Speaker 1: The Around the NFL Podcast knows what a Super Bowl
Speaker 1: tastes like. Welcome to another edition of the Around the
Speaker 1: NFL Podcast, presented by the United States Marine Corps. My
Speaker 1: name is Dan hansis coming to you from the room
Speaker 1: filled with heroes. Mark Sessler, Chris Westling, Greg Rosenthal. What
Speaker 1: is up? Boys? Hey Dan, We're here. We are here
Speaker 1: Week sixteen. It's like we've been planning this week with
Speaker 1: like the schedule. We have a different schedule taping money.
Speaker 1: This has been a long time coming. It feels good
Speaker 1: that we're here. It's been a long week. Um, I
Speaker 1: think who was at the holiday party last was so crowded.
Speaker 1: I didn't see the two guys at the end. Were
Speaker 1: you at the event? I was not. Now I had
Speaker 1: intentions to go, but today changed my uh my ability
Speaker 1: to go, and I you know what, I might be
Speaker 1: this close to starting remember finding Richard Simmons a podcast,
Speaker 1: Finding Mark Sessler and any of you. I already Honestly,
Speaker 1: the one reason I thought about us showing up and
Speaker 1: making appearance and then literally just finding Dan and then
Speaker 1: ubering home was to prevent this narrative that they have
Speaker 1: been a total pies like to hang out with you
Speaker 1: had last year we saw you. I remember Emica and
Speaker 1: I saw you exiting as we were arriving. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: I think, well the plus one situation where you bring
Speaker 1: the significant other. In our case, we had to both
Speaker 1: get home for babysitters and stuff in old in olden days,
Speaker 1: I mean meeting like two years ago. I would just
Speaker 1: stay until the bitter end of the of the you
Speaker 1: just want to hang out with you, That's that's very possible.
Speaker 1: I think I think last night would have been the
Speaker 1: easiest way to accome. We could do that in an
Speaker 1: hour from now and with no problems. Barely saw West,
Speaker 1: but I did see you know. You want to talk
Speaker 1: about the holiday party and coming Where West was at
Speaker 1: one point in his life where he is now, Ricky.
Speaker 1: Do we have an image of West at the holiday parts?
Speaker 1: Impressive because it is look at this guy now, look
Speaker 1: at where the YouTube viewers and check out YouTube show.
Speaker 1: We do it live every Thursday. If you guys remember
Speaker 1: several years back when West started this company, he made
Speaker 1: a big event out of or a big to do about. Listen,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna wear no monkey suit. You're not gonna
Speaker 1: get I'm not going to the holiday party because they're
Speaker 1: telling me to wear a sweater or they was like
Speaker 1: party casual California cans yet and West wouldn't going to
Speaker 1: the holiday party because of that. And now he's wearing
Speaker 1: a full suit, a tie and a newsboy cap. Look there,
Speaker 1: I just wore what I was told to wear. I
Speaker 1: just love it. I first of all, I wanted you
Speaker 1: at the party. I couldn't get you at the party.
Speaker 1: Now you're the most dressed up guy the whole thing.
Speaker 1: I love it. You love or it was a cancer,
Speaker 1: it was a love What what changed in your heart
Speaker 1: in your mind that got you in the newsboy cap? Well,
Speaker 1: I think you just go. You know, it's better to
Speaker 1: swim with the tide than to swim against it. So
Speaker 1: that's what's going on. Well, it was great to see
Speaker 1: you and like Hesha look beautiful in her twenties Garb
Speaker 1: as well, So it was a great night. Emily came out.
Speaker 1: It was fun all right. Speaking of holiday, good job
Speaker 1: on the set here? Where is the holiday decorations here
Speaker 1: in the studio? What where are we on this er?
Speaker 1: Yea as the producer of the show. How about something
Speaker 1: some holly sreaths, you know, manure on there if you want,
Speaker 1: maybe is it in the graphics package? At least you
Speaker 1: know that they do the little Martlett's got a green
Speaker 1: blanket there, And is this the this is the studio
Speaker 1: the time forgot in this on this competent? Well, I
Speaker 1: think it's appropriate. The NFL, in many ways, you know,
Speaker 1: takes you away from your family during the holidays, so
Speaker 1: why don't think about what you're losing your children's youth.
Speaker 1: It's a very spartan p o V. But I think
Speaker 1: he's right right as my as my children are like
Speaker 1: in a plane, you know, across the sufic ocean. Dad, Dad,
Speaker 1: You're like, oh, sorry to hear that. I'm sorry you're divorcing. Alright, good,
Speaker 1: So maybe we don't need anything because of Greg's sadness.
Speaker 1: All right, let's get into it. Week sixteen is here,
Speaker 1: and it's amazing. It's amazing that we've we've gotten all
Speaker 1: the way to this point and this week has um
Speaker 1: there's a little difference obviously in the quirk of the schedule.
Speaker 1: There will be no Thursday night recap tonight because there's
Speaker 1: no more Thursday night games and and in fact there's
Speaker 1: only one Monday night game, which is one of the
Speaker 1: best games of the year, potentially uh in Minneapolis. But
Speaker 1: we have three Saturday games to get to and they're
Speaker 1: all interesting and fun. We'll put them as part of
Speaker 1: the draft process, and um, why don't we get into it? Greg,
Speaker 1: Look at you, top of the world. Look at you
Speaker 1: picking first in the Week sixteen draft you in the Bengals.
Speaker 1: It is appropriate right before Christmas that I'm picking first.
Speaker 1: I'm going sane Titans early Sunday. It's crazy, but I
Speaker 1: think this is the biggest game of the week, and
Speaker 1: at least the best game of the week and the
Speaker 1: most entertaining the game I want to see the most
Speaker 1: with the most at Steak because the Titans are fighting
Speaker 1: for their lives. I don't want to see this Titans
Speaker 1: team go away a little bit of trouble. Now they're
Speaker 1: They're like a big, play, fun team. I think this
Speaker 1: is the best Titans team since Jeff Fisher was their coach,
Speaker 1: and their point differential would indicate that. Yet they're probably
Speaker 1: headed for a fourth straight nine and seven one way
Speaker 1: or another unless they can beat two really good teams
Speaker 1: because the Saints have even more at Steak. Sometimes the
Speaker 1: super Bowl path isn't made in the playoffs. It's made
Speaker 1: in games like this week sixteen. I'm thinking of when
Speaker 1: the Texans slipped up last week and blew their potential
Speaker 1: by The Saints still have a pretty good chance to
Speaker 1: buy if they win two straight games here and they
Speaker 1: have to go on the road there. We've shown lately
Speaker 1: that they're a complete team on defense, on offense, and
Speaker 1: I think they've kind of got that. I have a
Speaker 1: tiger that this is just it's such a tough game
Speaker 1: to pick, uh, and I'm looking forward to Well, we
Speaker 1: didn't see really the impact of Marcus to have import
Speaker 1: and Sheldon Rankins absence in the last game against the Colts,
Speaker 1: but we might see it here against Derrick Henry. That
Speaker 1: could be a factor here. Well, they Andrew's Pete is out.
Speaker 1: You mentioned Larry Warford went down. We don't know what
Speaker 1: his status is. I mean, that's there on both lines.
Speaker 1: The Saints are little banged up, and you're right against
Speaker 1: the you know, let's totally flop it out Colts last
Speaker 1: time they didn't get anything done. But the Titans to me,
Speaker 1: and whether they wind up nine and seven or not,
Speaker 1: and watching them even and even losing to Houston, there
Speaker 1: is something so different about this team, and it's on
Speaker 1: both sides of the ball. And you said it, Greg, like,
Speaker 1: I don't want them to go away. Previous nine and
Speaker 1: seven Tennessee outfits that would roll into that final wild
Speaker 1: card spot, they couldn't be out of my life quicker.
Speaker 1: This time around, I'm rooting for them to make the
Speaker 1: playoffs and I it's it's funny that Ryan Tannehill would
Speaker 1: be the antidote to Marcus Marioda what I'm about to say,
Speaker 1: But it's like more teams when you are stuck with
Speaker 1: a dull, stuck in the mud quarterback that leaves your
Speaker 1: offense lifeless, be willing to make a change, no matter
Speaker 1: where that person was drafted or anything. It's just weird
Speaker 1: that it's Ryan Tannehill was equally dull in Miami, has
Speaker 1: come in and flipped the switch. But he looks amazing
Speaker 1: to me. He has turned John hu Smith, Cary Blasting game, Uh,
Speaker 1: Anthony Firks or Khalif Raymond into big play threats in
Speaker 1: that offense. Um Derrick Henry talked about it last week.
Speaker 1: What's gonna be the situation? He's got the hamstring issue
Speaker 1: and it's he I thought he looked okay. He had
Speaker 1: one run where he had a twenty three yard run
Speaker 1: up the middle, but if you took that out, he
Speaker 1: was just over three yards a carry in the last
Speaker 1: twenty carries, a little slip, more sluggish to you, he
Speaker 1: did to me. Yeah, that's what I'm saying, and it's
Speaker 1: it was obviously a small sample size. He's still got
Speaker 1: the bulk of the carries. But this will be another
Speaker 1: game and a big test. They kind of need a
Speaker 1: big Derrick Henry game. The Saints offense obviously is humming
Speaker 1: um as we saw on Monday night. Has to be Henry.
Speaker 1: He did not practice at all last week leading up
Speaker 1: to the game this week. He did practice yesterday Wednesday,
Speaker 1: and I don't believe you practiced today. And I don't
Speaker 1: know if that is a sign of something or that
Speaker 1: just natural maintenance as they get closer to game time.
Speaker 1: But keep an eye on Henry and whether that hamstring
Speaker 1: Andrew is going to be something continues to haunt him.
Speaker 1: Both these teams are so good in short yardage situations.
Speaker 1: I do wonder though offensively the Titans are gonna have
Speaker 1: to score thirty I think again, because Wes you pointed
Speaker 1: out last week that you know their cornerbacks are a
Speaker 1: big problem, and watching them, it's like, yeah they are,
Speaker 1: they're injured there, but they're past. Like their pass rush
Speaker 1: in theory could make up for it, but they don't
Speaker 1: really have a great pass rush either. So even though
Speaker 1: I I'm saying this is the best Titans team, and
Speaker 1: I do believe that it's not a special defense, like
Speaker 1: they're gonna have to win by scoring on most of
Speaker 1: their possessions, and I think they can. I don't think
Speaker 1: the Saints defense is gonna be as good without those
Speaker 1: two defensive linemen as they looked on Monday night. And
Speaker 1: you're assuming that the Saints offense, which has been hot indoors,
Speaker 1: will also be hot in an outdoor game, which Drew
Speaker 1: Brees I believe has played one outdoor game, finished completed
Speaker 1: one outdoor game in the last calendar year since Week eleven.
Speaker 1: Was that was one? That one? So yeah, good stat
Speaker 1: good nug I'm still buying those Saints thing. I do
Speaker 1: think they're gonna win. I'm buying that their offense with
Speaker 1: Jared Cook, everything is back in fact. And you guys
Speaker 1: got on me last week and the fair perhaps, but
Speaker 1: I stayed. I stayed true to the Vegas test. Uh
Speaker 1: this week, I will ride with the Saints be I
Speaker 1: think a truly great Super Bowl contender is now cresting
Speaker 1: and building towards January. They're not gonna slip up nice
Speaker 1: season by the Titans. They're at home, so it's certainly
Speaker 1: not going to be one where the Saints should be
Speaker 1: viewed as heavy favorites. The Desert doesn't think that either,
Speaker 1: But I think the Saints rolling all the way to
Speaker 1: thirteen and three and do that, They're gonna have to
Speaker 1: kill the Titans. And I'm sorry to you Titans fans
Speaker 1: out there is nothing personal. I like the Saints team.
Speaker 1: I love what I'm seeing Monday night was awesome in
Speaker 1: the momentum is just going to carry on. Lock it
Speaker 1: up the New Orleans Saints on the road. I'm picking
Speaker 1: the Titans to win this game, but I'm not locking.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, listen to that mascular lock. That's a man
Speaker 1: locking a path. Your cowardly luck has worked out perfect
Speaker 1: for me personally. I loved your lock last week because
Speaker 1: it showed that the mirror test was always a sham
Speaker 1: and people will use it for their own personal interests
Speaker 1: when possible and you took so much garbage for it
Speaker 1: that now you have to come with a real strong locking.
Speaker 1: Why sure, I don't all but you, you you, you sir
Speaker 1: of the sham, because we've always talked about you and
Speaker 1: I are in lockstep on the mirror tests, which is
Speaker 1: it has to be within a touchdown on the vegas test,
Speaker 1: and it was, so why are you on my because
Speaker 1: I just knew that the way it didn't really you.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it really passed the mirror test,
Speaker 1: I would say, like you are, you are. It's your
Speaker 1: thing to come at us hard if anyone's mirror or
Speaker 1: anyone's lock doesn't agree with you your mirror. I'm not
Speaker 1: saying I'm above that. I'm happy that you guys came
Speaker 1: at me hard. And all I can say is I
Speaker 1: get it. And I said it when I locked him
Speaker 1: up when I walked up the Seahawks that it was
Speaker 1: right on the borderline. But it was a weird week,
Speaker 1: as we all agreed. So that's when I went with,
Speaker 1: Now do I want to play hero ball and do
Speaker 1: it WestEd and and lock up a bad Chargers team
Speaker 1: against the Vikings? Well, what does that get you? A paddle?
Speaker 1: The battle Barry Harwood style. You've opened up doorways for
Speaker 1: us to do as we please from here on out,
Speaker 1: which I which is what I like about it. But
Speaker 1: I stayed within the Vegas test. Well, it's it is.
Speaker 1: It is all completely subjective at this point. There is
Speaker 1: there is That was the mirror test of Sham. But
Speaker 1: you're perfectly fine with the Lions being lockable against the Buccaneers.
Speaker 1: At least it's an outside source, you know that Vegas.
Speaker 1: And one more point about this game, unless someone else
Speaker 1: says something else that Now, after that brilliant game by
Speaker 1: Michael Thomas on Monday night when he went twelve catches
Speaker 1: on twelve targets, uh, he is now just eleven receptions
Speaker 1: behind Marvin Harrison for first all or passing Marvin Harrison.
Speaker 1: I've had him third in my m v P rankings,
Speaker 1: which is kind of silly because the only vote for
Speaker 1: one player and he's way behind the other two. But
Speaker 1: to me, he would be number three in the most
Speaker 1: valuable players in the league. I don't think they survived
Speaker 1: without Drew Brees. I don't know if they'd survived without
Speaker 1: Michael talks. Why are you surviving? How about you just
Speaker 1: stay right there well, or you or you or you
Speaker 1: snapped the record and you go directly into witness protection
Speaker 1: for a chunky amount of time. Let's take a look
Speaker 1: at the locks while we hear the standings. Greg, maybe
Speaker 1: that's why you're so upset, because you could smell it.
Speaker 1: You You see your first place? If I win it,
Speaker 1: can I kill it? First place? Nine and six? Mark,
Speaker 1: you dropped to eight and seven. I'm at seven and
Speaker 1: eight in west at six and nine. Nice but not
Speaker 1: out of it. But Greg Gregg does the picks calumn.
Speaker 1: If he doesn't win this, a lot of internal questions
Speaker 1: will be asked about I mean designated assignments. As you know,
Speaker 1: that's a mountain of pressure. Yeah, question about your m
Speaker 1: v P ranks. Why does he have to be way
Speaker 1: behind Russell Wilson? Is it just because you don't know
Speaker 1: how valuable wide receiver can possibly be? Because he could
Speaker 1: argue he's been just as valuable as Russell Wilson. I
Speaker 1: don't know. I think Russell Wilson's season not that it's underrated,
Speaker 1: but Russell Wilson has had a sensational quarterback season. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess I just leaned that way. Maybe he will
Speaker 1: get offensive Player of the Year. They haven't split the
Speaker 1: award that often lately, you know, I think four the
Speaker 1: last five years, it's just been the quarterback sweeps the
Speaker 1: same award, which is very boring. You should give Michael
Speaker 1: Thompson love Chris Westling, you are up next. I will
Speaker 1: take that uh NFC East clash, the Cowboys at wind Up.
Speaker 1: I thought we're going Giants at Washington their West with
Speaker 1: that NFC Cowboys at Eagles, Oh, I like it. West.
Speaker 1: We've got a Dak Prescott shoulder injury which seems severe
Speaker 1: enough that they have to get in our m R. I.
Speaker 1: Yet Jerry Jones is confident they'll be out there in
Speaker 1: top four against an Eagles team which looks like they
Speaker 1: finally found something on offense, something that hang their hat on.
Speaker 1: Like four players. You've got Miles Sanders, you got Greg Award,
Speaker 1: You've got zach Ertz, and you've got Dallas Goddard. So
Speaker 1: that's a lot more than they have most of the
Speaker 1: year when they were trying to find anybody but zach Ertz,
Speaker 1: anybody behind him to possibly contribute to their offense. So
Speaker 1: I'm I don't think this is the blowout. A lot
Speaker 1: of people are saying it is that's some total mismatch
Speaker 1: where the Cowboys are obviously going to take this. Well.
Speaker 1: I would say this though, after watching Dallas utterly execute
Speaker 1: the Rams, and I get that this the NFL at
Speaker 1: this point is just this week to week guessing game,
Speaker 1: because whatever happened the week before has essentially apparently no
Speaker 1: meaning to what's going to happen seven days later. But
Speaker 1: I am requesting that Dallas goes into Philadelphia and executes
Speaker 1: the Eagles, because if I have to pick one of
Speaker 1: these teams, and I've been saying it all along, the
Speaker 1: winner of this division will win a playoff game. I
Speaker 1: can see that happening in Dallas in the wild card
Speaker 1: round without any reservations. I thought one time you said
Speaker 1: it wouldn't happen that they were going to get blown
Speaker 1: out in the place. Yeah, we heard that as well.
Speaker 1: So what you do is, and I mentioned this, you
Speaker 1: you kind of cover all bases. So what I'll have
Speaker 1: to do is have you know Erica will come apply
Speaker 1: because she she knows it's good for the show, bring
Speaker 1: up the correct sound bite and just sort of, you know,
Speaker 1: put that out on Twitter and just say this guy
Speaker 1: nailed it back in week fourteen. That is the way
Speaker 1: to do it. What don't we Yeah, this this is
Speaker 1: the warning I believe I said a Tuesday's show, don't
Speaker 1: listen to anyone that has a sure fire take about
Speaker 1: how the Cowboys are gonna look on Sunday. But it's
Speaker 1: the same reason why I don't think you're even crazy
Speaker 1: out on a limb mark if if the Cowboys did
Speaker 1: finish this regular season strong that at home they could
Speaker 1: beat a team, even a Niners team, I mean, because
Speaker 1: you're in your building and it's the playoffs and anything
Speaker 1: could happen. They do have that type of ceiling that
Speaker 1: they can make noise in January. But the thing is
Speaker 1: they could also show up. They could also not show
Speaker 1: up in Philadelphia. Like they could absolutely lose thirty one,
Speaker 1: well maybe thirty ones a lot of points with Eagles,
Speaker 1: but they could lose, you know, twenty four to nine
Speaker 1: or something in this game. And that one had stunned
Speaker 1: me either. No, that would stun me because the Eagles
Speaker 1: haven't played a complete game where they've looked good on
Speaker 1: both sides of the ball all since September. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean, the Eagles are just not a good team,
Speaker 1: like they are at best a seven and seven team.
Speaker 1: If anything, they've almost played worse than a seven and
Speaker 1: seven team, whereas the Cowboys last week. Their offensive line
Speaker 1: can have this old school sort of takeover game. The
Speaker 1: talent on the defense we've seen it is good enough.
Speaker 1: Both their running games should feel very good coming into
Speaker 1: this week. I mean, Miles Sanders is the key player
Speaker 1: on the Eagles offense right now, and Ezekoel Elliott coming
Speaker 1: off his best game, and I think he's run well
Speaker 1: for for a month. Really, I just don't know what
Speaker 1: you're getting out of Dak Prescott. One thing that kind
Speaker 1: of slipped under the radar last week cause they didn't
Speaker 1: need to throw. I mean, Cooper and Gallup combined for
Speaker 1: thirty five yards a week ago. So this injury where
Speaker 1: that kept Dak Prescott out of practice a little bit.
Speaker 1: And he's gonna play through. And he looked fine to
Speaker 1: me on the field when he did throw the ball.
Speaker 1: I don't know if he's gonna be ready in cold
Speaker 1: conditions to throw it forty times. Let's move on. I
Speaker 1: will dip into the Saturday games. Like I said, there's
Speaker 1: three Saturday games to choose from, and I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: with the big a f C East showdown between the
Speaker 1: Buffalo Bills ten and four at the New England Patriots
Speaker 1: eleven and three. You remember the first matchup between these
Speaker 1: two teams, very uh hard fought defensive struggle, a game
Speaker 1: uh in which Josh Allen struggled mightily early on but
Speaker 1: was within striking distance and then got concussed on a hit.
Speaker 1: And at that point the Bills just didn't have anything
Speaker 1: going on on offense and the Patriots won. Uh So,
Speaker 1: now we have a game where here we are again,
Speaker 1: this time Josh Allen is playing. This time it's in
Speaker 1: Gillette and what do you expect here? Right? This is
Speaker 1: another one stuff to tell because you know the Bills
Speaker 1: defense is gonna be hyped up for this game. They
Speaker 1: will show up, and we know, based on what we've
Speaker 1: seen that the Patriots probably aren't gonna find that gear
Speaker 1: um and all of a sudden be shredding a team
Speaker 1: in December. This is a different type of Patriots situation now,
Speaker 1: So what does that mean? That means again we're in
Speaker 1: that same place Mark Josh Allen and that offense just
Speaker 1: has to find a way to make enough plays against
Speaker 1: an excellent Patriots defense without shooting themselves in the foot,
Speaker 1: which Allen is prone to do. It's the one thing
Speaker 1: I could imagine happening, because this is what Stephan Gilmour Gilmore,
Speaker 1: who greg you. You've been touting him as the defensive
Speaker 1: player of the year, and I think you're you're right
Speaker 1: about that. Let's say he just do races John Brown
Speaker 1: from the equation and then you're Buffalo and you've got
Speaker 1: Cole Beasley and you're gonna get a big dose of
Speaker 1: Devin Singletary. Frank Gore nailed him for a hundred plus
Speaker 1: yards the first time they played. But that isn't exactly
Speaker 1: how the Bills wanted that game to go in the
Speaker 1: sense that Josh Allen, to your point, has been anti
Speaker 1: productive against New England. They've had his number in over
Speaker 1: two games. And what will be different other than the
Speaker 1: fact that the Bills on national television are magical. I mean,
Speaker 1: they just are fun to watch and they find a
Speaker 1: way just to get it done. And this is the
Speaker 1: ghost game where it's like New England the same way
Speaker 1: that you look at the same way that the Pittsburgh
Speaker 1: and Baltimore has owned a bad team like Cleveland and
Speaker 1: the Jets have been owned by the Patriots. Outside of
Speaker 1: a Rex Ryan interlude, Buffalo's history this decade, this century
Speaker 1: against New England is utterly abysmal. This is your best
Speaker 1: shot ever to make something different. Happened because New England's
Speaker 1: offense has not gotten out of the rut that we
Speaker 1: said for weeks and weeks it might. It's a different
Speaker 1: Bill's team than we saw early in the season. Back
Speaker 1: then it was you know, Gore's getting Devin Singles added.
Speaker 1: So Devin Singletary has added so much to this offense.
Speaker 1: He's so nifty, so explosive. At Oliver's playing a lot better. Uh,
Speaker 1: Matt Milano and Tremaine Edmonds are playing better as a duo. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, my my colleague on game debut, Andrew Hawkins
Speaker 1: has kind of an old guys theory, and he's it's
Speaker 1: pretty simple. It's like old guys don't don't feel so
Speaker 1: good in December. You know, It's like right right, it
Speaker 1: really affects. Uh, you know, an older team, and the
Speaker 1: Patriots are very much an older team and the Bills
Speaker 1: are very very much a younger team. And even as
Speaker 1: someone who has been touting Gilmore and I have them
Speaker 1: just ahead of t J. I'm worried about this matchup
Speaker 1: because in the first game, John Brown is the type
Speaker 1: of receiver that gives him the most amount of problems,
Speaker 1: that kind of small, uh speedier receiver. And he did
Speaker 1: get open against Gilmore a few times, made a couple
Speaker 1: of plays. Alan missed him a couple of times. You're
Speaker 1: really gonna have to have the Patriots front, I think dominate,
Speaker 1: which they're capable of doing, especially in terms of the
Speaker 1: game plan and confusing Alan. I'm checking some weather on
Speaker 1: the weather channel. Supposed to be chilly but dry around freezing.
Speaker 1: You know it'll get darker as the game. I mean,
Speaker 1: the team controls the weather up in Foxboro, so don't
Speaker 1: expect anything to uh anti Patriots. The Bill's defense is
Speaker 1: allowed fourteen points per game during the stretch where they've
Speaker 1: gone five and two, and I think their defense is
Speaker 1: these are the two best secondaries of the NFL. Their
Speaker 1: defense has been almost as good as the Patriots over
Speaker 1: that stretch. And I'm wondering, Greg, which offense do you
Speaker 1: trust more? Right now? I put him around the same level.
Speaker 1: I guess think I trust the Bill's offense more right now.
Speaker 1: I I do a little bit in uh in in
Speaker 1: a equal matchup, I and I do trust the Patriots
Speaker 1: defense more though, so I don't think it's equal. The
Speaker 1: Patriots offense does one thing well, and that's prevent turnovers.
Speaker 1: I mean, they're plus twenty four. That's doubled any other
Speaker 1: team in the league. It's it's just outrageous. It's really
Speaker 1: their OH one here. They only think they do well
Speaker 1: is prevent something. Yeah, they just don't make mistakes. It's
Speaker 1: very similar to OH one. It's like Tom Brady. That
Speaker 1: offense was terrible. It's the worst offense very likely that
Speaker 1: ever won a Super Bowl. The Ravens in two thousand,
Speaker 1: just a year before might might be right there. But
Speaker 1: what they didn't do was like they just punted a lot.
Speaker 1: They didn't have turnovers, and that's that's what they're doing.
Speaker 1: Like they need special teams and defense. It's it's ugly.
Speaker 1: Get most a new going. That's this is still kind
Speaker 1: of surreal to talk about. But you could make the
Speaker 1: arguments since about mid season, since Week nine, Tom Brady
Speaker 1: is the worst quarterback in football. Now, I don't think
Speaker 1: you could make I'm just statistically you could. Uh. He
Speaker 1: has the worst completion percentage in the league. He has
Speaker 1: the worst yards for attempt, which is a stat we
Speaker 1: are we track around these parts. He has the worst
Speaker 1: passer rating. He is struggling on his quick routes, which
Speaker 1: is something that has always been a strength of his.
Speaker 1: He's holding the ball longer since Week nine than his
Speaker 1: first eight games, and defenses are not fooled by what
Speaker 1: the Patriots are doing. It's you could say, okay, but
Speaker 1: he's such a great game manager. He's Tom Brady. Yes,
Speaker 1: their worst quarterbacks, but this is not a blip on
Speaker 1: the radar anymore. This could be the beginning of the
Speaker 1: end in a very real, not joking around gradual decline way.
Speaker 1: And if that's the case, they're done right. They're not.
Speaker 1: This is not a super Bowl team. We're doing this again.
Speaker 1: We're doing it but this time. No, no, I get it.
Speaker 1: I mean I just said that they need to make
Speaker 1: the super If they had any route, it's the OH
Speaker 1: one route, which is all defense specialty. You don't need,
Speaker 1: you don't need to. It's almost it's very very difficult.
Speaker 1: You need a lot of luck and a lot of
Speaker 1: other things to go your way. I if you look
Speaker 1: at the PF grades, he's closer to below average more
Speaker 1: like you know, over the last five or six weeks.
Speaker 1: He started out the season I thought playing very well.
Speaker 1: Last week I thought was his very worst game of
Speaker 1: the season was against the Bengals. He's missing open throws.
Speaker 1: Edelman is hurt, like very hurt, and I wish they
Speaker 1: didn't play him in that game because he was out there,
Speaker 1: you know, just dragging his leg around, and then they
Speaker 1: tried to build the offense around to new Nikkil Harry's
Speaker 1: getting more so if you don't have Edelman and the
Speaker 1: line struggling in in Brady is also struggling. You're right,
Speaker 1: it's a it's a lot of things. And if I
Speaker 1: was a Bills fan, I would be I would be
Speaker 1: feeling good about this matchup. I'm shocked that the Patriots
Speaker 1: are as favored as they are. I would also go
Speaker 1: back to that Ravens game, and it was a terrible
Speaker 1: start for Buffalo, but in the second half, I give
Speaker 1: the Bills credit for resiliently fighting back and doing what
Speaker 1: they could and making that more of a game than
Speaker 1: it was. And then to turn around and go do
Speaker 1: what they did to Pittsburgh. They're playing a little bit
Speaker 1: better than the Patriots. I would still give New England
Speaker 1: a slight edge in this game because they're home and everything,
Speaker 1: and it just wouldn't surprise me if they if they
Speaker 1: come together and plays a game that's where the Desert
Speaker 1: is probably coming from desert as as a heavy favorite
Speaker 1: that Foxborough in December when the Chips are down love
Speaker 1: the Desert. It barely passes the test of even being
Speaker 1: able to game, which is very, uh big question and
Speaker 1: I'm not this is not me twisting the knife. It's
Speaker 1: not real questions. Is Tom Brady the quarterback of the
Speaker 1: Patriots in Week one next year? I think so, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think, and already told you he's going to be
Speaker 1: on the Dolphins, you know what I know. But I
Speaker 1: have perspective that, yeah, their offense is bad, but to me,
Speaker 1: there's still kind of a fun team that they're eleven
Speaker 1: and three and have a chance. But there's nothing fun
Speaker 1: about this. Yeah, they're different, like you've seen a lot
Speaker 1: of different Patriots. Seems yes, like there's not as much
Speaker 1: at stake when when they've won as much as they have,
Speaker 1: But it's just it's different and they're still in the mix.
Speaker 1: They're playing big games. Like you said, well, at least
Speaker 1: the Bears fans game them that one game that mattered
Speaker 1: in Week fifteen. As a Patriots fans, like this game matters,
Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to. I'm looking forward to whatever the
Speaker 1: page like the playoff games are at this point. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're they're certainly not going to be uh the favorites, Erica,
Speaker 1: what's it like senior heroes get old? I mean, you
Speaker 1: guys are getting older every day. You know who's my
Speaker 1: hero is? Erica Tampos coming in during this Bill's pats
Speaker 1: uh game and switching out because it was all messed
Speaker 1: up the tech. All Right, I'm gonna take a Saturday
Speaker 1: game too, and I'm gonna go. You know, I like
Speaker 1: to organize my my Saturday, which essentially is a day
Speaker 1: off bike taking the earliest Saturday game, which I'll plug in,
Speaker 1: I'll take my notes, and then I'll shift into more
Speaker 1: leisurely mode with the latter two games. So I'm going
Speaker 1: Texans at Tampa Bay. And you know what, this game
Speaker 1: is interesting. I feel like with the Texans, they intrigue
Speaker 1: me week to week because they flip flop between good Texans,
Speaker 1: bad Texans and I and I'm wondering this feels a
Speaker 1: little trap Gamish because I know that for Tampa Bay,
Speaker 1: you don't have your top two. You don't know Mike Evans,
Speaker 1: you don't have Chris Godwin. That's a concern for Jamis Winston. Uh.
Speaker 1: But they're at home, which also to me because there's
Speaker 1: just because there's a big pirate ship in the distance,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure that's what i'd call a massive home
Speaker 1: field advantage. But the Texans often go on the road.
Speaker 1: There's actually a battleship protecting the home table, but it's
Speaker 1: deployed sideways, and it's it's it can't maneuver. Actually exactly,
Speaker 1: we're at home in five and three on the road.
Speaker 1: I'm saying, if you get a boat in water and
Speaker 1: have the cannons be you know, applicable, and we can
Speaker 1: talk differently. And I mean Bruce arians has basically said
Speaker 1: we're gonna have to come out and make our running
Speaker 1: backs are past catching weapons in this and I'm not
Speaker 1: sure I really trust that committee backfield to do exactly
Speaker 1: with the James White Act. Necessarily, we'll see, but it's
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a limited offense. That was one of
Speaker 1: the most fun to watch explosive offenses of the past
Speaker 1: few weeks. O. J. Howard's heated up. I think they
Speaker 1: finally figure out how to use him a little bit,
Speaker 1: but no one else. And that's like and and for
Speaker 1: the Texans, it's interesting. It's like, I never would have
Speaker 1: predicted this is something. This is one thing that I
Speaker 1: would have uh, you know, if I had expensive possessions
Speaker 1: in my ownership, I would have willingly bet against this
Speaker 1: that Carlos Hyde would have had a thousand yards season
Speaker 1: this year. I just did not see that coming. They
Speaker 1: found a way to get just enough out of him.
Speaker 1: And I just looked at what DeAndre Hopkins did last
Speaker 1: week in that fourth quarter, you know, when he was
Speaker 1: held down from much of that game, and we talked
Speaker 1: about our our wide receivers of the decade, and to me,
Speaker 1: he's just one of those guys because it doesn't matter
Speaker 1: what the situation is or what the quarterback is, he
Speaker 1: finds a way to get it done. I do believe
Speaker 1: the Texans are going to win this. And if I'm
Speaker 1: allowed to lock this, I would like to lock this
Speaker 1: game up all the time. I'm joining you on this.
Speaker 1: Let's do it. And that's worked out once for us
Speaker 1: in the past. The other time they're locking up the
Speaker 1: Texans on the road. I like how the Bucks have played.
Speaker 1: I don't trust I don't trust Jameis Winston. Without Godwin
Speaker 1: and Evans, it's a lot um. I think this offense
Speaker 1: against jamis in December out. I mean, they've won what
Speaker 1: fourth straight here they Their offense to me is so
Speaker 1: good that they will be able to move the ball. Anyways,
Speaker 1: justin Watson's name to watch. I think if you were
Speaker 1: into fantasy or dfs uh shout out to Adam Leviton
Speaker 1: team preseason. He was out there in the preseason justin Watson,
Speaker 1: and I kind of liked what I saw. And I
Speaker 1: know win Winston likes them a little bit. And you
Speaker 1: have Howard and you still have Brashade Periman. They're gonna
Speaker 1: need their defense to play well, and it has over
Speaker 1: the last four weeks. Football Outsiders says them as a
Speaker 1: number two defense in the league over the last four weeks.
Speaker 1: And it's a big test for the Texans, who have
Speaker 1: had great pass protection this year. I mean, that is
Speaker 1: a narrative that died and no one said anything about.
Speaker 1: It's like, well, imagine if Deshaun Watson ever had great
Speaker 1: pass protection, Well, this is it. Their their third in
Speaker 1: the league and pass block grades by PFF. But this
Speaker 1: is a tough matchup for them against a Bucks front
Speaker 1: that's really been getting after. Where are we at right
Speaker 1: now with Shack the Shack attack sixteen and a half,
Speaker 1: sex tied with Warren Stuff for the all time record
Speaker 1: and you know he's in spedding distance now of the
Speaker 1: great flawed Michael Strahan record. Give that Sack record back
Speaker 1: its dignity mark. Pretty good season. I mean, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: have to say that I'm impressed with what with with
Speaker 1: what he's done on a week to week basis. Um.
Speaker 1: You made the point mark which I initially I agree
Speaker 1: with you, that that the Texans feel inconsistent, but to
Speaker 1: put them in like the Cowboys territory, which is not
Speaker 1: what you did, But they're not. They've actually won five
Speaker 1: of seven. They got killed by the Ravens uh at
Speaker 1: a time when everyone was getting killed by the Ravens,
Speaker 1: and then they legitimately stubbed their toe and had that
Speaker 1: awful game against Drew Lock of the Broncos. But they've
Speaker 1: been winning games, um more or less since the midway
Speaker 1: point of the season. Might say this, if they lost this,
Speaker 1: that theory is back on their defense. I think this
Speaker 1: room doesn't trust. So if if they had Evans and
Speaker 1: God when man this would be, I would would dangerous game.
Speaker 1: But Sexan's wide receivers are healthy, and when they've got
Speaker 1: all three of those guys healthy, I don't know if
Speaker 1: there's a secondary in the league that's there. They're a
Speaker 1: great offense, they're legitimately top six seven offense when when
Speaker 1: those guys are healthy. Here's what Bill O'Brien said about J. J.
Speaker 1: Watt speaking of the defense on Monday. He's certainly made
Speaker 1: progress based on his work ethic, referring to his uh
Speaker 1: torn peck that put him on injured reserve. UM, who
Speaker 1: he's working with in the training room, we will see.
Speaker 1: So he's not committal on it, but it's lingering out
Speaker 1: there as a possibility that Watt returns. In one last point,
Speaker 1: I reached out to the great NFL media research team
Speaker 1: led by Jeff Greenholtz and Um and I met Mackenzie
Speaker 1: at the holiday party, who was a wonderful woman and
Speaker 1: she's been a great help all season. But Jamis Winston,
Speaker 1: he's sitting at thirty touchdowns twenty four interceptions. If he
Speaker 1: can just throw six more picks in the last two weeks, beautiful,
Speaker 1: he would become the first member of the thirty thirty
Speaker 1: club thirty interceptions, thirty touchdowns. Well, the key is he's
Speaker 1: got it's possible with these alone for many more decades
Speaker 1: to come to. The key is he's got to throw
Speaker 1: an interception on the first drive. That has been the
Speaker 1: key too. I think for Bucks victories as if Jamis
Speaker 1: throws that's like seeing the groundhog come out. As long
Speaker 1: as he throws an interception nice and early, the Buccaneers
Speaker 1: usually win. All right, let us move on. It is
Speaker 1: time for the snake. Very tempted by the way to
Speaker 1: just take the late Saturday game now and essentially have
Speaker 1: you know, I'll just sit there on Sunday with my
Speaker 1: feet up on the table, go to the huddle a
Speaker 1: couple of times, maybe go home, visit the children, and
Speaker 1: roll back for the show. But I'm not gonna do
Speaker 1: that because I I think I have stuff I have
Speaker 1: to do. Him all night is gonna be listening to
Speaker 1: That's true, I and and I'm a workhorse. If they've
Speaker 1: questioned that, so I'm gonna take I'm going to indulge
Speaker 1: in just darkness and take balt More at Cleveland because
Speaker 1: you know I have been reading this consistently, reading this
Speaker 1: horror film, horror novel. I guess you would call it
Speaker 1: chapter by chapter, not skipping words, being there for every
Speaker 1: plot development. And why jump on the book now when
Speaker 1: you know the high point of Cleveland season came in
Speaker 1: week four when they started to show what they could be,
Speaker 1: and it was it was a rash of big plays.
Speaker 1: It was Nick Chop on the ground and utterly destroying
Speaker 1: the Ravens, I mean putting it on them score wise.
Speaker 1: And in that game. I went back and watched a
Speaker 1: little bit of that game, and what I thought was
Speaker 1: the turning point, and it was very and very unusual
Speaker 1: for the Ravens was a mark Ingram fumble that flipped
Speaker 1: the game entirely and allowed Cleveland to really essentially build
Speaker 1: a lead that was not going to go away and
Speaker 1: mark Ingram and the Ravens simply don't do that since
Speaker 1: and since that time where they shut Lamar Jackson and
Speaker 1: made life tough on him and try to and they
Speaker 1: were successfully able to put Lamar Jackson into a situation
Speaker 1: where he had to throw the ball and that did
Speaker 1: not work in that game. That team is completely That
Speaker 1: Ravens team is completely and drastically different than the team
Speaker 1: they are right now. And I look back and I
Speaker 1: knows the Jets, but the Jets do have a good
Speaker 1: run defense, and the Ravens it's almost like it doesn't
Speaker 1: matter what the matchup is because they had nine nine
Speaker 1: yards on the ground twelve minutes into that game against
Speaker 1: the Jets. And the Jets not have a Jamal Adams,
Speaker 1: and I hear you, but they're doing a week after
Speaker 1: week And at one point Lamar Jackson had sixty nine
Speaker 1: yards through the air midway through the third period, and
Speaker 1: then suddenly Arsenals arrived and he just started finding Hollywood
Speaker 1: Brown and Mark Andrews and the rest and the big
Speaker 1: plays just happened. You cannot contain them for four quarters.
Speaker 1: And I think Cleveland and we get it. We know
Speaker 1: about the stuff we talked about on twos with and that.
Speaker 1: And Jervis Landry has strongly denied the report by NFL
Speaker 1: Networks Mike Silver that he's billing that to the Cardinals. Well,
Speaker 1: that's right. That just leaves you up to what you
Speaker 1: think about that player and this team in general. Um
Speaker 1: O p J has denied all that stuff too. Again.
Speaker 1: He says he's gonna be there next year. He says
Speaker 1: he's gonna be there. But all that's for the offseason
Speaker 1: could not come quick enough for this Browns team. I
Speaker 1: think that they were mentally broken weeks ago, but it
Speaker 1: truly appeared on the field last week. Is Kyler Murray
Speaker 1: and the Cardinals incinerated Cleveland's defense, which has been relatively
Speaker 1: solid game to game and not just not the case.
Speaker 1: I don't see I saw a defense that gave up
Speaker 1: in that game. You can run on them at will,
Speaker 1: and the Ravens will have an absolute field day. It's
Speaker 1: in Cleveland, that's gonna be thorny. But I don't see anything.
Speaker 1: This is not This is not a big stumbling block
Speaker 1: for the Ravens. They roll Wes. The Ravens first of all,
Speaker 1: clinched the number one seed with a win. But my
Speaker 1: question you what do you need to see if anything
Speaker 1: from the Ravens between now and the end of the
Speaker 1: regular season, that anything, anything on your radar weakness of
Speaker 1: this team, something you'd like to see shoring up if
Speaker 1: you're if you're John Arball, No, no, I don't see.
Speaker 1: I don't see a weakness for them. I would maybe
Speaker 1: like to see Hayden Hurst, who was drafted ahead of
Speaker 1: Lamar Jackson, become as good as Mark Andrews and become
Speaker 1: that like second more two tight end sets and they
Speaker 1: get they have those two weapons. Maybe Hollywood Brown is
Speaker 1: playing like he did earlier in the year instead of
Speaker 1: like going in the tank like he did the last
Speaker 1: few weeks. But there's nothing about the Ravens that that
Speaker 1: really were. But they're so it's just stay healthy. They're
Speaker 1: so healthy. Their entire team isn't wasn't even on the
Speaker 1: injury report. I think Brandon Williams was the only guy
Speaker 1: and he's even practicing. So not only are they the
Speaker 1: best team in the league, there among the healthiest, they
Speaker 1: have a ton to play for. You clinch home field,
Speaker 1: you make up for your one bad loss of the year,
Speaker 1: and you finish off Lamar's MVP case. Because Mike Garrett
Speaker 1: Folo already said on our network he does not expect
Speaker 1: Lamar Jackson to play in Week seventeen, I don't think
Speaker 1: that necessarily means the rest of the starters will sit
Speaker 1: a It's hard to do that be I think they
Speaker 1: might just you know, roll out r G three with
Speaker 1: a bunch of other starters. I'm looking more. I'm more
Speaker 1: curious in this game of Baker Mayfield and the Browns.
Speaker 1: And I know we've all given up on them, but
Speaker 1: the way the Ravens have transformed the most is defensively
Speaker 1: since week four, and they just blitz you like crazy.
Speaker 1: And Baker's just hasn't responded well to when he's seeing
Speaker 1: a lot of different looks and this this really taxes
Speaker 1: you as a quarterback playing the Ravens. What disappoints me
Speaker 1: most about the Browns is on a team with Nick
Speaker 1: Chubb and Jarvis Landry, they lack toughness. And if you
Speaker 1: can't stop Kenyan Drake in short yardage, you have no
Speaker 1: prayer against Lament. Yeah, they're very single. The Cardinals are
Speaker 1: like Ravens light. I mean, they're kind of the second
Speaker 1: most creative running games. So if you can't slow down
Speaker 1: the Cardinals, good luck. All right, let's move on. It
Speaker 1: is my pick and I will stick in the Saturdays
Speaker 1: on Sundays. Sunday's not looking too hot to be honestly
Speaker 1: from a matchup perspective, but Rams at Niners the prime
Speaker 1: time taking two Saturday games. Look at that, so you
Speaker 1: are doing what Mark did, so I planned to grind
Speaker 1: on Sunday as well, but I just want to pick
Speaker 1: the best games in the draft, to be true to
Speaker 1: the draft and talk about a good game which is
Speaker 1: way better than any of the other Sunday games remaining.
Speaker 1: To be quite honest, there's some trash remaining. Um so
Speaker 1: let's talk about Rams at Niners and uh, yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: do I want to kill the Niners for losing that
Speaker 1: game of the Falcons? Nah? I mean they've lost two
Speaker 1: of three. The Ravens loss, you know, that was that
Speaker 1: was painful, justin Tucker at the gun. Uh. The Falcons
Speaker 1: loss as bad as it was, and it was how
Speaker 1: it ended with the Julio Jones touchdown is rough, but
Speaker 1: it didn't hurt them all that much. It just kind
Speaker 1: of more took away their room margin for error. If
Speaker 1: they beat the Rams and then they go to Seattle
Speaker 1: and that huge Week seventeen showdown, which I would think
Speaker 1: is going to be in front of Al Chris and Michelle.
Speaker 1: Hopefully they're the number one seed uh in the NFC,
Speaker 1: so it's still all out in front of him, and
Speaker 1: they get a Rams team that maybe they get they
Speaker 1: they kind of catch a break a little bit. If
Speaker 1: the Rams play well last week they beat the Cowboys
Speaker 1: and they are surging at nine and five, you get
Speaker 1: this Titanic showdown and the Rams are believing in themselves
Speaker 1: and they're on fire, and they're saying, we're we're good.
Speaker 1: You know, we want a ticket into jay Anuary. We
Speaker 1: want to defend our conference title. Well, maybe they're a
Speaker 1: little deflated after getting their butts whooped at jeral World,
Speaker 1: and the Rams team that shows up is closer to
Speaker 1: the one that disappointed us for most of the season.
Speaker 1: I like the Niners a lot in this game, and
Speaker 1: I'm curious what you boys think. I agree with you,
Speaker 1: but the Rams do have something to play for. The
Speaker 1: fact that comes on Saturday is you know, the NFL
Speaker 1: really lucked out with this NFL Network triple header. It's
Speaker 1: really good, and they lucked out that the Rams will
Speaker 1: be alive still. I mean only four things need to
Speaker 1: happen for the Rams to make the playoffs. They need
Speaker 1: to win two games, and they need the Vikings to
Speaker 1: lose two games. But if you're the Rams, you're playing
Speaker 1: your division rival and you're still alive for the playoffs,
Speaker 1: it's a big game. I mean, I I don't think
Speaker 1: if they lose, and I expect them to and that's
Speaker 1: why I'm locking up to forty niners. Uh, it's not
Speaker 1: gonna because they're not motivated. You know, they couldn't have
Speaker 1: been any more motivated last week and they just didn't
Speaker 1: show up. I think George Kittle is having one of
Speaker 1: the greatest tight end seasons of all time. He is
Speaker 1: like future All twenty two analytics film buffs are going
Speaker 1: to talk about this season in hushed tones, the way
Speaker 1: he's taken the fight to you on every single play
Speaker 1: Like two thousand thirteen J. J. Watt, he is just
Speaker 1: you gotta shoot him with an elephant gun to bring
Speaker 1: him down. How does he compare to you to two
Speaker 1: thousand thirteen Rob Gronkowski? He is. I think he plays
Speaker 1: with a faster game speed than Pete Gronk. He is
Speaker 1: faster than Gronk. He is just as physical as Gronk.
Speaker 1: He is a monster red zone blocker. But no one,
Speaker 1: no one in history of the NFL is the red
Speaker 1: zone weapon that Rob Gronkowski was, and his hands and
Speaker 1: body were so underrated as a red zone threat. Kittle
Speaker 1: isn't that guy. As a receiver in the red zone.
Speaker 1: I didn't get down around to watching that game till today,
Speaker 1: and just Kittle catching huge passes down field in so
Speaker 1: many different ways. You can you it's like slants. It's
Speaker 1: at the sideline where he's knocking someone out with a
Speaker 1: nailp but before he pulls in the past. I thought
Speaker 1: in that game that the absence of Richard Sherman was
Speaker 1: a huge reason they lost, because every time I looked up,
Speaker 1: this guy Emmanuel Mosley was getting scorched by Julio Jones.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't all big plays, but it was like
Speaker 1: the Falcons have been subsistently moving the ball. I think
Speaker 1: that's just how damn good Julio Jones. No, it's all,
Speaker 1: but it's just like I think Richard Sherman could have
Speaker 1: made a bit more of a difference in there. They
Speaker 1: get back Sherman. They're getting Sherman back, and they're getting
Speaker 1: back Kawan Williams, who plays a lot for them, So
Speaker 1: that's two of their top cornerbacks return in a lot.
Speaker 1: Had to go wrong in that game for the forty
Speaker 1: Niners to lose, including Kittle fumbling, was it was a
Speaker 1: huge play. Uh, they almost could have won the game
Speaker 1: if he hadn't switched the ball, you know, switched it
Speaker 1: in his hands and and fumbled it. And and they're
Speaker 1: a team like the Saints that should have their eyes
Speaker 1: like on the prize, and that was a stumble and
Speaker 1: I think they'll be embarrassed from it. And they have
Speaker 1: a good history against Wade Phillips's defense. Kyle Shanahan's put
Speaker 1: up thirty points in three of the five meetings against Phillips,
Speaker 1: and that does not include the game earlier this season,
Speaker 1: which to me was the moment where you realize this
Speaker 1: Rams team could just be overmatched because they were so
Speaker 1: physically dominated by the forty Niners in that game that
Speaker 1: I want to see that again out of the forty Niners.
Speaker 1: We haven't seen a good forty Niners blowout in a while,
Speaker 1: and especially since I locked him up. Just make my
Speaker 1: Saturday night easy, right, And I mean GoF has his
Speaker 1: stiffness and his right throwing thumb situation that's not great,
Speaker 1: and the splits for him because the Niners are banged up,
Speaker 1: but they still have Bosa. You've got Bucked and you've
Speaker 1: got Eric Arms said, when you can rush Golf and
Speaker 1: get in his face, like his statistical splits are ghastly.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's not the same guy under pressure, and
Speaker 1: he threw a killer interception last week that flipped that
Speaker 1: Cowboys game on its butt. The forty Niners have three
Speaker 1: sacks in the last three games. They haven't been as
Speaker 1: good up front either, so I think they want to
Speaker 1: kind of get that defensive mojo back. This is the
Speaker 1: right old line to go west To your point about
Speaker 1: Kittle and how he's it's more than just the passing game.
Speaker 1: How he affects the Niners. He's the centerpiece of that offense,
Speaker 1: according to next gens stats because of his ability to
Speaker 1: make plays and all over the field. Uh, he changes
Speaker 1: the way it looks around the line of scrimmage. The
Speaker 1: box is in his pact when he's able to because
Speaker 1: they have to follow him. And what you have is
Speaker 1: yards per rush with Kittle on the field five point
Speaker 1: oh without Kittle, three point four rushing touchdowns fifteen with
Speaker 1: Kiddle three without him. They're just a totally different offense
Speaker 1: when he's back. He's playing on a broken hankle at
Speaker 1: one point this season, but now he's back and all
Speaker 1: the way back to himself and everything flows through him.
Speaker 1: They were averaging like literally a hundred rushing yards less
Speaker 1: per game when he was out with that Injine, incredible.
Speaker 1: All right, Wes, you are up. Oh you took my game.
Speaker 1: I know I was hoping to get that. I thought
Speaker 1: for sure nobody wanted to say, we'll get to watch it.
Speaker 1: It's okay. I just didn't want an extra game. You
Speaker 1: can even still comment on it the next day, as
Speaker 1: you see that one's gonna be hard to recover from. Okay,
Speaker 1: I will take Steelers at Jet. Nice job. Well, I'll
Speaker 1: still be watching that game. Was I just going buy
Speaker 1: my board? That's the number one left on my board.
Speaker 1: You could always be open for business. You could always
Speaker 1: make offer me the Saturday Night game for the Jet
Speaker 1: game like the one. You really wanted, the Jet game.
Speaker 1: But trade okay, no, fair enough. That was like the
Speaker 1: g M app in real life. That was exciting. I
Speaker 1: was surprised to hear that people expected Tomlin to consider
Speaker 1: benching Duck Hodges after last game. I get that it
Speaker 1: was an awful game. I get that the quarterback limitations
Speaker 1: lost that game for the Steelers, but come on, what
Speaker 1: what he did in a few games before that compared
Speaker 1: to what Mason Rudolph was to one. Yeah, I guess
Speaker 1: it was just the nature of how how almost um defenseless.
Speaker 1: Well that's not the right word because we're talking about offense,
Speaker 1: but just how limited they appeared when they needed that
Speaker 1: big score in the end of the and they just
Speaker 1: couldn't and Hodges was just not up to the task
Speaker 1: in those last two possessions. Daylight came out, I thought
Speaker 1: and Dot that was the way to beat the Bills
Speaker 1: because the Bills just put everyone up front trying to
Speaker 1: dare Duck to be a check and uh yeah, they
Speaker 1: don't need a big offensive performance. They're gonna get ju
Speaker 1: Ju back. James Conner looked pretty good in his return.
Speaker 1: You count on the running game, and you count on
Speaker 1: their team to force turnovers because you know, if there's
Speaker 1: a criticism of San Donald in the second year, it's
Speaker 1: pretty similar to Baker. It's similar to a lot of
Speaker 1: young quarterbacks. He's just a little late on on things.
Speaker 1: And if you're late against the Steelers, that's a t. J.
Speaker 1: Watt force fumble. Yeah, I thought, you know, and that
Speaker 1: they Obviously the Ravens game, as most two against Baltimore,
Speaker 1: totally got away from the Jets. But the Jets, who
Speaker 1: have been awful on third down and stuff, had a
Speaker 1: rash at one point in the game where they converted
Speaker 1: like seven third downs. I thought Donald made some really
Speaker 1: good throws in that game and then it just it
Speaker 1: went south. But I would be more hopeful, and I'm not.
Speaker 1: This is not me trying to, you know, make a
Speaker 1: nice a salvo to Dan here, but I'm a little
Speaker 1: bit more hopeful with streaks of Sam Donald's play than
Speaker 1: what I've seen from Baker this for chunks of this season.
Speaker 1: I think they're close because I think some of the
Speaker 1: issues are are similar for young guys. But you know,
Speaker 1: Donald has les surround him. Let's start right there. He's
Speaker 1: got a terrible offensive line, and you know, levy on
Speaker 1: Bell has not been what they thought. I wonder is
Speaker 1: does this count as a revenge game levy on Bell
Speaker 1: versus Steelers. Not that he's gonna be to uh, you know,
Speaker 1: impose his will, But I don't know about that. I
Speaker 1: think my biggest concern for both Sam Donald and Baker
Speaker 1: Mayfield is the organizations they're attached to. Yeah, it's fair,
Speaker 1: and there's nothing through two years of their careers that
Speaker 1: makes me feel any better about that, Like if you
Speaker 1: put those if you put those those players in better
Speaker 1: uh situations with management and the players. Well, Baker at
Speaker 1: least had a good core around it, but coaching and
Speaker 1: all that that any young quarterback is gonna get a
Speaker 1: little fouled up. And I fear that's what's happening with
Speaker 1: both these guys, and hopefully it changes how unpredictable. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I I don't wanna, you know, I know you're not
Speaker 1: gonna root for them to look bad down the stretch.
Speaker 1: But the fact that they have to play the Ravens defense,
Speaker 1: the Steelers defense, and then the Bill's defense in a
Speaker 1: row and you've still got that six point performance in
Speaker 1: Cincinnati pretty close. It is still very much on my
Speaker 1: radar that there's a way Adam Gates could lose his job,
Speaker 1: which I think might be might not be the worst
Speaker 1: thing long term for Sam Donald. Just it's such a
Speaker 1: hard slate that that's a recipe to have three pretty
Speaker 1: tough games in a row. Yeah, that's their playoff run,
Speaker 1: I mean, and I'm not sure. I mean, so if
Speaker 1: Tom Brady and the Patriots are playing those three teams
Speaker 1: in a row, they're not scoring either. It's just I
Speaker 1: wonder if the emotion of how this season might end
Speaker 1: for the Jets could could affect things. We know the
Speaker 1: Jets defense is capable of putting together a pretty strong performance,
Speaker 1: and I would think this was a recipe for an upset,
Speaker 1: but that T J. Watton bud to pre the way
Speaker 1: they're playing and Cameron Heyward going up against this Jets
Speaker 1: offensive line feels like it almost feels like upset proof,
Speaker 1: Like that's the matchup that's going to turn in this
Speaker 1: game in the Steeler's face. And these fans are big
Speaker 1: Jets fans. This week they need the Jets to help
Speaker 1: them out. They'll try it. I just I'm I'm certainly
Speaker 1: not too confident. Jamal Adams has a quote very high
Speaker 1: chance of returning against the Steelers, So that is such
Speaker 1: a big piece. He is the George Kittle of the Jets.
Speaker 1: Steve previous Mike Tomlin teams. You could count on one
Speaker 1: game a year where they go on the road and
Speaker 1: lay an ultra gigantic egg. And I don't think this
Speaker 1: is that Steelers team. Yeah, all right, let's move on.
Speaker 1: Picking Next is Greg Rosenthal. Yeah, you really really hurt
Speaker 1: me there. I mean, you're sorting through corpses at this point,
Speaker 1: I really am. It doesn't matter. I'm guys opening up
Speaker 1: the little refrigerators of the toe tags popping out. I've
Speaker 1: got to uh, two games, I guess in a row here.
Speaker 1: I'll take um, I'll take the Cardinal Seahawks because that's
Speaker 1: the only other playoff team I think that's still available right. Uh,
Speaker 1: this is a game that could be fun. I know
Speaker 1: the Seahawks is one victory all season that was easy
Speaker 1: came against these Cardinals. So the Seahawks have the same
Speaker 1: amount of two score wins as the Bengals this year.
Speaker 1: One and so you expected to be close at the end.
Speaker 1: And I know they matched up well with Arizona last time.
Speaker 1: But I would love to see Kyler Murray have a
Speaker 1: signat your moment. He played really well last week. Um.
Speaker 1: And that's the type of thing that if you're number
Speaker 1: one overall draft pick and they've really had a good
Speaker 1: year offensively, Kenyan Drake's fun to watch. I think the
Speaker 1: Seahawks defense is beatable. They haven't been as good at
Speaker 1: home this year. They're very banged up. Uh this week,
Speaker 1: I think this could be kind of a fun game,
Speaker 1: and go, go, go make something. You know, Kyler Murray.
Speaker 1: You bring up Kyler who's had moments, but certainly it
Speaker 1: hasn't been a you know, fantastic best games have been
Speaker 1: in losses for the most he was playing injured. He
Speaker 1: looked so much more explosive last week with Josh Jacob's
Speaker 1: going down with a shoulder injury. Um, the door seems
Speaker 1: to be open for that Offensive Rookie of the Year
Speaker 1: awards still and maybe if if Kyler Murray closed is strong,
Speaker 1: that's something he could he could get, which is a
Speaker 1: bigger deal to Kylin mur than anyone else. But I've
Speaker 1: been kind of keeping my eye on that. Um, that race,
Speaker 1: and it's a bit of a strange race this year.
Speaker 1: The Offensive Rookie of the Year. Who else even jumps
Speaker 1: out at you as someone that's in line for the award?
Speaker 1: Did Jacobs do enough before he got Brown came Metcalf?
Speaker 1: They haven't been as it's not a stellar It's not
Speaker 1: like a all shockingly stellar, but yeah, not like top
Speaker 1: heavy where look the wage of Brown's been playing. If
Speaker 1: he closed out strong, I think that's dk Metcalf in
Speaker 1: this game. I mean they that's where the Cardinals don't
Speaker 1: match up as well. Pat Peterson finally had a good game,
Speaker 1: but he has not been himself uh this season. That's
Speaker 1: why Rivas should be in that second cornerback spot for
Speaker 1: Chris Westling's All Decade team. Well, Patrick Peterson has had
Speaker 1: a bad season, Darrell Rivas hasn't played in five years.
Speaker 1: You're gonna hold that against him. I thought Tyler Lockett
Speaker 1: looked better last week. He there was a story that
Speaker 1: came out that that mid season flew bug that he had,
Speaker 1: he shed ten pounds And that's not the person that
Speaker 1: can easily lose ten pounds off their their NFL frame.
Speaker 1: But I feel like with the Seahawks, they don't you
Speaker 1: write the only great defense, but you look at like
Speaker 1: kJ right last week making huge place. Someone steps up
Speaker 1: every game for that, and I just trust that to happen.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it would be this week. I
Speaker 1: just I just think it might. It might be fun.
Speaker 1: Clowney's still hurt, Wagner is supposed to play, but he's
Speaker 1: missing practice, Quandary Digs is out. They just you know,
Speaker 1: it hasn't all come together. It's all leading to that
Speaker 1: Week seventeen game. I do wonder if NBC is gonna
Speaker 1: flex it now that I think about it, because when
Speaker 1: I worked there, they had this big policy that it
Speaker 1: had to be They always went with the play in
Speaker 1: game over what was just like a better matchup, and
Speaker 1: this will not be a play in game. But we'll
Speaker 1: see maybe the what's the potential playoff play in game
Speaker 1: out there? Titans, Texans, maybe Steelers, maybe like Steelers versus
Speaker 1: the Ravens backups, Like that's a little messy, we'll see.
Speaker 1: Does Cliff Kingsbury get enough credit for like completely when
Speaker 1: people most people just swept this theory up as an impossibility.
Speaker 1: When the when the whispers started that they were gonna
Speaker 1: dump Josh Rosen and go for Kyler Murray, and it
Speaker 1: was just widely dismissed as gossip and rumor and NFL
Speaker 1: teams don't operate this way, and what would this team
Speaker 1: be with Josh Rosen. I mean, Josh Rosen can't even
Speaker 1: start for the Dolphins right now. So it's like Cliff
Speaker 1: Kingsbury and it was not their GM or anyone else
Speaker 1: convinced the organization to do the right thing, and it
Speaker 1: has turned out well and they have hope because of
Speaker 1: that one single knighted belief in this quarter. Watching last week,
Speaker 1: it was hard not to think which duo would you
Speaker 1: rather have Kyler and Kyle and King Cliff or Baker
Speaker 1: and Freddy. Kitchen thought the same thing. You want the Cardinals.
Speaker 1: You know, who's the player that kind of makes me
Speaker 1: believe in cliffore and Anyway, it's Kenyan Drake. It's the
Speaker 1: running game is so good. You take a guy who
Speaker 1: didn't do anything in Miami and suddenly he's, you know,
Speaker 1: a pro bowled quality running back. It's almost like you'd
Speaker 1: get away from Adam Gaze. I didn't bring that up.
Speaker 1: If he didn't go down that avenue, you just did?
Speaker 1: All right? Who Greg, it's snaking it is you know,
Speaker 1: it's only get a nuggles. These bodis so get you know,
Speaker 1: the stink on them gets. Well, why not go? Will Greers? First?
Speaker 1: Start here against the colt I mean, what you're gonna
Speaker 1: tell me the you fell on the green that was
Speaker 1: sitting atop a dead body. Well, there's a four way.
Speaker 1: There's a four team playoff at the top of the
Speaker 1: draft that has its own attractiveness. Actually, Giants, Redskins. You
Speaker 1: can make an argument, but I'll see I like guys
Speaker 1: when they start their first game, you just the curiosity factor.
Speaker 1: I also feel so bad for this Colt's team. It's
Speaker 1: like they deserve to play a tomato can like the
Speaker 1: Panthers right now, starting Will Greer in their first game.
Speaker 1: They're better than than six and eight, and you would
Speaker 1: think that they're running game would be able to overpower
Speaker 1: what's just been an abysmal Panthers rush defense. Would you
Speaker 1: ever if you're the Colts, and I mean the answer
Speaker 1: is no, because they're not. This is they're not doing this,
Speaker 1: But um Dan would have an interestedness and so would
Speaker 1: I in getting a look at Chad Kelly. I understand
Speaker 1: that you're not and you can make it clear that
Speaker 1: prisets not someone that you're tracking report like you know, replace,
Speaker 1: but I are we by this week. I think someone
Speaker 1: sent it to me and my mentions that he has
Speaker 1: not even been considered as an option to play in
Speaker 1: these finals game. I just personally, I just want to
Speaker 1: see it. I'm not saying that that's how this organism.
Speaker 1: You know, Brissette signed through next year at a very
Speaker 1: reasonable rate for a starting quarterback. He's gonna be there now,
Speaker 1: whether they draft someone or bringing someone. Yeah to me.
Speaker 1: I think they want to get some wins here at
Speaker 1: the end. Well, I know that swag Kelly has been
Speaker 1: exciting to watch in the preseason, but I think it
Speaker 1: speaks volumes when they waive him yeah, and then he
Speaker 1: gets through waivers, nobody claims him, and he spends time
Speaker 1: on the practice squad, and then he gets called up
Speaker 1: only when there's an injury. I just don't think they
Speaker 1: see him the same. Zack Key for who reports for
Speaker 1: the athletic This was his tweet for the Chad Kelly
Speaker 1: will lead the Cults to the Promised Land crowd. The
Speaker 1: Cults have not even discussed elevating him to the backup
Speaker 1: role for the final, to the back to the backup alright,
Speaker 1: it that was my You know, the history is not
Speaker 1: riches calling would say in this situation, he was so
Speaker 1: good in the preseason I carved up and Will Greer
Speaker 1: was so bad in the preseason, and as poorly Kyle
Speaker 1: Allen has played Will Greer, it took until now to
Speaker 1: get a start. Why won't they let Sway Kelly be great.
Speaker 1: He's been dealing with this his whole life. Let swa
Speaker 1: It's an organizational question that goes to the highest functioning order.
Speaker 1: Maybe you should have thought about like walking into that
Speaker 1: stranger's house after the Von Miller Halloween Park's past number one.
Speaker 1: And also how about we lock our doors and so
Speaker 1: we avoid this confusion of the future. He's teaching us
Speaker 1: a lesson about our society. All right, Uh, moving on,
Speaker 1: Chris Wesley, Well, at this point, I'm just going grass fields.
Speaker 1: We'll we'll do Lions at Broncos because at least it's
Speaker 1: a fun stadium to watch. And aren't you curious? I
Speaker 1: think Drew locks for the last two weeks are consequential,
Speaker 1: Like for all these teams that are totally out of it,
Speaker 1: the Drew lock like five week audition. It that's something
Speaker 1: to me that's gonna tell you about the Broncos for
Speaker 1: next year. Yeah, and I don't know how much stock
Speaker 1: to put in last week's game in the snow. That
Speaker 1: was pretty heavy snow. And Patrick mahomes like, you don't
Speaker 1: ever want to be a team that goes into Kansas
Speaker 1: City and the snow. We saw what happened to the
Speaker 1: Colts in the playoffs last year, and the Broncos got
Speaker 1: whitewashed last week. But Lock, it looked like he didn't
Speaker 1: have a good grip on the ball. So I'm gonna
Speaker 1: write that game off and just kind of judge him
Speaker 1: on what he's done in the games without Snow. I mean,
Speaker 1: he may encounter Snow again in his career, but I
Speaker 1: don't know how to predict that. He's from He's from
Speaker 1: the Kansas City area, said he had been to I
Speaker 1: think like over fifty Chiefs games in his life. Well,
Speaker 1: that tells me goes back and just gets well, you
Speaker 1: know how it is when you're you're just gotten out
Speaker 1: of college, you go back to your hometown, you're hanging
Speaker 1: out with your high school friends. Probably was you know.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying that could have been a factor not
Speaker 1: reporting that. Uh. Two Pro Bowl snubs for the Broncos,
Speaker 1: Courtland Sutton and Justin Simmons, they might be the two
Speaker 1: biggest Pro Bowl snubs period. I think they I think so. Well,
Speaker 1: the good thing is the Ravens have like fourteen or
Speaker 1: fifteen people that you're gonna get Courtland Sulland's gonna be
Speaker 1: the Pro Bowl mix it. Simmons wasn't even be touching
Speaker 1: in Orlando. Wasn't even his interception of my homes last
Speaker 1: week was an amazing play and he first team All Pro.
Speaker 1: He might be he has a chance, I think at
Speaker 1: first team All Pro, and yet he didn't make the
Speaker 1: Pro West. When you said that you were going grass fields,
Speaker 1: I thought it was like some type of metaphor about
Speaker 1: being free, like just following your heart or something. But
Speaker 1: you were literally talking about watching game played on a
Speaker 1: grass field. Well, I think the free part of it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, as I've said before, Natural has been been
Speaker 1: beating Fake for like a hundred thousand year winning streak.
Speaker 1: Natural in the red. Yeah, Washington doesn't really count because
Speaker 1: that's just dirt. At this point, grass I considered that
Speaker 1: fields terrible. I'm up and uh god, dang, let's u
Speaker 1: Let's watch Minshew. You know what, let's watch your final
Speaker 1: scouting assessment on him, Gardner Minshew traveling to Atlanta to
Speaker 1: face the Falcons right back at you. Um, here we go.
Speaker 1: The Jaguars. You know, they really got helped out by
Speaker 1: the officials in that game. Uh as we As we mentioned,
Speaker 1: I believe Jon Gruden was given an apology by the league,
Speaker 1: which is almost worse than not getting an apologies. It's like,
Speaker 1: I know that that's the NFL taking accountability, But what
Speaker 1: is it. I mean, it doesn't bring the w backy.
Speaker 1: It's like, hey, Al Davis, you shouldn't have gone after
Speaker 1: Pete Rosel so hard. Their deep roots here, so so yes,
Speaker 1: ruling Derek Carr out of bounds really is what led
Speaker 1: to the Raiders, uh going down the tubes and the
Speaker 1: Jaguars getting that win. But good for Jacksonville. I still
Speaker 1: had a march down the field and we saw some
Speaker 1: Minshew magic to make that happen. And now they go
Speaker 1: to Atlanta to play the Falcons and yeah, we're not
Speaker 1: You only get a couple of more chances to watch
Speaker 1: Matt Ryan play football this season. They're five and nine,
Speaker 1: so uh in uh in their building a little Minshew Falcons.
Speaker 1: And one thing we we should touch on is that
Speaker 1: Tom Coughlin was fired. Tom Cofflin, who's the vice president
Speaker 1: of Operations I believe was his title in Jacksonville football
Speaker 1: czar is another way to put it. He was let
Speaker 1: go and that happened um at the same time, and
Speaker 1: the report came out that the Jaguars, what was the
Speaker 1: exact details surrounding this thing about fines that are being
Speaker 1: overturned all over the place right down and the unions
Speaker 1: putting it out there that players should seriously consider even
Speaker 1: going to Jacksonville to play for them. Really messy stuff.
Speaker 1: And Coughlin and his culture. Our boy Connor or actually
Speaker 1: over at Sports Illustrated wrote a nice piece about how
Speaker 1: Tom Coughlin's hard nosed style, if you're not five minutes
Speaker 1: earlier late, uh to see they switched the clocks back.
Speaker 1: They switched the clocks back. JA today switched it back
Speaker 1: to normal. Was like I showed up and I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm not early, am I? But then he was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I guess they changed. But yeah. Connor used an example
Speaker 1: within the piece of how strict it was with Coughlin
Speaker 1: at the top both of the Giants and the Jags,
Speaker 1: if you weren't wearing uh, you know, the proper necktie
Speaker 1: on a team flight, they would take some of your
Speaker 1: game check, just like tiki tech stuff like that. That
Speaker 1: maybe it worked even as recently as ten years ago
Speaker 1: in the NFL, and certainly worked twenty and thirty and
Speaker 1: forty years, but in the modern league it's just a
Speaker 1: little bit different now. And a guy like Coughlin was
Speaker 1: a dinosaur. So the Jaguars wisely move on from Coughlin,
Speaker 1: and now we find out and we will find out
Speaker 1: if that's where it ends or if we're or it's
Speaker 1: gonna be a full purge in Jacksonville. Based on the
Speaker 1: statement from shot Khan that the GM calledwell, David Caldwell
Speaker 1: and Doug Moron will report to him directly on an
Speaker 1: interim basis, and just everything that's happened, it's it feels
Speaker 1: like they're just gonna clean total house. I think Caldwell
Speaker 1: is the one that no one sure, you know, there's
Speaker 1: some speculation that the last to get the results of
Speaker 1: the last two games could play a big impact if
Speaker 1: they win three straight, that that'll really help. Which is
Speaker 1: how you got Doug Moron in the first place, is
Speaker 1: that you hired him because he went one and one
Speaker 1: in Blake Bordles from like the thirty second best quarterback
Speaker 1: to the twenty second best quarterback for two weeks. Like
Speaker 1: that's how you did it. But Coughlin, it's a rough
Speaker 1: it's a rough way to go out because it's not
Speaker 1: just that like he had these old school ways. He
Speaker 1: was breaking the rules of the collective Bargaining Agreement. Twenty
Speaker 1: five different players were fine for missing quote unquote mandatory
Speaker 1: offseason you know, appointments with physicians, which is literally against
Speaker 1: the c b A. And so the players union had
Speaker 1: all these complaints, well, you can't require players to get
Speaker 1: your treatment at the facility in the off season, and
Speaker 1: they were requiring them and they were finding them. But
Speaker 1: also other stuff like Leonard Fournette being on the bench
Speaker 1: last year that was a dollar fine, right they fired him.
Speaker 1: That got overturned. Like there's a bunch of fines that
Speaker 1: they found that the whole rest of the league I
Speaker 1: think added up to less than half of all the
Speaker 1: cases than the Jaguars have had over the last two years.
Speaker 1: So the NFL p A said you should consider that,
Speaker 1: and I think that's why on uh just decided to
Speaker 1: fire Coughlin right now, not even wait two weeks. I'd say,
Speaker 1: on the flip side, you know that the Falcons obviously
Speaker 1: last week they're playing hard. They go out and upset
Speaker 1: the Niners, but they are weirdly two wins away from
Speaker 1: being seven and nine, and I would say, and maybe
Speaker 1: saving dan Quinn's job. I mean, I'll say some teams
Speaker 1: you can feel them floating away and the players are
Speaker 1: not responding, and it's hard to watch but the Falcons
Speaker 1: are not that right now. They did this last year too,
Speaker 1: they won their last three games. His defense historically is
Speaker 1: always better in the second half. I don't I don't know.
Speaker 1: I've heard of You've have been reading that, but I'm surprised.
Speaker 1: My thing is like disappointment at seven and nine. Dan
Speaker 1: Quinn is a little bit of a ron rivera thing
Speaker 1: to him where a lot of people around the league
Speaker 1: think that dan Quinn is the guy and a great coach,
Speaker 1: and you know, situationally, maybe not in the greatest situation
Speaker 1: for him in Atlanta this season, but who are you
Speaker 1: You're gonna You're gonna remove him, and again you have
Speaker 1: to go find out that you're gonna get someone better.
Speaker 1: I just thought of unlocking this game and it didn't
Speaker 1: even pass the old Desert test. That's how much the
Speaker 1: Desert is a fan of that Falcons right now. Julio Jones,
Speaker 1: just a word of praise about him. This is why
Speaker 1: you keep playing your stars when you're eliminated from playoff contention.
Speaker 1: To see responsible for twenty of his team's twenty three
Speaker 1: points in that game. A Hall of Famer in the
Speaker 1: late stages of his prime, proving he's still an All
Speaker 1: Pro and you better pay attention because put me on
Speaker 1: that All Pro list with the way I'm playing. And
Speaker 1: how about this, people are paying money to go, you know,
Speaker 1: to these games. Yes, I'm with you, Jo Johns. If
Speaker 1: they go one and seven and then in the first
Speaker 1: seven close six and two, I think he keeps his job.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying that. A lot of it's like, is
Speaker 1: there this amazing candidate, is Bill Parcels two point o
Speaker 1: sitting out there? And the Falcons are the team that
Speaker 1: wants to go chasing? There's no one out there? You
Speaker 1: know who is out there? What a Bill Parcels is
Speaker 1: old lieutenants is out there? And the available Tom caufin well,
Speaker 1: I don't Yeah, that's low stakes. All right, Mark, you're up,
Speaker 1: all right? I am in this draft, by the way,
Speaker 1: has just unfolded and beautiful fashion. I have one game
Speaker 1: on Saturday. I have one game early on Sunday, and
Speaker 1: I am now going to pick the final four o'clock
Speaker 1: Eastern time Standard time zone start with the Oakland Raiders
Speaker 1: at the Charge and Gradualations markets. Sixteen weeks. Someone got
Speaker 1: a perfect draft finally, and well it sits just the
Speaker 1: way I want to do it and it's the Raiders.
Speaker 1: Four games in a row, you've lost. Come on here, people,
Speaker 1: and you know it was that written now, But I just,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just the single greatest moment of analysis
Speaker 1: on the history of this podcast. Want that to be
Speaker 1: a drop two very two, very absurd teams. I mean,
Speaker 1: the Chargers have the worst turnover differential in the league,
Speaker 1: tied with the Bengals, and they look like at half
Speaker 1: the time. And I thought that a couple of weeks
Speaker 1: ago when they flamed Jacksonville, that Rivers had awoken for
Speaker 1: what would be a potentially a three or four games
Speaker 1: stretch to close his career in Los Angeles. But then no,
Speaker 1: last week happens and they totally melt. So these are
Speaker 1: two totally unpredictable, but more they are predictable in the
Speaker 1: center that they're unreliable week to week. Uh. I don't
Speaker 1: find the Chargers that fun to watch. The Raiders, UH
Speaker 1: crushed me last week and I locked them. I told
Speaker 1: Sky Sports at halftime that you could bet houses, you
Speaker 1: could bet cars, they are not losing this game. And
Speaker 1: I came at it hard. And it's like the time
Speaker 1: in a row. I've told Neil Reynolds and Sky Sports
Speaker 1: something and it's gone south within half an hour to
Speaker 1: an hour after. So I don't know why they still
Speaker 1: put you rent and you don't even have a car
Speaker 1: right now. Well it's not my possessions, but I mean
Speaker 1: I was telling other people to go do it. So
Speaker 1: I have no idea who will win this game. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, we're saying there's some people in London right
Speaker 1: now with broken kneecaps because of you. I think it's
Speaker 1: possible you and Rainmakers should take your show on the road,
Speaker 1: the possible off the road. The Raiders are not playing
Speaker 1: Josh Jacobs in this game. Trent Brown is on ir.
Speaker 1: It feels like the moves of a team that just
Speaker 1: doesn't want any further. Damn, John Gruen said packing up
Speaker 1: the boxes after the loss. As they were packing up
Speaker 1: the boxes at the Oakland cal Seum, poor Josh Jacobs
Speaker 1: couldn't even get his uh shoulder pads off. He wasn't
Speaker 1: so much after the game. So it makes all the
Speaker 1: sense of the world. Well, I guess you know it
Speaker 1: was the last game, and you know there was some
Speaker 1: juice to it, but it makes all the sense of
Speaker 1: the world to shut down what's a really great rookie
Speaker 1: season overall for Jacobs's You're trying to forget that Raider
Speaker 1: Nation does get their annual l A game still every year,
Speaker 1: so they'll I'm sure it will be mostly Raiders fans today,
Speaker 1: I mean on Sunday rather so that you know the
Speaker 1: goodbye will continue in the next you know, those games
Speaker 1: now every year when they come to l A are
Speaker 1: gonna be even more like Raiders heavy than ever. I
Speaker 1: think John Grun's going quarterback shopping this offseason. We're back
Speaker 1: here now, so I'm not saying he's gonna cut their car,
Speaker 1: but I think he's gonna he's gonna fall in love
Speaker 1: with somebody in the draft or chase another quarterback. The
Speaker 1: way they've played the last month and the way this
Speaker 1: offense has been so limited all year. There the beat
Speaker 1: writer for the Las Vegas Review Journal, Vincent Bonsignori, he
Speaker 1: tweeted that out this week, which got some attention, that
Speaker 1: he thought there there would be changes at quarterback. He
Speaker 1: left it vague, but he was this falls in love
Speaker 1: with quarterbacks easily well and all. And also they honored
Speaker 1: Derek Carr by giving him this season, and that you
Speaker 1: know there was last off season, through all these whispers
Speaker 1: that John Gruden wanted all you know quarterback x Y
Speaker 1: and z had Kyler Murray and their building. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: be surprised at all if they fall in love with
Speaker 1: free agent or a free agent or someone else. They'll
Speaker 1: they'll see what they can get, and it's like, is
Speaker 1: it that better than car? And there's a chance maybe
Speaker 1: they won't get anything better? All right? Mark, great drafts, Bengali,
Speaker 1: you're up again, Well, and I'm picking. I believe I'm
Speaker 1: the snake situation for either Nick Shook or Jeremy Bergmann
Speaker 1: because the other option is based on a trade I
Speaker 1: made last week that only plays into this amazing thing. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm just saying I'm not doing four games, so he
Speaker 1: still got some good. I am picking for someone. I'm
Speaker 1: picking for someone the Bengals a Dolphins for you know,
Speaker 1: can the Cincinnati Bengals do the most Bengals thing ever
Speaker 1: and somehow not wind up with the first overall pick.
Speaker 1: I think they're going to um. But what concerns me
Speaker 1: a little bit. I would put it in one game
Speaker 1: comment is that Joe Mixon actually has been awesome in
Speaker 1: the past couple of weeks. He tore up the Patriots
Speaker 1: a week ago, and the Dolphins for all their you know,
Speaker 1: hopeful little moments, the one thing they've consistently absolutely stunk
Speaker 1: to join up with is allowing running backs to, if
Speaker 1: they're in a tough place, totally break out week after
Speaker 1: week against Miami. So I could see Cincinnati controlling this
Speaker 1: game if if you don't get any big mistakes, and uh,
Speaker 1: they should win. And then suddenly you've got a showdown
Speaker 1: scenario where the Dolphins play the Patriots the week after
Speaker 1: and the Bengals play the Brown Brown So the Bengals
Speaker 1: would have to win two straight. I think it's possible.
Speaker 1: I thought about locking up this game. I'm shocked that
Speaker 1: the Dolphins are favorites. I just think Cincinnati's much better
Speaker 1: right now. Belichick called Joe Mixon the best running back
Speaker 1: in the league after that game. Pretty wild statement. He's playing,
Speaker 1: He's playing like George Kittle at running back, Like you
Speaker 1: really have to do that running had against the Patriots
Speaker 1: where right was it the Browns game where he looked
Speaker 1: like he was getting a tan yard loss and he
Speaker 1: broke about seven tackles, had a few against had one
Speaker 1: against the Patriots. That was. That was unbelievable looking at
Speaker 1: my favorite website, tankathon dot com. Just a great name.
Speaker 1: As we know, Cincinnati's one loss away from Joe Burrow.
Speaker 1: The Giants are two right now, the Dolphins at three
Speaker 1: and the Redskins at four. All are three and eleven.
Speaker 1: But it's about strength of schedule. Who's got the weakest
Speaker 1: strength of schedule of the group, and right now it's
Speaker 1: the Giants. And I don't take a look. They do
Speaker 1: a nice job here that um Khalil Mack trade Bears Raiders.
Speaker 1: That's still gonna bear fruit for the Raiders. They right
Speaker 1: now the where it is now, that's the eighteenth overall
Speaker 1: pick going to the Raiders. That's the Bears pick. And
Speaker 1: the Jalen Ramsey trade the Rams right now that's a
Speaker 1: top twenty pick, and of course that make a Fitzpatrick
Speaker 1: Dolphins Steelers trade twenty two Jaguars and the one reason
Speaker 1: you get new people and is they have four number
Speaker 1: one picks over the next two years. Oh and the
Speaker 1: Laramie Tunzl trade is twenty three. So right now the
Speaker 1: Dolphins are at three. The Obes's gitting pretty especially with
Speaker 1: that Tounsil trade. Still time I get it, but for
Speaker 1: this season, he if there was any risk of him
Speaker 1: losing his job, he he kept himself employed. All right,
Speaker 1: I'm up, I will take the first game I see
Speaker 1: Giants at Redskins. Uh. Daniel Jones practiced fully on Wednesday.
Speaker 1: That tells me, as it should tell everyone, that he
Speaker 1: will be back in the lineup, sending Eli Manning back
Speaker 1: to the bench. Uh. As far as yeah, that all
Speaker 1: worked out. I was a little suspicious to begin with,
Speaker 1: and now I'm even more. They just wanted to see
Speaker 1: a little that the ownership wanted to see a little
Speaker 1: Eli Manning. They didn't want Jones playing like through an injury.
Speaker 1: I'm sure that there was truth to all of it.
Speaker 1: I think that's fair, and hey, it worked out. By far,
Speaker 1: the best moment of the year for the Giants was
Speaker 1: that win left Eli was the backup, so by necessity,
Speaker 1: when Jones getsing hurt, initially he's in a tough at Philly,
Speaker 1: but then it's like, well, you know, DJs banged up here,
Speaker 1: Let's get a home game, say goodbye to Eli, and
Speaker 1: then get back to business. Uh, and you get the
Speaker 1: Redskins And Uh, I will say that if I'm a
Speaker 1: Redskins fan. There was a period about I don't know,
Speaker 1: five weeks ago, maybe even three or four weeks ago,
Speaker 1: And remember we were dissecting that sideline conversation between Dwayne
Speaker 1: Haskins and the offensive line, and and it felt like
Speaker 1: the interim coach, Greg's boy Callaghan was purposely trying to
Speaker 1: end games as quickly as possible, and Haskins just looked overwhelmed.
Speaker 1: I feel like the last couple of weeks there's at
Speaker 1: least something to point at Haskins, But there's a little
Speaker 1: bit of growth here. He didn't you guarantee that his
Speaker 1: career is going to flame out because of Yes, okay, yes,
Speaker 1: but I'm pointing out the what is fair, which is
Speaker 1: that he has looked better. No, I did not like
Speaker 1: him taking selfies after his first NFL win. I will
Speaker 1: never like that he did that. But yes, he's obviously
Speaker 1: got the armed talent that he you know, he hangs
Speaker 1: in the pocket, maybe holds onto the ball too long.
Speaker 1: But I don't see him as a total disaster right now.
Speaker 1: I see him in like a Baker Mayfield, like a
Speaker 1: Sam Donald, a young quarterback trapped in an unhealthy situation
Speaker 1: and hopefully gets better for him. I'm gonna be curious
Speaker 1: to watch this because because of the young quarterbacks at
Speaker 1: some point, but both quarterbacks are with in systems offensively
Speaker 1: that they're not going to be in next year, right,
Speaker 1: So it's just one of those going to be in
Speaker 1: three weeks. The situations where you're right even don't know
Speaker 1: what you're gonna take from their late season performance, just
Speaker 1: drawn up plays in the dirt in the huddle for
Speaker 1: every play. I love it. I would watch that game
Speaker 1: in a second. If you're just telling me they're just
Speaker 1: gonna play schoolyard football in week sixteen of a meaningless
Speaker 1: football game, sounds fun to me. Uh West, We've got
Speaker 1: a little breaking news. Let's just throw it in. Let's
Speaker 1: throw it right right now. The Patriots have declared Julian
Speaker 1: Edelman out or questionable rather for Sunday's game. I would
Speaker 1: I would not have gone breaking if I had read it.
Speaker 1: They protested out a whole new crew in go on
Speaker 1: air with this breaking news. All of those peoples their
Speaker 1: Christmas man. You got the guy in the background playing
Speaker 1: the piano breaking I well, you know what. The number
Speaker 1: five overall PFF cornerback this year, Jonathan Jones is out
Speaker 1: how about that. No, And you know what, Ricky, let's
Speaker 1: not edit out of the show because this could be
Speaker 1: a learning lesson for Greg the humiliation that will come
Speaker 1: with this breaking. I mean, people need to know Jonathan Jones,
Speaker 1: he's been great in the slot. It's a matchup with
Speaker 1: cold Bleete Beasley hasn't missed. You cannot win this argument
Speaker 1: at this I read it wrong. West, close out our
Speaker 1: Sunday slate. I think we've moved on to the you're
Speaker 1: into the prime. Oh good, good, good, All right, West,
Speaker 1: You're done? Good job? Was um okay? And Mark, I
Speaker 1: think it would be unfair to stick our buddies Shook
Speaker 1: or Burgo with games that bad. I think we're just
Speaker 1: gonna handle those games we be. That would be West
Speaker 1: based on this, we will be very quick on them.
Speaker 1: My hand, my hands are clean. It is going to
Speaker 1: West or one of those two people. You can you
Speaker 1: guys figure it out? All right? Here we go, Uh,
Speaker 1: Sunday Night football. The Kansas City Chiefs ten and four. Uh.
Speaker 1: Looking very good in the snow last week, especially that defense.
Speaker 1: Travel now to face the Bears that Soldier field, which
Speaker 1: you know if you're a Bears fan, this was a
Speaker 1: game you're so excited about. When the season began, it
Speaker 1: looked like it was a showdown, maybe even a Super
Speaker 1: Bowl preview. But it's not the case because the Bears
Speaker 1: aren't going anywhere but home once they finished the regular season.
Speaker 1: The Chiefs. Meanwhile, Greg and you called it. I um
Speaker 1: on Sunday you said, don't look at twenty three points
Speaker 1: and think that the Chiefs aren't figuring things out on offense.
Speaker 1: If you watch that game, Uh, that looked like an
Speaker 1: offense that is taking off in a big way. Now,
Speaker 1: could they use a better running game if Andy Reid
Speaker 1: could have done it again when he trade Carlos Hyde
Speaker 1: for a backup offensive lineman. I don't know, maybe maybe not,
Speaker 1: But the running games out there, but the passing game
Speaker 1: is humming. And I imagine even against the good Bears defense,
Speaker 1: the Chiefs aren't gonna be denied. It could be a
Speaker 1: tough spot, though it's it's not that tough a spot.
Speaker 1: I don't think. And I and if I was a
Speaker 1: Bears fan, yeah, maybe you were looking forward to it.
Speaker 1: You shouldn't be, because every time you see Patrick Mahomes
Speaker 1: lighten you up on Sunday in the snow or the cold, Weather.
Speaker 1: You should be thinking about how he was drafted, you
Speaker 1: know later in the same draft that you took Mentell
Speaker 1: Robinsky when there's no way out of this Trobinsky thing.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing with Rabinsky, even when he's playing better,
Speaker 1: I always get back to the point that he only
Speaker 1: played one year in college and his his main exciting
Speaker 1: trade was supposed to be accuracy. And I could see
Speaker 1: it like, if he was accurate, he could be a
Speaker 1: slight a richer Man's Alex Smith. But he's not accurate.
Speaker 1: He's just not And so all the other things that
Speaker 1: he doesn't do that well really come to the four
Speaker 1: and they're I think they're in a really tough spot
Speaker 1: as an organization, not just a quarterback. But to me,
Speaker 1: the defense might get slightly worse every year trying to
Speaker 1: keep it together. It's just, uh, it's as tricky as
Speaker 1: Dan and his little Ice, which I believe was very
Speaker 1: audible to second time in the show with a little
Speaker 1: guest appearance by the old Ice. I like it, don't
Speaker 1: tell me watching that game this morning too with with Mahomes,
Speaker 1: because I thought, well, the score is interesting, but they well,
Speaker 1: I mean, what would you rather write not? It's like
Speaker 1: there's not a lot else to be doing during the week,
Speaker 1: so the I feel like everyone else was playing in
Speaker 1: the snow. He's playing in a dome, and he looked
Speaker 1: like he had total control over the ball and was
Speaker 1: like making these insane touch passes into tight windows and
Speaker 1: over the shoulder to Sammy Watkinson Travis Kelsey on fire.
Speaker 1: I mean it's like this team was not affected by
Speaker 1: the weather at all. He was not. Here's the thing.
Speaker 1: If if and I know Lamar Jackson is gonna be
Speaker 1: the m v P, and he should be, But if
Speaker 1: I was just taking one player for the rest of
Speaker 1: the season to be leading my team, it's to me,
Speaker 1: it's Patrick Mahomes. He's still He's still the guy that
Speaker 1: just I think can do everything and can beat anyone.
Speaker 1: And I don't know any team playing Patrick Mahomes cannot
Speaker 1: feel comfortable. Well. The Chiefs defense to the last month,
Speaker 1: they've been so good that they are now right there
Speaker 1: with the Saints in d v O A for defense
Speaker 1: they are about the same grade. The Chiefs are eleventh
Speaker 1: now in total defense efficiency. Chris Chris Jones is unreal.
Speaker 1: I mean, he just dominates a game and then you
Speaker 1: have you're pretty good on the back end, where Spagnolo
Speaker 1: has been a very good higher that he mixes it
Speaker 1: up and Slo has been different teams need different things. Um. Finally,
Speaker 1: over those Super Bowls, it was just one second. He
Speaker 1: was only uh, he was only there for one No,
Speaker 1: the first right, First, the great helmet catch Plax Burrows.
Speaker 1: How does he get so wide open? Ellis Hobbs just
Speaker 1: dragging at the end of that year? Yeakes, you're putting
Speaker 1: the helmet catch on specs. That's right, I know Tay
Speaker 1: Warren did. Ty Warren just yanks him down. Greg nick Quickkowski,
Speaker 1: Bears inside linebacker, is gonna rank pretty high in our
Speaker 1: free agency rankings. Somebody's gonna pay him. If it's not
Speaker 1: the Bears, somebody else is gonna pay him. He's been
Speaker 1: better than Trevathan was. Well. Now, after getting that inside info,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna like rank him artificially low just to balance
Speaker 1: out West's nice I'm not saying the curtain Well, that's
Speaker 1: what happened. I usually have to rank Gino Smith three
Speaker 1: in order to balance out Greg's Rankin knows it free
Speaker 1: at and I think this year he's If you will
Speaker 1: never sign another multi your contract, if you like at
Speaker 1: the improvement that the Seahawks offense has made since Gino Smith, Like,
Speaker 1: what's the change for the Seahawks this year? He's a
Speaker 1: good coin for Yeah, he's done some nice coin toss action. Alright.
Speaker 1: Monday Night Football. The Green Bay Packers eleven and three
Speaker 1: at the minute, Soto Vikings tenant for This is massive
Speaker 1: because obviously we're talking about the Vikings with a chance
Speaker 1: to clinch a playoff spot with a win if they lose.
Speaker 1: As we pointed out, the door is open with Rams
Speaker 1: need to win take care of their business, but the
Speaker 1: Vikings can lose out and miss the playoffs even a
Speaker 1: tenant four right now. So, uh, the game has so
Speaker 1: much meeting and that's even beyond before you get to
Speaker 1: the fact that yes, the NFC North and potentially a
Speaker 1: by is online. So this is one of those games
Speaker 1: that really affects so much in the NFC, and it's
Speaker 1: a game that wes you. Um You've pointed out many
Speaker 1: times in the show about how the Vikings are a
Speaker 1: great team at home and that's what I would be
Speaker 1: the most nervous about if I'm a Packers fan. We've
Speaker 1: talked about Green Bay, how maybe a team that doesn't
Speaker 1: have a lot of big wins on the Ledger that
Speaker 1: isn't blowing you away on a week by week basis,
Speaker 1: especially on offense. The defense has been up and down.
Speaker 1: Do they have what it takes to go on the
Speaker 1: road and this type of setting and win a huge
Speaker 1: game with the division on the line. I think it's
Speaker 1: obviously a huge test that's going to teach us so
Speaker 1: much and we'll finally learn whether the Packers are legit
Speaker 1: or not. What do you think? Well, I I would
Speaker 1: pick the Vikings to win, but I also think maybe
Speaker 1: we've been a little too hard on the Packers. They
Speaker 1: are eleven and three. After watching that game, I thought
Speaker 1: Rodgers was a little bit better than I expected. He
Speaker 1: made some great throws, but that's not really his problem
Speaker 1: is making great downfield throws. They have so many just
Speaker 1: misses all the time. Um, it's the fact that they
Speaker 1: couldn't move the ball in the fourth quarter with the lead.
Speaker 1: But they have shown improvement on defense, I think, and
Speaker 1: Kenny Clark is playing at a much higher level the
Speaker 1: last few games than he was at mid season. I
Speaker 1: think this defense is playing a little bit better now.
Speaker 1: They're they're a boomer bust offense. They're big player. You know,
Speaker 1: they have Aaron Jones, the whole thing of like Aaron
Speaker 1: Rodgers on that weapons. Please, He's got the best tackle
Speaker 1: combination in the league, the best continuity on that offensive line.
Speaker 1: None of them have missed a snap all season. He's
Speaker 1: got Davante Adams and he's got Aaron Jones too. You're
Speaker 1: mixing up the idea of what a weapon is and
Speaker 1: what the offensive line. But I'm okay. And he's got
Speaker 1: Davante Adams and he's got Aaron Jones, He's got They've
Speaker 1: got enough to be successful, but their boom er bust
Speaker 1: in terms of their offense, I don't think plays and
Speaker 1: they're not like chain moving type of player. Put that
Speaker 1: on with how they use Aaron Jones. Why aren't they
Speaker 1: running him twenty times a game? Yeah? I mean, and
Speaker 1: you know, no, Dalvin Cook that bothers me about this
Speaker 1: game a long and rapport has reported he's unlikely no
Speaker 1: one else is as aggressive. So Ian is out on
Speaker 1: a limb way to go. Ian No, I'm giving him
Speaker 1: the credit. Doesn't sound like it's gonna be there, and
Speaker 1: they didn't. Up until this morning, there was doubt that
Speaker 1: Alexander Madison would play their backup that he's got an
Speaker 1: ankle issue, but it sounds like Mike Zimmer said he
Speaker 1: has a good chance to suit up. But that if
Speaker 1: you take away that from the Vikings, I I just
Speaker 1: don't Both these teams I've doubts about in general, and
Speaker 1: the fact that green Bay if the way this season
Speaker 1: plays out, I just trust that the football deity is
Speaker 1: above will not allow us to have Green Bay as
Speaker 1: the second seeded team when this thing shakes out there,
Speaker 1: the least second seed team I could ever imagine on
Speaker 1: planet Earth. Stre the Saints are sitting out there. Give
Speaker 1: me a break with the idea that the green Bay
Speaker 1: Packers or the team coming out of this amazing NFC
Speaker 1: with the bye week, I don't know, buy and Saints
Speaker 1: and one and two. I think it would be. I'd
Speaker 1: be fine with Seattle and the Saints or San Francisco
Speaker 1: where this and they could be the one seed. I
Speaker 1: mean it's possible, it's it's unlikely that the Packers would be.
Speaker 1: Who do you, guys has had Which quarterback in this
Speaker 1: game has had a better year? I'll put that. I
Speaker 1: mean I trust Aaron Rodgers more instinctively to do anything,
Speaker 1: But Cousins has had the better seat. Right. I trust
Speaker 1: Rogers more too, but Cousins has had the better year statistically.
Speaker 1: Kirk Cousins has had the better year. It's not even
Speaker 1: cloud statistically. And I'm not that worried about Cook being
Speaker 1: not there. I mean the running game when Boone comes
Speaker 1: in last weekend, I was the end of the game,
Speaker 1: but Madison there there. The offensive lines played better. Do
Speaker 1: they've protected Cousins. Cousins had all sorts of time against
Speaker 1: the Chargers, even against those good pass rushers. I uh,
Speaker 1: I think is a game the defense. Though, for the Vikings,
Speaker 1: they should be able to win this. I mean they've
Speaker 1: been building this defense for six years. They spent more
Speaker 1: resources on this defense than any team in in the
Speaker 1: league in terms of contract extensions, including like six first
Speaker 1: rounders in the secondary. You've had Zimmer like if you
Speaker 1: can't win this game at home against La Fleur in
Speaker 1: his first year and a little bit of an uneven
Speaker 1: Packers thing, that's like, what have you been doing building
Speaker 1: up this group? And great continuity? It's so hard to
Speaker 1: have the continuity that they've had. This defense has choked
Speaker 1: more times than Kirk Cousins. We always think they're a
Speaker 1: great defense, and they end up being a pretty good defense,
Speaker 1: so it's a fair call. The matchups in this game
Speaker 1: are pretty great. I mean Eric Kendricks against Aaron Jones,
Speaker 1: like trying to prevent him from getting to the outside,
Speaker 1: also might be covering him. Sometimes you got Daniel Hunter
Speaker 1: and Everson Griffin against Bulagan Baktier like there. I don't know,
Speaker 1: it's a great game. Feeling out physically right now, he
Speaker 1: played a full three target last week he played thirty
Speaker 1: three three catches on three targets. Um, So at this
Speaker 1: point it seems like they're easing them back in. But
Speaker 1: Digs is really stepped up and and become an even
Speaker 1: better producer with dealing out, which makes sense. Um, are
Speaker 1: any of us picking the Packers in this game? I
Speaker 1: almost wanted to lock up the Packers. That's because I
Speaker 1: don't try. I don't trust the Vikings, but I have to.
Speaker 1: I go too far with my lack of trust to
Speaker 1: the Vikings, and then I get caught in that kind
Speaker 1: of thing and I'll lose my lock too. So it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, either way, are we going to watch this together?
Speaker 1: We're doing this at there we are, you know, doing
Speaker 1: a post Monday night football show which is out of
Speaker 1: the ordinary. That will be like our Tuesday show with
Speaker 1: maybe a little news to talk about the game and
Speaker 1: some news out of the ordinary holiday maybe too much.
Speaker 1: But we haven't we haven't watched a full game like
Speaker 1: that together, like in one of these little spots on
Speaker 1: It's It's full circle. I mean every Sunday night too.
Speaker 1: But I see what you mean as a outside of
Speaker 1: the building and you know, Wes go make some place
Speaker 1: kirk Cousins in a big spot here, right. Oh, I agree,
Speaker 1: I think, But I think you and I have more
Speaker 1: common ground on this thing. You believe now, I think
Speaker 1: that when when he plays poorly, it's fair game talk
Speaker 1: about it on national TV. But when he's not much
Speaker 1: of a factor in the game, let's talk about the
Speaker 1: factors in the game. Are Are you concerned, Mark, just
Speaker 1: being on the outside of this that we're going to
Speaker 1: be watching this game together at Dan's and the Western
Speaker 1: Dan kirk Cousins heat just might be uncomfortable. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I didn't realize. I thought I was going to be
Speaker 1: because of the attention rolling in Justice. The game was ending,
Speaker 1: as I've done for these post games. But that's that's
Speaker 1: a lot to Uh. It's the holiday season and you're allowed.
Speaker 1: I mean, you have a family, You do what you
Speaker 1: need to do. I think after we finished recording to
Speaker 1: maybe we hang out together, spent some time Mark TBD,
Speaker 1: we look over just like a cloud of smoke at
Speaker 1: Mark's goner, and that is that narrative is false, and
Speaker 1: I will prove it false. But yeah, let's let's see
Speaker 1: if he'll play Cornell. Let's try to get if you
Speaker 1: do we do something that I actually he's been consistently
Speaker 1: anti parlor games since So that's your that's your offer.
Speaker 1: We have to come up with something else. We're gonna
Speaker 1: come up with something more enticing. But give us time,
Speaker 1: give us the weekend to think until Monday night. How
Speaker 1: about we break after the game, after the podcast Phantom
Speaker 1: Menace yikes, never like that's where the Kirk Cousins thing like,
Speaker 1: I've never I'm not never supporting That movie is coming
Speaker 1: out this evening. You got a ticket, just say yes
Speaker 1: to pretend you don't. I'm not pretending I don't, but
Speaker 1: I don't. But I'm also I am now looking at
Speaker 1: that there's nine of those movies and I would say
Speaker 1: that seven of them get lower than a B or
Speaker 1: eight six of them get lower than to be in
Speaker 1: my book, the reviews have not been great one. This
Speaker 1: one is the final one. It's called The Rise of
Speaker 1: Skywalker and I and the reviews are at best. If
Speaker 1: he and I don't and that's what I'm going to was,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna go watch it and then go home.
Speaker 1: You know they have they made a good one since
Speaker 1: no that well since the end of our childhood ones.
Speaker 1: That's and I've been saying that consistently, the same way
Speaker 1: I told you the Browns were gonna drop a big
Speaker 1: egg and all these things that you think are gonna
Speaker 1: meet up to your child You didations well not you
Speaker 1: did you know, predict them to win the Super Bowl
Speaker 1: in anything? But that was that was in a moment
Speaker 1: that wasn't like my fault. Well, now he's on Seahawks
Speaker 1: corners written on NFL dot com. I believe still there
Speaker 1: yea more than a moment. I know how to get
Speaker 1: into the CMS system where you can quickly erase those
Speaker 1: artis you're one of three analysts to pick the Browns
Speaker 1: to win the Super Bowl, and men m Blira Browns
Speaker 1: fan and Joe Thomas obviously with overt links to the Browns.
Speaker 1: We were just we were upping our people would say,
Speaker 1: this is where you see like they have different rules
Speaker 1: for different you know, players in different levels of of stature.
Speaker 1: It's like they're not gonna bring Tom Blair and Mark
Speaker 1: back next year. But Joe Thomas, well, it was because
Speaker 1: of this prediction that went um all right, Oh, I
Speaker 1: have a an announcement, as we teased by the way,
Speaker 1: at the Erica did really good v O work at
Speaker 1: the beginning of our Tuesday episode. Uh, we will be
Speaker 1: as you know, we have our listen to music so
Speaker 1: fitting our live show. Uh in at the Super Bowl
Speaker 1: we do it. It's a new tradition. We did it
Speaker 1: last year in Atlanta and we had a great time.
Speaker 1: We're gonna do it again, uh this year in Miami
Speaker 1: at the Miami Improv Around the NFL Podcast live show
Speaker 1: on the Thursday night before Super Bowl fifty four. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be a lot of fun, the four of us,
Speaker 1: Ricky chopping it up and with an audience there and liquor. Oh,
Speaker 1: the liquor is all available to you as well at
Speaker 1: a charge. But what's better than watching the heroes and
Speaker 1: we're all together. And after the show, of course we'll
Speaker 1: h you know, chat with the fans. So join, So
Speaker 1: attend a live podcast taping at super Bowl fifty four.
Speaker 1: Check the link and the bio on our a t
Speaker 1: N Instagram page. You'll find the link to go get
Speaker 1: tickets at the Miami Improv Thursday night before Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: Nailed it, Dan. It's also on the Miami Improv website.
Speaker 1: So if you don't have Instagram, well get with the time.
Speaker 1: I have them, and that's part of my bookmarks on
Speaker 1: your like that Improvised Theater has been in my bookmarks
Speaker 1: for years, so you could google it that. Now we're
Speaker 1: we're live all over. I just tweeted it. I mean
Speaker 1: every everybody, it's it's everywhere cool. Get your tickets. Uh,
Speaker 1: they won't last, according to people with knowledge of the situation. Great,
Speaker 1: I trust those services all right, implicitly. All right, that's
Speaker 1: it for today's show. The next time you hear from
Speaker 1: us will be Sunday night, where we recap all the
Speaker 1: games we just previewed. Thank you to everyone as always
Speaker 1: for listening and continuing to support the show. We love you. Uh.
Speaker 1: This is Dan hands is signing off four Quiet Storm,
Speaker 1: the Mailman, the Old Boss, r Hollywood, behind the Glass,
Speaker 1: the whole gang, Christie Bartlett Rady zachtell Sunday