3 & Out - Seahawks DEFEAT 49ers to clinch NFC West & No. 1 seed in NFL Playoffs

Former NFL scout John Middlekauff reacts LIVE to the NFL Week 18 matchup between Sam Darnold and the Seattle Seahawks vs. Brock Purdy and the San Francisco 49ers with the NFC West division title on the line. John will also react to the earlier matchup between Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers vs. Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with the NFC South divisional title up for grabs. John will react to the biggest plays of the day, breaking news from around the NFL and college football, and much more!

03:56 - Seahawks-49ers

45:54 - Panthers-Buccaneers

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. What is going on everybody? How are we doing?
John Middlecoff Three and Out Podcasts brought to you by

(00:21):
my friends at Zone Pouches. Hopefully everyone is doing well.
Maybe as well as the Seattle Seahawks, who are the
number one overall seed in the NFC. Probably not as
well as the forty nine Ers who did not look good,
who got destroyed physically mentally and probably lost some players

(00:45):
to injuries because that's usually what happens, and are now
probably going to be the sixth seed. I'm recording this
late Saturday night. If the Rams win, Rams will be
five nine or six Seattle one. Now, the NFC West
is a little different than the other division that we
saw today, which felt kind of like a preseason game
that was that was tough to watch. So we'll talk

(01:08):
to the majority about the Niner Seattle game again, just
crowding achievement for Sam, John Schneider, Mike McDonald, pretty cool
moment for that franchise, and rough night for the Niners. Wow, jeez.
We'll talk a little bit about the other game, but
not much. I got a theory that not a theory,

(01:30):
but a take that I think needs to get instituted.
Moving forward when it comes to under five hundred division champs.
So make sure you subscribe to the podcast, make sure
you subscribe to the YouTube, and we'll be back again
Sunday night after the almost Ravens Steeler game. Looks like

(01:51):
the mar Is gonna play, looks like TJ. Watt's gonna play. Exciting,
but let's just dive right into Seattle. Give them the
flowers because the Seattle Seahawks accomplished an incredible feat tonight,
becoming the number one seed. Leading up to Week one,
they were a five to one underdog to win the division.

(02:15):
The forty nine ers were favored. Obviously things changed throughout
the course of the season with their injuries, but still,
I mean, they have Kyle Shanahan, they got Robert Sala,
They were favored to win it. And right there with
them was the Los Angeles Rams and the Seattle Seahawks
with Sam Darnold, second year coach Mike McDonald, and future
Hall of Fame general manager John Schneider are the number

(02:37):
one set. Right before I hopped on here, I googled,
which is essentially AI, and I said, when was the
last time Seattle hosted a playoff game? And that was
twenty seventeen. The Seattle Seahawks, who early on in Pete
Carroll's tenure, was I would say one of the best

(02:57):
teams in the league. Well, people forget those last several
years of Russell Wilson, even when he was playing pretty well.
They were going on the road. They have not hosted
a playoff game where it is an extremely tough place
to play. Is a massive home field advantage. One of
the really like I would say, a short list of
teams the would say have a collegiate feel in almost

(03:19):
a decade. And they deserved it because they dominated the
Niners tonight. They dominated him. Honestly, at half when it
was ten to three, I went, the Niners should be,
you know, doing cartwheels that this is a one score game.
The Niners had three first downs in the first half,

(03:40):
Seattle four xem on first downs. They almost had two
hundred yards of offense in the first half. And here's
the thing. The forty nine Ers had been playing the
last couple of weeks teams with no defense, and they
eviscerated them and tonight, and I've been saying this for
a while. Mike McDonald, if he was an offensive coach
would be one of the toe of the league. But

(04:01):
he's a defensive guy, and we just celebrate offense more.
We just do. I mean, the league is built and
the business is built now around offense. You are completely
screwed as a defensive player when it comes to you know,
no matter how great you are, you don't get as
much credit as the offensive guys. Obviously, from a playing

(04:21):
standpoint and the officiating standpoint, you're at a huge disadvantage.
And we talk a ton. I mean, obviously, Andy'd been
toasted the league for the last half decade in Kyle
and McVeigh and all the other offensive guys around the
league we talk about and I'm guilty as anybody NonStop,
but i haven't beaten the drum for this guy. He's
elite and now his record and his ability against Kyle

(04:44):
Shanahan kind of speaks for itself. I mean, the forty
nine ers offense is built on running the ball. I
think probably with him the last year, Jay Gruden, you know,
former NFL coach, John's brother, came on this show and
we were just bsa talking football and we talked about
Kyle Shanahan, that offense, and he said, from a pure

(05:07):
passing standpoint, that's not what they do. Like, no one
studies their offense for just drop back passing. It is
an offense going back to his father, which ironically Clint Kubiak,
who's now the offensive coordinator for Seattle, who's the son
of Gary who played for Mike Shanahan, coach for Mike Shanahan.
Kyle played for the Kubiak might as well. That family

(05:30):
might as well be the cousins of the Shanahan. The
entire offense is predicated on running the ball, and when
you can run the ball, you dominate in the passing
game because the majority of their passes, if your quarterback
is just competent, are layups. And then it's the NFL,
so obviously they are gonna be plays where you have
to make. But how many times to night Sam Darnold

(05:52):
on these boots is he just dumping it off? Because
that's the job in this offense. And when you can
run the ball, as Kubiak and see did the night
they had one hundred and eighty yards on the ground,
you removed the nine yards Sam Darnold had. Their two
running backs went for one hundred and seventy one yards.
They dominated on the ground. Meanwhile, the forty nine ers,

(06:14):
who you know, coming into this game, I would say
Christian McCaffrey's widely considered not just one of the best
running backs in the league, one of the best players.
Had eight carries for twenty three yards. They had twelve
carries for fifty three yards. If you told me the
forty nine ers are gonna have a game where they
get twelve carries and they're playing a team like Seattle,

(06:34):
who has a good defense, they're gonna have no chance
to win. Also, if you would have told me that
the forty nine ers would have three points, I'd be like,
I bet Purty throws a bunch of interceptions. That was
not the case, right, He obviously had the one at
the goal line where McCaffrey dropped it. But like perty
was fine, Like it wasn't Like he wasn't their problem.

(06:55):
They can't run the ball. When they can't run the ball,
their offense does not work. They're not built the play
life that and Mike McDonald now and like it wasn't
like he was at home last week. They played on
the road, had to fly across the country, and they
physically manhandled the forty nine ers shoved them around. It
felt like every time they tackled them, guys went backwards.

(07:18):
Treykeman even said it on a late run by McCaffrey,
it looks like he's running into a brick wall. He
has nowhere to go. Even if you put Barry Sanders
in there tonight, maybe he gave us a couple more
yards juking a guy out, But there was no green grass.
And the way this team was built physically from a
defensive standpoint, I mean all their DB's hit. You can't

(07:39):
be a physical defense in my opinion, just based off
your defensive line. Your secondary has to hit and Seattle.
The team that they are going to be remembered for
forever is the lob Seattle Seahawks, right one A super
Bowl went to another well. Part of the reason that
defense was so feared, and I think they led the

(08:02):
league in scoring defense four years in a row because
their secondary hit like they were Ray Lewis or Bryan Orlecker.
Obviously Earl Thomas and Camp Chancellor, but Earl Richard Sherman,
to me, is the greatest tackling cornerback I'd ever seen.
And that's the way these guys play. Now the forty
nine Ers DB's hit two. It's honestly the only reason

(08:23):
their defense had a shot because their defensive backs tackle,
their d line can't really do much right, and obviously
their linebackers. I mean, by the end of the game,
they're playing with guys that were free agents like three
weeks ago. But Seattle deserved to win tonight. They manhandled
this game from the jump. They went right down the

(08:44):
field on the first drive of the game, and honestly,
I thought Mike went for it on fourth down because
everyone's kind of been saying, right, you're too conservative, and
he's playing Kyle Shanahan, who their offense had been I
think what, scored ten touchdowns in the last two weeks,

(09:06):
so he's thinking like, hey, we got to score touchdowns,
and it backfired, and then I think the next couple
drives he realized, we don't need to play this way.
I need to do exactly what I've been doing, be conservative.
Because the forty nine Ers offense, best case, was gonna
get to the low teens. It was not gonna be
a game when they scored many points their defensive line.

(09:28):
I mean that last play of the game, technically the
last play of the game for the forty nine ers.
I thought brock Perty was murdered. He honestly, I thought, like,
how did he just shatter his entire lower body? And
all night long they beat the shit out of them.
They hit him over and over and over again. And
when they didn't hit him anyone he threw to they

(09:50):
destroyed and help. Kittle's a good example. Typically in a game,
George and he had five catches for thirty yards. Typically
he's more like five or six, four seventy and of
those seventy, maybe thirty or thirty five or forty or
after the catch, because he'll break a tackle, he'll run

(10:12):
over dB, he'll throw a linebacker to the side that
was not taking place. Tonight, Seattle showed up to just
shove the Niners around, and Mike McDonald owned Kyle Shanahan
to night. Kyle had no answers. The forty nine Ers
had one good drive ended on a freak interception, but
they had one good drive all night long, and it

(10:37):
was a big play by Kittle, big play by Perty's legs,
a big play by Juwan Jennings interception. Game over. It
happened that fast. It was thirteen to three, like Okay,
the forty nine Er score here, thirteen to ten, low scoring,
weird game, anything's possible. Ten minutes left in the game,
interception happened, game over happened like that, And honestly, the

(10:58):
Niners were extreme fortunate to be in that position. Right
Myers had missed a field goal, they had gone forward
on fourth down, you know, down deep in the red zone.
You look at the statistics. To me, the staff that
jumps out the most is they had twenty three first downs.
The forty nine Ers had nine. That is a crazy statistic.

(11:21):
The Niners offense had nine first downs, they only had
three in the first half. They only had six in
the second half, and four of them came on the
one fucking drive. I mean it was I mean, from
a Mike McDonald's standpoint, what was online to be the
number one overall seed like a picasso like that was

(11:43):
chef kiss moment on the season for him. I mean,
what a what a performance from his unit, from his
team to come on the road and listen, you know,
the forty nine Ers defense is terrible. It's it's no
one's fault. It is what it is. It's a personnel standpoint.
You argue their best defensive player is a fifth round
one hundred and sixty pound rookie slot corner. But they

(12:07):
still have a lot of pride. They are still extremely
well coached and to just dominate this game. And I
think we also learned this the last couple of weeks.
The forty nine ers had beat teams where they could
just outscore them. It's almost like, if you're a basketball team,
we're gonna get into games where it's like one hundred
and thirty, one hundred and twenty. We're comfortable in that environment.

(12:27):
But if the game gets like in the high eighties
or low nineties, which I haven't watched much NBA this year,
but I don't think that happens anymore. Back in my day,
get off my lawn moment used to happen a lot. Hell,
there used to be like NBA Finals in the seventies
and in eighties the Spurs used to do it a lot.
But are you comfortable playing in those games? Do you
have a good defense? And it turned out tonight the

(12:49):
forty nine ers are not comfortable playing in a low
scoring game because that means their defense gonna be on
the field and the time of possession of thirty seven
to twenty two, technically thirty eight to twenty two. If
you I'm gonna round up in Roundown. I mean that
says it all. Because Seattle Charbona and Kenneth Walker. I

(13:11):
guess Seattle fans are down on Kenneth Walker. I know
he can be a little hit or miss. I've always
had a soft spot for him. After his performance at
Michigan State got mel Tucker an extension before he got
caught having sexual relations with the chick. That speaks to
the team about being careful about having sexual relations. But
that's a conversation for a different day. Again, consensual a thought,

(13:33):
but again I don't even care. But got mil Tucker
fired for cause not ideal when he had a ninety
five million dollar contract because of Kenneth Walker. Sharbone definitely
always liked him. It was it was extremely impressive, it
really was. And let's face it, like, you know, Coach
of the Year Kyle Shanahan had a ton of momentum.
Mike McDonald just destroyed that. Like, Kyle Shanner's not winning

(13:56):
Coach of the Year now, He's just not And you
can be like, you can't, No, he's not winning Coach
of the Year, especially if Ben Johnson wins tomorrow and
Mike Rabel wins tomorrow and they're both the two seed,
one of those two guys are getting it, you know,
if not, they split it. But it ended at night
for Kyle Shannon. And there also was a play tonight
on a fourth down where the game was seven to

(14:17):
nothing and they ran a play action play that was
a shot to Kittle that they never showed the replay
on ESPN, but it was clear it was gonna be
play action. McCaffrey go to eighty five and I don't
know if the safety and the corner both ran with Kittle.
I don't know if just the safety covered and Brock
was afraid to throw a fifty to fifty ball, But

(14:40):
clearly the play did not work, and it was an
extremely bad play call to have one option and then
perty ends up dumping it off and it doesn't even
get close to the first down. And so many times
a night they ran plays, and this is why they
didn't have that many first downs where even if the
guy I guess against like the team like the Bears,

(15:01):
maybe a Juwan Jennings or DeMarcus Robinson or even a
George Kittle or us check can break a tackle and
get a first down. But you can't do that against Seattle.
They were just too good of a tackling team. Honestly,
it reminded me a lot of Indiana and Miami over
the course of the last several days, how they play defense.
Not just open field tackling, but when I tackle you,

(15:22):
you're gonna fucking feel it. And you know, that's where
the GM gets a lot of credit for drafting those players,
for getting the right type guys. And one thing they
know is this goes back to the Lob days. They
know the type guys from a physicality standpoint, from a
mindset standpoint, that play like that, and the forty nine

(15:45):
ers do too. They just they're all in the boxes
because they got broken ankles or you know, broken knees.
So it was it was a masterclass tonight on defense.
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(17:39):
New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia. The other guy who's been
taking a lot of heat and listen. I said it
coming into this game, advantage forty nine ers at quarterback. Honestly,
I thought it was a big advantage. Sam Darnold had
a of interceptions Aikman mentioned tonight, a lot of them

(18:03):
come on third down led the league. And he had
six fumbles, so he has twenty overall turnovers. Now, I
texted a buddy this week, some of those fumbles, at
least that I've seen when I've been on my couch
watching football on Sundays, have been when he's getting hit
it from behind. So it's like he gets crushed for
fumble turnovers. But if I'm about to throw and someone

(18:24):
destroys me and the ball comes out, is that really
my fault? Or is it one of the offensive lineman's fault?
I tend to blame the offensive lineman. But who knows,
maybe quarterback coach or a coordinator or the head coach
would tell me different. But still like numbers of the numbers.
He had twenty turnovers, I thought tonight, and again he
played in a Shanahan Kubiak offense night, You'd be like, well,

(18:46):
who's numbers are not that great? He didn't throw for that.
That's winning football when your team is built like this
and you go twenty of twenty six. I thought he
only really made one questionable throw the entire night, and
that was late in the game. He was rolling to
his left. He throws it to Smith and Jigba. He

(19:08):
kind of overthrows it a little bit, but it was
so close to the sideline. Ernardo Green technically caught it
or picked it off, but he was so far out
of bounds it didn't even matter. Now at that time,
you're like, hey, man, we can't play our balls. Next
play they call a run, They're like, hey, we're not
even messing with it. But over the course of the game,
I thought precise accurate on time in command. I do

(19:32):
think over the course of the season, it's definitely the
second half of the season. He gets a little sped
up and he can be a little erratic. That's kind
of the knock on him going back to the end
of last year. He just gets frenetic, right, And that's
usually what that's the difference between the great quarterbacks. Always
under control, always poised, always calm, and when Sam gets

(19:55):
a little off kilter, like any quarterback that's not an elite,
elite all time, you can start feeling them getting frenetic.
Anyone that plays golf, when you start kind of pressing,
you start going fast, and it gets worse. No different
with the quarterback and his feet. Sat a couple of
times with perty tonight because he starts hearing footsteps. Don't
even blame him. But you can't play like that. You

(20:17):
have to be calm, and I thought for the most
part he was really really calm, did a great job,
took what was there, was accurate, made some really good
throws down the middle of the field, and listen. It
doesn't end the questions like I wouldn't put, you know,
ten thousand dollars on him to win playoff games. I

(20:38):
would still be a little nervous. But if they can
play in games where they can dictate the terms, and
if They're gonna run the ball like that. They can
win the NFC. They can run the ball like that. Now,
some of these defenses will see how the you know,
the scheduling breaks and who wins and who they end
up playing in the first round, But like that is

(20:58):
their formula. Run the ball, have Donald throw under thirty
times and play defense. And I think they would tell you,
if we can play games where Donald has less than
thirty attempts, we can win the Super Bowl. If we
play in a game where he's got to have forty
plus attempts, it's probably gonna be hard for us to

(21:21):
win that game, or just could get weird, right, And
this goes back to I'll never forgets. A buddy told
me that was with the Jets, that when SLA interviewed,
they liked Sam Darnald and they said they thought they
could win with Sam Darnald, and he was bringing Lafleur
from the forty nine ers, and the mindset was gonna

(21:41):
be around the offense, running the Shanahan offense, which Seattle does,
which obviously the forty nine ers do, is playing games, dominate,
running the ball, build a good defense, and have him
play where his pass attempts are between twenty five and
thirty and in those twenty five to thirty, seventy five
percent of them are gonna be relatively easy throws, as

(22:04):
you saw a lot of times a night, and then
they're gonna be ten to fifteen percent, or he's just
gonna have to make a play, and he did tonight.
It's why this offense is so good. When you run
the ball, now, you're not always gonna run it for
you know, four and a four point six yards of
carry and just the ease in which they did tonight.

(22:25):
But if you can run forty times for one hundred
and fifty yards, if you can control the clock and
you have a good defense, it's a formula that has
worked since the sixties the seventies, still works today, and
it will always work no matter how much you want
to get pass happy. And here's the other thing with Seattle, like,
there's a decent chance you get a rainy game, So

(22:47):
whoever you are playing, you're probably not gonna throw it
for three hundred fifty yards rain win could be cold.
The Elements play in their style of football. If I'm them,
I want it to be shitty weather. That translates that
will work now depends on who they play. If they
do get into a situation where they're down, anything's possible,

(23:09):
because obviously eleven is an elite player. But they do
depend a lot on you know, older Cooper cup who
made a nice catch, a nice play tonight. And they're
running backs. I mean Walker at sixteen carries Charboney at seventeen,
Walker had four catches, so he had twenty touches. Charbonay
at three, so they had forty touches with their two

(23:31):
running backs. Like that, that was McDonald's gonna get a
lot of credit because the defense dominated rightfully so but
Koubiak tonight that that was in front of you know,
I'm sure one of his mentors. Like I said, family
cousin essentially had to feel pretty good, had to feel
really really good. And congrats to Seattle fourteen and three

(23:55):
signing Sam Darnold. This offseason, let's face it pretty polarizing.
There were a lot of people, I think the analytical
community up until a couple of weeks ago, was trying
to tell everyone Geno Smith is good. Gino Smith's a
great story, resurrected his career, ended up making a bunch
of money helped Seattle get to the playoffs post Russell Wilson.

(24:16):
If you're trying to tell me Geno Smith is a
good player, I don't know what tell you. If you
want Geno Smith to be your starting quarterback in twenty
twenty five, Like, I don't know what to tell you
Sam Donald's dramatic upgrade. Like I watched Geno Smith play
the forty nine ers a lot look like shit every time,
I mean, terrible, terrible, and Sam donaldnight, I mean, was

(24:39):
in the driver's seat for that bad boy. I don't
want to say like led them, but was a big
part of it. Made some big time plays and honestly,
they could have put it on. I think everyone thought, like,
oh they're Sam. Those first couple of plays in the
red zone and the first drive of the game, which
I'm not gonna argue weren't good, But over the course
of the rest of the game, I thought he was
really good. I thought he was really good and if

(25:00):
he plays well, this team is one hundred percent of contender.
And the forty nine ers, like, I didn't think perty
was that bad. He was nineteen to twenty seven. A
couple of those incompletions late in the game at one
point in time, he was like nineteen to twenty five
or nineteen to twenty three. He was pretty accurate. They
didn't have the ball that often. I mean, how many

(25:21):
plays did they run the night they had forty two?
Seattle had twenty five more plays. The forty nine ers
ran forty two plays. They just they could never get
in the position where it's like third and one. It
always felt like it was third and four, third and five.

(25:41):
They're so dependent on Kendrick Bourne and DeMarcus Robinson. In
fairness to Marcus, Robinson made a couple of plays to Night,
three catches for twenty four yards. I think he had
a couple first downs. But when McCaffrey, I don't even
want to blame him, but just was not really a factory.
Night had some catches, some dump downs, but that that interception,

(26:04):
like that's that's one of those where you know it
goes on Purties record, But I know the ball was
tipped and a little behind him. I think he'd be
the first to tell you I have to catch that
one hundred out of one hundred times. Now you could
argue it's a little freaky when he drops it. Brooks
is right there catches it, which is a nice defensive play.
Seattle's executives all go nuts up there in the suite,

(26:27):
But that was a killer. I mean that that felt
like a nail in the back of the cranium. It's like,
this thing's fucking this thing's a rap. And he just
he was a guy who wasn't gonna win the MVP.
But if they were gonna win this game, they were
gonna need an MVP type performance from him. They were
gonna need him to be brilliant and dominate, break tackles,

(26:49):
be like superhuman. And maybe it's just because the accumulation
of the amount of carries and touches he's had this season,
and Pharnasey's had to have him, they've had to play
like they've been like. I mean, they won a game
last week forty two to thirty eight. The previous week,
Philip Rivers threw like multiple touchdowns. They scored twenty seven

(27:10):
the cole scored twenty seven points. I mean, their defense
is awful that they can't stop anybody. They They did
sack Dornold a couple of times, so they end the
season with twenty sacks at least the regular season, which
is gonna be last in the league. They don't gain
pressure the one time they blitz and it works. D Winners.

(27:32):
I thought he originally tore his achilles. I think he
just rolled his ankle really bad, but was right there.
And that's where like the blitz was perfectly called. The
offensive lineman split like the red Sea, hold right up
the gut. D Winners, who's a really good athlete, fires
right through. And you see this happen a lot, especially

(27:54):
with like Lamar or Kyler, the high end running quarterbacks.
They make those guys miss. But Donald's a solid athlete.
There has to be some sort of like in basketball,
when you sprint up to a guy, you don't just
run right through him. Once you get close, you kind
of shuffle your feet, you break down like D Winner,

(28:17):
he cannot run away from D Winners. But if D
Winner is gonna run in a vertical line full speed,
which I guess D Winner is probably like a four
to six guy, so he's hauling ass, all Seam has
to do is move over and then the D Winners
rolls his ankles probably out for the season, seem runs
for a first down. That's where obviously you see it
countless other times. But Fred Warner is the best blitzing

(28:39):
linebacker in the league. That is a seven or eight
yard sack. If it's Fred Warner, well it's his backup
or a backup, you know, d Winners technically like a
rotational starter, depending on who's healthy. But withfs, Donald goes
and I think you saw that constantly tonight of just

(29:00):
guys flying around that probably shouldn't be out there, but
you don't have a choice, and they're just not good enough.
And this is I would say, you know, in college,
next man up pre nil at places like Georgia, Bama, Texas,
Oregon and all the good schools, next man up could
be like a five star ret refreshman. So like, yeah,
we don't know who this is. Turns out as Tyron Matthew,

(29:22):
turns out as uh, you know, Kyle Pitts. Fuck who knows?
It could be great players. That's not the case in
the NFL. It's just not there's a huge drop off
for backups. Trent Williams is a twelve time pro bowler.
Austin Pleas has never started a game in his NFL career.
Clearly there is a drop off. Trent Williams. If I

(29:46):
tied his legs together, you know, probably could be fifty
percent of that guy. It's not even it's not even comparable, right,
it's not even the forty nine ers wide receiver group listen.
Ricky pearsall is is an incredible story. He got shot
at point blank, point blank range. The doctor, I think

(30:07):
it's Stanford Medical, said like ninety plus or maybe it
was like ninety five plus percent in that area. Die
it kills you. He lived, fought him off, refused to
give up his sub mariner. Fuck yeah, Ricky. But so
it's like there's no one disputing his toughness again, thought

(30:28):
off a point blank glock to the chest, not only
lived to tell about it, came back and played in
the NFL as a rookie. But this year they're very
dependent on Ricky Pierso. Why Ricky Pierso is a good player,
high end player see Seattle. If Seattle had him healthy
with Jackson Smith, their offense would be elite. Like he

(30:51):
is a impact player, especially in the Shanahan offense. But
he gets injured all the time. If you're removed the
gunshot situation. When he showed up the forty nine ers
he had a shoulder, He's had hamstring. He's obviously dealt
with a knee. Even the day when his injury said
knee slash ankle. I get it, Trent Freak injury running

(31:14):
down a guy he's not used to running full speed
hell cross the starting left tackle for the Seattle Shawks
as a hamstring. It happens, big guy, That's nothing you
can do about it. The Ricky Pearsall situation really bit
the Niners in the as tonight because you felt it offensively,
especially against that secondary where you need a little juice.

(31:34):
Juwan Jennings is an excellent player. He is a winning
he's a he's a he's what I call war daddy. Listen,
I don't know what he's saying when he's talking shit
to people. Some people think he's crossing the line. One
dude on the Browns called him ahoe this year. He
just said, hey, I'm just talking. Tonight, he took a
guy for a ride into the into the gatorade buckets.

(31:55):
He pisses people off, but he's a player. But if
you're depending on him be your number one wide receiver,
it's gonna be really hard at the highest level. It
really is he's not fast enough, so you need speed
and just playmaking ability outside of him, right And they
just didn't have that tonight. And a big reason is
Ricky Pearsol. They drafted him in the first round, in

(32:18):
the first freaking round. Meanwhile, the first rounds players for
the other team, Like you're really feeling the North Dakota
State offensive lineman Witherspoon's hitting like he's Richard Sherman. They
were fucking laying the lumber, which I love. I mean,
I love violence in terms of watching it. I'm not
a violent individual, don't have much violence in me. I'm

(32:41):
not the biggest guy, but I gravitate toward violence, especially
in this sport. Love watching it. My favorite teams are violent,
physical teams. It's why, Listen, I got married in Nashville,
but I haven't spend that much time in the South.
But I've gravitated to the SEC over the past ten, twelve,
fifteen year why it's the most violent conference. I love

(33:03):
violent football teams, and Seattle is and when they're playing
like that, they're they're really really hard to be and
the Niners just couldn't match it. They're not built like
that right now, and they're guys. I don't know if
they were clearly McCaffrey's running empty a little bit. You know,
Kittle's just he's a badass. He's playing through an ankle injury.
They just had no juice. Perty's getting hit like he's

(33:27):
you know, their defensive lines Anthony Joshua, and he's Jake
Paul every play, Like Jesus, get is Brock dead? You know,
when Jake Paul got hit in the mouth and he
went down, You're like, is he gonna get up? That's
that's how I felt in the last play, like is Brock?
And then I looked at my wife, I'm like, well,
they have a game next week? Yeah, miss is it?

(33:49):
Mac Jones starting the playoff game? And then Brock got
up and his hands bleed and he limping off, and
like Jesus, this is one of those games where the
whole team's gonna be in the ice bat tomorrow. And
that's let's go big picture here. I don't I think
they're in trouble. I mean, there's no way around it.

(34:12):
They are a team not built to just rattle off
victories on the road. And if they get Philadelphia, who
you know, offense a little like Seattle. It's not great now,
you would say top to bottom, they got more impactful
players AJ Brown, Devonte Smith, Saquon Goddard, which I don't
care how hit or miss they're play calling, and Jalen

(34:36):
can be in the passing game. You can just score
some touchdowns on the Niners defense, and you definitely can
run it on them. But that's a tough game. And
Kettle mentioned it tonight, He's like the hard part for us.
We're a West Coast team, so if we have to
play Chicago or even farther Philly, we got a long
ass flight. And that's what a huge advantage it was

(34:57):
for Seattle, both their flights if they go on the
If Seattle had to go play Philly or had to
go play Carolina or Tampa, even those teams are easy,
the Rams more likely they're gonna have to play Carolina
or Tampa. It's a long ass flight. I've made. It sucks,
it takes forever, and I'm just doing something I don't

(35:18):
know vacation, well, I don't even know why. I haven't
necessarily made it from LA to Tampa, but I've flown
across country a bunch of times, lived in Philadelphia, flown
from Florida out to the West Coast. You're on the
plane forever. I just flew this year to before a
football season to White It was like a five hour
and twenty minute flight from Sky Harbor to Maui and

(35:43):
like two hour three hours in. I'm like, how much
longer do we have? You look down, it's like two hours.
I was just going there to booze and swim, not
playing a football game. So it's it's hard. That's why
it was such. That's why this game was so huge
for whoever won it because of the advantage. Clearly, you
get the buys massive, but the travel aspect of the
playoffs for these teams when the other teams that are

(36:07):
making the playoffs are way far away, right, So if
you're Seattle never had to leave, I mean, and your
home field advantage huge. The rest component, you know, again,
it's hard. I haven't even you have to know who
wins to even know who they're gonna play. I mean,
they could go anywhere from the Rams to you know,

(36:27):
who knows. Mate would have Green Bay upsets Chicago, which
I don't think is gonna happen, but if it does,
it's happened before when Green Bay upset Dallas a couple
of years ago, it doesn't even matter. They're coming to
you and they've just played more than likely a knocked in, knockdown,
drag out game. Meanwhile, the forty nine Ers, I would guess,
probably play next Sunday, probably Sunday one o'clock in Philadelphia. Again,

(36:50):
you want to see the matchups to kind of know,
but that that would probably be my guest right now,
because I saw Peter Schrager thinking that the Monday night
game will be whoever wins tomorrow Ravens or Steelers hosting
probably the Houston Texans. And my guess with the forty
nine Ers even either play that first game. You know,

(37:13):
they showed the thing tonight, Fox, CBS, Amazon. We just
don't know who has what. But there's always an NFC
game either on Sunday morning or Sunday afternoon for us,
you know, on the West coast ten o'clock or one o'clock.
I would guess Philly Niners would be one o'clock. I
don't know if the AFC would have a better game

(37:34):
than that, and I could see Buffalo Jacksonville at ten am. Again,
could be totally off on this that would just be
way too early, guests, But I just don't. I mean,
I think it would be a miracle right now if
the forty nine ers won to one playoff game, and
I think that'd be an incredible accomplishment. You could argue
going twelve and five and making the playoffs with that roster.

(37:56):
I mean, part of the reason they're twelve to five.
Forty Niners beat Seattle in Seattle, they beat the Rams
in Los Angeles. Those are two of their wins and
obviously one of the craziest games they've ever had against
the Chicago Bears, who've had an incredible season, and Chicago
wins tomorrow. What are they thirteen win team? I don't
want to get that wrong Chicago right now, they'd be twelve.

(38:19):
So they beat a thirteen win team, a fourteen win team,
and a twelve win team. So like people like, oh,
forty nineers beating nobody, No, they beat three playoff teams,
the number one seed, the number five seed, and probably
the number two seed. But the problem was tonight the
team that they played Seattle with was a lot different
than the team they played Seattle with in Seattle. In

(38:39):
Seattle knew it, and the coaching ability of Mike is
just top notch. I'm just that was incredible and that
shit translates it really does. I mean, they were might
pick a couple of years ago to win the Super Bowl.
I put one of the biggest bets of my life
against the Chiefs against them in that AFC Championship game,

(39:01):
and it wasn't because of the defense. Lamar played like
shit in that game. They lost seventeen to ten. Pat
Mahomes scored seventeen points. I'm pretty sure they had fourteen
in the first half. Maybe all seventeen if I remember correctly,
but definitely fourteen. Definitely, the two touchdowns came in the
first half. So McDonald's stud no way around it. Do

(39:22):
I think they can win the Super Bowl. I don't
know if I'd go that far, but I think it'd
be shocking if they're not in the AFC champ or
in the NFC Championship game. But if it is Seattle, Chicago,
Philly and the Rams play whatever one of these shitty

(39:44):
teams makes the playoffs, Let's give the Rams that win,
and let's say the Bears and Philly beats the Niners,
Seattle would have to play the Rams in their first
playoff game, which would suck. I mean that's that. Yes,
I think if you're Seattle, you would actually rather play
Philly or Chicago, so you could argue getting the one

(40:08):
seed in a weird way for Seattle is more difficult
because I think if you're Seattle, if you're ranking your
opponents that you would want to play in your first
play NFC championship game, you obviously play whoever, but your
first playoff game in the divisional round and you have
to play the Rams. Like, I think, we just pulled
a bunch of gms and pulled a bunch of NFL people.

(40:31):
How would you rank the top four teams in the NFC,
because now you've got to drop the Niners out of
it based on their defensive performance the last several weeks.
It just sucks. You know, you would definitely have Seattle
on the Rams would be one two. Some people might
even be like, hey, if the Rams s need has
figured out, tomorrow'll get a little momentum in that first
weekend that they're gonna be tough. Philly. I mean they

(40:53):
go three and out, feels like every other drive. They
had seventeen yards in the second half last week Chicago
defense is basically the forty nine ers. I've been saying
this forever. I don't watch high school football, but I'm
gonna stick with this. At the highest levels of a
high school, maybe high school's a little different. Definitely college
and clearly the pros. You could not win big if

(41:14):
you do not play defense. It is impossible. There is
no If I read one more article about Cliff Kingsbury
becoming a head coach, I'm gonna throw up in my mouth. Hey,
do these people not watch football? Is this an agent
driven story? What are we talking about head coach in
the NFL? What Cliff Kingsbury? Do you guys just witness

(41:37):
what happened and part of the dysfunction in Arizona in
terms of his accountability and toughness, which translates to defense.
It's kind of like a shittier version of Lincoln Riley.
That does not work. What's winning in college football right now?
Indiana destroying people on defense, Oregon dominating the defensive side
of the ball, Miami crushing people. Ole Miss has got

(42:02):
the little D. Two guys make it sweet plays. Obviously,
in the NFL, defense matters a lot pass rush, dB play, physicality,
obviously your schemes within that and if this like the
Bears and their fans will be the first to tell you,
like your defense is the same as the Niners. Maybe
got one or two bigger names on that side of

(42:23):
the ball, but that that does not work to why
the Niners. I think every forty nine Er fan be
the first to admit we have no shot in the playoffs,
none to make a run. Could you win an individual game?
Could the forty nine Ers beat the Eagles in a
one off situation? Games are weird. You saw to night
Seattle's kicking their ass and it was ten to three
at half, Like, how's this possible? Niners aid three first down?

(42:46):
That's football, and the forty nine Ers at one point
in time where a fumbled ball, if Cleveland Ferrell drops
falls on it, who knows, all of a sudden they
score tight game, it was ten point swing. Football is
weird that way, right in an individual game, you could
be a better team. I think you could pull one

(43:07):
hundred people that watch tonight and one hundred people would
say Seattle was the better team tonight. Yet at one
point time through in the third quarter, it's ten to three,
and that's the thing about playoff games. I watched a
lot of I went to a lot of Warriors in
their heyday playoff games. You can lose random games in

(43:28):
series all the time. It happens in baseball all the time.
It does not matter in basketball, it definitely doesn't matter. Like, oh,
it just got blown out in Game three, Okay, two
to one. Who cares? In football, you have one bad half,
you make two bad plays, the playoffs can be over.
The other team makes one great play, some crazy ass

(43:50):
kickoff return or some crazy ass mistackle touchdown. All of
a sudden, It's like I thought we were better than them,
and we're down twenty to ten and the third quarter.
That's what's so fun about the playoffs. But man, what
a night. Credible accomplishment by Seattle truly is, like I said,

(44:11):
crowding achievement for John Schneider, let's face it. I mean,
there's Diana's article today. It's like, clearly the Raiders would
like Pete to just retire. Okay, man, we'll pay you
the contract. We don't want to quote unquote fire you,
but just just retire. You're seventy five. You refused away
the white flag. You were the only guy we could

(44:31):
hire because there were no other options. You're gonna get fired.
But if you just announce you're retired, easier to go
that way. Jee Sneider won that big time because once
Pete's gone, he's hired Mike McDonald. Two years later, they're
the number one seed in the NFC, and that's against
the team with you know, I don't know how much

(44:52):
the Eagles are spending on their team, but it's a
shitload of money, you know, the Rams. I mean, we're
beating them by sixteen points in the fourth quarter. Three
weeks ago. Seattle came back, beats Carolina, beats the Niners,
boom home playoff games. That's how fast it's That's how
fast it shifted. That's the crazy part about Seattle season

(45:16):
is at that game, when they're down sixteen points, Darnold
looks like crap, like yeah, man, make the playoffs. Good season,
and then it flipped she he'd scored that touchdown. They've
honestly never really looked back since that moment. I know
it's technically three to three last week in Carolina, but
Carolina sucks. My main takeaway from that game, and I've

(45:53):
thought this for a while and I've never ever believed
this more strongly that if you go eight and and
win a division one, that shows your division sucks. If
you go eight to nine and win the division, think
about what it took for Seattle to win the division.
They'd win fourteen games. They're gonna have two other They're

(46:15):
gonna have a thirteen win team and a twelve win
team in their own division relative to this other division
with three eight to nine teams. Potentially, if Atlanta wins,
Atlanta's rattling off some late victories. Obviously the Saints rattled
off some late victories as well, but that division has
been terrible. It really is. Even if things went better

(46:36):
for either Tampa or Atlanta, what are they ten win teams.
You're clearly talking about the worst division winner in the conference.
But if you go eight to nine or worse, if
who knows, you could have a year maybe seven to ten.
If it goes really shitty, you should not be able
to host a playoff game. You should give up that right.

(46:59):
I'm okay with Hey, you win the division, you're automatically
in the playoffs, but if you go under five hundred
to win the division, you should then be stacked with
the playoff teams, which every single time would be seventh.
That's how I would do it. So it's not like, oh,
you get to play the four to five, No, you
go to the seventh seed. I think that would be fair.

(47:22):
I could live with Okay, they're just they play the
four or five game, but it goes to whoever they're
playing against the home game. I'd be cool with that.
But I honestly think you should be slotted in the
seventh seed. You could make a whole other argument, like
if you go under five hundred, should you even make
the playoffs? We could make that argument if you wanted.
I wouldn't argue against that person. But under no circumstances,

(47:45):
should one of those two teams that we witness playing
today get to host a playoff game next week. That
is an embarrassment toward the National Football League, It truly is.
I like Jason light I think he's an excellent GM.
I know they've had a weird season, they've had some injuries.
His coach isn't great. Clearly, you know, decent chance if

(48:07):
Atlanta wins tomorrow that I think Todd Bowles gets fired again.
I don't know Todd well, but I worked with him.
Whenever I seen him at the Combine, I've always I've
always liked him. He's always been really nice to me.
But he's been atrocious this year. Their whole team has
been really atrocious this year. And this is not shade
because of the division, though that division does feel like

(48:30):
the least interesting division in all of football. That game
today had preseason vibes. It honestly did. It had vibes
in the preseason when you're watching like Miami or Philly
or some of these East Coast teams that you know
play in these humid cities that starts pouring rain and

(48:50):
the starters are playing, you know, late in the first
quarter or the second quarter, like oh this, and you're
just starved. You're just like a crack addict looking for
a hit. So you're just sitting on your couch, like
mid August. You're like, hell, yeah, Baker Mayfield's on the field,
Mike Evans beat a bell, but it's still a preseason game.
And then all of a sudden, you look up, you

(49:11):
go get a snack, and all the backups are in.
You're like, this is bad, honey, you want to go
watch a movie. I actually just watched the movie last
night called A Roof Man, pretty good flick. Channing Tatum.
He a true story this, I guess. Guy broke into
a bunch of McDonald's from the roof, got caught, broke
out of jail, lived at a toy z r Us

(49:31):
for like six months, started dating a girl. I really
enjoyed the movie. Channon Tatum kind of underrated actor. That
game the Day had preseason vibes. It truly did. And
given that no matter who, I guess, if Carolina won
the game, they would have won the division. But it
never crossed my mind Carolina was gonna win that game.

(49:53):
And if it wasn't for a last drive by Carolina
that they scored a touchdown, so they game looks closer
than it actually was. I thought Tampa was clearly the
better team. I'm not a Bryce young guy. It's pretty
clear for me, like and I was coming out of college,
so I'm not acting like I've never liked him. I

(50:14):
loved him at Alabama. I'd followed his career like in
high school because a huge recruit. I was rooting for him.
But at this point time he's not good enough. You'd
be like, well, his numbers are. I don't know, man,
I don't see it. I know he made some throws.
He No one throws an out route interception like Bryce Young.
I don't know if it's he can't see. I don't

(50:36):
know if it's timing's always off. But he throws one
of the easier out route picks. I mean, for any
guy that consistently starts typically the guy that throws that
pick all the time is a guy that doesn't start
very long. I think Bryce Young is just average as
the day is long, and that feels kind like I

(50:58):
pick up his fifth year option. I don't even think
an option. Yeah, I mean obviously canalis not sure how
dynamic he is. Hard to judge a little with his quarterback.
But the flea flicker in the rain when a running back,

(51:19):
if you just think about it, the field's clearly slippery.
It had been pouring rain in Tampa. A flea flicker
takes two or three whatever is coached up hard steps
selling the run. Then you have to stop, pivot flip back.
As Dowdell went to flip it back, he is parallel

(51:41):
to the ground. It's almost like a movie scene when
a guy, you know, I was We watched home alone
a couple of weeks ago. They slip on the ice
and they're parallel to the ground. That's what he looked like, Gus,
He's been in the ground, and it's just how do
you call that play? And then I watched his answer
about why he called that play after the game, and
he's like, yeah, we like to play. And even Orlowsky

(52:03):
on the broadcast was like, they never showed a replay
down the field, and I don't think anyone was open.
There was not There was like one grout being run.
There wasn't even a someone to dump it off to.
Who what kind of play call is that? You know?
Baker threw a bad pick. It was just an awful,
awful game. I don't really know what to say. I

(52:27):
don't want to spend too much time talking about it
because I do think that Atlanta is gonna win and
Carolina is going to be in the playoffs, which is
truly shameful. I mean it truly is. And I believe
this core of my soul in no functioning society. Should
the Carolina Panthers at eight to nine, the team that

(52:50):
we've witnessed, I mean, they got work yet last week
in the second half Bryce through fifty four yards against
Seattle today they are down whatever or nine points late
in the game, and they're gonna host a playoff game
because Bijon Robinson to Margo's for one hundred and seventy yards.
What are we doing? Come on, Roger, we gotta be better.

(53:13):
This can't be tolerated, but it will. They'll host a
game and hopefully the Rams kick their ass and we
move on. If you tell me that it's Rams Carolina,
my guess would be decent chance that's the first playoff game.
That's Saturday afternoon, Saturday afternoon, and then that would be
a lucky break for McVeigh because he'd probably get it

(53:35):
rolling a little bit tomorrow against Arizona, who's just an
atrocious football team with a million injuries. They're they're terrible.
I think they've lost by twenty and I was listened
to some local television show like five to the Last
seven Games or something that they are bad. And then
you get Carolina, you might get some momentum. And again,
like I said, if Seattle draws the Rams as their

(53:55):
first playoff game since twenty seventeen in Seattle, that's just
tough draw. It really is. I think if you let
John Schneider and Mike McDonald pick, they would one pick
Philly or obviously San Francisco or the Bears over the Rams.
But that will be a fantastic, you know, week two

(54:16):
playoff game. But that's the way it shakes out. Other
than that, we've gone got a little longer, I thought,
But I was it's a big night. I mean, there
was a lot on the line. Learned a lot. Seattle's
a one seed, Nighters are in trouble, and I guess
we had to. I actually didn't. I turned the game on.
I was a little late to the game playing golf,

(54:37):
which was way more fun than watching the morning game.
And it was seven to nothing, and I was like,
what this sucks. I don't even want to do this.
Is there is there a Bowl game on? It's like,
I guess I kind of have to do this for
my job kind of. I'm just I was like, this
is awful. What a what an awful game? At least
we had the night game, which I know is low scoring,

(54:57):
but it was fun. Audios, have a great night, and
UH see you tomorrow. The volume m HM