Full Show 12/22 - Final look at Colts-49ers on Monday Night Football! - The Fan Morning Show

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is a Monday that feels like a Sunday that
feels like a We'll go through the whole week and
be like what days today? Pretty much brew the coffee,
James Boyd not a big Joe drinker. You might need
a cup or two or just rem sleep here at
some point after the show, because thirteen hours and fifteen

(00:20):
minutes from now, we'll have our first Monday night football
game in this town in about three years, Indiana Nights.
That is the jersey. I actually like the look. Adam
and a Teri on the anvil red Panda part of
the halftime show. We'll talk about it all today. Joe
Buck going to join us here coming up at nine
to fifteen. You'll hear him on the call and Ross Tucker.

(00:41):
He is on the national radio broadcast tonight Westwood One
with Kevin Harlan joining us at eight thirty. Caleb Zuver,
James boy, good morning to you boys morning.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
It's good to be here man, exciting day. We'll see
you once this game gets started. But right now, positive vibes, positivibe.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
James, you have not yet seen Caleb Zuber today, correct,
I have not how the angle works in our new studio.
James at the far end of the table just is
blocked off from usually Mark Dykeen, which is a good thing.
Caleb right now looks like Jim Harball in a postgame
press conference at nineteen night.

Speaker 3 (01:17):
Okay, I got to sweatshirt man, So.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
Is that a Monday Night Football cold sweatshirts?

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Yes, twenty five year anniversary of Monday Night Football and
ABC cold sweatshirt.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
So unbelievable. Had the change all of it. It looks
like literally Jim Harball at a postgame press who's got
it better than us? Yes? Right, amen to that. A
million things to get to on this Monday morning. Safe
travels all week long. I know it's a certainly a busy,
busy time. The weather actually looks outstanding for this week,
so that's good news on that front here in the

(01:50):
Circle City, in the season of giving, about a little giving.
Right out of the gate, Butler plays a matinee today
two o'clock over the at hinkle Field House. So, Caleb Zuber,
let's take fast fingers three, one, seven, two, nine, ten,
seventy a four pack. Again, it's a two o'clock tip
at Hinkles. You'll get the sun coming in on the

(02:12):
on the windows up there inside hinkle field House. Butler
survived on Saturday over there at Gamebridge Field House Perdue
ran Alburn out of the gym after Alburn did the
same to them last season. Very impressive non conference yet
again for Matt Painter and the Boilers. So we'll give
away a four pack here right out of the gate again.
Three one, seven, two, nine, ten seventy Butler in n

(02:32):
j IT at two o'clock. You think US three and
Tony Katz and Sean Copeland could give nj IT a game.

Speaker 4 (02:42):
I'm not that arrogant. Play with JAMV yesterday.

Speaker 5 (02:45):
Oh did all right, but certainly not confident enough to
think that I could play a Division one team and
hold my hown.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
Hey look at you taking the high road. It's shocking
from James Boyd here.

Speaker 5 (02:56):
I mean, I'll tak the high road or yeah, if
that's what we're calling it against guys who get paid
to play basketball against you know, my peers, more my level.
Jmving company. I'll talk my trash.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
So we actually have a lot of hoops tonight too.
Indiana will close out. I believe that closes out there.
Non conference. They've got Sienna the Sienna head coach is
one of my favorite players to watch grow up play
College of Basketball national champion, a great shooter.

Speaker 4 (03:26):
I wouldn't know who this is, honestly.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
Jerry McNamara, Oh really, I don't know who's the Siena
coach coaching Sienna. There and then Pacers. They are out
in Boston today seven thirty against the Celtics. Another bad
loss to the Pacers. Over the weekend with the Pelicans,
I'll actually go back to back. They'll have Miles Turner
in the building coming up tomorrow night inside of gamebridge Fieldhouse,
before a couple of days off around Christmas, but of
course everything centers around tonight. James coltson forty nine Ers

(03:52):
as we sit here here on this Monday morning, that's
a little good news, little bad news from the injury
report since we last spoke on Friday. It will be
to force Buckner making his return. I guess officially they
still need to bring him off injured reserve. If I
I feel like I didn't miss that news item, did.

Speaker 5 (04:08):
I No, that did not happen, but it should happen.
I would imagine he'll get activated at some point today
and we'll be back for the first time since Week nine.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
Bernard Ryman, though, is out, so we can get into
some offensive line conversation here and a bit. You know,
I mentioned to you, I guess you, guys, maybe on
Thursday I thought there was a chance, or maybe it
was Friday, I thought there was a chance they might
musical chair it up on the offensive line a bit here.
So something to keep an eye on for tonight. Without
Bernard Ryman in the line of San Francisco does have

(04:38):
a couple of notable injuries. And you know, I sit
here on this Monday morning, James and I said the
same thing last Monday. We just went through a full
slate of games on Sunday, and I don't know where
the Colts got any help. I mean, they just be
Houston and Jacksonville and the Chargers and the Bills. All
they're doing is winning, and all the Colts are doing

(04:59):
is losing.

Speaker 5 (05:00):
Yeah, and I believe the Jaguar snapped the Broncos eleven
game winning streak, so that was an upset. And if
you go back to when they left Berlin with the
AFC's number one seed, they have gotten no help since then.

Speaker 4 (05:16):
It feels like, in my opinion, so I.

Speaker 1 (05:18):
Went back to Halloween just to try to get a
little basis of how the AFC has checken out since then.
The Colts have won one game since Halloween. The Texans
are seven and one, the Jags are also seven and one,
And then if you go to the other teams right
now in the wild card picture, the Chargers are six

(05:41):
and one. They beat the Cowboys yesterday. Again the Colts
really could have used and the Bills are six and two.
So I mean this is a two way street. The
Colts are doing nothing to help themselves, to be abundantly clear,
but they also are getting zero help other teams right now.

(06:01):
As we said here on this Monday morning, I'm sure
playoff scenarios and you guys are always all over it
over on the athletic. If the Colts win out, they
still have a pretty good chance to make it.

Speaker 5 (06:12):
Eighty five percent, I'm looking at it right now.

Speaker 1 (06:14):
We'll need a little help, but they still have a
pretty good chance to make it. So that would be
again forty nine ers tonight, hosting the Jags next weekend
at the Texans. Then in week eighteen if they lose tonight,
but when they're last two there you go, you would
need some help to get in. So that's where things
stand right now. I believe with a loss tonight, they'd

(06:35):
officially be eliminated from the AFC South the Jags would
They can't catch the Jags basically with the loss tonight,
and of course that would be the eleventh straight year
without winning this division.

Speaker 5 (06:49):
Boy, it seemed like a formality a couple months ago,
But the NFL changes fast, and we'll see if Uncle
Phil has a chance to bounce back tonight. I didn't
get as to catch up with some of his former teammates.
Got to call off Antonio Gates last week, which was
pretty cool, and we'll play some of that audio throughout
the show. And he was very excited and made it

(07:10):
very clear that he, at forty five.

Speaker 4 (07:13):
Is done playing football.

Speaker 5 (07:14):
And I don't know if there's rules against you know,
guys already being in the Hall of Fame. Can you
go to the Hall of Fame and then come out
of retirement?

Speaker 6 (07:20):
That a thing.

Speaker 5 (07:21):
It's a possibility for Antonio Gates possibly. Yeah, it was
like nah, but he he did get into a lot
of why he thinks Philip is doing this, so fascinating
stuff and a great perspective from him and others that
I talked to, so feel free to check that out.
A lot of good stories in that one worked pretty
hard on it, and it was good to hear from

(07:41):
a lot of folks.

Speaker 6 (07:42):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (07:43):
Another one I talked to Kevin was Eric Weddle Sure,
who did come out of retirement actually.

Speaker 4 (07:50):
MS and at the time I believe he was made.

Speaker 5 (07:53):
He might have been thirty six when he did it,
but he was very candid about the emotions and the
feelings and also the injury risk of doing something like this.

Speaker 1 (08:01):
If you are a fan of the Indiana Hoosiers and
you play on New Year's Day, has your worry level
increased or decreased after watching Alabama Oklahoma Friday night?

Speaker 5 (08:13):
I think it depends on what kind of fan you are,
because some fans there's always nervous. But I think it
probably decreased. I didn't.

Speaker 4 (08:20):
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (08:21):
I didn't feel like Alabama was a program watching that
entire game that would really give me angst. If I
were an IU fan, I feel like if we played
our standard, they should be able to not blow them
out or anything like that, but handle them, I think
in normal fashion, which I don't know ten point one

(08:42):
or something like that.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
Yeah. Rick von Terry often says the line of you're
not playing the myth, You're not playing the side of
the helmet. This is not normal Alabama.

Speaker 4 (08:53):
No, this isn't Tua and Jalen Hurts and all those guys.

Speaker 1 (08:56):
No, no, no, no. And I think how they got
back in that game was Oklahoma pissing down their leg. Yeah,
it was the drop snap on the punt. It was
one of the worst pick sixes you'll see. I thought
John Mattier in general had some just horrific misses there.
And the thing is Alabama. Two things they don't do
well that Indiana feast on. They can't run it at all.

(09:19):
We saw them have negative rushing yards in the SEC
title game. They didn't run it well against Oklahoma, and
then they struggle to protect Tys Simpson. And you know,
we'll see about the Steven Daily injury and where things
are at for Indiana. But that game opens up about
a touchdown. I think a little less than that for Indiana.
There any strong takeaways from really a slate that I

(09:41):
thought had one great game. I thought Miami A and
M's sometimes with the low scoring games we chalked them
up as not great games. That was great theater. I mean,
you had inclement weather, I think impacting that game. You
had great college kicker drama, and you had a couple
of drives there at the end where that game easily
could have turned. And I thought to myself, because A
and M started moving, are they going to do the

(10:02):
two point conversion thing?

Speaker 4 (10:03):
Yeah, and go for the win here?

Speaker 1 (10:05):
And we never got there. So any strong takeaways from
our four first round games.

Speaker 4 (10:11):
Not necessarily for me.

Speaker 5 (10:12):
I do think that we can perhaps overstate or overlook
what happened with the Miami and m game just because,
oh man, they barely scored. And I feel like, you know,
each life, each game has life of its own. To
use a cliche that I personally hate, but I kind
of think that it's a real thing. Like you can
look at that game be like, oh, like, those teams

(10:33):
aren't anybody to worry about, and they might come out
and score, you know, but Miami might come out and
score three touchdowns in their first quarter of the next game.

Speaker 4 (10:40):
You just never know. So it's all about just surviving
in advancing, and they did that.

Speaker 2 (10:43):
I thought the wind combined with those kickers made for
a pretty hilarious combination.

Speaker 1 (10:50):
That's to say, which again is entertaining, yes, especially if
you're not a fan of either of those two teams.
So we up Miami Ohio State. That will be our
New Year's Eve Wednesday Cotton Bowl. That's ten versus two.
If you look at the seeds, Oregon rolls JMU, they
have Texas Tech. That will be our first game on
New Year's Day, that is noon in Indiana. Would get

(11:12):
the winner of that game as long as they hold
serve Indiana and Alabama from the Rose Bowl. That is
a touchdown spread there a four o'clock kick, and then
we'll close things out on New Year's Day night from
the Sugar Bowl once again Georgia in the Superdome there
taking on Old Miss. That is also a touchdown spread.
Just to remind everybody about today, we will have the

(11:36):
Pacer game on these airwaves the fan tonight, So if
you're looking for Colts tonight, that'll be over on Hank FM.
That is our sister country station, ninety seven point one
Hank FM. So the Colts pregame huddle, you'll have John
until four thirty and then he'll take you from four
thirty to five thirty right here on the fan. Then
the Colts pregame huddle will start. That will carry until seven,

(11:59):
and then Pacers pre game coverage will take over at
seven o'clock. So if you're in your car starting, I
guess at what seven, you're gonna want to flip over
to Hank FM if you're looking for Colts pregame coverage.
And then the Colts and the forty nine Ers eight
to fifteen tonight from Lucasola Stadium, Joe Buck nine to
fifteen today? Is that right, Caleb Zuber?

Speaker 6 (12:20):
It is?

Speaker 7 (12:20):
Can't wait for it.

Speaker 4 (12:22):
This's gonna be awesome.

Speaker 1 (12:24):
That man is a very giddy about his hoosiers? Is
he not?

Speaker 4 (12:28):
Is anybody not in the state right now?

Speaker 1 (12:30):
You should be? I like, I like bucking Aikman. I
know people rip broadcasting crews. I get, like the sun
rises from the east. But if you made me pay ah,
I don't know. Trico Collinsworth, Yeah, Collinsworth kind of bothers
me a little bit. If I had to rank the three,
like the three big ones, I guess Romo and nance
you throw in there, I would take this one. And

(12:50):
I'm just I'm not just saying that because Joe Buck's
on our show to later.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
I agree with you, Kevin, for the record, I mean,
I'm a bucking aikman.

Speaker 1 (12:57):
How would you rank them? Would you rank Trico and
Collinsworth second, or would you go Nance and Roma.

Speaker 2 (13:01):
I'd probably go Nance Roma because I just have that
much respect for Jim Nance. But that's no disrespect that
Colin's worth in Tariico.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
We're not using these conversations because the Colts aren't usually playing.

Speaker 4 (13:12):
Sure, I'm gonna say this is true.

Speaker 5 (13:13):
I feel like I'm so I don't know, chill when
it comes to commentators, I really have to do. You have
to be like terrible for me to be like, oh
my god, what am I listening to? Yeah, because I'm
so usually so into the game.

Speaker 1 (13:25):
Ball State announcer bad from YouTube back in the.

Speaker 4 (13:27):
Time, Yeah, it'd do something like that.

Speaker 5 (13:29):
But it's funny when I hear a lot of the
fans complain about that. And honestly, because of our jobs, Kevin,
most of the time when I'm watching games or covering
a game, I don't even hear the broadcast to begin with.
So looking forward to hopefully getting a couple of you know,
glimpses at to listen tonight, but for the most part
we'll be locking into what's happening right before our eyes
of Lucas Oil.

Speaker 1 (13:48):
It is a rare Monday preview show for us here
on the Fan Morning Show again Ross Tucker. He's on
the Westwood one National Call tonight with Kevin Harlan, who
I do love, joining us at eight thirty the like
we said, Joe Buck coming up at nine to fifteen.
Congrats to was it Michael Caleb that I see it
is winning our Butler four pack for today, So that'll
be over on Fuego coming up this afternoon Butler and

(14:11):
in Jit two o'clock tip from Hinkle Field House, Kevin
bow and James Boyd, Caleb Zuber coming at you. Thanks
for starting this Christmas week with us here on the Fan.

Speaker 6 (14:22):
All right.

Speaker 1 (14:22):
Thirteen hours from now we'll have kicked off over at
Lucas Soil Stadium at his Colts cit Is forty nine
Ers Week sixteen Monday Night Football. James Boyd the latest
on the Colts injury situation. The good news Let's start there.
Big Buck back in the lineup.

Speaker 5 (14:38):
Yes, has not played since Week nine due to a
neck injury. We'll see later tonight if there's any limitations
with this return, meaning is on a pitch count, I
would assume probably Kevin, But nevertheless having him for some
snaps rather than no snaps is still a big boost
for the Colts.

Speaker 1 (14:52):
So again we will see exactly, like James said, what
the workload is for the Forrest Buckler. No Sauce Gardener.
He has yet to practice since getting hurt on November thirtieth,
and the Colts ruled out officially Bernard Rieman yesterday, so
to be their first time all season they've started a
game without their left tackle, so they'll be down both
tackles coming up tonight. Inside of Lucas Oil Stadium, San Francisco,

(15:16):
they are down Ricky pearsall their top white out and
their top corner also was ruled out over the weekend.
So I would say, you know, fairly notable injuries for
both of these teams here in the immediacy of Week sixteen,
not the injured reserve guys that obviously impact some things.
So we'll continue to break it down five and a
half point favorite the forty nine ers here in Week sixteen. Okay,

(15:39):
a ton to get to from the hardwood. Let's start
with the Pacers. They lose to the Pelicans over the weekend,
once again another not very good lost by any means
for them. I guess we want to go positives. Johnny
Furfey threw a couple in.

Speaker 5 (15:54):
Yeah, I guess we're really scratching and scraping form. Still
stuck on win ninety nine hundred ninety nine.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
Yes for Rick Carlisle. Yeah, it is a six and
twenty two now that they are. Yes at Celtics tonight,
ten and a half point underdog in this one. All
the Bucks coming up tomorrow night. Bucks have really struggled
without Giannis here Miles Turner averaging twelve and five this season.
We'll see what the Boo Birds looked like inside of

(16:21):
Gamebridge field House. You consume any college basketball over the weekend.

Speaker 4 (16:26):
Not really.

Speaker 5 (16:27):
I did get a chance to catch up a little
bit of Purdue when they look pretty good.

Speaker 4 (16:32):
I mean they blew out Auburn.

Speaker 5 (16:33):
I believe it was in again Braden Smith one of
the best point guards you'll ever see in college basketball.
So besides from that, though I didn't watch much of it.

Speaker 1 (16:41):
It was eighty eight sixty the final score there over
a gamebridgefield House.

Speaker 5 (16:44):
Perdue Trey Calton Wrinn said he wanted to one by
fifty because of how they lost last year to Auburn.

Speaker 1 (16:49):
Yeah, I think a little circle in the game. And
then they probably didn't love Bruce Pearl's comments earlier last week,
either describing last week's game or last year's game with Auburn.
Of a balance from Purdue. The vast majority of their
non conference now over and once again, even though that
they had that Iowa State loss at home, it's three
ranked wins in the non conference, four of them away

(17:11):
from home. It's very important in trying to build its
quality of a NCAA tournament resume as possible. Like we
said to lead off the show, Butler survive fad model
was not too pleased postgame with how Butler played, but
they survived got a great break when Northwesterns leading score
did not play sixty one fifty a fel bad for
kJ Windham. He had a look there at the end

(17:32):
to potentially force the game at overtime. But Michael Jai
continues his great start to the season for the Bulldogs
and nineteen points and twenty rebounds for him. Butler will
wrap up the non conference slate here coming up two
o'clock today over at Hinkle Field House with j it
in Indiana. They beat Chicago State on Saturday a million

(17:56):
threes in the first half, they hit struggle from the
second from behind the arc and the second half, but
did not matter. They've got Sienna today. That is a
six o'clock tip at Assembly Hall College Football from this weekend.
As we said to open up that first segment, it
was Alabama over Oklahoma on Friday night there. Oklahoma with

(18:19):
a million mistakes to let Alabama get back in the
game there, and so they will take on Indiana here
in the quarterfinal round. Any of those teams that win
on round one you could see went in again here
in round two. That was what we saw last year
with all these first round games.

Speaker 4 (18:36):
Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 5 (18:37):
I definitely think when you look at Ole Miss that
there's a chance that they could give Georgia some fits.
And you know, don't want to count out Oregon either.
I think they've played really good football this year too.

Speaker 2 (18:48):
I think it's a little just different with the format
because you know, last year you had the four conference
champions getting the buy. So that was Boise State in
Arizona State but no one in their right mind would
have thought they would maybe the top four teams. So
I'm really looking forward to to this quarterfinal because I
do think you do get a lot of the good
matchups and I think Oregon Texas Tech is gonna be

(19:09):
really fun. I know maybe people around here may not
care about it that much, but I mean, I think
it's gonna be awesome.

Speaker 1 (19:14):
Well, it could be the winner for Indiana then they're
true you know semi final round there. You know last year, yes,
we had you know, Boise State in Arizona State, get
those buys. We also had the one in the two
both lose. Then you know, Oregon losing to Ohio State,
Georgia losing to Notre Dame there in that quarterfinal round.
So get New Year's Eve for the first game, that's
Miami Ohio State. In the New Year's Day, you'll have
Indiana at four o'clock and three other games on that day.

(19:39):
Biggest NFL news item James Boyd for you yesterday was what.

Speaker 5 (19:45):
DK metcalf probably trying to punch a fan and yeah,
that was crazy. I don't know how about you. I mean,
I could keep it on the field, for sure, but
that was bizarre, and I think that he's gonna have
to pay a lot of money and probably we'll get suspended,
perhaps for the rest of the season for doing something
like that.

Speaker 1 (20:04):
Yeah, I think in our world, certainly, Jacksonville, I mean
to go to Denver. I believe that was the last
team to lose a home game all season, the Denver Broncos.
You know what Trevor Lawrence has looked like here recently.
I mean, I feel like it's such a debate over
who Trevor Lawrence is as an NFL quarterback and for
Liam Cohen to I guess resurrect that here this season.

(20:27):
And Jacksonville now on the verge of clinching the AFC
South was not something I think a lot of people
banked on coming into the year. So that, to me
is probably the most impressive thing on the field. For
those that didn't stay up last night, it was New
England coming back to beat Baltimore and Drake May some
big time throws in that game. Lamar Jackson did leave
early due to a back injury. So right now you

(20:50):
have two teams clinched in the AFC. That is New
England and that is Denver out in the NFC is
Mark from Munster on the line.

Speaker 2 (20:59):
By the way, today would be another great day to
get him on.

Speaker 1 (21:05):
How does he not do the show the day of
the Chicago Bears flirting with Northwest Indiana and then the
day after the Monday after their biggest win in last
I'm not.

Speaker 5 (21:17):
Going to allow us following his Twitter very closely on
Saturday night, and there were some words I probably can't
use or repeat that he was proudly stating about the
Green Bay Packers and his Bears being victorious.

Speaker 4 (21:28):
At the game.

Speaker 5 (21:29):
Though a great throw too by Calet Williams.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
Five of the seven of the NFC are clinched. That
would be Seahawks, Rams, the forty nine Ers did clinch
with the Bears. I think it was the Bears win.
Maybe it was a lion's loss. I think that clinch
things for the forty nine Ers, Bears, and Eagles. So
you have five of the seven of the NFC. What
San Francisco is playing for tonight if they went out,
they're the one seed in the NFC, So they aren't

(21:51):
playing for a playoff spot, they've already clinched that, but
they're playing for a lot Inside of Lucasolo stadium, and
nothing says Christmas has been ruining the bow and household
like Notre Dame basketball losing last night.

Speaker 2 (22:01):
I was gonna say, I didn't know if you're going
to bury that and all the other sports news, but
that deserve to be brought up right there.

Speaker 1 (22:07):
God tough. I'm so freaking mad.

Speaker 5 (22:11):
I did see the highlights on ESPN and they were
quick and break.

Speaker 1 (22:14):
Shout out to John Coffin. Why the hell are they
showing highlights of that? Shout out to John Cofflin. He's
had a great run of Fort Wayne and life with
Marcus Burton's tough for the Irish. Right now, that's an
awful loss. Now I have to fake being excited on
Christmas Day. Well, at least your coach, Maddie isn't listening.
At least your coach.

Speaker 5 (22:29):
Isn't like the Georgia Georgetown coach who threw a bottle
into the stands.

Speaker 1 (22:32):
And crazy shucked that water bottle.

Speaker 5 (22:34):
Ed Cooley right, yeah, And honestly, I was thinking, where
did you think it was going to go?

Speaker 4 (22:38):
If it didn't hit a kid, it was going to
hit somebody.

Speaker 1 (22:40):
He threw it straight.

Speaker 5 (22:42):
I thought he threw it up in the air when
I was like looking at the headline, he threw it
straight like it was like a a curveball or something,
or or fastball down center plate.

Speaker 1 (22:52):
One game suspension for him? Yeah, more for him or
more for DK metcalf Ooh you think more for DK Metcalf?
You think me Calf?

Speaker 5 (23:00):
The rest of the season. I think that's the probable. Well,
when we say the rest of the season, what are
the two games left?

Speaker 1 (23:05):
Aren't they going to make the playoffs?

Speaker 5 (23:06):
Well, I mean the rest of the regular season, he
might be sitting down. Yeah, but well, we'll see what happens.
I just don't know what he could possibly say. And
from the fans perspective I got actually reading this coming in.
He apparently said that his trash talk was saying DK's
full name, and DK doesn't like that.

Speaker 4 (23:24):
So it's like Mark Boyle, Yeah, you know what is it?
Timothy John Yeah?

Speaker 1 (23:29):
And that Calf left early, right, He did not stay
to talk after the game to reporters.

Speaker 5 (23:33):
Yeah, I can imagine he probably doesn't want to answer anything.
And in fairness to him, you probably can't get up
there and the Jamar chase in the Lion, So you
didn't do it. We all saw it so just extremely
dumb on his part, and he will certainly pay a
hefty fine for We'll see if you lose.

Speaker 1 (23:50):
One of the big wins that I mean that Pittsburgh
team going up there to Detroit and getting that w
wild wild ending. We can get to as well here
on this Monday morning again. Joe Buck gonna join us
here at nine to fifteen. He's got the call tonight,
of course of Colts and forty nine Ers on Monday
Night football, Ross Tucker. They'll have the national radio side
of things. Enjoy our combos with Ross will join us

(24:12):
coming up at eight thirty. Much more on the Colts
to forty nine ers. Where is the injury situation? Is
there anything lingering? After Anthony Richardson did practice all last week?
We'll hit it all next Fan Morning show here on
a Monday. Are they gonna make Philip Rivers run to
the fifty yard line tonight out of the tunnel song?

(24:33):
We would have to push kickoff back till eight sixteen.
If they did, they make Daniel Jones, they they made
him hurt. It was painful to watch Daniel Jones run
to the fifty yard line. I thought Blue is gonna
have to pick him up halfway there and carry him.

Speaker 3 (24:46):
You gonna pull a hammy the rest of it.

Speaker 1 (24:48):
But it's gonna be the offense announced, raight. I mean,
you gotta have the Philip Rivers cheer, don't But what
about d Buck Yeah that ain't no, ain't that ain't Rivers.
I mean there's a lot of people in the building
last night or tonight that I think you just want
to see that movie. Yeah. Now again, there are a lot
of people probably fed up with how the playoff standings look.
And once again we sit here on this Monday morning.

(25:09):
The Colts continue to get no help whatsoever. They're not
doing their part, let me be very clear on that,
but they're getting no help from an AFC playoff picture,
so they'll try to. They don't technically have to win tonight,
as crazy as that sounds. They have to win their
last two games. There is no playoff scenario in which
the Colts get into the dance without winning their last two.

(25:30):
That would be Jacksonville next Sunday in their home finale,
and then at Houston week eighteen. But it will be Colts.
So it will be forty nine ers tonight inside of
Lucas Oil Stadium, James like the biggest key, well, like
on field, what your biggest concern with San Francisco would be.

Speaker 8 (25:46):
What.

Speaker 5 (25:49):
How do you contain Christan McCaffrey, especially no one that
they like to get him out in space and quite frankly,
the Colts linebackers can't cover. And if you line him
up against Zaire Franklin or Jermaine Pratt, that's curtains.

Speaker 4 (26:05):
So how do you counter that? How do you help
with that? Do we see I.

Speaker 5 (26:11):
Don't know a little bit of more Jalen Jones if
you go a little diying package and you're and you're
having him trying to contain Christian McCaffrey out of the backfield.
So I guess that's my biggest thing is you know,
their bread and butter is that dude. And he might
even be a Hall of Famer someday. So you can't
let the potential Hall of Famer be the reason they
go on and win this game.

Speaker 4 (26:30):
Force other guys to beat you.

Speaker 1 (26:31):
Yeah, they'll be without their top white out. Ricky Pearson
did not or was ruled out yesterday. So when you
look at their weapons, obviously, Christian McAffrey speaks for himself
in his versatility, but you know, I throw George Kittle
into that mix just you know, from a tight end standpoint,
we've seen the Colts have some issues with tight ends
this season, and those two are already, you know, extremely

(26:54):
popular weapons for brock Purty. But what you know, how
the Colts try and corral those two because they both
at their individual positions, they're arguably the best players first off,
in the entire league. And then I'd also throw out
there they're just great once they get the ball in
their hands in different ways. You know, I touched on

(27:14):
it Friday. I'll never forget watching Christian McCaffrey had jointed
practices up at Grand Park with the Panthers, and they
could do it like I've never seen an athlete move
like that, Just how fluid, how seamless he was. Lateral quickness,
straight line quickness, all of it. And really, with San
Francisco's injuries, he has been the one, probably the one

(27:37):
key guy that's been healthy throughout all of this, which
is so crazy because he's the one that's usually hurt. Yeah,
but you know, Nick Bosa and Fred Warner season in
injuries and Kittle missed over a month and pretty missed
over a month, and you know, wide receiver position has
been really ravag suit injuries, and yet San Francisco, if
they went out, they're the one seed of the NFC,

(27:57):
which is crazy.

Speaker 5 (27:59):
Yeah, I mean this is the time of the year
where I don't know how you and Caleb feel, but
I feel like I'm in like finals class and I'm
just not quite sure what's going on with the tests
and what I need to pass or what I need
to get an A or a B, because I feel
like every day it gets updated.

Speaker 4 (28:15):
Okay, if this team it's this.

Speaker 5 (28:17):
Team, and you carry the one over here and you,
you know, get the square root of this, then you're
in the playoffs. That's how I feel with these conversations.
So for the Colts sake, I just know that you
have to win and that usually helps you.

Speaker 2 (28:28):
Yeah, that's what they haven't done the past how many years,
is take care of their own business. James Barron, We're
always taking the toughest, toughest exams because the Colts never
take care of their own stuff.

Speaker 5 (28:38):
This is true. This is true, honest. That's a very
good analogy that Calebers brought up. Yeah, if you don't
do what you're supposed to do for your first seventy
five percent of the semester. Kevin, you are a teacher
slash professor. You know those kids that come around like, hey,
could you round me up to this man?

Speaker 8 (28:54):
You had all.

Speaker 4 (28:54):
Semester to get that figured out.

Speaker 1 (28:56):
Yeah, I guess just to throw out, like the update
on playoff situation, Uh you have. First off, it's very complicated,
so there's not like this easy little If you win
these two and that team loses one, that blows my mind.
So it's difficult to explain. I feel like I need
to be that dude on NBC on Sunday Night Football.

(29:16):
What's his name, Kornak Karanaki. Yeah, I mean, I feel
like I need him with a whiteboard up here.

Speaker 5 (29:20):
But honestly, I feel like it's when you watch the
election cycles or whatever the guys up there like on
CNN he's like, if they get this many votes in
this county, they'll win this. But hey, hold on now,
And that's kind of how I feel about the sports scene.

Speaker 1 (29:32):
So tonight, I believe the only thing that can truly
happen good or bad is if the Colts lose tonight,
the AFC South is over. You can't catch Jacksonville. Jacksonville
is at what eleven and four, and you'd be at
eight and seven, So you can't get to Jacksonville with
a loss tonight. So that would be whatever it is,

(29:52):
eleven straight seasons without a division title. If you win tonight,
you still have to win the last two to have
a chance. That's probably another like consistent comment we can
make throughout the day today and even tomorrow from a
playoff standings update. You have to win the last two

(30:13):
to have a chance at the postseason. There is no
scenario where you can split with Jacksonville and Houston. A
lot of people have brought up, Okay, how can the
Houston thing work? Houston is one game. I guess technically
they're a game and a half above you right now.
If you were to finish with the same record with Houston,
that means you would beat them week eighteen down there,

(30:37):
so you split the head to head with them. Next
up on the tiebreaker list is division record. If you
were to beat them and beat Jacksonville next week, you
would tie Houston's divisional record. I believe both teams would
go four and two in the AFC South. So now
we move to the next tiebreaker. The next tiebreaker I

(30:58):
believe is comp diference games or common games, and both
the Colts and Texans would have the same record in
that scenario, So James, we'd go all the way down
to the tiebreaker. That would be strength of victory, which
I want to jump out of the second story window
trying to pen and paper it with strength of victory.

(31:22):
So correct me if I'm wrong, But that means the
Colts would be cheering for the likes of Denver to
continue to win, the Chargers to continue to win. Like
I feel like this is a college football thing. You're
you're trying to cheer for your wins to be better
than their wins. Whereas they've won what they beat San Francisco,

(31:43):
they beat, you know, Kansas City, which another torn Aco
for them. So that is the potential tiebreaker if you
can somehow get the same record as Houston. Again, it's
not a lock, but that would be a pathway into it. All.
Of course, every time I say this, and I spend

(32:03):
thirty minutes looking up all of this, I think to myself,
what Caleb said just a few minutes ago, Why the
hell do I believe the Colts are gonna win to
of their last three games.

Speaker 5 (32:13):
I think it's one of those things where don't you
just have to if you're an optimistic fan. A lot
of pests that mixed the ones, But if you're an
optimistic you just believe and see you mathematically aren't supposed
to anymore, I guess, but yeah, they haven't given you
any incentive. It's also weird, and I would love to
hear your thoughts on this, guys. Just reading all the
stuff that's been written about Philip Rivers and even myself included.

(32:35):
I mean, I did a big piece this morning at
the Athletic again talking to Antonio Gates and a few
other teammates that played with him about how excited they
alread see him back in the NFL. Everything we hear
sounds like they won last week and they didn't. Everything
we hear sounds like Phillip's here. We're all good. He
saved the day, and we don't know that he could

(32:59):
very well come back and lose every single start this
season on the way out the door. So of course
a lot of that will change tonight if they win.
But boy, they have to win, and it just hasn't
felt like that narrative wise, at least nationally, I'll say,
because I feel like the Colts fans are always the
ones kind of reminding me like, wait a minute, James,
they haven't won since, you know, before the season's changed.

Speaker 2 (33:22):
I'm a big believer in national TV games really changing
the narrative. And so everybody's gonna be watching, and everybody's
heard that what James is saying, Like, I know, your colleague, James,
Diana Russini put out a thing that said, like all
of the Colts headquarters are bought in on this. Okay, Well,

(33:45):
there's gonna be however, million people watching tonight, and let's
see how bought in they actually are and how.

Speaker 3 (33:51):
It actually looks when the game is played.

Speaker 1 (33:54):
You know, on paper, there is a great opportunity for
the Colts tonight. We've gone over this now all week long.
San Francisco they have more notable injuries than the Colts
doew or certainly have through the first fourteen weeks of
the season. Fifteen weeks of the season, and if you
look at their defense, James, if we were talking just
in a vacuum about San Francisco's defense, they're dead last

(34:15):
in the NFL in sacks. They came into this week
with sixteen sacks on the season. Miles Garrett had twenty
one and a half sacks entering this week. They just
gave up over six yards per carry to the Titans
last week. Titans team that is not running the football
at some extraordinary clip by any means, and now they're

(34:35):
without their top corner that has played out here through
their injury report this week. Like if we were just
talking about a normal opponent and I said to you
dead last the NFL and sacks just gave up over
six yards per carry running it down their top corner.
Their defensive coordinator is known as a very vanilla defensive coordinator.

(34:58):
You would sit here and say, Wow, what a great
opportunity for Shane Syken in this offense to feast on that.
So I guess is there optimism there for more offensively
than what you saw in Seattle, given San Francisco's seemingly
deficiencies on that side of the ball, Because there's so
much evidence that you can point to and be like, boy,
their defense, what like the Colts should be able to

(35:22):
move it tonight and should be able to put up points.
But the question is, is this Colts offense different with
Philip Rivers. Is there more there because the cults are bullish,
The cults are adamant that they can get to more,
particularly in the passing game.

Speaker 5 (35:34):
Yeah, well, I think they're lying when it comes to
their downfield throws and the frequency in which they'll test that,
because I just don't think that Philip Rivers has the
same arm talent. Now, how do you shut up the
liars or people who think you're lying. You go out
there and do it. So we'll see what that looks
like tonight. And I go back to the Seattle game

(35:56):
for this reason. Even if that was your game plan
with a guy like Daniel Jones or Roley Leonard or
Anthony Richardson had he been healthy, I still think that
for aggressive as Shane is, there would have been more
downfield throws in that game, regardless of if I conservative
they were. We got to run the ball, we got
a ground and pound. I get all that, But the
lack of downfield throws in today's NFL, with how creative

(36:19):
Shane stykeing is, you can't tell me that that would
have looked the exact same with a different quarterback. And
if you're saying well, that was a game plan regardless.
Then show me tonight the opposite at the end verse, Okay,
I think you can throw down the field. Show me
you can do it, and I think you will have
to do it to some degree to beat this forty
nine ers team. And the last thing I'll say, Kevin

(36:39):
is and I said this in the media room the
other day. Everyone keeps talking about the juice that Philip
Rivers has given the Colts, and I do think that's real.
I think that they have a little more hope now
than they did without him around. But what about the
juice the defense gets the forty nine ers defense that
is of facing an old guy. I don't care if
we have the least amount of the league. If I

(37:01):
am on that defense, I'm thinking to myself, there's no
way a guy's gonna come off the couch and beat
me as we try to go secure the number one
seed in our conference. No, so we'll see what that
you know plays out and looks like.

Speaker 1 (37:11):
Yeah, And part of me agrees with that. But then
I watched Seattle make no plays defensively, like they didn't
have sacks turnovers against the Colts like I I.

Speaker 5 (37:21):
They also only score at fifteen point or sixteen.

Speaker 1 (37:23):
Sure, but again, I'm a play making department. Like I
weirdly think watching Seattle, and again this is a very
like it's hard to actually quantify this. It felt like
Seattle has shackles on them. It felt like a team
that was like scared to lose to the Grandpa if
that's the right way to stay it. I mean, Jackson
Smith and Jake but has got a wide open drop

(37:45):
over the middle he hasn't had all year. They had
several drops in that game. So yes, there is part
of you it's like, dude, we are not letting that
guy beat us. And can you imagine me telling whatever
my grandkids one day that I picked off a Hall
of Famer. But I think there's also a little bit
of like it's the nervousness. It's you hooping with a
bunch of dudes that you don't think are good at all,

(38:06):
and you're kind of like, oh boy, if I don't
like beat them beat them, then that's more embarrassment on
me than anything. You imagine. You know, all my buddies
making fun of me that I just lost to the
forty four year old grandpa off the couch, that I Again,
it's kind of hard to quantify it per se, but
I do think that is real. We'll see exactly what
the Colts offensive line looks like tonight. Again, no Bernard

(38:29):
Ryman at left tackle. Mentioned this late in the week.
There is part of me that thinks the Colts could
very well be shifting a lot up front. You know,
I kind of got an idea a little bit earlier
in the week that this is not going to be
the same starting offensive line that ended the game in Seattle.

(38:50):
We saw just one change there. It was simply Bernard
Ryman exits due to injury. Luke Tanuda goes in at
left tackle. The Colts keep the other four spots the same.
Now again, Braden's Smith is out, so rookie Jalen Travis
was the right tackle to start that game. But you
sometimes see this with a full week of practice. Sometimes

(39:10):
teams opt for, hey, how can we get the best
five out there? And I'm curious if we see some
musical chairs tonight from the Colts in there offensive line.

Speaker 5 (39:21):
It's certainly worth pondering because, like you said, Luke Tanuda,
I think that was like his first time playing any
snaps in the live games in twenty twenty two last week,
So would you consider, Okay, we've had other guys more
experience that we can move around and take it from there.
And also one thing to keep in mind all the time,
I think when it comes to offensive line changes, especially

(39:44):
when injuries happened during a game. During the game, you
kind of got to just get through it. So you
throw Luke Tanuda in there. You know, that's the easiest,
simplest fixed and you just get through the rest.

Speaker 1 (39:53):
Of the game.

Speaker 5 (39:53):
Whereas if you got a whole week, then if you
want to shuffle, move some guys around, if you want to,
perhaps you know, put Dalton Tucker back in the lineup
at right guard because he started a couple games last year,
and move Maganzovz around, whatever the case may be. If
that does happen, you have an entire week to build
that out and give those guys that confidence and make

(40:14):
it not feel as new as it would if you
were in the moment trying to do that.

Speaker 1 (40:19):
Shane asking him on the text line three one seven
two three nineteen, Shane, h, I thought Shane was up
this morning? No boy, you think you think Shane Second's
listened to one minute of this radio station in his life.

Speaker 4 (40:31):
No, I actually don't think that he sleeps. I think
he just told you.

Speaker 5 (40:34):
I think he goes back into his office, he rolls
up the sleeve and then it's like I robot with
Will Smith and he's got like some little cyborg arm
and he just plugs in.

Speaker 1 (40:43):
So the morning commute, he's listening to what he's consuming?
What or is he just silence? It's silence, Just Philip
rivers Cadence for twenty five minutes on repeat. Yeah, it's
that or that's his white noise.

Speaker 5 (40:57):
It's a little clicking sound you get when you're going
through the All twenty two film where it's just you
know that that you can just I can just hear
a clicker in his head going off. He's probably replaying
plays in his head.

Speaker 1 (41:07):
Shane. The season long injuries for the forty nine ers,
pretty missed was a seven games James perty miss seven
or eight? Yeah, so pretty miss seven. Brandon Ayuk never
showed up to play football this year. Sounds like a
very awkward story.

Speaker 6 (41:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (41:20):
I don't know if he's gonna play football again the
way he's acting.

Speaker 1 (41:22):
But Kittle miss five games, Nick Bosa and Fred Warner
I think any list of the top I don't know
ten defenders in the NFL would include those two on
it Bosa towards ACL in week three, Warner broken, what
was it was it ankle? I think it was ankle. Yeah,
in week six their first round pick Mickel Williams towards ACL.

(41:46):
Then for this week specifically, Ricky Pier saw their top
white out, who's also missed some time this season. He
is out in their top corner. I believe Ernardo Green
is out. I mean, I'd like to think I follow
the NFL at a decently decent rate. Here, you name me.
They are eleven defensive players and I've maybe heard of
three of them.

Speaker 4 (42:07):
Yeah, I was struggling.

Speaker 1 (42:09):
I mean they are a very not now. Offensively, they
still got some definite dudes, I mean Trent Williams and
Christian McCaffrey and George Kittle and certainly Perty now that
he's backing healthy. But yeah, it's been an absolute slew
of injuries here. Funny so pissed Notre Dame lost to
Fort Wayne.

Speaker 7 (42:26):
Dude.

Speaker 2 (42:27):
I mean that is that is really really tough, man,
and it just ruins the weekend because you're sitting there
watching you know, Alabama. You're sitting there watching Miami on
the football side, You're like, well, at least I got
Notre Dame basketball, right, Nope, just a bomber, Kevin.

Speaker 1 (42:44):
I feel bad for you, man, and like the fact
that I am so immature about it that it then
ruins my Christmas is just even more pathetic. Shout out
John Coff and shout out the Mastodons, Shout out our
Fort Wayne listeners. Gosh, you can a lot of strong
conviction in my emotion on that. I can't believe they

(43:06):
showed the highlights on ESPN. I wanted this late NFL Sunday.
We got unranked Notre Dame in Fort Wayne. What in
the world.

Speaker 5 (43:16):
It might not have been like the main ESPN, but yeah,
there was a nice little run through of that. I
just remember them like not winning on like a last
second basket. I thought it was something like that.

Speaker 1 (43:25):
But don't even give me a started on that Notre
Dame down three and Jalen Harrilson dribbles in for like
a sixteen footer at the buzzer. I'm like, dude, we're
down three, you got to shoot a three.

Speaker 5 (43:36):
Worst play that or Mark Andrews's ladder lateral yesterday.

Speaker 1 (43:39):
I don't know what that was. And did you see
the New England fake punt last night? That was a disaster.

Speaker 5 (43:44):
Yeah, that was a weird game New England. I mean
winning is winning, but boy, for a second there, I
was like, hey, what you.

Speaker 1 (43:50):
Had some impressive AFC teams on the road last night, Eric,
I actually say kind in the primetime windows. You know,
Pittsburgh going to Detroit getting that win, and then I
thought New England coming back to beating Baltimore. I mean
I know that. You know, Lamar Jackson got hurt for
those that missed it late first half there, but they
were down two scores in the fourth quarter. Drake May
made some throws there that he's a dude. He's a dude.

(44:14):
And with with Denver losing, that was a big result
for the top of the AFC and potentially what's in
buys could look like. All right, reminder Joe Buck he's
going to join us coming up at nine to fifteen today.
He'll be on the call tonight of coltson forty nine
ers on Monday Night Football, alongside Troy Aik, Ben Ross
Tucker from Westwood One. He'll be on the national radio

(44:34):
broadcast tonight. He'll join us at eight thirty. Much more
previewing colts and forty nine ers. What to make of
week one of Anthony Richardson's return to practice. We'll hit
on that as well. Fan Bonneychell, thank you for starting
your Christmas week with us right here. It's Kevin bow
and James Boyd and Caleb Zuver. What a good Monday

(44:54):
morning to you. It is going to be a balmy,
balmy Christmas week.

Speaker 6 (44:59):
I got.

Speaker 1 (45:00):
I had no idea. I was still on email list
for local golf courses. I guess I am. I had
some golf courses email and we're open this week? Is
it sac religious to be north of sixty degrees on Christmas?

Speaker 2 (45:12):
Matty Bowling can be like, hey, you're still upset about
the Notre Dame loss.

Speaker 1 (45:16):
Why don't you just go hit the links? Yeah, gosh,
wife for the year unbelievable. Would you rather have a
sixty two degree Christmas or snow on Christmas?

Speaker 3 (45:26):
Snow might be in the minority, but snow now?

Speaker 1 (45:30):
Is that just stupid or is that sentimental?

Speaker 7 (45:32):
Sentimental?

Speaker 5 (45:33):
I think it's more sentimental if you have young children
and they want to go play in the snow or
something like James.

Speaker 1 (45:38):
Boy doesn't give two you know what's about snow on Christmas.

Speaker 5 (45:41):
Nah, I don't care at all, mainly because I have
to drive in it, and driving the snow always stinks.
So again, if you are a jobless and you are
a kid, and your only responsibilities on Christmas morning are
waking up, getting spoiled, living a dream and running out
there in your pajamas and boots and planning the snow,
and yes, I want the snow. But if you have
responsibilities on Christmas like we do, perhaps going to a

(46:03):
close practice or something like that, then nah, I'll pass
on the snow.

Speaker 1 (46:07):
It'll be Indiana Nights and so yeah, trust man, I
heard it loud and clear inside of Lucasols State in night.
I like the look of the Indiana Night's unis am
I in the minority on that. I'm totally good with
them once a year.

Speaker 5 (46:22):
Well, I like that they're finally going to be played
in at night. That's going to be interesting to see.

Speaker 1 (46:27):
Yeah, better than the windows shining and the sun is
glaring off.

Speaker 4 (46:30):
The night one pm kickoff.

Speaker 5 (46:33):
Now, I will say, y'all know I already believe tonight
is a sin because one pm is God's time for kickoffs.

Speaker 4 (46:40):
You know, a fifteenth is a little late for you boy.

Speaker 1 (46:42):
You guys taking a nap today.

Speaker 3 (46:44):
You know I got to be in early tomorrow. Like,
what's the game plan for you? Two?

Speaker 2 (46:47):
I mean you got to cover the game tonight and
be ready to go tomorrow morning, realistic taking notes.

Speaker 5 (46:53):
If I'm done, so the game will probably be over.
What about midnight? Yeah, if I.

Speaker 1 (46:57):
Hopefully hopefully eleven if technical hopefully eleven thirty.

Speaker 4 (47:01):
Yeah, eleven thirty.

Speaker 5 (47:03):
If I can get out of the stadium by realistically,
like done writing and all that by like two am,
I think I'll be in good shape after that. I
don't know, We'll see.

Speaker 1 (47:11):
Gosh, we got to check out about Rick Carlisle too tomorrow,
right Tuesdays with Rick now that I'm trying to play
on the show in my head right now, speaking of
playing the show, Joe Buckle join us at nine point fifteen.
He or Ross Tucker, who's on the Westwood one call tonight.
At eight point thirty, James We knew Anthony Richardson Senior
would not play tonight. He was Shane Sacking made that

(47:32):
clear last week in his first week back to practice. Officially,
I think what was he limited all three days?

Speaker 5 (47:37):
I guess I should double check it was limited.

Speaker 1 (47:39):
On the final injury report. You know, anytime the Richardson
conversation has been brought up now for the last several
weeks or even month, I think my kind of big
picture twenty twenty five view has been I remain skeptical
we will see him this season. Again. The Colts can't

(48:00):
be officially eliminated from the playoffs until week eighteen. I
think technically they could be eliminated by the time they
kick off next weekend, because I want to say Houston
plays on Saturday next week. Now, again, that would have
to involve I think Colts losing tonight Texans then would
have to beat the Chargers coming up Saturday. Just remind

(48:20):
everybody we'll get three games on Christmas Thursday this week,
and then we'll get two on Saturday. So we'll have
kind of queer easy NFL schedule coming up here in
week seventeen. But I will, even with Richardson getting back
to practice, I'll continue to go with kind of the
thought I've had for the last several weeks, probably month
plus now, I remain skeptical we will see him playing

(48:41):
for the Colts here in twenty twenty five. Has anything
changed one way or the other for you? After Richardson
did return to practice.

Speaker 5 (48:51):
Well, learning that he had any type of vision limitations,
basically in my mind told me, well, he's not playing
again this year. Oh that was the big conversation when
we heard the first inkling of the possibility of him
practicing again and having his return to play window open.
But to me, this is more about him just getting
back out there with the guys rather than trying to

(49:12):
prepare for a potential playoff push. I just don't think
you can rely on someone who has vision impairments to
play quarterback for you with your season on the line,
which it honestly explains why they were so aggressive to
go get Philip Rivers anyways, Because if you had any
idea or any thought that Anthony Richardson could play with

(49:32):
say three games left in the season, you were confident
in his ability to do so, just from a physical standpoint,
From an I standpoint, then you're probably not beating down
Phillip's door the knight of the Jacksonville loss to get
him to come out of retirement.

Speaker 1 (49:47):
Do you think the if they were eliminated from the playoffs,
do you think that would shift thinking at all with him?
I guess it would just be from one game. That'd
be Houston.

Speaker 5 (49:58):
Not necessarily, because you still want to protect player if
he can't see well enough. And I don't know what
his visit vision limitations are, but if they are to
a level where you feel like you're not putting him
out there to be safe playing the game, then no,
you can't do it.

Speaker 1 (50:13):
Yeah, we had this conversation a lot on Friday. So
for those that maybe missed it, you had the orbital fracture,
but then the trauma from that caused definite vision damage.
Initially it has gotten better, but there are still I
mean we're talking retin the damage, we're talking scarring, we

(50:34):
are talking potentially that heals that that's not a slam dunk.
And I don't think the belief is it necessarily heals
in the next whatever week or so. I think it's
more of a twenty twenty six. So the thought with
Richardson right now is how can he manage it? And
you know, again, it's unfair probably for any of us

(50:55):
to compare our own vision or lack thereof to his situation.
But you know, for anybody who's wearing contacts classes, et cetera,
et cetera, can you function without maybe putting the glasses
on or wearing the contacts. Sure? Is it an ideal
situation to go play an NFL game? Probably not, So
I think that's what we're dealing with here. And you know,

(51:20):
if you want to get technical, it's in the right eye,
which is a right handed quarterback, So from a peripheral
vision standpoint, you probably prefer that then the left eye,
you know, from his blind side. But still, I'm thinking
Rivers tonight, Rivers Sunday, And if you were eliminated, maybe
Riley Leonard week eighteen. That's kind of how I map

(51:43):
it out right now. And if you aren't eliminated, I
think it'll be Rivers again. And I don't even know
if they'd do Richardson in short yardage like that is
a thought I've had of. Like again, if if the
vision impairment is whatever, he's got trouble, you know, reading
safeties thirty yards down the field, you know, could he
operate a whatever, a little RPO and fourth and one

(52:04):
something like that. But I'm not holding my breath for
that either. Do you think we'll see Leonard at all
in short yardage tonight? Do you think he'll do any wrinkles?

Speaker 4 (52:12):
Though, no, I don't think so.

Speaker 5 (52:14):
To be honest with you, I think their wrinkles will
be involving Tyler Warren before before involving Ryley Leonard.

Speaker 1 (52:20):
Yeah, we saw. I think the Steelers have been very
popular with that. We saw them do that a couple
of times. Aaron Rodgers giving zero you know what's when
he's standing behind the old Steelers push push there. Well,
how about Mike Tomlin Once again, every single year doesn't
matter who their quarterback is. And I watched Rogers a
little bit yesterday. He definitely has more in the right

(52:45):
arm than Rivers does. But late in the first half,
did you see the Kenneth gain will touchdown just like
the wild Like did he catch it and then he
gets up? That is a question I have with Rivers tonight.
Can you attempt a few of those which, again, when
you throw them, you're kind of like, well, here's a

(53:06):
hope and a prayer. But the hope in the prayer
works more often than not. I feel like in the NFL,
it certainly works when you target Alec Pierce. And if
you're facing a forty nine ers team that is dead
last in the NFL and sacks down their top corner,
can you throw one? And again, I don't know if
Rivers can do this, but I think the Colts feel
like he can. Can you throw one whatever twenty yards

(53:30):
thirty yards down the field? Obviously you're hoping for completion,
but if not, if it's a linebacker or safety and
coverage and you get some panic moments and they grab,
then that's just as good as a completion. That's what
I think is an absolute must for the Colts to
try and explore.

Speaker 7 (53:51):
Again.

Speaker 1 (53:51):
They're optimistic. I think that their vertical passing game can
give you a little bit more certainly than it did
last week. But I think you just have to try it.
Hell rivers first throw against Seattle last week was I
think a half ass attempt at it. I didn't have
Jonathan Taylor isolated in a one on one being their
first throw of the Philip Rivers era, but that's what
it was, and the hell Taylor almost came down with it.

Speaker 2 (54:13):
Do we think we see a longer pass tonight than
we saw last week? With Alec Pierce play because that
was the longest one, right, yes, yeah, the only one.

Speaker 1 (54:23):
Josh Downs, Yeah, I mean yeah, the Downs double move.
You know, technically, you know, you had the little whatever
that was kind of the seam ball to Tyler Warren
and went for seventeen. I think that was technically the
longest play.

Speaker 3 (54:34):
That's the best throw of the day for the entire game.

Speaker 1 (54:37):
Yeah, over the middle, you know, a little bit of
a crowd there. Again, he throws with great anticipation. Still,
I think Kyle Shanahan pointed that out earlier in the week.
Shanahan was saying, if you look at it from a
pure covered standpoint, like how Seattle played their coverages, he said,
Rivers throw the ball to the exact spot it should
have gone to every single time. So again, that's mental acumen.

(55:00):
That's the chess match. That's the Hey, when it's covered, three,
I go here, when it's covered, four, I go here
when it's covered. You know, like Rivers one thousand percent
knows that and can do it. It's just do they
have the athleticism on the defensive side of the ball
to expose the arm and do they have the anticipatory
nature to expose the arm because there are a few

(55:22):
times where you know, he threw some balls in Seattle,
and you know how many our fathers can you get
in before the time that ball gets there. Well, I've
been nothing against Mary, by.

Speaker 5 (55:32):
The way, I was gonna say, I hope not. You know,
you want to be able to, you know, see the
Parly White Greats one day. I don't want d you know,
denying you entry because something you said on a morning
radio show in the year twenty twenty five. Uh, Caleb,
I know I teased it throughout the lead into the show,
but I had a chance to talk to Antonio Gates,
former teammate of course, of Philip Rivers Hall of Fame

(55:54):
tight End about Philip coming out of retirement, and here's
what he said about out why he thinks Rivers is
doing it.

Speaker 9 (56:02):
The coach wasn't in a position to be a postseason contender.

Speaker 6 (56:07):
I don't think this would.

Speaker 9 (56:08):
Still be a topic of a discussion, right. I just
don't see it.

Speaker 5 (56:11):
I don't see him saying, uh, you know.

Speaker 9 (56:14):
Dotrick Mahomes went down and try it, and she's want
me to come back and finish the season. Well, then
think I still got it. He ain't doing it in
that perspective. He has multiple multiple motivations. One, I get
to show my other kids because I heard.

Speaker 6 (56:27):
Him say that.

Speaker 9 (56:28):
I get to see if I can create and still
be the field of rivers. I'm old, right. I got
more experienced, I got more knowledge. I'm not as physically capable,
but I do know I don't have to do as
much because the game is probably slower, and I get
to change I'm essentially I'm changing the narrative of what
people feel about the game. I get to come off

(56:49):
the couch at forty four years old and throw a.

Speaker 1 (56:51):
Two style and y'all see that you couldn't do it.

Speaker 9 (56:54):
Y'all say people can't do that at forty four, you'll
see so. And I get a chance and have an
opportunity to play the postseason that he did, which is
another storyline. The toss in the postseason with a guy
John Philip Lewis who's been on the.

Speaker 8 (57:06):
Couch for five years. That's a whole nother storyline.

Speaker 9 (57:09):
Oh and I get a chance to win a Super Bowl,
which is the ultimate storyline for myself.

Speaker 8 (57:16):
Or my family, for my career.

Speaker 9 (57:17):
The reason why I started playing is because I was
a competitor and I wanted to be a winner. And
that is the ending of his story.

Speaker 4 (57:29):
Just great stuff.

Speaker 5 (57:29):
You could tell how excited he was to talk to me,
not me, but me about his buddy Philip Rivers. And
later on the interview you can check it out as
the athletic and full he talks about just how they
took so much flack and still do for never getting
to a Super Bowl and only playing a one AFC
championship game and not having more success despite all the numbers.

(57:51):
I mean, if you look at that trio of players,
Philip Rivers, Danian Thomason and Antonio Gates, how many quarterback
tied end running back trios and NFL history were as
great as those dudes in their heyday. And so I
did remind him, you know, the Coats lost four straight
and tall all super Bowls.

Speaker 4 (58:10):
What are we doing here?

Speaker 5 (58:11):
And he was like, that's all the more reason why
you do it. He's like, because you're irrational enough to
think you can, which is how he explained to me,
is why you make it to the Hall of Fame
like he did. Why Philip Rivers is a or was
a semi finalist until you know, come out of retirement.
He was like, you have to believe when no one
else does, and that's what he's going to do for
his buddy when he tunes in Monday night. And best
believe the NFL world is going to be captivated by this.

(58:34):
I know the Colts game did huge numbers on CBS
for the Seattle game. This will do much bigger just
because you have the national audience looking in and trying
to see if this old man can pull it off.

Speaker 9 (58:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (58:44):
I mean I think most people understand this, but I
don't think Rivers is coming back if it's not a
I know this offense like the back of my hand.
It changed psyching in Indie and at the time they
were what eight and five?

Speaker 5 (58:56):
You know what's crazy? Antonio Gates used that exact same phrase.
He was like, we know sane like the back of
our hands.

Speaker 4 (59:03):
It's as simple as that.

Speaker 1 (59:04):
Like if this was oh, let's call it Jacksonville, the
Chiefs need a quarterback, right right?

Speaker 4 (59:11):
Yeah, I mean I'm joking, but like I'm kind of not.

Speaker 5 (59:14):
Like they're literally had two quarterbacks go down in two
weeks with ACLTA.

Speaker 1 (59:17):
But even like Jacksonville, who was still alive. Yeah, I
don't think necessarily Rivers a would have done it, you know,
b would have you know, maybe Liam Cohen isn't isn't
necessarily doing that. So again, Philip Rivers and Riley Leonard,
that's your QB one and QB two for tonight. We've
reiterated this throughout the show. But it's pretty amazing. And

(59:39):
you know, to be clear, the Colts have not done
their part. But if you go back and you know,
I just throughout the date of Halloween where things really
started to shift for the Colts in their playoff standings.
Since that date, the Colts have won one game since Halloween.
The Texans are seven and one, the Jazz Eggs are

(01:00:01):
seven and one, the Chargers are six and one, and
the Bills are six and two. And I pull out
those teams because right now in the wildcard standings, the
three wildcard teams are Chargers, Bills, Texans, and the AFC
South leader is Jacksonville. So you think about that, their

(01:00:21):
combined record since Halloween is twenty six and five and
the Colts are one and four.

Speaker 4 (01:00:30):
That's crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:00:32):
So how did you go from whatever ninety percent chance
to make it to now wherever you're at today? Well, twofold.
You haven't done your part and no one else is
holding the door for you. Like usually one team is
helping you hold the door. One team's like, yeah, maybe
you have a shot here, but that's not occurring at all.

(01:00:53):
You know, yesterday the Raiders were flirting there for a
while there, like they could have pulled off a huge
upset for the Colts in beating the Texans, And sure enough,
Nico Collins makes a couple of big time grabs and
Houston Ice is that game away. I mean, who had
Jacksonville going to Denver and winning by two scores yesterday
and that was probably the best result of the week.

Speaker 5 (01:01:13):
Rights It's remarkable how all this is an unfolded and boy,
there's so many tentacles to it where you can point
in different directions. But bottom line is tonight's game is huge,
as is the last three. You pretty much need to
win all three of them to have a chance to
get into the playoff.

Speaker 1 (01:01:29):
Twenty four hours from now, it's coltson Niners. Ross Tucker
from Westwood One gonna join us on the other side.
Caleb is checking down all right, James Boyd final injury report.
We know no Sauce Gardner. We know no Bernard Rayman,
but deforce Buckner's first game back in over a month.

Speaker 5 (01:01:45):
He is a game wrecker and you welcome him back
with open arms because your defensive line certainly needs it.

Speaker 1 (01:01:50):
And we'll see that pitch count for him. But he'll
see his former team coming up tonight after that, stand
in your reserve look for that Rostermouve officially coming up
later today San Francisco without their top white out and
Ricky Pierce saw their top corner also a surprise and
active here coming up for tonight. Speaking of tonight, if
you want to watch little hoops before the Pacers, before
the Colts, you can. With the Pacers. You've got Pacers

(01:02:14):
Celtics seven point thirty from out in Boston. Pacers will
then come back home tomorrow night they'll take on the Bucks.
That is Miles Turner's second game back here, his final
game back here this season. Pacers with an ugly loss
over the weekend to the New Orleans Pelicans. Rick Carlisle
mentioned after the game he's got to look into his
starting lineup and some potential changes there, so we keep

(01:02:36):
an eye out for that. Johnny Furfrey did play well
over the weekend. That is again the young guys not
really stepping up for the Pacers. Some of these young
guys that you would like to have seen take a
jump over the weekend College football wise, James, your thoughts
on the crimson tide of Alabama moving on to face
Indiana here in the Rose Bowl.

Speaker 5 (01:02:55):
Their flawed team can't really run the ball very well.
We know that Indiana is great in the trenches. I
think that that's going to be advantage I. You and
I get that they're not the same Alabama, But the
idea of knocking off that program to advance further than
the collegeotball playoff is something that just seemed unfathomable, you know,
two years ago, and then here we are with this

(01:03:16):
possibility right in.

Speaker 6 (01:03:17):
Front of us.

Speaker 1 (01:03:18):
You know, I feel like it's falling off a cliff
for Alabama. Is that Ryan Williams the white out? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:03:23):
He was in a conversation with Jeremiah Smith, right.

Speaker 1 (01:03:26):
And now they throw it to him and I'm like,
that's a liability throwing the ball.

Speaker 5 (01:03:29):
Yeah, I don't know, man, that kid seems stuck. He's
in his own head. Yeah, cannot make the big play
anymore so. Of course, we're gonna say all this and
he's gonna catch a fifty yard touchdown or something like
that against IU. Butel Pond, Yeah, I was gonna say.
I don't feel very confident in saying that.

Speaker 1 (01:03:45):
So again, quarterfinals coming up New Year's Eve. It will
be Miami in Ohio State. Miami wins a wild one
even though it was a low scoring game. In college station.
The New Year's Day, you'll have those three games Oregon,
Texas Tech. That'll be noon from the Orange Bowl, Indiana
and Alabama, and then the night cap will be Old
Miss in Georgia from the Sugar Bowl. College basketball from

(01:04:06):
over the weekend. Perdue once again a very impressive non
conference resume. They add to it as they blow Auburn
out of gamebridge Field. That's great balance, Braydon Smith once
again dazzling the statute. And I love me some CJ. Cox.
I just every time I watch Perdue, I watch Cox,
I think that is the Andrew Nemhart when everyone's healthy
for the Pacers, that is the type of rule he fills.

(01:04:27):
Purdue got some nice minutes off the bench from Jakari
Harris and Jack Benter, so they take care of business
with another ranked win another win away from home, Butler
survived Northwestern Thad moda none two. Pleased with his team's effort.
They are fortunate the Northwestern's leading score was out, but
nonetheless important for the resume there for Butler as they
beat Northwestern by three. They are in action today at Hinkle.

(01:04:52):
That is in j it. That is a two o'clock tip.
You can hear that over on Flego, our sister station.
I think it's ninety two point seven if I remember
the frequency correct on that, and then I you they
beat Chicago State on Saturday. They've got Sienna tonight, coached
by the one, the only, Jerry McNamara. I feel like

(01:05:14):
he's like one of those college basketball like folklore Jerry
McNamara starting for a ninth year at Syracuse.

Speaker 5 (01:05:22):
That's how I felt about the Ellis guy Kansas.

Speaker 1 (01:05:26):
I felt that way about Scottie Reynolds at Villanova. Great
great player, loved watch who played longer Reynolds or McNamara.
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:05:34):
Aaron Craft, oh Man.

Speaker 1 (01:05:36):
Haraft unbelievable right there, Harry Ellis. If he needs we
grow here Indy, I can definitely help him out in
that area. Six o'clock tonight. It is Indiana and Assembly
Hall against Sienna, and go ahead. Both you boys have
cackled every time I've brought it up. Shout out to
the Mastodons man, John Coffman. He's had a very nice
run there. They beat Notre Dame again.

Speaker 5 (01:05:58):
It could always be worse. At least your coach did
not throw a water bottle. Also, the stands like the
Georgetown coach did and hit a kid.

Speaker 1 (01:06:04):
If you could tell me the win would happen, though,
I would rather take that. I hope the kid's okay.
Put some ice on it, oh man.

Speaker 3 (01:06:11):
Wonder what it would take to take.

Speaker 1 (01:06:14):
If Max Bone could take one on the noggin for
a Notre Dame basketball win. We I mean, hell, we've
already been to the er once in his life.

Speaker 4 (01:06:21):
Maddie.

Speaker 5 (01:06:21):
If you want to black his eyes after this show,
I won't snitch.

Speaker 1 (01:06:24):
Gosh, it is so freaking pathetic how it makes me
feel that they lost. It's it's awesome to me.

Speaker 2 (01:06:29):
I love seeing it, like I just got passion that
you have for Notre Dame basketball.

Speaker 1 (01:06:34):
I was so pissed.

Speaker 5 (01:06:35):
I am still clearly because it's still mad. I gotta
get over it.

Speaker 1 (01:06:40):
Seventy two to sixty nine, the Mastodons over the Irish.
There your biggest NFL news item from week sixteen, Caleb,
we'll start with you. What do you got biggest news
item from what we just witnessed? It's the Bears.

Speaker 2 (01:06:51):
I think it looks like again stuff changes week tweak,
but it looks like they're gonna win that division. And
that's a pretty incredible turnaround. Caleb Williams. I know he
wasn't great all game, but to come up in that
moment with that throw, like he's always capable of that,
and it was a it was a pretty awesome NFL
moment Saturday night.

Speaker 1 (01:07:10):
I am not a Bears fan, but that scene in
Soldier Field was pretty pretty cool. And so your jokes
about where they're off to next James, your biggest story.

Speaker 5 (01:07:19):
It probably is that one, aside from like I said,
the DK Metcalf missed punch on a fan keyword missed
right there. That was pretty bad. He'll get fined a
lot of money and probably suspended for that. But yeah,
the funny thing about it, I was talking to my
grandma yesterday. She lives with my uncle and my aunt,
and my uncle is a die hard Bears fan, like
the man would fire everyone after every loss, and he

(01:07:40):
build a statureft every win, like that's how he rides
the wave. So she told me. She stays in their basement,
and she told me, and you would have thought the
world was coming to anyway. Your uncle was clowning up
there upstairs, and so I'm sure he was bumping and
banging around and living life and enjoying it. So yeah,
the vibes are pretty high back in Chicago around my family.

Speaker 1 (01:08:00):
And we'll see about DK Metcalf, the potential suspend I
should say likely suspension that's coming there with Pittsburgh winning
and Baltimore losing, though Pittsburgh does not need much more
to win the AFC North, so you know, yes, he
could be out. But I think their magic number might
just be one that would be a Pittsburgh winner of
Baltimore loss here to close out the season. I believe

(01:08:20):
those teams, those two teams playing Week eighteen. Of course,
we'll see about Lamar Jackson and that back injury all right.
On the other side, Ross Talker, you'll hear him tonight.
Westwood won him and Kevin Harlan he joins us next.
Hi Less than twenty four hours from now, twenty four
less than twelve hours from now, inside of Lucas Oil Stadium.
For the first time in three years, the Colts play

(01:08:42):
Monday night football game. It will be Colts and forty
nine ers. Believe the spread settling in five and a
half for San Francisco and on the Westwood One call,
we head to the Payloffs Liquers Hotline right now. He's
the host of the Ross Tucker Football Podcast and you
can follow him over on Twitter at Ross Tucker NFL.
He's one of our favorites. Always enjoy chatting with him,

(01:09:03):
and he will call Lugosolo Stadium home tonight. He is
Ross Tucker. Ross. Good morning to you. Hopefully you have
some safe travels here to Indy.

Speaker 6 (01:09:13):
Yeah, I'm here.

Speaker 8 (01:09:14):
Good morning to you guys as well. I did the
Jets and the Saints yesterday for CBS, so it took
me a little bit of time to get here from
New Orleans.

Speaker 6 (01:09:23):
But I'm here.

Speaker 8 (01:09:25):
Just hit up the hotel restaurant and I'm ready to go.

Speaker 1 (01:09:29):
Your level of shock if I would have told you
two weeks ago, Hey, that Monday night game in Indy.
It'll be Philip Rivers, You're talking about a quarterback.

Speaker 8 (01:09:38):
You know, it really hadn't even occurred to me, hadn't
thought of it. And I just must say personally, really
really disappointed for Daniel Jones and all of the Colts.
I called their game runer in the year for CBS
against Tennessee and they were really rolling. I was a
firm believer that they were one of the best teams

(01:10:00):
in football, and very very excited about the marriage between
Daniel Jones and Shane Stikeen and how well that had
been going.

Speaker 6 (01:10:09):
And just kind of really.

Speaker 8 (01:10:11):
Bummed out about everything that happened. Kind of started, I
think with the cracked fibula for Daniel, and then obviously
was what happened with the torn achilles. You know, Philip
Rivers wasn't really on my radar. It's kind of crazy
if you think about, like, listen to this sentence. Okay,

(01:10:33):
the Colts signed a forty four year old quarterback who
hasn't played football in five years because their starting quarterback
who was playing with a broken leg towards achilles, and
the backup quarterback fractured his eyebones with a rubber band
before a game. I mean that if that was in

(01:10:53):
a movie. I don't think you'd even believe it, and
yet that's basically what happened to the Colts and it's
extremely unfortunate.

Speaker 5 (01:11:02):
Yeah, I think you hit it right on the head there,
Ross with a lot of the circumstances that led to
Rivers coming out of retirement and joining the Colts. But
how much of it do you think is just beyond
the movie aspect of it, because there is a certain
level of wow, the old guys doing it to you
got to win games. So when you're analyzing this team,
how do you think Rivers can potentially help them keep

(01:11:25):
their playoff hopes alive with the win tonight against the
forty nine ers.

Speaker 8 (01:11:29):
Well, I do think that he gave them a chance
to win against Seattle. I am really curious to see
how the Niners play them tonight because he did not
try to drive the ball down the field very much
at all, and when he did it was not effective.

(01:11:50):
The Niners themselves don't have a very good rush. But
I don't think you want to blitz Philip because he
knows where to go with the football going to get
to him. He's not going to let you hit him
if you try to blitz them. So this could be
a truly unique game and in which the Niners are
either you know, playing press man and trying not to

(01:12:12):
give off anything underneath. I actually think they're going to
play a bunch of super condensed zone where everything is
pushed up and they're basically daring Philip Rivers to try
to throw it deep. You know, now that you've got
a full game of hate back on film, That's the
part that I think is really cool is to kind

(01:12:32):
of see what ends up happening now now that they've
seen what he can or cannot do. I do think
he'll give them a chance to win again. But the
Niners offense is really good. I thought that was one
of the big takeaways I had from the Colt Seahawks
game is Sealks defense played well. I mean, Seaoks defense

(01:12:53):
keep him a chance to win. And now you get
Buckner back. I thought Buckner would be done for the year.
He is a different it's making player. He's a you know,
top two or three most important player on the Colts team.
So to get him back tonight is massive.

Speaker 1 (01:13:10):
And that's a voice of Ross Tucker. I hear him
on the Ross Tucker podcast. Here him everywhere CBS. He's
done some Colts games this year. He'll be on the
west Wood one call Tonight's over on Twitter at Ross Tucker, NFL.
It's funny you say that because I was talking with
an NFL assistant on another team and he said, if
he was facing Rivers, he would just drop eight. Do
you kind of view that general thought? I mean, you

(01:13:32):
mentioned condensed that zone a little bit there, because yes,
you obviously manage the game great in Seattle. But you know,
I think we all can look at that and say
that's not an offense that's sustainable over the course of
however long you need him.

Speaker 8 (01:13:46):
You know, I don't think that I'm going to Yeah,
I don't think I would say necessarily drop eight. But
that's interesting because you know, he he doesn't have that
strong of an arm. So you sit there and you
think about, you know, just how much he'll have to

(01:14:09):
be able to put it ball into a window. If
you drop eight, that that's you know, I might steal
that and use that tonight. That's certainly a possibility. I'd
probably still rush for to try to get somebody at
him eventually or at some point. But I do think,
you know, dropping eight is a real possibility. The point

(01:14:29):
will be make him throw it deeper down the field.
I think you guys have probably talked a knowledge about
the statistics of the throws that were more than ten yards.

Speaker 6 (01:14:39):
In the air.

Speaker 8 (01:14:40):
That's number one, and then number two. Really make sure
that he has to drive the ball into a small window.
So drop eight stone coverage and really, you know, get
close to sticky coverage on the underneath, guys, and see
if he can see if you can do it, see

(01:15:01):
if you can fire a ball in there. There's a
real chance he throws a few picks tonight because he's
going to try to fit the ball in there. I mean,
he didn't come back from retirement to be throwing the
ball away all night.

Speaker 6 (01:15:13):
Ross.

Speaker 5 (01:15:13):
How quickly did you perhaps pivot to the idea of
him playing again when the news broke because at first
it was you know, practice squad, tryout. He knows Riley
Leonard very well. But as you said, he didn't come
back to all the clipboard. So how quickly did you
wrap your mind around that? And I mean I don't
want to gloss over it. If he wins tonight, he
would be only the third quarterback in the history of

(01:15:36):
the sports to win a game at age forty four
or older.

Speaker 8 (01:15:41):
Well, I kind of thought, and maybe this was selfish
of me because I'm calling the game tonight, but I
kind of thought they might see what Riley could do.
In the first game, you know, against Seattle. I know
Riley was a little bit banged up, but I kind
of thought they might get Riley has spin with a

(01:16:02):
full week of practice, getting all of the reps, and
having the whole game plan designed around his skill set.
Because Riley's I think, pretty good and he can run.
I kind of thought they would give Rivers a little
more time to get acclimated and give Riley one chance
to see what he can do. You know, it's almost

(01:16:23):
like I'm not saying he's Malik Willis, but you know,
when the Packers have had to play Malik Willis, Lafloor
like totally changes his game plan. Malik runs a lot,
and the Packers have won. You know, they've won several
games with Malik Willis. I thought Steichen might sort of

(01:16:44):
dip into the Jalen Hurts twenty twenty one game plan.

Speaker 6 (01:16:49):
Have Riley run.

Speaker 8 (01:16:50):
A bunch and use those legs and end up having
success as a result and potentially winning. I guess the
concern there is, you know, Riley gets hurt and you're
in trouble. But I thought they would give Riley one
game with all of the reps in practice during the week,
but they elected not to.

Speaker 1 (01:17:09):
Yeah, definitely debate we have had here in they all right,
Ross last one for me and again hosts of the
Ross Tucker podcasting follow him at Ross Tucker NFL and
you'll hear him tonight on the Westwood One Calf Kevin
Harlan here on Monday Night Football. Going back to what
you said a little bit earlier in the conversation about
Daniel Jones about how this team was looking pre injury.

(01:17:31):
Are you under the belief or think the Colt should
operate in a bring everybody back, including Daniel Jones for
twenty twenty six?

Speaker 6 (01:17:41):
I am, I am.

Speaker 8 (01:17:43):
Now that's not to say that there shouldn't be some tweaks.
I honestly think they have a really good team. You know,
I don't look at Denver for New England and think
that they're way ahead of the Colt. I don't even
think they're head of the Colts at all. You know,
if Buckner doesn't get hurt if Garter doesn't get hurt.

(01:18:05):
And I know that every team has injuries, but there
are certain guys that are game changing players. There's only
three or four on a team, maybe five, and you know,
obviously we'll see about sauft Gardner, but the Colts think
he is. Buckner definitely is, and the starting quarterback is, which,

(01:18:28):
by the way, is one thing that makes what the
Niners have done this year even more impressive because I
would tell you that Nick Bosa and Fred Warner are
those guys. They are game changing players. You know, they're
two of the top twenty defensive players in the NFL,
certainly the two best defensive players for the forty nine ers.
So the fact that the forty ers are even in

(01:18:48):
this position says a lot about them. But yeah, I
would try to keep the band together as much as
possible with Daniel Jones and the Colts, you know, assuming
he'd be able to come back health. I think it's
better than whatever other alternatives would be out there.

Speaker 1 (01:19:04):
All right, Ross, it is the holiday season. Typically you're
saving us from a present standpoint. Have you got something
cooked up here around Christmas?

Speaker 8 (01:19:14):
Well it's funny because I usually tell you guys about
myfront pagstory dot com, which is incredible to give to
like a loved one, your wife or whatever. Just an incredible,
incredible gift. But I recently found out about futurefans dot
com and I don't love if either one of you
guys has kids. But it's different than it wasn't when
we were growing up. I mean, it is really hard

(01:19:36):
to get young kids to sit and watch a whole
football game, you know, for you guys, whether it's the
Hoosiers or the Colts, they want to be on their iPad,
they want to be doing a million other things. These
guys at futurefans dot com have really cracked the code,
and so think about being able to give your child
a gift for Christmas or whatever that you're giving it

(01:19:59):
to them, I think it's sixty bucks, but with the
twenty percent discounts fifty bucks, you're really giving the gift
to yourself. Because if they'll sit there and watch every
IU game and every Colts game with you for years,
that's probably the best gift you could ever get your son,
your daughter, grandson, granddaughter, and niece nephew. I actually invest

(01:20:19):
in the company after I spoke to five different families five.
They all said it worked. I'm like, okay, that's good
enough for me because, by the way, these sports leagues
are dying to try to find solutions to get young
people to get engaged and want to watch the whole game.
So it's Futurefans dot Com. These guys are geniuses, a
couple of NBA guys that crack to go to least

(01:20:40):
go over there and check it out futurefans dot com.

Speaker 6 (01:20:43):
It is really really cool.

Speaker 1 (01:20:44):
And you're gonna hear Ross tonight him Kevin Harlan Westwood
one Monday Night Football. Ross, great work all year long.
I know you're super busy man, so thanks for making time.

Speaker 8 (01:20:52):
With us my pleasure. Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (01:20:55):
Ross Tucker, pay Less Slickers Hotline Again, hosts of the
Ross Tucker Podcast at Ross Tucker NFL. You know the
drop eight idea, James, that I kind of threw Ross's
way against Rivers. I think the thought there is he
is so cognizant of getting the ball out quick, you know,
think a little hot potato e that it really doesn't
matter how much you rush him per se like.

Speaker 5 (01:21:18):
Because you won't get there.

Speaker 1 (01:21:19):
Well, you won't get there, and he's not dumb enough
to hold on to it like he's not going to
try to extend. He's he knows his internal clock. He
knows has got to get the ball out here.

Speaker 5 (01:21:28):
For a guy who's played as much as he has,
he's rarely taken a lot of sacks in his career.

Speaker 1 (01:21:32):
Yeah, so he's not three four seconds. So it's like, yes,
a pass rush could aid, but even if it doesn't
get home, he knows what that clock is in his head,
so he might naturally just get rid of it, even
if the pocket isn't necessarily collapsing around him. So I
think it's a really interesting thought. Again on paper, the
San Francisco defense one of the more vanilla defenses in

(01:21:53):
the entire NFL. Gus Bradley on that staff there with
Robert Sala as their coordinator. So definitely something to keep
an eye on as we continue to ahead to tonight.
It is Colts. It is forty nine ers a half
hour from now. Joe Buck is going to join us
right here on the Fan Morning Show. Kevin Bow and
James Boyd, Caleb Zuover, thanks for spending this Monday with us,

(01:22:13):
Little loupe Fiasco.

Speaker 5 (01:22:16):
I play this is on my playlist when I was
a runner back in high school. You get do you
hear this in the headphones where you're out there for
a long run, Hey gets a little crisper. Hey, guess
who likes this song?

Speaker 2 (01:22:24):
James mo Hey shout out mo he likes his song.
He thinks it's a good basketball song, pregame basketball song.
So my dad, basketball coach, shut out hearing this.

Speaker 4 (01:22:35):
Moe zouver Man, he was moving and groove and we
were doing the colt.

Speaker 1 (01:22:40):
Uh, the father of Caleb, who is filling in for
Mark Dyton. Mark celebrating in glory. The Bears Marquee win
on Saturday over the Packers will be here Monday, Tuesday, Friday.
This week here just gets you a little bit of
lay of the land on where we're at. Certainly safe
travels to everybody out there and enjoy what looks to
be some balmy Christmas week weather. I'm seeing tickets swell

(01:23:03):
over one hundred dollars cheapest ticket to get in the
door tonight, Dude, the forty nine ers probably travel fairly well. Right.
I don't know what a Monday night game would be,
but I feel like I betys are a bit of
a national brand. I guess that is what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (01:23:15):
They do, they travel I and you know, of course
they take over the California and Vegas stadiums when they're there.
But it's a national brand, right it is Joe Montana
back in the day.

Speaker 3 (01:23:25):
It's been passed down for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:23:27):
We had a lot of those last year inside of
the Kasouvla Stadium.

Speaker 6 (01:23:29):
We didn't.

Speaker 1 (01:23:30):
We haven't really had much of that this year again.
Colts and forty nine Ers kicks eight fifteen. Tonight halftime
show will include Red Panda for those in the building.
I don't know if I've seen Red Panda do many
football games.

Speaker 8 (01:23:43):
So.

Speaker 1 (01:23:45):
You know, I was alerted by Scott Agnes last week.
She will not be doing the unicycle on the turf.
You know, you don't want the wheeld all of a
sudden get caught. We've already had some bad turf injuries.

Speaker 5 (01:23:54):
Say, if you told me she was gonna do it,
I wouldn't doubt her. No, I very talented.

Speaker 1 (01:23:58):
A platform will come in out there for Red Panda
the night out of ben A Terry banging the anvil
in the building tonight. Weirdly, that is one thing the
forty nine Ers have done extraordinarily well this season and
their opponents haven't. The forty nine ers have yet to
miss a field goal and their opponents have missed nine.
Is there anything that is that? Just all luck that

(01:24:19):
your opponents miss nine field goals?

Speaker 5 (01:24:21):
It feels a little bit like the Chiefs last year.
Remember they won all these one score games, and I
think they won one of them against the Raiders with
a guy literally fumbled the snap and never even got
the game winning kick off. So yeah, a little bit
feels like that. But that's also the NFL. I know
people always talk about, oh, this team is primed to
regress next year or these are flukey wins, but whatever. Man,

(01:24:44):
when you're in it, you never know what the future
is going to hold, so you want to capture that
as much as you can and capitalize on it. And
they have for better, for the better man of their team.
Tell that to the Bears fans right now, James. Yeah,
I hear people saying that too, Like, man, they're gonna
regret next year, But who cares about next year. We're
in a moment right now where you're winning the close games,

(01:25:05):
You're doing the darn near impossible. It seems like especially
the forty nine ers considering the injuries that they've had.
You ride that way as long as you can.

Speaker 1 (01:25:12):
Where do you think this one ranks in the final
three weeks in terms of difficulty home to the forty
nine ers, short week with Jacksonville next week in your
own building, and then you close out the year at Houston.

Speaker 4 (01:25:22):
I put a third.

Speaker 5 (01:25:23):
If we're ranking them, probably put Jacksonville first, Houston second
in this game third because even then we looked at
the numbers. If you lose tonight and you win your
last two, there's still a decent chance you get into
the playoffs. But if you win tonight and lose any
of your last two, it's over, basically, So I think

(01:25:46):
just from nat fact alone, the states are higher for
your division games.

Speaker 2 (01:25:49):
The way Jacksonville's playing, I think that has to be
the first the most difficult game for sure. I think
the only thing is who knows if that last game
will even matter. But for it to matter against the Texans,
the Colts have to win these next two.

Speaker 3 (01:26:03):
And that's just as simple as that.

Speaker 1 (01:26:05):
Yeah, I mean, technically they they don't get eliminated tonight.
Just to be clear, even with the loss, you would
be eliminated from the AFC South. Technically, you would not
be eliminated from the playoffs. Now you would have to
win your last two and then you would need several
things to go your way. One of the tiebreakers with Houston,

(01:26:25):
because if you are to make the playoffs, you would
split the head to head with Houston. That would obviously
mean winning there in Week eighteen. You would then tie
the divisional record with them. It would go all the
way down to strength of victory, which is just wild.
I've started to like look into this a little bit here,
and basically, the Colts would be rooting for like five

(01:26:47):
teams here in the final couple weeks that are not
the five teams of the Texans have already beaten. So
like each of these teams will have like five or
six teams that they'll be rooting for to win. So
like the Cults will want the Dolphins to win because
they already beat Miami, they will have won. They'll want
Denver to win because they will have obviously already beaten Denver. Weirdly,

(01:27:10):
they've gone from rooting against the Chargers to rooting for
the Chargers. It's very odd and right now, I think
strength of victory is not in the colts favor if
I've looked at this correctly with Houston. But I guess
we'll cross that bridge when it comes. But James, if
you thought you've covered a lot, can you imagine having
to dissect what strength of victory could mean for the

(01:27:32):
Colts in their playoff chances.

Speaker 5 (01:27:34):
I think I usually wait every year when it gets
like this for a JJ Stankovitz or someone at an
official website to break it down for me, because, believe
it or not.

Speaker 1 (01:27:43):
Is the Athletic not on official website.

Speaker 5 (01:27:46):
We have a website. But I feel like my scenarios,
whenever I go through them, I'm just like, I'm never
as sure as I am myself. And I say it's
because so they actually have people that are paid the Colts,
that is to go over every single scenario to the
nth degree. We'd like to think we do that, but
it's not like our livelihood depends on it. Like if

(01:28:07):
someone walks into Shane's office and says this is what
you gotta do to make the playoffs, and that guy
is wrong, he's going to get fired sure, Whereas if
I'm like, okay, actually no, the tirebreaker goes here. If
they tie in this game, it's a little different. So
usually I wait to see something from like the NFL
or JJ or a team those ones I think are

(01:28:28):
a little bit more accurate, and then I'll fold that
into my own analysis of like, Okay, how can they
actually win these games?

Speaker 1 (01:28:33):
Yeah, if you lose tonight, I believe it is you
have to win out. So that would again beat Jacksonville,
beat Houston. You would need the Texans to lose to
the Chargers next weekend, which seems plausible, like that game's
technically on Saturday. That would then create the Colts and
the Texans having the same record for the final playoff spot.

(01:28:55):
And then that's where you get into this strength of
victory if I'm looking at this correctly, and gosh, my
head just wants to explode. I have more of a
headache than I did watching Notre Dame try to beat
Fort Wayne yesterday.

Speaker 4 (01:29:06):
And that's saying a lot, brother, I say a lot.

Speaker 6 (01:29:10):
Hi.

Speaker 1 (01:29:10):
Joe Buck joins us in twenty Fan Morning Show fifteen
minutes from now. Joe Buck gonna join us here. JMV
just laid it out for you. It is a busy,
busy Monday on these airwaves for those that have not
checked out too early here work wise. For the rest

(01:29:32):
of the week, boy, it's loaded. So we've got obviously
all of our shows throughout the day. John will then
bleed into the Colts pregame show. We will have the
Colts game tonight on Hank FM, so that is our
sister station, ninety seven point one FM that will be
on HANK. I believe seven o'clock is when coverage will
shift over to ninety seven point one on these airwaves.

(01:29:56):
You'll hear the Pacer game. The Pacers are out in
Boston tonight taking on the Celtics. It's a seven thirty tip.
So we got hoops too if you want that for
your Phil Butler is hosting up at Hinkle at two
o'clock today, so that game will air on Flago also
our sister station, that is Butler and in Ji. Are

(01:30:16):
we going Institute of Technology there?

Speaker 3 (01:30:19):
That's yeah, that's.

Speaker 4 (01:30:20):
What it is. I would imagine that's the name, right.

Speaker 1 (01:30:24):
Jersey Institute of Technology. That spread cannot be close.

Speaker 2 (01:30:28):
I think they beat Michigan like ten years ago if
I remember correct ly, Hockey Hat Chrysler in Basketball Man.

Speaker 1 (01:30:36):
How about that from Caleb Zuover. I use Sienna at
six o'clock, so we have a very spread out sports day.
Butler two Indiana, Darren Devreeze taking on Jerry McNamara and
the Sienna Saints at six pacers at seven thirty and
for the first time in three years, Monday Night Football
Colts and forty nine ers. That is an eight to
fifteen kickoff. And again, Joe Buck, I'm gonna join us

(01:30:59):
here in a.

Speaker 4 (01:31:01):
Few that'll be cool.

Speaker 5 (01:31:04):
I did not know until maybe last year or the
year before that he was an IU grad.

Speaker 1 (01:31:12):
He might correct us on this, but I don't know
if he ever went full on back to get the diploma.
He should tell this story he left he I believe
he left IU after a couple of years to I
think his dad was starting to do a little bit more.
I could be wrong on this. He's gonna have to confirm.

(01:31:34):
I think some NFL games, in addition to obviously the Cardinals,
and I think Joe was helping Jack fill in a
little bit on some Cardinals games. So I believe that
is a story.

Speaker 6 (01:31:49):
I know.

Speaker 1 (01:31:49):
I always feel like there's times James where I'm like,
you know, oh, you know, insert college here and that
person's a grad and then you get the occasional like well,
technically I never even got my degree from there, but
he did attend there for several years. I think that's
the I saw him speaking of the buzz Kurt trumb.

Speaker 4 (01:32:05):
You know, I hope they don't come, you know, and
ask me. Definitively.

Speaker 1 (01:32:09):
I saw it Jael Caleb speaking a couple of years
ago down in Bloomington. He was great, and he definitely
pokes fun at his four years down there in Bloomington
a little bit from an academia standpoint.

Speaker 5 (01:32:20):
So you'll have to share that story with you. Yeah,
I got to know the backstory there. That will not
be the first question, though. We definitely have other things
we got to talk about, for sure, regarding these colts
and these Hoosiers.

Speaker 1 (01:32:30):
And you know, he mentioned this. I was actually listening
to him in a different interview earlier this week. He's like,
you know, for the first five minutes or so tonight,
he's like, we will hit the river story. But he's like,
you know, with how the NFL is and I think
we've had this internal conflict almost on our show here
over the last couple of weeks, you still have to
talk about the game and look at what's at stake.

(01:32:52):
The San Francisco forty nine ers could be the one
seed in the playoffs, the one seed if they went out.
And for the the Colts, they're trying to avoid, you
know what has been a very long playoff drought, particularly
for this franchise, and they really need a win period.
So you know, James, I think we've had this, and
I know you wrote a piece on the website for

(01:33:14):
The Athletic that you know it is more of the
Rivers movie, Like we have these two things right now,
where Philip Rivers is a movie. Yes again Disney plus
sit down with you know, your significant other. Light to Fire.
I guess you don't need light to Fire this week,
but you can watch that movie. And the movie is
a awesome movie, and it's wild and it's something that

(01:33:36):
no one could have foreseen a couple of weeks ago.
But then the other side of the movie is, oh yeah,
the Colts are trying to scratch and claw and pray
that they somehow get into the playoffs, and if they don't,
it's five straight years of missing the playoffs, the longest
streak this franchise had in thirty some years and one
of the longest in the NFL. If I'm not mistaken,

(01:33:56):
I want to say either the Bears or maybe the
Panthers had a longer playoff drought.

Speaker 4 (01:34:01):
And it's going to say the Bears just into theirs.

Speaker 1 (01:34:03):
Yeah, and the Panthers are on the verse, knocked on
that door. So I think that's what it's been difficult here.

Speaker 5 (01:34:08):
There's always Miami, I believe. No, there's the playoff win drought.

Speaker 6 (01:34:11):
Yea.

Speaker 1 (01:34:11):
I want to say the Jets have a long one.
I think there's always Saints might be up there as well.
I don't know, I'd have to I haven't gone that
far yet. Again, the Colts can't be eliminated tonight, even
with the loss.

Speaker 5 (01:34:24):
That's which is still crazy to think about. But also
I think it makes this game more exciting because of that.
Like you said, there's some stakes here, there's some honestly,
the playoff game for the Colts.

Speaker 3 (01:34:36):
I got the rest of the way. You got the
top three playoff droughts here.

Speaker 2 (01:34:39):
Number one is New York with fourteen years in a
row missing the playoffs. Atlanta and Carolina Panthers tied at
second with seven, and then it's a three way tie
for fourth between Chicago, the Colts and the Saints.

Speaker 5 (01:34:53):
Oh that's some bad company there, boy, Yeah, you don't
want to be in that company, especially considering how these
other friends, which hasn't been viewed the last few years.
I don't think anybody expected the Saints to make the
playoffs in the last few years.

Speaker 4 (01:35:06):
That is in position for the Colts.

Speaker 1 (01:35:08):
I mean that have a vision. It's kind of like,
you know, Tampa has obviously had a nice recent run here,
but that kind of view the NFC South a little
bit like the AFC South, And I think that's the
frustrating aspect to it is. You know, in the AFC
North you've had Lamar Jackson. The AFC East you've had
Josh Allen. The AFC West, you've had Patrick Mahomes. In
the South, the AFC, the NFC, you haven't had that quarterback.

(01:35:28):
You haven't had that guy that's just dominated the blame.

Speaker 4 (01:35:31):
Gabber won two AFC South titles.

Speaker 1 (01:35:34):
And that's what makes you want to cry. Frankly with
this and we've talked about it, you know, for the
vast majority here on this Monday morning, for the second
straight Sunday, it was quite clear to me and again.
You know, when the Colts don't play in the one
o'clock window, I feel like you get to consume so
much of the other games. I'm watching the last Sunday
play out yesterday, I mean, and I'm like, they are

(01:35:57):
getting no game to go their way, none of these games.
I mean the one o'clock window. You have the Chargers
of the Cowboys. You had the Bills over the Browns,
and that was kind of a weird game for a
while there You're like, wait, the Browns a Nott ready
to pull this off. And then you get in the
four o'clock window and the Jags all of a sudden
just punched Denver right in the mouth there in the
second half. They go into Denver give them their first

(01:36:19):
home loss of the season, and then Houston. It looked like,
for a while the Raiders might pull off one of
the bigger upsets of Week sixteen, and they get it
done so again, since Halloween, the Colts have not done
their part. They have won one game since Halloween. The
Texans and the Jags are combined fourteen and two since Halloween.

(01:36:42):
And if you go to the Chargers and the Bills,
the two other teams in the Wildcard. Right now, they're
combined twelve and three since Halloween. I mean, this could
not have gone worse for the Colts.

Speaker 2 (01:36:52):
There was that game the Colts had played in the
morning in Germany, and then later that day the Texans
played the Jags in Hugheson and the Jags blew like
a fifteen point lead in the fourth quarter, and I
honestly thought to myself and maybe Colts Nation can blame
me for this, And I actually said it out loud.
I was like, I think the Colts just won the

(01:37:13):
AFC South and since that moment, Caleb, it's my fault.

Speaker 5 (01:37:19):
I don't know if I can put it on you,
my brother, I don't know. I mean, it feels like
we're living through two different timelines right now. There's one
universe where the Colts actually pulled this off.

Speaker 2 (01:37:30):
It's just it is hard to fathom how fast this
has fallen. It really is hard to wrap your mind around.

Speaker 1 (01:37:39):
I have also, I was gonna say, it's also hard
to wrap your mind around this.

Speaker 6 (01:37:42):
Bill.

Speaker 1 (01:37:43):
More likely I you or the Colts to be the
last Indiana team to win in Lucas so Oil this season.

Speaker 5 (01:37:48):
Boy, my god, what a question you imagine that name question.

Speaker 4 (01:37:53):
And I might actually lean towards I. You Lord have Mercy.

Speaker 1 (01:37:57):
Colts home finale will be Jacksonville coming up on, James,
you have some of the numbers, and I apologize so
you don't have them in front of you. But another
the playoff predictor, you guys are pretty consistent with over
on the Athletic A text line here, what are the
playoff chances if the Colts lose tonight and win the
next two division games just.

Speaker 4 (01:38:16):
To get into the playoffs?

Speaker 1 (01:38:17):
Right right?

Speaker 5 (01:38:19):
That would put them at a nineteen percent twenty percent
chance to get into the dance.

Speaker 1 (01:38:25):
And to be clear that factors in the Colts current state.

Speaker 5 (01:38:29):
Yes, the factors in the current state, and also factors
in the other teams that they will be fighting to
get into the playoffs against.

Speaker 1 (01:38:37):
Like Kansas City's down to their third quarterback for examples,
that Baltimore could be without Lamar Jackson.

Speaker 5 (01:38:41):
You know this has the Philip Rivers update in it.

Speaker 1 (01:38:44):
Yeah, So basically, from what I have gathered, if the
Colts lose tonight, they have to have the Texans lose
to the Chargers, for example, on Saturday. That is a must. Again,
the Colts no matter what, Even if the Colts win tonight,
they still have to win their last two. That's the
most This is the thing we can continue to say
here on this Monday morning. If the Colts are going
to make the playoffs this year, they have got to

(01:39:05):
beat Jacksonville on Sunday, and they also have to beat
Houston in week eighteen. Now, as James just pointed out,
just because they do that doesn't guarantee you would need
Houston to lose to the Chargers coming up on Saturday.
Basically you have to create a wild tiebreaker with Houston. Yeah,
and the wild tiebreaker would get all the way down

(01:39:26):
to strength of victory, which I'm not ready to go
there today. We can go there tomorrow and I'll try
to throw it out there. But basically, you would take
the wins. The Colts have the wins, the Texans have,
add up all of those opponent records, and the Colt's
strength of victory would need to be better than the
Houston strength victory. I will say this, and right now
it's not I think Houston has two more wins than

(01:39:49):
the Colts wins, if that makes any sense.

Speaker 5 (01:39:53):
See this is where I get confused to see Caleb,
this is where I get to the last I get
to that questions like taking a final exam. And this
happened to me a couple of times in college. But boy,
did I graduate, Thank you Jesus. I look at the
first question, I'm like, man, I can't answer that, will
come back to it. You look at that second one
and it still looks like it's in a different language.
You're like, boy, this is gonna not gonna be a
good day for me.

Speaker 1 (01:40:12):
I'm like, should I just go to the bathroom and
call this a day?

Speaker 5 (01:40:14):
I told you I did that once a true story.
I dropped the class and it was our first exam. Yeah,
I got to maybe like week seven or as one
of those classes where you only had three exams for
the entire thing.

Speaker 4 (01:40:28):
And I was a political science class, and I tried to.

Speaker 5 (01:40:33):
Get through it. I'd studied all the cases I thought
I did. Got to that test. It was first of all,
what multiple choice, Kevin.

Speaker 7 (01:40:40):
It was all long form.

Speaker 5 (01:40:42):
You got to explain everything and long story short. Couldn't
answer the first question, flip to the next page, couldn't
answer the second question, flip to another page. And I
was thinking to myself, Okay, three tests in this class.
If I failed this exam, which I certainly was going
to do, I would have no chance of passing this class.
So I got up with about ten minutes into the exam.

Speaker 4 (01:41:02):
Everyone was thinking, how's the guys done?

Speaker 6 (01:41:04):
I was done?

Speaker 1 (01:41:05):
All right?

Speaker 5 (01:41:05):
Drop him, handed my teacher the paper and I think
all I had on it was my name, and dropped
the class on my phone out the way of the building.

Speaker 1 (01:41:12):
That is outstanding.

Speaker 4 (01:41:14):
Joe buck had to stay the GPA.

Speaker 1 (01:41:16):
I canna join us here in a few again. Busy
night of hoops, busy day of hoops really here in
the Circle City for those that have missed it. James
injury report wise to Forrest Buckner will give it a
go tonight. Bernard Ryman, though, is out, and we've talked
about it. There could be some musical chairs with this
offensive line. I don't think we mentioned this a little

(01:41:36):
bit late last week. I don't think it's just a
given that all of a sudden Ryman's out, you'll go
with the same starting five up front that you did
last week.

Speaker 5 (01:41:44):
Yeah, so I do wonder about the shuffle when it
comes to Ryman being out. You know, would you reinstart
a guy like Dalton Tucker a right guard, something you
had some success with last year, and slide a couple
other guys around, and then, like you mentioned throughout the show,
to Forest Buckner coming back is huge for the defense.
So there are some positives and some negatives. But I

(01:42:06):
would think that or you would hope for the Colt's sake,
that it's a bigger boost to have the Forrest Buckner
back than it is to lose rhymen for a game.

Speaker 1 (01:42:16):
Yeah, you know, I don't think it's that creative thought.
Like a healthy Buckner and you finish off one of
these games you happen so far, you know, whether that's Houston,
Nity game you get, you get, yeah, Kansas City certainly,
whether it's maybe even Houston, whether it's Seattle. You know,
this defense certainly last week, you know, they definitely had
some really promising moments, but it's just one of those

(01:42:37):
third downs to get off the field. You know, they
have played so many snaps when you look at it
here over the last few weeks, it's just can one
of these plays, you know, can Buckner make one of
those players and James it can be just like baton
a ball down, you know, doesn't have to be Buckner,
you know, digging the gray for the quarterback. It can
just be baton the ball down all right, let's have

(01:42:57):
to the payoff liquors hotline right now. He is the
voice of Monday night football maybe to our market though,
and he might like this unapologetic Indiana football fan. That
is how I'll introduce Joe buck here on this Monday morning. Joe,
thank you so much for the time. Good morning to you, man.

Speaker 6 (01:43:13):
I come on, we got to represent for those of
us who who are who's your fans? I just I
can't get enough. I'm obsessed. I can't act like I've
been a diehard since I walked off the campus way
back in the roaring nineties. But for the last couple
of years, my god, it's just been a blast. So

(01:43:34):
thanks thanks for having me on. And yeah, I make
no apologies. I'm so I was got so tired of
hearing from my UCLA partner and my friends who went
to Notre Dame and Alabama parents, and let's go. We
finally get to puff our chest out a little bit.
It's nice.

Speaker 1 (01:43:52):
Honestly, I think the weekly excitement level for me is
just waiting for you to needle Troy at some point
about the current college football landscape between Indiana and UCLA.

Speaker 6 (01:44:01):
Well, I didn't even The game against UCLA was such
a joke and such a blowout this year that I
didn't even bring it up. We were believe me, we
run a text chain and Troy, to his credit and
it's true, has has kind of flipped his allegiance. He
just loves good coaching, and I think he's recognized what

(01:44:22):
coach Signetti has done and he's kind of flipped his, uh,
his attention and his heart over to Indiana during this
little run. So I it was, it was, it was
low hanging fruit. So I just left it alone after
they took it to UCLA. But yeah, I can't wait.
I can't wait for this weekend.

Speaker 8 (01:44:41):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (01:44:42):
And and what's to come at the Rose Bowl.

Speaker 4 (01:44:44):
We have Joe Buck on the line.

Speaker 5 (01:44:46):
And again, for as great as the vibes are with IU,
I would say it's probably the opposite for the Colts
right now. Joe, what was your reaction when Philip Rivers
came out of retirement and how quickly did you have
to accept that it is reality that he's trying to
do this with the struggling team be the third forty
four year old quarterback or olders won a game of

(01:45:07):
the NFL.

Speaker 6 (01:45:09):
Yeah, you know, I guess for TV's sake and for
our narrative that we get to go into the game.
I was like, hell, yeah, let's go. We've got interest
in you know, It's just such a shame what happened
with Daniel Jones, and I do think the leg and
the fracture was clearly bothering him before the Achilles went.

(01:45:29):
So yeah, it's it's heartbreaking. And I've been there for
so many of the games with the Giants over the
years for him and to finally see him have his
moment in this league with a really good team, and
I really do believe the Colts are a good, good
ball club and then to have that happen was awful.
And then the question is, okay, who's taken over? And

(01:45:53):
for us and TV it becomes a fun storyline. And
I know people around here and the ratings were crazy
for the game last week, and it was a great
game and they almost pulled it off. I do know
that after talking to Kyle Shanahan, he won one hundred

(01:46:13):
percent genuinely believes that Philip Rivers can get this done.
And you know it was. It was on the table
for him to join the forty nine Ers a few
years ago and Brock Purdy took over and ended up
getting injured in the NFC champ game. There's a lot
of respect in this league for Philip Rivers, maybe more

(01:46:35):
than I was even aware of before this, before this
latest turn in his career. But you know, we can
talk about it. But we talked to him. He feels
really good. I think he feels better this week than
he did last And I give the Colts a real
chance to win this game tonight and have a chance

(01:46:56):
to get into the postseason with kind of this crazy
storyline going on.

Speaker 1 (01:47:01):
That voice needs no introduction, Joe Buck, you'll hear him,
of course. Tonight it is Monday Night Football. For the
first time in three years, the Colts will be on
at Colts and forty nine Ers over at Lucas Oil Stadium. Joe,
let's hit that maybe a little bit more. You know,
it seems like the Colts all week long have been
pretty optimistic that the game plan in Seattle was just,
you know, break glass in case of emergency. They feel

(01:47:22):
like there's more there with this passing offense, maybe more
there with even the right arm of Philip Rivers is
that the vibe that you got in speaking with them completely.

Speaker 6 (01:47:31):
And I'll tell you this, Philip is nothing if not honest,
and he was very open about how he felt last week.
He was shocked at how his body felt on Monday,
in the good sense that he woke up and he thought,
you know, it was going to be brutal just getting
to the bathroom in the morning, and he said, you know,

(01:47:54):
I had some mumps and bruises, but I felt better
than I thought I would. The one thing that he
said that you can't really replicate. You know, you can run,
you can you put the pads on, you can, I guess,
try to get the legs in shape. But for what
his shoulder went through in that game, I think he
came out of that game pretty sore. In that regard,

(01:48:17):
talking to the forty nine ers, they say, you know,
you can see that the mind is good. You can
see that the arm is going to be good. He's
always kind of had this funky delivery. The question is
the legs and the game shape of the legs, And
so the forty nine ers are going to try to
get him moving. And you know, if you're gonna face
any team, this is a forty nine er team that

(01:48:39):
has an inside track on the number one seed and
they're dead last in the league in sacks. Their pass
rush has not been good this year. And you know,
maybe that plays into the Colts hands tonight and exactly
what Philip Rivers needs. But I believe that as far
as the game plan, Philip said, You're going to see
more intermediate throws. You're gonna see more stuff down the field.

(01:49:01):
He goes, Am I going to roll to my right
and throw a ball sixty yards? No, but you know
I didn't do that before. You're gonna see I think
more down the field though, than you saw compared to
the game in Seattle, which was a lot of stuff
around the line of scrimmage.

Speaker 5 (01:49:15):
Again, we have Joe buck on the Payoffs Suckers Hotline.
You'll hear his voice tonight on Monday Night Football.

Speaker 4 (01:49:21):
Joe pivoting back to the college scene.

Speaker 5 (01:49:24):
IU has done what many to believe has been the
impossible the last two years, going from nothing to a
whole lot of something here lately, with a chance to
try to contend for a national championship. So for you,
as someone who attended that university, when did you become
a believer in coach Signetti? And how quickly did you

(01:49:45):
have to adapt your expectations to his.

Speaker 6 (01:49:48):
First of all, you said it perfectly right, because I
did not graduate. I walked after three and a half
years to do the cardinals. I was like, well, I
can either stay in and hope someday to get the
cardinal job, or I can take the cardinal job. And
I opted for thanks to nepotism option B. So I

(01:50:11):
took the cardinal job obviously. Dear friends with I mean
best friends with so many guys that you know, we're
in my fraternity there at IU and which was Sigma
Nu in in case you're wondering, and uh, and so
we're on this gigantic text chain. I think I think
they kind of talked me into it. You could feel

(01:50:33):
a bruin last year. But I think any of us
who've been fans over the years, you get teased into you.
We got teased into thinking that it was legit. And
they seem to always play or at times play some
of the bigger programs really tight, and then they would
lose the game and it was like, I mean, we
are we ever going to get over the hump? And

(01:50:54):
and I think it it changed last year when when
you know they they looked better. I think the eye
test with the way they look is just different. And yeah,
they lost to Ohio State. Last year they lost in
the College Football Playoff, but it just felt different. And
then this year, I think we can all agree that

(01:51:17):
in the past the game at Penn State, the catch
was insane, but in years past he would have been
out of bounds, but this year he was inbounds. You know,
the game at Oregon, that's the game that IU doesn't
win in the past. And then I think I think

(01:51:38):
even in the Ohio State game, everybody I did a
podcast with a guy, Jimmy Traina, who covers the business
that I'm in, and he's like, yeah, but that game
didn't mean anything. And to me, I said, it meant
less to Ohio State, but it meant a lot to Indiana.
And the fan base is one thing, but I think
the team to say, well we can beat Ohio State.

(01:51:58):
We just did and we dominated them defensively. I think
that all of that goes into giving all of us
a real feel that they're good enough to win the
whole thing. Alabama scares me. I'm not gonna lie, because
of their pedigree and because of their size and their athleticism.
But you know, I think Indiana probably scares them. And

(01:52:23):
and I don't think I've ever been able to say
that in the past their favorite for a reason.

Speaker 1 (01:52:27):
It's truly an unbelievable comment. Now, when you were in Bloomington,
that was actually, I mean, that was some Mallory years,
was it not? It was.

Speaker 6 (01:52:34):
I mean, I'm basically the same age as Trent Green.
He was in mcnut dorm a year ahead of me,
and that I was McNutt. And yeah, we were. I
mean back in the day, we would go to the
games and they were fun and Anthony Thompson and Trent
Green and Mallory and it was it was a good

(01:52:56):
time to be an IU fan. Try went to a
game in Michigan State. They took on Lorenzo White. It
was a fun time in the Big ten two. But
then it kind of dipped down. Then my daughter went
there and I would visit her and we would tailgate
and then I'm like, all right, it's game time, and
she's like, oh yeah, nobody goes into the game. We

(01:53:17):
just go home. I'm like, what don't we tailgate? But
we go home, we don't go into the game.

Speaker 1 (01:53:22):
Always win the tailgate.

Speaker 6 (01:53:23):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, But then I made her go in.
I'm like, no, we're going inside the stadium. We're going
and now you can't get in the place, and it's
it's just great. You're right. I mean, the late eighties
early nineties was a decent time to be an IU fan,
but it was nothing like this.

Speaker 1 (01:53:43):
Well in with this Joon and again we can't think
enough of the time here on what is a busy Monday.
It's been a while since Monday night football is called Indie.

Speaker 7 (01:53:50):
Hall in less.

Speaker 6 (01:53:50):
It's been three years.

Speaker 1 (01:53:52):
Yeah, three years? Right, did you start? I'm trying to
think when did you come over to ESPN.

Speaker 6 (01:53:58):
First year? Was this is our fourth year? So we
were here, I guess.

Speaker 1 (01:54:02):
Yeah, so it's charge. I think it was Chargers and
Steelers late in the year. They actually had a couple
Monday nighters with Matt Ryan.

Speaker 6 (01:54:07):
Yeah and that. Yeah, yeah, we did those games. We
did those games. We were here.

Speaker 1 (01:54:11):
Was there any any staple for you last night? Did
you did you have dinner anywhere? Is there any I know,
maybe you're not in town for the combine. I'm trying
to think of what other events you would have been
to in here.

Speaker 6 (01:54:21):
A lot of my friends are Colts fans uh in
Saint Louis, So I brought three friends. They went to
Saint Elmo's, my wife and I. My wife does Monday
Night Countdown. Has a really great feature tonight, uh with
a little boy who's been through a lot and a
special relationship with one of the Colts cheerleaders who signs,

(01:54:42):
uh you can't hear, signs the national anthem to him
and talks to him and has this great relationship with him.
It's a beautiful piece. She and I just dated the
Cap Grill here in the hotel, and then I'm going
to have lunch today at the Cap Grill here in
the hotel with a couple of fraternity boddies at work
here in Indy. So yeah, I'm not a bit. I

(01:55:04):
just want to kind of go to bed, do I
watched sun n at football, do my work and and
kind of get a decent night's sleep.

Speaker 1 (01:55:11):
Yeah, that is a that's a great story. Cheerleader Morgan,
I believe that'll be there.

Speaker 6 (01:55:16):
You go, you know more about it than I do.
We went to the hangar that we had a We
had a group party for everybody that covers Monday Night
football from the pregame to the game. We had the
whole place. Pat Night came and I got He brought
a couple of bobbleheads of his dad and I've known
Pat from over the years. So the hangar was awesome.
Last night. We ran there after Michelle and I ate

(01:55:39):
dinner and spent a couple hours and it was great.
But again, came back, watched the football game, went to bed.
Love it.

Speaker 1 (01:55:46):
I love it. Sounds like an awesome time here in Indy.
We'll be looking forward to it tonight again. That Monday
Night a feature as well will be great to view.
Joe can't thank you enough man, go Hoosiers, and we'll
certainly be listening watching tonight.

Speaker 6 (01:55:59):
All right, good, appreciate it, guys, thanks for having me on.

Speaker 1 (01:56:01):
That's a great Joe buck right there on the Payless
Liquors Hotline. Caleb will have that up on the podcast.
We appreciate his time here. A little bit of a
shift around in the nine o'clock hour. With that, Caleb,
let's go aheh head of break we'll come back. We'll
do a little checkdown continue preview tonight Colts and forty
nine ers in week sixteen. Well, big thanks to Joe

(01:56:23):
Buck for that. Caleb will get it up on the podcast.
Really enjoyed that. If you missed it. Voice of Monday
Night Football, Joe Buck, Thank you certainly to the hard
work of Mark diked In for helping set that up.
And lo and behold. This man just couldn't get enough.
I mean again, we saw him in front of the
Governor's mansion on Friday morning. Mark from Munster is now

(01:56:44):
in studio after one of the greatest wins of his
Bears fandom. You just couldn't get enough. You had to
touch the mic today, did you not?

Speaker 7 (01:56:53):
You know the girls are still sleeping. I was like,
I have Christmas presents to bring you, guys, and they
didn't come till this past weekends. It's like I got
to stop by anyway, and I was like, well, Joe
Buck's about to be on, and I'm as well slide
in and say hi and all that. So I was like, okay,
And just so happens that the Bears up beat the
Packers ass and it wasn't even close. On Saturday night,
just a complete blowout, no stress whatsoever.

Speaker 1 (01:57:13):
It was funny. I couldn't see you in the producers studio,
but I could tell Caleb was talking to somebody else
in there. And now looking back on it, I was
half expecting you to grab the mic and mister buck,
this is Mark from Munster. Can we talk a little
bit about the Bears some Saturday night?

Speaker 7 (01:57:26):
I would have said, what's your favorite call you've ever had?
And I'm like, bias, my bias would have said the
twenty sixteen World Series game Game.

Speaker 1 (01:57:33):
Seven with the comes, Yeah, certainly, But.

Speaker 7 (01:57:36):
I was like, maybe his is like when Randy Moss
mood the Moon lambeau Field.

Speaker 1 (01:57:39):
I was gonna say, he probably gets asked about that
a whohole lot. Dude. I have a natural hatred towards
the Chicago Bears, because when I went to IU, it
felt like every single kid in a five hour radius
of Chicago a said they were from Chicago, yep, and
then be the Bears were good back then, and so

(01:58:03):
I was just bitter. I was like, you know, I
don't like that all these Bears fans are celebrated. The
Cubs are good. I don't like that all these Cubs fans.
It's probably is more of a reflection of how I
am as a human being. So I've had this disdain
for the bears, be.

Speaker 4 (01:58:15):
The petty one here and I know, oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:58:16):
But Mark Saturday night that was impressive. I still and
the Williams throw. I'm sure it's been on the loop
in your house.

Speaker 7 (01:58:22):
I still haven't fully grassed how exactly they pulled it
off and had that comeback. But it has been back
to back weeks where I've probably watched a DJ Moore
touchdown catch on loop like a thousand times, and then
my daughter's like, can you stop watching them?

Speaker 8 (01:58:34):
No?

Speaker 7 (01:58:34):
I can't. This is a core memory. Now, it's the
birth of you guys. And then that that ha has been.
What's going on in the order it changes, especially what
the elp? The elf didn't move today. I don't know
elf in the shelfies. She's moving around wherever she wants.
I can't project where she's going.

Speaker 1 (01:58:50):
She's been tired.

Speaker 5 (01:58:51):
Yeah, I'm currently looking at Cheese Greater hats on Etsy.

Speaker 7 (01:58:55):
Oh that was glorious, So walk us through that.

Speaker 1 (01:58:57):
So Caleb was rocking the Cheese Greater, say Caleb.

Speaker 7 (01:58:59):
Will Yeah, he was giving out food to like food
banks and everything like that. And DJ Moore was wearing
the Cheese Greater hat in the post game post locker
room celebration.

Speaker 6 (01:59:08):
Great.

Speaker 7 (01:59:08):
That was great because he got a game ball understandably
and he was wearing a Cheese Greater hat. And then
the next day Caleb was doing food deliveries for less
fortunate and he was wearing a Cheese Greater hat as
well as he was handing that. I'm like, yes, more
of that, please, It's glorious.

Speaker 4 (01:59:22):
So was Philip getting greated up tonight, James, I don't know.

Speaker 7 (01:59:27):
I mean image I was listening to you guys on
the way in and just asking. I agree, like he's
going to probably get rid of it quickly. He doesn't
want anyone none of that forty nine ers passwords but
whatever that even looks like these days. But I mean,
I think, like you said, it's gonna be like how
Seattle played him were. They're gonna play him smart, They're
gonna know he's not gonna hold on to it. So
maybe drop guys back and just load the box against

(01:59:48):
Jonathan Taylor or something. That's got to be the plan there.
But I don't love their chances. I again, if they're
gonna lose one of these next three, which it might
be all three, but if they're gonna lose one, it
would be this one in the against the NFC opponent.

Speaker 1 (02:00:00):
Well, and Joe Buck just said it to us. You know,
the more intermediate throws, the more stuff down the field.
You know they're pretty adamant that that's going to be there.
And is it now? Again on paper a team that
is dead last and sacks and a team that you
know's down their top corner, you feel like it could
be there. But can you get Alec Pierce involved please?

Speaker 2 (02:00:21):
Again?

Speaker 6 (02:00:22):
Something?

Speaker 1 (02:00:22):
You know, I know you hate Rogers more than anyone,
but you watched that Pittsburgh game yesterday, and he's got
a little bit more in the arm than Pike Rivers does.
But he I think gets We have got to try
and do some stuff down the field. They don't do
a lot of it, but like the whole Kenneth Gainwell thing,
you never know, right and you know they take some
shots to Metcalf when he's not in the crowd. You
know that aspect to it. I just feel like it

(02:00:44):
has to be attempted.

Speaker 7 (02:00:45):
You got to keep the opposing defense like respecting you
a little bit. So if you're just not even going
to attempt downfield throws, like, well, we don't even need
to do anything. We can just you know, stay back
and load the box against johnthan Tailor and make Philip
Rivers try to beat us with his arm, which we
know isn't the strongest that it was five years ago.
So it's gonna be a tough task. I don't know
if you guys have major predictions yet or whatever, but
I have this unfortunately going as a loss for the

(02:01:06):
Colts again tonight.

Speaker 1 (02:01:08):
We should probably do that. On the other side, Mark
from Munster in studio with us here, we also probably
need to do a morning checkdown. Let's take a quick break,
Caleb'll come back, we'll give our picks, we'll do a
little morning checkdown, made a lead off next segment, and
we'll do it one final time. All right, Well, thanks
to Joe Buck for joining us. That'll be up on
the podcast and we've had to shift some things around

(02:01:30):
here in the nine o'clock hour. Let's go ahead with
a morning checkdown tonight. It is eight point fifteen inside
of Loco Soil Stadium, five and a half point underdog
the Colts in forty nine ers. James Boyd, your biggest
key to the game is what.

Speaker 5 (02:01:45):
Can you contain Christian McCaffrey for the defensive purposes and offensively,
can you push the ball down the field a lot
more than you did against Seattle.

Speaker 1 (02:01:56):
Pushing the ball down the field will have to occur
without their starting left and right that left tackle Bernard Ryman,
he was ruled out yesterday. Did practice actually on Saturday,
but he was out with that right elbow injury. And
then James defensively, no Sauce Gardner, but it will be
to Force Buckner for the first time in a month.

Speaker 5 (02:02:15):
Yeah, this is good news for their defensive line, which
is struggles to after the quarterback. So perhaps even if
DeForest Buckner isn't the guy getting the sack, he can
help spark the other guys to step up their game,
those being Latu, Latou, Quity Pay and a few more.
I did mention.

Speaker 1 (02:02:30):
So it is a busy night of hoops as well,
I should say day and night of hoops here in
the Circle City. We'll start with the night action. This
will be heard on the fans. If you want Colts
forty nine ers tonight that's over on Hank FMR sister
station ninety seven point one Pacers at seven o'clock coverage
will begin. That is in Boston. They'll take on the Celtic.

(02:02:51):
Celtics have been very good here over the last ten games.
I believe Jayalen Brown is questionable due to an illness.
Ten and a half point favorite the Celtics. That Miles
Turner back in the building coming up tomorrow night. That
is the Bucks without Jannisancezakumpo. So back to back for
the Pacers. College basketball wise, Butler and NJ it that

(02:03:12):
is over at Hinkle two o'clock. That can be heard
over on Fuego.

Speaker 7 (02:03:15):
Or did you see the spread on that one?

Speaker 1 (02:03:17):
By the way, did I see correctly thirty two?

Speaker 7 (02:03:20):
I think it's thirty one and a half. But yeah,
that's got to be one of the higher Butler spreads
of all time.

Speaker 1 (02:03:25):
Right, James, you want to rethink what I said to
you earlier about potentially everyone in this building being a
better option being.

Speaker 4 (02:03:33):
I said, don't one again.

Speaker 1 (02:03:34):
You know what it is.

Speaker 7 (02:03:34):
It's height.

Speaker 5 (02:03:35):
It's always If you told me everyone was gonna go
out there and be five foot ten, then yeah, I
feel confident about my ability to compete with them. But no,
I still don't think that will end well for you.

Speaker 1 (02:03:43):
Boy, that's probably fair. Bet So again, Butler, as they
see Kevin Bowen height Northwestern there, Yeah, I got your
new bang in the post a little bit here. They
survived Northwestern at Gamebridge Field House. Perdue was all over
all burned. Very impressive. Another ranked win, another win away
from home for the boiler Makers. So both the Indiana
schools get it done. Indie Classic Indiana won over Chicago

(02:04:06):
State Assembly Hall. They'll have Sienna tonight six o'clock, that
is inside of Assembly Hall. Mark Dyke, didn't you have
any idea of the Sienna head coaches?

Speaker 7 (02:04:17):
Not a clue, couldn't even venture a guess.

Speaker 1 (02:04:19):
Okay, Carmela Anthony won the national title at Syracuse, right,
m hmm. Do you remember the sharpshooter on that team?

Speaker 6 (02:04:26):
I do not.

Speaker 1 (02:04:28):
Just Jerry McNamara Ringobell.

Speaker 7 (02:04:29):
I've heard the name. Yeah, I would not have guessed
that he's the head coach over there.

Speaker 1 (02:04:33):
Though, Jerry McNamara for Sienna's that's six o'clock inside of
Assembly Hall. And like we said earlier, my Christmas has
been ruined.

Speaker 7 (02:04:41):
Mark, what happened?

Speaker 6 (02:04:44):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (02:04:44):
I think you were tagged in a few tweets about
it yesterday.

Speaker 7 (02:04:47):
I was. I I would say you didn't open the
Christmas present? There could have been one I gave you.
They might rethink that as well.

Speaker 1 (02:04:52):
Did you see Notre Dame basketball? I did they lose
to four Waying yesterday. Shout out to John coffin the
octave in my voice. Don't see him go highs when
I talk about an Notre Dame basketball losses, when I
talk about some.

Speaker 7 (02:05:04):
Other season over, no, not even any national championship over over.

Speaker 1 (02:05:09):
But you're gonna have to make up for it with
some very quality wins here in the A.

Speaker 5 (02:05:13):
If he could volunteer to give his ankle to Marcus Burden,
he would have done it immediately.

Speaker 1 (02:05:17):
Dude, ankle. I he wants to take a kid for
a couple of days, as happily offer that, give somebody
what blood cells to him. You need to heal this up.
I'm glad to stop there.

Speaker 7 (02:05:28):
Rosie could be a team player.

Speaker 1 (02:05:29):
Last note of the checkdown, the most impressive thing Week
sixteen in the NFL and Mark, go ahead, Bears beat
the Packers, knock them down an impossible comeback.

Speaker 7 (02:05:41):
I still don't fully grasp how that happened, but they
beat him on Saturday night, a big win for the Bears.
And then that along with some help from Aaron Rodgers,
I hate to say, beating the Lions, have clinched the
Bears in the postseason. So they are currently the second
seed in the end, the state one seed. They could
get the one seed.

Speaker 1 (02:05:58):
They probably want the Colts to win, right.

Speaker 7 (02:06:00):
Yeah, that's probably true. So yeah, I mean, and the
NFC West is crazy because like everybody's talking about the
Thursday night game between the Rams and the Seahawks, like, well,
the forty nine ers still have a shot at getting
the one seed as well, which they have to be
like one more under the radar potential playoff teams there
is out there.

Speaker 1 (02:06:16):
Yeah, so if they win out, So San Francisco clinched
a playoff berth yesterday based off all the results that happened,
But if they went out, they're the one seed. Yah,
So they definitely have a lot to play for as
well tonight. You know, weirdly and James, we've talked about
this all morning long. It's kind of hard to like
describe the Colts game tonight. Obviously it's important for them
to win. I don't want to lose sight of that,

(02:06:38):
but they technically still could make the playoffs even with
a loss. Now again, you need a slew of things
to go your way. But the only thing, unless I'm
missing something, I believe the only thing that can officially
happen tonight is if the Colts lose, the AFC South
is over for them.

Speaker 5 (02:06:56):
Right, which in all reality probably already.

Speaker 7 (02:07:00):
Yeah, yeah, that was a long shot to begin with.

Speaker 1 (02:07:02):
For them to win the South, they need to win out,
have Houston lose to the Chargers next week, and have
the Jags lose to the Titans in Week eighteen, which
the Jags are playing for something. You wouldn't think they
would lose the Titans in Week eight.

Speaker 4 (02:07:16):
The Titans just beat the defending AFC champion.

Speaker 1 (02:07:18):
I had never heard of that dude that got in
the game for Gardner Minshaw yesterday.

Speaker 5 (02:07:22):
Me either, me either, But honestly, that is probably what
happens to ninety nine percent of teams that lose your
quarterback to a twenty acl and back to back weeks.
That I mean, when things went down for the Chiefs,
boy did they come down.

Speaker 2 (02:07:37):
I thought the biggest revelation of the weekend was that
Josh Johnson is still playing in the league. He's been
playing in the league for like fifteen years, and now
he's with the Commanders.

Speaker 8 (02:07:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:07:46):
I want to say former Colt Caleb's point. He's been
with like ten different franchises. Believe it was like an
NFL record.

Speaker 1 (02:07:52):
I think I think he was the backup the first
time Andrew Luck got hurt. He was Hasselbeck's backup. I
think here for a couple of weeks there, the first
time he got hurt. Elliott pointing out here that Philip
Rivers has never lost the forty nine ers.

Speaker 5 (02:08:05):
Yeah, I did see that, But what about forty four
year old Philip Rivers. Can he turn back the clock
one more time?

Speaker 7 (02:08:13):
Forty four year old Philip Rivers is still Philip Rivers,
So he's still at the moment undefeated.

Speaker 1 (02:08:19):
This is true.

Speaker 5 (02:08:20):
I do want to know again in his heart of heart,
it's like coming back, you gotta make the playoffs. I
get all that, but you got to get at least
one one on the board. You can't tell your kids
one day I went back, I wasn't afraid, and you
lose every single game, you gotta get a dub.

Speaker 1 (02:08:33):
Well, and he mentioned this after the Seattle game in
this past week. James, he's never experienced a full Lucasol stadium.
That is right the COVID year of course, when he
was here playing for the Colts. So he will get
a little bit of that tonight. And as we talked
about with Joe Buck, first time Monday night football is
called Indie Home or any Colts game in three years.

(02:08:54):
I thought it was interesting. We had Ross Talker on
and Mark thank you for booking them. Ross Talker on
at eight thirty and he mentioned the Riley Leonard thing, yeah,
which I think was inter I don't think nationally you've
heard that thought too too much. Again, that's more of
the debate we talked about this early in the show,
the Anthony Richardson debate. I don't think there's really any

(02:09:15):
debate right now. I think medically there are some major
impairments with the vision. To me, more of the debate
right now is either Philip Rivers or Riley Leondard. That's
the more realistic debate. And Ross Tucker, I don't want
to put words in his mouth, but he seemed to
be I'd rather vote for Riley Leonard, which is probably
where I'm at too.

Speaker 5 (02:09:33):
At least early on he was, you know what, all
of us were kind of thinking that, Okay, even if
you bring Philip Rivers back. We were like, okay, you're
gonna put Riley Leonard out there. You're going on the
road to Seattle. Gonna be a hard game anyway. See
what your backup you've had on your roster looks like.
But then on the flip side, as soon as Shane
opened his mouth about Philip river Is the day they

(02:09:55):
signed up officially, which was that Wednesday, we all left
that press conference thinking, oh, there's no chance Riley starts.
Rivers is the guy. That's how bullish Shane was that
opening press conference. That changed my entire respective on the situation.
So that to me is a big factor.

Speaker 1 (02:10:12):
How about Mark Dyton joining us on two of his
days off, Yeah, I got a question about this too.

Speaker 7 (02:10:16):
Sure, I'm only home because they needed me to take PTO.
You didn't even take it enough this year.

Speaker 3 (02:10:22):
Take more.

Speaker 7 (02:10:22):
I'm like, okay, I will.

Speaker 4 (02:10:24):
That's PTO man, right there.

Speaker 5 (02:10:26):
So they're out your PTO excursions excursion lions.

Speaker 7 (02:10:32):
Yeah, you know what, there we go wait to open
those bags.

Speaker 5 (02:10:34):
Has Has Santa finished his shopping for all of your children?
You and Kevin?

Speaker 1 (02:10:39):
Are you done?

Speaker 6 (02:10:40):
Yes?

Speaker 5 (02:10:41):
Is Santa done? Are you telling him? Hey?

Speaker 8 (02:10:44):
Done?

Speaker 1 (02:10:44):
I believe I was gonna ask about the elves too.
I believe the elves are done. I believe Santa's good
and boy Santa might be in a in a white
beater coming up on Thursday with how this weather's looking.

Speaker 5 (02:10:53):
Okay, okay, imagine.

Speaker 1 (02:10:54):
How much Santa's gonna be sweating.

Speaker 7 (02:10:55):
His Assida's broke now or something like that. Santa's shaking,
the shaking the cane seem you have.

Speaker 1 (02:11:00):
To go on a two piece to be flying around
in the world.

Speaker 5 (02:11:03):
So Sand's broke now right?

Speaker 4 (02:11:04):
Just got it?

Speaker 3 (02:11:05):
Got it?

Speaker 4 (02:11:05):
I just didn't know how last minute is.

Speaker 7 (02:11:07):
Cans for candy canes.

Speaker 1 (02:11:08):
Speaking of last minute, we got about a minute left.
Caleb Zuverer what he got forty nine ers five and
a half.

Speaker 2 (02:11:13):
Point favorite for tonight's I'm saying forty nine ers, twenty
seven colts seventeen James Boyden.

Speaker 4 (02:11:21):
Forty nine or twenty seven colts twenty.

Speaker 7 (02:11:23):
Four twenty seven to seventeen niners.

Speaker 1 (02:11:27):
You guys a little bit more high scoring than I am.
I do like the Colts taking the points here. I
will go twenty three nineteen Niners. James, you've hit this
quite often this morning. Tackling Christian McCaffrey makes me sweat.
Imagining the Colts tackling.

Speaker 5 (02:11:43):
I'm just picturing him lined up against any linebacker on
the Colts roster and shuddering at the fact that he's
going to catch it and wiggle and get ten yards
pretty much every time.

Speaker 1 (02:11:53):
Again, on paper, there is a lot I think you
could potentially do offensively, granted, giving your personnel, we'll see. Mark.
We are not talking to you tomorrow. Christmas, Merry Christmas
to you, to the girls, thank you for stopping and
thank you for booking Ross Tucker and Joe Buck both
of those up on the podcast. It'll be us three
again tomorrow. Caleb Zuver, great great work behind the glass.

(02:12:13):
James Boyd and Kevin Bowen. We will be with you again.
Reminder Hank FM tonight for the Colts game on these airwaves,
it'll be the Pacers in action. Everybody, have a great
Monday night football. Monday

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