Steve Hartman and Rich Ohrnberger Preview Championship Sunday

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio, living the dream once again.
Here on a Conference championship games Sunday. This is Fox
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(00:22):
recommended installers, tirac dot com, the way tire buying should be. Well, Richie,
Here we are on a beautiful Sunday, and oftentimes we
get to the conference championship games. So we're sort of
talking about one team that came out of nowhere, you know,
the big underdog. There are no underdogs today. There are

(00:45):
four teams that right now to me are clearly the
four best teams in the NFL. I can't wait for
these games today. I completely agree with you. I think
that's a great way to put it. There are no underdogs.
No matter who ends, we can make an argument they
should win, and it's because the their reputation precedes them.

(01:07):
All four of these teams have either won or played
for a Super Bowl in very recent memory. All four
of these teams have a dynamic young quarterback I would
say the least of which is brock Party because he's
still a reasonably untested value at the position, but has
shown some Moxie has shown some above his his uh

(01:32):
above his his years in composure. Um. But the other three, obviously,
and Hurts and Burrow and the Homes are the types
of quarterbacks that you feel pretty strongly you can build around.
And UM can't wait, absolutely cannot wait. I think we're
gonna see competitive football, and that's all I ever hope for.
I want to see good games. And when you have

(01:53):
tight spreads, it usually means you're gonna see good games.
And so I'm pumped up for this championship weekend Mpionship Sunday. Yeah. Absolutely,
it's NFC first, it'll be the forty Niners on the
road against the Eagles, followed by the Bengals on the
road against the Kansas City Chiefs. By the way, Arrowheads
Stadium will host the a f C championship game for

(02:15):
the fifth consecutive year. This has never happened ever in
New England. No uh back in the day, Pittsburgh, no
San Francisco, Dallas, name your team, no team has ever.
Buffalo has ever hosted an an f C Championship game
five consecutive years. We're gonna get into that matchup a

(02:38):
little bit later on, but Rich, I do want to
start off as we get into everything that's going on,
and by the way, over the next few hours, uh,
the game, of course, we'll start in a couple hours. Here.
We got a lot of NFL news to get to
the status of Tom Brady, status of Aaron Rodgers. By
the way, you see the Stetson Bennett story today, Yeah, yeah,

(03:00):
I mean, here's a young guy who obviously is forever
written into the history of Georgia football, back to back
national championships, hoping obviously at age twenty five, that he
has some future in professional football. Man, that's that's not
a good thing. You know, when you're a marginal guy
and all of a sudden you do something stupid like

(03:23):
getting arrested for public intoxication, that's a warning sign. Well,
I'll say this, I I don't know if that's necessarily true,
because everybody remembers when they were in their twenties, and
everybody remembers making decisions that could have led to, you know,
life altering consequences except for you and me, of course. Well,

(03:45):
that's right. I mean, we can cast those stones because
I think we're free of sin, but many cannot, and
m and and and so I I really do like
to I like to categorize these things appropriately and say, look,
he's young, he's made a very foolish mistake, and hopefully
he's learned from it and it never repeats it. Now,

(04:07):
there are there are issues with this because you are
now on the world stage about to perform inarguably one
of the most scrupulous assessments and job interviews of any
human group of human beings have to go through outside
of maybe you know, certain areas of the armed forces

(04:28):
and you know things with national security clearances. I mean
you every single rock in your background, your history, your
medical everything is going to be overturned. And so if
anything is showing signs of red flags, it could seriously
seriously impact the amount of money a team is willing
to invest in you, and that can be life altering money. So, yeah,

(04:51):
it was. That's a really unfortunate story, very unfortunate. We'll
see how it affects his future. All right, So speaking
of futures, uh, Today, first off, we got the NFC
Championship game between the San Francisco forty Niners and the
Philadelphia Eagles. Forty Niners quarterback Brock Purty has been a
huge story. By the way, the Associated Press, which is

(05:13):
now officially recognized as the official awards of the NFL,
announced a finalist list. They've never done this before, Rich
because they have multiple layers to their voting. Now it's
not just you pick a guy, so they're trying to
expand the awards obviously create more interests in the awards.
But I found it interesting the Brock party was one
of the three finalists for Offensive Rookie of the Year

(05:35):
in the NFL. This is a guy that in the
regular season when this vote was done, it only started
five games. But that's how dynamic that he has been.
So this matchup today between the forty Niners and the Eagles,
and we always seem to focus on quarterbacks for good reason.
Quarterback plays well, team usually wins. If of quarterback plays

(05:57):
below par, his team usually loses. Actually in big games
like this. But what's interesting about this matchup between Brock
Purty and Jalen Hurts is that we've been there before
and they're making a lot of the game. Back in
nineteen the year that Jalen Hurts played at Oklahoma when
he took on brock Purty and Iowa State, a game
that Oklahoma survived by a score of forty two to

(06:20):
forty one. If you didn't hear about this game, Oklahoma
was blowing out Iowa State forty two to twenty one
going into the fourth quarter and brock Purty through three
touchdown passes in the fourth quarter and then they had
to go for two to try to win the game
and came up short. But in that game, brock Purty

(06:41):
was nineteen thirty two yards, five touchdowns, no picks. Hurts
was eighteen and twenty six two seventy three to three
touchdowns and no picks. So you go back to that
game in twenty nineteen, there was already signs that there
was something special about a guy like brock Purty, and
now we're seeing on the NFL level. But to me,
and both these are complete teams. I think he would

(07:02):
agree with me that the Eagles and the forty Niners
have complete rosters, especially with the Eagles upgrading a wide
receiver the addition of Christian McCaffrey for the forty Niners.
Both teams have defenses that can make big plays. It
really will come down to which quarterback performs the best
in this game. And although Jalen Hurts was an m
VP Candida this year, don't dismiss the possibility that Brock Purty,

(07:26):
although no rookie has ever won a conference championship game,
could rise to the occasion. Yeah yeah, look, I mean
we've seen this before. There have been many stories in
playoff in Super Bowl past where a young, untested quarterback
was able to bring a team uncharacteristically. So whether it

(07:47):
be based on his talent or his experience in the
NFL to the ultimate promised land, which is a Super
Bowl win. You know, we saw this with Joe Flacco
early in his career. Uh, we saw this with um
with Tom Brady. We've seen this with Nick Foles. Now,
he wasn't young, but he was a backup quarterback and

(08:08):
I think a lot of people didn't expect him to
shine in the playoffs the way he did. But he
truly outdueled Tom Brady in that Super Bowl to win
Philadelphia's first ever title. And so you you look at
you look at past, and it says, well, brock Purty
ken based off the past. But brock Purty is unique.

(08:28):
He isn't Nick Foles, he isn't Tom Brady, he isn't
Joe Flacco. Brock Purty is his own man. Is it possible, Yeah,
we've seen it before, but it's going to take at
least one of these next two games. Brock Purdy is
going to have to either be the reason or a
big reason why the San Francisco forty Niners advanced to
the super Bowl or win a super Bowl. And the

(08:49):
question is, and the question still remains, can he do it?
And we don't know the answer to that. And that's
why the NFL is so great because we don't get
to see this bore out over seas, Like we don't
have to wait until the middle of next week to
find out whether or not he's gonna be in the
championship game, and I mean the Super Bowl. He has

(09:10):
to win to day, a single elimination. You know, he's
prepared his whole life for this moment. I mean, you
throw every sports cliche at it. It's game seven already.
Let's see if he's got the goods. All right, So
we got a lot obviously at stake today, spots in
the Super Bowl and and I've said this so many
times and I think it's true. And you've gone through
this as well, Rich, you know when we talk about

(09:32):
the ultimate pressure, to me, when you look at an
Elite eight game in the n c A tournament, or
league championship series in baseball, or conference finals in the
NBA or the NHL, and certainly these conference championship games,
uh in the NFL, this is the toughest loss because

(09:53):
you've already invested in an entire season, you've won in
the postseason, and you're one step away from getting to
the big show. And this is why these games are
so excruciating in terms of intensity and the pressure that
goes into these games, because if you get to the
super Bowl, you made it. You're there. You get to know.

(10:15):
Obviously you want to win the Super Bowl, but you
made it to the big show. Or in college basketball,
you made it to the Final four, you know what
I mean, you get to you get to be on
the biggest stage. So that's why there's always so much
at stake. So we're gonna do a lot of breaking
down of both these games today, continuing on with the
NFC game, which of course is going to be kicking
off here in less than two hours, the Eagles and

(10:36):
the forty Niners. We're talking about Brock Purdy. Is Brock
Purty guaranteed a job as the starting quarterback if he
wins the game. Today, we got the latest coming up.
This is Fox Sports Red Zone Radio. Steve Harvey, Rich Warnburger.
This is Fox Sports Red Zone Radio, and we are
live from the tire Act dot Com studios getting ready

(11:00):
fo to great matchups to determine who will be the
next two participants in the Super Bowl. It will be
the Eagles hosting the forty Niners, followed by the Chiefs
hosting the Bengals. By the way, I have to share
this story, Sam, I gotta share your your conspiracy theory.
I have to go for it, all right. So before

(11:20):
we get into this dynamic of what's gonna happen in
the forty Niners QB situation here, Rich, so I during
the break, I walk in and we're talking about this
Stetson Bennett's story. Right. By the way, it's now said
that police we're called in. We're an intoxicated guy was
banging on doors, I mean banging on doors at six

(11:44):
o'clock in the morning. I don't know, maybe you had
to take a leap. I don't know, if you really
have to go badly enough, you'll bang on doors because
you you got to find a place to go. I
don't know why he's banging on doors, but it sounds
like he's really intoxicated. So um, as soon as I
walk in, he's like, so where did this happen? I said, Dallas?
He goes what city is right there with Dallas? And

(12:09):
I said, for where they goes there? It is TCU conspiracy.
Oh my god. After they he was targeted, nihilated and
embarrassed TCU in the championship game. Targeted by TCU recognized
what I'm saying. You know, so here's a here's a
guy at six o'clock in the morning on a Sunday

(12:30):
banging on doors, drunk out of his mind. But it
had nothing to do with that. It was a conspiracy.
And of course my question name was why is Stetson
Bennett even in Dallas? That's irrelevant? Well why would he
let me just say this though, Why would if he
if he if he knows that maybe he's gonna get
targeted by TCU fans, why would he be an enemy territive?

(12:52):
It's clear now he was just walking around neighborhoods asking
if TCU fans still remember that face, and he's just
knocking on going indoors, and I'm the guy who beat
up your horn frogs. You remember me? Let me let
me you know it's You're right that that he probably
had it coming because he was banging on doors and
drawing attention to himself. But I I kind of look

(13:13):
at some things banging on doors, say six, he was
rubbing in their face. But if you go to place
like a big ten town like Iowa City, you go downtown,
you could charge literally everybody out in the pedestrian mall
with public in talks, it's a totally it can be
a very arbitrary charge. So I'm saying it's like holding
no in this situation. It sounds like he was drawing

(13:34):
attention to himself and he was in toxica. If you
step outside of your home and you've had more than
point oh wait, if you been publicly intoxicated, yes, many times,
so so of many people not rich you have. If
you're in if you're outside of your home and you've
had more drinks than point oh eight, if you were
to do a breathalyzer. You are legally public intoxicated, publicly intoxicate,

(13:57):
so that it's an arbitrary charge at times. But it
seems like you're it on doors. Yes, unless you're banging
on doors. I was making a joke in a sense.
He's certainly not in the confines of Georgia. He's certainly
not in the Conference of Georgia where they might have
swept this under rock. He was an enemy, enemy territory
where he had no slack whatsoever. Yeah, okay, so we
got you're saying, we have to run these officers records

(14:18):
and see if they have any affiliation with the Texas.
They're all TCU A TCU. Yes, Yes, interesting they've recognized them,
which would be amazing because how many people would recognize that.
I'm just saying, like, if you if you're just walking
around and you've had some drinks, you can technically be
charged with public intoxication because you're out in public and
you're above point of eight, you are legally intoxicating. Thinking
a lot of you would recognize Sets and Bennet on

(14:40):
the street at six in the morning, Dallas Fort Worth,
a football christ area. They well at six am. I
don't know, but I didn't. Anyway, it's a good theory.
That's uh, that's what we're starting today. Um. All right,
so let's let's get back to brock Purty. Now he's
relevant because he's starting for the forty Niners today in
the NFC Championship Game. So rich obviously, Purtty has been

(15:01):
an amazing story. There was an interesting report out that
Jimmy Garoppolo, remember him, folks, Jimmy Garoppolo, um, who, by
the way, led the forty Niners to the Super Bowl
a couple of years ago against the Chiefs by the way,
a team a game by the way, the forty Niners
were winning going into the fourth quarter. Well, that Jimmy Garoppolo,
of course, has been out with injury, but apparently he's

(15:23):
been cleared to practice. Uh if if the forty Niners
make it to the Super Bowl and would be available,
assuming that rock Purty doesn't just well, let's stop right
there for a second. Alright, So let's say today brock
Purty does not play well. Let's say he plays like

(15:46):
he did in the first half last week, where he struggled.
He played much better obviously in the second. But let's
say he plays poorly throughout this entire game. But it's
one of those really ugly games, lots of turnovers, and
somehow the forty Niners manufacturer of victory and Jimmy g

(16:06):
is a healthy Can you see any scenario It pretty
badly underperformed today, but somehow they still win. Where Jimmy
Garoppolo could return to start or play the majority of
the Super Bowl only if he's injured, Uh, you know,
only if brock Purty has something more, If there's more

(16:30):
to that story than just, hey, he played poorly, If
he if he's hurt and can't play, or if he's
hurt in this game against Philly and that is part
of the reason why he struggled, then yeah, I could
see potentially Jimmy Garoppolo taken over. But but yeah, outside
of that, I really can't. I think that San Francisco,

(16:52):
the culture that has grown around brock Purty the front
office is trust in brock Purty, Kyle Shanahan's trust in
Brock party, which has been cultivated over weeks now months.
I think that they're gonna, they're gonna, they're gonna dance
with the date that they brought to the ball, right
it's just it's just as simple as that. I will

(17:14):
say this though, there's no question in my mind, if
Jimmy Garoppolo is healthy and he's up, meaning like he's
he can be on the sideline wearing a headset and
being brock Party's back up. He'll be there because he's
been in a Super Bowl game, He's won an NFC
championship game. I mean, what a great asset it is
to have a quarterback who has that sort of experience

(17:36):
as a starting quarterback on your bench. So, assuming his
foot is okay, um, there's almost no chance that it
will be Josh Johnson is the first one in for
brock Purty. If something should happen in brock Purty, it
will be Jimmy g when he's healthy. All right, So
let's talk about Trey Lancer second here, Rich Alright, So
let's let's say you're just acknowledging the fact that we

(17:58):
made a mistake with Tray Lance. We just made a mistake.
We you know, and it happens. I mean, we've talked
many times about your former team, the Patriots. They make
mistakes and you know what they admitted, and they trade
the guy away or unload them, and they just they
don't try to hang onto the idea that now we
didn't make a mistake. You'll see. No, they recognize quickly
they've made a mistake and they move on. Um, what

(18:21):
do you do with the tray Lance? Would you? Would
you hang onto him? You're obviously paying him first round money.
He's making a pretty hefty paycheck to sit on the bench.
Do you shop him around? I'm trying to figure out
what kind of market value tray Lance would have. I'm
gonna guess at best, maybe a third round pick. Um,
how would you handle the tray Lance situation if at

(18:43):
the end of this season, you've decided to Brock Purty
is our starting quarterback moving forward. Yeah, I mean, if
you make that ultimate determination, then Trey Lance probably should
be traded because he's He's not gonna have any more
value than he does right now. And what I mean
by that is he is obviously dynamic, he's a good athlete,

(19:05):
he has a big arm um. Everything that people were
saying about him, it's still true. It's just untested at
the NFL level. He's played him what five games, six games?
I mean, we just have no idea what he's gonna be.
So the reality is his unless you you somehow find

(19:26):
a way to allow him to share time with Brock
Purty and sacrifice potentially part of your season next year
to goose his trade value, which you absolutely would never
conceivably do. Well, then you trade him now while his
his value is he's kind of got this unblemished record
at the NFL level. You know, he played him one

(19:48):
you know, complete rainout game in Chicago. You know he
got hurt in another game. He appeared in two games,
uh last year in one. I mean, the guy just
has not at very much football at the NFL level.
So I still think that there are going to be
front offices who are high on Trey Lance coming out
of North Dakota State. They're gonna be coaches and and

(20:11):
um scouts who still would stand on the table and say, hey,
I think we could turn him into something if we
get our hands on him, and we can get him
at a discount. So you don't have to trade up
in the draft to get a guy like this like
the forty Niners did. Like you said, it could be
a fourth rounder, could be a third rounder. You know
that you can bring Tray Lance into your system and

(20:31):
then you can try to sculpt him into the pro
that you thought he might be able to become. Because
for the forty Niners, I don't think it's gonna do
you any favors having him healthy and on the bench.
And you know, we saw the Instagram post or the
comment on the Instagram post when a scout from the

(20:51):
forty Niners took the general manager job. You know he
he put out the fingers crossed emoji like, hey, bring
me with you. You know I I honestly think he
wants out. And if Brock Birdie has success and he's
ultimately the starting quarterback moving forward for the forty Niners,
I think you have to trade him. All right. I
have another question on the other side. But first we're

(21:13):
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Let's find out what is trending right now. Months Milonias
is here excited about the games today. I am very

(21:34):
excited about the Games. I'm a little a little nervous
for my picks because I have a bet going on
with a friend. You haven't given us any details about
your birthday. Oh, I don't have great details. I don't
know if you could hear it in my voice. I
had a cold like all week. I taste tested a
million times and I'm negative for COVID, but I've had

(21:54):
like a stuffy nose for the entire week. So my
birthday week was a little bit sad. Birthday guy, Yeah,
I mean, how good news is you gotta jump start
on your birthday? Remember last week I was dying, right,
So I did celebrate, but like my actual birthday was
actually quite quiet because I just was like, oh my goodness,
nobody wants to hang around with somebody that has the
stuff he knows. So and I could still hear it.

(22:16):
I still hear it in my head that I sound congested.
I know, I know, but I kind of like like it.
I kind of want to keep this voice going on,
Like it brings you down like one octave and you're, yeah,
you think you sound cool. I guess you sound a
little cool. I'm like, how do I keep this going?
There are are occasions when like when I get like
not a sore throat, but like you know how sometimes

(22:37):
you had chess congestion. Yeah, and then you start talking
and you sound like Barry White, and I'm just like,
whoa who you know I could get down this love.
That is exactly what I'm like. Listen. I know I
sounded a little off, but I magusta like, what do
I gotta do to keep this going on? I know? Well,
I'm gonna first start with Dan Peterson, who tweeted to

(22:59):
us on Twitter, all of us, all of us here
in the studio. He tweeted a picture of Stetson Bennett,
but not of um when he was arrested this morning.
That's six Sam for public intoxication. It was a different
picture that looks like he's intoxicated. But I'm gonna mention
it because this guy's like, this is just a younger
Cannon Hartman tagging you at U c l A and

(23:20):
well after school and I was like raging, clubbing party animal,
as this guy puts it. I I drank a lot
of alcohol in college. I was you know, you have
a friend drive you home? Yeah, that was a lot
of people left my Volkswagen bug behind and drove me home.
So so that's this guy was right on it. It

(23:42):
was right on it, right on it. A lot of
forty Niners information out today, not just about Jimmy Garoppolo,
that his scans look good and that he's probably gonna
start practicing. They also did say, this is all coming
from the NFL network, that there's obviously risk going to
be involved if he does start practicing, but he can
be Brock Bertie's backup in the Super Bowl, that is
a possibility. But also forty Niners defensive coordinator Damiko Ryance,

(24:05):
he's considered the favorite for the Houston Texans head coaching job.
This is according to ESPN. This is obviously the first
matchup today for Sunday Championship Fun Day, the forty Niners
taking on the Eagles. This is gonna start at three
pm Eastern time. You can catch this game on Fox.
This is for the NFC title. Following that game, the
Bengals will take on the Chiefs for the a f
C title. That starts at six thirty pm Eastern time.

(24:26):
And a little tennis news, Novad Djokovic has won his
tenth Australian Open and record time twenty second Grand Slam title.
This will happened today in Australia. Good for him. Back
to you guys, he's the best of all the best,
due respect to the doll and Federer and Labor and
Mackearl and cars. Djokovic is the greatest with men's tennis

(24:50):
player period. Totally dominate. Uh, Moncy, thank you very much.
Got a lot going on today with these conference championship games.
All right, rich, one more question about the brock Purty situation.
Let's say brock Purty throws four picks today and the
Eagles just blow out the forty Niners, like he just
disintegrates in the spotlight of the conference championship game. Is

(25:16):
he still the guy? Because suddenly the quarterback sweepstakes have
changed dramatically with the addition of a new name, Aaron Rodgers.
I know a lot of people are talking about Nathaniel
Hackett getting the job with the Jets, and he has
a real place. Of course, we saw that last year,
right when Hackett got the Denver job. We all assume
that Aaron Rodgers was going to be with the Broncos.

(25:37):
That did not happen. But he also has roots in
the Bay Area, just like Tom Brady does. So you know,
you talk about two guys that would trip over each
other to get an opportunity to be the starting quarterback
of that's team, the forty Niners. So has brock Purty
done enough even if he has a terrible day to

(26:00):
day and by the way, the Eagles are a really
good team. But he has a terrible day, Eagles win easily.
Does he still have a chance to be the starting
quarterback of the forty Niners? Or could an Aaron Rodgers?
Could Tom Brady, Could Jimmy Garoppolo all be back and play? Oh?
They could all be back and play. And here's the
reason why. Because when you are the owner of a

(26:23):
race car, you're not going to hire a student driver
to to handle it around the track. You know, you're
not gonna hire the inexperienced guy to take it now
unless he's a phenom, you know what I mean. Like
we saw this with Patrick Mahomes. There was a Chiefs
team that was ready to win right now. They were
starting to get stale in the playoffs where you know,

(26:43):
Alex Smith could get him there, but they just didn't
have that whatever that magic is that could get them
over the hump. And so they drafted traded up. By
the way, and drafted Mahomes in the first round. They
gave him a year to learn behind Alex Smith and
be in the room with Andy Reid and Eric b
Enemy and all those offensive coaches around that staff, and

(27:04):
they cultivated his knowledge and they guarded his experience, and
then he bursts onto the scene. Any one m v
P S and or an m v P A and
a super Bowl, you know that that that was the
a very similar situation to where the San Francisco forty
Niners are right now with Jimmy Garoppolo. The reason why

(27:24):
they went out and got Trey Lance in that draft
and traded up to get him is because they were
looking to replace a quarterback who Kyle Shanahan and John
Lynch ultimately decided couldn't get them over the hump. And
so they were doing to Jimmy Garoppolo what the Chiefs
did to Alex Smith. They were saying, hey, we're bringing
the guy who's gonna replace you. It didn't work out,

(27:46):
and then here comes brock Purty. But if brock Purty falters,
if he proves today that he's not the guy, or
if he gets to the Super Bowl and he folds
up like a cheap card table. Well, then they're gonna
go and try to find a quarterback who can drive
this Ferrari. They're gonna find somebody who can handle the corners,

(28:07):
who understands, you know what, what pitfalls you need to
avoid to get to the checkered line, you know. So yeah,
I definitely do I if brock Purty struggles, I definitely
do think that they're in play for any of the
big name quarterbacks out there, in in free agency or
or in trade. Al Right, so let's take the flip side.
Let's say Party is dynamite today and gets the Super

(28:30):
Bowl and his Super Bowl m v P, and the
forty Niners are champions, all right, so he's the starting quarterback.
The contract that he signed with the forty Niners is
the last pick in the draft. He got a seventy
seven thousand dollar bonus that was the only guaranteed money
seventy seven thousand dollars. His base salary for next year,
according to his contract, is eight hundred seventy thousand dollars,

(28:53):
which for the average joe obviously is a lot of money,
but it's literally, you know, tip money for NFL quarterbacks.
If you're the agent for brock Party and he is
coming off a Super Bowl championship and the forty Niners
said he will be our starting quarterback. Are you gonna
play for eight hundred seventy thousand dollars next season? Well,

(29:13):
he may have to. He may not have any other choice.
What if he sits out and says, no, I'm not
I'm not playing for eight hundred seventy thousand dollars, Well
that would be lunacy because I mean and by the way,
he would be making a very little more than that.
He makes a five thousand the year after that. What
if he's rattling off super Bowl wins. Well, let's put

(29:34):
it this way. If he wins two Super Bowls, he
will be the highest paid quarterback in the NFL. But
if he ends up going on to win the Super
Bowl this year and he shines in the game, there's
two ways to look at this. You know, you could
sign the big contract right now this offseason if the
forty Niners are willing to come to the table. But
you are if you believe in your talent that you are,

(29:56):
as as advertised, the top tier quarterback in the this
league and you're gonna lead this team to multiple Super
Bowl berths and multiple Super Bowl wins. Well, then you,
if you're brock Purty and his agent, you may be
eager to see how next regular season looks. You know,
this way, you can kind of hold their feet to
the fire because the forty Niners are getting a discount.

(30:18):
If that's the case. Yeah, the forty Niners are getting
a discount because brock Purty is the the last pick
in the NFL draft and then he wins a super Bowl.
It's not like he's gonna get Dak Prescott money. It's
not like he's gonna go his base. And his current
deal is will be eight hundred and seventy thousand next year. Yeah. Yeah,
And listen, how many quarterbacks in this league are making

(30:39):
starting quarterbacks under a million dollars a year? Oh? That
very few, very very few. I mean, if there I
don't think there's a single started quarterback. I don't think
there's one. I don't think there's a single start. Well
that's not true because I don't know, but you know,
I mean, but the bottom line is is, look, I
tend to agree with me on this. If you're a
pretty and by the way, if you're his agent and

(31:02):
he were to win a Super Bowl, I'm I'm I'm
gonna guess that endorsement deals will be flying in from
every direction exactly for Mr Irrelevant suddenly going from Mr
Relevant to Super Bowl champion. He'll make tens of millions.
I'll slow play it and I'll say, hey, look, we're

(31:22):
happy with Brock, but let's be honest with each other.
We saw him play ten games, you know what I
mean A starting quarterback, a starting quarterback who you're going
to invest in to the level that you know, other
starters around the NFL have have received big contracts for
obvious reasons, because they proved their talent over years. You know,

(31:44):
Justin Herbert or Joe Burrow, Joe Burrow more so Patrick
Mahomes obviously with the deal he signed, Like you know,
Burrow and Herbert, they're going to get huge contracts because
they've proven to be incredible talents at the quarterback position.
Brock Party is just starting his journey, so I don't
really think much negotiation is going to take place. But
I do agree with you. I think that the endorsement

(32:06):
deals are come flying in. Oh. I mean, he'll make
tens of millions. Any agent could do that it's such
an incredible story. We get stories like this, like the
Kurt Warner's story where a guy comes from absolute obscurity
has suddenly become a super Bowl champion. Rock Party is
in a position two wins away from being in that
big time seat. All right on the other side, the

(32:27):
other quarterback in this NFC Championship game, Jalen hurts, how
did he come from writing the bench at Alabama? There's
a backup to two, a tongue of aloa to one
game away from being a super Bowl quarterback? Will follow
his path. This is Fox Sports Red Zone Radio. This
is Steve Covino and Rich Davis, and together we are

(32:50):
Covino Enriched Cavino and Mitch. Thanks buddy, that's right, coveno Rich,
Fox Sports Radio's newest hit show, heard weekdays from five
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(33:10):
rocking dude. The show features our unique take on sports,
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Give me the hell yeah, Steve Harban, Rich Armburger. This
is Fox Sports Red Zone Radio and we are alive

(33:31):
from the ti iraq dot com studios. People that have
been listening to me over these many years have, if
they've been playing their game properly, have made a lot
of money off my predictions by going the opposite way.
Oh yeah, yeah. Although, although I was right about one
prediction last week, and that was the under in the

(33:53):
NFC champion uh in that in that game between the
Cowboys UM and the Party Niners. I did say the
under in that game, and it was wasn't under game.
So one of the rare times I was actually right.
Another rare time I was right is I picked the
Eagles to win the NFC East this year before the
season began, UM, and I did that because no team

(34:15):
has repeated as NFC East champions since the Eagles rattled
up four straight division titles from OH one to OH four,
So I thought the Eagles were in good shape. I
did not predict, though, that the Eagles that have this
kind of season where they're sitting as the number one seed.
Another question I had, though, was about Jalen Hurts, who
I've always been impressed with and Richie and I have

(34:36):
been together really throughout his entire career, when he burst
on the scene as a freshman in Alabama, and then
of course at the end of his sophomore year, he
gets benched in the championship game and to a tongue
of by low Hitsdavante Smith for the game winning touchdown.
Then the following year, here's Hurts sitting on the bench,
never complained, sat there as the backup, it to a
transfers to Oklahoma runner up for the Heisman. I kept saying,

(35:00):
am I missing something? Because it seems like all this
guy does is win? And then when I would hear
him interviewed, he'd just be very impressive, mature. I thought,
beyond his years. He just seemed like a leader I
that you would instinctively follow. And it has certainly played
out that way over the last couple of years with
Nick Sirianna Sirianni running the show and what he's done there. So, um,

(35:24):
I'm gonna ask that question again because I've I've asked this,
You where where's the ceiling here on Jalen Hurts? I
mean our ore if he wins the Super Bowl this year,
dare we put him in the conversation? Because we we
talked about Mahomes, we talked about Burrow, we talked about
Josh Allen, we talked about Justin Herbert, maybe a Trevor Lawrence.
I mean, should he be in the conversation if he

(35:48):
wins the Super Bowl this year with the best quarterbacks
in the NFL? Yeah, yeah, he should. I mean because
when you look at Jalen Hurts by the numbers and
then also by his age, like this guy's only twenty four,
you know, he could conceivably play the game the way

(36:09):
he's playing it for another three four years if he
gets lucky and he doesn't have a major injury. I mean,
because he's a physical guy. He's a physical runner. They
really rely on him to run the football effectively as
well for this offense to click. But he's young, so
he has that benefit. So you know, I mean before

(36:30):
age twenty eight, if he if he avoids breaking down physically,
then yeah, he absolutely should be part of the conversation.
Is one of the best quarterbacks in the league. He's
been sensational this year and and the only game where
you could really say he struggled like mightily was coming
back from the shoulder injury maybe a week to soon

(36:51):
in the in the regular season finale, But it was
just to get him a little bit of field time
before the bye week before having to play the Giants
in the divisional round of the playoffs. And that was
a good decision because he went out there against the
Giants and he looked great. So yeah, assuming health, I
think Jalen Hurts needs to be considered one of the

(37:13):
best quarterbacks in league. Here. How about this, you know,
so tie in his age with this um. He's only
twenty four, and only eleven quarterbacks younger than Hurts have
ever had a passer rating of one twelve or higher
in a postseason game. And that's including brock Purty, right,
you know, because he just kind of burst onto the scene,
And he has a one thirty one point five two

(37:35):
weeks ago against the Seahawks when they faced off against
Gino Smith and the Hawks in the wild card round.
So including brock Purty this year, only ten other quarterbacks
have ever played that well in a postseason game. Twenty
four years or younger. And so if he continues to
do that. So say they take on the forty Niners
here in the NFC Championship Game and the Eagles win,

(37:57):
and it's clear that Jalen Hurts was star of this
game and a reason why the Eagles won. I mean,
it just goes further to proof of credence that the
Eagles have made the right decision and going all in
on Hurts. Yeah, the Eagles have made some interesting decisions
in recent years that a lot of people questioned that
have worked out in their favor. By the way, we're
brought to you by a Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes bundally

(38:20):
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When the Eagles hired Doug Peterson as their coach, it
was mocked widely mocked, like what are you doing? I mean,
the guy he didn't do anything in that Kansas City offense.

(38:40):
He he was holding a clipboard for any Reid. Turned
out he was a Super Bowl winning coach waiting to happen,
and Nick Sirianni. Do we have to go back to
his opening press conference and the guy was ridiculed, people like,
who is this guy? Are you kidding? This is the
guy you hired to clean up the mess left behind
by Doug Peters. Well, now the guy's one wigging away

(39:02):
from when he had championship. Um, you know, Nick Sirianni.
Oh yeah, he he coached the team that I played on.
Did he did he impress you as a guy that
had the fiber to become the coach that he has
become with the Eagles. He was an offensive assistant with
the Chargers when I played for them, And one of
the things that you see in certain coaches is energy

(39:24):
and intelligence. I mean, those are the two things that
I think even coaches when they're assembling a staff are
looking for, and he had both of those things. He
was the type of guy who was very optimistic. He
was very excited to be in the building every single day,
and when you talked to him about things he was
you you sort of realize, oh, wow, this guy's an asset,
Like he knows what he's talking about. He went on

(39:46):
to become the wide receiver's coach and he continued his
assistant coaching career until getting this opportunity, and clearly he
deserves it. He's a great head coach. He has proven
that for sure. As we get ready for that game
that's now a little more than an hour away kickoff
of the NFC Championship game of the Philadelphia Eagles hosting
the San Francisco forty Niners. Course, after that, we're going

(40:07):
to get the much anticipated rematch of the a f
C Championship game between the Chiefs and the Bengals. And
the big question going into that game is simply this,
does Joe Burrow own, Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City
Chiefs well an outside sources weigh in on that. You'll

(40:28):
hear that and much more. Keep it here. This is
Fox Sports Red Zone Radio. Fox Sports Radio has the
best sports 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. We are one hour away from kickoff of
the NFC Championship game between the San Francisco forty Niners

(40:51):
and the Philadelphia Eagles, followed by the a f C
Championship matchup between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Kansas Ay Chiefs.
This is Fox Sports Red Zone Radio and we are
broadcasting live from the ti iraq dot com studios. Ti
iraq dot com. We're gonna help get you there and
a matt selection fasts, free shipping, free road hats or protection,

(41:14):
over ten thousand recommended installers ti iraq dot com. The
way tire buying should be enrich. We said it in
the last hour. We're gonna say at the top of
every hour, you can't ask for two better matchups in
the conference championship games. Traditionally, there's always been that one team.
You're like, Wow, okay, maybe they got a puncher's chance.

(41:35):
I thought you said it beautifully at the top of
the show. Any one of these teams wins today, it's
not an upset. There's no upset here. If the forty
Niners win on the road, or the Bengals went on
the road, it's not an upset. Chiefs and Eagles at home,
it's not an upset. There's no upset today. I just
hope they're gonna be great matchups. I can't imagine both

(41:55):
these games being one sided. I think both these teams
have very equal ranks. They know each other. Uh, it's
just gonna be a very dynamic day today for the NFL.
Oh yeah, I completely agree with you, and I'll take
it a step farther. Any one of these teams wins
the Super Bowl, there's gonna be nobody out there going, well,
the right team didn't win, you know. I mean, all

(42:16):
of these teams, if you look at their regular season,
if you look at their how they've gained entrance to
the championship weekend here in the NFL, they deserve to
be here. They deserve to win a super Bowl. Now,
only one team can win the super Bowl. So we'll
see who that's gonna be, and it's gonna have a
lot to do with what we see today. But yeah,

(42:36):
I mean, this is what you're always hoping for. Like,
there's no, there's no whatever it is. You know, eight
and nine team who sort of snuck their way into
the postseason because they're playing in a down division like
the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and got lucky and one twice
and here they are. Yeah, it's no, no, no, no, no.

(42:56):
These are teams who have been kind of forged and
and built right and have great quarterbacks or at very
least in the case of the forty Niners have had
a great struggle at starting quarterback and have one in
spite of all the injuries they faced this season, which
is an amazing storyline. Anyway, slice it. I'm happy with

(43:18):
the outcome here, all right. So we talked plenty about
the NFC game in the first hour here this hour
will do a little more focus on this a f
C championship matchup between the Bengals and the Chiefs. And
of course this has been a crazy game in terms
of the betting line. Uh. The game opened with the
Chiefs obviously at home as the favorites, but as questions

(43:38):
arose about the condition of Patrick Mahomes, suddenly the line
moved all the way to where briefly the Bengals were
actually favored in the betting line to win in Kansas City.
But now the news that Patrick Mahomes will play uh,
in fact, not even listed on the injury report right

(43:58):
now for the Chiefs is Patrick go Holmes. The line
has swung all the way back in favor of the Chiefs. Now.
The big story going into this, obviously is the fact
that Joe Burrow has never lost to Patrick Mahomes and
the Chiefs he's a perfect three. And oh now, it's
one thing to just recognize the fact that for whatever reason,
and by the way, these have all been close games. Uh,

(44:20):
he has their number, which you don't need. Is something
that just came down from the Mayor of Cincinnati, the
Mayor's who, by the way, is a close personal friend
of Iowa Sam. I did not know this. We'll get
into that in a second. But here he is the

(44:40):
mayor of Cincinnati, not doing the Bengals any favors. Good
afternoon to Cincinnati. I have a proclamation from the desk
of the Mayor being proclaimed. Whereas the Cincinnati Bengals are
headed to Burrow Head Stadium for their second consecutive an
FC championship game. Whereas last year's game, the a goal
scored more points than the Chiefs, resulting in the Bengals

(45:03):
victory and the Chief's loss. Whereas Joseph Lee Burrow, who's
three and l against Mahomes, has been asked by officials
to take a fraternity test. It's confirming whether or not
he's his father. Whereas all season long, Cincinnati has been
on a path of destiny, fighting out to overcome anyone
who stands between them. And the Super Bowl win. And

(45:24):
whereas Kansas City is named after its neighboring state, which is,
you know, just kind of weird. Now, therefore I a
to ap pure of all mayor of the City of Cincinnati,
do hereby proclaim January as they got to play us
day in Cincinnati. Thank you? All right, now, rich let
me ask you a question here. Now, we we've seen

(45:45):
many times or mayors have a little bet going on,
you know, in a game like this. But if you
remember the Bengals organization, Um, I don't know. I'd want
to strangle the mayor for that. I mean, really is
the mayor playing in this game? I mean he's talking
trash like there's no tomorrow. By the way, if they

(46:06):
do lose this game, I can guarantee he's not gonna
get reelected. Um, but I mean, what's going on here?
I mean, why would why would the mayor Cincinnati go
this far in a game that at best is a
toss up game. Listen, Um, we've seen this level. We
actually played this yesterday on countdown to kick Off and

(46:27):
had a good laugh about it. And Jared Smith, um
ore FSR betting analyst, he actually made probably the best
point I'll get to that in a second, but I'll
put I pointed out that there are many political candidates
or people who hold political office who weigh in on

(46:49):
things that are happening in the NFL. And whether it's
lighthearted fun like this, or if it is more serious
like the Colin Kaepernick stuff, or if it is you know,
something that people are taking very seriously for a time
like for example, and I made this reference yesterday when
when the Saints lost the NFC Championship game to the

(47:10):
Los Angeles Rams and there was a no call on
past interference. I remember there was a New Orleans or
Louisiana congressman who made this this huge plea to the
NFL and was threatening boycott that they review that play
and overturned their decision and give the Saints uh an

(47:34):
opportunity to play in the Super Bowl. It was ridiculous.
I can't remember exactly his verbiage, but a lot of
politicians take the opportunity to grandstand on things like this. Now,
what Jason Smith said yesterday, or excuse me, Jared Smith,
Jared Smith said yesterday. What Jared said yesterday was, um,
you know, the the city of Cincinnati is a pretty

(47:57):
big place. Yeah, one of the biggest cities in the country.
Doesn't the mayor have better things to do? Like like,
shouldn't shouldn't he be doing mayor stuff instead, you know,
instead of instead of giving giving everybody his feelings on
the game. No. I mean this is the same city,

(48:19):
by the way, whose most famous mayor is Jerry Springer.
As you know, he was once the mayor of Cincinnati.
I just if I'm the Bengals and all this hoop
lah about you know, burrow Head and everything else, I
I'm I'm laying low. Oh yeah, I mean this is
the Kansas City Chiefs, who are hosting the a f
C Championship Game for the fifth consecutive year. They have

(48:44):
been waiting three sixty five days for this rematch after
that embarrassing second half implosion that enabled the Bengals to
get into the Super Bowl a year ago. You don't
need to add anything to get the he's fired up.
But you did. And it didn't come from you. It
comes from some outside source being funny or whatever. It

(49:14):
did come from them too, because Joe Mix and I'm
pretty sure it might have been Joe Mixon, might have
been someone else. I'm gonna look it up in a
moment here, but Um said that we're heading to Burrow
Head Stadium after this when they were on the field
beating the beating the Bills. You know, so, look, the
Bengals have have dug their own grave. If if it
is what we think it could be, heading to our

(49:36):
head stadium, firing up that fan base and giving bolton
board material to Chris Jones and Patrick Mahomes and the
other stars around that op. But that offense. You know, look,
the Bengals, if they have one thing, and they have
it in spades, is confidence. Joe Burrow, after beating the
Buffalo Bills, while still standing on the field at high

(49:58):
Mark Stadium, said you better send them receipts, them refunds
when he was talking about this season ticket holders in
Buffalo who bought tickets to Atlanta to see the neutral
site game between the Chiefs and the Bills that hadn't
even been decided before the game, and the Bengals beat
up on the Bills pretty bad. So this is a
team with a lot of confidence, Steve, So none of

(50:20):
this shocks me that the city is responding to that
level of swag that they've created all right, if the
Chiefs are gonna win this game unlike what happened a
year ago against the Bengals, there is one stat that's
gonna have to change. We're gonna tell you what it
is coming up next. This is Fox Sports Red Zone Radio.

(50:43):
Steve Harvey, Rich Armburger. This is Fox Sports Red Zone Radio,
and we are live from the ti IRAQ dot Com
studios forty one minutes away kickoff NFC Championship Game Eagles
forty niners, followed by the Chiefs and Bengals in the
a f C Championship games. So last year, Rich, as
the Bengals made their miraculous run to the Super Bowl, Uh,

(51:07):
Joe Burrow got a lot of credit deservedly so, especially
in light of a subpar offensive line. So if you
look at the four games that they won last year,
the second game, of course, was that road win against
the Titans where he was sacked nine times, and in
the Super Bowl the Rams sacked him seven times. In

(51:32):
the a f C Championship game against the Chiefs, he
was sacked once. Now that seems sort of unbelievable, right,
Chiefs had a pretty good defensive front, so the Titans
sacked him nine times, the Rams sacked him seven times,
the Chiefs sacked him once. And what that meant was

(51:52):
is that and we were we were on the air
watching this game last year between the Chiefs and Bengals,
and the Chiefs were up twenty one to three. It
looked like they were going to go up three right
before the half. A bad call and suddenly they were,
you know, at least gave the Bengals a chance, and
the second half was all Bengals, And part of it

(52:12):
was the fact that Joe Burrows stayed upright. So I'm
I'm I'm wondering if you're the Chiefs and you're looking
back at that game a year ago, and and again
Mahomes inexplicably chest made really bad decisions like play see
that he that were there that he didn't make it.

(52:33):
Everything just you're watching, like what is happening here? Because
at the beginning of the game he never looked better Homes.
I mean, he was just destroying the Bengals as we
thought that could possibly happen. But defensively, if you're the
Chiefs getting ready for this game and you're looking back saying,
I mean he had nine sacks for sixty eight yards
and losses against the Titans, seven sacks for forty three

(52:56):
yards and losses against the Rams one one sacked for
seven yards. We gotta do a better job. What can
the Chiefs do? And and talk about this Bengals offensive
line where they are now as opposed a year ago
at this time, Well, they're a group that really overcame,
um something significant against the Bills. You know, when you

(53:20):
lose three starters in the last month of your season
and you're forced to shuffle the deck ahead of the
divisional round of the postseason, I mean, that's not that's
not an easy feat, but it it. First of all,
it says a lot about the guys who that they've
scouted and developed and had on the team backing up
their starters because you know, you bring in, you bring

(53:43):
in an offensive line, a bunch of free agents you
signed this offseason and protect Joe Burrow better, and they have.
And then also Joe Burrow has been way better at
getting the ball out of his hands this season. Um.
As a matter of fact, if you time from the
moment the ball snapped until the balls out of his hands,
he's only second to Tom Brady this season in terms

(54:04):
of that that speed, and so he really has changed
the way he quarterbacks this season. To help out is
rebuilt offensive line. But then you go to the game
against the Bills and you say, well, how did they
have so much success? The biggest reason is they were
able to jam the ball down the Bill's throats. I
mean they ran the air out of that football one

(54:27):
hundred and five yards Joe Mixing on the ground one
rushing touchdown UM hundred seventy two yards total and rushing
on the day against the Bills. And that's a good
defensive front. Here's what I'll say. The Bengals looked far
worse offensively against the Baltimore Ravens, and if it weren't
for a fumble at the goal line by Huntley that

(54:48):
went yards for a score the other way, that game
could look very different. The reason why they had success
is because the Bills. You know, contrary to the Bills
the rave and disguise everything. The Bills just sort of
line up in whatever they're doing defensively and they just
go They just say, hey, look we're gonna out execute you.
So they don't hide their coverages, they don't do a

(55:10):
lot to hide their their blitzers, they're just gonna line
up and do the things that they think they need
to do to win, and they're gonna say, we're just
gonna out talent. You well, at this level in the postseason,
it's very difficult just to line up and play. And
so that's what I would do if I'm the Chiefs,
I would disguise coverages. I would look at that Ravens

(55:33):
film in the wild card round and I would study
it very carefully, and I would see how they confused
Joe Burrow, who is an excellent pre snap quarterback um
and force this offense into looking, you know, very different
than it has through most of this season. That's what
I would do. Turn on that Ravens film and whatever
they had success doing. You need to do that if

(55:55):
you're the Chiefs. Well, the game they had this season
during the regular season would by the way, all three
of these wins by Joe Burrown the Bengals over Mahomes
and the Chiefs have been three point games. But this
last game, that game played in the first week in December.
Once again one sack for the Chiefs in that game.

(56:16):
And when you mentioned the fact that Joe Burrow has
done a much better job in avoiding the sack. Think
about this Rich first two games of the year, those
losses against the Steelers and the Cowboys, he was sacked
thirteen times in the first two weeks of the season,
but in the last eight regular season games he was
never sacked more than twice. So there is a change

(56:38):
coming on right now with the Bengals. But the Chiefs
are gonna have to overcome this because again in that
regular season matchup, Burrow could not have been better or
thirty one two six yards, two touchdowns note picks, and
he was sacked once. And he also, by the way,
ran for forty six yards in the score in that game,
so he didn't just do it with his arm. He
was also effective with his legs, which then brings up

(57:01):
the next point in this matchup between the Chiefs and
the Bengals. We know the Borough is going to be
ready for his game. The big question is how ready
is Patrick Mahomes going to be physically now. Mentally, we
know he's a d percent in. We saw that a
week ago where he literally was hopping on one leg
in the second half and still had a passer rating

(57:23):
over a hunter in the second half in that win.
But Rich I asked you specifically about this high ankle
sprain that he had suffered, something you're very familiar with,
and the chances that he could be a dent are
close to a hund a week later. I mean, from
what I understand, this is usually about a three week injury.

(57:44):
So the fact that they're downplaying any ill effect from
that high ankle spring going into this a f C
Championship game, is that just gameplay or is it conceivable
that we will see Patrick Mahomes near a hunter percent
physically for this game later today? It's gamemanship. I mean, look,

(58:06):
he's not gonna be a pent unless and this is
a possibility because we've seen this before. Unless he thought
it was hurt worse than it was. And so sometimes
when you know you get an injury on the field,
you start hobbling and limping around because you're thinking yourself, oh, man,
like I did something real bad. They're they're gonna need

(58:26):
to tape this sucker up. And I know he was
campaigning to Andy Reid, like, you know, I want to
stay in the game, don't take me out, And then
he was forced to go to locker room and get
his ankle retaped and then came back out after Chad
hen he had the successful drive in this last game
that they played, and and he resumed his game. But
the reality is it's one of two things. Either a

(58:47):
he's got a pretty severe high ankle sprain and they're
just trying to to keep this very low key and
to allow the Bengals to believe that they're going to
get the normal Patrick Mahomes, which is dynamic, make and improvisational,
and they don't, and they're gonna have to worry about
him leaving the pocket. And here's why you do that

(59:07):
if you're the Chiefs, because any team, any defensive team
worth their salt, is going to commit a player to
spying Patrick Mahomes. But if if if you find out
during the game at some point, oh, he can't really run,
like maybe now we don't have to do that, well

(59:28):
that that means advantage Chiefs out the get out the gate,
because if they're spying, if they're wasting a player defensively
to keep an eye on Patrick Mahomes to make sure
that he can't run all around and make some of
those crazy improvisational plays, and then they realize they don't
have to later on, maybe you get away with a
quarter where the defense is respecting him as a run threat.

(59:50):
You know, maybe you can get away with a quarter
that way. It's gamesmanship. Now, if it's the other way around,
if it truly is um and not as severe sprain
as initial really worried, well, then maybe he's ready to go.
And so the fact that he was a full participant
all this week in Kansas City and that he's no
longer on the injury report, maybe it's true. And maybe

(01:00:13):
the the Cincinnati Bengals are gonna see the very best
punch that Patrick Mahomes can throw today. The truth is,
none of us are gonna know until this game kicks off,
and we have an idea of what he looks like,
and you know that there are going to be cameras
devoted to looking at this man's ankle. Well, let me
ask you this and to sort of tests where he is.

(01:00:35):
If you're the Bengals defensively, do you bring the house early?
I mean, you just start bringing guys, forcing him to
to at least see what kind of mobility that he has.
I would I mean that makes sense to me. Right,
it's early in the game. Maybe he burns you early
and then you're like, all right, well, maybe that's not
the way to go, but man, I'm bringing the house

(01:00:58):
to see if he can actually move in that pocket
or or actually scramble for any effective yardage. Well, well,
there are ways to get to a quarterback without necessarily
you know. Um, let's put it this way. There are
ways you can blitz while while keeping conservative coverages in place,
Like you can you can blitz Patrick Mahomes and you

(01:01:19):
could get a free hitter to chase him around in
the pocket while still running zone coverages. You could you
could find a way to blitz him if you're confident
with with your your your man coverage package that you're
running against whatever personnel group you decide or formation you
decide you want to blitz from, and you could get
away with creating pressure without sacrificing the big play. You

(01:01:42):
can do those things. And a lot of teams, by
the way, do that to Patrick Mahomes in the Chiefs
Like they run uh two shell which means you have
two deep safeties and they run zone blitz on the
Chiefs and they try to have success that way. Well,
I I would, I absolutely would try to test Patrick
mahomes ankle early in this game, I would try to

(01:02:02):
flush him out of the pocket. I would try to
find a way to get him to range to one
side or the other or both. And there are ways
you could do that. You know, you can make one
of your you know, edge players, your nickel players, you know,
the contained guy in the pocket, and you can flush
him out of the pocket to his left and just
see how good he is running away from his throwing
side throwing off that ankle. Or you could try to

(01:02:24):
get him to run out to the right side, where
you know he's gonna have to plant off of the
right ankle in order to deliver a throw ranging to
his right. There are ways to put a quarterback in
a compromising position just by scheme, and I promise you
if they figure it out, they're going to do that,
or they should do it if they're smart. Often and

(01:02:44):
at a rum o the Cincinnati Bengals defensive coordinator, who
were just starting to hear his name, but many people
have been talking about this in football circles for a while.
This guy is a really clever play caller. So I'm
very interested to see about that chess match here in
a few hours. We're brought to you by Progressive Insurance.
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(01:03:07):
all your protection in one place. Bundle and save up
grossive dot com. Let's find out what is trending right now?
Is our eching? Ever? So close to that kickoff of
the NFC Championship game between the Eagles and forty Niners.
Monsey is back, Monsey so close? You know, you know,
it's the thing about football, and this happens every single

(01:03:29):
year to us. You know, you get to this point,
you're down to four teams in the NFL. The college
football season is already long in our rear view mirror.
I mean, we just don't have much football left. No
Pro Bowl, by the way, next week, this cockamami Pro
Bowl games? Just why, why, by the way, can you
believe this rich that because players have to be replaced

(01:03:52):
for the Pro Bowl games? I thought we were done
with the replacement where they add like thirty new names
to the Pro Bowl roster, people that weren't picked for
the probe and just they're really trying to make the
Pro Bowl happen, or what's they're trying to make it
fetch and it's just not fetch. You know it's not
gonna happen. You have to replace. It's not good when

(01:04:13):
it's not even a game. Yeah anymore. But we are
like twenty eight minutes away from kick off, yes, between
the forty Niners in the Eagles. The forty Niners announced
that they're gonna be without Elijah Mitchell, but they will
have Christian McCaffrey. Following this game, the Bengals are gonna
take on the Chiefs for the a f C title.
We've got one NBA game going on. I know nobody

(01:04:34):
cares about in the NBA is smart. They only have
four games today. They know everybody's gonna be watching the NFL.
But right now an NBA game going on. The Miami
Heat still have a lead over the Charlotte Hornet. Seventy
fifty nine is the score with eight and a hal
minutes to go in the third quarter. Uh. Tyler hero
is always a hero for the Heat. Lately he's leading
Miami with eighteen points. And I mentioned it, but why
not again because it's still trending. But yes, Stetson Bennett,

(01:04:57):
former Georgia Bulldogs National Championship winning quarterback was arrested this
morning on a public intoxication charge at about six am
Central time in Dallas, Texas. And it is still trending.
And last thing, today's my mom's birthday. I almost forgot Mommy.
Happy birthday, Felice, I love you. Back to you guys.
Happy birthday, Mrs r. Well, how how is that on

(01:05:21):
her birthday so close to your mom's birthday. It's fun,
we celebrate together. He's a birthday guy, exactly what But
she's your mom, I mean she gets more of a celebration. Oh,
of course she does. She always does. My mom gets
a lot of celebrations. She celebrates her birthday, she celebrates
American Mother's Day, she celebrates Costa Rican's Mother's Day, she
celebrates Mexican Mother's Day, whatever, Mother's Day. She's like, I'm here,

(01:05:44):
she's tripled. She is. But it's not like a situation
that gets her birthday and ps Monsey too. No no, no,
no no no, And mind's first son. We're past mine.
No longer matters now, it's just hers alright, Happy birthday
to your mom and hopefully she has a beautiful day
out there. Hey, rich, you know I've made this point
several times, and I have been known to repeat myself incessantly.

(01:06:09):
Um but anyway, UM, you know, there there is a
pattern to the history of the NFL in the fact
that in each decade since the nineteen forties, there's been
a single franchise that want at least three NFL championships
in that decade. It was the Bears in the forties,
Browns in the fifties, Packers in the sixties, Steelers in
the seventies, forty Niners in the eighties, Cowboys in the nineties,

(01:06:33):
and the Patriots in each of the last two decades.
When I look at these four teams, now, remember there's
been two champions so far in this decade. It was
the Buccaneers and it was the Rams. Okay, so and
you go by the season, people about the Chiefs, Now
that was the Super Bowl was playing. So you've got

(01:06:55):
the Buccaneers and you've got the Ramps. I don't think
the Buccaneers are really threatening to be the team of
the decade. The Rams. I also I have doubts. Um,
my guess is one of these four teams is going
to be that team that wins at least three Super

(01:07:16):
Bowls in this decade in the twenties, because there is
a pattern, it's been consistent throughout the years. My question
to you is, amongst the forty Niners, Eagles, Bengals, and Chiefs,
which one do you think is most likely to be
the team that wins at least three Super Bowls in

(01:07:38):
this decade? Well, before I answer, I'm just going to
review some of the more recent um dynasty teams that
you mentioned. Yes, the forty Niners in the eighties, the
Dallas Cowboys in the nineties, the Patriots of the what
do they call the two thousands and tens? Keep it simple,
the two thousands in the tenses. What they all have

(01:08:01):
in common other than having obviously great quarterbacks young in
Montana and Aikman in that cast of offensive characters in
Tom Brady for twenty years of terror over the rest
of the NFL, especially in a week AFC East. They
had owners who liked to spend money. It is a hugely,

(01:08:21):
hugely important part of the story. So you you listed them.
You know, you have this Philadelphia team, the Cincinnati team,
You've got the forty Niners, and you've got the Chiefs.
Who's most likely to continue to to stay at the top,
while it's a team that's represented the a f C
Championship Game on their home field for the past five years,

(01:08:43):
and who's going to have a quarterback contract that's only
going to age like a fine line as it continues
to exist in Patrick Mahomes. It's the Kansas City Chiefs,
I mean, and just think about how dynamic this offense
looks without in arguably one of the greatest receiver who's
ever played the game of football and Tyreek Hill. Tyreek
Hill is phenomenal. He's a sensation, he's fast, he can catch,

(01:09:07):
he can he can catch the contested ball. And they
moved on from Tyreek Hill like he's yesterday's news in
trade with the Miami Dolphins, and they are more efficient offensively,
So the Kansas City Chiefs, in my mind, there is
no question as long as Patrick Mahomes is the quarterback
of the Chiefs, the dynasty is really gonna go through

(01:09:29):
Kansas City because they also have an ownership group in
the Hunt family that is not afraid to spend money.
And you hear it from former players, you hear from
their alumni, you hear from the players who are on
the field right now, and obviously those guys are more
more prone to bang the company drum and talk the
company line. But I've heard it from guys privately. The

(01:09:50):
Chiefs take care of their players. And so when you
have ownership that's committed, when you have a great quarterback,
a transcendent quarterback, you have a coach who's incredible, and
you have an adaptive UH team where you can lose
star players and still continue success, not unlike the Patriots
did for years and years and years while Tom Brady
was their quarterback. It's gonna be the Kansas City Chiefs. Well,

(01:10:14):
it will only be the Chiefs if they can beat
the Bengals. I know there's Cincinnati fans that are gonna say,
you're not gonna be any dynasty if he can't beat us.
But there is a dynamic difference between the ownership of
the Chiefs and the ownership of the Bengals. UH. Mike Brown,
the son of the legend Paul Brown, is a notoriously
cheap guy. UM. They have a very small UH scouting department.

(01:10:36):
I mean, they've done everything on the cheap. UH. The
one thing that you know, and I've said this about
the Chargers organization that when when they win it's almost
by accident. It's never really planned. I mean, the Bengals
have been so irrelevant for so long, and then all
of a sudden they land Joe Burrow, who turns out

(01:10:58):
to be better than advertised. And so now they're in
a position where Joe Burrow I mean, I mean, if,
if the Bengals, I mean, regardless of what happens to
the Bengals today, Joe Burrows in line to make what
fifty million a year? Oh yeah, easy. I mean he
was the first pick in the draft and he has
more than delivered on his goods. You're gonna keep them waiting.
You're gonna pull what the Ravens did with Lamar Jackson.

(01:11:20):
I can't imagine. But again it's the Bengals organization. But
here's the other thing about any Read and Patrick Mahomes.
The last two years have ended in disaster. I mean,
they got blown out of that Super Bowl by Tampa
and then the inexplicable second half meltdown against the Bengals.

(01:11:43):
Um pressure does weird things to you. You know, we
were talking about this last week as we watched the
Bengals just jump all over the Bills and put them away,
and we saw Josh Allen getting a little unraveled, where
suddenly you're feeling all that pressure. You're at home, there's
great expectations for you. No longer did he have Brian

(01:12:05):
dable to maybe, you know, calm them down a little
bit on the sideline, And all of a sudden we're
seeing a very talented quarterback makes some unnecessary mistakes. Now, look,
Mahomes could go out today and throw five touchdown passes
in the Chiefs blow the Bengals out, and the conversation
is over. But if the Chiefs lose again to the

(01:12:28):
Bengals at home, and by the way, any read all
the time in his career Hall of Fame career three
and six in conference championship games, not exactly a gimme, No,
it's not. But the pressure is squarely on the Chiefs
because I agree with you, the Chiefs have everything it
takes to be the team of the decade. But you

(01:12:52):
can't lose today. Well, well, here here's the crazy thing.
They can and they could still be the dynasty team
because it's only twenty twenty three. Like you said, I mean,
who's gonna win the staring contest. It's gonna be Kansas
city because I just don't believe in the ownership in Cincinnati.
And that's no slight to a great fan base. Cincinnati

(01:13:12):
fans are amazing. I mean people from Ohio. They I mean,
football is a religion to people in Ohio, and they
deserve better than they have. Frankly, but I just don't
believe in the ownership. I don't think they're gonna make
it easy for the team to hang onto Joe Burrow
and to build around him. I don't. I don't see
them spending big, guaranteed sums of money to potential free

(01:13:36):
agents to come to Cincinnati to play alongside Joe Burrow.
I mean, because that's part of these contracts too. Like
we always talk about, oh, you know, he's due ten
million dollars a year or twenty million dollars a year
or fifty million dollars a year, depending on what player
we're talking about. But it's also the guaranteed money, and
that's money that an owner needs to come up with

(01:13:57):
out of their pocket immediately a meeting lead. They have
to be able to spend. And some owners, obviously the
Rams owners, Stan Cronky being one of them. Robert Kraft,
owner of the Patriots. Jerry Jones, the owner of the
Dallas Cowboys. They can compete. I'm curious if Cincinnati can.
Hopefully I'm wrong, Hopefully they can, and hopefully we have

(01:14:18):
a spirited rivalry between the Bengals and the Chiefs for
years to come. But that is at the end of
the day. Unfortunately, one of the biggest deciders in sport
is who's your owner. I mean, and you can compare
this to other sports as well. Go to baseball, there's
consistency in the great teams, and it's because they have
ownership who's willing to invest, you know. Go to the

(01:14:40):
n b A, there's consistency with the teams, the all
time great teams, and there's a reason why it's similar
names in terms of logos making it to the top
of the n b A in the postseason or in
the finals year after year. It's because of ownership, you know.
So the NFL is no different. And as a matter
of fact, the NFL has turned into more of baseball,

(01:15:01):
more of the NBA because now the most important position,
the quarterback position, isn't afraid to move on from a franchise.
It used to be when you were the franchise quarterback
of a team. You were going to spend your entire
career with that team, unless you know, you got drafted
to what you thought was the wrong team, and like
ol Way, you know, you kind of wiggle your way
out of that situation. You get the Denver instead of Indianapolis,

(01:15:24):
or like Eli Manning, he wiggle out of your way
going to the Chargers and you go to the Giants.
I mean, it happens, but for the most part, guys
would play ten plus years with a single franchise once
they were named the franchise quarterback. It's just not that
way anymore. So I have I have way more belief
in the Hunt family in Kansas City than I do
in any of the other teams in the postseason. Remaining

(01:15:45):
right now, all right, we're six team ins away from
the kickoff of the NFC Championship game between the Eagles
on the forty nine years. Will continue to update you
on a huge game day in the NFL. This is
Fox Sports Red Zone Radio. Oh yeah, pro read appropriate
because we are getting ready once again. This is Fox
Sports Red Zone Radio. We are live from the tire

(01:16:07):
Rack dot Com studios were also brought to you by
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Bundle and say at Progressive dot Com I mentioned earlier,
Rich and you are part of this scene with conference
championship game. The pressure in this game to me is

(01:16:32):
even greater than that of the super Bowl. I mean,
the super Bowl is obviously the biggest show. It's not
even close, but at least you're there if you get
to the super Bowl. These conference championship games is an
opportunity for you, if you're a football player, to fulfill
a dream to play in a super Bowl. I mean

(01:16:53):
it's any any young player, uh, at at the youth level,
if they have aspirations of life in football, all you
want is that opportunity to say I played in a
super Bowl. As the Eagles and forty Niners get ready
right now, give it gives us sense where where's where's
the mindset of these teams right now? As they're about

(01:17:15):
to take the field. You're trying your hardest, uh to
treat this like it's just any other game, but it's not.
Because if you've made it to this point. You've played
in one or two postseason games at least in your career,
definitely the season to get to this point, and you

(01:17:36):
remember what it's like after a win because your phone
explodes because when it was, you know, just eight games
on television, just two weeks ago, and you were one
of the teams playing and you won, your phone just
lights up with text messages and mixed miss calls and
you played so well and I'm so happy for you.

(01:17:56):
I'm so proud of you, Grandma says hello. And then
and in the divisional round, you know, we're down to
four games on TV, and then boom, your phone lights
up again because you won that game and you're going
to the championship game. And so you're aware that there's
just more attention being paid to these games than any
other game you've ever played in your life, you know,

(01:18:17):
with with the the possible exception being players who have
now played in this new format at the college football level,
everybody's aware. Everybody is aware, right, So you're trying to
treat it like a normal day, but you're nervous. There's
no way to hide it, there's no way to diffuse it.
There's nerves, and they're more so when you're playing in

(01:18:38):
a playoff, especially in a championship game, than there are
on normal Sundays. By the way, just very quickly, as
far as the Eagles are concerned, Um, you know there
there we talk obviously a lot about Jalen Hurts and everything,
but when we talk about key acquisitions, is there any
bigger acquisition this year in the NFL than A J.

(01:18:59):
Brown with the Eagles? I mean, I mean huge catches,
fourteen ninety six yards, eleven touchdowns, obviously a young star
in the making, and DeVante Smith, the Alabama Heisman Trophy winner.
But you know, much as Diggs made a huge impact
on Josh Allen, uh, the addition of a J. Brown,

(01:19:20):
um and Howie Roseman who gets a lot of crowd
a year two years ago, they wanted to fire this
guy in Philadelphia. Now all of a sudden, he's a
hero once again. This guy has had a roller coaster
ride his GM. But I don't know if A J. Brown,
if there was much bigger impact as far as an
acquisition than Brown with the Eagles this year. Yeah, I mean,

(01:19:41):
he's truly given them an offense that can take the
lid off of any defense, right, swoll Batman, DeVante Smith.
You mentioned Miles Sanders, got her. I mean, this is
a great offensive selection of weapons around a really talented
quarterback and as a result are playing in the second
to final game of the season. And yeah, so you

(01:20:03):
gotta give a tip of the cap to the general manager,
Howard Roseman with the Eagles, and as a matter of fact,
the Titans general manager was fired as a result of
that trade. We get ready for the kickoff of the
NFC Championship Eagles and the forty Niners. Keep it right here.
This is Fox Sports Red Zone Radio. Fox Sports Radio
has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch

(01:20:25):
all of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot com
and within the I Heart Radio app search f s
R to listen live. Well, we're rolling along here on
a day that we have been waiting for all season long.
It's Conference Championships Sunday around the NFL. This is Fox
Sports Red Zone Radio. We are broadcasting live from the

(01:20:45):
ti iraq dot com studios ti irac dot com. We're
gonna help get you there, and I'm at selection fast
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recommended installers tire rack dot Com the way tire buying
should be. So rich Monty's walking around by getting everyone's
predictions on today's games. So I think it's only fair

(01:21:07):
before the games begin for us to make our predictions.
I'll start off okay, because I know people want to
run and make bets opposite my selections. But I really
feel for the home teams today. I like the Eagles,
and yes, I like the Chiefs today. Uh. And of
course this is going against an argument about Wait a second,

(01:21:28):
there's forty Niners Bengals. Remember last year we're talking about this,
the two previous Super Bowls the Bengals have played in
before last year, we're against the forty Niners and it
could have been the forty Niners last year. Have they
not dropped that interception in the fourth quarter against the Rams.
But I'm gonna go with the Eagles and the Chiefs
to advance the Super Bowl. What say you? Yeah? Actually

(01:21:49):
we're in lock step here. I've got the I've placed
my bets yesterday on the NFC a f C Championship
games on Countdown the kickoff here on sports radio, and
I got the Eagles minus three. I got the Chiefs
minus one and a half. Um, Look, I mean, like
we said before, to say the Eagles are a favorite

(01:22:11):
here kind of feels foolish, right I I don't think
that the forty niners are big underdog. I think that
this is about as close to a pick him of
a game as you possibly could have. You know, the
same could be said with the Chiefs and the Bengals.
I mean it's a lower spread, so obviously it's even
closer to a pick them, you know, by the book.
But yeah, I mean, none of these teams are underdogs.

(01:22:34):
None of these teams should not be here, so we
should see some competitive football today. All right. The weather
in Philadelphia is nice fifty degrees. Fifty degrees in Philadelphia
at this time of the year, I mean you're thinking, wow,
I mean we can we can see what likely saw
in Buffalo last week. Not the case today. Now it's

(01:22:55):
gonna be cooler but not frigid. In Kansas City will
be you know, mid thirties, which you know it could
be a lot worse. So I don't I don't think
whether is going to play a huge part in these games. Um, So, Philadelphia,
I'm looking at the latest odds here around three points
right now. Basically it's home field advantage with the three
point spread in favor of the Eagles. UM mentioned last

(01:23:18):
week that I anticipated that we were going to see
a low scoring game between the forty Niners and the
Cowboys that actually played out. How do you feel about
the over under in this game? Right now? I'm looking
at a number forty five, which would be like a
Eagles victory with the point spread, you see more or
less scoring in this matchup between the Eagles. Yeah, I

(01:23:39):
didn't bet the total in this one. I took the
over in the Chiefs Bengals game later on, UM, But
if I were going to be on the side, I
think I agree with you from your proclamation about Niners
UH Dallas last week. I think the under will hit
here as well. I mean, unless we see something just

(01:24:01):
unusual out of the forty Niners since they've entered the
their postseason. I just I mean the Seahawks they dispatch
of them, that's a team they really know, they know
really well from playing them twice this season. UH Dallas
with a very stout defense, a great pass rush, very
similar to what they're going to see with the Philadelphia Eagles.

(01:24:22):
They struggled a little bit to score points, and I
think we're gonna see that for both sides because both
sides have a really stout defense with a great pass rush.
So I I think the under looks better in this game,
all right. So they are still waiting for the kickoff
right now. I'm watching Brock Purty as he walks on
the field and it's just like wow, um. And by

(01:24:43):
the way, the forty niners are kicking off, So the
Eagles will get the ball first. Now, last week, you
and I both thought we didn't pick maybe the Giants
to win, uh, but we certainly thought based on how
good they looked against the Vikings, they could make it
competitive against the Eagles. That was an absolute blowout in
favor of the Eagles, and they were just clicking on

(01:25:04):
all cylinders, both offensively and defensively. How important is this
opening drive going to be for the Eagles. Oh, it's
gonna be huge. It's gonna be absolutely huge. I mean,
to to have an opportunity to set your your home
field ablaze with with a big score, you know, I mean,

(01:25:26):
like that is what everybody's dreaming of when they put
their head on the pillows last night, when they're hosting
a game the next morning, you know where the next evening,
you want to score first. This way your fans get
engaged right out the gates, and so it's it's hugely
important for them. Alright, So nice kickoff return for the

(01:25:46):
Eagles are gonna start, I believe around their own thirty
three yard line here on this opening drive. After the
kickoff was complete, we got pushing and shoving already. Oh
there was pushing and shoving pregame. Yeah, so already these
teams they know what it's sake at steak. It's simple.
It's it's a super Bowl. And so the Eagles will
go first right now. And we mentioned the fact of

(01:26:07):
of A. J. Brown and DeVante Smith and Miles Sanders.
I mean, this this isn't just about Jalen Hurts. It's
about Howie Roseman, about Nick Sirianni, about this Eagles organization
just putting the pieces together right now, and the quarterback
that has the confidence in all these weapons and they've

(01:26:28):
been spreading the ball around. That's why this Eagles team
has been so good. I mean when they were sitting
at thirteen and one before Hurts went out with the
injury and they weren't just winning, rich, I mean, they
were dominating their games throughout the season. Yeah, yeah, I
mean just like that, they got their first first down
already on this opening drive. Well, you're gonna see plenty
of those, because again, Nick Sirianni, I think, is one

(01:26:50):
of the more talented play callers in the NFL, and
he has a good feel for mixing in the run
in the past, the QB run and on that play,
we haven't injured Fred Warner, and that could be a
huge problem for the Philadelphia Eagles. It looks like he's
clutching his left collar bone or his left shoulder that

(01:27:11):
that would be terrible news for the San Francisco forty Niners. Yeah,
I mean we're talking about a pro bowler in Fred
Warner has been such a key uh defensely in this game.
So it starts off with a six round six yard
passed a J. Brown Is six yard run for Miles Sanders,
and just like that, the Eagles are at their own
forty five yard line. So we're gonna get an injury
update on Warner. Critical here for the forty Niners. Conversely,

(01:27:34):
for the forty Niners, um and and really the Brock
Purty situation. It's one thing. When I mean they've they've
I mean they've been averaging before last week like thirty
five points a game since Purtty had taken over as
the quarterback of the team, and most of the games
were pretty one sided in favor of the forty Niners.
The big question is if they get into an early

(01:27:57):
hole on the road against the game of the caliber
the Eagles, how is brock Purty gonna react. I mean,
he's gonna have to react with the biggest game of
his career. He's gonna have to react by leading this
team to the super Bowl. And we haven't seen brock
Purty have to really do that yet. And so if

(01:28:18):
this is the first time that he has to be
the reason why the forty Niners win this season, I mean,
what level of what level of of trust do you
have in brock Purty that he's the type of caliber
of quarterback who can lead the team that way based
on what you've seen through his eight starts well and
against when you have a young quarter by any quarterback, really,

(01:28:39):
you know, there's that idea that I gotta do more
than I'm really capable of doing, and just sort of
keeping an even level. Look, we get down seven, nothing,
we get down fourteen, it doesn't matter. It's early in
the game. Keep your head, just execute what we ask
you to do, and we'll see how this all plays out.
So big drive for the Eagles, big drive for the
forty niners. I mean enough, but again, the Fred Warner injury.

(01:29:02):
We're just waiting there. There a the time out in
the game. Eagles now have the ball at their own
forty five yard line. You know, just getting back to
Jalen Hurts just quickly here and the dynamic of and
we talked about these legendary teams that have dominated decades
and that whole dynamic of a quarterback with a coach.

(01:29:23):
I mean it goes back to Otto Graham with Paul Brown,
or a Lombardi with a bart Star Brad Show in
the Montana Walsh, all of these, right, Brady Belichick. Um, again,
since you know Sirianni, what do you think that he
thinks it hurts? I mean, I we I mean we
see Hurts this game. We don't know him on a

(01:29:45):
personal level, but you know, Sirianni, what is what do
you think he needs? Uh to gain a trust in
a quarterback? To deliver what they're doing right now. Well,
I mean explained to me exactly what you're asking, Like, so,
what what he needs? What he needs to do? What
do you think it is about hurts game that clicks

(01:30:05):
with Sirianny. Okay, yeah, listen. I mean, first of all,
you need to just look at the position of quarterback
a little bit differently than a lot of coordinators want to.
I think I think it was with you that I
one time, UM was a part of an interview where
Wade Phillips came onto my show, and I believe it
was you might have been a different co host, but

(01:30:26):
Wade was great and we asked him about you know, look,
there are certain players when they get into certain systems,
it just doesn't click, you know, and and you know,
and sometimes it's a great system and you have this
great player and they just can't seem to make it work.
And Philips sort of cut cut me off and goes, no, no, no, no, no,

(01:30:47):
listen here, listen here. If you have a great system
where a great player can't be great in your system,
you have a bad system. So that's what near Sirianni
has done with Jalen Hurts. Jellan it's his I mean,
I mean objectively a great college football player. I mean,
he's just been sensational at two different football programs, led

(01:31:08):
by two different head coaches and two completely different schemes.
Both of those coaches at the college level found ways
to utilize his talents, and then when he went to
the Eagles, Nick Sirianni did the same thing. The testament
to a great coach is seeing the talent in your
players and formulating a system to enhance those talents. And
that's exactly what Sirianni did in Philadelphia. All Right, a

(01:31:29):
third and aid past, did a J. Brown catch this pass? Wow?
So the forty Niners are bringing the blitz on third
and eight and a J. Brown, Oh, he caught that ball. Wow.
What a catch by a J. Brown. That's gonna give
the Eagles a first down. They're into forty Niners territory.

(01:31:50):
All right, we're just getting started with this NFC Championship game.
We're gonna bring you all the updates as they happen.
This is Fox Sports Red Zone Radio. This is Fox
Red Zone Radio, and we've got the place that you
may have missed on the second thou but give goes
to Sanders father Fickgards Eagles plea. Now back live to

(01:32:20):
the studios of Fox Sports Radio. This is Fox Red
Zone Radio. Well that's ninety four w i P Eagles
Radio Network. And just like that, the Eagles are up
seven nothing in the NFC Championship game against the forty
nine six yard run by Miles Sanders for the score.

(01:32:42):
Welcome back. This is Fox Sports Red Zone Radio live
from the tire rack dot Com studios. Now, that score
was set up by a spectacular one hand grabbed by
Davante Smith yard pass play. But after several replays, it
is clear that when he hit the ground, the ball
hit the ground, it should have been ruled an incomplete pass.

(01:33:07):
They missed it, and the Eagles took advantage and they
get into the end zone. Here Rich, Yeah, listen, it's
death taxes and the sports world still trying to figure
out what a catches. And these are going to be
lasting debates that, I mean, we just will not never
have a firm ground to stand on in terms of

(01:33:30):
what is a catch, what is in a catch? I mean,
Philadelphia fans are gonna tell you that's a catch all
day long. Do they really feel that way or they
motivated by bias, you know, everybody else kind of feels
like it wasn't. But it's just how how could we
possibly get through today without at least one controversial call

(01:33:50):
or no call. It happened in the opening drive, well,
regardless of that play, and it was a spectacular catch attempt,
let's put it that way by Devonte Smith. They ruled
a twenty nine yard reception. Uh, the way the Eagles
were able to run their offense and then literally a
walk in six yard touchdown run by Miles Sanders. They

(01:34:12):
just blew a hole right through the middle of that
forty niner defense and he walked into the end zone. Um,
that's not gonna work for San Francisco. No, Well, get
used to seeing a lot of the Eagles offense going
right over the middle of the forty Niners defense. And
I mean in the passing game and the run game.
With Fred Water out of the game, depending on what

(01:34:32):
his status is, and we still don't have any update there, Um,
this is going to be a porous middle of the field.
He is an incredible asset for this forty Niners defense
and so without them, they have a weakness. And it's
gonna be between the hashes. Well, right now, the forty
Niners are moving the ball. In fact, they just picked
up a second first down, so they're looking very much

(01:34:55):
like Philadelphia did. Um so much for our prediction for
the under in this game. I mean, wow, both these
offenses are looking really, really good. And you're also reminded
of the talent you know, when you watch on that
first drive for the Eagles, we mentioned A J. Brown
made a spectacular catch for the first down. Then Devonte
Smith just ridiculous with that one hand grab, and then

(01:35:17):
you know, we talked about Christian McCaffrey and what he
brings to this forty Niners offense. Uh, we talked about,
you know, what is the future for quarterback for the
forty Niners if we were up to George Kittle guarantee
he wrote for Brock Purty. I mean, that has been
a magical combination ever since Party became quarterback of the

(01:35:39):
forty Niners. Not the Kittle wasn't already a Pro Bowl
tight end, but his game has gone next level since
Partie became the quarterback. Well, what's a quarterback's best friend.
It's his It's his tight end. You know, A pass
catching tight end can really be an asset for a
guy who is, you know, looking to find shore handed

(01:36:02):
receptions in the passing game. And that's what George Kittle presents.
And and by the way, George Kittle isn't just limited
to being a receiver like Travis Kelsey for example. He
it's like having an extra offensive tackle on the line
of scrimmage because like you just saw, they'll run his way.
George Kittle aligned to the right and out of the backfield.

(01:36:25):
The forty Niners run a play right over him, and
and they do that all season. Whoa, we have a
tip pass near interception by the Eagles. Perny's arm was
hit as he threw the ball, the ball was up
in the air, and Eagles just missed an interception there. Rich, Yeah,
you had you had a situation where it was actually

(01:36:46):
George Kittle. Giving him all this credit for being a
great blocker in the run game and an extra offensive lineman.
He gives up the pressure in the play action pass
and his arm was hit as he threw and the
ball was yearly intercepted. You see this off of off
of that right side, and um, yeah, look this Eagle's
pass rush. He's just I mean, this is a real group,

(01:37:10):
and everybody talks about Nick Bosa, nobody talks about Hassan Reddick.
That guy has had one of the quietest sixteen and
a half sacks seasons you've ever heard of. Sixteen and
a half sacks. Nobody talks about Reddick, but he's been
wreaking havoc um for the Eagles defensively all season long. Now,
that wasn't him on that play, but he's gonna get
his I can promise you all right. So third and

(01:37:32):
six right now at midfield for the forty Niners again,
they're moving the ball. Well, that was the first hiccup
in their offense. It was Reddick, by the way, who
got that pressure on. Yeah, he came blasting through and
that was very fortunate for the forty Niners that that
ball was not intercepted. So right now, seven in the
first quarter, we got a time out and the forty

(01:37:53):
Niners facing a third and six um con Shanahan by
the way, that's a time out to determine whether or
not he fumbled the ball forward. Okay, so as I
didn't I didn't hear that part of it, so I
don't know. Again, the interpretation, his arm was going forward,
but the ball to me was already out well, but

(01:38:16):
the ball went forward, so there had to be some
kind of forward movement in his arm for the ball
to actually go forward. Well, if you have a situation
where a quarterback fumbles and the ball is sort of
floating there without possession on his throwing arm and then
he sort of sling shots it forward or catapults it forward,

(01:38:37):
that's a fumble. Because again, if we're going to determine
that a player is, you know, it doesn't have control
the ball to the ground for a cat for a
catch to be a catch, then you have to take
a closer look at whether or not pretty lost possession
of this ball before before it started moving forward. So

(01:39:00):
I mean, they're going to review this over this commercial
break and they're gonna come back and figure it out.
But boil boy, Steve. I'm looking at the replay right
now because I found the clip online. That's a fumble.
That's a fumble. So his hand was smacked by Reddick
as he came off the edge and it looks like
he then batted it forward and the Philadelphia Eagles then recovered.

(01:39:23):
So well, again, after several different reruns of the Davonte
Smith catch. It was clear as he went to the
ground that the ball hit the ground, and yet it
was ruled a catch on the field, which set up
the Eagles touched on. So already early on, some big
decisions made as far as replay is concerned. While we

(01:39:43):
wait for a decision, a reminder were brought to you
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Bundle and save at Progressive dot com. So challenge, what
is the ruling here? Guys on the challenge? I saw

(01:40:07):
the challenge and they what did they rule? Did we
get a ruling on the challenge? The official? I mean
he's still speaking, Oh man, this is a huge play.
I mean if if there's a turnover and then the
Eagles turn around and score and the Eagles it is
a fumble and all said, it's so Reddick on the

(01:40:28):
Plague forced the fumble and the Eagles have the ball back,
So that will be the Eagles ball right now, first
down at their own forty four yard line, already leading
the forty Niners by a score of seven to nothing.
And this is where you know, I'm a little surprised
they ran on first down for no game. I mean,

(01:40:50):
usually when a team suffers a turnover, I'm looking for
a quick strike. You know, when he got a g Brown,
you got Davonte Smith, he got receivers of that caliber. Man,
I'm looking to jump on right there. Let's see if
they're on their heels a little bit. Instead, they ran
the ball for no gain on first down, actually technically
a gain of one. All right, let's find out what's
trending right now is we're watching this NFC Championship game.

(01:41:13):
Month he watching with us. Now, I know you've been
walking around the building with everyone's predictions. Yes, the game
was the consensus. No, No, everybody's all over the place.
So the video's gonna be great. Alright, good. So Rich
and Idol had made it clear we like Eagles and
Chiefs today, right, and I have the exact opposite. I've
got the Niners and I've got the Bengals. Well, based

(01:41:34):
on my track record, you're gonna be scoring big times.
I don't know. I don't have a great track record either,
So we'll see and I like, I think both of
the games are a coin flip. You know, I don't
think it's gonna be a blow out on either side,
so I'm hoping for good games on both both games.
But I do have the Niners and the Bengals. By
the way, on that pretty play, the reason the ball
went forward actually went off his elbow, so it was

(01:41:57):
really weird. So it's arm got hit, ball came loose,
and then his elbow went forward and that's how the
ball went forward. So yeah, that was clearly a fumble,
right right. A little NFL news has come out. The
Dolphins have a new defensive coordinator, Vic Fangio has made
a deal with the Dolphins who Payton No, not anymore.

(01:42:18):
He's it actually is going to make him the NFL's
highest paid coordinator. It's a three year deal with the
fourth We're gonna get into that, yep. And then the
Chargers announced that quarterback Justin Herbert has undergone surgery to
repair a torn labraham in his left shoulder, but he's
expected to be cleared for the off season. No problem
for the activities once they start. And in the NBA,
the Hornets came back to beat the Heat one seventeen

(01:42:40):
was the final score. Back to you guys, Let's see
how this one ends. Well, held, the Eagles did nothing
on that drive, so they are punning the ball away
and that ball is going to be ruled out touch back.
So that's a touch back. So the at the ball
at the five yard line. Good job by the forty

(01:43:01):
and iron defense there. Wow, Vic Fangio. So we had
heard all along that wherever Sean Payton would get hired,
that Vic Fangio would be his defensive coordinator. Now we're
hearing all kinds of roadblocks. Is about anybody signing on
Sean Payton based on the asking price of the Saints,
the kind of salary he's gonna demand, and the kind

(01:43:23):
of control over the organization that he's gonna command. Is
it possible Sean Payton is gonna stay out of the
coaching ranks this year? Well, I mean this has been
my guests, and again this isn't based on anything other
than common sense. Since this whole coaching carousel started with
Sean Payton interviewing with teams, I think the destination that

(01:43:46):
makes the most sense for both Sean Payton and Tom
Brady if they're still interested in working together is in
New Orleans. I mean geographically, Tom Brady is going to
be close to his family in Louisiana. Sean pay is
already under contract with the Saints, and if he delivers Brady,
he could probably get a huge raise with the New

(01:44:06):
Orleans Saints. They've had a top ten defense last year.
They've got Alvin Kamara, they got a LaVey on the outside.
We'll see if Michael Thomas can come back healthy, if
that's even a possibility at this point. Plus they have
a pretty high draft pick in the second round where
they can improve that offense or add to the defense.
I I don't really, I don't really see how any

(01:44:29):
team is gonna be willing to leverage their future to
the tune of two first round picks, which is what
New Orleans has said that they want in order for
any other team to do business, which Sean Payton, plus
the amount of money they're gonna have to pay Sean
Payton in order to take him away from the Saints.
So yeah, that's my best guest. And by the way,
if if Tom Brady goes to New Orleans, that means

(01:44:51):
Tampa Bay is going to be rebuilding that means the
Atlanta Falcons obviously are still rebuilding, the Carolina Panthers who
just hired Frank Reich there in the middle of a rebuild.
And so the New Orleans Saints become automatic favorites to
win the NFC South. And Tom Brady is gonna be
back in the postseason, and so will Sean Payton. Wow.

(01:45:11):
And that's a big game changer though, because again Sean
Payton made it clear where he went, Vic Fangio would
come along as defensive coordinator. It will not happen, as
Vic Fangio now is the defensive coordinator, uh for the
Miami Dolphins. By the way, do you see the story
about Eric b Enemy that several teams want to interview
him not for head coach but for offensive coordinator, which,

(01:45:35):
the last time I check, would be a lateral move. Um,
he's been interviewing for jobs over the last several seasons.
The knock on the enemy, he's just he's not a
good interview for whatever reason. His resume speaks for itself.
Right now. Uh, look at after the whole Frank Reich
situation and screaming foul with Wilkes's representatives and everything that's

(01:45:56):
going around the NFL. It's gonna be a very interesting
offseason as far is coaching vacancies and who fills those vacancies. Well, yeah, listen,
I think it is a worthy complaint for any players who,
you know, look at a locker room that is majority
black and looks at front offices and coaching staffs and

(01:46:17):
see the you know a lot of white faces, and
I I've I've had long discussions. I know you have
to steve with players who feel strongly about this. Former
players who feel strongly about this, hold on. We have
got Josh Johnson in a quarterback right now for the
forty Niners. Oh boy, oh boy. So when Hassan Reddick
made contact with Brock Purty's arm, did he do some damage?

(01:46:39):
Josh Johnson is now in a quarterback for the forty
Niners and Reddick just buried him, absolutely buried him for
a huge loss. So we need to get an update
guys on the condition. Obviously a brock Purty, what's going
on there? Reddick one absolutely unblocked, which is inexcusable, and

(01:47:00):
just bury Josh Johnson for a huge loss. So all
of a sudden, Uh already is questionable to return. Yeah,
So after after that that hit, I guess he got
he got checked out on the sideline and he has
a right elbow injuries, questionable to return. Wow. Okay, so

(01:47:21):
things go from bad to worse right now for the
forty Niners. Is they're facing a third and fifteen and
Josh Johnson is in a quarterback throws a little past
the samuel and that one is there's a flag on
the play. Looks like it's going to be against the
forty Niners before the snaps. So wow, Kyle Shanahan just
standing there like this cannot be happening in the NFC

(01:47:43):
Championship game. Yeah, yeah, I mean this is this is
about as bad as it could be. Obviously the most
um important player on your defense and Fred Warner, and
then to have your starting quarterback where it kind of
felt like for this entire story line you caught lightning
in a bottle. Having a guy as rarely composed as

(01:48:05):
Brock Purdy has seemed to be waiting in the wings
to take over your team absolutely unfathomable to imagine losing
both of them in your first true drives. How about
this on third and twenty, they gave the ball to McCaffrey.
He ran wild for about sixteen yards, still came up short.
So the forty Niners fourth and fourth their own twenty

(01:48:26):
six yards, you're gonna have to punt the ball back.
Purdy is on the sideline still. Um, he's walking around,
he's got his helmet on. But Josh Johnson was in
a quarterback on that drive, and uh wow, this is
uh it's gonna make it tough. Forty Niners defense is
certainly capable though, of holding their own and they're gonna

(01:48:47):
have to keep the Eagles in check. They're just gonna
have to because again, if it's if it's a and
and we were talking about this earlier about can the
forty Niners win this game if Brock Purdy doesn't perform
at a high level. The answer is, yeah, they can.
But the pressure is gonna be on their defense. That's
a lot of pressure against an Eagle's offense that is

(01:49:08):
looking pretty good these days. Yeah. Yeah, you know, I
I've I've listened to a lot of people just have
a variety of opinions about the Philadelphia Eagles over the season.
You know, some people it seemed like they were almost
you know, gaslighting, like they would be like, well I
think the Eagles are overrated. Oh Nick Boss hurt? Yeah,

(01:49:29):
I mean this is going from bad towards They're looking
at his ankle right now, Nick Bosa on a knee
at the sideline. It might be his knee. Actually, yeah,
this is bad. This is real bad. Doesn't mean it's over.
I mean we're we got two minutes to go in
the first quarter right now. Uh. Eagles lead this game
over the forty nine by a score of seven. Nothing

(01:49:50):
if you're just joining us. Brock Party got hit on
a pass play that was resulted in a fumble and
he is out. Um. They are evaluating his situation. Josh
Johnson came in. He is the backup quarterback for the
forty niners these days. And now Nick Boza looking at
his leg. Um. So the Eagles have the ball right now. Uh,

(01:50:13):
and they are going to uh, well they got to
get their offense going as well. Yeah. This is uh,
this is crazy amazing, you know you know what? It
is a reminder though, Rich of when a team wins
a Super Bowl. I mean, it's miraculous, right, yes, so

(01:50:34):
many things have to happen. I mean we saw it
in full fource a year ago with the Rams right
like everything fell into their place. They should have been
playing the NFC Championship game in Green Bay. Instead, the
forty Niners upset Green Bay and the Rams got to
host that NFC Championship game. You know, they made a
couple of key pickups during the season with Odell, Beckham

(01:50:55):
and von Miller paid huge dividends for their team. But
you can look at i mean, any team, no matter
how great they were, in their path to winning is
super Bowl, and you can look at so many things
they dodged during the course of a season to get
to that ultimate goal. Yeah, yeah, I mean it is
like winning the lotto in some ways. Um, you've got

(01:51:18):
to You've got to somehow stay healthy. And it's a
game where one hundred percent of the participants are going
to be injured at some point during the course of
a season. You can't avoid it. Everybody gets hurt. It's
just it's just to what degree and that variety and
that degree of injury determines a lot for your entire season,

(01:51:40):
and who gets hurt, who gets hurt worse? You know,
is it a backup defensive tackle or is it a
starting quarterback? You know, is it a special teamer. Um,
who who gets to a c L or is it
your star receiver? You know it's it's but somebody, excuse me.
Everybody is going to get hurt. It's just to extent
they're going to hurt, get hurt, and how bad they're

(01:52:03):
going to suffer where the team's gonna suffer. So yeah,
it's a war of attrition. And the fact that the
forty Niners have made it this far without having huge
major setbacks outside of the quarterback position, even that's outrageous.
I mean, they've had some injuries on defense, you're on
your third quarterback, who was the last pick in the draft.
By the way, on that punt, Philadelphia was penalized for

(01:52:24):
unnecessary roughness, which is an unnecessary penalty. Uh so they
will start the ball at their own fifteen yard line.
We're keeping her eye on this NFC Championship game. What's
going to be the status of Brock Purty moving forward
in this game? Keep it right here, we'll have the latest.

(01:52:48):
Red Zone Radio, and we've got the place that you
may admits Johnson love the n On second thum Johnson
takes He's back, Riddicks got him again. I love the
fuck for re tell you're long. Now back live to
the studios of Fox Sports Radio. This is Fox Red

(01:53:11):
Zone Radio. Alright, So that's ninety four w i P
Eagles Radio network. That was the sack of Johnson after
he came in to replace Rock Party, who got hurt
earlier in this game. Eagles lead this one by a
score of seven or nothing. You're listening to Fox Sports

(01:53:32):
Red Zone Radio. We're live from the tire rack dot
Com studios and uh wow, Okay, so the Eagles punted
here and the Eagles are getting called for a lot
of penalties here, So there was an illegal use of hands. Yeah, listen,

(01:53:54):
I think a little bit, a little bit. Um, We're
starting to see the officials called a little tighter for
the Eagles because of that Davante Smith reception, which was
a big one if you missed it, twenty nine yards
spectacular one handed reception that after several of you's long

(01:54:14):
after the Eagles had actually got the ball in the
end zone. Uh, the ball clearly hit the ground. It
should have been ruled incomplete. Yeah, yeah, I think it
absolutely should have been. Yeah. I mean, look, can can
the forty Niners put together a drive now that you know. Look,
they've they've faced two major injuries, and we'll see about

(01:54:35):
Nick Bosa, but Purty out questionable for return. Now he's
warming up the sidelines. So we just came to the
end of the first quarter. So after that in uh penalty,
the forty Niners had a first down at the midfield
after a nine yard passed play. Josh Johnson again in
at quarterback. But right now pretty is trying to warm
up on the sidelines. Um, yeah, he's he's throwing the

(01:54:57):
ball on the sideline. He's still I'm mean, he hasn't
left the field. Look, what's odd about this is you
could be too injured to throw a football, or to
throw a football accurately, or to throw a football with
any sort of pace on it and look healthy. Because
I mean, if he sprained the ligament in his elbow
and they determined, hey, listen, like you know, and he

(01:55:18):
has numbness in his fingers or whatever he's going on
with him right now, and they determined, hey, Josh Johnson
gives us the best chance to win this football game
right now, Well, then that's what it has to be.
We'll see if he can get back in the game.
Maybe it's just he got a nerve banged into or
something like that. We'll find out. But yeah, this is um.
This is bad news because Fred Warner out defensively, Brock

(01:55:40):
Purdy out offensively, and then we saw Nick Bosa get
banged up. He was being tended to on the sideline.
Rough start for the forty Niners. I'm reading a lot
on what's going on on Twitter right now, the response
on brock Purty's injury. This one I just read the script.
Rock Party is coming back in and we'll leave the
forty Niners to a win, just adding who is a legend?

(01:56:03):
There you have it said l m a, oh, brock
Party is nervous to go back in. I don't know
if that's the case. If there's one thing you could
say about Brock Bertie, he seems otherworldly composed for a
rookie quarterback. I don't know if he's the most talented
quarterback in the league. As a matter of fact, I
know he isn't um, I don't. I don't know if

(01:56:25):
he's gonna be a good starting quarterback after this season.
He certainly was serviceable when the forty Niners had to
go to their third string guy off the bench. Um
and and maybe better than that, because let's, let's face it,
he's done some things in games where he he he
gives you those wow moments, like wow, that was a
really accurate pass down the sideline in a moment there

(01:56:46):
where they really needed that third down conversion. He's done
those things. So I mean, but I will say this
that the best thing about him is how mature he
seems to be. So if he can get back in
the game, he'll be back in this game. He's not scared.
Somebody said this, the brock Purty lynsanity run is over. Sadly,

(01:57:09):
a lot of people think he's just like Jeremy Lynn.
You know, a couple of weeks he's the hottest ticket
out there. Actually, isn't that a Brian No? That is
that our man? Brian No used that analogy of Yeah,
he called it Lin sanity, which is a great it's
a great Paul and there is a little bit of
that going on here. Like I I again, I mean,
if we're just talking about talent, is brock Purty one

(01:57:32):
of the top tier talents in the NFL, say, best
ten quarterbacks. No, he's not in that conversation. Is he
better than Jimmy Garoppolo? Is he better than Kirk Cousins?
Is he better than Dak Prescott? So if he isn't,
is he is he even a second tier quarterback? You know?
I I again. We we do this with every quarterback,
regardless of how long they've been playing the position, how

(01:57:54):
many starts to have under their belt. We'll see if
brock Purty ends up being one of the better quarterbacks
in the league or if this was sort of a
flash in the pan like Jeremy Lynn with the Knicks.
You realize what we're watching here. Guys were watching the
team battle for a ticket to the Super Bowl, and
they're on their fourth quarterback this year. That is correct,

(01:58:14):
this is their fourth quarterback. Yeah, Lands, Yeah, Jimmy Garoppolo, Yah,
brock Purty. And now we're watching Josh Johnson. What if
Josh Johnson, when's this game today? What if he plays
brock Purty like today and leads him to victory? Is
he in the mix for a chance to be the
starting quarterback of the forty niners? How does that work? No?
Probably not, but I will say this, Um, you may

(01:58:38):
be able to trade Josh Johnson if he's under contract
next season, I have no idea what his contract looks like.
And if he's a free agent this offseason, he may
make himself a boatload of money if he can save
this season for the forty Niners. Well, you and I
know Josh Johnson from his days at U S d uh,
and he's had quite an odyssey obviously to get to
this point. So he's trying to take advantage right out.

(01:59:00):
And he's got the forty Niners in Eagles territory. I'm
not quite sure what I just saw there. He was
spiking the ball as he was getting sacked. They rule
a sack there or what's the ruling? But he had
to get rid of the ball. But once again, uh,
forty Niners are in Eagles territory. They keep replaying the
Davante Smith as it turned out non catch. Every replay

(01:59:22):
clearly shows that ball hit the ground. He was credited
with a twenty nine yard reception that led to the
Eagles one score uh in this game. And that's where
we sit right now, seven nothing Eagles inside fourteen minutes ago.
Right now, in the first half, we've got a second
down situation for the forty Niners. And that's what you hate.
You hate when an officials call or non call. He's

(01:59:44):
gonna be replayed over and over again until especially if
this game comes down to a one score game. Yeah, listen,
Josh Johnson just nearly threw an interception on that last pass.
So I don't know this. This game has gone completely
sideways for the San Francisco forty Niners. I mean, look,
nobody expected this. You can't predict injuries, but that's where

(02:00:08):
we're at. As the second quarters underway, Well, I always
stay I'm openly rooting against Josh Shunson. He once brought
Purty back and keep it air. This is Fox Sports
Red Zone Radio. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports
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(02:00:30):
rolling along on a day in which two teams are
gonna punch their ticket to the Super Bowl. This is
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gonna help get you there an unmatched selection FATS, free shipping, freehood,
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(02:00:50):
com the way tire buying should be. This NFC Championship
game has gotten more interesting by the second. So here's
where we stand right now. Eleven fifteen to go on
the is to have Eagles lead by a score of
seven and nothing. The big play that's set up the
Eagles touchdown should never have happened. Uh. It was a
rule to catch by Davante Smith, but after several reviews

(02:01:12):
it was clear the ball hit the ground, so that
catch should never have actually happened. Meanwhile, brock Purty goes
out with an injury for the forty Niners. But this
forty Niner defense rich has come up big and they
have forced a punt by the Eagles. They were backed
up Jalen Hurts narrowly avoiding getting sacked by Nick Bosa
in the end zone for his safety. So the forty Niners,

(02:01:34):
despite the fact that brock Purdy is out. Josh Johnson
has been under siege uh since he came in a quarterback.
But they're very much in this game because their defense
is stepping up big right now. Oh, this has been
the whole show has been their defense. They're getting nothing
done offensively. And yeah, yeah, I think Nick Bosa whatever

(02:01:57):
is bugging him, he's still grimacing. Is the cameras found
some close ups on him leaving the football field after
that series. Fred Warner's back on the field for the
forty Niners. So we don't know the extent of those injuries,
but but you got guys playing through some stuff right
now defensively to keep stars on the field for the
forty Niners and to keep the wheels on the bus

(02:02:19):
right now, because if it looked like within the first
twenty plays of this game, three of the most impactful
players for the forty Niners may not finish it. So far,
it only looks like they're in jeopardy of losing brock
Purty for the day. Well, our underpick is looking really
good now, Um, all right, let's get back to the
forty Niners. So Josh Johnson his last two pass attempts,

(02:02:42):
I mean, he's getting racked. I mean it just seems
like the Philadelphia front and they're bringing everybody. Um, the
forty Niners just can't keep them off their quarterback. I mean,
party has already been knocked out. We don't know about
his status. Josh Johnson is underseage. So what do you
do offensive? You have the forty Niners to to slow

(02:03:03):
down in any way that eagle defense affront. Yeah, I mean,
if if you're going to have any level of success here, um,
you're gonna need to major in the short pass game.
You're gonna have to stuff the ball up there. You're
gonna have to get the ball out to the sidelines.
You're gonna have to get this defense tired by going

(02:03:23):
on the screen game, which they do, and they get
a big play at a Christian mccasy almost the first down,
first down, but he had a little time there. See
Johnson had enough time to set up that screen. Well
he it's it's not about that. You don't have to
block him for very long on the screen, So you
don't you don't need time on the stream. You're inviting
the rush up field because it clears the first level

(02:03:43):
of the well. Isn't that the forty Niner offense though?
I mean with a Deebo Samu, with a Christian McCaffrey,
a kittle, you don't. I mean, you just get rid
of the ball quickly. Let those guys do all the
work well they can obviously, And that's what they're gonna
get to here. Clearly, Kyle Shanahan's gonna keep this glaim
closer to the line of scrimmage. But they do have
a vertical game, and actually, oddly with brock Purty, they

(02:04:07):
were able to run their vertical game too. That was
one of the more fascinating things about brock Purty is
if you looked at his air yards, how long the
ball travels in the air before it's caught by receivers.
He was one of the most efficient quarterbacks in those
categories because Kyle Shanahan wasn't afraid for him to find

(02:04:27):
his playmakers deeper down the sidelines on certain plays. So
there is a vertical aspect of this forty Niners offense.
But I can promise you they are going to try
to keep this game closer to the line of scrimmage
with Josh Johnson in there. And they did it again
another pass over the middle to McCaffrey for a first down.
Here's the thing about having your fourth quarterback in and

(02:04:47):
Josh Johnson, who by the way, is a veteran quarterback,
He's been everywhere, um offensively, You're looking at each other like, hey,
we could do it with anybody in this offense. I mean,
you get a sense there's a trust in Josh Johnson.
You know, again he's replacing a guy that came out
of nowhere to get him where they are. So I

(02:05:09):
I think, as you know, Josh Johnson sort of settles
into this game. Um, and right now we're seeing it
on this drive as there now inside the twenty five
yard line. Um, it's only gonna pick up the confidence
of this entire offense. Well, I mean, let's explain it
from this standpoint. Um, Look, when you're backup quarterback, the
expectation is you need to work with the first team

(02:05:32):
offense in order to be ready just in case the
starter goes down. So the same way brock party was
getting reps with the starters when Jimmy Garoppolo was the
starting quarterback and Trey Lance had gone down, is the
same way Josh Johnson was getting reps with the starters.
You know. Obviously not as many reps as Brock Purty
when he was the starting quarterback, but he was getting

(02:05:53):
reps with the starters, um at different times, doing during
the course of practice. And so this isn't the first
time he's thrown passes to you know, Christian McCaffrey, it's
not the first time he's thrown passes to Brandon Aiyuk
or George Kiddle or Deebo Samuel. He's worked with these
guys that practice and he's done so for the past
two months while Brock Purdy has been manning the ship

(02:06:14):
at starting quarterback. So yeah, there is there is some
trust here. Now, this defense, this this pass rush is
ferocious from the Philadelphia Eagles, So they're gonna need to
keep him upright and they're gonna get the ball out
of his hands quickly if they're gonna survive this game.
But um, but so far on this drive, it's looking
like they're settling in a little bit, all right, So

(02:06:35):
first town right now for the Eagle forty niners as
they are in Philadelphia territory at the twenty three yard line.
A little play action here and Johnson has to throw
the ball away. Um yeah, I I. You know, we
we talked about Kyle Shanahan, right and you know he's
he gaves gets a lot of respect as an offensive mind.

(02:06:57):
What what greater tests for a coach than having to
go through a multitude of quarterbacks and somehow keeping the
offense upright. Um, you know, if the forty Niners ultimately
win this game, if they were to win a Super Bowl,
I mean, who knows. You were talking earlier about Jimmy
Garoppolo practicing the forty Niners somehow win this game. Is

(02:07:18):
Garoppolo the starting quarterback next week? Do you go back
to a brock party. It's just so many question marks
Right now. Christian McCaffrey is in the end zone touchdown
forty Niners. Woof. He just ran over half of the
Eagles to get into the end zone. Well, yeah, he
is so dynamic with the ball in his hands. It

(02:07:38):
was just an off tackle run play that would have
been good for maybe five yards, but he broke a
tackle at the line of scrimmage. It looked like he
was being up ended. Two yards later, he was able
to shake that tackler as well, and then there was
nothing left behind it and he was able to rumble
for the additional fifteen yards for the score. This is
an incredible individual duel effort by Christian McCaffrey. The crackback

(02:08:03):
block that was supposed to come in and help spring
this run was missed up front, so he made you know,
first contact with a a safety who was trying to
dive out his legs and he was able to leap
over him to get in for the score. That was
just an unbelievable individual effort by Christian McCaffrey, boad Hey,
and we knew he could if he could stay healthy.

(02:08:25):
Remember he's had injuries the last few years of the Panthers.
Could he stay healthy? What kind of dynamic does he
bring to an already loaded offense we have seen in
a full force Christian McCaffrey so far in this game
seven carries fifty five yards. That's about eight yards of
carrying a touchdown. He also has two receptions for eighteen yards.
So just like that, we got eight and a half

(02:08:45):
minutes ago in the half and the Eagles and forty
niners are tied at seven. So let's get back to
the Eagles right now. Right that first drive, let's okay,
let's give credit to a one hand and catch by
Devonte Smith, but over the last you drives they have
eight yards rushing in this game. Miles Sanders has five
carries for twelve yards. Since that six yard touchdown run,

(02:09:06):
he has nothing. Jalen Hurts hasn't been able to run
the ball effectively. What do the Eagles have to do
right now to get their offense going again, Well, they
have to do what makes them special. They need to
get Jalen Hurts loose then he I mean, I was
saying this about the Buffalo Bills last week against the Bengals.
Whenever you're in a situation where you're like, hey, you

(02:09:27):
know the offense is stalling, a little bit, dial up
a planned QB run Because the same with Josh Allen.
Jellen Hurts likes to run the football and he he
gets a lot of confidence going when he runs the
football successfully. So whatever your best first intend QB run
play is dial it up and run it here on
the opening drive from scrimmage and get him loose, you know,

(02:09:49):
get get him out there, you know, get his pads
popping a little bit and give him a little bit
of an ego boost, and then you know, conduct your
offense from there. With the run pass options in game,
essentially threatening the defense like, hey, anytime we want, we
can get jail and Hurts the ball and he can
hurt you. So you're gonna have to respect that option
in order to stop this offense. All Right, we got

(02:10:12):
a time out of the field. So we're gonna come
back and continue our coverage of this NFC Championship game,
plus so look ahead to the a f C Championship
matchup between the Chiefs and the Bengals. Keep it here.
Red Zone Radio, and we've got the plays that you

(02:10:33):
may have missed. Hand off, McCaffrey off the right side,
jumps over Marcus Sap, stop fighting breaks, attack on touchdown
see see two six of Dynamite on that one baby.
Now back live to the studios of Fox Sports Radio.

(02:10:55):
This is Fox Red Zone Radio. Well, that was camb
R forty Niners Radio Network, the McCaffrey run tieing this
game at seven NFC Title game. And by the way,
that was our Progressive play of the day, brought to
by Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes bundling easy and affordable. Get

(02:11:17):
a multi policy discount by combining your motorcycle, RV, boat,
Bundle and say at Progressive dot com. All right, So
the Eagles have the ball right now, we're inside of
four or five minutes ago in the first half, they
went for it on a fourth and one play and

(02:11:40):
got the first down. Rich this idea of shoving somebody forward.
Are you okay with that? I mean, I know it's
the rule and you're allowed to do it because now
in these fourth and short situations, if you have a
quarterback that can move the ball at all, you just
put a couple of people right behind him, he gets
he gets a snap, and they just push them through
for the first down. Is that okay with you? Yeah,

(02:12:01):
I don't have a problem with it. I mean, that's
essentially what what a run play looks like in a
lot of situations where you know, you have a running
back run into the back of an offensive lineman and
then a polling guard kind of helps push the running
back through. It's just it's just formationally set up to
be that way, and it used to be illegal, and

(02:12:22):
they've since either relaxed those rules or they don't call
it anymore. They it's no longer a rule in the game.
I'm I'm fine with it because, let's be honest, it
extends drives and offense is king in football. The reason
why this game is more popular than it ever has been,
or I should say one of the reasons why is

(02:12:42):
because they've opened up the rule book to make it
easier to play offense in the NFL. It doesn't mean
you can have a bad defense and win it all. No,
you gotta have you gotta be able to play defense
as well. But um, but it's definitely an easier game
for the offense. And it's because it's it's more popular
to see long offensive drives and give these quarterbacks in

(02:13:03):
these offensive coordinators opportunities to work. Welcome, I get his
Fox Sports Red Zone Radio we alive from the ti
iraq dot com studios. So the Eagles are facing a
third and short right now. Jalen Hurts in this game's
eleven of seventeen for eighties seven yards, no touchdowns in
a pick. The big staff for him is rushing the
ball four carries for negative one yards. He has not

(02:13:23):
been able to get anything going as far as the
running game is concerned. By the way. Bo Benson, one
of our steam producers here at Fox Sports Radio, who
is a diehard Eagles fan, told me that if the
Eagles are lose this game that Nick Sirianni should be
fired immediately. Yeah, I mean fired. I mean you lose
to a team on their fourth you know string quarterback

(02:13:46):
at home. Uh yeah, he has made a clear Sirianni
should be shown the door if they lose this game. Well,
these are the same Eagles fans who are clamoring for
Andy Reid to get outs died when he was the
head coach of five hundred football team, and he went
to Kansas City and completely rebuilt the Chiefs into what

(02:14:09):
they've become today, which in arguably is a dynasty in
its own right. I mean since he's taken over for
the Chiefs, they've been in the playoffs virtually every year. Wit.
We just got finally a big run Gainville game. Well
right there, Kenneth Gainwell, huge run for the Eagles now,
so they're in forty nine or territory. This is what
we've been waiting for for the Eagles. Where's a running

(02:14:30):
game been rich? Yeah, yeah, this is exactly right. And
they're they're starting to expose the interior run here. Um,
that was just right off of the hip of Jason
Kelly or excuse me, Jason Kelsey, the center for the
Philadelphia Eagles who got up to the second level, got
a key block, and uh, this is what they do. Well,

(02:14:50):
you know when they when the Eagles can run inside
out when they can hurt you inside of the tackles, uh,
and then spread the ball around from there. That's when
they look unstoppable. So they're starting to play a little
bullyball in this drive. All right, we get the two
minute warning right now again, this game is tied at seven,
and the Eagles will have a first down at the
forty niners twenty four yard line. So there's gonna be

(02:15:13):
interesting in a halftime here for Kyle Shanahan and the
forty Niners. Again, we really don't know the extent of
Brock Purty's injury. Um, Josh Johnson has held it together
after a shaky start. Uh. The key here, obviously is
McCaffrey just breaking off an unbelievable touchdown run for twenty
three yards. Um, what do you do? I mean, would

(02:15:35):
you dare bring Purty back if he's not a hundred
percent He's stay with it, Josh Johnson. We don't know
what's gonna happen on this Eagles drive, but they're in
a position now to at least put points on the board.
How would you evaluate the pretty situation if it's the
kind of injury where okay, he's not a hundred percent,
but he could come back in No, no, no, no no,

(02:15:59):
leave him on the side line. I mean unless unless
he can prove through warmups that you know he can
throw the ball effectively and accurately. I would prefer a
one uh fresh Josh Johnson who's had a drive now
to build some confidence before the half over. Uh. You know,

(02:16:19):
I don't know what what what? What percentage point? Are we? Ah?
Is it s on the other side a half time?
Is it? I mean, if Brock Purdy is too hurt
to play in the NFC Championship game, right if he's
on the sideline for two offensive series after leading this
team there after you know, an eight, no or nine
and o start to a season, the then no, yeah,

(02:16:41):
he can't play the rest of this game. Josh Johnson
needs to finish this game. I gotta say, Josh Jnson,
I'm gonna give you a rundown of his career. Since
being a fifth round draft pick in the NFL back
in two thousand and eight, he's played for in order Buccaneers,
forty Niners, the Sacramento Mountain Lions, the Cleveland Browns. Have said, hey, Bengals,
the forty Niners, the Bengals, the Jets, the It's the Bills,
the Ravens, the Giants, Texans, Raiders, Redskins, San Diego Fleet.

(02:17:05):
That was your team, The Lions, the Wildcats, forty Niners, Jets, Ravens, Broncos,
and back to the forty Niners. I'm not making this.
This is this is just this is his He's thirty
six years old and right now he's controlling a team
that's trying to get to the Super Bowl. That's correct,
That's correct. He played for University of San Diego during

(02:17:27):
the Harbaugh years. Correct, when Jim Harball was the coach,
his first coaching job at USD. The Terrero's his quarterback
and he was a great quarterback. By the way, was
Josh Johnson bring back memories of the San Diego Fleet? Yeah,
I was on the broadcast team for the San Diego Fleet. Underscore.
You're in the You're in the Alliance of American Football

(02:17:50):
Broadcast Hall of Fame. That's right. The Alliance of American
Football was an ill fated spring professional league that Josh
Johnson was a first round draft pick in back in
was a yeah, and and it only lasted eight games,
but those were eight spectacular games, and it really did
launch him like like all these spring pro leagues do.

(02:18:13):
It really did kind of restart his NFL career. He
launched back into the league. I believe he signed with
Washington after that, if I'm remembering correctly, and it was
off to the races, being a backup again on pro
teams at the NFL level. So there is room for
spring football from the standpoint of talent can sort of
get revisited. And now after all of that, he's on

(02:18:34):
the field representing a team who could go to the
Super Bowl. You mentioned his Alliance American Football. The next
year he was in the XFL with the l A Wildcats,
and he was the passing rating leader in the NFL. Yeah,
so there, so he can bury leagues. But right now,
at least for the moment, he's going to be the
man that has to figure out a way of late

(02:18:55):
in the forty niners to the Super Bowl. Alright, So
the Eagles right now have the ball. They are at
the twenty three yard line there at a first and ten,
or excuse me, there at the eighteen yard line right now,
and they have resorted to the run and it's working
a little bit better inside the fifteen yard line right now.

(02:19:17):
So at the very least, Eagles are putting themselves in
a position, uh to get a field goal here. How
is Jalen Hurts look to you in this game? Jalen
Hurts looks to me like what Jalen Hurts kind of
typically does at different portions of every game he's ever
played in. I mean, these are kind of the moment

(02:19:40):
where you go, huh, you know, he hasn't really done
anything spectacular yet. Touchdown Eagles. There it is Sanders again,
and they're working that left side right now. Miles Sanders
untouched sales into the end zone and the Eagles retake
the lead. That was the same exact play, by the
way that they ran with gain Well to get that huge, huge,

(02:20:04):
uh gashing run to get them down inside the red
zone earlier play center around. Yeah, Kelsey obviously the best
and the biz at that center position, but untouched, I mean, yeah,
what's what's happening there? So you got a down block
from the left guard, you got an outblock from the
left tackle, and Kelsey wraps around to just take out

(02:20:26):
the front side linebackers. So it's three on three right,
you know. I mean that's easy math if you look
at it. It's just a weak side, single back run.
So the forty niner is going with a light box
because they're fearing the pass in the low red zone.
They say to themselves, Okay, well we can stop the
week side run with just these three guys. While the
Philadelphia Eagles earlier in the drive exposed that with gain well,

(02:20:48):
and then they didn't fix the problem. They ran the
same exact defense against the same exact offense later in
the drive, and the Eagles dialed up the same play
with a different running back in the backfield and le
Sanders trots in for six. Are we gonna see two Kelsey's?
Is this a lock right to Kelsey's in the Hall
of Fame someday? The brothers question, right, Yeah, I think

(02:21:10):
Jason Kelsey for what he's already accomplished as a offensive
lineman in this league, and Travis Kelsey is a shoeing
to be the first ballot guy. I mean, he's just
smashing tight end receiving records. So yeah, both of them,
both of them are in the Hall of Fame if
if you're asking me, By the way, Jason Kelsey was
a sixth round pick got to ask you this question
because you're the Hall of Famer, or I should say,

(02:21:32):
the Hall of Fame. Whiz, are there any sets of
brothers in the Hall of Fame? Brothers in the Hall
of Fame? I know there are his father's sons in
the Hall of Fame, but off the top of my head, no,
I mean, I'll tell you the brothers that should be.
Because Shannon Sharps in the Hall of Fame, I still
don't know why Sterling is not. I mean, to me,

(02:21:54):
he's in the same category with the Terrell Davis is
and you know, guys that had dominant rears over a
short amount of time. To me, he's a Hall of Famer,
should have been the Hall of Fame a long time ago,
and it's still not. But uh so this could be
the first time ever then yeah, wow, So all right,
let's find out a little time out in the field

(02:22:16):
right now after the Eagles take the lead, Let's find
out what's trending right now. Monsey is back alright, So
Moncey were There're more people around the building, and there's
literally thousands of people to work in this building. And
I should have got onto the streets and asked um did.
Was there majority between the Eagles. It was majority Eagles majority,

(02:22:40):
but not by a lot, but it was majority. And
what's trending right now is hashtag rigged. There's a lot
of people upset saying that this is rigged, a lot
of calls that people are not happy with from the
Davante Smith catch, and somebody saying that Miles Sanders was
not good during the season and here he is doing this.
It's totally lee riggs. So right now, hashtag rigged is trending.

(02:23:03):
And it also ties into the Lakers last night because
Lebron James was found on that last play against the Celtics.
Yes he was, and they didn't call it. They went
to overtime. The Lakers lost, So all of that is
connected right now. But hashtag rigged in sports is trending.
People are not happy. The Eagles are beating the forty
Niners fourteen to seven. About nineties seconds to go in
the game, brock Berty is on the sideline. It looks

(02:23:23):
like he's got something on his elbow. Whether it's cooling
his elbow warming it up, I don't know, but he
seems to still be there with this helmet. We may
see him in the second half, but who knows. There
has been no official announcement yet. Josh Johnson is still
in the game for the forty Niners and NBA news.
To no one's surprise, the Clippers have announced that they're
gonna play without Kawhi Leonard and Paul George today against

(02:23:46):
the Calves. No surprise there. Back to you guys, all right, Monty,
you know, I've been looking at this question that Rich
had about brothers. Um, the Matthews brothers close. Bruce Matthews
obviously in the Hall of Fame's brother Clay, who played
forever at linebacker, had been a finalist, but it's not
in the Hall of Fame eventually, the Mannings, I mean,
you know Peyton's obviously is Eli gonna make the Hall

(02:24:10):
of Fame. Um I mentioned the Sharp brothers. I think
they should already be the first. But no, there is
no brother duo currently, but there could be several brother
duos eventually in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Alright, So,
after the Eagles score, the Forts have the ball at
their own twenty five yard line. Who always dangerous Deebo

(02:24:30):
Samuel in the open field, he almost got off to
the races after breaking a tackle. Al right, first down
your own thirty six. So one thing you don't want
to do here if the forty niners is some kind
of unsightly turned And just like that, Josh Johnson fumbles
the ball. As I am literally speaking, you couldn't get
the words out of your mouth. I said. The weather

(02:24:52):
you can't do right now is turn the ball over.
I thought initially he fell on his own fumble and
they are got away to the Eagles. Yeah, that got
away from Josh Johnson as he tried to dive for it.
So it was a snap that hit him in the
hands from the center and shotgun and they were hurrying
to the line of scrimmage. Get this play round. Looks

(02:25:12):
like Reddick actually fell on the ball. So this was
just a snap right to him and we just dropped
the ball. Wow. I literally could not get the words
out I was. I was just saying. And the ball
got kicked as he was trying to dive on the
ball and got kicked away from him. Oh, you can't
let this happen. I mean, this snap was perfect. The

(02:25:34):
center got it right to chest height, it was right
on his hands, and he just never corralled it and
Hassan Reddick, when he was rushing from the left left
side of the defensive formation, got over the right tackle
and was able to die for the football and pulled
away from Josh Johnson's hands. Yeah, dares say that, Uh,

(02:25:55):
Sun Reddick has been the m v P of this
first half. A couple of sacks, box out a quarterback.
I mean, he has been dominant in this game and
now recovers that fumble. So uh, the Eagles now have
the ball and plenty of time here. We got a
minute to go in the first half, Eagles already leading
this game by a score of fourteen to seven. There
at the twenty five yard line with a second and

(02:26:18):
five situation, and again we gotta get back to halftime
decision there. As far as the forty niners and the
quarterback position, I mean, is is brock Purty capable of
coming back? Is this on Josh Johnson? Certainly that blast
play was. Um, I don't know how do you regroup here?
I mean, you gotta stick with Josh Johnson because brock

(02:26:41):
Purty is unhealthy. I said it earlier, I'll say it again.
I mean, if brock Purty is too unhealthy to play
in the NFC Championship game. Through almost the entirety of
the first half. He's too injured to play. And and
if he's not and he's capable of coming back in
do you really want him on the field. I mean,
if he's if he's if he wasn't too hurt, you know,

(02:27:03):
to finish the half like and he just decided to
stay on the sideline. No, it's gotta be Josh. It's
gotta be Josh Johnson at least. And I'm not even
assuming that brock perty isn't hurt. We may find out
that he could have torn a ligament today. We don't
know yet, but yeah, something serious happened in brock Purty
that's keeping him off the field. Otherwise he'd be out there.

(02:27:24):
So the Niners need to figure out how to win
with Josh Johnson has their quarterback. In the second half, well,
then I gotta win with plays like that. They just
you know, Boston Scott came in and and ran the
ball for a loss. Uh And there was a face
mask penalty against the forty Niners on the run. So
we're down to twenty one seconds to go in the

(02:27:44):
first half, and the Eagles have the ball first and
goal right now against his forty Niners defense that is
just trying to hold this thing together as best they can.
They're at the ten yard line right now with twenty
one seconds to go. Uh in the first half. But
the one thing the Eagles have been suddenly able to
do in the last couple of drives is run the

(02:28:06):
ball effectively. And when you got the lead and you
can run the ball, that's a formula for success. And
the Eagles are in the end zone again. Touchdown Philadelphia.
Scott gets in Boston Scott believable. Unbelievable. So again with
the run game, Uh, they've been pounding it up inside

(02:28:26):
and so the Niners sold out to get to the
to close down the run lanes inside and Boston Scott
bounces it and it's a race to the pylon and
he wins. And this is what happens when you control
the game ground game, you control the game. And the
Philadelphia Eagles unquestionably have controlled the ground game in this matchup.

(02:28:48):
And Nick Bosa, I mean, he just collapsed. I mean
he's definitely favoring an injury on one of his legs.
He just didn't look like himself. That was a completely
unathletic maneuver to try to get back outside. And so
the Philadelphia Eagles are now lining up for the two
point attempt. Yeah, I'm not quite sure why they're going

(02:29:09):
for a two point attempt. But the Eagles just called
a time out with sixteen seconds to go in the half,
leading this game by a score of twenty to seven.
What would be the thinking here of going for a
two point conversion? I mean, what are we talking about,
you know, uh, going up? What would be the either
or you're still thirteen or fourteen? I mean, I don't know. Yeah,

(02:29:32):
I listened to some first half. I mean I'm quite
sure what some serious I mean just just kicked the
field goal or the extra point? Rather, in my opinion,
I don't, I don't really, I don't know. Sirianni was
going crazy on the sidelines. I the only thing I
could guess was they wanted to sort of maybe catch
the Niners nappy because they are now they have now
they are going to kick the extra points. I didn't

(02:29:55):
really get it. So yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, so
they're gonna have the extra point attempt, and the attempt
is good. So the Eagles laid twenty one to seven
sixteen seconds to go in the first half. All right,
so you're Kyle Shanahan. You got your fourth string quarterback
in the game. Costly turnover just really made this a
difficult uphill climb. What can you do? What? What do

(02:30:16):
you say? Well, listen, I mean this is a forty
Niners team who has come back in second half throughout
the season with a backup quarterback. I mean that this
isn't the first time they've trailed the game in two scores.
Like we know, a lead like that can evaporate real
quick in the NFL these days, especially when you have
explosive playmakers like Deebo Samuel, Christian McCaffrey, George Kittle. They

(02:30:41):
just need to compose themselves. And I think halftime might
even help Josh Johnson. You know, he may be able
to calm down a little bit. He was just sort
of foisted into action, you know, from wearing his headset
on the sideline. Now he knows you like you know, look,
I'm I'm the starting quarterback for this half. I need
to play the best half of football I possibly can.

(02:31:02):
So he gets an opportunity to recollect himself here in
the locker room. All right, four for seven thirty eight yards.
Those are the numbers for Josh Johnson has also been
sacked a couple of times, so that would be a
net twenty four yards passing with Josh Johnson in the
game earlier, brock Prity was two for two nineteen yards
and a sack That socc of course, resulted in an
elbow injury, which is the reason that he's out of

(02:31:24):
the game right now. Jalen Hurts thirteen and nine seven yards.
Nothing spectacular, negative one yards rushing. But the real difference
over the last couple of drives to the Eagles is
their running game. They're getting that running game going after
the forty Niners did an effective job slowing it down.
All Right, we're gonna come down to uh the halftime here.
We're gonna also get you ready for the game later

(02:31:46):
on today between the Bengals and the Chiefs, which team
will emerge as the a f C champion. For all
the answers keeper right here this Fox Sports Red Zone Radio,
stags Fox rad Zone Radio, and we've got the place
that you may ad miss. Hurts gives it off. Get

(02:32:07):
Sanders five into the end. Tone files Sanders scored a
stuck the touchdown of the game at the second of
his career. In the postseason, Johnson is thrown, he fumbles
the slap, goes down and gets it. That could have
been a disaster. I think he got it. Now the
Eagles say they have let's see that they do they do?

(02:32:30):
Oh my. They go to Scott tries to sweep. He's
at the five. He pushes polar he is and to
Cluck bown. Scott good block by THEO Splint. Now back
live to the studios of Fox Sports Radio. This is
Fox Red Zone Radio. All right, So that was ninety

(02:32:54):
four w i P Eagles Radio Network, a series of
events that led to where we are now. Halftime. Eagles
lead the forty Niners by a score of one to seven.
Welcome back. This is Fox Sports Red Zone Radio. We
are live from the ti iraq dot Com studios. Want
to thank the guys today, starting with I was Sam,
who of course had the the By the way, is

(02:33:17):
anyone picked up on your conspiracy theory about Stetson Bennett
and we debunked that on the air. Okay, so that
was dissected, debunked. It was confits to entertaining spiracy by
your fans, slash Dallas and he was banging on doors
drunk at six am in the morning. That didn't take off.
He tried Montery Belanos of course, doing a brilliant job

(02:33:38):
as she always does, giving us everything happening updated to
the second around the sports world. And of course Ryan
Um who keeps Sam Fit's basically right? Is that part
of your job description here, Ryan, is, you know, an
executive producer here at Fox Sports Radio. I supplied, but
he supplied the payments, so he actually fed me. So

(02:34:00):
thank you. I really do appreciate that was supposed to that. Yeah,
well they and they offered me. You were very generous,
and you're offered to me. You did not offer Monsey. Well,
Monsey just I didn't pay for Moncy. So that's all.
That's what happened here. Yeah, I tried to bribe Ryan
to go to get the sandwiches. So I was like,
I'll pay for years if you go. But you told

(02:34:21):
Monsey you were going to get I just didn't want
to pay for everybody's sandwiches. That's all happened. I won't
thank you on the year. Apparently that put you in
a weird position compromising by the way, she just stormed
out of her studio and she can't believe that. Yeah
she I mean if I were her, I can't find
I'd hit you with the left the building. Now, I
would hit your right upside your head with the phone.

(02:34:42):
Did she get a veggie? I would imagine did she
get the danger witch? Stands met the danger witch? But
watch out, it's spicy, very very good. All right, So
halftime now Eagles lead the forty Niners bay a score, uh,
twenty one to seven. Running game is even. Eagles have

(02:35:04):
sixty nine yards on the ground, the forty Niners have
sixty one. The big difference in this game right now
is simply this um time of possession nineteen minutes for
the Eagles, just eleven for the forty Niners. Also, the
forty Niners have been flagged for six penalties, and they
have a couple of turnovers, so and both those turnovers
led to score. So yeah, it's actually I'm sorry the

(02:35:27):
first turnover did not, but the second one did. So
we're gonna see if the forty Niners can come up
with anything here in the second half. Down several men. Uh,
let's get to the game later on today, Rich though,
between the Bengals and the forty niners. We've talked a
lot about this game early on in the show today,
everyone's you know, uh Burro Head Stadium, the Cincinnati Mayors

(02:35:51):
talking crap right now? Uh you know who's your daddy,
so to speak. Um, this is the Chief's team again.
And I said this earlier. I mean, they can't lose
this game. I you can't lose back to back home
games in the a f C Championship to the Bengals.

(02:36:11):
I mean, the Chiefs are a better team, man for
man than the Bengals are. I'm I'm fully convinced to that.
Andy Reid, hall of Fame coach. A lot of pressure
on the Chiefs today. I mean, I you're irable picking
the Chiefs in this game? Well, hang on it. But
I I mean let me ask play out. Are you
are you said Andy Reid hall of Fame quote coach

(02:36:33):
in in an inqui inquisitive way. Are you are you
questioning whether he's a Hall of fame. He's a Hall
of Fame coach. I mean his resume, you know, but
again he's three and six in conference championship games. Um,
this is the eighteenth time that he has taken a
team to the playoffs. He's won one super Bowl. I'll

(02:36:54):
say this about um, about getting to the playoffs and
then about winning in the playoffs. Yeah, I don't. I
don't think people understand how how how difficult all of
this is, like, like truly how lucky and organized and
talented and cohesive a team has to be to get

(02:37:16):
to the NFL postseason and then to win enough games
to compete for a Super Bowl or even an an
f C R NFC Championship game. It's just insane. The
fact that Andy Reid has represented as a head coach
in this league five times the a f C champion

(02:37:37):
or I should say an entrance an entrance into the
NFC the a f C Championship game five times in
a row is just ridiculous. So I get what you're saying.
It feels like a game they can't lose. But I'm
I'm telling you, even if they do, the Chiefs are
good enough, talented enough to get right back there next season.

(02:37:59):
Because who you were about, I mean the Chargers. I
guess they're on the come, but that's a team that
just always seems to screw things up. At the end
of the season. Um, the Raiders. The Raiders, I mean,
depending on who their quarterback is, they're trading Derek Carr
will see. Uh. You know, the Denver Broncos looked absolutely
dreadful last year and they still haven't named their next

(02:38:20):
head coach. So I get it. I know what you're saying,
and and then saying all that is is sort of
undervaluing how difficult it is for what the Chiefs have
been able to do playing the top of the NFL
schedules because every year they're given it's a herculean task
for them to get through their schedule because they have,
you know, insanely difficult strength. This schueds when they get

(02:38:40):
right back there. So yeah, I have a lot of
faith in the Chiefs today. But even if they lose
today to the Bengals, I still have a lot of
faith in the Chiefs as a franchise to get right
back into this spot next year. Well, five straight appearances
in the a f C Championship Game is impressive, but
they still have a ways to go. Believe it or not,
the Patriots are in the sc championship Game eight straight years.

(02:39:02):
From eight straight years in the champion that's that. That
is really unbelievable. But yeah, um, so a ways to go.
We'll see how that game plays out. Um. As far
as Joe Burrow, though, is concerned if he were to,

(02:39:22):
I mean, his star power is already immense. Where does
Joe burrow star power go if he actually lad the
Bengals to their first ever Super Bowl championship? Oh? I
mean look as it stands right now, is he a
bigger star than Mahomes if he does that? No? I
don't think so. Because would you would you put Patrick

(02:39:43):
Mahomes in the Hall of Fame today if he decided
to retire the most likely yes, you know, appearances in
the conference championship game? Would you do that with Joe Burrow?
The answer is definitely not yet. So even and even
if you want a super Bowl, it's just too short
of a sample size. Even though it would be a
short sample size, you could make the argument for Mahomes,
you couldn't make it with Joe Burrow. So does he

(02:40:05):
surpass him as a superstar in this league? No? But
what I will say is Joe Burrow might be the
most composed and cool and confident quarterback we've ever seen
since Joe Nameth. I mean, he is otherworldly in terms
of his confidence in himself. Has brock Party started his
final game as a quarterback, it is very very possible,

(02:40:27):
very possible. For much more, keep it here. That's his
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