Andy Furman, Bucky Brooks & Mike Harmon Preview NFL Week 17 & Much More!

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Don't listen to Fox Sports almost doesn't count. We'll get
to that in just about a minute. But first, let's
say Happy New Year to one and all. This may
very well be the first sports talk show you here in.
Of course, we're broadcasting live from the ti iraq dot
com studios tirac dot com. We'll help you get there,
an unmatched selection, fast free shipping, free road has a

(00:23):
protection and over ten thousand recommend that install this Tirac
dot com the way tire buying should be. And of
course my partner, my friend, maybe not even in that order,
but the man of the hour, coach, a player, and
a bomb vivant renaissance man, the one and only Bucky Brooks.
Happy New Year, Bucket. How are you. I'm great, I'm

(00:43):
gonna I'm great. Happy New Year to you, Andy, Happy
New Year all on listeners. Uh man, What a what
a great New Year's Eve? What a great football night,
I mean, unbelievable, What a great way to stay home.
It really was, I tell you. But before we get
to the game, I want to introduce our new guys
on our team, Mark Ramsey and Ethan Miller with us today.
Happy New Year to them and obviously we couldn't get

(01:04):
this done without their help. So welcome Mark, Welcome Ethan
id love to have you here with us. But uh,
you talk about those games yesterday. I mean, I gotta
believe these college playoff games have heard restaurants and entertainment
venues on New Year's Eve right now because people are
staying home. And what a game last night Georgia Ohio State.
Will start off with that. The buck Eyes. Really I

(01:24):
thought they were rolling. But the one player I feel
real sorry for today, but is uh the Ohio State
kicker Noah Ruggles. Mr. Is a fifty yard field goal
attempa about three seconds to go with have sealed the
outcome for the buck Eyes. And I know how rabid
those fans are, and I hate to go down that road,
but I hope, I hope and pray this kid, Noah Ruggles,
It's not into some threats and nasty social media posts.

(01:47):
I just pray. I just pray that. Yeah, I certainly
hope that I'm out fans have enough civility to leave
him alone and let him be. Uh. The kick that
he was attempting was a difficult one. Fifth year a
kick is the money, It's not it's not it's not
a layoup, you know. And so I think with all
these things, I'm a fan of short for fanatic, but
I think you want to be able to support your team. Uh,

(02:09):
you want to live or die by your team, but
you want to kind of keep the players out of
the mix. Well, look, let's talk about this for a second.
The buck guy has led thirty twenty four and the
fourth quarter they had a chance to retake a two
possession lead, a lead with about four minutes remaining. Uh,
and the Bulldogs the defense came up with a big
stand that forced Ohio State to settle for a field goal.
It was like forty one thirty five with about two

(02:30):
and a minutes left in the ballgame. And two things
that surprised me a the number of points Ohio States
scored against Georgia and to the judge of defense basically
how they just kind of crumbled to some extent. But honestly,
you look at c J. Stroud, you know, I would
have to say that he outplayed Stetson Bennett, that quarterback
of Georgia for most of the night. He was spectacular

(02:52):
for Ohio State, both with his arm and both running. Yeah, CJ.
Strold is a big time prospect. I mean, he's the
top quarterback prospects in this class if he likes to
come out, and I think what last night did would
show everybody the skills that he brings to the table.
This is a guy who can deal from the pocket,
big time, arm talent, uh, outstanding anticipation, touch in time,

(03:15):
and uh I felt like he took his game up
a notch in the postseason. Uh. Stecon Benn is a
great player. Stesson Bennett has done a great job of
leading this Georgia offense. But Stesson Bennett is more of
a managerial type than a playmaker. That's it. Se and
Bennett when he needed to make plays at the end
of the game, he took Georgia down the field. When

(03:36):
he needs to rather them back from deficits, he took
them back. And so it was a great game. The
quarterback play on both sides was outstanding. And I think
for for for what it's worth, I think we got
two great semifinals. But that Georgia Ohio State semifinal, I
think it was much better than everybody anticipated. Even though
the buck Eyes are a very very talented team and

(03:56):
everyone knows that you know it's crazy, but Georgia men
with stats as the nation's number two scoring defense allowing
about twelve point seven twelve point eight points a game,
Ohio States scored twenty eight in the first half alone.
How does that happen? Because I just didn't think Georgia
would just bend over like that for Ohio State. And
then then think Ohio States offense was that powerful enough

(04:19):
really to score that many points against that tough defense
against Georgia. Well, here's the thing I think when you
look at Ohio State and you look at the talent
that they've amassed, you just look at the recruiting rankings.
They always have big time wide receivers. The quarterback was
a big time and what they were able to do
they were to block up front and they allowed their
skill guys to go to work on the perimeter. And

(04:41):
you had a very motivated Ohio State team who had
been hammered by Michigan. UH their final game. They have
been talked about it, they're being criticized, groutinized, all the
other stuff for about thirty five days leading up to
the game. And so they came out and they played
at a high level. UH give Georgia credit though, because
Georgia took a hell of a hate maker from Ohio

(05:02):
State and somehow found a way to to win in
the end. Just a great game. It's a great matchup,
tremendous game. I thought, I tell you what, do his
injuries on both teams which may be affected, uh the
outcome to some extent and we have a game this close.
Kate still over the tight end for Ohio State basically
was taken to a hospital, had like they say, back spasms.
And Harrison Jr. I mean, he a big hit in

(05:24):
the end zone. He didn't return if they had like
five catches for hundred yards and he had two touchdowns.
So I think those two guys could have made someone
of a difference. And in a game like this, it's just, uh,
it could go either way at any time. Yah know
it could. It was one of those games that could
go either way. And that's exactly what you want to
see in the playoff game. And so hopefully what this

(05:45):
would do and encourage us, like the twelve team playoff
that is coming, some of those mismatches that we anticipate
because we're like, oh, no one can be the heavyweights.
They can Blue the Blue Buds where we saw it.
We saw what it looks like when those teams have
to play. And I mean we always talked about in
the NFL, any given Sunday, anytime you rolled about a lot,
you just don't know what's going to happen. I think

(06:07):
this weekend to semifinal was confirmation of that. It amazes me.
I mean I said to myself, you know, it's gonna
be kind of crazy because you had two teams in
the Big Ten. You had Ohio State, you had Michigan. Obviously,
Michigan gave me to that big game, and we'll get
to that in the second undefeated, and it'll be kind
of ironic to see Michigan, who had lost and they

(06:27):
set my final earlier in the day, and Ohio State
come in. Uh. It would have been really funny if
that would have happened, but it didn't work out that way.
Let's talk about this TCU Michigan game. Amazing, really tc
or another great game, I thought, but it was kind
of blanketed by controversial officiating. And I think that really
took a lot out of that ball game. And I'm

(06:48):
sure people will be talking about that for ages right
now because What happened against Michigan right now was was unreal.
They were just unbelievable. Some of the officiating calls in
that game, Yeah, some of the calls, but before where
I can get it to the officiating. Uh, I'm disappointed
because the Michigan team that I had grown to love
throughout the course of the season, they didn't play their

(07:09):
game last night. They decided to do something different and
it ultimately cost them to turnovers. Two pick six is
filling to convert in the red zone. They run a trick,
played the balls into two yard line, They fancied themselves
as they smashed mouth offense. All of that stuff played
a part in it. Now, the calls, the calls are
certainly impactful. Uh. That what seemingly looked like a touchdown

(07:32):
pass that they brought back to the one that didn't.
Michigan fumbled the next down. That hurt. Um. You can
talk about the targeting at the end of the game. Um,
We've seen lesser violations called as as targeting calls, but
it's one of those things that I don't think the
football guys rewarded Michigan because they didn't play the right way.

(07:52):
And so hats off to TCU. TC you outplayed Michigan.
Tc you made the plays that were there to be made.
And for TCU to lose the Kansas State in the
Big Two championship game, but then bounce back and knock
off Michigan. Man, they deserve to go to the championship.
I'll tell you I believe in that. But let's get
back to the two controversial players. Was gonna really burned
me a little bit because a Michigan fan, Okay, the

(08:14):
first one to receive a Roman Wilson the second quarter,
he had a fifty yard catch from the quarterback J. J. McCarthy,
and first the officials said it was a touchdown. First
in staid a touchdown, then they went to review, and
then the officials said that he was down on the
one yard line. Uh really, that play right there. It
should have made a difference because especially takes over on
the one. But what happened They fumbled the football and

(08:36):
they botched that handoff and that killed it. And you
have a game like this which was decided by six points,
could have gone either way. That could have been a
key play for the game. Yeah, I mean, it was
definitely a key player the game. You know, it was.
It was a y. Anytime you get down close and
come away with no points, it's a problem. And really,
and any time you get into the tight red zone
you don't come away with seven points. You leave yourself

(08:59):
in jeopardy. And so when you combine that with pick
six touchdowns two of them, twelve points that you give
to TCU when you're on offense, you can't stop the run,
you give up over two hundred and fifty rushing yards.
All those things are a recipe for disaster. And so
when you look at it, Michigan get exactly what they deserved.
They didn't take care of business, and because of that,

(09:20):
TCU goes on. Yeah, it was crazy because TCU led
by as much as like eighteen points in the first half.
They were leading twenty one six at halftime, and it
looked like they would have blown Michigan on Michigan came back.
But you hit on something which I thought was very critical.
I think it was in the first quarter with Michigan
had the ball and they looked like had a shot
to get into the end zone and they did that
the flea flicker play. What was that all about? I mean, why,

(09:44):
I mean, why try to do some crazy gimmick play
when all you gotta do is ram the ball in
the end zone. Yeah, I don't know. I really don't
like it. It's so a typical for for Michigan. Michigan
has prided themselves kind of being a bully on the block.
They've done a really good job of being a physical
team that's kind of overwhelmed and overpowered most of their opponents.

(10:06):
But in this game, I feel like they got a
little too cute, particularly early in the game, that first possession,
when they hit the fifty four yard run out the gate,
they take it down. You have fourth and two. To me,
that's when you say, hey, we're gonna lie up, We're
gonna play big boy football. We've talked about it. Coming in.
We feel like we're the more physical team. Well that
is when you hand the ball to the running back
and you said you gotta figure out a way to

(10:28):
get into the end zone. But when you start doing
the trickery, I think from a psychological standpoint, you gave
TCU a ton of confidence because they're sitting there saying,
this team fancies himself has been a physical team, yet
they're resorting to trickery. We stopped him. We feel good
about our chances and I think they carry that momentum
the rest of the game. Okay, now I'm gonna ask
you the questions that go through between the ears, the

(10:49):
intangibles of the game. We know what happened on the field,
we know the winners, We saw what happened. Is there
an advantage when a team is publicized and all they
talk about and all the father surrounding the game is
the fact that they were an underdog and TCU was
kind of labeled as an underdog. I can't do situation,
they'll never beat Michigan. Does that really help a team? Uh?

(11:12):
When when they say that you have no chance at all,
and the coach will use that, I guess his motivational technique.
Could that really really help? Yeah? I mean it can help.
It can give you an emotional boost. Now, you can't
ride that for sixty minutes in a game, but certainly
in an emotional game like football is when you feel
like you're disrespected, you absolutely can use that underdog mentality

(11:35):
to to help you to galvanize the team and to
get them to play. And I think in reading the
comments after the game, some of the stuff that Michigan
put out there. Yeah, it was kind of chum in
the water for TCU, and so you can't um say
those things. And I think it's hard as a coach
Jim Harbor because I don't think he's one that necessarily
talks trash, but his guys, his guys might have talked

(11:58):
a little much coming against it, and it kind of
left themselves, um vulnerable to a team that could play
and be motivated by some of that disrespect. And another
situation which kind of bugs me a little bit, what
about the competition. I look at Michigan right now, and
they played a lot of teams in that conference and
a Big ten that really had a real pour off.

(12:19):
You played a team like Iowa. I mean they're allergic
to the end zone. I mean they can't find it.
Does that have a factor in a game like this
when they played teams that just had bad offenses and
they're not used to a team that's really gonna come
out there and use that scoreboard big time against you.
I mean, maybe I think some of the things that
you see, you end up seeing the lack of speed

(12:42):
or maybe sometimes like the lack of speed that that
shows up UM in terms of just the way that
TCU speed was apparent, and sometimes in the big tend
you may not get that uh from beginning to end
fast teams that played an up tempo, the spread offense,
you know, even the conversation that people were talking about
with the three three five and what that does. I

(13:02):
do believe that some of that stuff impacted Michigan because
when you don't see it, it it takes a little while
to get adjusted to it. All. Right, before we let
you roll here, I gotta put yeah and peg you
on the spot here. Who do you like in the
championship game? Because now all of a sudden, I think
everybody's gonna root for the so close Cinderella team TCU,
which is great because we haven't seen this in years

(13:23):
in the in the college football playoff championship game. TCU.
You think they have a chance to uh fight his
chance here? What do you think? No? I think they
absolutely have a chance. I think the one thing about
it is the way they knocked off Michigan. They'll get
George's attention and then it comes down to can they
block them up front? They were able to block a
very very good Michigan team up front, but George is

(13:45):
a different animal. Uh. Some of the things that Ohio
State was able to export, they go right back to
the table, the air rate offense that TCU runs, where
they're running across the rounds and those things against man
demn Uh, it's gonna require you to be on your game.
You gotta know how to kind of take angles and
cut them all. I think it'd be a very very
competitive game, but I won't bid against Georgia. George's to

(14:05):
defend the national champions. George is as loaded as we've seen.
I would expect him to win, but I think we'll
see a very entertaining game when they take hard when
they play in so far early line Georgia by thirteen,
So we'll see what happens to see if that changes whatsoever.
All Right, he's bucket books. Get him on Twitter at
Bucky Brooks or myself at Andy Ferman FSR or in
our third hour will have my harmon here. You can

(14:27):
get him on Twitter right now at Swollen Dome. Our
lineup bucket remembers today. We'll get that in this hour.
Bottom barrel betting an our number two and Bucky's best
with Mike Carmen in our number three. And other rookie
has the edge in this one will tell you why. Next.
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
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(14:48):
Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app.
Search f s R to listen live. Then Mr Golden Opportunity.
That's coming right up, it's about twenty two minutes pass. Yes,
it's New Year's is the first of Anu Warry of
the year three. He's Bucky Brooks I ad FERMANI. By
the way, football fans, be sure to tune into Fox
Sports Radios countdown the Kickoff appreciated by bet MGM every

(15:09):
Saturday and Sunday morning three hours before kickoff. That's right.
Tune in on Sunday morning at ten am Eastern and
take you live all the way to kickoff on Fox
Spots Radio and the I Heart Radio app, presented by
bet m g M. Now I'll get back to the NFL, Bucky,
And I tell you I look at some of these
games right now, and believe me, for my money, I'd
rather see that college semifinal that half the NFL games

(15:31):
that are being played today. It's amazing, it really is.
There's so much more passion and pageantry in this college
game and the and the pro game right now. I mean, look,
I'm looking at the Cardinal Falcon game. I'm gonna take
a line out of my good friend Mike North. If
this game was playing in my backyard, I'd closed the drapes.
You know, you don't like with the card doesn't bring

(15:52):
it to the table. Well at this point, does it
mean anything. I mean, he doesn't mean that four and
eleven Falcons, five and ten. The Falcons rushing attack one
of the best in the NFL. I'll give you that,
But they have a lot of balance on their offensive
side of the ball with their passing game. Now the quarterback,
I think, and this game is gonna be a key
No Cayla Mauri for Arizona and the Falcons win. My guy,

(16:13):
there's Ridder. That's ridd Of, the kid out of the
University of Cincinnati. I think they'll do well today and
I think they're gonna win. Yeah, I mean they should win.
This is the game that the Falcons should win, just
because I think what they have available is more potent
and powerful than what the Cardeners are bringing to the table.
The Cardens are starting a quarterback David blow who is

(16:33):
has been around the league for a little bit, but uh,
he's not necessarily a big time player or inexperienced player.
And so this is one that you're play in the
Falcons and and so if you are tasked with looking
at that, that's the one that goes their way, right
all right, Now, let's look at this game the Colts
and the Giants. I mean, it's just I don't know,
another one of those games close foot ten and one,

(16:53):
Giants eight six and one. That means something a little
bit for the Giants. That Giants had a golden opportunity.
They got a wild card spot last week to the the
list of the vikings. The Colts last in the NFL
and turnover differential minus twelve. But the Giants in their
last six games and one four on one, Uh, I
win today will give them their first visit to the
playoffs since twent six And I think since the fact

(17:16):
that the game means something more for the Giants and
that Giant stadium, I'm taking the Giant in this one.
I think that's a smart choice when you look at
how the Jizzson played. The Jazzon played pretty good football
for most of the year, and one of the things
that the Giants haven't done. They haven't made a bunch
of egregious area errors that typically caused teams to lose.

(17:36):
So I when I think, when I talk about that,
I'm talking about they're not a team that turns the
ball over. They're not a high pennel last team. They
run the football, so they kind of limit, uh, some
of the stuff that Daniel Jones can do. And when
I just look at this game and I look at
the way the Colts have played, to me, it just
plays into the giazz hands. Okay, let's talk about the
Colts in the coaching situation. Let's go about Jeff Saturday. Uh,

(17:58):
certainly it hasn't worked that well for him. I mean,
people are saying it's a bust. I just think it's
too short of a of a resume to even say
if it's good, better and different with Jeff Saturday, I
don't think he'll be back, though, I don't think he'd
want to be back. What do you what do you
take on this deal? You know, here's the thing about
Jeff Um Jeff Knew was getting into. Uh, he don't
coach a couple of years of high school ball before

(18:19):
taking on this, and so I think he understood that
it would be a learning curve. I also think Jim
Ursa understood that Jeff said it wasn't gonna come in
and be Tony Dungee right away. Uh. If anything, I
think they evaluate everything. I think Jeff will have an
opportunity to get this job. I think it's a matter
of him being able to kind of paint a picture,
creative vision for the team, talk about what we like

(18:40):
to do over the course of the off season, how
they can upgrade the team, and then take it from there.
But by no means what I say that, hey, this
is a done deal to Jeff Saturday won't return. It's unorthodox,
but I mean we've seen other things. Just because he
hadn't coach doesn't mean that he couldn't coach. To getting
Daniel Hackett, he coached forever and had issues endevor. It's
a hard job, and so I think Jim Ursay will

(19:01):
kind of kick the tires on a bunch of different coaches.
But I wouldn't be surprised if Saturday is the full
time replacement. You know, the pushback when his announcement was
made was ridiculous and some people just went ballistic. I mean,
they were going crazy. How can you do this? It's
not fair. It's a slap in the face to assistant
coaches and things like that. I'm really happy to hear
what you're saying about this. That yet it's unorthodox. But
you know, he's the owner, or say is, and he

(19:22):
had the opportunity to hire anybody he wanted to do.
He picked Saturday for whatever the reason. I don't know
why he liked him. He thought he could get the
job done, whatever it might be. But you know, I
just don't think that people who went ballistic on this
were really on the right track. I mean, what's what's
the big whoop on it? I don't get it. Yeah,
I can't really understand, just because it's different. Anytime you
do something different, people are always gonna have a take

(19:44):
on it. And so it's one of those things that
it is different. It's unorthodox, it is not the traditional
path that most guys take to be a head coach,
and so because that, there's always gonna be a lot
of criticism. I think if you're Jeff, what you want
to do is you want to see how you you
improved you personally as a coach over the last half
of the season. What are the things that you can
take from this experience to prepare you to be a

(20:05):
hit coach down the line and then go from there.
This team has done a good team. This team underachieved.
The offensive line, which is supposed to be the bad
rock of the team, didn't play to that level. Didn't
play to the standard. And so when you underchieve in
the front line, you're not able to run the ball.
Because Jonathan Taylor was hurt, you don't necessarily have explosive
weapons on the outside. And the quarterback play is shaky.

(20:26):
I mean, that's a recipe for disaster. Yeah, I'm glad
you brought the quarterback play because, say, you know, Jeff
Saturday has changed quarterbacks as much as I change my underwear,
and I do change it quite often, really, but Nick
nick Foles is to be quarterbacking today. I still don't
understand why Matt Ryan was benched. And I may be
one of the few women I don't I'm not gonna
say a few, but one of those. I really believe

(20:47):
that Matt Ryan is a Hall of Fame quarterback. I
know people gonna laugh and scoff because the Super Bowl situation,
you have to have several rings. Maybe I don't know,
but I think Matt Ryan is statistically a Hall of
Fame quarterback on the still got a bum deal here
in Indianapolis. I don't think he had a great deal.
I don't think he got what he signed up for,

(21:08):
meaning when he was traded to the Nutter Coast, he
was traded probably thinking, Hey, I'm gonna have a solid
offensive line. I got a great running back, so we're
gonna be able to run the football. Because we were
running football, I'll be able to throw off play action
and it's not going to be on me. And that
wasn't the case. He didn't get that, and and so
because he didn't get that, they put more on him.

(21:29):
And as an older quarterback with skills that are diminishing,
you saw him unraveled. But I think he needs credit.
He deserves credit for keeping it together, whether he was
on the field off the field. He didn't leave. He
didn't dip out like Derek Carr has dipped out on
the Raiders. After he was demoted, he stayed around him.
By all accounts, people talked about the leadership ability that

(21:49):
he displayed during the tough moments and so hats off
to Matt Ryan just for being a professional, for being
a leader because it didn't go the way that he
wanted on the field, but he certainly continued to play
the leadership and some of the other stuff that they
were getting when when they brought him over. Yes, he
is Bucky Brooks. He's the man, man of the hour.
You want questions, he'll give you the answers. No, no problem.

(22:10):
The I'm Andy Firman. We are Fox Football Sunday on
Fox Sports Radio. By the way, stats are truly meaningless
and we'll prove it to you next. But first Nick
Cope with the latest. Hey, this is Jason McIntyre. Join
me every weekday morning on my podcast Straight Fired with
Jason McIntyre. This isn't your typical sports pod pushing the
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(22:34):
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(22:55):
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox sports
Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio apps.
Search f s R to listen live there. I am
happy New Year, fellas. How are you guys doing alright?
The National Championship is set in college football. It will
be number one george against number three TCU from Los
Angeles on January nine. Georgia had to rally from down

(23:17):
fourteen and the fourth in order to get there. At
the Peach Bowl forty forty one the final score over
Ohio State, it's the largest fourth quarter comeback at a
college football playoff game. And at the Fiesta Bowl, tc
you gone out to a hot start and they led
by as many as nineteen points and they hung on too,
upset Michigan fifty one forty five as Horn Frank's quarterback

(23:38):
Max Dougan accounted for four touchdowns. In the NFL ees
Pore reports, Jalen Hurts will not play today for the Eagles,
but he is expected to be available for the regular
season finale against the Giants. Expected to play today as
we take a look at player availability. According to reports,
following players are expected to go Chargers defensive end Joey

(23:58):
Bosa for the jaguar Is quarterback Trevor Lawrence and linebacker
Trayvon Walker, Patriots running back Romandre Stevenson and tight end
Hunter Henry Seahawks receiver Tyler Launkett, Saints corner Marshahn Lantimore
and receiver Chris o'lauvay, and Bears receiver Chase Claypool all
expected to play today. Packers receiver Christian Watson, we'll have

(24:19):
to go through warmups before Green Bay determines if he
can play. Watson did not have any live reps in
practice this week. Rams tight end Tyler Higbee will play,
and Bagel's tight end Hayden Hurst is off since he's
injury report, so he is good to go for Monday's
game against the Bills. NFL media says the Broncos are
expected to have Sean Payton, Jim Harbaugh, and Cowboys defensive

(24:41):
coordinator Dan Quinn at the top of their list to
be the team's next head coach. Andy Bucky back to
you guys, Alright, thank Nick Lucien. In about an hour. Alright,
here we go. They're tough at home, but remember Week
four team will get to that in just about a minute.
He's Bucky Brooks and many firm it together. We are
Fox Football Sunday on Fox Bus Radio, Will Lie from
the ti iraq dot Com studios, and we got Bucky

(25:03):
remembers that about eight nine minutes from now now the
Bears Lions. Okay, And I said that status are meaningless.
And I'll tell you why I say this. Their Bears
right now are three and twelve. They're going nowhere. They're
they're leading team in rushing in the NFL. Alright, NFL's
worst teams in September. So they're allowing over thirty two
points a game in the last two months. Justin Fields

(25:25):
is out for the quarterback in situation. Uh and they
lost thirty one thirty two Lions in week number ten.
But I look at the status, say they're meaningless. When
you look at the status, say this team is leading
the league in rushing and they're three and twelve, what
does that tell you? It doesn't mean much. Right, It's
a passing league. We know that a little bit. A
few different things are broken. Um, defensively, their team that

(25:48):
can get stops. And so my counter would be, yeah,
you can lead the league in rushing, but if you
can't generate stops, it means anything. The other thing I
would say is, okay, you lead a team in rushing,
but where they explosive he's coming from. Because the score
points in the National Football League, you have to have
explosive plays. And by explosive plays, I means run over
ten yards passes over twenty yards. That's the easiest way

(26:09):
to do it. And so when you run the ball
the way that the Bears run the ball, the explosive
player should come into passing game on deep throws. Who
do they have on the perimeter, Nikkia Harry, Chase Claypool
has been out, Darny Moody has been on I R.
So they don't have any pass catches to complement what
they do and the running game. And then festfully you
trade away Rocrons Smith, you get rid of Robert Quinn.

(26:31):
Eddie Jackson is hurt. I mean, you just don't have
enough fire prower to play the style of defense that
matt Eva Fluce wants to play. And so I like
to fight. I like the way they've competed, but right
now they just don't have enough talent to be able
to win games in the league and they're not gonna
win today. The Lions will win that game. There we go, right,
we agree on that. You're just guaranteeing, just guarantee and

(26:51):
stuff for the lines. I didn't use the term guarantee.
I think the Lions will win. I'm not putting any
guarantees on this, there's no The only thing I will
say is they set themselves up um to be run
on by giving up three d plus rushing yards against
the Carolina Panthers. And I know the care I know
Chicago Bears and not the Panthers in terms of competing
four playoff bid. But when you put that kind of

(27:13):
stuff on tape, I can guarantee you that Chicago's gonna
try and run it at them. And so before we
can even think about what the Lions can do in
this game, they have to stop the run, and they
have to stop it earlier because they can get a
heavy dose of run to show to see if they've
been able to fix the issue. Alright, Broncos Chiefs. I
always like talking about the Kansas City Chiefs because they're

(27:34):
fun to watch and they're a good team. And I
mentioned week number four team back in a week fourteen
in Denver. The Chiefs got real sloppy, but they did
beat Denver thirty eight. Maybe we could say it's a
new regime now with the new assistant coach coaching the
bulk club interim leabal See. But I'll tell you this,
If Kansas City does have a weakness, and I think
they do, it's their secondary. So watch for the wide

(27:54):
receiver Jerry Judy Kansas City. So I think that could
be a problem, But there's no problem as far as
winning the ball game. I think they win. I think
they'll they'll give up about seventeen to twenty points, but
they'll put up about forty on the board in Kansas City.
This is interesting because you never know how team is
gonna respond with the interim head coach uh Jar Roseberry
put the put the team back in paths uh Some

(28:16):
Ventermans weren't happy about that, but he put he put
the men pass, made him tackle, made him go live
a little bit, trying to up the physicality and toughness
on the unit. Um. We'll see if they respond. It
can't be any worse than what we've seen of late,
and all the noise and all the conversation. I'm not
saying this is a win one from the Gipper, win
one for the Gipper moment, but Russell Wilson, at some

(28:38):
point man he has to look in the mirror and
see if he can come up with some performances that
will not only rebuild his confidence, but repair the confidence
that the team has in him, because all of his
TEAMMATESTI looking at him sideways wondering what happened to the
rust that played so well for Seattle for years. I
think this game can be competitive. I think it'd be tighter.
I expect the Chiefs to win, but I think the

(28:59):
Broncos and played much better than we've seen him playing
in recent weeks. Let's stay with this Russell Wilson situation
for a second. I have never seen a player go
from one extreme to another so quickly. I mean, we've
seen erosion and players over the years, but nothing like
this Russell Wilson. And I think that part of the
problem is not as much Russell Wilson. Maybe it's partially him,
no doubt there, but the team he's on and the

(29:21):
coaching situation that he's been involved with. Do you agree there?
Because I just don't see or I've never seen really
in sports some player, a player deteriorated so quickly for
one season to another. I mean, it's been drastic to
see him fall off, but there are size that his
game wasn't what we thought it was. Uh, you go
back to the last two seasons in Seattle. After that

(29:43):
hot start in the last half of the season, he
kind of unraveled with the turnovers, and then you look
at last year. He didn't play great, but some of
it was attributed to he had a hand injury that
kind of affected his storm. But he hasn't played well
the last year and a half. And then you go
to an new system, you have more stuff on, you
have a coaching staff that doesn't know you also doesn't

(30:04):
know how to protect your meaning they don't know your weaknesses,
so they can't necessarily build a game plan that prevents
you from kind of going down that road. And so
what we saw was Russell Wilson fully exposed. Now the
thing will be has does russ have the ability to
look at the film and see his weaknesses and truly

(30:24):
assess where he's at this stage in his career and
fully understand how he needs to play to play at
his best. If he doesn't have that understanding. It doesn't
matter what they did. They can bring in new coaches
and all that, but Russell has to be able to
critically look at himself, look at his game and say,
this is where I need to improve to be a
better player. Well, you're an NFL inside of bucket books,

(30:45):
you could tell me you've heard, and we've heard, we've read.
The fact that he's lost the locker room is someone
said that I read this somewhere that he has like
his own office there. He's like aloof to the players
on the team, and that's gonna be a problem more
so than on the field. You have to be with
the team. You're the leader, you're the face of the
ball club. What if you heard inside as far as

(31:07):
player relations with Russell Wilson, I mean, that's some of
the stuff that you have to do with like like
Russe's celebrity, like his wife Sara's top pop stars. So
they live a different life than most of the other
people in the locker room. And so if you're Russell
and you you you live like that um where you
are kind of like a global star because of you know,

(31:29):
your your relationships and those things. You gotta do a
better job of making sure that you uh ingratiate yourself
to your teammates, that you build relationships with your teammates,
that they know you beyond um, but they see in
those brief moments. And so I would say a lot
of it has to do with Russell really trying to
become connected with the team. The office and stuff doesn't

(31:51):
bother me. He can have an office because if he's
there all the time, he's looking at tape like fine,
But what he has to do is he has to
be a member of the team, participating all the other stuff,
and not give off this level of entitlement that separates
him from the rest of the team, because at the
end of the day, you need those other guys, those
other guys on offense, to believe in you and to

(32:12):
do their jobs to allow you to do your job.
And if you don't buy any currency with them by
not investing in them, not getting to know him as people,
it's hard for them to say I'm gonna sacrifice everything
for you when I know that you really don't know me.
And we haven't heard or read many players coming into
his defense. That's the thing that kind of would worry me.

(32:33):
If I'm Russell Wilson, I'm late. Like last week, at
the end of the week, you had people come Jerry
Judy and some of the other teammates came out and
talked about him being this and that. But I can't
say that it felt genuine, uh, And so he has
to work on that. You know. The quarterback position is
a lot of things. It's a talent position, but really
what it is is a leadership position. And the only

(32:54):
way to be a leader is you have to be
connected with your teammates. And I go follow you just
because you're the most talent together, they're gonna follow you
because they feel like you're down with him, that you're
willing to be in a fox with him, that you
do the dirty work like they do. So we'll see
if you can get it right. All right, talk about leaders.
He's a leader. He's Bucky Brooks. He's our leader. Yesterday
is I made de Fermant and we are Fox Football

(33:15):
Sunday on Fox Sports. Ready, but right now we're gonna
turn back the clock, not your clock, Bucky's. Yes, it's
Bucky Remembers coming up next. This man has seen at
all your favorite NFL veteran Bucky Brooks gives us the good,
the bad, and the ugly from his playing days in
the NFL, and now Bucky remembers, all right, here we go,

(33:38):
here we go, Bucky Ready, let's do it many alright, Chicago,
the Bears, Atlanta, Cleveland, and the Giants. All these teams
and non playoff teams. Maybe the Giants that got a shot,
maybe they're peeking in. But they're one thing they have
in common. They're all great rushing teams. We touched on
this a little bit before. If we said about the
Chicago Bears are the best rushing team in the NFL.
So my question to you is, why would a team

(33:59):
draft the running back high in the draft. I mean,
if you're talented, you draft talented players at the top
of the board. I'm not of the belief that you
can't draft to running back in the first round. Uh.
My philosophy will be draft the best running back that
you can. If their first round worthy, you draft him,
you ride them to the wheels fall off, but you
never signed them to a second contract. When you draft
running backs outside of the first round, now they only

(34:21):
have four years for you, and then you have to
go back to the table. Whereas the fifth in the
first round you have five years with the fifth year option.
So to me, you take the best player. If there's
one in the top of the round, top of the
draft that you like, you get them. Is there a
correlation here between the teams like Atlanta, Cleveland, Chicago that
have great running games and they're not gonna be in

(34:41):
the playoffs? Uh? They have quarterback issues. I mean, in
the perfect world, you want to have an offense that
has the ability to do both. You want to be
able to run it when you need to run it,
and you want to be able to pass it when
you have to pass. Uh. Those teams are very one
dimensional in their approach, and so that's why they struggle.
But they also have other issues, you know, and so
it's just not the running game that has kept them

(35:02):
from being a team that can be very, very competitive.
It is the other stuff, the defense, the explosive playmaking
on the perimeter. Uh, can they control the trenches on
offense and defense? All those things going to whether you
want to lose alright? Question here? Uh, players that maybe
you saw, maybe even who have played with, who wanted
out when the team was out of I'm looking at

(35:23):
teams like maybe the Texans the Broncos, they know they're
going nowhere, and they just say, look on and I
don't feel well, I don't want to play. I've never
really seen that. Um. The closest thing that I would
say is when I was in Jacksonville and Andre Rosen
left the Jaguars to go to the Green Bay Packers.
The Packers picked them up. Uh. Andre blue becomes a

(35:44):
very key contributor on a Super Bowl team, But it
wasn't like he was done with Jacksonville. It was one
of those mutually agreed upon things that it is probably
best for both parties, uh to go their separate ways,
the team and rising. But most of the time, it's
a very pridful bunch. If you're playing in the National
Football League, you take a lot of pride in your performance.
You know that every tape is evaluated, so you typically play.

(36:07):
But this miss is where you're not happy. But it
means that you're not gonna fully give your effort. All right,
let's talk continue now in the college game. Players that
maybe who have bailed out recently in bowl games, how
would that maybe affect their NFL draft status? When a
general manager a player personnel diret this is, Hey, this
kid maybe just doesn't have the pride factor. He didn't

(36:28):
want to play in the bowl game. It's it's a
non factor now. It used to be a factor. It
used to be a big deal where if you didn't
play in the bowl game, if you opted out, it
was viewed as selfish. It was viewed as you're not
being a great teammate. But after we've seen many guys,
and it started with Leonard Fournette, than Christie McCaffrey, and
on and on. It's it's typical rite of passes. Right now,

(36:49):
if you're a top prospect playing in a bowl game
that's outside of the playoffs, those bowl games are deemed
as uh, exhibition games, meaningless games, and so why chance
at those things. I think there's a level of understanding
now within the league that but those are business decisions.
But guys like Rice Young, Will Anderson, guys who played

(37:10):
for their teammates, Yeah, they may get some bonus points
on the on the total score because it did show
a level of commitment to finish what you started once
you walk through the doors in college. Okay, you mentioned
finish what you started. We talked about some head coaches
in the national Football who could not finish what they
started talking about Denver, talking about Indianapolis. How much of
a difference does an end season coaching change really make.

(37:32):
Let's look at those Broncos and Coast. Is it really
gonna make a difference. I don't think it makes a
major difference. I don't think it makes a difference at all. Um. Yeah,
you maybe you change the voice that is being heard
in the meetings and those things, but typically if you
make an end season change, it doesn't have a significant impact.
That's it. I'm looking at the Carolina Panthers, and the

(37:55):
Carolina Panthers look a lot different with Steve Wilks as
the head coach compared to Matt Rule. Uh. And so
maybe in each individual case is different, and it depends
on who the interim coaches and when does he get
the team and how much power do they give him
to make changes? Uh too, can't alter the culture. You know,

(38:16):
Will Shelley should get the idea point thee of the
head coaching job. I hope he gets it. He certainly
deserves it, he really does. He's done a great job.
The one thing that that you can see and it
pops on the table. The Panthers have a clear identity
under Steve Wilkes. They canna be a Rockham Socking robot team.
They're gonna run the football, they can play great defense,

(38:36):
they can bring the physicality and toughness to the table,
and he has convinced the team that if they play
that style, they can win games. And that's why we've
seen this team compete. Okay, last, but not least, your
toughest role games as a player, and why toughest rodal
games A lot of times it depends on the team
in the environment. I just remember any time when you
went to Pittsburgh, it was always a tough role game

(38:58):
because the environ I mean, it's gonna be cold, the
fans are always gonna show up. And then Pittsburgh was
a physical team. No matter who they had on the team,
you knew what it was going to be going in there.
And so to me playing in Pittsburgh against those physical
stealers teams on the Bill kawur Man headache, nightmare to play.

(39:18):
Here we go. Bucky Brooks tells you about new Year's
and new teams. Next, the end isn't pretty. We'll explain
that in just about a minute. Yes he is Bucky Brooks.
I'm Andy Ferman, pushing you and everybody else a happy
and healthy new Year, and we're broadcasting life on the
ti iraq dot com studios ti iraq dot com. We'll
help you get there and unmatched selection, fast, free shipping,
free road hazard protection, and over ten thousand recommended installers

(39:42):
ti iraq dot com the way tire buying should be.
All right, buck, let's get it rolling here. I got
a question. The beautiful thing about working with a guy
like Bucky Brooks. He played the game. He played the game.
I kind of played the game in the streets of
Brooklyn to hand touch, you know, making a button hook
behind the car. But you played the game. You student up. Okay,
The question I have for you is this, Yesterday was

(40:02):
a great sports day, at least for me, because I
watched both the semifinals in college football, and before that
I saw Xavier University beat undefeated Yukon and basketball, and
Yukon was like too in the country. Xaviers ran twenty two.
They'll be moving up my question while watching the game.
And maybe I'm talking out of space here. If I'm
an athlete and there's another Division one school in Cincinnati,

(40:25):
the University of Cincinnati. If I'm a player of Cincinnati,
scratch me and said, man, why can't I be playing
for Xavier on national television on Fox and playing against
the team rank second in the country like Yukon. Is
there an envy jealousy factor when a kid watches a
game from another team saying, man, I wish I could
be there, And I guess now with the portal, you know,

(40:45):
there's a way you could kind of alleviate that and say, look,
I'm going there. I want to go there. As that
ever a card even to you as a player when
you were in North Carolina, I mean, I think you
always have your favorite teams growing up, Teams that are
nostalgia to you, teams that have maybe sentiment of value
to you. Uh. Now with the transfer porter, you can

(41:06):
realize some of those dreams. If you're a good player,
you have to go to a lower level and then
you have an opportunity to maybe transfer up. Guys take
advantage of those opportunities, and so you're always looking around
because before you were a player, you're a fan, and
so you look at these teams and remember some of
the great players that played at those things, So yeah,
sometimes you can look at them with the n B

(41:26):
S high. Did you have that at North Carolina? Now,
North Carolina was always my dream school, Like my my
love affair with North Carolina came from the basketball team first,
and so I always wastory of from from way back.
So any opportunity that I had to go to Carolina,
whether a student or as an athlete, I was going
to Carolina. Alright. Buckey Brooks the football player, Buckey Brooks

(41:46):
the coach, and the writer for NFL dot Com. I
think it's wonderful. I mean, every Friday, if you got
NFL dot com and scroll down to the writers, you
see Buckey Brooks and he wrote this week in the
NFL the end is really pretty for a player. And
you wrote about Ragist coach jo Smith Daniels replacing quarterback
Derek Carr with Jared Stidham. How surprised were you by
the move? Slid bit close to the the Raiders are really

(42:07):
not officially out of the playoffs. I will say that
I'm surprised by the move, but I'm not surprised by
the team's disappointment in Derek Carr and I'm gonna say
this based on the fact that the Raiders handed an
extension to Derek Carr, put him in the forty million
dollar club. And whenever you pay your quarterback that kind

(42:27):
of money, you expect the quarterback to be able to
make some of the things right that are wrong, meaning
that the play calls are not always perfect, you don't
always have your weapons, but the quarterback is so good
that he is able to kind of over overcome those challenges.
Derek Carr can't do those things. When the Raiders needed

(42:47):
Derek Carr to be at his best the last four games,
when they climb back into the postseason hunt, Derek Carr
is completing only fifty three percent of his passes. He
has six testdowns and seven interceptions. That is not what
you expect from a franchise quarterback. And in those games
there two and two and so, if I'm Josh McDaniels
and I'm looking at my quarterback and I'm seeing this

(43:10):
quarterback is played in the league six seven years, we
know exactly who he is. At some point I want better,
I might as well put him in Bubba Rap because
we try and trade him. And then what I'm gonna
do is I'm gonna see what jerrys did him ask.
That's amazing to me because look, Davante Adams basically threw
away Green Baby because he wanted to go back with
his college teammate, and that was Derek Carr. And really,

(43:32):
Davante Adams, as you right, uh is tied for the
leagually with twelve touchdowns receptions and ranked six receiving yards.
But to me, if I'm on the doorstep of trying
to get into the playoffs, I feel a lot better
with Derek Carr on the center than basically having Jared
Stidham quarterback in me today, And I wonder how that
you know how that situation, how the decision is being

(43:55):
felt in the locker room with these players. I mean
lock the locker room certainly won't be happy because they
know what Jared Stidham is and they know if he's
a good player or not, and they know the drop
off between Derek Carr instead him. But then there's also
a faction of players in the locker room that might
look at Derek Carr and say, man, this students making
forty million dollars, but this is all we're getting. They

(44:17):
may not ever express that, but they're walking around looking
at Derek Carr. They looked at Derek Carr during a
four game slump, and one to man, this is the
forty million dollar guy. Because you have to remember, the
quarterback makes double what the next highest star player makes.
And so when your quarterback gets into the forty million
dollar range and you may not have guys in the
twenty million dollar range, they expect him to do the

(44:40):
last share of the work. And if he's unable to
do the work, then we could create some problem. There's
some resentment in those things. And so as much as
people may hate Josh McDaniels making the move, man, I
think the locker room understands that when they look at
the resume, the entire body of work and what could
be next for the ragious future. And apparently what I've

(45:01):
read is that judgment that the Derek Carr now has
left the team. I mean, he just doesn't want to
be around the situation. I don't know if that's good,
better and different, but he's not even there. And when
I've read about Derek cars that he bleeds Raiders. He
just loves the Raiders. He's a lot of passion for
the Raiders. A matter of fact, they say that in
several postgame news conferences after losses, he'd be crying. I mean,

(45:22):
he's just a Raider guy. Yeah, he's a Raider guy.
And I and I get that, and I love that.
But at the end of the day, man, this is
a production based league. You're evaluated on your production and
your performers. And his performance falls short of what the
standard is. And I know people get mad about the stats.
And when you talk about like quarterback wins and those things,

(45:44):
Derek Carr has gotten this team to one, well, I say,
two postseasons, but he's only played in one postseason game.
And and and so at quarterback, the quarterback is supposed
to be a difference maker. He's supposed to be a
forced multiplier. But when you look get Derek Carr's record,
he's sixty three and seventy nine. And I know the

(46:05):
people that are listening saying, hey, quarterback wins are not
a team stat. Yes, but the quarterback that we celebrate
as the goat, we celebrate him as the goat because
he won more than anybody else in the big Game
of Tom Brady. And so at some point your quarterback
has to help your team win game. And when you're
that far under five hundred, yeah, there are there are

(46:26):
a lot of raised eyebrows in terms of what do
you get when you get Derek Carr quarterback? Do you
get an upgraded do you get a solid starter? I said,
you get a solid starter, You don't necessarily get you
a guy that's going to take your team to the
next level. And another quarterback who basically has not done
the job is Zack Wilson for the Jets, and he
basically lost the team at the postgame news conference several

(46:47):
weeks ago. Uh, the quarterbacks have been a problem for
the Jets organization over the last several years. Why Why
is that it's an organizational thing or just maybe bad
luck and drafting, a lot of different things coming to
play when he did with the quarterback one. I don't
think they've ever shown enough patience and restraint to stick

(47:08):
with the quarterback for an extended period of time. Particular,
they're young guys. They're swapping them in and out. We're
talked about getting rid of Zach Wilson after twenty two
starts two years, a guy who played two seasons at
b y U. I mean that's that's that's a very
quick assessment, but that's where you are. And then when

(47:30):
you look at the team around him, when you have
any waiting quarterbacks, think about the three piece. Who's the
play caller, who are the playmakers, and who are the protectives?
The offensive line isn't great, The weapons around them were
pretty good. They're young, but they're pretty good. And then
the play caller. How good is Mike la Fleur? I

(47:52):
don't know. I don't know how great this is. This
team doesn't look great in dynamic. They haven't been the
same since they lost Breeze Hall, so so he had
some question marks around them, but he certainly didn't help
himself with the immaturity and the performance. Yeah, that's that's
the key. And I think that we may never see
him on the center a game with the New York Jets.

(48:12):
I think his days a numbered, no doubt about that.
Speaking of quarterbacks, I mean, the Dolphins are playing the
Patch today and Mac Jones has been labeled a dirty
player for a hit that he did last week. Is
that fair at this point in time? I mean, is
he a dirty player? How could a quarterback really be
kind of labeled a dirty player? He labored dirty because
the play looked dirty. Looked there, they looked They're they're

(48:35):
running down the field. He's not necessarily chasing to make
the tackle. He just peels back and cut Eli Apple
down to the knees. I mean, there's no reason for that.
We've never seen that. And so because he's also been
involved in a few other fringe dust ups, Yeah, he
gets the label and maybe being a dirty guy, and

(48:56):
you think he is. I can't say, I can't examine
as hard. I just think aggressive. Yeah, I call him
a bad loser. That's what he's a sword loser. And
so he palced and he acts out and he does
some of those things that show maybe like uh, was
it Grayson Allen the old Duke basketball players that were

(49:17):
tripping people? He still has problems in the National Basketball Association. Yeah,
some of that might exist. Well, you see, it's just
so loser. I think he's gonna lose today to the Dolphins,
A big game for the Dolphins, but you will be
no playlists if they lose for the Patriots. How much
do you think is that going to hurt the legacy
of coach Bill Belichick. It won't hurt the legacy long term.
I mean right now when we're in a high take moment, Yeah,

(49:40):
we'll tear him up. But the guys six Super Bowl wins.
And regardless of whether you say he had him all
with time, Brady was it him? Was it there? I
will say this, and I can't say this enough. There
are no great coaches without great players if any sport,
in any sport. When you when you look at the
the coaches that are in the Hall of Fame, they

(50:02):
coached a bunch of Hall of Fame players as well.
And so Bill Belichick is one of the greatest, maybe
the greatest coach that we've ever seen. He coached the
greatest quarterback that we've seen in Tom Brady in terms
of the ability to win games together. And so no
matter how you slice it, they both go in. They
both get their fashhair flowers for the work and the

(50:22):
contributions that they made to that dynasty's success. Exactly right,
It's about the Saints Eagles. For a settless Eagles lost
the Dallas List and they missed a tremendous opportunity. They
missed a chance to clinch the NFC East. They missed
a chance for a first round buying the playoffs and
home field advantage. But I will tell you now, the
game is at Philadelphia, and they just have too much

(50:43):
talent to lose to the Saints in Philadelphia. That's my
take on that game. Uh, the game is gonna be tight,
It's gonna be tired. If Jay the Hurst doesn't play,
you got going to minsh You we've seen he turns
the ball over and everybody loves his moxie and his
fight and all this other stuff. But he has to
take care of the ball and when he gets hit,

(51:03):
he changes. And so if the Saints are able to
touch him up early, you see a different game from
Mster than you've seen from others. Um this huge game, though,
it's huge, game fulfilling because they know they've gotta take
care of business. You don't want to dress up. You
got last week, you gotta handle it this week. You know.
If you look at the power rankings, I think in
the National Football League, at least in my mind, I

(51:24):
still think the Eagles a number one. I really believe that.
But I tell you I think I pushed the Cincinnati
Bengals to two and the Kansas City Chiefs three. You
have any change in your mind with power rankings right now,
which it really doesn't mean much. Give me, give me
a top three again. Would the Eagles, Bengals, Chiefs? Oh,

(51:44):
I like, I know you likes. I like the Eagles. Um,
I like the Bengals up there, I like the Niners
in the Chiefs up there. Buffalo, I would put fifth Buffalo.
You know, I just think that their offense it's not

(52:05):
tremendously balanced. It's it's it's past heavy. You gotta get
a little more of a running game. And the running
game basically is dependent upon the times Josh Allen. I mean,
he's the guy with the legs many times on that
ball club. I just and they do turn the ball over.
One team has more turnovers than them as Indianapolis, I believe.
So they make a lot of mistakes and the running
game can be questionable. But I guess Monday night, we'll

(52:28):
see when Buffalo comes to Cincinnati, and that game has
really been labeled as a tremendous Titans game, you know,
so we'll see who wins that one. Yeah, it is
a beat other Titans. And I do believe that the
Cincinnati Beings are the best team in the a f C.
And I don't know why people haven't talked about it more.
Joe Burrow and the Bengals had beaten the Kancie the
Chiefs the last three times they faced UH. This game

(52:51):
against the Buffalo Bills will be the one where we
can see if they legitimately the top heavyweight in that
conference because they have everything. They're balanced offense that they
have weapons to passage, marches, Tyler Boyd, te Higgins, they
can run it with Joe Mix and Joe Burrow is
to do. Offensive line is greatly improved from last year. Defensively, man,

(53:13):
they are a solid, fundamentally sound groups that don't beat
themselves and with Jesse Bass and Von Bill, two of
the best safes in football, they just played the game
the right way. So we'll see. What do you think?
That's just what do you think the Bengals are not
getting the national respect? Is it because they're play in
a small amount market. I don't know. I will tell
you this much. The defensive coordinated little in the rumo,

(53:35):
he's gonna be a head coach one day. He's He's
gone a tremendous job with their defense. He has done
a really good job. Part of the reason why the
Bengals haven't gotten the um respect or the accolades is
because the first thing that we do on the outside,
we go right to the quarterbacks. And I love Joe Burrow,
but the way Joe Burrow plays the game is different

(53:56):
than the way that Josh Allen and Pat Mahomes plays
the game. There's a a magic and a mystique that
comes along to watching Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes due
to the deal. Whereas Joe Burrow, everyone respects the fact
that he gets the balled out, he has confidence, he
has swag and all that, but stylistically his game is
different than those other guys, and so I think sometimes

(54:18):
we get caught up in the style as opposed to
the substance. All three quarterbacks are great in their own right,
it's just that listeningly, Pat Mahomes and Josh Allen are
probably maybe more a highlight real word, which it gives
him the opportunity to get more attention. There you go,
He's Bucky Brooks. Get him on Twitter at Buckey Brooks
or at Andy Firm at eversor in a third hour,

(54:40):
we'll get Mike Harmon here, get him at Swollen Dome
and you can get us at age seven seven ninety
Fox eight seven seven sixty three sixty nine, Bonn and
Barrel betting in this hour and an Hour number three,
Bucky's Best with Mike Harmen right now, it looks like
it's time for revenge. That's next, And just a out
a minute about twenty past the hour Fox Football Sunday.

(55:03):
He's Bucky Brooks. I'm Andy Ferming, and we are live
from the tirerack dot Com studios. And let me reverse
to what you were talking about prior to this segment.
You'll talk about quarterbacks. You said the styles between Josh Allen,
Patrick Mahomes and Joe Burrow are quite different. Maybe that's
why Joe is not getting the accolades. He doesn't have
the pizzas as you will maybe for highlight reels. What

(55:26):
basically is the difference between those three quarterbacks? You got
me their buck, all right? Is he okay? Is Bucky
all right? Coming in book? Okay? And we'll get to
Bucky in a minute. All right. I just want to
know if you can tell me the difference between the
style you mentioned this stop between Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen

(55:48):
and Joe Burrow was quite different though, what what what
is the difference in their styles? So stop listically when
you think about Josh Allen, Josh Allen's coming just like
a world win. Um. He's an old school quarterback. Like really,
if you think about, uh, the way Cam Newton was
able to run the football, Josh Allen can give you
all of that alongso giving you superior passing skills in

(56:11):
terms of the arm talent, the way that he's able
to throw on time, on target, and the way that
he's improved steadily from the pocket. Patrick Mahomes is a
satellite player, meaning that he's at his best when the
pocket breaks down. He extends plays, he runs around, but
when he runs around, he's not running around to run
the ball. He's running around to create opportunities for him

(56:31):
to throw it over your head to have the field.
And so those guys kind of play a free flowing
style that makes for great TV. Joe Burrow is more
of a uh look man, He's a pass first point guard.
You want to put all the guys out in the route.
He's gonna catch it. Rock throw balls gonna come out

(56:51):
and anybody can get it. He's going to throw it
to the open man and So the difference is those
guys are if we were talking about in badball terms,
those guys are more like Carie Um, more like Russell West,
where they can get their own shot whenever they want. Sears,
the passing homes and josh at sounds gradually, Guard, let's

(57:13):
do this. Let's go to well guy, Nick Cope Sports update,
and then we'll kind of get bucking a little bit
of place. Okay, So let's gonna nick Cope right now
with the sports update. All right, thank you, Andy. The
national championship is sent in college football. It'll be a
number one Georgia against number three TCU in Los Angeles,
coming up two mondays from now, on January nine. How

(57:34):
did they get there? Well? At the Peach Bowl, Georgia
rallied from down fourteen in the fourth quarter for a
forty two to forty one win over Ohio State. It's
the largest fourth quarter comeback at a college football playoff game.
Georgia quarterback sets had been it through for nearly four
hundred yards and three touchdowns. At the Fiesta Bowl, TCU
led by as many as nineteen points and hung on

(57:56):
to upset in Michigan fifty one to forty five sworn.
Frank's orderback Max doug And accounted for four touchdowns and
TCU had two pick sixes on defense. Third quarter alone
featured six combined touchdowns between the two teams. In the
Sugar Bowl, Alabama dominated Kansas State forty five to twenty,
tow cap Bryce Young's college career, and Iowa shut out

(58:17):
Kentucky one zip in the Music City Bowl. In the NFL,
Espno reports Jalen Hurts will not play today for the Eagles,
but he is expected to be available for the regular
season finale against the Giants. NFL media reporting the Raiders
are expected to explore trading Derek Carr at the end
of the season. Even though Carr famously said he'd rather

(58:38):
retire than play for another team, he reportedly has no
plans to retire. Also from NFL media, the Jets are
not planning to explore trade for quarterback Zach Wilson, setting
him up to return for year three. Wilson will be
inactive today for the Jets, with Mike White set to start.
NFL media also reporting the Broncos are expected to be

(58:59):
assive in their head coaching search. They're expected to have
the likes of Sean Payton, Jim Harbaugh and Cowboys defensive
coordinator Dan Quinn at the top of their list in
terms of who's in and who's out in today's games.
Following players are expected to be available. Chargers defensive and
Joey Bosam, Jaguars linebacker Trayvon Walker, Patriots running back Romandre

(59:23):
Stevenson and tight end Hunter Henry For the Seahawks, receiver
Tyler Lunkett, Saints corner marks Shan Lattimore and receiver Chris
Olave and Bears receiver Chase Claypool. Packers receiver Christian Watson
will have to go through warmups before Green Bay determines
if he can play as they take on the Vikings.
Wantson did not have any live reps this week in practice.

(59:45):
Bengals Tynan Hayden Hurst is off of since he's injury report,
so he is good to go for Monday's game against
the Bills. Andy Bucky back to you guys, Thank you, Nicho. Okay,
It's New Year's Day and we're live from the ti
rack dot Com studios. He Bucky broke the many Furman
and when rocking and rolling talking NFL football, Let's talk
about this Panthers Bucks game, because the NFC South is

(01:00:07):
on the line with this game today. In Week seven,
if you remember Buck, the Panthers rolled over the Bucks
twenty went to three. I just think that the Bucks
are having trouble offensively, but they'll have enough willpower and
strength to pull this one out. And even their record
at eight and eight. However, I'm surprised at their best
offensive record in Carolina, and that was Christian McCaffrey. Uh. Obviously,

(01:00:29):
they beginning to run the ball and they even walked
consistently now that he's gone with the Deante Foreman and
Juba Hubbard. It's a commitment level. Steve Books has committed
to run into football. He's committed to build the team
a certain way. And because when you make that commitment,
because that's your identity, you stick to it even through
the lean moments in games. And so the Carolina Panthers

(01:00:51):
are gonna test the toughness of the Tampa Buccaneers. And
remember the Panthers got on a roll when they were
able to run the football successfully again as the Bucketeers
early in the year. I think they go right back
to it. And even though Tom Brady is the goat
and even though we still view him as the Boogeyman,
this team is flawed and this team is not played well.

(01:01:11):
And I don't see a magic wand that anybody could
wave over this team to make them a title contender.
Um so I would expect the Panthers to win because
I think the Panthers are the better team. Wow, that's
a that's a game. I think if you're a gambler,
you may want to stay away from that game. I
just and I'm rooting for Tom Brady. I want to
see him in the playoffs. But uh, you may be
right on this one. I think my I'm thinking with

(01:01:34):
my heart and novel my head browns at the Commanders today.
The Commanders, believe it or not, are in the playoffs.
If they went today and Dallas loses, Okay, how the
Commanders win plenty of running with their rookie running back
Brian Robinson. He's been tremendous, he really has been. But
there'll be a lot of passing today for the Commanders
because Carson Wentz is gonna get the start of quarterback.

(01:01:54):
And why does he get the start over Taylor Heinrich,
who did so well for the Commanders. Why is that change.
The magic was running out on Tyler Hanekey like he's
done so much. He got him on a nice run.
I think at one point there were five one and
one under his direction. But of late, when you need
to play, he doesn't have that a building. And so

(01:02:14):
Carson Wentz is a more talented player at the position.
And even though we can talk about all the things
that Carson Wentz can't do, he's an upgrade over Hanekey
in terms of as at playmaking ability and big play potential.
And so that's why when you're getting down the stretch
and you need your quarterback to make more plays, that's
why they go in towards Carson Wentz. What do you
like in this one? I like Washington. I really do.

(01:02:37):
Browns have nothing to play for in Washington. Does that
means you a lot? It does mean a lot. But
I would say I'm gonna go with the Browns, and
that only because the Jen Watson in this offense has
to get going. They want to kind of build upon
some things for next year. And so at some point,
as the Sean Watson continues to shake off the Russ,
he's going to have one of those big time performances.

(01:02:57):
It could happen this week because what the managers do,
it's pretty static on defense. This might be the game
where he gets back on track. All right, now, let's
go to Texas because the Jadge are going there to
Texas a host and the Jadge Jack's currently, believe it
or not, are the a f C South leaders. After
the Titans lost to the Texans, Trevor Lawrence trending upward.

(01:03:20):
They've won three straight. What have you seen in Trevor
Lawrence that's made the turnaround in his play the marriageween
he ended up Peterson is perfect. Doug Peterson done a
great job of creating a quarterback friendly system that plays
to take Trevor Lawrence's strengths as a playmaker, quick rhythm,
passes everything underneath a bunch of different playmakers that can

(01:03:41):
catch and then make it happen. Uh. They've done a
really good job with that. And as he's gotten more
comfortable taking care of the ball and getting the ball
out of his hands and trusting the older weapons that
he has around him, the offense has flowed. This week
could be a challenge because Lovey Smith's defense tested patients
and discipline of the court the back. You have to
be willing to take the check down over and over

(01:04:03):
and over again, um and then find a way to
make these tight window throws in the red zone. The
first time they played, Trevor Lawrence wasn't patient enough to
be able to do it. This time. We'll see if
he's grown from his first experience. I'll tell you what.
You look at Trevor Lawrence's stats, I mean t DS
is opposed to seven I N T s. That's pretty good.
I mean he's thrown for over what uh, I say,

(01:04:24):
what thirty yards? I mean, that's it's a pretty good
season for him, especially if what he did last year.
I think there was some question walks and what he
did last year as the number one overall pick in
one draft. But he's got some pretty good receivers and
his kids A Jones not then in Trevior's a t
N can run the bulls that They have a pretty
good balanced defense, offense, excuse me, get offense, his balance

(01:04:45):
and you know the tricky part about it is they
don't really have a true number one receiver h Za Jones,
Marvin Jones, Christian kurk Uh, Evan Ingram. They all take
turns kind of being the lead option in the passing
yame and because of that, that puts the defense in
the bond because whoever gets the hot hand or who
is it, whoever has the favorable matchup is the one

(01:05:06):
that the ball finds over and over and over again.
And so they've done a really good job of doing that.
Trevor has done a good job of not locking on
to one receiver. He just goes to the open man,
and when they're clicking and they get into rhythm, early
offense is really really hard to stop. I like the
Jack This one in a close one because the Texans
I think would love to play the game of spoiler,
but I don't think they can. They usually kind of

(01:05:26):
coll fled up at the end anyway. So I go
with the Jacks. Yeah, I'm gonna go with the Jacks.
I'm gonna go to Jacks because Jacks want to win.
If they win this week and they win next week,
not only do they get into the playoffs, but they
secure winning season and pro football. They've made that seem
seemed like a lot, but it's a big deal for
the Jacks because you talk about a franchise that has
been I mean losing ten plus games over the past

(01:05:48):
decade each and every year, and so it'll be a
huge win. I think they're locked in and focus, and
Doug petersoner said he's gonna play this game to win it.
I expect him to win it. Then we go, Okay,
two teams that are seven and eight right now, that's
the Jets and the Seahawks and all most opposite teams.
And what I mean by that the Jets won seven games.
How they do that? They did it on their defense,
but it's that quarterback play has been pitiful Seattle. The

(01:06:08):
quarterback player is pretty good, Gino Smith made the Pro Bowl,
but the defense can't stop the run. And I would
hurt Nick Colepe at the bottom of the hole with
his sports update saying the Jets are right now gonna
go with Zack Wilson again for next year. I can't
believe it. Wow, Um, I would not be surprised to
hear the Zach Wilson things. The hard part about bringing

(01:06:30):
Zach Wilson back the locker room. The locker room has
lost trust in Zach Wilson and they won't gain that
trust in him. And so he delivers a handful of
big moments that shows them that he's grown from being
a guy who can't play to a guy who's a
solid player, to maybe a guy who's a playmaker. And
the only way that Zach Wilson is going to be

(01:06:51):
able to do that, he's gonna have to do some
soul searching, and he's gonna have to do a lot
of repair on his game by himself, away from the team,
away from the facility. And I don't know, it's almost
like a golfer working on the game. Man. You can
work on your game on the driving range. You can
go and put and chip and all this stuff, but
there's nothing like when you walk up to the tea

(01:07:12):
box and you gotta play eighteen with your buddies. Can
you take all that stuff that you worked on in
practice and can carry over to the way that you
want to play. That's what Zach Wilson has to do,
and only he knows if he's strong enough mentally to
be able to do those things. It's tough, it's tough
to do. I don't know what game it was. Was
it the New England game when they lost ten three?

(01:07:35):
And then the reporter asked him in the postgame news conference,
was it your fault wasn't on you? And he said, no,
I think that was the killer. That was the killer.
I mean, you're the almost the spokesperson for the team.
As a quarterback. You have to suck it up, and
you have to really and truly, you know, be really
politically correct answering questions, and you have to really learn

(01:07:56):
to love everybody on your team even though you don't
think it's your fault. You got to be the leader.
You just have to do that. I saw what Joe
Burrow did this week. He purchased a cruise tickets, cruise
line tickets for his entire offensive line for what they've
done for him this year. That's what you gotta do
as a quarterback. You really have to do that. You
have to do some of those things. And Zach Wilson

(01:08:17):
try to do some of those things. Zach Wilson bought
is guys scooters and those things. But yeah, the accountability
piece is really the piece that he has to add
to his game, and not only in terms of a
taking blame or owning some of the mistakes whether they're
his or not, but also at the commitment level. He
has to be the first one in the last one out.

(01:08:38):
And not only does he have to do it for show,
but the teammates have to know that he's working during
those hours. He's putting in time in the film and
he's putting in time in the facility to work on
his game. And you begin to see those things show
up and practice because then the team, the teammates so
look at him like, Okay, I see you work in Zach.
I see it paying off. And then they began to

(01:09:00):
have a level of confidence in him because he has
done the dirty work and so it's not impossible for
him to be able to regain their trust, but he
has to be an A plus worker. Uh from here
going forward, Well, let's assume what the Jets said when
they announced that Zack Wilson will return next year. Where
do they go with quarterback Zach Wilson? Mike White, I

(01:09:22):
can't believe Joe Flacco would even be considered in the mix.
What do they do? But they have not had luck
at all overdrafting quarterbacks over the last five or six years. Yeah, man,
it's tough, like because did you look at the veteran
quarterback market. There's no one out there that really gets
you excited people to talk about Derek Carter, to talk

(01:09:42):
about Jamie Garoppolo, UM. And they're fine, but they have
their own wards. And then when you look at the
quarterback class, I mean, you're looking at similar stuff that
you could be dealing with that you're experiencing with Zach Wilson. UM.
I can understand why they want to hold on to him.
I can understand why they want to kind of maybe
keep his status quo because it's gonna be hard for

(01:10:03):
him to find an upgrade on the open market this season.
It's amazing. I mean, I I see what happened in
Detroit with the quarterback situation. I mean, and I said
it to you, I think several weeks ago. I think
the Rams would love to have him back quarterbacking the
Rams right now. It's amazing. Sometimes a new environment, a
new coach, a new system can can bring out the
best or bring out the skill set that you really

(01:10:25):
have that you can show. That's the that's the problem
right there. I don't see what's happening right now in
New York. And maybe it is the coaching by I
don't know. We saw you bla blame the coaching in Jacksonville.
Look what have the Trevor Lawrence with the change of coaches.
I mean, he's become what we thought he would become.
Absolutely coaching matters, and coaching matters for sure at the

(01:10:46):
quarterback position. Because what coaching does at that position is
it sets up the table. It sets the table up
for the quarterback. They can make the game very easy
for the quarterback. And what most guys do who operate
what they call quarterback friendly systems easy for the quarterback,
complex for the defense. I mean, I want to run
these same concepts the same four or five plays. I

(01:11:09):
want to dress him up by putting different people, different
people in different locations, but we're gonna run the same route.
So for the read, the read for the quarterback is
the same. I've just moved the pieces around the chest
board a little differently to make the defense have to
guess and work and figure out what it is that
we're doing. Amazing there it is. You got it from
the horse's mouth, And I'm not calling Bucky Brooks a horse,

(01:11:30):
but I tell you what, when it comes to pro football,
I don't think anybody knows the game any better than
Buckey Brooks. My partner here on Sunday he is Bucky Brooks.
Get him on Twitter at Buckey Brooks at anything from
an FSR top of the hour you can get Mike
Harmon at Swollen Dome and my Harmon comes in here
and I have Buckey's best with him as well. All Right,
a new year with the same game. We'll tell you

(01:11:50):
all about it and do bottom barrel betting next byto
barrel betting right around the bed. It's about thirteen minutes
now before the top of the hour. He's Bucky Brooks.
How anythy firming? This is Fox Football Sunny and Fox
Botch Radio. We got a game to play. Let's play.
Bottom was like I wanted to sleep. People get my money.
I'll put your brank to sleep. All right. We got

(01:12:11):
a new man handling the deal. It's the Big Ee Ethan.
Do you know who the big ee is? You know,
I guess I'm the Big e. I'm the new biggie.
Who's the real big Here's the real Hayes? Used right right?
Bucky Elvin Hayes was the big Eat, absolutely the big alright. Well,
here I am the University of Houston taken over the Temple.

(01:12:34):
Owl's finest. All right, here we go. Now, everybody was
telling me I have to do ridiculous games, so just
bear with me. Here, I got cricket Big Bash League Australia.
I got Brisband Heat versus the Sydney Sixers. Is there
a line, Not that I really would know the difference anyway,
Brisbane Heat against it. Well, it's minus one and a

(01:12:54):
half for the Sydney Sixers. Okay, I'm gonna go with
the Sydney Sixes. Why because that kind of like the name,
you know, and it's just it's similar because I don't
like the Miami Heat. I like the Philadelphia seventies sixes ago.
With Sydney, what is Bucky like here? I have no
idea what they were even playing playing cricket in Australia. Yeah,

(01:13:17):
I'm not gonna go with Sydney. I'm gonna go with
the other team Heat. Yeah, I just go with the
Heat because I'm a Heat fan. I'm down with Heat
coach or so I'm gonna go with him. All right, cool? Cool, great,
happy guys. Next, al Right, next, we got darts the
PDC World Championship. We got um Gerwin Price Verse, Gabriel
Clemens Gabriel Clemens is minus one ten kind of like

(01:13:42):
a pick him. It's to pick them. Yeah, So Clemons,
are we playing cricket? What we're playing darts? Now? We're
playing dark No? No, but I'm saying we're playing darts
with game on darts. Are we're playing over which we're
gonna get three in each? This is a buck. He
knows about darts, no idea, he knows darts. That's only good.
Let's go Clemens. Let's go with Clemens. All right, you're

(01:14:03):
gonna go with Clemens. I'm not going with Clemens. You
know why. If he's are related to Roger Clemens, he
might be a cheat. That's what I'm saying. It could
be a relation to Roger Clemens. So I'm going with Price.
All right, I'll take Price, my guy, love it? Okay, cool. Next,
we got check Republic table tennis. Um, we got Jan
Stephen verse Marislaw Barta, and uh we got Barta minus

(01:14:29):
three and a half to win. Whatever that means. I'm
gonna go with Stephen because I like the receiver on
the Buffalo Bills Stephen. Okay, I mean maybe there's some
sort of a connection there. That's that's the only thing
I know, but table tennis is tough. You haven't play
table tennis, you know, bucket. They got a table tennis
the kind of a in house tournament with the Cincinnati
Bengals in their clubhouse. And Joe Burrow is a pretty

(01:14:49):
good table tennis player. Oh, I can see with a
handout coordination because of that, because you brought up that
a little table tennis, little pink poe. I'm going to
the other game. I'm going to the other one I
get him from the name was bad Miroslav Barta. Yeah, alright,
Canadian Women's Hockey League. We got the Red Deer Rebels

(01:15:11):
versus the Calgary Hitman, the over under seven goals. What
do we got? Oh? My, up, my, you know what.
I'm gonna go with the Calgary Hitman because any women's
team that could be called a hit men's team, they
gotta be tough. Well, I gave me, well, let's go
over under here, let's go over under. I'm switching it
up a little bit. Goals in the game seven seven

(01:15:32):
is the number we're not I'll go on to seven.
I've got the Calgary hit Men. You know, you would
think that a women's team wouldn't we want to call
men the Calgary hit women? Right? You're hit? You think
I was thinking the same thing, but yeah, yeah, that's
I thought it was weird. I'm gonna go. I'm gonna
go over over over over, high scoring, high scoring. Watching

(01:15:55):
the playoffs last night, high scoring. Love it alright, great
last one here for you guys. As we get through
this United Rugby Championship, we're just gonna go pick them here.
We got the scarlets first to Newport went Dragons. Uh,
let's go to dragons. I'll take the dragons, all right.

(01:16:15):
You know I'm gonna go. And I don't normally do
with this. I don't really agree with Bucky Brooks on
these games, but I'm gonna go with the Dragons still
because I don't live too far from Newport and it's Newport, Kentucky.
But still I have the allegiance to Newports, so I'm
gonna stick with the Newport Dragons to see. And I
went with the dragons because my actoral debut I was

(01:16:35):
Pete in Peace Dragon as a kid, So that's why
I'm going with the dragons. Yeah, like that a little story,
biggie or litterally, we'll call you literally, how do you
think you did? You did? Okay, you got through it.
I think all right, next time, I'm just gonna bring
some NFL and NBA to you, guys. It's just more stuff, right,

(01:16:59):
stuff nobody else would bet on, as long as you
guys enjoy it, enjoy it's fun. I mean, I know
it's worked for you. I mean I don't even know
how you find these games or how are you gonna
get the results? How are you gonna get the results
of this dark thing with price and the clemmons? So
you go to um, you just go to any gambling site.
They have those online, that's right, yeah, Bovado, that's where

(01:17:20):
I found these lines. So if anybody wants to gamble
on this stuff. So you're telling me that we call
a bottom barrel betting and we kind of laugh at it,
but they're actually degenerates out there betting on darts. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
I even have a buddy from college who wakes up
at two a m. Eastern time and bets on this
kind of stuff. But you know, he's got other issues.
The way you know he bets on darts, I mean

(01:17:41):
he actually follows it. He's just saying, look, I like
this guy's name, and I'm gonna do it. He goes
on the internet and kind of follows the career of
this kid, Clemmons or Price. I think it's both. I
think yeah people people are I think it's both. It's names,
and then it's like some type of interest in it. See.
I always thought Bucky that darts was kind of like
a drinking man's game. You got to a bar and

(01:18:03):
have a couple of hits and a couple of bruise,
and you stop playing darts right now. No, we we
played it in the dorm room. So that's why I
was familiar with like cricket in those things like that
was always a big activity for us in school. Really impressive.
Wait a minute, how do you played darts in the door?
You get a dart board and back of a door
and just go and go at it. Yeah. You sit

(01:18:25):
in the line and you toss your tossed, you throw them. Yeah.
You gotta get your form right. Wow. You know, I
kind of like those sports. And you really have to
be athletic, right, I mean, you just have good hand
eye coordination and you'll be okay. You don't have to run,
you don't have to do push ups, no calisthenics, and
you really and truly don't have to sweat. And you
probably could drink while you're doing it too. I mean,

(01:18:47):
if you want to have a driverage while you're doing it, yeah,
I'm sure you can participate. It probably affects you games,
so but yeah, you can do it. I love these
are the games I like. I'm gonna try to pick
out some more of these unathletic quote athletic events. They
were all right, he's the swollen dome and he's coming
at you on Fox Football Sunday right here on Fox Next.
Still salty that we've already passed that part in our

(01:19:10):
calendar where I don't get to hear Andy Williams on
the radio every five minutes telling me that it's the
most wonderful time of the year, because we shouldn't re
reminded of that for three sixty five, not just for
thirty days. The wait a minute, you could hit that
same music when you listen to the Staples TV commercials.
Nicely done. It's Andy Furman alongside Bucky Brooks Up my Carmen,

(01:19:30):
welcome man, Fox Football Sunday continues. That's all I just
get kind of giddy when we get into the holiday
holiday holiday spirit. You know why, because for a moment
like even if people are having like we all have
our issues, but there there's a little more kindness out there,
a little more positivity, a little more sharing, except for
people that steal meat sticks out of gifts that get

(01:19:51):
sent by other hosts. But there's a whole other problem
going on here, Fellas, we got a rat in the
building and I'm calling him out here. I want to
get your opinion here of how I best get to
the bottom line here. Our colleague already span your sends
gift baskets and little bags to our our producers and
our our technical producers and and the update anchors at

(01:20:12):
and he includes various sundry items from the great state
of Vermont, one of which is a nice tasty meat stick.
Several of those bags after they were arrived, guess what,
somebody decided to help themselves some more meat sticks started.
That's low. It's it's reason the people we work with, exactly.

(01:20:36):
It's it's radio though, Bucky so level. I'm not surprised.
Oh my gosh, that's funny. But yes, he he always
does this right. Here's some syrup. Here's sticks out to anybody,
you know what, there's always a chance to to do
that just for giggles, But it was just kind of funny.
This week it became a you know, we needed a

(01:20:58):
super sleuth around here to go ruined trying to figure
out who I mean, we will well, I mean maybe
you guys didn't, but I watched the latest Knives Out
Mystery on Netflix. We're trying to find the clues. So
we're walking around staring people down in their eyes, going
did you take the meat sticks? Don't they well? I

(01:21:18):
mean it's one of those things where maybe they work,
maybe they don't. Maybe I need to go buy myself
some of those little micro ones that you see on
television to protect your stuff. You need this. Maybe I'll
just put a ring doorbell over there. I don't know,
we'll see, but that's where we're at here, piece goodwill
and theft of meat sticks. To start your New year.

(01:21:38):
Happy New Year, gentlemen, Week seventeen. Your National Football League.
It's been really a crazy rod. A crazy rod when
you think about just the tops, and I mean the
the ups and downs of an NFL season. Who we
thought were going to be the great teams, the teams
that got hot in the middle of the teams that

(01:21:59):
have faded fast. And here we are two weeks away
from kind of finding out who's getting into the tournament,
which what's been funny? Uh, and then something I'd bring
up over the course of the week, and obviously we'll
get to Uh, we've got five games left on the
slate to pick up for what you guys have done
the first two hours here. Uh, Fox Football Sunday at
Andy Furman. FS are at Bucky Brooks where you find

(01:22:21):
them on Twitter. All the analysis that we've done, but
the fact that we're sitting here a week seventeen and
mathematically after as you said, Bucky, they have been flow
and and rise and fall of squads that both Pittsburgh
and Green Bay are mathematically still alive. It is really
truly amazing based on the way the early part of
this season went for both of those squads. Yeah, it

(01:22:45):
is kind of funny to see that, but you know what,
this is what the National Football League want. The league
is a much better league when everyone is hovering right
around five. And the reason why I say this better
is you have more interest in intrigue and with seven
teams going in the tournament, the number one seed in
each conference receiving the By the way the league is

(01:23:06):
week to week, you never know which team is going
to show up. I think you have more people that
are drawn to the league because you have fewer teams
that are already out of the conversation as a postseason team.
You know, you always believe in the statement less is more.
You know, when I say less is more, I mean
when they play a hundred sixty two games in baseball,
I gotta believe less is more, But less is more

(01:23:27):
in the opposite direction in the NFL, it's better to
have more teams that are around the five hundred marks
bucket mentioned than have a couple of top heavy teams
where people don't follow him. Every week is so important
and it means so much. And this year more than
any year, I would think, guys, is that there's been
bigger surprise than before in the In the preseason and
we looked at the off season, we thought Denver's gonna

(01:23:49):
rock and roll. You know, Russell Wilson, big trade. That's
been a big surprise. The other way, a flop, the
Rams they talk about post Super Bowl whatever, you know, hangover.
They've been a tremendous flop of a surprise as well.
And the Jacksonville Jaguars, big surprise to on our big
board here Andy, that we have in the studios, and

(01:24:10):
and I'll take a picture of it. Because some good,
some bad, some ugly in the preseason predictions and perhaps
your name is on there having me, you know, had
it filled it out by proxy. Well, so they we
always do this thing, right, here's your conference winners, super
Bowl winner surprise story. Uh, biggest reached, you know that
kind of thing. I had the Jaguars making the playoffs

(01:24:30):
as a wild card team. So I feel moderately uh
and entertained and enlightened, and given all the other things
that I've gotten wrong, I am gonna die on that hill, uh,
no question about it. Between that and thinking that Denver
would be bad, those are my two things to trumpet
my a f C predictions of this year. So I

(01:24:51):
did not think it would work in Denver. I thought
Russell was already a diminishing product. Uh. And then obviously
no no faith in your head coaches they brought him in.
But ye, to your point, the December games, right, even
going back to baseball, adding the second wild card if
you've got some interest, and certainly football has some other
built in things between the largesse of gambling and fantasy football.

(01:25:16):
Not that fantasy baseball doesn't still have its aficionados, but
let's face it, from a push push push proposition of
big companies, gaming companies, et cetera, it's not the same.
But having teams viable, even if it's a snowball's chance,
uh in weeks sixteen seventeen eighteen is huge. Now. It

(01:25:37):
is curious that we're getting back to in week seventeen
the situation like we used to have with those Indianapolis
Colts all those years ago, of all, right, are they
going to play? Or am I gonna get a queen's
wave and a and a walk to the bench just
so people can give them a nice round of applause
for a job done. And who would be the equivalent

(01:25:58):
of the Tennessee tit or Jacksonville Jaguars Organser team here?
Who would be there? Jim Sorgi is the question we're
all asking as we right, because he was a guy
that never saw the field as a backup to Peyton
and as a backup to Eli. I never saw the
field because those guys didn't get hurt and miss games.
And then all of a sudden, there he was Week sixteen,

(01:26:19):
Week seventeen. Remember there he is. That guy's collected a
check all year. Now he's gonna get ludgeoned because the
Colts are sitting everybody down in the final weeks. So um,
but it keeps folks interested, right, it keeps those cities interested.
You look at it today, even on a New Year's Day. Uh,
your cost of get ins based on the secondary market

(01:26:41):
still pretty healthy in most most cities. All Right, you
got a couple of I mean Jacksonville, Houston for eighteen bucks.
Come on, get on down to n RG. Lovey Smith's
had his time with with Trevor Lawrence these last couple
of times. Although now they might say, we we need
that number one pick. You know, that's the one that
I'm I'm curious about, right because they played hard. They've

(01:27:06):
done a good job of being competitive. They found this
little weird thing with this two quarterback system where they're
alternating plays, looking like the Cowboys back in the day
with Craig Morton and Roger Staby. But they've been able
to do it. They've been able to do it successfully,
But do they want to do it at the cost
of the number one overall pick, because yesterday we had

(01:27:27):
a chance to see both of the quarterbacks that will
be in consideration if they elect to come out uh C. J. Stroud,
Bryce Young, you're the Houston text and you could be
sitting at the top of the board, but you're picking
the litter. Do you want to go give that up
for some wins? I wouldn't worry about it because I
have not won a home game all year, but you

(01:27:50):
won your last nine in a row against the Jaguars.
You know that stuff to me is just father. You know,
it really is. It's great for game notes and things
like that. Mike and Buck, but I think that when
you look at the team on paper now and what
they've done lately, I don't look at what they've done
nine times ago. It's a different unit. It's a different team.

(01:28:11):
I don't think it needs anything. I really don't. I
agreed to to a point. Andy and Bucky you can
speak to this here. Second, just the idea that you
know how how love E Smith and that defense has
has and contained Trevor Lawrence right that we haven't seen
him really have any semblance of success against this squad.
So the curiosity here, as much as I'm on board,

(01:28:35):
you know what the Jaguars had build at TNS out
A thousand yards Guys like he's actually made a He's
a thousand yard rusher with two weeks left in this
NFL season, one of the great unsung heroes, and all
of this stuff as we go through. But yeah, that
win against Tennessee kind of puts a jolt into stuff.

(01:28:56):
But buy Smith's also a prideful guy, right who was
just seeing all the notes and hearkening back to his
final year in Chicago when they went ten and six.
And he's one of those guys that just like on
the other side with Doug Peterson saying, hey, we're full tilt.
We'll see if that's the case once the game kicks off.
But uh, and you've got to make your fantasy, uh

(01:29:18):
championship lineup decisions based on wishing and hoping. But for
loveye Smith, I find it hard to believe he'd never
just say, okay, we back down. Yeah I don't. I don't,
I don't. Yeah, I don't think they're back down like that.
I do wonder because there's been speculation. Obviously, they talk
about Lovey Smith and the tough year that the team
has had. He only has two wins on his resume.

(01:29:40):
Are they gonna move on from him and it is
Josh mccow coming in or whatever they're gonna do. I
think this has to be an organizational decision on how
you play this out, um, because if love he's coming back,
then he has to. I would think you would have
to have some assurances knowing, Hey, I'm gonna take these
ails at the end of the year to get us
the number one pick, but I'm gonna be here to
help us build it back up otherwise, and I'm gonna

(01:30:01):
coach it like my life is on a lot. I'm
gonna keep trying to build momentum to show ownership. We
have a trending in the right direction. I'd be interesting
to see how this team plays it out, because they
certainly didn't look like a team that was taking last
week against the Texas. They're not tacking, they're just bad.
I'll tell you what. They're gonna lose to Jacksonville today
and then on January seven, I guess the last games

(01:30:21):
eight the eighth there at Indian they play at Indianapolis,
which to me is gonna be billed as the Toilet Bowl.
That's another bowl game, that's the toilet Bowl. That's you
get a sponsor like Santa Flush, just sponsor that game,
call it the Toilet Bowl. And then the next day,
the January nine, Lovey Smith will be fired. I have
nothing personal against LOVEE. Smith, but you know what, Lovey,
find the place that you could win. You can one

(01:30:41):
year in Chicago, but basically just your head was over five.
You went to Illinois. You destroyed that program. I mean,
could you go somewhere and win, maybe high school. Do
what Jeff Saturday did the opposite direction, go back to
high school. Now Jeff started, Saturday started high school, went
to the coach. You go back to high school and coach. Well.
To be fair, the Illinois system and UH production has

(01:31:04):
not been very good since Simeon Rice was running around
the sidelines. Guys. To date myself, UH Illinois football is
Brett Bielem has done more in a year than they
did for three deck shades that squid. But yeah, it'll
be interested to watch play out. I would be remiss
if we didn't at least take one minute before we
UH dive into our other games of the day, gentlemen,

(01:31:27):
of what you saw yesterday because it ties to a
story that was circulating again of the push in the NFL. Hey,
we need full time officials. We really need to make
this happen. And then we watch, well what we watched
in the semifinal games and including a number of controversial plays,
uh in the early game. Um, but what what did

(01:31:49):
you take away from your summer semifinal games other than
my big ten apologies have to be even longer based
on the the elves they took well a couple and
he's de Officiating did play a role in the outcome
of those games, particularly the Michigan game. Uh. What I
can't understand is I think sometimes when it comes to
replay officiating, common sense should prevail. So the long what

(01:32:15):
would have been a touchdown there was called back and
he brought it into one yard line. For as long
as I've been watching football, that is a touchdown all day,
every day. Now, technically you can slow it down and say, well,
you know, his but hit the ground one inch short
of the goal line. But for as long as I've
been watching football, that has always been a touchdown, and

(01:32:35):
it's never been anything controversial about that, and so for
that to be wiped off the board. Now they still
gotta take care of all the game. But common sense
should prevail in that situation, and then in the other
situation at the end of the game, if you're going
to kind of legislate targeting and doing all these other things,

(01:32:56):
I need to see a level of consistency when you're
dispensing this punishment. Didn't that seemed like it was right
by the book of what they've been trying to legislate out.
That's what it appeared to me. To me, that was
about his clear cut. It's like that would be on
the the video that you show of hey don't do this. Yes,
but then maybe you're feeling as an official, you don't

(01:33:16):
want to kind of inject yourself into the game at
that moment because if you call that targeting, it takes
a fourth and tent that had gone TCUs way. It
makes it a first intent for Michigan. It moves them
down to field fifteen yards, and you know how the
game was looking. So yeah, I just common sense, just
common sense. You're I'm gonna go back to this Michigan game.

(01:33:39):
I tell you, the one thing I hope and pray
that doesn't happens as some lunatic for some conference office
comes out with an announcement tomorrow saying, yeah, we made
a mistake. That to me is worse than making the mistake.
Let it go. It happen, and you know, guys, we've
seen that happen in sports before. Oh we blew it.
The police, the police don't do that. Please. You know
you did blow it, but I don't want to an

(01:34:00):
official that you blew it. It was terrible. It was
a touchdown and the targeting situation. I'm not certain if
I heard this on TV or radio, because I'm like
a lunatic. When I watched the games on TV, I
sometimes have the radio call on at the same time.
I just do that, and I think it may have
been at the radio call when the guy said, uh,
what this twenty five seconds to go? What are you doing?

(01:34:20):
And the game? It's me? I want nuts. I was
ready to throw the radio out the window. What are
you saying? What do you say? Time has no fact
that if the call is called and that's the right call,
make the call, because then all of a sudden has
a penalty fifteen yards and Michigan gets the football. What
the hell really, if the game is over, what do
you wasted time for? I know he said that, and

(01:34:41):
I think it was on the radio call. I'm gonna
go back and check that later today. Yeah, we'll have
to go back and find the audio tape. Because I'm
a big believer of the continuity consistency in all games. Bucky,
you're on the sidelines, coaching, coaching the kids in high school,
all right, you just want consistency. Right when we had
a little bit of that, you know, with the you know,

(01:35:04):
considerations of down distance, time whatever else and place on
the field whatever. I mean. I watched it, and it
drives me nuts with you know, even just watching my
kids soccer games, like, all right, someone just ran through
like they were a free safety at midfield. You're gonna
call that one every five or six times. It's like
consistently if that's not playing soccer anymore, Like it's Ed

(01:35:26):
Reid back there taking folks out by the way. Congratulations
to him on his appointment at Bethune Cookman. But it's
just the idea of consistency there and then down the
stretch that last possession for Ohio State. I'm always looking
for a little more sense of urgency with my play calling,
uh and and decision making. But wait a minute, are

(01:35:47):
you one of those parents at the soccer game that
runs out the charges the official to anybody? I will
ask for a point of clarification every once in a while,
Oh you got it that hangs by the fence and
just no, no, no, not himself waiting waiting for the
guy just to happen to walk by, like, hey, hangs

(01:36:07):
by his car has official car, Just just saying I'm
certainly not that guy. Once it's done, it's done. But
in game, y'all wear you out if you're terrible. I
got no qualms about that. Oh did pay me to
yell on the radio? You think that turns off as
soon as I'm off the clock. Know that's funny. Mike,

(01:36:29):
I gotta ask you this quick because you are a
big tin homer uh and thinking about this, what are
your thoughts on Michigan Land and Egg in the game
Because the Michigan team that we had Washington talked about,
we talked about him on Sundays. I mean a bunch
a lot. What do you think about them? In my mind,
I felt like they got away from who they were.

(01:36:50):
They tried to be somebody different in that game. What
do you think about that? Like, where does that come from? Well,
there were two things to it. Right, all week we
heard about regret, we heard about the one that got away,
and blah blah blah talking up a good game. And
then it was a little bit finesse versus TCU came
over and random, random over they beat him at their

(01:37:12):
own game. But where'd that come from? Come on, really,
in the first quarter, they should have punched it right in,
come right, beat me the physical team that you were
all year long, win the line of scrimmage, and then
they got bullied in their own game and all of
a sudden, you're down. And as we know with Michigan

(01:37:32):
football historically, and yeah, they made a great effort of it.
And it's a narrow loss, but uh still salt nous
all around. But not often do you have two teams
in your conference score more than forty points each in
a bowl game and they both lose. We're broadcasting live
for the tire ract dot com studios. Tire ract dot com.
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(01:37:53):
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He's Andy Ferman, that's Bucky Brooks. Up, Mike Carmen. We'll
continue going through. We've got five games to preview. Each
of them has a nice subplot to it. We'll do
that next year on Fox. Hey, welcome back in Fox
Sports Radio from the tire rack dot Com studios. This

(01:38:16):
is Fox Football Sun Now Mike Carmen alongside me analyst,
former NFL player, coach, mentor columnist Bucky Brooks. My guy,
Andy ferman S I d PR Promotions and long time
radio legend at Andy Ferman fs are where you find

(01:38:39):
him on Twitter find Bucky over at Bucky Brooks. Gentlemen,
we got five games to get to. All of them
have their different levels of intrigue as we flow through it.
So why don't we just get started right away? All right?
So they at forty niners given nine and a half
points here obviously the Las Vegas Raiders, UH and X

(01:39:00):
sercise in congratulations on a job um done. As related
to Derek Carr in his nine years with the squad,
Jared Stidham will get the start. I know you guys
would have just chopped this up a little bit earlier
in the morning, but the audience has always changing. Forty
Niners are rolling. Brock Purdy is the man of the hour.

(01:39:22):
Jared stidon was a guy once a long upon a
time people were buying his rookie cards saying he's gonna
be the next guy in New England and and he wasn't. Uh,
And now he gets his opportunity with McDaniels in Laws Vegas. Andy,
First off, are are you really aware and loving the
CV of Jared Stidham. Do you think Derek Carr got screwed?

(01:39:44):
Because the opinions on that have been all over the
map this weekend? Well, initially I did, initially and saying
what are the Raiders doing because basically the playoff hopes
is still dim there they're still there, then officially out
yet however, you know Bucky in light of me, and
he said, look, this guy is getting forty millions at
forty million, l man, and that basically almost double the
salary of the next highest paid player on that ball club,

(01:40:05):
and he's not producing. They expect more. You get forty
million dollars, you expect more? Really, and you know to
to throw him out when the team is basically on
the doorstep of potential playoffs. It bothers me because if
I'm a teammate, I think I have a better chance
of winning, even though Derek Cars I'm performing up to
what they expect. They have a better chance of winning
with Derek car than with Janet Stidham. I mean, that's

(01:40:27):
just my take on it. And I don't think they
were gonna be the forty Niners anyway. George Kittle's hot
as a firecracker. He has four touchdowns over the last
two weeks. That matches his total of his first eleven
appearances of two. I mean, I just think that this
is a different animal. The fourty Niners are a beast.
They really aren't. Bucky Again, to quote Bucky Brooks, he
predicts them to be in the in the super Bowl.
Pretty good chance that they will be. I like, I

(01:40:50):
like what the Niners are doing. But we'll go back
to the Raiders and we go back to why you
make this move. Your Josh McDaniels, Josh mcguinneers came over
and even though the Raiders were a playoff team with
Derek Carr, uh, this is a team that has only
been to two playoffs under his watch. Uh, the one
year they went twenties sixteen. I think he played at
a high level. They were talked about him being an

(01:41:12):
m v P. Yeah, yeah, he broke his legs, then
it was then it was done. Connor Cook starts in
the postseason and they're done. He comes back last year,
the year one and done to the Cincinnati Bengals, and
so Josh mcgames is looking at the quarterback and he's saying,
have the Raiders the franchise fully exhausted everything that they
could do with him this year? In the off season,

(01:41:33):
they're gonna get his best buddy, who also happened to
be the number one receiver in the league in Davante Adams,
to go with Darren Well and Hunter renfro. So, now
you have three Pro Bowl players on the outside, you
have Josh Jacobs, a Pro Bowl player in the backfield,
and you expect this offense to pop, and it never popped.
In fact, he played worst this year than he played
in previous years, and the last four games, as I told,

(01:41:56):
he's only completed fifty of his passes six now seven
interceptions for forty million. All the quarterback. You expect more,
and that's why they poured a plug on the Derek
Carr experience. Yeah, the big thing is in an age
where completion percentage I think maybe slightly overblown, is grossly inefficient.
And I know there were injuries and if we go

(01:42:18):
to his career as a whole, look, the Raiders are
a mess. And but here's the deal. Let mean, I hear,
I agree with everything you say, but but the timing
could be questioned. And I'll tell you what if if
I'm in management, I know why I pulled him. Now,
I don't want to get heard if I'm gonna put
on the trading block. But that Andy is like I
think a lot of folks will want this to be
the case. But nobody's walking up there going, hey, we

(01:42:40):
can't let Derek take another hit because then that contract
is guaranteed. Let's go through his contract here on the
white board with you all. Now, I mean, we're not dumb.
We know that that's the case, right, I mean we're
we all can can push the brush aside and find
what we're looking for here as related to Derek Carr.

(01:43:02):
The one thing I do want to, you know, make
sure to mention is like last year was one of
the cool things that you've ever seen from from quarterbacks
in terms of going through adversity with all the lawsuits
and allegations and problems, and he and Massacia really did
a good job keeping that team together. Here's the problem.
You got rewarded for that, and then you didn't take
it forward, and here we are in the next phases

(01:43:26):
of whether he gets dealt, whether he gets released. I say,
he really fits the suit of what Ballard and indian
because Ballard got the vote of confidence, So why not
just make him the next quarterback of Indianapolis. Now I
have to jest, but it's something if you're if you're
the ins coast, do you want to keep taking broken
with quarterbacks and try and fix him. That's why Chris

(01:43:47):
Ballard shouldn't still have his job, you know, or someone
else should have to pick the quarterback while he does
does everything else. Yeah, because that's what it comes down to, Like,
do you feel like Derek Karr is a difference maker
that will elevate the squad? Now there's nothing that suggests
that he can do that. Now you are getting a
quarterback who's been a solid quarterback of top fifteen quarterback

(01:44:10):
for the entirety of his career. But I don't know
if you're getting anyone that can take a good team
and make them great. Because this team that he had,
the weapons that he had around him, great weapons, the
play caller as a play caller. You saw the work
that he was able to do with Tom Brady and
those things as a play caller. So he's had playmates yet,

(01:44:32):
uh play caller, he just doesn't have necessarily to protection
up front. But at some point, when you're forty million
dollar man, you gotta make some of the stuff right.
But let me say this, you you make a great point.
They had great players, great receivers on the offensive sign
around him, and maybe you don't need an elite quarterback
to compensate with great players around you. You know. I'm
just thinking with Brock Purdy done a better job with

(01:44:55):
the Raiders than than Derek Carr did. I mean, maybe
if you have great players, they make the quarterback better.
Think about that some of it, and I think it
also depends on the level of the play caller. I
think with cal S, Kyle Shanahan is doing a great
job of Kyle Shanahan is a video gamer, and Brodfordy's
the joystick. So Kyle Shanahan is the teenager that's stuck

(01:45:16):
in the basement all day. You're putting the food up
under the door and all that, because he never leaves
his room and he's wearing people out playing the video game.
And Brock Purdy is an upgrade over Jimmy Garoppolo because
he doesn't exactly according to script. I don't know if
Derek Carr can do that consistently. I don't know if
he can stick to the script because even with John Gruten,

(01:45:37):
they had some issues that some friction in terms of
how Derek Carr played and those things. So we'll see
he's a solid quarterback, he's a bridge quarterback. I don't
know if he's an upgraded quarterback. I don't know if
he turns your team from good to great. If you
signed Derek Carr, as former broadcaster and Raider executive Mike
Mayock would say, he's a jag. The other part, um

(01:45:57):
Jacob's uh faster passed and think they could have anticipated, right,
is the guy they didn't even tender his fifth year offer.
So you got that much production out of the run
game that you didn't expect and it still didn't help
Derek Carr. Case closed. All right, we'll go over to
Nick Cope now and get an update on what's going
on in our sporting universe, some of the ins and
outs for Week seventeen of our National Football League. Thank

(01:46:19):
you very much, Mike. And on that topic with the Raiders,
no surprise but a report from the NFL media this
morning that the Raiders are expected to explore trading car
at the end of the season, and even though car
famously had said that he'd rather retire than play for
another team, they report that he has no plans to
do so Elsewhere. Another report from NFL media says the

(01:46:40):
Jets are not planning to explore a trade for quarterback
Zach Wilson, setting him up to return to the team
for a third season. ESPN reports Jalen Hurts will now
play today for the Eagles, but he is expected to
be available for the regular season finale against the Giants.
NFL media saying the Broncos are expected to be very
aggressive in their head coaching search, targeting the likes of

(01:47:03):
Sean Payton, Jim Harbaugh, and Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn.
In terms of player availability on this NFL Sunday, the
following players, according to reports, are expected to play. Chargers
defensive end Joey Bosa. That'll be for the first time
since Week three, Jaguars linebacker Trayvon Walker. For the Patriots,
running back Romandre Stevenson and tight end Hunter Henry Seahawks

(01:47:26):
receiver Tyler Launchett, Saints corner marks Sean Lattimore and receiver
Chris o'lava, and Bears receiver Chase Claypool again. All of
those players are expected to go. For the Packers, receiver
Christian Watson, they're gonna have him go through pregame warmups
before they determine if he can play against the Vikings.
He didn't have any live reps this week in practice.

(01:47:46):
Rams tynend Tyler Higbee will play against the Chargers and Bengals.
Tynan Hayden Hurst is off of Cincinnati's injury report now,
so he is good to go for Monday night's game
against the Bills. In college football, we've got the National
Championship matchup. It'll be number one Georgia against number three
TCU in Los Angeles so Fine Stadium. On January nine.

(01:48:07):
Georgia had to rally from down fourteen points in the
fourth quarter for a forty two forty one win over
Ohio State at the Peach Bowl. It's the largest fourth
quarter comeback in the CFP era sets and ben at
three yards and three touchdowns. And then at the Fiesta Bowl,
TCU led by as many as nineteen points to hang
on for the upset of Michigan. Max Duggan accounted for

(01:48:30):
four touchdowns. TCU had a couple of picks six is
as well, Mike, Andy Bucky. Back to you guys. Thanks, Nick,
appreciate it and Nick cope with us each and every
week here Fox Sports our Fox Football Sunny. We haven't
changed the name of the show just yet. Uh. It
is the new year, though, Happy New Year. Wherever you're listening,
we appreciate you making us part of your morning as

(01:48:50):
you're out and about however you're listening. Download the I
Heart Radio app. Still the best gift you can give folks.
Why because it's free. Just a little bit of your
time to put that link together and just say, hey,
give me your phone if you if you have someone
that's technologically deficient at your your dinner table, maybe at
your holiday party, you go around and install the I
Heart Radio app for them, and you're giving them the

(01:49:11):
best gift possible, twenty four hours a day of Fox
Sports Radio. Uh, that's Bucky Brooks, that's Andy Vermont on
Mike Carmen. Let's get one more game in here, please
do Chargers six and a half point favorites. Uh, they
finally get Joey Bosa back. Guys, I've been counting the
number of lookovers to the sidelines the last couple of weeks.

(01:49:33):
Have you played it into a drinking game? You didn't
see the second half of anyone? What the Charges have
been building here because it's been so frequent. He's gonna
get back to practice. It's gonna get back to practice.
There he is, Uh, their eighth in the league turnover
differential on at a plus four, taking care of the ball.
And and I would say, and maybe maybe I try
to give myself too much credit as football annals. The

(01:49:55):
fantasy numbers haven't necessarily been there. But justin Herbert playing
some good football and now he's at his wide receivers back.
Maybe long term you get the lineman back. Rashawns later
to two its Northwestern? Oh here, because we're not playing
any Bowl games or or any of that fun stuff.
But uh six and a half point favorites here in
the so Fi Battle this afternoon, Gentleman Andy, uh do,

(01:50:19):
does Baker Mayfield give them a puncher's chance? He and
Cam Akers as they auditioned for I'm a trend guy.
When I look at the Charge I see they've won
four of the last five. They're on a roll. You
know when the schedule makers made the schedule. This is
like the Battle of Los Angeles, the former Super Bowl
chance playing the Charges. Now the Charges are in the
thick of the playoff chase, the number five seed in

(01:50:39):
the FC that's in the grasp and the Rams are
finished really so they have everything to play for and
they're gonna win. They're a healthier team and a better team. Yeah,
I'm with you on that. And I look at the Charges.
I look at the way Justin Herbert has been playing.
He's been lights out. You get all the weapons that
you bring back, Mike Williams, Keenan Allen, you have the
growth of Andre Carter and Josh Palmer. They have all

(01:51:02):
the weapons that you want to throw after them using
Justin I mean Austin Ekeler in a variety of ways
to get them to touchdowns down to the red zone.
They're they're a talented offense. My question with the Charges
has always been their defense. And Brandon's Daily can sit
in here and talk about this is a tough, physical,
heart nose team. But you can't be a tough, physical,
heart noose team if you can't stop to run. And

(01:51:23):
so we will see the Charges in the postseason how
tough they are, because we think about some of the
tough teams in the a f C. They can run
it at you. And are the Chargers discipline enough and
physical enough to stop the ring game? Well that's it.
Even you know teams where we we try to say,
well they don't have the run game. Buffalo seventh in
the NFL in terms of rushing yards per game. Offensively, yes,

(01:51:48):
Josh Allen a bunch, but you add Cook, you add
Singletary of that. Yeah, there's gonna be some juggerna you're
gonna have to work through. Uh and Cincinnati no Lyle Collins.
But still trying to figure out how to get Joe
Mixon going. Averaging as a squad just under a hundred
rushing yards per game. But you know what, we'll preview
that Buffalo Cincinnati game as well as a couple of
others as we continue here from the tire Ract dot

(01:52:10):
Com Studios. It goes so fast. I want to crab
so much information into people's heads, guys, and we'll try
to get as much as we can in next year
on Fox. Welcome back in Fox Sports or radio live
for the tire Act dot Com Studios. Man, this hour
goes so fast. We'll get Andy and Bucky's best here
in a couple of minutes. We've got a few games

(01:52:30):
left to sort out. Gentlemen, it just goes too fast
and it or is that just the clock in my head?
I think they both quit on me. I don't know
what's in your head. Well the voice, I'm going back
and forth, problem back there, back, all right, good, good
to have you guys back. All right, we got three
games left, uh, all with different implications. I think some
folks groaned openly when they moved Pittsburgh Baltimore to Sunday

(01:52:54):
night football. Yeah, we can have another sixteen fourteen game.
And the only thing that we're gonna keep talking about
is Mike Tomlin's streak. And I like that there's still alive.
I liked his comments earlier. It's like, hey, if they
flex she in, that means you're still playing for something.
But from aesthetics purposes, this is one where the other
networks really did their best to play keep away with

(01:53:16):
what we're probably more enticing and entertaining games. But either way,
Pittsburgh a two and a half point favorite, lots to
play for here Baltimore still with Huntley and all the
questions swirling around Lamar Jackson. Andy, what are you thinking
for Sunday night football? Will you be watching or will
you find another wation of Elf again? I'll be watching,

(01:53:37):
but I gotta switch back to Yellowstone. You know it's
gonna be tough. No, there you go. I'm just catching up.
That's one of the shows I've been binge watching. You know.
I I like to steal this because I like Mike Tomlin.
I want to seem a losing season. I'd love to
see the get in the playoffs, and I think that
the door is open for them with Lamar Jackson not
gonna play. I really believe that. Plus, you know, I
think they have got a lot to play for. They

(01:53:58):
really do. Yeah, dont want to. I don't want se
him getting the playofs. I don't see him getting a
playoffs like a school if he hasn't winning season. I don't.
I don't knows. He's like my entertainment dollar needs rather
rather see another team, like a team just languaging down
at the bottom. I know the Patriots have an opportunity
to get in if they they do it, I wouldn't

(01:54:18):
mind seeing that because I'm still hopeful that, hey, maybe
Bill Belicick can show us his genius, his ingenuity trying
to get him right, Matt Patricia finally gets it all done,
gets it right into postseason. They're go on a little
run and put off an upset something like that. But
I mean, I like this still the bad. I don't
need to see him in the postseason. Yeah, we have
two other games to get to. But I will jump

(01:54:38):
on the New England side because one of the lessons
we talked about in the holidays, right, be kinder gentler, Uh,
turn new leaves right, new Year's resolutions. I would say
this we we learned from the Patriots. Get someone to
love you like Bill Belichick loves Romandre Stevenson. I've never
seen him go out of his way to absolve guys

(01:54:59):
for any culpa ability of anything in twenty plus years.
But at every turn it's like, nah, forward, progress was
kind of stop sick. How about hey, he should have
just gone down instead of trying to fight, because they
might have been able to come back and sting the
Bengals now instead of a turnover. But Bill went out
of his way to absolve his young running back of
any responsibility whatsoever. So find someone in your life that

(01:55:22):
loves you that unconditionally. How about Minnesota, Green Bay, Green
Bay three point favorite. Everybody keeps putting that F word
in front of Minnesota, and no, not because of missfield
goals or playoff utility that you're thinking about. Get your
minds out of the gutter on a Sunday morning. No,
fraud is the word that gets associated with them time
and time again. Packers still mathematically alive and they don't

(01:55:44):
need that much help. What do we think of fellas? Mmmmm,
the Packers are heating up. I'm not under the othersing
that the Packers are gonna make a run, but it's
the first time we've kind of seen them in the
under dour role. But Aaron Rodgers and Rodgers is no
longer what he was. He's not the guy that was
coming off the back to back m vps that we

(01:56:05):
thought was going to continue to play at that level.
He's more of a complimentary player right now. That's it.
They can run the football when they run the football
with a j Dillon and and Jones. Their problem. Uh,
the young receivers are finally growing up. Uh. They need
Christian Watson to show up today and play. But this
is a team that has dominated and owned the division.
I still think they find a way to beat the

(01:56:26):
Vikings because that's what they do well. I'm gonna go
back to the beginning of the season. Opening day, it
was like seven the Vikings handed at the green Bay.
But Green Bay is a different team right now. The
defense has gotten better. They've won three straight ball games.
And look, I still don't believe in the Minnesota Vikings
because I think the midnight clock is going to strike
because they've won most of their games on less second
breath takers. Really, and I think it's gonna end today

(01:56:47):
Packers win nicely done and then finally, I mean for
the best, I'll i'll, I guess try to speak this
into existence. I think the Buffalo Cincinnati game is the
best for all of us right in terms of where
our eyes go, except for you, Bucky, because you love uh.
You want to see what Doug Peterson's got trotting out
for your Jaguars there. But I gotta think the Monday
night game, certainly for me, so much on the line,

(01:57:10):
just reputations, a lot of talking. Joe Mixon and Joe
Burrow very adamant of Hey, I don't think we're getting
the respect that we deserve. Joe Mixon using the term
we're the big dogs. Andy. Why did he open his
to do that? They haven't been boastful all year long.
No one on that team has said boo, And he
opened his mouth just the other day. And I'm not

(01:57:31):
gonna say it's gonna hurt them, it's gonna do something
to them. I I don't believe in locker room father,
or you know, clippings on the wall or whatever like that,
because I think when you are a pro you don't
need that. High school is good, college it's good, But
I don't think that goes in the pros. I think
the Bengals win, and they went on a close one
will be won by a field goal the end of
the game with has less position may win this game.

(01:57:51):
Look at Andy Firman. Any Firman doesn't like when they
say it with the chest, chair with your chest. Joe
Mixon defending chance to go back. You get to knock
off the Buffalo Bills because they have been disrespected all year.
People have talked about the Chiefs and the Bills. They
never said anything about the Bengals going back to back.
It was the feel good story of last year, and

(01:58:12):
that's how people have treated them. This is when they
exact some flesh. I think they're gonna get their revenge.
I think they take it to the Buffalo Bills. Yeah.
I think with Joe Burrow, what I wanted to do
is if you're gonna go partial Rick Flair, you go
full Rick Flair to be the man whoa you gotta man?
And Josh Allen Buffalo Bills. I don't think so, gentlemen.

(01:58:33):
Piece of love. Happy New Year to you both. Andy,
Always good chatting with you, Bucky, You and I will
continue here next on Fox. Thrilling pair of college football
playoff semifinals culminated at the Peach Bowl, where Number one
Georgia trailed fourth ranked Ohio State in the final minutes,
snap it back to Bennett. He looks in the ind

(01:58:54):
so throws it for the back corner. God God touchdown. Touchdown, touchdown,
Ain't day met Joe buck Left Carter touchdown. Scott Howard
the call on w RFC. Georgia made the extra point.
Ohio State missed a fifty yard field goal in the
final seconds, and Georgia prevailed forty two to forty one. Earlier,

(01:59:15):
third ranked TCU had two pick sixes and beat number
two Michigan at the fiestable. So it'll be Georgia against
TCU in the National Championship Game NBA Saturday night, Miami's
Tyler Hero hit a running three at the buzzer to
give the Heat a three point win at Utah. I'm
Isaac Lowankron on lock and load. Here we go another

(01:59:39):
fun and fabulous hour of Fox Football Sunday. That's a
lot of f's. I gotta be careful, Bucky, I might
lead myself down a bad path. You see him NFL
dot Com, Uh see his face, NFL Network, Fox Sports
one and here with us each and every Sunday. You
did some work with Diamond Dan Buyer. Earlier in the week,

(02:00:00):
caught a little bit of the breakdown on Derek Carr
and I know you guys were on opposite sides of
that one. Uh. Dan our our friend, my my co
host of the I Watch Reflex podcast and the Fantasy
Realm former occupant of this slot. You'll hear him later
on today two to five pm is part of Red
Zone Radio. That's two to five Pacific time. But we

(02:00:21):
talked a lot about Derek Carr in the last hour,
and we have all the permutations thereof and he's one
of the names that will be in the uh well,
the NFL's version of the transfer portal from lack of
a better term at this point, so we get into
all of that chaos as we go. But Week seventeen
of the National Football League, UH the reports this morning, Hey,

(02:00:44):
the Broncos are gonna be aggressive and and one of
the names that Nick Cope in his earlier update had
included was that of Jim Harbaugh. Coming off of Michigan's
loss yesterday. I know that some of the big pundits
and you know, go back to find Bomb and so
many others were wondering, well, what else does he have
to do at Michigan. Well, he hasn't won the ultimate game.

(02:01:05):
But you also do have a point where you've taken
a program to a level of consistency to where you're
competing for a national title, which if Michigan Wolverines fans,
big ten apologists like myself are honest about it, they
really hadn't been for a long time. Yeah, there were
some good years with Lloyd Carr, some great years you hadn't,

(02:01:26):
you know, the co national title in nine, But otherwise
you got some ten win years mixed in with some
mediocrity miss mixed in with some some seller dweller kind
of scenarios of three, four, five wins. And so now
you've got the level of consistency under Harball, which I'd
never understood people wanting him out before the last two years.

(02:01:49):
You know, you get recognized who you are and where
you want to be and and recognized sometimes there's still
that dividing line. But do you think after this loss,
the way this went down, the way they got bullied,
the way the identity was questioned all the way through,
that suddenly he would bolt for the NFL. I don't
think so. I think last year when he felt like

(02:02:11):
he had the Minnesota job and it didn't go his way.
I think he left us our taste in his mouth.
I don't think the situation in Denver is one that
is appealing to him. Uh. If I'm not mistaken, I
think Vic Fangio was once his defensive coordinator, either at
Stanford or somewhere, maybe even in San Francisco. I don't
think that Hallbud is going to want to walk in there,

(02:02:33):
particularly after the way that he may have felt that
fig Fangio was done. Um. I think this situation where
he feels good about the culture that he's built in Michigan.
I mean, you look at the record over the past
two years, back to back Big Ten titles, back to
back wins against Ohio State. Uh, the way that it's trending,
I think it's there. And I think just because they've

(02:02:54):
lost two games in the College Football Playoff, all is
not lost. I think people have to understand how Georgia
the bully that they've become. The origins stem from a
heartbreaking loss to Alabama and maybe two thousand and seventeen
national title game. And so I don't think this is

(02:03:15):
one of those things that will make him or entice
him to leave. Uh. Yeah, maybe the inter napoteras coach
job he might be fascinated by because he spent time
playing there. I just don't think that he will seriously
considered the Denver job. Yeah, Fangio was his guy in
San Francisco during his ten years, so certainly those ties
are real and that and how attractive isn't I mean

(02:03:36):
it's one of thirty two because we always have to
stipulate to that, Bucky, when when we're talking about how
good or poor a job is. If you're looking to
ascend to the next level, sometimes you don't get to
pick and choose necessarily. Uh. I mean that there's a
reason the job is open. Uh. And in this case,
you've got a Now did he turn He turned thirty
four this time? Uh? In the bow Callahan birthday, we're

(02:03:59):
only half to teach hey anytime I can get a
draft day reference. I mean our guy Andy Firm and
last last hour referenced Yellowstone. So it's the Kevin Costner
appreciation morning. But the idea that you would inherit Russell
Wilson and just trying to, for lack of a better phraseology,

(02:04:20):
teach the old dog new tricks and get him. I
I don't I think there would be a clash of
wills that I don't I don't think would necessarily help
the situation. Yeah, I don't think this will will will help.
I think, um, the way Russell played and all that
other stuff, I don't think. I don't think Hearbrow would be.
I tried it because when Heartbrow was last in San Francisco,

(02:04:43):
Russell was the young guy running around. He's not a
guy anymore. He can't make those plays and those things.
And if you're don't go through du to hard and
heavy lifting like he just finished doing it Michigan. Man,
I don't know if I'm trying to jump into another
job where I gotta do the same kind of war
to win. I just think they would be there will
be better jobs for him if he continues to do

(02:05:05):
what he does at Michigan. Yeah, because I know some
folks have tried to tie him to his former stomping
grounds of Indianapolis when he where he became captain come
back as well, a place where as of right now
you've got to avoid in terms of that quarterback position.
So coach being able to help in that process and

(02:05:25):
to bring someone in certainly couldn't have an appeal there.
To me, that's a that's a better thing because one
the Lincoln tie, his name is already in the Ring
of Honor. Much like the situation that he heard in Michigan. Man,
he's the prodigal son returning to save everything. He would
do the same thing in Indie. In Indianapolis, I believe

(02:05:46):
he's exactly what they need in terms of he's gonna
bring a toughness factor. You know, the Indianapolis Colts just
need a little more edge, a little more grit. Yeah,
we can talk about the offensive line, but they can
fix that. They get a quarterback, but they have a
top pick to be able to get one of these
young quarterbacks. If that's what he desires, that to me
is more appealing because there's a direct link to his

(02:06:08):
heart and his pride and how he feels as opposed
to Denver It. There's no connection to Denver for him none.
We're broadcasting live for the tire act dot Com studios.
Tire act dot Com will help you get there on
unmatched selection, fast free shipping, free road hazard protection. Over
ten thousand recommended installers. Tire act dot Com the way
tire buying should be at Bucky Brooks where you find

(02:06:29):
him on Twitter and find me over at Swollen Dome.
Read the latest column on NFL dot com. Bucky, I
know it's a couple of days in the rearview, but
we've now got the latest statement uh emanating from the
latest hit UH and returned to concussion protocol from the
league and the Players Association, and they had their joint

(02:06:50):
review it is you know, they've already put the bow
on it. Quote concluded their joint review of the application
and Concussion Protocol involving Miami Dolphins quarterback to a tongue
of by Low on Sunday's game against Green Bay. Joint
review determined that the protocol was not triggered. Protocols initiated
when a player receives an impact to the head and
exhibits a report signs or symptoms suggestive suggestive of a

(02:07:11):
concussion review, et cetera. That they handled things appropriately. And
we're we're in that hard part because immediately after the
news broke that he'd shown up at the facility symptoms
and checked in like in terms of timelines and going
to this brewder film defined plays within minutes, you had,

(02:07:32):
all right, that's gotta be it where he goes down
here on a dump off and gets spun to the ground.
But just the recognition that not always does a player
experience the symptoms media, right, because not hit and I
mean you've been hit, You've delivered hits. You know the
body doesn't feel necessarily a hundred. But you're in week
sixteen of a National Football League season. You ain't anywhere

(02:07:54):
near a hundred anyway. Yeah, I think with to there
lot of different things to consider when no one knows,
like everyone is playing doctor trying to figure out when
he got here, when it packed it down, all those
other things, like it's on him, like we we don't know.
We don't know what what caused it. We also don't
know what kind of fog he might have been in.

(02:08:15):
They live. Mike mc daniels say, hey, man, I think
you need to go see the trainer. We don't know that,
and so we're out here speculating about his career is done.
It's this and that. Here's what we do know. Durability
is a concern, and they can Cussions appear to be
a major concern, And the reason that's important is because
the Dolphins have to make a decision on whether to
pick up his fifth year option and guarantee that money
for the fifth season. To me, logically, probably yes, okay,

(02:08:39):
because that gives you more time, It gives you another year.
It's not really prohibitive. We're not talking about a fifty
million dollar option that you're picking up um and then
you have an opportunity to kind of figure out. Also,
if you're the Dolphins, this is a major surprise. You
need to buy time until you can figure out another
quarterback to get. You don't want to just cut ties
now and say, oh, all right, we're just gonna figure

(02:08:59):
it out out. And I know everyone will connect the
dis to Jimmy garoppolop. I guess what, Jim mcgaroppolo spends
a lot of time on the sidelines as well. And
so you have to figure out what you want to
do with the organization you care about to us health first,
But then you have to make really a smart decision
in terms of how do we continue to go along
with two a ton of about law as our quarterback.

(02:09:20):
Maybe it's just another year rental until we can find
another quarterback to be the long term solution. If we
have major concerns about his ability to stay healthy and
to be around. Yeah, we'll see uh Teddy Bridgewater later
on today as as they take on the Patriots. Um, Bucky.
I think that's the thing. This is such a nuanced discussion,

(02:09:41):
right for two of going back to the game and
the uncharacteristic turnovers, everybody immediately started doing it. Well, he
would normally not throw these balls, like you know what
game the game, things change, how defenses cover you change.
Past performance is not you know, predictive of future performance.
That's on every ambling show, every fine hand show, all

(02:10:03):
these things related to medicines you're taking. There's all sorts
of disclaimers, uh and analysis to remind you that, hey,
circumstances are going to be different. Uh. In for what
Green Bay did defensively, some different looks and trying to
lay the ball in at you know, eight to twelve
yards a lot difference than putting it up and letting

(02:10:23):
Tyreek Hill go to work on it. Right, as we've
seen be the bread and butter this squad over the
course of the year. You know, so many people going on,
he should just take the jersey off or whatever. It's like,
I never do that, Like that's the one thing if
I'm consistent on anything here. I I believe in dynamic
pricing and that yes, the price of everything goes up.
The other is uh, and your experiences do cost money,

(02:10:47):
even if it's adjusts to your favorite UM chain restaurant
down the street. The second part is that I will
never try to tear away the jersey or whatever the
attire is for a man or woman playing a sport.
I'm not retiring anybody. Can we talk about the decline
of a play, sure. Can we talk about how you

(02:11:08):
don't want him on your team, sure, But when it
comes down to it, you've got thirty two independent businesses
that will make that decision based on his injury history
and what they think of him as a quarterback overall.
And I just wish him had good health and for
the Dolphins, I would love to be a fly on
the wall in those decision processes trying to take all

(02:11:30):
that into account. Yeah, I think if you're the Dolphins,
you're trying to to weigh all your options. When you
want the quarterback to be healthy. You want to see
what can we do to make sure he's protected. We
want to see is this just a random spade of
injuries When it comes to his concussions or is this
something um serious and severe? Can we get neuro allowed

(02:11:54):
justs neuro allowed, just to look at him too and
see if there's a bigger issue exact. When it comes
to the team building dynamic, how do we build a
team around to a tongue of ayala, what's playing? A? Okay,
he's gonna be healthy and around great? What's playing? B uh?
We don't know. It may be a little riskier if
he continues to play, and so maybe we need to

(02:12:15):
treat him as a short term renal and then play
and see A we need to move on and need
to find somebody else. There are a lot of different
things you have to consider, and they're different financial ramifications
for even every decision that you make. So this is
just not a fly by night, fly by the seat
of your pants decision that Chris Greer and the Dolphins
front office have to make. They really have to sit

(02:12:37):
down and kind of map this out and make sure
they're making the right decision. And once again, we're just
photoshopping Tom Brady's head into every helmet, Bucky, you know that. Uh.
As we go to these final two weeks of the
season with them still playing for a playoffs spot today
against Carolina team that's running the ball tremendously, and Steve
Wilkes is a guy that you know whenever we start

(02:13:00):
doing the r and here's the coaching position to come open,
and his name isn't already, and Sharpie, it should be.
It absolutely should be. But I think it should be
in only one place, and that's Carolina. You can't tell
me that they're not playing different since he's taken over.
He's taken over, giving him an identity. They run the football,
they're playing a good defense, to physical and they look

(02:13:21):
like a team. The other thing, when you hear the
voices from the locker room talking about the changes, one,
it's an indictment on Matt Rule, but too it's just
all kinds of complimentary on what Steve Wilkes has done
in terms of just the level of accountability that he's
demanded from the team. To me, if I'm ownership and
I'm looking for a head coach, yeah, beyond the xs

(02:13:43):
and ohs, I'm looking for a leader. And he clearly
has shown outstanding leadership skills during his time. And now
he's got Sam Donald winning football. All right, I'll push
that to the wayside for the moment, there's something to
that though Am Donald has played better. Now he's not
asking him to do a lot, but he's planning winning football.

(02:14:05):
So now when you're David Tepper and you're considering all
the things, remember you gave up assets to get Sam John.
You couldn't get you couldn't get the return on your
investment under the previous coach. But now it appears that
you are getting that. All of that has to factor
that into the into the equation. Well as you, as
you've mentioned many times on these airwaves, your your trucks

(02:14:26):
and trailers kind of thing. You know what, if he's
along for the ride and he's making it a fun experience,
Sam Donald, smile away, uh and keep the line moving
there in Carolina Temper I believe has his man. I
don't think he needs to go and do an exhaustive
search there figure out how to fill the rest of
the holes he's bucking Brooks. I'm my garment that the

(02:14:47):
Fox Football Sunday coming to you live from the tire
Act dot Com studios, and coming up next, we've got coasts, Yeah,
two coasts to cultures and the word relationship as it
goes through the processes and procedures of the New Age
National Football League. Will get Bucky's thoughts on that as
we continue here on Fox. Hey, welcome back in Fox

(02:15:10):
Sports Radio, Fox Football Sunday, Mike Carmen alongside Bucky Brooks
having a blast with you. We got Mark, we got Ethan.
Welcome to Sunday Morning Radio. I will make sure that
the coffee pot is never two filled up with expired
pods so that you always be able to inject some
caffeine into your systems uh At Isaac Lowen crowed in
for Nick Cope. Will hear from him in just a

(02:15:31):
couple of minutes here, Bucky, Good New Year's good holiday run.
Thus far, it has been a great I mean a
graphic great New Year. All the other stuff, I think
just having the football games that we had on Saturday
night made it outstanding evening for sure, no question about it.
All the great marathons of movies and television shows that

(02:15:54):
everybody's doing. I watched a little of the Miley Cyrus
and Dolly Parton special that was good. Commiserrated with my
kids when they brought Paris Hilton out to sing oh song,
she Can't Carry a note in a bucket. But but
then you get a mix of party in the USA

(02:16:16):
with I Will Always Love You. I mean, it brought
down the house and brought you know, tears to an
old man's eyes, an old man's meat. But you know,
I'm I some yeah, some other guys some other place.
But but it's exciting as we get ready for three,
We've got a full slate of NFL action culminating tonight
with the Baltimore Pittsburgh game. We belabored the point a

(02:16:39):
little bit and in the first hour together here, I'm
intrigued by it in a lot of ways, Bucky, but aesthetically, man,
that's not the one I want from my nightcap. Yeah,
you know, I get this, And I'm assuming that part
of the reason this was flicks to the Sunday night
think is Pittsburgh is a national brand. Absolutely. If you've

(02:17:01):
ever been to a game when the Pittsburgh steals there
in town, they come and they come in droves, they come,
they bring to terrible towels, they take over the stadium.
And so by putting the most Sunday night, you can
get a big number in terms of the audience, the robbery,
you put Pittsburgh and Baltimore up there. Everyone knows the
history of these two bitter rivals. It's gonna be a
physical affair, may not be high scoring, and particularly that

(02:17:24):
you don't have Lamar Jackson plan. But it's a compelling
matchup because it's always been a rival. Uh. But as
we said, I don't know if I necessarily need to
see them in the postseason when it comes to the
prime time games that tonight. Yeah, I'm fine with it. No,
it's it's just the curiosity here. And you mentioned the
Pittsburgh brand. There's no question about that. Remember going to

(02:17:46):
that Pittsburgh Green Bay super Bowl and attending that in
all week long. Just the hordes of people going back
and forth. Uh, and more black and yellow, black and yellow,
black and yellow that you can possibly uh stand. You
just wish you had your own little chot sucky stand
on the corner. You would have been a millionaire after
a week. But Uh, for the NFL, it's a good

(02:18:09):
thing that they're still involved and part of the playoff picture,
as are the New England Patriots. Now we know there's
a lot of different mechanations by which this all can happen,
and we're not gonna bore you by reading all scenarios here. Uh,
just go win and take care of your own business
and stuff will work out. But Kyle van Noy was

(02:18:29):
on the Pat McAfee show earlier this week and he
was asked about the difference between Bill Belichick and Brandon Staley.
Brandon Staley getting the Chargers now to the playoffs, a
lot of rumor, conjecture, speculation about his job security. And
I'm one that still believes that that door maybe cracked
if they suffer an early exit in the playoffs, because

(02:18:52):
let's face it, and all of these were looking at windows,
maximizing windows. And when you've got a guy like Sean
Payton sitting on a couch over hanging out with Colin
cowherd over on the Fox lot and love in Los Angeles,
that you know those rumors and and speculations you're gonna
be there. But I do like what they've done defensively
tightening things up. Schedule plays part of it, of course,

(02:19:12):
but you're seeing guys playing good football. Hopefully Derwin James
after that hit last week that uh kind of rock
the world and and put him in protocol, but looks
like he'll be ready for the game against the Rams.
But Van Noy was asked about the difference between Belichick
and Staley and and this is what he gave as
a response quote. I would say the biggest difference between
Bill and Staley is relationships. Staley has relationships with every

(02:19:37):
single player on the team. It's really impressive how he
can work a room. He's got everybody's number, and his
favorites calls him right then and there, and any player
they can reach out And I respect that. And this
he said, he adds this, and I think this is
the key that I wanted to get your response to Bucky.
In this age of new players, you've got to do that,
and he's done a great job of that, kind of

(02:19:57):
owing to Belichick saying, you know, I had a good
relationship with him, but not everybody does. So that's the
biggest thing. Is um team building, relationship building from a
different angle than just the professional side. I guess is
where we're starting to see that bridge. Okay, now here,
here's what I'm gonna saying about cal Vanoy and Brandon.

(02:20:19):
Brandon Stateley maybe a good coach and did a good
job of getting the charges there. But the difference between
Brandon Stately and Bill Belichick is. Bill Belichick has a
lot of hardware, a lot of hardware that signifies you
were the best of your profession on that year. He's
won a lot of Super Bowls. He's won a lot
of Super Bowls as a head coach, He's won super
Bowls as an assistant. Bill Belichick is anonymous with winning. Now.

(02:20:41):
It doesn't mean that his style is ideal, but the
style that he is utilized throughout his tenure will put
him on track to be the greatest coach in NFL history.
I don't think Bill Belichick has to change because cal
Vannoy doesn't like the fact that he doesn't have personal
relationships with everyone in the locker room. One thing that
Bill Belichick has to do is he has to be

(02:21:02):
consistent with his players with his interactions. Whatever his communication
style is. As long as he's the same way on
day one to the end of the season, everyone can
live with that. While we all would love to have
a relationship with our coaches where they may be viewed
as a factor, a father, figure, mentor a friend, a

(02:21:23):
confident whatever that is, at the end of the day,
to win games, your job as a head coach is
to build a team that is connected, a team that
executes all the schemes that you are putting in place,
and a team that wins because they do it the
right way. That other stuff is the other stuff. And
it sounds nice because the charge the end the playoffs

(02:21:43):
and the pages appear that they may not be. But yeah,
Calvno better be easy on that. Bill Belichick has proven
to be a much better coach a dent like it's more,
I think just a changing face, as he says, with
players today. And we've seen a little bit of the disconnect,
the the devil in the details that's always been there
for the Patriots. They've done some truly uncharacteristic things this year. Yeah,

(02:22:08):
this has been an odd year. If you were going
to go through, you know, a team that the ex execution,
you know, going to the old breadth to Hitman heart reference,
gotta get a wrestling reference and on a New Year's Day, Uh,
that that's always been there. Here. We've had just some craziness,
even going back to that lunacy of the Jacoby Myers
and then all of that has been crazy. And what

(02:22:30):
that has done is that is um where you have
for whatever reason, a bunch of guys trying to do
too much, stepping out of character, trying to win the
game on their own as opposed to doing it the
Patriots way, which is which has always been a team
complimentary football. We don't beat ourselves. We wait for the
other teams to implode. And you're right, Mike, I've never

(02:22:50):
seen the Patriots play like this. I've never seen the
Patriots and and I mean almost like back to back.
We just have a crazy play where they give a
game away and then a game in which they have
under control where it got fumbles at the end. Those
are things that we've never seen for the pages for
the last twenty plus years. Um, I don't know if

(02:23:11):
if Bill Belichick at text for Modre Stevenson throughout the
year and send him smiley faces and emojis, if that
would make him hold onto the football better. But there
is something that's going on in New England that's unlike
what has been in other years. But I don't I
don't know if I would say that today's player necessarily
needs a kindler, gentler coach, I'll say this. I say

(02:23:34):
everybody needs coaches that are hold them to a high
standard of commitment, a high level of accountability, and teach
them how to build trust with themselves with player the player,
coach to coach, coach to coach. You have those three
things you can win, but there's a bunch of different
ways to go about getting and obtaining those three things
from your team again and that player buying. It's like

(02:23:56):
any business. Whatever you do out there and wherever you're listening,
you all have the same things with co workers, supervisors
and bosses up the chain of command. Everybody wants to
to feel that extra little bit of love uh and
engagement and investment in you and your growth. I mean,
we talk about it all the time as related to

(02:24:17):
the coaching styles you doing it at the high school level,
and obviously the difference in the change and the evolution
of how you process because in the end, the NFL
is a business, and you've got all of those individual
corporations that have their own self interests. But for the
sake of the three and a half hours or sometimes
bridging to four uh in those television windows anymore, Bucky,

(02:24:41):
it's all about, all right, how do I fit into
this larger puzzle? And the quarter in the coach you know,
whether he's slapping me on the back or not. Really
shouldn't have too much, even though I did mention that
Belichick is treating Romandre Stevenson a little differently, and we've
had guys pipe up a little bit more so, so maybe, uh,
there needs to be a little bit of an adjustment.

(02:25:01):
But it's hard to argue with the skins on the wall.
It really it's hard to argue with the results. And
I know everyone is reveling and Bill Belichick's demise and
the failures, but even when they fail, they're still in
the conversation as a playoff right time. To me, that's

(02:25:21):
a testament to the coaching. Even the Patriots at their
worst is always in contention to be in the tournament.
I just imagine that. And so, um yeah, everyone kind
of like dance on his rade and you talk about
um the conversation. Maybe Kraft needs to move on, Maybe
they need to find another one. No, if you've been
around this game long enough, things go in cycles. One.

(02:25:44):
Your team is not supposed to win six Super Bowls
in twenty years. That is atypical of how it goes.
But they've done it and so they may reset. It
may take them another three or four years to get
back into that mix when they find the right quarterback
and the right players and all that. But I think
we just need to go easy, tread lightly on the
pages because the one thing I do know, you certainly

(02:26:05):
don't want them to be on the bottom line. If
you're in the postseason and you're like, oh, guess what,
we're playing the Patriots this week? How many people want
to sign up for that? Yeah? Generally not right. The
excellence that you've had for all of these years, that
consistency frustrating for fantasy owners. We do know we will
get a nice healthy dose of Stevenson in the backfield.

(02:26:27):
He's cleared to play, uh and ready to go. As
we get ready for Week seventeen of your National Football
League season, they host Miami, one of the intriguing games
of the day. Teddy two Gloves still trying to make
it happen, Mac Jones. Is he a dirty player? Is
it just here's a couple of isolated incident. Is he
just a bad loser and a bad sport. He's a

(02:26:48):
sore loser, He's a he's a baby when it comes
to that. Just look at his body language. He doesn't
like losing, and I get that I don't like losing,
but he pouts and eat mopes and dust stuff, and
so he sees some of that that bad behavior Earlier.
I likened him to Grace and Allen, who played at
was in the n b A. Yeah, he was in
the news a bunch this week too. They were getting

(02:27:09):
into it with the balls. Yeah, he just doesn't man
do something that triggers him when he looks up at
the score board and his team is behind. For mac Jones,
I think we've seen a lot of that behavior exhibited
this year. The outburst on the sideline, uh, the the
inter accident he had with Eli Apple, and some of
the other things. He is not handled losing will this year,

(02:27:30):
and so it was something that he has to work on,
something the Patriots will work on with him. Um, we
just have to go with him. But yeah, he should
have been fine for what he did. But that's just
a part of who he is. Curious times here in
the National Football League. We'll continue and evaluate a couple
of the other key matchups, uh and what we're expecting
to see later on today. But first, well let's find

(02:27:51):
out who we will see later on today with a
rap of well, maybe late night sporting events, ins and
outs and just well his world as he ENTERSI guy
Isaac Lowan kraw with what's trending at Isaac Lowan crawd.
He'll be part of the Chargers cover Chargers as they
faced the Rams later today. Hi buddy, Happy New Year,

(02:28:12):
Fells and a great discussion. Uh. In fact, we actually
have Bill Belichick here to weigh in on how he
interacts with the social media generation, not on snap face
and all that. I guess that is that is fair
well his laws. As far as I'm concern, anybody ever

(02:28:33):
actually creates snap face coming out of that, he seems
like a missed opportunity. I know he probably did either
that or uh, chat book. Well, I'm sure that's probably
out there somewhere as well. I'd be careful if you
start traversing the web's folks. Yeah, any any viruses you
get her blame loan right, especially at a work computer.

(02:28:54):
We had a thrilling pair of college football playoff semi
finals yesterday to Ring out and ring in three A
culminated at the Peach Bowl, Number one Georgia trailing fourth
ranked Ohio State forty one to thirty five in the
final minute. Here's the venerable Scott Howard on w RFC
snap it back to Bennett. He looks in the inso

(02:29:15):
throws it for the back corner cat touch down. Touchdown,
touchdown a d Matt Joe back left corner touchdown. The
Dogs tight it. Georgia made the extra point. Ohio State
and missed a fifty yard field goal wide to the
left in the final seconds, and Georgia prevailed forty two
to forty one. Earlier, third ranked TCU defeat a number

(02:29:35):
two Michigan in the Fiesta Bow fifty one to forty five.
So it'll be Georgia against TCU in the National Championship Game,
the one seed against the three seed in the NBA.
On Saturday night, Miami's Tyler Hero hit a running three
at the buzzer to give the Heat of one twenty
three win at Utah, and Luca don Chech had his

(02:29:56):
third fifty point game of the season. He dropped fifty
one on as his Dallas Mavericks held off the Spurs
in San Antonio by a final score of one. Talking
about it's understandable Mavericks now on a six game winning streak,
Fellas I'm not on snap face and all that back
to you. Well, you know, if they'd been successful as

(02:30:17):
he'd hoped and joked earlier in the week, Popovich Uh
to holding Luca under fifty, they would have won the game.
How about that two points man two points, third fifty
point game of the week, though, crazy stuff for Luca
at sixty point triple double the other night, Bucky about
one of the more engaging things I've seen on airon

(02:30:37):
and we've had been able to traverse a lot of
NFL highways, NBA great games, et cetera. I think we're
having a little bit of an issue off the the comracs, technology,
technology and stuff. The gremlins are in the machine. Remember
that was a Christmas movie. Where does it rank as
an all time Christmas movie. I'm not going to give

(02:30:58):
out the phone number, but you can tell me at
Swollen Dome. Yes, the Great Joe, Dante, Uh and Greblins
will get into the rest of the week seventeen Slate
couple of headliner games. What we're expecting to see playoff berths,
et cetera. As the chaos continues in the National Football League,
Fox Football Sunday Comedy Alive from the tire Act dot

(02:31:18):
Com Studios. I'm Mike Carmen alongside me. Bucky Brooks will
continue next on Fox. You practice your preparation, all the
things you do, film study. But then I've preached step
for fifteen weeks, But then in weeks sixteen or seventeen,
I'm like, oh yeah, but it doesn't matter. He was like,
happits are happis. You then can't trying unteach those habits

(02:31:41):
as relates to trying to win a game. And so
you play the game. You're knocking wood. Hopefully none of
your players get hurt, but but you played to win
it because like that, stuff matters, and once you learn
how to win, you want to continue to reinforce those
positive happits. You know, I think it's important to to
underscore what you said there with the other things that
could happen to give you that wild card opportunity. Think

(02:32:02):
of everything that had to transpire to keep Green Bay
alive a week ago. Yeah, right, what do they need that?
There were four other circumstances that kept them alive mathematically,
other losses, other scoreboard watching, and now you've got a
huge game against Minnesota. Go back to the first where
Justin Jefferson started on this ridiculous path. Uh jaire Alexander

(02:32:26):
raising his hand this week saying, ah, that was a
fluke green May playing Hey at least defensively, and we
could point some of it to the schedule, though, Bucky, Uh,
you know, we we do the scoreboard of all the
things we get right, and we like to pat ourselves
on the back. I'm also the guy to raise his
hand to sound wrong. I actually expected Green Bay's defense

(02:32:46):
to be the thing that carried them and why I
was still bullish on this squad coming into the year.
The run game in the defense, and neither one of
them for most of the season has been the focal point.
Now it hasn't been good. It has mean what you
thought it would be. You thought it would be um
almost at a dominant level, and they haven't been able
to do it and execute it consistently. So it's it's problematic.

(02:33:08):
You need to see better. Well as we get down
to the last of it. We we previewed a lot
of games Buffalo Cincinnati obviously on the radar Monday Night Football,
But I want to bring this story up because it's
kind of gotten lost in a lot of the Uh,
the other news, but we had the the report that
Trey Lance had to have another surgery on his right
ankle surgery Friday or moving hardware causing irritation in the ankle.

(02:33:35):
And this goes back he was injured September eight against Seahawks,
surgery to repair the fractured fibula and ligament damage in
the ankle. And and now you've got to go and
get hardware out because of an era irritation. It's problematic
here based on where they needed to put stuff to
stabilize the break. Yeah, it is problematic. And it's problematic

(02:33:57):
because you want him all the way back right so
you can play the game in the style in which
he's plays it his athleticism, his legs or everything. And
so if he's not able to play that way, we've
seen the struggles that he has when he has to
play traditional quarterback. And it's just another layer to the
uncertainty that trade Lands is right now for the forty Niners.
How can you fully know what you have when you

(02:34:19):
haven't seen him enough. Injuries have keptain multi field. Uh,
you haven't been able to kind of see the development
on a week to week basis. And then let's be honest.
The emergence of Brockfordy as a solid solution at quarterback
changes the narrative when it comes to trade lands. So
we'll see it's unfortunate for him. But I think if
you're at the forty nine is you're you're you're very

(02:34:40):
grateful that you found a player in Brockfredy that appears
to be good enough to keep the train moving. Well.
I've joked a lot about Johnny Bravo, the old episode
of The Brady Bunch where Greg Brady was going to
be the next big pop singer because he fit the suit.
We've talked about that in Indianapolis with veteran quarterbacks with
in a hand system in theory, you can get to

(02:35:01):
a level of success. And now it's just with no
money invested. Really in brock Purty. I always say sunk
costs as related to Trey Lance. If he never pans out,
he never pans out. He's Bucky Brooks on My Carmen, Bucky,
good to have you this morning, Happy New Year to you.
Countdown to kick Off coming up next year on Fox
Sports Radio. I believe the guys are on location and

(02:35:23):
get loud. Let's get it m.

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