December 16, 2024 • 31 mins
NFL Network Insiders Mike Garafolo, Judy Battista, Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero deliver a two-part podcast & YouTube edition of the Insiders. Tom reports from the field at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis ahead of the Vikings MNF game against the Bears, and Ian delivers the latest report on Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes. Later, the Insiders debate the legitimacy of the Philadelphia Eagles as a playoff contender.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome inside, Inside, inside, and inside with the insiders. Tom
Pellisero there in Minnesota. Ian Rappaport in his basement, Judy
Batista in her apartment.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I am in the home office as well.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
It is Monday, December sixteenth. We are wrapping up Week
fifteen in the NFL.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
It was an exciting week. It was a developmental week.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
A lot of things happen, a lot of playoff berths
and the like were clinched. The Vikings in with that
Seattle loss on Sunday night. Tom, if they don't know
about it, turn around and let them know. They got
in without even having to play last night. But they've
got bigger fish to fry and they want to go
after that one seat if they possibly can. To keep
the heat on the Lions who are leaking oil a
little bit. We'll talk about that coming up here. The
(00:48):
Texans clinching a playoff berth with that win over the Dolphins,
and the Steelers clinch a playoff birth, although they left
Philadelphia with a bad taste in their mouth once again
not being able to win in that city. So the
playoffs are starting to formulate here. We looked at the
wild Cards a couple of weeks ago and said they're
almost kind of sort of finalized, but there's still some
jockeying for position with those divisions. Tom, We're going to
(01:11):
start with you get us ready for this game tonight
in Minnesota between the Vikings and the Bears.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
The Vikings got in last night, as you mentioned by
virtue of the Seahawks loss, but a bigger result for
them was earlier in the day when the Lions lose
to the Bills. Because all of a sudden, now this
takes them from hey, they could you be able to
go and run the rest of the way and still
end up going on the road to a playoff game. Now,
because they've got the Lions in week eighteen, they've got
(01:39):
the opportunity here to end up with the number one
overall scene and certainly asion division title and a home
playoff game.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
The Eagles are still in that mix as well.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
The whole NFC wide open as we get the referee
mic check better do that for over four hours before kickoff.
So Vikings Bears tonight, they got to take care of business.
It is a winter white out game here, so you
can see it. You can kind of see behind me.
They got the white towels everywhere. This is also you
remember back in the spring when like every week somebody
(02:09):
who put out a team to put out another new
alternate uniform. The Vikings Winter Warriors ones were by far,
in my opinion, the best alternate uniforms. A look at this,
thanks to Vikings pr for bringing these out.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Look at this.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
That's cool, white, white.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
All the way around, very slick. We even got a
we got Justin Jefferson's jersey here too. They said, I
don't have to give it back, but then what's he
gonna wear in the game?
Speaker 4 (02:34):
Right?
Speaker 5 (02:34):
You know?
Speaker 3 (02:34):
It's a pretty cool, so it be a different look
for the Vikings. We normally are wearing purple in this building.
Bears team that obviously this season is not gone the
direction that they wanted to go to this point, but
big opportunity on a national stage for Thomas Brown on
for Caleb Williams. Also a couple of injury updates real quick.
(02:55):
DeAndre Swift listed as questionable. I'm told he should be
good to go in this game. Stefan Gilmour, the Vikings
veteran cornerback, sounds like he is not going to go.
If this were a playoff game. They probably play him,
but he's dealing with a hamstring. They're probably gonna hold
him out for a second straight game.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Here, Tom, you it's thirty eight ish degrees.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
I think I saw thirty thirty nine something like that
in Minneapolis right now.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
But to be able to cover a.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Game inside, you gotta love the luxury of that, when
you've got a home game there in your hometown of Minneapolis.
There walking into the Yeah, it's good, dude, I was
freezing yesterday.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
I've got jets on Sunday.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
It's gonna be like twenty degrees at the feels like
temperature at the start of the show.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
I'm just I'm soft. I can't take it anymore. So
enjoy that warm indoor climate. Ian.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
We talked about everything that happened here in week fifteen,
the comings and the goings and the developments. Injuries a
huge part of it. We're gonna get into all of them.
Let's start with the biggest one. Patrick Mahomes once again
with the I mean the laugh about it. He always
got this like late season thing where you go, oh, yeah,
he's gonna miss a couple of weeks, and then all
of a sudden, now he's got a shot to play immediately.
He's got a power his way through and maybe play
better than you could ever.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Expect them to play. What do we got on Mahomes?
Speaker 6 (04:02):
Yeah, so this, first of all, I'll start with the
do is Patrick Mahomes has a high ankle sprain. He
is considered to be weak to weak, and I would
describe it as a moderate slash mild high ankle sprain.
So certainly not something that's gonna say oar.
Speaker 5 (04:17):
But he's going to be out.
Speaker 6 (04:18):
Four to six weeks, which you know we are accustomed
to high ankle sprain's basically being four to six weeks.
This does not seem to be the case here. He
has no fracture and he might actually practice this week.
And that's what I was told was Mahomes needs to
see how it responds during practice. Okay, so that's one thing.
The other thing is we have actually seen this before.
(04:40):
We have seen Patrick Mahomes play through a high ankle sprain.
We've seen Patrick Mahomes play through a high ankle sprain
that he suffered against the Jacksonville Jaguars and played the
next week. My understanding is this is not as bad
as that. So theoretically, Patrick Mahomes could play this week
if need. However, it is a short week, they're not
(05:03):
in the playoffs, and you know they got a short
week after this. So my sense right now is that
it's more likely that Carson Wentz plays than Patrick Mahomes.
Speaker 5 (05:13):
That is my sense. But we will see where this
leads us.
Speaker 6 (05:16):
But I think the most important thing I learned in
all of these things is the text I got where
it was like, long term, he's fine, that's it, That's
what it's like.
Speaker 5 (05:26):
Now, long term he's vile, which meets for the playoffs,
he's fine.
Speaker 6 (05:32):
Oh sorry, is my fault, I should have said Judy.
At the end of the day, I was busy telling
Jude what his homework was from Google.
Speaker 7 (05:40):
Close Jude, Judy whatever. The reason why all of this
is important, obviously, is because of the number one seed
is now sort of in play if Mahomes can't go
or it's compromised and he does play, because the Bills
are rolling obviously they beat the Lions yesterday. Here are
(06:01):
the schedules. Keep in mind the Chiefs are still two
games up on the Bills, but the Bills beat the
Chiefs earlier this season, so they would hold the head
to head tiebreaker, so if they finished the season with
the same record, the Bills have the number one seed.
Here's the comparison of schedules, and yikes, Chiefs have Texans, Steelers,
and Broncos, so not easy the Bills have. I mean,
(06:24):
it's practically a preseason like schedule Patriots, Jets, and Patriots again,
so it's hard to envision the Bills losing another game,
and you could certainly envision, especially if Mahomes is not playing,
you could certainly envision the Chiefs not playing. Of course,
home field advantage for the Chiefs. I don't even know
(06:45):
if it matters anymore after we saw what they did
last year when they won the Super Bowl, but it
is an interesting talking point, especially for Bills fans who
obviously would love love to have the playoffs go through.
Speaker 6 (06:56):
Look at this remaining strength of schedule from Blaker researcher
point two three to eight. Opponent's strength of schedule or no,
I'm sorry, that's opponents winning percent for the Bills. You know,
anything can happen in the NFL, but you know that's
pretty good.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
Yeah, high prediction.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
I can't sit here and tell you on a Monday
afternoon as I have the drum line, give the soundtrack here.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
I can't predict.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
What you know is Patrick Maholve's going to be able
to play, But I would would I would predict this.
He is going to try to play high ankle springs.
As we saw its with Justin Herbert earlier this season.
It is an injury that you can play through and
it's going to continue to heal. You're not gonna be yourself,
You're not gonna be able to move around as well.
But we've seen Patrick Maholmes with all kinds of crazy
(07:41):
injury stuff. He's obviously had an ankle through the course
of this season. If he's got a way to spat
the thing up and get out there and just be
a pocket passer, I think that he's gonna do that.
You can pretty well put away the number one seed
if you get a win this week, and then maybe
you have a week or two to rest on the
back end of it, because they're still up in the
you know, in terms of the loss column right now.
(08:04):
So again, I don't know whether or not Patrick Mahomes
is going to play. You know, most guys get bent
like that and you're like, see you in a month.
This is a guy who doesn't miss games. He's got
I think Andy Reid once said he's got the loosest
ligaments in the NFL.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
Like it's true. There's something about him.
Speaker 5 (08:21):
Would they say Gumby is healing.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Power and his ability to get bent in different ways
and come back is remarkable. I wouldn't be surprised at
all if I don't know exactly what the practice schedule is,
but if they're on the practice field tomorrow, I wouldn't
be surprised. If Mahomes is out there with like all
the tape in the world on his ankle and it's
just kind of limping around, You're like, there's no way
he can do it, and then comes Saturday, all of
a sudden, there he is.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
You know, it's part natural what he does, part natural
ability and flexibility.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
It's also something that he works at.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
And if you didn't watch The Quarterback Show, there was
one episode in particular where he showed everything he does
to avoid injuries and to be able to bounce back
from injuries, his workout regime during the core of the
week that allows him to do these things, and this
is where you see it really start the show.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
As for Carson Wentz.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
I was just thumbing through Instagram earlier today and I
saw his post a post ao one audience of one.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
That's his long time.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Catch phraser or whatever you want to call it regarding
an audience of one, And there's one.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
The one is up there. He's upstairs.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
That's who he plays for, that's who he does everything for.
And it was a picture of him playing in the
game yesterday, So you know, he's excited about potentially being back.
I know he was a punchline at one point with
all the turnovers and the fact that he seemed to
be in his own head. But he played well last
year and in the playing time that he got for
the Rams last year, which allowed him to set himself
up to be the primary backup to Patrick Mahomes in
the case the Chiefs would need him, we may very
(09:43):
well be there.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
You know who needs their backups? The Detroit Lions.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
We're going to bring in Stacey Dale's right now. I
think this is the first Penta box, if you want
to call that, in the history of the Monday Insiders.
Stace and there's no one we would rather don't tell
anybody else. You know, I've already started to say, there's
no one we would rather join us for the Penta
box than you. Stacy Dale's uh Ian, give me the
rundown of everything we got on the Lions injuries today.
So that yeah, all of them, well whatever you scooped
(10:08):
earlier today and just the whole.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
In this segment. So I don't know if you're gonna
get my God, all right.
Speaker 6 (10:15):
So we'll start with David Montgomery. This is a this
is a bad one, and this is also, I would
say a surprising one. So David Montgomery had a knee
injury yesterday. He came off the field, he finished the game,
he went into the locker room and learned that things
were really bad. So he has a torn MCL. Rarely
do you have a torn MCL. You know, Usually what
(10:38):
it is is a spray in MCL where it's like,
all right, two weeks or maybe four weeks.
Speaker 5 (10:42):
This is a torn one.
Speaker 6 (10:43):
It's basically the worst type of spray. It's it's not
a good injury. He is going to need surgery. He
is out for the season and the foreseeable future for
one of the best running backs in the NFL and
someone who's a guest on the insiders who we really like.
Speaker 5 (10:59):
This sucks. This is a bad one.
Speaker 6 (11:01):
Ali McNeil, their big time, big money defensive lineman. Alie
McNeil is also out for the season where they torn
acl This confirmed this morning. This also is a terrible
injury because he also is a great player. Carlton Davis,
a corner broke his jaw.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
Now he is out.
Speaker 6 (11:22):
My understanding is at least six weeks, which put you
at the NFC title game.
Speaker 5 (11:27):
Will he play?
Speaker 6 (11:28):
I don't know that's tight, but at least Stacy Dale's
it is possible. So just tell us how in the
absolute world the Lions are going to go from here.
Speaker 8 (11:40):
You know, it's interesting you asked that question.
Speaker 7 (11:42):
Ian.
Speaker 9 (11:43):
Hey, guys, it was great to see Judy at the
game too.
Speaker 8 (11:46):
We had a nice Yeah, we got to hang out.
Speaker 5 (11:49):
That was cool.
Speaker 9 (11:50):
I actually asked somebody in the press box before the
game with the Lions in their personnel department, how have
you guys just obviously done some great patchwork and you've
had to do great patchwork? And he said, coaching period.
Now here's the thing. Yes, they have great coaching. We
know they have great coaching. Aaron Glenn has you know
(12:14):
this group basically ranked in the top ten in a
number of categories defensively, but how far can coaching now
take you defensively? They're in a query And I found
very interesting you guys this week. And you know, every
team's a little bit different, but I thought it was
interesting that Dan Campbell opted to go to pads at
(12:35):
practice this week because of this stage in the season.
Speaker 8 (12:40):
He wanted to get his guys back to fundamentals.
Speaker 9 (12:42):
They felt like the games they've been winning, they found
ways to win, but they were close games and they
could do better. So they went back into pads this week,
and shoot, they're not going to be able to go
with pads moving forward with the number of guys that
are down. Allen McNeil is huge because he's become kind
of the heart and soul of their defensive front, and
(13:03):
as you guys know, he's a very emotional player. He
kind of drives that thing up front for Aaron Glenn.
But their secondary, I'm looking at their roster right now.
This is an injury to Carlton Davis, who's had just
an incredibly good season for them, and what a guy
to learn from if you're Terry on Arnold. So I
just they play so much man to man defense, you guys,
(13:25):
it's it's really going to be challenging for them. And
you could kind of feel them get bullied all day yesterday.
That's how it fell, right, Judy.
Speaker 7 (13:34):
Yeah, it did it really it felt from the very
beginning that they could not keep up with the Bills, right.
I mean, first of all, the Bills got out to
the fourteen nothing start, But just in that first drive
on that third down that Josh Allen converted right where
he like was avoiding pressure and escaped to his right
and like was waving and waving and waiting and waiting
(13:54):
and stopped like you know, one foot inside the boundary
and then pot the like they just could not contain him.
They couldn't pin him in. They were getting no pressure
on him. I mean, my feeling at the end of
the game. Dan Campbell sort of said it himself, is like,
you know, they now know how they measure up against, like,
you know, one of the best, if not the best
(14:15):
team in the AFC right now, and it's not good enough.
And I mean that was what like Stacy and I
were talking about it in the press box, that like
they had enough. Aaron Glenn was able to piece things
together and to hold things together with duct tape, and
that's enough to beat most teams. Because the offense is
so good they can win shootouts. It's is it going
(14:37):
to be good enough though, when you're playing the absolute
top teams in the NFL, which is what they want
to do because this is a Super Bowl team or
hasban until this incredible wave of injuries. I mean, I
watching it yesterday, I don't think they can stay with
the Bills again if they face them again, or the Chiefs,
and you wonder if they could stay with the Eagles,
(14:59):
you know who I have not been as explosive as
the Bills, certainly, but have ways to win.
Speaker 9 (15:06):
You know.
Speaker 7 (15:07):
It was it was disheartening watching the Lions and then
watching even more injuries happen yesterday.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
We we talked about it.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
I think a couple of weeks ago too, when they
you know, they had a slew of injuries. They signed
a bunch of guys off other teams practice squads and
had to roll them out and play. Uh hold on,
just come back, come back.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
To me.
Speaker 7 (15:35):
European.
Speaker 5 (15:37):
Uh Tom, you're good now? You have no sound? Can
you can talk to us? Right?
Speaker 4 (15:43):
It's so loud.
Speaker 5 (15:44):
I don't.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
I just don't know. Yeah, you guys, go on, all.
Speaker 5 (15:50):
Right, I'm good, Mike, take it away.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Uh yeah, No, it's it's it's just it's hard to
judy you're talking about it being disheartening because we've we've
gotten to know this Lions team and what we expect
to see from them on the field, and to not
be able to see it for reasons out of their control.
It's not like they just all of a sudden lost
that edge or maybe you know, going through the motions
or the things that we don't expect from them, but
(16:13):
to see it happen because of injuries has just been extremely,
extremely frustrating.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Stace.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
You know, you look at the other side of this
game with the Buffalo Bills and the way I thought
that was an impressive performance by the Bills. I thought
that was a trouble spot for Buffalo.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
So the way that they.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Go in there to Detroit and really dictated things from
the beginning I thought was what they absolutely had to do.
They're scoring touchdowns, it wasn't field goals. And the way
that this game started off early on, I'm saying, well,
eventually Detroit's gonna pop back and it's gonna like they
just never got there.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
It was impressive by Buffalo.
Speaker 9 (16:45):
Well, I mean, as we talked about on the press box,
Mike Judy and I like, we're obviously talking about these
lines injury, but the story of the game was Josh Allen.
I mean, what he's doing is it's really unprecedented. I mean,
is it how many straight games with thirty points for
this offense?
Speaker 8 (17:05):
Eight?
Speaker 9 (17:06):
Yes, and we're talking, we're we really have to assess
MVP conversations surrounding this quarterback right now because he has
three straight games with fourteen combined touchdowns. The only two
other players to have fourteen or more are Tom Brady
and Peyton Manning. And in the seasons both of those
(17:26):
men did those I believe they were the MVP right
it was.
Speaker 8 (17:30):
I think I wrote it down. I took it out
of our research.
Speaker 9 (17:33):
Tom was in twenty oh seven was sixteen and Peyton
was in twenty oh four with fifteen, and they were
the most valuable players what I witnessed yesterday. And this
is where too, like it's exposed Aiden Hutchinson. If you
don't have like going into the playoffs and Aiden Hutchinson
on your defensive front, it's going to be hard to
(17:54):
stop an MVP caliber quarterback or a quarterback going into
the playoffs who's playing football, right, So I just think
that was exposed for me, and then Josh Allen is on.
Speaker 8 (18:06):
Another level right now.
Speaker 9 (18:09):
What I'm kind of curious about with Buffalo, you guys, is,
as I say that about Josh and the offense is
playing the way it is, they've given up too straight
forty three point per game performances defensively. I was standing
with them before I interviewed James cook right at the
end of the game, and they were so pissed when
(18:29):
the Lions scored with like twelve seconds to go. They
were it's their sideline. Was furious that that the Lions scored.
Speaker 5 (18:37):
I was like Cooking, I was very annoying.
Speaker 9 (18:40):
It was very annoying, And like, so is that because
of the Is that because it was Matthew Stafford and
Jared Goff Or is it is it because the secondary
is so banged up? But I'd like to see Buffalo
kind of tighten things up defensively a little bit, which
they can because this schedule.
Speaker 7 (18:56):
Duty talked about, well, I think we're missing three starters
in the secondary. Yesterday, right which at the outset of
the game, you thought, whoa, this could be a big factor,
and then you realized right away it's not going to
be as big a factor as the fact that the
Lions cannot get a stop at all. Look, the Bills
have beaten both of the number one seeds in the
space of a month, one at home the Chiefs, which
(19:18):
was good. Beating the Lions, even an injured Lions team
on the road in that atmosphere is pretty impressive. I
was struck when they beat the Chiefs at home. They
were I thought very straight line about, like it's all
about January. This is nice, but we've got to beat
them in January. This they seemed a little bit more
excited about, like it meant something to them, especially coming
(19:41):
off the Rams game, to be able to refocus and
put on that kind of performance on the road against
a very very good team and win a shootout right
after losing a shootout last week. So I think they
felt really good about this. And again, the schedule just
is so so there for the taking for the last
three weeks. They are in a very very good position
(20:03):
and they are playing I think their best ball because
Josh Allen is spreading the ball all over the place.
There's no Stephan Diggs that he's got to look to
to try to get the ball. He's spreading the ball.
I think he completed passes to nine guys yesterday. Obviously
they're running the ball really well. It's really a balanced attack.
They can win a shootout if they have to. They
don't want to have to play every game as a shootout,
(20:26):
but you saw yesterday they can win them.
Speaker 5 (20:28):
Yeah, that's kind of what I want to talk about.
Speaker 6 (20:29):
Was the you know, we came into the season knowing
it was going to be a rebuilding year, for rebuilding
year for the Buffalo Bills. They lose to Von Diggs
and all that. I think what we mee but also
we collectively missed, was how much it would help Josh
Allen to just be able to throw to who's open.
And this is like kind of weird, but come with
(20:51):
me on this. I remember when the Cowboys had a
really good young quarterback in Dak Prescott, and we're all
trying to figure out what was going to happen with
Dez Bryant and would the Cowboys bring back des Brian
Edward do salary and what they did.
Speaker 5 (21:09):
Was they cut him. And I was like stunned. I
remember I was on the golf course. I was stunned.
Speaker 6 (21:15):
And the explanation was, it's not that we have better
receivers than des It's that the pull of a young
quarterback from a veteran receiver to have to throw in
the ball all the time can be something that can
really be like detrimental and can stunt the growth. And
I think the Bills saw that with Stefan Diggs. They
saw that with Josh Allen, and they traded him and they,
(21:38):
you know, gave him a bunch of receivers who were
also good, but probably not as good, and it has
helped immensely.
Speaker 5 (21:45):
He just throws to the open guy, or he just
throws to the open running back or whatever it is.
Tom And like, we are seeing an MVB caliber season
from Josh Allen in part because he could just run
the offense. And that is awesome.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
I'm conducting my annual early Awards poll asking general managers
for their picks, and a lot of different categories today,
still early in the process, but I would say there's
a lot of Josh Allen boats.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
Not unanimous, but he's certainly.
Speaker 5 (22:14):
Get a lot of votes.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
A little bit of recency bias in that, probably, but
that's it's a level of which he's playing as they
continue through practice, the pregame sound and light show here,
I aways want to make this point. We have been
talking about this with the Lions and the amount of
attrition that they've had, particularly in the defense of front seven,
and now it's extended to the secondary with Carlton Davis
(22:36):
getting hurt.
Speaker 4 (22:37):
You know, you watch them.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Play and it's like, how are they doing this? And
the answer was, you know, there's only so much you
can withstand. I think that's true with any team at
a certain point, you know you're you're just gonna have
to win games a different way. And that's why for
as much as I saw a lot of comments about
what the world is Dan Campbell doing, you know, going
for that onsite kick when they cut to ten points,
(22:59):
my thought was Dan Campbell is watching this game and going,
we have no chance to stop these guys. We are gassed,
We've got no depth, we are down so many guys
in that front seven.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
By the way, that was a really good on site
kick by Jake Bates too.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
He got the second hop the high hop and if
worn't for Max Hop Mac Collins. If Mac Collins as usual,
we're not wearing shoes, he wouldn't have the fingertip to
get that ball.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
It was a great on side kick. They're just recover it.
It doesn't end up working out.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
But I understood the philosophy in that moment, which is,
all right, you know what, what is it seven percent of
onside kicks get recovered right now, but at this point,
it wasn't a better than seven percent chance that the
defense is gonna get consecutive stops. I understand the presenters
wearing his favor here, but you know that's that's kind
of the spot the Lions are in right now, which
is they're gonna have to outscore people because it's just
(23:47):
not a lot of ways you're gonna be able to
find a whole bunch of more players to fortify that defense.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Stays bring us home on this game.
Speaker 9 (23:54):
Yeah, I just everybody was shocked that onside kick happened.
With ten minutes just in the building. We are all
just like ghosts, our facewk ghosts. I just want to
finish on this for the first time this season. Josh
Allen's doing something with his offense on Fridays. I was
talking to a high ranking official in the locker room
after the game for about fifteen minutes, and he gathers
(24:15):
up the entire offense, you guys, and no coaches are
in there. So this is players only every Friday, basically
at the end of the day on Fridays.
Speaker 8 (24:25):
In their bills facility. He's got this.
Speaker 9 (24:28):
Group together and they just they go back and forth
like here's what works, here's what doesn't. And he's done
this with the offensive line group as well. When Joe
Burdy took over last year for Ken Dorsey, he started
jumping into the O line meetings and the running backs
then jump into those meetings. So now they've expanded it
on Fridays to the entire offense, and I think we're
seeing that communication and chemistry and cohesiveness kind of manifest
(24:52):
itself this season. His leadership has totally gone to another level,
which also speaks to the way he's playing.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Stacey Dale's always appreciate you providing insight no matter the
day of the week, and thank you for bringing it
on a Monday here on The Insiders. As we wrap
up the Sunday portion of week fifteen and head toward Monday.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
We've got two games a night.
Speaker 5 (25:12):
Two games a night.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Time's at one of them. Tom, I know you're struggling
with the audio there, but I'll tell you what. The
visuals are amazing and I'm not struggling.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
They're not struggling at all. Here.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
The audio is on full blast. I can confirm it's working.
We probably don't need to run the full forty five minutes.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
The lighting is unbelievable though.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
It's just the flashing lights behind you, and then there
was this bright light that you look toward.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
It almost looked like v light. Don't go to the light, Tom, please,
we need a little bit more coming up here. I
spent you coming up here.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
We're going to talk more on the number one seed
in the NFC, which is wide open now. As the
Lions again are starting to suck a little bit of
wind here because of all the injuries and that loss
to the Buffalo Bill that's coming up next on the Insiders, Well,
we had our healthy what we call the A block here,
so we're gonna be quick here as we get through
the second portion of the program here. Eagles Steelers mentioned
(26:03):
this earlier on Listen to me. This was like, oh,
this is a litmus test. But the Eagles have passed
every litmus test this year. It's not like they've just
beat up on the soft opponents. And to do what
they did the way that they did it against the Steelers,
that four minute offense become a four minute offense nerd
this year.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
A lot of teams are running it really really well,
especially the teams that can run the football are running
it really well. They did an amazing job. My understanding
is they came back to the coaches, the players had
no idea that they had held the football as long
as they did down the stretch there. That was absolute
just perfection for what you want from that four minute offense.
Speaker 7 (26:40):
Judy didn't this Steelers have like only two second half
drives and they totaled like less than six minutes, right,
I mean, it's crazy crazy that they you know, couldn't
get them off the field. The Eagles are you know,
I feel like about the NFC, and we've spent a
lot of time talking about the Lions, but like that,
there's a clear difference between the you know, you've got
(27:02):
Lions and Eagles at the very tippy top and then
you've got a little bit of a gap before you
get to the other NFC playoff contenders. And of course
now we'll see if the Lions come back to the
field a little bit. But the Eagles are in position.
I mean, listen, the Lions I have to worry about
not losing the division. Certainly, the Eagles have a real
chance to seize the number one seat in the NFC,
(27:26):
and man, that would be something to make everybody go
through Philadelphia is probably not what the rest of the
NFC wants to have to do. What I thought was
impressive about the game yesterday is obviously they got the
passing attack going again, which you could see coming from
a mile away after all the conversation last week, which
means they can they can beat you. I Jalen said
(27:46):
it in the post game on the field, and you know,
just because we don't do it doesn't mean we can't
do it.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
Yes, exactly, Tom go, you're a word. I don't know
what game you guys are talking about. That's about the
Steelers Eagles game?
Speaker 4 (28:02):
Is that what we're on?
Speaker 5 (28:03):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (28:04):
No?
Speaker 3 (28:05):
Great, Yeah, I mean I thought that it was. It
was a strong answer from the Eagles. Everything going on
we've talked about it. You know, there's not a lot
of teams that, right now, what are they?
Speaker 4 (28:15):
Twelve and two?
Speaker 3 (28:17):
They get talked about the way the Eagles are and
there's a lot of dim picking and there's a lot
of you know, trying to figure out, you know, where
is where's the issue gonna be.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
Maybe they're just really really good.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
Maybe we don't have to be looking for what the
fatal flaw is for the Eagles. You know, they haven't
had to throw the football as much because te Kwon's been.
Speaker 4 (28:35):
Doing what he's been doing through the course of this season.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
And then yesterday, all right, you're gonna take away the
You're gonna take away.
Speaker 5 (28:41):
The run game.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
We're just gonna throw the ball all over you. You know,
I think that you've got a bunch of guys on
that team. We're playing at a really high level right now.
Nick Sirianni probably doesn't get the amount of credit that
he deserves too for pushing the right buttons, especially in
a in a week like this. Uh And right now,
you know, it's it's the Eagles, the Vikings, the Lions.
It's a three way race for the for the number
(29:02):
one seed, and it's entirely possible that the road of
the Super Bowl is gonna go through Philly.
Speaker 5 (29:06):
Yeah. My very quick addition to this is I talked
about on.
Speaker 6 (29:12):
Game day morning something that I think Sirianni had said
earlier in the week, which is that they showed the
team plenty of pictures of celebrating and like, how we
do this together? And I don't read the Twitter comments,
but people tell me that it was a lot of
people making fun of the Eagles, and I sort of
get that. Sirianni does a lot of things that makes
people laugh. It's like, oh, showed them togetherness, Well, that's
(29:35):
sort of corny cool. All of that stuff works. All
of the togetherness stuff works, all of the competition stuff works.
Speaker 5 (29:43):
Sirianni.
Speaker 6 (29:44):
I'm sure people will never give him credit and will
always laugh, and I'm sure people think it's very funny
when he has like the number one or two seed
in the playoffs.
Speaker 5 (29:52):
That's all.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Listen, the greatest coach in the history of the NFL
and the ACC once showed his team and it's caught
by NFL films images of them celebrating together and what
it does to the other team. It was a game
for the Patriots against the Broncos on Monday night, and
Belichick was saying, you should celebrate. You worked hard to
get to this point. You work hard to earn this moment.
(30:13):
You might as well enjoy it. And it does have
an impact on the other team. And this celebration between
Hurts and Brown after that touchdown look like a little
bit of kid and play or something going on there.
I'm not hip with these celebrations. H I can't believe
I just said I'm not hip anyway, I'm.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
Hip to that group those famous thirty five years ago
speaking thereof Stick around for part two of this Entires podcast,
because and this is serious, Vanilla Ice is supposed to
start rehearsing this.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
Come on, we're gonna have that to come over?
Speaker 5 (30:44):
Come over? All right?
Speaker 4 (30:45):
If Rob comes over here, I will, I'll see it'll
come on.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
Would he come over if you called him Rob or Ice?
You might want to think about that one.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
But listen, we're going to talk about teams whose playoff
odds have dropped significantly, and perhaps a performance from Vanella Ice.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
We shall see. Tune in
Welcome inside, Inside, inside, and inside with the insiders. Tom
Pellisero there in Minnesota. Ian Rappaport in his basement, Judy
Batista in her apartment.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I am in the home office as well.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
It is Monday, December sixteenth. We are wrapping up Week
fifteen in the NFL.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
It was an exciting week. It was a developmental week.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
A lot of things happen, a lot of playoff berths
and the like were clinched. The Vikings in with that
Seattle loss on Sunday night. Tom, if they don't know
about it, turn around and let them know. They got
in without even having to play last night. But they've
got bigger fish to fry and they want to go
after that one seat if they possibly can. To keep
the heat on the Lions who are leaking oil a
little bit. We'll talk about that coming up here. The
(00:48):
Texans clinching a playoff berth with that win over the Dolphins,
and the Steelers clinch a playoff birth, although they left
Philadelphia with a bad taste in their mouth once again
not being able to win in that city. So the
playoffs are starting to formulate here. We looked at the
wild Cards a couple of weeks ago and said they're
almost kind of sort of finalized, but there's still some
jockeying for position with those divisions. Tom, We're going to
(01:11):
start with you get us ready for this game tonight
in Minnesota between the Vikings and the Bears.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
The Vikings got in last night, as you mentioned by
virtue of the Seahawks loss, but a bigger result for
them was earlier in the day when the Lions lose
to the Bills. Because all of a sudden, now this
takes them from hey, they could you be able to
go and run the rest of the way and still
end up going on the road to a playoff game. Now,
because they've got the Lions in week eighteen, they've got
(01:39):
the opportunity here to end up with the number one
overall scene and certainly asion division title and a home
playoff game.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
The Eagles are still in that mix as well.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
The whole NFC wide open as we get the referee
mic check better do that for over four hours before kickoff.
So Vikings Bears tonight, they got to take care of business.
It is a winter white out game here, so you
can see it. You can kind of see behind me.
They got the white towels everywhere. This is also you
remember back in the spring when like every week somebody
(02:09):
who put out a team to put out another new
alternate uniform. The Vikings Winter Warriors ones were by far,
in my opinion, the best alternate uniforms. A look at this,
thanks to Vikings pr for bringing these out.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Look at this.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
That's cool, white, white.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
All the way around, very slick. We even got a
we got Justin Jefferson's jersey here too. They said, I
don't have to give it back, but then what's he
gonna wear in the game?
Speaker 4 (02:34):
Right?
Speaker 5 (02:34):
You know?
Speaker 3 (02:34):
It's a pretty cool, so it be a different look
for the Vikings. We normally are wearing purple in this building.
Bears team that obviously this season is not gone the
direction that they wanted to go to this point, but
big opportunity on a national stage for Thomas Brown on
for Caleb Williams. Also a couple of injury updates real quick.
(02:55):
DeAndre Swift listed as questionable. I'm told he should be
good to go in this game. Stefan Gilmour, the Vikings
veteran cornerback, sounds like he is not going to go.
If this were a playoff game. They probably play him,
but he's dealing with a hamstring. They're probably gonna hold
him out for a second straight game.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Here, Tom, you it's thirty eight ish degrees.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
I think I saw thirty thirty nine something like that
in Minneapolis right now.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
But to be able to cover a.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Game inside, you gotta love the luxury of that, when
you've got a home game there in your hometown of Minneapolis.
There walking into the Yeah, it's good, dude, I was
freezing yesterday.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
I've got jets on Sunday.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
It's gonna be like twenty degrees at the feels like
temperature at the start of the show.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
I'm just I'm soft. I can't take it anymore. So
enjoy that warm indoor climate. Ian.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
We talked about everything that happened here in week fifteen,
the comings and the goings and the developments. Injuries a
huge part of it. We're gonna get into all of them.
Let's start with the biggest one. Patrick Mahomes once again
with the I mean the laugh about it. He always
got this like late season thing where you go, oh, yeah,
he's gonna miss a couple of weeks, and then all
of a sudden, now he's got a shot to play immediately.
He's got a power his way through and maybe play
better than you could ever.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Expect them to play. What do we got on Mahomes?
Speaker 6 (04:02):
Yeah, so this, first of all, I'll start with the
do is Patrick Mahomes has a high ankle sprain. He
is considered to be weak to weak, and I would
describe it as a moderate slash mild high ankle sprain.
So certainly not something that's gonna say oar.
Speaker 5 (04:17):
But he's going to be out.
Speaker 6 (04:18):
Four to six weeks, which you know we are accustomed
to high ankle sprain's basically being four to six weeks.
This does not seem to be the case here. He
has no fracture and he might actually practice this week.
And that's what I was told was Mahomes needs to
see how it responds during practice. Okay, so that's one thing.
The other thing is we have actually seen this before.
(04:40):
We have seen Patrick Mahomes play through a high ankle sprain.
We've seen Patrick Mahomes play through a high ankle sprain
that he suffered against the Jacksonville Jaguars and played the
next week. My understanding is this is not as bad
as that. So theoretically, Patrick Mahomes could play this week
if need. However, it is a short week, they're not
(05:03):
in the playoffs, and you know they got a short
week after this. So my sense right now is that
it's more likely that Carson Wentz plays than Patrick Mahomes.
Speaker 5 (05:13):
That is my sense. But we will see where this
leads us.
Speaker 6 (05:16):
But I think the most important thing I learned in
all of these things is the text I got where
it was like, long term, he's fine, that's it, That's
what it's like.
Speaker 5 (05:26):
Now, long term he's vile, which meets for the playoffs,
he's fine.
Speaker 6 (05:32):
Oh sorry, is my fault, I should have said Judy.
At the end of the day, I was busy telling
Jude what his homework was from Google.
Speaker 7 (05:40):
Close Jude, Judy whatever. The reason why all of this
is important, obviously, is because of the number one seed
is now sort of in play if Mahomes can't go
or it's compromised and he does play, because the Bills
are rolling obviously they beat the Lions yesterday. Here are
(06:01):
the schedules. Keep in mind the Chiefs are still two
games up on the Bills, but the Bills beat the
Chiefs earlier this season, so they would hold the head
to head tiebreaker, so if they finished the season with
the same record, the Bills have the number one seed.
Here's the comparison of schedules, and yikes, Chiefs have Texans, Steelers,
and Broncos, so not easy the Bills have. I mean,
(06:24):
it's practically a preseason like schedule Patriots, Jets, and Patriots again,
so it's hard to envision the Bills losing another game,
and you could certainly envision, especially if Mahomes is not playing,
you could certainly envision the Chiefs not playing. Of course,
home field advantage for the Chiefs. I don't even know
(06:45):
if it matters anymore after we saw what they did
last year when they won the Super Bowl, but it
is an interesting talking point, especially for Bills fans who
obviously would love love to have the playoffs go through.
Speaker 6 (06:56):
Look at this remaining strength of schedule from Blaker researcher
point two three to eight. Opponent's strength of schedule or no,
I'm sorry, that's opponents winning percent for the Bills. You know,
anything can happen in the NFL, but you know that's
pretty good.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
Yeah, high prediction.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
I can't sit here and tell you on a Monday
afternoon as I have the drum line, give the soundtrack here.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
I can't predict.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
What you know is Patrick Maholve's going to be able
to play, But I would would I would predict this.
He is going to try to play high ankle springs.
As we saw its with Justin Herbert earlier this season.
It is an injury that you can play through and
it's going to continue to heal. You're not gonna be yourself,
You're not gonna be able to move around as well.
But we've seen Patrick Maholmes with all kinds of crazy
(07:41):
injury stuff. He's obviously had an ankle through the course
of this season. If he's got a way to spat
the thing up and get out there and just be
a pocket passer, I think that he's gonna do that.
You can pretty well put away the number one seed
if you get a win this week, and then maybe
you have a week or two to rest on the
back end of it, because they're still up in the
you know, in terms of the loss column right now.
(08:04):
So again, I don't know whether or not Patrick Mahomes
is going to play. You know, most guys get bent
like that and you're like, see you in a month.
This is a guy who doesn't miss games. He's got
I think Andy Reid once said he's got the loosest
ligaments in the NFL.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
Like it's true. There's something about him.
Speaker 5 (08:21):
Would they say Gumby is healing.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Power and his ability to get bent in different ways
and come back is remarkable. I wouldn't be surprised at
all if I don't know exactly what the practice schedule is,
but if they're on the practice field tomorrow, I wouldn't
be surprised. If Mahomes is out there with like all
the tape in the world on his ankle and it's
just kind of limping around, You're like, there's no way
he can do it, and then comes Saturday, all of
a sudden, there he is.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
You know, it's part natural what he does, part natural
ability and flexibility.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
It's also something that he works at.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
And if you didn't watch The Quarterback Show, there was
one episode in particular where he showed everything he does
to avoid injuries and to be able to bounce back
from injuries, his workout regime during the core of the
week that allows him to do these things, and this
is where you see it really start the show.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
As for Carson Wentz.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
I was just thumbing through Instagram earlier today and I
saw his post a post ao one audience of one.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
That's his long time.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Catch phraser or whatever you want to call it regarding
an audience of one, And there's one.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
The one is up there. He's upstairs.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
That's who he plays for, that's who he does everything for.
And it was a picture of him playing in the
game yesterday, So you know, he's excited about potentially being back.
I know he was a punchline at one point with
all the turnovers and the fact that he seemed to
be in his own head. But he played well last
year and in the playing time that he got for
the Rams last year, which allowed him to set himself
up to be the primary backup to Patrick Mahomes in
the case the Chiefs would need him, we may very
(09:43):
well be there.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
You know who needs their backups? The Detroit Lions.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
We're going to bring in Stacey Dale's right now. I
think this is the first Penta box, if you want
to call that, in the history of the Monday Insiders.
Stace and there's no one we would rather don't tell
anybody else. You know, I've already started to say, there's
no one we would rather join us for the Penta
box than you. Stacy Dale's uh Ian, give me the
rundown of everything we got on the Lions injuries today.
So that yeah, all of them, well whatever you scooped
(10:08):
earlier today and just the whole.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
In this segment. So I don't know if you're gonna
get my God, all right.
Speaker 6 (10:15):
So we'll start with David Montgomery. This is a this
is a bad one, and this is also, I would
say a surprising one. So David Montgomery had a knee
injury yesterday. He came off the field, he finished the game,
he went into the locker room and learned that things
were really bad. So he has a torn MCL. Rarely
do you have a torn MCL. You know, Usually what
(10:38):
it is is a spray in MCL where it's like,
all right, two weeks or maybe four weeks.
Speaker 5 (10:42):
This is a torn one.
Speaker 6 (10:43):
It's basically the worst type of spray. It's it's not
a good injury. He is going to need surgery. He
is out for the season and the foreseeable future for
one of the best running backs in the NFL and
someone who's a guest on the insiders who we really like.
Speaker 5 (10:59):
This sucks. This is a bad one.
Speaker 6 (11:01):
Ali McNeil, their big time, big money defensive lineman. Alie
McNeil is also out for the season where they torn
acl This confirmed this morning. This also is a terrible
injury because he also is a great player. Carlton Davis,
a corner broke his jaw.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
Now he is out.
Speaker 6 (11:22):
My understanding is at least six weeks, which put you
at the NFC title game.
Speaker 5 (11:27):
Will he play?
Speaker 6 (11:28):
I don't know that's tight, but at least Stacy Dale's
it is possible. So just tell us how in the
absolute world the Lions are going to go from here.
Speaker 8 (11:40):
You know, it's interesting you asked that question.
Speaker 7 (11:42):
Ian.
Speaker 9 (11:43):
Hey, guys, it was great to see Judy at the
game too.
Speaker 8 (11:46):
We had a nice Yeah, we got to hang out.
Speaker 5 (11:49):
That was cool.
Speaker 9 (11:50):
I actually asked somebody in the press box before the
game with the Lions in their personnel department, how have
you guys just obviously done some great patchwork and you've
had to do great patchwork? And he said, coaching period.
Now here's the thing. Yes, they have great coaching. We
know they have great coaching. Aaron Glenn has you know
(12:14):
this group basically ranked in the top ten in a
number of categories defensively, but how far can coaching now
take you defensively? They're in a query And I found
very interesting you guys this week. And you know, every
team's a little bit different, but I thought it was
interesting that Dan Campbell opted to go to pads at
(12:35):
practice this week because of this stage in the season.
Speaker 8 (12:40):
He wanted to get his guys back to fundamentals.
Speaker 9 (12:42):
They felt like the games they've been winning, they found
ways to win, but they were close games and they
could do better. So they went back into pads this week,
and shoot, they're not going to be able to go
with pads moving forward with the number of guys that
are down. Allen McNeil is huge because he's become kind
of the heart and soul of their defensive front, and
(13:03):
as you guys know, he's a very emotional player. He
kind of drives that thing up front for Aaron Glenn.
But their secondary, I'm looking at their roster right now.
This is an injury to Carlton Davis, who's had just
an incredibly good season for them, and what a guy
to learn from if you're Terry on Arnold. So I
just they play so much man to man defense, you guys,
(13:25):
it's it's really going to be challenging for them. And
you could kind of feel them get bullied all day yesterday.
That's how it fell, right, Judy.
Speaker 7 (13:34):
Yeah, it did it really it felt from the very
beginning that they could not keep up with the Bills, right.
I mean, first of all, the Bills got out to
the fourteen nothing start, But just in that first drive
on that third down that Josh Allen converted right where
he like was avoiding pressure and escaped to his right
and like was waving and waving and waiting and waiting
(13:54):
and stopped like you know, one foot inside the boundary
and then pot the like they just could not contain him.
They couldn't pin him in. They were getting no pressure
on him. I mean, my feeling at the end of
the game. Dan Campbell sort of said it himself, is like,
you know, they now know how they measure up against, like,
you know, one of the best, if not the best
(14:15):
team in the AFC right now, and it's not good enough.
And I mean that was what like Stacy and I
were talking about it in the press box, that like
they had enough. Aaron Glenn was able to piece things
together and to hold things together with duct tape, and
that's enough to beat most teams. Because the offense is
so good they can win shootouts. It's is it going
(14:37):
to be good enough though, when you're playing the absolute
top teams in the NFL, which is what they want
to do because this is a Super Bowl team or
hasban until this incredible wave of injuries. I mean, I
watching it yesterday, I don't think they can stay with
the Bills again if they face them again, or the Chiefs,
and you wonder if they could stay with the Eagles,
(14:59):
you know who I have not been as explosive as
the Bills, certainly, but have ways to win.
Speaker 9 (15:06):
You know.
Speaker 7 (15:07):
It was it was disheartening watching the Lions and then
watching even more injuries happen yesterday.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
We we talked about it.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
I think a couple of weeks ago too, when they
you know, they had a slew of injuries. They signed
a bunch of guys off other teams practice squads and
had to roll them out and play. Uh hold on,
just come back, come back.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
To me.
Speaker 7 (15:35):
European.
Speaker 5 (15:37):
Uh Tom, you're good now? You have no sound? Can
you can talk to us? Right?
Speaker 4 (15:43):
It's so loud.
Speaker 5 (15:44):
I don't.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
I just don't know. Yeah, you guys, go on, all.
Speaker 5 (15:50):
Right, I'm good, Mike, take it away.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Uh yeah, No, it's it's it's just it's hard to
judy you're talking about it being disheartening because we've we've
gotten to know this Lions team and what we expect
to see from them on the field, and to not
be able to see it for reasons out of their control.
It's not like they just all of a sudden lost
that edge or maybe you know, going through the motions
or the things that we don't expect from them, but
(16:13):
to see it happen because of injuries has just been extremely,
extremely frustrating.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Stace.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
You know, you look at the other side of this
game with the Buffalo Bills and the way I thought
that was an impressive performance by the Bills. I thought
that was a trouble spot for Buffalo.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
So the way that they.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Go in there to Detroit and really dictated things from
the beginning I thought was what they absolutely had to do.
They're scoring touchdowns, it wasn't field goals. And the way
that this game started off early on, I'm saying, well,
eventually Detroit's gonna pop back and it's gonna like they
just never got there.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
It was impressive by Buffalo.
Speaker 9 (16:45):
Well, I mean, as we talked about on the press box,
Mike Judy and I like, we're obviously talking about these
lines injury, but the story of the game was Josh Allen.
I mean, what he's doing is it's really unprecedented. I mean,
is it how many straight games with thirty points for
this offense?
Speaker 8 (17:05):
Eight?
Speaker 9 (17:06):
Yes, and we're talking, we're we really have to assess
MVP conversations surrounding this quarterback right now because he has
three straight games with fourteen combined touchdowns. The only two
other players to have fourteen or more are Tom Brady
and Peyton Manning. And in the seasons both of those
(17:26):
men did those I believe they were the MVP right
it was.
Speaker 8 (17:30):
I think I wrote it down. I took it out
of our research.
Speaker 9 (17:33):
Tom was in twenty oh seven was sixteen and Peyton
was in twenty oh four with fifteen, and they were
the most valuable players what I witnessed yesterday. And this
is where too, like it's exposed Aiden Hutchinson. If you
don't have like going into the playoffs and Aiden Hutchinson
on your defensive front, it's going to be hard to
(17:54):
stop an MVP caliber quarterback or a quarterback going into
the playoffs who's playing football, right, So I just think
that was exposed for me, and then Josh Allen is on.
Speaker 8 (18:06):
Another level right now.
Speaker 9 (18:09):
What I'm kind of curious about with Buffalo, you guys, is,
as I say that about Josh and the offense is
playing the way it is, they've given up too straight
forty three point per game performances defensively. I was standing
with them before I interviewed James cook right at the
end of the game, and they were so pissed when
(18:29):
the Lions scored with like twelve seconds to go. They
were it's their sideline. Was furious that that the Lions scored.
Speaker 5 (18:37):
I was like Cooking, I was very annoying.
Speaker 9 (18:40):
It was very annoying, And like, so is that because
of the Is that because it was Matthew Stafford and
Jared Goff Or is it is it because the secondary
is so banged up? But I'd like to see Buffalo
kind of tighten things up defensively a little bit, which
they can because this schedule.
Speaker 7 (18:56):
Duty talked about, well, I think we're missing three starters
in the secondary. Yesterday, right which at the outset of
the game, you thought, whoa, this could be a big factor,
and then you realized right away it's not going to
be as big a factor as the fact that the
Lions cannot get a stop at all. Look, the Bills
have beaten both of the number one seeds in the
space of a month, one at home the Chiefs, which
(19:18):
was good. Beating the Lions, even an injured Lions team
on the road in that atmosphere is pretty impressive. I
was struck when they beat the Chiefs at home. They
were I thought very straight line about, like it's all
about January. This is nice, but we've got to beat
them in January. This they seemed a little bit more
excited about, like it meant something to them, especially coming
(19:41):
off the Rams game, to be able to refocus and
put on that kind of performance on the road against
a very very good team and win a shootout right
after losing a shootout last week. So I think they
felt really good about this. And again, the schedule just
is so so there for the taking for the last
three weeks. They are in a very very good position
(20:03):
and they are playing I think their best ball because
Josh Allen is spreading the ball all over the place.
There's no Stephan Diggs that he's got to look to
to try to get the ball. He's spreading the ball.
I think he completed passes to nine guys yesterday. Obviously
they're running the ball really well. It's really a balanced attack.
They can win a shootout if they have to. They
don't want to have to play every game as a shootout,
(20:26):
but you saw yesterday they can win them.
Speaker 5 (20:28):
Yeah, that's kind of what I want to talk about.
Speaker 6 (20:29):
Was the you know, we came into the season knowing
it was going to be a rebuilding year, for rebuilding
year for the Buffalo Bills. They lose to Von Diggs
and all that. I think what we mee but also
we collectively missed, was how much it would help Josh
Allen to just be able to throw to who's open.
And this is like kind of weird, but come with
(20:51):
me on this. I remember when the Cowboys had a
really good young quarterback in Dak Prescott, and we're all
trying to figure out what was going to happen with
Dez Bryant and would the Cowboys bring back des Brian
Edward do salary and what they did.
Speaker 5 (21:09):
Was they cut him. And I was like stunned. I
remember I was on the golf course. I was stunned.
Speaker 6 (21:15):
And the explanation was, it's not that we have better
receivers than des It's that the pull of a young
quarterback from a veteran receiver to have to throw in
the ball all the time can be something that can
really be like detrimental and can stunt the growth. And
I think the Bills saw that with Stefan Diggs. They
saw that with Josh Allen, and they traded him and they,
(21:38):
you know, gave him a bunch of receivers who were
also good, but probably not as good, and it has
helped immensely.
Speaker 5 (21:45):
He just throws to the open guy, or he just
throws to the open running back or whatever it is.
Tom And like, we are seeing an MVB caliber season
from Josh Allen in part because he could just run
the offense. And that is awesome.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
I'm conducting my annual early Awards poll asking general managers
for their picks, and a lot of different categories today,
still early in the process, but I would say there's
a lot of Josh Allen boats.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
Not unanimous, but he's certainly.
Speaker 5 (22:14):
Get a lot of votes.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
A little bit of recency bias in that, probably, but
that's it's a level of which he's playing as they
continue through practice, the pregame sound and light show here,
I aways want to make this point. We have been
talking about this with the Lions and the amount of
attrition that they've had, particularly in the defense of front seven,
and now it's extended to the secondary with Carlton Davis
(22:36):
getting hurt.
Speaker 4 (22:37):
You know, you watch them.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Play and it's like, how are they doing this? And
the answer was, you know, there's only so much you
can withstand. I think that's true with any team at
a certain point, you know you're you're just gonna have
to win games a different way. And that's why for
as much as I saw a lot of comments about
what the world is Dan Campbell doing, you know, going
for that onsite kick when they cut to ten points,
(22:59):
my thought was Dan Campbell is watching this game and going,
we have no chance to stop these guys. We are gassed,
We've got no depth, we are down so many guys
in that front seven.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
By the way, that was a really good on site
kick by Jake Bates too.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
He got the second hop the high hop and if
worn't for Max Hop Mac Collins. If Mac Collins as usual,
we're not wearing shoes, he wouldn't have the fingertip to
get that ball.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
It was a great on side kick. They're just recover it.
It doesn't end up working out.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
But I understood the philosophy in that moment, which is,
all right, you know what, what is it seven percent of
onside kicks get recovered right now, but at this point,
it wasn't a better than seven percent chance that the
defense is gonna get consecutive stops. I understand the presenters
wearing his favor here, but you know that's that's kind
of the spot the Lions are in right now, which
is they're gonna have to outscore people because it's just
(23:47):
not a lot of ways you're gonna be able to
find a whole bunch of more players to fortify that defense.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Stays bring us home on this game.
Speaker 9 (23:54):
Yeah, I just everybody was shocked that onside kick happened.
With ten minutes just in the building. We are all
just like ghosts, our facewk ghosts. I just want to
finish on this for the first time this season. Josh
Allen's doing something with his offense on Fridays. I was
talking to a high ranking official in the locker room
after the game for about fifteen minutes, and he gathers
(24:15):
up the entire offense, you guys, and no coaches are
in there. So this is players only every Friday, basically
at the end of the day on Fridays.
Speaker 8 (24:25):
In their bills facility. He's got this.
Speaker 9 (24:28):
Group together and they just they go back and forth
like here's what works, here's what doesn't. And he's done
this with the offensive line group as well. When Joe
Burdy took over last year for Ken Dorsey, he started
jumping into the O line meetings and the running backs
then jump into those meetings. So now they've expanded it
on Fridays to the entire offense, and I think we're
seeing that communication and chemistry and cohesiveness kind of manifest
(24:52):
itself this season. His leadership has totally gone to another level,
which also speaks to the way he's playing.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Stacey Dale's always appreciate you providing insight no matter the
day of the week, and thank you for bringing it
on a Monday here on The Insiders. As we wrap
up the Sunday portion of week fifteen and head toward Monday.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
We've got two games a night.
Speaker 5 (25:12):
Two games a night.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Time's at one of them. Tom, I know you're struggling
with the audio there, but I'll tell you what. The
visuals are amazing and I'm not struggling.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
They're not struggling at all. Here.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
The audio is on full blast. I can confirm it's working.
We probably don't need to run the full forty five minutes.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
The lighting is unbelievable though.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
It's just the flashing lights behind you, and then there
was this bright light that you look toward.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
It almost looked like v light. Don't go to the light, Tom, please,
we need a little bit more coming up here. I
spent you coming up here.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
We're going to talk more on the number one seed
in the NFC, which is wide open now. As the
Lions again are starting to suck a little bit of
wind here because of all the injuries and that loss
to the Buffalo Bill that's coming up next on the Insiders, Well,
we had our healthy what we call the A block here,
so we're gonna be quick here as we get through
the second portion of the program here. Eagles Steelers mentioned
(26:03):
this earlier on Listen to me. This was like, oh,
this is a litmus test. But the Eagles have passed
every litmus test this year. It's not like they've just
beat up on the soft opponents. And to do what
they did the way that they did it against the Steelers,
that four minute offense become a four minute offense nerd
this year.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
A lot of teams are running it really really well,
especially the teams that can run the football are running
it really well. They did an amazing job. My understanding
is they came back to the coaches, the players had
no idea that they had held the football as long
as they did down the stretch there. That was absolute
just perfection for what you want from that four minute offense.
Speaker 7 (26:40):
Judy didn't this Steelers have like only two second half
drives and they totaled like less than six minutes, right,
I mean, it's crazy crazy that they you know, couldn't
get them off the field. The Eagles are you know,
I feel like about the NFC, and we've spent a
lot of time talking about the Lions, but like that,
there's a clear difference between the you know, you've got
(27:02):
Lions and Eagles at the very tippy top and then
you've got a little bit of a gap before you
get to the other NFC playoff contenders. And of course
now we'll see if the Lions come back to the
field a little bit. But the Eagles are in position.
I mean, listen, the Lions I have to worry about
not losing the division. Certainly, the Eagles have a real
chance to seize the number one seat in the NFC,
(27:26):
and man, that would be something to make everybody go
through Philadelphia is probably not what the rest of the
NFC wants to have to do. What I thought was
impressive about the game yesterday is obviously they got the
passing attack going again, which you could see coming from
a mile away after all the conversation last week, which
means they can they can beat you. I Jalen said
(27:46):
it in the post game on the field, and you know,
just because we don't do it doesn't mean we can't
do it.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
Yes, exactly, Tom go, you're a word. I don't know
what game you guys are talking about. That's about the
Steelers Eagles game?
Speaker 4 (28:02):
Is that what we're on?
Speaker 5 (28:03):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (28:04):
No?
Speaker 3 (28:05):
Great, Yeah, I mean I thought that it was. It
was a strong answer from the Eagles. Everything going on
we've talked about it. You know, there's not a lot
of teams that, right now, what are they?
Speaker 4 (28:15):
Twelve and two?
Speaker 3 (28:17):
They get talked about the way the Eagles are and
there's a lot of dim picking and there's a lot
of you know, trying to figure out, you know, where
is where's the issue gonna be.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
Maybe they're just really really good.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
Maybe we don't have to be looking for what the
fatal flaw is for the Eagles. You know, they haven't
had to throw the football as much because te Kwon's been.
Speaker 4 (28:35):
Doing what he's been doing through the course of this season.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
And then yesterday, all right, you're gonna take away the
You're gonna take away.
Speaker 5 (28:41):
The run game.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
We're just gonna throw the ball all over you. You know,
I think that you've got a bunch of guys on
that team. We're playing at a really high level right now.
Nick Sirianni probably doesn't get the amount of credit that
he deserves too for pushing the right buttons, especially in
a in a week like this. Uh And right now,
you know, it's it's the Eagles, the Vikings, the Lions.
It's a three way race for the for the number
(29:02):
one seed, and it's entirely possible that the road of
the Super Bowl is gonna go through Philly.
Speaker 5 (29:06):
Yeah. My very quick addition to this is I talked
about on.
Speaker 6 (29:12):
Game day morning something that I think Sirianni had said
earlier in the week, which is that they showed the
team plenty of pictures of celebrating and like, how we
do this together? And I don't read the Twitter comments,
but people tell me that it was a lot of
people making fun of the Eagles, and I sort of
get that. Sirianni does a lot of things that makes
people laugh. It's like, oh, showed them togetherness, Well, that's
(29:35):
sort of corny cool. All of that stuff works. All
of the togetherness stuff works, all of the competition stuff works.
Speaker 5 (29:43):
Sirianni.
Speaker 6 (29:44):
I'm sure people will never give him credit and will
always laugh, and I'm sure people think it's very funny
when he has like the number one or two seed
in the playoffs.
Speaker 5 (29:52):
That's all.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Listen, the greatest coach in the history of the NFL
and the ACC once showed his team and it's caught
by NFL films images of them celebrating together and what
it does to the other team. It was a game
for the Patriots against the Broncos on Monday night, and
Belichick was saying, you should celebrate. You worked hard to
get to this point. You work hard to earn this moment.
(30:13):
You might as well enjoy it. And it does have
an impact on the other team. And this celebration between
Hurts and Brown after that touchdown look like a little
bit of kid and play or something going on there.
I'm not hip with these celebrations. H I can't believe
I just said I'm not hip anyway, I'm.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
Hip to that group those famous thirty five years ago
speaking thereof Stick around for part two of this Entires podcast,
because and this is serious, Vanilla Ice is supposed to
start rehearsing this.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
Come on, we're gonna have that to come over?
Speaker 5 (30:44):
Come over? All right?
Speaker 4 (30:45):
If Rob comes over here, I will, I'll see it'll
come on.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
Would he come over if you called him Rob or Ice?
You might want to think about that one.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
But listen, we're going to talk about teams whose playoff
odds have dropped significantly, and perhaps a performance from Vanella Ice.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
We shall see. Tune in
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