Speaker 1: The Around the NFL podcast.
Speaker 2: It's already on the twenty twenty four Cowboys bandwagon.
Speaker 1: From the Chris Westling podcast studio. It's Around the NFL.
Speaker 3: My name is Dan hansis joined by heroes Greg Rosenthal
Speaker 3: and Mark Sessler, and it is here the best football
Speaker 3: weekend of the year Divisional Round layoffs. Eight teams remain.
Speaker 3: That means only eight teams. One of them is going
Speaker 3: to hoist that lombo.
Speaker 4: I keep hearing that it's the best football weekend, and
Speaker 4: I don't disagree in terms of the staging. But there
Speaker 4: are also twenty four fan bases whose teams have been
Speaker 4: like turned into dust. So it's not always you have
Speaker 4: to become just agnostic and be like, I'm just enjoying
Speaker 4: the sport at this point, and that's that.
Speaker 1: I shift into that moment and I think, I think
Speaker 1: you could probably relate to this.
Speaker 3: But like I, I root for a bad team historically always,
Speaker 3: so I'm used to, you know, checking out emotionally on
Speaker 3: the team like my team aspect. So as a football
Speaker 3: fan by this time, even if it was a good
Speaker 3: season and he got picked off at the end of
Speaker 3: the regular season or earlier in the playoffs, I can
Speaker 3: look at these games and be like, we're not gonna
Speaker 3: get pound for pound a better week of games. Now
Speaker 3: that the Championship Sunday, which is next week is great too, Gregy,
Speaker 3: but this one you get more variety, more spice, You
Speaker 3: get an underdog or two, which we certainly have here,
Speaker 3: and it's just gonna be a lot of fun.
Speaker 5: To Mark's point, I think week one is a close second.
Speaker 5: If I had to choose, I do love me, So
Speaker 5: that's great to just like, it's been so long of
Speaker 5: a build up, but there is something where everyone's just
Speaker 5: watching the same game. It doesn't it feel weird for
Speaker 5: us too. We're home on Saturdays just watching one game.
Speaker 5: I was like, man, there's a lot of commercial breaks,
Speaker 5: like and I'm enjoying it because, like every play just
Speaker 5: you're rethinking it and it in a different way than
Speaker 5: you would in the in the regular season.
Speaker 1: But I hope this one delivers.
Speaker 5: It's a lot of pressure, you know, seasons sometimes they're
Speaker 5: like the Packers season is so nice because there was
Speaker 5: no expectations.
Speaker 1: You know, we weren't expecting much.
Speaker 5: I hope we don't put too much expectations on this
Speaker 5: weekend after all those blowouts last week. Yeah, here's here's
Speaker 5: a These spreads are big. Yeah, here's a big spread weekend.
Speaker 1: They are large.
Speaker 6: Good data point here. Reached out to the research team and.
Speaker 3: What a team A person by the name of cold Noble,
Speaker 3: which is a hell of a name.
Speaker 1: Let's start there quickly. It could be a pen name,
Speaker 1: but that's fine.
Speaker 3: I had asked since division realignment for the research team.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like that. He adopted his new name for the researcher.
Speaker 1: Since division realignment in two thousand and two?
Speaker 3: How often this is my exact email, Okay, sent by
Speaker 3: verbal text on phone as I was driving in. Hey, there, period?
Speaker 3: Could you tell me Kama? Since division realignment in two
Speaker 3: thousand and two? Hama? How often both number one seeds
Speaker 3: made it out of the divisional round? And then I
Speaker 3: had to do an edis originally had a period and
Speaker 3: I was like, no on, let me give the question
Speaker 3: work on the other side, Kama. How many years did
Speaker 3: both get picked off in their first playoff game?
Speaker 1: Question mark?
Speaker 3: Thanks slammer, need it chose a playful Hey, we're all
Speaker 3: in this together. To put that exclamation point at.
Speaker 1: The A team, you're a larger team. Yeah, Oh, we're
Speaker 1: talking football. Yeah, hey Dan.
Speaker 3: Since the division realignment in twenty two, number one seeds
Speaker 3: are twenty nine and thirteen in the divisional round of
Speaker 3: the playoffs. Of those twenty one seasons, there have only
Speaker 3: been eleven seasons in which both number one seeds won
Speaker 3: their divisional round matchup twenty two.
Speaker 6: Which is last year. Interesting, which means two years in
Speaker 6: a row.
Speaker 3: Come on twenty eighteen, seventeen, fifteen, fourteen, thirteen, nine, four,
Speaker 3: three and two. Of those twenty one seasons, there have
Speaker 3: only been three seasons in which both number one seeds
Speaker 3: lost in the divisional round.
Speaker 1: Does anybody know when that happened? Recently? So the Ravens lost.
Speaker 3: Recently, the Titans got picked up by the Bengals, and
Speaker 3: the Packers lost to the Niners in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 3: In twenty ten, the Falcons lost to the Packers.
Speaker 1: That was the Rogers was going to say, and wins
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl.
Speaker 5: I was trying to think, who is the one seed
Speaker 5: that year? Is the Patriots versus the Jets.
Speaker 3: The best football moment of my life up in Foxborough
Speaker 3: that was twenty ten and two thousand and eight. The
Speaker 3: Titans again, come on, Titoons, come on, even when you
Speaker 3: have a power house team.
Speaker 1: This happens to.
Speaker 5: You about Kerry Collins was they're back of the most
Speaker 5: random one seed until the time the Titans had the one.
Speaker 1: They're like thirteen and oh or ten and oh yeah.
Speaker 3: Anyway, the Titans lost to the Ravens and the Giants
Speaker 3: lost to the Eagles. So great job by Cole Noble.
Speaker 3: Did you we're all in this together.
Speaker 1: Did you verbalize an email that said, thank you Cole
Speaker 1: for your just soughtam to do it right now? Yeah?
Speaker 1: You got to write them back and say.
Speaker 5: Cole, Yeah, it's kind of crazy. The Packers were the
Speaker 5: one seed two years ago. Just gave that team that lost.
Speaker 5: It's not a great.
Speaker 1: You're Aaron Rodgers has never beaten. I don't know, Cole
Speaker 1: Nobles probably a man. We are still recording back.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I would think Cole would be a would I
Speaker 4: would think I don't know who knows, but.
Speaker 1: I'm just go I was gonna put your the man.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna put you're the best. That's better, all right? Done?
Speaker 3: All right, So we're gonna get to the games right now,
Speaker 3: and we got a little football.
Speaker 1: News to get to.
Speaker 3: We'll do that as part of halftime but let's get
Speaker 3: going and let's start.
Speaker 6: Oh, Marky Mark Mark Mark.
Speaker 3: Obviously, the Houston Texans are a underdog this week. They're
Speaker 3: one of the heavy underdogs. There are two teams man,
Speaker 3: two teams getting nine and a half points of WOULD,
Speaker 3: and they're one of them against the Ravens in Baltimore.
Speaker 3: So I feel like the Ravens haven't played in about
Speaker 3: two months, and it feels like that because they rested
Speaker 3: starters then had the bye, and last time the Ravens
Speaker 3: did that, things went sideways for them. But the idea here,
Speaker 3: Greg is that this is a different Ravens team, a
Speaker 3: better Ravens team than that twenty nineteen team that got
Speaker 3: picked up. I don't know even know if that's true,
Speaker 3: but that's what they're telling themselves. So the Ravens get
Speaker 3: a Texans team, obviously, that is feeling very confident about
Speaker 3: themselves despite being a middling operation for most of the season.
Speaker 3: They have a young quarterback in CJ. Stroud that hasn't
Speaker 3: believe in and a head coach and Dimiko Rans that
Speaker 3: just shut down the Cleveland Browns in a big spot.
Speaker 5: I think this Ravens team is unquestionably better because they're
Speaker 5: more diversified offensively, the numbers would say they're still an
Speaker 5: elite running team, one of the best in the league,
Speaker 5: and in the Texans have a run defense that could
Speaker 5: maybe slow them down. But the short passing game, the
Speaker 5: long passing game, and then especially compared to twenty nineteen,
Speaker 5: the defense, which you know now that the Browns have
Speaker 5: taken a dirt nap, is certainly the best defensive league.
Speaker 5: I think the most consistent over the course of the
Speaker 5: season too. And that's where I start is just we've
Speaker 5: seen Mike McDonald and I think he's going to get
Speaker 5: highed the defensive coordinator of the Ravens in this cycle,
Speaker 5: because what he's done this year that basically no one
Speaker 5: else has been able to do is stop Shanahan Tree offenses,
Speaker 5: which is, to me, the thing that is the most
Speaker 5: valuable thing you can do as a defense is slow
Speaker 5: down this offense that is basically taken over the league
Speaker 5: and has been a quarterback cheat code. And they did
Speaker 5: it against the Dolphins in a big spot just a
Speaker 5: few weeks ago, they did it against the forty nine
Speaker 5: ers in a big spot about a month ago, and
Speaker 5: now they do it again. Now they're gonna do it,
Speaker 5: I believe against CJ. Strouden and this Texans defense, and
Speaker 5: they do it with man coverage, but they mix it up.
Speaker 1: Stroud has struggled sometimes.
Speaker 5: Against man coverage, and they do it by mixing things
Speaker 5: up in terms of what they're gonna do after the snap.
Speaker 5: So Stroud's been very good mentally all season reading the coverage,
Speaker 5: getting through his reads. This will be a new test
Speaker 5: for him. He faced it in Week one. He struggled.
Speaker 5: He's a much different quarterback now. But to me that
Speaker 5: this is a much bigger step up in class for
Speaker 5: the Texans offense really than it is for the Texans defense.
Speaker 4: I think, like that Week one game is you know,
Speaker 4: deep ancient mythology at this point. I mean, it's like
Speaker 4: the Texans were a completely different team. The Ravens were
Speaker 4: at that point still figuring out who they were too.
Speaker 4: Like it was a week ago we were saying Ken
Speaker 4: Stroud solve this Browns offense or Browns defense. Let that
Speaker 4: you know, we we were touting for good reason, and
Speaker 4: now it comes again. It's the Ravens and the Ravens
Speaker 4: like you know, they are a different team from the
Speaker 4: team that lost in a couple of years ago.
Speaker 1: In the playoffs because well, we'll find out.
Speaker 3: Well, I would say this though, just coming in at
Speaker 3: least statistically, Yeah.
Speaker 4: They are fourth in average points per game. Okay, they
Speaker 4: are first in points allowed, and that's a problem for Stroud.
Speaker 4: They are the number one rushing team in the league.
Speaker 4: All of those metrics basically have not been achieved by
Speaker 4: one team since the Bears of nineteen eighty five.
Speaker 3: And I think that I think a lot of it
Speaker 3: is because it's always different.
Speaker 4: It is Lamar Jackson, and it's the offense, and their
Speaker 4: offense is heated up.
Speaker 1: But this defense against CJ.
Speaker 4: Stroud, who last week created the highest passer rating in
Speaker 4: a wild Card round by a player in his first
Speaker 4: playoff game in NFL history, Like Stroud's the real deal,
Speaker 4: and it's just like, you know, you've taken away two
Speaker 4: of their top four pass catchers, but it doesn't matter,
Speaker 4: Like Nico Collins is heated up, and I really want
Speaker 4: to see what this Ravens defense second and EPA against
Speaker 4: the pass can do to solve Stroud, because I think Stroud,
Speaker 4: if you get last week's version, this to me is
Speaker 4: a dangerous The way I felt when the Browns were
Speaker 4: facing the Texans was like that the last team I
Speaker 4: wanted to deal with because the Texans, like the Packers,
Speaker 4: have nothing to lose, and it's like, I think there
Speaker 4: is this mounting pressure no matter what anyone says on
Speaker 4: the Ravens, on Lamar Jackson, because even if you're an
Speaker 4: MVP this year in a year, I kind of think
Speaker 4: there really is no true MVP in the sense that
Speaker 4: we would normally look at that award like there is
Speaker 4: mounting pressure on Lamar Jackson to win this playoff game
Speaker 4: if you lose this, Like the narrative on you is
Speaker 4: pretty cemented.
Speaker 3: Yes, seven, well it's submitted. It's well for Dak Prescott,
Speaker 3: right right right. It doesn't mean it can't be changed,
Speaker 3: but it be spent like it was for Peyton Manning
Speaker 3: at age twenty seven.
Speaker 6: Sure he and he eventually changed that as well.
Speaker 3: So, but you can't change any reputation or bad history
Speaker 3: around your game in the.
Speaker 1: Playoffs until you actually have that big performance.
Speaker 3: He has not been a good historically, not not only
Speaker 3: four playoffs starts, but he's one in three of those starts.
Speaker 6: The numbers have not been good.
Speaker 3: So Jackson, Yeah, they're just like there are some there
Speaker 3: there's a house of ghosts around Dallas. I don't think
Speaker 3: it's that way around Lamar. If it happened this weekend
Speaker 3: where he has a bad game and they get bounced
Speaker 3: in the first round, this is gonna be something really fallow.
Speaker 1: Harbaugh.
Speaker 5: For that matter, they have not been back to a
Speaker 5: conference championships.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's got the pelt on the.
Speaker 5: Wall saying they've had a lot of playoff losses since
Speaker 5: several years ago.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, and as far as you know, I have a
Speaker 3: lot of respec for obviously the Ravens and how they
Speaker 3: go about their business and how they prepare for teams
Speaker 3: and make teams look bad. They've had not just a
Speaker 3: couple of weeks here to get healthy, but also to
Speaker 3: study these Texans, and you watch it. We're just watching that,
Speaker 3: and you could check this out the show on the
Speaker 3: fast channels. You could look at that the highlights and
Speaker 3: it's just like, did the Browns even prepare for this game?
Speaker 3: The amount of wide open looks in the misdirection that
Speaker 3: left the Browns like completely spinning on their heels. I
Speaker 3: just don't see the Baltimore Ravens offering up that type
Speaker 3: of effort and performance CJ.
Speaker 1: Stroud.
Speaker 3: Then then you get to the big question Greg Stroud,
Speaker 3: who was absolutely different. He's a different type of rookie quarterback.
Speaker 3: But on this stage, if you start to cook him
Speaker 3: up a little bit and confuse him, does he start
Speaker 3: forcing the ball like young quarterbacks do and make the
Speaker 3: mistakes that turn this game into twenty four to seven
Speaker 3: in the third quarter.
Speaker 5: He's been so careful with the ball all year. He's
Speaker 5: the chance that they have that he beats perfect coverage,
Speaker 5: that he just has an electric game, that he's the
Speaker 5: best quarterback on the field that's possible, which is crazy.
Speaker 1: Asking so much for a rookie. It's twenty two year old.
Speaker 5: The reason why I'm not as worried about as the
Speaker 5: Ravens is like they've been in those games. They've been behind,
Speaker 5: they've been ahead, They've blown leads and then had to
Speaker 5: hold on to it.
Speaker 1: They've blown they've blown leads completely though.
Speaker 5: But there's so many different ways that they can win,
Speaker 5: whether it's offense or defense, and I think they'll have
Speaker 5: to keep up the Texans in this game. They haven't
Speaker 5: had a run game really all year. There's no reason
Speaker 5: to think it's going to start now. Marlon Humphrey's been
Speaker 5: out of practice. That's the one guy that hasn't come
Speaker 5: back to practice, So we'll see what his final injury
Speaker 5: designation is. But obviously that's a big one that their
Speaker 5: best cornerback. But I look at when Houston's on defense
Speaker 5: and I look at those linebackers and I just think
Speaker 5: they're gonna get picked on in this one Mark Andrews
Speaker 5: is practicing again, Suddenly you're gonna have to deal with Andrews,
Speaker 5: and likely they have a way of getting Flowers matched
Speaker 5: up sometimes over the middle of the field on these
Speaker 5: safeties and everything, and these Texan linebackers, they are a
Speaker 5: great run defense, whether it's who is it, Top, you know, Perriman,
Speaker 5: whoever's out there to too. There will be sometimes where
Speaker 5: they're in pass coverage and they're just bad. They're bad,
Speaker 5: And I just feel like that that's a spot where
Speaker 5: if the Texans, if the Ravens can't run the ball,
Speaker 5: and I could see this being it's like a three
Speaker 5: point game in the third quarter, like that's a lot
Speaker 5: of Ravens games are like that. But I think the
Speaker 5: passing game is where the Ravens end up having too
Speaker 5: many weapons. Even Rashad Bateman coming off his best game
Speaker 5: of the year, I think was significant in that Week
Speaker 5: seventeen game against the Dolphin.
Speaker 1: I think you.
Speaker 4: Need like the wideouts for Baltimore to be at their best.
Speaker 4: It's like it's it is on Zay Flowers to not
Speaker 4: have a kind of typical rookie playoff game where maybe
Speaker 4: you vanished a little bit. Odell Beckham he is heated up,
Speaker 4: and there's hope to think that can happen. But like
Speaker 4: the Nelson Aguil or Rashad Baateman, like these guys need
Speaker 4: to have a game in this thing. I mean, the
Speaker 4: Ravens are so tight on defense that they're thirteen and
Speaker 4: one when they've scored at least twenty points, and I
Speaker 4: do think that there's like a route a road for
Speaker 4: them to really handle the Texans if they can coax
Speaker 4: them into mistakes. But that has just not been CJ
Speaker 4: Stroud five interceptions all year. And the one thing about
Speaker 4: the Texans defense, which I think gets kind of overlooked
Speaker 4: a little bit, is that they've only allowed over one
Speaker 4: hundred and twenty five yards rushing once all year.
Speaker 1: And it was to the Cults, like they're a pretty good.
Speaker 4: Rush defense, and so if you can put Lamar into
Speaker 4: a situation where he has to pass and has to
Speaker 4: rely on his pass catchers, like that's where maybe mistakes come.
Speaker 4: But he's he has got seven touchdowns and zero picks
Speaker 4: over the last two routes that Baltimore has enacted on
Speaker 4: the Dolphins and the Niners. And so it's like this
Speaker 4: is the best version of the Ravens and they're very dangerous.
Speaker 6: Like I said at the top of the show.
Speaker 3: So it looks like eleven out of twenty two years,
Speaker 3: one of the number one.
Speaker 1: Seeds gets picked off. Crazy.
Speaker 3: So for everyone that's making their game picks going into
Speaker 3: this weekend, keep that in mind because you're just going
Speaker 3: to be attempted to just obviously circle the Ravens, circle
Speaker 3: the Niners, and then figure out the other two games.
Speaker 5: Historically, I suspect two nine and a half point spreads
Speaker 5: is higher than average, just putting that out there too,
Speaker 5: that these like by the numbers shit hit up Cole
Speaker 5: Noble on Yeah, that would be a lot, but like
Speaker 5: you know that these numbers are made by essentially just algorithms,
Speaker 5: and the out those algorithms spit out that the Ravens
Speaker 5: and the forty nine Ers are two of these strongest
Speaker 5: even though the records aren't crazy, but but the numbers
Speaker 5: would say they're the two of the very strongest one
Speaker 5: seeds we've had in a long time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Although I would say if you
Speaker 3: look at the data, and we don't have it unfortunately,
Speaker 3: so we're kind of up against the wall with the conversation.
Speaker 3: But I would a lot of times it's probably around
Speaker 3: six points at least. Yeah, once you have the number
Speaker 3: one seed involve Now, with that said, I do believe
Speaker 3: in the Ravens. I do think they will be the
Speaker 3: team that I feel most confident in this week weekend.
Speaker 3: And it's it's not a shot against the Texans or
Speaker 3: Mark Sessler directly, but the Ravens. I believe Mark are
Speaker 3: going to handle their business in a way they didn't
Speaker 3: the last time they were in this spot.
Speaker 6: So I'm going to lock up the Baltimore Ravens.
Speaker 1: You set us up there. I thought you were kind.
Speaker 3: Of as the zuzzer digs out of his own hole.
Speaker 3: I think I'm seven in on one in the last
Speaker 3: eight weeks in the pick.
Speaker 4: So I saw the figure from from our lock it
Speaker 4: Up account on Twitter that like no one has ever
Speaker 4: recorded less than ten wins in the law competition. Shoot,
Speaker 4: where are we at right now? I sit at nine
Speaker 4: and so you'd think I'm gonna you're good. I'm gonna
Speaker 4: go do the safe thing and get to ten. I
Speaker 4: don't care because I think that's an exciting record to
Speaker 4: set if I were to fail too. But I'm gonna
Speaker 4: do what I did last week because I think the
Speaker 4: Texans have a little bit of magic that no one
Speaker 4: sees coming. And so I'm sitting at nine and ten.
Speaker 4: Nobody in America cares about my lock score. I'm going
Speaker 4: at you in a law competent. It's gonna be very
Speaker 4: Texans way.
Speaker 3: After this weekend. Mark's record is nine to eleven. Can
Speaker 3: I just I know what you're doing?
Speaker 1: Now you're eleven and eight? He is, what nine and ten?
Speaker 4: I'll get to ten wins so that I don't have
Speaker 4: that thing. Maybe, but I'm gonna get it. This be
Speaker 4: harder the next two weeks to pick ite wrong. This
Speaker 4: week there's some big spreads you're more likely to pick.
Speaker 1: You know what Kaiser is doing over here? By the way,
Speaker 1: I got you all figured out what I think the
Speaker 1: same thing.
Speaker 3: Greggy with it with the sandwich props where he doesn't
Speaker 3: like where he is in the standings, so he shifts
Speaker 3: into now, I'm just going to be fully unpredictable guy,
Speaker 3: and my record is going to be really bad because
Speaker 3: I always go with crazy picks. And then it kind
Speaker 3: of mitigates that you've struggled in the standings because I'm
Speaker 3: just wild pigs guy.
Speaker 1: I'm wild Mark. He's only doing this after he's clinched
Speaker 1: last place. Anyway, walk walk up.
Speaker 5: We've already accepted it that he's going to be last told.
Speaker 4: I have said for months now that the Texans, Well, no,
Speaker 4: I'm actually I've said the Texans would win two playoff
Speaker 4: games for a long time now, so I'm standing behind that.
Speaker 3: I respect that shifting. Respect the hell. I thought you
Speaker 3: said they were going to get to the second round, you.
Speaker 1: Know, I said they didn't. I said they could. I didn't,
Speaker 1: But I'm now saying they will.
Speaker 5: This is the second straight week where, like the lock
Speaker 5: I think I was going to go with them, now
Speaker 5: not going to because you guys had a lockoff. It
Speaker 5: just seems fun.
Speaker 3: To be I'm quietly by the way, looking to because
Speaker 3: the standings mean a lot to me.
Speaker 1: Hashtag beat Greg in the second half.
Speaker 3: Now, that's what I'm going So if you if that
Speaker 3: motivates you in any way.
Speaker 1: No, I could care. I'm gonna say it doesn't. He's
Speaker 1: gonna say I.
Speaker 3: Don't care about anything now that he knows I want
Speaker 3: to beat him.
Speaker 5: You are five games back. This competition is so boring
Speaker 5: that it's already locked over last week.
Speaker 1: I've already picked up since it doesn't make it.
Speaker 4: No one is looking at first second half. It's in
Speaker 4: the law competition. Literally, I am here is because I
Speaker 4: know you too. Greg's mania now that he knows I'm
Speaker 4: tracking it, no needs it.
Speaker 1: Very in this case, you couldn't be more wrong. Nope,
Speaker 1: I'm right.
Speaker 5: This is as if the Ravens have already won their
Speaker 5: super Bowl for the fourth time in five years, and
Speaker 5: then they have to go on a barn storming tour
Speaker 5: that means absolutely nothing, Like can you imagine how anti
Speaker 5: climactic it is to continue.
Speaker 1: To give me that second half title?
Speaker 5: You've clinched it with five weeks to go, you were
Speaker 5: eliminated in week sixty.
Speaker 1: That's a disgrace. Give me that second half.
Speaker 4: I think you need to go to one of these
Speaker 4: I don't know if they still these stories, will they
Speaker 4: make the trophies?
Speaker 1: Right? Yeah, kids and stuff.
Speaker 4: You get a second half of the season trophy that
Speaker 4: you can have someone out there make it for Dan
Speaker 4: please send me.
Speaker 1: Well, I gotta win it first. I gotta win it.
Speaker 1: You will win it.
Speaker 3: I've won it, but you're not going to I've given Actually,
Speaker 3: I'm up a game on Greg right now for you when.
Speaker 4: I've just gone like, I hope people care about like
Speaker 4: Jimmy Johnson versus Michael Strahan's like game picks as much
Speaker 4: as they see.
Speaker 1: No one I assuming that.
Speaker 5: I have never once cared about those things when we
Speaker 5: watch them. So we're always the assumption that always makes worries.
Speaker 1: It always worries me. I don't worry.
Speaker 3: It keeps you up at night. I'm sure it's the
Speaker 3: passion in which the conversation happens. That's what it's about.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you could have a big wooden tro you could.
Speaker 4: You should also make it like a six foot tall
Speaker 4: trophy that you put.
Speaker 3: In your Well, I'm not going to make it. If
Speaker 3: someone makes me. I won the second half twenty There.
Speaker 5: Is a pathway to you making it. You've won it already,
Speaker 5: you're ordering it what do you mean, I wonder already
Speaker 5: I'm just saying you've won. I need to make it.
Speaker 1: Speaks sixth or whatever it is.
Speaker 3: That then it's that's I see what you're doing. I
Speaker 3: see what you're I'm trying to minimize my effort here,
Speaker 3: and what I'm trying to do is beat you in
Speaker 3: the second half of the season. You've got it, see,
Speaker 3: and you're trying to belittle me. And it's not successful
Speaker 3: because I will defeat you the way I must, which
Speaker 3: is from week nine on.
Speaker 4: So behind the glass like they'd made a grave era
Speaker 4: before the show, they told us that the Fast Channel
Speaker 4: can only hold an hour and fifteen minutes of content
Speaker 4: like keep the Fat, you know, kept the Fat, And
Speaker 4: we've gone on about twenty five little beef.
Speaker 6: This all right, let's get back on track.
Speaker 3: And by the way, this is the Joe Buck, Troy Aikman,
Speaker 3: Lisa Salters, Laura Rutland, Rutledge team. So we got a
Speaker 3: foursome here, and it is I was looking forward to because,
Speaker 3: by the way, the Ravens have now activated Dalvin Cook
Speaker 3: to the active roster and they and they waved Melvin
Speaker 3: Gordon and I thought I was hoping because I've been
Speaker 3: predicting that Dalma Cook will have a big playoff game
Speaker 3: to make Jets fans feel bad, and I was hoping
Speaker 3: it was gonna be it was gonna be Romo going
Speaker 3: ah Jim. It looks like he's got some gas in
Speaker 3: the tank. But it's Buck and Ekman. I don't know
Speaker 3: if we're gonna get the same enthusiasm about a big
Speaker 3: Cook game, not in the not in the fun way.
Speaker 1: Greg's mad about that.
Speaker 5: No, No, I don't foresee Dalvin Cook having much of
Speaker 5: a role.
Speaker 3: Why would he, Well, he's active, he's on the what
Speaker 3: if thet You're also perceiving him to suddenly be right
Speaker 3: that rash young great running back just because he left
Speaker 3: the Jets, Like I mean, the evidence that we've seen physically,
Speaker 3: I think.
Speaker 5: I would take my chances in this who the knows
Speaker 5: with this group, but uh that he does not finish
Speaker 5: in the top two or even three in rushing yards
Speaker 5: on the Baltimore Ravens, I think I would take Justice Sell,
Speaker 5: Lamar Jackson and Gus Edwards over.
Speaker 3: And I guess we'll have to say, we'll have to
Speaker 3: see anything else on this game.
Speaker 5: I just think it's Ryan's Domico Ryans's last chance to
Speaker 5: show how specially he is because Derek, Derek, Barnett, Desmond King,
Speaker 5: these guys were on other teams like very recently, and
Speaker 5: then he brings them into the Texans and they're really productive.
Speaker 5: To me, that's like the number one thing you can
Speaker 5: shows as a coach that you take other guys who
Speaker 5: weren't productive for their teams and you immediately put them
Speaker 5: into your system and they're productive. And I do think
Speaker 5: defensively with will and Anderson and Grenard, if Grenard is
Speaker 5: healthy and Barnett's been playing well, like that's maybe one
Speaker 5: spot that tackles for the Baltimore Ravens haven't been great.
Speaker 5: I'm with you, Dan, this is the game I'm most confident,
Speaker 5: and I'm not feel that way. That seems boring.
Speaker 1: I want to lock against both of you, but but I've.
Speaker 5: Been doing it all year with the Ravens. I do
Speaker 5: think I think it could be close and then they
Speaker 5: just pull away. By the way, the Ravens are minus
Speaker 5: for twenty five in this game.
Speaker 1: I'm taking the points too. I think this is a
Speaker 1: double digital win for me. I would too if I
Speaker 1: had to choose.
Speaker 4: But really, the Texans are allowing about twenty points a
Speaker 4: game all year long.
Speaker 1: That would mean they don't they.
Speaker 3: We're playing in the AFC South and know I like
Speaker 3: the Browns but didn't love them. This is this is now,
Speaker 3: They're in the big leagues. That's all now. Who knows,
Speaker 3: maybe they're one of those magic carpet ride teams. And
Speaker 3: in that case, Mark, you will be a happy man
Speaker 3: come Sunday night. Let's get to the second game on Saturday,
Speaker 3: the other big underdog affairs. So it's the Green Bay
Speaker 3: Packers who just horrified everyone in North Texas by slaughtering
Speaker 3: the Cowboys at Jarrow World. So their reward now is
Speaker 3: to go from Jarro World up to the bowel bottom
Speaker 3: to face the Niners, also nine and a half points.
Speaker 1: Isn't it crazy?
Speaker 7: The symmetry between the Texans and Packers absolutely like even
Speaker 7: to a yard and to a point on the passer
Speaker 7: rating and just the counting stats of what Stroud did
Speaker 7: and what Love did last week to where the teams
Speaker 7: are record wise to even the spread against the number
Speaker 7: one seed the following point exactly nine and a half.
Speaker 6: So it is the spider Man two spider Man meme
Speaker 6: thing going on.
Speaker 1: Here.
Speaker 3: Will this be another game mark that, like you say,
Speaker 3: you think the Texans win outright and shock the world
Speaker 3: in Baltimore, you give the Packers the same shot in
Speaker 3: Santa Clauda.
Speaker 4: This to me is a concerning matchup because I think
Speaker 4: the focus, if you look at it, is the Joe
Speaker 4: Berry defense. I mean, good defenses have not been able
Speaker 4: to stop the multi layered weaponry of the Niners. And
Speaker 4: it's guys like Devondre Campbell kway Walker trying to stop
Speaker 4: Christian McCaffrey. This feels to me like a Christian McCaffrey
Speaker 4: like outburst, and you kind of base it around that
Speaker 4: and then you go to town from there. I don't love
Speaker 4: the spread because I do think that if you just
Speaker 4: look at Jordan Love over the over the.
Speaker 1: Back half of the season has been incredible.
Speaker 4: He's led the NFL with nineteen offensive touchdowns on third
Speaker 4: and fourth down this season down the stretch, and like
Speaker 4: he's really only thrown like picks on downfield throws. He's
Speaker 4: been really efficient on shorter throws. He's got the second
Speaker 4: most touchdowns in the league. I just see an offense
Speaker 4: in Green Bay that has grown up, Like you know,
Speaker 4: even when you have like Matthew Stafford on the Super
Speaker 4: Bowl Rams, it took them half a season to really
Speaker 4: find out who they were and for everyone else to
Speaker 4: kind of warm up around Matthew Stafford. This is an
Speaker 4: more incredible story to me because it's like incredibly young,
Speaker 4: untested players who are becoming you know, they've got a
Speaker 4: star quarterback and really incredible weapons. Like Aaron Rodgers has
Speaker 4: to be watching this from Afar and saying where was
Speaker 4: this when I was here? Aaron Rodgers zero to three
Speaker 4: against the Niners in the playoffs as a Green Bay quarterback.
Speaker 4: Jordan Love I think has a better shot to inflict
Speaker 4: problems to the Niners defense than Aaron Rodgers did in
Speaker 4: the past, even when they were at home and freezing
Speaker 4: temperatures in that Green Bay offense couldn't do.
Speaker 1: A single thing.
Speaker 4: This is a completely different team, so I see a
Speaker 4: shootout potentially. I don't like this nine and a half
Speaker 4: points thing. But to your question, Dan, like the Niners
Speaker 4: just they're not going to crumble here. I think this
Speaker 4: team knows its own playoff history and they seem completely
Speaker 4: unified and ready to go to battle.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think no matter how well you think, Jordan
Speaker 5: Love is playing, he's probably playing better. Like right now,
Speaker 5: he's arguably the best quarterback in the league. Like it
Speaker 5: just that's the that's the level he is playing at
Speaker 5: because some of the those touchdown passes. Usually I think
Speaker 5: touchdown passes are a little overrated because it's a function
Speaker 5: of a team and you get down there, are you
Speaker 5: a team that runs on the goal line or team
Speaker 5: that passes. But these touchdown passes, including two of them
Speaker 5: last week, are like they're incredible dimes. Like the level
Speaker 5: of difficulty on these throws is just okay. And I
Speaker 5: I'm not going to go as far as you said,
Speaker 5: Mark that he's more dangerous than like peak Aaron Rodgers,
Speaker 5: although those teams for the Packers obviously didn't play well
Speaker 5: in the playoffs and we didn't see that coming next January, right, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 5: that's totally fair. But I would say, like this is
Speaker 5: a different Niners defense. I don't think it's as good
Speaker 5: as twenty nineteen. I know the numbers are overall pretty good.
Speaker 5: You can run against them. The way that Aaron Jones
Speaker 5: has been playing lately and the way this offensive line
Speaker 5: has been protecting Jordan Love is a huge part of
Speaker 5: why Jordan Love has been so good. He's been in
Speaker 5: favorable situations, the play actions obviously working really well. His
Speaker 5: numbers are just crazy, and even though the players are good,
Speaker 5: I think it's a tough matchup for the forty nine
Speaker 5: ers defense in a way that yes, maybe it can
Speaker 5: be a shootout. Hopefully you get the ball first like
Speaker 5: they did a year a week ago. And I really
Speaker 5: believe in the whole short in the game thing. Usually
Speaker 5: I'm not into the short in the game thing, but
Speaker 5: when you got a defense this bad and you're a
Speaker 5: team that goes on a long a lot of long drives,
Speaker 5: if it can be a tighter game where you have
Speaker 5: a couple of those seven minute drives and suddenly you're
Speaker 5: ahead on the road, that's the route I think for
Speaker 5: green Bay to win is a lot of long drives,
Speaker 5: running the ball, and I think they could do it.
Speaker 5: I think they could do it in terms of scoring
Speaker 5: enough points to keep it interesting.
Speaker 3: I think it's interesting if you're the forty nine Ers
Speaker 3: and you're watching that Cowboys game and you saw just
Speaker 3: the aggressive manner in which they just approached even the
Speaker 3: coin toss where Packers win the toss, they say we
Speaker 3: want the ball a lot of teams defer and to
Speaker 3: go right down the field.
Speaker 6: That set the tone for that entire game.
Speaker 3: And like I said on Sunday, just seeing the way
Speaker 3: Jordan Love is carrying himself on that first drive and
Speaker 3: the throws he was making in the comfort he had
Speaker 3: in the pocket, escaping the pockets, setting his feet, keeping
Speaker 3: his eyes up, putting it right on the money, It's
Speaker 3: like he's gonna do that. He's gonna come into San
Speaker 3: Francisco and be the same, like outstandingly confident quarterback. And
Speaker 3: I'm wondering if the Niner is, like even with the
Speaker 3: coin toss, like who wins the coin, would the Niners
Speaker 3: change their game plan to not put Love in that
Speaker 3: same situation? If do they want to get on the
Speaker 3: field first and try to like set the tone, because
Speaker 3: I think such a especially in the playoffs the very
Speaker 3: beginning of these games, if if you could get if
Speaker 3: you punch an underdog in the face, that can set
Speaker 3: the tone and you could take control early. But if
Speaker 3: you get the Green Bay Packers with another big score
Speaker 3: early to get rolling, it's gonna be the same thing
Speaker 3: in San Francisco that it was in Dallas, where the
Speaker 3: whole building gets quiet, and the nerves start to act up,
Speaker 3: and then maybe you make a mistake. Brock Purty, as
Speaker 3: much as we like Brock Party is not above making
Speaker 3: mistakes and forcing the ball. And I don't need to
Speaker 3: when you look at number one seeds and we could
Speaker 3: talk about how these are the best number one seeds.
Speaker 3: We're not that far removed from Christmas Night and and
Speaker 3: the Niners in a similarly huge spot at home getting
Speaker 3: absolutely torched by the Ravens and looking like a bad
Speaker 3: football team.
Speaker 6: They're not impervious.
Speaker 1: No, I'm with you on that, though, that's true.
Speaker 4: I say this though, like the if you look at
Speaker 4: green Bay's offense, like I think a lot of times
Speaker 4: with young teams that are like unplayoff tested, you go
Speaker 4: on the road and you get torch, you learn a lesson,
Speaker 4: you come back the next season. Like eight of green
Speaker 4: Bay's top offensive games in terms of EPA eight out
Speaker 4: of eleven have been on the road. Like their five
Speaker 4: highest point totals have been on the road, including last
Speaker 4: week when they destroyed Dallas. And it's like, I think
Speaker 4: this is a team that kind of liked the Texans.
Speaker 4: That's why there's such a mirror of each other. They
Speaker 4: don't even know what they don't know on some level,
Speaker 4: and it is it is this interesting matchup because it's
Speaker 4: like Shanahan offense versus Shanahan disciple offense. There's a lot
Speaker 4: it's like I always wonder what that kind of thing
Speaker 4: like Shanahan and Lafleur are teaching each other's defense is
Speaker 4: like how to handle each other's offenses.
Speaker 1: They practice against a lot of this.
Speaker 4: They're not identical, but it's like they come from the
Speaker 4: same you know, plant or tree or whatever you want
Speaker 4: to call it, whatever, shrubbery and and they're.
Speaker 5: Both like I thought it was funny a theme, and.
Speaker 4: I know, but it's just like it's like it's like
Speaker 4: like hedges. It's all like a long hedge, the same
Speaker 4: Earth's Earth they were covered. There was like a kind
Speaker 4: of a theme between sources and people the earth this
Speaker 4: week with these two teams that like both coaches are
Speaker 4: just so happy that they have quarterbacks who kind of
Speaker 4: just run the system, like Jordan.
Speaker 1: Love just first, like Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 5: Versus Aaron Rodgers and even Jimmy g to an extent,
Speaker 5: it was maybe not totally embracing like doing everything they
Speaker 5: were trying to meet in the middle where it's here,
Speaker 5: it's like these two guys are very similar in a
Speaker 5: way that they're great against pressure. Like their numbers when
Speaker 5: they're pressured has been excellent this year. Heavy play action. Uh,
Speaker 5: I would take Jordan Love long term over Brock Party.
Speaker 5: I don't even think that's controversial, though I'm sure some
Speaker 5: people would take Party. I don't think that'd be crazy either,
Speaker 5: but but Love is just that special. But man, I
Speaker 5: think I would still. I guess I would take the
Speaker 5: points here. But man, I don't think there's any chance
Speaker 5: that the forty nine Ers offense doesn't put up thirty
Speaker 5: five points in this game. And that's where I sort
Speaker 5: of disagree. Like if they're down fourteen three, yes, it'll
Speaker 5: be the playoffs and it'll be tense in there. I
Speaker 5: actually still have faith that this forty nine Ers team
Speaker 5: will get going unless the Packers can really shorten the
Speaker 5: game offensively. They are going to torture DeAndre Campbell and
Speaker 5: Quay Walker in this game, Kyle Shanahan will there's just
Speaker 5: too many weapons, I think, starting with CMC, I don't
Speaker 5: see a great scenario where the Packers run defense is
Speaker 5: like overly competitive in this game. It was nice for
Speaker 5: the Packers what they did last week. I still think
Speaker 5: the last six drives of the game count like a
Speaker 5: little bit, and more importantly, the rest of the game.
Speaker 1: The run as much as the first six.
Speaker 5: The first four they played four good drives and then
Speaker 5: they basically gave up touchdowns after that, they gave up
Speaker 5: a scoring drive.
Speaker 3: Base right, But they're in a totally different defense, just
Speaker 3: trying to lead at that point.
Speaker 1: People say that, but like they were just play.
Speaker 3: For four hundred yards in that game, and it's like
Speaker 3: we knew what was going on in that the last
Speaker 3: quarter and a.
Speaker 5: Half, I guess I put a ton more weight into
Speaker 5: the season as a whole than those four drives.
Speaker 4: They did generate turnovers, though they did against Jared Golf.
Speaker 3: That's what I'm saying, Like, why can't And I know
Speaker 3: it's a Joe Barry defense and it's been suspect throughout
Speaker 3: the year, but they the Dallas offense, which is not
Speaker 3: quite the San Francisco.
Speaker 1: It's not even close. I don't think.
Speaker 3: Okay, the goal post here, I mean we were singing
Speaker 3: Dax praises as if not the MVP right behind whoever
Speaker 3: wins it Ceedee Lamb who was playing at a level
Speaker 3: that was an all time wide receiver level. Jake Ferguson,
Speaker 3: Tony Pollard had a big game going into the playoffs,
Speaker 3: and there were a lot of people you know, Brandon
Speaker 3: Cooks was on the rise like that was a excellent
Speaker 3: Cowboys offense and all the data backs it up, and
Speaker 3: the Packers got them flustered early on, and because the
Speaker 3: offense played so well, it put the quarterback on the
Speaker 3: other side in a position where he was frazzled made mistakes.
Speaker 3: I'm just saying that I could see Rock pretty suffering
Speaker 3: the same fate if the Green Bay Packers would get
Speaker 3: off to a hot start. I think this is a
Speaker 3: game that I don't feel comfortable about the home team covering.
Speaker 3: I think Jordan Love and the Packers are playing at
Speaker 3: such a high level that I'm going to give them
Speaker 3: the benefit of doubt that their defense will find ways
Speaker 3: to slow down San Francisco and put pressure on the quarterback.
Speaker 3: And I think this is a close game. You know what,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna pick the Packers gonna do it. I'm not
Speaker 3: gonna lock it up, but I'm gonna say this is win.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna say this will be a year where both
Speaker 3: number one seeds don't survive and I'm gonna go something
Speaker 3: crazy thirty twenty seven.
Speaker 5: I think when you when you think about like how
Speaker 5: they could do it. Tarvarius Ward, I think was overlooked
Speaker 5: for the All Pro team. Ultimately he might be the
Speaker 5: dude him and Snead like he should have made first
Speaker 5: team maybe oversaws even on this year.
Speaker 1: And it's like, but Ward can only do so much.
Speaker 5: That's the thing about this Packers' offense is like you
Speaker 5: never know who's gonna pop up. Jane Reid didn't have
Speaker 5: a catch last week. He could be their leading receiver.
Speaker 5: Wicks like Ward can only cover one of those guys,
Speaker 5: Dobbs the tight ends. I'm with you, but man, I
Speaker 5: just disagree because I think this is the best forty
Speaker 5: nine Ers offense we've seen by far. And like, yeah,
Speaker 5: it was a good Cowboys offense, but they were like
Speaker 5: seventh in DVOA going into last week. The forty nine
Speaker 5: Ers have the best offense, you know, by the numbers
Speaker 5: of the last like five years, including their own forty
Speaker 5: nine Er things like Ayuk deebo everything. Everything I've been
Speaker 5: led to believe about this team is that they are special. Yes,
Speaker 5: Rashaan Gary could get around the end maybe on mckivitz,
Speaker 5: and like you could have a crazy turnover game.
Speaker 1: Anything can happen.
Speaker 5: The Packers are a worthy opponent being there, but nothing
Speaker 5: shows me that their defense is you can hold up
Speaker 5: for six sixty minutes. Now, this one doesn't seem as
Speaker 5: funny either. I think they'll cover. If I had to guess,
Speaker 5: I think it might be a little bit of a
Speaker 5: letdown of a Saturday.
Speaker 3: I think what it comes down to, Mark is I'm
Speaker 3: deep in my heart and I know it was the Ravens,
Speaker 3: But I guess I don't trust Brock either that I
Speaker 3: feel like he could make mistakes this game and that
Speaker 3: could potentially turn it. Like not just minor mistakes like
Speaker 3: Dak mistakes from last week that can swing a game,
Speaker 3: the one field position touchdown, whatever.
Speaker 4: To like to your like the prediction that you came
Speaker 4: up with there, Like there is one thing about these
Speaker 4: Shanahan teams and it's not good dates back years, but
Speaker 4: this year, like in close games, you know, they're one
Speaker 4: in four in close games and they in Brock Purdy
Speaker 4: and friends have been zero and four in like game
Speaker 4: winning drive opportunities and so if the Packers can hang around,
Speaker 4: they suddenly become more dangerous by the minute. But I
Speaker 4: think this will be a operation that allows the Niners
Speaker 4: to go two and four in close games.
Speaker 1: I think they're gonna win twenty seven four.
Speaker 3: And let's not forget Kyle Shannon has his share of
Speaker 3: ghosts as well, this time.
Speaker 5: But not you know, next but not this time of year,
Speaker 5: not this weekend. He actually, I believe leads all head
Speaker 5: coaches in playoff winning person but I'm.
Speaker 1: Saying he's blown title games, blown Super bowls.
Speaker 3: Okay, he hasn't blown a divisional round game yet, but
Speaker 3: his ability to close games in which they're winning in
Speaker 3: the second half, that's that's haunted in multiple So does
Speaker 3: Matt Lafleur.
Speaker 5: Sure, I mean, since week nineties are the best two
Speaker 5: offenses in the league by basically well, I.
Speaker 4: Mean, especially against the Niners. Actually, like so does Matt leff.
Speaker 5: Wright Like Shanahan's kind of own this match. I guess
Speaker 5: I hear what you're saying on Brock, and I think
Speaker 5: I'm out like slightly lower than consensus on Brock, And
Speaker 5: I hear what you're saying, but I just feel like, yeah,
Speaker 5: that's gonna happen if they ever run into a good defense,
Speaker 5: that's not gonna happen. They're not going to play a
Speaker 5: good defense this year until the Super Bowl. If they
Speaker 5: make it like there are no good defenses left in
Speaker 5: the NFC other than the forty one.
Speaker 3: I don't even know what a good defense is anymore
Speaker 3: in this league, to be honest with you, that we
Speaker 3: keep on seeing them get embarrassed and picked off.
Speaker 1: So one just got wax.
Speaker 5: I guess I would say ones that are capable of
Speaker 5: stepping up and having a like a difference making game,
Speaker 5: and I would say that last week, right, I would
Speaker 5: say that are capable. The Bills are capable, The forty
Speaker 5: nine Ers are capable. The Ravens are certainly capable of
Speaker 5: having those sort of games. These other games, these other teams,
Speaker 5: they're pretty mediocre.
Speaker 1: ARC, gotcha, I hear you.
Speaker 5: Ark Armstead is back by the way, and he has
Speaker 5: been the jengle piece in terms of their run defense,
Speaker 5: which is gonna be important for San Francisco.
Speaker 1: They're they're quite healthy.
Speaker 5: But same thing he said with the Ravens are true
Speaker 5: that forty nine Ers haven't played a game in forever,
Speaker 5: not only like have they not played in three weeks,
Speaker 5: but like think of the games they played after the
Speaker 5: raven that Ravens game. I guess it was just the
Speaker 5: Commanders and then they were rested. It started a long
Speaker 5: time ago, forever.
Speaker 3: Ah Jim any given Saturday night, all right, let's take
Speaker 3: a break.
Speaker 1: Did you pick the game?
Speaker 5: I'm gonna take the forty nine ers forty one to
Speaker 5: thirty one. Let's hell way over all right, let's have
Speaker 5: some fun. And by the way, the money line here
Speaker 5: forty nine ers minus for forty.
Speaker 3: All right, let's take a break, and when we get back,
Speaker 3: we'll hit a little bit of NFL news and then
Speaker 3: we'll hit the Sunday games.
Speaker 1: Welcome back.
Speaker 3: Yes, we'll take a little break now from the divisional
Speaker 3: round preview to what's going on in the news.
Speaker 6: And let's start with the new news out of Dallas.
Speaker 6: We just talked about it on the Wednesday show.
Speaker 3: What is the decision that will come out of Jarah
Speaker 3: world around Mike McCarthy in the future of that organization.
Speaker 3: After another disappointing playoff loss, this time in the wild
Speaker 3: Card round against the Packers, and the news broke late
Speaker 3: on Wednesday that Mike McCarthy will return to the Cowboys.
Speaker 3: Jerry Jones released a statement as well, detailing the team's
Speaker 3: unprecedented regular season success three straight years of twelve wins,
Speaker 3: but also putting it out there and letting it again,
Speaker 3: this is the ghost. We have struggled in the playoffs,
Speaker 3: but we believe what we have in place is good
Speaker 3: enough to eventually get over the hump. So Mike McCarthy
Speaker 3: will get a fifth year with the Cowboys, just like
Speaker 3: in his fifth year with the Packers, they won the
Speaker 3: Super Bowl. So that is what jarr is my track
Speaker 3: is on. If that makes any sense to you. Here
Speaker 3: is Zaddy himself, Zaddy who Yeah, he probably thought he
Speaker 3: was done just like everybody else on Sunday.
Speaker 1: Now he's back on the podium with the star.
Speaker 3: Behind him, ready to announce his plans for the future.
Speaker 8: I believe that the direction, you know, the leadership, everything
Speaker 8: is in place. And I'm not very comfortable talking about myself,
Speaker 8: but I came here to win a championship. I didn't
Speaker 8: come here to get another contract or no anything other
Speaker 8: than now. I came to Dallas that money championship and
Speaker 8: that's why I'm standing here and.
Speaker 1: Buy into us.
Speaker 3: Bye, Oh, Zaddy you're unkillable. We need to do a
Speaker 3: better job. By the way, on the headshot we're using
Speaker 3: for Zaddy, I mean.
Speaker 1: I think it's accurate. I don't have gregs.
Speaker 5: We had a long conversation about this because it was
Speaker 5: the same one Sunday Night Football was using.
Speaker 1: But he should take another.
Speaker 4: Dan wants like, like John Ham's picture to me, but
Speaker 4: it's like, that's not where we're going.
Speaker 1: He means, what are you John to shame McCarthy. I
Speaker 1: think it.
Speaker 4: I think McCarthy is a manly figure and that is
Speaker 4: an accurate headshot.
Speaker 1: I will leave it at that.
Speaker 4: And I would say one thing about this whole thing
Speaker 4: is you you kind of laid this out almost exactly
Speaker 4: that you kind of thought this would be a good
Speaker 4: idea for the Cowboys dance before these triple twelve win seasons,
Speaker 4: they had three out of four seasons where they won
Speaker 4: less than ten games and they were a non factor.
Speaker 4: I guess the one thing you could go on and
Speaker 4: I know that there's the like the non momentum Greg
Speaker 4: and Claybahn worlds, and I get that, but like not
Speaker 4: like I don't like you know, but.
Speaker 1: There is like this has nothing to do with the momentum, Well,
Speaker 1: let him cook. Let him cook. Greg, where's different.
Speaker 3: Than that, Mike McCarthy. Mike McCarthy, to your point, probably
Speaker 3: thought he was gone. Dak Prescott. People were questioning his future.
Speaker 3: He's coming off like a disaster.
Speaker 4: And like I think, if anything, this Cowboys team has
Speaker 4: so much to prove because this story is so embedded
Speaker 4: that no one's given pay attention during the regular season.
Speaker 4: Maybe not a momentum thing, but maybe like psychologically they
Speaker 4: are the team with the chip on their shoulder that said,
Speaker 4: I struggle to go down any of these paths ever
Speaker 4: again until they're literally being announced out of the tunnel
Speaker 4: at the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: Good luck with that. Where we're gonna talk about it.
Speaker 4: A lot, I know, but you know I'm saying it
Speaker 4: just I wonder if it's like it went so far
Speaker 4: they all thought it was so cooked and done.
Speaker 3: So perhaps back perhaps Greg, I oversimplified it a little
Speaker 3: bit yesterday when I said, all right, so McCarthy's in
Speaker 3: his contract year, Dak's in his contract year. Just let
Speaker 3: them play it out and let's see where the chips fall.
Speaker 3: The one catch here now is okay, so you brought
Speaker 3: back the head coach and I had thrown out this
Speaker 3: idea of, you know, make the team better, make some adjustments,
Speaker 3: have a nice draft, and maybe go at it one
Speaker 3: more year. It's a little more complicated in the sense
Speaker 3: that if you want to free up some dollars to
Speaker 3: help make the team better, that is in large part,
Speaker 3: you have to restructure Dax deal, which means getting in
Speaker 3: deeper with him, whether it's funny money or not.
Speaker 1: It goes from one year to.
Speaker 3: Potentially a big contract where he's the highest paid player
Speaker 3: in the world.
Speaker 1: So there is a there.
Speaker 3: There is still is this challenge to me where Okay,
Speaker 3: you're gonna let the coach play out his contract, but
Speaker 3: are you gonna now go all in on the quarterback?
Speaker 3: So that will be the next step. What did the
Speaker 3: Cowboys do with Dak's contract? That's gonna be a storyline
Speaker 3: like r or not as well this winter.
Speaker 5: I think they will adjust his contract, give him more money.
Speaker 5: We'll see you're keeping Mike McCarthy because you think he
Speaker 5: works with Dak Prescott. I don't think you keep Mike
Speaker 5: McCarthy to like bring in some new quarterback. It just
Speaker 5: it doesn't that doesn't make sense. I think there could
Speaker 5: be changes dan Quinn could get a job and be interesting.
Speaker 5: If he doesn't get a job, is he definitely back.
Speaker 5: There's some thought in Dallas that might be a change,
Speaker 5: which which is kind of wild. But I think this
Speaker 5: is both a reasonable decision, like it kind it makes
Speaker 5: sense and it probably won't work. But I don't know
Speaker 5: what else would by work. I mean, you make the
Speaker 5: super like the bar is so high. It's it's a
Speaker 5: veteran team, and they have some young players, certainly, but
Speaker 5: they have a lot of really good players. So unless
Speaker 5: you had a better option, to me that the number
Speaker 5: one problem is.
Speaker 1: There's something in the water.
Speaker 5: There's something there with Jerry Jones that they're built up
Speaker 5: to be these huge superstars in Dallas, and it's like,
Speaker 5: I don't know, I don't know what it is. They're
Speaker 5: bad at self scouting, whatever it is, like they can't
Speaker 5: get over the hump. But I think this is probably
Speaker 5: their best chance to have another crack at it. I
Speaker 5: don't hate it. I'm with you, Dan Christ and I'm
Speaker 5: not even a big McCarthy fan. I just don't have
Speaker 5: any I think whatever's going on there is bigger than
Speaker 5: Mike McCarthy, and I trust actually Mike McCarthy and this
Speaker 5: staff to at least get another crack at it, more
Speaker 5: than Jerry Jones starting anew with some.
Speaker 1: New guy like that seems even like a worse.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's enough evidence that that is probably the likely
Speaker 4: scenario that they get back to the playoffs.
Speaker 3: And the statement that I was referring to that Jarah
Speaker 3: put out, he includes in it while we're all dissip
Speaker 3: pointed with the result on Sunday and with our playoff record,
Speaker 3: I am one hundred percent supportive of him as our
Speaker 3: head coach and ability to reach our goals. It's like,
Speaker 3: even in the statement you're talking about the failures in
Speaker 3: the playoffs, which just they're like they're I mean, they're
Speaker 3: America's team, and they're the narratives and the storylines around
Speaker 3: them are so ingrained that even in the statement where
Speaker 3: you're just announcing you're staying with the coach, you have
Speaker 3: to mention that, oh, yeah, we suck in the playoffs,
Speaker 3: and that will carry him into next January and the
Speaker 3: weight will get that much more and we shall see
Speaker 3: if they hell you got to get to the playoffs.
Speaker 1: For us, nothing is assumed.
Speaker 3: It's just such a long climb and That's why I
Speaker 3: think that was in part so devastating for them to
Speaker 3: just just bottom out the way they did it.
Speaker 5: I don't need like the over I know it's Zaddy's thing,
Speaker 5: but like the whole, like, hey, trust me, like all that.
Speaker 5: Now they're gonna like overcome and say by talking to confident.
Speaker 5: There is a report, by the way from ed Ward
Speaker 5: or that dan Quinn will be back if he doesn't
Speaker 5: get a head coaching job.
Speaker 3: So and that makes sense to even though they did
Speaker 3: struggle down the street. That is the new rallying cry
Speaker 3: mark buy into US, buy into US.
Speaker 1: Preswee, wasn't that it last?
Speaker 4: I have to participate, but I don't like emotionally it
Speaker 4: worked on me.
Speaker 6: No, you can do buy into us, buy into US.
Speaker 4: I will in terms of like having to speak about them,
Speaker 4: to Greg's point, we will have to speak about them
Speaker 4: all right.
Speaker 3: In other news, Hey, listen this Bill Belichick coaching the
Speaker 3: Atlanta Falcons thing.
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna happen.
Speaker 3: Rap Sheet reported on Thursday, citing sources colon former Patriots
Speaker 3: coach Bill Belichick. We'll have a second interview with the
Speaker 3: Falcons Bress this weekend after meeting with owner Arthur Blank
Speaker 3: one on one this past week. Things are ramping up
Speaker 3: with the greatest coach of all time. Josina Anderson also
Speaker 3: reported about the dynamics between Belichick and Rich McKay, the
Speaker 3: CEO there, and the idea that they that's the best
Speaker 3: fit for Belichick when compared to any other potential land
Speaker 3: spot in terms of their ability to work together, whatever
Speaker 3: that means.
Speaker 5: So it's like the CFO. So, but what about the GM.
Speaker 5: There are they going to get rid of? Get rid
Speaker 5: of him?
Speaker 1: Who knows GM's done a pretty good job. I think yeah,
Speaker 1: from the Saints.
Speaker 5: What if you're like Brian Johnson, it's the Eagles offensive
Speaker 5: coordinator who interviewed for the Falcons head coaching job today,
Speaker 5: It's like you must be feeling like you are just
Speaker 5: wasting your time. Brian Callahan interviewed at Giro Everro and
Speaker 5: Anthony Weaver, all these other guys. Antonio appears they've interviewed
Speaker 5: a lot of people, and yet it just feels like,
Speaker 5: if they can make it work with Belichick, it's gonna
Speaker 5: be Belichick. I'm this is gonna be wild. I'm gonna
Speaker 5: wait for it to happen to Yeah, McKay is the CEO.
Speaker 5: There by the way, Yes, the GM dynamic, This is
Speaker 5: Justina's reporting. The GM dynamic in Atlanta is presumably more
Speaker 5: palatable for Bill in Flowery.
Speaker 6: Branch, that's where Falcon's headquarters is.
Speaker 3: Then it would be in Philly, And as mentioned, both
Speaker 3: sides have been talking about it through this for a while.
Speaker 1: That's my previous reports. I expect Bill Belichick.
Speaker 3: To reunite with some members of his former staffs whenever
Speaker 3: he makes it official. That's the other big part of
Speaker 3: this is what does Arthur Blank. Because Arthur Blank is
Speaker 3: not a dumb man. Arthur Blank saw what happened in
Speaker 3: New England in those final years and is gonna probably
Speaker 3: be saying to Bill like Bill, w're we're gonna let
Speaker 3: you shop for some groceries here. You're gonna have a
Speaker 3: voice and how the team gets built. But your STAB's
Speaker 3: gonna work.
Speaker 1: But less time. I don't think he is even gonna tiptoe.
Speaker 1: I think Arthur Blake will say that herds of saying
Speaker 1: anything like that, I don't what really I mean. I
Speaker 1: guess then this isn't gonna work. Greg.
Speaker 3: If the owner and these owners are very confident men,
Speaker 3: successful people, He's not gonna be afraid of Bill Belichick
Speaker 3: to say.
Speaker 1: I think he is. I think it's very clear.
Speaker 5: I think he's gonna be like, he's not gonna be
Speaker 5: telling him what to do with his coaching staff.
Speaker 1: First of all, owners shouldn't be doing that to any coach.
Speaker 5: He's gonna let the coach decide his coaching staff or else,
Speaker 5: what's the point of being ahead.
Speaker 6: It's not telling Bill what to do.
Speaker 3: It's conversations about what went wrong near the end, and
Speaker 3: obviously some issues with the coaching staff played a part
Speaker 3: in the demise of that Tina.
Speaker 4: I think that's a fair I get that it's because
Speaker 4: it's Bill Belichick. The dynamic is different than if you
Speaker 4: were hiring like a coordinator to a head coach.
Speaker 5: I'm the guy isn't flying out to Carolina to interview
Speaker 5: Chris Tabor. He's flying on his jet to interview Belichick
Speaker 5: because Belichick's interviewing him.
Speaker 1: But flip it around, though, Greg, you're emotional because it's
Speaker 1: stilland it's not so much forget what the owner is doing.
Speaker 4: I think it's a fair concern for like the Falcons fans,
Speaker 4: like you're getting a latter era Bill Belichick, who wants
Speaker 4: to hire like four assistant coaches and three of them
Speaker 4: are from his family. It's like what I would like
Speaker 4: to think that Bell, Like can he change the way
Speaker 4: he finished in New England?
Speaker 1: Or is it gonna just be You're gonna have like a.
Speaker 5: Year old owner who wants a title before he dies.
Speaker 5: And it's a sort of not a confident move. It's
Speaker 5: more like, man, I'm out of ideas of how to
Speaker 5: do this normal way, so you just want this to fail.
Speaker 5: That's what's going on here? What are you talking about?
Speaker 3: You don't want Bill to have a successful second act out.
Speaker 5: If you don't think I'd becoming a Falcons fan when
Speaker 5: Bill Belichick is theread coach you're missing.
Speaker 1: But you're calling it desperate.
Speaker 3: You're calling desperate and like this is a move that
Speaker 3: an owner that's getting older is making it.
Speaker 5: Yes, because that's I don't know about thinking clearly, but
Speaker 5: I think it's sort of just like we've tried it
Speaker 5: all the normal ways here, take my franchise.
Speaker 1: That's basically and that's you know, do.
Speaker 4: You also think that Bill Belichick is a fraction of
Speaker 4: his former self? Or is or is Arthur blank Hyrine
Speaker 4: the best coach of all time.
Speaker 5: I don't think he's the same as he was. I
Speaker 5: think there's a scenario where it could work out pretty well.
Speaker 3: I mean, you better get him a quarterback. That's that's
Speaker 3: goes without saying.
Speaker 5: Right away, I mean you could go win that division,
Speaker 5: Kirk Cousin, you could have some fun. It's gonna be
Speaker 5: a good game day coach. I think he might be
Speaker 5: reinvigorated a little bit.
Speaker 3: I think it's well and yes, we're going to get
Speaker 3: to when it becomes official, but well worth the gamble,
Speaker 3: unless like Charlie Weiss is the offensive coordinator, Like well,
Speaker 3: someone talked to Bill about getting some fresh young minds
Speaker 3: in the bill.
Speaker 4: Does a team that pumped in fake crowd noise into
Speaker 4: their stadium want to sell more tickets or sell out
Speaker 4: every game?
Speaker 1: You would with Bill Belichick, Absolutely, and not they weren't already.
Speaker 5: If you don't think Josh McDaniels is his offensive coordinator,
Speaker 5: I guess.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: This is crazy, it's happened, but they did have success together.
Speaker 1: Yeah with Tom Brady.
Speaker 4: We'll look at Josh McDaniels anywhere else minus Tom Brady
Speaker 4: like the Rams, like last look, well.
Speaker 6: Check anywhere else without Tom Brady.
Speaker 5: Well, we're gonna go that round, you know, if we're
Speaker 5: gonna go down that road. Mac Jones almost one Rookie
Speaker 5: of the Year with Josh McDaniels over Jamar Chase. He
Speaker 5: went to the Pro Bowl. So that's I don't hate McDaniels.
Speaker 5: Under the most recent I don't.
Speaker 1: Want Josh mctamos's head coach. OC is a little different.
Speaker 3: Yeah, do you want to hit on what's going on
Speaker 3: in here in Los Angeles with the Chargers too?
Speaker 5: Well, just quickly. They interviewed Mike Rabel today, which was interesting.
Speaker 5: They've interviewed a lot of people for their GM and
Speaker 5: HA as well. Head coach Jim Harbaugh was one, Dan
Speaker 5: Quinn was one, Leslie Fraser, our coworker was one. Hey,
Speaker 5: I think they gave Kellen Moore. Remember Kellen Moore? He
Speaker 5: was the hot guy last year at this time, bert
Speaker 5: uh not happening now.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So they've had a variety of interviews, but it's been interesting.
Speaker 5: Quiet a round, variable go defensive coach.
Speaker 3: Interesting man her, I feel like that's Harbor's job to lose,
Speaker 3: but maybe the listen, you also got to pay him
Speaker 3: or the Charger is going to pay.
Speaker 5: He also keep interviewing guys who have connections to Harbor
Speaker 5: there for the GM job, so I think you would
Speaker 5: be right. And then yeah, Cliff Kingsbury got an interview
Speaker 5: as the OC with Chicago, which is interesting because he
Speaker 5: was the quarterbacks coach of Caleb Williams last year and
Speaker 5: as the USC fans will note, the year where Caleb
Speaker 5: Williams looked much worse than the year before when Cliff
Speaker 5: Kingsbury wasn't there, you know, for what it's worth.
Speaker 6: I'm looking at what like c J.
Speaker 3: Shroud's doing this year, and I'm like, if I'm the
Speaker 3: owner of the Chargers, and like, I don't have to
Speaker 3: deal with Arba being a pain in the asthma, just
Speaker 3: go get the OC Slowick pair of him with Justin.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's got a.
Speaker 3: I don't have to deal with all the other stuff,
Speaker 3: and maybe I get a guy that's on the come
Speaker 3: up that's much cheaper that feels like a potential Chargers
Speaker 3: move too.
Speaker 4: I mean I would say this when they went and
Speaker 4: got Brandon Staley, there was a similar DNA of like
Speaker 4: a really young hot coach. I mean, Slowick has had
Speaker 4: I think eight years in the league, and I think
Speaker 4: the first seven he was a defensive coach, an assistant
Speaker 4: and three offensive then an offensive coordinator.
Speaker 1: So he's young.
Speaker 3: He's got to work sell that too, and he worked
Speaker 3: in an interview. I work on both sides of the ball.
Speaker 3: We wrote work for a pro football focus. I mean
Speaker 3: that's there's a lot of Brandon Staley like elements going
Speaker 3: on there. I don't know if it's it's a little
Speaker 3: bit of a risk, but he's certainly like shown we
Speaker 3: can do this year.
Speaker 1: Spicy. All right, let's get back to the games.
Speaker 3: Let's head to Sunday, the early game, the Tampa Bay
Speaker 3: Buccaneers head to Ford Field to face the Lines. Now
Speaker 3: this is also a size he spread six and a
Speaker 3: half points. The Bucks are a four seed NFC South champion.
Speaker 3: Who you know, put the woeful. I'm gonna say it.
Speaker 3: I can't believe I'm going to say this. Never thought
Speaker 3: I would. The moribund Eagles were put to put to
Speaker 3: sleep on Monday night. So the Bucks advance and get
Speaker 3: the Lions coming off that one point win over the
Speaker 3: Rams in one of the most emotional and fun moments
Speaker 3: in modern history for the Lions. So Tariko back on
Speaker 3: the call back in Detroit with Collinsworth and Stark on
Speaker 3: the sideline like it, Greg, I really love this game
Speaker 3: because I think you got all the fun as a
Speaker 3: football fan. You're gonna get to enjoy that again, about
Speaker 3: the vibe in Detroit and all the history around the team,
Speaker 3: And then you got this Tampa Bay team that is
Speaker 3: in full on nobody believes in US mode and no
Speaker 3: one's rooting for us.
Speaker 1: We have nothing to lose. And who's the one.
Speaker 3: If you had to pick one middle of the road
Speaker 3: quarterback to be the guy that's walking out on the
Speaker 3: field there, it's Baker.
Speaker 1: It's Baker.
Speaker 5: Right when you said earlier this week, you know, usually
Speaker 5: when you get to this point in the season, there's
Speaker 5: like six or seven teams that have a real shot
Speaker 5: or exciting there's one surprise team, and there's one that you
Speaker 5: don't think should shouldn't really be there. And you thought
Speaker 5: this these matchups were great because we didn't have one
Speaker 5: of those teams. And as you were saying that, I
Speaker 5: thought you were setting up that the Bucks are that team. Now,
Speaker 5: they're fun and they they've earned their way here, but
Speaker 5: over the course the season, they've been mediocre, They're pretty
Speaker 5: average on offense, their average on defense. They have players
Speaker 5: we recognize and they have moments, but they haven't really
Speaker 5: shown any thing over the course of the season until
Speaker 5: that wildcard game where they could have like a big
Speaker 5: time statement victory, like barely convincing when that was their
Speaker 5: best game of the season. It was against a team
Speaker 5: that looked like they were ready to go home. It's
Speaker 5: just what Baker we get, and it's usually whether you
Speaker 5: get pressure on him or not. It's not a secret
Speaker 5: these two quarterbacks. Their numbers are outstanding when they're not pressured,
Speaker 5: and they're not great when they are pressured. It's just
Speaker 5: Goff is even more extreme than Baker, But can you
Speaker 5: get pressure on him. Maybe it's Aiden Hutchinson versus Goodeki
Speaker 5: on the right side, but they've played well for the
Speaker 5: most part. In that first matchup, Tristan Wurf's handled the
Speaker 5: hell out of Aiden Hudginson. He had his worst game
Speaker 5: of the entire season. They move Hutchinson around, so sometimes
Speaker 5: he's in the middle and on the right tackle. But
Speaker 5: if you cann TechEd Baker, you're gonna have a little
Speaker 5: bit of a chance. I think the Rams made the
Speaker 5: Lions linebackers especially look lost, look bad in coverage last week,
Speaker 5: and that's where you can get Chris Godwin or you
Speaker 5: can get Kate out and over the middle of the
Speaker 5: field and Baker can do work there.
Speaker 4: It was a while ago, but when they played the
Speaker 4: Detroit Lions won twenty to six in guard game.
Speaker 1: It was a weird game that.
Speaker 4: I mean, the Lions had almost nothing on the ground,
Speaker 4: but they're the running backs were banged up.
Speaker 1: That was the lowest points the Bucks have scored all year.
Speaker 4: But goff when he's played Tampa's defense with he's got
Speaker 4: a two to one record. He's got at least three
Speaker 4: hundred and fifty three passing yards in every one of
Speaker 4: those games he's thrived. So I think it's it's kind
Speaker 4: of interesting because like the history of these two quarterbacks
Speaker 4: obviously both discarded by their first teams, like it was
Speaker 4: golf that last week brought to Troit, like the decades
Speaker 4: weighted playoff game. I mean, Baker Mayfield did the same
Speaker 4: for Cleveland, and so I find it interesting on that front,
Speaker 4: Like they're both in playing style, You're wondering which quarter
Speaker 4: back makes the most mistakes because that probably leads to
Speaker 4: DNA of where the game goes. But I don't know
Speaker 4: if you were the Niners and they did the playoffs
Speaker 4: differently and the number one seed could pick which team
Speaker 4: they wanted to play, of course you're picking the Bucks
Speaker 4: of all these teams that are left, Like you wouldn't
Speaker 4: want to play the Packers.
Speaker 1: I feel like that's sort of a ridiculous situation.
Speaker 4: And I Detroit, like this is one team where like
Speaker 4: the home stadium, the journey matters a lot. I think
Speaker 4: crowd noise last week, the energy in that place galvanized
Speaker 4: the team, and it's I guess it's simplistic to say
Speaker 4: all that, but it's like you are human beings in
Speaker 4: an environment where like you're in a Roman colisseum, and
Speaker 4: the crowd is going to pays.
Speaker 6: Absolutely. They talked after the game.
Speaker 4: I think I think if you're the Lions, you've got
Speaker 4: to be thrilled that you got a really hot and
Speaker 4: cold Bucks team that last week. And I think, look
Speaker 4: at I couldn't have been happier for Mayfield. And the
Speaker 4: Bucks have better players than people realize. They've got a
Speaker 4: good group of wide receivers. Their running game has been
Speaker 4: a little bit better. I don't think they'll happen this week.
Speaker 4: But it's like when the Bucks falter, they really do.
Speaker 4: And we saw that they almost lost to the Panthers
Speaker 4: two weeks ago. So I think if you're Detroit, you've
Speaker 4: got to be like pretty thrilled with this matchup.
Speaker 1: H Yes, I agree with that.
Speaker 3: I mean, they they it's set up very well for them,
Speaker 3: because even if we and we all knew that even
Speaker 3: before that game was played, because it was like the
Speaker 3: winner of this Rams Lions game gets the corpse. That
Speaker 3: was the Eagles or the Bucks, who were not a
Speaker 3: highly respected team coming out of a weak division. But
Speaker 3: I just I also just in fairness to the Bucks,
Speaker 3: just you don't think about it this way, but they've
Speaker 3: lost one game since the calendar turned over to December,
Speaker 3: like they have been playing winning football, building confidence. And
Speaker 3: Baker was banged up obviously throughout the end of that season,
Speaker 3: but he didn't look that way this past Monday night.
Speaker 1: So and they said he's full, he's almost fully healthy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, I don't remember him taking any
Speaker 1: huge legs in that game. I was feeling pretty dangerous.
Speaker 3: And I really like and now the question to me
Speaker 3: is can the Bucks defense which is filled with veterans
Speaker 3: and dudes that have been through the wars before.
Speaker 6: Can they put the pressure on golf?
Speaker 3: Golf was outrageous in the wildcard round one for twenty
Speaker 3: one for two sixty six in a touch when he
Speaker 3: wasn't pressured in that game.
Speaker 1: So he will, as we've seen.
Speaker 5: All sprazzled a few times in the big spots and
Speaker 5: almost lost them game with that.
Speaker 1: With that latter row with the saker, he ended up tripping.
Speaker 3: He was pressured on thirty percent of his dropbacks per
Speaker 3: next Gen Stats, and was one of six for eleven yards.
Speaker 3: And that's kind of isn't that the story forever? Greg
Speaker 3: that It's like it can change real quick with Goff
Speaker 3: and it all depends on making him move his feet
Speaker 3: and speed him up a little bit.
Speaker 6: Can the Bucks defense do that right?
Speaker 5: He's been great against the Blitz, which is against what
Speaker 5: you have thought of over the course of the season.
Speaker 5: And I think it's more because they're great as an
Speaker 5: offense against the Blitz. You thought about it, I thought
Speaker 5: about on Monday night. It's not about just Jalen Hurts.
Speaker 5: It's about the offensive line. It's mostly about the coaching.
Speaker 5: Ben Johnson has had answers. He had answers in that
Speaker 5: first game. Even though they couldn't finish drives, they moved
Speaker 5: the ball really well against the Bucks throughout, So it's
Speaker 5: good that they've already seen him. This line's offensive line
Speaker 5: has a reputation of being great. There's been times this
Speaker 5: year where I don't think they've played great, but they
Speaker 5: should win the matchups on the outside here the Bucks
Speaker 5: pass rushers aren't great on the outside. On the inside,
Speaker 5: it's Vea and it's Canty and Claijah Canty was awesome
Speaker 5: last week. I think that's a good on good matchup.
Speaker 5: But that's maybe where the Lions are a little weakner
Speaker 5: weaker up front with it with Glasgow or whoever, it's
Speaker 5: gonna be even ragnow I think struggled last week. If
Speaker 5: you can get some interior pressure on Jared Goff like
Speaker 5: you have a chance in this game. Obviously, I think it.
Speaker 4: Matters that, you know, they talked about Sam Laporta being
Speaker 4: like another healthier week, like he's getting better, played well
Speaker 4: last week.
Speaker 1: I mean it kind of didn't even look hurt to me.
Speaker 4: Aman Ross Saint Brown almost never gets talked about and
Speaker 4: like he couldn't have been more dangerous a week ago.
Speaker 4: It's like, if you're the Bucks, you've got to shut
Speaker 4: down a lot more weapons than you did last week
Speaker 4: when you played an AJ Brown free Eagles team was
Speaker 4: falling apart at the seams they give.
Speaker 5: They give up a ton of big plays all year.
Speaker 5: The Bucks are a solid run defense and they've given
Speaker 5: up a as many explosive plays as any team in
Speaker 5: the NFL. And so it could be like a Jamison
Speaker 5: Williams type of game. Get getting vertical because they they
Speaker 5: take their chances and they leave Jamel Dean and Carlton
Speaker 5: Davis on an island sometimes and it just it doesn't
Speaker 5: work out. The Bucks, on the other hand, they're always
Speaker 5: trying to go deep and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
Speaker 5: Baker is such a like a high variable quarterback. I
Speaker 5: don't think he's had like an incredible year, but I
Speaker 5: think he has been the best version of Baker where
Speaker 5: he's about the average starting quarterback. That the way he
Speaker 5: gets to average, though, is like he's had six or
Speaker 5: seven really impressive games and he's quietly had about six
Speaker 5: like awful games, and he so he's his average is
Speaker 5: not like just staying right in the middle.
Speaker 1: It's either it's gonna be great or it's not gonna
Speaker 1: be great.
Speaker 5: And I don't know. The Lions give up a lot
Speaker 5: of big plays. They're not a great defense. They're much
Speaker 5: better stopping the run than they are stopping the past.
Speaker 5: Maybe I think relatively they are a good batchup.
Speaker 3: I think I don't you know. I'll pick the lines here,
Speaker 3: but I love this game. I just think it really
Speaker 3: sets up well. And for Baker, who has always been
Speaker 3: like him or not, has always been good theater, I
Speaker 3: really do, it would not stun me if, like a
Speaker 3: major conversation Sunday night is holy Baker went off and
Speaker 3: is playing in the NFC title game, because I just
Speaker 3: think he's all about getting into these pockets, right, these
Speaker 3: pockets of confidence, and where the moment meets him as
Speaker 3: unlikely as it may be, and then he seizes it. Now,
Speaker 3: could it go the other way? And he has four picks? Yes,
Speaker 3: but I think he balls out in this game. And
Speaker 3: then it becomes does the Detroit offense have the ability
Speaker 3: to put up thirty points? And I think they will,
Speaker 3: but I think I'm gonna do a Sessler special here.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna go Lions thirty one, Bucks thirty and like
Speaker 3: a classic, a divisional round classic, and that's my pick.
Speaker 4: The Bucks are one and six when they've allowed more
Speaker 4: than twenty points, and I think that says a lot
Speaker 4: about some of their offensive games, like where they've not performed.
Speaker 1: I think the Lions take care of business.
Speaker 4: It's a more intriguing matchup than I would have thought
Speaker 4: it was a couple months ago. I'm gonna go Detroit
Speaker 4: twenty seven, Bucks sixteen.
Speaker 5: I hear you guys on the crowd being a factor,
Speaker 5: but Baker Mayfield actually said he talked to some of
Speaker 5: the Rams players, you know, two Rams legends here going
Speaker 5: at it, Goff and Baker Mayfield, and the Rams said
Speaker 5: they've never been in a building like that. They just
Speaker 5: thought and they handled it well. Ultimately that maybe that
Speaker 5: affected those early timeouts, but you know, they were moving
Speaker 5: the ball on the Lions. I think the Lions defense
Speaker 5: has more answers than people realize. That the Lions are
Speaker 5: minus two seventy eight in this game, and I think
Speaker 5: Brian branch On Godwin, he can slow him down enough.
Speaker 5: You're getting some health back here. I think James Houston
Speaker 5: is gonna be active for this game, so Alie McNeil's
Speaker 5: been added to the mix here. They're a little better,
Speaker 5: and I think people have kind of missed how incredibly
Speaker 5: good Aiden Hutchinson had been the last three weeks. Twenty
Speaker 5: three pressures and it's not like twenty three pressures in
Speaker 5: three weeks, where it's like twenty one hurries. No, it's
Speaker 5: seven sacks, eight quarterback hits and uh, I think six
Speaker 5: more hurry. So I like their defense, I like their offense.
Speaker 5: I like all the Lions. Well that's a lock it up.
Speaker 1: Heyo, that's a solid lot. But you might be sweating it.
Speaker 1: That's all I'm saying. I kinda. I wouldn't be surprised
Speaker 1: if I am sweating it.
Speaker 5: But uh, this is what you can do when you
Speaker 5: when you finished the competition, just pick pick the teams
Speaker 5: you like, maybe.
Speaker 1: In your mind. That's what I'm doing about the saddle.
Speaker 4: The same note, I'm also I've finished the competition and just.
Speaker 6: Going you're looking to shock the world.
Speaker 1: Everybody's got competitions going on right now.
Speaker 5: Lions minus six and a half in the money line
Speaker 5: is negative to seventy eight for Detroit.
Speaker 3: By the way, the weather in Detroit, ooh boy, it
Speaker 3: is going to be cold, sub zero, who knows, maybe
Speaker 3: some snow and Todd Bowles was asked about this.
Speaker 1: The Lions, by the way, played in the Dome for fifty.
Speaker 9: Years, looking forward towards Detroit, the weather it has been
Speaker 9: a factor in some of the playoff games, even for
Speaker 9: the most prepared teams. Today it's thirteen in Detroit, which
Speaker 9: doesn't compare to some of those any special plans to
Speaker 9: acclimate the team to only endure, but perform in those.
Speaker 1: It's a long question. Do you know we play indoors,
Speaker 1: right and the other a dome. I don't.
Speaker 3: No nothing playing We're indoors and we have to be
Speaker 3: outside for twenty seconds getting off the bus going under
Speaker 3: the thing.
Speaker 1: So what was he going to say he handled? I mean,
Speaker 1: I think a lot of I could he could have
Speaker 1: buried that poor one.
Speaker 4: I think a lot of people have, you know, suspected
Speaker 4: that was not a sports reporter.
Speaker 1: But now this local news, this is.
Speaker 5: A playoffs thing where you see the local news kind
Speaker 5: of flies in for the first time.
Speaker 3: But I mean, I'm sure she wanted to fifty years though.
Speaker 3: You know, from the Silver Dome to Ford Field, this
Speaker 3: isn't new. It's not like they It reminds me of
Speaker 3: the first big time when I was twenty three years
Speaker 3: old at the Journal News. They sent me to cover
Speaker 3: a Mets game, a Mets Rockies game, and I was
Speaker 3: over the moon. It was a dream come true to
Speaker 3: cover a major League baseball game. And they sent me,
Speaker 3: me and this other guy, Jeff, and we were filling
Speaker 3: in for Pete Abraham, who now covers the Red Sox
Speaker 3: with the Globe, but back then covered the Mets. So
Speaker 3: it was September, it was they were playing out the string,
Speaker 3: and so they sent the two young kids there just to.
Speaker 1: Get some reps and give them an experience.
Speaker 3: Damn it, it's the eighth inning and the Mets were
Speaker 3: thrown a perfect game and we are and the Mets
Speaker 3: had never thrown a no hitter to that point. So
Speaker 3: me and Jeff are like looking at each other like, luckily,
Speaker 3: I don't know, luckily, but the perfect game gets broken
Speaker 3: up and so there's no historic game. And we're not
Speaker 3: freaking out because the newsroom was calling up to the
Speaker 3: press box like all right, we're gonna send somebody to
Speaker 3: help you guys, and we're like, you're gonna have to
Speaker 3: get down here. You're gonna have to go there if
Speaker 3: this happens. I was like, Oh my god, So go
Speaker 3: down in locker room. Crisis averted, and I go down
Speaker 3: and talk to Clint Hurdle, who was like a grizzled
Speaker 3: old baseball man who's the manager of the Rockies. And
Speaker 3: Preston Wilson was a star for the Mets, or a
Speaker 3: prospect for the Mets that didn't quite work out and
Speaker 3: then became a star with the Rockies. He didn't play.
Speaker 3: It was a getaway day, it was an afternoon game.
Speaker 3: But I was twenty two to twenty three. So I
Speaker 3: asked the question to Clint Hurdle. I go, Clint, any
Speaker 3: reason why you didn't play Preston Wilson in this meaningless
Speaker 3: game in the middle of September. And he turns to me,
Speaker 3: and he like looks at me and sees that I'm
Speaker 3: not cut out for this moment. Is it okay if
Speaker 3: I give my players a day off? Is that okay
Speaker 3: with you? Is that okay?
Speaker 1: And literally I melted into a puddle.
Speaker 3: And I just thought of Clint Hurdle burying a young
Speaker 3: journalist and seeing Todd Bowles being a class act.
Speaker 1: With that woman who was way out of her depth
Speaker 1: in a big spot. That was story time.
Speaker 3: He did a good d that was a good story.
Speaker 3: I hadn't heard that one. All right, anything else with
Speaker 3: this game? Do we all make a pick?
Speaker 1: I believe we did.
Speaker 6: We did, all right, so then let's move.
Speaker 1: I can't wait for that game. Just the vibe. You
Speaker 1: will have to wait. I cannot though.
Speaker 5: It's Tariko and Collinsworth on a noon Pacific game, which
Speaker 5: it just feels nice and counterintuitive, and we're going to
Speaker 5: be aggressive.
Speaker 1: For the Yes, it is transgressive.
Speaker 3: For those of you overseas that have access to the
Speaker 3: Sky Sports and their NFL coverage, We'll be on at
Speaker 3: halftime of that game, chopping it up.
Speaker 1: I'm right, right, that's right, that's's right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So don't let you do the halftime thing where
Speaker 4: you go do other human things.
Speaker 3: Do not do not be a human, be a football
Speaker 3: fan twenty four to seven every second, all right? The
Speaker 3: last game, and it's a one mark. You were saying
Speaker 3: you're not overly excited for, but I did not. That
Speaker 3: is not what I said.
Speaker 1: I get it.
Speaker 3: You always want new things, but I like classic matchups
Speaker 3: and they're only going to get so many ten years
Speaker 3: from now.
Speaker 1: We're not gonna have him anymore. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3: It's like, well on Patrick Mahomes versus Josh all you
Speaker 3: know what I treasured. I didn't care Greg how many
Speaker 3: there were. If you gave me Tom Brady and Peyton
Speaker 3: Manning in January, I was I was clicking my heels,
Speaker 3: run into the television set, and I know you don't
Speaker 3: even want to watch it.
Speaker 4: First of all, Okay, go ahead, No, ten years from
Speaker 4: now you still will be getting Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen.
Speaker 5: I promise you. Mark likes new stuff. Though he was like,
Speaker 5: give me the Trent Green matt Shop showed.
Speaker 1: No, no, no.
Speaker 4: I was saying, this is new to me, this is interesting.
Speaker 4: I was saying that the Texans and Packers are very
Speaker 4: intriguing to me. I was not discounting Chiefs at Bills.
Speaker 4: They have played each other a lot. I guess everyone's
Speaker 4: I keep hearing people are so fascinated that Mahomes is
Speaker 4: playing his first road playoffs.
Speaker 1: You know how fascinated they are. It's the game of
Speaker 1: the week.
Speaker 4: I don't draft, but of course it's the game of
Speaker 4: the week, so I'm not I'm not slighting it, but
Speaker 4: it's kings.
Speaker 1: Mark the game of it.
Speaker 4: I guess it's just a human thing, even with me,
Speaker 4: Like like like when it was Manning versus Brady, like
Speaker 4: part nineteen and there was like these articles coming out,
Speaker 4: like let's rank the nineteen times they played. It was like,
Speaker 4: come on, people, like I like to see new things.
Speaker 4: I like fresh new experiences.
Speaker 5: I I love I'm with Dan that because you got
Speaker 5: to get the others.
Speaker 1: This is a more rare thing.
Speaker 5: Ironically, It's like it feels like it's happened a lot,
Speaker 5: but you only get these so much. But you know,
Speaker 5: it's a great rivalry. And this is where i'd push
Speaker 5: back because this is new. You're getting different versions like
Speaker 5: sometimes you got the Patriots version where he was throwing
Speaker 5: to uh Aaron Dobson and they had no defense and
Speaker 5: they had to score thirty uh and then Peyton Manning
Speaker 5: comes back in this case, like, these are totally different
Speaker 5: teams than they were two years ago. And it's interesting
Speaker 5: to me that the Bills, you feel like they're the
Speaker 5: minor player in this right, but they've won three straight
Speaker 5: in Kansas City in the regular season, but they haven't
Speaker 5: won them in the playoffs. They've lost the two that
Speaker 5: have been in the playoffs. Now it's here at Buffalo
Speaker 5: where we haven't seen it, and so to me it
Speaker 5: is different because this is a totally different Chiefs team
Speaker 5: with like a great.
Speaker 1: Defense on the road. I know, but it's.
Speaker 4: Knows that I'm being set up as some sort of
Speaker 4: straw man person. It's like, I actually think if it
Speaker 4: weren't Tony Romo on the call.
Speaker 1: Oh, Mark, he's right, we are sick of it. It's like,
Speaker 1: all right, great, I did not say that at all.
Speaker 1: Everyone's also.
Speaker 4: I'll let you, I'll let you play your little parlor game.
Speaker 4: But it's like, literally, that's not what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: I'm also sick of everyone saying like, oh, like, oh,
Speaker 5: it's Tony Romo on Patrick Mahomes and Josh you know what,
Speaker 5: I like Tony Roe.
Speaker 1: You know what you do the same thing to Mark
Speaker 1: put a name on it. That's that's Mark, that says.
Speaker 4: That that is that I saw tweet that I do,
Speaker 4: but that I do back. I think you just I
Speaker 4: think part of us. You run out of things to
Speaker 4: say about Hetch Mahomes. But this is a completely different
Speaker 4: Chiefs team.
Speaker 1: I think that you're right.
Speaker 4: There are elements to this team that there's a challenges
Speaker 4: that were not pressing before. It was like a video game,
Speaker 4: or like when Hulk Cogan would like go down to
Speaker 4: the end and just body slam someone and you win
Speaker 4: every every Sunday Night name event, and it's like this
Speaker 4: Chiefs Team Saturday Night, Saturday mayn like this Chiefs Team
Speaker 4: is vulnerable.
Speaker 1: This is a Sunday Night main event.
Speaker 3: But yeah, but hul Cogan, it would be Saturday Night, right,
Speaker 3: it replaced it be the body slam that would have
Speaker 3: been the kick to the face followed by the atomic
Speaker 3: leg drop.
Speaker 4: You're right, you want to just fund you in the
Speaker 4: didnty body slam like thre the Giant.
Speaker 1: And then he gave them the biggest slam drop.
Speaker 4: But that was the biggest body slam in the history
Speaker 4: of wrest wrestling.
Speaker 1: Three right in the Pontiac Silver Dome. There you go.
Speaker 3: See how it all connects. Mattison behind the glass thought
Speaker 3: this was wasteful conversation.
Speaker 4: Ultiple Cities that next wrestling, big old football game up there.
Speaker 5: Remember that conversation before the show. We keep it a
Speaker 5: little tighter today or something.
Speaker 3: I don't I don't know what you're talking. What else
Speaker 3: I mean we can end the show right now.
Speaker 5: I really haven't even talked about this game. I'm I'm
Speaker 5: excited for the Snead like lagarious Snead last week that
Speaker 5: my favorite clip of the week was him driving Tae
Speaker 5: Hill into like as Mark would say, mother.
Speaker 1: Earth, he like below the Earth.
Speaker 3: I mean it was crazy and I given game a
Speaker 3: little pop on socialist to Agam.
Speaker 6: I've never been bodied like that or whatever the term
Speaker 6: would be.
Speaker 5: And so Sneid faced off against Stefan Diggs in this
Speaker 5: first matchup, which really wasn't that long ago as Week fourteen,
Speaker 5: they matched up for twenty three routes. In those twenty
Speaker 5: three routes, Josh Allen tried Stefan Diggs five times. The
Speaker 5: Bills had a total of three yards in that game.
Speaker 5: Sneed absolutely destroyed Stefan Diggs, which that's an interesting matchup.
Speaker 5: If that could happen again, they have a shot. But
Speaker 5: I do think they're better prepared here with Shakir, with
Speaker 5: Kinkaid who's getting most of the snaps. And I thought
Speaker 5: it was interesting last week they didn't really play Knox
Speaker 5: and kin Kid together.
Speaker 1: It was mostly just Kinkaid.
Speaker 5: So they like having three receivers on the field, even
Speaker 5: if it's not Gabe Davis, just I think they if
Speaker 5: they were like a basketball team and almost like keeping
Speaker 5: people out of the paint to let a little more
Speaker 5: a little more space over the middle of the field.
Speaker 5: In general, and since Joe Brady's taken over, the offense
Speaker 5: isn't better, but it has been different.
Speaker 1: They've been more willing to run the ball.
Speaker 5: And I think this matchup, as much as it's about
Speaker 5: m Mahomes and Allen, also might be about like which
Speaker 5: team will actually stick with the running game and be successful,
Speaker 5: because I think both coordinators have shown they will dare
Speaker 5: the other team two run. Spagnola did it quite effectively
Speaker 5: against Buffalo in that first matchup, but even though Buffalo
Speaker 5: started that game well, their offense was kind of in
Speaker 5: quicksand for most of it.
Speaker 1: I think one thing.
Speaker 4: That's different about McDermott running this defense, and you know,
Speaker 4: maybe one of the changes that happened was some of
Speaker 4: the playoff stuff that happened against the Chiefs was that
Speaker 4: when they dueled in week fourteen, they blitzed at the
Speaker 4: highest rate they have against Mahomes and they were more
Speaker 4: successful doing it. That said, like this all this business
Speaker 4: about Mahomes being on the road, like his completion percentage
Speaker 4: is higher on the road, his yards per attempt higher
Speaker 4: on the road, higher on the road, sack rate lower,
Speaker 4: and passing success rate higher.
Speaker 3: Yes, and if they finish off a couple of drives
Speaker 3: last week, people are over the moon saying that they're
Speaker 3: fixed and we'll see. I just I think they got
Speaker 3: the season. Like you were saying Greg earlier, you're looking
Speaker 3: at the whole season. You can't just look at a game,
Speaker 3: and the whole season tells me they're going to struggle
Speaker 3: again here to put points on the board and finish
Speaker 3: off drives. And that's why I kind of like the
Speaker 3: Bills in this game, because I think that's what's going
Speaker 3: to end the chief season. The Bills will finish off
Speaker 3: the drives that the Buffalo that the Chiefs won't be
Speaker 3: able to but not to swerve left.
Speaker 6: But I want to touch on it, just because I'm.
Speaker 3: Looking at him, staring at it, and I knew it,
Speaker 3: I felt it, and then I looked at the numbers
Speaker 3: and my goodness.
Speaker 1: So Stefan Diggs weird year. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So he starts the season with five one hundred yard
Speaker 3: games in his first six weeks. Thing is going to
Speaker 3: plan since October twenty second, Okay, I lost to the Pats.
Speaker 3: This is These are his numbers, six for fifty eight,
Speaker 3: nine for seventy six for eighty six, three for thirty four,
Speaker 3: four for twenty seven, six for seventy four, four for
Speaker 3: twenty four, four for forty eight, five for twenty nine,
Speaker 3: four for twenty six, seven for eighty seven, seven for
Speaker 3: fifty two, and then in the playoff game more of
Speaker 3: the same where he was.
Speaker 1: Seven for fifty seven for fifty seven for fifty two. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Like it's been an odd season. They have not been
Speaker 1: on the same page.
Speaker 3: You've seen that frustration, and it is It's a good
Speaker 3: thing Khalis Shakiraz stepped up this year, and it's a
Speaker 3: good thing that they now have a pro BOWLTIP player
Speaker 3: in James Cook, because that connection has been off all year.
Speaker 5: It makes me believe that this is Stefan Diggs's last
Speaker 5: run with the Bills. Now, I think he would be
Speaker 5: an interesting trade candidate. That's he's but he's thirty. I
Speaker 5: can't imagine he's just suddenly turned old. But they're the
Speaker 5: big plays, just having big in there, and I just
Speaker 5: have a feeling Gabe Davis's status is really important. I
Speaker 5: think the injuries are so important for this game for
Speaker 5: the Bills because I hear what you're saying, and I'm
Speaker 5: I'm leaning Bills, Like I guess I want the Bills
Speaker 5: because like Mark, I guess I want something different. I
Speaker 5: like the idea that they were six and six and
Speaker 5: the way they've rallied, and I like the idea of
Speaker 5: a Bills Ravens AFC championship game that that's really exciting
Speaker 5: to me. But the practice reports are just massive, especially
Speaker 5: in the secondary. I'm gonna focus it there because there's linebackers,
Speaker 5: there's other stuff, but Christian Befford been their best outside
Speaker 5: corner Toron Johnson in All Pro slot cornerback both on
Speaker 5: the injury report and both seem legitimately like I don't
Speaker 5: know if they're gonna.
Speaker 1: Play or not, like they could fully play.
Speaker 5: They could not like these guys last week, have had
Speaker 5: to count on players we hadn't seen much all season.
Speaker 1: Tomorrow.
Speaker 5: Hamlin was on the field throughout the end of that
Speaker 5: game because of injuries. Von Miller played throughout the end
Speaker 5: of that game and actually had a couple pressures.
Speaker 1: Made me think hmm.
Speaker 5: I wonder if they go back to Von this week
Speaker 5: because he showed something, but that was all because of injuries.
Speaker 5: Their linebackers were gone, and they might get them both back.
Speaker 5: They might get Bernard and Dotson back, they might get
Speaker 5: neither back. So Cabe Davis is another question mark. These
Speaker 5: are like seven or eight starters where it's like they
Speaker 5: might play, they might not, And that's a pretty big deal.
Speaker 4: And at that said, like, I'm not scared and I
Speaker 4: don't think anyone is scared of like the Chiefs weapons
Speaker 4: for the most part. I mean, you want to have
Speaker 4: those guys in the field's.
Speaker 1: Cleared of too. Kelsey and Rashi Rice.
Speaker 3: We just talked about stuff on Diggan Park, like Travis
Speaker 3: Kelcey is coming off a game with three drops and
Speaker 3: he has not been himself this year.
Speaker 6: Right, He's gonna need to make the plays that he
Speaker 6: hasn't been making.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 4: They lead the league in drops, And I guess I'm
Speaker 4: just wondering if the you know, we're everyone waiting for
Speaker 4: the Chiefs to become last year as Chiefs. It's like, actually,
Speaker 4: isn't it more likely that their season ends with another
Speaker 4: duplicate performance where we're wide receiver x Y or Z lets.
Speaker 1: Them down in a key spot. But that's more likely.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying.
Speaker 3: I think that's like that's been the pretty consistent narrative.
Speaker 3: But defense is better, Greg right, way better.
Speaker 5: It's the best, And I think the route is more
Speaker 5: that like, yeah, some of that stuff happens and they
Speaker 5: win a game twenty to sixteen, or they win a game,
Speaker 5: you know, because Okay, if.
Speaker 4: This was the Kadarius Tony off sides game where like
Speaker 4: little mistakes cost.
Speaker 5: Them, I hear what you're saying, though, but like to
Speaker 5: that point, they held the Bills down in that game,
Speaker 5: and even though they weren't great offensively, if not for
Speaker 5: that call, if not for Tony lining up six inches
Speaker 5: you know in the neutral zone, the Bills aren't in
Speaker 5: this game, you know. And the Chiefs win a game
Speaker 5: like that against a good opponent because of their defense
Speaker 5: primarily and because Mahomes made big plays when it mattered.
Speaker 5: He ran the ball pretty well last week. I mean,
Speaker 5: that's that's a thing. Both of these quarterbacks are going
Speaker 5: to run the ball well, but you're just going to
Speaker 5: be more surprised when Mahomes does it.
Speaker 1: I just can't fair.
Speaker 5: I kind of think they're gonna win, and yet I
Speaker 5: don't want it to happen, so I'm not gonna pick it.
Speaker 1: Sorry, Chiefs rooting against you.
Speaker 3: If that, if Tony stayed on size, Josh gets the
Speaker 3: ball back with him.
Speaker 1: Nitor said, ye, good, point that out.
Speaker 3: I just got a weird feeling about the Bills and
Speaker 3: Eric the producer.
Speaker 1: I like it, dude.
Speaker 6: I like the energy.
Speaker 3: I like that they went through hell and then they
Speaker 3: came out and survived it. And now Josh Allen at
Speaker 3: home running downhill, impervious to anything pain and feeling like
Speaker 3: like what he said at the end of last week's
Speaker 3: game was interesting to me that we were like everybody else.
Speaker 3: Now we're out of that wilderness where we were fighting
Speaker 3: for our lives. And I think they're playing with a
Speaker 3: level of confidence that is going to be the difference
Speaker 3: against the KC team that's just simply even though better
Speaker 3: on defense, not as explosive and not even close. And
Speaker 3: I think that's why they're gonna win. I think they're
Speaker 3: gonna win this game twenty seven to twenty.
Speaker 10: It feels almost fitting that the season everything kind of
Speaker 10: went wrong. It kind of feels like it should go right.
Speaker 10: Eventually like they were heavy favorites for you know, the
Speaker 10: last couple of seasons and things just kind of fell
Speaker 10: apart abruptly, horrifically big moments, and this year like there
Speaker 10: was lolls, big lolls and finger on the panic button,
Speaker 10: moments you fire an o C, you have the John
Speaker 10: McDermott hit piece, and then all of a sudden, they're
Speaker 10: right back here and it seems like they're the trajectory
Speaker 10: is hitting their peak right, and.
Speaker 1: They're undefeated since that article came out.
Speaker 10: Yeah, I mean you have there, you have the players
Speaker 10: in the the coach got a game ball, and you
Speaker 10: have players yelling in the locker.
Speaker 1: M you got your back, coach.
Speaker 10: I mean, there's so many weird moments for this season
Speaker 10: that you know they didn't they weren't maybe considered a
Speaker 10: Super Bowl favorite. You know, this is the year where
Speaker 10: everything seemed like, well, this is the falling, this is
Speaker 10: where it breaks, the damn breaks and it all falls apart.
Speaker 10: And here we are again against the Chiefs, against Patrick Mahomes.
Speaker 10: This time we're in Western New York. Bill's Mafia home game.
Speaker 10: It's it's theater, dude, It's crazy.
Speaker 1: There you go.
Speaker 5: I like that and yet that I don't know why
Speaker 5: in my gut like all that. It just the Chiefs
Speaker 5: remind me so much of the Patriots. I mean, they're
Speaker 5: so see different. But just like all this makes logical sense.
Speaker 5: And I've been saying all year, like maybe this is
Speaker 5: the year for the Bills. They get they get as
Speaker 5: close as possible, and I'm want to pick them because
Speaker 5: I want it to happen. And yet like that's the
Speaker 5: moment where the champs and the Chiefs are the champs.
Speaker 5: They're the defending champs. They've done it twice with Patrick Mahomes.
Speaker 5: They've literally never not won a Divisional round game. With
Speaker 5: Patrick Mahomes, They've won every single one. It's like they
Speaker 5: are going to be tough to knockout. But I think
Speaker 5: the Bills can do it. I think Greg Russau can
Speaker 5: have a big time game. The Chiefs tackles are where
Speaker 5: they're a little vulnerable. He had a really nice game
Speaker 5: the first time I notice against the Chiefs too. So
Speaker 5: get some pressure on Mahomes, get it done, Bills.
Speaker 1: Be fun. I feel like every almost, oh here we go. Sorry, Mark,
Speaker 1: did me to cut you off?
Speaker 10: There is no video this week, but I did want
Speaker 10: to get on record the Westling the Cincinnati Zoo will
Speaker 10: be taking the Chiefs in this game, so saying this
Speaker 10: in a Bill's sweater, so I almost forgot to just
Speaker 10: even mentioned the refalling.
Speaker 3: It's almost like Nick Sirianni is in Cincinnati right now
Speaker 3: because they have lost I believe five of six the Zoo,
Speaker 3: so they need it was.
Speaker 5: Bald here though with a road underdog, even though it's
Speaker 5: the Chiefs, it's still there were other options out there,
Speaker 5: a lot.
Speaker 4: Of infighting over there, and it's and it's shown to
Speaker 4: be a concern. I I love what Eric said because
Speaker 4: I think that's exactly what the Bills have been. And
Speaker 4: whenever you go back and watch these like documentaries of
Speaker 4: you know, three quarters of Super Bowl winning teams, there
Speaker 4: were these like low points in the season where everything
Speaker 4: felt like a catech mccleus, like just a mess, just
Speaker 4: a disaster. And it's like the Bills looked shot and
Speaker 4: gone to the point where the Zoo Nick said they
Speaker 4: weren't going to make the playoffs, and I thought, I thought,
Speaker 4: I think he's right at some point in the season.
Speaker 4: And I think now you're getting a version of Josh
Speaker 4: Allen and the entire team that is driven and is
Speaker 4: kind of them against the world, and that's kind of sport.
Speaker 1: You know, who did it?
Speaker 3: I think it came up earlier in the show that
Speaker 3: early Aaron Rodgers Packers team.
Speaker 1: I think they were six and six. They were super banged.
Speaker 3: They ran ran off a streak to make the playoffs
Speaker 3: and just kept winning.
Speaker 5: But look at Boith Giants team Patriots they were they
Speaker 5: were a six seed. The Bills weirdly have all this
Speaker 5: going on, and yet they were the two seeds.
Speaker 1: And well, here's the thing.
Speaker 5: If the Chiefs win the if the Chiefs win this
Speaker 5: game and then win the Super Bowl. They had those
Speaker 5: moments too where everyone gave up on them and they
Speaker 5: hit their darkest moment.
Speaker 1: It all is there.
Speaker 3: It was ever quite as dark though now it's the
Speaker 3: chief always had that buffer in that povision.
Speaker 5: The money line here, by the way, is minus one
Speaker 5: forty two for the Bills. The Bills are two and
Speaker 5: a half point favorites. When you're a home to and
Speaker 5: a half point favorite, and I'm always a little anxious,
Speaker 5: but it's definitely Vegas being.
Speaker 1: Like, I don't know, we don't know.
Speaker 3: That's almost like the built in they built that in
Speaker 3: as exactly so Vegas says it's a coin flip.
Speaker 5: It's basically a coin flip the numbers that loved the
Speaker 5: Bills all season. There's something about the chiefs that define numbers.
Speaker 6: That's an MJ deep cut up the Dangerous album.
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Speaker 1: Yours, anything else and anything else? All right? Good?
Speaker 6: Uh, you know where to find us.
Speaker 3: On Sunday night, we're going to have recaps of all
Speaker 3: the games we just previewed. Check out NFL Plus where
Speaker 3: we have the Dreamatorium cooking up danger this week, and
Speaker 3: also Sky Sports. Be there on Sunday because we will
Speaker 3: till then hit the call