Best of Outkick the Coverage: 01/07/19

Clay Travis is live from the Bay Area for tonight's National Championship game and has some great takeaways from Wild Card Weekend in the NFL! FS1's Jason Whitlock is back on the show by popular demand and Clay Travis thinks tonight's Alabama-Clemson game should be getting more love. Plus, Alex Marvez is in the house to talk everything NFL Playoffs

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of OutKick the Coverage podcast.
Be sure to catch us live every weekday morning from
six to nine am Eastern three to six am Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for OutKick
the Coverage at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream
us live every morning on the I Heart Radio app
by searching f s R. This is the best of
OutKick the Coverage with Clay Travis on Fox Sports Radio.

(00:27):
I watched all four of the wild Card games, as
many of you watched all four of the wild Card games.
You know. I hate to brag, but I had an
incredible gambling weekend four No if you waited until you
got the two and a half point game line against
the Dallas Cowboys Seattle Seahawks, I'm the king on locking In.
You can watch me later today on television as well
for thirty Eastern, three thirty Central to thirty Mountain one

(00:49):
thirty Pacific. But there are a lot of big takeaways,
and I want to start with the game that ended
with the double doink. Cody Parky misses the field goal
at the into the game between the Eagles and the Bears.
Immediately after this miss, and it stinks to have any
game come down to a kick, especially when the kick

(01:10):
has missed, and especially when it's a kick that should
be made, and even more so when it's a kick
that was made prior to the time out call by
Doug Peterson. Cody Parkey after the game said he wanted
to go home and see his wife and dog because
he knew they didn't care what happened in the game.
That is a really sad quote. Props to him for

(01:32):
standing up and answering questions after the game, but frankly,
it shouldn't have come down to this if you are
Chicago Bear fan, because Nick Foles was unstoppable once more
in the postseason, even with two interceptions. Nick Foles on
fourth down hit Golden Tate. A lot of people questioning
whether or not Golden Tate was worth the trade. There

(01:52):
aren't a lot of people questioning that now as the
Eagles are advancing into the divisional round of the playoffs,
and to me, the biggest takeaway from the Eagles win
is and I think this is crazy. I think there's
a legitimate quarterback debate in Philadelphia. I mean, I think
for the next five years and we're gonna debate this
at some point during the show. I think if you

(02:13):
were buying stock right now in Carson Wentz or Nick Foles,
there's a legitimate argument to be made about which of
these guys is better, particularly if you factor in Carson
wins his health status, and if you're the Bears, I
would say the one positive you can take away from
that game is Mitch Drobiski made a lot of big
throws down the stretch. Fourth quarter. He was pretty outstanding. Uh,
they didn't win, but he was better in this game

(02:35):
than I anticipated he would be. All Right, That was
the game that came down to the double doin. Even
in Techmo Super Bowl. By the way, you couldn't double
doin it to put it off the upright, have it
bounced down and then hit the crossbar and not be good.
There's a great reaction of the of the Chicago Bear
mascot just collapsing. He was sitting directly behind the field

(02:56):
goal and he just collapses there at the at the end.
All Right, that was one of the Sunday games, the
Late Sunday game, the earlier one. Lamar Jackson through three
quarters posted the worst playoff performance for a quarterback I
have ever seen. I would make this argument to you.
I have expected for this to happen for a while

(03:18):
because and if you listen to this show, you know
I always say the only thing that can't be stopped
in the NFL is a quarterback who can consistently convert
third and eight passing the football. Ultimately, the NFL is
a third down passing contest. And if your quarterback can
drop back when everybody knows he has to throw and
can convert on third and eight, he is an elite

(03:40):
level quarterback if he can do that consistently. And I
haven't seen that Lamar Jackson do that during any of
this winning streak, and at some point I knew this
was going to catch up with him. And credit to
the San Diego Slash l A Chargers who made the
decision to put in a brand new game plan. They
played everybody, They took outline backers and just played safeties

(04:01):
all over the field, and they said, Lamar Jackson, we're
gonna put speed on this field and we are not
going to allow you to beat us with your legs.
And we're also not going to allow you Baltimore Ravens
to get ahead in this game and to just work
the clock. With your running game, We're gonna make you
beat us sometime from the pocket. And Lamar Jackson couldn't
do it. Now he brought him back at the end.

(04:23):
Credit to him for making a couple of good plays
to make this game even a little bit competitive after
they got up twenty three to three. But my argument
for you is that Lamar Jackson in is Tim Tebow
in two thousand eleven. If you remember the Denver Bronco
Tim Tebow team that beat the Steelers to marry Us
Thomas touchdown in overtime, all people said was Tim Tebow

(04:46):
finds a way to win. They talked about how he
was able to run the football. They talked about how
he made big plays down the stretch. They talked about
how his stats didn't overall matter. Tim Tebow in that
two thousand eleven season seventy two point nine passer rating.
Lamar Jackson in this run eighty four point five. So
Lamar Jackson has been better as a passer. But I

(05:09):
think he is Fool's gold right now. I think he
is Tim Tebow. I have not seen anything to convince
me that Lamar Jackson is going to be able to
consistently stand in the pocket and complete passes. In this
game yesterday, Lamar Jackson three fumbles, one interception, and a
couple of additional throws that could have very easily been

(05:31):
picked off. I just don't believe in this guy. I
think he is Tim Tebow two point oh. I think
Tebow and Lamar Jackson were the same guy. Now, Denver
Broncos interesting. Denver Broncos brought in Peyton Manning. That was
how they managed to avoid the controversy of getting rid
of Tebow. They had to bring in a big guy
like Peyton Manning. I think John Harbaugh made the decision

(05:52):
not to go with Joe Flacco. And if you go
back and watch my Twitter account, I said at halftime,
we're out here for the National Title Game. I said
that you have to go if you were John Harbaugh
to Joe Flacco, because the uh, the Chargers have got
a perfect defensive plan set up to stop in any
way the Baltimore Raven offensive attack with Lamar Jackson. If

(06:15):
you remember last year in the National Title Game, Nick
Saban had the same situation. Yeah, Jalen Hurts the guy
and two got him to the National Championship Game. Saban
knew we couldn't win it with him, so he went
to Tah and everything changed. I think that if John
Harbaugh was trying to win this playoff game, he would
have gone with Joe Flacco. And I tweeted at halftime,

(06:35):
this is not Monday morning quarterbacking. Now. I thought, in
real time he should have done it. He didn't do it.
Why did he not do it? I think the Joe
Flacco decision was about creating a mess for because if
you're John Harbaugh and you just got an extension, and
you got the extension because of Lamar Jackson, if you
go to bring in Joe Flacco and he wins the

(06:57):
game for you, then you've got a controversy going forward.
Is Flacco gonna be your guy or is Lamar Jackson?
If you leave Lamar Jackson in, you let Joe Flacco
leaves Lamar Jackson's future. I just think this is an
incredibly important offseason for Lamar Jackson if he doesn't want
to be Tim Tebow two point oh. There's now a
lot of film out of him. And if you're running quarterback,

(07:17):
usually what happens whether you're RG three, Tim Tebow, Vince Young,
Guys who came in and had incredibly successful first years.
All the defensive coordinators go into the laboratory, they find
out what they can't do, and then they make them
do it over and over again in year two. He
is gonna be a really challenging year two for Lamar
Jackson because I think the NFL defensive coordinators have finally

(07:39):
figured out how to slow him down. Dallas Cowboys. Dak
Prescott gets his first ever playoff win Dallas Cowboys with
their fourth ever playoff win since their last Super Bowl
title that they won the season. I think this is
gonna make Dak Prescott a hundred million dollar man. Remember
Jerry Jones said after the Tennessee Titans beat him on
Monday Night Football and knocked the Dallas Cowboys down to

(08:01):
three and five. Oh, Dak's gonna get an extension. He
is our guy. And guess what, maybe Jerry Jones wasn't crazy,
because Dak Prescott played pretty well well enough to win certainly,
although I thought Russell Wilson played better. And this, by
the way, drove me insane. You have an unbelievable talent

(08:21):
at the quarterback position in Russell Wilson, and you hand
off on first and second down. It felt like every
single drive, every single time you need to get ten yards,
you start off with first down handoff, second down handoff,
and you put Russell Wilson into untenable positions over and
over and over again. But Dad got the win. Got

(08:42):
a miracle cover if you had the Seattle Seahawks plus
two and a half because you get an injury to
Sebastian Janikowski and as a result you can't kick extra points,
you get to two point conversions. Pretty unbelievable outcome there. Finally,
the last wild card game that I have not talked about,
thought Andrew Luck was by far the best quarterback on
wild Card weekend. There's a big gap after Andrew Luck.

(09:05):
He made one bad pass, ball, got batted up in
the air, got picked off. The Colts absolutely dominated the Texans.
Now we're gonna talk with John McClain next. He's the
beat writer for the Houston Chronicle, and he'll give us
a sense for how the season went. Overall, I didn't
get eleven and five coming off of a torn a
c L. You have to be ecstatic with what Deshaun
Watson gave you. But I also think in that playoff game.

(09:28):
You saw that Deshaun Watson still has a lot of
learning to do. One thing that drove me crazy was
down twenty one points at home. You're doing the first
down signal after every first down, including a play you
didn't even get the first down on. Now. I know
Deshaun Watson hadn't lost a game by more than seven
points since high school, but still that's a bush league move.

(09:49):
I think Deshaun Watson just needs to ease into the
quarterback position. Year two very good, first eight games, Year
one outstanding. I need to see a big step from
him in year three and see what he's capable of.
All of those were the my takeaways from wild Card weekend.
I got Jason Martin with me. May remember at j
mart Out kick back in the day, my producer, my

(10:12):
fearless cohort here. He's sitting in with us every now
and then. He's gonna be with us here Monday and
Tuesday of this week while we're out in San Jose
getting ready for the Alabama Clemson game, which would be
going on later tonight. We'll be reacting to that. Have
an awesome show for you Tuesday morning, but we're primarily
reacting to NFL wild Card weekend this morning. Uh so,
Jason Martin, I just ran through all four wild card games.

(10:34):
My biggest takeaways? What did I leave out? What else
do you think needs to be said? Well, I agree
with a lot of what you said, So I'm just
gonna point out some stats that I think might blow
your mind. On Folds his winning drive for what turned
out to be the winning drive thanks to Cody Parkey,
six completions to five different receivers. The one thing that
you cannot Carson Wentz for if you want to make

(10:55):
the argument for Nick Foles, is that Carson Wentz has
a serious affinity for his tight end, Zach Ertz. Ertz
was on fire, but he was not spreading the ball
around he meaning Carson Wentz Folds. If you want to
talk about a team that seems to rally around Nick Foles,
Folds has thrown the ball all over the place. Agalor's involved,

(11:16):
Jeffreys involved, Ertz is still involved, Dallas Goddard, who's a
really talented rookie tight end, he's involved. There are a
lot of guys out there catching passes. But some stats
about the Bears entering the playoffs, Chicago was twelve and
oh when they allowed less than twenty four points, and
they were oh and four when they allowed anything more
than twenty four. But then Nick Foles comes in and

(11:36):
beats them and doesn't even put twenty on the board.
The Bears won the turnover battle in this game two
to nothing. Home teams all time in the history of
the NFL Playoffs that were plus two and turnovers were
fifty eight and six. So nick Foles caused the first
blemish against this defense that's still played extremely well, and
the turnover battle was able to overcome that. So if

(11:59):
you want to make the argue, and I don't know
what this is, but if Nick Foles wins the second
Super Bowl, we're gonna start saying maybe we should put
him in the Hall of Fame, like even if he
did nothing else. Eli Manning is basically known for winning
two Super Bowls, and that's the argument for putting him
in the Hall of Fame over other guys that I
think are more talented. Nick Foles wins two super Bowls,
I don't know that that's too much of a joke anymore. Now,

(12:21):
what you said about Lamar Jackson, what I thought about
Lamar Jackson going in was the absolute worst thing that
could have happened to the Baltimore Ravens going into the
playoffs was having to play a Chargers team that saw
them two weeks ago. Because Lamar Jackson to me is
Hideo Nomo. He's the quirky picture who the first time
you see him, you don't know what his tendencies, You

(12:43):
don't understand his tendencies. And by extension, it's not just Jackson,
but it's the offense that John Harball started to use
with the running game and trying to maximize what you
could do with his legs. The second time you see
that new picture that's known more for a gimmick than
the baseline being able to stand there and throw in
the pocket. You could start to hit that guy. You
could start to get on base against that guy. So

(13:05):
what did l A do. They put seven defensive backs
on the field on fifty eight of fifty nine defensive
snacks snaps the Chargers fifty times during the entire regular
season combined. Did they do that? That's just five per
cent And there was no one in the league that
puts seven dbs on the field for more than eighteen
snaps in a single game. And they went thirty. You know,

(13:27):
they went forty some more in this game, and they
shut Lamar Jackson down. Your point about Tebow's app there
is no history of what Lamar Jackson is doing working
long term and being sustainable. There's just not I hope. Look,
I think it'd be good for the league if this
were work. But Lamar Jackson's eventually gonna have to throw
the ball and he's never thrown for six since high school.

(13:48):
It's just not something that he does. So they do
have big questions him and Flacco. That is a really
big issue. As for the other games, Russell Wilson quickly
best deep ball thrower in the NFL this decade. Aid.
If I'm going down, I'm going with that guy. I'm
going with the competitor, the winner. It was crazy that
they ran the ball on first and second down as

(14:08):
often as they did to put him into third and law. Yeah,
I know they have a great running game, but you've
gotta mix it up. You've got to throw the ball
on early downs because you can't expect anybody, maybe except
Andrew Luck to convert third and long all day. The
Colts two rookie All pros, first time since the Bears
in sixty five with Dick butt Kiss and Gayl Sayers
who were able to do that. Yeah, that's a pretty

(14:29):
solid best third down percentage in the NFL. Entering, they
were very good, especially early when they took the big lead.
Andrew Luck's only been sacked eighteen times entering that game.
The Trenches weren't even close in this game. And when
I looked at it, I picked the Colts, and I
think the Colts have a really good shot to go
all the way to the Super Bowl. But Houston's offensive line,

(14:49):
to me, that was the difference in the game before
it ever started. And then you see you don't have
Will Fuller, and then you don't have Damarius Thomas. So
Hopkins is gonna do his thing. But that one deep
ball that Shaun Watson through right where it needed to be.
Whoever that receiver was, I don't even know the guy's name,
that's how relevant he is. After making this play, lost
the ball, like totally lost it. It ended up falling

(15:11):
behind him and he fell backwards and looked like me
fifty yards down the field trying to make that play.
They just came in battered. I mean, Watson's been sacked
sixty times. Pro Football Focus says he's responsible for twenty
of them for holding the ball too long. I've seen
a lot of that in the Music City this year
from Marcus Mariota. That causes problems and it does get
you hit Watson's line, it was just a recipe for

(15:34):
disaster against maybe the hottest team in the NFL right now.
Be sure to catch live editions of Out Kicked the
Coverage with Clay Travis week days at six am Eastern,
three am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I
Heart Radio app. Jason Whitlock joins us now huge Kansas
City Chiefs fan Jason WHITTWAK. As you look forward to
the Kansas City Chiefs matchup against Andrew walk your first

(15:58):
thought is what, I've got so much history in Kansas
City and history as it relates to the Coats in
the Kansas City Chiefs, My first thoughts are, oh no,
here we go again. A Chief team that you know,
many people thinking make it to the Super Bowl has

(16:19):
to play the Coats coming out of the gate, and
that just hasn't been good for us, going all the
way back to Lynn Elliott and missing fields. I think
that was against the Colts in seven or something like that.
Uh to hell. Never forcing a punt I think in
a game in in Indianapolis once in a playoff game.

(16:43):
It's just not been a good history with the coach.
Maybe I'm from Indianapolis originally, but I'm not a coachman
because the coach weren't there when I was a kid.
I'm a Chiefs fan, and so I have this. You know,
people think, oh, you're a coach fan. Like no, man,
I hate the Coats and I love the chief and
the Colts always embarrassed me every time this happened. And

(17:05):
so look, Andrew looks red hot right now, and the
Colts have a better defense than Kansas City. I'm scared.
So sources close to this show tell me that you
had the Philadelphia Eagles on the money line yesterday when
that ball is in the air and it is headed
towards the goal, and I think I think you had

(17:27):
to have money line parlay on both the underdogs yesterday.
If I'm not mistaken. I had the Charges and the
Eagles part laid together both on the money line. That
that was. That was a huge kick for me. All right,
So your reaction as you see it First of all,
I don't ever remember I've been. I've been. I mean
I back in the day playing Techmo Super Bowl. You
know you donk it off the upright all the time.

(17:49):
Cody Parky has hit the upright like five times this year,
which seems like it should be worth more points than
just a field goal. Like, imagine if you've got four points,
if you could hit the upright, that would be I
think even we're entertaining as a football as a football fan,
if you could sit there and watch that. But to me,
I I was like totally blown away by it and
couldn't even conceptualize. Uh when I saw that not that

(18:11):
he that he missed, but that he hit the upright
and then it bounced down and hit the crossbar. I've
never seen that happen before. Look, man, we can talk
about the kick all we want, but Chicago blew its
last time out. But they mismanaged the clock with a
bad kicker that they know needs to be as close

(18:32):
as you can be. They mismanaged the clock, uh the
calling that time out with thirty five seconds left. They
should have spiked the ball pocketed at that time out
and just been run their last second offense better, and
and then just at the end of the day, their
offense and Travisky made some big passes, but their offense

(18:55):
just wasn't consistent enough. You only score fifteen points at home.
You had it come down to your kicker, who's had
an awful season. That's that's on the offense, that's on you.
We're talking to Jason Whitlock Um reacting to a lot
of the wild card games as well. Um, Andrew Luck,
you said you hate the Colts. Andrew Luck I thought
was the best quarterback of wild Card weekend. And it

(19:17):
might not have been that high of a standard because
certainly the most but he was pretty good. Other than
the ball that got tipped to the line of scrimmage
that he got picked off, he didn't really throw any
I thought that were very bad. They took control of
that game. They kind of held it throughout. Um, do
you agree that it was the best quarterback performance of
the wild Card weekend? Yeah, but you know that's like

(19:38):
saying wins the skinniest kid is uh and look, Andrew
looked way well. But the oldwharming thing was just like, hey, man,
defenses have shown up and in this league where they
keep trying to give every advantage to the offense. Defense
is figured out, and then the officiating changes in the postseason.

(20:02):
That's the other dramatic difference that no one's talking about
is that they just don't give away those tickie tack
first downs, those holding calls they call on defensive backs
every third down just to give the offensive first down.
They're much more reluctant to call pass interference. It's a
better officiated product in the postseason, and therefore you end

(20:25):
up seeing better defense and quarterbacks that just aren't as effected.
I mean, like Philip Rivers one. I think he played
very well. Uh you know, Dak Prescott was probably the
second best quarterback this weekend. Uh you know it was,
and then Nick Foles third. It was a bad weekend

(20:46):
for the athletic quarterbacks. Trabinsky, Deshaun Watson, and Lamar Jackson.
You gotta play this game from the pocket. Man. We're
talking to Jason Whitlock. You we talk a lot about officiating,
and a lot of times in the NFL the games
are so close. The call at the end of I
think it's gonna get overshadowed because of the way the
game ended. But the call at the end of the

(21:08):
first half, where basically they just made up the rule
on the spot because the rules in the rule book.
Mike Preyre pointed it out over Twitter and they finally
got it right. Yeah, that's the right call. It's in
the rule book. All right, Well I stand corrected. There,

(21:28):
you're you're on the ball. I'm glad I had you
on the show. Then excellent, he's being brought to bear.
I call it the incomplete fumble game. Um, but it's
not gonna get talked about that much because of the
overall outcome of the of the games. But let's put
you in that coaching headset. You are, John Harball. It
is twelve nothing at the half. I'm in San Jose
right now. Later today, I'm gonna go watch Alabama play

(21:50):
against Clemson. Last year, at halftime, Nick Saban had a
quarterback who was twenty six and two, right, Jalen Hurts,
hadn't lost hardly at all. He couldn't score, They couldn't
do anything offensively against Georgia, who had him dialed up perfectly.
They had the perfect defensive game plan for him. Nick
Saban made a crazy call, a borderline insane call relative

(22:12):
to how conservative Nick Saban is and it paid off.
He went with TWA and they came in and they
won the national championship and they've been running with two
ever since. Shouldn't John Harball have done the opposite there
and gone back to Joe Flacco at halftime? Totally different situations,
Totally Nick saban is sitting on five six national championships.

(22:35):
He's his own man, he made himself. He's he can
make no bad decisions. He's playing with so much house money.
He's on a question. John Harball six weeks ago was
getting fired or eight weeks ago was getting fired. And
they go to this crazy running game which Bond attack

(22:57):
with Lamar Jackson. Lamar Jackson is and this is a
year with more rushing yards than any quarterback. And so
John Harbow gets to the end of that game, it
feels like I owe it to Lamar. He's run me
into a contract extension. This entire locker room, UH is
behind Lamar Jackson, and you know he's the black tim

(23:19):
Tebow and he's got a cult like following in that
locker room. And if he pulls him from that game,
you got guys in that locker room that will be upset. Uh.
You know, you had Jimmy Smith, one of their defensive backs,
yelling at fans during the game that we're yelling for
Flacco to come into the game. And so I just

(23:39):
think politically, John harbaw because of how he got his
contract extension, and because those players on that team all
caught up in the social media black Tim Tebow Lamar
Jackson movement wasn't at allow it. I'm glad you brought
up Lamar Jackson because I made that argument early in

(24:00):
the show. I said, Lamar Jackson in eighteen is Tim
Tebow in two thousand eleven. The way that the Broncos
got away from Tim Tebow was they went and signed
Peyton Manning and then everybody thought, oh, you know, Tim Tebow,
he was fine, But everybody forgets that if John Elway
hadn't been able to persuade Peyton Manning to come to Denver,
I don't know how the Tim Tebow experiment would have ended.
Tim Tebow obviously ultimately got exposed. He was a running

(24:22):
quarterback that wasn't consistent enough from the pocket to be
a starter. In the NFL's big offseason for Lamar Jackson,
can Lamar Jackson proved that he is not Tim Tebow
two point oh. I doubt it because of the cult
like following that is going. Because one, I think he's
got a long way to go as a passer, and
I just don't think he'll be able to put in

(24:45):
the work to develop as a pastor because he's got
this cult like following the people in his ear that
they should change the game plan and do things. You
don't have to play from the Pope, Lamar, you can
be an option quarterback. You're throwing. I heard some uh
Nate Burlson, who I really respect and think it is good,
at the end of the CBS broadcast yesterday, was screaming about,

(25:10):
you know, I think he proved he can throw the
ball in the fourth quarter, Like, really, did you watch
the fourth quarter? I did, Okay, you know it was nice,
But you know I did watch the first three quarters,
and some of that stuff in the fourth quarter was
just junk. And so Lamar Jackson will exist in this

(25:30):
social media bubble, and so many people in the media
are caught up in that bubble that he'll He'll go
into this offseason think hey, everything's fine. I'm Lamar Jackson.
I just set the world on fire. I mean, he
is r G three, two point oh and Tebow combined together.
Everybody wants to annoin him. I just read some uh

(25:52):
E SDN tweet talk. You know, Lamar Jackson of all
the rookie quarterbacks, he did X Y Z and he
and they're acting like he's had a better season than
Baker Mayfield and he just hasn't. I know, he won
more games and played in a playoff game and all that,
But in terms of if you're projecting out, who's going

(26:13):
to be a better NFL quarterback right now? Baker Mayfield
and Sam Donald was still ahead of Lamar's accent. He's
got a ton of work to do, Alright. You're talking
about Twitter, woke Warriors and everything else. This got intersected
with sports. Is an awful story down in Houston. Uh
there was a seven year old girl who was shot
and killed when she was in her car with her family. UM,

(26:34):
and Twitter was in an uproar because there was a
report from our good friend Shaun King that spread this
all over Twitter that that it was a white guy
who'd done it, that it was a racism based attack,
and they wanted to go catch the person. DeAndre Hopkins
got drawn into this U to his credit, donated his
paychecks supposedly to the U to the family. I think

(26:55):
of this of this little girl. Um. And it was
treated as a huge racism incident. And now they've arrested
the guy who was accused of doing it, and he
is a he's a black guy. Um. And look, I
mean it's awful no matter who is responsible for this crime.
But it turned into a woke Twitter thing. What's your
response when you see a story like this and you
see athletes getting drawn into it as well. I've just

(27:17):
seen too many athletes caught up in this fraud that
Sean King is pulling off. People won't accept the fact
that the guy is white. His DNA says that his
birth certificates of his family photos say it uh. And
he's a clown. This is not the first wrong person

(27:40):
he's accused of a major crime. And if someone white
or someone who identified themselves as white was running around
over Twitter falsely accusing black people of crimes or promoting
the fact that someone black committed a crime and trying
to be the lease over the internet, we would shout

(28:02):
that person down and embarrass them and run them out.
And and you know say it's an example of what's
everything that's wrong with America. Well, that's what Sean King is.
And and so I want to be clear here, and
because I want to be fair, the sister of the
girl that was killed was the first person to misidentify

(28:25):
the suspect. But this is why they always say the
very leery of eyewitness accounts can be very confusing. And
literally it was a car that drove off allegedly that
they thought was the shooter, but was actually just a
car of heard the shots fired and drove off. And
I think that's who the sister identified mistakenly as the shooter.

(28:49):
But this is one of the reasons why you let
the police be the experts, because they are better at
identifying shooting suspects, arresting them charge to him than some
clown with an identity crisis over Twitter. I get so
frustrated with these athletes, and there's a lot of them,

(29:10):
and there's just a lot of black media members that
are caught up in Sean King, and hey, we gotta
follow Sean King over Twitter, and we gotta take him seriously.
This is a signal to everybody of how black I am.
I follow Sean King, And it's actually a signal of
how ill informed and how naive and easily buffalo and

(29:35):
fooled you are that you're caught up in Sean King.
Take him seriously, treat him as if he's some legitimate
civil rights are just leader, as a legitimate leader at all.
The guy's a clown who needs to be ignored. We
like you're You're making a lot of points here, And
I think about this a lot. In the social media era,

(29:56):
do you do you get? And I don't know the
answer to this because I think about this a lot
when it comes to stories. Do you give stories like
these credence by talking about them at all? Should you
completely ignore it? Or is it important to call out
people when they're wrong like this, which gives them more publicity.
I don't know the answer, honestly. It's something that I
really grapple with because I try to ignore this dude

(30:17):
most of the time, even when he intersects with the
world of sports, which happens far too frequently. Because of
what you said, a lot of athletes on woke Twitter
end up involved in him. I think certainly Colin Kaepernick
is a is a prime example, and the guy's just
a fraud. Um, I mean, he's a liar, he's not honest, Um,
I mean and thoroughly got a history of fraud that's
SOLDI as you minute, all throughout the South, everywhere he's with,

(30:42):
there's been mismanagement, money funds come up missing. All this
information is out there. But we all live in this
fake Twitter world where particularly black people and black people
in the media, where we're trying to do something to
signify that we have been sold out and we're still
down for the calls. And so therefore, let me follow

(31:05):
and retweet Shaun King, Let me be friends with Shaun
King and get caught up in his bs as a
signal to everybody that I'm down for the cause. It's
a mistake, man, It's Twitter the whole you know. I
know you're highling it as a stock or whatever. I

(31:26):
think Twitter is one of the great poisons in American
society or in global society. It's misleading. It's the creator, supporter,
and energizer of fake news. And you know, this latest
incidents a prime example, is dangerous and and I it
just drives me crazy. How many people everything that comes

(31:50):
out of their mouth, people in the media athletes everything
they do. Lebron James is being driven completely bonkers by
trying to be trying to please his forty semit a
forty million um Twitter or Instagram followers. Everything. These guys
are doing everything. They're saying, how's it gonna land? On Twitter?

(32:13):
Not whether is this what I actually believe is true?
It's will this be popular over social media and Twitter?
And that causes people to lie. Jason Whitlock people, Uh,
You're always popular every time you come on with us
at Whitlock Jason on Twitter. Your show is called speak
for Yourself. Where can people follow it? If they want

(32:34):
to see you and Marcellus wildly more often? How can
they do so well? We're live every day at three
pm Eastern on FS one. He's a follow us on
Twitter and sf wive. I just killed Twitter and then
play follow the show on Twitter, but every day three
pm Eastern noon specific Marcels and I and the collection

(33:00):
athletes having a good off, centic, honest conversation about sports.
What do you think about the fact that I'm the
new king on lock it In again? My gambling picture
fire this weekend? Oh yeah, oh yeah, I didn't miss
I went I went four for four on the wild
card games. Good for you. One of one of them
was technically a push. I did not say. I was

(33:23):
big on Deshaun Watson in the Houston Texas. It was
unfathomable to me that Sean Deshaan Watson could play that poorly.
I didn't think that was even humanly possible. Yeah, I
think we talked to John McClean about this, who covers
them for the Houston Chronicle. I think it's a question
of how you look at it, because coming off of
an A c L tear, if you had told Houston
Texan fans, hey, you guys are gonna win the division,

(33:45):
You're gonna host a home playoff game, would you take
eleven and five? I think everybody would have signed up
for it. But the way they looked in that game,
I think that's where you look. You're come back and
you say, well, we've got a lot of work to
do to be able to advance into the playoffs. Got
through too many ball the dirt drove me crazy. Amen. Hey,
thanks for getting up early with us. We'll be checking

(34:07):
you out and speak for yourself and uh, enjoy seeing
me in a crown later today. That's Jason Whitlock at
Whitlock Jason on Twitter, watch him on Speak for yourself.
Be sure to catch live editions about Kicked the coverage
with Clay Travis week days at six am Eastern, three
am Pacific. We are, of course in San Jose, California,
and the reason why we were out here is because

(34:28):
Alabama playing against Clemson, absolutely massive national title game. And
I'm a little bit surprised in general everybody out there
listening that there's kind of been a lot of negativity
I feel like associated with this game, Alabama and Clemson
playing for a fourth straight year. Oh, the playoff wasn't
very good. People complaining about Clemson whipping Notre Dame and
about Alabama whipping Oklahoma. Guys, maybe I having an incredible

(34:52):
minority here, but this is about as good of a
game as we could possibly have ever hoped for. In
a dreams scenario, you get too undefeated, unquestioned, best two
teams in all of college football playing to have perfection.
We don't get this very often in college football. We
got it when SC play Texas, greatest college football game

(35:14):
of my lifetime. I believe I don't know that we'll
get any kind of game like that I would if
we got half the game of that, I'd be excited.
But we've never in the history of college football had
to fourteen and oh teams playing with one of the
teams guaranteed to go to fifteen and oh, this is
going to be in modern FBS football, the winningest football
team in the history of college football. No one has

(35:38):
ever gone fifteen and oh. Either Clemson or Alabama is
going to do something that no one has ever done
in the history of college football before, and they're going
to do it with a ton of talent on the field.
Two is going to be a first round quarterback. Trevor
Lawrence is gonna be a first round quarterback. There are
gobs of talent on the offensive, in defensive line, in
the secondary, wide receivers, running backs. These are two of

(36:02):
the most talented teams we have ever seen in the
history of football. And I feel like college football, I
feel like a big part of this storyline happens to
be where this game has taken place. I'm out in
San Jose, California. It doesn't really feel like a college
football marketplace Levi Stadium. It's cold, it's dreary, it's a
strange location. For a game like this, when you got

(36:24):
two Southern teams playing, and I feel like part of
the storyline has been, oh, nobody wants to buy tickets here.
Guess what. I traveled all the way out here. It's
hard to get out here from the South. Not easy
to get to the Bay Area, particularly if you're a
Clemson fan and you had to go out to Dallas
to go play against Notre Dame. And then also if
you're an Alabama fan, you had to travel all the

(36:46):
way down to Miami to go play against Oklahoma, and
now you have to travel all the way back across
the country on short notice. When let's be honest, a
lot of you listening to me this right now, all
over the country, all fifty states. You got kids in
your car with you. You're driving to school. Kids are
back in school after the Christmas break, after the winter holidays,

(37:06):
and so it's hard to get families out here. Mom
and dad gotta work long break a lot of times
during Christmas and New Year's. But that's over now. And
I would just say this, I feel like sometimes we
take for granted how many good games we have when
football is all going on, you know, right now in
the wake of the NFL wild Card weekend, I watched

(37:28):
all four of those games. We got four divisional round
playoff games left in the NFL. We got the a
f C and the NFC championship games, and then we
got the Super Bowl. So right now we have seven
games left high level in the NFL. We have got
one college football game left. That means I'm gonna watch
all eight of these games. I don't know about you, guys,
there's only eight big football games left. I'm not counting

(37:50):
the Pro Bowl, and this is one of them. And moreover,
this is about as good as any college football game
can be. Now, what do I think is gonna happen
in this game? Well, I'll give you my gambling picks
as called tease Boys and Girls in the final segment
of the show. I'd encourage you to go download the podcast.
Make sure you don't miss that I was on a roll.
Hate to brag, I was on a roll with the
NFL wild Card picks. I'll also be on lock it

(38:11):
In giving you a gambling picks for the National Title
game between Alabama and Clemson tonight this afternoon on FS
one four thirty Eastern, three thirty Central to thirty Mountain
and one thirty Pacific. But I think Alabama's gonna win.
I think Alabama's gonna win because as I look at
this game, and I look at all the numbers, and
I look at everything else that's happened. I've watched every
big Clemson game. I've watched every Alabama game all season.

(38:32):
I watch a lot of college football. I think the
one area that Clemson his weekend is one where as
Alabama is very strong and it's relatively weak. Not week
like a hundred and twentieth best in the all of FBS,
but weekend that they're around nineteen or twentieth year passing defense.
If you look at what Clemson had happened to them
when they went up against Kellen Monde from Texas A

(38:54):
and m over four yards, what happened to them we
went up against Jake Bentley at South Carolina over five yards.
I think that to presuming that he is still healthy
and obviously he to do a lot of rehab for
his knee, I mean sorry for his ankle and his
knee earlier in the season. Presuming that he is healthy,
I think that Alabama will be able to exploit Clemson

(39:15):
in the passing game, and I think as a result,
this will be a really exciting, high scoring, up and
down the field style game that I think ultimately Alabama
just has too many weapons against Clemson for so I
think Alabama's gonna win. I think Nick Saban will have
his sixth title at Alabama in ten years, which is
an extraordinary accomplishment the likes of which we will probably

(39:36):
never see. I think the Dabbo and Clemson will be
back again next year for a fifth straight year of
Alabama and Clemson because I think both of these teams,
with Trevor Lawrence and with two of both of them
are gonna be first round draft picks coming back again.
I think they're both going to be the best teams
in college football again next year. I think there's a
gap that's opened in college football. Alabama and Clemson have

(40:00):
opened up a gap. Maybe Ohio states they're not very
far behind. Maybe you can also argue Oklahoma's they're not
very far behind. But Alabama and Clemson have put themselves
on a different level than anyone else in college football
right now, and I for one, am ecstatic to see
him play for a fourth straight year. I can't wait
to see what is gonna happen. Jason Martin, you have
been with me. You've been fortunate enough alongside of me

(40:22):
to get to see these Clemson Alabama games, these classics,
these title games. We were standing on the on the
field when Deshaun Watson won this game for Clemson, and uh,
I'm just excited to see what's gonna happen. And I
think it's crazy that people aren't. To me, this game
feels like it should feel bigger than it is, and
I think that's because there's just a little bit of

(40:42):
negativity associated with it. I think because people were not
happy with the semi final playoff games and the fact
that Alabama ran rough shot over Oklahoma and the fact
that Clemson whip Notre Dame. To me, that's just a
sign that the right two teams are playing and that
means that potentially tonight could be a classic. Agree. I mean,
you have to eventually separate the wheat from the chaff,

(41:04):
and the chaff was Notre Dame and to a lesser degree,
it was Oklahoma. So you're getting the two Bohemus, You're
getting the two Juggernauts, the two teams that you expected
that you anticipated to see in this matchup, and I
think that you're gonna see a lot of points scored.
I think both these offenses are so high powered. They've
got studs that are gonna be top ten draft picks

(41:24):
at quarterback, at wide receiver, at running back, in the trenches.
It's ridiculous. Guys like Quentin Williams, You've got everything that
you want. And I do believe this is a function
mainly of the location of the game as well. Last year,
that ticket on the secondary market to get into Mercedes
Benz was around seventeen hundred dollars to see Georgia and Alabama. Well,

(41:45):
if you take Atlanta and you go four hundred miles
in any direction and put a circumference out there, you
can make the argument that I can make that drive
to try and go there. So it is a hotter ticket,
and it's regionally located to both schools, to both Alabama
and Clemson. We know because we talked to these guys
so many times out in Los Angeles that California is

(42:07):
really a pro sports state. I don't know how many
times we've asked for opinions on college football on this
show over the last two years, and we've gotten basically
nothing from out there. They just don't pay attention. And
if USC is not relevant, they're really not paying attention.
And USC is not relevant outside of Cliff Kingsbury and
whether or not he's leaving and headed to the NFL
because of all that nonsense that went down this weekend.

(42:29):
So they're worried about what. In Los Angeles and in
the state of California, they're worried about Lebron James and
the Lakers. They're worried about the Dodgers, They're worried about
the Golden State Warriors. And college football with two Southeastern
teams is the equivalent of the NHL to them. So
you have to create a Foamo moment, a fear of
missing out moment for people across the country outside of

(42:52):
the Alabama die hards and the Clemson die hards. And
the problem is, it's the same problem every sport has.
Clay mainly, My TV is real good. I've got a
great looking flat screen, I've got a great recliner, I've
got the food that I want. I can invite as
many people over and not charge them a hundred dollars
to park. I can watch this game in nine different ways.
With fine bomb or film room or all sorts of

(43:12):
other nonsense. You've gotta make me want to make that trip.
And unless I'm a die hard one of these two
fan bases going two thousand miles across the country to
do that, that's a real tall ask. But they did
sell out there a lot. The problem is the walk
up and the other people. The casual interest is not
the same as it usually is, but it should be
because it's gonna be a damn good football game. Yeah,

(43:34):
I can't wait to see what's gonna happen in this one.
Um And and I really do think. Look if Dabbo
wins this game, saving at sixty seven. So I don't
know how many more years Nick Saban's gonna coach, or
how many more years he's gonna coach at an incredibly
high level. But it's fair to say that Debbo is
so young that he could have a dynastic run at
Clemson the likes of which we haven't seen in a

(43:56):
long time. I mean, the way they're recruiting, and uh,
the the over are all culture and atmosphere that he
seems to have created at Clemson. But man, it's tough
to beat Nick Saban at his absolute apex. And I
think you gotta give credit to Nick Saban because he's
evolved so many coaches. I think Jim Harball is a
good example of this at Michigan. So many coaches want
to keep doing what they've done before and expect to

(44:18):
get the same results. Nick Saban has gone into the
laboratory over and over again and reinvented himself and his team.
And I think that's the storyline so far for Alabama
this year. Alabama used to be a team that had
to win and could never give up more than thirty
points where they would lose. Now I feel like, look,
Alabama could win this game and give up forty It
wouldn't stunt me. I mean, it would be a bit

(44:40):
of a surprise, but it wouldn't stun me if Alabama
won this game fifty two to forty one, right, And
I think that's a credit to Nick Saban and his
ability to evolve as a coach, and also for Alabama
and their ability to win no matter what the overall
category might be. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports
talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows
at Fox sports radio dot com and within the I

(45:02):
heart radio apps search f s R to listen live.
We are joined now by Alex Marvez, as we always
are in our three on the Monday edition of out
Kick the Coverage and Alex, We've been talking about it
all show, but I feel like we can't talk about
it enough. NFL Wild Card weekend obviously was was a
heck of a hit, but the play, the talk, everything

(45:24):
surrounding the way that the Bears game ended. Where does
that rank for you? In one of the most improbable
endings ever? Not just Alex to hit the goal post,
even in tech most super Bowl, one of the greatest
video games of all time, you only hit the goal
post once. You don't then bounce down and hit the crossbar.
I couldn't tell for a minute whether it had gone

(45:45):
through or not. That's one of the most excruciating playoff
losses I can ever imagine. I can't imagine being a
Bears fan this morning waking up still seeing that in
my nightmares. What's your Cody Parkey as well? I mean,
what an absolute disaster. And you know what the Bears,
by the way, in for a penny, in for a pound,
you know they signed him to a big money contract
in the eighteen offseason, four years, fifteen million dollars. Oh

(46:08):
and by the way, his base salary for next season
of two point eight million dollars is guaranteed. So you're
on the hook with Cody Parkey. And this is the
type of thing. I hate to say it. I hope
the young man doesn't experience this, but everyone's careers, you know,
guys sometimes never make it all the way back from
a situation like this. And you know, how do you
go in and face your teammates, you know, because it's
not just you know, the double doink is huge, but

(46:28):
he's been doinking all season, you know. And I'm not
talking about Matt Bourne and his old w w E
days back in the early nineties. I mean, this guy
has been a little bit shaky, and you know, look
we can and of course there's blame to go around,
right Matt Maggie, you know, hey, why didn't you call
the time out earlier inside the two minute market? And
let's start that. Let's start there, because I tweeted that
out live watching it. That to me right after the

(46:51):
first down play because you know at some point that
the Eagles are going to have to throw the ball, right,
so It's not like they're going to run the ball
for four straight times. The play there, I think is
probably like to call a time out immediately. Now he
still had a time out safe and that's a field
goal that you should make. But if you think it's
the right play to call a time out there right
after the Eagles first down and first in goal situation, well,
I mean, so if we play this out here, and

(47:12):
let's say that you know that the Bears do stop
the Eagles from scoring and they've used all their time out,
then they're trying to run play. The Eagles had all
their time outs, so you're trying to run plays from
inside your five yard line and get the football out
with a second year quarterback. And I want to look
back at some point to that situation as well, so
you know, are you putting your team in really the
best position for that? I mean, they had plenty of

(47:34):
time and then they do what they needed to do, right,
they put the game position for a forty three yard
field goal. I mean, Clay, what does the accuracy on that?
I mean, no wind, I mean you got to be
able to make that kick ultimately, and the guy didn't.
That was it. And look Doug Peterson. I guess he
deserves credit as well. He called the time out, he
iced Cody Parkey. As you saw, Cody followed through, still
got the kick off, and it was good on his

(47:55):
first attempt, but obviously nullified by the time out. So
I think it really just I get there's gonna be
a lot of ways we can look at me. Look,
you want to take a step back even even more so,
why couldn't you know the Bears defense, they's sponsor defense.
Why couldn't they do more against the Eagles passing game?
Why couldn't they stop those tight ends from catching passes?
You know, I mean, why couldn't they stop golden tape
from getting into the end zone? You know, I mean

(48:16):
those types of things. Yeah, I get it. You know,
fourth down play, they didn't make the big stop. But
ultimately this falls on Cody Parky. He needed to make
a kick, no excuses, he didn't hit it, and now
the Bears pay the consequence. Their season is done. Okay,
let's talk more a little bit about this game. How
much money is Nick Fole's going to get and why
is he so magic in the postseason? I Mean, I

(48:37):
don't know about you, but I don't feel like if
Carson Wentz had stayed with the Eagles, even though statistically
he's better. Um that the Eagles are in this position
at all, they obviously win on the road. They're gonna
go on the road again. Um, they have to win
three straight road games as the number six seed to
advance to the super Bowl. But this team believes in
Nick Foles. And I understand Carson Wentz maybe the quarterback
of the future. But there's a lot of guys sitting

(48:59):
around in the NFL watching Nick Foles. He's gonna make
a hundred million dollars, isn't he. Well that's a great question.
You know, as each as each weeek goes on in
the NFL, you know, you would figure that he is
the guy in questions. So it becomes who's in the
market for Nick Foles? What team out there is looking
for a new quarterback that could potentially swing a trade
with the Eagles? And I need to just explain this

(49:20):
real quicker play on his contract because it gets a
little bit goofy. So they have Nick Foles this option
that they can exercise for twenty million dollars. What happens
is there any way they Is there any way they
do that? Is there any way the Eagles because they
still have Carson Wins under his rookie contract, right, Is
there any way they say, given Wins his history and issues,
we're willing. You know, if you look at what your

(49:40):
first starting quarterback and your second string quarterback make, that
wouldn't necessarily put them completely off the reservation in terms
of cost. Is there any way in your mind the
Eagles say, yeah, we'll pay you twenty million. I don't
think you keep both. And the reason is it's a
position where you're just not you know, you don't play
the two guys, you're not rotating them, you know, on
on a regular basis. I just don't I think you

(50:01):
know so. So I'm going with this is if they
keep him and it's to trade him, you understand what
I'm saying here. With this twenty million dollar option, then
Nick Foles can buy his way out of the option.
He has to return two million dollars in cash to
the Philadelphia Eagles and then he gets his freedom. But
the Eagles can still place the franchise tag on him
at that point. That would guarantee him even more money
in but it does create the possibility of a sign

(50:24):
and trade type of situation. Of course, if Nick doesn't
like where he's traded to, he'll say, Okay, I'll play
him with the franchise tag for one year and I'll
see you later. So you know everything, I keep hearing
for people out there listening right now because I'm hearing
all this. Is there any quarterback controversy in your mind
at all in Philadelphia? Or is Carson Wentz their guy
for years and years ahead and whatever happens in this postseason,

(50:46):
Nick Foles is eventually going to be leaving the Eagles, Clay,
I can't say that with confidence. I don't think anyone can.
What if the guy keeps winning? You know, and you
talk about it with Foles. Listen, you look at the
first two games of the season, and you know we
were so quick to write off Nick Fole is because
of his past, right, I mean JABRONI quarterback, you know
with the Kansas City Chiefs and you play started one
game there, got cut by the Rams. He was terrible.

(51:08):
I mean those saying. You know, after that great season
under Chip Kelly, you know his play tapered off in Philadelphia,
but you know he won his first game against the
Falcons lost in Tampa Bay, and that was always saw
Nick Foles. After that, it was Carson Wentz his team.
So when the guy came back and you know, resumed
the starting spot in week fifteen, everyone just thought, oh, yeah,
he's gonna be lousy. Well he wasn't. I mean, you know,
just like the Eagles got going on offense, Carson, you know,

(51:29):
Nick Foles got going, you know, right now, and he's
doing a great job. He throws the football deep, he's
got a great sense of the pass. Rushes, mechanics are outstanding.
I mean, and he's a leader and the guys respect
him in the locker room. So I just I can't
tell you, you know, for any with any certainty that no,
it's for sure, this is Carson Wentz his team. I mean,
if you're the Eagles, if this guy takes you to
a super Bowl, how do you let him walk away?

(51:53):
And listen, Carson Wentz I was gonna have more trade
value than Nick Foles because you're picking up a rookie
contract at that point. So if you're talking about recouping
some big time draft picks, especially teams if you don't
want to invest in Nick Foles and you're not convinced
that he could flourish in your offense, by the way,
and there's a big difference there because remember, Carson Wentz
is flourished in this offense, the Doug Peterson Kansas City

(52:14):
Chiefs derivative offense. If you do not believe that he
can do that, man, wouldn't Carson Wentz look better on
your team potentially as a QB. Let me ask you
this question. Now we're talking to Alex Marvez reacting to
NFL Wild Card Saturday and Sunday, and we haven't even
gotten beyond the Eagles bear yet, but we will. I promise.
If I had told you last year when Carson Wentz

(52:35):
got injured, hey, next year, come January, there's gonna be
a major controversy in Philadelphia over whether the future franchise
quarterback is a guy named Nick Foles who's coming in
now for Carson Wentz or Carson Wentz. Would you have
demanded that I'd be committed to an insane asylum. Well,
I demand that anyway, But no. A lot of listeners too, right, exactly, No,

(52:55):
that he adds even more fuel too, and which was unusual,
unbelievable story what he has done. But you listen, this
is where this playoff experience comes in. And like I said,
I wanted to look back to something with Mr Drabinsky
and Alex Marvez learned a valuable less than this past weekend.
I took all the home teams in this little pool
that I do with somebuddy's and I ended up going
one for three, right, And you know, I just I'd say, okay,

(53:16):
look when it when in doubt, take the home team,
but look at all the teams that lost in the
experience at the quarterback position. Mr Robinsky, second year is
an NFL starter, Lamar Jackson rookie quarterback starting Deshaun Watson,
second year NFL starting quarterback. I think there's a common
thright here that when playoff football begins, if you don't
have someone who's been there and done that under center,
a lot of times, you're gonna end up losing those games.

(53:38):
And I think this was a real good example of that.
A guy like Nick Foles, who has handled the most
pressure situation you can going against the New England Patriots
and a Super Bowl, this to him was fine, going
a soldier field where sometimes the game can get a
little bit too big for a quarterback. I will tell
you this, it got a little bit too big for
Lamar Jackson on Sunday. Yeah. We're gonna get to that
in a second. I will say this though, so first
of all, for all the gamblers out there, this is

(53:58):
an unbelievable stat last two years underdogs fourteen and one
against the spread because ultimately that Cowboy game ended up
going off with the Cowboys is a two and a
half point favorite. Unbelievable back door there because Sebastian Janikowski
hurt his hamstring, which will get to in a minute.
But let's go to that Lamar Jackson question. Okay, so

(54:19):
I'm watching this game. I tweet out during the game
at halftime. To me, this was like a Ta and
Jalen Hurt situation that you knew if you are a
reasonable person, and John Harbaugh is clearly a reasonable person,
highly successful head coach, that the Chargers had everything they
were trying to do on offense with Lamar Jackson diagnosed,

(54:40):
and much like Nick Saban, went in at halftime, even
though it was the National championship game, and even though
Jalen Hurts at that point was twenty six and two
as a starter or whatever he was. He said, in
order to win this game, I gotta go to two
A talk by Lowlan. We've seen what's happened. Since you
have a Super Bowl m VP and Joe Flacco sitting
on your bench healthy and you're only down. I guess
it was twelve nothing at the half. How do you think?

(55:02):
How seriously do you think John Harbaugh considered bringing in
uh Flacco in the second half? Should he have done it?
In retrospect? Right? You know he should have brought in
the more experienced password. There's no guarantee that Joe Flacco,
after being in mothballs for two months, two and a
half months, would have come off the bench and you
know done his you know Nick Foles moment. You know
what I mean? He listen. I will say this, John

(55:22):
Harbaugh wants to win a game, and he figured Lamar
Jackson is a guy who got us here where he
We're gonna warm him up, we're gonna get something going
and we're gonna win this game. And maybe you try
to make some adjustment too. Was at the right decision?
I can't tell you because I can't guarantee what Joe
Flacco would have done. Look, play if he was playing
at that m v P level, he would have never
lost his starting job to begin with. If you remember,
Joe Flacco wasn't all that good at quarterback down the stretch.

(55:44):
And by the way, how many snaps do backup quarterbacks
really take? You know, during the week in the NFL.
I'm gonna say, I don't know how many snaps to
have got early on in their bowl preparation. I think
this was something that Nick Saban, if I'm not mistaken,
kept in the back of his mind about making a change.
I don't know how the practice snaps were split, but
I would tell you Joe Flacco probably took one out
of every ten snaps if that because Lamar Jackson was

(56:05):
fast tracked to it. So he figured go with the kid.
And remember, too, you take out Lamar Jackson and I
get it, you're just trying to win a football game.
I really think John Harball thought if Joe Flacco gave
him that chance. And remember, there's been nobody more loyal
to Joe Flacco than John Harbaugh. He stuck with this
guy through thick and thin for what twelve seasons in
the NFL, eleven seasons since he was drafted in two
thousand seven, that ship has sale man, Joe Flacco was gone.

(56:28):
It was Lamar Jackson's chance to get it done. Couldn't
do it. Got them there close at the end, but
I just couldn't get it done. All right, Let's so
let's talk about that game a little bit. Philip Rivers.
The Chargers get out. I think it was twenty three
to three. Uh, seemed to have complete control of the game.
They're stopping Lamar Jackson. Can't do anything really at all.
I mean, had negative passing yardage I think as the
fourth quarter began. I made the argument earlier in this

(56:51):
show that Lamar Jackson inen reminds me a lot of
Tim Tebow in two thousand eleven. And the argument I'm
making there is that Tebow found ways to win games
because he had a great defense, because he was I
don't think undeniably a Heisman Trophy winning leader. But ultimately
what he was doing was not replicatable over and over

(57:12):
and over again, it seems to me. And then remember
we had the Tebow game. He won the playoff game
against the Steelers in overtime hit to Marius Thomas on
that crossing slant route he took to the house and
then he went up against the Patriots, and the Patriots
and Bill Belichick just undressed him. I mean it was
it was a disastrous performance, right, Lamar Jackson didn't even
win a playoff game. Is that, in your mind an

(57:33):
unfair comparison to say Lamar Jackson eighteen is equal to
Tim Tebow in two thousand eleven. No, it's not. It
really isn't. I mean looked because you put in a
gimmick style offense, and that's really what this was. What
it did was look for. It covered up for what
Lamar Jackson isn't right now, and that's a bona fide
pocket passing quarterback. He does one read maybe too, you know,

(57:54):
on a play he didn't. There's there's no progressions with
Lamar Jackson. He's just not at that point. He's a
raw quarterback who was thrust into action. And the Ravens
did the best they could. So they put in this
crazy offensive system that featured a lot of runs, a
lot of weird things that teams hadn't seen before, and
to their credit, the charges completely adjusted. They took their
linebackers off the field today play that was it. They

(58:15):
were gone. They used seven defensive backs for most of
the game. They brought Leila da Safety down, had him
play linebacker. They wanted more speed on the field to
be able to account for what the Ravens were doing,
and they they outclassed them on that side of the football.
Is a great defensive game plan by Gus Bradley, And
the question now becomes what can what is Lamar Jackson's upside? Ultimately?
Can he make enough plays as a passer so that

(58:36):
he's not just limited to being a running type quarterback
because teams are gonna look at that film of the race,
you know what the charges did to the Ravens, and
they're gonna find ways to defuse this offense in the
off season. So what's next for Lamar Jackson? Does he
grow as a quarterback? Is he the type of guy
that can handle a regular style offense when it comes
to the passing game that can effectively lead to come
back or is he going to be just have a
limited shelf life and just be, you know, like you say,

(58:59):
a Tim Tebow. I think that's a big question for
the Baltimore Ravens. It's an excellent question. I think in
a big debate, we're talking about Lamar Jackson, Tim Tebow
of all people who I saw by the way I'm
doing the show. You know this as we get ready
for the National title game tonight out in California. I'm
in uh San Jose today, and over the weekend, I

(59:19):
saw Tim Tebow here at the ESPN party. He's out
here covering the National title game. Uh so, maybe that
was why that was front of mind as I sit
around and watched Lamar Jackson yesterday on Sunday in the
early game. All right, let's go to the Saturday games.
Uh four wild Card games. We're talking with Alex Marvez
um Andrew Luck I thought was the best quarterback of
wild Card weekend. He had the one tip ball interception. Otherwise,

(59:41):
this was a dominant performance I thought by the Colts.
Did you agree with that? And do you think that
the Kansas City chief should be nervous? And also, on
top of that, to Shaun Watson, what do we think
going forward with the Texans based on what we saw
in this game? I guess Andrew's arm is okay, right, yeah,
I think he's pretty healed. Okay, Okay, We're pretty good
with that right now, very very good, you know, It's
crazy too, is that, you know, sixty seven point three

(01:00:05):
of Indianapolis's active roster for that game out of forty
six guys, thirty one of them were playing in their
first playoff game. And the team's just turn over so fast.
In the NFL, outside of like quarterback and kicker, nobody
has any longevity, right, I mean, and look, you know
what the thing with Andrew like, it was a brilliant
game planned by Frank Wright, right, you know, you move
the guy around, you know, so so he's not a

(01:00:27):
sitting duck target, and then even when he was in
the pocket, the offensive line generally gave him enough time
to throw. Yeah, there were a couple of tip passes
and some pressures, but you know, Luck is just I mean,
and you know he's responsible for like one bad turnover
a game. I think, you know, he's still at that
point that he hasn't eliminated that. But almost every game
that Andrew Luck plays, he's gonna do something that's gonna
cost his team. And it did happy. You know, he

(01:00:48):
did have that turnover yesterday, that interception on the tip pass.
But you know, quite honestly, they just had him. You know,
they had the Texans on the ropes. And the other
thing about it is we can talk to Andrew Luck
all day, but what about Marlon Mack talking about a
guy who's got a touchdown in five straight games. We're
talking about someone who has spearheaded a two yard rushing effort.
So if you're not a one dimensional team anymore, oh man,

(01:01:08):
it opens things up for Andrew looked like crazy. And yeah,
I think the Kansas City Chiefs should be concerned because
they're not so good on the defensive side of the football. Yes,
they had fifty two sacks during the regular season, was
tied with Pittsburgh for the most in the NFL, but
the thirty one in the NFL in yards allowed, thirty
second and first downs allowed, twenty second and passing touchdowns allowed,
thirty feet, in rushing average allowed, and twenty seven in

(01:01:31):
rushing yards. This is not a good team. It looks
like a shootout type of situation to me. And I
looked at the weather. I had to clay, it's going
to be fine in Kansas City. Temperatures actually projected to
be in the forties and clear, so not going to
be a big weather situation there, which for the Colts
and indoor team is absolutely a great situation. I will
say this, this is now going to be their third
straight game on the road, and it's not like they've

(01:01:51):
had a lot of time to recover. In fact, you
think about a Sunday night game and then coming back
to play on a Saturday, you wonder if fatigue starts
to set in a little bit. They're playing great football.
Look to me, DeShawn Watson, his mechanics were terrible, and
that's got to be the focus of the Texans in
the off season. When he needed to make a clutch throw,
the ball was bouncing, the ball was out, he just
looked bad. And I don't know if that's the that's
the effect of being sacked sixty times entering this game

(01:02:14):
and playing part of the season with a collapse along
and those types of things, and it just finally all
caught up with him. They have to address that offensive line.
Oh and by the way, you need to get some
new cornerbacks as well, because clearly the cult wide receivers
just so much faster in that secondary. And it wasn't
just two y Hilton, it was basically everybody was just
faster than Kareem Jackson and Jonathan Joseph. Yeah, it was intriguing,
all right. The other game, obviously, to Jerry Jones's credit,

(01:02:36):
Cowboys lose Monday Night Football Tennessee Titans. Sitting at three
and five, he goes on the radio and says, oh, yeah,
Dak is definitely going to get extended. And everybody rolls
their eyes and says, Jerry Jones has lost it. What
in the world is he thinking now that Dak Prescott
has won a playoff game? Still a young guy twenty
five years old? Is Dak Prescott going to get that
big hundred million dollar contract? And what did you see

(01:02:59):
from the Seahawks in terms of their game plan? You
have a ferrari I believe in Russell Wilson. The number
of times that they handed the ball off on first
and second down and put him into third and long
passing situations drove me insane. I can't imagine being a
Seahawks fan. Haven't watched that the Seahawks by the way,
two of thirteen on third down class night, because they

(01:03:19):
all third and long after they couldn't rot the ball
on first and second down exactly, you know, And now
everyone wants to lynch Brian Schottenheimer, right, and after he
did such a good job getting that running game going.
I mean, yeah, you're right. I mean, look, they gained
seventy three yards on twenty four carries against the Dallas Cowboys,
and after a while, you gotta stop bang in your
head against the wall, and they finally did start to
throw in the second app By that point, the Seahawks

(01:03:40):
are playing from behind too little and too late, I mean,
so that that's where that was at. And yeah, I mean, look,
Russell Wilson was dropping dimes. It was a bad game
plan by Brian Schottenheimer. And you know, the Seahawks lose
and asked for Dak Prescott. This is a little bit
of a tricky one play because you know, he the
Cowboys have mechanisms themselves to be able to keep Dak
Prescott in the fold at certain types of salary. For example,

(01:04:00):
Dac now and ending and start NFL season next year
is the final year of his rookie contract. You know,
if his acting price is prohibitive, well then the Cowboys
just say, okay, we'll play for one point two million
dollars or you know, whatever it is. It's a real
nominal base salary. So I think it has to be realistic.
Does he become the highest paid quarterback in NFL history?
Probably not, But does he make thirty million dollars a year?

(01:04:21):
Probably so. I would think that might be the sweet
spot to be able to get this done because it
allows the Cowboys to go back in, scratch that final
year off of his rookie contractor you can even start
the deal in and just add some significant signing bonus
money to it. But get this deal done, get him
wrapped up. The guy's worth it. It's you know, and
looks Zeke Elliott. Now, now this is the one that's
so interesting to me more so than Dad. Do you

(01:04:43):
keep Zeke? Do you realize do you think, Okay, Todd Gurley,
the Ramps, he signed him after three years. They believe
he's gonna be great for years to come. Do you
think Zeke Elliott and his physical rushing style, he's going
to remain healthy, He's gonna remain productive, and you're going
to pay him Todd Gurley type money as a running
back in the league that doesn't really value the pos
This is a big offseason question for the Cowboys, especially
with the Marcus Lawrence coming up for free agency. And

(01:05:05):
a Marii Cooper not too far away from free agency himself.
Last question for you, now that you look ahead to
the divisional round games Colts, Chief's, Cowboys, Rams are on Saturday, Chargers, Patriots, Eagles, Saints,
is there any game or any part I know it's
early because we just had the games happened yesterday to
get all these games set, But is there anyone that
jumps out to you and you think, boy, that's gonna

(01:05:26):
be a big upset, or I particularly like one team
or another in these matchups. I like the Chargers. I
just I'm just getting looking at this team and I
think they have the best chance of beating New England
and any we've seen in a long time come in
in the second round of the playoffs in foxbur And
by the way, as we know, the Patriots haven't lost
a first round playoff game in Foxboro since the New
York Jets upset him back in. But this Charger's team,

(01:05:48):
by the sanchise, it's amazing they've only lost. The Chargers
lost one. That was Mark Sanchez right, that was when
he came in, Are correct the sanchis correct about that,
and that was it. That was it from Mark Sanchez, right,
that was there's one moment in time beside the butt fumble.
But you know, when it comes to Chargers and Patriots,
you know, this Chargers team there there there if they've
won every game on the road except for when they

(01:06:09):
played their crosstown rival to Los Angeles Rams, so when
they board a plane, good things happen in this Patriots
team won't quite Honestly, they're vulnerable. I mean, they're just
not a great team. Look, I don't know if they're
gonna be able to get the running game going. I
don't know if Tom Brady is gonna be able to
weather the storm against this type of defense. Chargers to me,
just looks like a hot team. It looks so wide
open right now. This is the most wide open season

(01:06:29):
that I've had because Philadelphia has read how obviously going
to New Orleans, would anyone be shocked if Dallas beat
the Rams? Not really, And the same thing with the
Colts in the Chiefs, because the Chiefs have had that
that history of failing in the postseason. You know, playing
at Arrowhead Stadium, they haven't won a home playoff game.
We know about Andy Reid and his postseason record. No bueno.
I mean, Clay, this is gonna be so much fun

(01:06:50):
to watch the second round of the second round of
weekend of the playoffs. I mean, it's just again more
wide open than I've ever seen it. Alex Marvez, You're
always outstanding. Have a good Monday. We'll talk to you
next week after the divisional round of the playoffs and
see who's headed the a f C in the NFC
Championship Games. Thanks for manam, Thank you. Be sure to
catch live editions about kick the Coverage with Clay Travis

(01:07:10):
weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific on Fox
Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio AP