Week 15 Recap, Week 16 Preview

Cecil and Joe recap week 15 of the NFL season and preview week 16!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hello, and welcome to the thirdand the Don Football Show. I am
Joe Whitney cecil as always here totalk about Week fifteen of the NFL season.
Preview Week sixteen of the NFL season. Cecil, how are you doing.
I'm good man. You know,had a nice bet in that Eagle
Seahawks game, cash that was onthe edge of my seat for at the

(00:21):
end of the game, because Ihad a AJ Brown under seventy eight yards
and there were a lot of throwsbeing thrown his way. At the end
of the game there I had theSeahawks plus seven and a half, so
it was a nice parlay. Inthe fantasy football semifinals for one of my
leagues, it's you know, oneweek each where on the playoffs, so
hopefully I make it the finals nextweek. Knock on wood. But yeah,

(00:43):
life is good. Lots of footballstill be played, and it's getting
that exciting time of year. That'sright. We have Festivus this weekend.
It's gonna have some Festivus miracles goingon with some NFL games. It's it's
a good sports week. And wehave college football bowl games, we have
Festivus, we have NFL games.Obviously, Christmas Day's NBA thing. I'm
aout the biggest mb guys cease.But you know, it's just good to
have all these sports on during theday to occupy our time because no one

(01:04):
even works anymore anyway. They justpeople just you know, watch stuff on
their phones or you know, atwork working from home. Sometimes it's it's
a nice time to be around.Let's get started with a recap of last
week cease and boy did we havea big one. On last Thursday.
We had the Raiders killing the Chargerssixty three to twenty one. Easton Stick
started at quarterback for the Chargers.I think they quickly found out that,

(01:26):
well, he wasn't that terrible tobe honest, but he's not the guy.
Keenan Allen was out with this one. This was Brandon Staley losing the
team. And if you give upsixty three points to this Raiders team,
God, are you awful? Theyfired Brandon Staley. We've talked about him
being fired forever. He should havebeen fired. This is the right move.
You could have waited until the endof the year wouldn't have mattered.

(01:47):
This will just give you a legup on the coaching search. But it
doesn't mean anything. Chargers or theRaiders aren't going to the playoffs, and
the Chargers weren't going to do anythingwithout Justin Herbert anyway, So that's I
mean. It was a fun Itwas a fun. It was the most
fun. It was the funniest gameof all the NFL season. But that's
all I got. Yeah, Ithink I enjoyed al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreet
trying to figure out things to sayor talk about in the game without just

(02:08):
getting completely you know, just youknow, just saying the Chargers are terrible.
My favorite line of the night iswhen al Michaels went well at least
it's only a thirty minute plane ridle, it was probably the best line of
the night. But yeah, Imean, we talked about Brandley Staley.
She probably shouldn't have fired weeks ago. Honestly, I'm surprised they let him

(02:29):
on the plane after this game.He you know, I had a bet
with somebody else saying that he won'tmake it to noon the next day,
and he got fired at twelve ohfour, So I lost that one.
But that's okay. Again, I'mnot sure why it took that long.
This should have been a kind ofa slam dunk decision that night, not

(02:50):
I don't know wh I had towait till lunchtime. It's having to sleep
on after that game. It's apretty clear cut this is not working and
it's time to just move on.And you know, even if there's no
real coach, it's better than whatwe because everyone is. It's the thing
with firing a head coach a lotof times, is you know why fire
in mid season once you have nothingto play for or s let them right

(03:10):
out the season? Is is yourteam just getting like were progressively worse?
Just the big question. They're kindof staying the same, even Keel.
You know, some people disappointed,you know, things that work out the
way you guys hoped, you know, you part ways it's fine, But
then there's the type where things aregetting worse and worse every week. And
that's the type of fire. Andthat's definitely why I'm a Brandon Stone this

(03:31):
week. So that's all I haveto say on this game. I mean,
Raiders go from scoring zero points tosixty three. It's very embarrassing for
the five Los Angeles Chargers fans outthere. The need to find that super
fan they kept on showing in likeweek two or three that was going nuts
because I would love to see herreaction during this game. It was not
a fun one for the Chargers.But you know, see, we're gonna

(03:53):
talk about Bengals game next. Butit is kind of a fun little experiment.
Three weeks ago. If the Bengalswould have started losing games, they'd
be wake the Charges right now andhave a top five pick. They've decided
to you know, Jake Browning's goodand they're winning games. So they beat
the Vikings twenty seven to twenty fourin overtime. The game starts off really
bad. They're down seven to threeat a halftime, they're down seventeen to
three after the end of the thirdquarter, and they scored twenty one points

(04:15):
in the fourth quarter. Honestly cameout of nowhere. It felt like Jake
Browning just flipped the switch on.T. Higgins had some pretty incredible catches
to help them with that, andthey come back and win the game.
This is one where it was acollapse by the Vikings. Their fourth quarter
defense has been really bad for howgood their first, second and third quarter
defenses, and the Bengals, Imean, you got your playmakers, you

(04:38):
might as well use them. I'mnot saying that you could just throw Joe
Schmoe in there, but you couldthrow a Jake Browning, who's you know,
Okay, backup, I think wefigured out now and he can make
the most of them. Yeah,I mean talk about a crazy game.
I mean, Jake Browning did notlook very good for three quarters of the
game, and then suddenly the fourthquarter something flipped on and I don't know
if he remembered he got cut bythe Vikings finally, but suddenly he just

(05:00):
starts trying to throw the ball aroundthe field and people start making plays,
which I mean, again, theBengals have all these weapons we've talked about,
and you know, they don't getused. The unilization has not been
there. He went Joe Burrow attimes, and that's always been kind of
a head scratch or a big questionmark and a frustration for people. But
it's fun to see them, youknow, actually do something in a key

(05:20):
moment because that's kind of when playmakersare needed more than anything. Right,
So this one gets, you know, into overtime. The Bengals are able
to kind of win it there,but man, like there's The big takeaways
from this game are one, weknew the Vikings really aren't any good.
They've just been kind of hanging aroundthe NFC because that's what NFC teams do.

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If you're middling, you're gonna bepretty much in the playoff hunt till
the end of the season. Andtwo, you know, the Bengals,
if they can figure out using someof this scheme going into next year,
they I feel they could be almostunstoppable. I don't know how much that
will actually happen because it's a stylepreference. You know, Joe Burrow likes

(06:06):
having five wide, he likes runningout of the shotgun. But I mean,
you keep putting tape on like thisand the off season, I think
the offensive staff and Joe Burrow haveto sit there and go, we got
to do this, because holy shit, we got an offensive line that actually
like blocks people. Now, youknow, on passed downs, the quarterback's

(06:29):
not really getting sacked that often becauseteams can't just pin their ears back and
start rushing the passer because everybody's inthe shotgun, or it's always going to
be a pass where the ball isheld for a while. You know,
they're coming out of fire and outof their stances, and they're pushing people
around, which is what most ofthese guys if you look at their profiles
from an attributes and talent in thefilm, a lot of them are really
good run blockers. Pass blocking isa little more, it's more elusive,

(06:54):
it's harder to pin down necessarily.But I mean, we knew that most
of these guys are plus against therun, and probably a little worse than
against the past. So I thinkyou give him a little bit more scheme
of help here, like establishing therun things we've talked about with the Bengals
offense before. If you can putif you can marry this offensive scheme to

(07:14):
what Joe Burrow can do and justget Joe Burrow to commit to it,
I mean, we're gonna be talkingabout deep balls all over the place all
the time, let's be honest.So one thing is missing from this team
right now is Jake Browning really can'thit guys deep. He's missing people.
He doesn't see those reads. Again, backup quarterback who has done way more

(07:35):
than any of us ever could havehoped for. So I'm not gonna knock
the guy that much because again,we're getting we're basically playing with house money
with this guy. It seems likeevery week somehow. But really, if
you can get Joe Burrow to havethis kind of team around him, and
obviously the personnel with sidings free agency, we're not sure who's gonna be on

(07:56):
the team next year. But Imean, again, do the kind of
stuff scheme wise, commit to it, and there's gonna be all kinds of
things that are gonna open up inthe passing game for Joe Burrow, and
defenses aren't gonna be able to justanswer it because they won. They won't
be able to hit the run schemelike they do the last couple of weeks
with Jake Browning. Because Joe Burrowis gonna be in there, they're gonna

(08:16):
have to respect that. But two, they're gonna have to do something to
stop this title offense and that's what'sgonna open up that deep ball for Joe
Burrow. I'm just hoping that thatthis scheme sticks a little bit through the
offseason because we've got guys like CordellWohlsen in the left guard, who has
been much moligned through motion of theseason, rightfully so, but suddenly like

(08:37):
shows signs of life and things likethat. So we've got offensive linemen we
left for dead that are suddenly performingat a decent, you know, replacement
level, which is crazy. Wetalk about, you know, five weeks
ago. So you know, Iwe'll see what the Bengals offseason holds.
We got you know, a potentialplayoff run. Are they gonna do anything

(09:00):
in the playoffs? Probably not.I mean it's Jake Browning at the end
of the day. Then again,I thought, you know, the Coats
were better and they couldn't answer youknow, screens and check downs by Jake
Browning for four quarters and got crushed. So I mean, we'll see what
happens. There's three games left,We'll see what the matchup's like. And
I mean, at a certain pointwin, are team's gonna stop just kind

(09:22):
of phoning it in against Jake Browning. Looks like the Vikings had figured something
out, but in the end theyjust kind of fell apart at nail in
the fourth quarter. So it's agood team win. You know, the
defense can't be really understated here.I mean, Trey Henderson is having a
sneakily great season. You know,fifteen sacks, that's his career, Mark,
I believe. I mean, theguy is is quietly putting together a

(09:46):
great defensive season. There's a chanceto get to twenty sacks. There's three
games left, playing some shaky offenses. It's very possible. So the defense
is providing to chase Brown out therunning out of the backfield, and running
back is the backup. Joe Mixonhas been great. He was hurt early
in the year, that's the reasonwhy he didn't even use as much.

(10:07):
But he is electricity that this offensereally needs the running back position that Joe
Dixon unfortunately just doesn't always have.So a lot of good things, a
lot of young guys are contributing,and if we can keep this rolling.
I'm not, you know, superhopeful about some kind of deep postseason run
this year. You know that's allgravy for me. But really, we

(10:28):
take this momentum, take this scheme, what we've figured out with the offense,
and move it forward and and Joeburrowing in the mix. I think
that's a lethal combination. I agree. I think there's a couple of things
to note for me too, Justone, I'll nitpick a little bit.
Joe Mixon only had four carries forlike twenty seven yards halfway through the third
quarter. Jake Brodding's still a backupquarterback. Let's run the ball, Let's

(10:50):
keep him honest, you know,keep on throwing in Chase Brown as well,
but you have a bell cow backand Joe Mixon, keep on using
him. And then two, Ithink this is a good opportunity where I
know I've kind of been on theteam like maybe we should just lose games.
Not that you try to lose games, but maybe that'd be better for
us. But if they can makeyou right, if they can do something
in the playoffs or go into theplayoffs and do well in the last part

(11:13):
of the season here, it givesyou more confidence heading in the next year.
And the beauty of things is youdon't have too many things to replace
next year, right, So ifJonah Williams walks in free agency, that's
tough. You can get another tackle, you know, if t Higgins,
we can franchise Tag Kim Tyler Boydmight come back on a cheaper deal because
he hasn't really done too much thisseason. It's there's a lot of possibilities

(11:33):
that can come out of this.We also saw some some of the young
guys stepping up. Miles Murphy gotsome pressure on the quarterback. That's something
that's gonna need to happen in thefuture. The pass rush has been a
big problem this year. Trey Hendrickson'sdone fine, but everyone else is kind
of not done fine, So we'llsee how they do. They also lost
dj Reider and dj Ivy, djReider being the most important one there,
and that could really hurt because theirbend don't break defense has broken a way

(11:56):
more than it probably should have.So we'll see how they do it in
the next couple weeks. Here stilla lot to play for. If they
went out, they're not technically safe. They might need some help. So
there's a couple of three, coupleof big games coming up here. Later.
On Saturday, we had these Coltsbeating the Steelers thirty to thirteen.
There was a lot that happened inthis game. We had Demonte Kaz knocking
out Michael Pittman on a dive.There was Zach Moss getting horse collar tackled

(12:20):
in the end zone that ended uphaving him leave the game. He's going
to try to play this week,I believe, and Jonathan Taylor might be
back. But we saw Trey Sermon, the guy who was outcast from the
forty nine ers, have seventeen carriesfor eighty eight yards. That was kind
of cool. And Gardner Minshew playedpretty well. And to be quite frank,
it's Mitch tr Whisky's done. TheSteelers. I think they're okay with

(12:41):
not like okay with losing, butokay with maybe the Kenny Pickett, Mitch
Trubisky obviously Matt Cannon has already gone. With all those experiments being done,
and maybe this team not finishing aboutfive hundred for once, I think they
might be okay with it because it'sbeen ugly. It really has. I
mean that Casey hit that was arough one to watch because she you see
it, I mean, it's football. I'm not I'm not gonna say it's

(13:03):
a dirty hit. It's an unfortunateone. It's one that everyone knows you
shouldn't do anymore. It's it's veryobvious. You could see it from a
mile away coming. You saw himdarting through the screen. You're just like,
holy crap, he's about to justdestroy this person. And he got
kicked out of the game and hesuspended the rest of the season too,
So the NFL is not playing aroundwith it. I don't. I don't

(13:24):
think they will again. I'm notgonna call Casey's character in the you know,
boys, I'm not gonna call thehorse car tackle. You know,
you know people will say it's theSteelers, and you know, you can
do that narrative all day long,but the reality is, you know,
one, it's hard to tackle people. Sports car tackles are gonna happen.
You're trying to grab on, You'retrying to tackle guy. That's what you're
gonna do. Sometimes it turns intoa horse callar It's just stuff like that,

(13:50):
you know, hit people getting hitin the NFL, people getting tackled
in weird ways. It's it's theinherent risk of the sport. And you
know, you can say, youknow someone's doing this stuff on purpose,
and you know, there's just noreal way to factually based on anything unless
you know you have a bounty gateor something someone intentionally saying things. But
most people aren't trying to ruin otherpeople's careers at this point in the NFL.

(14:11):
It's it's kind of evolved beyond that. Hopefully, so it sucks.
I hope Michael Pittman's okay, youknow, he's I don't know if he's
gonna play this week. I don'tknow what the exact update on the concussion
is, but I'm just glad hewas able to get up after that because
that was a vicious hit. Soyeah, Colts keep firing. I mean,

(14:33):
Gardner Minshew played well. I meanthe Steelers went up early by two
possessions and then they just got crushedfrom then on. It was absolutely just
housed from that point onward. TheSteelers had no answers. Their teaffense looks
terrible. I mean, if there'sone thing to talk about with Mike Tomlin
team is and the Steers in general, is you know, we're gonna have
a run game and we're gonna havea good defense, and they don't.

(14:56):
They don't have anything right now.I don't really know when thing they do
necessarily very well as a team atall. You've got like random Steelers players,
which I don't agree with this.You got random Steelers like greats chiming
in on like Steelers culture and shit, and I'm just like, what the
hell is going on? Like one, they're not too and they're not two
and ten like, you've got ateam that's, you know, probably gonna

(15:20):
finish right around five hundred. Theydon't have a quarterback, and they've had
a lot of aging people who haveeither retired or just have lost a step,
And that's what happens to teams insteadof having random people from the seventies
eighties Ben Rolinsberger, whom I commentcoached. It's just kind of like disrespectful
for everyone to just like turn onMike Tomlin. I get this shit going

(15:43):
on with you know, a lotof receivers seem to be having some drama
and shit like that's going on.But you know, just because you've played
for a team twenty thirty years agodoesn't really give you a right to like
suddenly just like chime in on everythingthis team should be doing. Because the
reality is there's been a long levelof success that Mike Tomlin has had so

(16:03):
and a lot of these people haveplayed or been around Mike Tomlin. So
I think the whole thing is justa little I don't like the Steelers,
but it just seems a little disrespectfulto the man who's brought a high level
of success to a franchise for apretty long time. I'm with you.
I've seen the talk about firing MikeTomlin. If you think this is on
him, I don't know what you'respoking. I mean, honestly, it's

(16:23):
a GM issue. It's a quarterbackissue, it's an offensive line issue.
It's a taking running back in thefirst round and he's not very good any
more issue. And Agie Harris,you know he's I think Mike Tomlin in
the same way that players go onthe field and put their hearts on the
line, he's battling his ass offto get this team even close to five
hundred because they remember, they evenhad Cam Hayward out for a while and

(16:45):
teams were just running the ball downtheir throat because they their run stopper was
gone. So if as a Bengalsfan, if you want to go fire
Mike Tomlin, you go ahead anddo it. We'll welcome that. You
go get your next coach, We'llbe happy. Just don't get a different
quarter to keep your quarterback though.We'll work with that. But yeah,
I'm with you. I think it'sit's a good job by him to even
get him to this point. Andfor the Colts, you know, with
everything, it's kind of like,I still think about what this offense could

(17:07):
be with Anthony Richardson, but alsoGarbon Minshew's like a solid quarterback who like
every time he gets a chance,it just seems like it gets taken away
from him. And you know,situational football, If you put him on
a different team, maybe they're doingeven better. You put him on a
worse team like he was with theJaguars, maybe they're doing worse. It's
not always the quarterback position, andthat is I think something that Garden Minshew's
made apparent this year. The lastgame on Saturday this week sees the Lions

(17:29):
killed the Broncos forty two to seventeen. Started off pretty slow, but they
scored twenty one second quarter points andthen did not look good and only really
gave up some garbage time points tothe Broncos. It was never really that
close. Our guy Jamir Gibbs elevenrushes, one hundred yards, one touchdown.
This is what happens when you utilizeyour good players. Because Amon Ross
Saint Brown also had seven catches forone hundred and twelve yards and one touchdown.

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It wasn't Jared Goof this year.This week, it was Jared Goff
and he had five touchdowns as well. Very big game for the Lions.
It was win over a good teamand they kind of needed to get things
back on trap. Yeah. No, and notice it's the Lions at home
and that's the place usually where theyplay a lot better, especially in the
domes. But yeah, I mean, Jared Goff had a better game this

(18:10):
week, and that's huge at thispoint. You know, like you just
said, they got the ball tothe playmakers. Jamior Gibbs got used and
he paid dividends early on Ross SaintBrown. A lot of catches over one
hundred yards, touchdown. Sam Laporterwas involved, you know. Dan Montgomery
was involved as well. He didn'tget the touchdown, but he still was

(18:32):
very involved in the rushing game aswell. This is the kind of Lions
team that needs to be out there. They limited the run for the Broncos.
Jamonte Williams didn't do anything in thisgame. The Broncos running backs did
nothing. I mean, the Broncosoffense in general pretty much did nothing.
But the big thing two weeks agowas they could stop the run. That's
been the big thing when they playedthe Bears and the Packers. It's just

(18:55):
it's been a mess, you know, keeping teams from doing these long with
thought drives that just warn their defenseout and then Jared Goose goes back out
there three and outs and then they'reright back out there. So this is
the formula success. It's not themost frustrating thing about the Lions is there's
really nothing on paper you have togo this needs change or this needs effectually

(19:18):
just literally needs some more general consistencyout of the offense more than anything.
And that really just comes down toJared Goff making the right reads and just
you know, when things aren't easy, not just giving up on plates.
I mean he constantly just gives upany pressure it's over. He's just too
quick to just be okay with athree and out. They don't have an

(19:41):
elite defense, they don't have aterrible one. But at a certain point
you need to convert and control theball a little bit more, which is
something Dan Campbell tries to do byrunning the ball with both good running backs.
But the reality is Jared Goff takesway too many sacks for ten yard
losses on second and third downs andit kills the t So I don't really

(20:03):
know when it comes to the passinggame what they can fix, but it
seems to be squarely on Jared Goff. Just like we said before, this
team's gonna go as far as JaredGoff does, and if he has a
bad game, they're gonna look awful. When he has a good game,
they're gonna look really good. JaredGoff does not have to play perfect.
Jared Goff can be two touchdowns,two hundred and fifty yards, maybe throw

(20:26):
an interception if it's not in thekey moment in a scoring drive, and
they could win games. They reallycould. The problem is you don't get
that. You either get four orfive touchdown, three hundred yard Jared Goff,
or you get one hundred and fortyyard Jared Goff with two interceptions,
no touchdowns. That's all you get. So can we just just find some
way to get like a middle groundJared Goff. I don't know what we

(20:48):
gotta do to mellow this guy out. If we gotta give him some you
know, him hang out with Buddhistmonks over the offseason or something. But
we gotta get this guy mellowed out. You're right, I think it's so
weird that he is. I thinkthe definition of an average starting quarterback or
and above average maybe starting quarterback.But some of the highs are really high
and some of the lows are reallylow. You don't usually get that where

(21:10):
they end up averaging out to beinga middle of the road or just above
middle of the road quarterback, youknow, maybe not top ten, but
right behind it. It's crazy howit works. I think in the right
situations they'll be fine, especially becauseof the offensive line and the playmakers.
But right the defense can't put themin a position where they need to come
back from twenty one down. Theoffensive line needs to protect them. It's
going to be a team game.And for as well as he looks when

(21:33):
he is protected, there are timeswhere he gets pressured and he takes too
many sacks or throws too many picksbecause the rushers are coming right at him.
So we'll see what they can do. They if they get a home
playoff game. They're five and twoat home this season, maybe they can
win that one and maybe surprise peopleby maybe winning another one too. It's
just going to be whether it's goodgolf or bad golf. On Sunday,
we had the Browns beating the Bears, twenty to seventeen. That gives the

(21:56):
Browns nine wins on the season.They are, I think a win away
from clinching a play off spot atthis rate, depending on tie breakers,
which the last ones I saw,which they always change, but I think
it's just basically they have to winalmost Joe Flack go throus of three hundred
and seventy four yards, two touchdowns, three interceptions that people like to forget,
but it's he did show up whenthey needed them the most. The
Bears pretty much had this game onecease. They were they were up seventeen

(22:18):
to seven and no points are beingscored, and then in the fourth quarter,
like Luke Getzi just stops running theball and it just is one of
the weirdest things ever. They stoppedkilling the clock. You know, Justin
Fields is getting a lot of hatefor this too, but they almost didn't
give him a chance to throw theball to go seal the game away enough
times at least where he could actuallydone something with it. So again,
the Bears, I think management issueshave continued. They've been better in the

(22:40):
last couple of weeks Montest what hasbeen good, but they're just not going
to get over the top until theyfigure out how to best utilize Justin Fields
and how to best utilize an offensivegame plan. Absolutely. I mean we
had people asking us, you know, on Sunday, you know, what's
the problem with this Bears team,this Bears offense, And you know the
question is is it Justin Field?The answer is, I mean not really,

(23:02):
no, I mean you could fix. I mean what they need to
figure out this offseason is if they'regoing to commit to Justin Fields and build
around him, or if they wantto trade him for probably a second round
pick, and when he start therookie pay scale, quarterback clock, assuming
you hit on somebody, assuming youknow you have Cave Williams there or someone

(23:22):
of that nature, or Drake Mayif you believe in Drake May. But
that's a big if, right,that's a big ye roll the dice is
this guy necessarily going to be betterthan what Justin Fields is shown? Sure,
you will be cheaper for longer,But the reality here is too that
he needs offensive line help. AndI mean they just needs just a better

(23:45):
offensive scheme, better play calling,better decision making. I don't know that's
eber Flus's fault. I don't knowhe's too involved in trying to play it
conservative. That has been a thingthat has happened with a lot of defensive
head coaches through the years. Youknow, you look at someone like a
Mike Zimmer and then they transition toO'Connell with Minnesota, and there's just things
like that where you question, isthis a head coach philosophy problem? Is

(24:10):
this just the offensive coordinator calling thewrong plays at the wrong times? Like
where is the issue at Is ita philosophy thing from the top down,
or is it just the offensive staffyou put together It is just not really
that great at scheming and putting togetheran offense that benefits justin fields. I
have to think it's more the latter. I think it's more the offensive staff

(24:32):
at this point doesn't seem like Aberflusis really one who's trying to overcorrect or
really control the offensive side of theball. A lot of defensive head coaches
have not tried to do that ingeneral. So I think it's like you
said, Gets just needs to,honestly, of anything. They need to
find a new offensive coordinator who hasworked with mobile quarterbacks and is willing to

(24:52):
kind of try something different to maximizeJustin Field, because I mean Bears gave
them number receiver they have that they'retrying to address the offensive line. But
the problem is they just they don'tlet Justin Fields cook, Like, let
them go out there, let himdo something, give them a little more
protection. I mean, you'll haveplenty. You have plenty of money in
this offseason to sign people, youhave plenty of draft capital. I think

(25:15):
you can win with Justin Fields.I don't think the NNESC North is some
dominant division either. I think JustinFields very well could be the answer.
It could be a very successful quarterbackin the NFL. And I think with
his mobility as an extra layer,I think if you can really use that
and find someone who can maximize thattalent, you can talk about a team

(25:36):
with the potential, you know,top ten offense. Like I think that's
not out of reach for them byany means. They just need to find
someone who's willing. Because when JustinField is running around moving the ball.
I mean, we've seen those bothLions games this year. The Chicago Bears
controlled the game for most of it. You know, the Lions managed to
come back at the very end ofthe first one, but the second one.

(25:57):
I mean, the Bears just dominate. They can they can wear the
clock out, they can hold theball forever because there's really not that much
you can do against the mobile quarterback. It's the same thing when you watch
you know, the Ravens with HarballLamar Jackson. They eat through clock on
games or not necessarily honestly an eliteoffense. The problem is it's just hard

(26:18):
to get them off the field becausethey have a commitment to the running game
and you've got a quarterback who couldeasily evade a lot of times in the
backfield and buy more time and movethe chains, especially when it's you know,
third and manageable over and over.So you that's the kind of scheme
I think they need to build withjustin field, I think they will have
a much more successful scheame. Butwhat only title tell Browns defense is good,

(26:44):
It's not as good as was earlier. I mean it they could win
a playoff game. I don't thinkthat's out of reach. I mean it
definitely. They're probably gonna be thefive seed. I mean, the four
seed right now is tracking to beprobably the Jaguars. And you know,
I'm not saying i'd favor the Jaguarsin that game obviously, but I mean
the way the Jaguars are trended,you know, some wonky stuff happens,

(27:10):
or Trevor Lawrence has another inconsistent gameBrowns can win that. Are you gonna
win a Super Bowl? No?I don't unless Joe Flacco stops with the
turnovers. But the reality is thatjust you know, the offensive side of
the ball doesn't really have anything goingon, and again, you know it's
it's just kind of a mess.So it's a weird year. It's a

(27:30):
weird way to really discuss anything becauseyou're just like, I mean, they're
not really good, but I mean, this is the year of AFC.
It's the year of the ball couldjust bounce the right way on a turnover
and that could win you a game, it feels like in the playoffs.
So we will see absolutely some breakingnews. Joe Flacco has shaved his beard.

(27:52):
So the winning streak is going toend for the Browns this week.
It's something to know before he placerbets. Just like we talked about whether
the Colts have the doors open andthe windows open. Also, justin Fields
and kle Williams aren't the same player, but I will say if they pass
on Justin Fields, they're gonna betaking Caleb Williams. There are similarities there
where you need to make sure ifyou have a person who tries to force

(28:14):
Cale Williams to play in the pocket. He's shown that there are some struggles
there, including I think thirty twofumbles in the last two seasons. Even
if you move on from Justin Fields, you need to find someone who's gonna
use Kile Williams talents as well.It's not like he's for me, I
know those Some people think he's thebest quarterback prospect. Ever, I don't
think he's in the same tier asTrevor Lawrence and all them, either Trevor
Lawrence, Andrew Locke, Joe Burrow. I think he's probably gonna be a

(28:36):
little bit below that when I endup graading him. But you still need
to find someone who's gonna use thosetalents because it's not a typical dropback passer,
and that's gonna be something they'll haveto figure out as well, like
is it worth passing on or movingon from Justin Fields for Cale Williams,
Should we trade the pick? Itjust doesn't seem like maybe the staff they
have right now is gonna be capableof maximizing Williams' talents either. So just
something to watch. This would gothrough the offseason. Is it a Nebraflues
thing? Is it a loop Getzything? Is it a justin Fields thing?

(29:00):
We're gonna find out in the nextcouple of weeks here and then in
the offseason. Yeah, no,depressed, No, you can't shave the
homeless beard. That tells me thatJoe Flacco is getting too comfortable, feeling
like he's gonna stick around and bethe starting quarterback. You know, I'm
selling on my brown stock Joe Flacco. Is that its best when it's backs
up against the wall. That's whenyou get a lead. Playoff Flacco,

(29:22):
you know, clean shaven, youknow, just having a good time.
That's not the quarterback you want backthere now. He said he didn't even
know how much money he was makingthis year. He's just playing, which
is kind of cool, But likethat dude knows how much he's making.
It's like, how's he gonna pickI Guese as a tax guy? He
just does everything for him. That'dbe nice, I guess, but but
yeah, we'll see. I thinkthe Browns will start tailing off here because
of that shaved beard. You can'twhen you got something good going, you

(29:45):
can't change anything. So that's justa lesson to the future there. Moving
on, we have the quarterback theBrowns moved on from and shouldn't have.
Baker Mayfield beats the Packers thirty fourto twenty three hundred and eighty one yards,
passing four touchdowns. Now, thePackers defense has had some struggles this
year. Joe Barry, the defensivecoordinator, has made some mind boggling decisions,
but it's still impressive. They're sevenand seven, looking like they could

(30:07):
win this NFC South, make theplayoffs, and albeit while they're paying their
quarterback four million dollars. So justa lesson to everyone out there. Maybe
if you have Daniel Jones, youdon't need to pay forty million dollars.
If you put Baker Mayfield on theGiants, hey they might win six or
seven games instead of five. Butlike it's it's it's not always the quarterback,
and Baker Mayfield has one a solidjob. And I know we talked
about it last week's seas, butevery week it's just becoming more and more

(30:30):
of a better investment for him.It is in Vegas. I think it's
finally starting to realize that the Buccaneerscan win games with Baker Mayfield and his
reckless abandon at times. And youknow, in this game he didn't really
he had a perfect passer rating lambeauField. I think that's the only time
to opposing quarterback ever is at that. So that's impressive. But yeah,
I mean this is the kind ofBaker we see where he's on and he's

(30:52):
not making he's not turning the ballover. He can look really good.
He can throw for a lot ofyards and really move and all of it
along because he is not afraid totoss the ball down the field. That
is also where he gets into trouble. But when people are open, because
the defensive scheme is letting people likeMike Evans just fly bast them, that's
that's what's gonna happen. I mean, everybody on the Buccaneers offense was getting

(31:18):
yards and heaps and the Packers defensehad zero answer to it. So good
for Baker Mayfield. Now this isthe biggest Like, you know, if
they make it to the playoffs,I think the Browns brands should feel awful.
I think the Browns organization should shouldfeel awful. They should feel really
stupid, because I swear to God, imagine and I will say about I

(31:41):
will say this, probably for thenext five years. Imagine what this Browns
team could have been like over thenext five years. You signed Baker Mayfield
for twenty to twenty five million dollarsa year, keep all your draft picks
you had to give up and continueto replace and replenish and pay some other
guys. You now can't because ShawnWatson, you're married to him. You

(32:04):
know, it's just, you know, they had a good thing going,
but you know, the Rounds gotcold feet, and now he found someone
else that was a shiny new carthat you know, they just said,
I'll give you whatever you want.And that's not always the best marriage in
the NFL. So God bless theBrowns. It's gonna be a turmulent divorced
probably in about three years. ButBaker's, you know, moved on and

(32:28):
Baker's having a good time. Theone they got away. Well just even
imagine if they had to overpay forBaker and pay him thirty to thirty five
million, like that's still so muchbetter than when they got out of de
Shaun Watson. It just makes nosense. And they didn't have to give
all the picks either. So thedude played hurt for you. You trashed
him. He went to the Panthers. He looked like trash there because it's
the Panthers. He goes to theRams, it looks pretty good. He

(32:51):
targets the Bucks himself in free agencyand says, hey, I want to
play for you guys. The Buckssay, hey, you got to battle
with Kyle trash. Baker says,I don't care. I'll beat that guy
out, no problem. He doesit. He gets some in playoff contention.
Yes, it's an easy division,but they're seven and seven, and
this is a team that I thinka lot of people were thinking, like,
oh, they might be taking CaleWilliams number one. Overall, this
is a great football story for thePackers. It might be time to talk

(33:12):
about firing Matt Lafloor six and eightright now. At least Joe Berry he
could be the scapegoat. But ifthey fire him, I believe that's the
fourth coordinator that they have fired infive years for the Packers. So at
that rate, how many scapegoats doyou get. So there's a lot of
discussions to be had with the Packers. These last few weeks will help decide
it, I think in terms oftheir future. All Right, the next

(33:34):
game cease, we have case Keenumstaying undefeated as the starter for the Texans
in his career, I think he'sthree or four and oh, but nonetheless,
he stays undefeated. Two hundred andtwenty nine yards, one touchdown,
one interception. He didn't do anythinggreat, but we know that the Titans
don't have that much firepower this year. Derek Hendry hasn't been quite the same.
Yes, there's been some offensive lineissues that have made it that way,
but they're down early. Case Keenumbrings him back, They're able to

(33:55):
tie up the game that go intoovertime, get a game winning field goal.
This is a good win for them. They go to eight and six
and one, where the Bengals fansare hoping that they lose because this is
a very tight AFC playoff race.CJ. Straw was out for this game
with concussion and it's looking like hemight be out for next week's game.
And what better backup to have ceasedthan Case Keenum Undefeated started going into next

(34:16):
week again. Man, I dolove me some case Keenum. You know
I always keep up today on mybackup, So good for him. What
a stat If you're Mike Rambell theTitans, I don't know what the hell
to tell you at this point.I mean the Texans played, I mean
they were up sixteen to zero onepoint, I believe, So I don't

(34:37):
really know what to tell you asa Titans fan other than that your coach
kind of didn't scheme it right,I know, but Jeffrey Simmons was out
in this game, which is ahuge thing, and the Texans took advantage
and just started running it and theydidn't get as much you know, pass
rush because of Jeffrey Simmons being goneas well. So obviously key defender for
Titans out. But you're playing withthe lead, You're other teams star rookie

(35:00):
quarterback is out with a concussion.You're playing case Keenum, and you just
let them get back in the gameand you let them then take in overtime.
Like that's just at a certain point, I don't know how much time
is left for this, you knowTitans team. I mean, well,
Levis is there. That's that wasgood. He's had some flashes, but

(35:23):
at a certain point, are youlike, how much longer are you going
to give Mike Frable with this team? I think Mike Frabel has had some
successful time, but the reality is, how many more like mid tier seasons
can they put up or you know, first round playoffs where he continues to
get a leash. I'm not sayingMike fire Mike Crable at the end of
the season, but I'm like,how much longer is this going to go

(35:45):
on? Because I've seen teams alot less patience out there, fire coaches
for a lot less. And thereality is is the Titans have never made
it over the hump. They hadthat one year that they lost at home
in the divisional round when they werethe one seed. That was three years
ago, and I mean, MikeCrable can't live off that forever. You

(36:07):
know, they can't live off ofWe found a quarterback Riottannel for nothing for
one year and then the roster agedand that was the end of it.
Like, they need to find somethingthat works. And if will Levis is
the answer, obviously he'll be ableto stay around longer. But if will
Levis doesn't again even out a littlebit more, which is young. There's

(36:27):
still a very good capability chance that'sgoing to happen. But if he doesn't
even out, I don't know howmuch longer this this kind of coaching staff
and Mike Fraib we're going to stayin Tennessee. I don't either. I
mean there's a lot of rumors aboutpossibly him going to New England after this
year. I'm not sure that NewEngland will go in that direction. I
think they're gonna want something completely newfor the Texans. I mean, Coach

(36:50):
of the Year candidate to make aRyans that's pretty cool. I think even
when he went the backup quarterback,getting in this position, having a shot
at the division title two would bepretty good. So a lot to track
here for this AFC South in termsof coaches being fired. Some surprise team's
making pushes for the playoffs, whetherit's the Texans or the Colts with the
backup quarterback Carter Minshew. Next gameup, we have the Dolphins winning thirty
to nothing over the Jets. TyreekHill was out for this game. Didn't

(37:14):
matter. I think they more precautionary. He tried to go. He really
want that two thousand yards in aseason doesn't really matter. Dolphins needed to
win. They're ten to four now, but they have a tough schedule down
the stretch. Don't really have muchto analyze from this game. We knew
the Dolphins were good, we knewthe Jets were bad. But I'll use
this to take a time to saythat I think Aaron Rodgers was being a
little bit of an attention seeker seise. I think he said all year,

(37:35):
I might come back, I mightcome back, I might come back.
And then the Jets get eliminated fromthe playoffs and he's apparently playing defensive back
in practice, but he's not goodenough to play. He's gonna be on
the active fifty three man roster therest of the way so he can continue
to practice with the team. Therewas no chance in hell he was ever
gonna play. Like, what isthis so again? I don't this game?
Who cares Dolphins win? But whyare we Like people are surprised Aaron

(37:58):
Rodgers isn't like in a play inst Like, why this is a torn
achilles? Yeah. I think it'sit's finally time they're eliminated. It's time
we can finally close the book forthe year on the New York Jets circus,
and then we can talk about itall off season on the Pac McAfee
show. We can hear all abouthow Aaron Rodgers is going to come back

(38:19):
firing. He said he's round hislove for football again. You know,
all these pronounced things where he said, I think it was only a lay
a year when I got here.Now I think I could play two more.
So, you know, whatever he'sgot to do to make himself,
you know, beloved by New York. You know, at this point,
he could just kind of retire andhe might be beloved by them anyway,
because they're just so high on theAaron Rodgers train. So we'll see what

(38:45):
happens. You know, I thinkit's finally it. Aaron Rodgers made himself,
made the whole team into a circus. Zach Wilson got hurt in this
game, which was weird. Idon't know if he got hurt or just
they just pulled him. They saidit was hurt, but I'm like,
uh, it was kind of aweird one. But Dolphins role. It

(39:08):
was good to see Jaylen Waddle,you know, kind of get his share.
I know he's been overshadowed by TyreekHill. And you know, obviously
Tyreek Hill's a top three offensive playerin the NFL right now. So it's
good to see Jay and Wattle geta little time to sun because that guy
is very talented. It was ahigh drafted prospect, and you know,

(39:29):
it's just hard to be the numbertwo receivers sometimes on a team like that,
and it's good to see him shinewhen he got the chance. So
that's all I got to say aboutthis team. We'll see what the Dolphins
do when they're an away team inthe playoffs playing someone that is as good
as them. That's really we wedon't know what's gonna happen in that point,
and we'll see, because like yousaid, they have a difficult schedule.

(39:50):
We'll see what they do over thenext couple of weeks to see how
I feel about them when playoff timecomes. Yeah, I think one of
the things again when we were intostupid stat they are bad when they wear
the Aqua jerseys, the new thenew fashioned Aqua jerseys. They need to
make sure they're wearing white in theplayoffs, or they need to be wearing
their throwbacks. I don't, Iknow. The rules are really tricky.

(40:10):
With when they can wear throwbacks,but just wear the whites. Pay off
the other team to let you wearwhites, whatever it takes. If you're
home, I guess you can pickpick to me white. And usually when
the home team, the other hometeams take you choose to wear colors.
But their record is pretty bad withthe aquas. Stick to the whites,
keep it rolling, make sure youhave the good vibes flowing. Get Tyreek
kelthy, and let's see if youcan beat a good team, because they
have a pretty big game coming upthis weekend. The Chiefs beat the Patriots

(40:32):
twenty seven to seventeen. That's okay. I mean the Chiefs needed to get
right game in this one. Theywin by ten. It's not the biggest
margin, but they get a win. Patrick Mahone still struggles. He throws
two picks. He's still a littlebit emotional on the sidelines. Taylor Swift
is emotional as well. She's droppedthe big F bomb seas. I don't
know if you saw that. That'sunacceptable. Can't be doing that when you
watch football. I've never done thatin my life. Clyde Edwards Hilaire had

(40:54):
a pretty big game, but atthe end of the day, Patriots stink
Chiefs were gonna figure it out againstthe Patriots or what? Yeah, I
mean a f bomb. There area lot of people's daughters watching that broadcast,
so that's disappointed to hear. Butyeah, I mean, the Chiefs
beat one of the worst teams inthe NFL by ten points. Congrats.

(41:16):
I don't know. You know,these playoffs, You know, it's hard
to project what the Chiefs are gonnado in the playoffs this year. You
know, they're kind of just gonnaget credit to be a potential Super Bowl
team just because they've been there before. But when I look at this team
and I know the check go's outthere, But I don't think the problem
is the running game here. Andthe problem is again Pat Mahomes and these

(41:38):
receivers cannot push the ball down thefield anymore. They just can't. There's
no end in sight. I don'tknow why the hell they didn't try to
get a bigger name receiver over there. That's what I would have done.
I would have done anything on God'sgreen Earth to try to find a receiver
that could be a semblance of youknow, a borderline number one. Just

(41:59):
why receive or two. Got tojust pair with Pat Mahomes at this point.
That's what I would have done.I don't care what the market is,
because that is really what is holdingthis team back from being a super
Bowl candidate. They have a gooddefense, but that doesn't matter if Pat
Mahomes and the team can't push theball as an offense anymore. And again,
we've seen rough spots of Pat Mahomesin the regular season towards the end

(42:22):
where we're all just like, dothey suck? Now? We don't know.
They almost lost to the Texans lastyear in like week fifteen to twos,
and then you know they won theSuper Bowl, so we'll see.
I don't have the most confidence inthem. I mean, they have a
good good shot in the AFC,just based off of almost everyone else is

(42:43):
gonna have a backup quarterback besides probablythe Dolphins and the Ravens and oh if
the Bills make it, the Billsand then pretty much other than that,
like everyone's just kind of not atfull strength. The Chiefs are kind of
at They've stayed pretty healthy. Besides, with Checko getting hurt, who's going
to be bad. They're not ina bad injury situation. By any means.

(43:07):
They're a healthy team. They're justnot doing anything, which is even
more concerning. So we'll see whatthis Chiefs team does. We'll see what
they do if they have to goplay a playoff game. Not arrowhead Pat
Mahome is going to have to dosomething special this year for them to make
it to the super Bowl. That'sall I'm gonna say. I would say
the same thing, and I'm withyou on the trade too. Rashie Rice

(43:30):
has been a godsend for them.He's worked out as a mid round pick.
But it just imagine this offense witha rookie mid round pick did not
have to be their number one widereceiver behind obviously the top target is Travis
Kelsey. So they could have tradeda fifth round pick and got someone like
Adam Deeling from the Panthers. Rightthe Panthers would take a pick, unload
the salary, and the Chiefs.I'm assuming the salary works out. I
haven't done the math on it,but like that would be a great receiver

(43:52):
to have right now, or evenJuju from last year, like not the
greatest receiver. He's not playing wellin New England, but no one is
like he at least knows what he'sdoing. Finds one like that instead of
Cadarius Tony who has drops and islining up off sides, and sky Moore,
who's been a bust and Marquez ValdezScantling who's had drops like It's it's
comical how bad this wide receiving corpsebeen. Besides for she Rice, so
just anything would have worked, andthey could have given it up so little

(44:14):
to get a good, like asolid wide receiver like heck, even like
giving up a fifth round pick ora seventh round pick for tiferanal Cob from
the Jets. I mean, Jesus, anyone throw them in there, that'll
be better than what they currently have. Let's move out seas. We got
the Saints beating the Giants twenty fourto six. The Tommy Devido hype has
gone up and down for the lastcouple of weeks. Here Saints get to

(44:34):
win. It would be nice tosay that like I really got more faith
in the Saints after this one,but I really didn't. The offense wasn't
that explosive. It's just it's goodto get the win, to go to
seven and seven, and for theGiants going five to nine really kills the
playoff chances. But it's this reallywas a game that was not worth watching.
No, I mean the Saints beatup on a Giants team that's just

(44:57):
I mean beaten down this point.I mean, what do they play that
doesn't to play for or look foror on the third string quarterback. I
do love Tommy Davito, Tommy Cutlets, I love his agent, I love
the whole thing. It's very NewYork go team. But I guess there's
I've seen some things. I don'tknow if it was a real, actual
thing that happened. I guess TommyDeVito got mad at the Giants, like

(45:20):
pr person because they're trying to dosomething with like his Italian heritage and like
some kind of like video or something, and he was like, it's not
a gimmick. So that's interesting.We'll see, But I don't know how
true it is. I read thaton Twitter. I'm like, yeah,
I could see how eventually the wholeI'm Italian thing could get a little crazy,

(45:42):
especially considering kind of the the caricaturethey've seemed to put up with it.
But that's a social commentariat itself.But I mean it's a fun story.
I hope Tommy DeVito sticks around theNFL. He's awesome regardless of what
his true quarterback skills are. It'slike Gardner Minshew, it's it's beyond on
the skill. I just love havingthis guy around. You know, it's

(46:02):
about having a good personality sometimes insports too. You gotta have people are
likable in your sport. That's whatpeople want. People want to root for
that guy. So Tommy DeVito tothe moon. You know, I'd rather
see Tommy DeVito start over Danny Dimesnext year. I know that's not gonna
happen, but I'd rather see thatand have fun with it versus just watching
the failure that is Daniel Jones.But yeah, they get beat bad the

(46:25):
Saints. Derek car throws for alot of yards. It's a very up
and down and consistent team. Itdidn't buy me any faith in them either.
We'll see what they do on Thursdaynight. But I mean it's a
winnable division. It's just are theyactually gonna pull through these last three games?
Yeah, you're right there. That'swhy you come to this show for
the social commentary. I think that'sthe biggest thing we offer as an Italian

(46:50):
myself, he asked. The jokeswere fun at first, and there is
probably a point where it goes toofar. People you know, make too
much of it, but it isfun. I mean, he's an Italian
American doing great things. On supportinghim. There was also a thing with
like he raised the price for anappearance or a New York pizzeria and then
he ended up showing up for freebecause I think schefter or no it was
it wasn't schefter. It was who'sthe insider, the one no not rapping

(47:15):
for it's the business and Darren Rivellelike dragged him through the mud on Twitter
and just like he's not gonna showup anymore. His agent raised the prices
by ten k. We have ifI'm starting quarterback and I started playing,
well, I'd raise my prices too. That's how it goes. Oh,
it was Tommy DeVito's price before itwas ten k and it went to twenty
k and then he ended up showingup for free. Anyway, so we

(47:36):
want the story to go on.And if we're up to us, like
yes, like Tommy DeVito would bestarting, Gardner Minshew would always have a
starting job. Jameis Winston would bestarting for the Saints right now. We
like content. We like when thingsare interesting, not just good, not
just bad. So yeah, Ihope they figure this out and hopefully we
get to see some more good naturejokes about the Italian Americans go on.
We'd like to see the good naturedones. I'd love to see a Tommy

(47:59):
DeVito Garner Man you crossover where somehowGardner Minshew is up on the East Coast
and his van he lives in breaksdown and like basically just knocks on somebody's
like apartment dor in Brooklyn and it'sTommy DeVito, and you know, we
could just we can make this wholething happen. I mean, I think
there's two characters in the NFL.If the writers of the NFL can hear

(48:19):
me, Tommy DeVito Gardner Minshew,you gotta get him together. Oh boy,
I don't think we've ever seen amovie that featured Italians and a movie
that featured someone from the South otherthan one. And it was a classic
my cousin Vinnie baby because you doit right away, all right, Oh
yeah, there we go. Sowe need to we need to do that

(48:40):
again. Maybe be a remaking mycousin Vinnie with Gardner Minshew and Tommy DeVito
and Tommy DeVito's agent as his lawyer. That'd be great. So all right,
the Saints win, we'll move onto another barnburner of a game.
Seas tickets were on sale for fortyfive cents. It was raining. They
claimed that they had like sixty thousandfans and attendance, but really they just

(49:00):
gave away tickets to charities and stillno one showed up. The Panthers beat
the Falcons nine to seven. Itwas a rainstorm. You know. The
Falcons still don't know how to usetheir star players. They're now saying that
we'll stick with Arthur Smith throughout theSea the rest of the season. That
makes sense, like why would youfire him now at this point, but
like especially because you're still on playfor the playoffs. But at the end

(49:21):
of the day, not looking goodfor him, and fantasy managers everywhere else
are rejoicing about this result, eventhough in the game you've probably lost because
like Bijon didn't have a good gameand all their big players have a big
game. You're just happy. ArthurSmith, a guy who has ignored your
favorite players, his might be onthe chopping block. Now, yeah,
you know, I usually wouldn't say, you know, NFL coaches have things

(49:44):
to worry about. But I meanif ours or Smith like gets fired from
the Falcons, you know, orstays on even I don't know, you
know, depending on the city orthe street he walks down America, if
somebody knows what he looks like,I mean, it might get harry.
I mean, I wouldn't say usuallyhead coach gets accosted, but if there's
one man that might, it's probablyArthur Smith. You know, if you

(50:07):
walk down a major city street andthat about midnight and someone realizes and someone
goes, that's Arthur Smith, hemight get sworn by dudes and backwards hats
just being like, what the fuckyou ruin my fantasy's team. Yeah,
and that'll be probably the next fiveyears of his life until everyone forgets about
it. But for right now,one of the most maligned men in fantasy

(50:29):
sports history right there. So Ihaven't seen anything quite like this since the
Chris Johnson Lindell White touchdown vulturing ofthe late two thousands. I haven't either.
This again game not to watch,but the storylines that come from it.
Sometimes the storylines are bigger than thegame, and this is this is
gonna be something people track the restof the lay. Some of us have

(50:50):
guys like Jon and dynasty leagues,and we're just sitting here, like,
you had one of the best rushingattacks in the whole league last year and
you drafted Bejon Robinson and gotten muchworse. It doesn't add up. So
let's see how they go from here. The Panthers trended their picks and their
futures pretty much toast anyway after firingFrank Reich, so we'll see what happens
with them as well. Next game, the Rams beat the Commanders twenty eight
to twenty. It really wasn't thisclose. The Commanders scored late to kind

(51:13):
of make things look like it wascloser. Kyra Williams has really been very
big for them one hundred and fiftytwo rushing yards and one touchdown. Matt
Stafford not getting the credit he deserveseither. He's having a fantastic season,
so good for him as well.Rams stay in the playoff one at seven
and seven. A really good coachingjob by Sean mcvacy's We've talked about how
their roster's made up of a lotof guys who are picked this year,

(51:34):
and not with guys who were pickedreally highly in the draft, but guys
who are picked in the mid rounds, Guys like Puka Nakua, Guys on
the offensive line like Steve Avila.There's the guys that you just like,
they literally built a roster through onedraft because they had lost so much over
the last couple of years, withguys walking out the door after they paid
him this contract to the Super Bowl. Yeah, I mean this team,
I've said before on this podcast.I mean the way the Rams are using

(51:55):
Kyen Williams, the way this offenseis shaken out a lot, like you
know the MVP, you know,Fansy MVP tyd early year where Todd Gurley
was healthy and they just rode himinto the playoffs and I believe that's the
year they made the Super Bowl aswell, from what I can recall.
But I mean, that's that's kindof what Sean McVay, I guess,

(52:17):
has always wanted. He just hasn'thad the right running back since that point
since Tyt Gurley kind of fell offand then Cam Akers is a mess.
But he found Kyen Williams and he'skyn Williams is performing. People can't stop
him on the run. He catchesballs out of the backfield. I mean,
he's a dominant force. The Ramsteam looks a lot different with him.

(52:37):
Cooper Cup has got a lot healthier, pokem Mkoa has been a great
second receiver that they really have needed. So, I mean I see a
lot of decent weapons on this teamright now. The offensive line is they're
getting more than they should out ofhim. Matthew Stafford's having a decent year.
It's not great, but you knowit's he's aging, but he's still

(53:00):
moving the ball. There's still scoringpoints. I mean, they are a
team that coulds They could technically sneakin the playoffs here and I wouldn't be
surprised if they play the right teamthe first Roully they end up playing the
Lions or something, maybe they pulloff an upset. I don't think it
goes beyond that, but I meanI wouldn't sleep on what the Rams team

(53:22):
has done. I think they havea chance. They have roading from them
to get a playoff win. Ithink they could too. It's just they're
an up and down team. Inconsistent, But when the guys are really clicking,
they can be just about anyone inthe league, which is just kind
of crazy to think about. Again, with that roster and how it's makeup
is. They have, you know, lost games they probably should have won.

(53:44):
One games probably should have lost,just how it goes this year in
the NFL. But if they keepthat starting quarterback Matt Stafford healthy, they
can do a lot of things.I don't have anything to say with this
one seas three nine Ers week theCardinals forty five to twenty nine. They've
been on fire since the bye week, killing everyone. This is exactly how
we pretty much expected it to go, at least the saying that brought the
forty Niners to keep the wind streakalive eleven and three overall, and gun

(54:06):
to my head, I'm taking fortyNineers from the super Bowl. I know
I said that two weeks ago,but it still stays the same. Yeah,
I don't see anyone else playing aswell as them. Christian mccafn.
Honestly, Christan McCaffrey thinks should beMVP, not Rock Party. If we're
going to talk about a forty nineErs player, that's more important Rock Party's
been great and he steered the shipand he's done a lot. But I
think a lot of that and thereason Brock Purty gets a lot of the

(54:29):
opportunity he has, it's because ChristianMcCaffrey is dominating and running back. He's
dominating out of the backfield with catches. I mean, the guy is to
do it all back. And again, I wouldn't say I'd picked Tyreek Hill
as my MVP over Christian McCaffrey.But if we're gonna pick somebody on the
forty nine ers, I think itshould be him, not Rock Party.
And you know, I just thinkthat when it comes down to it,

(54:51):
losing Christian McCaffrey will be a biggerblow to this team than Rock Party is.
Yeah, I think if MVP votingwas done the right way positionless,
there'd be some defensive guys this year. Miles Garrett, you know you said
Trey Hendrickson. I don't think quitethe Bengals we've got in the publicity you
to get him in the mix,but he's in pretty good. Darron Bland
with a pick six record, youknow, Trent Williams left tackle. Can

(55:14):
we give a left tackle MVP it'ssometimes we need to do stuff like that,
because I think Christian McCaffrey deserves maybesome consideration Tyreek Keill, even though
he missed last week, rather thanquarterbacks who are not playing well or quarterbacks
who are playing well but are likeif you go down the list of players
in the forty nine ers team,seas even at brock perty at his height,
he's not a top seven or soplayer on the team. When you
go Trent Williams, Christian McCaffrey,George Kittle, Deebo, Samuel, Fred

(55:37):
Warner, Nick Bosa, like,he's not. He's not there. So
it's unfortunate he's playing well. Ilike him. I think he's done great
for mister Irrelevant. It'd be coolto see him win the MVP. I
just don't think he deserves it.Speaking of quarterbacks who have not played well,
Dak Prescott was in the MVP race. He probably took a big hit
after this game against the Bills.They sclose this one. The Cowboys lose

(55:59):
thirty one to ten and one hundredand thirty four yards passing in an interception
for Deck, But really the storyof this game was the Bills being able
to run the ball. Even theiroffensive coordinator Joe Brady said, Yeah,
I wasn't planning on running the ballthat much, but it was wide open.
Now for the Cowboys, Jonathan Hankinswas out for this game, and
they also had a stomach stomach buggoing around the locker room. And this
was a cold, rainy game.So that's not really good the good recipe

(56:21):
for success. But there's no excusesin the NFL. You got run over.
James Cook had one hundred and seventynine yards rushing in one touchdown.
Just a pathetic performance for O theCowboys, and maybe maybe the Bills are
starting to figure some things out,sees. Yeah, when it comes to
the Cowboys, you know, Ifeel like Michael corleon and and Godfather three.

(56:42):
You know, every time I tryto decide maybe the Cowboys aren't bad.
You know, every time I tryto get out, they pull me
back in and they have a gamelike this, and I sit there and
I just go, why do Ido this? Why do I suddenly like,
I don't know if I have toomany friends they are Cowboys fans,
or I have this weird self hatredcomplay I've developed where I somehow believe in
the Cowboys, but they can't playanybody away. It seems like if they're

(57:07):
at home in Jerry world, youknow, they could win a Super Bowl
if unfortunately, it doesn't look likethey're gonna have any home playoff games unless
the wild cards all went out,So it's hard to say that they're gonna
win because, I mean, Jesus, you just got completely immercilessly beat down
in this game, just like youdid against the forty nine ers, just

(57:29):
kind of like you did in Arizonaof all places, like you just kind
of got run on and you hadno answers and you just were look lifeless
out there. I mean, we'retalking about a team that the Eagles lost.
They could win. They could havewon the division if they would have
just won this game or made itclose, like show up, like show
that you exist. James Cook hasnot done anything as a running back.

(57:51):
He's really had not that great ofa career so far. He's young,
and a lot of that's been JoshAllen trying to throw the ball. But
Jesus Christ, stop the Run's point. I felt like it was that mem
of Ralph from the Simpson saying stophe's already dead. At some point because
it was it was bad. Imean it was really bad that the Bills

(58:12):
coach had to basically be like Ijust kept running it because it's just so
obvious. It's just like, comeon, guys like Dan Quinn, You're
one of the best defensive corriers inthe league, and you just you can't
get anybody get up there and limitthe run, like not once Josh Allen
and the receivers didn't do anything theydidn't have to. I mean, Dak
just tanked his own MVP candidacy basicallyin one game. So yeah, there's

(58:37):
a lot of things to be negativeabout if you're a Cowboys fan here,
and the same damn question just keepspopping up week after week is when the
game is the lights of the brightest, the pressure's on, and they're playing
a really good team across, arethey going to be able to meet the
battle? Because obviously the Eagles it'san NFC East rivalry, it's a different

(59:00):
thing. But the reality is whenthey play the other top teams in the
NFC or at top team in theNFL, they kind of just disappear into
nothingness, especially if they're away.So I get conditioned suck, but the
reality is it's football, not everyonegets to play in a dome every week,
and that stuff's gonna show up playofftime because your ass is gonna be

(59:20):
on the road and you're probably gonnahave to go to Philadelphia, which is
a rainy, cold, sad place, and then you're gonna go to sand
Fred who is gonna be a vicioushome crowd that does not like you,
and the results have been horrible throughthe years with them, So God bless,
I hope things work out for you. But man, every time you
try to believe, they just theydo something stupid like this, where if

(59:45):
the Cowboys would have just lost thegame, I go, you know,
it happens. They're away team,there's a rainy game. Stuff happens.
There's a difference between just losing againstanother good team and just getting flat out
demolished, which is what they do. So that's a Mike McCarthy Mike McCarthy
right there. I mean, where'sthe energy, where's the team that wants
to get beat? I mean,how these guys not realize how important this

(01:00:07):
game is. Like I just Idon't understand as a coaching staff, as
a team is a locker room.How the hell do you go on a
game that flat. I know peopleare kind of sick, but Jesus,
we're talking about home playoff games,We're talking about not having to play the
forty nine ers right away, We'retalking about all these kinds of things,
and you just didn't show up.Yeah, I'm with you. It was

(01:00:29):
just an embarrassing performance. They haveto try to regroup. That won't be
easy. They are the one ofthe teams that literally has lost all their
games on the road, won alltheir games at home. So maybe they
can just win out and hope theEagles lose another game. That's what they're
having for right now, because it'sthat doesn't look pretty with how they played
against the Bills. Sunday Night Footballseas, we had the Ravens beat the

(01:00:49):
Jaguars twenty three to seven. Now, as you said earlier, the Ravens
offense isn't always the best. They'renot going to score forty fifty points per
game, but they get to winhere. They win twenty three to seven.
Lamar Jackson has ninety seven rushing yards, the Jaguars cannot put up points,
and then Trevor Lawrence has to gointo concussion protocol. He did not
practice today on Wednesday. That's usuallynot a good sign for starting on Sunday.

(01:01:12):
But they're gonna have some pretty importantgames coming up. But another good
win by the Ravens. They're notgonna kill teams or blow them out,
but they're gonna grind games out justlike how they should be. Yeah,
I mean that's what the Ravens havedone, what they've done consistently through the
years. They've just honestly, they'venever had Lamar this late into the season
except for once, I think threeyears ago, so he's often hurt.
The hope well he stays healthy.Not because I like the Ravens, but

(01:01:35):
it just it sucks to see ateam year in a year out be good.
And I'm no Ravens fan, likeI said, but give them the
opportunity to have Lamar see what theycan do, you know, because I'd
rather see that happen and it succeedor it fail. Then you know,
have to hear sports fans forever justsay, well, we never had Lamar
in the playoffs, so you'll neverknow. It's like, let's let's figure

(01:01:57):
it out this year. Let's findout. But yeah, I mean,
they look good. The defense limitsplays. I don't know if it's just
I mean, the Ravens are consistentlygood. They don't really destroy team.
Like you said, they don't blowanyone out, which is usual a homemark
on an elite team. The leadteams will, like the Jaguars are in
this game until late in the fourthquarter still, and that's something that's concerning

(01:02:22):
that you know, eventually you gottaput the coffin nail in, man,
you gotta hammer them down before youknow, there's not two minutes left in
the game. There was the weirdtouchdown that you know was called in complete
pass. Terry McCloy was, orwhoever the rules analysts, Yeah, I
was. Terry mcluy just swore wasa touchdown and completely was like getting so

(01:02:45):
irate in a game that almost nobodywas watching at that point. So good
for them. I mean, Jaguarslook bad, they look flat. They
can't do anything right now. TrevorLawrence makes the not great rows at times.
Calvin Ridley is wildly inconsistent as thenumber one receiver, and we've got

(01:03:06):
offensive linemen doing stupid penalties, youknow, play after play at home,
the amount of false starts and penaltiesthey had in this game was a lot.
I don't really know how to fixthe Jaguars is the problem. I
guess, get another get a betteroffensive line to protect Trevor Lawrence, but
we got guys dropping passes. We'vegot Trevor Lawrence not really making passes he

(01:03:29):
needs to at times. I don'treally know what to say with him.
I mean for a team. We'venever been high on the Jaguars in this
show, but people in national mediasure have been for most of the season.
I don't really know what the excitementis other than the same thing it's
always been is that Trevor Lawrence issupposed to be great but it hasn't panned
out in the NFL yet. Yeah, you hear that big comeback winn against

(01:03:52):
the Chargers, And I think Ihave really few people this offseason and it's
like, oh, I love CalvinRidley. Well, Calvin Ridley hasn't played
in a couple of years, andhe has some good games, he has
some bad games. Christian Kirk hasbeen hurt the last several weeks. It's
just it's not the greatest situation forthem right now. It doesn't mean I
don't think they can build back alittle bit better in the future years,
but for right now, I'm justI don't see it with the Jaguars.
If you're asking me before the season, yes, I've picked them to win

(01:04:15):
the AFC South because it's not theother teams are bad. Now I'm thinking,
like you know, Texans, withthe healthy CJ. Stroud, probably
better to make a rise as headcoach. I think that's probably better.
So that's something they're gonna have toprove to people again this season. I
mean, is there a chance Jacksonvillemisses the playoffs? They have not clinched,
and I mean I think they willmake the playoffs. But ultimately,

(01:04:36):
I mean we're talking about a teamthat is, uh, it's reeling right
now. I mean they're not doingwell. I mean they're luckily they're playing
teams like the Buccaneers, Panthers,and looks like their final games against the
Titans. But I mean we're talkingabout a team that I mean, they
could technically lose the division right now. I mean it's tied. We got

(01:04:58):
Colts, Texans, and Jaguar allat eight and six. I know the
Jaguars have the tiebreakers I think overeveryone, but Jesus Christ, Like,
we're talking about a team that wasbuying from the number one seed three weeks
ago. Now, I mean they'rebarely in the chance to win the division.
So I don't know. I mean, we're talking to an assumption that

(01:05:20):
Jackson Jaguars should win the division,which they should, but it's becoming more
and more worrisome that it looks likethere's a chance that you know, the
Texans, you know, get anotherwin or C. J. Stralde would
play, they might overtake them.The same thing leading with the Colts,
like there's a chance that these teamscould overtake them and the Jaguars just squander

(01:05:41):
away one more game and these otherteams went out. Yeah, I mean,
it's it's definitely just a totally differentsituation than it was a couple weeks
ago. And it shows you howgood the ANFC North is, even with
some of the backup quarterbacks they are. I went three in the last three
weeks to the AFC North teams.They beat the Steelers earlier in the year.
But you play some of these teamsback to back to back with how
physical it is, and you know, you lose some games. So they're

(01:06:01):
gonna be hoping they get back onthe right track. They're playing Tampa Bay
this week. I think that ismore of a toss up game and we'll
see what they can do on MondayNight. Cease, we had the Seahawks
beating the Eagles twenty to seventeen.Eagles go up early in this one.
We're kind of seeing, like,okay, comments on Twitter and from even
the Manning cast say, what's youknow, what's Drew Locke doing? But
they kept on running the ball withKenneth Walker. They kept on, you

(01:06:25):
know, fighting in this game.Eagles still have their issues where they turn
over the ball too much and sometimestheir offense stalls and do Seahawks take advantage.
They get the ball back and we'reable to throw a touchdown pass.
Drew Locke is able to throw atouchdown pass to Jackson Smith and Jigba on
a nice route down the sideline.They score the game winning touchdown. He

(01:06:45):
is a nice moment after the gametalking about how much, you know,
how much it stinks to sit onthe bench and how awesome it is to
go get your chance and go wina game, which is funny because it's
not too different from how Gina Smithacted last year when he got his chance
after a long time on the bench. So when you saw Gino hyping him
up on the sidelines, and theyseem like they have some pretty good chemistry
there too. But seven and sevenfor the Seahawks again, staying in the

(01:07:06):
playoffs. Eagles a team that Ido not really fully trust right now.
No, it's hard to Their defenseisn't doing anything. They got run on
in this game. They let upthe big pass at the end. Their
defense is the big question mark obviously, but either their offense, I mean
they're not moving the ball. Imean they just they usually get UK in

(01:07:30):
one or two conversions and it breaksdown around midfield, and I mean they
just they kind of hope to Godthat they get you know, third and
one basically because it's I mean,they just can't convert on longer third downs
right now. I don't know whatexactly it is. If Jalen Hurts is
focusing too much on AJ Brown,I've heard that. I don't think that's

(01:07:51):
it, because DeVante Smith still getslooks, so does Dallas Goddard. But
it's just scheme wise. I don'tknow what it is. If too many
guys you're just going for a bigplay every game, or if you know,
they just I think they just needmore routes and more availability Jayalen Hurts
where they can just move the ballconsistently downfield. It's too much of this.

(01:08:13):
Jalen Hurts has to convert with hislegs or they got to get close
to the markers so they can dothe Bradley shove and then they bomb it
down the field. DeVante Smith orA J. Brown. I'm sure Dallas
godd has been back so he's gottena little bit more, but I mean
he's only got three receptions people.I mean he's just not moving the ball
downfield. They're going for deep shots. They're not hitting, and they keep
not hitting over and over, andthat's what's gonna happen. That's the bounce

(01:08:36):
side to trying to have a big, slitsive offense. And then if you
don't hit it at least one outevery you know, three or four times,
you're gonna be giving up the balla lot. Your defense is gonna
be tired, and you're gonna bein a low scoring game where you can
be subject to what happened in thisone. And you know, amazing,
you know interception the very end ofthe game by Julian Love. I think

(01:08:58):
that was the second one by thatgame. So yeah, I mean again,
probably not a ball that should havebeen thrown because again AJ Brown was
double covered. There's got to besomewhere else in the field to move the
ball, so decision making on theoffense by the quarterback too. I just
think the steam needs to find amore of a middle ground where we can

(01:09:19):
move the ball without having to throwat forty yards. Definitely, I'm really
excited to see what happens with theseteams in the next couple of weeks,
specifically the Eagles. Can they getback on the I mean they have two
games with the Giants left, which, again thanks NFL schedule makers, two
games with the same team in thelast three weeks. Can you get back
on the right track. Can youshow us that you're in the Super Bowl

(01:09:39):
contenders that you were last year?You have a good record. Bet him
played well for the Seahawks. Youknow, is Gina Smith coming back?
How's he going to play? Theypretty much held him out of this game
because of the not so great conditions. Didn't want him to slip and hurt
his growing in any further, butit's good to see that they were able
to get the job done without them. Let's move on to our picks for
the week seas Now, it's aweird week with the schedule. We have

(01:10:00):
Festivus, Christmas Eve, and ChristmasDay games going all day, so that'll
be fun this week. But let'sstart it off with the Thursday game.
We have the Saints at the Rams, and the Rams of every by four.
Yeah, I'm gonna go Rams towinning cover here. I just not
see enough consistent iowa the Saints.Not that I've necessarily seen that from the

(01:10:20):
Rams as much, but you know, Saints are the away team here,
and I just like the trend thatthe Rams have been on with Kyvin Williams
getting the ball a lot, CooperCups coming to his own, Fuka Nakua
still there as well as a goodsecondary option the passing game. I just
think they're clicking in a good way. The defense isn't great, but I

(01:10:42):
think they can do enough to limitthis Saints team, and Derek Carr sometimes
limits them so much himself that thisRams might not have to even do that
much. So it's not a superhigh spread. I'd like the Rams at
home this week to winning cover.I did too. I mean I'm not
I'm not buying into the Saints becausethey beat the Giants. I still think
there's massive issues in terms of howthis offense runs and kind of you know,

(01:11:04):
like, I think their defense hasbeen putting some bad spots too that
has kind of exposed them. ButI'll go Rams to win and cover.
I've talked about how much I likethe roster building they've done just with one
draft, and how Kyra William's beingback changes that whole offense. So I'll
take the Rams to win and cover. Moving on to Saturday, December twenty
third, we have a four tothirty game between the Bengals and Steelers.

(01:11:24):
This one is in Pittsburgh, butthe Bengals are favored by two points.
Yeah, I'm gonna go with theBengals to win and cover. I'm not
super jazzed about it, but thereality is, you know, the Steelers
are going to be on their thirdquarterback, so Mason Rudolph is playing,
it looks like, so that's that'sa big deal. I mean, the

(01:11:45):
Bengals defense should be able to capitalizeon that a little bit. Even with
DJ Reider gone. I could seethe running backs and the Steelers maybe getting
a little bit more because our bigrun stuffer is gone. Is that's something
to look out for if you're somelooking at some potential prop bets. But
the rushing defense, the rushing offensewith the Steers is already questionable. It's

(01:12:08):
just I think this the Bengals teamwe saw three weeks ago against Steelers and
the team now are very different becauseI think Jake Browning is more comfortable with
the offense and the offensive play callingis more comfortable knowing what they can and
can't do at this point instead ofit just and I think the team is
starting to feel itself a little morebecause I think, you know, you
go into that Steelers game, it'sright after you know, you lose on

(01:12:30):
Thursday night to the Ravens, JoeBurrows out for the season. I don't
know who the hell stays hyped upand elated after that. I mean I
would have felt the same way asa player on that team. That's as
I fell as a fan, wasjust the season's over, and you know
it just they were, they werein that game till the end. They
could have won it. I meanthey had the ball at the end of
the game, if they scored atouchdown, they could have won the game.

(01:12:53):
But you know, I think thisis gonna be a different result.
I think it's still be close.But I think Jake Brownings put together enough,
and I think the Steelers defense isn'tas good as it needs to be.
And even without Jamar Chase, Idon't know that's going to be that
much of an issue because Jamar Chasereally isn't getting used that much in the
first place. So we'll see.Can the Steelers stop checkdowns and screens.

(01:13:15):
I don't know if they can,and the Steelers offense is really bad.
So give me the Bengals to winand cover two points. Yeah. If
the Steelers has shown like any signsof life over the last couple of weeks,
I may pick them in this game, just with all the Bengals injuries
issues that they've gone on. ButJake Bradding's finding away for the Bengals,
they're utilizing their playmakers in different ways. I hope they were able to run

(01:13:36):
the ball in this game at leastto control the clock a little bit.
But the Steelers just do You haven'tseen what you wanted to. I mean,
we thought that maybe firing back Canadawas the issue, and I think
it tests of some things, butdefinitely not the whole offense. And I
just I just don't think they'd beready to play for this one. I
think the Bengals will winning cover.The Saturday night game will be a one
to watch cease and I say thatsarcastically. As the Bills take on the

(01:13:59):
Chargers in LA, the Bills arefavored by twelve points. Yeah, I'm
gonna go the Bills to win andcover here. I think this Bills team,
I mean, they've got to kindof win out like that's where they
are as a team. It's justit's one of those things, right,
I Mean, the record right nowis is subpar. They're going to continue

(01:14:23):
to need those wins each and everyweek. And I mean, yeah,
I just think this is something theyhave to do. They have to,
you know, basically win out.I mean, they're they're sitting right now.
I believe at eight and six,they've lost a lot of games to
other teams in the playoff hunt.So I mean they easily could win out
here, be eleven and six andmake the playoffs as a wild card.

(01:14:44):
Who knows. There's even a chancethat the Dolphins, you know, lose
a little bit. They've got ahard schedule, Like you said, they
could even take the the ao CEast possibly, that's that's a little harder
to predict. But three games ago, there's a lot of options. The
Bills are and they're showing signs oflife, which is huge. I think
they come out and East and stick. That team is I think dead on
arrival right now. Rand Staley justgot fired because they came out so flat

(01:15:08):
a week ago against a really badteam. Now you're going to up against
a Buffalo team who has everything onthe world to play for and wants to
keep showing people that they're one ofthe best teams in the NFL because they
had a lot of question marks upthrough the mid season. So I think
this is going to be a gamewhere they continue to roll just like they
did in Dallas. I think sotoo. I think the Bills win and

(01:15:29):
cover. I'm a little bit scaredbecause when we fire our coach usually the
team comes out with a little bitmore energy in the next week, and
they did have more time to prepareand heal up for this game. But
Easton Stick a quarterback not I don'treally love that. Also, the Bills
are able to run the ball againstthe Cowboys. The Chargers have been notorious
for not stopping the runs for yearsnow, So if the Bills can keep
that running game going, they willnot even have to throw the ball.
It's like Josh Allen said last week, you know, I feel like a

(01:15:50):
kid who didn't have to do anythingfor the group project, and I still
still got an ag. Well,if you might get an again this week,
even though you don't do too much, because I think they're gonna win
and cover without having an elite quarterbackin this game. Cleveland Brown's out the
Houston Texans. This line has shiftedbecause we found out that Sean Watson c
J. Stroud is out for thisgame. That Sean Watson was out anyway,

(01:16:10):
we're supposed to get a Seawan Watsonrevenge game or a Texans revenge game
against Shaun Watson, I should say, but it is not to be the
case. The Browns are favored bytwo and a half on the road.
Yeah, I think the Browns aregonna win this game for sure right now
with you know, with with cJ. Stroud not there, it's hard

(01:16:31):
to really pick. You know,it's hard to pick the Texans without their
star young quarterback. I think Cleveland'sdefense is better. I think Case Keenan
will have a little bit more ofa difficult battle in this one than he
had against the Titans. If he'sstarting, and you know Nico Collins is
now hurt. Tank Dell's out forthe season. I don't think they're gonna
be able to run the ball inthe Cleveland Browns the way they did against

(01:16:54):
the Titans, and I think thatwill be the struggle. So out CJ.
Stroud. I gotta go Browns towinning. Cover Browns for me as
well, got it early in theweek where actually was given points. But
I'll take the Browns to cover thetwo and a half points spread. Here.
Flacco asthman perfect, but he's beenjust enough. This is what you've
needed at the quarterback position for theBrowns. Their defense is still playing pretty
well. I think they're gonna beable to give case Keenum his first loss

(01:17:16):
as starter of the Texans. It'sgonna be a sad day, but that's
what how it's gonna go. Nextone up, we have the Indianapolis Colts
at the Atlanta Falcons. This gameis a interesting game. It's the Matt
Ryan Bowl. I hope he's callingit's actually on Fox. He's not calling
it. That'd be really cool.But the Falcons are favored by one point.
I'm gonna go Colts. I thinkthey played better last week. I

(01:17:40):
think they I think they have betterI think they are playing for more right
now. I think the Falcons arekind of given up at this point.
You know, it's a demoralized lossof the Panthers last week. I just
don't trust Arthur Smith. So forall these reasons, I'm gonna go the
Colts to win an upset. Samefor me. I mean in Otaylor High,
he's gonna start. I don't thinkthat changes much for him. They

(01:18:01):
p hat trumble getting the playmakers.The ball to the playmaker stands all year
long. The Colts, hopefully JonathanTaylor or Zach Moss maybe both are available.
They can run the ball, getsomething done on the ground. I
think the Colts winning cover the SeattleSeahawks at the Tennessee Titans. We don't
know about the availability of Gino Smithyet. It looked like he was gonna
play last week, so we wouldI think he probably will play in this

(01:18:25):
one. The Seahawks are everybody twoand a half on the road. Yeah,
I'm going to go the Seahawks here. I think they are a team
that is playing. They've been playingreally well since that Dallas game, really,
even though they lost that. Imean, they've been playing hard every
week. Pete Carroll gets that teamhyped up. And I mean they're right

(01:18:45):
in the thick of being a wildcard in this thing. And again,
the NFC's you know, every there'sno givens in the NFL this year.
So I think the Titans are ateam that is too wildly inconsistent. It
does worry me that it's a oneo'clock game. That always worries me that
they might come out flat, especiallyon a short week. But I just

(01:19:08):
I think the Seahawks, again,yeah, teams that are playing for a
lot more than just for pride,and the Seahawks are one of them.
And I think they're gonna come outand win. And I mean that's a
virtually almost a pick him at twopoints. As an away team, you
gotta take that, Yeah, especiallywill of Us got pretty banged up at
the end of last week's game too. I'd imagine he's out for this game.
Actually haven't seen anything on it,but the mess he's out. I'm

(01:19:30):
gonna take the Seahawks to win.With Ryan Tannel stepping back into the lineup,
Derreck Henry hasn't been the same Hemade me may actually made a comment
about how it's maybe his last seasonwith the Titans and that's kind of sad
and stuff. But the Seahawks cango on the run and win this one
and covered. Next one up theGreen Bay Packers at the Carolina Panthers,
one of the ones that we didn'tthink would be that great of a game,

(01:19:51):
probably still won't be. The Packersare favored by five points. Yeah,
I'm gonna go Packers to winning coverhere. I think again, Packers
have a chance of the playoffs here. I don't think the Panthers are gonna
win too in a row. Itseems very unlikely. It's spread is a
little high. But the reality is, do I think they'll win? I

(01:20:13):
mean it's under two field goals,so I the Packers should win this game
by that much, Lockett, Iwouldn't. I'm not super confident in it.
It's one of those ones where I'mI'm more teetering on the side.
I just take the money line tomake yourself feel a little more comfortable.
But yeah, I'll get to goPackers to winning covers. I'm going Packers
too. I mean, I knowJoe Berries had his issues this year,

(01:20:34):
but I think he can do adecent job against the Panthers offense. And
if you can't, then maybe that'sthe nail on the coffin for him.
But they've also should be able torun the ball against the Panthers defense and
get get the job done to winon the road. In cover. Next
game, the Washington Commanders after NewYork Jets. The Jets are favored by
three at home. I'm gonna takethe give me, I'm going with the

(01:20:59):
command the upset here. Give methe Commanders and I'll take the points.
I just don't trust the Jets backups. I'm gonna go Jets. I think
the defense is still in play.The Commanders have some real issues. They're
they're leading soccer this year still.Monteslut who hasn't been with the team for
like six weeks, don't get theydon't get through the quarterback. It seems
like they're maybe given up. Itseems like Ryan and Vera knows he's lame
duck coach and gonna be fired.You know, Brian Robinson was out last

(01:21:23):
week and they didn't even really useAntonio Gibson to his fool'st abilities, So
I think they're just kind of givenup. I'm gonna go set Jets to
win and cover. Detroit Lions atthe Minnesota Vikings. We have a divisional
matchup here. Detroit is favered bythree and a half on the road.
It's a Dome game, So I'mgonna go with the Detroit Lions to win
and cover. I think they're teamthat needs to continue to try to win

(01:21:44):
and put points on the board.Same here. I think they'll be able
to protect Jared Goff. That'll bethe difference here. They should be able
to use both running backs and getthe ball in the play Baker's hands.
They'll win and cover. On theroad. Sunday evening game Cease, we
have the Jaguars and Buccaneers. Thisone's in Tampa weather. It will be
nice. Buccaneers saver by one.Don't know if Trevor Lawrence's playing. Yeah,

(01:22:06):
this is a weird one. Sothis is a stat The Jaguars do
leave the league in takeaways. Withthat being said, I don't I don't
think Baker is gonna stay hot.I'm gonna go with the Jaguars in the
upset here, I guess you cancall it. I'm assuming Trevor Lawrence will

(01:22:26):
continue to try to play, soI'm gonna give it to them. I
think Baker Mayfield have some turnovers inthis one, which will be the key
to why the Jaguars went. Iwanted Jaguars too. I don't dis I'm
having I've been picking the Bucks alot on this, but I do think
the Jaguars have talent. I thinkthis had a rough stretch against these AFC
North teams. Like I said,and Trevor Lawrence, I'd assume maybe he

(01:22:47):
doesn't play C. J. Bethink'sthe backup. He at least has some
experience playing in the forty nine ersa couple of years ago. Maybe they
can figure it out, like yousaid, maybe get some turnovers and get
the job done. Arizona Cardinals atthe Chicago Bears. The Bears are favored
by four and a half points.Give me the Bears in Chicago. You
know again, the weather is turneda little bit. Four and a half

(01:23:11):
sounds pretty rough, but honestly,when the Chicago wins, they usually win
by a decent amount. So I'mbeing that trend will continue here. It's
it's a hard place to play inthe weather, and I don't think that
Arizona team is really going to beready for it. I'm going Cardinals.
I think I'm pulling off the outrightupset here. The thing for me is,

(01:23:34):
I think the Bears are getting toa point where the offensive dysfunction is
going to get to them a littlebit. They just clearly just choke away
games late in the game. TheCardinals, I think, have still been
that team that with Kyler Murk comingback is Kyler Murray be coming back,
has fought and played hard. Ithink this is one of the ones that
are gonna want to win. Kyleris gonna want to win because the closer

(01:23:54):
you get to the number one pick, the easier he becomes to replace.
This becomes a nice way to winthe game. Keep your The Bears don't
know exactly what they're playing for.The defense has been better. Granted that
that that's awesome, But I'll takethe Cardinals in this one, all right.
The Cowboys at the Miami Dolphins.This has been a tale of teams
who have been called frauds a lotthis year. The Cowboys can't win on

(01:24:15):
the road, The Dolphins can't beata team with the winning record. The
Dolphins are favored by one and ahalf at home. I'm gonna take the
Dolphins to winning cover here in theFraud Bowl because I think what we saw
with the Buffalo Bills, I thinkis something the Dolphins could easily duplicate.
They've got two really good running backsand a team that has a lot of
power run game like that, soI think that's gonna be key. I

(01:24:38):
think the Dolphins saw that are goingto try to get going early and we
saw what the Seahawks. The Cowboyssecondary is susceptible to a really deep speed
deep threat like a DK Metcap,just like Tyreek Hill is. So Tyreek
Hill comes back and he's close toone hundred percent, I think that could
be an issue as well. Ijust you know, I Cowboys away from

(01:25:00):
home, I think they're gonna comeout better than they did last week.
But I think those are gonna besome keys, and I think it'll it'll
stop the Cowboys from pulling out avictory. Yeah, I kind of think
that maybe the Cowboys are just toomuch of a dome or a good weather
team, because they just didn't seemlike they like the elements. Luckily,
they're playing in Miami this week.We're at seventy six degrees and probably no

(01:25:21):
rain in sight. I think they'regonna win. I think they'll bounce back
from this performance. Like I said, they had a stomach bug going on
last week, not an excuse,but maybe they won't have that going on
this week. And I think theycan take advantage of the Dolphins offensive line
being banged up. Tyreek Hill.We'll see if he plays, We'll see
if he's one hundred percent. Weknow the Dolphins, I think, need
to win one more to clinch aplayoff spot and get a little bit of

(01:25:42):
help. It's like any number ofteams can lose to help them clinch.
But they'll be motivated as well.But I think the Cowboys will really want
to get back on the right pageand get this win. Sunday night,
this will be Christmas Eve night.We have the Patriots and the Broncos.
This is a game that I thinkit's a little bit different than maybe we
expected a couple weeks ago. Itis the Broncos favored by six and a

(01:26:03):
half. Yeah, also has thepotential the weather reports. You're saying maybe
a snow game. So how muchmore festive can you get on Christmas Eve?
But I'm gonna go with le Broncosto win obviously here and even if
it's it's a snow game, it'sin Mile High. I believe I'm gonna

(01:26:24):
go with the home team here.Again, I don't think, I mean
I'm worried because it is a higherspread, but the Patriots really haven't shown
much suns of light, signs oflife besides that Steelers game. So give
me, you know, the Broncosat home in this one. Broncos at
home to win and cover. Patriotscan't get anything going on offensive defense is
fine, but I think the Broncosgoing by at least a touchdown, they'll

(01:26:44):
be able to run the ball andget the job done. All right,
Now, Christmas has three games.They've changed the schedule around because it is
on a Monday, and the Raidersare playing the Chief Chief Savery by ten
points. Yeah, give me theRaiders to win it or not. The
book, give me the Chiefs towin and cover this game. That Raiders
team, I think they scored mostof the points will score the rest of
the season last Thursday. So yeah, I just don't see this being a

(01:27:10):
necessarily close game. Ten points iskind of high, but I expect the
Chiefs defense to keep the Raiders atbay, and I gotta believe that Pat
Mahomes and the offense can score enoughpoints to keep this one out of reach
for the Raiders. Yeah. I'mgoing Chiefs to win and cover. I
think this is another game to tryto get their offense right, to figure

(01:27:33):
things out. That's what you weresigning up for against the Raiders. Raiders
lucked out by playing the Chargers whenthey did, and they do have more
time to prepare for this game.But at some point, I'm going to
trust Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes tofigure this thing out and just put a
team away. I think maybe theywin this game, like twenty seven to
ten or something, just to makesure they get to win and put a
dominant performance on tape. New YorkGiants at the Philadelphia Eagles again. Christmas

(01:27:58):
Day. Eagles. Everybody twelve pointsright now? Yeah, I think the
Eagles will win and cover this aswell. Again, the Giants are in
disarray. I don't think time DeVito'sgonna have the same super successful game he's
been having for a while. Ithink eventually the Eagles are gonna get right,
get a little more healthy on defense, and I think they're not gonna
be able to prevent the big playsthat the Eagles are prone to hitting a

(01:28:23):
lot of times as well. SoI'll take the Eagles to win and cover
here. Yeah, I don't thinkthe Eagles have won a game by double
digits. They obviously lost three straightnow, so that that's a concern for
me. They haven't won a gameby double digits since they played the Dolphins,
and that was way back when.Now like Week seven, I think
maybe. So I'm gonna take theGiants with the points, taking the Eagles

(01:28:44):
to win. But they really doneed to start figuring some things out and
maybe take take Jalen Hurts, maybeget him healthy, take him out of
the lineup if you need to.It just doesn't seem like he's one hundred
percent right now, at least he'snot playing like it all right. Monday
Night Football Christmas Day, we havethe forty nine ers and Ravens three nine
ers are hosting and they are favoredby five and a half points. Probably
the two hottest teams in the leagueright now seas Yeah, getting the forty

(01:29:06):
nine Ers here. I think theywin by a touchdown probably, so it's
right in that score. Again,I think this game could go really quick
because both teams like to run theball and try to kind of play ball
control. But I just think,again, the forty Nineers have been operating
on a different level, and Icould see them just you know, winning

(01:29:27):
this one by a touchdown and oryou know, it won't be surprise me
if they win by more because thetalent level is just seems to have been
there. So I mean, thisis a potential super Bowl preview week,
so it'll be a fun one towatch. I think the forty nine Ers
come away and cover. I havethe forty nine Ers winning, but the
Ravens with the points. If you'regonna give me five and a half for
two of the teams in the leaguethat I think are maybe the best,
I'll take, you know, fiveand a half points. I also think

(01:29:50):
that this game will probably be Ithink it's supposed to rain, so I'm
not really sure how that affects things, but both teams like to run the
balls may be able to be kindof close. And also, I just
I think at some point the fournine ers are gonna have to like maybe
not even lose a game, butnot play their best and not cover a
spread and not win a game bydouble digits. It's just at some point
it might happen seas I don't know, all right, So that's our picks

(01:30:13):
for the weeks. Any final thoughtscease, no, just everybody have a
happy Festivus and good luck in thefantasy playoffs to everyone. Absolutely I agree
with those sentiments. Cecil. Myturn to remind everyone to like and subscribe
on YouTube and wherever your podcast.It helps us out as we go along.
For now, thanks for watching.We'll see you guys next time.
See you, guys,