January 27, 2023 • 46 mins
On today's episode, Jason gets the party started by sharing his thoughts on his beloved New York Jets' decision to hire Nathaniel Hackett to be their next offensive coordinator. Presumably, the move was made with the intention of recruiting Aaron Rodgers to the Jets since the two worked together in Green Bay for three seasons. However, any realistic sports fan who can spot the forest through the trees will tell you that this is a bad idea - for a number of reasons. Later, Super Bowl winning NFL executive and VSiN host Michael Lombardi swings by to discuss the impact Patrick Mahomes’ ankle injury could have on the game, how he expects the Cincinnati Bengals to defend the high-octane Kansas City Chiefs offense, why the Chiefs defense is going to have to be more selective with their blitz package against Joe Burrow, what makes Kyle Shanahan and Andy Reid different from Nick Sirianni and Zac Taylor, why he’s uncertain that Brock Purdy or Jalen Hurt will be able to pull out a win if the opposing team gets out to a big early lead, why he expects the 49ers will have to play much better offensively than they did against Dallas to beat the Eagles, why he’s not surprised to hear that the Cowboys might be looking to move off offensive coordinator Kellen Moore and much more! Finally, J-Mac closes the show with a very special NFL Championship Weekend edition of the Best Bet.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre. What is up
straight Fire, Fam, It's me Jason McIntyre, Straight Fire for Friday, January.
It is Conference Championship Weekend. Finally, you know, this is
the first Saturday in a long time there will be
(00:27):
no football on the Telly College Football NFL Playoffs, And
this Saturday, you know, I'll be waking up early, play
some hoops, coach my daughter's game at night. I don't
know what I'll do during the day. Maybe we'll take
the family bowling. I don't know, maybe go for a
bike ride. A lot of fun to be had. Of course, Sunday,
you know, coach my son's team in basketball. I have
(00:50):
a basketball game at night, but it's during It's during
Bengals Chiefs, and I don't. I just don't. I think
I'm gonna have to skip it. Touched on it briefly.
We gotta great podcast today. Michael Lombardi, former front office
guy from the Patriots and a slew of other teams.
He is on the podcast Talk Conference Championship Weekend. A
(01:10):
couple of very interesting coaching moves in the NFL. On Thursday,
I'm disappointed to report my Jets have hired Nathaniel Hackett.
I'm sorry, guys, I can't get too worked up. I
spent most of Thursday in a fog kind of piste
about the Jets hiring, without a doubt, the worst coach
(01:31):
in the NFL last season. Hackett from the jump was clueless.
He needs to hire a clock management specialists. And I
know you guys are already yelling, but j J J.
He was head coach. He had to wear so many hats,
He's got to do so many things. Maybe he's a
better lieutenant. Oh really, is he really a better lieutenant?
So they get that good run with the Jags. Do
(01:51):
you guys know what happened to in the next season
in Jacksonville? Oh? Go go look and I'll just talk. Oh,
Aaron Rodgers and work so great with Hackett. Remember how
bad the first year was so bad that the Packers
went the following season and drafted Jordan's Love in the
first round. That's how bad Hackett and Rogers were the
(02:12):
first year. So were they great together after that? Or
was Aaron Rodgers just incredibly motivated to shove the Jordan's
Love pick up The Green Bay Packers franchise rear End,
which is what I think it was. And of course
Rogers wins two MVP awards. Um And if you want
to look further, you can look at Tom Brady in
(02:33):
New England. Go look up Jimmy Garoppolo. I remember being
at the Combine the year Garoppolo ended up getting drafted.
There was some buzz about him a little bit. I
wrote about it for The Big Lead. You could google
it was what February two and the Patriots draft Garoppolo.
Brady's ticked. The next year he threw a career I
(02:54):
think it was a career high touchdown passes, and then
two years later he won the m v p ord
to basically said get Garoppolo out of here. So there
is the motivation factor personally. Listen, if I were Robert
Sala and I know my job is on the line,
and it is. And if I'm Joe Douglas and I
know my job is on the line and it is,
I can't figure out quarterback. You're not really gonna get anywhere.
(03:18):
I'm not thinking, Okay, let's bring in Nathaniel Hackett. That's
the guy who's gonna save my bacon. Now if you
think okay, he can bring Aaron Rodgers. That's fine. I
personally do not think that band aid on the gaping wound.
That is the Jets quarterback position for the last I
don't know, forty years, fifty years. Seriously, that's not gonna work.
(03:39):
It's not. It's just not a sustainable plan. It's not.
Rogers is third. I think he's thirty nine. What's he
gonna what? What? What are you get getting from this guy? Oh,
Brady's good at forty five? J okay, fine. You think
he's gonna be Brady? You think he is locked in
like Tom Brady was. Brady's going to bed early, he's
eating right, he's working out, he's got TV twelve, Aaron
(04:01):
Rodgers doing ayahuasca and hanging out with Joe Rogan. That's
a sustainable plant. That's the guy you want in New York,
the pressure cookers. That is New York. You think Nathaniel
Hackett is gonna do well against the New York media
when things go awry, because they will. I just I'm pissed. Yeah,
at any rate. Frank Reich to Carolina, I don't hate
(04:25):
that move. I mean Carolina could win the division if
they figure out quarterback. We'll talk about that one with
um Michael Lombardi. Here shortly, real quick, we'll do picks
for the NFL Conference Championship. A couple of props at
the end of the podcast. I do want to send
a melancholy note two Billy Packer, the former college basketball
(04:53):
announcer who passed away on Thursday at the age of
eighty two. Packer was he was a real one. He
was going to tell you what he thought, and he
didn't give a crap what you thought he thought, and
he was going to go about his day. Old school dude.
I was fortunate enough after the Big League was sold,
(05:15):
I was at a dinner with some of the guys
who had bought the site, and they brought Billy Packard
to this dinner, and I was so lucky that he
sat like across from me at this dinner. And of course,
you guys know, I mean, listen, I've got opinions on everything.
I'm normally I would be firing on all cylinders. But
(05:36):
it's Billy Packer. It's the guy who called the Kansas
U n C game. This game is over thirteen minutes
out of the game after a Rush three pointer. I
remember that game. I remember that Packer Packer called the
Final Four for like thirty years. I mean, the guy
is legendary now. I know he ticked off a lot
of people. And at this dinner, Packers just like he's
(05:57):
an oracle. Everybody's just sitting around listening. I think at
one point we were talking about Georgetown and I think
he had got into it with the late John Thompson
and we were talking about Georgetown back courts, and of course,
I'm telling you, I was a college hoops nerd. Georgetown
was the first sports team I ever really really liked.
(06:17):
I mean I was a tyke. But my buddy who
listens to this pod sometimes, um him and his family.
I think his family his dad had went to Seaton
Hall maybe, and they were playing Georgetown, and of course
Georgetown had Patrick Ewing and so they became big, you know,
Hoya's fans. Hoya's were local, and we would just try
(06:40):
to watch Georgetown games that I remember they had I
think a party on the National Championship night. It's something
along those lines. But bottom line is I got to
be a Georgetown fans just because everybody else liked him,
even though I didn't really know what was going on,
and I got into Georgetown, and then you know, Georgetown
ends up being really good every year, and I would
start checking out some of their you know, you would
(07:02):
read about their guys in the newspaper. A lot of
the Georgetown guys where came from local high schools in
the d C. Area, and then you start understanding those.
And then Georgetown play Syracuse and Sherman Douglas and I
was just such a big East Hank and you know,
Packer's calling all these games, and I just he was awesome.
Packer and Nance tossed in a little Al McGuire dick
(07:23):
Enberg like that was the Honestly, eighties college hoops was incredible,
and I really don't remember that much of it. Nineties
college basketball was awesome and probably the last great decade
of college hoops. The early two thousands were very good.
It's just not the same any I mean, Christian Latner arguably,
you know, top ten greatest basketball player ever in college
(07:45):
hoops because of what he won State. Guy like that,
now he's out in one year. I mean, it's so
tough to get like arms around a team and really
start to root for anyone because nobody sticks around. Everybody's
one and done too and done so Packers from a
different era. It was a great time and um, you know,
(08:05):
rest in peace to the great announcer Billy Packer. All Right,
without further ado, let's get to our guest, Visan's Michael Lombardi.
Jason likes to think he knows everything when it comes
to sports. I know what sports stands want, but for
everything he doesn't. He knows a guy who does. Let's
(08:26):
just say I know a guy who knows a guy
he knows another guy. All right, let's welcome into straight fire.
A guy used. You know him well, he's been on
the pod before. He is Michael Lombardi, host of the
Lombardi Line on Visan, former general manager, three time Super
Bowl winning NFL executive. How are you, man, I'm doing great, Jason.
Let's see again. I hope you're well. Yeah, you know,
(08:47):
I'm I'm pretty good. We missed you out here in
l A. Always good to uh have fun. We had
some fun on the air for for a minute. They're
working with some I don't want to call them crazy people,
you know, cowherds normal but not everyone else's. Uh. You
always had some fun. Need lines listen. Conference Championship weekend
pretty damn good. Two games, both under a field goal.
I gotta be honest, and Mike, I don't. I don't
(09:09):
have a strong lean on either game. I did like
an idiot at the Bengals as soon as the line
came out at pick him when we didn't know about Mahomes.
But have you seen this Mahomes video? He's moving like normal.
What's going on? Well, you know? And he said he
got hurt in nineteen in the first game of the
year against Jacksonville. In the next game against the Raiders,
she rose for four four touchdowns. So and they said
(09:32):
that ankle was worse than this one. I don't know.
I wrote a column on for Visa this week and
I basically said, you know, don't assume anything. Don't assume
he's hurt, don't assume he'sselfing. What I do know is
watching the games, the three games that we have as
a sample size to study, I think if you go
(09:52):
back to the suit the conference championship game, I think,
if you really watched that game closely, I think there's
a play in the fourth courter that that he gets
hit Mahomes by b J. Hill. When he gets hit
by Hendrickson, I said this on my today and he
after that hit, He's five for nine for thirty eight yards,
(10:15):
throws an interception, get sacked three times. He's the worst
quarter of football I've ever seen play, including the three
passes in overtime. I think he got concussed. Now, I've
only bring that up. Now he doesn't say he was,
And nobody's saying that, And I'm not accusing anybody wrong
doing the saying wasn't Patrick Mahomes and night And so
when you're handicapped in the last three games, you've got
(10:36):
to almost say something was wrong in that game. And
then when you look at the games, you say that Jack,
that that Cincinnati has done a good job of possessive football,
limiting the amount of possessions in the game, that that
that the Chiefs get. They haven't really done a great
job of stopping the Chiefs. They just slowed the game
down and they've won the fourth quarter they game they want.
(11:01):
They got outscored by a point, the other two games
they got outscored by seventeen sevent three. They went fourth.
So to me, this is and he's healthy. I think
you'll see the best version of the chief offense that
you can get because I dismissed the fourth quarter of
glass game. Interesting championship game. Championship game. So I know
you're in the game planning and all that stuff, and
(11:22):
you've worked with some of the greatest coaches ever, including Belichick,
But in that second half we saw a lot of
rush three, drop eight. I'm talking about the conference championship game. Yeah,
I just wonder if you're strategizing for Cincinnati and you
know you've got Mahomes coming off whatever the injury is,
and we still haven't seen him plant and throw in practice,
it's just handoffs and walking around and stretching. Do you
(11:43):
think they come after him early with some of those
Hilton uh secondary blitz is No. I think the worst
thing you can do with my call, well did his
own blitzer and then Kelsey's running free. I think if
you watched the three tapes, since he played man against him,
they had a hard time. Now, they got off the
field a couple of times playing end. But since he
plays better, since he's gonna play in a cover two shell,
(12:04):
and they're gonna they're they're on to run the ball.
They're gonna say run the ball on us. They dare
you to run the ball and then I think they rushed.
When they rushed, they get pressured. The tackles for we'll
hear this on Sunda on Sunday. But Orlando Brown and
the other tackle they get beat quite a bit by
Hendrickson and Hubbard. I mean they had a hard blocking
(12:26):
him when they rushed three. I mean the last play
in the conference championship game, Mahomes got sacked on second
Now it was second and five. It was second and
five from the five. They got a chance to win
the game there, he gets sacked. The next play they
rushed three, he gets sacked and full and Joe Touney
has to recover the ball. I mean they put pressure
(12:47):
on him every time they rush three. Those tackles have
to play for Kansas City. That's how you get away
with Russian Normally, if you rush three against Mahomes and
he has all day to throw, where he starts moving around,
he makes every throw. But I think you got to
mix it up. I don't think you could do a
steady dive in one thing against Mahomes. But I do
know this, He's gonna have to prove he can run
away from him. Because when Hubbard and Hendrickson are healthy,
(13:10):
he struggles to run away from him when he was healthy. Yeah,
that that's gonna be interesting. So you think lou Amaruno
sticks to kind of what got him here, um, because
we know it's worked. I mean, they've done a good job.
Like you said, they haven't stopped the Chiefs, but they've
slowed them enough to stay in the game. Yeah, I mean,
and then they played good. Look, they played good in
the red zone. Think when you look at the games, right,
(13:31):
so the game last the game this year that they're
they three for four in the red zone this year
one of them and they would have been four for four,
but the ball got tipped to the line, So that
that's saved him. That that was that that ball being
tipped by read or I think in the first question
that the championship game free for five, the Tyree killed
mistake where he throws into Tyree Hill at no time
left and he gets tackled. They lose three there, and
(13:54):
then the other time they don't score is when Mahomes
is in the fourth quarter. And then in weeks seventeen
or three for in the red zone. So what what
Louise trying to do is slow the game down, don't
the ball gets thrown over my head and make them
work it down the field. They'll get tired of running
the ball and then try to hold on the red zone.
But the game gets reduced, right. Nobody focuses on this.
(14:15):
Most football games, there's twelve possessions. In these games, typically
there are eight eight possession games. And when you can
limit Kansas City the eight possession games, you got a
chance to keep the game twice. And so that's how
you got to play it. And that they do a
great job of controlling the clock, which leads us to
since his offense versus versus the Chiefs, if the Chiefs
(14:37):
played cover two and dare they're on the ball, that
will slow the game down even more. Do you trust
Bagnola in a spot like this. I just know that
he loves to blitz. Uh. They were a little bit
above league average and blitzing and usually they get home
with pressure. I think they were like six in the
league in pressure rate. But when when we saw that
against the Bills in the regular season, it just didn't work.
(14:58):
You can't leave the casey corners on islands against Chase
and Higgins. I think they're gonna get eaten up that's
the one. That's the one thing that if you look
at the teams that give the chief the most trouble
is when they have outside receivers they can win. They
gotta block him inside. This will be a little harder
to block them than it was Buffalo. You know, people
talk about, well the field help help the Bengals, well
(15:19):
the fields and feel for the Bills. The Bills couldn't
walk Cincinnati, you know, I mean Cincinnati's tackle, I mean
the duffleest left tackle, Dawkins had a bad game. The
left guard had a horrible game. Saffle. So yeah, I think,
to me, I think to be where Spagnola's gotta be
patient and he's gotta bear them to run the ball
and see if they'll get tired of running it. See
(15:41):
if they'll get tired, because they do get tired of it,
and then he can't let the big play. His corners
don't match up against these receivers. They really don't. Yeah,
do you think they target McDuffie the rookie, because I mean,
I cannot imagine they're gonna put McDuffie a rookie on Chase.
Chase did have like a two hundred sixty Yard game
a few games ago in this series, but it doesn't
matter who to put on. Chase Higgins is another problem.
(16:02):
It's like when they play the Chargers that you you
can put some Keenan Allen and Mike Williams give trouble
like crazy. The problem was when they played they didn't
have all those guys and then Tyler Boyd they don't
have a matchup for Tyler board in the spot and
Hayden Hurst, you know he's got a calf injury. Whether
he plays put their tight endsit. I mean, what what
What Steve's gotta do is win. He's gotta win with
(16:24):
Chris Jones inside, he's gotta win with Clark, He's gotta
win with his defensive front. He's gotta rush forward. They
gotta play at a high level. And again this is
like a little silly, but what about this all this
trash talk? Do you think? Like I saw a video
right before we started recording, uh, one of the linebackers
on the Chiefs. I think Willie Gay was saying that
what do you think of the Bengals offense? He's like,
(16:45):
I don't think anything of it, Like they're nothing special,
but whatever, And this has been going back and forth.
They're calling arrowhead burrowhead. I don't do you make anything
of this is this guy much? But I will say
that the Bengals offense is nothing special. It's talented, it's
they don't try to complex it. That's not a complex offense.
They're not doing. They're in one formation pretty much all
(17:05):
the time. What people don't realize about football is there's
only two stations in football, right, there's only two formations.
You can put three receivers to one side and a
receiver to the other, or you can put two receivers
to one side and two receivers together. That's it. Now,
who those three people are and one two people are
they can be completely different. We see that with San
Francisco with the Bengals. We the Bengals are in three
(17:26):
by one, two by two and it's gonna be three
reivers in a tight end and one back. They they're
never really in they're rarely in two tight end. They're
rail in the back. They never put it back. So
you know what they're going to be in. You know
the personnel group they're gonna be in. You're gonna be
a nickel the whole game. You gotta hold up with
a run. And so that's the challenge and you gotta
win because what since he says is our players are
(17:47):
better than you or players. Our receivers are better than
your receivers. And if you don't double chase, if you
double Chase, Higgins is gonna have a two hundrd day.
If you don't double Chase, he might have a two
hundred yard day. If you try to double Talibort will
catch touch best on the scene. So hard game. You
can't win this game coverage. You have to win this
game with pressure from your four guys. Yeah, it's weird.
(18:07):
I actually think the Bengals have a better roster top
to bottom when you look at the starters than the Chiefs.
Chiefs have higher end players. Chris Jones is better than
anyone on the Bengals D. But I don't trust readers
are really good. Yes, so is a Hill. They're really
good players, and so is Hendrickson and Hubard. Those front
forests make their team. What I would say is the
Chiefs are better. This offensive wine for the males product.
(18:29):
It didn't show up last week, it could show up
this week. Yeah. Um, so I tried to do this
on the pod this week ranked the final four coaches
UM the head coaches best to worst, And again we're
splitting hairs here, but all these Bengals fans are upset
that I had Zach Taylor fourth UM and Sirianni third.
How would you rank the last fourth standing? Well, I think,
(18:49):
to me, Sirianni and Zach Taylor or a combination of
their staffs, right. I think Kyle runs the program there
in in San Francisco, from who gets picked in the
draft to who plays and how they call it, and
Damiko Ryan's and I think it's the same thing with
Andy Reid. Brett Beach does a great job, but Brett
works for Andy, which is the way it should be,
(19:10):
and they do a great job of working together. So
I think it's hard just a single I obviously, I think,
and he's gonna league when you get to this many
conference championship games during by your own and Kyle certainly
has done a great job. I kind of think it's
to me because Sirianni doesn't call plays, and he lets
Steve Strickland do that. Stricken do that, So I would
(19:31):
probably go Zack and then and then Nick because Nick
doesn't really call him. But Nick's two coordinators have done
a great job. You know, I worry Zack when he's
calling the game, Like last week against Buffalo, he was
running the ball really well. Was he gonna get bored
with running? The one thing about Philly is Philly doesn't
get bored with it. Now. I think Philly in that
game will come out throw him. I think Philly is
(19:53):
gonna because whoever gets to lead in the game is
going to be the more dangerous defense. Fox Sports Radio
has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch
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and within the I Heart Radio app search f s
R to listen live. Everybody's basically been fading brock Purty.
Oh he's gonna screw up. He's got seventh round pick
(20:14):
and people have lost a lot of money, all these
sharp and he's perceived sharp gamblers have been getting murdered
fading brock Purdy, and they all want to do it
again this weekend. Um. When I look at what Gannon
does defensively, I mean he gives up the middle of
the field, gives up the run. We're just not giving
up the big play that's gonna play into Shanna Hands
Hands isn't it. I think, well to so what when
(20:36):
you say Purdy is gonna ship the bed right, Yeah,
you're saying you really don't know. You can't say because
Purdy has never been asked to really lay in the bed.
He's been Yeah, he has been able to play from
the front. Yeah, been able to play a play at
in pass game, he's had a Kyle has given him
a lot of easy throws and the kids don't parkable job. Look,
(21:00):
he's done a way better the job than Trade Lance everything.
Oh yeah, let's go back to the Houston preseason game
where Kyle basically said we gotta get to Garoppolo back
because Lance can't do it like Purdy can do it.
And he's made the game easy for Purdy. The problem is,
if you really want to talk about it in football terms,
(21:20):
is Purdy has never had to play from behind. We've
never seen that, and in this game, if he has
to play from behind, that conounds a couple issues. So
the forty offensive line is a run blocking, play action,
pass protection offensive line. If they have to play in
a drop back game, they have a really hard time.
And so if he gets behind and they have to
(21:40):
drop back, those two things come together, make it hard.
First first series of Dallas game, so they sack him
on that they're trying to run the Flair screen out
to the left. He gets sacked. Now it's third and sixteen.
You know they gotta he's gotta it's a drop back
pass game. You can't run a plax, so they gotta
run a bubbles. They gotta run the crooks Lant they
don't get so it's hard. So the only way he's
(22:02):
not he's going to ship the bed is if they
get from behind. That's why to me, both these teams
have to play from in front. It's really important. And
and what San Francisco has to do more than anything
is they've got to win first down. They've got to
be in second and four. When Washington won the game,
Washington was in second and four second. They were getting
positive yards on every play. That's the key for San Francisco. Yeah,
(22:25):
I keep looking at the whole like, oh, Eagles haven't
played anybody. Well, they played five top ten defenses according
to Football Outsiders. Problem is there's backup quarterbacks in three
of those games. And you know, if you never look
at a schedule, like I guess so tired, you look
at the schedule, the schedule or what quarterbacks you play. Yeah,
I mean you know, like like if you're if you're,
(22:47):
if you are uh Damiko. Ryan's right, you're not gonna
watch the New Orleans game with Gardner Minshew and you
get ready for Jalen Hurst because New Orleans them. But
that's not they're gonna be when you play. You watch
the Indie game because that's how they how they attacked
Indie is kind of how they may want to attack you.
(23:09):
You watch the Chicago game because that's how they want
to attack you. So you kind of have to understand
what schemes your opponents, the opponents that run similar schemes.
That gives you the idea of how they want to attack. Yeah.
I look around the internet. I talk to people. I
haven't heard one person. One person might pick the Niners
in this game. Everybody thinks the Eagles. Is it an
(23:31):
overreaction to killing a bad Giants team. Oh, Eagles are back,
hurt is healthy, They're back at full strength. Lane Johnson's
out there. We got this. Not one person taking the night.
I think it's a lot. I mean, I think the
problem San Francisco gave the problems at Dallas cape San
Francisco are real. They're real on the tape, and they're
(23:52):
going to manifest themselves. And if Gannon does change things
up and creates problems for Kyle and changes his look,
Dallas had a lot of different packages in the game.
They had a four man line, they had the three,
they had a double eagle look. They had a lot
of different looks and in San Francisco never really got
got it. They scored, but they held them down. This
(24:14):
isn't gonna be a nineteen to twelve game. This is
gonna get And so I think the reason people like
Philly is because I think at the end of the day,
Philly's offense is more adapt to handle more things than
San Francisco, especially if they get behind. Maybe it was
my untrained eye, but I did not see San Francisco
do anything exotic, creative, nothing that cal Shay usually has
(24:37):
a player to where you're like, damn, that was awesome.
I didn't see any of that against Dallas. I'm not
saying he was holding back, but it felt almost like
a conservative game plan. I think he would I think
he was concerned that they were He wouldn't want to.
I mean he had a hard time blocking him, had
a hard time blocking him. And the speed I think
was overwhelming. I think the speed of Dallas's defense was
a little overwhelming. I don't think they thought I think
(24:59):
they thought they were fast. I don't think they thought
they were that fast. That's where phill is going to
get caught a little bit, because when you play Francisco
and you don't realize how fast they are until you
play them, and Stamford and Doubt is the same way.
Dallas is really fast, and Dallas attacks and so edges
are fast. So all those screens that you're running to
the sideline, you think your your line back, your running
(25:22):
back is gonna be able to not allow the guy
closed on you to make the tackle. He does, And
all of a sudden, this play that looks like you
can go for six yards goes for no yards. Um it.
Let's move away from the game's briefly talk about some
of the coaching moves. Uh. Frank Reich. It was announced
recording this Thursday. Frank Reich is the new coach in Carolina.
(25:42):
You think that's a good fit. I mean, they don't
have a quarterback. But everybody liked ke early in the
end of years, he just had a different quarterback every year.
Do you think he's got a chance there in Carolina?
Because I think everybody thinks Brady's out of Tampa and
all of a sudden, you know in your division that
none of those teams are really good, doesn't kind of look.
I don't think he's gonna go back to Tampa. I think, look, Frank,
(26:04):
I mean I think Frank. You know, Frank recommended Rivers,
Frank recommended Wentz, and I think once those two things
didn't work, I think that became problematic form within the building.
And then I think that building maybe our building to
work in based on what we've seen recently. So you know,
I feel for Steve Wilkes. I think Steve did a
great job. I really do. I think Steve did a
great job for the six games. He goes six and six,
(26:26):
So D J. Moore keeps his hat on. Probably he's
in the playoffs. It's a good point. Do you think
Wright goes back after Wentz because apparently it was the owner,
the crazy owner, or say who got Wentz out of there?
Anybody's gonna go after I don't think anybody is gonna
go after Wins. I think people on the staff that
we're with wins that left Frank last year. One of
the reasons they left was because I don't think they
(26:47):
were really in love with Winz. Yeah, I would agree.
I'm not a fan either. Um, let's go to mind Jets, Michael,
I know you love the Jets obviously. And then Nathaniel Hackett.
Higher I kind of vomited in my mouth when it
first happened. Um, I had read that who was a
Darryl Bevil and Bill Callahan did not even want to
interview for the O C job because of the uncertainty
(27:09):
at quarterback. I don't want to hear that this about
Aaron Rodgers. Um, tell me give me one reason to
be excited for Nathaniel Hackett. Well, I mean, look, you
know I think the reason that's come down you gotta
understand how the NFL works. Right, So your head coach
is best friends with the Lafleur family, Mike and Okay,
(27:31):
and so who does he call? He didn't want to
fire that Mike. He didn't want to fire the older
fire Mike. Whether they say that or not, he was
his best friend. Right, There's no chance and Mike will
probably end up at the Rams as the offensive coordinator
out there, So he went back for advice, and Matt's like,
you should hire Nathaniel if you look at Dathaniel's numbers,
(27:53):
whether it was in whether it was in Jacksonville for
the year, whether it was you know, he had Blake
Bartles one throw away from getting to the super Bowl,
right if he he under throws that seven against the Patriots,
Patriots win that game. You know they were fifteenth overall
in d V O A at year. You know, he's
rarely been outside of the twenties and d B O A.
(28:13):
But he's got better players and he's gonna have to
figure out the quarterback situation. I mean, that offense in
Denver was as bad as it could be. However, that
being said, maybe he's more suited to be a court
da he as a head coach. We can wrap up
with this one, Mike Um. There's a lot of speculation
that Kellen Moore may get shoved out by McCarthy. Now
I can't tell if this is the owner Jerry Jones saying, hey,
(28:37):
we hit we hit a ceiling two years in a
row in the playoffs. We need to make a move.
I don't I'm surprised that they'd be shoving out Kellen Moore.
That that that surprises me. What do you what are
your what's your taking? Well, I think Mike McCarthy, you know,
Mike McCarthy want a super Bowl calling plays. Mike McCarthy
took that job because Jerry told him that Kellen Moore
is a is an up and coming great offensive play caller.
I never feel I feel Kellen Moore calls plays he
(28:59):
doesn't an offense to win the game. Let me give
you an example. Okay, last week against San Francisco, everybody's
focused on the last play of the game. Okay, that
that that's stupid. Don't waste your time on that play.
Let's go back to three o eight to go in
the game, first and ten at the eight team. Okay,
(29:20):
if you're the play caller there and you really understand football,
you can't punt there. And people say, well, the analytics
say you can't punt there. You've got three time outs.
The reason you can't punt there has nothing to do
with analytics. The reason you can't play there in San
Francisco has the best putter in the league by far
of pinning you inside the ten yard line. He's done
it thirty two times this year. Okay, so you can't
(29:42):
punt there because if you punt there, and what they did,
they screwed up the punt. They got it off at
two oh five. But if you punt there, you're gonna
get the ball back, maybe with no timeouts, and you're
gonna have the ball not at your own five yard line.
Maybe you'll have it at the tent, but you're gonna
have to go ninety yards to get the ball back. So,
as a play caller, as somebody who calls plays and
(30:05):
understands how to win the game, you start that drive off.
You know you gotta get yards. It's not like we're
gonna go, let's get it all back at one time,
because we might be in a third, we might be
in a fourth and one, we might be in a
fourth and three. Like you call it so that you
kind of it's not not in two minutes. You're kind
of in a little bit of a hurry up. But
he goes right into two throws, three and complete passes,
(30:27):
burns no time off the clock. Now they got a
punt and they shouldn't have put it. So I think
that when you watch, when I watched out. I see
a guy that calls plays that doesn't understand how to
win the game. That's kind of harsh. But I mean,
I guess I can't totally disagree that. I thought. I
didn't think that was particularly good in that game, But
(30:48):
I guess he's got to have a new offense coming in. Um,
I think hardly. You know that wasn't good and but
you're gonna But I think when they when Cooper Rush
went in, they monitored their offense to fit what they
had to do. And when that comes back, you can't
let dadda has to be modified too. That's the job
(31:08):
of the coach. That's the Bill Walsh used to have
this note stick to his to his desk. What assets
do I have that I'm not using? What assets do
I have that I'm overusing? I think with Dad, better
make sure you're not overusing him. He needs to be
fit in the system. Yeah, well, they gotta keep Pollar
tough off season in Dallas, all right. Michael Lombardi the
Lombardi line on Visa. Thanks a lot, Mike, Thanks Jason,
(31:30):
appreciate you. Good luck people. Dutch 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. The only thing better than sitting on
your couch watching the game. He's making money while you
(31:53):
do it. Here's your best bat good stuff from Michael Lombardi. Yeah,
we spent probably six months working together at FS one.
He would come on, speak for yourself, Me, Lombardi, a
couple other guys. Good times, UM, super league, super interesting character.
I'll never forget. We were in the conference room one
time and Lombardi is like in the corner talking to
(32:14):
someone on the phone. Little do I know he's on FaceTime.
I'm like, oh, who was it? And he shows it
as Josh McDaniels. It's like, this guy Lombardi very connected.
Shall we say, all right, let's get to best bets
for conference Championship weekend? And I will say, I'm sure
the numbers on the pod this week are up a
little bit after last weekend's fairly dominant sweep. UH three
(32:36):
and O on the sides include and then four no.
When you tossed in the Kansas City Chiefs first half,
UH did miss on some props, but if you Parlay
teased you cleaned up. It was an incredible weekend. Here
is the crappy news. I don't know that I have
a ton I'm willing to put on the line in
this game. Do you keep your powder dry for the
(32:57):
Super Bowl? Folks? These are the four best teams. No
spread has touched three yet I don't think Eagles get
to three. Even though McCaffrey uh did not practice the
last two days. Casey is now the favorite. Once again,
it was Cincinnati and now it's Casey Cincinnati on the
Mahomes fears. Here's my thing, uh, and when we'll start
(33:20):
with the first game San Fran Eagles. So I do
believe the four nine will win. I did bet under
twenty three one half. But here's my thing. Smart people
that I trust and I value their opinion seem to
think this will be more of a high scoring game
that people think. The logic is, if Philadelphia gets to
(33:42):
an early lead, the game state will show. Brock Purty
has to throw the football to get San Friend back
in the game, and Philly's big edged on offense is
on the outside, as our guest told you last week,
where you can take advantage of the San fran Corners.
My pushback is, well, how do you know the Eagles
(34:04):
are jump into an early lead? What leads you to
believe that just because they smoked the Giants last week?
We haven't seen the Eagles face a top tier defense
in a while with Jalen Hurts healthy. That's the big
issue with this. Like everybody wants to say the Eagles
are back to being the dominant team, they were okay,
(34:24):
and last week I knew the Eagles were a slam
dun side over the Giants, but that was more about
the Giants being awful. I like the Eagles offense. I
do think that there's gonna be an opportunity for them
to have success, but what they do well the ground
game does not mesh with what San Francisco gives up.
Last week, I think I saw the stat that they were, uh,
(34:46):
the Eagles running backs weren't not getting contact from the
defense for like over two and a half yards. It
might have been three, three point two, whatever the number was,
and it's like, wow, how bad is that defensive line?
They're getting bullied by healthy Eagles. Well, you know who
doesn't get bullied is Armstead and Bosa and the best
linebacking duo in the league, like they're the number one
(35:11):
run stopping defense. This they're They're not going to get
run on. That's just you can't run on this team.
The linebackers are just too fast sideline to sideline guys.
So then you start thinking, okay, well, if they can't run,
can Hurts run? Well, I don't know if if you're
if you're coming off the injury, are you putting Jalen
Hurts in space? Now? It looked like they were doing
(35:31):
it against the Giants, but again that's the Giants are.
Linebackers are terrible. So I don't see where Philly has
a ton of success. And obviously, listen, if Purty falls
behind the most, he's trailed with ten against the Raiders
and they're not good. So I don't know what you
can take away from that game. So yeah, bock Purty
if he's down fourteen, nothing, they're in trouble. But hello,
(35:52):
that hasn't really happened. Let's stop looking at that Chiefs
game where the Chiefs went up and down the field
against the Niners. By the way, that was a second
half thing really where they ran away and hit in
that game. But I do believe san Fran will be
able to move the ball. My thing is usually you
want to defer to the second half. I think that's
the move in this game. I think you want the
ball first. I think san Fran has to be confident.
(36:14):
Kyle Shanahan one of the best play callers in the league.
I think he gets the ball, goes right down the field,
nice little eight minute drive, run, run, run, And that
leads me to one of my first props. If McCaffrey
is not a percent now he said he will play,
but he hasn't practiced. If Mitchell isn't and he said
he will play, he hasn't practiced. I think you've got
(36:34):
to look at Deebo Samuel rushing receiving. I saw the number,
shoot words, it is it seventy four and a half, yes,
seventy four and a half over rushing and receiving yards.
So think about this. If let's say, you know McCaffrey, Mitchell,
if they're okay, or one of them gets banged up,
I mean I think I saw the said Deebo Samuel
(36:56):
has not fumbled this season. They trust him. I like
the kid Mason. You're not giving them ball to Mason
in a pivotal spot early in this game. Are you
maybe late trying to assault it away? But Debo is
your guy. They ride him because they trust him. He's
the Yak King and Philadelphia historically, and we talked about
this with Lobardi. Philadelphia sits back and says, we will
(37:17):
concede the three, four or five six yard plays. We're
not letting you, We're not letting you beat us tat
there will be opportunities for Yak. We know that the
four nine receivers I ucause a really good blocker, Kidles
a really good blocker. There's a chance Debo is gonna
pop with And I don't think parties looking deep, but
I do think Debo can easily top seventy four and
a half rushing receiving yards so under first half under
(37:40):
twenty three one half debot over seventy four and a
half rushing and receiving. And I think for the Eagles side,
I think you have to look at the Jalen Hurts
passing yards over and again. I'm taking the look at
this that again. I believe Philadelphia is going to um
have to throw the ball to get back in this
because I don't think they're gonna be able to run
(38:01):
the football. So I would be looking at Jalen Hurts
over now the numbers kind of high to forty seven
and a half because if San Fran is able to
run the ball and two o'clock, there's not gonna be
a lot of possessions in this one. This is gonna
be sand Frand grinding it out. Jalen Hurts sitting on
the sideline, and is he gonna be able to pop
a big one? Everybody wants to point to Hey, remember
the last time these two teams met, Quiz Watkins caught
(38:23):
like a ninety yard pass. I think he got tackled
at the one. They can pop a big one. I
think they can pop a big one. A J. Brown
is definitely a threat. But one of the things sand
Frand does is they play a lot of zone defense.
They mix it up. When you've got fast linebackers that
can cover, you've got safeties that can ping around. I
mean mofonga, he's in the box, he's deep, he's everywhere.
(38:44):
This is a defense that's gonna play. Try to play
tricks on Jalen Hurts. Dak Prescott, you did see him
tuck and run a little bit and I had a
buddy forty Niners fan because watch the team. He's like,
running quarterbacks have given us problems. I'm like, I just
it's tough for me to see Jalen Hurts sticking his
body on the line with that injury. I mean, if
he goes down Gardner Minshew like, listen, we've seen him.
(39:04):
He's limited. He's not terrible, but he's limited. He's definitely
not the best backup in the league at any rate.
I would look at Jalen Hurts passing yards and I
do think ultimately the Niners win. I don't know about
a teaser because I mean, listen, there's a scenario where
they get blasted, UM and they literally get blown out
and run out of Philadelphia. UM, Philadelphia at night can
(39:25):
be very dicey. This game will and you know what,
seven o'clock at seven o'clock issue dark, it's gonna be
freezing that that scene at Lincoln Financial. Go ask Kirk
Cousins about it from earlier this season. UM, remember the
Vikings in the conference championship game. And if this Philadelphia
offense gets rolling with the big playability of Brown and
(39:47):
Davante Smith after the catch brock Purty. You know, I'm
not fading Brock pretty, but the scenario to me easily
exists where rookie quarterback conference championship they're owing for straight
up one and three against the spread. I talked to
Mark sante Is about his first conference championship game. It
was in Indie. They got beat down. Um, they got
(40:10):
him back the next year, but it was a bit
of a beat down. And these rookie quarterbacks, listen, it's
a top You don't want to make a mistake. That's obvious.
I mean, playing at home one thing. Now going on
the road, just it's it's a tall order for pretty.
I'm still leaning to the Niners. You know, if Philly
does go up fourteen, that will be the super interesting one.
Do you go ahead and bet Philly, hey, they're gonna
(40:31):
run away with this, or do you trust Shanahan to
come back? We shall see. Shannahan great game planner. By
the way, Shanahan seven and one against the spread in
the Playoffsky is good. Just insulting away those leads has
been a bit of an issue. All right, Onto the
other one. Bengals chiefs. Now, you guys know, earlier in
the week, I told you. I think it was Monday
(40:51):
that when the line came out, I saw Bengals at
pick them. I said, listen, anything under Bengals to and
a half you gotta smash. So I did hit it.
Pick them. Um. Now that Mahomes looks healthy, but we
don't know how healthy. We don't. It's still got a
plant and pass um. I am looking at playing um well.
(41:12):
I did play Kansas City Chiefs first half on the
money line minus one sixteen in this three game set,
and I know that's a tiny sample size. Read comes
out with unbelievable game plans. I know everybody who wants
to look at the Bengals last week and jumping out
on the Bills, I tossed that out. I Buffalo just
they just they were not the side there. You guys
(41:32):
know we were all over Bengals. I do believe Andy
Reid comes out at home. There is some bad blood
between these two teams. Bengals are running their mouth a lot.
I like Andy Reid. It's just the master game planner.
I think they come out, they get an early lead.
Now whether or not they can hold onto it. You know,
I'm reluctant to bet she's full game, because do we
(41:54):
know if Mahomes is gonna make the full game. I don't.
I do know one thing, Joe Burrow is never out
of a game. That guy, as long as he's got
chased on the field with him and they're not playing
the Browns, Joe Burrows in the mix, the defense is
gonna keep him in it, and Burrow will make the place.
I would look at rushing yards over for Burrow. And
(42:15):
it's kind of a reverse of last week. So last
week the offensive line down three guys. That was the
talking point, and they were fine. Some people want to
say it was the snow. Other people want to say
it was the Buffalo pass rush, probably a combination. That
being said, Chris Jones and Frank Clark are much better
than anybody Buffalo had last week. And I do believe
(42:36):
Burrow will be under some duress. I do believe he
will be scrambling. I don't know. I'm not ready to
say for his life, but I think the opportunity is there.
And remember the Chief's linebackers other than Bolton, I don't
think are particularly great. So I can see Joe Burrow
getting on, running up, just escaping the pocket and doing
his best to pick up yardage as opposed to make mistakes.
(42:58):
So there, I think they're two way to attack that.
Two ways to attack that. Number one for UM rushing props.
See if see what number you got on Burrow. I
see a seventeen and a half. I mean, folks, that's
that's two runs. You know that's easily two or three runs.
I think Burrow will be under duress, and I think
escaping is one way to bet it. The other way
(43:21):
to bet it is who's he going to be dumping
off too? And the answer is not necessarily Joe Mixon.
I think you need to see what you could get
for some j p Ryan, who actually is more of
a receiving back than Mixing and what else. The Chiefs
are very poor defending running backs out of the backfield.
(43:41):
They ran twenty eight according to Football Outsiders Now in
the last meeting, p Ryan had six for forty nine
through the air. Mixing was injured when the cold speak
Kansas City. UM They're running backs had eight catches for
forty three yards. Devin Singletary when Buffalo beat him earlier
this year, four for twenty two. It's just like like
Bolton a lot. He's number thirty two. He's got like
(44:02):
the braids. Guy flies around, makes a million tackles. Other
than Bolton, I don't really think their safeties are gonna
be coming up looking to tackle p Ryan. I think
they're gonna be focused on Jamaar Chase and Tee Higgins
on the outside. So I think p Ryan easily you know,
three or four or five catches up in the thirties. Um,
I think that's a play. I really like p Ryan over.
(44:24):
I'm seeing sixteen and a half right now at one
one book. Now, obviously, you guys saw the gambling ads
we did. Listen. Draft Kings has done a great job
putting some advertising out there. There's a lot of you
never want to say free money because that's kind of
lame and um cheesy if you will. But the way
I look at it, if you play it smart with
(44:46):
some of this free money that draft Kings is offering,
it could be a really nice weekend for you, assuming
you didn't fire last weekend. So for the game on
pot committed on Bengals, um pick them easily, buy out
of that. I think my one concern, and I know
this is this is not the most in depth penetrating
(45:07):
analysis but or Andy Reid and Pat Mahomes really gonna
lose four straight to Cincinnati Bengals. And I asked that
because I was on the Chiefs in the meeting earlier
this year. Chiefs are up a touchdown, they're driving Travis
Kelsey fumble, Travis Kelsey almost never fumbles, and then Andy
Reid made a catastrophic mistake later in the game. It
(45:29):
was like fourth and seven could have gone for it.
I mean, it's the Chiefs, it's Mahomes. He opts to
kick a fifty five yard field goal, and special teams,
which has not been good at all for the Chiefs
much of the season, failed him. I don't know, guys. Ultimately,
I think Kansas City now it probably prevails if Mahomes
(45:51):
is healthy. I don't but I already bet Bengals. I
do have some futures on the Bengals. I think I
have plus four ten to win the a f C
from earlier the Sea, and I have some forty Niners,
so I probably should heads with the Eagles, But I
don't know. I think this is one this game I
feel less sure about than Eagles Niners. If you go
(46:12):
at one without fail, go ask a couple of buddies.
Who you got this weekend? I will guarantee if you
ask ten, nine are on the Eagles. If you only
ask five, I guarantee you four are on the Eagles.
Nobody has taken Brock Purdy and Kyle Shanahan in the spot.
Maybe that's what good reason. But you know what, who
everybody liked last week? Everybody? Oh Giants getting seven and
(46:34):
a half. Come on, everybody like Dallas last week? Just
be careful when the when the masses are headed one way.
Al Right, guys, that's a long pod heading into Conference
championship week. Can be safe out there, have fun. Talk
to you Monday.
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre. What is up
straight Fire, Fam, It's me Jason McIntyre, Straight Fire for Friday, January.
It is Conference Championship Weekend. Finally, you know, this is
the first Saturday in a long time there will be
(00:27):
no football on the Telly College Football NFL Playoffs, And
this Saturday, you know, I'll be waking up early, play
some hoops, coach my daughter's game at night. I don't
know what I'll do during the day. Maybe we'll take
the family bowling. I don't know, maybe go for a
bike ride. A lot of fun to be had. Of course, Sunday,
you know, coach my son's team in basketball. I have
(00:50):
a basketball game at night, but it's during It's during
Bengals Chiefs, and I don't. I just don't. I think
I'm gonna have to skip it. Touched on it briefly.
We gotta great podcast today. Michael Lombardi, former front office
guy from the Patriots and a slew of other teams.
He is on the podcast Talk Conference Championship Weekend. A
(01:10):
couple of very interesting coaching moves in the NFL. On Thursday,
I'm disappointed to report my Jets have hired Nathaniel Hackett.
I'm sorry, guys, I can't get too worked up. I
spent most of Thursday in a fog kind of piste
about the Jets hiring, without a doubt, the worst coach
(01:31):
in the NFL last season. Hackett from the jump was clueless.
He needs to hire a clock management specialists. And I
know you guys are already yelling, but j J J.
He was head coach. He had to wear so many hats,
He's got to do so many things. Maybe he's a
better lieutenant. Oh really, is he really a better lieutenant?
So they get that good run with the Jags. Do
(01:51):
you guys know what happened to in the next season
in Jacksonville? Oh? Go go look and I'll just talk. Oh,
Aaron Rodgers and work so great with Hackett. Remember how
bad the first year was so bad that the Packers
went the following season and drafted Jordan's Love in the
first round. That's how bad Hackett and Rogers were the
(02:12):
first year. So were they great together after that? Or
was Aaron Rodgers just incredibly motivated to shove the Jordan's
Love pick up The Green Bay Packers franchise rear End,
which is what I think it was. And of course
Rogers wins two MVP awards. Um And if you want
to look further, you can look at Tom Brady in
(02:33):
New England. Go look up Jimmy Garoppolo. I remember being
at the Combine the year Garoppolo ended up getting drafted.
There was some buzz about him a little bit. I
wrote about it for The Big Lead. You could google
it was what February two and the Patriots draft Garoppolo.
Brady's ticked. The next year he threw a career I
(02:54):
think it was a career high touchdown passes, and then
two years later he won the m v p ord
to basically said get Garoppolo out of here. So there
is the motivation factor personally. Listen, if I were Robert
Sala and I know my job is on the line,
and it is. And if I'm Joe Douglas and I
know my job is on the line and it is,
I can't figure out quarterback. You're not really gonna get anywhere.
(03:18):
I'm not thinking, Okay, let's bring in Nathaniel Hackett. That's
the guy who's gonna save my bacon. Now if you
think okay, he can bring Aaron Rodgers. That's fine. I
personally do not think that band aid on the gaping wound.
That is the Jets quarterback position for the last I
don't know, forty years, fifty years. Seriously, that's not gonna work.
(03:39):
It's not. It's just not a sustainable plan. It's not.
Rogers is third. I think he's thirty nine. What's he
gonna what? What? What are you get getting from this guy? Oh,
Brady's good at forty five? J okay, fine. You think
he's gonna be Brady? You think he is locked in
like Tom Brady was. Brady's going to bed early, he's
eating right, he's working out, he's got TV twelve, Aaron
(04:01):
Rodgers doing ayahuasca and hanging out with Joe Rogan. That's
a sustainable plant. That's the guy you want in New York,
the pressure cookers. That is New York. You think Nathaniel
Hackett is gonna do well against the New York media
when things go awry, because they will. I just I'm pissed. Yeah,
at any rate. Frank Reich to Carolina, I don't hate
(04:25):
that move. I mean Carolina could win the division if
they figure out quarterback. We'll talk about that one with
um Michael Lombardi. Here shortly, real quick, we'll do picks
for the NFL Conference Championship. A couple of props at
the end of the podcast. I do want to send
a melancholy note two Billy Packer, the former college basketball
(04:53):
announcer who passed away on Thursday at the age of
eighty two. Packer was he was a real one. He
was going to tell you what he thought, and he
didn't give a crap what you thought he thought, and
he was going to go about his day. Old school dude.
I was fortunate enough after the Big League was sold,
(05:15):
I was at a dinner with some of the guys
who had bought the site, and they brought Billy Packard
to this dinner, and I was so lucky that he
sat like across from me at this dinner. And of course,
you guys know, I mean, listen, I've got opinions on everything.
I'm normally I would be firing on all cylinders. But
(05:36):
it's Billy Packer. It's the guy who called the Kansas
U n C game. This game is over thirteen minutes
out of the game after a Rush three pointer. I
remember that game. I remember that Packer Packer called the
Final Four for like thirty years. I mean, the guy
is legendary now. I know he ticked off a lot
of people. And at this dinner, Packers just like he's
(05:57):
an oracle. Everybody's just sitting around listening. I think at
one point we were talking about Georgetown and I think
he had got into it with the late John Thompson
and we were talking about Georgetown back courts, and of course,
I'm telling you, I was a college hoops nerd. Georgetown
was the first sports team I ever really really liked.
(06:17):
I mean I was a tyke. But my buddy who
listens to this pod sometimes, um him and his family.
I think his family his dad had went to Seaton
Hall maybe, and they were playing Georgetown, and of course
Georgetown had Patrick Ewing and so they became big, you know,
Hoya's fans. Hoya's were local, and we would just try
(06:40):
to watch Georgetown games that I remember they had I
think a party on the National Championship night. It's something
along those lines. But bottom line is I got to
be a Georgetown fans just because everybody else liked him,
even though I didn't really know what was going on,
and I got into Georgetown, and then you know, Georgetown
ends up being really good every year, and I would
start checking out some of their you know, you would
(07:02):
read about their guys in the newspaper. A lot of
the Georgetown guys where came from local high schools in
the d C. Area, and then you start understanding those.
And then Georgetown play Syracuse and Sherman Douglas and I
was just such a big East Hank and you know,
Packer's calling all these games, and I just he was awesome.
Packer and Nance tossed in a little Al McGuire dick
(07:23):
Enberg like that was the Honestly, eighties college hoops was incredible,
and I really don't remember that much of it. Nineties
college basketball was awesome and probably the last great decade
of college hoops. The early two thousands were very good.
It's just not the same any I mean, Christian Latner arguably,
you know, top ten greatest basketball player ever in college
(07:45):
hoops because of what he won State. Guy like that,
now he's out in one year. I mean, it's so
tough to get like arms around a team and really
start to root for anyone because nobody sticks around. Everybody's
one and done too and done so Packers from a
different era. It was a great time and um, you know,
(08:05):
rest in peace to the great announcer Billy Packer. All Right,
without further ado, let's get to our guest, Visan's Michael Lombardi.
Jason likes to think he knows everything when it comes
to sports. I know what sports stands want, but for
everything he doesn't. He knows a guy who does. Let's
(08:26):
just say I know a guy who knows a guy
he knows another guy. All right, let's welcome into straight fire.
A guy used. You know him well, he's been on
the pod before. He is Michael Lombardi, host of the
Lombardi Line on Visan, former general manager, three time Super
Bowl winning NFL executive. How are you, man, I'm doing great, Jason.
Let's see again. I hope you're well. Yeah, you know,
(08:47):
I'm I'm pretty good. We missed you out here in
l A. Always good to uh have fun. We had
some fun on the air for for a minute. They're
working with some I don't want to call them crazy people,
you know, cowherds normal but not everyone else's. Uh. You
always had some fun. Need lines listen. Conference Championship weekend
pretty damn good. Two games, both under a field goal.
I gotta be honest, and Mike, I don't. I don't
(09:09):
have a strong lean on either game. I did like
an idiot at the Bengals as soon as the line
came out at pick him when we didn't know about Mahomes.
But have you seen this Mahomes video? He's moving like normal.
What's going on? Well, you know? And he said he
got hurt in nineteen in the first game of the
year against Jacksonville. In the next game against the Raiders,
she rose for four four touchdowns. So and they said
(09:32):
that ankle was worse than this one. I don't know.
I wrote a column on for Visa this week and
I basically said, you know, don't assume anything. Don't assume
he's hurt, don't assume he'sselfing. What I do know is
watching the games, the three games that we have as
a sample size to study, I think if you go
(09:52):
back to the suit the conference championship game, I think,
if you really watched that game closely, I think there's
a play in the fourth courter that that he gets
hit Mahomes by b J. Hill. When he gets hit
by Hendrickson, I said this on my today and he
after that hit, He's five for nine for thirty eight yards,
(10:15):
throws an interception, get sacked three times. He's the worst
quarter of football I've ever seen play, including the three
passes in overtime. I think he got concussed. Now, I've
only bring that up. Now he doesn't say he was,
And nobody's saying that, And I'm not accusing anybody wrong
doing the saying wasn't Patrick Mahomes and night And so
when you're handicapped in the last three games, you've got
(10:36):
to almost say something was wrong in that game. And
then when you look at the games, you say that Jack,
that that Cincinnati has done a good job of possessive football,
limiting the amount of possessions in the game, that that
that the Chiefs get. They haven't really done a great
job of stopping the Chiefs. They just slowed the game
down and they've won the fourth quarter they game they want.
(11:01):
They got outscored by a point, the other two games
they got outscored by seventeen sevent three. They went fourth.
So to me, this is and he's healthy. I think
you'll see the best version of the chief offense that
you can get because I dismissed the fourth quarter of
glass game. Interesting championship game. Championship game. So I know
you're in the game planning and all that stuff, and
(11:22):
you've worked with some of the greatest coaches ever, including Belichick,
But in that second half we saw a lot of
rush three, drop eight. I'm talking about the conference championship game. Yeah,
I just wonder if you're strategizing for Cincinnati and you
know you've got Mahomes coming off whatever the injury is,
and we still haven't seen him plant and throw in practice,
it's just handoffs and walking around and stretching. Do you
(11:43):
think they come after him early with some of those
Hilton uh secondary blitz is No. I think the worst
thing you can do with my call, well did his
own blitzer and then Kelsey's running free. I think if
you watched the three tapes, since he played man against him,
they had a hard time. Now, they got off the
field a couple of times playing end. But since he
plays better, since he's gonna play in a cover two shell,
(12:04):
and they're gonna they're they're on to run the ball.
They're gonna say run the ball on us. They dare
you to run the ball and then I think they rushed.
When they rushed, they get pressured. The tackles for we'll
hear this on Sunda on Sunday. But Orlando Brown and
the other tackle they get beat quite a bit by
Hendrickson and Hubbard. I mean they had a hard blocking
(12:26):
him when they rushed three. I mean the last play
in the conference championship game, Mahomes got sacked on second
Now it was second and five. It was second and
five from the five. They got a chance to win
the game there, he gets sacked. The next play they
rushed three, he gets sacked and full and Joe Touney
has to recover the ball. I mean they put pressure
(12:47):
on him every time they rush three. Those tackles have
to play for Kansas City. That's how you get away
with Russian Normally, if you rush three against Mahomes and
he has all day to throw, where he starts moving around,
he makes every throw. But I think you got to
mix it up. I don't think you could do a
steady dive in one thing against Mahomes. But I do
know this, He's gonna have to prove he can run
away from him. Because when Hubbard and Hendrickson are healthy,
(13:10):
he struggles to run away from him when he was healthy. Yeah,
that that's gonna be interesting. So you think lou Amaruno
sticks to kind of what got him here, um, because
we know it's worked. I mean, they've done a good job.
Like you said, they haven't stopped the Chiefs, but they've
slowed them enough to stay in the game. Yeah, I mean,
and then they played good. Look, they played good in
the red zone. Think when you look at the games, right,
(13:31):
so the game last the game this year that they're
they three for four in the red zone this year
one of them and they would have been four for four,
but the ball got tipped to the line, So that
that's saved him. That that was that that ball being
tipped by read or I think in the first question
that the championship game free for five, the Tyree killed
mistake where he throws into Tyree Hill at no time
left and he gets tackled. They lose three there, and
(13:54):
then the other time they don't score is when Mahomes
is in the fourth quarter. And then in weeks seventeen
or three for in the red zone. So what what
Louise trying to do is slow the game down, don't
the ball gets thrown over my head and make them
work it down the field. They'll get tired of running
the ball and then try to hold on the red zone.
But the game gets reduced, right. Nobody focuses on this.
(14:15):
Most football games, there's twelve possessions. In these games, typically
there are eight eight possession games. And when you can
limit Kansas City the eight possession games, you got a
chance to keep the game twice. And so that's how
you got to play it. And that they do a
great job of controlling the clock, which leads us to
since his offense versus versus the Chiefs, if the Chiefs
(14:37):
played cover two and dare they're on the ball, that
will slow the game down even more. Do you trust
Bagnola in a spot like this. I just know that
he loves to blitz. Uh. They were a little bit
above league average and blitzing and usually they get home
with pressure. I think they were like six in the
league in pressure rate. But when when we saw that
against the Bills in the regular season, it just didn't work.
(14:58):
You can't leave the casey corners on islands against Chase
and Higgins. I think they're gonna get eaten up that's
the one. That's the one thing that if you look
at the teams that give the chief the most trouble
is when they have outside receivers they can win. They
gotta block him inside. This will be a little harder
to block them than it was Buffalo. You know, people
talk about, well the field help help the Bengals, well
(15:19):
the fields and feel for the Bills. The Bills couldn't
walk Cincinnati, you know, I mean Cincinnati's tackle, I mean
the duffleest left tackle, Dawkins had a bad game. The
left guard had a horrible game. Saffle. So yeah, I think,
to me, I think to be where Spagnola's gotta be
patient and he's gotta bear them to run the ball
and see if they'll get tired of running it. See
(15:41):
if they'll get tired, because they do get tired of it,
and then he can't let the big play. His corners
don't match up against these receivers. They really don't. Yeah,
do you think they target McDuffie the rookie, because I mean,
I cannot imagine they're gonna put McDuffie a rookie on Chase.
Chase did have like a two hundred sixty Yard game
a few games ago in this series, but it doesn't
matter who to put on. Chase Higgins is another problem.
(16:02):
It's like when they play the Chargers that you you
can put some Keenan Allen and Mike Williams give trouble
like crazy. The problem was when they played they didn't
have all those guys and then Tyler Boyd they don't
have a matchup for Tyler board in the spot and
Hayden Hurst, you know he's got a calf injury. Whether
he plays put their tight endsit. I mean, what what
What Steve's gotta do is win. He's gotta win with
(16:24):
Chris Jones inside, he's gotta win with Clark, He's gotta
win with his defensive front. He's gotta rush forward. They
gotta play at a high level. And again this is
like a little silly, but what about this all this
trash talk? Do you think? Like I saw a video
right before we started recording, uh, one of the linebackers
on the Chiefs. I think Willie Gay was saying that
what do you think of the Bengals offense? He's like,
(16:45):
I don't think anything of it, Like they're nothing special,
but whatever, And this has been going back and forth.
They're calling arrowhead burrowhead. I don't do you make anything
of this is this guy much? But I will say
that the Bengals offense is nothing special. It's talented, it's
they don't try to complex it. That's not a complex offense.
They're not doing. They're in one formation pretty much all
(17:05):
the time. What people don't realize about football is there's
only two stations in football, right, there's only two formations.
You can put three receivers to one side and a
receiver to the other, or you can put two receivers
to one side and two receivers together. That's it. Now,
who those three people are and one two people are
they can be completely different. We see that with San
Francisco with the Bengals. We the Bengals are in three
(17:26):
by one, two by two and it's gonna be three
reivers in a tight end and one back. They they're
never really in they're rarely in two tight end. They're
rail in the back. They never put it back. So
you know what they're going to be in. You know
the personnel group they're gonna be in. You're gonna be
a nickel the whole game. You gotta hold up with
a run. And so that's the challenge and you gotta
win because what since he says is our players are
(17:47):
better than you or players. Our receivers are better than
your receivers. And if you don't double chase, if you
double Chase, Higgins is gonna have a two hundrd day.
If you don't double Chase, he might have a two
hundred yard day. If you try to double Talibort will
catch touch best on the scene. So hard game. You
can't win this game coverage. You have to win this
game with pressure from your four guys. Yeah, it's weird.
(18:07):
I actually think the Bengals have a better roster top
to bottom when you look at the starters than the Chiefs.
Chiefs have higher end players. Chris Jones is better than
anyone on the Bengals D. But I don't trust readers
are really good. Yes, so is a Hill. They're really
good players, and so is Hendrickson and Hubard. Those front
forests make their team. What I would say is the
Chiefs are better. This offensive wine for the males product.
(18:29):
It didn't show up last week, it could show up
this week. Yeah. Um, so I tried to do this
on the pod this week ranked the final four coaches
UM the head coaches best to worst, And again we're
splitting hairs here, but all these Bengals fans are upset
that I had Zach Taylor fourth UM and Sirianni third.
How would you rank the last fourth standing? Well, I think,
(18:49):
to me, Sirianni and Zach Taylor or a combination of
their staffs, right. I think Kyle runs the program there
in in San Francisco, from who gets picked in the
draft to who plays and how they call it, and
Damiko Ryan's and I think it's the same thing with
Andy Reid. Brett Beach does a great job, but Brett
works for Andy, which is the way it should be,
(19:10):
and they do a great job of working together. So
I think it's hard just a single I obviously, I think,
and he's gonna league when you get to this many
conference championship games during by your own and Kyle certainly
has done a great job. I kind of think it's
to me because Sirianni doesn't call plays, and he lets
Steve Strickland do that. Stricken do that, So I would
(19:31):
probably go Zack and then and then Nick because Nick
doesn't really call him. But Nick's two coordinators have done
a great job. You know, I worry Zack when he's
calling the game, Like last week against Buffalo, he was
running the ball really well. Was he gonna get bored
with running? The one thing about Philly is Philly doesn't
get bored with it. Now. I think Philly in that
game will come out throw him. I think Philly is
(19:53):
gonna because whoever gets to lead in the game is
going to be the more dangerous defense. 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. Everybody's basically been fading brock Purty.
Oh he's gonna screw up. He's got seventh round pick
(20:14):
and people have lost a lot of money, all these
sharp and he's perceived sharp gamblers have been getting murdered
fading brock Purdy, and they all want to do it
again this weekend. Um. When I look at what Gannon
does defensively, I mean he gives up the middle of
the field, gives up the run. We're just not giving
up the big play that's gonna play into Shanna Hands
Hands isn't it. I think, well to so what when
(20:36):
you say Purdy is gonna ship the bed right, Yeah,
you're saying you really don't know. You can't say because
Purdy has never been asked to really lay in the bed.
He's been Yeah, he has been able to play from
the front. Yeah, been able to play a play at
in pass game, he's had a Kyle has given him
a lot of easy throws and the kids don't parkable job. Look,
(21:00):
he's done a way better the job than Trade Lance everything.
Oh yeah, let's go back to the Houston preseason game
where Kyle basically said we gotta get to Garoppolo back
because Lance can't do it like Purdy can do it.
And he's made the game easy for Purdy. The problem is,
if you really want to talk about it in football terms,
(21:20):
is Purdy has never had to play from behind. We've
never seen that, and in this game, if he has
to play from behind, that conounds a couple issues. So
the forty offensive line is a run blocking, play action,
pass protection offensive line. If they have to play in
a drop back game, they have a really hard time.
And so if he gets behind and they have to
(21:40):
drop back, those two things come together, make it hard.
First first series of Dallas game, so they sack him
on that they're trying to run the Flair screen out
to the left. He gets sacked. Now it's third and sixteen.
You know they gotta he's gotta it's a drop back
pass game. You can't run a plax, so they gotta
run a bubbles. They gotta run the crooks Lant they
don't get so it's hard. So the only way he's
(22:02):
not he's going to ship the bed is if they
get from behind. That's why to me, both these teams
have to play from in front. It's really important. And
and what San Francisco has to do more than anything
is they've got to win first down. They've got to
be in second and four. When Washington won the game,
Washington was in second and four second. They were getting
positive yards on every play. That's the key for San Francisco. Yeah,
(22:25):
I keep looking at the whole like, oh, Eagles haven't
played anybody. Well, they played five top ten defenses according
to Football Outsiders. Problem is there's backup quarterbacks in three
of those games. And you know, if you never look
at a schedule, like I guess so tired, you look
at the schedule, the schedule or what quarterbacks you play. Yeah,
I mean you know, like like if you're if you're,
(22:47):
if you are uh Damiko. Ryan's right, you're not gonna
watch the New Orleans game with Gardner Minshew and you
get ready for Jalen Hurst because New Orleans them. But
that's not they're gonna be when you play. You watch
the Indie game because that's how they how they attacked
Indie is kind of how they may want to attack you.
(23:09):
You watch the Chicago game because that's how they want
to attack you. So you kind of have to understand
what schemes your opponents, the opponents that run similar schemes.
That gives you the idea of how they want to attack. Yeah.
I look around the internet. I talk to people. I
haven't heard one person. One person might pick the Niners
in this game. Everybody thinks the Eagles. Is it an
(23:31):
overreaction to killing a bad Giants team. Oh, Eagles are back,
hurt is healthy, They're back at full strength. Lane Johnson's
out there. We got this. Not one person taking the night.
I think it's a lot. I mean, I think the
problem San Francisco gave the problems at Dallas cape San
Francisco are real. They're real on the tape, and they're
(23:52):
going to manifest themselves. And if Gannon does change things
up and creates problems for Kyle and changes his look,
Dallas had a lot of different packages in the game.
They had a four man line, they had the three,
they had a double eagle look. They had a lot
of different looks and in San Francisco never really got
got it. They scored, but they held them down. This
(24:14):
isn't gonna be a nineteen to twelve game. This is
gonna get And so I think the reason people like
Philly is because I think at the end of the day,
Philly's offense is more adapt to handle more things than
San Francisco, especially if they get behind. Maybe it was
my untrained eye, but I did not see San Francisco
do anything exotic, creative, nothing that cal Shay usually has
(24:37):
a player to where you're like, damn, that was awesome.
I didn't see any of that against Dallas. I'm not
saying he was holding back, but it felt almost like
a conservative game plan. I think he would I think
he was concerned that they were He wouldn't want to.
I mean he had a hard time blocking him, had
a hard time blocking him. And the speed I think
was overwhelming. I think the speed of Dallas's defense was
a little overwhelming. I don't think they thought I think
(24:59):
they thought they were fast. I don't think they thought
they were that fast. That's where phill is going to
get caught a little bit, because when you play Francisco
and you don't realize how fast they are until you
play them, and Stamford and Doubt is the same way.
Dallas is really fast, and Dallas attacks and so edges
are fast. So all those screens that you're running to
the sideline, you think your your line back, your running
(25:22):
back is gonna be able to not allow the guy
closed on you to make the tackle. He does, And
all of a sudden, this play that looks like you
can go for six yards goes for no yards. Um it.
Let's move away from the game's briefly talk about some
of the coaching moves. Uh. Frank Reich. It was announced
recording this Thursday. Frank Reich is the new coach in Carolina.
(25:42):
You think that's a good fit. I mean, they don't
have a quarterback. But everybody liked ke early in the
end of years, he just had a different quarterback every year.
Do you think he's got a chance there in Carolina?
Because I think everybody thinks Brady's out of Tampa and
all of a sudden, you know in your division that
none of those teams are really good, doesn't kind of look.
I don't think he's gonna go back to Tampa. I think, look, Frank,
(26:04):
I mean I think Frank. You know, Frank recommended Rivers,
Frank recommended Wentz, and I think once those two things
didn't work, I think that became problematic form within the building.
And then I think that building maybe our building to
work in based on what we've seen recently. So you know,
I feel for Steve Wilkes. I think Steve did a
great job. I really do. I think Steve did a
great job for the six games. He goes six and six,
(26:26):
So D J. Moore keeps his hat on. Probably he's
in the playoffs. It's a good point. Do you think
Wright goes back after Wentz because apparently it was the owner,
the crazy owner, or say who got Wentz out of there?
Anybody's gonna go after I don't think anybody is gonna
go after Wins. I think people on the staff that
we're with wins that left Frank last year. One of
the reasons they left was because I don't think they
(26:47):
were really in love with Winz. Yeah, I would agree.
I'm not a fan either. Um, let's go to mind Jets, Michael,
I know you love the Jets obviously. And then Nathaniel Hackett.
Higher I kind of vomited in my mouth when it
first happened. Um, I had read that who was a
Darryl Bevil and Bill Callahan did not even want to
interview for the O C job because of the uncertainty
(27:09):
at quarterback. I don't want to hear that this about
Aaron Rodgers. Um, tell me give me one reason to
be excited for Nathaniel Hackett. Well, I mean, look, you
know I think the reason that's come down you gotta
understand how the NFL works. Right, So your head coach
is best friends with the Lafleur family, Mike and Okay,
(27:31):
and so who does he call? He didn't want to
fire that Mike. He didn't want to fire the older
fire Mike. Whether they say that or not, he was
his best friend. Right, There's no chance and Mike will
probably end up at the Rams as the offensive coordinator
out there, So he went back for advice, and Matt's like,
you should hire Nathaniel if you look at Dathaniel's numbers,
(27:53):
whether it was in whether it was in Jacksonville for
the year, whether it was you know, he had Blake
Bartles one throw away from getting to the super Bowl,
right if he he under throws that seven against the Patriots,
Patriots win that game. You know they were fifteenth overall
in d V O A at year. You know, he's
rarely been outside of the twenties and d B O A.
(28:13):
But he's got better players and he's gonna have to
figure out the quarterback situation. I mean, that offense in
Denver was as bad as it could be. However, that
being said, maybe he's more suited to be a court
da he as a head coach. We can wrap up
with this one, Mike Um. There's a lot of speculation
that Kellen Moore may get shoved out by McCarthy. Now
I can't tell if this is the owner Jerry Jones saying, hey,
(28:37):
we hit we hit a ceiling two years in a
row in the playoffs. We need to make a move.
I don't I'm surprised that they'd be shoving out Kellen Moore.
That that that surprises me. What do you what are
your what's your taking? Well, I think Mike McCarthy, you know,
Mike McCarthy want a super Bowl calling plays. Mike McCarthy
took that job because Jerry told him that Kellen Moore
is a is an up and coming great offensive play caller.
I never feel I feel Kellen Moore calls plays he
(28:59):
doesn't an offense to win the game. Let me give
you an example. Okay, last week against San Francisco, everybody's
focused on the last play of the game. Okay, that
that that's stupid. Don't waste your time on that play.
Let's go back to three o eight to go in
the game, first and ten at the eight team. Okay,
(29:20):
if you're the play caller there and you really understand football,
you can't punt there. And people say, well, the analytics
say you can't punt there. You've got three time outs.
The reason you can't punt there has nothing to do
with analytics. The reason you can't play there in San
Francisco has the best putter in the league by far
of pinning you inside the ten yard line. He's done
it thirty two times this year. Okay, so you can't
(29:42):
punt there because if you punt there, and what they did,
they screwed up the punt. They got it off at
two oh five. But if you punt there, you're gonna
get the ball back, maybe with no timeouts, and you're
gonna have the ball not at your own five yard line.
Maybe you'll have it at the tent, but you're gonna
have to go ninety yards to get the ball back. So,
as a play caller, as somebody who calls plays and
(30:05):
understands how to win the game, you start that drive off.
You know you gotta get yards. It's not like we're
gonna go, let's get it all back at one time,
because we might be in a third, we might be
in a fourth and one, we might be in a
fourth and three. Like you call it so that you
kind of it's not not in two minutes. You're kind
of in a little bit of a hurry up. But
he goes right into two throws, three and complete passes,
(30:27):
burns no time off the clock. Now they got a
punt and they shouldn't have put it. So I think
that when you watch, when I watched out. I see
a guy that calls plays that doesn't understand how to
win the game. That's kind of harsh. But I mean,
I guess I can't totally disagree that. I thought. I
didn't think that was particularly good in that game, But
(30:48):
I guess he's got to have a new offense coming in. Um,
I think hardly. You know that wasn't good and but
you're gonna But I think when they when Cooper Rush
went in, they monitored their offense to fit what they
had to do. And when that comes back, you can't
let dadda has to be modified too. That's the job
(31:08):
of the coach. That's the Bill Walsh used to have
this note stick to his to his desk. What assets
do I have that I'm not using? What assets do
I have that I'm overusing? I think with Dad, better
make sure you're not overusing him. He needs to be
fit in the system. Yeah, well, they gotta keep Pollar
tough off season in Dallas, all right. Michael Lombardi the
Lombardi line on Visa. Thanks a lot, Mike, Thanks Jason,
(31:30):
appreciate you. Good luck people. Dutch 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. The only thing better than sitting on
your couch watching the game. He's making money while you
(31:53):
do it. Here's your best bat good stuff from Michael Lombardi. Yeah,
we spent probably six months working together at FS one.
He would come on, speak for yourself, Me, Lombardi, a
couple other guys. Good times, UM, super league, super interesting character.
I'll never forget. We were in the conference room one
time and Lombardi is like in the corner talking to
(32:14):
someone on the phone. Little do I know he's on FaceTime.
I'm like, oh, who was it? And he shows it
as Josh McDaniels. It's like, this guy Lombardi very connected.
Shall we say, all right, let's get to best bets
for conference Championship weekend? And I will say, I'm sure
the numbers on the pod this week are up a
little bit after last weekend's fairly dominant sweep. UH three
(32:36):
and O on the sides include and then four no.
When you tossed in the Kansas City Chiefs first half,
UH did miss on some props, but if you Parlay
teased you cleaned up. It was an incredible weekend. Here
is the crappy news. I don't know that I have
a ton I'm willing to put on the line in
this game. Do you keep your powder dry for the
(32:57):
Super Bowl? Folks? These are the four best teams. No
spread has touched three yet I don't think Eagles get
to three. Even though McCaffrey uh did not practice the
last two days. Casey is now the favorite. Once again,
it was Cincinnati and now it's Casey Cincinnati on the
Mahomes fears. Here's my thing, uh, and when we'll start
(33:20):
with the first game San Fran Eagles. So I do
believe the four nine will win. I did bet under
twenty three one half. But here's my thing. Smart people
that I trust and I value their opinion seem to
think this will be more of a high scoring game
that people think. The logic is, if Philadelphia gets to
(33:42):
an early lead, the game state will show. Brock Purty
has to throw the football to get San Friend back
in the game, and Philly's big edged on offense is
on the outside, as our guest told you last week,
where you can take advantage of the San fran Corners.
My pushback is, well, how do you know the Eagles
(34:04):
are jump into an early lead? What leads you to
believe that just because they smoked the Giants last week?
We haven't seen the Eagles face a top tier defense
in a while with Jalen Hurts healthy. That's the big
issue with this. Like everybody wants to say the Eagles
are back to being the dominant team, they were okay,
(34:24):
and last week I knew the Eagles were a slam
dun side over the Giants, but that was more about
the Giants being awful. I like the Eagles offense. I
do think that there's gonna be an opportunity for them
to have success, but what they do well the ground
game does not mesh with what San Francisco gives up.
Last week, I think I saw the stat that they were, uh,
(34:46):
the Eagles running backs weren't not getting contact from the
defense for like over two and a half yards. It
might have been three, three point two, whatever the number was,
and it's like, wow, how bad is that defensive line?
They're getting bullied by healthy Eagles. Well, you know who
doesn't get bullied is Armstead and Bosa and the best
linebacking duo in the league, like they're the number one
(35:11):
run stopping defense. This they're They're not going to get
run on. That's just you can't run on this team.
The linebackers are just too fast sideline to sideline guys.
So then you start thinking, okay, well, if they can't run,
can Hurts run? Well, I don't know if if you're
if you're coming off the injury, are you putting Jalen
Hurts in space? Now? It looked like they were doing
(35:31):
it against the Giants, but again that's the Giants are.
Linebackers are terrible. So I don't see where Philly has
a ton of success. And obviously, listen, if Purty falls
behind the most, he's trailed with ten against the Raiders
and they're not good. So I don't know what you
can take away from that game. So yeah, bock Purty
if he's down fourteen, nothing, they're in trouble. But hello,
(35:52):
that hasn't really happened. Let's stop looking at that Chiefs
game where the Chiefs went up and down the field
against the Niners. By the way, that was a second
half thing really where they ran away and hit in
that game. But I do believe san Fran will be
able to move the ball. My thing is usually you
want to defer to the second half. I think that's
the move in this game. I think you want the
ball first. I think san Fran has to be confident.
(36:14):
Kyle Shanahan one of the best play callers in the league.
I think he gets the ball, goes right down the field,
nice little eight minute drive, run, run, run, And that
leads me to one of my first props. If McCaffrey
is not a percent now he said he will play,
but he hasn't practiced. If Mitchell isn't and he said
he will play, he hasn't practiced. I think you've got
(36:34):
to look at Deebo Samuel rushing receiving. I saw the number,
shoot words, it is it seventy four and a half, yes,
seventy four and a half over rushing and receiving yards.
So think about this. If let's say, you know McCaffrey, Mitchell,
if they're okay, or one of them gets banged up,
I mean I think I saw the said Deebo Samuel
(36:56):
has not fumbled this season. They trust him. I like
the kid Mason. You're not giving them ball to Mason
in a pivotal spot early in this game. Are you
maybe late trying to assault it away? But Debo is
your guy. They ride him because they trust him. He's
the Yak King and Philadelphia historically, and we talked about
this with Lobardi. Philadelphia sits back and says, we will
(37:17):
concede the three, four or five six yard plays. We're
not letting you, We're not letting you beat us tat
there will be opportunities for Yak. We know that the
four nine receivers I ucause a really good blocker, Kidles
a really good blocker. There's a chance Debo is gonna
pop with And I don't think parties looking deep, but
I do think Debo can easily top seventy four and
a half rushing receiving yards so under first half under
(37:40):
twenty three one half debot over seventy four and a
half rushing and receiving. And I think for the Eagles side,
I think you have to look at the Jalen Hurts
passing yards over and again. I'm taking the look at
this that again. I believe Philadelphia is going to um
have to throw the ball to get back in this
because I don't think they're gonna be able to run
(38:01):
the football. So I would be looking at Jalen Hurts
over now the numbers kind of high to forty seven
and a half because if San Fran is able to
run the ball and two o'clock, there's not gonna be
a lot of possessions in this one. This is gonna
be sand Frand grinding it out. Jalen Hurts sitting on
the sideline, and is he gonna be able to pop
a big one? Everybody wants to point to Hey, remember
the last time these two teams met, Quiz Watkins caught
(38:23):
like a ninety yard pass. I think he got tackled
at the one. They can pop a big one. I
think they can pop a big one. A J. Brown
is definitely a threat. But one of the things sand
Frand does is they play a lot of zone defense.
They mix it up. When you've got fast linebackers that
can cover, you've got safeties that can ping around. I
mean mofonga, he's in the box, he's deep, he's everywhere.
(38:44):
This is a defense that's gonna play. Try to play
tricks on Jalen Hurts. Dak Prescott, you did see him
tuck and run a little bit and I had a
buddy forty Niners fan because watch the team. He's like,
running quarterbacks have given us problems. I'm like, I just
it's tough for me to see Jalen Hurts sticking his
body on the line with that injury. I mean, if
he goes down Gardner Minshew like, listen, we've seen him.
(39:04):
He's limited. He's not terrible, but he's limited. He's definitely
not the best backup in the league at any rate.
I would look at Jalen Hurts passing yards and I
do think ultimately the Niners win. I don't know about
a teaser because I mean, listen, there's a scenario where
they get blasted, UM and they literally get blown out
and run out of Philadelphia. UM, Philadelphia at night can
(39:25):
be very dicey. This game will and you know what,
seven o'clock at seven o'clock issue dark, it's gonna be
freezing that that scene at Lincoln Financial. Go ask Kirk
Cousins about it from earlier this season. UM, remember the
Vikings in the conference championship game. And if this Philadelphia
offense gets rolling with the big playability of Brown and
(39:47):
Davante Smith after the catch brock Purty. You know, I'm
not fading Brock pretty, but the scenario to me easily
exists where rookie quarterback conference championship they're owing for straight
up one and three against the spread. I talked to
Mark sante Is about his first conference championship game. It
was in Indie. They got beat down. Um, they got
(40:10):
him back the next year, but it was a bit
of a beat down. And these rookie quarterbacks, listen, it's
a top You don't want to make a mistake. That's obvious.
I mean, playing at home one thing. Now going on
the road, just it's it's a tall order for pretty.
I'm still leaning to the Niners. You know, if Philly
does go up fourteen, that will be the super interesting one.
Do you go ahead and bet Philly, hey, they're gonna
(40:31):
run away with this, or do you trust Shanahan to
come back? We shall see. Shannahan great game planner. By
the way, Shanahan seven and one against the spread in
the Playoffsky is good. Just insulting away those leads has
been a bit of an issue. All right, Onto the
other one. Bengals chiefs. Now, you guys know, earlier in
the week, I told you. I think it was Monday
(40:51):
that when the line came out, I saw Bengals at
pick them. I said, listen, anything under Bengals to and
a half you gotta smash. So I did hit it.
Pick them. Um. Now that Mahomes looks healthy, but we
don't know how healthy. We don't. It's still got a
plant and pass um. I am looking at playing um well.
(41:12):
I did play Kansas City Chiefs first half on the
money line minus one sixteen in this three game set,
and I know that's a tiny sample size. Read comes
out with unbelievable game plans. I know everybody who wants
to look at the Bengals last week and jumping out
on the Bills, I tossed that out. I Buffalo just
they just they were not the side there. You guys
(41:32):
know we were all over Bengals. I do believe Andy
Reid comes out at home. There is some bad blood
between these two teams. Bengals are running their mouth a lot.
I like Andy Reid. It's just the master game planner.
I think they come out, they get an early lead.
Now whether or not they can hold onto it. You know,
I'm reluctant to bet she's full game, because do we
(41:54):
know if Mahomes is gonna make the full game. I don't.
I do know one thing, Joe Burrow is never out
of a game. That guy, as long as he's got
chased on the field with him and they're not playing
the Browns, Joe Burrows in the mix, the defense is
gonna keep him in it, and Burrow will make the place.
I would look at rushing yards over for Burrow. And
(42:15):
it's kind of a reverse of last week. So last
week the offensive line down three guys. That was the
talking point, and they were fine. Some people want to
say it was the snow. Other people want to say
it was the Buffalo pass rush, probably a combination. That
being said, Chris Jones and Frank Clark are much better
than anybody Buffalo had last week. And I do believe
(42:36):
Burrow will be under some duress. I do believe he
will be scrambling. I don't know. I'm not ready to
say for his life, but I think the opportunity is there.
And remember the Chief's linebackers other than Bolton, I don't
think are particularly great. So I can see Joe Burrow
getting on, running up, just escaping the pocket and doing
his best to pick up yardage as opposed to make mistakes.
(42:58):
So there, I think they're two way to attack that.
Two ways to attack that. Number one for UM rushing props.
See if see what number you got on Burrow. I
see a seventeen and a half. I mean, folks, that's
that's two runs. You know that's easily two or three runs.
I think Burrow will be under duress, and I think
escaping is one way to bet it. The other way
(43:21):
to bet it is who's he going to be dumping
off too? And the answer is not necessarily Joe Mixon.
I think you need to see what you could get
for some j p Ryan, who actually is more of
a receiving back than Mixing and what else. The Chiefs
are very poor defending running backs out of the backfield.
(43:41):
They ran twenty eight according to Football Outsiders Now in
the last meeting, p Ryan had six for forty nine
through the air. Mixing was injured when the cold speak
Kansas City. UM They're running backs had eight catches for
forty three yards. Devin Singletary when Buffalo beat him earlier
this year, four for twenty two. It's just like like
Bolton a lot. He's number thirty two. He's got like
(44:02):
the braids. Guy flies around, makes a million tackles. Other
than Bolton, I don't really think their safeties are gonna
be coming up looking to tackle p Ryan. I think
they're gonna be focused on Jamaar Chase and Tee Higgins
on the outside. So I think p Ryan easily you know,
three or four or five catches up in the thirties. Um,
I think that's a play. I really like p Ryan over.
(44:24):
I'm seeing sixteen and a half right now at one
one book. Now, obviously, you guys saw the gambling ads
we did. Listen. Draft Kings has done a great job
putting some advertising out there. There's a lot of you
never want to say free money because that's kind of
lame and um cheesy if you will. But the way
I look at it, if you play it smart with
(44:46):
some of this free money that draft Kings is offering,
it could be a really nice weekend for you, assuming
you didn't fire last weekend. So for the game on
pot committed on Bengals, um pick them easily, buy out
of that. I think my one concern, and I know
this is this is not the most in depth penetrating
(45:07):
analysis but or Andy Reid and Pat Mahomes really gonna
lose four straight to Cincinnati Bengals. And I asked that
because I was on the Chiefs in the meeting earlier
this year. Chiefs are up a touchdown, they're driving Travis
Kelsey fumble, Travis Kelsey almost never fumbles, and then Andy
Reid made a catastrophic mistake later in the game. It
(45:29):
was like fourth and seven could have gone for it.
I mean, it's the Chiefs, it's Mahomes. He opts to
kick a fifty five yard field goal, and special teams,
which has not been good at all for the Chiefs
much of the season, failed him. I don't know, guys. Ultimately,
I think Kansas City now it probably prevails if Mahomes
(45:51):
is healthy. I don't but I already bet Bengals. I
do have some futures on the Bengals. I think I
have plus four ten to win the a f C
from earlier the Sea, and I have some forty Niners,
so I probably should heads with the Eagles, But I
don't know. I think this is one this game I
feel less sure about than Eagles Niners. If you go
(46:12):
at one without fail, go ask a couple of buddies.
Who you got this weekend? I will guarantee if you
ask ten, nine are on the Eagles. If you only
ask five, I guarantee you four are on the Eagles.
Nobody has taken Brock Purdy and Kyle Shanahan in the spot.
Maybe that's what good reason. But you know what, who
everybody liked last week? Everybody? Oh Giants getting seven and
(46:34):
a half. Come on, everybody like Dallas last week? Just
be careful when the when the masses are headed one way.
Al Right, guys, that's a long pod heading into Conference
championship week. Can be safe out there, have fun. Talk
to you Monday.
Host
Jason McIntyre
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