Speaker 1: Welcome in what driving the great Episode four fourteen fresh
Speaker 1: off inarguably the greatest wild card weekend in NFL history,
Speaker 1: And we were listen Sunday night football Chargers Patriots was
Speaker 1: fine but not great, and last night's game was a
Speaker 1: tough watch, but at least close until it was just
Speaker 1: a catastrophe. But prior to that, we were on the
Speaker 1: following run of football games. Game two, seventy two of
Speaker 1: the NFL season Raven Steelers comes down to the final moments.
Speaker 1: Game one of the College Football Playoff All Miss Miami,
Speaker 1: one of the best college football games in a decade.
Speaker 1: Game two of College FOOTBA Playoffs Indiana Trunc's Oregon. Game
Speaker 1: one of the NFL Playoffs, Panthers ten and a half
Speaker 1: point home down against the Rams, up at the two
Speaker 1: minute warning, Rams comeback. Game two an instant, all time
Speaker 1: legacy writing classic between the Packers and the Bears. Packers
Speaker 1: up at the two minute warning and up eighteen in
Speaker 1: that game, Bears come back and win. Game three, Jags Bills,
Speaker 1: the There are four different lead changes in the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: including a final two minute comeback by the Bills. And
Speaker 1: Game four of the NFL Playoffs, Eagles Niners another comeback
Speaker 1: in the final two minutes, including our long national nightmare
Speaker 1: of the Eagles title reign finally ending. Listen, not everybody
Speaker 1: can defend a championship. Not everybody can win the Super
Speaker 1: Bowl and then either win another one or go back
Speaker 1: to the Super Bowl. The Chiefs did every single time
Speaker 1: they won one. The Patriots did it a lot. That's
Speaker 1: that's not how the Eagles roll, So be it. Uh
Speaker 1: And if that sounds petty, and if I sound like
Speaker 1: a hater, and if I sound a little unprofessional, the
Speaker 1: answer to all those things are yes, yes, and yes.
Speaker 1: I've had Eagles fans harassing me in the streets for
Speaker 1: eleven months of how is that Super bowlf? Worst year
Speaker 1: the Chiefs had in a decade, Eagles coming off defending
Speaker 1: Super Bowl championship one same amount of playoff games, Fellows,
Speaker 1: It just is what it is.
Speaker 2: How are you doing, Demanse, I'm doing great, Pops doing
Speaker 2: pretty good.
Speaker 1: I'm doing you know what? I do. Think this, and
Speaker 1: then we'll get in. I want to start with Monday
Speaker 1: Night football and into this. I do think that of
Speaker 1: the nine best teams in the NFL this year, eight
Speaker 1: of them are left and the only one who maybe
Speaker 1: could argue was in the top eight that didn't make
Speaker 1: it was Jacksonville. But Jacksonville over the course of the
Speaker 1: entire season wasn't as like you could say, Jacksonville, you know,
Speaker 1: was better than Houston this year. But it felt like
Speaker 1: Houston had the really tough opening month and then was outstanding.
Speaker 1: Jacksonville was kind of mediocre for two months and then
Speaker 1: finished really hot. And so the right eight teams are
Speaker 1: left and it sets up my favorite weekend of the
Speaker 1: sports year, Divisional Round weekend, which should be four epic
Speaker 1: games before we get to Rogers, before we get to
Speaker 1: any of that. I already reminded you guys. This episode
Speaker 1: of What's Right as all of Them is presented by
Speaker 1: boost Mobile Straight to Voicemail, also brought to you by
Speaker 1: boost Mobile. Big Dom helped out Oh oh, sideline snag.
Speaker 1: I thought we were talking about the AJ Brown Nick
Speaker 1: Sirianni Kurf fluffle, but no, Big Dom did catch a pass.
Speaker 1: Big Dom also was wearing a headset. I don't really
Speaker 1: know why. I'm not sure what big Dom you know,
Speaker 1: what he's chiming in on, but he's wearing a headset.
Speaker 1: NFL all Pro teams have been announced. Gives you a
Speaker 1: pretty strong indicator that Matt Stafford's gonna win League MVP. Now,
Speaker 1: I understand last year was the rare year year that
Speaker 1: first team All Pro Quarterback was one guy and the
Speaker 1: MVP was the other, with it being Lamar first Team
Speaker 1: All Pro quarterback. But Josh League MVP. I don't think
Speaker 1: that's gonna happen in back to back years. And Timmy
Speaker 1: shallome wins Golden Globe for Best Actor in Marty Supreme.
Speaker 1: I have not seen that yet. I want to see it.
Speaker 1: I like Timmy Shallomey. I kind of like the way
Speaker 1: he conducts himself. He also seems like a hell of
Speaker 1: an actor. I really liked him in Dune. He has
Speaker 1: an underrated small role in an all time movie, but
Speaker 1: very hard, not hard to watch, but very emotional. And
Speaker 1: Interstellar Tomorrow before real quick Toman say if you' seen Interstellar.
Speaker 2: I've not seen it, but I've heard the pictures are great.
Speaker 2: I've seen that one scene where like the thing is
Speaker 2: coming to say.
Speaker 1: Wave yes, oh yeah, yeah, okay, cool, So here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Interstellar's Christopher Nolan movie. Almost all Christopher Nolan movies except
Speaker 1: for the Dark Knight movie. He likes to mess with time,
Speaker 1: so it's a little confusing to wrap your mind around
Speaker 1: exactly all of it. But here's the other thing. It
Speaker 1: will have you found. Give me thirty seconds here and
Speaker 1: then we'll get to the sports. I promise, have you
Speaker 1: found just like commercials or since you've become a dad
Speaker 1: in the last two months, that all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: like there are certain things that are otherwise would be banal.
Speaker 1: That makes you.
Speaker 3: Emotional sit on a little bit longer.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, So Interstellar at it it's a you know,
Speaker 1: interstellar space travel movie, but it's also a five daughter
Speaker 1: relationship movie. I think Interstellar would make you cry, like
Speaker 1: like tears down your face cry, but it is an
Speaker 1: awesome movie. Timmy Shallamy is in that all right. Reminder,
Speaker 1: everybody like Grate subscribe review to the pod. It helps
Speaker 1: us out a ton. We're still sitting. We seem to
Speaker 1: have petered out on YouTube. We're just we didn't send
Speaker 1: it two hundred and twenty eight thousand for a while.
Speaker 1: Maybe you guys can give me the updated numbers. We'd
Speaker 1: love to increase that. It also helps us a ton
Speaker 1: if you subscribe on Spotify or iTunes. This was probably
Speaker 1: the worst game of the weekend, but it was the
Speaker 1: game last night. Oh, two hundred and twenty nine thousand. Now,
Speaker 1: maybe get to two hundred and thirty thousand by next week.
Speaker 1: It was the worst game of the weekend, but it's
Speaker 1: the one that happened last night. It also might have
Speaker 1: been the final game for a legend. So we'll start
Speaker 1: with Texan Steelers.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, wildcard. Wildcard weekend ended with the Texans defeating Steelers.
Speaker 2: Steelers offense couldn't do anything, Texans offense couldn't do anything,
Speaker 2: but the Texans won the game. When asked about his
Speaker 2: future after the game, Aaron Rodgers said, I'm not going
Speaker 2: to make any emotional decisions, but at forty two years old,
Speaker 2: do you think that this is the end of the
Speaker 2: road for him?
Speaker 1: Well, I didn't think that at all going into the game,
Speaker 1: because Rogers has been talking about how he thought he
Speaker 1: would have one or two teams that would showed interest,
Speaker 1: the fact that he had seemed to be playing some
Speaker 1: of his best ball at the end of the year.
Speaker 1: Steelers made the playoffs. All of that, but Buck and
Speaker 1: Aikman talked like they knew the way Buck and Aikman
Speaker 1: talked at the end of that game, and the way
Speaker 1: ESPN produced the end of that game following Rogers and
Speaker 1: all of that, it felt to me like they got
Speaker 1: a heads up that he's planning on retiring now. If
Speaker 1: this wasn't already the case thanks to Philip Rivers couple
Speaker 1: game cameo, the long tail of Philip Rivers coming back
Speaker 1: after five years on the couch is going to be that.
Speaker 1: Certainly next year and maybe for the next couple after.
Speaker 1: If any good team suffers a November or December quarterback injury,
Speaker 1: Rogers name will be floated and maybe he would come
Speaker 1: back in a setting like that. You know something the
Speaker 1: that if next year the Rams are nine to four
Speaker 1: and Stafford goes down, could you know, could he come
Speaker 1: back in that spot? I also think Aaron likes the
Speaker 1: spotlight enough that I don't think we are going to
Speaker 1: get a quick resolution on this. I think he's going
Speaker 1: to take his time. But I do think that last
Speaker 1: night was the de facto ind for Aaron Rodgers, and
Speaker 1: I do want to take some time here to talk
Speaker 1: about how I will remember and think about Rogers, because
Speaker 1: last night's game will have no real impact on how
Speaker 1: I think about him down the road. I did think
Speaker 1: that you saw some things last night that were part
Speaker 1: and parcel to why a player as talented and generational
Speaker 1: as Aaron Rodgers was not considered a great leader and
Speaker 1: was not did not win at the level that his
Speaker 1: talent would have made you think he was going to
Speaker 1: win at Because there was no less than half a
Speaker 1: dozen times last night where a play was not made
Speaker 1: by the Steelers, or a pass was missed, or the
Speaker 1: Texans got pressure quick pressure, and Aaron made it very
Speaker 1: clear to everyone on the field, in the stadium and
Speaker 1: at home that that was someone else's fault. A lot
Speaker 1: of pointing, a lot of gesticulation, a lot of making
Speaker 1: it very clear to the whole world he's screwed up,
Speaker 1: not me. Also, and I listen. I haven't watched the
Speaker 1: All twenty two. I don't know if the Texans changed
Speaker 1: something in their coverage, but I do know that I've
Speaker 1: seen Aaron do this in big spots before. One of
Speaker 1: his guys let him down with a drop and he
Speaker 1: simply stopped going to him. DK Metcalf, which was one
Speaker 1: of the reasons I thought the Steelers could win this game,
Speaker 1: was getting DK Metcalf back. DK Metcalf was a featured
Speaker 1: part of the game play early. He then had a
Speaker 1: huge drop and Rogers didn't throw him another pass for
Speaker 1: two hours, and that is those things have always been
Speaker 1: part of the Rogers experience, and his career is so
Speaker 1: interesting because it would have seemed impossible. Demons, you weren't
Speaker 1: You were only twelve years old and you were not
Speaker 1: a big football fan as a little kid. But it
Speaker 1: would not have seemed believable at all in twenty ten
Speaker 1: that Rogers would never get back to another Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: It is not different at all from how people thought
Speaker 1: about Mahomes after his first Super Bowl one an MVP,
Speaker 1: you know, instantly came on the scene and was awesome. Obviously,
Speaker 1: Rogers had to sit, you know, for three years behind far,
Speaker 1: but by his second year in the league was considered
Speaker 1: maybe the best quarterback in football. And if in that
Speaker 1: moment people had said Patrick's never making another Super Bowl,
Speaker 1: it would have seemed impossible. That's what it felt like
Speaker 1: for Aaron and I know the biggest Rogers defenders, and
Speaker 1: once upon a time I was I don't know if
Speaker 1: I was one of the biggest Rogers defenders, but I
Speaker 1: was certainly more sympathetic to his cause than I've been
Speaker 1: over the last decade. There are extenuating circumstances and some
Speaker 1: really unfortunate playoff losses that had nothing to do with him. Okay,
Speaker 1: so his first ever playoff game, demonse. They scored forty
Speaker 1: five points and lost in overtime. Wow. The first ever
Speaker 1: playoff game was a fifty one forty five lost to
Speaker 1: the Arizona Cardinals. Now the loss was on a strip
Speaker 1: sack returned for a touchdown. But that you score forty
Speaker 1: five points, that should be enough. Second year in the
Speaker 1: playoffs they win the Super Bowl. I'm now going to
Speaker 1: jump to the playoff losses that you feel like he
Speaker 1: has no culpability. On twenty twelve, they score thirty one
Speaker 1: in the divisional round against San Francisco. The Niners and
Speaker 1: Colin Kaepernick score forty five and just the Packers defense
Speaker 1: has no answer whatsoever. Twenty sixteen, the Falcons put up
Speaker 1: forty four on the Packers defense in the NFC Championship game.
Speaker 1: Feel like there's not much you can do there. The
Speaker 1: very next year, twenty nineteen, the Niners and a rushing
Speaker 1: attack that I think in that game they threw the ball.
Speaker 1: Was that the game they threw the ball eight times. Yep,
Speaker 1: the Niners threw the ball eight times and scored thirty
Speaker 1: seven points to go to the Super Bowl. Those three
Speaker 1: playoff losses, and those are all huge ones. It's fair
Speaker 1: to say, what did you want from Aaron? What more
Speaker 1: could he have done? I'll add one more. The year
Speaker 1: they're defending their championship, they're fifteen to one. They're at
Speaker 1: home against the New York Giants. The Giants score thirty
Speaker 1: seven points in freezing cold and send them home to
Speaker 1: go on to win the Super Bowl. Those ones, right,
Speaker 1: Those Packers' defenses were brutal, right, right. There are some
Speaker 1: other ones though that that was not the story. And
Speaker 1: people remember the Seattle NFC championship game, and what they
Speaker 1: remember is the Packers were up sixteen to nothing and
Speaker 1: nineteen to seven Demons with three minutes left in that
Speaker 1: game of nineteen to seven, with three minutes left in
Speaker 1: the game, they end up allowing a fake field goal touchdown,
Speaker 1: they allow an on side kick. They then don't get tough,
Speaker 1: they don't get the coin toss. In overtime, Russell Wilson
Speaker 1: hits a thirty five yard pass. They go to the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl, end up losing to Tom Brady and the Patriots.
Speaker 1: What people don't remember so much about that game was
Speaker 1: Rogers was awful. He had one touchdown, two picks, a
Speaker 1: fifty six rating, and they couldn't score in the red zone.
Speaker 1: The next year, they're playing a Cardinals team. This is
Speaker 1: the game where Rogers hits back to back hail mary's
Speaker 1: to force overtime. And what they and when I say
Speaker 1: back to back hail mary's again, if people can't visualize
Speaker 1: the situation. They are in a fourth and twenty Demons
Speaker 1: on their own four yard line with fifty five seconds left,
Speaker 1: and Rogers hits a sixty yard pass. They then rush
Speaker 1: to the line of scrimmage, couple deep shots, and then
Speaker 1: five seconds left, on the forty one Rogers hits another
Speaker 1: hail Mary. He threw one hundred and one yards of
Speaker 1: passes on that possession to Jeff Janis to tie a
Speaker 1: playoff game. And then on the very first possession of overtime,
Speaker 1: the Cardinals go right down the field and score. The
Speaker 1: first play of overtime, Larry Fitzgerald takes it seventy five yards.
Speaker 1: They score the next play, But in that game, prior
Speaker 1: to those two hail Marys, the Packers had fourteen points.
Speaker 1: Rogers had a passer rating in the fifties again, had
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty yards, one touchdown, one pick, and then,
Speaker 1: obviously people remember the very end NFC Championship game against
Speaker 1: Tom Brady and Tampa is really bad. In the first half,
Speaker 1: they dig a huge hole. They then are down eight
Speaker 1: with two and a half minutes left, they can't punch
Speaker 1: it in. Laflora kicks the weird field goal, and then
Speaker 1: his final playoff game with the Steelers, the Niners did
Speaker 1: not score an offensive touchdown, but Rogers once again had
Speaker 1: a really weird game where all he would do was
Speaker 1: target Devonte Adams and they end up losing the game
Speaker 1: on a blocked punt touchdown thirteen to ten, with Rogers
Speaker 1: kind of throwing away the final possession. So what we
Speaker 1: with all that said? He's a four time MVP who
Speaker 1: has the all time record for passer rating and as
Speaker 1: far as the all time record for lowest interception percentage,
Speaker 1: and at times looked like the most physically gifted player
Speaker 1: of the position's ever seen. But the combination of his
Speaker 1: what I would call prickly leadership style, plus it's not
Speaker 1: me it's you when things went wrong. Plus not playing
Speaker 1: to an Aaron Rodgers level consistently in the playoffs. Is
Speaker 1: why a guy that good is going to finish his
Speaker 1: career eleven and ten in the playoffs or is it
Speaker 1: eleven and eleven now? Oh, eleven and eleven in the
Speaker 1: playoffs because they lost yesterday and with only the one
Speaker 1: trip to the super Bowl. If I were doing the
Speaker 1: all time quarterback rankings, he has the talent of a
Speaker 1: no doubt top five guy, but he can't. And I
Speaker 1: understand it's become very in vogue to throw you know
Speaker 1: a lot of people in top fives. You're not going
Speaker 1: to find a bigger Matt Stafford fan than me. But
Speaker 1: the idea that Stafford is a super Bowl went away
Speaker 1: from being top five all time quarterback is obviously, on
Speaker 1: its face ludicrous. But if we're talking about the greatest
Speaker 1: quarterbacks ever, you have Brady Mahomes manning Montana, you can
Speaker 1: argue about the order for them. For me, John Elway,
Speaker 1: and I don't know what you want to do with
Speaker 1: the old folks, Johnny Unitas, Bart star, Otto Graham, those guys,
Speaker 1: but they've got to be accounted for in some degree.
Speaker 1: I can't speak to them, but I can't pretend you
Speaker 1: can't do an NBA Top ten and not include Russell
Speaker 1: and Will. I don't know that you can do an
Speaker 1: NF Top ten quarterbacks and not include Unitis, Star and Graham.
Speaker 1: So I don't know what you want to do with them.
Speaker 1: But now we're at eight names, and then we can
Speaker 1: start having the Steve Young, Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers, Drew
Speaker 1: Brees discussion. And I know my colleagues are about to
Speaker 1: put Josh Allen in there as well. It's the most
Speaker 1: talented players. You see Josh Allen wildcard, we can the
Speaker 1: oh yeah. And so I think it's fair if this
Speaker 1: is the end for Rogers, one of the greatest players
Speaker 1: ever who underachieved. There is an element of Wilt Chamberlain
Speaker 1: to Rogers in that a uniquely talented player that up
Speaker 1: to that point in his career we had never seen
Speaker 1: anyone quite like him, but didn't quite win at the
Speaker 1: level that that talent would have demanded, and it was
Speaker 1: because of some own leadership and stylistic failings. So there's
Speaker 1: my Rogers piece of it. I know you want to
Speaker 1: ask me about the Tomlin piece.
Speaker 2: So there's rumors about them wanting to move on from
Speaker 2: Tomlin the Steelers at that.
Speaker 3: Do you think that they should?
Speaker 1: I don't think I don't think that they should, but
Speaker 1: I would understand if they did that these playoffer It's
Speaker 1: not just that he's now tied Marvin Lewis for most
Speaker 1: consecutive losses in the playoffs at seven. It's not just
Speaker 1: that it'll now be ten years since they won a
Speaker 1: playoff game, at a minimum, it's that they have been
Speaker 1: wholly non competitive in these playoff games. The first one,
Speaker 1: so well, if we're gonna do the full streak, I
Speaker 1: guess I gotta be fair. The first one was the
Speaker 1: conference championship game to the Patriots, and again you're playing
Speaker 1: an all time Patriots seems conference championship game, but you
Speaker 1: instantly fell down ten to nothing. You're down three, thirty
Speaker 1: six to nine with minutes left, you lose thirty six
Speaker 1: to seventeen. So you get annihilated in that football game
Speaker 1: that's lost one, lost two on this Timelin losing streak.
Speaker 1: You're at home with the bye, playing Blake Bortles Jacksonville Jaguars,
Speaker 1: and twenty minutes into the game, Demanse, you're down twenty
Speaker 1: one to nothing, and you end up scoring a bunch
Speaker 1: of points. You know, you cut it to seven a
Speaker 1: couple times, but you trail the entirety of the game.
Speaker 1: You lose forty five forty two, and they get grizzlier
Speaker 1: from there. Lost three on this playoff losing streak. You're
Speaker 1: playing the Cleveland Browns and Baker Mayfield. You are down
Speaker 1: twenty eight to nothing in the first quarter and you
Speaker 1: lose forty eight to thirty seven. Game two, Al, I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: Game two, where are we having this? Game? Game five?
Speaker 1: Game five of the playoff losing streak, you're playing the Chiefs.
Speaker 1: You go up seven nothing on a TJ. Watt stripsack
Speaker 1: in the second quarter. You then find yourself down after
Speaker 1: being up seven to nothing, thirty five to seven, thirty
Speaker 1: five to seven. Game six of the playoff losing streak
Speaker 1: last year against Buffalo. Midway through the second quarter, you're
Speaker 1: down twenty one to nothing, and so you lose thirty
Speaker 1: one seventeen.
Speaker 3: If they keep calling he has to focus on offense.
Speaker 1: The well, hold on, hold on, just because I got
Speaker 1: that wrong. That wasn't the I got the year wrong
Speaker 1: on that last one. The Bills loss that was not
Speaker 1: last year. When you're down, that was two years ago.
Speaker 1: Last year's loss was to the Ravens, where once again,
Speaker 1: at halftime, you're down twenty one to nothing and so
Speaker 1: and then this year was a weird one because you
Speaker 1: were in it, but your offense could do nothing, and
Speaker 1: then you get annihilated, but in the final score. So
Speaker 1: I would understand if Steelers fans are like, I'm I've
Speaker 1: had my full here Phil here, But I still think
Speaker 1: he is a really good coach, and I would be
Speaker 1: scared of getting on that coaching carousel again. Now what
Speaker 1: were you saying, Demanday.
Speaker 2: Oh, I just think that maybe focus on something else,
Speaker 2: bringing somebody else to help Tomlin on the offensive side
Speaker 2: of things. It's clear that he doesn't. That's not his
Speaker 2: side of the ball, I think. So that's a huge problem.
Speaker 1: So here's the thing, though, So I think that makes
Speaker 1: sense in general, except for in these playoff games last night,
Speaker 1: notwithstanding the defense has been getting just absolutely crushed.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Now, I want to give the Texans their credit and
Speaker 1: we'll talk more about the Texans on Thursday show. Weird
Speaker 1: game because CJ was awful. CJ was awful, and it
Speaker 1: didn't matter because that defense was that good and that
Speaker 1: defense was that ferocious, But you saw how tough it
Speaker 1: is to do business that way, because as great as
Speaker 1: that defense was and as inept as that Steelers offense was,
Speaker 1: that was a one point game or a four point
Speaker 1: game deep into the game. Yeah, it felt like they
Speaker 1: were one busted coverage away at any point from holy shit,
Speaker 1: the Steelers are gonna steal this. I mean that game
Speaker 1: seven to six entering the fourth quarter. It's ten to
Speaker 1: six in the fourth quarter with the Steelers having the
Speaker 1: ball before the Rankins fumble return touchdown that essentially ended
Speaker 1: the game. That Texans defense and Demico Ryans deserved massive credit.
Speaker 1: But if that's how that offense looked against a good
Speaker 1: but not great Steelers defense in a game they had
Speaker 1: Nicocollins for a lot of next week that defense is
Speaker 1: gonna have to be just as good because I don't
Speaker 1: know what that Texans dophin is gonna be able to do.
Speaker 1: And by the way, I want to say some of
Speaker 1: the Nico Collins thing, Nico Collins pretty clearly got concussed
Speaker 1: on like the third playoff of the game. Yes, and
Speaker 1: they they put him back out there, and I understand
Speaker 1: it's the playoffs, and I get they put him back
Speaker 1: out there again. This is this is naked, reckless speculation
Speaker 1: by me. It looked to me like he got concussed
Speaker 1: on the first drive of the game. They checked him
Speaker 1: for it, they put him back out there, and then
Speaker 1: when he got hit again later in the game, they
Speaker 1: it was such a bad concussion. At that point, they
Speaker 1: said he didn't know where he was. He tried to
Speaker 1: walk back to the huddle and they had to cart
Speaker 1: him off. That's brutal, man And again, maybe it was
Speaker 1: just coincidence that it looked like he got concussed. He didn't,
Speaker 1: and then a pretty typical hit gave him one of
Speaker 1: the worst concussions of the NFL season. But that's hard
Speaker 1: to sell me and the Patriots Christian Gonzalez got a concussion,
Speaker 1: tried to go back out there, and they prevented him
Speaker 1: from going back out there, and he went in the protocol.
Speaker 1: Maybe so, maybe both those guys are missing next week.
Speaker 1: It would be impossible for me to think Nico Collins
Speaker 1: gonna be able to play next week. Credit to the
Speaker 1: Texans defense. Maybe you know what demands, Maybe Caleb should
Speaker 1: call CJ and give him some pointers on how to
Speaker 1: get back to the lovely needs to be a Yeah
Speaker 1: he should. Today's show is brought to you by representing
Speaker 1: sponsor hard Rock Bet. With Miami making the national championship,
Speaker 1: you know, hard Rock Stadium will be rocking, and if
Speaker 1: you're going to the game, hard Rock Bet is giving
Speaker 1: you a ten dollars bonus bet to get in on
Speaker 1: the action. If you're watching the game out in Miami,
Speaker 1: head to the hard Rock Cafe Miami, Duffy's North Miami Beach,
Speaker 1: American Social Miami, and Batch Brickle. Hard Rock Bet is
Speaker 1: dropping ten dollars bonus bets there too. You can turn
Speaker 1: that free ten dollars bonus bet into a big win
Speaker 1: by placing a same game parlay, or even if you're
Speaker 1: just watching the game at home, there's still no better
Speaker 1: place to bet than Natty than hard Rock Bet because
Speaker 1: it's Florida's sportsbook and they're going crazy with promos for
Speaker 1: this game. And if you're late to kick off, don't worry.
Speaker 1: Hard Rock Bet has live in game betting, so you're
Speaker 1: never too late to the action. Find a winner and
Speaker 1: live bet between snaps and just a few easy taps.
Speaker 1: You haven't tried your first bet on hard Rock Bet.
Speaker 1: There's still time for you to get one hundred fifty
Speaker 1: dollars in bonus bets if you win. Just places a
Speaker 1: five dollars bet and if it hits, you get not
Speaker 1: only your winnings but also an extra one hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty dollars in bonus bets. Even if your team may
Speaker 1: be out of the playoffs, that doesn't mean you have
Speaker 1: to sit on the sidelines between same game parlays, live betting,
Speaker 1: I can't miss welcome off for a new chromos dropping
Speaker 1: every day. Hard Rock Bet has you covered all postseason long.
Speaker 1: That's hard Rock Bet. Download the hard Rock Bet app
Speaker 1: and make your first deposit today, payable in bonus bets,
Speaker 1: not a cash offer offered by the Seminal Tribe of Florida.
Speaker 1: In Florida, offered by Seminal hard Rock Digital LLC. In
Speaker 1: all other states. Must be twenty one plus and physically
Speaker 1: present in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee,
Speaker 1: or Virginia to play. Terms and conditions apply. Concerned about
Speaker 1: gambling and Florida, call one eight three three play wise
Speaker 1: in Indiana. If you or someone you know is a
Speaker 1: gambling problem wants help. Call one eight hundred and nine
Speaker 1: with it. Gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan,
Speaker 1: New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia. All right, de Montey, let's
Speaker 1: talk Niners Eagles.
Speaker 2: After a season of iffness, the Eagles were defeated by
Speaker 2: the Niners, even with George Kittle getting an achilles injury.
Speaker 2: Jan's got to get close of the year, but he's
Speaker 2: just doing everything with nothing. You've been on this train
Speaker 2: for the entire season. How are you feeling out that
Speaker 2: Philly is out of the postseason?
Speaker 1: Listen, I don't have anything against the players on the Eagles,
Speaker 1: to be clear. I find their coach wildly annoying, and
Speaker 1: the fans that I have interacted with in person, some
Speaker 1: of them have been some of the most irrationally annoying
Speaker 1: adults I've met in ten years. So that's colored maybe
Speaker 1: my feelings on the Eagles a bit, to be fair.
Speaker 3: Yep.
Speaker 1: With that said, I'm able to remove myself from those
Speaker 1: feelings to analyze what I think is going to happen
Speaker 1: with a team, not what I want. Everything I said
Speaker 1: right there informs what I want to happen, but the
Speaker 1: games and the information inform what I think is going
Speaker 1: to happen. And what I thought was gonna happen with
Speaker 1: the Eagles in the playoffs was what happened with them
Speaker 1: all year long, which is there impossibly inconsistent, wildly underachieving
Speaker 1: offense would be that in the playoffs, and even against
Speaker 1: a Niners defense that was starting three linebackers who were
Speaker 1: not on the roster, two of them a month ago,
Speaker 1: and all backups, that is exactly what that e team
Speaker 1: ended up, being, a defense that could only do so much,
Speaker 1: as great as it was, and an offense that killed
Speaker 1: their season. You can't have a higher three and out
Speaker 1: percentage than just about any team in the NFL in
Speaker 1: a decade and flip a switch come to the playoffs.
Speaker 1: You can't have fourteen of your thirty six halves this
Speaker 1: year score seven points or less and just flip a
Speaker 1: switch come the playoffs. And what has been consistent under
Speaker 1: Sirianni's tenure in Philly is every year, even before Saquon,
Speaker 1: they had a dominant running game with a quarterback that
Speaker 1: was a huge part of it. They did not have
Speaker 1: that this year, Saquon wasn't as dominant, the offensive line
Speaker 1: wasn't as good, Jalen wouldn't run the way he would
Speaker 1: in the past, and they became a more traditional Other
Speaker 1: teams were able to defend them in a more traditional
Speaker 1: fashion where we don't have to devote every single one
Speaker 1: of our resources to stopping the run. We're gonna be
Speaker 1: able to devote a little bit more to stopping the pass.
Speaker 1: And they didn't have a consistent drop back passing offense
Speaker 1: all year. And for me, this season is a far
Speaker 1: bigger indictment on Siriani than it is on Jailen. Jalen
Speaker 1: has earned, to me, far more benefit of the doubt
Speaker 1: than Siriani. We also know, listen, this was not a
Speaker 1: good game by Jalen Hurts. This was the There have
Speaker 1: only been three He's lost four career playoff games, a
Speaker 1: super Bowl and three in the wildcard round. The three
Speaker 1: wildcard round losses were all three losses where he played poorly.
Speaker 1: So this was only the third time he's ever they've
Speaker 1: lost a playoff game, and one of the fair fingers
Speaker 1: you can point is at him. With that said, that
Speaker 1: happens and Jalen I thought was a steady hand for
Speaker 1: this team, even though I thought his ability to read
Speaker 1: the field and his ability to make passes to every
Speaker 1: quadrant of the field or lack of ability tore hurt
Speaker 1: them this year. But that that's a You'll deal with
Speaker 1: that because he's such a good leader, he's so tough,
Speaker 1: he's been so clutch historically, Like he's not listen. Is
Speaker 1: he one of the five best quarterbacks in football? To me?
Speaker 1: Pretty clearly not? Is he a guy you can win
Speaker 1: a Super Bowl with? Literally? Obviously? Yes? Has he upped
Speaker 1: his level of play in the two biggest games he's
Speaker 1: ever played in, Absolutely so you can deal with some
Speaker 1: of that from jailing a bad game, missing a couple guys.
Speaker 1: Sirianni's a different situation where there were three major jobs
Speaker 1: for Nick Sirianni this year that presented themselves during the year.
Speaker 1: The first one was as an offensive minded head coach,
Speaker 1: how do we get our offense on track? He never
Speaker 1: answered that bell. The second one was do I need
Speaker 1: to make a mid season coordinator change as we've done
Speaker 1: in the past, because Kevin Bittullo ain't ready for this
Speaker 1: and isn't equipped for it. He chose not to, and
Speaker 1: the third one was am I going to be able
Speaker 1: to get my arms around whatever's going on with aj Brown?
Speaker 1: And if not, do we need to cut bait with
Speaker 1: him at the trade deadline? He was not able to
Speaker 1: get his arms around it at any point all year,
Speaker 1: and they didn't trade him. He did find time to
Speaker 1: excuse me, he did find time to flip his shit
Speaker 1: at Bill's fans for no reason whatsoever, and to generally
Speaker 1: act in a way no other NFL head coach act.
Speaker 1: But he didn't do a good job this year. And
Speaker 1: we have seen this from Philadelphia before, so I will
Speaker 1: say it again. Nick Sirianni enters next season with one
Speaker 1: of the hottest seats in the NFL, like because so
Speaker 1: many coaches got fired. It's hard to really like find
Speaker 1: coaching hot seats because most of the guys on the
Speaker 1: hot seat got fired already. But I would say next year,
Speaker 1: just sitting here today, Aaron Glenn after that train wreck
Speaker 1: of a season, Zach Taylor after three consecutive missed postseasons
Speaker 1: with Joe Burrow, Shane Steichen after another Colt season where
Speaker 1: ugh they were okay. Tomlin, well, I don't know the
Speaker 1: Tomlin thing. That's the thing is I Tomlin, I'm not.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure where that's going to go. Tomlin Lafloor.
Speaker 1: Are they going to be there or not? Like those
Speaker 1: are the two guys. Todd Bowles enters next season with
Speaker 1: a warm seat, but I don't know if any of
Speaker 1: those seats are hotter than Sirianni's next year.
Speaker 2: Well yeah, now, all those other coaches, this guy doesn't
Speaker 2: even really get along with his players, So I think
Speaker 2: those other guys don't have that that to them.
Speaker 1: The most of those other the Packers would be the
Speaker 1: exception to this. Most of those other teams also don't
Speaker 1: have a front office that feels like, yeah, you have
Speaker 1: a super Bowl caliber, great team. And here is the
Speaker 1: other thing for Philly that void money time bomb is waiting.
Speaker 1: And by that, here's what I mean. I'm gonna see
Speaker 1: if I can find the tweet that the Eagles run
Speaker 1: their cap in a way. Let me see if I
Speaker 1: can find it no one else does. And if I
Speaker 1: do find it, I'll send it to you guys. Maybe
Speaker 1: we can get it on the show. Maybe not, but
Speaker 1: if not, it's okay. The I should have pulled this
Speaker 1: up before, and okay, here it is. I'm I'm gonna
Speaker 1: text it to our group chat right now. This is
Speaker 1: from Dan Rodgers. Uh, so credit to him for doing
Speaker 1: the work here. Uh and sorry for doing this on
Speaker 1: the fly, guys the Eagles that one of the reasons
Speaker 1: the Eagles are able to have such a great roster
Speaker 1: is because they borrow from future ye and oh you
Speaker 1: know what, I gave Dan Rodgers credit. I really should
Speaker 1: have given SF Data forty nine ers credit because they're
Speaker 1: the ones who built the graphic initially. So the Eagles
Speaker 1: have structured contracts to where and I don't think this
Speaker 1: is necessarily dumb at all. But as I've talked about
Speaker 1: ninety seconds of nerd cap stuff here, every single dollar
Speaker 1: you pay any player on your roster at some point
Speaker 1: shows up on your salary cap books as a salary
Speaker 1: cap charge. The Eagles because their owner is willing to
Speaker 1: pay a lot of cash up front, the Eagles borrow
Speaker 1: from way down the line years by adding voidable us
Speaker 1: on the end of contracts to stack the roster now,
Speaker 1: because it's like, we've got a super Bowl caliber roster team, quarterback,
Speaker 1: all of it. And then they take their medicine in
Speaker 1: a couple of years, have a reset season, and then
Speaker 1: you know, started started anew but they have done it
Speaker 1: in a way that no team has ever and don't
Speaker 1: put the tweet up yet no team has ever structured
Speaker 1: it contracts quite like this. Like there's a half dozen
Speaker 1: teams in the league that just don't do void years,
Speaker 1: that have zero zero players on their salary cap with
Speaker 1: voidable future years. And again, if I'm describing this, put
Speaker 1: demonster on the screen the way to explain it, I
Speaker 1: think is the best way. So, like, let me use
Speaker 1: a league averag team. As far as void money in
Speaker 1: the future, the Rams are dead in the middle, seventeenth
Speaker 1: out of thirty two teams and most money on void years.
Speaker 1: They have forty seven million in future salary cap charges
Speaker 1: that are gonna hit their books in future years for
Speaker 1: money they have played. They have paid players that are
Speaker 1: on their current roster who won't be on the roster
Speaker 1: those years, do you understand, So they have borrowed forty
Speaker 1: seven million dollars from future RAMS teams for the right exactly.
Speaker 1: So now the cap will go up, and so they'll
Speaker 1: you know, and they probably think and in a few
Speaker 1: years we won't have a super expensive quarterback. It'll be fine.
Speaker 1: So the Rams are league average at forty seven million.
Speaker 1: Now throw up the tweet. The Eagles are at four
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty two million dollars borrowed from future cap years,
Speaker 1: including two hundred and forty nine million dollars as it's
Speaker 1: currently written, borrowed from the twenty twenty eight Philadelphia Eagles.
Speaker 1: So Noah. The only other team in the league that's
Speaker 1: above two hundred million is the Browns, and more than
Speaker 1: half of that is the disasters to Sean Watson contract.
Speaker 1: The The Broncos are in fifth. They did it to
Speaker 1: deal with in part, the Russell Wilson of dead money,
Speaker 1: you know, so the dead money that the Lions, you know,
Speaker 1: have borrowed from well down the road a bit because
Speaker 1: they feel like, basically the Lions philosophy, I think, is
Speaker 1: be as awesome as we can be right now, and
Speaker 1: then by the time this void money hits golf will
Speaker 1: be off the books.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: The Eagles have a contractual bomb ticking in the form
Speaker 1: of the twenty twenty eight season is when the chickens
Speaker 1: come home to roost and you retool, which makes the
Speaker 1: twenty twenty sixth season all the more valuable to them.
Speaker 1: And it also is why when people talk about them
Speaker 1: trading AJ Brown. It's really not that simple so AJ Brown,
Speaker 1: because they've structured his contract, and with aj they have
Speaker 1: all those void years as well. If they wanted to
Speaker 1: cut him, demonse right now for next season. AJ Brown's
Speaker 1: cap hit is a super manageable, super cheap twenty three
Speaker 1: million dollars. But if they were to cut him, his
Speaker 1: cap hit to not play for them is seventy two
Speaker 1: million dollars because all that other money gets accelerated. If
Speaker 1: they trade him, his cap hit becomes forty three million dollars.
Speaker 1: Now you can split that up into the twenty twenty
Speaker 1: six and twenty twenty seven year. We don't have to
Speaker 1: spend as much time on this as I'm doing right now.
Speaker 1: My point is this the Eagles have because they have
Speaker 1: an aggressive owner who's willing to spend money. They have
Speaker 1: an aggressive GM, they have put and they won a
Speaker 1: damn Super Bowl like they went to Souper Bowl two
Speaker 1: years ago or three years ago. They won it last year.
Speaker 1: This philosophy objectively has worked and has been smart, but
Speaker 1: it makes this type of season failing all the more painful,
Speaker 1: and it makes.
Speaker 3: They're gonna be trash in a few years.
Speaker 1: Well, I don't think money listen. I think that they
Speaker 1: will have much like they had after their last super
Speaker 1: Bowl win. A couple of years later, they had a
Speaker 1: super down year and then immediately got back. So I
Speaker 1: don't think they're gonna be It's not like the Saints.
Speaker 1: You're like just off in the wilderness four years, but
Speaker 1: you're going to reset the roster in a couple of years.
Speaker 1: So having it's a really weird trend they've been on
Speaker 1: of the last five years. Bounced in round one, make
Speaker 1: a super Bowl, bounced in round one, win the super Bowl,
Speaker 1: bounced in round one. Now you win another super Bowl,
Speaker 1: make another super Bowl. Feels great. If next year goes poorly,
Speaker 1: I think a ton of changes come to Philly. So
Speaker 1: that's my Eagles, you know, stance on it. And I
Speaker 1: just think Sirianni's got to grow up a bit.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And I also think that the thing for Jalen is
Speaker 1: because the film is never gonna be super impressive. The
Speaker 1: thing about your your rep being I'm just a winner,
Speaker 1: you gotta win, and them getting bouncing around one in
Speaker 1: a home playoff game and him playing poorly, it's not,
Speaker 1: you know, cataclysmic, but it dings him a bit. All right,
Speaker 1: let's talk Niners for a second.
Speaker 2: So we know the forty nine ers guys have been
Speaker 2: dropping throughout the year and they just lost.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's that power plant. Have you following that story?
Speaker 3: Well, what's going on with the power plant?
Speaker 1: The I don't know is probably I probably sound like
Speaker 1: an idiot, but there is some like energy way station
Speaker 1: or something that's next to the Niners practice facility in stadium.
Speaker 1: And this guy who wrote a book called Sunlight His
Speaker 1: Life went out there with a gossometer and check checked
Speaker 1: like the energy waves. And basically he's telling us the
Speaker 1: Niners players, ligaments, tendons, all that shit are yes, exactly
Speaker 1: getting Chernobyl. And that's why for a decade they've been
Speaker 1: the most injured team. I'm saying I can't say the theory,
Speaker 1: but I'm not saying I don't believe it. They have
Speaker 1: been so injured every year for a decade and there's
Speaker 1: been no explanation. This guy thinks he figured it out.
Speaker 1: I can't rule it out, but go ahead.
Speaker 3: So, yeah, Kittle just tore his achilles.
Speaker 2: Do you believe in this team still or is this
Speaker 2: just too many injuries for them to still keep winning.
Speaker 1: I mean it. We just saw him play the Seahawks
Speaker 1: and that game was close. They were in it. Like
Speaker 1: that game turned, didn't that game turn on a Brock
Speaker 1: interception late? And I'm gonna give Brock some credit here
Speaker 1: in a minute, but like I let me let me
Speaker 1: check this. I feel like that's how I remember it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean threw that game was third. I guess turned
Speaker 1: is maybe unfair, but that game was thirteen to three Niners,
Speaker 1: and yeah, that's the man threw I'm sorry, thirteen to
Speaker 1: three Seahawks. I misspoke. Thirteen to three Seahawks and the
Speaker 1: Niners in the early fourth quarter have a second in
Speaker 1: goal from the six to make it thirteen to ten,
Speaker 1: and that was the past he threw to McCaffrey. McCaffrey
Speaker 1: bobbled it and the Seahawks guy took it and that
Speaker 1: basically ended it. Point is they were in that game
Speaker 1: kind of their The Niners defense did a good job
Speaker 1: against Darnold in the game for the one seed last
Speaker 1: Sunday night or the last Saturday night two Saturdays ago,
Speaker 1: so it feels like ruling them out would be disrespectful.
Speaker 1: But Seattle's on two weeks is on a week arrest.
Speaker 1: The Niners are on a short week. The Niners are
Speaker 1: keeping it together with Scotch tape.
Speaker 2: I will listen to the Seahawks too. They have their
Speaker 2: most of their team. This is understandable. They're playing with
Speaker 2: guys that weren't even playing this year, and.
Speaker 1: It would take a Darnald catastrophe, I think for the
Speaker 1: Seahawks to win that game. But none of that should
Speaker 1: take anything away from what I think is an all
Speaker 1: time great coaching job by Kyle Shanahan. Just an all
Speaker 1: time coaching job by Shanahan this year. And I know
Speaker 1: he turned the ball over, I know he made some mistakes.
Speaker 1: I thought perty had a hell of a gutsy performance
Speaker 1: against an excellent Eagles defense. Like I'll give Party credit now.
Speaker 1: Was the nicest pass thrown all day by a Niner
Speaker 1: thrown by their wide receiver. Yes, but I still will
Speaker 1: give Party credit for what I thought was a really
Speaker 1: impressive and another nice come from behind playoff victory like
Speaker 1: that was, And the play to McCaffrey was great and
Speaker 1: so but I think this is the end of the road.
Speaker 1: I also think that is a hell of an impressive
Speaker 1: season for the Niners in that division, and with those injuries,
Speaker 1: all right, we maybe could have led with this. Let's
Speaker 1: talk about the game of the weekend.
Speaker 2: Your boy Caleb pulled off the upset. Where are we
Speaker 2: calling this an upset? Were they favored in that game?
Speaker 3: Flipped?
Speaker 1: It went back and forth?
Speaker 2: Yes, so he pulled he pulled off the comeback. I
Speaker 2: think they won a game where that he didn't lead
Speaker 2: in an offensive snap. Is this you put you put
Speaker 2: you waved him earlier in the year. Is this where
Speaker 2: you imagined him last year when you said that they
Speaker 2: were going to win the Super Bowl?
Speaker 1: Well, I didn't say they're gonna win the super Bowl.
Speaker 1: Make the super Bowl? Sorry and listen. Yeah, I thought
Speaker 1: Caleb at the beginning of this year was shaky because
Speaker 1: he was and he has been shaky in the first
Speaker 1: half of all three of these Packer games. They played
Speaker 1: the Packers three times de Monsey, they beat him twice.
Speaker 1: They had the ball with the lead, zero snaps. Yeah,
Speaker 1: in the whole, in the whole, in all three games. Right,
Speaker 1: the Packers had one hundred and six snaps with the lead,
Speaker 1: the Bears had zero, and the Bears won two of them.
Speaker 3: Resiliency.
Speaker 1: But the reason that so there's I mean, there's two
Speaker 1: angles here. There's the Packers absolutely blowing it even though
Speaker 1: Jordan Love your guy was awesome, and just find like
Speaker 1: I've never seen a team the Packers had the ball
Speaker 1: seven times after going up twenty one to three and
Speaker 1: scored a touchdown and never turned it over and the
Speaker 1: Bears got uh did turn it over and the Bears
Speaker 1: came back. Anyway, like when the when the Jags came
Speaker 1: back against the Chargers four years ago, the Jags every
Speaker 1: single time they had the ball to score a touchdown,
Speaker 1: the Bears are kicking field goals, they're getting stopped on
Speaker 1: fourth down, and they still came back. That's a catastrophe
Speaker 1: of a loss.
Speaker 3: Ben Johnson thing, Yes, it's in Johnson.
Speaker 1: What direction well in a good way.
Speaker 2: Like I just feel like if he's able to do
Speaker 2: that type of stuff even after.
Speaker 1: The ball goals, I mean, that's what's interesting. He also
Speaker 1: had what I thought was a bizarre fourth down decision
Speaker 1: early in the game when they went for it on
Speaker 1: like fourth and four on their own thirty two, Like
Speaker 1: I didn't know what they were doing. He seemed like
Speaker 1: he was on tilt. But they came back, and yes,
Speaker 1: he gets a lot of credit for the play design
Speaker 1: on coming back. But the story of that game and
Speaker 1: why that game will be remembered is it was Caleb
Speaker 1: Williams on full display that there are things he can
Speaker 1: do that only two other guys in the league, Mahomes
Speaker 1: and Josh can do. That throw he made on fourth
Speaker 1: and eight down eleven season, on the line, gliding to
Speaker 1: his left without his feet set, with three defenders around
Speaker 1: the guy he's throwing to. I say this without hyperbole.
Speaker 1: It's one of the five best catches, one of the
Speaker 1: five best throws when you consider the degree of difficulty,
Speaker 1: the context and the stakes in the last decade in
Speaker 1: the NFL, and the the things he can do cannot
Speaker 1: be taught. So you just hope he gets better at
Speaker 1: the things that are easily taught. But the Bears that
Speaker 1: teams this year not named the Chicago Bears demanse when
Speaker 1: trailing by double digits in the final five minutes are
Speaker 1: three and one fifty nine. The Bears are three and three.
Speaker 1: It is these comebacks that they've had. It's not down
Speaker 1: four goes, get a drive, it's down two scores late,
Speaker 1: and they just do it again and again. Now that's
Speaker 1: a not year over year, Well, the Chiefs weren't down big.
Speaker 1: They just winning the close games.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And but to your point about the Chiefs, that's that's
Speaker 1: not year over year sustainable, but it might be sustainable
Speaker 1: next week. It does mean that they are the only
Speaker 1: team in these playoffs that if they're down ten entering
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter feels fine.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: And I if Matt Stafford retires, and I don't think
Speaker 1: he will, but just let's say they win the Super
Speaker 1: Bowl and he's like, all right, I'm done for me.
Speaker 1: Kalabile inter next year. The best quarterback in the NFC
Speaker 1: as good as Jordan Love was yesterday. I like Caleb Moore.
Speaker 1: I think he is. I'd take him over Golf. I'd
Speaker 1: take him over anyone in the NFC East, take him
Speaker 1: over anyone in the NFC South. I is Stafford's the best,
Speaker 1: but he he is that guy and for all you know,
Speaker 1: whatever people want to say about his personality or his emotion,
Speaker 1: how emotional he is, and you can see the emotion
Speaker 1: for good or for bad during the game. His teammates
Speaker 1: have rallied around him, and his coach loves him, and
Speaker 1: I I think Caleb Stafford next week is the game
Speaker 1: of the divisional round weekend on the Green Bay side
Speaker 1: of things. Quickly before we get to Bill's Jaggs demonse,
Speaker 1: this team was nine to three and one, and then
Speaker 1: Micah Parsons got hurt and they never one again. Two
Speaker 1: teams this year anticipated they were gonna have Micah Parsons,
Speaker 1: and when they didn't have him, their season just fell apart.
Speaker 1: And it's now The Packers should have won that game anyway,
Speaker 1: but their championship hopes ended when Micah went down. You
Speaker 1: ever notice how everything keeps going up? Rents going up,
Speaker 1: Streaming services are going up. Even your favorite burrito spot
Speaker 1: is all of a sudden charging you extra for Salza.
Speaker 1: But with boost Mobile, you and your phone bill don't
Speaker 1: have to play the will this go up soon? Game?
Speaker 1: Why because Boost Mobile has an unlimited talk, text, and
Speaker 1: data plan at a price that will never go up.
Speaker 1: In fact, it's the same price you'll pay for life.
Speaker 1: So switch now for unlimited wireless at a price that
Speaker 1: will never go up. Only at boost Mobile. After thirty gigs,
Speaker 1: customers may experience lower speeds. Customers will pay twenty dollars
Speaker 1: per month as long as they remain on the boost
Speaker 1: Unlimited plan. All right, let's talk Bill's Jacks.
Speaker 2: All right, probably game of the week. Trevor ended up
Speaker 2: losing this game, and I'm a sure guy the Bills won. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you called that one. You said earlier in the show
Speaker 2: that the winner of this game was going to the
Speaker 2: super Bowl. After seeing that game and how it played out,
Speaker 2: is that's still how you feel.
Speaker 1: I mean, listen, the Bills are a flawed team. They're
Speaker 1: not as bad as some people make them out to be.
Speaker 1: They have a great offensive line, they have a great
Speaker 1: running back, they have a good pass defense, they don't
Speaker 1: have good receivers, and they don't have a good run defense.
Speaker 1: But they also have the second best quarterback of his
Speaker 1: generation and the best quarterback in these playoffs with respect
Speaker 1: to Stafford and Josh is on an all time playoff heater.
Speaker 1: Since Josh Allen Demons lost to the Bengals in the
Speaker 1: Divisional round three years ago, he's played six playoff games.
Speaker 1: Now he's lost two of them to mahone. But in
Speaker 1: those six playoff games, he has sixteen touchdowns, no turnovers,
Speaker 1: and a one oh five rating. And this is why
Speaker 1: some folks thought they were defending Josh Allen by giving
Speaker 1: pre writing excuses for how the Bills were gonna lose
Speaker 1: and explaining how it was unfair to ask Josh Allen
Speaker 1: to win a road wild card game against the Jags,
Speaker 1: and that's disrespect. What doing that does is it lowers
Speaker 1: the stakes. And if you lower the stakes, then when
Speaker 1: you come through, it's less impactful, it's less resonant. It
Speaker 1: was important that Josh Allen find a way to win
Speaker 1: that game. It was important after in twenty twenty three
Speaker 1: he had the ball in his hands down less than
Speaker 1: a touchdown in the fourth quarter of the Divisional round
Speaker 1: against the Chiefs and didn't come through. And then in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four had the ball in his hands down
Speaker 1: less than a touchdown in the conference championship game against
Speaker 1: the Chiefs and didn't come through that. This year, he
Speaker 1: had the ball in his hands in the fourth quarter
Speaker 1: down less than a touchdown against the Jags, and he
Speaker 1: made one of the best plays of his life, that
Speaker 1: forty yard throw down the field to Brandon Cooks to
Speaker 1: then set up the game winning touchdown. That's how you
Speaker 1: write your legend. And if the Bills now have an
Speaker 1: opportunity to go into Denver and keep in mind Josh
Speaker 1: Allen played college football in Wyoming, which is at a
Speaker 1: higher elevation than Denver, so he's used to it. He
Speaker 1: goes in there against that defense and does it again.
Speaker 1: It then gets to be a game away from finally
Speaker 1: reaching a super Bowl and knowing he's not gonna have
Speaker 1: to deal with Mahomes to get there. He was great.
Speaker 1: He was great. Now do people go a little over
Speaker 1: to you know, Collins calling him the greatest I think
Speaker 1: the greatest quarterback he's ever seen. Is that too much
Speaker 1: for me? Sure? But he's great. He is a future
Speaker 1: Hall of Famer. He is at his peak of his powers.
Speaker 1: He's banged up, it doesn't matter. He's finding a way.
Speaker 1: That's how you become a legend. I hate that it
Speaker 1: came at the expense of my guy, Trevor. Trevor in
Speaker 1: that game, Demanse third quarterback ever to in the fourth
Speaker 1: quarter of a playoff game, have two go ahead touchdowns
Speaker 1: and lose the game Drew Brees in twenty eleven. It
Speaker 1: happened to Josh in the third seconds game and Trevor
Speaker 1: in that game. Now, Trevor made a huge mistake. At
Speaker 1: the end of that game, you're down three of a
Speaker 1: minute left, you have the strongest leaid kicker in the league.
Speaker 1: You don't need to force it, and he forced it.
Speaker 1: And the reason they were in that position was because,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, the Bills made a huge mistake by
Speaker 1: scoring when they did. There's a minute five left, the
Speaker 1: Jags have no timeouts. You're on the one. You can
Speaker 1: do a fake quarterback sneak. Essentially you don't have to go,
Speaker 1: but you don't have to kneel and lose a bunch
Speaker 1: of yards. But the optimals thing for the Bills to
Speaker 1: do in that spot would have been snap the ball
Speaker 1: to Josh, have Josh fall down right where he gets
Speaker 1: it a little bit forward. The Jags aren't gonna hitch
Speaker 1: you because they want you to score. And then you
Speaker 1: have three timeouts. There's a minute five left, the Jags
Speaker 1: have zero. You can it's a very simple math equation there.
Speaker 1: What scares you more if your goal is to win
Speaker 1: the game only having three chances to get one yard
Speaker 1: and the Jags being left with less than twenty seconds,
Speaker 1: or having four chances to get one yard and the
Speaker 1: Jags being left potentially with a minute. The Bills and
Speaker 1: Sean McDermott chose the latter. They obviously should have chosen
Speaker 1: the former. The optimal decision there is what Vrabel did
Speaker 1: at the end of a first half earlier this year.
Speaker 1: Have your guy go down, let the clock run all
Speaker 1: the way to twenty seconds, call your first time out,
Speaker 1: and then you have three shots if you need it
Speaker 1: to score and leave the Jags with no time. The
Speaker 1: Jags were thrilled the Bills scored when they did, but
Speaker 1: then Trevor made the big mistake. And if Trevor had
Speaker 1: come through, if Trevor had driven the length of the
Speaker 1: field in that final minute and the Jags scored a touchdown,
Speaker 1: I promise you I wouldn't be on TV or on
Speaker 1: here killing Josh Allen. You gotta win that game. He
Speaker 1: was great. That would have been a junior varsity version
Speaker 1: of the thirteen seconds game when no one has ever
Speaker 1: criticized him for that game. So it's not that it's
Speaker 1: binary win or lose, but it is how did you
Speaker 1: play and did you put your team in position? And
Speaker 1: Josh was brilliant. Josh was absolutely brilliant. Did you want
Speaker 1: to say something to Monsey.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, he was solid And it kind of reminded
Speaker 2: me when when they got the ball after the picker
Speaker 2: just in the late games. I just kind of felt
Speaker 2: late in the game, I just felt like the Bills
Speaker 2: was their destiny.
Speaker 3: And I knew that Josh Allen was kind of gonna
Speaker 3: do whatever.
Speaker 1: You're felt like, yes, if you had that confidence that
Speaker 1: he's going to make this happen. Yeah, and that's the
Speaker 1: last step of greatness.
Speaker 2: Yeah. This is like a very very sidebar the Jags.
Speaker 2: The Jags reporter that you know telling hype and Liam
Speaker 2: calling up, you know, saying you'll get him next year.
Speaker 2: That was crazy, Like that was because I feel like
Speaker 2: there's a lot of outrage for it, and.
Speaker 1: I just what do you think of the outrage.
Speaker 2: I think I think that it's for something else, Like
Speaker 2: I think that I don't know, I think.
Speaker 3: That it's crazy.
Speaker 2: Like I think that there's like those press conferences are
Speaker 2: there for you know, reporters. I don't want to say
Speaker 2: poke fun at coaches, but just kind of make their
Speaker 2: life a little bit more difficult and explain themselves. And
Speaker 2: I feel like most of the time it's in I
Speaker 2: wouldn't call it condescending or derogatory, but it's more negative
Speaker 2: than it is positive. And this one time somebody trying
Speaker 2: to make it positive. It people are pissed about it.
Speaker 1: The number of people that publicly whined about this old
Speaker 1: black lady trying to make Liam Cohen feel better. There
Speaker 1: as so much in this Let me tell you something,
Speaker 1: You know what feels great no matter how down you are,
Speaker 1: having an old, nice black woman tell you pick yourself up.
Speaker 3: I'm just not get it.
Speaker 1: Yes, And and that woman's been part of the press
Speaker 1: for decades and now would it be a problem if
Speaker 1: that's what the entirety of the press conference was.
Speaker 2: Or if it was like a regular season, like if
Speaker 2: it were like games but they're out of the playoffs,
Speaker 2: like it's done.
Speaker 1: Everybody's Some of the media is so self serious. It
Speaker 1: was thirty seconds, doesn't matter. It also gave me an
Speaker 1: idea for this week's sports media on Budsman on the
Speaker 1: TV show. I'll share it with you guys right now,
Speaker 1: a little sneak preview because I loved it. I think
Speaker 1: every NFL team's postgame press conference for the coaches needs
Speaker 1: to have two designated chairs and they each get one question. Okay,
Speaker 1: and one chair is and you call it the homer
Speaker 1: and the hater, and the coach has to answer a
Speaker 1: question the homer gets to say whatever they want it,
Speaker 1: pick them up, and the hater gets to just absolutely
Speaker 1: even if wins or losses, rip them the And so
Speaker 1: the homer and the hater, the coach can decide he
Speaker 1: has to start with one and end with the other,
Speaker 1: and he can decide how he wants to do it.
Speaker 1: And in the middle of everybody else's questions. Uh, but
Speaker 1: I and here's the other thing. Just to my media colleagues,
Speaker 1: you're allowed to have an opinion on that, lady, and
Speaker 1: keep it to yourself or keep it to your group chat.
Speaker 1: You don't have to tweet about it. You really really don't.
Speaker 1: All right, we've gone so long, we haven't even gotten
Speaker 1: to two of the games, So let me just try
Speaker 1: to quickly get to these other two Patch Chargers. Listen,
Speaker 1: Drake May was shaky early and then was very good late.
Speaker 1: It was a pretty typical first playoff game. You saw
Speaker 1: some jitters, but he's so talented that he came through
Speaker 1: and the Patriots defense was awesome. I'm not I spent
Speaker 1: enough on this yesterday on TV arguing with Danny, and
Speaker 1: at this point it just the facts are what the
Speaker 1: facts are. Justin Herbert's played ten consecutive f minus quarters
Speaker 1: of playoff football, Justin Herbert has the second lowest career
Speaker 1: playoff passer rate, ahead of only Andy Dalton. Justin Herbert,
Speaker 1: now that the all twenty two guys have gotten a
Speaker 1: hold of that film, had guys open the first three
Speaker 1: quarters of that game a lot and wouldn't pull the trigger.
Speaker 1: Justin Herbert's comments after the game make it sound like
Speaker 1: a guy who's in his own head. No one has
Speaker 1: denied that Justin Herbert is talented, But the fact that
Speaker 1: in consecutive years he has played his single worst game
Speaker 1: of the year in a horrible postseason loss is not nothing.
Speaker 1: The fact that no quarterback in NFL history has lost
Speaker 1: three playoff games in a row where their defense forces
Speaker 1: ten turnovers like Herbert has is not nothing. No quarterback
Speaker 1: in the last quarter century has lost three playoff games
Speaker 1: in a row where their defense forces more than five turnovers.
Speaker 1: Only one other quarterback, Chad Pennington, has lost three playoff
Speaker 1: games in a row where their defense forced more than
Speaker 1: four turnovers more than four turnovers in the last twenty
Speaker 1: five years, Herbert's defense has forced ten turnovers in all
Speaker 1: three of these games. His defense has put his team
Speaker 1: in the catbird seed early in these games, by a
Speaker 1: lot or by a little. Three of these games he
Speaker 1: has been somewhere from below average in the first one
Speaker 1: to god awful in the last two. That is what
Speaker 1: it is. And if six years into his career you're
Speaker 1: still holding on to what a pretty ball he throws
Speaker 1: against the Broncos in September, I don't know what to
Speaker 1: tell you for the Patriots moving forward. They should be
Speaker 1: able to handle Houston. As great as that Houston offense is.
Speaker 1: The Patriots in a really good position to either be
Speaker 1: going to Denver, who they're better than, or at home
Speaker 1: against Buffalo who they've beaten, and last, but not least
Speaker 1: Rams Panthers. Listen, this would have been a catastrophe for
Speaker 1: the Rams, a true how the hell did that happen? Lost? Instead,
Speaker 1: it was just an ugly, ugly win where Stafford was
Speaker 1: not that good and Puca saved the game with a
Speaker 1: super high IQ play breaking up the interception. I also
Speaker 1: had demons if I can pat myself on the back
Speaker 1: an all time impromptu line. Yesterday on the TV show
Speaker 1: did you see It?
Speaker 3: What was it?
Speaker 1: We showed Pooka saving the game breaking up would have
Speaker 1: been the game ceiling.
Speaker 3: Have something to do with the tackle that turned the
Speaker 3: tide or something.
Speaker 1: No, no, no no, I said, because it was such
Speaker 1: a heady play by Puca. And I said that Puoka
Speaker 1: uses up all his IQ points while on the field,
Speaker 1: and it's just once he leaves the once he leaves
Speaker 1: the game, he's just he's such a smart player, Like
Speaker 1: it's just it's the reserve is totally tapped. And the
Speaker 1: next six days he can't use any IQ points because
Speaker 1: he has to save him for the game. And then
Speaker 1: in the game, he's just unbelievable and he's making smart
Speaker 1: plays and he's one of the best receivers we've ever seen.
Speaker 1: And then the game ends and he's just like in
Speaker 1: rest mode and so but he saved the game. But
Speaker 1: here's thing, it's the playoffs. So it doesn't matter how
Speaker 1: it looks in a win. We know the Rams can
Speaker 1: be great offensively. We know they can be and now
Speaker 1: they get an opportunity to be great offensively against a
Speaker 1: bad Bears defense. And you know the Panthers, that was
Speaker 1: a valiant performance. They were. They hung way to uper
Speaker 1: than I thought they would. They had a real chances.
Speaker 3: Once man, we don't care how it might be something
Speaker 3: we might not know.
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't buy that. But it's a nice
Speaker 1: season for them. Yeah, this is like a cowardly way
Speaker 1: to do things. But right now, this moment, as we
Speaker 1: sit at the divisional round, because I had said I
Speaker 1: thought going into the playoffs, I said, I thought the
Speaker 1: Rams were going to the super Bowl, and there were
Speaker 1: my pick to win it. Once the you know, when
Speaker 1: the playoffs were set, and I said, I thought the
Speaker 1: winner of Bills Jags goes to the super Bowl. That
Speaker 1: is what I right now, that would be my pick
Speaker 1: Rams over Bills in the super Bowl. That's what I
Speaker 1: think we are going to get. And the Rams survive
Speaker 1: in advance.
Speaker 3: Uh so heartbreak for Josh coming up.
Speaker 1: Well, beginning to the super Bowl is a big deal.
Speaker 1: I mean that, yes, for the and for the Bills fans,
Speaker 1: that would be five super bowls and five super Bowl losses,
Speaker 1: and so that obviously wouldn't be great. All right, do
Speaker 1: me a favor. I appreciate everyone who's sent in questions today.
Speaker 1: We will add those to the questions we're gonna do
Speaker 1: on Thursday. We'll do more questions from the audience, and
Speaker 1: these on Thursday but I got a run, great show,
Speaker 1: great weekend to playoff football. We will see you guys
Speaker 1: back here on Thursday. A huge thanks to hard Rock
Speaker 1: bet to Boost to Blue Duck in the volume. Thank
Speaker 1: you to you. De Monsday, Say hi to your mom
Speaker 1: for me, who's out in LA. And I will see
Speaker 1: you guys on Thursday. I'll see you on with Colin
Speaker 1: in about an hour. What's right,