Ohio State Wins National Championship & NFL Conference Championship Week

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:12):
How's it going, guys, Thanks for tuning into this episode
of the phil Talk Sports podcast. In a blink of
an eye of the college football season is over and
Ohio State is the last team standing. Myself, Nick Rice,
you're here to talk about the National Championship and the
NFL Conference Championship games coming this weekend. Nick, it's good
to see you. I'm glad you are safe. How's everything going, man?

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Pretty good?

Speaker 3 (00:31):
Yeah, I'm not too far away from LA for folks
that I've been years into the podcast and still don't
know where we are, but yeah, right near the disasters.
We're not adam, but you know, we're all good. Can't
say the same for Reddick or some of the other guys. Unfortunately,
we're all certainly hoping that they were able to recover.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
But yeah, for a lot of us here, we're doing
all right.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Yeah. Just some of the stories you hear, I mean,
the Reddick one, of course you're gonna see because it's
a sports figure, but just some of the stories that
you hear out there. You know, we're used to the
water version of destruction down here, but to see because
you've heard about fires, you know, big forest sweeping fires
out west but rarely does it get to you know,
houses and homes and people, so it's it's been crazy.

(01:14):
So again, I'm glad you're doing all right. I think
most of your family said doing well. Your brother that
lives closer is doing good. So hopefully we are past
the worst of this, and there's already been enough damage
that hopefully it stops there. So that's kind of one
of the main reasons. But we took a week off,
we took the division round off because we wanted to
make sure everything was good there. It didn't want to

(01:35):
bother trying to plan anything. But now that everything's good,
we can get back to the stuff that matters less.
But it's the stuff that entertains us at least.

Speaker 3 (01:42):
Absolutely, man, Absolutely, And what's kind of wild because you know,
years ago being in Florida with you, man, it was
crazy the like you know, when the storms would come through,
how windy it is and everything it's windy er here,
like we've had like eighty mile an hour gus and
spend insane, like the perfect storm, you know.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
So yeah, pretty intense stuff going on here. We certainly
hope everything's all right.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
Yeah, hopefully we've gotten through the worst of it. It's
not often that we start recording and we are able
to report on breaking news. But as of about fifty
minutes ago, the Baseball Hall of Fame announced the class
of twenty twenty five, which will include three people, and
I'm just gonna quickly run through them just because very
not very often do we get, you know, stuff popping

(02:28):
up like this. Pitching great CC Sabathia of the Cleveland Indians,
Brewers and Yankees. He is most known from my chagrin
as the missing piece from the Yankees two thousand and
nine World Series team that beat by Phillies, but he
was clearly the missing piece that put them over the
humped him is still their most recent championship. Itro Suzuki,

(02:49):
the legendary Japanese outfielder. He will go down as the
first Japanese player to make it into the Hall, beloved
by many people. And then also pitching great Billy Wagner
to round out the three people in the Hall of
Fame this year. So Baseball does it a little different
than if you're not aware. They don't have a set
number of people that get in every year the way
the NFL and maybe the NBA does. They have to

(03:11):
reach a certain number of votes to get in, and
there are odd years where just nobody gets in. So
to get in at all, that that's why it's such
a small class. Sometimes it's nobody at all. Sometimes it's
eight people you never really know. So it's definitely one
of the more tougher leagues to get in their Hall
of Fame, I would say, so congrats to those three
that are now immortalized in Cooperstown. And while we're talking

(03:31):
baseball too, we should do a quick rip shout out
to the great Bob Yuker, the announcer that passed away
at ninety me. I grew up knowing him as Harry
Doyle from Major League. You know, he was that comedic
just a bit outside that guy, but you know, the
longtime radio voice of the Milwaukee Brewers, and everyone kind
of wishes that their hometown announcer was a little more

(03:53):
like Bob Yuker. The guy proved that you can be
funny and kind of express yourself in the booth. And
I think anyone that stood behind a micro under any
point has tried to take a little bit of Bob
Yucker but with them when they sit behind a microphone.
So rip again to one of the greats in baseball.
But I just wanted to touch on those newer pieces
of news here before we get to the football news.

(04:16):
So Ohio State wins the National Championship over Notre Dame.
The score makes it look a little closer than it is,
but Ohio State was definitely the better team, and they
kind of after that first drive from Notre Dame, it
just kind of seemed like it was all buck Eyes.

Speaker 3 (04:34):
Yeah, you know, I had before our for our last show,
before the Final four game, I had talked about how
Ohio State to some degree kind of feels like.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
The twenty fourteen Ezekiel Eliot JT.

Speaker 3 (04:47):
Barrett team, where they had a lot of great players
that turned out to be wonderful.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
NFL guys, but their story was just as amazing.

Speaker 3 (04:56):
And for Ohio State this year, just like they did
that year, they had to win down the stretch. I mean,
they took a couple losses early in the year and
they had to turn around and they figured out a
way to just kind of sneak in there. And there
were no ones picked to win it all. I had
looked at the amount of injuries they had. That was
my reason why they didn't. I didn't think they'd win it,

(05:17):
but once they began the playoff with a huge win,
it kind of felt like maybe this team turned a corner.
And they clearly showed that beginning in January or late December.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
Really they were like as good as any team in
college football.

Speaker 3 (05:34):
So they earned it, and Jeremiah Smith cemented himself as
one of the best wide receivers coming into the draft.
Just a wonderful you know, they peaked at the right
time and just a wonderful run of the title.

Speaker 1 (05:46):
Yeah, peaking at the right time is really important here
because in any year prior to now, they would have
peaked just too late because that lost to Michigan and
not making the Big Ten championship game probably keeps them
out in any other year. I think even if it's
a four playoffs, they maybe are sitting at number five.
You know, they sneak in to this at number eight,
and they had probably the toughest run to get there

(06:10):
because they had to, let me make sure I get
this right. Number nine. Tennessee. They beat forty two seventeen.
They beat the number one overall seed in undefeated Oregon
by twenty forty one to twenty one. Then they played
Texas beat them by two touchdowns, and again, while the
final score in Atlanta was thirty four to twenty three,
they after the opening drive they scored thirty four unanswered

(06:31):
points and then Notre Dame scored a touchdown and a
two point conversion to make it look a little closer
towards the end, And there was a minute there that
it's like, maybe you got to stay up and watch
the end of this. The choice to kick a field
goal that ended up missing really did them in towards
the end. I will admit, though, I don't think I've
ever gone into a game rooting for Notre Dame, but

(06:51):
this is easily, though they fell short, the most likable
Notre Dame team I think of our lifetime. I think
Marcus Freeman has earned everybody's respect. This is a guy
that was put into this position after Brian Kelly left,
saying he needed to go somewhere where he could possibly
win a national championship. And two years later the team
that he left was in the National Championship while LSU

(07:13):
didn't even make the playoff. So I think they're a
very likable team. Riley Leonard the whole story of breaking
his leg at Duke against Notre Dame of all schools,
and going to Notre Dame after the fact. Kind of
a weird tidbit there, but probably easily one of the
most I mean, people liked Monteiteo. I think back in
the twenty thirteen twenty twelve championship game that they were in.
But I don't think that team was just likable. I

(07:34):
think this team earned everybody's respect through this run. That
Penn State game I think was the best game of
this playoff to me, the Penn State Notre Dame game
was easily the best one in my opinion. But let's
just talk for a minute here. Well too, also Ryan Day,
where after that lost to Michigan, people were ready to

(07:55):
run him out of town. And you know, it's interesting
where this goes from here to see he has had
mind to say, see I did it, and then you know,
walk out the door and go somewhere else. But Chip
Kelly also an offensive coordinator, finally winning his odd national
championship that soluded him all all his career. So we
have now completed our first twelve team playoff. Now that

(08:16):
it's over and done with, what are the biggest glaring
things you would change? And what did you like about
this setup?

Speaker 2 (08:23):
What I like about the setup?

Speaker 3 (08:25):
First I have to think a while about but my
immediate reaction is too many teams, and you know, because
it feels it's starting to feel a lot more like
the you know, obviously I love the NFL, but it's
starting to feel a lot more like a marathon versus
a sprint.

Speaker 2 (08:42):
And after watching.

Speaker 3 (08:43):
This season, i'd be interested in seeing how August and
September looks in college football?

Speaker 2 (08:49):
Do we get a very similar feel to that.

Speaker 3 (08:52):
Of you know, the NFL, where the first month or
two months of the year you can't take any We're seriously,
I mean, Buffalo got humiliated by Baltimore in Week five
and then they turn around and beat him.

Speaker 2 (09:07):
And that happens.

Speaker 3 (09:09):
But I think that'll start to happen a lot more
in college football if you can have a team that
doesn't even make their conference championship game win the entire thing.

Speaker 2 (09:19):
So you know, there's blusses and minuses to it. But
I hate to kind of, you know, not play along.
But I can't think of a plus right now. That's
all I can think of. Just too many teams, even
though Ohio.

Speaker 3 (09:32):
State wanted great for them, but this was a marathon
and by the time we got to the end of
the marathon, like we've.

Speaker 2 (09:38):
Been saying on the you know, lead up to this, in.

Speaker 3 (09:41):
Our pre production, very official pre production meetings, there was
no bus for this game tonight. And I think the
fact that the season was so long has a lot
to do with that.

Speaker 1 (09:50):
Yeah, you mentioned the first thing is you feel like
it's too many teams as well. Jokes on you, because
there's a very good chance it's going to be fourteen
next year instead of twelve. That's already in a tough
year already, and it might not happen by there. If
they can help it, they might do it that way.
But my biggest takeaway from this is they said when
they were gonna expand this, that it was gonna make

(10:10):
the regular season matter more, and it clearly did not
do that, because again Ohio State losing two games, Notre
Dame losing to NIU would have kept them out of
of a four, of a six of an eight. Clearly,
they're good teams, and I think we need to get
rid of that. We need to find the four best teams. No,
we have to find the x amount of number teams

(10:31):
that have played the best this year, because if you're
just going on paper, why does it matter. That's like
why play an NFL season? Just give it to the
Chiefs every year. They still have to win the games.
So the way I view it too, is like it
matters less in the regular because you know you can.
You can drop a game between Ohio State Down knows
that they're everybody in a way gets the Alabama treatment

(10:54):
that if you win enough games but don't go to
your conference championship game, and I think they're in jeopardy
two p might I think we might hit a point
where conference championship games are no more because they don't
really have a benefit anymore. And it might just be
whoever has the best record at the end of the
regular season for a conference as their conference champion, And
the Big Twelve did that up until like five years
ago or so, so there's a premise for that. But

(11:19):
what this does do my other biggest takeaway is it
forces college football teams to do something they've never had
to do, and that's played great football for a month straight.
Because most college schedules are set up so that you
might have a big kickoff game. But then you get
an FCS opponent, and then you get a I don't know,
I don't want to pick on a utep and then

(11:39):
you play like a bottom feeder in your conference. And
then you have a big rival, and then you play
you know, Western Michigan, and then you play another good
team in your conference. But there's always ups and downs
to it. Once that playoff starts, you have to win
four games in a row against other ranked teams that
are just as good, if not better than you. Act

(12:00):
at Ale Houseate was able to do. That means yes,
you already said it. They got hot at the right time,
which is how every other sports playoff works, right. That's
how the Giants were able to win two super Bowls
with the automanning. That's how Nick Foles was able to
catch fight even though that we're the best team all year.
It changes your philosophy that you have to be battle
tested and ready to go through. Like if I could

(12:21):
rename this, just call it the Month of Hell, because
if you're gonna win, you have to go through a
month of hell against ranked teams that I've also gone
through just as much, if not more than you. So
it really does change. I think it will change how
rosters are constructed. It'll change. It'll definitely change schedule builds
for sure. I think the longer this goes, it will
be set up more the way NFL is, like, yeah,

(12:43):
you can drop a game or two, you got to
be built to win your division because when your division
sets you up in the playoffs and you got to
be built to win the playoffs. So I think it
will change how people build rosters, It'll change how schedules
are made, and it'll be you have to be ready
for that month of hell, which I would like to
trademarket the moment.

Speaker 2 (13:01):
Yeah, hey, yeah, we're getting on that nice and early.

Speaker 3 (13:04):
And to be honest, after seeing what Ohio State did,
I think you're onto some there. But what's hilarious is
that for fans that were to you know, and I
hate to sabotage this whole segment into a negativity on
college football playoffs, but we got we got some you know,
monkeys to get off our back here. And another thing like,
think about this, and I never brought this up in

(13:24):
all of our shows, but now I think this is
going to be a narrative when you go into this
year thinking all right, we're up.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
To twelve teams. What do you think going in?

Speaker 3 (13:36):
Like I would have thought it was the best benefit
to me would have been Okay, teams are more compelled
to schedule a lot of power programs in the preseason,
so that way you know they're best prepared for the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (13:49):
Right, But I think is going to happen is actually
the opposite.

Speaker 3 (13:52):
I think teams are gonna want to schedule less tough
upon its knowing that we can warm up the whole year.
We don't want to get anyone hurt and peak in
the playoff. And to me, I think that is incredibly dangerous.
We've already had this trend of teams and players that
either opt out of bowl games or opt out of
conference championships, and it just is getting crazy to me.

(14:15):
You know, I'm not my get off my long type
of guy. I love you know some things about you
know where we're going, But this is one I'm having
a hard time getting my head around, because man, there
was nothing quite like you know, college football in October November,
knowing you had to win or you were out.

Speaker 1 (14:33):
Yeah, and that is gone now, which will why is
my arbitrary time to say in every podcast. If you
make a requirement to make the playoff winning your conference,
your conference championship games are now de facto playoff games.
I can't say it anymore, but I'll probably say it
next episode as well. That would solve so many problems.

(14:54):
But they're going the opposite way. They're saying, we don't
even need conference championships anymore. I've actually heard this story
today that the ACC wants to uh wants to implement.
They want to be the first to try this out.
Tell me, if if you follow this, you're a conference
champion at the end of the regular season. Let's I'm
just gonna use an example. Let's say Clemson wins they
have the best record in the ACC. When the season's over,

(15:15):
they get an automatic spot the ACC regular season champ.
Then the second best team and the third best team
play each other, and the winner instead of a conference championship.
Week two and three play and the winner gets the
ACC's second spot. You hate it, Okay, it intrigues me
in general, But then I remember we're talking football, not basketball,

(15:37):
because that sounds like something or baseball even that's something
college baseball would do one hundred percent. But that's yeah, sure.
So basically you're replacing college championship Week with like a
play in Sunday play in Saturday type scenario. So I
didn't intrigue it all. You hate it already and I'm
not even you know.

Speaker 3 (15:54):
Going to these games really and to just think for
the fans, it's like, hey, we've added an extra random game,
you know, we have, here's three days to sell tickets.
The more and more we do that, to me, the
lesser the product is and the harder it is to
get butts and seeks too. And you know, I think
we kind of saw that a little bit. Granted some

(16:17):
of it was weather related, but in the playoffs there
was a lot of that kind of not a lot
of you know, games were jazz late in the year,
so not a huge fan, you know. Back to the
original point, college football needs to be more like what
it used to be of where every game matters. And
I don't know who these polsters are, but apparently they're

(16:39):
the most important people in the world.

Speaker 1 (16:41):
Now, you know, who do we.

Speaker 3 (16:42):
Think are the best twelve teams in the playoffs? Forget
about the records and the results and who won the conference.
Let's see, let's go by the eye tests and those
polsters crazy.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
The biggest plus to that scenario I just gave you
is it gets rid of the committee doing just that.
Everything is to sided on the field. Your champion gets
in and your winner of two plus three gets in.
We don't need anyone's opinion. These are facts. So that
part I did like about it, if that makes sense.

Speaker 2 (17:09):
But you didn't want to put back an extra week
the conference title.

Speaker 1 (17:14):
No, you don't play the conference title game. You play
the playing game on that instead. Yet so do it?
You just hit the nail on the head with something
that not enough people is talking about. I'm gonna use
penn State as an example. They played that first game
at home and Happy Valley right, still not a sellout
because you know people aren't used to that extra game
at home. But you go from Pennsylvania to Arizona and

(17:35):
the Fiesta Bwal, you win that game, You go to
the Orange Bowl in Miami, you win that game. You
then got to go to Georgia in this case for
the championship game. I think it's unrealistic to expect even
the most diehard of fans to make any of those
And do you think like you beat SMU and then
the Fiesta Bal's coming up. Do you have to decide
do I want to go to that, or do I

(17:55):
want to save the money in case we win and
go to the Orange Bowl, Or do I save money
for that in case we win to go to the
National Championship. And then you'll lose one of those and
you didn't go to any of the games. I think
that's a big middle finger and a big like unrealistic
expectation for fans to just have the money and the
free time. I love going to UCF games. I only
go to home games. I don't I know people that

(18:17):
you know, they maybe do one big road trip, especially
now that we're in the Big twelve, Like we're gonna
go to Kansas State, We're gonna go to Baylor, We're
gonna go to TCU. I hear is a great like
people love going to that that area. But like it's
unrealistic to think people can They probably already had it
figured out, like I'm gonna go to these games every
year and YadA YadA, and now you're expecting people to
fly all over the country. Whether was a factor already.

(18:38):
That's another thing. This has turned weather for postseason college football,
which it's never really had. All these major bowls are
typically in nice weather places, but that first round had
you know, Penn State and the snow and everything. So
I think it's just really unrealistic for the fans, and
enough people are talking about it.

Speaker 2 (18:55):
Yeah, I'm I'm with you one hundred percent. Uh.

Speaker 3 (18:59):
If I to come up with one positive about the
college football because you'd asked me that you know about
the twelve team playoff, is that it does eliminate the
problem that four had, which was it did feel like
that number five team could have totally won the whole thing,
and clearly the number eight Ohio State won the whole thing.
So we've been going six or eight the whole time.

(19:21):
And if I had to choose between four or twelve,
I'd go back to four. But twelve is not that
much worse than four, considering you do. There are no
excuses anymore, like whoever number thirteen was, Like Bama was
not good enough, not even close, you know, in Miami
or whatever. So you know, there is some benefit to that,

(19:44):
and that is the benefit every year we can go
at season end and say, maybe Ohio State if it
was a four team playoff or a BCS wouldn't have won,
it wouldn't have qualified, but they clearly were one of
the best teams.

Speaker 2 (19:55):
They deserve respect, and they won the whole thing.

Speaker 1 (19:58):
Yeah, I think the part of the charm of four
and even back when it was two, is it was
understood teams are getting left out that could have potentially
won the whole thing, and I think you maybe prefer
that to your point, then letting teams in that had
no real chance. So it solved one problem and created another.
As you're saying, I agree with that one hundred percent.

(20:20):
You mentioned Ohio State the eight seed made it. Also,
the biggest thing they need to change is they need
to reseed every round. That's another thing that'll that'll affect
this weighted bracket that clearly materialized in this year. But
to bring it back to Ohio State for a minute,
does Ryan Day get a moment where you can say,
see I did it, everybody shut up, get off my back,

(20:41):
and you know, does he get to do that? I mean,
I'm not I had the Penn State jersey on last episode.
You know that's my if I had a Big ten team.
That's clearly it not an Ohio State fan at any point.
But do you, by chance know Ryan Day's coaching record
as a head coach just because they.

Speaker 2 (20:57):
Bought it up today. I'm pretty sure it's seventy and.

Speaker 1 (20:59):
Ten, seventy and ten out of eighty games. And the
you know why people hate him out of those ten games,
for those losses are to Michigan. So nearly half of
his career losses are to the team up North or
whatever they call him over there. So that's the reason,
and I get it. Like, especially in college football, it
doesn't matter as much in the NFL. Like if if

(21:21):
the Steelers win the Super Bowl, nobody would care if
they got swept by the Ravens in the regular season.
It would bug them at the time. You know, if
the Eagles win the Super Bowl but lost to the
Cowboys twice, yeah, that would bug you, but you're not
gonna think about it, right, But there are people out
there that if you pulled them and were like, would
you rather beat Michigan and win the national title? An
alarming amount of people will say, I would rather beat Michigan.

(21:42):
And here's a great example too. The merchants dropped for
Ohio State, right, and they do the thing where they
put the schedule on the back. Michigan fans are buying
this shirt, this Ohio State National championship shirt, because on
the back of it it has the score when Michigan
beat him in the last game of the season. That's
that's what we're dealing with here.

Speaker 2 (22:01):
Yeah, I mean that kind of goes back to our
whole point.

Speaker 3 (22:04):
At the beginning, college football feels a lot more like
a regular season sport, Like, yeah, you know, the playoff
is a lot of fun to determine the championship, but
there's something there's nothing quite like like think about over
the years, you know, watching watching you know, UCF play,
watching Penn State play.

Speaker 2 (22:24):
I'm sure of your.

Speaker 3 (22:25):
Top ten most favorite memories, at least two thirds of
them were big rivalry wins or regular season wins. Do
you remember playoff games or bowl games? I mean maybe
a couple, but.

Speaker 1 (22:38):
Really you remember bowl games. But like again, the average
fan doesn't go traveling all these away games, so it's
games you've had at home. So for me, it's like,
you know, the the Black Friday showdown against USF. You know, uh,
it is an away game, but like the Hail Mary
against East Carolina this past year, the comeback against TCU,
those are all regular season. So yeah, to your point,

(23:01):
of course, you're gonna remember the big ones, but what
what fills out your memory as a fan is the journey,
not just the destination. So I agree we we've they
said that we were gonna get into, you know, making
the regular season matter more, and it clearly matters less.
So any before, well, I.

Speaker 2 (23:19):
Was gonna say, I mean, college basketball is kind of
like that too. You just don't. I just don't like
how college football's become that because you know, only.

Speaker 3 (23:28):
Diehards kind of watch every college basketball in every college
baseball game.

Speaker 2 (23:32):
I mean, there's something about college football where it brought
in the whole nation, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (23:36):
So yeah, it's like, unless it's Duke North Carolina, people
aren't watching regular season college basketball to your point, So
I agree with that. We're gonna take a quick break
and then when we come back, we have the NFL
Final four Conference Championship coming up, so stick around. Well,
the NFL season is down to fours. Conference Championship weekend
is this Sunday, games at three o'clock on Fox thirty

(24:00):
on CBS. As the Good Lord intended, I think if
anybody tried to tell you no matter how good you
thought Jayden Daniels was gonna be that the Washington Commanders
Redskins football team, whatever you want to call him, we're
in an NFC championship game. You'd I'd have to call
you a liar that it was that that was gonna happen. So,
before we get to my side of things, the season
that Washington's had is incredible. You know, the win against

(24:24):
the Eagles, beating Kenny Pickett, I'm not saying put an asterisk,
but like put it into perspective, right. But aside from that,
the Hail Mary against the Bears, the rest of their
season has just been incredible. So you know, they deserve
all the props in the world forgetting this far.

Speaker 3 (24:38):
Yeah, most of the year I kind of like a
lot of fans put the you know, comparison to the
RG three twenty twelve special playoff run. But this clears
that by you know, leaps and bows. This is insane.
And going into the game, I felt, you know, Washington
is an awesome story, but Detroit's too good, especially on

(24:59):
off and for Washington to handedly handle Detroit was really
an amazing statement that this team really is a formidable foe.

Speaker 2 (25:11):
To Philadelphia or whoever they play.

Speaker 3 (25:13):
What an amazing story they have, and what an incredible
young player and Jade Daniels and just the potential of
this program moving forward. And it doesn't miss me that
this is the first year no longer under Dan Snyder.

Speaker 1 (25:28):
Yeah that needs to be said from the rooftops. But
you know, it's hard to not compare it to the
RG three run. And of course people will say, well,
he's already gotten farther than RG three ever did. But
maybe if he doesn't get hurt in that wild card
playoff game, they go on a similar run. You never
really know they were really catching fire back then, but
it is, you know, not It's usually like a Ravens

(25:48):
Pittsburgh thing that a division arrival plays three times and
let alone in a conference championship game. So you know,
you already mentioned the you already mentioned the Lions game.
I don't know. The injuries, maybe just finally cut up
to Detroit. I don't know what it is to turnovers
were crazy. Do you think this was more of a
Washington winner Detroit lost? Because I feel like Detroit had

(26:10):
it ready to go and just fumbled it.

Speaker 3 (26:14):
I think I'm more on this than most people. But
I think Detroit super Bowl was getting the number one
seed with all the injuries that they had. I think
they just accomplished so much and overcame so much to get.

Speaker 1 (26:27):
To that spot.

Speaker 3 (26:28):
And then when they realized that they climbed the mountain
and then it turns out there's another one to climb,
and you know, Washington had been rolling, you know, in
Detroit's defense was just in shambles, you know. So no
to take nothing away from Jayden, but I think if
Aydon Hutchinson is there and a lot of those other.

Speaker 2 (26:46):
Guys you know, are healthy for the game, I forty
five points, I hardly you know, doubt that they would
be able to do much better than that. But you know,
I think it's a little bit of both.

Speaker 1 (26:56):
To answer your question, Yeah, I think they ran into
him at the perfect time. Like said, they ran out
of gas, they didn't really like, not that they didn't know,
but like there was a whole nother mountain to climb,
and that the younger, more healthy team was more equipped
to climate than they were before we get to the
Do you think this is the Do you think the
windows closed on Detroit? Do you think they bounce back

(27:17):
from this.

Speaker 3 (27:19):
Only because of all the guys they have coming back
that I do think that they'll be all right. But yeah,
you know, replacing Ben Johnson is gonna be huge. You know,
whoever they get to.

Speaker 2 (27:30):
Fill them in. But Dan Campbell clearly knows what he's doing.
As long as he can.

Speaker 3 (27:33):
Bring a lot of guys back and you know, bring
in a good coordinating coaching staff, I think they'll be
all right. This just another thing that game felt a
lot like, you know, because in the NFL sometimes you
just don't have your best day, and this felt like
the prototypical Lions.

Speaker 2 (27:50):
Just a lot of weird stuff happened.

Speaker 3 (27:53):
The fumble, the wide receiver passed when they're driving in
for the tie, the interception.

Speaker 2 (27:58):
There, a lot of weird.

Speaker 3 (28:00):
Stuff happened to where I think Detroit wins this like
eight out of every ten times.

Speaker 2 (28:06):
The other problem is they just you know, had a lot.

Speaker 3 (28:09):
Of unfortunate stuff happened in the game, and Hero was
one of the two times.

Speaker 2 (28:12):
That they'd lose it.

Speaker 1 (28:15):
I agree. I think they just ran into him at
the wrong time. I don't think they're done to like
they're gonna be bottom feeders again, but they'll they'll be
a little bit of rebuild necessary. I think they're gonna
need to tweak a few things. But when you watch
Dan Campbell's press conference, like in a world of coaches
that like will tell you I'm not going anywhere and

(28:35):
then up and leave a place, or you know, interview
when you're on a Super Bowl run or whatever the like,
he actually at least cares. Like my sister is is
a Packers fan, but she texted me is like, why
am I getting emotional about Dan Campbell right now? It's
supposed to hate this guy, and it's hard to not
love the guy. I mean you, you are the biggest
caveat of him amongst anyone I know, and there's no
reason not to be like. The guy cares. He played there,

(28:57):
not even for a very long time, but he was
long enough to fall in love with the city and
what it represents. And he's the kind of guy you're
root for. And I think if anybody can, you know,
pick themselves up and dust themselves off, it is someone
like Dan Campbell. So it'll be interesting to see.

Speaker 3 (29:11):
He did bring up last year that this might be
the closest you ever get, and at the time I
thought he's probably right, and then middle of this year
I felt, oh, no, this team is actually better than
last year.

Speaker 2 (29:25):
Yeah, and that you know, he that was kind of
heat of the moment.

Speaker 3 (29:28):
And then now I'm looking back at that and again
I'm feeling like that might have been the closest they
ever get.

Speaker 2 (29:34):
There's something amazing.

Speaker 3 (29:35):
About and heartbreaking about the NFL where you know, sometimes
just ball doesn't bounce your way, and some of the
greatest teams we've ever seen are one and done in
the playoffs. Detroit add that to that list, because this
is maybe the best team they ever had. Is just
unfortune with the injuries, the ball not bouncing their way
in the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (29:55):
Facing a red hot team, and you know, they're they're.

Speaker 3 (29:58):
Sitting home and pro probably can point at Washington, maybe
at Buffalo or maybe even all four of them and
think we're better than all these guys, and we're sitting out.

Speaker 2 (30:07):
Home this weekend.

Speaker 1 (30:09):
I certainly look forward to seeing this Detroit Lions team
in future iterations of the DSFL. So I'm definitely looking
forward to that when that time comes. So let's talk Eagles.
I got the jersey the game more in Sante Samuel
jersey on today because that game may have shaved a
year or two off my life, not because it's hard
to say, like they played great in the elements. That

(30:30):
game was supposed to be snow at all times. The
game started, it was totally clear it was cold, but
it was clear by halftime it was just a winter wonderland.
And you know, it took both teams out of their element.
I assumed we'd be a little more equipped to handle
a snow game when you have something like Sakuon Barkley
broke two sixty plus yard runs for touchdowns. Clearly the

(30:50):
difference maker let the Rams back in it already when
it looked like it was about over, but made the
defensive stop at the end there when it counted. And yeah,
very stressful, but they got it done. And with the
Detroit loss, the NFC championship now goes through Philly. They
get Washington one more time. This is a very like
I said, I don't know that anybody's hotter than Washington,

(31:11):
but we've already seen with our own eyes this year
that the Eagles can beat Washington. Even in the game
they lost, they forced all these turnovers. Again, that was
with Kenny Pickett at offense and not that Jalen Jayden,
jay We're gonna do Jayden and jay Lynn. That's gonna
screw me up for this whole bit here. But Jalen
hurts while not playing great this game. You can put

(31:33):
some on the weather, but they have clearly game planned
around Let's make let's make it so that hurts. I'm
gonna say, just to get rid of the Jalen Jayden thing.
Let's make hurts have to do as little as possible
here and still get the win. Whereas in past years,
we're throwing it all over the yard and there's no
reason not to because you got receivers that can make
that happen. But you know, he made a few good

(31:54):
throws when when it was necessary. We are one aj
Brown drop away from this game getting broken open earlier.
I think that's important to point out too. I think
he had two drops in that game. There were his
first two drops all year according to Football Focus. So yeah, crazy, crazy,
I don't know what constituted the drop and what isn't,
but that's that's what they have there. So this game

(32:16):
could have easily been over sooner, and we easily could
have lost it on that last possession. So at the
end of the day, it's not how you win, it's
that you win. And we go into NFC Championship. I
don't know if it's gonna snow again. I don't know
what kind of conditions we're gonna get here, but this
one's gonna be very interesting. I have confidence that we
can win, but I could easily see it going either way.

(32:37):
Which is not me being on the fence. This is
me not trying to discredit what Washington's done. I can
only hope, and he has been unfazed to this point.
But you can only hope. To be a rookie and
NFC Championship game, you're gonna ultimately see some stuff that
you haven't seen before. Not that the moment's gonna be
too big, but like you out kicked your coverage already.
You were a year away, but you got here this year.

(32:58):
You can only hope that stuff like that, the experience
to the Eagles is going to shine through at some point.
You can only hope. If you're me or other Eagles fans.

Speaker 3 (33:06):
Yeah, well, the weather is not going to be quite
as crazy. You know, it looks like it'll be in
the thirties.

Speaker 2 (33:11):
You know, something like that.

Speaker 3 (33:12):
Pretty clear so that shouldn't be much of the factor.
You know. First, first narrative to debunk is that Washington's
the hottest team in the NFL. Like, sure they are,
but the Rams were probably the second hottest team.

Speaker 1 (33:26):
I agree, And so there's the first thing.

Speaker 3 (33:29):
Second is you know, of all quarterbacks and conference Championship weekend,
Jalen Hurts may be the worst.

Speaker 2 (33:35):
You know, I find that funny in the sense of
statistically maybe until you look at the win column and
the and the turnover ledger.

Speaker 3 (33:44):
You know, because there's about one or two plays a
quarter even in that game against the Rams, where he
will sit in the pocket too long, he'll be cautious
to run, he'll be cautious to do all these.

Speaker 2 (33:57):
Things and play like a glorified Mark Sanchez. And you
know that's not fun or glitzy.

Speaker 3 (34:04):
But on Sunday I would have taken that over Lamar's
game any day, you know, because there's something there's something
to be said about a quarterback that plays within a
system and takes what the defense gives you that helps
you win.

Speaker 2 (34:16):
A lot of games.

Speaker 3 (34:17):
And I know that's not fun and not glitzy, but
to be honest, that's what Mahomes has been doing in
a lot of playoff games too, because this number is
he'll throw one touchdown like he did against Houston.

Speaker 1 (34:32):
You there, Oh, I am sorry about that. I agree,
like he could definitely do you well, you actually said
something that really intrigued me.

Speaker 3 (34:41):
There.

Speaker 1 (34:41):
If Lamar plays more like Jalen, do you think they
beat Buffalo?

Speaker 2 (34:44):
Oh for sure, for sure. And I think early in
that game too. We'll get to this more, you know,
but I think.

Speaker 3 (34:54):
The Ravens should have treated that first half like, let's
run the ball with Derek and not have Lamar lose
the game for us.

Speaker 2 (35:01):
They need to take a page out of Philly's playbook.
And you know, Nick Sirianni's crazy with the shave in
the head and he's kind of a crazy character. But
he's coaching like a mastermind right now because he's.

Speaker 3 (35:14):
Just taking what the defense gives him. Yeah, some of
his you know, weird you know play calls.

Speaker 2 (35:19):
Kind of you know, scratch my head.

Speaker 3 (35:21):
I remember earlier this year, I believe it was against
the Rams when they played in the regular season, where
he would like run a draw with like a thirty
seconds left, you know, trying to get into field goal
like just stuff that like makes no sense, But in general,
his philosophy of run the ball, don't let your quarterback
lose the game early, let him get into a rhythm.

Speaker 2 (35:44):
A lot of teams should do that, and I think
only really the Chiefs, Bills, and Eagles.

Speaker 3 (35:50):
Are teams that do that, where they say we're gonna
run the ball and get the quarterback into.

Speaker 2 (35:54):
The flow of the game. And to me, that's why
you know those teams are where they're at now.

Speaker 1 (36:00):
And it's important to know. You know, there's a very
good chance that in the next week or two we're
gonna learn that Josh Allen is the MVP this year. Well,
Jalen hurts through for one hundred and twenty eight yards
in this playoff game in the snow, and Josh Allen
threw for one hundred and twenty seven So the guy
that may win the MVP had a very similar game.
I understand it looked different, but you know, I think

(36:21):
I agree. So before we get to the AFC, who
do you have in the NFC Philly? Yeah, I I'm
more than I'm not gonna say afraid or scared, but
I fully respect this team that we're about to play
I am confident we can win. I can see it
going the other way would not shock me because we

(36:42):
are playing a little fast and loose to what we
got going on here. But if if Saquon can play
that good in the snow, imagine what he can do
with a trip to the super Bowl on the line.
And a part of me just feel and this could
be totally ridiculous that we because we've seen Jalen play
wide open. We saw him in the Super Bowl two
years ago. You know, we know what he can do
with his arm. Are we just simply saving that for

(37:02):
like a do or die situation like are we gonna
come out in this game or god forbid, you know
the game after it, which I don't even want to
jinx by saying the name of it. Are we gonna
come out guns of blazing in one of those? Because
there's nine guys in the box to stop Barkley and
then we throw it over their head to aj Brown
or DeVante Smith, who's now the Eagles all time receiving
leader in the playoffs and only is like third year

(37:22):
in the league. So you know, it could be something
crazy like that. So a part of me feels where
like forcing ourselves to play one way, to make people
prepare for that, and then eventually, you know, you can
only run the ball so many times where you have
to try a play action. And I mean that like
from a game plan perspective. So a part of me thinks,
there's this weird thing. It might not be this game.
It may be God forbid we make it to the

(37:43):
next game that they save it for something like that.
But who knows it could I could see that being
the situation. But I do, got Philly, I do. I
do think it's possible. It's probably even probable, but it's
not guaranteed. Is where I'll leave that. AFC Championship Games.
Stop me if you've heard this one before. A Buffalo
Bill's Kansas City Chiefs Josh Allen slaying one dragon against

(38:06):
Lamar Jackson. We already talked about that a little bit
that maybe, you know, game playing could have been a
little different going into into that one. But they get
the Chiefs at home after their game against Houston, which
may have been one of the more Chiefs games of
all time. The flopping the flags, I think they're gonna
have to look to clean that up a bit, because
you can't let that happen two weeks in a row.

(38:27):
The Chiefs are the worst fifteen to two team I've
ever seen, which I don't know if that's a compliment
or an insult, but it's the case. Do you think
Buffalo can finally pull They beat him in the regular season,
for whatever that's worth, do you think they can finally
pull it off?

Speaker 3 (38:40):
Well, first, my quick recap of divisional round, Kansas City
and Houston Chiefs were the better team, but the Chiefs
did get a ridiculous whistle.

Speaker 2 (38:51):
I mean that was insane. The rep of the passers,
the ball spots. People aren't talking about that.

Speaker 3 (38:58):
A couple of Houston ball carriers clearly had first downs
that they would put a yard or.

Speaker 2 (39:04):
Two back another you know thing.

Speaker 3 (39:07):
So I think Houston, if it was officiated right, would
have had the ball in the fourth quarter two.

Speaker 2 (39:13):
Minutes with a chance to tire or win the game.
They never got that chance because I think too much
weird stuff happened to where.

Speaker 3 (39:20):
They were behind the eight ball. And then the other
game Lamar against Josh, I just think Lamar kind of
beat himself, and I think the play calling was such
where they they were acting like they were getting MVP Lamar,
and I think they need to understand and maybe another year,
you know, another heartbreak will help them understand. We need

(39:40):
to play call like he is in the first half
Trent Dilfert, because the guy needs in the playoffs for
some reason, he needs a quarter or two to get
warmed up.

Speaker 2 (39:49):
I mean, you know, the stuff that he does in
the first.

Speaker 3 (39:52):
Half of these games. I mean against Tennessee, against Buffalo,
against Kansas City. I mean there's times where they fall
way behind, and Lamar looked like Trent Dilfer in the
first half of games of playoff games. So I think
they need to treat him like that because I think
he psyches himself out too much or something, because he
does not look like the same guy.

Speaker 1 (40:14):
I agree. I do want to make this point before
we I kind of lose my spot with this, but like, yes,
Mark Andrews fumbled, but so did Lamar. Yes, Mark Andrews
dropped a pass that could have tied the game. But
the hate that man is getting is frankly gross, especially
from so called fans, for a guy that I would
not hesitate to call a top ten raven of all time,

(40:35):
would not hesitate to say that personally, he's won me
at least two Fantasy championships, I'll say that much. But
just really you look at it. You know, Ravens are
not known historically for their like offensive firepower, so they're
the short list of not they haven't had people, but
you know their list of effective offensive players. He's definitely
on it. He's easily he might be a top five

(40:57):
offensive player and a top ten player period for them. Ever,
so the treatment that he's getting is absolutely gross, and
I hope, you know, they do it right for him
in the future. The fumble was weird. I don't think
anyone expected like the punch out in that situation, so
that I guess, you know, he.

Speaker 2 (41:14):
Jungles with staff and then he gets it. You know,
it was such a.

Speaker 1 (41:17):
Weird play all and he tried to cut back when
he probably could have just turned up field, So like
there's there's a lesson to be learned there. And the
drop like it was a catchup ball, but it wasn't
a perfect ball like by any means. It was behind
him to that extent. So yeah, I know, we got
got Penny behind us having a little fun, but uh,
eleven month old puppy, I know, she looks bigger than that.

(41:38):
But yeah, that's that's all time.

Speaker 3 (41:40):
Before we get too far off of that. I remember
the twenty eleven AFC Championship game with Lee Evans dropped
a perfect pass from Joe Flacco for what would have
been the winning touchdown. Mark Andrews with ninety seconds left
dropped a time conversion. Josh Dollin would have had the
ball with timeouts to win the game, and I think
that I'd put, you know, all my money on that,

(42:03):
Like he'd figure out a way to get into field goal.

Speaker 2 (42:05):
Range with the you know, conference title on the line.
So you know that there's levels of egregious.

Speaker 3 (42:12):
Mark Andrews didn't have a great game, but he also
had five big catches right in that game too, So
all the way around, it's crazy. But in general, to
have zero design Lamar Jackson runs, it's like I don't
get with John Harbaugh.

Speaker 2 (42:26):
On this coaching staff, and they've had different coordinators, but
the the way they treat these big games that blows
my mind.

Speaker 3 (42:36):
It's like I would rather them lose by ten because
Lamar was running too much and Derek Hendry's running too much.
It bugs me that they got to go another year
when they have this great player that they barely use
in their biggest game all year. When Derrick Henry would
kind of split carriers with Justin Still, I figured, regular season,
don't want to wear them out. Yes, season's over, and

(42:58):
I'm feeling like I don't think they understood who they
had running the football.

Speaker 1 (43:02):
So I will say this, Justice Hill did have a
handful of good runs in this game when called upon,
so he did his part. You said, you said it.
There's levels of egregious. This isn't not handing the ball
to Marshawn Lynch at the goal line egregious. But it's
somewhere in the you know, it's it's not on the field,
but it's in the same ballpark, maybe buying a hot

(43:23):
dog or something. It's it's something that you have to
scratch your head and be like, yeah, just like again,
if we make it to the champ you know, to
the next game here, I would have rather played, you know,
Kansas City is you know what you have when you're
playing against Kansas City. But if it was between would
you rather your team play Baltimore or Buffalo. I don't
want to see Baltimore in there because that means they

(43:45):
figured out their demons and late in the third quarter,
I don't want to have to tackle Derick Henry the
same reason that guys don't want to have to chase
down Saquon Barkley, you know, midway through the fourth quarter,
and why you can hit that home run, home run
run to ice the games. Like, Buffalo is incredibly good.
They slayed one dragon, they're hoping to slay another this week.
But they're beatable because they've lost, you know, like all

(44:07):
these teams are beatable, I guess, But like I just
don't want to tackle Derek Henry. But if they're not
gonna use Derek Henry, then sure give me Baltimore, you know,
then then I'm really concerned. I'm gonna answer this one
before you. I'm going Buffalo against because if not now
when I think it's truly at that point, if you
don't figure it out now, I get this team's fifteen
and two, but they're just not they're a very hollow

(44:28):
fifteen and two, which again, if they win it all,
it doesn't really matter. That just means to say, you know,
it's we talked about it with like the regular season
of Batterian college football and we see it in the like,
are these Chiefs just like the lebron Lakers where the
whole game plan is just just get in the playoffs
and we'll see what we can make happen, or like
the Warriors in that last run type thing. So I'm
going Buffalo because if not now when Yeah, you know the.

Speaker 3 (44:51):
Other thing too, which is why I'm going with Buffalo
as well. And I'm a man of my all year
word of Kansas City is vulnerable, and I think that
game against Houston was another sign of how vulnerable they are.
The other thing that's encouraging is that Buffalo is getting healthier,
you know, and you brought it up, you know about

(45:12):
von Miller. It's amazing how he's still playing the way
that he is. Yat Mlano's healthy now and the guys
they got, you know, on offense are starting to jive,
a lot of them, you know, looking very good going
into this weekend. The fun the crazy thing about Buffalo
is not only did they beat the Ravens on Sunday,
but it almost looked like they went into a little

(45:32):
cruise control where it's like we got the lead, not
quite the Eagles cruise control. That was amazing their fourth
quarter cruise control. But for the Bills, it was like,
we got the lead, let's run the ball. They had
ten designed Josh Allen runs. You know, let's just play
solid defense, don't let anything get behind us. And you know,
that was amazing to me about the fact that they

(45:54):
won that game. You know, buy playoff standards easier than
you would expect going in.

Speaker 2 (46:02):
So that to me is the sign that the Bills
are a really strong team. They already beat the Chiefs once.
It's hard to beat the team twice, especially when the
final game is in their their house.

Speaker 3 (46:12):
But this Bills team looks pretty good. And I think,
you know, the Chiefs, part of the reason why I'm
not super confident in them is that they were able
to move the ball against Houston with Travis Kelsey and
the Bills might be as good a matchup as there is.
They got a couple of nice linebackers led by Milano.
You know that front seven is good, the coordinated good.

(46:33):
I think the Bills are a hard matchup against the
Chiefs and they'll get it done.

Speaker 1 (46:39):
I agree you mentioned their cruise control. I just wanted
to I had this thought during the game, who would
have thought that James Cook would have a better NFL
career than Dalvin Cook. You know, it's his older brother
that he was as amazing as he was in college,
and he was very good for the Vikings for a
lot of years. But like he clearly might have it,
it separated there. So we both agree. I guess we're
both going Buffalo, and what are the odds of that? Right?

(47:01):
So the only thing that's left to do is wait
and see. So I want to thank Nick for coming
on here, Thank you guys for checking this out. Enjoy
Conference Championship Week and we'll see you next time.