Speaker 1: The Around the NFL Podcast. What time does Sunday Night
Speaker 1: Football start?
Speaker 2: Jim from the Chris Nestling podcast studio. It is New
Speaker 2: Year's Eve, Hey and Collinsworth and Tariko are in tuxedos.
Speaker 2: We don't got that, but we do have Levi in
Speaker 2: the house, Dan Hansas, Greg rosehal Mark Sessler.
Speaker 3: Week seventeen, Baby Feels Good, feels clarifying, wash away, the
Speaker 3: sins of the old year, wash away, some of these
Speaker 3: teams eliminated today.
Speaker 1: Let's go. I don't know about the.
Speaker 4: Sins, but yeah, my goals just simply to get through
Speaker 4: this episode.
Speaker 1: My body has.
Speaker 4: Sound great, but it has been falling apart hour by
Speaker 4: hour since I got here at around nine am.
Speaker 1: Well, way to keep the energy strong there.
Speaker 2: Mark, We have a big show for you, because yes,
Speaker 2: it is the an ultimate week of the regular season
Speaker 2: and so much is being decided. We had both buys
Speaker 2: and first round excuse me, number one seeds clinched in
Speaker 2: each conference, and certain divisions somehow got more muddled, which
Speaker 2: is wild, but that's the way it goes in this
Speaker 2: crazy year. So we're gonna get through it all and
Speaker 2: hopefully get home by the time of ball drops. Let's
Speaker 2: do it right, all right, So let's get right into it,
Speaker 2: starting with an A. That's what we're gonna do, by
Speaker 2: the way, because the playoffs are what they are. And Greg,
Speaker 2: you you better be ready tabulations. This is tabulation season now. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and that's a lot of pressure on you. That's your thing.
Speaker 2: I understand, this is your thing.
Speaker 3: Okay, you look nervous because yeah, it's all in my
Speaker 3: head though, So that's a little worrisome.
Speaker 1: So we'll try. We'll work with you, all right.
Speaker 2: So we're gonna do We're gonna go by conference here
Speaker 2: because that just keeps it simple. Uh, Ending with yes,
Speaker 2: the playing essentially a playing game where a loser goes home.
Speaker 2: Match between the Vikings and Packers. Let's start though in
Speaker 2: the AFC. Let's go through it all in with the
Speaker 2: big matchup. It happened in the early window. It was
Speaker 2: the Ravens coming off that's stomping of the Niners looking
Speaker 2: to keep it going, and the Dolphins saying we have
Speaker 2: a statement to make.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 2: Only one team was talking afterwards, and it was not
Speaker 2: the one from Miami.
Speaker 5: Eight flowers comes in motion, Lamar with Tom coming deep
Speaker 5: looking for flowers.
Speaker 1: He's got them open at the Bibi thirty makes the cats,
Speaker 1: He's still twenty cuts back to the fifteen slip kind
Speaker 1: of a tackles any Flowers touch then Ravens. That was
Speaker 1: too fast.
Speaker 5: Seventy five yards and the Ravens extend the lead.
Speaker 2: Oh Man, hide the women and children. The Ravens are
Speaker 2: a force of terror roaming the hillside. Lamar Jackson now
Speaker 2: the clear front runner for MVP. After five touchdown passes,
Speaker 2: he had a perfect passer rating, and the Ravens embarrassed
Speaker 2: the Dolphins fifty six to nineteen. They hung a fifty
Speaker 2: burger on Miami on New Year's Eve.
Speaker 1: That is mean.
Speaker 2: That win secure as a first round by for Baltimore
Speaker 2: as well as home field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs.
Speaker 2: And this was a game where the Dolphins came out
Speaker 2: hot on offense and you were thinking, Okay, we might
Speaker 2: have a shootout here, or maybe this is Miami's day
Speaker 2: and people like me who've been doubting them, we're about
Speaker 2: to eat some humble pie. But as this game unfolded,
Speaker 2: it very quickly became clear that Baltimore is just too
Speaker 2: much for everyone right now, and especially that offense and
Speaker 2: the defense is really this is a complete team right now.
Speaker 2: But I thought the offense today really put on an
Speaker 2: absolute show. Even the first drive that evened up to
Speaker 2: score at seven to seven, they go right down the field,
Speaker 2: there's a bad drop by Rashad Bateman, there's a penalty
Speaker 2: that wipes out a big play. They had like one
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty yards of offense on their first touchdown
Speaker 2: drive if you factor in those two things, and it
Speaker 2: just kept on.
Speaker 1: They kept on building and building and building.
Speaker 2: And I thought greg was an interesting little wrinkle that
Speaker 2: Zay Flowers on that long touchdown.
Speaker 1: We just listened to.
Speaker 2: You know, he's going in motion and then going jet,
Speaker 2: and that is the Dolphins play. And you would think
Speaker 2: the Miami defense would be ready for such a thing,
Speaker 2: having practiced it all season, But nobody is ready for
Speaker 2: the Ravens right now.
Speaker 3: A devastating day for the Dolphins and their defense, who
Speaker 3: coming into this game were number one in the league
Speaker 3: in scoring defense and yards per game defense since Week six.
Speaker 3: So to have a game like this where yes they
Speaker 3: give up fifty six points, four hundred and ninety one
Speaker 3: yards and so many big plays has to feel destabilizing.
Speaker 3: They lose Xavian Howard to injury during this game, they
Speaker 3: lose Bradley Chubb at the very end. Who's playing during
Speaker 3: a what was it at that point it was forty
Speaker 3: nine to nineteen I or forty two night.
Speaker 1: You know what, you got hurt in there. It's really
Speaker 1: disappointing on contact. Looks like an Ac Elder saying.
Speaker 3: Right, and McDaniel, you know, said they wanted to finish strong.
Speaker 3: But you have to give credit to the coaching and
Speaker 3: Lamar Jackson and the offensive line which has really been
Speaker 3: underrated I think for the Ravens this year to give
Speaker 3: him the protection to hit all these big plays. Justice
Speaker 3: Sell for twenty three, Flowers for seventy five, likely for
Speaker 3: thirty five for a touchdown, thirty three for Beckham.
Speaker 1: They are a big play offense.
Speaker 4: It's their development on offense, and it's the scheme. You know,
Speaker 4: you're starting with a new play caller and they were
Speaker 4: kind of shaky out of the gate this season. But
Speaker 4: to see what they've done and what they've developed into. Wow,
Speaker 4: Like even a week ago, I was kind of questioning
Speaker 4: the Lamar Jackson MVP journey.
Speaker 1: I can't now, I just can't. He's become that guy.
Speaker 4: But it's also like I'd point to someone like Isaiah Likely,
Speaker 4: who you know, you lose Mark Andrews, and you think
Speaker 4: that might be like a lynchpin scenario that changes Baltimore.
Speaker 4: Last year, I think it would have been like, You've
Speaker 4: got all these guys stepping up. Odell Beckham made an
Speaker 4: incredible cat. I'm just as cz Flowers operate the way
Speaker 4: he did.
Speaker 1: Justice Hill, Justice Hill.
Speaker 4: And if you're and you know it's coming on special teams,
Speaker 4: it's coming on defense, it's coming through their own offense.
Speaker 4: And if you're Miami, because outside of the Dallas game,
Speaker 4: there's a lot of reasons to doubt about their performance
Speaker 4: against the better teams in the league, this is totally demoralizing.
Speaker 1: Yeah and yeah the defense.
Speaker 2: If Xavin Howard is gonna miss serious time or any
Speaker 2: time here, you really wonder they what they have in
Speaker 2: front of them. You don't want to write them off
Speaker 2: because the Ravens are like like the Niners.
Speaker 1: Were earlier in the season. Before the Ravens.
Speaker 2: Humble them, it just feels like no one's gonna stop
Speaker 2: them right now. But as this game started to kind
Speaker 2: of get away from them, you saw that breakdown where
Speaker 2: the defense isn't getting stops and then it was like
Speaker 2: it was time for two in the offense to go
Speaker 2: shot for shot.
Speaker 1: Tyreek Hill has.
Speaker 2: A terrible end zone drop in this game, the worst
Speaker 2: drop of his career. Maybe that's a four point play,
Speaker 2: and then two of throws in interception.
Speaker 1: And on a great play there. He's been a great play.
Speaker 2: And every time Miami cracked the door open, just like
Speaker 2: Lamar with the MVP door open, they just kick it
Speaker 2: in on a team. And and just when you thought
Speaker 2: it couldn't get worse for Miami, or just when maybe
Speaker 2: you thought at halftime, okay, maybe they could get this
Speaker 2: thing stabilized, they have a seventy eight yard kickoff return
Speaker 2: by Hill to open the second half, then a quick
Speaker 2: touchdown and the game was essentially over. So just a
Speaker 2: beautiful all around game for Baltimore. And yes, the only
Speaker 2: concern I would have now, Greg is this team that
Speaker 2: has locked everything up, and obviously they're gonna rest starters
Speaker 2: and at some level you would think next week and
Speaker 2: then they're gonna have the bye week, and that's what
Speaker 2: they were talking about. Lamar Jackson has talked about last
Speaker 2: time they were a juggernaut, last time he won MVP,
Speaker 2: they had a long layoff and then get picked off
Speaker 2: by Tennessee. That's the only concern I've had I have
Speaker 2: about this team right now, the idea of rust and
Speaker 2: is this an episode of rest stop too much rest?
Speaker 2: That's and maybe some issues with their secondary I'll get
Speaker 2: to that in a second.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that'll be something to talk about during the Week
Speaker 3: two with the forty nine ers. I wonder if they'll
Speaker 3: take that experience. They'll see the Steelers on the schedule
Speaker 3: who are still alive for the playoffs, and think, let's
Speaker 3: play that game. You know, anyone that's hurt or on
Speaker 3: the edge, don't play them. But then you also look
Speaker 3: at the Dolphins in this game and you kind of
Speaker 3: get the other side of the coin. That, man, your
Speaker 3: season can change when you lose a couple big time players.
Speaker 3: So that is risky. And the ghosts of twenty nineteen,
Speaker 3: you know, for the Ravens, I think loom pretty large
Speaker 3: in their head because that was a devastating sequence for them.
Speaker 2: It makes you wonder if they will maybe play Yeah,
Speaker 2: like but still I don't think it's worth the risk.
Speaker 2: Just like Mike McDaniel, mark saying we need to finish strong.
Speaker 2: That's why my star defensive end is in the game,
Speaker 2: like that's a that's a horrible, horrible setback for them.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I mean the Ravens are healthy right now, and I
Speaker 4: don't see any connective DNA with that previous Ravens team
Speaker 4: that fumbled and stumbled in the playoffs and lamar Jack
Speaker 4: and having their reputation of not winning playoff games.
Speaker 2: They feel completely different to me. They are not healthing
Speaker 2: their secondary though. So here's the situation. They played this
Speaker 2: game without Kyle Hamilton, who's been a breakout star this year.
Speaker 2: He had the knee.
Speaker 1: Cornerback Brandon Stevens missed it with the ankle, got hurt
Speaker 1: during practice on Thursday or always bad.
Speaker 2: And then today Marlon Humphrey goes out with a calf,
Speaker 2: Daryl Worley goes out with a head injury. So they
Speaker 2: they're gonna need time to get that secondary right. But otherwise,
Speaker 2: gorgeous and Dolphins sins.
Speaker 1: Don't worry.
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna dunk on you here. I'm not going
Speaker 2: to be that guy, but I think it does once again.
Speaker 3: But he did lock against them, as did I. That's
Speaker 3: not a dunk, that's just I'm just saying we need
Speaker 3: to point that.
Speaker 1: At that that must be pointed out. Give us another
Speaker 1: one there it is, Eric, are you back on this?
Speaker 1: Like dueliing Banjo's thing. Now, in Dan's defense, he threw
Speaker 1: it out there before me. It's true. That's true. Leaders
Speaker 1: got to lead, Mark I.
Speaker 2: Always doing it either way. But the Dolphins are good.
Speaker 2: The Ravens are great, and you see it in a
Speaker 2: game like this, and we'll.
Speaker 3: See they're just a team that's better than the some
Speaker 3: of their parts, Like they're not a star team outside
Speaker 3: of Lamar It really there's something, there's something bigger going
Speaker 3: on here that they play really well together and it's
Speaker 3: just very solid. Every group is solid. Brokewn Smith is
Speaker 3: a star and you know who else is the star?
Speaker 3: John Harbaugh dancing in the locker room afterwards. Oh, let's
Speaker 3: take a listen.
Speaker 1: It's moved me pretty good. He does move well for
Speaker 1: a sixty.
Speaker 2: Not great podcast content, but I like the visual. Check
Speaker 2: it out on YouTube and it does. It is a
Speaker 2: reminder because you know, Mike Tomlin has been under fire
Speaker 2: and now Bill Belichick might be out of town. A
Speaker 2: few years ago on this podcast, we're saying, oh, I
Speaker 2: don't know what does John Harbaugh anymore. Yeah, para good
Speaker 2: experienced coach with a special quarterback. It's funny how it
Speaker 2: kind of changes everyone's trajectories.
Speaker 1: All right, So.
Speaker 2: The Dolphins go down. That opens the door for the
Speaker 2: Bills if they can take care of business against the Patriots.
Speaker 2: They have a AFC East Championship game next Sunday.
Speaker 1: Did they take care of business? Let's go to Orchard Park.
Speaker 4: Takes his snap, looking to his left, fires quickly and
Speaker 4: it's picked off Rasoul Douglas at the forty on his
Speaker 4: feet to the thirty, to the twenty five, down to.
Speaker 1: The fifteen ten five and into the end zone for
Speaker 1: the touchdown.
Speaker 6: Rosoul Douglas the playmaker does it again, this time for six.
Speaker 4: How about that trade for the Buffalo No, Razull Douglas
Speaker 4: returned one of his two interceptions for a touchdown that
Speaker 4: you just heard there from Chris Brown on the call.
Speaker 2: You also tipped the pass to cause a third turnover.
Speaker 2: The Patriots had four turnovers before you could blink in
Speaker 2: this game, and the Bills inch closer to the playoffs
Speaker 2: with a twenty seven to twenty one win over the Pats.
Speaker 2: And yes they don't. They're not clinched in the playoffs yet,
Speaker 2: but like I said, they can get in with some help.
Speaker 2: Even if they don't win next week against Miami, and
Speaker 2: if they beat the Dolphins next week, I don't even
Speaker 2: need Greg for this. They do indeed steal the AFC East,
Speaker 2: which would be quite a turnaround. This is the second
Speaker 2: straight week, though, Mark I must point out that Buffalo
Speaker 2: is pretty meh, but their opponent was a bit worse.
Speaker 2: The Patriots ran the opening kickoff back for a touchdown,
Speaker 2: and the Bills really could not get anything going on offense.
Speaker 2: Josh Allen had one of his worst games of the year,
Speaker 2: perhaps his worst game of the year, and he exits
Speaker 2: the MVP conversation, but he does score twice from in close.
Speaker 2: So they do what they have to do in this game.
Speaker 2: But that's two straight weeks where they're not looking great,
Speaker 2: but they're winning, and that was stuff they weren't doing
Speaker 2: earlier in the year.
Speaker 4: It's so important that Razul Douglas has worked out the
Speaker 4: way that he has, and it's incredible to me that
Speaker 4: the Green Bay Packers gave Buffalo a fifth rounder and
Speaker 4: Rasul Douglas for a third rounder. I mean, it was
Speaker 4: like it's it's a pivotal trade for their defense. Guys
Speaker 4: like Ed Oliver have been playing some of their best
Speaker 4: football around two and so they are not a shiny
Speaker 4: object on offense at the moment. But just take care
Speaker 4: of business and get and get it done next week.
Speaker 3: No chance Josh Allen is winning the mvpf Now game
Speaker 3: where he said afterwards, I just did not throw the.
Speaker 1: Ball well and everything was just off.
Speaker 3: Two in a row, really, I mean, he got it
Speaker 3: together enough against the Chargers, but that's two in a
Speaker 3: row where he struggled.
Speaker 2: Yes, And not much to say about the Patriots other
Speaker 2: than Bailly Zappi had three interceptions by halftime.
Speaker 1: At one point.
Speaker 7: Guys that Bill's defense had more interceptions than Josh Allen
Speaker 7: had completions. I think he started oh for six over
Speaker 7: seven and they had two interceptions at that point of
Speaker 7: the game.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and here's the thing.
Speaker 2: As bad as New England was playing on offense early
Speaker 2: on this, they stayed in the mix throughout this game
Speaker 2: because of Buffalo's struggles.
Speaker 1: So at the ball with a chance to go to
Speaker 1: the lead in the fourth.
Speaker 2: Acthlete or not that you know, you had the feeling
Speaker 2: that that was something that was gonna happen. But the
Speaker 2: fact that they were even there was a chance to
Speaker 2: do that just gives you the idea that Buffalo is
Speaker 2: living a little dangerously these last two weeks, and they
Speaker 2: got away with it, and and now they now they
Speaker 2: have it all in front of them, after all of this,
Speaker 2: the ups and downs in this roller coaster, they can
Speaker 2: win that division, get a home game, and in a
Speaker 2: wide open year for the AFC outside of Baltimore, who
Speaker 2: knows what happens after.
Speaker 3: That, not just get a home game, but get the
Speaker 3: two seed. So the Bills will either be the two
Speaker 3: seed or you know, the six or seven, or out
Speaker 3: of the playoffs entirely. The scenarios are kind of crazy
Speaker 3: for both of these teams, the Dolphins too. The Bills
Speaker 3: are in, you know, they get the two seed with
Speaker 3: a win. The only way they can miss the playoffs
Speaker 3: is if they lose, and between the Jaguars and the Steelers,
Speaker 3: one of the two of them win, but not both
Speaker 3: because or one of the two of them lose. Because
Speaker 3: if either one of those like if the Jaguars lose,
Speaker 3: the Bills are in. If the Steelers lose, the Bills
Speaker 3: are in. But if only one of them wins and
Speaker 3: one of them loses, the Bills are going to be
Speaker 3: out because if both of them win and it's a
Speaker 3: three way tie, the Bills are still And it's that
Speaker 3: that part you do need some tabula.
Speaker 4: And they're probably that they're going to be the Sunday
Speaker 4: night game against Miami, you'd think, and so will they'll
Speaker 4: know what they'll know what's happening to them.
Speaker 2: By then, Buffalo is two for five in the red
Speaker 2: zone as well, so they got things to clean up.
Speaker 2: And you know, Miami's bounce back from adversity this season repeatedly,
Speaker 2: they're obviously coming.
Speaker 1: Off a lot of adversity.
Speaker 2: This week, the Bills played like they've played the last
Speaker 2: couple weeks. Miami's gonna win that division and then the
Speaker 2: Bills just need to catch some breaks to even play
Speaker 2: relevant football beyond next week.
Speaker 3: But you know what's crazy for the Dolphins, like if
Speaker 3: they beat the Bills, most likely their reward will be
Speaker 3: playing the Bills again, And if they lose, they're playing
Speaker 3: in Kansas City, So which is like I don't know
Speaker 3: which I would want.
Speaker 1: Of course you on a home game, but I.
Speaker 2: Don't know how goes you want to play an arrowhead
Speaker 2: in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Okay, you're right. I guess you wouldn't want that happy
Speaker 1: to play the bells twice in a row.
Speaker 2: Also does I'll give one depressing pat stat before we
Speaker 2: move on that they are minus ten gregy in terms
Speaker 2: of turnovers seventeen takeaways, twenty seven giveaways. They were at
Speaker 2: seventeen straight years with a positive turnover differential. That was
Speaker 2: like a calling card of this team. Once again, these
Speaker 2: things are all gone. Will Bill Belichick be gone? They
Speaker 2: get the Jets next week.
Speaker 3: Oh, they got a little break with the draft pick
Speaker 3: this week.
Speaker 1: Come on, keep it going. Von Miller healthy scratch in
Speaker 1: this game? How about that?
Speaker 4: Just Ben the Jets, the team that Belichick walked out on.
Speaker 4: That would be poetic.
Speaker 2: I wish you would walk back in on them. Anyway,
Speaker 2: let's keep moving on. Let's head to Kansas City, where
Speaker 2: the aforementioned Chiefs got another crack taking the division against
Speaker 2: the Bengals.
Speaker 8: Backing up, the Bengals got to get to the thirty
Speaker 8: five of Kansas City for a first down, Browning again
Speaker 8: stepping up.
Speaker 1: He's throwing long down.
Speaker 8: The right sideline, and the pass is gonna be.
Speaker 1: Broken up, broken up, broken up.
Speaker 8: T Higgins, the intended receiver, Shamari Connor, the rookie of
Speaker 8: Virginia Tech, dropping the knock it down at one oh
Speaker 8: seven to go in the game, and the Kansas City
Speaker 8: Chiefs are gonna win the AFC West for eight consecutive years.
Speaker 8: That is second in National Football League history only to
Speaker 8: the Patriots of two thousand and nine to twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1: I'm the interest that Pats love there. I like that.
Speaker 2: Well, they that was history factual, and next year they
Speaker 2: have a chance to erase your lovely Patriots from the
Speaker 2: record book. All right, let's talk about this. Mitch Holt
Speaker 2: is with the call. They're still not right. The Chiefs
Speaker 2: still can't really play functional offense.
Speaker 1: Can I mention?
Speaker 2: By the way, on that fourth and forever, they cut
Speaker 2: up to Taylor, which they haven't really done, because Travis
Speaker 2: Kelsey is like the fourteenth best tight end of the league
Speaker 2: this year.
Speaker 3: Oh stop it. He's literally a Pro Bowler for sure.
Speaker 1: Okay, great Pro Bowl. That's cool. You said fourteenth. He's
Speaker 1: like leads the eleventh best tea.
Speaker 2: He's the eleventh best tight end this year. He wasn't
Speaker 2: even catching the first half to night. They cut to tailor.
Speaker 2: She's going nuts. She knows what the stakes are.
Speaker 1: She's plugged in. That's good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, But Harrison Bunker was the star, not Travis, not
Speaker 2: the boyfriend, because he won six for six on field goals.
Speaker 2: And the Chiefs hold the Bengals scoreless and their last
Speaker 2: seven possessions to take care of business twenty five to seventeen.
Speaker 2: They clinched that eighth straight AFO West AFC West title.
Speaker 2: So Greg, they do take care of business. They will
Speaker 2: be going to the postseason. They will be playing at
Speaker 2: Arrowhead in week in the playoffs. But otherwise, still a
Speaker 2: lot of questions around the team. But the defense, the
Speaker 2: defense has been the one constant this year.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and they will be the three seed no matter
Speaker 3: what happens next week. They're number three. I thought this
Speaker 3: was an encouraging game for the Chiefs. I thought this
Speaker 3: was sort of an old school Chiefs game, at least
Speaker 3: reformatted for the reality of what this offense.
Speaker 1: Thanks for That was okay, But what.
Speaker 3: I mean by that is they're down seventeen to seven
Speaker 3: in a big game. Browning was playing fantastic, really really
Speaker 3: making good plays even when things weren't open, creating. They
Speaker 3: come back outscore the Bengals eighteen to nothing. The rest
Speaker 3: of the way, the second half felt like a real
Speaker 3: experienced championship type response.
Speaker 1: They win twelve to nothing.
Speaker 3: Granted it's all field goals, but they scored basically every possession,
Speaker 3: Mahomes taking what the defense is giving them. They outgained
Speaker 3: them two hundred and ten to eighty. It just felt
Speaker 3: like they really needed at that moment in time to
Speaker 3: kind of dominate, and they did. And the Bengals seemed
Speaker 3: very up for this game, and it was mostly the defense.
Speaker 3: You're right, fourteen quarterback hits the defense to start off
Speaker 3: this game slow just got after especially on the intire
Speaker 3: Chris Jones and everyone else just making Browning's life hell.
Speaker 3: But that sort of formula, Patrick Mahomes, who I thought
Speaker 3: had a nice game today, playing mistake free football and
Speaker 3: a really great defense, Like, you can't tell me that
Speaker 3: doesn't have a chance. So if they could somehow build
Speaker 3: take this and kind of build on it next week,
Speaker 3: or at least build on it in the playoffs, I
Speaker 3: think they'd have a chance.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Like on a day where Travis Kelce was largely
Speaker 4: a non factor. What was different for me about this
Speaker 4: Chiefs offense was explosive plays right. Justin Watson had the
Speaker 4: forty one yard catch and run. Rashid Rice had the
Speaker 4: sixty seven yarder, also a twenty four yarder. This has
Speaker 4: been absent from their from their offense in general, so
Speaker 4: that's that's hopeful. I mean the Bengals Pacheco one thirty.
Speaker 4: I think he's he run is running so well, kept
Speaker 4: them alive in the first half.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, he really is an anchor for them.
Speaker 4: The Bengals had the ball for twenty one plus minutes
Speaker 4: in the first and you're right, I think lost in
Speaker 4: this this defeat is that Browning had some excellent throws.
Speaker 4: He did some stuff, you know, improvisational, ran well with
Speaker 4: his feet a couple of times when they needed him to,
Speaker 4: and it kind of just gets swept away. But this
Speaker 4: was the Browning that gave you hope that if they
Speaker 4: had made the playoffs.
Speaker 1: They'd have a chance to compete. They are eliminated.
Speaker 3: Yeah, halftime in this game, I was like, Wow, they
Speaker 3: got a real chance here to win this game and
Speaker 3: maybe make the playoffs.
Speaker 1: But uh, I think they're up seventeen a half seven at
Speaker 1: one point.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it really did feel like they were going
Speaker 2: to find a way, but then the offense just totally disappeared.
Speaker 2: It is obviously the post mortem on the Cincinnati season
Speaker 2: begins and ends with Joe Burrow's injury and the way this.
Speaker 2: He gets injured in camp, He's slow to get going,
Speaker 2: then he finally does, and then the wrist injury. And
Speaker 2: although they did, you know, fight back and get back
Speaker 2: into the playoff mix, it's really their defense that you
Speaker 2: have to keep an eye on in the offseason.
Speaker 1: What they're gonna do.
Speaker 2: Captain lou An Arumo's he's going to be back, you imagine,
Speaker 2: unless he gets a job, a head coaching job. But
Speaker 2: they allowed They have allowed the most twenty plus yard
Speaker 2: plays of any defense in the league this year.
Speaker 1: So it's not just about Burrow's injury this year.
Speaker 2: They got to get better and Cincinnati had six of
Speaker 2: those plays totally yeah, like one hundred and twenty five yards.
Speaker 4: They really have been dominated up front on defense too,
Speaker 4: and I think that that's where the rebuild starts.
Speaker 1: Kind of on offense too. On both sides.
Speaker 3: They their offensive line is what killed Browning today. He
Speaker 3: had he had no chance in the second half. Higgins
Speaker 3: was in and out of that game. Might we'll see
Speaker 3: if he gets the franchise tag, ends up with one catch.
Speaker 3: Chase comes back but ends up only three catches, So
Speaker 3: I guess Lagarious Sneve got the last laugh there after
Speaker 3: Chase talks, Yes.
Speaker 4: I do come out of this season, though, thinking a
Speaker 4: lot differently about Zach Taylor, like I think he'd like
Speaker 4: with what he did with Jake Browning was important, and
Speaker 4: they came close to winning this game today and it
Speaker 4: would have been a huge victory.
Speaker 2: I think some of the shine came up these last
Speaker 2: two weeks. But I know I agree with you. I
Speaker 2: think he's a good coach, but they got to get better.
Speaker 2: And I listen, you got plenty of time to talk
Speaker 2: about this. But the Chiefs have a lot of potential.
Speaker 2: Nobody believes in US juice going into the playoffs. For
Speaker 2: all the doubting, they are an experienced team with a
Speaker 2: very good defense with Patrick Mahomes. Can they win a
Speaker 2: bunch of low scoring games and at least a couple, Yeah,
Speaker 2: of course they can, So they're not dead. It just
Speaker 2: feels like because even in this game, even we're just
Speaker 2: saying all these positive things, all these twenty plus yard plays,
Speaker 2: how many times did they not only get bogged down
Speaker 2: in the red zone some of like the okay, third
Speaker 2: and four, you know at the eight yard line and
Speaker 2: like these a terrible checkdown. I remember Mahomes throwing getting
Speaker 2: pressured time and time again. They were sending out the
Speaker 2: kicker instead of finishing off drives.
Speaker 1: That's been yeah, three for twelve on third down.
Speaker 4: There was a moment in this game where Charles and
Speaker 4: Manihew and Willie Gay were shouting at each other on
Speaker 4: the sideline. MVS had one of the worst drops you're
Speaker 4: going to see all season.
Speaker 3: It's got to just motion that the Homes like that,
Speaker 3: that it was behind them. Yeah, that was That was
Speaker 3: when it was feeling like it might be Yes falling apart.
Speaker 3: But through no, you know, through nothing more than just luck.
Speaker 3: They're gonna get the bye week that they always get.
Speaker 3: There's no they're getting the three seed regardless. It's just
Speaker 3: random that they can't move up, can't move down, and
Speaker 3: so they can't rest. Some people I would think they
Speaker 3: as I mean, if you want, if you want to
Speaker 3: be I don't think so. Isn't restop looking in the
Speaker 3: in the rear sort of, But it's a nice little
Speaker 3: break for the bonus for them that I think they'll
Speaker 3: rest up for the plan franchise.
Speaker 2: It is you, and you can have spin offs and
Speaker 2: it can go in different direction. It's like a universe.
Speaker 2: It's the rest Stop universe. Okay, so it goes in
Speaker 2: a lot of different directions.
Speaker 1: Exciting. All right, let's head next.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's start talking about the AFC South, which is very,
Speaker 2: very funky.
Speaker 5: Jacksonville troops to the left, one receiver right and a
Speaker 5: shotgun for CJ beouts or tossed to the right to travel.
Speaker 1: Got a little bit of a.
Speaker 5: Lock forty forty five pull on the right sideline forty
Speaker 5: thirty five thirty twenty five Premiacydn still on the street, prevaced.
Speaker 1: It all up, touchdown.
Speaker 6: Tramnesse et in an expulsive run in the first touchdown
Speaker 6: of the game.
Speaker 1: For the Jaguars. Jags needed this one.
Speaker 2: Travis Etn scored twice, including that run, the longest of
Speaker 2: his NFL career. The Jacks end of four game losing streak,
Speaker 2: shutting out the moribund Panthers twenty six nothing.
Speaker 1: A lot of people upset and frustrated after this game.
Speaker 1: Now the Panthers correct clean me I picked them to win.
Speaker 1: Where's the pick all year? What are you doing? You
Speaker 1: hate the Jaguars so much and it's clouding you? What
Speaker 1: what first time I picked up Panthers all season? The
Speaker 1: week nine on the road they would be playing better
Speaker 1: and CJ. Bethard was starting.
Speaker 2: They got work today anyway, Yes, Greg, the Jags they
Speaker 2: win for the first time in December, and with Trevor
Speaker 2: Lawrence on the sideline.
Speaker 1: CJ.
Speaker 3: Bethard was good seventeen for twenty four, one to seventy.
Speaker 3: I mean, he just was the point guard that you
Speaker 3: would hope he would be not making any big mistakes
Speaker 3: and their defense was dominant. Josh Allen of the Jaguars
Speaker 3: is up to sixteen and a half sack. Wow, three sacks,
Speaker 3: four quarterback hits. He's not a crazy DPOI candidate, Like,
Speaker 3: there's no one really jumping up and saying it has
Speaker 3: to be me. I think it's gonna be Garrett, but
Speaker 3: I think Alan might be number two on my list.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's Parsons.
Speaker 2: I turned off that Thursday night game midway through the
Speaker 2: second quarter. Did Garrett have a sack? He did get it, okay,
Speaker 2: because he had been on a slump in that category,
Speaker 2: which has opened the door.
Speaker 3: Yes, just an awesome dominant performance by the Jaguars. And
Speaker 3: I know it's against the Panthers, but hey, the Panther
Speaker 3: has been playing better the last few weeks. Three hundred
Speaker 3: and seventeen yards to only one hundred and twenty four
Speaker 3: for the Panthers. There was a six drive stretch where
Speaker 3: the Panthers had negative yardage over those It's the It
Speaker 3: looked like the worst of the worst Panthers game.
Speaker 4: It's the fewest out of yards they've had in the
Speaker 4: game since twenty ten.
Speaker 1: And I ended up watching.
Speaker 3: You know, I drafted this partly because I picked the
Speaker 3: What a stupid I.
Speaker 2: Don't stop bringing it up, Greg, Like you're supposed to
Speaker 2: be our smartest fall guy.
Speaker 1: Hey, we need We're trying to protect you right now, Greg.
Speaker 3: I'm still ahead of the game debut standings here at
Speaker 3: discount towards, so still no. But they'll be in Cynthia's model.
Speaker 2: We can't be We're going to edit this all out
Speaker 2: of the show. Yes, absolutely, Greg, absolutely.
Speaker 1: Did not pick the Panthers. Let's set it up.
Speaker 2: Actually, Greg, Wow, well, just like you picked the Jaguars.
Speaker 2: They take care of businesses, say some people in Cynthia's model.
Speaker 3: Some people were thinking the Panthers could have a chance
Speaker 3: in this game.
Speaker 9: No.
Speaker 1: One hundred and twelve yards for Bryce Young, he had
Speaker 1: no hope whatsoever, just getting steamrolled. It was. It was
Speaker 1: tough to watch.
Speaker 3: They clinched the number one pick for the Bears, though,
Speaker 3: so that's even more bad news for the Panthers.
Speaker 1: Congratulations to the Bears.
Speaker 3: The seventh downs the second fewest in the history.
Speaker 1: There's no good news around the Panthers. There's nothing to
Speaker 1: talk about that's good.
Speaker 3: First shutout they've had, which is this is almost impressive
Speaker 3: since two thousand and two, so they have not been
Speaker 3: shut out for twenty one the years.
Speaker 4: There's nothing to say about Bryce stung at this point.
Speaker 4: It's just like, well, he had been trending up. So
Speaker 4: that's why I was like, okay, but this was bad.
Speaker 4: Good job by the Jacks, I really mean it. Backup, quarterback.
Speaker 3: You win twenty six to nothing in your home field,
Speaker 3: and if all they got to do now is win
Speaker 3: next week against the Titans and they win the AFC South.
Speaker 1: So it was a big time game for them on
Speaker 1: a four game losing Oh yeah, I know, that's why
Speaker 1: you got to pick the check. I know it's so stupid.
Speaker 2: And yes, this is the moment where I love to
Speaker 2: kick into one of my other favorite spin off shows
Speaker 2: within this show. But I can't. We can't, but we
Speaker 2: might be able to a little later in the week,
Speaker 2: let's hope. So you guys get what I'm saying. All right,
Speaker 2: let's move on. Let's keep rolling the AFC South. Like
Speaker 2: I said, it's funky, let's head to Indianapolis.
Speaker 1: Two receivers left, including a tight end guard. Make that
Speaker 1: Kylon Grants on the left side. Play action.
Speaker 4: Minshew feeling pressure taking a shotdown Phil.
Speaker 1: For Alec Pierce. He's got it guards after they catch the.
Speaker 6: Ten Angley right for the PIB and he's.
Speaker 1: At the pylon. Touchdown.
Speaker 8: Hey, it's a forty two yards strike up, pop the
Speaker 8: gardner Minshew to Alec Pierce, touchdown for the Colts's thirteen
Speaker 8: to three.
Speaker 2: Like they keep that Garland up at Looks Oil Stadium. Now,
Speaker 2: when do you take down the Christmas decorations? Some would
Speaker 2: say they should already be done.
Speaker 4: I like to keep them up about a week after
Speaker 4: New Year's like next weekend, Zeuser is.
Speaker 3: Gonna I'm lay I thought about this and now granted
Speaker 3: I'm sadly by myself during the house at this point,
Speaker 3: so maybe changes there, but uh, I think tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Is the day. Tomorrow Year's day itself. Yeah, I feel
Speaker 1: like a day of rest.
Speaker 3: And well maybe okay then maybe the next But like you,
Speaker 3: I think a Christmas tree, Greg, Yeah, and.
Speaker 4: See tomorrow you're just gonna shred it and take it
Speaker 4: down and throw it in the backyard.
Speaker 3: Well it's fake, but uh yeah, I think I'll take
Speaker 3: it down, take take it down.
Speaker 1: It's time.
Speaker 2: Very nice mask maybe Tuesday, very masculine taking down that tree.
Speaker 1: I mean it's a plastic tree.
Speaker 2: Matt Taylor with the call. Jonathan Taylor rush for ninety
Speaker 2: six yards. That's the highest totals had all year. Yikes,
Speaker 2: and Gardner Meinshew hits that fifty eight yard TD to
Speaker 2: Pierce on third and one. The Colts get it done,
Speaker 2: putting away Uh the Antonio Pierce Raiders twenty three to twenty.
Speaker 1: So here we are. Gregy.
Speaker 2: Indy will enter next week's AFC South showdown against Houston
Speaker 2: on a three game home winning streak.
Speaker 1: They are also tied at nine and seven with one
Speaker 1: to go.
Speaker 3: Right, and they are the seventh seed in the AFC
Speaker 3: as we head for the final week. Pretty amazing story
Speaker 3: that the embarring a tie you know they got they
Speaker 3: can win in now. Whether they're in as a division
Speaker 3: champer the wild card, we'll have to find out. But
Speaker 3: that's exciting. And that highlight we heard, it's a freaking
Speaker 3: awesome throw. I mean that the blitz worked. It gets
Speaker 3: total pressure on Minshew on a third and one, a
Speaker 3: gutsy call and he sort of back pedals as he's
Speaker 3: about to get hit and lays it out there for
Speaker 3: a fifty eight yard er. I think of that play
Speaker 3: and then one other play there was a fourth and
Speaker 3: two where again Max Crosby wins his battle immediately and
Speaker 3: is right in Minshew's lap. It was a very bold
Speaker 3: call for Stichen to go for it on this fourth
Speaker 3: and two is a three point game at the time,
Speaker 3: and Minshew hits a dime over the middle to keep
Speaker 3: the drive going. I think that one was to Pittman
Speaker 3: and they end up scoring a touchdown there, and there
Speaker 3: wasn't a ton separating these two teams. But if you
Speaker 3: get this mistake free, Minshew with a couple really nice throws.
Speaker 3: I thought it was one of his best performances, and
Speaker 3: as you mentioned, Dan Jonathan Taylor kept kept the chains
Speaker 3: moving for the most part.
Speaker 1: Taylor's been Taylor's been really good lately.
Speaker 4: And like I guess, if you get the mistake free
Speaker 4: version of Minshew and a play like this from Josh
Speaker 4: downs from Alex Pierce from Michael Pippings, I don't love
Speaker 4: their group of wideouts, but that's a when they're operating well,
Speaker 4: that's a pretty solid group. Michael Pittman's the first Cults
Speaker 4: receiver do I'll have one hundred plus catches in a
Speaker 4: season since Reggie Wayne about a million years ago.
Speaker 1: So there's something to work with there.
Speaker 4: And I'm more I think Shane Steichen is still a
Speaker 4: strong Coach of the Year candidate because this is not
Speaker 4: a star studded offense, but he's found a way.
Speaker 1: To court the defense for that much. Right, But they've.
Speaker 4: Scored like twenty plus and like many many weeks in
Speaker 4: a row, and it's like they've been consistent.
Speaker 3: They were in control of this game, was fourteen to
Speaker 3: three when that Pierce touchdn't happen, and they never really
Speaker 3: let the Raiders have a chance. They got a very
Speaker 3: late touchdown and it failed.
Speaker 1: On Dafante Adams blew up today.
Speaker 2: Good in the Fantasy Championship if you struggled throughout the season,
Speaker 2: but somehow on a down DeVante Year got to the
Speaker 2: finals today and he played like true Devonte.
Speaker 3: Thirteen for one, six, three touchdouts, twenty one targets. Was
Speaker 3: he was he O'Connell zero all.
Speaker 1: Week, like four yards last week or something.
Speaker 3: Maybe he was like, just throw me the ball man
Speaker 3: AOC was a little erratic, but uh look he ended
Speaker 3: up with two ninety nine and two.
Speaker 1: That surprises me.
Speaker 2: And if I was Antonio Pierce, I would have been
Speaker 2: knocking on Mark Davis's door every day for a week
Speaker 2: until this game, trying to get that intern label ripped off.
Speaker 2: Now you got Now you gotta win next week against
Speaker 2: the Broncos or it don't look so hot anymore.
Speaker 3: He's four and four, but the defense wasn't as good today,
Speaker 3: and more importantly for me, because I'm a dork, he
Speaker 3: was ridiculously conservative with some brutal punting decisions. They punted
Speaker 3: not once, not twice, not three times, four times in
Speaker 3: colts territory three in the second half.
Speaker 1: One of them.
Speaker 3: He was bailed out because he got a penalty on
Speaker 3: the punch. So people were like, oh, well they worked
Speaker 3: out at that time.
Speaker 1: You're punting on fourth and two down ten, you need
Speaker 1: to go to the playoffs in like the fourth quarter?
Speaker 1: What are we They're eliminated now right, they are eliminated
Speaker 1: here by gone.
Speaker 2: I think, just like with quarterbacks, because it happens every year.
Speaker 2: We let's try not to get sucked in by the
Speaker 2: last few games for quarterbacks.
Speaker 1: Same thing with an interim coach. But who knows, we'll see.
Speaker 2: All right, let's take a break and when we get back,
Speaker 2: we'll finish up this AFC South Maze and get Nick
Speaker 2: Schuck in the building.
Speaker 1: How about that? That sounds good. We'll be right back.
Speaker 4: Oh, welcome back the New Year's Eve special around the NFL.
Speaker 1: Big plans anybody for uh? For tonight?
Speaker 4: Mark, You're going to the hospital. About everybody else? I
Speaker 4: don't think so, GREGI can I come over? You know
Speaker 4: now we always welcome Well you can't mark next you
Speaker 4: in a bubble?
Speaker 1: Sure next year?
Speaker 2: All right, let's welcome in a man that I know
Speaker 2: has big plans. Nick Schuck the pipe?
Speaker 1: What's that, Bud? I don't know if I have a
Speaker 1: big plants. They got small plans, but thanks for having
Speaker 1: me on. Guys. A happy New Year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, happy New Year to you. Hours before twenty twenty four?
Speaker 2: Is your fiance are you, guys back in the same state.
Speaker 2: I know she's a recent graduate and she's going to
Speaker 2: be a major earner for you, allowing you to pursue
Speaker 2: your sports career even greater.
Speaker 1: I mean, she's not a race horse here. I mean,
Speaker 1: let's let's going on two year old Philly here.
Speaker 10: They're just gonna go win your millions. You could just
Speaker 10: go screw around right about football for years. She's a doctor, right, Yeah,
Speaker 10: she has earned her doctorate of physical therapy.
Speaker 1: She back here.
Speaker 2: That's a good I got a buddy, that's a moneymaker.
Speaker 2: Shout out Michael Evangelist.
Speaker 10: Prepping for the NPTE now, which is a massive test
Speaker 10: that she's very stressed about.
Speaker 1: You could just take your foot off the gas financially.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say, yeah, Mike Evangelist to New Jersey
Speaker 2: Jag physical therapy, big earners over there, good job show,
Speaker 2: well done. All right, that's it for around the NFL.
Speaker 2: All right, Nick, let's get into the games. It's time
Speaker 2: now for Sunday Drive presented by the first ever Toyota
Speaker 2: Grand Highlander. Yes, I teased it. Well, stay in the
Speaker 2: AFC South. It is funky.
Speaker 1: Here's a pistol set with Henry behind Levis. First aunt
Speaker 1: Tuttan's at there twenty five yard line. Levis fakes to
Speaker 1: give to Henry in the pocket.
Speaker 8: Here comes Jerry Hughesta Perry the quarterback ball out and
Speaker 8: here Sims.
Speaker 6: A score for the Houston jacksons A's racings one to
Speaker 6: then sco score.
Speaker 1: How about that? Oh man, there's the call, Mark Vandermins shook.
Speaker 2: You are the official, like Madden correspondent for NFL media.
Speaker 2: That was like when you come around the edge and
Speaker 2: you want to hit stick or you want to square
Speaker 2: and hit him, but instead you just run into the guy.
Speaker 2: That's what it looked like as Sheldon Rank and scooped
Speaker 2: up the fumble after the.
Speaker 1: Sack, took it to the house and C. J.
Speaker 2: Stroud made a victorious return and the Texans twenty six
Speaker 2: to three win over the last place Titans three nine
Speaker 2: and seven teams and the buried Titans. That is the
Speaker 2: AFC South. One week to play. Shookie, tell us about it.
Speaker 10: Yeah, I had something similar happened to my Madden Game
Speaker 10: a couple of nights ago, except they got the pass
Speaker 10: off because it's the video game.
Speaker 1: But yeah, three nine and seven teams.
Speaker 10: This is not how we saw the AFC South panning out,
Speaker 10: maybe even as much as a couple of months ago.
Speaker 1: And yet here we are the Texans gon a big win. CJ.
Speaker 1: Stroud's return added a massive boost to their offense. It
Speaker 1: was sorely needed.
Speaker 10: They looked like a competent football team. Again, It's crazy
Speaker 10: how a quarterback can do that for a team. The story,
Speaker 10: of course that defensive touchdown. Look at the time stamp
Speaker 10: on that. That's ten minutes to go in the second
Speaker 10: quarter and they're already running away with it. They could
Speaker 10: have stopped playing right there because the Titans were never
Speaker 10: going to bring anything to the field that was much
Speaker 10: of a threat. Will Levis got knocked out on that play.
Speaker 10: Ryan Tannehill came in and played a solid game. But
Speaker 10: these Titans are just to punchless offense right now. And
Speaker 10: big day for Will Anderson two sacks. He's now set
Speaker 10: the Texans franchise rookie sack record with seven sacks this season,
Speaker 10: which is surprisingly low considering this is.
Speaker 1: A team that's been a topic on Jenevian Clowney.
Speaker 10: But here we are and it's gonna be a really
Speaker 10: interesting final week in the division. Very excited to see
Speaker 10: the Texans get back on track. I was worried we
Speaker 10: were about to lose them there.
Speaker 1: It's so CJ.
Speaker 4: Stroud and what he's done this season makes them so appealing,
Speaker 4: like Will Anderson on defense. And it's kind of crazy
Speaker 4: to see where these two teams are compared to where
Speaker 4: they were a couple of years ago. Mike Rabel very
Speaker 4: good coach, no doubt about it, but they are in
Speaker 4: their lack dating back to last season five and eighteen,
Speaker 4: and I don't see a lot of player development. You're
Speaker 4: probably done with Derek Henry after this season. You've got
Speaker 4: issues at quarterback, and they're getting dominated up on both
Speaker 4: sides of the line and especially on offense. So this
Speaker 4: Texans team is exciting to me because of the young
Speaker 4: players that have grown before our eyes.
Speaker 3: I was wondering how did Stroud look in this game, Nick,
Speaker 3: because like this season just feels like such a win
Speaker 3: for them. It's almost we've almost now gotten so used
Speaker 3: to it that it's not as shocking that they won
Speaker 3: nine they're nine and seven. They want to combine six
Speaker 3: the last two seasons or whatever, even less the last
Speaker 3: three seasons. It's insane and all these rookies playing well.
Speaker 3: But did Stroud kind of look like earlier season Stroud?
Speaker 3: Because that's a big game Colts Texans likely for a
Speaker 3: playoff spot next week.
Speaker 10: Yeah, what it was was the big play was missing,
Speaker 10: but everything underneath us theres Stroud was the typically accurate quarterback,
Speaker 10: you know, navigating the pocket well.
Speaker 1: Had a little tiny bit of rust, but shook it off.
Speaker 1: It was not a big deal with him. He looked comfortable.
Speaker 10: It looked like the time away, you know, they gave
Speaker 10: him enough time to come back out of the concussion
Speaker 10: protocol and be back to form, and they received a
Speaker 10: huge boost from him being out there. I mean, they're
Speaker 10: night and day different with him on and off the field,
Speaker 10: and I feel very confident going in the last week
Speaker 10: the season.
Speaker 3: Sorry about that. By the way, I shouldn't say likely.
Speaker 3: I just thrown in the possibility of a tie. But
Speaker 3: as long as one team wins, they're going into the playoffs.
Speaker 1: We are tieless this year.
Speaker 10: But yeah, it's an exciting moment for the Texans. Franchise
Speaker 10: because you talk about Demiko Ryans and where they are
Speaker 10: right now. He was a front runner for Coach of
Speaker 10: the Year, and some other coaches have maybe surpassed him,
Speaker 10: are gotten into the conversation and made it more complicated.
Speaker 10: But I mean, if they finish off a playoff run,
Speaker 10: all things considered, where they were the last couple of
Speaker 10: years and where they are now, I have a really
Speaker 10: hard time not picking him for that. I don't have
Speaker 10: a vote, but if I did, hypothetically, I.
Speaker 2: Will do a lot of good options as long the
Speaker 2: Stroud gets out of even if things don't work out
Speaker 2: next week, if he gets out of the season healthy,
Speaker 2: this is a huge win for the organization. After some
Speaker 2: down years and all the watts and drama and everything,
Speaker 2: they are going in the right direction. That was the
Speaker 2: Sunday Drive presented by Toyota Let's Go Places. Learn more
Speaker 2: at Toyota dot com. Slash Ran Hilander Shooky. You are
Speaker 2: also on the Chargers, Broncos tilt. Let's get into that.
Speaker 11: Stidham's in the gun Burton the fullback two, He's right
Speaker 11: for protection sake, six man rush. Stidham climbs the pocket,
Speaker 11: throws on the run pass part strike thrown.
Speaker 2: That is little Jordans Oh yeah, you spit him to
Speaker 2: tackle Persson out of tell little Jordan, we go twenty
Speaker 2: Little Jordan Hupper fifteen.
Speaker 1: Oh, little Jordan five, Little Jordan's hell yeah, fifty four yards.
Speaker 2: That's our dude, Stitham, Lil Jordan Humphrey, that's our best
Speaker 2: friend who.
Speaker 1: Has bit Jordan Humphrey on that catch and run.
Speaker 2: Oh Dave Logan with the call yard Stidham, not Russell
Speaker 2: Wilson threw for two hundred and twenty four yards and
Speaker 2: that touchdown to as I said, best friend of the show,
Speaker 2: Little Jordan Humphrey and the Broncos take care of the
Speaker 2: visage of a team known as the Charger sixteen to
Speaker 2: nine shook. The biggest storyline here was obviously the QB
Speaker 2: switch for Denver. How did Stidham look and how many
Speaker 2: shots to Russell Wilson did we see on the sideline?
Speaker 11: Like?
Speaker 1: What was the vibe there? A lot?
Speaker 10: And for some reason Russe decided it was appropriate to
Speaker 10: wear his helmet on the sideline the entire game.
Speaker 3: Which I thought no way.
Speaker 1: Well, he was active as the backup, but that doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: No one wears a helmet when they're active.
Speaker 2: As a now you hide from the world when yeah,
Speaker 2: you know you've been terminated essentially, but you're still there.
Speaker 3: It's almost like a passive aggressive words.
Speaker 1: It's very strange. What can someone explained to me? And
Speaker 1: I don't want to who cares?
Speaker 2: But if the whole thing was we don't want to
Speaker 2: risk the injury, messing with the guaranteed money, how is
Speaker 2: he active and the backup behind Stidham? Was he going
Speaker 2: to go in this game of yes, that's someone that.
Speaker 1: Make it make sense? That part of it is super illogical.
Speaker 3: Well, because I don't think it was go away Broncos,
Speaker 3: go away, because I truly believe it was both. That
Speaker 3: was a big bonus. But I think at this point
Speaker 3: they knew they were probably out of the playoffs. They
Speaker 3: won this game and they are out of the playoffs,
Speaker 3: So they were right about that. Uh, And they wanted
Speaker 3: to see Stidham, who they thought might be better or or
Speaker 3: just different, and wanted to see it and the money,
Speaker 3: but they like, weren't gonna go too crazy and make
Speaker 3: them the third quarterback, you know, just I mean.
Speaker 2: That's if you really want to at least be consistent
Speaker 2: in your messaging in the overall comprehensive plan of the team.
Speaker 1: He doesn't sniff the field the rest of them.
Speaker 3: And it was a very Russell Wilson like stat line,
Speaker 3: like not not special, but good enough kept them moving.
Speaker 1: Was that? Was that what it looked like? Pretty much?
Speaker 10: I think Russ might have turned the ball over one
Speaker 10: or two times if he'd been on the field, but
Speaker 10: otherwise it was pretty much that. I mean, Stidham looked
Speaker 10: like a guy who hadn't played since the end of
Speaker 10: last season but still have the abilities that I would
Speaker 10: go so far as to say seduced to coach, you
Speaker 10: did believe that he should play in the starting lineup
Speaker 10: and be a starting quarterback for the final two weeks.
Speaker 10: I don't know what it is is you wear a
Speaker 10: special cologne that just convinces his coach that with two
Speaker 10: weeks left in the regular season and he's suddenly the guy.
Speaker 1: I mean, two years in a row and this time around.
Speaker 10: I mean, they won the game on like last year
Speaker 10: when he played for the Raiders, but it wasn't super impressive.
Speaker 1: That highlight that you guys just ran that was the
Speaker 1: best play.
Speaker 10: Of the game, and it was largely done by little
Speaker 10: Jordan Humphrey, but he did enough. He missed some guys.
Speaker 10: His accuracy was not on point for most of the game.
Speaker 10: They missed some opportunities as a result. But again, they're
Speaker 10: playing the Chargers, whose offense is only decent between the twenties,
Speaker 10: so they had some room for air and they got
Speaker 10: the job done. I'm not gonna lean on the win
Speaker 10: as the defining metric here, but for a guy who
Speaker 10: just came in after not playing all season, it's fine,
Speaker 10: We'll go with it.
Speaker 3: Sure why they only needed the Bengals or the Seahawks
Speaker 3: to win in those late games, by the way, to
Speaker 3: stay alive for next week, which you would have thought
Speaker 3: they would have shared one of them. They did not
Speaker 3: get one of those two results that they needed to
Speaker 3: stay one.
Speaker 2: I can tell you something. Fahrenheit Cologne. I might not
Speaker 2: have done very well with women in high school, said I,
Speaker 2: but I smelled great and I wish Fahrenheit was still
Speaker 2: in vogue in the Cologne game because I would have
Speaker 2: never stopped wearing it.
Speaker 1: That is the best smelling stuff in the world. What
Speaker 1: was your go to cologne? I wore Drakar. Oh, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's very It was the only one I even knew
Speaker 1: about Pure Thanks, how about you, Shook.
Speaker 10: Honestly, I still like to use a little bit from
Speaker 10: time to time, but back in today is probably Chanelle Blue.
Speaker 10: That was my big go to. I like that a
Speaker 10: little bit of YSL. And then I got to tell you,
Speaker 10: guys the story since we started with this. This is
Speaker 10: how I'm going to get out of here with this.
Speaker 10: Bridget decides to order some stuff from Nordstrom and they
Speaker 10: accidentally throw in a bottle of cologne that's.
Speaker 1: Worth four hundred dollars and you got it for free.
Speaker 1: Wait what I'm using now? They accidentally threw it in.
Speaker 10: It was not in the order, she was not charged
Speaker 10: for it, and there it was, and it's a big
Speaker 10: old bottle and I looked it up and I was like,
Speaker 10: that is worth a lot.
Speaker 1: I would not spend that money on Collogue found Money Fund.
Speaker 1: Damn it, you smell like money. He's already earning for us.
Speaker 1: There you go.
Speaker 2: I'm telling you you've got the doctor. You're all set up.
Speaker 2: Shook buddy. As twenty twenty three comes to a close,
Speaker 2: we thank you for all your great work, and but
Speaker 2: you're not going to get rid of us that easy.
Speaker 1: We'll see into twenty twenty four as well.
Speaker 10: Yeah, hopefully four, maybe twenty twenty five. No day tomorrow's
Speaker 10: not guaranteed. As Kyle Shanahan one said, we can all
Speaker 10: be dead, but I'm happy to still be alive and
Speaker 10: here on the pop with you guys.
Speaker 3: We'll try to give you a better game next week
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty four too.
Speaker 1: I'm not counting on it, all right, Chuck, thank you, buddy.
Speaker 2: All right, let us keep moving and uh yeah, let's
Speaker 2: now get in in earnest. Let's get into the NFC
Speaker 2: side of things, and let us start with an incredible finish,
Speaker 2: incredibly frustrating if you're on the Detroit side of things.
Speaker 2: To Jarrow World, where the Cowboys and Lions went at
Speaker 2: it to the very end.
Speaker 8: The Lions are running out of two point plays, bradon
Speaker 8: having got it the head zone.
Speaker 12: Yet they're going from the baseboard line four to two,
Speaker 12: snap the golf look and throwing it to the left.
Speaker 13: It is s.
Speaker 12: Drop by the tight end, Mitchell and the Cowboys are
Speaker 12: gonna have a one point lad in the ball.
Speaker 1: That's one of the craziest on things.
Speaker 2: You will yeah, Brad Sham, oh yeah, god yeah, and
Speaker 2: I guess the tight end dropped it, but it was
Speaker 2: not a good pass by Jared Goff either. But in
Speaker 2: the defensive everyone connected with the lines offense, they kind
Speaker 2: of had a two point conversion and the lead taken
Speaker 2: from him, but the officials made the ruling that reverberated
Speaker 2: through Pro Football that it was an illegal substitution or
Speaker 2: legal touching wiped away the two point effort and a
Speaker 2: third two point try from the Lions did not go,
Speaker 2: so the Cowboys hold on twenty to nineteen. A huge
Speaker 2: win for the Cowboys after what happens Mark twenty four
Speaker 2: hours later with the Eagles losing.
Speaker 1: We'll get to that, but Cowboys got away with one here.
Speaker 2: Don't want to put it all on that play, but
Speaker 2: we should start there because the play involving Taylor Decker
Speaker 2: that gets waved off is something that is going to
Speaker 2: sick in the craw of Lions fans.
Speaker 4: I mean to have to be at this point in
Speaker 4: the season and come out of this game with this
Speaker 4: is the talking point because the officiating in general, globally
Speaker 4: league wide has been a problem and this is just
Speaker 4: feels about as unjust of an ending and and and
Speaker 4: frankly like completely changes obviously the NFC playoff picture, and
Speaker 4: it changes everything that the Lions hoped to accomplish in
Speaker 4: many ways, like and it's it was an inexcusable mistake.
Speaker 1: The one thing that I up to it or anything.
Speaker 2: They stand by their story that they was not properly
Speaker 2: handled by Detroit, right, which is refuted broadly by the
Speaker 2: team that they did check the boxes.
Speaker 1: But the NFL has not come out and said they
Speaker 1: made a mistake.
Speaker 4: So all of us, though, who watched the game, it's
Speaker 4: pretty clear. And I think the thing that we kind
Speaker 4: of learned. I don't think an average fan would know this,
Speaker 4: and sometimes you know it just covering the game that
Speaker 4: if you're Dan Campbell, one of the reasons that he
Speaker 4: was absolutely furious and beside himself was that you spend
Speaker 4: time before these games with officials, like literally in person,
Speaker 4: with like a grease board, showing them ahead of time so.
Speaker 1: That they understand what you're doing.
Speaker 4: Like if you're gonna run a fake punt like they did,
Speaker 4: you tell them about that ahead of time, and to
Speaker 4: play like this, here's our alignment, here's whoess who's going
Speaker 4: to be doing what, So it wasn't like you're catching
Speaker 4: the officials off guard.
Speaker 1: They knew this was coming. They knew this was coming.
Speaker 4: And I think that's one reason that Dan Campbell, it's
Speaker 4: not just, you know, a regular officiating mistake. It's like
Speaker 4: this was specifically laid out to the officials on who
Speaker 4: was going to be doing what, and then this happened,
Speaker 4: and there's no reversal of it.
Speaker 1: There's no chance to make it right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you saw the same thing last week with a
Speaker 2: you know that led to Jay or Alexander being suspended,
Speaker 2: where he made the mistake and he wasn't the captain
Speaker 2: and he made the wrong call.
Speaker 1: And the only reason that didn't run in Green Bay
Speaker 1: was because.
Speaker 2: Bearded Boy had spoke to the officials ahead ahead of
Speaker 2: that coin toss. This stuff happens all the time. I
Speaker 2: watched a clip on the sideline. It was an NFL
Speaker 2: Films clip of Kyle Shanahan telling the sideline official, Hey,
Speaker 2: I think it was Kittle. Kittle's gonna run this route
Speaker 2: and then this linebacker is gonna grab him. Watch And
Speaker 2: then that's exactly how it played out. And then they
Speaker 2: called defensive holding, like there is this conversation that's happening
Speaker 2: that apparently if the lines are to be believed, was
Speaker 2: disregarded and it cost them a game.
Speaker 3: I think after hearing everything, and it was fascinating and
Speaker 3: also boring because it's just these procedural rules. It's like
Speaker 3: a game shouldn't be decided like that, I almost thought, like, Wow,
Speaker 3: I'm almost surprised this doesn't happen more often because it's
Speaker 3: all happening in the heat of the moment, and it
Speaker 3: seems very clear after hearing what the lion said afterwards,
Speaker 3: after watching the videos, after seeing everything that happen, it
Speaker 3: seems very clear what happened. And ultimately it was like,
Speaker 3: there's two guys that are six foot seven and above,
Speaker 3: white guys, Taylor Decker and Dan Skipper. One of them's
Speaker 3: not usually in the game, that Skipper, that's usually the
Speaker 3: guy who does check in and is the guy on
Speaker 3: the outside, an extra lineman, and he just got those
Speaker 3: two guys confused because Decker pretty clearly and there's every
Speaker 3: reason to believe them, went over and tried to tell
Speaker 3: them while while our buddy Brad Allen, who's been in
Speaker 3: the firing circle all season, Adam Schefter wrote a whole
Speaker 3: freaking article about how Brad Allen's officiating crew was under
Speaker 3: a lot of heat because they keep messing up calls,
Speaker 3: including some PI calls in a Saints Falcons game.
Speaker 1: He wrote that article weeks ago.
Speaker 3: Kansas City, so and he just I think he just
Speaker 3: had a moment where he totally got confused which guy
Speaker 3: was which, and that cost them that two point conversion,
Speaker 3: which really sucks, because that's part of the reason why
Speaker 3: that play was so cool was they were kind of
Speaker 3: playing with me with Dallas of like, normally it's gonna
Speaker 3: be Skipper, but now we're gonna put Decker over there,
Speaker 3: and it freaking worked.
Speaker 1: All right, Let's listen to this.
Speaker 2: Dan Campbell did a very nice job here avoiding being
Speaker 2: fined while also letting everyone in the world know he's
Speaker 2: royally pissed about the way that game ended.
Speaker 13: Two people can't report. I don't want to talk about it,
Speaker 13: all right, I explain everything pre game to a t Okay,
Speaker 13: I did that seventy reported, fifty eight didn't or sixty
Speaker 13: eight didn't. We threw at sixty eight. That was the explanation.
Speaker 13: What would you be would you be frustrated right now?
Speaker 1: Is it on the execution? Is it?
Speaker 13: I don't like losing Dave, and that's what happened. We lost,
Speaker 13: and that bothers me, you know, it bothers me. I
Speaker 13: don't like having an L So that's the frustration.
Speaker 1: And you know what.
Speaker 2: The thing about Campbell and why you love him so
Speaker 2: much is he was going for two no matter what.
Speaker 2: Now you can say he's already clinched vision, he's got
Speaker 2: the home game. There wasn't really a clear pav to
Speaker 2: getting the number one seed, but still you have just
Speaker 2: so in his DNA. And it's the whole team that
Speaker 2: they were going for two, even when it was backed
Speaker 2: up to the seven yard line briefly, they were going
Speaker 2: for two. And the fact to be able to then
Speaker 2: have the onions that you carry in a wheelbarrow, to
Speaker 2: then get it done and have it taken away on
Speaker 2: a technicality that was wrong. That's a bummer. But it
Speaker 2: does the other side of this is the Cowboys one.
Speaker 2: And I want to say, and it should be said,
Speaker 2: for the second straight week in big time, money pressure situations,
Speaker 2: Dak Prescott led his offense to a big score. This
Speaker 2: time it was a touchdown drive to put them ahead
Speaker 2: in the final minutes. Now, Greg, you could say, geez,
Speaker 2: that's two straight weeks. The Dallas defense had a chance
Speaker 2: to close out a game and failed, and that's very
Speaker 2: true as well. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: Dallas is set up here to get a home game
Speaker 2: and get that two seed, right.
Speaker 3: I wish Golf had hit that threat. That was a
Speaker 3: bad throw by Goff. That was their fourth two point
Speaker 3: conversion attempt, essentially because the Cowboys had taken a time
Speaker 3: out right as they were about to run the first one,
Speaker 3: and I was so impressed that that's when they threw
Speaker 3: the trick play out, so that wasn't even going to
Speaker 3: be their play, but they switched it up. So I
Speaker 3: wish GoF had hit that throw to the tight end
Speaker 3: so we wouldn't have this whole conversation. But that doesn't
Speaker 3: take away what happened in the first fifty eight minutes
Speaker 3: in that drive that you're talking about.
Speaker 1: You're absolutely right.
Speaker 3: I think the Cowboys, for the most part, offensively did
Speaker 3: a lot of good things in this game. I thought
Speaker 3: Dak played as well as you could have humanly played
Speaker 3: for a guy who did throw an interception, which was
Speaker 3: his fault, and they only scored twenty against the Lions. Otherwise,
Speaker 3: he had money throw after money throw against pressure. The
Speaker 3: ninety two yarder to Lamb was just magical. A bunch
Speaker 3: of other really good decisions when guys were getting after him,
Speaker 3: and you mentioned it, yes, getting that touchdown drive or
Speaker 3: the getting the lead with that touchdown drive to Cooks.
Speaker 1: That said that game never should have even been in
Speaker 1: that position because Mike McCarthy went crazy. I don't know
Speaker 1: what's going Mike Zaddy was on another planet, right, Terry
Speaker 1: Jared Gouff.
Speaker 3: It was a fascinating game, and we'll spend like thirty
Speaker 3: minutes talking about it on NFL Plus when he check
Speaker 3: us out on Tuesday. But Goff had a good game
Speaker 3: until he threw an interception with just over two minutes
Speaker 3: to go that felt like it ended the game. But
Speaker 3: Zaddy throws three straight passes, including one where Dak throws
Speaker 3: it deepen out of bounds. They hit two of them
Speaker 3: to get a shorter field goal. You should meant I
Speaker 3: should have mentioned that, But like, it's kind of crazy
Speaker 3: because the Lions would have had less than a minute
Speaker 3: to go and no timeouts needing a touchdown if Zaddy
Speaker 3: just calls a run there, but instead they have one
Speaker 3: forty and they get all the way back in that
Speaker 3: position to set up the madness.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, daddy, stop it, please stop it. It's a
Speaker 1: little like come back to us.
Speaker 4: McCarthy has been known for this for years and years.
Speaker 4: We soon predict You're right, I mean, he's got it.
Speaker 4: Like at some point you've got to take a he
Speaker 4: took that sojour in year and like you could have
Speaker 4: spent some time on the time management thing.
Speaker 1: He's done a great job this season.
Speaker 4: But that's what worries me about Dallas when they get
Speaker 4: into the playoffs. It's like they've had meltdowns two years
Speaker 4: in a row in the playoffs where they couldn't have
Speaker 4: looked more disorganized. And and I get it, like Ceedee
Speaker 4: Lamb had the game of his life last night, and
Speaker 4: there's a lot to like in thirteen for seven.
Speaker 1: I mean that is insane. But it's like they shouldn't
Speaker 1: have won this game.
Speaker 4: Like I came away very I'm like interesting, pretty fired
Speaker 4: up about like the way that there's no accountability with
Speaker 4: you if they did.
Speaker 2: Though they did win the game, and I thought they
Speaker 2: played well. Yeah, it wasn't like they played poorly. They
Speaker 2: did catch a big break. But it should also be
Speaker 2: said that even if that place stands, Dallas does go
Speaker 2: back down on the field, and Dak goes back on
Speaker 2: the field with an opportunity to kick a field goal,
Speaker 2: and you have the best kicker in the world this
Speaker 2: year on your team.
Speaker 1: So twenty three second had a time out.
Speaker 4: You're right, Well, never know that, I like, I share
Speaker 4: get the frustration.
Speaker 1: I really do. I get the frustration of it all.
Speaker 2: I actually the Zaddy throwing the ball over and over
Speaker 2: again basically shocked Troy and Joe into silence right And
Speaker 2: it also it made me think it was kind of
Speaker 2: did he like a score?
Speaker 1: Like? It made a think like, does Mike know what's
Speaker 1: going on right now?
Speaker 2: So I don't know. Listen, you know I'm a Zadi fan.
Speaker 2: I like an unpredictable Zaddi. So you throw him in.
Speaker 2: He's a wild guard, but the Cowboys might not be
Speaker 2: a wild guard. They might be right champion.
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 3: I'm with you, Dan, I mean mark that I don't
Speaker 3: trust him in the end in a close, crazy game
Speaker 3: like this. But he did a lot of good things,
Speaker 3: I swear, even going into the final two minutes, like
Speaker 3: before Golf through that interception that really set up how
Speaker 3: it ended. I was thinking, man, this is one of
Speaker 3: the best games of the year. It's two good teams.
Speaker 3: They're going back and forth. The Dallas defense actually had
Speaker 3: a lot of good moments on their run defense where
Speaker 3: they got a ton of tackles for loss. Goff fought
Speaker 3: back with that beautiful throw to Jamison Williams. Was like
Speaker 3: one of the best throws I saw all year. Was
Speaker 3: it was back and forth, and I thought both teams like,
Speaker 3: look good before that moment and that the Cowboys would
Speaker 3: have been a deserving winner, and then just everything kind
Speaker 3: of hit the fan.
Speaker 2: It should be said that, yes, Goff through the big interception,
Speaker 2: McCarthy kind of bailed him out a little bit. And
Speaker 2: if he does hit his tight end and stride there
Speaker 2: James Mitchell, that's a two point conversion.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, throws the ball low, it's not caught.
Speaker 2: But if he hits him in stride the way he
Speaker 2: ninety if he throws that ball one hundred times ninety
Speaker 2: eight times, I think it's right on the money. He
Speaker 2: was a little low in a big spot and that
Speaker 2: and that was the difference.
Speaker 3: And he took ownership. I'm always impressed by Gough how
Speaker 3: he talks to the media. But he set the perfect
Speaker 3: tone I thought, like where he mentioned everything they did wrong,
Speaker 3: but also very pointedly pointed out how much the refs
Speaker 3: did wrong too.
Speaker 2: All Right, one last thing on this game. I don't
Speaker 2: know speaking like what's going on. Jimmy Johnson only got
Speaker 2: into the Ring of Honor for the Dallas Cowboys, uh
Speaker 2: yesterday December thirtieth, twenty and twenty three, like a quarter
Speaker 2: century after he was the most.
Speaker 1: Successful head coach of his era.
Speaker 2: Here he is his final words during the halftime ceremony.
Speaker 1: The guy still got the.
Speaker 12: Juice, cosse all of you what makes this game so great?
Speaker 12: Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1: And I just got one more thing to say. Do it, dude.
Speaker 1: How about tamp Town with Irvin like fainting in the
Speaker 1: background was awesome.
Speaker 3: I love him, I love I love that moment, Like
Speaker 3: that's what it's all about.
Speaker 1: It almost made it sure.
Speaker 3: He wouldn't have wanted to wait it, but you could
Speaker 3: tell he he savored the hell out of that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and.
Speaker 2: They now have a chance to win the division because
Speaker 2: of what happened in Philadelphia.
Speaker 5: Seven seconds left ball at the Philly forty nine Cardinals
Speaker 5: up thirty five to thirty one. Maybe the final play.
Speaker 5: Hurts backing up to throw four seconds left two, This
Speaker 5: will be the final play.
Speaker 1: Hurts takes a shot deep middle of.
Speaker 5: The end zone and it is intercepted in the back.
Speaker 1: Of the end zone.
Speaker 5: It's by Blunt and the Arizona Cardinals give Jonathan Gannon
Speaker 5: a signature victory in his first season with the Redbirds.
Speaker 1: Happy New Year, Dave fashioned Ron Wolfley.
Speaker 2: My god, you hear a pin drop at the link
Speaker 2: after that, hell Mary heave fails, and you know, you
Speaker 2: could say Jonathan Gannon deserves bongos because that former Eagle
Speaker 2: defensive coordinator stunned his old team and may have terminally.
Speaker 1: Fouled up the Eagles Super Bowl hopes.
Speaker 2: James Connor ran for a two yard touchdown with thirty
Speaker 2: two seconds to play, and then the Arizona defense holds
Speaker 2: coming back from fifteen down the Cardinals due to stun
Speaker 2: the Eagles thirty five to thirty one mark.
Speaker 1: The Eagles entered December at nine to one. Been a long.
Speaker 2: December, quote Durrance, they exited. They use a cesslerism, floating
Speaker 2: trash back man. They looked like it today on defense too.
Speaker 2: They gave up twenty nine points in the second half.
Speaker 2: I mean, come on, the most points that the Eagles
Speaker 2: have allowed in the sewing in a decade since they
Speaker 2: made this sort of chaotic, bizarre switch to Matt Patricia,
Speaker 2: they have allowed seventeen plus in the second half and
Speaker 2: three straight games this year ago.
Speaker 1: So Matt Patricia didn't fix their defense.
Speaker 4: He did not fit what they And you know what,
Speaker 4: I've seen the Arizona Cardinals.
Speaker 1: On the ground, especializ do this.
Speaker 4: They've run, they ran well against the Niners, they beat
Speaker 4: up Philly today. They had elongated, stretched out drives, a
Speaker 4: flood of scoring drives of like ten plus plays. Kyle
Speaker 4: Kyler Murray looked fantastic. James Connor ran the ball so well,
Speaker 4: and it was just kind of impressive them to see.
Speaker 4: And I think that part of me was like wondering,
Speaker 4: Jonathan Gannon knows a lot of these players, he knows
Speaker 4: this defense, and did that help.
Speaker 1: It's like, I don't know.
Speaker 4: In this case, it was just Arizona beating them down
Speaker 4: and mistakes on offense. For Philadelphia, it's the most rushing
Speaker 4: yards they've given up all year. It looked like it.
Speaker 4: It was just an impressive performance. And you know, early
Speaker 4: on in the game, Philly looked like they could catch
Speaker 4: fire a little bit. Sidney Brown had an incredible ninety
Speaker 4: eight yard pick six. Sidney Brown is the player that
Speaker 4: they ended up drafting because of the draft pick they
Speaker 4: got because Arizona tampered with Jonathan Gannon.
Speaker 1: So I was like that, that's pretty spice. That feels
Speaker 1: pretty poetic.
Speaker 4: But then it just the Arizona just took control and
Speaker 4: I think it kind of for me sealed that, like
Speaker 4: Kyler Murray's gonna stick around, like there's a plan here,
Speaker 4: and like I think they're well coached.
Speaker 1: The record doesn't reflect it, but they're a well coached team.
Speaker 3: They it is outrageous the numbers and just you know,
Speaker 3: I'm looking forward to watching this one later in the week.
Speaker 3: But they scored Arizona on They only had seven real
Speaker 3: possessions in this game. That's that's as low as it gets.
Speaker 3: So they got thirty two first downs. That's outrageous. Four
Speaker 3: hundred and forty nine yards in six scores. So they
Speaker 3: scored six times on seven possessions, including those four touchdowns
Speaker 3: in the second half. The only time they were stopped
Speaker 3: the whole game was that interception, and even that play
Speaker 3: the receiver was opening. It was like a miscommunication where
Speaker 3: Kyler thinks he's going one way and the receiver, it's
Speaker 3: a young receiver who knows who messed up on it,
Speaker 3: goes the other way. It's like, yeah, he caught it,
Speaker 3: and he runs down the field. But they didn't even
Speaker 3: They truly didn't make a stop ball game. And as
Speaker 3: much as Hurts has struggled and relatively to where he
Speaker 3: was last year, and they're not like an amazing ovinse,
Speaker 3: the story for them is how do they have the
Speaker 3: worst defense in league right now to the front seventh
Speaker 3: right like with the money they have invested, it makes
Speaker 3: no sense.
Speaker 4: It's one other note, DeVonta Smith left the stadium on
Speaker 4: crutches and and the game ended with like you know,
Speaker 4: Aj Brown looking super frustrated again, DeVonta Smith limping off,
Speaker 4: and me wondering what the future of the Eagles is
Speaker 4: right now.
Speaker 3: When they took the lead because they had the Jake
Speaker 3: Elliott kick the field goal thirty one twenty eight, they
Speaker 3: had given up a twenty one to six lead, but
Speaker 3: they had taken the lead again two minutes ago. You figure, okay,
Speaker 3: now the Eagles are gonna win. I was like just thinking, like,
Speaker 3: has there ever been a less happy like twelve and
Speaker 3: four team? But now it's has there ever been a
Speaker 3: less happy e let in five team? They're the first
Speaker 3: team in thirty five years right to start ten and
Speaker 3: one and lose five games. So it's it's basically unprecedented
Speaker 3: to start ten and one and end up with five losses.
Speaker 1: And you hate to see it.
Speaker 2: Nick Siriannis, such a humble guy be going through these
Speaker 2: struggles and perhaps being exposed without a better coaching staff.
Speaker 1: It just you hate to see it. Also is a
Speaker 1: little curse of domin play here.
Speaker 4: Eh, it's been a disastrous since that happened, since they,
Speaker 4: you know, put him into exodus.
Speaker 1: That's a great point. Bring back Tom. I don't know
Speaker 1: if they did. No there, he's not allowed. I mean
Speaker 1: he's there, he's still working. Speak him in. He's a VP.
Speaker 1: Put him as a mask, make him a mask. You
Speaker 1: gotta get him back on the sidelines.
Speaker 3: Is that a bad deal for him? He's up in
Speaker 3: the owner's box. He doesn't have to work.
Speaker 4: It's an assistant to the GM. I mean he's good,
Speaker 4: like he does a lot of different stuff for them.
Speaker 1: So they're eleven and five Cowboys. There are eleven and five.
Speaker 3: If the Cowboys win next week, they win the NFC East,
Speaker 3: that the Eagles would need a loss from the Cowboys
Speaker 3: against Washington to try to get the NFC East back.
Speaker 1: You mentioned even the Cowboys can't blow this, No, Dad,
Speaker 1: I don't think so.
Speaker 3: So it'll probably be the Eagles as the five seed
Speaker 3: at the NFC South winner. You mentioned how it really
Speaker 3: that result really changed the Lions season. I think it
Speaker 3: really changed the Cowboys season. The Lions now have a
Speaker 3: bit of a rallying cry. They're going to be the
Speaker 3: three seed most likely instead of the two seed, which
Speaker 3: is a difference. They could be traveling in the divisional
Speaker 3: round instead of being at home. They could have a
Speaker 3: tougher opponent like the Rams the first round. So it
Speaker 3: does it changes their season.
Speaker 1: Another crack at the Cowboys.
Speaker 3: Right, so it sets up that they could be on
Speaker 3: the road back in Dallas.
Speaker 1: But who knows a lot to get to before then.
Speaker 4: Well that's a big difference. Yeah, all right, let's keep moving.
Speaker 2: The forty nine ers they had had to beat the
Speaker 2: Commanders on Sunday and get a little bit of help
Speaker 2: to lock up the one seed.
Speaker 1: Everything once San Francis goes away. Here's third down.
Speaker 6: Purty looks right, Purty now chased out of the pocket,
Speaker 6: Now going back the other way.
Speaker 1: Three sixty span, it said, throws for the end zone.
Speaker 1: A York is open touched film that Washington Secondary. Do
Speaker 1: they even have eleven guys on the field?
Speaker 9: You are you?
Speaker 1: Are you?
Speaker 2: Greg Popping, Tim Ryan Eman, A good old time a
Speaker 2: New Year's Eve. You know they brought back Anderson Cooper.
Speaker 2: I love Cooper and the other guy? Who's the other guy?
Speaker 1: The bravo done? Andy Cohen? Cohen, Oh Cohen, Okay, Don
Speaker 1: Lemon's history. He's done. Wait, Andy Cohen's.
Speaker 4: Back Cohen and no, but they they took away booze
Speaker 4: from them the last couple of years.
Speaker 1: Well it got a little boozy. Some stuffy CEO said
Speaker 1: no more drinking. Drinking's back.
Speaker 2: And guess what Zeusser is tuning in to CNN's Coveragetif you.
Speaker 4: Do remember that, Greg and I jogged by Anderson Cooper
Speaker 4: and he said a little it's gonna have been, sir,
Speaker 4: very nice.
Speaker 1: So you watch, so you watch, you watch Cooper, and
Speaker 1: you watch his buddy.
Speaker 3: I forgot his name again? Cohen Cohen Cooper and coch
Speaker 3: I was hot right now. Then last fifteen years.
Speaker 2: You hit midnight and you switch over and you watch
Speaker 2: Miley Cyrus.
Speaker 1: I always think she does a nice job. And this
Speaker 1: year she's got a hit.
Speaker 2: In the last few years, she's doing a nice job
Speaker 2: on the Year's eve, right, but she hasn't had a
Speaker 2: hit in seven years. Hit Flowers this year. So she's hot.
Speaker 2: So we got a nice, nice lineup.
Speaker 1: You've got a huge night ahead of you. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be wild. What's her hit?
Speaker 2: She had, like the biggest hit of the year. Okay, Flowers, Okay,
Speaker 2: check it out. I will Eric. Can you sing just
Speaker 2: a little bit of Flowers as the resident young man?
Speaker 7: No, I have no clue, no idea had last time
Speaker 7: I heard May Cyrus's voice.
Speaker 1: Acting by myself. Flowers. Now I know that song.
Speaker 2: Now I recognize something, something something, All right, let's get
Speaker 2: to it.
Speaker 1: That was the biggest hit of the year, monster hit.
Speaker 1: I can take my I don't know about that. That's
Speaker 1: the biggest. The biggest is this big statement.
Speaker 4: Very very Rosenthal moment. You don't you don't even know
Speaker 4: the song. I'm telling you, it's the biggest hit of
Speaker 4: the year.
Speaker 1: Number even if it's not. It could be top five,
Speaker 1: but it wouldn't be the biggest. How do you measure
Speaker 1: that they have streaming numbers? They have all sorts of things. Well,
Speaker 1: there are measurables for that kind of Rock.
Speaker 2: Party threw two touchdown passes, moving past the worst game
Speaker 2: of his young career, and the Niners cruise to a
Speaker 2: twenty seven to ten win over the Commanders in Landover
Speaker 2: minutes after the win, those Eagles we just talked about
Speaker 2: were stunned by the Cardinals, and that allows San Francis
Speaker 2: to go to clinch the number one seed and the
Speaker 2: buy and home field throughout the NFC playoffs. Mark, the
Speaker 2: Niners got the dub, they got the buy, and they
Speaker 2: moved past their Christmas nightmare.
Speaker 1: They're back.
Speaker 4: Well, well, I drafted this game because I wanted to
Speaker 4: see how Rock Party specifically would well. Sure, but like
Speaker 4: I really was, like the whole Brock Party narrative got
Speaker 4: on my nerves and did it was?
Speaker 1: Yes, it did.
Speaker 11: He was.
Speaker 1: I can barely talk about it.
Speaker 4: He was absolutely flawless today and I thought he when
Speaker 4: you go watch this and added element to his game
Speaker 4: and he became the leading single season yardage record passer
Speaker 4: for the Niners in their history, and there's some competition there.
Speaker 4: He started to do some things today, throwing the ball
Speaker 4: improvisationally on that throat to Ayuk and just seeing the
Speaker 4: field in a way that reminded me like, I'm so
Speaker 4: tired of people just acting like he's sort of a
Speaker 4: vanilla standing.
Speaker 1: He looked great, everyone was back. There is one.
Speaker 4: Concern though, Christian McCaffrey left the game with a calf injury,
Speaker 4: was questionable, never returned. They did have a good game
Speaker 4: from Eli Mitchell, but that's obviously like a key thing
Speaker 4: to monitor. And one thing about Washington because you know,
Speaker 4: it was assumed that Jacoby Brissette was gonna start this
Speaker 4: but did a hamstring issue before the game, and so
Speaker 4: Sam Howell, who had been benched, gets thrown back in there.
Speaker 4: And you know he he did all right early on,
Speaker 4: but then it went it turns to complete chaos and
Speaker 4: it just like the look on Howell's face was like,
Speaker 4: what am I doing in here?
Speaker 1: So unpleasant situation.
Speaker 3: For this meant a lot for the forty nine ers,
Speaker 3: and I think McCaffrey is a great example why just
Speaker 3: guys playing through injuries they want to rest macalfr At
Speaker 3: that point in the game, I think they had a
Speaker 3: two score lead and it appeared he was trying to
Speaker 3: get back in the game, and I think it was just,
Speaker 3: you know, unfortunately for his fantasy owners, after dominating all year,
Speaker 3: he has a rare game without a touchdown. Ninety one
Speaker 3: total yards. Uh, that was quiet. It is right, he's
Speaker 3: gonna sit out Week eighteen. You would assume they have
Speaker 3: nothing to play for. It meant a lot to them,
Speaker 3: you could really tell. Trent Williams talked after the game
Speaker 3: that he's never had that happen before, and they really
Speaker 3: celebrated this number one see it in a way that
Speaker 3: you could tell it compared to previous forty nine ers teams,
Speaker 3: like they've never had this and it meant a lot.
Speaker 1: This was their goal the whole season. Very nice.
Speaker 3: You know what else was very nice? What the old
Speaker 3: zeus there with his accurate pop culture knowledge.
Speaker 1: The number one stream song of twenty twenty three according
Speaker 1: to Spotify Flowers. That's why they call me a geriatric millennial.
Speaker 1: He nailed it. That's global, global, one billion streams.
Speaker 3: Global, And you're right, party is a great second reaction
Speaker 3: player here.
Speaker 1: Nice stuff. I thought some Ofa's best bros came today.
Speaker 4: I think the way things and Mark have gone gone out,
Speaker 4: how'd she get paid by the brock Party camp?
Speaker 1: By the way, what is the I think he's got.
Speaker 1: It's not a spin.
Speaker 3: I think he's got to get MVP votes. We'll see
Speaker 3: if Lamar the thing is. It's probably over now in
Speaker 3: terms of those two guys playing. I think the vote's
Speaker 3: going to be more split than people think. I think
Speaker 3: Lamar will win. I think do a sandwich prop on that.
Speaker 3: I think perty McCaffrey, like I think people are going
Speaker 3: to do other votes.
Speaker 2: I think Lamar is gonna win, and it's not gonna
Speaker 2: be close now because of the stage on Christmas. And then,
Speaker 2: like I was saying before the Christmas game, Greg, I
Speaker 2: thought he needed that, like a massive statistical game to
Speaker 2: clean up some of the counting numbers, and he got
Speaker 2: that today with the five touchdowns of the perfect passer rating.
Speaker 4: I just think he now has a pretty spark, probably
Speaker 4: pretty unbeatable right now, and he's maybe it's like thirty
Speaker 4: two to eleven to four, look something like that. That's
Speaker 4: all I'm saying, CMC.
Speaker 1: I thought.
Speaker 4: Believers, I feel like voters don't even remember four weeks ago,
Speaker 4: they'll remember today.
Speaker 1: Let's take one more break and then we will get
Speaker 1: you caught up in full. All right, we are back.
Speaker 2: Let's keep rolling its head to Seattle game with huge
Speaker 2: playoff implications between thee and Seahawks.
Speaker 9: Naji's alone setback Rudolph under center, reverse motion by Robinson
Speaker 9: back to the right.
Speaker 1: They give the Nagi side steps. A man finds his
Speaker 1: way inside the five CRIDs out to the one yard line.
Speaker 1: He didn't get in.
Speaker 9: I don't think yes, they really touchdown Nagie Harris there, unbelievable.
Speaker 9: Never say die, I want the end zone? And he
Speaker 9: got in from nine yards? Ze how did he do it?
Speaker 9: He said, a little bit like Barney from the Simpsons there.
Speaker 1: How did he do it?
Speaker 2: Could have been Bill Hillgrove and Craig Wolfley with the goal.
Speaker 2: We all have all the Wolfleys here, W DV E.
Speaker 2: Naj Harris. They did record that from Mose actually, so
Speaker 2: it is possible. Nag Harris rushed for a season high
Speaker 2: one hundred and twenty two yards and he had that
Speaker 2: mean physical run one of two touchdowns. The Steelers keep
Speaker 2: their playoff hopes alive with a thirty to twenty three
Speaker 2: win over the Seahawks. Tough one here, Gregie for Seattle,
Speaker 2: We're gonna get to them, but you gotta give out,
Speaker 2: just like Miley Cyrus flowers to Pittsburgh, who they looked
Speaker 2: dead and gone going into week sixteen, and then they
Speaker 2: stomp who was at Cincinnati. Yeah, and then they go
Speaker 2: to Seattle and their offense, which, let's face it has
Speaker 2: never been overly impressive this year, but it, you know,
Speaker 2: it has kind of showed signs of life a life
Speaker 2: at time since Matt Canada exit the building. They were
Speaker 2: legitimately hard to handle in this game. Wasn't just Naj Harris,
Speaker 2: it was also Jalen Warren, who was really had a
Speaker 2: nice year for them. Mason Rudolph is not a game changer,
Speaker 2: but he is making plays for this team, and all
Speaker 2: of a sudden, the Steelers who once again have a
Speaker 2: winning record. Mike Tomlin, apologies to you, sir. They look
Speaker 2: pretty dangerous.
Speaker 3: Nine and seven, very much a lot. I've maybe Mason
Speaker 3: Rudolph is a game changer. I mean he's a season changer.
Speaker 3: He's an offense changer. Two hundred and seventy four yards
Speaker 3: and twenty four attempts the next Gen Stats had him
Speaker 3: plus seventeen completion percentage over expected, which is an extraordinarily
Speaker 3: high number. And when you he's had the two highest
Speaker 3: UH numbers for them this season by any Steelers quarterback
Speaker 3: and back to back weeks. And when you look at
Speaker 3: the spray chart, you know, the target chart or where
Speaker 3: he's thrown, it's like it looks like a different offense.
Speaker 3: The ball's just going deep down the field, and that's
Speaker 3: not what they were before.
Speaker 4: They had a one hundred yard rusher and receiver in
Speaker 4: the same game for the first time since twenty twenty one,
Speaker 4: which tells you, like how an emick they've been. But
Speaker 4: I'm with you on like Mason Rudolph, who I had
Speaker 4: written off as a non factor like has had absolute
Speaker 4: chemistry with their playmakers, and like Pickens is a completely
Speaker 4: different wide receiver with him at the quarterback.
Speaker 3: Seven for one thirty one, four hundred and sixty yards
Speaker 3: again only about eight possessions, which is crazy five for stuff.
Speaker 3: There's the most yards they've had since I think four
Speaker 3: years something like that for the Steelers. So it's it's
Speaker 3: it's a long time.
Speaker 1: It wasn't just because Big Ben's stunk. The last two years.
Speaker 2: So it was those big ben Stinks years and then
Speaker 2: this uneven transition to pick it and beyond. Yeah, so
Speaker 2: any signs of life from Pittsburgh I think I said
Speaker 2: going into this week, id of like drafting them because
Speaker 2: they're so boring to watch and have been for a
Speaker 2: couple of years. I was watching this game, was like, okay,
Speaker 2: because Seattle at least early on as well, they're moving
Speaker 2: the ball as well.
Speaker 1: And you really actually saw, considering it's a.
Speaker 2: Game of all due respect Greg Gino Smith and Mason Rudolph,
Speaker 2: you were seeing some big time pocket throws.
Speaker 1: Rudolph had a throw where the pass rush.
Speaker 2: Is coming in on him, he hangs in the pocket,
Speaker 2: hangs a perfect ball down the sideline and Pickens makes
Speaker 2: a beautiful diving catch.
Speaker 1: It was one of the best kind of plays QB
Speaker 1: to wide receiver.
Speaker 3: You'll see the Seahawks give up those sort of plays
Speaker 3: and it was great throws, I thought, But they also
Speaker 3: gave up two hundred and two yards on the ground.
Speaker 3: This is why the NFL season is very confusing when
Speaker 3: it comes to like numbers, the things can just change.
Speaker 3: First five weeks of the season, Seahawks number one in
Speaker 3: the NFL in yards per carry allowed since then, the
Speaker 3: absolute worst run defense in the NFL. This defense has
Speaker 3: completely collapsed down the stretch. They are a bottom five
Speaker 3: defense in basically every metric over the last eight or
Speaker 3: nine weeks. And it's just a really disappointing loss. They
Speaker 3: are not out of it now, they're eight and eight,
Speaker 3: but they are going to need help. They are no
Speaker 3: longer in position to make the playoffs. They're gonna need
Speaker 3: the NFC North to Sunday Night winner to lose a game.
Speaker 3: And they also lost two offensive linemen in this game,
Speaker 3: which is maybe part of why Gina lost a fumble there.
Speaker 3: He played really well, I thought other but did lose
Speaker 3: a fumble on stripsack in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 2: That was big And I do not want to hear it.
Speaker 2: Tomlin is a sensible man. Will it be Kenny Pickett
Speaker 2: or Mason Rudolph, I do not want to hear No.
Speaker 2: This is not like will it be Mason Rudolph playing
Speaker 2: too well the last two weeks? And it's twenty fourteen.
Speaker 2: Ben Roethlisberger ready to return after his tight rope ankle surgery. No, bro,
Speaker 2: Let's ride the hotthand and see see where things can.
Speaker 3: Go, and here's where they can go. For the Steelers,
Speaker 3: much more alive than I expected. They need to win,
Speaker 3: but they're playing the Ravens.
Speaker 1: He'd be tabulating.
Speaker 3: I'm tabulating, and the way it worked out for them
Speaker 3: pretty nice. Ravens thirteen and three, heavy favorites, you would think.
Speaker 3: But Ravens may be sitting next week. So the Steelers,
Speaker 3: they got to get that win. There's no scenario where
Speaker 3: they lose and get in. Gotta get their win and
Speaker 3: then they need either the Jaguars against the Titans or
Speaker 3: the Bills against the Dolphins to lose. Okay, it's reasonable,
Speaker 3: it's pretty reasonable. It's probably the Bills. They're probably hoping
Speaker 3: for Miami and they're hoping for Tyler Huntley.
Speaker 2: That's what they're based on everything that we're hearing around Baltimore.
Speaker 2: It totally feels like Lamar and company plays the first half,
Speaker 2: stay in striking distance in that first half.
Speaker 1: And then try to win the game in the final
Speaker 1: two quarters. Ooh oh. Nick Westling locked it up on
Speaker 1: Thursday night. As I understand, that could be a devastating
Speaker 1: blow there. Frush air.
Speaker 2: Nick Wesseling, well, he has to now go into hero
Speaker 2: ball mode and basically lock against you pretty much the
Speaker 2: rest of the way.
Speaker 3: What is he the greeback or four back? He's a
Speaker 3: lot better lot of weeks, but did a fantastic job.
Speaker 3: It was great having Nick.
Speaker 1: Beautiful.
Speaker 2: Always good to have a Westling. Thank you Nick for
Speaker 2: your help on Thursday and all season. All right, let's
Speaker 2: go Happy New Year to the Westlings on the west
Speaker 2: side of Cincinnati and beyond. Let's head to the meadowlands
Speaker 2: where the Rams are trying to keep their fit playoff
Speaker 2: hops uh flickering, and it got pretty scary.
Speaker 1: Middle of the field officially fifty four oh number there.
Speaker 1: Firstly in the final minute of regulation. Who is that Mason?
Speaker 1: It clears the little is that Mason Crosby wearing number
Speaker 1: twenty one.
Speaker 2: It's get off my field, wo win, Get off the field,
Speaker 2: Mason Crosby, number twenty one.
Speaker 1: Mark. You do not abide by that. I thought JB.
Speaker 1: Long really deserved you know a little more, spot.
Speaker 4: J really that you do you love as much as
Speaker 4: anyone I noted to jump into these booths during these
Speaker 4: calls and go with your own threat of it.
Speaker 1: Would be weird if you do anyone else that did that,
Speaker 1: because you Jabian. I will see him at Jack's barbershop,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna work. We're gonna work through.
Speaker 2: What just happened there because Mason Crosby, wearing number twenty one,
Speaker 2: was wide left. That came after Tyrod Taylor had a
Speaker 2: hideous two point conversion and miss that allowed the Rams
Speaker 2: to stay ahead, and they end up escaping with the
Speaker 2: twenty six to twenty five win ob Regima and Los
Speaker 2: Angeles has clinched.
Speaker 1: Uh wait, Los Angeles clinched the playoff. Bers, they're in.
Speaker 1: They're in at that moment they happen, but with the
Speaker 1: Seahawks following them out as complicated.
Speaker 2: As Greg said, when the Seahawks fell, the Rams make
Speaker 2: the playoffs. Quite a rise for the team across the sidewalk.
Speaker 3: Greg, Yeah, yeah, sometimes you need some luck, and I
Speaker 3: think the Rams played a good game, a good enough
Speaker 3: game to win for most of the game, and then
Speaker 3: started falling apart late. Special teams gives up a big
Speaker 3: return to Gunner ol Chevski with three twenty seven to go.
Speaker 3: Their special teams has been a disasters that was wild.
Speaker 3: I mean they missed two extra points the Rams in
Speaker 3: this game. One of them was totally on Sean mcvagh
Speaker 3: after you had already missed an extra point and you're
Speaker 3: up seven late in the game, it was fourth quarter,
Speaker 3: you go for two to get.
Speaker 1: It to nine to make it a two score game.
Speaker 1: Plus you know Havershick, he doesn't have.
Speaker 3: Her shick, I didn't have anything, and so they go
Speaker 3: for the other extra way he missed another one. I
Speaker 3: got to assume that's the last time we see Havershick
Speaker 3: in a Rams uniform. McVeigh, I could even go through
Speaker 3: it more just drive me crazy with the game management.
Speaker 3: But then, yeah, a little bit of luck. Tyrod Taylor,
Speaker 3: you mentioned it missed a miss two point conversion, which
Speaker 3: again only happened because of a mess up on special
Speaker 3: teams by the Rams. They had a penalty on an
Speaker 3: extra point and Dable, I don't blame him, took the
Speaker 3: point off. It would have been a tie game went
Speaker 3: for the two because they was then at the one
Speaker 3: yard line, had a perfect play dialed up and Tyrod
Speaker 3: just misses a total gimme. Dable then also assists the
Speaker 3: Rams there because the Rams at the end, after being
Speaker 3: too conservative on offense, gives the ball back to the
Speaker 3: Giants one oh eight to go. Tyrod has a big
Speaker 3: run to put him in position to go win that game.
Speaker 3: But then Dable gets crazy because conservative, they spike it
Speaker 3: with thirty eight seconds left. Don't love wasting the time
Speaker 3: down there. But okay, but then you called a run
Speaker 3: the next play. Mystifying to me when you got Mason Crosby, you're.
Speaker 1: Setting up a film for twenty one fifty yarder and
Speaker 1: then McVeigh calls a time out.
Speaker 3: That was even more mistifying to me. But then the
Speaker 3: Giants ski they couldn't get it. Give the Rams defense
Speaker 3: some credit. The Rams defense played well in this game.
Speaker 3: I know it doesn't seem like it. They put up
Speaker 3: twenty five points to the Rams defense only gave up
Speaker 3: thirteen points. Really in this it was turnovers by the
Speaker 3: Rams offense and special teams.
Speaker 1: What was going on? Sorry? This game was crazy?
Speaker 4: What was going on with the moment where McVeigh and
Speaker 4: Stafford seem to be going at each other.
Speaker 1: That was on the third down play before the.
Speaker 3: Giants you know, got the ball at the end they
Speaker 3: run run pass there and I thought, again McVeigh was
Speaker 3: too conservative, not throwing on the first two downs because
Speaker 3: he just wanted to kill the clock. Was hoping to
Speaker 3: get out of there, and then wing Martindale, which was
Speaker 3: kind of eating Stafford's lunch in the second half in
Speaker 3: a way that I haven't seen against This Rams offense
Speaker 3: just calls a blitz and there was total confusion. Everyone
Speaker 3: runs free, and so I think McVeigh and Stafford were
Speaker 3: like confused about that play caller, why Stafford didn't fix
Speaker 3: the protection or why mcvagh messed up. But it was
Speaker 3: kind of a meltdown by the Rams in the fourth
Speaker 3: quarter after a good three first three quarters. But they
Speaker 3: survived anyway, That's how it works.
Speaker 2: So there's an exciting element to knowing that the Rams
Speaker 2: on the first weekend of the playoffs will lose in
Speaker 2: horrific fashion. No special teams, Like there's something like exciting
Speaker 2: about just wondering like what will it be?
Speaker 1: Like, how will it happen?
Speaker 2: Be a missfield goal, will be a block punt, will
Speaker 2: be a hideous tripping penalty? Will you know the holder
Speaker 2: drop a snap? I mean, mark the mind. It just
Speaker 2: wanders all these different multiple choice tests. You know that
Speaker 2: the Rams will foul up their season on space teams.
Speaker 3: Kyrin Williams three more touchdowns up to fifteen another one
Speaker 3: hundred yardsgue winner and then Puka Nakua five for one
Speaker 3: to eighteen. He made a big eighty yard play like
Speaker 3: he is their number one. Cup looks a little injured
Speaker 3: and Poka now and granted he's getting the extra game.
Speaker 3: So he fell just short of the quote unquote sixteen
Speaker 3: game records, but he's four catches and thirty yards away
Speaker 3: from setting the rookie records for catches and receiving, and
Speaker 3: he's getting that extra We'll don't do it.
Speaker 1: Uh to Soldier field first.
Speaker 8: And goal fields, with Taylor motioning left then back to
Speaker 8: the right, takes the snap up the middle on the
Speaker 8: delay fields, pusting left to the five.
Speaker 1: To the pilot, puts the ball on the orange head
Speaker 1: into the paint. Touchdown bears justin fields. Fourth of the year.
Speaker 12: A nine yard touchdown caps off the drive at a
Speaker 12: thirteen to nothing Fairs league.
Speaker 2: If they wanted to say something, how you made me
Speaker 2: self catching Zip zipped it up an insight and like,
Speaker 2: I just thought it seemed to be craving of yours.
Speaker 1: Zip locked roway the key.
Speaker 3: I feel like not liking it is just like a
Speaker 3: little implied in pointing of that, I mean just a
Speaker 3: little little needle by me, a little needle.
Speaker 2: Jeff Johnnyack with the call a little Justin Fields throws
Speaker 2: for two hundred and sixty eight yards in a touchdown
Speaker 2: pass he rushes for that score too, and what who
Speaker 2: knows that could be it for him in Chicago is
Speaker 2: a home player. The Bears stick it to the Falcons,
Speaker 2: who stink thirty seven to seventeen in a game that
Speaker 2: started with the snow coming down in Soldier Field. I
Speaker 2: love it, and I tweeted this, and I I know,
Speaker 2: I think I'm on the I'm not in the majority here,
Speaker 2: but I'm watching Fields and I'm watching the connection he
Speaker 2: has with DJ Moore nine for one fifty nine in
Speaker 2: a touch and that scramble for the touchdown, and the
Speaker 2: there was a Bears fans know exactly what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2: Another play where Fields gets out of a certain then
Speaker 2: you know, Pirouet's away and most quarterbacks would be happy
Speaker 2: to get back to the line of scrimmage, but no,
Speaker 2: he ends up running for like fifteen yards and a
Speaker 2: first And I'm thinking all this stuff, and I'm like,
Speaker 2: do you really do you really want to just grade
Speaker 2: that guy for a lotto ticket?
Speaker 1: That's what I'm thinking as I'm watching this game, and
Speaker 1: I know that you can make the case for it,
Speaker 1: and we will talk about it. There's going plenty of
Speaker 1: time to talk about that.
Speaker 2: But this is a game where you see the type
Speaker 2: of play from fields that like, are they building something here?
Speaker 2: And if they are, and I feel like they are,
Speaker 2: that there's been incremental progress here as the season's gone
Speaker 2: along and the team's getting better and they're going to
Speaker 2: have the ability to spend money and bring in better players,
Speaker 2: you really want to blow it up for a lot
Speaker 2: of ticket.
Speaker 1: That was my takeaway from this game. I mean, you've
Speaker 1: got the stadium chanting his name, yeah, and that matters.
Speaker 1: It does. Like I look opinion on the quarterback.
Speaker 2: I think I'm not saying that front offices should use
Speaker 2: that as the reason, but I think there is an
Speaker 2: energy around the team with field there and God just
Speaker 2: thrown it the other way. If they traded him to
Speaker 2: the Giants this offseason and he becomes a superstar for
Speaker 2: the New York team in the NFC, that would be
Speaker 2: an all time you know shot to the lower section
Speaker 2: of the fan base unless they you know, draft a
Speaker 2: Hall of Fame or something.
Speaker 3: But still they've won four out of five. I think
Speaker 3: they're better than right now. Some teams that are going
Speaker 3: to make the play lower section, like the the Afs,
Speaker 3: you know, like put them against the NFC South winner.
Speaker 1: I'm taking the Bears.
Speaker 3: The only time the Bears have lost in the last
Speaker 3: five games was that heartbreaker versus the Browns or else.
Speaker 1: They could very well.
Speaker 2: Be about in this PLAYFF team in the South anc
Speaker 2: right right exactly.
Speaker 3: Maybe not Texans, but yeah, but they would be right
Speaker 3: there because they they they are. They have put together something.
Speaker 3: It's a really good defense and enough playmaking on offense.
Speaker 3: And our guy in rapport, said eber Flus. He puts
Speaker 3: some caveats in it that needs to finish well, but
Speaker 3: this result obviously is a great start to that that
Speaker 3: he's going to end up keeping that Bears job.
Speaker 4: Ibraflus had no public identity to the vast majority of
Speaker 4: football watchers, and I think that's changed now.
Speaker 1: His defense has been among the best.
Speaker 3: It's been really good, and they were eliminated on Sunday
Speaker 3: despite the win.
Speaker 1: But I think they're threatening the needle. They got the
Speaker 1: number one pick from the Panthers.
Speaker 3: They've looked good fields is helping his trade value if
Speaker 3: they do want to trade him. Like, it's actually a
Speaker 3: pretty good time to be a Bears fan, unlike the Falcons,
Speaker 3: who don't have a quarterback, who aren't probably going to
Speaker 3: make the playoffs in this terrible division, and who knows
Speaker 3: what they're going to do in terms of their head coach.
Speaker 4: I mean, there is there is some reporting that he's
Speaker 4: gonna stick around Arthur Smith, but I like, I can't
Speaker 4: think of a team that I felt more differently about
Speaker 4: back in August.
Speaker 3: But that I hear you, But that reporting was also
Speaker 3: before they lost by twenty of the Bears and then
Speaker 3: they play the Saints next week. If you lose by
Speaker 3: twenty to the Saints and you're seven and ten and
Speaker 3: the third place, we'll see they are still alive though
Speaker 3: for the division. The ESPN and bad incorrectly sent a
Speaker 3: tweet out that said they were eliminated and left it
Speaker 3: up for thirty minutes. But no, they actually can win
Speaker 3: the division if the Bucks lose next week and they
Speaker 3: beat the Saints.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the play calling from Smith was bad in this game,
Speaker 2: and somehow they're still alive because of what happened in
Speaker 2: the last game. We're going to talk about before Sunday
Speaker 2: Night football. Tampa Bay had a chance to hunch their
Speaker 2: ticket and they failed.
Speaker 4: There's the snat here trumps pressure car throws it towards
Speaker 4: he ends on looking for Taysom Hill.
Speaker 1: Chasom Hill makes the catch on the near side, and
Speaker 1: that is a touchdown.
Speaker 8: To Taysom Hill, his second reception of the day.
Speaker 2: He's thrown a pass, caught a pass, thrown a pass,
Speaker 2: caught a pass. Mike Costs with the call ww we
Speaker 2: the NFC Salva is freaking hilarious. Derek Carr threw two
Speaker 2: touchdown passes. The Saints beat the Bucks twenty three to thirteen.
Speaker 2: They climbed back into a tie with Tampa Bay for
Speaker 2: first place in the NFL's only division without a winning record.
Speaker 1: Mark Why why?
Speaker 4: What a disappointing performance considering what the Bucks have been
Speaker 4: for the past month, what bigger Mayfield's been. He had
Speaker 4: about forty yards in the first half on Tampa's first
Speaker 4: eight drives.
Speaker 1: You had.
Speaker 4: Four to three and ounce two interceptions in a fumble.
Speaker 4: They melted. They showed up also looking incredibly flat. Where
Speaker 4: the Saints, who have been a chaotic mess in certain
Speaker 4: ways and driving their fans crazy, and I started to
Speaker 4: see Saints fans saying, wait a minute, this is the
Speaker 4: this is the version of Derek Carr that we've waited for.
Speaker 1: He was ten for thirteen on third downs.
Speaker 4: They were a little banged up, and he made a
Speaker 4: great use of Juwan Johnson and his tight ends. One
Speaker 4: hundred and thirty three of his yards and both touchdowns
Speaker 4: went to tight ends, and they looked really functional. They
Speaker 4: lost Alvin Kamara in the middle of this game, but
Speaker 4: they were the team that came out and stomped Tampa
Speaker 4: Bay from ward to war. The scorer is not indicative
Speaker 4: of what this game looked like for three plus quarters.
Speaker 4: I mean, Baker and the Bucks did the thing where
Speaker 4: they kind of climbed back into it. But this was
Speaker 4: not the Bucks team that I expected to see, And
Speaker 4: this was not the Baker Mayfield I expected to see.
Speaker 4: And the Saints, who maybe have a new coach a
Speaker 4: couple of weeks from now, played very hard. At a
Speaker 4: salon today, we keep saying that we padam Ellie aching
Speaker 4: around the Saints this year, and they could watch them
Speaker 4: hosting a playoff game in two weeks.
Speaker 2: I mean that it's certainly there's a chance of it now,
Speaker 2: and that's crazy. But I think maybe the lesson here
Speaker 2: for all of us, and Mark, I know you got
Speaker 2: behind the Buccaneers on a a locular level.
Speaker 1: None of these teams are worthy of trust.
Speaker 2: And even the ones that we'll string a couple of
Speaker 2: wins together like that, come back back.
Speaker 4: To Earth is always just around the corner. And for Tampa,
Speaker 4: that was today, right, you know what, Mark? Unfortunately, and
Speaker 4: I was with you. I this was the game I
Speaker 4: was really thinking of locking. And one thing you didn't do,
Speaker 4: though I did, is I took a rest stop.
Speaker 1: Stop. I went to a rest stop.
Speaker 3: And they get the Saints come back from that Thursday
Speaker 3: night game, look at their wounds, A nice long weekend
Speaker 3: there while the Bucks are working hard, and that little
Speaker 3: extra rest.
Speaker 1: Such a good show because it's it just takes you
Speaker 1: inside the game. Maybe the Bucks knew that all they
Speaker 1: have to do is beat the Panthers next week to
Speaker 1: win the division, because that is still true.
Speaker 3: All they have to do is beat the Panthers next
Speaker 3: week and they win the division. The Saints are probably
Speaker 3: still alive for the wild card, but barely at A
Speaker 3: and A, and this is a nightmare scenario for Saints fans,
Speaker 3: because you're right, I think the keep Dennis Allen if
Speaker 3: they go nine to eight and they beat the Falcons
Speaker 3: and then move like they'll keep Dennis Allen, but they'll
Speaker 3: miss the playoffs. That's kind of a bad combo. They
Speaker 3: could get the wild card though, but they would need
Speaker 3: to win. They would need the Cardinals, uh to beat
Speaker 3: the Seahawks that is possible, and they would need the
Speaker 3: Bears to beat Packers. They're a live for the division
Speaker 3: and the wild card eighteen three things.
Speaker 2: Stick that in your pipe and smoke it like I'm
Speaker 2: gonna feel bad for anybody whose team is alive into
Speaker 2: the last week.
Speaker 1: And Cars not going. He's played two of his best
Speaker 1: games increasingly on Dan's radar. The car has been very good.
Speaker 4: I mean he has multiple touchdown passes, like four games
Speaker 4: in a row or something he's played.
Speaker 1: You're not allowed to say that. The strike it.
Speaker 4: I mean, he has great but fine, I'm just saying
Speaker 4: they could be a division champ. It's funny, all right. Uh,
Speaker 4: let's head to Sunday Night football.
Speaker 1: To receiver stack on the left, off that stack read
Speaker 1: in motion to the right.
Speaker 5: It is second down and ten for the Green Bay
Speaker 5: Packers at the twenty five and Minnesota snap to love.
Speaker 1: He looks, he throws the middle. He's got red cutting left,
Speaker 1: soup to defender, twenty turns corner, fifteen, ten to five.
Speaker 6: He has a touchdowns touchdown, Dada Reid. He is dominant
Speaker 6: here tonight. Twenty five yard touchdown pass. It's twenty three
Speaker 6: to three.
Speaker 1: Dayden Reid dominant. How about that.
Speaker 2: We're back at our home studios now to close things out.
Speaker 2: And it was Jayden Reid going for two scores, including
Speaker 2: that game ice A really in the final seconds of
Speaker 2: the first half in the Packers cruise from there, thirty
Speaker 2: three to ten over the whoebegone team of around the NFL,
Speaker 2: Minnesota Vikings. The Vikings seven and nine and pretty much
Speaker 2: out of it now, but mathematically still alive. The Packers
Speaker 2: eight and eight, and they have a lot on the
Speaker 2: line heading into Week eighteen. This game, greg was not competitive.
Speaker 2: This two teams in very different places.
Speaker 3: Two quarterback situations that couldn't be more different. Jared Hall
Speaker 3: starts gets benched at halftime. Wasn't like the worst quarterback
Speaker 3: you've ever seen, but there was no way he was
Speaker 3: going to lead a three touchdown comeback. Nick Mullins wasn't either,
Speaker 3: because Jordan Love just kept pouring it on. I just
Speaker 3: think you got to look at Jordan Love's first start
Speaker 3: against the Vikings, where he was a hot mess. The
Speaker 3: team around him was a hot mess. They're dropping eight
Speaker 3: into coverage, he doesn't know what to do, blah blah blah.
Speaker 3: And then tonight two fifty six, three touchdowns, so many
Speaker 3: good throws, you know, one where he's jumping up in
Speaker 3: the air and throwing it, but a couple that are
Speaker 3: crossed his body. But more than anything, just like reacting
Speaker 3: to all the blitzes that were his way and just
Speaker 3: looking like a very composed veteran quarterback despite not having
Speaker 3: don Tavian Wicks, Luke Musgrave. That play we heard from
Speaker 3: Reid was the last one on the night. He left
Speaker 3: with a chest injury from that play and Christian Watson,
Speaker 3: and it doesn't matter. The Packers were freaking rolling, even
Speaker 3: in the second half when they had the big lead.
Speaker 3: He's just so impressive and they are one win away
Speaker 3: against the Bears. That is a spicy game next week.
Speaker 3: The Packers are one win away from making the playoffs
Speaker 3: in a very fun playoff team and.
Speaker 4: I love has had you know, some reps in practice
Speaker 4: dealing with banged up wide receivers. It seems like that's
Speaker 4: been a theme for them for a while. Now there's
Speaker 4: such a diff it's him and it's what he's done
Speaker 4: and what he's become, but also like to have Aaron
Speaker 4: Jones go off for one hundred and twenty yards like
Speaker 4: they were missing him for so long. I think the
Speaker 4: surprise in this game for me is really just the
Speaker 4: Vikings defense collapsing, like they they've been a good defense
Speaker 4: and they were just victimized from the start tonight. And
Speaker 4: I you know, I'm with you that Hall wasn't a
Speaker 4: complete disaster. But I think, you know, even on the
Speaker 4: Thursday preview show, I just Nick Mullens is Nick Mullins,
Speaker 4: and I get that, but it's like.
Speaker 1: I just don't. I don't like this decision.
Speaker 4: There was a risk attached to it, more risk to
Speaker 4: me than having Nick Mullins in there, who, at least
Speaker 4: through his mistakes, seems productive and a bit more like
Speaker 4: a gunslinger. And when he came in, you know, he
Speaker 4: got Justin Jefferson going a little bit, and I thought
Speaker 4: that they responded to him, and so if you're Kevin O'Connell.
Speaker 4: You're in a tough spot. You have been all year
Speaker 4: at quarterback. But a bit of miscalculation in my book.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean Mullins average.
Speaker 2: He was in the Gabbard zone as well, so and
Speaker 2: the you know, they didn't light it up in the
Speaker 2: second half, but you know, I think.
Speaker 3: With they never got the ball back because the defense
Speaker 3: just couldn't get off the field.
Speaker 2: No, it was the disastrous game, and they were missing
Speaker 2: a couple of guys DJ want Byron Murphy Junior. But
Speaker 2: that doesn't explain a no show like this, I think.
Speaker 2: And the reason why, even though I didn't necessarily agree
Speaker 2: with go to Hall, you knew and the way O'Connell
Speaker 2: seems to be wired like he couldn't wait. He could
Speaker 2: not wait to get Dobbs out of the lineup after
Speaker 2: those turnover marred games, and Mullins was playing so careless
Speaker 2: with the football that I think he just I guess
Speaker 2: that's part of his checklist of a quarterback. You can't
Speaker 2: be someone who turns the ball over. And if they
Speaker 2: bring back Kirk Cousins next year, which I fully expect,
Speaker 2: I believe that they will, he was playing so well
Speaker 2: and he's really now established himself in that city in
Speaker 2: a lot of ways, like they'll get the quarterback.
Speaker 1: Position calmed down. But yeah, I think Greg, I think
Speaker 1: you put it well that.
Speaker 2: When we were back at the office that O'Connell was
Speaker 2: in his head a little bit by then because he
Speaker 2: had everyone, including us, the team of ATN kind of
Speaker 2: got sucked into the idea of what this defense that
Speaker 2: was on the rise and the skill players at Jefferson
Speaker 2: coming back, and then Dobbs what he brought to the
Speaker 2: picture that maybe in a wide open.
Speaker 1: NFC you can make something happen.
Speaker 2: But once Dobbs fell off, and then you turn into
Speaker 2: Mullins and then you turn into the and you just
Speaker 2: get into that really dark place that that teams do
Speaker 2: when you're just churning through quarterbacks looking for an answer.
Speaker 2: So the Vikings, you know, it's it's sad, but at
Speaker 2: least at least we'll always have the memories of two
Speaker 2: two time failures team of at N. Uh you know,
Speaker 2: ful fool us once a fool us twice, Shame on us.
Speaker 2: It will not happen a third time.
Speaker 1: Vikings.
Speaker 3: We promise you your time as team of at N
Speaker 3: is over. They're one in five in their last six.
Speaker 3: I think they're two and five since we chose them.
Speaker 3: I could be wrong on the date. I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 1: I think you're right.
Speaker 4: They won the first game and then things started getting weird,
Speaker 4: And yeah, Mark, I know it's a tough blow for
Speaker 4: you especially, but like that, you know it's been disappointing.
Speaker 4: But Greg, what is the there is a pathway playoffs?
Speaker 3: They will not make the playoffs. I'm just gonna say
Speaker 3: right here because I think there's many reasons why. But
Speaker 3: they need to beat the Lions. Lions, uh could be
Speaker 3: resting players. They need the Bears to beat the Packers
Speaker 3: because the Packers are now winning in are really doing this?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love it. And they need the Cardinals to
Speaker 1: beat the Seahawks. That's gonna be tough.
Speaker 3: And then they need either the Panthers to beat the
Speaker 3: Bucks or the Falcons to beat the Saints. So Tarico
Speaker 3: was trying to talk it up as like, hey, you've
Speaker 3: seen crazy, you know this actually isn't that difficult a
Speaker 3: path I'm like, what, I don't expect any of these
Speaker 3: things to happen.
Speaker 1: Stop it. How about to Rico and Collins are within
Speaker 1: the tuxes tonight.
Speaker 4: I liked it like nice little I don't know why
Speaker 4: you tagged me as like anti tucks. I thought they
Speaker 4: looked you know, it was. It was memorable, as Keith
Speaker 4: Hansas will say, oh yeah, they will look good shop.
Speaker 3: By the way, the Vikings defense started collapsing two weeks ago.
Speaker 3: This is their third straight pretty bad game. They've had
Speaker 3: injuries and stuff, but they've also been a little bit
Speaker 3: of a gimmicky defense in terms of just always sending
Speaker 3: pressure in the zone behind that mayod good quarterbacks have
Speaker 3: maybe kind of figured out. It just feels like everything,
Speaker 3: you know, just ended at the same time. Jake Browning
Speaker 3: kind of ended their season. I really feel that game
Speaker 3: was the turning point for them.
Speaker 4: Jake brown Oh yeah, they're up seventeen to three in
Speaker 4: the fourth quarter, I think, but you know, yeah, I
Speaker 4: think we should give a little credit if we're gonna
Speaker 4: be killing Joe Barry most weeks, and it's deserved.
Speaker 1: The Packers defense has been switched. Cheese. You give him
Speaker 1: a little credit today. He shook up the rookie and
Speaker 1: so they you know, the Packers.
Speaker 3: Here's the thing I've seen a couple of cornerbacks do
Speaker 3: without Alexander and without another one of their starters.
Speaker 1: Right, So I think I put I put the Packers.
Speaker 2: The standard is higher because it's Green Bay, but I
Speaker 2: put the Packers in a similar bucket to Houston where
Speaker 2: you got your quarterback. Like Love has established himself this
Speaker 2: year as certainly a guy who they bet on and
Speaker 2: he's stuck with and he is now their established starter,
Speaker 2: and he could be a star in the league.
Speaker 1: So even he's playing like a star, that's what I mean,
Speaker 1: like he could be all right, he could be a superstar.
Speaker 2: I mean he's he's put enough on tape where you
Speaker 2: could see a ceiling for him that is, uh, you know,
Speaker 2: Pro Bowl level or perhaps even All Pro. Something really
Speaker 2: clicks in and and so regardless of how this season ends,
Speaker 2: I would I would say this first post, Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 2: season is successful for that reason alone.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And like I think we learned a lot about
Speaker 4: Matt Laflore because it was easy just to tag his
Speaker 4: success or attach his success to Aaron Rodgers, and you
Speaker 4: had to your it was your job. And it's essentially
Speaker 4: like the reason that he was hired was to develop
Speaker 4: a young quarterback like this. And you're also saddled with
Speaker 4: Joe Berry's defense, and he's coached some really great games
Speaker 4: amid all that in like, uh, I don't know, I'm
Speaker 4: open tonight.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like they they they've done a great job.
Speaker 3: He has more yards and touchdowns that this season, Love
Speaker 3: does than any Bears quarterback has ever had in the season,
Speaker 3: which is just a little stick. But now he has
Speaker 3: to play the Bears defense. It's a kind of a
Speaker 3: perfect Week eighteen. Game reminds me exactly of Lions Packers
Speaker 3: a year ago, with the Lions having the chance to
Speaker 3: knock out the Packers. Now it's the rising Bears with
Speaker 3: the chance to knock out the Packers. And that is
Speaker 3: what that's a that's an early Is that an early
Speaker 3: game next week? No, that's a four to twenty five game.
Speaker 3: That's going to be the game people watch the most.
Speaker 1: Anything else. Boys, it's New Year's Eve.
Speaker 2: It's a quarter to midnight on the East coast, almost
Speaker 2: nine o'clock here. We don't need to continue to talk
Speaker 2: into microphones anything to put a.
Speaker 1: Bow on things.
Speaker 2: Tabulations wise, greg Or markin now, but we got to
Speaker 2: talk the Sunday night announcement.
Speaker 3: It is Bill's Dolphins. We're wrapping up week eighteen, or
Speaker 3: it always made sense. Bill's Dolphins on Sunday night. And
Speaker 3: then I think what was probably the number two choice
Speaker 3: for this game is going to be Saturday night an
Speaker 3: early playoff game Texans Colts. Loser goes home, winner makes
Speaker 3: the playoffs. That's a spicy little Saturday night game too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll take it. We'll take it very good. Jay Stroud,
Speaker 1: go go make a playoff rookie season, get in primetime
Speaker 1: for the first time, and go in a playoff game
Speaker 1: in that game. That's a nice little spot. Got Steelers
Speaker 1: Ravens on Saturday too. M that's right, less exciting and to.
Speaker 2: Our listeners, it is at the end of another year
Speaker 2: of around the NFL, and we thank you for.
Speaker 1: Hanging around. You've given us a great life and we
Speaker 1: appreciate you. Know what. You know what we got it
Speaker 1: We had hip hop Santa Eric.
Speaker 2: We got something else with a little more bizaz, a
Speaker 2: little more heat, a little more contemporary.
Speaker 1: We have the rights to that song. I think it's
Speaker 1: like seven hundred years old.
Speaker 3: Okay, ooh, I thought you were going to play Flowers
Speaker 3: by Miles.
Speaker 2: Now that we do not have a right, but I'll
Speaker 2: be having a nice night with Miley Cyrus and friends
Speaker 2: and family, and I hope everyone else has a great
Speaker 2: night and a great tomorrow in twenty twenty four. It's
Speaker 2: gonna be a good one. Maybe this year will be
Speaker 2: better than the last. Another durance.
Speaker 10: I like that.
Speaker 1: I love our listeners all right here. I guess I
Speaker 1: said it, and they don't say it all for me.
Speaker 1: I love you. I love you the most, very weird.
Speaker 1: That's that's basically what my two young sons do to
Speaker 1: each other, you know, but I do it the most.
Speaker 2: It's like, all right, all right, thank you to everybody again,
Speaker 2: and have a great beginning of twenty twenty four, and
Speaker 2: we'll be back on Tuesday. Another funky week because of
Speaker 2: the holidays, but the playoffs and week eighteen right around
Speaker 2: the corner and will be there until then.
Speaker 1: Heed the call, Happy New year. N DI
Speaker 10: P.