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January 14, 2025 • 45 mins

Gregg Rosenthal is joined by Nick Shook to recap the Rams eliminating the Vikings from the playoffs on Monday Night Football. The show starts with talk about how the Rams rallied around the city of Los Angeles (02:12), followed by a look at how Matthew Stafford and Sam Darnold played (08:30), a discussion about Darnold's future (16:50), and a salute to the Rams defense (28:20). Things are wrapped up with Gregg and Nick reacting to Mike McCarthy no longer being the head coach of the Cowboys (34:20).

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
From the thirty nine of LA Third Down and eight
Rams on defense protecting a touchdown, leave Donald against the rush.
What's coming?

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Please hit scoop, scoop up, Jennifers, tell the right sideline
with lockers turn.

Speaker 3 (00:17):
Five tunning time.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
The defensive rookie of the year with a scoop stretch
store on wild Card weekend and it's a Callum winnerspoon
to Jarrett Loose.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
Are our friends JB Log and MJB with the great
call of the great Jared Verse. No one was catching him.
I mean, what was his forty time? My god gets
into the end zone for a scoop and score on
a night when the Rams defense had Sam Donald seeing ghosts.
The Rams win twenty seven to nine to cap wild

(00:58):
Card Weekend in a crazy game in Glendale, Arizona. I'm
here back in Los Angeles. It's not as smoky as
it was a couple of nights ago, Nick shook, And
for that we have a lot of thanks to give
and a lot of Rams fans around the Southland, around
Los Angeles, and the ones who got up early this

(01:20):
morning to take all those buses that were going from
Sofi to bring them to Glendale are happy tonight because
it was over after that touchdown. It was a party
for this Rams defense.

Speaker 4 (01:32):
What a night, Yeah, one to night, indeed one night
for less sneed it drafted Jared Verse, Braden Fisk making
a play, that defensive front that he rebuilt after the
departure of Aaron Donald coming through in a defense that
just played phenomenally and absolutely shut down the explosive Vikings
and really made quite a statement with this win. That

(01:53):
Verse fumble recovery in return for a touchdown, It made
it what seventeen to three. It felt like the final
blow right then and there, like they were never going
to recover from that. That was how good of a
game they played defensively, and what a resounding win for
these Rams.

Speaker 3 (02:05):
Yeah, it was another rough one for Sam Donald and
we'll get into that, but the defensive performance was amazing
and the way the Rams offense came out to start
this game and set the tone with a touchdown drive
just like they did against the Vikings the first time

(02:25):
route in so far, and then get another score to
go up two scores, ten to nothing in the blink
of an eye. And Sam Donald wasn't really ready for it,
wasn't ready for that moment, and before we get into
the whys of it all, I do think about everything
that's happened this week here and we've chronicled it on

(02:46):
NFL Daily some and I think about this Rams team, who,
one year after the pandemic, when people are just getting
back to normal and you're just getting used to sofis
even being a thing that fans can go to, they
win a Super Bowl title and kind of stamp themselves,

(03:08):
you know, this city's football team in a way that
I don't think they had been since they had returned
from Saint Louis. And fast forward to now, but both
them and the Chargers are in the playoffs this year,
but they get affected, their practice gets affected. Last week
they go to Glendale and it's this season where they
were one and four and they make it to the playoffs,

(03:30):
and you don't know how many more years Stafford and
McVay are going to have together. And this is actually
their first win since that Super Bowl title. And I
do think about NFL seasons. Not everyone can win the
Super Bowl, and it's going to be disappointing whenever this
Rams season ends for them unless they win it. And
yet sometimes I do think one win can make it

(03:51):
all worth it. And maybe that can be a regular
season win, but usually it's a playoff win. And even
if the road ends in Philadelphia, I really do think
this is a win in that Rams fans will treasure
and remember forever, and Stafford will as well when they're
thinking about it in twenty years, even if they don't
go on that, Hey, we got another one a few
years after that Super Bowl and it was that week

(04:13):
and when we faced a lot of challenges, and we
faced challenges that season, and it kind of showed what
they were all about as this next generation of like
Rams young players.

Speaker 4 (04:22):
You know, go on, Yeah, they're gonna be sitting around
the Thanksgiving table or just the dinner table, or maybe
a reunion of old teammates years from now, and think
back to you remember that time we had to go
out to Glendale because you know, there were wildfires around
and we couldn't practice and we couldn't play in our
home stadium when we had earned the right to host
a playoff game. Remember how the Cardinals organization bent over
backward to make sure that it felt as close to

(04:42):
home as it could be. They got the same color
paint to paint the field that we would use and
everything else. Remember all those fans who came out to
Arizona to support us, and then we went out and
played inspired football. That was the thing that really stood
out to me from the opening drive. The Rams played
with the purpose that exceeded the playoffs. This was about
more than just when a playoff game that was a
home game away from home. This is about playing for

(05:04):
the entire city, in the entire Los Angeles area, and
they represented them so well. And there's no way, considering
all that has happened that people won't look back on
this five, ten, fifteen, twenty years from now. I mean
I still hear about the games from the eighties in
Cleveland with the Browns, right, nothing like this. It was
nothing like this.

Speaker 3 (05:19):
This is gonna be we Well, those are pretty great.
Those are pretty great times.

Speaker 4 (05:23):
Too, and a mid tragedy.

Speaker 3 (05:25):
No, Yes, Rams fans are hopeful that they don't go
in such a dry spell that those kind of games
stand out as much. But yeah, this one won't be forgotten.
And I'm glad you mentioned the energy. That's really a
smart way to think about it. Because the Vikings are
coming off a disappointing loss. They had to play last
week Sunday Night football. Rams got to rest their starters,

(05:46):
and the Rams came out and just yanked this thing
from them right away. First drive of the game, Vikings blitzed.
Guess guess what their blitz percentage was on the first
drive of the game.

Speaker 4 (05:57):
It was one hundred percent.

Speaker 3 (05:58):
It was one hundred percent every single play. Hey, And
you know how many times they pressured Matthew Stafford one
one time and I just thought Stafford and McVeigh the combination.
It's like they knew what was coming, and he got
rid of the ball so quickly. Puko with a huge
gainer on the first play. Basically every play was successful.
Tyler Higbee had a bunch of them and it was easy.

(06:19):
And then you think about the first defensive drive, first
play on defense Byron Young, tackle for loss, next play
Byron Young sack I believe him and Kobe Turner. And
then the third down play actually stands out to me
where Donald just dumps it off to pick up like
seven or eight yards on a third and fifteen and
literally five guys tackled the ball carrier at the same time,

(06:42):
and you're like, oh man, this team is swarming and
the second half. The offense didn't need to do much,
and they didn't do much, but it didn't matter because
the defense kept it going the whole time.

Speaker 4 (06:52):
Yeah, it was a phenomenal defensive game plan from the beginning.
You know, there was a comparison between Manon's own coverage
and Darnaldon struggled significantly against man coverage. He didn't know
where to go. The picture was complicated to him. He
was hesitant, and they feasted on it. And what really
stood out to me in the way that they got
after him was the number of different guys that got involved.
Eight different rams contributed to either at least a half sack,

(07:15):
if not more. Over the course of this game, a
number of different guys getting pressures, and two of those
sacks came from defensive backs. The one on the strip
sack that led to the Jared Verse fumble recovery in
return for a touchdown, that was a Kello Witherspoon coming
off the edge and he just realized, oh wait, Darnold's
holding onto the ball. I'm here, forget my assignment. Maybe
this tight end leaking out. I'm going after him, and

(07:36):
he capitalized. They were playing with their hair on Fire.
They were playing with intent that again exceeded the limitations
or the expectations of a playoff football game. That's just
what was so impressive about this game.

Speaker 3 (07:48):
Yeah, let's listen to that first touchdown to Kyron Williams
from Stafford from a.

Speaker 1 (07:52):
Loaded set with the coup of the only receiver they'll
play fait boot out to the left side, Matthew flicked
his hip. Fire's middle play.

Speaker 5 (08:01):
Tail back Carmen.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
Williams, touchdown Laane seven plays, seventy yards. The Rams strike
first on this wild card Monday.

Speaker 3 (08:15):
Yeah, that was such a great play call because the
initial read as he's rolling out is taken away. But
they have Kyra and Williams, who's become a great player
in the passing game open and Stafford still looking yanky.
He can still flip those hips and he was sharp
as hell in the first half. He was fine in
the second. They just they played pretty conservative. But he

(08:35):
ends up nineteen for twenty seven two hundred and what
did he end up with nine yards and a couple
of touchdowns? You know, passer rating over one eleven. What
did you think in general? I guess of Stafford and
the offensive performance one section and you could talk about this.
To me, that stood out was the last two minute

(08:57):
drive after they got the ball late in the first step.
We can say that it ended at seventeen three, and
yet it really felt over after that drive.

Speaker 4 (09:06):
Yeah, Stafford came into this game with only one passing
touchdown since week fifteen. That was after a run where
he posted a ten to zero touchdown interception ratio over
the previously Believe it was the last three or four
games people were worried about him. He was averaging one
hundred and fifty three passing yards per game over those
last three games. Coming into Monday night, he looked like
the guy we expected to see two years ago, not

(09:26):
the guy that we expect to see after the last
three weeks. He was sharp, he was dialed. He was
completely in sync with Sean mcvay's game plan. They executed
that nearly flawlessly, that opening drive. But you're right, that
last two minute drive was the one that really stood
out to me too, because of how he played with
so much conviction. Even the touchdown pass that he throws,
he drops back, plants his foot boom bullet to his
tight end, tight end runs it in for a touchdown.

(09:48):
Made it look easy because this is a guy who's
been there before and he still trusts his physical tools
and when the play design is working for him and
he understands where to go, Like even on that Kiraen
Williams throw the flow is to the left, and yet
he finds a way to throw it back toward the
inside where Hiren finds the soft spot in the zone
to score the touchdown. They were just completely in sync
throughout that entire first half, and I thought that reminded

(10:08):
me that, Hey, a lot of people are ready to
close the curtain on the Matt stafford era in Los Angeles.
Not so fast. Okay, it's still ball, and he played
really well in this first half.

Speaker 3 (10:16):
I know it would be really hard to replace him,
and we'll see because he has these highs and sometimes
the game does come down to the quarterbacks. And the
difference tonight was so stark, and I think the end
of the first half sequence really spells that out. Koc
decides to go for it on fourth and two at

(10:37):
the fifty with a couple minutes left to go. Actually
it was one thirty two left to go in the
first half. Now earlier in the first half, he decided
to take a field goal on a fourth and two
inside the red zone. I didn't hate that decision at
the time, because it just didn't feel like that Vikings
were executing well enough to have confidence that they're going

(11:00):
to make the fourth and two, that Donald would take
a sack or something. But he decides to roll the
dice a little bit at the fifty, kind of call
his shot right there where if we don't pick this up,
we're gonna go down three scores. But let's show some
confidence in Donald. And what does he do. He holds
onto the ball for like six seconds and he takes

(11:24):
an eleven yard sack and then Stafford gets the ball.
It takes a few plays to get going, but he
hits Pooka on a play that probably ended with what
about thirty five seconds to go, And I'm thinking they're
going to take a time out there, and they don't,
and they decide not to. And it was really a

(11:44):
veteran move. First of all, they had enough time to
run a handful of plays left. But more than anything,
with the way Flores runs defense, they're a good hurry
up offense and they can mix in tempo really well,
and they did that tonight. Especially earlier in the game,
and they hurry up up on the ball and they
snap it quick like before ESPN gets out of their replay, basically,

(12:05):
and he's got a wide open Davis Allen that their
rookie tight or second year tight end over the middle.
Shout out to Jordan Rodrieg cashing inner Davis Allen stock
at the last moment. Good job by her, he gets
the touchdo it. And that's veteran game management versus Sam Darnold,
who who had no game management tonight.

Speaker 4 (12:23):
Yeah, and I actually thought that signs of this being
a potential outcome showed up in that Lions game. I
don't think that Lions game was an anomaly, and just
like a one off, you could kind of find clues
that this could be an issue for them. My biggest
issue with them in that game was the fact that
when they had a down and distant situation where you
needed to get five to eight yards, you treat a
third and relatively long with two plays because you know

(12:45):
you're going to go for it on fourth down. They're
not running anything short for him, and that has been
my big issue with their offense for a lot of
this season. Is now Sam has stepped up in a
lot of these moments and ripped a pass down the scene,
you know, through three defenders for a big first down
in some of these games they've won. Last week, I
saw him not able to do that because they're playing
better defenses, because the pressure is on. And the same

(13:06):
thing was true again in that scenario which leads to them.
It's fourth and June. You take such a long sack,
you give the Rams great field position and they capitalize.
And that was a big concerning sign for me with
them in this going into this game, and unfortunately for
the Vikings, it proved to carry over and be true again.

Speaker 3 (13:20):
Yeah, you hit the nail on the head. I think
it's more that Darnold doesn't take the options or make
the quick deal. Yeah, that could be very true too
to get to the check down. But I think you're
absolutely right that they don't build in enough for him.
Jordan Rodrigu, who I just mentioned, is that the game
and said the exact same thing that they need to
build in more short stuff for Sam and it's not there.

(13:43):
But the sacks that he took, and he took nine
of them, took me a long time to get to
this added up to the most sackyards in a game
eighty two in the history of the NFL playoffs. Oh,
it's the most sack yardage in any game in the
NFL for a decade. Cam Newton took more sack yardage

(14:07):
in a game in a November game a decade ago.
But the most sackyards ever here are the sack yards
because like a lot of times, you take like a
three four yard sack, you get up ten seven, twelve, eight, seven, eleven, thirteen,
eight nine to close out the game there, and those

(14:28):
are massive sacks. One of those double digit sack numbers
came in the second half when they had a third
and eight in field goal range in theory, but really
they needed to just get touchdowns. They were down I
think three scores at the time went nineteen points or something,
and he took I think that thirteen yard sack, and
they decided to punt on fourth and twenty one, which

(14:52):
to me was a surrender punt. I know, you don't
want to punt there, but the game is over if
you punt it. So the fourth quarter was very strange
to me. But I think koc was so exasperated by
Donald taking the sack there after he held it for
like six seconds. The Rams only had five quick pressures
all night. None of their defenders had more than one

(15:15):
quick pressure. So more of these sacks than not were
on the delayed blitzes, which they did a great job doing.
That confused them and Donald just holding onto the ball
and freezing a little bit. Let's listen to Kevin O'Connell
talking about Donald after the game.

Speaker 6 (15:31):
The other phase of it for Sam is acknowledging the
things that made him a winning quarterback this year and
the consistency at the times he had it throughout the
year and what that meant for our team. Because I
think that can stay with him moving forward, is as
he goes back to work, proud of him, proud of
you know, really everybody in that locker room, but Sam

(15:52):
and the journey him and I went on this year
will always, you know, be a you know something that's
a special place in my heart. For sure.

Speaker 4 (15:59):
That's a good way to say spin it, but that's
a wistful tone at the end of what's a disappointing
finish in a season that had so much promise, and
you talk about that third and eight. I just went
and looked at the tape real quick because I thought
about this in real time when it happened. He's so
locked on a Jalen Naylor to going across the field
looking for the deep play. Again, he's got CJ. Ham
open about six yards away from the line to gain
with a little bit of room to run when he

(16:19):
breaks the pocket, like, just dump it off once it's
right there for you take the gain, you can get
a fourth and short. But again, that typified the entire
night for him hunting the big play. Hesitant pays the price.

Speaker 3 (16:30):
Yeah, they had three point three I think adjusted yards
for dropback, which is one of the lowest totals in
any playoff game for years. I actually did a stat
This is going to be a next Greg's stats. I
don't know if this is official.

Speaker 4 (16:48):
Can you count as ngs? That's still okay.

Speaker 3 (16:51):
So he officially went nine for seventeen I believe, for
eighty four yards when under pressure when he did throw
the ball. So that's an average about a little under
five yards per throw, which is which is not good.
We had an interception in there, a couple close ones,
but then he took those nine sacks for all the
passing yard you know, all the negative yards. So eighty

(17:12):
four minus eighty two. That's that's a total of two yards.
Divide that by the total plays there, his passes in
his sacks, that's twenty six plays. They averaged point oh
seven yards per play when Sam Donald was pressured. That's
pretty good. That's a pretty good debut of next Greg's stats.

(17:33):
Point oh seven yards per play when Sam Donald was pressure.
They're not bringing him back. He's talking wistfully because Sam
Donald's done in that town.

Speaker 4 (17:41):
He goes, he's definitely gone. Hey, my middle name, by
the way, is Gregory. So we're gonna stick with the
next Greg starts.

Speaker 3 (17:47):
Really, you never knew that? How did I not know that?
Now you learn something new.

Speaker 4 (17:51):
Ngs are my initials, so we'll just stick with it.

Speaker 3 (17:54):
Yeah, Now I'm not Gregory. That's what the the third
G sixty percent G that closes that.

Speaker 4 (17:59):
That's just stops at greg just like my name stops it.

Speaker 3 (18:03):
It just stops it right there. And I'm I'm joking around,
and you know, I've been a darnold doubter until I
you know, I had to be convinced that just by
his excellent play, and he did play excellent for most
of this season, But I do think the way these
two games played out in the biggest of spots for

(18:25):
him to completely revert back and have two of the
worst games by any quarterback all season, you know it,
at least by like a competent quarterback. These were two
of the worst games and certainly in the biggest of
spots for them to be this bad in this spot,

(18:49):
They're not going to give him the franchise tag. I guess.
I just assume they would if he maintains his level
of play, and I think if he had even normal
bad games, they still would thought about it. But I
don't think they're gonna do it now. I actually do
think there's a chance he returns to Minnesota, if only
because a two year, let's say, thirty million dollar contract

(19:14):
from Minnesota to be a one B basically a backup
plus until JJ is healthy, might be the best offer
he gets. I just don't know. Maybe he will get
a better offer elsewhere, and maybe he's comfortable with that.
He's going to have a really difficult decision. But he
cost himself a lot of money.

Speaker 4 (19:32):
Obviously. These last two games were damning evidence in the
case against paying him, you know, paying him relatively significantly.
He's not getting a Daniel Jones contract, and even that contract,
as we know now, was bad. All right, So this
is a guy in Sam Darnold who notoriously held over
the ball a long time to significant success this season. Right, So,

(19:53):
he averaged three point zero eight seconds per drop back
this season. It was the third longest time to throw
on average in the NFL, behind Lamar Jackson and Jalen Hurts,
two very different quarterbacks from him. Right. Yeah, you guess
off the top of your head what his average time
to throw was tonight.

Speaker 3 (20:09):
It had to be. Well does that count sacks? I
don't even know, or is it before you fifty draw gus,
I'll just guess four, just to give a big fan three.

Speaker 4 (20:17):
Point two to one, which is still significantly higher than
three point oh eight. That would have been the longest
I believe in the league.

Speaker 3 (20:23):
Yeah. But here's the thing. If you counted the sack numbers,
which you don't, because it's average time to throw, I mean,
wake up, Greg, It's literally in the title of.

Speaker 4 (20:32):
That stat so new of course that doesn't count.

Speaker 3 (20:34):
But I don't know how I ended up. But our
friend Bill Smith at our research department pointed out with
the six first half sacks, which broke a record in
terms of first half playoff sacks, no surprise, none were
under three point two seconds none, and four of the
six were over four seconds. And I can think in
my head at least of two of the sacks in

(20:55):
the second half that were over four seconds too, so
that that's just holding it forever. And you could hear
the frustration dripping in Troy Aikman's voice that these really
were more on the quarterback. Yes, they lost Brian O'Neil
about halfway through this game, but there was one play
where he took the sack and Troy Aikman was like,

(21:17):
he's got a clean pocket in front of him, just
step up, and that's it. It's it's the not being
aware of pressure, and it's maybe the reason why I
have always been so down on Donald, maybe even more
than the numbers would say, because that's my number one
trait is your feel versus pressure. And it's probably why
I've overrated a couple of quarterbacks over the years because

(21:39):
to me, I think that just that's what I want
in a quarterback and he doesn't have that, and we
don't need to spend the whole podcast on Sam Donald.
We'll talk about him in the offseason, but you do
feel for him. He made it to QB Island, but
I don't know, Man, we might have to call an
emergency meeting or something here.

Speaker 4 (21:57):
Yeah, I think he's getting voted off if that's the
complicated process allows for that to happen. I actually caught
a brief glimpse of the Manning cast during this game,
because I'm like, what did Eli and Peyton think about
Dartnold's performance so far? They were just groaning. He threw
a ball too. I think it was Addison who came
back to the ball and made a catch between two defenders,

(22:17):
and Eli was just like, wait till they show the receiver.
When he gets rid of the ball, he's not open
at all, and somehow he makes the play. Like they
were just absolutely dismade at the performance, understandably so rough
rough ending to what was a nice year for him.

Speaker 3 (22:31):
Yeah, that's the thing too. The last couple of weeks
he let his mental issues get in the way of
the throws that he made, even when there wasn't any pressure,
Like he dirted a couple screen passes. ESPN actually tracks
a stat espan stats and info of off target passes

(22:53):
and his Lions game, he set his season high and
it was one of the highest by like any quarterback
all season, and this game was the second highest. So
it wasn't just that he was, you know, taking these sacks.
He was missing some throws that were there. Man, Okay,
enough about Donald that's a downer. There's a lot of
fun in this game. One of the fun things was

(23:14):
actually Paul Allen's call of one of the biggest plays
in this game. It was early, it was ten to
three Rams, and for a second it looked like it
was ten to ten because there was a sack fumble
touchdown for the Vikings. We're actually going to take a
quick break. But on the other side of the break,
we'll start with that call by Paul Allen, who who

(23:37):
did obviously did not love how it all finished up.

Speaker 1 (23:50):
First and ten from Matthews Stafford, the former Georgia pulldolf
to pass.

Speaker 2 (23:56):
He dropped, picked up.

Speaker 3 (24:00):
Cash cash, buddy, that's the playoffs. That's a twenty three
yard tupid before how the.

Speaker 2 (24:10):
Brams offense is staying on the field.

Speaker 3 (24:13):
I don't know if they're gonna rule this.

Speaker 2 (24:14):
An incomplete or ain't no, incomplete.

Speaker 3 (24:18):
No, No, that's a bumble. They're rolling on the field.

Speaker 4 (24:21):
Is a humble recovered by the defense cuts down?

Speaker 3 (24:25):
Yeah, there we go. That was a complete breakdown on
their offense. So number seventeen was in the area.

Speaker 4 (24:34):
Therefore it is a complete pass. How's not to pass?

Speaker 3 (24:38):
He didn't even hit.

Speaker 4 (24:39):
His least off the game off the fourteen fourteen players.

Speaker 3 (24:43):
Wow, wow, oh man. For the last time this season,
Paul Allen and Pete burstas on k FA and that
was a huge play. I guess a heads up play
by Matthew Stafford, even though his head was down. I
mean from the from the original angle, you thought, no

(25:03):
way was that a pass. But then when you saw
the replay, I actually think it was the right call,
but just not a smart move by Stafford. It shouldn't
have been an intentional grounding, so it wasn't the right call.
They should have called intentional grounding, but it was not
a fumble.

Speaker 4 (25:19):
Yeah. When I saw the replay from the front side,
I was like, yeah, that's you shouldn't look go the
ball there. It wasn't until his arm extended from behind
that you saw that he was trying to get rid
of the football. But now it saves them the sack yardage, right,
but ultimately take the sack, no reason to do that.
But luckily for the Rams they lucked out and got
the call in their favor. Yes, uh oh, clip by

(25:40):
the way, can we clip the.

Speaker 3 (25:41):
Are you kidding me?

Speaker 4 (25:42):
Because that was just great?

Speaker 3 (25:43):
That that was amazing. That's the funny thing is if
you look at the like the box score of this game,
because the Rams didn't do much in the second half,
like they only hit two third downs all game. For instance,
the Vikings were much better on third down success rate.
For the two teams running, we're both mediocre. They were
like slightly below average. It wasn't like a great running

(26:06):
game for the Rams. Kukuanakua gets forty four yards on
nine targets five catches. Cooper Cup has one catch. Tyler
Higbye unfortunately left this game with a chest injury and
had to go to the hospital and they say he's
in stable condition, which is worrisome. So I don't know
if that was a breathing problem for him, but Sean

(26:28):
McVay did say that they it looks like he's going
to be okay, which is really good news. So it
is one of those games you kind of have to
watch because even Darnold's stat line, if you don't see
the stacks to really understand the story, and maybe that
does speak to the point that there was something a
little more going on. It's one of the reasons why
we love football right shook, not just because you can

(26:50):
get inspired, It just that if you watch that game,
you understood it in a way that you can't from
looking at the numbers. And a lot of it was
from the energy of the game and shout out to
those fans that showed up there for both teams. Everyone
there from ESPN said it was an incredible atmosphere. It
was like a college atmosphere. You have the fans behind

(27:11):
the team they support, like a college game, and they
were really loud, and I'm sure they weren't showing a nationally,
but the local news was all over this story and
they had like, I don't know how many buses it was,
but it was a ton of buses. They showed the
lines of people that were there at sofar taking the buses,
all in rams gear that the staffords and the rams
paid for. And they left before dawn, like it was

(27:34):
dark out at that point, and so they showed up
in big ways. And the Vikings, who travel so well
and had such a great season, you feel for them.
They showed up big time two for what was ultimately
a funeral, but a cool like a memorable atmosphere, making
the best of a bad situation.

Speaker 5 (27:50):
There.

Speaker 4 (27:50):
Yeah, a lot of details that will not show up
in the Pro Football Reference box score that we googled
into fifteen years from now, like people like me like
to do, but those who watched it will remember who
access the replay, which you can find on NFL Plus look.

Speaker 3 (28:03):
At too and.

Speaker 4 (28:05):
Revel in the uniqueness of this game, which win in
the technically the home team's favor as they advanced to Philadelphia.

Speaker 3 (28:14):
Yeah, and good job by look the Rams back seven.
Anytime you hold an opponent in single digits, which I
believe they've now done, is that for a month straight?
Like when was last time the Rams defense gave up
a big point total? They're starters. The forty nine ers
they beat twelve to six, the Bills game, the Jets

(28:35):
they beat nineteen to nine, the Cardinals they beat thirteen
to nine, and then this game they win twenty seven
to nine. That's incredible. I know the backups you know,
gave up thirty to the Seahawks, but I'm not counting
that game. So it was the Bills game, and that's
amazing Chris Shula getting it done with those delayed pressures.
The secondary with guys you haven't heard about. Kobe Durant

(28:58):
had a sack, kill a Weatherspoon has played well. There's
been injuries, and yes that that four man front versus
special once O'Neil went out, especially versus just he had
a good time with their backup and so it was
a real team victory for the Rams. Let's actually listen
after the game to Kobe Turner. Uh, this is two

(29:21):
people and you won't hear Bridget here, but two people
that have been a big part of NFL Daily. Bridget Condon,
a regular guest interviewing Kobe Turner, who got the NFL
Daily bump as a guest back in training camp.

Speaker 5 (29:33):
We had the city on our back this week and
I'm glad we were able to go out and pick
up a dub. You know, McBath has been talking to
us all week about the fact that we're built for this.
Everything that we've gone through from the season up till
now has prepared us for this exact moment prepared us
to go take victory like we just stand. And so
the next journey is on the way. You know, we
head up to Pillion. We're excited for that too as well.
But we're built for this man. All the trials, all

(29:54):
the tribulations, all the ups and downs. We've weathered the storm.
You figure out the true testament of team how they
react in a storm. And we started in a storm
and now we're up here. So I'm just excited to
keep going with these.

Speaker 3 (30:05):
Guys right spitting bars. We started in the storm. Eric
Roberts behind the glass, doing a great job all week
all season, tells me there was thirty buses. I was
gonna say it seemed like they were lined up so
that that was a big crew that that took took
the ride, and that's a six hour bus ride, and
I think they got They must have got there very

(30:27):
early because they were I don't know why they were
get there that early, but I guess you got to
make sure.

Speaker 4 (30:32):
Somebody who has moved to LA, back to Ohio, to
LA and back to Ohio and done the drive across
the country four times. Usually when you get to Arizona,
you're like, all right, now, here's the home stretch, but
it's still pretty long. You stuck out near Barstow at night,
You're like, where am I? They rode those buses as
the sun was rising to come watch this team play
for them.

Speaker 3 (30:50):
Yeah, it's badass. And Sean McVay gonna be proud after
the game. This is, like I mentioned, first win since
the Super Bowl, which I think he's gonna feel really good.
They obviously made the playoffs last year and lost a
really close game to a good team. The Lion's nothing
to be ashamed of there, but big to get a
playoff win in four of his eight seasons Shook. He

(31:12):
has won a playoff game. In six of his eight
seasons they've made the playoffs. He very evenly distributes everything.
In two of those seasons he went to the super Bowl.
In one of those seasons he won the super Bowl.
It's like he's almost mathematically doing what you would expect
every time he makes the playoffs. Like he's done every
little bit of it. And a lot of love for
KOC and Dan Campbell and all these coaches and McVeagh

(31:37):
didn't get a lot of love for Coach of the
Year this year. But there aren't many guys you would
rather want, I think running your organization.

Speaker 4 (31:43):
Which of us had him on the top five of
the latter was good?

Speaker 5 (31:46):
Ye?

Speaker 4 (31:46):
Me?

Speaker 3 (31:46):
Good job? Was it me? I'm glad neither of us.
Did you have Kevin O'Connell first after week We did
after week seventeen, so you were stuck in maybe, Yeah,
it was.

Speaker 4 (31:55):
It was a weird spot at the time. Look, this
RAMS team started one to four. They're now ten and
three in the last third. All those games have come
after their buye. That's a hell of the job by showing.

Speaker 3 (32:03):
And one of them they didn't try to win, so yeah,
and they almost did win with Jimmy Garoppolo, So.

Speaker 4 (32:08):
Yeah, there is.

Speaker 3 (32:11):
And you know what, I had this theory that they
wanted this matchup, they wanted the Vikings. It was just
the theory I had because they were trying to lose
that game when they could have tried to play against
the Commanders and it's a familiar opponent. They got it done.
A lot, you know, to worry about for the to
think about for the Vikings. I'm going to talk about
the Vikings a little more on our next show. Ali
Connelly's going to join me, and we're going to kind

(32:33):
of spin around a lot of the coaching situations, the
GM situations, just the other teams that aren't in the playoffs.
And I do want to talk about the Vikings because
I think there's some interesting things going on with their
front office and Darnold and kind of what's going to
happen next for them. Obviously, koc has nothing to worry about,
one of the best coaches in the league, even if
at disappointing ending. They are the first team, by the way,

(32:54):
since the champion Patriots, I think, in fourteen to only
lose to two teams in a season. They only lost
to the Rams in the Lions this season. They went
oh to four against the Lions in the Rams this season.
They're also the first team that won fourteen games in
a season to end with back to back losses, and
those back to back losses were by a combined forty points.

(33:17):
They weren't close. It's just a weird, a weird way
to end. But I don't think it eliminates everything, but
it maybe simplifies how they view their team that maybe
they still are a little further away than the record showed.

Speaker 4 (33:28):
Yeah, I feel like they overachieved this year considering where
we thought they were when we analyzed their roster going
into the season. We also didn't think Tam Donald was
going to have this type of season. Nobody did. We
thought J. J. McCarthy was going to be the quarterback
of this team, and he wasn't. But I am curious.
I don't know if Minnesota's is as tough on their
coaches as some other markets. Looking at you, Pittsburgh with

(33:49):
Kevin O'Connell, because he's now zero to two in playoff games,
in which come.

Speaker 3 (33:53):
On, they will because there's a crazy, you know, segment
of the fan base that gets mad at the coach
after every playoff loss. But give me a break. I mean,
I agree, I'm curious with what he got out of
this team. All right, let's switch gears before we go

(34:13):
for the night. We often do a big news rundown.
We're not going to do that today. But we did
get one big item that I do want to talk
about that I don't want to save for our next show,
and that's Mike McCarthy no longer being the coach of
the Dallas Cowboys. How would you word it, Nick Shook,

(34:34):
Because one thing you can't say about Jerry Jones is
that he fires his coaches. He doesn't do that. He
just lets their contract run out and then lets them
twist in the wind. So, if you're writing the article,
how do you even phrase this? Conscious uncoupling?

Speaker 4 (34:50):
Conscious uncoupling is a great way to do it.

Speaker 3 (34:52):
Sorry I stole your answer.

Speaker 4 (34:55):
It's better than mine. I would just say parted ways
like the Patriots did with Bill Belichick, coming on from
a coach by letting his contract expire. It's common in
other industries, not so much in the coaching industry. It
is gets questionable though, that they would deny the Bears
a chance to interview him if they wanted to part
with him. But then again, the Cowboys do things a
little bit differently. And now all the intrigue builds because

(35:16):
they are the Cowboys. Who are they going to hire.
We've already heard some names floated out there, including one
guy who once played for them. It's going to be
very fascinating to see how they proceed after deciding, you
know what, wasn't as good as we wanted it to be,
and we're just gonna let that contract expire and go
for greener pastors. We'll see if they find one.

Speaker 3 (35:34):
Yeah, you know you're referring to Dion Sanders. Ian Rappaport
did indicate among other insiders across the country that Dion
Sanders is a possibility that they probably will talk. Someone
dug up an old Michael Irvin tweet from November where

(35:55):
he said he hung out with Dion I believe on
Saturday night after hanging out with Jerry Jones on Friday night,
and that he's praying for something that we can guess what,
and that he's praying essentially for those two men to
come together, and basically said he is trying to make
that happen. So if Michael Irvin is brokering like head

(36:17):
coaching hirings in the year twenty twenty five, that would
be amazing. And I don't doubt that Jerry Jones would
milk this story to get as much attention as possible.
And I don't doubt he would do it because it
would be so box office. But I don't know if
he would want to really hand over the keys to
someone who has more juice than he does, and he

(36:41):
seems a little indecisive. I watched a really good segment
with Ian and Tom Pelsaro and Jane Slater, and there
was a lot in there that I'd like to get to.
But of one of the things that Jane said was
people around Jerry Jones said he really was kind of
indecisive over the last week. And that seems obvious because

(37:03):
if you read the statement that Jerry Jones made, he
said that he spoke with Mike over a number of
days and spent considerable time discussing the road, for they
were thorough and received an appropriate amount of time prior
to reaching the point of contract negotiations. It became mutually
clear it would be better to each of us and
head it in a different direction. So they spoke for

(37:25):
multiple days. It appeared there was mutual interest in potentially
continuing the partnership, and then according to our insiders, maybe
they never really negotiated. But before they even got to
that point, the agent was involved and it was clear
that Jerry Jones was not going to give him a
long contract and that Mike McCarthy only wanted to do

(37:47):
it if it was a long contract, that it was
going to probably be like one or two years or
you know, that would have been the negotiation, and that
that was a non starter for McCarthy, and on some level,
it was almost McCarthy walking away from being like, no,
I'm not putting up with your bs. That's it. Just
like mismanagement. This is all it's all bad. If you're

(38:09):
a Cowboys fan, you gotta be so sick of it.

Speaker 4 (38:12):
It's been a rough twelve months of mismanagement for the Cowboys,
started with that offseason in which they said they were
all in and then did very little of anything. They
placed high expectations on a team that lacked weapons offensively,
and I thought it was very telling Mike McCarthy's tone
after their Week eighteen loss to the Commanders in the
final seconds of that game that when asked about his
job status and his security and the way he felt

(38:33):
about it, he just like stood his ground and was like,
I'm a winner. I've won, I won a championship in
this building. It's almost as if he took that same
approach into those talks and then got the response that
you just described and said, to hell with this, I'm
gonna go find something better for me or not coach
at all, because I'm not dealing with this anymore, just like.

Speaker 3 (38:52):
You said, which is crazy because you know it sounds
like he wants to coach, but that this has worn
on him. And this is what I got out of
that conversation, so I'm paraphrasing our insiders it's not my information,
but that he was getting really tired of this situation

(39:12):
with the Cowboys. It's pretty rare to be on a
last year year contract as a coach and all the
things that comes with it and not necessarily having all
the power to really even run his offense or bring
in the players that he wants. And that's just how
it works if you're the Cowboys coach, and that maybe
he's made enough money so if another coaching job doesn't

(39:33):
come around this year, or even a head coaching job
ever again, that it's enough for him and it's tough
for the coaches under him, but they didn't want to
be living in that uncertainty either. Just while we're on McCarthy, quickly,
he was the Saints' offensive coordinator and people forget this
for at least four years to start this century in

(39:57):
Mickey Loomis was there with the Saints at the time,
and all three of those insiders pointed out that they
have a close relationship and that there really could be
a connection there, and Loomis could see McCarthy kind of
as a guy that helps him out if his job
is at all you know, you know, hey, I can
still get a winning coach like this to come on board.

(40:20):
And McCarthy might look at it as a situation where
he'd have a lot of power relatively for a head coach,
and it's just something to keep an eye on. He
also is going to interview with the Chicago Bears, so
he has two interviews. He's a wanted man, Mike McCarthy.

Speaker 4 (40:37):
You got to think about situation and you think about motivation,
and if he wants to go to a place where
he is familiar with the person in charge of personnel,
then it's the Saints and a place where he feels
like he can have considerable power over roster decisions and
everything else. It's New Orleans Saints. But he would also
be walking into a team that doesn't have a long
term answer quarterback and lacks weapons outside, especially if they
lose a guy like they did in Chris Olave this season.

(40:59):
So what would you rather choose? That or a young
team with a young quarterback and with some weapons at
receiver of varying ages, but in need of serious direction
and a GM that you would have to get to
know in Ryan Poles, there are two very different situations.
But if he wants to coach again, we'll see. Man,
I mean, you'd rather have a quarterback. You'd rather have
a quarterback to mold of course it's Kayla Williams. The

(41:20):
difference with that job is they've interviewed everyone. If they're
interviewing like iOS state head coach, like he might not
really have much reason to believe that he would be
a favorite or one of the favorites. In Chicago, maybe
he would be, but there's not any particular reason, whereas
in New Orleans he might walk in as the favorite
to get that job if they could figure it out.

Speaker 3 (41:43):
Who knows. But this cowboy situation means they missed an
opportunity to interview Mike Rabel for instance, or Ben Johnson
or any you know, anyone you know that had the
so I guess that would have been Spegnola wouldn't wouldn't
have been that many different people. But like, there are costs,

(42:05):
and if you end up hiring your coach really late
in the cycle, you have a harder time filling out
that staff I think it's one of the reasons why
Vrabel wanted to get going quickly. I have some thoughts
on his press conference too, but we'll save those. We'll
save those for Monday. Yeah, for Tuesdays show that will
come out actually Wednesday morning with Ali Connolly. We don't
want this to get too ill. Get tonight of celebration. Nick.

(42:27):
I guess that's enough about the Cowboys, but just just weird,
weird times for the Dallas Cowboys. What a night, What
a weird week. It's been a tough week. My kids
are going back to school though tomorrow. How about that.

Speaker 4 (42:40):
That's awesome, a return to normalcy and a great podcast.
Look forward to tomorrow for those of you who has
in the NFL daily, because no thoughts on the Patriots
are as valuable as Greg Rosenthal when he comes away
from a Mike Rabel introductory presser, I.

Speaker 3 (42:54):
Promise, no, no, no, it was fine. It seemed a
little tired, but it's fine.

Speaker 4 (42:58):
You've seen some things we have.

Speaker 3 (43:02):
We all have, including Sean McVay putting it to Brian
Flores early in that first half, and that offensive line
was beliguered and injured, getting healthy and getting it done.
It was in a full team effort. Obviously that defense
flying around. And yes, they made my wife and my daughter,

(43:22):
who are rams Vans, very happy tonight. And yes, it's
been a long week. We're keeping an eye out on
this wind event that is starting apparently is going to
pick up in the morning. That the fires are mostly
out near us, the smoke cloud is basically gone, but

(43:42):
everyone's keeping an eye on this wind event for the
next thirty six hours or so. And so we're crossing
our fingers and hope everything doesn't get worse here and
we can keep getting better and the Red Cross has
helped us to do that. And yes, we've been heartbroken
by this struction from these wildfires across the entire LA region.

(44:03):
So families affected by these fires, they do urgently need support.
You can help the American Red Cross respond to and
help people recover from these disasters. Donate today to support
relief efforts by going to Redcross dot org. Slash NFL
Nick this is our last Monday Night of the year.
I'm glad we had this playoff game to go out

(44:25):
in style. It would have been sad if the last
Monday Night game of the year that we did was
Packers thirty four Saint zero.

Speaker 4 (44:33):
Was that the one the last year we did that
a few weeks ago.

Speaker 3 (44:37):
That was rough? Doesn't that feel like another lifetime ago?
This week has aged me. I'm really excited them going
back to school actually is going to feel like a
real return to some to some sense of normalcy like
last Tuesday when this all started. Feels like like two
months ago. And so the wildcard weekend not a lot

(44:58):
of close games. Hopefully we get better games. Divisional Round
weekend the best weekend of the year, and you'll be
helping us out Sunday night, right, Nick, better.

Speaker 4 (45:06):
You know it, you know it. I'll be there, lock
stock and barrel, Baby, We've got a lot of playoff games.

Speaker 3 (45:10):
To get to. Okay, that's it for tonight's show. Thanks Eric,
thank you to Nick. And yeah, when the Rams are
back in the super Bowl mix, you know football is back.
We'll see you Wednesday morning.
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