2024 Week 16 Recap

00:00:04
Speaker 1: Welcome to NFL Daily, where we always have the strength of victory tiebreaker.

00:00:10
Speaker 2: I'm Greg Rosethal.

00:00:11
Speaker 1: I'm in the Chris Westling podcast studio, solo in the studio, but joined by knowledgeable, wonderful friends all around the country.

00:00:22
Speaker 2: In fact, Patrick Claybon.

00:00:24
Speaker 1: Is in the vo booth because he's feeling a little bit sick about sixty yards for me, and Nick Shook is in Cleveland. Welcome Patrick, and thank you for your consideration for not wanting to get everyone sick.

00:00:35
Speaker 2: It's too nice of you.

00:00:36
Speaker 3: Well, it's you know, it's the holiday season.

00:00:38
Speaker 4: Everybody's we got people flying all over the planet and all over the country. And if I could sit over here in this lonely box for this podcast, then that is what I am going to do.

00:00:47
Speaker 2: Well, finally, it shook us company.

00:00:48
Speaker 1: You're used to sitting in a lonely box during the show, shook, Yeah, this.

00:00:52
Speaker 5: Box is more of a bedroom, but yeah, pretty much.

00:00:55
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:00:56
Speaker 1: Patrick sent me this text at eight in the morning, and I'm like, well, you just we can figure it out. You can just take the show off, but look, the NFL it's not gonna allow it. And Patrick, he knows the show must go on. There are playoff spots being clinched, there are seedings being figured out. We learned a lot about how this playoff field is gonna look on Sunday, and no result was bigger than the one in landover Maryland.

00:01:22
Speaker 2: Let's head there.

00:01:23
Speaker 6: Second of goal to ten snapped, the Daniels Eagles break four, into the middle.

00:01:27
Speaker 3: Of talk down.

00:01:32
Speaker 7: The cruner, amazing clunch football from the ones and in on that dang done it again, don't it again? This is absolutely up talking big about this. Shina Tiles, the magic kid, the toff for beyond victory. Wanna fal wanna cat, wanna pe.

00:01:56
Speaker 3: Unbelievable.

00:01:58
Speaker 1: I mean, how many signatures wins does this rookie need? I love you, Brock Bowers, but to give Jade and Daniels the award. Thirty six to thirty three, the Washington Commanders get it done in a fourth quarter comeback victory over the Philadelphia Eagles, who played most of the game without their quarterback, Jalen Hurtz. Can he pickt got it done. But that doesn't take anything away from what Jade and Daniels did against this Eagles defense. He put up thirty six points on them. He came back from twenty seven to fourteen down in the fourth quarter shook just what stands out to you most from a five touchdown performance from Daniels and yet another just kind of magical moment for a franchise that it really feels like is turn the page completely from the Dan Snyder era for good.

00:02:51
Speaker 8: Yeah, five touchdown performance with two interceptions, and those are important interceptions because Daniels overcame that one of them he sailed.

00:02:58
Speaker 5: It was a big mistake.

00:03:00
Speaker 8: You'd think that might doom younger quarterback or other quarterbacks that maybe aren't as mentally tough as Jade Daniels, but no, he went right back to work, let him down the field through a beautiful touchdown pass to Terry McLaurin, threw a couple of really nice touchdown passes to alamide As a Kias by extending the play and then that dot over the middle, throwing it into an open window before the receiver is even there because Zach Bond, I don't know why, he puts Zack Bond in coverage in the middle of the field, leaves it open for him and he throws it perfect dot touchdown. It demonstrated to me the composure and the confidence and the maturity that I've seen a lot and Jayden Daniels this year. We I even saw in New Orleans last week, even though they barely won that game. You see it throughout most of this season. He is so calm and collected and just sure of himself. And that's what allows him to lead his team back to victories like this. And it was only possible because, hate to say it, Jalen Hurts gets knocked out of this game in the first quarter because the Eagles were rolling. The Commanders had no answer for Saquon Barkley. As soon as Hurts gets out of the game and Kenny Pickett comes in, they shift their defensive strategy. They go from two high safeties to one. They put more guys in the box to stop the run. It limits Saquon. Eagles have to find other ways to make things happen. Their guys are dropping passes and the Commanders are getting every opportunity in front of them, and they're capitalizing and they get a big win.

00:04:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think that's absolutely fair to point out Hurts miss most of this game. And I have heard people say, well, you know, Hurts wasn't playing defense and yeah, that's true. But when Jaden Daniels throws that interception with under four minutes to go in another world, that's where Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley have the drive that kind of ices the game. Instead, they end up settling for a field goal on a short drive only four plays and Jade Daniels gets the ball back. Now, that doesn't change the fact that he got it with one fifty eight to go against what's been the hottest defense in the league, and at one point they had a snap with about twenty three seconds left a third and one, and if this hadn't worked out for them, I probably would have been killing them in the postgame. They decide to run the ball there with Brian Robinson. They don't get the sp off till eleven seconds to go, so you only had time there shook for probably two more plays, And that's where you got to give Daniels a lot of credit, just between him and Cliff Kingsbury and Dan Quinn, the way they've managed these sort of situations. Daniels has eighty one yards rushing on the day as well, Like he always seems to play his best when it matters the most.

00:05:22
Speaker 2: And that's what you love.

00:05:23
Speaker 1: This is the first time Washington has been ten and five since nineteen ninety one. That is absolutely outrageous.

00:05:31
Speaker 4: Yeah, Magic Johnson was celebrating afterwards. He said they clinched the playoff spot in a little little premature there, or as we got we gotta wait for a couple more things to settle down. But those those eighty one yards rushing, A huge chunk of that came on a fourth and eleven where Jayden Daniels just steps through and Jalen Hurts had a significant absence in this game. CJGJ got run from the game CJ. Gardner Johnson for two unsportsmanlike penalties. I have to think it will be a little more difficult for Washington to do what they did, especially in the secondary kind of exploiting some mismatches. As you mentioned, was Zach Bond there late if CJGJ was able to play, but not just overcoming those turnovers there were five of them. It wasn't just the Dayton Daniels interception. Brian Robinson had the ball stripped out as well as a special teams play, and there was so much leading the Eagles way other than losing their quarterback and one of the better players in the secondary. But they had opportunities, big opportunities like a third and six late where DeVante Smith ran a great route. Can he Pickett hits him on a slant and Davante just drops the ball something that he rarely does.

00:06:37
Speaker 9: Yeah, the gun Peckett, he puts dots of emotions, Peckett's pack. He's looking, he is firing, suggled dropped by DeVonta smile. Devonte Smith had it in his hands, maybe a touchdown that he dropped it.

00:06:55
Speaker 1: I was looking for the pathos there from Mary Reeves. He's a pro on WIP and you heard it. You heard it, because that would have taken the under two minute warning. The Commanders would have had to use their timeouts. He might have scored a touchdown on that play. And sometimes shok, that's what playoff seeding and spots and seasons come down to. Are just you need to get a break and then you need to take advantage of a break. What do you think about the Washington defense actually in this game against Pickett? You know, did Eagles go three for sixteen on third down? I know they struggled early. Did it make you feel any differently about this team in general, which looks very much headed to the sixth seed here in the NFC.

00:07:41
Speaker 8: No, I mean I felt good about their performance because there was times where they would get after Kenny Pickett and he would have nowhere to go.

00:07:45
Speaker 5: He'd be under pressure.

00:07:46
Speaker 8: There was a time where they slid the protection to the left and left Dante Fowler with a free rush to sack Picket on a key third down. That stuff has happened, and then it happened plenty in this game. But also the Eagles played the fourth quarter as of every pass catcher went to the sideline got a big tub of Crisco out coded their hands in it.

00:08:00
Speaker 5: Because they drop passes left and right.

00:08:02
Speaker 8: They were accurate throws, a lot of them that Pickett put on the money, and they just didn't finish the catch. It felt like one of those games where, like, I know, Patrick, you're very anti momentum, but the momentum was just shifting against them because they.

00:08:14
Speaker 5: Kept dropping these passes.

00:08:16
Speaker 8: It's like they were playing tight and as they stacked up one after another to another to another. By the time DeVante dropped that, I was like, well, that just fits the way this whole fourth quarter has gone. Now, that's not necessarily something that was forced by the Washington defense. There was a catch that sa Quon Barkley made that Bobby Wagner finished the play through and knocked it out as he was trying to finish the catch along the sideline. That was a huge breakup that one credited to the Washington defense. But I mean they also forced turnovers. They picked off Pickett after he finished off the first drive in which he appeared after Hurtzott knocked out, he comes in and throws a touchdown pass. Next drive he throws a pick like immediately and it gets them back in the game. So they definitely did their part to keep the Commanders in this game and buy them the opportunity, especially considering the five turnovers that Patrick mentioned. A complimentary win for the most part. Oh crazy one, but a complimentary win with the little bit of help on your side with the fact that Hurts wasn't playing.

00:09:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, more than a little.

00:09:03
Speaker 1: There's no way may be a Jalen hurds the Eagles team with five turnovers if he's out there. I'm sorry, but that's just how it works out. And I said they're headed for the seven seed. I shouldn't have said that, or the sixth seed. The Packers or the Commanders will probably be the six or the seven, and it's too hard right now to guess, but this absolutely puts a big dent into the eagles chances of winning the number one seed in the NFC. It is out of their hands now and it is almost certain that they're going to be the two seed, with the winner of the NFC North very likely being the one seed. Next Gen Stats only gives them a four percent chance because they didn't have the tiebreakers anyways against the Lions and probably against the Vikings, and now they're behind both of them at twelve and three, so a really costly lost. Nick Sirianni was just saying how sloppy he thought it was in retrospect. It's funny how it's like, yeah, that's all true. And yet if DeVante onto that, it's a pretty gutsy win to win against your division rival on the road, and you had good, great things like AJ Brown was just you know, handling marsha On Lattimore who was out there. Marshall Latimore was to have had three pass interference calls in this game, and even then AJ Brown was was beating him on slants. AJ Brown to me is he's on my ole pro team. I don't care what the numbers say. He is just an outrageously good player. But a huge miss opportunity for the Eagles, and it probably means they're going to be headed on the road if they're lucky enough to make the NFC Championship game. But where will they be headed? Would it possibly be to Detroit? Could it be to Minnesota? As this game was happening, the Lions were playing the Bears, and the Lions game finished. First, Let's see what happened.

00:10:52
Speaker 2: We're good.

00:10:55
Speaker 6: Jerry Takes stumbles coming out of there, wants to throw dust out wide open Sam Laporta touchdown Detroit Lions.

00:11:04
Speaker 5: Oh my goodness.

00:11:06
Speaker 6: Jared stumbled coming out from behind center, regained composure, regained his grip on the football, and then threw it down to a wide open Sam Lacorda for a touchdown twenty one yards on the connection.

00:11:19
Speaker 3: I think he did that on purpose. I think jer.

00:11:22
Speaker 10: Yeah, because you could hear some guys even through the reps Mike Yell and fumble fumble.

00:11:26
Speaker 2: Jared Goff went down like he dropped the ball.

00:11:28
Speaker 10: I think that sucked in a lot of those Chicago defenders up to lawna scrimmage.

00:11:32
Speaker 1: Great call there by Lomas Brown, TJ. Lang and Dan Miller on w x YT. Yeah, that play is called stumblebum. It was on purpose. I didn't realize it was on purpose at the time when I'm watching it, I mean, they faked me out. But Jamir Gibbs goes to the ground, he falls, GoF stumbles in such a believable way that like, how did he do that? How many times has he practiced stumbling life?

00:12:00
Speaker 2: And then they.

00:12:01
Speaker 5: Doesn't have the practice, I guess.

00:12:02
Speaker 1: Come on, bro. And then the Koudi gras and that's what I'm impressed. The announcers heard. It was all the other Lions players going football football like yelling at the time. And if you watch the play, you see the hesitation by the Bears linebacker.

00:12:17
Speaker 2: Who was it was that TJ.

00:12:18
Speaker 1: Edwards covering Laporta and that one little second of hesitation leads to the touchdown pass. The Lions win thirty four to seventeen against the Chicago Bears. They did everything that I expected in this game.

00:12:33
Speaker 2: This was the game.

00:12:34
Speaker 1: It just was so confident they would cover that seven points on game deviut I said that was my pick of the week was them getting over the team total, which was twenty six.

00:12:42
Speaker 2: They did that by halftime.

00:12:43
Speaker 1: They were awesome offensively in this game, four hundred and seventy five yards, twenty seven first downs. And you could really pick any player that you want to highlight on the Lions offense. You could pick Jamison Williams, maybe a comeback Player of the Year candidate, can you come back from your own mentions?

00:13:01
Speaker 2: Jared Goff who threw the ball three.

00:13:03
Speaker 1: Hundred and thirty six for three hundred and thirty six yards on only thirty two attempts, beating the cold weather allegations. He had an eighty two yard dime to Jmo in that game. Or you could talk about Jamiir Gibbs, who without David Montgomery and the lineup goes for one hundred and fifty four yards on twenty eight touches. I'm a little worried about all these heavy touchdowns by the way they gave Saquon and that Eagles game, twenty nine carries, like it's just it's just a lot. It's gonna be a lot for Jamir Gibbs down the stretch, but they did what they needed to do. They forced some turnovers. Patrick and I don't know this. This team is special to me. I have my concerns about the defense, but I'm not surprised at all how this offense responded.

00:13:45
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, the offense is no surprise, and Ben Johnson just has to come up with I guess, new things to show us every single week.

00:13:53
Speaker 3: As maybe he wanted to put out a show.

00:13:55
Speaker 4: That's what Peter Freger was suggesting for the folks in Chicago were there to watch the game, as if in twenty twenty four, you have to do things in a particular place for people to see them.

00:14:04
Speaker 3: But that's the narrative.

00:14:05
Speaker 1: Wait, hold on a second, because he also said he took inspiration after the game from Jordan Love stumbling and making a very similar touchdown pass. I think I think in Week one or something, maybe it was against the Lions themselves, but he took inspiration. I mean, this is an artist, and I keep seeing Lions fans. Why are they're wasting these plays? Save them for the playoffs? Like he's got these plays, He's got more of them. This is an artist to he's getting inspiration each and every week.

00:14:34
Speaker 2: Don't mess with the art.

00:14:36
Speaker 4: No, it's beautiful every single time. And really, this team, the offense is so good. Ben Johnson can call a regular little screen pass whenever he wants and the Lions are gonna get fifteen to twenty yards on it almost every single time. The defense is where the concern is. They're able to pressure Kayleb Williams. Now, that's pressuring Kayleb Williams. So it's a very it's a very low bar. But thirty nine percent of his dropbacks he was six or fourteen for seventy three yards on those. He does eventually throw for three hundred and thirty yards, but a lot of that's in garbage time, a lot of it was late. Keenan Allen had a long win where they're they're gonna be in score fests, right. If the Lions are gonna have this run in the postseason, it's going to be a game that the totals in around the seventies or eighties. But they're gonna be in those games. And I understand the injuries of mounted, but they lose David Montgomery. They got one of the most explosive backs, if not the most explosive back, in the NFL right behind them, when we saw what Jamo can do today, if he's if he's getting more involved than manhing.

00:15:32
Speaker 1: Okay, so maybe this is a conversation for like a Tuesday show or something. But he he goes for one hundred and forty three yards, He could go over a thousand yards. His the variety of the routes that he's run and is just really impressive. Our friends Ally Connelly and John Ledyard been talking about on their on their podcast, just what a great job he's done blocking all year, how body and in he is running every route so hard and he's just a different player. He's one of the most improved players I think in the entire league. I really find it fascinating that they were all watching the Eagles game in the locker room, because that Eagles game took a while and the Lions were off the field early shook. And when they saw that the Eagles lost, they celebrated as if it was like Clinton. I don't know if it was as if clinting a division, but they were all very excited. They finished at San Francisco on Monday Night football. If you're in the UK, I'm gonna I'm gonna do that game on Channel five, the season finale, and then they close out with the Vikings. So hopefully, even though a lot of drama's been taken away from us, not to give away what happens here the Vikings game, but yeah, you know, hopefully that game Nick is for the one seed.

00:16:39
Speaker 2: That would be a great way to finish this regular season.

00:16:42
Speaker 8: Yeah, and it preserves what we hope would be a great finish to this regular season, which we still have the opportunity there because of course, I mean, the Lions did what we thought they would do, which is go beat the Bears. I just want to point out one thing real quick, because you talked about points fest, right, if it wasn't for a missed field goal, they would have scored on their first seven possessions. They scored on six of their first seven possessions field goal, touchdown, field goal, touchdown, touchdown, miss field goal touchdown. They only had three more possessions, and one of them was the end a game.

00:17:07
Speaker 1: And the other, oh and another one the first time they they didn't score there or didn't at least attempt a field goal. They had a fourth and two I believe, or fourth and three from the eleven. They were in the red zone and they were way up. But Dan Campbell, as Dan Campbell has wanted to do, wanted to touchdown there and not the field goal, which made made sense. They were already up three scores, so there was no point in going from seventeen to twenty, and they didn't get it there. Now, the only thing I would I would push back just a tiny bit was just on the garbage time aspect of the Caleb game. They were not able to run the ball all day, so that's encouraging for the lines.

00:17:42
Speaker 2: But I thought Caleb threw the ball well all day.

00:17:44
Speaker 1: They moved the ball well pretty much throughout the entire game. They ended up with nineteen first downs three hundred and eighty two yards. The reason their first few Dot drives short circuited were fumbles won by Caleb, and so that's on him. Otherwise, I thought Caleb had a really good game. In another fun from Roma Donday. So you had these two fumbles early in the game, and it just led to a game script where they were always trying to catch up. And that's true, but they were moving the ball, especially considering they lost two offensive linemen in this game. They're not a great offensive line. Anyways, he lost Braxton Jones and they lost Tevin Jenkins. They had another injury coming into the week and not an extra guy active, So their offensive lines throughout that game were four different tackles in one center.

00:18:28
Speaker 2: And I know that in the lines did get a lot of pressure.

00:18:31
Speaker 1: As Patrick mentioned, Pat O'Connor got a bunch, Zadaria Smith got a bunch, but they didn't get a lot of QB hits or sacks on Calla Williams like every other team does. So it actually was a little concerning to me that they let Chicago move up and down the field so much. Shout out to Amanra Saint Brown too. By the way, he goes over a thousand yards. He has one hundred catches, one thousand yards and ten touchdowns for two straight seasons. He's the first Detroit Lion to ever do that. A total bad ass. I don't know if Patrick Clayban is gonna make it to the end of this show. I mean he's good. You're you're coffing over there. You're looking I got a button, I know you do, but button, It's it's late December, Christmas is right around the corner and playing well, broadcasting well when maybe physically you're not at your best.

00:19:21
Speaker 2: That's just what.

00:19:21
Speaker 1: UH stars do. Let's let's go to Seattle because that's what Gino and Sam Donald were doing.

00:19:27
Speaker 11: First and thirty nine, three fifty eight to go, Seattle leads by four in the fourth quarter, Sam steps.

00:19:33
Speaker 2: Up, Sam Broz left cut Jefferson.

00:19:41
Speaker 11: On the fan, find some moneymaker justin Jefferson.

00:19:47
Speaker 1: My god, I mean, it's gone next level with this Sam Donald thing. He's playing like one of the best quarterbacks in the league.

00:19:54
Speaker 2: That that was one of the plays of the season.

00:19:56
Speaker 1: I really believe that, considering this the stakes, the situation there spons from the Minnesota Vikings, after Gino had just put together what might have been his best drive of the entire season. That play while getting hit the second time on that drive, that Donald made.

00:20:10
Speaker 2: A dime while getting hit, just incredible.

00:20:13
Speaker 1: Jefferson ends up ten for one, four and a couple of touchdowns Donald that was his third touchdown pass. The Vikings win it yes to get the thirteen and two, twenty seven to twenty four, dealing a cruel blow to the Seattle Seahawks playoff hopes. Man this Vikings team, they find different ways to do it, but you gotta give Sammy his flowers Patrick for doing it in a big spot there.

00:20:39
Speaker 4: It reminded me of the game against the Arizona Cardinals a few weeks ago where Kyler and company go down and score and the Vikings need to drive, and there was a third and seven and Sam Donald steps up and he throws a seeing eyeball to Justin Jefferson, which was a great Sam Donald play. It was one of the best I've ever seen him make. This one was better this because, as you mentioned, Gino had the drive. There was a third and goal touchdown to aj Barner where he barely gets his feet in the back of the end zone, and so pressure's mounting to get something out of this drive from Minnesota where they are now trailing, and Sam Donald takes a couple of big hits, including one where his face mask.

00:21:13
Speaker 3: Gets grabbed, his leg gets twisted up.

00:21:16
Speaker 4: This vite boy a mafe was all over him for several points in this game, and he steps up, not just stepping up, he's on the run, jumping off of one foot and making that throw to Justin Jefferson where Julian Love is coming in from the safety. The corner is there, and it goes directly to JJ where nobody else can get it, and he walks into the end zone where there's there's nothing else to say, Like Sam Donald is playing some of the best quarterback play in the NFL right now, and it's impossible to deny it. And it was the reason that I and a lot of other people question this team. I was wrong, Donald's dealing. There's nothing we can do about it.

00:21:51
Speaker 8: That was one of those throws that it's like, it's often characterized as fit justin Jefferson's down there somewhere like it was half that and the other half was, Oh, by the way, I trust myself off to let this rip because I still have a great arm, Like he saw Cover two. He said, whole shot, except I'm gonna throw it beyond both guys, the corner and the safety because I trust my receiver to go make a play. That's the confidence that you get from playing an entire season together and building it week by a week to the point where you now believe in yourself that you can make that throw and you know that guy can make that catch, and oh, by the way, we're doing it on the road in Seattle, where the fans are allowed in the stadiums designed to keep the sound in and we're trailing and we need this win because we're trying to stay in the NFC race for the top seed.

00:22:27
Speaker 5: And we just deliver. That's what the Vikings do. They just keep delivering.

00:22:30
Speaker 8: I get so much hate online for my skepticism about the Vikings.

00:22:33
Speaker 2: Guess what you send man?

00:22:35
Speaker 5: Not skeptical today?

00:22:37
Speaker 1: I mean, what more do they gotta do with thirteen and two, six and one away from Minnesota. They have a huge game next week against Green Bay and then even a bigger one against Detroit. So I was really impressed with both quarterbacks in this game, and Darnold was ultimately better because he didn't throw the two interceptions that Gino did. Now, the first Gino intersept you could fall Noah fan a little bit for not continuing, but ultimately Gino's made a few too many of those throws this year where there were he's on the run and he forces it, and that's on him. The interception that he made after they got the ball back with about a minute to go, they need a field goal just to set up how the end of this game went. Even after that, Jefferson touchdown, which was with under four minutes to go.

00:23:24
Speaker 2: Seattle got the ball back, they got it.

00:23:26
Speaker 1: Into a really long field goal range, and Gino just kept getting hit play after play. Both these quarterbacks did eight quarterback hits I believe for the Seahawks, seven for the Vikings.

00:23:37
Speaker 2: Gino's hobbling out there.

00:23:38
Speaker 1: He had a key scramble, but they end up settling for a sixty two yard attempt by Jason Myers.

00:23:44
Speaker 2: He comes up short.

00:23:45
Speaker 1: The Seattle defense steps up, gets the ball back fifty five seconds to go length of the field at least in terms of getting into field goal range because they start at the seventeen yard line before moving backwards on yet another false start. So many untimed penalties by the Seahawks offense.

00:24:02
Speaker 2: Here's what happened. Geno Smith's trying to snap the Vikings win. He's three back to pass grows.

00:24:08
Speaker 6: Right help that said interception by.

00:24:12
Speaker 2: The just S hand. The Minnesota Vikings have won eight consecutive games.

00:24:19
Speaker 11: They are thirteen and two, and Kevin O'Connell is the first coach in Minnesota Vikings history to have multiple thirteen bens seasons.

00:24:31
Speaker 1: I mean, shout out to camp by him for the way he gets this group ready for those celebrations. I'm just gonna sound like a Genostan if I just start railing against DK metcalf right now.

00:24:43
Speaker 2: So can you do it for me?

00:24:44
Speaker 3: Patrick? Yeah, no, Dk isn't.

00:24:46
Speaker 4: It's not just that they're on the same page, because even if DK was running the corner, it was a very lazy corner at that he barely gets his head around before before the ball is picked off. Where you know, how many times, right do you do you see this situation where DK and Gino aren't on the same page, where you're just like, okay, no more option routes.

00:25:06
Speaker 3: Let's take the options away.

00:25:09
Speaker 4: Because when we saw at work right that there was the adjustment, the side adjustment that he and Gino had mid route that led to a long touchdown earlier this season, and we sang its praise is there, But here's the downside where you've got a defender picking off a ball where they had a chance to win the game. And you mentioned those sacks before the Meyers sixty yard field goal. If Gino doesn't take those sacks, then that's not a sixty yard field goal. You know, it's fifty seven fifty five and the ball landed about four yard short. And so if we're playing that game, Myers maybe puts that ball through the uprights, and it's a different situation at the end where those mistakes are the ones that we're going to remember. Despite how good Gino played other than those two throws, it's very difficult to give them ball.

00:25:50
Speaker 2: That's the right throw like it is. It is an obvious read there, and you're right.

00:25:55
Speaker 1: I think the criticism on Ryde Grubb, the offensive coordinator, has been picking up and up and up and up.

00:25:59
Speaker 2: In c.

00:26:01
Speaker 1: But ultimately it's a pretty clear read that he needs to be running toward towards the sideline there and instead he rounds it off. And when you're a player like Gino who's gonna win kind of from the neck up and with the anticipation and you're backed up on your own goal line with fifty seconds left and no timeouts, like that is the right throw and dk dk blewett there. And unfortunately that's sort of the end of the Seahawks season. We'll get into all the For instance, I shouldn't say that I'm sounding like a fan, but it could be. It could be without any of their control the end of their season. But to me, it was typical shook because ken Walker leaves this game hurt. It's just a microcosm of the season. The offensive line has a couple better moments protecting him, but ultimately it's caving in and it's too much of the these third and lungs because the three touchdown drives they went on. Gina was fifteen for fifteen with three touchdowns and had some of the prettiest throws you've ever seen. Steve Weiss is watching this game and covering it and texting me just like the quarterback play in this game was absolutely next level, and yet to me it is fit fitting kind of in the end that Smith and Jig but has the consistent game. He is the number one receiver there in Seattle now, and it just there's too many things working against the Seahawks, even if their defense was up for it.

00:27:24
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:27:24
Speaker 8: Well, you speak about the offensive line caving, that's how you lead to two to ten on two to ten on third down, that's how. And a lack of attention to detail with your eleven penalties accepted against you. I mean, this is how you lose a game like this against the top tier team. You cannot afford to make these mistakes. You can't have your receiver as Mark Sanchez astutely put it ooze out toward the sideline instead of hitting a hard cut toward the sideline when you need an anticipatory throw in a key spot to get out of bounds and saved time. You just can't make those mistakes. And this has kind of been endemic of who the Seahawks have been at times. And this is before you take Geno out of the game last week when they had to have Sam Howe, because we saw how that f off of a cliff where the margin for air for them has been very slim in some of these games, and it has cost them more often than that, which is how you end up where you are record wise, where you're now basically thinking are seasons about over? Because you just didn't do the little things right, which is disheartening because as a team they came together at the right time.

00:28:16
Speaker 5: But defense started to play better.

00:28:17
Speaker 8: Gino was paulling and everything else, but you're gonna fall short because you don't take care of the detail.

00:28:21
Speaker 1: Defense played better today. You know that face mass penalty that Patrick mentioned was on a sack. If they didn't have the face mass there, it's a totally different game. They're probably getting the ball back there with a lead without a lot of time left, and who knows what's happened. They held Minnesota under three hundred yards under you know, twenty first downs. They did a lot of good things, but the offense turned it over twice. The Seahawks had eleven penalties in this game, most of those on offense, like more than half of them in these pre snap stuff. And I think they've built up something good, but at eight and seven that might not be good enough. This is one of the better conferences in terms of the records of teams going into the playoffs. So we could have it's possible, we could have seven to twelve and plus teams. It's probably not gonna happen, or no way, that's not that's not.

00:29:06
Speaker 2: Possible, because now it is possible.

00:29:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, they can they can get there.

00:29:09
Speaker 2: Edit that out, Eric, or don't. Let's go to New York.

00:29:14
Speaker 1: So that game happened late and we kind of learned what is the race for the one seed gonna look like? Now Minnesota now has it in their hands. If they win out, they are the one seed. Obviously the Lions. That's still true for them.

00:29:28
Speaker 9: Uh.

00:29:28
Speaker 1: The Seahawks knew this game was even more important because they certainly knew what happened earlier in the day in New Jersey.

00:29:36
Speaker 11: Two tight end set with the strength to the ride of Matthew Stafford, who's under center from that right side hookah in motion play fake roll right, Stafford throws.

00:29:42
Speaker 5: Caught Bye Hagbee at the ten, big Rig Higgs.

00:29:45
Speaker 2: To look a line. Touchdown Tyler Haigbee.

00:29:52
Speaker 12: Welcome back, big Rig Piggs.

00:29:56
Speaker 6: Touchdown la.

00:30:00
Speaker 2: That one in the Call of the Year. I love it. JB.

00:30:03
Speaker 1: Long on KSPN, our friend big Rig Higg on a play so fun. It had a nickname, and our friend Jordan Rod reed Reig sent the nickname. It was called Lizard, And all the Rams were just giggling about why it was called lizard.

00:30:20
Speaker 2: But they wouldn't tell us why, tell us why.

00:30:22
Speaker 1: Tyler Higbee, the longest tenured Ram next to Rob Habenstein, I believe draft picked back early days before Sean McVay even was here, gets into the end zone in an ugly nineteen to nine victory. Kind of typical for this season. Patrick, despite that Bill's game everyone remembers. They have a lot of kind of these ugly wins, but they are nine and six now, pretty amazing for a team that was once one and four.

00:30:53
Speaker 4: Yeah, and you just heard ten percent of Matthew Stafford's passing yards on that eleven yard touchdown to Tyler Higby. He threw for one hundred and ten yards in this game. If not for Karen Williams efforts, he got one hundred and twenty two on the ground. Blake Korm had a long run that ultimately got called back for holding. The Rams defense essentially won this game and some questionable decision making by the Jets surprise surprise gives the Rams this one. Where the Jets had a fourth and two that they threw for got it early in the game led to some points.

00:31:21
Speaker 3: They had a fourth and one that they did not get.

00:31:23
Speaker 4: They had difficulty corral Pukinakua everybody does, but they were able to hold him to fifty six yards on eight catches. Eight catches for just fifty six yards. Cooper Cup only had three catches in this game, but the Rams defense Cam Kurle got a sack of Aaron Rodgers late, not just a sack, but a strip sack Jared Versus able to get on top of it, and the Jets never recovered from the Rams making some of those big plays where there were so many opportunities. Aaron Rodgers threw the ball forty two times, but it wasn't enough to deal with this Rams team that this specialized the winning so far earlier this year against the forty nine Ers, this win in MetLife just some absolute ugly game that the Rams have managed to win.

00:32:06
Speaker 1: And it shows their versatility because there's a reason Sam and Matt Stafford did not make it onto QB Island and our friend Jordan got a lot of grief for it after that Bills game. And then you look at these last two games against the forty nine Ers and the Jets, like that's kind of been his season, a little up and down.

00:32:24
Speaker 2: Now, if you're a Jets fan, that's right.

00:32:28
Speaker 1: QB Islan will be coming back at least by the end of the regular season. If you're a Jets fan, you got to think, like, how many different ways can we lose games? Shook, they did not punt. They are the first team in twenty five years. They only had seven possessions, three of them ended on down so they go for it on fourth downs and they didn't get it. They are the first team to not punt in twenty five years to not score ten points. That's it's pretty hard to do, not punt and not score ten points and not turn the ball over until uh on, No way that they did turn it over twice.

00:33:02
Speaker 2: That that Rogers play, he looked very old.

00:33:04
Speaker 1: I don't know if you saw that, but that was that was a play where I know, I know he's been better lately shook, but like I was, like, man, the young Aaron Rodgers wouldn't have come close to taking that sack.

00:33:14
Speaker 8: Yeah, it's a reminder of the up and down nature of Aaron Rodgers in his current place in his career and why we have no idea where he's gonna play next year, if he's going to play, because you can't figure out what he's going to be one week to the next. You could say the same about Matthew Stafford, but they're still winning football games and he's still throwing a touchdown, passing a key spot like we just highlighted earlier. That was the one thing that jumped out of me was three turnover on down. This is what happens when you get the confidence of scoring a touchdown on your first possession and you're like, oh, we can go do it again. It was great past the Devontae Adams in the back of the end zone, fantastic catch.

00:33:41
Speaker 5: Let's go do it again.

00:33:42
Speaker 8: Except they can't because they're the Jets, and despite how well they've played the last couple of weeks, you face a team that's actually fighting for a playoff spot and you learn real quick just how far away you still are.

00:33:51
Speaker 1: Right, And they also fumbled a punt return late when they were only down by seven, and that that helped make it get to nine. I mean, I believe, or get to get to ten. I don't know, Like, what do you think about this Rams team going into next week? Okay, let's break down before I ask you that Patrick the situation.

00:34:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, let's get it.

00:34:10
Speaker 2: Okay.

00:34:10
Speaker 1: So they are in first place in the NFC West. They are nine and six. The Seahawks are eight and seven. Before the forty nine ers even played on Sunday, they were eliminated based on that commander's win, which really eliminated a lot of the pass for wild card possibility, including for Seattle. Seattle cannot be a wildcard team, So it is division or bust for Seattle. Seattle trails by one game they play in the final week. If you look at all the tie breakers head to head, well, they'd be tied there because that Rams overtime win is now looming as the biggest game in the NFC West all season. They're tied there, tied in division record, tied, and they'd be tied in conference record if they were tied going into it. It comes down to strength of victory. Strength of victory is very complicated because it's it's like where the BCS you're seeing if the teams that you beat be other teams. So it's not totally decided. But we asked NFL research Jack Andreid before the show. He was doing all the calculations. And if Seattle wins on Thursday night they play first, of course they have to win out to have a chance to win the division. They have to win on Thursday night, take care of business the Rams play on Saturday night. The Rams would not be able to clinch the NFC West on Saturday night based on the strength of victory tiebreaker. Now that said, it could be clinched by the end of the week, and they have such a big lead in strength of victory that even if it wasn't clinched by the end of week seventeen, you know before Seattle in the Rams face, it could very well and likely would be clinched at some point in week eighteen. So it lead to a very unsatisfied scenario where Seattle could possibly be playing to win that game and think they have a little bit of a chance, and they do win, but they don't win the division anyways, Long story short, the Cardinals need to beat the Rams next Saturday night on NFL Network to give Seattle a chance based on how the Rams look today, What do you think of the Rams kind of in that game? To me, I'm I don't know if I totally trust them in any given week, you know what I mean, Like they're close, right, Yeah, Well.

00:36:22
Speaker 4: The question is how clean is nine going to be Matthew Stafford we saw it against the Buffalo Bills. If he's protected, then the sky's the limit. They're gonna be able to do whatever they do. It's a spectacular game from Kyra Williams on the ground. There's also pressure in Stafford's face and he throws a ball to DeMarcus Robinson in double coverage and Tony Adams picks it off. This kind of like this late stage Stafford dichotomy where it's like, oh, that's Matthew Stafford. I' watch them against the Buffalo Bills, and then who is this guy kind of sneakily getting outplayed by like the ghost of Aaron Rodgers in spots of this game where they just they got to find a way to protect them.

00:36:57
Speaker 3: They didn't do enough to do that against he.

00:37:00
Speaker 2: That's true.

00:37:01
Speaker 1: The numbers say he's one of the worst quarterbacks in football under pressure all season. Today he goes three for five within interception, but he didn't take a sack. He sort of is in that Rogers mode where he refuses to take a sack, and that's improved offensive line play. Hasn't taken a sack in three weeks, but it's also him being a little panicky. I mean, he's only pressured on twenty six percent of the dropbacks today. And so yes, if the Cardinals can get some pressure on Matthew Stafford, they'll have a chance next week and they'll have a chance to help out the Seattle Seahawks and frankly, the NFL which could use some Week eighteen games with a little bit of juice. At least we'll have some juice in that Saturday night game on NFL Network. He says, a nice little tripleheader. But we would have had a little more juice if the Cardinals had come through on Sunday, but they didn't because Bryce Young got after it.

00:37:54
Speaker 2: Let's go to Carolina.

00:37:55
Speaker 3: Three tight ends to the run. Here's the snap that give Deil Harbert.

00:37:58
Speaker 10: Over the right show like to tackle ten hood, high step touchdown, Huba Harbard and the Panthers win and overtime game winning twenty one yard run by Schuba Hubbard. Sweet Caroline one more time in twenty twenty four.

00:38:19
Speaker 1: That is WRFX Chuba Harvard getting it done. A walk off, overtime touchdown. The Panthers finally get a win in one of these close games. It feels like they've been giving us a lot of entertainment. You couldn't say that about the twenty twenty three Panthers or the twenty twenty two Panthers.

00:38:38
Speaker 2: For that matter. Good for them, thirty six to thirty. Not a ton of defense.

00:38:45
Speaker 1: Patrick played in this game, and yes we are in a Patrick you know run here on the program three straight games that he covered.

00:38:52
Speaker 2: I love you, Shook.

00:38:53
Speaker 1: You're gonna have your moments later when we do the AFC. If you didn't notice that kind of structured a NFC AFC ah and yeah, they a problem with this.

00:39:02
Speaker 2: This is fine. The Arizona Cardinals are eliminated. That's it for them.

00:39:05
Speaker 1: They actually entered the day with a very reasonable path to win the division and then by the time this game was over, they were out.

00:39:13
Speaker 4: And something that I don't believe has happened thus far this season, the Carolina Panthers outran the opposition, and this is with James Connor averaging seven point eight yards per carry, but he only had fifteen of them and Juba Hubbard went twenty five on the ground for one fifty two. It was the Panthers jumping out. It was a twenty to three lead that Kyler and the Cardinals were able to whittle away, a lot of it thanks to James Connor, where Bryce Young had a touchdown drive where on two plays he had fifty seven rushing yards, including a rushing touchdown where they played less man because they had to. Bryce Young was killing them. Once the defenders got their their backs turned in the first half, but it eventually goes into overtime. Bryce is making those anticipatory throws and just when it kept seeming like Kyler Murray had opportunities to come back and win this game, he will get out on the edge and Kyler will get ran down. Yeah, that's what jumped out to me. This Carolina Panthers team that could not corral Patrick Mahomes five weeks ago on scrambles was beating Kyler Murray to the sideline on multiple plays, including one where I'm wondering what was going on with the clock because I thought Kyler got out of bounds, but they railed the clock.

00:40:27
Speaker 3: Jonathan Gannon had to take a time out in a.

00:40:29
Speaker 4: Long Chad Ryland fifty eight yard field goal to send the game to overtime. But the Panthers defense made plays late, which is weird to say in a game that was thirty six to thirty. But the Panthers defense, which has been play a verse in the fourth quarter of this season, finally makes the plays they need to.

00:40:45
Speaker 1: Glad you pointed that out about Kyler because you look on the statue eight for sixty three. That's what we've been wanting to see be a little more aggressive. I think he was more aggressive on the ground the last two weeks, and he wasn't that successful. Maybe he was chopping up his feet occasionally, but he just didn't look like he had the same amount of It's late in the season.

00:41:01
Speaker 2: Maybe that's the reason, but you're absolutely right, that was huge. Yeah.

00:41:05
Speaker 1: Gannon essentially blamed the officials afterwards, and I agree with him in this case, And it would have been really unfortunate if, amongst the confusion of whether Kyler got out of bounds there or not, fifteen seconds going off the clock and them not taking time out ended up ending their season. But Rylan kind of bailed the officials and I guess Gannon out in that situation and they went to overtime.

00:41:32
Speaker 2: But Bryce, to me, was the story.

00:41:34
Speaker 1: And it's not a mistake that Bryce keeps getting Patrick Laybon covering these games. I know how you enjoy watching him. He going into the afternoon window, I think was second in the NFL and EPA per play today.

00:41:47
Speaker 2: I don't know what it ended up as.

00:41:48
Speaker 1: And so you'll look at the box score and you see you see one hundred and fifty eight yards in two touchdowns, but he also ran for sixty eight yards in a touchdown. Over half of his throws resulted in touch downs are first downs, so if you watched it just eye tests, it's really impressive what he's doing. These are throws that he's making before his wide outs are making breaks. And also credit to David Moore and Adam Thelen for making some really good catches too. Not household names, at least not David Moore, but Thelan's hands are just amazing, and I like seeing them get rewarded because this offense, especially coming off a bad week took has really been one of the stories of the second half of the season that they got to go.

00:42:30
Speaker 8: Yeah, what we found in this, I don't know if I would call it a resurgence, but the next Steven Bryce Young's development is that he's kind of gotten a little bit of Drew Brees and in that all these throws are very anticipatory, and that's Dave Canalis understanding where his quarterback strengths lie and then scheming the offense accordingly, and then you kind of allow them to make plays like Dan Chizna caught his second career catch today in a kind of big spot. It was so surprising that the cameraman missed him and thought it was somewhere else and just completely missed the catch and had to refocus to find him on the field. But it's because of the way this offensive scheme and Bryce is playing really well. Also on the Cardinals point, James Connor had one hundred and seventeen yards, didn't get a carry in the fourth quarter in a fourth quarter in which they actually managed to put ten points on the board, see her, and they were because they were.

00:43:13
Speaker 5: Down by ten.

00:43:13
Speaker 8: That's the question that I have because that doesn't make a lot of sense to me when that's the power of your offense. And Kyler on the run twenty yard touchdown run. But you're right, this has actually happened a lot with him in the last I don't know, six weeks or so, which has been every time he tries to get out to run, there are no spaces to run. It's like defenses are preparing very much so to contain his scrambling ability, and then he's forced to throw it away or.

00:43:34
Speaker 5: Just take a small game.

00:43:35
Speaker 8: When he went out of bounds, I thought he may have gotten knocked backward, and because he wasn't going out of bounds with forward progress.

00:43:41
Speaker 5: They ran the clock, but it was a very peculiar situation.

00:43:43
Speaker 1: Regardles Well, I think it was the communication too between the Yeah, nobody knew officials that they didn't communicate that to the coaches.

00:43:51
Speaker 2: But it's all beside the point.

00:43:52
Speaker 1: On some level, they almost certainly weren't going to score a touchdown there, so the field goal would just would have been closer. Another couple spots are like Marvin Harrison doesn't win a contested catch. It it's disappointing that it's hard to know what to do with this cardinal season because it was a missed opportunity. They went into the by at six and four, and they've lost four out of five since, you know, this is a bad loss. Ultimately, they weren't that close with Seattle. It was really that Minnesota game. The margins are so small that game where they really outplayed the Vikings and blew it on a couple of game management and just Sam Darnold making big plays at the end. That kind that kind of ended up being their season. But we need you, Arizona. I think I'll still think it's a step forward. Unfortunately, it feels a lot like the Kyler, Murray, Cliff Kingsbury years. But I think you gotta give Jonathan Gannon a wider berth. This was one of the hardest rebuilding jobs in the NFL. I think they were very competitive for what they had last year without Murray most of the year. Now they're seven and eight. That's a significant step up. They're way over there over underwin total coming into the season like it still was a big step forward. Going into year three, I think be patient. Even if there were some moments down the stretch where you just want to see Kyler take that big step, I'm not sure that we saw that this year. He's just a very good quarterback. Maybe he's not gonna be a great quarterback, or maybe he just needs to have the right year.

00:45:16
Speaker 2: This was not that year.

00:45:18
Speaker 1: So the Cardinals are out. What about the Falcons? They're playing early, they have Michael Pennox. They absolutely needed a win and they got it all right.

00:45:28
Speaker 2: Here goes Lock looking to the near side.

00:45:30
Speaker 13: I got beat it in the air and intercepted Matthew Junon another six on a touchdown.

00:45:39
Speaker 2: Well, I hope Besmu's not watching this game.

00:45:44
Speaker 13: Whoa Drew Lock Casona's second interception and they both been a pick six.

00:45:51
Speaker 1: So the random SMU mustang are they drive by there by Wes Durham and Dave Archer having fun like Matthew.

00:45:59
Speaker 2: Jude's on w ZGC.

00:46:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, Judah on with the great Nick van Exel touchdown celebration.

00:46:07
Speaker 2: At least that's what I thought.

00:46:08
Speaker 1: Drew Locke second pick six of the game, That one wasn't really his fault.

00:46:12
Speaker 2: That was bad luck.

00:46:13
Speaker 1: His offensive line completely collapsed on that play and Greg Van Roten and Evan Neil really didn't give him much of a chance. It gets tipped up and Matthew Judin makes a play. Hasn't made a ton for the Falcons this year. They win thirty four to seven. But the story here was Michael Pennix's first start. They needed the win to really stay in the playoff mix, and they got it. And I just thought he was so much better than the numbers indicated. When you go back to watch this shook on game pass for QB Index, I think you'll be like, Wow, that's one of the better eighteen for twenty seven for two h two in an interception games you've ever seen. First of all, the interception came on a drop from Kyle Pitts that that could have been a touchdown or would have had them right on the doorstep. Second of all the like just the eyeball test tells you he is not a normal rookie like Jaden Daniels. He has a ton of experience. He is looking off defenders, he is being decisive, but he's also getting to his second and third reads at times. He was accurate. And yes it was against the Giants, but a lot of this came against pressure. I think a really encouraging first start for Pennix where his arm strength and ability to get out of trouble and be on the move and do a little more play action.

00:47:30
Speaker 2: It was all there.

00:47:32
Speaker 1: It kind of made the Falcons playbook open up, like their offense just made more sense. And they are eight and seven and I am looking forward to watching them the next two weeks. They have a very interesting game next week against the Commanders and Pennex. I think gives them a much better chance to win it than Kirk Cousins would have.

00:47:49
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think their offense never quite made sense for Kirk Cousins to begin with.

00:47:53
Speaker 8: When we spoke at Ad Nauseaum about the fact that they never ran play action and like, you don't need to run play action to get Penix going. You talked about pressure for thirteen for seventy seven yards into pressure.

00:48:02
Speaker 5: That's good.

00:48:02
Speaker 8: That's very, very good for a rookie making his first start. Usually the numbers would be in the basement. They'd be terrible against pressure because it's usually too fast for a rookie. But Penix is no ordinary rookie because of all the time he had in college, which is one of his big selling points coming into this game.

00:48:15
Speaker 2: Now.

00:48:15
Speaker 8: It also helps you in the grand scheme of things when your defense scores two touchdowns when you rush for you know, a hundred and twenty seven yards the ground as a team, you know, and b John Robinson has another solid day, but overall the quarterback to go thirty to touchdowns when that works, and that's fine, that's perfectly fine. I'm very much looking forward to like getting a deep dive in this game because I think Pennix was one of the guys in this class that would be able to produce something like this. And I'm not saying that the Falcons are like suddenly back, but considering where they were, this is a big win for them. The fact that they just weren't dreading the postgame press conference because their quarterback struggled again.

00:48:48
Speaker 5: So that's a win for that.

00:48:49
Speaker 1: It was worth it. Life is short. The crowd was loving this game. The crowd was so much more amped up for Pennix. One of his best throws of the game was his first one and it was dropped by Ray Ray McLeod, who just continues to have too big a part of this offense. And that's kind of why I mentioned like it's just beyond the numbers. There was at least three drops. Drake London, who did have some nice catches, had a drop on a key play, but you just get.

00:49:14
Speaker 2: Mooney in London more involved. Bijon is just so good though.

00:49:19
Speaker 1: I'm glad you mentioned that Pennix was in favorable situations because his success rate today was so good. He goes for one hundred and three yards from scrimmage. He's now over sixteen hundred on the season. I don't think people realize that he's on the doorstep of like a two thousand yard yards from scrimmage that would often lead the league where he is right now, and in fact, he would be leading the NFL in twenty twenty three if he was in that So he had one of the more impressive twenty two for ninety four as I've ever seen because they did not block it well and he made so many people miss, including on one of his touchdown runs. I just I know Saquan is incredible. He's having a better season. But when I just watched Bajon like playoffter playoffs, like man, I don't know if I'd rather have any running back in the NFL right now than even Squad.

00:50:04
Speaker 2: I know that's crazy.

00:50:05
Speaker 3: No, he's a threat.

00:50:06
Speaker 4: I mean, they're both threats anytime, but Bijon will take more risks as a runner in the open space. Today, he almost costs himself a first down by going backwards, But that's what he's thinking. He's trying to make big plays every single time he gets his hands on the ball, and I think with Pinnicks starting that he's able to do that more. I think the offense and I recognize, right they get the pick six, but what those two pick sixes, But that also takes a couple possessions away where Pinnicks's numbers probably could have been a little bit better. Kyle Pits calling it a drop is is doing Cole Pits a favor. He handed the ball off to the Giants essentially in the end zone.

00:50:44
Speaker 1: There the k Booty special from the Patriots, just like with like volleyball, like a like set it up like a volleyball player.

00:50:50
Speaker 2: That was That was unfortunate.

00:50:53
Speaker 4: But the reason right that I think, you know, pending the results on Sunday Night Football, in the way that the season goes, it's it's not just that they're not dead shook. It feels like they have a chance now, not just because of the change at quarterback. This is a defense that we were joking about their ability to sack the quarterback. They added three more today and in the second half after the bye. This is sneakly one of the better pass rushes in the league considering what they've been able to do. And that's crazy thinking about before the buye they had nine sacks total.

00:51:25
Speaker 1: Right, I think it gives them a good chance to win these final games where it's going to be important each week they're at Washington and then their home for Carolina.

00:51:37
Speaker 2: Neither is easy.

00:51:38
Speaker 1: I would have said with Cousins, they would have been underdogs maybe in both of those games, certainly against the Commanders with Pennix, I think they have a better chance. Arnold Abahetti had at a sack, they're up. Yeah, I think you said the sixteen sacks in the last few weeks. They are now thirteen and three wearing those red helmets. Just make of all the throwback looks, and there's more than a few that should just be the permanent looks.

00:52:01
Speaker 2: This is high on the list. Just just make that.

00:52:04
Speaker 1: And then Jesse Bates had the other pick six where that one was on Drew Lock. Until that moment, Drew Lock was actually playing quite well and is a significant upgrade from Tommy DeVito. But that is a really low bar and ultimately he's still Drew Lock. But man, Jesse Bates now for the season, has as many interceptions and force fumbles combined as any player in the NFL. Just one of the great free agent signings of the last few years. Pennix ends up, by the way with a plus point eight point one EPA. The only two Falcons games that were any better in terms of EPA by a quarterback this year. Can you guess them? Nick schuok, Oh, I'm sorry, I should just put it up for because no, go.

00:52:47
Speaker 5: Ahead, Come on, but one's gonna be Tampa Bay.

00:52:51
Speaker 1: Okay, these these were our games. You know, we did TNF, We did Monday Night Football together. I mean, it's just sitting right there for you.

00:53:00
Speaker 5: I'm trying to think about what we did on Monday Night. Does the Eagles that come back?

00:53:03
Speaker 3: Whenever the Eagles?

00:53:04
Speaker 2: It was both the Boks games. Monday Night game was the Buck game and.

00:53:08
Speaker 5: He threw for like eight hundred yards of the two games. They didn't want to double.

00:53:11
Speaker 2: Up on Bucks games. Yeah, it was.

00:53:12
Speaker 3: It was.

00:53:13
Speaker 1: It was the two Bucks games and Kirk Cousins, who the broadcast crew tried to give extra credit for because apparently Raheem Morris was like, hey, look, if you need to have a week to feel sorry for yourself, you know, you could be the number three quarterback this week. And Kirk was like, no, I'm here to to be the number two, and they're like trying to give him credit. I was like, that is the ultimate offer that you know the guy's not taking. It was like me telling Patrick that he could have the show off today.

00:53:41
Speaker 2: For being sick, like.

00:53:44
Speaker 5: Just myself and shook down the river.

00:53:46
Speaker 4: Yeah, if you want to phrase it like that, like hey, if you need it if you need an evening to feel sorry for yourself.

00:53:52
Speaker 2: I'm joking. I it really was an option.

00:53:54
Speaker 1: Patrick, although as I'm making it, I just know how you are that if the unless the day went horribly wrong for you, you were going to be in that chair, because if you were doing game Day Game Day Live, as you did, you know you're a warrior.

00:54:07
Speaker 2: Like Kurl, and you're not even wearing a helmet the whole time like.

00:54:11
Speaker 3: Kirk was, just in case he's one snap away.

00:54:14
Speaker 1: I mean, don't wear the helmet in the game. Let's just throw up this graphic before we take a break, just to depress all the Giants fans out there. They showed this on the broadcast, and I couldn't believe it. This is the chance that the Giants have. They have to be the worst outright record in the NFL, first time since sixty six, winless at home, first times in seventy four, winless in the division, never in holding the number one draft pick nineteen sixty five. Almost immediately after they showed that graphic, they showed John Mara looking up, I believe, at the graphic and then walking away when he realized it. I don't won't know for sure if that's what he was looking at, but they showed him. He didn't look happy. It's rough times, but ultimately they should thank Tommy DeVito and Drew Locke for this quest to get the number one overall pick. More on that later, Let's take a break. That was the longest first segment of the season. Who said you can't get better? In Week sixteen, chucking.

00:55:20
Speaker 2: Down at seven for the Steelers.

00:55:23
Speaker 14: Play, Actually, Russell Wilson rolls right, Rosie stepped picked.

00:55:27
Speaker 12: Off Marlon Hoophrey, He's going to the house, picked six Marlon Hophrey and the defense stepped up to a moment. Oh a play, have this house has on higher?

00:55:42
Speaker 1: Love that call by Jerry Sandusky on wb A L. Yeah, how about a little complimentary football, Patrick Clayban. How about the defense making a big play That was two touchdowns in the span of about four game minutes as we went into the fourth order. Ravens back on Saturday that already feels like a while ago, beat the Pittsburgh Steelers thirty four to seventeen. These two teams are now tied atop the division at ten and five, And it was another game Patrick where it's kind of like with your raven like how you want to get beat by Henry or by Lamar, or in this case, by by a defense which held their own as well.

00:56:25
Speaker 3: Ah.

00:56:25
Speaker 4: Yes, a defense that has been so good. Zach Orr got so much criticism there was questions about switching over play caller duties.

00:56:32
Speaker 3: This was before the buye.

00:56:34
Speaker 4: The pass rush got better in that win against the Chargers, and here against this George Pickens List version of the Steelers. Before that play on Marlin Humphrey's pick six, Rashaw Bateman's running across her. He stops for some reason. Lamar winds up throwing a pick directly to Mika Fitzpatrick. And so that's the game situation, and you think the Steelers are poised. But then the pass rush gets to Russ he's rolling out, throws behind his receiver and Marlow makes a play where this Ravens secondary was it making plays earlier in the season. Now they decidedly are. And you got good contributions from Rashad Bateman, who had the foot injury was questionable coming into the game. He scored a touchdown on a great Lamar throw where the offense was executing and Derek Henry.

00:57:17
Speaker 3: Had a lot of space to run through.

00:57:18
Speaker 4: The Steelers were very lucky to hold him to what was one of the best rushing the performances of the of the week. And that's you know, somebody might hear me say that, say that's crazy.

00:57:28
Speaker 3: Derek. Henry could have very easily had two hundred yards right here.

00:57:31
Speaker 1: There was a couple of plays where they just got him by the ankle. He still ends up with one hundred and sixty two on the ground twenty seven through the air. And there's been a few games like this, but man, watching how they opened this game where they ran eight of the first thirteen plays to Henry and he was just eating them up because they were giving him the inside runs because they were protecting the edge against Lamar. On those gives, they just put you in such a bind. I was impressed by Lamar in terms of in the game situation. It was seventeen all that. The Steelers were absolutely game here. They tie it up mid third quarter and if you're a Ravens fan, you're thinking, man, this is a game. We've looked better and they're tied like it's happening again. And on that very next drive, six plays sixty yards, every single one of them is Lamar Jackson. There's no Dereck Henry. It's a nice throw to Mark Andrews to start it, it's a touchdown to Andrews to finish it. It's a Lamar run in the middle and a couple nice throws and he ends up with a very efficient day except for that interception. And finally, one of these games isn't close. I mean we always hear how every time it comes down to the end and the Ravens kind of cruise there and are back in position to potentially get a three seed here in the AFC.

00:58:51
Speaker 3: With some help.

00:58:52
Speaker 8: Yeah, I felt like that sixth place sixty yard drive was really the statement drive of the entire day because it was very back and forth. It was a classic Raven Steelers game, and it just looks so easy for Baltimore on the following drive, in fact, when he dropped back to pass and found Andrews in the en zone. As soon as he dropped the pass, in my head, actually out loud, I said to my TV, He's gonna find Andrews in the end zone. And then he throws into Mark Andrews and the end zone because that's what they do. And when they're firing on all cylinders. They're a well olled machine. It's just that at times it has disappeared. It did not disappear in this game. The shocking part was the fact that the defense found the dagger. They put the hay in the barn for Jerry Sandusky with that pick, which, by the way, Russ, what are we doing?

00:59:27
Speaker 5: That throw was on the wrong shoulder. It was about two yards behind him.

00:59:30
Speaker 2: What are we doing?

00:59:31
Speaker 3: You know?

00:59:31
Speaker 5: Not a great play for him.

00:59:32
Speaker 2: I think he just missed the throw. I think he's just on the run and made it.

00:59:37
Speaker 5: He absolutely missed that throw. I was just shocked, as usually doesn't miss those throws.

00:59:40
Speaker 1: No, and he fumbled going in for a potential touchdown in the first half. Those were really the two biggest plays of the game, and our Darius Washington popped him that on that run, So you got to give credit.

00:59:52
Speaker 2: What did you think about the game plan? Patrick?

00:59:55
Speaker 1: I didn't notice this watching it live. By Pittsburgh's defense, it didn't feel like they had a lot of pressure because they didn't. But they blitzed sixty two percent of the time, and they blitzed with at least six pass rushers nine times and it really, to me is an example of how Lamar has grown because he had the ball out so quick, I didn't even notice they were doing that.

01:00:20
Speaker 4: Yeah, and there was you know, high Smith had a great pass rush. He actually strips back to Lamar. The Ravens were able to recover that. The Ravens did get away with recovering I think three fumbles in this game, including one on the punt return one from Lamar, where the Steelers could have very easily gotten those.

01:00:37
Speaker 3: I think TJ. Watt probably came back and was playing after.

01:00:41
Speaker 4: Leaving the last game with an injury, with a little bit of something, and then the Steelers weren't getting their usual production from him in the pass rush and so maybe that led to a little more blitzing. But even then, when they got caught in these blitzeres with these Henry runs, normally there's a plan, right, there's a plan for Lamar. But it seemed like, all right, we're going to force Lamar to give the ball. Okay, that can work, but not when Derrick Henry is getting five and six yards of carry. It just seemed like they would eventually run them out of it.

01:01:11
Speaker 1: But they never did, right, he just they never ran him out of it, and he just knew where to throw it on those blitzes, which I just think, Look, he's always been able to win from the pocket, but like a lot of seven eight year veterans, he's a lot better. Reminds me of Big Ben, It reminds me of most great quarterbacks in year seven, year eight at winning before the snap, and I think Lamar does that more now than he did three four years ago. And so he was just popping those little ones to likely and Dave Flowers ends up with one hundred and yeah, they sent all those pressures and you never felt it. On the other side, you actually did feel the Ravens pressures. It was pretty even just total pressure percentage. But Russ goes five for eleven for eighteen yards when pressured. He didn't get anything outside the numbers. So he made a couple of plays. But it's just tough to rely on that ultimately. And there are a lot of injuries for the Steelers. They were without Dante Jackson, they were without Deshaun Elliott, and then Joey Porter Junior got hurt in this game. So these two teams have to flip around and play on Christmas and right now the Steelers are in first, but the Ravens got to feel like, ooh, the Steelers, there's a good chance they could lose on Chiefs against the Chiefs with all these defensive injuries.

01:02:34
Speaker 8: Yeah, I'm not like trying to be a hater here, but I do have some concerns about the Steelers just because I've never seen an offense look so vastly different when you take one player off the field that's not a quarterback like this offense.

01:02:46
Speaker 2: Get him back. Maybe they can get him back, right, They need him back.

01:02:48
Speaker 8: They desperately need him back because Russ pressure numbers totally fit with what you see on the field, which is when it's third down and he needs to throw a lofted like moonball to somebody, he's got nowhere to go. Because Pickens is not on the field. It has really limited their offense. He actually had pretty good day with that considered. It's just that, like, if they don't get him back soon, I'm concerned down this stretch here, especially with this quick turnaround, how well they're going to perform because they're just hamstrung by it with the fact that they don't have it.

01:03:10
Speaker 1: Okay, So that was the later game on Saturday. As I mentioned, these two teams will be playing against the Texans and the Chiefs on Christmas Day, and that means it's time for the Sunday Drive presented by the all new hybrid Toyota Camry. Let's go to Arrowhead and see how that one shaped up.

01:03:32
Speaker 10: Second and nine, Kansas City in the red zone at the tex In fifteen yard life, the homes on the far hash in the pocket, stepping up and trying.

01:03:40
Speaker 2: To squeeze through the States on the street.

01:03:41
Speaker 10: Ten fuck the zone, touchdown, tail Zone City on that bad ankle, stepping through the pocket, running.

01:03:51
Speaker 2: All the way to the sweet nectar of.

01:03:53
Speaker 3: The young zone.

01:03:55
Speaker 1: Match to hold this on WDAF. It's rare that the first touchdown of the game is the one we go with. But to me, that was the defining play of a twenty seven to nineteen victory by the Chiefs. Watch out as if I'm such a dope boat like as if I needed a game like this for me to be like watch out for the Chiefs, But I guess I did. I was impressed, Chuck. I thought this was their best overall offensive performance of the season, coming after their worst offensive performance of the season. They looked really good in this one, I think twenty seven to nineteen against a really good Texans defense.

01:04:34
Speaker 8: Yeah, Marquis Brown fit into this offense perfectly. I know he finished with the five catches for forty five yards, but you could tell it was like a seamless fit. And it really just expands their options in the passing game. Which else Mahomes complete twenty eight to forty one for two sixty. But what stands out to me the most is that play. I'm so glad you picked that play because this is a guy with a ball ankle. But for some reason in the year twenty twenty four, Patrick Mahomes believes he is now a power rusher and just likes to lower his shoulder.

01:04:56
Speaker 5: At the goal line.

01:04:56
Speaker 8: And so the second time he's done that in the last month, and it just kind of shows in the number of different ways they can beat you. Yeah, they're not impressive, but this was one of the more impressive victories. Like you said, against a good defense. They capitalized on turnovers made by c. J. Stroud, they held them off at the end. The Texans had a chance to you know, potentially take the lead or at least you know, tie the closed, they were down by five and they forced a punt three and out like that and the game is basically over from there. That is the mark of a winner. That's a team. That's what you have to do in games like this late in the season.

01:05:22
Speaker 1: They're doing it right there was It wasn't a heavy drive game, so they had three points per drive that would lead the league most years. That does not include them finishing the game on a seven play forty six yard drive where they just are kneeling at the end, which is becoming a Chiefs trademark. So this really was their best performance I think of the season because it's going up against a really good Texans defense, and I thought Mahomes played smarter. He got rid of the ball so quickly. It was a great Mahomes read game plan game where they kept having the leverage and he knew exactly where to go with the ball. It was the quickest he got rid of the ball two point five to five seconds since twenty twenty one early in that season. And then we mentioned the rushing value. He had twenty seven rushing yards on that first drive, ends up with thirty three, and I just thought their coaching was great all around.

01:06:11
Speaker 8: C J.

01:06:11
Speaker 1: Stroud, despite the interceptions, was game and made more really impressive plays in this game than he has.

01:06:16
Speaker 2: In a while.

01:06:17
Speaker 1: But when they needed it, Spagnolo dialed up the perfect blitz and the Texans offense was confused and a lot of late pressures on Stroud, and even though I thought he did a lot of.

01:06:27
Speaker 2: Good things, ultimately it was too much for him.

01:06:29
Speaker 1: It looked like a playoff game to me, Like, if you told me this was the divisional round, I was like, yes, I could totally see that.

01:06:36
Speaker 4: No, absolutely, And I was looking back and thinking of how the Texans kind of started this whole thing by blowing that lead against the Kansas City Chiefs years ago before they went on their first Super Bowl run. And I do disagree about the Mahomes touchdown being the most consequential player of this game. It was Tank Dell's injury. The Texans had something going on offense. It really it felt like during this game, after coming back from the broken leg and all he went through getting shot in the offseason, this was Tank Dell's best performance that I'd seen. And he scores a touchdown on the last play of a season where he takes the shot to the knee. You can see tears on eyes of players on both sides of the ball. You have Will Anderson consoling CJ. Stroud as they load him up onto the cart there, and the offense was very stagnant after that, where it was kind of all on Nico Collins and over on the offensive side. You would really you wouldn't think too much about DeAndre Hopkins' performance, but it was so Chiefs. He caught four passes, all of them on third down. Like new Hopkins shows up in kind of this weird bizarro Travis Kelce role where it's those guys jobs to move the sticks and now Xavier Worzy and Hollywood are able to make the explosive plays for the Chiefs where the whole picture has kind of come into clarity for this offense.

01:07:54
Speaker 1: Now, yeah, where he ends up with a touchdown in this game too, in a nineteen yard run, and Mina Chimes had at a good stat that in terms of yards on short passes, he's now in the top twelve, I believe in the entire NFL. So they've actually done a better job figuring out just to use him kind of like they useder she Rice early last year on those short crossers and Kelsey, who does look older and can't break a tackle anymore, he's less important. With Marquis Brown back, suddenly you you add one more weapon along with Pacheco, not that he's kind of looked full Pacheco yet U. It just makes them more dangerous. And yeah, that Tank injury is brutal. I couldn't agree more with everything that you said. He was playing so well in this game, and I've never seen a reaction like that out of teammates and and a quarterback and CJ. You know when I said Joe Mixon consoling CJ after it, I just thought like that that's leadership there by him. And they they did get a field goal drive, a long field droke goal drive going after that, But that that drive actually, to me, was typical. Once they got close, they took a sat, they took a penalty, then they took a sack. You know, the their their offensive line got more injured in this game. Shape Shaq Mason, their their rookie Blake Fisher got hurt at right tackle and then he came in and out, but he really struggled. And it just doesn't feel like it's their season and you really hurt for Tank Dell. He has a dislic dislocated kneecap. According to Ian Rappaport, he was held in the hospital overnight on Saturday. It's it's a really serious injury. And so obviously our best goes out to him that the Texans are are now nine and six and they have to turn around and play on Wednesday against the Ravens, and you just think about that game and you think, Okay, the Ravens, even in Houston, are heavy favorites, I would say, to win that game, or at least favorites, and the Steelers have an uphill battle playing the Chiefs, so that they are at home on Christmas in the race now tied, they don't need to worry about tie breakers because if the Steelers went out, they are going to win the division. They need to get a game up on the Pittsburgh Steelers if they want to win the division. That was the Sunday Drive presented by the all new hybrid Toyota Camri. Whatever your vibe, it's a camera vibe. Learn more at Toyota dot com slash Camry. Okay, so we went into Sunday after those two results in the AFC. This is the AFC portion of the show, and the Bills knew they had to beat the Patriots to have any hope of still getting that one seed.

01:10:38
Speaker 2: They wouldn't mess around and play with their food, would they?

01:10:40
Speaker 14: Eric second and nine with ten nineteen left, maybe from the shotgun, throws it out in the flat and it's incomplete. Is it a lateral pass and a free ball? It's in the end zone. Is it a lateral Yes, it's a touchdown. The Bills recover the ball in the end zone. Tarren Johnson done the football for the touchdown. Breke Rousseau was out in the right flat to foil the pass, but it was a backwards pass recovered for a TV.

01:11:12
Speaker 1: If I see another backwards pass to a Patriots running back with this season, I just that play.

01:11:20
Speaker 2: They were always doing that play.

01:11:22
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's the timing like the running back, like why are you doing that play? Remandre has had a tough year with ball security. He lost two fumbles in this game. Oh they credited that one to Drake may actually, but you know we have eyes. How dare you give another turnover to my boy who did have an interception in this game? On a play that I don't know what happened, the Patriots like two different receivers fall. The Bills escape with a twenty four to twenty one victory, And yes, it was as close as that score indicated, even though the Patriots scored with a minute and thirteen left. It's hard to say that the Bills outplayed the Patriots on a day where Patriots have a little more time of possession, dominated it in the first half, they end up with more yards, they were better on third down, they had twenty eight first downs. A pretty surprising and flat performance by the Bills defense overall, and I think there's reason to be concerned, but I think there's also a reason to just look at the schedule and figure it's going to take care of itself. They were without Tamar Hamlin, Taylor Rapp, Matt Malanuzul Douglas in this game, and it showed they could not get off the field at linebacker. Baal in Spector was really struggling, and the Patriots offense kind of dominated for the first thirty minutes of this game, and despite that it was only fourteen to seven at halftime. Josh Allen looked like it was going to be a concern in terms of an injury for his hand, but afterwards he said he just hit his elbow really hard and did not have feeling in his hands for a while, and they lucked out a little bit. One of his throws just went straight up, but it fell to the ground, and it looked like Mitch Trubisky is maybe gonna come into the game. But it makes sense that you would lose feeling in your hands when you slam your elbow to the turf on what was like a ten degree day. At one point, Drake may just dropped the ball because like the ball I think was so icy cold. It was freezing there, and the Bills escape.

01:13:21
Speaker 2: I guess.

01:13:23
Speaker 1: It's just one of those games. Just get out of here with a victory. They are twelve and three shook. I don't know if you're gonna feel any differently after watching this game than you did before. The only thing that I guess it didn't help was Josh Allen's MVP case, But I don't think it's really gonna matter.

01:13:36
Speaker 8: Yeah, I was keeping an eye on it, and I was, you know, it looked like one of those games. By the way, that's the ulner nerve I believe that's affected when the Ulver Bowl forearm and handgun numb.

01:13:44
Speaker 5: I've dealt with that myself.

01:13:46
Speaker 8: Not fun and on a cold day like that, I mean even that fubble recovery in the ends, and it looked like guys were slipping and sliding around to get on the football.

01:13:51
Speaker 5: So conditions not great. Bill's offense not great.

01:13:54
Speaker 8: Are you due for a performance like this in which you've been putting up an insane amount of points in the last i don't know, six seven weeks. Thirty plus is the first time they planted under thirty points since way back in week six.

01:14:07
Speaker 5: Okay, so they were due for this. They also have Patriots Jets Patriots.

01:14:10
Speaker 8: Yes they're in a fight for the AFC seating in the AFC seating race, but it's Patriots Jets, Patriots, and you're at home, so I can understand why maybe come out a little bit flat against the team they know you're gonna beat. And ultimately they did beat them because they are the better football team. It's not necessarily because they played well, because if they were dominated, you know, by the Patriots offense so much, a better team wins that game.

01:14:28
Speaker 5: But they didn't because it's the Bills. So you know the James come touchdown. Rome was nice. He finished this with eleven for one hundred yards. And you get out of town. You know, you go home.

01:14:35
Speaker 8: You say, all right, we want to keep going and we try to correct some things and make sure we don't come out as flat. If anything, it's a reminder of two things. There are no gimmes in the NFL, and you must always be prepared. You cannot afford to come out flat even if you did win this game. And two, for some reason mid to semi late December, somebody in the MVP race plays an Orchard Park and has a clunker.

01:14:55
Speaker 5: Last year it was Dak Prescott. Today it was Josh Allen.

01:14:58
Speaker 3: Okay, no, I forgot about that Dak Prescott game.

01:15:01
Speaker 5: Did your absolutely every really did accept me?

01:15:03
Speaker 2: I forget that he was even in the MVP race. Do you do you want to apologize Patrick?

01:15:09
Speaker 1: Like one of our Blue Sky followers suggested for saying, there was no need to talk about this game.

01:15:14
Speaker 2: The Patriots showed up and they made it again.

01:15:16
Speaker 3: Well well to peel back the curtain.

01:15:17
Speaker 4: I actually had the Patriots hitting the over on their total, which thankful for some late Bill's penalties on what was a nine snaps inside the ten yard last on the lasts the second to last possession for the New England Patriots. But yeah, Hytham had written that down because we weren't going to talk about it, so I read it, you know, and I got to take credit for the words that are in the teleprompter where I said that we weren't going to talk about this game. But I thought there was an opportunity to see a Bill's defense that had been dealing with injuries, that had seen eighty two points in the last two games that they played, to kind of have another performance against a young quarterback who hasn't made the mistakes that he did today. This was one of the worst Drake made games that we've had.

01:16:03
Speaker 1: Hold on, I would disagree because I think the first half he played like perfect, you're right down the stretch. There were the two turnovers, but one of them is Ramandre dropping the ball right, I mean, he.

01:16:17
Speaker 3: Shouldn't fire the ball backwards to his running back like that.

01:16:20
Speaker 2: Well, why is that the play?

01:16:23
Speaker 1: But an absolutely beautiful ball the Keseh on Booty for a touchdown and Booty goes five for ninety five. I think made all the right decisions in the first half as they were moving the ball and ultimately moved the ball and the Bills for most of the day.

01:16:37
Speaker 2: So I didn't think it was it was like a bad.

01:16:39
Speaker 3: Game, my guy, just if you take well, you know, you could say that about any game.

01:16:45
Speaker 4: But there was the questionable interception that he threw in the end zone, and Josh Allen had one of those as well. But you guys mentioned the talent disparity between these two teams. Josh Allen can afford to make that mistake. Drake makets that ball to a Patriot and this is a ball game.

01:16:58
Speaker 3: This is the ball game. Sands those twos about New England.

01:17:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was one of those where if you just didn't know anything about the two teams, you would not have thought the Bills were a better team. But that's that's why you do got to look at the score, because they are a better team. If they were in a different scenario, because Drake may hit that shot, like they would have played better. That's at least how I believe like they would have done enough to find a way to win. And it is a reminder they put allD Alec Anderson out there and they do the sixth offensive lineman thing. They do mash when they need to, and they ran for one hundred and seventy two yards. And I believe if they had had more possessions and had the ball more like they could have run for two seventy five on the Patriots.

01:17:39
Speaker 2: Before we leave this game, there's not much more here.

01:17:42
Speaker 8: You know.

01:17:42
Speaker 1: Drod Mayo and his game management decisions are just crazy at points. He punted on a fourth and six with eight minutes to go down two scores, and it's just you just can't do that.

01:17:55
Speaker 2: They're at midfield.

01:17:56
Speaker 1: His defense had given up scores on two of the last three drives before that. They end up giving up ah, you know, just one first down, but they give up four minutes of clock. The Patriots don't get it back until about four minutes left in the down two scores. The game's over at that point. It just it just makes no sense for him to make that decision. And we've seen that again and again. Ian Rappaport, our guy said the Patrick Craft, I mean Jonathan Craft and the and the Crafts really want to keep drawd Mayo, and the plan is to keep Dirod Mayo. But they keep saying this so much. He even said unless the floor falls out over the next three weeks, I was like, well, that's a pretty small sample size. You're kind of leaving the door open here. Certainly they could look at this game and find it encouraging because because they certainly played hard, and if Remandre had a little better ball security, uh, maybe they even win in Buffalo.

01:18:45
Speaker 2: But it didn't happen.

01:18:45
Speaker 5: I feel like the floor's already gone, like what Floras left.

01:18:48
Speaker 1: I guess if they like got blown out embarrassingly like they did last week, for a few more weeks in a row, maybe that would change their mind. He shouldn't be making decisions off that. I've seen enough, frankly, but I get it. It's not very patient. I'm not being patient with this new staff. The Bills should almost root for either, you know, they should root for clarity. They should root for sitting in the final week, which just gave me a nightmare scenario that the Patriots are going to blow their draft pick positioning because right now they are up to number two in the draft pick. But if the Bills are resting everyone in Week eighteen, that could be a problem. Let's keep it with the teams that are still in the race. Yes, the Bengals are still in the race. Let's go to Cincinnati.

01:19:31
Speaker 15: Burrow in the shotgun back at the eighth chase, Brown to his left, Yo Si Bosch goes in motion, now goes back in the original direction. Burrow to throw, steps up, throws and it's cat for the touchdown. Te Higgins with the catch. He tosses the ball way up into the air like a geyser. Burrow is being pulled down and just flung it forward for the touchdown.

01:19:57
Speaker 1: Oh Joe Burrow, he knows he gets to come up with something fancy to make us pay attention at this point in the year. But we should be paying attention. They're still in this wildcard race. I saw a number that had him at like twenty plus percent. That's pretty significant.

01:20:13
Speaker 2: He got it done.

01:20:14
Speaker 1: I mean, his three touchdown streak is just absolutely outrageous. He finishes with two hundred and fifty two yards three touchdowns. Did have a late turnover, which for a second made it look interesting, but they end up cruising twenty four to six over your Brownies, and it sets up a game next week with the Broncos. Shook where the Bengals can at the very least be playing a meaningful game in week seventeen, and if they went playing a meaningful game in week eighteen, small victories.

01:20:42
Speaker 8: Which is that's all they wanted right when they had this awful start in which the defense couldn't stop a nose. But all they wanted to do was figure out a way to stack wins. You basically had to go perfect down the stretch, and so far they're doing it today. They did it with relative ease against the Browns team that started Dorian Thompson Robinson, which was like, you know, red meat to a pack of dog, because they just went after him all day. The pressure numbers don't bear it out, but I'll tell you what, he was under pressure all day.

01:21:04
Speaker 5: This defense, for the.

01:21:05
Speaker 8: First time all year, put together a quality, high quality performance, limited the opponent to six points, and Joe Burrow did more Joe Burrow things. I was semi convinced he was down, but I'm glad that he was not rolled down because that throw was awesome. We had the Patrick Mahomes falling down throwing diving in the Super Bowl a few years ago. This one might be even better. Obviously, smaller stage. But the result remains the same, which is that we know what we're going to get from the Bengals offense, which is going to be Joe Burrow throwing three touchdown passes, even though the last one was kind of in garbage time, by the way, made him the first player in NFL history to have two hundred and fifty plus passing yards and three plus passing touchdowns in seven consecutive games. Historical performance against a team that will be forgotten by history in the Cleveland Browns.

01:21:47
Speaker 5: So they took care of business. Good for you, Bengals.

01:21:49
Speaker 1: Well, there was a fumble on the very first drive. The Browns were knocking on the doorstep and Deontay Foreman fumbled it on the goal line. Now, who knows, maybe the game would just been different if if the Browns scored there.

01:22:02
Speaker 2: No, no, no, okay, no.

01:22:04
Speaker 3: Miles Garrett got his one hundredth career sack in this game. Congratulations to him. Some bright spot. But yeah, Joe Burrow was absolutely down on that touchdown to t Higgins. It wasn't yeah, thank you, It wasn't wow.

01:22:16
Speaker 2: Really okay, yeah, that was totally down.

01:22:19
Speaker 5: But they missed that fair in football.

01:22:21
Speaker 1: Tea talked about it. Te who was banged up in this game? Did he finish the game?

01:22:25
Speaker 2: Shook?

01:22:26
Speaker 8: He caught that touchdown pass early, but I didn't see him out there late. I would not be too concerned about that though.

01:22:31
Speaker 5: Okay, but they were targeting Joshiba's a lot late.

01:22:34
Speaker 4: Yeah, there was an ankle twisty tackle where T. Higgins was down for several minutes. Din't come ba again.

01:22:39
Speaker 5: Near the right sideline.

01:22:40
Speaker 1: He ends up eight for fifty eight. He talked after the game on that Burrow throw crazy.

01:22:44
Speaker 2: Arm at angles Joe flew from today, hold on one that's best. The one he threw to me, not because it's my touchdown. Looked like Superman when he was throwing it. So I'm calling Superman from this day for fat Man.

01:22:57
Speaker 3: Superman.

01:22:59
Speaker 1: That is at Trags on Twitter. Go go ahead, give a Trags a follow. T r A g s A great clip there from T Higgins. Yeah, I'm with him, Superman.

01:23:11
Speaker 4: Well, I mean, Joe just spend all that money on the Batmobile and then and then we got the f Batman quote from T.

01:23:17
Speaker 3: Higgins, So I love the situation.

01:23:20
Speaker 1: Speaking of quotes, so let's listen to a Burrow after the game, the most intense man in the NFL.

01:23:25
Speaker 16: It feels good to playing big games. That's that's why we do what we do. That's why we work so hard.

01:23:33
Speaker 13: You know.

01:23:34
Speaker 16: Everything that I do in last season is to put myself in the best position to to play great at the end of the year in these big games coming up. So that's it's exciting to be still be in it. Guys work really hard, coaches work really hard, so it's nice to ride off a couple wins here.

01:23:52
Speaker 1: What do you guys think about the perfectly quaft hair, the tank top with the tank tap combo, the white tank tap.

01:24:01
Speaker 5: You know, I I gotta say this.

01:24:03
Speaker 8: He is a phenomenal quarterback, but he doesn't quite have enough shoulders and traps. Oh wow, fill that out while sitting down me hair makes up.

01:24:12
Speaker 4: For it, because well, I think in Joe's defense, it would look weirder if he was up there retracting his scalpula uh to take the pose that he needs for this pristine a shirt.

01:24:24
Speaker 3: I'm not gonna call it the alternative title that that.

01:24:26
Speaker 2: It's most I was careful not to there.

01:24:30
Speaker 1: He came in with a different outfit though, something over that but clearly after the game he just didn't feel like wearing it. I think I think a lot of the audience, the female part of the audience, would disagree with you shook anyways.

01:24:41
Speaker 8: No, I think the hair in the face and everything else. I mean, the guy is attractive, don't get me wrong. I'm just saying, if you're gonna sit down in a tank top like that or an A shirt, you know a little bit more.

01:24:49
Speaker 4: But it's the threat count on that thing is crazy. I mean that that's one of the nicest looking A shirts.

01:24:55
Speaker 5: You don't buy those in a three pack. We come one at a time.

01:24:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, we can't get those like we we'll have an excess weekend.

01:25:01
Speaker 2: No, and we never will.

01:25:03
Speaker 1: But the Bengals, they might just still have access to the playoffs. All I'm rooting for in these final weeks are games to be more relevant or most relevant. It's like that that Falcons Commander's game would have been even juicier if the Commanders had lost the whole the whole NFC slate would have been But even that, Okay, that's a good Week seventeen game. Bengals Broncos, which is a Saturday game. It's in the middle there that that's one of the biggest games of next week. It's basically a playoff game for the Bengals. You want to show us that you deserve a little something. Bengals that go out beat the Broncos, I'll be impressed. Who knows if you'd still get into the playoffs because the other results on Sunday didn't go your way, including the one in Indianapolis.

01:25:48
Speaker 6: First intend outside zone, big hole for Jonathan Taylor.

01:25:51
Speaker 2: There he goes again, fifty.

01:25:53
Speaker 5: Forty down the course sideline.

01:25:54
Speaker 3: You ben do it again?

01:25:55
Speaker 12: Turn touchdown?

01:26:00
Speaker 7: Ye, the one cover seventy yards.

01:26:03
Speaker 10: Jonathan Taylor having a monster.

01:26:05
Speaker 2: Game at Week sixteen. That was Matt Taylor on w f N.

01:26:12
Speaker 1: I yeah, Jonathan Taylor was running angry and then he just ran all the way into the you know, under the seat, under the what do I want to.

01:26:23
Speaker 2: Say, tunnel, into the tunnel. Thank you? Yeah, the ball.

01:26:28
Speaker 1: It's like he was afraid that, yes, they would take the ball away from him. And then I think one of his teammates jokingly tried to take it away.

01:26:35
Speaker 2: You know, there's a whole thing there. They're having fun with it.

01:26:37
Speaker 1: Jonathan Taylor two hundred and eighteen yards in three touchdowns on twenty nine rushes. Well, surely he had all the rushes if he ran twenty nine times. No, Anthony Richardson nine for seventy in a touchdown on the ground, Trey Sermon eight for twenty five, Tyler Goodson goes four four, twenty three. Yes, they only allowed Anthony Richardson to throw the ball eleven in a game that they scored thirty eight points.

01:27:02
Speaker 2: This was a crazy game.

01:27:04
Speaker 1: The Colts scored thirty eight consecutive points after trailing seven to nothing, and then the Titans scored twenty three consecutive points to make it an eight point game with under three minutes to go. But it never was you know, totally totally in doubt here, and the Colts get their seventh victory. I mentioned them in context with the Bengals because even if the Bengals won out and the Broncos lost out, it would be the Colts that would get the seventh seed. If the Colts can keep beating the poor teams of the NFL, and they've got a couple easy matchups down the stretch, and I don't know, I don't know what the big takeaways are here, Chuck, you but you're shaking your head out of disgust even thinking that the Colts could be in the playoffs. They played at the Giants and then the Jaguars the last two weeks, so they have a decent chance to finish nine and eight.

01:28:00
Speaker 5: This is what ten years of knowing each other gets you.

01:28:02
Speaker 8: Right there, Greg reading my expression, knowing exactly what I'm saying, because it would be criminal if the Colts got in the playoffs over the Bengals.

01:28:09
Speaker 5: I mean, just look at this game dominating on the ground.

01:28:13
Speaker 1: Okay, I guess that's true, like for our entertainment purposes, yes, but I can't really say that the Bengals like.

01:28:20
Speaker 5: Deserve to make it, you know, No, I mean realistically neither.

01:28:24
Speaker 2: They're hoisted on their own petard.

01:28:26
Speaker 1: Although if they beat the Broncos and then they beat the Steelers in Week eighteen, then they kind of will deserve it. So I take it back in this hypothetical that I don't think is gonna happen, because I don't think the Bengals ultimately are gonna be good enough to win those two games that the Colts are in it, and they're gonna be weirdly rooting for the Bengals next week because they need that victory over the Broncos.

01:28:47
Speaker 8: They're also a weird viewing experience because they dominate on the ground in a game like this, and Richardson throws eleven passes. He also gets a touchdown run vultured from him by Jonathan Taylor by virtue of being ruled just down short of the goal line. I mean, that's neither here nor there. But it's a weird like team to watch offensively, and yet when they rip off big runs, they are majestic, and they were for Jonathan Taylor today. Was nice to have see him get a bounce back game, whereas on the other side, you know, you're turning the ball over left and right. Mason Rudolph throws three picks and the Colts capitalized. So this is what they should do against a team like this, even a divisional opponent. But the fact that it ended an eight point game. I'm sitting here watching it, I'm like, all right, this game is over. Like I could start recapping and finishing the notes here, and then all of a sudden, oh, there's a touchdown and there's another touchdown.

01:29:29
Speaker 5: I was like, don't do this, Colts, don't do this to me right now, not after what happened last.

01:29:33
Speaker 1: Fairness, the Titans never got the ball back with a chance to win the game. Well technically they did with three seconds and eighty nine yards correct to go, but it's too close for comfort for me.

01:29:43
Speaker 4: Yeah, go ahead and get the stops, like it's greazy to consider this game right the Endian Hepolis Colts run for three hundred and thirty five yards, Tony Pollard gets thirty five yards on the ground, and Mason Rudolph has three picks.

01:29:56
Speaker 3: The Titans still scored thirty points.

01:29:58
Speaker 4: Like all of these things, all these things happened, and to where you know, Gus Bradley's unit can be solid, they can force up like they get bo Nicks to throw those interceptions and they make plays. You can't have Mason Rudolph leading touchdown drives like this, like it's it's kind of irresponsible at this point, like late in the scenes where it's like we want to believe, but we're gonna need you guys to make just a few plays because this is the best game the offense has had.

01:30:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, the Titans actually had a fifty one percent drop back success rate, which is you know, very high out of so it was very much a Will Levis like peak Will Levis game, which is actually most of the plays were great except for all the turnovers. And that's how the Titans lose their twelfth game of the season. They are three and twelve. The Colts probably running the style of offense Colts fans had wanted to see all year.

01:30:50
Speaker 2: And I keep hearing that that's like they.

01:30:52
Speaker 1: Should have been doing this a lot. I think they've tried, they just haven't. It just hasn't worked as well. And for that to do it against a good Titans defense, They've tried, like they'd love to get up by this much where they don't need to throw the ball, but that that's just not how most Sundays play out. But they do get this one, and they are still alive heading into week seventeen.

01:31:12
Speaker 2: Let's take a quick break. We're gonna wrap up the slate with the other AFC team trying to just just hang on for dear life before we get to Sunday Night football. A chan to pitch.

01:31:32
Speaker 3: He's got first off bore four and thirty five to thirty. He's gonna score touchdown Dolphins right speed running down one side again to me. This time he tuxed it to the house and that's gonna.

01:31:46
Speaker 9: Do it.

01:31:49
Speaker 1: Whenever we get play the Dolphins theme song, It's a good day on NFL Daily Devin Hn, what a day this kid had helping the Dolphins win twenty nine to seventeen. Was close throughout, but they bust it open late eighth m leads the team in rushing with one hundred and twenty yards and a touchdown and leads them in receiving with six catches and seventy yards through the air. That's just how Tua in this offense does it. At least shook on a day where Tyreek Hill's fantasy owners are probably pulling their hair out because he could have had like three more touchdowns than he did. Dolphins ultimately win on a day where the forty nine ers, as I mentioned earlier, were eliminated before they even took a snap. The Dolphins have just a little bit of life here at seven and eight, and.

01:32:40
Speaker 8: The Dolphins still attempted just ten passes of more than nine air yards. But that's neither here north there, because they won the football game.

01:32:46
Speaker 13: It was.

01:32:46
Speaker 2: That's a huge bump up from usual, right I know.

01:32:49
Speaker 8: There was one pass over the middle of Royal was like, oh my god, it's beyond fifteen yards.

01:32:53
Speaker 5: Here we go, here's the breakthrough.

01:32:55
Speaker 8: There would have been a really nice pass to Tyreek Kill if not for a great play in coverage the nearest forty nine er, and that kind of captured the day in a nutshell, like a lot of near misses almost for the Dolphins. But they finished it off and they did what they had to do, which was win a game against a team that honestly looked like they played like the better team for stretches in this game, but couldn't finished off their own drives because they would commit penalties and then they would take negative you know, yardage plays in the worst possible situations and miss field goals.

01:33:22
Speaker 5: And that's just who the forty nine ers are this season. So it's a battle of two teams that have underwhelmed.

01:33:26
Speaker 8: But the Dolphins are probably playing better football right now overall, and that leads to what you got today.

01:33:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, they were basically the same in terms of yards for play in total yards even with that late eight ten touchdown. Some with you, I think though, we did learn there is a at some point you're going to get to the part of the running back depth chart where it actually hurts you that you're on your fifth running back. No offense to Patrick Taylor. He's also playing without Trent Williams to help him out and against a pretty good Dolphins front, but they're rushing attack collapse. Purty led them with rush Deebo, who had his best game of the season. I thought looked really explosive. I was just like, where has this Deebo been all year? He goes seven for ninety six, uh, and a touchdown through the air and also had five for twenty five on the ground and just looked way faster and more physical. And he's such a confusing player to me because it just he just hasn't been this player this season. Ultimately, yeah, you called it out. They just shot themselves in the foot, and I'm glad because, uh, at least the Dolphins have a relevant Week seventeen.

01:34:29
Speaker 2: Why are you laughing?

01:34:29
Speaker 3: Well, it's like, I'm glad the forty nine ers shot themselves in the foot.

01:34:33
Speaker 1: I just mean, I just mean the Okay, Yeah, that's that's fair. I wasn't glad to be really real because I picked them to win, and I was that was that was a just Greg on Our Game Debut show, and that.

01:34:46
Speaker 2: That did not did not hit for me.

01:34:49
Speaker 1: The forty nine ers that they were already eliminated. They have a big spot though. In Week seventeen they were on Monday Night Football against the Lions, so we'll watch them. But the Dolphins Browns game now at least has a little bit of relevance. That's only if the Broncos are not able to clinch their playoff spot on Saturday. But if the Broncos lose on Saturday, then the Dolphins who. It depends a little bit on the like who wins, who doesn't, But ultimately they're behind the Colts in line I believe for these playoff spots. But it also depends if it's two way, three way four weeks, so that there's a lot that could happen depending on what the combination is.

01:35:30
Speaker 2: The Dolphins they're alive, just barely.

01:35:33
Speaker 8: Yeah, not to add on to the whole like gross idea that the Colts made the playoffs, But if I had to pick between the Dolphins and the Colts, I would also pick the Dolphins to go to the playoffs.

01:35:42
Speaker 2: I would too.

01:35:43
Speaker 1: According to next Gen Stats, they have the Bengals and the Dolphins both at seven percent. I remember I said twenty six before. That was from like there's different models. I trust next Gen that's us. They both have a seven percent. Colts are at thirteen and the Broncos are at seventy eight. So yes, it's pretty rare. And now that we've reached the portion of the program where we've gotten rid of all the potential playoff teams, just to recap today, the teams eliminated the Cardinals, the forty nine Ers, the Cowboys, and the Saints, and yeah, other than the Cardinals, all of them were eliminated before they even played. And the Seahawks are just holding on for dear life, needing Arizona almost certainly to win that game next week, but you never know. You can hold on for dear life for a few weeks. The Dolphins and the Bengals and the Colts have been and they are still alive. Let's go to the one game on Sunday that mattered most for draft positioning to Las Vegas.

01:36:48
Speaker 2: That droll alone setback.

01:36:50
Speaker 11: He gets the handoff, cuts through the right side of the hole, still on his.

01:36:53
Speaker 6: Fit at the five pricing of the end zone, touchdown Raiders.

01:36:57
Speaker 2: Oh, a mirror the magnificent season.

01:37:01
Speaker 6: He hands the ball to Jackson powers Johnson big Man's fight.

01:37:05
Speaker 2: Raiders lead nineteen.

01:37:07
Speaker 11: Fourteen with eleven twenty six to go on the forward.

01:37:10
Speaker 1: That is some professional broadcasting by Jason Horowitz on KRLV. He's got the juice, he's got the excitement. He knows Raiders fans want to win, even though maybe they shouldn't it.

01:37:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a mirror. What did he say, the magnificent magnificence. Yeah, I love it is a mere having that great a season. I didn't know he's coming.

01:37:32
Speaker 4: He's been fantasy relevant late this season, but magnificent is a stretch.

01:37:36
Speaker 1: He does have five touchdowns on the season. I'm looking here now, he's over four yards per carry. He's got a top four hundred yards from scrimmage for only the fourth time in a long career. I mean, he was a rookie in two thousand and fifteen. I will never forget that preseason because our good friend who this podcast studio is named after, Chris Wesley, loved him some a mere abdu after the twenty fifteen preseason.

01:38:02
Speaker 2: So here he is still getting it done.

01:38:04
Speaker 1: And yeah, their defense did the rest against a rough Mac Jones led Jaguars team. Patrick, I'm sorry that Mac Jones's only good moment in the last few weeks was finding a wide wide, wide wide open Brian Thomas for a long touchdown, which was crucial in your fantasy semi final.

01:38:24
Speaker 4: Yeah, and so now I have to rely on, you know, a Monday night football game to try to get back in the best fantasy team I've had. Nobody cares about that, But Brian Thomas goes over a thousand yards in his rookie season, Brock Bowers went over a thousand yards, and hey, something to feel good about for these franchises where they've got really good rookies and a whole lot, a whole lot of issues going on other than that, But you got those two pieces for both of these franchis.

01:38:51
Speaker 1: Yes, Bowers goes eleven for ninety nine and Thomas goes nine for one thirty two in a touchdown. And I'll keep repeating it, Brian Thomas would be my wide receiver one right now from this class. Reasonable minds could absolutely disagree, but to me, they got a top five, top eight type of talent back at pick sixteen or seventeen and Bowers. There's a reason why so many teams were so high on him. The Rams are trying to trade up for I might take him over all those wide receivers too. I might take him over Brian Thomas. They're awesome, and so that's the good news. But both these teams are now at three and twelve, and the Raiders fall all the way to six. In tankathon right now, it is wide open, though there are six teams at two or three losses, but there's only one at two, and that's the New York Giants. So the New York Giants, they have the Colts, and who do they have to finish the season. I believe it's the Eagles to finish the season, and unless they pull off a big upset in one of those games, I guess the Colts is a somewhat reasonable ask.

01:39:59
Speaker 2: They are going to have the number one overall pick.

01:40:01
Speaker 1: So there's some good news for the Giants and the Raiders, because of their hard strength to schedule, actually fall all the way to six.

01:40:08
Speaker 2: Right now.

01:40:08
Speaker 1: The Patriots are at two, the Jaguars, three, Titans, four, Browns five.

01:40:13
Speaker 2: But there's a lot of a lot of road to hoe here.

01:40:16
Speaker 1: Because the Patriots could be playing backups and who knows what happens. Maybe you're brownsing sneak into the top there, shooky.

01:40:24
Speaker 8: I know people in Cleveland are paying very close attention to the whole the ha a friend texting me tonight about the Raiders and about the Panthers, so they're very much in tune with that. Raiders fans, if you need one reason to watch your team over the last two weeks, brock Bauers is now ten receiving yards away from setting the rookie tight end receiving.

01:40:42
Speaker 5: Yards record in a single season. It was owned by Mike Ditka at yards.

01:40:46
Speaker 8: He's at one thousand and sixty seven with his one hundred and one catches and four receiving touchdowns, So keep an eye on that.

01:40:52
Speaker 5: And also you're gonna hate it in April.

01:40:55
Speaker 8: But today was one of those wins that you know, gives a fan base a little bit to cheer about. Going into the wind like we're in December. It doesn't matter except for draft positioning. And yet they've had so many things to go against them, and today the breaks went their way, and that alone just made me happy for them because it's been a rough year.

01:41:13
Speaker 1: Shout out Mike dikab By the way, when you have a record from nineteen sixty one that he did in fourteen games, we're always like greatest of all time. And he didn't have the longevity that the other great titands have, so he's really not in the consideration. But the first five six years of his career he was totally dominant, all pro type of player before obviously becoming the Bears coach.

01:41:36
Speaker 5: That record is as old as my dad. That was the area of born, so rock powers.

01:41:41
Speaker 1: If you break it sixty one, Yeah, when you're going fifty six for over one thousand and seventy six and twelve and fourteen games as a rookie of that, that's a real man. That is a beast, and you know he did it. Did it for the Chicago Bears. Finished his career with the Dallas Cowboys.

01:42:00
Speaker 2: Patrick.

01:42:01
Speaker 1: I used to accuse you of being a Dallas Cowboys fan. You have beat the accusations.

01:42:06
Speaker 3: You did it.

01:42:06
Speaker 1: You have played her. You're you're as tough as a as a rookie. Mike Dika, Well, don't.

01:42:11
Speaker 4: I don't know about I don't know about that for sure, but I appreciated the time and the opportunity and pending our last discussion, uh, you know, it's it's a tempole event that sometimes masquerades is a cost control metric.

01:42:22
Speaker 3: But let's abolish the draft.

01:42:23
Speaker 4: Let's let's let's have people stop cheering for losses because it's weird and it takes the fun away from things.

01:42:29
Speaker 1: Towards the end of thee I agree, I I think there's a better way that we could do this. I was absolutely and there wasn't even like a little bit of my heart that wanted the Patriots to win today. I wanted Drake made to play a perfect game somehow and them to lose. I was getting a little anxious. And it is stupid. Also stupid this Cowboys season. Let's go to Dallas, nice fielding the.

01:42:52
Speaker 13: Gun, Sizeman Russia's lost, shocked that he's not down yet, and he somehow flew it to Wight who caught it, and then Hooker takes him down and the Plan comes away with the ball.

01:43:04
Speaker 2: But he's got it. No, he's got it.

01:43:06
Speaker 3: Blan's got it.

01:43:07
Speaker 2: Oh, Blan comes away with the ball.

01:43:11
Speaker 1: Oh Plan came away with the ball, and the Cowboys somehow came away with the victory twenty six to twenty four on Sunday Night Football, one of the sneaky, most entertaining, surprising primetime games of the year. We finish our Sunday slate with one of the most important results of the day. The Buccaneers are out of the playoffs if the season ended today.

01:43:36
Speaker 2: Lucky for them it does not.

01:43:38
Speaker 1: They have two weeks to try to pass Atlanta. But what a disappointing loss on a night Nick shook where there was a lot of hard hitting and so I thought it was fitting that it was Jordan Lewis and Deron Blan who were part of a great effort in that Cowboys secondary finishing off the victory. And yeah, that was our our friend Brad sham over at k r LD and Babe Lafenburg given Cowboys fans something to enjoy during a seven and eight season.

01:44:08
Speaker 2: They're only one game behind the Bucks.

01:44:10
Speaker 8: Yeah, you had me pant there for a second. I was like, wait, they're not out of the playoffs this season ended today, which it does not. One of the most one of the hardest hitting games I can recall, especially in the secondary in a long time. I mean, Cowboys defenders just laying the wood sticks on Buccaneers pass catchers, tight ends, receivers, no matter what you could say, Well, Baker might have thrown a hospital ball or two, No, I don't think so.

01:44:34
Speaker 2: I think that it was meant you.

01:44:37
Speaker 3: Yeah.

01:44:37
Speaker 8: But at the same time, the Cowboys were hitting like they were just closing. They were playing great defense in the secondary. They made some phenomenal plays. That interception Lewis had on that deep ball thrown by Baker Mayfield was a fantastic play. And then the game, the play that we just heard there to clinch it for them. A wild game, really, you said, you know, one of the most entertaining, an incredibly volatile game that it never was really out of reach. The Buccaneers kind of started to run out of time and then right before you you know, they just instantly two minute drill their way down the field. Baker looks sharp, they move the ball right down that they score, and suddenly we had a ball game until we didn't because of a defensive play. So I win for the Cowboys in a season that is lost. But you know, there, it kind of makes you think what would happen if they had Dak Prescott.

01:45:22
Speaker 1: Well, not just that, Tariico pointed out, they'd be on a five game winning streak if they just didn't mishandle that block pun against the Bengals, the Bengals would be eliminated and the Cowboys would be eight and seven and not really going anywhere with that record in the NFC, but they'd be on a five game winning streak. I think long term for the Cowboys, this win has a good chance to save Mike McCarthy's job, Mike Zimmers' job.

01:45:45
Speaker 2: I think it's been trendy in that direction.

01:45:47
Speaker 1: If you listen to the reporting around the Cowboys and even the speculation from Collinsworth, who's not just throwing stuff out there, I would be surprised at this point if McCarthy isn't back now, the next two weeks could still happen. But Mike zimmer in this defense has been one of the very best defenses in the league now over a six to seven week stretch with Micah Parsons back, And don't forget that this Buccaneers offense had been playing great and you look at the numbers and they're not that bad. They end up getting over four hundred yards twenty five first downs. Even Baker's numbers look okay, but he was a little panicked. He took some sacks in spots that he shouldn't four sacks there for the Cowboys. That last play was kind of typical.

01:46:31
Speaker 2: He doesn't have.

01:46:33
Speaker 1: Great process, but he ends up holding the ball. He's really strong and he finds a way to make a play. But the Cowboys ultimately make an extra play and it's a devastating loss for them. They had one four straight. You can't win them all, but they thought they would win this one in Dallas.

01:46:49
Speaker 8: Yeah, on paper, I had them winning this one going away. But I think that it speaks to what you just mentioned with the coaching staff. I felt like watching this game, even in the third and fourth quarter, that the I was out coach the Buccaneers like they were not maybe a full step ahead, but a half ste step ahead offensively just doing basically having a counter for whatever the Buccaneers defense did. Now, granted, they punted a lot late there, but they were able to stay on the field for a decent amount and kind of keep the Buccaneers at bay. They also had some making and some and some takeaways and stuff like that. And then I felt like, you know, defensively, every time the Buccaneers tried to throw the ball down the field. It's just like they had a great game plan for what the Bucks liked to do, and it wasn't until they went up tempo that they were able to find some success.

01:47:28
Speaker 5: It was a difficult night for Baker.

01:47:30
Speaker 8: I mean, I know numbers, why I thirty one or forty three three h three two touchdowns and that pick that we talked about looks good. But nothing came easy for him. And I think that's a credit to Mike Zimmers defense, which is playing really well despite losing guys to Mario Overshonn not out there.

01:47:43
Speaker 2: You know, it's but they got.

01:47:46
Speaker 1: They got Bland back, which I know they lost Trevon Diggs now along the way too, but he's been playing really well. He was on Mike Evans for much of the night. He ends up picking up the fumble at the end. Obviously, Parsons playing really well, but Jordan Lewis, that whole group back there, Malie Hooker were making plays.

01:48:04
Speaker 2: I'm impressed. They were just hitting though.

01:48:06
Speaker 1: I mean on a night where they were hitting the hit I think I'll remember the most is Vita Vea in coverage just destroying Jake Ferguson or else we wouldn't even had that closing sequence. Like Ferguson looked like he was headed for a first down and Veya just absolutely destroys him. That was one of my favorite hits I've ever seen in my life, and it will not soon be forgotten. I want more Vita Vea in coverage just like him on an island, like covering tight ends and stuff.

01:48:37
Speaker 2: That would be fun.

01:48:38
Speaker 8: Test those hands. He said he used to play I think quarterback or running back. I remember him talking about that back of the combine back in the day.

01:48:43
Speaker 2: So yeah, we'd like that.

01:48:44
Speaker 1: I I'm really glad they left the Cowboys in primetime, just like I said, you know you got you gotta leave this team in primetime. They actually have become sneaky entertaining at the end of the season. I'll give him credit for that. On a night where they could not run the ball at all and Cooper Rush almost threw the ball away at the end of the game on a near interception. He actually had a number of really nice throws down the field in the first half, a great one to Cooks, the touchdown to Tolbert was beautiful, a long one to Ceedee Lamb Cooper Rush played quite well at least for half of this game. And yeah, the Cowboys making it happen. At the end of the season, the Buccaneers finish with two very winnable games against the Panthers in Saints. But it's division matchups. You never know what could happen. They will need to win those two games to get to ten and seven. The Falcons close in Washington next week. That's the game that I think Bucks fans are gonna have circleed. That's Sunday Night football. They're gonna need some help from the Commanders because if not, I believe the Falcons close with the Panthers at home. I guess neither one of those are total gimmes, but we'll see. It gives us a little more spice for the NFC South down the stretch.

01:50:00
Speaker 2: That's what we're looking for, Shookie.

01:50:03
Speaker 8: Spice and the Cowboys are spicy, playing hard for a regime that a lot of people thought was probably gonna be gone about a month ago.

01:50:09
Speaker 3: Maybe not.

01:50:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, and uh, look, let's play the music. We had a big day. Patrick Claybond, he played, he played through pain.

01:50:21
Speaker 1: We got Eric Roberts behind the glass sweating out the Bills game.

01:50:27
Speaker 2: That's all we got.

01:50:27
Speaker 1: Look when when Michael Pennix Junior is leading a division possible champion into Week seventeen, you know football is back.