Fantasy Football Daily - 2022 Take Talk Ep. 31

Episode Date: December 22, 2022

Chris Wecht (@ChrisWechtFF) and Steven O'Rourke (@callmesteveo7) recap Week 15 and preview Week 16. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fantasy-points-podcast/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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It's time to the Fantasy Points podcast brought to you by FantasyPoints.com. Top level fantasy football and NFL betting analysis from every perspective and angle, from numbers to the film room with a single goal to help you score more fantasy points. Hello everyone and welcome in to the special Thursday edition of the Take Talk podcast. As always, I'm Stephen O'Rourke and Brett seems to be hit with some mid-season. season injuries here. So again, we have the man, the myth, the legend, Chris Wecht, back on with us today. Chris, how are you doing? I'm doing good. Yeah, Brett is, you know, he's hitting that late season slump, but it's all right. We can, uh, we fill in here. We're

going to get a nice review, preview episode in before the, before the holidays, give you guys all something to listen to on your travels home. Yes, exactly. And we are only doing a Thursday episode this week. Obviously, we missed yesterday and with the holidays and scheduling and all that. We're not going to do one tomorrow. We're going to wrap it all into one like Chris said today. And we're going to try to do. There's a lot to talk about like this with the playoff. Playoffs being such a tight race. There being that like huge NFL middle class. Like it just is all building to be where almost every like you look at every game and they have some implications somewhere.

Yeah, this past week was, I think a lot of people were saying this. It almost felt like a playoff weekend of football with the way a bunch of the game ended. It was a crazy week. Yeah, we have, I mean, some of the craziest endings, some of the one of the, I mean, the biggest comeback of all time. I mean, it's all like just crazy. Yep.

Totally. Which, like, let's start there. I mean, well, like, let's just get right into it. I mean, Minnesota comes back. from down 33-0-30-3-3 comes back to win in overtime 39-36. Yep, yeah. I left to go take my dog for a walk because I was like, all right, this game is pretty much over.

There's nothing interesting to see at halftime. And I came back from, and they were still down like 20-something points went by the time mid-third quarter. And they still pulled it off. And it's weird. and I could show the text to prove it, but I don't know what it was about that game, but I never felt like Minnesota was out of it. It was, and maybe it's just my complete lack of faith in Indianapolis,

but I had a weird feeling the entire game that it felt like I was watching an old Lions game where I just like, yeah, Indianapolis keeps scoring, but for some reason, Minnesota, like Minnesota feels like they're close. like they're just about to break through. But even then, I mean, I got to 33 and I was like, okay, I think this dream is over. The Vikings just clearly have some kind of witchcraft going on this year. It's unreal. It makes me scared for any team to play them in the playoffs because just weird stuff seems to keep happening to keep them from losing games.

I mean, like this one, their defense kind of put it together for the playoffs. first time this year. Like, their defense played decently. They held, they held Indianapolis in the red zone or like, you know, in or near the red zone a bunch to a ton of field goals. Like this game could have been like upwards of 50 to not. Like, it could have gotten up into the 50s. If like, if Indianapolis had gotten into the end zone with the amount of opportunities

they had going into Minnesota territory. But like it was the one game where Minnesota, you know, put it together defensively. But, you know, this time it was Kurt Cousins was. throwing interceptions and the special teams woes and it's like okay now this is it this is the official like collapse and it's happening at the end of the season like it kind of felt like the bill had come due but i mean like but then kirk cousins goes on to like have one of his probably one of his better passing days ever in the second half yeah he uh yeah he him Justin Jefferson, KJ Osborne, all had pretty massive days.

Matt Ryan is just one of the worst red zone, like closer to the, even a little bit closer to the goal line QBs of like all time. Oh, yeah. He's like allergic to throwing the ball into the actual end zone. Yeah, because we taught like you and Brett had done the research. I think Brett had referenced it. Yeah. Yeah.

He's like bottom three. since 2017, I think, of actually throwing the ball into the end zone when they're in there, like the percent of times he actually does it. Right. Yeah, it's just, it's, it's, it's just crazy. Like, I don't, it doesn't matter what play caller he's had. It, like, it doesn't change every year. They're just, he's just terrible in the, in the red zone.

And actually get, like, all of the, all of Julio's touchdowns, all of Calvin Ridley's touchdowns, Roddy White's, now Michael Pittman's, Alec Pierce's, like all their touchdowns come from them catching the ball and then getting into the end zone from. Right, right. And then they lose Jonathan Taylor, which just basically totally ruins their running game. And, you know, that doesn't help when they get down close to the goal line. And that was the big, I think that was the big issue, is that they weren't able to close this game out in any way. Like, it was, it was a constant, just three and out. Every time they got the ball after they, in the second half, it was just a three and out.

Three and out. They gave Minnesota every opportunity to come back because they were chewing up, you know, a minute 10 every time they had the ball because it'd be like a run, pass, pass, run, pass. Like, you'd get like one or two running clock situations and then you'd punt and then it's back to stopped clock. Like they had without Jonathan Taylor to help kind of get that run game going. or keep it going.

Like they just don't have any, like, Zach Moss was, what, like 84 yards on 22 carries or something like that? Yeah, it was middling at best. Yeah, like, he's just, there's no pop. And they don't, and like, they don't have the offensive lineman to, or the offensive line to, like, support an average to below average running back in a run game. The one, so the one negative thing I'll say about the Vikings comeback. is that if it was up to T.J. Hawkinson, they would not have pulled off that comeback.

He's, like, actively hurting their team, every target he gets is a bat. It seems to be like a negative result. The amount of he just, like, catches the ball and just trips over grass or something and just falls over. He doesn't, can't win contested balls in the end zone. He's just, man, I mean, there's a, the, The lines are going to look like geniuses a few years from now when Hawkinson is either off the team or is replaced by some rookie they draft or something. I don't think Hawk will ever be without a job. Like, I think he's serviceable, but he's one of those guys where if you look at the box score or if you play it, like if you play him in fantasy, like it looks good. As far as like end of the day numbers. Yeah, because it looks a bunch of passes.

Yeah, it looks solid. Like he'll go six for 76. I think that's what he went for the other day or somewhere around that, like seven for 60, like 13 fantasy points right around. He lives right in that area. But when you watch it, it just is kind of all over the place. It's sometimes it's really good plays followed up by really bad plays. And then there's like sometimes those bad plays kind of bottle up, like add up.

And that's just the, you know, that's the variance there. is with him. And that's what makes it like, I liked him as a player. I think he is a good player, but at the same time, it's like, you know, it's the third down drops.

It's crucial mistakes and crucial moments that make you balk at, like, wanting him on your team. Yep. He's got the, I was just checking, the fifth lowest yards per outrun since week 10 on the Vikings.

Really? But well, so Rager is in there. He hasn't run a ton of routes. Yeah. Even Jalen Naylor has, he's only run eight routes, so we'll throw him out there. But he's lower than Jefferson and K.J. Osborne and only a touch ahead of stealing. But yeah, I mean, so you can you can throw to the guy that has three yards per outrun and Justin Jefferson, or you can throw to Hawkinson at one point two. Right.

And yet he's second in targets per outrun among those guys. Yeah, which is yeah They're forcing him making him a focal point of the offense is not good for their offense And you call it because Osborne they involve a Osborne was a guy I was I was expecting more of coming into this year I thought he could be a lot more useful switching to more of an 11 personnel offense than they used to be right and he and he kind of just seemed like he never was and now and now you see a game where he gets really involved and they put up, if that's not one of the highest score they've put up this year, it's got to be up there. Right.

And that's like, that's the issue with Hawkinson is that, and that's, I mean, Ben Johnson had said it in, I think, a recent press conference where he had said that they, he was part of the group that kind of wanted Hawkinson out of Detroit because he felt that it would help progress Jared Goff in his development. I think because, and you're kind of seeing it in Minnesota because, like, he is an athlete, but you do kind of have to design plays to get him the ball. You have to orient a lot of things to get him the ball. And for whatever reason, I, you know, maybe that's something to dig into as, like, why is he, why can't he be such a good, like, good as a, you know, a second option, a second read, a checkdown guy. That's not ever who he's really been, though.

Nope. And that's the issue with him is that he's a good player, but you have to scheme him to be effective. He doesn't just show up. No. And that's the issue. And that, and he doesn't provide a ton in the run game like he originally was supposed to coming out of college. And that's just never really come to fruition in the way that. Yeah, it does not have the Iowa tight end trajectory that like a George Kittle.

Right. Right. Right. And like, going away from Hawkinson, the real issue, like, at the end of the day, the issue for Indianapolis was that they came in and were playing a Minnesota defense that was giving up 400 yards in the last five games. And they, in Indianapolis through for 182 yards. Like, you just don't, like, if you're Indianapolis, I, that's just, you just, you should. That's a mistake. A mistake, it's abhorrent. Like, you can't throw for less than 200 yards on a defense that's been getting consistently diced up every single week. Yeah, Michael Pittman had like, I want to pull the exact number.

I think he had more screens in this game than I have ever seen him get. Screens, they ran. I mean, granted, they were both effective plays, but they ran two reverses, like, you know, trick, wide receiver runs with them. They ran that two separate times. I think that went for like, they went for 30 yards total. But still. Yeah, he had a 29% design target rate this week. That's probably, that's definitely his highest of the year and one of the higher marks for a receiver probably this season.

Yeah. A single week. Yeah, just very boring offense. Paris Campbell was, seemed to be Matt Ryan's best friend a few weeks ago and now basically is not even in the offense. Right, completely gone. It looked like he had a chance to show some stuff as a rookie, basically not in the offense anymore. They just, they have nothing on offense.

I mean, Jeff Saturday has pretty much made it clear he's not a good head coach. And he doesn't know how to make use of his best, you know, put his players in the best situations. Yeah, he's exactly, you know, he's turning out to be exactly what we all thought he would be. A guy who had never coached in the NFL played in the, the NFL, but obviously would need some help figuring out coaching in the NFL because it's not just like instantly transfer. Like I know we all want to believe it, but it's not instantly transferable to just be an NFL player and then just step in and be an NFL coach.

That's not how it works. Generally. I mean, I know there's a few exceptions, but generally not how it works. But still, crazy game. It was an awesome way to kick. off that slate last week. And Minnesota just, you know, can't seem to lose most times. Or at least like if they can get it within one score, they can't lose.

Right. Just don't let them get within one score and you're fine. If you can keep them at like an arm's length away, like if you can keep them on the stiff arm, like you're fine. But if you let them, if you let them in too close. If they get within one score, you're like you're cooked. It's game over. It's going to happen.

It's going to lose you that game. Yeah, it probably isn't your fault. It's just some, like you said, some witchcraft voodoo magic that Kevin O'Connell's working on over on the sidelines or something. Yep. All right. Next game of the week was Miami Buffalo, which that was the late night game on Saturday, finished 3229 in favor of the Buffalo Bills with Josh Allen leading a drive at the end of the game to set up a game winning field goal, right? Was it at the end of the game or was it overtime? I forget.

No, it was the end of the game. It was the end of the game. Okay. So Josh Allen led a great drive at the end of the game to set him up in field goal range. Yep. Kick a, what, a 20-yard-ish field goal into the snow? Yeah. Yeah, and worsening conditions, but got the job done.

It was a very good game overall. I think we saw pretty high levels of play from both offenses. Yep. Tua was I noticed back when the dolphins were going particularly Tula was going through that stretch where it looked like just everything was falling apart for him

Yeah He's just so reliant on connecting on those deeper shots And because of his arm strikes me a little bit of an issue for him It's more It's more impactful than I think it is for other quarterbacks Right The second he The second that he hits Tyree Kill down the field

or Jalen Waddle. Like that, like that just, that gets their offense going. Um, and those, those deep shots are always going to be, you know,

not high completion percentage things. Right. Early in the season, he was just hitting at an unreal rate of on those deep shots. Right. Particularly the ones that were underthrown and Tyreek just does Tyree kill things. It comes back. He's just so much better a change of direction than everyone else.

Yeah, he was just hitting them in a, on a real rate regression hit him hard for a few games and then this game seemed to be like all right this is probably where he should be on a game to game basis right miss some he hit some sorry my dog is barking that's all right um yeah yeah he had a great great game and throwing the deep ball and it i feel like this is where what we can expect the miami offense to be on a game to game basis in on average right and you You've seen this happen with offenses like Cincinnati too where like these often,

for different reasons with Cincinnati. But like same type of thing where when you're so reliant on like go balls, deep balls, like no matter how good you are at them, inevitably one day, two day, like one game, two games, three games to like eventually at some point for some point for a little bit, it's not going to work. and it seemed like Miami had kind of figured out what people were attacking them with this game. And I think that they dropped less passes this game as well, like just more guys making plays at the right time finally. And they, you know, complimented with they figured out their run game a little.

They were like running the ball at the best clip that they've run it all year in that game against Buffalo. and I think that that's going to be, if that's a, that is a huge development if it keeps happening for the rest of the season because I think Tua looked a lot more comfortable as that run game got better, he kind of settled in a little bit more too. Yeah, I'm really surprised by that run. Like you would think McDaniel would have learned something from his time in San Francisco about like just how to make any running back look good in your running scheme. Right. It just has not translated really for them yet. This did seem like a game where Moster was running much better than he had earlier in the season.

There was a game earlier where Jeff Wilson looked like he was running pretty well before he got hurt again. So maybe they're starting to put it together and get that some kind of a running game going. Definitely should never be the focal point of their offense with Tyreek and Waddle. Right. They, yeah, but they, yeah, they need that running game going a little. Mike Gisicki is all but disappeared. I don't even know if he has a target over the last four games.

It's funny you say that because, I mean, there was a video after the game of Gisicki and Dawson Knox talking to each other after the game. And Gisicki saying like, basically saying like, it's awesome to see that they use, you like that. And I think it felt like there was some. Well, that was that was Dawson Knox like first good game with the season. So I don't know if you should be saying. I know, but at least he had it.

I mean, Gisiki had a couple earlier in the year. He had a couple pop off games. But you, I mean, to be fair, Dawson Knox has been used a little bit more. Like his target rate has increased the last couple weeks. It's just, but I mean, it is interesting that Miami has completely gone away. from Gisicki, who I think, you know, he has his limitations. But if you're talking about as a pass-catching weapon, that's his ace in the hole as a, as a player. Yeah.

Yeah, they seem like there's still another offensive weapon or so away from really being a contender. But, you know, Tyree Kill can fix a lot of offensive problems. He can. And then, you know, you saw it. You can only contain Tyree Kill for so long. You can contain him. You can hope to contain him for a couple games. You can hope to contain him for a couple drives,

but you have to basically be prepared for the explosion to happen at some point. You just don't know when. The Buffalo side, I mean, they are the most frustrating fantasy football offense in the NFL. Because they always score points. but you have literally zero idea where they're going to go week to week. Yeah, the Gabe Davis explosion has not happened. Yeah, Diggs is the only semi-reliable one. But other than that, like, good luck.

Reggie Gilliam called a touch, or no, to quit Morris or was it Gilliam this week? It was Morris, I think. Yeah, it was Morris. Yeah. Yeah, so Morris gets a touchdown. Knox gets a touchdown. They used three running backs. They're in a full three-headed monster situation at this point,

the running back. Yeah. Terry Hines and James Cook. Yeah, they finally got Hines more involved this game. It felt like. Yeah, it's weird. I can't really figure out what they're trying to do with their running backs. Do they want Singletary to be a lead back?

Are they just like saving him for the playoffs? Right. James Cook. Because he's also looked like he started to get more involved. But then Heinz looks like he's starting to get more involved and they traded for him. Right. To be like a punt returner. It's weird.

Yeah. And I mean, Buffalo, again, even more so than Minnesota, they're like a team where don't let him get within a score. If you can keep him away from a score, you're good. But like Josh Allen, give him the ball. Like, I mean, give him the ball at any point within two minutes. Like, he's going to score. Yeah. The hope is that you'll have enough.

time to score back. It's just like the middle parts of games for Buffalo. They have this tendency where they just don't, I don't know if they don't have enough weapon. They don't have enough weapon. They don't have enough. They don't like utilize their weapons well enough. Okay. And you agree. It's that they don't have enough. Which is funny because I feel like at the beginning of the year, we were touting and talking so much about how holy cow, look at, Buffalo. They've surrounded Josh Allen with all of these weapons. Like, I feel like that was kind of the viewpoint. Even though they didn't really add anything, they added Khalil Shakir, but we all expected the big jump, the big jump from.

Yeah, we expected him to be much more prevalent in the offense. We expected Isaiah to McKenzie to take a bigger jump. We expected Gabe Davis to take a bigger jump. We expected Dawson Knox to be more involved in the offense on a week-to-week basis. We expected Khalil Shakir. to potentially contribute at some point in time at a consistent rate in this offense. They've been a little negligent with their surrounding Josh Allen with weapons. It's nothing like the Ravens with Lamar Jackson not giving him weapons,

but it's not like that much better. They go out and they get digs a few years ago, which is great. Since then, they've been like, okay, we've got. a true alpha wide receiver one we don't like let's just fill this with as we think we can develop and they're bringing in veterans they're bringing in late season cole beasley yeah colby yeah he's i yeah i was like i didn't even know what happened when he was on the field like he had just announced his retired he had like been with the box for two games and then he was like no i'm retired and then he came back like i don't understand yeah what any of that was i don't understand how getting

Cole Beasley, the ball is ever going to be better than McKenzie or somebody else. Right. I don't understand how that, yeah, how that moves the needle more. But it is. It is kind of similar to Baltimore where it's just like they took chances on guys in second, third rounds, like places like that. And they expected these guys to develop. And you're just seeing some of the emergencies, like the emergence of, like the emergence of,

a lot of guys that you want to see just haven't really happened yet. And that's where it leads to the offense being just Josh Allen hero ball. And thankfully, he also has a good coordinator behind him in Ken Dorsey, who's shown that he can kind of scheme things open when things get stagnant for Buffalo. Yeah, yeah. It's just, yeah, it's very different than like Casey's approach with, yeah, they lost Tyree Kill, but they were like, all right, we're just going to, we're going to sign a bunch of guys. Right.

We're not going to, and granted, nobody like big name, but they all also weren't like Emmanuel Sanders in his 12th year of the NFL. It was. Right. Yes. It was Juju. It was they trade for Tony. They draft Sky Moore in the second round.

Right. The only receiver, the bills have drafted is Gabe Davis in this second round. And that was years ago at this point. And that and Shakir. And Shakir was the third. round this year. Yeah, he was his middle rounds this year. But he doesn't even really get to play, so it doesn't matter.

But yeah, just, it's crazy. There's still, even the best teams in the NFL are not, like, fully maximizing when they have a young QB that they could just flood with weapons and see what happens. Right. All right. I think that kind of ties a bow on Miami. Miami's on, what, three, their three game skid. now and all of a sudden they're in the middle of the wild card hunt. They're trending downward.

And yeah, they're in the seventh seed now with the Patriots breathing down their neck. I know they have the, I think they have the Patriots and the Jets down the stretch. So it'll be interesting to watch them, see how they bounce back. You know, we'll talk about their Green Bay, their game this week in a second. but we'll jump to the next game from last week, and that is Dallas Jacksonville. Jacksonville wins in overtime against, yeah, wins in overtime on a pick six.

What was the final score? Was it 40-34? Yep. 40-34 in favor of Dallas on a pick-six by, pick-six by Rishon Jenkins to win to ice the game. A pick-six that was not Dax fault in any way, perform. I don't know how how I've seen any sort of narrative at any point that it was even that it could have even been his fault. It was not his fault. No, I don't think it was all. He definitely did

have some questionable throws before that in the game. He's looked like a tough like he's he's playing well, but he's also making some throws. I'm like, what was that? Why are you throwing that and why did it come out of your hand that way? Honestly, like I went back and watched the, I watched the All-22 for their pass, like the pass matchup this week. And I think that a big part of it all is that Dak Prescott has CD Lamb who can separate, and that is it. C.D. Lamb is the only receiver on Dallas that's getting separation right now. Everybody else on Dallas is like, I mean, they are clamped up.

Yeah. And so, like, I think Dak is at this point. I mean, I think he's just trying to fit it into it. a tight window. And, you know, I know, he didn't play this week, right? No, he was inactive.

For sure, I didn't see him get any snaps at least. Yeah. Gallup and Noah Brown are fine. Gallup doesn't like, Gallup doesn't look great. I think you see glimpses of like pre-injury Gallup, but even then I still, there's no,

there's really no pop to his game. It's just kind of, run of the mill yeah i worry a little i they're going to have an issue especially with the way their defense is playing right now with the injuries they've suffered in their secondary with keeping up with a good offense and a team that has a better defense than jacksonville right who jacksonville i mean they've been kind of on the backside of a little bit of a slip in all in defense it's been their It's been their offense that's been leading the charge and keeping them in games. And, you know, the reason that they've kind of gone on a little bit of a hot streak,

they've won two in a row. But they've, you know, they just had the three games ago. They did have the Detroit game where when their offense gets shut down, it doesn't matter. Their defense is still not good. Yeah. It just gets to be more on display of how not good it is and there's nothing to compliment it. Yeah, yeah.

But Dallas is quickly getting into a similar bucket like that. They, what, the first half. it seemed like Jacksonville was, you know, trying to target Duran Bland in the slot. And that wasn't really working. And then they said, all right, where's that number one guy on the outside, Calvin Joseph? And they just went after him, play after play, and basically got him benched. I forget the guy's name that came in for him. But yeah, Dallas is in big trouble on their secondary when you can basically just not throw the ball at Trayvon Diggs.

and even he is notorious for being kind of a boom bust corner. Right. He can make big turnover plays, but he also can give stuff up from time to time. Yeah, and he's played better. I feel like he's played better in that department this year. Like, he's been a lot less, a lot less risky with, like, going after a turnover.

And so, like, we've seen a dip in turnovers, but that's why you've also seen kind of the rise in his overall, like, play. There isn't that, like, spikes and valleys and things. like that. Yeah. So Dallas is, yeah, they lose. And then they lose Leighton Vandrash, which, you know, not a huge deal, but not ideal. I mean, I think it showed up a little bit at times.

They just like, like Anthony Barr is a great complimentary linebacker. He's a great. He's fast. He's like a good support linebacker. He's good in the past game. He's good in areas like that. But I think Leighton Vandrash seemed to, he provides something in the middle of just like beef. I don't know.

He's just like he's a big dude who I think complements that defensive line well in the middle. And I think losing that presence kind of hurt them a little bit. Yeah. And then they also lost their right tackle, Taryn Steal for the year. Yep. So they are, yeah, they're, man, a lot of the top NFC teams outside of the Vikings, of course, are dealing with three problems right now. And the Vikings, you're just like at this point, they're not going to get injured.

It's just, I mean, you know, they have their nicks and bruises too, but at this point, it's you're just waiting for like a mental failure. That hasn't come through. But yeah, Dallas, like you said, they're just, I mean, not, I wouldn't say they're limping yet, but like it has the potential. You're seeing, like you said, you're seeing some of those nicks and bruises start to show up and the defense, which I think that, like, I think that the problem is, is that, you know, leading up into where their defense has kind of started to falter a little bit.

All of last year, beginning of this year, like, they created a ton of turnovers. Yep. Like, they created a ton of turnovers. I thought, like, I know, like, I think a lot of people, myself included, thought that that would change because turnovers, while, you know, you can force them as much as possible, there's still like an element of luck to them as well. Like, I thought that that was going to flip on them.

And it didn't seem to really flip on them at the beginning of the year. It was still holding from the year before. And I think it's finally starting to flip where they aren't getting those huge splash plays, the strips, the interceptions, things like that. And they're starting to get the, and like the drives aren't stopping from like three and outs or anything like that. They just keep going because, you know, that's kind of how they're built. That's kind of how Dan Quinn is. he's a bit like he likes to create turnovers he likes to cause chaos and he's okay giving up some yards like next to that as long as again as long as those splash plays are happening yeah you're

this their upcoming game against the eagles while not now is not a very big game for either team standings wise right is a very big game for the dallas defense to show that they can still play functional defense. But if they get lit up by Gardner Minchoo-led Eagles, which not that Gardner is bad, but he's definitely, you know, it's not what Jalen Hertz has been doing. Right. So Jerry Jones is going to be out there, you know, calling for people's heads and stuff. If they get lit up by the Gardner, Minchew Eagles.

Yeah. We definitely do have to talk about Trevor Lawrence, though. He is planning some of the best, he's playing the best football. he's ever played he's since week 10 he's leading the league and pass a rating yeah um he has a 5.3% completion percentage over expectation which again is leading the NFL since week 10 yeah sounds about right yeah he's he's not throwing the ball deep a ton but he's he's up there at 10.9% um not leading the league by any means but he yeah he's playing i mean yeah Doug peterson seems to have just kind of done it again with a young QB and getting him going.

I mean, he has three to five throws a game that are just like, I mean, they're ridiculous throws. Like he fits him into a tight space throwing off balance, you know, like whatever it is. I mean, he's approaching the level of quarterback play that I think we have all been talking about the potential of him hitting since he was a freshman in college. Yeah. Like, the hype is finally starting to be realized, the potential is starting to finally be realized where, like, I mean, the throw to Zay Jones, where he's, where against

Dallas, where he was scrambling out to the right, Zay Jones turned up field and Trevor Lawrence, like, off platform on the run, just dropped it in the bucket. perfect like Zay Jones who is a fast receiver didn't even break stride and just kept roll it like just kept right on rolling to the end zone like throws like that where he can do it in he can do it in in the pocket he can do it out of the pocket he makes smart decisions well he does have the best receiver in Zay Jones in the NFL ever ever I mean like which is also I feel like a big credit to what Trevor Lawrence has done this year where like outside of Christian Kirk who I mean he got signed for big money yes but still felt like I mean Arizona was pretty quick to ditch him like I don't think Arizona even considered bringing him back.

Oh they also yeah they never used them. Right. They never used him. Yeah. They never used him correctly. But like other than Christian Kirk like again, he's dealing with like he's been throwing to pretty much a lot like kind of kind of a lot of. you know, retread, castaway, misfit guys. An example of a team that just, yeah, you're not always going to be able to get

high-level guys, but get a bunch of above, you know, above average players and give your QB a chance. And different skill sets, too. I think that's like the, I think that's a big thing too is that every guy they have as a receiver has a different like niche in their skill set. You have Evan Angram, who's, He's just a big, tight end who can move fast. You're matching him up against safety, he's linebackers.

And generally, he's going to be a little bit, you know, generally you're banking on him being more athletic and getting open that way. Marvin Jones is a high point guy. Like, he's a guy who Trevor Lawrence can put it in a spot and trust that, you know, he's one of those 60-40 jump ball guys. And then Zay Jones, who's a speed who's always been a speedster and is kind of seeming to at least figure out how like he's clearly very good at getting open in zone or against zone coverage that seems to be his niche is like he knows where and when to settle

into zones and Trevor Lawrence trusts him because they like they find a lot of like pickups and I think a couple of his touch like two of his touchdowns were in that type of realm too where it's just him knowing how to work against like their zone coverage and find the hole in it and then you have Christian Kirk who's a great guy in the slot and like all of a sudden Probably like one of the best slot receivers in the NFL. Right. And, you know, he's speedy. He runs great routes.

He knows how to work within an offense. And then, like, I mean, individually, all those guys, like, don't, like, you would say don't really move the needle except for Christian Kirk. But like Evan Ingram, Zay Jones, Barvin Jones before the season, no one's talking about them moving the needle. But because of Trevor Lawrence taking a step, he's elevating the play of all these guys. And all of a sudden, you kind of look at their, look at this receiving. unit and you're like it's you know it could do it can do some damage and it did it has done some

damage the last couple weeks it's a wild card team level of you know skill weapons for their kb right right like you know you look at them and you're worried about the potential dud game like against detroit like that's the that's the floor of the team they have that floor with that offense where all of the things go wrong at the same time where Marvin Jones isn't separating at the catch point and Zay Jones isn't getting opening. Christian Kirk is going up against a good slot corner or is being focused on. And Evan Ingram is having his game, his once every three week games where he can't catch anything that hits his hands. Yeah.

Yeah. But it gets the job done for what this team is in their trajectory. And there, you know, all of a sudden with Tennessee losing to the chargers, dropping a few in a row Jacksonville winning two in a row there right in the I mean they're in the driver's seat where if they you know if they keep winning and they have a week 17 matchup against Tennessee coming up they could week eight what or sorry yeah 18 yeah week 18 that's going to be for the division that's for the division yeah so like I mean jacks the jets and texans next even if you say they lose to the jets right Tennessee looks like Brian tannohel is not playing anymore so like

there's a yeah tennessee that game is going to be for the division if not jacksonville's going to have a one game lead on them right and that's um you know i think all year jacksonville we've like people have consistently talked about their point differential and how they had been plus or even and it didn't correspond with their record and all of a sudden you're starting to see it flip there you know you're starting to see it flip here and we'll see if it continues going on that trend and if they make it in the playoffs and what happens there but overall you're starting to see the team take a step and you're seeing them take a step at the right time like you're hoping for some late season development from you know Trevor Lawrence and you know seeing him like what does it

look like when he starts getting comfortable and he looks comfortable he looks confident and he just seems to be playing more of the like or just a carefree fun football that we expect from like gunslinger like him to go and do yeah yeah all right so let's talk about their week their week 16 opponent and their last week 15 game in the lions and the jets yes what do you think jets with zach wellson's second time around looked like that's because i i thought it was better not not great still but better than what it had been earlier in the season yeah i um he was under pressure a decent amount. Yes.

Which, like, that is to, like, I credit to him because he seemed to handle that well a lot of times. And I think it also, like, because he was under pressure a lot, he was operating out of structure a lot, which I think he enjoys. And it also helps that, like, there's Detroit secondaries, like, I've been touting and saying they've been playing really well, though the numbers don't always show up. I may say that, but they still are a team that's still young and somewhat. They get injured in spots, and so they have a propensity to have a couple coverage breakups and coverage mixups throughout the game. And it's your- Jeff Smith have, what, six catches for 77 yards? Exactly.

And it's, yeah, and just like they have this propensity to have defensive breakdowns, and all of a sudden, like, it's up to you as a defense. or as an offense to take advantage of those. And whether you take advantage of those, those are the difference between you beating the lions and you not beating the lions. I mean, that seems to be where it's happening. And they've been good about either getting to the quarterback before the

quarterback can get the ball to those or reducing those plays so far. And that's where I think Zach Wilson was one of the scarier quarterbacks to go up against. I think a lot of people were saying that the Jets would have won with Mike White. I honestly don't know if that's necessarily true. I think that like what Zach Wilson offered with his ability to get out of the pocket a lot this week and hit guys on the run and find guys that are open like that throw to Garrett Wilson to throw at the end of the half to Jeff Smith. Like things like that are where Zach Wilson excels. And I think that they cleaned up a little bit of his in the pocket stuff.

He didn't look as sporadic. He wasn't making too many dumb decisions. He did have the one throw. He actually, sorry, he had two throws that were very very. very, very, like, there he is type throws. Like, there's Zach Wilson. But other than that, felt like he played an okay game. It was a step in the right direction.

I think that New York has to walk away feeling okay. Yeah, he seemed like he was playing a little bit of yolo ball. He had a 20% deep throw rate, a minus 10 completion percentage over expectation, which would come if you're throwing a deep ball a lot and not connecting on them. Yeah. So it did seem like he was pushing the ball a little bit, trying to make things happen. Probably, you know, the bigger plays he can make, the better he's going to prove he can do this job. Sure.

And if there's, you know, like you said, a defense that, you know, can, you know, have those breaks in communication and now things are, you know, a guy is running open free or something or has a couple steps of separation because stuff goes wrong. the lines are a defense that can give up big plays. Yeah. So what he was doing, you know, while, you know, he definitely was hurting them at times, was also probably keeping them in the game at times just because of the type of defense. Right. Right. If they're playing the 49ers, that's not going to fly.

Absolutely not. Yeah. So, yeah, the jets are, I mean, I want to know what Elijah Moore has done to Robert Salas life, career, family. Like, why is Jeff Smith and Denzel Mims playing over him at this point? Yeah. I just don't get it. Elijah Moore only started getting in the game because Denzel Mims got hurt at the

beginning, like hurt right at the beginning of the game. Actually, that amaz me say again, he had three. Zach Wilson had three bad throws. The hit his throw and the throw, or the throw that turned into an interception, the getting hit that Michael Carter ended up. coming up with, which was just disgusting. And then actually right at the beginning of the game, right near the goal line, Zach Wilson almost threw an interception to Jeff Akuta

because he just like threw the slant a yard and a half behind his receiver. And that's like, I don't think Zach Wilson's necessarily the quarterback of the future. I don't think he's a band-aid. I don't think this team is headed to the playoffs this year. And that's fine. I don't think you're I guess because Miami Chargers and then yeah yeah it's yeah it's tough for them but holy cow they have a defense yeah I was going to say that's kind of the issue that really doesn't leave them in a good spot though um like moving forward not you know having a defense like that I mean look it's you know it's like the Broncos yeah you hate to waste a year of this because defense is is and can be sporadic but And you have no, man, they're not going to have an easy way to fix the QV problem if they want to. It'll be interesting.

They have to figure it out. And they're going to have some tough decisions to make because they did invest in the capital into Zach Wilson. And I think that there are, like, there are spots and where he shows it and you can see it. It's just a matter of can they pull it out of him for an entire game at a time. Yeah, he's got a pretty uphill. bit. I think when you have the attitude he was having earlier in the season, you're going to have a hard time getting your teammates to really want you to succeed and will, you know, really work with you and stuff. That's hard to come back from. We see a time. I mean, Wendz had issues in Philly with stuff like that. Baker has had issues with that over the years. Yeah. When stuff, when you're, yeah, your quarterback attitude is very, very underrated thing that, you know, we probably start to see more and more as the years go on being a big factor on where these guys get drafted and stuff.

Yeah. Yeah, I agree. But I would, like, this Jets, it's too bad, like you said, it's too bad because this Jets defense is a force. I mean, this is probably the first time. I mean, at least since New England, and, like, New England, it was for different reasons. This is legitimately the first time all season that a defense has shut down a full strength lion's offense. Like the lion's offense, when they got stopped against New England and Dallas, they were

dealing with injuries, Dom and Ross St. Brown, who is, you know, their number one receiver and very important to what they do. And so, like, they had their hiccups that game because they were missing a ton of weapons. they were at full strength and other than really like the one play and the first drive of the game, they had the lions kind of stonewalled at times. And I don't think that that's like, it's not a case of anybody figuring the lions out. Like I know that's always like the big thing is when an offense gets shut down for the first time. Everyone like the big thing is like, oh, have they been figured out?

Like we've been dealing with that question with Miami for three. weeks now. I don't think that's the case with the lines. It's just the Jets have that many good athletes. Like they legitimately, they had a ton of things where they had Jared Gough checking down. I mean, Jared Gough had forever to throw in this game. Like, he had all day, almost every dropback to throw.

It was just great. To work through reeds and stuff. Right. It was just fantastic coverage. They didn't target Sauce Gardner once. Like that's how good. Like they were picking on DJ Reed and DJ Reed is a good corner and it showed because like he made it he made it quite a few plays. He almost got burnt on one deep ball by James and Williams, but golf under threw him.

Yeah, he checked the ball down 23% of the time. Yeah. And from weeks one through 14, he was at 6.7%. Yeah, what was his time to throw on the week? It was 2.8. So that's high. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, sorry about that, everyone.

Great podcasting material there. But like 2.8. Jared Gough had forever to throw. Like their offensive line was holding up really, really well. It was just a matter of the Jets played great coverage. Jared Gough wasn't forcing throws. And, you know, he checked down a bunch. And that's how the Jets beat you.

And where the Jets beat you is forcing you to stop being patient and make those errant throws, the throws into coverage, and, like, causing turnovers that way. Like, that's how the Jets defense wins. And the difference was that Jared Goff has been playing very clean football, and he didn't make, he didn't make the mistakes, he didn't make the fumble, he didn't try and force it into coverage. He just took it as it was there. And, you know, they eventually had a great scheme, and they scored on the 51-yard touchdown

that I think everybody has taught. everybody has seen and talked about at this point. And, you know, like, pats off to the Jets defense because they're a force to be reckoned with. And I don't think that, like, enough people have talked about the fact that, like, really, this is the first time the Lions have been held under 24 points in a game where they're, like, significantly healthy. Yep.

Yeah. Yeah. But big win for the Lions and their playoff hopes. Yes. They really just need to continue winning. and now Washington and Seattle to continue to lose. Yep. Seattle's got a brutal stretch.

They play KC. this week. Yeah. And so does Washington plays the Niners this week. So both very loseable games. Yep. Or both of those teams. Yep. And then CX lightens up after that.

They get the Jets and Rams. So kind of a very big game for the Seahawks if they can pull out a win against Kansas City somehow. Yeah. Washington still has the Browns and the Cowboys. Cowboys may be resting guys, though, at that point, they may have no way to improve their seating. Yeah.

So still going to be tough for the lines to make it, but they, you know, if they win out, they pretty much control their destiny, you know, in the scenario, the scenario that they wouldn't control their destiny is if every other team ahead of them also wins out, which, again, I don't necessarily anticipate happening, like you said. They face some difficult stretches. But the lines have a win.

They have probably the, I don't have it on record right now, but probably they're probably up there around the, you know, bottom 10 or top 10 easiest schedules for the rest of the way for the end of their season. They have the Panthers, the Bears, the Packers, and the Packers are in contention as well as long as they keep winning, but they have a tough matchup. It'll be, it'll be interesting. The NFC playoff race down the finish is going to be a lot of fun because there's a lot of teams that are in play in different ways and a lot of them fighting for their lives out here every single week the rest of the way.

Chris, what do you think? Do you want to touch on New England, Las Vegas next? Or do you want to save that for last? And do you want to do Cincinnati, Tampa Bay first? we'll just we'll just go super quick we just have to talk about that last play of the game and quite possibly the the craziest ending to a game but i can i can remember uh that i've ever seen it's i mean you know it's the craziest ending to a game since miami against new england you're right like legitimately how is new england from both an offensive and a defensive standpoint they're on the like probably

the biggest end-of-game blunders on both sides for like a team that is supposed to be like they're held up in reverence the Patriots because of the you know because of everything they preach and everything they are and yet somehow on both sides of like offensive side and defensive side they're responsible for the most just egregious that's what that's why I think this might have to be the worst loss of all the time like Yeah. This was like a, it's different when, you know, the punt return TD gets scored on you for the, to end the game because the other team has to, you know, do something to make that happen. Like, this was totally self-inflicted.

And, and I still haven't seen anything from anyone out of the level, like, if that was planned or not planned or what the plan was. The only thing I've seen, the only thing I saw was Jacobi Myers interview after the game. and he was, I think, somewhat, like, emotional about it, which I understand that. But, like, it sounded like he had kind of taken the blame for the throw, at least. I don't know if he took the blame for the plan, but I know he, like, he basically said, like, yeah, I thought that Mack Jones was open back there. We're never, we're never going to hear about this. It's going to go down to all those guys' graves about if that was the play call or if the

Right, right. I think it was planned. The more I've thought about it and looked at it. The way you call run play, which is odd, first of all. And then Remandre Stevenson clearly looks to toss the ball back to Jacoby Myers, like as if it was planned. Because there was no hesitation. Yeah.

And I think that was, I think you're right. There was no hesitation on like when Ramandre Stevenson, he immediately turned back and pitch. There was no like, what do I do? Yeah. I'm going to turn back and pitch it type thing. I think the plan, I think that literally they had a play call of it. Let's, like, let's shock them. We call a run.

We make sure you toss it backwards and then Myers can get it back to Mack Jones. He can still throw the ball forward then. And we have some guy wide open. Right. I think that was their plan. And then their heads are like, what's the worst thing that happened? We just get tackled and the play is over and we go to overtime. That 90, probably 99% of the time, that's the, you know,

that's the play that happens, but in this case, Chandler Jones picks it off and then have terrible plans. I mean, Mack Jones might still be stuck in the field right now. I don't know if they've, I don't know if they've shoveled him out yet because like, more Patriot and Chandler Jones too. I mean, man, like, what a, what a play. And again, I think, like, we, I don't know if we, we didn't preview this game, obviously. in any way. So like, and I think Brett and I had talked about it a couple weeks ago, or maybe it was beginning the season or some point in time,

but Belichick always, his former coaches always beat him. They're the only coaches that have winning records against him, are his former coaches. Because I swear to God, he wants to keep them, he wants to keep them in a job a little bit longer. And he knows that his team is good. Like, hey, the Patriots were there. Seven and six coming into this game there.

While their offense has been terrible, their defense has been really good. So, hey, this is a big win for the Raiders. Yeah, they just slipped up a couple weeks ago. But still, you're looking at it like, hey, good win against the Raiders this week. Yeah. Maybe. Or I mean good win against the Patriots if you're the Raiders. Josh McDaniel, the whole, like, perception of whether he's on the chopping block or not,

has completely changed. I think he's completely off of that now. I don't know. That's a good question. I don't know. I haven't thought about that recently. Yeah. I guess he could still be,

but my initial reaction is that he is off of it. Yeah. I wonder if that was his play design that Patriots play before he left. Let's pull this out against him. He'll never see it going. Yeah. Or either that or Matt Patricia. I think it's Matt Patricia,

but he's terrible. It's a predictable offense, but we can move off this game. New England. I think New England doesn't make it to the playoffs. Their defense is great, but Matt Patricia's offense is terrible, predictable, and Mack Jones. Like, it's just terrible all around. On the last game we're going to review,

and then we'll jump into preview after this, but Cincinnati, Tampa Bay, Cincinnati ended up winning the game. After going down 17 to nothing at half, they blew the doors open on the Tampa Bay defense put up 34 points and 1.3420, was it? Or was it 3417? I forget exactly. But either way, Cincinnati ends up winning. And, I mean, I don't know about you, but I walk away from that game.

And I know that, yeah, okay, so Cincinnati won 3423. but I walk away from that game and I know Tampa Bay hasn't been the greatest team this year, but I think that Cincinnati is probably the best team in the NFL right now. Really? I honestly think so. I just like, they just beat the Chiefs a couple weeks ago. Their offense is rolling. Their defense, like they got picked apart a little bit at the beginning of the game.

in the first half, but they buckled down in the second half. And I don't know. I just, I don't see anybody. I don't see a formula for beating the Bengals right now with the way they're playing. Yeah, I can't say that you're definitely, you have an argument there. I don't know if I would say the same thing, but I definitely think you have an argument there. I'd probably still put the, I put the Eagles above them and I think the Chiefs above them, even though they beat the Chiefs.

And that's fair. I'm not going to. But I think I definitely could see the bills being below them and all the rest of the NFC teams being below them. Yeah. I mean, Cincinnati's defense is playing well. They lock down teams from, I mean, pretty much every week. And then their offense, I mean, hey, Jamar Chase,

I know I made fun of Zach Taylor and people within the Bengals organization when they're like, when they basically were like, Jamar Chase is built different. he'll be back sooner and he's come back and be been effective pretty much right away like yeah i mean Cincinnati is rounding right into better form than they were last year going into the playoffs like if they as long as they at this point as long as they say healthy like they're not officially clinched yet but they're they're close but i mean i think yeah they're they're definitely making the playoffs i don't see how they don't win the division.

Yeah. And they've got a shot at the one seed even. Yeah. And so, like, I think they're just rolling into the playoffs in an even better position than they were last year. And I think that they found that, like, P. Ryan's a little bit even more of a weapon than they thought. Like, this, I mean, they're rolling.

Joe Burroughs playing amazing football. He's playing, like, a top three, three to four, five quarterback in the league right now. Yep. It's just, I mean, everything's clicking for the Bengals. Yeah. They, yeah, they, I mean, Tyler Boyd broke his finger, but then caught a touchdown this week. Yeah. I didn't even, I thought, like, they made it sound like he was going to be out for a couple weeks when that first happened.

And then he ended up playing. Right. And being effective. Right. I mean, they're getting like Trent Irwin. They're designing plays for Trent Irwin. Yeah, I don't know if they should keep doing that. It's, it, but, like, it just shows of how, like, confident they're getting in offense and, like, what they're doing.

because they're designing plays for Trent Irwin. Yes, they are, yeah. The Bucks, I mean, well, the Bucks, the Bucks offense really let them back in that game, turning over the ball and just, like, totally falling apart. It looked like for a while there that we were seeing a change for the Bucs. They were running a lot more play action, a lot of pre-snap motion, which is something that Brady did almost every play in New England.

Right. hasn't done nearly as much in Tampa Bay. I mean, I thought it was, because this was, this was the Jim Nance Tony Romo broadcasts. Yes, it was. And I thought that they actually, I thought that Romo did a great, he did a great job, kind of like commentating on that specific point of the buck's offense throughout the game. Yeah. And like you said, they did a bunch of the pre-sat motion for a,

half. They exploded, they scored 17 points. Their offense was moving the ball. Yep. Brady is so good at knowing what the defense is trying to do. I know. Anything else, like, it's simply like a simple motion like can tell him so much more than like other other quarterbacks. I don't know why they don't continue to do that every single play, but they really haven't. And again, the wheels just fell off again as they have pretty much every game for the bucks. Yeah, it's to get tough to watch. Yeah, I really, yeah, I don't know what it is.

I mean, I think I know what it is, but I don't know the reason that it is. I mean, Brian Lefich is just clearly not cut out to be an offensive coordinator. And Todd Bulls is also probably just not a good head coach either. Yeah, and I, you know, unfortunately that's how it is. There are some guys that are meant to be head coaches and some guys meant to be defense or coordinators and I think that's fine and we're just seeing that bulls

because it's like hey this is a second chance at it. There's no shame in that but hey it's just might just be the way it is and like you said with the motion Tampa Bay doing it almost every snap in the first half

I mean on over 50% of their snaps in every drive and then the second half They stopped, like, they stopped all the way up until they, like, one drive in the second half, they ended up turning the ball over on that one. But one drive, they used snap or pre-snap motion in some way, like, every play. Other than that, like in the second half, they just stopped doing pre-snap motion. Yep.

Which, like I said, Doty Romo was very good at cataloging in the game, which was kind of fun to watch because you got to watch it in real time. how it affected their offense. Yeah. So now the Carolina Panthers can still make the playoffs because the bucks just don't want to put this thing away. Yeah. I am hesitant to say it, but like, I don't know,

Tampa Bay. They probably end up still making the playoffs, unfortunately, but I just, I don't think we can expect them to make any noise. They're just done. They're just done for, I like their defense play,

like the showed flashes. but I think they're, they just can't generate enough, like the pressure that they used, they had in the past on defense and their secondaries a little bit worse than it was that, like, the previous years, even like they kept everybody together and they just didn't take that step forward. They kind of stayed the same or took a step backward. And I don't know.

Bucks are just, they're kind of just stuck in the middle here because they're not getting the, like, insane Brady Hurray. Eeroics. Every game, they're getting it once every six games now. Yep. Yeah. All right. I think we pretty much covered that game. The bucks are still bad.

The Bengals are riding high. Yes. We can move on to preview stuff. A lot of these teams we've already mentioned in some degree. Right. So we go super in detail on how they're playing and whatnot, but just kind of talk about the matchup. Right.

And the betch master of the slate is probably tonight's game in the Jaguars. and the Jets. Yeah, it's fun that what is a game that almost always, I swear to God, the Jaguars always pop up at this time of year on Thursday night, like the last one or two Thursday night games, Jaguars always pop up and we always make fun of it because it's usually like a throwaway game and there's the color rush jerseys and just that whole thing. But this year, it's a competitive game. And I'm like genuinely excited to watch this game.

Yeah, I want to see Trevor Lawrence go against that defense that you were talking about earlier in the Jets and how well they're playing. And can, you know, kind of what, you know, something's got to give here. Either Lawrence has got to continue his high level of play or the Jets defense continues their dominance. Right. And like it will be interesting to watch because I think that while I know I was talking up, Jacksonville's wide receiving core just a little bit ago. I do think that they're worse than Detroit. And I think, like, I think I would say, it's probably close, but like, as far as ability

to separate, I think that, like, Amin Rae St. Brown's a little bit better than Christian Kirk. And I think DJ Charks a little bit better than Zay Jones. And I think that, you know, Josh Reynolds is a little bit better than Marvin Jones. and then Evan Ingram probably has a leg up. But still, it'll be interesting to watch and see how the, how Jacksonville receivers get open, how Doug Peterson schemes them to get open,

because it's not going to be, it's not going to be an easy matchup for them this week. Yeah, this should be a massive Christian Kirk game out of the slot if they want to win this game. Is, do we know if Quinn and Williams is back for this? game or not? He missed last week, right? Yeah.

Again, that was a bit, I mean, I think that that was a big miss for them last week. Honestly, bigger than like Mike White, the Mike White and Zach Wilson situation. I think that Quinn, them missing Quinn and Williams was a bigger deal than their quarterback. It looks like he's, uh, or at least yesterday, was trending in the right direction to play. Okay. Because if he plays, it changes the dynamic because I think that Jacksonville. is going to try and

try and run the ball and I think they're going to try and run the ball a little bit more like they had success with that against Dallas as well like it seems to be what kind of gets their right it seems to be what kind of gets their offense like jump started is a little bit is running the ball they couldn't do it against Detroit

and that's kind of what you know hampered them but I don't see them get ETN involved in the past game a little bit more he he's got that skill set and they really just don't do it Yeah. They don't, like, it gets very little in the passing game every week. Yeah, and I, it'll, um, Quinn and Williams being there, I think makes or breaks this game for the Jets.

I think if he's there, the interior, getting interior pressure with him and him being able to muck up the run game will impact this enough that I think that the Jets will win. Because I think the Jets, I don't think the Jaguars defense is that good. And I think that the Jets will run the ball a lot better this week than they did last week. Because that, I mean, that was another big thing is the Jets were completely one-dimensional last week. I think they had like 22 carries for like 30 yards or something. It was ridiculous. And so I think that like that'll be a big thing for them is getting Zach Wilson comfortable by setting up the run game so that, you know, they can continue running play action throughout the game and they don't lose that ability at some point. The Jets will be without star wide receivers, Denzel Mims, and Jeff Smith, though.

I don't know if that changes anything for you. I mean, does it help because Elijah Moore gets more snaps? I don't know. That's a good question. Who knows? I'm leaning on, I think the Jaguar is win this game. I think Trevor Lawrence is just playing incredibly well right now. Doug Peterson, when he is firing on all cylinders from a play calling side of things,

is one of the best play callers in the NFL. I think I'm just going to stick with the hot hand and say their offense can do enough against the Jets, and the Jets' offense just can't give you enough on the flip side to match the Jaguars. Yeah, I think I'm leaning the same way as well. I think that, like you said, Trevor Lawrence is a good quarterback who's just playing well.

And while I think their coverage will still be good, Trevor Lawrence is a court, you know, I think he's reaching the point where he can effectively win games with his arms and make it, and be a difference maker with his arm. And I think that he'll do, he'll do that against the Jets this week. I think he'll make a couple throws. I think it'll be a low-scoring game. Like, I think this will be a defense, like, I think it'll be another, like, 20 to 17 game like the Jets just had with Detroit. And I think that it'll just come down to Trevor Lawrence making a couple of plays on the Jets defense and putting balls in spots that the Jets can't get to at the end of it.

Yep. All right. We can move on to the next game we want to talk about. The Seattle Seahawks are traveling to Kansas City. Again, not a game that probably pretty much everyone would pick the Chiefs to win this game, but Seattle, like, really needs this one for their playoffs. hopes. And shout out to Gino Smith for making the Pro Bowl, which he totally deserved. Yeah, that's awesome for him to get recognized as that in year 10.

Yes, very cool thing. Yeah, the Chiefs probably win this game. Their offense should have zero issues with the Seahawks defense. Although another Seahawk that made the Pro Bowl Tariqa rookie cornerback Torequil and also playing very well. but the Chiefs offense ultimately probably just has too much for the Seahawks defense. But I do think the Seahawks offense could be okay. They're probably, I think they're definitely out without Tyler Lockett, which is not great. Kenneth Walker. Oh, that's right.

Yeah, Kenneth Walker is banged up. Yeah, and Kenneth Walker, it sounds like he's a little bit more banged up than. They're leading on, yeah. Yeah. So it's going to be tough for them to pull this out. D.K. McCaff is going to have to, you know, have 100 plus yards two touchdowns, something like that. And Kansas City just has a little bit of a stallout game.

Although this sets up as like a Kelsey 100-yard game touchdown because the Seahawks are just terrible against tight ends. Yeah. Yeah. And I think I, you're right. You touched on what I wanted this, what I thought I was going to say. But then thank you for reminding. me about Kenneth Walker and Tyler Lockett because this at full strength, I think that this game sets up, like Seattle sets up well to be Kansas City. Like there's only a few teams that are set up

well to be Kansas City. I think Seattle is one of them solely because they can, they could go blow for blow with like an offensive explosion game. But without Tyler Lockett and without Kenneth Walker, I just, if it were going to come down to a shootout, because this is like the, They are like bottom third, they both are bottom third defenses in the league. I think that without Tyler Locken, without Kenneth Walker and losing a little bit of that, like just those two guys that can create explosive plays, I think that Seattle just ends up running out of juice. And I think they're going to need, like, D.K. Matt Caff, like you said, he might go for over 200 yards. Like he might, and that might keep them in it.

And then they might start doubling D.K. Metcalfe. And then it'll all come down to, like, can Noah Fant have a breakout game this week? And that still might not be enough. Right. And then, yeah. And then also can your run game, may, like, be above average with Travis Homer and DJ Dallas leading the, like, you know, leading the charge for the backfield. And I don't, I just don't think that they can keep up. I think that their offense is missing the weapons they need and their defense is just trending in the wrong direction.

They've been giving up more points lately. And like they had a good stretch there for a minute, but they also were playing some pretty bad offenses. And it's kind of gone. They've kind of like leaned more into what the, into the defense that they were at the beginning of the year, where they were kind of like a bottom five to seven defense. Yeah. So if the Seahawks lose this game, they're, so let me start. Well, if they win this game somehow, their playoff odds jump to 67%. Uh-huh. Pretty likely. If they lose it, it falls from 30 down to 24. Okay.

That's obviously before factoring in if we gave wins to, like, let's say the Lions win. Right. the commanders pull off the upset against San Francisco, then they're all the way down to like 10%. So it gets... It gets real iffy for them really quick with a loss to this game. And again, this is another team like the jet, like different than the Jets,

but similar in the way that like, hey, I don't think that Seattle ends up making the playoffs, they have kind of like, I think that this game is kind of their might be the nail in their coffin. but still like what a good season for Seattle like you're supposed to be the worst team probably I mean you were supposed to be the worst team in the NFL this year and here they are contending for the playoffs in week in week 16 which is awesome and it's too bad because I like I said I legitimately think they would have a chance if they were at full strength if they've

had Tyler Lockett and Kenneth Walker at full strength I would give Seattle a chance and I think I would almost pick Seattle because of just like the urgency and those type of like those types of outside influences. But like I just don't think that they'll be able to keep up. And Mahomes has been playing at an otherworldly level. And I think he might I think he's going to pick apart this defense. I think you'll see a 400 plus yard day for Mahomes. Yep.

Yeah. Not would not surprise me at all. All right. We can move on to Cincinnati. traveling to New England. Again, a game where pretty much everyone would probably take the Bengals, but pretty big implications here if New England wants to stay alive. They pretty much need this win. Yeah, they're on the outside looking in right now. They, yeah, they had the eighth seed. And so they're sitting a game behind the dolphins and the Chargers who are at eight and six and the Patriots

are at 7 and 7. What do you think they could do to win this game? It's, what do I think they can do to win? It would totally be predicated on their defense playing up to the level that they can, forcing Joe Burrow to be uncomfortable in the pocket, getting quick pressure on him, forcing him to get the ball out really fast, and then those outside corners, you know, giving fits to, Jamar Chase and T. Higgins.

And then I think that their offense just, their offense is so hopeless. And I think the Bengals defense is good, but it would just have to be they need to get Ramandre Stevenson going. Just score enough points, score 17 points. And I think there's a chance, like there's a world where the Patriots defense is good enough that they can stop the Bengals.

Because they can get pressure in so. many different ways. And we know that's like if there's a way to beat Joe Burrow pressure is the way to beat him. I know he's been playing great under pressure these last couple weeks, but if the Patriots can manufacture pressure and if there's a team that can, and if there's a coach that can do it, I think Belichick is, you know, he's great at finding weaknesses. But I just, I think the Bengals win solely because I just don't trust the Patriots offense to put up 17 points against the Bengals defense. Yeah. So if they, if they, the Ravens, Dolphins, and Chargers all have very winnable games this week against Atlanta, Green Bay, and Indianapolis.

So if you, if they all win this week and the Patriots lose, their playoff chances fall to 3% or 2%. So you're pretty. Yeah. If they lose and those teams win, if they win, it keeps them alive at 24%. So still not. Do they match up against Miami at the end of the season? Yeah, they get Miami Buffalo after this. Okay, so, yeah, they're like, these next three games are the toughest, but also, like, you get to face the Bengals who are ahead of you in the wild car. They're winning the division.

So even if they, so if they lose this week and but then beat Miami next week, that only gives them a 5% chance. So like. Oh, okay. So they have to, they have to win out. They pretty much have to win this and win out for that matter. Yeah. But, I mean, like we said, Cincinnati's role. bowling, but I love the, I think the Patriots defense is really good.

And I think that the strength of the Patriots defense is getting pressure. The weakness of the Bengals offense is their offensive line. And it'll just, like, I just, yeah, it just comes down to I don't trust the Patriots offense and Mack Jones to move the ball well enough to put them in a position to score. This is going to be a cold weather game, too. the northeast is going to be is it a number of teams are going to be uh cold this this saturday and sunday yeah that's that's true we like we are seeing a lot of these super low i mean like the

cleveland cleveland new england buffalo at chicago yeah uh and i guess that's it the rest they're all in out of the northeast or in domes right yeah like Carolina Lions is getting down to 36 but other than that like yeah like you're seeing like wind chills and the negative negatives up and up here where like so maybe this maybe something happens like the New England Buffalo game last year where they threw the ball three times and you know the weather like is just like so cold that it nerfs the Bengals passing attack enough yeah maybe it like that and that would just be They would just need wind for that to happen, I think. Like, not even so much cold, but just they would need windy conditions. Well, the cold definitely does affect. Jalen Hertz came out and said, because in Chicago this past week, it was, it was like two degrees or something with the wind chill or something like that.

And he came out and said that, like, yeah, it was just, it was just tough to get the ball going, throwing wise in the first quarter or so. And then obviously it started clicking at the end. But yeah, if you get into single digits or below zero with the wind chill, that can and then throw in wins on top of it, that can definitely hurt a passing game. Yeah. So if there is a way that the Bengals could get forced into having to run the ball, which plays exactly into New England strengths, that's probably their best chance of pulling out an upset here.

Yeah. In New England, their past events, I mean, it's the risk of having two young corners, but it's turned in the wrong direction the last couple. Weeks 12 through 15, they've given up 67% completion percentage, eight touchdowns, 96 pass rating. Like they're starting to get chewed up a little bit. But again, this is all. I think that them winning this game is entirely predicated on time of possession

and getting pressure on Joe Burrow. If they can do that, they have a chance. Even then, I don't know if they have a chance because, like I said, I just, the Patriot, like, the frustrations as well as the lack of execution and, I mean, running, what, like, 10 screens in a game, just like these decisions and these concepts, ideas that Patricia is running out there, I sincerely hope they're making a change in the off season because, like, there's no way they can carry this in the next year. I mean, like, it's a shame because, like, for different reasons, like, the Jets and, like, New England is in a similar situation as, like, the Jets, where they have this great defense, and it's just marred by the inability of someone on the offensive side not being able to create any movement or, like, move the ball at all.

And it's too bad because, like, this, like, this New England defense is really good, and I think they could make a run. It's just that with this offense, they're a bad team, unfortunately. Yeah. So it's a long shot, but they're, you know, maybe weather can actually help New England again for the second year in a row. Yeah. Yeah. Also, how will they, how do you recover after last week?

Like, that'll be a fun narrative to follow of like, hey, how do you bounce back from the most embarrassing moment? up with like the band is on the field type stuff like yeah man but yeah anyway so Cincinnati New England I think Cincinnati wins I think you agree but New England needs it to hang on moving on to Washington at San Francisco 405 on Saturday another game that I think everybody kind of would agree they're leaning one way. I think most people are kind of agreeing that San Francisco is going to win, but I also think there's an opportunity here for Washington, who's a team that's like desperate on the line, needs to win down the stretch.

I still think that there's weaknesses on San Francisco's side that Washington can exploit to win this game. Yeah, we still really haven't seen Purdy under stress. And Washington's defense can do that. They've still got a, even without Chase Young playing, they've got a pretty good defensive line with Jonathan Allen and some of the other guys they have there. Yeah. So it really comes down to can they force Purdy into stressful situations? And then can he continue to play mistake-free football?

Right. I think you and I are in pretty agreement that there's going to be a time where Purdy just does stuff that doesn't make any sense and it's going to hurt the Niners. Yeah. I mean, I think he's playing very well and he's already, like, he's already crushed expectations. Yeah. But there's a reason he was drafted where he was drafted. And there's only bad QB play eventually, usually wins out. And no matter the weapons you have and whatnot, eventually reaches it.

limit. Yeah. So this is definitely, I think, a winnable game for Washington. Who also, we should know, potentially are starting Carson. I don't know if that's a good note or a bad note. We'll wait a C, but potentially starting Carson Wentz as well this week, which. I don't know if that's good. I mean, I'm pretty, I think it's good.

I do. I think it's, Heinecke has been, he's, he's like, one of the highest turnover worthy throw rates in the NFL. They've been getting wins because the team has played better, not because of him playing better than Wence. And I mean, and I think they know that. For all intents and purposes,

like Carson Wence was throwing the ball all over the yard before he went injured. Like I know that the team had their slipups, but they started their win streak with Carson Wenz. They had a slip up there losing, I think, two in a row at the beginning of the season to like the lines and then the Eagles and it looked a little bit ugly. But I think that the offensive line has started to shore up with, you know, throughout the season. I think it hasn't been a massive improvement, but Heineke's had a little bit more time to throw.

Now, that could be different because they are going up against San Fran this week. and you know same fran's defense is going to give Washington troubles they give everybody troubles at this point yeah yeah um yeah not only even with them losing last week it kind of puts them in a situation where their playoff hopes are not looking great so they they even just for not just this year but for next year need to find out what they have in wince

yeah they they if they don't know they should know that heinekey is not anything more than a backup QB to them. There's zero reason to continue playing him. They trade for Wence. Winsett's shown MVP level of play at one point in his career. And he's also shown probably backup QB level play. And we all agree that we're probably... It's probably not the MVP level of play.

Yeah. And you get a guy that you can win with play. Yeah. And you need to find that out before 2023. Yes. Because this is, I mean, this is a very talented roster. Yes. Another roster akin to.

Outside of, hey, maybe this guy can get us to the playoffs, they need to know for future years what Wens can do for them. Yeah. Tineke is not the long-term solution. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, this game, I think, is can. Washington's been the last five weeks. since week 11, Washington has been pretty much middle of the pack against the run.

And I think that they're going to have to stop the run and force Brock Purdy to beat them. I think that that's, I mean, San Francisco hasn't really happened yet since Purdy is taken over them, but they've been able to be like multiple on the offense and keep things moving. Even when like Purdy might hit a wall, they still keep it, they still keep the ball moving. Washington's going to have to stop the run and then convert turnovers. I think that like San Francisco last week, Purdy gave the other team a couple chances. They just didn't convert it.

And, you know, can Washington convert the turnover chances that can they, yeah, can they convert the turnover chances this week that other teams haven't been able to do against San Francisco? Side note. How does Christian McCaffrey not make the Pro Bowl? I don't even know. Like, that's a great question. The NFC had Miles Sanders, Tony Pollard, and... Yeah, I got it up here.

Miles Sanders, Tony Pollard, Sequin Barclay. Yeah. Like, what are we doing here? Which, like, the ego's office has been great. Miles Sanders has had a couple of games, but I think I'd put Bacchafri over Sanders. He's the best running back in the NFL, not just, like, Like, what are we doing here?

Yeah. Like, do we need, do we really need to, like, make a special position for him to get them in? I mean, come on, guys. Like, like you said, he's, I mean. He's part of the reason that the party is keeping this team alive. Exactly. Like, this is, I mean, this is what McCaffrey brings to a roster.

He's like, he's the buoy. He's the buoy of the, of the offense where, like, no most no matter what, he's going to, he's going to. keep you afloat in some way, shape, or form, and make it look, he's going to always make sure the offense doesn't look completely inept. It's always going to be like, well, you know, at least McCaffrey's popping off a couple runs over this week. Or he's, you know, he has a couple pop pass plays.

And like you said, he is a huge benefit to Purdy where, like I said, the combo of Kyle Shanahan's run game mixed with McCaffrey being the head of that, like, that's, I mean, it's a recipe for success and that's my only major qualm with the pro bowl stuff we don't have to tell but we know the pro bowl voting's kind of a little bit of a joke every year anyway but that was by far the most egregious thing I saw from the the rosters last year that one yeah that one yeah I thought that that was the biggest one I don't even really there were others but that was that one I was

just like yeah I'm in Ross St. Brown was the other one that I think yeah a lot of people agree. You can make that. But McCaffrey, you can make the argument, that and the defense is the reason this team is where it's at, even pre-Brock Purdy. Yes. Yes. Because, I mean, McCaffrey came in and they'd like, the defense flipped on its own.

Obviously, McCaffrey had nothing to do with that. But like, since McAfry's come in, they've looked like a dominant team and everybody's terrified of them, rightfully so. And they haven't missed a beat with Brock Purdy. And it's part. partly because Brock Purdy runs the offense well, but it's also because of how well the infrastructure of the team is, that they have the ability to just drop a QB in and keep, keep that wheel rolling. Yeah, we were all pretty against the trade at the time when it happened, and I still think that they're going to, they may regret this long term, what it does giving up what they gave for a running back. But there was zero doubt at the time and still today that he was going to be awesome in this office.

offense and give them a boost in a certain way. Yeah. It's just who knows if it's worth what they gave up. Yeah. And I ultimately this is a game that Washington ends up losing, I think. And especially, I think they especially lose if Carson Wentz plays because I think that San Francisco is good. Like one of their strengths is their ability to disguise coverages they have athletes,

Fred Warner clogs up the middle of the field. and I think that that's what Carson Wentz struggles against is when you kind of disguise looks, muck things up in the middle and just like make it chaotic. And that's what San Francisco does, especially when they get pressure on the quarterback. And I think that Carson Wentz, Taylor Heineke, doesn't matter who's in.

They're going to make a couple of mistakes. I just, I think that San Francisco ends up running away with this game. The more I think about it, like what I said to you before the show, like this game, when I initially looked at it, I was like, Washington looks super frisky. But the more I think about it, the more I just feel like the strengths of San Francisco on defense are perfectly matched to kind of eat up at Washington, especially because like it's going to be hard to get Brian Robinson going this week.

Yeah. Again, like, I mean, my San Francisco has definitively and consistently had the best run defense almost all year. They've like, you know, you can break it up into almost every stretch, every four game, three game, two game stretch. They pretty consistently give up around 3.4 yards per carry. Yeah. 3.4, 3.5 yards per carry. It's been consistent every game, every week all year. So I'm on, I think Washington. the last three games we've talked about. I think Washington has the best chance of pulling an upset, especially if Wenz plays actually. While yes, everything you said about him struggling when things

are chaotic and it is definitely true, I almost feel like the Niners offense is going to make plays regardless of the QB they're facing. Yeah. And Wence is going to make mistakes no matter the defense he's playing. Yeah. So give me the highs that he can bring. and I'll just take the lumps and mistakes and just hope there's not, you know, a pick six or something. And maybe he gets picked off, but it just isn't, you know, a massive play for the defense. That's fair. If you told me, you know, pick the team straight up, I would obviously still take the Niners. But I think Washington can, has a realistic chance of pulling off an upset here if they get the highs of wince out of him.

Yeah. And if, yeah, I think if they could. create if they can force purdy to turn the ball over i mean they're that's a big part of it too san francisco is seven and a half point favorites in this game so like they're supposed to win and supposed to win somewhat handily yeah i just you know washington's good at making i will say if there's one thing washington's good at it's making games close they've been very good at that almost the entirety of like ron rivares existence and that's what like ron rivares teams are always good at is that his players love to play for him you can't

Yeah, you just can't run away from their team. They're always just hanging around and they're always a touchdown away or some fluky play away. And sometimes they do make it happen. So it's just they're one of those teams that you never feel safe no matter the lead, no matter how far away because you can't get far away from them. Yeah. All right. Well, there was a lot of games, a couple other games that have, you know,

ended up not being as impactful as they could, like Philly, Dallas. Yeah. Basically means nothing. Yeah. And Jalen Hearst might not be playing, so we really don't get to see, like, what these two NFC juggernauts would look like.

Yep. Giants go to Minnesota. Maybe they can pull off an upset there, but probably not again. And with the Giants winning, they're in pretty good shape to make the playoffs, regardless of this game. Yeah, in Minnesota,

the real only implications are, they are, you know, playing for like they could potentially get beat out for the two seed by San Francisco. Yeah. So the only other game that really has implications for playoffs is Green Bay, Miami. Green Bay is traveling to Miami. Probably a good thing with this weather after we just saw the Rams travel to Green Bay in a classic cold weather green bay game.

Yep. Green Bay seems to be putting it together a little bit, but it's probably too late. So I, and this is coming from a person who is, I obviously try to look at things objectively, but unfortunately, fandom can creep its way in. And do we think that Green Bay is actually turning a corner or are they the same team they've always kind of been and like I mean like I want to ask you that as an unbiased person

what like what do you what are your impressions of what Green Bay is go like is and has been the last couple weeks and going forward as they try and make a push for the playoffs. There's still a bad not a great team or I don't even know if they're a good team but I don't think they're a bad team right between there they the where I think they have turned the corner is getting particularly getting the right receivers involved in their offense yeah christian

Watson basically is their wide receiver one now they're designing end zone shots for him and stuff like that home me of dubs came back last week and was seemed like alternating with randall cobb a bit um which you know at this point in his career i guess cobb can do certain things for you but i'd rather have dubs on the field and then Lazard is what Lazard is, and that's fine. He can be what he, you know, a wide receiver two thing. Yeah. They, AJ Dylan also is playing better.

Didn't he get, didn't he get dinged up last week? He did. I think he was supposed to clear protocol, though. But I know he got a concussion in last week's game. Yeah. Even if he doesn't play, I'm just in general, he's still playing better. Yes, right, right. Or in Aaron Jones still.

So if he's out, that might even be better. Right. And the defense is, you know, not great but not terrible. So where I think they're turning the leaf is really just mostly on offense and particularly with how they're utilizing receivers. We're not getting Sammy Watkins running a large percentage of routes anymore. Yeah. I mean, over the last six weeks, Aaron Rogers has like a 65% completion percentage, nine touchdowns, three interceptions, like a hundred. pass a rating. So that has improved.

Yeah. He did have it. Like the last, that stretch also, I mean, it did happen from like weeks to 10 and 11. He went like five touchdowns, no interceptions. The last couple weeks, he's like four for four and three. But still has looked better overall. Like the passing numbers, yardages are starting to increase a little bit. Yeah. And I think this is a game where they could give Miami trouble with their passing attack. Because Miami's defense has not been great. And I mean, Chris,

I don't, the Rams seem to be doing this particularly early in the game and then seemed to back off a little bit, but they were pretty much shadowing Christian Watson with Jalen Ramsey for, it ended up being like 40% of his snaps. But earlier on, it seemed like it was going to be more. And like, I don't know if the dolphins will do that with Xavier and Howard. I don't think it matters. because I think Howard's not that great anyway.

Yeah. And Watson can run away from probably every corner in the NFL. And I think that Green Bay's game plan with Randall Cobb getting involved a lot more last week. Like, they threw him the ball a decent amount. I think that that was more of a game plan thing than like a signal going forward. The Rams play cover three a ton. Like at the highest rate, I tweeted this out last week, but Randall Cobb averaged like 4.6 yards per route run against cover three.

So I think that he, you know, he's a veteran. He's a slot receiver. He's savvy in the middle. I think that they specifically were looking to target him because of his ability to get open against cover three. And I think that like that, like I don't think we'll see that as much this week as we did last week. Yeah. I could be wrong. I could be totally wrong and they want to get Randall Cobb involved more, but I think that. No, I think you're right. I think they want to get dubs back in the lineup more.

Yeah. And they're not pulling Watson and Lazard off the field, although I can make the argument that maybe Lazzard should be the one coming off the field. Yeah. That's a. I don't know who they want running their slot, really. I mean, it should be just the rotating cast because I think they all can do different things in the, the slot. But I think this game turns into a shootout. I don't know, Green Bay's defense hasn't been, it's been okay. It hasn't been great. Like their defense, their past defense has been it.

You can pick them apart at times. Their man coverage hasn't been great. They've turned a little bit of the corner as far as zone coverage. Like the last six weeks, they've given up a 78, 78.6 pass rating, 7.5 yards per temp. they've converted five interceptions out of that and given up three touchdowns. But still, their defense has left us wanting all year. Like this is supposed to be an elite coverage unit, a great defense.

And the linebackers have looked a little bit lost. The secondary has looked lost. They're not getting the pressure that we all thought they were going to get at times. And that's kind of how they ended up here. That's how they've ended up here where they're six and eight fighting for their playoff lives. and, you know, stuck having to win out. Yeah. Miami is a high cover rate, cover three rate team as well.

Are they? Okay. So you could, I mean, you might actually see a lot more, you know, again, more Randall Cobb targets out of the slot, middle of the field stuff. Because I think that's, that's a lot of what they did last week was they were getting, they were targeting Randall Cobb on some crossers, some quick hitters in cover three. And I, and that's where he excels is just five. finding those little holes in cover three,

settling down and having Rogers hit him as a safety blanketer at first read. Yep. And so I think you may see that more, but I think Miami's defense is better at, like, flowing to the ball like that than L.A's is. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So then on the flip side, I feel like we say this, like, every week. Miami's offense can do pretty much anything to anyone if it's hitting on all its cylinders. Like we said, it's so reliant on them hitting that, connecting on that deep ball. It just opens up everything else on their offense. Right. It's just a matter of, are they hitting it or are they not this game?

And, hey, this is, I mean, in the sense of who they get to match up it with, this is a relief compared to the previous three weeks. Yeah. Having to go against San Francisco an improving Chargers deal. defense and then Buffalo's defense coming out the other side and getting to play Green Bay, who's given up more big plays is a little bit more susceptible to, you know, giving up throws. I think that Miami could, I think Miami could open up, open it up a little bit against

Green Bay. The opportunity is there. It's also a, like, if there's a game for them to get their rushing game going. this would be it. Right. Yeah, building off the success of last week, that's a great point because that seemed to help their offense move in times when that past game got stagnant for whatever reason.

Yeah, Green Bay is giving up five yards per carry. They are giving up 1.4 yards before contact, which is average, but it seems to be a tackling issue. Which it is. I mean, Quay Walker has missed a lot of tackles. They're worst in the league, 3.2 yards after contact per attempt. So, and most are shown flashes of him being able to take contact and then run away from guys in the past. I don't know if Jeff Wilson is going to be back or not yet this game.

But so, I mean, yeah, if there was a game for them to get the running game going a bit, hit a couple deep balls, this defense should give them very little trouble for what they want to do. Yes. And it'll be interesting to see if Miami reintroduces RPO's into their scheme a little bit this week. Last week they didn't run pretty much any RPO actually. whereas like throughout the year they had been running RPO action on about 10% of plays.

Yep. So it'll be interesting to see if they go back to that this week, like after not doing it all last week. Because I think that I don't know if Mike McDaniel thought that that was slowing to his processing down or were what. But I think that they're potentially less concerned with Green Bay's ability to, you know, create chaos. at that conflict point, at that like conflict point, that like San Fran was able to, the charges were able to. And then, you know, obviously they completely went away from it last week and because I think they thought that Buffalo could do a similar thing against them. Yep. Yeah. Green Bay is in the better half of the league and giving up yards given up per game on deep passes. But it's not, it's not, they're definitely not anything near the top either. So their issue, I mean, it's shown up on.

film it's been a lot like teams have run crossers against them like that's been the way to beat them this year is just run crossers and wait until someone missed him wait till a miscommunication happens and then hit hit the guy across the middle yeah and that's been that's it's been that way since like week one yeah so yeah i i i think miami wins this game but i think it's higher scoring and like i see this i could see christian watson having a hundred hundred yards and a touchdown but miami's just you know just outscores them in the end yeah i think i'm gonna pick i think green bay wins i think green bay wins because aaron rogers channels like he hasn't shown it really this year but i don't know i maybe it's just nervousness maybe i'm

also trying to put a jinx on them, who knows. But I think Green Bay wins, I think that they find a way. I think their offense moves enough, and I think Aaron Rogers makes a play to win the game. I agree with you. I think it's going to be a high-scoring game. But, yeah, I just think that potentially Green Bay's defense finds an opportunity with the Tua having been a little bit errant the last couple weeks.

If he continues that, Green Bay is good at, you know, creating those, you know, tip interceptions, things like that. Like their secondary is very ball hockey at times. They could take advantage of Tua. And I think that they get Tua at least once and end up winning the game. And, yeah, Green Bay ends up winning as much as I hate to say it. So, yeah, enjoy this. 1 p.m. Eastern, get Christmas Day game with your, with your, because and then you can tell your

family, you're not going to watch anymore from yes. Broncos, Rams, and Bucks Cardinals is the night game. Oh, it's just make it look like you're given your, you know, hey, I'll, I don't need to watch football today. I can, I'll spend the whole right, right. I just want to watch one game. That's it. Be present in the morning for presents and, you know, no pun intended, for the presence and the, in the breakfast or brunch or whatever and then slip off while kids and siblings or whoever are playing with newfound toys to get your three hours while they're all occupied with the new things watch this game and then yeah create the opportunity where you're like you know what

there are more games today i just i you know what i really want to spend time with the family i don't want to watch these games and you know play it off like they're important and you know when i call win a couple extra points with your partner or whoever it is in your life that you have to contend with. Or I should say who football has to contend with and just be like, these are really important games. The bucks are in a playoff race. Right. And you really need to win it. I really feel like I should spend time.

It's Christmas. I want to spend time with the family. That's the move. That's the move. That's the move. Nobody needs to know that Denver and Los Angeles are playing. game for the number three pick. Yes.

And no one actually can. And none of them actually Right. Neither team actually contains that pick. So like last questions, before we log off, is Denver Los Angeles the most boring? Is Denver versus Los Angeles the most boring

late season game for an actual fan base ever? Probably. Like what if you're a Denver fan or if you're a Los Angeles fan? If you can, like, DM me or Chris or Brett, and if you can explain to me a reason why you would be interested in this game, because I'd love to hear it. The only thing I can think of is, like, maybe the Rams are like, oh, I want to see if Baker can play well again. Matthew Stafford's not retiring. So, like, who cares? Because I was thinking the same thing.

I'm like, no, he just came out and said he's not retiring. So that's done with. I don't know. I got nothing. Sorry, Denver and Lasse and Rams fans. That's just a tough break, tough season. But we are good. Like I said, we won't be back tomorrow. Everybody, enjoy your holidays, enjoy Christmas.

Spend time with the family. Enjoy the good football that's to come this week as well as in the coming weeks as we lead up into the playoffs. Merry Christmas from all of us at fantasy points. I know we are also doing a promotion on our website for our. all of our football packages and end of, an end of season sale, I would go and check it out. We have so many good writers,

so much good content, so much good content coming in the off season, and next season we're only growing. I highly recommend getting in while you can get it for the low price that it's at right now. And with that, like I said, Chris, thank you again for filling in for Brett again.

And we are out. Thanks for tuning in to this edition of the Fantasy Points podcast. Remember to subscribe, rate, and review on your favorite platform. And come join the roster at FantasyPoint.com.