Fantasy Football Daily - 2022 Take Talk Episode 25

Episode Date: November 30, 2022

Brett Whitefield (@BGWhitefield) and Steven ORourke (@callmesteveo7) revisited the action from Week 12 and dove into some playoff picture discussions. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fantasy-points-podcast/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's time to the Fantasy Points podcast brought to you by FantasyPoint.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 Take Talk podcast. As always, I'm Stephen O'Rourke and I'm here with my co-host, Brett Whitefield. Brett, what a weekend of football. What a Thanksgiving weekend. And I think we were treated to some fun games, some interesting games.

I've never seen a team pull their starters midway through the third quarter. That was like one of, honestly, out of everything that happened this weekend in the NFL, I think that is like the most jaw-dropping, in my personal opinion. Yeah, and they almost had to put them back in. It was, it was. Crazy. Like, I mean, all of a sudden I saw, all of a sudden I saw Skyler Thompson coming in as I'm watching the game. And I'm like, what is going on?

Yeah. Which, which leads me to ask just to lead off, is Houston the most boring bad team ever? Dude, I. Recrecy bias, but like, yikes. No, they're unwatchable. Like, not. At least when they were bad with Watson, Watson would, you know, they'd be down 30 points and Watson would score 20 in the fourth quarter to make it interesting. You know?

Right. But just like this, it's just, it's just a slog. Like there's nobody that jumps off the screen. Like, unless you're a big, you know, draft junkie, rookie junkie, or you just love defense, then I can understand where, like, maybe you really dive in and, like, enjoy watching Petra and maybe Stingley too. But other than that, like, goodness. It is worth, it is worth noting, too, Steve.

I do think Tua did get hurt in this. game. Oh, really? Like, minorly, it was just a scare. He took some wild hits in this game, actually. He got beat up a little bit. Yeah, he did. And I'm like, you got like a 30 point lead in the game. Your quarterback's getting beat to heck. I get why they pulled them out. It's probably just precautionary. Like, yeah, shoot, we got to.

Because Terran Armstead left the game, too. He didn't, you know, he's, he's hurt. So, Taryn Armset is like single-handedly changed the math for two of this year. Oh, 100%. And I really am nervous if he's going to miss. I don't know if he's going to miss time. I'm as, you know, I'm not on Twitter. So I have no idea what the status update on Armstead is. But if he's missing time, that's scary.

But yeah, I just think ultimately, too, it just took some really awkward shots in this game. And he is kind of fragile in a lot of ways. And I think they're probably just like, let's get him out of here. You know, let's live to fight another day. And when he was in the game, it was another one of these games where they were averaging like eight yards of play. Oh, I mean, it was walking up and down the field. Like, it was none.

Yeah. They've done this several times this year where they have these games or like literally every play works. It doesn't, it doesn't matter what the play call is. It just works. And it's like, it's funny. You're not on Twitter, so you probably haven't seen it as much. I don't know.

You know, maybe people are sending it to you. But like a lot of what's coming out on Twitter is through TikTok videos. I think the dolphins are putting them up and things like that is just more like behind the scenes on the sideline stuff of Mike McDaniel. Oh, nice. And boy, is he awesome.

Yeah. Like, so personable. Like, he, we, I think a lot of people get the impression that, you know,

coaches are very, you know, rigid, uh, you know, rigid, robotic, like,

don't stray outside of the norm. Yeah. But, like, being able to see that, like, you see it with Dan Campbell, but that's,

he's his own person, but like Mike McDaniel, he jokes around with Tua. He just seems like like the cold, like people talk about culture so much. Yeah. I think he had, he walked in there and instilled not only a offensive game plan that has, you know, basically torn apart the league when two is healthy. He also has like come in and completely shifted the culture where it seems like these, these guys just enjoy playing football for him, which is awesome to see. It speaks to their success.

Right. Right. Well, similar to the Lions and Dan Campbell, they went from a New England guy in Flores, who is as much of a ballbuster as Matt Patricia. Right. And they're going to Mike McDaniel, who's this fun-loving, energetic. I think Dan Campbell has a lot of the same qualities, actually. Dan Campbell's just 180 pounds heavier. It looks like he could win an M.MA fight. He's two octaves deeper, too. Yeah, two octaves deeper. McDaniel, they have a lot of similar qualities, actually. And McDaniels just, I think the players love him.

And it's probably really easy to align yourself to a guy's vision when you were just playing for a tyrant, you know? Right. And I don't think, you know, I don't think Florida is a bad coach by any means. I just think a lot of these New England guys, they have this, they think they're Bill Belichick and they're just not. You know, they haven't won seven Super Bowls or whatever to prove it. So I do think Flores is a great coach, though. And, you know, but point being, it's like, it's probably really easy to go from. a guy with Flores's demeanor to a guy with McDaniel's demeanor.

Right. Because McDaniel is for sure a player, a player coach, and I can see that. Yeah, Steve, I do got to say, though, you kind of buried the lead once again. You tend, this is a, this is a habit of you now. When I do this? What did I bury this time? What was the most important thing that happened this week? Was it football or was it the food you got to eat on things?

Day. I already forgot about that. Well, then you did not have a good Thanksgiving. No, it was a great Thanksgiving. I didn't, I sat at home. That's right. That's right. I didn't have, like, it was just me and my wife.

So I was able to be as obnoxious as possible watching the lions with like no, no holding back. I was able to just like fully unleash fandom. to another level, which like it felt good, really, really felt good for my soul, despite the loss. And it was a great, like, obviously a very good game. But it's just like it felt so good. I mean, our food was good. We just did a bunch of appetizers.

Like, we didn't do anything normal. I thought the idea that you were presenting on last week's show was a good idea. And I wanted to live vicariously through you a little bit. So tell me, what did you eat? What were these appetizers? And did they slap? That's all I got to know. They were good.

We did like three pounds of hot honey garlic wings made in the air fryer, which were phenomenal. Airfire wings are massive w. We've owned an air friar for about a year now. It was the first time we've done that. Are you serious? Yeah. Just like sometimes wings, well, for one, wings were expensive for a while. They were expensive.

Now they've come down a little bit. So it was like reasonable for us to go back to the, go back to that well and like so good. Yeah. And then my wife made this like, it was like a cheesy corn jalapeno dip. Oh, yes. And we had a bunch of like different, we had like pita chips, tortilla chips, pretzel crisps. Oh, non bread. Like just a bunch of stuff to just.

Oh, nonbread. I like the non touch. And just to kind of just and we just picked away at that. And then, gosh, what else did we do? We picked the way at that. I would have been there with a shovel, just shoveling that into my mouth. I did, like, later in the day, I did. I, like, started off slow, and then later in the day, I, like, 8 o'clock rolled around.

I just started, like, hand shoveling it into my mouth. Yes. And then, what did we do next? Then we moved, and we did, we had these little bacon-wrapped, like, sausages, which were, you know. It's a no-brainer. It's so good. And then we went back to childhood and we cooked up some pizza rolls. Heck yeah, bro.

Did you do air-friar pizza rolls or no? Oh, absolutely. Yeah, those pizza rolls are underrated. Of all the really unhealthy, super terrible for you snacks from my childhood, that is the one that I'm always down for. Yeah. Because I pretty much don't eat crap. But if I'm going to eat crap like that, I'm going pizza rolls every time.

Yeah, because we were at this, we were at Meyer. which for everybody who's non-Michigan base is basically like an upper tier Walmart or it's like a stop and shop or a star market or like something like that. It's like between Walmart and Target. Right. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It's more food oriented, but it still has all the clothing. Supermarket stuff.

Yeah, exactly. But yeah, we were going in there and we had said like what if we got a pizza, like a pizza for dinner. And my wife walked to the, we walked to the pizza section. He goes, what if we did pizza rolls? And I'm like, grab them, let's go. I'm sold. Do you know the secret ingredient to pizza rolls to making them absolutely fire? I don't.

Salt and pepper. What? I know, right? Try it, bro. I had to stop there for a second because I thought you were setting up a joke. I'm like, I'm going to look stupid because this is going to be like, what? So now you're going to whip out like a salt and pepper, like the artist joke. No, salt and pepper, bro.

Seriously, just while they're frozen, you throw them in your airfire. And then I have fresh, you know, fresh ground salt and fresh ground pepper. Just crack, crack. Boom, boom. And it actually takes it to another level, believe it or not. Well, I think we still have some stored away in the freezer. So I might have to try that out this afternoon. Heck yeah.

Well, that's nice. my Thanksgiving was awesome other than the obscenely terrible turkey we had because it's turkey and turkey's mid. Listen, it was perfectly cooked. So stepmom, Debbie, if you're listening, you know, I loved the turkey. You're so good. You did cook it phenomenally. And it's not your fault that turkey decided to be the most mid meat possible. There isn't a meat worse as far as it's blandness and its ability to be mid than turkey.

Yeah. I'd rather eat chicken. I'd rather eat duck. Oh, duck is so good. Duck is so good. Duck is certainly not mid. But anyways, so we had turkey, but we had a little bit of prime rib.

Nice. So that was nice. Some horseradice sauce, little homemade augeu zip type thing. I love, I love horse radish. Oh, yeah, me too, bro. But the sides were, they all slapped. Every one of them was amazing. Someone did this, like, cauliflower, cheesy cauliflower dish.

And it's cauliflower, right? So you would think it's just going to be bland as heck. Right. No, the cheese, like, it was like a cream cheese base with like a, I don't know, some type of cheddar, but it got like crusty. It was really good. Like, oh, man, it was phenomenal. Oh, and bacon.

It was just bacon all over the place in it. Of course. So that made it awesome. Of course. But then we had, you know, sweet potato casserole with the whole nine yards, the brown sugar, the marshmallow. We had, you. you know, regular mashed potatoes, which are simple as can be, but they're also awesome.

Yeah. We had deviled eggs, which is a personal favorite of mine. I love deviled eggs. Yeah. Actually, my wife made those. Did you have, did you, does your wife sprinkle paprika and then like little crumbled bacon bits on top? Oh, we don't do the bacon bits, but we do like either a jalapeno ring or a spicy pickle.

Oh, okay. That's a twist I haven't heard of before. Yeah, that makes it ridiculous. us. So she does paprika and a little bit of cayenne. Because we like the spicy in my house. So do you. Yeah. That was fire. Everything was awesome, though.

Even the turkey. That was turkey. But yeah. Anyways. You can't expect turkey to be more than what it is. It is what it is. If you go in with higher expectations, you're going to be disappointed. Every time.

Every time. I don't care if it's deep fried. I don't care if a world-class chef. made it. It's just going to be... It's turkey. It's turkey. There's not much you can do with it. There's a reason people pour gravy and all that on it. Yes. There's a reason you don't eat it just

by itself, usually. Right. Well, it's funny you mentioned about your ability to be unhinged, Lions fan. Because when I watch football with my family, because of what I do for a living, they expect me to be like the stoic leader of the family.

And they like, they like ask me all these in-depth analytical questions that I have to answer. Like, hey, what coverage was that, Brett? Hey, what was that run concept, Brett? And, like, I can't react emotionally to a game ever because I just have to be calm, cool, and collected at all times. Right. So, like, the first half of that game, it was just my dad and I that were there.

And, like, my kids and my wife. And so, like, you know, I was more my normal self. But then as people started to pile in, I kind of had to tone it down a bit and be the, you know, be the stoic man that, uh, I got to keep everyone calm, even though I tried telling them that when we can review that game, actually. That was a great game. I tried telling them that when the Lions, I'm sorry, when the bills missed that extra point,

I told everyone in my family that that moment cost the Lions of Football Game. Dude, you said that to me and Chris. And I have totally ripped you off to every person I've talked to about that game. because it's so true it is 100% true because it's like not really to any fault of the lions like kind of i mean it is but like it is but at the same time i don't know like a lot of people would kind of play that way yeah for those of you who don't understand why we're talking about it this way so the bills in that game scored a touchdown late to take the lead in that game the had been winning most of the second half, if not all of it.

No, they were down at halftime, came back, took a lead. Blah, blah, blah. Anyways, the bills then missed the extra point to keep it a three point game. Right. And for those who aren't aware, there's a million studies done, but when you only have a three point deficit, what happens subconsciously to you as a coach or your play calling is you then are okay, you realize all we need is three.

And so you start making decisions based on the fact that all you need is three. And it fails so much. The studies on this are actually nuts. But when a team is down by four or more and they have to get seven, they win those games far more than they do when they're only down by three. It's a really weird dichotomy. But it has to do with that subconscious element of we're okay with settling for three. And that's exactly what happened to the Lions.

It's having that safety net underneath you. Knowing that it's there and you're like, okay, no matter what we do, it's there. It'll catch us. We can get there. Yeah, exactly. We can get three. And then once you're in field goal range, you really, you really go the conservative route. And they end up kicking three.

The Lions kick three to tie the game up. Was it 25, 25 at that point? Yep. Yes. Bill's get the ball back with what, 20? 23 seconds left, which is more than enough time for Josh Allen and his last. laser rocket arm. Let me ask you, because I, the minute, the minute that field goal went through,

I had kind of resigned myself to like, I think the lines are going to lose. It just felt, it just felt so inevitable. 100%. It felt inevitable because Josh Allen made a throw that like two guys could make. And it's him and Mahomes. Him and Mahomes. And it may be Herbert too. Like, purely because.

not because of the distance, but purely because of the velocity of the throw. That's what beat the, the velocity beat the coverage. Only reason that got completed. Diggs was well covered. I know, you know, I've listened to some Lions local radio talk and fans were upset about the lion's secondary breaking down. There was not a breakdown on the secondary there. That was a otherworldly throw that basically uncovered Diggs.

I think, I think they next gen stats clocked the throw or around. like 57 miles an hour. And it had to get up pretty high, too, because of how far down the field it was. Yeah. That's insane. I know Kirby Joseph said something like the effect of the ball teleported. He was right there. They were all in perfect position.

He's a millisecond away. Milles second away. Like his hand is in front. That ball is like just past his hand as his hand is in front. But this is why you can't do it. And going back to the Lions third and one play on the previous drive, they throw the deep ball to chart. I liked the call at the time.

I liked the default aggressiveness there. That's Campbell's identity, right? He's default aggressive. When I'm pushed in a high pressure situation, I will be aggressive, and that's how we'll win football games. So I love the call. What I didn't love was that they made the call not being willing to go for it on fourth down. Right.

I agree. Because anybody that was, So anybody that has been upset with that call or questions that call, either A, it's just being reactionary, which I get, that's fine. Or B, hasn't watched a single Lions game this year, which also, I don't really fault you if you're not a Lions fan. That's fair. But he's been doing this all year. All year. He's done this like four or five different times in like this exact same scenario because they've had this exact same scenario.

like seven or eight times. Right. And he's done it. He's done like almost that exact like that play call or something to that effect where you have a, you have a front side go route and it's just man on man, go win the route, golf put the ball where it needs to be. It's not a, like I was not surprised by the call at all. I totally did not like, I was like, yes, this is this is exactly what we should be doing.

But like you said, when it came to. the fourth and one and they trotted out the field goal team which you've completely like at that point I don't have official stats on this but in third and one fourth and one scenarios that day they were doing very well they they had not they they were perfect to that point they were three for three on fourth down fourth down and then in third I think they were two for two on third and ones yeah so like that's the part where it's like yeah it's hard to reconcile I mean like I mean like It is. It's hard to reconcile with.

And I, that is an unenviable position. Let me emphasize that, like, I, we all say that, like, if we were put in that position, I would have gone for it. But, like, man, that's a hard call to make, no matter who you are. It's the thing. You look at that third and one play. The bills lined up with seven guys on the line of scrimmage. Yep.

They were, they were two safeties. So the lines were in a three by one bunch left formation. Yep. The two safeties were cheating the bunch side so far that they knew no matter what the coverage call was, it was going to be ISO with Chark in the corner. And good teams go for the jugular. When you have a chance to put a team away and end a game, you go for it. A team like the bills away. Yeah.

Again, it's, right. Can't emphasize like how much that's necessary to do that. Right. Exactly. And, you know, Chark gets one-on-one. You expect him to win that route. You expect golf to make a better. By the way, Chark kind of did win the route.

So there's just a poor throw. That's what I actually, a question I wanted to ask you because I've watched that throw probably eight or nine times at this point. Who do you think made a mistake? Because somewhat, that was just a miscommunication, in my opinion. Like, who do you think is in the wrong there? Oh, golf was for sure. Okay, was he?

Yeah. I had read that as they had planned that that week. as a back shoulder throw. No, the rule of thumb, Steve, is if you're even, you're leaving. Yeah, oh, yeah, I know that one. Chark had two steps on him by the time golf threw it. By throwing that back shoulder, if the corner was decently aware, he picks that off. Yeah.

Because he was trailing. He was in a, he was in phase, but he was trailing by a good amount. Like, there's no reason to throw that back shoulder. Even if they practiced it that way, Chark won the route so definitively, or sorry, definitively. not diminutively. He won it so definitively that you have to lead him there. Yeah. No, golf, was he under pressure?

I don't. Yes, he had a free blitz coming from the A-gap. Free blitz coming from the A-gap. He had to get rid of the ball. Yeah. It's possible he just didn't even mean to throw a back shoulder. He just had to cut it loose and under threw it. That's fair.

The other thing, though, is like, I just don't you know so you fail that I don't know how you don't come out the next play and go for the first down especially with the kicking was the lines have had this year right so you know Badgeley did make it

but it was a 50 yarder from in a high pressure situation with a kicker they have not really had to use a whole lot no so they don't really know and I just I know this I will always side with the coach who decided he wants to win via aggressiveness.

Yeah. Now there's plenty of times aggressiveness can be wielded poorly, but this was not one of those times. The mistake Campbell made was kicking the field goal on the fourth down. That's, I truly believe that. And again,

it was the safety net of knowing you could. Yep, the safety net of knowing you could. As soon as I saw that deep ball, though, I told my dad, I was like, oh, they're going for it. He's like, how do you know? I was like, they wouldn't have thrown deep on third and one.

If they weren't going for it And then they tried out the field unit, I was wrong. Wrong! So anyways, long story short, the Lions fall to the Buffalo Bills by three points. Still an impressive game from the Lions. They're still trending up for sure.

Absolutely. Bills, you know, they did catch a hotline scene, but they still seem to be on the struggle bus a little bit. And the thing is, is like, their struggle bus is, you know, winning by three against an improving Lions team, losing on a fluke play to the Vikings. I forget the score of the Jets game, but I think they lost a little bit more handily to the Jets. Yeah, I don't quite remember that one.

But either way, like, that's why the bills, in my opinion, are still up there for, like, Super Bowl favorites, because those are all their bad games. Yes. And Tradavius White is getting back into it. Like, and Josh Allen, whatever his situation is, he seems to manage it well. And he seems to pick his spots. And he's good at that. He's good at picking his spots to go for the jugular and make a throw that only he can make.

Or only he and a couple other guys can make. I'll say this too. We were really concerned about the UCL and the elbow. And I, I'm not a doctor. So I have no idea if this is accurate. I actually want to ask Edwin, our injury specialist at fantasy points. But it seems to me, especially after him making that last throw, the UCL isn't affecting his velocity and overall arm strength at all.

It seems to be more affecting his throw-for-throw mechanics. Right. Where he's kind of spraying the ball a little bit more than we're used to seeing the last couple years. Right. I wonder if that's true or if I'm just imagining that. but either way it seems like he's his velocity is not being affected at all yeah um in i mean case and point that last throw he made was ridiculous um and then he's just you know he's kind of back to making some of those weird inaccurate throws just yeah it's the offense has just gotten out

of rhythm at times because of untimely you know misses basically but yeah um well let's move on let's move on to the rest of the slate or some of these other games want to highlight i did want to bring up one thing though, Steve. This week was insane. We kind of crapped on this week as like a bad slate, but there were 11-1-score games out of 16. There were two overtime games and two games that featured a game-ending two-point conversion essentially to avoid overtime. Which go analytics. Let's go. Yes, let's go. But that would have been four overtime games otherwise. Thank God. God bless the Jack. I know. God bless them.

The charges and the Jags. You are the fantasy points, data, and research stamp of approval there. Yep, big time. And then we also saw game winning field goal maybe more than once. I don't know, but it was a very, every game seemingly came down to the wire. Pretty cool from that standpoint. Even though some of these games weren't, you know, the most enjoyable, well, we perceived them to not be enjoyable to watch.

It ended up being very enjoyable to watch. Right. Even like the Washington Atlanta game was a battle the whole game. Now, probably the worst played QB game all year. Well, no. I mean, and then I watched Kyle Allen play. But Mario de Verz Heineke was like, man, that was. You can't put like, in my opinion, Kyle Allen,

you can't put him on the same necessary, like, level as them. Because like, I don't know, he's Kyle Allen. He was backing up Davis Mills for the entire, for the, for the, Yeah, true. ...entire season, and, like, they bench Davis Mills. It's not like we're expecting him to come out and be a world beater. He performed about as good as I expected. This is true.

He was all over in place. He was... Which, you know, still stuns me that, like, that is a playoff relevant game. Like, if I told you at the beginning of the year that in week 12, Marcus Mariotta and Taylor Heineke, would be playing for an important game for the playoff picture. You would laugh me out of the building. It wasn't just important.

It was probably the most important game so far of this season. Yeah. Because if Atlanta wins that game, they are in the playoffs as of today. If Washington loses that game, they're out of the playoffs. So, like, crazy, crazy, crazy. that game has so much relevance. Let's, I mean, let's talk about it. Let's dive into it since it was.

It was a very good game. Yeah. It was a very like relevant game for the rest of the season. Yeah. I just, it just, I still can't believe that it happened. But Washington, here they are, winning six of their last seven. Yeah. And they're right in the thick of it.

I mean, the NFCE. continues to surprise. They continue to kind of roll forward. Yeah, it's, it's so wild to me. I mean, I think one of those NFC East teams is going to have to fall off. They have to play each other. Yeah. I believe Washington and the Giants play twice. Yep. Down the stretch, that could easily knock one of the, that alone could knock one of those two teams out. Yeah, if one of them picks up both wins. Exactly. You know, if they pull off a sweep. But with Washington, what I've been impressed by is that that defensive line is finally reaching, like, its form that we've been talking about for like three years.

Yeah. Like we've been talking about the Washington defensive line about how scary, how impressive, how dominant they can be for like three years, and you're seeing it now. It's happening. It's being put together. And it's fun to watch because those guys in the middle, Jonathan, Allen. Like, those guys are beating people up. Yes, John Allen, uh, pain, Duran pain, Montez sweat.

They're about to get Chase Young back. Like that, that D-line is ferocious. And they've definitely been single-handedly controlling games. Although they were getting run, ran on a good bit in this game. I was actually surprised. Well, they were doing, they like did some weird, uh, defensive formation. against like heavy looks. Like, like there was a play that, um, I saw,

I saw and then Nate Tice actually put up the, uh, all 22 and from like the end zone view. And they had like a six man box against a, against a one by three formation. Yep. And then shocker to no one. Atlanta runs right up the middle for like 10 yards.

And they were just, they were kind of doing stuff like that all day where it's like, guys, you know Atlanta's going to run the ball. There were 50 pass plays in that game, total, between the two. Very easily the lowest pass count game for this week. And like one of the lower pass count games for the entire season. So like, it's just an interesting decision to go up against Atlanta and show some of those light boxes against a team that wants to, you know kind of get you in a

it wants to get into one by two one by three like heavier formations and run the ball yeah it was strange it seems like they just kind of put six in the box no matter what right like there was even an empty I feel like there's a couple empty plays where they didn't even address the falcons motion that didn't make sense to me either it's like it's the opposite of the run game issue but it's like why

why are we not addressing the motion here it's like guys what are we doing yeah overall though this game was poor poor qb play and it's like it's just like a run fast like Brian robinson kind of had a breakout game yeah hit over a hundred yards and he had a touchdown in the past game and then the falcons were just sufficiently running the ball well as also kind of a good it actually reminded me of the falcons 49ers game from a few weeks ago

I know that game had more points in it but it's like very similar feel in that game yeah yeah And Brian Robinson, to his credit, looks to be improving every week. He looked a little bit more agile. He looked a little bit more, had a little bit more of a pop to his running, which is exciting for Washington because they're a team that can definitely, like getting into the playoffs, they can cause an issue for other teams. Oh, yeah.

That defensive line and having a good receiver. see good receiving core and two running backs that you can kind of just go back and forth and trust to like trust it gets you a couple like four yards most carries which i mean they're starting to do they hadn't really up until this point but like on sun on sunday against the falcons it looked to be coming together because of brian robinson kind of finding his explosiveness a little bit i think he's starting to trust the scheme and trust his eyes after you know i'm sure i can't what it's like to come back from a gunshot wound in your thigh. So I'm sure there's some stuff that you have to work out mentally to get back to 100%.

But it bodes well for Washington because that NFC East altogether, they have a pretty easy, I think all the teams outside of playing within their own division, like their non-divisional games are all on the easier end because they drew some of the weaker divisions. and like I said, Washington can cause team issues. It's all about, you know, how can they take the outcome of the game as much out of Taylor Heineke's hands as they can. What's weird, too, is Heineke is, like, good for, like, two or three plays that he shouldn't make every game.

It's like, if that defense can keep games close enough and then you do get those freaky plays out Heineke, like, every once in a while, that could be an edge to winning. I am tempted to think that there may be a better football team than the Giants are right now. I think that they're, I trust them more. I think, yeah, that's what it is. I think they have more talent on that team, a lot more talent. I think it's offensive talent for me is what. It's both defense and offensive.

But the Giants have played defense pretty well this year. Yeah, I think they're a better coach football team, though. I don't think they have the star power. No, not yet. you're right. The commanders have, yeah. The commanders have some studs on both sides of the ball. Like, we've been saying this for years now.

They're legitimately a quarterback away from being a very good football team. Yes. And they just can't seem to find it. They thought Wence was the guy and that obviously wasn't true. They tried Fitzpatrick last year. They just didn't work out for, you know, he just got injured. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. At some point, though, they're going to have to bite the bullet and trade multiple firsts to find the guy, you know? You have to because you can't, you just can't keep treading in mediocrity. And as much as I think that Dan Snyder deserves to tread in mediocrity for the, for the entirety of his life. The players don't, though.

The players don't. And, yeah, like, that's the thing is I trust the Washington commanders as a talented team to elevate Heineke to a level where, you know, they make, they make it easier for him to make a big play in a big moment because of like the receiver's ability to separate because of, you know, some of the different things they can do with the running backs. Whereas if I'm, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, gosh, they don't really, they don't have a lot of guys that can win routes. They don't have, like, Sequin Barclay has, you know, been less, you know, less than stellar the last couple weeks.

It just, you know, I just think that Washington overall is set up to be in the, set up better to be in the playoffs and give a team a run than the Giants who I think, you know, they did. give Dallas a great, a solid game on Thursday, but they, they were winning up until, what, the third quarter, like late in the third quarter and then Dallas pushed the foot on the gas, but, um, but it's one of those things where like, you know, you pick, you get to the playoffs and just everything elevates a little bit. And I think that teams, teams in that moment will be able to elevate themselves more because of talent against the Giants than you could against the commanders. I'll say this, Steve, looking ahead a little bit, talking specifically about the Washington commanders and the New York Giants,

because they are the two wild cards right now in the NFC. They both have very difficult schedules remaining. Oh, do they? So while they've had these very easy schedules so far, they've played the ease of their schedule. Check this out. The Giants, or sorry, the Washington Commanders end the season. They play the Giants twice.

So that could be good for them if they win both those games. Other than that, they have to go to San Francisco. They play Cleveland and they play Dallas. And that's going to be a Deshaun Watson-led Cleveland team who has given everybody fits, basically, with Jacoby Brissette. Yeah. So those are tough games. To boot, you know, Washington's got to play. They have to play, I'm sorry, New York has to play Washington twice and the Eagles twice.

They have four divisional games left. And then their other games are against the Minnesota Vikings, the Indianapolis Colts. So, I mean, this sounds crazy, but there's a chance both of these teams fall out of the playoff picture if a team below them surges. I do think one of them will probably make it, but there's a chance both of them fall out. I'm with you, though. I trust Washington a little bit more, even though they have a probably a slightly difficult schedule, more difficult schedule. New York certainly controls their own destiny, though, having

four division games left. I mean, they definitely, you know, are in the driver's seat to take advantage that. That's a double-edged sword for sure, though, because it'd be different if it's like, oh, you have four divisional games left and you're in the AFC South and you get to play the Texans twice and the Texans twice or the Jaggs twice or any team other than the Titans who are continuing to defy all logic. But it's just, yeah, I think that they're going to be, they're two fascinating teams to watch because of the way they're currently constructed because they can have, like, it can go either way.

They can have a really good game and they can go toe to toe or beat. They haven't really beat the crap out of any teams. It's been, you know, both teams have been pretty close in every year. game but both teams have also gotten kind of beat up in a couple of games and so like that's the fascinating part is it's like okay which team are we going to get this week but yeah i right now they're you know the giants are sitting in the six seed and Washington sitting at seven and i think and i don't think that they both i agree with you i don't think that they both are in come week 18 yeah i i i would almost be willing to guarantee they they're both not in

oh really question is yeah i no no i'm sorry i'm saying i'm saying i'm saying that both of them won't make it right right right what i think one of them will but i can probably guarantee that it's certain that you know they won't make it together right is a better way saying it but yes yeah the the nfc playoff picture is definitely interesting because it seemed very tight all year. But it's really only tight from like, I don't like, there's a bunch of four-win teams.

It's actually crazy how many four-win teams there are. But it's really kind of separate itself. Like Philly, Minnesota are pretty locked in. I know San Francisco and Seattle are still in a battle, but San Francisco is probably going to pull away with that one. They were four and four or three weeks ago. They're seven and four now.

Dallas is certainly, you know, probably in. I just don't know who can come from the bottom, Steve. I'm looking at like Atlanta, they're not making a wild card probably, but they can maybe win the division. Detroit, like, they're four and seven, though.

They have a Cupcase schedule coming up. True, but, you know, there's, again, it's a young, it's a super young team, and I just can't put my faith in them to just go out and win, you know, necessarily win the games that they're supposed to win. Yeah.

That's the problem is that like with a young team like that, with Jared Goff behind center and the defense being what it is, I just think that there's just so much room for a slip up and for them to falter against a bad team, things like that. And that's not necessarily anything against them because this was not their year. at all. So, like, it's fine. They're already above their win total from last year. They've seen, you've seen significant progress on both sides of the ball and from individual players.

So, like, I don't imagine the Lions are really going to make a play at the playoffs. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't see it happening. Steve, what if they won their next three games? Who they have the next three games? They go, Jaguars, Jacksonville, Minnesota, both in Detroit. and then jets at metal lands and they just won in that stadium true and then they get the panthers after that it's a cupcake schedule it is i hate this i hate this as a lion's fan i got to i got to like that's what i mean it's terrible that's why i just i'm if they win

the next three games great talk to me if they win the next yeah true other than that i'm gonna have i have to recuse myself from this conversation yeah exactly i can't even i can't even go down that rabbit I guess here's the point though. If the Lions can't do it, I don't see another one of these teams doing it. Green Bay is not doing it. They only have five games left because the Lions have already had their buy. Green Bay, Arizona, Carolina, New Orleans all have not had their buy yet. So they have an inherent disadvantage because they all have an extra loss on their record than the Lions do. So if the Lions can't do it, I just don't see it happening. So it's going to come down to can Seattle or can Atlanta get in. Yeah, it's Seattle, Atlanta, Tampa Bay are the three teams that really. kind of hang in the balance right now. Yeah. And so here, I pulled up. So maybe I have to backtrack a little bit, actually. Well, do you want me to give you insight into those team schedules before you backtrack?

Sure. Just so you have full transparency. So Seattle, their last six games, they go at Los Angeles, Rams, at home against the Panthers, at home against the 49ers, at the Chiefs at home against the Jets and then at home against the Rams. So you get two. That's Seattle. Good Lord. So they get two games against the Rams, which the Rams are imploding with injuries.

Like they're done. They're probably going to lose out. They're cooked. So like, boom, there's two wins right there. The Panthers at home, that I would chalk up as a W right now. It's those three games. It's the, you know, which that puts them at nine wins. it's the three games it's that three games stretch of at home against the 49ers away at the

chiefs and then at home against the jets that's how they finished their season no then their last game is uh at home against the rams okay so it's their week seven or 15 16 17 is so they could be they could be eight and eight reasonably going into week 17 yeah go easily which is about what they are now they're six and five so yeah they're you know they're 500 team and uh like the chiefs are a team that could tear them apart 49ers can tear anyone apart with their talent level and the jets is kind of a toss up game and that's a game that i think is really kind of that like seesaw puts them out either puts them in or puts them out in my opinion i think if they beat the jets and they go 10 and 7 i think they're

there if they lose to the jets and they're 9 and 8 i think they might be out Is it weird that I think if Mike White starts that game, it's much more difficult? No, I totally believe that. And I 100% believe that because I've been thinking about obviously the Lions game and just the Jets in general of like, what is this? Where does this Jets season project now? Because that offense opened up with Mike White because he actually looks to be on time delivering the ball and throwing the ball so deep. keeps them a little bit more in rhythm as an offense. I will say, though, a lot of their offensive production was fluky.

I don't want to discredit what they did, but Garrett Wilson had a ridiculous play that you can't bank on that happening every week. So Mike White got so many yards after catch. But the Elijah Moore touchdown was like that, too. It was like 60 yards of it were after the catch. I mean, we did this last year. We did the same. Was it last year that Mike White got in, right?

Yeah, I think each of the last two. years. Yeah, I mean, like, we did this last year. He had his two-game run, or he did for over 300 yards, both times. And then he came back to Earth, and he got the beat kind of got the crap beaten out of him. Yeah. And it was like, okay, maybe he's not the savior.

And I think we're right back in the same cycle. Well, he's definitely not a good quarterback, but he's better than Zach Wilson is right now. Yeah. Like, he makes them better right now. And that's probably all they need. But, all right. to get back on track. So we went over Seattle. So like 9 and 8, 10, and 7 is, you know,

probably about where they're going to finish out. Yep. Atlanta, they only have five games left because they have their buy, not this week but next week. They go at home against the Steelers, at the Saints, at the Ravens, home against the Cardinals, and then home against the Buccaneers to finish off the season.

Good Lord. And I wish I knew how to project the Falcons because on paper that schedule looks favorable. Well, it's weird, or it's very cool that they play the Bucks to end the season. I know, that's great. That could be the game for the division. Absolutely, because the Bucks have, well, they have two games that are tough in there.

Well, they just lost Tristan Worf's though. That, dude, that fundamentally wrecks their offense, which is already wrecking itself. Yeah, and they face, you know, they go at home against the Saints, at the 49ers, at home against the Bengals, at the Cardinals, at home against the Panthers, and then obviously at Atlanta. which again isn't that hard of a schedule,

but the Buccaneers are a hard team to project. Like I, like 49ers game without worse is going to be brutal for them. Dude. Bangle is going to be a tough game. The Saints always give the Buccaneers trouble. Like that is just written. That just happens.

And then Cardinals, who even knows. what they are anymore. The Panthers could give them issues. Again, if Worf's is out, like just thinking about pass rushers here, like going up against Brian Burns without Wirfs gives you some laws.

That's not, you know, that's not an easy matchup. Not at all. And so there, like, you know, there's a very reasonable chance that the playoff picture kind of hinges on that Buccaneers Falcons game in a way.

because there's scenarios out there where the Falcons and the Buccaneers kind of win the same amount of games because they're both at, you know, Falcons are 5 and 7 and the Buccaneers are 5 and 6, right around the same record. And again, if they win, let's say they both win three games going into their final matchup, they're both. sitting at eight wins. The winner puts them in. Winning puts them in, or even if there's a scenario where, you know, one team's ahead of the other, one has nine wins, the other has eight wins.

Say the Falcons win, and they both have nine wins. That could push Seattle. Like, this, it, the NFC playoff picture is a lot tighter than I thought, than I thought it would be come this time of the season. Yeah. based on everything you just said I

that cluster is pretty tight that Giants Washington Seattle cluster and then the Tampa Bay Atlanta cluster yeah like there's definitely gonna be battling for those spots and then there's also a chance the lions come up from behind if they if they continue

trending upwards because they there's schedules by far the easiest of any team in the NFC absolutely and like yeah Like you said, given the Giants and Washington schedule, like there's a reasonable scenario. They only win two games the rest of the season. Like, their schedules are not easy. There's a very reasonable chance that both teams only win two games. All of a sudden, you could be in a scenario where there are like four to five nine win teams.

Yeah. And now you're just doing tiebreakers out of everywhere, which that's kind of a mess too. because Seattle would have the tiebreaker over the Lions. The Lions would have the tiebreaker over Washington and New York. Yeah, they would. Like, it could get wild down the stretch in the NFC. And Atlanta because of divisional record. Right.

Weird. It's all up in the air in the NFC. And, you know, I think, if you had to pick, who makes it to the playoffs, Atlanta or Tampa Bay. I think I know who you're going to pick, but who do you pick? I mean, I'm not betting against Tom Brady. Yeah, I'm not going to bet against Tom Brady. But I think the deck is severely stacked against him. It's just every week you kind of look for it to come together.

And it's not always Tom Brady's fault. It has not always been Tom Brady's fault this year. But it's just someone has made a big mistake in a big moment at every step of the way for Tampa Bay this year. Yeah. Like someone is like glaringly out of position or not doing what they're supposed to or Bulls is making interesting coaching decisions. It's just like Tampa Bay feels like they're really teetering on like I feel like there's for me I don't think they finish at nine wins. I think they either they either win like two games to finish the season or they win like. five games to win this defense season. And I don't think there's any in between. I kind of agree.

I mean, they're either going to get hot or they're not. So, right. They're not going to win playing the way they are. I don't think it's going to be. I don't think they sit in a mediocre like, they go three and three. I don't know if I see that happening. I just think that, again, I just think that their season, their season more so than a lot of other teams is really teetering because it just the offense just doesn't have the juice you want to see from it, the defense, you know, they have their moments,

but then they kind of fall apart at times. It's just they're a very up and down team. Yeah. All right, Steve, we're quickly running out of time, so I do want to talk NFC or AFC plastic. Yeah, which I think we capped off. I think that was a good cap for the NACs.

see picture. So this this playoff picture is very clear at the top as well. And then it's just chaos, dude. But you have Kansas City nine and two. They're the one seat right now. Miami's knocking on their door along with Buffalo. They're both eight and three. Miami's currently the two seed because they have the tiebreaker over Buffalo.

So that definitely makes for some interesting ball down the stretch. Tennessee has a pretty commanding lead on their division. I mean, they're up three games on the Jags and the Colts at 7 and 4. Baltimore is currently leading that division, but they're hanging on by a thread, my friend, hanging on by a thread. Now, I think at the end of the day, Baltimore probably is in the playoffs when it's all sudden done, but Cincinnati and Joe Burrow, they're back. I've been saying it.

They're back. It's been about five weeks now. They're playing good ball. They just beat the Tennessee Titans, who were the two seed going to, of the week, right? Yeah. Yeah. Somehow.

I still get rid of it. Somehow. Yep. And they're going to get Jamar Chase back here in a minute. So. Yeah. Trending. Their defense.

Maybe this week. Maybe the week after. Yeah. But it's probably within the next two weeks for Jamar Chase. They're on a three-game winning streak. I don't know who they play. Do you know who they play? Coming up?

Yeah. I have their schedule up. Oh, because I have New England, the Chargers, the Bengals, and Baltimore's schedules up. I have to pull up the Jets too. Hit me with Cincinnati's real quick, because I want to try to predict when Chase is going to come back. Cincinnati goes at home against the Chiefs this week. Ooh. So they need him this week.

Yeah, at home against, so they go at home against the Chiefs, at home against the Browns, at the Buccaneers, at the Patriots, at home against the Bills, and then at home against the Ravens. It's a tough stretch to finish. Well, Steve, let me tell you something. It's a good thing that they're back because they're going to need it. Oh, my God. That's a murderer's row to end the year. It's brutal.

Like, they face one, no, two losing teams. One losing team is a team that they can't win against. Zach Taylor can't figure out in the Browns. No matter what, the man just can't beat him for whatever reason. and then back dealer has evolved though yes I don't know if you've watched them the last few weeks

but they are and I think it was that Browns game getting their tookus handed to them keeping a PG like I think that is what knocked it into gear a little bit but like I said

the two losing teams that they play are the Browns who get Deshawn Watson back and you know they're scary they're dangerous team I don't really want to play them. I know they're not great, but I don't want to play them. No, not at all. And then it's the Buccaneers who, like we said, they could definitely turn it on. They have, like,

the pieces are there to turn it on for the rest of the season. Other than that, like, yeah, it's Chiefs, Patriots, Bill, Ravens. Like, holy crap, that is just a brutal. That's a brutal schedule. That has to be one of the toughest schedules to finish. season out of anyone. Oh, for sure. For sure. Well, I was going to say maybe they'll hold off on Chase until they feel like they need him, but they really do need him like now.

Yeah. He'll be back when he's ready, I suppose, but man. But you were about to say it, and I think I cut you off, the Bengals defense has been good this year. Yeah, that's an understatement. They have been. I haven't seen somebody sufficiently shut down Tennessee's run game the way they did. Dude, they have been the amalgamation of just like this per, like again, I said it at the

beginning of the year. They don't have that many stars on their defense, if any. No. Like go to an average, excuse me, go to an average NFL fan and ask them to name someone on the Bengals defense. I think four out of 10 people outside of the state of Ohio could maybe do it. That's being generous. I do like their D-line. they have talent there they do but it's not like notable talent and i like their second i mean i like the secondary too i think they do well hendrickson's pretty notable i mean he had a 16 sacks season a couple years ago that's true that's true i mean he but yeah i agree what you're saying though they don't have that superstar stud that you just you count on to get it done every play they it's just a collection

of average to above average guys they don't have one guy that kills them and most of the guys will give you more than they won't. They'll win more than they'll lose, most of those guys. But not by like some crazy stretch. Like Sam Hubbard and Hendrickson is a good pair of D-Ns. Reader is good in the middle of that defense. They have Joseph Osai second round pick a couple years ago who's kind of starting to develop a bit.

Jay Tufilele. They're pretty deep on the D-line and that's where it starts on defense is that D-line. So I mean, Rogan Wilson's a functional linebacker. He's pretty good in coverage. They just have a, they have a bunch of guys that they just all worked together in the scheme very well. Jermaine Pratt. They took,

they took a bet this year because they invested little to no money on the defensive end this year, which a lot of people questioned, I questioned it for sure, but it's working out, it's working out exactly how they want. They were taking a bet that continuity on their defensive end would take them from, they were like, middle of the road they were right around like 18th in the league last year 1817 somewhere around

there they were taking a bet that if we bring the band back they're like their um why can't i think of the word their communication their you know ability to work together their succinctness yeah that's a good one they're just their ability to work together has been has shown through and it's coming together at the perfect time late in the season to, you know, lead them to possibly win the division. Again, tough stretch down the road, but as hard as the rest of those games are, I don't put the bangles out of any of those games because that offense can go when it wants to, especially when Chase comes back.

Yep. You are not wrong about that. So that's Cincinnati down the stretch. We'll keep it in their division. Let's go. We'll go to the Ravens next. Well, I do want to point out one thing really quick with their defense. Okay, go ahead.

So I've obviously been very harsh on linebackers in general in the NFL. Most of them suck. Yep. I mean, it's really, because it's not their fault. Like, what linebackers are asked to do, we've talked about this in good detail, so I'm not going to rehash the whole rant. But what linebackers are asked to do in the NFL is impossible. You know, you have to be 230 plus pounds.

You have to be able to shed blocks and get around, you know, know, offensive linemen that weigh twice what you weigh. You also have to be able to run with guys that sprint four four down the field. It's literally impossible to do what they do, yet they've somehow found two guys in Logan Wilson and Jermaine Pratt that are good in coverage. And they're not perfect players by any means. They're flawed in their own ways. But the fact that they can rely on those guys to lock down the middle of the defense,

it takes a lot of stress off the rest of that defense. It really does. It sounds like such a minuscule thing by having, if you're going to invest in a lot of linebacker invest in guys that can cover. I don't care about always, you know, be able to rush to pass her from a blitz perspective or necessarily, you know, stack and shedding offensive guards. I want to know that you can cover because those are the money downs.

Those passing downs are the money downs. And I really, there's something to that with this defense where they might not have all these superstars, but they have linebackers and safeties for that matter, too, that can cover. And they can get put in one-on-one situations and thrive and not get destroyed right and while we you know like you said we craft them linebackers there's a lot to be said about a team that the defensive line can trust the guys behind them to make to make a tackle yeah and the defense and the defensive backs can trust the got those guys up front like those linebackers

in front of them to you know give them some cushion and give them ability to catch up and get it you know recover a little bit because they know that those guys are going to the those guys are going to make a play. Like, there's so much to be said about that. And it doesn't happen that often. Usually there is one linebacker and a lot of linebacking cores that you point to who's deficient in one area, whether it's past coverage or running. And coverage is what gets you killed, too.

We've seen this in Detroit, not to always come back to them, but that's our most obvious reference. I mean, listen, if we're going to talk about woes and on a team, like we have a lot of experience with that. Yeah, like Detroit has not had a linebacker that can cover well. in a long time. Rodrigo looks like he might break the trend. This is exciting for Lions fans.

Yeah, I mean, he's made some darn good praise and coverage. He had one this week, actually. Anzolone's even had some of his moments, but don't need to. True. Yeah. Don't need to touch on Detroit that much. Point being, though, if you're a linebacker and you're going to pick a skill to invest in a linebacker, pick one, pick guys that can cover.

Yeah. Promise you it will work out. Okay. Take it away. Sorry to cut you off there. No worries. We're going on to the Ravens. So, Ravens. Under the Ravens.

The Ravens finished the season at home against the Broncos, at the Steelers, at the Browns, at the Browns, at home against the Steelers, and then finish the year at the Bengals. So they get the Steelers twice. They get Steelers twice, Browns and Bengals once, and then Broncos and Falcons. at least four wins on that resume yeah that puts them at 11 that means they're in obviously so yeah i think there's four easy dubs there maybe more even based on the bengals scheduled there's a i think maybe baltimore ends up holding on to that division yeah strength of schedule points to the ravens especially like considering the fact that they they play each other in week 18

will probably be maybe a little bit less like emotionally drained like the bangles just have just gut punch after gut punch and then a haymaker and then a right hook to and then they finished with the ravens like that's a lot yeah that's like to go on a stretch like that and a stretch like that against teams that good where you're a lot you can be more you're more susceptible to like one bounce of the ball changing the course of the game because of how evenly matched your teams are. Yes.

The Bengals are in a lot tougher position going into that week 18 matchup that, you know, potentially could be for the division. Well, that's a great point. I typically think ending the season with that game is a benefit

for most teams that are competing. You want to control your own destiny. Yeah. But the problem is, is there's a chance the Bengals won't be in it by that game.

So hear me out. So maybe it'd be more favorable for them to play the Ravens earlier because you get that win or the divisional opponent. You get that game separation. It gives you a little bit of morale, momentum. You feel like you have a control on what's going on. Yeah. If you're going to that game

after losing three of your last four, you're, I mean, that's taxing. said, the Ravens have also been a mystery this year in ways. Their offense disappears at time. Yeah, I haven't been more disappointed with the seven and four team ever probably. Yeah. Yeah, because there's, I mean, let's see, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. They've been an eight one score games. Yep.

And the problem is that they're not, like, they're about 50-50 in those one-score games. But, like, man, they've really had a lot. They've had a couple of games here and there where they just let it go in the end. Like, it just kind of falls apart. This last week was a perfect example. Obviously, Jacksonville won the game being ultra-aggressive and going for the two-point conversion. Yes. This one should have went to overtime.

But Lamar Jackson has got to be frustrated. I mean, he's clearly frustrated. I almost asked you to start the podcast, actually. Where's Lamar Jackson playing football next year? Because it ain't Baltimore. Yeah, actually. I'm starting to feel that way. You didn't respond to it, but I asked you and Chris, like, after this week, I said,

what are the odds that Lamar Jackson's not in Baltimore next year? I think they're, the odds are at least getting higher. He's clearly, even just look at his behavior on Twitter. Like, I'm not on Twitter, but people have sent me some of them. his tweets. He's like coming unhinged at random people. He's getting upset. That's not, that's not Lamar Jackson's character. No. That's so out of character for him. So I'm like very surprised. You can just tell he's frustrated. And anyone he didn't get the contract. Right. Which that's, you know, that's been

looming, I'm sure, looming over everybody's head in that organization. Yeah. But it's just like, and it's not his fault. It like, it's like he doesn't have receivers. And then his, and then Greg Roman does Greg Roman things. And like, you know, they're getting, like, they're getting delay a game calls. Just stupid penalties where apparently there's a big thing, which I didn't know this, but I've seen it more and more talked about on Twitter as we've, as the Ravens have kind of, like, sat in this turmoil of Greg Roman, like consistently being one of the worst offensive coordinators at getting a play call in with over three seconds left on the play.

the play clock. Wow. So, like, if you, like, I think they have the most snaps in the NFL right now of snaps under three seconds left on the play clock. Wow. Well, there was moments in this game, Steve, where Lamar was waiting for the play. Yeah. Forever.

Yes. Literally forever. And they took a delay a game on, I think their last drive was it? Yeah. Because, or not the last drive, but the one before that. You're just like, how did they just take a delay a game there? And again, it just, it's. it just seems to be this like

Lamar Jackson is the glue that's holding together this kid's project that's all kind of crumbling, but it's still intact. And all it needs is one strong gust of wind to just tear it apart. Steve, people forget John Harbaugh was on the hot seat before they got Lamar Jackson. Yeah. He was.

Lamar Jackson put up an MVP season, which saved John Harbaugh's career in Baltimore. I think Harbaugh is a very good coach. Don't get me wrong. But Roman is definitely a problem. Lamar has, you can tell he's frustrated with the guys. Do you think he enjoys playing with the 300-pound tight end full-back guy? Like on 25% of a snap?

Right. It literally just eliminates an option to throw to. And I- You're not throwing to him. Like, he can't do anything for you. And I understand that Lamar Jackson's legs are a weapon. But give him, like, I, give him a chance to throw the ball.

And, like, he showed it last week. He had three touchdowns get dropped last week. Oh, you know how frustrating that has to be? And it, like, happened. Yeah, one with two rangers, too, which sucks. Which are supposedly, you know, he's supposed to be his best receiving option. Yeah. Which, that's its own issue that is tight end.

They had seven drives get into the red zone, Steve. They scored one touchdown on this drive. It's. In three possessions, they had dropped touchdowns. They had another possession. where they had a drop ball on the five yard line on third and ten. So that would have given them a first down at the five. Lamar bowled out on Sunday.

I mean, he did play very, very well. And they barely broke 20 points. Against a defense that I would say is kind of built to stop a person like Lamar. With all the fast, long three that they have on their team. Like, that's a team that's really kind of built to neutralize Lamar, Jackson in a way and he was beating them with his arm, which shows he has the arm tail to do it. He just doesn't have the weapons or the offensive coordinator who's putting him in

the positions to do that. And I think that it's all really boiling to the surface for Lamar Jackson right now. And now, again, that can all be corrected with the schedule that they have. That can all be corrected down the run by winning. Winning cures all. and they have a very winnable schedule down the stretch. I'll tell you this right now. If Lamar leaves this offseason,

no one to blame except the Ravens organization. No. They didn't pay him. Every turn have robbed him of assets. Yep. They have refused to build an offense that centers around passing. They've leaned into his legs, which isn't the worst idea ever,

but you need to be, you need to be able to do both, similar to how the Eagles have built it with Hertz. You know, obviously they rely on his legs a lot, but when he needs to throw the ball, he has weapons. Yep.

They traded his number one receiver this offseason in Marquise Brown. They did not replace him. They just traded him. Yeah. They, Steve, they did not replace him. They didn't even try. They signed DeMarcus Robinson like in camp.

because like I said apparently Baltimore just see that because they are just like they apparently they think they can only have one number one number one or one really good receiver because they traded Marquis Brown with the thought that like here we all Rashad Bateman steps into his place which he was he got hurt but I like the Ravens you know I'm saying that's what I mean like the Ravens they do know they can have more than one dangerous receiving threat right Like, they, that's okay. I promise guys. It is ironic that both Hollywood and, and Bateman are hurt right now.

But, I mean, you would have loved to have seen those guys together healthy with Lamar and Andrews. How different does that offense? Look, also, when they traded Marquis Brown, everyone assumed one of those picks would be going to a wide receiver. Or maybe the second round pick, nothing. No, they just did their, like, best player available defense. let's just go and get them. Yep. Which.

So I feel bad for Lamar. I know, I do too. Where's he playing next year? If he doesn't play in Baltimore, where's he playing? Is there a chance he plays in Detroit? Dude, I, that's. What about Atlanta? I, yeah, I could see that.

I honestly think that Detroit is the most sensible landing spot for him. They have the money. They have the money. They have the capital. Well, they don't even need the capital. They don't. Well, no, but that makes it more fun to talk about. Because could you imagine landing a QB like Lamar and then not having to spend your draft picks on at one?

All right. Oh, my God. We will put a pin in that one. Oh, my God. I think that all really hinges on how they finish the season. I think they, they have the schedule to go and win that division. I still think they won't go. Oh, you're talking about Baltimore?

Baltimore, yeah. Okay. No, yeah. Like, Baltimore still in a position to win the division. They have an easy schedule down the road. They definitely could control their fate. They could win five of their next six games, which are all winnable games. And they could, you know, be cruising in with 12, you know, 11, 12 wins into the playoffs. And, you know, we're having. And they'll get smoked in the first round. Again. Again. But I still, again, I still, we'll move on quickly because, you know, we want to wrap. touch a couple of just two more

I want to touch it. Oh my God, it's late. It's late already. I know. It happens so fast, but I still think the Ravens win that division solely because they have an easier schedule down the stretch and the bangles could get, I think that they just, it's just hard to win that many games against that many good teams. So I, again,

I think Baltimore comes out of it. I still think since he sneaks in with a wild card, maybe the seven seat, because I think that their offense is just good enough that they'll pull off some of those wins. Um, the other two, the other teams in there, uh, the Patriots and the Chargers who are both sitting, who are on the outside looking in right now. I think one of them gets in probably instead of the Jets.

I think it's not the Patriots looking at, just looking at their schedule. They go at home against the Bills, at the Cardinals, at the Raiders, home against the Bengals, home against the dolphins, at the Bills. Yikes. They get bills twice, dolphins once. Bengals once. Yeah, that's not good. And I don't trust Mac Jones

and I don't trust Matt Patricia. Actually, scratch that. I don't trust Patricia. I don't trust Patricia. I don't trust Patricia. Jones looks great on Thanksgiving. I don't trust Matt Patricia to put Mac Jones in a position to win the game consistently the rest of the year.

I agree with that. I think the more intriguing thing here is the Buffalo Miami dichotomy. It's like they are in an all-out battle for the division right now. Yes. And it matters because that's, you know. That's the difference between a home, like being at home.

Yeah, home playoff game. Like if you're Miami, you're looking at playing the Jets on your home field turf right now in the first round. Right. And right now. But that to say, the chargers have to be licking their chops as they look at their schedule to finish the season. They go at the Raiders. and then they go home against the dolphins,

home against the Titans, and then they finish the season at the Colts and home against the Rams at the Broncos. So they could finish with three wins. They should beat the Raiders. And now they're at 10 wins. If they can beat the Titans or the Dolphins, which again, the Chargers are another team

that has the talent, has the quarterback, to beat any team on any day. it's just a matter of can Brandon Staley get out of his own way sometimes and can Joe Lombardi just fake sharp Brandon Staley Make sharp Brandon Staley and check down Joe Lombardi

Check down Joe Check down Joe Yeah so like the Chargers have I mean I would pencil them for four wins Putting him at 10 wins Which they're in Which again since he's since he is sitting at seven wins and they have a tough schedule.

If they're three and three down the stretch, there's that, you know, that comes down to a tiebreaker. The New York Jets, the last team here, we want to just to, just for wild card's sake,

they go at the Vikings, at the Bills, home against the Lions, home against the Jaguars, at Seattle, at Miami. I think the Jets are out. That's what I was saying.

Yeah. It's been a great season, but that's a, that is brutal. That's probably right up there with Cincinnati is one of the hardest stretches to finish the season. Great season, though. Like you said. Oh, fantastic. Great, great sign of things to come for them. They're just in a really tough division, though.

It sucks. They're in a tough division, and they have a lot of, they have decisions to make a quarterback. Other than that, their team is in a great spot. Weapons on offense. Offensive line is young and good. Defense is young, fast, and fierce, like, and improving. They're in a great spot. If they put a premium pass rusher on that defense,

no, it could have come via development, you know, with Germain Johnson or whatever, but they could also add another guy to play with him as well. I mean, that defense could really get nasty. Yeah. It could really get nasty. That finishing stretch for the Jets is, it's kind of a gauntlet because going at the Vikings and then at the bills and then finishing at Seattle and at Miami. And the lions and jaguars in the middle are not like,

those aren't just give. Those aren't just giving. No, I don't, if I'm any team in the NFL, I don't want to play the lions right now. I don't even want to play the Jaguars. Yeah. Like, again,

they're not a great team, but it's, again, they're both teams that are, that weren't necessarily supposed to make the playoffs, but they're making that push for the year, for their like year three or year two year three of Trevor Lawrence year three of dan Campbell like this was the trajectory they were supposed to get on we saw Trevor Lawrence had his first big boy drive of his career just this week um to end that game

against the chargers that was a phenomenal drive that was the first time we saw that in the NFL from him right that's he said chargers yeah I don't know I'm weird but yeah Baltimore I met Baltimore you charted for 29 hours straight this week I did it did So, that. Humble brag. Yeah, not a big deal. Brush your shoulders off a little bit. Yeah, but man, it's, it is going to be a fun.

It's going to be a fun end of the season. The last six weeks offer a lot of excitement with a lot of opportunity. That's been the joy of what this season has been. It's been a season of a lot of unknowns, a lot of unexpected contenders breaking through. to where now there is a lot of just mediocrity isn't the word, but a lot of tier two, tier three teams fighting for those, fighting for those,

you know, six, seven seats and on both sides. Yep, and some good divisional battles as well. Yeah, great divisional battles. I would, shoot, we could do our, we could dive into Miami bills for a whole, like them down the stretch for a whole episode if we wanted to like that that's going to be a fascinating battle down the stretch the viking like you know the vikings are a team that's kind of just sitting on

the cusp of are they going to fall apart or are they for real who even knows it's it's all up in the air and that's the joy of the NFL because there's always a lot of parity in the NFL yep there always is as we said there was 11 games this week that was that were one-score games came down to the wire. Yeah. And I can tell you right now, there's, there were some good and bad teams involved in those games. Right.

So it shows you how close the NFL is to each other. Right. I know that's the fun thing that you kind of forget sometimes is the teams that we crap on, the teams that are kind of bottom, bottom of the barrel. Like, they're still an NFL team. And so they still can give anybody a run like most weeks. Yeah.

Somebody, was it Chris that mentioned this yesterday? there is currently, hold on, looking, shoot, I don't want to take too much time looking at, okay, there was potentially going to be four teams that picked in the top 10 last year in the playoffs this year, four or five actually, which is pretty cool. And three teams that wanted to make the playoffs are potentially giving up top 10 picks. There you go. All right. Let's get out of here. My heart out was five minutes ago, so therefore I'm in trouble. But that's all right. We love you guys. We will be back Friday. We have a special guest. PFF's John Costco will be joining us, actually.

This is news of Steve. I'm breaking this news live on air to Steve. Can't wait to talk to John again. We haven't. We talked to him, what, week one. Week one. Yeah, this is exciting. Can't wait. Yeah. Yeah, we were, John and I were talking on the phone yesterday, just catching up, rapping about. this past week's games and it just hit me like wow you haven't been we said you would have you back like a lot sooner than 13 weeks so so here we go yeah to bring him back too yep well awesome thank you so much for listening we will be back Friday I am your host Brett Whitefield's my co-host Stephen Rourke

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 fantasy points.com.