Mark Willard and Ephraim Salaam talk NFL Wild Card Weekend!

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Yeah, let's get wild. Here we go. It is wild
Card weekend. It is unfolding in front of our eyes.
And for the most part, would you not agree from
salam And this is something that I think is a
great message for for all people, like trust your gut right,
like you know what you know? Sometimes I think we

(00:24):
human beings have a hard time believing ourselves what we
are watching unfold in front of us so far on
this wild Card weekend is simply what we all ready knew.
We already do it, but we talked to ourselves, and
therefore we make ourselves disbelieve it. We talk to ourselves

(00:45):
were like a seventh round rookie can't be good in
the playoffs, Yes he can. And then we were like, oh,
the Chargers are gonna win. No they're not. And we
decided self included going into this weekend. You know what,
the Aliens don't belong and the Vikings, you know they'll
get this one. We've known all year long that the

(01:08):
Vikings were a fraud and here we are. Look, I
don't know what side of the calling you on, but
I'm feeling pretty good with my prognostications. Uh, so far
in this Super wild Card weekend. Can we can we
go in order? Can we go in order of the
games that you know the world watched as they happened.

(01:32):
I'm I'm a fan of chronological you know what I mean.
That means, well, that means you got to start with
my guys right now. So you go ahead and you
just do some talking. Well you still I'd like for
you to start, you know what I mean? It's uh,
you know what I'll start, Okay, starting off this Seattle game. Okay,

(01:52):
there's a lot of expectation on brock Party. Everything he's
done up until now has been perfect storybook. I'm a
writer right now, currently in Hollywood, and I couldn't have
written a better script for him, right Mr? From Mr
Irrelevant to the most relevant person on his team, super

(02:17):
Bowl aspirations hanging on the cape of someone who got
a free car and a parade because he was a
very last soul picked and a draft. Okay, it's a spectacle, right,
It's funny. It's good luck. Most of the time. Mr
Irrelevant doesn't make an NFL team or an active roster.

(02:40):
That's just the facts of it. Moving forward to what
we saw yesterday, brock Party is on his way and
I'm not trying to put anything, bestow anything, any forms
of greatness on this young man. All I'm saying. All
I'm saying is when you find yourself in a position

(03:03):
we're expectations are for all intense purposes low. And what
I mean by that is, well, he's a seventh round
draft He's the last pick in the draft. What could
you I mean, Yeah, we expect him to go in
and make some mistakes and have some turnovers and and

(03:26):
not be able to step up to the challenge. He's
done pretty good so far, but so much is on
the line. So from that standpoint, expectations are low. Everybody
else in that locker room and in that building up
in Santa Clara or up in San Francisco, the expectations
are high. So you're playing with house money at this point.

(03:48):
For Black, all you can do is make yourself more money.
You can't lose any All you can do is make
yourself more money. And that exactly what he's doing. This
young man is on a historic pace two not only

(04:12):
get his team to the super Bowl, but have a
pretty good opportunity to win one, and then the rest
is history. We've seen this play out before, from a
late round draft pick. We've seen it happen. Oh, by
the way, a late run draft pick who grew up
in the b area whose favorite team happens to be yep,

(04:34):
and and might be on his way to being Brock
Purty's next opponent tomorrow night, we'll find out. That's a
story for a different day. Yeah, listen, you're you're making
all kinds of sense, And I like, i'd actually love
to ask you this question because on my show in
San Francisco this week, the conversation was already set in
terms of where has black Purty placed himself just to

(04:58):
finish the regular season with the call it six wins,
People want to say at five because he didn't start
the Dolphins game, but he came in early. So give
him those six wins? And what percentage chance would you
give him to be the starting quarterback for the forty
niners going forward? In other words, to take Trey Lance
off of the pages. My my answer prior to the

(05:19):
playoffs was at minimum, and I actually think it's more
than this, but at minimum, he had already achieved. Look,
this is fifty fifty and it's a battle going into
camp next year. But like my heart of hearts would
have said, it's actually more than fifty chance already that
he's going to be the starting quarterback next year. And

(05:39):
it goes up with each playoff win. And then when
you go out, you score forty one points, you account
for four touchdowns, you don't turn the ball over, you
go north of three hundred yards. I mean, from it's
getting hard. I think for people here in the Bay
did not say we're here. We're here. The forty niners
is absolutely the last place they thought they'd find him,

(06:02):
but they found him the thing. And to answer your question,
this is what I think. I think as of right now,
Brock Party has earned the right to go into training
camp competing for the starting job as the starter. He's
earned the right to go in and compete. Now. The

(06:23):
more he does now you take the compete aspect off
of it. He gets to the NFC Championship game, he's
earned the right to be the starting quarterback. Right, whatever
else y'all doing, we're trying to figure out who's gonna
fill out spots two and three. Right if he gets

(06:44):
to the Super Bowl, Rock Party is your super is
your is your starting quarterback? Returning? I mean that's just what,
that's what happens. We've seen this happen in the league.
We've seen teams do that. We've seen Colin Kaepernick come
in for the San Francisco forty and miners when Alex
Smith got hurt and took the team to the next level. Right,

(07:06):
took him to the next level, including a Super Bowl appearance. So, yeah,
what you do now matters, right, You couldn't he at
first he was penciled in. He was penciled in. Well,
we're right now we're tracing that pencil with pen We're
about to tracy with permanent marker. Right. So you have

(07:30):
this young man who's been a great game manager. He
hasn't beaten making mistakes, hasn't had you know, any huge
relations whence he came back from the Raiders when they
were down, uh in the fourth quarter, over time got
the got the win there. But in the playoffs you
put up three hundred thirty two points in your account
for four touchdowns. You have a passing rating of one

(07:53):
thirty one and a half. Oh, we we got a
situation here. No listen, listen. Let me just say teams
can't speed him up, and that's the intangible teams cannot

(08:13):
speed him up. What you do with the young rookie
quarterback is you try to make him play faster then
he's ready for and teams are having a problem doing
that with brock Party. Pete Carroll even said after the
game yesterday, we went in here thinking, look speed him

(08:35):
up and get some pressure in his face, and said
we couldn't catch him. Like I'm not a hundred percent
convinced that he can't buy just as much time as
Tray Lance, who we saw very very little of. But
Trey Lance didn't look quite as fast just his legs
as people thought he was going to look bros the

(08:57):
opposite moves around a little fat master, bought time all
over the place. The highlight that wasn't when he went
all the way to the left and all the way
back to the right and then through the Brandon Ayouk
in the corner of the end zone, only to have
Brandon drop it at the end of the game yesterday,
game was already decided, so it was all good. But
I mean he's got, like you're saying, all kinds of

(09:19):
intangibles e from if he does win another game or two,
have we gotten ourselves to a point where trade lance
can't even be the backup next year, and that trade
lance trade talk ends upcoming this offseason. Well, what you
want to do is you and and and and you
have to be careful. If you're San Francisco, you really

(09:41):
have to be careful because this is trade lance. Is
what second year correct second year, so you have them
at least for three more years. What you don't want
to do was put yourself in a situation and they've
been really good about this where you don't have a
legitimate backup quarterback. San Francisco, out of any team in

(10:02):
the league, has put themselves in the position to have
three viable quarterbacks. Very difficult to do, very it's almost
impossible to have to. They have three trade lands Jimmy Garoppolo,
Brock Purty, and no specific order. Right, Brock party is

(10:23):
their third call. He's not their backup quarterback. He's the
third quarterback. So when you start talking about trading trade lands,
when you have them for three more years, no matter what,
that's where you have to be careful. You have to
be careful with that because anything can happen, as you've

(10:44):
seen over the last few years in terms of injury
to that position. So now you've bought yourself some serious insurance.
You allow trade Lands to continue to get number one
healthy and to get better all those reps that brock
Purty was taking with the scout team and getting all
the Now you get trade Lands to get those rips.

(11:04):
We know Jimmy Garoppolo won't be in the equation. We
know that. So now you go in with brock Purty
and trade Lands, And to me, that's a safe, comfortable
place for the San Francisco forty Niners to be throughout
the year. Next year, I'm with you and and the
stat that everybody needs to remember sixty and what is that?

(11:25):
That's how many different players started a game at quarterback
this year in the NFL. So yeah, I do. And
with the with the Niners have been through, you're right,
I don't think they need to be reminded that sometimes
you're gonna need more than one guy at that position.
With it from Salon Mark Weather than we're broadcasting live
from the ti iraq dot com studios. Ti iraq dot
com will help you get there an unmatched selection, fast,

(11:48):
free shipping, free road hazard protection, and over ten thousand
recommended installers. Ti iraq dot com the way tire buying
should be. There's much more to say on that situation
because the debate will rage on over whether the Brock
Party is an actual thing or is the concoction of
the cos Shanahan system. That's still ahead. But you asked

(12:10):
for chronological, so let's do it. Chargers Gonna Charger. It's
been written a million times on the Internet just over
the last twenty four hours. So as we get ready
for another UH night game and the Bengals and Ravens
getting going, we'll get into that coming up next on
Fox Sports Radio. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports

(12:32):
talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows
at Fox sports Radio dot com and within the I
Heart Radio app search f s R to listen live.
All right, this is Jay Glazer, and you may know
me for the world of football or fighting raven shows
like hbos Ballers. Well you don't know is for my
entire life. I have lived in something I refer to

(12:53):
as the gray depression anxiety. So now I'm coming out
with a new podcast, Unbreakable, a mental health podcast with
Jay Glazer where each week, well we talk about mental health.
I hope to describe it, give it words. Listen to
Unbreakable with Jay Glazer on the I Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's keep

(13:16):
this thing moving live in the tirec dot Com studios.
We are brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes
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your protection in one place. Bundle and save it. Progressive
dot Com. Okay, the San Diego, Yes, I meant San

(13:37):
Diego Chargers because obviously they're still the exact same organization
that they've always been because this is what happens, and
ownership trickles down and all of those things. But let
me just start with this. In my opinion, Eve from
Justin Herbert is quickly becoming Matt Stafford. All he has

(13:58):
to do is walk around in the same building where
he calls home, find Matt, and say, okay, talk to
me about what it looks like when you feel like
you're an elite thrower of the football. You have all
the tools that you need, but the organizational background just
doesn't support you enough so that you can actually win

(14:19):
football games. It might be Matt Stafford light. I mean, heck,
they made the playoffs. They were there, they had a
twenty seven point lead. But there are too many things
with regard to the approach of the should be San
Diego Chargers. Some of it is Brandon Staley's decisions, Mike
Williams being in the game the week before. You and

(14:42):
I have talked about going forward on fourth down and
whack a doodle scenarios all year long, or when you're
up twenty seven, I don't know, not running the ball
like it's just constant from so many different angles, but
it trickles down from the top. And we've learned it
time and time again that whenever we question is it

(15:03):
the QB or is it the things around him? And
that can be for a positive or a negative. Remember
was it Brady or was it Bill news Flash? It
was Brady. Was it the Lions or was it Stafford?
What's the problem? It was the Lions. If you're asking
yourselves today, what's the problem, is it the Chargers or

(15:24):
is it Herbert? Your answer is the Chargers. And I
hope for that kid, whether it's a new coach, a
new team, something somewhere along the line is going to
prove the point that I'm trying to make that that
that young man's in the wrong spot. Let me ask
you this, um has Has Brendan Stateley been fired today yet? Nope?

(15:47):
Oh the news hasn't come out yet. Okay, um, see,
now do you think he will be I don't think
he will. Listen to me, Listen to me, Please listen carefully, okay. Uh.
And I'm not talking to you, I'm talking to you know,
our listeners. But but I will tell okay Uh, Brandon

(16:08):
Staley has gotten away with murder. And the reason he's
gotten away with murder was because of the superior talent
of Justin Herbert. Sometimes you get a guy that is
so good that it can make up for your ineptibility

(16:31):
to do your job. That's what we're seeing in San Diego.
If I I'm excuse me, in Los Angeles, I can't
do it. I gotta I gotta go with the judge. Okay. Uh.
The organization, the owners, the g M should have been

(16:57):
on the phone with the saint last night on that
six hour flight back from Jacksonville to Los Angeles. They
should have been on the phone making arrangements to make
the deal to bring Sean Payton, who we know wants

(17:20):
to be here with Justin Herbert. He's in Los Angeles,
he's working for Fox, has family out here. We know
this to be, so we shouldn't be dragging our feet.
And you may say, well he got them to the playoffs. Well,
they made the playoffs despite him and his abilities to

(17:44):
coach and give his team the proper opportunity to be successful.
And that goes for this year and last year. Remember
they should have made the playoffs last year as well.
So I I'm saying all this to say, all of
those giving up points, leaving points on the field, going

(18:04):
forward on fourth down, finding yourselves late in the fourth
quarter only down by two or three, thinking back to man,
we should have probably kicked the field goal. All of
the time out usage, all of these things they got,
uh Nathaniel Hackett fired and other coaches fired for whatever reason.

(18:27):
The Los Angeles Chargers are going to hang onto that.
So I say, yes, they made the playoffs despite h
Brandon Staley's abilities to put them in a position to
continually be successful. They gotta get rid of them. Are

(18:47):
like you said, we're gonna be looking at Justin Herbert
like a dynamic thrower of the football, just squandering in
away from front office and up uh all the way
down to a sideline ineptability. That that's what's about to happen.
They got to stop this now, because this young man
is the real deal. I don't disagree with anything you said, However,

(19:11):
we've got to understand now. And I don't need to
tell you this because you live in l A and
you went to San Diego State, you know darn well
that for the Chargers to do that, you're asking a
group of people to completely go against everything they've ever done.
Everything they've ever done, they've never want to go. You're good,

(19:31):
they've never won. And now you're asking an ownership group
that never pays at the top of the market for
a coach to pay at the top of the market.
An organization that never ever look at the history, never
gives up its first round draft pick. Now you're gonna
ask them to give up their first round draft pick
to go get Sean Payton. Now you're gonna ask an

(19:51):
organization that never gives its head coach total control to
bring in a head coach who is going to demand
total control. Now the Chargers, they will spend I know
they act like a cheap organization, but they have had
high price players, big contract don't come over now they're not.

(20:14):
They're not scared of money, okay, But to bring in
Sean Payton is layered and and again, I'll stay it
out loud. I agree with everything you just said, but
I believe they won't do it because that's not what
they do. What I'm telling you is this, what's the

(20:36):
definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over
and expecting a different result. So at some point, they're
in a perfect position in Los Angeles, in this market
to increase the value of their franchise. They have never
had an opportunity to do that. It wasn't gonna happen

(20:57):
in San Diego. As much as I love San Diego,
it just wasn't gonna happen there. You're in the second
biggest market on in this country, and now you have
an opportunity to increase the value of your franchise and
you're not even paying rent in your stadium. You get

(21:20):
what I'm saying. So hopefully someone knows them, who's listening
to us. I'm trying to do the trickle down here.
I'm trying to give them advice that they would have
to pay me millions as a consultant to give them.
I am trying to help the organization. Okay, they have

(21:40):
a special talent in Justin Herbert. The fact that Mike
Williams wasn't available for this game, for the game yesterday,
is is merit alone to fire Brandon Staley. Tell me
I'm wrong, Make it make sense. I'm not gonna tell
you're wrong. Is you're not? So yeah, I'm with you,

(22:03):
But you tell me all of these things that you're
asking them to do, which are all the right thing
to do, all the smart thing to do, all the
go for its stuff, all the level headed, forward thinking stuff.
Have you ever known there should be San Diego Chargers
to do those things? No, But if if I'm Justin Herbert,

(22:24):
or if I'm his representative, I'm gonna have a real
conversation with him because it's coming up on you got
to break the bank for him, and I'm gonna have
a conversation. I'm saying, hey, look man, I just not
gonna and I'm sure he's not this this type of guy,
good kid. You know, he knows how talented he is.
But that's why you want somebody in his organization, you know,

(22:48):
his rep agent, manager, best friend, dad, uncle, whoever hit
me up, let me talk to him. Right, he needs
to start making decisions and helping the Chargers make decisions
that are going to benefit him and the rest of
the team, Like, hey, sure would love to get a

(23:12):
Sean Payton or somebody in here. Right when this, when this,
when this, when this, when this contract negotiation starts to
come through, Now it's like, yeah, now we're good. We'll wait,
we'll get to the fifth year option, we'll play it. Yeah,
your franchise tag maybe fifty million dollars at that point,
we'll take We'll take a hundred million for two years,

(23:34):
and then we're gonna write like you you have to
start threatening things like that in order to start moving.
You know, coaches, quarterback toplate quarterbacks have gotten coaches fired before. Oh,
they've got all the leverage in the world. So now
we have to start leaning if they won't do it
themselves as an organization, you know, their prize prints needs

(23:56):
to start helping them. Understand that Matthew Stafford got the
dog crap kicked out of him for twelve years for
yep at a place where the organization where they I'll
just say it like this, I don't even have to
be dispourging to to to Detroit and what they've done

(24:18):
over the decades, they made too all time grades to
all time grades, retire early and willing to give money
back to get out of Detroit. That's a great point.
That's a great point. Calvin and Barry know exactly what
you're talking about. Now we can talk about how complicated
other banks make it to redeem credit card awards, or

(24:39):
we could talk about how we Discovery you can redeem
your rewards for cash in any amount at any time.
I mean talk about amazing learn more at discover dot
com slash redeemed rewards terms apply, uh not. Everybody in
the doghouse for these should be San Diego Chargers is
on the coaching staff. One of them wears a uniform.
Talk about that coming up next Steve Disager time though,

(25:02):
let's find out what's trend and has a brother who
plays for the Niners. We'll get to that in justin all,
that was a team loss last night to the NFL playoffs.
We got three games today, the third of which is
underway at Cincinnati. Ed mcpherrison with a thirty nine yard
field goals for the Bengals at home LEADUE three nothing
over the Baltimore Ravens about six minutes to go in

(25:23):
the first quarter. We have already picked up wins from
the Giants and Buffalo. With the Giants winning, that means
they are now the lowest remaining seed in the NFC playoffs,
which means the Giants will be at top seed Philadelphia
in the Divisional round next weekend. Apparently the league is
leaning toward that being a Saturday game, which means the

(25:44):
Niner home game would be Sunday against the winner of
tomorrow night's Dallas at Tampa Bay contest. Dallas has not
won a road playoff game since the season by the
way oh and eight since on the road, most recently
losing at the l A Rams four years ago. The
Giants win was at Minnesota thirty one two. Minnesota had
been eight and one at home during the regular season.

(26:06):
Daniel Jones two touchdown passes, three hundred one yards passing
plus seventeen carries seventy eight yards rushing, Sae Kwon Barkley
two touchdown runs. Buffalo eliminated Miami thirty thirty one Josh
Allen three touchdown passes, three turnovers. He was sacked seven times,
but in a win. Buffalo led seventeen nothing in the

(26:27):
first half, but it was tied before halftime. Eventually, it
Bill's three point victory against Dolphins third string quarterback Skyler Thompson,
who had one touchdown, two interceptions, and seemingly ten to
leave game penalties. Miami is a team on the ground
twenty carries forty two yards. In the NBA, New York
won at Detroit. Clipper sent Houston to a tent straight

(26:48):
law Chicago over Golden State, and it's a final from
the Brooklyn game. The Nets at home lost to the
Thunder one twelve to one oh two. Josh Giddy twenty
eight points in college hoop st John's one at number
six ranked Yukon seventy four, NHL Montreal over the Rangers
two to one, and pitchers and catchers report to Major

(27:09):
League Baseball spring training in a month February. Back to you, alright, Steve,
great stuff live ti rack dot com studios and by
the way, um, Steve, what you just said. They're about
the league leaning towards the Giants Eagles game being a
Saturday game. I was over here under the impression that
that's a done deal, like there's no way they're making

(27:30):
the Bucks and Cowboys play on a Monday and then
have the winner play the following Saturday. However, I mean,
I assume the official announcement comes on a graphic during
this telecast tonight. So there hasn't been anything announced, but yeah,
and the weather thing official, But the weather should be
fine in California next weekend. Things are things are stopping
the next few days with all the rain that's going

(27:51):
on last few weeks. I can tell you right now,
sitting here in the Bay Area, it is still pouring. Um.
But yes, we we we have we finally have a
tenday forecast that would suggest the rain is going to
get up on out of here here, not that it's
going to be in Santa Claric like that it'll be
in the fifties. But no wet weather next weekend. Correct. Correct,

(28:13):
And actually yesterday ended up being about as good as
anyone could have hoped, considering the forecast was supposed to
be just completely sideways, and it wasn't that bad. But
I totally yes, yes, oh my gosh, like I thought
the trees were going to fly out of the ground
outside my house when we woke up yesterday morning. So
it was intense. But anyway, yeah, I think that that

(28:34):
forty Niners versus Bucks slash Cowboys game is uh. I
mean it has to be a Sunday game. The Bucks
and Cowboys would would have every right to go crazy
if they ended up playing with Saturdays, right, yeah, yes,
And it's not super divisional weekend. There is no Monday
game next weekend. Appairly that weekend's not that super for

(28:56):
the NFL postseason, just just old regular weekend coming up
next week. All right, thanks stop and yeah, thank you Steve,
And then he from He's exactly right. Can we take
a minute to talk about the boss? Because one of
them was his normal, fantastic self in a very very
good forty Niners victory yesterday, And then I thought the

(29:18):
other one he really really did. He did himself and
his team a total disservice yesterday. Where's it start, head coach?
Come on, man, there's a there's a things have a
way of trickling down off onto the field, right, there's

(29:38):
a respect level. You think about coaches who going to respect? Right?
Like that was his second bone head penalty like that, yep, right,
the throwing of the helmet all that. Like you you
as a player, you know what you can get away with.

(29:58):
You know what you can get away with it. So
people are thinking, I'm just talking about oh, the play
calls or at the time out of whatever. No, I'm
talking about the totality of being the head coach. And
I don't want to take anything away from Jacksonville. But
if you win the turnover margin plus four and you

(30:21):
lose the game, it's you as the head coach. It
is you. Shout out to Trevor Lawrence, Doug Peterson, the
Jacksonville Jaguars for keeping tight coming out of the locker room,

(30:42):
giving up only three points in the second half and
scoring twenty three points. That's halftime adjustments. That's leadership. Look,
we had exactly what I'm talking about. We had both
sides of the coin. One team goes into halftime, the

(31:07):
other team has seven and seven. You're by twenty points
at half. Leadership, end of the game. That's what I mean.
The charges, Yeah, they could Brandon Stead he got into
the playoffs, he gets another shot. Uh no, he doesn't.

(31:29):
You have to cut it. It's gonna cost you some money.
We get it. If you're not willing to do these things,
they need to sell the franchise because all they're doing
is devaluing the franchise. At a time where NFL teams
are at a premium, you're devaluing your franchise and you're

(31:53):
about to I can't, but Mike Williams must be. If
I was Mike Williams and I'd be like, bro I'm
I'm not going back. If dude, it's a head coach,
I'm not going back. His beat broke his back. It
broke his back? Are you kidding? In a game? That did? Mean?
If Mike Williams is in this game, the Charges win.

(32:17):
You don't have gerald effort the tight end having a
hundred and nine yards Mike, what did you win? That's
the That's the simplest that it's black and white. So
shout out to the Jacksonville, Duval County, Duvall. They came,
They did what they were supposed to do. They put
themselves in the position now playing a divisional round. Uh.

(32:39):
I don't want to take anything. Justin Herbert he grew,
I mean Trevor Lawrence he grew today, yesterday he has
taken a step forward. It was rough. This is what
you need from your star quarterback. You need to see
how they respond. It was rough, it was ugly. They
got the win. You saw the entire our conversation all

(33:02):
in five seconds. I mean, is a player being held
accountable when, as a veteran, supposed star player has his
second bone head play as you called it, throws his
helmet into the ground, and instead of his coach holding
him accountable, he does what we do with babies in
a high chair when they toss their crackers on the floor.

(33:25):
We run over there and we get the cracker, and
we put the cracker back on the high chair. Here
we get bleak with you please eat that? Only so
that he would throw the helmet again, and and not
another word, stated star player. All right there, hey, take
it in. We're gonna finish this wanted out you yep
what my singletary say. Can't win and win him. Can't

(33:48):
do it, can't do it, can't do it right? Like
you got you you have two. First of all, take
a stand as a coach. Don't be a pushover. Don't
respect Brandon Stalley on that team. Are you kidding me? Hey? Man?
I'd be like, hey, man, take you know what, you

(34:09):
don't get your helpmet back? Take them should the pass
off and all that, and go take a shower. We'll
see you on the bus, homie. We'll see you on
the bus. And when the media asked, well, why didn't
you have both of you, tell him because I'm not
I'm not running the kindergarten. I'm not running a daycare.
I'm a professional football coach. And if you can't act

(34:33):
like a professional, I'm gonna treat you like a child.
Go to your room. That's what I'm talking about. Man.
You think he would have did that with Bill Belichick,
Andy Reid, Sean Payton, No, because the President would already
be said he did it twice. This's and and this

(34:55):
is from the Mike Williams situation. Don't forget Keenan Allen
tweeting earlier this year year what are we doing when
he was out in a game based on the way
Brandon Staley was calling everything? So uh there it is
all right, we're going chronological. That means we're going to
Buffalo coming up next. Mark Why from Salam Fox Sports Radio. Okay,

(35:18):
Bengals off to an expected start. If you will, although
Evan McPherson, who has showing the propensity to do what
he just did, has gone and done it again. So
missed extra point, But at Jamaarch's touchdown and the Bengals
are leading the Ravens by a score of nine to nothing.
And as this one unfolds in front of our eyes,

(35:39):
I have a feeling the name Lamar Jackson will come
up at some point later on in these proceedings. But
chronological you request, so we do e from and that
brings us to Buffalo today in a game that also
got started in a very expected way. Fourteen nothing, seventeen three.
Next thing you know, here comes Eiler Thompson in one

(36:01):
of those games where Buffalo and I know all the cliches.
Playoffs are different and a win is a win that's
survived in advance, and you move on. But I gotta
think there's some thread of concern for the Buffalo defense,
which has not really been great in the second half
of the It is supposed to be a very good group, um,

(36:23):
but scoring against them has not been difficult. And the
Dolphins ran up and down the field put up a
thirty one on them, and uh and even in the
loss I mean, if you're if you're looking at burrowing
mahomes the rest of the way, I gotta think there's
something a little bit uncomfortable about today's win for the Bills. No,
uh yeah, yeah, but let's do this instead of talking

(36:46):
about the Bills. Let's start with Miami first. Okay, because
I sat there and I watched that game with my wife,
and shame on, first of all, shame on Mike mcdenne. Else,
all right, and you can call it, you can call
it new coach jitters and experience whatever they were raving.

(37:10):
But he went to where did Harvard and yellow where
ever he went, and his thesis was, you know, the
breakdown of the nineteen one NFL like whatever that is.
I don't care. I know Mike. He was our coaching
assistant assistant when I was in Houston. He was filling
our playbooks in when we had real playbooks with you know,

(37:33):
the whole punches in them, and and and all of that. Right,
he was placing our playbooks in the locker and collecting
them after trips to put the new game plan in.
So I've known him for a long time. This inexcusable
for you to be on your third string quarterback and
not be able to get the play in consistently for

(37:55):
the entire game. You are out of your mind if
you think you're going to beat teams in the playoff.
If you're breaking the huddle with eight seconds every single
time and you have a massive amount of movement in

(38:17):
your offensive sets. They could have been called for delay
of game nine times in that game. I counted them
nine times every single time I would be up. That's
another one we kept track. You use all of your
time outs because you, as a head coach, couldn't get

(38:41):
across the information to your third string quarterback. Right number two.
Shame on those dynamic, tremendous receivers that Miami has had,
so only the third time of Duo's had over three

(39:02):
thousand yards and YadA YadA, YadA, YadA, YadA, boom boom boom.
They let Skyler Thompson down. This dude was throwing ropes.
He was making throws only the top level elite quarterbacks
can throw, can make, and they were dropping them. All

(39:26):
you want to talk about, they should have blewe buffalo
out waddle for whatever reason, not here mentally today, Tarik Hill, Yeah, Kasecki,
you can't catch your bullet, trying to catch it with
your arms, use your hands. Every point in this game

(39:51):
when they were trying to extend these are these are
scoring passes, all right, and we're gonna talk about a
lot more of this on the other side. I know
I'm taking up a lot of time, but it's a
to pack. It's a lot to pack in that game.
I mean, if if you miss the beginning of the game,
Buffalo goes down, goes for it on fourth down, they
don't get it. The very second play from scrimmage for

(40:11):
Miami bomb to Jalen Waddle hit him and stride perfectly
and then he dropped it. So much more from the
Buffalo game Minnesota as well coming up. Just working our
way from here to there, starting at the beginning of
the playoffs and making our way up to now, broadcasting

(40:32):
live from the ti irac dot com studios tirac dot com.
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had a long way to go with Brock Purty, justin
Herbert Lamar Jackson, everything that needs to be said on

(40:53):
this wild card weekend, even though it is far from done.
Ravens threatening right now down on nothing, and we will
keep you up to date on that. But um As
Stone Phillips would love to say back in the day
on date line. Returning to our story, let's get back
to the Buffalo Bills and the Miami Dolphins, because you

(41:14):
were in the middle of saying a few things about
a guy who's gotten his flowers this year from Mike McDaniel.
Had a whole lot of people talking up his play,
his coaching, for sure, and I get it, like, look
the Dolphins a few weeks ago, we're eight and three.
They've been through a ton of adversity with all of
the two concussions and whatnot. But then things went awry

(41:37):
late in the season and it felt understandable, and it
even is today. But but I'm with you that there
there were just weird things happening. We talk about first
game jitters mainly for players. If I haven't right, seven
of the fourteen quarterbacks in these playoffs we're making their

(41:59):
first ever playoff start this weekend, and so there are
a lot of players out there doing things they've never
done before. Purdy and Gino Smith and Herbert and here's
Tyler Huntley right now as we speak, and and all
of this, and these guys quite frankly looked more under
control than Mike McDaniel did coaching his first game in

(42:21):
the playoffs. I mean, you mentioned the getting the play
in on time. Obviously, the one everyone's gonna remember is
the fourth and one where not only did they not
get it in on time once they sort of didn't
get it in on time twice the play clock resets,
he had fifty seconds to get a fourth and one
call in. They end up taking a delay of game

(42:43):
with the season on the brink. I don't know what
you say about that from you say the moment was
too big for you, because that's what it was. The
moment was too big for him and he panicked. If
you don't know plays you need to call in those situations,

(43:07):
then you're not practicing, right, because as a former thirteen
year NFL VET, we've I've practiced every single situation that
can come up in a football game. Time, play, everything, everything.

(43:28):
The man has a wrist band on, call a number
and go with it. Seven seven right, short yardage number seven.
He looks down, he calls the play, You break the huddle,
you get up to the huddle, you get up to
the line of scrimmage with fifteen seconds to go, so

(43:51):
you can make the proper adjustments. It's impossible for a quarterback,
a young quarterback right to make adjustments with breaking the
huddle with eight seconds. It's impossible. It's nothing you can do.
And if it's that complicated, then you've also done this

(44:12):
young man and the team a disservice. This isn't rocket science,
it's not. But there's leadership that needs to be held accountable,
and that's the head coach. All day. I couldn't believe
they use all of their timeouts in a one score game,
a three point game, they had zero timeouts. They went

(44:33):
from a fourth and six inches to a fourth and
five yards and six inches? Are you and almost got
another penalty? Yeah, Like I couldn't even fathom what was
I was watching it, like, what is happening right now?
Why are they still in the huddle? What are you

(44:55):
talking about? I'm talking about coming from time out, I'm
talking about coming from injured player on the field. All
of these situations, they didn't have the right play ready.
So now you put your team. Shout out to to
to to Miami's defense. Boy, they got after Josh Allen.

(45:18):
They did everything they could, including score to try to
help take some of that pressure off Skyler Thompson. He
didn't get any help from his receivers to Rick Hill,
Jalen Waddle, Mike Kasecki. It's like they didn't want to
catch the ball. Literally. I'm like, my wife was like,

(45:39):
the one. That's a good play by the dB. I said, no,
no, no no, baby. If you can get two hands on
the ball as a receiver, you catch the ball. I'd
love to be a fly on the wall for the
No. No No, no, no, no baby. Right Like I'm I'm like, no, no, no, Yeah,
the dB made a good play. But I said, you know,
whould have made that catch? Who? Andre john to Andre

(46:02):
Johnson if he had two hands on the ball, He's
not gonna let the defendant flap it out of his hands.
There you go, I could I have seen it. I know. Well,
that's why he's gonna be in the Hall of Fame.
But I said, I get it, I understand, but that's
a standard as a receiver. If you touch it with
both hands, that should be a catch. Well, and while
I don't know necessarily anythink about Hall of Fame, at

(46:23):
this point, you're talking about two receivers with the Miami
Dolphins who are are at the there, right there, at
the top of this league. So now, now listen everything
that you're saying, I know what, there are at least
a handful of listeners saying to themselves while you're saying
all of it, they're going to eve from You're right,

(46:44):
all of these things are true. And with all of that,
they still scored thirty one, and they still put the
fear of God into the Buffalo Bills on a perfect
weather day a at Orchard Park. So I'm not here

(47:05):
for wait a minute, it needs to look a certain way. Look,
these are playoffs. Every single one of these Every one
of these games has had wonky moments. Forty Niners were
losing at halftime. Tyler Huntley just went right down the
field on the Bengals and scored a touchdown. So every
one of these favorites, you know, and we'll get to
the vikings for goodness sakes, every one of these favorites

(47:27):
has had wobbly moments here on a very, very big stage.
But talk to me about a Buffalo bill team that
if I'm looking at there, I think, now eight game
win streak, and you don't do that by accident, So
I take nothing away. But you know, the Dolphins were
there a handful of weeks ago and it took a
last second kick in order to win. I'm thinking of

(47:50):
Thanksgiving in Detroit, where Buffalo needed a last second field
goal to win. Like, scoring on Buffalo appears to be
much easier now than it did in the first half
of the season. And it also appears like if Buffalo
wants to go to the super Bowl, the high likelihood
is they're going to have to do it against two

(48:11):
elite quarterbacks to knock them out. And the way that
defense looks right now, I mean they won, and I
like their chances to go to the super Bowl less
than I did a few hours ago. Yeah, they got
a serious problem. If you having problem with the third
fourth string quarterback, and in no disrespect to Skyler Thompson,

(48:34):
then uh, you're about to get buzz alt Patrick Mahol
has been playing them games. I don't I mean, look, hey,
I don't know what to tell you. Man. If if
this is what you're bringing to the table, if this

(48:54):
is what's happening. You're in trouble. It's it's about to
be a problem. You have no answers for Skylie. You
won't be able to protect Josh Allen. They did a
tremendous job Miami by rushing the ends wide and making

(49:16):
the interior defensive lineman hold the pocket. We are not
gonna let you escape outside, and as soon as you
try to escape inside are big fellas shed an attack.
That was the perfect way to combat what Josh Allen
has been doing. But if you think you're gonna be

(49:39):
Joe Burrow, are our Patrick Mahomes with that defense, numb bro,
That's not what you want. I mean, I just looking
at this thing right now and wondering. You know, you
go through the first nine weeks of this season and
I'm counting up the number of times a team scored
more than one points against the Buffalo Bills nine weeks

(50:02):
into the season. You want to know what number I
came up with, zip none. And then they got to
week ten, Minnesota thirty three points, Cleveland scores twenty three
against him Detroit, and then there was a good stretch
although week offenses New England and the Jets, they keep

(50:23):
them to ten and twelve Miami and then New England
week eighteen twenty three and today thirty one. It's not
the same now, Listen, I've already stated publicly I don't
think the Chiefs are going to the Super Bowl because
I don't love their defense. I guess what we have
right now, potentially, if the game even happens, we have

(50:45):
the makings of that Atlanta game Buffalo Kansas City, and
it may look exactly like it did last year. Uh,
you know, first one to fifty wins. I don't know
if that's where the a f C is headed, but
there's something in the water right now. I'm even looking
at some of the good defenses on the other side
of the bracket. The forty niner defense has been a

(51:07):
little bit more wobbly the last month than uh, than
than it had been before that. Philadelphia's defense a little
more wobbly the last month. I don't know, like you
tell me, getting late into a season, is there something
there that makes sense? Um? You know, guys are tired,
banged up. When you're used to your offense carrying you,

(51:31):
you can get lazy, right when you're used to putting
up points and knowing you can outscore people. All it
takes on defensive one person and be you know, late
late to the ball, right it is. You gotta be

(51:52):
dialed in. And the only team so far i'm seeing
really dialed in offensively and defensively the San Francisco forty nine.
They're not playing no games and in fact, the Seattle's
core twenty three on them. I know they mane, I

(52:13):
know they're upset. They wanted to shut them out the
second half and they gave up, you know, right right,
but they still there's a standards Well, actually, can we
take that opportunity coming up next for for a quick
aside because we still need to get to the Vikings
Giants game. But I would like to ask you someone

(52:36):
who's played about the nature of what is known as
the bone head play, and and there's been a few,
for sure, but can we spotlight the Jimmy Ward spear
on Geno Smith that's set up the field goal to
end the first half for the Seattle Seahawks with a

(52:57):
seventeen to sixteen lead. That was on Exhibit A, and
there are more exhibits to get to. But a veteran
player who has been there forever there are just times
as a fan where I'm like, why not, There's gotta
be something to this because I know that player is
smarter than that. So what happens on the field that

(53:19):
leads to a play like that? We can get to
that coming up next, Football fans, be sure to tune
into Fox Sports Radio's Countdown to Kickoff, presented by bet MGM,
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and the I Heart Radio app presented by bet MGM.

(53:41):
That's coming up next with the from salat Mark with
at Fox Sports Radio, a from Hey, you tell me
you've been there. The playoffs are hard, aren't day? They're
really hard? Oh my god? I mean I'm watching, you know,
the Bengals come out. They're supposed to be rocking and rolling,
and they get the first two scores of the game,

(54:03):
and the home crowd, right, okay, we're good, probably like
Buffalo felt, probably like San Francisco felt yesterday. And so
it's nine nothing now here we are in the second quarter.
Your left tackle Jonah Williams is in the locker room.
Eli Apple right now is riving around and paying on
the ground. The Ravens have a first in goal. And

(54:24):
this is literally forty eight seconds after a snap was
hucked over Tyler Huntley's head that was bouncing around at midfield.
He somehow picked it up and turned it into a
situation that ended up with the first down in the
red zone. And momentum is a raven right now. And
I'm just thinking about all these games. And we'll get
to the Vikings in a few but it's just like,

(54:45):
good Lord, the bounce of this ball, the intensity that
has been brought um. This is hard, This is this
is really hard. We go into these things. The spreads
this weekend caught my attention, right like, you had two
double digit spreads and and this game that that that
flirted with the idea of being a double digit spread.

(55:08):
I'm not sure that those should exist in the in
the playoffs, man, there is a lot there is a
lot of emotion and intensity pouring out in these things
right now. Yeah, it's hard to to to really beat
a team that's made it through the journey to get
to the second season, which is the playoffs, and and

(55:28):
and just just mud stump them right like you would
have thought, you know, in the in the the games
that happened earlier, Buffalo playing against the third string quarterback. Okay,
this is this is this is over. You would have

(55:50):
thought after the fourth interception and Jacksonville this this is over.
But what you have to remember is you have to
continue to play. The other team isn't just going to
pack up and go home. So when you feel like

(56:10):
you have the advantage, you haven't stopped the will of
the other team. And then it becomes who makes the
best adjustments at halftime. I said it on the show
yesterday as I was watching the game, I said, this
game has been great, but what I want to see

(56:32):
is who's going to come out the second half after
the proper adjustment. That's when football starts. When you've seen
a team's best shot, when you when you've seen a
team go up on you to seven, what's that conversation

(56:53):
the leadership in that locker room and what is your
team going to do? Are they going to pack it in?
And what we've seen in this playoffs is no, there
is no packet in. There is no packet in. We
don't care. You can skull clap, you can blow the horn,
you can beat on the drum, but we're the Giants

(57:15):
and we're gonna win this game. With Brian day Ball.
Remember on this show months ago, you know exactly what
I'm about to talk about. Came onto this show and
I said, Brian day Ball one the locker room Week one,

(57:36):
going for the win, a much more line New York
Giants team trying to figure it out. He set the
tempo and the tone Week one. We are winners. What
we're going to do from here on out under my
leadership is go for the throat. When you're team believes,

(58:03):
no matter what, you going for the throat, then they
step up and fight with you. That's exactly what we
saw what four months later in January on the road,
fourth and one in their own territory, in their own territory,

(58:27):
up by a score to put the game away. Do
you see the full circle moment. That's exactly what I
was talking about. It wasn't even a question. He didn't
have to convince anybody on that field on that offense
that this is what we're gonna do and this is
the right thing to do, because he had already set

(58:48):
the framework and the president week one, when the locker
room you can win the games. M hmm. So here's
why I'm so focused on that kind of emotion. Right now,
take me through this, and actually I'll start with you.

(59:12):
Have you ever had one of those big moment, big
game bone head play? Do you ever do this? Me? Yeah?
You know, man for real? Okay, good and I've done
something like, Um, we start the game. We've been practicing

(59:35):
all week. We're going on one. We're going I mean
going on too, going on too. We come out, kick off.
I'm pumped up. I can't even barely breathe. I'm so
hyped and and ready to just rip somebody's helmet off.
We get up to the line on two on two, ready, break,
get up to the line Blue eighty blue, Eddie, say
that all God, I jumped out, come on you see
to me? To me, that's a little bit different though,

(59:57):
that's different. Uh And I get that, like right, and
maybe someone will say, wait, how's that different. That's emotion
leading to a mistake. But that's sort of like, yeah,
you come out of the locker room. It's a timing thing.
Help me understand. After everything that we've watched this year

(01:00:20):
in the NFL and hell, if the Vikings had tied
this game today, you were about to see hell take
over social media because of a roughing the passer call
on Kirk Cousins deep in his own territory early on
that drive. You know what I'm talking about. But we
have now been trained. We know if you breathe on

(01:00:41):
the quarterback in the wrong way at the wrong time,
they might not just throw a flag, They literally might
come to your house and and take ownership of it
from you. You are not allowed to do weird things
to the cornerback. So how after an emotion building field

(01:01:02):
goal to take a two point lead and then an
ill advised squid kick that gives the Seahawks the ball
just inside their own forty yard line, how does a
veteran like Jimmy Ward spear a sliding Geno Smith with
one second left, like you gotta help me. Because fans

(01:01:23):
are like like this, TVs get broken. He from beause
plays like this. I don't, I don't, I don't, I
don't get it. I like and there are so many
of them. Joey Bosa was another. I don't understand how
plays like this happen at the highest level of the NFL.

(01:01:43):
The toughest thing for a professional athlete in any sport,
but especially football because it's such a contact sport, is
such a team oriented sport. He had other contact sports
to individuals like m m A. Boxing. Every thing that
happens to you, it happens to you. Everything you decide
to do, you're the only one that that has to pay.

(01:02:07):
But when you're in team sports and the contact sport,
the emotions are so high you literally it's it's like
it's and I. You have to be able to harness it.
It's called controlled right, controlled aggression, controlled aggression. You have

(01:02:36):
to preach that you cannot let the emotion of the
game affect the game. It's very difficult to do because
in a physical sport, you feel like you're being taken
advantage of, So your natural thing to do is to

(01:02:58):
push back right and if it's been happening, if you
believe it's been happening multiple times throughout the game, you
will get to the point where you just snap right
now and for ward and the spearing that was just idiotic.

(01:03:19):
You know you're not supposed to do that. But discipline.
Discipline is an important part of the game. If you
don't have the discipline then, you know. And I'm sure
Shanahan and and and and I'm sure that they you know, well,
this will be brought up in film study. Stand up,

(01:03:44):
let's watch this play, right, that's accountability. That's accountability. Is
that happening with the charges and bosup? I don't know,
I don't know, right, I'm on the plane. I'm I
don't have in the pilot and and and the flight
attendant to put the game on the net play because

(01:04:04):
you know they're on vacation. Now we're gonna watch this
play on the plane, and I'm gonna call boats up
and he's gonna stand right here and we're gonna talk
about it. Right, If that's the last thing he should
do as a coach, it should have been that. Man.
I hope they fired him. If they don't fire him, brother,
I you might have a man if they don't fire that, dude,

(01:04:28):
I'm telling if I'm just if I'm just hurting people,
I'm yo, bro, I'm I'm I'm gonna, I'm I'm i'mna
hanging back. No, we ain't got to talk about new contract. Well,
well I'm gonna hanging back, So we go ahead. Yeah No.
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(01:04:50):
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It's Steve Todd from It's It's It's time for Steve.
We we got he hit Steve in here. We're gonna
what's trending? Hi, Steve. Hello, And a brief injury update
on defensive back Eli Apple and the Bengals. Apparently hurt
in a collision with a teammate and after coming out

(01:05:11):
of the medical ten he did get his helmet back,
so that's a good sign. Maybe it was just the
stinger the way he grabbed at the neck, but it
does not appear he's out for the game. The good
news for the ball in Baltimore Ravens as they've just
taken the lead ten nine final seconds at Cincinnati. The
bad news is that he just had to settle for
the lead field goal of twenty two yards. They just

(01:05:31):
had first and goal at the three and went a
yard backwards on the next three plays, so they've hit
halftime Ravens are leading ten nine over Cincinnati. Why isn't
it ten ten, you ask, because after the Bengals scored
on the first play of the second quarter, it was
a Joe Burrow seven yard touchdown past to Jamar Chase.

(01:05:51):
The extra point kick was missed, so the Bengals are
down one at home at halftime. A p in the
Bay Area pointing out that now that Evan McPherson has
missed a playoff kick, forty Niners veteran Robbie Gold is
one of the rare kickers who's never missed in the
postseason field goals twenty five for twenty five. Robbie Gold

(01:06:12):
thirty seven for thirty seven on p A T s
in his playoff career. Obviously, the Niners will be playing
next weekend. Top seeded Philadelphia, likely on Saturday, will be
hosting the Giants, as the Giants eliminated Minnesota thirty one
to twenty four. So the Vikings of the first NFL
team to in the regular season, go undefeated in one
score games and then lose the wild card playoff by

(01:06:35):
one score. Quarterback Daniel Jones two touchdowns three one yards
passing plus seventeen carries seventy eight yards rushing. This was
the Giants first postseason win in over a decade since
a Super Bowl victory against New England. Buffalo beat Miami
thirty thirty one. Josh Allen three touchdown passes, three turnovers.
He was sacked seven times in this game. Alan had

(01:06:57):
three hundred fifty two yards passing for the enters. Buffalo
now eight and one at home. For what it's worth,
the Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel was asked afterwards about
the critical delay of game penalty that his team got
on their last possession near midfield about two and a
half minutes to go fourth and one, did not get
a playoff uh in time. Afterwards, the coach says it

(01:07:19):
was communicated to him that the Dolphins had already picked
up the first down on the prior play, so he
was deploying a group for a first and tent call
and then told no, no, it's fourth down. Quote. I
had gotten conflicted information that it was first down. Don't
know exactly who it was from probably the first time
all year that happened. You try to do your best

(01:07:40):
as it was. I thought we had a fourth and
six opportunity. It's fun. It's fun how coaches do this
with Coaches always act like they don't even see the field.
They're like remember the concussion, things like yeah, I got
a report from somewhere else that. It's like, you're there,

(01:08:01):
You're on there. Can you not see the game? I
can see the game. You're there. Yet another reason why
every staff should have an assistant coach just for the
head coach up in the booth, give you another set
of eyes. There's no salary cap on coaching staffs. Every
staff should be that way. On third down conversions, by

(01:08:21):
the way, Miami was just four of sixteen, Buffalo nine
for sixteen. Miami kicked field goals on three straight drives
at one point in the first half, and they were
in the red zone on two of those drives. Miami
loses by three points. Monday night, it's Dallas at Tampa
Bay in the late NBA game. It's going to be
the Lakers and Lebron hosting Philly and EMBIID. And earlier

(01:08:42):
we had a Clippers win at home over Houston. Houston's
lost ten straight college hoops St. John's one at Connecticut.
Back to you, alright, Steve, great stuffing. Also thank you
Steve for ensuring that Robbie Gold will miss his next
kick for the forty Niners this weekend. I leave me.
If I had that power, I would use it. Steve,

(01:09:05):
I'm so glad to be here right now from this.
He from knows this because the two of you were
working together like six months ago, and I was driving
around where in the middle of the baseball season, and
Steve killed somebody's no hitter, and I text, I'm text
I got to wherever I was going on, texted me
from because you guys were having the funniest spirited debate

(01:09:25):
over the broadcaster Jinks And I texted me from and
I said, I can't believe Steve did that to that debt,
that poor guy who was about to have his dreams
come true. And then the no hitter died because he
went on Fox Sports Radio and goes, he's got a
no hit or through seven and two thirds and that
was it. And I was reminded of that now and

(01:09:45):
now is a forty Niner fan terrified over the next
time that Robbie Gold will take the field. This is awful.
So for the people who weren't with us a couple
of minutes ago, Robbie Gould's never missed an extra point
in his whole playoff career, or field goal or field
goal in his playoff crime take take the under in

(01:10:07):
the Cowboys slash Bucks forty Niners game this Sunday because
there will not be any kicking. The forty Niners are
just going for six and they're gonna hopefully try to
do it that way. I don't even know if they're
gonna give Robbie a uniform this weekend after that behavior
that that was devastating for for Niner nations to, Like

(01:10:27):
I said, if I had the power, you have the power, Steve, Okay,
you do you do? You're like, hey man, you have
the power. Um, all right, we're live in the ti
iraq dot com studios. A from UM give everybody like
a little thirty second teaser on what really grabbed you

(01:10:50):
out of Giants Vikings. You can pick either team, Um,
the Giants. I'm I'm going to tease you with their
ability to block out the noise that is literally in figuratively.
I've played in Minnesota in the playoffs, and when I

(01:11:13):
tell you it's noisy, that's my tease. Love it. Danny Dimes,
who may hey, Well have changed the entire narrative and
future of his career with his game today. And the
Vikings were called a fraud all year ish. Uh, it's
gonna be hard to shake that label now. So all

(01:11:35):
of that is right around the corner. And then back
to Brock and Herbert and Lamar coming up at the
top of the hour as well, with you from salon
Mark whether or on Fox Sports Radio. Okay, from look,
I want you to get your giants takes off. Let
me just say this real quick. And and it's silly

(01:11:57):
to boil the whole season or even a game down
to one play, but you go thirteen and four and
you get all the way down to season on the brink,
right out the gate on your home field in the
first round, with somebody predicted that you would because that's

(01:12:19):
the way the Vikings play. And people call him a
paper tiger. And you've been ridiculed for years and that
when the sun goes down, you turn into a pumpkin
and you can't play in prime time. And on fourth
and eight, season on the brink, and you check it

(01:12:41):
down to your tight end three yards in front of you.
We can't help you. I don't care if three people
were on Justin Jefferson just throw it up rather than
do that, I'm giving him a chance, my man, I like,

(01:13:06):
I don't know what to say. The sports media is
unfair to athletes all the time. I don't need to
tell you this. There's so many stupid things that come
out of mouths like mine on a daily basis, from
people who have never been there and have no understanding
of what these athletes are going through. So often, I'm like, look,

(01:13:30):
I'm gonna I'm gonna try to I'm gonna try to
bring a broad angle here. I'm gonna try to see
this from all. I can't help you if, with your
season on the brink and everything that's happened in your career,
on fourth and eight in your building, and Justin Jefferson
on your team, you check it down to a tight end.

(01:13:51):
Not we can do now. I call this game when
I made my picks on the show yesterday, or you know,
I called this game. I took the giant. The fact
that Minnesota was only a three point home favorite, that's customary, right,

(01:14:14):
that's you. You your home team, you get three points.
I knew something was in the water. All of that
talk about Minnesota, winning the one score games, all of
that goes out the window in the playoffs. It's another season.
What you showed me by doing that. Yeah, it's great.

(01:14:39):
Your your team feels like they can win any game.
But you had eleven you had eleven one score games
that you you you you pulled out Like to me,
that's a problem. When your point differential is minus three,

(01:15:07):
that means your opponents score more than you have scored
more than you throughout the year. That is a problem
when you get to the playoffs and they ran into
a bus all which is the New York Giants coached
by Brian day Ball, who we talked about winning the

(01:15:30):
team the locker room and Daniel Jones had a coming
out party. This is the best game Daniel Jones has
probably ever played in d Angels made himself a lot
of money today. It made himself a lot of money today.
Now this notion of what's Brian day Ball gonna do
with quarterback, Well, we got a good one. We got

(01:15:55):
one that can can win a playoff. That's hard to do.
It's hard to it to the playoffs, and it's hard
to win a game in the playoffs and you go
on the road. In that environment which I've been in,
you can't hear anything, I mean nothing. The line guards
tackles centers, they can't hear anything. And you pull this out,

(01:16:20):
you Daniel Jones and his legs. It's so funny, so
ironic that Bryan day Ball uses Daniel Jones just like
he used uh um uh my guy in Buffalo, just
like he used Josh Allen, Josh Allen, just like he

(01:16:42):
used him. Same thing I'm talking about call run, not
just the scrambles, but we're running a uh a quarterback counter.
And that's what we saw. We saw Daniel Jones step
into the role of what we've been watching Josh Allen

(01:17:03):
do four five points almost five yards to carry seventy
eight yards three yards passing, passing raiding of one fourteen.
This is this is the formula that made Josh Allen
Josh Allen, and now it's we see it. It's pain dividend.

(01:17:29):
So yeah, I think Brian dave Ball is is okay
with Daniel Jones and what he brings to the team.
Why wouldn't he be? Yeah, I mean, Daniel Jones has
been a fascinating player in the NFL this year. Um
from making the playoffs being in basically a contract proven
ear um goes out there. And you mentioned the rushing.

(01:17:53):
You know, Josh Allen gets so much attention for the
way he's used. Josh Allen rush for seven in sixty
two yards this year, Daniel Jones rush for seven two
like almost the exact same, almost the exact same in
terms of rushing yards. Now, obviously Alan mixes in through

(01:18:13):
the year and Daniel Jones way way, way way less
than that, So I'm not making a comparison. I'm supporting
your point that they're used in a similar fashion. And
Daniel Jones, if you haven't been watching this year and
you probably haven't, has not been dynamic. But man, he's
been efficient. He there, Daniel Jones has been Again these

(01:18:35):
are not words that we love to use, but he's
been fine. He's been good, not great, But i mean, look,
fifteen touchdown passes is not gonna get anybody's attention, but
only five interceptions will, especially especially when you're gonna go
over over seven hundred yards on the ground and adding
seven rushing t ds. That's twenty two t ds against

(01:18:57):
five interceptions. That's really really good at should see maybe
should not be a surprise that the New York Giants
are gonna play next weekend, and with Jalen Hurts, in
my opinion, not being um at full health, this becomes
a really interesting game next weekend. Oh absolutely. Now, It's like, Okay,

(01:19:20):
the Giants have shown that they're up for the task.
They don't care, they're up for the challenge, and and
it's one of it's this is the playoffs, man. None
of nothing had happened in the regular season matters. Nothing matters.
So I'll tell you what, man, Philadelphia boo boof, Yeah,

(01:19:43):
you better get ready. Here we go. Yeah, division opponent.
They're gonna be used to everything about being in that stadium.
They kept it pretty close last week even though they
weren't playing their guys, So that gets real interesting. I
gotta an interesting Shanahan Purty question for you coming up
next as well. Okay, here's my problem me from I've

(01:20:06):
saved it for two hours. Here's my problem. My problem
is this sports world refuses to get divorced from its
own expectations. And I will tell you why that matters
in a major way, especially in these NFL playoffs, in

(01:20:28):
just moments. With e from Salon Mark Willard broadcasting live
from the ti irack dot com studios. Ti rac dot
com will help you get there, and I'm Matt Selection
fast free shipping, free road hazard protection and over ten
thousand recommended installers tire rack dot com the way tire
buying should be. So think about it our own expectations.

(01:20:49):
Just as a quick aside and as an example, think
about how we vote for coach of the year. Coach
of the year is never about coach of the year.
Several about who did the best job. It's about who
did a good job with someone who we thought was
gonna stink, So that is a good job. Like Brian

(01:21:09):
day Boy, you've been bringing him up. There you go.
He wasn't supposed to be good. His team is So
there you have it. That's a Coach of the Year candidate.
But does that mean automatically, just because our expectations were wrong,
that you should get the award. Now that's coach of

(01:21:30):
the year. So whatever, I'll tell you where another spot
where it's incredibly important, and that is for example, brock Party.
This quarterback is Mr irrelevant. He is uh, he's got
the looks of that, like when he leaves the stadium
with that backpack. I swear it's one of my son's
friends coming home from high school. It's like, he right,

(01:21:53):
he looks that way, his faces that way. When he didn't,
we celebrates by injecting to his veins. It doesn't even
look right. It's like, look, look at this little kid
out there having a good time. He's adorable. But the
problem is is because our own expectations were never attached
to brock Purty at such a level, we refuse to

(01:22:18):
say that he's good. Have you noticed how many people
have and will continue to call this kid a complete
product of the Kyle Shanahan system, which is great. Don't
get me wrong, I'm not taking anything away from Kyle
Shanahan either. However, it's as if every time Kyle Shanahan

(01:22:40):
touched a quarterback, everybody just scores forty points and goes
to the Super Bowl every year. I don't know. You
tell me how long has Kyle Shanahan been around the
game of football. He's been a long time man, long
time now. Matt Matt Ryan won an MPG, but it
doesn't it doesn't always look like this. So yes, great coach,

(01:23:02):
great system, and hell yeah, he's got an offense around him.
Those are all fair points. So would he look worse
with another team, probably, I'll grant you that, But damnity
from we gotta give this kid something now. You can't
just walk out there and do this. That's not the
way it works in the NFL. No, and and and
and to answer that, I want to to add on

(01:23:24):
to what you said, you know about him looking different
with another team. Talent this talent, okay, and confidence is
sometimes more important than young talent, because we've seen young

(01:23:46):
talented people get in their own way to have the
confidence to step on the stage as big as the
San Francisco for the Niners and that roster with the
expect Haitians as the last pick in the draft. To
have the confidence and the belief in your ability. M

(01:24:11):
right that everybody doesn't have that. Everybody doesn't have that.
They have another quarterback there who has that type of confidence.
Jimmy Garoppolo, even when his time in New England, to
step in the shoes of Tom Brady and to do

(01:24:32):
what he did. You gotta remember, Jimmy Garoppolo went where
I think was seven and on his first seven starts.
Ain't no something like that, including New England and then
coming over to San Francisco up right, So there's a
level of confidence. There's something that Kyle Shanahan um and

(01:24:52):
that organization is looking for an individual's at the quarterback position,
and that's the confidence. And I don't think they see
it yet and Trey Lance, and that's that's the intangible
that you can't coach into someone. That's the value that

(01:25:19):
a player will bring to your organization because you can't
coach that into them, right, that's the dynamic. And we've
seen Brock Party has it, Joe Burrow has it, Josh

(01:25:40):
Allen has it, Tom Brady has it. Right, these are
things that there are other talented quarterbacks like I don't
see it in Kirk Cousins mm hmm. Right. There's a
lot of hype and and and a hyperbole around Kirk

(01:26:00):
because you you know, you like that and and we
we get it. We all right, having confidence and trying
to prove people wrong with two different things. And a
lot of people get that confused because people with confidence
don't care what other people think. Hmm. And I think

(01:26:27):
that's the value that they see in the Brock Party.
Patrick Mahomes has it, Patrick Homer do anything on football field.
He does not care. He'll do anything. He'll throw, he'll
he'll hit. But a pass to you, that man played
ring around the Rosy, Right, You get what I'm saying.
Like that, that's a level that it's hard to find

(01:26:50):
that and you add that with the actual skills to
be able to read a defense to throw the ball
on top. Like now we're talking about Okay, now we
got something. And I like that. I like that about
brock Party. I like what he's doing. He's in a
perfect situation for him to exude that totally. It's just

(01:27:16):
wild to me. It's wild to me how this pendulum
swings back and forth. I'm a huge Kyle Shanahan fan.
I know you are too. Me and Kyle Shanahan we
played Halo together, Man, what we used to before he
had it? Yeah? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah we were. We
were and when he was my office of coordinator in Houston.
I'll get home. He's like, look, we got meetings, we're

(01:27:37):
gonna do all of this and I'm gonna get on
the game eight thirty. I'm gonna be on a day thirty.
We got the headsets on. We're playing Halo. Kyle is
Kyle is my guy who used to win. Come on, man,
destroyed Cole Shanahan and hello, man, come on man. Yeah

(01:28:00):
all right, I know that's your boy. And uh man,
I'm singing his praises you you'd love it. Man, I'm
getting into it right now with some of my guys
at A seven the game I stationed in San Francisco
because this has been a wobbly year. You know, when
they were three and four, It's like, okay, right, if

(01:28:21):
it turns out the super Bowl was the was the
odd year, that was the one, that's the outlier, and
I'm going, well, you got just please stop. I can't
stand when we do this stuff because, for instance, you've
talked about Brandon Staley tonight. Look, I know when we
should be having a conversation about a person, and when

(01:28:43):
we are supposed to have that conversation, we can have
that conversation. We're not supposed to be having that conversation
with Kyle Shannahan, period. Like, just put it aside. If
you want to get upset of a play call or
a decision to kick a field goal, great, knock yourself out.
Talking about his job status absolute lunacy, in my opinion,

(01:29:03):
so I'm a huge fan, and yes, every quarterback seems
to put up better numbers. When Kyle Shanahan is side
by side with that QB, I think he is right
there as the best or one of the best play
callers in the game. And this roster is incredible. But
here's what I also know from this was prior to

(01:29:24):
scoring forty one against the Seattle Seahawks and accounting for
four touchdowns and no turnovers in the game. Prior to that.
You can say whatever you want about teammates and defense
and red zone efficiency. You can go deep into the numbers.
I'm not going deep. I'm telling you this. When Jimmy

(01:29:45):
Garoppolo quarterback this team, they average twenty three points a game.
When Brock Purty started coming in, they average thirty three
points a game, and now they average thirty four because
of what happened yesterday. It's really not that hard. The
kid is excellent. He's excellent and and and if I

(01:30:06):
hear another person with the whole well, cheez uh my
dog could quarterback this team. Stop it. It doesn't work
like that in the NFL, never has and it never will. Yeah, man,
it's uh um, you should be excited. Up there. All right,

(01:30:29):
y'all got something cooking, um that you know a lot
of teams couldn't pull off given the injury history and
at the positions that you guys have lost people. The
defensive player of the year for some games, you lose

(01:30:50):
Deebo Samuel's all right, you lose all of the quarterbacks.
You haven't lost the game since October. That's before Halloween.
We're in the whole another year. We're in a whole
another year. It's it's about to be Valentine's Day, right Like,

(01:31:21):
That's that's how you coach. If you can go thirteen
and four after losing both of your your quarterbacks, your
best offensive player, trade to get a more dynamic running back.

(01:31:43):
Let's not forget the decisions than the trades. Mm hmm,
and and and and continue to go with the last
pick in the draft. How do you not want to
coach of the year. That's what I've been trying to say. Man,
there's a lot of coaches that did a great job. Serriani,

(01:32:03):
great job, Day Bowl, great job. Doug Peterson did a
great job. Pete Carroll did a wonderful job. Um O'Connell,
I mean, I don't even know what the hell the
vikings were this year, but he found a way to
win almost all of the games. Um, and I could
go on and on. There's a lot of people, but
with what you just said, I feel like if this

(01:32:25):
were anywhere else, people would be absolutely tripping over themselves
to give somebody Coach of the Year. Third quarterback and
your favorite by double digits. There's other teams right now
flirting with third quarterback. The Ravens we thought we're gonna
have to play a third quarterback. The Dolphins played their
third quarterback and and everyone's like, well, Mike, I can't

(01:32:49):
expect to win a football game with your third quarterback.
For the nine have won seven of them without a loss.
And uh, and I think with yesterday's performance, he's now
at sixteen touchdown passes and three interceptions. This kid can
play ball, and no matter what happens with the organization,

(01:33:09):
he'll have an opportunity to play ball. As you know,
Baltimore is in this game. They just uh want extra
away from trying it back up, Hey man, you have
to show up and play the games. Jim another another

(01:33:31):
good candidate for Coach of the Year. Yep, absolutely, even
Mike Tomlin, Well what he had to deal with, I
mean almost went almost went out and made the playoffs himself. Peter, Yeah,
lots of good candidates this year, but I'm with you
that if it were my vote, that's that's absolutely where
it would go. That's it from Salama Mark. Whether we

(01:33:52):
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Speaking of these, Ravens would love to get your take

(01:34:13):
on the Lamar Jackson situation, which took yet another turn
earlier this week and obviously leads to this game that
we're following right now and he is not in it
that is coming up on Fox Sports Radio. A from
I'm not a big soap opera guy, not a big
Real Housewives guy. My mom watched the soap opera when

(01:34:35):
I was a kid, so I was kind of forced
to watch it along with her. Sometimes she watched the
show called All My Children. I don't know if you
remember that thing, but I have a brain that can
understand the soap opera. I get it, um and I
and I understand that we sometimes look at situations and
we want that we want the drama. But in my

(01:34:56):
personal opinion, we are very likely making up drama that
doesn't exist. When it comes to Lamar Jackson, I just
have the hardest time believing this about a big time
football player. I understand maybe I'm being naive, but for example,

(01:35:18):
Damar Hamlin, and how wonderful is it everything that's come
out of that situation since you know, we were like, man,
it's only been what are we at now? Right, It's
been a thirteen days and this guy has already been
to the facility and he's seeing his teammates and he's
up laughing, and he's watching the game today at his home.

(01:35:40):
And so that has turned out better than anyone could
have expected. But I'm always reminded of who football players
are in situations like this. This guy comes within an
inch of losing his life, and when he finally wakes up,
the first thing he says is who won? And that's

(01:36:00):
because I I've I've come to understand the way football
players think and and their mentality when it comes to
the game. So this idea that Lamar Jackson, even if,
even if in the whole grand scheme of business, we
understand it, The idea that he's pulling some sort of
fast one, the idea that he is in a standoff

(01:36:21):
right now with the Baltimore Ravens because he's upset about
his contract. I just I can't buy it. I I'm
gonna take him at his word on the PCL injury
that this thing is just not reacting the way they
thought it was going to react, and and he can't
get out there and play. I have to believe it,

(01:36:43):
because I just can't believe otherwise. Um, okay, and and
that's all great. Well, let me ask you this, and
that's a real question. Okay, how many quarterbacks Lamar Jackson
in this fifth year quarterback, very young years old, as

(01:37:04):
an m v P spectacular player, how many quarterbacks recently
who signed deals have even gotten to their fifth year
option at his level? I mean, I gotta think the

(01:37:27):
answer is not. It's zero. So if you know this
and you see the type of money that and this
is this goes before Deshaun Watson signed this deal. This
is what I'm talking about. Before that, I'm talking about

(01:37:48):
after your third year. Teams can't wait to sign quarterbacks
to long term deals, right, Dwson wins, Jared Goff, Garoppolo
um um uh, Derek Carr, the list goes on and

(01:38:13):
on and on and on. Guess what Lamar has did?
None of them have? Okay, So then you throw Patrick
Mahomes in there. Right, So I ask you, how would

(01:38:34):
that make you feel if you're the if you're Lamar
Jackson and you have to play. Prior to this year,
Lamar Jackson was making like two million dollars mm hmmm.
He signed a three year our four year it was
like nine million dollar deal or something like that. That's it.

(01:39:01):
You're seeing the Jimmy Geeves and the the Jared Goff's
and they're making thirty five million dollars that you see
Dak Prescott making forty million dollars a year. You're making
two and they make it, and they they let you

(01:39:24):
get to your fifth year. So for me, I'm I'm
as a former player, I'm like, yeah, I understand what
you're saying, Mark and all of that. But everybody said, well,
they don't want to do the you know, the the
Browns deal with what what what? What Deshaun Watson is

(01:39:47):
an outlier. I'm talking before that. Why Winston he locked
up before that? It's a great question. So now everybody's like, well,
you know, he's turning his back going to team. He's
hurting here, Hey man, you want to talk about business decisions.
They made a business decision not to to to to

(01:40:08):
offer him a long term deal. Did he felt comfortable
with They made a business decision to do that. They
made a business decision not to get this deal done
prior to picking up his fifth yeer option. And yeah,
his fifth year option is worth twenty three million dollars,
which is not even a fraction of what an elite
starting quarterback makes in this league. With that's a that's

(01:40:31):
a dB. I'm with you. Here's my my follow up question.
If Lamar had done that at the beginning of the year,
I'd understand it. I'd understand it now. I guess where
it doesn't add up is is if that's what you're
doing now, because again I don't believe that, right. He'd

(01:40:54):
be justified to a degree if he was. But if
you're gonna do that, why wouldn't you do it before
this He's started? Well, that's what I'm talking about because
he's gonna he's gonna on earth contract. He said it.
He said, look, we can't get a deal done. I
don't want to talk about to that. After the season.
I'm gonna go out and play, right, That's what he said.
I'm gonna go out and play and now, and he did,
and they were winning and everything was great. They were

(01:41:15):
uh they lead the division. He gets hurt. So now
you have to rethink. Right now, instead of being the athlete,
now you start thinking like a business person, like the
team is, the team is making business decisions, You as

(01:41:36):
the the the athlete, have to also make business decisions.
And I'm not saying that he's holding that. I'm saying
he wants to be healthy and come back and play
because there is no long term there. Right. So when
I ask you that, then do you think he's healthy
right now? I think he's health I think he's healthy

(01:41:56):
enough to to to to have played, not to the
level he needs to be, got it right? But yeah,
but now you got to make a decision. You gotta
be like, what, I don't want to go out there
and make it worse, right, So now things are different.
You're locked up long term you know that their stability there.

(01:42:17):
No matter what happens, the last thing this man wants
to do or should do, is go out there He's
not and hurt himself further because the team has shown
they don't value right, They don't value what you're bringing

(01:42:38):
to the table in terms of the contract situation. They
don't value it enough to have locked you up two
years ago after you already won the m v P.
I'm scratching my head like, what's taking so long? What?
What is what's happening? Yeah, that's fair. You don't see

(01:42:59):
any confidence. You mean you did, Derek Carr? You can.
You just dumped the right crosson Wentz. You just dumped
the truck. If the list goes on and on and on,
Jered like a whoa everybody but Lamar. So I'm scratching
my head like what quarterback gets to their fifth to

(01:43:20):
Daniel Jones is on his fifth year option, right, Yep,
Daniel Jones wasn't an m v P. There's a lot
of questions. No, do we have those questions about Lamore Jackson?
We do not with and now we we we have
different questions instead. Um that's he from Salama Mark where

(01:43:41):
the live tire rack dot Com Studios. You might be
surprised what Austin Ekeler said when he was asked if
he'd be shocked if Brandon Staley got fired. We'll get
to that coming up in just a minute, but right now,
Steve to say your time with what's trending? Hi, Steve, Hello,
Tyler Huntley has come alive. The Ravens are tied at

(01:44:02):
Cincinnati in tonight's NFL playoff game seventeen. All about twelve
and a half minutes to go in regulation now. The
Bengals missed an extra point kick in the first half,
been made up for it with a two point pass
in the second half that got Cincinnati, a team that's
won eight in a row, got him a seventeen to
ten lead, But late third quarter the Ravens tied it

(01:44:23):
up Tyler Huntley a forty one yard touchdown pass to
to Marcus Robinson with a great pump fake. Robinson had
five yards of separation on Eli Apple. In the first
half tonight, Huntley did not attempt a single pass over
ten air yards. In fact, his heart's per attempt was
only three yards beyond the line of scrimmage in the

(01:44:44):
first half. Here He's come up and has two touchdown
passes now with the one interception. He just had a
thirty five yard run, so it's six carries forty nine
yards for the Ravens QB. The game is tied for
the moment because now it's third and goal at the
Cincinnati one coming up. Joe Burrow with a hundred yards

(01:45:05):
passing and a touchdown to Jamaar Chase that was on
a play to open the second quarter. This is a
rematch from last Sunday when Cincinnati beat him. Baltimore was
missing two injured quarterbacks there for all of this weekend's matchups.
The team's already played each other during the regular season.
It looks like yards the other way for the Cincinnati
Bengals to take the lead. Like, you know what just happened?

(01:45:28):
Did you watch? I'm sure we all did the Jacksonville
and Chargers game where Trevor Lawrence got that two point
conversion by just going up over the top and reaching
the ball out as I saw that, and I went, boy,
that works, But somebody else is gonna try that, and man,
that's gonna turn into a fumble. And that's exactly what
just happened. Tyler Huntley on the quarterback sneak, had two

(01:45:52):
Bengals against him right up the middle, and it was
knocked out of his arms, picked up at about the
two by a defensive lineman who goes eight the other way,
touchdown Bengals. I assume they're looking at it video review.
It's looking like it'll stand. And I looked at it
right now. He had not. He definitely did not cross

(01:46:12):
the plane. This thing is gonna stand, wholly smart. So
Cincinnati takes the lead with about eleven and a half
minutes to go. Extra point makes it seventeen Cincinnati. You
mentioned Lamar Jackson, the Baltimore QB has missed over a
month of practice in games with the knee injuries. You know,
the Ravens were seven and three at one point this season.

(01:46:32):
If they lose tonight, they'll finish ten and eight nb O.
It was Jackson who said his knee is still unstable,
that he has a sprain PCL with inflammation. He did
not travel to this game. Giants eliminated Minnesota thirty one
to twenty four. Quarterback Daniel Jones with over three yards
passing plus seventeen carries seventy eight yards rushing Jones with
two tds say Kwan Barkley two touchdown runs. The Giants

(01:46:55):
will play at top seeded Philadelphia, likely on Saturday. Buffalo
eliminated Miami thirty four thirty one Josh Allen three touchdown passes,
three turnovers. The Dolphins still have not won a playoff
game since two thousand. They've lost their last five in
a row. Monday night, it's Dallas at Tampa Bay. Dallas
has not won a road playoff game since season. Dallas

(01:47:17):
is oh and eight since on the road in the postseason,
most recently losing to the l A Rams four years
ago in the NBA. Lebron James is playing in l
A for the Lakers tonight. He has twenty two points
in the first half, but Joel Embiat has twenty two
in the first half for Philly. Lakers fifty seven in
the lead at the break. College basketball wins for St.

(01:47:38):
John's and Xavier. Injury update, by the way, for the Bengals,
left tackle Jonah Williams out with a knee injury suffered tonight.
That means they've lost three offensive lineman in recent weeks.
Cincinnati has taken the fourth quarter leaden back to you alright, Steve,
great stuff. Oh my gosh, I can't stand that play call.
I cannot stand. Of course. I mean if it had worked,

(01:48:02):
of course, but god, I don't know. Man, this third
and one third and goal from the one, Like, is
it just impossible these days to just traditionally run the
just run ball. Yeah, and they've been gashing them. Their

(01:48:23):
running backs have been gashing the Bengals. L lay that
one's gonna bite them. Unbelievable, but still a one score
game on into the fourth quarter. We go, we haven't
touched on Cowboys and Bucks yet, and we will in
a little bit. But let me throw this at you
because he from you've been passionate about Brandon Staley's got
to go tonight. So Austin Ekeler was asked would he

(01:48:44):
be shocked if Brandon Staley got fired? Quote? Yes, I
would be shocked. You're looking for someone who's going to
give you a chance, and this guy has given you
a chance. What are you going to go find someone
else to give you a chance and then maybe they
may not be able to That doesn't make sense to me. Quote,
here's the thing. If you're going to say get rid

(01:49:05):
of our coaches, are coaching staff. What are you going
to look for. You're gonna look for someone that's going
to give you a chance. Well, guess what, we had
a chance. You're gonna just search for the same thing
that you just had. What do you think. There's a
lot of repetition there um no, So what what you

(01:49:29):
do if if it is someone like Sean Payton, right,
that's not the same thing you have. That's not coaching matters.
Everybody in an in an in an NFL or their
elite athletes, every single person in the NFL, less than
zero point one percent of the population can play in

(01:49:51):
the NFL. You have to be special. You also have
to have someone to lead these special individuals and where
the situation where? Time and time again, this is not
a one off. This is just not a one thing

(01:50:12):
that happened. This is not me speaking out of emotion
because of last night. Just look at the track record,
am i am am? I crazy with that? Just look
now at the decision to play your key players in
the game that didn't mean anything and you broke one

(01:50:36):
of them's back. Guess who makes a different decision. A
better coach, who understands what's at stake, Who's been there,

(01:50:56):
who knows how things can how soon and quick things
can go awry. That's what I'm talking about. Yeah, look
at Mike McDaniels. He stuttered and sputtered through a playoff
game where they had complete control of the number two

(01:51:17):
seed in the a f C, complete control, and he
fumbled it. From his position as a coach, coaching matters.
And to think, you know, Brian gives us a chance,

(01:51:39):
a chance to do what? Well, that's the thing, Like,
I think it's a wild thought. When someone is talented
as Justin Herbert is your quarterback. You ask yourself if
you think the Kansas City Chiefs running back would say, well,
you know, we're just looking for a chance. No, no, no, no, no, no,
you're looking for a good chance. Yeah. Like, if you
got Justin Herbert as your quarter man, chance, a chance

(01:52:02):
should be the baseline. Of course, you have a chance.
You have a chance because you showed up. There may
there may be four teams in the league that wouldn't
give anything to have Justin Herbert as a quarterback. I
don't want anything. But that number might be too big.

(01:52:25):
It might be too big, It might be too big.
So that's an interesting comment from you know, a key
a key piece in uh in the Chargers wheel. All right,
A little bit more on Matt coming up, Cowboys, Bucks
coming up. Mark withy from Salam Fox Sports Radio. Third

(01:52:46):
down and goal from the one six, the ball out,
the bag goes happy. They are running it back Sam
Hubbard with blockers behind him. Hubbard of the Ravens forty,
the thirty, the twenty ten the touchdown Thanals Tyler Huntley

(01:53:07):
try to extend the ball over the goal line. It
got poked away. Sam Hubbard scooped it up and ran
the length of the field for a go ahead. Bengals
touched down. Oh it's a classic scoop and score on
seven d W l W Bengals Radio Network. And that

(01:53:30):
is the Progressive Play of the day, brought to you
by Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes bundling easy and affordable. Get
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Bundle and save at Progressive dot com. All right, Uh,
the Ravens about to get the ball back. Still only

(01:53:51):
down to touchdown. A little bit over eight and a
half to go in this game. But man, I know
that when you come in as big underdogs, people say
things like, well they've got nothing to lose. Um, that's true,
but I don't feel like it's gonna feel that way
after this one for the Ravens. They were literally on

(01:54:12):
the doorstep of taking control of this game. And uh,
and that play call is going to be something that
feels like, very likely is gonna be in John Harbaugh's
nightmares for a long time. Yeah, that's that's that's one
of those calls to keep you up. And depending on
how this game, uh, the outcome of this game, you

(01:54:33):
you'll just you know, you'll consistently just run that playback
over in your in your mind and add that to it. Now,
on the Bengals punt moments ago, you gotta running into
the kicker. It looks like you got to. I don't

(01:54:53):
know if he gets touched the ball. He barely touched
the kicker's foot, I mean barely grazed his foot. And
since an I was gonna get a first down out
of this. So this is a kind of if you're
rooting for the Ravens tonight, this is a this is
a vomit in your mouth kind of a fourth quarter.
This is tough. This has been tough for the Ravens,
but uh uh still a whole lot of time on

(01:55:16):
the clock. And uh the Bengals look like they're getting
a wee bit conservative here too. On their offensive side
of the ball. Joe Burrow is not as sharp as
oh wow, drop past Droe. Burrow is not as sharp
as we've seen them, you know, down the stretch. Uh
this this past season, I mean they were on fire, right,

(01:55:37):
so you know they wont to what last eight games?
M hmm. Yeah. There's all kind of big winning streaks
coming into this Chiefs, Bills, Bengals, forty nighters, big big
win streaks coming into this thing. Teams hitting their stride,
and it just looks a little off. Speak speaking of

(01:55:57):
looking a little off. So you were rolling through quarterbacks
earlier and saying, you know, the guys that you can
sort of see that that feel like whether it's they're
not scared, they just have that that full drive look,

(01:56:19):
championship mentality. And you were rolling off a couple of quarterbacks,
a few of them who have that look to you,
and then you said, Kirk Cousins is not one of them.
It doesn't look like that. Um can I add another name. Yeah,
Dak Prescott does not does not look like that to me,

(01:56:40):
And I don't really know how this is gonna go.
Maybe the Cowboys will find their former selves in this
playoff game tomorrow night. I've spent most of the year
feeling like the Bucks and Vikings we're probably gonna be
one and done football teams. When they finally got to
the playoffs, the Vikings were, and then now all of

(01:57:01):
a sudden that we're here, I'm not sure that the
Bucks are. I don't I don't know. I got a
weird feeling about this game tomorrow night. The Cowboys absolutely
should be the better team, but over the last month
that defense has not looked the same. Dak Prescott over
here leading the NFL and interceptions even though he missed

(01:57:21):
almost a third of the season. They've done lost to
Mojoey from and uh and Dak Prescott, for me, is
one of those quarterbacks that you can kind of stick
in a bucket where you're like, hey, we'll be relevant,
will be kind of good. We're not gonna win the
whole thing. I'll lock Kirk Cousins, Derek Carr and the rest. Yeah,

(01:57:44):
that that is a good assessment. Like, looking at that game,
I'm I take Tom Brady in the books in one
game against the Dallas Cowboy. I mean, this is basically
what it is. You know, this is you're you're you're
taking you know, a trusted, proven commodity in the playoffs

(01:58:07):
against an unproven commodity. So what do you put your
money on? HM? And you know, as we've seen in
these playoffs, we got third string quarterbacks lightening it up.
Tom Brady ain't a third string quarterbate Now, yeah, we'll

(01:58:31):
do lately, Godwin looks healthy. Just look a little bit better.
They get their center back. You know, I'm not sure
what that that that Jensen I that he may be back,
What changes what changes a lot with that offensive line?
So hey man, that's America's team. Let's see what's going on. Uh,

(01:58:58):
good portion of American roots against him too. I can
tell you about these parts I don't know, right, And
I know that right because they just said that they weren't.
And then that's it, right. It's kind of like the
people who show up at the wedding. As long as
you don't you know, you're uninvited, But as long as
you act like you're supposed to be there. No one's
gonna tell you to leave. Act like you below, that's right,

(01:59:20):
all right? So you got Brady tomorrow Night Box, Yeah yeah,
I think I'm with you, brother. Um a whole lot
of fun tonight and we'll talk to you next week. Man.
Absolutely amazing there. It is free from salam. I'm Mark
Willard this Fox Sports Radio

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