First Things First - Patriots beat Giants, Cowboys or Lions, Alexi Lalas joins, ‘Fire Tomlin’ chants, Mahomes Mountain

Episode Date: December 3, 2025

(0:00) Patriots beat Giants, Cowboys vs. Lions, Patriots on the doorstep of destiny?  (25:55) ‘Fire Tomlin’ chants, Can Shedeur Sanders prove he’s the Browns’ franchise QB? (42:03) Brou’s MVP Ballot (47:56) Mahomes Mountain (01:07:22) Alexi Lalas joins the show (01:21:00 ) Patriots the team to beat in the AFC? (01:28:52) Danny’s Top 10, Is MVP Drake Maye’s to lose? (01:52:42) Ravens AFC North favorites, Hype around Dallas too low or too high? (02:02:41) He Said We Said (02:10:16) Bears give out free Hot Dogs Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Live from New York, it's the show that is embarking on a team destroying exercise after the show. We used to go bowling for our holiday party. But we had to stop that because you threw a fit. I did throw a fit. Really? I just felt like we've gone bowling for five or six years. No, that's not what I mean. No, that was. You threw a fit because I beat you in bowling.

Oh my gosh, with like a 30. And exactly. He beat you what? I beat you what? I beat him twice. I beat him twice. Got $100 out of him and then needle him about it. And Wilde looked to me dead serious.

He was like, I know you think this is good for camaraderie. It's not. There's a certain point. So we can't do it anymore. Y'all were going back. You were. But now we're doing ping. He was like you talked in my back swing.

Like I was up for a spare. He was generally like, what are you doing? High school free throws. He was. Not legit bad. So now we had to change sports. So now we're doing ping pong.

Ping pong's going to be bad, too. It's going to be real bad. I am great at ping pong, but I'm missing, I'm missing the far. Wow. Why are you missing? That's so, it's so unlike Drew to miss one of our post-show activities. I have prior engagement. I need to know earlier about the parties.

We have a party. I didn't know when it was. Today. The Patriots. QB through darts in the air, the Patriots in the air. What did New England prove their victory last night? Meanwhile, Stafford, Drake, JSN, DAC maybe, Josh Allen

maybe, a fresh edition of Brew's ballot. It can't be Josh Allen. It shouldn't be Josh Allen. There are only a handful of guys that want the award. That wants it. I mean, like, who wants it the most? Miles Garrett wants it. After two, it starts getting hard to fill out the rest of Bruce. And finally, after a four touchdown performance is Patrick Mahomes

climbing back atop Mahomes mountain alongside Nick Wright I'm Kevin Wilds. Brew why are you missing your fifth consecutive show party? No, I was there last year. Remember Greg and I had the you two went at it bowling wise.

And then Greg and Bruce stayed late. He stayed after. He basically had like two parties. Yeah, yeah, it was getting testy there. Greg was getting upset. We are starting in Foxborough with the best team, according to the standings in the AFC, the New England Patriots, team of the century. In the NFL, dropped the Giants to 33 and 15. Drake had two more touchdowns, no big deal. Patriots have won 10 in a row. Here's the soon-to-be coach of the year.

Drake is, I think he's really, he's realizing what he can be and what the impact that he makes on this offense and being the conductor. He's hard on himself. I think that he challenges himself as well as his coaches. And I mean, he means a great deal to this football team. No, but not about that. Brew, what have the Patriots proven to you during this 10-game win street? Wilds, brace yourself. Okay, I'm ready.

They have proven thus far that they are the best team in the AFC. Wow, thank you. Who did that thought? Who did that thought? You should know by now. You were saying something about best team in NFL? I should know that they're coming. Oh, AFC?

Yeah. I forget every time. At least the AFC. Now, I am not saying, Nick, that they're going to reach the Super Bowl. But I am saying thus far they have had the best season of any team in the AFC. The only one you can compare them to is Denver. And while Denver's defense is great, the offense is obviously shaky. The Pats do everything well.

They don't run it. They don't have a great run game, kind of mediocre, but it's not. They don't do anything terribly. Yeah, I mean, the run game, I don't think they're averaging four yards of carry one of the few teams at that. But obviously, the offense is fine. They're fifth, I believe, or seventh in scoring at 27 the game. So then you look at, they've got one, arguably the best win in the,

AFC when they go into Buffalo and beat them. That's in the conversation for best win of the season. And then you look at like, we know they haven't played the toughest schedule, but they've routed a lot of bad teams. Like if you play a bad team, you should route them up like less than. They beat up Cleveland. This is, we thought this was a bad team. Beating Carolina 42 to 13 ages very well.

They are occasionally bad. That's the weird thing about Carolina. But look, they've beaten the Rams, the Packers. and the cowboys. So, I mean, they're pretty good team. And then last night, I mean, I thought the Giants would win just kind of an upset, but obviously they just crushed them from the get-go. So I think right now you have to look at them as the best team in the AFC.

Are you going to be mad at my takes, though? You're sure? Yeah, I want you to go. It's going to be bad for the show. It's going to be worse than ping pong. I want you to go. Okay. I saw this mean.

on Reddit. Now you know what? I didn't know how to post it, you know, natively, so I had to take a screen grab and put it on Twitter. And this is largely a shot at the entire fandom of the NFL. You prayed for the Chief's Downfall,

and what did that do? It brought you back to me a Thanos graphic. So it's a shout out to Pat's Reddit. So it's basically like we're back to being the dynasty. That's a little bit too much, but good for the meme world. Here's what I'm saying. I'm saying. You think it's too much to say you're back to being a dynasty before you've won a playoff game? I'm not saying that. I, I, I, no, I just, I'm not saying that yet. Yeah, go ahead. This,

this is the analogy I would make. Man, on a work site, uh, the OSHA guy shows up. He's not saying there's accidents, you know, then you call the hospital. He's just looking out for an environment where accidents can happen. I'm just saying if there was an OSHA guy dedicated to football dynasties, he would write the Patriots up. And I'm, okay, so that is, I'll let you finish. I'll give you the right. We have the coach and the QB, which seems kind of easy to do. It's just two people.

Until you go through the entire league, Jets Dolphins, bills, we were talking about McDermott getting fired, and you have that graphic, I don't have a, or not, it's just that. If a coaching quarterback don't want a Super Bowl within their first five years together, they've never won a Super Bowl. Boom. So that also takes out the Ravens. the Steelers, the Bengals are going to fire their coach, the Browns have neither. Titans, no.

Texans, maybe. Colts, Jags, Chiefs, Broncos, Chargers, yes, maybe. And Raiders are out. So amongst that group, there's just a handful of teams that have coaching quarterback, and none of the quarterbacks this year are playing like Drake May. So here's Drake May's pass rating above 125, most in teams first, 13 games. they're just sort of legendary seasons. I don't know Lamar seems legendary,

but it was a quality season. That was a great. Yeah, he almost won't MVP. We're kind of, I'm not saying we are a dynasty. I'm just saying there's a lot of elements of dynasty that I would be nervous about if I wasn't a Patriots. Okay, so this is, I really, you said, you thought there's going to be bad for the show because of the Chiefs graphic.

That's, that's not at all. I don't care about something dumb on Reddit. I think the part that's that I think the part that's that I react to on that is the I think you are setting yourself what should be nothing but jubilation because I was going to say nothing but good things and I still will you forget the cart before the horse you're 30 steps out in front and maybe because you guys had the greatest dynasty in the history of football Dynasty is in our DNA. But it's not. Just just the... I think you're a little bit. It is, you are acting as if there is no bridge between Super Bowl contender, which you are.

Yeah. And Super Bowl champion, which you might be. Mm-hmm. And dynasty of which there have been five in the history of pro football and none simultaneous. And so now if you, like maybe the chiefs are just done. Maybe it's, you know, I'm not talking about this season. Maybe Mahomes and Reed are done. But it's also very often that we don't go consecutive dynasties.

I've never once in my life following sports heard of a team discussed as a dynasty before it has played a single playoff game. And your OSHA stuff, all of that could apply to a bunch of teams right now. Like right now that is, but the, not the dynasty pedigree, but it's what the Chargers feel. Like, finally we got Herbert the right coach. We're eight and four. We're, you know, we're in great shape. Dynasty is not in their DNA. Falling apart is in their DNA.

Okay, that's what, but again, I don't believe that the stadium or the jerseys have, I think Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, if either one of them were still there, even in a consultancy role, maybe I'd buy it more. But so I don't want, I mean, I think sometimes we discuss whether we should talk about the game last night or look forward. Today we agreed we're going to look forward. I knew we're going to look forward seven years. But I thought, you know, it's asked to start. But Dynasty is a little strong. Because Dynasty is not in your DNA.

It's in Tom Brady's DNA. I mean, this is the century. Before Brady, it was. No, no, just this century. I just started this. I mean, again, it is. I'm not going to. I'm going to say what I was going to say at the beginning,

because I want to be positive, because they deserve it today. I'm not yet putting Drake May on the Mount Rushmore of quarterbacks, which he will be if you have a dynasty. I'm not yet putting Mike Vrable in the Hall of Fame, which he will be if you have a dynasty. Though I'm not yet saying he's going, that Drake May is going to win more Super Bowls,

then Brett Farve and Aaron Rogers combined. I'm not saying we have a dynasty. I'm just saying there's open paint cans in the corner that someone needs to take here. So here, what you were right about. You ticked him off, what you take. Well, no, I mean, but it's just, I just think it's silly, to be totally honest. Because my big takeaway is most rebuilds are fraudulent.

And the pay, and this is, and the Patriots are proving it. It does not, if you are in Atlanta and it's, you know, seriously, guess what? You don't have the guys. You, you, you've had a couple years of Rahim and Pinnix. It's, you don't, you don't have it. If you're in Minnesota, you don't have the guy. I understand he's been hurt. You believe you have the coach.

You don't have the quarterback. If you have the right coach and the right quarterback and it's not a rookie quarterback, you know by year two, even if they've only been together one year. Like Chicago, in a lesser way, is proving it as well. It does not take four years to tear down and rebuild. If you have the right two guys that you're talking about, it can be instantly done. And the other thing that to me they've proven, is validating what I said about Drake May a few weeks ago,

which I think you agreed with, which is to me he is brew, a top five quarterback moving forward. I believe that. I don't think he's going to have a fall off. And of all the quarterbacks younger than Lamar, Josh, Patrick Joe, so those guys are 28. It's a 30. So that is Herbert.

That is Jaden. That is C.J. That's Caleb. That's Purdy. love. That's Hertz. That's the Prince. I'm going to include him. That's Nix. I'd rather have Drake made than any of them. Oh, yeah.

I mean, but think about what you just said, KW. You just said oh yeah, dismissively. I included Jalen Hertz in there. Well, it's been a rough. It's been a rough guy. He's way and so. Hurts takes up no summation. I'll give you, I'll

say, I'll defend Jalen Hertz and tied to another question that I thought about why you were talking. We were Like what's the dynasty? There's no through line. One, Mike Vrable, the head coach, was part of the dynasty playing. Two, it's Tom Brady's offensive coordinator, making this game very easy for Drake May. So I do think there is a through line.

And the Josh McDaniels piece that Jalen Hertz is missing. The fact that there isn't, Jalen Hertz has been a victim of his own success with a turnover of coaches being poached, offensive coordinator is being poached. Ziriani is still there, obviously. where I think Josh McDaniels has kind of had his cup of coffee as a head coach. I think that he's settled down. But this is now the same, I can now put back to you the same arguments that when we would have going into last year's Super Bowl, and we were talking about could Mahomes catch Brady?

And it's like, oh, how many Super Bowls does he need? And Wild is big on he needs seven. So your, so now the arguments to me was, okay, so Josh is never getting one. So Lamar's never getting one. Those are your staff. Those are never getting one. That combo. No, that combo.

No, no, no. Right. That's fine. They can fire their coaches. Okay. But if the beginning of their careers were the Chiefs dynasty. Yeah. And now we're in the 11 and 2-0 playoff win, not yet clinch the playoffs, but I think they'll get their Patriot dynasty.

Then I guess those guys who are some of the greatest quarterbacks ever. And Jalen Hurts, who's one of the greatest winners ever. And Nick Siriani, who's John Madden, they're all just done winning champions. Chip being chips? It's tough to think about it. Gentlemen, thank you as always. Would you like to hear my tap space numbers? We've also got the most tap space in 10th most next year.

Thank you. Jackson Dart, back from a concussion, decided to scamper down the sidelines for first down rather than go out of bounds. Eventually, Christian Ellis showed him to the sidelines. A fracas occurred. Giants penalized for retaliating against the Patriots for a legal play. legal play. Here's Jackson Dart on changing his playing style. No. Look, like I understand the question, but like this is like this is football. Like I'm gonna get hit if I'm in the pocket or outside the pocket like it's I don't

like I feel like I've played this way my whole entire life. It shouldn't be like any shock or anybody if you've followed along with my career. And we're not playing, like, we're not playing soccer out here. Like, you're going to get hit. Things happen. It's part of the game. Didn't love the shots at soccer, but, Brew, your reaction. First of all, you know I love the sentiment.

You know I love the sentiment. I knew you were going to be conflicted on this group. That is how every football player should think. That is how football players thought before youngsters traded in. their shoulder pads for flags. All right? And that is football. It is a violent collision sport.

All right? Sure. That said, he's not a linebacker. He is a quarterback. And when he says, I played this way my whole life, it's different in the NFL. I said, you guys will admit this. I said the same thing essentially about Travis Hunter. Oh, you've gone both ways your whole life.

So what? This is the NFL. You're not going to be head and shoulders above everybody else athletically. And Jackson Dart, I mean, even high level, which of course he played in SEC, Division I football,

is not in the same class, even close to the same class, as the NFL. And he, again, I understand it. I think everybody could respect his viewpoint, but he's going to have to change. because he won't last. Case in point, Cam Newton, who's twice as big as Jackson Dart, had eight years because

he took shots and he delivered some shots himself, but you can't play at this level and just keep taking these hits. And he's already shown he's a bit fragile because he's been tested for four concussions. He will not get through three years as a starter if he keeps that mentality. All you got to do is slide, get out of bounds. It doesn't mean you're not tough. We know you're tough, but that won't work in the NFL, as simple as that. Not only is this not admirable, it's idiotic.

Yeah. And it shows a lack of understanding of your importance to the team. And there is a responsibility the quarterback of a team has to be available. flatly. And it is the only through line, the only trait every single one of the Mount Rushmore, Mount Rushmore adjacent, and, you know, how far down you want to go all-time quarterbacks have, is they were out there. It's the only one. They have all different styles, backgrounds, playing all of it. They were all available. And this strikes me as a combination of hubris, some weird machismo that is unnecessary.

Bro, you are a professional football player. Everybody knows you're tough. Like, you know what I mean? You wear as an homage to your sister, her necklace when you play, which shows you're very confident in your own masculinity or whatever it is, doesn't care. We all know you've been that guy forever.

It also doesn't matter if you get knocked out of the game. Like, it doesn't matter how tough you are And to your point, the one injury he's dealt with in his professional career is the one that you're not allowed to tough it out on. You can't be like, I have cracked ribs, I'll play through it, not allowed with a concussion. And so it's stupid. And so I don't, it is, it, I think sometimes guys think that this will make me seem like earn people. respect. Correct.

And my take on that is, I feel like that earns the respect of the lowest common denominator. Like, yeah, man, that doesn't understand. Drew is ripping flag football? But no. It's just at that position, even the linebackers and linemen know you can't have that mentality as a quarter. And so I just, I don't, I would, whoever the Giants Highers, to be their next head coach.

One of his primary jobs is to convince Jackson Dart that's one of the dumbest press conferences he's ever given. That's a good take. And like, you just, you can't play that way. You won't laugh. The other thing you mentioned Cam Newton, I wonder if before doing that press conference,

he saw the video. Like, Cam Newton wasn't getting hit like that, flying 10, 5 yards in the air. No, Cam was delivering the punishment. Yes. Josh Allen doesn't fly through. the air like that. No, but those, even Josh Allen,

Josh Allen is damn near Cam Newton's size. And what did Tom Brady say to Josh Allen? Get down. Like you got to get in. And so it's just, it's just fooling. Oh, I know. Check in on the Thursday game. Cowboys in Detroit.

Dallas, a field goal underdog. Dax starting to feel confident after beating both of last year's Super Bowl teams last week. Take a listen. We didn't play good ball early. And now we're starting to, catch our stride, we're starting to figure out who we are on not just offense, but defense and as a team. Been on other teams where you started off hot and you're at this time of the year

trying to figure out what you've got to do to get back on the horse and to have the momentum we do right now, the confidence and not just that the right guys in the locker room who understand where we are, who understand that this is the most important time of the year. Okay, who do you trust more, Cowboys or the Lions? Hey, this is fuzzy analysis, but I just can. can't imagine Detroit goes out like this. And that's really the end of it. Like I did not expect Detroit to be as good this year as they were last year.

I didn't look at them as a preseason tier one Super Bowl contender. But it is almost impossible for me to imagine a scenario where a, and I understand now Amman Raz banged up, Terry and Arnold's on IR, but where a, a Detroit team that's been mostly healthy throughout the year is going to be de facto eliminated from playoff contention in the first week of December. I just, I can't, especially because they haven't shown to me they didn't go through like a month long swoon.

Like they still have that streak of not losing back to back intact. And so, and the flip side of that fuzzy analysis is, I saw firsthand how good. Dallas can be last week, and we saw them come back from 21-0 down on Philly. It is very difficult for me to see a Cowboys team that right before that got beat by Arizona and blasted by the Broncos. I know the Broncos are good, but they don't blast people. That they are all of a sudden in a two-week stretch going to go Philly, Kansas City, Detroit,

win, win, win. And so that is not the sharpest analysis. I understand it. But because of those scenarios, and it's in Detroit, and I think this is the first time all year, Detroit has been desperate. Cowboys have been desperate, which means you've almost used,

like some of your desperation oil already. I like Detroit. Well, here's the thing with that fuzzy analysis, as you called it, we would have absolutely said the same thing about the chiefs. And we're still saying it. You know, like, there's no way their backs against the wall. losing to Bo Nix in Denver.

There's no way. Backs against the wall. Thanksgiving Day, all of America watching. Most watch game ever may be regular season, they're not losing that to Dallas. And it's happened. I trust Dallas more. Now, a couple years ago, I would have said Detroit, you know, but Detroit, number one, is not as good as, I think this is their worst team in the last three years.

Yeah. I don't think the 12 and 5 team that made to the conference championship. I think was better. Last year when they won 15 games, I think they were better. Defensively, even with all the injuries last year, they still were a top 10 defense in scoring.

This year, their 15th in scoring defense. You mentioned Terry and Arnold, the cornerback being out, is huge in this game. Because you've got to deal with George Pickens and C.D. Lamb, right? Laporte is out already out the tight end. Now you might be out without Amon Ross St. Brown.

And I just think that I think Brian Schottnheimer has brought, they look better coach. I know I joked about him earlier in the season when they were losing and everything. Yeah, they look better coach than they did last year. You don't see the game management mistakes that we used to see under Mike McCarthy, who obviously was a successful coach. They just, so I think that will transfer to their mentality. Whereas in the past, I don't know if they got kind of full of themselves or they read their press clippings or whatever it was, but I think this team will be more dialed in.

And the other thing, Nick, and a few of the games you mentioned that lost, like Denver and stuff, they didn't have this defense, like some of the guys that came back overshone. But Quinn and Williams obviously has made Kenny Clark better, but Clark is a good player in his own right. Quinn and Williams, they shut down the run. That's nothing against Micah. I still think best thing for them to do would have been to keep Micah. but they do shut down the interior runs.

So you can't really run on them up the middle, which will be interesting in this game with Jemir Gibbs, who's a great running back. But yeah, I just think the defense has now become at least solid. And with that offense, yeah, I trust them more because I don't think Detroit's the same. 3 and 0 after the buy their defense has gone from 31 points a game to 22 points a game.

Pretty good. Is Tomlin on the hot seat that is next on FS1 in the 5th? Fox Sports Channel on Sirius XM. This holiday season, Fox Sports and Purple Heart Homes are teaming up to provide housing solutions for our nation's aging and disabled veterans through the Heart for the holidays campaign. To learn how you can help, scan the QR code or visit go. fox slash purple heart homes. Welcome back to first things first. Greg Jennings is here. We're talking about Chidor. His second start netted eight points for the Browns as the 49ers rolled and Brock was hitting hitting. the duggie in the end zone. Welcome back to the dougie.

Notice we haven't talked about Brock. Well, we only talk about Brock when his job's on the line. I mean, really. Did you want Brown's Niners to make Monday's show? What should we have taken out for? If Brock had thrown three interceptions,

it would have made Monday show. Of course. A man bites a dog. That's the story. New York Times. 16 or 25, one touchdown. Do you expect Shador to prove he's the

Brown's franchise quarterback. Expect is too strong. I would love to see it. You guys know I thought he should have been the first quarterback taken in the draft. But still, at this point, with all that's happened, expect this too strong. What I do expect is him to prove, I think he's already proven he's better than Dylan Gabriel. I think some might say, well, he's been about the same. But just the fact that he can throw it downfield, like with regularity and complete passes,

past 15, 20 yards. Like, he can do all the small, short stuff that Gabriel was doing, plus he gives you that extra dimension. So I think he's proven that. And one of the reasons I'm shaky on the expect, expecting him to prove he's a franchise quarterback, is I don't know how Stavansky, and I'm not saying he's against him,

but who knows, but there's, you know, you want to read body language all you want. But I thought in this game, Shadur threw 25 times. He threw, I think 10 of his passes came in the last two possessions in the fourth quarter. So through three quarters, he threw 15 passes. Their season is over as far as playoffs or anything like that. This is all about seeing what Shadur can do.

So let him throw the football. I'm not sure Stavansky's going to do that. You know, he might keep him at 20 passes and below. So if he will let him, like, throw the ball, and it might be bad. I don't know. But you have to see what this kid can do. So I will go this far and say, I do expect Sjouro over the course of the next several games, hopefully he starts the rest of the year, to at least prove, Greg, he should be,

he should go into training camp next year with a chance to start. Like that he. You're not drafting a quarterback. I can't say. I mean, well, that would mean he's proven he's the franchise quarterback. I think he will prove that he's got a chance to start next year. Like he'll be in the battle next year. I won't go further than that.

Okay. I'm kind of tracking what you're saying. For me, it's a matter of him being in the discussion at the end of the year. And a large part has to do with them giving him the opportunity to just explore who he is and what he has the potential to be. as a pastor, you mentioned his attempts, they have to give him an opportunity to just play. Yeah. Because you're not playing for anything. I understand there's a way you wanted to look if you're Kevin Stefansky, but you're trying to make decisions moving forward at this quarterback position.

The only way we will know and they will find out if he is even in the discussion of being the guy is if they allow him to open up the passing game and just put a lot more on his plate. that being said, I do believe it's going to be challenging because we're going to get a mixture of what we saw the first time we saw him out. His first start. Yeah. Right. And then this second start. And neither of them are superb, but the first start, it was like, okay, they got something.

The second start was, especially after the comments, after the game, you kind of had the expectation of he's going to deliver a little bit more. So I think he puts a little bit more eyes on what his performance looks like because of some of the things that he says. But I think by the end of the season, he should be in discussion. And if his game matches what he feels, he should be in the discussion. Yeah, I don't think he will be. I think they're going to draft a quarterback with their pick. And I also don't agree with you guys that Kevin Stavansky owes him more pass attempts.

Kevin Spancy's trying to Chedore Sanders, whether he should or shouldn't have been, was a fifth round pick. It is not the head coach's number one job. If Dylan Gabriel were playing and they were in a 10 to 8 game with the Niners, none of us would say, man, even if it costs them a chance to win,

they should have let Gabriel throw more. And they have more invested in Gabriel than they do Shador. Now, I never understood the Gabriel pick. I'm not a Gabriel fan as the player. But the Browns, what Stefansky is trying to do is keep his job. And the best way for him to do that is to win a few games. And that Niners game.

Even if he doesn't know who his quarterback is? I think he has very strong beliefs that his quarterback is not on the roster. And I think that most teams who's the quarterbacks on the roster were a third round pick and a fifth round pick, neither of whom wowed you enough in the offseason to displace Joe Flacco, you feel like that they are not going to grow enough

in the next nine months to where they're, maybe they have a way long term future, a la, you know, Kirk Cousins eventually becoming a starter from being a fourth round pick. but I think that they believe they're going to have to go find a quarterback. And if Shador surprises them, great.

But I am not crafting my game plan around trying to acquire as much knowledge as possible about Shador Sanders. I'm crafting my game plan around trying to beat the Niners. Wow. See, obviously you want to win games. But I think all this, they got two things left this season.

See if Shadur is your guy for next year. and Miles Garrett breaking the sack record. And I know I don't want to be unfair to the rest of the roster, and obviously you want to try to win. But I think they need to find out, and I think the owner feels the same way. If Shador's the guy. Can I just add, just one more thing?

I understand people, a lot of people are ascribing a lot of nefarious things to Stefansky, and I do believe that he's in a weird spot because I think the pick was pushed upon him, ownership. I do believe that. But I also think it's in play that the best thing for Shador is limited passes. And Stafansky

knows it. And that it was like, keep them honest with the run game, keep it close, don't get in must pass. Like I do think it is possible, guys, that Shador, that if they were like, hey, Shador, it's all yours today, it would

not turn out well at all right now. I wonder how the story changes next week if he outplays Cam Ward. Yeah, against the Titans. I think it's specifically, and then he's got Caleb the next week. Like, ooh, two number one picks. If he can just go, you know, toe to toe with those guys. The Titans might be the worst team I've seen in 10 years. So I think that's a possibility.

I think I'd be shocked. But it would just be straight if I was a decision maker. Like, man, that's the number one pick. I got to be, I think should do it. And again, he obviously hasn't looked great. I think he's looked better than you would think. think he's looked according. Like the way he's been treated this year, and I get it, I'm not saying they've done

him wrong. The way he's been treated, Stefansky hasn't shown any real, like, affection to him or anything like that in his comments, didn't give him the game. But all I get it, Miles Garrett was great with the sacks. But whatever, rookie in his first start gets a win, your team never wins. But, like, I think Shadour has looked better than what I would expect from him based stormed Stefanski's actions. I would think, I thought,

man, he must be looking like he can't grasp an NFL offense the way they kind of, I thought, treated it. Okay. He scored eight points. I mean, it's not. No, it wasn't great, but I mean, he just looked I thought he looked pretty decent. Right, Titans Browns on Sunday. Steelers got rolled in their own building

by the bills. Mike Tomlin was serenated with booze and fire Tomlin chance. He was asked about the chance and said this today. Take a listen. You know, in general, I agree with them. From this perspective, football is our game. We're in a sport entertainment business.

And so if you root for the Steelers, entertaining them is winning. And so when you're not winning, it's not entertaining. And if you've been in this business, you understand that. And so I respect it. I share frustrations. I understand what makes this thing go. And winning is what makes this thing go.

Should Tomlin be on the hot seat? I think a mutual parting of ways could benefit everybody. Like I think it could. I think that Mike Tomlin, for all of his strengths, it's pretty clear. He's not going to be able to manufacture a team that has a competent offense unless he has a quarterback in place. And that's not – listen, I'm not going to kill him for it. There's a lot of good coaches that are that way. not third rail, but a lot of people think that applied to Bill Belichick.

You know what I mean? That he, as great as he was defensively, if he didn't have the quarterback in place, it wasn't going to be able to work offensively. And I think it's safe to say they're not winning a playoff game this year. I feel confident in that. Right now, there are seven other teams that haven't won a playoff game since 20. the 2017 season and now. The Jets,

the Raiders, the dolphins, the Panthers, the Cardinals, and then the Broncos and Bears who could end that streak. Haven't won a playoff game in the last eight years,

however long that is. Those teams have been through 28 head coaches. So you normally don't get, now there has to be a happy medium between just always changing head coaches. But I think that

if the Steelers, If the Steelers said, you know what, we're going to try for the first time ever this whole offensive-minded head coach thing. And if Mike Tomlin's like, I'm going to, and I'm going to go somewhere where the quarterback's already there. And I don't have to spend so much my time and energy trying to figure out how we're going to eke out 18 points with Mason Rudolph or Kenny Pickett or 42-year-old Aaron Rogers or 39-year-old Big Ben at the end, I think it could be best for everybody. So for me, firing him seems extreme. The mutual parting of ways makes more sense because for me, when you look at the Steelers, I don't know if there's a coach that you can insert and when you're taking Mike Tomlin out and they could sustain the type of winning with what he has not had at quarterback.

And so I don't want to discredit what he's done. However, in saying that he talked about the standard is the standard. That's winning is our game or I think it's winning is entertainment. Yeah, football is our game and winning is our business or business we're in the business of winning. That's how he defines it. They haven't been in the business of winning when it matters most. That's the issue. And so when your messaging is consistent and who's receiving that message isn't delivering

because he talks about how the standard is the standard is upheld. It's with the players and how they perform time after time again on the field of play. That hasn't been the case when the messaging needs to be at its height. And that's the postseason. To your point, I don't care who you get in there. The standard of Pittsburgh is going to be winning in the postseason, not just sustaining the tradition of winning in the regular season, in which he's done better than any coach we've ever witnessed.

And so I just don't think that they're going to be willing to immediately make that change. But at the same time, the messaging may have grown a little stale with the guys within that locker room. And in another locker room, it just hits and they get off to a great rolling start. Well, you said there's no coach out there or very few coaches out there that'll go in there and sustain the level of success that time. Tomlin has. But that's what they need. The problem is Tomlin. Yeah, Tomlin is so good that even without a quarterback for the last nine years or whatever

it's been, he's been able to get them in the playoffs several times, win nine, ten games, whatever. They're going to keep doing that. If Tomlin stays, Rogers, let's say he leaves next year. They're bringing Kyle or Murray, whoever. They're going to be the same team. They're basically the same as they were last year with Mason Rudolph. They're going to be the same team.

if they get rid of Tomlin, I don't want to say get rid, because I think hot seat isn't the right term. I agree with you, like Nick does, mutual party in the ways I got there written down. But, like, they don't generally fire. Pittsburgh doesn't fire it.

It is written, but you can't read it. You know, they don't fight. So I actually think trade or something is in. I actually think both sides should want, like let's say they go nine and eight missed the playoffs.

Tomlin should want, to get a new start somewhere and the Steelers should won a new start. And even if it means, man, we won four games next year. Maybe they can get the quarterback they need. The fans aren't chanting. Mutual parting of ways. Like, you're dialed into, well, your buddy does business with radio.

Yes, there are some fans that are sick of him. I get that. That's not really how the Rooney family does business. Right. What I would, I just add one more very quick thing. I do wonder if part of so much of Tomlin's

mystique has been this we never have a losing season does that lead you to drafting the D tackle instead of Jackson Dart does that like if there's pick it but I felt like picket like scared him awful but I guess

is there but I get it is the fear of like going through the awful year preventing you from getting back. Whatever it is, it just we've used this comfort for you. Again, Andy Reid wasn't a bad coach in Philly. He had a bad ending.

I don't think anybody thought this guy's an idiot, but it was like, okay, best for everybody, and it was. Yeah, but clearly the key ingredient for his sustained success has been to have the personnel defensively to help sustain that despite what we don't

have on him. Brew's ballot next. Is there going to be a shakeup at the top after his mouth of the staff has lost the game? Miles Garrett Got Brock on Sunday for his 19th saga of the season See there's Brock in the show, bro. There you go. Greg, you notice they only let me talk Brock when...

Put him on the ballot. Put him on Bruce Ballet. He hadn't played enough games. Three and a half away from tying the record, but the Browns only have three wins. Let's see if it's enough to keep him on. Dan-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-Ris Bell. I got to be honest.

I'm going to be honest, like, after the first two, it's shaky for MVP of the league. Yeah, I mean, because we're looking at the guy. Yeah, looking at guys, you know, so here we go. At number five, a wide receiver, Jackson Smith and Jigwin. Now, he had two catches 23 yards last week. Yeah, he fell off the pace. Right, but that does hurt him that he fell off the two-k. Yep, but he's still the only receiver in the league over 100.

yards, over 96 yards, actually. He's got 1.11 per game. So I'll keep him on there. It's a thin field at this point. At number four, the sack artist. Still on pace for 27. He only had, well, one you said? Just one, one, but he's on pace.

He's got 19 and 12 games. That's unbelievable. He's on pace for 27. The Titans? Yeah, I mean, this could. He might break. He could break the record. He only needs three and a half.

He only needs four to break. Yeah, I know. He could break it. Yeah. He could break. Yeah, he should break. That's a good bet. I bet you'll be making it.

Fourth down decision. Can I say to real point? Cam Ward went from being so disrespected by us not caring about him being number one pick to so lucky that people don't care about him. I like him one pick. Let's go for it. Interim coach. Hey, that's great. Let's put the ball.

Okay. I play savvy football. Go ahead, bro. All right. This is a new edition. Has not appeared all season at number three. At number three. I'm going to give down.

There you go. I'm going to give him some. Now look, and we'll get, I'm going to talk about this guy later in the show. Jared Goff's numbers are better. But when you watch the games, Dak is putting them on his back in a way that golf's not. Golf doesn't really appear to put them on his back. Now, he plays well, but Dak, I feel like is more the engine than Dart or than

golf is with the Lions. Playing great football. That would be his second. top five MVP finish in the last three years. Now, this could change. Look, they got to be above 500. And they are, and that's why I kind of start feeling like he's eligible. But we'll see.

It's a long season left to be played. All right. At number two, Wilds, stay to same. Stay the same. He was great. He was great. But look, it's not a one game award. The number one guy, everybody's all-American.

Matthew Stafford, Nick, has nine more touchdown passes than the great Drake May. I'm giving him love, nine more in one fewer game. Yeah. So we can't, not yet. Now, I do. I feel like I think, I think Drake is closer to number one than I think Nick does. Oh, I think he's close. He's decreased the gap.

But right now, Stafford right now has a slight edge. over Drake. I mean, for whatever, it's worth brew, perfect ballot. Oh, that ain't perfect. Like, legitimately, this would be, I think Jonathan Taylor has to fall off. His team's falling off.

I love that Miles Garrett, it wouldn't narratively make sense if Miles Garrett got dinged for them losing because they've been losing all year. So, and I think Dack, I think Preston in this award does have to go to quarterbacks. So, Dak, you know,

jumping those guys, totally fine. I know we're going to talk more about May MVP stuff later in with Danny. But I just want to echo what Bruce said. Obviously, Drake May had an awesome week 13, and Matt Stafford had his second worst game of the year. But that does not, by my metric, default to where that means they have to flip-flop. That is, if that were, if we were. We were only five weeks into the season, and that's 20% of the sample,

but, you know, it's 7% of the season or whatever. To me, that wasn't enough for me to flip-flop. And I know you're tweeting out, you're tweeting out about MVP and your talk showing about dynasties. I think that I think he could win it. And I think year two quarterbacks have won it. Like, it's on the board. I don't think he's there yet. Vegas odds.

He's a slight favorite. I was surprised. And again, that's the most. It has the most wins. Where are you at? Look, I like the ballot. I love what I'm seeing out of Drake May. And I think just the style of offense that they play versus,

especially in the red zone versus what we see that the Rams do, you can tell the Rams are almost force feeding the ball to. Devante. Not necessarily Devante, but just throw a touchdown passes for Matthew Staff. The short touchdown passes. And so he, in terms of catching him, he's not going to get caught. because that's the way they play. That's how they're playing this year.

Drake May, his overall body of word, guys, it is... KW. It's tough. Greg, I appreciate that. KW., I'm curious. On your internal ballot, if Stafford plays great this week, will he leapfrog May? Yes.

Because May's all. Really? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. All's about next. May's not playing. I'm a big recency. Live from New York, it's a show that's a show that.

Thank you for watching these last few years where we've had great chemistry. It's basically going to end today at 7 o'clock when we play competitive ping pong. And the show falls apart and they'll be carryover for months, if not years to come. Can I tell you something? Thank you for the ride. The audience is far less worried about tonight's holiday party breaking us apart. Yes. And far more worried about this new persona you've developed tearing us apart.

It's really just my true self, Shane. I know. You sense it, Greg? He wanted a fun hang for the last four years while the Patriots struck. I wanted competitive sports debate. Yes, he wants competitive. And now KW. Hey, whatever he says, I'm following.

He's the leader of the show. I'm excited to see Boo there tonight. I can't make it. You're lucky, too, because you and I are competitive. Interesting. And you don't want me in no ping pong, man. I'm telling you. I would guess Greg's great at ping pong.

I would just guess it. Okay. We're going to find out. It's going to be a disaster. He barely edged me in Boulder. Are the Patriots the best team in the AFC or the entire NFL? Oh, that's a good question. Meanwhile, Alexie Lalas joins us to preview the World Cup draw of this Friday.

There's a very interesting wrinkle that I have to get into with Alexi. Okay. About the draw. I'm interested in that. But right now, we're headed to the mountain. Take a listen. Oof. The weather outside is frightful, but the fire so delightful.

Wow. Did I just invent that? Trademark. Week 13 in the books. This is our chalet once you climb up to 11 wins as a quarterback. That's why it's Patriots themed because no one else is here. And let's hope that it's reflected in today's episode of Mahomesville. I'm gonna leave too.

I told me. Well done. That's all up. I got to admit. Yeah. That was nice. I don't totally understand how that happened. That was good.

That looks great. You're real. I'm just showing up. And the door is real. That other stuff is the robots. I don't, I don't understand how. I don't get it, though.

I got to be honest with you. I didn't do it. I was just there. It's all of our great AI team and Gianna and Hubs and Rick and everybody. I'm pretty. As a rule of thumb, I'm pretty anti-A-I. That was that, I don't know if that made me more or less anti. Don't forget about loneliness.

I know. You always talk about this loneliness. Loneliness is an epidemic. Wilde watched the movie Her and it's just burrowed in his head like a brain. It's not what it's about the elderly. But the concept. Was that about AI making people. No, that guy was up to nobody.

He fell in love with Stroudo Johansson. What's that got to do with AI? They're doing the elderly. The elderly is an epidemic. That guy was just at a dead end job. Time for the mountain. Off the mountain. At least some guys are getting healthier.

So bottom of the mountain, listen. Jaden should be back. Kyler, I said it when it happened. Classic one. Kyler's never playing another snap for the Cardinals. Yeah. They still have an egg. They open up his practice window.

No, that's over. Michael Pinnick's obviously hurt out for the year. J.J. McCarthy's going to be back. Like, glass one-tenth full, he'll be better than Brasmer. He saw Brasmer, he was like, heck yeah. I'm ready. You see what I'm overcoming? Meanwhile, Justin Jefferson's on LinkedIn.

Like, you gotta be kidding me. And then a bunch of young quarterbacks and Kurt Couss. Bottom of the Mountain. I understand they won. If you watch that football game, Tua, struggled quite a bit. struggled quite a bit. I understand they lost. But if you watched that football game,

Marks Marriota, made some nice plays. Good brand. The Steelers lost. Aaron, I get it wasn't your fault. You're showing up to meetings. You're hand signaling. You're doing all your stuff.

Accountability starts with me, but all these other guys kind of suck, and they're lazy, and they're unprofessional. Tyrant Taylor was fine. Jackson Dart, he's green because he was off the mountain now. He's all in the mountain. It's fine. He's a bit of a knucklehead, but it's fine.

Gino was fine, bro. Does it respond on the mountain? Don't be yelling at Gino. She doors on the mountain. Gino can be on the mountain. Ro six. What a row? What a row?

Trevor moved up. Purdy moved up. Bryce played a really good game. CJ didn't play well, but they've got seven wins now. Daniel Jones, I was going to move him down while banging on me. He's like, that broken leg. What do you want from him? another amazing row.

All these guys had to drop. Lamar, I don't know what's going on. He's hurt. Man, is his eyes? Jalen hurts. I've never seen a football team where if the star receiver doesn't get the ball, they win. And if the star receiver has an awesome game, they lose.

I can't figure it out. This is not QB win. Mountain. Tough on. Fair is fair. Caleb was not good. The mountain is always fair. It was fair to Caleb when he was a six best quarterback alive at USC.

He's got to get back there. No, he's number one. The NFC. Number one of the right. When you're playing in the Alamo Bowl, you're six best quarterback in the world. Number one seen the NFC, you're in row five. It's how it works. Jared Gough, I thought played well.

I also think there's something wrong with the Lions right now. Now golf was maybe the toughest one. And Bo Nix, we didn't talk about it yesterday. And again, the Broncos can't help themselves but play closer games than they should and stare, you know, losses in the face and then win. However, as someone has watched Bo Nix very carefully, his whole pro career.

I believe the two best games he has played are the last two games he played. I know the pick to Bobby Wagner was terrible, but I thought he played well in that game, played really well against Chiefs. Roe four. Jordan Love moves up. The Bake Show back on the running track moves up.

Justin Herbert with his broken left hand and S talking to Max Crosby, he moves up. Sam Darnold again. They won 26-0. They didn't need him do much. I thought he had a shaky game and other guys deserve those spots. It's hard to penalize him too much because they were playing Max Brosmer and they didn't really need the safety would have just won the game. But still, that's that wrong.

This might be. the most star-studded row three in the history of the mountain. In fact, it's not my opinion, it is, row three. It pained me to move Patrick Mahomes down after that game on Thanksgiving. I thought he was an A-plus. However, while it's not QB wins mountain, it's a game they had to have, they lost. There were other guys that had the argument to move up.

So even though I thought Patrick was a 9.8 out of 10, he drops. Josh Allen almost dropped. And the only reason he didn't drop was I was afraid that Josh, Josh Allen media intelligentsia would come and attack me because I watched everything like, only Josh Allen could have carried him to win like that. Like, huh? I understand it's the holiday season we've all been drinking, but we got the same feeds of this game, didn't we? Joe Burrow, welcome back, Joe.

First time on the mountain in months. Row two. Dak and Drake May moves up. Remember, Drake May was in row three after his tough game and you got mad at me. Patrick was in his spot. he moved up. Dak is, I couldn't, this is where I was conflicted about Patrick. Felt like Drake had to move up.

I couldn't move Dak down after they won. You know, he threw the pick. He was really good. And then still atop the mountain, but not as much of a gap as before. Everybody's all American. Matthew Stafford. What, Kate, do you're making weird sounds? I go last.

You guys go extra long. So he, sometimes when you guys go extra long, dust tells him, we don't have time for your thing. Got you. Well, I'll go fast. I'm going to lock in with Jordan Love. And I understand the rules of the mountain when a quarterback has not been on or been on injured, the injured list off the mountain in Joe Burrow.

He deserves to get back to his kind of rightful positioning. This is just hard for me to optically look at Jordan Love coming off the game and having the season that he's having be lower than Joe Burrow beating the Ravens team that we don't really believe in. But when you look at Jordan Love and what he's been able to do, we love to hate him. And I say this because we love him when he's great and we praise him when he's great. But the moment he makes a simple mistake or a mistake that we feel like this is what's going to cost him in the postseason, this is what he can't do, we really knock him for. Yeah, that's fair. But when we compare him to all these other quarterbacks that we do have

above him, not all of them, but a few, and we can show it. Like, his numbers, they're not necessarily better, but he is just as good. When you look at, obviously, Stafford has been doing what he's doing, but Jordan loves numbers compared to Drake May, obviously, Dag, who are all above him atop this mountain. And I'm not saying that Jordan Love should be in front of them, but we got to start giving him the credit that he is deserving and has earned because he has been concerned. He hasn't been the turnover prong, Jordan Love, that we are so afraid of, and the Packers are afraid of moving forward in the postseason. And so when I watched Jordan Love, what he was able to do in Detroit on Thanksgiving in a moment where if the Packers lost, we would have had huge concerns, especially with the way they performed against the Minnesota Vikings, and Jordan Love specifically, we would have really knocked him.

And I loved how he showed up and he bawled out. We got to start giving him a little more credit. I think Jordan Love deserves to be above Joe Burrow, understanding. How about just flipping with Josh Allen? You can flip him with Josh Allen. That's fine. I mean, the Burrow thing is tough. As you were saying, I can't put up the resume this year.

I mean, they are KW like this. Three in O in games he starts. They're undefeated. But his number, even in that game, they scored a bunch of points. His numbers weren't exceptional, but it just felt like he gave the team juice. Then they all shared food afterwards. I thought it was quite touching. Oh, yeah.

The, so I get it. And you are right. I do have an apprehension about Jordan Love that maybe his season this year has not warranted. All right, Brooke, go ahead. That was good, Greg. Say it with me. Jay, oh! J-O-L-Loh to J-O.

J-O. Why is that better than J-Lo? like excited. Why? Because it's Jay Oh! Oh! Oh! Like after a nice dunk or pass or catch? Oh! You ever seen the dunk contest? Yeah. It was like, oh! Okay, I'll be honest, I didn't know that's what he was doing, but now I get it.

I said I was going to talk about this guy earlier. I get it. Maybe Greg, it's different reasoning, but it's kind of similar, Jared Gough. Like, we just watched Jared Gough, you watch the Lions play, and you love, you know, Jemair Gibbs and Montgomery and the

receivers, and there's all, Dan Campbell, everything, Aidan Hutchinson. And golf just kind of goes about his business, moving the third highest scoring offense in the world down the field. All he does is throw for 250 yards and two touchdowns just about every game. You know, nothing crazy great, but really solid. That's basically what he does. So I am switching golf and Baker. Oh, shocker.

I'm switching golf. No, I mean, just first of all, look at golf's rankings. Look at golf's rankings in the league. I mean, this dude is essentially top five, top six in everything. Everything. All right. Now let's compare him to Baker.

Baker's not having like a fantastic year, certainly not like last season, but golf's got him lapped in everything, everything. You know, so I think, I know Baker got back on the winning track, and that was good for them. They clearly needed that win. Carolina's breathing down their throats. But Jared Goff, I think, needs to move.

I'm not saying because his numbers by today, you know, this year's group should be on the top five ballot for MVP. I don't think he's playing that well when you watch the games, but his numbers are very. Numbers are great. So here's in that exact comp, Baker and Golf. Here's what I would say. It feels like Baker this year has been the reason the bucks have been able to overcome their injuries, which were all over the offensive lines start the year, then running back, still I don't have Mike Williams.

And it feels to me when I'm watching the Lions that they are often trying to overcome the limitation. golf puts on the offense. I know the numbers have been great, but to your point, it feels like with all those explosive weapons and the fact that they know there is a certain way in which he can function at an elite level,

and then that's the only way he's going to function in an elite level that it puts a little handcuffs on him. And so that maybe that, because the numbers are the numbers. He said little handcuffs on me? I didn't know. I mean, again, his wrists are normal size.

That's just funny. Did you see you add in San Little Anko? I didn't even have Freudian slip, I suppose. Go ahead, KW. You know what our strategic advantage is as a show? You, buddy. No, not me. You know you wanted to hear.

No, I think. Like right now, if you're watching this program, you could watch any movie made pretty much in the history of mankind. find. Everything's available at all times. Any show, any episode, you can find it. Our strategic advantage that can't be replicated is the fact that we're live. It's a live show. It doesn't mean that what happened last night. So because we're live, things always got to change. Otherwise, we got to be out here like, you know, Paul Thomas Anderson doing great stuff. We're not.

We're doing a graphic that has Jacoby Brissette as Ryan Tanhill, okay? But we're live. So we have to be able to react on the fly. It's live. So when something happens, like, I don't know,

this week's football games and one that was last night, and one quarterback lost the game, not by himself, but the lion's share. And the other quarterback was so great,

it was just kind of, boring. I think that should weigh into the rich tapestry. Drake May moved up. You can't be at the top of the mountain after a horrible game. There's precedent for that. He had three turnovers. He had a pick six. I think it made it back to back. One was a pick six. He lost. We won by 18 points, completion percent. I mean, obvious. He played great. Oh, yes. But it's not. Against the Panthers. It's, but this is, it's got to be live. We have to. Otherwise, we, we're We're going to have one of those things that cut, one of those, like those clapboards. We can't do that, man.

It's just four of us. There's like nine people here. What do you want to start doing? Doing good fellas? It's not going to work. Here's this season. You want to say, oh, he's got more touchdowns. What else?

Just give me something else. The rating's the same, the fewer interceptions also. More touchdowns, few interceptions is a decent place to start. Well, he's tracking for more after two yesterday on Sunday. And here's my other argument. Okay, okay. If you want to give me the MVP, I'm fine. He does not belong in the top of the mountain,

because the mountain has to be live. This is more of an MVP argument. I backed myself into the corner. We were four and 13 last year. Yeah. We were bad. The Rams were 10 and 7. The Rams won a playoff game. Then the Rams added Devante Adams,

and Matt Stafford, who was good last year, it's been good as whole career, got even a little bit better. That's not most improved player, buddy. Then what is it? Baby, buddy. Baby. You call me baby. That's why the show work.

That's an argument. Sweetheart. That's an argument for Mike Vrable or Josh McDaniel. No, because you're saying the team took this huge jump. Because Dregg took a huge jump. But again, it's not most, if you're arguing for most improved player or biggest offseason coaching acquisition

or coach of the year, that's fine. But I believe Matt Stafford is having the best year. I also think that going into this week, it was not that close. After this week, I think it has become close because Drake had an exceptional game. Was his career high in yards? That's to be close to. He's never thrown 300 yards. He's always kicking around 284.

Right. And Stafford had arguably his worst game of the year. So that's now close. But again. Worst game in the year, you can't be on top of the mountain. But that's, that's just the rules. Okay, I got to tell you something. It's the rules.

You set the rules of a lot, probably more than you should about this. It's the rules. Why are these guys moving up and down? Here's one area you don't set the rules. They all move up and down based on the rules. Yeah. And if Stafford has another bad game. He needs two bad games.

Yes. He needs six turnovers. He had 30 touchdowns and two interceptions on the season. He was on the last. The longest street correct in the history of the league. And then he cracked under pressure. Okay, under pressure. He broke the record and you know what?

He's like, let me give this one of the Panthers. That's the opposite cracking under pressure. That would have been right before he did it. In any event, Alexie Lawless is coming up next. We're going to talk about the World Cup draw. What's the best case scenario for the USA? What's the worst case scenario? And this odd wrinkle that people got to be ready for.

Oh, we also have an odd wrinkle. Yeah. Great week to be. be a soccer fan Friday. FIFA World Cup final draw at 11.30 a.m. Eastern on Fox. Then on Saturday, messy and inner Miami square off against Vancouver for the MLS Cup at 2.30 p.m. Eastern. Also on Fox. So a whole lot of soccer Friday and Saturday. Here to break it all down is our friend Alexi Lollis. Last time you saw Alexi, he was sweating bullets in Miami. God, that was insane.

But on the AC here. And it's December, so it's a nice combination. This is great. You guys got a good game. Well, welcome. All right, Friday. What's our absolute best case scenario for who we draw? All right, so first off, so just so everybody understands, biggest World Cup in history,

48 teams, 104 games, obviously with our friends up north Canada and our friends down South Mexico. The draw is where, you know, there are little balls and bulls, and they draw it out, and they put the teams into the different groups. because we, well, we know the U.S. is in it. We know these teams are not. We don't know who's playing. So you have different pots.

It's arranged on how good you are. And, yeah, there is going to be a group of death. There are teams, for example, in pot two. The U.S. is in pot A because they're a host. Teams in pot two, teams like Croatia and Morocco. Yeah, I wouldn't want to get. But you can waste time thinking about that. We're going to get a good group.

All right. We're going to get a group where you say, you know what, we should come out of this group, which is nothing that we haven't done before. We should even win this group, which is something we certainly have done before. And this team historically has played up to the opponent. So you get into some tricky areas where you just say, well, let's have the, you know, the easiest group. Not so, not so simple when it comes to the World Cup.

Oh. Okay. I want to. I heard you screaming and yelling about something. What's the problem? What is going on? Here's my concern. So if people, I want to explain it a little bit further than you did if people don't know as far as.

So 48 in the group stage, 32 this year, advance to knockout round. So if you finish. first or second in your group, you're automatically in, and then the eight best third place teams also advance. So it would be a disaster to not advance the round of 32, the knockout stage, but it matters where you advance, and if you're first in your group, you have better draw. The way the pot's work is, pot one is supposed to be basically the 12 best teams,

but it's not quite because the U.S., Canada and Mexico automatically are in it. So we get grandfathered in. So that's already an advantage. Pot two is then the next group. Pot three is the next room. Pot four is my concern here, Alexi. A lot of people are concerned with pot four. So here is the problem.

So pot four, you're going to see, wait, that's not 12 teams. So six groups are going to get these teams that are ranked somewhere between 60th and 160th in the world. Should be easy wins in theory. Yep. But I'm a curisal guy. But there, I understand. Who wins? Of course.

But here is the problem. There are going to be six other teams that we won't. know until March. Right. That are in pot four. That includes Italy. You heard of them? They're pretty good.

That includes Denmark. That includes Ukraine, Poland, Sweden, Wales, all really good teams. So if you're one of these teams that draw, where you're supposed to have your easiest game, you draw Italy. So when they, on Friday, when they draw up, it's like, oh, it's a mystery. You're getting one of these guys. That's not good. Yes.

It potentially could not be good. That's not good. Absolutely right. So do you get a mystery? It's like TDD? Yeah, because in March there's this tournament to figure out the final six qualifiers. So we just want in pot four to have a flag for our group, right? We just wanted to be one of those six teams, not Turkey A.

Yeah, I mean, look, we want the easiest group, all right? I understand that. But I don't care. You don't care? Just give me three teams. I'd rather play curse out than Italy. Yes. I'm confident.

I tell you that much. Yeah, best laid plans and all until Curacao kicks your ass, you know? I mean, I... You're confident in us. Okay. I am more confident than I was even a couple of months ago. When we were in mind. Exactly.

Maricio Pochitino, I think he has, if there is a method to the madness for Pochitino, who is the coach of the U.S. team, I'm starting to see it more. But let's be honest. All that really matters is when that whistle blows next summer. So to your point, yes, getting a good group is important. This Friday, the camera's going to pay. around and there will be coaches that are sitting there with a scowl and a disappointment because they say, oh my God, this is a very difficult group. Yeah, I don't want Erling, Holland, and Norway in our group.

That doesn't sound fun. I want Norway. You want Norway? No, they're the best team in pot three. No, I want to know your Pots, KW. I want stars. I want to play stars. Yeah, in the knockout round.

Right. I want Holland right away. Early Holland. Also Holland. Let me ask you this. Let's get to some of our guys. Christian Polisicic. He's been playing great, but now he's got the thigh injury.

Is this any cause for concern? He has had a history of injuries over the years. But I think he's also grown into his body when he first pushed on the scene. He was a teenager. And so he's figured out how his body works. I would have liked to see him more over the last couple of years, but some of these injuries have kept him out. All I care about is that he is healthy next summer.

He is arguably the best player in Sidiya over in Italy right now. That's how great he is. And I think he's also made that interesting transaction. from being, you know, a good American player to a great player who just happens to be American. Right. And you don't think like when we were in Miami he he wasn't at those. Yeah. They were friendlies or qualifiers? Goal Cup. Oh, it wasn't at the goal cup. We had already. Yeah. We're auto in. So it was kind of strange. There's no hangover resentment still there. That was like a lot of dry. I can grumpy old man for a little bit.

And I probably will. I didn't like it. But you know, if he's healthy, he's going to start. He is a start. He is a star. He does step up for the national team, and we're going to need him to be that star next summer and to lead this team. Not lead it in terms of his leadership because he's a very reluctant type of leader, but lead it in terms of his play, the players that he beats,

obviously the goals that he scores. And also kind of deep down, you think you taking these little shots might chip on his shoulder, get the best out of it. That's my theory. Yeah, well. That's, I actually believe.

I actually, I just came from Maricio Pochitino speaking across town, and he really kind of summed up his philosophy, which is, I don't care. where you play. I don't care how much money you make. I don't care who you're married to. I don't care anything about your, you know, I don't care what your contract is. I care that when you put that shirt on, you care about the country that you are playing for. In this case, I feel it's the greatest country in the world. And he has instilled that and that type of ruthlessness and competition

within players to represent your country. So since we last talk to you, they've gone on this five-game winning streak. What are your couple of biggest takeaways from that for people that weren't weren't necessarily locked in, things that actually mattered for the team that we're going to see. So I think the most interesting thing that's happened is, yes, you have your usual suspects. We talked about Christian Polisic and guys that were at the last World Cup. But Marisa Poititino is going to bring a bunch of players that were not at the last World Cup. His starting goalkeeper, Matt Freeze, all right? This is a guy who, I think he might have been the first Harvard man to ever play in a World Cup if this happens next summer.

But he has taken the position. Guys like Sebastian Burhalter plays up in Vancouver. You mentioned an MLS Cup. He'll be playing an MLS Cup on Saturday, and I'll be down in Miami too for that MLS Cup against Inter-Miami. Guys like Christian Roldon, who plays up in Seattle, Diego Luna, plays in Salt Lake. All these guys, they're going to make the team,

and they are going to get on the field, and they might use it as this opportunity to embrace the World Cup and kind of create their own stardom. Yeah, so we got four friendlies left. Yep. What are you looking to see, you know, and learn about our team in those four. So there's two games in March and then two games right before the World Cup.

The two games in March, I think, are the most important because the two games right before the World Cup, people are just kind of joccing for position and they don't want to get hurt and it's right before the World Cup. I'm not saying they're not important, but it's very limited opportunity to see this team. I'm not saying that Pochitino has decided everything, but that March window, I think, is huge. You will not see anybody opting out of the March window, especially if you were on the bubble of making the team. you're going to be there, even if they have to play through an injury, to prove to Pochitino that you deserve to be there.

So that's going to be really fun to see that competition within that competition. How big does, for lack of the better term, home field advantage matter in this tournament? There is a magic, like, there's nothing better than a World Cup except a Home World Cup. And there is a magic from a Home World Cup. I'm sitting here today with you guys because of a Home World Cup back in 1994. And there's a there's a Brigadoonish element where this beautiful, mist descends, and it can raise people up that you didn't expect to raise up. It can raise teams up. And what I'm hoping is that they find some of that magic, and they do things

that we haven't seen before. But you should expect this U.S. team to do good things. You should expect this U.S. team to do well on the group stage, to get out of the group stage. You mentioned the new round of 32 in terms of knockout rounds, to get through a round of 32, and then get into that rarefied air of 16 and beyond. And hopefully, if that happens, the U.S. kind of embraces this team and in doing so embraces the country and comes together and celebrates through the World Cup this team and this sport. Can I ask you kind of an odd question? Because I think like in American sports, like we're all here. A lot of this show is like, you want the Chiefs to win the Super Bowl. I want to win the Super Bowl. At the same time for USA Soccer, I feel like there

would be a level of happiness I would get without winning the whole thing. What is considered success, what is considered a disappointment. Obviously, we want to win, but where does success, where do we feel like we're in the money? It's like a poker thing. In the money, right? In the money, right? Yeah, exactly. It's all, you know, gravy.

You know, what I was, years ago when the Supreme Court tried to define obscenity, like, I can't tell you what it is, but I know it when I see it. I'm going to know what success is, and you all will too, when you see it, and you will feel it and you will be a tingly type of sense in what you're seeing. And yes, it has to do with the score certainly, but it goes beyond the score when you're watching this team. And if you feel that they are representing the team with pride and you appreciate the work that's going into what's happening and obviously the score, the scoreboard, that's success. But I can't tell you, you know, obviously if the U.S. gets to a semi-final at a home World Cup after what we are,

I mean, we're in like, you know, this is. They should expect. to get to the round of 16. Yes. That's playing to your seed. The 14th theme in the world, they should expect to get the round of 16. Losing before that is a... Like you said, we're the 14th team in the world.

It's not like we're, you know, this, you know, backwater type of soccer country. But getting past that would be, getting to the final eight would be matched the greatest performance in the history of the country in reality. And then the 16, we're going to come up against a team

that people say is better than us and might be better than us. So you're going to have to rise to the occasion and do something that everybody can recognize whether they're into soccer or not. That's something cool. That's something special. That makes me proud to be an American watching that team. Yeah, when you mentioned the round of 16, I was going to ask, because we're ranked 14th, as you said, in FIFA.

So you think that's a good, accurate ranking? I was going to ask you, is that too high? Is that too low? Is that right about where we are? I think that is a fair ranking for this U.S. team. We've been more. And, you know, people rankings are, obviously, there's a little bit of subjective. And, you know, whatever, what happens in FIFA rankings is if you're ranked really, really high,

rankings are so important. They're incredibly credible. If they're not, it's like, ah, they're just throwing it together. Nobody knows what's going on. But, you know, this is a team, like I said, that you should expect good things. All right. Switch gears to a game this weekend, MLS Cup, this Saturday on Fox, Inter Miami versus Vancouver. Do you expect Messi to have a superstar performance here?

I mean, look, you guys talk about stars all the time. And so what are the characteristics of stars? Stars, when everybody is watching and expecting you to do magical stuff, and that's what you do. And this guy, on a consistent basis, goes out there. And it's not just the goals, it's the passing, it's the impact that he has on the game. When everybody is sitting there and saying, you're arguably the greatest player ever to play the game, do something magical, boom, and he does something magical,

which is why Inter Miami has, and I love what Jorge Moss and David Beckham have created down there, The aesthetic, love the pink part of it, pretty in pink. But more importantly, they've created a super club, a villain. There will be people that tune in on Saturday to watch MLS Cup, specifically to see Intramyamiami with Messi go down because it's big and sexy. They spend a lot of money. And you want to do that. Cowboys, Yankees, Lakers, all these different types of teams.

Leagues need that. They need a villain. And Intramy Miami for a lot of people are the villain. But Vancouver, I'm telling you right now, is a really, really good team. So Messy and Company are going to have their hands. full on Saturday down in Miami. Excellent. Saturday, 2.30 on Fox.

Alexi, thank you very much. Thanks, guys. Great. World Cup continues. We'll keep checking in. After the break, the Patriots. Speaking of dynasties. Speaking of villains, Alexe.

Are people all mad that the Patriots are good? Saturday. This is huge. Fox is just loaded up with huge events and games. Number two, Indiana, number one, Ohio. Ohio State. This also might decide the Heisman Trophy, decides the Big Ten. A little national championship preview.

Just amazing. Saturday 6.30 only on Fox. Welcome back to first things. Right. We'll definitely decide the number one overall seed in the college football play. Yeah. Yeah. Unless it's like zero zero.

I think still. Really? What if it was three nothing? I think still. Afternoon headlines brought to you by Hilton. Hilton. It's for this day. Patriots crush the Giants.

Patriots QB is throwing darts through the air. Patriots defense throwing dart through the air. Here's a picture of the playoff picture. We're number one. We're 11 and 2. What? You have an issue with that and just reading the graphic? No, I jumped your question.

So go ahead. Are we number one? No, that's not the question. Well, are we the team to beat in the AFC? Not to me. even though I have said throughout the year that I think you guys are the second best team in the conference to a team that I had best

that right now is in the 10th spot. You know what I mean? And I'm not going to say I have the chiefs ahead of you because the chiefs haven't played like it. Team to beat is different for me than the team that either has the best record or to me the team to beat right now in the AFC and the team that has far and away

the most pressure to actually break through and should do it is Buffalo. And it is, this is, I have been from preseason to right now, very complimentary of New England and I believe in them because I believe in Brable and believe in the quarterback and that to me is 80% of it. But I just, as a rule of thumb, aside from the year I picked Caleb to go to the Super Bowl as a rookie,

typically I'm going to say, yeah, I'm not going to trust the team that's never been in the playoffs, the quarterback is never in the playoffs, to make it all the way of Super Bowl their first year. And Buffalo, I think Buffalo and New England are closer than you think. And so here's their resumes, not their statistical resumes side by side.

We'll do offense and then defense. And what you'll see is Buffalo has the, I think it's fair to say, slightly better offense, not by a lot, but I mean, more yards, more points. and doesn't have any weakness on offense while the Patriots, oddly, have not been very good running the ball. And this, I think, works against the fats a bit.

Then defensively, the Patriots have the better defense with the bills having one glaring weakness, but it also happens to be the one thing the Patriots offense isn't great at. And so, like, if I, the, I know it's weird with a Mike Vrable coached Patriot team for what we've seen, but if I have the opportunity, can I have the best past defense and the worst run defense or vice versa.

If I'm trying to beat the Patriots, I'd rather have a good pass defense. And because that's where their strength has been, you think they have the MVP at quarterback. So just like if the Broncos win this week when the Patriots are off and they are the one seed, I won't because they would be. I won't call them the team to beat. So no. I get what you're saying. If the chiefs are out and, you know, Buffalo because of Josh Allen, because they've been knocking on the door.

all these years. People would feel that way. And if the Ravens got it going and like they ended the season on a nice run, I think they would be similar because of Lamar and their history as well. But here's where I think it shifts, Nick. If the Patriots beat the bills again, they played this week, right? After the buy. After the buy.

If the Patriots beat the bills again, sweep them this regular season, I kind of think that changes. If the chiefs are out and the Patriots will have swept the bills and get the number one seed, and maybe they're what, 14 and 3, 15 and 2, I think they would be viewed as the team to beat. Now, if Buffalo beats them, then I think it kind of goes back to the...

If Buffalo beats them, even if New England still wins the division. Yeah, I think people will fit, just because of Allen's pedigree. The Patriots are the team to be in the AFC. It's really simple. Like, you put those numbers up, and I look at it from a player's performance, perspective of there is no sense of fear of the big brother anymore.

There's no, we can't beat that team in Buffalo because we've done that. And so the Buffalo has the most pressure because we have expectation if the team in red and the chiefs don't make it, then it's like Buffalo, if you're not going to do it this year, then you're never going to get it done. However, when you look at those numbers that you put up, they are just such a well-balanced diet. I'm talking about offensively, defensively, defensively, offensive

pass game, run game. Like when you look at how he disperses the ball. Like Josh McDaniels has done a terrific job of just saying, look, we may not have a number one. We have a guy that everybody knows and Stefan Diggs but Hunter Henry, obviously

Kashan Bouti, all these guys, Ramandre Stevenson, Austin Hoop. Everybody is a part of what we're doing and why we're successful. So you can't lock in on us. We're going to run the ball. We may not run the ball as good as the Buffalo Bills, but we're going to still stick

to our game plan and we're going to play solid defense. And that means situational football. Third down, they're great. Red zone, they're great. Like, they don't give up touchdowns. Like, this is a well-rounded, nutritious meal. And if you've got to go in there, you're going to eat whatever they put on the plate. And Henderson is obviously a breakaway threat too in the run game.

No number one wide receiver, great quarterback, solid coaching, not beating yourself, good defense and run the ball. What does that remind you? Patriots football a little bit? A little bit. Back in the dynasty? No, that is. That's true. Question for you, Greg, that's been floating around my brain that I think is strange, but I want your take on it.

Have the buy, bills at home, hat and shirt game that we can just clinch, which is shocking early. And then the Ravens, I kind of want to lose one of these games just to get sort of any flaws exposed. And I feel like we have been beaten up on tomato cans, all the shots about it's an easy schedule. Not totally wrong. It was 17 nothing in the end of the first. Like I did feel like practice when they didn't go for that fourth and one. Like, oh, good. Let's do a little hurry up and get a field goal.

But I do want to have like a stress test before the playoffs. Is it strange that I want these games to be tougher than or even lose? I know it sounds crazy, but I wouldn't hate it. I think being tough in having to grind out some of these games, the Buffalo game, the Baltimore game, because these are teams that you might have to face in the postseason. That will give you kind of an idea of in a feel of this is what playoff football is going to be like. This is the closest thing we're going to get from a young group, young quarterback-led team, move going into the postseason with no experience.

And so, yes, I understand the idea of having those stressed games, but I just think they're better than these teams. I just think they're better than these teams, and it's top to bottom. Can I, oh, you got to. You can talk to me at the ping pong. Is there, in a week, is there any chance you think the Broncos are the team to be? I don't believe in Bow Nets, but I believe in the defense. Live from New York, it's a show that is worried about being too competitive while we play ping pong tonight.

Just you. Just you, man. You're the only person on the staff that last year had a tear in your eye and said, you're going to break up the show because I beat you in bowling. There's certain etiquette to bowling. I can betraying other confidence too. Yeah. Whilst the day said, remember, there's no such thing as a work party.

It's just working. Well, I'm just saying. I was like, I mean, you were worried Danny was just going to get hammered? No. I'm like, yeah, pushing me down and stuff. I don't want to get pushed down. I'm planning to play. I am going to be my professional self.

I'm like, oh, good shot in ping pong. That'll be a good departure from last year. You want everyone to stay in their work person. No, I'm just going to be like, hey, great job playing ping pong. Oh, that was fun. I'm not going to go, wapa, wah, wow, wow. So are this pre excuses for if you don't play? I'm just saying yes I've got a pink pong table on my house I play all the time

but I'm on people one first thing's first overtime today it's another episode of Top 10 Tuesday do the Chiefs actually deserve a top spot Danny wrestles with I saw the rough draft of top 10 Tuesday perfect list not great so I hope there's been a lot of adjustments they've been controversial meanwhile can the Cowboys make a run to the playoffs. Dak is feeling confident as they take on the Lions this Thursday. But right now we're talking about the Patriots. Drake May 282, two touchdowns. 10th straight win. First place in the AFC. Here he is after the game. Take a listen. Just trying to be, trying to be the face, try to be the conductor. He calls it the conductor of the offense. You're trying to be the face of

the offense, trying to want the pressure. You want to, you know, the ball in my hands. And I've, you know, tried to, you know, show that all year and throughout my career. So, So that's what I kind of feel like. And I know they feed off of me and feed off my energy and feed off of what I say to those guys and what I say you'll mean something to them. Injected into my veins. MVP odds, there was a flip-flop from May and Stafford. Drake May now the favorite, Stafford, Dack. J-Lo didn't make Bruce Bell.

That's interesting, bro. Look at those. But those odds say this is a two-man race. Yes. Correct. And one player just played out of his mind and the other guy had three turnovers. Dan, do you think the MVP is Drake Mays to lose? No, I don't.

I think those odds flipping like that is maybe instructive on what we should be paying attention going forward. Like, this is a vote that is shaped largely by narratives voted on by 50 humans, right? And so, like, the things that shape narratives, national television. games have an outweighed importance in that. That's true. And so Drake May bawled out on national TV, and he was awesome. Like, my eye test, I didn't need to see the box score. I didn't need to, like he looks like an NFL star.

He looks like an MVP. These throws are great. Probably 25 teams around the league at least are just jealous that that guy isn't on their team. But the rest of the way, you guys have no more national TV games. You have big games that we'll talk about. We'll talk Pat's bills, we'll talk Pat's Ravens, but 1 p.m. Eastern games. The Rams have three.

They've got three more national TV windows. They've got the Falcons on Monday night. That's great for Stafford. Yeah. They've got Rams Seahawks, the rematch. That might not. Oddly, that might hurt Stafford. That can work in both directions.

Exactly. If he plays great, it's, oh, my God, he did that on national TV against the top three defense on Thursday night. the rematch of that great game from a couple of weeks ago. And then they've got the America's Game of the Week, the 425 game on Fox against the Lions in a couple of weeks. So there's three more basically standalone windows for Stafford, I think to win or lose it. And then the last thing just based on the narrative,

I do think Ty is going to go to the veteran. You do? I do. Even though it feels like May is doing more with less, which would put the emphasis on value, 37-year-old guy, he's won a Super Bowl, we've known him for forever. It's like the last thing in his career that he doesn't have. I could see veteran sports writers kind of crowning Matt Stafford with an MVP.

Yeah, that's happened. Look, I'm an NBA voter for MVP. Sometimes that happens, you know, a guy's had a great career, hadn't won an MVP, and that's fair. And the other stuff about the national TV games stuff you said was fair as well. I still, though, think Stafford should be the MVP right now. If it ended right now, there's a lot of games left and May could pass him because he closed the gap yesterday. But I said earlier, Danny, Stafford has played one fewer game than Drake May and has nine more passing touchdowns. So I think he clearly, on the field, I get it that May statistics and other areas are better. But on the field, to me, it's clearly Stafford right now.

Now, I do think what you said, the argument for Drake is he does not have Puka, Nakuwa and Devante Adam. No doubt. Or even Kyron Williams as his running back. Nor does, I mean, obviously Josh McDaniels is a great play caller. So I'm going to go with the coaching with McVeigh. But his players are a lot less on as far as the weapons than they have in Los Angeles. So I think that's the fact that then last year, winning four games.

and bringing that team all the way back that nobody, I know you guys picked them to make the playoffs, but nobody really foresaw this coming. And he's with his head coach for the first time. Like we always talk about switching coordinators, switching coaches, how that affects players. I mean, a lot of people, obviously it didn't go well under Gerard Mayo last year, but a lot of people hate to see the quarterback in his second year switch head coaches. I know it's working out in Chicago, too. But all of those things are check marks in Drake's on Drake's side.

But I think on the field it's been Stafford. What's your case that Drake May has been better? My case that Drake May has been better is probably the improvement that we saw in Drake May. And I know that's sort of like it's not the most improved. But Stafford has been doing this. And now he's doing it like a little bit better. It's great. And he's got, and maybe that doing it a little bit better is now he throws the ball,

DeMonte Adams, you know, over a dozen times in the red zone, these little five-yard, unstoppable routes that McVeigh designs. I do think narratively that the odds have shown that the numbers might not really matter. If he has more touchdowns and Drake May has a better completion percentage, just no one really cares about, like, then it's like, all right, your touchdowns don't really matter. We're leaning towards Drake May. Well, some of the analytics actually do favor May. Like the EPA per dropback stuff, that actually is.

But it's like raw, but like raw touchdown. Can we show their season long numbers? Because I do, because here's what it is. May's got him beat most of the things outside. But if you, so if you look, oh, this is not what I was talking about. This is, but we could show this too. This is fine. Because this is where I will bring up the strength of schedule.

And this is where I think it is fair. Just like I think it is totally fair to say, hey, One guy's doing it with Diggs off an ACL, and if we could go back to that graphic for a second. I think it's totally fair to say Diggs is doing it off an ACL, and Booty is, you know, a revelation while the other guys has Puka and Devante. That's a totally fair mark for May.

A fair mark for Stafford is they have played the second most games against current playoff teams. That's pretty good. The Patriots have played the second fewest games against current playoff teams. And against current playoff teams, and now obviously not all of them have great defenses, but he is cooked.

23 touchdowns, one pick. And Drake, while those numbers are not bad and the team is 2 and 0, his passer rating for the year is, what, 11? So, you know, and so that to me is when we're parsing it, that is a more fair thing to bring up as not an indictment, but as a mark for Stafford over May, than it is about an indictment on the Patriots being not a real 11 and 2 or whatever it is.

Because you do, like, you play who's on your schedule and you don't have to apologize for it. But the MVP is a subjective award where I think it is totally fair to bring in the soft points of, like you're saying, improvement, preseason expectation, how hard the path has been. And Stafford carving up the toughest division in football. And go ahead. No, if I was to ask you, I was like, as quickly, as efficiently as possible, tell me why the Rams are having a great season. I would say Stafford's having the best year of his career. Okay. That's honestly, I honestly do believe that.

I don't think this is a small jump for Stafford. I think this is, Stafford's been to what, like you always talk about, two Pro Bowls. He's never, Stafford has never, ever had a season where people were like, you know, what? This year he is the best quarterback in the NFL. And I think for the majority of this season, he's been the best quarterback in the league. See, I thought you were going to start

like, well, look, it's Stafford, and then we teamed with McVeigh, and Pucca's made a huge leap, and DeVontes' top five. And the defense is top five. Whereas Patriots, like, it's Drake May. No, see, I don't, but honest to God, a dash of variable. No, and I think the biggest difference

for the Patriots this year is variable. So like if they had kept Gerard Mayo, I do not think that there is any world where we're talking about Drake May as MVP. That's fair. I don't know, man, Drake May is he's awesome. Why I love this MVP debate is like last year was fun, but Lamar and Josh were peers. Like we saw some like Brady Rogers, like Brady Manning. This is the 37-year-old against the second year pro. Like the idea of like Drake May winning an MVP this early in his career and what it could possibly be is just exciting for the next crop of quarterbacks.

Quickly before we go to top 10 Tuesday, I also kind of like that Drake May doesn't want it. I'm okay with it. I'm just saying he's not pining for it. Yeah. So he was asked about in Tampa Bay, there was Patriots fans in Florida. And they were like, what do you think about the MVP chance? He's like, you know, those are probably for bakeries having a heck of a year. He's very on brand.

If he doesn't get it, it's not going to kill me. I think it's like there's... Well, you're going to want to walk away. Here's the thing. If people weren't watching, two hours and ten minutes ago, Kevin Wilde talked about the Patriots being in the midst of a dynasty. I didn't say in the midst. It was a wild place.

I didn't say we're in the midst. I said that there's a lot of dynasty. You said made some weird OSHA thing about open big hands. It was not a weird OSHA thing. You were out there. I was not out there at all. Regardless, this is what I was trying to say. to the audience, if I may.

Kevin Wilds is already on the multiple championships, including back to back for the Patriots, which is requisite for any NFL dynasty. And you are so far out there, you're like, you know what, if he doesn't win MVP this year, he'll get playing more.

He'll get three in the next five. Yeah, and so I just, I hope you guys walk away as with the Denzel Washington line you like. I'm leaving here with something. I hope you leave here with something and not just you were the one seed on December 2nd. I'm not saying we are a dynasty.

I'm just saying there's a lot of elements that if I hated dynasties, I'd be like, this place stinks. Out of your minds. It's Tuesday and it's about 512, which means time for top 10 Tuesday. We're looking at a picture of Patrick Mahomes. who sits at 500.

But Danny, you've always been a fan of the Chiefs. And you also said you would never doubt them. Well, you wrote a letter. Top 10, too. That was ages ago, Nick. Things changed. Welcome to the top 10 for the best defense in the NFL. I like this.

The Houston Texans. It's just how I feel about you today. And Houston, in a way, kind of the anti- Bears and the anti-patriots. Look at their schedule. They have only played one team, the Titans, and they played him twice, who would not be in the playoffs today. Yeah, 10 of their 12 games are against teams that if the playoffs started today would be in the playoffs. They have held those 10 teams to 18 and a half points per game. It's the best defense in the NFL.

Apologies to the C-Hawks. I'll have two games. Once they play the Chiefs, it'll be the two. It'll be the Titans and the Chiefs. Lump them together. Going back to number nine, the Philadelphia Eagles. Nick, I've loved your three and out graphic for them because it's just, it's jarring to see the company they keep. They almost have more three and outs this year than scoring drives, which just, if you like, instead of thinking, they have almost as many three and ounces field goal drives.

It just seems impossible for the talent of the offense. And they just got punked by the Chicago Bears. Maybe they'll be making a debut on Tap Tuesday. Well, they better be. Well, we'll see. They're number one seed. I mean, they. What type of team?

Can we build? It's not a one thing. The kids are going to appear. Maybe the bears are going to appear. This guy has a framed picture of shirtless Ben Johnson in his office. And we had, you know, maybe the bears are in the top eight. I replaced it as the background of my phone. Who knows?

Come in getting at number eight. The Dallas Cowboys. Wow. Wow. Wow. It's shocking. It'll get there. Yeah.

It's been broken screaming. That is shocking. Here's the thing. Now, this is also maybe a little out there. But if the. first 13 weeks of the season, we looked at it as the preseason. Yes. And then everybody was zero and zero. I sign up for it.

I know you sign up for it. But what would it be ridiculous to say that the Cowboys are a team that can win the NFC? They look awesome right now. Yeah. The defense is improving. The offense is spectacular. I like that. Dack is playing at an MVP level.

It's just, they beat the last two teams that were in the Super Bowl, the last couple of weeks in the Chiefs and Eagles. Very impressed with what they're doing. Coming in at number seven. Bruce Packers. That game against the Lions is the idealized version of this team. That's one of the best games I've ever seen from Jordan Love. It was the first game of his career where he had four touchdowns and no turnover. So he eliminated the bad plays and he maximized the big plays. He was killer on fourth down. Their defense is the best in the NFL the last five weeks, allowing 15 points per game. That version of the Packers can win the Super Bowl.

At number six, staying right where they were, the Denver Broncos. They're 5-0 when Bo Nix has a pass rating of under 85. That makes no sense. They have six wins by three points or less, tied for the most in NFL history through 12 games. It doesn't feel like they're as good as they are, but their defense is really good and they keep winning, so they get to hang out in the sixth spot.

Coming in at number five, welcome to Top 10 Tuesday, the Chicago Bears. The motto, Nick, as you know, it's my ringtone. No. Good, better, best. Never let it rest. until your good gets better and your better gets best. So let's look at the good for the Chicago Bears. If we can, it's pretty good.

Eighth in scoring, sixth in time sacked after being sacked 68 times last year, sixth in yards, sixth and third down. You would agree, Brew. It's good. Pretty good. Let's look at better. First, first, second, fourth. How do you get better? What could the best possibly be?

Well, you guys mentioned it earlier. The one seed, baby! The playoffs in the NFC goes through Chicago. Why is why is he out of show? Why is why is that the picture? What do you mean? Because that's what he did to celebrate. That's the best. That's the best picture we can find.

That's the best picture we can find. That's the only thing you're number one in? No, they were number one. We were never one speeches. And you see the big number one is for number one seed. Yeah, no. You have that in common with wildest team. Sean gets get it.

Die into it. Bring them on. This is what you. That's what we got. That's what we got. DeMeo Ryan's like, let us get hot. That's good. He might have started something he don't want to finish.

Oh. Tim Campbell, Andy Reid, Bob. Any part of my coach. Yeah. Coming in number four, my Super Bowl pick from before the year.

The Buffalo Bills. Wide open AFC. They get in with Josh Allen. It's going to be tough to pick against them. But let's give some love to James Cook. Oh, they don't have any weapons. He's right. right behind Jonathan Taylor in terms of yards.

Now, he's way back in rush touchdowns, but Josh Allen has 11 rush touchdowns. A little bit of a Sequin, Barclay, Jail, and Hurts situation from last year. James Cook has been spectacular this season. So that's how Buffalo can win Josh Allen and James Cook running the ball. Coming in to number three, Wilds is Patriots. Drake May is ridiculous, and the team is incredible. And yes, the AFC playoffs go through New England. But let's look at the company that Drake May is keeping.

This is not second year quarterbacks. 11 or more wins, a pass the rating of above 110 in your first 13 games. It's not bad. It's Mahomes, Breeze, Peyton. Mahomes twice. Yeah, Mahomes, twice, sorry. Brady and just put it along. Brady and Roger.

Mahomes says two times. Breeze, it says two times. Last 20 seasons. Pretty good company for Drake May. Otto Graham territory. I don't think Otto Graham had a great pass. I had no, Autogram. I have stats about Otto Graham and Drake.

I'm saving them for a lot of them. Guys, save that for regular. Seattle Seahawks come in at number two, top 10 Tuesday. They're now the only team in the NFL. Top three scoring offense, top three scoring defense, and they have the best point differential in the NFL. Can't wait for the rematch at number one. Not going to drop them too much for losing to the Panthers.

Panthers. I don't drop them at all. But I mean, the gap between Stafford and May. I agree. I think the gap between the Rams may be closed a little bit, but the Rams still clearly to me, the best team in the NFL. And as always, Brew, a perfect top time. Well, not quite.

I don't mind you dropping my Ravens out. I thought you had them a little high. They were at four last week. Yeah. Lamar does not look good and they gave up 32 points. They deservedly are eliminated. However, I do have a problem with the Packers not being ahead of the Bears. I think the Packers are better.

And you talked a little bit about Jordan Love. I think Jordan Love is better than Caleb Williams. Here are the numbers. The numbers aren't even close. They're not. Everything. He's whipping him. And his completion percentage is so low that it matters.

Usually it doesn't matter because they're all, you know, that one does matter. That one matters. And so now, to their credit, they do win, I don't want to say despite him because he's improving and he is a big part of it. But right now love is better. And then let's look at the defense comparison. You showed some graphics earlier. Obviously the Packers defense is far and away better than Chicago.

So I got a better quarterback. I got a better defense. I have a better team. I don't know. We play the games. Yeah, we're going to find out. You're right. We're going to find out.

But also November 10th, Packers lost to the Eagles. November 28th, bears blew out the Eagles. Transit property of the NFL bears better than the Eagles. One last thing to say about that. Because the Packers have beaten the Lions twice. What do the Lions do to Chicago? 52 to 21. It was this season.

We don't count week two. It wasn't even week one. 52 to 21? For the Bears, we don't count week one or week two. All right. So I have a couple of minor issues. One is that you're a liar. Oh, wow.

You came on this show and did a whole reading a letter. I could, I solemnly swear like we were in the Boy Scouts. I'll never doubt the Kansas City Chiefs. They're on the top 10. Fine. I'm shocked. and I thought this is where you were going to go, so this isn't what I built out,

that the Niners, just there's nothing new to get respect. All these injuries, multiple quarterbacks, toughest division in football, nine wins. But you can't get any respect. But that's, again, those are just a little moose-boosh before I get to my real concern. You lead with a liar.

I can't imagine. I'm so sorry. Has Danny's top 10 ever met Danny's title pot? Because I'm a little confused. Okay. And I'm going to, because were you impressed? I'm just curious. Yeah.

By the Broncos this weekend. No, it didn't look correct. Okay. So on Friday before the Broncos played, a game that obviously didn't impress you. Yeah, sure. We go to a little title pie from Friday, and you'll notice Broncos nary a slice. Yeah. Not even a one percent.

Not a cranberry sauce, no stuffing, no yams, no nests, no. Nothing. None of it. Sure. And now we go to top 10 Tuesday. Yeah. And there's a sixth best team in football. I think it's changed. But he just said, hold on.

Hold on a second. It doesn't make sense, though. Hold on. Yeah. Nick. Uh-huh. I don't know if you know about television and graphics. Yeah.

We can't go down to 1% on Title Pie. It doesn't show up graphics. Can I tell you something? By the way, the producers lied to you because I invented Title Pie and I've given out plenty of one percent. You were doing cranberry sauce and rusty sprouts because it wasn't a thing's going to plate. It was a pie.

Yours was just a pie chart. Mine was a plate. I was allowed to put eight topics on there. Okay, well again, you were allowed to put eight. Where are the Broncos? Okay. They're six. Those are the top teams today.

I can't see the Broncos winning a championship. But if the chiefs get into the playoffs, I could see him winning a championship. I think title pie and top 10 Tuesday need to have a post-show meeting and to hash it out. Again, the Colts were on title pie or the plate or whatever. Yes, but they lost in the play. look terrible. You just said the Broncos didn't do anything to improve in your mind. But on Friday you had them out and on Tuesday you have them in. It's up on Tuesday. It's top 10 Tuesday.

Thank you. Wilde. Someone gets it around here. Wednesday it's a liar. Yeah. Well, you did a lot. I mean, you did a oath. Like, I'll never doubt the cheese. Were they on title pie plates?

There we're. Yeah. Another episode of top 10 Tuesday. That went well. Coming up next. Go bears. A fun hang. That was a fun hang.

You got a fun hang of competitive. Oh, no. How dangerous are the Cowboys? That was more competitive sports. I like competition. Overtime. I like a badger throw a liar out there.

Yeah. Welcome back. We got Willie Colon and Greg Jennings out here. We'll go to Dallas. Cowboys coming off two straight wins against the two teams we saw in the Super Bowl last year. Not a bad five day stretch. They got the Lions. coming up Thursday.

Dak, wow, sound effects. I like that. Dak was asked about his confidence in his squad ahead of the big game. Take a listen. We didn't play good ball early, and now we're starting to catch our stride. We're starting to figure out who we are

on not just offense, but defense and as a team. And yeah, it's fun. I can tell you that, I've been on other teams where you started off hot and you're at this time of the year trying to figure out what you've got to do to get back on the horse and to have the momentum we do right now, the confidence,

and not just that, the right guys in the locker room who understand where we are, who understand that this is the most important time of the year. And showing that and just their daily prepping throughout the week is fun. All right, gentlemen, start with you, Willie. Yep. You think the hype around this team right now,

too high, too low, or just right? No, I think the hype is just right. I think because DAC is one playing like an MVP, and two, they finally have a defense that tracks. So you're watching Dallas play with a little bit of balance and heart. I think the issue, if there has to be an issue, is this week is a pivotal game. They're going against the Lions team. It's hungry and they understand what they're fighting for.

But also on top of that, Dallas looks like a different team on the road. I have a graphic right here that will show you. Dallas at home is great. Dallas away, shake you. They're two and four on the road. And their points drop a little bit. But I think if you talk about the way Daxman playing as of late, Danny, I got to get you on board. he's in the MVP conversation.

And he's 12 and 4 on the road. I mean, 12 touchdowns and 4 interceptions on the road. So I know you don't want to buy into it. No, it's not that. I just think the MVP conversation is different. I think I said it in top 10, man. This is a weird thing and this is just how my brain works. So maybe you guys who actually played the game will tell me that I'm insane.

But if we got to just say everyone is zero and zero. And the first 13 weeks were the preseason. and now we'll start here going forward. I think it would be totally reasonable to say the Cowboys are going to win the NFC. But it's just not how it works. They dug themselves too deep of a hole. So I think the hype around the resurgence is actually too low.

Because I think they're one of the 10 best teams in the NFL right now. I just don't know that it's going to ultimately matter six weeks from now, Greg. Yeah, so I'm with you in terms of what we see moving forward in terms of the Dallas Cowboys and their ability to win. maybe next year. I think they might run out of time this year, obviously because of the way they started. Dak alluded to that.

But the hype is just right. This is a team that you better not let get in. If you are any of those teams in the NFC West, you better take care of business. And if you are definitely the Eagles, you need to take care of business. But this is a team, this game that we're going to see and watch Thursday night,

it's two teams that are fighting for potentially the same spot. And the Lions, pending if everybody continues to have some semblance of success, the Lions, obviously, and they're at home, they just come off a tough loss on Thanksgiving. And you got the Cowboys who,

they have the most belief out of anybody probably in the National Football League right now outside of New England. And rightfully so, because they feel like, man, we're pretty much a new team that are, we're just finding our, hitting our stride,

DAC alluded to it. They can protect. They can throw. They can run. They can get after the passer now. They can stop the run. They can do everything that you see. Great teams do.

It just might be that they run out. Well, I also say this. Good team stack wins, but dangerous teams have to go into hostile territory and win. And when you look at this Cowboys team, I feel like they can do that right now, which is, you've been on playoff teams, I playoff teams. And I know what we used to say in Pittsburgh. It's okay what you do at home. but can you step into Baltimore in cold weather and beat Baltimore in Baltimore and Baltimore?

Can you step into Green Bay and win a game in Green Bay? If you can't do that, then you're like, okay, you're just a good team. They're just teams win these type of games. So this is a must win for the Cowboys. So Jerry Jones today on radio said that he thinks they're better, their cleaner path to the playoffs might be the division. So they're clearly going to need help. They're going to need Philly to collapse.

They're going to need Philly to lose some games because I don't know that the NFC is just really good. So I'm not sure that they can realize. get in as the wild card. And I just want to be very clear. I think DAC has been a top three quarterback in the NFL this year. I just think it's very hard to envision him winning MVP when the Rams and Patriots are going to be the one or the two seat in their respective conferences. It is kind of a team award.

I just wanted you to put them in a conversation. For a while, we would have this conversation. You were just like, eh, eh, not at my table. And rightfully so because of their records. I hear you, listen. But you could have a late season push and we're watching it. You're right. Listen, there are, no one is playing the position much better than him right now. Right? So, yeah. But again, I don't, but that doesn't mean for me that he's in the MVP conversation because it's a team award.

You mentioned Ravens and Steelers. So let's go to Baltimore ahead of that game this week. The Ravens are coming off, frankly, an embarrassing loss of the Bengals. They're still atop the AFC North, though. They got the Steelers, but it's similar, identical records. Here's John Harbaugh ahead of this game. It's simply Pittsburgh. We're just focused on Pittsburgh this week. My impression is that that's the team we've got to beat this week. And whatever they are, as we're studying them and however we need to attack them,

we're going to put the best plan together we can and to play the best football we can on Sunday. That's my impression. That's how I think about it. So here are the odds for the AFC North. Ravens, two and a half to one favorite, two and a half to one long shot, basically almost three to one long shot for the Steelers. Bengals still got a shot. obviously Brown's got no shot. I was surprised, given that both of these teams are six and six,

and we can put up their remaining schedule here, that, because I think Baltimore is better than Pittsburgh. I do. I think Baltimore's better. But if they're both six and six, and that's what Pittsburgh has remaining, they obviously have both games against each other, but the non-games against each other,

for Pittsburgh, they get Miami at home at Detroit and at Cleveland. Still tough. Right. You say that's tough. Yeah. I assume you would agree at Cincinnati, home against New England at Green Bay is tougher. Duh. Right?

Like Baltimore has the tougher schedule. And the week 18 game is in Pittsburgh. And we can put up the graphic here. You know this is a throw out the record book's type of matchup. They always play each other tough. No matter who the quarterback, like since these guys have been the coaches, They score the same number of points. They gain the same number of yards.

They fourth the same number of turnovers, and they win the same number of games. So it seems reasonable to me to think that they're going to split these last two games. I think Baltimore is better, but I don't think they should be a two and a half to one favorite to win the AFC North, given that they're both six and six. I'm with you, D.P., I don't buy it. And we also got to understand this.

We watched Joe Burrow jump off the training table and make the Ravens look like Junior varsity. Right? We watched that. That just happened. We had a whole show about it, right? Joe Burroughs back. On top of that, we also watched how the Steelers responded by losing to Green Bay and coming back the next week and beating the calls. And so I have faith in my

Steelers, because I'm alumni, if you will, that they will respond against the Ravens, that they will show up. And solely because of Aaron Rogers have said as of late, like, listen, this isn't a scheme issue. This is accountability issue. These are the type of games. If you're a grown man who loves the sport of football, you now step up because your character and will be tested this week against the Ravens. As you just mentioned, This isn't about records. This isn't about history. This is about if you shoot them, you've got to shoot them now.

Because both teams are going to give you all they got. And because they're dead even, this is about who wants it more. And I expect my Steelers to have it. Yeah, I'm shocked that the Ravens have disadvantaged. And largely because the Steelers have been here before where they've been forced to win without great quarterback play, without great offensive production. They seem to always find a way.

because their key ingredient to success has always been defense. Always been defense. Where Baltimore, you look at where and why they're struggling right now, currently, it's because of number eight. Lamar Jackson, they have not been here before. Yeah, they both have injured quarterbacks to wear number eight. And we're looking at this Baltimore Ravens team saying, man, the defense is getting better, we think, but they haven't really been playing great offenses.

But Lamar Jackson has clearly been worse. And so if we're basing it off of just that type of production and what they're not going to get out of what they're usually very dependent upon getting, then you've got to give the edge slightly to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Yeah, so I'll say, I know I'm the gambler here. I made the bet today at nearly three to one odd Steelers to win the division. Like I think the Ravens should be favored because I think the Ravens are better, but it should be a lot closer than those odds of guests.

And we also have to note there's a lot of drama around this game, right? Because in the middle of the season, especially beginning of the middle of the season, we talked about Hallball being in the hot seat. Mike Tom's in the hot seat right now. So as much as we want to talk about how this team has to respond, he needs to respond as well. So it's going to be a goody. All right.

Well, so everyone was talking after they played the games. We like to go through with our reactional game. He said, we said, Eagles need to bounce back in a big way among the time. Time now for some he said we said some of the best sound from the weekend and last night and of course our reaction. It is a good looking. I agree. First up, Jackson Dart on the big hits he took and last night's lost to the Patriots. Take a listen. No. Look, like I understand the question. But like this is like this is football. Like I'm going to get hit if I'm in the pocket or outside the pocket. Like it's, I don't, like, I feel like I've played this way my whole entire life. There shouldn't be like any shocker to anybody if you've followed along with my career.

And I don't, we're not playing like, we're not playing soccer out here. Like, you're going to get hit. Things happen. It's part of the game. So I'm the soft NARP on the show, the non-athletic regular person. So I'll let you guys go first. We don't consider you a NARP, D.P. That was one person that called.

You told you that. You're a guy. Thank you very much. You're a guy. So Willie, how does that hit your ear? Well, it felt like he took that question as an attack, and I get it. If you take away his confidence and his swagger, he felt like you're taking away his superpower. But if I was an office alignment on his line, I would tell him this is a we game, not a me game.

You know, we have better chances of winning games when you're on the field. If you play dumb, reckless football, then we lose. This isn't about you and what you want to do. This is how you can develop, mature, and stay on the field. You just came off a damn concussion, for Christ's sakes. For Christ's sakes. And on top of that, when you look at, you know, if I was to give him a compass on some type of tape, I would say, hey, man, look at Josh Allen in his first two years.

He was you. He was reckless all over the place. You know Josh Allen now? He's the same quarterback, different dog, different playstyle, but reliable. And he delivers. And so you can change your game, but still be you at the end of the day. And that's what he has to realize. So hopefully he gets it.

But I think he took the question personal. That's why he felt like making a- He did. And this is just, this is a young quarterback that understands. He's typically been the best athlete on a lot of the fields that he's played on. That is no longer the case. He felt that last night. That is no longer the case.

And it's exactly what you said, Willie. He has to understand in order for this organization to take the next step, he has to be a part of why we take the next step. And it can't be him watching from the sideline because of taking hits where he could have just stepped out of bounds a yard or two sooner. So he'll get there. It's a $5 billion franchise and you're the quarterback. You matter too much. You said off air when, you know, on the interception that Stafford through and he's trying to make the tackle, it's like, hey, buddy, what are you doing?

Run to the side line. Get out of the way. You know, you should, it's hit avoidance, right? This isn't fourth and goal to win the Super Bowl. You know what I mean? Time and place. I've seen so many basketball players. Like, I just, well, all I was able to do is I was always able to drive to the rim.

Well, yeah, because you were the best athlete. It was high school. Now you're playing seven footers who can leap. You've got to develop a jump shot. Like this is the NFL, man. Like that's just a ridiculous comment. And he will not survive seasons if he keeps playing. Guarantee the next time he gets that opportunity,

he's going to run out of bounds. Oh yeah, at no point. If the coaching gets through to him, now let's hear from friend of the show. Personal hero, maybe as tad overstated, Ben Johnson on their dominance despite the passing game. There's five games left, so we got a long ways to go. And we have not been guaranteed a spot in the tournament yet.

We have to earn that right. And the only way you can earn that right is by finding a way to win the next game. Everybody's got a role to play to get this past game cleaned up. It's not where it needs to be. We're winning in spite of our passing game, not because of it. And none of us are pleased with that right now. People saw that quote as a shot at Caleb. If you watch the whole thing, he was talking about wide receivers not running to the correct depth and the footwork being off.

and accuracy from the quarterback, too, but just to be like, that is not a direct shot at Caleb. What I love about Ben Johnson, it's multiple people inside that locker room have told me that he is a truth teller. Like, he's, he doesn't lie. But so he, what he said to the press,

he has already said to the team. And so he's calling out their passing game because he knows if you can pair a good passing game with that running game, Greg, this team is very dangerous. Yeah, and what's interesting is they're, like, it's true. They are winning in spite of,

but if you are a, an organization and you have the opportunity to have this type of success. This is what you want to look like to give your quarterback a chance to catch up, to give your offense a pass game a chance to catch up. You want to be able to establish yourself in your identity in the trenches, be able to take the stress off your quarterback and your play caller for that matter, and be able to hand the ball off to any running back seemingly that they have in the backfield and be able to get chunk yardage. Like this is what we saw against the Eagles, they really sent the message to the league.

Like, we're winning and we're not even winning the way that everybody else across the league typically wins with the passing game, with the quarterback dominating. That is scary because if he catches fire, it could be a completely different ballgame for you, Danny, and all the Bears fans. Thank you very much. Yeah, they are winning in spite of the passing game,

but I'm in love with the Chicago Bears identity because their identity right now is they can run on anybody. It doesn't matter. And they have a defense to carry them. And I love the fact that when you talk about what Ben Johnson's been able to do, he's been able to take some of them bricks off Caleb's shoulders by having a run game and building it around him. And I also like the fact, listen, when Caleb throws 30 plus or more, he's six and three. So they're not high to him.

They're just saying this is what we do best right now. It's about running the ball and having a defense that back us up. And if you're Ben Johnson, don't stop. Don't waver, right? Don't start listening to the headlines or feeling like, oh, I have to now kind of do something to kind of get the media. off you know continue to work continue to get this office line going and continue to continue to thrive so I like the bears I like where they're at don't stop well he's also he's a he's a really great play caller because he's talked about you know some

games I'll have will win with 50 pass attempts some games will win with 50 rush attempts and this game the wind was a little bit more than expected it was a tougher passing condition game than expected and he said guys were coming back to the sideline talking about how like they could feel that the running game was wearing on the other team and so he just kept calling run plays. And the game before, he literally called 18 consecutive pass plays.

Yeah, CP. So he has a great feel for the game and what's working. You know what broke the Pisspo Steelers against the Buffalo Bills? The Buffalo Bills ran the same play 11 times. They had over 100 yards with that one play. It crushes your soul as a defense when you can't stop the run

and you know what's coming at you. You load in the box. You're doing everything possible and they're running down your throats. And that's what Ben Johnson is about. It's a good thing, man. I'm telling you. Because, like, also, and we're just going to stay here for just a second,

if the NFC playoffs does go through Chicago. Oh, boy. Cold. Seeing that before. Just saying. All right. Didn't vote well for you the last time. All right, Greg.

All right, Frank. I was waiting on that. Teet up. Who do you? All right. You bought that one. You know what? Bears Packers this week.

I already got a steak dinner off him from Bear Stealers. You can name your price on that game. It'll be fine. We'll do a little wage. Oh, don't be that guy. Okay. Well, you won't talk. Holcomb that's going to come on the show tomorrow.

Oh, nice. Yeah, we got the little bears and the Packers. They're a little scared. Yeah, they're a little scared to come up. They're a little scared to come up. No talking. Big celebratory game. In Chicago, we'll discuss.

Coming up. I know you guys are hungry for more, right? It's him. Let me tell you something. The city of Chicago is hungry too. Yeah. It's Chicago. Oh, that's my coach.

And you might be wondering, why did he take his shirt off? And what's he talking about Chicago's hungry for more? Well, a famed institution in Chicago, the Wiener Circle, the name of a hot dog stand on the north side of Chicago, they said that if Ben Johnson takes his shirt off, three hot dogs for the entire city. Well, Ben Johnson took his shirt off, and today, in freezing temperatures in the greatest city of the world, this is a sped-up view of the line around the block. You'll notice snow on the ground, people in parkas, people doing their good, better, best chance, and taking their shirt off for a free $4 hot dog. And I'll be honest, gentlemen, it brought a tear to my eye. I've never been so homesick. I think it wrapped around a corner.

It keeps going second time this year because Caleb did something to get free hot dogs from the weaner circle also. Everyone was like, oh, Danny, you're sad that you're not at the weiner circle. And so, Troy, if you may. The great people here at first things. First, Sid, we're great. We got hot dogs for everybody. Glizzy's on deck. That's right.

Here we go. Now, I don't know why we have any ketchup here. These are going to be Chicago-style dogs. Cetshops not allowed. Not allowed. Greg, will you eat a hot dog with me? You know, I'm not a big glissie, man, you know. Listen, they've been here a while.

The theater of the minds. But, I mean, players coach, Ben Johnson, taking a shirt off. The guys love it, right? You got to get on board. Cheers. Cheers. Oh, that's going to kill me in a barbershop. Yeah.

Yeah, they are. I just bump glissies on national. Cheers. You know what? You on a lady in the trumpet? No? Okay, fine. Just me.

I say this. If they win the division, you're going to take your shirt off? No, thank you. See, here's the thing about that. I am a walking skeleton. You don't want to see 6'1 with scoliosis without his shirt off. We want to see bare pride, though. They win the division.

The shirt got to come off. Okay. I mean, listen, that's fine. I wasn't born with shame. I'll do it. Chocolate shakes at the weiner circle. Bear down.