Speaker 1: The Around the NFL podcast Cannot Stop the Rise of
Speaker 1: Bridget from the Chris Westling podcast studio. It's Around the NFL.
Speaker 1: I am Dan hanss I got Mark Sessler, Greg Rosenthal.
Speaker 1: Here a lot, a lot of buzz about Bridget. Some
Speaker 1: people were triggered by the robot relax, some people seem
Speaker 1: to really enjoy it. What manufactured joke. But again, the
Speaker 1: biggest concern is that she seems to be growing beyond
Speaker 1: the control of her creator. And that's a big issue. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's all get two thou and one space odyssey here
Speaker 1: in our real life. But you you, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: you spent a lot of time telling us how much
Speaker 1: effort and work and toil you put into creating a
Speaker 1: better version, a two point o version of Bridget, and
Speaker 1: she spun out of control. She's power hungry, um an
Speaker 1: unlikable butt. So my job, well do you find a
Speaker 1: likable she's calling you out on some things. I mean,
Speaker 1: she might be my future boss. So I just think
Speaker 1: she's doing what she can and uh, I think, look,
Speaker 1: we've done this show ten years. This is a nice
Speaker 1: little plot pivot our new overlord. Yeah, I was gonna
Speaker 1: say boss seems kind I feel like she might be like,
Speaker 1: are all controlling? Uh master? At some point it's not
Speaker 1: a world I want to be a part of. Championship weekend.
Speaker 1: Oh I have right here, not a shameless plug at all,
Speaker 1: Number one through four in the power rankings as we
Speaker 1: enter Super Bowl, well, championship weekends. To get to the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl, we had to say goodbye the lines. Justin
Speaker 1: I have in my hands the power rankings on her.
Speaker 1: Number one, I have the Cincinnati Engles, number two, the
Speaker 1: Philadelphia Eagles interesting number three, the San Francisco forty Niners,
Speaker 1: number four, the Kansas City Chiefs. And am I bringing
Speaker 1: that up because I want to direct you to NFL
Speaker 1: dot com slash power Rankings. Sure, I'll do that, But
Speaker 1: also I want to point out you could put those
Speaker 1: four in any order and you're just as right even
Speaker 1: to you could say, well, Kansas City with my homes injury,
Speaker 1: Pat's practicing in full right now. On top of it's
Speaker 1: gonna be great. This combination of teams, like it seems like,
Speaker 1: oh wow, this seems like a good four pack of teams.
Speaker 1: There's historically never been like, uh foursome of teams who
Speaker 1: are this good and on this much of a winning
Speaker 1: streak between the Chiefs have won seven straight. The Bengals
Speaker 1: have one ten straight and have won twelve straight. Like,
Speaker 1: if you combine the four teams record over the last
Speaker 1: three months, it's better than any final four. It's also
Speaker 1: the first conference championship with spreads under three in both
Speaker 1: games in since the seventies seventies, so like, it just
Speaker 1: doesn't there hasn't even been one. It is surprising, except
Speaker 1: like we got no upsets, which maybe made last week
Speaker 1: less dramatic on some level. But we've got the four
Speaker 1: best teams and this is the first occurrence forty eagles
Speaker 1: of a top trank offense and defense is clashing each
Speaker 1: other since top five since the Vikings and Cowboys in ninety.
Speaker 1: So it has it is an aberration what's happening right
Speaker 1: now in a great one. And there was this idea
Speaker 1: of like there's no you know, at some point in
Speaker 1: the season people will be like that there's there's no
Speaker 1: great teams. It's like this seems like a year actually
Speaker 1: there were great teams and then there was a lot
Speaker 1: of flatsam and jetsam around the same uh, wanting to
Speaker 1: be one of these teams. And the Bills would say
Speaker 1: we were one of those teams. Will you not anymore? Sorry, Bills? Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: there's no you know right now dynasty in the NFL.
Speaker 1: But um, I feel like it's not unusual by the
Speaker 1: time you get to the final four, all the teams
Speaker 1: that are still alive or playing so well that they
Speaker 1: do feel like superpower. The last four from last year
Speaker 1: though too, it's not like they're they're out of nowhere,
Speaker 1: and the Niners have been to the title game three
Speaker 1: or four years. The Chiefs get their year after years,
Speaker 1: so that they're not dynasty is in the same way
Speaker 1: that we think of like the old nineties Cowboys and
Speaker 1: eighties Parcels Giants. But I had a couple of Super
Speaker 1: Bowls and you're there, I'm you forgot Yeah, the best dynasty. Well,
Speaker 1: I don't think I said, I don't think that anyone's
Speaker 1: coming about the new England Patriots. We're living in the past. Now,
Speaker 1: we're just living in the past. It is crazy to
Speaker 1: think that this five straight championship games started Patrick Mahomes
Speaker 1: with a tight overtime defeat to that Patriots. I mean
Speaker 1: that really at the time, everyone was saying like this
Speaker 1: could be the changing of the guard and Tom wouldn't
Speaker 1: let go for one more game. But it really was
Speaker 1: the changing of the guard. Yes, and um, you know,
Speaker 1: as we kind of we're gonna get into the a
Speaker 1: f C game second. But you do feel a little
Speaker 1: bit a pressure on Mahomes because he has been like
Speaker 1: v guy in the last five years. Is um he
Speaker 1: has the one title? I think Homes, go get over
Speaker 1: the hump again, get back to the game, win another one.
Speaker 1: If if if, Because Greg, you've been on record on
Speaker 1: the show, I think you've said that is he the
Speaker 1: best ever? I think he's the best player I've ever seen. Yeah,
Speaker 1: are covered, So yeah, I'm not pushing back on that
Speaker 1: even I'm just saying time to start stacking some of
Speaker 1: these Lombardies well because the team is there, right. You
Speaker 1: don't like it's suppressing to watch the quarterback do it
Speaker 1: early in the career and then not do it again.
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers esk, get a second. It's a team sport, Dan.
Speaker 1: I mean when when Tom Brady played his absolute best
Speaker 1: didn't win any titles. I saw this tweet from Nate
Speaker 1: Tye showing the greatest offenses of the last twenty years.
Speaker 1: I forget what the context was maybe the Chiefs were
Speaker 1: on this list or something, and all of Brady's best
Speaker 1: offenses were in the period where he didn't win any
Speaker 1: titles two thousand, eleven, nine, seven, twelve. And it's a
Speaker 1: team game defense that I never thought of it that way,
Speaker 1: And I'm just saying it didn't make me feel any
Speaker 1: different about my homes. If they lose this game. Doesn't
Speaker 1: mean if he played less of him, but it is
Speaker 1: to point out it's an incredible achievement to get to
Speaker 1: this state of the season five years in a row,
Speaker 1: the final four. The odds are really with you at
Speaker 1: that point. If he does goes through this five years
Speaker 1: and this one you come up empty, it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: just one title and you got to the final four
Speaker 1: five times in a row. Wouldn't change the way you
Speaker 1: think about my homes. And I get it from like
Speaker 1: the player angle, and yet I feel differently about Aaron
Speaker 1: Rodgers never getting they were on the It wasn't like
Speaker 1: he was toiling like Archie Manning for a bad team.
Speaker 1: They were on the doorstep over. He's at the age
Speaker 1: where Peyton Manning was still two years away from winning
Speaker 1: a playoff game or making a Super Bowl. So it's like,
Speaker 1: I just yeah, it doesn't it doesn't change too much.
Speaker 1: So what a five years from now, he's not one
Speaker 1: one or six or seven. I don't talk about this season,
Speaker 1: but unfinished business. Why don't we start with the a
Speaker 1: f C Championship game? Because one other thing Greggy to
Speaker 1: factor in. If he is indeed the greatest, the greatest
Speaker 1: you've ever seen, and you're not young anymore, I only
Speaker 1: count though that twenty years, like since we've covered the sport,
Speaker 1: because like before that and like watching NFL Prime Time,
Speaker 1: and you have these memories of something a kid, it's
Speaker 1: tough to really compare. Um. How last season ended still
Speaker 1: stunned me because I have an incredible amount of respect
Speaker 1: for Patrick mahomes Um. I think he is. I'm with you,
Speaker 1: like he's certainly in the top three quarterbacks I've ever
Speaker 1: seen um at this stage. And yet what happened against
Speaker 1: the Cincinnati Bengals last year in Arrowhead an absolute meltdown
Speaker 1: in the second half. It felt like a stain on
Speaker 1: his resume. So here we go, here's his chance to
Speaker 1: get revenge against the Cincinnati Bengals at Arrowhead again. But
Speaker 1: things feel different now, Greggy because Cincinnati is no longer
Speaker 1: the the upstart. They're the team that a has been
Speaker 1: awesome for about three straight months now, be has the
Speaker 1: quarterback that I think everyone is starting to realize might
Speaker 1: be ready to take over the entire league for a decade.
Speaker 1: And see have owned the Chiefs for about a year
Speaker 1: plus in head to head matchups, including obviously last year's
Speaker 1: title game. And Mahomes is a bad ankle. It's all
Speaker 1: great points. Like I think the Bengals are favored for
Speaker 1: a reason. I think they're a little bit better of
Speaker 1: a team overall than the Chiefs. And then you throw
Speaker 1: in mahomes ankle injury. It's the ultimate test of like
Speaker 1: what have they learned since that game a year ago?
Speaker 1: Can Mahomes be patient enough on offense? Can they create
Speaker 1: big plays with this new group? Uh? Can they not
Speaker 1: you know, fall apart and be able to respond to
Speaker 1: lou And and Maroonos adjustments during the games. And I
Speaker 1: think with the injury, it's so interesting because I think
Speaker 1: of my homes and read going into this game thinking, Okay,
Speaker 1: maybe he's not gonna have his total mobility even if
Speaker 1: he's feeling good this week. Is it kind of like
Speaker 1: an artist Okay, that has some of their greatest work.
Speaker 1: Potentially when you have to put limitations on that art,
Speaker 1: like sometimes you make up a structure in sort of
Speaker 1: rules in that Okay, we can only do this, We're
Speaker 1: not going to rely on this, but we can rely
Speaker 1: on him getting rid of the ball quickly. We can
Speaker 1: rely on a great offensive line which is better at
Speaker 1: run blocking, a really good running game which is third
Speaker 1: in the league in d v o A since that
Speaker 1: last Bengals game ran well against them, screens which they've
Speaker 1: been great at. And still Mahomes using what he can
Speaker 1: do since he first got to the a f C
Speaker 1: Championship winning before the snap, and and will they like
Speaker 1: kind of whittle down who they are and maybe that
Speaker 1: will make that like a more memorable performance. I think
Speaker 1: it's possible. I think it's it's very possible. I mean,
Speaker 1: number one, you know people at practice, the Chiefs themselves,
Speaker 1: he's practicing in full and he doesn't seem to be
Speaker 1: limited or looking like the way he did against Jacksonville
Speaker 1: where he was literally hobbling around. So he just heals
Speaker 1: differently than other players and other quarterbacks too, which is great.
Speaker 1: But Andy Reid also said Andy Reid said, like, we've
Speaker 1: got three hundred plus plays for Patrick Mahomes to operate
Speaker 1: inside the tackle box, that there's a lot they can do.
Speaker 1: And I think they're built in a way with guys
Speaker 1: like Isaiah Pacheco right now and Jerick McKinnon and Juju
Speaker 1: Smith Schuster where you can you can succeed in the
Speaker 1: quick game against the defense that with Lui and a Rumo,
Speaker 1: Like Mahomes said, every single time these last three matchups
Speaker 1: when we've dealt with the Bengals and a Rumo, Captain
Speaker 1: lew has completely changed what they've done on defense. There's
Speaker 1: been nothing to take from game to game. And Captain
Speaker 1: Lew is a guy that at halftime is making massive adjustments.
Speaker 1: And I think that they've kept it because if you
Speaker 1: look at that first half against the Bengals in that
Speaker 1: ANFC Championship game, Mahomes was like eighteen and looking great
Speaker 1: then but then everything then the Bengals went and did
Speaker 1: what they do and like Mahomes struggled mightily in the
Speaker 1: second half. So I think the X factor is the
Speaker 1: creativity of Cincinnati's defense. Um a defense that's been awesome
Speaker 1: in the red zone of late. They're taking the ball
Speaker 1: away and they really don't have a massive weakness. And
Speaker 1: I think that you gotta you gotta like this idea
Speaker 1: that Joe Tuney is back in this game, which he
Speaker 1: wasn't when they played in December. That's big against the
Speaker 1: Bengals pass rush. That could cause havoc if Mahomes is
Speaker 1: more limited than we think and stuck inside the tackle
Speaker 1: box more and he could be practicing in full right now.
Speaker 1: This is all on some level, could be games and
Speaker 1: ship as well as these teams are preparing for this
Speaker 1: biggest game of the season. But I think we said
Speaker 1: it earlier in the week. You don't really know what's
Speaker 1: gonna happen with Mahomes until he's actually playing on the field,
Speaker 1: sprinting out of the pocket to evade the rush at
Speaker 1: full speed, sliding down, being dragged on a tackle out
Speaker 1: of bounds. It is certainly within the realm of possibilities
Speaker 1: that he ends up on the sideline and Chad Henny
Speaker 1: plays extended snaps And then then how do you feel
Speaker 1: about the Chiefs? This was a good stat No, that's
Speaker 1: what I mean. It's very like we can all like
Speaker 1: and that's how the Chiefs are are looking at things.
Speaker 1: Are publicly facing on this. Oh, Pat's okay, keep on
Speaker 1: calling him Pat. That was his dad. Mahomes is okay. Um,
Speaker 1: you know he's gonna play. He's practicing full, We're ready
Speaker 1: to roll. Well, we shall see according to next Gens stats,
Speaker 1: and we all know. Part of the mahomes is greatness
Speaker 1: is his ability to make plays off platform, to scramble,
Speaker 1: keep his eyes up field, those crazy throws that only
Speaker 1: Mahomes can make. He completed just one of two throws
Speaker 1: outside the pocket in the second half against Jacksonville. He
Speaker 1: led the NFL with a hundred and seventeen throws from
Speaker 1: outside the pocket during the regular season. Can he be
Speaker 1: that guy? Because that's what separates him from so many
Speaker 1: people in my opinion, I'm sure he's a great pocket
Speaker 1: pastor as well. He's Patrick Mahomes, But what makes him
Speaker 1: other worldly is that ability to do what He had
Speaker 1: the most touchdowns inside the tackle box too. Video to
Speaker 1: your point about the outside the box like throws, he
Speaker 1: had the second most attempts on the run. It's a
Speaker 1: big part of his game, and his mobility became a
Speaker 1: big part of his game this year too. So it's like,
Speaker 1: if you really I think He elevated that this season
Speaker 1: was the one thing that was maybe the best aspect
Speaker 1: of him improving this year. When I look at my Homes, though,
Speaker 1: I just kind of feel like when you pair him
Speaker 1: with Andy Reid, Andy Reids saying, We've got hundreds of
Speaker 1: options and things we can do, and you're built a
Speaker 1: little differently this year, and I think that guys like
Speaker 1: Jerick McKinnon are set up to help you if you're
Speaker 1: limited and where you can throw the ball from. I
Speaker 1: think that's right, and we'll get to the Bengals offense.
Speaker 1: But I am can you know curious how Annamarumo and
Speaker 1: a Rumo attacks him because I think that is what's
Speaker 1: made this Bengals defense so good. I think they're the
Speaker 1: better defense in this game. They change what they do
Speaker 1: snap to snap, drive to drive quarter to quarter game
Speaker 1: to game. Did they feel very belichicking in their way
Speaker 1: and that they have eight continuity guys who really know
Speaker 1: what their roles are and they can really shape shift. Now,
Speaker 1: will he send more pressure? Not something he does a
Speaker 1: ton because Mahomes is stuck there in the pocket. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think he can win from the pocket, but can't
Speaker 1: even move well inside the pocket. He did okay last week,
Speaker 1: and the signs are good that he could do it
Speaker 1: this week where he did move around a little bit.
Speaker 1: But do you send a little more heat to try
Speaker 1: to get the ball out quicker? Do the Chiefs really
Speaker 1: lean into that running game, do the thing that like
Speaker 1: everyone always is asking Andy Reid to do more because
Speaker 1: they ran the ball incredibly well the first time they
Speaker 1: played the Bengals, they ran the ball incredibly well. Last
Speaker 1: week they were twelve nine six running the ball in
Speaker 1: the first half of that game. Like I mentioned before,
Speaker 1: third in rushing efficiency since week thirteen. They've got these
Speaker 1: guys up front who are malers, and I think it's
Speaker 1: a really key matchup. You mentioned Tuny. You have Creed
Speaker 1: Humphrey who's been in All Pro now line is second year. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's a very good line. Do they lean on that.
Speaker 1: It's a big matchup between like DJ Reader who has
Speaker 1: been good for the Bengals and took Tupou who has
Speaker 1: been pretty good up front, Like can you get that one?
Speaker 1: Because I do worry a little bit if he's standing
Speaker 1: back there that Trey Hendrickson has a mismatch against Andrew
Speaker 1: wild He can get some heat quickly and I don't
Speaker 1: think that's gonna be good. Only Dak Prescott has more
Speaker 1: interceptions than Patrick Mahomes under pressure, and Mahomes is numbers
Speaker 1: tumble under pressure. So a guy like Trey Hendrickson is
Speaker 1: massive in this matchup. But I do think Joe Tuney,
Speaker 1: who is about as good as you find along any
Speaker 1: offensive line, getting him back is a huge difference. But
Speaker 1: Isaiah Pacheco's trending in a way where like he had
Speaker 1: his best game last week. It's like these guys are
Speaker 1: growing guys in their offense, like Darius Tony and Pacheco
Speaker 1: were like becoming a bigger factor and more of a thing.
Speaker 1: And I think you know, people out there that study
Speaker 1: this Chief's offense think they're gonna run a ton of
Speaker 1: twelve personnel this week to help get two tight ends
Speaker 1: in there, protect Mahomes a lot of quick throws and
Speaker 1: try to counter that. Yeah, and well that's when Captain
Speaker 1: lew comes in, because then you can and there's no Remember,
Speaker 1: they have done an amazing job adjusting post Tyreek, but
Speaker 1: now you don't have that guy necessarily that you could
Speaker 1: just you know, blow the top off a defense that
Speaker 1: is creeping up to the line and playing everything short,
Speaker 1: it changes what they can do UM And at some
Speaker 1: point I think you're gonna have to see Mahomes challenge
Speaker 1: them downfield if that's how they're gonna play the game
Speaker 1: to try to protect him in the pass rush UM
Speaker 1: on the Cincinnati side of the ball, when they are
Speaker 1: on offense and they are opening up lanes for Joe Mixing,
Speaker 1: it's over because when you add that element to their game,
Speaker 1: as they did against the Bills, there's just no way
Speaker 1: to stop them because Burrow is so great and so
Speaker 1: locked in and his receivers obviously with Chase and Higgins
Speaker 1: and Boyd, but like Hayden Hurst is a really good
Speaker 1: fit with this team. If you are Mixing in the
Speaker 1: run as they did, and and Mixing had a hundred
Speaker 1: five yards on twenty carries in that game, it's a rap.
Speaker 1: So it's like the Chiefs need to find a way
Speaker 1: to make the Bengals one dimensional and put them in
Speaker 1: a situation where and this is where they're a tough
Speaker 1: matching because it's like I think the key to the
Speaker 1: Chiefs winning is make Burrow pass the ball fifty times,
Speaker 1: but then Joe Burrows passing them ball fifty times, and
Speaker 1: bad things can happen there. But it's that balance that
Speaker 1: makes the Cincinnati offense ince. I mean, and when they
Speaker 1: played last time, and I take as much from this
Speaker 1: pass game as the a f C Championship game because
Speaker 1: the Chiefs are a completely different team in a lot
Speaker 1: of ways. But Burrow through the ball thirty one times
Speaker 1: with six and completions. They didn't have Joe Mixon. That
Speaker 1: was the Soma J. P. Ryan day where had a
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty total yards, caught six passes, ran the
Speaker 1: ball really well and it kind of that was one
Speaker 1: of the kind of dared p Ryan to beat them,
Speaker 1: and he did, and he did. It kind of showed
Speaker 1: me like this Bengals team, like even when they're missing guys,
Speaker 1: they're as resilient as any team in the a f C.
Speaker 1: And they find guys behind the guys to like come
Speaker 1: up and produce. And that happened in that game. And
Speaker 1: to me, it's like I think Burrow, like I take
Speaker 1: away two things from last week, Like you have a
Speaker 1: totally banged up line. We talked about all last Thursday
Speaker 1: preview show, as it might spell doom for Burrow and Steady.
Speaker 1: It like the lowest pressure rate he's had in a
Speaker 1: game all year because this line somehow played out of
Speaker 1: its mind. It was insane. And secondly, Burrows in the
Speaker 1: middle of a snowstorm and Buffalo and it seemed like
Speaker 1: it had zero emotional effect on him. I don't think
Speaker 1: he cares he's playing in Kansas City, Cincinnati, Buffalo, or
Speaker 1: the Arctic. He's like, I'm Joe Burrow. I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: do what I do. And they seem kind of teflon
Speaker 1: to the environment they're in. I totally agree. I think
Speaker 1: both of these offenses are so much better. It's an
Speaker 1: offensive league than the defenses. That there's not gonna be
Speaker 1: a lot of stops in this game, assuming you know
Speaker 1: Mahomes is healthy enough, and I don't have that much
Speaker 1: worry about it. I I'm with you, Dan, you never
Speaker 1: know what's gonna happen. But ultimately I'm expecting there to
Speaker 1: be very few stops in this game. Maybe you'll have
Speaker 1: some turnovers, but I think it'll be like these last
Speaker 1: three games, which you know Bengals have found a way
Speaker 1: to make all the big players. That has to give
Speaker 1: them great confidence, but they all came down the last second.
Speaker 1: They were all three point games. You know that the
Speaker 1: Chiefs probably would have taken the lead there if Kelsey
Speaker 1: hadn't forced the fumble. And those are the types of
Speaker 1: big player fumbled the ball late in that game with Burrow,
Speaker 1: like they were determined to take away the big play
Speaker 1: when they played in week their team, the Chiefs were.
Speaker 1: It was the Chiefs who hit all the big plays
Speaker 1: down the field and it didn't matter. The Bengals didn't
Speaker 1: have one big play, literally nothing twenty yards down the
Speaker 1: field in that entire game, and yet they could run
Speaker 1: the ball so well against them. I think the running
Speaker 1: games for both teams are key. Burrow ran the ball
Speaker 1: more in that game than than any game this year.
Speaker 1: He ran it well last week as well. He had
Speaker 1: some design runs like I think his legs are absolutely crucial,
Speaker 1: And when it came down to it, they were just
Speaker 1: kind of like Tee Higgins into our chase are huge.
Speaker 1: You're putting Trent McDuffie and Lagarius Need and these smaller
Speaker 1: quarterbacks like, oh yeah, you guys are really tough, Like
Speaker 1: try to stop us on our like in breaking routes
Speaker 1: like these slants and these little over routes on third down,
Speaker 1: just try to stop us because they weren't even open
Speaker 1: and they just kept pity him over and over. That's
Speaker 1: kind of what stands out to me with this matchup
Speaker 1: is like, ultimately, Higgins and Chase are just bigger than
Speaker 1: those Chiefs dudes, and they don't have to be open,
Speaker 1: and you know, Joe Burrow is not afraid to make
Speaker 1: those throws. So and on that offensive line in front
Speaker 1: of Burrow, Jonah Williams not practicing, Um, so he's probably
Speaker 1: out again. Alex and Kappa did not practice on Wednesday.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure about Thursday. Uh, that seems like a
Speaker 1: same situation. So they're gonna run back most likely the
Speaker 1: line that succeeded so much in the divisional plans, but
Speaker 1: this is now a different opponent. We talked about it
Speaker 1: a lot about Buffalo and how much they miss von
Speaker 1: Miller and didn't really have a big dog to go
Speaker 1: get the quarterback. Well, there is a dog on the Chiefs.
Speaker 1: His name is Chris Jones. You got Frank Clark there, Karloft,
Speaker 1: this is there, and it's just like that's another part
Speaker 1: of this. Like the assumption now, I would say it
Speaker 1: would be a little bit misleading to just assume now
Speaker 1: the Cincinnati Bengals offensive line is now set and fine
Speaker 1: better defense. Fifty five sacks for the Chiefs this year,
Speaker 1: which is tied for second in the league. They're not
Speaker 1: out of the woods yet in terms of their ability
Speaker 1: to protect the quarterback and run the football. Chris Jones
Speaker 1: was not a factor in that week third team game.
Speaker 1: I think that could completely change here. And I think
Speaker 1: you're right, because it's like, if anything, we're surprised that
Speaker 1: the line dominated Buffalo just felt like they were at
Speaker 1: the end of the line, end of the road. And
Speaker 1: but and they were completely dominated by Cincinnati's offensive line,
Speaker 1: which has to be the most surprising thing that's happened
Speaker 1: in the playoffs. Do you just assume that's happening two
Speaker 1: weeks in a row. I don't think so. I mean,
Speaker 1: but it's a big game for Steve Spagnola too, to
Speaker 1: like create chaos and confusion for it wasn't last year though,
Speaker 1: and right, and it wasn't against the Bills either. To
Speaker 1: be fair, the Chief's defensive does have a remarkable ability
Speaker 1: to look man for two and a half months and
Speaker 1: then play their best football at the end of the season.
Speaker 1: And the numbers, I'll say that's happened again this season
Speaker 1: that they were pretty bad for a while, and in
Speaker 1: the last month and a half they've been like a
Speaker 1: top tennis you know, good and off defense. Clark and
Speaker 1: karl Offtis and Dunlap, their ed rushers, I think you're
Speaker 1: right to point them out are huge in this game.
Speaker 1: They did not do anything last week that was a
Speaker 1: little concerning. I would say they were a little bit
Speaker 1: of a weakness against Jacksonville. Chris Jones did his normal thing.
Speaker 1: You mentioned how they didn't do anything the last time
Speaker 1: they played the Bengals, So I think they have to
Speaker 1: show up because pressure, just like sacks, is a quarterback
Speaker 1: stats pressure kid be too. I think Joe Burrow was
Speaker 1: good getting rid of the ball quickly and moving in
Speaker 1: the pocket too to avoid pressure. All right, let's pick
Speaker 1: this game. I don't know, Mark, I'm going Bengals. I'm
Speaker 1: going Bengals. I feel like I always do this, But
Speaker 1: I think this game is an overtime thriller that comes
Speaker 1: down to a field goal. I'm gonna says are overtime predictions.
Speaker 1: That's why I tagged it with that. But but Bengals
Speaker 1: Chiefs feels like it's just heading in that direction. I'd
Speaker 1: be really surprised that this was anything more than like
Speaker 1: three or four point difference between the teams. It's really crazy, Gore.
Speaker 1: I had thirty to twenty seven and overtime, which means
Speaker 1: the Bengals kicked the field over time. It was the
Speaker 1: Chiefs started this game or this line as the favorite.
Speaker 1: Can I just one more correction to mark um, the
Speaker 1: Chiefs could have won the overtime coin toss, kicked the
Speaker 1: field goal, then the Bengals get the ball back and
Speaker 1: score touchdown. You're right, but not in my in my
Speaker 1: reality the narrative I've created, it's a it's a field
Speaker 1: goal that you're right, So mathematically that has that ever
Speaker 1: happened by that way? It doesn't feel like I want
Speaker 1: that to happen. Different you know, patterns the world. So
Speaker 1: the Chiefs started as a favorite. Everyone kind of jumped
Speaker 1: on the Bengals because of the ankle thing, and the
Speaker 1: Bengals have been great, and the Bengals became the favorite.
Speaker 1: And now late in the week with this like positive
Speaker 1: Mahomes news, enough people have jumped back where the Chiefs are. Now.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't group thing something well or the desert has
Speaker 1: more power than people realize. You know, just money's flying
Speaker 1: around around this a lot of well what do you
Speaker 1: what does that even I don't know, just some of
Speaker 1: the you know, the way things are reported, the way
Speaker 1: things are amplified, the people, they're very powerful to these
Speaker 1: people in the desert. Oh yeah, you're right. Ultimately, like
Speaker 1: if the if theolved, if the number is under three,
Speaker 1: it's kind of just like you're picking the winner. Essentially,
Speaker 1: it would be pretty weird to to get underneath the number.
Speaker 1: You're picking the winner. And now as the week goes on,
Speaker 1: I I'm like affected by that scene mahomes out there
Speaker 1: and just like seeing him run around, You're like, okay,
Speaker 1: put that to the side. But this Bengals team, We've
Speaker 1: been on a journey with them throughout last postseason. Week
Speaker 1: after week, Mark and I picking the Bengals, Dan pushing
Speaker 1: back against us. Well not exactly, I mean pretty much
Speaker 1: even in the super Bowl. Yeah, that was to win
Speaker 1: a lock title, which but you didn't even make the choice.
Speaker 1: You like, Mark make his choice. You you absconded. I
Speaker 1: that wow, what a move by me? That was? That
Speaker 1: is that's a showman. Why are we down this in
Speaker 1: this cornering himself and something like us with everything on
Speaker 1: the line. I said, I'm standing out of the way
Speaker 1: Mark pick because you had been the other one's unbelievable showmanship. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but you were getting you were You have one of
Speaker 1: the biggest fades down the stretch of all time. You
Speaker 1: were hesitant, were hesitant to magnifico without even making a choice.
Speaker 1: Unbelievable in your world. Let it be that this unbelievable.
Speaker 1: This uh, this Bengals team though, with with the Wesleyan
Speaker 1: brothers rooting them on, with a guy who just doesn't
Speaker 1: seem to know how to lose or play poorly in
Speaker 1: the biggest moments in Joe Burrow, and yes, with a
Speaker 1: better coaching staff, because I think lou in a Rumo
Speaker 1: Captain lew is the difference here. And uh, I am
Speaker 1: taking the Bengals to win this game. Score is he
Speaker 1: gonna oh, It's like he's like, oh, it's like a
Speaker 1: better change my polo. Well, I don't know what score
Speaker 1: I put online. I try to keep it consistent. Thirty seven.
Speaker 1: I believe was I think it will be plenty of points,
Speaker 1: plenty of entertainment. It's the late game, it's not over
Speaker 1: time And uh, and I picked the Bengals locking up
Speaker 1: the Bengals because I just want to watch this game.
Speaker 1: I know this is like a silly way to choose
Speaker 1: between the two, but I don't want the stress of it.
Speaker 1: I just want to watch, like, I mean, a great game.
Speaker 1: I think the Bengals a win, but I don't feel
Speaker 1: confident about this is one of the reasons I jumped
Speaker 1: out of the Giants lock last week, because I wanted
Speaker 1: Greg to really sweat it out one more week. You
Speaker 1: might take it home. Yeah, I'm on now. I'm very
Speaker 1: much in a defensive posture in terms of the lock
Speaker 1: battle once again. Yeah, you could. You could show some
Speaker 1: hutzpa though and what and lock up the Bengals here
Speaker 1: he's I think he's gonna lock all that. I had
Speaker 1: to play it the right way, Greg, Well, you could
Speaker 1: just have integrity and pick the team that you what
Speaker 1: just doing here. Come down, because you were telling me
Speaker 1: earlier in the week you have the Bengals first, empowering
Speaker 1: because they just chiefs for the Bengals are my pick
Speaker 1: in this game. Okay, absolutely, I don't think the Bengals
Speaker 1: lose again this season. I think Joe Burrow loses until
Speaker 1: like next September or October. So I will pick them
Speaker 1: to win this game. You thought they'd lose last week.
Speaker 1: Not really, I just I said thirty one thirty Yes,
Speaker 1: I do. I guess like a little dog like biting
Speaker 1: at your team to just do you shut up? Um,
Speaker 1: Cincinnati not only gonna win this game, I think they'll
Speaker 1: win it resoundingly, like going away almost sounds like it
Speaker 1: would be lockworthy it ever stopped talking, so you you
Speaker 1: just view the chief says, uh, like the bill is
Speaker 1: a little bit they can't match up and they've come
Speaker 1: just to the end of their journey and it's gonna
Speaker 1: be was hoping. I was, really, yeah, I was, I was.
Speaker 1: I love this. So I think that if you lock Bengals,
Speaker 1: because I want to play it the way that's the
Speaker 1: most direct way to play the game. Um, but we'll
Speaker 1: lock the other game and I'll take the Niners probably,
Speaker 1: and that'll be what's up, somebody's locking this game? I wait,
Speaker 1: who is even talking right now? Hello, heroes. If I
Speaker 1: look a little somber right now because we were officially
Speaker 1: eliminated last week, it's okay. We conducted ourselves with honor
Speaker 1: and integrity throughout we took tough games throughout, unlike the
Speaker 1: guy who's in the lead. It takes a six and
Speaker 1: a half point favorite every week, or we get in
Speaker 1: the playoffs and he takes the ten point favorite every week.
Speaker 1: Oh Greggy, that's okay. That he created I can look
Speaker 1: in the mirror or this video right now and say, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm proud of what we did. I'm wondering if that
Speaker 1: guy can do the same. Oof onward and upward. It's
Speaker 1: not going to be any secret who we take this week.
Speaker 1: I said the Bengals were gonna ride Joe Burrow's arm
Speaker 1: all the way to the super Bowl, and they're gonna
Speaker 1: do it again. All the talks about my home's ankle,
Speaker 1: it's not gonna matter healthy, you're not. The Bengals take
Speaker 1: care of business. Joe Burrow puts up some good numbers.
Speaker 1: They win this game relatively easily. I say, ten points.
Speaker 1: Lock that up? Yeah nice, Yeah, well done. Yeah. It
Speaker 1: was why I was tempted to lock up the Bengals,
Speaker 1: just stuff for the look in the mirror factor that
Speaker 1: I knew Dan dude when it didn't believe in it,
Speaker 1: and I would just force him into a terrible situation
Speaker 1: where you're you're showing who you are. But that seems
Speaker 1: like a silly way to play this game, to make
Speaker 1: you feel like, I feel like you're a little bit
Speaker 1: un tilt with the locks right now. You're just all
Speaker 1: over the place on things. You came out of that
Speaker 1: with like a two minute long self commentary, what about
Speaker 1: what Nick did? Look? Well, next thing is ridiculous And
Speaker 1: I love I love Nick you to be honest, because
Speaker 1: it reminds me so much of Chris Wesley and West.
Speaker 1: Because the first time I ever met Nick and the brothers,
Speaker 1: they were like, just get just go, get Chris and
Speaker 1: Nick to debate like Lebron James first, Michael Jordan's and
Speaker 1: like an hour later they were shouting at each other
Speaker 1: like with bears in their hands. Was like, Nick's the
Speaker 1: same way. UM's not letting you get away with it. Greg,
Speaker 1: there you go, So yes, I'm with I'm with you
Speaker 1: on that. Nick. Let's go Bengals to the super Bowl.
Speaker 1: Let's take a break and we'll hit the other side
Speaker 1: welcome back. Before we get to the NFC title game,
Speaker 1: Tilt little halftime, Let's get caught up on the news
Speaker 1: around the league. Let's start with oh higher higher involving
Speaker 1: a team. I know, the New York Jets and their
Speaker 1: two weeks search for an offensive coordinator hiring former Denver
Speaker 1: Broncos coach. How did that go? Nathaniel Hackett on Thursday. Hackett,
Speaker 1: obviously before the Broncos inferno, was with Green Bay and
Speaker 1: had a good relationship with Aaron Rodgers. So this only
Speaker 1: now fuels the growing like kind of fire around Aaron
Speaker 1: Rodgers and the Jets. Interesting Hackett mark replaces Michael Fleur,
Speaker 1: who got canned after the Jets went in the tank
Speaker 1: um at the end of the season, and now Hackett
Speaker 1: has a chance to kind of quickly build his career
Speaker 1: back up or you know, he's in a pretty vulnerable
Speaker 1: position here too, because the Jets coaching staff is in
Speaker 1: a very vulnerable place. Now enter two. I really like
Speaker 1: to hire and like this, this is the kind of
Speaker 1: thing that I just I'm gonna log off of Twitter
Speaker 1: because there's so many, uh lines, lines of humor around
Speaker 1: Nathaniel Hackett at this point. Now imagine my Twitter mentions
Speaker 1: right now. I know, I know I'm not I'm not
Speaker 1: going through the same you know issues that you are, Dan,
Speaker 1: I understand that, but I'm trying to tell you, I
Speaker 1: think it's a good hire for the Jets, And like,
Speaker 1: I think of what Nathaniel Hackett did with that Surgeon
Speaker 1: and Jaguars team that deep into the playoffs half a
Speaker 1: decade ago, and the work he did in Green Bay,
Speaker 1: and the fact that, like when you go back to
Speaker 1: like the earlier roots of him being recruited by Denver,
Speaker 1: there was a lot of racket and noise around maybe
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers going there. And I think that Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 1: is very pro Nathaniel Hackett and the Jets. Basically Solace
Speaker 1: said today we are getting a veteran quarterback. Nope, fine,
Speaker 1: maybe how that interesting quote, I guess, but you won't
Speaker 1: be going for Russell Wilson. But I mean it connects
Speaker 1: the dots maybe, And it's a selling point for Aaron
Speaker 1: Rodgers at least because it would be a familiar offense
Speaker 1: for him, It would be a familiar everything, and so
Speaker 1: I kind of think that has to be a little
Speaker 1: part of the swing for the fences aspect of this.
Speaker 1: But beyond that, I think it's a good play caller.
Speaker 1: It just was over hired. Peter Princess. He though like
Speaker 1: the concern I would have as these from the same
Speaker 1: offensive tree as Matt Lafleur and like doesn't have a
Speaker 1: better track record necessarily didn't call plays in Green Bay,
Speaker 1: called it in Buffalo and Jacksonville. I would say those
Speaker 1: offenses were mediocre on average. He maximized that Jacksonville absolutely
Speaker 1: really creative what he he was there three years they
Speaker 1: had a great year running the ball when they made it,
Speaker 1: and they were terrible the other two years like not
Speaker 1: not just like average, terrible and they were okay. In
Speaker 1: Buffalo they were like okay, they were in the middle
Speaker 1: of the pack. So he doesn't like bring you an
Speaker 1: immediate idea that he has a schematic advantage. I think
Speaker 1: what he brings you is like everyone who's ever worked
Speaker 1: with Nathaniel Hackett loves the dude, says he's like great
Speaker 1: at leading guys and building like the relationships and all that.
Speaker 1: But there's no reason to think that he's gonna be
Speaker 1: like better than Matt. Hopefully he's just the same. He's
Speaker 1: a better quarterback luck to start with, to be better
Speaker 1: than anyone, right, I think, like what you've said in
Speaker 1: the past, Greg about head coaches, and there's you know,
Speaker 1: five or six really good ones and then five or
Speaker 1: six really terrible ones, and then there's a middle. I
Speaker 1: think you could say probably the same thing about play callers,
Speaker 1: and that's where I come down on this higher Now
Speaker 1: what Mark was alluding to immediately there's this urge could
Speaker 1: and I don't even get mad at it, because I
Speaker 1: understand if I wasn't a jetsman, they're a fun team
Speaker 1: to dunk on, just because they're kind of a comedy
Speaker 1: of errors in a folly squad for fifty years or whatever.
Speaker 1: So it's like this guy that got fired by the
Speaker 1: Broncos and was completely incompetent. Now they hire him too
Speaker 1: in a desperate attempt to get Aaron Rodgers, like I
Speaker 1: get it, have fun with it, go run off and
Speaker 1: play um my feeling on it is like Hackett is
Speaker 1: in that big grouping of o C is that he
Speaker 1: will look as good as the quarterback is at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, and if the Jets do not
Speaker 1: bring in a competent quarterback, he will look bad and
Speaker 1: probably will get fired with everyone else. At the end
Speaker 1: of the year. And the Jets bring in a good
Speaker 1: quarterback or even a Hall of Fame level quarterback, he
Speaker 1: will probably look really good. And it will be seeing
Speaker 1: it will seem like a good higher and the Jets
Speaker 1: will be in the playoffs next year. So this isn't
Speaker 1: This story is not finished for me. I need to
Speaker 1: see who the QB is. Do. I think we're getting
Speaker 1: more and more smoke around this Aaron Rodgers thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I I really think this is a real possibility. I
Speaker 1: talked about it a little bit in the last show
Speaker 1: that this felt like something what he Johnson would do.
Speaker 1: He did something exactly like this fifteen years ago Brett Farve,
Speaker 1: which by the way, went better than a lot of people.
Speaker 1: Remember well injured, he was eight and three. They were
Speaker 1: really in good position in the a f C. And
Speaker 1: then he got hurt and tried to play through it
Speaker 1: to keep his consecutive game streak going. And then the
Speaker 1: team uh tanked and then he went to Minnesota and
Speaker 1: he was an m VP level guy again. I think
Speaker 1: this is a no doubter of a move that Jets
Speaker 1: should make at this point. Is long as long as
Speaker 1: they don't mortgage their future for Aaron Rodgers, it's a
Speaker 1: tricky balance, but I do like the idea of Rogers
Speaker 1: and Hackett together with the rest of this week By
Speaker 1: the way that is big news out of New York.
Speaker 1: We have bigger news, no breaking news. Let's hear it
Speaker 1: out of Carolina where the Panthers are hiring former Cults
Speaker 1: coach Frank Reich is their new head coach. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: like it. I liked Frank Reich of all the coaches
Speaker 1: who just lost their job and this real breaking news
Speaker 1: on the show. Do you know what happens? So sometimes
Speaker 1: we log off, We're like eight minutes in a driving
Speaker 1: home and then bang this happens, and it's like, what
Speaker 1: do we do? Then? I think he's one of those
Speaker 1: coaches as a play caller who makes a difference. I
Speaker 1: don't know if he's changing the world as a head coach.
Speaker 1: He's not going to just make the magical. But I
Speaker 1: believe he is an excellent play caller. With the right
Speaker 1: pieces around him, you can have a top ten offense
Speaker 1: with Frank Reich kind of guy when they because the
Speaker 1: jet search was endless and Frank Reich was somebody like
Speaker 1: I would love if they got Frank Reich. But Frank
Speaker 1: Reich deserved another head coach job, and he gets one
Speaker 1: with Carolina, you know, Teugh. Luck for Steve Wilkeson did
Speaker 1: a nice job there. He'll catch on somewhere, maybe not
Speaker 1: as a head coach at first, but um, that's a
Speaker 1: big step for the Panthers, who have had major issues
Speaker 1: getting their offense back online ever since Cam Newton's shoulder went. Um.
Speaker 1: I don't know what they're gonna do with QB. I
Speaker 1: assume they're going to go through the draft, have a
Speaker 1: high draft pick. Maybe they will going down the road
Speaker 1: of trying to bring in veteran Sam Donold's a free agent.
Speaker 1: They need to get someone they need to make and
Speaker 1: we know they have a pretty good defense too, So
Speaker 1: it's just like, what is the path that they take
Speaker 1: with Reich. Might be a good move to take a
Speaker 1: quarterback high. Maybe they target a car Garoppolo type and
Speaker 1: they could improve a lot in a division. That's obviously
Speaker 1: why I mean, Reik reminds me of Hack in the
Speaker 1: sense that like he sunk out of there because he
Speaker 1: didn't have a quarterback either, and you've got to find
Speaker 1: one in Caroline, And they went after Matthew Stafford didn't happen.
Speaker 1: They investigated the idea of getting to Shaun Watson, didn't happen. Tepper,
Speaker 1: the owner absolutely as he could seeking someone. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you want it, I don't know where you're gonna.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be with the rookie class by the time
Speaker 1: they pick, but they have leverage on that front. And
Speaker 1: I just don't love the veteran class outside Aaron Rodgerson.
Speaker 1: I just I don't I don't know if you signed.
Speaker 1: I'm I know him lower on Derek Carr than other people,
Speaker 1: but like Frank Reich needs someone that can take a
Speaker 1: little of the heat off. And because there's not gonna
Speaker 1: be like a magical name that pops up there, he's
Speaker 1: just like, that's it. That's the great guy. You know,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a Jimmy g or a Derek Carr
Speaker 1: or a Gino if he ever left, or someone in
Speaker 1: the draft. But they chose to pass on Justin Fields
Speaker 1: and Mac Jones a couple of years ago. And they're
Speaker 1: not as high obviously anymore. Right, what what are they
Speaker 1: drafting like they would be in the mix for like
Speaker 1: the third quarterback drafted potentially, but to get him there
Speaker 1: at nine and maybe what they maybe they'll end up
Speaker 1: doing what the Jets probably should have done a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago, and kept Sam Donald and then just
Speaker 1: draft a guy high and then put the rookie in
Speaker 1: after a few weeks or half a season or a year.
Speaker 1: That's another way they could play it. As long as
Speaker 1: you give Reich the rope to build the program here, um,
Speaker 1: I think they'll be in good hands. I'd love to
Speaker 1: see them keep Wilkes defensive cording or if he doesn't
Speaker 1: get a head coaching jump. I know you always come in,
Speaker 1: I know, but you just cleaned the whole staff out.
Speaker 1: But it's like, my guess is just he really felt
Speaker 1: like he wanted that job. I think he'll want to
Speaker 1: fresh start with over someone that he didn't pick him
Speaker 1: basically exactly. The Jets, by the way, have the same
Speaker 1: record as Carolina. There was six teams at seven and ten,
Speaker 1: and the Jets pick last out of them because they
Speaker 1: had the hardest schedule. It's one of the smallest points
Speaker 1: that bothers me the most. I think it should be flipped.
Speaker 1: If you should hardly stick to schedule, the Jets should
Speaker 1: be the team picking eight. That's a big difference. Is
Speaker 1: even the argument for doing it that way that if
Speaker 1: you're better had the yeah that they're the Jets are
Speaker 1: better than the Falcons because they played the hard. That's
Speaker 1: I don't something. I don't like stuff like some sports
Speaker 1: where like it catches all of us mentally, we're like, wait,
Speaker 1: that doesn't make sense, but it's still rages on. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm a Jets fan, and it does kind of make sense.
Speaker 1: The idea of the draft is to help replenish the
Speaker 1: worst teams and get them back on their feet. I
Speaker 1: know you guys are bigger Falcons fans than me, but
Speaker 1: the Falcons kind of stink, Whereas the Jets everyone's talking
Speaker 1: about the same thing. They're a quarterback and a couple
Speaker 1: of things away from being a contender. I get it.
Speaker 1: I just wish it was the other way around in
Speaker 1: this case. Specifically, I'd go I'd go like ping pong
Speaker 1: ball lottery in that movie. Yeah, I like some turn
Speaker 1: it into like a twelve event. Let's do ping pong balls. Uh.
Speaker 1: In other news, let's quickly hit this before we get
Speaker 1: to the n SC title game. The award finalists have
Speaker 1: been announced for the all those AP awards. UM. I
Speaker 1: always found that kind of strange. It's like the Associated
Speaker 1: Press's end of season awards as opposed to just a
Speaker 1: standalone NFL event, but it's essentially a partnership and it's
Speaker 1: recognized by the league as the Awards. So we'll start
Speaker 1: with the most Valuable Player. Here are the finalists for
Speaker 1: Most Valuable Player, and Greggy will tell you all about
Speaker 1: it because he is super plugged in on this type
Speaker 1: of highly esoteric football. We spend a whole off season
Speaker 1: episode toxic v What how did they change the voting?
Speaker 1: There are five finalists, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, Jalen Hurts,
Speaker 1: Justin Jefferson, got a lot of You got a lot
Speaker 1: of vinegar, p and vinegar in you today, Greggy, I
Speaker 1: like it. Maybe I don't know why. I don't know why.
Speaker 1: Maybe it was the call we I got right before,
Speaker 1: right before we started taping that. The day after, Walker,
Speaker 1: my son gleefully told me that his friend had faked
Speaker 1: being sick. That suddenly he wakes up with a cough
Speaker 1: today and then leave school in the middle of school.
Speaker 1: I think he's learning from his friend. I don't like it.
Speaker 1: I hate when he or he's actually ill and then
Speaker 1: he's gotten you ill, and now you're sitting two ft
Speaker 1: a space between us and you. He's probably faking it.
Speaker 1: I think he's faking. Well, that's a good I think
Speaker 1: that's as a kid, I guess it's better than him
Speaker 1: being sick. But it's a good skill to learn. It's
Speaker 1: a good thing to learn. It's a good thing to
Speaker 1: learn that. This year, finally they're ranking top five MVP candidates,
Speaker 1: which I think is cool. So if you have a vote,
Speaker 1: you rank one through five writers. It's a wide swath
Speaker 1: of different writers from different companies. Some a lot of
Speaker 1: local writers, but also national writers. I know. Uh, then,
Speaker 1: well they organized that they send it out, feel like
Speaker 1: something we need to clean it. Just feel like it
Speaker 1: probably won't be the case five years. Streamline this a
Speaker 1: little bit. Our friend Mina Kimes, who was on this
Speaker 1: show before the season, she has a vote now, which
Speaker 1: is so cool. She so she ranks the top five
Speaker 1: and then yeah, it turned into did you say the names?
Speaker 1: I did? Alan Borrow, Hurts, Jefferson, Mahomes. It's exactly who
Speaker 1: you would expect other Jefferson being fifth, I feel like
Speaker 1: is is nice. That's why I like the ranked voting.
Speaker 1: That Jefferson even gets on this list should I think
Speaker 1: if I would have had him third, I would say
Speaker 1: the you know who really likes. This ultimately is the
Speaker 1: union and it's good for contract negotiations for Justin Jefferson
Speaker 1: to go to the Vikes like, oh, he was an
Speaker 1: m VP finalist. Yeah. The problem is we know who
Speaker 1: won the award because they already released the AP all proteins.
Speaker 1: It's the exact same people voting for the award, and
Speaker 1: Patrick Mahomes got forty nine out of fifty votes at quarterback.
Speaker 1: It's very safe to say he is the two thousand through.
Speaker 1: Some of these other ones are a little Yeah, you're right,
Speaker 1: Defensive Player of the Year, it should be. Uh. Both
Speaker 1: are thrilled Greg that you just basically pulled the entire up,
Speaker 1: I mean the informations. I'll have their public I'm disconnected
Speaker 1: that I said Greg would have this esoteric knowledge and
Speaker 1: he's decoding the whole thing for us. I like it.
Speaker 1: It gives us a little step on the competition. Although yes,
Speaker 1: NFL Honors, which will be Thursday, February nine, UM in
Speaker 1: the super Bowl city of Glendale or the Phoenix area. UM,
Speaker 1: really only one award we know for sure, not happy
Speaker 1: the rest of them. You can't really figure, let's just
Speaker 1: keep spoiling the AP Defensive Player of the Year is
Speaker 1: Nick Bosa, Chris Jones, Michael Parsons. We know it won't
Speaker 1: be Parsons because Bosa was second to Parsons h and
Speaker 1: All Pro, but Chris Jones, you never know. But also
Speaker 1: going to do they vote like the same week as
Speaker 1: they vote, it's the exact same ballot. You just send
Speaker 1: it all in together. This is that is Nick Bosa
Speaker 1: or I'm totally stuck Parsons. I think we'll get actually
Speaker 1: a decent amount of vote, but he's not because he
Speaker 1: did it in the All Pro two. But he won't
Speaker 1: get the ap Offensive Player of the Year Tyreek Hill,
Speaker 1: Dolphin's wide receiver Jalen Hurts, Justin Jefferson, Patrick Mahomes, and
Speaker 1: if Patrick Mahomes was the nine fifty bouts the first
Speaker 1: team All Pro quarterback, obviously he'll win this two right. Well,
Speaker 1: this is why I hate this award, no, because a
Speaker 1: lot of people split it and try to give something
Speaker 1: to someone else. But it's I kind of think it's
Speaker 1: gonna be Jefferson. It's Director of the Year in film
Speaker 1: in the year they find a way to give everyone
Speaker 1: a little bit. It's like we gave him My Homes
Speaker 1: m v P let's get I feel like we've had
Speaker 1: this conversation, just called the non quarterback offensive. These quarterbacks
Speaker 1: out of here. And then if that's the case, it's
Speaker 1: Jefferson or Hill, and I'll go Jefferson could even be Hurts.
Speaker 1: They might who knows. Who knows? Ap offensive Rookie of
Speaker 1: the Year brock Purty. Interesting brock Purty, he only started
Speaker 1: six games. You know what, I think the most absurd
Speaker 1: thing out there right now is people saying that he shouldn't.
Speaker 1: He is my rookie of the Year without any question.
Speaker 1: He's playing the toughest position in all of sports. He's
Speaker 1: under feed and he's totally thrived. The playoffs count. They
Speaker 1: voted before. I don't care. It's the playoffs for not
Speaker 1: but I don't because he didn't play as many games
Speaker 1: as like Kenneth Walker. I just don't care. Rock Purty,
Speaker 1: Kenneth Walker, Garrett Wilson. I care, and I think and
Speaker 1: hope it will be Wilson. I would have gone Wilson
Speaker 1: or a Lave. I mean to me, they were better
Speaker 1: at their position even too then Party and they played
Speaker 1: the whole season. So strongly disagree, but I get where
Speaker 1: people coming from them, like what of the season? Right,
Speaker 1: that's not enough for me. I'm with you. That seems
Speaker 1: a problem. That's all just to guess what, I don't
Speaker 1: have to I don't have a vote, so it doesn't
Speaker 1: have to a significant amount of voters for him to
Speaker 1: be one of the three finalists. We know essentially he
Speaker 1: got votes, so he's that It is like the best
Speaker 1: story happening, Like Garrett Wilson is fantastic, but there is
Speaker 1: no Garrett Wilson's story to the season. At the other awards,
Speaker 1: you can top three AP Defensive Rookie of the Year Sauce,
Speaker 1: Aidan Hutchinson, Terrek Woolen. If Sauce is the first team
Speaker 1: All Pro wentner back, I'll be very annoyed if Hutchinson
Speaker 1: wins this, which I feel like there's a bigger chance
Speaker 1: in people because he had three interceptions, because like he's
Speaker 1: a bigger profile. But I think Sauce will probably do
Speaker 1: it better when that um was hutcha All Pro. No, yeah,
Speaker 1: that if Sauce was the first team All Pro, well,
Speaker 1: I get it, but they're not like competing against you.
Speaker 1: I'm with you. I hope and I think that he
Speaker 1: will ap comeback player. They or another good competition this
Speaker 1: year he got say quads who, by the way, say quads? Um.
Speaker 1: We got together with Lakisha last Thursday and she shared that, Oh,
Speaker 1: our old friend Austin Knoblock. Remember we saw love Nobby
Speaker 1: now with the l a Times killing it over there
Speaker 1: used to be work on the desk running the show
Speaker 1: uh for NFL Digital on the dot com side. I
Speaker 1: learned um that it was Austin Knoblock that coined say quad.
Speaker 1: He created the nicknames say quads. Wow, he's an influential
Speaker 1: man or is it say quad? I mean, I think
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that's the first thing he'll be known for,
Speaker 1: um for the rest of his life, but it should be.
Speaker 1: It's in the mix. Put that on in Twitter. His
Speaker 1: wife would bake incredible big goods and he'd bring them in,
Speaker 1: distribute the big goods around the office. Unbelievable, unbelievable. He
Speaker 1: brought something in last week. All right McCaffrey, Christian McCaffrey,
Speaker 1: Niners running back and Gino Smith. Give me a break.
Speaker 1: If it's not Gino, what are we doing? Comeback Player
Speaker 1: of the Year. I think se Kwon ripping up his knees.
Speaker 1: He belongs in this category of the years. I think
Speaker 1: it's something different obviously every year. Blah, yeah, we get
Speaker 1: it with you know, Philip Rivers. But Gino Smith is
Speaker 1: something that's that's not happened in the entire time we've
Speaker 1: done this podcast. A player that literally was his career
Speaker 1: was was a laughing stock, uh content for everyone, and
Speaker 1: then he turns around and like blows everyone's metrics up
Speaker 1: and becomes one of the most valuable players in the
Speaker 1: entire league. And they were laughing at the whole story.
Speaker 1: I think the whole thing. Yeah, I think part of
Speaker 1: its story is compelling, compelling, Mark, but I believe it
Speaker 1: is se Kuan Barkley. Oh, he's still pretty similar to
Speaker 1: I'm kind of surprised that you that you if you
Speaker 1: actually think that that that's how this whether you think
Speaker 1: he's even the all right, it's gonna say, because this
Speaker 1: is story, a lot of these awards to me feel
Speaker 1: completely more than deserving of it. Yes, pretty similar to Tannehill,
Speaker 1: but Geno Smith's career was even more dead and gone,
Speaker 1: I think, I mean Gino, but Tannehill continued to be
Speaker 1: a starter and flounder was a joke, right, I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: just the sense that like he got benched in Miami,
Speaker 1: didn't want him and everyone thought like he's going to
Speaker 1: go be a career back. And did Tannehill win the award?
Speaker 1: Did when he didn't? Gino not only was that still
Speaker 1: got punched, he did MKA MKAM Paulo and he's back finally.
Speaker 1: Coach of the Year. Brian Dable, Sean McDermott, Doug Peterson,
Speaker 1: Kyle Shanahan, Nick Sirie, Annie, my vote is for Mr Dable.
Speaker 1: How about you guys, good one though, good category. I
Speaker 1: think that's who will get it. I think that's a
Speaker 1: very story driven to um. He totally fits. I think
Speaker 1: he completely changed the giants, all right, take the story
Speaker 1: whatever that means, because you know what, because for me,
Speaker 1: I think this is a kind of thing where like
Speaker 1: in the years of old, like why wasn't Bill Belichick
Speaker 1: just winning in every year? Kyle Shanahan because he's he
Speaker 1: find another guy on this list who would be on
Speaker 1: this list as much as roster I can't with a
Speaker 1: second quarterback goes down, first quarterback goes down, your second
Speaker 1: quarterback goes down, and then your Rookie of the Year
Speaker 1: and my book Rock Party comes in and he's Rookie
Speaker 1: of the Year because of Kyle Shanahan, because you're picking
Speaker 1: an NFC title game bust. But I think Kyle Shanahan
Speaker 1: is has gone through as much adverse important but dable.
Speaker 1: The Giants could have easily been a four and thirteen
Speaker 1: team under different leadership. Yeah, I think I think they
Speaker 1: were last year under Joe john I'm with you, though, Mark,
Speaker 1: And if I was like ranking them, I might have
Speaker 1: Sirianni second. Uh. And I think he hasn't gotten a
Speaker 1: lot of Campbell. Yeah, yeah, he got. I mean, where's
Speaker 1: Pete Carroll? Are You're right? I would I would put
Speaker 1: those guys over Syrianni and Shanahan or well, what about
Speaker 1: like yeah, Sean McDermott just like sort of just doing
Speaker 1: what we thought he'd do. But then again that if
Speaker 1: you have a great loaded roster, i'd ding you in
Speaker 1: this category. Give me the guys that make the most
Speaker 1: of a team people didn't really see as Peterson is
Speaker 1: a perfect fit for for category. I would be totally
Speaker 1: fine with that as well. All right, oh, Mark, this
Speaker 1: one's for you. Last one Assistant Coach of the Year
Speaker 1: Ben Johnson. So it's just like, I mean, you don't
Speaker 1: give Dan Hamil a nomination, but to give his oc
Speaker 1: one who's deserving. Ben did a great job over there. Uh,
Speaker 1: Damiko Ryan's who absolutely feels like he's gonna win. This
Speaker 1: feels like it's Demiko Ryan's season and Shane Stiken Eagles,
Speaker 1: this is Demko's award. Yeah, I think Demiko will win.
Speaker 1: I think I have no problem with that at all.
Speaker 1: Ben Johnson, Uh, I kind of like when you you're
Speaker 1: a guy that no one knew who you were a
Speaker 1: year ago and then you changed, You completely changed the
Speaker 1: ark of your career because of what you accomplished, and
Speaker 1: the Lions have been unwatchable and anyone that made the
Speaker 1: Lion's watchable Dan Campbell included, needs to be on list
Speaker 1: like this. Um. You know, it's kind of funny about
Speaker 1: Ben Johnson. When Colleen and I did the Hard Knocks podcast,
Speaker 1: it was a running joke in the last three or
Speaker 1: four episodes that they only talked about Deuce Staley, who
Speaker 1: is the assistant coach and I think running backs coached.
Speaker 1: We never even saw the who is the offense coordinator?
Speaker 1: We were looking it up and they were like, we
Speaker 1: need Ben Johnson to be on the radar for this show.
Speaker 1: Eventually did show up here and there, but then became
Speaker 1: the like guy that is getting a ton of love
Speaker 1: and pop. Has you been getting interviews? Yes, he got
Speaker 1: one chairing with Carolina and he then withdrew his name,
Speaker 1: I believe, almost immediately before they even went through the
Speaker 1: process and said he wanted to stay in Detroit. But
Speaker 1: he did talk to a couple of teams. I think
Speaker 1: on zoom, I think that's so well. Two things can happen.
Speaker 1: One the Lions can go in the tank. Can suddenly
Speaker 1: no one's interviewing Ben Johnson again. But if you kind
Speaker 1: of view that you aren't ready yet to be a
Speaker 1: head coach, I think that takes some self control, self awareness.
Speaker 1: If the teams that are even expressing interest in you,
Speaker 1: if you're not really into the spots, I get that.
Speaker 1: You can look at it all right, let's was that? Oh?
Speaker 1: That who was it was that got Brown talking about Ben? Yeah,
Speaker 1: we were super plugged on Ben Johnson getting more pop
Speaker 1: on that show and now he is getting pop. Congrats
Speaker 1: to all the nominees and yes, check out NFL Honors
Speaker 1: the Thursday before the Super Bowl for blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: All right, let's take a break and we'll hit the
Speaker 1: NFC Title game. All right, welcome back, and it's time
Speaker 1: now for the Sunday Drive presented by Toyota. Let's do it.
Speaker 1: NFC Championship Game the forty Niners. When is the last?
Speaker 1: Let's Greg's just down on the table like a cave man.
Speaker 1: I like it. The San Francisco forty Niners have not
Speaker 1: lost since let's see, Oh my god, October two thousand
Speaker 1: twenty two, and yet they are the underdog when they
Speaker 1: step on the field at the link to face the Eagles. Who, uh, greggy,
Speaker 1: we're looking mighty against the Giants. Is there chance in
Speaker 1: your mind? Oh? Get into it this way that as
Speaker 1: dominant as the Eagles looked, there was a tiny bit
Speaker 1: of fools gold because of the Giants being an overmatched
Speaker 1: folk and tender at that stage of the playoffs. And
Speaker 1: it will never be that easy again. Or are the
Speaker 1: Eagles so good they are gonna steam roll their next
Speaker 1: opponent as well? No, I don't think they're gonna steam
Speaker 1: roll anyone. I think it was fool's gold. I don't
Speaker 1: think they're gonna be overconfident because of it. Can I
Speaker 1: just say one thing? I don't mean fools gold is
Speaker 1: in the Eagle. I don't think the Eagles are actually good.
Speaker 1: I just mean the fact that they looked like they
Speaker 1: were playing a Pop Warner performance. They you know, not
Speaker 1: at that right. I like, look at them and they
Speaker 1: look They had that same score against the Vikings in
Speaker 1: the NFC Championship on their way to a Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: But to me, this will be much more like that
Speaker 1: Falcons game where they had to scratch and claw and
Speaker 1: barely win at the end. If they can win, I
Speaker 1: don't know how anyone and and you and Nick might
Speaker 1: be right. Maybe the Bengals win going away. You guys
Speaker 1: seem very confident that I. I have a hard time
Speaker 1: being confident in any result this weekend because I just
Speaker 1: think these both these teams are awesome. Picking against a
Speaker 1: team as talented as San Francisco is tough, that hasn't
Speaker 1: lost in that long is tough. So I when it's
Speaker 1: such a close matchup, I do think about the small
Speaker 1: margins and I do think that's where Philadelphia can win
Speaker 1: this game. Four things, very quick aggressiveness, like going forward
Speaker 1: on fourth down and getting it. I think the Eagles
Speaker 1: are the more likely team to do that. Short yardage
Speaker 1: situation which you're in in fourth down. Eagle is one
Speaker 1: of the best teams practically ever in that situation. Forty
Speaker 1: nine is actually not that great in short yardage on
Speaker 1: either side of the ball this season, wasting time outs
Speaker 1: and like handing the clock management situation. I think Philadelphia
Speaker 1: is a little tighter in that. Forty really waste a
Speaker 1: lot of time outs and then red zone. You look
Speaker 1: at the Eagles, They've been a great red zone team
Speaker 1: this year. Uh, the forty nine is not quite as
Speaker 1: much on either side of the ball. So just like
Speaker 1: the little game management, aggressiveness coaching staff within the game
Speaker 1: might be the difference in a really tight game. But
Speaker 1: that's why I'm taking the Eagles. I took them to
Speaker 1: win the Super Bowl before the season. They've been my team.
Speaker 1: I'm giving up on them now locking up he has
Speaker 1: I love. I love the Eagles UM this week as well,
Speaker 1: and that's why with the lock competition now I'm boxed
Speaker 1: in the corner a little bit. UM. They do make
Speaker 1: sense to me as a team UM that will keep
Speaker 1: winning based on what we saw. How does it go
Speaker 1: sideways for the Eagle? How do the Niners find a
Speaker 1: way Uh, to beat this team that is so dominant
Speaker 1: in the trenches. It's a big test for your guy, Purdy, Mark,
Speaker 1: because I think the one thing that I took out
Speaker 1: of the win over the Cowboys is now that you
Speaker 1: got brought pretty against an elite defense. All of a sudden,
Speaker 1: it's not so easy anymore. There aren't guys running wide
Speaker 1: open and free five yards away from the next defender.
Speaker 1: And to Purdy's credit, he had has been tremendous this
Speaker 1: year as a ball distributor, getting the ball out quickly,
Speaker 1: making the right reads, avoiding mistakes. That is so remarkable
Speaker 1: really for a seventh round pick that's a third string
Speaker 1: quarterback that entered the lineup in November or whatever. However,
Speaker 1: this is a different defense. It's it might even be
Speaker 1: better than the Dallas defense. And you have to contend
Speaker 1: with an absolutely ferocious pass rush that is going to
Speaker 1: speed up his clock and force him to make decisions
Speaker 1: quicker than he's had to make all season. And that's
Speaker 1: where I feel like they're most vulnerable, not that Purty
Speaker 1: is gonna be exposed as a non player or a
Speaker 1: guy that's not as good as people think, just that
Speaker 1: this matchup might be too much for this kid right
Speaker 1: now might be I mean I feel like we, you know,
Speaker 1: understandably have been saying that progressively each week. Well, this
Speaker 1: is the week when they're going to figure out brock party.
Speaker 1: I think the thing is it's not all on brock Purty,
Speaker 1: like he's surrounded by so many weapons and he's messed
Speaker 1: with them so well, and that you know, I thought
Speaker 1: Dallas really tested him last week in the first half.
Speaker 1: He was uncomfortable. They disguised coverages. Uh. He felt for
Speaker 1: some of that and worked his way out because I
Speaker 1: think the team around helps you work your way out.
Speaker 1: I think there are little I love what you said
Speaker 1: Greg about like the little ways that Philly can win
Speaker 1: because I think Shannahan is still the guy that's gonna
Speaker 1: kick a field goal when maybe you need to be
Speaker 1: doing something to be more aggressive, and let's sort of
Speaker 1: been his d n A. He says he's not going
Speaker 1: to change people kind of ask. I don't think he will.
Speaker 1: I think I think there's this is someone that's been
Speaker 1: bathed in football forever and he's got a lot of
Speaker 1: his dad in him, but just who he is in general,
Speaker 1: there are little, tiny areas because the Niners have had
Speaker 1: issues against quarter running quarterbacks there ninete in the league,
Speaker 1: but they're really good against the run in general. They're
Speaker 1: giving up seventy seven yards a game. They haven't allowed
Speaker 1: a hundred yard rush roll all year and last week.
Speaker 1: I mean, the Eagles just match up so well against
Speaker 1: the Giants, and each time they played him as just
Speaker 1: they both lines were so physically dominant. This different situation here,
Speaker 1: You've got two of the best offensive lines in the league,
Speaker 1: two of the best deepest defensive lines that can just
Speaker 1: put out rotations of players, and you're right about the
Speaker 1: Eagles pass rush, but you got Trent Williams. This is
Speaker 1: not the giants suation this time around, and I kind
Speaker 1: of just trust the way that the Eagles of the
Speaker 1: Niners are coached to keep Rock pretty safer than as
Speaker 1: someone like Daniel Jones was a week ago. The other
Speaker 1: thing is the Eagles defense is phenomenal. They can get
Speaker 1: to the quarterback, but you can run on them. It's
Speaker 1: been a little bit better of late. I think that
Speaker 1: it's different when you've got guys like Lynval Joseph who
Speaker 1: has made a big difference against the run. I mean,
Speaker 1: their run defense has improved, but overall the twenty one.
Speaker 1: I go back to this game that feels like a
Speaker 1: total aberation, but that Commander's loss on Monday Night, which
Speaker 1: is really weird. Washington just went at them and ran
Speaker 1: the ball forty nine times. But they are stronger upfront
Speaker 1: now and they've gotten new guys are the Dominican Sioux
Speaker 1: as well, so Jordan Davis is back. So I don't
Speaker 1: know if it's I could see a defensive battle, which
Speaker 1: I would love in this, but I feel like you
Speaker 1: could make a Pro Bowl team added these two rosters
Speaker 1: and go play anyone the a f C gives at
Speaker 1: you and probably win. Like I don't. I can't remember
Speaker 1: two teams this stacked all over the place dealing with
Speaker 1: each other in the title game. And you said, you
Speaker 1: know it's different with Trent Williams, and true, Trent william
Speaker 1: is the first team All Pro, but you know whose
Speaker 1: second team A bro Andrew Thomas, the left tackle of
Speaker 1: the Giants. And so it's not just about like that spot,
Speaker 1: it's that that they have so many guys that they
Speaker 1: could just roll at you and they what do they
Speaker 1: lead the league in sacks by like fifteen sacks or
Speaker 1: something like that across the board. It was just relentless
Speaker 1: across the entire season, and and that to me, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not all about the quarterback. But what I saw
Speaker 1: from Jalen Hurts last week makes me think he's going
Speaker 1: to continue to be that dude. And I just think
Speaker 1: that's if you really have to figure out, like where
Speaker 1: is the mismatch here? I do think it is at
Speaker 1: QB more than anywhere else at where Hurts playing at
Speaker 1: an MVP level the season and party in a different
Speaker 1: place in his career. I think the first quarter is huge.
Speaker 1: Both these teams are really good with the lead, especially
Speaker 1: the Eagles because of what you mentioned that the run
Speaker 1: defense probably is the weakest part of either team in
Speaker 1: this entire game. So in the forty, Niners are built
Speaker 1: to go after it. And I am curious are they
Speaker 1: gonna use Jordan Davis. He kind of came in late
Speaker 1: last week. He's been injured. Joseph in to have been okay,
Speaker 1: but there they were on the street for a reason.
Speaker 1: So like, if the Eagles can get a lead, then
Speaker 1: I feel like the difference in pretty having to really
Speaker 1: step up could become something and it might only take
Speaker 1: a turn over to But if the forty Niners are
Speaker 1: get the lead earlier. It's tight, like the the Eagles
Speaker 1: haven't always been in those sort of games, and that
Speaker 1: is the type of game that that I expected to be.
Speaker 1: What an incredible story would be. By the way, if
Speaker 1: Party shreds the Eagles on Sunday, I'm totally uncharted territory.
Speaker 1: I mean that would be, uh, that would be I
Speaker 1: think you have opportunities because I think they'll be built
Speaker 1: to stop the run and see what Party can do,
Speaker 1: especially the story for two weeks leading to the super Bowl.
Speaker 1: If he has a big NFC title game and he's
Speaker 1: eight knows a starter, everything I go, even the hook
Speaker 1: of it all is mr irrelevant. We are And I think,
Speaker 1: like Mark, I I know you enough in terms of
Speaker 1: your football like watching and as an analyst that you
Speaker 1: like you favor chaos and things that haven't happened before,
Speaker 1: and that's what Party is. Obviously, he's something. This is
Speaker 1: an unprecedented situation. So that's that's fun and I hope
Speaker 1: I hope he does play well because that's a great story.
Speaker 1: I want to know, like as Christian McCaffrey healthy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's another big part of it. That's they say it's
Speaker 1: a contusion of his calf, but you know, he wasn't
Speaker 1: getting vital touches in the final minutes of the divisional
Speaker 1: playoff game. I like Elijah Mitchell a lot, but is
Speaker 1: he banged up again too. I mean, they both were
Speaker 1: out of practice and are expected to play. But I'm
Speaker 1: with you, there's a big difference on passing down and
Speaker 1: they did not run the ball well against the Cowboys.
Speaker 1: I think as a team they averaged three and a
Speaker 1: half yards of carry. You're gonna need to give your
Speaker 1: rookie quarterback big time support in the running game. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they have thirty two carries for a hundred and thirteen yards.
Speaker 1: They did get better as that game war on. I
Speaker 1: think that And this is what I don't know if
Speaker 1: this you have this effect against the Eagles, but Dallas
Speaker 1: was winded by the end of that. I think that's
Speaker 1: the effect of this offense. It starts with their offensive line,
Speaker 1: and they weren't breaking out the huge breakaway runs with
Speaker 1: McCaffrey and stuff with which we've seen in other weeks.
Speaker 1: But they tired Dallas down by the end of it
Speaker 1: opened things up for Purtty a little bit. You know.
Speaker 1: The other part is Dak p down his leg last week.
Speaker 1: There was a lot of fad possessions and you're sending
Speaker 1: that defense back on the field. That's not how this
Speaker 1: Eagle's offense. I know San Francisco's defense is also excellent.
Speaker 1: I think the Eagles are gonna have long drives. I
Speaker 1: think they're gonna be able to score points in this game,
Speaker 1: and I think that will help the defense from getting
Speaker 1: tired out and getting worn out as well. I agree
Speaker 1: the performance by Purdy I thought was better. Looking at
Speaker 1: it again on the All twenty two and stuff like,
Speaker 1: there weren't really guys open. I think Dallas did an
Speaker 1: excellent job. They stopped the run. There weren't those plays
Speaker 1: where you just see there was a couple, but we're
Speaker 1: just like they make it real easy for pretty And
Speaker 1: actually I thought he did a great job not forcing
Speaker 1: it and he made a couple of really good throws.
Speaker 1: But that I think that was a game where he
Speaker 1: could have collapsed. Because he didn't, he avoided the big mistake.
Speaker 1: And I do worry just a little bit as someone
Speaker 1: who's picking the Eagles, clearly rooting for the Eagles that
Speaker 1: like they're coaching staff. Jonathan Gannon who Nick Sirianni really
Speaker 1: defends his coordinator who the radio host apparently Angelo's pistol
Speaker 1: and Angelo's piste off. Nick with his derisive comments about
Speaker 1: Jonathan Gannon, I do worry a little bit, like are
Speaker 1: they as flexible? Are they gonna show as much different
Speaker 1: looks quarter to quarter, snap to snap, Like they haven't
Speaker 1: been that team. They've played a lot of soft zone
Speaker 1: Like I do think sending some blitz is that purty
Speaker 1: could work. It absolutely worked for Dallas last week. Quinn,
Speaker 1: I think had an excellent game plan. Do I think
Speaker 1: the Eagles are are as good as complete No, I
Speaker 1: just think they're like an incredible pass rush team, especially
Speaker 1: Reddick and Sweat, and that might be enough. Like Josh
Speaker 1: Sweat and Graham coming in as the third rusher, like
Speaker 1: those three alone might be enough to do it. But
Speaker 1: coaching wise, I'm a little worried about the Annahan versus
Speaker 1: Gannon matchup. Well, I think it's like a huge like
Speaker 1: Gannon can change what you think about him. But Nick
Speaker 1: Sirianni too, is has floated under the radar, like has
Speaker 1: to outduel Shanahan, which is probably a way bigger challenge,
Speaker 1: and he's dealt with. That's not like dealing with you know,
Speaker 1: half of the stuff he would in the regular season.
Speaker 1: Shanahan right now is on till. I mean, he's done
Speaker 1: such a good job scheming wide outs open for Brock
Speaker 1: Party and it means you're struggling. Means that's true like
Speaker 1: an old like a show. Yeah, I was trying to
Speaker 1: give you my mackinations. He's not on toil, that's happening yet.
Speaker 1: But I mean he likes pretty. That is a disgusting
Speaker 1: sound drop pretty like like he just seems mentally strong
Speaker 1: to me, because like he could have crumbled last week.
Speaker 1: You're right, and there's been other situations like that, and
Speaker 1: he's he's well coached. But I think it's I think
Speaker 1: it's who he is, and like that's what everyone's saying
Speaker 1: about him. And like, you know, you had one week
Speaker 1: where George Kittle lad you and receiving the next week
Speaker 1: it's Deebo Samuel. Then what's Brandon? I you because been
Speaker 1: playing out of his mind. It's like you can shut
Speaker 1: one of these guys down? Can you do it all
Speaker 1: across the board? I say you can't because I am
Speaker 1: a so far out of the law competition at this
Speaker 1: point that I've just been thrown out of a moving aircraft,
Speaker 1: so it doesn't really matter. But I'm locking up the
Speaker 1: Niners because I believe in them, and I like, this
Speaker 1: is a team I want to see in the super
Speaker 1: Bowl and winning the Super Bowl. I become a fan
Speaker 1: boy of the Niners. You are you, You've always been
Speaker 1: a Shanahan fan boy. And and Shanahan, by the way,
Speaker 1: has some ghosts to slay as well. You know, they
Speaker 1: kind of gagged away a Super Bowl trip last year.
Speaker 1: Let's be real against the Rams, I think top ten
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter, Shanahan is the o C that
Speaker 1: presided over three and the losing effort. I believe there
Speaker 1: was one other game, the Super Bowl against the Chiefs,
Speaker 1: another uh significant lead late in that game, Shanahan let
Speaker 1: it get away. Does that make me nervous? Not really.
Speaker 1: But he does have kind of a bit of assorted
Speaker 1: history in the playoffs. But the fact that he's also
Speaker 1: keeps popping up in these huge playoff games, super Bowls,
Speaker 1: championship games speaks to that he's a great coach. He
Speaker 1: is one of those five or six guys that are
Speaker 1: difference makers and a person I have to play the game.
Speaker 1: There's the game. There's the zeuser, like who I think
Speaker 1: is gonna win the game, and then there's zuser who
Speaker 1: does not want to give the trop that feels like
Speaker 1: the ultimate mirror tests. It doesn't matter in this case.
Speaker 1: I don't care. It doesn't matter. But you are the
Speaker 1: first person who put the mirror tests out there, right,
Speaker 1: I got your mirror right here? What's what's why is
Speaker 1: a mirror involved here? You weren't picking a game that
Speaker 1: you don't believe in that it's strategy. I'm saying, there's strategy.
Speaker 1: This is a game, Greg, and the game is now.
Speaker 1: I have to come get you. I will lock up
Speaker 1: the Niners um because there is a path. They're the Niners.
Speaker 1: They haven't lost since October. Party has been a revelation,
Speaker 1: and they have guys like Deebo Samuel, like Brandon Ayuk,
Speaker 1: like Trent Williams. There are superstars Fred Funga, my guy
Speaker 1: had a great game last week, Bosa. There's stars, Fred Warner,
Speaker 1: There's stars all over the place. And it is certainly
Speaker 1: within the realm of possibilities that the Niners deliver in
Speaker 1: a big time effort with their all star team. So
Speaker 1: that's how I get within one game of Greggy heading
Speaker 1: into Super Bowl Sunday, and we are this is the
Speaker 1: Energy Brothers. It feels like a different flock Brothers energy.
Speaker 1: But I'm just there to support you. I love you, buddy,
Speaker 1: and I promise you moving you as well, Greg, but
Speaker 1: in a different way, in a way that isn't real. Dan,
Speaker 1: you should mention to the listeners who we never actually
Speaker 1: said it on the pod last week, this is your
Speaker 1: second week in a row locking the niner. I did.
Speaker 1: I moved a showman. That was my move over the Showman.
Speaker 1: Why do you think we're having all this conversation is
Speaker 1: I didn't go down with the giants, and I knew
Speaker 1: by pushing it to this week, the games would get
Speaker 1: a lot tighter and it wouldn't feel like now you're
Speaker 1: just playing for a tie, and that would be annoying
Speaker 1: to tie. But I guess it's good I have a
Speaker 1: tie championship. But the Thai ones are we probably need
Speaker 1: to read that the lemplify for you. Would you rather
Speaker 1: win outright or be in a tie? Well, right, I
Speaker 1: would rather win out right, of course, So this annoys you?
Speaker 1: Then more tell you if were you you go for
Speaker 1: the tie It's just like, what does that even mean
Speaker 1: you to come up with you? You know, you know
Speaker 1: this show well enough and you know Dan well enough
Speaker 1: that by the time we get to mayor June, that
Speaker 1: tie is tilted verbally in Dan's favor in every possible way.
Speaker 1: So it means a lot. I said, the trophy is
Speaker 1: in my house. Am I going to give you the
Speaker 1: trophy if you tied? And that part wouldn't You can
Speaker 1: come look at forever. I don't care about the trophy.
Speaker 1: It's as you want to. You want to win the thing.
Speaker 1: The trophy is what matters. I will hand the trophy
Speaker 1: over um gracefully on Sunday night. On Sunday night if
Speaker 1: the Eagles triumph that it's very important to have a
Speaker 1: transfer of power that is respectful, Well, I'll be dishonorable
Speaker 1: to keep it if you lose out right. So, but
Speaker 1: if we go into Super Bowl Sunday with Greg up one,
Speaker 1: he'll feel the heat that I was on last year.
Speaker 1: Now you guys were tied, that's almost better that way. Well,
Speaker 1: you're going to feel that heat to put this thing
Speaker 1: away and find a way, and I'll be going off
Speaker 1: your pick again just like I was last year. The
Speaker 1: pressure is all on you, is what I'm trying to
Speaker 1: say right now, Well, I do. It does help to
Speaker 1: know that I have no power over what's going to happen,
Speaker 1: and that it's all luck if I get this right
Speaker 1: or wrong, if I win, I I freely admit it's
Speaker 1: entirely luck. No, you don't, don't sell it that way.
Speaker 1: What is going on with you with this? Like I mean,
Speaker 1: in these games in general, you know, it's all thinking
Speaker 1: about this than any person I've ever met in my life.
Speaker 1: You still try to get it. But I think we
Speaker 1: can read all that a two games study, all the
Speaker 1: reading that you do, all the all the different things
Speaker 1: that you do to be a more knowledgeable, full planelist.
Speaker 1: It's kind of weird to to say none of it
Speaker 1: matters at all in terms of picking games. I don't
Speaker 1: think it makes a significant difference, certainly over picking a
Speaker 1: one game a week. And that's why you get like,
Speaker 1: you know, moms who don't even watch winning football pools,
Speaker 1: because I think there's something to be said there. Um
Speaker 1: let's run it back. I think it's for my mom.
Speaker 1: Did you say that or was that a drop? That
Speaker 1: was a drop? I don't know what the reflection. Jalen
Speaker 1: Hurts is gonna get it done. Just said something about moms,
Speaker 1: by the way, dads that don't watch football. I get
Speaker 1: everyone whoever doesn't wat football can win these One little
Speaker 1: thing to keep an eye with Hurts though, is uh.
Speaker 1: I think he's matured a lot, and like these linebackers
Speaker 1: who are so good for the forty Islands, to me,
Speaker 1: are like their whole defense, but they're very aggressive. One
Speaker 1: thing Mahomes did great when he shredded them was he
Speaker 1: looked them off with his eyes throughout that game, and
Speaker 1: they almost teach that like watching the quarterbacks eyes and
Speaker 1: to be Hurts, his has matured so much. This game
Speaker 1: is on him. If he can be the passer inside
Speaker 1: the pocket and take advantage of those mismatches, He's got
Speaker 1: the two. I take DeVonta Smith in ag Brown over
Speaker 1: at YU can debot, especially in this matchup because the
Speaker 1: cornerbacks for the Eagles are better. Like I think this
Speaker 1: is a Hurts moment here. I think it's gonna be
Speaker 1: up to him. If he plays as well as I
Speaker 1: think he can, they win. Otherwise, I think the forty
Speaker 1: nine are actually a little bit better of a team overall. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I do care about the situation with Hurts
Speaker 1: the shoulder too. I mean, it's still the ways, the
Speaker 1: way he talks about He's like, I felt better, but
Speaker 1: we're gonna have to go so well, so that part
Speaker 1: of it maybe on the ground shift that thing, uh
Speaker 1: into cruise control for the last two and a half
Speaker 1: quarters and two quarters like it ain't gonna be like
Speaker 1: with San Francisco coming after him now. But I guess,
Speaker 1: I mean, like if the shoulder was good on that
Speaker 1: first what was that the second play of the game,
Speaker 1: that beautiful throat. I don't think it's throwing so much
Speaker 1: like like if it like the hurts the runner, if
Speaker 1: he's if it's even making you think differently about what
Speaker 1: contact you because I think with Mahomes and Hurts, both
Speaker 1: of it, it's not where they are. It's like, do
Speaker 1: you reaggravate that in the middle of the game then
Speaker 1: everything changes? Nicko trying to kill you for three and
Speaker 1: a half hours, that would be a cause of consternation.
Speaker 1: Uh if I were nick Sirianni. By the way, just
Speaker 1: so we have this buttoned up, what is your lock? Mr?
Speaker 1: Grave Digger? So I've decided not to lock anywhere this year,
Speaker 1: not that anyone cares, but I shut it down. I
Speaker 1: prefer to finish the season at ten and ten makes sense.
Speaker 1: Derek Hard yourself, these are the two hardest weeks I
Speaker 1: guess of the season because there there won't be anything.
Speaker 1: Spreads didn't have the decision. He was Derek. He was
Speaker 1: Derek Hard by himself, but he did like excuse himself
Speaker 1: from the team. You're right, Carr wanted to play. I'm
Speaker 1: saying that he the authoritative part of him, Derek Hard
Speaker 1: the rest of him, which makes no sense at all.
Speaker 1: Let's check out the standings before championship Sunday. Do we
Speaker 1: need to good season? By the way, Greg sixteen and four,
Speaker 1: Dan hands is fourteen and six. Westboro, well we have
Speaker 1: we have words now this Westbroo's so close, grave digger,
Speaker 1: great effort, Mark pathetic. Well, first of all, that's not
Speaker 1: even correctly slotted. I'm not in last place or anywhere
Speaker 1: near it. So I think say everyone's tied if you're
Speaker 1: not in the mix. So in that sense, it's just
Speaker 1: I really would, genuinely at this stage, I want information
Speaker 1: intel on who wrote that, because there will be a
Speaker 1: come up in a particularly large human that person will
Speaker 1: be will be punished. How how do you plan to
Speaker 1: beat up a man that's twice your height? There are
Speaker 1: multiple ways to punish human individuals. Little shots at the knees.
Speaker 1: You gotta chop him down, shop him down. Does he
Speaker 1: stay up twenty four hours a day? Do his eyes
Speaker 1: ever closed? Smart? He does? He's a giant. He needs rest.
Speaker 1: I don't know that Jerry's out Andrew doing human stuff
Speaker 1: like that. We'll learn, all right. That was Sunday Jive
Speaker 1: presented by Toyota Championships. Sunday. Let's just let's see Fox Niners, Eagles,
Speaker 1: Kevin Barcarton, Greg Olson three pm Eastern kickoff, Bangles at
Speaker 1: Chiefs six thirty pm Eastern kickoff, Nance and Roma big
Speaker 1: game for Romo. Come on, Tony, give us. I would
Speaker 1: flip these. I would have had the absolutely well, yeah,
Speaker 1: I just assumed that's what it was. And then they
Speaker 1: they pulled a fastinalment. They schedule it, you know, ahead
Speaker 1: of time, years ahead. It flip flops every year. We'll
Speaker 1: put the Diners and Eagles in the a FC just
Speaker 1: for this week, then have them. Why would you flip
Speaker 1: flop it? Which game? Which game? Like? I feel like
Speaker 1: I've seen to me, it's Eagles Niners. They they even
Speaker 1: they haven't like, they haven't even clashed. They're both huge entrees.
Speaker 1: But I would push back and say, Joe Burrow versus
Speaker 1: Patrick Effin Mahomes is uh the ultimately you can only
Speaker 1: watch one diner. You have to go to the Zoo
Speaker 1: for the other game, Bengals Chiefs. To me, that's like,
Speaker 1: what do you mean I think you're I'm not You're crazy.
Speaker 1: Hold on, we're not crazy either. Because both games have
Speaker 1: an argument. I'm more emotionally invested in the Eagles. I
Speaker 1: locked it up largely because that's the result I want
Speaker 1: the most. That's it. Earlier point is though, it's because
Speaker 1: I wanted just to watch Bengals Chiefs as pure as possible.
Speaker 1: I don't want to be like, really annoyed if Patrick
Speaker 1: Mahomes has like a beautiful performance. These are these are
Speaker 1: the guys. Patrick is a quarterback now not zoo. On Sunday,
Speaker 1: we are watching both games, as are you. If you're
Speaker 1: listening and watching this right now, so enjoy the football.
Speaker 1: We will be back Sunday night with a full recap
Speaker 1: of both these games. And guess what we're gonna know
Speaker 1: who's playing in the damn super Bowl. That's fun until then,
Speaker 1: enjoy your weekend, and he'd the call s