Week 18 Recap: Lions Roar, Bucs Survive and Pats Make a Change

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to NFL Daily, where we said goodbye to eighteen
NFL teams Today, good ball feel a little lighter.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
That's what happens this time of year.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
In the Chris Westling podcast studio, I'm Greg Rosenthal alongside
my friend Patrick claybond Nick shook back in Cleveland, and
we are back in the studio after watching a beatdown
on Sunday Night football. Yes, for the second time in
three seasons, the Lions put a stamp on the very

(00:38):
last regular season game of the year. Except this time
they're not just going home and saying we took you
out with us Packers. They're the number one seed in
the NFC. We have our playoff schedule set. Let's just
go over it first before we get into the games.
We've got three days of games now on Wildcard weekend.

(01:01):
It is not Super Wildcard Weekend anymore. Very important, don't
call it that. We've got the Texans and the Chargers
in the West of his spot. And I have been
told reliably the Houston Texans have literally never played outside
of the West of His spot. And when I searched
west of US and Texans, I found a tweet from

(01:22):
our old friend Chris Wesseline, who, yes, we would celebrate
every year. The first game on the NFL Wildcard calendar
was always that early Wildcard game on Saturday afternoon, and
it was always Andy Dalton in the Bengals, and sometimes
the Texans were involved. And the tweet I found was
from twenty nineteen where he said, officially, the Texans have

(01:43):
taken over that spot.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
They've they've played the most times in that spot. And
you want to know a.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
Fact, Nick Shook, They've literally never not played in that
spot seven per seven before this year.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
This makes it eight. They are five and two.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
By the way, in those games they are hosting the
Chargers as the five seed. Saturday night, we stay in
the AFC, we have the Ravens and the Steelers for
the third time. I know that makes Patrick a little
bit nervous. It makes me nervous too. Sunday morning on
the West coast, one o'clock on the East Coast, Bills
and Broncos, followed by Packers and Eagles. In what the

(02:19):
NFL really kind of feels like, Oh, that's that's the
best game of the weekend.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
We give it to that four thirty spot.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
On Sunday, Packers Eagles that is fun, Buccaneers commanders on
Sunday Night football, and then Monday night we've got the
Rams hosting the Vikings and we'll get into all the
schedule of it all, but just some like big picture
thoughts Nick about what has transpired over these last forty

(02:46):
eight hours this season before we get into the Lions
in the Vikings game.

Speaker 3 (02:51):
Honestly, I feel at peace. I feel like I got
a new sense of clarity because the playoff picture is
now set. I don't know, I talk about it. This
team and that team gets in. We know who's getting in,
and now comes the best time of the year when
we get to break down all these games, give our
predictions and see how it all unfolds.

Speaker 4 (03:09):
Yeah, it's the same way for me just looking at
these matchups and again, like the way, especially in the AFC,
where everything was going to come down to the Chiefs
and the Broncos. We'll get to that, but to have
some clarity over in the NFC. Finally, it's a sense
of like the plane lands, and not that I'm not

(03:29):
going to be that guy that stands up in the aisle,
but you can unbuckle your seat belt, you can take
out your phone and you could start to do the
things to prepare for the trip that is the NFL.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
And there is something about that, just eighteen teams that
we're not going to watch those teams again, but we
don't have to, right and a lot of them it
is a relief, and a lot of them we're going
to be talking about, in CLUDI on the show, with
some coaching changes, and you know, the off season is
just starting for those teams. I think the slate is
just about perfect because what I don't like to happen
is to have two teams that I don't think have

(04:00):
a realistic chance to make it to the super Bowl
playing each other in wild card weekend. I think maybe
we have one of those games Commanders Bucks, although you
could convince me that the Bucks could make a magical run,
and then I don't want like two of the great
teams to be stuck against each other, like picking each
other off.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
But if you're gonna do that, maybe just have one
of those games.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
And I kind of think the Packers Eagles has settled
into that game. And the AFC, the quarterbacks in the
AFC are just crazy. We're gonna get into all that.
So I think the way to structure this show. Guys,
I hope you're okay with this because it's already laid out.

Speaker 4 (04:31):
It's gonna be your call regardless.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
Eric behind the glass has to say here, we do
a lot of conversation.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
Chris is in the mix.

Speaker 1 (04:40):
I'm not gonna say he has this sort of decision
making capability yet, but he is in the mix. We're
gonna go NFC first, because I think that's where the
big action was on Sunday. We'll go all through the NFC,
and then we'll do the AFC and everything that happened,
and then we'll wrap it in a nice neat bow. Yes,
let's start at the end. Let's go to fort Field

(05:02):
five and a half to.

Speaker 5 (05:03):
Go, Lions by fifteen first in gold from the Minnesota four.
Golf is gonna work out of the gun, gets to
his right, Jared leans in, there's the snap, gets it
to Jamir.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
Open the left side up the hash still fighting at
the one. Did he get in the way?

Speaker 4 (05:18):
It did?

Speaker 6 (05:19):
Touchs down Detroit Lions. Shamir with a boat from his
defensive line. He's dead and the Lions are three scores off.
Can you smell it, Detroit? Yes, we think can you smell?

Speaker 7 (05:30):
It smells cool it It smells at the NFC North.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
Who oh what Dan Miller's voice is cracking.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
You know that's what football is back.

Speaker 1 (05:44):
Welomas Brown TJ lang On WXYT.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
It's been a season.

Speaker 1 (05:49):
It's been three years worth of Dan Miller calls and
he always delivers. And the Lions, they delivered to fifteen
and two on a regular seat in that put up
a ton of obstacles in their way. Injuries, expectations, a
difficult schedule, a brutal division, and they overcame it all

(06:12):
to get that number one seed. They won this game
thirty one to nine. It didn't feel that decisive, Patrick,
but I chose I wanted that highlight versus the other
three Jamiir Gibbs touchdowns that also happened in this game.

Speaker 2 (06:24):
He ended up with four.

Speaker 1 (06:26):
He had some longer ones, but I wanted that one
because it fell emblematic of the way the second half
went literally and figuratively. Figuratively, this is a team all
working together and pushing each other. And then literally there
were multiple first downs where the offensive lineman pushed Jamir
Gibbs to get that first down. That was for the touchdown,
and that embodies just everything this Linone's team has been

(06:47):
about it.

Speaker 4 (06:47):
You could make the case that Pine Seul had more
first downs in this game by pushing Jamiir Gibbs than
Jordan Adison and Justin Jefferson did. Over on the other side,
where Aaron Glenn's defense played spectacularly well, the Vikings play
well in a spot where it felt like both of
these teams were competing to the same extent on the
defensive side of the ball. But then it was Jamiir
Gibbs on an angle route on fourth and goal where

(07:10):
he dices up Andrew Van Ginkel and goes in the
end zone. The Lions never really looked back after that point,
and it's well, you know, we'll have time to get
into this Donald discussion. But truly, even if Sam Darnold
played an A minus game, yep, it wouldn't touch. Jared
had the shot where you know, Ben Johnson kind of
puts him in a tough spot throwing out of his

(07:32):
own end zone. Three receivers in the pattern, it's a
deep ball. He's got to throw the ball otherwise it's
going to be two points for the Minnesota Vikings. He
has the mistake there. Other than that, a pristine game
played about Jared Goff where even if Donald played better,
he wasn't touching sixteen.

Speaker 1 (07:47):
Yeah, it's one where you look at the box score,
you see the two picks from golf and there was
the one that got tipped at the line of scrimmage
earlier in the game, and you look at Darnold obviously struggling,
but there was there was such a big difference there.
And yet the fourth downs, you don't want to boil
it just down to Minnesota struggled in the red zone,
and they definitely did.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
They finish, oh for four in the red zone.

Speaker 1 (08:09):
Donald's numbers inside the ten yard line, we're gro tests.
At one point they were. He was one for nine
for three yards inside the ten yard line. But I
do think Nick, on some level, it does come back
to those fourth downs that the Vikings go for the
fourth downe as they should early in the in the
second half. It's another one of those Donald incompletions where
he's just running around and the Donald on the.

Speaker 2 (08:31):
Move, just freestyling.

Speaker 1 (08:33):
Those players were not working at all tonight, whereas the
Lions stayed aggressive after a failed for fourth down early
in the game that got tipped, they go for it again,
as Patrick mentioned, hit the angle route, and then after
that they are the better running team ultimately, And these
are two teams that water run the ball, but the
Lions they're built to do it, and they were better
doing it, and it made it kind of a walk

(08:55):
in the fourth quarter where at one point Aaron Glenn
is just sitting on the on the bench chilling.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
I don't know what he was doing over there.

Speaker 3 (09:03):
He'd earned that, He'd earned that by the way that
he'd gotten in the head of Sam Darnold, which we
haven't really seen this year. But honestly, this game comes
down to like three key takeaways. One of them is
the Lion's success on fourth down. The other one is
Jamiir Gibbs going back to the Lion's identity of putting
the game away on the ground, which you thought maybe
they wouldn't be able to do that without David Montgomery.
Oh no, they can still do that because he can
actually handle the ball at every down, which he proved.

(09:24):
They're ripping off long runs, getting first down sometimes with
the assistance of his offensive linemen. And then the third
thing was the Vikings missing their opportunities not capitalizing. You
had the Ivan paced interception and then they settle for
a field goal. They're inside the ten, they settle for
a field goal. There you have the fourth and two
that they didn't convert that you just mentioned. There's also
the play where Andrew van Geekle reads the bubble perfectly.

(09:45):
He gets out there, tips up in the air and
he doesn't catch it. So the Vikings are to come
away from this game, you know, pretty upset with the
fact that you know, in the margins they could have
made it a much tighter game, knowing that they didn't execute,
But at the same time, should feel good that if
we clean that up, we're still gonna really good shots.
They play that again. Who knows. Maybe there's a difference
with the Lions definitely the better team tonight.

Speaker 1 (10:04):
It was very similar game plans from the two defenses.
Both teams blitzed more than fifty percent of the time.
Both teams had a very high pressure rate, although the
Lions were even higher. The difference was Goff, who had
his struggles early in the game. Certainly they were bothering
you hit someone that much, like, how can you not

(10:25):
be bothered? But he got rid of the ball faster.
He only took six QB hits. Darnald took ten. And
then he had a couple C and N types of
third down throws that Darnald just didn't hit. I'm thinking
early in the game too, he started eight for eighteen
for eighty nine yards, and there was a third and
nine to Hockinson where actually the pressure didn't get there.

(10:45):
There was a third and eight up the seam, or
third and eighteen rather to Hockinson. Also in the first
half where actually he had a chance, there was pressure
and it's a third and eighteen, but he's hit these
crazy plays and he just misses him by a yard.
There's another Hockinson drop in the second half. Sometimes it
was receivers one that's a little behind Jefferson. It's not
like a perfect throw, but it was a tough situation

(11:07):
and Jefferson doesn't make the catch. So on a night
where like Aaron Jones is in and out in the
second half, it just.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
It wasn't close.

Speaker 1 (11:16):
But it's hard also, you know, to ignore that Donald's
eighteen for forty one with four yards per attempt in
the biggest game.

Speaker 4 (11:24):
Of the year. It was two of twelve in passes
ten to nineteen yards or twenty plus. This is Sam Donald,
who's over forty five percent of all of his throws
were past the sticks in this regular season. He most
of the attempts were short, and he was eight of
eighteen between zero and nine yards today, where clearly the

(11:46):
strength of the Lions defense at this point. You know,
during the stretch where everybody got hurt. I know, they
got alex Anzeloni back, some of their pass rushers back,
Obie Millifond who returned, but Brian Branch and Kirby Joseph
kind of formed the backbone of this d right around
that nine yards away from the lone of scrimmage. So
they're always good in that spot. They were even better today.
Where Sam Donald has been great all season actually bad today.

Speaker 2 (12:10):
It was such a good game.

Speaker 1 (12:11):
I know it was like a blowout in the end,
but I guess it got me going shook because like
this was the first playoff game, and the great thing
is we get to see the Vikings again.

Speaker 2 (12:19):
They'll be on Monday Night football. It wasn't, but it
just felt like, okay, there's there's now.

Speaker 1 (12:24):
You know, before this game started, fourteen games left in
the season and they're all gonna be really high stakes,
and you just felt you felt that, and the final
score lies just a little bit. But I thought one
of the key moments, and it's why I really believe
in Goff and I believe in this offense to get
it done, was the drive before Gibbs hits the long

(12:45):
touchdown in the second half, which which is only their
their second touchdown is ten to six at the time.
Goff hits a third and really long while backpedaling against
the blitz to set up a four more than four
that they go for, and then he's back pedaling again
against the blitz and those are just little plays, and

(13:07):
then the next play Gibbs pops it, and to me,
that was the difference. He's been in these situations so
many times. And it's huge because they are now at
home for the NFC playoffs and they get a week
off and there's actually not that many players I don't
think can return. We saw Kevin Zeitler, their guard, walk
off at the end injured, so that's a little concerning.

(13:29):
Patrick mentioned it. Melafonou being back. I think the last
couple weeks is a big deal for them. It's just
another steady body there in the secondary, and Angeloni made
a big difference Terry and Arnold looked like he had
a serious injury unfortunately at cornerback tonight. So they get
the rest, but more importantly, you're gonna have to beat
Detroit in Detroit, which is a tall order, and I

(13:50):
think is the reward and the advantage they kind of
needed after all these injuries.

Speaker 3 (13:54):
Yeah, that was what was at stake tonight was home
field advantage. And I think that the Vikings, despite everything
that they've unwell this season, proved just how difficult it
is to go win there because in that first half,
they played tight, they coached tight. That red zone situation
after that interception, justin Jefferson has an opportunity to catch
a ball in the back of the end zone and
he bobbles it and then by the time he comes
down with it, he's out of bounds. Those are mistakes,

(14:16):
small things that they don't typically make. But I think
the environment had a lot to do with that. And
the other thing is if the Lions have the home
peel advantage, that's great, but they're also proved tonight that
they are master masters of preparation, Like they were prepared
for anything that the Viking's brought after them, especially on
those fourth down conversions. Double a gap blitz, We're gonna
throw the angle oute right behind you for a touchdown,
like they had an answer for everything. And I think

(14:37):
you combine those two factors, it makes it extremely difficult
to go in there and beat them, no matter how
banged uf they are, because they've taken a number of injuries,
but they play that defense played tonight like they weren't
hurt at all. So it's a tall task.

Speaker 1 (14:49):
Well, I you know, I'm just wearing my biases on
my sleeve. I think covering a Lion Super Bowl would
be amazing. How can you not love this team? There
were other great stories out of the NFC if it happened,
including the Vikings if they if they found a way
to win three straight road games, but it's it's a
tougher road for them now. I'm also biased because I

(15:10):
want to see my son and my daughter, I mean
my son, my daughter, my son, and my wife dress
up as Sonic and Knuckles for the Super Bowl, which
she has promised Walker, who really loves Gibbson Montgomery, that
she would do if they make it. So I just wow,
I just really want to see that. I'm man this Vikings.

(15:30):
The day started weird. They started weird with a Jay
Glazer report on Fox that multiple teams are interested in
trading for Kevin O'Connell. I don't like this. I don't
like Kevin O'Connell and his story being front and center

(15:52):
at this point in the season when it should be
all about the team. I've got thoughts on this. I
feel like I need to just let them simmer for now.
We're gonna talk about all the coaches stuff on our
Black Monday Show. But I just feel like it's an
awkward situation and you wouldn't want anything kind of taking
away from the team right now. A coach, a coaching

(16:13):
contract situation like that's not what the Vikings need right now.
They need to start preparing for their wild Guard game.
They will have an extra day to do so. Now
let's go to the early slate of games, which were
a lot of fun, especially figuring out who would win
the NFC South to Raymond James Stadium.

Speaker 8 (16:30):
Empty backfield, Look for Baker Mayfield out three receivers two
is right good snap belt high looking up field, look
at Funched.

Speaker 4 (16:37):
Out of the pocket. Daniel's outside prows.

Speaker 8 (16:38):
Them all up here here open Con touchdown, Tava Bay touchdown,
Tama Bay child mcbellan.

Speaker 4 (16:44):
Fifth game of a row, he's come up with a.

Speaker 9 (16:46):
Touchdown fire the Cannons box all up, tied to twenty
nineteen nineteen.

Speaker 1 (16:52):
O Jean Decker half on wf us What a throw.
Put that on the throw of the throws of the
Year list. I mean, seriously, just a peat on the
run in the biggest of spots. At that point in
the afternoon, if the standings held, the Falcons were going

(17:16):
to the playoffs. Yes, the Bucks were trailing in the
fourth quarter against the Saints. They find a way to
score two touchdowns fourteen points unanswered in the fourth to
win twenty seven to nineteen. And yes, at that moment
took the Falcons were tied in their game. The Bucks
went into halftime down ten points, knowing that the Falcons

(17:40):
were ahead in their game, staring their season and maybe
the Todd Bowles era in the eye in the and
they come back and they win the game. How did
they get it done?

Speaker 3 (17:52):
Down ten points with only one hundred and sixteen yards
in total offense work for four on third down when
they got to the break. It sure looked bad. It
sure looked like they were like that egg at the
worst possible time. But who rescues them, none other than
the man were in number six, Baker Mayfield with an
impressive fourth quarter that I'm sure will upset you Gregor.

Speaker 2 (18:10):
No, No, he was the.

Speaker 3 (18:12):
Man scrambled, he converted. He threw that pass to Jalen McMillan.
And the reason that pass was it was so important
beyond the fact that they just scored a touchdown, because
he had already thrown a dime to McMillan on fourth
down to convert a key fourth down. McMillan celebrates, he
signals first down doing a little finger guns thing, gets
taunt flagged for tawning. They get backed way up, and

(18:32):
then you think, well, there goes their opportunity to score
the touchdown. Nope, Baker Mayfield's out there, he's gonna let
it rip and he's gonna throw an absolute dot to
his receiver in the corner of the end zone to
give them the lead. It was so impressive. Gene Deckerhoff,
you heard on the call, wasn't even sure what the
score was at the moment. That's the type of day.
It wasn't the type of fourth quarter it was for
the Buccaneers, who woke up with just enough time and
then their defense finished it off. They got to Spencer

(18:54):
Rattler and then they went on a long drive late
in the game that ended the twelfth play. Ninety four
yard march took off almost six minutes off the clock.
Bucky Irving gets in the end zone and that was
basically it. And they're going to the playoffs triumphantly. And
they even got Mike Evans his incentive and his eleventh
straight thousand yard receiving season.

Speaker 2 (19:10):
This was not a clean comeback.

Speaker 10 (19:12):
No.

Speaker 1 (19:13):
In the third quarter, Baker threw an interception the in
in Bucks territory, the Saints just kick a field goal.
They go four and out, they kick a field goal.
After that the Bucks go three and out. Saints are
winning at this point, late third, they shank the punt

(19:36):
right and at that point it really felt like this
is this thing is gonna happen. But the Saints took
a penalty, I think they took a sack on that drive,
and suddenly it was like third and twenty six and
they end up just having to punt back. And that
to me was where it changed. And I give Baker
a ton of credit because most of this comeback was

(19:57):
just him having to wait until the last second. Liam
Cohen's screens and all his voodoo nothing was working today.
The Saints were all over it. They didn't have much
of a pass rush, but no one was open. The
little gimmick plays weren't working. The run game took a
while to get going, and it was honestly just Baker's
playmaking that did it in the end.

Speaker 4 (20:16):
Especially with his feet. Baker Mayfield, Yeah, ran for sixty
eight yards in this one, and I at some point
in this game wondered if the Bucks were somehow tipping plays.
For those who watched the Sunday Night football game where
Alexandeloni blast Jamiir Gibbs on a swing pass, the exact
same thing happened to Bucky Irving where to Mario Davis
was instantly there and that was the game. Like for

(20:40):
you get to eleven thirty four to go in the
fourth quarter, Ugo Amadi gets a sack of Baker Mayfield
and the Saints were winning the game at this point,
Like they have to come back and make the plays
like the ones that choke was talking about where Mayfield
is hitting McMillan, and they ultimately do it just in
a ready fashion. There was nothing pretty about this. The

(21:02):
only thing pretty was when they had absolutely won the game.
There's no reason other than to get Mike Evans three
million dollars and to have the best moment of the week,
a top five moment of the season for me. When
Mike Evans gets one thousand.

Speaker 8 (21:18):
Evans, how the ploys to the right in the slot.
Now in motion, Mike Evans drifts over to the left,
slide Baker Mayfield shotgun. They know what we're gonna do.
The Baker mayfieldsos of all to coughtball Evans.

Speaker 2 (21:30):
He's got it to the forty yard line.

Speaker 8 (21:32):
What a thousand plus Mike Evans loveleven seasons in the row.
How about the Buccaneers at number thirteen.

Speaker 11 (21:40):
What a tremendous job. And we were talking off the air.
He needed five yards, so they sent him in motion.

Speaker 4 (21:46):
They push him up, They hit the quick out.

Speaker 11 (21:49):
I want to make the catch, get up the field
and he's fired up. He's not an emotional guy, but
he was fired up as seon.

Speaker 4 (21:56):
As he got down, you could see the tears welling
up in the locker video where he gets the game
ball from Todd Bowles, just the moment from the team
executing Baker Mayfield making the throw, Mike Evans getting the yards,
Todd Bowles allowing that situation to happen, just just a
great moment for all of Tampa Bay.

Speaker 1 (22:16):
Kind of incredible in so many different ways, one of
them being technically the only way they could not go
to the playoffs would be if they threw a ball
to Mike Evans and it got tipped, or if he
tipped it up and the Saints caught it.

Speaker 2 (22:34):
Yep, pick sixed it, got the two.

Speaker 1 (22:37):
The game actually wasn't over, and yet I completely agree
with everything you said.

Speaker 2 (22:43):
That gave me goosebumps. That was one of the moments
of the year.

Speaker 1 (22:46):
There's a shot taken from the sidelines and if you're
watching on YouTube, you can watch it and credit to
NFL Twitter here if you're watching from the low angle
and the sound that you hear from the crowd. They
had it on the scoreboard within seconds that he got

(23:09):
his one thousand yards, and congratulations on all the scoreboard
and that's given those fans and Mike Evans and everyone
else like a moment they literally will never forget.

Speaker 2 (23:22):
And that's that sports.

Speaker 1 (23:23):
That's pretty cool and I'm excited, Chuck to see your
boy Baker in the playoffs. They were the worthy NFC
South champions. I think they were the best team all season,
even if today was a little bumpy.

Speaker 3 (23:33):
Yeah, I mean both South divisions are pretty gross, but
they'd proved to be the best of this bunch even
if it was ugly. In the end, it's the right
way to win it.

Speaker 1 (23:42):
They You know what though, they did win ten games,
and they did have a top ten offense, and they
are a game plan team where if they hit everything
right and that's going to include, you know, needing a
better defensive performance than they usually have, they are to
me that team you don't want to face because I
think their best game, if they hit you at the

(24:03):
right on the right day, they could beat anyone.

Speaker 2 (24:07):
I mean anyone.

Speaker 1 (24:08):
There is no one in the NFL that I don't
think the Bucks could be. We know that they'll have
the commanders and so they are a fun team. You
know what's crazy. They could make the division round for
the fourth time in five years. I mean you think
of that and you think, well, that must be a dynasty, right,
I mean they kind of are just a little bit
an NFC South dynasty.

Speaker 4 (24:29):
With some different personnel. Jason Light getting it done fourth straight.

Speaker 2 (24:34):
The only time in that run they didn't win the division,
they won the Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 (24:37):
So they'll take that trade off, and they'll take the
trade off of having to sweat out. Yes, a fourth
quarter where they're trailing and the Falcons were tied at
the time, but ultimately Falcons couldn't even get it done.

Speaker 4 (24:49):
Youngest under center. Here's the snaps Sanders up the middle.

Speaker 12 (24:53):
Charging through the end zone, touchdown, Carolato.

Speaker 13 (24:58):
The Panthers walk it off to end the season.

Speaker 1 (25:02):
That is right a Niche Shroff on wr f X.
The Bryce Young story somehow got better in week eighteen,
the most improved player of the year. He's past Sam
Darnold for me. I'm sorry, recency bias. I just like
watching this guy. He puts up a forty burger in

(25:23):
a must win game for the Falcons forty four to
thirty eight. Three touchdowns on the day for Bryce Young,
who gets a lot of help from Adam Thielen as
he does each and every week, just making great catches
in Jalen Coker who is a real deal NFL player.
They found something in this undrafted rookie, another great rookie

(25:44):
wide receiver. Even Bryce Young's misses, I think this season
have been good, like they all are with the right intention,
they're all the right decision and he did it all today.
A couple big plays with his legs twenty four yards
on the ground, and he was just on point. Every
time the Falcons took a lead in this game, he
had a response.

Speaker 4 (26:02):
And we had this discussion about Bryce Young and the
way he moves in the pocket. Win Shook was here
with us in studio earlier this week, and it showed
today the Falcons they even though when they did get
pressure to Bryce, he was stepping away. When they didn't
get pressure on Bryce, he was doing things like Steph
Curry pre celebrating before the shot goes in on a

(26:24):
touchdown to Tommy Trumble today, just everything that you would
want to see from the quarterback. And then on the
other side, the Falcons defense kind of reverting to there
can't get pressure on the quarterback from earlier.

Speaker 1 (26:36):
This yek, yeah, well, why you bring it up. Let's
watch the Bryce Young. It's not quite a no look
because he looked when he threw it, but he didn't
look when Coker caught it.

Speaker 4 (26:44):
So now a fourth down, Atlanta loses a time out,
fake the handoff young step and.

Speaker 3 (26:52):
Throw and soon touchdown.

Speaker 5 (26:56):
Tommy trimbles and Carol couldnverts Panthers have come to play.

Speaker 14 (27:04):
You've got a rookie quarterback playing well in Atlanta, second
year quarterback continuing to grow.

Speaker 2 (27:09):
And elevate his play in Carolina.

Speaker 4 (27:11):
And he knew it before they got there.

Speaker 13 (27:14):
So good steph Curry throwing up the three and retreating
without even seeing it.

Speaker 1 (27:19):
That was one of the easier throws Bryce had to make.
They are a good job by Dave canal Zeros cresit
to here. Look, he wouldn't have even gone to Bryce
sung this season if Andy Dalton didn't get injured in
a car accident, which is a weird sliding doors, and
I mean he probably eventually would have gone back to him,
but that that week he was not planning to uh,
but they they got some open receivers City, but he
also had some C and I throws that were were

(27:39):
just incredible, and so did Michael Pennix. And as disappointing
as the Falcons defense was Ultimately, Raheem Morris made some
game management decisions with the clock again, so that's something
he's got to work on in his defense and probably
got worse this year than then last year's Falcons defense,
and they got older too by the numbers all around.
Michael Penix was awesome in this game. They die up

(28:01):
five hundred and thirty seven yards and thirty one first down,
shook it and he had a million great catches. Drake
London to Pennis is gonna be a combination I'm looking
forward to watching for a long time. London ends up
with ten for one to eighty seven and two and
Bajohn Robinson goes for one hundred and seventy yards on
the ground in just a fantastic performance. So there was

(28:22):
nothing Drake London, uh and Michael Penicks really could have
done here.

Speaker 2 (28:28):
They were matching him shot for shot and it was
just that.

Speaker 1 (28:31):
Yeah, the uh the Panthers were the ones that got
the ball and scored the touchdown in overtime.

Speaker 3 (28:37):
Yeah, and don't complain about overtime rules either. This was
how this game was supposed to go. Sure team to
get a stop wins and then the Falcons did not
get his top because the Panthers were down the field.
We are going to see this matchup of quarterbacks for
years to come. They are division rivals. Michael Pennix has
shown me enough in the limited amount of time that
he's played this year for me to think he's going
to be the guy for the long term. Bryce Young.
I just think about where we were after Week two

(28:58):
when he got benched and there was a shot of
a fan trying to get an autograph of his outside
of the facility, and he looks so down. And to
see him go from there to where he's so confident
that he can turn around and a signal touchdown before
the ball even lands in his receiver's hands. What a
journey he has traveled over this season. And a little
bit of vindication for myself because.

Speaker 2 (29:17):
Here you go.

Speaker 3 (29:18):
Take it with the QB index. I moved him all
the way up to eleven. Got a lot of hate
online for it Panthers fans, and you know what backed
me up. He backed me up. But I love how
bright his future is.

Speaker 1 (29:31):
Yeah, this division is looking a lot more fun if
the Saints can figure some things out. It's crazy how
good John Robinson is, whether he's the third or fourth
best running back in the league this year. You know,
you have Saquon, you have what Derek Henry did, you
have what Jamir Gibbs did, and then like he might
be the best, fourth best running back of all time.

(29:52):
I mean he he's just so pretty, Like just watching
him set up these blocks getting inside outside, like he
just an awesome season out of him. So if there
ever could be like a moral victory way to lose
to the Panthers in Week eighteen with the playoffs on line,
I feel like this is close to it.

Speaker 2 (30:09):
At least at least they.

Speaker 1 (30:11):
Feel at least they got to feel a little better
about their future. Imagine if they hadn't gone to Pennanty.
It just they do feel they should have good things
to feel about. Although Raheem Morris even you mentioned the
end of the game, like they got the ball back.
I know they were on the twelve yard line, but
they had fourteen seconds and they had time.

Speaker 2 (30:26):
Outs, like just try to score try.

Speaker 4 (30:28):
I don't know, Yeah, I would have liked to see
some effort there. I know Riley Patterson missed the long
field goal earlier. There's no Young waikup, but may give
Riley Patterson another opportunity. But the you know we saw
you know you're not watching if you're listening to the
audio version, the dejected look on the Falcon sideline. After that,

(30:48):
Tommy Tremble touched down, but there was motion. There was
somebody clapping on the sideline. It was Kirk Cousins trying
to pick his team, and it's just kind of a
symbol for the way the season has gone in Atlanta.

Speaker 1 (31:00):
Yeah, they finished eight and nine, so ultimately two games
back of the Bucks. The Panthers at five and twelve. Man,
if I smoke cigarettes, I feel like I would need
a cigarette right now.

Speaker 2 (31:10):
Let's take a quick break. We're gonna go roll through
the rest.

Speaker 1 (31:13):
Of the NFC and all the seating implications of how
it broke down on.

Speaker 4 (31:18):
Somebody Marioda and the gun neck. Look, who has left
three wide receivers to the right. Here's the snap. He's
looking left, one on one, throws up, chuck down, duck down.

Speaker 2 (31:37):
Fucking God again.

Speaker 4 (31:40):
Do you believe a miracle?

Speaker 15 (31:42):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (31:43):
Not do?

Speaker 4 (31:44):
Jerry Vataur, August Barry yodis perfect, Baul ball Day, Washington.

Speaker 1 (31:51):
Man all season, Ram Weinstein and London Fletcher just getting
it done. They're kind of like Jayden Daniels and Marcus
Mariota on Wbig. It doesn't matter who's in the game,
they're both got to deliver. Mariota comes in there and
just keeps delivering touchdowns. He's running scary Terry's in the game.

(32:13):
At the end, twenty three to nineteen, Washington wins.

Speaker 2 (32:16):
A fun one.

Speaker 1 (32:17):
This was earlier in the season, this would have been like, oh,
this game of the year type of stuff, but instead
it was like backups on backups, and yet.

Speaker 2 (32:24):
It's a fun professional football game.

Speaker 4 (32:25):
Yeah, if you just go ahead and make it one
hundred and twenty minutes of the Washington Commanders and Dallas
Cowboys this season, it's still regardless. Comes down to the
wire in the final moments, this time with backups in.
As dan Quinn saw Jaden Daniels on the opening series
get sacked by Michael Parsons twice, a slow offense that
couldn't really run the vault. Jayden took a few hits

(32:46):
and dan Quinn decided, Okay, that's enough, let's get Marcus
Mariota in for the remainder of this and they're able
to still win with that. The Cowboys play Trey Lance
in this game exclusively, you know, despite the fact that
Cooper Rush could have hit some contract incentives by getting
some more snaps, much to his chagrin, that did not
ultimately happen. But it's the protection for Jayden and Daniels

(33:10):
that didn't work out. But then Marcus Maroota making plays
with his feet. He almost had a long touchdown run
that came on fourth down.

Speaker 2 (33:17):
Thirty three yards.

Speaker 4 (33:18):
Yeah, just gets his ankles nipped, but then comes back
with that touchdown pass to Scary Terry. Where this has
been the Commanders, this is their season. The last ten
seconds of the game, what insane play is the Commander's
offense going to make and it comes. They're the reverse
Bengals this year and also one of those wins.

Speaker 2 (33:38):
That's a good call.

Speaker 1 (33:39):
Five lead changes in the final twenty minutes of this game,
just back and forth between Aubrey and Ertz and Mariota
And yeah, I don't know whether it be just like
a smidge concern that you know, Jane Daniels goes six
for twelve or thirty eight yards in this game, any concern, No, No,
he did play a lot.

Speaker 2 (33:57):
Okay, it's whatever.

Speaker 4 (33:59):
There's familiarity, you know, they're they're they're going up against
a team that they really just played, a team that's
gotten better on defense, where you know Michael Parsons being back,
and again, like, I don't know if you could make
a case for Michael Parson's playing thirteen games and have
a defensive Player of the Year. But it's up there
in terms of pressures and the number of pass rush snaps.

(34:19):
He's got three hundred and ninety two. He's got seventy
five quarterbacks.

Speaker 1 (34:23):
He's the best defensive player in the league. He was
my choice before the season. He has been for three
straight years, I think, and he wasn't healthy enough, but
ultimately I think he was the best player.

Speaker 2 (34:32):
I think you're absolutely right. All right, So the Cowboys lose.

Speaker 1 (34:35):
And the Commanders, you know, one of the teams who
were they were just playing for seeding, just trying to
get the six instead of the seven, and they didn't
even know if they would get the six until later
in the day. It turns out they did, so they
move up one spot. Instead of going to Philadelphia, they
go to Tampa Bay. I think, you know, just because
they know the Eagles. I don't know which one they

(34:56):
would prefer, but as a fan, I'd rather just not
see that matchup for a thirtie, So I'm glad that
they played to win in Dallas. The conversation turns into
the coaching staff and what's going to happen. Let's listen
to Jerry Jones after the game.

Speaker 15 (35:09):
Mike is one of the best coaches that I think
there is. He was made the coach here because I
thought that, and he's done excluding nothing to diminish my
opinion of him as a coach. And I am really
impressed with the way the players identified look or or

(35:31):
with him. They're inside with it, and uh, that's important.

Speaker 1 (35:36):
I think they're going to bring McCarthy back. Let's listen
to McCarthy after the game too.

Speaker 16 (35:40):
I understand why I asked the questions. I don't like
to talk about myself that way, but I'll just be clear.
I'm a winner. I know how to win. I've won
a championship. I want a championship in this building, and uh,
and that's.

Speaker 4 (35:51):
Who I am.

Speaker 16 (35:52):
So and we'll see where. We'll see where it goes.

Speaker 1 (35:55):
Also coached up and Aaron Rodgers led team when he
hit Jared Cook down the sideline and DA's rook a
year in that building. I saw that game. That was
a good one. Do you think he's back shook? What
do you think?

Speaker 4 (36:08):
I think?

Speaker 2 (36:08):
Do you think he should be back? How about that?
I'm curious what you thought.

Speaker 3 (36:11):
Aw, that's debatable because what are you doing? Are you
spinning your wheels? Are you actually going to attack the
offseason with intent? Because they didn't last year and they
paid for it this year. I think that's what's most important.
It's not even necessarily the coaching staff, because his offense
when at full strength was pretty good. I mean, it
was good with Mike McCarthy, you know, overseeing it. It's
just that they lost guys. They lacked guys, They lacked
running backs. They had just CD Lamb at receiver for

(36:33):
most of the year. So you get Dak back, you
figure out your backfield because Rico Daddle has emerged. You
maybe add another weapon at receiver because I love Jalen Tolbert,
but you know I need something better alongside ceed Lamb.
Then then yeah, maybe it works out. You know what
you have in your defensive coordinator? Do you know what
you have in your defensive Personnalit you need to get,
but you need to be more active in the off
season to justify bringing this group back.

Speaker 1 (36:53):
I don't have a hot take here. My guess is
McCarthy will be back. I think, considering the ecosystem they're in,
which is a very strange one and is maybe a
bit of a problem, that McCarthy is probably better than
they would do. Like, like, I don't have confidence in
them finding a better fit for Dallas Cowboys head coach.

(37:14):
I'm not in love with it, but I'm fine if
they bring McCarthy back.

Speaker 2 (37:17):
Of course, I'm fine. Why wouldn't that be fine?

Speaker 4 (37:19):
Yeah, it kind of fits the whole theme of this
offseason for Dallas in season and then being all in
and then ultimately seeing like what all in means. It's
bringing back kind of what you got.

Speaker 1 (37:30):
And you know what that matchup, by the way, as
we spin the the you know, mind forward into wild
card weekend, you know what that matchup means. Washington versus
Tampa Bay. Marshaun Lattimore, we get it, Mike Evan, we
get another one.

Speaker 4 (37:43):
Will fight.

Speaker 1 (37:45):
Let's go to Green Bay where, Yeah, the Packers had
their hands full.

Speaker 9 (37:51):
Taylor extends his hands, snap placement, made Cairo Santos kick
us up and the kick.

Speaker 17 (37:56):
They's done.

Speaker 4 (37:58):
The Bears of Black Duff and one in Green Bay, putting.

Speaker 9 (38:02):
To bed to nasty losing streaks, the in season streak
and the Packer streak.

Speaker 4 (38:10):
One ends at.

Speaker 9 (38:11):
Eleven, the other ends as well, and the Bears win
it twenty four to twenty two.

Speaker 1 (38:17):
Yeah, that was their first win since twenty eighteen.

Speaker 2 (38:21):
That was also an eleven game streak.

Speaker 1 (38:22):
I believe Jeff Joniac their great job kind of picking
up what I didn't set up, which is, yes, the
Bears trying to end a streak and the Packers trying
to get that sixth seed.

Speaker 2 (38:34):
They did not.

Speaker 1 (38:34):
They end up at eleven and six with a couple
losses to end the season. The Commanders were at twelve
and five. And yes, the Bears win their first game
since I was watching them in London against the Jaguars.

Speaker 4 (38:47):
Ows forever ago.

Speaker 1 (38:48):
Seems so long ago. Twenty four to twenty two. Another
Claybne banger. All your assigned games were fun.

Speaker 4 (38:55):
This one. Yeah, it comes down to the wire in
a game that unfortunately was a banger for the Packers'
injury wise, as Christian Watson goes down clutching his knee
carted off Matt Matt Lafleur says, it does not look good.
He's not overly optimistic for the playoff aspirations of Christian Watson.
And then on top of that, Jordan Love leaves this game,
which is a slugfest with the Chicago Bears, who get

(39:19):
a special team's touchdown. Malik Willis has to leave the game.
But the play of the game, which shout out to
Johnny Knox and Devin Hester who ten years ago executed
the fake punt fielding that the fake punt return for
the touchdown that the Bears got today where Dj Moore
is back there, not necessarily really selling it that well

(39:39):
because he's not even looking in the sky where the
balls should be, but he fake fields the punt. Meanwhile,
the cornerback Josh Blackwell runs back there, actually fields the punt.
None of the Bears are looking at him, but he
just turns it, runs it down the sideline. That was
the Bears first touchdown and the Packers could never really
get going on offense. Malik Willis I had to deal

(40:00):
with a shot to his hand as well. Just injuries
brutal here. But the Bears execute down the stretch. They
get a big completion they get the time out called
when the timeouts should be called, and Cayro Santos kicks
that game winning field goal and the Bears in the street.

Speaker 1 (40:14):
Yeah, I'm happy for Kayleb Williams and this whole all
these Bears players and coaches, Thomas Brown, the interim who
hadn't won a game yet, just to not finish the
season on that note, that's great. Although they only had
two hundred and twenty four yards of offense, so a
lot of the problems there.

Speaker 2 (40:28):
We're still there, I think moving forward.

Speaker 1 (40:29):
Just my takeaways are that the Packers offense isn't quite
right right now. Both Jordan Love and Matt Lafleur expressed
frustration with how the passing game operated today, so I
think that is something to be a little concerned about.
Jordan Love said he just wasn't as consistent and accurate
enough as he wanted to be personally, and he also

(40:51):
said as he was at the podium that his elbow
was still numb, which doesn't seem great, but that he
thinks he'll be fine. They said he's going to play
next week, and Matt Lafleur went as far to say
as their offensive struggles were extremely frustrating. Romeo Dobbs also
did not play this game. It should be noted he
had an illness. They think he'll be fine for next week,

(41:11):
So that was just a late scratch there. But kind
of going into the playoffs took the way you don't
want to, you know, backwards, really this Packers team, and
because of this loss, they got a much tougher draw
now having to go to Philadelphia. You know, they went
into the week thinking we're gonna go to the Rams,
maybe we'll go to the Bucks, and now going to Philadelphia,

(41:35):
that is not ideal.

Speaker 3 (41:37):
Yeah, and if this was the Packers team that we
saw a blow out the Saints a few weeks ago,
we'd feel pretty good about that. This is now a
Packers team that basically got out classed by the Vikings
before mounting a late comeback attempt that fell short. And
then what happened today. I kind of don't put too
much stock in the fact that their passing game wasn't
working today. When you lacked, you know, a lot of
your top talent, I mean Malik Heath and Dantavin Wicks
and Jane Reeden Tucker Craft, those your four top guys,

(41:59):
which some of those guys are are household names, and
those guys don't get as many opportunities. So you hope
that they figure it out. But the Watson injury, I
think does bum me out. That's been something that's been
kind of nagging him in recent weeks and it is concerning.
But again, you know, we spent god, we spent time
two three weeks ago talking about how multiple they were.
They can attack in so many different ways. You hope
that they find that again before they go on the
road against a very quality opponent in the Eagles with

(42:21):
the good defense.

Speaker 4 (42:22):
Yeah, because we've seen, right, this team deal with injuries
and manage them. But when it all happens at once,
when there's this collapse of you know, ability here in
week eighteen, you kind of feel like something got taken
from you in a team that had only lost right
to these contenders in the NFC and now this really

(42:44):
woeful Bears team. And I mean they played, they played
hard today, but think back to that the Thanksgiving matchup
against the Miami Dolphins where that was a team in
contention that at the time had their quarterback and they
go into Green Bay and the Packers were just a
buzzsaw that team wasn't out there today because some of
those guys, a lot of them literally weren't out there.

Speaker 1 (43:02):
Yeah, no JayR Alexander returning. They're still dangerous. I think
if I'm an Eagles fan or player, a little more
nervous with Green Bay coming into the building than I
would have been with the Commanders, for instance, a familiar
opponent that that they're just better than green Bay on
its best days. Still very dangerous. Yes, the seating was

(43:24):
decided between those two teams, green Bay and Washington early,
but as we went into the late window, we did
not know who was playing who. We knew the Rams
weren't gonna play their starters and go all out to win,
even though that could have helped their seating. They could
have controlled their fate. They could have tried to play Washington. Instead,

(43:44):
they played Jimmy g and a whole lot of backups,
and they almost won.

Speaker 2 (43:49):
Anyways. First down and ten from the Rams.

Speaker 12 (43:52):
Sixteen Smith from the shotgun takes the sat blitz is
coming from the mill ball is caught up ended fan
is see into the Enzonio touchdown.

Speaker 2 (44:01):
Seahawks fan lie flat on his back.

Speaker 12 (44:06):
Hangs onto the football, helped up by his teammates.

Speaker 2 (44:09):
He said, what happened?

Speaker 12 (44:11):
They said, you scored from sixteen out and the Seahawks
go back on top thirty to forty five.

Speaker 2 (44:19):
They did it.

Speaker 1 (44:21):
Gino Smith making a last bid for QB Island. That's
gonna be an interesting one way Sam played and I'm
just you know, maybe poking.

Speaker 2 (44:32):
The bear hair.

Speaker 1 (44:32):
But I'm just saying Gino gets four touchdowns, mostly against
Rams backups.

Speaker 2 (44:38):
But hey, he did what he had to do.

Speaker 1 (44:39):
He also had the craziest incentive day I've ever heard of.
He made six million dollars an incentives toe.

Speaker 4 (44:44):
Yep, it's huge. This is the story of the game.

Speaker 2 (44:47):
How nervous you knew? Would you be?

Speaker 3 (44:49):
You got six millions.

Speaker 1 (44:50):
Because he needed to keep his percentage I think above
sixty nine point two, which was crazy. He went into
the day above it, but if he had like a
fifty percent day, he would have gone below that.

Speaker 2 (45:00):
Needed to get over one hundred and eighty five yards.

Speaker 1 (45:02):
Actually it took him till pretty late in the game
to get over that, but got that ended up at
two twenty three, and they needed to get a tenth
win two million dollars a piece.

Speaker 2 (45:11):
That's tough.

Speaker 1 (45:12):
That almost like I always say, like mentally, tennis is
a tough sport when you when you're in a Grand
Slam final, you might have like, you know, millions of
dollars on the line and you're the only one out there.
This is the closest thing to that in football, where
so it's literally on your arm. He got it all done,
although it was a lot harder than I would have
expected Jimmy G and the Rams offense. Nick actually moved

(45:32):
the ball pretty well and made the Seahawk sweat it out.

Speaker 3 (45:35):
Yeah, other than one really really ugly interception thrown by
Jimmy G. Better than I thought he'd be, Like, he
looked like the Jimmy G of old. The offense moved
the ball. They finished with four and three yards of offense.
It was a back and forth affair. Was a fun
game to watch. At one point, I was like, I
know I'm not writing this game, but if I had
to write this game, I don't even know what i'd say.
It's other than that, it's just fun and it's one
team with backups and one team with nothing to play

(45:56):
for other than you know, one more win. It also
kind of bums me out. A note's not a perfect comparison,
but go man, he looked good today, and he'd been
looking a little up and down over the last six weeks.
And I know it's against backups, but I was like, dah,
these Seahawks are going to finish with ten wins and
not make the playoffs. And if they just look like
this a few more times recently, they'd be in the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (46:15):
Yeah. I don't think this is some disastrous season for
the CX. You won ten.

Speaker 1 (46:20):
You lost on the fifth tiebreaker, which is a bizarre tiebreaker.
By the way, it used to be a different tiebreaker.
It used to be point differential, which I think is
better than strength of victory, which is just random. But
maybe you don't want teams like trying to score late
and endangering their players all season.

Speaker 2 (46:37):
I think that was the reasoning behind it.

Speaker 4 (46:39):
I don't know if we'd be playing eighteen games.

Speaker 1 (46:40):
If that was well, that's a fair fair point. Ultimately,
they get it done. The Rams did not care, and
we'll never know what the Rams thought process was behind it. Ultimately,
I think that the number one factor is they just
thought rest was more important than anyone they could possibly play.
They probably saw the writing on the wall that either way,
they were going to play a team that they had

(47:01):
played before, that they had prepared for before, and that
it was going to be difficult. Let's listen to Sean
McVay talk about the thought process after the game to.

Speaker 18 (47:08):
Get into this, saying, and you can't worry about ducking
people if you want to try to be able to advance,
and you're really expect to try to be able to
make some noise when you get in it, you're gonna
have to play people eventually. And so felt like it
was the smart move for our football team, and really
we had an opportunity to be able to come away
with the win. And so we know it's going to
be a great football team coming in here, and you know,

(47:29):
we're excited about the challenge.

Speaker 2 (47:30):
That's what you love, Gary, Yeah, you know.

Speaker 1 (47:33):
And Sean's breaking out the first names as he did
throughout that he was kind of fiery with everyone was
asking about it, almost like, hey, we're the we were
the Super Bowl champs.

Speaker 2 (47:42):
We're not worried about anyone coming in here. Don't blame him.

Speaker 1 (47:44):
Unfortunately, they did have an injury today. Blake Korum broke
his forearm. McVeigh revealed after the game, so they won't
have their backup running back for the players, but otherwise
they got out of this game healthy. They sat four
of their five offensive line starters, and they finished the
season at ten and seven, just like the Seahawks. That
brings us to Philadelphia, where there really wasn't anything tangible

(48:08):
on the line except for the Giants.

Speaker 2 (48:11):
I guess draft position.

Speaker 1 (48:13):
But Tanner McKee out there trying to make a career.

Speaker 13 (48:17):
Under center.

Speaker 3 (48:21):
Back looking fires complete touchdown.

Speaker 2 (48:25):
Me chicks, we'll tight down, yes, Merril Reese.

Speaker 1 (48:30):
Keeping it quick like this recap's gonna be a wip.

Speaker 2 (48:36):
To EJ. Jenkins for the touchdown.

Speaker 1 (48:38):
I mean, this was a game on the Eagle side
full of just like oh yeah him, here's that guy.

Speaker 2 (48:45):
They get the job done.

Speaker 1 (48:46):
Tanner McKee forty one attempts, I mean they were slinging it.
Kenneth Gainwell only had fourteen yards on eleven rushes and
they couldn't get anything going on the ground, and he
hand up with two hundred and sixty nine yards McKee
and two touchdowns. Johan Dotson, oh caase game seven for
ninety four, and I guess we have proof Patrick the
Eagles backups are better than the Giants starters.

Speaker 4 (49:08):
Yeah, and which was something I.

Speaker 2 (49:10):
Twenty to thirteen I should say.

Speaker 4 (49:11):
Yeah, I was gonna take how he's backups versus you know,
all credit to Joe Shane and what he's been able
to accomplish things that haven't gone that great personnel wise.
This is with Keie Ringo and Avonte Maddox playing a
whole bunch of snaps in the secondary. No Darius Slay today,
no Quinnon Mitchell, those guys played very sparingly today.

Speaker 1 (49:32):
Well to your point, like that might be the best
CB four CB five in the entire NFL.

Speaker 4 (49:37):
Yeah, and so that holds Malik Neighbors under eighty yards
receiving as the Giants really couldn't do a whole lot
on offense. And you know, Drew Locke kind of descends
back to Earth away from Gus Bradley's defense. But the
Eagles and Tanner McKeith threw the ball a whole lot
forty one attempts for Tanner McKee against the Giants defense.

(49:58):
If you're gonna throw forty one, us did to do
it again.

Speaker 2 (50:01):
I like it because I talk about the records.

Speaker 1 (50:03):
I wanted to finish at the level they should and
it's funny with the Packers losing that game because they
kind of do feel like an eleven and sixteen more
than a twelve and five team to me personally, Maybe
I'm wrong.

Speaker 2 (50:15):
The Eagles feel like a fourteen and three team.

Speaker 1 (50:18):
I'm glad their backups didn't didn't waste it for them.
And the Giants, Yes, they are at three and fourteen.
That feels about right as well. They actually move up
a slot. We will talk about you know who lost it,
but they are now going to be picking third in
the NFL Draft. We don't need to spend too much
time on the Drew lock era. We will see if
Joe Shane and Brian Dable are back planning to do

(50:41):
a show on the artist formerly known as Black Money.
But I can't wait to get to the AFC action
because it was it was fascinating seeing at how it
all played out over the weekend. We're actually going to
go in chronological order, come back from the break, and
it'll suddenly be Saturday.

Speaker 2 (50:59):
Where the Ravens and the Steelers had some things to
figure out.

Speaker 17 (51:11):
Pistol formation on third down, they give us to Henry
sweeping to the left.

Speaker 2 (51:14):
Frank's attack page of the thirty twenty.

Speaker 4 (51:17):
Henry to the town he.

Speaker 6 (51:19):
Is gone touch down Derrick.

Speaker 17 (51:22):
Henry a forty three yard run and Derrick Henry continues
to rewrite the NFL.

Speaker 1 (51:30):
Record book, sat out to Rod Woodson with the he
gone Jerry Sandusky on w B A L Yes. Derreck Henry,
after having eight yards at halftime, tax on another one
hundred and thirty in the second half, and by the
time he hit that forty three yarder, the Ravens knew

(51:53):
they were AFC North champions thirty five to ten against
the Cleveland Browns team that started Bailey Zappi in the
year twenty twenty five. How about that your Ravens. Patrick
Claybon started off the weekend taking all the pressure off

(52:13):
and just clinched that three seed nice and early.

Speaker 4 (52:16):
Yeah, nice and early. The trouble is it comes at
the cost of Zay Flowers. Are gonna have to await
the results and see if he could be available if
they win this first game or if you know, mirrors
happened in Zay Flowers is available for this playoff matchup.
But other than that, everything you could hope for defense
making plays again, albeit in a Bailey Zappi start. Also

(52:39):
saw some dtr in this game, but it pretty much
didn't matter. Baltimore looked very good. There were some drop passes,
but Lamar and Mark Andrews connected. Rashot Bateman left the
game as well after Lamark sent him on a sneaky mission.
He quickly apologized after he got Bateman blasted by Thornhill
on the middle of the field. A scary moment there,

(53:01):
but Baltimore able to come through and push forward and
make this kind of a laugher at the end. But
it was. It did feel like it was slightly not
in question, but closer than people might have thought earlier.

Speaker 1 (53:13):
On No, there was a possession where the Browns had
the ball down fourteen to three, like late third quarter.
Here we go and you're just thinking, like, okay, it
doesn't feel like they could ever get to the number
fourteen in this game, and they didn't. But let's get
it going here, Ravens. But that's what's special about this
team is that if the passing game isn't quite clicking,

(53:35):
then Derrick Henry can finish him off. At the end,
they still almost doubled up the Browns in total yardage.
This is just what week eighteen games look like shook,
So I don't take any negatives out of it for
the Ravens. And I thought it was interesting to me
that I thought Lamar Jackson was looking to run in
this game very you know, a lot of times if
his first read was gone, he just took off. He

(53:56):
went nine for sixty three. I don't know if that
was just like a warm up for the playoffs where
he he's just gonna run when he absolutely needs to.
And then those throws he had back to back to Andrews,
one for the touchdown and one that got broken up,
where he just had the accuracy and the touch and
the anticipation. Not that that's surprising out of Lamar at

(54:17):
this point, but it just shows what a next level
passer he has been this season from the pocket.

Speaker 3 (54:23):
Yeah, I felt for one Thornhill because Lamar made two
spectacular throws to Mark Andrews, one for the touchdown, Like
you said, there was another one in the second half
down the sideline where Thornhill is essentially playing all but
perfect coverage, and yet Lamar throws him open because that's
what Lamar does. And another knock on the people who
say Lamar is not a good passer. Watch that tape
that I'll tell you everything you need to know about
him is.

Speaker 2 (54:42):
A Okay, that's a little bit of that.

Speaker 3 (54:44):
They're still out there. They're still out there. They promise
you they're still out there.

Speaker 4 (54:48):
They've got them all your drafts, and they're waiting for
things to go wrong here in the next Cike. Okay,
they will absolutely show up.

Speaker 2 (54:55):
Well, that's fair.

Speaker 1 (54:56):
They transitioned into he can't win in the playoffs, guys,
which you know, Lamar has got to play his best
down the stretch. But I think he's gonna win MVP. Personally.
I don't think we need to get into that today.
We'll be responding when we find out the votes and everything,
although we'll find out earlier than usual because the all

(55:16):
pro votes come out way before the MVP votes, and
people sort of realized like, oh, that those are the
exact same voters. So when you find out all pro,
you basically find out MVP. Unless Saquon somehow split the
vote was.

Speaker 4 (55:28):
Not the AFC Pro Bowl starter, So there's perhaps.

Speaker 2 (55:31):
Those there are different voters, though different voter that's players.

Speaker 4 (55:33):
The three coaches.

Speaker 1 (55:35):
I thought, you know what else stuck out to me
in this game. We don't need to spend like a
crazy amount of time, like the pocket movement. He he
kept waiting until the very last second. It was like
a little dump off to Henry at one point was
another throw over the middle. And on a weekend where
we saw Joe Burrow just electric from the pocket like that.
The combination of those two things, like the accuracy, the anticipation,

(55:56):
but also the pocket movement before making a last second
throw and then at the end and you're just handing
it off to Derrick Henry and it's just absolutely awesome
to watch that in the fourth quarter.

Speaker 4 (56:05):
And since Justice Hill went down, we have seen more
Henry on third down in passing situations and nice to
get him involved in the passing game. And without Zay
Flowers in the playoffs, however things go pending his return,
Lamar will have to hold onto the ball to get
separation as the play calling gets kind of limited without
their guy that you get it out to quickly on

(56:25):
the screen passage.

Speaker 1 (56:26):
Okay, now, let's not get out of this game. Though,
before throwing to one of the most important plays that
happened in the NFL this season.

Speaker 17 (56:34):
Bailey Zappi will get the Browns of the line quickly,
he snaps it in the shotgun, patiently waits his passes kicked.

Speaker 14 (56:43):
Off, Michael Pierce the interception and he slides down to
end of the play. Michael Pierce with an interception words
I never thought I would string together in the same sentence.
And you should see the celebration on the Ravens sideline.

Speaker 13 (57:00):
We have given birth to a child.

Speaker 4 (57:03):
Would not be more surprised at the moment.

Speaker 1 (57:05):
What a great call there by, Jerry said, dust getting
that was one of those you remember where you were moments.
At least it was for me. I brought the family around,
like my daughter, my wife. They came and they're just
laughing that. That just made everyone happy, including Michael Pierce.

Speaker 2 (57:19):
Let's listen to him after the game. There was a
thick fit. Great job, Kevin Harlan there, let's listen to
Michael Pierce.

Speaker 4 (57:25):
Did I want to try six?

Speaker 10 (57:26):
So there's a long history of turning big guy interceptions
of fumbles and all that stuff and the memes.

Speaker 4 (57:32):
So at the risk of ruining a career play like
that for myself, it's time to go home.

Speaker 9 (57:37):
So it's not a gas.

Speaker 4 (57:39):
We're good.

Speaker 10 (57:39):
Yeah, I'm gonna be honest, I don't want to curse
a lot on TV, but uh, oh s word, you
know what I'm saying, say, oh my god, he really
threw his football. So no, I got fairly decent hands.
I'm glad I called it. And uh, like I said,
coach spreach the smart football. And like I said, I
don't want to end up on a meme on Instagram,
my wife and everybody laughing at me.

Speaker 4 (57:58):
Something. We did the right thing. We got down to Kevin.

Speaker 2 (58:01):
Movie, shout out to Michael Pierce like one of the.

Speaker 3 (58:04):
Radars of the internet.

Speaker 1 (58:05):
I know.

Speaker 4 (58:06):
But now he's getting memed. People are taking him going
down on a knee and it's being memed.

Speaker 2 (58:12):
How so like in a bad way.

Speaker 4 (58:14):
Why that's no just to say like, hey, I'm not
doing that. I'm done, Like, hey, it's just gonna be
me and sir Lene. Michael Pierce.

Speaker 1 (58:23):
They should be. They should be meaning that jacket. I mean,
his jacket game is strong. I remember going there and
covering them in training camp one year, and Michael Pierce
was just one of those guys that's kind of a
glue guy that everyone in that organization absolutely loves. Has
had a sneaky great year so yes, they get out
of there, they get the division title. They don't get
out of their healthy because of the save Flower injuries.
That's disappointing. But they did get a great defensive performance.

(58:46):
I know it's against the Browns, but it's still nice
to see Nate Wiggins and a da fe Aowa and
this defense playing so well towards the end of the scene.
So they went early Saturday. They lock up the division title.
That leaves the Steelers in a situation where they're just
playing for seating and trying to get that losing taste
out of their mouse.

Speaker 2 (59:04):
Could they do it against the Bengals?

Speaker 4 (59:06):
All right, fasten your seat belts. Here we go. Fourth
down to twelve, fifteen seconds to go.

Speaker 5 (59:11):
Wilson sends two receivers out to each side of the formation.

Speaker 4 (59:15):
Russell has the ball, short drop fires a pass in complete.
Yer Ruth couldn't hold on eleven seconds to go. That
is coffin.

Speaker 12 (59:27):
Nailam baam baam.

Speaker 1 (59:32):
I'm gonna miss Dan Hord and Dave Lapham On w Cky.
Bengals did their part. They got their fifth straight win.
The defense stepped up. I thought it was fitting, even
though they got a little lucky, kind of like they
did at the end of the Broncos game where bo Nick's.

Speaker 2 (59:50):
Just missed a couple throws.

Speaker 1 (59:52):
I thought it was fitting, at least on this night,
that it was the defense that finished it off, because
they showed up in this game.

Speaker 2 (59:57):
They held the.

Speaker 1 (59:57):
Steelers under two hundred yards and it wasn't one of
those games where oh, there's only like six possessions. No,
they got the ball like eleven or twelve times in
this game shook and the Bengals defense stuffed the run
pretty well, and they confused Russell Wilson where he wasn't
seeing open receivers, wasn't connecting down the field. The weather
certainly played a factor, but on a night where Burrow

(01:00:20):
had you know, an interception, a fumble, and under five
yards per pass play for the Bengals, the Bengals showed
they could win ugly, even if, as we learned later Sunday.

Speaker 2 (01:00:33):
I guess it's what they call a pyrreck victory.

Speaker 3 (01:00:36):
Yeah, you know, you asked where were you when you
saw the Michael Pierce interceptions. I was on a plane.
I was in an airport watching this game. And the
one takeaway I had was this is gross. This is
gross for Week eighteen per game with stakes, But that's
the AFC North in a meaningful game late in the season.
You know, I think that this probably signifies the low
point in the Steelers season with Arthur Smith and Oseas

(01:00:57):
so much that I have Steeler fan friends texting me
they got a fire Arthur Smith, and I was like,
it was Matt Canada. You wanted fired before. It's it's
all his fault that that Russ is struggling to complete passes.
His offense was a mess. It's been a mess for
a while to get pickings back and it's still a mess.
And the Bengals, because of that and because of their
defensive performance, come away with, like you said, a peric victory,
but a victory that ultimately.

Speaker 1 (01:01:18):
You know what, a little bittersweet shook. I think I
led you into a fumble there. I don't think that's
really the definition. In fact, they know.

Speaker 4 (01:01:28):
It great cost.

Speaker 1 (01:01:29):
I guess you could say the Ravens, yes, one know,
if it was if they made the playoffs, but Jamar
Chase had a serious injury, that would be like a
pyrrhic victory.

Speaker 3 (01:01:39):
So what is this.

Speaker 4 (01:01:40):
This is a hollow victory.

Speaker 1 (01:01:41):
Yeah, it was a little hollow, and it's a reminder.
Let's let's stay on the Bengals first, because I'm with
you on everything you said. Shook on the Steelers and
we'll be talking about them over the next week. But first,
like Jamar Chase's season just nut.

Speaker 2 (01:01:58):
It's freaking crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:02:00):
End up with one hundred and twenty seven catches seventeen
hundred yards, like, let you know, he gets the triple crown.
It's just outrageous. Burrow's pocket movement to the end of
the season just crazy. I think he's the closest thing
to Brady. He reminds me so much of Brady, just
how methodical he is the decision making. It is all great,
but I don't want to let Zach Taylor and the

(01:02:22):
Bengals off the hook because of the way that they
finished seasons, because they lose early and win late. By
the end of the year, it's like everyone just lets
Zach Taylor and the Bengals off the hug. They've got
fourteen and thirteen in Joe Burrow starts over the last
two seasons and QB. You know, QB wins might not
be a stat wins is a coaching stat and so

(01:02:43):
that's on the organization and that's a failure. And it's
still disappointing to me no matter how the wins, you know, happened.
That they finished nine and eight wasn't a tiebreaker either.
They just weren't good enough to make the playoffs.

Speaker 4 (01:02:55):
And that's funny. Immediately after the game, of the postgame interview,
he's talking to Lisa Salters, Joe Burrow said, you know,
it's gonna be weird to sit there and pull for
the Chiefs, but we put ourselves in this situation, like
collectively and not just on lu An Arumo's defense. There
were some games, especially late, where Joe Burrow and the
offense were making mistakes. Now those game in like thirty
eight and forty four point games, but still they were

(01:03:17):
on the field with a chance to win. And whether
there were some bad coaching decisions from Zach Taylor down
the stretch, just fumbles, miscommunications, missfield goals, it all added up.
They did everything they could during that stretch to lose
those games, and they did it in so many.

Speaker 2 (01:03:34):
Different ways, even this game. It's the weird thing.

Speaker 1 (01:03:37):
It's why I think it's okay to recognize that Burrow
deserves to be on the MVP ballot that if you
made your All Pro team whatever, But there's no way
to me he deserves MVP when they had the ball
at the end of so many of these games and
they didn't win it.

Speaker 2 (01:03:52):
You can separate.

Speaker 1 (01:03:53):
Yeah, well, if you had a good event, Yeah that's
all true, but you have to separate the quarterbacks somehow.
And even in this game, their last two sessions were
punts where they had a chance to put away. They
needed one first down to salt this game away, and
instead they go three and out. He takes a sack
and they give the Steelers another chance. Okay, let's get

(01:04:13):
to the Steelers part of it, because, yeah, that last
drive reminded me of the Bears, except you have a
thirty five year old quarterback who is cutting inside instead
of going out of bounds to waste twenty seconds, who's
throwing a negative three run on the very first play
of that drive. That really clocked to me because I

(01:04:33):
know Tony Romo, if he was doing that, game would
have been going crazy. Romo is at his best doing
game management stuff, and he would say, you can't make
that throw. He threw it short to a running back
who had outside you know, defenders on the outside with
a minute fifty left, knowing they wasted thirty seconds there,
they wasted more time on the next play. They spent
ninety seconds on five plays, and then just so the

(01:04:56):
blame could be spread around, shook like the play calling, yes,
was a little weird. I didn't think they, you know,
handled their time outs well before that drive. And then
it ends where you can't blame it all on Russell
Wilson because you know, George Pickens is out but you
know is open deep, but I don't know where he's running,
and he's kind of going running around and like in
a circle. And then Friarmouth, who's had a lot of

(01:05:18):
little mistakes this year it's kind of been on my radar,
drops one at the end of the game too, So
it's like it's not just Russell Wilson, but they didn't
look like a well coached team. And they're one of
the first teams in NFL history, one of three to
enter the playoffs having lost four straight, so I think
it's safe to say they're one of the worst playoff teams.
It reminds me so much of that season four years

(01:05:41):
ago where they started out well eleven and zero, and
then they finished losing I believe, four out of five
games there.

Speaker 3 (01:05:46):
Yeah, they ended the playoffs twelve and four, and we
all basically knew they were gonna be one and done.
And it kind of feels like that again, their offense
is essentially bottomed out. The approach game plan wise in
this game didn't make They weren't able to run the
ball effectively, but like in down on distant situations in
which it's a one score game and it's first and ten,
they're still trying to dump the ball off instead of
just getting a few yards on the ground. And that
was pervasive throughout this entire game, which maybe just scratch

(01:06:07):
my head and think, are they that lost offensively that
they can't even get into a rhythm with the script?
And if that's the case, oh my god, playoffs are
not gonna be good for you if if that's what
continues to.

Speaker 1 (01:06:17):
Go on, right, because who are they as a team.
They want to be a team that runs the ball
and you mentioned it. They had fourteen runs and four
passes at one point. It just wasn't working at all.
The Bengals actually outran them like they were more efficient
success rate wise by a lot with Khalil Herbert and
then they want to be a team that gets after
the quarterback and the Bengals Neither team pressured much in

(01:06:41):
this game at all. Both both team's pressure rates were horrible.
But Trey Hendrickson is the guy with three and a
half sacks in this game in five QB hits and
and might just sneak his way into a defensive Player
of the Year. I don't know who's gonna win Defensive
Player of the Year. It might be Trey Henderson. You
do that on a Saturday night and there's no great candidate,
and he won the sack total.

Speaker 2 (01:06:59):
I kind of think he's got a.

Speaker 4 (01:07:00):
It's gonna be tough because I mean, voters are looking
over at at guys that had better defenses, right, they
were a part of better defense.

Speaker 1 (01:07:08):
I think it'll be certain if I have to guess,
because someone will just give the Broncos, which is fine.

Speaker 2 (01:07:12):
I'm fine with that.

Speaker 4 (01:07:13):
Yeah, the solid season didn't get tried a lot. Gardner
Minshew tried him on one of the worst throwers of
the year, and he got a highlight a ninety nine
yard pick six return. But Hendrickson gets one of those
sacks in the closing moments where the Steelers have to
try to move the ball and save time as well.
Russ seventeen to thirty one in this game. But Pickens

(01:07:33):
didn't just kind of meander on that one route. He
had three drops in the game as well. Like moment
by moment collectively, something was failing for the Pittsburgh Steelers
on offense, and you all kind of got micro chasms
of that on the final drive where they all took turns. Yeah,
messing up.

Speaker 1 (01:07:53):
You know, TJ. Watt ends up with two pressure in
this game. You cannot give TJ. Watt a Defensive Player
of the Year award this year after the last month
he had nothing against him. I think he's playing through something.
He played a lot of stuff. He just had a
totally zero month, and so that's how these things work.

Speaker 2 (01:08:08):
So you just can't.

Speaker 1 (01:08:08):
I feel stronger about that than like any awards take
I have, because I actually think there's still a chance
that he gets it. Now, we'll talk about the the
Steelers throughout the week. That was the fewest yards they
had since twenty and seventeen. Russ was five for twelve
for fifty one yards, with about ten minutes left in
this game, and they almost cranked it up enough at
the end, but they didn't. You do wonder if the

(01:08:30):
way this season ended could possibly chase save Lou and
Rumo's job. Guys like Cam Taylor Britt who played well
in this game, like I think they helped themselves, you know,
get a starting job back for next year. So things
did matter, But ultimately the Bengals season is over, and yeah,
we don't need to play koy with you. You know
what happened on Sunday afternoon. We were waiting and we thought, oh,

(01:08:53):
this could be fun. Maybe the Bengals could sneak in
if the Chiefs backup and Carson Wentz could just surprise
those Broncos. But Bo Nicks and Sean pay and they
weren't having any of the great I formation.

Speaker 5 (01:09:05):
Knicks with a playfake now rolls to he's right bow,
looks at the z frozen ball behind the Intend receiver,
bounced up into the air, bounced again, and.

Speaker 7 (01:09:13):
Then caught by Devon le touchdown Denver.

Speaker 2 (01:09:19):
That ball was bounced not once.

Speaker 12 (01:09:22):
But twice, once by a Bronco, the second time, I
believe by a.

Speaker 3 (01:09:28):
Kansas City Chief defender, and then.

Speaker 12 (01:09:31):
Devon Veley makes the catch his third receiving touchdown.

Speaker 4 (01:09:36):
Of the year.

Speaker 1 (01:09:38):
That was Dave Logan of ko A. Yes, the Broncos
are headed to the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (01:09:46):
At ten and seven.

Speaker 1 (01:09:47):
They won thirty eight to nothing against the Chiefs backups. Chiefs,
you're making all the other teams who played their backups
and competed. You're making the teams that played against them
look bad because this team looked like they just laid down.
I don't know, I know there was like a motivation
gap here, but man, it's just not good.

Speaker 2 (01:10:07):
They weren't good.

Speaker 4 (01:10:08):
Weren't good now they I'll think it was that they
were trying. Like Carson Wentz goes out and starts to
Andy Reid gets shut out for the first time as
the head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs. You gotta
go back to twenty twelve. Wow, last time the Chiefs
got shut out. That's how bad they were on offense.

Speaker 1 (01:10:22):
Yeah, they were trying, but when you're leading receivers or
Nick Remigio and Peyton hendershot and you're playing a perfectly
legit Broncos team, Ultimately, I believe this was the just result,
even though I wanted to see the Bengals make the playoffs.
I really do think the Broncos were a better team

(01:10:42):
overall all season. And yes, they kind of do look
like the twelfth to fourteenth team that gets into the
playoffs every year, but I think they are that good.
And Bonnicks played awesome today. We played the luckiest moment
of his day. But Sean Payton was on one and
maybe the Chiefs defense was a little more vanilla than
they would have been normally. But every single play call

(01:11:04):
he had, guys were open. When Courtland Sutton was trying
to make a catch that was tightly contested, he made it.
When Marvin Mims needed to get his feet down, or
veil A had to make that crazy catch like they
made it, and Nicks was really on point. A lot
of them were open receivers, but a couple of really
nice seamballs. He led the team in rushing too, certainly
his best game in a month. And I don't care

(01:11:27):
who was out there, there were NFL players. The final
first down total Nick twenty nine to five, the final
yardage total four hundred and seventy nine to ninety eight.

Speaker 2 (01:11:37):
It left a weird taste, you.

Speaker 1 (01:11:38):
Know, in terms of not enjoying the afternoon slate, but
I think they are deserved playoff.

Speaker 2 (01:11:46):
Contributors here and they will be headed to Buffalo.

Speaker 3 (01:11:49):
Yeah, that's not a typo. That yardage difference, that's legit.
That's the Chiefs finishing under one hundred yards. So everybody
who complained about their offense not looking spectacular. With Patrick Mahomes,
it could be much worse than Carson Wentz. It's aad quarterback.
Wentz didn't look good. At one point. Chris Oladokin was
in there taking snaps. Very ugly performance from the Chiefs,
who obviously didn't have much to play for it, but
still you thought they put up a better fight. But

(01:12:09):
back on Nicks for a second. When you're throwing a
swing pass to Marvin Mims and Audric Estime is out
there lead blocking you all the way to the end zone,
you know it's your day. When Devon Valley is catching
a double tipped touchdown pass, you yes, exactly, We'll do
it that way. We'll stick to the brand. The Broncos
dominated and came through in a way on a day

(01:12:29):
that they absolutely had to in convincing fashion. Doesn't change
my opinion of them, but it's nice to see them
finish the job.

Speaker 4 (01:12:35):
BONNICKX hit his first eighteen passes.

Speaker 2 (01:12:38):
Yeah, that was one of them.

Speaker 4 (01:12:39):
The vale was absolutely going to be his first incompletion.
But the universe decided, Hey, this is the Chiefs will
not be lucky here. We'll get rid of the Chief's
luck for this meaningless Week eighteen game. Save Hollywood Brown
catching a ball off his toe in the Super Bowl
here coming up in a few weeks. But it's there
was never a point like the Broncos scored on all

(01:13:00):
of their possessions in the first half. That last one
they had a chance, they wound up kicking a field goal,
and then they didn't have their first punt until the
second half, and then after that the only Bonnicks didn't
really have to do anything. It was handoffs late they
scored a touchdown, and then it was Jared Stidham and
Zach Wilson. Tom Sean Payton, who loves to run it up,
didn't even really get a chance to do it with

(01:13:20):
his rookie quarterback.

Speaker 1 (01:13:21):
It was that nasty no he I mean he was
coming out a halftime doing the interview with Tracy Wolfson
kind of already knowing the game was over. Just saying
like they just got to, you know, keep focus. We
know their starters aren't out there, but just don't pay
attention to that. At the risk of taking anything out
of this game, maybe it does point out that the
Chiefs are even more than most teams, extremely reliant on

(01:13:45):
their very best players, just because like the backups, it's
a steep fall from Chris Jones to what's going on there.
It's a steep fall from Trent McDuffie and some of
their cornerbacks that were out there, like Shamari Connor, like
will be starting in the play. It wasn't you can't
bench everyone, but the wide receiver is like, it's not

(01:14:05):
a great wide receiver room in terms of the backup,
it's not a great room of backups. And that's why
it feels like they're more vulnerable. I'm not worried about
the fact they'll have twenty four days off. I would
be worried if any team out there, you know, signs
Carson Wentz next year to be their start. I can't
believe people were saying that that that kind outside happening.
It's like, have you watched Wentz?

Speaker 4 (01:14:22):
This is not you just wanted to hide an obscurity,
But no, the Chiefs had to be fifteen and one
and Carson Wentz got exposed.

Speaker 1 (01:14:30):
So yes, a perfect day. If you were a Broncos fan,
you got to get excited. This is a team with
an over underwin total of five and a half coming
into this season. It is an incredible achievement to get
to ten wins and to get to the playoffs. And
we'll be talking about them throughout the course of the week. Okay,

(01:14:51):
let's go to the metal lands. When when the game started,
the Dolphins had a chance to make the playoffs. They
were second in line. Remember that the Bengals had won,
so that prevented a scenario where everyone could lose and
the Broncos would make it. But when the Dolphins started,
they thought they had a chance. It is time for
the Sunday Drive, presented by the all new hybrid Toyota camera.

Speaker 19 (01:15:15):
Rogers takes the snap, drops back, looks right, looks over
the middle, steps up with the pocket.

Speaker 2 (01:15:20):
Dodgers a sock runs to the.

Speaker 7 (01:15:22):
Five throws back of the ends, cut to don Ty
Adams touchdown. I have a touchdown pass for Aaron Rodgers
his stern of the day.

Speaker 1 (01:15:38):
I don't want to say, Aaron Rodgers is a troll,
but he has some like trollish tendencies.

Speaker 2 (01:15:44):
Contrarian tendencies.

Speaker 4 (01:15:46):
Yeah, contrarian does a disservice to contrariy. You could say
his control.

Speaker 1 (01:15:51):
Okay, if you were if you somehow could come up
with like a scenario two troll the Jets and their fans,
it would be throwing for four touchdowns in your final
we think game as a Jet to knock the Dolphins
out of the playoffs and win thirty two to twenty. Yes,

(01:16:13):
the offense was going up and down the field. That
was Bob was Shusan for the last time this season.
The Jets finish at five and twelve, and the Dolphins,
with Tyler Huntley at quarterback, have one final disappointing performance
and they finished with a losing record. Nick for the
first time with Mike McDaniel, Where do you want to start?
Just I did not watch this game, So tell me

(01:16:35):
about how the Jets offense at least got it done.

Speaker 3 (01:16:38):
I think you can hear in Bob A. Shusan's voice there.
It was so satisfying. It's like he'd wanted to make
that call all season long, and yet it came in
a meaningless game that might be his last. They looked
like we thought they should look when he joined the Jets,
and it didn't start pretty. He threw a pick on
a deflected pass very early in this game. The Dolphins
end up getting just three points out of that, and
then from there they hit the ground running. They roll

(01:17:00):
was four touchdown passes. He's navigating the pocket like Aaron
Rodgers has long been known to do. He's throwing, he's
moving to his right in the pocket, then whipping a
pass to his left to his old buddy Allen Lazard
for a touchdown. That was the highlight that made me think,
oh wow, that's classic Rogers right there. Where has that
been this whole season? The touchdown pass to Adams was
another one. It's a shame. It's a shame that had
happened in Week eighteen because it was fun to watch

(01:17:22):
for the first time all year. I was like, these
Jets can't be stopped except for maybe that early season
game against the Patriots, but it didn't matter. Ultimately. The
other story of this game was the Jets defense being opportunistic,
forcing four turnovers out of the Dolphins, who looked as
if they figured out in about the third quarter that
they were out of the playoffs once they saw that score,
because everything just went downhill. A complete team win for
Jeff Fahlbrick and the Jets just as they go into

(01:17:44):
the most uncertain offseason in oh I don't know, three
or four years for New York.

Speaker 4 (01:17:49):
Yeah, it's been it's been a while. That touchdown that
we heard Bob was shuslen call to DeVante Adams was
the eighty third time that Aaron Rodgers was throwing a
touchdown pass to DeVante Adams. They passed Mark Clayton and
Dan Marino for number three all time as units. In
a great moment for that particular family, the family that
Aaron Rodgers still has. And there's no much, there's not

(01:18:12):
much to celebrate or look forward to for the Jets,
but that was a nice moment for two of the greats.
And John O. Smith said after the game, it was
human nature to look up at the scoreboard and see
that the Dolphins had been eliminated. I don't know how
much of an impact that had, but John who got
in the end zone late, but there was really the

(01:18:33):
defense that seemed kind of listless against Rogers and the.

Speaker 1 (01:18:36):
Jets right, And they also didn't score an offensive touchdown
until the fourth quarter, So even if they were affected
by it, I mean they had a six to nothing
lead early, it was seven to six late in the
first half before they gave up another touchdown. They weren't
going to be good enough with Tyler Huntley and without
their top two tackles to beat a playoff team much

(01:18:58):
less than New York Jets. So we looked towards the
off season and Tyreek Hill out here getting that off
season content machine cranked up. Appreciate you, Tyreek for that.
Here he is after the game, he says, I have
to do what's best for me and my family, if

(01:19:19):
that's here or wherever the case may be. I'm about
to open up that door for myself. And then a
little later, as he was talking, he says, I'm out, bruh.
It was great playing here, but at the end of
the day, I have to do what's best for my career.
So it looks like we have, you know, another another

(01:19:40):
thing to talk about as we lead up to the
free agency and the combine.

Speaker 4 (01:19:45):
And he's out. Maybe he meant out of netlife today.

Speaker 1 (01:19:49):
Right, Maybe he meant he's out of the like continuing
to talk about it here, but he said he also
says it was great playing here, but he has to
do what's best for him at for the best of
his great and.

Speaker 2 (01:19:59):
There was some there was some whispers about this.

Speaker 1 (01:20:01):
This might be a mutual thing where if they can
find the right deal, it's best for both sides. At
the end of this, they did give him a new
contract like right before this season, which in hindsight they
might not feel great about. But that's something to think about.
I do think this build of the Dolphins is going

(01:20:23):
to need some reworking because it was all about the
timing between Tua and these receivers, and if Tyreek Hill
is not there and he's getting older, it wasn't that
great a year for him to begin with. He ended
up with two catches for twenty yards today. By the way,
you know, they didn't get the running game going. They're
actually one of, if not, depending on how you measure it,
the oldest teams in the entire NFL shook. We don't

(01:20:46):
know for sure whether Chris Greer, their GM, will be back,
they've said Mike McDaniel, I would assume that he's going
to be safe, but I think this is a team
that's going to have a lot of changes, and that
makes some sense. Give me a Dolphins thought before we go, Chuck.

Speaker 3 (01:21:01):
Yeah, Well, it's no knock on class Campbell because he's
kind of an ageless wonder. But when he's essentially your
best front seven player, that's a problem. And I know
losing Jalen Phillips to an injury was you know, hurt, obviously,
but I think it starts in the trenches on both
sides of the ball. For them, you've got to build
inward and then outward. I also think they're a little
too star dependent right now, which is why the Tyreek
thing makes a lot of sense. But I mean, even
on a day where a team that couldn't run the

(01:21:22):
ball consistently all year, they get one hundred and twenty
one yards in Devin Chan that they don't do anything
with it. Like there are issues that extend beyond the
fact that Tyler Huntley was her quarterback that were pervasive
throughout this entire season, especially on the defensive side. They
had their brief highs, but they're going to need to
make some changes in personnel in the offseason. We'll see
who's making those changes. It's definitely a weird feeling going
to the offseason. Yeah, a Dolphins team that so many

(01:21:44):
people thought was going to be right there for really
this year.

Speaker 1 (01:21:47):
In the last few years, not all eight and nine's
are equal, and this one's worse than most because of expectations.
I think, because that it's a little foundation shaking in
terms of that they weren't able to run the ball,
They didn't beat good teams essentially all season long. That
the win over the forty nine Ers was like maybe
the best win they had. It is just crazy. These
are two teams we'll be talking about plenty coming up.

(01:22:08):
That was the Sunday Drive presented by the all new
hybrid Toyota Camray. Whatever your vibe, it's a camera vibe.
Learn more at Toyota dot com slash Camry. So we've
talked about how the early slate of games on Sunday
were exciting. It ended up being a little bit of
a letdown late. But in Las Vegas it was important

(01:22:30):
if the Chargers won or not to help determine what
their seating would be, and they were playing to win.

Speaker 20 (01:22:35):
Here we go from the two Dobbins in the backfield
pervert to throw looking left, now rolling to his right,
gonna use his feet, still trying to extend the play
to the end zone.

Speaker 2 (01:22:44):
Pot mccaukee, it's good.

Speaker 20 (01:22:47):
He launched us into the stands at a sea of
powder blue. Talk about a quarterback receiver connection. McConkey was
in the middle of the end zone. It started making
his way to the corner as soon as he saw
quarterback on the run.

Speaker 1 (01:23:02):
I love that two point conversion. I love me some,
justin Herbert, I love me some Matt money Smith on
Ky Sr. Chargers went thirty four to twenty in a
game that was tight, that the Raiders led late in

(01:23:23):
the second quarter, but ultimately this Chargers offensive surge continues
Week eighteen.

Speaker 4 (01:23:32):
If you are a win probability believer, that touchdown before
the Lad McConkie two point conversion that you just had
just heard Matt money Smith call, that was it. The
win probability hovering around forty eight fifty and then it
was all Chargers pretty much after that in it was
a Lad two point conversion. Ladd had a solid game.
This was the Quinton Johnston game. Guys fourteen targets. He

(01:23:55):
caught thirteen of them for one hundred and eighty six yards,
including a one handed down the sideline to get to
one eighty six. When Harball says that's it, eventually everybody
gets arrest. Here, the Chargers get exactly what they want.
They've fully changed our perception of who they are offensively.
When the start of the season it was pound the

(01:24:15):
Rock Chargers, GrITT and grind. Here they almost went fifty
to fifty run past thirty seven attempts for Justin Herbert,
thirty five carries on the ground. A couple of those
were huge Herbo runs. He had sixty yards on the
ground pulled away.

Speaker 2 (01:24:28):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (01:24:29):
A few Raiders defenders where you had a decent AOC
game where the wheels kind of fell off late as
the Chargers were able to get pressure. He had an
interception as well. But this Chargers offense is really humming,
and if Justin Herbert's playing like this, they will I'm
considering as good as Baltimore looked out here playing against

(01:24:49):
the Chargers, I'm comfortable playing the division rival as opposed
to the way Justin Herbert and this Chargers team looks right.

Speaker 2 (01:24:55):
Oh, no question.

Speaker 1 (01:24:58):
My son is a Texans fan and he was rooting
for this result, and I was saying, no, bro, you
don't want you don't want this, you don't want hervo
and He's like, no, the Chargers aren't as good as
the Steelers. I'm like, the Steelers have lost four straight
and this Chargers team, I didn't know this was gonna happen.
They just put up twenty six first downs four hundred

(01:25:18):
and seventy three yards and again, you can look at
the opposition, but good offenses put up those sort of numbers.
And I'm rethinking this Chargers team in general, this is
going to become a trendy take. I suspect this week.
But I've seen crazier Super Bowl teams than the Chargers. No,
I'm not saying like they're fourth in line. Obviously, you

(01:25:38):
have Lamar Jackson and you have Josh Allen, and they're
behind the one of the greatest teams of all time
and the greatest quarterback I've ever seen. Like those are
your three favorites, But I've seen more surprising and less
talented Super Bowl teams than this Chargers team, who are
peaking at the right time.

Speaker 2 (01:25:56):
Shook they're getting.

Speaker 1 (01:25:57):
They to me, just show what Harbaugh can do to
development wise in his staff because Johnston. How about Disley
comes back from his injury, has a really good game here,
Dobbins is healthy again, and the way they've developed that defense,
they're they're dangerous. And I haven't looked at the numbers yet.
I'm sure they're going to be favored in Houston. And

(01:26:17):
I like that because I like spreading out all the
potential contenders. If the divisional round is Burrow, I mean,
so see there's a slip there, because we do love
you Burrow. I mean, you are you deserve it to
be watching best us. But if the divisional round is

(01:26:37):
Mahomes v. Herbert and Lamar versus Josh Allen, I mean,
that's pretty sweet.

Speaker 2 (01:26:47):
But that would be pretty sweet.

Speaker 3 (01:26:49):
Yeah, I agree, because they're peaking at the right time.
Like you said, I mean that's often what gets teams
like this that on paper don't quite have as many
weapons as some of the other teams. That's we'll get
some of the deep playoff runs as that they peak
at the right time. Now, that went over the Patriots.
I was like, you're playing the Patriots.

Speaker 4 (01:27:01):
Just whatever.

Speaker 3 (01:27:01):
But Quentin Johnson has been a guy who has not
lived up to his status as a first round pick.
Let's just face it, he's come together more this year
than he did in his dreadful rookie year. But to
have a game like this, and I don't care if
it's against the Raiders, who sometimes gives some offenses more
trouble than you think, especially with Max Crossley's out there,
which he wasn't. But when you have him going off,
then suddenly it's not just relying on Lad mccackey Stone
Smart doesn't even show up in the box score, and

(01:27:23):
that's been one of their go to targets the last
few weeks. So they are starting to peak at the
right time. And you never want to count out a
Jim Harbaugh coach team in the playoffs. So I agree,
it'll be really interesting. We'll see.

Speaker 2 (01:27:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:27:33):
Shout out to AOC, the subject of my most medium
warm take of all time, that he's going to have
an eight to ten year career for throwing Rock Bowers
a garbage time touchdown to get Bowers his fifth touchdown
of the season. Browers now has more receptions than any

(01:27:54):
Rock Bowers.

Speaker 2 (01:27:56):
I love you man.

Speaker 4 (01:27:59):
He also got Jacobe Myers's first one thousand yard season
his career, So yeah, AOC, that's what pros do keep
him hope floating.

Speaker 1 (01:28:08):
One injury note on this game is that Rashawn Slater
didn't play a little confusing. He's getting an MRI. He
wasn't on the injury report. Not sure what happened there,
but he's the talented Pro Bowl left tackle for the Chargers,
so obviously that is a big injury. With a matchup
against the good pass rushers in Houston coming up, let's

(01:28:31):
take a quick break. I'm going to come back finish
out the games and also talk about one coaching change,
maybe a little bit more Antonio pears to someone we're
going to be keeping an eye on back after this.

Speaker 9 (01:28:53):
Hollard in the backfield, Levis under center and a bumble
here as it's chased down by at the twenty five,
twenty fifteen ten, Barnett still going at the five, taking
people with them.

Speaker 2 (01:29:06):
All the way to the uds.

Speaker 12 (01:29:07):
Barnett does it again, his second.

Speaker 2 (01:29:10):
Touchdown of the year. Big guy running and scoring.

Speaker 1 (01:29:15):
Wonder if you could have gotten the odds for Derek
Barnett scoring two touchdowns in one year.

Speaker 2 (01:29:20):
That is about one million to one.

Speaker 1 (01:29:23):
The former Eagle lineman scoops and scores. Yes, that's Mark
Vandermere excited. The Texans, mostly playing their backups after the
first couple of drives, beat the Titans in Tennessee twenty
three to fourteen. The Titans remain winless when they wear
those Oilers uniforms, just bad vibes, bad karma. You're just

(01:29:49):
sticking it in their eye. I think it's untoured and
they were punished. I mean, you're you're good enough to
like put on the Oilers' uniforms and send these tweets
just trying to trying to needle your the team in
the city that you stole the team from, and you
can't even get anyone to go to your games.

Speaker 2 (01:30:08):
I can't remember.

Speaker 1 (01:30:09):
A game that had less fans at it than this one,
and I don't blame them, to be clear, it is
not the fans fault.

Speaker 2 (01:30:15):
It is raining there and it is pointless.

Speaker 1 (01:30:17):
But that place was absolutely empty and the Texans just
took care of business.

Speaker 4 (01:30:23):
The second saddest fan shot that I have seen this week.
The saddest was the one Browns fan in Baltimore after
Michael Pierce interception, just standing there while everybody went nuts.
The second one was the person sitting in the absolute
top section eight oh one in Nissan Stadium in Nashville,
in the rain, with an ocean of available seats in

(01:30:45):
front of him, watching the Titans turn the ball over
time after time against the Houston Texans. It was a
miserable looking performance. And I don't know if it was
the uniforms or maybe Will Levis and Mason Rudolph, Oh
my god, combining to do absolutely nothing.

Speaker 2 (01:30:59):
All right, at the end of the let's let Rudolph
off the hook.

Speaker 4 (01:31:02):
Here.

Speaker 1 (01:31:04):
I went hard on the Titans here, you know, for
game debut, I picked him. I didn't know Levis was
gonna start that that actually would have changed my mind.
Lewis started, played most of the game. Rudolph actually went
seven for nine for seventy yards and was moving the ball.
They had like a fourth down stop. They couldn't run
the ball on the goal line. And they're like, oh uh,
we're trying to tank here. He's doing too well. Let's

(01:31:26):
put Levis back in. So Lewis started was terrible, and
then they put him back in, and he actually ended
up with the lowest QBR of.

Speaker 2 (01:31:36):
Any player in any game all season.

Speaker 4 (01:31:40):
Oh, the title goes to Will Levis the game for that,
You mean not in the game where he threw his
picked six against Chicago.

Speaker 1 (01:31:46):
Crazy shout out to QBR because he like had a
passing touchdown in deep garbage time and ended up with
one hundred and seventy five yards and seventeen attempts. So
you wouldn't have thought that would have happened. But my
eyes say QBR ball because it was that bad. The
two play sequence of him going absolutely crazy, celebrating with

(01:32:09):
like the money at the Strip club, you know, celebration
after he throws a dime to Calvin Ridley down the
field to get a thirty nine yard catch to Ridley,
and everyone there on the Titans knew that got.

Speaker 2 (01:32:22):
Ridley over a thousand yards. That got Ridley in.

Speaker 3 (01:32:25):
That's why he was making it rain Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:32:27):
Cool, I love it.

Speaker 1 (01:32:28):
But he was celebrating that thing because I think he
loves ball, he loves his teammates.

Speaker 2 (01:32:32):
He's going absolutely nuts.

Speaker 1 (01:32:34):
And then the whiplast for the very next play to
be that fumble recovery return. It was just like Will
Levis and that wasn't really his fault. I don't think
he put it in this. Yeah, you know, the ball
carrier's belly and it just was a fumble. It was
just a bad but that was kind of Titans in
a nutshell this season, and so you did it. You
got the number one overall pick. I don't have much

(01:32:56):
more to say.

Speaker 4 (01:32:57):
No shout out to Damian Peercey had a ninety two
yard gatch run in this game. That was part of
the big part of the difference.

Speaker 1 (01:33:04):
I also watched this game thinking Davis Mills is definitely
better than any Titans quarterback. I was kind I'm always
moderately impressed by Davis Mills.

Speaker 4 (01:33:14):
Congratulations to a very tall man for clearing a very
low bar.

Speaker 1 (01:33:17):
Yeah. The one thing actually you should take from this
game is that they played this perfectly. This is the
dream of what you want to do when you're resting
some of your starters.

Speaker 2 (01:33:28):
CJ.

Speaker 1 (01:33:29):
Stroud played one drive. He hit Nico Collins on a
touchdown pass. He goes six for six, made a couple
of nice throws. They were good on third down on
that drive. Then you got him out of there. You
kept the defensive starters in for a couple drives, you
got some stops, and then the backups won the game
for you and ended along losing streak. And so that

(01:33:51):
was absolutely perfect for the Texans that at least get
off the schneid, not join the Steelers as a team
with a four game losing streak heading into the playoffs.
And not for nothing, keep my undefeated streak in the
over under draft that we do every season, oh alive,
three straight seasons undefeated. I needed this Texans win to

(01:34:15):
get over the top. Maybe we'll review some of these
picks at some point. It's really not that important, but.

Speaker 4 (01:34:19):
That's very important.

Speaker 1 (01:34:20):
It was on my mind that I think it's it's
now up to a combined eleven and zero.

Speaker 4 (01:34:25):
Look at that.

Speaker 1 (01:34:25):
It's bankable, and maybe the Texans, maybe maybe they'll play
their best next week. We'll be able to talk about
that throughout the course of the week. I think they'll
feel better about themselves after this. Let's stay in the
AFC South. Let's go to Indianapolis.

Speaker 2 (01:34:38):
Second down in one for the Colts. Flacco goes out
of the pistol formation.

Speaker 4 (01:34:41):
Who's Michael Pitman Junior in motion?

Speaker 8 (01:34:43):
Back in the throw is Flacco hashtime since the.

Speaker 4 (01:34:46):
Rainbow down the right sideline. Underneath it is Alec Pears.

Speaker 12 (01:34:49):
He's got it touchdown forty yards deep.

Speaker 2 (01:34:53):
Bob Alan Pierce the Midwestern missile.

Speaker 5 (01:34:57):
Flac put it right on the and the coldstraw first
blood with a huge play in the passing game.

Speaker 4 (01:35:04):
It's six to nothing. We're just over a minute gone
in the first quarter.

Speaker 1 (01:35:09):
Shout out to Alec Pierce, sneaky candidate for most Improved
player of the season. That was an award sneaky candidate
for surprise value add of the season. He entered Sunday
averaging twenty one point nine yards per catch and because.

Speaker 2 (01:35:27):
Of that catch there, he just raised it even more.

Speaker 1 (01:35:31):
Yes, that's the last time you'll hear Matt Taylor on
WF and I Colts win twenty six to twenty three.
Maybe the last time this stich in Chris Ballard combo
is around. But the Colts did get a win in overtime.
Sixty minutes was not enough to decide this one shook.

Speaker 3 (01:35:51):
When your first highlight and your highlight that's chosen for
the show, arrives in the first minute and ten seconds
of the game, you know the rest of the game
is going to be kind of gross. And that's what
this game was. It was Joe Flacco dropping back in
tossing prayers that may or may not have been caught
his receiving corps did a great job of bailing him
out a couple of times today. Michael Pittman, Josh Downs,
and Alec Pierce all did a great job. It's Mac

(01:36:12):
Jones dropping back in trying to find guys downfield and
missing them by five yards over their head, but then
he finds Brian Thomas Junior down the field for a
big completion. It's Jonathan Taylor running thirty four times for
one hundred and seventy seven yards in a touchdown, and
yet somehow that game makes it to overtime. It was
a good way for Gus Bradley's defense. Surprisingly, I know
it doesn't sound like it to go out because he's

(01:36:33):
basically guaranteed to be gone from there because they got
stops in overtime to be able to get them this victory.
But then again, it is against the Jaguars who do
a nice job of fighting to the end for Doug Peterson,
who we should also probably expect to be gone and
still come up short because that is the way this
entire season has gone.

Speaker 1 (01:36:49):
Yeah, Brian Thomas with another big game, gets to eighty
seven catches and over twelve hundred and fifty yards incredible
rookie season. As we're taping, we got some breaking news.
Jim Ursay has announced there will be no changes for
the Colts.

Speaker 15 (01:37:08):
Oh.

Speaker 1 (01:37:09):
I believe in Chris Ballard and Shane Steichen and our
collective ability to make the improvements needed to take us
to the next level. In twenty twenty five. We're going
to talk about the Patriots shortly. The length of this
statement indicates to me he had made up his mind
before Sunday and he just wanted to nip this in

(01:37:32):
the bud and just let the fans kind of know
this is going to be the plan.

Speaker 2 (01:37:36):
Do you think it's the right move?

Speaker 4 (01:37:38):
Patrick? I did notice a absence between Chris Ballard and
Shane Steikeen, no mention of Gus Bradley in that and
down the stretch, at least for the Colts playoff hopes,
the defense led by Gus Bradley probably the most glaring error,
whether it was Anthony Richardson or Joe Flacco down the

(01:37:58):
stretch to give up three percent again of the Giants
points that they scored at MetLife this season in one
game to the Colts to essentially doom their season a
week after they were somehow given another chance as the
AFC playoff race, teams kind of started the limp across
the finish line. It's I think consistency and having that

(01:38:22):
same staff be around as good for Anthony Richardson's development, yep,
which is kind of the most important part. They just
got to figure out how they are gonna build this
roster and come with a different mindset to the to
the value savings picks that they've tried to do.

Speaker 1 (01:38:38):
Yeah, and there could be some major changes on the
offensive line. We don't know if Ryan Kelly's gonna be back.
There's some defensive decisions to make. Jimmercy says, I know
fans who wanted a media change in leadership will be disappointed.
That means we have a lot to prove and I
like this decision. Yeah, I actually think continuity is underrated.

(01:39:00):
I just didn't like the idea of taking Ballard out
and then adding a new GM. I think you do
it all together, and it's not like you're setting them
up to fail next year. You're just giving them a
third year of this stike in era and then evaluating. Obviously,
if they don't make the playoffs next year, we know
what's gonna happen, but with Richardson in mine, with continuity

(01:39:21):
in terms of the coach and the GM being on
the same page in mind, I also get the Colts'
frustrations and their fans and if they're back in this
same spot next year, they're gonna be even angrier and
say I told you so. But I think in this moment,
this makes sense to me. All right, let's go to
one NFC game, which is kind of like a straggler,
but it's the one that didn't matter, so we didn't

(01:39:41):
want to put it up at the top. Actually, it
was kind of fun to watch today. Cardinals forty nine
ers to Arizona.

Speaker 19 (01:39:47):
Harrison Why to the ride on first and ten at
the San Francisco twelve three tight end set, shotgun snap
Murray throw a fade right side.

Speaker 20 (01:39:54):
Of the end zone, im the money to Marvin Harrison Junior.

Speaker 2 (01:39:57):
Touchdown. What a throw by Murray.

Speaker 19 (01:40:00):
That's a sport touchdown pass tying a career high.

Speaker 13 (01:40:04):
You can see that coming a mile away. Marvin Harrison
Junior lined up to the rights of Kyler Murray one
on one, and sure enough, Kyler Murray put it out
there and Marvin Harrison Junior went.

Speaker 1 (01:40:18):
And got it Kyler Murray with four touchdowns in two
hundred and forty two yards as the Cardinals put up
forty seven forty nine ers a forty burger to finish
the season at eight and nine, forty nine ers fall
to six and eleven. Trey McBride got another touchdown catch
in this game.

Speaker 2 (01:40:37):
What is he?

Speaker 1 (01:40:38):
Derek Barnett two touchdowns now, although to be fair to McBride,
he did have a rushed one and a fumble recovery one,
so he actually has four touchdowns yeah total this season.
Shout out to the Cardinals, who I think slightly beat
expectations this season and were more fun to watch than
most teams.

Speaker 4 (01:40:56):
Yeah, And the disappointment in how the season ended was
because they exceeded those expectations point where you started to believe,
and then they had the late closing seconds loss to Seattle,
the one to the Minnesota Vikings, who again or fourteen
got fourteen wins on the season. It was a spectacular
run for the Cardinals for a stretch and then we

(01:41:18):
kind of got glimpses into what could have been. That
Marvin Harrison junior touchdown came after Keith Jarld Clark had
what we thought was a pick six before, but they
said he did not catch it, and so it comes
back out. Kyler throws the touchdown pass to Marvin. As
you mentioned, Trey McBride gets in the end zone. This
is a game they're playing without James Connor and they're
going up against a pastronaut led forty nine ers offense

(01:41:42):
where Sean Murphy Bunting and Juwan Jennings got into it
to the point where they got two offsetting personal fouls.
Wow on the same skirmish, and Jawan Jennings got ran
from this game with nine hundred and seventy five receiving
It was fifteen yards away, but he gets run from
the game for fighting with Sean Murphy Bunting. It was

(01:42:03):
Josh topstorm for three hundred twenty six yards. Up and
down the field they went, but the forty nine Ers
could make the plays down the stretches of the Cardinals
because a fun week eighteen finish the football.

Speaker 1 (01:42:13):
Which have some small takeaways that I think are meaningful.
Pierce All finishes the season really strong, six for sixty
nine and a touchdown, So two really good games from him. Yes,
that was the ultimate Past're not games four hundred and
thirty six yards of forty nine Ers offense. But he
did have three turnovers and that was kind of the
difference to the Cardinals take advantage, and you know, I like

(01:42:35):
the continuity here. The forty nine Ers aren't making any
changes in terms of I don't think any part of
their coaching staff, at least at the coordinator or above level,
and certainly not at the GM level. I think the
Cardinals are going to come back. That is a loaded division,
But I think these are four organizations that are run
pretty well there in the NFC West. You cannot say

(01:42:56):
the same about what's happening in New England. Let's go
to five gifts it off his left year to receiver
stack on a high stap.

Speaker 2 (01:43:05):
Wanted it waltzing look from Joe Milton.

Speaker 4 (01:43:10):
What the exclamation mark? Good energy here to start this
football game for the offense.

Speaker 13 (01:43:17):
After Drake Bay comes out and boughtsoci what the call
getting Milton outside off the play fake.

Speaker 12 (01:43:24):
That's a good first drive for Joe Milton, who has
a play to snap all year.

Speaker 2 (01:43:28):
Gets the week eighteen goss is it with a perfect flip? Oh,
Scott Zolac, didn't hear from you?

Speaker 1 (01:43:36):
Much this year, but we got you on the Joe
Milton rushing touchdown with a flip celebration. Yeah, the Patriots
won twenty three to sixteen in a game with a
lot of Joe Milton highlights.

Speaker 2 (01:43:51):
His best play was probably the one that was called back.

Speaker 4 (01:43:55):
It was so good we ran that highlight. The play
didn't count, we ran the highlight on the show because it.

Speaker 2 (01:43:59):
Was so Who caught that one? Was that Douglas?

Speaker 4 (01:44:02):
I think it was Pop Douglas.

Speaker 1 (01:44:04):
That's one of the throws of the year by Joe Milton,
but he had plenty of other good throws. He got
a touchdown in this game to Keyshaun Body. He had
two hundred and forty one yards. And yeah, the Patriots won.
They will not pick first overall. They beat the Bills
backups and the Bills. I don't know if they really
cared about the Patriots getting the first overall pick, but

(01:44:26):
if they did care removing Mitch Trubisky, who started the game,
well technically actually he came in for Josh Allen, who
had played one snap, handed the ball off, and then
Trubisky came in removing him for Mike White. When you
actually have a lead in the second half, it was
sixteen to fourteen Bills. That would be the way to
prevent your division rival from getting the one pick. I

(01:44:49):
don't really think they cared that much, but that's what happened.
Joe Milton led them to three more field goals after that,
and the Patriots won. I thought that would be the
biggest item to come from this game. The Bills were
locked in at the two seed all along. As we
said before, they're going to be playing the Broncos. But
Bob Kraft did not waste any time and he made

(01:45:11):
an announcement that Grod Mayo is out after one season
as Patriots head coach. I can get into the statement,
but your thoughts, Patrick, We talked about this possibility coming.
I heard from people who are closer to the situation
from me that it wasn't going to happen, and yet
I thought, based on the evidence of what happened this season,

(01:45:35):
there was a strong chance, and it happened. Maybe it's
because they want to go get Mike Rabel.

Speaker 2 (01:45:40):
Maybe not. We'll find out.

Speaker 4 (01:45:41):
Yeah, the maybe aspect, I think you make this change,
it perhaps signals that you know what you want, you
think you have an inside shot at that. But the mystery,
the consternation, the substrifuge coming out of Foxborough is not
new to me. This has been happening the whole time.
The problem is the Patriots had the one of the

(01:46:02):
best quarterbacks, the best quarterback to ever play the game,
and they were winning Super Bowls, and that winning is
the ultimate deodorant to all of this chaos that is
constantly happening. And we look back and we've got stops
of coaches interviews, We've got GMS leaving and then not leaving,
then Nick Cassario goes, we have multiple investigations and lawsuits,
all of this stuff. None of it is new. This

(01:46:25):
stuff has always happened in New England. The problem is
they were losing. They lose the exact same number of
games that they lost last year with the best coach ever.
And so now you go one and done with a coach.
I just hope for the Patriots and for the coach
that they hire that they want him to be there
d and he wants to D. No, I want them
to lose every game. But you know that's just my

(01:46:46):
relationship with the franchise. But you know, just for the
sake of the people on the staff and the players
and the fans who yes, you know a lot of
them are great people. I'm sitting next to one. I
would just like everybody to want everybody to be there.
Clearly wasn't the case this year.

Speaker 1 (01:47:01):
Yeah, this is the same franchise that employed Jack Easterby
for quite a while. Let's look at craft statements. Now,
he obviously wanted this to work out. It's not like
he didn't want Drod Mayo to work out. But ultimately,
when it became a situation, am I going to stand
by this guy that I told everyone that I wanted

(01:47:23):
as my coach for five years? He told that story
to a lot of people. They did this trip to
Israel at one point that Mayo was on and he
saw this leadership in Mayo, and when Mayo was getting
head coaching interviews a couple off seasons ago, then he
signed him to the contract that guaranteed he'd be the
head coach in waiting. Let's look at the statement that
Kraft made. He said he informed Mayo that he will

(01:47:44):
not be returning For me personally, this is one of
the hardest decisions I've ever made. I've known Jirod for
seventeen years. It goes on from there, but he said
when other teams started requesting an interview and my feared
I would lose him and committed to making him our
next head coach, winning our season opener on the road
in Cincinnati only strengthened my convictions. He goes on and

(01:48:08):
essentially says, I'm a steward of the team. I apologize
for what's happened the last couple of years. And I
do think he knows Robert Kraft that this is a
dent on how he's viewed publicly. I think he was
telling he was at the Celtics game the other night.
They didn't show him on the jumbo dron because they

(01:48:30):
know at this point Patriots fans will boo him, like
how much the fan.

Speaker 2 (01:48:41):
Like reaction to him matters. Only he could say that.

Speaker 1 (01:48:44):
But I think people look at the Brady Belichick era
differently already because of what's happened, and he saw the
way this is going, and he maybe sees a life
preserver in Mike Rabil, whether that's a good idea or not,
and thinks I need to get out of this now
to possibly save it, because clearly he made a bad

(01:49:05):
choice with Durrowd Mayo, like if he's making if he's
pulling the ripcord after one year, it speaks to organizational
problems that go far beyond Drod Mayo, who was put
in a even though I think he did a horrible
job this year and ultimately this was the right decision
in a vacuum, that just gets to it. He was
put in a terrible spot, shook and isn't at the

(01:49:28):
most fault of what's going on with the Patriots.

Speaker 3 (01:49:31):
Yeah, I was pretty convinced that they were gonna hang
on to him because of the one and done, because
he was so convinced that this was the guy to
succeed Belichick and everything that you just discussed about the
lead up and making him the head coach in waiting.
So the fact that he got fired was a shock
to me. But the results also do speak to themselves.
They were dysfunctional, they were disorganized. He mishandled a lot
of different situations, even go back to the Matthew Judon

(01:49:51):
thing during camp and making it kind of a bit
of a disagreement that happened in public, and you know,
obviously there's two parties involved in that, but also what
did he have to worry with, you know, what type
of talent did he really have? On either side of
the ball. Their offensive line was a mess. They lacked
weapons for most of this season. Kaisehon Boody's had a
nice little spot, but you know, jalb Polk's been a
no show and that's a guy that they lifted over

(01:50:12):
Lad McCaughey, as Matt Mouney Smith like to highlight in
the recent performance. And defensively, your best front seven guy,
Christian Barmore, you know, it has to deal with blood
clots and can't play for most of the season, So
you lack talent back there too. You have minimal pieces
right now, What were you really going to do? And yet,
if Mike Rabel wasn't out there, I don't know if
they necessarily would have made this change, even as ugly

(01:50:33):
as it has been this year.

Speaker 2 (01:50:34):
Okay, so a couple of points there.

Speaker 1 (01:50:36):
I don't think this four and thirteen was the same
as last year's four and thirteen because Number one, you
got really good quarterback play out of Drake May. Number two,
their schedule was much harder last year. They faced one
of the easiest schedules in the league this year, and
then number three. Mayo was a defensive coach, and the
defense which was excellent last year, top ten with basically

(01:50:57):
the same players who you gave a lot of money to.
I know there were injuries, but there were a lot
of injuries last year too. The defense, which was his
side of the ball, fell off a cliff, So that's
on the field off the field. I think it's what
got him fired though, was that the way he handled
the media and his players was a mess. That he
wasn't consistent in terms of I think the leadership he
had publicly and it was just just a little sloppy

(01:51:21):
in front of the microphone. It really reminded me of
Freddie Kitchens and Nate Hackett more than anyone in that.
I just think he was a little not ready for
that part of the job. That's my opinion, And like
it's a bad situation because of what I said before that, Yes,
I think the antipathy towards Mayo and Boston was absolutely

(01:51:43):
more because he was a black head coach and so
combining all that together is messy and I don't think
necessarily going back to the well if that's what happens
with like Mike Rabel and Josh McDaniels is a good idea.
Maybe it gets you back up to a certain level,
maybe not even But I actually think everything that happened
in the past that's the past. You really think Rabel

(01:52:05):
and McDaniels are the ones thinking in the future of
where the NFL is going. It's a little poisonous to
me to go back to everything like trying to recreate
the old times.

Speaker 2 (01:52:15):
It shows to me that maybe they're out of ideas.

Speaker 1 (01:52:18):
And I think that was also part of what got
Mayo fired is I think Rabel will be able to
hire a better staff. Mayo could not hire this staff
because I don't think he had contacts. He had never
worked outside of that building. He didn't have an idea
of how to do offense. He didn't know how to hire.
Everyone on the inside was just like more Belichick kids
and other guys who had been there, and it was tough.
And he was on like the twelfth pick of his coordinator.

(01:52:40):
So it was just a lot that went into it.
I don't know, it's just it's bad. This is a
bad franchise and yet they have two franchise quarterbacks.

Speaker 2 (01:52:48):
We have just made the ENVA of the league.

Speaker 1 (01:52:50):
Two young franchise quarterbacks under cheap contract control for three
straight years. We got Drake May and Joe Milton. Forget
losing the one pick. We can trade Joe Miller for
a first.

Speaker 4 (01:53:00):
Yeah, flip Joe Milton for a couple of first rounders
based on his Yeah, why not get him in there?
I just the chaos is is going to be there? Uh,
the roster issues are there. Mike Rabel, who famously likes
to actually get in there and work with Lineman during
during draft season, like he's integral to that draft process.

(01:53:21):
How does he feel about the current front office staff?
If he's the choice, he might have it, He might
have an option. Chicago may be able to make a
very interesting.

Speaker 2 (01:53:31):
With the Jets.

Speaker 1 (01:53:32):
He's already interviewed with the Jets, who are also interviewing
Rex Ryan on Tuesday.

Speaker 3 (01:53:35):
Yeah, one of those three places has a GM in place,
though they have the two don't. Yeah, well two of
them do.

Speaker 4 (01:53:42):
And so it's like, how does how does the process work?
What's the long term plan? You just got rid of
somebody who was tied to the previous regime. Rabel, while
he had a great run in Nashville with opportunities like
they were close. It's not like the Titans just kind
of flamed out all the time. The Titans to lead
over that Bengals team that was an Aaron Donald sack

(01:54:03):
away from winning the Super Bowl. The Titans conceivably could
have been there during this label era. And it's you know,
he'll have his choice, But I just think everybody needs
to go in and make sure that this is what
they want because.

Speaker 1 (01:54:18):
A lot of those times I don't want any of
it are not changing. I want an offensive minded head coach.
I think you look at what if I said all year,
what matters about the Patriots Drake May, it's all that matters.
So if you're and maybe Rabel has an idea of like,
here's the offensive staff I'm going to hire, and hear
the names and it's a great idea, I don't know.

(01:54:38):
All I know is he's he's recently gotten a chance
to hire two different offensive coordinators and his choices were
Tim Kelly and Todd Downing. And so that doesn't give
me a ton of confidence that he's the right guy
to bring this great young quarterback into the future. We
will see and yes, Bill's fans, we'll be talking about
your team plenty. I think it's going to be a

(01:54:59):
long playoff run. Eric, I'm looking forward to it. Okay,
now it's time, yes to talk about the best teams.

Speaker 2 (01:55:08):
Fourteen teams remain. It's a tournament.

Speaker 1 (01:55:11):
It's single elimination, Nick, it's the greatest tournament known to man.
Forget the NCAA tournament. They got sixty eight teams they're
playing and all this nonsense. It's a tournament and I,
for one, I'm looking forward to it, and I'm looking
forward to previewing it. We've got our normal slatest shows.
We're going to do a live show actually on Saturday
night recapping those games, but we'll be back here on

(01:55:34):
Sunday night with you. Appreciate you all season long, shook
on these regular season games, you know, less games on
upcoming Sundays, but we'll be doing that wild card game
as well.

Speaker 2 (01:55:46):
How was a trip back by the way to Cleveland.

Speaker 3 (01:55:48):
Well, it was like a typical flight across the country
when you connect through one airport. But it was great.
It's been a privilege to be here, and I'm glad
that we're not done, that the playoffs are just getting started.
Where it's you know, you said you call it a tournament.
If you're western Pennsylvania or somewhere along the East coast,
you might even call it a tournament, which has always
bothered me.

Speaker 1 (01:56:05):
Yes, and we're gonna have to try to get permission
from the Claybonn family to stay to stay late these
Sunday nights.

Speaker 4 (01:56:12):
Let's let's do it moving forward. Let's run it back.
The tournament. It is all that. It is the randomness,
the way the things go. You can have a really,
really good team done. That's that's the blessing and the
curse of a single elimination tournament. And then after the fact,
everybody will pretend like the results were dictated and we
knew it all along. But that's all along.

Speaker 1 (01:56:33):
I don't know anything all along, but we want we
will be making our predictions and uh spoiler, I'm sticking
with my preseason one who was Bill's Live. You know,
as we go along, you know the path, we'll have
different ways, uh to pick it. But yeah, we have
a lot to get to before then. Like I said,
I will be back on Monday, hopefully, got a little

(01:56:54):
special guest.

Speaker 2 (01:56:54):
It's going to be kind of like a tight little
news show on Monday.

Speaker 1 (01:56:59):
But yeah, for patri Clavon, for Chris behind the Glass,
Eric Roberts, Nick Schuck, congratulations to Kevin patra on the Lions.

Speaker 2 (01:57:08):
Yes, when there's only thirteen games left of the season,
you know football is back

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Week 18 Recap: Lions Roar, Bucs Survive and Pats Make a Change