Season 3 Episode 18: Big Commanders Comeback, Chargers Statement, Michael Penix Debut, Week 17 Picks!

On this episode, John and Randall spread Christmas cheer by breaking down Week 16 and some of the big wins for the Chargers, Chiefs, Vikings, and of course the Rams! Plus the Commanders big comeback win, the Patriots surprising start against the Bills, and plenty more! Merry Christmas from the boys!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:21):
What is going on? Everybody? Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to another
edition of the John and Randall Football Experience. My name
is John Anno and with me, maybe in the middle
of his midnight rounds, is Santa Minogue. Randall. Are you
delivering Christmas cheer all over the Miami area today? Oh?

Speaker 2 (00:45):
John, you just know I'm gonna be delivering hard blocks
later today.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
Yeah. Well, thanks Randall for popping on with me. It
is a Christmas Eve edition of the John Randel Football Experience. Obviously,
with the random schedule, and by random, I mean the
NFL taking advantage of everything they possibly can take advantage of.
So they just played Week sixteen Monday Night Football last night.
Today is Tuesday, Christmas Eve, and tomorrow Week seventeen will

(01:15):
begin on Christmas Day, so they have about forty eight
hours not even because tomorrow's games begin at one pm.
Last night's game obviously ended around eleven pm, so it's
more like thirty eight hours or so between Week sixteen
and Week seventeen, which is a quick turnaround. But that's
what Randon and I are here for. We're here to
bring you all the hard hitting news and the analysis

(01:36):
and the picks from the week that was and the
week that will be so random, Why don't we begin,
as we always do, with a very Christmas edition of
Quick Hits. All right, So we had this Eagles and
Commander's game on Sunday. It turned into quite the classic.
You had Jalen Hurts getting concussed about eleven plays in,

(01:59):
so he was out of fail for the duration of
the game. Kenny Pickett steps in and the Eagles looked
like they were going to cruise up big in this
game for a lot of it until the very end
really was when the Commanders started to mount the comeback,
and it was a little bit of that magic that
we had seen from jayde Daniels earlier this year in
this comeback effort. You know, they scored three touchdowns in

(02:22):
the fourth quarter, ended up holding off the Eagles who
only had four second half field goals here and you know,
we were just talking about before we started recording about
how the Eagles have had some of these weird losses
this year. They're twelve and three, but they really could be,
you know, thirteen and two or even fourteen and one,
depending on which way you look at this. But Randall,
we've talked about this a lot throughout the year. You've
been very high on the Commander since the beginning of

(02:43):
the year, since even before the season started. And this
may be their most important win of the year. Obviously,
they've still would have been in the playoff, you know,
punt had they not won this game, but come back
from behind like this against one of the better competitors
and a team that was on a big winning streak
is a big deal for Jade Daniels and this Washington team.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
Yeah. John, he just keeps proving why he should potentially
be the rookie of the year. Right, Like, it's just
been incredible on what he's been able to do, not
only throughout the course of the season to lead them
to so far to a ten to five record. Right
they're six and two at home, which is incredible, but
what he's able to do in the last two minutes

(03:25):
of a game in the fourth and job, I mean
leading them down against the first place Eagles team where yes,
the Eagles, they could technically only have one lost job
if you think about it, the Saquon Barkley drop against
Atlanta that seals the deal. This was Devonte Smith's first
drop of the season. John, that seals the deal. But

(03:45):
as we all know, those things happen, drops happen, mistakes
are made. Let's teams back in it, right, and Jayden
Daniels took advantage of it. That dude can throw the ball.
He knows how to move. This Commander's team is completely
different than in years past. I think John, this was
the first time they've had ten wins in a season,

(04:06):
or we're ten and five through this point of the
season since like the eighties, nineties May seven.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
Yeah, I think it was in the nineties that I
saw the same staff they referring to. This is the
really crazy thing, too, is that they overcame a lot
of turnovers in this game. It was a couple of
picks by Daniels, but also a couple of fumbles by
Brian Robinson and also by Daniel Diami Brown. So they
you know, they lost five turnovers in this game and
we're still able to overcome it. Kind of gave me

(04:35):
shades of Jared Goff earlier this season throwing five picks
in a game still winning. However, you know, the Eagles
with Kenny Picktt clearly are not the same team they are,
but Jade with Jalen Hurts and I feel like if
Hurts plays this game, you probably don't see the ending
that you see here, although you never know. But that
being said, Kenny Pickett's clearly not Jade Jalen Hurts. And

(04:58):
even though they got out to a bigger early on
or a lead early on, they still weren't able to
close it off, just because I feel like they didn't
have the guy out there that they needed out there.
But that being said, you know, it's a concussion for her,
so we know it's not going to be you know,
the rest of the year, because it didn't look like
a bad concussion. Obviously, there's a difference between some of
these ones that get you wrung up for a week

(05:18):
or some of the ones that knocked you out for
a season. But he was ready to go back in
the game basically had to be told from above like, hey,
you're not going back in right now. So I think
he'll be out maybe just this past game. He probably
if I had to guess, and I don't want to
sound passive about head injuries, but I feel like just
the way he was reacting, he'll probably be able to
pass protocol this week and play this upcoming Sunday for

(05:40):
the Eagles. However, I do think that it's worth noting
that obviously this happened, and now going forward, if Kenny
Pickett does have to step in again, we now kind
of know what the Eagles look like, and I think
we know that while they could put up some points,
it might be hard to go toe to toe with
some of the teams that are really good. But I

(06:01):
will say the Eagles defense was kind of the reason
Washington was able to come back in this game, not
Kenny Pickett obviously giving up points down the stretch. They
had a couple of guys who out hurt and I
think even one I think Darius Slay got ejected as
well for a couple of penalties. But yeah, it was
a good win obviously for Washington doing it the way

(06:21):
they did it, and I think doing it against a
division rival is even better.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
Yeah, this Washington team, John has a chance to be
very special because so they've had in twenty twelve, they
went ten and six. Obviously, the NFL ad in an
extra games, so we still have two games left their
ten and five. They went ten and six in two
thousand and five, ten and six and ninety nine, so
they haven't had an eleven win year and since nineteen

(06:49):
ninety one, where they won fourteen games. They happened to
win the Super Bowl that year. In ninety one ninety one,
John also was the last time they won a playoff game. Okay,
so they this team is actually built, I think to
win a playoff game just from adversity. They've overcome, Right,
when you have a Hail Mary that gets caught, you

(07:11):
march down against the Eagles to get a game winning touchdown. Right,
They've had some good, hard fought victories, which I think
prepares them for the playoffs.

Speaker 1 (07:21):
Yeah, I agree. I think that they're battle tested is
often the word that you hear thrown around in that respect,
and I think that's a good word to using this instinct,
because they are a team that maybe will be looked
at as a team that Okay, maybe they're going to
be a quick out just because they're younger and they
don't have the proven track record. But I do think
that what you're saying is true. They've already kind of
gone through some of the trials of toughness here during

(07:45):
the season, so we'll see how that ends up faring
for them in the long run. But ultimately this was
a really good statement victory for them this past Sunday,
which was just two days ago. We now take back.
Let's go back to last Thursday, which was the first
game of the week. The Broncos Chargers ended to be
a pretty good game. It was a touchdown game in

(08:05):
the end here, even though the Chargers were up by
I think by as many as eleven at one point,
or sorry, they were down by as many as eleven
at one point, so they had to come They did
so old in the second half, really, which I thought
said a lot about them. But I also think that
these are the kinds of games that for a rookie
quarterback and bow Nicks. He didn't necessarily play bad in

(08:27):
this game, Randal, but he ends up getting out dueled
by a guy who you know, I've called him a frog,
We've called him kind of soft times throughout his career.
But justin Herbert and his Chargers team finally had a
win this year that you felt good about. It wasn't
just like them getting out on a bad team and
kind of coasting the whole way. They had to come
from behind against a really good defense, And I think

(08:50):
this is the kind of win that could spark the
Chargers a little bit here down to stretch. I'm just
curious to think what you are here, what you think
about it?

Speaker 2 (08:57):
Yeah, and you know, like we kind of were talking
poorly on him, right, I mean, he's at thirty two
hundred yards, eighteen touchdowns, three three picks, right, But it's
not what you would expect to see out of this guy.
He is.

Speaker 1 (09:11):
He used to be used to be more of a chapter.
He used to be more of a passer that would
make more mistakes. Now he's just not making mistakes. But
he's also not taking chances.

Speaker 2 (09:20):
One hundred per I mean, the first four games of
the year, John, he didn't even throw for over two
hundred yards and he only has one three hundred yard
game this season. Right, Like that, I think speaks.

Speaker 1 (09:31):
Hard to believe more volume.

Speaker 2 (09:33):
Right. And and the other thing too is which was
crazy they said on the broadcast, he is going to
be the fastest quarterback to I forget what the yardage
it was in his first five career years. Yeah, I'm
not sure if you're able to look that up trying
to right now. Yeah, So I mean it, but hey,

(09:57):
if they're winning, they're winning. But I get that. But
this guy can win you more games when he does
what we saw the other night. I so they need
to let him loose.

Speaker 1 (10:10):
He he has the record for pass completion or sorry,
the quickest to get to seventeen hundred pass completions. So
you get to seventeen hundred completions in sixty eight games,
and it was one game faster than Patrick Mahomes did.
He was and he was fifth in NFL history to
get to twenty thousand passing yards, third youngest.

Speaker 2 (10:32):
That's crazy.

Speaker 1 (10:33):
Yeah, it is crazy when you just kind of look
at that compared to the scope of what he's done
in his career so far. Say, he's been pretty good,
but the teams around him just haven't had the success yet.

Speaker 2 (10:44):
And maybe maybe that's starting to change. You know, he
has Harboro. Harborough is just trying to break him in,
you know, make sure, hey, you know what we don't
Maybe we don't need you to grow for three hundred
and fifty yards a game. But I'm thinking that when
he does throw for three hundred yards, how do you
lose those games when he's just absolutely slinging it right?

Speaker 1 (11:05):
Yeah, one hundred percent. And I think this again, this
was a good win for them against a team that,
while they have a young quarterback, has had a great
defense all year, and they had to play from behind.
So you give the Chargers some credit. With a couple
of games left to go in their season, they are
trying to trend towards a playoff birth, which they should
be able to do if they win one more game
in my opinion. Nine and six. Although that division, or

(11:27):
specifically those two teams that just played, are very much
closed with each other here, all right. So then we
have the Saturday games, and the Saturday games are what's
going to set us up for tomorrow's Christmas games, because
it was the four teams that we'll see on Christmas Day,
only they were playing other opponents. So they basically just
mixed up the opponents. And the whole reason they did
this was because they wanted to be able to showcase

(11:48):
teams that are, you know, highly thought of, playoff type teams.
And they also wanted to make sure they had the
same amount of rest that it would be between Sunday
and Thursday as it would be for Saturday. And so
they played these two games on Saturday, the first of
which was the Chiefs defeating the Texans in Kansas City
to move to fourteen and won this year. Obviously, it

(12:11):
had the tough injury to Tank Dell after he caught
the touchdown and he got ran into by a teammate
there in the back of the end zone and that
whole situation. But for the Texans, while they did play
it close at times throughout this game, Randle, it was
the Chiefs that end up on the right side. And
even though it was eight points, I guess you could
technically call it another one score victory for them. So

(12:33):
you know, I mean, what were your thoughts about this
game on Saturday? Did you were you surprised that the
Chiefs won it? I mean they're fourteen to one now.
I know we keep having a similar conversation about them,
but where you're currently feeling about the Kansas City Chiefs
with two games left in their season?

Speaker 2 (12:49):
Yeah, John, I mean again, I thought the Texans were
gonna have a little bit more of a fight, and
it seemed like they had this game. I don't want
to be the one to say there was some bad
referee in going on, but you know, I'm going to
be that guy.

Speaker 1 (13:06):
It always seems to be the case with the Chiefs.

Speaker 2 (13:08):
I mean, I mean, you saw it. There were some
egregious things going on out there, John, that just were
not called. There was a holding called on the Texans
on defense when they were the ones getting held. You know,
like it was just egregious, John, I mean, Fairbanks missing
a pat that obviously hurt them as well. But I'm

(13:32):
just I could not believe some of the officiating in
this game. And then the NFL Means pages were all
over it, all over the horrible, the horrible officiating from
that game. But I'm still confident, John, the Chiefs will
not go to the super Bowl and they're losing in
the first round.

Speaker 1 (13:53):
I love how you spend your free time because you're
like sitting here talking about how you're on the NFL
moon pages and seeing what they're saying about it. I'm like,
this guy is one of the busiest guys I know,
yet he's got time to go check out what the
NFL meding pages they're saying about the Chiefs.

Speaker 3 (14:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (14:09):
I mean, look, it's I'm not gonna waste too much
time because I feel like it's a broken record at
this point. But they're fourteen to one, and at this
point I don't think that they're playing, you know, their
best football, but they're playing winning football. I think that's
the biggest point to keep in mind here is whether
you like them in the playoffs or not, you have
to kind of at least respect the track record that

(14:31):
they've been able to put together the last several years.
And the fact is they come together it seems like
always at the right time here. So I don't know,
I'm gonna move on to the next game because I
feel like oftentimes when we talk about the Chiefs, it's
fairly repetitive. I did feel really bad for Tank Dell.
This is two years in a row now that he's
injured on a play by his own player. This one

(14:52):
was really bad. I'm sure we saw it. I don't
know if you saw the replay slow down you watched
it or whatever, but clearly his knee not fully intact
after he was tackled basically by a teammate. I mean
he was going down to the ground. They were both
diving to try to make the play, and it just
happened to be really bad timing on the teammates park

(15:14):
that went right into his knee, And yeah, you could
see the emotion from c. J. Stroud and Joe Mix
and everybody else around. So it was clearly a tough
moment for him and for them. And now they have
him and they have Digs that are out, so it's
gonna be interesting to see how the Texans can kind
of hold up here physically down the stretch. But yeah,
I was a little bit sad and disappointed to see

(15:35):
that for Tank Dell, but obviously for the Chiefs, they
just keep on winning games. And then this other game
on Saturday Randall was a AFC North battle Raven Steelers,
and it just felt like from the jump at the Steelers,
despite the fact they were able to tie it up
in the third quarter, it just felt like they were
playing from behind the whole time. And I feel like

(15:56):
they're not a team that you want to be playing
from behind and on often because while they do have
you know, Russell Wilson's having a good year and they
have some playmakers on that team, especially without George Pickens
right now, that offense, it does it leaves a little
to be desired in my opinion.

Speaker 2 (16:17):
On it's going to be desired, John, But where where
do you see them being able to go from there?

Speaker 1 (16:24):
Well, I mean the problem is I think they need
George Pickens back to make an accurate depiction of what
this team could possibly look like in the playoff setting,
because they got doubled up here by a division rival
that we feel like, you know, the Ravens some weeks
look like one of the best teams in the league,
and other weeks they are losing games to you know,
the Raiders in the last second. So it's like, how
are we sitting here judging the Ravens and I think

(16:48):
they're a pretty good team. But then you have on
the other side of the coin here the Steelers who
are dealing with this injury that you know, you look
at the servants saying Pickens, well, he's not like top
five receiver in the league, and maybe he's not even
ten guy, But I do think when you look at
the offense and what he brings to it's incredibly important
because they don't have another big, down the field threat
kind of guy. So when he's out and suddenly everybody

(17:10):
slotted up one more spot, you're going to struggle. I mean,
Mike Williams is a good compliment receiver, but he's also
not a guy who you're gonna want. Pencil is number
one and then Calvin Austin and these other guys that
you're out there are more slot type players. So I
think that they need to get healthy, is what I think.
And I think that starts with George Pickens obviously, but
if they get Pickens back, I really do like the

(17:31):
Steelers as a team that could surprise the people. I mean,
tomorrow they're playing the Chiefs and tomorrow they are hoping
to have Pickens in the lineup, and I think that
they're the kind of team that could give the Chiefs
some trouble just based on the types of games that
we've seen the Chiefs play this season. And this game
will be in Pittsburgh by the way, Uh.

Speaker 2 (17:49):
You already know where. I'm already starting a lean johns
Man maybe hard lock coming up here. I think Pickens
is going to be back at healthy, right. I think TJ.
Watt is going to be ready to go. He's getting healthy,
you know. So we'll save that for later on, but
just know, just know, the Steelers team is coming from

(18:09):
blood after an embarrassing loss on the road.

Speaker 1 (18:13):
Yeah, I mean, it was not good for them. So
again they're set up now to go home and they
play the Chiefs tomorrow. And Christmas Day, so we'll see
if they can come out of that one a little
bit better off. But for them, yeah, tough, tough sledding
here without George Pickens, the last couple of games showing
themselves to be a little bit more down to earth.

(18:33):
All right, let me get into the sun days late here.
We talked about the Eagles Commanders game. That was kind of,
you know, one of the better games, if not the
best game of the weekend. I'm gonna talk about the
Rams Jets per second here, because it looked like early
on that the Jets were going to give them some trouble. Specifically,
after the Rams opened up the game, go down the field,

(18:53):
get into almost field goal range, don't end up converting
on down, and then they punted instead of kicking a
long field goal to open up the game, and they
end up pinning the Jets in the one yard line
and Rogers comes out. They go ninety nine yards down
the field and they score a touchdown, and I'm sitting
there thinking this is going to be the day the

(19:14):
Jets are gonna knock off the Rams, because of course
it is, and luckily for me, that was the only
touchdown drive of the game for the Jets. They did
put up three more points later on, but the Rams
kind of settled in. They went down the field right
after that touchdown matched it so it was six to
six because both team's interestingly missed their field goal the

(19:34):
extra point, and then nothing happened until the fourth quarter.
It was still nine to nine. The Rams got sorry,
it was still nine to six Jets after the Jets
kick the field goal to end the first half, but
then the Rams tied it up in the fourth and
then Tyler Higbee scored a touchdown and it kind of
got rolling in the fourth quarter for the Rams a
little bit. And I you know, as a Rams fan,
I'm sitting here thinking, man, I feel like I feel

(19:56):
like we should be having more success against this team.
But at the same token, you know, end up holding
him to nine points. It was really just the one
touchdown drive they put together. But from my perspective watching
this game, it almost felt like Aaron Rodgers and DeVante
Adams were just out there playing with one another, not
really focused on what was going on around them, you know.

(20:16):
I know Garrett Wilson came out of this game a
little bit frustrated his targets and whatnot. And I know
that Aaron Rodgers and Devanta Adams have a long history
of playing together and maybe their futures are more up
in the air than other players in this team, but
it felt like they were trying to force the ball
to DeVonta Adams an awful lot, and Rogers just wasn't
connecting with him like you maybe are used to seeing
five six years ago in Green Bay. That being said,

(20:40):
I mean Kyri Williams made some plays, Kuka Nakua made
some plays. There wasn't a whole lot of Cooper Cup involved.
But Matthew Stafford, despite throwing his first pick in a while,
did play fairly well in the second half, and the
Rams continue to put together a good end of season
push here. They're now nine and six with two games
left Randle, So I'm feeling okay. Obviously with a game

(21:02):
up on the division over the Seahawks. It's gonna come
out of that last game of the season against them
anyway for the Rams, But I'm feeling pretty good at
where we're currently at.

Speaker 2 (21:10):
Yeah, Matthew Stafford only one hundred and ten yards, but
it wasn't really his needed to be his game, right,
Like you said, Kyram Williams ran for over one hundred yards.
He was fantastic. The defense did what they had to do.
I mean, if they just want to keep losing and
do what they they normally do, let them, let them
bite themselves in the foot, right. But the Rams, John,

(21:34):
I'm happy for you. They're looking good. When you're you're
nine and six? Can you believe that? Now? Can you
believe the Rams are nine and six and it in
first place in the division? Who I believe? Because the
way who would have thought?

Speaker 1 (21:52):
You realize the Rams were one and four this season
at one point, and they're not nine and six, which
means they're eight and two in their last ten games.
So they're playing as good as anybody or the last
ten games. And I do feel pretty good. I mean
they you know, the two losses in that stretch over
that ten games is are to Miami, which I didn't

(22:13):
love that loss obviously, but then the other game was
to Philadelphia, so I'll take that one. You beat Buffalo
in that stretch, you beat Minnesota in that stretch, You've
beaten Seattle in that stretch. I mean, they've beaten some
good teams this year, So I feel okay. About where
they're at with the Cardinals and Seahawks left on the
slate this year. They got the Cardinals on Saturday night
and then the Seahawks game will very much be for

(22:36):
the division. And unless the Rams win against the Cardinals
and the Seahawks lose this weekend, then the Rams will
have locked it up already. But it could very well
come to have that last game for the division. So
all right, so some of the other games from Sunday
Slate here randal to continue to move wrong. I'm only
gonna bring up this next game because we got our
first look at Michael Pennis junior. He didn't play poorly necessarily,

(23:00):
you didn't throw a touchdown, but the Falcons did blow
out the Giants. Do you feel like the Giants were
sitting on the other side of the field during this game, thinking, man,
we could have had this guy. Or do you feel
like this was just a circumstance of a better team
beating up on a worse team.

Speaker 2 (23:16):
I mean, yeah, the Giants are the worst team in
the NFL and literally that's why they got the first
pick in the NFL Draft so far, but I'm hopeful
that they're gonna manage somehow to mess it up, and
then you got a bunch of teams that are at
three wins. I mean Atlanta had two defensive touchdowns.

Speaker 1 (23:36):
Yea, who you.

Speaker 3 (23:39):
Like?

Speaker 2 (23:39):
And that hurt me, especially because I was going up
against a guy who decided to do a waiver wire
pickup in the final four of NIC and that absolutely
destroyed me.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
Are you trying to Are you hinting at the e
fact that you shouldn't be allowed to do that, because
I feel like that's fair game.

Speaker 2 (23:58):
Oh no, no, no, I'm I'm just hinting at the fact, John,
that Atlanta, who averaged only one point per game in defense,
all of a sudden now just dropped twenty five on
me because of two defensive touchdowns. So I don't know,
we didn't see anything crazy out of Michael Pennis. He
is going to be the starter for the remainder of

(24:20):
the season, and right, yeah, so should they make the playoffs,
he's going to be the guy. And should they make
the playoffs, which, by the way, John, they are tied
for first place in the Vision, I think that's that. Sorry, No,
they are not tied. They are in first place, even
though they're tied record wise with the Bucks they have.

(24:44):
They beat the Bucks two and zero this year, which
is crazy, which we talked about last week. But Michael
Pennix has a chance to do something cool.

Speaker 1 (24:53):
Yeah. I mean again, he didn't have one of those
games that blew you away. He did throw for two
hundred yards. He never got into the end zone with
a touch down pass. But I think for a guy
that we had not really heard much about, that actually
had blown out in the pregame of this game, that
he did not even take any reps but the first
team until this week at all throughout the year, I
think it's pretty good performance for a guy like that
who he really had no idea what you're getting, who

(25:14):
is a little bit older obviously in the rest of
these rookies because of his long college career, based on
the injuries and whatnot. But I think that if he
can play, you know, like this, and they get this
performance anything close to this performance from their defense, which
you can't expect every week. They're not gonna play Drew
Locke every week. But that being sad, I think the
Falcons it may be a little bit of spark for

(25:36):
them having him out there rather than Kirk Cousins now
because Kirk is the guy who, while he's had success
in his career, has always been kind of vanilla. And
I think, you know, putting Pennix in there is a
guy who, you know, just being a lefty alone is
a little bit of a of a new thing. And
I think when he's a younger, you know, just out
of college, you can relate a little bit better from
this young talent on that offense. I think it's going

(25:58):
to be interesting to see kind of win where their
ceiling is together.

Speaker 2 (26:04):
With banilla though, I think, see that's the thing. Yeah,
were they too quick to move off of Kirk Cousins here,
I get it like he would have probably beat the
Giants two, like he probably most likely he would have
beat the Giants two. And then now it's okay, do
we really want to I mean, if they were to
move off of them, I guess that was the week
you know, they knew, Okay, the Giants, we can beat

(26:26):
the Giants if we play Michael Pennix. It'll be a
good game for him to get his feet wet before
he faces the commanders the Panthers, and then takes us
into he has three games before we go into the playoffs.

Speaker 1 (26:39):
Well, This was also a home game for them too,
because if they had played Kirk Cousins and he played
poorly again, he would have gotten absolutely derailed by the fans.

Speaker 2 (26:50):
Correct which then why not just give him the first half?
I mean, I feel like just having Kirk Cousins as
a veteran, he if you are looking to make a
playoff push, he's the guy you want to have. But
he must see something in practice. John to say very comfortably,
we're going to move off of the two hundred million
dollars man.

Speaker 1 (27:11):
Either that or they just look at Kirk Cousins to say, man,
he looks cooked compared to what he looked like a
year ago. I mean, the guy was good just before
his injury last year obviously, and then he got hurt.
He came back, and this year he had some good games,
but he's also had some really really bad games. And
I think it all kind of culminated in that game
when they went to Vegas. Obviously they win the game,

(27:33):
but he played so bad considering the opponent, and I
think that they were like, you know what, we have
to make a change now if they're going to do
it this season. And you know, Pennis played, he played
well again, wasn't the reason they beat the Giants, but
it does count as a win for him. It's his
NFL career started on the right foot. This Panthers Cardinals

(27:53):
game was kind of dramatic. It went to overtime. You know,
the Panthers have done this recently. They've been a little
bit more dramatic with teams, but they kind of in
the process of doing this. I think the Cardinals are
now eliminated from the playoffs based on this loss, if
I'm not mistaken. So Randall, I mean, are you surprising
the Cardinals after all the promise they had earlier this

(28:14):
year that this is kind of the way things trended
for them and ends up being an elimination game when
they go to Carolina and losing overtime.

Speaker 2 (28:22):
Yeah, I mean Tyler McBride, you can hear him, he
was not happy after the game. Uh, Tyler McBride. Tray tray,
Trey McBride.

Speaker 1 (28:35):
Last gift, one last gift for you on this Christmas.

Speaker 2 (28:39):
I appreciate it. Sorry, my mind got ran over by
a reindeer out here, said a grandma got ran over
by a randy ryandall's mind now ran over by that's great. AnyWho, McBride, yes,
uh he he he came out of the tunnel and
he was he was just ripping the pan. We just

(29:00):
lost to this trash team or a trash team. And
you know what, in all fairness, I agree with him.
You know, you should have won that game. Even though
your boy had Panthers plus three in this game. I
knew Arizona was going to somehow fumble the bag. I mean,
Marvin Harrison Junior just has not been able to live

(29:20):
up to.

Speaker 1 (29:21):
Remember when you wanted him in in New England.

Speaker 2 (29:24):
I did, I did. It just doesn't seem like he's
able to get that type of separation potentially. I mean,
in Arizona's defense, James Connor, right, he had one hundred
yards at the half rushing, one hundred yards at the
half rushing, and he was also their leading receiver at
the half with forty nine receiving yards. He didn't play

(29:45):
the second half because he got hurt John and he
ended up being the leader in receiving yards at forty
nine and he didn't play the second half like that.
That's just that can't happen.

Speaker 1 (29:57):
Yeah, that's a problem. It's a problem for sure. I mean,
if you're Arizona, you need to find a way to
move the ball to other players. And I think what
you just said is a great, great kind of realization
of it is that they really got very focused this
season on you know, the tight end in the offense
and the running backs and the offense. And look, James

(30:18):
Connor is a good player, and so is Trey McBride.
He didn't have a really good game the other day.
But the receiving group of this team is talented. I
mean starts with Marvin Harrison, but they have other guys
there that can play. And I think you've got to
find a way to move the ball around the field.
Too often this season have I seen Cardinals highlights where
it's James Connor this or Trey McBride that. It's funny

(30:39):
And Trey McBride has not scored a touchdown this season
because it feels like he's one of the main focal
points in that offense, and he is. I mean every
week he seems to have ten catches and one hundred
yards but doesn't have a touchdown. And I think coming
into this game, Tyler and a lot of people are
on the Cardinals said, yeah, we're gonna find a way
to get train in the end zone. And I think
I'm not using it as an excuse for them, but

(30:59):
I feel like it was like, you know, they're talking
about the game like, Oh, we're gonna go in and
just stomp Carolina. We got to find a way to
get trade in the end zone today, Like it was
almost like they were thinking more about how to get
the guy a touchdown than the opponent because they felt
like they were just gonna walk over the opponent. And clearly, Carolina,
I showed you this year a few times. If you're
gonna underestimate them, they can give you their best shot.

(31:22):
You know, just ask the Bucks about that. Ask the
Chiefs about that. If Chiefs lost or went to they
beat them, but they almost lost. And then the the
other game they went to overtime, it was against the Bucks,
which the Bucks did beat them, but again it was
very close. So it's a team that in the Panthers
have become a little bit more battle tested there only
obviously only have the four wins this year. However, I

(31:43):
think when they get slept on, they take that as
an insult. And I think this week with someone to
talk about, oh we got to get Trey a touchdown.
It was kind of look like the Panthers thinking, well,
wait a minute, you guys have to win the game,
and if you're focusing on this one level task, then
we're gonna have some rude, a rude wig, a rude
arrival for you here. And that's exactly what they did,
is they just gave them a little bit of the

(32:04):
taste of I don't want to say they're all medicine,
but a taste of something that wasn't so sweet and
good for the Panthers, I mean, they're winning, not winning,
but they're winning a couple of these games, or at
least staying competitive in some of these games against teams
that you wouldn't think they're going to be competitive against.
And I think the Cardinals just got caught with their
pants down here completely overlooking the Panthers. So that's the
way what I'll say about that, And that's kind of

(32:26):
the way their seeven comes to end, unfortunately for them.

Speaker 2 (32:30):
Yeah, go ahead, No, And the Panthers have been playing
better ish the last like four and five games, right
besides the Dallas one on the previous week, but which
is a good sign for them. They're starting to turn
turn the todd around. We've said it a couple of
game winning game losing field goals that went against them
against Kansas City, against Tampa. So maybe this is a

(32:51):
good sign for the Panthers. And I get it, you know,
it's hurting their draft stock, but I do believe that
getting some small victories like that is going to help
build up the organization, is going to help them understand, Okay,
we can do this next year. Our division isn't great
enough as it is. We just need to be a
little over five hundred and we will win the division. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (33:15):
I mean, they're they're trending in a way that lets
you believe they're going to be competitive in that division
within a short amount of time. All Right, the Colts
beat the Titans. It was a high scoring game. Colts
almost gave it up late, but the Titans didn't end
up coming all the way back. And then you have
the Bengals Browns game Rantal And I know you've been

(33:35):
high on the Bengals still having a chance to to
clinch a playoffs spot here, which actually came a little
bit more realistic this weekend because they beat the Browns
and they're starting to get a little that help that
you've been talking about as well.

Speaker 2 (33:48):
Yeah, they're getting that help. John. I still am a believer, man,
I'm still a believer. The Chargers winning helped them. Miami
winning didn't help them so much much, Okay, But I
really believe John, because they can kind of somewhat control
their own destiny here, all right they need Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (34:10):
They win and they're playing Goes head to head this week,
which is.

Speaker 2 (34:13):
Huge, correct, So that that helps control their own destiny.
And then Denver the following week, John, you know who
they play, Oh, the chief the Chiefs. It is in
Denver though, so the Kansas City. Every time they go
to Denver. I feel like it gets aldh iffy. But

(34:34):
I'm not sure if they have to win out Denver
or if Denver has to lose out for them to
make the playoffs or not.

Speaker 1 (34:41):
Well, the tie breaker is gonna come down to whatever
happens this week. So let's say this week they play
and and the Bengals win. So the Bengals win and
they be in the driver's seat, and even if they
end up with the tie record the following week, and
the Bengals would have the tiebreaker over the Vocos. But
that's where the Dolphins coming to play now, Because if
the Dolphins win both their last two games, and then

(35:04):
the Bengals and and the got am blanking down the Bengals,
the Broncos both lose their like each win one of
their last two games, and they're both eight and nine,
and the Dolphins are nine and eight, then suddenly the
Dolphins get the last spot.

Speaker 2 (35:18):
Yeah, so right now it's between Indy, Cincy, and Miami.
All three of those are kind of just on the
hunting on the Crisp in there.

Speaker 1 (35:31):
Cusp, you said, Crisp, Crisp, same thing right exactly.

Speaker 2 (35:41):
Oy.

Speaker 1 (35:41):
The Lions double up the Bears in Chicago. Chicago just
continues to be pretty pretty pathetic here. No running game
for them. It was a big day for Caleb Williams
and for Keenan Allen, but in a loss, So you know,
what do you take out of that? The Viking Seahawks
game is pretty good here. Ran end up as a
three point win for Minnesota, which I was pretty happy

(36:03):
to see obviously as a Rams fan that needed the
Seahawks to lose if possible. And I also bet Minnesota
live right before their final drive the game but Sam Donald,
I mean, the continuing narrative around him this year just
continues to be that he is putting up monster numbers,
and yet Minnesota may not bring him back just because
of their current philosophy on the quarterback situation. Do you

(36:26):
see a scenario where they go fifteen and two and
he doesn't come back next year?

Speaker 2 (36:31):
No, no, no, no, no no. There is no way, John.
And there's just no way in this Christmas universe of
the magic land right now that we're in where you saying.

Speaker 1 (36:44):
A lot of words, I don't know what I'm gonna
guess later.

Speaker 2 (36:48):
There is just no way, John, he does not come
back because and I get it. You know, you had
some success for Kirk Cousins. You're seeing the success now
with Sam Donald. Hey, you even had success with oh
my god, the backup for the Texans, Case Keenum. Right,

(37:08):
they saw success with case Keenum. Didn't bring him back, right,
But what you're seeing from Sam Donald, he's doing two losses.
None of those guys that did that, right, Like, you
have two losses. You have to bring him back because
at the same time, he has a connection with Justin Jefferson,
he has a connection with Jordan Addison. Okay, are you

(37:34):
really gonna risk it for an unknown rookie quarterback that
you guys took in the first round?

Speaker 1 (37:40):
No shot? Yeah, no shot. That's where it gets a
little bit questionable for me too, because even when Kirk
Cousins playing his best for them in the last couple
of years, they were never this good. I mean, they
had that year a couple of years ago where they
were pretty good and they won a lot of games,
and they were winning a lot of close games, kind
of like the Chiefs this year, because I think they

(38:01):
were the original team that used to send me that
that little mean thing about right, the vikings from a
few years ago when they were winning all those games
they shouldn't have been. Was that correct? Am I just
making that up?

Speaker 2 (38:13):
I don't know about that, because I do think a.

Speaker 1 (38:15):
Couple of years ago you were sending me the thing
that you're sending me this year for the Chiefs where
it's like their records fourteen to one, but they should
be two and thirteen.

Speaker 2 (38:22):
They didn't, So it was I get yeah, the one
in the one possession games. They it was two years
ago they were crushing in the one possession games. Then
Kirk Cousins last year, before he got hurt, he was
killing it right, but they were I'm not sure if
you remember. They were losing.

Speaker 1 (38:41):
Righto and then he and then he got hurt. My
point is this year, the games they're winning are for
the most part by much more than one score. So
they beat the Giants by twenty two, they beat the
Texans by twenty seven. I mean, you beat the You
beat the Jags by only five, and the Titans by
only ten, and the Bears you went to overtime with

(39:02):
one time. But the other time they play the Bears
they beat him by eighteen. The other time they played
the Falcons they beat him by twenty one. So they've
got wins in here where they're crushing teams at times
this year, and they're also winning the close games. So look,
Donald's much younger than Kirk Cousins wasn't this time last year.
So if you're bringing back Donald, you're bringing back a
guy that's just younger. In general. I can understand why

(39:22):
they didn't want to pay Kirk Cousins given his age,
but I'm having a more and more hard time believing
every week that Donald doesn't come back now, because you know,
I laid out my scenario for you earlier. This year,
they bring in Daniel Jones, and I thought they would
maybe want Daniel Jones to be the bridge guy next
year between McCarthy and playing. But I think the more

(39:43):
that Donald does, the harder it's going to be a
look at him in the face and say, yeah, thanks
for going fifteen and two this year, dude, We're gonna
move on from you and then let him get paid
somewhere else. So I think it does. So what it depends,
I guess on how the scene ends here. If they
crash and burn and things don't end so greatly, maybe
easier to move off that. But if they go fifteen
and two, win a playoff game or two and go

(40:05):
into the playoffs pretty deep here, it's almost impossible to
imagine that they don't re sign him in some capacity.
So it'll be very interesting to see kind of how
this all plays out within the next couple of weeks.

Speaker 2 (40:17):
One hundred percent. I mean, how like you said, I
think it's going to be also dependent on the playoff run.
Can they make a true playoff run. If they do,
he's gonna make them pay, And hey, I think they're
gonna be happy to Petty.

Speaker 1 (40:37):
So good win for them in Seattle. Good good for
them to get the thirteen wins. Dolphins beat the forty
nine Ers in a game in which doesn't have a
lot of standing for the Niners. The Niners were eliminated
in the playoffs earlier than the Dolphins do, keep their
slim hopes alive. And then the Raiders beat the Jaguars

(40:57):
in quite literally the booty ball. We didn't announce that,
that is beforehand, or maybe we did last week, but regardless,
this was a game in which nobody wanted to watch,
and by the Raiders winning, they actually helped move the
Giants into that number one draft spot for right now.
So that was about the most interesting storyline that came

(41:17):
out of that. But Randall, I turned your attention to
the final four o'clock game of the week, the Bills
and Patriots. And how about the Patriots. They got out
to a fourteen point lead in this game, and I'm
sitting there thinking, man, is this today? The Bills are
going to lose? And of course it wasn't. But I
thought the Patriots were very very competitive in this game

(41:38):
for being in Buffalo and being against the Bills.

Speaker 2 (41:41):
Yeah, they look great, John, They look great, and that's
what I want to see. I want to see competitive losses.
Competitive losses. I don't want them winning these games. And
I knew that they were going to somehow lose this
game down in the second half. But the way Drake
me played those that first half lawless, lawless. I know

(42:03):
he had to pick in the second half, but he
was amazing, John, absolutely amazing. I can't say enough good
things about Drake May. The defense played well, offense played well.
They looked like a team that I think is just
a couple pieces away from really more than a couple.

(42:23):
There are a lot of pieces away from being good.
But it is nice to see when you are on
the road in Buffalo Division opponents. They were able to
get up for the game. They were able to compete.

Speaker 1 (42:34):
What's the biggest point of concern for this team? Would
you say? Is it offensive line? Is it? You know,
weapons around Brake May?

Speaker 2 (42:42):
So it's definitely the offensive line. Number one. You gotta
what Pro Football Focus. They're four out of their five
offensive line, John are ranked twenty eight or worse.

Speaker 1 (42:54):
That's pretty bad. Yes, soars in the league.

Speaker 2 (42:58):
Yeah, so actly. So out of four out of the
five starters are the four worst offense, uh for worst
in their position, and then the one that is the best,
I'll win. He's at eighteen, he's.

Speaker 1 (43:15):
Not like it's not like he's killing it either, exactly.
So half the league.

Speaker 2 (43:20):
Yeah, fix the offensive line problem, then fix your offensive weapons,
and then we're good to go. Boom boom, and then
we're back in the then we're back in the playoffs.

Speaker 1 (43:34):
Were you hoping that they would win this game.

Speaker 2 (43:37):
Or is this nope? Yeah, okay, nope, I was not hoping.
All I hope for is competitive losses, competitive may developed,
let him stay healthy, boom, keep it there.

Speaker 1 (43:48):
Where would they currently be picking right now? Because they're
in that group of three.

Speaker 2 (43:52):
Win teams Right right now, I believe they're at five. John,
They're in the they're in the fifth spot.

Speaker 1 (43:57):
I'm wondering, like you know, I do they have a
Chance's Travis Hunter? Is that who they even want to
take as a cornerback now? If he's not going to
be a receiver, It's gonna be interesting to see where
they go. And I know this season for you has
not been easy. I know the last couple of years
have not been easy. So it's nice to see the
Patriots trending in a right direction again, I'm sure for
many people around the world.

Speaker 2 (44:18):
Yeah, so right now, I just I just looked at it.
I mean this one site half them at two, but
I mean there's one, two, three, four, five teams at
three and twelve.

Speaker 1 (44:28):
Is which side are you looking at right now?

Speaker 2 (44:30):
Tathon dot com?

Speaker 1 (44:32):
Okay, so I'm pretty sure tankethon and I'm I'm not
laughing because I actually know that website, but I'm pretty
sure Tankathon actually accounts for future strength of schedule as well.
So I think right now what they're saying is that,
based on the way things currently are, if everybody didn't
win another game, or the schedule stayed exactly the way
they are right now, the Patriots would have the second

(44:54):
pick because they might have the easiest or the hardest
strength of schedule left, I guess, rather of of the
three win teams. Not that being said, it changes every
week because if any of those teams win or lose
or whatever, the strength of schedule of your your strength
of your opponents on your schedule is always going to change.
So that can still change in the next two weeks.

Speaker 2 (45:13):
But yeah, speaking of strength of schedule, though, did you
know San Francisco has the hardest strength of schedule right
now in that NFL.

Speaker 1 (45:22):
Really, that's interestingly. I wonder if that's because of who
they've played already or I mean, it must be obviously that,
but it's two games.

Speaker 2 (45:34):
On the go. It's all teams that they're playing and
have played and remaining.

Speaker 1 (45:40):
Yeah, if you mean, if you look at their schedule
just really quickly hear from the season so far, they've played,
amongst other teams this year. They've played the Vikings, They've
played the Rams, They've played the Cardinals, They've played the Seahawks,
They've played the Chiefs, they played the Bucks, they played
the Seahawks again, they played the Packers, Bills, and they
play the Lions next week. So yeah, they've played some

(46:01):
really tough teams this year. That's a really tough schedule,
and they've been banged up obviously, which is why they're
not in a playoff position as we currently sit. Neither
are the Cowboys. But they were able to beat the
Buccaneers this past weekend on Sunday Night Football in a
game that I thought it was a very big missed
opportunity for the Bucks. Here. I do think The Cowboys

(46:23):
have been okay with Cooper Rush, as we've talked about,
but I mean the Bucks, especially with the Falcons winning
the way they did and now the Falcons having the
tiebreaker over the Bucks because they beat them head to
head twice this year. I thought this was a really
big missed opportunity for Tampa Bay. I'm wondering if you
see it the same way.

Speaker 2 (46:46):
I'm in my man, Cooper Rush came to play, baby.

Speaker 1 (46:51):
He seems to do.

Speaker 2 (46:51):
That every week. He came to play. That's that's the
craziest thing.

Speaker 1 (46:56):
Man.

Speaker 2 (46:57):
He came to play, right, and he does do that
every week. He has to be one of the best
backups in the NFL, because, again, if the Cowboys were
in contention, you're keeping them right in there, right, and
that's what you want out of your backup quarterback. I
think that with Tampa Bay's scenario, they had a chance
to go down and win that game. And then when

(47:18):
you fumble, I haven't seen a fumble like that just
being stripped away. That was incredible, John, Did you did
you see that?

Speaker 1 (47:24):
Yeah? There was more, There was a lot. Weren't there
Like a few plays like that where just yeah, I
felt like like Tarrico and Chris Collins were going crazy
whole game.

Speaker 2 (47:37):
I think that game hurt Tampa so much. I mean
it hurt Dallas with their draft stock too, apparently, but
that game hurt Tampa because now you're tied with Atlanta
and you need to pray because Atlanta does play the Panthers,
which we can chuck that up maybe as a win potentially.

Speaker 1 (47:56):
Right, they're also playing the Commanders though, which is a
tough game. And you have Bucks. The Bucks have the
Panthers and Saints left, so.

Speaker 2 (48:04):
Correct, correct, So you're you're hoping you can put it
in your hands where Atlanta won't go to and oh, right,
you're praying they won't go to and oh but you're
to win out now. The pressure is on, John, the
pressure is on.

Speaker 1 (48:18):
I was gonna say, they kind of have to win
out now. You can't rely on Atlanta to lose both
of their final two games, especially with the Panthers left.
And it really could gon down to the Panthers playing
spoiler here against one of these two teams. So it'll
be interesting to see it. There's only two weeks left, obviously,
Week seventeen starts tomorrow, and a lot of these teams
are gonna have a better idea of what their playoff
picture looks like after Week seventeen, before we play in

(48:41):
week eighteen. There was one final game last night, which
is not really worth getting into it all. The Packers
absolutely dismantled the Saints. Who I feel bad for the Saints,
they really didn't have anybody out there. But the Packers,
I think, with that win last night, did officially clinch
a playoff spot. There now eleven and four and still
in third place in that division. But that's just the

(49:04):
best division of football this year, so there's really nothing
they can do other than play what's in front of
them and then end up as a wild card team,
it looks like at this point. So anything left to
add from Week sixteen, Randall.

Speaker 2 (49:18):
John, There is nothing left to add. We covered it spectacularly.

Speaker 1 (49:23):
Okay, Well, in that case, it's time to move our
attention to week seventeen, and we will do so by
starting off with Guess That's spread.

Speaker 2 (49:32):
It's on the play, Yes that.

Speaker 1 (49:39):
Spread? All right, it's time to play Guess That's spread.
It's a little bit weird because it's so early in
the week, but Random and I are going to be
looking at the player lines and trying to guess which
ones we have and which ones we do not have,
or which one what the lines are going to be.

(49:59):
Last week I got two of three random didn't get any.
I've been on a absolute heat streak this year on
guess that's spread for whatever reason, and I'm gonna look
to continue that this week. Randall, would you like me
to give you a quarterback first? Or do you want
to give me one?

Speaker 2 (50:16):
John, give me one, because I want to see what
you do best as always.

Speaker 1 (50:20):
Okay, So I'm going to start with an old friend
of yours. He's playing at home this week against the
Tennessee Titans, in the game that maybe you can argue
they might be able to win. I want you to
tell me how many papp yards Mac Jones is the
line is set.

Speaker 2 (50:35):
At he has to be.

Speaker 1 (50:38):
Who are they're playing the Titans in Jacksonville?

Speaker 2 (50:47):
Too? Fifteen and a half?

Speaker 1 (50:50):
It is two twenty five and a half. Sorry to
twenty four and a half, but you're still outside of
the range.

Speaker 2 (50:56):
I was gonna go to twenty yeah two jump the
Josa fix. That was an easy one. You gave me
a layup. I knew it. I don't know why I
went that low. Uh Brumler. Oh man, Okay, here we go.
I'm gonna give you Aidan O'Connell Vegas at New Orleans.

Speaker 1 (51:21):
Oh okay, this is something another terrible game. Aiden O'Connell
at New Orleans. I mean, his numbers can't be very high.
I'm gonna say it's is it even touching two hundred?
I'm gonna say two to two and a half.

Speaker 2 (51:38):
Who forty three and a half?

Speaker 1 (51:40):
Jump out a year?

Speaker 2 (51:41):
What forty three and a half? Can you confirm on
your end for me that I'm not I'm not making
that one up.

Speaker 1 (51:49):
I mean, yeah, give me a second here, Aiden O'Connell
to forty three and a half. That is absurd. That
is it's minus one thirty seven to go under on that. Yeah,
I mean that sounds about right. That's crazy. All right?

(52:09):
Well for running back then let me uh let me
find a good one here, Okay. I like Rico Doubtle.
This week he's playing at Philadelphia, so tough matchup for
Rico and the Dallas Cowboys. What is Rico's rushing number?

Speaker 2 (52:27):
Well, Rico when Nogo uh again, he's gonna need some help.
He's gonna have to eat some gingerbread cookies out there.
Some magic snowmen might have to block for him because
he's only gonna be projected around sixty two and a

(52:48):
half yards.

Speaker 1 (52:49):
Ooh, you were very close to an exact dy, but
you did not get it. The good news is that
you're in sixty three.

Speaker 2 (52:56):
And a half ooh wow yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (53:01):
On the board. So Randalls put the pressure.

Speaker 2 (53:04):
On I did. All right, John, Kansas City at Pittsburgh,
give me the rushing total for Nagie Harris.

Speaker 1 (53:15):
Oh man, Okay, you know what, give me another one
because I think I saw this one by accident.

Speaker 2 (53:25):
Okay, I respect that.

Speaker 1 (53:27):
I don't want to. I don't want to be Yeah.
I was like just thinking about him, like I think
I know what this number is, So just give me
a diffun.

Speaker 2 (53:33):
All right, John, what did you think that number.

Speaker 1 (53:35):
Was somewhere around forty? Because I just saw it when
I was looking a little while ago.

Speaker 2 (53:39):
You're you're a gentleman and a scholar, and I appreciate you.

Speaker 1 (53:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (53:43):
How about chubb A Hubbard?

Speaker 1 (53:47):
Chubba Hubbard. Shoot, so he just got a contract extension
a few weeks ago because how well he's played. You know,
he's been there forever. They're playing at Tampa in a game.
Were just talking about maybe the Carolina was able to
spoil some of these other teams playoff hopes. I'm gonna
say the true his numbers in the sixties, give me
sixty six and a.

Speaker 2 (54:07):
Half, oh seventy five, and.

Speaker 1 (54:15):
I thought maybe be a little bit lower against the
good team on the road like that, but I guess not. Okay,
So this is the This is for the win for
you here because if you do this all, actually, I
guess I could still getting exacty so receiving the yards. Randall,
I would love for you to enlighten me on Nico Collins.

(54:40):
This will be one of the Christmas games tomorrow. He's
the only healthy receiver standing when Tank dell Out and
Steph Diggs. Obviously they have other guys, but Nico Collins
is the main man. What is his number? Tomorrow? They're
at home against Baltimore.

Speaker 2 (54:57):
Sug John, you were a gentleman in this, and I
want to tell you a little story.

Speaker 1 (55:02):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (55:04):
I got a ten dollars free play in my hard
rock app. Okay, like you know what I'm gonna use it.
I'm gonna cook up something nice and juicy. Yeah, And
so I went to the Texans player prop line and
I'm like, you know what, Nico's gonna have a big day.
Let mean, let me have him go over one hundred.
I had him going over one hundred. Like for the

(55:25):
alternate lines. I did see that he was going to
be right around eighty nine and a half yards. Am
I correct, It's.

Speaker 1 (55:32):
A little bit higher right now. But yeah, you're you're
in the ballpark, so you want to give you another one?

Speaker 2 (55:37):
I'm saying, give me another one, John, all right.

Speaker 1 (55:39):
We're both gentlemen and scholars today. All right that I've
got a good one for you here, your old buddy, okay,
and by that, I mean he's coming to play in
New England this week.

Speaker 2 (55:52):
I love the Labster, that dude. I wish the Patriots
had drafted, but we're able to draft him. You know,
he's a stud rookie. Give me lad mcconkley sixty seven
and a half yards.

Speaker 1 (56:05):
John Randall, I have good news for you. You are
in the zone. It was seventy and a half, so
that means that you've got two out of three. There's
no exactly here, but you are currently in pole position.
And you you hadn't had one for a while, so
that's good that you got to this week first one
that you've won since week thirteen.

Speaker 2 (56:25):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (56:26):
Wow, chance for me to get exacty to take it
all away here?

Speaker 2 (56:31):
Alrighty, we talked about him earlier in the show John
in the City at Pittsburgh. What is George pickens receiving
total going to be? So?

Speaker 1 (56:41):
Is he confirmed that he's back tomorrow?

Speaker 2 (56:43):
He is confirmed?

Speaker 1 (56:45):
Okay, Well, I have to imagine that he is going
to be primed and ready for a big day. I
don't want to be too far off on this one,
but I feel like it's not going to be quite
as high as i'd like to think it's gonna be,
but still going to be higher. So give me sixty
three and a half.

Speaker 2 (57:07):
John, you are correct, fifty nine and a half. Give
you a point, d Okay, I take favor game man,
you were I want to know your record on wide receivers.
That's where you make your bread and butter. You should
be just doing player props on wide receivers all day.

Speaker 1 (57:27):
Uh yeah, I don't know. I mean, I don't know
why I've been okay, but then I feel like at
times was here he's given me easy ones, but that
one was uh, I wasn't just kind of that was
not even I just kind of thought about it logically.
But either way, that'll do it for Guess that's spread.

Speaker 2 (57:42):
That does a four yes.

Speaker 1 (57:48):
Spread random looking back on it, that is your first
win in guess that's spread stints ding ding ding dn't
intintin tinted into intintin uh week two. Every other week
we've at least tied or I've won, So you're fifteen weeks.

Speaker 2 (58:13):
I feel like that was the best. Guess that's spread
at the end I've done and it's been a while.

Speaker 1 (58:19):
I know you, guys, I guess we can we see
who's the better sport about it, because usually it's me
that's still enthusiastic when you're beating me. But not this season.

Speaker 2 (58:30):
Glad. I'm glad.

Speaker 1 (58:32):
Let's move into hard locks now and take a look
at some of these spreads.

Speaker 2 (58:37):
I'm fours.

Speaker 1 (58:42):
All right, Randall, So what I think we should do
and if you have a problem with this, you just
let me know. But I think we should publicize our
picks for Christmas Day and then we should make our
hard locks. Three other games from the weekend you want
to do that or you want to just include everything
on our locks.

Speaker 2 (59:00):
I just want to include everything in hard lock. Shown
Let's keep it simple.

Speaker 1 (59:03):
All right, Let's do what we always do. Then then
you get you can start.

Speaker 2 (59:06):
Go ahead, all righty, John, my first hard lock of
the day. It's a Christmas lock because they're playing on Christmas,
and you know, I believe in Christmas miracles out here.

Speaker 1 (59:18):
You're gonna pick them. Steelers plus three give me a.

Speaker 2 (59:21):
Dog, John still is plus three ticket to the bank.

Speaker 1 (59:25):
I knew that was coming. I knew that's why you
didn't want to do the Christmas Day one separate weekcause
I knew you wanted the Steelers' lock, so I was
trying to get you off that. But uh, okay, yeah,
Steelers plus three, it's a good one. I'm going to
go with Chiefs minus three is my first lock, so
I might as well just go on the other side
of the car to here. I've been high on the

(59:46):
Steelers this year, as as Randall. However, today this week,
I'm going to just take the Chiefs to do what
they've been doing all year, winning games. Gonna be a
tough one in Pittsburgh, but I will take the Chiefs
on Christmas Day.

Speaker 2 (59:59):
I like it, John, This next team, I'm running with
them the rest of the way. I'm picking them this week,
I'm picking them next week, and then I'm gonna pick
them in the playoffs too. Cincinnati minus three.

Speaker 1 (01:00:11):
I see three and a half right now.

Speaker 2 (01:00:12):
But okay, I'll tell you, I'll even buy the half
a point for you job.

Speaker 1 (01:00:19):
Okay, Yeah, you've been very high on them, but I
think that you're still trying to will them into the
playoffs if you can, so I'm not surprised to see
you take them here. I am going to go with
the let's see, let's see, let's see. That's a good one.
That's a good one, And you know what, give me

(01:00:40):
the Chargers on the road here against the Patriots. They're
four point favorites and currently stands. I think they'll come
across the country and I have no problem beating up
on the Patriots. I think the Patriots are not as
bad as maybe people thought they were gonna be. But
I do think they're kind of at the point of
the year where they're gonna be a little bit more
checked out. The Charger as still trying to make sure

(01:01:00):
they get into the playoffs, So I'll take the Chargers
to cover by four points here in New England, coming
across country on Sunday afternoon.

Speaker 2 (01:01:08):
I like that, John. You know, last week I did
pick the Jets.

Speaker 1 (01:01:11):
Sorry, that's on Saturday afternoon. It's a standalone game to
the first one of Drake May's career.

Speaker 2 (01:01:18):
So last week I did pick the Jets, John, to
cover against the Rams. Not as a hard lock, but
just in general. You know what, Hey, Rogers has been
playing better. Maybe this is a sign, you know, Rams
coming across the country. Sure Rams can at least cover. Boy,
was I wrong? I should have kept the Jets on
the do not bet list, So I'm gonna get back

(01:01:40):
to that. Give me the Bills minus nine and a half.
I know they didn't cover fourteen last week, but they're
covering nine and a half this week. Buffalo all the
way nine and a half.

Speaker 1 (01:01:49):
Yeah, I kind of like the Buffalo spread too. I
almost thought about taking that for my second one, but
instead I'm going to go, well not instead because I
picked something else, but now for my third one, since
you've now taking that off the board for me, I'm
going to go with the We're gonna have it here

(01:02:10):
give me Washington minus four against the Falcons at home.
I think I'm a little bit scared of this because
I just feel like we didn't see everything that Michael
Pennix could bring to the table. But that being said,
you know, he didn't throw a touchdown pass against the
Giants defense, and I just feel like the Commander's defense
is better. So I feel good about the Commanders at
home here this week. They played really well against the Eagles.

(01:02:33):
Granted it was Kenny Pickett on the other side on offense,
but that defense was not Kenny Pickett. So yeah, give
me the Commanders. I think they're starting to get hot
again at the right time here going into the playoffs.
I'll take them minus four.

Speaker 2 (01:02:45):
What'd you have them on John four? And what day
did they play?

Speaker 1 (01:02:50):
That's on Sunday night?

Speaker 2 (01:02:51):
Actually, oh wow.

Speaker 1 (01:02:55):
Yeah, I know, we have so many different types of
games this week between Chris and then Thursday night and
the Saturday three and then Sunday and then Sunday night
and then Monday night. So it's gonna be a crazy week.

Speaker 2 (01:03:07):
But that does a four hard lot, all right.

Speaker 1 (01:03:13):
So that brings us now to the very end here, Randall.
So it is time to play the last game of
the day. I'll turn it over to you for this
final game.

Speaker 2 (01:03:22):
All right, John, this was a very special Christmas edition
out here today. Okay, if you couldn't tell, so, John,
I get a word. You guessed the words? What is
this magical indubitability word?

Speaker 1 (01:03:39):
All right, well it's not indubitably today. But I'm going
to say that I don't have a great guess. I
think you got me this week. But I'm going to
just throw out there that I think when you started
saying that your brain got run over by a reindeer,
that that had something to do with this one. Hey,
let's just say, get you've got to run over by
a reindeer.

Speaker 2 (01:03:59):
Well find out, John, my mind got ran over by
the raindeer. You know, the same grandma got ran over by.

Speaker 1 (01:04:12):
So wait was it all the whole thing was that
the grandma got run over.

Speaker 2 (01:04:15):
It was grandma got ran over by a reindeer.

Speaker 1 (01:04:18):
Okay, well, I will think maybe I'll take a half
a point for that one. But yeah, as soon as
you said, I'm like, that has something to do with it,
I just don't know what. Yeah, that is funny, but
that's uh, you know what, that's a win for you. Well,
I've been the giving mood today.

Speaker 2 (01:04:37):
It's a half. I'll give you a half. You had
ran over by a reindeer. You just forgot the word Grandma.
You know, I'll give it to you.

Speaker 1 (01:04:45):
We each take half a win. That's that's the Christmas
spirit right there.

Speaker 2 (01:04:50):
Us under the tree today.

Speaker 1 (01:04:51):
There are presents for all of us, and there could
be presents for all of you if you listen to
some of our picks. Hopefully the random that brings us
to the end here of his very special Chris this
Eve episode. So I'm gonna give you a chance to
say anything else that you could be thinking of before
we get out of here for the day.

Speaker 2 (01:05:11):
John, we have a full state tomorrow. NBA games, NFL games.
Make sure you grab your plate of food, make sure
there's sports on the TV, and you watch watch, watch,
watch watch all day long.

Speaker 1 (01:05:28):
That's great advice from a great sports fan. Randall, what
NBA matchup are you most excited about tomorrow?

Speaker 2 (01:05:36):
Of course the Celtics and the six or Celtics has
ten point favorites.

Speaker 1 (01:05:39):
Yeah, Celtics just got blown out by the Magic last night.
So four point four point win for the old good guys.
But what can you do? All right, Well, that brings
us to the end. Randall, I'm gonna go ahead and
turn it over to you. Before I do so, I
want to wish everybody a very merry Christmas. Will be
back one more time next week week, although I don't

(01:06:00):
really know it'll be this year or next year. We'll
have to kind of figure out our schedule next week.
We might do a Tuesday episode next week as well.
But either way, if we don't talk to you before
the New Year, happy New Year. And if we do,
then you know what, Merry Christmas and we'll see you later.
But Randall, go ahead and take it away.

Speaker 3 (01:06:17):
Goodbye, goodbye, good friends, goodbye.

Speaker 2 (01:06:22):
This was a Christmas AP episode.

Speaker 3 (01:06:26):
We have some hard lots that can win you money,
and I hope you don't get gay it by range
it by a range so long.

Speaker 1 (01:06:37):
Than I might got run over.

Speaker 2 (01:06:40):
Bad rain year