Mark Willard & Ephraim Salaam React Live to Rams-Bears Overtime Showdown!

Mark Willard and Ephraim Salaam react live to an instant classic overtime showdown between the Rams and Bears in the Divisional Round. They have a serious conversations about CJ Stroud after his meltdown vs the Pats. Plus, backup QB’s in the spotlight, “3 Things” the guys learned and much more!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio rad I'll tell you what.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
It's never ever a comfortable thing when somebody else pulls
you aside and says we need to have a conversation.
But I think that's the way to start the show tonight,
and it might mean a couple of things.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
But Ephram Salaam, good evening to you.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
We are broadcasting live from the Fox Sports Radio studios.
Mark Willard here, we are getting down to the nitty
gritty championship weekend will be set by the time you
and I are done tonight.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Hello, how's my guy? I'm great man. How you doing.
I'm doing good. I'm glad that the night or game
was last night, so I had a night to sleep
and get over the whole damn thing.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
But but there's actually two other things that I want
to put ahead of that, and I do want to
start off with that phrase, Ephraim, we need to have
a conversation, and I'm gonna start with this one because
I do think there's a little bit of it's near
and dear to you. We need to have a conversation

(01:04):
about CJ.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
Stroud.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
Oh, yes, we do.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Let's have a conversation about CJ.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Stroud, who is at that sort of spot in his
contract and life and whatnot where somebody needs to officially
put a label on him, like you're our guy, You're
our franchise quarterback, You're worth X amount of dollars, whatever
it may be.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
And he goes to the playoffs every year.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
He's had some really shiny moments, but there's something that
feels like, A it's regressing a little bit, and B
he's become that quarterback this year that feels like he's
just being held afloat by an amazing defense. And today
the boat popped. Let's have a conversation about c J. Stroud.

(01:55):
Talk to me.

Speaker 3 (01:57):
I struggle with this because I'm a c J.

Speaker 4 (02:01):
Stroud fane, and of course I'm a Texas fan, a
Texans fan.

Speaker 3 (02:07):
I spent five years there.

Speaker 4 (02:09):
Demiico Ryans was a teammate of mine, the whole nine yards.
And I struggle with this because I can see just
how good that defense is, to the point of that's
a Super Bowl winning defense, and to sit here and

(02:33):
watch c J. Stroud undo that and and and not
give give his team a shot. They saved him by
scoring twice last week against Pittsburgh when they got that

(02:55):
one sack, and I'll shire I think he fell on it.
I was like, he should have scooped it and scored it.
He should have picked it up and ran it in.
He was trying, he's bobbling a little bit, and then
just fell on it. But I said to my wife,

(03:17):
I would I would Jalen hurts him. I would Jalen
hurts two of him. I wouldn't have let him come out.
And this would be controversial because and I explained why
it would be. I said, I wouldn't have let him
come out in the second half. I would have let
Davis Mills come out and play. I said, but if

(03:39):
you do, I said, but if you do that, then
he's done. He's done. He's not your quarterback of the future.
If you do that, it's it's over. You're gonna move
on from him because you don't do that to the
guy who's going to be there for the next ten years.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
I get the Jalen Hurts reference. Now you're talking.

Speaker 4 (04:02):
About college and college got it okay?

Speaker 3 (04:06):
In the National.

Speaker 4 (04:07):
Championship, No, no, no, And you're right. Let me explain
it on the Eagles off season here so and and
in college Jalen Hurts was the starting quarterback at Alabama,
led them all the way to the National Championship game.

Speaker 3 (04:24):
They were rocking and rolling.

Speaker 4 (04:26):
He just didn't throw the ball down the field as
accurately and as much. They were heavily a run team.
It sounds kind of familiar and to a tongue of
Ilil was the backup who was a young kid who
was waiting his turn. And the National Championship game, they

(04:48):
were down. I think they were down fourteen or something.
I can't remember what they were. The Alabama was down
and coming out in the second half. Nick saban Uh
put to in them and they came back and won
that game and won a national championship.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
That's why I got confused, because when you said Tua,
you were talking about the one transaction, and I'm sitting
here thinking about what's happening.

Speaker 4 (05:11):
Right What I got you, I got it, which is
that bad racing a thousand times all got you out.

Speaker 3 (05:20):
And so I would have.

Speaker 4 (05:22):
Done that because they that Davis Mills would have gave
them a better chance of winning, and I truly believe
that he would have gave them a better chance of
winning last week.

Speaker 3 (05:32):
So if I'm coming off last week.

Speaker 4 (05:34):
I made the same statement last week he can't he
couldn't even get the snap last week that he couldn't
get the snap, he was fumbling the snap. Like so
at the first thing you do as a quarterback is
secure the snap. If the play is wrong, if they're blitzing,
if they have your number, if you get sacked, whatever,

(05:56):
that is, the first thing you do is.

Speaker 3 (05:57):
Get the snap.

Speaker 4 (06:00):
And so I think that's two weeks where he's had
what eight turnovers in the playoffs. I mean, so, who
gives you a better opportunity to win? Because it just
looked like number one, after the fourth interception, he was
afraid to throw the ball, and number two, he didn't

(06:21):
have a look of confidence in the huddle. I've been
in huddles looking at quarterbacks eyes like, oh he not here.
And that's what I said. I said to my father,
I said, look at his face. I said, look what's
going on there? I said, that's a problem. Now, maybe
he's just a you know, just to there. There was
no urgency, there was no energy, there was no anything.

(06:41):
It was just like, has he gotten worse? He has
gotten It feels he's gotten worse. He's gotten worse. That's
what I can't figure out. He's gotten worn figure it out.
And the crazy part about it is he'll have three
bad plays and he'll have a spectacular throw. You're like,
oh my god, yep, oh he's there. He can make
all the throw it's in there, We've seen it. His

(07:03):
mentality right now is fraid, which is more important than
the ability to make the throw. If you lack confidence,
it's hard to get it back when you keep taking
steps back. They have a great throw interception, fantastic throw fumble,
and so he was never on So what do you
gotta do? You gotta shake it up. I would have

(07:24):
brought Davis Mills in. I'm like, hey man, this is
what it's gonna be. Let's figure it out. And I
would and I would have I would have laid down
on that sword because I would have just said we
had to do something to joke our system. Our defense
was doing everything they possibly could to give us an

(07:47):
opportunity to win, and we couldn't help them.

Speaker 3 (07:51):
On offense.

Speaker 4 (07:52):
We've turned the ball over three times, and we turned
the ball over five times, and our defense is given
up seven points.

Speaker 2 (08:01):
That's that's maybe it should have been a clue maybe
it should have been a clue when Davis Mills came
in this year for the Houston Texans and in a
four week stretch, three of the four teams he played
were AFC playoff teams, double digit win teams, and he.

Speaker 1 (08:25):
Went three and one.

Speaker 2 (08:27):
He went three and one, and he beat the Bills,
he beat the Jags, He beat the Jags in a shootout,
and so maybe that should have been.

Speaker 1 (08:38):
A little bit of a clue.

Speaker 2 (08:40):
You know, prior to Davis Mills coming in, you and
I had a lot of conversations about how the Houston
Texans offensive line was a disaster and Stroud was shook
and they were three and four when he got hurt.
They beat the forty nine ers twenty six fifteen against
Mac Jones, he got hurt, or maybe it was in

(09:03):
the next game that he got hurt, and so Mills
got thrown in and they lost that game to the
Broncos and they were three and five, and then Mills
started the next three games. I mean, the Texans never
lost again, and so Stroud was a big part of that.
But Mills was the starting quarterback for the first three
weeks of that win streak, and a win against the

(09:24):
Jags and Bills in there where that kind of got
Houston back on track. And I don't know if the
way the O line had played early, combined with his
injury just kind of had him shook and he's never
recovered from that. But we've arrived at a time where
I think we can comfortably say and a lot of
people have been saying this in Houston, like they were

(09:48):
winning all these games despite CJ down the stretch, that.

Speaker 3 (09:54):
Is a true statement.

Speaker 4 (09:55):
He may not be the quarterback we thought he was
after his rookie year, and that's sad because he's got
all the talent. He said.

Speaker 3 (10:05):
Look, the mental.

Speaker 4 (10:08):
Fortitude that you need to be an elite quarterback and
a good quarterback and a starting quarterback in the NFL
is off the charts.

Speaker 3 (10:19):
It's just not talent.

Speaker 4 (10:22):
Now. For the most part, if you get an opportunity
to start in the NFL, you can throw the ball.
You may not throw it as hard and as far
as some others, but you can spin it. You can
make throws. But being able to lock in and zone
out the noise is part of the equation and if

(10:46):
you can't do it, it doesn't work.

Speaker 3 (10:51):
I couldn't I make it a joke. I was like, oh,
he point shaving.

Speaker 4 (10:57):
I kept saying that last last week and my wife
was like, what are you talking about? And I was like,
it's just something you say when someone's playing so bad,
it looks like they're playing bad on purpose. So we
had back to back weeks where it looked like he
was point shaving. Now I'm not casting that out there.
That's not a hot take. I'm not saying that's what
it was, but watching it, that's what it felt like

(11:19):
because I didn't think he could play any worse. I
really didn't think he could play any worse, which he couldn't.
And I feel bad for Will Anderson and Daniel Hunter
and al Shair and the Demico Ryans.

Speaker 5 (11:36):
That's a championship defense. One championship if you take that.
If you would have took that defense into Denver against
Jared Stidham, oh.

Speaker 1 (11:51):
My god, yeah, you would have gone to the super Bowl.

Speaker 3 (11:54):
You're going if that.

Speaker 4 (11:56):
Whoever won this game today between Houston and England has
a seventy nine percent chance of making the Super Bowl. Now,
because of bo Nicks's injury, you almost have an eighty
percent chance to go to the Super Bowl. And with
that on the line, Yeah, if I'm demko, hey man,

(12:17):
thank you brother. Uh, but we're gonna let Davis. We're
gonna see what you got. We need a spark, need
we need a jump start.

Speaker 2 (12:24):
And and the bigger question, and I know nothing's bigger
than a shot at the super Bowl, But the bigger
question now is going forward now?

Speaker 1 (12:37):
Like and CJ.

Speaker 2 (12:38):
Stroud has one more year on the rookie contract, that right,
and that's before you've got to decide.

Speaker 3 (12:46):
Thank goodness, that's that's thank you for the fifth year album.

Speaker 1 (12:49):
Right, that's what Thank goodness he's got.

Speaker 2 (12:52):
He's three years in, which means he's got another full
year here before you've got a fully decid to pick
up the option.

Speaker 1 (13:01):
A lot of teams would do it this offseason. You
don't have to.

Speaker 2 (13:05):
And I to me, this has now become the and
this is shocking to say this, to be honest with you,
this has become the AFC version of the Carolina Panthers.

Speaker 1 (13:15):
And I don't necessarily mean anything about defense.

Speaker 2 (13:19):
What I mean by that is, you know, you and
I had all of our Bryce Young conversations. I don't
think he was gonna get his option picked up and now, okay,
you made the playoffs, he looked a lot better.

Speaker 1 (13:31):
You still went eight and ten on the year.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
But like, Okay, he's probably gonna get an option picked
up at least for one year, just because I don't
think Carolina really has any other good options.

Speaker 1 (13:43):
Same thing may happen with Houston.

Speaker 2 (13:45):
I think CJ's their quarterback Week one next year and
the year after that the option year.

Speaker 1 (13:51):
Maybe let's see how he plays next year.

Speaker 2 (13:54):
But for the first time in CJ's career spanning three years,
sitting here today going I don't I don't think he's
getting that extension.

Speaker 4 (14:04):
No, he's gotten not getting probably this offseason for sure. Yeah,
that's that's that's you're not getting it.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
Ain't doing that unless unless it comes back and it
looks completely different, completely different, because that rest of the division,
which has been your friend for his whole career.

Speaker 1 (14:27):
Starting to write.

Speaker 2 (14:28):
Liam call yeah, oh yeah, yeah, Shane Stych, and you say,
all what the Colts did, It's gonna get harder.

Speaker 4 (14:37):
Yeah, not only saving grace is Indy doesn't have a
quarterback outside of Daniel Jones, and we'll see what he
looks like after the injury, but outside you know, it's
Trevor Lawrence has made good on I mean, he's already
been paid, so he's locked in. And and now it's
supposed to supposed to be CJ is supposed to be

(14:57):
a big summer famme. He was supposed to put a
lot of money, a little little pocket change. I'm sure
they were gonna do it earlier than later. Now I'm waiting.
I'm waiting and waiting. Sure, and I'm extending Davis Mills.
I'm gonna keep him on the team. I'm not gonna
let him get away. Not saying he's the answer to
their quarterback problems, but I know one I can't trust CJ.

(15:24):
Let me just explain this to people, and you know what,
it's a little bit long. So what we'll do is
we'll pick it up after the break. This is Fox
Sports Radio. This is Fox Football Sunday. This is our
playoff edition, our Divisional round edition, And we are jumping
back into this because I know, I know my partner

(15:47):
over here and even the great Steve Disager, I know
they got more to say about this CJ. Stroud playing,
So stick with us and we'll be right back.

Speaker 6 (15:56):
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(16:17):
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Speaker 1 (16:32):
Fox Sports Radio on YouTube.

Speaker 3 (16:34):
Subscribe, hit that thumbs up icon, and comment away.

Speaker 2 (16:39):
So here we sit in these Fox Sports Radio studios.
There's no way in hell I'm gonna let you talk first,
because you're gonna get me fired. You keep up all
of this radio formatics that you're learning. Good lord, start
calling me C. J.

Speaker 1 (16:56):
Stroud.

Speaker 2 (16:58):
Also, be sure to subscribe to the Fox Sports Radio
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Don't stop there, hit thumbs up icon, comment away. We
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Let us know the takes you like and those you don't.
You search Fox Sports Radio on YouTube and subscribe. Steve

(17:21):
de Seger in five minutes, Aphrom, you had more to say.

Speaker 3 (17:27):
Sorry about that. There you are, sorry, hell, I felt bad.

Speaker 1 (17:31):
No joke. I thought you were playing a trick on me.

Speaker 4 (17:33):
No, no, I felt bad because I took us out
to bring No, you shouldn't feel bad, and so I
was like, you are a host of this show. Mark
is gonna be met. Mary said some very mean things
to me about that.

Speaker 1 (17:46):
So no, no, there's nothing wrong with that.

Speaker 2 (17:51):
For those of you who weren't out with us last week,
I had about forty minutes of technical difficulties and it
forced you to largely do the show for the most
part by yourself.

Speaker 1 (18:01):
I know producer lead to Lap jumped on in there
as well. Well.

Speaker 3 (18:05):
We took a step back when I thought but I thought.

Speaker 1 (18:08):
You were just giving me it was some of my
own medicine. No, no, no, no, I thought that was
what was happening. We're here, okay anyway, Steve de Sega
in a couple of minutes.

Speaker 2 (18:15):
By the way, we haven't mentioned yet, and you probably
know right, Rams and Bears underway in the second half,
and we got a tie game in the snow. It's
ten to ten and the Bears are taking over after
the Rams did not score on their opening second half drive.
So that's a quick update. Steve will have more and
Ephram has more. You you were not done with your CJ. Strouding.

Speaker 4 (18:38):
No, Look, it was evident to me that the games
got too big. And as a former player and an
offensive lineman, you can just start noticing a few mennerisms
and things like that, right if if you can't, you

(19:03):
have to have the shortest memory on the on the
planet Earth at quarterback, because when you're passing the ball,
think about this. When you're passing the ball, three things
can happen, and well, four things can happen, and three
of them are bad. So those are your odds. Every
time you drop back to pass the ball, it could

(19:28):
be complete, which is what you want, right, It could
be picked. You are right. You can throw a turnover interception.
That's the worst thing they could add, right, you can
get it can be incomplete, incomplete, and you can get
sacked and fumble. Right, So when you drop back to pass,
four things can happen. Three of them are bad. So

(19:50):
if you live in the bad every play, it's impossible
to get the one thing, the one great thing that
can happen.

Speaker 3 (20:02):
And that's a real thing.

Speaker 4 (20:04):
Like if you live in the ooh, I don't want
to squeeze that in there because I've thrown four three
picks already, then now you're living with the negative thought first,
opposed to if you had thrown four touchdowns, you're like, ooh,
I could squeeze.

Speaker 1 (20:21):
It in there.

Speaker 4 (20:22):
I can get it. There's a different level of confidence
that comes when you're on and you're shredding. And we
haven't seen CJ Strout be on and shredding in quite
some time. And that's the problem I'm having. It's carrying over.
We all were sitting here looking to see how CJ

(20:43):
came into this game. We wanted to see because we
were like, man, he can't possibly play any worse than
he did last week, last Monday, and he did. He did,
And so to me, that lets me know he lived

(21:05):
in the negative space every time he dropped back and
pasted it and passed the ball. And that's a recipe
for disaster.

Speaker 2 (21:15):
I don't I always hesitate to make things about stats
because they would be super.

Speaker 1 (21:19):
Misleading and everything.

Speaker 2 (21:20):
But we also know, like what we consider a solid
day for a quarterback. You know, his completion percentage this
year was sixty four point five.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
That's not great. No, how many three hundred yard passing
games did he have? One? One?

Speaker 2 (21:37):
And it was against that carcass of a defense forty
nine ers keep putting.

Speaker 4 (21:40):
Out there, keep rolling them out.

Speaker 1 (21:42):
How many two hundred and fifty yard games did he have? Only? Three?

Speaker 2 (21:46):
Three times he from did he have two hundred and
fifty yards passing? And there is a large smattering of
games where he didn't even get to two hundred. And
you're playing largely in a weather controlled environment. Think of
where right you play in a dome? Indy is a
dome your road games or Tennessee Jacksonville. Like, I don't

(22:06):
know how many times they had to do what they
did today, which was going to a cold weather environment
and look what happened. So, yeah, I'm with you there
are I think that they're not just alarms going off.
We're way way way past the level of concern with CJ.

Speaker 1 (22:27):
Stroud.

Speaker 2 (22:28):
What the whole yeah, what the whole Texans organization needs
right now? Is some sort of calming force like we
have here on Fox Sports Radio who Steve goes by
the name of Steve de Sagerant.

Speaker 4 (22:42):
They got that's some update music right there.

Speaker 7 (22:48):
For doing updates on the Quiet Storm. It is RAMS
ten ten at Chicago. We'll get to that in the moment.
While you're talking.

Speaker 1 (22:58):
C J.

Speaker 7 (22:58):
Stroud, as Houston was eliminated twenty eight to sixteen at
New England in the NFL playoffs, we'd only seen since
nineteen eighty two, we'd only seen a quarterbacks four interceptions
first half of a postseason game once, and that was
Trevor Lawrence and the Jacksonville comeback just a few years ago.
But that's what c J. Stroud did. In fact, AP

(23:18):
got asked tonight. Has any quarterback made more turnovers in
two straight playoff games than Stroud just did these past
two weekends. Apparently Carson Palmer with Arizona a decade ago
eight turnovers combined in back to back playoff games. Richard
Todd nineteen eighty two. So it's not unprecedented. It's just
rare and bad. I mean, compare the passer ratings these

(23:39):
two guys today. It's not like Drake May was chewing
them up better than last week at least, but his
passer rating was still one hundred point seven.

Speaker 6 (23:47):
C J.

Speaker 7 (23:47):
Stroud's was twenty eight today. I mean compare that to
Patrick Mahomes passer rating for his whole career is one
oh one. Aaron Rodgers for his whole long career is
passer rating one two. There are very few quarterbacks in
the last twenty five seasons to have a playoff game
like today where you're throwing at least twenty five times
and yet the passer ratings around twenty five or less

(24:09):
on that last c J. Stroud, Elvis Kirbeck, Brian Hoyer,
Andrew Luck when the Colts got killed at New England
and the AFC Championship. But as referenced by me from
last week's game at Pittsburgh was not great either, with
five fumbles, two of them lost. He had one touchdown
one interception in that game. In fact, his Texans, remember

(24:30):
at Pittsburgh, were only up seven to six early fourth quarter.
It wound up a thirty to six final. Twenty eight
to sixteen. New England eliminates a Texans team that had
won ten in a row. And you can't say enough
about how awesome this defense is. It was the number
one defense in the AFC this year. Drake May was
sacked five times, three by Will Anderson, two by Danil Hunter.

(24:52):
Bad news for the Texans. They didn't have a ground
game today. As a team twenty two carries just forty
eight yards. They didn't have star receiver Nico Collin due
to a concussion, and early in the game tight end
Dalton Schultz left with a calf injury. New England plays
at top seeded Denver next week for the AFC crown.
We'll see who's Seattle's hosting next weekend in the NFC

(25:12):
title game. Right now, at Chicago, with snow dusted on
the field, it's mid third quarter. The Bears and Rams
are tied at ten. Matthew Stafford one hundred and fifty
yards passing, Caleb Williams won sixty one Williams with one touchdown,
one interception. Now, Cairo Santos of the Bears did kick
a forty eight yard field goal with about a minute

(25:33):
left in the first half, but the Rams answered to
tie it at halftime. Drove in a minute ten drove
eight plays sixty six yards to get close enough for
a thirty two yard field goal that knuckled through from
Harrison MeVis. Keep in mind, special teams has been the
bugaboo all season for the Rams. They're twelve and five
for the season, yet it could have been a whole

(25:53):
lot better with just basic NFL kicking and punting. This
year ten ten. Right now, it's mid third quarter in
snowy and under twenty degree Chicago. By the way, the
odds stat from Pro Football Talk this week. Rams coach
Sean McVay. He's already coaching his fifteenth career playoff game.
It's come against fifteen different opponents. Wow, that's almost mathematically impossible.

(26:19):
We do have an NBA game to give you the score.
There was a London game today. Memphis beat Orlando, won
twenty six one oh nine. John Morant twenty four points,
thirteen assists. Late game will be in an hour with
the Lakers hosting Toronto Luca don Apparently you've seen the
Lakers defense. Luka Donsig questionable for the game. He was

(26:40):
out last night lost to Portland due to a groin injury.
The All Star Game starters will be announced on Monday.
Of course, College football's National title game is Monday, nights
Indiana at Miami, NHL wins for Tampa Bay for Detroit
in overtime, and these notes about the forty nine Ers
as day. As it turns out this weekend, are the
only team that did not score a touchdown in the

(27:02):
divisional round. The Chargers, of course, did not at New
England a week ago, and the Steelers did not against
Houston's defense a week ago. So that's three teams now
this postseason who've been held without a TV and a
playoff game. The record is five such games in one postseason.
I will add, though, that Christian McCaffrey made it through

(27:22):
the year. Not many Niners did healthwise, but as long
as the year was for him physically, he did wind
up after last night with over one thousand snaps on
offense for the third time in his career. By the way,
brock Purty season is over, his passer rating against non
playoff teams was number one. His passer ratings against playoff

(27:43):
teams this year was ranked twenty fifth. And this odd
item from Associated Press that there's an edge rusher for
the forty nine Ers, Keon White, who's getting money because
the Patriots won today. He's getting an eighty one thousand
dollars full share, just like the rest of the Patriots,
because he was a Patriot for eight games this year,

(28:03):
didn't play all late, but he was a new England
player before his trade during the season to San Francisco.
Congrats eighty one thousand bucks and his season ended yesterday.

Speaker 2 (28:14):
I was gonna say, of all forty nine ers, which
one had the best day?

Speaker 1 (28:18):
Today? We got our answer.

Speaker 2 (28:23):
And oh, by the way, Steve, aren't your Christian McCaffrey point.
Just a quick early word to the wise. To two parties.
One of them is the forty nine Ers. The other
one is for anybody who likes to play fantasy for
oh boy, also known as everybody, don't do it, Christian McCaffrey.

Speaker 7 (28:45):
This is just like, don't take Barkley this year.

Speaker 2 (28:47):
Next year, and you forty nine Ers, you better get
ahead of this and whatever it is you're doing out
of the backfield better be he worked on this offseason,
because you're not doing that again.

Speaker 7 (29:06):
Yeah, because look what it's gonna look like. There is
a keen parallel between the Chargers and all their injuries
this year and the forty nine Ers and their ridiculous
amount of injuries because it got to playoff time, and
last weekend what happened the Charger quarterback Just like Mahomes
getting killed in the Super Bowl a year ago. The
stats were just identical. We're getting sacked the same number

(29:26):
of times and hit eleven times. Mahomes was down forty
to six in the fourth quarter. Chargers were only down
nine to three in the fourth quarter at New England
last weekend. But the Niners have had at least as
many injuries, and they had McCaffrey still in his hundred
yards and they won last weekend. Right, if you have him,
you still have a chance. That was proven this year.

(29:47):
They had no business getting this far this year.

Speaker 2 (29:50):
They were really good in the red zone two years ago,
I think topped in the league. Then last year they
really really really sucked at it, and then this year
they're really really good at it again. And that is
Christian McCaffrey. So what are the Niners going to do?
I almost look at it that way, like he'll be
on the team next year, But what are you doing
without Christian McCaffrey. Because it has to change. There's no

(30:14):
way in hell he can do next year what he
did this year.

Speaker 7 (30:17):
No No, it's the good news for drafting and running
back is teams tend to wait on them they're available direct.

Speaker 1 (30:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (30:25):
Yeah, and hopefully Kyle has that thing that his dad
had in Denver where they really specialized in finding guys
and turning them into Pro Bowlers.

Speaker 2 (30:37):
It's odd he did early in his forty nine Ers campaign,
right Raheem Moster, Matt Breda, and like he would get
a lot of good numbers out of just undrafted free agents,
Jordan Mason, undrafted free agent. But then they draft guys
in the third round, and they always think it's the

(30:58):
craziest thing. They'll get a lot of stuff out of
undrafted free agents. But your Trey Sermons and your ty
Davis Prices and all these guys the Niners have drafted
at that position in the third round.

Speaker 1 (31:10):
Ooh, it's just been bust after bust.

Speaker 7 (31:12):
But what if, like Javonte Williams was certainly on a
one year deal with Dallas, right or Traves etn finishing up.

Speaker 1 (31:19):
I think there's a lot of options.

Speaker 2 (31:20):
I'm just I'm suggesting, do one do not make that
a one headed monster next year.

Speaker 4 (31:26):
No, you can't, you can't, and you gotta be very
selective and you can't miss. Now, I'm not saying use it,
you know, an early draft pick, but what I'm saying
is the guy you pick has to be that guy yep,
skill set, because you don't want to find yourself in
the middle of the season like, okay, it didn't work

(31:49):
like we needed it too, and heap that level of
workload on Christian McCaffrey again, it's no way.

Speaker 7 (31:57):
Yeah, and that guy at running back combined with a
line because I think the Raiders had the right running back.
They had no offensive line and it wasn't because of injuries.
They just stunk. And I couldn't count, literally could not
count the amount of times he was contacted in the
backfield right after they hand off to him. It was constant.

Speaker 2 (32:14):
It was brutal. It was brutal. Yeah, I'm with you.
I think a lot of work needs to go into
that offensive line. The Seahawks aren't going anywhere, so they're
going to have to work on dealing with that team
for the next few years. So Steve, great stuff. We'll
talk to you next hour. We're live in the Fox
Sports Radio studios. Three things are top three observations each

(32:37):
of us individually coming up here at the top of
the hour. But coming up next, Nick Foles has sent
out a tweet and I bet everybody would enjoy hearing
what Nick Foles had to say about the Denver Broncos situation.

Speaker 1 (32:54):
So that is coming up next.

Speaker 2 (32:56):
Marketing from Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (32:59):
Listen, ain't no Fox Sports Radio Radio.

Speaker 2 (33:03):
We are live in the Fox Sports Radio studios. I'd
like to read something to you, Mark Witharty from salam
h three point fifty eight to go. Third quarter, Bears,
Rams still tied at ten. Rams just got to turnover.
We'll see if they could do something with it. Quote
note for the Broncos and their fans, I know it

(33:27):
has been an emotional twenty four hours. I feel for
bow and the team and I'm sending prayers for a
strong recovery. A positive note going into the game versus
the Patriots is that they struggle against backup quarterbacks in
championship type games.

Speaker 1 (33:48):
End quote Nick Foles two hours ago on Twitter.

Speaker 2 (33:54):
Hilarious, Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
There is that history.

Speaker 3 (34:02):
Hilarious it is.

Speaker 2 (34:04):
But at the same time, you can Hostetler me, you
can folds me and he from you and I may
circle back together in another week or two and I'll
have egg all over my face. I'm not even gonna
sit here and tell you the Broncos can't win. But
here's what I am gonna tell you. From Nick Foles
to Jeff Hostetler to whoever else you want to bring up.

Speaker 1 (34:25):
I don't think Jared Stidham is those guys.

Speaker 4 (34:30):
Yeah, you might have a point there, or you do
have a point there. Look, the most valuable non starter
on a team is a backup quarterback, and you can
spend your whole career and not be needed until you
are That's Gary Kolbiek, the dynamic offensive coordinator and head

(34:57):
coach who was John L. Wade's backup for twelve years.
Best friends, roommates, never needed them.

Speaker 1 (35:09):
What a great job.

Speaker 4 (35:11):
The best job you can possibly get serious on the
planet Earth is that job.

Speaker 2 (35:17):
You get a great seat, you get a really good salary,
and you also get to like not be in pain.

Speaker 1 (35:28):
On Monday morning.

Speaker 3 (35:30):
You get all the power, none of the blame, and.

Speaker 1 (35:33):
Everybody loves you just for existing.

Speaker 2 (35:38):
Everybody inflates what you could do if you were in there.

Speaker 4 (35:42):
You know, if Gary had an opportunity, we'd be fine.

Speaker 1 (35:48):
Issues put Gary in sometimes.

Speaker 2 (35:51):
And by the way, if you come in and you
look even a little bit good.

Speaker 4 (35:55):
Matt Flynn, Hello, what was happening?

Speaker 2 (35:59):
Are favorite phrase? God, we had so much fun with
this in the Bay Area this year. Our favorite phrase.
That totally went away when Rock Purdy came back. But
remember what it was. I think the forty nine er
should ride the hot hand, right, ride the hot hand.

Speaker 1 (36:19):
That Mac Jones guy, he's five and three. Ride the
hot hand. The hot hand.

Speaker 2 (36:26):
I mean, your other quarterback's been largely hot his entire career.
But okay, but that's what the backup quarter I mean,
what if he does go out and win.

Speaker 1 (36:36):
This game next Sunday?

Speaker 4 (36:41):
Man, look here, man, then whoever is coming out of
the NFC is celebrating.

Speaker 1 (36:46):
Stoked, provided that they got their quarterback.

Speaker 3 (36:50):
They are celebrating.

Speaker 4 (36:52):
Uh huh, they're I mean they're like, oh, it'll be
harder to coach them because you would have to keep
them focused.

Speaker 1 (37:02):
Bro.

Speaker 4 (37:03):
That's like when something like that happens, it's like, oh,
I mean Bo Nicks in some circles was an MVP candidate.
If you look at his numbers, you had a tremendous year.
Interceptions a little bit tabit high. But outside of that,
passed for over four thousand yards all like, I mean.

Speaker 2 (37:24):
Wow, based on what I'm looking at right now, and
we can't do this because styles make fights. And there's
always said, right the NFL is a week to week league,
and all of that is true. Based on what I
have watched this weekend, I.

Speaker 1 (37:39):
Believe that Sam Darnold will be in the super Bowl
in three weeks.

Speaker 3 (37:43):
Oh man, that's a hard that's a hard thing to uh.

Speaker 1 (37:46):
It sure is.

Speaker 2 (37:47):
And I just all right now, remember what I get
I got that to you a week ago.

Speaker 1 (37:54):
Which was people.

Speaker 2 (37:56):
The biggest misnomer in the biggest mistake people make as
fans is that they think they like parody.

Speaker 1 (38:08):
Isn't that great? Like this, ain't you?

Speaker 3 (38:10):
Anybody could win?

Speaker 2 (38:11):
This is not youth sports? Is this isn't great? That
everybody's evenly matched. But we think that this wide open? Right,
It's wide open, and we are dangerously close to Sam
Donold versus Jared Stidham at the Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 (38:28):
How we do in America?

Speaker 4 (38:32):
Are we doing? That's tough?

Speaker 1 (38:34):
Uh huh? So Drake may please and whoever wins this.

Speaker 3 (38:39):
Game, pleaase, like.

Speaker 1 (38:43):
Save us.

Speaker 2 (38:44):
You are obi wan, you are our only hope. Hmmm, because,
by the way, Seattle is fantastic. They deserve all the
credit for whipping the living you know what's out of
the forty nine ers yesterday?

Speaker 1 (38:57):
But did you notice.

Speaker 2 (38:59):
Sam Donald didn't He didn't do any like and this
isn't a rip job because he didn't have to. But like,
I didn't see anything that looked all that impressive from
Sam Darnold yesterday.

Speaker 1 (39:13):
Game didn't flow that way.

Speaker 4 (39:15):
No, he didn't have to, right, he didn't have to.
He didn't. He really just had to play composed it.
They didn't.

Speaker 1 (39:22):
You know.

Speaker 4 (39:23):
The ineptness of the started with the bank well, with
the ninety seven yard kick return.

Speaker 3 (39:28):
That's set the tone for sure.

Speaker 2 (39:30):
When you're when you're going on the road to a
situation where I already think you're probably not gonna win.

Speaker 1 (39:36):
You've got to play really well.

Speaker 2 (39:37):
Things got to go perfect and then maybe you've got
a shot, yes type situation, and then you go opening
kickoff return and then a few minutes later you fumble
in your own tear.

Speaker 1 (39:47):
I mean, you're done, You're you're you're done, and they were.

Speaker 4 (39:52):
Yeah, it got it got real ugly, real fast, to
the point where it was like, am I why am
I still watching? Why isn't there other things I could
be doing?

Speaker 1 (40:03):
Yeah? And the answer was yes, yeah, and go for
a walk. All these things? All right?

Speaker 2 (40:09):
Three things coming up right around the corner of Fox
Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (40:14):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.

Speaker 2 (40:17):
Oh man, I like that you use the word bad ass,
because you need to be a bad ass to be
involved in what's happening right now.

Speaker 1 (40:25):
That cold is starting to set in. Steve said it correctly.

Speaker 2 (40:28):
The Rams went on an opening drive touchdown, and then
that's pretty much been it. A knuckleball field goal happened
as well. But outside of that, we're getting late into
the night. It's nine o'clock in Chicago. The snow is
on the ground, it looks, you know, really cold, and
points are going to be hard to come by. Big

(40:49):
play for the Rams right now to flip the field
and get to the Chicago territory. But we are in
the fourth quarter and this thing is hide ten ten
Rams Bears. We'll keep you up to date broadcasting live
from the Fox Sports Radio studios, but as we always
do at six o'clock in the West and nine o'clock in.

Speaker 1 (41:11):
The east, this time for three things.

Speaker 2 (41:14):
Our top three individual observations that each of us have
after the sports week. I always go first, so can
go last. I have a prediction about what you're going
to talk about last.

Speaker 1 (41:27):
We'll see if I'm right.

Speaker 2 (41:30):
But Ephrom I'll start, And I started the show off
tonight by saying we need to have a conversation, and
it was about CJ.

Speaker 1 (41:38):
Stroud, but I said we need to have two conversations.

Speaker 2 (41:40):
So I'm going to bring up the other one here
in the hopes of us having maybe even a further
conversation about it later on.

Speaker 1 (41:48):
In the show.

Speaker 2 (41:49):
And it is this the Bills got jobbed, But it's
not really about that. It's about the bigger picture, because
there will always be the people that will be like,
you know, if Josh Allen did turned the ball over
all those times, and if they'd played better, and if
they had this and they had that, And that's all
true too, but so is what I'm about to say.

(42:10):
Sometimes in sports, one call at the end of the
game is very highly likely to have changed the outcome.

Speaker 1 (42:22):
And that happened yesterday.

Speaker 2 (42:24):
And I just think in the most popular sport in
the world, we have got to figure out somehow, some way,
what the hell of catch is because we've been doing
this for years.

Speaker 1 (42:37):
It's if it's not one thing, it's another.

Speaker 2 (42:39):
If it's not feet, and if it's not surviving the ground,
and if it's not did it touch the ground and
wear your arms, And if it's not one thing, it's another.
By every single angle, I could figure out in my
world what Brandon Cooks did yesterday was a catch down
by contact field goal and Josh Allen is playing football

(43:03):
again next week. But that's not what happened. So instead,
Josh Allen was in tears at a press conference. Tough
to swallow in my opinion.

Speaker 4 (43:12):
Yes, tough to swallow, because Josh knew this was his moment,
this was his time, and he knew what it would
become in terms of when you're talking the legacy and
you're talking all anyone could ever talk about was if
he can't do it now, then it's probably going to

(43:33):
pass him by. And that's not necessarily true. But the
way I see it is to put all of that
on one call. It's hard to do that now. In
the playoffs is a little bit different because it's back
and forth. It's you know, if you would have got

(43:54):
one more stop, or if you would have, you know,
not let them get that last touchdown if there's so
many places there, right, like some people were going the
pass in apperance like or where those passing afferance cass
like it ultimately did them and they had fifty eight

(44:14):
they had fifty eight penalty yards on the final possession
in overtime, yep, and like.

Speaker 3 (44:23):
You can't do that.

Speaker 4 (44:24):
You can't do that, So take those away, right, get
a stop, get the ball back, like, So there's there's
a lot of different things that you can say. I
don't ever like to just hinge it all on. That's
a catch to come out field goal.

Speaker 3 (44:42):
It's over. I get it.

Speaker 4 (44:44):
It's frustrating, but for Josh Allen not to go out
there and just take command of the game in a
way we would have hoped he would have, because you know,
being the MVP either no one has been crowned yet,
so he's still the raining MVP, and the interceptions, the

(45:06):
two picks, like, you just can't do it.

Speaker 3 (45:09):
You can't do it. And so I look at it
like that.

Speaker 4 (45:14):
I know everybody was frustrated, and Josh was crying, and
Doug had a lot to say about it. But the
fact of the matter is you had an opportunity and
you had him on the ropes and you let him off.
You did essentially you know, you were outplayed by bo Nicks.

Speaker 1 (45:35):
Yeah, and like this is what I like. You are right,
and so am I.

Speaker 3 (45:42):
Yes, that's exactly right.

Speaker 1 (45:44):
This can all be true. Did the Bills mess it up? Yes?

Speaker 2 (45:49):
Is there a completely separate conversation about you know, once
I saw today that I loved Andrew Brandt tweeted this out,
and you're seeing this in college football in some sort
Can we hear what the what the replay officials and
and and I want to hear what they're talking about. Yeah,

(46:10):
bring be transparent. Let's hear it. What do you think
you saw? Because bottom line is this, I know what
jeens Terator said on the air and all of those things.
If we pulled America today, the refs got it wrong,
That's what we all think. And so I'd love to
hear what it is they saw or if they just

(46:32):
thought it was inconclusive and so the call on the
field stood or what like, let's hear that, because the
Bills do probably win the game if that call goes
the other way.

Speaker 4 (46:45):
Yeah, I mean yeah, and theory, yes, yeah, do we
get a black kick? Do we miss the field? For me,
it's I got a question. And it is just not
one game. It's when you look at this game here,
you look at the New England game, uh, the games

(47:07):
last week, the games that are in that are in
inclement weather. I know that's part of football, right, This
is part of football being outside. The weather, the wind,
the rain, the snow, it's all part of it. My
thing is are we being robbed as fans? Are we

(47:30):
being robbing? And this is coming from a player like
I'm like, I like a muddy feel sometimes when we're
running the ball heavy and it's wet and it's sloppy,
and we get to be, you know, overly aggressive. It's
less for neess more brute strength when when inclement weather happens.
But if you take these two teams and you put
them inside or you put them like that, the game,

(47:54):
the different game was beautiful. The weather was amazing right
to start the game. The sun was out. It was
maybe a little nippy, but it was a beautiful day.
And look what we got. Look what we got from
that game. Yep, we gotta shoot out, we got overtime.
And so I'm like, man, I would love to see

(48:19):
offenses at full strength and just monoing mono. The weather
has a huge effect on this, and so my question
is to you. I'm not saying, look, let's do away
with it, but how much more enjoyable are the games
to watch as a fan when the climate is controlled?

Speaker 3 (48:37):
What do you think?

Speaker 2 (48:39):
I think there's no question. And by the way, Karen
Williams just went in for a touchdown for the Rams.
They've got the lead now seventeen to ten on the Bears.
I think that there's some NFL film's majesty that would
clearly be lost. So somehow someway, I don't know if
you can just do away with that. I think there

(49:00):
are certain home field advantages with the way teams are
built that that would be lost. But I'm just answering
my friend's question, and yeah, yeah, these games where people
are just scratching and clawing to maybe get to seventeen
or twenty points.

Speaker 4 (49:18):
Like was it me?

Speaker 3 (49:19):
Like I was watching?

Speaker 4 (49:19):
I'm like, man, I would I was just like, I
just think.

Speaker 2 (49:23):
There's too many teams that go about life a certain
way for three and a half months and then they
show up at one of these and it's like Okay,
now play a completely different game and see if you
can you can win.

Speaker 1 (49:37):
But if what you're proposing is thirty two domes, no, no,
I just you know what I mean, Yeah, start, I
don't know if we can I don't know if we
can go.

Speaker 3 (49:47):
Well, they got to do it like the college playoffs.

Speaker 4 (49:49):
Start neutral sighting it uh, endoored not I look say that,
I say that.

Speaker 3 (49:54):
I know it's impossible to you.

Speaker 4 (49:56):
Yeah, I was just watching the games, like, man, this
would be more a exciting and interesting in some aspects
if we could see the offenses at full strength.

Speaker 3 (50:07):
Now that takes that takes right.

Speaker 4 (50:10):
The super Bowl is as super producer lead the fourth
has mentioned.

Speaker 3 (50:16):
But it's like.

Speaker 4 (50:18):
I don't want to see nine to see like that.
Although the score got up to thirty last Monday the
Pittsburgh in Houston game, like it was like, oh, it
was like, you know, just dragging through mud almost. I
just thought for an excitement level, huh, that would be nice.

Speaker 2 (50:44):
I hear you, I hear you, and I agree with
you all right. For my number two, I don't know
the exact name. It might be Kirk Cousins, it might
be Mac Jones. We could discuss maybe a few other names,
but one of those guys should be a Texan next year. Oh,
I don't know if, and maybe Davis Mills is the

(51:05):
guy they want to do this with. But that team
desperately going into decision year with CJ. Stroud, needs what
I always call a placeholder. It's kind of like what
Sam Darnold was when the Vikings got him at the
beginning of last year, when they thought JJ McCarthy was
going to be the guy. But they're like, let's bring

(51:25):
in Sam. We don't know exactly when JJ is going
to be ready. We might have a guy that we
need to go to to be a starter. Turns out
it was the whole year and they won fourteen games.
The Houston Texans have a phenomenal defense, They've got a
great young head coach. They make the playoffs every single year.
Do not put all of the eggs into the CJ.

(51:47):
Stroud basket. Make your decision on the guy start in
Week one. But boy, you need a pivot option at
the quarterback position in Houston next year.

Speaker 4 (51:58):
And you're right, But guess what those names you said,
Mac Jones, who else was it? Kirk Cousins, They're not
gonna be available. To be backups.

Speaker 1 (52:10):
Well, I think Kirk is available. Kirk is available.

Speaker 4 (52:14):
But what I'm saying is I think though they will
be consumed and gobbled up to come in and be starters.
I don't. I don't. I don't think that. I think
the market for them to come in and be starters
they've done enough for that.

Speaker 1 (52:32):
I wonder what the forty nine ers are even gonna
do with Mac Jones.

Speaker 2 (52:35):
He's under contract. Yeah, so you're gonna have to go
get him with.

Speaker 3 (52:39):
A if somebody knocks on the door.

Speaker 4 (52:43):
Like, hey, we we need that because he he showed out.

Speaker 1 (52:47):
Better be a better, be a second round or better.

Speaker 3 (52:49):
Right.

Speaker 4 (52:49):
So, but I'm just saying I think those guys are
have have played well enough and in reserve duty to
warrant another look. Surely, I really, I really believe that.
I think that's uh wow, look a look at him. Boy,
That boy can go that. Caleb Williams he that too.

(53:12):
He should have been tackled about four times. He turned
that into about twenty five yards. This young man can
play for my second one. It's I want to give
along those lines. It was just perfect segue. I want
to give flowership to Sam Donald. Sam Donald, I believe
is the only player to ever take Tuesday to win

(53:34):
fourteen games with two different teams and back to back years. Now,
everybody was waiting for the other shoe to drop, and
depending on how you saw it, last year, the other
shoe came off in the last, the final game of
the regular season and in the playoff game, in the
wild card game.

Speaker 3 (53:56):
And so what is the what?

Speaker 4 (53:57):
What? What?

Speaker 3 (53:58):
What happens?

Speaker 4 (53:58):
Is it will they will be a market And we
know he lost about one hundred million dollars in those
in that two week span.

Speaker 3 (54:06):
Now that's a lot.

Speaker 4 (54:08):
Is anyone going to take a chance on a guy
who had a rebirth but kind of went back in
and said, hey, it's warming here. And he shows up
in Seattle, They trade away Geno Smith and he does
nothing but wins fourteen games again, number one seed in

(54:29):
the NFC. He only threw the ball seventeen times yesterday
in a dominant performance. He had a quarterback rating of
one hundred point ten. And this started all in that
game against the forty nine ers two weeks ago. That's
how important that game was because everyone was waiting to see, oh,

(54:53):
this is just like last year. Is he going to
show up against against the forty nine ers like he
did against Detroit and with the bed he didn't. And
then he followed it up with the true a dominant
performance in the divisional round of the playoffs. And so
now it looks like Sam Donald is underpaid at his

(55:19):
price point or I believe thirty three or thirty four
million a years. It looks like he's underpaid. So I
want to give Sam his flowers because he deserves what
he's been able to do with two different You know
how difficult that is.

Speaker 3 (55:34):
It's so difficult. Nobody's ever done it.

Speaker 1 (55:36):
There's no question.

Speaker 2 (55:37):
And I know what the Seahawks have been doing for
the last few years, and what's different this year. Sure, sure,
you got a new regime a year ago, you got
young defensive players. But yeah, yeah, yeah, Sam Donald better
than Geno Smith.

Speaker 4 (55:51):
So I want to give a shout out to them.
He has positioned Seattle to welcome in whoever wins this
game and be a slugfest. It's gonna be It's gonna
be a difficult task. I can tell you this.

Speaker 1 (56:06):
Okay. My third one is this.

Speaker 2 (56:09):
Look, he probably should get some MVP votes this year.
He was unbelievable as a key to one of the
reasons that the very very injured San Francisco forty nine
ers were able to achieve what they achieved this year.

Speaker 1 (56:26):
But I want to throw a stat at you. I
want to remove his rookie year, and I want to
remove any seasons in which he had an early significant injury.

Speaker 2 (56:39):
But if I do that with Christian McCaffrey, these are
his average yards per carry in full seasons as a
pro five point zero, four point eight, four point seven,

(57:02):
four point seven, five point four, three point nine.

Speaker 1 (57:11):
Anyone want to tell me which one stood out? My
point is this.

Speaker 2 (57:18):
What an unbelievable achievement, What an incredible warrior, What an
amazing future Hall of Fame player, But a player who
will have his thirtieth birthday this year, and a player
whose days as a three hundred and fifty plus touch player,
in my opinion, should be over. I'm not saying he

(57:42):
doesn't have the willingness. I'm not even necessarily saying he
doesn't have the ability. But I just think that the
law of diminishing returns is overwhelming right now, and the
forty nine ers need to be ahead of the game,
and they need to find out who the I is
in their fire and ice backfield where Christian McCaffrey next

(58:05):
year gets about two hundred and fifty touches, maybe two
hundred and seventy five touches, and somebody else is a
big part of that offense as well.

Speaker 3 (58:18):
Yeah, it's.

Speaker 4 (58:21):
You know, just watching it's funny watching Christian McCaffrey be
the player he is. I'm known Christian McCaffrey since he
was a baby. I played with his father, the great
Ed McCaffrey. I know his mom well, Lisa McCaffrey, who
is a spark plug. And so just seeing him become

(58:45):
that's how you make yourself feel old, especially as an athlete. Yeah,
I'm like, oh my goodness. They were holding they were
holding him at the games, and now he's holding up
a franchise. Yes, and so if they do want to
continue to use him at a tremendous clip when they

(59:06):
need him, then they've got to do something. They've got
to find a seventh round. Look at Manonghui for Chicago,
sure right, look at what they've been able to do.
They bring Swift in and then they have Manungay, a
hungry young seventh rounder who is a battering ram they've

(59:27):
got to go find one of those guys who has
a lot of miles and a lot of tread who
can also be effective out of the backfield, and then
you can really save Christian from when you really need him.
And that's the playoffs. I force feed him in the playoffs.
In the regular season, I give them ten twelve touches

(59:49):
if that that's just what it has to be for
him to continue to go on.

Speaker 1 (59:55):
Yeah, I'm with you, all right.

Speaker 2 (59:57):
Bring us home also with the knowledge that the Bear
phase fourth and goal just outside the one yard line
in a one score game here in the final five minutes.

Speaker 1 (01:00:08):
We'll keep you up to date.

Speaker 4 (01:00:09):
I'd be remissed on the day before doctor King holiday
not to mention him. So my third one is paying
homage to doctor Martin Luther King. August twenty eighth, nineteen
sixty three. He gave a riveting speech in front of
the Capital in Washington, d C.

Speaker 3 (01:00:28):
I have a dream speech, and it's because of.

Speaker 4 (01:00:34):
People like doctor King who saw an injustice in the
world and knew the world could be a better place
if we could all just see the human and the
humanity within each other, no matter the color of our skin,
our religious beliefs, our upbringing, whatever that is. Equality is

(01:00:55):
equality no matter who you are, no matter what you
believe in. And a society and in the world is
so divisive right now. It's so divisive right now. We
need those words in the leaders like Doctor King, because

(01:01:18):
we've fallen off of the path that we were on
in terms of equality, acceptance and love and so on
Doctor King's birthday weekend, I just want to say, it's
proud for me. Look, we wouldn't mark you and I
wouldn't be able to do this show.

Speaker 3 (01:01:36):
Amen in nineteen sixty, Amen, right in nineteen.

Speaker 4 (01:01:40):
Fifty, we wouldn't be able to do what we're doing.
And so I pay homage to the great Doctor King
and all of the other leaders of the civil rights
movement to make this country, which is a great country,
a better country.

Speaker 2 (01:01:55):
Perfectly said, I can't add anything other than to say
what he said, exactly, exactly right. We're live in the
Fox Sports Radio studios. Steve di segro Be along in
a handful of minutes with a full update. The Bears
did not get in on fourth down, So here we go,

(01:02:16):
final three minutes RAMS with the ball at their own
two Bears have all their timeouts, and they're the Bears,
so they wouldn't have done it with three minutes left. Anyway,
They're waiting for more drama. Let's find out if it works.
All of that is still ahead along with me from
Salama Mark Willard on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 6 (01:02:36):
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.

Speaker 2 (01:02:48):
Okay live Fox Sports Radio Studios. Lots going on in
the game. I'm gonna leave that for Steve, who's gonna
be here in a minute. But from do you understand third?
And with the two minute warning about to happen, what
is the point of running the football?

Speaker 1 (01:03:06):
Do you do? You get it? No? Sean McVay is.

Speaker 2 (01:03:09):
Having a weird year with play calling really bad, and
he's one of the greats in this game.

Speaker 4 (01:03:15):
And this punter would I don't know what's going on
right now, but that was awful.

Speaker 2 (01:03:21):
I don't I don't get Maybe maybe Steve de Sager
could explain it. Steve de Sager, maybe he could explain it.

Speaker 7 (01:03:27):
Is there any explaining it?

Speaker 1 (01:03:28):
The two minute warnings coming? The cost just stop no
matter what you do.

Speaker 7 (01:03:31):
I was in a booth for a Rams Cowboys playoff
game where this exact situation was about to happen before halftime,
and a timeout was taken because then it opens up
the playbook, right, you're gonna get the two minute warning
after the play Anyway, the analyst on the national game
broadcast turned around and said to it why would he

(01:03:52):
call it time out there? So okay, let's I'm not
saying give mcfait pass. He's not the only guy who's
been in football for years who might say no, let's
get the macro on this of what might actually occur.
So where we stand is a minute forty five left
in the playoff game, with snow on the field in Chicago.
The Rams are leading the Bears seventeen to ten, but

(01:04:14):
the Bears now have the ball. The Rams have two
touchdown runs from Kyra and Williams, one on the first
drive of the game, one on their well until this
punt their most recent drive of the game, and the
Rams importantly did have a thirty two yard field goal
made on the final play of the first half that
made it ten to ten at the break. Two hundred
and fifteen yards passing for Matthew Stafford. Caleb Williams with

(01:04:37):
one touchdown, two interceptions thrown. He has just completed a
near twenty yard pass to his tight end.

Speaker 4 (01:04:44):
Kingston loved him.

Speaker 7 (01:04:46):
The gun that guy has over the middle is I
mean on the touchdown pass to DJ Moore to start
the second quarter, that was there was no space whatsoever
and hit him in the back of He's.

Speaker 2 (01:04:55):
Got some stuff going on, but every now and again
he'll uncork something.

Speaker 1 (01:04:59):
And you're like, well, you're the only person planet who
can do that.

Speaker 7 (01:05:02):
And so now they hand to DeAndre Swift and he
gets down to about the twenty yard line, so field
goal means nothing. They're down seven. We're approaching a minute
to go right. We want them because of what you mentioned.
The Bears still have one time out left to use.
We are literally at a minute left and counting. And
DeAndre Swift, by the way, seventeen carries eighty one yards

(01:05:25):
passing Colston Lovelin the tight end has been targeted ten times.
He has four catches for fifty six yards. Williams has
just thrown incomplete. We are down to thirty five seconds
left in this game, and the Bears at home are
losing seventeen to ten. Matthew Stafford is playing despite last
week's sprained index finger. He practiced fully under twenty degrees

(01:05:48):
in Chicago windy as well as the snow that's dusted
the field. The winner of this game goes to top
seeded Seattle for the NFC title the AFC Championship. Next Sunday,
we'll have Denver hosting New England. The Patriots eliminated Houston
twenty eight to sixteen. Drake May three touchdown passes, three turnovers.
He was sacked five times, but CJ. Stroud through four

(01:06:10):
interceptions in the first half, one pick six. Remember, the
Patriots offense was not good last weekend. They wound up
winning sixteen to three against the Chargers, but Drake May
was sacked five times in that game. He couldn't run,
but he did have one touchdown two turnovers in that one,
and the Pats that night red zone tds were zero
for three. How did the Patriots offense do today? Fifteen drives,

(01:06:34):
thirteen first downs against Houston's defense. Patriots punted eight times.
Caleb Williams has just thrown another incompletion. We're at fourth
and four for Chicago. This is it just under thirty
seconds left in the game. If they turn it over
on downs, I repeat, they only have one time out left.

(01:06:57):
That is it. The Rams are one defense Vsive play
away from going to the NFC Championship game. So we'll
keep it right here, because are they going to use
their time out? Rams defense just called time out? My goodness, Okay,
NBA scoreboard, there is a game in London today. Memphis
beat Orlando one twenty six to one oh nine. John

(01:07:17):
Morant twenty four points thirteen assists. He did not play
Thursday's first game against him after a calf injury. The
Magic on Thursday came back to beat him in Berlin.
The Lake game's about to start in LA with the
Lakers hosting Toronto. Luka Dodsich was listed as questionable. He's
available after missing last night's loss at Portland due to
a grond injury. Lebron James is also available in case

(01:07:42):
you are wondering. For those who haven't seen the Lakers recently,
that's an appropriate response to recent Laker games. Chicago Bulls
won at home against Bert Lakers.

Speaker 1 (01:07:51):
The only thing that can make that sound come out
of Ephraim. By the way, this is the Los Angeles Lakers.
Maybe his sons, that's probably, but the asked.

Speaker 7 (01:08:00):
Or right the March Madness shot down play for the
Chicago Bears. Huge rush on Kayle, Oh.

Speaker 3 (01:08:06):
My gosh, Oh my god.

Speaker 1 (01:08:09):
That did not just happen.

Speaker 7 (01:08:10):
How did not know catches it?

Speaker 2 (01:08:16):
He had to run backwards of yards just to throw
the ball.

Speaker 7 (01:08:20):
It counts as a fourteen yard touchdown. He probably did
thirty yards in the air and an extra point. We'll
tie the game. So I field going crazy?

Speaker 2 (01:08:28):
Is there an extra point? Or do we just bears
the hell out of this thing?

Speaker 3 (01:08:33):
You gotta do it EXTRAX point?

Speaker 4 (01:08:36):
I agree with you.

Speaker 1 (01:08:37):
But do it whatever. I'm like, this is the Bears
just right.

Speaker 3 (01:08:44):
This is the smartest thing Ben Johnson has done all year.

Speaker 7 (01:08:46):
This kicker already made a forty eight years.

Speaker 4 (01:08:49):
It's the smartest thing he's done all year.

Speaker 7 (01:08:52):
He's gonna make this.

Speaker 1 (01:08:54):
He got it, he got it. Okay, we got a
tie football game? Wow? My good.

Speaker 7 (01:09:02):
Kulliams how a minute and a half, seven plays, fifty
yard drive listen, and it was a fourth and four
throw that gets them the touchdown.

Speaker 1 (01:09:13):
Here.

Speaker 7 (01:09:13):
The Bears had not been good when running on third
and short. Fourth and short tonight. They're usually good at that,
not tonight, and they just heave it into the end zone.
He went straight backwards toward midfield and they threw it
over forty yards.

Speaker 4 (01:09:28):
He was he was.

Speaker 2 (01:09:29):
Standing at the forty maybe the forty one again, snapped
at the fourteen.

Speaker 3 (01:09:34):
He's crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:09:35):
He receives it at the twenty one. Fight in the air,
back to the forty one foot in the air and
on his back foot.

Speaker 2 (01:09:41):
Wow throws a dot a dot to Cole Combat in
the back of the end zone.

Speaker 1 (01:09:47):
I'm not sure what fender.

Speaker 7 (01:09:49):
If they win this add this to the legendary list.

Speaker 1 (01:09:52):
Oh my goodness.

Speaker 4 (01:09:53):
They have to win now this this throw and have
to They deserve to win.

Speaker 1 (01:09:58):
This is This is.

Speaker 2 (01:09:59):
Up there with some of the most memorable stuff the
Bears have ever done.

Speaker 7 (01:10:03):
Well, there are only so many things that the Bears
have ever done. Erect we can update a stat that
I believe we mentioned on last Sunday Night show.

Speaker 4 (01:10:12):
Wow.

Speaker 7 (01:10:13):
Caleb Williams is now tied for second in playoff touchdown
passes in the entire long history of the Chicago Bears,
with four total. Oh Sid Luckman had seven, Caleb Williams four.
Rex Grossman for playoff TV passes and Jim McMahon four,
there's your Bears passing history. You know when he said

(01:10:36):
at the beginning of the season, I think I can
go four thousand yards. No Bears quarterback ever thrown for
four thousand yards. Yeah, it's not match an offensive passing.

Speaker 4 (01:10:44):
We've seen a prolific quarterback with thirteen seconds and a
time out. Yeah, yeah, win a game, playoff game, yep.

Speaker 3 (01:10:53):
So sure, let's just keep that in mind.

Speaker 7 (01:10:56):
They're not going to turn whatever.

Speaker 1 (01:10:57):
No nothing. Well a question, I wonder if Sean McVeigh
would like to redo that play call on third and
nine and maybe try to get a first down.

Speaker 4 (01:11:08):
They take a knee.

Speaker 1 (01:11:11):
They're taking a knee.

Speaker 7 (01:11:12):
Okay, let's go to overtime. And remember this I said
at last hour. The glaring weakness of an otherwise great
Rams team this year is special teams. Are they gonna
have to win this with a field goal kick? That
thirty two yarder that went through at the end of
the first half was a low knuckler. This is what
they're stuck with. They already fired the original kicker this season.

(01:11:35):
They already fired the special teams coach. The punting has
had its problems Harris and Nevis. The thicker kicker is
the guy they're stuck with to win the game if
it comes to a kick.

Speaker 4 (01:11:46):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (01:11:50):
I'm just kid. That was crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:11:56):
That was absolutely bananas, and I just want also, can
we bring this up like I joked, I joked to
you ten minutes ago, Oh, the Bears didn't want the
touchdown with three minutes to go because they're the Bears.

Speaker 3 (01:12:12):
This is.

Speaker 4 (01:12:14):
Anything like this in my life.

Speaker 1 (01:12:16):
Want more drama.

Speaker 2 (01:12:18):
And now we get one of the most memorable Bears
individual plays we've ever seen.

Speaker 1 (01:12:23):
And we'll see what it leads to.

Speaker 4 (01:12:24):
But I don't know you want to talk about, Oh
my goodness foraging a legacy. This is this is out
of control.

Speaker 7 (01:12:32):
Bears won the toss, but they're kicking to start overtime.

Speaker 4 (01:12:35):
Absolutely, that's what you want.

Speaker 7 (01:12:37):
Each team will get a possession.

Speaker 1 (01:12:40):
Wow, this is wow. Chicago Bears, man, I don't know
who they are this year. I don't know what they are,
but they're fun to watch.

Speaker 2 (01:12:50):
Bear down same team that let's see, was down by
uh seventeen against the Packers last week, down by fifteen,
down by fifteen to the Packers this last week.

Speaker 7 (01:13:04):
Yeah, twenty one to three at half three, at a
half twenty one to six.

Speaker 2 (01:13:08):
Early forth, here we go, okay, and then scored three
touchdowns fourth quarter.

Speaker 7 (01:13:12):
Yeah three of them bout the last ten minutes, and
the Packers kicker had missed two field goal attempts. Remember
at missed an extra points and the Bears wound up
winning last weekend. Can we just say that one of
the hallmarks of the Bears throughout the regular season this
year has been forcing turnovers. They had thirty three takeaways
in the regulation, and what have they done in the

(01:13:33):
postseason eight quarters not a single takeaway. Is overtime the
time for the Bears to finally do what they have
been doing. This is a the number one rushing team
in the NFC regular season and be the best in
the league at turnover margin. The defense really wasn't there,
not at playoff elite type level, and yet low scoring game,

(01:13:55):
they're alive. They get the magical touchdown pass in the
final seconds, they're at seventeen with the Rams, they're in
commercial break, overtime starts shortly.

Speaker 4 (01:14:04):
I can't even believe that happened while we're on the air.

Speaker 1 (01:14:08):
There's no way that happened. What are we doing? Oh man,
this weekend.

Speaker 2 (01:14:17):
Needed this too, by the way, Yes, indeed, I like
the Bills Broncos game was great, but I found the
ending to be frustrated because it was it was all.

Speaker 1 (01:14:26):
Pass interferences and controversial.

Speaker 7 (01:14:29):
Calls and that last PI, I mean, the game was over.
It's gonna be a short field goal. This was not
just the amazing throw. It was on fourth and four
and Caleb Williams on fourth downs already in these two
weekends of the playoffs had thrown three interceptions. Nobody in
the last thirty five years had that many fourth down

(01:14:49):
interceptions in the playoffs for a career in the last
thirty five years. He's done it in just two weekends.
And yet end of game fourth down it's not an interception,
it's an a play just to be open to throw
the long pass and get the TD.

Speaker 4 (01:15:04):
It's like he's the most dangerous quarterback in the league. Yeah, yeah,
he can make any throw.

Speaker 7 (01:15:15):
It's like the maneuverability of the Lamar Jackson and the
arm of Caleb Williams, you.

Speaker 4 (01:15:21):
Know what I mean.

Speaker 7 (01:15:22):
Goodness, there's so few. I mean, this is what Matthew
Stafford was talked about when it came out of college
and was drafted number one. It's like, you got to
see this guy's arm the deep middle. He can just
throw rockets and that's what we're seeing with Williams. And
remember throwing against his body last week. Feet aren't even
on the ground and this ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (01:15:40):
That it all took place.

Speaker 7 (01:15:42):
Fig guys, we have the numbers from next Gen Stats.
The game tying touchdown pass from Caleb Williams traveled how
many yards in the air? Fifty one. It was a
fourteen yard touchdown pass. It went fifty one in the air,
the longest completed pass by air distance in the red

(01:16:04):
zone since they've had next Gen Stats the last decade.

Speaker 2 (01:16:08):
Yes, what a beautiful thing. And he did it in
the snow off of his back foot. Okay, Rams are
gonna have the ball first, we got we got more
to figure out and talk about.

Speaker 1 (01:16:19):
No doubt, and all of this is happening live here
in these.

Speaker 2 (01:16:24):
Fox Sports Radio studios. That's it from Salava Mark Willard,
Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (01:16:29):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio live in the
Fox Sports Radio studios.

Speaker 2 (01:16:35):
The quick update is the Bears now have the ball
and they will be facing a third and long Rams
have already had the ball unpunted, so the.

Speaker 1 (01:16:43):
Next score wins the game. Will keep you up to date.

Speaker 2 (01:16:45):
If you miss any of today's show, grab it on
the podcast after just search Fox Sports Radio wherever you
get podcasts.

Speaker 1 (01:16:52):
Right after the show, we'll post this. Be sure to
follow the pod rated a five, provide a review if
you like.

Speaker 2 (01:16:58):
Again, search Fox Sports Radio wherever you get podcasts. You'll
find today's show, post an in full right after we
get off the air. Can I ask you, like, this
is a dumb well does it stupid? This like a
dorky question, but it just crossed my mind. It's the playoffs,
So why is there a clock right now?

Speaker 4 (01:17:20):
Because it'll be they'll break right so they'll get time.
It's like at the end of a quarter. Yeah, okay,
it's just not a running clock. You just don't just
going up and down and up and down, just like
at the end of ten. Then you take a break,
you do the coin coin flip again, switch the oh
coin flip again, everything everything again, all right, all right.

Speaker 2 (01:17:43):
I was just like, I don't even I don't think
we need this, Like a tie is off the table.

Speaker 1 (01:17:48):
You can't have the bears and Rams go to Seattle next.

Speaker 4 (01:17:51):
Week, Bears played, the Rams played the first half, the
Bears definitely played a second half.

Speaker 2 (01:17:57):
Or what if they just draft the best players from
both teams play the out and then here's here's a
here's an observation that I'd love to run by. You
Remember when everybody's sent spent last year going like, the
jury is still kind of out on Caleb Williams.

Speaker 1 (01:18:18):
But the one thing for.

Speaker 3 (01:18:19):
Certain, what jury is out?

Speaker 1 (01:18:21):
Well?

Speaker 2 (01:18:22):
Last year, oh yes, last year the jury was out,
but people went. What we know for sure is the
Bears picked the wrong guy. They They should have gone
with Jaden Daniels. How are we feeling about that now?
I went with the right guy.

Speaker 3 (01:18:39):
I was just talking to Lee the fourth.

Speaker 4 (01:18:46):
And I was like, no, he's a Packers fan, Tiger fan. Yeah,
he's dying in here, like dying his need to die.
And then he was like, yo, they deserve But he's
kind of going, He's like, I mean, I hate him,
but I do I hate him?

Speaker 2 (01:19:07):
Yeah, just I don't know, man, when your team leads
the playoffs like whatever.

Speaker 4 (01:19:13):
Rival, Yeah, I'm good, believe me. I'm oh it's a pig.
Look he just cheered.

Speaker 3 (01:19:19):
He cheered, and the Bears still suck.

Speaker 1 (01:19:21):
Look, I mean it works as a punt. That's actually
not even that big of a deal. It's not third
and long.

Speaker 2 (01:19:30):
And that works as a punt. The Rams are excited,
but yeah, that was just that was a punt. And
the Rams are winning the turn up a battle three
to nothing. Yet they're in overtime with only seventeen points.

Speaker 4 (01:19:43):
Man, is it put a game? And we got a
whole another.

Speaker 1 (01:19:47):
Hour to go.

Speaker 4 (01:19:48):
We got a whole another hour to go normally, normally
you know the game is over.

Speaker 2 (01:19:53):
I'd like to tell both teams to just just keep
doing this. Just play for another hour.

Speaker 4 (01:19:57):
Play for another hour.

Speaker 1 (01:19:59):
You know who's winning right now? The Seahawks. Yes, they're like,
we got an extra day rest.

Speaker 2 (01:20:06):
You guys are really you're playing your second game of
the night.

Speaker 1 (01:20:10):
So we so we.

Speaker 2 (01:20:14):
So yeah, I think, Uh, the Vegas line is going up,
up up for Seattle as the favorite coming up next week.
All right, lots to get to We ain't done yet.
Stay where you are.

Speaker 1 (01:20:28):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 2 (01:20:31):
We sit in these Fox Sports Radio studios and we've
been asking questions today and trying to get answers. We
started off by asking is C. J. Stroud the right
guy in Houston? That is debatable? What is the actual
issue with what's a catch and officiating?

Speaker 1 (01:20:49):
And now we're trying to answer the question.

Speaker 2 (01:20:52):
Was that one of the greatest plays and Bear's playoff
football history? Well, it's gonna have to be attached to
a victory in order for that to be the case.
Can the Rams special teams, if it comes to that,
finally not let them down and send them to the
NFC title game. The Rams are facing third and long,

(01:21:13):
but they're well into field goal range, and yes, from
it is not body shaming to use the man's nickname,
the Thicker Kicker awaits and Rams fans know that's not
necessarily the greatest thing. But here we sit in overtime,
seventeen to all and the Rams are at the twenty
four yard line. So we will keep you up to

(01:21:35):
date in what has been a breath taking football. Oh
a throat of the end zone that was damn close,
but it is incomplete.

Speaker 1 (01:21:45):
So here we go.

Speaker 2 (01:21:46):
It's Thicker Kicker time and should be about a forty
two yarder in the snow in Chicago.

Speaker 1 (01:21:51):
What could go wrong?

Speaker 4 (01:21:54):
Everything?

Speaker 1 (01:21:55):
Every man?

Speaker 4 (01:22:01):
Now, I do this all the time period periodically throughout
the year was we're watching games and all of that.
This is the moment where you get to be part
of the team or not part of the team. This
is it. This is the moment. Is he on the
team or he's on the team.

Speaker 1 (01:22:21):
He's on the team and the Rams are on a
plane for Seattle.

Speaker 4 (01:22:27):
Wow, wow, Lee is going crazy in there. Oh how
you feeling feeling good? A lot of hate, a lot
of hate going on, and you got hate your lit
it up.

Speaker 1 (01:22:44):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (01:22:44):
Well now now now it becomes a forty nine or
fan nightmare whether your arrest of the NFC West will
get together. And I actually I do think a lot
of people believe that this is probably unfair to the Patriots.

Speaker 1 (01:22:58):
But you're gonna get a lot of talk.

Speaker 2 (01:22:59):
That this game Seattle next weekend is the actual Super Bowl.

Speaker 4 (01:23:03):
Yes I would, I would, Yeah, yeah, I would. I
would see things leaning that way.

Speaker 2 (01:23:09):
Drake May is wonderful, and I think the Patriots are
are you know, they're they're capable, and they're scary, and
they'll give anybody a game, but they've got their own
game and difficult defense to go against. To win first,
but to have the Seattle defense and Matt Stafford.

Speaker 1 (01:23:28):
And all of that. One of them and then you
know the other the other game is.

Speaker 2 (01:23:32):
Giving you Jarrett Stidham and you know, a quarterback in
his second year. I do think that that's that's the
way people are gonna look at this one.

Speaker 4 (01:23:43):
Yeah it this is wow. What a game?

Speaker 1 (01:23:52):
What a game?

Speaker 4 (01:23:53):
What a game?

Speaker 1 (01:23:53):
What a game? Like I said, this weekend needed this one.

Speaker 2 (01:23:57):
Last weekend was unbelievable, and this weekend. Great game yesterday afternoon,
but it sort of led to a frustrating finish for many.
And then you had the dog of the weekend with
Seattle just blowing the forty nine ers away.

Speaker 1 (01:24:12):
And obviously the game earlier with CJ.

Speaker 2 (01:24:14):
Straud throwing four picks in the first half didn't really
measure up either.

Speaker 1 (01:24:18):
So this weekend needed this and got it.

Speaker 4 (01:24:21):
Let me ask you this about yesterday, San francisc what
was your expectation as a Niner fan?

Speaker 2 (01:24:26):
Not high, not high, But it wasn't very high against
Philadelphia either, And I just think that when you look
at that matchup, that's now twelve quarters. A lot of
different scenarios different months on the calendar, but twelve quarters, well,
the forty nine Ers have played the Seahawks this year
and they've scored two touchdowns two and they've played them

(01:24:50):
eight quarters in just the last three weeks and they've
scored zero touchdowns. That defense is real, that environment was legit.
The forty nine ers were so hampered by injury. But
to be honest with you, Ephraim, even if they hadn't been,
not one hundred percent sure they're fully equipped to go

(01:25:11):
win that game. It's hard to say if Fred Warner,
Nick Bosa and George Kittle and everything and everybody's all
playing in that game and you're structured completely differently I
think as a football team. But the better team clearly
wins that football game. And the way I looked at
it going in, it's a little bit similar to the
game in Philly, a little bit where I think, Okay,

(01:25:34):
the Niners are good enough to give them a game,
but you're in a situation where you're going to have
to play really well and then create a close game
and then have some things pop your way there in
the second half to win.

Speaker 1 (01:25:49):
So when that's your scenario and you give up.

Speaker 2 (01:25:52):
An opening game kickoff, re turn touchdown, and then a
handful of minutes later you fumble in your own side
of the field, the game's over. They like they had
to play damn near perfect and they played nowhere near it.

Speaker 4 (01:26:11):
How about this, How big was that final regular season game?

Speaker 1 (01:26:15):
How big was that?

Speaker 4 (01:26:17):
How big was how.

Speaker 1 (01:26:18):
Different would things be?

Speaker 4 (01:26:20):
Yep, yep, that's how important that game was. And they
forgot to bring the offense to it.

Speaker 2 (01:26:27):
Yeah, and I mean credit Seattle for that, But that's
that's the undoing for the forty nine ers when you
think about ball security in those big moments against Seattle,
even with everything going the way that it did in
that final regular season game, a chance to make it
a three point game there in the fourth quarter and

(01:26:49):
McCaffrey bobbles it and gives it to the other team.

Speaker 1 (01:26:53):
And that's all she wrote it.

Speaker 2 (01:26:57):
But that's not what it could have shot or or
you know, ifs and butts and candies and nuts. For me,
it just isn't like Seattle. They made that. They get
they get credit for that. They were they were clearly better.
They're clearly better.

Speaker 1 (01:27:13):
I just that's the way I look at a lot
of the Niner season, which is like you can cobble
together a game and then see if you can make
the plays in the end, and more often than not
they did, but not against that defense.

Speaker 4 (01:27:30):
No, No, it was time they did. They did a
yeomen's job with what they were dealt with.

Speaker 1 (01:27:42):
They maxed it out.

Speaker 3 (01:27:43):
They completely maxed it out.

Speaker 4 (01:27:46):
Yeah, they just ran into a team that's healthy, a
team that's well coached, and a team that's on fire.

Speaker 1 (01:27:54):
I think if you.

Speaker 2 (01:27:55):
If you follow what the Niners were doing last off season,
they cut they some money, decided to go young on
the defensive side, and so a lot of these guys
ended up.

Speaker 1 (01:28:06):
Getting some playoff experience.

Speaker 2 (01:28:10):
But when you add in how young they were and
then all the injuries that they sort of sustained, no,
they should not. They should not have been a twelve
and five football team.

Speaker 1 (01:28:22):
So I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:28:23):
Look going forward, I look at it this way. Party's
contract starts now. I think he played absolutely well enough
to justify everything that's coming his way.

Speaker 4 (01:28:36):
And yeah, anybody still thinking they overpaid him, they're not understanding.

Speaker 1 (01:28:41):
You're not clear on what you are.

Speaker 4 (01:28:43):
We're not paying attention.

Speaker 2 (01:28:45):
But they won twelve games, yet somehow they get a
third place schedule next year.

Speaker 4 (01:28:53):
That's huge.

Speaker 1 (01:28:54):
However, here's their problem.

Speaker 2 (01:28:56):
Their problem is is these same two teams are going
to be sitting there again next year. And Seattle's young,
so like they've got to now start thinking about how
to build a team that can attack the Seahawks.

Speaker 1 (01:29:12):
And they got some work to do there.

Speaker 4 (01:29:14):
Luck with that.

Speaker 2 (01:29:15):
Yeah, yeah, they're short on playmakers, some for reasons that
were out of their control.

Speaker 1 (01:29:20):
Brandon Ayuk in his car.

Speaker 2 (01:29:23):
But and you know, and Kristen we talked about that
getting older blah. But they need some more playmakers. And
George Kittle is what at least gonna missed the first
half of the.

Speaker 4 (01:29:33):
Year, Yeah, yeah, if not more.

Speaker 2 (01:29:38):
If not more, I mean, but you know, yeah, the
doctors think at least the first four or five games.

Speaker 1 (01:29:47):
Yeah, maybe the whole season, maybe four or five games.

Speaker 4 (01:29:50):
I just think the type of player he is, and
think about the Achilles injury, you know what.

Speaker 1 (01:29:56):
I mean, the same guy when he gets.

Speaker 3 (01:29:58):
Back, he's that guy who.

Speaker 4 (01:30:01):
Number one, one of the best blocking tight ends in
the league, yep, best route runners. Like there's a lot
going on with his lower body and the way he
plays and and not the biggest thing coming back from injury,
especially the severe injury like that is the mental wear
and tear. Is this? Can I do it right? It's it.

(01:30:27):
That's why normally when players have those type of injuries,
it's the year after the year they return because they've
gone through a year, they've made it through, didn't re
hurt themselves, and so now they feel confident in going

(01:30:47):
full speed, all out, one hundred percent without the thought
of it could literally rupture again. Yeah, you gotta remember,
especially the non contact injuries. It's one thing to be
locked up with someone, I'm getting driven over, somebody falls
into you. But when you're just out running a route

(01:31:08):
or so now every route you run is tentative, it's
very like, oh do I can I come out of
my break like I used to?

Speaker 2 (01:31:16):
I mean, like we're all talking about the achilles, which
leaves out the fact that he had a complete tear
of his hamstring Week one.

Speaker 4 (01:31:26):
While just running, just running, just running, and then he
missed the game.

Speaker 2 (01:31:31):
He missed the game against the Bears, that crazy Sunday
night game during our show. He missed that game because
of an injury. There's three injuries for him this year.
He is well past thirty. He now has a torn achilles.
I've already said what I've said about Christian. The Nighters
are in a good spot, but they got players to

(01:31:53):
go get big time.

Speaker 4 (01:31:56):
Yeah, they got a big time. They got some work
to do.

Speaker 1 (01:32:00):
They got work to do.

Speaker 2 (01:32:02):
They got work to do, They got some things in place,
They've got some advantages in place. I think they've got
maybe the best coach in the game, certainly one of them.

Speaker 4 (01:32:09):
Yeah, and let's be clear, the best front office too,
because you know him and John Lynch coming over and
the ownership group allowing them to do their thing and
build it their way. You gotta remember remember they they
came in and they signed a five year guarantee when
they first got there. They say, give us time to

(01:32:32):
build this thing the right way and the way we
want to build it. And I think that was the
Look at Pete Carroll, right, you look at some of
the other first year coaches who were fired, and it's like, oh, okay,
Nathaniel Hackett right, like he was offensive coordinate that he

(01:32:53):
gets to Green Bay. I obviously couldn't even it shouldn't
never have been there. But very few of them get
brandan stay treatment where they just gonna ride with you
no matter what. And so I was built into their contracts.
Both of them, John Lynch and Kyle o'shanahan allow us
to build this thing out, and they did, and shout

(01:33:14):
out to them. Now you know, you can see how
they keep finding this talent and and how things are
shaken out for him.

Speaker 2 (01:33:24):
I think also important if you're going to tell that story,
to remember what that roster was when they took it
over and famously, uh, Kyle Shanahan I think pretty much
told the ownership group in the interview, this is the
worst roster in football.

Speaker 4 (01:33:38):
Yeah, yep, So that's why it.

Speaker 1 (01:33:40):
Was like, give us time and I mean just all
on their watch.

Speaker 2 (01:33:46):
Sure, there's been some high profile mistakes Trey Lance on
and on. There's been some very high profile mistakes, but
there's also been a handful of Hall of Fame players
drafted and some of them late and and George Kill
and Fred Warner.

Speaker 1 (01:34:00):
At the top of that list. So yeah, I'm with
you on all that. But this division.

Speaker 4 (01:34:08):
Has tough, tough that's a tough division.

Speaker 1 (01:34:13):
Yeah, it was it certainly, it certainly was this year.
And Caleb Williams season ends tonight, but he's changed the
whole narrative about him going forward. Although as we.

Speaker 2 (01:34:27):
Talked this out, let me also say this, Abram, Uh,
sign me up right now for a bet on the.

Speaker 1 (01:34:34):
Bears under wind total next year right away.

Speaker 2 (01:34:40):
Well, and that's not to be rude, but listen to
what we're talking about. It's no different than the Chiefs
this year.

Speaker 4 (01:34:47):
The different.

Speaker 2 (01:34:49):
A you can't duplicate this and you're playing a first
place schedule now and you don't really have you don't
have the wherewithal the handle that. I don't believe you're
not that kind of a team.

Speaker 4 (01:35:04):
Now. What happens is they're young enough for them to
go out and add quality pieces to keep. Now instead
of winning the close games, now you're beating teams right.
So now you're getting into the fourth quarter and you're
up to touchdowns. That's the maturation process. You can't duplicate

(01:35:26):
this year. So you have to build a roster that
can compete early and often and not wait til the
heroics at the end. It won't happen like that again.

Speaker 2 (01:35:38):
Defense, defense, Yep, yep, you have to it's important.

Speaker 1 (01:35:43):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (01:35:44):
They like they might consider while drafting to tell Ben
Johnson to stay home. We got this, but we're doing
defense all seven rounds because it's not very good defense. No, anyway,
all right, who let's take a breath. That was some
stuff right there. You know who I go out and

(01:36:06):
get who.

Speaker 4 (01:36:08):
Uh Trey Hendrickson from uh right, I'll be started doing
things like that those yeah, oh yeah, yeah yeah. I
start looking at things like that, like okay, who's unhappy
and who's up right?

Speaker 3 (01:36:27):
Like is is Pittsburgh gonna keep.

Speaker 4 (01:36:32):
T J Watt?

Speaker 1 (01:36:34):
Mm hmm, I would think, but I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:36:37):
Hey man, we gotta see who coming in there and coaching.

Speaker 4 (01:36:42):
I would be That's where I would be because if
you can get someone to to pair with sweat coming
off the edge, I go get me a uh you know,
a side sideline, the sideline linebacker, and you add one
more big beefy guy up the middle or to stop
to run.

Speaker 3 (01:37:04):
That's what I would do.

Speaker 2 (01:37:06):
That's what they need, That's what they need. On offense. Man,
it looks all set. Boy, they hit on their second
tight end. The rookie Colston Lovelan looks great. Receive it course,
fantastic Colston.

Speaker 1 (01:37:19):
I mean Caleb Williams is now got himself. You know
a little Jenni si qua about him.

Speaker 2 (01:37:25):
So anyway, all right, the final four set will talk
that out there is something non football that I'm gonna
need about a minute or two from you on from
I want to get your reaction, uh, and we'll get
to all of that throughout our final hour in these
Fox Sports Radio studios.

Speaker 1 (01:37:45):
That's e from my mark, Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 6 (01:37:47):
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 right here.

Speaker 1 (01:38:00):
Live in the Fox Sports Radio studios.

Speaker 2 (01:38:02):
The numbers are set, the lines are out, you want
to hear them. The Seahawks ephraim will be a two
and a half point favorite over the visiting Los Angeles Rams.
The over under has been set at forty seven. The

(01:38:24):
New England Broncos game next week opened at Patriots minus four.

Speaker 1 (01:38:29):
It has already been.

Speaker 2 (01:38:30):
Bet up to minus six, and as far as Super
Bowl lines and favorites, the super Bowl favorite is the
Seattle Seahawks at three to two. Narrowly behind them is
the Los Angeles Rams at eleven to five.

Speaker 1 (01:38:49):
The New England.

Speaker 2 (01:38:49):
Patriots are next at eleven to four, and the Broncos
are the dog at eleven to one. Those are the
current numbers and lines for the NFL Final Four.

Speaker 1 (01:39:06):
I'm liking Seattle's chances right now.

Speaker 4 (01:39:09):
Yeah, that's gonna be a tough game, though, no doubt,
no doubt. I think like I wouldn't, I wouldn't underestimate
number one Sean McVay and number two Matthew Stafford. Oh
I don't.

Speaker 1 (01:39:25):
You're right?

Speaker 3 (01:39:26):
And so.

Speaker 4 (01:39:28):
I mean.

Speaker 3 (01:39:30):
One game away like they've been here.

Speaker 2 (01:39:33):
Before, Yes, they have it is I mean it's Matthew Stafford,
an elder statesman, super Bowl champ, against Sam Darnold who's
won checks notes one playoff game in his life.

Speaker 3 (01:39:43):
Yeah, that's a real.

Speaker 2 (01:39:45):
Thing, and it was last night. This is one day
old as a playoff winner.

Speaker 4 (01:39:53):
So I'd be cautious about what the what that is?
What that looks like? Yep, Because I mean and Matthew
Staffords the last remaining unks like he's a hunk in
the league, right meaning older statesman thirty, you know, mid

(01:40:24):
to late thirties, still slinging that thing can make every
throw highly intelligent, hard to trick him. Won't be a snowstorm,
maybe a little rainy.

Speaker 2 (01:40:38):
But I'm gonna look not that I not that seven
days advanced weather reports.

Speaker 1 (01:40:45):
Matter but I'm gonna give it a whirl. Here.

Speaker 2 (01:40:47):
Seattle long range forecast next Sunday forty eight degree high,
forty two degree low, thirty six percent on the precipitation meter,
So possible.

Speaker 4 (01:41:02):
Showers, yeah, like I you know, and.

Speaker 1 (01:41:09):
Not a lot of wind, which is actually what usually
affects quarterback.

Speaker 3 (01:41:12):
That's the thing that really gets them. Yeah, so I
hey man.

Speaker 2 (01:41:17):
Oh yeah, no I'm not I'm not here telling you
the Rams can't win. I'm not telling you that at all.

Speaker 3 (01:41:26):
I think, Look, this is this is exciting.

Speaker 1 (01:41:29):
Uh, there's just there's two defenses left that I like.
One of them.

Speaker 2 (01:41:33):
I love one of them. I just kind of like.
And the one that I kind of like lost their quarterback. Yeah,
that's gonna be tough.

Speaker 4 (01:41:43):
That's gonna be really tough.

Speaker 2 (01:41:45):
Yeah, and then we have to do the obligatory so aphram,
what's the NFL want? They obviously want the Patriots, you know, nobody.
I'm so sorry to the young man. Nobody wants Jared
Steadham in the super I hate that, like, but I'm sorry,
they just don't know. I think he has one win

(01:42:07):
as a starter in his career.

Speaker 4 (01:42:09):
Yeah, nobody wants that because there's no that it he had,
he wouldn't have done enough for it to be a
story there.

Speaker 2 (01:42:18):
No, you know, nobody, once upon a time, nobody wanted
Nick Foles in the super Bowl.

Speaker 1 (01:42:24):
It's one of the most watchable games we've ever seen.

Speaker 3 (01:42:26):
Yeah, but.

Speaker 2 (01:42:28):
I think so okay, league wants the Patriots. Who do
they want him to play?

Speaker 3 (01:42:36):
It would have to be the Rams.

Speaker 4 (01:42:40):
Have to be right.

Speaker 2 (01:42:44):
I don't know that it matters that much, to be
honest with you, I think you know, I get where
you're coming from. But like the whole like big market thing,
I never think that really matters in a Super Bowl.

Speaker 4 (01:42:58):
I'm not talking about like up the market. I'm talking
about in terms of the story of the narrative. So
you you'll look at it like this, if the Rams
end up making it, this is essentially this is essentially
Matthew Stafford's final game. Right, Remember this one's for John Yeah,

(01:43:21):
go off on the on the horse on top of
he's probably gonna win the m v P this year.

Speaker 2 (01:43:27):
Well, if he doesn't, it would be the other quarterback, right,
that's all the other that's the I think that's why
what you're saying is correct, is it's gonna be one
and two in the m v P race playing each other.

Speaker 4 (01:43:37):
Yes, And so I'm looking at it like, Okay, that's
something you can latch it. This is it like this
that'll be leading up to it. Those will be the conversations.
And is this Matthew's last? Can he go out on

(01:43:58):
top like John did?

Speaker 1 (01:44:00):
It?

Speaker 3 (01:44:00):
Can all of these things?

Speaker 4 (01:44:02):
And I think that's a better He won the MVP,
and I think that's a that fits a storytelling narrative.

Speaker 3 (01:44:17):
More so than anyone else.

Speaker 2 (01:44:20):
He is under contract for forty two mil next year. Yeah,
I don't know if he's gonna that's not happening.

Speaker 3 (01:44:27):
We know that.

Speaker 1 (01:44:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:44:28):
Oh, by the way, third in the MVP voting behind
Stafford and Drake May this year shockingly Steve de Seger
as it turns out, third place.

Speaker 7 (01:44:41):
Yeah, keep in mind with the NFL schedule, it's whoever's
hosting the Super Bowl gets to host the NFL honors
when we find out who wins the MVP in the
May area and the Pro Bowl that flag football game
they had Now the Pro Bowl games are all in
the super Bowl city now as well, well, not in
a separate place. By the way, I did see that

(01:45:04):
it was Matthew Stafford voted the All Pro quarterback that's
both conferences combined, ahead of Drake May thirty one votes
to eighteen. There were three guys in the entire NFL
that were unanimous selections from the AP voting board. They
were wide receiver Puka Nakua, who's in a conference championship
next weekend at Seattle, wide receiver Jackson Smith in Jigma,

(01:45:27):
who's in that same conference championship in Seattle next weekend.
And Miles Garrett as well. We'll get to basketball in
a moment, but my goodness, has the football been good.
The Bears have been eliminated in overtime. You thought they
were going to do it again, didn't she The Rams
were twenty to seventeen in ot with the snow dusting
the turf throughout the game in Chicago, where it was

(01:45:50):
under twenty degrees windy, of course, in the Windy City,
but on a forty two yard field goal by Harrison MeVis,
the Rams advanced. Meavis also kicked a thirty two yarder
at the end of the first half. Kyron Williams two
touchdown runs. Keep in mind not only Caleb Williams with
the three interceptions one in overtime. Remember, the Bears with
about three minutes left in regulation got no points on

(01:46:13):
a gold to go situation, no gain on third down,
incomplete on fourth down at the two. Eventually, the Caleb
Williams magic got them along touchdown pass I say long
fifty yards in the air, but a fourteen yard TD
late in regulation in the final thirty seconds to send
it to overtime. This is a Bears team that had

(01:46:34):
had a record seven wins after trailing in the last
two minutes of the fourth quarter. Previous season, the Chicago
franchise had five wins total. So yes, magical is the
proper word to the kind of year the Bears had
past tense had. It is over Rams at Seattle in
the NFC Championship next weekend, and that, by the way,

(01:46:55):
will be the later of the two games, so that
would be six thirty pm Eastern time. Before that, Denver,
top seed in the AFC, is going to be hosting
a New England team that played its final home game
of the year today and eliminated Houston twenty eight to sixteen. CJ.
Stroud and a loss through four interceptions in the first half,
one of them but picked six Drake May three touchdown passes,

(01:47:16):
but three turnovers as well. He was sacked five times
by that great Texans defense to the NBA scoreboard. At
Sacramento mid third Gord Portland up eighty to seventy. Lakers
are tied at fifty two. At home final minute of
the first half against the Toronto Raptors, Lebron James playing
thirteen points, Luka Doncic is playing has fifteen points, and

(01:47:38):
DeAndre Eighton is playing. He has twelve points and six
rebounds in the first half. Earlier home wins for Houston
and Chicago. Can I just say out loud, the NBA
had a Chicago Bulls home game at the same time
there was a Chicago Bears playoff game.

Speaker 2 (01:47:54):
Jeeze, Okay, yeah, guess played in San Francisco at five
thirty night.

Speaker 7 (01:48:00):
Ah, there we go.

Speaker 1 (01:48:01):
Yeah. It was a damn trend all weekend long. Unfortunately.

Speaker 7 (01:48:06):
Actually yes, because yesterday we had the Buffalo Bills losing
in overtime and the Buffalo Sabers losing in overtime owned
by the same guy by the way, in college. Great
day for him college basketball Number seven. Houston whipped Arizona
State one, three to seventy three NHL wins for Tampa
Bay for Detroit in overtime. The only other game eight

(01:48:26):
minutes left at Edmonton Oilers five nothing over the Blues.
You mentioned Jared Stidham, He's going to be setting some
history before he even throws a pass next weekend. You see,
they Stats Inc. Went back into the records. They first
started tracking quarterback starts in nineteen fifty, So going back

(01:48:47):
to at least nineteen fifty, Jared st Didnon's going to
become the first quarterback in NFL history to start a
conference championship round or later after not throwing a single
pass during the regular season. Now that you mentioned you
mentioned the weather as for Denver, I looked it up
and although it's supposed to be in the thirties heading

(01:49:09):
into next Sunday, it's a possibility of close to fifty
degrees and sonny for the AFC Championship game. And the
NFL points out, every AFC Championship game since the twenty
eleven season has featured either the Patriots or the Chiefs,
every one of them. No Buffalo Bills appearances in the

(01:49:29):
Super Bowl in all of that time, notable because the
Bills actually set a record. I mean, they're probably saying no,
thank you, but they actually won a playoff game for
now six straight seasons. But they're the only team to
do that six straight seasons and still not win a
Super Bowl in those six years. The Bills got eliminated
in yet again heartbreak fashion yesterday, losing in overtime by

(01:49:53):
three at Denver. They had lost by three to the
Chiefs the year before in the playoffs, and lost by
three to the Chiefs the year before that. So yeah,
the Buffalo Bills are the first team in NFL history
to lose by three or less in the playoffs three straight.

Speaker 3 (01:50:06):
Mental health watch.

Speaker 4 (01:50:09):
Back to you. Uh thanks Steve.

Speaker 2 (01:50:11):
Yep, Steve, great stuff tonight, as as always appreciated. Who
I don't know, but I'm still having a hard time
catching breath here.

Speaker 4 (01:50:20):
And that was a lot.

Speaker 1 (01:50:22):
That was a lot live in the Fox Sports radio studios.
And I'm also sitting here just.

Speaker 2 (01:50:28):
Kind of thumbing through social media and getting all the
reactions to Caleb Williams and Matt Stafford.

Speaker 1 (01:50:36):
And also play calling.

Speaker 2 (01:50:38):
There's a lot of people even like the game was great,
But I guess Sean McVeigh even admitted after the games
like didn't didn't didn't like my coaching tonight, and I
wanted to let him know neither did we.

Speaker 1 (01:50:51):
He made some really weird decisions and could have called.

Speaker 2 (01:50:55):
Characteristic and and I'm almost, uh, you want to know
what's uncharacteristic is that you haven't yet pointed out Ben
Johnson's first half decisions in a three point overtime loss.

Speaker 1 (01:51:09):
The man does like to pass up a field goal?

Speaker 4 (01:51:13):
Yeah, sure does. Look I'm not going to beat a
dead horse, but hopefully I've spoke on this enough throughout
the years where as soon as it happens, people like, oh, nope,
see see.

Speaker 3 (01:51:34):
They they're tripping.

Speaker 4 (01:51:37):
Right. No, no, take the points, especially in the playoffs.
Always always always take the points.

Speaker 2 (01:51:45):
I just I mean, like I hear you, I might
stop short of all three always like there's there's situations
where I get it, but like, who.

Speaker 1 (01:52:00):
Not like this.

Speaker 2 (01:52:01):
We've gone so so so over the top with the
with the whole thing that I just how many games
in just the last month have you and I watched
a coach leave a three or two of them in
the first half and then lose the game by one,
two or three points in the end.

Speaker 1 (01:52:21):
Jacksonville just did it last week?

Speaker 4 (01:52:23):
Just did it?

Speaker 1 (01:52:23):
Chicago? Did it today? This is it's every week.

Speaker 4 (01:52:28):
I always equate it to money. Take your money right,
don't leave your money. Like when I'm coaching my kids
in basketball, the layup is the money. So I equated
to that, you wouldn't leave your money on the ground.
Go get your money, man, like you've you've earned it.

Speaker 1 (01:52:48):
You ever played black jack?

Speaker 4 (01:52:50):
Man? I'm a blackjack guy? Okay, so what happened that one?

Speaker 3 (01:52:55):
Huge in blackjack?

Speaker 2 (01:52:56):
What happens when you get a blackjack and the dealer
has an ace and they go even money?

Speaker 1 (01:53:01):
What did you say?

Speaker 3 (01:53:02):
Taken?

Speaker 1 (01:53:02):
Man? The day oun thank you? Please money?

Speaker 4 (01:53:07):
Yes, please, thank you?

Speaker 1 (01:53:08):
Thank you? All right?

Speaker 5 (01:53:11):
The books is the book.

Speaker 2 (01:53:15):
The book says you're about to be out of money.
We're live in the Fox Sports.

Speaker 1 (01:53:19):
Radio studios and not done yet.

Speaker 2 (01:53:23):
We got a few more thoughts on the final four
that are set, and I have a quick I just
need a minute of your reaction to something non football.

Speaker 1 (01:53:33):
Related that happened this week. Uh, we'll do that next.

Speaker 2 (01:53:37):
That's the from my Mark Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (01:53:41):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio, Fox Sports Radio Studios,
iHeartRadio app. You can stream us wherever you happen to be.
That's what works out real nice.

Speaker 2 (01:53:52):
You can catch us all the Fox Sports Radio shows
live twenty four to seven and the new and improved
iHeart Radio app. You just search Fox Sports Radio in
the app live all day every day. Be sure to
select Fox Sports Radios. What are your presets in the
iHeart app so it will always pop up right there
at the top of your screen.

Speaker 1 (01:54:10):
I just want your reaction. I just I just want
your reaction.

Speaker 2 (01:54:19):
Seven hundred million, three hundred and sixty five million, three
hundred and twenty five million, two hundred and forty million,
one hundred and eighty two million, one hundred and sixty
two million, one hundred forty million, and one hundred thirty
six million.

Speaker 3 (01:54:40):
Third World Series in a row.

Speaker 1 (01:54:42):
Probably, boy, I'd think so. So you help me, Dodger fan,
how does a non Dodger fan or non Dodger player.

Speaker 2 (01:54:57):
Don't forget Jeff pass And said this week, I've thought
a lot of players reach out to me and be like, well,
we don't have any chance to win. The Dodgers have
done nothing wrong. The Dodgers I want to know. I
want a Dodger fan to tell me, how does a
non Dodger fan talk about this without sounding like sour

(01:55:18):
grapes because the truth of the matter is Ephraim No
matter what anybody wants to say about it, this is
not good for the sport salary cap, salary floor. The
true people to be mad at are not the Dodgers.

(01:55:40):
It's more like the people like the A's That's who
fans should be mad at. So the Dodgers didn't do
anything wrong, but to have a support like this is
the Harlem globetrotters, Like whoever you're bringing to the show
is just there so that you're allowed to have a schedule.

Speaker 4 (01:56:02):
Uh, you tell me, the Dodgers have already made back
the money that you've spent on these on the contracts,
just from from last year. So if if there was
a way as an owner and we didn't have a

(01:56:25):
salary cap for me to put a roster together like this,
I would do everything I possibly could to do it.

Speaker 3 (01:56:37):
I would do what the Dodgers do. We'll give you
twenty more.

Speaker 4 (01:56:41):
Yeah, right, but you have to start it now because
it's going to take a year or two.

Speaker 3 (01:56:52):
For it to really take it. Like you gotta start building.

Speaker 4 (01:56:56):
The blocks or three or four, right, because the Dodgers
had a dynamic team prior to show, Hey coming, That's
why he came right, right, They had a dynamic manager.
So the pieces have been being put in the place,

(01:57:16):
and now when it comes to the salaries and the
contracts and the talent they're bringing in, guys are like, yeah,
I'll come play for the Dodgers and take twenty more
than anyone else was at one and live in Los Angeles.
It's police.

Speaker 1 (01:57:34):
It's an easy decision.

Speaker 4 (01:57:35):
It's an easy sale. So until owners of other franchise,
until they start thinking like that, you could be mad
at the Dodgers all you want.

Speaker 2 (01:57:44):
No again, it's it's not the Dodgers. I'll say it again.
They've done nothing wrong. They've done nothing wrong. They've done,
in fact, everything right. They've they're within the rules. They've
like I mean, I'd love for the whole thing to
feel a little bit more home grown. People talk about
the Yankees back in the day, and I'm like, they
drafted a lot of those guys like this is almost

(01:58:05):
exclusively free agents and trades. Will Smith the only guy
on that list of eight players I just read off
of their contracts, the only homegrown one with the Dodgers,
So I'd love that. But whatever, it's all within the rules.
They've done so many things right. But I think, like
I even know, I got Dodger fans in the family

(01:58:26):
who almost like it. It's such a Kevin Durant Warriors
field to it where it's just like, okay, al, it's
a little embarrassed. It's like, what what are we doing?
The eighth graders are playing the kindergarteners. Yeah, they're gonna win.

Speaker 3 (01:58:41):
They're gonna win.

Speaker 1 (01:58:44):
It's almost embarrassing if they don't be honest with you.

Speaker 4 (01:58:47):
And they know that.

Speaker 3 (01:58:48):
Yep, that's why they win. Yeh, that's exactly why they win.

Speaker 1 (01:58:54):
Okay, that's it. Ram Seahawks Broncos Patriots in National Championship
game to morning.

Speaker 4 (01:59:01):
Oh, that's gonna be good. I can't wait. Do you
think Indiana's got Oh yes, big time Indiana fans. I
do too, big time Indiana fan. Look, I'd say, look,
Miami's had one of the best defenses in all of
college football the entire year.

Speaker 3 (01:59:17):
Indiana's right behind them.

Speaker 4 (01:59:19):
So if it comes if the both defenses canceled each
other out, what does it come down to? It comes
down to quarterbacks of course. Yep, are you taking uh
back over Mendoza?

Speaker 1 (01:59:34):
No, no, no one is no.

Speaker 3 (01:59:37):
I'm not, no one not.

Speaker 1 (01:59:39):
I don't. I mean, I don't know if the defense
is just cancel each other out, though, I don't know
if it works that way.

Speaker 3 (01:59:43):
That Indiana defense is serious.

Speaker 1 (01:59:45):
They are the Indiana everything is serious.

Speaker 4 (01:59:48):
Yeah. Well they're older. They built their roster through the
portal and they're older. They're not any five star athletes,
they're not. But I'll take I'll take a twenty three
year old offensive line in college over a eighteen nineteen
year old five star defensive end any day.

Speaker 2 (02:00:07):
Things that are happening this week that I never thought
I would say or see in my lifetime. Indiana as
the big old favorite to win the college football National
Championship and Jared Stidham gets ready to start the AFC
Championship game. Wow, didn't think i'd say these things, you
know what I mean. But we'll talk to you next week, Bud.

(02:00:28):
Great job