January 18, 2026 • 47 mins
The Favorites is back to recap the NFL Divisional Round slate! It's a crossover episode with our sister show, The Action Network Podcast! Action Network NFL experts Stuckey, Kendra Middleton and Brandon Kravitz team up to discuss the good, the bad and the ugly from the weekend. Overtime twice on this slate, a strange injury for Bo Nix and the same old song and dance for Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills. Plus, Brandon Anderson stops by for his Hot Read plays for the Conference Championships. We'll be back on Tuesday for more NFL betting content right here on The Favorites!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Oh my god, what did we just witness?
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Sunday's divisional round all wrapped up? The divisional round period
is wrapped up. We've got conference title games set, massive
injuries to discuss. Welcome to the Favorites, presented by DraftKings.
I'm your host, Brandon Kravitz, joined by my fellow NFL
cappers Kendra Middleton and Stuckey. We've got our goats and
votes queued up. Our biggest takeaways from this round in
(00:36):
the NFL postseason. A very brief parlay recap. We were
toast before we ever even got to Sunday. Broncos Bills
flew over the total we had the under Rams Bears
then flew under the total Bears plus four and a half.
That one did come through, so shout out to Kendra
for that. We're gonna do a quick reaction of what
(00:57):
we just witnessed. We've got AFC title game news and
some Josh Allen opinions to get out there. The Bears
were down seven in the final two minutes, ball at midfield.
They make it down to the fourteen, fourth and four.
Caleb's backpedaling heaves the ball. I thought he was just
chucking the ball. Into space wide open Cole Comet back
(01:19):
of the end zone, and what was deemed a fourteen
yard touchdown pass obviously was much greater than that game
goes to overtime. Caleb then throws a pick just completely
inexplicable to force the ball down the field. In that situation,
the Rams then work the ball down the field. Harrison
MeVis with the walk off field goal and rip to
(01:41):
the Chicago Bears, who were the best watch in the postseason, Kendra,
your initial reaction to what we just witnessed with the
Rams walk off.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
I thought Caleb was so screwed on that play, I
really did.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
I thought he was going to get sacked. Thought he
was just chucking the ball up for somebody.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
He's just the that he plays when the entire world
is on his shoulders makes me feel like that is
like his preferred place to be and he plays his
best football that way, which I don't know if that
bodes well or not for the rest of his career,
if he continues to kind of need to rely on
this final fourth quarter, last second drive heroics, but damn
(02:20):
does he do it better than anybody else. And but
then that pick that was that was tough so I
don't know, I'm not excited for the potential of another
Seahawks Patriots Super Bowl.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
But I was gonna save this from my goats and woats.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
But Nick Foles really kind of giving us some hope
after trolling the Patriots today saying maybe backups are really
the key to beat them.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
So hey, if it gets there, that would be kind
of funny.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yeah, they backup had some time to marinate in the offense.
This one might feel a little different for the Denver Broncos.
Stuck he arey being too harsh on Caleb with that,
I int because DJ Moore wasn't exactly where he needed
to be either.
Speaker 5 (03:00):
Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I can't put that
pick all on Kale. But they did have three turnovers
in the game. The Rams didn't have any, which might
have been the difference. But I thought it was two
poorly coached teams today. I mean, I was so excited
to watch McVeigh versus Ben Johnson. I mean, how many
how many dives are you gonna run on third and
fourth and one and fail? Then? I mean that was
it was some I thought the Bears were better on
(03:22):
a down to down basis in the game. They just
they had three failed fourth downs, a lot of them
were awful calls. So I'm not sure what Ben Johnson
was doing that. I don't know what McVay was doing.
I mean, at one point they had like thirty six
dropbacks and twelve rushes even though they had a fifty
five percent rush success right against one of the worst
run defenses in the league. Abandoned his thirteen the heavy personnel,
(03:44):
which should have worked all day against the Bears. So yeah,
and McVeigh to sum up how bad the coaches were
in this game. Two thirty eight to go or too yeah,
two forty seven to go. Ben Johnson doesn't call a
time now, which is a brain dead because you could
run it down to you know, seven seconds two oh seven.
(04:07):
You can run onceid a clock out on a two
o seven, You could run a passing play and end
the game without a penalty. And then McVeigh decides to
run a surrender run and the only time they say
by doing that is the time that it takes on
the shank punt that they had. That was horrendous in
game coaching, you you have a veteran quarterback you can
(04:27):
throw to end the game. And then you have the
Cardiac Bears come down and score on one of the
craziest so that won't really be remembered now. But I
thought both coaches were really bad. I also thought McDermott
was really bad at the end of the first half.
We talked about this last week. At the end of
first halves. It cost teams games. What were you going
(04:48):
to get out of Josh Allen scramming there with no
timeouts ends up a fluky fumble field goal which ended
up being the difference in the game, and uh, the
Bills losing overtime up break City again for Buffalo.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Yeah, the Bears defense was better today than I thought
they would be, too.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
I will say that.
Speaker 5 (05:06):
Brisker played really well. The Rams also weren't prepared for
like a slot blitz, like what did you watch the
second half last week? So I don't I don't know.
Maybe they were just were too cold after all. But
the Bears defense did play a lot better than I
expected them to today, So had to to Dennis Allen
in that group.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
I did think the Bears were the better team today,
but Ben Johnson doing what I mean, We've seen this
from Sean McVay Sean McVay and Stuck.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
You mentioned it. We saw it a little bit today.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
These offensive geniuses that end up in these big game situations,
they just end up frozen hard in the pun with
the weather out there, but they just they don't call
their traditional game. I mean, you had how many fourth
and short, third and short situations where you have a
chance to get creative and instead they're calling the most
(05:55):
obvious plays in.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
The middle of the field.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
I mean, we had one where Caleb Williams was throwing
the ball just into traffic down by the goal line,
absolutely inexplicable.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
One thing I will say.
Speaker 5 (06:06):
Is sometimes the ball like it's not that it's not
that difficult. The two times they did it, they got it.
The two times they didn't, they didn't get it.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
The reverse game that we've seen, the trickeration that we've
seen from the Ben Johnson offense, it was just not
there at all in these critical situations. I do agree
with his self awareness though the decision, and obviously in hindsight,
they lost the game. So maybe people are going to
pick at this, the decision to kick the extra point
at the end of the game, with how much he
had zapped his own creativity in these short yarded situations.
(06:40):
I don't think they were going to convert that two
point conversion. So to go to overtime where you had
been out playing the Rams put the game essentially on
the home field advantage that you have in that situation.
I had no problem with him kicking the extra either.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
I absolutely agree with you.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
I he was actually texting my friend group about that
because we all we have a Bears fan in our group,
so we've been silently kind of cheering for him, and.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
We all texted each other.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
I wholeheartedly expected him to go for two just there,
and I'm so glad that he didn't.
Speaker 5 (07:10):
Yeah, I agree, I agree. I think if you're on
the road as the underdog, or if you're at home
like getting clearly outplayed, I didn't mind them kicking extra
point there and then you know, look to add the
ball with a chance to win at midfield. So yeah,
I don't think he I don't think he watched that
call at all.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
So that sets up a Rams Seahawks NFC championship game.
We'll talk about that in a bit, but we got
to get to the biggest news of the weekend.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
It's the injury to bo Nicks.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Like it or not, we are getting Jared Stidham in
a conference championship game.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Stuck.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
He'd we can talk about the Bills aspect of it,
and I think that's probably where we'll end up spending
most of our time. Do you give the Broncos any
shot here against New England with Stidham at quarterback?
Speaker 5 (08:00):
Uh? Sure, it's I mean it's one it's one football game.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Uh so.
Speaker 5 (08:04):
Uh like they they're they're gonna need to force turnovers.
Peyton's gonna have to be super creative with his play calls.
But you know, there's still a lot of uncertainty with
this Patriots team, Like, can we see them play a
team like that has any starters available? I mean, even today,
you get Nico Collins out Schultz I thought had the
biggest matchup advantage of all uh and this game gets
(08:25):
hurt in the first quarter after he has fifty yards.
They were without their right tackle. I mean, like, can
we see them play any team with stars? We're not
gonna win. The Broncos have offensive line and wide receiver
injuries too that have to be monitored, and you're gonna
have Trevor Simon in there. So I I just say,
(08:45):
Trevor Simon, I'm getting flashbacks for the un today. Yeah,
they still signed Ben de Nucci, but uh Stidham. Yeah,
I mean, we don't have a huge sample size on Steadham.
He had that one huge game randomly against like a good,
good forty Niners defense. I think I think that was
like late in the year and a meaningless start. But
I got to dig in.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
I started, by the way, in over seven hundred days.
JAHI has not started a game in over seven hundred days.
Speaker 5 (09:11):
I do think that we've seen, Like the other thing
is that the Patriots have faced nothing but backups the
entire year. But they've also they didn't face any good
defenses the entire season, and we've seen them play two
good defenses in the playoffs so far. And Drake May
has not looked great. I mean he has what six
fumbles and two interceptions in two games. They were pretty
(09:35):
lucky to get that one fumble, which maybe the game
is different. I mean, Stroud was just so bad it
probably wouldn't have mattered. But May and that offensive line
are vulnerable and that Benito own company. They're gonna have
to get pressure and they're gonna have to force turnovers
may his pocket presence has been really bad. So that's
how Denver is gonna have to win this game. Peyton's
(09:57):
gonna have to be creative. Yeah, they have a chance.
I think this it's gone it's out to like five
and a half. I think it's gone too far now,
like it could end in disaster like that. Clearly, there's
still a lot of uncertainty with this Patriots team. But
like this is now assuming that bo Nix is worth
like a touchdown, come on, like.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
I would have Yeah, I probably would have had him
prior to watching him orchestrated game winning drive against the Bills,
probably would have had him closer to three three and
a half.
Speaker 5 (10:27):
Yeah, I think four is like a four to four
and a half. You know, maybe like given the circumstances,
like with some of the other injuries, you could maybe
stretch it to five five and a half, I think.
But you know, it's not like bow Nicks lights the
world on fire on a weekly basis and is one
of the elite quarterbacks in the league. So yeah, I
(10:50):
think Denver has a chance. But other injuries to monitor.
Patriots are still hardened not to crack because we just
don't the data set that we have, and we won't.
If they win this game, they're gonna going to the
super Bowl with the easiest stretch in the in playoff
history and the easiest stretch in regular season history that
we've ever seen. So but yeah, the Broncos have a chance.
(11:10):
It's it's one football game with an oblong ball, and
they're gonna be playing at home against still a young team.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
I was gonna say, I agree, I think that their
chances aren't great, but historically playing in Denver in the
postseason has given the Patriots fits. And I also feel
a little bit better that he's like the jar. It's
not going to be traveling to Mile High.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
He lives there.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
It's not something that he doesn't deal with every day.
The Patriots are going there. If like it was the
other way around and I was a backup quarterback who
hasn't been training in altitude going to play a playoff
game essentially off the couch, I'd probably have a.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
Few more worries. But history kind of likes Denver here regardless.
Speaker 5 (11:50):
I will also say it's like a so two things
you have. Now all of the pressure is on New England, right, Yeah,
so before for you were going on the road, they
would have been underdogs, and you're like, all right, if
we win this game, we're going to the Super b
It's not that much pressure on the Patriots. But now
(12:11):
you're playing Jared Stidham like, if you lose this game,
so all the pressure.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
Number two, Jared said him in the Super Bowl.
Speaker 5 (12:21):
This is a kitchen sink. Kitchen sink game. Yeah right,
So number one. You see this when in other sports,
when like your star player, your point guard is out,
everyone else, you know, tends to rise up. But more importantly,
from a play from a play calling perspective, from a
schematic perspective, like you're going to get they have to
(12:42):
be super creative, everything that you've ever thought of, from
Peyton's perspective, Joseph's perspective, you're going to get here. So
from a you know, Patriots perspective, trying to prepare for
what they're going to see, you know that it might
be proved a little bit more difficult. So we'll see
if Denver can use that uncertainty to their advantage. Now,
(13:04):
the Patriots defense, I have to give them credit. Now,
they played Stroud in an injured Texans offense and then
you know a Chargers offense with the no offensive line,
but you have to give them credit for some of
the plays that they've made. The looks they do change
up their looks very well disguised things. And now their
(13:24):
run defense is much better now that they're healthier at
linebacker with Milton Williams. I mean, the Houston can do
anything on the ground. The Chargers can do anything on
the ground. And you just saw the splits early in
the season. Their run defense was dominant late in the
season it created with the injuries. Well, now they're healthy again,
I do think so. I'm not sure that the reason
(13:45):
I bring that up is you have a backup quarterback
and a good defense at home, so you might say, like,
let's lean on the run game. But that might be
a little bit difficult here, which could throw another wrench
into it.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
I have a way too big of a look ahead.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
But if Sean Peyton wins a Super Bowl with Drew
Brees and wins a Super Bowl with Jared Stidham, does
he become one of the goats?
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Can we table that until we have two weeks to talk.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
About Jared I said, I said it was too big
of a look ahead, But what.
Speaker 5 (14:20):
Well, there is Sam Donald has an oblique injury, so
there is an outside chance that he injures that more
and we get Donald Super Bowl, Drew Locke revenge game
against Jared Stidham. Yeah, and we'll talk about that for
two weeks.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
That would be So America twenty during.
Speaker 5 (14:44):
Those two weeks.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
The last time, I recall, I mean, one of one
of my fondest memories as a sports better was betting
against Jared Stidham when he was in the Peach Bowl
against UCF. They were ten point favorites. Fire recall correctly
in that game. Obviously, I went to UCF total homer bet.
I bet the point spread and the money line, and
(15:06):
he folded like a lawn chair.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
And now we get an opportunity to fade him again.
So full circle moment.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
You're not pet of or anything at all.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
I mean, that was that was the claimed National Championship season.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
One thing that I that I did that I feel like,
you know, was perhaps the best way to bet into this.
I don't even know if I'm gonna bet this game.
I took the second the bon Knicks news came out.
I bet the Patriots a plus four to twenty five
to win the Super Bowl, and I'll just take my
chances with whoever they end up against. And we've seen
that number beat up now it's it's been sliced in half.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
So that might just be the way that I look
at this is.
Speaker 5 (15:47):
Let's I'll just say one.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
No, no, no, this was.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
He literally just said that.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Okay, yeah, but I mean they were they were also
favored going in.
Speaker 5 (16:02):
But so they won that game. So obviously the odds
are gonna come down. Yeah, so I'm excited for Ram
Sahawks again, Like I want what I'm going to spend
most of my week doing this week, Like I feel
like Denver, New England, you just have to take a stick.
You could you just like, look I'm passing. I don't know,
or you're just like this is too much of an
(16:22):
overreaction to Bonix being out. I lean the ladder, but uh,
you know, we have all week to dive into two
games the other I really want to dive into Ram Seahawks.
We have two games to golf of. But how the
Rams that last Rams Seahawks meeting where the Rams look
like I bet the Seahawks has got extremely lucky. The
(16:45):
Rams look like the clearly better team in target and
they put up what six hundred yards on that defense
without DeVante Adams. I think Vonta Adams missed that game,
if I recall. So that's what I want to spend
my time diving into that Rams offense versus Seattle's defense.
So at least that game should be pretty good.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
What we need to dive into right now is what
happened with the Buffalo Bills and the Denver Broncos. So
he talked about the Broncos moving forward and whether or
not they still have a chance and the awful two
week look ahead of Jared Stidham potentially in the Super Bowl.
How much of this is on Josh Allen because he
(17:27):
turned the ball over way too much in this game.
Down the stretch, he put on the cape as he's
been doing the last couple of years. We now have
seen the Bills first team in NFL history to lose
by three points or less in the playoffs in three
straight seasons. And then of course you have the controversial
was it a catch? Was it not a catch? With
(17:48):
ja Kwan, McMillan, and Brandon Cook.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
So a lot of.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Different ways to dissect this. Kendra, how much of this
loss do you put on Josh Allen? Do you view
him differently because of the way that this went down.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
I think a lot of it's on Josh Allen, but
it also just kind of comes down to the fact
that when they started this season, they weren't expecting it
to turn out the way that it did.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
So it was kind of a little bit.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Of a rebuild situation for them. As much as you
can rebuild when you have a team like they do,
I don't think that they really expect it to be
in the position that they were in, and there was
a lot of pressure on Josh and he just folded
once again, and I kind of do look at him
a little bit different because it was never going to
be any easier for him. It's not like he had
(18:35):
the best team in the world this season, but nobody
really has the AFC Like there is no AFC team
that is just so much better than everybody else right
now that I can discount the loss that they had yesterday.
Denver gave them the opportunity to beat them time and
time again, and he just really, for lack of a
better term at the moment, fumbled it away. And I
(18:57):
do look at him a little bit differently. I don't
look at it differently for crying because people are being
way too mean to him about that.
Speaker 4 (19:03):
I would cry as well, So let the boy cry.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
But I don't look at him differently for that, just
for how he really kind of seems to crumble in
these big moments.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
I don't blame him for crying either.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
He goes through this every year, and now he's got
to wait another year to probably go through it again
next year. It's like, this guy, as rich as he is,
as beautiful as his wife is, and as much as
he'll be entering the Hall of Fame one day, his
career could end up tormented by this the same way
(19:35):
that Dan Marino's was this legendary quarterback that could just
never really get to the mountaintop.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Was it a catch? Wasn't it a catch? Stucky? And
how much of this do you put on Josh Allen?
Speaker 5 (19:49):
No, it was not definitely not a catch. I mean,
I don't know why people are so confused by it.
There was one clear view where he didn't Here's the
all you have to ask yourself. If he came down
the way that he did with the ball and then
it hit the ground, it was not going to be
a catch, and it came down into the defender's hands,
so that was clearly one not a catch. I don't
(20:10):
know why people are so confused, although maybe because no
one knows what it catches in the NFL, and they
have different rules all the time, Like there was a
raven Steelers game which ended up costing that could have
cost the Ravens a division earlier this year with Rogers
where they called that same play differently. But no, that
wasn't a catch. I lowann to take some of the
blame he, you know, for some of the turnovers, but
(20:32):
he scored thirty points on the Broncos in Denver, like
it's the every single every year. By by the way,
the last the previous six playoff games, oun didn't have
any turnovers and they scored thirty. It's the coaching talked
to him McDermot at the end of the half. Some
other decisions in that game were very questionable. And it's
the defense all the time that lets them down these
(20:53):
games and go back and all the Josh Allen playoff losses,
they're always scoring into the thirties. The offense has never
been the issue. It's always the defense and it once
again burned them here. I mean, look who he also
number one, He was banged up a lot of injuries
on a shore week. He's thrown them a cole hardon
and Brandon Cooks like, come on, like, it's how much
(21:16):
anything Coleman he put it? Yeah, keon Coleman like, it's
been a healthy scratch scoring touchdowns like that. I can't
put too much of the blame on Al and obviously
has to take some for the turnovers, but the defense
has to you're playing the look. I think you have
to give credit to the Broncos too, and you have
to give credit to the bo Nicks and Peyton I
(21:37):
thought had a really good game. I mean they scored
two touchdowns on the two plays that the backups were
in there, and they targeted them right away. And I
mean Darnold Savage shouldn't be in an NFL playoff game,
but the Bills had no other options at one point,
they target him right away, scored a touchdown, backup corner
came in, targeted them late touchdown. So you got to
(21:58):
give credit to Bonnicks. You got to give credit to
Sean Payton and the Broncos offense as well, but a
lot of these losses, it's the coaching and it's the
defense to let the Bills down. I think that was
the case again. But in fairness to be real, you
got to give Alan some some blame for the turnovers
that he has. Yeah, I mean the guy who never
(22:19):
never turns it over in any of his playoff losses before.
So to just put it all on Alan and say
he choked, I don't think he's right.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
I don't think he choked.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
I think it was more of a first half meltdown
with the turnovers, and then we saw vintage Josh Allen.
He did miss that it was Dawson Knox over the
middle at one point late in the game. But he
does so much right that it's hard to place too
much of the blame on him. I don't view him
as a guy that shrinks in the playoffs. And I
think that's the way the conversation for a lot of
(22:51):
people is being is being shaped right now, is that
this is a guy.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
That just can't win the big one.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
It's not that he can't, it's that he hasn't and
there's always some weird shit that goes on in the playoffs.
I'm with you, on the catch itself or the non
catch the interception. I thought it was clearly an I
int I do wish they had looked at it longer.
I agree with Sean McDermott's complaint that for all the
things that we spend ten minutes in the review booth four,
(23:18):
it was like.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Okay, no, that's clearly an interception.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Let's move on with our lives and the biggest moment
of the season for both of these teams. But there's
a clear difference between what we saw in that situation
and on a lot of folks on social media are
trying to compare it to DeVante Adams and and him
having possession and then having the ball ripped away by
the Chicago Bears today.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
I think the sas.
Speaker 5 (23:43):
Adams caught him was down is and he hit the
ground like yeah, I don't people are get I don't
know why people are so confiused comparing those two.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
I think it's an easy still shot to compare. But
I just my only complaint is that they should have
looked at the Brandon Cook situation longer. They were way
too fast to just breeze passed it and then and
let's keep the game going. And I'm usually anti review,
but in this situation, I felt like they expedited that
situation in a way that they should have not. Uh,
(24:11):
you guys want to get to some goats and wats, Kendra, who.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
You got I'm actually going to do? We talked about
most of my goats. Josh Allen and the Texans being
on their way to Cancun was my goat. But as
we were sitting here, I just remembered that my fantasy
football group put down a thousand We won like a
gift card for a thousand dollars worth of a spread
at Hooters in Saugust, Massachusetts for the AFC Championship game
(24:38):
like four months ago, having.
Speaker 4 (24:39):
No idea that it would be the Patriots. So I'm
going to.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Watch the Patriots Broncos game Hooters and Saugus, Massachusetts.
Speaker 4 (24:47):
So that's my goat.
Speaker 6 (24:48):
We have a thousand dollars where the wings booze all
the stuff.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
I'm going to eat so many freaking chicken wings. So
that's my goat. Because we talked about my other goats.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
How many people are in on that bill?
Speaker 4 (25:00):
Twelve? They capped us off at twelve.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
Yeah, you guys are gonna know how much Hooters.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
That is, that's that's a lot of that's a lot
of chicken wings, that's a lot of nuggets.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
So much Hooters.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
I don't know that you're gonna be uh, I don't
know that you're actually going to be available for uh.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
You're gonna have to put me in a wheelchair after
that much chicken. I mighted in buffalo sauce and having
the meat sweats for sure.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
What about you, stucky goat?
Speaker 5 (25:28):
Dalton Schultz had is over and he got there despite
playing less than a quarter, So shout out Schultz. I
thought that he was a huge loss for the Texans
offense after that point. And then my wote is Ben
Johnson for all those the short yardage play calling just
killed that game in the flow of it.
Speaker 6 (25:49):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (25:50):
Luckily it ended up being a great game, but for
most of that game, I mean Bears rams and it
was like a snoozer for most of the game. So, uh, yeah,
those are my my goats and wotes, and I guess
I should say, actually my wote will be the forty
nine ers special teams. I mean that that game was
(26:12):
over on the opening kick and we just had a
game that was unwatchable from that point on after she
took the opening kickback. I didn't even I didn't watch
the fourth quarter. I can't remember the Las playoff game.
I didn't watch every minute of I think.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
We all had a sneaky suspicion that that was going
to be when the corpse officially rotted for the San
Francisco forty nine ers. That spread was just Kyle Shanahan respect.
That's all that was.
Speaker 5 (26:37):
But you also have did Darnald uncertainty all week with
Dale Bleak, which but the Niners just couldn't come up
with anything. But once you fall behind against that Seattle defense,
its lights out.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
My goat is bo Nicks.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
I mean, he played great and do and he did
the walk off interview still on one foot. Nobody caught
that until after the fact, adrenaline, probably knowing that his
season was done, and he didn't mention it, talked about
his teammates, talked about the situation, and then hobbled off
the field. I thought that was a really cool look
(27:14):
by bo Nix, A lot of respect for him.
Speaker 5 (27:16):
He honestly might not have known it and just thought
he was saying down though, because well, now, yeah, he
knew that he got banned up, but he wouldn't He
might not have known aw sears wasn't. I mean adrenaline,
I'm sure in that situation end of the Games is
high for an athlete as you'll ever see.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
So I broke my ankle and didn't know for like,
like I thought that I had just rolled it for
a couple of hours and in the middle of the
night it like doubled up in size. It like took
a while for me to feel it. I'm not an athlete.
I didn't break my ankle the same way he did.
I'm just saying it took me a while to feel it.
So I with the adrenaline and everything, I wouldn't be
surprised because I woke up at three o'clock in the
morning and like was like, I need to go to
(27:53):
the hospital right now.
Speaker 5 (27:54):
Yeah, I've tore my acls, but both my acls ripped
a part of me and actually it didn't hurt the time.
As weird as that is, but after different story. But yeah,
I mean, how of a perform Knicks deserves a ton
of credit for his performance.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Yeah, well I would have been in tears, so go
for me.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Well, I'm gonna. I guess, I mean c J. Stroud
third time in the divisional round. He has a grand
total of one touchdown pass and four interceptions. And by
the way, that entire stat accumulation all occurred today, hadn't
done anything prior to this average margin of defeat fifteen
points for CJ. Stroud. I mean, he's he was so
(28:35):
bad in these last two games. I know that it's
it's kind of like hot take talk radio stuff. I
would seriously be questioning is this the guy that we
need to be moving forward with? With how bad he
has been awful in these situations? Just a complete meltdown.
Speaker 5 (28:51):
Yeah, they had serious conversations about if they want what
they want to do a quarterback, I have a championship
caliber defense. And mean, I get that they had the
injuries on offense too, but Stroud did not play anywhere
close to good enough today. And look, Drake may should
say he's got to send gift baskets to Herbert and
(29:14):
Stroud because Drake may is not I mean, he has
six fumbles in two games, but the quarterbacks have been
so bad against him. There's just no talk about Drake
may So but Stroud. It was ugly like some of
the throws he was missing were bad to throw where
he just threw it up in the air to nobody.
(29:38):
I mean, you can't make that throw in the.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
Playoffs, Josh Allen like toss back weird, like flick yesterday.
Speaker 4 (29:45):
I needed to talk about that. What the hell was that?
Speaker 2 (29:48):
And that's part of the reason why he's not blamed
free And while that didn't necessarily go on the.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
War, maybe one of the worst decisions I've seen in
the postseason, like recency bias maybe, but that was I
literally said out loud, what the fuck was that?
Speaker 5 (30:07):
No, the worst decision is was strout today and then
to pick to pick six like that that throw had
he just said that's it and just threw it up
in the air like down, like take the sat there.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
You're gonna watch all of these games back tomorrow.
Speaker 5 (30:24):
I will never watch that Texans Patriots game.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
I can't wait. I'm gonna hate watch the ship out
of that fact of.
Speaker 5 (30:31):
That game went over. Both teams average like three and
a half yards per play, neither got the two hundred
and fifty.
Speaker 4 (30:35):
Yards turnovers turnovers.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
I feel bad for Kendra that she has to do
sports talk in the town that's gonna pretend like schedules
don't matter.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
It has been a calling point all week long.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
People, you know, the old guys from like Medford or like,
you play the schedule that's in front, Like.
Speaker 5 (30:57):
Who cares? You an easy schedule? That's the dream. I
would love for my team to have the easiest schedule
in the NFL. Play nobody, go to the super Bowl?
Speaker 1 (31:05):
People?
Speaker 5 (31:06):
Why are people so offended that you don't play anyone?
That should be the goal, play backup quarterbacks every week?
Just win, go to the super Bowl? Who cares? No
one's going to remember fifteen years from now they played
nothing but backups all year. But it's okay for people, Well,
like what do you Yeah, you'll definitely point out that
you played nobody. It's statistical fact that you played the
easiest schedule of any team over the past twenty five years.
(31:28):
And it's also an undeniable fact that you play nothing
but backups every single week. So like, it's okay to
point it out. But if I was a Patriots fan,
who cares? And why do you care? If other people
are pointing it out.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
We're gonna keep it rolling in a moment, But first
I'm gonna toss it to Kendra for a word about
our partners at DraftKings.
Speaker 6 (31:45):
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partnership with DraftKings, our listeners get a great off for
right now. New customers can bet five dollars and get
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Love the thrill of live betting, DraftKings got you covered.
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Speaker 4 (32:07):
When signing up with DraftKings.
Speaker 6 (32:08):
That's called Favorites when signing up with DraftKings for three
hundred dollars back in bonus bets. If your bet wins,
the crown is yours.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Both conference title games are set.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
The Patriots are road favorites five and a half points
against the Denver Broncos with Jared Stidham at quarterback, and
the Rams are at Seattle Seattle laying a point and
a half. The Broncos are the largest home underdog in
a conference championship game since then nineteen seventy Merger, the
largest that we've seen since Brown's cults. That's the Baltimore
(32:42):
Cults back in nineteen sixty eight. It's Jared Sidam's first
start in seven hundred and forty nine days. Stuckey, I
saw you ask the question on Twitter, will this be
the worst conference championship game? Or I believe you asked,
what was the worst conference championship game that we've ever seen?
Perhaps in the lead up to it? I went back
(33:03):
to dig through see if I could come up with
an answer for you. How about nineteen ninety six the
Pittsburgh Steelers taking on the Indianapolis Colts. It was Neil
O'Donnell versus Jim Harbaugh. It wound up being a great game,
but in terms of the lead up to it, very
similar to what we're getting here.
Speaker 5 (33:23):
Well, we had Foles Keenum not too long ago. I
will I will say if you're looking for yeah, I
mean this AFC Championship game. I was saying that it
should be on like ESPN News, Nickelodeon, Flying Game, the
if you're looking for a long time, I don't even
(33:44):
know if there'll be a number out there. But going
back to the Patriots playing backups Rams beat the Seahawks,
Stafford tears his knee on the kneeling the ball down
at the end of the game. Jimmy g super Bowl MVP.
If I could find a number on it, I'll look
at it. But in all seriousness, Patriotson, you'll have a
(34:06):
chance to prove it, I think against starters in the
Super Bowl. And then you can shut everyone up.
Speaker 3 (34:14):
If I saw you go viral yesterday, hate it on
the Patriots schedule, stucky, don't you worry here.
Speaker 5 (34:21):
It's it just pointing out facts. I don't know why
people get so upset about it, Like it's it's it's
okay to be the soft schedule.
Speaker 4 (34:30):
Done that to me, and I was like, this is awesome.
Speaker 5 (34:32):
If you don't like teams drew, if you're not gonna
like win your division, you're not gonna make the playoffs.
If you're a fan of the team you want to
finish in the last you can get a fourth place schedule,
improve your odds of getting a better record, improving your
playoff positioning. The goal should be to have an easy schedule.
And like, if you're think about it, you bet on
a team and then it comes out that their quarterback
(34:54):
is out, you're happy. You should be happy that you're
playing backups. It's crazy.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
Yeah, especially when you've already won a million Super Bowls.
I guess you know. It's not like you're trying to
prove yourself.
Speaker 4 (35:04):
Never enough here, it's never enough.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
I'm still sick that Mike Turrico welcomed people to the
broadcasts in the wild card round and said the Patriots
back in the playoffs, as the kids say, it's been
a minute, Like fuck you.
Speaker 4 (35:21):
The people here are so entitled.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
Like there's some three year old right now who's only
experienced one title and it was the Celtics.
Speaker 4 (35:28):
Like, oh no, oh, seven.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
Year olds have had like three titles since I've been here.
That's insane.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
Yeah, highly entitled.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
All Right, we're gonna spend a lot of time on
these games on Tuesday and Thursday, so let's just quick
read on either one. On either one of these games,
are either of you rushing to the window to bet
the Seahawks, Rams Pats or Broncos. Kendra, we'll start with you.
(35:59):
The ans or no is acceptable in this particular situation.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
Yeah, I kind of like the Broncos to cover this
number for reasons that I kind of that I already said,
just because if that we saw what the Patriots did
today and struggling against a good defense. I think if
the Broncos can attack them in a similar way and
make Drake May uncomfortable and make him turn the ball
over like that, and they can get a little bit
(36:23):
more lucky.
Speaker 4 (36:24):
I expect them to probably run.
Speaker 3 (36:26):
The ball a lot more op be as dangerous as C. J.
Stroud was at times today. Maybe they could keep that
a little bit closer.
Speaker 4 (36:34):
So the five and a half I don't hate.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
And then the total for the Seahawks game, there's a
forty seven and a half out there, forty eight and
a half. I feel like there's probably gonna be points
scored in this game because the Seahawks have a great defense,
but we know that the Rams can score, and we
know that the Seahawks can put up points.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
Well about you stuck.
Speaker 5 (36:54):
On the number, I lean Broncos right now, but running
to bet at no, it's a five and a half,
You're in like a dead zey And so where I
don't know where this number is going to go? I
really don't. So like this's there's a lot of uncertainty.
So and like it's a huge game. Public can have
a say in these on like a regular season game,
(37:15):
just because the volume is so big, and if there's
not you know, especially if there's not like strong sharp
money opinions, I don't know, it's just going to be
a wave of this is the Pats who cover all
the time against backups playing another backup and uh you
know Stidham stinks and then could we get a six?
Like there's no downside of waiting and then this ticks down?
(37:37):
Uh so, like I think it's worth just seeing where
this line goes. So but I definitely would lean Broncos
at the current price. And what's Seahawks two.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
That, Yeah, that's I'm.
Speaker 5 (37:53):
Not running yet. I got to dive into that in
the RAMS.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
I I was gonna say Seattle minus one and a
half early bird got the worm. I did not, So
I will have to reassess that as we jump around
some key numbers there. But I don't know how you
could look at Seattle this weekend and not come away
from the weekend saying that that looks like your Super
Bowl sixty champion. I know that San Francisco is all
(38:21):
sorts of banged up, but when you look at all
three levels offense, they can kill you. In the past
game with JSN run game. They've got two studs special teams.
Shaheed is playing at a high level defense. They've got
probably the best left right there with the Denver Broncos.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
So it in terms of.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
Who I see as the best team that is still around,
it's the Super Bowl favorite right now in the Seattle Seahawks.
But I'll have to see if that one settles back down.
Speaker 5 (38:54):
I will say your special teams no is no, no,
The Seattle special teams are elite. The Jets, I'm out
of the best special teams in the league this year
the only they did well, but Seattle was right there.
Big special teams advantaged for Seattle in this game. But teams, remember,
teams are never as good as they look the week before.
So they had a really good matchup against the forty
nine ers and everything just snowballed on San Francisco. The
(39:18):
Seattle offense has sneakily been broken for two months, and
they've had games where they're able to mask it because
they get a bunch of defensive touchdowns special teams touchdowns.
I mean, Darnold threw for one hundred and ten yards
against the Niners. So it's not like we saw this
offense magically fixed. I think even like twelve or seventeen,
(39:39):
like one hundred and fifteen yards or something. So and look,
we saw Seattle beat the Rams recently, but the Rams
dominated that game, but of like six hundred yards offense
didn't even have their full compliment of weapons, So I
think at three i'd have to look at their rams.
But I really want to spend a lot of time
in that game.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
And we will do that as a collective coming up
on Tuesday. Before we get out of here, let's toss
it over to Brandon Anderson for the hot read for
conference Championships next week.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
Hot Wraps who sevent day on ice Rights? Ice Cream?
How Real.
Speaker 7 (40:17):
Championships Sunday? Hot Reid can't say these are the four
teams or quarterbacks we expected heading into the season. A
little different today on the Hot Red than usual. Only
four teams left, So you gotta get a little creative
with the picks here today. And I'll tell you from
I give you my pick, but I also tell you
why this time you might want to wait just a
bit to place your bet, and that is because we're
(40:40):
going to the AFC, and I mentioned the quarterbacks we
are riding with Jared Stidham and the Denver Broncos plus
five and a half in the AFC Championship game. What
a sentence. I can't believe we're here. Bonneck's broken ankle
in overtime, Stidham's gonna make his fifth start over Who
in the world wants to Backstidham here? Of course, if
(41:01):
you've been betting a while, you know that is exactly
when you got to make the play. Start with the line.
The look ahead on this game heading into the weekend
was Denver minus one and a half. That means this
is a seven point swing from Knicks to Stidham, and
that is insane to me. There's no way this is
a seven point drop off at quarterback. That is Josh Allen,
(41:24):
that is Patrick Mahomes type level.
Speaker 5 (41:26):
Stidham.
Speaker 7 (41:27):
We don't know a lot about him, but it's not
like Knicks is anywhere near that company. I was already
pretty low on Knicks anyways. I personally make this maybe
two points, maybe a field goal, something in that range.
Nothing even remotely close to seven. Even crazier is I
actually thought about betting Denver before this weekend on this line.
(41:47):
I had Denver overfield goal before the Knicks injury, so
Zoo might have been on the matchup. Both teams a
bit unproven as we know, both teams maybe a bit
fraudulent on this season, but it doesn't matter. They're here
and now you beat who's in front of you. Denver
does have the unit I trust the most, its defense,
and I like the matchup here some things for Denver
to watch for all the focus will be on Stidham,
(42:10):
but look at that defense, elite, elite pass pressure, one
of the best in the league. And we've seen Patriots
young offensive line really struggle both against the Texans and
the Chargers. That offense has not been that great and
either these matchups not super impressive. Denver's corners are really
good and importantly, Denver is the number one defense limiting explosives.
(42:32):
That is where the Patriots live. They have not been
as good matriculating up and down the field, especially in
the playoffs. They rely on those big plays number one
explosive in the league, number one explosive passing. If Denver
can take away those big plays or limit them, keep
things close, that's your underdog formula to give you a shot.
Patriots defense, I know they have looked good but here's
(42:53):
a big swing for them. Look at the Chargers, look
at the Texans. What do they have in common? Offensively?
Terror offensive line, Denver is one of the best offensive
lines in the entire league. So that's a huge swing.
I'm gonna make things look a lot different on that
side of the ball. And an important stat here, Patriots
have been one of the worst teams in the league
in the red zone offense and defense both bottom five,
(43:16):
Denver top five there. So again, that is a spot
where if you're the underdog, one big stop, one big
score when it's unexpected, can really swing things. Conference Championship weekend,
you want to back the one seed since two thousand
and six, twenty one and five straight up are the
one seeds by over ten points a game, twenty four
(43:37):
percent of the money line. And here's a few more
stats for you among those games twelve and three straight
up against the two seed. Both of our matchups are sorry,
the AFC matchup obviously features that one and five in
one straight up as anything under a field goal favorite.
Obviously well underfield goal favorite here, huge underdogs at home,
(43:59):
think about this, Jared's didham to me? Instead of bone nicks?
You're looking at Denver being more like Pittsburgh now, worse offense,
not great I don't want to back Pittsburgh too much.
But great defense, great coaching at home, underdog script, chance
to win. That's what we're looking at. Here did them
(44:20):
in the Broncos plus five and a half at home? Now,
I said at the top, you may want to wait.
So here's the spot for that four points. Five points
kind of a dead zone for the most part in
this range. So if you wait and the line moves
a half a point or a point, you're probably not
losing much. But this is slowly moving up already. And look,
everyone's gonna want to bet the Patriots. People think this
(44:42):
is a fate accompany. I think we probably hit six.
We could even push six and a half or seven.
Those are key numbers. You definitely want to wait and
grab that if you can. So we're making the hot
red pick. I'm giving you Denver. They're the side. I
will be ond because this is an insane number, but
you may get a better number if you wait just
a bit into the week. On the other side of
the bracket, NFC Awesome Division, a rematch between the league's
(45:06):
two best teams, both games we've saw this season were great.
I don't know yet who wins that one, but here's
what I do know. I'm gonna like whoever wins that
one in the Super Bowl. So last couple of months,
I've had these two teams Rams and Seahawks first or
second in either order in my power ratings, lapping the
field multiple tiers ahead of the field. I have them
at least three points better than any other team on
(45:27):
a neutral and I don't exactly have Denver or New
England third in my power ratings. I actually make either
NFC team at this point at least a seven point
favorite against Denver and about six against New England as well.
So all the better here on this bet. If we
think Denver is live at home, you get to face
Jared's did them in a super Bowl in that case,
(45:50):
But I'm gonna like the NFC team in the Super Bowl,
And at most books you can just bet that NFC
to win the Super Bowl minus two twenty. At our
sponsored DraftKings, that's the bet here. My math makes the
NFC about a six and a half point favorite right now.
Given the teams we've got left, that would be around
a minus three hundred money line about seventy five percent
(46:10):
minus two twenty. We're getting about sixty nine percent, so
a little bit of edge in our favor there. Hopefully
you played this this weekend. My bet we gave out
on the podcast Seattle money Line, Rams money line plus NFC.
We got this at plus two twenty. Now we're getting
it out at minus two twenty, still odds in our
favorite And if your book doesn't have this, you can
(46:30):
build this by yourself. Take your bet split in a
half Seattle to win the Super Bowl plus one sixty
Rams plus two twenty five. You just bet both of
those together. You've built this bet at about minus two
twenty five and you're really not losing much on the
bet there. So that is today's hot read NFC to
win the Super Bowl minus two twenty in part because
(46:50):
Denver is live. Jared Stidham plus five and a half
home with the Broncos. That is our championship game hot read.
Speaker 2 (46:58):
That'll do it for us here this evening. If you
want to keep up with everything we've got going on
this week Tuesday episode Thursday episode found on the Action
Network YouTube page. When we talk Conference title weekend in
the NFL we'll.
Speaker 1 (47:13):
See you next time.
Speaker 2 (47:14):
Here on the Favorites presented by DraftKings, I'm Brandon Kravitz,
She's Kendri Middleton.
Speaker 1 (47:18):
He's Stucky or Out.
Speaker 4 (47:30):
Action Network reminds you please gamble responsibly. If you or
someone you care about has a gambling problem, help is
available twenty four to seven at one eight hundred Gambler
Oh my god, what did we just witness?
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Sunday's divisional round all wrapped up? The divisional round period
is wrapped up. We've got conference title games set, massive
injuries to discuss. Welcome to the Favorites, presented by DraftKings.
I'm your host, Brandon Kravitz, joined by my fellow NFL
cappers Kendra Middleton and Stuckey. We've got our goats and
votes queued up. Our biggest takeaways from this round in
(00:36):
the NFL postseason. A very brief parlay recap. We were
toast before we ever even got to Sunday. Broncos Bills
flew over the total we had the under Rams Bears
then flew under the total Bears plus four and a half.
That one did come through, so shout out to Kendra
for that. We're gonna do a quick reaction of what
(00:57):
we just witnessed. We've got AFC title game news and
some Josh Allen opinions to get out there. The Bears
were down seven in the final two minutes, ball at midfield.
They make it down to the fourteen, fourth and four.
Caleb's backpedaling heaves the ball. I thought he was just
chucking the ball. Into space wide open Cole Comet back
(01:19):
of the end zone, and what was deemed a fourteen
yard touchdown pass obviously was much greater than that game
goes to overtime. Caleb then throws a pick just completely
inexplicable to force the ball down the field. In that situation,
the Rams then work the ball down the field. Harrison
MeVis with the walk off field goal and rip to
(01:41):
the Chicago Bears, who were the best watch in the postseason, Kendra,
your initial reaction to what we just witnessed with the
Rams walk off.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
I thought Caleb was so screwed on that play, I
really did.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
I thought he was going to get sacked. Thought he
was just chucking the ball up for somebody.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
He's just the that he plays when the entire world
is on his shoulders makes me feel like that is
like his preferred place to be and he plays his
best football that way, which I don't know if that
bodes well or not for the rest of his career,
if he continues to kind of need to rely on
this final fourth quarter, last second drive heroics, but damn
(02:20):
does he do it better than anybody else. And but
then that pick that was that was tough so I
don't know, I'm not excited for the potential of another
Seahawks Patriots Super Bowl.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
But I was gonna save this from my goats and woats.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
But Nick Foles really kind of giving us some hope
after trolling the Patriots today saying maybe backups are really
the key to beat them.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
So hey, if it gets there, that would be kind
of funny.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yeah, they backup had some time to marinate in the offense.
This one might feel a little different for the Denver Broncos.
Stuck he arey being too harsh on Caleb with that,
I int because DJ Moore wasn't exactly where he needed
to be either.
Speaker 5 (03:00):
Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I can't put that
pick all on Kale. But they did have three turnovers
in the game. The Rams didn't have any, which might
have been the difference. But I thought it was two
poorly coached teams today. I mean, I was so excited
to watch McVeigh versus Ben Johnson. I mean, how many
how many dives are you gonna run on third and
fourth and one and fail? Then? I mean that was
it was some I thought the Bears were better on
(03:22):
a down to down basis in the game. They just
they had three failed fourth downs, a lot of them
were awful calls. So I'm not sure what Ben Johnson
was doing that. I don't know what McVay was doing.
I mean, at one point they had like thirty six
dropbacks and twelve rushes even though they had a fifty
five percent rush success right against one of the worst
run defenses in the league. Abandoned his thirteen the heavy personnel,
(03:44):
which should have worked all day against the Bears. So yeah,
and McVeigh to sum up how bad the coaches were
in this game. Two thirty eight to go or too yeah,
two forty seven to go. Ben Johnson doesn't call a
time now, which is a brain dead because you could
run it down to you know, seven seconds two oh seven.
(04:07):
You can run onceid a clock out on a two
o seven, You could run a passing play and end
the game without a penalty. And then McVeigh decides to
run a surrender run and the only time they say
by doing that is the time that it takes on
the shank punt that they had. That was horrendous in
game coaching, you you have a veteran quarterback you can
(04:27):
throw to end the game. And then you have the
Cardiac Bears come down and score on one of the
craziest so that won't really be remembered now. But I
thought both coaches were really bad. I also thought McDermott
was really bad at the end of the first half.
We talked about this last week. At the end of
first halves. It cost teams games. What were you going
(04:48):
to get out of Josh Allen scramming there with no
timeouts ends up a fluky fumble field goal which ended
up being the difference in the game, and uh, the
Bills losing overtime up break City again for Buffalo.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Yeah, the Bears defense was better today than I thought
they would be, too.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
I will say that.
Speaker 5 (05:06):
Brisker played really well. The Rams also weren't prepared for
like a slot blitz, like what did you watch the
second half last week? So I don't I don't know.
Maybe they were just were too cold after all. But
the Bears defense did play a lot better than I
expected them to today, So had to to Dennis Allen
in that group.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
I did think the Bears were the better team today,
but Ben Johnson doing what I mean, We've seen this
from Sean McVay Sean McVay and Stuck.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
You mentioned it. We saw it a little bit today.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
These offensive geniuses that end up in these big game situations,
they just end up frozen hard in the pun with
the weather out there, but they just they don't call
their traditional game. I mean, you had how many fourth
and short, third and short situations where you have a
chance to get creative and instead they're calling the most
(05:55):
obvious plays in.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
The middle of the field.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
I mean, we had one where Caleb Williams was throwing
the ball just into traffic down by the goal line,
absolutely inexplicable.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
One thing I will say.
Speaker 5 (06:06):
Is sometimes the ball like it's not that it's not
that difficult. The two times they did it, they got it.
The two times they didn't, they didn't get it.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
The reverse game that we've seen, the trickeration that we've
seen from the Ben Johnson offense, it was just not
there at all in these critical situations. I do agree
with his self awareness though the decision, and obviously in hindsight,
they lost the game. So maybe people are going to
pick at this, the decision to kick the extra point
at the end of the game, with how much he
had zapped his own creativity in these short yarded situations.
(06:40):
I don't think they were going to convert that two
point conversion. So to go to overtime where you had
been out playing the Rams put the game essentially on
the home field advantage that you have in that situation.
I had no problem with him kicking the extra either.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
I absolutely agree with you.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
I he was actually texting my friend group about that
because we all we have a Bears fan in our group,
so we've been silently kind of cheering for him, and.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
We all texted each other.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
I wholeheartedly expected him to go for two just there,
and I'm so glad that he didn't.
Speaker 5 (07:10):
Yeah, I agree, I agree. I think if you're on
the road as the underdog, or if you're at home
like getting clearly outplayed, I didn't mind them kicking extra
point there and then you know, look to add the
ball with a chance to win at midfield. So yeah,
I don't think he I don't think he watched that
call at all.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
So that sets up a Rams Seahawks NFC championship game.
We'll talk about that in a bit, but we got
to get to the biggest news of the weekend.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
It's the injury to bo Nicks.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Like it or not, we are getting Jared Stidham in
a conference championship game.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Stuck.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
He'd we can talk about the Bills aspect of it,
and I think that's probably where we'll end up spending
most of our time. Do you give the Broncos any
shot here against New England with Stidham at quarterback?
Speaker 5 (08:00):
Uh? Sure, it's I mean it's one it's one football game.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Uh so.
Speaker 5 (08:04):
Uh like they they're they're gonna need to force turnovers.
Peyton's gonna have to be super creative with his play calls.
But you know, there's still a lot of uncertainty with
this Patriots team, Like, can we see them play a
team like that has any starters available? I mean, even today,
you get Nico Collins out Schultz I thought had the
biggest matchup advantage of all uh and this game gets
(08:25):
hurt in the first quarter after he has fifty yards.
They were without their right tackle. I mean, like, can
we see them play any team with stars? We're not
gonna win. The Broncos have offensive line and wide receiver
injuries too that have to be monitored, and you're gonna
have Trevor Simon in there. So I I just say,
(08:45):
Trevor Simon, I'm getting flashbacks for the un today. Yeah,
they still signed Ben de Nucci, but uh Stidham. Yeah,
I mean, we don't have a huge sample size on Steadham.
He had that one huge game randomly against like a good,
good forty Niners defense. I think I think that was
like late in the year and a meaningless start. But
I got to dig in.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
I started, by the way, in over seven hundred days.
JAHI has not started a game in over seven hundred days.
Speaker 5 (09:11):
I do think that we've seen, Like the other thing
is that the Patriots have faced nothing but backups the
entire year. But they've also they didn't face any good
defenses the entire season, and we've seen them play two
good defenses in the playoffs so far. And Drake May
has not looked great. I mean he has what six
fumbles and two interceptions in two games. They were pretty
(09:35):
lucky to get that one fumble, which maybe the game
is different. I mean, Stroud was just so bad it
probably wouldn't have mattered. But May and that offensive line
are vulnerable and that Benito own company. They're gonna have
to get pressure and they're gonna have to force turnovers
may his pocket presence has been really bad. So that's
how Denver is gonna have to win this game. Peyton's
(09:57):
gonna have to be creative. Yeah, they have a chance.
I think this it's gone it's out to like five
and a half. I think it's gone too far now,
like it could end in disaster like that. Clearly, there's
still a lot of uncertainty with this Patriots team. But
like this is now assuming that bo Nix is worth
like a touchdown, come on, like.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
I would have Yeah, I probably would have had him
prior to watching him orchestrated game winning drive against the Bills,
probably would have had him closer to three three and
a half.
Speaker 5 (10:27):
Yeah, I think four is like a four to four
and a half. You know, maybe like given the circumstances,
like with some of the other injuries, you could maybe
stretch it to five five and a half, I think.
But you know, it's not like bow Nicks lights the
world on fire on a weekly basis and is one
of the elite quarterbacks in the league. So yeah, I
(10:50):
think Denver has a chance. But other injuries to monitor.
Patriots are still hardened not to crack because we just
don't the data set that we have, and we won't.
If they win this game, they're gonna going to the
super Bowl with the easiest stretch in the in playoff
history and the easiest stretch in regular season history that
we've ever seen. So but yeah, the Broncos have a chance.
(11:10):
It's it's one football game with an oblong ball, and
they're gonna be playing at home against still a young team.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
I was gonna say, I agree, I think that their
chances aren't great, but historically playing in Denver in the
postseason has given the Patriots fits. And I also feel
a little bit better that he's like the jar. It's
not going to be traveling to Mile High.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
He lives there.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
It's not something that he doesn't deal with every day.
The Patriots are going there. If like it was the
other way around and I was a backup quarterback who
hasn't been training in altitude going to play a playoff
game essentially off the couch, I'd probably have a.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
Few more worries. But history kind of likes Denver here regardless.
Speaker 5 (11:50):
I will also say it's like a so two things
you have. Now all of the pressure is on New England, right, Yeah,
so before for you were going on the road, they
would have been underdogs, and you're like, all right, if
we win this game, we're going to the Super b
It's not that much pressure on the Patriots. But now
(12:11):
you're playing Jared Stidham like, if you lose this game,
so all the pressure.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
Number two, Jared said him in the Super Bowl.
Speaker 5 (12:21):
This is a kitchen sink. Kitchen sink game. Yeah right,
So number one. You see this when in other sports,
when like your star player, your point guard is out,
everyone else, you know, tends to rise up. But more importantly,
from a play from a play calling perspective, from a
schematic perspective, like you're going to get they have to
(12:42):
be super creative, everything that you've ever thought of, from
Peyton's perspective, Joseph's perspective, you're going to get here. So
from a you know, Patriots perspective, trying to prepare for
what they're going to see, you know that it might
be proved a little bit more difficult. So we'll see
if Denver can use that uncertainty to their advantage. Now,
(13:04):
the Patriots defense, I have to give them credit. Now,
they played Stroud in an injured Texans offense and then
you know a Chargers offense with the no offensive line,
but you have to give them credit for some of
the plays that they've made. The looks they do change
up their looks very well disguised things. And now their
(13:24):
run defense is much better now that they're healthier at
linebacker with Milton Williams. I mean, the Houston can do
anything on the ground. The Chargers can do anything on
the ground. And you just saw the splits early in
the season. Their run defense was dominant late in the
season it created with the injuries. Well, now they're healthy again,
I do think so. I'm not sure that the reason
(13:45):
I bring that up is you have a backup quarterback
and a good defense at home, so you might say, like,
let's lean on the run game. But that might be
a little bit difficult here, which could throw another wrench
into it.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
I have a way too big of a look ahead.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
But if Sean Peyton wins a Super Bowl with Drew
Brees and wins a Super Bowl with Jared Stidham, does
he become one of the goats?
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Can we table that until we have two weeks to talk.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
About Jared I said, I said it was too big
of a look ahead, But what.
Speaker 5 (14:20):
Well, there is Sam Donald has an oblique injury, so
there is an outside chance that he injures that more
and we get Donald Super Bowl, Drew Locke revenge game
against Jared Stidham. Yeah, and we'll talk about that for
two weeks.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
That would be So America twenty during.
Speaker 5 (14:44):
Those two weeks.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
The last time, I recall, I mean, one of one
of my fondest memories as a sports better was betting
against Jared Stidham when he was in the Peach Bowl
against UCF. They were ten point favorites. Fire recall correctly
in that game. Obviously, I went to UCF total homer bet.
I bet the point spread and the money line, and
(15:06):
he folded like a lawn chair.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
And now we get an opportunity to fade him again.
So full circle moment.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
You're not pet of or anything at all.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
I mean, that was that was the claimed National Championship season.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
One thing that I that I did that I feel like,
you know, was perhaps the best way to bet into this.
I don't even know if I'm gonna bet this game.
I took the second the bon Knicks news came out.
I bet the Patriots a plus four to twenty five
to win the Super Bowl, and I'll just take my
chances with whoever they end up against. And we've seen
that number beat up now it's it's been sliced in half.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
So that might just be the way that I look
at this is.
Speaker 5 (15:47):
Let's I'll just say one.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
No, no, no, this was.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
He literally just said that.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Okay, yeah, but I mean they were they were also
favored going in.
Speaker 5 (16:02):
But so they won that game. So obviously the odds
are gonna come down. Yeah, so I'm excited for Ram
Sahawks again, Like I want what I'm going to spend
most of my week doing this week, Like I feel
like Denver, New England, you just have to take a stick.
You could you just like, look I'm passing. I don't know,
or you're just like this is too much of an
(16:22):
overreaction to Bonix being out. I lean the ladder, but uh,
you know, we have all week to dive into two
games the other I really want to dive into Ram Seahawks.
We have two games to golf of. But how the
Rams that last Rams Seahawks meeting where the Rams look
like I bet the Seahawks has got extremely lucky. The
(16:45):
Rams look like the clearly better team in target and
they put up what six hundred yards on that defense
without DeVante Adams. I think Vonta Adams missed that game,
if I recall. So that's what I want to spend
my time diving into that Rams offense versus Seattle's defense.
So at least that game should be pretty good.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
What we need to dive into right now is what
happened with the Buffalo Bills and the Denver Broncos. So
he talked about the Broncos moving forward and whether or
not they still have a chance and the awful two
week look ahead of Jared Stidham potentially in the Super Bowl.
How much of this is on Josh Allen because he
(17:27):
turned the ball over way too much in this game.
Down the stretch, he put on the cape as he's
been doing the last couple of years. We now have
seen the Bills first team in NFL history to lose
by three points or less in the playoffs in three
straight seasons. And then of course you have the controversial
was it a catch? Was it not a catch? With
(17:48):
ja Kwan, McMillan, and Brandon Cook.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
So a lot of.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Different ways to dissect this. Kendra, how much of this
loss do you put on Josh Allen? Do you view
him differently because of the way that this went down.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
I think a lot of it's on Josh Allen, but
it also just kind of comes down to the fact
that when they started this season, they weren't expecting it
to turn out the way that it did.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
So it was kind of a little bit.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Of a rebuild situation for them. As much as you
can rebuild when you have a team like they do,
I don't think that they really expect it to be
in the position that they were in, and there was
a lot of pressure on Josh and he just folded
once again, and I kind of do look at him
a little bit different because it was never going to
be any easier for him. It's not like he had
(18:35):
the best team in the world this season, but nobody
really has the AFC Like there is no AFC team
that is just so much better than everybody else right
now that I can discount the loss that they had yesterday.
Denver gave them the opportunity to beat them time and
time again, and he just really, for lack of a
better term at the moment, fumbled it away. And I
(18:57):
do look at him a little bit differently. I don't
look at it differently for crying because people are being
way too mean to him about that.
Speaker 4 (19:03):
I would cry as well, So let the boy cry.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
But I don't look at him differently for that, just
for how he really kind of seems to crumble in
these big moments.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
I don't blame him for crying either.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
He goes through this every year, and now he's got
to wait another year to probably go through it again
next year. It's like, this guy, as rich as he is,
as beautiful as his wife is, and as much as
he'll be entering the Hall of Fame one day, his
career could end up tormented by this the same way
(19:35):
that Dan Marino's was this legendary quarterback that could just
never really get to the mountaintop.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Was it a catch? Wasn't it a catch? Stucky? And
how much of this do you put on Josh Allen?
Speaker 5 (19:49):
No, it was not definitely not a catch. I mean,
I don't know why people are so confused by it.
There was one clear view where he didn't Here's the
all you have to ask yourself. If he came down
the way that he did with the ball and then
it hit the ground, it was not going to be
a catch, and it came down into the defender's hands,
so that was clearly one not a catch. I don't
(20:10):
know why people are so confused, although maybe because no
one knows what it catches in the NFL, and they
have different rules all the time, Like there was a
raven Steelers game which ended up costing that could have
cost the Ravens a division earlier this year with Rogers
where they called that same play differently. But no, that
wasn't a catch. I lowann to take some of the
blame he, you know, for some of the turnovers, but
(20:32):
he scored thirty points on the Broncos in Denver, like
it's the every single every year. By by the way,
the last the previous six playoff games, oun didn't have
any turnovers and they scored thirty. It's the coaching talked
to him McDermot at the end of the half. Some
other decisions in that game were very questionable. And it's
the defense all the time that lets them down these
(20:53):
games and go back and all the Josh Allen playoff losses,
they're always scoring into the thirties. The offense has never
been the issue. It's always the defense and it once
again burned them here. I mean, look who he also
number one, He was banged up a lot of injuries
on a shore week. He's thrown them a cole hardon
and Brandon Cooks like, come on, like, it's how much
(21:16):
anything Coleman he put it? Yeah, keon Coleman like, it's
been a healthy scratch scoring touchdowns like that. I can't
put too much of the blame on Al and obviously
has to take some for the turnovers, but the defense
has to you're playing the look. I think you have
to give credit to the Broncos too, and you have
to give credit to the bo Nicks and Peyton I
(21:37):
thought had a really good game. I mean they scored
two touchdowns on the two plays that the backups were
in there, and they targeted them right away. And I
mean Darnold Savage shouldn't be in an NFL playoff game,
but the Bills had no other options at one point,
they target him right away, scored a touchdown, backup corner
came in, targeted them late touchdown. So you got to
(21:58):
give credit to Bonnicks. You got to give credit to
Sean Payton and the Broncos offense as well, but a
lot of these losses, it's the coaching and it's the
defense to let the Bills down. I think that was
the case again. But in fairness to be real, you
got to give Alan some some blame for the turnovers
that he has. Yeah, I mean the guy who never
(22:19):
never turns it over in any of his playoff losses before.
So to just put it all on Alan and say
he choked, I don't think he's right.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
I don't think he choked.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
I think it was more of a first half meltdown
with the turnovers, and then we saw vintage Josh Allen.
He did miss that it was Dawson Knox over the
middle at one point late in the game. But he
does so much right that it's hard to place too
much of the blame on him. I don't view him
as a guy that shrinks in the playoffs. And I
think that's the way the conversation for a lot of
(22:51):
people is being is being shaped right now, is that
this is a guy.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
That just can't win the big one.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
It's not that he can't, it's that he hasn't and
there's always some weird shit that goes on in the playoffs.
I'm with you, on the catch itself or the non
catch the interception. I thought it was clearly an I
int I do wish they had looked at it longer.
I agree with Sean McDermott's complaint that for all the
things that we spend ten minutes in the review booth four,
(23:18):
it was like.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Okay, no, that's clearly an interception.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Let's move on with our lives and the biggest moment
of the season for both of these teams. But there's
a clear difference between what we saw in that situation
and on a lot of folks on social media are
trying to compare it to DeVante Adams and and him
having possession and then having the ball ripped away by
the Chicago Bears today.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
I think the sas.
Speaker 5 (23:43):
Adams caught him was down is and he hit the
ground like yeah, I don't people are get I don't
know why people are so confiused comparing those two.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
I think it's an easy still shot to compare. But
I just my only complaint is that they should have
looked at the Brandon Cook situation longer. They were way
too fast to just breeze passed it and then and
let's keep the game going. And I'm usually anti review,
but in this situation, I felt like they expedited that
situation in a way that they should have not. Uh,
(24:11):
you guys want to get to some goats and wats, Kendra, who.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
You got I'm actually going to do? We talked about
most of my goats. Josh Allen and the Texans being
on their way to Cancun was my goat. But as
we were sitting here, I just remembered that my fantasy
football group put down a thousand We won like a
gift card for a thousand dollars worth of a spread
at Hooters in Saugust, Massachusetts for the AFC Championship game
(24:38):
like four months ago, having.
Speaker 4 (24:39):
No idea that it would be the Patriots. So I'm
going to.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Watch the Patriots Broncos game Hooters and Saugus, Massachusetts.
Speaker 4 (24:47):
So that's my goat.
Speaker 6 (24:48):
We have a thousand dollars where the wings booze all
the stuff.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
I'm going to eat so many freaking chicken wings. So
that's my goat. Because we talked about my other goats.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
How many people are in on that bill?
Speaker 4 (25:00):
Twelve? They capped us off at twelve.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
Yeah, you guys are gonna know how much Hooters.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
That is, that's that's a lot of that's a lot
of chicken wings, that's a lot of nuggets.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
So much Hooters.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
I don't know that you're gonna be uh, I don't
know that you're actually going to be available for uh.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
You're gonna have to put me in a wheelchair after
that much chicken. I mighted in buffalo sauce and having
the meat sweats for sure.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
What about you, stucky goat?
Speaker 5 (25:28):
Dalton Schultz had is over and he got there despite
playing less than a quarter, So shout out Schultz. I
thought that he was a huge loss for the Texans
offense after that point. And then my wote is Ben
Johnson for all those the short yardage play calling just
killed that game in the flow of it.
Speaker 6 (25:49):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (25:50):
Luckily it ended up being a great game, but for
most of that game, I mean Bears rams and it
was like a snoozer for most of the game. So, uh, yeah,
those are my my goats and wotes, and I guess
I should say, actually my wote will be the forty
nine ers special teams. I mean that that game was
(26:12):
over on the opening kick and we just had a
game that was unwatchable from that point on after she
took the opening kickback. I didn't even I didn't watch
the fourth quarter. I can't remember the Las playoff game.
I didn't watch every minute of I think.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
We all had a sneaky suspicion that that was going
to be when the corpse officially rotted for the San
Francisco forty nine ers. That spread was just Kyle Shanahan respect.
That's all that was.
Speaker 5 (26:37):
But you also have did Darnald uncertainty all week with
Dale Bleak, which but the Niners just couldn't come up
with anything. But once you fall behind against that Seattle defense,
its lights out.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
My goat is bo Nicks.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
I mean, he played great and do and he did
the walk off interview still on one foot. Nobody caught
that until after the fact, adrenaline, probably knowing that his
season was done, and he didn't mention it, talked about
his teammates, talked about the situation, and then hobbled off
the field. I thought that was a really cool look
(27:14):
by bo Nix, A lot of respect for him.
Speaker 5 (27:16):
He honestly might not have known it and just thought
he was saying down though, because well, now, yeah, he
knew that he got banned up, but he wouldn't He
might not have known aw sears wasn't. I mean adrenaline,
I'm sure in that situation end of the Games is
high for an athlete as you'll ever see.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
So I broke my ankle and didn't know for like,
like I thought that I had just rolled it for
a couple of hours and in the middle of the
night it like doubled up in size. It like took
a while for me to feel it. I'm not an athlete.
I didn't break my ankle the same way he did.
I'm just saying it took me a while to feel it.
So I with the adrenaline and everything, I wouldn't be
surprised because I woke up at three o'clock in the
morning and like was like, I need to go to
(27:53):
the hospital right now.
Speaker 5 (27:54):
Yeah, I've tore my acls, but both my acls ripped
a part of me and actually it didn't hurt the time.
As weird as that is, but after different story. But yeah,
I mean, how of a perform Knicks deserves a ton
of credit for his performance.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Yeah, well I would have been in tears, so go
for me.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Well, I'm gonna. I guess, I mean c J. Stroud
third time in the divisional round. He has a grand
total of one touchdown pass and four interceptions. And by
the way, that entire stat accumulation all occurred today, hadn't
done anything prior to this average margin of defeat fifteen
points for CJ. Stroud. I mean, he's he was so
(28:35):
bad in these last two games. I know that it's
it's kind of like hot take talk radio stuff. I
would seriously be questioning is this the guy that we
need to be moving forward with? With how bad he
has been awful in these situations? Just a complete meltdown.
Speaker 5 (28:51):
Yeah, they had serious conversations about if they want what
they want to do a quarterback, I have a championship
caliber defense. And mean, I get that they had the
injuries on offense too, but Stroud did not play anywhere
close to good enough today. And look, Drake may should
say he's got to send gift baskets to Herbert and
(29:14):
Stroud because Drake may is not I mean, he has
six fumbles in two games, but the quarterbacks have been
so bad against him. There's just no talk about Drake
may So but Stroud. It was ugly like some of
the throws he was missing were bad to throw where
he just threw it up in the air to nobody.
(29:38):
I mean, you can't make that throw in the.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
Playoffs, Josh Allen like toss back weird, like flick yesterday.
Speaker 4 (29:45):
I needed to talk about that. What the hell was that?
Speaker 2 (29:48):
And that's part of the reason why he's not blamed
free And while that didn't necessarily go on the.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
War, maybe one of the worst decisions I've seen in
the postseason, like recency bias maybe, but that was I
literally said out loud, what the fuck was that?
Speaker 5 (30:07):
No, the worst decision is was strout today and then
to pick to pick six like that that throw had
he just said that's it and just threw it up
in the air like down, like take the sat there.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
You're gonna watch all of these games back tomorrow.
Speaker 5 (30:24):
I will never watch that Texans Patriots game.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
I can't wait. I'm gonna hate watch the ship out
of that fact of.
Speaker 5 (30:31):
That game went over. Both teams average like three and
a half yards per play, neither got the two hundred
and fifty.
Speaker 4 (30:35):
Yards turnovers turnovers.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
I feel bad for Kendra that she has to do
sports talk in the town that's gonna pretend like schedules
don't matter.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
It has been a calling point all week long.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
People, you know, the old guys from like Medford or like,
you play the schedule that's in front, Like.
Speaker 5 (30:57):
Who cares? You an easy schedule? That's the dream. I
would love for my team to have the easiest schedule
in the NFL. Play nobody, go to the super Bowl?
Speaker 1 (31:05):
People?
Speaker 5 (31:06):
Why are people so offended that you don't play anyone?
That should be the goal, play backup quarterbacks every week?
Just win, go to the super Bowl? Who cares? No
one's going to remember fifteen years from now they played
nothing but backups all year. But it's okay for people, Well,
like what do you Yeah, you'll definitely point out that
you played nobody. It's statistical fact that you played the
easiest schedule of any team over the past twenty five years.
(31:28):
And it's also an undeniable fact that you play nothing
but backups every single week. So like, it's okay to
point it out. But if I was a Patriots fan,
who cares? And why do you care? If other people
are pointing it out.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
We're gonna keep it rolling in a moment, But first
I'm gonna toss it to Kendra for a word about
our partners at DraftKings.
Speaker 6 (31:45):
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partnership with DraftKings, our listeners get a great off for
right now. New customers can bet five dollars and get
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Speaker 4 (32:07):
When signing up with DraftKings.
Speaker 6 (32:08):
That's called Favorites when signing up with DraftKings for three
hundred dollars back in bonus bets. If your bet wins,
the crown is yours.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Both conference title games are set.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
The Patriots are road favorites five and a half points
against the Denver Broncos with Jared Stidham at quarterback, and
the Rams are at Seattle Seattle laying a point and
a half. The Broncos are the largest home underdog in
a conference championship game since then nineteen seventy Merger, the
largest that we've seen since Brown's cults. That's the Baltimore
(32:42):
Cults back in nineteen sixty eight. It's Jared Sidam's first
start in seven hundred and forty nine days. Stuckey, I
saw you ask the question on Twitter, will this be
the worst conference championship game? Or I believe you asked,
what was the worst conference championship game that we've ever seen?
Perhaps in the lead up to it? I went back
(33:03):
to dig through see if I could come up with
an answer for you. How about nineteen ninety six the
Pittsburgh Steelers taking on the Indianapolis Colts. It was Neil
O'Donnell versus Jim Harbaugh. It wound up being a great game,
but in terms of the lead up to it, very
similar to what we're getting here.
Speaker 5 (33:23):
Well, we had Foles Keenum not too long ago. I
will I will say if you're looking for yeah, I
mean this AFC Championship game. I was saying that it
should be on like ESPN News, Nickelodeon, Flying Game, the
if you're looking for a long time, I don't even
(33:44):
know if there'll be a number out there. But going
back to the Patriots playing backups Rams beat the Seahawks,
Stafford tears his knee on the kneeling the ball down
at the end of the game. Jimmy g super Bowl MVP.
If I could find a number on it, I'll look
at it. But in all seriousness, Patriotson, you'll have a
(34:06):
chance to prove it, I think against starters in the
Super Bowl. And then you can shut everyone up.
Speaker 3 (34:14):
If I saw you go viral yesterday, hate it on
the Patriots schedule, stucky, don't you worry here.
Speaker 5 (34:21):
It's it just pointing out facts. I don't know why
people get so upset about it, Like it's it's it's
okay to be the soft schedule.
Speaker 4 (34:30):
Done that to me, and I was like, this is awesome.
Speaker 5 (34:32):
If you don't like teams drew, if you're not gonna
like win your division, you're not gonna make the playoffs.
If you're a fan of the team you want to
finish in the last you can get a fourth place schedule,
improve your odds of getting a better record, improving your
playoff positioning. The goal should be to have an easy schedule.
And like, if you're think about it, you bet on
a team and then it comes out that their quarterback
(34:54):
is out, you're happy. You should be happy that you're
playing backups. It's crazy.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
Yeah, especially when you've already won a million Super Bowls.
I guess you know. It's not like you're trying to
prove yourself.
Speaker 4 (35:04):
Never enough here, it's never enough.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
I'm still sick that Mike Turrico welcomed people to the
broadcasts in the wild card round and said the Patriots
back in the playoffs, as the kids say, it's been
a minute, Like fuck you.
Speaker 4 (35:21):
The people here are so entitled.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
Like there's some three year old right now who's only
experienced one title and it was the Celtics.
Speaker 4 (35:28):
Like, oh no, oh, seven.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
Year olds have had like three titles since I've been here.
That's insane.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
Yeah, highly entitled.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
All Right, we're gonna spend a lot of time on
these games on Tuesday and Thursday, so let's just quick
read on either one. On either one of these games,
are either of you rushing to the window to bet
the Seahawks, Rams Pats or Broncos. Kendra, we'll start with you.
(35:59):
The ans or no is acceptable in this particular situation.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
Yeah, I kind of like the Broncos to cover this
number for reasons that I kind of that I already said,
just because if that we saw what the Patriots did
today and struggling against a good defense. I think if
the Broncos can attack them in a similar way and
make Drake May uncomfortable and make him turn the ball
over like that, and they can get a little bit
(36:23):
more lucky.
Speaker 4 (36:24):
I expect them to probably run.
Speaker 3 (36:26):
The ball a lot more op be as dangerous as C. J.
Stroud was at times today. Maybe they could keep that
a little bit closer.
Speaker 4 (36:34):
So the five and a half I don't hate.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
And then the total for the Seahawks game, there's a
forty seven and a half out there, forty eight and
a half. I feel like there's probably gonna be points
scored in this game because the Seahawks have a great defense,
but we know that the Rams can score, and we
know that the Seahawks can put up points.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
Well about you stuck.
Speaker 5 (36:54):
On the number, I lean Broncos right now, but running
to bet at no, it's a five and a half,
You're in like a dead zey And so where I
don't know where this number is going to go? I
really don't. So like this's there's a lot of uncertainty.
So and like it's a huge game. Public can have
a say in these on like a regular season game,
(37:15):
just because the volume is so big, and if there's
not you know, especially if there's not like strong sharp
money opinions, I don't know, it's just going to be
a wave of this is the Pats who cover all
the time against backups playing another backup and uh you
know Stidham stinks and then could we get a six?
Like there's no downside of waiting and then this ticks down?
(37:37):
Uh so, like I think it's worth just seeing where
this line goes. So but I definitely would lean Broncos
at the current price. And what's Seahawks two.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
That, Yeah, that's I'm.
Speaker 5 (37:53):
Not running yet. I got to dive into that in
the RAMS.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
I I was gonna say Seattle minus one and a
half early bird got the worm. I did not, So
I will have to reassess that as we jump around
some key numbers there. But I don't know how you
could look at Seattle this weekend and not come away
from the weekend saying that that looks like your Super
Bowl sixty champion. I know that San Francisco is all
(38:21):
sorts of banged up, but when you look at all
three levels offense, they can kill you. In the past
game with JSN run game. They've got two studs special teams.
Shaheed is playing at a high level defense. They've got
probably the best left right there with the Denver Broncos.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
So it in terms of.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
Who I see as the best team that is still around,
it's the Super Bowl favorite right now in the Seattle Seahawks.
But I'll have to see if that one settles back down.
Speaker 5 (38:54):
I will say your special teams no is no, no,
The Seattle special teams are elite. The Jets, I'm out
of the best special teams in the league this year
the only they did well, but Seattle was right there.
Big special teams advantaged for Seattle in this game. But teams, remember,
teams are never as good as they look the week before.
So they had a really good matchup against the forty
nine ers and everything just snowballed on San Francisco. The
(39:18):
Seattle offense has sneakily been broken for two months, and
they've had games where they're able to mask it because
they get a bunch of defensive touchdowns special teams touchdowns.
I mean, Darnold threw for one hundred and ten yards
against the Niners. So it's not like we saw this
offense magically fixed. I think even like twelve or seventeen,
(39:39):
like one hundred and fifteen yards or something. So and look,
we saw Seattle beat the Rams recently, but the Rams
dominated that game, but of like six hundred yards offense
didn't even have their full compliment of weapons, So I
think at three i'd have to look at their rams.
But I really want to spend a lot of time
in that game.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
And we will do that as a collective coming up
on Tuesday. Before we get out of here, let's toss
it over to Brandon Anderson for the hot read for
conference Championships next week.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
Hot Wraps who sevent day on ice Rights? Ice Cream?
How Real.
Speaker 7 (40:17):
Championships Sunday? Hot Reid can't say these are the four
teams or quarterbacks we expected heading into the season. A
little different today on the Hot Red than usual. Only
four teams left, So you gotta get a little creative
with the picks here today. And I'll tell you from
I give you my pick, but I also tell you
why this time you might want to wait just a
bit to place your bet, and that is because we're
(40:40):
going to the AFC, and I mentioned the quarterbacks we
are riding with Jared Stidham and the Denver Broncos plus
five and a half in the AFC Championship game. What
a sentence. I can't believe we're here. Bonneck's broken ankle
in overtime, Stidham's gonna make his fifth start over Who
in the world wants to Backstidham here? Of course, if
(41:01):
you've been betting a while, you know that is exactly
when you got to make the play. Start with the line.
The look ahead on this game heading into the weekend
was Denver minus one and a half. That means this
is a seven point swing from Knicks to Stidham, and
that is insane to me. There's no way this is
a seven point drop off at quarterback. That is Josh Allen,
(41:24):
that is Patrick Mahomes type level.
Speaker 5 (41:26):
Stidham.
Speaker 7 (41:27):
We don't know a lot about him, but it's not
like Knicks is anywhere near that company. I was already
pretty low on Knicks anyways. I personally make this maybe
two points, maybe a field goal, something in that range.
Nothing even remotely close to seven. Even crazier is I
actually thought about betting Denver before this weekend on this line.
(41:47):
I had Denver overfield goal before the Knicks injury, so
Zoo might have been on the matchup. Both teams a
bit unproven as we know, both teams maybe a bit
fraudulent on this season, but it doesn't matter. They're here
and now you beat who's in front of you. Denver
does have the unit I trust the most, its defense,
and I like the matchup here some things for Denver
to watch for all the focus will be on Stidham,
(42:10):
but look at that defense, elite, elite pass pressure, one
of the best in the league. And we've seen Patriots
young offensive line really struggle both against the Texans and
the Chargers. That offense has not been that great and
either these matchups not super impressive. Denver's corners are really
good and importantly, Denver is the number one defense limiting explosives.
(42:32):
That is where the Patriots live. They have not been
as good matriculating up and down the field, especially in
the playoffs. They rely on those big plays number one
explosive in the league, number one explosive passing. If Denver
can take away those big plays or limit them, keep
things close, that's your underdog formula to give you a shot.
Patriots defense, I know they have looked good but here's
(42:53):
a big swing for them. Look at the Chargers, look
at the Texans. What do they have in common? Offensively?
Terror offensive line, Denver is one of the best offensive
lines in the entire league. So that's a huge swing.
I'm gonna make things look a lot different on that
side of the ball. And an important stat here, Patriots
have been one of the worst teams in the league
in the red zone offense and defense both bottom five,
(43:16):
Denver top five there. So again, that is a spot
where if you're the underdog, one big stop, one big
score when it's unexpected, can really swing things. Conference Championship weekend,
you want to back the one seed since two thousand
and six, twenty one and five straight up are the
one seeds by over ten points a game, twenty four
(43:37):
percent of the money line. And here's a few more
stats for you among those games twelve and three straight
up against the two seed. Both of our matchups are sorry,
the AFC matchup obviously features that one and five in
one straight up as anything under a field goal favorite.
Obviously well underfield goal favorite here, huge underdogs at home,
(43:59):
think about this, Jared's didham to me? Instead of bone nicks?
You're looking at Denver being more like Pittsburgh now, worse offense,
not great I don't want to back Pittsburgh too much.
But great defense, great coaching at home, underdog script, chance
to win. That's what we're looking at. Here did them
(44:20):
in the Broncos plus five and a half at home? Now,
I said at the top, you may want to wait.
So here's the spot for that four points. Five points
kind of a dead zone for the most part in
this range. So if you wait and the line moves
a half a point or a point, you're probably not
losing much. But this is slowly moving up already. And look,
everyone's gonna want to bet the Patriots. People think this
(44:42):
is a fate accompany. I think we probably hit six.
We could even push six and a half or seven.
Those are key numbers. You definitely want to wait and
grab that if you can. So we're making the hot
red pick. I'm giving you Denver. They're the side. I
will be ond because this is an insane number, but
you may get a better number if you wait just
a bit into the week. On the other side of
the bracket, NFC Awesome Division, a rematch between the league's
(45:06):
two best teams, both games we've saw this season were great.
I don't know yet who wins that one, but here's
what I do know. I'm gonna like whoever wins that
one in the Super Bowl. So last couple of months,
I've had these two teams Rams and Seahawks first or
second in either order in my power ratings, lapping the
field multiple tiers ahead of the field. I have them
at least three points better than any other team on
(45:27):
a neutral and I don't exactly have Denver or New
England third in my power ratings. I actually make either
NFC team at this point at least a seven point
favorite against Denver and about six against New England as well.
So all the better here on this bet. If we
think Denver is live at home, you get to face
Jared's did them in a super Bowl in that case,
(45:50):
But I'm gonna like the NFC team in the Super Bowl,
And at most books you can just bet that NFC
to win the Super Bowl minus two twenty. At our
sponsored DraftKings, that's the bet here. My math makes the
NFC about a six and a half point favorite right now.
Given the teams we've got left, that would be around
a minus three hundred money line about seventy five percent
(46:10):
minus two twenty. We're getting about sixty nine percent, so
a little bit of edge in our favor there. Hopefully
you played this this weekend. My bet we gave out
on the podcast Seattle money Line, Rams money line plus NFC.
We got this at plus two twenty. Now we're getting
it out at minus two twenty, still odds in our
favorite And if your book doesn't have this, you can
(46:30):
build this by yourself. Take your bet split in a
half Seattle to win the Super Bowl plus one sixty
Rams plus two twenty five. You just bet both of
those together. You've built this bet at about minus two
twenty five and you're really not losing much on the
bet there. So that is today's hot read NFC to
win the Super Bowl minus two twenty in part because
(46:50):
Denver is live. Jared Stidham plus five and a half
home with the Broncos. That is our championship game hot read.
Speaker 2 (46:58):
That'll do it for us here this evening. If you
want to keep up with everything we've got going on
this week Tuesday episode Thursday episode found on the Action
Network YouTube page. When we talk Conference title weekend in
the NFL we'll.
Speaker 1 (47:13):
See you next time.
Speaker 2 (47:14):
Here on the Favorites presented by DraftKings, I'm Brandon Kravitz,
She's Kendri Middleton.
Speaker 1 (47:18):
He's Stucky or Out.
Speaker 4 (47:30):
Action Network reminds you please gamble responsibly. If you or
someone you care about has a gambling problem, help is
available twenty four to seven at one eight hundred Gambler
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