Thursday: NFL Week 15 Look-see

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
But I can see all three of these games going
the other way. The Ravens should beat the Bengals. I
think they're a better team, but their defense is average.
The Bengals defense is really bad. But the Bengals are
playing at home, and Joe Burrow, while because of the
injuries he had this year and like last year, is
going to have to play the role as spoiler instead
of playoff participants. But I can't figure out the Ravens.

(00:24):
They're finally a little bit healthy, but they got so
injured so early in the season and lost way too
many games to be able to compete. I think the
Steelers are going to end up winning that division unless
they really mess things up down the stretch. The Steelers tend,
to me tend to have the easier path the rest
of the way.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yeah. The only problem whenever I'm thinking about the AFC North,
it's either the Ravens and Bengals, both with the offenses
that can win any game on the schedule every season.
But the Steelers are the team that consistently find themselves

(01:05):
right on the fringes of the playoff because of that defense.
And I think if you're if you're going to use
any metric to try to determine AFC North standings at
the end of the year. I would still lean on
the Steelers having the defensive answers to win that division.

(01:26):
But now we've got news that TJ. Watt is sitting
in a Pittsburgh area hospital because he's got long discomfort.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
So they're thinking it might be pluris or something like
that exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
So I mean that defense might be undermanned this week.
But yeah, I think the the Ravens know you lose
to the Bengals, it's real, it's over. So I mean
it's a must win game for them, where the Steelers
a little bit of breathing room, and all of a

(01:59):
sudden they're playing the Dolphins on Monday Night, a Dolphins
team that's won what five six games in a row now,
so I mean the Dolphins are.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
I don't think the Dolphins win in Pittsburgh. They I
don't know how they won in New York because Ta
doesn't like to play when it's below eighty.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
But I don't know how they beat Buffalo Bike exactly
three touchdowns.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
I mean, at least they had that game at home. Yeah, true,
all right, the Bills are taking on the Patriots. We
knew that Drake May was a pretty good quarterback in college,
but we didn't know how good because he played for
North Carolina when they were relatively average. So that was
that was one thing that we had to take under consideration.
But we also thought that that Mike Rabel was a

(02:37):
pretty good coach. And it's kind of amazing how a
good coach can organize a bad team. Look what Sean
Payton's doing in Denver with the salary cap hit they've
had to take on Russell Wilson, They're still figuring out
a way to win and be either the one or
the two seed, likely in the playoffs this year. And
I think Mike Rabol, well, he comes across as a big,

(02:58):
you know, six six sixty pound form of football player
and kind of gruff and all that kind of stuff,
understands how to be organizationally sound. If I had to
evaluate some of the things that make great coach our
good coaches great, I would say that organizational skills are
really important. And you know, I look at the at

(03:22):
the era that utsa's had the last six years. I
think Jeff Trailer is one of the most organized people.
Everything is done with a purpose. Everything is done pretty
much every day at the same time or within the
timeframe that they've scheduled it. And unless the plane's late,
or you know, we've got to replace an airfielter on
it or something like that, we're usually on time with
wherever we're going. But I think that Mike Vrabel has

(03:45):
done that with New England, and I'm starting to think
that the Bills their window may have already closed again.
And if they don't win this game, I guess they'll
still make the playoffs as a wildcard. But the advantage
that they have is playing at home, playing in the
cold weather, playing in the snow, and the Patriots have
always had that advantage, especially in the Belichick Brady days,

(04:06):
and now Rabel is bringing that team back pretty quickly.
Good ownership, good general managership, and now a very organized coach.
I'm not sure how good of an X's those guys
Rabel is, He's probably pretty good, but organizationally, that program
just seems to be doing things the correct way.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
Yeah, and you know, the bitter irony for Bills fans
in a year where the Chiefs are right now are
under five hundred going into week fifteen of the regular season.
But yet you're thinking, Okay, it's our year, our windows open.
The Chiefs are down. We've been on the we've been

(04:42):
knocking on the door. It's either been us or the Ravens. Well,
the Chiefs are under five hundred. The Ravens are under
five hundred. This is finally going to be our year
to bust through the AFC and get to the super Bowl.
And now they're looking up in the standings in the division.
They're two games behind the Patriots, and you know asking themselves,

(05:04):
you know, are we going to have to play a
wild card game on the road in the first round
despite having our biggest foes for the last few years
not being involved in the playoffs. It's it's a weird
transitional season in the AFC. I mean, obviously with the
Patriots leading the charge there and Denver.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
Yeah, all right, the Cardinals are taking on the Texans,
and to me, this is the trap of trap games
for the Texans. The Texans should win this game, and
probably win it pretty easily. I don't know that if
this were in a different circumstances, that the Cardinals could
score more than twenty points against him. If even that,
the defense for the Texans is great, and unless the

(05:45):
offense really really plays poorly or the Cardinals defense plays exceptionally,
I still don't see how the Texans lose this game,
and especially with the fact that they got the Raiders
and the Chargers and the Colts coming up. I see
a scenario where the Texans should run the table the
next four games, with the Chargers being the only game

(06:07):
where they may not. And I think they're going to
make the playoffs, if not as a wild card, they
still have a chance to get to Jacksonville and win
the division. But the Cardinals are a team that this
time of the year is really famous for upsetting the
Apple Cards. And we've seen them be Dallas before, we've
seen them beat teams in the NFC West, and you're like, really,

(06:28):
how'd you lose to that team? And I think the
Texans have to be really careful not to let that
happen to them this weekend.

Speaker 2 (06:33):
Yeah, I mean, this is definitely by definition of trap game.
As you've clawed so hard to get back into the
playoff race, not only in the playoff race, but now
back in the divisional race. This is just a game.
There's not much to say other than you just can't lose.

(06:55):
A loss would be inexcusable here after everything you've done
to get back into the play off.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
All right, we got one more. We've got two more
segments to go in the show. Who's going to win
the Heisman? Or who do you want to win the Heisman?
Sometimes that's two different things. We'll discuss all that coming
up in a bit. Six point thirty one, The Andy
Everett Show On the Ticket