FnA with Kevin Figgers & Adam Auslund Discuss XMAS Ratings, Petros Papadakis Laments the End of USC vs Notre Dame, NFL Hot Seats & More!

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
That is right. It is fn A on FSR. Merry Christmas,
Happy holidays to you guys listening around the United States
of America, maybe across the world. There, Adam Austlin at
K Big. Yeah, at K FIG one is where you
can find me. A way, we're big in Bangladesh. I
here at K FIG one is where you can find
you on next, Adam is that follow Adam A That's right, India?

(00:28):
What else USA? Uss R? All right, I don't think
we're big there. Donald for too big in the in
uss R.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
Gonna be with you guys coming up later this hour.
We got some geek news.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Is our programming and even allowed there and whatever it's
called now.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Probably not, but this video game definitely allowed there because
it's not good?

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Oh is it?

Speaker 3 (00:55):
It's our favorite video game and it had a huge
anniversary just last week. We missed it because I had
to give out the Christmas movies, Adam's twelve alternative movies
Films of Christmas.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Okay, but we're gonna get back to it. So the
anniversary of shaq Fu, that's incredible. I you know, I
barely missed it.

Speaker 3 (01:14):
Kevin Yes, no one's played that game. Oh, no, one
knows about that game, even with Michael Jordan Windy City
whatever game like. I don't remember that either, I remember.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
I do remember Charles Barkley's shut up in Jam. That
was a good one.

Speaker 3 (01:27):
Yeah, No, that that was quality. That was his version
of NBA Jam. It wasn't too bad. It felt like
more of maybe like a one on one type of game.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
I don't remember, yep. And then if you knocked the
ball away, he would do the yell at you and say,
go get the damn ball. Now.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
Is it true that if you lost, you actually had
to make a trip to San Antonio?

Speaker 2 (01:48):
No big old women down there? Is that true? I
don't believe. So, Okay, maybe there was a cheat code
in there.

Speaker 3 (01:53):
I thought that they held a big tournament for that
game somewhere and they sent all the losers to San Antonio.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
You needed the old game genie to make that one up,
I guess. But they do have some.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
Big old ones, all right. So we do have some
geek news with a video game fact. Second hour of
the show though, Kevin.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
Yeah, Petros Papadaka's he has been very outspoken about the ending,
or at least I don't when you say it's on
hiatus at this point in time for at the very
least for the next five years. We are not gonna
have USC and Notre Dame.

Speaker 3 (02:19):
Let me tell you what it is.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Yeah, we were on abroad right. Sorry, my Ross Galer
impression very extended break. Unfortunately, a lot of people are
pissed at him. A lot of people are very upset
and you and USC and Notre Dame lent and a
lot of fingers being pointed. What is like the Spider
Man meme where the Spider Man's pointing at himself and
there's Notre Dame people in USC, people pointing at each
other blaming each other. Who is to blame? Petrols Papaekas

(02:43):
will let us know, and he'll also talk about the
big hire of Kyle Whittingham going to the University of
Michigan that was made official about an hour or so ago.

Speaker 3 (02:50):
Okay. Also in the second hour, we will start the
NFL six pack, which we'll finish by the third hour, hopefully, hopefully,
And then in the third hour we'll talk a little
bit of college football.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yeah, bowl season is here. If you hadn't noticed outside
of the college football playoff games, and maybe some thoughts
ourselves on the colle Wittingham higher at Michigan, who sends
seemingly just like Penn State, finding ways to fail up
and their coaching searches, despite the fact that there were
utter o miitigated disasters heading into it. So we'll get
into that in the final hour of the show.

Speaker 3 (03:18):
All right, In first off, let's talk about what happened
yesterday time. That's wrong. My buddy who's listening out in
Missouri the other day picked up on Oh that's Pac,
he said. First off, that's from hit him up. That's crazy.
Used that sound. Yes, yes, we do. We also have this.

(03:43):
We also have this for pak.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
Chupac shuk coord. I mean you can't beat Vin. I mean,
come on, I.

Speaker 3 (03:48):
Know Tupac shook Courd never talked about Biggie, you know.
I Vin was far west side West coast. I mean,
let's go, yeah, come on now, west side of the
best side.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (03:57):
But are we taking signed sides here? Not like it's
a nineties gang war or anything like that. But on
Christmas Day it's turned into a little i don't know,
fighting over the remote, a little bit of divisiveness. A
house divided because now it's not just a day for

(04:18):
the NBA, where a lot of people thought that's actually
when the NBA season tipped off. That's when, at least
when they started to care about the NBA. On Christmas.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
Many people still contend that that's when the NBA should
started season.

Speaker 3 (04:30):
Well, they might be right. Yeah, I would say, yeah,
it's started, then take it into July, or take it
into start of August something like that. You're competing with
the dog days of summer in baseball. Why would you
not do that? But they don't want to do that
because it bumps back everything the draft and everything else
that throws them off.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
Oh that's cool, just keep playing games on nobody's watching
or paying attention to you. In September and October.

Speaker 3 (04:51):
Well, a lot of people are saying that, and I
think Charles Barkley mentioned this. Roger Goodell is coming for
Adam Silver's chain evening.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
Come wait, coming for it. He's got in his head,
snatched it, he handed it back to him, patted him
on the head, and then snatched it back again. The
NFL has told the NBA, we don't give a damn
about you or any day that you planned to claim
it is now ours Christmas Day, that's ours. If we
wanted to play on Mlkday, we could and it will

(05:23):
be ours mine, my mind mind. That is the NFL.

Speaker 3 (05:27):
You're telling me, what was the game Mafia Wars where
you take over different territories that was played on Facebook
with your crazy uncle and stuff.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
Yeah? That, or I would say Grand Theft thought o
San Andreas Drea's where you at the different street games
you can take over people'shood and territories. Stuff like that.

Speaker 3 (05:42):
They're encroaching on the NBA's territory thousand percent.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
Well, didn't Lebron say this was this last year or
the year before? And you gotta give the the NBA.
Is this the Christmas Day? Is the NBA's day. We
gotta get take it back?

Speaker 3 (05:53):
He said that last season after I believe a really
good contest with him and the Golden State Warriors, wouldn't
you know?

Speaker 2 (06:00):
Yeah, I don't think theb is getting it back now.
I will say this, Adam. So here's hell's what I say,
because I'd like to think of I'm a little bit
more nuanced when it comes to this. I think a
lot of people around the country, generally speaking, it's the
NFL as king and then everything falls beneath it. And
generally speaking, I do agree with that, but it's also
an interesting dynamic. So if we go to Christmas date
specifically and talk about the early slate, so you had

(06:21):
the Commanders taking on the Cowboys, two teams going nowhere,
nothing to play for, no playoffs on the line. Really,
unless you are a degenerate gambler or have fantasy football stakes,
or maybe you are just a football junkie. Of course
many people in this country are. There really are not
any redeeming qualities to watch that game. Whereas if you have,
like say, you know that game between the Knicks and

(06:42):
the Cavaliers, come on, and I mean you, and great
individual performances from Donovan Mitchell and Jalen Brunton, a good
seventeen point comeback by the Knicks that was entertaining to watch,
and in nuanced situation like that, I would much rather
watch a competitive NBA game than watch a game in
the NFL, which, yes, was I guess somewhat entertaining competitive.
It was a one score game, but knowing that there
were really no stakes attached.

Speaker 3 (07:03):
To it, the Commander's covered Come on, didn't.

Speaker 2 (07:05):
They they did. Did you have that two on two
off last week?

Speaker 3 (07:08):
Maybe we'll get to that now. Some people say that
they'll take a bad, meaningless NFL game over an NBA
Finals game. That's how much they lean towards the NFL.

Speaker 2 (07:22):
I'll say this, Adam. The numbers bear that out. They
they sure do NBA Finals. You know, their highest rated
games the last couple of years are knitting like what
seven million people? Something like that?

Speaker 3 (07:33):
If even that get Fred Rogan on the line, Raidings
Rogan knows all.

Speaker 2 (07:37):
A random Thursday night game between the Jaguars and your
Panthers will get twenty five to thirty million people. I
might be exaggerating, but not by much.

Speaker 3 (07:45):
It goes back to something we talk about all the time.
First of all, people want the NBA to shorten their season.
They're not going happening. They started talking about this with baseball,
and now that conversation has seeped into the NBA specifically
because well a lot of their stars aren't available as often.
So they're saying, shorten the games, but keep the same

(08:06):
extended schedule, or keep it from October to June. But
you have games more spread out, therefore more time to
heal recover less back to backs and you have superstars
playing more often. Now. I do think there's something to that,
but they're not going to shorten any games. But you
could take it into July, just add one month to
it and get rid of back to backs, and I

(08:27):
think that would make a dent into some of these problems.
But it still comes down to the NFL games are
in short supply. It's supply and demand, and when so
much is put into every game because there's only seventeen
of them, they feel like there are higher stakes at
all times. When the NBA. I think I saw Tony

(08:50):
Bruno take a shot at it Yesterday's about.

Speaker 2 (08:53):
The end, you know, sports radio legend Tony Bruno.

Speaker 3 (08:56):
I think I have the actual tweet from him, okay,
he said, And I think think he was taking a
shot at Lebron James and his play and not getting
a lot of rebounds in that game versus the Houston
Rockets and looking like he was dogging it a little bit.
And he did say he didn't want to play on
Christmas recently, he'd rather be home with the family. He's
never had a Christmas, Tony Bruno said.

Speaker 4 (09:15):
To be fair to the NBA, and King James I
two had zero interest in watching meaningless garbage games on
Christmas Day.

Speaker 3 (09:24):
All right, I would say there were some really good
games on Christmas Day. I don't think it was garbage
at all. I would say three of the games were
really compelling, actually with some huge storylines.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
I mean that Nightcap, I mean Nicola jokicch my god,
one of the great performances in NBA history.

Speaker 3 (09:40):
What are we talking about? This is to drink by
some metrics, the seventh greatest game ever played efficiency wise
raptor Lebron stats. You know the advanced analytics stuff out there.

Speaker 2 (09:56):
Oh you can count, good for you.

Speaker 3 (09:57):
You got to count to be able to understand some
of that stuff.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yeah, well, even look, I mean look at I mean
Wimby taking on Shay and Oklahoma City and San Antonio
could be a Western Conference Finals preview. Now, granted they
played each other. It seems like nine times the past
two weeks.

Speaker 3 (10:11):
And San Antonio's won each game.

Speaker 2 (10:13):
They have, and they've swept them where they want. The
last three.

Speaker 3 (10:15):
The sports have five losses and three of them or
excuse me, OKAYCS five losses and three of them are
to San Antonio.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
Now, here's the issue you run into. Adam so I
talked to I use the Cowboys and Commander's example about
a meaningless game. And even with that, the popularity of
the NFL, the scarce sheet of the product, all of
that matters. It matters even more if you look at
the games after that, because Detroit was basically playing a
play in game for the playoffs, they basically had to win.
They didn't lose to Minnesota, They're eliminated. Denver still in

(10:42):
a dogfight for the one seed in the AFC and
to win the AFC West. So that game had meeting
and of course you have Travis Kelcey involved. If you
have Travis Kelcey involves, I mean the Swifties are in
there could have been his final home game in Kansas City.
Storylines abound for that game. That's tough sledding for the
NBA to have to fight against, Even with your biggest
stars facing off against each other. An NFL game with

(11:02):
playoff stakes versus a game in the NBA where you're
basically a third of the way through the season, that's
just heart sledding. Regardless of who you have on your
showcase game in the NBA.

Speaker 3 (11:11):
Here's what I'm going to say to that. In the
ratings wars going on and the feuds, the family feuds
over what to watch and all these things with ratings,
I don't care. I don't watch anything because of ratings.
I don't wait to see if I actually enjoyed the
game or if it was entertaining by seeing what the

(11:31):
ratings were two days later. I experience it in the moment.
I great the game based up on that, not with
how many other people were watching it at the same time,
which I won't know for a couple more days. Anyways,
that's ludicrous to me. I only care about the NBA
ratings is because it could affect rule changes in the future,
and they want to cater the game to the casuals

(11:54):
and the audience. And if they don't like so many
three pointers, will they make a four pointer out there
to try to, I don't know, bring back the three
point line, do something that maybe doesn't appeal to me
in that way.

Speaker 2 (12:05):
Outside of that.

Speaker 3 (12:06):
I could give a damn about your ratings.

Speaker 2 (12:08):
I could well look the leagues, do I look major
League Baseball did. This is the reason why they make
the basis bigger, is the reason why they banned the shift, yeah,
the pitchclock, all of that, and by the way it worked,
they resonated with the younger demographic. Games are not lasting
as long, So for them from a business, I agree
with you, by the way, if I like the sport
and I enjoy the game, and I enjoy the players
that I'm watching, I'm gonna watch regardless. I can care

(12:29):
less what the ratings are. That's not for me to determine.
The league's based it off of that because obviously that
sponsorship money, the TV contracts, by the way, are gonna
continue to go up because as we get more and
more into streaming and less and less into cable bundles
and all that stuff, live sports are always going to
be premium regardless of what it is. So the Netflix
is the YouTube, TVs, wherever you're talking about, they're always

(12:49):
going to pay premium dollar for live sports because it's
the last thing, the last batch and of live real reality,
for lack of a better term. It's let this reality
show that you can watch happening in real time. You
can't DVR, that can go back and watch and everybody
knows what's happening in ispontaneously, And.

Speaker 3 (13:03):
Let me tell you something. The NBA just signed an
eighty billion dollar new media rights deal recently, which is
why you have games on Prime and games back on NBC.
Adam Silver and the NBA are not on life support.
If you tried to give him CPR, you would probably
break his sternum because of how thin he is and

(13:25):
how batlike he is. With the Nosfaratu comparisons, I'm just
telling people they don't have a foot in the grave.
They're not going anywhere anytime soon. Even if the NFL
beats their brains in with bad games that still outshine
and have better ratings than the NBA's good games, they
could do it for the next fifteen years. It is
not going to make the NBA go defunct. They are established.

(13:49):
It's not going anywhere. But some people try to make
it seem like, oh my god, the NBA is bleeding
out right now. Where are they gonna do. What's gonna happen?
All these three pointers? We can't make it anymore. It's
not that dire.

Speaker 2 (14:02):
Well, here's the issue too, because the problem is you're
comparing anything to the NFL. They end The NFL is monolithic.
It's it's on a tier all to itself. If you
look at the NBA's ratings versus anything else, sure it
kicks their ass like the So the NBA is right
up there or beats everything else that's on television, with
the exception of NFL and college football. I guess what

(14:22):
you put in there at number two. But outside of that,
it's the It's the the King of the King of
the Ring, King of the Castle compared to everything else
that's on television or streaming. Right now, I'm on TV.

Speaker 3 (14:32):
We talked about this a good three months ago, saying
the NFL isn't going after the NBA. They've already surpassed them.
They're not going after Major League Baseball. They're going after
Google and Apple. That's the turf they're trying to get to.

Speaker 2 (14:49):
Next. Was that a letter that Roger Goodell sent internally
to some league people that got leaked and he set
that himself?

Speaker 3 (14:54):
I think so maybe that's what.

Speaker 2 (14:58):
I think. Roger Goodell set that email to somebody league
insiders himself before the season started, maybe the league offices.
I told it down at the league office. I'm just
saying that was one of John Gruden's emails, of his voicemails.
She pulled up there at him.

Speaker 3 (15:12):
The NFL had bigger fish to fry, And you're completely right.
Trying to compare anything to the NFL, they're always going
to come up short. It's a losing battle. That's not
what it's about. If the NBA was being compared to
the NFL, if things were that drastically going down the
tubes with them, so to speak, then they would have

(15:34):
been gone ten years ago already, right, because the NFL
has already been kicking their ass for so long, basically
since Jordan retired the third time.

Speaker 2 (15:43):
Yeah, so which time are you talking about? Yeah? So
I think it's utterly ridiculous. People talk. Look, and I
don't want to get political at all, but I remember
when stuff was happening in the bubble and there were
certain messages that players are putting up, and it was
a giant attack against the NBA saying like, oh, this
is what happened. You take these political stances and you're
gonna end up going broke. The exact opposite has happened,
because again, it's live sports that's always going to be

(16:05):
a premium for these networks and only streaming services. It's
never going to go away. Yes, it'll never compare to
the NFL, but the NBA is always going to continue
to thrive.

Speaker 3 (16:14):
I think when you bring up the stuff in the
bubble and the black lives matter on the court, people
said that turned them off, or some people were turned
off by that. I think they were looking sure, but
I think those people weren't interested in the NBA anyways.
I thought about that too, and it was no skin
off their back to get rid of it. Like they
could hit the eject, they could care less. They were
looking for an excuse to just say, well, I'm out.

(16:37):
I'm gonna tell everybody in my politics right now by
saying I'm never watching an NBA game where they didn't
care that much to begin with. Or there's some of
those same people that let nostalgia guide them that they
like Chuck, they like Kenny and Shack, and they agree
with everything they say that the game was way better
back then. Those people aren't arguing in good faith, like

(16:58):
they're not being fair to begin with. They're not watching
it with an unbiased or impartial opinion. They they don't care.
They're looking for the league to slip up. So I
don't put a lot of stock into that stuff. I
think those who are purists or those who love the game,
there's always gonna be enough people that will be there

(17:20):
watching basketball and baseball. There will always be enough where
we won't have any real issues where we're comparing them
to the NFL and saying the NFL swallowed up all
these other leagues. How are they gonna do that. It's
a totally different game. Yeah, Like, they can beat them
in the ratings all they want. There will always be
people who are partial to watching baseball and basketball and

(17:41):
enough of them to keep it around.

Speaker 2 (17:43):
So and having this conversation, does the NBA really need
to change anything? And if it did, how bitch and
big of a difference would it actually make. Yeah, I'm
talking about like, Okay, you're playing games in October and
November when there's NFL games going on on Thursday and
Saturdays and all this, and the NBA is kind of
getting gobbled up and get lost in the shuffle. They're
making their money. Maybe the ratings are as high, aren't

(18:04):
as high as they could be, But we've already argued
the fact that the NFL is completely in the league
of its own at that point in time. So the
NBA is definitely thriving, regardless of what public perception might
be from a rating situation. So do they really need
to change anything.

Speaker 3 (18:17):
I'll say this, if you can make tweaks that don't
necessarily have drawbacks in one area, meaning you're trading off
something just to make to improve something else. I still
think the player participation policy they put in a couple
of years ago to try to get more stars to play.

Speaker 2 (18:37):
Yeah, I think it's helped.

Speaker 3 (18:39):
It's helped, But I think they can still take it
a step further and do away with back to backs
or instead of you know, the Clippers, I think I
have fifteen this season, take it down to five back
to backs, You extend the season a little bit out.
All you're doing is competing with baseball at that time
in July when you have the NBA Finals going on.
I don't see that as something that's really going to

(19:02):
have some crazy shift of balance between the sports. Because
the NBA, first of all, they've already done this because
of COVID. They've already had to move their schedule around
a ton. I know they don't like to do it,
but they do it, and I think this is this
reason is enough of a concern where you make a
permanent change because it is star driven. You only got

(19:23):
five guys on the court. Each guy makes up twenty percent,
and if you go into usage ratings and stuff, it's
way more than that. When you're talking about superstars, having
them out there and being able to show a marquee
that says this guy is playing on this night this week,
and people are actually able to tune in and see
them pay that off. I think that's important to the NBA.

Speaker 2 (19:47):
All right, well tell me that, leam Mark. I know
we got a break, but just tell me this because
this is anecdotal on my part. And I got into
a debate with Anthony Gargano about this. I think it
was last year. I felt that with the new rules
that they put in saying that certain guys can't qualify
for postseason awards if they don't play certain amount of games,
the incentive, even though it might be ridiculous, the incentive
of being able to win an extra five hundred grand
by getting to the n season tournament final, has that

(20:09):
actually curbed load management for guys who are not actually hurt.
It seemed like to me last season there are more
guys who were out when they did miss games. It
was more due to legitimate injuries than ah, this guy's
taking a night off because you know he's resting a
little bit.

Speaker 3 (20:23):
The problem is they just defined the injury differently, Like
what what does it mean to be actually heard? Guys
are heard all the time. There's always a reason that
you could sit out a game. For the most part,
it's hard to judge, Like judging in somebody's heart. I
don't know, I don't know what's in there. I don't
know how they really feel about something. I don't know
how their body really feels right now.

Speaker 2 (20:42):
I just remember there was a lot of star players
last year who played a crap ton of games, and
especially going into the postseason. I remember making this point, like,
going into the postseason last year, it was probably the
healthiest that the sport has been in terms of having
their star players all healthy and on display when the
playoffs began, and that I believe has been an anomaly
for the NBA the last five to seven years.

Speaker 3 (20:59):
Well, well, if that was the case, it backfired as
soon as the playoffs started because Dame goes out Haliburton
eventually Jason Tatum and Giannis Adenakompo. So you want to
have your best guys in the marquee spotlight when it
matters most. And if that means you give more days

(21:20):
off between games, you don't take away the eighty two games,
you just separate them and spread them out a little
bit more. I think for the betterment of the league,
that is something that needs to be considered.

Speaker 2 (21:30):
All right, Well, sefn A on FSR here on Fox
Sports Radio. Coming up next, we'll talk about the end
of a potential dynasty and maybe another window closing for
a team in the NFC. It's FNA on FSR. Don't
go anywhere.

Speaker 5 (21:42):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live. Fali Foods Go ahead with Tony FOODSKO.

Speaker 2 (21:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (21:57):
As everybody knows, we're the hosts of the award winning
Polly in Tony Fousco Show.

Speaker 2 (22:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (22:01):
But instead of us telling you how great we are,
here's how Dan Fatrick described us when he came on
our show.

Speaker 7 (22:06):
Quick, knowledgeable and funny, opinionated.

Speaker 2 (22:10):
What you doing interrupting our promo?

Speaker 1 (22:12):
Yeah, he wasn't talking about you. You took those clips
totally out of context.

Speaker 6 (22:17):
Oh yeah, well after this promo, I'm gonna take you
out and beat you.

Speaker 2 (22:21):
Let me put this into context. Shut up.

Speaker 6 (22:24):
Yeah, anyway, just listen to the Paully and Tony Fusco
Show on iHeartRadio, Apple podcasts O wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 2 (22:30):
Yea, how good of you. Jordan Fna, Cotton, Kevin Figures,
Adam Auslin FNA here on FSR broadcasting live from the
Fox Sports Radio studios. And you know, feeding off of
the success of our college basketball bracket challenge each March, Adam,
We've decided to do a bracket challenge for the college
football playoff as well. That's right, there are now eight

(22:52):
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for your chance to win one thousand dollars. Visit Foxsports
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Entry will be open until just before kickoff at seven

(23:15):
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out your bracket Foxsports Radio dot iHeart dot com for
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Speaker 3 (23:22):
I hope Joe Klatt doesn't do one. That would be rough.

Speaker 2 (23:25):
Yoo.

Speaker 3 (23:28):
All right, coming up later this very hour, we got
geek news, some video game news, a video game fact
for you. One of our favorite games of all time
just is about to make us feel really really old, Kevin,
But are there a couple teams in the NFL they're
getting a little long in the tooth themselves. The Chiefs

(23:49):
eliminated from the playoffs for the first time since nineteen
eight hundred.

Speaker 2 (23:57):
Not quite, not quite.

Speaker 3 (23:59):
It's been a it's been a long time. We were
talking about coming into the season. Can they just still
win the division? Well most of us didn't think. Okay,
if they slipped from the division, though, they will still
be a wild card team. We're not even looking at
that now. And now this entire era is up in
the air to some degree on what happens next with

(24:21):
an ACL for ma homes. How long is Andy reiging
to coach? Are we looking at the window being shut
for this era of the Chiefs? I have to ask you, kelevin.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
Quiz hot shot, No one of the most ridiculous things
I've ever heard. Now, Look, I agree, I know understand
that Travis Kelcey is up there in age. This could
potentially be his last season. He hasn't been He wasn't
the most productive last year, by the way, and they
made it to a super Bowl. He's been slowing down
these last couple of seasons. Andy Reid is getting up
there in age. That's one thing that you obviously cannot

(24:51):
deny at this point in time. But you still have
Patrick Mahomes. He is still I think the best quarterback
in the NFL, despite not having the greatest weapons to
work with. The NaCl injury is certain serious, but it's
not something that he can can't come back from at
as a quarterback. He's not an NBA player out there
jumping above the rim. So that's why his recovery period
and people are believing he's potentially going to be able

(25:11):
to make it back for Opening Day next year. So
I'm not as dooman gloom on the chances City Chiefs
dynasty being over. To be honest with you, they still
have Patrick Mahomes. I don't think Andy Reid has any
designs of slowing it down. Are they going to have
to do some retooling. Of course, the Patriots has a
retool around Tom Brady for twenty years, So I don't
think this is totally This is totally a disaster that
needs to be torn down. Patrick Mahomes is not done.

(25:33):
The Chiefs are not done. The idea that their dynasty
or their reign of terror in the NFL is over,
they're no longer going to be able to compete for championships,
I think is a ridiculous notion.

Speaker 3 (25:42):
Yeah, the reports of their demise will likely be greatly
exaggerated because Mahomes is still too young to give up on.
He's twenty nine years of age.

Speaker 2 (25:51):
Now you can argue he's not even in his prime yet, Adam,
he's not thirty.

Speaker 3 (25:54):
Well, that's what makes the last couple of years though
a little bit confounding. And we were talking about this
with Greg coast Cell and where's the slippage with Patrick
Mahomes And he talked about their offense and how off
script it is all the time, and it's hard to
live like that, consistently weak to weak and maybe this
is my own editorial or opinion teams have caught up

(26:17):
with them a little bit in those areas, and the
improvisation stuff isn't working as well as it used to,
and maybe they need a little bit more of a
system or some guardrails around them to not have to
just improvise so much, because he won't be able to
if he doesn't respond from the ACL and likely he's
not going to be able to run as fast as
he used to. Maybe he'll be close, but his legs

(26:38):
do matter, But it's still about the arm with him
and throwing seventy yard bombs. We just see so much
less of that the last couple of years, and it's
a little bit of a head scratcher as to why.
I think some of it can be accounted for with
the talent around him, But I don't think that's everything
that's going on with Mahomes.

Speaker 2 (26:57):
I think it's a big part of it. Well, one
they got rid of Tyree, whatch you can argue probably
was in the worst move. The amount of money he
was asking for is still needed needing to field the team,
and it certainly didn't hurt him. They've won a championship
since then, they've gone to Super Bowls without Tyreek killing
the mix. So I would argue the vertical part of
their passing game really hasn't been a factor since he left.
Being able to check down underneath the Travis Kelsey, Patrick

(27:17):
Mahomes being able to make plays with his legs, they've
been able to thrive playing that way. Now, maybe you
can argue that that's a high wire act and Pat
Mahomes is not going to be able to run for
his life his entire career. He's going to need help.
And this is something this goes back to Philadelphia, the
Philadelphia days for Andy Reid. We're talking about not putting
enough emphasis on the run game and putting too much
on the shoulders of a Donovan McNabb or Michael Vick

(27:37):
or whoever your quarterback is. As great as Patrick Mahomes is,
he's not Superman. He needs a little bit of help.
Look what the Buffalo Bills have done the last couple
of years with James Cook and being able to put
a running game around Josh Shallen. Just being able to
run the game ball a little bit. I think we'll
be able to open up so many things for the
Chiefs pass offense, and for whatever reason, they've just been
reluctant to do it. They don't have an impact player
in the backfield, and I think more than anything, that's

(27:59):
probably the biggest issue that they're gonna address here in
the offseason. Let's help Patrick Mahomes out the best way
we possibly can by at least trying to run the ball.
You don't have to run the ball for one hundred
and fifty yards a game, but just be respectable. Because
rerec Oselli tell us this too, Teams don't even respect
their run game. They just don't expect the Chiefs to
do anything on their run game, but they don't expect
them to make any plays.

Speaker 3 (28:18):
They've gotten probably over confident and a little bit, I
don't know, under talented in their skill positions. They're still
trying the same stuff they used to do with Tyreek
or when they were more talented, or Travis Kelsey hadn't
lost a good three steps at this point, and that's
not gonna happen. So maybe you do need to open

(28:38):
up a different element to this offense, and that's how
you get more longevity out of Patrick Mahomes or get
him to enter a new phase of his prime here,
which is what everybody wants to see because looking at
just coming into this season where the numbers were last year, say,
why do you have such a down season?

Speaker 2 (28:58):
Now?

Speaker 3 (28:58):
They still made it to the Super Bowl and they
got blown out against the Eagles, and they still were
gritty and found ways to win. And it's hard to
dethrone champs like that and kill an era, but it
looked like the Chargers were able to do that this year,
at least in taking them out when their backs were
against the wall, which we want to see. How are
the Kannasite Chiefs gonna play when everything is on the line,

(29:20):
when it is a playoff game basically? And they lost,
And I know Mahomes got hurt, but I think they
were losing that game anyways.

Speaker 2 (29:29):
Uh yeah, they were.

Speaker 3 (29:31):
Some of the aura and just the mystique of this
Kansas City Chief's dynasty. The shine is off a little bit,
the bloom is off the rows a little bit. They're
going to have to prove things going forward instead of
proving that they can't do it anymore. I believe it
when I see it. When somebody finally takes them out, Well,
that has happened. Now, it's can they regain or recapture

(29:54):
their previous form?

Speaker 2 (29:56):
Well, seeing that and this is something I brought up
maybe two or three weeks ago and saying the best
thing that it could probably happen for the Kansas City Chiefs.
And I'm not gonna act like this is an original idea.
I believe our guy Mike Sander wrote about this. Maybe
then missing the playoffs is the best thing that can
happen to them because a lot of times, making the playoffs,
even making a deep when it go to the division around,
going to the conference title game and losing kind of
mask some of the bigger issues you might be having.

(30:17):
You might be able to convince yourself, ah, you know,
make a play here, make a play there, or right
back in the super Bowl, it's not that big of
a deal. The fact that you missed the postseason and
you have all these glaring issues, the offensive line not
being able to run the ball, You've had some slippage
on defense. You know, all of this comes to a
head and you say, you missed the playoffs and now
we need to figure out how we need to retool
and remake this thing so we can get back to
doing that again. So I think the best thing that

(30:38):
could happen for Kansas City is maybe a one year
restpit of not making the postseason, so they can actually
sit back and look at their flaws more deeply and
determine how they can turn this thing back around.

Speaker 3 (30:48):
Well, I think those years do add up. We've seen
it with dynasties in the past where the Spurs never
went back to back, right, which is interesting. They won
five over god how many years, nineteen ninety nine to
the last one being in twenty fourteen, so only like
a fifteen year period they won five, but they didn't
go back to back. But their stars were still great

(31:13):
when they had to be later on in their careers,
and maybe they saved a little bit of tread on
the tires because they didn't always make deep playoff runs.
Now they were still getting the playoffs though every season,
I think twenty two years straight. It was the all
time record with San Antonio, but you lose to Memphis
in the first round like they did that one season
with Zebo and Marcasol going off. They had some hiccups

(31:34):
here and there, and then I think about the Lakers
when they three pe'd and then that fourth year they
lost to San Antonio in two thousand and three and
Kevin Willis had that put back dunk at Staples Center,
and it was really the exclamation point, like this dynasty
is over.

Speaker 2 (31:48):
Kevin Willis it was about five thousand years old at
that point in his career.

Speaker 3 (31:51):
Two oh yeah, he still was able to get up
somehow for that dunk. He wanted some of that. But
they then re loaded. In fact, it was all branded
as Lakers reloaded, I think, mirroring the Matrix reloaded coming out,
and they brought in two old guys in Gary Payton
and Carl Malone. They get back to the finals, they

(32:15):
get run by Detroit. A lot of that was because
they weren't going to shack enough. Kobe probably took fifty
more shots than he needed to in that series.

Speaker 2 (32:25):
I mean, Karl Malone got hurt, was a shell of
himself alone got hurt.

Speaker 3 (32:29):
But it felt like, you know, this is the end,
and now they have to find a different way to win.
Shaka ends up getting moved like this is going to
be while you still have your core piece in Patrick
Mahomes the parallel to Kobe here, like how you build
around him moving forward, the team could look drastically different.

Speaker 2 (32:49):
Yeah, it can still compete. And now look at our guy,
Big Lou who just hit us up at k FIG
one and that follow out of may own X. He says,
you know, when does the narrative of quote, he doesn't
have weapons and talent. That's why the team isn't winning.
Stop when talking about superstar quarterbacks. I think that's the
most important thing though, because ultimately, if they didn't have
Patrick Mahomes, especially in these last couple of years, Adams Adam,
where would they be? I think they even a playoff team?

(33:10):
Maybe they I mean, same thing. Go back to Aaron
Rodgers in Green Bay, same situation, how phenomenal he was
year in and year out, and a lot of times
he complained about not having requisite weapons, not having a
run game, the defense having slippage, and Aaron Rodgers doing
everything in his power and them coming up short rarely
because of him. It was because of the infrastructure around him.
I do think Big Lou, with all due respect, that

(33:30):
has a lot to do with it.

Speaker 3 (33:32):
I think our good Irish friend Barry mccachinor points this
out with the stat saying that the last four games
the Chiefs have played without Patrick Mahomes. So this is
over a period of two or three years. You know,
they have scored one touchdown on offense in those four games,
So it says a lot he is a one man

(33:52):
wrecking crew. You may think, oh, Josh Allen is that guy?

Speaker 2 (33:56):
Now?

Speaker 3 (33:56):
Patrick Mahomes is still that guy. Maybe not to the
extent he was, but there's still something to that. So
they take a step back, They get to take in
the inventory, They get arrest, and they get to figure
out how do they conquer, whether or not there's a
new NFL going on, or how do we just become
the best versions of ourselves. Now entering into twenty twenty six,

(34:20):
what do the Chiefs look like? I think it's gonna
be really fascinating to watch what they build.

Speaker 2 (34:23):
Well, just know that there was a certain point in
time where Tom Brady and Bill Belichick Patriots went a
long stretch of time without winning a Super Bowl before
they circle back and ended up winning a couple of
more before their dynasty ended.

Speaker 3 (34:33):
They went ten years, and a lot of people think
it could be the same thing with the Chiefs. I
don't know about that, but I expect them and Patrick
Mahomes to contend again, probably win one. Remember when people
used to say.

Speaker 4 (34:47):
Over under on Tiger Woods winning one more Masters or
one more.

Speaker 3 (34:51):
Yeah, I think it's I think he's probably got one
more in him.

Speaker 2 (34:55):
I would say it's probably. I will take the odds
on them winning one more championship before Patrick Mahomes his
career is all said and done. Something I'm excited about
is coming up next, and that's Geek News and that
is a legendary video game anniversary, Adam.

Speaker 3 (35:06):
It's very personal to us and it's gonna warm your
heart during the holidays.

Speaker 2 (35:10):
Now, Kevin, so looking forward to talking about Paul coming
up next, man.

Speaker 3 (35:14):
Or rip your heart out with how violent this game is.
It's fn A on FSR.

Speaker 1 (35:21):

Speaker 3 (35:24):
I love to power Glove.

Speaker 2 (35:27):
It's so good, Fna Cotton. Be sure to subscribe to
the Fox Sports Radio YouTube channel. Just search Fox Sports
Radio on YouTube and you'll see our best videos from
all of our shows. And don't stop there. Hit that
thumbs up icon and comment away. Let us know whose
takes you like and even those you don't like. Just
search Fox Sports Radio on YouTube and subscribe. It is

(35:49):
Fox Sports Radio, Kevin Figures, Adam Alston FNA on FSR.
Coming up next hour, we have the fn A NFL
six pack as well as Petros Papadeka is talking about
Kyle Whittingham going to Michigan and the and of usc Notre.

Speaker 3 (36:01):
Dame for shame. Yeah, this ain't though. We got geek News.
Let's annod're playing D and D to you want to come.

Speaker 2 (36:13):
Cases, Let's go, guys.

Speaker 4 (36:15):
Were don't be choosed that I've been chying online with
fabs all day.

Speaker 3 (36:19):
Just keep your power close up her passion race kenmen.
I don't know if the FSR listeners have noticed, but
we don't make a lot of mistakes around here. Okay,
I've made a huge mistake, but we did last week.
One was made by me in Geek News. I had
to make a decision. It was like Sophie's choice between
releasing Adam's twelve Alternative Films of Christmas or talking about

(36:43):
a video game anniversary for a game that just turned
its Jesus Age of thirty three. Now, we do have
a proclivity for side scrolling brawlers on this show, no doubt.
From Double Dragon to the New Shredders or Va Ninja
Turtles game that I enjoyed. I played most of them.

(37:03):
We love them. Every kid remembers where they were when
they picked up that bat and Double Dragon and swung
it through those prostitutes in the purple jumpsuits trying to
whip you like a horse. Yeah, that's where the beat
them up genre took root in me.

Speaker 2 (37:17):
Well, streets of rage. I mean, come on, you get
skate out there.

Speaker 3 (37:20):
Oh, we'll get to it. I just I couldn't wait
to attack those toots. Huh, there's nothing kinky about it.
I was just trying to get my darling Marion back
from the Shadow Warriors who punched her in the gut
right out in front of my garage. That's how Double
Dragon starts. It just punch to the gut to the

(37:42):
girl throws them over her shoulder. They walk off, the batties,
the garage door opens. You come after them.

Speaker 2 (37:48):
Lest we forget battletoes Double Dragon, of course, okay, very good,
an epic mashup side scroller.

Speaker 3 (37:53):
The first video game I had was Double Dragon, not
on any S or Genesis or an arcade machine, and
I had the Tiger Electronics handheld LCD with those etches
sketch graphics. I got it in my stocking, probably in
I don't know, nineteen ninety, nineteen eighty nine, something like that.
But others might have gotten their first taste of the

(38:14):
beat them up genre by playing The Simpsons or Ninja Turtles,
or X Men or a final No Colossus was ripped.

Speaker 2 (38:26):
Well, the blob was in the X Men's side scroller
in the Arcade, so there's that good call.

Speaker 3 (38:31):
What about Predator Alien versus Predator final fight, just to
name a few.

Speaker 2 (38:38):
Fight was a great one.

Speaker 3 (38:39):
Some of those were ported to our home console systems,
but they weren't always as true to the source material
of the arcade machine that we pumped all those quarters
into faster and the hookers pumped their fists with a
good lashing with their whips on us. Actually, I looked
it up, and those batties, by the way, the Purple
outfit girls in Double Dragon with w they were not hookers,

(39:01):
Oh they weren't. Never judge a book by its cover
or a hooker by her cover or how little she
was covered. The character had a name, and his name
was Linda, Linda Lash because Linda, I swear to you,
so are you sure she wasn't atitude They called her
a thug, a thug, not atitute a thug. But Linda

(39:23):
was in the original Double Dragon, which was poured onto
the nees, but it was just a one player game,
same with the original Final Fight on SNS. We were
missing the two player co op action that gave us
that arcade feel we were craving. But Streets of Rage
completely satiated us in ways. And with those big ass turkeys,
we'd eat to replenish our health bars too. Then the

(39:46):
sequel came out December twentieth. Oh my god, that's way
too good. December twentieth of nineteen ninety two, thirty three
years ago. A few days ago this past week, Street
Rage two came out, a game Kevin and I actually
bonded on because not everybody knows about it.

Speaker 2 (40:06):
No that indy. Oh it was but one of the
great games of all time, without question.

Speaker 3 (40:12):
Because it was for the Sega Genesis and it came
out probably later in its lifespan.

Speaker 2 (40:17):
Yeah, I would say so.

Speaker 3 (40:19):
Yeah to me, I would categorize it as the greatest
sixteen bit side scrolling beat him Up ever like. It
perfected the blend of combos and the different characters and
what they could do, and the plot where Skates trying
to save the original Black Adam, who was in the
first Streets of Rage that's his brother. The level design,

(40:39):
the music you're hearing right now, this is Streets Ranged two.
It was a step up in every way from the
first game.

Speaker 2 (40:44):
That's right. When I say grass hopa you know what
that means. No, I'm not talking about the karate kid
or anything.

Speaker 3 (40:50):
That's my guy Axel.

Speaker 2 (40:51):
Yes, that was more of a skate guy personally, a
guy you can kick somebody's ass on rollerblades. That's the
next level for me.

Speaker 3 (40:57):
Well, Streets Range two dropped hard thirty three years ago.
Last week, this is FNA on FSR.

Speaker 1 (41:05):

Speaker 2 (41:08):
That's right hour or two of fn A on FSR.
Kevin Figures, Adam alson with you on Fox Sports Radio.
Hit us up on x at KFIG one and at
follow Adam A if you want to get in touch
with us here on.

Speaker 3 (41:20):
The show coming up this very hour pick trying to
Bite a real show. Yeah, the show that our show
is based off of in a spinoff type of way.
Petros Papadakis from The Petros and Money Show will be here.
He's a Fox analyst on college football and he's going
to make some interesting claims about what happened between USC

(41:42):
and Notre Dame this week and why the rivalry has
been put on pause at least for now.

Speaker 2 (41:48):
Yeah, So we'll get into that coming up in the
next segment. By the way, I met you guys can
hit us up on X. We got to have a
couple of messages that have come in. Your guy Gunner Thomas,
your Panther fan says it's time for the Panthers to
take over the NFL. Casey is done, so looking forward
to that, looking forward to that Panther domination coming up here, Adam,
As they were on the verge of clinching the NFC South,
of course.

Speaker 3 (42:08):
Win a playoff game, make.

Speaker 2 (42:10):
The get into the playoffs first.

Speaker 3 (42:13):
I don't think well, more on that a little bit.

Speaker 2 (42:15):
I'm I'm sure we'll get it all. What's far from
a sure thing. We'll talk about that a little bit later.
And Big Lou checks in again simply hashtags Detroit hashtag
Source Awards. Now, I know exactly what you're alluding to
to that Source award exactly, but in what context are
you talking about there, Big Lou.

Speaker 3 (42:35):
Yeah, he's just trying to washing the Diddy doc doing
some East coast.

Speaker 2 (42:39):
West coast battling going on Big Lou. What's going on? Man?
You gotta give me a little bit more context. We'll
talk about it coming up on the show.

Speaker 3 (42:45):
All right, let's do it. It is week seventeen, right,
NFL six pack?

Speaker 1 (42:51):
Mark time for the NFL six pack?

Speaker 3 (42:58):
What are we starting with, Kevin?

Speaker 2 (43:00):
Start with the hot seat heat check the coach or
player under the most pressure this coming weekend? Do you
want to start? Do you want me to start?

Speaker 3 (43:07):
Mark?

Speaker 2 (43:07):
Make heat check?

Speaker 3 (43:09):
I need to hear from Bob Smith's Will we start
the right way? Make an official get things starting for us?

Speaker 2 (43:13):
Kevin? All right, well, I'm gonna go with the Buffalo
Bills taking on the Philadelphia Eagles. We talked about the
Bills in their title window previously in the show. We
were gonna get to it earlier in the show this tonight,
but we weren't able to get to that. But talking
about them and the fact that the field has kind
of opened up because a lot of the Beasts of
the AFC are kind of out of the way at
this point in time. We talked about Patrick Mahomes and

(43:34):
the Chiefs are out of it. Most likely La Mar
Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens are out of it, and
even if they find a way to make it in,
I don't think they really pose that much of a threat. No,
Joe Burrow, there's gonna be some new blood in the
AFC save for the Buffalo Bills and Josh Allen. Now
you look at the fact that they're playing the Super
Bowl champions coming up on Sunday, And yes, the Eagles
have not played super well this season, but their offensive

(43:56):
output has actually improved recently. They've run for over one
hundred and thirty yards the last couple of games, the
last three games. As a matter of fact, the last
two games they ran for over one hundred and eighty yards.

Speaker 3 (44:05):
Did they win those games?

Speaker 2 (44:06):
Kevin? The last two?

Speaker 3 (44:08):
This what a concept. Run the ball, win the game.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
Funny how that works. I think we talked about that
with Greg Hosel. So now, the problem Adam is stopping
the run of has been Buffalo's achilles heel all season long.
But if you do have designs of winning a championship
and taking advantage of this year's wide open field, you're
gonna have to be able to slow down teams in
the AFC like the Chargers, like Jacksonville who actually can't
run the ball a little bit. So I think for

(44:32):
Buffalo going into this game, it's really gonna be a
bit of a litman test, litmus test, I should say,
to see what they could potentially expect to see in
the postseason. And to be honest, you know, I came
into this weekend thinking that if Green Bay didn't make
the playoffs that Matt Lafleur could possibly be on the
hot seat, even though I don't think he should be.
I think this postseason run for the Bills can loom
large for Sean McDermott's future in Buffalo, the leaders you know,

(44:55):
of those great kingdoms that all have all gone down. Yes,
the Bills have their shareff deficiencies this season, but it
hasn't stopped them from beating some of the best teams
on their schedule Patriots, Steelers, Chiefs, Buccaneers, beating all of them.
If they don't get it done this postseason, then when
will they. I think the pressure is squarely on mcdermoh
right now. Not necessarily in this particular game against the Eagles,
although I do think it's important, but for how the

(45:17):
Bills perform in the postseason as a whole coming up.
I don't think it's or of probably to say if
the Bills don't make it to the Super Bowl, they
could potentially be looking for a new head coach in
the next month. You can argue whether or not that's
fair at them, Yes, because you can mention McDermot has
led them to the playoffs in eight of his nine
seasons as head coach. They've made it to the conference
championship game a couple of times. The first time they
made it to the conference title game, you had that

(45:38):
wild kickoff situation against Kansas City, just a fluky play
that went against them at that point in time. That
was unfortunate, But we know how knee jerk fans are,
and a lot of times that trickles up to ownership
as well. If talking, he has, like us, keep spewing
out the narrative that the road is somehow easier for
Buffalo this postseason. It's only human nature that people inside
the buildings started allowing those thoughts to permeate into their

(45:59):
brains as well.

Speaker 3 (46:00):
So I forgot about the trickle up effect.

Speaker 2 (46:02):
The trickle up effect exactly.

Speaker 3 (46:04):
It's like the upside down world and a Stranger Things.

Speaker 2 (46:07):
Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's not how physics. Are you
know how gravity works? But in this situation, I'm gonna
use that example. So in this big game for the Bills,
it's not only to keep their chances alive for the
AFC East Championship, but it gives them the opportunity to
shake off the stigma that they can't stop the run
when it matters most, and it shows that can be
one of the best teams that the NFC has to offer,
and ultimately it can help give them momentum heading into

(46:28):
what is the biggest postseason of the Josh Allen, Sean McDermott,
Greg Dermott Era.

Speaker 3 (46:32):
Today sos Sean John Sewan gone. I could see it.
I could see it. I do think it would be
maybe a little bit unfair, but that's the way these
things go. I do think there's context with this Buffalo
Bills team. We've talked about it too. I think Grey
Cosell we brought up like four times already tonight, have
a drink every time we bring them up. I guess
drinking game. Great co Selle, Grey co Selle, Grey Coseell. Okay,

(46:55):
you're drunk. This is not one of the better Buffalo teams.

Speaker 2 (47:00):
It's actually one of the worst.

Speaker 3 (47:02):
Yeah, the AFC is down, the field is down, but
this isn't one of their best teams, so it makes
it a little bit dicey. They're relying on Josh Allen
so much. I don't know. We'll see how it plays out.
My hot seat heat check. I put this guy in
the hot seat after Week one, and I had him

(47:24):
and Tomlin on the hot seat together two weeks ago.

Speaker 2 (47:28):
One shall stand one show fall know where you're going?

Speaker 3 (47:32):
Well, it looks like Mike Tomlin is standing tall, but
John Harbaugh, Harbaugh.

Speaker 2 (47:39):
Come here? Would you have a seat right over here
for me?

Speaker 3 (47:41):
I brought some of this up after the Ravens blew
the game to the Bills way back in Week one,
but after their late collapse of the Patriots on Sunday
Night Football. The Ravens have lost nine games now since
twenty twenty two where they had a win probability of
ninety percent or better. John Harbaugh, he just lost for

(48:03):
the twentieth time in the regular season and playoffs after
leading by double digits in the second half, more than
any other coach since nineteen ninety one.

Speaker 2 (48:12):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (48:12):
Eight of those losses have come in the last four seasons.
It's not what it's longevity. He's been there longer. No,
most of this stuff has been happening recently. It's been
concentrated over the last four years with Lama and the
way they lost that game up eleven with twelve minutes left.
Lamar Jackson, I know, is out of the game, but
Derrick Henry just scored a touchdown. He's averaging seven yards

(48:35):
per carry.

Speaker 2 (48:36):
Still not getting the ball enough.

Speaker 3 (48:38):
John Harbaugh, in his infinite wisdom, decides to put the
game in the hands of backup QB Tyler Huntley. Somehow,
Derrick Henry isn't even in the game. The final two.

Speaker 2 (48:49):
Drives for Baltimore inexcusable.

Speaker 3 (48:51):
Now, I know John Harbaugh is not the play caller,
but this is a fireable offense for having the wrong
offensive personnel in the game, something that even John Harbaugh
admitted to post games saying about the game winning drive quote, sure,
I do want him on the field, Well, then you
put him out there.

Speaker 2 (49:10):
You're the head coach, John, what are you talking about?
The buck stops with you, And this is not like
you're not like the offensive coordinator slash head coach or
the defensive coordinator and you're off in the corner with
the defense and the offense is doing their own thing.
You are the head coach. You make all the decisions.
You determined who's in the game and what players are
going to be called.

Speaker 3 (49:26):
Head coach with tenure, great tenure, right, I know.

Speaker 2 (49:30):
Success.

Speaker 3 (49:31):
I guess he was going to come in eventually if
they didn't turn the ball over like they did late.
But you waited too long.

Speaker 2 (49:38):
Now.

Speaker 3 (49:38):
I know he has his own fumble issues. He had
one earlier in the game, but he made up for it.

Speaker 2 (49:42):
He's your best offensive player, and that's with Lamar Jackson
being banged up. He is your best offensive player. He
has to be in the game.

Speaker 3 (49:48):
That's great. You're rotating backs during the game. The season
was on the line, it's still on the line. You've
blown the two score lead against the Patriots. You better
have the running back out there who's average six more
yards per carry than the other option in Mitchell. The
Ravens might be looking for another option at this point
at the head coaching position. I said it at the

(50:09):
beginning of the season, but he's been living off the
Joe Flucco Super Bowl run for ages. That was in
twenty thirteen. That was over a decade ago. I'm not
blaming John Harbaugh for everything. Lamar hasn't always been good
enough or available enough in big games.

Speaker 2 (50:26):
Oh, He's had his sheriff's thinkers in the postseason for sure.

Speaker 3 (50:29):
No doubt. But it might be time to ask Lamar
Jackson who he wants as his head coach, because I'm
moving on from Harball before I'm trading him. Ravens fans
they want John Harbaugh's head on a platter, like he's
John the Baptist right now. They want him tarred and
feathered till he looks like a raven, like one of

(50:49):
ivan US's replacements for the Puddy Patrol.

Speaker 2 (50:53):
Oh, there's a poll right there. You remember that, Yes,
his purple guey whatever. Guys. I don't know if they
ever actually had a name.

Speaker 3 (51:02):
The bird like things and the Power Rangers movie, all.

Speaker 2 (51:05):
Those, Yeah, okay, the Raptor birds. I thought you were
talking about the purple oozy whatever things.

Speaker 3 (51:08):
The Raptor birds. That was Alan Grant talking about them
being birds. Okay, I'm confused. But Ravens fans, they are
harboring great resentment for Harball right now. And that's a
great job because they have Lamar Jackson, So it would
be a number one destination for any future head coach perspective.

(51:29):
Head coach, I don't know. I got him on the
hot seat. If they don't make the playoffs, or if
they do and lose in the first round. With Lamar
being healthy, I think John Harbaugh it could be over.

Speaker 2 (51:40):
I'm sorry. Well, yeah, and look, we can argue about
him living off of the Super Bowl. He has had
a pretty damn good run in Baltimore, making the postseason
more often than not. He strikes me as one of
those coaches maybe his message is war and then maybe
he needs a change of scenery. You know, it's the
old Bill Walsh. If you're after a decade, the player
stopped listening to you, you kind of need a new
challenge at that point in time. If hardball got fun,

(52:00):
I think he'd have a job in two days. And
the Lamar Jackson thing, I think I addressed this a
few weeks ago. Yeah, you still have him, and he's
still under contract. I don't know how healthy he is,
and I don't know exactly if whether or not he's
on the decline in his career, So I don't know
how coveted that job might be determining how depending on
how healthy Lamar Jackson actually is well.

Speaker 3 (52:17):
He definitely never got fully healthy again this season, and
that's tragic for Ravens fans and for me because I
had that prediction that they were going to end up
winning the division when they were one and five, and
I felt really smart for a while. But that was
also kind of hinged on the fact that Lamar's going
to get healthy for reels and he never did. He's
been missing practices the entire time.

Speaker 2 (52:38):
He's back well, by the way, Adam, you still can
be right. It's not likely but they but you could
still be right. I'll tell you made a gross error
the athletic directors and athletic departments at USC and Notre Dame.
And our next guest, Patrick Papadeka is going to come
on and talk about that. He'll also talk about Kyle
Whittingham coming out of retirement, though not really retirement or

(53:01):
whatever you want to call it, his parting of ways
with Utah.

Speaker 3 (53:03):
I kind of called that. I kind of called that
right after it happened. I said, what about Michigan, What
about Michigan?

Speaker 2 (53:08):
Yeah, yeah, you did, you did. Look, he never said
he was retiring. He just said he was stepping on
to a new endeavor. I don't think we all assumed
that ten days later or whatever it's been, that Endeavor
would be the head coach at the University of Michigan.

Speaker 3 (53:19):
Yet here we sit, did he do the players tribute?
Like KD my next chapter?

Speaker 2 (53:24):
I mean, essentially, you see the statement that he sent
out on Friday night. So make a short break. We'll
come back. Petris, Papaeka is Fox Sports and Fox fs
one college football Analyt's going to join us here. FNA
on FSR, don't go anywhere.

Speaker 5 (53:36):
listen live.

Speaker 2 (53:49):
Hey guys, oooh big golf sir. All right, well see
you later.

Speaker 3 (53:55):
FNA man, welcome back in. It's FNA on Fox Sports Radio,
f and A on Fox Football Saturday. I'm out of Moslin.
He's Kevin Figures. We do want to remind you. With
the iHeartRadio app, you can stream us wherever you happen
to be. Catch us in all of our Fox Sports
Radio shows live twenty four to seven any new and
improved iHeartRadio app. Just search Fox Sports Radio in the

(54:17):
app to stream us live all day, every day, and
be sure to select Fox Sports Radio as one of
your presets in the iHeart app so it will always
pop up at the top of your screen.

Speaker 2 (54:27):
Coming up in about twenty minutes, we'll dive back into
the NFL's six Pact, but right now major college football news.
Over the past week and then over the past few hours,
as a matter of fact, the ending of one of
the great rivalries really in all of sports, USC and
Notre Dame, and of course one of the great historic
programs and really all of sports, the Michigan football program
has a new headman of their program. So we'll talk

(54:49):
about that and a lot more with our next guest, Adam.
Let's go Alan Dragan Dad, thank you, Gutty.

Speaker 3 (54:57):
Well, like me, you may not associate our next guest
with I mean, the one to spread the most holiday
cheer this time of year, but I'll have you know,
back when I drank, he always brought me a bottle
of Maker's Mark for Christmas to help me medicate my
way through the season. And the fact he's coming on
right now this day, the day after Christmas tells you
he's low key been on the nice list for years.

(55:17):
It's College Football analyst Petros Papadakis joining us here on
F and A on fsr P. We're not with that
happy holiday stuff. It's Merry Christmas over here.

Speaker 2 (55:26):
How you been?

Speaker 7 (55:27):
That's fine? Hello and happy New Year. I'm okay and
nice to be on so late in the evening.

Speaker 3 (55:34):
Thanks for doing this the grift that keeps on grifting.
Let's talk about USC. How many people go into making
that decision of not scheduling Notre Dame anymore, and who's
most of fall for it?

Speaker 7 (55:48):
You know, I think it's something that probably devolved over time.
I think that USC has had a bunch of different
athletic directors over the last fifteen years. They've had a
great deal of turnover at the head coaching position, and
right now there's no university president at USC. So I

(56:11):
think what you're looking at as a corrosion of leadership.
And I believe, without being inside their building for these meetings,
I believe that this all.

Speaker 2 (56:24):
Started with Lincoln Riley.

Speaker 7 (56:25):
Lincoln Riley has a history of not wanting to play
certain games. He talked about the Notre Dame rivalry in
a disparaging way.

Speaker 2 (56:35):
When he got the job.

Speaker 7 (56:37):
He didn't want to play LSU to open the season
last year. If you remember in a game USC one
that was in Las Vegas to start the season. And
he has gotten his way here. It seems there's nobody
that would stop him. I know that the athletic director
at USC, Jen Cohen, was against this, but at some

(57:00):
point during the negotiations with Notre Dame that turned around,
and an ugly situation has gotten uglier. And it's hard
to recognize USC football if they're not going to play
Notre Dame every year. And know, to me, this is
not like Utah and BYU or Texas and Texas A

(57:21):
and M or anything, or USC Stanford or USC Cal
or anything else like that.

Speaker 3 (57:28):
And Matt Liner made those points on Twitter.

Speaker 7 (57:31):
Yeah, this is a totally different animal. I wish Matt
Liner would remember that it wasn't a USC Cal or
USC Stanford game that made him famous. It was a
USC Notre Dame game or two. And the fact that
I had to sit through him and Brady Quinn going
over the bush push one hundred times for the last

(57:52):
fifteen years on television, only to have Matt Liner defend
that the rivalry's gone is a sad irony. There's a
few sat ironies. One is that I was one that
supported Jen Cohen, and I even thought Lincoln Riley's hire
would be a good hire. When it happened, I thought
they saved USC football. And it was the new blood

(58:14):
in the athletic department that I was asking for, a
real ad who had hired and fired people in the
past and things of that nature. And these are the
people that don't understand the traditions of the university and
have let the.

Speaker 2 (58:28):
Number one rivalry slip away.

Speaker 7 (58:30):
Let me be clear, USC is not USC football if
they're not playing Notre Dame every year. It's a centuries
old thing that legitimized USC above the other West Coast
blue bloods because they played Notre Dame in every year
and had that history. Notre Dame playing USC every year
was very similar and showed their versatility as the biggest

(58:53):
name in college football. And the fact that we're not
going to do it anymore is terrible for USC players
going forward. I don't care if they're in the Big
Ten or the Mountain West or the New Pac twelve
or anything. And it's terrible for Notre Dame. And I
don't care which program needs the other program more in

(59:14):
the moment, I don't care what happened with the negotiations
and they said this.

Speaker 2 (59:20):
Or they wanted to play here or there.

Speaker 7 (59:22):
This is terrible. How could you be the athletic director
at Notre Dame and let the USC rivalry slip away?
And it started with USC, I'm aware of that. How
can you be the USC athletic director or head coach
or anything and allow the Notre Dame rivalry to slip
away on your watch just because somebody did this or
somebody it's your job to preserve this. So yes, I'm

(59:45):
disgusted and disappointed and normally not very passionate about anything
in modern college football. And this is probably the last
straw for me. This is.

Speaker 2 (59:59):
Unforgivable. Getting away from the cut and run narrative for
Lincoln Riley certainly is not going to help. I mean,
there are people who said that about him and when
he took the USC job and left Oklahoma because he
didn't want to compete at the SEC level track. No, no,
you're right.

Speaker 7 (01:00:12):
It goes back a long way, and he's been public
about this. And now his athletic director without a university
president seems to be doing his bidding.

Speaker 2 (01:00:21):
And it's a very very sad day.

Speaker 7 (01:00:25):
Beyond Lincoln Riley and whatever he is or is, it
is the USC coach and basically he's Clay Helton with
a much more high price tag. And whatever you think
of Jen Cohen or any I mean, whatever you think
of any or Notre Dame, whether you think they should
join a conference, or there being little bitches about the

(01:00:46):
ACC or College Football Playoff, this or that, whatever you
think about any of that, the USC Notre Dame game
is supposed to transcend societal changes and changes in the sport.

Speaker 2 (01:01:01):
It's supposed to.

Speaker 7 (01:01:03):
And because it's not a conference related thing, conference movement
didn't affect it, or shouldn't affect it. If Notre Dame
joined the conference, it wouldn't affect it.

Speaker 2 (01:01:13):
It shouldn't.

Speaker 7 (01:01:14):
If when USC changed conferences, it should not have affected it.
So none of those arguments carry any water with me whatsoever.

Speaker 2 (01:01:22):
But Kevin, I believe you're right.

Speaker 7 (01:01:25):
I think it started with Lincoln Riley and it ended
up getting him his way. And they'll replace They ain't
going to replace it with Auburn Okay, they're going to
play three cupcake games because they feel like they deserve that,
and they're going to operate like some kind of weird
SEC program and not the USC football that's supposed to

(01:01:49):
be a blue blood and supposed to take all comers
and supposed to play everybody difficult in the off season.

Speaker 2 (01:01:56):
Papa's conference, I should say, Fox and FS one football
analyst Petrols Popadecas joining us here on FNA on FSR
if we step away from the USC situation to talk
about the big news that happened on Friday with Kyle
Whittingham looking like he's going to be the head coach
at the University of Michigan after I mean, an organization,
a school that was in disarray and they've kind of
failed their way into one of the best head coaches

(01:02:18):
in college football the last twenty years. Your thoughts on
Kyle Whittingham leaving Utah and now joining Michigan reportedly, Yeah,
I don't.

Speaker 7 (01:02:25):
I mean, I don't think Kyle Whittingham left Utah to
go to Michigan, even though there were some I mean
weeks ago people talked, or a week or so ago
when all this stuff started happening, well.

Speaker 2 (01:02:38):
It was certainly weird because he said he was leaving
to a new chapter, but he never said he was retiring,
which was kind of oddo.

Speaker 7 (01:02:43):
Yeah, and I always figured he was retiring, and I
figured that he didn't want very much change since he'd
been at Utah all that time, and before that he
was the decordinator there. And I mean, I'm sure he
was fine when they went from the Mountain West the
PAC twelve, but I know he wasn't happy when they
went from the PAC twelve to the Big twelve. And

(01:03:07):
now he wants to go to Michigan and inherit their
problems more power to him. I feel like they have
a lot of money. I think I told you this
last time I was on and it's not some revelation,
but Michigan's very wealthy, and that can have something to
do with coaxing him out of retirement. And they're going

(01:03:28):
to set up maybe an infrastructure around him that's pleased,
that pleases him, or is plausible for him to stay
unretired or whatever, and perhaps they built in a bunch
of stuff to make it attractive. I'm super surprised, but
then again, I thought I knew Kyle Whittingham really well,

(01:03:48):
and it didn't turn out that way. A few years back,
and I used to spend a lot of time talking
about how great he was and what a great thing
U taught me was and all that stuff is still true.
But let's just say I don't say that stuff anymore.
So I don't know him as well as I thought

(01:04:09):
I did.

Speaker 2 (01:04:10):
A and B. Yes, I'm still surprised. Pee.

Speaker 3 (01:04:14):
I got one more question involving USC here and modern
USC football, and you have a better perspective on this
than anyone. But outside of a five year run with
Pete Carroll, the last forty five years, I don't know,
are we overvaluing like USC.

Speaker 2 (01:04:29):
Yeah, to a certain degree.

Speaker 7 (01:04:32):
I mean you can say that, but throughout all that time,
you can see that the people that they put in
pro football, and there's a lot of other factors, but
you're right after from between two thousand and two and
two thousand and eight was really kind of Pete Carroll's run,

(01:04:54):
and you had the couple of Heisman winners in there,
the three Heisman winners in there, and then Pete left
and there was a lot of attention because of Lane
Kiffin and what happened to him, and then there was
a lot of attention on Sark and ed ogeron in
there a great deal of attention, but they were still

(01:05:17):
taking all comers and playing Notre Dame every year and
doing all the things you're supposed to do.

Speaker 2 (01:05:23):
To act like USC football.

Speaker 7 (01:05:24):
I mean, now, at this point they might as well
just put names on the back of the jerseys and
do the ultimate uniform thing and playing Bemo Stadium. Why
not and change the neat name of the team to
the French Poodles or the French Bulldogs.

Speaker 2 (01:05:40):
Those are popular now, the Frenchies.

Speaker 7 (01:05:43):
And seriously, to me, if they're not going to play
Notre Dame, then it's just not USC football anymore.

Speaker 2 (01:05:49):
And is USC overvalued? I don't know.

Speaker 7 (01:05:52):
They were able to bring down the entire Pac twelve
by leaving for the Big ten. I think the history
that you don't just it's been decades, but we're talking
about one hundred plus year history of football and a
lot of money generated because of that. So it's a

(01:06:14):
lot more complex of an answer than yes or no.
But the truth is, yeah, USC football's done. It's been
over for a long time, and since Pete Carroll left
and the lack of lack of institutional control that was
created in his tenure has also created a leadership vacuum

(01:06:35):
or corrosion that now fifteen years later, they look in
the mirror and they don't even see USC football so
much to the point where they will cancel the Notre
Dame rivalry because they don't like what happened in negotiations.
So there's a trickier answer, and it's not yes and

(01:06:55):
it's not no.

Speaker 2 (01:06:56):
But I see your point.

Speaker 3 (01:06:58):
Well, just to play Devil's Abba kid or Crampus's advocate
during this season up, So you're saying, even if they
have a better chance of making the playoff, who cares?
This is about another dame.

Speaker 7 (01:07:11):
The playoff is an ever changing entity that's controlled by
a television company and owned by a television company, And
you're in a conference that if you're in the top
four or five in the next few years, you're going

(01:07:34):
to the playoff anyway, And who knows the sustainability of
this at all?

Speaker 2 (01:07:42):
This is an.

Speaker 7 (01:07:42):
Ever changing thing. College football is making it up as
you go along. If you're going to compromise your whole
identity for something that's a fly by night situation, and
that is exactly what the playoff is then, Yeah, who
cares exactly? Yes, I'm saying, who can. It's not worth

(01:08:03):
compromising your entire identity and your integrity, and the playoff's
going to grow anyway. And who says the playing Notre
Dame is going to hurt you in the playoff anyway?
It could help or hurt. The circumstance of every year changes.
I think Kevin was way more on top of it
when he said Lincoln Rowley doesn't want to play.

Speaker 2 (01:08:23):
They're soft.

Speaker 7 (01:08:25):
You can say whatever you want about the modern times,
or you could twist yourself into whatever kind of intellectual
pretzel you want to, but the truth is this is soft.
USC's running away from this. It's a terrible look and
it's a horrible thing. And shame on Matt Liiner and
people like that. You got to play in the USC

(01:08:47):
Notre Dame game. You got to get all the fame
out of it, rising to the moment, and I mean,
you're not the same person.

Speaker 2 (01:08:56):
Without that Bush push moment.

Speaker 7 (01:08:59):
And you're going to turn around and tell a whole
other generation of USC football players that you might make
the playoff. So you don't get to play against Notre
dame if that everything, that's this ridiculous. This is the
stupidest thing I've ever heard, But you know, it's modern
college football.

Speaker 2 (01:09:18):
But this is really the last straw for me. Yeah. Well,
talking about the ever changing landscape of college football and
the playoff and how it's going to continue to evolve,
one thing that's being hurt by that is the Bulls
and the traditional ball system. How do you feel about
the way that bull season is kind of being treated
now as opposed It was a big deal to go
to a bowl game back then, and now, I mean
even halfway decent bowls that you were usually pay attention to.

(01:09:41):
Nobody cares anymore because all they care about is are
you in the playoff or are you not?

Speaker 7 (01:09:45):
Yeah, I think it's part of something. ESPN owns all
of it, right, And look, I played in the nineties
and we went to the Sun Bowl and nobody wanted
to be there. I mean, we played, we got beat,
but you just go down, you know, deep down, it
wasn't It's not like this is always these are always

(01:10:08):
the most coveted things. It's the bowl games are circumstantial.
The truth is we have way too many bowl games
and that's because of some inventory issue with ESPN and
that there's money to be made, and people still watch
these games and they're a social media sensation. The players
might not necessarily want to play, but they might be

(01:10:29):
good for the development of other players. The problem is attendance.
That's really more of their issue because they're playing at
empty stadiums and that's not necessarily.

Speaker 2 (01:10:39):
A good look.

Speaker 7 (01:10:40):
Although there were a lot of people in Detroit this
morning when I checked in on the Chippawalls, So I
think the Bowl situation is going to have to be restructured.
But the truth is, and when I was playing, there
wasn't a thousand bowls and people still didn't want to go,
So you know, I think I think people kind of
forget a year in, year out. I mean, they don't

(01:11:02):
even remember the Freedom Bowl that used to be played
in Anaheim. We've always had stupid, meaningless Bowl games, and
even when there wasn't a thousand of them, people felt
like there was too many. So I'm sure that there'll
be some adjustment there unless there's enough money to be made,
and then they'll stay exactly where they are because there

(01:11:22):
is money in the Bowl games and some teams it
just depends on it. I mean, college football is so circumstantial,
and it's so it changes with every individual program to
where some programs might be in a development stage with

(01:11:43):
the players they've recruited or the portal or JC guys
or whatever, where they don't want to play a bowl game.
It's not going to help them, it's not going to
hurt them. They don't want the practices, they don't need it.
There are others that are going to remain intact, that
are all about retention, that are going into a year

(01:12:05):
where they feel like they have a chance, but they
need to develop a younger team and they're going to
keep most of those guys through the portal. Then yeah,
you might want to play and have the fifteen practices
and continue to develop your team before spring ball starts
and have a look at what it looks like. If
you have a cornerback who is going to be your

(01:12:25):
starter next year, but he's been.

Speaker 2 (01:12:27):
Playing behind a guy and that guy is.

Speaker 7 (01:12:30):
Moving on or transferring or going on to the pros
or not playing in the bowl game for whatever reason,
you might want to get a look at him. I mean,
so it changes based on what your situation is. So
to make these sweeping general arguments like they don't want
to play. Well, that's not true. Some people do, some
people don't. And I thought it was fine. Earlier in

(01:12:52):
the year, Kansas State just had a coaching change. Their
coach was with A and M as the play caller
call Incline, the head coach retired Chris Kleiman, who did
a great job there, and they didn't want to play
in a bowl game because they were in the midst
of a coaching change, And they went right out and

(01:13:12):
said we don't want to next year while calling Klein's
developing a team. Whatever their situation is, they might definitely
want to play in a bowl game even if they
didn't make the College Football Playoff.

Speaker 2 (01:13:23):
So you understand what I'm saying. Yeah, y'all know it
makes total sense.

Speaker 7 (01:13:26):
So we might lose some of the bowl games, but
I don't think the whole bowl game structure is going
to collapse.

Speaker 2 (01:13:33):
Yeah, the last one for me, just talking about a
week removed for our week away FRO. I should safe
from the start of the quarterfinals in the College Football Playoff.
I don't know if you have the ability to try
to handicap who you think the favorite should be. Is
a top brink, Indiana taking on Alabama into somebody else
like Texas Tech. How do you see the College Football
Playoff quarterfinal round going off? Your access? Tech is so
good on defense? There really are.

Speaker 7 (01:13:54):
They might unless their quarterback gets hurt or they get
real shaky on offense.

Speaker 2 (01:14:00):
I think they can.

Speaker 7 (01:14:01):
Beat Oregon and then yeah, I know, and then it's
one of those teams that you support scattered across the
country and a place you've never been. I'll meet you
in Charlotte. I look Inland, North Carolina. Anyway, I like
Texas Tech a lot. I like obviously it's hard to

(01:14:22):
deny the talent of Ohio State, but we went out
and saw Indiana control that talent for four quarters and win.

Speaker 2 (01:14:30):
A football game.

Speaker 7 (01:14:31):
So then it's like, Wow, Indiana's pretty good, right, How
you going to beat Indiana? It is interesting. The first
round didn't lend too much interest, but I will be
interested to see how it plays out. And I do
want to point out that the College Football Playoff got
a lot last year out of the fact that Notre
Dame played in four of those games, and that's I mean,

(01:14:54):
that's something that nobody's mentioning or talking about because we
forget about the past within a month or three weeks
after it's over, especially in today's modern sports calendar.

Speaker 2 (01:15:07):
But here's a guy.

Speaker 7 (01:15:09):
In Marcus Freeman who's got Notre Dame in a really
good situation, a lot better than USC and they still
have their own TV deal. So why would they want
to do anything for anybody else when they have that.

Speaker 2 (01:15:25):
That's just it's.

Speaker 7 (01:15:27):
Pretty obvious to me. But last year, the fact that
Notre Dame, the number one brand in all of the sport,
played in the title game and played in four different
games throughout the playoff and was kind of the darling
of the playoff I think certainly helped the playoff this
year last year. This year, it's probably Indiana or somebody

(01:15:51):
like that, But there's plenty of personalities involved.

Speaker 2 (01:15:54):
Miami.

Speaker 7 (01:15:55):
Will be fun to see them play and get beaten. Overall,
I'm looking forward to it. But we still have like
what like a week away we do.

Speaker 3 (01:16:05):
You know what's the dumbest part about this Matt Lioner tweet.
He says, call me lame, but I'm I'm going to
trust a school that's produced more Heisman winners than anyone
else in history in eleven national championships and do what's
right for the program that the people that did that
aren't there anymore. Yeah, it's like, what are you talking
about to him?

Speaker 7 (01:16:21):
The school is like a smiling person with a hand
and a heart and a look. This is just somebody
protecting their revenue stream and that's fine. But maybe, just maybe,
since the Notre Dame game is basically half of your
whole football identity, you might want.

Speaker 2 (01:16:36):
To just sit this one out.

Speaker 7 (01:16:38):
I mean, we'll just not do another Bush push video
for another fifteen years.

Speaker 3 (01:16:42):
He was under center during the Dentnis Green game on
Monday Night Football against the Bears for the Arizona Cardinals.
We let him off the that was a big deal.

Speaker 2 (01:16:50):
Yeah, well he can that's gone away too.

Speaker 3 (01:16:54):
He's petrospapan Akis, a Fox Sports Radio here with f
and a Taco of FSRS, a college football analyst, and
you're hearing weekdays on AM five seventy LA Sports, our
local affiliate on the Petros and Money Show.

Speaker 7 (01:17:08):
Pee.

Speaker 3 (01:17:08):
Thanks for doing this a day after Christmas, No less
appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (01:17:11):
All right, Have a great day and happy New Year everybody. Yes,
Happy New Year to up. Good stuff and a good
day to you.

Speaker 3 (01:17:18):
Sir, Now, I will say this, if I'm a USC
fan and I'm thinking about what defines my season more,
is it playing or beating Notre Dame or just getting
into the playoffs through the path of least resistance.

Speaker 2 (01:17:35):
I don't know that that's up for debate depending on
who you talk to, Adam.

Speaker 3 (01:17:39):
It really is a new school USC fans might not
care as much about the Notre Dame rivalry and just
think about getting into the playoff by any means necessary.

Speaker 2 (01:17:47):
Yeah, well, we'll see what happens. I'm up fall more
into the line of the old school, and you got
he can keep the traditional rivalry and still try to
compete on a high level. Your USC, you're one of
the marque programs in the entire country. Hold yourself to
a higher stand. They used to you know what I
hold to a high standard, the FNA six pack, And
that's going to continue coming up on the very next segment.
F and A on FSR.

Speaker 1 (01:18:07):

Speaker 7 (01:18:10):
You're born alone and you die alone, and this world
just drops a bunch of rules on top of you
to make you forget those facts.

Speaker 6 (01:18:16):
But I'll never forget.

Speaker 2 (01:18:17):
F and A on FSR for the best pregame show
every weekend. Be sure to tune into Fox Sports Radios
count Down to Kickoff, presented by bet MGM every Saturday
and Sunday morning. We will count you down to all
the biggest games for three hours right up until kickoff.
For all the best plays and up to the second
injury news. Tune in to Countdown to Kickoff, presented by
bet MGM, every Saturday and Sunday morning, right here on

(01:18:40):
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeart app.

Speaker 3 (01:18:43):
Mark what's next here in the NFL.

Speaker 2 (01:18:45):
Six Pack Trap Game Tap.

Speaker 3 (01:18:48):
Kevin, you want to go?

Speaker 2 (01:18:49):
Yeah, I'll start with my trap game tap here, and
I will go with the Buccaneers on the road, taking
on to the Miami Dolphins last week. I had Tampa
Bay and more specifically To Bowls on my hot seat
before their game against your Panthers, and of course they
blew it. Although I'll give the Panthers credit for as
much incoming as Bryce Young has gotten this season, He's
actually been i'd say average to above average to a

(01:19:11):
certain degree, He's actually played pretty damn well. He's turned
himself from someone who was probably a complete and total
bust to someone who if everything's falling into place around him.
He can actually be a halfway decent player in a
decent starting quarterback for a playoff caliber team. I don't
think that's too much to say, Adam.

Speaker 3 (01:19:25):
With the caveat of in the NFC South.

Speaker 2 (01:19:28):
Yeah, exactly. So going back to Tampa Bay and conahar
to call this a trap game because it is in
a sense they must win for them the way it
shapes up. If the Panthers beat Seattle and Bucks lose
to Miami, Bucks are out and the Panthers are in,
and that Week eight team matchup means nothing. But if
Tampa wins, it sets up an NFC South championship match
and Week eight team between themselves and Carolina. So really,
the Bucks can't afford to look aheads Week eighteen against

(01:19:50):
Carolina because it might not matter. And honestly, if you're
Tampa Bay and you're facing a down trot in Miami
team that's going nowhere with a rookie quarterback and can
kon on their minds, you should anyway. And if you don't,
you don't deserve to make the playoffs. So if Tampa
is a perfect example of why people say the season
is a marathon, and not a sprint. For six weeks
at the start of the season, people were printing Super
Bowl tickets. You're talking about Baker Mayfield being the MVP. Now,

(01:20:12):
all of a sudden, the team is in danger of
missing the postseason and their head coach could be coaching
for his job.

Speaker 3 (01:20:18):
Wait a second, walk me through this the playoff situation
in the NFC South. The Panthers are up a game,
but if they tie with the same record and they
split the season series, then what it goes to division record?

Speaker 2 (01:20:34):
And think its a division record after that? Correct?

Speaker 3 (01:20:37):
Okay, so it is gonna come down to assuming the
Dolphins lay down, which they might not they've actually been playing.

Speaker 2 (01:20:45):
Well, yeah, it's not a given for Tampa at.

Speaker 3 (01:20:47):
All, not the way they've been playing.

Speaker 2 (01:20:49):
No, so they could very easily lose that game to
the Miami Dolphins. I can absolutely see that happening, And
if that does happen, I think tod Bowls might be done.

Speaker 3 (01:20:58):
So a nine to seventy could win the NFC South
basically because that's what we take for the Buccaneers.

Speaker 2 (01:21:04):
To do this.

Speaker 3 (01:21:05):
Absolutely, Yes, that's disgusting, that is embarrassing, that is shameful,
that's worse than USC no longer playing Notre Dame in my.

Speaker 2 (01:21:14):
Opinion, Well, look, I mean we had one point in time,
had a seven and nine team make the postseason, a
win a playoff game against an eleven win Saints team.
So crazy things happening in the NFL. The six pack
will continue. Coming up next, FNA FSR.

Speaker 1 (01:21:26):

Speaker 3 (01:21:29):
Welcome back in. It is FNA on Fox Football Saturday.
I'm out of Moslin. He is Kevin Figures. We love y' all,
Thanks for being here with us. Coming up, we still
have our college football forecast, but if you need to
get to either of us, He's at k fig one
on X I'm at follow Adam A. We still have
two on two off with an interesting development. Kevinhing you right, Well,

(01:21:55):
development is that Well you'll see, you'll find out, you'll
find I don't know if you're gonna like it.

Speaker 2 (01:22:02):
Well, I'll be all right.

Speaker 3 (01:22:04):
Look how cocky is I'm tired of this.

Speaker 2 (01:22:06):
I'll be fine.

Speaker 3 (01:22:07):
Just because you're up on me by four or five games,
I'll sleep Okay. There's still two weeks in the NFL
season left. I have time, plenty of time to go
at them all. Right, Mark, do we have time to
get to Oh, it's my turn. You said it was
my turn. It's my turn.

Speaker 2 (01:22:23):
It's all yours. The floor is yours, Adham, I.

Speaker 3 (01:22:31):
Need you get my track. Yeah, it goes to me. Now,
you probably think, after last week's big victory over the
Bucks that I'm about to flip flop and jump back
in with my Panthers. But no, no.

Speaker 2 (01:22:44):
You're going to reverse psychology on this. Of course you are.

Speaker 3 (01:22:46):
No. I told you I'm officially out. You don't lose
twice to the Saints. Okay, I'm out. It's like Vince
Bond said in season two of True Detective, which no
where watched. Quote, sometimes a thing happens split your life.
There's a before and then after. Vince Bond was playing

(01:23:09):
a serious role. There was me before the Panthers lost
to the Saints twice, and I was a well adjusted
and happy, go lucky sports fan. And there's me after
the Panthers lost to the Saints twice.

Speaker 2 (01:23:21):
Bags under your eyes, shaking in the corner, losing your hair.

Speaker 3 (01:23:24):
Now I'm unhinged. Yeah, I'm a maniac. I could fly
off the handle at any time. But I had a
revelation in a moment of serenity when I saw the
panthers upcoming schedule. Sure, if they went on Sunday and
the Bucks lose, we're gonna win the division. But even
if that happens, Wait.

Speaker 2 (01:23:43):
So it's we So if they win the division, it's
now all of a sudden, we stay.

Speaker 3 (01:23:47):
With me even if that happens. Guess who they're playing
whoever ends up as the five seed out of the
NFC West, most likely between the Rams and Seahawks. Yep, yeah,
good luck actually winning a playoff game against them, and
good luck even winning the division because they're taking on

(01:24:08):
the Hawks at home this weekend. Well, the Bucks, as
you mentioned, get the Dolphins.

Speaker 2 (01:24:14):
I mean, you already beat the Rams. Why can't you
beat the Seahawks? Some we come on.

Speaker 3 (01:24:17):
The Panthers are eight point dogs at home against the
Seahawks this weekend.

Speaker 2 (01:24:21):
Right where they go?

Speaker 3 (01:24:22):
Find me another playoff team that could be eight point
dogs at home against anyone in the last decade. Vegas
don't believe in the Panthers either, and neither do I.
So I'm not falling in the trap of thinking we've
arrived or we're definitely winning the South and have a
chance to make some noise in the playoffs. The Panthers

(01:24:42):
are not out of the woods. They are as lost
as the filmmakers and the Blair Witch Project. The snot
is coming out of that woman's nose, and that is
looking more attractive than our playoff chances. You Panthers fans
that think you're safe, beware. This could be the nightmare
after Christmas on Sunday for the Panthers against the Seahawks,

(01:25:04):
team that is playing for the number one seed. I
am guarding my heart. I can't live out on that
ledge anymore with this team that makes me want to
jump off every week one way or another. This season
will not end pretty, and we'll still have more questions
than answers than answers about the Panthers and this direction

(01:25:26):
of this inept franchise. That's that's why I've said trap
game tap.

Speaker 2 (01:25:32):
Oh wow. I watch the Panthers win a playoff game
against San Francisco all in, Hey and Big Mike Lingar
are gonna come in. We're in their Panther jerseys, back
to back, high five and formula.

Speaker 3 (01:25:44):
I can see it already beating San Francisco like that.
That would mean a lot to me. But it's not
gonna happen, Kevin, Yeah, exactly, what's.

Speaker 1 (01:25:51):
The next Mark beer goggles?

Speaker 2 (01:25:53):
Gay? Yes, the ugly matchup that might end up being
an entertaining game, But I'm going to the Jaguars and
the Coats, and I will say kudos. Jacksonville silenced all
those haters last week with that dominant victory over the Broncos, which,
by the way, this league as a whole has been
kind of drunk all season long. So look at him.
So and if in August I had told you the Patriots, Jaguars, Bears,
and Seahawks would all have an eleven or more wins,

(01:26:15):
you'd probably think I was insane, or maybe not, maybe
you saw it coming.

Speaker 3 (01:26:19):
No, I'd be thinking bath salts.

Speaker 2 (01:26:20):
Yeah, exactly at the very least. But this is the NFL.
This is what they want, and I'll be honest, I'm
kind of here for it because I've gotten into debates
over the years over whether or not you the league
is better if you have dynasties or if you have parody.
My general preference is to have a little bit of both,
which is, honestly, Adam, what we've kind of had the
last two decades. Look at what happened with the Chiefs

(01:26:42):
have done on the heels and what the Patriots did,
and even in those teams runs of dominance, we've had
plenty of playoff parody. In the midst of the Patriot dynasty. Steelers, Ravens, Colt,
Broncos all won championships. And that's just in the AFC
and on Kansas City's watching over the past decade, they've
won their year of Super Bowls and they've lost their
share of Super Bowls. So seasons like this where you're
basically guaranteed to have some new blood coming or competing

(01:27:04):
for a championship, I think he's actually good for the sport,
and honestly is when it's the most entertaining. So that
brings me back to Jacksonville. Even though some may not
want to admit it, they are a legitimate Super Bowl
contender in the AFC and left no doubt what that
victory over Denver last week. But that being said, I
do think people are sleeping on this Colts team thinking

(01:27:24):
they're going to be a little bit of a walkover
even though they're eliminated from the postseason. Look, it's still
a division rival. Coach do have a chance to play
a little bit of a spoiler by knocking the Jacks
out of the division lead and into the wildcart round.
And by the way, I'm sure if you've seen Philip
Rivers over these past couple of weeks, and most notably
on Monday Night against San Francisco, does he look like
a guy who's ready to just give up on the season.

Speaker 3 (01:27:45):
Yeah, good luck walking over that. That's a pretty big
moung Well, that's Malcolm.

Speaker 2 (01:27:51):
Hill hey, and he's playing. He's balling his ass off.
You know, it kind of started as a punchline. We
talked about it, Adam saying like, we're not optimistic he
can make a difference for the Colts, and yes they're
one two, but they were knocking on the door of
beating Seattle and Rivers ball is asked off competed on
Monday night when Jonathan Taylor had nothing going against San Francisco.
So well, yes, that's.

Speaker 3 (01:28:10):
My favorite thing in sports right now, honestly, what Philip
Rivers is doing. Because for people who are getting older
like us, it's only happening to us.

Speaker 2 (01:28:20):
I'm getting old.

Speaker 3 (01:28:20):
That means something to me to see an older guy
ball out like that.

Speaker 2 (01:28:24):
Forty four year old grandfather hadn't played in five years,
and he's out there tossing touchdown passes against one of
the best defenses in the league and almost garts in Seattle.

Speaker 3 (01:28:34):
Come on, they get there, the ball gets there. His
anticipation is there.

Speaker 2 (01:28:39):
Not like he had the cannon arm to begin with
from day one, So that was never an asset that
he had. Just away. Just brings that veteran savage, that
veteran presence, to your point, knows how to find a
way to get it.

Speaker 3 (01:28:51):
There, more weight behind those throws.

Speaker 2 (01:28:53):
Now, it's conventional wisdom will tell you to take the
Jaguars and the points here because they've won six in
a row. They're going to the postseason. The Coats have
lost four straight. Headed for a tropical island somewhere. Conventional
wisdom doesn't always bear itself out in the NFL, like
I talked about a second ago, and I think that'll
be the case here. Jacksonville will have their hands full
against the Indianapolis Colts.

Speaker 3 (01:29:13):
All right, my beer goggles game here, Jega bombs down here, Tief.
When I put on my beer goggles, I see two
teams on Sunday in Vegas that aren't playing a football
game as much as they are acting out a play.
It's simulating football, well.

Speaker 2 (01:29:32):
The Pro Bowl or something. What's going on now?

Speaker 3 (01:29:34):
They are feigning competitiveness and I'm here for it. Why
does neither team want to win like that Little League
episode of South Park because the winner could lose out
on the number one pick in the draft. What interests
me is you have competing agendas out there. I think
while Mark Davis would prefer losing with the Raiders, Pete

(01:29:57):
Carroll wants to win. He's wired that way, win forever.
Blah blah blah. Per job job too. His job could
be on the line. I don't know if this would
save it, but they might also fire him if he
screws up the take job they're trying to do.

Speaker 2 (01:30:11):
So they're just saying it's a lose lose situation for Opete.

Speaker 3 (01:30:13):
It could be you. And meanwhile, the Giants in this game,
the ownership would probably like to lose. Mike Kafka, though
their interim head coach wants to win. So does Jackson
Dart because he's trying to show them they don't need
a quarterback. They don't need Fernando Mendoza. I got this
thing on lockdown.

Speaker 2 (01:30:33):
Don't you feel that he's kind of solidified himself to
a certain degree.

Speaker 3 (01:30:36):
Mendoza winning the Heisman and if they make a run here,
if they win the whole thing, it might be too tempting.
You might just have to take him. Anyways.

Speaker 2 (01:30:45):
I like Mendoza, I just don't love him, to be
honest with you. He's a really good player, but first
overall pick, top three pick in the draft because he's
a quarterback. At him he'll get there, Yeah, but I
just don't Generally speaking, I don't see it all right.

Speaker 3 (01:30:59):
But I will say none of the players on the
field will be tanking. But the coaches and the decision
makers could alter things if it's a close game in
order to secure the number one pick in the draft
between the Raiders and the Giants. Like, is someone going
to do something overly stupid to seal the loss that

(01:31:20):
has the NFL raised an eyebrow? Will the integrity of
the game be put on trial? This might be the
first time in his career that even Tom Brady wants
to lose. We know he's tried to cheat to win.
What about cheating to lose? Shouldn't that be easier to
cover up. He's gonna over inflate the balls, kill all

(01:31:41):
the cameras in the stadium. If the Raiders actually win
the one game they shouldn't, I will be laughing Hard'd
be awesome to see the fan with the spiked shoulder
pads do the Larry David expression where he's not sure
if this is a good thing or a bad thing
in the crowd with his.

Speaker 2 (01:32:01):
Face painted Darth Raider would pull the Obi Wan and
just kill himself, basically.

Speaker 3 (01:32:09):
Take himself out. Or maybe it's the Alonso morning. Yeah,
I guess it was good. I don't know. That's how
Raiders fans might feel during this game. I don't know
if you want to win, Kevin, you got.

Speaker 2 (01:32:23):
An answer for that. I'll get into that and under
the microscope.

Speaker 3 (01:32:26):
Okay, okay, I tease it out. Mark, what's coming up next?

Speaker 8 (01:32:31):
Oh my god, Oh my god, Oh Chris, I'm so sorry.

Speaker 2 (01:32:52):
All right, Oh Troy epic failed potential and I'm going
with the Pittsburgh Steelers to him. Now. I'll place a
caveat on it by saying that if the Ravens do
lose to Green Bay tonight, my entire take here is moot.
Because the Steelers will have clinched the AFC North before
they even take the field on Sunday. So that being said,
the playoffs are essentially here for Pittsburgh already. Though regardless
of what happens tonight in Green Bay, Pittsburgh beats the Browns,

(01:33:13):
they clinched the AFC North. The problem is, I don't
think that's a given. We've seen a number of times
where a team has a chance to clinch a playoffs
spot with their only requirement being they beat a division
opponent with a bad record with nothing to play for,
and they end up falling flat on their face. It
happens all the time. I would say all the time,
but it's happened multiple times, I'll put it that way,
and it hasn't necessarily worked for me in our two

(01:33:34):
to on two off segment. But the Browns have shown
themselves to be fairly scrappy at times this year. I
don't think they played well at all last week against Buffalo,
and they still only lost by three points. That tells
you how resilient they are. While the Steelers have won
three games in a row, they are the very epitome
of the average eight to nine or nine to eight
football team that we were talking about earlier, just as

(01:33:54):
liable to beat anyone, just as liable to lose to
anyone one. Thing the Steelers have in their favor hitting
into this game. Despite their inconsistencies, they do generally beat
the teams that they're supposed to beat. Only one of
their six losses is against the teams with the losing record,
and that was that shootout early in the year Joe
Flacco's debut for the Cincinnati Bengals on that Thursday night.
So if you follow that trend, you'll assume that Pittsburgh

(01:34:16):
has nothing to worry about here, but in a game
like this, as I mentioned, division rival, nothing to lose,
nothing more what they love than the knock you out
of the postseason. I think you can kind of throw
away that trend. So often signs we're talking about games,
we'll say team A will win because they want it more,
they need the game more. That doesn't necessarily always matter.
Every now and then, the motivation of being a spoilers

(01:34:36):
to persed, the motivation to propel yourself into the postseason.
And if you don't believe me again, look it up.
There's plenty of examples in history that prove me right,
all right.

Speaker 3 (01:34:46):
I also have this as my olde Troy epic fail
potential game for a couple different reasons. I guess first,
like you said, if the Steelers end up losing to
the Cleveland Browns with how much they have to play for,
that's rough, especially with Shaduur, and that's severed pinky. And
I'm gonna say this, I really liked what Shaduur Sanders

(01:35:09):
gave to that reporter with his answer. The reporter was
trying to be divisive, give him a tough question about
going forward on fourth down and what he thought of
the call. I'm fine with the reporter asking that question.
That's their job find the story or maybe even create
one if the player falls forward. Chaduur did not, and

(01:35:29):
instead turned it into a moment where he looks good
like a stable leader that isn't willing to throw anyone
under Jerome Bettis's bus along the bumpy ride where they're
trying to turn around this thing in Cleveland right now.
It was well handled by him.

Speaker 2 (01:35:45):
Second or third time that's happened in the past month
or so where Shaduur Sanders has been given an interesting
question by the media, and he's handled it flawlessly.

Speaker 3 (01:35:52):
Dodging those land mines. But the real way this turns
into an epic fail for the Browns is if Miles
Garrett does doesn't get the sack record this week. Because
I don't care if he breaks the record while getting
an extra game, I'm sorry. You gotta do it in
sixteen games, just like Michael Strahan did.

Speaker 2 (01:36:09):
I think that's necessarily true.

Speaker 3 (01:36:10):
But all right, there will be an asterisk on time
in my record book. There will be Kevin and that's
very important to Miles Garrett. I know this.

Speaker 2 (01:36:19):
Now.

Speaker 3 (01:36:21):
Forget the half sack bs that he got last week.
That was interesting because if you get another one of those,
that will just tie him with Michael Strahan because he
had twenty two and a half sacks in two thousand
and one. Miles Garrett is currently at twenty two, so
one sack to rule them all that will give him
the legit record on Sunday. What's interesting is the Steelers

(01:36:43):
are twenty third in sacks allowed on the season. They've
only given up twenty seven. For perspective, the worst team
in that category is the Jets. They've given up fifty
eight sacks. The Raiders fifty seven Miles Garrett. He's gonna
have to earn it because he didn't have a sack
against them in their first game against Pittsburgh this season.

(01:37:04):
And Aaron Rodgers is unlikely. I think to pull uh
Brett Farv what his former mentor did.

Speaker 2 (01:37:13):
When he laid down, I mean, how legitimate Michael Strahan,
how legitimate is that? I don't care if you want
to look at that. Our guest the numble shops, they'll
have the record. Here's the thing, t J. Watt Or
or Michael Strahan. All Farv did was not get hit harder.
He had nowhere to go he did. I remember this
game vividly. The Packers were gonna win. They're planning against
a Giants team that was not going to the postseason.

(01:37:34):
The Packers were up by like ten with like three
minutes to go, and they ran some bootleg play with
Brett Faarr for no reason when they could have run
out the clock. They absolutely called that play intentionally so
that Michael Strahan could break the sack record.

Speaker 3 (01:37:46):
I can't call it all that.

Speaker 2 (01:37:47):
If we're calling into question the legitimacy of it, that's
illegitimate too. And Mark Gastonell should still have the record
of most sacks in the NFL history.

Speaker 3 (01:37:55):
All I'm saying is this, if Miles Garrett wants it,
you better get that sack on Sunday against Pittsburgh. Alright,
I'm not buying that this extra extra week bs no, no, no, no,
this extra credit.

Speaker 2 (01:38:06):
Ah.

Speaker 3 (01:38:07):
You know you can make up for it and do
some extra work later on to turn that B plus
into an a F that get it on Sunday or
to oh Troy epic fail, Garrett.

Speaker 2 (01:38:18):
Jeez right, we'll step aside for a minute. We'll come
back and can sell you the NFL sticks back here
on FSR. FNA on FSR to go anywhere.

Speaker 5 (01:38:27):
listen live.

Speaker 3 (01:38:40):
FNA Cotton, welcome back in. I'm out of Maslin. He's
Kevin Figures. This is FNA on FSR. And if you remember,
we're feeding off the success of our college basketball bracket
challenge each March, so we decided to do a bracket
challenge for the college football playoff. That's all right now,

(01:39:00):
that there are eight teams left standing. It's Bracket Challenge time.
Compete against Fox Sports Radio hosts and against fellow listeners
to see who has the best college football bracket. Play
for your chance to win one thousand dollars. Visit Foxsports
Radio dot iHeart dot com to register, get rules, and
to fill out your bracket. Entry will be open until
just before kickoff at seven thirty pm Eastern on New

(01:39:23):
Year's Eve. Again, fill out your brackets at Foxsports Radio
dot iHeart dot com for your chance to win one
thousand dollars.

Speaker 2 (01:39:32):
Sounds like a hell of a deal. You get to
get one thousand dollars back to put some money back
into your pocket after buying all those Christmas gifts. So
there you go. Don't get cheap on me, doccha, Mark.
Let's dive back into the NFL six pack.

Speaker 1 (01:39:42):
What do we got under the microscope?

Speaker 2 (01:39:44):
Yes, gameplay or a team everyone should watch closely this weekend.
And I am going to go back to something you
talked about earlier, Adam, and that Raiders Giants game and
the way I'll say this, the big question for me,
who knows the assignment? Both teams come in just a
couple of wins and the loser, as you talked about,
most likely gonna get the top pick in the draft.
So it behoo's both teams to lose. And I said

(01:40:06):
this earlier as a Raider fan, I think it does
kind of suck to have a top three pick this
year because I don't think it's a pretty strong quarterback class.
I like Banana Mendoza, I like Dante Moore. I don't
know if I like those guys enough to say I
take him in the top three, top five of the draft.
So from that standpoint as a Raider fan, I'm a
little bit disappointed to and if anything, I might want
them to trade back. But we're far ways away from

(01:40:27):
draft season. We've got plenty of time to talk about
that aspect of it. But the big question back to
the game on Sunday. Who knows the assignment. The players
are gonna play hard, they're gonna try their best to win.
Max Crosby said earlier this week doesn't give a bleep
about the top overall pick, and as a player he shouldn't,
but you know who does, Mark Davis, John spy Tech
the GM in Vegas, Tom Brady, Pete Carroll for the Giants,

(01:40:49):
it's Joe Shane and the Marrow family. In fact, the
Raider Brass gives so much of a bleep about that
draft pick. They sit in masx Crosby home. Or if
they told him he was being benched and he decided
to get up and go home on his own. Ruh,
brock Bowers, that happened. It was reported earlier by Jay Glazer,
and then Pete Carroll confirmed it out of his own mouth,
had his press conference on Friday afternoon. Oh my god,
brock Bowers has been shut down for the season. Coldon Miller,

(01:41:11):
their best offensive linean who's been out since Week four,
likely healthy enough to play, Probably gonna be out too.
So look, won't be surprising if other certain players get
quote unquote nicked up during the game, sit out the
second half, maybe have their snapcount monitor. I'm not suggesting
this is an old crooked cop bit. You know what
they tell you they pulled you over because your tailight

(01:41:31):
is out, and you say, what do you mean, No
it's not, and then they break it and says, yeah,
it looks like it to me. I'm not saying they
have to go that far, but you know, maybe Mike
Kafka walks over to deck to Lawrence in the third quarter, says, hey, man,
I know this. You're limping out there a little bit.
Let's scale you back some of these xt couple of drives.
Why don't you sit on the bench. Ashon gents starts
breaking off runs like he did against Houston last week
at him, Yeah, maybe you pull them to the side

(01:41:53):
and said, man, he've been running your ass off out there.
A good effort. I know it's only halfway through the
third quarter, but I'll take a little load off. Sit
on the bench. Here's my tie, kickoff, kick up your
legs a little bit.

Speaker 3 (01:42:02):
You're not going to the Pro Bowl, but here's my time.
Why not.

Speaker 2 (01:42:05):
Look and for those who are saying that I'm advocating tanking,
I said no such thing. All I said was know
the assignment. Giants, Raiders know the assignment. And so far
the Las Vegas Front office seems to have done their part.

Speaker 3 (01:42:18):
They're gonna out tank the Giants. I mean the Raiders.
They are pros at this. They say they don't have
to try very hard to be Yeah, that's the thing.
Roger Goodell, what are the signs that these teams are
actually trying to lose. When they lose all the time,
how can you prove it when they suck all the time?
All right, my under the microscope. I'm gonna piggyback off

(01:42:39):
something you talked about earlier for me, parody in the
league is under the microscope. The Eagles are currently the
only division winner from last year currently leading their division
again going into Week seventeen. Right, it could be just
the second time since realignment back in two thousand and
two we only get one repeat division winner. The other

(01:43:04):
time was in twenty eleven, where the Patriots were the
only team to repeat as division champs in the league
in the sorry ass AFC East back then. Now Tampa
Bay or the Rams or Houston could still win their
divisions like they did last season. But it's interesting seeing
all the turnover in the league year to year where

(01:43:25):
we try to project out and make predictions heading into
the season based off a lot of stuff that occurred
last season. When it's a week to week league, no
one's ever as good or as bad as they just
performed the week before except the Raiders.

Speaker 2 (01:43:40):
The Raiders suck.

Speaker 3 (01:43:41):
We try to act like we're smart. We do these predictions.
We tell you we're smart. When they're correct. We knew
it all along. But the truth is a lot of
it's just straight luck, which is why if I lose
to Kevin and two on two off, I won't even
feel bad about it, because it's just a stupid lip
of the coin. Anyways.

Speaker 2 (01:44:01):
Well yeah, but if you win, what happens, well then well,
if you're a genius, I'm Brandon laying all your scouting
insights and all all your insider information ended up working
out in your favor, working out for you.

Speaker 3 (01:44:12):
I see, it's two for the money. Then I knew
everything all along. Right, that's my under the microscope take parody.

Speaker 2 (01:44:21):
Hey, I get it. We have one final category to go.
What is it there, Mark? What do you got? Redemption round? Yes?
Who's looking to bounce back from last week? And honestly,
Adam for this one, I'll keep it short and sweet.
I'm going with the La Rams out as it might sound,
I think the Rams losing to Seattle last week was
a bit of a blessing in disguise. You hear all
the time about how really good teams stand a benefit
from losing a game late in the year as a

(01:44:43):
way to sort of, you know, reset themselves. As they
get ready for the postseason, maybe fix some issues that
have been plaguing them for a little bit. Well more
than anything that forces, you know, the Rams to look
at their special teams. And that's exactly what they did.
They fired their special teams coordinator Chase Blackburn last week,
something Sean McVay has never done, has never fired an
assistant coach midseason. But it had been so bad. I mean,

(01:45:03):
they lost that Eagle game because they couldn't get a
snap and miss the field goals, the punters drop. It
was all over the place all season long. Their biggest
achilles heel has been their special teams. Now you make
a change this late in the season. How big of
a difference is it going to make? I don't know,
but it certainly can't be any worse than it has
been to this point in time. As good as they've been,
the special teams we know can really change a lot

(01:45:25):
of things now, So it I mean, look at that
what happened last week and that the Rashisha he punt returned,
I think changed the momentum of that entire game and
allowed Seattle to come back and win.

Speaker 3 (01:45:35):
To me, it's I have all this data, I have
all this evidence all season long. I'm not going to
go into the playoffs and let this be the thing
that loses me that game, because I already.

Speaker 2 (01:45:45):
Knew that could have happened, right, So go in and
make a change now, and you know, see see exactly
what happens. We'll find out. But the Falcons present a solid,
get right game for the Rams here. I fully expect
him to cover that. I think it's up. The spread
is up to eight now at last check. Whether it
was seven, whether it's eight, I think they're gonta dominating
victory over Atlanta Monday Night football.

Speaker 3 (01:46:04):
All right, my redemption round pick I might be looking
for some redemption after my prediction that Denver was going
to cover the three points or whatever it was last
week at home against Jacksonville. I've been a hater. I've
been waiting for Jacksonville to turn into a pumpkin, the
hate to flow through you, and waiting and waiting. But

(01:46:25):
instead they've turned into a team with a chance to
win the number one seed in the AFC. After the
beatdown they put on the Denver Broncos, winning by two touchdowns,
it reminded me a little bit of a famous playoff
upset from nineteen ninety six when the then second year
franchise expansion team Jaguars, with Mark Brunell, Jimmy Smith, Keenan McCardell,

(01:46:48):
Tony Bissell blocking, they went to Mile High and upset
what some thought was the best team in football in
the thirteen and three number one seeded Denver Broncos, who
were fourteen points favorites in that game.

Speaker 2 (01:47:01):
Is Fred Taylor on that team too?

Speaker 3 (01:47:03):
A little bit before it yet he got there I
think in ninety nine, But this wasn't that. It wasn't
that big of an upset, but it made me consider
for the first time just how far these Jaguars could go.
They really only have one bad loss. It happened early
in the season when they gave away that game to
the Bengals where Joe Burrow went down and somehow they

(01:47:24):
lost to Jake Browning even though he threw three picks.
Outside that. It's losses to the Seahawks, the Rams, and
the Texans. They've won six in a row. They're at
Indy on Sunday, then they close out against the Titans
at home, so they're probably finished in thirteen and four.
That's on the table at least Denver. There's still a

(01:47:46):
game up on them. Obviously, they beat Case, then they
get the Chargers at home to close things out. But
if they tie with Denver, of course the Jaguars have
the head to head tiebreak now because they beat him
in Denver. The Patriots they're also a game up on
them with the Jets on Sunday and then Miami at home.

(01:48:08):
But it looks like it worst. If the Jags don't
totally fall apart, they have a great chance of being
at least the three seed, but most probability calculators have
them around a fifteen percent chance to still be the
one seed. They just need Denver to slip up New
England to lose a game too. They went out, they

(01:48:29):
got it. They won four games last year. The Jaguars
they drafted Travis Hunter, who's been out for months now.
I don't really know how they're doing this, but I
saw this from their defensive end, Trayvon Walker. He said
on a radio show or something quote, everyone's going to

(01:48:50):
try to hop on this bandwagon. Now, we don't want
nobody stay where you're at. If everyone but us excuse
my language, mom, dad, and but if everybody but us.
I think that's pretty cool that he added the butt
us in there. When Tupac was screaming f the world
that like includes himselves. So Trey von Walker here made

(01:49:14):
that distinction. He wants everyone to know. It's if everyone
but us.

Speaker 2 (01:49:18):
I don't know. I mean, look, we've ever given love
to the Jacksonville Jaguars, but is anybody jumping on their
bandwagon per se?

Speaker 3 (01:49:23):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:49:24):
There's people coming out of the whowork all of a sudden,
you know, throwing on Trevor Lawrence Jersey's left and right.

Speaker 3 (01:49:29):
I still think they could easily lose their first playoff game.

Speaker 2 (01:49:32):
Like it's probably just because of the stigma they carried
into the season because you didn't expect them to be
where they are. But based on how they played this year,
would not surprise me in the least bit if they
made it to the super Bowl, not at all.

Speaker 3 (01:49:41):
I don't trust Trevor Lawrence enough.

Speaker 2 (01:49:43):
I understand. I get it.

Speaker 3 (01:49:45):
I totally get their Maybe it's the face warped looking fabio.
I don't know what it is, but I don't like it.

Speaker 2 (01:49:52):
Their super Bowl os. By the way, there are plus
nine thousand coming into the season somebody put a what Yeah,
they were ninety to one, ninety to one. It's over nine.
Somebody somewhere, oh puts, as Rob Parker would say, put
a couple of shekels on the Jaguars to win the
Super Bowl before the season start.

Speaker 3 (01:50:12):
One I Jimmy Smith did it.

Speaker 2 (01:50:13):
No, it's not very possible. All right, all right, that's
the NFL six pack.

Speaker 3 (01:50:18):
Mark.

Speaker 2 (01:50:18):
Let's get to the college football forecast. Here will fast.

Speaker 1 (01:50:22):
College football forecast.

Speaker 2 (01:50:24):
With f and I'm not going to forecast meeting less
bowl games coming up, and we can maybe get deeper
into that in our New Year's Eve special show there,
Adam when we sit in for Big Ben Mallard's right
out to that coming up next week.

Speaker 3 (01:50:36):
That's coming up on the Wednesday into Thursday.

Speaker 2 (01:50:38):
Yes, so that will be New Year's Eve night slash
New Year's Day early day for a lot of people
out there. So that'll be a fun show.

Speaker 3 (01:50:45):
I got to put like some kazoo sound effects into
the instant reflay machine for that one. We got to
make it special.

Speaker 2 (01:50:51):
Yeah, it'll be our first foray into the Maller militia.
Please be kind, but so, but right now, let's talk
about because Kyle Whittingham, obviously, I guess, seemingly came out
of nowhere, though I guess I should have put some
put a shekel or to myself on him getting the
Michigan job. Like Adam mentioned, I slept on that one.

Speaker 3 (01:51:06):
I don't know that guy said it, and I didn't
feel like going through the needle in the haystack to
find it, even though typically I would like to point
out how smart I was, was probably just a throwaway
comment honestly that maybe they go after Kyle whitting I
don't know. It's interesting, but I think culture wise in

(01:51:26):
philosophy wise is a pretty great match with the physicality
perfect fit.

Speaker 2 (01:51:31):
The way that his teams play is right in line
with how Michigan wants to play. Tough, physical might not
be always pretty offensively at times, but gonna be good
defensively upfront, gonna be good offensively upfront. And the big thing,
Bryce underwo their freshman quarterback who was up and down
a bit this past season but has really really good
talent and potential, entered the transfer portal. Now that you

(01:51:54):
have a legit coach like Kyle Whittingham coming into the program,
you can only hope if you're a Michigan fan, that
he they are finding way that coach Bryce Underwood to
come back, And it would not surprise me whatsoever if
this is like a turn. And by the way, Michigan
was only what there were nine to three, So in
an expanded playoff situation, they're knocking on the door. If
this was a sixteen team playoff, they're right there, right

(01:52:14):
in the mix on the bubble. So who's to say
even this past season for their standards that you would
call necessarily mediocre. I mean, who's to say they can't
come back and be in the colleg football playoff next year?
There's no reason to think that they can't do that
with winning him in his first year at the Helm.

Speaker 3 (01:52:29):
I mean, I'd probably put like a sixty percent chance
they are in the playoff if they get Underwood back.
Here's the number one recruit by everybody last season nationally,
and we'll probably get him back. I know he didn't play,
he's a freshman.

Speaker 2 (01:52:44):
Yeah, I am. One problem is you can't hold him
to the same standard as guys like Trevor Lawrence or
Andrew Look, I mean those guys are like those are anomalies,
and so.

Speaker 3 (01:52:52):
Yeah, those are generational guys.

Speaker 2 (01:52:54):
Yeah, you're not gonna find guys like that at all times.
But he showed enough progress last year to make you
think that if he comes back another year at Michigan
with a good offensive staff which he will have, with
a great head coach which he will have in Kyle Whittingham,
I think this guy's a limit from Michigan. That's incredible
how they have been through so much turmoil these last
couple of years. The hardball, the Connor Stallion sign stealing stuff,

(01:53:16):
the hardball, cheeseburger thing where he has recruits, all the
satellite camp stuff where they were on probation for he
gets hit with the show called Sharon Moore has his
issues these last few weeks, and they basically, I think
I said this to Petros earlier, they basically failed up
like you upgraded at the head coaching position. No disrespect
to Sharon Moore was dealing with obviously a lot of
personal issues. But you put Charoon Moore and Kyle Whittingham

(01:53:39):
next to each other, there's no question who you're picking
in any shape or form. At that point in time.
They have failed upward, and to a certain degree, I'd
say the same thing about Penn State, who had no
idea what the hell they were doing after they fired
James Franklin, chasing their tail left and right. Nobody wanted
the job, and all of a sudden they look into
Matt Campbell.

Speaker 3 (01:53:55):
They stepped on the rake, but like, I don't know
the plastic. It was an older ray happy Gilmour Almurdy
was like throwing it against a tree or something like that.

Speaker 2 (01:54:05):
I thought it was some side durable. I thoughtually going
to sideshow Bob reference where he just step kept stepping
on rakes no matter what direction he turned in. Yeah,
let stuff on the face.

Speaker 3 (01:54:15):
It comes up roses for them. They land on their
feet every time. The only thing I'd be worried about
is while they're trying to pull Underwood out of the portal,
what if they only get his lower half and now
he's definitely just running quarterback.

Speaker 2 (01:54:29):
Well, look, Kyle Whittingham has won with a lot less. Yeah,
he's one. I won't call it in episode, but he's
one with gotten with not the greatest talent at the
quarterback position at times at the University of Utah. That's
how good he's been. And if I could use this
as a referendum on the USC football program too. Petrols
took his shots. I'll take mine too, because Adam hu
asked Petrols why they've struggled so much over the past

(01:54:51):
forty years or so save for the Pete Carroll era,
and a lot of it points to the same leadership
that Petrols was talking about. They reportedly could have had
Chris Peterson, who's not analyst for Fox remember when they
were willing, But they were weren't willing to make the
concessions for him, so he went to Washington That same offseason,
Sam goes for Winningham. Rumor has it he wanted the
USC job in twenty sixteen, but allegedly the people in charge,

(01:55:13):
Lynn Swan, the ad and Max Nicky as the President,
wanted to keep the status quote, didn't want to bring
in somebody from outside the family who might rock the
boat and do things their own way, so they decided
to remove the interim attack from Clay Hilton and give
him the job.

Speaker 3 (01:55:24):
They chose poorly in like four different forks in the
road type of moments over the last forty five years
or so, and.

Speaker 2 (01:55:31):
That's why they find themselves in the situation they are now.

Speaker 3 (01:55:33):
They also stumbled into Pete they did.

Speaker 2 (01:55:35):
Yeah, those are like their eighteenth choice. All right, it
is F and A on FSR coming up next, It
is two on two off, Well Adam make his run
for redemption here these last two weeks in the NFL season,
we'll find out. FNA on FSR don't listening to Fox
Sports Radio Radio?

Speaker 1 (01:55:52):
Do we look like the three dummiest guys in the
world to you?

Speaker 2 (01:55:57):
F and A Cotton back in on the f and
A takeover of Fox Sports Radio. FNA on FSR. We're
gonna let you know that. For the best pregame show
every weekend, be sure to tune into Fox Sports Radios
Countdown to Kickoff presented by BETMGM every Saturday and Sunday morning.
We will count you down to all of the biggest

(01:56:17):
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Tune into Countdown to Kickoff, presented by bet MGM every
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Speaker 3 (01:56:29):
App mark What do we got?

Speaker 1 (01:56:32):
Two on two?

Speaker 3 (01:56:34):
Are all right?

Speaker 2 (01:56:37):
Are we looking at him?

Speaker 3 (01:56:38):
This is interesting? This hadn't happened yet. And I'm surprised
it hadn't happened yet.

Speaker 2 (01:56:42):
What do you mean.

Speaker 3 (01:56:45):
Somebody finally pushed with a call. So I went two
and two last week, yep, and you went one and
two because your other one was a push.

Speaker 2 (01:56:55):
Right, it was technically I went one, two and one.
I don't know if we want to do ties in
there or not, but it messes up the math.

Speaker 3 (01:57:02):
This is easier, okay, fair enough. So on the season,
I'm thirty one and thirty three, Kevin, there's a disgustingly
fake looking record of thirty What are.

Speaker 2 (01:57:16):
You saying, I'm cooking the books here or something? What's
wrong with you? Who could be.

Speaker 3 (01:57:21):
Thirty five and twenty eight in this NFL season?

Speaker 2 (01:57:25):
Joe Klass.

Speaker 3 (01:57:26):
Someone's getting roasted.

Speaker 2 (01:57:27):
Some would say, a genius said him.

Speaker 3 (01:57:29):
I don't know SBP's getting killed. I'm pretty sure Bill
Simmons ever released his record, it would be under five
hundred and Kevin is killing it.

Speaker 1 (01:57:39):
Check out the Big Brain on Brad.

Speaker 3 (01:57:42):
But it ain't over yet. There's two weeks left, okay, Oh,
there's always time.

Speaker 2 (01:57:47):
There's time today.

Speaker 3 (01:57:48):
I got to don't get comfortable. You don't get too comfortable.
I don't get complacent out there. Okay, So in two
on two off, people, we do things a little bit differently.
You can't just pick any games. You have to pick
two games on favorites and two games where you're taking
the underdogs. So the on is betting on a favorite.

(01:58:11):
You want to give me an on.

Speaker 2 (01:58:12):
Kevin Yep, I'm going with the Rams. I checked earlier.
I said it was seven, that actually moved up to eight,
and I'm still taking. I'm taking the Rams minus eight
over the Falcons Monday Night Football, Atlanta playing out the string.
I do love jar Robinson, but I think the Rams
on a mission to turn things around. I mentioned they
fire their special teams coach. They're still gunning potentially for
that top seed and for the for the top billing

(01:58:32):
in the NFC West. So I'm going with the Rams
to dominate the Falcons minus eight.

Speaker 3 (01:58:37):
I like that one. I like it so much I
would like to take it, but well, that's not gonna
help me chase you down.

Speaker 2 (01:58:44):
This is true.

Speaker 3 (01:58:45):
I'm not gonna do this thing where I'm just gonna
kick a field goal at the end of the game
to make it look more respectable or something. But I
have no chance to win I'm gonna try to go
for the win.

Speaker 2 (01:58:56):
You also do it to cover the spread, like Pete
Carroll did a few weeks ago.

Speaker 3 (01:58:59):
Yeah, the pussy willow coaches that make moves like that disgusting.
All right, My first on another team with everything to
play for, Pittsburgh minus three at Cleveland. I like the
way they've been playing. I like the way Aaron Rodgers
has been throwing it. Mike Tomlin, he's got all the

(01:59:20):
momentum again in another winning season. Cleveland. It's interesting, but
Shador hasn't really put it together enough yet. Nope, Pittsburgh
starting to play better. They can see the finish line
they cover.

Speaker 2 (01:59:34):
Okay, you're o. They're on my other one. I'm going
with the Green Bay Packers over the Baltimore Ravens. Green
Bay favor by three. Oh did I steal your pick
there at them?

Speaker 7 (01:59:42):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:59:42):
The battle of the backups come on Malik Willis and
most likely Snoop Huntley with Lamar Jackson being listed as doubtful.
I know the Packers essentially have nothing to play for,
although they can still technically win their division, although it's
an outside shot at that point in time. So h
and Baltimore literally has to win this game. It's a
must win for them. But I like the Green Bay
Packers over Baltimore. Milik Willis has looked good, so I'm

(02:00:03):
taking the best Packers to cover the three.

Speaker 3 (02:00:06):
Well, I gotta take something different, then, Yeah, go ahead,
because I've been putting this terrible position.

Speaker 2 (02:00:12):
Or someone say you put yourself in the same But
I wouldn't say that I was cheated. Okay, we both
know it. I don't know that.

Speaker 3 (02:00:19):
But all right, all right, before I get to that
on because now I got to come up with something new.
I'm gonna go with an off here and no stealing it.
Bears plus three and a half NSF on the road
against the forty nine ers. What's that look on your
face for?

Speaker 2 (02:00:36):
Because I hat Chicago covering the three. I guess the
forty nine ers has my off. So and I'm not vacillating.

Speaker 3 (02:00:41):
Because I don't have to whow so playing with the
lead here, that's right. I just want to sit on
it now.

Speaker 2 (02:00:48):
If you want, I can give you my other off.

Speaker 3 (02:00:50):
Got somebody you can.

Speaker 2 (02:00:52):
It's a family show. What the Colts that cover the
six point spread over the Jacksonville Jaguars. I think they
keep that game close? All right?

Speaker 3 (02:01:00):
That's my other off Texans plus one and a half
on the road against the Chargers. How about that?

Speaker 2 (02:01:07):
I like it, you know if florided with that one
a little bit earlier, but I didn't take it.

Speaker 3 (02:01:10):
They got something to play for.

Speaker 2 (02:01:12):
Absolutely.

Speaker 3 (02:01:14):
Why won't my page loads so I can put in
one more pick here? I need another on. I need
it an on and I needed to win for me.

Speaker 2 (02:01:22):
You want to take the Patriots minus fourteen against the Jets.

Speaker 3 (02:01:25):
Seahawks minus seven in Carolina.

Speaker 2 (02:01:27):
Over your Panthers? Look at that, of course, always always
going after your home top Panthers. Thank you guys for
listening Project to Night All coming up next here on
Fox Sports Radio. Thanks Lee, Thanks Mark,

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