Fox Football Sunday: Mike Harmon, Bucky Brooks, & Andy Furman talk NFL Week 17, Caleb Williams, and So Much More!

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio radio readings of Welcome
In Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Mike Harmon alongside Bucky Brooks Andy Furman with you here
live and in living color. Here from the tire rack
dot Com studios tyrack dot com. We'll help you get
there an on match selection, fast free shipping, free road
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Speaker 1 (00:26):
The way tire buying.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Should be Mason Rudolph, mac Jones, Kenny Pickett, Cooper Rush,
Tyler Huntley, Stupe Unley, dtr Joe Flacco, Drew Locke, Aidan O'Connell,
Spencer Rattler. We've got a veritable who's who of quarterbacks
running out there today. You know, you can't tell the
players without a scorecard. You might need one of those,

(00:49):
but it doesn't matter because we only have twenty six
games left in this beautiful NFL season, and because the
schedule makers are so magnanimous or uh, sometimes just want
to test your patients. Six games already in the book
Welcome In, Mike Harmon alongside Bucky Brooks, Andy Furman with
you at Andy Furman, FSR at Bucky Brooks in the

(01:09):
Twitter verse, as we get ready for another week. Great
holiday run fellas, the the happy Honukkah, Merry Christmas, all
of that.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
It's not too late for that, is it.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
I know folks want to just move on to the
next thing, get the trees out and get into Valentine's
Day decorations. But I'm not ready yet. I'm not ready.
What's going on, fellas that No, people were a little
nicer the last couple of weeks. How about we keep
that going.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
I'm ready for the fourth of July.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
When you kid, wow, I mean you are. You have
the witten Tree mix over there.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
I haven't seen the sun in three months. Well, you've
got to get out of your basement. That might be there.
But I did hear you were singing quite a bit
this thing.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
I come in and I'm making a cup of coffee,
and I got the dulcent tones of Andy Ferman. I
thought we'd maybe help give you a prompt if you
want to keep going.

Speaker 3 (02:06):
Oh Abba abba abba, Yeah, Fernando, there it is.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
See. Oh it's another beautiful day here at Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
It's a Fox Football Sunday. Oh, I mean you were singing, Fernando.
I'm like, all right, let's get him actually into the
tune and get it going.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
And you know, I have.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
A beautiful Aba sweater that I wear around the holidays. Yeah,
based on the holiday holiday holiday merch that they offer.
My kids being half Swedish, so you know, we celebrate
their homeland, my my ex and her Swedish heritage, so
we get into that a bit. I make the glug.
I can't ship it though they get mad at me.

(02:47):
It's like there's is there alcohol in here? And I
can't look at him because the guys giving me the
piercing eyes.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
So I can't ship it.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
Guys, you're gonna have to show up and drink it
with me in person at some point with the school.
But yeah, a very active week of football action all
over the place, including three games yesterday in the midst
of the bowl season. And let's just start there, the lamentation,

(03:14):
the overlap and you know, meaningless people are declaring bowl
games dead for a long time. Now we're just in
the next iteration of it. All right, we've expanded the
playoffs and we still have guys fired up. But I
wanted to start and maybe you guys have touched on it.
You'll find the podcast of their conversations of the last
two hours, new Man tagging in new affiliates coming in

(03:38):
the cam Ward situation. You got people all up in
arms that a guy plays a half and then he
does a Queen's wave and taps out. And for me,
I'm at the point where every extra minute we get
of guys shining on the collegiate stage, however we get it,
I'm just gonna celebrate it because it is a moving environment,

(03:58):
a changing environment, and whatever you thought you knew and
loved about college football college athletics in general, you need
to pivot and you need to be very mobile because
year to year it is changing fellas. So I can't
fault guys on their business strategies. And I can't believe
any of that happens in a vacuum without a coach

(04:19):
having a heads up and what for before all of
that comes to fruition, Bucky Brooks, I think you're nod
in an agreement with me.

Speaker 4 (04:29):
Well, yeah, man, Look I've viewed this, and I viewed
these bowl games as nothing more than preseason games. Like
we review those, they're exhibition games. And if you don't
have anything on the line, like major stakes, not saying
that it's meaningless, but it's not.

Speaker 5 (04:44):
In the college football playoff.

Speaker 4 (04:46):
Yeah, I mean, you do your due diligence, you play,
and then you get out the fact that cam Ward
even showed up and played.

Speaker 5 (04:52):
He suited up and gave us a half.

Speaker 4 (04:54):
Look, that's more than you can bargain for the fact
that Shaduor Sanders and Travis Hunter played in their bowl game.

Speaker 5 (05:00):
That's more than you bargained for when you are.

Speaker 4 (05:02):
Already off to the next level, like one foot already
in the NFL these bowl games. Nah, you shut it,
So I don't have anything, like I know. There was
a lot of outrage and consternation the fact that he
didn't play. I'm like, well, what about all the guys
that sit out. Amarion Hampton didn't play for the tar Heels.
There are a ton of NFL prospects that aren't playing
in bowl games. So I don't understand why someone who

(05:23):
suited up and played is receiving criticism.

Speaker 5 (05:26):
Doesn't make sense to me.

Speaker 3 (05:28):
First of all, mister Brooks, let me just say this.
You talk about Hunter and Sanders play for Colorado, you
know why because the school took out the largest insurance
policy on God's Green Earth that's number That's why I played.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
They had nothing to lose. Number one.

Speaker 3 (05:40):
Number two, Bowl games are good for two people and
two people only two groups of people. Number one college coaches.
It saves their rear end because if they win six
plus games, they go to a bowl game and they
probably won't get fired. And also favors and people who
look enjoy it gamblers. Gamblers and coaches are the only
two groups of people that care about bowl games on

(06:00):
this day.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
That's it. Oh, the numbers will bear it out.

Speaker 2 (06:03):
I mean enough folks maybe in the sedentary mood after
maybe sending their families pack you there.

Speaker 1 (06:09):
You go, you get a standing ovation. Thank you for
standing ovation for that one. A well, look we could
do karaoke another time, all right, but look, and there's
plenty in the it.

Speaker 2 (06:21):
Look Mark's gonna get in his bag now. You got
him grinned in from year to year. He's like, let's go.
But the gamblers, certainly, it makes it a little more
difficult and challenging again going to the quarterbacks that I
listed off that'll be starting games in the NFL later,
trying to figure out who the hell is actually showing
up on the field.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
As part of it.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
Part of your analysis and algorithm is how many guys
have entered the portal. Let's see, even then it really
doesn't matter. We talked about fran Brown getting the victory
for Syracuse.

Speaker 1 (06:50):
How many the portal hypocrite?

Speaker 2 (06:53):
Well, how many guys entered the portal that he took
to make the winning team that he had there in Miami?

Speaker 3 (06:59):
Let alone, let alone his own moving around from George
Mason to Miami. Why did he go money Greenbacks?

Speaker 1 (07:05):
All right?

Speaker 3 (07:06):
Guilt, So you can't let your guys go for more guilty.
They made a name for themselves in twenty twenty three
by going to the final four. They're worth something, so
pay him. They didn't pay them, They went somewhere else.

Speaker 1 (07:19):
Actually done. Yeah, see how it all ties together.

Speaker 2 (07:22):
But also, guys that he got it, He got rich
in the transfer portal to their bucky. So but that's
the nature of the business at this point, it.

Speaker 5 (07:30):
Is nature of the business.

Speaker 4 (07:31):
I can understand this frustration and look, I get it,
and I've been one of the main proponents. Like, look,
coaches can always leave, they can chase the highest dollar
that you know, bang for you buck all the other
stuff and players. But as a coach. I can't understand
the frustration in having to see your roster change over
and over and over again, Like there is just something

(07:52):
unsettling about it. And if we want a minor league football,
he wanted minor league basketball, like just say it. But
it's hidden behind this guise of college athletics, which makes
it crazy because all of the things that we've heard
for so long, like student athlete and all this other stuff,
like it's just out the window. And so it's just
this changing world that is just completely topsy turvy.

Speaker 5 (08:17):
Right in front of our eyes.

Speaker 4 (08:17):
I can understand an older coach who grew up in
one way, in one system, struggling to adapt to the
new world that we're living here right now.

Speaker 2 (08:26):
Well, you have to add all sorts of layers of
management looking at it. We're talking about general managers becoming
the norm, right, Andrew Luck being hired at Stanford in
that role, and so many other teams starting to look
at it from the basketball like it's extra layers of administration.
It's extra people that you have to hold accountable for
their portion, and you're trying to figure out what that is.

(08:49):
And each university is going through the process and either
welcoming it or still holding it off at arm's length,
depending on where you're at right. You know, I'm a
Northwest this should have been for them. Look, they've got
all sorts of other issues, and we'll will lead a
lot of the politics to the side. I'll just talk
about it from the athletic standpoint. This should have been

(09:10):
a situation whereby they had a competitive advantage, very deep
pockets running all over the place, media, politics, in every
walk of life. You've got Northwestern grads and the ability
to go tap into those dollars. And for football, I mean,
you had a coach stand up and go, hey, we
got all these guys here, how many dollars of nil zero?

Speaker 1 (09:32):
Like no, no.

Speaker 2 (09:34):
That means that you didn't go out And now they've
gotten a couple of transfers and they've gotten some other
things that have worked out here. But it's a curiosity
of you know, being a late adopter versus you know,
first to the table as the rules are trying to
be written.

Speaker 3 (09:49):
I'm glad you brought up I'm glad you went to Northwest,
and I'll tell you why, because Northwestern is a school
that is on par with them.

Speaker 1 (09:55):
Any IVY league school in the country.

Speaker 3 (09:57):
How in the hell can a kid transfer from school
a BOC to Northwestern and be eligible. That's what I
don't know. Wow, and forget about the transferring. I mean
I get it. I mean you can't fight the portal situation,
but where are the presidents to come out there and say, Look,
when I was in college and I was thinking of
transferring for a different major after my sophomore year, I
was told I have to lose twenty or thirty credits, So.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
I'm not doing it. I'm not going to transfer. Now,
how do these kids? How do they do it?

Speaker 2 (10:22):
Guys go to three four different schools. How is that possible?
You have a royal sampler degree. Look at what they'd
cite as guys majors anymore. They're just jumbling words together.
It's like getting ai, Hey, he did these classes? Come
up with a creative word for his degree? And again

(10:45):
you're taking class work in theory. And that's that's the
larger part. Right as you mentioned Bucky, the term student athlete,
we're throwing that out the window, like.

Speaker 1 (10:54):
I've got this athlete student now.

Speaker 2 (10:55):
Yeah, it's and look it always was, let's not be
coy about it. But they at least we had the charade,
and some schools you know, defined it more rigorously than others.
But certainly there's always been a slippery slope to that.
But look, I've got a kid that's, you know, in
her beginning her second year of junior college stuff, and

(11:17):
almost weekly she's checking in with schools that she's looking
to for nursing and whatever to make sure those credits
are gonna be worthwhile. Right, Hey, I'm taking this chemistry class.
Is this gonna count or are you guys adjusting your curriculum?
I'm taking this class. Is this gonna count towards you?
And she's got a grid up like she's she's got

(11:37):
those whole matrix of stuff.

Speaker 3 (11:39):
Eventually, but if she was an athlete, they wouldn't care.
She wouldn't care about transferring credits they take her.

Speaker 2 (11:45):
But that but that's the larger point to this, is
that it's now minor league and let's just start calling
it what it is.

Speaker 1 (11:53):
Right.

Speaker 2 (11:54):
You brought up the Sanders, Sanders and Hunter and their
insurances or whatever again, all things that have been in place.
This one because it's dionic gets extra publicity. I mean,
guys have had those Lloyds of London and other policies forever.
Now it's just it, Hey, we need to make sure
because they're gonna do the good thing and they're gonna play.

(12:14):
I mean, it's positive spin of hey, they're gonna play.
And then this gets out, it's like, oh yeah, by
the way, yeah, we're protecting them. We're looking out for
our guys. Because that's the other thing you have to
say in all of this is and I'm not saying
it's disingenuous. It's just the idea of hey.

Speaker 1 (12:28):
Look at the extra mile we're going for any of
you that want to question this, you know, for years
and Bucky tested this for years.

Speaker 3 (12:36):
Kids would be recruited, and the questions that kids would
ask the coach in the living room of their home
when the coach is there, how many things will be
on TV?

Speaker 1 (12:44):
Will I start? Basically?

Speaker 3 (12:46):
Maybe what majors do you offer? Okay, right now it's
a different how much money will I get paid? What
are you gonna pay me? And here's the thing. I mean,
I live in the Cincinnati metropolitan area. Okay, Cincinnati is
in that Big twelve conference. Cincinnati, to me will never
ever be able to compete financially to get down IL
athletes as opposed to a school like Colorado with Dion

(13:08):
is there and he's got so many contacts. It's never
gonna happen. I will tell you right here and now.
I will never live to see the University of Cincinnati
win a Big twelve championship in football. Never never happened
because if it comes down to if it comes down
to nil money, they don't have it. They won't have it,
can't have it.

Speaker 5 (13:26):
Yeah, I don't think.

Speaker 4 (13:27):
Look, I think we're going through like a little period
where the transfer portal is popping.

Speaker 5 (13:31):
Where everyone is kind of jumping into it.

Speaker 4 (13:33):
But the more horror stories that we watch like Florida
State where it falls apart, the more people are.

Speaker 5 (13:40):
Going to be less likely to do it.

Speaker 4 (13:41):
And it's going to be what we talked about in
the previous segment, and it's gonna be more of the
draft and developed model, meaning I'm gonna recruit players. I'm
gonna have a basis. The guys that I bring in
are going to be selected just to play a handful
of things. But I'm not gonna completely flip my roster
with transfer guys. It's hard to be or the program
when you have so much turnover and so many people

(14:04):
in and out. And I know people love to kind
of dump on Dabbo because Dabbo was like, look, I'm
not going to live in that world. But I see
value in Dabo's point. It's hard to build a program
and women I mean a program meaning suctained success over
multiple years and just living in the transferporter because every
year you're having to build a new team. There's some
of that, but man, the porter makes it so much more.

(14:27):
It makes it difficult to build a team when everyone
is coming in as mercenaries.

Speaker 1 (14:33):
Bye.

Speaker 2 (14:33):
Talk about building culture, I mean that's one of the
big buzzwords as the Chargers get ready for the playoffs.
We'll get into that as we continue here on Fox
Football Sunday. But just the idea of program building on
either side, right, do you get the long enough leash
if you have a losing season or two? I would say,

(14:56):
you know, on both sides. I agree the draft and process,
but that's assuming you know. Certainly at the NFL level,
we watch the the draft and you might as well
be throwing darts at a board fifty yards away you hit.

Speaker 3 (15:11):
The least is bigger now and I'll tell you why.
In Cincinnati and years past, Scott's Sidefield would have been
fired after a second year.

Speaker 1 (15:17):
He hasn't done anything.

Speaker 3 (15:18):
Okay, but now with the buyouts, they can't afford the
buyas is there.

Speaker 2 (15:22):
Think about that, right, Buck, Money's always there, well, you
can always can always.

Speaker 1 (15:27):
Got its a huge, huge I don't think it happened.

Speaker 5 (15:33):
Go ahead, Yeah, the money, the money.

Speaker 4 (15:35):
The money's gonna be there and stuff like that, and
you can kind of work your way out of some
of it.

Speaker 5 (15:40):
But yeah, you have to. Here's what I'll say.

Speaker 4 (15:43):
Just because your mom gives you one hundred dollars, it
doesn't mean you've got to spend all one hundred dollars
at the same store. And so you got to show
a little discernment on how you choose to spend the money.
What we will see is more people using that because
guess what's going to also happen. Fans are gonna keep
dumping money in to pay for all these players. It's
been cute now, but everyone's not gonna keep giving up

(16:04):
hard earned cash to pay for these players. And so
it's gonna fall onto the university and the revenue sharing model,
which will bring the numbers down some and it will
operate in the system that's more like a salary cap.
In the NFL, that's it as.

Speaker 3 (16:18):
The bucket because they're putting additional moneys on ticket sales
for that money to go to nil fans are paying
for that.

Speaker 1 (16:25):
Well, certain schools have got there are onder that model.

Speaker 4 (16:27):
Yeah, yeah, they've gone to that model, and you're gonna
see some of that. But you're not gonna see like,
hey man, I'm just gonna give a million dollars so
I can get this hot shot quarterback. We're not gonna
continue to see that. Over time, it'll calm itself down.
But yeah, I don't think everyone can live in that world.
I don't think Northwestern or some of these other teams
gonna be like, yeah, we're gonna pay all this money
for sports and be okay with it when their reputation

(16:50):
is about the academics. I just don't.

Speaker 5 (16:52):
I think at some point.

Speaker 4 (16:54):
You're gonna hit the breaking point and people are like,
you know what, we're good. We'll play at a lower level,
or we won't play with the big boys. I think
that is where we're gonna get.

Speaker 2 (17:02):
To tech bubble end of the nineties into the early
two thousands, where everybody's running around and printing, printing cash
on expectation of future earnings and stock option lotteries, and
then reality punches you in the face repeatedly. And I
think some of that here, it's like, you know, you've
got the you've got to try to play in that field,

(17:24):
or at least that's what the ads and coaches are saying.
And the Dabbo model, I think it. My problem with
Dabble was the I'm not going to coach anymore if
these guys are gonna get paid like that was the
quote that was the buddy quote for me, Bucky, not
the hey, I want to do it this way and
whatever the hey I'm walking no, no, no, you got a
very large contract. I'd love to see you walk away

(17:46):
from that. And you talk about a coaching job like
there's a guy I don't think I got enough credit
for what he did after the early struggles that maybe
there's some merit to it as well as you know,
sometimes you need to let things bake in September before
they you.

Speaker 3 (18:01):
Know what, I don't mind the kids getting paid. I
think they should get paid for what they do for
the school. Selling merchandise, getting exposure, increasing enrollment. They do
so many things for the school and the amount of
time and effort they put in and the risk of injury,
they should get paid. But it should be a different situation.
Should be outside people paying them. There should be the school.
The school should cut him a check. That's what should happen.

(18:22):
And you know what goud to. Certain schools may have
more money than others. I get it, but maybe that's
the way it should be.

Speaker 1 (18:27):
I don't.

Speaker 3 (18:27):
I don't want to have Joe Blow, who's a graduate
that crooked down in Miami of Florida. Right that guy
was paying quarterbacks money and he owed the guy money.

Speaker 1 (18:36):
He owed the kid money. He left to go to
Vegas to play quarterback.

Speaker 3 (18:38):
I mean, come on, you cannot have an outside guy
and not check his credentials. Have the school pay. Let
the school cut him a check, put him on the payroll.

Speaker 2 (18:46):
Hey man, as long as that check clears nucky. I mean,
come on, now.

Speaker 4 (18:50):
Yeah, but no, but now, but now when you do that, Okay,
So if we're going to have the schools pay, they
mean somebody else is not going to be able to play.
So all of the other sports that we say that
we love soccer and field hockey and lacrosse and the
non revenue sports, they're not gonna be to be able
to participate because the only two revenue making sports on
most campuses it's basketball and football. So if you pay

(19:13):
all the money to them, then some people are gonna
be left behind. And for me, who enjoys the other
sports man that stuff. So at some point, like we're
gonna kill the golden goose. So we just got to
figure it out.

Speaker 1 (19:27):
And well, how many.

Speaker 3 (19:28):
Field hockey girls paid right now? How many girls they
play field hockey are getting paid?

Speaker 5 (19:32):
None of them? None of them.

Speaker 4 (19:34):
But with Title nine and with some of the other stuff,
you're gonna have to balance it out. You can't pay
one and not pay the other, like you have to
balance these things out. So what they're gonna do is
they're gonna cut sports completely. It's a fun basketball and football.

Speaker 1 (19:47):
Still costs money.

Speaker 5 (19:48):
No one wants to see that, right.

Speaker 4 (19:50):
Yeah, No one wants to see that crazy.

Speaker 2 (19:53):
Am out of fundraising that you have to do. Anybody
want to buy some popcorn at Bucky Brooks at Andy
Furman FSR. It's where you find him in the Twitter verse.
Read Bucky NFL dot com, Foxsports dot Com.

Speaker 1 (20:05):
He's everywhere.

Speaker 2 (20:06):
You've got Andy and the links to his articles that
he posts each and every week as well columnist and
his guest appearances and radio work as well. Both guys
well versed in promoting as well. You find me over
at Swollen Dome. Back at it as we get into
the new year. Smith and I'll be back at it Thursday,

(20:27):
working tomorrow night. I got Dan Byer with me in
seven to eleven. Good thing I was off Thursday. Guys
didn't have me screaming about the Bears potentially getting dumped
repeatedly in a six to three defeat, So that was good.
We'll talk about that as one of the games that well.
It was and for Seattle kept their playoff hopes alive.

(20:48):
And that's where we had next. As we continue here,
it's Fox Football Sunday on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 6 (20:53):
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 iHeartRadio app search FSR
to listen live.

Speaker 1 (21:06):
Hey, welcome back in Fox Football Sunday.

Speaker 2 (21:08):
Here Fox Sports Radio Mike Carmen alongside Bucky brooks Andy
Furman in the end, everybody just wants to play football.

Speaker 1 (21:16):
Let him get on the field and get after it.

Speaker 2 (21:18):
We continued some of the economics of this in the
during during the commercials, Bucky Andy is pretty funny. I
started recounting to our esteemed technical producer Mark and our
guy Shay, our executive producer, a little my history, and
it's like, well, my parents, you know, they made sure
we got our educations and we did, you know, rolling

(21:40):
through and I've got two brothers that do brilliant things.

Speaker 1 (21:44):
And then there's me, uh, Carnival Barki and Marco's yeah,
you're like the magician in the family. Like, there you go.

Speaker 2 (21:54):
So I'm gonna watch me pull a rabbit out of
my hat as we continue here. Hey, shortly after the show,
the podcast goes up. If you missed any of today's
show here Fox Football Sunday, Fox Sports Weekends, be sure
to check it out. Search Fox Sports Radio wherever you
gets podcasts. Be sure to follow, rate and review it.
Tell us how.

Speaker 1 (22:10):
Brilliant we sound here on a beautiful Sunday morning. Again.

Speaker 2 (22:13):
Search Fox Sports Radio wherever you gets podcasts, and you'll
see this show posted right after we get off the air.
So six games already in the book. For this week's fellas,
we actually had a couple of great ones. I mean,
how are the people of of Ohio and Kentucky reacting
to the Hey, there's another life. Even though as a
cat you're normally get you get nine lives, you don't

(22:36):
normally give other teams lives, as the Bengals tried to
do yesterday.

Speaker 1 (22:41):
But you know what's the vibe there this morning?

Speaker 2 (22:43):
Here?

Speaker 1 (22:43):
Andy, you know the vibe is alcohol sales throughout twelve percent.
They're going crazy. How about that tricking the chicken in
the streets.

Speaker 5 (22:50):
It's great.

Speaker 2 (22:51):
He quantified that for me really fast there, Bucky. I
like that he's got his he he's got his feet
on the ground.

Speaker 3 (22:58):
You know, if all the cities I've ever lived, and
this is probably the biggest beer drinking town I've ever
really been, it's amazing. I mean I used to think
like maybe Saint Louis was and Milwaukee, but Cincinnati to me,
it's they bathing beer. It's amazing they really do. And
that the beer has been flowing since the Bengals it
was perfect. Was The game ended about maybe seven thirty
Eastern time, So there's plenty of time till the bars

(23:21):
closed last night. I'm sure people are staggering. The good
news is that people will probably make it to work tomorrow. Well,
they probably take off the week anyway because of New
Year's so you know this hope, this hope in Cincinnati.

Speaker 2 (23:31):
Yeah, that middle of the week, even with the defense
being what it is, Bucky, it didn't look bad.

Speaker 1 (23:37):
It didn't look too big yesterday.

Speaker 2 (23:38):
Now except for a couple of drives, especially one where
it mattered or it really could have mattered for them.
That Marvin Mims catch was great, no question about it.
Sandwich between a couple of defenders, and really it becomes
the exaltation of bo Nicks and what he's been able
to do for that offense in Denver.

Speaker 4 (23:59):
Yeah, Nick continues to be It's like, it's just interesting
to see it kind of all play out in terms
of how bo Knicks has been able to kind of
grow and they want to put more on his plate.
And it's the delicate balance that Sean Payton is kind
of weighing and juggling is Okay, how much do I
put on this plate? How much don't I put on
this plate? What do we want to be? How much

(24:21):
can we push the envelope while protecting him.

Speaker 5 (24:23):
Those are the things that you have.

Speaker 4 (24:24):
To manage when you're dealing with the young quarterback. And
as a Bears fan, I'm sure you can understand that
you would probably like to see a little more management
of Kaylen Williams instead of him throwing it fifty times
and looking like what he looks like at the end
of the year. Some of that is in play, and
so it's the progress and kind of just trying to
do those things, trying to do right by the quarterback
while always trying while also trying to give the team

(24:46):
the best chance to hear.

Speaker 2 (24:46):
Yeah, I'd also like to have a guy that kind
of understands how a clock operates, because Caleb Williams for
as much as I can blast the coaches, and that's
an easy target because one after another empty suits over there,
just like Ryan Poles. That guy's played a lot of
football to have as many gaffes in the final two

(25:07):
minutes of games. I get it, you're in the NFL now,
but he looks utterly confused time and time again in
the final minutes, letting precious clock tick away, Like all right,
be a leader, take control. It's not just because you've
only been there one year. I mean, you know you
don't have a Joe Burrow in your huddle, But then again,
who does? But Andy Furman probably under your opinion.

Speaker 3 (25:29):
Right, we need your opinion on something because me and
me and Bucky went after this before and I said this.

Speaker 1 (25:34):
He thought I was a little crazy for this.

Speaker 3 (25:36):
I think there are people, certainly in life, but I'll
talk about in football. When the guy gets canned, when
the guy gets tossed out the door, his successor comes
in there. And obviously you know that guy, in his
heart of hearts is rooting against that guy. We gave
urban Meyer as an example. He left Jacksonville and they're
still losing.

Speaker 1 (25:53):
You know he's chuckling.

Speaker 3 (25:55):
Okay, let's talk about your Chicago Bears. Did I give
you a lot of credit for rooting for that team
and you love and your passion for it. You're from there,
and I get it. Okay, Chicago's owned for since interim
coach Thomas Brown has replaced fired coach Matt ibra Flus.
You don't think ebra Flus is home choking and saying ha,
I told him that couldn't win. That's the way it is.
I'm sure that's the way it is. And as far
as the Bears are concern, you know, this guy, Caleb

(26:17):
Williams has been sacked sixty seven times. I look at
Joe Burrow, he's been sacked forty four times. All Right,
they don't get it that you have to get the
offensive line. The late Paul Brown told me this once.
He said, it's what's upfront that counts. Okay, do you
know when the Bengals were formed in nineteen sixty eight,
the very first player they picked was an offensive lineman,
a center by the name of Bob Johnson. You gotta

(26:40):
get the offensive line. That's what you gotta do.

Speaker 2 (26:42):
Well, certainly you need the infrastructure, but Bucky Man, I
think you can go into those sixty seven sacks and
Caleb Williams and I'm sure we really evaluate he's responsible
for a lot of them.

Speaker 4 (26:52):
Yes, yes, he's responsible for a lot of And look,
I know people are talking about this being a prime
job and oh you got a general rational talent at
quarterback and those things, and I'll just say, hold on,
wait a minute before we put that on Kayler Williams.
I think he is a lot harder to coach than
people will give it credit for it because the thing
that is easy to coach is someone who is structured

(27:14):
and in rhythm, meaning you know exactly what they're going
to do every time they get to snap. You can
build around it. The person that's hard to coach is
the free lancer, and Caleb Williams is a free lance quarterback.
He wants to extend plays and buy time and do
those things. But it's hard one to have the offensive
line protect when a guy's holding on to the ball

(27:35):
for four or five seconds running around like a chicken
with his head cut off. Two, it's hard to build
in the offense where you're calling plays where you have
these things where hey, you're gonna go at twelve yards
and turn around and the ball is gonna come out
on time. Caleb Williams doesn't operate like that. I think
this is a very difficult job to manage a quarterback
who is such a freestyle player. And I know people

(27:56):
talk about Pat Mahomes and those things, but when we
look at Pat maho Now, Pat Maholmes plays all time
when he needs to, He freelances when it's beneficial for
him and the team late game situations. In those things.
I don't know if Kavid Williams has those clubs in
his bag.

Speaker 2 (28:12):
I think there's two things going on, and certainly from
an organizational standpoint, ce him Punk was a you know,
part of the pregame stuff and the Netflix shows. You know,
whenever I can get wrestling in, I have to because
it sounds like he's been listening to what I've been
ranting about here at Fox Sports Radio for a while.
You've got an ownership and structure going on that is

(28:35):
very tough to run away from. It's like in Dallas,
like with the Jets and so many teams that are around.
Every once in a while you may have that outlier season,
but consistency again, talking about culture and structure. Matt Ipervlus,
I'm sure is just bereft because his defense has disappeared.

Speaker 1 (28:54):
You've seen Stevenson. You know, he is what he is.

Speaker 2 (28:57):
He's made one or two big plays, but otherwise he's
this side of Toast Patterson. Sorry Toast, I had to
bring you into the conversation here, right, No, one of
the legends. That's not but you don't you don't want
that as your nickname. It's really what comes down if
you're a quarterback. You don't want to be toast Brooks. Okay,

(29:17):
you don't need that. But here here's the guy I
want to sight. Right, you got a guy in Cole Kmet.
We can all agree he's a pretty good tight end.
What's the normal rule of thumb when you have a
pass catching tight end in an offense? He is your
rookie quarterback, your journeyman quarterback. He's gonna be your best friend.

(29:39):
He had ten catches in a game against Indianapolis. He's
got thirty five the rest of the year. He's invisible. Right,
He's never seen because you're not working into a down distance.
Get him on, get him over, get him in kind
of sequencing, getting the ball out on time, running sise routes.

(30:01):
All of that's lost, right, it's improvisation. Look at the
biggest plays doing Noonsay or Keenan Allen the last couple
of weeks. They're not they're not designed. That's those guys
keeping plays alive and oh the ball found them. And
I don't want to kill Caleb Williams because they're still
a lot there to grow with. But yeah, structurally, there
there's a lot that needs to be done. So the

(30:22):
patients to deal with the organization and to bring him
along into where he needs to be in terms of rhythm.
And I say that all knowing that the stats look
really good, because that's all everybody's doing, is hey, look
at his overall stats.

Speaker 1 (30:37):
Like, how about you actually watch a damn game and
then tell me what the stats are.

Speaker 3 (30:41):
I'll give you a stat. They've lost ten straight that's
a stat, nicely, ten straight games. That's that's it's embarrassing
in the National Football League to lose ten straight games.

Speaker 5 (30:52):
It is hard.

Speaker 4 (30:53):
And what you have is you have everyone who was
so in because we're in such a time to like
project and put people out there and say these bodacious statements.
So two years ago, people were talking about kaya Williams
if he was in the draft, to be the number
one pick, and so you don't want to move off
those opinions. But when you look at him, like you
should be able to see that he's a flawed quarterback,

(31:13):
not meaning that he can't be good, but you have
to be able to see the flaws from the body
language to the way that he holds onto the ball
too long, Like there are a lot of things there
that you have to break down and fix before he's
going to realize the potential that he dazzled.

Speaker 5 (31:27):
You with at USC.

Speaker 4 (31:29):
I just think it's a hard thing, and I think
the only way that you can help him is by
kind of coaching him hard, much like Sean Payton coach
bow Nick's hard early didn't give him a lot of freedom,
not saying that you have to chewt him out a
little bit on the sideline when he didn't do those things.
He kind of needs that because Kayla Williams right now
is the puppy that peas on the carpet, and if
you don't fix it, he's going to be the dog

(31:50):
that peas on the carpet.

Speaker 1 (31:51):
There you go, there's your quote, cut and print. I
love it all right.

Speaker 2 (31:55):
The other thing I'd liked you for the year twenty
twenty five and hopefully for ever. Can we just kill
the term generational, especially when we're gonna apply it to
someone every.

Speaker 5 (32:05):
Year because Dennis that generational, Annual.

Speaker 2 (32:09):
Hey generational, Trevor Lawrence generational, Caleb Williams generational, Mike Harmon generation.
I mean, all of these things, I mean, they can't
all be true. Maybe that last one is at Bucky
Brooks where you find him on Twitter, Andy Ferman and
Andy Furman FSR. Find me over at Swollen Dome. Hey,

(32:30):
we got a couple of games we still need to
get through. Yes, we celebrate them all here and we
do so on Fox Football Sunday.

Speaker 6 (32:38):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (32:42):
And then that's what you call it callback.

Speaker 2 (32:47):
As we're hearingthe Tirac dot Com, Fox Sports Radio Studios,
the dolcit tones of Andy Furman two Shows Nightly and
Andy Furman FSR. Maybe no cover, no cover, Yeah, but
maybe that becomes the next iteration. We start doing just
random covers of songs, and you're up and we start

(33:08):
promoting a whole new career path alongside here, ancillary income,
new followers, groupies.

Speaker 1 (33:16):
I love it, I love it.

Speaker 2 (33:19):
Stalkers on maybe a bridge too far at Bucky Brooks
and Andy Furman FSR. Hey, guys, we got four games.
Let's get to him. Some of them are dogs a Browns.
Speaking of dogs, the Browns. They started as a two
point favorite Miami at three and a half. It is
a thirty three is the total thirty three TUA With

(33:40):
the hip injury, he was listed as doubtful. That means
we're going deeper into the depth chart here, Fellas, as
we go through, they are winners of five of their
last seven. Still mathematically live Cleveland Dorian Thompson Robinson is
going to get the start. Think of their three wins
on the year Jacksonville, Baltimore and Pittsburgh. Pretty crazy world

(34:02):
that we live in here. You guys want to make
a pick on this game because we got to be
completests here. Oh my goodness, go ahead, Andy.

Speaker 1 (34:09):
I will tell you this.

Speaker 3 (34:10):
I mean, I think the Dolphins, I mean, obviously more
to play for than the Browns, but more than that,
I love when Tyreek Kill came out after Week sixteen
when they win the game. He admitted that time away
from practice affected his timing. Really, even a schmuck like
me could tell you that if you're not going to practice,
you're not gonna get the Carnegie hole.

Speaker 1 (34:26):
That's the way it is, you know.

Speaker 2 (34:28):
Come on, Really, Cleveland worst in the league minus eighteen
turnover differential. Yes, they've supplanted the Raiders, whereas Miami minus
four offense give scoring twenty a game for Miami and
then the Cleveland offense at sixteen point three.

Speaker 1 (34:46):
Yeah, moving on next, Hackers and Vikings. We move on
to that.

Speaker 2 (34:50):
You look at this one also, Minnesota, a narrow one
point favorite. Forty nine is your total Minnesota eighth straight wins.
Aaron Jones up and over a thousand yards, Sam Darnold
obviously the toast of the town Green Bay. Back on
week four, you had a Minnesota win thirty one twenty nine,
but winners of five of six since the bye week

(35:11):
and rolling a long, a great battle here in.

Speaker 1 (35:14):
The NFC North. Bucky Brooks, what do you think?

Speaker 5 (35:19):
M tough? I don't know. I need to think. Can
I pass?

Speaker 6 (35:27):
All right?

Speaker 1 (35:30):
I'll tell you what.

Speaker 3 (35:33):
When it comes down to the least several games of
the season, it's all about playoffs and seedings. So the
Packers are guaranteed to open the playoffs on the road
and the NFC Wildcard. Okay, So obviously the game needs
much more to the Vikings. They're going to the playoffs,
but they have a higher fate win out NFC North
and number one seed is theirs. Okay, so obviously it
means more to them. Vikings games in Minnesota, they wink.

Speaker 4 (35:57):
Andy, you convinced me because your conviction was so strong,
I'm also going to Minnesota.

Speaker 2 (36:01):
There you go, nicely done. And now when it goes wrong,
you can throw him under the bus, as so many
fancy owners have done to me over my many years,
prognosticating there next Falcons that commander. Oh, here we go,
commanders talking Jaden Daniels bow Knicks Rookie of the Year debates.
Last four weeks, he's been outstanding as Daniels looking at

(36:23):
thirty three hundred total passing yards, twenty two touchdowns against
eight picks, and a lot of it. The re reignition
of this offense happened well at the expense of the Bears.
On the other side, Atlanta on Michael Pennix in his
first game eighteen to twenty seven to two oh two,
the interception that goes on him even though it should
go on Kyle Pitts as another example of his failed season.

(36:45):
Either way, b John Robinson's been fantastic leaning on him
twenty two, twenty two, twenty two to twenty six carries
the last four weeks. He's at ninety two or more
rushing yards four straight games, the offense sitting at just
under twenty two points game. Meanwhile, Washington fourth in the
National Football League, putting up twenty eight point eight, gentlemen,

(37:07):
this is a a dandy here in week seventeen, Atlanta's
still fighting with Tampa and the Commanders a three and
a half point favorite.

Speaker 1 (37:17):
Here, Andy, let bucket go.

Speaker 2 (37:19):
I want to buy and you're not going to the island.

Speaker 5 (37:27):
No, no, no, We're good. I got a compelling argument.

Speaker 4 (37:31):
I'm gonna go with the Atlanta Falcons in this one
because this is the moment that they put Michael Pennix
in the game for. They want Michael Pennix to add
more explosiveness to the offense.

Speaker 5 (37:40):
Last week they had the governor on them.

Speaker 4 (37:41):
They were just trying to kind of get him into it.
This week they got to go for broke and so
the explosive play factor. That's why Michael Pennix is the game.
We get a chance to finally see the Falcons operate
at high level because they got the right trigger man
in the game.

Speaker 1 (37:55):
I love it. I love it. I gotta say this though.

Speaker 3 (37:58):
Last week, obviously, jayde Danias had a list minute touchdown
to beat the Eagles for the Commanders, but they still
didn't get the playoff birth. Okay, Atlanta can win the
NFC South with a win at a Tampa Bay loss today.
I know the game is in Washington. It's a big deal.
I know Commanders are ten and five, Falcons eight and seven.
I like the Falcons. I like the Falcons.

Speaker 1 (38:17):
That's it.

Speaker 2 (38:18):
Tampa heavy favorites with Carolina coming to down forty eight
and a half the total there, Tampa minus eight. No
Chuba Hubbard, he's now to the injured reserve. We'll miss
that one. Brooks already on IR. So now we're digging
really deep in the depth chart there. Black Chier going
to get the start there. How about that? As we

(38:38):
talk about the players that you learn their names or
maybe you remember their collegiate careers.

Speaker 1 (38:43):
Next, Lions and forty nine. We finished the slate.

Speaker 2 (38:47):
The Lions three and a half point favorites on the road,
fifty and a half the total.

Speaker 1 (38:53):
This one.

Speaker 2 (38:53):
San Francisco losers five of six. You like to the
better trends. Hey, they're winning in peak. Now they're looking
it up. Guerndo, he's ready to roll. Seventeen or fewer
points scored in all of those five losses by the
forty nine ers. Here for Detroit, you had that big
loss in the ninety point battle against Buffalo, and then

(39:14):
they get right against the Bears, Gibbs making it happen,
and even with the defensive losses still coming up big
for a complete function here, You guys want to make
a pick on this one, Andy.

Speaker 3 (39:27):
Okay, winning out goes the Lions homefield advantage in the
NFC playoffs, but they haven't clinched the North Division. They
like the Lions, and the Lions have but more injuries
than any other team in the NFL.

Speaker 1 (39:36):
I still like the Lions.

Speaker 5 (39:39):
Oh, I like the Lions in the blowout like the
Niners have.

Speaker 1 (39:41):
Blow out.

Speaker 5 (39:42):
Yes, they already.

Speaker 1 (39:43):
Blowout, Fernando blowout.

Speaker 2 (39:45):
Yes, Operation shutdown is what we're calling here, channeling our
old Derek Bell quotes from way back in the day
with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Speaker 1 (39:54):
Hey, Andy, Happy New Year.

Speaker 2 (39:55):
When we talk next, we'll be into twenty twenty five
in the final week of the season, Bucky Brooks, I can.

Speaker 1 (40:00):
Take you next year. Fox.

Speaker 5 (40:03):
There you go.

Speaker 2 (40:06):
Greetings and welcome in another hour Fox Football Sunday.

Speaker 1 (40:09):
Here Fox Sport, it's a radio.

Speaker 2 (40:11):
Six games already in the books in week seventeen of
your National Football League season, championship week for fantasy purposes.

Speaker 1 (40:20):
And I know that's what makes.

Speaker 2 (40:21):
The starting grid of quarterbacks, maybe that much more difficult
to swallow for fans and fantasy owners. Appreciate you giving
us some time this morning on the highways and byways,
maybe returning from Grandma's house, travel snarls, whatever the case
may be. Maybe you're back to your normal routine. However
you're listening, We appreciate it. The four hundred plus affiliates

(40:43):
nationwide the iHeartRadio app carry us wherever you go. Never
too late to give that as an end of year present.
Jumping into twenty twenty five, as we roll forward, we
celebrate all of them. Twenty six games remaining in our
regular season, some still with some playoff implications. With the
well what do we got going? Much like we talked
about with the Bowl games. Last hour and earlier in

(41:06):
the show, Andy and Bucky chopped it up of well,
here's your practices, here's your look at the new blood,
and maybe trying to figure out where you've got some
positional depth as you go through.

Speaker 1 (41:18):
Can't do it alone.

Speaker 2 (41:19):
Got my guy, Bucky Brooks with me at Bucky Brooks
five years in the league working with the Jaguars coach
mentor columnist foxsports dot Com, NFL dot Com, NFL Network.

Speaker 1 (41:29):
You see him everywhere. Hear the work here with us
each week on Fox Sports Radio. Bucky.

Speaker 2 (41:35):
Hopefully it was a good holiday holiday holiday, fun, spirited
hours with Andy this morning and now readying for the
week seventeen.

Speaker 1 (41:43):
Grid.

Speaker 5 (41:46):
Yeah, look, great holiday. I hope you holiday with the kids.

Speaker 4 (41:51):
Look, this is the fun time, right were down to
the stretch run the games matter.

Speaker 5 (41:55):
You're playing meaningfultball.

Speaker 4 (41:56):
The teams that are in postseason contention and the other
ones are playing it out. But man, you love seeing
teams compete when pressures.

Speaker 5 (42:03):
On the mix.

Speaker 2 (42:04):
No, and that's just it, you know. Even yesterday we
had three games, the first one non competitive. But the
story coming out is obviously the culture and the excitement
of the Jim Harbaugh excitation here in Los Angeles, the
billboards before the season and all the excitement now leads
to a playoff berth. It even got Isaac Lohencron to

(42:25):
shave what was really a good looking beard. I think
he cleaned up for the postseason. He's ready. He's got
his business face going on here as we get ready,
we'll here from Ilo in just a little bit. He's
part of the coverage there for the Chargers. You hear
that ninety eight to seven here locally in Los Angeles,
and of course the iHeartRadio app as well, but it's

(42:48):
also in New England, right trying to figure out what
they've got going forward? Does the coach day Is he
on the hot seat? Drake May's looked pretty good in spurts,
but the cupboard fairly bear in terms of how they're operating,
the curiosity of what he did with the starting running
back position, and it's gonna be Antonio Gibson unless it's

(43:09):
not why coach's decision. And then the explanations didn't really
sit well. And so the poison pens that were there
at the end of the Belichick era, boy, they came
out and year one right away for Gerard Mayhew.

Speaker 5 (43:25):
Yeah, and he sent himself up. He walked in sis
some traps.

Speaker 4 (43:27):
He didn't necessarily show accountability all the time when it
came to the blame and where it falls.

Speaker 5 (43:32):
You know, it always falls.

Speaker 4 (43:33):
On the head coach, regardless of whether it's true or not,
it always falls on the head coach. You're responsible for
building the team, you're responsible for leading the team. So
the successive failures hang on you, on you and so
you must be understand that. And for the Patriots, even
though they were in a rebuild, I'll say this, they
look they're not as good as the team that Belichick

(43:53):
finished with that was four and thirteen. They don't look
the same. They're not playing with the same intensity and
execution on defense. Offensively, we knew would be a struggle
with a young quarterback. They don't have the weapons around them.
But this team certainly doesn't look as good as last year.
And what the Crafts have to determine how can they
help dry Mayo Because they went all in on getting

(44:15):
rid of Belichick handed to Mayo, so it's on them
to make sure that Mayo succeeds.

Speaker 5 (44:19):
He was a coach in waiting all of that.

Speaker 4 (44:22):
And I think this is part of a theme that
we're seeing, like the lack of appreciation. Even with the
end season firings. How many of those teams have improved
when we had the midseason firing. None Now, because it's
the guy that you got rid of, it's his program.
It's hard to think that someone's gonna come in and
save the day in the middle of the year. And

(44:43):
all those teams have regressed, and we're seeing it with
the Patriots over time, there would be more of an
appreciation with Bill Belichick the longer he's away from their program,
because what they did was unprecedented, and the Patriots fans
are spoiled as their ownership, and they'll have a great
appreciation for what is gone.

Speaker 1 (45:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (45:00):
What's curious, right is obviously we look in division and
you see the Jets and we talk about Aaron Rodgers.

Speaker 1 (45:06):
Will he come back? What's it look like going forward?

Speaker 2 (45:09):
He's played better, he's played better football the second half
of the season, but it hasn't mattered because everything else
got torpedoed at the loss of as you say, whatever
it was with your coach and Robert Sala. The defense disappeared,
much like they did in Chicago once Eberflus was gone.
And then you fire the offensive coordinator in Chicago and

(45:30):
you promote a guy to a head coaching position who
eighteen days prior was basically the position coach trying to
help Caleb Williams along, and now he's responsible for everything. Yeah,
that's usually a recipe for great successes, and we've watched
it week after week there, but you're excited utterance about
the Aaron Rodgers stuff is interesting to me as you

(45:53):
flow it through. Devontae Adams looks like he's going to
try to play. He has the possibility of catching his
five hundredth pass from from Aaron Rodgers, so he wants
a little bit of that action today. But you know,
all of that just said, you got a team that's
really got to pick a lane as well.

Speaker 5 (46:14):
Yeah, they have to pick a lane.

Speaker 4 (46:15):
And to me, the whole jest thing is fascinating because
I feel like Devantae Adams and Aaron Rodgers are just
playing a two main game, right They're just in it
to pick up all of these notable accomplishments for themselves.

Speaker 5 (46:28):
By the way, I need a team to help us
get these accomplishments for us.

Speaker 2 (46:32):
Let me just look at what Garrett Wilson's said right
during this run. I mean, all the rumors that he'd
legislatut but you look at his numbers. For as good
as he is, he's such an afterthought to what they're
doing right now. And they can't run the football. So
Breece Hall is a wasted talent there as well. So
all of that just as are its empty stats.

Speaker 4 (46:52):
At the end of the day, I know and so
that's the thing. So what do you let with after
this two year experiment with Aaron Rodgers? You got to
pick up a lot of pieces because you fractured a
lot of relationships. You I can't say you've crushed the confidence,
but man, Breeeshall and Garrett Wilson should be your pillar players,
should be the foundational pieces to your offense. And they've

(47:15):
been after thoughts in the offense that has been handed
to Aaron Rodgers.

Speaker 5 (47:19):
There's no way if.

Speaker 4 (47:19):
I'm the Jets, I can bring him back because all
he's going to do is stunt the growth of the
young players that should be stars right now. And yeah,
I just don't like it. I don't like the team
building model they handed it to him. And I understand
like why you would be intrigued by four time MVP,
but man, it just set the franchise back more so
than propelled them.

Speaker 2 (47:38):
For Yeah, think some of it comes down to, you know,
and I heard you and Andy as I was making
my morning coffee and getting ready here shaking the cobwebs
out this morning. You know, as you're looking at the
free agent marketplace right talk a lot about Sam Darnold.
Right now, what else is out there, right, if you're
going to go into the free agency market at the
quarterback position, not exactly talent rich in terms of guys

(48:02):
that can even be bridges, let alone a guy that
you say is your guy, and for the draft, maybe
you find the diamond in the rough. But we got
cam Ward and we got Shador Sanders, and then you
got a lot of question marks and even those guys'
questions about them, and the cam Ward stuff from yesterday
I think is unfair and ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (48:24):
But that's the sight he we're living in. As we
talked about it, I.

Speaker 4 (48:28):
Cannot believe how many people are taking him to task.
It is the craziest thing. And I know where X
everyone has an opinion, has to win. It is the
craziest thing that I've seen. We're going to take him
to task for showing up and playing a half.

Speaker 5 (48:42):
And how could you do that to your team? Man?
And the words of Ricky Waters for who?

Speaker 4 (48:47):
For what?

Speaker 5 (48:49):
Wh Why is he playing?

Speaker 4 (48:51):
Like?

Speaker 5 (48:51):
Why am I playing here?

Speaker 4 (48:53):
I got millions and millions at Steak And no, his
draft position won't be impacted, just like none of the
guys that set out position be impacted. He played, he
gave us a little appetise on what he could be
and then he got out. It was a preseason game exhibition,
just like it's a postseason game exhibition into pollseason.

Speaker 2 (49:10):
And I got to figure that this was the plan,
right and is. I don't think they helped themselves in
the post game. I don't think coach did a really
good job of explaining it. But in the end, it's
all optics and folks are gonna do with what they will.
But it's all of it, right. I mean, we live
in a in a marketplace. We talked about Caleb Williams's

(49:32):
last hour a little bit and what's going on in Chicago.
Folks that want to just live in a vacuum are
just citing the endgame stats of where he's at. Yeah,
they throw interception. Guess what, They've lost ten games in
a row, right. I mean I'm not saying, you know
one cause and cause and effect whatever, But you know,

(49:53):
if all we're gonna do is cite touchdown interception ratios
and where you end up yardage, I mean, how many
you watched that game on Thursday, Bucky? I mean I
saw the shot chart at the end of the game.
I had tears in my eyes. I was laughing so
hard because all during the games, like check check, It
was like John Malkovich in the movie Rounders as he's

(50:14):
sitting there with getting chopped up by check check check,
playing with his oreos before he fires it against the
wall because he realizes what's going on. All it was
was checkdowns and hoping for Yak that you'd find a
scene with another screen pass.

Speaker 1 (50:27):
That's all was. Actually both sides did that for most
of the night. But like those yards, not all yards
count the same. They just don't in terms of impact.

Speaker 5 (50:39):
No they don't.

Speaker 4 (50:40):
And you're right about them not counting the same and
impact and all of that other stuff. It did little
to nothing form and you have to be able to say,
you can't be a box score scout.

Speaker 5 (50:52):
You gotta be able to look at it and see
it for what it is.

Speaker 4 (50:55):
And what I saw was like some nice moments, but
nothing that was like special. And I think we won't special,
Like there's a level of expectation that comes with me
and picked where you picked that.

Speaker 2 (51:07):
Yeah, I mean there's there were a couple of big throws,
and there have been through the year, but you know,
taking it back to the original conversation for cam Ward.
I gotta imagine that was all pre planned. They had
those conversations. Give us what you're gonna give us. But
like folks going, well, you know the game's close down
the line and here down the stretch, why is he
not coming back in.

Speaker 1 (51:25):
It's like because his day was done right.

Speaker 2 (51:28):
I'd rather have that than a guy who's in uniform
and then won't go into a game.

Speaker 1 (51:33):
Here was he played, They had a plan, he sat down.
End of story.

Speaker 5 (51:40):
As simple as that. I don't think.

Speaker 4 (51:41):
I don't think it has to be much more beyond
that when you really think about it, Harmon, because if
he goes and knock on wood, he didn't go in
there and then have some catastrophic happen, then what would
the discourse be? Oh my god, I can't believe he
played like the coach can't put him into second half?
He win the kids life, you can't win.

Speaker 5 (51:59):
And that's why.

Speaker 4 (52:00):
Whatever decision you make, you just have to own it
and stick with it. And that's what the Hurricanes have done.
That's what cam Ward has done. Look, he made it through.

Speaker 5 (52:09):
It's over. Now he's just sitting chill to draft.

Speaker 2 (52:11):
It, getting ready for the draft, Shador Sanders with the
interesting choice of attires and the Giant cleats kind of
dug that. I like the Bravado they went out and
got housed. But all in all, in all, a fantastic
season from all the different metrics that you could possibly
fire up, including the performances of Shador Sanders and Travis

(52:32):
Hunter through the year. Another guy dismissed as it's all
about snaps.

Speaker 4 (52:40):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 2 (52:41):
I mean, it's amazing where we're at right. Tell me
you don't watch football by telling me you don't want.

Speaker 5 (52:47):
To do that.

Speaker 4 (52:48):
That's that's what happens, and that's what's going to continue
to happen.

Speaker 5 (52:53):
Like when you have so many people weighing in so
many voices, just.

Speaker 2 (52:57):
Give it a little bit of time. Actually, I watched
the game every once in a while. I thought the
Shadour Giants cleats were pretty pretty fun though.

Speaker 1 (53:05):
I mean that's a nice little touch to things.

Speaker 5 (53:07):
I mean, nice so touch.

Speaker 4 (53:08):
But all the pressure on the Giants in the g
men I want to go to here. Can it work out?
I don't know, man, it'd be interesting to see what
kind of the fit that would be.

Speaker 5 (53:17):
In terms of New York. Shador Sanders. I mean it
could be interesting.

Speaker 2 (53:23):
I'll say that, well, another place where we're talking about
the infrastructure, right when you talk about Shane, you talk
about Dable, talk about where they are organizationally, Malik Neighbors.
We clearly like Tracy. You know, for as much as
folks lament the loss of Saquon Barkley, Tracy wasn't that
big a slouch for them. Pretty nice fine as a

(53:44):
rookie running back. And how many wins does a running
back really get you? That's one of the great debates
that we're having this year, particularly when it comes to
the MVP discussion for Saquan himself and how much Derrick
Henry's achievements made attract from what folks think about Lamar
Jackson in that category as well. And then you've got

(54:05):
Joe Burrows trying to sneak his way back in after
taking after the Bengals took the month of September off.

Speaker 4 (54:13):
You know, and this is the one criticism that you
have to have of Zach Taylor. The Bengals are one
of those teams that they don't play their guys a
lot in the preseason, and the slow stars that you've
consistently seen from the Bengals, I would say it's a
byproduct of those guys not getting enough like real reps,
and so it takes them a while to acclimate to
the pro game. Will he change that after seeing how

(54:35):
it impacts his team and they have to scrape and
scuffle to get into the postseason. Now, if they get
into the postseason and win a game, it'd be all
or not. Like, Hey, I love it when a playing
comes together.

Speaker 5 (54:44):
Like the A team right there, You go, well, yes,
I just don't.

Speaker 4 (54:51):
I just don't know if they can continue to do it,
because man, you're giving away games at the beginning of
the season.

Speaker 5 (54:55):
You need those games at the end.

Speaker 2 (54:57):
I think he's like one in thirteen or one in fourteen,
you know, some nonsense like that, the first couple of
weeks of the season.

Speaker 1 (55:04):
Yeah, just giving away to an.

Speaker 2 (55:07):
Absolutely acidine at Bucky Brooks where you find them NFL
dot com, Fox Sports dot Com, where you read them,
find me over at Swollen Dome. As we continue, Uh, look,
the middle game, I know we broke down a lot
the Bengals, Uh, certainly in that crazy win against Denver,
but the night Gap also had some interesting U storylines

(55:27):
to flow out of it here in Los Angeles there
you know the old ram and all day, ramit all night.
But the Arizona side is also very interesting because they've
got some decisions to make as well. We'll talk about
all of that and more as we continue here. It's
Fox Football Sunday at Fox Sports Radio. Hey, welcome back in.
It's Fox Football Sunday. Here Fox Sports Radio. Mike Carmon
alongside Bucky Brooks, having a blast with you here week

(55:49):
seventeen of your National Football League season. Six games already
in the books. A couple of good ones and a
couple that congratulations on a job done, playoff implications. Others
were playing out the strings. Guys playing for contracts, trying
to put stuff on tape, Coaches trying to save their jobs,
all of those subplots that we love so much. Other subplots,

(56:10):
the gambling angles. Yeah, coming up at the top of
the hour, seven o'clock Pacific, you've got Countdown to Kickoff,
presented by bet MGM every Sunday morning. They begin ten
am Eastern times, seven o'clock Pacific. It's Brian No, Jeff Schwartz,
and professional better Bill Krachenberger. They've got you covered three
hours before kickoff every Sunday morning, all stories, tales, the good,

(56:32):
the bad, the ugly, lines to watch players in and out.
Today they'll see some interesting prop bets, no question about it,
with some names you haven't heard all season long. Listen
to Countdown to Kickoff, presented by Bet MGM right here,
Fox Sports Radio and of course the iHeart Radio app.
I say that because we ran through it last hour. Bucky,

(56:52):
the grid of quarterbacks, Let's go through the who's who
of the International Football League and strange bedfellows, all those
folks that were complaining a couple of weeks ago, or
maybe tempting the football gods by saying, hey, you know what,
we're nowhere near those number of starting quarterbacks this year.
It's all gone swimmingly Na.

Speaker 5 (57:13):
Not so fast, Yeah, definitely not so fast.

Speaker 4 (57:19):
And I mean you're right, like all the quarterbacks and
the changing and the rearranging of furniture. When it comes
to that position, it look, it's a hard position. It's
hard to build a team around a new quarterback, and
whether they're younger old, i e. The Atlanta Falcons, it's
hard to plug and play unless you have a relationship

(57:39):
or you just happen to have one of those systems
that's easily moldable in terms of being able to mold
it around the quarterback. It's a mollible system that allows
you to do some different things based on the skill
set of the quarterback.

Speaker 2 (57:51):
And of course, because I like chaos, Indianapolis seven and
a half point favorites on the road against the Giants,
there's that Joe Flacco guy again.

Speaker 4 (58:00):
Yeah, he's back, you know, and that'd be interesting to
see what the Cools have to do when it comes
to figuring out or fixing their quarterback situation. Anthony Richardson
hasn't been available enough to fully evaluate what he is
and when he has played, the numbers haven't been great,
you know, like the flash moments, but it kind of

(58:21):
like Goose Gossage, like a great relief you he flashes,
but he can't be a starter, you.

Speaker 2 (58:26):
Know, nicely done. Started his career with the White Sox,
of course, made his bones with the New York Yankees.
Always one of the great stories. Remember I've told you
about the All Century book I have that I've gotten
over the years celebrating baseball. When they did the big
thing at Fenway Park back at the end of the nineties, right,
So I added a bunch of signatures through the years.
You get some great stories. I was at a big

(58:48):
signing up in the Bay Area years ago, and for
whatever reason, the guy who was in charge of licensing
photos and stuff for a collection of athletes from the
Bay Area didn't give the photo release. So these guys
all had names in rosters, but no pictures. Meanwhile, there's
like nine hundred pictures of Pete Rose and Ricky Henderson whatever,

(59:09):
the late great Ricky Henderson. He was the last guy
I added to it. I met him a few months
ago after they'd made the rule change, and I said, hey, Ricky,
these new rules, and he just started laughing like a madman.
I go, Ricky, what are you saying. He goes, oh,
two hundred easy two d They can't throw over, they
can't look at me, the base is bigger, all of

(59:30):
these things. And he got very excitable and he flipped
through the book and you know, had his story for
each of these guys. But I was at the Bay
Area at one point and I go to to get
the uh the signature in and it's Roley Fingers and
he's one of the guys that was not in there
with a photo and he goes, oh, I've never seen
this book, but I've heard about this, and he yells

(59:52):
at the guy that was supposed to take care of that.
He goes get over here and he curses at him,
and everybody starts looking around like, oh, what's going on.
Here goes show me it and it's a giant, full
page picture of Goose gossage for the closers, and he
loses his mind because it's a picture of Goose gossage
instead of.

Speaker 1 (01:00:12):
Just a great just a great moment.

Speaker 5 (01:00:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:00:15):
You know, guys have their pride, man. They want to
be the representation of a position and where you go.
And you know, certainly the quarterback positions what we talk
about in the NFL. A ton and a team that
is kind of at a crossroads as well. A guy
who's already been paid, a guy that has been in
the crosshairs of the poison pens and the acid tongues

(01:00:35):
of our industry is Kyler Murray, who is in the
Nightcap and will forever think about well, maybe owing to
the nineteen eighty classic flash Gordon when he hits McBride
in the side of the helmet it goes up in
the air for a spectacular game ending interception with thirty
seven seconds remaining. But here's the damning stat. Kyler Murray

(01:00:57):
is now thirteen and twenty nine straight up in games
played first and later one in seventeen straight up in
divisional games. Riddle me that, batman.

Speaker 5 (01:01:07):
That's not good.

Speaker 4 (01:01:10):
Be You have to win your division, and if you
can't win within your division, you have no chance. That's
the easiest way to get the golden tickets to the playoffs.
And if you're not good enough in that aspect, problem
matic See.

Speaker 2 (01:01:23):
This goes back to the conversation I think we were
having a little bit before when we talk at sack
totals and trying to give our weight and distribution as
to who gets blamed for what. And nobody's saying that
the Bears or the Cardinals offensive lines are really much
to write home about it all.

Speaker 1 (01:01:41):
However, however, you.

Speaker 2 (01:01:44):
Talk about guys kirk herb Street the other night, questioning
Caleb Williams and his preparation, I want to know who
the source was for that.

Speaker 4 (01:01:54):
That doesn't come out, that doesn't come out the back door,
you know, if you've been Yeah, that's some thing that
came out of the production meeting or something else.

Speaker 5 (01:02:05):
You just don't arbitrarily throw that out there.

Speaker 2 (01:02:07):
Because that was always the criticism and the knock on
Kyler Murray and folks have their running log of game
release dates, video game that is as related to Kyler Murray.

Speaker 1 (01:02:19):
And when he plays well and when he doesn't, So
right or wrong?

Speaker 4 (01:02:22):
So does he play does he play well? Does he
play well when a new game?

Speaker 5 (01:02:26):
Or is he Better's five from it?

Speaker 2 (01:02:27):
Yeah, he's a five hundred quarterback. Seven and nine, there's
seven and nine for the year. Yeah, once it goes
there and his stats go to hell, I guess. But
all of that to say, another lost season seven and
nine and really no level of consistency. And I think
the most damning of it is there's been no development

(01:02:48):
of any continuity with Marvin Harrison Junior.

Speaker 5 (01:02:53):
Yeah, so.

Speaker 4 (01:02:56):
That'd be interesting because the receiver class has been the
rookery receiver class has really been an eye opening because
two of the guys that are playing the best were
like the bottom two guys when it came to the
first and second round. So you have Brian Thomas Junior
who's killing it in Jacksonville, and you have Lad McConkie,

(01:03:17):
who went over one thousand yards the other day against
the Patriots, and man has become an unorthodox wide receiver,
one one that you didn't expect to be the number
one option in the passing game. But yet all he
does each week is get open and catch touchdowns and
make big plays for a charges team that wants to
run the ball. It just makes you look at the

(01:03:39):
position and you're trying to figure out what makes it work.
Malik Nabors has a lot of targets, but the yardage
doesn't necessarily match what you expect.

Speaker 5 (01:03:48):
Marvin Harrison Junior has just been in enigma and I.

Speaker 4 (01:03:50):
Can't figure out why the Cardinals either can't get the
ball to him or did we overrate him in terms
of how good we thought he was going to be
as a general rational talent.

Speaker 1 (01:04:01):
You know, did we get sucked just based on the name.

Speaker 5 (01:04:07):
Maybe they might have helped him.

Speaker 1 (01:04:10):
People were afraid of Oh wait, I didn't say that.

Speaker 5 (01:04:14):
I'm gonna let you say that in the morning.

Speaker 1 (01:04:17):
I'm say how about this.

Speaker 2 (01:04:20):
Lad mcgaughey forty nine first downs on his seventy seven receptions.

Speaker 5 (01:04:27):
That's what you.

Speaker 4 (01:04:27):
Should That's what you get them on yeh production. I
want to see Yeah, get moved the chains, make it happen,
be positive when it comes to the ball going in
his direction, all of those things. When you get that,
you feel great about it. They have to feel good
about where he is. I would say you obviously see
Roma Dunza impacted by a quarterback in old line issues,

(01:04:49):
Moliku neighbors impacted by the quarterback.

Speaker 5 (01:04:53):
Marvin Harrison Junior.

Speaker 4 (01:04:54):
I guess you could say impacted by the quarterback play calling.

Speaker 5 (01:04:59):
Roll whatever.

Speaker 4 (01:05:00):
There are a lot of things that go along with
getting a quarterback, getting a wide receiver loose, and quarterback
play is one of them.

Speaker 2 (01:05:07):
Forgive me if you guys traverse this road in the
first couple hours again, podcasts will be upshade.

Speaker 1 (01:05:14):
I'll have that up for you wherever you go.

Speaker 2 (01:05:15):
But let's go to the winning side of things when
we talk about the Rams and what they're doing. Matthew Stafford,
you know, effusive with praise and coming up with big,
big numbers. But I think again it goes to the
red zone defense and obviously a blocked pat meant so
much in that game that can't be understated as to

(01:05:36):
down distance and how games you know, and execution down
the stretch. But you know, for the Rams young defense, no,
Aaron Donald kept waiting for him. You know, they'd put
up the bat signal and all of a sudden he'd
be rolling around. Week ten or eleven. He hasn't come
back through that door, but getting it done. Kyron Williams
has been fantastic out of the backfield, and Kukin Nakua

(01:05:59):
now opened the door with the route and a miss
on a third down pass play That might be one
of the few times this year like all right, that
didn't work. Otherwise it's been so easy to just call
his number when he's on the field. But what the
Rams have been able to do and just kind of
changing how their identity has been they don't need to

(01:06:19):
fly up and down the field, has been fairly remarkable.
For Sean McVay, a guy who, you know, after a
tough season a couple of years ago, looked like he
was going into the broadcast booth, seems to have been
reinvigorated and ready to reinvent.

Speaker 4 (01:06:33):
Yeah, he's a great coach. And I'm gonna say this,
and I never thought that. Like we talked about the
Shanahans and the Shanahan system, and all of those guys
who would have thought, well, I can't look, I would
say three of them who would have really thought when
you talked about Shanahan and his proteges or disciples, that
we would be talking about.

Speaker 5 (01:06:50):
We revere Sean McVay, Matt.

Speaker 4 (01:06:53):
Lafleur, and Kevin O'Connell perhaps more than we revere cayle Shanahan,
because when you look at their records and you look
at the success and failures in those things, Look, man,
Shanahan isn't.

Speaker 5 (01:07:06):
At the top of that list.

Speaker 4 (01:07:08):
And you can say that these other guys have been
more consistent when it comes to their winning than he has,
and most of us would say that he's had the
more talented.

Speaker 5 (01:07:17):
Rosters of them all. So I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:07:21):
It just shows you, man, good coaches can come from anywhere,
but Sean McVay deserves as flowers.

Speaker 5 (01:07:26):
He is one of the best that I've seen.

Speaker 2 (01:07:27):
Now you have the curiosity, certainly in San Francisco, everybody
trying to trade Shanahan all over the place, which is
got a funny but from a roster perspective, so many
questions that they have to solve. Either guys aging out
walking away. Obviously, we you know, hearts go out to
Trent Williams and his family. But also a guy that

(01:07:48):
we've talked about for two years, is he coming back?
Is he gonna bolster what is otherwise a collection of
average maybe slightly above average offensive lineman to propel them forward?
What do you do with Brock Purdy all of that
your wide receivers. Ayuk was a bust before he got hurt.

Speaker 1 (01:08:03):
After getting the big.

Speaker 2 (01:08:04):
Deal Deebo's contracts up, he finally showed up in the
box score last week in a loss to Miami. Right,
he's been invisible, so like go all the way down
to George. Kittle's not a kid anymore, so you know
he Kyle Shanahan's is the guy out of that quartet
that you mentioned that has the biggest questions going forward
to put the punctuation mark on the rams.

Speaker 1 (01:08:26):
They can achieve this.

Speaker 2 (01:08:27):
I love this getting the NFC West strength to schedule
strength of victory tiebreaker against Seahawks. After that win with
two or two and a half or more wins in
Week seventeen by Minnesota, Buffalo, San Francisco, Washington and Cleveland,
I wonder how many Parlays will be out there for
Ram things, hoping for some convergence of those circumstances.

Speaker 5 (01:08:49):
He Parley, but it looks like they can be able
to get it.

Speaker 4 (01:08:52):
I mean, if we talk about it, and I know
this would probably make herb Street happy, if we do
the eyeball tests.

Speaker 1 (01:09:00):
That's all. Winning doesn't matter anymore.

Speaker 5 (01:09:03):
The Rams.

Speaker 4 (01:09:04):
The Rams are the best team in the NFC West.
They look much better than the Seahawks have looked the
last few weeks.

Speaker 5 (01:09:09):
They're trending the right way. I want to say. They've
won five in a row and they've done.

Speaker 4 (01:09:13):
It without the offense necessarily playing the leading role, which
is kind of crazy.

Speaker 5 (01:09:18):
We always think about the Rams as the high.

Speaker 4 (01:09:20):
Flying Rams and the Sean McVay, but they are really
masses of complimentary football. He's done a great job of
managing the thing dangerous team and with the quarterback that
they have in a single elimination tournament, man, that's not
the team that Detroit wouldn't necessary Well, Detroit wouldn't face
him because they'll be the number four seed, but that's
not a team you necessarily want to face early in

(01:09:41):
the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (01:09:42):
So you're talking about on the AFC side. Suddenly Cincinnati's
staring at you. Their defense stinks. But Batman Batmobile owning
Joe Burrow and those wide receivers. Remember T Higgins still
needs to get paid.

Speaker 4 (01:09:57):
Yeah, So that's that's the other thing too. That's another one.
If you're the Buffalo Bills or the Baltimore Ravens, you
don't necessarily want Cincinnata to get in there because they
either come back to the scene of the crime where
they vanquished the Buffalo Bills a few years ago on
the road, or it's another divisional game. And we've seen
how those divisional games end up though out of the record,

(01:10:21):
it becomes a very difficult and challenging game, regardless of
who is the superior team.

Speaker 2 (01:10:26):
And as much as I love the Chiefs, we know
the history with Joe Burrow there as well at Bucky
Brooks where you find him in the Twitter verse, readomfoxsports
dot com and NFL dot Com find me over at
Swollen Dome. It's time to turn our attention to a
man who's gonna list off nine thousand injured players' names
like he's the Micromachines Pitchman of many years ago. It's

(01:10:48):
our hero, the legend Isaac Lowangron at Isaac Lowancron where
you find him in the Twitter verse, Hiilo, it.

Speaker 7 (01:10:54):
Actually extends to vehicles associated with the NFL, if you
can believe that. That's coming up first, a review of
an exciting Saturday night in the NFL. The Rams beating
the Arizona Cardinals thirteen to nine. Las Akella Weatherspoon the
game saving interception of the end zone with thirty seven
seconds to play. The Rams at ten and six now

(01:11:15):
lead the nine at seven Seahawks for first place in
the NFC West. Before that, the Bengals and Broncos were
tied to twenty four in overtime. Here's Dan hord on WLW.

Speaker 8 (01:11:26):
The Bengals trying to win it from the three yard
line of Denver Burrow looking to throw his pass. It
is cough my T Higgins touchdown. It's o Bengals and
the final playoff spot in the AFC will not be
decided until the final week of the regular season. The

(01:11:48):
Cincinnati Bengals are still alive as Joe Burrow hits T
Higgins front game winning touchdown.

Speaker 7 (01:11:56):
Higgins finished with eleven catches for one thirty one and
three touchdown receptions. Including that when the Broncos had tied
it with eight seconds left in the fourth quarter on
a twenty five yard touchdown pass from Boon Nicks to
Marvin Mims, but they failed to clinch a playoff spot
for the second consecutive week. NBA Saturday Night, Jalen Brunson
scored fifty five in the next one to thirty six

(01:12:16):
one thirty two victory at Washington the Los Angeles Lakers
over the Sacramento Kings one thirty two to one twenty
two in the debut of Sacramento interim head coach Doug Christie. Finally, guys,
back to the NFL and listeners out there, you thought
you had a rough time traveling over Christmas, We'll get this.

(01:12:37):
The Las Vegas Raiders Saturday morning team flight to New
Orleans for today's game against the Saints was delayed, really delayed,
because of mechanical issues.

Speaker 1 (01:12:48):
How delayed were they?

Speaker 7 (01:12:49):
Well, First of all, a new plane had to be
swapped in, so the Raiders did not land in New
Orleans until eleven thirty nine pm Central Time on Saturday night,
twelve hours and twenty one minutes before kickoff. Bucky, did
you ever have an issue like that during your career.

Speaker 4 (01:13:09):
I have not, and I can't imagine that it took
that long to get from Vegas to New Orleans.

Speaker 1 (01:13:14):
Man, it did, it did?

Speaker 2 (01:13:17):
That's crazy. Wow, there you go. Yeah, there's a nice
little extra wrinkle.

Speaker 7 (01:13:22):
By the way, that'll be the plot of Hangover, the
Hangover Part.

Speaker 1 (01:13:25):
Five, by the way, back to you. Oh, that's good.

Speaker 2 (01:13:27):
Let's keep the franchises going and those intellectual properties. Let's
take a look at it. The Raiders are still two
point favorites against the Saints despite the late arrival. Thirty
seven and a half is your total in that one.
Thanks Eilo at Isaac Low and Ground where you find them.
We wrap things up here on a beautiful Fox Football Sunday.

(01:13:49):
Coming up next the dilemma for the Kansas City Chiefs
in week eighteen. We got that and more as we
wrap it up here on Fox Sports Radio. Hey, welcome
back in Fox Football Sunday, Fox Sports Radio, Mike Harmon
alongside Bucky Brooks. Countdown to Kickoff presented by bet MGM.
Coming up at ten minutes, Brian, Jeff and Bill. Have

(01:14:14):
you covered for all the ins and outs, the angles
on what I'm sure has been a chaotic week of
watching line movement as players are in and out, the
injury list continue to grow. Isaac Loew and Karn. We'll
be at the update desk here over the next couple
hours as we get all the inactives listed, Bucky, because.

Speaker 1 (01:14:35):
We're seeing more and more names added to them.

Speaker 2 (01:14:37):
Christian Watson now looking like he's out for that Green
Bay Minnesota tilt. We've talked about the quarterbacks all along,
but one of the fun little pieces of info for
week eighteen, will the Chiefs try to knock out the Broncos?
Are Are they okay with them finding their way in right?

(01:14:58):
I would obviously expect Patrick Mahomes and pretty much everybody
else to do a Queen's wave, But from a competitive
standpoint in on Carson Wentz and company, they can really
decide the back end of that AFC bracket.

Speaker 4 (01:15:13):
M Yeah, that's it's interesting because so here's here's the thing.
If you can't see the Chiefs, they have to weigh
like res versus rust and Andy Reid is one of
the best in the business off of bye week.

Speaker 5 (01:15:26):
But if you don't play your guys this.

Speaker 4 (01:15:27):
Week two weeks, it's almost like a three week three weeks. Yeah,
and you're just finding your rhythm on offense. Perhaps Patrick
Mahomes does a little bit of the cam war thing,
maybe plays a little bit, then comes out.

Speaker 5 (01:15:48):
They will be mad at the Chiefs anyway.

Speaker 4 (01:15:50):
They can be mad at Chiefs for whatever reason. Yeah,
it'll be interesting how he approaches that. Yeah, because they
can knock out the Broncos.

Speaker 5 (01:15:56):
They love to play. They want to play.

Speaker 4 (01:15:57):
You want to maintain the rhythm, but you also want
to do it.

Speaker 5 (01:16:00):
It won't be smart.

Speaker 4 (01:16:02):
You want to make sure you have all you guys
show up to the dance man.

Speaker 5 (01:16:06):
This gona be a tough one. Tough one for the Chiefs.

Speaker 2 (01:16:07):
All right, let's hit the rewind button back to the
Christmas Day games. We didn't really touch on those much,
but look at the beatdown suffered. Since we were talking
about the Chiefs by the Steelers, by the Texans. They
get to say they made the playoffs. That seems to
be about the extent of expectation at this point.

Speaker 4 (01:16:27):
Yeah, you're talking about to stealers falling apart. They lost
three in a row. They look different. Russell Wilson has
kind of come back to earth a little bit. They
now have a clear understanding of their path. The victory
is very narrow. It requires their defense.

Speaker 5 (01:16:39):
To play well.

Speaker 4 (01:16:40):
The running game has to show up, and then Russ
has to be managed where he plays that he plays
that role as opposed to operating as a playmaker for
the Texans.

Speaker 5 (01:16:50):
I don't know what has.

Speaker 4 (01:16:51):
Happened to that. Well, I do know what has happened
to the Texans. Injuries on the outside have impacted their offense.

Speaker 5 (01:16:56):
But really c J.

Speaker 4 (01:16:57):
Strout is not the same player that he was a
season ago, and un two of that version shows up.

Speaker 5 (01:17:03):
This gonna be hard on the Texans.

Speaker 4 (01:17:05):
They need him to play at a high level and
he's he's not playing well.

Speaker 2 (01:17:08):
Yeah, question the old line coming in, but that's only
part of the equation. Obviously, the injuries on the outside
decimate you make a big deal and then while you
got an injury, immediately Tank Dell goes down. Now and
of course Nico Collins missed a stretch.

Speaker 1 (01:17:24):
Stroud.

Speaker 2 (01:17:24):
I think we can go through and do the evaluation
of the one one thousand and two one thousand, holding
the ball quite quite a bit longer, right, it's not
a quick timing rhythm. Whatever, Bobby Slowick, whatever, the excitement
was of him last year. That's lost some of its
luster along the way in terms of one of those
hot coaching prospects that we were anticipating.

Speaker 1 (01:17:47):
But yeah, just a bit of a dispoint.

Speaker 2 (01:17:50):
I thought they'd missed the playoffs entirely because I also
thought the division would get better. So the joke was
on me. Not only are they not good, they still
get to win the division.

Speaker 1 (01:18:00):
Yeah, yeah, they me twice.

Speaker 4 (01:18:04):
Bucky, and they've had the division clinch for weeks. That's
what's telling you about it, right, I mean, that is
how bad the division has been. But yeah, like they
haven't played well. Eventually, they have some talent, they can
create some some issues with what they have, but if
the offense doesn't work with CJ.

Speaker 5 (01:18:20):
Stroud, they have no chance.

Speaker 4 (01:18:22):
And they were getting by early in the year because
they would run the football with Joe Mixon and those things.
But it's not It hasn't been the same. And can
they get it back in one week. I don't know, man,
But they're gonna have to match up with one of
those teams again. Here's gonna be a nemesis. They're gonna
have to match up with Zis Ravens.

Speaker 5 (01:18:40):
Wonder. I mean I don't know. This doesn't look good
right now for them.

Speaker 1 (01:18:43):
Chaos all around.

Speaker 2 (01:18:44):
Hey, the Sunday night football game, great, great matchup, great marketing,
and certainly on a holiday weekend to be able to.

Speaker 1 (01:18:51):
Say it's Jadon Daniels.

Speaker 2 (01:18:52):
You get to see him here and oh you get
that Michael Pennox guy too. Forty eight and a half
we watched Bijon Robinson as the focal over the last month.
How much do we see a shift in pulling the
strings for that offense tonight.

Speaker 4 (01:19:06):
I mean, they don't have to score points, so they're
gonna have to put it more in the hands of
Michael Pennocks. He'd be more comfortable the second start, but
what can you do.

Speaker 5 (01:19:13):
I expect him to light it up. I expect him
to push it down the field.

Speaker 4 (01:19:16):
They put him in because they knew they needed more
explosive place.

Speaker 5 (01:19:19):
They weren't getting there with Kirk Cousins.

Speaker 4 (01:19:21):
So this has to be an opportunity where you let
the young guy man, let it rip.

Speaker 2 (01:19:25):
Go see if we can find some Darnell Mooney action,
maybe a little Ray Ray McLeod going. Look, it's Fantasy
Ninja time here for your Championship week with six games in.
Folks have taken some really bad lines from some of
these early games here based on the players that they've
rolled through.

Speaker 1 (01:19:45):
Have a good call today, Bucky. Always a fun time.

Speaker 5 (01:19:47):
With you, hey Man. Appreciate you, Appreciate you.

Speaker 2 (01:19:50):
Add Bucky Brooks where you find him on the Twitter Verse.
Countdown to Kickoff presented by bet MGM Next

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