On today’s episode, Jason discusses why he’s so down on Sam Darnold and the Minnesota Vikings in the wake of their blowout loss to the Detroit Lions on Sunday Night Football, why you shouldn’t be surprised that Tyreek Hill wants out of Miami and which NFL coaches are most likely to get the axe on Black Friday. Plus, J-Mac gives us a way-too-earlyNFL Wild Card round preview from a wagering perspective.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up? Straight Firefam, It's me Jason McIntyre. Straight
Fire for Monday, January sixth. The ladies and gentlemen, we're back.
Everybody's back. The holiday break is over. If you still
have Christmas decorations, you may want to get those down.
And most importantly, the NFL playoffs are here. The brackets
(00:34):
are set. I have already fired four bets on wild
Card weekend. It looks like a decent card. I'm very
excited for it. We'll get to that shortly. Good to
have Rob g back in the fold. We're going over
the NFL topics and you know, Rob of course loves
the NBA like I do. And there's some NBA stuff happening.
(00:57):
We're just not going to get into it now. I
will say I ran in to an NBA assistant coach
at the car wash on Friday and this guy, you know,
I didn't know it was him at the beginning, but
this like, h I feel bad outing his vehicle, but
he this large individual gets out of a cyber truck
and it was like all juiced up like Matt Black.
(01:19):
I think I'm pretty sure it was. And you know
he's on his phone and I'm like, I know that guy.
Oh okay, and so I, you know, have my car
go through. So I see him sitting and waiting. He's
on his phone and I rolled right up give him
the head nod. He gives me the head nod. I'm like,
what's up, man? How are you? Should I say his
name Robert No, I don't think he's gonna care. You know,
(01:42):
Brian Shaw, former Laker great played with and Shack and
he was super friendly. I was like, yeah, you know,
blah blah blah, I'm on blah blah blah. And we
start getting into it and I'm like, so, uh, what'd
you think of the Berkley stuff? And he takes like
a beat and then I go I just like kind
of jump in. I'm like, I'm Jason Monroe. By the way,
(02:04):
my Barkley butcherd my last name. I'm Jason McIntyre. He's like, oh,
you're the guy. I was like yeah, and he starts
laughing and we start talking about it, and listen, I
will say Brian Shaw was super friendly, extremely nice. I
now know three guys who I've talked to on the
Clipper staff and it's just a super nice guy. He
(02:24):
was extremely in a cordial man. It was a totally
cordial conversation, very defensive rob about nineties two thousands basketball
of course, like he's got I mean, it was just
it was a little comical and yeah, I'll just it
was a friendly conversation. We had like ten minutes a
banter while the cars were getting dried. Super friendly. But
I would just say, he he definitely is defending Charles
(02:46):
Barkley and he thinks the Kobe shack Lakers would smoke
the Kadi Warriors with Curry. And I was just like,
come on, bro, anyway, do you guys don't care about that?
So Sunday Week eighteen, I will preface this. I don't
feel comfortable talking about anything that happened on Sunday. My
daughter had a volleyball tournament in Anaheim. We race back.
(03:07):
I coached two youth basketball games. We got we won
both games. And then I get home and I'm able
to fire up Lions Viking. I'm expecting a great game.
I had the Vikings in the contest. Vikings continue to
shoot their foot in the red zone and Detroit eventually
pulls away in the fourth quarter. The Jamir Gibbs game
(03:27):
and the Lions get the dub They are the number
one seed in the NFC fifteen and two. Just an
unbelievable season for the Lions. They get a buye in
the NFC. The Vikings get sent to face the Rams
at Sofi. I'm already efforting tickets. Should be a hell
(03:48):
of a game on that's the Monday night game, Vikings
at Rams. I gotta be honest. I was shocked the
Vikings were favored. I instantly took the juice on the Rams.
Plus three was like, well, minus one thirty five, and
then I was like, you know what, I'll take that,
and I'll take the plus two and a half at
minus one eleven or whatever it was. So I'm on
the Rams in that game. Instant bet. And it's not
(04:09):
like a cell of the Vikings. They had an outstanding season.
They were tremendous. I think the reality of the Vikings
is they're probably closer to the team we saw against
the Lions than the team that smashed the Packers a
week before. You know, and now they have to go
and face the Rams again. Remember they lost to the Rams.
(04:31):
I think it was Thursday night football. There was a
questionable face mask in the end zone. So I like
the Rams in that one. And again I'm not I
don't think the Vikings are crap. Obviously, they had an
outstanding season. Fourteen and three is nothing to scoff at.
It's just a tough draw. It's just a difficult one.
And I didn't like what I saw from Sam Darnoldy
picked a bad time to have his worst game of
(04:51):
the season, or close to it, folks. He was eighteen
of forty one, eighteen to forty one. Now, I don't
want to totally say it's all his fault. Aaron Glenn
did cook up a very good game plan and Donald
just looked confused and rattled. I'm sure some of the
stuff that was put on tape by Aaron Glenn will
be used by the Rams next week. And I don't know, Rob,
(05:12):
I just you know, I never bought into Sam Donald
as an MVP candidate. He had a great season, that's okay,
but I think we saw some limitations.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
He had.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
All his dudes, Aaron Jones, Cam Akers, Jefferson, Jordan Addison
was held with one catch on six targets for zero yards.
And remember this is a Lion's team that's so beat up.
So Rob, I don't know. I'm kind of off the Vikings.
I thought they had a great season, something to build on,
but I had I didn't believe any of the stuff
(05:40):
I was seeing. I'm not gonna call out reporters. Last
week Rob that claimed, Hey, the Vikings could keep Sam Donald,
keep Daniel Jones as the backup, and trade JJ McCarthy
for a whole. And I read that, I'm like, that's insanity,
and I'm obviously listening ca I do this with Coward.
(06:01):
I'm not gonna call him out. He was pushing that eggle.
I'm not gonna go totally blasting. I was like, I
don't think there's anything to that. The reality is, you
really think that a quarterback coming off two knee surgeries
I think, or maybe one was a surgery, when was
a cleanup, It's gonna have a ton of value on
the market after sitting out a year. Who's dealing for that?
(06:21):
If you think there's gonna be a hole for that.
And then this idea that Donald is like a franchise quarterback.
I don't think he's Baker Mayfield. I'm not baster Donald yet.
Excellent season, got a lot of talent. He's with Kevin O'Connell.
He's got great talent around him. I think, in my
opinion from what I've seen, brock Purty's more talented the
same Donald. I know that's a hot take. And Donald
went top five and Party was the last pick, not
(06:43):
a knock. I've just seen more from Purdy and this
was Donald's outlier year. I think he can have a
solid season. I think he could be somewhere between Baker
Mayfield and like Gino Smith and listen, those guys are
going to the playoffs the last come years. So I
don't know Robot. I'm not out on the Vikings that
don't want to totally crap on them, but I think
(07:05):
they were a little limited.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
This is one of those games where if you had
any preconceived notion about Sam Donald either direction.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
You were justified.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Yeah, because Sam Donald. If you just look at the
raw numbers, Okay, if you are a Sam Donald believer
like I am, in the first half alone, he was
pressure on almost sixty percent of his dropbacks. Like, I
don't care who Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson is.
None of them are going to perform under that kind
of pressure nobody. Okay, on the flip side, if you
(07:38):
are a Sam Donald hater. In the first half alone,
he was off target on fifty percent of his passes.
On the season. He had never had a game higher
than twenty two percent off target. So it was the
worst possible game at the worst possible time.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
And here's another one.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
This is to your point about you know, this game
was basically won and lost in the red zone because
the Lions converted the vikings, didn't you know, basically the
end of story. Sam Donald in the red zone two
for eleven seven yards, according to the thirty thirteam, the
lowest passer rating in NFL history by any quarterback who's
(08:17):
attempted at least ten passes inside the red zone. Now
I don't know if that's true, but when I read
it, it sounded true. So it's like, I don't know if
both statements can be true. That Sam Donald is is
pretty good. He just got his ass kicked by an
incredible defensive performance by the Detroit Lions, which I believe,
or if you're in this anti Sam Donald camp, he
(08:39):
became who Sam Donald has been for you know, the
last six seven years. He's got He's a guy with
a lot of talent. He's got you know, great arm strength,
he's got a you know, athleticism. But his calling card
up until this season was man, I'm seeing ghosts out there.
And that was how everybody remembered Sam Donald. That when
(08:59):
you got after him and he made him a little
bit uncomfortable, he was gonna melt down faster than a
snow cone in Phoenix, And you know, it was just
one of those situations. So it's fitting though that the
Minnesota Vikings this season have only lost to two teams,
the Detroit Lions twice the Rams once. If things go
(09:22):
the way that we expect them to go, they're gonna
have to beat the Rams in the wildcard round for
an opportunity to face the Detroit Lions in the divisional round.
So I guess I would understand why you're not too
high in Minnesota hitting.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Out the money.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
I mean again, they're one of the bigger stories today
because they had a game that mattered a lot, Like
we're not going to dig into the Falcons missing the
playoffs and the Panthers eclipsing their win total. I thought
the Vikings let down at the end of Week eight
was significant. As good as they were the week prior
against the Packers, they were kind of that bad. I mean,
oher for four in the red zone ain't gonna cut
it against anybody. Now. The Rams defense is not this good,
(09:56):
but the Lions defense ain't great.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Now.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
I'm just trying to get run up and down the
field dog walked as they say bye by brock perty So,
I don't know, I just not a lot to be
optimistic about for the Vikings.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
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listen live.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
I don't know, Rob, do you want to go through
the wildcard lineup? Should we talk about Tyreek Hill? Should
do the coaching black Monday?
Speaker 3 (10:26):
Tyreek Hill's story is wild to me.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Well, it's not that wild because you know the take
police called and I hit one.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
Guys.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
You remember, you can go run the tape back in October,
early October, Tyreek Hill, I would move off him at
the deadline. I set it on the pod, set it
on the herd. It was to the point that a
bunch of Miami Dolphins bloggers picked it up and Ian
Rappaport took a jab at me. Tyreek Hill does not
want out of Miami. I saw Jason McIntyre's report AKA
(10:57):
The Big League. You know, he's said said all this.
It was funny and people scoffed. But you could see
the writing on the wall too. It goes down. The
offense stinks, the backups are rotten. Tyreek got his money.
Now he wants a ring, right, you could see it,
or another ring because he got one with the Chiefs.
And Tyreek comes out after the loss to the Jets,
which that's a bad loss, but again they had Snoop
(11:21):
Untley going, you know, like that's not very exciting. But
here's where it gets ugly for Tyreek is he decided,
I'm so ticked off, I don't want to go in
the game. I mean, this was kind of Antonio brownish.
He decided he did not want to go back in
the game. He was frustrated for missing the playoffs for
the first time in his career. He said, I don't
(11:41):
even know, broh, this is my first time I haven't
been in the playoffs. For me, I just have to
do his best for me and my family. If that's
here or wherever the case may be. I'm about to
open that door for myself. I'm out, bro. He went
from like, I gotta do it first with my family.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
I'm out.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
It was great playing here, but at the end of
the day, I have to do his best for my career.
I'm just too mych of a competitor to be here.
That's hars Man. Before the season began, he got a
restructured deal five years, one hundred and six million. He
has two years remaining on the extension he signed in
twenty twenty two. He could say all he wants. I
(12:17):
don't know that the Dolphins are gonna move off him,
and I don't think he has the intestinal fortitude to
sit out till he gets his deal. We're seeing some
of this with Jimmy Butler in Miami and the heat
suspended him for seven games. I don't know what the
heat are gonna suspend Hill for. But you know, if
you're Tyreek Hill, I think at this point you gotta wonder, like,
are my best days behind me? You know, I was
(12:38):
catching passes for from Patrick Mahomes, but I turned thirty
one in March, and you know, receivers start to slow down. Yes,
even the Cheetah. Okay, this was by far his worst
statistical year. I'm going through. I'm pretty sure. Yeah, yeah,
this is by a mile. I mean, the last two
years he had one hundred and nineteen catches and over
(12:59):
seven in over seventeen hundred yards.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
This year.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Garbage. I mean, coming into the Jets game seventy nine
for nine thirty nine and only six touchdowns, which is
a career low. It's not good tying for his what
he did as a rookie with the Chiefs. So I
don't know, Rob, I think they should have moved off
of him. They didn't. Now they're stuck with him and
now he's their headache. And I don't even know if, like,
(13:24):
is there going to be a clamor for I've got
to get into Tyreek kill business? Like, is anybody saying that.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
That's a very good question, because this time a year ago,
he was voted as the best player in the NFL,
not the best wide receiver, not the best offensive player,
the best overall player in the NFL, ahead of wait
where was that? Remember the NFL players vote. He was
ahead of Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Micah Parsons.
(13:52):
You know, pick whoever your your guy, TJ, whoever your
guy is. They said, no, no, no, he's the one. He's
the best guy. And this situation in Miami is interesting
because based on his comments, it seems like his issue
you would say, like, oh, missus Patrick Mahmes, I'm sure
that's part of it. But he seems to be a
really big fan of Tua and he's that Hey, the
(14:15):
fact that we didn't have QB one out there for
a while really derailed our season, and that was a
big problem. His issue seems to be entirely directed at
Mike McDaniel and the front office, specifically the GM, whereas
at Chris Career. The problem, though, is after the game
ended on Sunday, the Dolphins team announced McDaniel and Greer
(14:39):
are going to be back for twenty twenty five. So
it seems like it would be untenable to have Tyreek
Hill there when he clearly has an issue with the
guys in charge. And then the problem from there is
whether they trade him, whether they cut him. I'm not
gonna cut him obviously, whatever team picks him up, his
(15:00):
app number for the next two years twenty seven point
seven and fifty one point nine that that's not gonna happen.
So someone's gonna have to trade for him, extend him,
do it again. And now you're pushing it off to
what he's thirty four to thirty five years old, Like,
I don't just make a run of him a year
or two ago. They did, they did, but he said no.
Remember he chose Miami because I.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Don't want anything to do with him at this point.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
Right, So, like I don't know what team.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
I mean, if you look at if you look just
at the cap space, like there's there's teams that have
cap space. But I don't know where he would go
outside of maybe Washington where you could say the quarterback
position is an improvement or even comparable to what he
has in Miami, Like the Raiders don't have it. I
don't think New England has it, you know, I don't
(15:46):
think Chicago is it with Kayleb Williams.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
One for you if you're Washington and you have Cliff
Kingsbury coming back, Jade Daniels, Terry McLaurin. Would you rather
go after Tyreek Hill or Deebo Samuel Oh, here's one?
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Would you rather go after Tyreek Killer Devonte Adams.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
But I thought he only wanted to play with.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
Rogers's whatever, Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
I brought up Debo because I think he's cheaper. My
guess is I think Niners.
Speaker 4 (16:15):
Yeah, I think he'll be gone.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
If the Niners keep Purty and pay him, let's just
say forty forty five million dollars, They're gonna have to
get off some guys, and I think you get off Deebo.
Piersall kind of flashed there late in the season. I
don't know if you saw his gun shot celebration. Yeah,
I will be back Juwan Jennings Kittle, so they could
still have guys and then Deebo, I think will have
(16:39):
I think he would have more value than Tyreek. That
would just be my guess, because you could do so
many more things with Debo, you know.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
I mean, I don't want to short change, and Tyreek
Hill is awesome, Like I don't know how much it means,
though he did play through a wrist injury, so that's
part of it. The other thing is like he just
he seemed very unhappy and disinterested in my hand. Like
it goes back to you know, the the Instagram love
to Patrick Mahomes and these really weird videos that he
was sharing on his stories, like, man, I miss this
(17:09):
and this is just it was just really awkward, like
for anybody in Miami that he's throwing hard eyes this
flagrantly at Kansas City. So maybe a change of scenery.
But again, I don't know where he's gonna go outside
of Washington that has the capsman used to acquire him.
Where he's gonna be happy with the quarterback situation.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
It'd be probably quarterback on a rookie deal. Here's the issue.
Like the Bears went and got Keenan Allen, DJ Moore, No, no,
they didn't get Dj Moore for that Roma dudon day right.
Obviously not neither of those guys is Tyreek Hill. But
you spend on a wide receiver. The Texans went and
Scott Diggs. None of those moves worked out receivers. Let's
(17:49):
be real. You need him in the regular season, but
to kind of sort of overrated, to overpay for them.
I'm looking at Tyree Hill's game. Look, I know to
have missed a bunch of games. Do you want to
know just easy basic stuff? Do you want to know
how many one hundred yard games? Tyreek Hall. Had Hill
had the season ooh one. Now, the opener he had
twelve for one thirty against Jacks. Then he had fourteen
(18:12):
for one fifteen against the Jets, and then last week
against the Browns nine for one hundred and five. That's it.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
So he was that rad the other ten games where
he only had four hundred yards.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
And the other problem is like he didn't have two
I know, but what about the off field stuff? I mean, listen,
I don't want to bring this up and make it
like an issue, but depending on what website you read,
he's got like I don't know, seven kids with five
women or some ridiculous number and relative yeah, definitely. And
(18:44):
it's again, off the field, he can be a headache.
I know he had the arrest, but that wasn't totally
his fault. The cops freaked out, he was a little
combative whatever. I don't know, guys, it just feels very
very strange that someone would be like, oh, we got
to get him Tybary kill business, you know.
Speaker 4 (19:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
I mean that's the other thing is, let's say you
get him and it is a team on a rookie quarterback.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
Let's say it's Washington or Chicago.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
You have to have the infrastructure around him to support them, right,
because I mean, if the way that things looks like
are ending in Miami, that's not a good look for him,
just like it wasn't a good look for Digs in Buffalo.
Like you want to go to a place that has
a strong personality, a head coach, a strong leadership at
quarterback to where this is not going to become an
(19:31):
issue where he does this again.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
I'm looking at the playoff numbers. I mean they're they're
nothing special. I guess his second to last year in
Kansas City. He had a good postseason thirty one, I'm sorry,
twenty four for three, fifty five, I forget which one
of those. They lost the Super Bowl to the Bucks.
But he was invisible in that game. Remember he threw
(19:57):
up the deuces in that was like his thing. I'm gone.
And then somebody drilled him and then put up the piece.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
They get an interception and they threw up a peace
on it. I think, yeah, that was it.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
But so I don't know. I'm just I know he
seems awesome, but like i I'm no, no, no thanks,
not like a hard pass, just to just to no thanks.
Let's see here, Let's quickly go to the coaches that
are going to get fired. We don't know about McCarthy.
Doug Peterson is absolutely gone. Shane Steichen is staying. According
(20:29):
to the Titans, they they got the number one pick,
Gerrod Mayo.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
I mean, Stike is from the culture, Callahan from the Titans.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Callahan from the Titans. You're right, Stikeen Colts, he's staying.
Callahan has not been given the vote of confidence. It
could be because they have the number one pick that
the coaches are like, hey, do we want you do
or do we want cam You know Callahan? What do
you you know? Like, maybe he's not going to be there. Guy,
he is an offensive dude. He had Burrow, I would
(20:57):
keep him. I think he stays. Peterson's toast. McCarthy will see.
I don't know if he stays. That was my hot
take last week that if I was mcarthy, I'd be
like yeah. And then the interesting one was Gerard Mayo,
who I thought had a rough season and all the
people are like defending him. You know, there's this weird
narrative out there, rob that of the coaches on the
(21:19):
hot seat, everybody's so defensive of the black head coaches, like, oh, well,
that's just not right, and it's like, well, wait a
minute here, what has Gerd Mayo done to instill any
confidence going forward? He has been a disaster all season.
He's clearly out of his depth as a head coach.
It felt kind of sort of like a half assed
(21:41):
nod to Belichick, and hey, he was a Belichick guy,
but he's gonna be different because he's young and cool,
and I don't know they fired him, and I saw
some former Patriots were like a little outrage. Did I
get that? Obviously, one year's not really enough time, but like,
you have an entire year, make an impact on the organization,
on the locker room, on the players. This is a
(22:03):
guy who in the preseason said we're playing our best
quarterback and he decided that best quarterback was not Drake
may and Drake May was by a mile their best quarterback.
And don't tell me, well, maybe by October he was
their best stop like he Mayo just wasn't very good
worse yet. Now, I don't think it had anything to
(22:24):
do with beating the Bills, do you rob didn't help?
Speaker 4 (22:27):
But I don't think so but yeah, it didn't help.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Yeah, so I think they're set at quarterback. It's not
a great year to have the number one pick anyway,
they have the fourth pick. Here's my thing this is
this might be a hot take. I do not like
the Patriots at all. I'm a Jets fan. I have
rooted against the Patriots. I think with May they've got
something like Rob who's in a better spot, the Titans
(22:50):
drafting one, or the Patriots with May and no head coach.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
Oh, the Patriots for sure.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Yeah, because May we know is good, like he flashed
more more than once a season. I don't know what's
more attractive Jacksonville with Trevor Lawrence in that big fat contract,
or May and the Patriots. I think you got to
give that some thought.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
Drake May.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Yeah, I don't. I don't know who's even once the
Jacksonville job. It's it's it's just weird. I mean maybe
it's because we haven't seen enough of May. But I
like what I've seen and I hate the Patriots. So
we'll see what happens that. It's an interesting job. I
don't really know, Like is that are we gonna hand
this to Mike Rabel?
Speaker 3 (23:34):
It certainly feels that way. Like the way that it
was being reported on Sunday before the firing even came
through with Dard Mayo was that teams wanted to get
an early start on this because the top two candidates
are Mike Rabel, who's available now you can talk to
him whenever as soon as the season's over, and Ben Johnson,
(23:56):
and nobody's expecting Ben Johnson to become available for at
least least three four weeks the minimum, Like you're you're
expecting them to get to the super Bowl. And so
if you're a team like the Patriots, who realistically are
not a super attractive job for a guy like Ben Jonson,
Ben Johnson and Shelle's gonna be very selective, then you
want to make sure you get in early on the
(24:18):
next best guy. And Rabel has a lot of the
qualities that they'd hope that Jond Mayo would have, where
it seems like he's a leader of a man. He's you know,
very sound and discipline and things like that, and the
fact that he's a former Patriot like that cannot be understated.
You know, the Patriots are similar to like the Lakers,
where it's like, hey, being a former Patriot mean something.
Being a former Laker means something to them, right or wrong.
(24:40):
They romanticize the hell out of it. And so for
them to get a head start on all of this
where maybe they can lock up Rabel before anybody really
has a chance to talk to him, like that might
be a win for them.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Yeah. Have you checked in on any Bengals fans?
Speaker 3 (24:57):
I saw stat They have the touchdown leader, the triple
crown winner, the sacks leader, and they missed the playoffs.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
They don't have much outside of that apparently not. Oh,
by the way, we forgot one of the coach. How
you feeling about Antonio Pierce? Does he get gotten toda?
Speaker 3 (25:14):
Oh gosh, I hope he does. I think he will
because I think Tom Brady is gonna, you know, flex
his muscle and get a culture change in there. But
I don't know. It's hard to trust Mark Davis. I
have you've seen his haircut? Like, you can't trust the
guy who makes it, like a ask for that haircut.
Speaker 4 (25:33):
That's a judgment at all.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Drafting sixth overall, So the order is the Titans one
do go quarterback? The Browns two. I don't know, man,
I think they're probably gonna go quarterback.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
I think they should, but the people around Cleveland expect
that they're gonna go Kirk Cousins and then go with
Travis Hunter or somebody at two.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
Whoever, the best player.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Is Kirk Cousins. Interesting, that's not the worst taken though.
I don't mind that.
Speaker 4 (26:05):
But I mean, he's gonna be free. Basically, he's gonna
be what.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
He's gonna be. Yeah, he's gonna be free. Giants fall
to third, so I guess they could get a quarterback.
Patriots fourth, Jaggs fifth, Raiders sixth, my Jet seventh after
Aaron Rodgers led them to a victory, a hollow victory.
The Carolina Panthers go five and twelve. If you remember
from the preseason, Adam Chernoff and his group bet the
(26:28):
Panthers win total up over four and a half. I
think it moved to five and they cast with an
overtime victory. Eighteen the Saints. That's a hapless franchise. I
don't know if that's even an attractive job at all.
Saints are at nine, Bears at ten Bears one. They
beat the Packers yesterday. I didn't see it. Niners eleven,
(26:50):
Cowboys twelve, and let's wrap up with the always fun
NFL playoff bracket.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Yeah, catch all of our shows at foxsports
Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR
to listen live.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Here are let me open it. Here are the games
in order, Wildcard Weekend, Chargers at Texans Saturday. It's Chargers
favored by three on the road. Oh my, did the
Chargers rust guys today or play them?
Speaker 1 (27:28):
No?
Speaker 3 (27:28):
They played them. They wanted to move up in the bracket.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
And that's right, Chargers favorite on the road. I guess
I would lean Chargers, but I might have to take
the points with the home That's a tough one. I
need some more time. Like I think the Chargers win,
do they cover? I don't. I don't know if that's
a lock. Let me see, how did Dobbins do? Did
you watch any of that game?
Speaker 3 (27:52):
I mean I had it on, But you know, other
than I'm hoping my team lost, I wasn't locked into
it the way I probably should have. I was more
locked in actually to our jets. You know, they were
my jets. I was walking with the r Jets and
the Dolphins than I was.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Just a bit outside there. JK. Dobbins eighteen for sixty three,
Quentin Whoa, Quinton Johnson thirteen for one eighty six, Damn
Lad McConkie had a nice little game. So it seems
like they're getting healthy. I see no sacks. It looks
like Bosa did Oh no Bosa played. He had two
(28:28):
quarterback hits.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Well, I think this line says more about the Texans
than the Chargers.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Yeah, nobody's buying.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
People are off the Texans in a big way, which
is you would have never guessed that coming into the season,
like they were the new hotnet like them and the Lions,
where like, hey, this could be a super Bowl team
right here.
Speaker 4 (28:43):
Look at C. J.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
Stroud and his progression has been anything but linear. It's
almost been a step back if you were to look
at it in some ways. And no digs, no Tank Dell,
it's Nico Collins, Joe Mixon kind of struggled because the
injury down the stretch a little bit, the kind of
one down. So I just don't I think people just
off on the Texans right now more than the Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
I mean, then maybe they show up, you know, if
you want to tease the Texans up to plus ten.
You know, Chargers don't blow a lot of good teams out.
It could be in interest the Saturday night game on
Amazon Prime, Steelers at Lamar Jackson. There's a big old number,
Ravens nine and a half. Now. Historically in this series,
(29:26):
it's been close, and I think a lot of the
trend betters, and I'm not one of them, would and
by the way, trend Better's got annihilated this year, I
think they would. They would probably take the points with
the Steelers. I don't know, I mean, have you I
don't know if you guys have watched football and track
the numbers here over the last four weeks. But the
Steelers are in a free fall, like without a parachute.
(29:47):
They have lost four in a row. That lost to
the Bengals was brutal. Worse yet is the Pickens situation.
I think officially he was credited with three drops. He
had one catch on six targets for zero yards. He
looked frustrated. He was jaw jacking with a fan and
I forget I don't think it was what but somebody
(30:09):
came over and separated him and before he did something
really dumb, and the Steelers just looked listless at home.
Russell Wilson has lost his fastball. This was against the
Bengals guys, and we saw them against the Ravens on
was it Christmas Day it might have been, and they
got just pulverized. Ravens buried him and the Chiefs smacked him.
(30:32):
They're just not playing good football now, and I don't
see it. So I think the Ravens are fine there.
I know it's a big number, that's.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
A huge ruff.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
A lot of people are gonna balk out it. If
you're looking for a Saturday teaser, Texans up Ravens down
to two and a half, I would wait on Zay Flowers.
He got banged up against the Bengals. It looked worse
than it was. But I think they're expecting him to miss.
I don't know that it matters. I just I don't
trust the Steelers defense at all or offense at all
(31:00):
right now. They are in a massive funk. So are
you in alignment? Chargers and Ravens are rob Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
I mean the teaser I think is to play just
because nine and a half is such a big number.
I mean, as bad as the Steelers' offense has looked
over the last month. Remember a month ago, it wasn't
just that Russell Wilson was gonna be the guy. It
was like, how big of an extension he's gonna get?
Like that, That's what the commentary was. And now it's like, well, shit,
have you seen him the last six weeks? Like he's
(31:26):
looks like a shot fighter right now, Like their offense
is falling apart and the Ravens are going out like
they're surging. So but the problem is nine and a
half in a playoff game against a divisional opponent that
historically has you know, owned you other than this last game.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
And Lamar in the playoffs has been kind of sort
of bottled up historically. Yeah, so just obviously be careful
there the Sunday games Broncos, that bills the early game
on CBS. I already laid it. I somehow this opened
at like eight, I see it at nine, trending toward
nine and a half. I'm just telling you it's not
(32:04):
a trend at this point. It's just you know, historically,
rookie quarterbacks have really struggled in the playoffs. Like the
numbers are pretty ghastly I do believe the Bills kind
of wipe out the Broncos here. I know the Broncos
look good in the thirty eight zero beat down of
the backup third string Chiefs. This is gonna be twenty
(32:28):
eight degrees. It's gonna be bo Nicks. I don't know.
I'm gonna quickly check the weather, rob But could anything
convince you to back the Broncos here?
Speaker 3 (32:35):
No, not at all. Denver does not beat good teams.
And that's something you say about the Chargers too, like
they just don't other than each other, like they don't
beat good teams. And Buffalo basically got a bye week,
you know, because Josh Allen took the ceremonial snap, so
you can keep a street going. But better than that, Yeah,
they're gonna be healthy for the most part. They're gonna
be rested for the most part. I think that they
(32:58):
they jump on them early. Bonnicks looks like a rookie,
which he's supposed to, and then you know the rest
is history.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
So I'm looking at the weather in Buffalo next weekend. Saturday,
there will be snow high of twenty nine degrees, Sunday
high of thirty and a little snow, but only twenty
five percent chance of precipitation. So it doesn't seem like
weather's going to be an impact. But I don't I
don't even know what the argument is. Somebody tried to
(33:26):
tell me that the Broncos have beat one playoff team
or one team with a winning record this year. I
obviously we don't count Week EIGHTEAM because it was all backups.
I forget what the exact stat was. I have it
in my notes, ought to dig it up. But you
look at the schedule and the teams that made the playoffs.
Pittsburgh lost thirteen to six. Oh, Tampa was the one win.
Remember Week three, it was a great spot for them.
(33:47):
They take down Tampa, I think twenty six to seven.
That was like I think I was on them in
that game. Total beatdown beat the Raiders, beat the Jets,
lost to the Chargers, who are playoff found beat the Saints,
beat the Panthers, bottom feeders, lost to the Ravens, lost
to the Chiefs, beat the Falcons who missed the playoffs,
beat the Raiders again, Cleveland stinks beat Indy, lost to
the Chargers again, lost to the Bengals in ot Bengals
(34:11):
didn't make the playoffs and then beat the Chiefs. So
their one win was in Week three against Tampa Bay
on the road. So yeah, I'm sorry, guys. I can't
make any case at all for Buffalo. And then in
pretty much the wild card game of the weekend. Oh yeah,
I think it is firste Okay Packers at Eagles. It's
on Fox Sunday afternoon. Eagles four and a half point favorites. Now,
(34:33):
something that happened Christian Watson was he really carted off?
Speaker 4 (34:36):
Oh yeah?
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Oh dear? So is he done for the season.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
They haven't given an official announcement, but it's looks that way.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
So here's the bad news. Last year Packers went into
Dallas as big underdogs and smacked the Cowboys around. They
will not be sneaking up on the Eagles this time.
The Eagles are going to be ready for anything. And
I'll have the numbers later in the week. But coming
into I think two weeks ago, the splits with and
without Christian Watson were not good for the Packers, and
(35:06):
no Christian Watson not a great sign here now the Eagles.
When last I heard, I think it was Thursday, was
Jalen Hurts was still in the concussion protocol and like
Day eleven, not great. So this is the one game
I definitely have not touched because I want to see. Obviously,
the Hurts is fine, but I think the Eagles are
the side there.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
This one's tricky because I believe that Philadelphia is going
to win. Like if I had just the money line,
I'm taking the Eagles. But this this one, to me,
feels like it's gonna be close. Like like you said,
this is easily the matchup of the weekend. This is
the one everyone's gonna want to see. Jalen Hurts so far,
even when he was healthy, was not looking great as
a pastor. I think Green Bay is gonna do a
(35:50):
solid job of slowing down, so you're gonna stop say
I'm gonna slow him down. And if Jordan Love is
recovered from his funny bone and drew whatever he gaped
on Sunday where he hard his elbow and can feel
his fingers or whatever it is, I think they have
enough offensive firepower that they can keep it close and
cover the flour. That's what I number I see right now.
But you know that, as you said, the Christian Watson
(36:12):
injury cannot be understated he might not be a great
football player, but for them he's.
Speaker 4 (36:16):
Very important, extremely important.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
So geez, we're leaning in all agreement. Then the Sunday
night playoff game is Commanders at Bucks, a rematch from
earlier in the season when Todd Bowles I think it
was season over, Todd Bowles really confused young Jaden Daniels,
and you know he basically just tucked and ran every
single time. Bucks are favored by three and a half. Hmm.
(36:45):
This is a little different Tampa been Tampa Bay. I'll
and again, I'm we're getting this on the fly here.
Tampa Bay has been great as an underdog this year,
I think at least and you know, this is a
team with a potentially explosive offense. I want to make
the case. I don't know what's up with Marshaun Lattimore.
He didn't play, did he? I believe he did not
(37:06):
suit up. I don't know what his health is gonna be.
But they're gonna need somebody for Mike Evans. When we
saw a lot of Moore get kind of roasted by
was it Drake London? Yeah, yeah, I'm looking where the
impressive Tampa wins. Oh well, they did smash the Chargers
at so far they Oh, they beat the Eagles, that
(37:30):
was a game where there was no a j. Brown
and beat Detroit in week two. Damn they got four.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
I was gonna say, they've beating some good teams.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
They got four wins over playoff teams. We just said
bo Nicks had one against Tampa. The numbers, as I
said earlier, the numbers against rookie quarterbacks in the playoffs
are usual, like historically really bad for the rookie. So
I do want to wait on this. But here's the thing.
Jade Daniels saw these guys earlier in the season, and
(38:00):
I do wonder if there will be less of that
deer in the headlights with a rookie. Now, this is
a night game. You know there's gonna be a lot
of thirty million people watching this. Will it? Will the
moment be too big for Daniels. I don't know. I
would lean taking the three and a half with Washington
at three and a half.
Speaker 4 (38:18):
Lee, I would go the other way.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
And has less to do with Jade and Daniels and
more to do with the Bucks and.
Speaker 4 (38:28):
Cliff Kingsbury.
Speaker 3 (38:30):
And they might be a little you know, tinfoil hat,
but they had something to play for on Sunday. Yeah,
they still had wild card positioning that they were fighting
for on Sunday, and that offense looked flat, It looked uncoordinated.
They didn't look good at all. Had that game on
on one of the smaller TVs. So I know that
(38:52):
Cliff Kingsbury is a professional and he's gonna be focused
the way he says he's going to be focused. But
you cannot tell me that he's not keeping one eye
I am that Chicago job right now that he's not,
you know, quietly thinking to himself, Okay, if I get
this gig, who am I going to bring with me?
How am I gonna, you know, run this office for
Kayler Williams Because as soon as he left the door
(39:13):
open about a week ago where he said, you know,
I would love to be a head coach again at
some point, Yeah, you can't turn that off. So I
don't see him being on his complete p's and q's Tampa.
On the other hand, Baker Mayfield's a gamer. As much
as I was down on him early in his career,
he's been great since then. Mike Evans, as you saw
what he did for them and that breaking the record
(39:35):
and how excited everybody got for him. Liam Cohen, I
think it's a dark horse head coach candidate. Yeah, I
think I got I got Tampa for sure, given up
the three.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
So slight distrecat but and then the final game Vikings
at Rams at so far touched on it earlier. I'm
on the Rams here. I think they win the game
out right, and it might be a bit of a
reaction to the Vikings embarrassment now if you asked me
a week ago. But again, the Rams have rested all there, guys.
Assuming Cooper Cup's hurt, not hurt, he's healthy, I think
(40:06):
the Rams offense has success. There is the familiarity of
McVeigh and koc here. This should be a great game.
I will be trying to get tickets to this game
for my family. I will probably fail though.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
You know that if you get those tickets, it's just
gonna derail my life because that means we can't do
the podcast till like two am Eastern.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
Oh wait a minute, no, dude, the game starts at five. Yeah,
but you know how you are getting out of five.
Speaker 3 (40:31):
You've got traffic, you got all the celebrities that you know,
all the NBA assistant coaches that you got to run
through kids might be with you. You got to get
them a jersey and the way out. I'm gonna be
sitting here on my loans in my kitchen waiting for
j Max to leave with all the other big wigs.
Speaker 4 (40:46):
That's so fine.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
You're gonna be like, uh no, they stop. Not a
big big dog at all. So I guess Rob, here's
my ques. Gosh, I shouldn't ask this on air because
it's dumb, but I, for some dumb reason, thought the
playoffs used to be reseeded. Were they not?
Speaker 3 (41:04):
They receed depending on what happened in the wildcard round?
Speaker 2 (41:07):
Right, so we don't know who the divisional matchups are
no other than the Lions and the Chiefs are hosting games, yes, wells.
Bottom line is the lowest seed is who the Lions
would play? Correct, so that would likely be I mean
who if the Packers get an upset, If Washington gets
an upset.
Speaker 4 (41:27):
Then that changes everything. Yeah, but if.
Speaker 3 (41:33):
The seedings hold the way that they are now, the
lowest team they'll face would be the Viking.
Speaker 4 (41:36):
They face the Vikings.
Speaker 2 (41:38):
So here's my thing. Is there any world where the
Rams have two playoff games, and I guess the answers probably.
Speaker 3 (41:43):
Know, Oh, you would need you would need Green Beta win,
you would need Washington to win.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
So if all the favorites hold SERVE, second round would
be Rams at Eagles.
Speaker 3 (41:57):
Of all the favorites holds SERVE, then it would be yes.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
Noiful for getting Vikings because I don't know that the
Vikings could go to Philly and win. I honestly have
my doubts about the Rams going to Philly and winning.
Mm hmm. Could the Vikings go I know, I don't
think so. Washington has proven they can go toe to
(42:24):
toe with these guys. I don't know. I I think
I'm gonna go with Philly coming out of the NFC.
That's just my early guest. I don't have any futures down,
money down.
Speaker 3 (42:33):
I don't know how anybody could watch what they saw
from Detroit on Sunday night and not think that they
should be the prohibited favorites to come out of these
even with all those injuries, Like I think I saw
FanDuel had him as the favorite to win the Super Bowl. Yeah,
Fandul plus three hundred Lions chiefs.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
How much of that is because they just played on
Sunday Night football and everybody's ball washing. Well.
Speaker 3 (42:53):
I think the other part of it is is the
Chiefs by far, I think the AFC is tougher, you know,
just with Bills Ravens alone, I think those two teams
would probably be favorites in the NFC. Either one of
those teams were in the NFC. But Detroit, like their
offense has been unstoppable all season, and despite the injuries,
(43:15):
their defense has been plucky. I know the last three
weeks coming into Sunday Night weren't great, but like they've
been dealing with it all season and they've still been
a top ten ish defense. So Azeloni came back hopefully
with the Biewey, they had a couple of couple more
guys come back. You never know, Like Detroit looks great.
Speaker 2 (43:34):
I would like that. That'd be a great story. And it's
a Fox Super Bowl, so maybe I know, I'm just kidding.
I have a zero chance of going. All right, that's
a long Monday podcast. Back tomorrow, talk to you.
This is straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up? Straight Firefam, It's me Jason McIntyre. Straight
Fire for Monday, January sixth. The ladies and gentlemen, we're back.
Everybody's back. The holiday break is over. If you still
have Christmas decorations, you may want to get those down.
And most importantly, the NFL playoffs are here. The brackets
(00:34):
are set. I have already fired four bets on wild
Card weekend. It looks like a decent card. I'm very
excited for it. We'll get to that shortly. Good to
have Rob g back in the fold. We're going over
the NFL topics and you know, Rob of course loves
the NBA like I do. And there's some NBA stuff happening.
(00:57):
We're just not going to get into it now. I
will say I ran in to an NBA assistant coach
at the car wash on Friday and this guy, you know,
I didn't know it was him at the beginning, but
this like, h I feel bad outing his vehicle, but
he this large individual gets out of a cyber truck
and it was like all juiced up like Matt Black.
(01:19):
I think I'm pretty sure it was. And you know
he's on his phone and I'm like, I know that guy.
Oh okay, and so I, you know, have my car
go through. So I see him sitting and waiting. He's
on his phone and I rolled right up give him
the head nod. He gives me the head nod. I'm like,
what's up, man? How are you? Should I say his
name Robert No, I don't think he's gonna care. You know,
(01:42):
Brian Shaw, former Laker great played with and Shack and
he was super friendly. I was like, yeah, you know,
blah blah blah, I'm on blah blah blah. And we
start getting into it and I'm like, so, uh, what'd
you think of the Berkley stuff? And he takes like
a beat and then I go I just like kind
of jump in. I'm like, I'm Jason Monroe. By the way,
(02:04):
my Barkley butcherd my last name. I'm Jason McIntyre. He's like, oh,
you're the guy. I was like yeah, and he starts
laughing and we start talking about it, and listen, I
will say Brian Shaw was super friendly, extremely nice. I
now know three guys who I've talked to on the
Clipper staff and it's just a super nice guy. He
(02:24):
was extremely in a cordial man. It was a totally
cordial conversation, very defensive rob about nineties two thousands basketball
of course, like he's got I mean, it was just
it was a little comical and yeah, I'll just it
was a friendly conversation. We had like ten minutes a
banter while the cars were getting dried. Super friendly. But
I would just say, he he definitely is defending Charles
(02:46):
Barkley and he thinks the Kobe shack Lakers would smoke
the Kadi Warriors with Curry. And I was just like,
come on, bro, anyway, do you guys don't care about that?
So Sunday Week eighteen, I will preface this. I don't
feel comfortable talking about anything that happened on Sunday. My
daughter had a volleyball tournament in Anaheim. We race back.
(03:07):
I coached two youth basketball games. We got we won
both games. And then I get home and I'm able
to fire up Lions Viking. I'm expecting a great game.
I had the Vikings in the contest. Vikings continue to
shoot their foot in the red zone and Detroit eventually
pulls away in the fourth quarter. The Jamir Gibbs game
(03:27):
and the Lions get the dub They are the number
one seed in the NFC fifteen and two. Just an
unbelievable season for the Lions. They get a buye in
the NFC. The Vikings get sent to face the Rams
at Sofi. I'm already efforting tickets. Should be a hell
(03:48):
of a game on that's the Monday night game, Vikings
at Rams. I gotta be honest. I was shocked the
Vikings were favored. I instantly took the juice on the Rams.
Plus three was like, well, minus one thirty five, and
then I was like, you know what, I'll take that,
and I'll take the plus two and a half at
minus one eleven or whatever it was. So I'm on
the Rams in that game. Instant bet. And it's not
(04:09):
like a cell of the Vikings. They had an outstanding season.
They were tremendous. I think the reality of the Vikings
is they're probably closer to the team we saw against
the Lions than the team that smashed the Packers a
week before. You know, and now they have to go
and face the Rams again. Remember they lost to the Rams.
(04:31):
I think it was Thursday night football. There was a
questionable face mask in the end zone. So I like
the Rams in that one. And again I'm not I
don't think the Vikings are crap. Obviously, they had an
outstanding season. Fourteen and three is nothing to scoff at.
It's just a tough draw. It's just a difficult one.
And I didn't like what I saw from Sam Darnoldy
picked a bad time to have his worst game of
(04:51):
the season, or close to it, folks. He was eighteen
of forty one, eighteen to forty one. Now, I don't
want to totally say it's all his fault. Aaron Glenn
did cook up a very good game plan and Donald
just looked confused and rattled. I'm sure some of the
stuff that was put on tape by Aaron Glenn will
be used by the Rams next week. And I don't know, Rob,
(05:12):
I just you know, I never bought into Sam Donald
as an MVP candidate. He had a great season, that's okay,
but I think we saw some limitations.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
He had.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
All his dudes, Aaron Jones, Cam Akers, Jefferson, Jordan Addison
was held with one catch on six targets for zero yards.
And remember this is a Lion's team that's so beat up.
So Rob, I don't know. I'm kind of off the Vikings.
I thought they had a great season, something to build on,
but I had I didn't believe any of the stuff
(05:40):
I was seeing. I'm not gonna call out reporters. Last
week Rob that claimed, Hey, the Vikings could keep Sam Donald,
keep Daniel Jones as the backup, and trade JJ McCarthy
for a whole. And I read that, I'm like, that's insanity,
and I'm obviously listening ca I do this with Coward.
(06:01):
I'm not gonna call him out. He was pushing that eggle.
I'm not gonna go totally blasting. I was like, I
don't think there's anything to that. The reality is, you
really think that a quarterback coming off two knee surgeries
I think, or maybe one was a surgery, when was
a cleanup, It's gonna have a ton of value on
the market after sitting out a year. Who's dealing for that?
(06:21):
If you think there's gonna be a hole for that.
And then this idea that Donald is like a franchise quarterback.
I don't think he's Baker Mayfield. I'm not baster Donald yet.
Excellent season, got a lot of talent. He's with Kevin O'Connell.
He's got great talent around him. I think, in my
opinion from what I've seen, brock Purty's more talented the
same Donald. I know that's a hot take. And Donald
went top five and Party was the last pick, not
(06:43):
a knock. I've just seen more from Purdy and this
was Donald's outlier year. I think he can have a
solid season. I think he could be somewhere between Baker
Mayfield and like Gino Smith and listen, those guys are
going to the playoffs the last come years. So I
don't know Robot. I'm not out on the Vikings that
don't want to totally crap on them, but I think
(07:05):
they were a little limited.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
This is one of those games where if you had
any preconceived notion about Sam Donald either direction.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
You were justified.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Yeah, because Sam Donald. If you just look at the
raw numbers, Okay, if you are a Sam Donald believer
like I am, in the first half alone, he was
pressure on almost sixty percent of his dropbacks. Like, I
don't care who Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson is.
None of them are going to perform under that kind
of pressure nobody. Okay, on the flip side, if you
(07:38):
are a Sam Donald hater. In the first half alone,
he was off target on fifty percent of his passes.
On the season. He had never had a game higher
than twenty two percent off target. So it was the
worst possible game at the worst possible time.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
And here's another one.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
This is to your point about you know, this game
was basically won and lost in the red zone because
the Lions converted the vikings, didn't you know, basically the
end of story. Sam Donald in the red zone two
for eleven seven yards, according to the thirty thirteam, the
lowest passer rating in NFL history by any quarterback who's
(08:17):
attempted at least ten passes inside the red zone. Now
I don't know if that's true, but when I read
it, it sounded true. So it's like, I don't know if
both statements can be true. That Sam Donald is is
pretty good. He just got his ass kicked by an
incredible defensive performance by the Detroit Lions, which I believe,
or if you're in this anti Sam Donald camp, he
(08:39):
became who Sam Donald has been for you know, the
last six seven years. He's got He's a guy with
a lot of talent. He's got you know, great arm strength,
he's got a you know, athleticism. But his calling card
up until this season was man, I'm seeing ghosts out there.
And that was how everybody remembered Sam Donald. That when
(08:59):
you got after him and he made him a little
bit uncomfortable, he was gonna melt down faster than a
snow cone in Phoenix, And you know, it was just
one of those situations. So it's fitting though that the
Minnesota Vikings this season have only lost to two teams,
the Detroit Lions twice the Rams once. If things go
(09:22):
the way that we expect them to go, they're gonna
have to beat the Rams in the wildcard round for
an opportunity to face the Detroit Lions in the divisional round.
So I guess I would understand why you're not too
high in Minnesota hitting.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Out the money.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
I mean again, they're one of the bigger stories today
because they had a game that mattered a lot, Like
we're not going to dig into the Falcons missing the
playoffs and the Panthers eclipsing their win total. I thought
the Vikings let down at the end of Week eight
was significant. As good as they were the week prior
against the Packers, they were kind of that bad. I mean,
oher for four in the red zone ain't gonna cut
it against anybody. Now. The Rams defense is not this good,
(09:56):
but the Lions defense ain't great.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Now.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
I'm just trying to get run up and down the
field dog walked as they say bye by brock perty So,
I don't know, I just not a lot to be
optimistic about for the Vikings.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
I don't know, Rob, do you want to go through
the wildcard lineup? Should we talk about Tyreek Hill? Should
do the coaching black Monday?
Speaker 3 (10:26):
Tyreek Hill's story is wild to me.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Well, it's not that wild because you know the take
police called and I hit one.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
Guys.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
You remember, you can go run the tape back in October,
early October, Tyreek Hill, I would move off him at
the deadline. I set it on the pod, set it
on the herd. It was to the point that a
bunch of Miami Dolphins bloggers picked it up and Ian
Rappaport took a jab at me. Tyreek Hill does not
want out of Miami. I saw Jason McIntyre's report AKA
(10:57):
The Big League. You know, he's said said all this.
It was funny and people scoffed. But you could see
the writing on the wall too. It goes down. The
offense stinks, the backups are rotten. Tyreek got his money.
Now he wants a ring, right, you could see it,
or another ring because he got one with the Chiefs.
And Tyreek comes out after the loss to the Jets,
which that's a bad loss, but again they had Snoop
(11:21):
Untley going, you know, like that's not very exciting. But
here's where it gets ugly for Tyreek is he decided,
I'm so ticked off, I don't want to go in
the game. I mean, this was kind of Antonio brownish.
He decided he did not want to go back in
the game. He was frustrated for missing the playoffs for
the first time in his career. He said, I don't
(11:41):
even know, broh, this is my first time I haven't
been in the playoffs. For me, I just have to
do his best for me and my family. If that's
here or wherever the case may be. I'm about to
open that door for myself. I'm out, bro. He went
from like, I gotta do it first with my family.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
I'm out.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
It was great playing here, but at the end of
the day, I have to do his best for my career.
I'm just too mych of a competitor to be here.
That's hars Man. Before the season began, he got a
restructured deal five years, one hundred and six million. He
has two years remaining on the extension he signed in
twenty twenty two. He could say all he wants. I
(12:17):
don't know that the Dolphins are gonna move off him,
and I don't think he has the intestinal fortitude to
sit out till he gets his deal. We're seeing some
of this with Jimmy Butler in Miami and the heat
suspended him for seven games. I don't know what the
heat are gonna suspend Hill for. But you know, if
you're Tyreek Hill, I think at this point you gotta wonder, like,
are my best days behind me? You know, I was
(12:38):
catching passes for from Patrick Mahomes, but I turned thirty
one in March, and you know, receivers start to slow down. Yes,
even the Cheetah. Okay, this was by far his worst
statistical year. I'm going through. I'm pretty sure. Yeah, yeah,
this is by a mile. I mean, the last two
years he had one hundred and nineteen catches and over
(12:59):
seven in over seventeen hundred yards.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
This year.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Garbage. I mean, coming into the Jets game seventy nine
for nine thirty nine and only six touchdowns, which is
a career low. It's not good tying for his what
he did as a rookie with the Chiefs. So I
don't know, Rob, I think they should have moved off
of him. They didn't. Now they're stuck with him and
now he's their headache. And I don't even know if, like,
(13:24):
is there going to be a clamor for I've got
to get into Tyreek kill business? Like, is anybody saying that.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
That's a very good question, because this time a year ago,
he was voted as the best player in the NFL,
not the best wide receiver, not the best offensive player,
the best overall player in the NFL, ahead of wait
where was that? Remember the NFL players vote. He was
ahead of Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Micah Parsons.
(13:52):
You know, pick whoever your your guy, TJ, whoever your
guy is. They said, no, no, no, he's the one. He's
the best guy. And this situation in Miami is interesting
because based on his comments, it seems like his issue
you would say, like, oh, missus Patrick Mahmes, I'm sure
that's part of it. But he seems to be a
really big fan of Tua and he's that Hey, the
(14:15):
fact that we didn't have QB one out there for
a while really derailed our season, and that was a
big problem. His issue seems to be entirely directed at
Mike McDaniel and the front office, specifically the GM, whereas
at Chris Career. The problem, though, is after the game
ended on Sunday, the Dolphins team announced McDaniel and Greer
(14:39):
are going to be back for twenty twenty five. So
it seems like it would be untenable to have Tyreek
Hill there when he clearly has an issue with the
guys in charge. And then the problem from there is
whether they trade him, whether they cut him. I'm not
gonna cut him obviously, whatever team picks him up, his
(15:00):
app number for the next two years twenty seven point
seven and fifty one point nine that that's not gonna happen.
So someone's gonna have to trade for him, extend him,
do it again. And now you're pushing it off to
what he's thirty four to thirty five years old, Like,
I don't just make a run of him a year
or two ago. They did, they did, but he said no.
Remember he chose Miami because I.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Don't want anything to do with him at this point.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
Right, So, like I don't know what team.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
I mean, if you look at if you look just
at the cap space, like there's there's teams that have
cap space. But I don't know where he would go
outside of maybe Washington where you could say the quarterback
position is an improvement or even comparable to what he
has in Miami, Like the Raiders don't have it. I
don't think New England has it, you know, I don't
(15:46):
think Chicago is it with Kayleb Williams.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
One for you if you're Washington and you have Cliff
Kingsbury coming back, Jade Daniels, Terry McLaurin. Would you rather
go after Tyreek Hill or Deebo Samuel Oh, here's one?
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Would you rather go after Tyreek Killer Devonte Adams.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
But I thought he only wanted to play with.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
Rogers's whatever, Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
I brought up Debo because I think he's cheaper. My
guess is I think Niners.
Speaker 4 (16:15):
Yeah, I think he'll be gone.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
If the Niners keep Purty and pay him, let's just
say forty forty five million dollars, They're gonna have to
get off some guys, and I think you get off Deebo.
Piersall kind of flashed there late in the season. I
don't know if you saw his gun shot celebration. Yeah,
I will be back Juwan Jennings Kittle, so they could
still have guys and then Deebo, I think will have
(16:39):
I think he would have more value than Tyreek. That
would just be my guess, because you could do so
many more things with Debo, you know.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
I mean, I don't want to short change, and Tyreek
Hill is awesome, Like I don't know how much it means,
though he did play through a wrist injury, so that's
part of it. The other thing is like he just
he seemed very unhappy and disinterested in my hand. Like
it goes back to you know, the the Instagram love
to Patrick Mahomes and these really weird videos that he
was sharing on his stories, like, man, I miss this
(17:09):
and this is just it was just really awkward, like
for anybody in Miami that he's throwing hard eyes this
flagrantly at Kansas City. So maybe a change of scenery.
But again, I don't know where he's gonna go outside
of Washington that has the capsman used to acquire him.
Where he's gonna be happy with the quarterback situation.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
It'd be probably quarterback on a rookie deal. Here's the issue.
Like the Bears went and got Keenan Allen, DJ Moore, No, no,
they didn't get Dj Moore for that Roma dudon day right.
Obviously not neither of those guys is Tyreek Hill. But
you spend on a wide receiver. The Texans went and
Scott Diggs. None of those moves worked out receivers. Let's
(17:49):
be real. You need him in the regular season, but
to kind of sort of overrated, to overpay for them.
I'm looking at Tyree Hill's game. Look, I know to
have missed a bunch of games. Do you want to
know just easy basic stuff? Do you want to know
how many one hundred yard games? Tyreek Hall. Had Hill
had the season ooh one. Now, the opener he had
twelve for one thirty against Jacks. Then he had fourteen
(18:12):
for one fifteen against the Jets, and then last week
against the Browns nine for one hundred and five. That's it.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
So he was that rad the other ten games where
he only had four hundred yards.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
And the other problem is like he didn't have two
I know, but what about the off field stuff? I mean, listen,
I don't want to bring this up and make it
like an issue, but depending on what website you read,
he's got like I don't know, seven kids with five
women or some ridiculous number and relative yeah, definitely. And
(18:44):
it's again, off the field, he can be a headache.
I know he had the arrest, but that wasn't totally
his fault. The cops freaked out, he was a little
combative whatever. I don't know, guys, it just feels very
very strange that someone would be like, oh, we got
to get him Tybary kill business, you know.
Speaker 4 (19:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
I mean that's the other thing is, let's say you
get him and it is a team on a rookie quarterback.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
Let's say it's Washington or Chicago.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
You have to have the infrastructure around him to support them, right,
because I mean, if the way that things looks like
are ending in Miami, that's not a good look for him,
just like it wasn't a good look for Digs in Buffalo.
Like you want to go to a place that has
a strong personality, a head coach, a strong leadership at
quarterback to where this is not going to become an
(19:31):
issue where he does this again.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
I'm looking at the playoff numbers. I mean they're they're
nothing special. I guess his second to last year in
Kansas City. He had a good postseason thirty one, I'm sorry,
twenty four for three, fifty five, I forget which one
of those. They lost the Super Bowl to the Bucks.
But he was invisible in that game. Remember he threw
(19:57):
up the deuces in that was like his thing. I'm gone.
And then somebody drilled him and then put up the piece.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
They get an interception and they threw up a peace
on it. I think, yeah, that was it.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
But so I don't know. I'm just I know he
seems awesome, but like i I'm no, no, no thanks,
not like a hard pass, just to just to no thanks.
Let's see here, Let's quickly go to the coaches that
are going to get fired. We don't know about McCarthy.
Doug Peterson is absolutely gone. Shane Steichen is staying. According
(20:29):
to the Titans, they they got the number one pick,
Gerrod Mayo.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
I mean, Stike is from the culture, Callahan from the Titans.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Callahan from the Titans. You're right, Stikeen Colts, he's staying.
Callahan has not been given the vote of confidence. It
could be because they have the number one pick that
the coaches are like, hey, do we want you do
or do we want cam You know Callahan? What do
you you know? Like, maybe he's not going to be there. Guy,
he is an offensive dude. He had Burrow, I would
(20:57):
keep him. I think he stays. Peterson's toast. McCarthy will see.
I don't know if he stays. That was my hot
take last week that if I was mcarthy, I'd be
like yeah. And then the interesting one was Gerard Mayo,
who I thought had a rough season and all the
people are like defending him. You know, there's this weird
narrative out there, rob that of the coaches on the
(21:19):
hot seat, everybody's so defensive of the black head coaches, like, oh, well,
that's just not right, and it's like, well, wait a
minute here, what has Gerd Mayo done to instill any
confidence going forward? He has been a disaster all season.
He's clearly out of his depth as a head coach.
It felt kind of sort of like a half assed
(21:41):
nod to Belichick, and hey, he was a Belichick guy,
but he's gonna be different because he's young and cool,
and I don't know they fired him, and I saw
some former Patriots were like a little outrage. Did I
get that? Obviously, one year's not really enough time, but like,
you have an entire year, make an impact on the organization,
on the locker room, on the players. This is a
(22:03):
guy who in the preseason said we're playing our best
quarterback and he decided that best quarterback was not Drake
may and Drake May was by a mile their best quarterback.
And don't tell me, well, maybe by October he was
their best stop like he Mayo just wasn't very good
worse yet. Now, I don't think it had anything to
(22:24):
do with beating the Bills, do you rob didn't help?
Speaker 4 (22:27):
But I don't think so but yeah, it didn't help.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Yeah, so I think they're set at quarterback. It's not
a great year to have the number one pick anyway,
they have the fourth pick. Here's my thing this is
this might be a hot take. I do not like
the Patriots at all. I'm a Jets fan. I have
rooted against the Patriots. I think with May they've got
something like Rob who's in a better spot, the Titans
(22:50):
drafting one, or the Patriots with May and no head coach.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
Oh, the Patriots for sure.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Yeah, because May we know is good, like he flashed
more more than once a season. I don't know what's
more attractive Jacksonville with Trevor Lawrence in that big fat contract,
or May and the Patriots. I think you got to
give that some thought.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
Drake May.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Yeah, I don't. I don't know who's even once the
Jacksonville job. It's it's it's just weird. I mean maybe
it's because we haven't seen enough of May. But I
like what I've seen and I hate the Patriots. So
we'll see what happens that. It's an interesting job. I
don't really know, Like is that are we gonna hand
this to Mike Rabel?
Speaker 3 (23:34):
It certainly feels that way. Like the way that it
was being reported on Sunday before the firing even came
through with Dard Mayo was that teams wanted to get
an early start on this because the top two candidates
are Mike Rabel, who's available now you can talk to
him whenever as soon as the season's over, and Ben Johnson,
(23:56):
and nobody's expecting Ben Johnson to become available for at
least least three four weeks the minimum, Like you're you're
expecting them to get to the super Bowl. And so
if you're a team like the Patriots, who realistically are
not a super attractive job for a guy like Ben Jonson,
Ben Johnson and Shelle's gonna be very selective, then you
want to make sure you get in early on the
(24:18):
next best guy. And Rabel has a lot of the
qualities that they'd hope that Jond Mayo would have, where
it seems like he's a leader of a man. He's you know,
very sound and discipline and things like that, and the
fact that he's a former Patriot like that cannot be understated.
You know, the Patriots are similar to like the Lakers,
where it's like, hey, being a former Patriot mean something.
Being a former Laker means something to them, right or wrong.
(24:40):
They romanticize the hell out of it. And so for
them to get a head start on all of this
where maybe they can lock up Rabel before anybody really
has a chance to talk to him, like that might
be a win for them.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Yeah. Have you checked in on any Bengals fans?
Speaker 3 (24:57):
I saw stat They have the touchdown leader, the triple
crown winner, the sacks leader, and they missed the playoffs.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
They don't have much outside of that apparently not. Oh,
by the way, we forgot one of the coach. How
you feeling about Antonio Pierce? Does he get gotten toda?
Speaker 3 (25:14):
Oh gosh, I hope he does. I think he will
because I think Tom Brady is gonna, you know, flex
his muscle and get a culture change in there. But
I don't know. It's hard to trust Mark Davis. I
have you've seen his haircut? Like, you can't trust the
guy who makes it, like a ask for that haircut.
Speaker 4 (25:33):
That's a judgment at all.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Drafting sixth overall, So the order is the Titans one
do go quarterback? The Browns two. I don't know, man,
I think they're probably gonna go quarterback.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
I think they should, but the people around Cleveland expect
that they're gonna go Kirk Cousins and then go with
Travis Hunter or somebody at two.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
Whoever, the best player.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Is Kirk Cousins. Interesting, that's not the worst taken though.
I don't mind that.
Speaker 4 (26:05):
But I mean, he's gonna be free. Basically, he's gonna
be what.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
He's gonna be. Yeah, he's gonna be free. Giants fall
to third, so I guess they could get a quarterback.
Patriots fourth, Jaggs fifth, Raiders sixth, my Jet seventh after
Aaron Rodgers led them to a victory, a hollow victory.
The Carolina Panthers go five and twelve. If you remember
from the preseason, Adam Chernoff and his group bet the
(26:28):
Panthers win total up over four and a half. I
think it moved to five and they cast with an
overtime victory. Eighteen the Saints. That's a hapless franchise. I
don't know if that's even an attractive job at all.
Saints are at nine, Bears at ten Bears one. They
beat the Packers yesterday. I didn't see it. Niners eleven,
(26:50):
Cowboys twelve, and let's wrap up with the always fun
NFL playoff bracket.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Yeah, catch all of our shows at foxsports
Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR
to listen live.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Here are let me open it. Here are the games
in order, Wildcard Weekend, Chargers at Texans Saturday. It's Chargers
favored by three on the road. Oh my, did the
Chargers rust guys today or play them?
Speaker 1 (27:28):
No?
Speaker 3 (27:28):
They played them. They wanted to move up in the bracket.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
And that's right, Chargers favorite on the road. I guess
I would lean Chargers, but I might have to take
the points with the home That's a tough one. I
need some more time. Like I think the Chargers win,
do they cover? I don't. I don't know if that's
a lock. Let me see, how did Dobbins do? Did
you watch any of that game?
Speaker 3 (27:52):
I mean I had it on, But you know, other
than I'm hoping my team lost, I wasn't locked into
it the way I probably should have. I was more
locked in actually to our jets. You know, they were
my jets. I was walking with the r Jets and
the Dolphins than I was.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Just a bit outside there. JK. Dobbins eighteen for sixty three,
Quentin Whoa, Quinton Johnson thirteen for one eighty six, Damn
Lad McConkie had a nice little game. So it seems
like they're getting healthy. I see no sacks. It looks
like Bosa did Oh no Bosa played. He had two
(28:28):
quarterback hits.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Well, I think this line says more about the Texans
than the Chargers.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Yeah, nobody's buying.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
People are off the Texans in a big way, which
is you would have never guessed that coming into the season,
like they were the new hotnet like them and the Lions,
where like, hey, this could be a super Bowl team
right here.
Speaker 4 (28:43):
Look at C. J.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
Stroud and his progression has been anything but linear. It's
almost been a step back if you were to look
at it in some ways. And no digs, no Tank Dell,
it's Nico Collins, Joe Mixon kind of struggled because the
injury down the stretch a little bit, the kind of
one down. So I just don't I think people just
off on the Texans right now more than the Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
I mean, then maybe they show up, you know, if
you want to tease the Texans up to plus ten.
You know, Chargers don't blow a lot of good teams out.
It could be in interest the Saturday night game on
Amazon Prime, Steelers at Lamar Jackson. There's a big old number,
Ravens nine and a half. Now. Historically in this series,
(29:26):
it's been close, and I think a lot of the
trend betters, and I'm not one of them, would and
by the way, trend Better's got annihilated this year, I
think they would. They would probably take the points with
the Steelers. I don't know, I mean, have you I
don't know if you guys have watched football and track
the numbers here over the last four weeks. But the
Steelers are in a free fall, like without a parachute.
(29:47):
They have lost four in a row. That lost to
the Bengals was brutal. Worse yet is the Pickens situation.
I think officially he was credited with three drops. He
had one catch on six targets for zero yards. He
looked frustrated. He was jaw jacking with a fan and
I forget I don't think it was what but somebody
(30:09):
came over and separated him and before he did something
really dumb, and the Steelers just looked listless at home.
Russell Wilson has lost his fastball. This was against the
Bengals guys, and we saw them against the Ravens on
was it Christmas Day it might have been, and they
got just pulverized. Ravens buried him and the Chiefs smacked him.
(30:32):
They're just not playing good football now, and I don't
see it. So I think the Ravens are fine there.
I know it's a big number, that's.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
A huge ruff.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
A lot of people are gonna balk out it. If
you're looking for a Saturday teaser, Texans up Ravens down
to two and a half, I would wait on Zay Flowers.
He got banged up against the Bengals. It looked worse
than it was. But I think they're expecting him to miss.
I don't know that it matters. I just I don't
trust the Steelers defense at all or offense at all
(31:00):
right now. They are in a massive funk. So are
you in alignment? Chargers and Ravens are rob Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
I mean the teaser I think is to play just
because nine and a half is such a big number.
I mean, as bad as the Steelers' offense has looked
over the last month. Remember a month ago, it wasn't
just that Russell Wilson was gonna be the guy. It
was like, how big of an extension he's gonna get?
Like that, That's what the commentary was. And now it's like, well, shit,
have you seen him the last six weeks? Like he's
(31:26):
looks like a shot fighter right now, Like their offense
is falling apart and the Ravens are going out like
they're surging. So but the problem is nine and a
half in a playoff game against a divisional opponent that
historically has you know, owned you other than this last game.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
And Lamar in the playoffs has been kind of sort
of bottled up historically. Yeah, so just obviously be careful
there the Sunday games Broncos, that bills the early game
on CBS. I already laid it. I somehow this opened
at like eight, I see it at nine, trending toward
nine and a half. I'm just telling you it's not
(32:04):
a trend at this point. It's just you know, historically,
rookie quarterbacks have really struggled in the playoffs. Like the
numbers are pretty ghastly I do believe the Bills kind
of wipe out the Broncos here. I know the Broncos
look good in the thirty eight zero beat down of
the backup third string Chiefs. This is gonna be twenty
(32:28):
eight degrees. It's gonna be bo Nicks. I don't know.
I'm gonna quickly check the weather, rob But could anything
convince you to back the Broncos here?
Speaker 3 (32:35):
No, not at all. Denver does not beat good teams.
And that's something you say about the Chargers too, like
they just don't other than each other, like they don't
beat good teams. And Buffalo basically got a bye week,
you know, because Josh Allen took the ceremonial snap, so
you can keep a street going. But better than that, Yeah,
they're gonna be healthy for the most part. They're gonna
be rested for the most part. I think that they
(32:58):
they jump on them early. Bonnicks looks like a rookie,
which he's supposed to, and then you know the rest
is history.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
So I'm looking at the weather in Buffalo next weekend. Saturday,
there will be snow high of twenty nine degrees, Sunday
high of thirty and a little snow, but only twenty
five percent chance of precipitation. So it doesn't seem like
weather's going to be an impact. But I don't I
don't even know what the argument is. Somebody tried to
(33:26):
tell me that the Broncos have beat one playoff team
or one team with a winning record this year. I
obviously we don't count Week EIGHTEAM because it was all backups.
I forget what the exact stat was. I have it
in my notes, ought to dig it up. But you
look at the schedule and the teams that made the playoffs.
Pittsburgh lost thirteen to six. Oh, Tampa was the one win.
Remember Week three, it was a great spot for them.
(33:47):
They take down Tampa, I think twenty six to seven.
That was like I think I was on them in
that game. Total beatdown beat the Raiders, beat the Jets,
lost to the Chargers, who are playoff found beat the Saints,
beat the Panthers, bottom feeders, lost to the Ravens, lost
to the Chiefs, beat the Falcons who missed the playoffs,
beat the Raiders again, Cleveland stinks beat Indy, lost to
the Chargers again, lost to the Bengals in ot Bengals
(34:11):
didn't make the playoffs and then beat the Chiefs. So
their one win was in Week three against Tampa Bay
on the road. So yeah, I'm sorry, guys. I can't
make any case at all for Buffalo. And then in
pretty much the wild card game of the weekend. Oh yeah,
I think it is firste Okay Packers at Eagles. It's
on Fox Sunday afternoon. Eagles four and a half point favorites. Now,
(34:33):
something that happened Christian Watson was he really carted off?
Speaker 4 (34:36):
Oh yeah?
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Oh dear? So is he done for the season.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
They haven't given an official announcement, but it's looks that way.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
So here's the bad news. Last year Packers went into
Dallas as big underdogs and smacked the Cowboys around. They
will not be sneaking up on the Eagles this time.
The Eagles are going to be ready for anything. And
I'll have the numbers later in the week. But coming
into I think two weeks ago, the splits with and
without Christian Watson were not good for the Packers, and
(35:06):
no Christian Watson not a great sign here now the Eagles.
When last I heard, I think it was Thursday, was
Jalen Hurts was still in the concussion protocol and like
Day eleven, not great. So this is the one game
I definitely have not touched because I want to see. Obviously,
the Hurts is fine, but I think the Eagles are
the side there.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
This one's tricky because I believe that Philadelphia is going
to win. Like if I had just the money line,
I'm taking the Eagles. But this this one, to me,
feels like it's gonna be close. Like like you said,
this is easily the matchup of the weekend. This is
the one everyone's gonna want to see. Jalen Hurts so far,
even when he was healthy, was not looking great as
a pastor. I think Green Bay is gonna do a
(35:50):
solid job of slowing down, so you're gonna stop say
I'm gonna slow him down. And if Jordan Love is
recovered from his funny bone and drew whatever he gaped
on Sunday where he hard his elbow and can feel
his fingers or whatever it is, I think they have
enough offensive firepower that they can keep it close and
cover the flour. That's what I number I see right now.
But you know that, as you said, the Christian Watson
(36:12):
injury cannot be understated he might not be a great
football player, but for them he's.
Speaker 4 (36:16):
Very important, extremely important.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
So geez, we're leaning in all agreement. Then the Sunday
night playoff game is Commanders at Bucks, a rematch from
earlier in the season when Todd Bowles I think it
was season over, Todd Bowles really confused young Jaden Daniels,
and you know he basically just tucked and ran every
single time. Bucks are favored by three and a half. Hmm.
(36:45):
This is a little different Tampa been Tampa Bay. I'll
and again, I'm we're getting this on the fly here.
Tampa Bay has been great as an underdog this year,
I think at least and you know, this is a
team with a potentially explosive offense. I want to make
the case. I don't know what's up with Marshaun Lattimore.
He didn't play, did he? I believe he did not
(37:06):
suit up. I don't know what his health is gonna be.
But they're gonna need somebody for Mike Evans. When we
saw a lot of Moore get kind of roasted by
was it Drake London? Yeah, yeah, I'm looking where the
impressive Tampa wins. Oh well, they did smash the Chargers
at so far they Oh, they beat the Eagles, that
(37:30):
was a game where there was no a j. Brown
and beat Detroit in week two. Damn they got four.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
I was gonna say, they've beating some good teams.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
They got four wins over playoff teams. We just said
bo Nicks had one against Tampa. The numbers, as I
said earlier, the numbers against rookie quarterbacks in the playoffs
are usual, like historically really bad for the rookie. So
I do want to wait on this. But here's the thing.
Jade Daniels saw these guys earlier in the season, and
(38:00):
I do wonder if there will be less of that
deer in the headlights with a rookie. Now, this is
a night game. You know there's gonna be a lot
of thirty million people watching this. Will it? Will the
moment be too big for Daniels. I don't know. I
would lean taking the three and a half with Washington
at three and a half.
Speaker 4 (38:18):
Lee, I would go the other way.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
And has less to do with Jade and Daniels and
more to do with the Bucks and.
Speaker 4 (38:28):
Cliff Kingsbury.
Speaker 3 (38:30):
And they might be a little you know, tinfoil hat,
but they had something to play for on Sunday. Yeah,
they still had wild card positioning that they were fighting
for on Sunday, and that offense looked flat, It looked uncoordinated.
They didn't look good at all. Had that game on
on one of the smaller TVs. So I know that
(38:52):
Cliff Kingsbury is a professional and he's gonna be focused
the way he says he's going to be focused. But
you cannot tell me that he's not keeping one eye
I am that Chicago job right now that he's not,
you know, quietly thinking to himself, Okay, if I get
this gig, who am I going to bring with me?
How am I gonna, you know, run this office for
Kayler Williams Because as soon as he left the door
(39:13):
open about a week ago where he said, you know,
I would love to be a head coach again at
some point, Yeah, you can't turn that off. So I
don't see him being on his complete p's and q's Tampa.
On the other hand, Baker Mayfield's a gamer. As much
as I was down on him early in his career,
he's been great since then. Mike Evans, as you saw
what he did for them and that breaking the record
(39:35):
and how excited everybody got for him. Liam Cohen, I
think it's a dark horse head coach candidate. Yeah, I
think I got I got Tampa for sure, given up
the three.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
So slight distrecat but and then the final game Vikings
at Rams at so far touched on it earlier. I'm
on the Rams here. I think they win the game
out right, and it might be a bit of a
reaction to the Vikings embarrassment now if you asked me
a week ago. But again, the Rams have rested all there, guys.
Assuming Cooper Cup's hurt, not hurt, he's healthy, I think
(40:06):
the Rams offense has success. There is the familiarity of
McVeigh and koc here. This should be a great game.
I will be trying to get tickets to this game
for my family. I will probably fail though.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
You know that if you get those tickets, it's just
gonna derail my life because that means we can't do
the podcast till like two am Eastern.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
Oh wait a minute, no, dude, the game starts at five. Yeah,
but you know how you are getting out of five.
Speaker 3 (40:31):
You've got traffic, you got all the celebrities that you know,
all the NBA assistant coaches that you got to run
through kids might be with you. You got to get
them a jersey and the way out. I'm gonna be
sitting here on my loans in my kitchen waiting for
j Max to leave with all the other big wigs.
Speaker 4 (40:46):
That's so fine.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
You're gonna be like, uh no, they stop. Not a
big big dog at all. So I guess Rob, here's
my ques. Gosh, I shouldn't ask this on air because
it's dumb, but I, for some dumb reason, thought the
playoffs used to be reseeded. Were they not?
Speaker 3 (41:04):
They receed depending on what happened in the wildcard round?
Speaker 2 (41:07):
Right, so we don't know who the divisional matchups are
no other than the Lions and the Chiefs are hosting games, yes, wells.
Bottom line is the lowest seed is who the Lions
would play? Correct, so that would likely be I mean
who if the Packers get an upset, If Washington gets
an upset.
Speaker 4 (41:27):
Then that changes everything. Yeah, but if.
Speaker 3 (41:33):
The seedings hold the way that they are now, the
lowest team they'll face would be the Viking.
Speaker 4 (41:36):
They face the Vikings.
Speaker 2 (41:38):
So here's my thing. Is there any world where the
Rams have two playoff games, and I guess the answers probably.
Speaker 3 (41:43):
Know, Oh, you would need you would need Green Beta win,
you would need Washington to win.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
So if all the favorites hold SERVE, second round would
be Rams at Eagles.
Speaker 3 (41:57):
Of all the favorites holds SERVE, then it would be yes.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
Noiful for getting Vikings because I don't know that the
Vikings could go to Philly and win. I honestly have
my doubts about the Rams going to Philly and winning.
Mm hmm. Could the Vikings go I know, I don't
think so. Washington has proven they can go toe to
(42:24):
toe with these guys. I don't know. I I think
I'm gonna go with Philly coming out of the NFC.
That's just my early guest. I don't have any futures down,
money down.
Speaker 3 (42:33):
I don't know how anybody could watch what they saw
from Detroit on Sunday night and not think that they
should be the prohibited favorites to come out of these
even with all those injuries, Like I think I saw
FanDuel had him as the favorite to win the Super Bowl. Yeah,
Fandul plus three hundred Lions chiefs.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
How much of that is because they just played on
Sunday Night football and everybody's ball washing. Well.
Speaker 3 (42:53):
I think the other part of it is is the
Chiefs by far, I think the AFC is tougher, you know,
just with Bills Ravens alone, I think those two teams
would probably be favorites in the NFC. Either one of
those teams were in the NFC. But Detroit, like their
offense has been unstoppable all season, and despite the injuries,
(43:15):
their defense has been plucky. I know the last three
weeks coming into Sunday Night weren't great, but like they've
been dealing with it all season and they've still been
a top ten ish defense. So Azeloni came back hopefully
with the Biewey, they had a couple of couple more
guys come back. You never know, Like Detroit looks great.
Speaker 2 (43:34):
I would like that. That'd be a great story. And it's
a Fox Super Bowl, so maybe I know, I'm just kidding.
I have a zero chance of going. All right, that's
a long Monday podcast. Back tomorrow, talk to you.
Host
Jason McIntyre
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