December 30, 2025 • 37 mins
Headlines and 12th man news with GREGG BELL (Tacoma news Tribune) How is gregg feeling about the Seahawks potential playoff path? How confident are the Seahawks after watching the Rams fall to the Falcons last night? Level of concern about Sam Darnold? Can he overcome the turnovers when it matters most? What’s the latest on Rasheed Shahid? Is there any chance he’s available on Saturday? :30- We haven’t had a chance to talk about all of that chaos at the end of the first half of the game in Carolina. It was one thing after another- what the heck happened? :45- The Chargers have decided to rest some of their starters in week 18, despite being able to improve their playoff positioning. Chuck has a theory about why Harbaugh is resting Herbert…
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Jake the Malonza down the left side. Melonzi fine, it's
a late looks at front.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Chucks Takah Malon said. The fifty fee to Ryan Winterton
who finishes the play. It's a two one seeattle track
you lead for Jacob Malon said, that's his first point
in the National Hockey League.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
And that is your make Delivery of the game. Last
night's top call from the Krack and Audio Network brought
to you by McDonald's Ordering the food you Craved with
McDelivery as a whole new way to love McDonald's. Ordered
directly from the McDonald's app and select McDelivery today to
start earning points for free food. See app for details.
Good Morning Live Radio programming for you here on the
(00:51):
thirtieth day of December twenty twenty five. Ashley, Ryan, Bucky
Jacobson and Chuck Powell with you. It is our final
show of twenty twenty five. We will be back on
the airwaves Friday for a Football Friday to get you
set for this Saturday's monstrous game between the Seahawks and
the forty nine ers for the number one seed in
(01:12):
the NFC Playoffs. Home field advantage throughout the playoffs bye
and round number one. Oh yeah, there's a lot at stake.
And then there's that nifty old rivalry.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Thing you know that's also yeah, I start about that.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Yeah, I mean, can't you just throw the records out
the window in a great rivalry? Right? Yeah? Yeah, So
even if there wasn't all this at stake, it'd still
be awesome, right. Seahawks forty nine ers Saturday at five o'clock.
And yesterday we finished out Week number seventeen of the
NFL season with an Atlanta Falcons twenty seven to twenty
(01:49):
four win over the Los Angeles Rams. And there is
some significance to the Seahawks playoff path with that result.
And so we'll cover that now with your frost brew
course like choose chill headlines. And the path changes. From
this perspective, the Seahawks are now no longer a threat
to end up with the sixth seed. There was still
(02:11):
a possibility they could end up being the sixth seed
in all of this because out of their same division,
you had a chance for the three best records in
the NFC. Well, now that creates separation, enough separation between
the Seahawks and Rams that no matter what happens in
the final week of the regular season. The Seahawks at
(02:31):
worst are going to get the five seed in the playoffs,
and of course, at best they are the number one seed,
and the five seed puts you in Carolina or Tampa
in week number one, where the sixth seed could have
put you in Philadelphia or in Chicago. And so to
me sounds like an easier path. I wanted to be
on the one, four to five side of the bracket,
(02:54):
and last night's Rams loss assured that the Seahawks will
be on that side of the bracket. Meanwhile, the Atlanta
Falcons have also monkeyed up a little bit of the process.
Here it look like a clear cut Carolina versus Tampa
Bay winner gets into the playoffs. Not so fast, my friend,
to quote Lee Corso. Now, with Atlanta having a chance
(03:16):
to win out, they would end up with the same
record as both Tampa and Carolina. Should Tampa beat Carolina
on Saturday, and in a three way tiebreaker, it's the
Carolina Panthers they get into the playoffs and win the division,
not the Tampa Bay Buccaneers even should they win on Saturday.
(03:39):
So not exactly what the NFL was thinking. Of when
they devised the Tampa Bay Buccaneers taking on the Carolina
Panthers a Saturday. They were hoping one team's in the playoffs.
One team is out, but it's no longer as clear
cut as that. Chargers are going to rest Justin Herbert
and some others for their Week eighteen tilt against the
Denver Broncos. Can't make the Paytriots happy. Lamar Jackson's status
(04:02):
to be determined before Baltimore tries to earn their playoff
spot against Pittsburgh on Sunday Night Football. The college football
playoff rezumes tomorrow at four point thirty with Miami and
Ohio State, and then three games will be played on
New Year's Day. You dub Huskies win on the hardwood
seventy four to sixty five over Utah, and we heard
the make delivery game of the game from Everett fits you.
(04:24):
The Krakens four game winning streak came to a close
at home against the Canucks and a shootout three to
two the final score. There, that's a lot of headlines.
Let's talk to Greg Bell with the Bell tolls.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
It must be seven o'clock and time for twelfth Man
News with Greg Bell. Brought to you by Copola Diamond
Collection Prosecco, Chris Sparkling with bright fruit flavors to make
every toast shine Game Day Bubbles only with Copola Diamond Prosecco.
Now with twelfth Man News, here's Greg Bell with Chuck
and Bud.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Good morning, Greg, Happy.
Speaker 5 (04:56):
New Year, Yeah, Happy New Year. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
I don't know. Oh, I know, Mike McDonald would never
admit it publicly because that would be in the form
of fall onto the umbrella of you know, bulletin board
material for an opponent. But I think he was pretty
happy with the result last night, assuring them to be
on the one four five side of the bracket. Maybe
I'm wrong about that, but it just seems like even
(05:21):
if you lose Saturday, that's a better path to the
super Bowl than being over in Philadelphia or Chicago in
Round one of the playoffs.
Speaker 5 (05:30):
I'm not sure about that because the past, the wildcard
pass the Super Bowl is treacherous no matter who you play,
because you gotta win three games on the road in
three weeks, and you just have to win two games
in both at home. If the Seahawks went on Saturday.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Well no, I'm not saying that I mean, you want
the one seed for sure. I'm just saying I'd rather
have the five. I'd certainly rather have the five seed
than the six for.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
The first game. Then the NFL reseeds after the first game.
It's not a set brack, so the lowest remaining seed
after the first round plays the one. So it's conceivable.
Let's say that the Packers beat the Bears, and the Rams,
who if they can right themselves, are one of the
best teams in the league, wins their first round game,
(06:18):
and then if the Seahawks went to Tampavera, Carolina and
won its first round game, it's conceivable that the first
seed would be playing the seven, and the five would
host the six, and suddenly the Seahawks have a home
game against the Rams in round two. It's but the
simple math of having to win three games go to
(06:40):
Super Bowl rather than two means, of course, this is
so important Saturday night for the Seahawks to win in
terms of the very first round game. Yes, you'd much
rather be the five than the sixth, and last night's
result breaks Seattle's way in that regard. But that's of
course not how McDonald and the Seahawks are viewing it.
They're viewing their process over results. They make a game
(07:01):
plan and prepare accordingly to play another strong game and
win the game on Saturday night, and then where do
they play next? And that's kind of how his attitude
was yesterday about the Saturday game versus a Sunday game.
Instead of the NBC choosing the Seahawks forty nine Ers
for the Sunday night game, no surprise to me at
all that they chose Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers against
the Ravens, potentially with Lamar Jackson a winner out, win
(07:24):
or go home situation. And we asked McDonald yesterday about
I got play Saturday after flying back from the East Coast.
So what when do we play? Just tell us when
we play. So it's all about that stuff that we
are left those of us get to talk about all
the other stuff.
Speaker 6 (07:43):
Gee. I mean after last night's game, where the Rams
to some degree felt like they just weren't really all
there to play at first. I mean, Stafford throws a
couple of balls and right to their guys they pick
sixes and whatnot. But I am wondering, after last night's game,
do you feel like the folk over there at the
v mac ar Our thing, and we're the best team
(08:04):
in the NFL, right, I mean they're preparing obviously for
a big game that has a lot of implications with
the number one seed and.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
To buy and all that stuff.
Speaker 6 (08:11):
But are they feeling like they're the best because, I mean,
over in the AFC, I don't know if there's anybody
over there that is the world beater, world dominator, and
that same thing really in the NFC, even though the
Rams maybe have been the closest thing to that, and
yet they've scuffled here the last I don't know, a
few weeks.
Speaker 5 (08:28):
Yeah, they have. Stafford looked nothing like himself last night
all the way through the end of the game, is
seeing wide open guys and everything else. I think the
Seahawks believe they have the best defense in the world,
and I think they think that might be enough to
get to the Super Bowl. And I wrote a story yesterday.
I feel like I've written this story about six times
(08:48):
the last six weeks. Can the Seahawks win the Super Bowl?
Can they keep winning? With Sam Darnold turning the ball
over like this? And yeah, I know that could have
been a fumble ruled in complete past the fumble could
have been ruled in it and compete pass. And yeah,
I know the other interception, maybe Mike Jackson's foot is
on the end line. It was still a poor throw
and for that coverage, but he could have had two
(09:10):
more interceptions, including to the first pass of the game,
first play of the game, when he should have thrown
a check down and then up rolling out and thrown
it off a defender's helmet. The way the Seahawks are
playing defense and the way they beat the Rams, which
wasn't because of their defense until the fourth quarter, when
it was because of their defense, I'm not so sure
they can't win the Super Bowl as well as their
(09:31):
defenses plan. To your point, Buckie, Yeah, and that's my point.
At the beginning, they're saying, I could see the Bears
going in and beaten the Packers beating the Bears if
the Jordan Love can come back and play. Although the
Bears look really good the other night, especially on offense
against the forty nine Ers, the Niners defense is nothing
like we've seen in the last decade, mostly because of
(09:53):
the injuries. No Bosa, no Warner Jackson. They are a
shovel themselves, and I think the Seahawks feel confident they
can score on San Francisco after having watched with Chicago
did to them. Ay, even Philip Rivers and the Colts
scored twenty seven on them. I think the Seahawks believe
they can score, and I know they believe they can
(10:14):
hold the forty nine ers down. Can the Seahawks do
what they did the McCaffrey and the opener? McCaffrey was
a non factor. I know the Niners missed two field goals,
but they scored seventeen. Could have had twenty three points.
That's it. I think the Sea Arks going into this
thinking they can score twenty four points on San Francisco's defense.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Seahawks insider Greg Mello is with us. Of course, you
can follow Greg at g mel Seattle on x A
and Thenews Tribune dot com for complete Seahawks coverage. Is
We talked to Greg this morning for the final time
of twenty twenty five, and of course we will be
doing a show on Friday to get you ready for
Seahawks and forty nine Ers on Saturday. For all the marbles,
(10:55):
and so I would ask next about Sam Darnold. I
realize that there are a lot of people in sports
talk radio. There are a lot of fans sitting on
their barstools and are worried a little bit about the
way he's playing. Mike McDonald has been just the opposite.
Let it rip has sort of been his theme. So
(11:16):
as you're getting ready to play the biggest game of
the year and then start the playoffs for goodness sake,
is there any chance that they'll get a little more
conservative with Sam going forward or is it too late
to change that at this point.
Speaker 5 (11:31):
No, they're going to push the ball down the field,
especially against San Francisco. I think they're going to test
that secondary and the lack of a pass rush. Forty
nine ers are last in the league in sacks because
of the injuries and no Bosa and the lack of
affecting the quarterback could really make it a passing frenzy
for Seattle. I think they're going to open it up
quite a bit Saturday night and push the ball down
(11:52):
the field like they saw Chicago doing. Donald if he
finishes with the NFL league and turnovers and up by
a couple right now with twenty, you have to go
back to the mid seventies to find a team that
entered the playoffs as a top seed with a guy
who led the league in turnovers mid seventies. Man, it's
as old as I am, as old as you are.
(12:14):
That's been a while, and can that be sustainable? Is
the question. That's the question surrounding this whole push right now.
To me, it's the the question of this team. They
can't just give San Francisco short fields like they did Carolina,
like they did earlier in the game against the Rams,
like they have for months of the last month. I
(12:35):
think it's eight touchdowns and eight interceptions in his last
half dozen games or so. Yet, having said all that,
he made two of his best throws of the game
when it got down to be seventeen to ten and
Carolina was pushing. Donald made back to back throws a
Smith and jig, but once on third down and once
on first down. They got him into the red zone
(12:56):
and set him up for the touchdown that pretty much
put the game away. Or the fields they made a
twenty to ten before the final touchdown. But Donald's been
like that turnover and then comes back and looks brilliant.
I'm not here to say the Seahawks are winning in
spite or despite Sam Donald, but I do think this
(13:16):
is not a recipe to win the Super Bowl. And
if this, if he has games he doesn't turn the
ball over, including Saturday Night, I think the Seahawks can
get to the super Bowl. The defense is that good,
but the margin is so thin in the playoffs, then
possessions become so scarce, and field position is such a
big deal. You just can't hand teams that are good
(13:40):
enough to be playing four chance to win the Super Bowl.
You can't hand them short fields and points. You just can't.
With the exception of the Rams, they are able to
do it against pretty much five hundred and sub five
hundred teams. Atlanta, Carolina go down the list. The Colts.
I don't think they can do that three times, two
or three times in a row to get to the
Super Bowl. Just handing the ball to the other team.
Speaker 6 (14:02):
I'm well, I'm with you. I mean, you know, there's
no doubt about it. Turnovers. There's a reason why it's
a you got to win the turnover battle, or it
feels like you do. But when it comes to him,
what would be more concerning from your perspective, is it
the fumbles? Because he's right up there I think he's
right behind cam Ward for the most fumbles in the league,
and then what have you got fourteen interceptions or whatever. Obviously,
(14:26):
not all turnovers are created equal, right, I mean, they're
not all your fault necessarily. Sometimes the receiver clanks one
and it goes up in the air and you get
an interception for it, even though it shouldn't be on you.
Sometimes you get hit from the blind side and you're
you know, you fumble the ball. You want to be
able to feel that, or you want your guy to
be able to feel that. But what's your bigger concern
when it comes to if there's an issue with the turnovers?
(14:48):
Because there is there's an issue there, and yet I
think the good outweighs the bad.
Speaker 5 (14:53):
Yeah, Bucky, I think the concern is that when he's
near pressure and guys getting near him, he loses the ball,
he fumbles. It's just the security of the ball in traffic.
He handles it every play and he's going to have
guys come in on him. He has to be secure
with the ball and there are times when he's not.
(15:16):
The interceptions if they're going to continue pushing it down
the field, which they have for seventeen games, So I
would like to Chuck's point, They're not suddenly going to change,
especially with San Francisco lacking of passers. They're going to
push down the ball down the field, and that's, as
McDonald would call it, the cost of doing business. So
they're going to continue to throw, and he's going to
probably throw more interceptions between now and the end of
(15:36):
their season. Whenever that ends up being. It's holding onto
the ball when guys are coming in on you. I
keep thinking, it's been seems like years ago, but I
keep thinking that the Seahawks really should have beaten the
forty nine could have been forty nine ers at the
end of the game. If Donald simply holds onto the
ball when his right tackle got pushed into him by
Nick Bosa, that's a fundamental. I mean, he wasn't expecting it. Yes,
(15:59):
he was trying to throw a check down over the middle. Yes,
so he was raising his arm and he lost the ball.
The same thing he did against that Carolina raising the
ball to throw. He lost the ball. You have to
hold onto the ball the period, end of story. It's
the number one fundamental of his position because he holds
it on every play. To me, that probably is the
most alarming thing. I'm not here to say that Sam
(16:21):
Donald is a problem for them. The turnovers are problem,
but Sam Donald has shown this season he's also capable
of winning playoff games. For you.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Rashid Shaheed, what's the latest with him?
Speaker 5 (16:34):
Yeah, that's a big deal because they didn't have Shaheed
the first time they played the forty and I didn't
have she for half the season, and he has tilted fields,
changed field position with the He basically was the reason
they came back against the Rams with that pump return
when they're down sixteen midway through the fourth quarter. Look,
the average concussion, not every concussion, to say, not every
(16:54):
brain's the same. And I'm never going to spouse somebody
rushing back from a concussion and more important things than
quality of life and playing a football game with a
head injury. The average concussion is nine days of recovery time.
They only have six five really between playing when he
got the concussion and Saturday. I wouldn't think he's going
(17:15):
to play. McDonald said that he's doing well early in
the concussion protocol, but there's a very strict five step
process that the NFL has prescribed that you have to
go through, and you can't go from one phase to
another until you're cleared. And if you have a setback
of any symptoms reappearing as you increase your physical activity,
you gut to go back to the previous phase. I
can't see that six days pulling that off. And by
(17:39):
the way, that was needless to say, a penalty on
Mike Jackson, the former Seahawks corner three yard four yards
into the White rodeo, throwing him down onto his head
into the Carolina bench, then standing over and pushing down
on him. I asked McDonald what he thought of that
play yesterday, and he said, well, we put a lot
of plays into the league for review on my things
recalled and what you weren't and obviously we're going to
(18:01):
protect our hope that our players get protected. They didn't
like that. They definitely thought that's an unnecessary injury. They
may be feeling the effects and field position and game breaking.
Not to mention defenses have to play Smith and Jig,
but a little more honestly, with the speed of shaheat
down the field in the offense, that's gonna be a
big loss if you can't play, and it would surprise
(18:23):
me if you can.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Well, Happy New Year, sir and Joy celebrate, and then
we'll reconvene on Friday for one more conversation about this
Monster game coming up.
Speaker 5 (18:35):
Yeah, thank you. It's not like last week for Seahork
fans to know they're not taking New Year's Day off.
They are actually meeting today, practicing a little bit today,
and then Wednesday, Thursday, they're practice in full go. There'll
be an injury report today for a Saturday game. The
NFL requires them put an injury practice participation report today.
But yeah, different schedule this week then last.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
All right, sounds good, Thanks man, appreciate we'll talk to
you soon. Enjoy the new year, all right, Greg Bell
with Us. That's Greg's way of saying that nobody's got
to worry about like holding Leonard Williams hair on January first,
because they've got a practice, so there's no worry about that.
That's good. Yeah, I mean may be the easiest on
the team, I would think, though, Yeah, because he usually
(19:19):
does keep it confined. All right. Greg's segment with Us
is brought to you by Coppola Diamond Prosecco. Every game
needs an MVP, and this one well it sparkles. Copola
Diamond Collection Prosecco is light, crisp and always to win,
Grab your bubbles and toast you every touchdown game day
Bubbles only with Coppola Diamond Prosecco. All right, coming up next,
(19:43):
one thing that we did discuss late in the show yesterday,
but perhaps not enough, and I want to have this
conversation before we bring Gene Sterator on at eight o'clock.
We're going to discuss the chaos possession that took place
at the end of the first half against the Panthers.
Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM.
Speaker 7 (20:01):
We're trying to get into or two minute mode and
trying to push the ball forward. But we were trying,
we just weren't doing it. So that's the way the
drive went, you know. And again you're not trying to
get you know, we have the ball come out of
the half and originally we're trying to go score a touchdown,
but weren't able to get it going. So at that
point trying to get in field goal range and didn't
get it, you know, So but we by doing that,
we also you know, basically eliminated their ability to go
(20:24):
score field goal as well, So that was the top
behind it. I don't know, I just it looked like
to me and from the naked eye, that we got it,
you know so, but they said we didn't.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
I don't necessarily disagree with that. But also to my
naked eye, it looked like a complete and total mess.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
So one would call it a cluster.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
And you and the Seahawks played a really major role
in that complete and utter mess that was. Mike McDonald
reminds me of New Year's resolution to eighty four that
I have this year, I'm going to stop introducing myself
to the strangers as Seahawks head coach Mike McDonald.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
That's probably good.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Yeah, no, hey, I did that a lot this past year.
I don't know, I don't know why.
Speaker 6 (21:07):
Just just yeah, you've decided to just somebody else.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
That's not really fair because then they see me. If
they're sitting there wondering at the bar, is that really
coach McDonald doesn't look like him at all? And then
I start acting a fool?
Speaker 5 (21:21):
Right?
Speaker 7 (21:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Then that him?
Speaker 6 (21:24):
Yeah, in the organization, that's good. You would stop for
that reason.
Speaker 8 (21:28):
Yeah, you should still make reservations using his name, though,
you'll get better seats.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
That's what I'll do.
Speaker 5 (21:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Now I have four hundred and seven New Year's resolutions. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
and uh, of course there's a New Year's resolution ninety
eight eat more Snap Peace. It's Chuck Buck and Ashley
with you. And yes that was I didn't even bring
it up. I mean, we do Monday Morning Quarterback, and
Hughes got a lot of thoughts, and Greg's got a
(21:53):
lot of thoughts, and Coach has a lot of thoughts,
and we try to set those guys up for all
of their many, many, many thoughts, and we don't even
get to all of them. But by the flow of
the show, we ended up not talking about that chaos
possession at the end of the first half, and I
wanted to discuss it before we brought Gene's sterator on
the air today at eight o'clock because the refs had
a lot to do with the chaos, and maybe the
(22:15):
NFL rules had a lot to do with the chaos.
I can't even explain everything that happened. Maybe we haven't
given this enough time, because that was just nonsense. They
get the ball three forty six left in the first
half and the score is tied at three so we're
all ready frustrated, like, is the offense ever going to
kick in? What's going on here? They look terrible here
in the first half, and then all of a sudden
(22:37):
second and six from the forty four you have that
play to JSN where it seemed to me like there
was a horse collar and a face mask on the
same play, and somehow the official and there was one
in the screen, missed both. JJ Watt said, called it out.
Wasn't that both? And they missed them both? And then
(22:59):
they came back from a break. He starts explaining, how well,
I guess it wasn't technically a horse caller, so I'm
assuming that the Gene Sterotre on that network whispered in
his ear. No, that's not well, I don't know what
a horse collar is if that's not a horse caller.
So we'll have Gene explain this to us. But just
how you miss both the face mask and the horse
(23:22):
collar situation on a day you aren't exactly shining as
a crew, let's face it up until that moment that
was part of the.
Speaker 6 (23:30):
Chaos anyway, Yeah, it did look like a horse caller.
I didn't watch any of the replayer. I didn't see
the replay of it, just like in real time. It
was like, yep, the hand was right there. Now I
will be interested to hear what Gene's territory has to
say about is. I don't know if there's something about
you can have your hand there. I know there's somewhere
where you can do I know outside, I'm pretty sure
(23:52):
you can do horse caller somewhere, like if it's inside
the interior of the offensive line or something where something
like that's okay to be interesting to find out. But
that face mask was another one was one. Yeah, that
one actually kind of turned his head. I mean the
last one, the more important one to some degree, like
(24:12):
he just has hands to high. It's like he ran
into his hand, he ran his face into his hand,
and he didn't even really try to grab onto it.
Now you'd run into it first split second, and it's
a face mask. It's the way that's going to be.
I can't have your hands up there. But that one
was deliberate where it was like, how do neither one
of those things he called it was it was a
bit of a cluster, yes, actually.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Said I don't know that contributed to the confusion that
our coaching staff seemed to have in that moment, but
they had the two minute warning to kind of reset.
They get the run for Charbonnay for the first down,
and then you had that crazy Darnald in completion that
got batted down by the same guy who almost picked
it off. Well, I don't know how often that's happened,
(24:55):
where you batted out, you deflect the ball, it hits
the receiver and then bounces back to you as a
defensive lineman. I'm not sure I've even never seen that point. No,
I have not, So that certainly contributed to the Cats.
Plus Cooper Cup and the ball was deflected, so it's
not like he just dropped it. But you you just think.
(25:15):
I always think of Cooper Cup as if the ball
hits him in the hands or comes within like an
area code of his hands, he's going to catch the ball.
So even that was a strange. Part of it was
that a Cooper Cup drop. Then you see the deflection,
then you see who it hits off of and who
it bounces back to, and the guy that deflected it
and fell to the ground almost gets the interception, which
(25:37):
they called an interception at the time, which was a
terrible call as well, and then had to overrule it
later chaos.
Speaker 6 (25:44):
Yeah, I mean it looked like an interception in real time,
and then as they showed it and slowed it down,
you're like, yeah, it's slipping through his hands there at
the end. So they got it right at the end.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Again.
Speaker 6 (25:54):
At this point, I'm feeling like, you're you still should
get some points out of this thing, but they found
a way not to.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Yeah. Then you got to the forty eight, then the forty,
then the the forty five, and then you had the
walker play yeah, where he catches the ball and he didn't.
It wasn't a drop. You think of a drop as
you throw a ball to somebody and they don't catch.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
It right like their tournament field before.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
They really caught the ball, and then you think, then
you have a fumble where you have the ball and
then you get hit and the ball pops loose. This
was a drop of a different kind. He caught the
ball and then turned around and just dropped it. He
just dropped it.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
I need that.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
And it wasn't the first time we'd seen that happen.
Mitchell Evans did it earlier for Carolina, just turned to
run with it and dropped it.
Speaker 6 (26:38):
It was a little rainy.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
It was a little rainey. I'm sure there's a reason,
but still, I mean, there's a lot to happen on
one drive. Yeah, And so here you're racing against the clock.
You're at one thirteen at that point, he gets six yards.
So at that point Mike McDonald thinks they have the
first down, but Carolina is like, that's not even in
a completion or did he fumble? And they don't take
(27:02):
the time to stop and address any of it because
Carolina doesn't want to stop the clock, I guess, and
Mike McDonald, I don't know what it is about. McDonald
wanted to hold onto his timeouts in the first half,
but he'll save them, all three of them un till
there's ten seconds left in the first half. I mean
to me, I would want to clear up that confusion.
(27:22):
I'm assuming he didn't want to in case it was
incomplete or a fumble, and so he just let the
clock roll. And now we don't know if you've converted
on fourth down or not. We don't know if it's
a fumble. We don't know anything about it, and the
play just continues chaos. I'm telling you chaos.
Speaker 8 (27:40):
Yeah, and he had said too, oh, we didn't want
to burn a time out there to make sure that
we could run something else that might be more significant
on that fourth I don't know.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Even if you have them to burn, and even if
he doesn't get it. I mean, Myers, that's a sixty
three yard field goal at that point. I mean, that's
a little bit on comfortable. But he's it's attemptable, yep. Right,
So if it is fourth and six they get you
find out the worst news that it's an incomplete pass. Yeah,
and it's fourth down and six, you still at least
get a field coal attempt at that point. But instead
(28:14):
you're you're like, did he get the first down? Was
it a catch? Was it a fumble? So you're getting
ready to call a fourth and one play and now
you're getting down to it. Now you're down to within
what just thirty seconds or so. You don't even have
time to run your barner play out on the field.
What you should have been doing if you called a
time out, you set up the barner play. Yeah, Barny,
(28:37):
we don't use the time out because we're trying to
preserve the five yards. I'm assuming I would assume so,
and then you're trying to run a quick play with darnold,
you don't ask for a measurement or you don't get
a measurement. I'm not sure.
Speaker 6 (28:50):
Yeah, it because they virtually measured it that quickly. Well,
it's all it is, is a spot. They just spot it.
And then why that's where they just do it? They
didn't show it on the screen.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Then why does when they do do a virtual measurement
it takes like fifteen minutes to show it. If you
can do it that quickly.
Speaker 5 (29:08):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
It's a great question, right, So that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
This whole thing is just like chaos. So then you
have four to one and then the Seahawks think they
got the first down and they don't.
Speaker 5 (29:18):
Know you didn't.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Well, can you measure it?
Speaker 5 (29:20):
Nope?
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Can we challenge it?
Speaker 5 (29:22):
Nope?
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Yeah, we have three timeouts. Why can't we challenge it?
We want to challenge the spot. They told me we couldn't.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
Yeah, they told me we just didn't get it.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
What Like, the whole thing was insane and I didn't
understand any of it. And maybe there's perfectly good explanations
for all of those things, but I'm just sitting here
going what is going on? Will somebody get their arms
around this football game right now? Because I think that
both teams are so afraid of making a mistake, they
(29:53):
are letting a bunch of mistakes take place, and it
ended up resulting in no points at all. I mean, yes,
seventeen seconds on the clock. If you don't go for
that quarterback sneak, now you're definitely in Jason myersfield goal range.
Now now you're looking at a fifty seven yard or
he makes those in his sleep these days. And so
you just blew any chance to get any points rushing
(30:15):
your fourth and one sneak play that isn't even your
fourth and one sneak play, and you end up going
into the locker room with all three timeouts because you
were afraid of what reviews going to show, and then
you were denied being able to see what review might tell.
What kind of a possession was that that was?
Speaker 3 (30:36):
It was ugly, that is just and then the.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Top it all off, Carolina gets the ball at the
fifty yard line and they decide our quarterback doesn't have
a strong enough arm to throw a hail mary, so
we're just gonna go into the locker room.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
What, Yeah, that was lucky.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
How do you not try a hail Mary there? You
just didn't want to expose the Bryce Young can only
throw the ball twenty five yards. Rivers would have tried it,
he would at least got it twenty six. I don't know.
It was crazy. Maybe Jean's got some explanations to this.
We'll talk to him at eight o'clock. Coming up next though,
why are the Chargers resting their starting quarterback for a
(31:13):
game that could impact the playoffs? Sports Radio ninety three
point three KJRFM that your year will start with the
drum sol long.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
Oh, that's great to.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Welcome you into twenty twenty six.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
Might be the best way to start a new year.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, So you gotta start at eleven fifty
six and twenty seconds, okay, and then you will start
twenty twenty six with and you will feel it in
the air that night, you will feel it up in you. Yeah. Frankly,
it's Chuck, it's Buck, it's Ashley with you. Jean Stertors
(31:48):
going to join us at eight o'clock here this morning.
It's also a cracking ticket Tuesday. Keep listening. I think
we've already played it this hour, but we'll do it
again next hour. Your opportunity to win a pair of
tickets to see the Crack and take on the Boston
Bruins on January sixth. Be the tenth caller when you
hear that piece of audio play in the eight o'clock
hour at two oh six two eight six ninety five
to secure your tickets to the game. Chargers have decided,
(32:13):
and they do have a little bit at stake. I
mean there could be in their conference a chance to
face not as mighty a foe if you end up
with the five seed. They were eliminated from any shot
at being able to host a first round game or
to get the number one seed. Maybe they no, they
didn't even have a shot at that this past week.
(32:34):
But they were eliminated from division title this past week.
But they still could play for better seeding in the playoffs.
But Jim Harbaugh has decided it's not worth it for us,
So he's sitting as banged up quarterback Justin Herbert. He's
sitting several other starters. It will give Denver a leg
(32:54):
up over New England. I can't imagine New England's going
to be too happy about this. But certainly the Broncos
who are trying to get the one seed, got to
be happy about not having to face Justin Herbert and
the Chargers this week. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (33:09):
I mean, if you're wanting to get that number one
seed and if they're gonna rest some guys, okay, great,
I mean, because it is a you still got to
win because the Patriots, who do they play, They're playing
somebody bad Miami, Miami. Yeah maybe Miami with the quinn
Ewers guy, maybe they have a chance. But typically you
would just kind of figure that's probably a w for them,
(33:30):
and they would need they would need the Broncos would
need the Patriots and the Jaguars to lose if they
don't pull one off against the Bolts and so to
get that number one seed. So yeah, that's they're trying
to win this one and be able to get that
week off.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Yeah, definitely an advantage. Patriots would need help in order
to get them, and obviously the Chargers aren't willing to
give them any right, I mean, it's not their responsibility,
but it's not like they don't have anything to play for, right,
And yet there's and then also there's the whole like
you know, like you owe it to the league kind
(34:05):
of thing as well. That comes into play.
Speaker 8 (34:08):
Well, yeah, because even teams that are fully out of
it aren't resting.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
Right people, Right, Yeah, you just go out and play.
Speaker 5 (34:14):
Now.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
I believe thoroughly that you have to do what's in
the best interest of the Chargers. And if you think
that justin Herbert getting a weak arrest, considering how banged
up he's been and he's out there hand yeah, playing
like Chubbs Peterson, then you got to do what you
got to do to help the Chargers win. And if
you think that's more valuable than a five seed or
a six seed, and you're perfectly willing to take the
(34:36):
seven seed and have a healthy er justin Herbert, you
think that's the best strategy, then you do that. I
have a theory though, Oh I don't think he wants
to face his brother. He never beats his brother. He
doesn't like playing his brother. So why am I going
to risk my quarterback to try to get a five
(34:59):
seed and try to get a win against the Denver
Broncos and ruin their day? And like, the best thing
that I can achieve out of this is to get
a five seed. And then I got to face my
brother in the first round of the playoffs. I hate
facing my brother. He beats me every single time, number
one and number two. I don't even like beating him,
So I don't I think his feeling was if the
(35:20):
if the perk of playing my injured quarterback when I
can't catch the Broncos is simply to get the five
seeds so I can possibly play on the road against
the NFC North champion. That doesn't sound like an incentive
I'm going to risk my quarterback for I'll take the
six or the seventh seed and feel perfectly fine with that.
(35:42):
And Denver is New England's problem, it's not our problem.
That's what I think he's done.
Speaker 6 (35:47):
Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised. Well, I mean, they had
a chance going into this week still with that. It
could have came down the AFC West title and they
still would have been in the running with the Broncos.
They would have the Patriots to fall at some point
in these last couple they still had a chance basically
of getting that number one seed. In that bye they
lost to Houston Texans, and I think probably at that
(36:10):
point in time when they start looking at it. It's
just like man, I mean, justin Herbert's been bawling out
and playing as tough as he can with a broken hand.
I remember the first game back that he played right
after it had happened, and he played finished the game
that it happened. In the next game he comes back
out he had surgery, and now he's wearing a glove
with like a little bit of patting on it, and
(36:32):
guys are going after it and he can't fall on it.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
The whole thing. It makes sense at the same time.
Speaker 6 (36:37):
Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if your theory has some
validity to it. I mean, playing his brother, if he
has a hard time beating him right there at this point,
if you don't get that first round by the rest
of them, it's kind of all right, go figure it out,
because I don't think it's one of those you are.
There's a buzz saw waiting for you anywhere on either
side of the bracket. NFC and AFC, I think both
(36:59):
sides have every team that's in it is vulnerable, and
yet just about every team, maybe without with the exception
of Pittsburgh, I think maybe has a shot at going
all the way.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
All right, coming up next, Geane sterotur Man, we got
a lot of things to discuss with the CBS rules.
Analyst on Sports Radio ninety three point three kja RFM
Jake the Malonza down the left side. Melonzi fine, it's
a late looks at front.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Chucks Takah Malon said. The fifty fee to Ryan Winterton
who finishes the play. It's a two one seeattle track
you lead for Jacob Malon said, that's his first point
in the National Hockey League.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
And that is your make Delivery of the game. Last
night's top call from the Krack and Audio Network brought
to you by McDonald's Ordering the food you Craved with
McDelivery as a whole new way to love McDonald's. Ordered
directly from the McDonald's app and select McDelivery today to
start earning points for free food. See app for details.
Good Morning Live Radio programming for you here on the
(00:51):
thirtieth day of December twenty twenty five. Ashley, Ryan, Bucky
Jacobson and Chuck Powell with you. It is our final
show of twenty twenty five. We will be back on
the airwaves Friday for a Football Friday to get you
set for this Saturday's monstrous game between the Seahawks and
the forty nine ers for the number one seed in
(01:12):
the NFC Playoffs. Home field advantage throughout the playoffs bye
and round number one. Oh yeah, there's a lot at stake.
And then there's that nifty old rivalry.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Thing you know that's also yeah, I start about that.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Yeah, I mean, can't you just throw the records out
the window in a great rivalry? Right? Yeah? Yeah, So
even if there wasn't all this at stake, it'd still
be awesome, right. Seahawks forty nine ers Saturday at five o'clock.
And yesterday we finished out Week number seventeen of the
NFL season with an Atlanta Falcons twenty seven to twenty
(01:49):
four win over the Los Angeles Rams. And there is
some significance to the Seahawks playoff path with that result.
And so we'll cover that now with your frost brew
course like choose chill headlines. And the path changes. From
this perspective, the Seahawks are now no longer a threat
to end up with the sixth seed. There was still
(02:11):
a possibility they could end up being the sixth seed
in all of this because out of their same division,
you had a chance for the three best records in
the NFC. Well, now that creates separation, enough separation between
the Seahawks and Rams that no matter what happens in
the final week of the regular season. The Seahawks at
(02:31):
worst are going to get the five seed in the playoffs,
and of course, at best they are the number one seed,
and the five seed puts you in Carolina or Tampa
in week number one, where the sixth seed could have
put you in Philadelphia or in Chicago. And so to
me sounds like an easier path. I wanted to be
on the one, four to five side of the bracket,
(02:54):
and last night's Rams loss assured that the Seahawks will
be on that side of the bracket. Meanwhile, the Atlanta
Falcons have also monkeyed up a little bit of the process.
Here it look like a clear cut Carolina versus Tampa
Bay winner gets into the playoffs. Not so fast, my friend,
to quote Lee Corso. Now, with Atlanta having a chance
(03:16):
to win out, they would end up with the same
record as both Tampa and Carolina. Should Tampa beat Carolina
on Saturday, and in a three way tiebreaker, it's the
Carolina Panthers they get into the playoffs and win the division,
not the Tampa Bay Buccaneers even should they win on Saturday.
(03:39):
So not exactly what the NFL was thinking. Of when
they devised the Tampa Bay Buccaneers taking on the Carolina
Panthers a Saturday. They were hoping one team's in the playoffs.
One team is out, but it's no longer as clear
cut as that. Chargers are going to rest Justin Herbert
and some others for their Week eighteen tilt against the
Denver Broncos. Can't make the Paytriots happy. Lamar Jackson's status
(04:02):
to be determined before Baltimore tries to earn their playoff
spot against Pittsburgh on Sunday Night Football. The college football
playoff rezumes tomorrow at four point thirty with Miami and
Ohio State, and then three games will be played on
New Year's Day. You dub Huskies win on the hardwood
seventy four to sixty five over Utah, and we heard
the make delivery game of the game from Everett fits you.
(04:24):
The Krakens four game winning streak came to a close
at home against the Canucks and a shootout three to
two the final score. There, that's a lot of headlines.
Let's talk to Greg Bell with the Bell tolls.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
It must be seven o'clock and time for twelfth Man
News with Greg Bell. Brought to you by Copola Diamond
Collection Prosecco, Chris Sparkling with bright fruit flavors to make
every toast shine Game Day Bubbles only with Copola Diamond Prosecco.
Now with twelfth Man News, here's Greg Bell with Chuck
and Bud.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Good morning, Greg, Happy.
Speaker 5 (04:56):
New Year, Yeah, Happy New Year. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
I don't know. Oh, I know, Mike McDonald would never
admit it publicly because that would be in the form
of fall onto the umbrella of you know, bulletin board
material for an opponent. But I think he was pretty
happy with the result last night, assuring them to be
on the one four five side of the bracket. Maybe
I'm wrong about that, but it just seems like even
(05:21):
if you lose Saturday, that's a better path to the
super Bowl than being over in Philadelphia or Chicago in
Round one of the playoffs.
Speaker 5 (05:30):
I'm not sure about that because the past, the wildcard
pass the Super Bowl is treacherous no matter who you play,
because you gotta win three games on the road in
three weeks, and you just have to win two games
in both at home. If the Seahawks went on Saturday.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Well no, I'm not saying that I mean, you want
the one seed for sure. I'm just saying I'd rather
have the five. I'd certainly rather have the five seed
than the six for.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
The first game. Then the NFL reseeds after the first game.
It's not a set brack, so the lowest remaining seed
after the first round plays the one. So it's conceivable.
Let's say that the Packers beat the Bears, and the Rams,
who if they can right themselves, are one of the
best teams in the league, wins their first round game,
(06:18):
and then if the Seahawks went to Tampavera, Carolina and
won its first round game, it's conceivable that the first
seed would be playing the seven, and the five would
host the six, and suddenly the Seahawks have a home
game against the Rams in round two. It's but the
simple math of having to win three games go to
(06:40):
Super Bowl rather than two means, of course, this is
so important Saturday night for the Seahawks to win in
terms of the very first round game. Yes, you'd much
rather be the five than the sixth, and last night's
result breaks Seattle's way in that regard. But that's of
course not how McDonald and the Seahawks are viewing it.
They're viewing their process over results. They make a game
(07:01):
plan and prepare accordingly to play another strong game and
win the game on Saturday night, and then where do
they play next? And that's kind of how his attitude
was yesterday about the Saturday game versus a Sunday game.
Instead of the NBC choosing the Seahawks forty nine Ers
for the Sunday night game, no surprise to me at
all that they chose Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers against
the Ravens, potentially with Lamar Jackson a winner out, win
(07:24):
or go home situation. And we asked McDonald yesterday about
I got play Saturday after flying back from the East Coast.
So what when do we play? Just tell us when
we play. So it's all about that stuff that we
are left those of us get to talk about all
the other stuff.
Speaker 6 (07:43):
Gee. I mean after last night's game, where the Rams
to some degree felt like they just weren't really all
there to play at first. I mean, Stafford throws a
couple of balls and right to their guys they pick
sixes and whatnot. But I am wondering, after last night's game,
do you feel like the folk over there at the
v mac ar Our thing, and we're the best team
(08:04):
in the NFL, right, I mean they're preparing obviously for
a big game that has a lot of implications with
the number one seed and.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
To buy and all that stuff.
Speaker 6 (08:11):
But are they feeling like they're the best because, I mean,
over in the AFC, I don't know if there's anybody
over there that is the world beater, world dominator, and
that same thing really in the NFC, even though the
Rams maybe have been the closest thing to that, and
yet they've scuffled here the last I don't know, a
few weeks.
Speaker 5 (08:28):
Yeah, they have. Stafford looked nothing like himself last night
all the way through the end of the game, is
seeing wide open guys and everything else. I think the
Seahawks believe they have the best defense in the world,
and I think they think that might be enough to
get to the Super Bowl. And I wrote a story yesterday.
I feel like I've written this story about six times
(08:48):
the last six weeks. Can the Seahawks win the Super Bowl?
Can they keep winning? With Sam Darnold turning the ball
over like this? And yeah, I know that could have
been a fumble ruled in complete past the fumble could
have been ruled in it and compete pass. And yeah,
I know the other interception, maybe Mike Jackson's foot is
on the end line. It was still a poor throw
and for that coverage, but he could have had two
(09:10):
more interceptions, including to the first pass of the game,
first play of the game, when he should have thrown
a check down and then up rolling out and thrown
it off a defender's helmet. The way the Seahawks are
playing defense and the way they beat the Rams, which
wasn't because of their defense until the fourth quarter, when
it was because of their defense, I'm not so sure
they can't win the Super Bowl as well as their
(09:31):
defenses plan. To your point, Buckie, Yeah, and that's my point.
At the beginning, they're saying, I could see the Bears
going in and beaten the Packers beating the Bears if
the Jordan Love can come back and play. Although the
Bears look really good the other night, especially on offense
against the forty nine Ers, the Niners defense is nothing
like we've seen in the last decade, mostly because of
(09:53):
the injuries. No Bosa, no Warner Jackson. They are a
shovel themselves, and I think the Seahawks feel confident they
can score on San Francisco after having watched with Chicago
did to them. Ay, even Philip Rivers and the Colts
scored twenty seven on them. I think the Seahawks believe
they can score, and I know they believe they can
(10:14):
hold the forty nine ers down. Can the Seahawks do
what they did the McCaffrey and the opener? McCaffrey was
a non factor. I know the Niners missed two field goals,
but they scored seventeen. Could have had twenty three points.
That's it. I think the Sea Arks going into this
thinking they can score twenty four points on San Francisco's defense.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Seahawks insider Greg Mello is with us. Of course, you
can follow Greg at g mel Seattle on x A
and Thenews Tribune dot com for complete Seahawks coverage. Is
We talked to Greg this morning for the final time
of twenty twenty five, and of course we will be
doing a show on Friday to get you ready for
Seahawks and forty nine Ers on Saturday. For all the marbles,
(10:55):
and so I would ask next about Sam Darnold. I
realize that there are a lot of people in sports
talk radio. There are a lot of fans sitting on
their barstools and are worried a little bit about the
way he's playing. Mike McDonald has been just the opposite.
Let it rip has sort of been his theme. So
(11:16):
as you're getting ready to play the biggest game of
the year and then start the playoffs for goodness sake,
is there any chance that they'll get a little more
conservative with Sam going forward or is it too late
to change that at this point.
Speaker 5 (11:31):
No, they're going to push the ball down the field,
especially against San Francisco. I think they're going to test
that secondary and the lack of a pass rush. Forty
nine ers are last in the league in sacks because
of the injuries and no Bosa and the lack of
affecting the quarterback could really make it a passing frenzy
for Seattle. I think they're going to open it up
quite a bit Saturday night and push the ball down
(11:52):
the field like they saw Chicago doing. Donald if he
finishes with the NFL league and turnovers and up by
a couple right now with twenty, you have to go
back to the mid seventies to find a team that
entered the playoffs as a top seed with a guy
who led the league in turnovers mid seventies. Man, it's
as old as I am, as old as you are.
(12:14):
That's been a while, and can that be sustainable? Is
the question. That's the question surrounding this whole push right now.
To me, it's the the question of this team. They
can't just give San Francisco short fields like they did Carolina,
like they did earlier in the game against the Rams,
like they have for months of the last month. I
(12:35):
think it's eight touchdowns and eight interceptions in his last
half dozen games or so. Yet, having said all that,
he made two of his best throws of the game
when it got down to be seventeen to ten and
Carolina was pushing. Donald made back to back throws a
Smith and jig, but once on third down and once
on first down. They got him into the red zone
(12:56):
and set him up for the touchdown that pretty much
put the game away. Or the fields they made a
twenty to ten before the final touchdown. But Donald's been
like that turnover and then comes back and looks brilliant.
I'm not here to say the Seahawks are winning in
spite or despite Sam Donald, but I do think this
(13:16):
is not a recipe to win the Super Bowl. And
if this, if he has games he doesn't turn the
ball over, including Saturday Night, I think the Seahawks can
get to the super Bowl. The defense is that good,
but the margin is so thin in the playoffs, then
possessions become so scarce, and field position is such a
big deal. You just can't hand teams that are good
(13:40):
enough to be playing four chance to win the Super Bowl.
You can't hand them short fields and points. You just can't.
With the exception of the Rams, they are able to
do it against pretty much five hundred and sub five
hundred teams. Atlanta, Carolina go down the list. The Colts.
I don't think they can do that three times, two
or three times in a row to get to the
Super Bowl. Just handing the ball to the other team.
Speaker 6 (14:02):
I'm well, I'm with you. I mean, you know, there's
no doubt about it. Turnovers. There's a reason why it's
a you got to win the turnover battle, or it
feels like you do. But when it comes to him,
what would be more concerning from your perspective, is it
the fumbles? Because he's right up there I think he's
right behind cam Ward for the most fumbles in the league,
and then what have you got fourteen interceptions or whatever. Obviously,
(14:26):
not all turnovers are created equal, right, I mean, they're
not all your fault necessarily. Sometimes the receiver clanks one
and it goes up in the air and you get
an interception for it, even though it shouldn't be on you.
Sometimes you get hit from the blind side and you're
you know, you fumble the ball. You want to be
able to feel that, or you want your guy to
be able to feel that. But what's your bigger concern
when it comes to if there's an issue with the turnovers?
(14:48):
Because there is there's an issue there, and yet I
think the good outweighs the bad.
Speaker 5 (14:53):
Yeah, Bucky, I think the concern is that when he's
near pressure and guys getting near him, he loses the ball,
he fumbles. It's just the security of the ball in traffic.
He handles it every play and he's going to have
guys come in on him. He has to be secure
with the ball and there are times when he's not.
(15:16):
The interceptions if they're going to continue pushing it down
the field, which they have for seventeen games, So I
would like to Chuck's point, They're not suddenly going to change,
especially with San Francisco lacking of passers. They're going to
push down the ball down the field, and that's, as
McDonald would call it, the cost of doing business. So
they're going to continue to throw, and he's going to
probably throw more interceptions between now and the end of
(15:36):
their season. Whenever that ends up being. It's holding onto
the ball when guys are coming in on you. I
keep thinking, it's been seems like years ago, but I
keep thinking that the Seahawks really should have beaten the
forty nine could have been forty nine ers at the
end of the game. If Donald simply holds onto the
ball when his right tackle got pushed into him by
Nick Bosa, that's a fundamental. I mean, he wasn't expecting it. Yes,
(15:59):
he was trying to throw a check down over the middle. Yes,
so he was raising his arm and he lost the ball.
The same thing he did against that Carolina raising the
ball to throw. He lost the ball. You have to
hold onto the ball the period, end of story. It's
the number one fundamental of his position because he holds
it on every play. To me, that probably is the
most alarming thing. I'm not here to say that Sam
(16:21):
Donald is a problem for them. The turnovers are problem,
but Sam Donald has shown this season he's also capable
of winning playoff games. For you.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Rashid Shaheed, what's the latest with him?
Speaker 5 (16:34):
Yeah, that's a big deal because they didn't have Shaheed
the first time they played the forty and I didn't
have she for half the season, and he has tilted fields,
changed field position with the He basically was the reason
they came back against the Rams with that pump return
when they're down sixteen midway through the fourth quarter. Look,
the average concussion, not every concussion, to say, not every
(16:54):
brain's the same. And I'm never going to spouse somebody
rushing back from a concussion and more important things than
quality of life and playing a football game with a
head injury. The average concussion is nine days of recovery time.
They only have six five really between playing when he
got the concussion and Saturday. I wouldn't think he's going
(17:15):
to play. McDonald said that he's doing well early in
the concussion protocol, but there's a very strict five step
process that the NFL has prescribed that you have to
go through, and you can't go from one phase to
another until you're cleared. And if you have a setback
of any symptoms reappearing as you increase your physical activity,
you gut to go back to the previous phase. I
can't see that six days pulling that off. And by
(17:39):
the way, that was needless to say, a penalty on
Mike Jackson, the former Seahawks corner three yard four yards
into the White rodeo, throwing him down onto his head
into the Carolina bench, then standing over and pushing down
on him. I asked McDonald what he thought of that
play yesterday, and he said, well, we put a lot
of plays into the league for review on my things
recalled and what you weren't and obviously we're going to
(18:01):
protect our hope that our players get protected. They didn't
like that. They definitely thought that's an unnecessary injury. They
may be feeling the effects and field position and game breaking.
Not to mention defenses have to play Smith and Jig,
but a little more honestly, with the speed of shaheat
down the field in the offense, that's gonna be a
big loss if you can't play, and it would surprise
(18:23):
me if you can.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Well, Happy New Year, sir and Joy celebrate, and then
we'll reconvene on Friday for one more conversation about this
Monster game coming up.
Speaker 5 (18:35):
Yeah, thank you. It's not like last week for Seahork
fans to know they're not taking New Year's Day off.
They are actually meeting today, practicing a little bit today,
and then Wednesday, Thursday, they're practice in full go. There'll
be an injury report today for a Saturday game. The
NFL requires them put an injury practice participation report today.
But yeah, different schedule this week then last.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
All right, sounds good, Thanks man, appreciate we'll talk to
you soon. Enjoy the new year, all right, Greg Bell
with Us. That's Greg's way of saying that nobody's got
to worry about like holding Leonard Williams hair on January first,
because they've got a practice, so there's no worry about that.
That's good. Yeah, I mean may be the easiest on
the team, I would think, though, Yeah, because he usually
(19:19):
does keep it confined. All right. Greg's segment with Us
is brought to you by Coppola Diamond Prosecco. Every game
needs an MVP, and this one well it sparkles. Copola
Diamond Collection Prosecco is light, crisp and always to win,
Grab your bubbles and toast you every touchdown game day
Bubbles only with Coppola Diamond Prosecco. All right, coming up next,
(19:43):
one thing that we did discuss late in the show yesterday,
but perhaps not enough, and I want to have this
conversation before we bring Gene Sterator on at eight o'clock.
We're going to discuss the chaos possession that took place
at the end of the first half against the Panthers.
Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM.
Speaker 7 (20:01):
We're trying to get into or two minute mode and
trying to push the ball forward. But we were trying,
we just weren't doing it. So that's the way the
drive went, you know. And again you're not trying to
get you know, we have the ball come out of
the half and originally we're trying to go score a touchdown,
but weren't able to get it going. So at that
point trying to get in field goal range and didn't
get it, you know, So but we by doing that,
we also you know, basically eliminated their ability to go
(20:24):
score field goal as well, So that was the top
behind it. I don't know, I just it looked like
to me and from the naked eye, that we got it,
you know so, but they said we didn't.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
I don't necessarily disagree with that. But also to my
naked eye, it looked like a complete and total mess.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
So one would call it a cluster.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
And you and the Seahawks played a really major role
in that complete and utter mess that was. Mike McDonald
reminds me of New Year's resolution to eighty four that
I have this year, I'm going to stop introducing myself
to the strangers as Seahawks head coach Mike McDonald.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
That's probably good.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Yeah, no, hey, I did that a lot this past year.
I don't know, I don't know why.
Speaker 6 (21:07):
Just just yeah, you've decided to just somebody else.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
That's not really fair because then they see me. If
they're sitting there wondering at the bar, is that really
coach McDonald doesn't look like him at all? And then
I start acting a fool?
Speaker 5 (21:21):
Right?
Speaker 7 (21:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Then that him?
Speaker 6 (21:24):
Yeah, in the organization, that's good. You would stop for
that reason.
Speaker 8 (21:28):
Yeah, you should still make reservations using his name, though,
you'll get better seats.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
That's what I'll do.
Speaker 5 (21:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Now I have four hundred and seven New Year's resolutions. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
and uh, of course there's a New Year's resolution ninety
eight eat more Snap Peace. It's Chuck Buck and Ashley
with you. And yes that was I didn't even bring
it up. I mean, we do Monday Morning Quarterback, and
Hughes got a lot of thoughts, and Greg's got a
(21:53):
lot of thoughts, and Coach has a lot of thoughts,
and we try to set those guys up for all
of their many, many, many thoughts, and we don't even
get to all of them. But by the flow of
the show, we ended up not talking about that chaos
possession at the end of the first half, and I
wanted to discuss it before we brought Gene's sterator on
the air today at eight o'clock because the refs had
a lot to do with the chaos, and maybe the
(22:15):
NFL rules had a lot to do with the chaos.
I can't even explain everything that happened. Maybe we haven't
given this enough time, because that was just nonsense. They
get the ball three forty six left in the first
half and the score is tied at three so we're
all ready frustrated, like, is the offense ever going to
kick in? What's going on here? They look terrible here
in the first half, and then all of a sudden
(22:37):
second and six from the forty four you have that
play to JSN where it seemed to me like there
was a horse collar and a face mask on the
same play, and somehow the official and there was one
in the screen, missed both. JJ Watt said, called it out.
Wasn't that both? And they missed them both? And then
(22:59):
they came back from a break. He starts explaining, how well,
I guess it wasn't technically a horse caller, so I'm
assuming that the Gene Sterotre on that network whispered in
his ear. No, that's not well, I don't know what
a horse collar is if that's not a horse caller.
So we'll have Gene explain this to us. But just
how you miss both the face mask and the horse
(23:22):
collar situation on a day you aren't exactly shining as
a crew, let's face it up until that moment that
was part of the.
Speaker 6 (23:30):
Chaos anyway, Yeah, it did look like a horse caller.
I didn't watch any of the replayer. I didn't see
the replay of it, just like in real time. It
was like, yep, the hand was right there. Now I
will be interested to hear what Gene's territory has to
say about is. I don't know if there's something about
you can have your hand there. I know there's somewhere
where you can do I know outside, I'm pretty sure
(23:52):
you can do horse caller somewhere, like if it's inside
the interior of the offensive line or something where something
like that's okay to be interesting to find out. But
that face mask was another one was one. Yeah, that
one actually kind of turned his head. I mean the
last one, the more important one to some degree, like
(24:12):
he just has hands to high. It's like he ran
into his hand, he ran his face into his hand,
and he didn't even really try to grab onto it.
Now you'd run into it first split second, and it's
a face mask. It's the way that's going to be.
I can't have your hands up there. But that one
was deliberate where it was like, how do neither one
of those things he called it was it was a
bit of a cluster, yes, actually.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Said I don't know that contributed to the confusion that
our coaching staff seemed to have in that moment, but
they had the two minute warning to kind of reset.
They get the run for Charbonnay for the first down,
and then you had that crazy Darnald in completion that
got batted down by the same guy who almost picked
it off. Well, I don't know how often that's happened,
(24:55):
where you batted out, you deflect the ball, it hits
the receiver and then bounces back to you as a
defensive lineman. I'm not sure I've even never seen that point. No,
I have not, So that certainly contributed to the Cats.
Plus Cooper Cup and the ball was deflected, so it's
not like he just dropped it. But you you just think.
(25:15):
I always think of Cooper Cup as if the ball
hits him in the hands or comes within like an
area code of his hands, he's going to catch the ball.
So even that was a strange. Part of it was
that a Cooper Cup drop. Then you see the deflection,
then you see who it hits off of and who
it bounces back to, and the guy that deflected it
and fell to the ground almost gets the interception, which
(25:37):
they called an interception at the time, which was a
terrible call as well, and then had to overrule it
later chaos.
Speaker 6 (25:44):
Yeah, I mean it looked like an interception in real time,
and then as they showed it and slowed it down,
you're like, yeah, it's slipping through his hands there at
the end. So they got it right at the end.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Again.
Speaker 6 (25:54):
At this point, I'm feeling like, you're you still should
get some points out of this thing, but they found
a way not to.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Yeah. Then you got to the forty eight, then the forty,
then the the forty five, and then you had the
walker play yeah, where he catches the ball and he didn't.
It wasn't a drop. You think of a drop as
you throw a ball to somebody and they don't catch.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
It right like their tournament field before.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
They really caught the ball, and then you think, then
you have a fumble where you have the ball and
then you get hit and the ball pops loose. This
was a drop of a different kind. He caught the
ball and then turned around and just dropped it. He
just dropped it.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
I need that.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
And it wasn't the first time we'd seen that happen.
Mitchell Evans did it earlier for Carolina, just turned to
run with it and dropped it.
Speaker 6 (26:38):
It was a little rainy.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
It was a little rainey. I'm sure there's a reason,
but still, I mean, there's a lot to happen on
one drive. Yeah, And so here you're racing against the clock.
You're at one thirteen at that point, he gets six yards.
So at that point Mike McDonald thinks they have the
first down, but Carolina is like, that's not even in
a completion or did he fumble? And they don't take
(27:02):
the time to stop and address any of it because
Carolina doesn't want to stop the clock, I guess, and
Mike McDonald, I don't know what it is about. McDonald
wanted to hold onto his timeouts in the first half,
but he'll save them, all three of them un till
there's ten seconds left in the first half. I mean
to me, I would want to clear up that confusion.
(27:22):
I'm assuming he didn't want to in case it was
incomplete or a fumble, and so he just let the
clock roll. And now we don't know if you've converted
on fourth down or not. We don't know if it's
a fumble. We don't know anything about it, and the
play just continues chaos. I'm telling you chaos.
Speaker 8 (27:40):
Yeah, and he had said too, oh, we didn't want
to burn a time out there to make sure that
we could run something else that might be more significant
on that fourth I don't know.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Even if you have them to burn, and even if
he doesn't get it. I mean, Myers, that's a sixty
three yard field goal at that point. I mean, that's
a little bit on comfortable. But he's it's attemptable, yep. Right,
So if it is fourth and six they get you
find out the worst news that it's an incomplete pass. Yeah,
and it's fourth down and six, you still at least
get a field coal attempt at that point. But instead
(28:14):
you're you're like, did he get the first down? Was
it a catch? Was it a fumble? So you're getting
ready to call a fourth and one play and now
you're getting down to it. Now you're down to within
what just thirty seconds or so. You don't even have
time to run your barner play out on the field.
What you should have been doing if you called a
time out, you set up the barner play. Yeah, Barny,
(28:37):
we don't use the time out because we're trying to
preserve the five yards. I'm assuming I would assume so,
and then you're trying to run a quick play with darnold,
you don't ask for a measurement or you don't get
a measurement. I'm not sure.
Speaker 6 (28:50):
Yeah, it because they virtually measured it that quickly. Well,
it's all it is, is a spot. They just spot it.
And then why that's where they just do it? They
didn't show it on the screen.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Then why does when they do do a virtual measurement
it takes like fifteen minutes to show it. If you
can do it that quickly.
Speaker 5 (29:08):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
It's a great question, right, So that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
This whole thing is just like chaos. So then you
have four to one and then the Seahawks think they
got the first down and they don't.
Speaker 5 (29:18):
Know you didn't.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Well, can you measure it?
Speaker 5 (29:20):
Nope?
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Can we challenge it?
Speaker 5 (29:22):
Nope?
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Yeah, we have three timeouts. Why can't we challenge it?
We want to challenge the spot. They told me we couldn't.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
Yeah, they told me we just didn't get it.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
What Like, the whole thing was insane and I didn't
understand any of it. And maybe there's perfectly good explanations
for all of those things, but I'm just sitting here
going what is going on? Will somebody get their arms
around this football game right now? Because I think that
both teams are so afraid of making a mistake, they
(29:53):
are letting a bunch of mistakes take place, and it
ended up resulting in no points at all. I mean, yes,
seventeen seconds on the clock. If you don't go for
that quarterback sneak, now you're definitely in Jason myersfield goal range.
Now now you're looking at a fifty seven yard or
he makes those in his sleep these days. And so
you just blew any chance to get any points rushing
(30:15):
your fourth and one sneak play that isn't even your
fourth and one sneak play, and you end up going
into the locker room with all three timeouts because you
were afraid of what reviews going to show, and then
you were denied being able to see what review might tell.
What kind of a possession was that that was?
Speaker 3 (30:36):
It was ugly, that is just and then the.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Top it all off, Carolina gets the ball at the
fifty yard line and they decide our quarterback doesn't have
a strong enough arm to throw a hail mary, so
we're just gonna go into the locker room.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
What, Yeah, that was lucky.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
How do you not try a hail Mary there? You
just didn't want to expose the Bryce Young can only
throw the ball twenty five yards. Rivers would have tried it,
he would at least got it twenty six. I don't know.
It was crazy. Maybe Jean's got some explanations to this.
We'll talk to him at eight o'clock. Coming up next though,
why are the Chargers resting their starting quarterback for a
(31:13):
game that could impact the playoffs? Sports Radio ninety three
point three KJRFM that your year will start with the
drum sol long.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
Oh, that's great to.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Welcome you into twenty twenty six.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
Might be the best way to start a new year.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, So you gotta start at eleven fifty
six and twenty seconds, okay, and then you will start
twenty twenty six with and you will feel it in
the air that night, you will feel it up in you. Yeah. Frankly,
it's Chuck, it's Buck, it's Ashley with you. Jean Stertors
(31:48):
going to join us at eight o'clock here this morning.
It's also a cracking ticket Tuesday. Keep listening. I think
we've already played it this hour, but we'll do it
again next hour. Your opportunity to win a pair of
tickets to see the Crack and take on the Boston
Bruins on January sixth. Be the tenth caller when you
hear that piece of audio play in the eight o'clock
hour at two oh six two eight six ninety five
to secure your tickets to the game. Chargers have decided,
(32:13):
and they do have a little bit at stake. I
mean there could be in their conference a chance to
face not as mighty a foe if you end up
with the five seed. They were eliminated from any shot
at being able to host a first round game or
to get the number one seed. Maybe they no, they
didn't even have a shot at that this past week.
(32:34):
But they were eliminated from division title this past week.
But they still could play for better seeding in the playoffs.
But Jim Harbaugh has decided it's not worth it for us,
So he's sitting as banged up quarterback Justin Herbert. He's
sitting several other starters. It will give Denver a leg
(32:54):
up over New England. I can't imagine New England's going
to be too happy about this. But certainly the Broncos
who are trying to get the one seed, got to
be happy about not having to face Justin Herbert and
the Chargers this week. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (33:09):
I mean, if you're wanting to get that number one
seed and if they're gonna rest some guys, okay, great,
I mean, because it is a you still got to
win because the Patriots, who do they play, They're playing
somebody bad Miami, Miami. Yeah maybe Miami with the quinn
Ewers guy, maybe they have a chance. But typically you
would just kind of figure that's probably a w for them,
(33:30):
and they would need they would need the Broncos would
need the Patriots and the Jaguars to lose if they
don't pull one off against the Bolts and so to
get that number one seed. So yeah, that's they're trying
to win this one and be able to get that
week off.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Yeah, definitely an advantage. Patriots would need help in order
to get them, and obviously the Chargers aren't willing to
give them any right, I mean, it's not their responsibility,
but it's not like they don't have anything to play for, right,
And yet there's and then also there's the whole like
you know, like you owe it to the league kind
(34:05):
of thing as well. That comes into play.
Speaker 8 (34:08):
Well, yeah, because even teams that are fully out of
it aren't resting.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
Right people, Right, Yeah, you just go out and play.
Speaker 5 (34:14):
Now.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
I believe thoroughly that you have to do what's in
the best interest of the Chargers. And if you think
that justin Herbert getting a weak arrest, considering how banged
up he's been and he's out there hand yeah, playing
like Chubbs Peterson, then you got to do what you
got to do to help the Chargers win. And if
you think that's more valuable than a five seed or
a six seed, and you're perfectly willing to take the
(34:36):
seven seed and have a healthy er justin Herbert, you
think that's the best strategy, then you do that. I
have a theory though, Oh I don't think he wants
to face his brother. He never beats his brother. He
doesn't like playing his brother. So why am I going
to risk my quarterback to try to get a five
(34:59):
seed and try to get a win against the Denver
Broncos and ruin their day? And like, the best thing
that I can achieve out of this is to get
a five seed. And then I got to face my
brother in the first round of the playoffs. I hate
facing my brother. He beats me every single time, number
one and number two. I don't even like beating him,
So I don't I think his feeling was if the
(35:20):
if the perk of playing my injured quarterback when I
can't catch the Broncos is simply to get the five
seeds so I can possibly play on the road against
the NFC North champion. That doesn't sound like an incentive
I'm going to risk my quarterback for I'll take the
six or the seventh seed and feel perfectly fine with that.
(35:42):
And Denver is New England's problem, it's not our problem.
That's what I think he's done.
Speaker 6 (35:47):
Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised. Well, I mean, they had
a chance going into this week still with that. It
could have came down the AFC West title and they
still would have been in the running with the Broncos.
They would have the Patriots to fall at some point
in these last couple they still had a chance basically
of getting that number one seed. In that bye they
lost to Houston Texans, and I think probably at that
(36:10):
point in time when they start looking at it. It's
just like man, I mean, justin Herbert's been bawling out
and playing as tough as he can with a broken hand.
I remember the first game back that he played right
after it had happened, and he played finished the game
that it happened. In the next game he comes back
out he had surgery, and now he's wearing a glove
with like a little bit of patting on it, and
(36:32):
guys are going after it and he can't fall on it.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
The whole thing. It makes sense at the same time.
Speaker 6 (36:37):
Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if your theory has some
validity to it. I mean, playing his brother, if he
has a hard time beating him right there at this point,
if you don't get that first round by the rest
of them, it's kind of all right, go figure it out,
because I don't think it's one of those you are.
There's a buzz saw waiting for you anywhere on either
side of the bracket. NFC and AFC, I think both
(36:59):
sides have every team that's in it is vulnerable, and
yet just about every team, maybe without with the exception
of Pittsburgh, I think maybe has a shot at going
all the way.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
All right, coming up next, Geane sterotur Man, we got
a lot of things to discuss with the CBS rules.
Analyst on Sports Radio ninety three point three kja RFM
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Burden
The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run “Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.