NFL Final 4, Big Easy Top 2

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome in podcast listeners. Oh boy, am I ever pumped
and excited about the Titans big win over the Baltimore Ravens.
Lots to discuss their plus big wins for the forty
Niners and for the Green Bay Packers and also for
the Kansas City Chiefs. We're down to the final four
in the NFL plus world Live in New Orleans, getting

(00:20):
you ready for L s U. Clemson. What's gonna happen
in the big game tonight for the National Championship? Well,
you will discuss podcast begins now enjoy. I'll kick the
Coverage with Clay Travis live every weekday morning from six
to nine a m. E stern three to six am
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for

(00:41):
OutKick the Coverage at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or
stream us live every morning on the I Heart Radio
app by searching fs are you're listening to Fox Sports Radio?
I am down in New Orleans ends where the Geico
Outkicks Studios is originating for Monday and Tuesday of this week.

(01:06):
Why am I down here? Well? Because L s U
and Clemson are playing in a Battle of the Tigers
in the Superdome later tonight. You know that fifteen minutes
could save you fifteen percent or more. By the way,
on car insurance, visit Geico dot com for a free
rate quote. Now, so much to get into here, A
lot to discuss surrounding all of the NFL games. Were

(01:30):
also gonna be talking about the L s U. Clemson
game as well, But I want to start with this.
I was scheduled to go down to New Orleans on Saturday,
so I was gonna go down. Wife was gonna come
down with me. We're gonna hang out French Quarter, have
a couple of days to chill, and then the Titans
beat the New England Patriots. You guys who listened to

(01:53):
this show for a long time know that I've been
a long time Titans fans season ticket holder, that whole shebang.
So my favorite thing, my favorite way to watch games
in all honesty right now is with my kids. So
my two oldest kids are eleven and nine, and they
have become big football fans. And if you are a

(02:13):
dad or you are a mom and you have happened
to have kids who are around that age, you know
that that's pretty outstanding. I mean, that's almost the perfect age,
uh to be able to hang out and watch games,
and so we watched the Titans beat the Patriots. And
as soon as the Titans beat the Patriots, I said, well,
the Titans are gonna be playing against the Ravens on

(02:36):
another Saturday night, and I'm not leaving town. I want
to stay at my house and I want to watch
the game with my boys. Um and so I changed
my flight, decided to stay in Nashville. And what a
unbelievable game that ended up being. What a spectacular decision

(02:56):
it was for the Titans to come out and take
it to the Baltimore Ravens like they did. Now, we
had four games going on over the weekend to on
Saturday to on Sunday. Three of them they may have
gone in ways that we might not have anticipated during
the course of the game, but I think most people
expected that the forty Niners would win. I think most

(03:18):
people expected that the Uh that the Chiefs would win,
maybe not in the way that they did. And I
think most people expected that the that the Packers would win.
Those were all three favored teams. The Packers were the
smallest of those favorites. But I think a huge percentage
of people anticipated that the Ravens would handle the Titans,

(03:41):
notwithstanding the fact the Titans had pulled off the upset
over the Patriots in Foxborough, and so the way that
game went down, I want to start off talking about it.
And by the way, we're gonna talk about every single
one of the NFL games, but I feel like there
are so many interesting storylines that come out of the
Titans Ravens game that maybe don't necessarily play out as

(04:06):
much in some of the other games. Although don't worry,
we're gonna talk about all of them equally. But I
want to start with the Titans win over the Ravens,
and there were a ton of things that jumped out
at me statistically about this game, and I want to
start with Derrick Henry. Derrick Henry has now run for

(04:27):
over a hundred and eighty yards in three straight games.
That is something that has never been done before in
the history of the NFL. And as the Titans head
coach Mike Vrabel said, anytime you hear someone say, oh,
he's done something that's never been done before in the
history of the NFL, that's a pretty amazing accomplishment. And

(04:49):
what's also amazing about it is it's not surprising what
the Titans are doing. They are running downhill, they are
coming right at you. There's not a lot of uns
cinty about what they're attempting to accomplish, and still they
can't be stopped. And what Derrick Henry is doing right
now is performing as well or better than any running

(05:12):
back has ever performed in the history of the NFL.
I mean, that's not an exaggeration, that's not hyperbole based
on what we've already seen. He is doing something that's
literally never happened before. So I don't think you can
be two worked up about how incredible that is. I
don't think you can overhype it. I don't think you

(05:32):
can spend too much time hyperbolizing what he is accomplishing
right now. Okay, on top of that, the Titans to
go on the road and when in Foxborough and then
when in Baltimore back to back weeks is pretty unbelievable
in order to be able to accomplish in general. Now,

(05:54):
this is another stat about how good uh Derrick Henry is.
These are next gen stats. The Evans couldn't slow down
Derrick Henry despite stacking the box. That means eight plus
defenders on sixty of his rush attempts. All right. He
finished with a hundred and twenty four yards on nineteen
attempts versus eight defenders in the box, most in any

(06:18):
game by any player this season. We heard Earl Thomas
talk a lot about how well it didn't seem like
the New England Patriots really wanted to tackle Derrick Henry.
And we're not going to put that ourselves in that position.
We're gonna come up and challenge him. Did you see
Earl Thomas try to tackle Derrick Henry in the open field?

(06:41):
Did you see Derrick Henry bludgeon him with that stiff arm?
It didn't seem like Earl Thomas wanted to be involved
in that at all either. Uh. And so this is I,
I just I I honestly am sort of in disbelief
over what Derrick Henry has been able to accomplish. Now
out it's not just Derrick Henry, by the way, but

(07:03):
the Titans won by sixteen points as a ten point underdog.
That's only the third time and underdog of that many
points has won by that much in NFL postseason history.
So that in and of itself was totally wild as well.
All right, that's the Titan side, UH. And the other

(07:23):
aspect on this is prior to Saturday, to their game
against the Titans, the Ravens were the only team in
the Super Bowl era who had never lost as a
ten plus point favorite in their history as a franchise.
They were thirty six and oh and so they are
just so many different massive storylines that spiral out of that.

(07:45):
That's the Titan side. Now. Look, I thought that the
play calling by Arthur Smith, first year offensive coordinator. You
want to put a pin by somebody's name, who if
he has another year like this next year, will be
getting a lot of looks as potentially a head coach. UH.
Arthur Smith is one, He's super young, but I thought
the play calling that he had was flawless. On the

(08:08):
fourth and one play, Titans are up seven nothing. They
stopped the Ravens at the raven forty next play, they
get the ball and they go deep and hit a
forty five yard perfect pass to give the Titans a
fourteen to nothing lead. That was a perfect example of
a play call that was made at the exact right moment.

(08:28):
Same thing on the Derrick Henry jump pass, UH as
he faked as if he were gonna run in, went
up to the line and then hit Corey Davis a
perfect throw. In case you wondered how good uh Derek
Derrick Henry was. He's even dropping dimes in on touchdown
passes and every time the Titans got close to the
goal line, and this has been one of their calling

(08:49):
cards with Ryan Tannehill has been they are scoring at
an insanely high rate touchdowns when they actually get down
near the goal line. So Yan Tannehill again not over
under a hundred yards passing, but he made big throws
when he needed to. Titans got up six and managed
to withstand Lamar Jackson. Now what about the Lamar Jackson

(09:12):
side of the equation here? What about Lamar Jackson? What
do we think now about Lamar as we break down
his season? He's gonna be the NFL m v P.
But he now has major wobbl nous I would say
when it comes to the postseason. Last year we saw

(09:34):
him get exploited by the l A Chargers. They put
together a game plan, they were white hot. The Ravens
were uh And the Titans put together a game plan
this year that was sort of similar to what the
Chargers did last year, and I thought this was interesting.
Logan Ryan said almost exactly what they did against Lamar Jackson.
He said, this is a quote from Logan Ryan, Titan

(09:56):
defensive back. We had eight nine boxes all night. You
play Aden and run engauge eight all day, it's hard
to run the ball. We pretty much did that, he said.
They used the bills as a blueprint. Here is Logan
Ryan explaining exactly what they did. We wanted to give him,
meaning Lamar Jackson loaded boxes all night to get him

(10:17):
out of the run game. We were either playing with
a loaded box and man deman and make him beat
us throwing the ball outside man demand, or we were
gonna play his own defense, a quarters defense similar to
what Buffalo did. And Buffalo played them well. Buffalo just
didn't score a lot of points on offense. So we
had eight nine boxes all night. You play Madden and

(10:38):
run engauge eight all day, it's hard to run the ball.
We pretty much did that, and we gotta lead. And
once we gotta lead, they had to go to the
past game. And that's our strength with the DBS we
have and having the ball skills we have. When we
get a lead, we can get some interceptions, and they did.
They picked off Lamar Jackson twice, they caused a fumble,

(10:58):
and they basically created a really difficult situation for Lamar Jackson. Now,
Lamar Jackson's only twenty three years old. He obviously has
been a revelation in the first two years in the NFL.
But I think the question, and it's gonna be one
that's gonna be debated a lot this offseason, is going
to be what is the staying power of Lamar Jackson?

(11:19):
Because you heard some people acknowledge as a running quarterback
that they would acknowledge that his shelf life was likely
to be shorter than somebody who did not run as
much as he did. And as a part of that,
people would say, well, he might have a shorter shelf life,
but he's going to be able to win a super Bowl,
maybe even multiple super Bowls, So does it really matter
if he has a shorter shelf life. What I would

(11:41):
say in response to that is, go ask Matt Ryan
and Cam Newton, two guys who got to the Super
Bowl were in prime position to win super Bowls and
may never ever get back close to it again. Cam
Newton was a lot like Lamar Jackson came out of nowhere,
had a transcendent season. Everything went perfect except Cam made

(12:04):
it to the Super Bowl, he lost, and his career
kind of went up in smoke. So I think the
challenge for Lamar Jackson is going to be is he
gonna be like a Peyton Manning or even a John Elway,
two guys who had consistent failure were perpetually told, Oh,
they can't ever win the big game, and then they

(12:26):
just kept fighting, They kept just kept staying alive. They
put themselves in positions to win championships, and sooner or
later things broke their way. If you are an NFL fan,
Peyton Manning was forever the most criticized quarterback in the league.
We heard over and over and over again, this guy
cannot win the big game, and the big game was

(12:47):
defined as whichever game he lost, which is why it's
always kind of unfair, because, oh, if you win and
get to the a f C Championship and then you
lose that one, that's the big game. But if you
lose in the divisional round during the wild card you round,
Oh that the big game that you can't win. And
so it was always constantly a moving target. Peyton Manning
finally wins a Super Bowl and then it's like, oh, well,
Peyton Manning only won one Super Bowl. He should have

(13:09):
had a lot more. Finally he wins a second and
it's like that kind of shut the door on them.
Same thing was said about John Elway. John Elway can
win a lot of games, but he can't win you
the big game. So the question that I have for
Lamar and I think it's a really interesting one, and
I don't think we know the answer, which is why
it's a fun one to debate. Is he going to
have the longevity where he knocks on the door a lot?

(13:29):
Because he's knocked on the door twice now and he
hasn't been able to walk through the door. He's gotten whipped.
The Chargers came out and whipped him, the Titans came
out and whipped him. And you can say, oh, well,
he threw for three hundred yards, he ran for a
hundred yards. A lot of those numbers, a lot of
those numbers came long after the game was decided, when
the Titans were already up to six. In fact, here

(13:52):
are Lamar Jackson's numbers in the first three quarters sixty
six percent completion eight two hundred and sixty two yards passing,
three I n t s and a fumble. That's two
career playoff games in quarters one through three, Lamar Jackson
completing less than half of his passes, three I n
T s of fumble, zero touchdowns in the fourth quarter.

(14:15):
Remember it happened to Chargers to Chargers got a big
Lamar made a late run. Well, he made a late
statistical run here. Kind of felt a little bit like
Blake Bortles. You know how Blake Bortles always you looked
at the stats and you're like, man, the dude through
for three hundred and forty yards and three touchdowns, but
they lost like forty eight and they were never really
in the game. Well, in the fourth quarter of his

(14:36):
two playoff games is where Lamar Jackson's made his hey
nearly three hundred yards passing fifty seven percent completion percentage,
three touchdowns. He scored his points after the game was
already decided. So I think this is the big debate
coming out of the Divisional round of the playoffs, is
Lamar Jackson is he gonna be like John Elway, is

(14:59):
gonna be like Peyton Man, a guy who is good
for a long time. Because I'll tell you this right now,
I feel like Patrick Mahomes he's gonna be good for
a long time. So if Mahomes goes out and he
loses let's say the a f C Championship Game or
he loses the Super Bowl, I'm not worried about Patrick
Mahomes disappearing. I think he's going to be in the
mix to win championships for Chiefs fans theoretically, as long

(15:20):
as he stays healthy for the next ten to fifteen years.
I'm not sure about Lamar Jackson. I'm not sure frankly
about Jimmy Garoppolo, who's also now in the mix. We
know Aaron Rodgers has been doing it for like fifteen years.
It feels like so he's been around for a long time.
I don't feel like Ryan Tannehill is gonna be there
every year. I know he had a great year this year,
but I feel like this is Tannehill's a year to
get it done, and if he doesn't get it done,

(15:42):
may never happen for him. Where does Lamar Jackson fit
into that larger universe? Those are the kind of questions
that I think come out in a big way as
we break down what we just saw in that game. Now,
I mentioned that I'm in New Orleans and I'm fired up,
and I could talk all about these NFL games, probably
all by myself throughout. But we're gonna talk about Clemson

(16:03):
and we're gonna talk about L s U. And my
buddy Jason Martin, who often sits in on the show,
is with me for the next couple of days as
we get ready for this L. S U. Clemson game.
But we are breaking down the NFL first and the
game that got the most attention, and I think we'll
get the most blowback on different directions in terms of
what the Titans did, in terms of what the Ravens did.

(16:24):
You just heard me dive into that game for about
fifteen minutes. Jason Martin, what say you? What additional thoughts
do you have? What do you agree with disagree with
about everything that I just said? The Lamar Jackson questions
the one everybody is gonna tackle first. It's what every
show is gonna go to. And it's gonna be a referendum,
and it's gonna be based on two playoff performances, and
it's gonna be if you didn't like him before, then

(16:45):
you're gonna have evidence. And if you liked them before,
then you're gonna give him some leeway. That's just kind
of the way it's gonna go. But in terms of
just what happened on the football field, the Tennessee Titans
beat their rear ends like they just they ran through
their faces Marshawn Lynch style, but at this point you
can just say Derrick Henry style, because that's what he's doing.
They played exquisite defense, especially in short yardage situations and

(17:08):
in the red zone, just like the goal line stand
in Foxburg last week. In Baltimore, Baltimore was on fourth
down and once this season, and they went over to
last night, including an awful quarterback snake attempt. They wrote
for four and fourth down overall, but fourth down and
one more than one they got. I mean I I
we talked earlier, or I said earlier that that first

(17:29):
stop where in the next play was the touchdown. Uh,
that those were stunning stops when you looked at how
good Baltimore had been in those two too, and both
of the situations where they happened. Right the first drive
of the second half, it's fourteen six. If the Ravens
go down and score a touchdown there, or even kick
a field goal, you know, like I mean to cut

(17:49):
it down to a touchdown gives you the lead. Both
of those, I agree, we're just monumentally massive stops. Also,
I think we saw in these last two weeks something
about both Baltimore New England that they have in in common.
Those two quarterbacks couldn't be more apart in age, meaning
Tom Brady and Lamar Jackson, but neither one of them
has a ton of receiving talent around him. You saw

(18:11):
Kansas City able to throw themselves back into that game
because Mahomes is the best quarterback in football, and people
may have kind of forgotten about that. But that's why
I picked the Chiefs win the Super Bowl before this
year started, because of how good we know he is.
But look at what Lamar Jackson had last night, and
look at what Tom Brady had last week. When it
came down to it, Brady had Edelman who dropped the pass.

(18:31):
The Ravens had dropped fourteen passes all season long, last
night they dropped seven, Or Saturday night they dropped seven
passes in their first playoff games. Through it fifty nine times.
But there were some key drops early in that one.
And I said, the biggest play in the entire football game,
Clay was the first interception. It was the tip all
when Mark Andrews went up, wasn't able to go fully

(18:52):
up and Lamar floated it just a little bit high.
Bayard's not gonna miss that play. He's one of the
best dvs in football. It's twy he's paid like it,
he deserves to be. He picks it off and then
Lamar gets the fifteen yards tacked on at the end
of the play. That changed the game to me. If
Baltimore goes down and scores a touchdown there after deferring
and forcing the punt, they go up seven nothing. I

(19:12):
don't know what kind of discussion we're having today, but
that's not what happened. Tennessee got an opportunity, took advantage
of it. And I believe after that interception Baltimore that
and after the first fourth down in one failure, Baltimore
looked like a team that had no more answers. They
just didn't understand what to do anymore. That was a
team that had been so dominant in the first quarter

(19:33):
of football games outscoring everybody by ninety seven points. And
then you get to the end of that quarter and
now they've outscored everybody by ninety because they trailed by seven.
There was a totally different deal. And the Titans walked
in unafraid and just punched them in the mouth and
they couldn't answer it. And we should also point out
that John hu Smith touchdown. Oh my gosh, I mean
the Titans. If if you go back and just look

(19:54):
at individual plays, the Titans made some extraordinary place. Now
look to catch that Hollywood Brown May played in the
first half, like the one hander that got the that
got the Ravens three points was also an exquisite play
by him. But the catch that John hu Smith made
to give the Titans a seven nothing lead was a
we're here and we're gonna be here all night kind

(20:16):
of play, right, uh, And then to have it come
shortly thereafter the best throw of the postseason for Ryan
Tannehill was I mean he just dropped it on a dime.
Khalif Raymond diving and making that catch to give the
Titans of fourteen to nothing lead. Um, those are those
are just monumental plays. You said you had some other
and other, this is this is, this gonna blow your mind.

(20:36):
And this is just a credit to the garbage time
staff that you mentioned as well. Since nineteen forty three,
six football teams have had at least five hundred thirty
yards of offense in an NFL game, regular season or postseason.
You know how many of those three twenty six haven't scored?
Fourteen points one the Baltimore Ravens against the Tennessee Titans

(20:57):
on Saturday night. Now, to be fair, the yardage was
like if yeah, when it was twenty eight to six
and the Titans scored again that The other thing about
the raven defense was the Ravens gave up a touchdown
basically every time the Titans had a scoring opportunity. It
wasn't just that the Titans got points, it was that
they scored touchdowns all four times that they had the

(21:18):
ball down near the Ravens goal line. But what was what?
A lot of those yards came for Lamar Jackson Because
people are like, again, we're gonna hear, oh, he through
for three, he ran for a hundred, and I'm sure
people are tweeting us right now if I go into
my mentions, but if you look at those numbers, A
huge percentage of the yards came once they were down six,

(21:40):
and at that point in time, the Titans are just
dropping back and saying, Okay, We're just not gonna let
you beat us over the top. We'll let you nickel
and dime your way down the field. Oh yeah, for sure,
definitely garbage yards. This is outkicked the coverage with Clay
Travis live down here in New Orleans for Sate, all

(22:00):
of you hanging out with us. We're breaking down the
divisional round playoff games as well as l s U
against Clemson taking place tonight in the Big Easy where
we are doing the radio program today and tomorrow on
the road. Appreciate all of you hanging out with us,
and we talk some about the Titans big win over
the Ravens and what might happen going forward for Lamar Jackson.

(22:21):
Let me just also say this felt like payback for
a lot of Titans fans because the Ravens in two
thousand and in two thousand eight came into Nashville in
the divisional round and beat the Titans when they were
the number one overall seed and cost the Titans. Many
people think in two thousand, the year that Ray Lewis
and that great Ravens defense won the National won the

(22:43):
Super Bowl that otherwise that was the Super Bowl, the
Titans of Ravens that game, whoever won that game would
have won the Super Bowl. UH, certainly would have been
favored to win the Super Bowl. UH. And then in
two thousand and eight, they cost the Titans another potential
ability to host an a f C Champions Of Game,
So that aspect of the win felt particularly sweet as

(23:04):
well to do it to the Ravens in a year
where frankly they felt like they should be considered the
favorite to to win the Super Bowl. Also. But let's
go ahead and dive into some of these other games
that we're going on, and I I don't know that
I've seen a wilder game than what happened between the
Texans and the UH and the Chiefs in the way

(23:28):
that when the Texans were up twenty four to nothing,
you felt like, man, what's happening here? Are the Chiefs
gonna be able to put anything back together again at all?
And then I thought the play that changed everything. UH.
A lot of people are gonna focus on the fumbled
kick return that popped into the air and got caught
and immediately set up for a rapid score there for

(23:48):
the Chiefs. I think it was the fake punt. It's
twenty four to seven, and some people will point and say, hey,
Bill O'Brien, you have to go for it, go for
the touchdown. Instead of going up twenty four to nothing,
try to go up to eight to nothing. Maybe something
would have been different there, maybe not, but to me,
faking the punt up twenty four to seven Jason Martin
and getting caught there and giving the Chief's offense a

(24:11):
short field where you let him go down and they
scored and makes to fourteen and suddenly what felt like
an insurmountable difference. You got two quick touchdowns and then
obviously you get the fumble right after that as well,
and boom, all of the advantage was gone. But I thought,
if you could go back in time and change one
play in terms of a decision that was made, I

(24:32):
think the decision to go with the fake punt there
was ludicrous. You're right that I I could not believe that. Uh,
And I didn't know what you were about to say,
but that was what I was. Well. I guess maybe
I was hoping you were going to say it that way,
I could be the one to say it. But that
was one of the dumbest things because it told me
in that moment that Bill O'Brien didn't think his team
was gonna be able to Yes, it was a total

(24:53):
desperate move and he had a big lead, but he
knew what we had all seen, which was the lead
that the Texans had built was all on smoke and mirrors.
It was all on weird things. But look there was
still a big lead. You found out the CBS crew said, Uh,
you know, Bill O'Brien didn't want to punt at all today.
He felt like he didn't need to punt it all today.
Well that's because he knew he was gonna get trucked.

(25:14):
He's just not a very good coach at all. Like
like period, Deshaun Watson is somehow succeeding in spite of
him more often than not. But when I saw that,
I just said, you're not down thirty one to seven here,
you're in your own territory. Punt the dag on football
away or can you stop him at all? Where you're

(25:35):
faking it? If they get the first down there, you
still just have a first down at your own forty.
It's not like you're putting yourself in where, oh, now
we can go for you know, now we're in scoring position,
right like you are still going to have to come
get other twenty five or thirty yards to be able
to kick another field goal. So I just thought that
was mind numbingly dumb. It was make that decision at

(25:56):
that point in time, And I thought from the moment
he did that, everything seemed to start to unravel in
a big way for for the Texans. And I'm with you.
I just I don't think he's a very good coach.
He doesn't seem like a very likable coach. I'm sure
you saw the video of him from the Bronco game
yelling at one of the Texans fans told me sucked,
like you just can't react like that when you're in

(26:18):
that position. I understand it's frustrating. I'm sure when your
team is not playing well and you're jogging off the
field and somebody basically tells you to wear it and
you hear him and you happen to look up and
see who it is, and you want to say something back.
We saw Baker Mayfield do the same thing, But as
a coach, you have to be smarter than that than
to get engaged in a yelling match. So credit to

(26:39):
the Chiefs, who I mean again, four touchdown passes. Travis
Kelsey was completely uncoverable by anyone on the Texans. And
I think you have to make the Chiefs the favorite
in my mind right now to win the Super Bowl.
I think they're the best of the four teams that
are remaining. Doesn't mean that they're gonna win it. All
sorts of crazy things can happen. Certainly, the forty Niners
dominated a against the against the Vikings. The Vikings just

(27:02):
never felt like they had a remote chance in that game.
So I again, I know that a lot of things
can happen in the a f C, in the NFC
championship games, and certainly in the Super Bowl as we've
seen over the years. But if you told me right
now pick a champion, it would be the Chiefs. I
think the Chiefs have the best quarterback playing at the
highest level right now, and I think they can win

(27:22):
games in a variety of different directions. Now, if you
told me why are the Chiefs not gonna win, it
would be the same reason they lost last year. Their defense,
I mean their defense is suspect, and I thought that
the success that the Texans had against them reinforces the
fact that that's not a defense that's necessarily ready for
prime time and they might need to outscore you. Now.
The positive is they're down twenty four nothing most teams

(27:46):
being down twenty four nothing there and full on panic mode.
For the Chiefs, you didn't feel like they were completely
out of it at all. And then the other game
that I would say again, I just don't think there
was much to take away from the forty Niners game. Again. Uh,
the against the Vikings, I thought they just dominated. But
Russell Wilson is the difference between his team being in

(28:09):
the divisional round of the playoffs and having a decent chance.
I mean, you can't punt their right like you can't
punt Carroll. You go for it on fourth and eleven.
You give Russell Wilson a chance to make a play.
The guy was doing everything for you. You absolutely positively
cannot punt there. You don't get the ball back. You've
got one of the great playmakers and just football players.

(28:32):
I don't even think it's fair necessarily to call and
the best compliment you can give him is I'm not
even sure it's fair just to call Russell Wilson a quarterback.
I think he's a football player. And I think that
that Seahawks team without Russell Wilson j Mart is like
a four and twelve or five and eleven team if
they have the most average quarterback in the NFL as

(28:53):
opposed to Russell Wilson. Cause if you watch that game,
they couldn't block for him, They couldn't run the ball
every single a he's dropping back. I love to know
how much he ran. He had to run like a
marathon on that football field, from one side to the other,
survey and downfield, trying to make plays, running taking hits
and left and right. I mean, he got decked all

(29:13):
over the field, and the Seahawks had no business being
one of the eight best teams in the NFL. It's
sheer will by Russell Wilson that got them there. Yes, uh,
you're preaching to the choir on that. I think it's
true about Russell Wilson. I think it's also true about
de Shaun Watson to a little bit of a lesser degree.
But guys that have run for their lives and guys

(29:34):
that if they weren't on those teams, those teams would
be at the bottom of their divisions. I mean, it's
just just that simple. And I I know Pete Carroll
has been successful, but he's extremely, almost obnoxiously conservative. When
he punted, it was the most Pete Carroll thing that
ever could have happened. It was exactly what you would
anticipate there. And then Bill O'Brien just decides he wants
to get aggressive at the worst possible times. Those are

(29:55):
just like mind numbingly, just baffling times. I'm gonna go
for this trick play he year when I'm up to seven,
when everything's going right, and then it just the wheels
fall off in that moment. Russell Wilson has saved the Seahawks.
I don't know how many times throughout his career. I
don't know how many quarterbacks you could put into that
offense with Pete Carroll as coach and have anywhere near

(30:17):
the success that he has had. And I think the
exact same thing is true in Houston. I think both
of those two guys are far better than what's standing
on the sidelines for them. We come back, we'll hit
you with a look ahead with some of the different
games that took place. But also I thought this stat
was interesting. Postseason starts for the final four quarterbacks remaining.
Aaron Rodgers seventeen postseason starts, grizzled veteran, he's been and

(30:41):
done everything, Patrick Mahomes three postseason smart starts, Ryan Tannehill
to postseason starts, Jimmy Garoppolo one. So the other three
quarterbacks left have a combined six postseason starts. To Aaron
Rodgers is seventeen. What will the impact be on that? Well,
the discus. Next, this is outkicked the coverage with Clay Travis.

(31:09):
Clay Travis here hanging out with you guys from the
Big Easy down in New Orleans, getting ready for Clemson
going up against L s U and what could be
an iconic and legendary matchup of two fourteen and oh
teams as they attempt to go fifteen and Oh, we're
gonna talk about that some with you in our two.
But there are so many different storylines still to hit, uh.

(31:32):
From the weekend that was for divisional round NFL games,
We've been shaking them out for you as we come
through the stretch run. Here I just talked about all
of the quarterbacks. The fact that Aaron Rodgers has got
seventeen starts, the fact that we've got three starts by
Patrick Mahomes, two by Ryan Tannehill, one by Jimmy Garoppolo.
What could the impact of that be going forward? Let

(31:53):
me go ahead and tell you this. Uh, the National
title odds are out. I shouldn't say national title super Bowl.
National title odd are out two and l s US favored,
but super Bowl odds are out. The Kansas City Chiefs
are your favorite, according to Fox Bet. I'm looking at
these numbers right now in front of me. Uh plus
one twenty for the Kansas City Chiefs. Uh plus one

(32:14):
forty for the San Francisco forty niners. The Green Bay
Packers are plus four twenty five. Tennessee Titans six to
one now, uh, six to one for the Titans. Sounds
like there's still a lot of money potentially to be
made there. They were a hundred to one the final
week of the season at some places, so they've gone
from a hundred to one to six to one with

(32:35):
the wins over the Patriots and over uh the Baltimore Ravens.
Now for the A F C and the NFC. The
numbers are out in terms of what the lines are.
The Kansas City Chiefs, according to Fox Bet, are a
seven point favorite with a over under of fifty two
in that game, and the Green Bay Packers are a

(32:55):
seven point underdog, suggesting that Vegas doesn't really buy in
to the Packers even though they're fourteen and three. Uh.
The Packers are a seven point underdog on the road
against the forty Niners within over under forty four and
a half. Jay Mark, you buy into this idea that
seventeen starts for Aaron Rodgers compared to six total for

(33:17):
the other three guys could be a big factor, Yes
or no as we come down the final four now
in the NFL season. Honestly, no, because I don't think
this Aaron Rodgers is anything spectacular. I just don't. I've
seen it this year. I think he's still very capable.
I mean, sure he can go out there and win.
He's gonna be better than the guy playing on the
other side. But that defense in San Francisco was legit. Uh,

(33:38):
not just against the past, but the best a a
Ron Let's played for Green Bay this year is a
a Ron Jones. The running back, not a a Ron
Rogers and the running game for Minnesota on Saturday. Uh.
Nine carries for eighteen yards for Dalvin Cook. That's probably
not gonna get it done. That's probably not going to
get you pad that that you're not gonna win doing

(33:59):
that very often. Like, yeah, he's got experience, I get it.
He's also won a Super Bowl. But he's been called
the greatest player in the history of Earth for such
a long period of time and still has one Super
Bowl to show for it. I. I mean, sure they
can get there, but I don't look at that as
any kind of gigantic metric. The quarterback that I'm afraid of,
of all of them, by far as Patrick Mahomes. Yeah,

(34:21):
I mean, I don't think there's any doubt. I think
Patrick Mahomes is by far the best quarterback remaining right now.
And uh. And that's the advantage that you have is
if you come out flat like the Kansas City Chiefs did,
and let's say you take a couple of punches that
you're not anticipating, you get hit with that fifty plus
yard touchdown pass, which is beautifully thrown and beautifully designed.
And then also let's say you get a punt blocked

(34:42):
and suddenly you're down fourteen nothing. And oh, by the way,
even worse than that, you end up down twenty four
to nothing. Most teams, I feel like, would say, oh
my god, we're panicked. Were in completely dire straits. And
that's historically what the case has been. If you get
down twenty four nothing in an NFL game, to say
nothing of an NFL playoff game, the Chiefs are raised
it in one quarter. I mean, you know that, I believe,

(35:05):
and I tweeted this. I think if you really look
at it, because you can talk about the big the
big comebacks before and the one that everybody thinks about
is the Bills and Frank Wright bringing them back from
I think it was thirty five to three deficit. But
if you really look at the way that game went,
I think you can make a strong argument, and in fact,

(35:25):
I would make a strong argument that if you really
think about being up twenty four to nothing and then
giving up fifty one to seven, that that is a
worse collapse than losing a tight game down the stretch.
I think you can make a strong argument this is
the worst collapse in NFL playoff history. In other words.

(35:46):
There are people out there, I'm sorry to bring this
up with you who are starting off their morning with
us down in Houston who are fans of the Oilers
back in the day that gave up that thirty five
to three beat down and also witnessed and rooted for
the Texans as they gave away a twenty four to
nothing lead. J Mart, I think it's worse to go
from up twenty four to nothing to getting outscored fifty

(36:08):
one to seven the rest of the way than it
is to lose it the last second giving up a
thirty five to three lead. In fact, I think that's
a bigger collapse. Oh yeah, I mean no question about it.
Fifty one to seven takes effort, like it takes skill
to get out scots periods in an NFL game. It
doesn't happen very often. No, it absolutely does not. This

(36:30):
was This was a thrashing of the high store. And
this was the difference in having a Patrick Mahomes offense
with Andy Reid and the adjustments that he can make
and the way that he can pick your defense apart
once he figures out what you're doing. As Kelsey, let's
oh my gosh, I think We're probably underrating him as
football fans because we see Patrick Mahomes and Tyree Hill
and all the bright, glistening, shiny objects that are sort

(36:52):
of bedecking the entirety of the Kansas City Chiefs offense.
But the Texans couldn't cover that dude all day right,
like he was running wide open everywhere. Uh, continue to
talk about all these games and more live from New Orleans.
We're also an hour two going to dive into this
Clemson and l s U game. What do we anticipate there?
Thanks for hanging out with us tons to discuss. Be
sure to catch live editions about Kicked the coverage with

(37:13):
Clay Travis week days at six am Eastern, three am Pacific.
It is wild in the streets of New Orleans, as
everybody from those two respective fan bases as well as
a lot of other people who just want to come
into town and see a really good college football game together.
Here sixteen days after what feels like so long ago,

(37:33):
I mean, that's crazy December we played the playoff semifinal
games in college football feels like forever ago. That Clemson
managed to withstand a late charge from Ohio State and
that l S U boat raced Oklahoma. It was forever ago,
sixteen days ago, to be exact. And so now we

(37:56):
are finally gathered here and ready for the national title game,
and we'll be talking about that a lot tomorrow for sure,
and in fact, in the next segment, we're gonna pivot
and talk a little bit about UH college football, but
I think the big topic, and we talked about all
four of the Divisional round playoff games in the first hour.
UH congratulations if you are a fan of the Tennessee Titans,

(38:19):
if you are a fan of the Kansas City Chiefs,
if you are a fan of the Green Bay Packers,
or if you are a fan of the San Francisco
forty nine ers, your teams have all advanced. And really
there was not a lot of suspense in UH in
many of those games right in the in terms of
down the stretch run of the fourth quarter. The only
one that you ever had a team with the ball

(38:41):
with a chance to win was the final game of
the weekend Sunday night, with the Seahawks inexplicably deciding to punt.
But otherwise, really there was not a lot of suspense
in the Titans win over the Ravens. I mean, it
was shocking in the first half, and certainly shocking how
quickly the Titans got up to six, but they weren't
really ever in doubt in the second half at all. Uh.

(39:04):
And you didn't really like it was shocking that the
Texans got up twenty eight, twenty four to nothing, but
then the way that the Chiefs came back so quickly
they were up at halftime, and I didn't ever really
feel I don't know about you, j Mar, but I
never really felt like the Chiefs were gonna lose that
game for the entirety of the second half. In fact,
once they took the lead, I was like, Okay, this

(39:25):
game's over. Uh, you know, especially when the Texans went
and missed a field goal to end in the half.
I mean, I never really felt like that game was
in question. We know, good goodness that the forty niners
were never in question really at all. I guess it
was tied up seven seven, if I'm not mistaken with
one big play was only big play that the Vikings
made for the entire game, on the Stefon Diggs throw.

(39:46):
But I feel like the thing that is most gonna
strike people as we come out of the divisional round
the playoffs? Is, Look, what do we learned about the Seahawks.
Russell Wilson is incredible. We already knew that, right, Like, so,
there's nothing really that we changed of our opinions about
Russell Wilson. The Seahawks just didn't have the weapons to

(40:07):
be able to support him. Right. That wasn't that shocking
of a result. Um, I don't think really anybody was
surprised at the way that the Texans lost. Bill O'Brien
makes questionable coaching decisions. Um, even as good as Deshaun
Watson is, he can't rescue his team from their leader. Uh,
that's not really that big of a surprise. And I

(40:28):
guess maybe the Vikings were a bit of a surprise,
but only in the context of while people didn't expect
him to win down in New Orleans where I am
here in the Superdome where I'm gonna be watching a
game later tonight, that's really the only surprise was that
the Vikings won that game, not really that they didn't
perform very well against the forty Niners. Kirk Cousins, if anything,

(40:50):
UH exceeded expectations. I think you could say certainly, Russell
Wilson exceeded expectations given the situation that the Seahawks had
around him. I think that the Texans basically fulfilled kind
of what the expectations would have been for their team.
Best case scenario, they gotta win. Deshaun Watson got a
playoff win. The loss that I think is going to linger,

(41:14):
and the win that is going to stagger is the
Titans win against the Ravens, and so we'll see what
happens whether the Titans can follow it up with a
third straight game that is splendid on the road in
the playoffs, which is not been done that often. I
mean to go, if the Titans did it, if they
went to Foxborough in one, and then they went to

(41:37):
Baltimore in one, and then they went to Kansas City
and one, you could argue that's as good of a
trio of wins given the competition as we've ever seen
in the NFL and the playoffs before, back to back
to back. So but that's a debate. We can have
a lot this week. I think what a lot of
people are gonna be talking about and j Mar, you
know this is gonna be the truth. Is Lamar Jackson

(41:58):
and the Ravens. But is their story and success was
probably the number one story in the NFL this year
as they ran off from two into twelve straight wins.
They hadn't lost a game since September. But then this performance,
it brings back up the performance that we saw last
year in the playoffs and raises the question is there

(42:21):
something fundamentally that doesn't translate for the Ravens in the
postseason or was this a statistical statistical anomaly an aberration
of a performance. And this is the question I started
off the show with, and I think it's a good one,
and I think it's a debate that's worth having. How
much staying power does Lamar Jackson half? Because I'll tell
you this right now, if Patrick Mahomes loses in the

(42:43):
a f C Championship Game again, I would still wager
virtually every dollar that I have that he will win
a super Bowl at some point in his career, particularly
if you allowed me to take out catastrophic injury insurance.
He's gonna put himself into the equation year after year
after year, even if it doesn't happen for him this year.
Even if he loses in the a f C Championship

(43:05):
game or loses in the Super Bowl. I feel really
good about him winning a Super Bowl. Not sure about
Jimmy g certainly, not sure at all about Ryan Tannehill.
Not even sure he'll ever be in a game this
big again for the rest of his career to be
frank and we know Aaron Rodgers has been in games
like these before. How much staying power does Lamar Jackson
half is he going to be? And this is an
interesting question. I think is he gonna be Colin Kaepernick?

(43:28):
And I'm not talking about Colin Kaepernick in the I'm
gonna take a knee and suddenly my career is gonna
blow up. I'm not talking about that. I mean Colin
Kaepernick ran for two hundred yards and passed for two
hundred yards in a playoff game against the Green Bay Packers,
And immediately after that, Ron Jaworski came out and said,

(43:49):
I think he's gonna be the greatest quarterback who's ever lived.
Two years later, he gets benched for Blaine Gabber, and
that's really what kind of sets him off on the
I'm now in the pop culture political universe. I'm not
really a quarterback anymore. But NFL defense is caught up
with what Colin Kaepernick was doing, and he wasn't able
same offensive coordinator that the Ravens have now. By the way,

(44:10):
Greg Roman with the forty nine ers, he wasn't able
to sustain that success and put himself even though he
went to a Super Bowl, he wasn't able to sustain
that success and put himself into the mix to win
championships multiple years on down the road? Or is Lamar
Jackson gonna be like a Peyton Manning, like a Tom Brady,

(44:32):
like a Russell Wilson, like a John Elway, a guy
who puts himself into the mix time after time after time,
and even if he loses, like John Elway and Peyton
Manning did for a long time, you know that he's
gonna keep knocking on the door until one time that
door is gonna fall down in front of him. What
do you think, j Mart Like, how long of a window?

(44:53):
How much of a window does Lamar Jackson have? And
how troubling do you think these two playoff performance his
are to begin his career. They have to be part
of the narrative, but they're not the end of the story.
You just listed a number of guys that experienced futility
and losses to open their playoff career. He's twenty three
years old. The way he plays historically hasn't been sustainable

(45:15):
for very long, and it has cut careers short. I
look at these games and I say to myself, the
answer to those questions, we don't know how he's going
to be in terms of the injury situation. We hope
for the best because I want to see him play
for a long long time, because he's really fun to watch.
He truly is. He was a joy this year. But
they got to get him some help. They've got to

(45:37):
get him some weapons. They've got to get him something
out there that he did not have. Now, yes, they
got Marcus Brown Hollywood Brown looks like a good option.
But outside of that, as Mark Andrews the tight end
and it's a bunch of other guys, they just didn't
have a whole lot there. So I think it's gonna
and they've done a good job at building that team
through the years, so I don't necessarily think that this
is the end of the world. I mean, I read

(45:59):
a Baltimore Sun or Cool that if you had the time,
I would sit here and dramatically read to you, and
you would have a giant permegrant on your face, as
the Tennessee Titans homer that you are because of two
thousand and two thousand and eight. But the article starts,
there's probably no consoling Ravens fans after Saturday's loss. But
here goes from the Baltimore Sun, and it's astonishing how
this thing is written talking about how this wound is fresh.

(46:21):
We thought the Ravens were going to the super Bowl.
This was the team of destiny. Everyone was talking about
this team everywhere. Yeah, this is going to be the story.
And I think that those that have been negative about
Lamar Jackson are going to over inflate these two games.
And those that have been very easy on Lamar Jackson

(46:42):
or have been just unable to mention anything negative about
him at all. We're gonna try to push these underneath
the rug. The answer is somewhere in the middle, and
it always is. I want to see him play for
a long time. His health is going to be a
concern if he takes shots, if he keeps on taking hits.
He still needs to improve as a passer, but he's

(47:04):
better this year than he was last year. So he's
getting a little bit better. He's still young, there's still time,
but he's not Patrick Mahomes in the pocket and he's
never going to be, which I think is always this
debate is always going to rage until his career is over.
We can sit here and you know how this works,
and you know how the media works as well, Clay.
People are gonna talk about this for you. This is

(47:25):
gonna create content for radio shows until the end of
Lamar Jackson's career. Well, and the the reason is because
Lamar Jackson is a is an is a needle movere,
I mean in the same way. And look, there's been
a lot of these guys, right Tebow. You could bring
up Tim Tebow for years when he was at Florida,
when it was the draft time was coming around, when

(47:46):
he got drafted by the Broncos, when he had his run,
you could, like, I could just say, how open phone lines,
what do you think about Tim Tebow? Loaded lines? Johnny
Manziel was one of those guys. Lebron has been one
of those guys for fifteen years, right, basically ever since
he entered into the league seventeen years now. However long
it's been that they provoke a reaction one way or
the other because they they they create die hard adherents, right,

(48:11):
people who say, Hey, this guy is gonna change the
game forever. This guy is gonna be a difference maker.
This guy has utterably, all in indisputably altered the calculus
of the way that a sport will be played forever.
That's what the pro Lamar Jackson contingent would say. And
then there are other people who can take the exact
opposite side and argue just as easily, Hey, no, it's not.

(48:33):
This guy is gonna be like Colin Kaepernick. This guy
is gonna be like Tim Tebow. This guy is gonna
be like r G three. This guy is gonna be
like Vince Young, a mobile quarterback who comes in, has
a relatively short period of time where he dominates the league,
and it looks like he's gonna be completely indefensible, and
then what happens. He starts to regress. People figure out

(48:55):
ways to defend him. And I think, look that what
what deem He's did, who was the defensive coordinator for
the Tennessee Titans, was if you listen to the Titans
players after the game, he basically modeled his game plan
on what the the Buffalo Bills did, except that he
had an offense that could score points and he knew it.
That's the total differences. The Tennessee Titans had Derrick Henry

(49:17):
and the Buffalo Bills had Josh Allen. That's the entire
difference between those two games. I mean, here's a stat
for you. Derrick Henry through just as many touchdown passes
on Saturday night as Lamar Jackson did. That's pretty wacky. Uh,
here's another staff for you. Ryan Tannehill had three touchdowns
and Lamar Jackson had one. He had three touchdowns and
seven completions. Yeah, I mean, and and he did exactly

(49:39):
what he needed to do in order for his team
to find a way to win. And um, I think certainly,
as you look ahead to this game against the Chiefs,
you probably are that if you're the Titans, you already
know because you had to beat the Chiefs already once
they played in Week ten the Titans one, I think
thirty five, thirty two. Uh, you know that you probably
need to win score thirty five or forty. And that

(49:59):
Ryan Tannehill being uh, the kind of productive player that
he was, is not necessarily going to work. Maybe it would.
I don't like the odds of the Titans being able
to go on the road and win for a third
straight week with a quarterback who throws for less than
a hundred yards. If Derrick Henry is gonna run for
two hundred yards again, maybe that could still work. I'm
not sure the Titans would make history here because if

(50:19):
they beat Kansas City, they would have beaten the four
division winners on the road back to back to back
to back. Because dating back to the last game of
the regular season where they went to Houston and one
they went to Houston, one went to New England, and
one went to Baltimore in one and have an opportunity
to go to Kansas City and win to go to
the Super Bowl, I would almost guarantee that's never happened before.
It has not ever happened before. Yeah, I can't imagine

(50:41):
that it would have. All Right, we come back. We
are down in New Orleans, got Clemson going up against
l s U. Massive game for both programs going on tonight.
We're gonna talk a little bit about the college football preview.
This is out kicked the coverage with Clay Travis Welcome back,

(51:02):
Geico Outkicks Studios. We are down here in the Big
Easy getting ready for Clemson L. S U. Tonight. A
bevy of football riches. We have talked a ton so
far in the program about all of the games that
we're going on in the world of the NFL. We
broke down basically everything there is to touch in the

(51:26):
Divisional round of the NFL playoffs. But I know a
lot of you are already looking ahead here for what
could be coming in uh tonight's game, and obviously we'll
be talking about that a lot on Tuesday's program, which
will be almost exclusively focused on what could be a
classic down here in New Orleans. I'll tell you that
it has been crazy. You know. You can just feel

(51:48):
the intensity when there's a big sporting event that's close
to occurring. New Orleans is one of those towns where
it really just feels like you could walk outside and
you're like, Okay, something's going on here. It's not just
the normal craziness of the French Quarter in Marty Garras
and everything else, UH that's usually going on down here.
You've got a ton of L. S U people, obviously,

(52:09):
because this is their home base. You've got a ton
of Clemson Tiger people, the Battle of the Tigers going
on tonight in the Superdome down here, and either so
much at stake. First of all, I don't want to
oversell this game, because sometimes when you oversell games, you
end up with it not being that close, and that
sometimes it's very frustrating. But I feel like this could

(52:30):
be a classic tonight a lot of points. We have
something that is incredibly rare, which is I will be
stunned beyond belief if Joe Burrow isn't the number one
overall pick in the NFL Draft by the Cincinnati Bengals.
I will be stunned beyond belief if whoever is picking
first overall in one isn't drafting Trevor Lawrence. And I

(52:51):
can't believe I'm saying this, but what Joe Burrow has
done this year. If L s U is able to
close out this game and win, he will put together
I believe the greatest single season in college football quarterbacking history,
at least in the era where Hey, I'm forty years old,

(53:13):
I've watched college football for thirty five years pretty closely.
I can't speak to what might have happened in the
nineteen forties or the nineteen thirties, But I find it
hard to believe anybody's been better than Joe Burrow right now.
The best quarterback season I've ever seen by any one
individual guy, in any one individual season is Cam Newton
in the year that Auburn went fourteen and oh, and

(53:34):
Cam came out of nowhere, won the Heisman Trophy, led
Auburn to a championship. I don't believe that was that
good of an Auburn team in the grand scheme of things.
He was just that splendid in that year, in that
moment in time. And Joe Burrow has been on that
level better even potentially. As we get ready for tonight's
game with l s U trying to get to fifteen

(53:55):
and oh, it's a big statement game for coach at Ogeron,
who has never quite been able to win the big game,
who was always sort of the the left behind coach
because of his accent. Because and I'll admit to you,
I didn't believe in coach O when he got hired
at L s U. I didn't buy into the idea
that he was gonna be able to compete with the

(54:15):
Nick Sabans of the world in the SEC West, and
there's a lot of you out there listening right now
who are USC Trojan fans that kind of felt the
same way that coach O didn't feel like the kind
of guy who could take over the Trojan program. Even
though he went six and two as an interim. It
crushed him that he didn't get that job, but he
ended up in a better spot, the perfect spot for him,

(54:36):
and tonight has the opportunity to make him a legend
in L s U fan circles for all time and
to put the capstone on what would be one of
the greatest seasons in the history of college football. It's
hard to go fifteen, and oh, I believe I'm correct
and that Clemson is the only team to have gone

(54:59):
fifteen and know to be I'm gonna go fifteen, you know,
I can't even remember. It's hard to go fifteen, you know.
And the only way you could have gone fifteen, to know,
is in the last five years. And uh, I know
Clemson went fifteen last year. I think L s you
would become only the second team to ever go fifteen.
And oh, and so there's a ton at steak for
Joe Burrow, and for l s U and for coach O.
But also let's not overlook what could happen with Trevor

(55:21):
Lawrence and with Clemson. If Trevor Lawrence wins this game,
he will have completed the first two seasons of his
career without a single loss. He would be coming back
a back to back national champion, with a chance to
go undefeated in three years and win three straight national championships,

(55:43):
maybe who knows when, the Heisman Trophy, and be the
overall number one pick in the NFL Draft. Arguably that
would make him the greatest college quarterback of all time.
For Dabo Sweeney, he could I believe, if he were
to win tonight, past Nick Saban officially to be the
best and biggest and baddest coach in all of college

(56:03):
football right now, to surpass what Nick Saban has accomplished.
If Debbo could win tonight, and and Clemson is sending
a message that it is going to be a force
to be reckoned with for years and years and years
to come. If they win again tonight, all of those
things at play over under around sixty six points is

(56:28):
gonna be a ton of points scored. I think in
this game. They're gonna be a lot of explosive playmaking
talents on the field, and I just flat out cannot
wait to see what's gonna happen tonight. And I feel
like I need to pinch myself a little bit coming
off of four NFL games to follow this one up
with two future NFL quarterbacks going head to head for

(56:50):
all the marbles, for all the cliches that you want
to toss out there. Jason Martin, you've been what is
this like, multiple National Championship games with me. I'm as
hyped for this one as any of them. And look,
we thought last year's game between Alabama and Clemson was
gonna be a big time when uh, look I've been
I've been fortunate. I've been to every single one of

(57:11):
these National Championship games, and it's not that I've ever
been not looking forward to them. But I think this
may be the game that I'm looking forward to the
most of all of them, just because I think Burrow
and Trevor Lawrence are gonna be flat outsine later. Yeah,
I agree. I think both of them are gonna put
on a show. And I think, look, I thought, as
long as we didn't get Oklahoma beating l s U,

(57:31):
which I've had l s U being the best team
in the country since basically the fourth week of the season,
and I'm not backing off that right now. If we
got Ohio State in l s U, I thought it
would have been a good game. But getting these two
quarterbacks that have so much hype behind what they could
do on the next level, in addition to what we've
already seen them do on the college level, makes this
a little bit more interesting. And just because I know

(57:53):
you love facts and numbers, Clemson becomes the second college
football team ever to finish if of teen. To know
when they did it last year, Pen did it back
in eas correct that there's nobody else in modern college
football that has gone fifteen correct. It is a very
difficult thing to do, um, But I do think you've

(58:13):
got two offenses that are gonna score points. You've got
an improved LSU defense with Delpa getting healthy, and just
they played so much better after they gave up all
those yards to ole Miss on the ground. Everybody said, oh,
they're gonna give up that many points. Yeah, but they
also scored over fifty in that game. And then Clemson
came back from the dead, basically looked terrible against Ohio State.

(58:33):
Early rallied won that game, and now here we go.
We've got Trevor Lawrence versus Joe Burrow, and I just
can't think of a better way to cap off this
college football season than these two teams. Last year we
were wondering, we're sitting there watching the game, claim We're
just like, uh, do we even need to keep watching this?
Because all of a sudden it was stover like Clemson
just bludgeoned Alabama and took them to the wood ship.

(58:55):
I do not anticipate that either way. I think that
this is gonna be a game that is going to
be fun down to the end, where guys are making
plays and I can't wait to see it. We both
love college football more than anything else. And as good
as the NFL has been this postseason, how much fun
this has been to watch and take part in? College football?
May have the ultimate answer, because this game is about

(59:16):
as good as we could possibly hope. For Joe Burrow.
It's not that Trevor Lawrence's stats are unimpressive. Joe Burrow
has fifty five touchdown pass year against six interceptions. I
believe last year he went for sixteen and six, and
coming into this college football season, I thought, if there's

(59:37):
gonna be an SEC quarterback that takes the next step
and is an incredible I first of all, I got
it wrong, but I thought there would be a guy,
and I thought it would be Jake from And I
know that Joe Burrow has a lot better receiving corps
and I think he has a lot better coach, certainly
with Joe Brady in terms of what Brady brought to
bear in the passing game. But we're talking about it
not being crazy for Joe Burrow to go out and

(59:58):
have sixty touchdown passes this year. In other words, I
don't think it would stun a lot of people listening
to us right now. If he had four or five
touchdown passes in this game. That means that he would average,
over a fifteen game season, nearly four touchdowns per game.
I mean, it used to be that somebody's game of
their career they might have four touchdown passes. Joe Burrow

(01:00:21):
is gonna average it for an entire season while playing
fifteen games. I mean, this is just a revolutionary performance
by him and the throws that he's making Yes, sometimes
his receivers are open, but he's making NFL throws. I
mean he looks like an NFL quarterback in the pocket,
and so, to be fair, does Trevor Lawrence. And I
think one thing that is probably underrated about both of

(01:00:44):
these guys is how athletic they are. They can move
out of the pocket, scramble for first downs, move within
the pocket, keep plays alive. I mean, I think a
lot of people were stunned by the speed that Trevor
Lawrence brought to bear on that sixty plus yard touchdown
scram bole uh design quarters Gazelle Clay. I mean, look
at his strides. I mean he covers so much ground

(01:01:05):
with every stride he is. I know that it's funny
to call him sneaky athletic. He's sneaky athletic. He is
sneaky athletic. I think he's just athletic. But he's such
a good passer that we didn't anticipate for him to
be running the football as much as he did against
Ohio State. And I'll be honest with you, As I
was sitting watching that game between Ohio State and Clemson,

(01:01:25):
I s thinking to myself, I don't know that I
liked the idea of Clemson putting him in the firing
line over and over again with a very athletic and
talented Ohio State defense. But when he took off and
nobody could catch him on that sixty plus yard run. Uh.
To his credit, I think Clemson noticed in the in
their breakdown of that game, the way they were going
to be able to win and exploit Ohio State was

(01:01:48):
by taking advantage of Trevor Lawrence's ability run. I'll give
credit to to Kirk herb Street who said, and I
thought it was crazy early in that game. Herb Street said, yeah,
I think that Trevor Lawrence might keep it fifteen or
twenty times. And I was thinking, are you kidding me
with et t n you know, with the talent that
they haven't running back, or you really that seems like
it's playing in Ohio State's hands that you can have
him keep the ball or or or give it to

(01:02:09):
et En that you would want for that to be
the situation. But Trevor Lawrence proved me wrong. And I
do think that when it comes to crucible moments in
this game, and both of these guys need to extend
drives without the ability necessarily to throw the ball in
the end and convert first dowunds by passing. They have
the ability to scramble and present a lot of matchup

(01:02:30):
problems for each of the defenses here. So I don't
know how many points it's gonna take to win, but
I'm terrified of of taking the under on this game.
If for no other reason, then it wouldn't stun me
if one of these teams goes out and and then
puts up forty five or fifty. I mean, and if
you're talking about you know, sixty eight or sixty nine
is the over under. I think if one of them
is gonna hit forty five or fifty, then the other

(01:02:52):
one's definitely gonna put put up some It's not like
you're just totally gonna get a total beat down here.
And so this is, uh, this is a out as
good as he gets for college football. Yeah, I agree.
I mean, I think it was shocking that Lawrence was
used so much in the running game, and it seemed
to be done so out of necessity, and it really
helped to change that game, along with the penalty in
the ejection on the targeting foul. But the thing that

(01:03:14):
has stunned me the most is because it's happened multiple times. Now.
I knew Joe Burrow was the kind of guy that
could win. I saw flashes of it last year. I
didn't expect he was gonna throw fifty five touchdowns this year,
mind you, and be the first pick in the draft.
But he's got the Patrick Mahomes gene where he's about
to roll out of bounds and then he's able to

(01:03:35):
find somebody like a half step before he steps out
of bounds on a full run, and he throws a
rope down the field like he's done it. He did
it to Alabama, he did it to Georgia in the
SEC Championship game. He did it to Oklahoma in the
round of four in the semifinal. That right there is
not something I was expecting to see Joe Burrow do
this year. I don't know where that came from. I

(01:03:56):
don't know if you can teach it, but he's got it,
and that's something that's incredibly rare, even for an NFL
quarterback to be able to do. Yeah, I don't think
there's any doubt about that. And I would say this
in general, Um, if you are out there and there's
always a lot of people who come in for the
National Championship game who aren't hardcore college football fans. Right
there are a ton of people out there listening to us,
all fifty states around uh the globe right now listening.

(01:04:18):
And you may be a hardcore NFL fan because the
NFL is a straw that stirs the drink, I get it.
But if you want to see two guys who will
one day be making plays I believe at a very
very high level in the NFL. I think both of
these guys. I know it's difficult sometimes to say are
can't miss NFL quarterbacks. As long as they stay healthy,

(01:04:39):
I think they will win a lot of games based
on what I have seen them do in college. And
so if you are a NFL fan and you don't
usually pay a lot of attention to college, I think
if you watch this game, you will leave saying, Wow,
those guys can make throws that your average quarterback, even
in the NFL, might not be able to make. I
mean they can throw into crowded areas. By the way

(01:05:00):
that the talent at wide receiver, you're probably talking about
what five six guys who are potential first round uh
at at at a wide receiver. You're talking about two
first round caliber running backs with Edwards Hilaire and et
T n Um. So there is gonna be When you
look at the future drafts, you know sometimes they catalog
how good the quality of competition was in a game

(01:05:21):
by how many future NFL players are on these teams.
I mean, it would not stun me at all if
there are forty players or more, and forty might be low.
You know, twenty from each team that will one day
be being drafted and playing in the NFL. That's how
high the level of talent is going to be in
this game tonight. So I understand that there are people

(01:05:42):
out there who say I'm not a huge college football fan.
I would just say to you, give this game a try.
It's Monday night. You don't have a lot of NFL
games left. You got two NFL games left of the
a f C, NFC and then the Super Bowl, so
three real NFL games. You're gonna be wishing for a
game like this come, you know, March or April, especially
once the n C Double A tournament is up. You
would give anything to have a game this good. I

(01:06:04):
would just say, make sure you don't miss this one
added to your repertoire, and you agree with me. I mean,
is that a crazy like if you were setting over
under for number of NFL guys? I mean, I don't
even think it's crazy to say that the over under
could very comfortably be twenty for each of these teams. Yeah, no,
I agree for sure. I mean, we know how good
Clemson's defensive front is year after year after year. We

(01:06:25):
know what the dvs are on both sides of what
they're capable of from a talent standpoint. Receivers L. S
You has been receiver you off and on at different
times in Alabama certainly has had that crown as well.
But Clemson, we know exactly what they're capable of. We
know they've got multiple dudes that are absolutely outrage just
You've got E. T. N You've got Claude Edwards, Hilaire,
You've got There's just so much ability all across the

(01:06:47):
football field on both sides that this is like watching
that that great team we saw that Miami team clay
back towards the turn of the century that had basically
an NFL roster on it. This right here is about
the closest that you're gonna get between two teams that
are just flat outloaded with Sunday talent. Like, there's just
no excuse not to watch this game if you love

(01:07:08):
sports at all. I just can't wait to sit down
and enjoy this. Well. I think the one that I
would compare to is another L s U game. But
L s U Alabama, you know that, not in the
six game when they went back. I think there was
something like forty five different NFL guys played in that
game comparison to two teams, and the talent was just
off the charts. Now the talent this year. I don't

(01:07:29):
think these defenses are bad. I think you'll see a
lot of these guys have very good NFL careers on
the defensive side of the ball. But I think that
the offense, unlike that nine to six game back in
two thousand eleven, I think that the offense here is
a lot more established. And by the way, since we're
down in New Orleans, that was where the last time
LSU played for a national championship, that was here in

(01:07:50):
the Superdome. Alabama got the rematch against L s U
after they lost nine to six in the regular season,
and they just absolutely dominated him. It wasn't remotely close.
Don't believe l s U. If I remember correctly, I
was at that game across the fifty yard line. I
mean it was a dominant, dominant performance by Alabama to
avenge that loss. Remember, Alabama was very fortunate to be

(01:08:10):
able to find their way into that game. Oklahoma State
lost a game late. It looked like for a while
it was gonna be l s U against Oklahoma State.
And that was an l s U team that at
the time was thirteen and o and trying to go fortee.
To know, and the really big playmaker they had on
the team at that time. Uh, for everybody out there
is a guy who had some plays that he made yesterday.
Uh in the NFL playoffs, the Honey Badger Tyranne Matthew

(01:08:31):
was running all over the field. Uh. He was kind
of the heart and soul of that l s U. Uh.
That LSU team back in two thousand and eleven, the
last time they got an opportunity to play for a championship.
All right, let me go ahead and bring in Eddie Garcia,
get an update from him, make sure we're not missing
anything in the world of sports. And then when we
come back. We'll close out our number two live from
New Orleans as we get ready for the big game

(01:08:52):
between Clemson and l s U will circle back around
to the NFL playoffs, and I will add sue the
question I think this is honestly true. I talked a
little bit about this in an hour one. Do you
think how many games would Seattle win if they had
an average quarterback as opposed to Russell Wilson who is

(01:09:14):
just unbelievable in terms of the plays that he makes
from one minute of the next. We will discuss that
and more. This is Outkicked. This is Outkicked. The coverage
with Clay Travis. Final segment, Our two. We are down
in New Orleans. We just talked about the big game
between Clemson and LSU, the Battle of the Tigers going

(01:09:36):
on in the Super Dome tonight. I want to let
you know that here in the Get Go Out Kick Studios,
we can do something amazing for you because Discover matches
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(01:09:58):
I am down in New Orleans. We are and out
Jason Martin and myself talking about the big game. But
I teased as we went to break Russell Wilson because
the final game of the weekend, the Divisional Round playoffs.
Russell Wilson was running around and doing everything possible to
put the Seahawks in a position to potentially be able
to win. And I feel like Pete Carroll just did

(01:10:19):
him a tremendous disservice by making the decision to punt
and not keep the ball in Russell Wilson's hand. Because
even if he gets stopped on that fourth and eleven
near midfield, I think they were around their own thirty
seven yard line. Uh, you still have the time out,
you can still try to get back there. You even
if you gave up a field goal, you would still
be within a touchdown and a two point conversion, so

(01:10:40):
you're not gonna get eliminated. But I felt like Russell
Wilson did everything in his power. Guy ran all over
the field sixty four yards rushing. I bet he ran
a marathon. If you actually had the amount of miles
that he would have run during the course of this game. Uh,
Marshawn Lynch couldn't do anything. Uh there was no rushing
attack other than from Russell Wilson through for almost three yards.

(01:11:04):
So many of those throws were him creating opportunities for
his teammates by staying alive, avoiding sacks, taking hits. He
was phenomenal. I really do believe, and I tweeted this
out during the game. I think that the Seahawks would
be four and twelve Jason Martin if they had an
average NFL quarterback, or five and eleven if they had

(01:11:25):
an average NFL quarterback working for them, as opposed to
Russell Wilson, who I feel like, even though the Seahawks
went eleven and five narrowly lost, the NFC West won
a playoff game against the Eagles because of partially the
Carson Wins Josh McCown sort of situation that was going
on with the health for the Eagles. I feel like

(01:11:46):
I might be even more impressed by Russell Wilson this
year than I was in the year he won the
Super Bowl and in the year he nearly won the
Super Bowl, because of just how good he is. Yeah,
I mean, he's a he's a winner. That's why when
it was time to pay him, you pay him. And
it was amazing and we joked about it on this
very program, Clay that the Seahawks are so conservative and

(01:12:09):
they don't use Russell Wilson the way that they could. Uh,
they drafted a wide receiver in DK Metcalf, and the
knock was not on Metcalf, it was on they drafted
Metcalf to create more space as a decoy so they
can run the ball more, because that's what they want
to do in Seattle. But Russell Wilson, no matter what
they asked him to do, no matter how many people

(01:12:29):
come after him, He's drawn up plays in the dirt,
escaping and making things happen. He's got the prettiest deep
ball in the NFL. He's just absolutely incredible. He ends
up a sixty four rushing yards in the loss at
Green Bay. He's just he does absolutely everything and then some.
And I wonder if ever he is just kind of
like I wish my coach would just put it in

(01:12:50):
my hands. Seattle's defense was not good at all this season,
yet they still punk the football and Pete Carroll doesn't
leave it in the hands of a guy who could
be the m v P basically every year because he's
that good. That to me is just there are a
lot of dudes make a lot of money to make
bad decisions, But not giving Russell Wilson a chance to
win football games on a fairly routine basis is the

(01:13:12):
kind of thing that you get coaches moved Allen. Yeah, Look,
there are eight guys who are playing quarterback in the
Divisional round of the playoffs this this season. I think
three of them can make throws that nobody else in
the NFL can make. Russell Wilson is one of them.
I mean, you go back and look at some of
the touchdown passes, some of the pastes he made. In general,
there's literally nowhere to throw it. Aaron Rodgers may not

(01:13:35):
still have the same velocity that he has had in
his career, but he still has the ability. You watched
even the throws that he made in the in the
game like these are Canton throws that he makes on
a regular basis. And also Patrick Mahomes. Two of those
guys are advancing the other one. Aaron Rodgers beat Russell Wilson,
But those are the guys that I think other quarterbacks

(01:13:56):
watch and they say, oh my god, I can't even
believe that he attempted throw, right. I mean, it's just
off the charts that you would even attempt that throw
because the window to which the completion has to be
made is so tiny that almost no one can do it. Uh.
And those guys are just I feel like it's a
privilege to watch them play the quarterback position because even

(01:14:17):
if you're not a savant of football, you can see
how good they are just based on their sheer arm talent.
Those three Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson, and Patrick Mahomes. And
I think Russell Wilson carried his team way more than
Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes did this year. The fact
that they were one of the final eight teams in
the NFL is crazy in and of itself. All Right,
we come back, final hour of the Monday edition of

(01:14:39):
the program, NFL Divisional Round Playoff Talk as well as
getting you ready for Clemson and l s U. 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 Heart Radio app. Search f
s R to listen live walcome back in final our

(01:15:00):
of the Outkicks Show, Monday edition. Appreciate all of you
hanging out with us where you're Comedy Alive from the
Geico OutKick Studios. We are down in New Orleans where
it is absolute bedlam. As the hours ticked down towards
this evening's game between Clemson and L s U. We
talked about this game some with you during the course
of this program, as we've been breaking down all the
divisional round uh NFL games as well. I'm excited to

(01:15:22):
go to this game tonight down at the super Dome.
We will find out who is going to be the
fifteen and O national champion. Is it gonna be L
s U? It was gonna be Clemson? What exactly is
going to transpire? Joe Burrow one of the greatest seasons
in college football history. Can he put the perfect capstone
on it? Or is Trevor Lawrence going to continue his
ascent up the college football rankings for one of the

(01:15:45):
greatest quarterbacks career wise of all time. He still has
not lost the Clemson has won twenty nine straight games,
yet they are a six point underdog. We'll give you
our picks to finish out the hour of this program.
But in the meantime, we have got a lot to
talk about, as we always do. UH. With the divisional
round of the playoff, four different games, two on Saturday,

(01:16:08):
two on Sunday. I watched I believe every snap of
all four games, and uh, I had a decent number
of takeaways. First of all, you guys know I am
a diehard Tennessee Titan fan. This was the biggest win
for the Tennessee Titans in basically seventeen years since they
won to advance to the a f C Championship game

(01:16:31):
against the Oakland Raiders. Yes back when Danny G's team
was actually somewhat decent. Uh, and they lost. The Titans
did there? Uh? Now the Titans are advancing to play
against Kansas City Chiefs. But they put together one of
those games that you hope your team is going to
bring to bear on the biggest stage at the biggest moment.
And I have said before, I wasn't a believer in
Mike Varible. I wasn't a believer in this coaching staff.

(01:16:53):
They were sitting at two and four. Uh, they benched
Marcus Mariotta. I didn't think that there was gonna be
a solution. I thought that they were just floundering about,
trying to find some reason, some like life vest, some
sort of flotation device to keep them from going underwater
and basically giving up the season. And they got hot.
They've gotten super hot behind Ryan Tannehill and more importantly,

(01:17:16):
behind Derrick Henry, who is right now I think the
m v P of the NFL postseason. Uh, if you
look at what he's done, going for over a hundred
eighty yards in three straight must win games, including the
final game of the regular season that put the Titans
into the playoffs, going on the road and dominating like
he did against the New England Patriots, dominating like he

(01:17:37):
did against the Baltimore Ravens, two of the best defenses
in the entirety of the NFL, and now getting ready
to go up against the Kansas City Chiefs. I think
that Derrick Henry has been the most transcendent player in
the NFL post season so far. We'll see whether or
not that can continue, as the Titans are now a
seven point underdog against the Kansas City Chiefs. And I
would say the other most transcendent player, even though he

(01:17:59):
is only played one games. Patrick Mahomes. Patrick Mahomes is
the best quarterback in my opinion, in the NFL, and
he proved it on Sunday. His team went down twenty
four to nothing. They didn't blink. They scored twenty eight
points in the second quarter to erase that twenty four
point deficit, went on to outscore the Tech the Houston

(01:18:20):
Texans fifty one to seven over the over the second quarter,
third quarter, and fourth quarter after they went down twenty
four and nothing. That's unheard of, That is unheard of
in the NFL. We said it an hour one. I
tweeted it to me, It's more remarkable what the Kansas
City Chiefs did in coming back from a twenty four
to nothing deficit and out scoring their opponent from that

(01:18:42):
point forward fifty one to seven than what we saw
when the then Houston Oilers gave up a thirty five
to three lead to the Buffalo Bills to lose. It
was more improbable that when the Houston Texans were down
twenty four to nothing that they were going to score
fifth one and only give up seven then even that

(01:19:02):
the Bills were gonna come back and find a way
to win against the Houston Oilers. That's how improbable I
think that was Russell Wilson, you just heard us talking
about it. I mean, I don't know what more the
guy can do. He just didn't have enough to be
able to drag his team across the finish line against
Green Bay. The Packers survived. Packers are now a seven
point road underdog against the Uh the San Francisco forty Niners,

(01:19:26):
who were dominant, who were flat out dominant Nick Bosa
maybe the best defensive player in the NFL right now,
Uh that a lot of people are just now learning about.
And Uh, frankly, the Minnesota Vikings could not block for
Kirk Cousins, They couldn't run the football. Their offense was
out of whack, out of sorts and never had any
flow at all in what was just a massive win

(01:19:49):
for the forty Niners. And then, uh, look, I mean
we now have what I think is gonna be too
intriguing battles, right the physicality of the Tennessee Titans. Can
they go on the road and keep Derrick Henry performing
at the rate that he is right now? Uh? Can
they win a third straight on the road. Jason Martin
pointed this out earlier they've won. If they beat the Chiefs,

(01:20:11):
they will have beaten four straight division winners on the road.
They had to beat the Texans on the road, granted
the Texans rested some of their players. They had to
then go beat the dynasty that is the a f C.
East champ uh New England Patriots. Then they had to
beat the Baltimore Ravens, who are only the best team
in the NFL this year, historically great team. And now
they have to go beat maybe the greatest quarterback in

(01:20:32):
the NFL right now in Patrick Mahomes as he tries
to advance to his first ever Super Bowl. And that
is the storylines in general as we come in. You
guys know how much of a Titans fan I am.
Best decision I've made in a long time was to
flip my flight. I was supposed to get down to
New Orleans on Saturday. I told my wife, I said, hey,
maybe we can decide to come down on Sunday instead.

(01:20:56):
Uh And because otherwise, if we get down there on Saturday,
I'm just gonna sit in a hotel room and watch
this game and see what happens. And you know, I
don't really want to go out. Uh. In the French
quarter or go out in New Orleans. Gotta care too
much about this football game. And more importantly, I want
to stay at home and watch with my kids. And
one of the fun things about being a dad or

(01:21:16):
mom is when your kids get to be kind of
like the sweet spot of ages and minor here right now,
they're eleven and nine years old, kind of the perfect
age to want to sit and watch a game with
dad or mom. Like they're not, uh, you know, hanging
out with their friends, yet they still think it's super
cool to hang out with you. And they're old enough
to be able to understand the game and really be
excited when the team's going well. My nine year old

(01:21:38):
just kept saying, I can't believe that this is happening.
I can't believe this is real, dad. Uh. And so
as the Titans beat the Ravens. Titans have had a
couple of bad losses to the Ravens. Back in two
thousand and two thousand and eight, I was there for
both of them in the playoffs Divisional round when the
Ravens came into town and upset the Titans, kept the
Titans from hosting a a f C championship game. So

(01:22:00):
all of that factors in in a big way. It
was an awesome experience. What a game, What a game
planned by Mike Vrabel and Dean Piece the defensive coordinator,
and Arthur Smith the offensive coordinator all around. You know,
Jason Martin, who was with me here as we do
the show from New Orleans. You know how much I
care about this team, you Uh, I think last time

(01:22:23):
you saw me was when the Titans were choking it
away in Week two against Jacoby Brissett. And uh, you
know how how I take these games way too seriously
for someone at my age. So this was I mean,
I went out after the game in downtown Nashville and
we had an awesome time out. It was the city
was celebrating, uh, in a way that the city hasn't

(01:22:43):
been able to celebrate, frankly the Titans in a very
very long time. Yeah. I mean, the last like real
celebration in the city had to be the Predators getting
to the Stanley Cup. And this is a different level
obviously if they were able to make the Super Bowl. Uh.
I told my wife, I told her, I was just like,
I have a feeling Clay's got to go to Kansas
City but you're making me sound like you're making it
sound like now you're not going to Kansas City. I

(01:23:04):
thought maybe we were going to go to that game.
I gotta say this, I have had We've got a
big audience in Kansas City without Kicks. So a ton
of people who are Kansas City Chiefs fans have reached
out and said, hey, you should come to Kansas City.
I guarantee you have a good time at Arrowhead. Uh
you know Youah, we're excited to play against the Titans.
You know, Kansas City people are so excited, and they

(01:23:24):
should be about Patrick Mahomes and the opportunity that he
offers for them, not just for this year, or certainly
for last year when they were so close to the
super Bowl, but in the years ahead. Because again, I
think there's an argument if you told me right now,
who would you like to buy stock in in the
entirety of the football universe, it's Patrick Mahomes. Like I
would love to have stock in him for the next

(01:23:44):
ten to twelve years, maybe longer. Uh if if you know,
he can just do it all. And and I think
that the Chiefs, if you were gonna say, like who's
who's the guy who's gonna step in and take over
for Brady and Manning. I think Patrick Mahomes is the answer.
I'm not sure who the other person is who be
like the rival. I'm not really bought into the idea
that it's gonna be Lamar Jackson for the staying power

(01:24:05):
element of it. I'm not sure about Deshaun Watson. I'm
not sold on Jimmy g Uh, you know, I, I
don't know, you know I. I certainly have not sold
on Baker or any of those guys. So I'm not
really sure who the other person that can kind of
stand up on the stage and and be the guy
to go head to head with Patrick Mahomes A lot
who that person can be, uh, But they have been

(01:24:26):
so incredibly uh welcoming and like encouraging for me to come.
But it is it strange that I just I would
rather watch games in the house with my kids, unless
it's in the stadium in my town than go on
the road. No, not really at all, especially with the
quality of the broadcast and and just how easy it is.
And yeah, you get your environment so much worse if

(01:24:48):
you go on the team loosen because you're spending all
that time to get on an airplane or take a
long drive and then and I don't feel like I
feel that much better being there in person if my
team wins than I do in my house. Now, I
will say this and and this is already kind of
putting things in motion. If the Titans were to win,

(01:25:08):
I would get the Travis boys and my family and
get them to Miami for the Super Bowl. Because there's
not very many times you get a chance to go
watch your team in the Super Bowl. So I feel
like that's a little bit different. Um and uh, and
and I would want to do that in person. But
in terms of going on the road, if the Titans
were playing in the a f C Championship Game at home,
of course I would be there. But in terms of

(01:25:29):
going on on the road to go watch, I think
that's tough, especially with kids, um, you know, in general,
with young kids, to get them on the road and then, uh,
it's just that there's nothing worse than taking your kid
on the road and having your favorite team lose and
then they're crying, and then you gotta go back to
the hotel and then you gotta get them in the
next get up the next morning, go to the airport

(01:25:49):
and like everybody's just beaten down. So no, I'm not
gonna go to Kansas City. Well, I mean I think
that's no. No. Um. I mean, I'll be in Miami
of the Titans are there, but and I will stay
for the game. I've never stayed for the actual Super Bowl,
but I would stay for the game, and I would
Abby would come down. She'd fly down for the game
as well, and we would. We would do it however

(01:26:10):
we needed to do it. But I mean I kind
of agree with you. You get your conduct, you know,
you get your concessions, you don't have to pay for parking,
you have comfortable chairs, you have anything that you really
need right there. The quality of the broadcast. I don't
know what you're missing. I do think that taking a
trip and watching your team loses, that makes a really
long trip back. It just I don't mind making Yeah,

(01:26:32):
I don't mind making a trip if it's like, hey,
let's pick a city that we want to go to
in the off season, right, so oh, you know, like
if the Raiders are gonna be now in Vegas, and
if you're a fan of a team that's gonna be
going to Vegas and you're like, oh, I want to
go to Vegas and we'll also go to the game
and we'll build a trip around it, like we went

(01:26:52):
to uh. I always told my family, Hey, if the
Titans ever play in London, I'll take you and then
the whole They end up going to London, right, and
so went over there to watch that game. They lost
that game, but we went to London, so it's a
whole trip built around the game itself. So it doesn't
like if they win the game, it's great, but you've
already had Like we went to Lego Land, you know,
we went all around the London and get got to

(01:27:13):
do a cool cool things and then the game was
just kind of the friend there's like the cherry on
top right like it it's it's on the top of
the Sunday. You're gonna have a good time otherwise, but
going specifically for a game, and especially it being a
game that big, I just I'm too nervous to be
sitting in the crowd unless it's my home crowd. Yeah,
you know when it also feels worse when your team

(01:27:34):
loses and everybody else is having an amazing time around
you except for you. Yea walking around is never fun
after that or just being stuck in the stands everybody
wearing that other jersey and go into the freaking super Bowl.
You're like, oh, this is like the lowest of the low. Um,
And it's not even like losing the super Bowl, because
I do feel like losing the super Bowl stinks, But

(01:27:56):
making the super Bowl is something that you it's such
an incredible thing to do. Like it does that make sense?
Like it's hard to get to the super Bowl, it's
hard to win and everything else, but going to the
super Bowl is a big deal, Like it's a celebration
to go to the super Bowl. Um, winning it is
a totally different universe. But I do think it's an
interesting Uh, It's just it's just such a big drop

(01:28:17):
off if you lose the a f C or the
NFC championship. Back to your point about Mahomes being the
future in buying stock in them, I agree, we're both
right there. We both picked the Chiefs to be in
the super Bowl this year before the season started. I
believe we picked chief Saints. I think I picked Chiefs Cowboys,
so we're halfway. I picked the Chiefs to win it.
You picked the Chiefs to win it. And the reason
is because Mahomes and that's how good he is. So
who are the other people? And you said you don't

(01:28:38):
fully buy into de shaw And I think it almost
has to be to Shawan. But let me mention one
thing that I think we've all kind of forgotten about.
What sent this entire league into upheaval and open this
door even wider as if it needed to be widened
for Patrick Mahomes. Was Andrew Luck retiring. Yeah, that's a
point because he might have been the other guy in
this conversation. He's still young enough, right And and when

(01:29:00):
when we come back to this next segment here, I
actually want to talk about you know, we were talking
about Lamar and Patrick Mahomes and you know Aaron Rodgers
to some extent, is he gonna get his second Super Bowl?
As he gets ready? Jimmy g is at his time
to advance to the Super Bowl? Um, and I actually
think we were talking about the advantages of getting to
a Super Bowl. I talked about whether Lamar Jackson had

(01:29:24):
more in common with let's say, a Colin Kaepernick and
a Tim Tebow and Evince Young and an r G three,
or if he had more in common with the Peyton
Manning or John Elway guys who lost early but then
had the staying power to eventually win championships. Think about
Cam Newton because if you had said of Cam Newton

(01:29:44):
right after he won his Super Bowl, I mean sorry,
after he went his m v P, everybody was convinced
that Cam was going to be the future of the
NFL and that he was going to be the face
of the league. And now we're not even sure how
many years Cam Newton has left. Is there a Cam
Newton and now alogy to be drawn with Lamar Jackson
as well in the m v P season being the

(01:30:05):
peak and it never being equaled again. I think that's
an interesting debate. This is outkicked the coverage with Clay
Travis hanging out down in New Orleans as we get
ready for the l s U and Clemson national title game.
Will close out the third hour of the program. Here
me and Jason Martin, who are doing the show today

(01:30:26):
and tomorrow with you from down in New Orleans, with
our picks for who we think is gonna win and
what we think will happen in that game to close
out the program. But I teased as we went to break,
an idea that I think is one that's worth at
least contemplating. We tend to, I think, oftentimes overvalue the

(01:30:50):
staying power of sometimes quarterbacks. And what I mean by
that is I you and I just both said, Oh,
we would buy stock in Patrick Mahomes for the next
decade if we could. We think he's gonna be like
Peyton Manning, like Tom Brady, sort of always there in
the playoff mix for the twenty decade of the right.

(01:31:11):
And I think there's some validity to that. Certainly, his arm,
talent and his ability suggests that he is going to
be able to have I think not only win a
Super Bowl. I think he will win multiple Super Bowls.
But there's also evidence that sometimes guys don't continue to
get better. In fact, they can regress, and Cam Newton

(01:31:32):
is a perfect example of that, not just in terms
of not winning a Super Bowl. But I was out
in San Francisco just a few years ago when the
Carolina Panthers were playing against Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos,
and the storyline was that Cam and Carolina, if I
remember correctly, were a full touchdown favored in that game,

(01:31:54):
and the expectation was Cam Newton's Uh Carolina Panthers team
was seventeen and one. He was the m v P
of the league. He was at that time only seven
years old, and it looked like the NFL was going
to be Cam Newton's league for years and years to come.
That was the final game that Peyton Manning was gonna play.

(01:32:15):
There was even talk, oh, we'll see Brady started like, uh,
you know, disappear on the stage. Now he's obviously not disappeared.
He's won a couple more Super Bowls since then. But
the talk was that Cam Newton was going to become
the face of the league in the NFL was gonna
be built around him. And what's happened. We're not even
really sure that Cam Newton has anything left in the tank.

(01:32:36):
And so while I believe that Patrick Mahomes has got
a lot left, and certainly Jimmy Garoppolo is a young guy,
and you would think, oh, Jimmy Garoppolo has got a
lot left, and maybe you think Aaron Rodgers has still
got some juice in the tank. And we'll see whether
or not Ryan Tannehill is got any staying power or
whether this is just everything coming to him perfectly, and this,

(01:32:58):
you know, twelve grand game run that he's had as
a starter is a flash in the pan and he'll
never equalize this again. But I do think we have
to be careful of believing that just because Lamar Jackson
has been good enough to make the playoffs the last
two years and that he's the m v P, doesn't
mean that he's going to continue to get better. I'd

(01:33:18):
like to think that he is. But you can look
at Cam Newton and say, sometimes everything comes together perfectly
for a guy in one year and there isn't that
next iteration of his abilities and it doesn't continue, right,
because I think we tend to be optimists, and there
certainly is some signs and look, certainly there's signs like

(01:33:40):
for instance, and I hate to say it, but sorry,
Atlanta Falcon fans, I don't think Matt Ryan will ever
have another chance to win a super Bowl. Right. It's
really good quarterback. Maybe even we'll put up Hall of
Fame level quarterback numbers. I'm not sure he ever gets
back to another super Bowl because it's so hard to
get to a super Bowl that when you had that
chance to be up three, everything's different for Matt Ryan

(01:34:04):
if he wins that Super Bowl, everything is different for
Cam Newton if he wins that Super Bowl. So is
it a little bit nerve racking maybe to be saying, Hey,
Lamar Jackson is gonna be good for years and years
to come when there is some evidence that maybe that's
not the case. I think it's an interesting question to ask.
And what's different about this than the Cam situation, at

(01:34:26):
least in terms of how it was being argued, was
Cam was going to define the league because Cam's so
big he can survive this, And then that felt completely important.
That was the argument for people who said, well Cam
runs a lot, You said, yeah, but he's as big
as a defensive end. He can sort of handle those
hits in the same way. You know. I always said
Cam Newton is a lot like Ben Roethlisberger. Like Roethlisberger,

(01:34:48):
if he's like an Amiba when he gets hit, it's
like he absorbs the hit from the big guys who
hit him in a way that like a smaller guy doesn't.
It doesn't ever seem like Ben Roethlisberger just gets acting
goes flying down right like he always kind of gets
hit and wobbles his way down and like kind of
sort of absorbs a lot of the contact. And that

(01:35:09):
was the argument that Cam was gonna be able to
do that, that he punished people, that he was superman
when he scored in the touchdown and he did his
like superman, you know, celebration that he played with that
effervescent style and the guys didn't want to tackle him.
And then what happened. You and I saw and we know,
like it's almost as if you flip a switch in
that Super Bowl game. Cam Newton has never been the

(01:35:30):
same sense, No, he hasn't. Uh, he he absolutely has not.
And the narrative changed, and you could see it change
on his face, and then you knew there was a problem,
and you knew he recognized there was a problem when
he started complaining about not getting calls, when he started
complaining about hits that other quarterbacks were getting, that he
was not getting the same calls because his size. It

(01:35:52):
was like he was being treated like Shaquille o'new I
even think he compared himself to Shaquilo knew him, maybe
even to Lebron James and the NBA and some of
the punishment they were tall, king, but they weren't getting
all the foul calls or Shack certainly wasn't because of
his size. The problem for Lamar Jackson if you want
to compare him to Cam Newton, is Lamar doesn't look
like someone that could hold up to the kind of

(01:36:13):
you know, physicality that the NFL is going to bring
against him if they start actually getting to him. And
the more hits he takes. Every time he takes a hit,
it could be the one that you know, knocks him
out for a season or God forbid, ends his career
or something like that. So if Cam can't stand up
against it, the evidence is certainly there to at least
make it concerned about how long Lamar Jackson can play football.

(01:36:37):
And I hope that he gets to play it for
a very very long time at a high level and
continues to improve. And it's just another one of these young,
awesome quarterbacks that we have in this league to to
hopefully watch develop. But watching Cam Newton's career in the
way that it came down, and even looking at a
guy like Andrew luck as well, who had to retire
because he was getting tired of getting battered around and
he was kind of a big kid as well, the

(01:37:00):
lark Jackson, He's not built like somebody who can stand
up to a whole lot of that physicality. The other
thing is those hits slow you down, right, and we
see happened all the time with running backs. There's almost
I mean, Adrian Peterson, there's a few of the freaks,
the Frank Gores of the world, the guys who are
over the age of thirty and can still carry the rock.
But most of those guys, I mean, look at what

(01:37:21):
Derrick Henry has done. I mean, I think he's been
the m v P of the NFL postseason so far.
But Derrick Henry, I think just turned twenty six, if
I'm not mistaken. Maybe just turned twenty seven. I'm not sure. Which. Uh,
the odds of him having three or four more really
good years at the rate of hits that he's taking
now are low, and so it's a little bit like
a boxer, uh, you know, as the boxer ages, he

(01:37:44):
starts slowing down a little bit and he gets hit
a little bit more than he used to write, and
so he's not able to slide and avoid the hits
like he used to. Now. Again, Lamar Jackson's only twenty
three years old. Maybe he's got three or four good
years where he's gonna be able to play at the
same kind of level that he playing at right now.
But I think we have to be careful in assuming that.

(01:38:04):
And you can use again Cam as an example. You
can have that one great m v P season and
there's no doubt the regular season that that that Lamar
Jackson had it, but it may not be one of
those situations where he's there again and again and again.
And that's why I said, I think it's an interesting
question to ask, is Lamar Jackson right now at the
stage in his career where Peyton Manning was and John

(01:38:26):
Elway were right where they're losing as quarterbacks early in
their career, but they're putting their team in a position
to try to win championships, and they're gonna get ripped
and they're gonna get criticized because they didn't win the
big the big game, and the big game is defined,
like I said, is whatever game you lose, not whatever
game you win. Because Lamar Jackson had to win a
lot of big games to be the number one overall seed,
right you had to go on the road and uh

(01:38:48):
and beat Seattle. You had to go uh and uh
and beat uh San Francisco, You had to beat the Patriots,
You had to beat a lot of really good football
teams in a row in order to go fourteen and
two and be the best team in the NFL in
the regular season. But is that staying power going to
be like a Peyton Manning and like a John Elway.

(01:39:09):
And the reason I use them an example is because
they lost early in their careers, right, but they were
able to eventually win championships and constantly put themselves in
positions to do so. Or is he going to be
more like a Cam Newton where you have that one
great year and remember Cam at least drove his team
into the Super Bowl. Lamar Jackson still hasn't won a
playoff game. And the other thing is, I do think

(01:39:30):
this becomes psychological, j Mark. I do think a lot
of people when they don't have immediate success, in the
back of Lamar Jackson's mind now and maybe in the
back of some of his teammates, they're questioning even when
things are going well during the regular season, Yeah, but
there's a yeah but there. I think Peyton Manning had
had to overcome the yeah but and people would always say, well, yeah,

(01:39:50):
he's a great quarterback, but it's in the regular season.
There's a yeah, but associated with his talents. And I
think now Lamar Jackson has that kind of hanging in
the back of his brain in a way that it
wasn't before. And look, if you want to go and
say he didn't particularly play well in bowl games, he's
one in four in his bowl games when guys had

(01:40:10):
times to prepare for him. In bowl games, ten touchdowns,
ten turnovers, and uh, those are kind of the signature games.
And so I think those are very valid and reasonable
questions you can ask about Lamar Jackson right now. You
buy into it, Yeah, I mean I think you you
can ask the questions and we just don't have the
answers as of yet. You can point. I mean when
I think anybody, anybody who's by the way trying today,

(01:40:31):
and there will be people, there will be a lot
of people in our industry who will come out and say, oh,
because of the way Lamar Jackson played on Saturday, I
can tell you what's gonna happen in the next five
or ten years of his career. Nobody knows that. I mean,
that's crazy. Uh, there will be people who try to
draw big, sweeping conclusions. I don't think you can, but
I think you can make strong arguments in either direction
there and by the way, I think you can make

(01:40:52):
strong arguments in either direction for Clemson and L. S U.
As we get ready for a Monster Monster game, bring
it on, Bring it on. Your calling uh the game.
I'll be down here, not calling the game, but I'll
be down here watching it. And then we'll be doing
a reaction to the game tomorrow from New Orleans. We're
in New Orleans this morning. We're gonna tell you what
we expect to have happened. Who's gonna be better Joe

(01:41:14):
Burrow or Trevor Lawrence, L. S U or Clemson Dabbo
Sweeney or at O Geron. We will talk about that
next when we come back. Encourage you to download all
the podcasts. Make sure you didn't miss anything at all
from today's program. Lots to discuss, lots of fun. We'll
be right back on Fox Sports Radio. This is Outkicked
the Coverage with Clay Travis walk about Geico OutKick Studios,

(01:41:38):
final segment of the Monday edition of the program. We
have been all in on the NFL all in on
the big game going on tonight between l s U
and Clemson. UM. We have the final four set in
the NFL, and we're gonna be breaking that down all week.
Tomorrow will obviously be breaking down a lot of what

(01:42:00):
happens in this game between Clemson and L s U.
But I thought maybe it made sense as we finished
off the program, given the fact that we are actually
in New Orleans, UM in the big easy getting ready
for what is an electric environment for a fantastic I
mean just utterly scintillating game that I expect to see
in the Superdome tonight. I thought maybe predictions from myself

(01:42:24):
and Jason Martin. J Martin, how many games we went to?
Is this the fourth year in a row that we've
been on the road for where the out kick show
for college football playoff? We I'm trying to think now
the first one. The first one was the Deshaun Watson
game where Jalen Hurt scored with two minutes left. We're
on the sidelines. I looked at you and I said,
they left too much time on the clock and we
had to pick play the Hunter Renfro where Clemson beat

(01:42:45):
Nick Saban, Right, it was a It was a fantastic uh,
just a fantastic UH end of the game scenario there
where Hunter Renfro became a celebrity for the rest of
his life pretty much. That was an unbelievable ending. Uh.
And then we had the double overtime game as well,
or overtime game, sorry, I think it was Georgia and

(01:43:07):
Alabama where two comes off the bench and basically takes
over that game. UH. Last year we had an utter
beat down that kind of came out of nowhere for Clemson.
And I was talking with my guy UH cousin sal
unlock it In, and we pointed out that based on
where the numbers are, all five underdogs so far have
covered in every national title game. So you had Ohio

(01:43:30):
State kind of beat Marcus Mariota and Oregon. Surprisingly that
was when Ohio State was the four seed. Uh. And
then you had uh, you had Alabama bounced back. I
think was that the next year when uh, when Jake
Coker when they managed to find a way to to
win against Clemson, and then you had you had the
Deshaun Watson pass. Then you had Alabama takedown Georgia, and

(01:43:52):
then you had Clemson again. UH. And so this will
be the sixth year, and so far the underdogs have
won all five and the top seeds never one. This thing,
the top seat is never one. I don't believe the
three seeds ever one of the he So we've got
in this matchup, the number one seed of l s
U going up against the number uh the number three
of Clemson. Now the challenge here for me is you

(01:44:13):
were talking earlier in the program, Jason, and you said, hey,
you know what, I kind of bought in on L
s U early. I did unlock it into so we
have the ability to make future wagers on the television program.
And so I took l s U. But I also
took Clemson. And what's wild is l s U was
so utterly dominant over Oklahoma. I think it was sixty eight,

(01:44:34):
if I'm not mistaken. Was never really in doubt at
all that game. You felt like, if if LSU had
needed to score eight, they could have scored eighties. But
what was particularly interesting I thought about that game was
if l s U had been playing against Clemson, Clemson
would have been like they wore against Ohio State, a
pointer two favored. And yet because of how good L

(01:44:56):
s you looked, and how frankly, I think fortunate clems
and was to survive Ohio State, at least in the
minds of many, we ended up with a a situation
where now L s U is a six point favorite.
So as I'm looking forward, I think you have to
bet on Clemson. I think they have the value the
fact that five underdogs have already won. Dabbo seems to

(01:45:18):
love almost more than anything, selling his team on the
idea that no one respects him and no one believes
in him, and they have to be the the the
convinced to themselves. Now despite the fact that they've won
whatever it is, twenty nine straight games, they feel like
they are the most disrespected team in all of America.
I do feel like the home crowd is going to
be substantial for L. S U. Joe Burrow kind of

(01:45:41):
has an opportunity to ride off into the sunset, like
we said earlier, and maybe have the greatest single season
for any quarterback ever, finish off things for L. S
U in such a dramatic fashion, and then right off
into the sunset to be the overall number one pick.
So my prediction here is it makes me a little
bit nervous, but I'm gonna take the under because I
think that the defenses, in particular L s u S

(01:46:02):
defense has played really well in the final four games
of the season against some decent offenses. All Right, they
took care of Texas A and m UH, they took
care of Georgia, they took care of a H. I
think a really explosive Oklahoma team down the stretch run
of their season. And also Arkansas was not very good,
but that was another game they did pretty well in

(01:46:24):
the final four, and so I think that's gonna continue.
I think they'll have a lot of success against Clemson.
So I'm gonna take the under, but I'm gonna take
Clemson to cover the six, but L s U to
win the game. So there's a lot of different moving
parts there, but I think the value is on Clemson
plus six. I still like L s U to find
a way to win the game. I see a final
score of something like thirty one L s U UH

(01:46:48):
and Joe Burrow completes his cycle of of the greatest
season ever in the history of college football, and Clemson
comes up just a little bit short and probably will
be the number one overall team in America for next season,
given the fact that Trevor Lawrence will be back and
a lot of that talent for Clemson, there's reloading. What

(01:47:08):
say you, what's your prediction as we get ready for
this game tonight. Yeah, I think you're right. I do
think that taking taking the points that Clemson makes a
lot of sense. I I said before the season, I
thought Clemson would repeat, but I changed it about three
or four weeks into the season. I watched enough and said,
I think LSU is the best team in the country,
and I think they're going to prove it tonight. I
think they'll be the first top seed to actually win

(01:47:30):
this thing. But it is gonna be fun because either
way you have a great story, and either way you
have a worthy champion, and it's gonna be a heavyweight
slug fest where the best two teams we've seen go
at it mono and mono, and it may come down
to who has the football last. I think you make
the sound bet if you bet with Clemson and the points,
but I believe l s U is actually gonna win

(01:47:50):
the game. What do you think in terms of a
larger national significance. I've made the argument that Clemson is
right now. Basically USC when you sc was with Matt Liner,
Reggie Bush, and Lyndell White and dominating the pack twelve.
The rest of the a c C right now is
an embarrassment. There are not a lot of good teams
in the a c C right now. I'm not even

(01:48:12):
sure at this exact moment who's the second best team
in the a c C. They were awful in the
bowl games. Uh there was nobody really that ever. I know.
I know that North Carolina took Clemson to overtime, but
I think it's fair to say, based on the entire
season that that was the statistical anomaly. Credit to Mac
Brown in his program, but nobody Florida States not stepping

(01:48:33):
to him, Miami's not stepping to him, even Virginia Tech.
There's nobody that really you felt like could line up
and beat Clemson. And to give Clemson credit, they played
against Texas A and M and South Carolina and the
SEC and they really didn't seem very challenged, certainly not
by uh by South Carolina, but they really didn't seem
that challenged, even though it was maybe a close game

(01:48:55):
in the score I think to ten uh ish in
the final score if I'm not mistaken, but I really
don't feel like, uh it was. It was ever really
in doubt for them. So I think this is big
for the A C C uh really because it allows
them to argue and other I think it's big for
college football as well, because if the SEC wins this one,

(01:49:18):
then the SEC will have had in the first six
years two different teams win the national championship and arguably
Georgia kind of gave it away down in Atlanta a
couple of years ago. Sorry Georgia fans to have to
bring it up to you, but really, if they don't
go to tah and he doesn't come in and play
remarkably well, then Georgia had that game won. So you

(01:49:39):
almost in six years would have three different SEC teams
that have been right there to win a championship. Uh.
So I think that Clemson, if they could continue this
kind of dynasty, they can make the argument we are
every bit as good as the SEC. And now we've
really established it because we whipped Alabama last year. We
beat two SEC teams and now we're beating another one.

(01:50:00):
Clemson's kind of become its own conference. Yeah, I mean,
that's just the truth of it. I mean, there are
some other schools there, and that the North Carolina game
was a weird game, and that's gonna happen every once
in a while, especially to a team that's favored by
thirty every week. It's hard to get motivated over and
over again. It's why Dabbo keeps trying to find that
underdog card, because that's how he inspires his team. But
that's what has become. It's become whatever that conferences that

(01:50:21):
Clemson plays in, and then it's Clemson. Everybody pays attention
to them and no one else, but we all recognize
how good that football team is. Not any of us
will be surprised if they repeat his national champions tonight.
I don't think it will happen, but I won't be
shocked at all if I'm wrong, And beyond the shadow
of a doubt, if Dabbo wins tonight, then he eclipses

(01:50:42):
Nick Saban absolutely time. When can someone really challenge Nick Saban? Well, tonight,
if Dabbo wins, then it is now he is the
king of college football. And it's not some you know,
like short interregnum where somebody else comes in, Like I know,
Nick Saban has been the Gray. This dynasty has created
the greatest dynasty of all time at Alabama. And there

(01:51:04):
are different schools that have stepped up for individual years
and been capable of beating Alabama, but we haven't had
anybody who has had the same dynastic, uh sort of
goals as as we've seen from Clemson going up against Alabama.
And here's the answer. I mean, I think we may
well know and uh, it may be Dabbo as the
king of college football if he could win tonight, and moreover,

(01:51:27):
Trevor Lawrence as potentially setting the table for the greatest
college career ever. It's got either the greatest single season
I believe with Joe Burrow, or maybe the greatest college
career ever the table being set. Come tomorrow, we'll have
a lot of fun breaking down everything surrounding this game.
We appreciate all of you, congrats to the four finalists.

(01:51:49):
Will be breaking down that all week for you. A
f C NFC championship games set, and boy, oh boy,
do we have some intriguing storylines to chase down all
week long. But first we gotta fig year out who
the national champion is gonna be. We'll find out out
tonight at the Superdome down here in New Orleans. I
am Clay Travis and this is Outkicked the Coverage on
Fox Sports Radio. Be sure to catch live editions of

(01:52:10):
OutKick the Coverage with Clay Travis weekdays at six am Eastern,
three am Pacific

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