their
Speaker 1: cornerbacks being Mike get A, Dorry Jackson back looks like
Speaker 1: he's back, which is which would be big. But you know,
Speaker 1: DeAndre Hopkins and Michael Thomas have taken over games in
Speaker 1: the last few weeks against the secondary. Julian Edelman can
Speaker 1: take over this game against the secondary. The pass frump
Speaker 1: brush from the Titans, which has been abysmal for the
Speaker 1: last half of the season. The kicking woes. This is
Speaker 1: a team that is used to scoring in the red zone.
Speaker 1: What if finally facing a good defense for the maybe
Speaker 1: the first time all year, the Titans have trouble in
Speaker 1: the red zone and after ride out of a kicker
Speaker 1: who hasn't been tested, this is one of the worst
Speaker 1: kicking teams in modern football. Uh. The offensive line. Tannehill
Speaker 1: has the highest sack percentage of any quarterback in the league.
Speaker 1: There are so many little edges that Belichick can exploit,
Speaker 1: and I think they get percentage points from having Belichick,
Speaker 1: Brady Edelman, James White, Vanoy High Tower, these guys who
Speaker 1: have done it in January. I'm just not gonna doubt
Speaker 1: that they can come up with the smoking mirrors that
Speaker 1: they're gonna need to beat a Titans team that has
Speaker 1: feasted on an awful an awfully easy schedule. And Edleman's
Speaker 1: health to me, is so big though he's looking more
Speaker 1: hurt than Brady. Uh. I will say Titans twenty two
Speaker 1: or Patriots twenty two, Titans nineteen. You bring up Julian Edelman,
Speaker 1: he he says, he's I mean, he's been the biggest January,
Speaker 1: all hands on deck. I took the Titans to win.
Speaker 1: I just I didn't overthink it, just because the offense.
Speaker 1: I always just trust offense. They their offense has been
Speaker 1: better than the Ravens over the second half of the
Speaker 1: season in terms of I get it. But even when
Speaker 1: they play a halfway decent defense like the Saints, they
Speaker 1: moved the ball, they get big plays. Some of the
Speaker 1: throws that Tan Hill like made lastic, Okay, they didn't
Speaker 1: play they did. They didn't play anyone. They're playing the Texans.
Speaker 1: The throws he make, it doesn't matter who you're playing against.
Speaker 1: Three or four or five of those throws were Patrick
Speaker 1: Mahomes like times where you're on the run and you're
Speaker 1: hitting spots. And I trust the Patriots defense to come
Speaker 1: up with a better game plan and every than everything
Speaker 1: that happened a week ago. But they they're they've just
Speaker 1: been fine on defense lately. I don't trust defense in general.
Speaker 1: They haven't been dominant. Gilmore versus A J. Brown is
Speaker 1: maybe the key matchup of the game, and maybe Gilmore
Speaker 1: comes back and has a much better performance. But Patrick
Speaker 1: Chung is killing them. And the fact that the defense
Speaker 1: lost the game against Miami really wasn't the offense. They
Speaker 1: scored enough, they had good drives, they scored a couple
Speaker 1: of times late in the game, and the defense giving up.
Speaker 1: As to me against a premier offense, I don't quite
Speaker 1: trust it. Does anyone put any stock at all, and
Speaker 1: I understand will probably in this room just be laughed off.
Speaker 1: But the fact that Tennessee whips New England thirty four
Speaker 1: ten a year ago, different teams, different players, doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: I think it does because A, the record against his
Speaker 1: assistance is it's a it's proven. I mean he's against
Speaker 1: his assistants. But the bigger factors, I think they struggle
Speaker 1: against big, athletic, physical teams and that's what the Titans
Speaker 1: are on offense. Their defense isn't that good. So I
Speaker 1: think if this was Tom Brady's last game, I think
Speaker 1: he could play very well, and it's a high scoring game.
Speaker 1: I have it thirty to twenty seven for Tennessee. Naria
Speaker 1: laugh in the room there, Mark, I was well. I
Speaker 1: was I was preparing for, you know, the response to
Speaker 1: a game from a year ago. I don't. But my
Speaker 1: favorite brownscheme of all time is when Eric Mangini and
Speaker 1: a ghost ghost filled Brown's roster dropped a huge a
Speaker 1: bomb on Belichick. And I do think the people that worked.
Speaker 1: If you've worked with someone for years and years and
Speaker 1: you know they're the way they prepare for a game,
Speaker 1: there is an advantage there if you're good enough to
Speaker 1: take it. You know, advantage of that they know each
Speaker 1: other well. They they spent three days together this offseason
Speaker 1: practicing together. Like, look, the Patriots have some advantage of
Speaker 1: knowing how Dan P's attacks offenses as well. That that's
Speaker 1: not the key. It's more just like I don't know you.
Speaker 1: It's an old team that the good, that doesn't have
Speaker 1: like a lot of athletes peaking at the end of
Speaker 1: the season. This is the only only the second time
Speaker 1: in the history of our show that you've picked against
Speaker 1: the Patriots. Believe that it's a different year around New England.
Speaker 1: I think I picked him and I picked against him
Speaker 1: a couple of times in December. Actually he was too,
Speaker 1: But you're right, it's got the first three um great
Speaker 1: heavyweight fighters. Little boxing analogy here the what's the west?
Speaker 1: What's the last thing to go for a great heavyweight
Speaker 1: as they age, Uh, they'll want to to stand in
Speaker 1: and take a punch, take a punch, and they could
Speaker 1: land a punch. You still have power. Uh. You might
Speaker 1: lose your feet, you might lose your endurance, but you
Speaker 1: can still punch. That's the way I look at the
Speaker 1: Patriots like a little bit of late period Ali this
Speaker 1: week where not when it got really sad, not really
Speaker 1: sad Muhammad Ali. And and to continue to use this
Speaker 1: boxing analogy next week and the week after. If the
Speaker 1: Patriots were to survive, then you have some young Mike
Speaker 1: Tyson's up next. So I do not think this is
Speaker 1: going to last long. But I do think the Patriots
Speaker 1: survived this week. I think that this is gonna be
Speaker 1: a proud team at home with the lights on, the
Speaker 1: crowd going nuts, and the feeling and the vibe. Uh.
Speaker 1: This could be Tom Brady's last game. I think that's
Speaker 1: gonna carry them, uh in a big way. I still
Speaker 1: think it would be a close game because I respect
Speaker 1: the Titans and seeing Derrick Henry be fully healthy in
Speaker 1: week seventeen and going off that that would give any
Speaker 1: defensive coordinator to prepare for in terms of their running game.
Speaker 1: So that's legit. Nobody should be surprised if the Titans
Speaker 1: drop a bomb and it's the beginning of a new
Speaker 1: era in the a f C. But I will pick
Speaker 1: the Patriots as the old heavyweight. With one punch to land,
Speaker 1: I was the only one to go against to twenty
Speaker 1: four Pats over Titans. Well yeah, I mean, I firmly
Speaker 1: believe in Derrick Henry. I believe in Tannehill in the
Speaker 1: throws he's making. So much of this Titans offense is
Speaker 1: based on outlier success on play action and that's coming
Speaker 1: against bad defenses. I think you take a disciplined, great,
Speaker 1: not good defense like the Patriots, that play action is
Speaker 1: not sure to be there. The last, the last thing
Speaker 1: I'll say at the offensive line for the Patriots are
Speaker 1: coming out their two best games of the year. Rex
Speaker 1: Burkhead is also looking pretty good. If they have any positives,
Speaker 1: it is a running game and is the lack of
Speaker 1: pass rush for Tennessee. That's why I think it's gonna
Speaker 1: be a shootout and old school uh a FC. What
Speaker 1: the Patriots are capable, you know, I think that. I
Speaker 1: think it's got me a lot of points. This is
Speaker 1: when we shift in a weird time in Tannehill's four
Speaker 1: winds in general, before we will tanneh hills four wins
Speaker 1: against the Patriots are more than any quarterback ever in
Speaker 1: the history of the Earth than Pat Manning is the
Speaker 1: only one of them. But it was only four. I
Speaker 1: don't care, like maybe he's one of these guys that
Speaker 1: just not scared of the Patriot basically says that the
Speaker 1: trial quarterbacks that lasted more than a few years. All right,
Speaker 1: let's take a breathing here from these incredible game previews
Speaker 1: to to hit some news. First of happy Thanksgiving everybody.
Speaker 1: What was that from? I mean Daniel Snyder, Redskins owner,
Speaker 1: opens his press conference announcing the hiring of Ron Rivera
Speaker 1: by wishing everyone a happy Thanksgiving. I mean that is
Speaker 1: I guess even billionaires that have conquered the business world
Speaker 1: can get very nervous. I've never heard anyone wish anyone
Speaker 1: a happy Thanksgiving in early January. What's never too late.
Speaker 1: It's America's greatest. That's a good way to think, and uh,
Speaker 1: it's good to spread that year. I do wonder if
Speaker 1: you're Ron Rivera sitting down, you know, about to be introduced,
Speaker 1: and your new owners just basically wished everyone happy holiday
Speaker 1: from a month plus again. You know what I'm doing.
Speaker 1: I'm running to the bank to make sure that check clears. Heaven.
Speaker 1: Thanks for Heaven. All right, let's get to it. Uh. Sadly, Mark,
Speaker 1: we gotta start with the Browns. How did we get
Speaker 1: back here? We're back. We're back to the Browns being
Speaker 1: the Browns. They have fired yet another general manager. UH.
Speaker 1: Cleveland parted ways with John Dorsey after two years on
Speaker 1: the helm. The team announced UM made that move official
Speaker 1: after it was reported in multiple places. The decisions move
Speaker 1: on from Dorsey comes just two days after the Brian
Speaker 1: Brown's fired head coach Freddie Kitchens at the conclusion of
Speaker 1: the regular season. UH. Dorsey had a meeting with Jimmy Haslum,
Speaker 1: the team owner, earlier Tuesday. The two sides, according to
Speaker 1: Tom Pellicero, UH, we're talking about possible structural changes that
Speaker 1: would curb Dorsey's authority as GM. But when the two
Speaker 1: sides can't come to an agreement, Uh, it was over. Mark. Uh.
Speaker 1: It feels like Cleveland, even though with the better rosters
Speaker 1: back to square one in terms of dysfunction and just
Speaker 1: in general question marks about the present and the future.
Speaker 1: And I can't even begin to understand how you must
Speaker 1: feel the frustration of it all. Well, I'm of two minds,
Speaker 1: because the first is there, it's just you know, more
Speaker 1: proof that the Browns, the constant mode is sort of
Speaker 1: uh developing farce. I mean whatever, whenever you think that
Speaker 1: they've turned a corner, if they're actually just going in
Speaker 1: a circle back to where they were before. And there
Speaker 1: were just a lot of you know, disturbing reports and
Speaker 1: whispers coming out of Cleveland that the ownership and we
Speaker 1: know this is not it's not shocking when you think
Speaker 1: about it, but but they continue to just to be
Speaker 1: very impatient with all their decisions and the people they hire.
Speaker 1: And so the question now, and I think that the
Speaker 1: I've never seen the fan base this deflated because of
Speaker 1: where they were a year ago at this time or
Speaker 1: let's say, seven months ago to now, but because it
Speaker 1: just doesn't almost seem to matter to most people who
Speaker 1: they hire. And it's two, it's to the energy easy
Speaker 1: to get excited about filling the blank coach. And from
Speaker 1: the other side, though, I will say this had they
Speaker 1: kept John Dorsey, it would have narrowed the candidate list
Speaker 1: of who was gonna come and work with that next
Speaker 1: team by a lot. So I think, you know if
Speaker 1: you're gonna keep doing this, But do you agree that
Speaker 1: Dorsey wasn't the right guy to be leading the charge
Speaker 1: because everyone seemed to be an agreement that he was
Speaker 1: a guy that came in the obviously inherited Sashi's bountiful
Speaker 1: gifts and had some hits, had some misses, but had
Speaker 1: some big hits that to me, it all feels a
Speaker 1: little premature to to take him out of the equation.
Speaker 1: But also this organization is done, is a straight firing, right.
Speaker 1: They just they couldn't have different visions on how they
Speaker 1: saw the football operation going for I think they wanted
Speaker 1: to keep him, and they talked about how much they
Speaker 1: liked him, but that John Dorsey is probably very prideful.
Speaker 1: It's not going to take it. What is it? What
Speaker 1: is when you're changing title it to demotion? What else
Speaker 1: is it? And the thing is he he it's it
Speaker 1: was his decision number one too to go with Freddie
Speaker 1: Kitchens and they ignored Paul deep A down does recommendations
Speaker 1: of Kevin Stefanski, Um do you Podesta also wanted Sean
Speaker 1: McDermott in the past, so I think what they were
Speaker 1: kind of saying was we kind of trust Pauli Podesta's
Speaker 1: voice in this at this time around. And that's not
Speaker 1: something that just again it's a it's a super fired
Speaker 1: Dorsey for hiring Kitchens more basically, and I think you
Speaker 1: have to deal with it's a stunning fall. Though. We
Speaker 1: were at the owners meetings and uh, at that point,
Speaker 1: John Dorsey was the toast of the NFL. I ranked
Speaker 1: him in the top five of my GM rankings and
Speaker 1: no one, no one said, oh, that's that's too high.
Speaker 1: I mean, like it was very recent that who was five?
Speaker 1: I mean, oh, who was right behind him? Thomas de
Speaker 1: Mittrof was five, Kevin Colvert three. But it is amazing
Speaker 1: how much a talent he acquired in a short time
Speaker 1: and he's gone. But I think they've gotten it wrong
Speaker 1: so many times of not having the GM in the
Speaker 1: coach aligned that act. I do like, I like, I
Speaker 1: think that needs to be on the same page at
Speaker 1: every time, So I'm fine with it. It's deflating to
Speaker 1: the point of heartbreak for for Browns. Fans that last year,
Speaker 1: at this time, this job was seen as one of
Speaker 1: the most coveted in the league with a young, talented nucleus,
Speaker 1: and you're finally gonna bring the winner to Cleveland. And
Speaker 1: now it's seen you're reading stories that executives say, that's
Speaker 1: the one place I would not go, and you're right
Speaker 1: back to where you were. I think it's like, if
Speaker 1: you know some of these coaching truths scenarios where Kyle
Speaker 1: Shanahan has a number of people interviewing with the Browns,
Speaker 1: he was there, he's he he demanded his way out
Speaker 1: of the building. You've got you know, the Bill Belichicks
Speaker 1: of the world are gonna be telling these guys be
Speaker 1: careful because yes, it's great for you to go on
Speaker 1: and get a head coaching job, but the d n
Speaker 1: A here is that you won't be there four days.
Speaker 1: Hasn't made it clear in his press conference to Thursday
Speaker 1: that the coach would be part of hiring the GM,
Speaker 1: which sounds weird, but at the heart though, that's fine.
Speaker 1: But it means that the coach is ultimately the GM's boss.
Speaker 1: If you get hyper and that's fine as long as
Speaker 1: the find ahead of time. If that helps them get
Speaker 1: McDaniels or Stefan's gear, whoever it is that they want
Speaker 1: in the door. That's fine. It's makes it clear that
Speaker 1: it's the coach that's in charge and function and dysfunction
Speaker 1: always starts at the top in sports. And since the
Speaker 1: Hasms joined there on their fifth took over the team
Speaker 1: there on their fifth coaching search in seven years, and
Speaker 1: John Dorsey is the fifth different person or group heading
Speaker 1: up the football operation in that same seven year. That
Speaker 1: has to be unprecedented. I mean there are at least
Speaker 1: at least the third that only had one year, really,
Speaker 1: which is while all right, Uh, We'll continue to track
Speaker 1: all the Browns news and I'm sure there will be
Speaker 1: a bunch of it. Um. I can't believe this. On Monday,
Speaker 1: we did our New Horizons Monday podcast detailing the comings
Speaker 1: and goings of coaches, gms and whatnot, and we were
Speaker 1: a Jason Garrett that's not done yet, and we were like, oh,
Speaker 1: I wish for the show was taped later. We're taping tomorrow.
Speaker 1: We get no, it's still as of right now, Jason
Speaker 1: Garrett is still employed by the Dallas Cowboy. There's been
Speaker 1: multiple meetings Jane Slater uh, friend of the show has
Speaker 1: been tracking this closely, and there's a meeting scheduled for
Speaker 1: today Thursday. It just it just doesn't end greg or
Speaker 1: does it. And there's also now their speculation are they
Speaker 1: trying to keep Jason Garrett with the organization. It all
Speaker 1: just feels like the most Cowboys thing possible here. Well,
Speaker 1: he's been there, Jason Garrett for his whole career as
Speaker 1: a player a coach. It's probably the person other than
Speaker 1: you know, his son, that Jerry Jones is closest to
Speaker 1: that's ever been in that organization. So I don't know,
Speaker 1: maybe the team passed the role is open, you know,
Speaker 1: put him in the front office. I don't know Garrett,
Speaker 1: it's it's taken so long that some people are wondering
Speaker 1: maybe he could coach. But I do think that Jones
Speaker 1: is after these big name probably from the college ranks coaches,
Speaker 1: and for that reason, he's not in a hurry and
Speaker 1: he likes me. Are the Cowboys The question during this
Speaker 1: week are they actively looking for a new coach? And
Speaker 1: that's just trying to iron out Jason Garrett's role if
Speaker 1: he has any, or they there's this whole thing playing
Speaker 1: out and dragging out, and the Cowboys haven't started doing
Speaker 1: a real search for a new I'm convinced that Mike
Speaker 1: simmer is he's on the radar of Jerry Jones. It's one.
Speaker 1: It's it's someone where when he when he made you
Speaker 1: met you mentioned this the other show, Greg that Jerry
Speaker 1: Jones said, I'm feeling patient. I'm not feeling impatient, but
Speaker 1: I think Bill Barnwell nailed it. Getting more and more convinced,
Speaker 1: he tweeted, Jason Garrett is going to come out of
Speaker 1: these meetings as the new Cowboys starting quarterback. Jerry who
Speaker 1: knows what's going to come out of this. Jerry knows
Speaker 1: he's the bell of the ball. He has his pick
Speaker 1: of suitors. They're the Dallas Cowboys and there's no other
Speaker 1: Dallas Cowboys in football. He's in no hurry, so he
Speaker 1: enjoys being in the headlines, even if it's a story
Speaker 1: like this. Of course, Oh yeah, I think he also
Speaker 1: it seems like the type of boss that doesn't want
Speaker 1: to be seen as like the mean boss, especially the Garrett.
Speaker 1: It's like he can't bring himself to fire this guy here.
Speaker 1: We're not you know, we're family. He brought him up
Speaker 1: like as soon as he was done playing, he put
Speaker 1: him in there and said, let's turn you into a coach.
Speaker 1: Jason Garrett turned down the Ravens head coaching job just
Speaker 1: to stay and assistant in baltim and Dallas. We're going
Speaker 1: of for John Harbaugh. Move for everybody. Uh, let's move on.
Speaker 1: You know, it felt like the end of something. UM.
Speaker 1: Mitchell Robinsky's Week seventeen game for the Bears, the former
Speaker 1: first round pick who really flamed out in year three.
Speaker 1: But guess what if you take his word at face value,
Speaker 1: General manager Ryan Pace uh is on board of the
Speaker 1: idea of Trabinsky being the team's starting quarterback in twenty twenty.
Speaker 1: Let's hear what Mr Pace had to say. But the
Speaker 1: first thing that comes to mind from me is just consistency.
Speaker 1: You see, you see moments, you see games, Um, but
Speaker 1: for him stringing together a better consistency, so you have
Speaker 1: to piece them Nelly's we just need to flatten that out.
Speaker 1: You need to flat it out. West. What were you
Speaker 1: surprised to see? And hear this well from the from
Speaker 1: the standpoint of having gone through that Bear season and
Speaker 1: watched all their games. Um, that's surprised that they were,
Speaker 1: I guess, so steadfast in their decision to stand behind Mr.
Speaker 1: R Biski. But you're not surprised when you realize how
Speaker 1: much these people have invested in the person and the player.
Speaker 1: And I look at a guy like Baker Mayfield, who
Speaker 1: when I watch him play terrible season, I still believe
Speaker 1: because of what I saw last year that he's going
Speaker 1: to have a great career and I'm not even invested
Speaker 1: in him. Take somebody like Ryan Pace and Matt Maggie
Speaker 1: who are invested in Mitts Drabinsky, and it's not surprising
Speaker 1: to me that they still have that belief that what
Speaker 1: they originally saw is there. Well, the one, yeah, and
Speaker 1: I think you know he picked him, So it's it's
Speaker 1: it's on Ryan Pace if suddenly two years in your
Speaker 1: you know, to stay it on your record forever. If
Speaker 1: you cut ties now, it might be, but it's a
Speaker 1: bigger stain to keep him and then I'll get fired
Speaker 1: next year, which is what's going to happen. That's I
Speaker 1: totally agree. And I think this is like the the
Speaker 1: number one thing I would want in in my GM
Speaker 1: is someone because listen, these guys are it's a crapshoot,
Speaker 1: Like all these draft picks you have, you don't know
Speaker 1: if it's gonna work out or not. You've you've given
Speaker 1: him two years, you've given him thirty something games. It
Speaker 1: acknowledged that you've made the wrong choice at quarterback and
Speaker 1: say I'm here because I'm gonna be I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: big enough to say we're gonna get a new quarterback
Speaker 1: or at least bringing competition. That's exactly what I don't
Speaker 1: want to hear, is this confirmation of a bad decision.
Speaker 1: And we just believe in him and he's got to
Speaker 1: be consistent. We're gonna hear a whole offseason about his
Speaker 1: footwork and him you know what, Mitch Robinsky from the
Speaker 1: neck up, and I elam already exhausted by it. Maybe
Speaker 1: it proves that they to be untruthful and that they
Speaker 1: do sniff around at Cam Newton or picks, and then
Speaker 1: I would understand that more because it seems like it's
Speaker 1: so rare that there's just an obvious right and wrong
Speaker 1: decision from the outside. Keeping Rabinsky and going down with
Speaker 1: the ship is the wrong decision. He started forty one games.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's been the starter for two and a
Speaker 1: half seasons. You've seen enough like the ceiling is so low,
Speaker 1: and I think more guys get fired in paces position
Speaker 1: by sticking to the wrong decision. Instead of just admitting
Speaker 1: that it's right, I would just say we should be
Speaker 1: aware not to take this too much at face value,
Speaker 1: what he's saying right now, and how they actually go
Speaker 1: about their offseason planned, because I think what makes the
Speaker 1: most sense is, I know there's so much Mitch Robinsky
Speaker 1: kind of exhaustion. It's like, get him off the team,
Speaker 1: get him out of the league, get him out of
Speaker 1: the country. But what probably makes more sense is to
Speaker 1: do what the Titans did this year, which is you
Speaker 1: take your failed first round pick, you keep him in
Speaker 1: the building, you go get a better backup, like Andy
Speaker 1: Dalton say, you gotta do better than Chase Daniel, and
Speaker 1: then you let it all kind of sort out and
Speaker 1: maybe the backup hits maybe somehow Trabinsky puts together and
Speaker 1: you give yourself a chance and maybe even save face
Speaker 1: in the process. That's I would be stunned if that's
Speaker 1: not the route they actually take, especially after what we
Speaker 1: saw how it can work in Nashville. It's always a
Speaker 1: conundrum with young quarterbacks, because I go back to this
Speaker 1: Mike holmbring quote from like five years ago when he's
Speaker 1: talking about developing young quarterbacks and choosing one. You find
Speaker 1: the one you believe in, and no matter what happens,
Speaker 1: no matter what, you stand behind him every time you
Speaker 1: talk about him to your team, to the media. This
Speaker 1: is the most important part of quarterback development. Always stand
Speaker 1: behind that quarterback. And if you bring in and Andy Dalton,
Speaker 1: you shatter that a little bit. And the Titan said,
Speaker 1: we don't care what we do to Marcus Mariotta. It's
Speaker 1: reached the point where we can't rely on him. Let's
Speaker 1: bring in someone else. All right, let's move on. Cycling
Speaker 1: back to the Redskins. Yes, they officially named Ron rivera
Speaker 1: head coach. RIVERA fifty seven is the seventh head coach
Speaker 1: hired hired by Daniel Snyder um big Thanksgiving Fan Washington,
Speaker 1: of course, fired Jake Gruden after that oh and five
Speaker 1: start after five plus seasons. Bill Callaghan greg thought he
Speaker 1: did a nice job. He was three and eight the
Speaker 1: rest of the way. And in other news, Jack del Rio,
Speaker 1: I mean he improved the winning percentage by an diffinity.
Speaker 1: Now you're right, Jack del Rio is taken off the
Speaker 1: Bristol roster at ESPN and installed as the defensive coordinator.
Speaker 1: He of course is the d C for the Panthers
Speaker 1: in two thousand two and the Broncos from when John
Speaker 1: Fox headed up those teams super Bowl winning dominant defense
Speaker 1: of Jack del Rio's in two thousand fifteen with the Broncos.
Speaker 1: I wonder what this does for our friend Rob Ryan,
Speaker 1: who was coaching the linebackers, and maybe maybe maybe he
Speaker 1: stays with Jack del Rio. I don't know what we should.
Speaker 1: We should have Rob on the show this year this
Speaker 1: offseason if he would allow it. I believe there's some
Speaker 1: family in the lob Roblos area. I've seen them walking
Speaker 1: around uh An Monica at some point. You've seen Rob
Speaker 1: Ryan walking around many years. It was before we had
Speaker 1: worked with him, so I did not you see more
Speaker 1: people walking around than anyone I know. There's gotta be
Speaker 1: twenty five of these anecdotes of like semi famous people's
Speaker 1: been living on the streets for the pastor I thought
Speaker 1: it was interesting. Ron Rivera and Snyder have been speaking
Speaker 1: for three weeks, have had pretty in depth conversations. It
Speaker 1: sounds like about every part of the you know, facility,
Speaker 1: how to run an organization, this and that, and then
Speaker 1: they talked to Dave Gettleman the Giants GM on Thursday.
Speaker 1: He was speaking with the me you and he said
Speaker 1: they asked him about Rivere and he said, as far
Speaker 1: as I knew, I turned my head around, the Redskins
Speaker 1: were already done with him. So it does such. It
Speaker 1: does help to get rid of your coach early and
Speaker 1: move early. I think the Redskins got Rivera in part
Speaker 1: because they didn't have a head coach in place in
Speaker 1: Rivera just took the you know, the first committed to
Speaker 1: Speaking of Getleman, did you guys hear Gettlman referred to
Speaker 1: his new analytics staff as computer folk. Yeah, he's got
Speaker 1: we got four computer guys, computer folks. Like, well, why
Speaker 1: he learned his lessons? Does that install competence? No? Uh no,
Speaker 1: I mean all right, um, like the guys are the
Speaker 1: best buy, you know, it's like the geeks. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: got the gee we got the geeks. He called them
Speaker 1: computer folks. Don't ever change piece. I think he does
Speaker 1: some of those things for effect. It's just my guests.
Speaker 1: The Jaguars, by the way, make it official. They do
Speaker 1: keep Doug Marone installed as their head coach and Dave
Speaker 1: Caldwell as their GM. So, as we kind of speculated
Speaker 1: on UH Monday Show, Uh, Tom Coughlin ultimately is the
Speaker 1: guy that paid for the sins of the past two seasons.
Speaker 1: I remember when he was the guy who was going
Speaker 1: to come in and save the sins of everyone else.
Speaker 1: It's amazing, It's true. And finally in the news some
Speaker 1: sad news. Well, the next person that sees anybody for
Speaker 1: anything on this field pouring them out, get him out
Speaker 1: of here. You don't let the crowd. One of the
Speaker 1: greatest moments in NFL history. And we'll we'll cycle back
Speaker 1: to that because I I could use a refresher on
Speaker 1: the background of that, and I know that West and Mark,
Speaker 1: uh you will have that for us. But yes, sad news.
Speaker 1: Sam Wish, who coached the Cincinnati Bengals to an appearance
Speaker 1: in the Super Bowl also coached later on with the Bucks,
Speaker 1: died on Thursday at the age of seventy four. The
Speaker 1: Bengals confirmed White's death Thursday with a statement from team
Speaker 1: owner Mike Brown. According to a report on the team's website,
Speaker 1: which which died at his home in South Carolina. The
Speaker 1: cause was melanoma. That was a brief illness. Uh. One
Speaker 1: of the great personalities west of the NFL in the
Speaker 1: eighties and uh into the nineties. Uh. How do you
Speaker 1: remember Sandwich. Well, you hear him raise his voice there
Speaker 1: and you know that fired up the Bengals crowd. I
Speaker 1: was watching that game as a as a kid when
Speaker 1: it How was the background of that? What is the
Speaker 1: story there? Cincinnati and Cleveland are big rivals from the
Speaker 1: same state in Ohio. Cleveland in the northeast, Cincinnati in
Speaker 1: the southwest, and Cincinnati has sort of this blue collar,
Speaker 1: down to earth image and they see Cleveland as this
Speaker 1: kind of elite Shaker heights. We've got all this money.
Speaker 1: You can't even control your lake, which is on fire
Speaker 1: all the time. It's you know, your downtown is falling apart.
Speaker 1: And sam which sent that to the crowd, but it
Speaker 1: belied who he was as a man. Were people throwing
Speaker 1: things on the field, yes they were, They were active.
Speaker 1: The game was shut down for a period of time,
Speaker 1: and there's just like a hot mike sitting around or
Speaker 1: whatever it was. But this is a man who used
Speaker 1: to on Sundays before games would stop by and visit
Speaker 1: the homeless community of Cincinnati and help out on Sunday mornings.
Speaker 1: He's a guy who was very soft spoken outside of football,
Speaker 1: and even after that clip right there happened, he went
Speaker 1: to Cleveland and sat in a dunk dunk tank for
Speaker 1: charity and had Bernie Cozy Bernie Kozar knocked him off
Speaker 1: and put him in the water. I mean, that's the
Speaker 1: kind of guy got he was in football. He was
Speaker 1: sort of this mad scientist offensive genius who developed Joe
Speaker 1: Montana and San Francisco developed the nohadle offense at Indiana University,
Speaker 1: brought it to the Bengals and gave them an advantage
Speaker 1: over every defense in the league for five or six
Speaker 1: years straight. And the best years I think of the
Speaker 1: Bengals franchise came under Sandwich. Yeah. I don't think that
Speaker 1: I would. I literally don't think i'd be here or
Speaker 1: even have an interest in working in football if when
Speaker 1: I fell in love with the Browns it wasn't just Cleveland,
Speaker 1: but that a f C Central before they realigned. The
Speaker 1: whole thing had Marty Schottenheimer and Cleveland Sam Wish and Cincinnati.
Speaker 1: Jerry Glanville, who is one of a kind in Houston
Speaker 1: at the time, and Chuck Noll, who somehow was drowned
Speaker 1: out by the other three because the Steelers were hot
Speaker 1: and cold. But Whish for all his charitable offerings, and
Speaker 1: you obviously everyone knew he was just this wonderful guy.
Speaker 1: Glanville and Wish had this bitter few that every single
Speaker 1: weekend it seemed like the Oilers and Bengals are clashing,
Speaker 1: and like Glanville won a game or two, like fifty
Speaker 1: one to three, when he like a more classier interaction
Speaker 1: between the two, you would have settled the offenses down
Speaker 1: that moment with with the Cleveland thing. I was on
Speaker 1: my couch and they broke through. They broke into like
Speaker 1: the NBC broadcast just to show that. And I had
Speaker 1: no news sense at all back then, but I remember
Speaker 1: thinking that clip is not going to go away for
Speaker 1: a really long time, which through a sixty burger on
Speaker 1: Glanville after all that happened. UM check out. I wrote
Speaker 1: about sort of a love letter to Sam Wish and
Speaker 1: in the seventies and eighties Bengals NFL dot Com Ohio
Speaker 1: River Offense. Check that out for a view of Sam
Speaker 1: which that you might not get anywhere else. I interviewed
Speaker 1: him for that piece, and he was a nice, nice man.
Speaker 1: He's a great example. It's a shame sometimes where you
Speaker 1: just wish he won that Super Bowl. So I mean
Speaker 1: that if Montana doesn't make that drive in the end,
Speaker 1: people think of champions so differently, but the impact that
Speaker 1: White had in terms of the offense, like, it would
Speaker 1: have been great if you won that one and was
Speaker 1: remembered that way, because that's that's the kind of legend
Speaker 1: he was. I remember this was years ago. This was
Speaker 1: after the failed Buck's tenure which just never got off
Speaker 1: the ground. It was when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were
Speaker 1: a laughing stock for twenty straight years before Dungee got there.
Speaker 1: He gets fired. He has some health issues, including something
Speaker 1: that took away, uh the strength and power of his voice.
Speaker 1: And I remember watching an old Inside the NFL feature
Speaker 1: on him in the late nineties and he was working
Speaker 1: at a local high school as a coach. He just
Speaker 1: seemed like such a cool, down to earth guy. He
Speaker 1: had a heart transplant in so obviously he went through
Speaker 1: a lot in his later years before cancer, and um,
Speaker 1: you know it's just sad, just a person of my
Speaker 1: age and Greg's age, and this for me is like
Speaker 1: these these guys that I grew up watching too. It's
Speaker 1: one thing when we're talking about Barts, parts parts Star
Speaker 1: passing on and you're kind of digging in the history
Speaker 1: trying to learn about it, like I remember which when
Speaker 1: he was a key figure. It's sad to see uh
Speaker 1: hours hours after former NBA commissioner David Stern passes another
Speaker 1: figure from our childhood. It makes it makes you evaluate
Speaker 1: and I think Sam, to Greg's point about not getting
Speaker 1: the proper credit for the ideas and the innovation he
Speaker 1: brought to the league. When I talked to him, he
Speaker 1: had sort of made peace with that that he looked
Speaker 1: throughout history and the credit doesn't go to the idea man.
Speaker 1: It goes to the people who make the money and
Speaker 1: have the victories and celebrate and stand over it while
Speaker 1: the man has forgotten. Sounds familiar, settle so familiar. Dan
Speaker 1: says like that, Sam Wise dead at the age of
Speaker 1: seventy four, Rest in peace. Alright, that's what's happening in
Speaker 1: the news. And now back to wild Card weekend. Let's
Speaker 1: move now to the Sunday games in the NFC. Before
Speaker 1: we do that, I just want to let's do a
Speaker 1: little I I just want to check the temperature of
Speaker 1: the room here. Uh. We have the big four announcing
Speaker 1: teams all in action this weekend. Okay, So of course
Speaker 1: you have Seattle at Philly, Al Chris and Michelle. You
Speaker 1: have Minnesota at New Orleans, Buck Aikman, Andrews and Myers,
Speaker 1: you have at New England are thrown in there for
Speaker 1: the he's on the sideline. I gotta give him the respect.
Speaker 1: Uh Tennessee at New England Nance Romo Wolfson and then
Speaker 1: UH Saturday at Houston Tess, Booger and Salters. Who's your
Speaker 1: pick of those four teams? If you give one team
Speaker 1: to call the Super Bowl? Who would you pick out
Speaker 1: of those four? Mark? I think Romo is the best
Speaker 1: thing going right now. But I but the emotional side
Speaker 1: of me, and I know a lot of people don't
Speaker 1: seem to like the Buck Troy Aikman team. I see
Speaker 1: people complaining all the time. People got a condownable. I
Speaker 1: would just say that it's like we just talked about
Speaker 1: someone that is someone I grew up with in football.
Speaker 1: I just grew up with Troy Aikman being the thing
Speaker 1: for so long, and I think he does a competent
Speaker 1: job I know, I do. I think Romo is better. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I for me, the emotional side is Aikman. But
Speaker 1: you're picking Romo and Wolfson, now, yeah, picking Aikman, I thought,
Speaker 1: I'm picking Aikman, the Aikman team with Buck and Buck, Aikman,
Speaker 1: Andrews and Myers. Al Right, West, I bet you well.
Speaker 1: To me, Romo ranks with John Madden as the best
Speaker 1: ever and he has heading shoulders above anybody currently doing it.
Speaker 1: That said, Troy Aikman, I think has improved a lot,
Speaker 1: and nobody pulls more information from the pre production meetings
Speaker 1: than Troy Aikman and just dropped little nuggets throughout the broadcast.
Speaker 1: He's really improved a lot. Good call, and I think
Speaker 1: he still went with Yeah, Romo is just in his
Speaker 1: own league. You mean he danced Romo own Wolfson. Romson's
Speaker 1: great too. Wilson's got that's super Bowl classics. I'm going CBS. UH,
Speaker 1: it's a tight one over NBC. The production at NBC
Speaker 1: is uh is pretty special. Like everything along with the
Speaker 1: name Chris al everything. Michelle like, that's all great, that
Speaker 1: the production, the presentation, I love it all. But I'm
Speaker 1: with West in terms of Romo carries a day because
Speaker 1: of him. Uh, And I think Joe Buck deserves a
Speaker 1: lot more credit than he gets. I think he's excellent
Speaker 1: at what he does and he's gotten better. But to me,
Speaker 1: it's Al Chris Michelle. That's when I hear them. I'm
Speaker 1: watching a game that matters and is important, and Al,
Speaker 1: despite his advancing age, he still to me, has his
Speaker 1: fastball Collinsworth to me a second to none. I like
Speaker 1: that folksy pff vibe he's got going on and Defoy
Speaker 1: is knocking it out of the park on the sideline.
Speaker 1: That's my pick. That's we're all over the mat. All right. Now,
Speaker 1: let's get back to the game because it will be Buck, Aikman,
Speaker 1: Andrews and Myers. I got Rodney and picking games too.
Speaker 1: That's a big advantage for that's a moment. Give me
Speaker 1: more Rodney throwing his own son under the bus for
Speaker 1: his poor game. Matt Casey producing Football Night in America.
Speaker 1: Have a couple of pops with Casey in Miami, is
Speaker 1: my guests. All right, let's uh talk about the game
Speaker 1: at the super Dome. So you have the Vikings tenant
Speaker 1: six West coming off. You know, a no show on offense,
Speaker 1: against the Packers at home in week sixteen. They rest
Speaker 1: everyone in week seventeen. We had to talk in this
Speaker 1: very studio last week, you really want to rest all
Speaker 1: your guys after what you did in week sixteen. Well
Speaker 1: they said, we have nothing to play for, we're locked
Speaker 1: in and we just want to get right. And you
Speaker 1: can't really argue with that either. But now they get
Speaker 1: the Saints, who who was humming more than the Saints
Speaker 1: was forty points per game their last four weeks, and
Speaker 1: it just seems like a total team uh soaring right now?
Speaker 1: What are your thoughts on this one? If I've learned
Speaker 1: one thing from Greg Rosenthal over the last six seven years,
Speaker 1: it's that when every single person in the football watching
Speaker 1: world is on one team, look out, look out for
Speaker 1: the tricks coming your way, for the opposite to happen.
Speaker 1: So I'm almost like you. You prepare for this game
Speaker 1: and you just you start looking for reasons why the
Speaker 1: Vikings can compete. Because the Saints are not only the
Speaker 1: better team, they are so mentally tough, They avoid letdowns,
Speaker 1: they compete every They overcome injuries to their quarterback, they
Speaker 1: overcome injuries on on defense, they overcome a string of
Speaker 1: terrible calls that go against them, and they just stand
Speaker 1: there and take it with toughness. But I can make
Speaker 1: a case for the Vikings if you want me to.
Speaker 1: I would love to hear it. Well. The forty Niners
Speaker 1: run a similar offense to the Kubiak Stefanski offense with
Speaker 1: play action and rollouts. They dropped forty eight points on
Speaker 1: the Saints a few weeks back, so they're susceptible to
Speaker 1: that offense. And while Kirk Cousins record it's terrible in
Speaker 1: primetime games, his stats are actually quite healthy. In primetime games.
Speaker 1: He has a near one passer rating, sixty seven completion rate.
Speaker 1: And I think the title of cousins memoir should probably
Speaker 1: be numbers that be lie the reputation numbers. Uh, here's
Speaker 1: where a second playoff game. Here's where I stand on
Speaker 1: this one wash And you and I have had well
Speaker 1: what seems like differences, but then what it turns out
Speaker 1: where maybe not so far off. And Kirk Cousins, I
Speaker 1: think Kirk Cousins is in a great spot this weekend
Speaker 1: if you want to play that game of like, Kirk
Speaker 1: Cousins doesn't come up big when it matters most Uh,
Speaker 1: there there's the Vikings can play that nobody believes in
Speaker 1: his card this week and legitimately because nobody believes in
Speaker 1: them right now, and they're not nearly as bad as
Speaker 1: they looked. Uh in the last couple of weeks. They
Speaker 1: couldn't be. They couldn't be. And what has happened here
Speaker 1: the deflation of their expectations combined with the Saints rising
Speaker 1: the way they did over the last few weeks puts
Speaker 1: put its Cousins. I feel like in a spot where
Speaker 1: he could be loose and free and just slinging around.
Speaker 1: It's not the worst matchup be there against the Saints
Speaker 1: secondary that's deep, but they've been fine. They're missing two
Speaker 1: of their defensive lineman. It hasn't showed up, maybe because
Speaker 1: of the opponents, maybe just because Dennis Allen is scheming
Speaker 1: except for against Tennessee that this run defense especially should
Speaker 1: be vulnerable without Marcus Davenport and Sheldon Rankins. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you think back to that Minneapolis miracle game. I mean,
Speaker 1: Sheldon Rankins was reckoned shop in that game. He's no
Speaker 1: longer on their team. And the biggest thing with the
Speaker 1: Vikings is they're not the same team as they were
Speaker 1: even two weeks ago. If Adam Theland and Dalvin Cook
Speaker 1: are actually Adam Theland and Dalvin Cook, it's the first
Speaker 1: time they've been on the field together since Week six.
Speaker 1: This is the most balanced team that's playing this weekend.
Speaker 1: If you just look at who's in the top ten
Speaker 1: of of d v O A like, it's the Vikings
Speaker 1: and the two teams with home field advantage. They're They're
Speaker 1: a pretty high ceiling team. And I do think Cousins
Speaker 1: can keep up in a shootout. It's just can the
Speaker 1: Vikings defense keep up. I don't know about that Cooking.
Speaker 1: If those guys are healthy, and that's a huge everything's different.
Speaker 1: Well you could say it, but all right, well, I mean,
Speaker 1: but he's and Alexander Madison is practice. You got your
Speaker 1: full backfield back. The Saints have not allowed a hundred
Speaker 1: yard rusher in forty two games, which is the longest
Speaker 1: streak in the NFL. And I hear about the injury
Speaker 1: they started two of the last few weeks. I mean,
Speaker 1: the Titans ran on them pretty good with without that's fine,
Speaker 1: but I look at an offense that is absolutely fire.
Speaker 1: And also I'm locking the Saints up. Let's start right there.
Speaker 1: Do you know what the problem is with his Vikings
Speaker 1: team and or five problems with him a defense that
Speaker 1: that is not as good as its reputation and starts
Speaker 1: with the cornerbacks who allow us seventy three percent completion
Speaker 1: rate and one ten passer rating on the season. Xavier
Speaker 1: Rhodes is having one of the worst seasons by a
Speaker 1: cornerback that Pro Football Focus has ever recorded, and the
Speaker 1: film backs it up. He looks slow, He's getting burnt
Speaker 1: every week. I like, what like this time of year two?
Speaker 1: I mean, coaching advantages matter and Sean Payton is at
Speaker 1: the top of the game, and Mike Zimmer to me,
Speaker 1: that's fine, But like I he, I just don't trust
Speaker 1: the Vikings to go into the into New Orleans and
Speaker 1: win this game. There's nothing about what the Saints are
Speaker 1: doing of late that suggests to me that they're gonna
Speaker 1: just get dropped in this. Well. They're an example of,
Speaker 1: like I think, the risk of building around defense. So
Speaker 1: so many of those guys have been paid so much
Speaker 1: and they've been together so long, but if they show
Speaker 1: up in New Orleans and they can't hold them under thirty,
Speaker 1: it's like, what's the point. They are not the same
Speaker 1: team on defense either, because it sounds like they're there's
Speaker 1: a real chance they're gonna be missing their most valuable
Speaker 1: defender I think this year, which was Eric Kendricks, and
Speaker 1: that's that's a pretty big time injury. And you look
Speaker 1: at what the Vikings do well on defense, it's Kendricks
Speaker 1: and bar but it's really he's pretty good. It's it's
Speaker 1: the guys on the edge, it's Hunter and Griffin, but
Speaker 1: they're going up against the best tackle combination in the league.
Speaker 1: I mean, Ryan ram Checks on your All Pro team,
Speaker 1: Terron I'mstead's top five left tackle according to PF Eric McCoy,
Speaker 1: who came in and everyone was worried about, Okay, we're
Speaker 1: gonna have to replace Max Hunger has been a huge upgrade.
Speaker 1: He could have been a pro bowler. This is at
Speaker 1: least the top two or three off iNTS of line.
Speaker 1: You don't get to keep them all together forever. And
Speaker 1: like this is the time for the Saints, I mean
Speaker 1: Drew Brees with time and Sean pay and cooking because
Speaker 1: like you say, Minnesota, you called the Vikings the most
Speaker 1: balanced team in the playoffs based on dv O A
Speaker 1: and other numbers based other than the off other than
Speaker 1: the computer focus. Would you call this anything less than
Speaker 1: a utter shock? If the Vikings won this game, I
Speaker 1: would be shocked. I would. That's why I'm locking up
Speaker 1: the Saints too, But I wouldn't be surprised that if
Speaker 1: it's if it's back and forth, it's competitive. The Saints
Speaker 1: have given up a lot of big players in the
Speaker 1: passing game, and I do think the Vikings can be
Speaker 1: a big play type of So I could throw a
Speaker 1: hill Mary, lock the Vikings and have a lock off
Speaker 1: with Greg because I'm one behind them right now. But
Speaker 1: I'm gonna save that hill Mary for down there. But
Speaker 1: you don't have to do that your game, I'm saying
Speaker 1: I do. I'm waiting. I'm waiting. I'm in a different situation.
Speaker 1: I'm two games out and now the two guys ahead
Speaker 1: of me have both locked up the Saints. You could
Speaker 1: be in fine shape. I would have locked up the
Speaker 1: Saints as well. But now from that standpoint, where does
Speaker 1: it get me? And you might need to make a
Speaker 1: decisive move in a memorable move. I'm gonna hold for now.
Speaker 1: I have to think about this further. We got to hold. Um,
Speaker 1: let's pick this game. I think we know kind of
Speaker 1: the direction where everyone's going. But go ahead. Uh, Saints
Speaker 1: fifty Vikings twenty four wes. Uh. My eye test says
Speaker 1: Drew Brees is an exceptionally high functioning game manager right now,
Speaker 1: and the stats have said, I don't care about your
Speaker 1: eye test. He just broke records for December on how
Speaker 1: well he played, and they're scoring thirty five points every week.
Speaker 1: I think they're gonna score thirty five again. He had
Speaker 1: something like fifteen touchdowns and zero interceptions in December. I mean,
Speaker 1: if this guy's in decline, may we all be so lucky?
Speaker 1: I do believe that, like I said, a free and
Speaker 1: loose Vikings team that isn't supposed to win that will
Speaker 1: work their to their advantage. New Orleans defense is not
Speaker 1: um invincible, So I think there's gonna be points scored
Speaker 1: in this game. But to what you were saying, Mark,
Speaker 1: can I imagine a scenario which another this is a
Speaker 1: special Saints team, a one and done in their building? Uh?
Speaker 1: In a in an all time revenge game potential? Like
Speaker 1: when you factor all that in, this team to me
Speaker 1: seems destined to play championship Sunday. So how would I
Speaker 1: ever ever pick the Vikings. So I have to go
Speaker 1: with the Saints, Uh, thirty eight to thirty one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I got a thirty six seven Saints. Curious to watch
Speaker 1: generous Jenkins, who had a very good game for them
Speaker 1: a week ago against the Panthers, and I think it's
Speaker 1: gonna be their starting corner right in in Eli apples here.
Speaker 1: I feel bad for Mike Zimmer. He's a cornerbacks connoisseur
Speaker 1: and once was caught on Mike by NFL film saying
Speaker 1: I could get a cover two corner anywhere. I can
Speaker 1: go down to seven eleven tomorrow and get a cover
Speaker 1: two corner. And now he's got bad corner a seven
Speaker 1: eleven near my house. All right, let's let's wrap it
Speaker 1: up with the late game on Sunday. It is at
Speaker 1: the link. Uh. The Seattle Seahawks eleven and five. Uh
Speaker 1: just barely missed uh winning the NFC West and the
Speaker 1: home game that would have went with that, But they
Speaker 1: got stopped at the six inch line. Remember the name
Speaker 1: Dre Greenwood. Remember that name down the line made the
Speaker 1: tackle was Dre Greenlawmber the name, well, no one else
Speaker 1: I didn't jump in to save that side, did you
Speaker 1: know it? No? I didn't even know what you were
Speaker 1: talking about for a second, but you actually no, I
Speaker 1: stand by it. I was talking about this you right.
Speaker 1: They think you're talking about the football player. You're who
Speaker 1: is what is this? He's a groundskeeper who did really
Speaker 1: good work and led to the Jacob Holiser losing his
Speaker 1: footing on that play. Dre green Law different guy, great tackle,
Speaker 1: but from the backer anyway. Um, the Seahawks travel to
Speaker 1: Philly because they lost that game. They get the Eagles
Speaker 1: and Eagles team that got hot in December to make
Speaker 1: the playoffs. But where does it lead, gregor where does
Speaker 1: it go? Is this an Eagles team that is a
Speaker 1: Cinderella story or does it end this weekend? Where are
Speaker 1: you coming from on this game? This? This is the
Speaker 1: game that I've gone back and forth on the most.
Speaker 1: I think for every point you make on one team,
Speaker 1: you could come up with another. And they both have
Speaker 1: a lot of weaknesses. I could at least make the
Speaker 1: argument that they're the two worst teams playing this weekend.
Speaker 1: I think it's at least possible. I mean, certainly two
Speaker 1: of the of the best quarterbacks, but in terms of
Speaker 1: what they're missing that defines so much of this game,
Speaker 1: Like are we getting the real Miles Sanders. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you're not, that's massive. We know they're because he's
Speaker 1: missed practice. Low grade, low ankle sprain to me doesn't
Speaker 1: sound serious, but he's missing practice. He's missing practice. I
Speaker 1: think there's some confidence he will the writers seem to
Speaker 1: think he'll play. But to your point, to what degree right?
Speaker 1: And so Brandon Books has gone. They're missing seven of
Speaker 1: their fourteen highest paid players. And even the strength that
Speaker 1: you kind of think of the Eagles having have been
Speaker 1: a little up and down. It's not like their defense
Speaker 1: has been there, uh, each and every week. Whereas the
Speaker 1: Seahawks they lose Michael Kendricks going into this they're still
Speaker 1: without Dwayne Brown. Travis Homer is clearly the better running
Speaker 1: bell and probably will continue to get most of the carries.
Speaker 1: I mean, Marshall Lynch isn't gonna save you. And they
Speaker 1: have they kind of defined themselves on being a great
Speaker 1: offense for the first half of the season. They have
Speaker 1: not been a great offense the second half of the seame.
Speaker 1: I would just say, like that's I feel like there's
Speaker 1: because maybe they're very banged up. There seems to be
Speaker 1: this sort of anti Seahawks or people down on the
Speaker 1: Seahawks sentiment right now. And this is a team that
Speaker 1: beat the forty niners a month ago, nearly beat them
Speaker 1: obviously days ago, and closed out a win a seventeen
Speaker 1: and nine over the Eagles just back in late November
Speaker 1: in that game. To me, there were a lot of
Speaker 1: big plays by Seattle that game against the Eagles defense.
Speaker 1: They're vulnerable and what did the Eagles do? The hot
Speaker 1: Eagles simply mode through a totally milk toast NFC East.
Speaker 1: I get it that the Goals are playing at the
Speaker 1: height of their powers, but this game has as many
Speaker 1: injuries by both teams as any playoff game in history.
Speaker 1: I believe it is if if it, depending on who plays,
Speaker 1: it could be Week one starters. It could be the
Speaker 1: most missing of any playoff games since the merger. Both
Speaker 1: teams without their leading rushers, probably unless Sanders plays and
Speaker 1: plays well. Both teams without their best offensive tackle. Uh
Speaker 1: the The Eagles could be the first team without at
Speaker 1: least fifty of the receiving numbers if Arts doesn't play there.
Speaker 1: This isn't I don't even know about Lane Johnson. I
Speaker 1: mean that that's a huge one for them. Too. It's outrageous.
Speaker 1: And the guys that are on the field, you're not sure, Okay,
Speaker 1: is it Jenevan Clowney that we saw against the forty
Speaker 1: nine five weeks ago or is it the one that
Speaker 1: we saw last week? Because he didn't do anything last week.
Speaker 1: He did not look like Jenevan Clowney. Their best pass
Speaker 1: rusher is Quinton Jefferson right now, which is to me
Speaker 1: a problem. And it's amazing how when Russell Wilson drops
Speaker 1: back to past it's never simple anymore. Every play he makes,
Speaker 1: he has to navigate inside the pocket before making it.
Speaker 1: So they they are a team, it's likely the game's
Speaker 1: one on the trenches. Their trenches are terrible. They don't
Speaker 1: they don't right, they don't rush the faster, and they
Speaker 1: don't protect Wressell Wilson. Well, you better get ready for
Speaker 1: the blitz because it's coming. Russell Wilson has been blitzed
Speaker 1: more than any quarterback in the NFL this year. Defenses
Speaker 1: think that's the way to beat him. Jim Schwartz blitz
Speaker 1: with these two teams played in Week twelve, Jim Schwartz
Speaker 1: blitzed him more than Jim Schwartz has ever blitzed any
Speaker 1: quarterback ever, it's gonna happen again. So that's gonna be
Speaker 1: the battle back to the injury. Talk. First with jadeveon Clowney.
Speaker 1: This is his contract year. Um, he's playing under the
Speaker 1: tag this year and he we've talked about that he
Speaker 1: steps up. It seems in big moments he could. The
Speaker 1: Seahawks could really use Clowney stepping up in this game,
Speaker 1: and he could really use it in terms of a payday.
Speaker 1: And then I think the the injury to Brandon Brooks
Speaker 1: kind of went under the radar a little bit in
Speaker 1: week seventeen, but that is the shoulder injury that takes
Speaker 1: him out of action. He was ranked by PFF ahead
Speaker 1: of Quentin Nelson, uh and I'm not saying he's better
Speaker 1: pla um, but he didn't finish it. But at one point,
Speaker 1: to my point, in one of the best run blocking
Speaker 1: guards in the entire league. And that's like a type
Speaker 1: of position that no one really pays attention to. But
Speaker 1: a team that needs to and wants to run the ball,
Speaker 1: you take one of the best run backing blocking guards
Speaker 1: out of the mix, that's something else they have to
Speaker 1: get tend with it. At what point does do these
Speaker 1: subtractions eventually take out the Eagles. I'm kind of with
Speaker 1: you guys that or some of you that this is
Speaker 1: a tough one to pick because you could look at
Speaker 1: it and then you squin and it's a different outcome,
Speaker 1: and then you take a step back, or like, oh no,
Speaker 1: it goes this way. I'm way on the fence right now.
Speaker 1: And it kind of comes down to, like, for it's
Speaker 1: gonna doesn't this seem like it's going to be a
Speaker 1: last drive game one of these quarterbacks seems But yes
Speaker 1: it does. Yeah, is this the brother in the NFC?
Speaker 1: Like we just we agreed before that the Bills and Texans,
Speaker 1: there's no a f C title game participant in that game.
Speaker 1: Do we feel the same about this game the NFC?
Speaker 1: I do, unless they got lucky and the Vikings you know,
Speaker 1: one on you know, earlier in the day, and then
Speaker 1: the winner is going to Green Bay and that's a
Speaker 1: different route. But most likely the winner here is going
Speaker 1: to San Francisco, and that would be great for Seattle already.
Speaker 1: I lean on the fact that Seattle has been in
Speaker 1: a lot of tough games. I've picked on them for
Speaker 1: point differential throughout the year. It's like their point differential
Speaker 1: would be a lot different if they didn't have the
Speaker 1: second hardest schedule in the league, if they were playing
Speaker 1: cream puffs like the Patriots and Eagles were playing. I mean,
Speaker 1: are only in the playoffs because of their division? I
Speaker 1: mean that is that is it. They beat the teams
Speaker 1: in their division, They only get in because they had
Speaker 1: nine wins in their division, where Seattle's played good and
Speaker 1: bad teams very close. I would say this though, it's
Speaker 1: like you, no matter what the record or how they
Speaker 1: got there, it is a huge game for the evolving
Speaker 1: story of Carson Wentz because now you're here. Now you're
Speaker 1: at the place where you didn't have a chance to
Speaker 1: beat because of Nick Foles. And it's not fair because
Speaker 1: the team is uh compromised in many ways. But think
Speaker 1: about Philly media and the Philly have the counter that.
Speaker 1: Though you don't think it's a big deal, I think,
Speaker 1: like talk radio people are gonna care if he wins
Speaker 1: because that's the way talk radio is. But like I
Speaker 1: feel like what he was able to do in these
Speaker 1: final four weeks and really put the team on his back,
Speaker 1: and it's a obviously, like you're saying, a limited banged
Speaker 1: up Eagles team unless he totally as the bed, I
Speaker 1: would think he. I don't think he would get destroyed
Speaker 1: if they went one and done. I feel like the
Speaker 1: season on some of them. For the Eagles, it went
Speaker 1: from huge expectations to everything's lost to wow, we're in
Speaker 1: the playoffs and we want our division. It feels like
Speaker 1: they kind of won the season, and with all the injuries,
Speaker 1: like Carson Wentz has done a really nice job over there.
Speaker 1: I look at the opponents over the last month too,
Speaker 1: But Carson Wentz could use a few signature wins, and
Speaker 1: beating Seattle would matter a lot. I agree, eventually, maybe
Speaker 1: not entering year four of Carson Wentz so or more.
Speaker 1: All right, let's pick this game mark Seattle nine Eagles six.
Speaker 1: WHOA not even close. I don't think it's gonna lock
Speaker 1: it up. No, I already locked up. No, you want
Speaker 1: to move off that locking over to this lock No.
Speaker 1: I kind of like how that played up, uh Seattle
Speaker 1: Philly one. I'm impressed with the way the Eagles circled
Speaker 1: the wagons and found a way to get to the dance,
Speaker 1: but I'm not impressed that they had close games against
Speaker 1: the Giants. Twice and the Redskins to get into the dance.
Speaker 1: I just I just think they're playing a better opponent.
Speaker 1: And like Greg said, oh, come down to the final drive.
Speaker 1: I trust Russell Wilson with the game on the line,
Speaker 1: I'm with you. I think it's a close game. I
Speaker 1: think it's a low scoring game. I think the Seahawks
Speaker 1: drive down the field late, uh and and take this
Speaker 1: one on the road sixteen to fourteen. I hate that.
Speaker 1: I I picked the Seahawks on my game picks column.
Speaker 1: I kind of immediately changed my mind. But it feels
Speaker 1: like you can't do that. You're not allowed to change.
Speaker 1: I don't like it. We can't go into the system
Speaker 1: and change. All right, I'll take the Eagles on the show,
Speaker 1: the Seahawks and the picks. I'm kidding. That's not what
Speaker 1: I'm gonna stick with the Sea I that was my
Speaker 1: that was my gut pick. I just don't like that
Speaker 1: all four of us are on them. That feels uh,
Speaker 1: that feels ominous. There is something, and I know it
Speaker 1: doesn't There is something to the fact that the Eagles
Speaker 1: have been great, played their best in the biggest game.
Speaker 1: Like guys like Brandon Graham and Fletcher Cox has been
Speaker 1: very quiet, uh the last few weeks. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: can they show up for one home playoff game and
Speaker 1: just to button up the locks? The more I think
Speaker 1: about it, yes, there will be a time where I
Speaker 1: need to be desperate and take chances. I'm gonna save
Speaker 1: that for divisional round where the games get more and more.
Speaker 1: Uh toss up uh like, and I will lock up
Speaker 1: the Saints with you guys, because just give me the W.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna eat the W. I love. I'm balling right now.
Speaker 1: Anybody that's watching knows I'm balling. By the way we
Speaker 1: all lose suddenly, West, is it right? Yeah, I've never
Speaker 1: felt more confident about a game this year. How many
Speaker 1: weeks are left? Four weeks total? You have three weeks
Speaker 1: after this, so if I'm too out two behind you,
Speaker 1: I still have time. But it gets really tricky. Uh,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't. You still have the lock trophies sitting
Speaker 1: on your desk despite having not wanted outright uh in eons,
Speaker 1: but a shared win in a couple of year before last,
Speaker 1: I shared win. I shared it with you. You shared
Speaker 1: which sticks in your crawl, which I love because because
Speaker 1: I charitably went like I could have just taken it
Speaker 1: like a like a someone that really wants to take
Speaker 1: their foot and just stick it on the snake Steck.
Speaker 1: I could have done that, but it's like it's like
Speaker 1: it's not good for the podcast, so we've got to
Speaker 1: go against each other. And then like then suddenly I
Speaker 1: got got a big wooden trophies, the good angel and
Speaker 1: a bad angel on you. When you were deciding this,
Speaker 1: I don't remember how it went, but I remember feeling
Speaker 1: kind of like slightly pressured into anyway. So yes, I
Speaker 1: am the two thousand eight seventeen champion champion. That was
Speaker 1: the same thing. I could have picked the Patriots and
Speaker 1: tried to tie even picked against the Pagriots last year.
Speaker 1: I flat out to drop a bomb on you. Everyone
Speaker 1: sat on it, that the president. But I do love
Speaker 1: that it sticks in your crawl that you didn't win
Speaker 1: that title well, because to be the two time outright winner,
Speaker 1: like it's like there's only one wooden trophy. It's sitting
Speaker 1: on your desk and everyone walk around. Now you have
Speaker 1: a trophy too. That one's bad luck anyone with that one.
Speaker 1: We know, but you won last year. I know, but
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't. But then you know I do.
Speaker 1: I'm not want to be. I don't collect trophies. I
Speaker 1: just stick it back. I stick it back in the
Speaker 1: other side of the room. It's like, where where are
Speaker 1: my trophies from back to back game picks when we
Speaker 1: would pick every single game for this happen by one
Speaker 1: of those two. Peyton Manning Steve McNair shared an m
Speaker 1: v P in two thousand four. I believe two two three.
Speaker 1: I don't think it eats Peyton Manning alive. Nobody thinks
Speaker 1: of it that well, it didn't help to Eavy help McNair,
Speaker 1: so we'll see. I think two. That's an ugly side
Speaker 1: of you coming out more. I'm just saying like, it's
Speaker 1: like it's not gonna end well, probably if we are
Speaker 1: sharing trophies from here until the end. Okay, Now, this
Speaker 1: is what you need to know. A reminder that Tomorrow Friday,
Speaker 1: the Around the NFL TV Show and NFL Network premiere
Speaker 1: six pm Eastern three pm Pacific, and then it re
Speaker 1: air throughout the weekend. Set your DVR watch it, give
Speaker 1: it a shot. It's fun. It's it's not just like
Speaker 1: what we're doing here, although this is great, it's a
Speaker 1: mix of this and other stuff. And Ricky's doing a
Speaker 1: great job and everybody associated with our show behind the scenes.
Speaker 1: If you like Cats the new movie, you'll love this.
Speaker 1: You love the prosthetics that we use. Uh, we really
Speaker 1: spared no expense. And last but not least, he send
Speaker 1: a happy birthday out to Colleen Wolf. The history is
Speaker 1: very rich here Connie Fox. I'm finally doing this thing
Speaker 1: the Tiny Box. Oh yes, she is celebrating a birthday today.
Speaker 1: In fact, we saw her just this morning. We're doing
Speaker 1: a shoot for a segment for the network show. That
Speaker 1: she was nice enough on her off day. Although you know,
Speaker 1: Connie sneaky has a lot off days. She came in
Speaker 1: and uh and helped us out with a segments so
Speaker 1: you could check out Colleen on our network show as well.
Speaker 1: So good times and exciting times in the NFL season
Speaker 1: and for us here at the podcast, a very happy birthday,
Speaker 1: she said at all. I don't know about the sneaky
Speaker 1: off days. Oh, you know, it's not bad. It's not bad. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the awe. We're getting there. We're getting there better
Speaker 1: than us. All right. This is Dan Hands a signing
Speaker 1: off for Quiet Storm, The Mailman, The Old Boss Rick Hollywood,
Speaker 1: Ryan Barlett, and the whole gang behind the glass. Playoff
Speaker 1: football is there? Tell Saturday