The NFL delivered another wild Week 13, and Richard Sherman is breaking it all down — from the Seahawks’ dominant 4-interception defensive effort and Sam Darnold’s struggles, to the 49ers grinding out a tough win in brutal Cleveland weather behind Skyy Moore’s huge punt return and a young defense coming together. Sherm and Mitch analyze the Rams’ shocking loss to the Panthers, Bryce Young’s resurgence, how the Bears overwhelmed the Eagles on Black Friday, Detroit’s defensive struggles after the Packers loss, and the Cowboys’ instant classic win over the Chiefs. Sherm and Mitch also discuss the hot streak of the Texans, the Colts’ injury issues, the fallout from Bills vs. Steelers, Joe Burrow’s surprising return in the blowout of the Ravens, and finish with Giants vs. Patriots MNF predictions. It’s full of NFC chaos, AFC questions, coaching issues, playoff implications everywhere — and Sherm shares his honest thoughts on every story. Tune in and hit that SUB button!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, everybody, I appreciate you joining us as always. You
guys are phenomenal. You're the best in the world. You're
watching the Richard Sherman Podcast. But if you could do
me a huge favor and hit that sub button, it
would be greatly appreciated. You would do a service for
your boys. SHERV And I'll tell you what. I got
your back, You got my back, all love. Welcome to
(00:27):
Richard Sherman Podcast. In What a week the forty nine
Ers win, the Seattle Seahawks win. It couldn't go much
better in an upset for the Rams. What a game
for the Seattle Seahawks ate. They dominated this game from
start to finish. Obviously a little bit more of a
shaky game for Sam Donald, and we knew it would be.
We knew Brian Floranes would do his best to bring pressure,
(00:49):
and he did that early and often. Mitchell, he did
a good job of making sure Sam Donald was uncomfortable
in the pocket he met. He did a good job
of making sure his guys got there and got hits
on the quarterback. They forced the number of turnovers, forced fumbles,
big time hits on him in the pocket. Was he
was a little little shaky, and again that ups to
(01:10):
concern level for the Seattle Seahawks and I'm sure the
fan base because again that these are the these are
the issues that showed up before. These are the issues
that that plagued him in Minnesota last year, and the
issues that continue to plague him now. It's it's not
gonna change unless he changes the narrative. Obviously, the offensive
line made a fair share of mistakes. There was one
(01:30):
play where where the tight end didn't block a defensive
end and he came in scott free. But again, none
of that helped Sam Donald. What did help Sam Donald
was this incredible Seattle Seahawks defense. They forced four interceptions
in the game, another forced fumble, They got a pick
six by Ernest Jones and I think was eighty five
(01:52):
yards on an incredible play by DeMarcus Lawrence to put
pressure on the quarterback on the fourth down play, another
interception for Kobe Bryant, Tarik wooland got it. Everybody got involved.
Everybody got an interception in this game, and they were
playing at an elite level. And then on the defensive line,
it was the guy, the big fellow up front who
(02:13):
got the party started. Leonard Williams gets a sack early
in this game that sets the tone. Then you look
up and DeMarcus Lawrence gets him won and Byron Murphy
gets him one, and everybody was getting in on the party.
And you gotta be able to appreciate the consistency and
playmaking from this defense that allows this offense. Even when
(02:35):
they're in the game and they're struggling and Flores is
getting to Sam Darnold and they're only able to manage
two field goals in the game, they're still able to
control this game and dominate it and win it in
dominant fashion. They started to get the run game going
a little bit in this game. I really appreciated that
Kenneth Walker thirteen for fifty six. It didn't seem like
(02:57):
a lot, but it looked like a lot in the game.
And there was a play where Harrison Smith got him.
It was just a shoe string tackle or he would
have been gone and that would have been a huge
explosive play. But it just looked like the run game
was starting to get going. And this is a really
stingy defense, a really really opportunistic defense that played really well.
(03:17):
So you gotta appreciate how they played. Ernest Jones got
another interception in the game. Charvionnade fourteen carries for fifty
two yards in the touchdown. This is the kind of
game the Seattle Seahawks needed to just continue to reinforce
the notion that they may be the best team in NFC.
And I know they lost to the Rams, but again,
I still feel like the Rams are a flaw team.
(03:39):
And I know everybody has all these stats to support
them being an elite team, but to lose to the
San Francisco forty nine ers at home with the with
the backup quarterback and a bunch of cast all set receiver,
it just it just gave. It gives me. Paul's in
naming them the best best team, but their record said
you gotta name the best team. So they've been number
(03:59):
one of the pie rinkins. But they're lost today to
the Carolina Panthers. Really shakes everything up somehow. The Chicago
Bears are number one in the NFC right now in
the playoff picture. I mean, anybody who said they knew
that going into the season, including Chicago Bears fans, is
lying to your face, Mitchell.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
There's no question about that. But in regards to Seattle Man, Yeah,
you said it. This was not their best offensive game,
certainly not Sam Donald's best game. You know, you figure
he would come out, you know, aggressive, playing his former
team in the Minnesota Vikings that let him leave.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
He did not look the part today.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
But Seattle's defense did and they I gotta wonder what
Max Brosner is thinking about his first NFL debut here.
That's not what you want to, you know, turn in
on your first important performance.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
You could see the guys frustrated out there.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Kudos to Seattle's defense making life very tough for Justin
Jefferson and I don't even know how many others Justin
Jefferson had. It didn't seem like he had a plus
positive catch until like the fourth quarter. I know his
first catch was for like minus five yards. So every
time I was watching this game, it was either sack
or an interception.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
So big shout out to Seattle. Richard. I'm with you.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
I think there's certainly one of the top three teams
in this conference. I don't know if I throw them
up at number one. They got some work to do,
but we'll see. I mean down to stretch man. This
next couple of games is gonna be the money maker
for them. You know, they play the Falcons and then
they got some tough ones against the Colts and the Rams.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
So you want to see who's the best in the NFC.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
You knock off the Colts and Rams, and I think
a conversation is certainly to be had for them to
be the best in the NFC.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
No question, you knock off the Colts and Rams. Forget
the NFC. You're talking about a case for the best
team in the National Football League. Those are teams that
have have been in and out of the top five
in my power rankers all season long. They the Falcons
have been struggling mightily, so I feel like the Seattle
Seahawks can go in there and get a win there.
The Colts struggled a little bit today and that was
(05:54):
that was surprising. The Houston Texans. That defense continues to
make everybody struggle and they're finding ways to win. I
think they're now seven and two in their last eight games,
or maybe eight and two in their last ten, or
I mean steven in two in their last nine games,
or eight and two in their last ten, if I'm
not mistaken, I gotta go back and look again. But
they're playing great football. They start the season on three
(06:16):
and now they're finding themselves maybe in playoff contention. They
gotta win. They got to continue to win. I think
they might have to win out in order to make
that a reality. But there's some chaos in the National
Football League right now. And another team that hasn't hasn't
really really had success in Cleveland Metell. They have not
(06:37):
won in Cleveland since nineteen eighty four. The San Francisco
forty nine ers go to Cleveland and get a win
over Shador Sanders in the Cleveland Browns.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Hey, you know it's the Browns and no one's thinking
too highly of them. But the reality is they got
a game wrecker on the other side of the field
of Miles Garrett, who did get home once. But all
in all, the forty nine controlled this game. Rock Purty
one hundred and sixty eight yards a rushing touchdown. You
saw his little uh dougie dance that he did in
the Enzo You gotta love to see that man. But
(07:09):
Christian McCaffrey held in check twenty rushing attempts for fifty
three yards. Richard, Like, where are you at with the Niners.
They're nine to four. We talked about it a couple
of weeks ago. This stretch of the schedule is all
winnable games for them that they should be winning. Is
your confidence level risen with this team despite all the
injuries that they've endured this season?
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Yes, I mean because again, if you got Kyle Shanahan,
you've got a chance. And that's what I feel with
the San Francisco forty nine ers. Brock Perty is still
getting his legs under him. Obviously, there's still some injuries
concerned with the toe. There's still some pain there. He's
playing without the metal plate that a lot of guys
(07:50):
wear when they have that kind of turf toe injury,
so you got to keep an eye on that. But overall,
he's playing solid football. Again. It's a tough environment, a
really good deep defensive line that had him under the
rest all game long, and he found a way to
not take sacks that throw the ball away when necessary
to make the players that were there even scored on
a zone read today. That's a that's a wrinkle we
(08:12):
haven't seen from Kyle Shanahan and this offense in a
really long time. I'm not sure we've seen it since
Kaepernick from being honest, but the the special teams and
in that phase of the game is where the San
Francisco forty nine ers are a different team than they
were last year or even the year before. The special
(08:33):
teams are providing incredible value and they had a huge
hand in winning this game. Sky Moore is the best
return in the San Francisco forty nine ers have had
probably since Ted Ginn, I would imagine, and he's making
an impact on big games and helping playing winning football.
This one in your offense is struggling and they're struggling
to move the ball against the defense that's stingy and
(08:53):
aggressive as the as the Browns defense is with the
game record, Like Miles Garrett that we we just talked
to about, you need your special teams to make a
play and sky Moore did that with a sixty six
yard punt return where he sliced through the their special
teams unit and set the the San Francisco forty nine
(09:14):
ers offense up with their first touchdown of the game,
and I think that's really what got things going. And
on the other side, you just see this defense continuing
to mature. Three sacks in this game, two forced fumbles,
fumbles recovered in this game, and they're just playing more consistently,
more sound football, and you see the confidence growing. You
(09:35):
hear how George Kittle talked about Alfred Collins and his
growth and his work ethic and just how hard he
was working in this game and the impact that he
was having and how proud he was of him. This
team is together, and it's gonna take a second for
a young defense to jail in this way for them
when you don't have the veterans, you don't have the guys,
you know, communicating the way veterans do. You don't have
(09:58):
them understanding the game the way the veterans do and
understanding the pace of the game and what should be
coming here and on third down and second down. Oh,
you should have a feel for this. You're falling. They're
they're susceptible to veteran moves. When you're a young guy,
you got to learn the game. And I think they're
starting to figure it out. And that's that's the cool
thing to see. Again, I said I said it before,
(10:20):
I'll say it again. I think this entire staff deserves
Coach of the Year. Robert Salo. What he's been able
to do, especially the last couple of weeks with this
with this defensive unit is incredible, incredible, And I know
Shador Sanders and this offense isn't isn't the world beating,
but they are NFL offense. And he's been able to
manufacture really good success against the Carolina Panthers, who just
(10:44):
put up thirty one against the number one defense in
the land in LA against the La Rams. But they
couldn't they couldn't put manufacturer that kind of points against
the Sea against the San Francisco forty nine ers, even
with all the t and over, the three brought party
interceptions before the half and they weren't able to turn
those into points. But they were able to manufacture thirty
(11:07):
one points against the La Rams. And so it's not
like he's doing it against offenses that aren't having success
everywhere else. Obviously, this is offense that that's been struggling
mightily throughout the season. But you got to tip your
hat off to Robert Sala and the job that he's doing.
You gotta tip your hat off to Kyle Shanahan getting
these guys prepared, and and John Lance for finding a
(11:27):
way to bandiate this defense as best he can with
with Cleveland Farrell and and Kean White and guys. I
think Cleveland Ferrell had two sacks today. And when you
when you when you're last in the league in sacks,
you will take it from wherever you can get it,
no question about it. Richard.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
It wasn't too long ago that I think the forty
nine are faithful ready to punt on the season with
all these injuries mounting and mounting and mounting.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
And I know, you know, you.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Could even see it with you and in your in
your face and your voice. After that that last Fred
Warner injury, it just seemed like, man, maybe this is
just not the year. But to your point, this coaching
staff has put together and rallied the troops and has
got these guys at nine to four now. And Richard,
I mean, the reality is they're scheduled. The rest of
the way allows them to compete for this division. They
(12:14):
get to knock off some heavyweights and we'll see how
it nets out for him. They keep playing like this,
anything is possible. They enter the byeweight, they get healthy,
they go to the they go play against the Titans,
and then the Colts.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
So we'll see here, Richard.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
I like what I see with the Niners, especially defensively.
Rock Purty keep things rolling, Pete keep bitting, getting back
into his comfort zone, and the Niners.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Might be able to make some noise at the end
of the day.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Let's switch the focus of the other NFC West team,
though you already alluded to them, the La Rams. They
take on the Carolina Panthers that are all of a sudden,
a super hot team out of nowhere. I think everyone
had given up on Bryce Young as the quarterback for
this franchise, but clearly he looks like he belongs and
he puts up three touchdowns over two hundred passing yards
(12:58):
against this Rams team. And it really was Carolina's defense
that set the tone big interception. They picked off Matthew
Stafford twice in that first quarter.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
When all you heard about.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Was Matthew Stafford going thirty touchdowns and two interceptions on
the season, they made life very difficult for Matthew Stafford
to come out with a huge win, especially for the
NFC West. This is a huge win for the Niners
in Seattle. Seahawks, Richard, good thoughts on this game. I
know the NFL has displayed a next level amount of
parody this season.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
But did you see this one coming? No? No, I
did not see this coming before I even jumped down
that rabbit hole, because we got a lot to talk
about with that, because there's been a lot of speculation,
a lot of people, a lot of Rams fans and
to mentions like oh yeah, wordbust team, etc. Etc. Every
team's the best team for a little while in this
league this year. But I want to talk about the
weather conditions in Cleveland because that was a big factor
(13:50):
in this game. But you talked that, We talked about
the special teams. There was a muffed punt in this
game that led to a touchdown because the pup returner
dropped the ball and it was swirling, it was rain,
it was everything. And those are the games the San
Francisco forty nine ers usually struggle with. Those are games
that you look up and ah, man, the worst thing
that could have happened in the game, Christian McCaffrey fumbles
(14:12):
the ball or brought purty. It just it slips out
of his hand. With that, That's what happened the last
time they played in Cleveland, and the record Schwartz has
against Kyle Shanahan is incredible. I think this is only
Kyle's second win against Swartz overall period as a coach,
and so this is a big time win. And I
know that San Francisco forty nine Ers fans were nervous
(14:33):
in his game and they gotta feel good. But going
to the Rams, going to the La Rams, the world
beaters Mitchell with the MVP of this season at quarterback,
Matthew Stafford thirty I mean thirty touchdowns and only two
interceptions on the season coming into this game, and he struggled,
and he struggled. He threw as many interceptions in his
(14:53):
game as he had all season long, even including a
pick six to Michael Jackson. Not the Michael Jackson y'all
thinking of, but the Michael Jackson and Carolina who's been
as hot as Fish Grease over the last couple of weeks.
He had an interception against the San Francisco forty nine Ers,
he had a pick sick this week. He's making himself
some money, no question about it. Seems like he's found
his rhythm. But this is an opportunistic defense for the
(15:17):
Carolina Panthers and Matthew Stafford. You know he had his moments,
but he had three turnovers in the game, and that
was the difference in the game, his last turnover being
a fumble that Carolina recovered and never gave the ball
back to him. I think you got to give a
lot of credit to David Kanalis and this staff Egiro Evere,
what he's been able to do with this defense and
(15:40):
how they continue to just press the envelope because a
lot of people, including myself, kind of left Carolina for dead,
you know, after the Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold years,
and then you draft Bryce and he struggles, and then
you five his staff You're like, Okay, Carolina, they will
see if they ever figured it out. They draft tetch
(16:01):
Roll McMillan, and you're like, okay, maybe they got some
building blocks. But I don't think anybody saw this coming.
They're seven and six right now, just beat the number
one team in my power rankings, a team with a
number one defense, a team with Matthew Stafford playing the
best ball of his career at thirty seven years old.
(16:22):
And I can't really explain it. I can't explain it out.
This keeps happening in Mitchell. Bryce Young was efficient fifteen
to twenty for two oh six and three touchdowns. Like
you said, but Chubba Hubbard looked like his old self
in this game, had a receiving touchdown, seventeen carries thirty
three yards, and then ric O'dowdell. Ricodoudle has been a
(16:42):
godsend for this team. He's been incredibly consistent all season long,
and they've been splitting carries between him and Chubba Hubbard
all season long. But this has been phenomenal. This has
been phenomenal. And if you look at the Saints schedule,
I mean the Panthers schedule, they have a winnable game
coming up against the New Orleans Saints in the NFC South,
(17:03):
and they win that and and you're you're gonna be
scratching your head because they're gonna be in the playoff conversation.
That's everybody's in the playoff conversation right now. I don't
think I've seen a year where the NFC is so tough,
like nine and four in San Francisco's barely in. You
used to be nine and four, ten and four, and
you like you're you're thinking about resting your starters at
(17:24):
the end of the season, not this year, not this year.
Everybody's got got eight eight at least eight wins, nine wins,
ten wins. So it's gonna be an incredible finish. Somebody's
gonna get left out of this playoffs that probably deserves
to be there. Uh And and I just don't know
how we're gonna call it, because when you see games
like this, you realize everybody can beat everybody, and every
(17:47):
week in the NFL it's its own unique week, it's
its own unique battle. You you almost gotta throw everything out,
throw all the stats and records out for a week
outside of a few teams, and then you just to
watch the game. Because if you would have told me
coming into this game that the Carolina Panthers would beat
the LA Rams and put up thirty one, I would
(18:10):
all laught you out out the build, Mitchell, no question
about that. I'm with you.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
I thought it was a layup for the Rams going
on the road, But I mean, Carolina Atlanta is a
tough place to play and they've got a lot to
play for. You mentioned that they played Saints next week,
but then they got two games against the Buccaneers down
the stretcher and they played the Seattle Seahawks. So a
team that is desperate and hungry for a win, no
one's gonna want to see him down the stretch. They
really do control their own destiny here, Richard. It's wild
(18:36):
to see. But like you said, there's going to be
an eleven and six team that misses a playoff this year,
which is wild. But to your point's there's a lot
of parody, a lot of teams that are winning a
lot of games that no team that is sixteen and
one or fifteen and two like we saw last year.
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Speaker 2 (20:42):
We shall see and we saw another great game on
Black Friday. You were in Philadelphia with the TNF crew,
Richard on a Friday afternoon in Philly. Philly comes away
a loser against the Chicago Bearers, who all of a
sudden find theirself at the one set of the NFC
nine to three overall. Ben Johnson is proving to be
(21:04):
an absolute massive higher for the Chicago Bears team. If
you looked at their schedule up to this game, you'd
understand why they were eight and three. Not to discount
the eight and three record, because there takes a lot
of work around the way, but there wasn't a tough
opponent that you saw that stood out in the schedule.
This was the game that I thought would set the
true bar for the Bears, and holy cow, did they
(21:26):
pass this test. With flying colors. Kyle Manungai, the sixth
round picker, seventh round pick out of Rutgers, has just
exploded on the scene and him couple with DeAndre Swift,
both rushing for over one hundred and twenty rush yards. Richard,
you saw it first hands. How good is this Chicago
Bears team?
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Well, let me, let me let me go down and
really really really just kill back the layers. The Eagles
got bullied in this game, they got bullied the their
defensive line, their linebackers. The Chicago made a huge emphasis
on the offensive line this offseason. They drafted, they paid,
(22:07):
and they traded for offensive line. They got Joe Tooney,
they got Dolmond. They were making they were gonna make
sure that Hey, they gave Caleb Williams the best possible
chance with with time in a beautiful pocket. But this
game wasn't about Caleb Williams. It was about the guys
DeAndre Swift and Kalman Nung guy and it just they
(22:30):
weren't being touched. At times. They were running through gaping holes.
You look and you see guys getting moved three techniques
and noses getting moved three four yards. That way. We
see d ns. We saw Jalen Phillips one time. I
thought he was in the stands Mitchell I looked up.
I said, dang is he did he buy a ticket
to the game. They were moving them. They were moving them, Mitchell.
(22:51):
They were moving the Philadelphia Eagles. And it did not
look like a game where there was a non playoff
team playing against the reigning defending champs. It didn't look
that way. It looked almost opposite they the Philadelphia Eagles
look disjointed on offense. And you wonder after this game,
(23:13):
you didn't hear anything about aj Brown complaining or or
or or saying, hey, I didn't get the ball enough
or anything like that, because he got thirteen thirteen targets,
had one hundred and something yards. They did well, but
they lost. And when you lose and you're productive, does
that feel better? Does that make you, you know, you
(23:35):
feel good? No, He's a competitor, so he wants to win.
So where do you go from here? I think I
think they have to take play calling duties away from
Kevin Petullo. It's too big of a job for him.
He does not get it. He cannot design a run
game that's suitable for Saquon to have success. And I'm
not going to put it on Saquan. I'm sorry. I
(23:59):
we watched last year. Obviously, this isn't the same offensive line.
They've been a little banged up. Lane Johnson's banged up
right now. They said he may come back, but the
injury that he has, Liz Frank is not injury you
come back from very often. But he says he's coming back.
I'm gonna trust in lane and what he believed. They
didn't put him on I R. They don't have Makai
(24:21):
Beckden anymore. He went off to the Chargers to get
his money. Respect that I think it's the Chargers. Yeah, yes,
but he makes a huge difference. But schematically, they're just
too simple. They're too simple and at times they don't
have answers. When when you got plays where you see
(24:42):
Quinn Williams in the three technique and you're running counter
and you're like, hey, we probably don't want to run
this play with him in the three technique. You probably
should should should can can or audible out of it,
but you can't because that's not in there. That's not
in there. You can't kill can can, You can't kill
the play and then go somewhere else. And I think
that's the issue this year. They're running into they're running
(25:04):
into situations where they're outmanned and they don't have enough
guys to block the team that they're trying the way
they're trying to run. Sometimes they have three blockers and
there's four defenders there and you look at that play
and you're like, how do you expect Sakuan to have
a chance right here? You don't even have enough blockers
to give him a chance. You're saying he has to
break a tackle here just to have success. And when
you see that consistently, consistently, it it leaves you to say, Okay,
(25:29):
say Quan may have his issues, maybe he lost his step,
whatever you feel, but there's something wrong with this scheme
and they got to get that corrected. And Sirianni is
an offensive mine. He's an offensive coach. I know he
has say so in these meetings. Maybe he needs to
take control again of this offense so that it can
it can function like he knows is capable of. We
(25:51):
know Jalen Hurts can play the quarterback position at a
high level at times. We know that he's at multiple
Super Bowls where he threw for over three hundred yards.
Let him go. Stop stop feeling like you just have
to play this RBO game all game long in its
most predictable nature. Hey, AJ Brown's on the left, it's
a go route. Like if everybody else can tell, hey,
(26:14):
when he's at this split, when it's here, when he's here,
when it's here, if everybody else casually watching the game
can say, hey, we probably know the route or the
play coming here. That's not a good play. But that's
not a good offense. And no matter how good your
players are, they're not going to be able to have
success playing that way. Their defenses, that's their only job
(26:35):
is to study this to the point that they understand
it as well as the team they're playing, so that
they can stop it. And that's what teams are doing.
I don't feel like the Philadelphia Eagles are a great
team right now. You know, they're great that they're a
great collection of players, but they're not a great team,
There's no question about it.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
Richard. To compare it to a boxing match. They've been
winning by decision, you know, all season long. They really
have knocked out any of their opponents, and they were
living on that edge, and they finally got caught with
a haymaker and that was the Chicago Bears that just
put him out. They keep playing like this. I don't
see how they defend their title in this playoffs. I mean,
they're scheduled down the stretch is not all that tough.
(27:16):
I don't think they're gonna have a problem coming out
with the division in their hands, you know. But they
they do play the Chargers, they do play the Raiders,
Commanders and Bills, and then the Commanders again. So you know,
if they don't show up against the Chargers and they
fall flat against the Bills, you better watch out for
these Dallas cowboys, man, because they're as red hot as
(27:37):
it gets. And I know they come to Detroit on Thursday.
I know you're gonna be there, but Philly better turn
it on quick otherwise maybe maybe this division will be
up for grabs.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
And what's what's remarkable about that? And we're gonna dive
down a rabbit hole that may not ever come to fruition.
But they can miss the playoffs, like it doesn't take
a ton. It doesn't take a ton for you to
miss the playoffs right now, Like two losses, you find
two losses somewhere in there, all of a sudden, if
you're not the division winner, it's not no guarantees that
(28:12):
you're in this playoff. And that's how tough the NFC
is right now. It's And so I don't think that
the Eagles missed the playoffs, but it's a lot closer
than you want to would think. I'm right there with you.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
And then in terms of in terms of the Bears,
you know, their schedule gets a lot tougher down these
last five games of the season. They're at the Packers,
They're at home against the Browns, They're at home against
the against the Packers, then on the road against the Niners,
and then they host the Lions to finish the season.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Off.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
There's four games that really stand out to me here.
I know they took it to the Eagles, but if
they want this one seed, they got to take care
of business against their division foes. Now the Packers are looming,
and they're looming large. They took care of my Detroit
Lions on Thanksgiving, Richard, and we'll talk about that game next.
Because I was there and I was devastated. I thought
(29:03):
this Detroit Lions team would at some point wake up,
much like this Philadelphia Eagles team. You see the Lions,
you know, survive an absolute scare at home against the
New York Giants, and you say, Okay, maybe that's the
wake up call they need. They didn't take the loss.
They were able to rally together and pull this one
off in dramatic fashion. But then you watch it. As
(29:23):
this game starts, the Packers jump out to a ten
to nothing lead like it's nothing. Detroit generates no pressure
on on Jordan Love all the game. He throws for
four touchdowns to you know, a bunch of wide receiver
twos Wix is a huge game, Christian Watson goes off.
You know, all this with the Lions having one of
(29:44):
the biggest struggles that they have is their interior offensive line. Richard,
I think they're out. Their offensive tackles are two of
the best in the league, but they're middle three of
that old line that's gotta be one of the worst,
if not the worst interior o Lions in the league.
And they've just been getting wrecked up the middle for
the last what four or five games ever since the
(30:06):
Vikings game.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
And I just don't know what is ever gonna change.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
To renew this faith that I have in the Detroit Lions, because,
like I just said, they got Dallas coming to town
on Thursday. They're gonna have to get this thing right immediately.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Well, I think that the thing that can give you
hope is Janison Williams is coming into his own. Jamiir
Gibbs continues to be incredibly explosive. I know, I know
that you were looking for uh rag now to come
in and and and give you oh yeah, that that.
(30:39):
But I'll tell you what, it's hard to come off
that couch picture. It's tough. It's tough coming off that couch.
You putty, come off that couch and you ain't ready
hamstring toll off the bone. That's tough. But I think
offensively they're fine. I think the defensive side of the
ball is whin. All the concern is some of it's
(31:04):
in that secondary. They were giving up a lot of
plays and Kelln Shephard. You can't just sit there and
play man all day. You can't like these are twos
or whatever, receiver twos. But still you can't just sit
there and play man to man all day long. It's lazy.
It's lazy defensive coordinating. And I'll keep saying that when
you just because all the onus is on the players
(31:28):
in that position, the heart you're putting all the onus. Hey,
you guys got a hard job, and I'm gonna make
you do a hard job all day. I'm not gonna
make my job hard and say, hey, I gotta figure
out when they're when they're on first down, in first
down situations, when they're in nickel, I mean when they're
in uh eleven personnel. What I need to call to
put you in the best position? Is it three? Is
(31:50):
that gonna be tough on them? Is it two? Do
I bring pressure with side? Do I bring pressure? How
do I manipulate the offensive line? Et cetera, et cetera.
You just say, hey, play man, and then when it
doesn't go, you say they didn't cover them well enough,
Like that's lazy. You got to you gotta be more
creative defensively. That's what I hate that, I really it's
it's it drives me crazy because it takes more. It
(32:13):
takes more football IQ to game plan without saying, hey,
I'm just gonna leave you guys in man all day,
because all the fans are gonna say, is ug beach
keep getting beat man? We sucked. It's like, no, it's not.
It's not that simple. They're not. They're being tasked with
a hard job. It's hard to guard receivers one on
one in the National Football League period. It's dang short
(32:34):
hard to guard them every play. But again, they gotta
they gotta figure out that balance. And and maybe these
guys aren't great at zone. Maybe that's that's the reason
they're doing it. Maybe it's more to it than than
I'm giving credit. But I think the lack of pass
rush also is a concern. But you guys knew that
coming into the season, and they didn't address it. You know,
you didn't go get a Preston Smith again, you didn't.
(32:57):
You didn't call the guys and you haven't called them yet.
There's always pass rushers out there, Mitchell that those are
people that come off the couch. They're training year round
because they know it takes one injury and a pass
rusher can find himself on a Super Bowl team with
a ring on his finger. If you stay in shape
and you can get to that quarterback, you'll have a job,
(33:17):
especially after week week thirteen, fourteen fifteen, where it's not
gonna count against the camp in that way, I don't worry.
They'll pick you up. They'll pick you up. Then playoff
checks don't count the same. But I just don't know
if the Detroit Lions have enough defensively to survive the
way they need to. Especially this division continues to be
(33:41):
a gauntlet. It continues to be a gauntlet. Last year
it was Minnesota, you know, going crazy with fourteen wins.
This year, the Bears are surprising you and running away
with the division. You got to keep up, and in
order to keep up, it has to be the pass rush.
And unless they find that somewhere in a miraculous way,
(34:02):
I'll let you know how I go this weekend Detroit, Mitchell,
how It'll be there.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
You'll be there, I will I will be there, and
the Dallas Cowboys will be there as well. And we
saw another thriller on Thanksgiving. These Dallas Cowboys continue to shock.
I'm getting less surprised though as I'm watching them, Richard,
because I think they just might be that good. We
saw this pairing of George Pickens and Ceedee Lamb coming
(34:25):
into the season, and we said, how the heck is
that gonna work? It seems cool in theory, but I
don't know if this is going to pay off. And
then you see Michaeh Parsons getting dealt and then we
see Quinn Williams coming in at the deadline.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
Maybe, just maybe Jerry Jones knew what he was doing.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Maybe he thought this team needed a little bit of
an identity shake up, you know, some fresh faces in
the clubhouse, if you will. And my goodness, George Pickens
has had a heck of a year and they've catapulted
the Dallas Cowboys into a team that is a much
watched must watch TV in my opinion. What was your
thoughts about this game? Dallas taking down the Kansas City
(35:03):
Chiefs thirty one to twenty eight.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
It was a huge win for Dallas and it was
a devastating loss for the Kansas City Chiefs because, and
going back to Michael Parsons, he played fantastic against the
Detroit Liance too. No question of the three sacks. Let's
let's not act like he's not going out there and
having a great, great season. I think he's the first
player in NFL history to have his twelve and a
(35:25):
half sacks in each of his first five season. I
think the Green Bay Packers are perfectly fine with how
that went for them. On the other side, I don't
know if I'm willing to say Jerry think Jerry's right.
I mean, they pick up Jadeveon Clowney off the streets.
He gets two and a half two sacks in that game.
But Quinn William and Kenny Clark they're gonna be impact players.
(35:47):
They're gonna they're gonna be forceful in the run game.
Quinn's been impactful in the past game putting pressure in
the interior, and they haven't had that in a while.
But again, these other guys are starting to develop and
they're starting to become the guy that they expected. And
maybe they maybe they knew that. Maybe they knew they
had these guys in the fold, they knew what they
would become. They saw flashes during training camp or something. Sure,
(36:10):
I'll accept that. Also, the Kansas City Chiefs are not
what the Kansas City Chiefs have been. Sure. Patrick Mahomes
had four touchdowns in his game. He had two hundred
and sixty one yards passing twenty three or thirty four.
He's getting it done, but it didn't look like the
way you expected to look for Ceedee Lamb to go
seven for one to twelve against the Spags defense. It's different.
(36:35):
Dark Prescott is playing at as at as high of
a level as he's played. I'm sure he's had He's
had a couple games where he struggled this season, but
in the biggest games he's played really well. And he
played well this game, throwing for three twenty two touchdowns.
He did have the one interception Javonte Williams continues, I think,
I think Shot he's doing a great job of scheming
(36:57):
up this run game in a real way. He's scheming
up this run game. You see, there's gaping holes and
he's finding himself in the second and third level the
defense pretty consistently, and he's doing a great job with that.
But the Kansas City Chiefs got some some some real
self evaluating the dude. Obviously, you knew eventually it had
to come to an end. Going to the Super Bowl
(37:19):
five of the last six years. Eventually there's gonna be
a down year. So does this mean, ah, Man, finally
the Chiefs it's over it. I don't know. I don't
know if it's over. You know, I know that it's
very exhausting to go to Super Bowl five of the
last six years. I know that's exhausting. Every off season
is a short one for them. They're They're off season
(37:40):
doesn't start till February, till til March. You know, after February,
some guys are booking. Some guys already have that vacations
booked right now. They know, Hey, January fourteenth, we're gonna
be in Cabo. Are we gonna be in Cancun. Are
we gonna be in Tahiti? You know with a martini?
You know what I mean? You're gonna be in Hawaii
with the tie. But not the Kansas City Chiefs Kansa
(38:03):
Chiefs have not been able to book vacation plans in
January for some time. This might be a year. Wouldn't
that be a shock.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
The one blessing that they do have is the AFC,
unlike the NFC, is a little bit more open. I
think that Kansas City Chiefs can put together a run
here and still get in with six to seven losses
on the scout on the scoreboard. But there is a
cause for concern, no question. This does not look like
the same Chiefs team. It took him a while to
(38:32):
get their offense rolling until they got Rashi Rice back.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
You thought that that.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
Was the bump that they needed to get him over
the finish line here. But I don't know, Richard. This
last loss on Thanksgiving and then they go and play
the Texans, who I don't think anyone wants to play
right now, Richard. That defense, we already talked about it,
but that defense has just turned into an absolute force,
and they brought it to Indianapolis today, But we'll see
(38:57):
how things shake out for the Kansas City Chiefs. Let's
turn our focus here a bit to the NFC South.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers fended off the Arizona Cardinals twenty
to seventeen. Baker Mayfield was questionable heading to this game
with a shoulder injury. He comes out throw us from
almost two hundred yards and a touchdown, Richard, your thoughts
on this Buccaneers team. They needed to win desperately, they've
(39:20):
been struggling of late. They improved the seven and five
leaders in this division with the Carolina Panthers nipping at
their heels.
Speaker 1 (39:27):
Your thoughts on this game, Well, they did enough to
win the game. You know, the Arizona Cardinals have not
been great this season. They've struggled mightily, so to even
see this game as close as it was, but you
got to give the Tampa Bay Buccaneers credit. Traveling across
the country playing Arizona Cardinals again to Gooby Brissett continues
to show why he could possibly be a starter, Why
(39:48):
they made the decision to you know, Kyler Murray got hurt.
But Kyler Murray, they said, hey, Kyler Golic just we
wouldn't mind take your time. Yeah, go on our A
call of duty's out, the new call of dude, Call
of duty Block Ops seven out. Make your time. Maybe
explore baseball. I don't know, you can do whatever you like,
(40:10):
but we're gonna We're gonna go with Jakobe right now.
And you can see why. Twenty nine forty three oh
one a touchdown the interception. Sure, he's had some struggles
of the game, but that's NFL quality caliber, NFL caliber
quarterback play, and Baker Mayfield did enough to win this game.
He was eighteen to twenty eight and one ninety four touchdown.
Bucky Irvins seventeen carries for sixty one yards in the touchdown,
(40:32):
Chris Godwin finally got getting back into the fold and
getting involved. The defense got two sacks in the interception.
So sure, sure, Dampa Bay Buccaneers are finding a way
to win against Arizona Cardinals. I'm not sure that's a
quality win that makes you feel great, But you're an
NFC South and at the end of the day, they've
won the NFC South four straight years and looking for
(40:53):
a fifth straight year. They got this. A lot of
NFC South games coming up. They got the Saints Falcons Panthers,
and then they got the Dolphins, who've been playing better
as of late, and then the Panthers again. So this
this division will be determined down the stretch as it
usually is. Can the Carolina Panthers beat the Tampa Bay
(41:15):
Buccaneers in one of those two games when they played
in two of the last three weeks the final they
play him twice in the final three games, I believe, right,
and then the car the Cardinals have the Rams, and
I would expect the Rams to win that game, but
as we found out in this league, you can't expect anything.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
I would expect the Rams to win that game as well,
but who knows?
Speaker 1 (41:39):
Who knows.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
Let's talk more in depth about this Houston Texans team.
We've alluded to them all podcasts, and they just knocked
off the Indianapolis Colts, who now fall to eight and four.
They were once number one in your power ranks, weren't they, Richard?
Speaker 1 (41:53):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (41:54):
And now they have fallen in The Texans now seven
and five and out far behind this division. Let's be
real here, it's the Jags, it's the Texans. It's called
it's a tight battle here. What do you credit this
most to this turnaround, because it seemed like this was
gonna be a lost season based on the start.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
I credited to just stability. Accredited to stability, and sometimes
you just have a rough start to the season. And
I think Demiko Ryan's giving up, uh, defensive play calling
duties and and just Folk going to the offensive side
and trying to figure out what's going on, what's what's
what's holding us back? Obviously they they lost a big
time tackle on Jeremie Tounzul and you know, you gotta
(42:38):
they're doing a little bit of of of you know,
uh around shuffling, shuffling on the offensive line. What he
marks has has developed into their lead back. They started
the year thinking Nick Chubb will be the lead back,
and he's still getting his carries, but sometimes he takes
(43:00):
a second. And then Nico Collins is getting starting to,
you know, play like he's capable of playing. C J.
Stroud was struggling early on, and I think he was
struggling to see it and and offensive coordinator getting on
the same page. And I think he's gotten more of
a voice and and and Demiko has done a great
job of just making sure he has conversations with offensive coordinator.
(43:20):
He feels comfortable saying, hey, this is what I like
to do, and you see it's it's starting to manifest itself.
But I think the other side of the ball is
why they've really been in it. They've been dominant. They've
been really dominant in each every phase of the game.
I think they're number one and number two against the
pass and number one and number two against the run
uh in the league, you know, And that's where they've
been succeeding. They got an incredible secondary, they got an
(43:43):
incredible uh D line, and they got my my guy
Z's al sha here in the middle of that defense
commanding it. And so it's one of the best defensive
talent wise in the National Football League. I remember we
had them a couple of weeks ago and and they
they just dominated. I mean it was it was Will Anderson,
(44:06):
it was Kaylin Bullocks, uh it was it was Danil Hunter,
it was just it was Kamari Lassiter, it was everybody
and it And then you you say all those names
and you don't say Derek stingly because nobody's messing with
Derek Stingley out there. They tried to it was an
incomplete almostly almost a big play, but incomplete. But they
(44:28):
they're starting to believe that they can be a special
team starting the season. Oh and three, there aren't many
teams that make the playoffs. But nobody, like you said,
nobody wants to play the Texans right now. And they're
going to play the struggling Kansas City Chiefs in their
next game. And I and again, Mahomes has been hit,
he's been sacked and in these games. And they just
(44:49):
lost their their I believe they lost their their tackle
last week. And so they're gonna have to play Jalen
Moore coming up, and and Hylan Moore's fine backup tackle,
swing tackle in this league. But you're going against Daniel
Hunter and Will Anderson. That's a long day for anybody. Well,
you mentioned Derek Stanley Junior.
Speaker 2 (45:09):
This is he did not allow a single reception today
on twenty eight coverage snaps. This is a fifth game
the season that he has allowed less than ten yards
in coverage. Richard, those are stats that used to throw
up next to your name when you were playing my man.
This just goes to show you how good he is
and how good of a cornerback he has developed to
be in this league. On the other side, the Colts,
(45:31):
who once were the hottest team in the NFL, have
cooled off dramatically. We find out that Indiana Jones, Daniel
Jones has been playing with a fractured fibula. You know,
that's a big deal. I mean, it's obviously gonna catch
up to you at some point. It looks like it
might have. I know, they were going up against the
top tier defense, but this is the first time they've
been held under twenty points all season. How much concern
(45:53):
is there for you in Indianapolis?
Speaker 1 (45:57):
A lot of concern. I don't know how serious. You know,
when when you say a fractured fibula, it just sounds
so severe, But you know there are stress, fracture, stress reaction.
There's different levels of things. But obviously Daniel Jones is
an incredibly tough player. But do you see how how
how much an NFL season in a team's future, in
(46:20):
a team's uh destiny can be on the edge of
a knife, because if they lose Daniel Jones and and
you know, they'll go back to Anthony Richardson and then
people have a lot different feeling about the Indianapolis Colts.
You don't feel great about it. You don't feel great
about them winning this division at all, even with the
lead they have. And so Daniel Jones feels like he
(46:44):
has to, like he's playing for a contract in his career,
et cetera, et cetera. But if you're playing already with
a stress fracture, there usually means you're It usually means
you're compensating in some other way, you know, whether it's
your hips, your your glutes, your et cetera. And that's
when you start to see strain muscles and pull muscles
and knock on wood. You don't want to see that
(47:06):
for Daniel Jones, but that's the fear when you start
to have an injury like that and you know that
you have to compensate. Thank you, thank thankfully, this offensive
line kept him relatively clean this game. I mean, he
only got sacked once, so you you hope that can
continue in that he's not getting sacked a ton, he's
not getting hit a ton. But it's something to watch
(47:28):
because if he goes down for even a couple games,
this season can fall apart, no question about it.
Speaker 2 (47:35):
Next up, they got the Jags, who you know took
care of business against the lowly Titans this week, but
nonetheless another divisional game against a team that's got a
very good record as well, that is firmly in the
necks for this division. The Bills just knocked off the
Pittsburgh Steelers, who have been reeling. They fall to six
and six. The Buffalo Bills go on the road, get
(47:57):
a convincing win. Josh Allen, with a nice rushing touchdown,
got shoved in by his entire old line. You know,
whether it was an issue today, we didn't see a
ton of a ton of in the air. We saw
a ton of James Cook though thirty two carries for
one hundred and forty four yards. Richard, Is it safe
to say the Pittsburgh Steelers are done this season?
Speaker 1 (48:19):
Is it safe to say they're done? No, because of
what you said earlier. You know, the AFC isn't like
the NFC right now, So there's a lot of chaos.
There's a lot a lot of things that are left
to are gonna have to happen for them to get
put out. But yeah, you don't. You don't see a
lot of hope right now because their their defense has
been inconsistent. They've had games where they've played like at
(48:40):
a really high level. There's been games where you you
question all the decisions they made this offseason. So with
Aaron Rodgers potentially being out for for the foreseeable future,
who knows, who knows? Because the offense was stagnant even
with him in the vote, the offense was stagnant. So
without him, you you you you go to Cayl Rudolph
(49:03):
and you know he's just not at the same level
and he doesn't get the same respect, and it's maybe
the end of the row fair because he you know,
father time catches up to everybody. It's undefeated, and these
injuries are injuries you expect for a guy over forty
years old in the National Football League. You know, he's
getting banged up. This offensive line isn't the best in
(49:24):
the National Football League. So the the Buffalo Bills did
what they needed to do to win. Josh Allen did
what he needed to do to win this game. But
I think the Bills are are are skating o thin ice.
I don't feel great about any team in the AFC
right now. Again, we thought the Colts were the class
at AFC. They've lost a few games since then. The
(49:46):
only team that's really been dominant and and feels like
they can make a case clearly the best team is
the New England Patriots, and nobody would have said that
before the season started.
Speaker 2 (49:56):
It's a wild proclamation, but it's certainly looking like it
might be true. You also forgot about the Denver Broncos,
who have only got two losses, but we shall see
they've been flirting with losses all season long, Richard. Before
we wrap up this game, Josh Allen's touchdown was rushing touchdown,
with the seventy sixth of his career. That's the most
(50:17):
of any QB in NFL history. He has certainly made
his mark on this league with his style of play.
Next up for the Bills, they play the Bengals, who
now have Joe Burrow at the helm, and then the
Patriots and the follow by the Browns. The Steelers next
week have the Ravens. Speaking of those Bengals in Joe Burrow,
who saw this one coming. Thanksgiving Day for Baltimore fans
(50:41):
was not fun.
Speaker 1 (50:41):
I can imagine.
Speaker 2 (50:43):
Thirty two to fourteen final. Joe Burrow came in a
interviewed the pre game basically said, hey, you guys are
all but a mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. Why'd you
come back? And he just said, I signed a big contract,
I'm here to win. And that's what they did. They
took it to the Baltimore ra And kudos to Joe
Burrow for coming back playing through pain. What did you
(51:03):
think of what you saw from Joe Burrow and the
Bengals on Thursday.
Speaker 1 (51:07):
Well, you saw some rust early, but eventually he knocked
it off and he looked like that Joe Burrow. He's
still not the Joe Burrow Vold because there's still some
pain in that toe out I could imagine. But the
rapport between him and Jamar Chase is still there. You know,
they're able to score points. There are thirty two points,
(51:27):
but they were scoring points with Joe Flakau. The concerning
part of this game was the Ravens and Lamar Jackson
and how he struggled. The Bengals defense has been abysmal
all season long. They've been awful. They've been a door
mat They've been a revolving door of touchdowns, field goals
and points. Every time you look up that the Bengals
have scored a lot of points, but the other team
(51:48):
has scored a little more and for them to hold
the Baltimore Ravens, who were before the season started considered
a Super Bowl contender with an MVP candidate at quarterback,
Derrick Henry at running back and you felt really good
about him to being beat by the four and eight Bengals,
especially when you're in desperation mode. You're in desperation mode.
(52:11):
You could potentially make these playoffs, you could potentially win
this division now with the with the Pittsburgh Steelers struggling,
the Browns out of it, the Bengals out of it,
Like now's your chance to make a moved move and
you lose by eighteen points to the to the Cincinnati Bengals.
That's that's concern. That's when the concern level goes up.
(52:31):
You wonder what's going on with Lamar Jackson. He had
three turnovers in this game and that's what really cost
this team the game. Like what what is what is
going on? Because this I don't know if this is
Russ because he's been playing for a couple of weeks.
Is it is it just you know, him taking a
step back. Is it just you know, maybe it's something
going on at home. I don't know what it is,
but we've rarely seen Lamar Jackson play this way. Hopefully
(52:54):
he's able to bounce back again next week against the
Pittsburgh Steelers, a game that that could def decide who's
at the top of this division. The Bengals have a
game against the Bulls and we'll see if they want
to play defense for another week. And again, we don't
know what's going on in this league. I'm not gonna
be one trying to predict it this year.
Speaker 2 (53:14):
Well, the Bengals still are not mathematically eliminated in this division,
so crazy things could happen. Joe Burrow, they run the table.
Who knows, maybe it is their division. We shall see.
Speaker 1 (53:27):
All odds and lines come from our partners at hard
Rock Bet. We've got the Giants at the Patriots on
Monday Night Football tomorrow. Hard Rock Bet has the Patriots
as a seven point spread in this game. I think
that's about right. You know, you never know if Jackson
Dart's coming back with a little bit of rust, how
(53:48):
he's gonna be able to maneuver in this offense. The
Patriots have a rock solid plan. You know they're gonna
be prepared to play you know Mike Rapel is gonna
have those boys raring to go. They're feeling good, they're confident,
they're at home. They they're hard to beat and Gillette
and so I feel like this seven point spread is
the perfect number for this team. I feel like they're
(54:09):
gonna cover.
Speaker 2 (54:10):
You know, Richard, I think they're gonna win. I don't
think they're gonna cover, though, I've seen enough from Jackson
Dart to become a huge believer in him. I would
love for him to be my franchise quarterback. New York
Giants fans have got to be thrilled. I think with
him at the helmet's gonna be a high scoring affair.
We'll see if their defense can keep them in it,
because I know the Pats are gonna be putting up
(54:32):
points too. But I have the Pats covering. I'm sorry
the Pats winning, but the Giants covering that spread. I
also have got three players who I think are gonna
be anytime touchdown scores. Stefan Diggs who's been hot lately,
Romandre Stevenson fresh fresh legs coming back from injury last week,
and then finally Jackson Dart.
Speaker 1 (54:53):
Those are my picks I love it Richard.
Speaker 2 (54:57):
It's always a pleasure sitting down with you here every
and this concludes our podcast for week thirteen.
Speaker 1 (55:04):
I will let you sign us off, my friend. The
season's been flying by, and you guys have been sticking
with us the whole time. We appreciate you as always.
You could be anywhere in the world, but you hear
with us and we surely do appreciate it all. Love.
Hit that sub button if you wan
Hey, everybody, I appreciate you joining us as always. You
guys are phenomenal. You're the best in the world. You're
watching the Richard Sherman Podcast. But if you could do
me a huge favor and hit that sub button, it
would be greatly appreciated. You would do a service for
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your back, You got my back, all love. Welcome to
(00:27):
Richard Sherman Podcast. In What a week the forty nine
Ers win, the Seattle Seahawks win. It couldn't go much
better in an upset for the Rams. What a game
for the Seattle Seahawks ate. They dominated this game from
start to finish. Obviously a little bit more of a
shaky game for Sam Donald, and we knew it would be.
We knew Brian Floranes would do his best to bring pressure,
(00:49):
and he did that early and often. Mitchell, he did
a good job of making sure Sam Donald was uncomfortable
in the pocket he met. He did a good job
of making sure his guys got there and got hits
on the quarterback. They forced the number of turnovers, forced fumbles,
big time hits on him in the pocket. Was he
was a little little shaky, and again that ups to
(01:10):
concern level for the Seattle Seahawks and I'm sure the
fan base because again that these are the these are
the issues that showed up before. These are the issues
that that plagued him in Minnesota last year, and the
issues that continue to plague him now. It's it's not
gonna change unless he changes the narrative. Obviously, the offensive
line made a fair share of mistakes. There was one
(01:30):
play where where the tight end didn't block a defensive
end and he came in scott free. But again, none
of that helped Sam Donald. What did help Sam Donald
was this incredible Seattle Seahawks defense. They forced four interceptions
in the game, another forced fumble, They got a pick
six by Ernest Jones and I think was eighty five
(01:52):
yards on an incredible play by DeMarcus Lawrence to put
pressure on the quarterback on the fourth down play, another
interception for Kobe Bryant, Tarik wooland got it. Everybody got involved.
Everybody got an interception in this game, and they were
playing at an elite level. And then on the defensive line,
it was the guy, the big fellow up front who
(02:13):
got the party started. Leonard Williams gets a sack early
in this game that sets the tone. Then you look
up and DeMarcus Lawrence gets him won and Byron Murphy
gets him one, and everybody was getting in on the party.
And you gotta be able to appreciate the consistency and
playmaking from this defense that allows this offense. Even when
(02:35):
they're in the game and they're struggling and Flores is
getting to Sam Darnold and they're only able to manage
two field goals in the game, they're still able to
control this game and dominate it and win it in
dominant fashion. They started to get the run game going
a little bit in this game. I really appreciated that
Kenneth Walker thirteen for fifty six. It didn't seem like
(02:57):
a lot, but it looked like a lot in the game.
And there was a play where Harrison Smith got him.
It was just a shoe string tackle or he would
have been gone and that would have been a huge
explosive play. But it just looked like the run game
was starting to get going. And this is a really
stingy defense, a really really opportunistic defense that played really well.
(03:17):
So you gotta appreciate how they played. Ernest Jones got
another interception in the game. Charvionnade fourteen carries for fifty
two yards in the touchdown. This is the kind of
game the Seattle Seahawks needed to just continue to reinforce
the notion that they may be the best team in NFC.
And I know they lost to the Rams, but again,
I still feel like the Rams are a flaw team.
(03:39):
And I know everybody has all these stats to support
them being an elite team, but to lose to the
San Francisco forty nine ers at home with the with
the backup quarterback and a bunch of cast all set receiver,
it just it just gave. It gives me. Paul's in
naming them the best best team, but their record said
you gotta name the best team. So they've been number
(03:59):
one of the pie rinkins. But they're lost today to
the Carolina Panthers. Really shakes everything up somehow. The Chicago
Bears are number one in the NFC right now in
the playoff picture. I mean, anybody who said they knew
that going into the season, including Chicago Bears fans, is
lying to your face, Mitchell.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
There's no question about that. But in regards to Seattle Man, Yeah,
you said it. This was not their best offensive game,
certainly not Sam Donald's best game. You know, you figure
he would come out, you know, aggressive, playing his former
team in the Minnesota Vikings that let him leave.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
He did not look the part today.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
But Seattle's defense did and they I gotta wonder what
Max Brosner is thinking about his first NFL debut here.
That's not what you want to, you know, turn in
on your first important performance.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
You could see the guys frustrated out there.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Kudos to Seattle's defense making life very tough for Justin
Jefferson and I don't even know how many others Justin
Jefferson had. It didn't seem like he had a plus
positive catch until like the fourth quarter. I know his
first catch was for like minus five yards. So every
time I was watching this game, it was either sack
or an interception.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
So big shout out to Seattle. Richard. I'm with you.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
I think there's certainly one of the top three teams
in this conference. I don't know if I throw them
up at number one. They got some work to do,
but we'll see. I mean down to stretch man. This
next couple of games is gonna be the money maker
for them. You know, they play the Falcons and then
they got some tough ones against the Colts and the Rams.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
So you want to see who's the best in the NFC.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
You knock off the Colts and Rams, and I think
a conversation is certainly to be had for them to
be the best in the NFC.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
No question, you knock off the Colts and Rams. Forget
the NFC. You're talking about a case for the best
team in the National Football League. Those are teams that
have have been in and out of the top five
in my power rankers all season long. They the Falcons
have been struggling mightily, so I feel like the Seattle
Seahawks can go in there and get a win there.
The Colts struggled a little bit today and that was
(05:54):
that was surprising. The Houston Texans. That defense continues to
make everybody struggle and they're finding ways to win. I
think they're now seven and two in their last eight games,
or maybe eight and two in their last ten, or
I mean steven in two in their last nine games,
or eight and two in their last ten, if I'm
not mistaken, I gotta go back and look again. But
they're playing great football. They start the season on three
(06:16):
and now they're finding themselves maybe in playoff contention. They
gotta win. They got to continue to win. I think
they might have to win out in order to make
that a reality. But there's some chaos in the National
Football League right now. And another team that hasn't hasn't
really really had success in Cleveland Metell. They have not
(06:37):
won in Cleveland since nineteen eighty four. The San Francisco
forty nine ers go to Cleveland and get a win
over Shador Sanders in the Cleveland Browns.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Hey, you know it's the Browns and no one's thinking
too highly of them. But the reality is they got
a game wrecker on the other side of the field
of Miles Garrett, who did get home once. But all
in all, the forty nine controlled this game. Rock Purty
one hundred and sixty eight yards a rushing touchdown. You
saw his little uh dougie dance that he did in
the Enzo You gotta love to see that man. But
(07:09):
Christian McCaffrey held in check twenty rushing attempts for fifty
three yards. Richard, Like, where are you at with the Niners.
They're nine to four. We talked about it a couple
of weeks ago. This stretch of the schedule is all
winnable games for them that they should be winning. Is
your confidence level risen with this team despite all the
injuries that they've endured this season?
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Yes, I mean because again, if you got Kyle Shanahan,
you've got a chance. And that's what I feel with
the San Francisco forty nine ers. Brock Perty is still
getting his legs under him. Obviously, there's still some injuries
concerned with the toe. There's still some pain there. He's
playing without the metal plate that a lot of guys
(07:50):
wear when they have that kind of turf toe injury,
so you got to keep an eye on that. But overall,
he's playing solid football. Again. It's a tough environment, a
really good deep defensive line that had him under the
rest all game long, and he found a way to
not take sacks that throw the ball away when necessary
to make the players that were there even scored on
a zone read today. That's a that's a wrinkle we
(08:12):
haven't seen from Kyle Shanahan and this offense in a
really long time. I'm not sure we've seen it since
Kaepernick from being honest, but the the special teams and
in that phase of the game is where the San
Francisco forty nine ers are a different team than they
were last year or even the year before. The special
(08:33):
teams are providing incredible value and they had a huge
hand in winning this game. Sky Moore is the best
return in the San Francisco forty nine ers have had
probably since Ted Ginn, I would imagine, and he's making
an impact on big games and helping playing winning football.
This one in your offense is struggling and they're struggling
to move the ball against the defense that's stingy and
(08:53):
aggressive as the as the Browns defense is with the
game record, Like Miles Garrett that we we just talked
to about, you need your special teams to make a
play and sky Moore did that with a sixty six
yard punt return where he sliced through the their special
teams unit and set the the San Francisco forty nine
(09:14):
ers offense up with their first touchdown of the game,
and I think that's really what got things going. And
on the other side, you just see this defense continuing
to mature. Three sacks in this game, two forced fumbles,
fumbles recovered in this game, and they're just playing more consistently,
more sound football, and you see the confidence growing. You
(09:35):
hear how George Kittle talked about Alfred Collins and his
growth and his work ethic and just how hard he
was working in this game and the impact that he
was having and how proud he was of him. This
team is together, and it's gonna take a second for
a young defense to jail in this way for them
when you don't have the veterans, you don't have the guys,
you know, communicating the way veterans do. You don't have
(09:58):
them understanding the game the way the veterans do and
understanding the pace of the game and what should be
coming here and on third down and second down. Oh,
you should have a feel for this. You're falling. They're
they're susceptible to veteran moves. When you're a young guy,
you got to learn the game. And I think they're
starting to figure it out. And that's that's the cool
thing to see. Again, I said I said it before,
(10:20):
I'll say it again. I think this entire staff deserves
Coach of the Year. Robert Salo. What he's been able
to do, especially the last couple of weeks with this
with this defensive unit is incredible, incredible, And I know
Shador Sanders and this offense isn't isn't the world beating,
but they are NFL offense. And he's been able to
manufacture really good success against the Carolina Panthers, who just
(10:44):
put up thirty one against the number one defense in
the land in LA against the La Rams. But they
couldn't they couldn't put manufacturer that kind of points against
the Sea against the San Francisco forty nine ers, even
with all the t and over, the three brought party
interceptions before the half and they weren't able to turn
those into points. But they were able to manufacture thirty
(11:07):
one points against the La Rams. And so it's not
like he's doing it against offenses that aren't having success
everywhere else. Obviously, this is offense that that's been struggling
mightily throughout the season. But you got to tip your
hat off to Robert Sala and the job that he's doing.
You gotta tip your hat off to Kyle Shanahan getting
these guys prepared, and and John Lance for finding a
(11:27):
way to bandiate this defense as best he can with
with Cleveland Farrell and and Kean White and guys. I
think Cleveland Ferrell had two sacks today. And when you
when you when you're last in the league in sacks,
you will take it from wherever you can get it,
no question about it. Richard.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
It wasn't too long ago that I think the forty
nine are faithful ready to punt on the season with
all these injuries mounting and mounting and mounting.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
And I know, you know, you.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Could even see it with you and in your in
your face and your voice. After that that last Fred
Warner injury, it just seemed like, man, maybe this is
just not the year. But to your point, this coaching
staff has put together and rallied the troops and has
got these guys at nine to four now. And Richard,
I mean, the reality is they're scheduled. The rest of
the way allows them to compete for this division. They
(12:14):
get to knock off some heavyweights and we'll see how
it nets out for him. They keep playing like this,
anything is possible. They enter the byeweight, they get healthy,
they go to the they go play against the Titans,
and then the Colts.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
So we'll see here, Richard.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
I like what I see with the Niners, especially defensively.
Rock Purty keep things rolling, Pete keep bitting, getting back
into his comfort zone, and the Niners.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Might be able to make some noise at the end
of the day.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Let's switch the focus of the other NFC West team,
though you already alluded to them, the La Rams. They
take on the Carolina Panthers that are all of a sudden,
a super hot team out of nowhere. I think everyone
had given up on Bryce Young as the quarterback for
this franchise, but clearly he looks like he belongs and
he puts up three touchdowns over two hundred passing yards
(12:58):
against this Rams team. And it really was Carolina's defense
that set the tone big interception. They picked off Matthew
Stafford twice in that first quarter.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
When all you heard about.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Was Matthew Stafford going thirty touchdowns and two interceptions on
the season, they made life very difficult for Matthew Stafford
to come out with a huge win, especially for the
NFC West. This is a huge win for the Niners
in Seattle. Seahawks, Richard, good thoughts on this game. I
know the NFL has displayed a next level amount of
parody this season.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
But did you see this one coming? No? No, I
did not see this coming before I even jumped down
that rabbit hole, because we got a lot to talk
about with that, because there's been a lot of speculation,
a lot of people, a lot of Rams fans and
to mentions like oh yeah, wordbust team, etc. Etc. Every
team's the best team for a little while in this
league this year. But I want to talk about the
weather conditions in Cleveland because that was a big factor
(13:50):
in this game. But you talked that, We talked about
the special teams. There was a muffed punt in this
game that led to a touchdown because the pup returner
dropped the ball and it was swirling, it was rain,
it was everything. And those are the games the San
Francisco forty nine ers usually struggle with. Those are games
that you look up and ah, man, the worst thing
that could have happened in the game, Christian McCaffrey fumbles
(14:12):
the ball or brought purty. It just it slips out
of his hand. With that, That's what happened the last
time they played in Cleveland, and the record Schwartz has
against Kyle Shanahan is incredible. I think this is only
Kyle's second win against Swartz overall period as a coach,
and so this is a big time win. And I
know that San Francisco forty nine Ers fans were nervous
(14:33):
in his game and they gotta feel good. But going
to the Rams, going to the La Rams, the world
beaters Mitchell with the MVP of this season at quarterback,
Matthew Stafford thirty I mean thirty touchdowns and only two
interceptions on the season coming into this game, and he struggled,
and he struggled. He threw as many interceptions in his
(14:53):
game as he had all season long, even including a
pick six to Michael Jackson. Not the Michael Jackson y'all
thinking of, but the Michael Jackson and Carolina who's been
as hot as Fish Grease over the last couple of weeks.
He had an interception against the San Francisco forty nine Ers,
he had a pick sick this week. He's making himself
some money, no question about it. Seems like he's found
his rhythm. But this is an opportunistic defense for the
(15:17):
Carolina Panthers and Matthew Stafford. You know he had his moments,
but he had three turnovers in the game, and that
was the difference in the game, his last turnover being
a fumble that Carolina recovered and never gave the ball
back to him. I think you got to give a
lot of credit to David Kanalis and this staff Egiro Evere,
what he's been able to do with this defense and
(15:40):
how they continue to just press the envelope because a
lot of people, including myself, kind of left Carolina for dead,
you know, after the Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold years,
and then you draft Bryce and he struggles, and then
you five his staff You're like, Okay, Carolina, they will
see if they ever figured it out. They draft tetch
(16:01):
Roll McMillan, and you're like, okay, maybe they got some
building blocks. But I don't think anybody saw this coming.
They're seven and six right now, just beat the number
one team in my power rankings, a team with a
number one defense, a team with Matthew Stafford playing the
best ball of his career at thirty seven years old.
(16:22):
And I can't really explain it. I can't explain it out.
This keeps happening in Mitchell. Bryce Young was efficient fifteen
to twenty for two oh six and three touchdowns. Like
you said, but Chubba Hubbard looked like his old self
in this game, had a receiving touchdown, seventeen carries thirty
three yards, and then ric O'dowdell. Ricodoudle has been a
(16:42):
godsend for this team. He's been incredibly consistent all season long,
and they've been splitting carries between him and Chubba Hubbard
all season long. But this has been phenomenal. This has
been phenomenal. And if you look at the Saints schedule,
I mean the Panthers schedule, they have a winnable game
coming up against the New Orleans Saints in the NFC South,
(17:03):
and they win that and and you're you're gonna be
scratching your head because they're gonna be in the playoff conversation.
That's everybody's in the playoff conversation right now. I don't
think I've seen a year where the NFC is so tough,
like nine and four in San Francisco's barely in. You
used to be nine and four, ten and four, and
you like you're you're thinking about resting your starters at
(17:24):
the end of the season, not this year, not this year.
Everybody's got got eight eight at least eight wins, nine wins,
ten wins. So it's gonna be an incredible finish. Somebody's
gonna get left out of this playoffs that probably deserves
to be there. Uh And and I just don't know
how we're gonna call it, because when you see games
like this, you realize everybody can beat everybody, and every
(17:47):
week in the NFL it's its own unique week, it's
its own unique battle. You you almost gotta throw everything out,
throw all the stats and records out for a week
outside of a few teams, and then you just to
watch the game. Because if you would have told me
coming into this game that the Carolina Panthers would beat
the LA Rams and put up thirty one, I would
(18:10):
all laught you out out the build, Mitchell, no question
about that. I'm with you.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
I thought it was a layup for the Rams going
on the road, But I mean, Carolina Atlanta is a
tough place to play and they've got a lot to
play for. You mentioned that they played Saints next week,
but then they got two games against the Buccaneers down
the stretcher and they played the Seattle Seahawks. So a
team that is desperate and hungry for a win, no
one's gonna want to see him down the stretch. They
really do control their own destiny here, Richard. It's wild
(18:36):
to see. But like you said, there's going to be
an eleven and six team that misses a playoff this year,
which is wild. But to your point's there's a lot
of parody, a lot of teams that are winning a
lot of games that no team that is sixteen and
one or fifteen and two like we saw last year.
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Speaker 2 (20:42):
We shall see and we saw another great game on
Black Friday. You were in Philadelphia with the TNF crew,
Richard on a Friday afternoon in Philly. Philly comes away
a loser against the Chicago Bearers, who all of a
sudden find theirself at the one set of the NFC
nine to three overall. Ben Johnson is proving to be
(21:04):
an absolute massive higher for the Chicago Bears team. If
you looked at their schedule up to this game, you'd
understand why they were eight and three. Not to discount
the eight and three record, because there takes a lot
of work around the way, but there wasn't a tough
opponent that you saw that stood out in the schedule.
This was the game that I thought would set the
true bar for the Bears, and holy cow, did they
(21:26):
pass this test. With flying colors. Kyle Manungai, the sixth
round picker, seventh round pick out of Rutgers, has just
exploded on the scene and him couple with DeAndre Swift,
both rushing for over one hundred and twenty rush yards. Richard,
you saw it first hands. How good is this Chicago
Bears team?
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Well, let me, let me let me go down and
really really really just kill back the layers. The Eagles
got bullied in this game, they got bullied the their
defensive line, their linebackers. The Chicago made a huge emphasis
on the offensive line this offseason. They drafted, they paid,
(22:07):
and they traded for offensive line. They got Joe Tooney,
they got Dolmond. They were making they were gonna make
sure that Hey, they gave Caleb Williams the best possible
chance with with time in a beautiful pocket. But this
game wasn't about Caleb Williams. It was about the guys
DeAndre Swift and Kalman Nung guy and it just they
(22:30):
weren't being touched. At times. They were running through gaping holes.
You look and you see guys getting moved three techniques
and noses getting moved three four yards. That way. We
see d ns. We saw Jalen Phillips one time. I
thought he was in the stands Mitchell I looked up.
I said, dang is he did he buy a ticket
to the game. They were moving them. They were moving them, Mitchell.
(22:51):
They were moving the Philadelphia Eagles. And it did not
look like a game where there was a non playoff
team playing against the reigning defending champs. It didn't look
that way. It looked almost opposite they the Philadelphia Eagles
look disjointed on offense. And you wonder after this game,
(23:13):
you didn't hear anything about aj Brown complaining or or
or or saying, hey, I didn't get the ball enough
or anything like that, because he got thirteen thirteen targets,
had one hundred and something yards. They did well, but
they lost. And when you lose and you're productive, does
that feel better? Does that make you, you know, you
(23:35):
feel good? No, He's a competitor, so he wants to win.
So where do you go from here? I think I
think they have to take play calling duties away from
Kevin Petullo. It's too big of a job for him.
He does not get it. He cannot design a run
game that's suitable for Saquon to have success. And I'm
not going to put it on Saquan. I'm sorry. I
(23:59):
we watched last year. Obviously, this isn't the same offensive line.
They've been a little banged up. Lane Johnson's banged up
right now. They said he may come back, but the
injury that he has, Liz Frank is not injury you
come back from very often. But he says he's coming back.
I'm gonna trust in lane and what he believed. They
didn't put him on I R. They don't have Makai
(24:21):
Beckden anymore. He went off to the Chargers to get
his money. Respect that I think it's the Chargers. Yeah, yes,
but he makes a huge difference. But schematically, they're just
too simple. They're too simple and at times they don't
have answers. When when you got plays where you see
(24:42):
Quinn Williams in the three technique and you're running counter
and you're like, hey, we probably don't want to run
this play with him in the three technique. You probably
should should should can can or audible out of it,
but you can't because that's not in there. That's not
in there. You can't kill can can, You can't kill
the play and then go somewhere else. And I think
that's the issue this year. They're running into they're running
(25:04):
into situations where they're outmanned and they don't have enough
guys to block the team that they're trying the way
they're trying to run. Sometimes they have three blockers and
there's four defenders there and you look at that play
and you're like, how do you expect Sakuan to have
a chance right here? You don't even have enough blockers
to give him a chance. You're saying he has to
break a tackle here just to have success. And when
you see that consistently, consistently, it it leaves you to say, Okay,
(25:29):
say Quan may have his issues, maybe he lost his step,
whatever you feel, but there's something wrong with this scheme
and they got to get that corrected. And Sirianni is
an offensive mine. He's an offensive coach. I know he
has say so in these meetings. Maybe he needs to
take control again of this offense so that it can
it can function like he knows is capable of. We
(25:51):
know Jalen Hurts can play the quarterback position at a
high level at times. We know that he's at multiple
Super Bowls where he threw for over three hundred yards.
Let him go. Stop stop feeling like you just have
to play this RBO game all game long in its
most predictable nature. Hey, AJ Brown's on the left, it's
a go route. Like if everybody else can tell, hey,
(26:14):
when he's at this split, when it's here, when he's here,
when it's here, if everybody else casually watching the game
can say, hey, we probably know the route or the
play coming here. That's not a good play. But that's
not a good offense. And no matter how good your
players are, they're not going to be able to have
success playing that way. Their defenses, that's their only job
(26:35):
is to study this to the point that they understand
it as well as the team they're playing, so that
they can stop it. And that's what teams are doing.
I don't feel like the Philadelphia Eagles are a great
team right now. You know, they're great that they're a
great collection of players, but they're not a great team,
There's no question about it.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
Richard. To compare it to a boxing match. They've been
winning by decision, you know, all season long. They really
have knocked out any of their opponents, and they were
living on that edge, and they finally got caught with
a haymaker and that was the Chicago Bears that just
put him out. They keep playing like this. I don't
see how they defend their title in this playoffs. I mean,
they're scheduled down the stretch is not all that tough.
(27:16):
I don't think they're gonna have a problem coming out
with the division in their hands, you know. But they
they do play the Chargers, they do play the Raiders,
Commanders and Bills, and then the Commanders again. So you know,
if they don't show up against the Chargers and they
fall flat against the Bills, you better watch out for
these Dallas cowboys, man, because they're as red hot as
(27:37):
it gets. And I know they come to Detroit on Thursday.
I know you're gonna be there, but Philly better turn
it on quick otherwise maybe maybe this division will be
up for grabs.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
And what's what's remarkable about that? And we're gonna dive
down a rabbit hole that may not ever come to fruition.
But they can miss the playoffs, like it doesn't take
a ton. It doesn't take a ton for you to
miss the playoffs right now, Like two losses, you find
two losses somewhere in there, all of a sudden, if
you're not the division winner, it's not no guarantees that
(28:12):
you're in this playoff. And that's how tough the NFC
is right now. It's And so I don't think that
the Eagles missed the playoffs, but it's a lot closer
than you want to would think. I'm right there with you.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
And then in terms of in terms of the Bears,
you know, their schedule gets a lot tougher down these
last five games of the season. They're at the Packers,
They're at home against the Browns, They're at home against
the against the Packers, then on the road against the Niners,
and then they host the Lions to finish the season.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Off.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
There's four games that really stand out to me here.
I know they took it to the Eagles, but if
they want this one seed, they got to take care
of business against their division foes. Now the Packers are looming,
and they're looming large. They took care of my Detroit
Lions on Thanksgiving, Richard, and we'll talk about that game next.
Because I was there and I was devastated. I thought
(29:03):
this Detroit Lions team would at some point wake up,
much like this Philadelphia Eagles team. You see the Lions,
you know, survive an absolute scare at home against the
New York Giants, and you say, Okay, maybe that's the
wake up call they need. They didn't take the loss.
They were able to rally together and pull this one
off in dramatic fashion. But then you watch it. As
(29:23):
this game starts, the Packers jump out to a ten
to nothing lead like it's nothing. Detroit generates no pressure
on on Jordan Love all the game. He throws for
four touchdowns to you know, a bunch of wide receiver
twos Wix is a huge game, Christian Watson goes off.
You know, all this with the Lions having one of
(29:44):
the biggest struggles that they have is their interior offensive line. Richard,
I think they're out. Their offensive tackles are two of
the best in the league, but they're middle three of
that old line that's gotta be one of the worst,
if not the worst interior o Lions in the league.
And they've just been getting wrecked up the middle for
the last what four or five games ever since the
(30:06):
Vikings game.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
And I just don't know what is ever gonna change.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
To renew this faith that I have in the Detroit Lions, because,
like I just said, they got Dallas coming to town
on Thursday. They're gonna have to get this thing right immediately.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Well, I think that the thing that can give you
hope is Janison Williams is coming into his own. Jamiir
Gibbs continues to be incredibly explosive. I know, I know
that you were looking for uh rag now to come
in and and and give you oh yeah, that that.
(30:39):
But I'll tell you what, it's hard to come off
that couch picture. It's tough. It's tough coming off that couch.
You putty, come off that couch and you ain't ready
hamstring toll off the bone. That's tough. But I think
offensively they're fine. I think the defensive side of the
ball is whin. All the concern is some of it's
(31:04):
in that secondary. They were giving up a lot of
plays and Kelln Shephard. You can't just sit there and
play man all day. You can't like these are twos
or whatever, receiver twos. But still you can't just sit
there and play man to man all day long. It's lazy.
It's lazy defensive coordinating. And I'll keep saying that when
you just because all the onus is on the players
(31:28):
in that position, the heart you're putting all the onus. Hey,
you guys got a hard job, and I'm gonna make
you do a hard job all day. I'm not gonna
make my job hard and say, hey, I gotta figure
out when they're when they're on first down, in first
down situations, when they're in nickel, I mean when they're
in uh eleven personnel. What I need to call to
put you in the best position? Is it three? Is
(31:50):
that gonna be tough on them? Is it two? Do
I bring pressure with side? Do I bring pressure? How
do I manipulate the offensive line? Et cetera, et cetera.
You just say, hey, play man, and then when it
doesn't go, you say they didn't cover them well enough,
Like that's lazy. You got to you gotta be more
creative defensively. That's what I hate that, I really it's
it's it drives me crazy because it takes more. It
(32:13):
takes more football IQ to game plan without saying, hey,
I'm just gonna leave you guys in man all day,
because all the fans are gonna say, is ug beach
keep getting beat man? We sucked. It's like, no, it's not.
It's not that simple. They're not. They're being tasked with
a hard job. It's hard to guard receivers one on
one in the National Football League period. It's dang short
(32:34):
hard to guard them every play. But again, they gotta
they gotta figure out that balance. And and maybe these
guys aren't great at zone. Maybe that's that's the reason
they're doing it. Maybe it's more to it than than
I'm giving credit. But I think the lack of pass
rush also is a concern. But you guys knew that
coming into the season, and they didn't address it. You know,
you didn't go get a Preston Smith again, you didn't.
(32:57):
You didn't call the guys and you haven't called them yet.
There's always pass rushers out there, Mitchell that those are
people that come off the couch. They're training year round
because they know it takes one injury and a pass
rusher can find himself on a Super Bowl team with
a ring on his finger. If you stay in shape
and you can get to that quarterback, you'll have a job,
(33:17):
especially after week week thirteen, fourteen fifteen, where it's not
gonna count against the camp in that way, I don't worry.
They'll pick you up. They'll pick you up. Then playoff
checks don't count the same. But I just don't know
if the Detroit Lions have enough defensively to survive the
way they need to. Especially this division continues to be
(33:41):
a gauntlet. It continues to be a gauntlet. Last year
it was Minnesota, you know, going crazy with fourteen wins.
This year, the Bears are surprising you and running away
with the division. You got to keep up, and in
order to keep up, it has to be the pass rush.
And unless they find that somewhere in a miraculous way,
(34:02):
I'll let you know how I go this weekend Detroit, Mitchell,
how It'll be there.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
You'll be there, I will I will be there, and
the Dallas Cowboys will be there as well. And we
saw another thriller on Thanksgiving. These Dallas Cowboys continue to shock.
I'm getting less surprised though as I'm watching them, Richard,
because I think they just might be that good. We
saw this pairing of George Pickens and Ceedee Lamb coming
(34:25):
into the season, and we said, how the heck is
that gonna work? It seems cool in theory, but I
don't know if this is going to pay off. And
then you see Michaeh Parsons getting dealt and then we
see Quinn Williams coming in at the deadline.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
Maybe, just maybe Jerry Jones knew what he was doing.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Maybe he thought this team needed a little bit of
an identity shake up, you know, some fresh faces in
the clubhouse, if you will. And my goodness, George Pickens
has had a heck of a year and they've catapulted
the Dallas Cowboys into a team that is a much
watched must watch TV in my opinion. What was your
thoughts about this game? Dallas taking down the Kansas City
(35:03):
Chiefs thirty one to twenty eight.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
It was a huge win for Dallas and it was
a devastating loss for the Kansas City Chiefs because, and
going back to Michael Parsons, he played fantastic against the
Detroit Liance too. No question of the three sacks. Let's
let's not act like he's not going out there and
having a great, great season. I think he's the first
player in NFL history to have his twelve and a
(35:25):
half sacks in each of his first five season. I
think the Green Bay Packers are perfectly fine with how
that went for them. On the other side, I don't
know if I'm willing to say Jerry think Jerry's right.
I mean, they pick up Jadeveon Clowney off the streets.
He gets two and a half two sacks in that game.
But Quinn William and Kenny Clark they're gonna be impact players.
(35:47):
They're gonna they're gonna be forceful in the run game.
Quinn's been impactful in the past game putting pressure in
the interior, and they haven't had that in a while.
But again, these other guys are starting to develop and
they're starting to become the guy that they expected. And
maybe they maybe they knew that. Maybe they knew they
had these guys in the fold, they knew what they
would become. They saw flashes during training camp or something. Sure,
(36:10):
I'll accept that. Also, the Kansas City Chiefs are not
what the Kansas City Chiefs have been. Sure. Patrick Mahomes
had four touchdowns in his game. He had two hundred
and sixty one yards passing twenty three or thirty four.
He's getting it done, but it didn't look like the
way you expected to look for Ceedee Lamb to go
seven for one to twelve against the Spags defense. It's different.
(36:35):
Dark Prescott is playing at as at as high of
a level as he's played. I'm sure he's had He's
had a couple games where he struggled this season, but
in the biggest games he's played really well. And he
played well this game, throwing for three twenty two touchdowns.
He did have the one interception Javonte Williams continues, I think,
I think Shot he's doing a great job of scheming
(36:57):
up this run game in a real way. He's scheming
up this run game. You see, there's gaping holes and
he's finding himself in the second and third level the
defense pretty consistently, and he's doing a great job with that.
But the Kansas City Chiefs got some some some real
self evaluating the dude. Obviously, you knew eventually it had
to come to an end. Going to the Super Bowl
(37:19):
five of the last six years. Eventually there's gonna be
a down year. So does this mean, ah, Man, finally
the Chiefs it's over it. I don't know. I don't
know if it's over. You know, I know that it's
very exhausting to go to Super Bowl five of the
last six years. I know that's exhausting. Every off season
is a short one for them. They're They're off season
(37:40):
doesn't start till February, till til March. You know, after February,
some guys are booking. Some guys already have that vacations
booked right now. They know, Hey, January fourteenth, we're gonna
be in Cabo. Are we gonna be in Cancun. Are
we gonna be in Tahiti? You know with a martini?
You know what I mean? You're gonna be in Hawaii
with the tie. But not the Kansas City Chiefs Kansa
(38:03):
Chiefs have not been able to book vacation plans in
January for some time. This might be a year. Wouldn't
that be a shock.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
The one blessing that they do have is the AFC,
unlike the NFC, is a little bit more open. I
think that Kansas City Chiefs can put together a run
here and still get in with six to seven losses
on the scout on the scoreboard. But there is a
cause for concern, no question. This does not look like
the same Chiefs team. It took him a while to
(38:32):
get their offense rolling until they got Rashi Rice back.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
You thought that that.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
Was the bump that they needed to get him over
the finish line here. But I don't know, Richard. This
last loss on Thanksgiving and then they go and play
the Texans, who I don't think anyone wants to play
right now, Richard. That defense, we already talked about it,
but that defense has just turned into an absolute force,
and they brought it to Indianapolis today, But we'll see
(38:57):
how things shake out for the Kansas City Chiefs. Let's
turn our focus here a bit to the NFC South.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers fended off the Arizona Cardinals twenty
to seventeen. Baker Mayfield was questionable heading to this game
with a shoulder injury. He comes out throw us from
almost two hundred yards and a touchdown, Richard, your thoughts
on this Buccaneers team. They needed to win desperately, they've
(39:20):
been struggling of late. They improved the seven and five
leaders in this division with the Carolina Panthers nipping at
their heels.
Speaker 1 (39:27):
Your thoughts on this game, Well, they did enough to
win the game. You know, the Arizona Cardinals have not
been great this season. They've struggled mightily, so to even
see this game as close as it was, but you
got to give the Tampa Bay Buccaneers credit. Traveling across
the country playing Arizona Cardinals again to Gooby Brissett continues
to show why he could possibly be a starter, Why
(39:48):
they made the decision to you know, Kyler Murray got hurt.
But Kyler Murray, they said, hey, Kyler Golic just we
wouldn't mind take your time. Yeah, go on our A
call of duty's out, the new call of dude, Call
of duty Block Ops seven out. Make your time. Maybe
explore baseball. I don't know, you can do whatever you like,
(40:10):
but we're gonna We're gonna go with Jakobe right now.
And you can see why. Twenty nine forty three oh
one a touchdown the interception. Sure, he's had some struggles
of the game, but that's NFL quality caliber, NFL caliber
quarterback play, and Baker Mayfield did enough to win this game.
He was eighteen to twenty eight and one ninety four touchdown.
Bucky Irvins seventeen carries for sixty one yards in the touchdown,
(40:32):
Chris Godwin finally got getting back into the fold and
getting involved. The defense got two sacks in the interception.
So sure, sure, Dampa Bay Buccaneers are finding a way
to win against Arizona Cardinals. I'm not sure that's a
quality win that makes you feel great, But you're an
NFC South and at the end of the day, they've
won the NFC South four straight years and looking for
(40:53):
a fifth straight year. They got this. A lot of
NFC South games coming up. They got the Saints Falcons Panthers,
and then they got the Dolphins, who've been playing better
as of late, and then the Panthers again. So this
this division will be determined down the stretch as it
usually is. Can the Carolina Panthers beat the Tampa Bay
(41:15):
Buccaneers in one of those two games when they played
in two of the last three weeks the final they
play him twice in the final three games, I believe, right,
and then the car the Cardinals have the Rams, and
I would expect the Rams to win that game, but
as we found out in this league, you can't expect anything.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
I would expect the Rams to win that game as well,
but who knows?
Speaker 1 (41:39):
Who knows.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
Let's talk more in depth about this Houston Texans team.
We've alluded to them all podcasts, and they just knocked
off the Indianapolis Colts, who now fall to eight and four.
They were once number one in your power ranks, weren't they, Richard?
Speaker 1 (41:53):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (41:54):
And now they have fallen in The Texans now seven
and five and out far behind this division. Let's be
real here, it's the Jags, it's the Texans. It's called
it's a tight battle here. What do you credit this
most to this turnaround, because it seemed like this was
gonna be a lost season based on the start.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
I credited to just stability. Accredited to stability, and sometimes
you just have a rough start to the season. And
I think Demiko Ryan's giving up, uh, defensive play calling
duties and and just Folk going to the offensive side
and trying to figure out what's going on, what's what's
what's holding us back? Obviously they they lost a big
time tackle on Jeremie Tounzul and you know, you gotta
(42:38):
they're doing a little bit of of of you know,
uh around shuffling, shuffling on the offensive line. What he
marks has has developed into their lead back. They started
the year thinking Nick Chubb will be the lead back,
and he's still getting his carries, but sometimes he takes
(43:00):
a second. And then Nico Collins is getting starting to,
you know, play like he's capable of playing. C J.
Stroud was struggling early on, and I think he was
struggling to see it and and offensive coordinator getting on
the same page. And I think he's gotten more of
a voice and and and Demiko has done a great
job of just making sure he has conversations with offensive coordinator.
(43:20):
He feels comfortable saying, hey, this is what I like
to do, and you see it's it's starting to manifest itself.
But I think the other side of the ball is
why they've really been in it. They've been dominant. They've
been really dominant in each every phase of the game.
I think they're number one and number two against the
pass and number one and number two against the run
uh in the league, you know, And that's where they've
been succeeding. They got an incredible secondary, they got an
(43:43):
incredible uh D line, and they got my my guy
Z's al sha here in the middle of that defense
commanding it. And so it's one of the best defensive
talent wise in the National Football League. I remember we
had them a couple of weeks ago and and they
they just dominated. I mean it was it was Will Anderson,
(44:06):
it was Kaylin Bullocks, uh it was it was Danil Hunter,
it was just it was Kamari Lassiter, it was everybody
and it And then you you say all those names
and you don't say Derek stingly because nobody's messing with
Derek Stingley out there. They tried to it was an
incomplete almostly almost a big play, but incomplete. But they
(44:28):
they're starting to believe that they can be a special
team starting the season. Oh and three, there aren't many
teams that make the playoffs. But nobody, like you said,
nobody wants to play the Texans right now. And they're
going to play the struggling Kansas City Chiefs in their
next game. And I and again, Mahomes has been hit,
he's been sacked and in these games. And they just
(44:49):
lost their their I believe they lost their their tackle
last week. And so they're gonna have to play Jalen
Moore coming up, and and Hylan Moore's fine backup tackle,
swing tackle in this league. But you're going against Daniel
Hunter and Will Anderson. That's a long day for anybody. Well,
you mentioned Derek Stanley Junior.
Speaker 2 (45:09):
This is he did not allow a single reception today
on twenty eight coverage snaps. This is a fifth game
the season that he has allowed less than ten yards
in coverage. Richard, those are stats that used to throw
up next to your name when you were playing my man.
This just goes to show you how good he is
and how good of a cornerback he has developed to
be in this league. On the other side, the Colts,
(45:31):
who once were the hottest team in the NFL, have
cooled off dramatically. We find out that Indiana Jones, Daniel
Jones has been playing with a fractured fibula. You know,
that's a big deal. I mean, it's obviously gonna catch
up to you at some point. It looks like it
might have. I know, they were going up against the
top tier defense, but this is the first time they've
been held under twenty points all season. How much concern
(45:53):
is there for you in Indianapolis?
Speaker 1 (45:57):
A lot of concern. I don't know how serious. You know,
when when you say a fractured fibula, it just sounds
so severe, But you know there are stress, fracture, stress reaction.
There's different levels of things. But obviously Daniel Jones is
an incredibly tough player. But do you see how how
how much an NFL season in a team's future, in
(46:20):
a team's uh destiny can be on the edge of
a knife, because if they lose Daniel Jones and and
you know, they'll go back to Anthony Richardson and then
people have a lot different feeling about the Indianapolis Colts.
You don't feel great about it. You don't feel great
about them winning this division at all, even with the
lead they have. And so Daniel Jones feels like he
(46:44):
has to, like he's playing for a contract in his career,
et cetera, et cetera. But if you're playing already with
a stress fracture, there usually means you're It usually means
you're compensating in some other way, you know, whether it's
your hips, your your glutes, your et cetera. And that's
when you start to see strain muscles and pull muscles
and knock on wood. You don't want to see that
(47:06):
for Daniel Jones, but that's the fear when you start
to have an injury like that and you know that
you have to compensate. Thank you, thank thankfully, this offensive
line kept him relatively clean this game. I mean, he
only got sacked once, so you you hope that can
continue in that he's not getting sacked a ton, he's
not getting hit a ton. But it's something to watch
(47:28):
because if he goes down for even a couple games,
this season can fall apart, no question about it.
Speaker 2 (47:35):
Next up, they got the Jags, who you know took
care of business against the lowly Titans this week, but
nonetheless another divisional game against a team that's got a
very good record as well, that is firmly in the
necks for this division. The Bills just knocked off the
Pittsburgh Steelers, who have been reeling. They fall to six
and six. The Buffalo Bills go on the road, get
(47:57):
a convincing win. Josh Allen, with a nice rushing touchdown,
got shoved in by his entire old line. You know,
whether it was an issue today, we didn't see a
ton of a ton of in the air. We saw
a ton of James Cook though thirty two carries for
one hundred and forty four yards. Richard, Is it safe
to say the Pittsburgh Steelers are done this season?
Speaker 1 (48:19):
Is it safe to say they're done? No, because of
what you said earlier. You know, the AFC isn't like
the NFC right now, So there's a lot of chaos.
There's a lot a lot of things that are left
to are gonna have to happen for them to get
put out. But yeah, you don't. You don't see a
lot of hope right now because their their defense has
been inconsistent. They've had games where they've played like at
(48:40):
a really high level. There's been games where you you
question all the decisions they made this offseason. So with
Aaron Rodgers potentially being out for for the foreseeable future,
who knows, who knows? Because the offense was stagnant even
with him in the vote, the offense was stagnant. So
without him, you you you you go to Cayl Rudolph
(49:03):
and you know he's just not at the same level
and he doesn't get the same respect, and it's maybe
the end of the row fair because he you know,
father time catches up to everybody. It's undefeated, and these
injuries are injuries you expect for a guy over forty
years old in the National Football League. You know, he's
getting banged up. This offensive line isn't the best in
(49:24):
the National Football League. So the the Buffalo Bills did
what they needed to do to win. Josh Allen did
what he needed to do to win this game. But
I think the Bills are are are skating o thin ice.
I don't feel great about any team in the AFC
right now. Again, we thought the Colts were the class
at AFC. They've lost a few games since then. The
(49:46):
only team that's really been dominant and and feels like
they can make a case clearly the best team is
the New England Patriots, and nobody would have said that
before the season started.
Speaker 2 (49:56):
It's a wild proclamation, but it's certainly looking like it
might be true. You also forgot about the Denver Broncos,
who have only got two losses, but we shall see
they've been flirting with losses all season long, Richard. Before
we wrap up this game, Josh Allen's touchdown was rushing touchdown,
with the seventy sixth of his career. That's the most
(50:17):
of any QB in NFL history. He has certainly made
his mark on this league with his style of play.
Next up for the Bills, they play the Bengals, who
now have Joe Burrow at the helm, and then the
Patriots and the follow by the Browns. The Steelers next
week have the Ravens. Speaking of those Bengals in Joe Burrow,
who saw this one coming. Thanksgiving Day for Baltimore fans
(50:41):
was not fun.
Speaker 1 (50:41):
I can imagine.
Speaker 2 (50:43):
Thirty two to fourteen final. Joe Burrow came in a
interviewed the pre game basically said, hey, you guys are
all but a mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. Why'd you
come back? And he just said, I signed a big contract,
I'm here to win. And that's what they did. They
took it to the Baltimore ra And kudos to Joe
Burrow for coming back playing through pain. What did you
(51:03):
think of what you saw from Joe Burrow and the
Bengals on Thursday.
Speaker 1 (51:07):
Well, you saw some rust early, but eventually he knocked
it off and he looked like that Joe Burrow. He's
still not the Joe Burrow Vold because there's still some
pain in that toe out I could imagine. But the
rapport between him and Jamar Chase is still there. You know,
they're able to score points. There are thirty two points,
(51:27):
but they were scoring points with Joe Flakau. The concerning
part of this game was the Ravens and Lamar Jackson
and how he struggled. The Bengals defense has been abysmal
all season long. They've been awful. They've been a door
mat They've been a revolving door of touchdowns, field goals
and points. Every time you look up that the Bengals
have scored a lot of points, but the other team
(51:48):
has scored a little more and for them to hold
the Baltimore Ravens, who were before the season started considered
a Super Bowl contender with an MVP candidate at quarterback,
Derrick Henry at running back and you felt really good
about him to being beat by the four and eight Bengals,
especially when you're in desperation mode. You're in desperation mode.
(52:11):
You could potentially make these playoffs, you could potentially win
this division now with the with the Pittsburgh Steelers struggling,
the Browns out of it, the Bengals out of it,
Like now's your chance to make a moved move and
you lose by eighteen points to the to the Cincinnati Bengals.
That's that's concern. That's when the concern level goes up.
(52:31):
You wonder what's going on with Lamar Jackson. He had
three turnovers in this game and that's what really cost
this team the game. Like what what is what is
going on? Because this I don't know if this is
Russ because he's been playing for a couple of weeks.
Is it is it just you know, him taking a
step back. Is it just you know, maybe it's something
going on at home. I don't know what it is,
but we've rarely seen Lamar Jackson play this way. Hopefully
(52:54):
he's able to bounce back again next week against the
Pittsburgh Steelers, a game that that could def decide who's
at the top of this division. The Bengals have a
game against the Bulls and we'll see if they want
to play defense for another week. And again, we don't
know what's going on in this league. I'm not gonna
be one trying to predict it this year.
Speaker 2 (53:14):
Well, the Bengals still are not mathematically eliminated in this division,
so crazy things could happen. Joe Burrow, they run the table.
Who knows, maybe it is their division. We shall see.
Speaker 1 (53:27):
All odds and lines come from our partners at hard
Rock Bet. We've got the Giants at the Patriots on
Monday Night Football tomorrow. Hard Rock Bet has the Patriots
as a seven point spread in this game. I think
that's about right. You know, you never know if Jackson
Dart's coming back with a little bit of rust, how
(53:48):
he's gonna be able to maneuver in this offense. The
Patriots have a rock solid plan. You know they're gonna
be prepared to play you know Mike Rapel is gonna
have those boys raring to go. They're feeling good, they're confident,
they're at home. They they're hard to beat and Gillette
and so I feel like this seven point spread is
the perfect number for this team. I feel like they're
(54:09):
gonna cover.
Speaker 2 (54:10):
You know, Richard, I think they're gonna win. I don't
think they're gonna cover, though, I've seen enough from Jackson
Dart to become a huge believer in him. I would
love for him to be my franchise quarterback. New York
Giants fans have got to be thrilled. I think with
him at the helmet's gonna be a high scoring affair.
We'll see if their defense can keep them in it,
because I know the Pats are gonna be putting up
(54:32):
points too. But I have the Pats covering. I'm sorry
the Pats winning, but the Giants covering that spread. I
also have got three players who I think are gonna
be anytime touchdown scores. Stefan Diggs who's been hot lately,
Romandre Stevenson fresh fresh legs coming back from injury last week,
and then finally Jackson Dart.
Speaker 1 (54:53):
Those are my picks I love it Richard.
Speaker 2 (54:57):
It's always a pleasure sitting down with you here every
and this concludes our podcast for week thirteen.
Speaker 1 (55:04):
I will let you sign us off, my friend. The
season's been flying by, and you guys have been sticking
with us the whole time. We appreciate you as always.
You could be anywhere in the world, but you hear
with us and we surely do appreciate it all. Love.
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Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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