First Things First - Steelers beat Ravens, Myles Garrett breaks sack record, Time to move on from John Harbaugh?

Episode Date: January 6, 2026

(0:00) Steelers beat Ravens, Clinch AFC North, Surprised Baltimore fell short? (26:42) Aaron Rodgers dominates, Can the Steelers make a run? (39:30) What does the Browns firing Kevin Stefanski mean for Shedeur Sanders?  (46:40) Lamar Jackson’s future, Should John Harbaugh and Ravens split? (01:10:37) Myles Garrett breaks sack record (01:22:30) Seahawks beat 49ers, More of a statement for Brock Purdy or Sam Darnold? (01:28:53) Bears swept by Lions, Steelers have a shot in wide-open AFC? (01:51:40) 49ers lose to Seahawks, Were the Steelers vindicated? (02:02:01) He Said, We Said (02:10:30) Is Myles Garrett the best defensive player ever? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The final play of the regular season for the final spot in the playoffs. Tyler Luke from 44. Live from New York. It's the show that texted the group. Oh, no. Hi, that was, I wasn't being sarcastic. I just wrote, oh no. I felt really upset and sad and nervous for Brew, who is currently not here.

How can you blame him for me? not being here. It's a bit as bad as it gets. Is he coming? Oh, here's the trumpets. I like that he's wheeling it with his broken arm. Brut, do you need help? I'm in pain. Oh, that one hurting it. You didn't want me to help you up, buddy?

I think I can manage. This is, God, Hold the chair. Hold his chair. Hold it, what? I didn't know. Uh, Uh,

Uh, All right, situated. It's a rough loss. You have palsy? It's a rough loss. They always put me in a bad position. Always.

Man. Man. Do you want to start this? Do you want to start the show? I'm not 100% sure how you're feeling. You know I play through pain, wilds. And I'm playing through a lot of pain today. I'm playing hurt.

Physically and like the rest of flock nation. Wow. I'm playing hurt. One wing. Yeah, you got more than wings. That's all I got left. I think we got to start. I just wasn't sure.

I think we should start. First hour, first things first. Today, the end of the robe. Where do Lamar Harvaw and the Raiders? go from here. Meanwhile, Miles, Saxborough, Brown, Sacks, Defansky. And is there a chance? Coach Prime is headed to Cleveland. And finally, Purdy and Caleb. Who had the more concerning performance? Alongside Nick Wright and Chris Broussard on Kevin Wilde's bro. How long are you going to be wearing the neck brace? I mean, is, uh, I mean, it's, I mean, it's, is stabilizing my neck.

Yeah. Oh, okay. The rest of the week, probably. Yeah. I would imagine. We're going to start with a likely grab and an unlikely miss. Isaiah likely's catch on fourth and seven, or third and seven, not fourth and seven. Sets up a 44-yard kick for Tyler Loop.

He misses the kick and the Ravens missed the playoffs. Here's Lamar. You know what's the emotion, Jameson? Like, that's... We did all that, man, that come up short, bro, you know? Devastating. Furious.

All the type of, I don't know. I'm everywhere with it right now. Okay. Brewer, you're surprised your Ravens fell short. Well, Wilds, as you guys know, last week, and going into the weekend, I was very confident. Yeah.

I put a fresh coat of dye in my hair for today's victory lap. It looks great. I wasn't fooling nobody. Everybody knew right. I didn't know. I feel betrayed. But then as the game approached, I began to think about some things, Nick. Like, they're eight and eight.

They haven't played good football. all year. And then at the beginning of the third quarter, their best defensive player, Kyle Hamilton, gets hurt. Yeah. Yeah.

So really, sadly, Wilde, I'm not surprised. You're struck. Stupified. I can't believe they let it. They had it in the bag. Enough of this.

The box! Oh, the box! The box. This is too much. The sad music again? Yeah. I'm putting all this stuff away. This Raven stuff.

Yeah, all this. That's part of the Raven stuff. That's part of the Raven stuff. Everything has to go into the box. You want me to help you with the road, bro? I think I got it. I think I got it. I'm glad to take this.

this mug off. I'm going to be honest. It hadn't been a good year for it. I mean, at least the last past few years, at least they gave me a nice regular season. Yeah. Even the Jordans, I'm going full Nick Wright on an airplane and letting my feet keep your sock on. In the wind, Wilds. This is Nick on airplanes. We'll be trapped.

Let your feet go in the wind. I'm doing that the rest of the show. But the box. Oh, no. Sad. It's a sad day. It's going to go in the basement with all the Yeah, yeah, until next year.

And look, we'll see about next year. We'll see about next year because who knows what the Ravens will look like. That's right. If the Mar's gone, I'm not going anywhere. I know, but if he does, I'm not still mean. But look, I'll be quick. Seven minutes, man.

The bottom line is this. The Ravens have done or did last night. Nick, what they have done for the last few years, the last three years when I've been picking them and rooting for them and all that, they found a way to lose. Correct. That's really what it boils down to.

First, you had this, I believe we have the video of the Steelers' push play. Now, if you can look, I don't know if we can slow it down, look at it closer, the Ravens aren't even set. How are in the world? And the quarterback, he goes right over where they're going all over. I mean, what the world is it? Tak is taken out by a little.

What is that? How is it going to stop it when you're like not even paying attention, right? You're trying to set up. All right, that's number one. Number two, Ouzier on the touchdown pass from Aaron Rogers, he slips. Again, I'm not sure. Can we zero in on where he just gets juke and slips? That was an accident, though.

Okay. None of the other 32 teams seem to have accidents like this in huge moments. Okay. All right. And then, of course, everyone has seen it now ad nauseum. Yeah. A 44-yard field goal attempt. And I know Nick Summer saying, oh, they should have ran Derek Henry to get a little closer.

I agree with John Harbaugh and this that, and I don't, 99.9% him. Henry doesn't fumble. But in the small percentage or chance that he does, then you're getting crushed. And it's not like it was a 54-yarder. It was a 44-yarder. And any NFL kicker should be able to make that kick. I get it as pressurized, but that's where you live as a kicker. And so they just found a way to beat, to lose the game.

So let me start there and then let me go micro to macro on that end of game sequence. You guys have heard me say this about 10 different things, 100 different times we talk about football, which is one of the reasons I love the NFL and I love the small sample-sized nature of it. Everything matters. Yes. In every part of your season, everything matters.

Derek Henry fumbling in September might have cost them this game in January. Because had Derek Henry not fumbled in those big spots early in the year, then maybe with 14 seconds left one time out sitting on a 41-yard field goal at the time for a rookie kicker who had already kicked the ball out of bounds and gotten yelled at by Lamar Jackson for it, John Harbaal would have said, you know what, let's give us a chance to make it from a 41-yarder to a 34-yarder or maybe a zero-yarder because Derek Henry's known to pop a run every now and again.

Sure. But I think because of the fumbling, and Derek Henry's been brilliant all years. He hasn't been a fumbler throughout his career. But I would, I think that maybe sticks in your mind. So everything matters. And bottom line, they probably aren't fighting for their playoff life. If not for that.

But I'm saying even if all, like, if they had the exact same market of the exact same spot, but Henry hadn't had some high leverage fumbles throughout the season, maybe they run the ball there because it wasn't just that they, They were sitting on a 41-yarder. They went backwards to a 44-yarder. It's in notoriously the single hardest stadium to kick in football that you have just seen one of the best kickers somehow missing extra points. So there's that.

That's the micro. The macro is in week 18, they were who they have been all year long. A defense that for part of the game was awesome. And part of the game was awful, but the whole game couldn't get press. pressure on the quarterback. And offense, that at times makes plays where you're like, yeah, that's the only player in the league. That can make that play. And oh my God, and Derek Henry's is running back. And then at times goes totally dormant, a team that is not super highly penalized, but man, the penalties seem to all come. They don't seem to have a lot of meaningless,

who cares penalties. And to go back to the decision. They almost had one on that, or they had one on that last possession. Absolutely. It could have cost him in that sense. The, you know, Juan Taylor Memorial,

the illegal formation by the tackle. And then a coach who can get oddly, I think, conservative in weird spots, which was to me, the center of the ball, not run Derek Henry.

But again, I'm not killing him specifically for that. But this is who the Ravens are. And it's who they've been. They lose games as favorites. They lose games where it felt like they had 10 ways to win it and only one way to lose it. They lose games where their quarterback who we're going to get to in a moment has some all-time highlight plays, but also some just bouts of total non-existence or what was he thinking moments.

And so that's who the Ravens are. So to me, I'm not surprised because the coach, the team, and the quarterback, who I trust in a spot like this more, we're all on Pittsburgh. And I know it sounds. Really? Yeah. I don't, I don't, and we're going to get to, I don't like. Quarterback and who? The coach, the team overall and quarterback.

Yeah, I do. And so it doesn't surprise me that the 8-8 Baltimore Ravens, with all that talent, found a way to lose the game. It's awful that it happened in that fashion. The one thing I would say is, if not for an easier kick by a better kicker being missed a minute before, that kicks not to win at its to time. You know what I mean? So like a missed kick, the missed extra point was way more shocking for a guy who had missed an extra point in eight years than the mist feel good. goal. And so I know they could have made the field goal and they would have gotten to win. Yeah, but a miss kick went in both directions. Tyler Loops first miss inside 50 all year ends the year

29 for 30. Let's look specifically at Lamar's game. Found Zay Flowers a few times set up the winning kick after a mundane first half ends the day with a 121 passer rating almost 240 yards and three touchdowns. Third loss this year, brew, with a passer rating of 120 or better. Do you think Lamar helped or hurt his big game reputation. Look, I think he helped it. I mean, and he wasn't perfect. First half, only through six passes. Now, one was a 38-yard touchdown,

had like a high pass rating the first half. And then the third quarter, like, they hardly had the ball. And he did have the interception, so that was clearly on him. But in the fourth quarter, yeah, it was, you know, tips. But he was getting balls batted down. He got four balls. Was it four? Well, he had four passes to flex like PBIUs,

but I thought he had three at the line of scrimmage. He had another one after the interception. I just view those differently than like throwing into traffic. I know you do. I think it depends. It happens all quarterbacks at times. But bottom line, fourth quarter, he was incredible. That was vintage Lamar Jackson, period.

And look, I get, and I was during the first half, clearly, it was all Derek Henry all the time, which I was fine with. I did feel like you got to throw it a little bit more. But I'm not going to be critical because I've been calling for him to give Derek Henry the ball.

And they did it and he was effective. He had over 100 yards first half. But I was like working a few more passes because I think they could have scored more points in the first half. But bottom line, fourth quarter, he was great, Nick. And he made two plays. We were talking about it off the, off.

the air. This first one where he avoids this, I don't know how we avoided that sack. And then to throw it 50 yards on, that was perfectly thrown. One of the best plays of his career. Absolutely. That is a fantastic play and that's why he's a two-time

MVP. And then on fourth and seven, when at this point I did think it was over and he throws a beautiful pass between two Steelers. And Isaiah likely, credit to him, makes a fantastic. catch. I mean, had to go up high. And Lamar had to throw it high to get it over the linebacker

56, but great catch, great throw. So I think he played, it wasn't a perfect game, but I thought he played great. He had a 121 pass rating. You show a while. And Nick, let me show this quickly because his big games, and obviously he hasn't been perfect in the playoffs and he's had turnovers at critical moments in the playoffs against the Chiefs and the bills. But these are last four playoff games over the previous two years. The numbers are right now, a few more turnovers than you like, but still, numbers are great. He's great against Houston in the win, great against Pittsburgh last year in the win, and then had, was up and down against the bills and the chiefs in the loss.

He was just down against the chiefs. They scored seven points. He had two turnovers. He had a touchdown. He had three through for almost 300. Yeah. I mean, the, and so I, so that, I'll agree with most of what you said. That graphic doesn't move me much.

I mean, those are big games. Every playoff games is not just the ones against, you know, the AFC champion. No, those are all big games. But it's that's four games. And in my opinion, he played objectively, very poorly in one of them. And he played poorly in another one. And then he played great. Yeah, the bill.

And so the bill's game is what we're, is what I'm going to allude to here. because listen, his fourth quarter, and this is where sports can be unfair and cruel, if Loop makes that field goal, none of how he played changes, and that fourth quarter is regular season legendary. You know what I mean? As legendary as it can be in a right,

because that is a playoff. I know it was a playoff game, it wasn't a playoff game, but it was a playoff game. Yeah. And so it was as close to a playoff game as you can get, And same thing with last year with Mark Andrew dropping a pass. It wasn't for the win. That would have gotten you the time.

Right, right, right. And so here's his numbers in the fourth quarter compared to the first three. And it is stark. The first three quarters, at the very beginning of the fourth quarter, Collinsworth does a whole monologue about how Lamar hasn't done anything. You know what I mean? He had the one touchdown pass, he says, for 39 yards, 29 yards, whatever it was. Outside of that.

Right. Outside of that, he's done nothing. and then he lights fire. And the fourth downplay was unbelievable. But here is what I think is somewhat objective reality of how we grade sports figures, all-time great sports figures. It's hard to get a ton of credit for digging yourself out of a hole that you help create if you don't dig yourself all the way out.

It's what happened in that Bills game. that Bill's game he was part of the reason they were trailing. He then was awesome in the second half, but they didn't get over the hump. I think it was more so to Bill's game than this, though. I mean, he didn't do much, but he didn't. No, I just thought they had opportunities in the. Opportunities. Pittsburgh was not doing much, and they had opportunities to be in position.

They should have been up a lot more at half. Right, that's the point. And I don't think it's too much to ask. can we get 60 minutes of excellent football from Lamar in a spot like this? This is once they keep losing these games as favorites. They're the favorites at home against Kansas City. They score seven points and lose. They're the favorites against Buffalo in Buffalo.

They dig the big hole. They can't quite dig themselves out. They come this close. They're the favorites against the Steelers team that all week long, the conversation on this show was, No D.K. Metcalfe, how they're looking, the Ravens team. And so did he help or hurt his big game reputation? The reason I would say he heard it is because here's why, though.

And I think you might agree with me in this regard. Because the only way to actually help his big game reputation is to go on a playoff run. And because they lost, he can't. Like, this is going to be the, like, I don't think that he choked in this game. In fact, far from it. He didn't do much early, and then when the stakes were the highest, he played, I think the best football he's played all year. I think KW probably was ready to be like if the game kept going the way it was,

Willamore is clearly hurt. If he played the first three-course, the fourth quarter of the way to the- He started to, like, move around. I'm like, oh, this looks like Lamar. But this is, the big game reputation is about this graphic. It's his playoff win-loss record compared to the other legends. These are the other multi-time NBA. That's different.

If we're just talking about playoffs. No, but I guess what I'm saying is the only way to really help that. Yeah, playoffs, yes. Is they needed to win this game. So we had an opportunity to improve this side of the level. I do think you can't. And even last year, big game against the Steelers in the regular season. It's not a big game in the playoffs.

He's great. So. But the bottom lines, he does have to win. Even if he doesn't play that way. Sure. If he, like if they had continued. say the first half the way they were playing. And at the end of the game, he's thrown 15 passes, doesn't do much, but they win.

That actually helps him more than what happened yesterday. Because at the end of John Elway wasn't great in Super Bowls, but he won them. And you see there are other players, Peyton Manning's second Super Bowl. He won. So he just needs to win. Can I ask you one quick question? Before we go to Harbaugh real quick. You said it was vintage Lamar.

here is the one place I will disagree. He doesn't run anymore. Even yesterday. He didn't, like, he got caught down. I mean, how many yards you run for? Nine, well, nine. Nine. And so, no, I don't think the, they are, that doesn't include sacks.

Like the, you had like nine yards. Nine yards rushing. Like, I just. But he was evasive. He was evasive. Yeah. He was evasive. We'll see next year.

Look, we'll see how hard. See how hard hard he, you know, next year can he run. All right. We're going to quickly talk about John Harbaugh. Lamar was asked about his future with the team and also about his coach's future. Here was his response. That's you, you, you're asking about next year, Jameson. I'm so caught up and what just happened tonight.

I can't, I can't focus on that right now. I just told you, like he asked me, are you stunned? I'm stunned right now. I'm still trying to process what's going on. Like, I know we lost, but what the, like, you know, that's all. All right. Should, or Nick, do you want to go here? No, I'll go.

Should the Ravens move on from Marvel? Well, first of all, with Lamar's response, I don't doubt, obviously he's stunned. I mean, I think everybody was stunned by the way that ended. So I don't think he's lying about that. I'm not thinking about all that stuff. I think he's telling the truth. But even in that situation, if you're asked about that, you can say, look, coach is my man, you know, of course we want him back, or, you know, he's been with me my whole career. I think that's fair.

You know what I mean? It was a weird response. Yeah, you can just. You can even say, you know, look, I said last week, coach and our relationship is great, it's fine, but that decision's above my head. Like, you know, you can even say something like that. If they had asked him, do you want Derek Henry back next year? He'd have been like, as stunned as he is, of course, yes, I want Derek Henry back. So I think he showed that, you know, he may be ready to move on.

And the bottom line is, yes, I think. they need to move on from John Harbaugh. The things we showed on that Tush Push highlight, that's a coaching thing. I'm sorry. I mean, I'm not saying the players don't have any responsibility, but there's too many times. I think the penalties in the big games. The blown double-digit leads, it gets lost in this because of how the game was played.

Yeah, he has more double-digit. Yeah, right. And he has more double-digit leads blown than anyone in the last six years, last five years. So is that partially because they get a lot of? 10 point? I'm sure it is part, but we did we did that. Yes, they do get a lot. They still, even

when you adjust for that, blow a wildly disproportionate amount. And it's just, it's time, 18 years, I think they need a new voice. Because here's the thing that what's going to change next year? Lamar's going to he's not going to be better, not much better than he's been over the last

three years, this year not withstanding. Derek Henry, you just hope is as good as he's been the last two years. what's going to change if you don't make a regime. And I can tell the look on your face, it's a be careful what you wish for. It's always a risk.

No, the hot name out there is Kevin Stapansky. No, no go. I would look at him, but he hasn't had success with quarterbacks. No, the guy I want is Brian Flores. If I'm the Ravens, I want, he continues the defensive culture, and, you know, he could obviously have a little bit more. So we'll talk more about this with coach and just give me 30 seconds, dust. Because I do think it is to be careful what you wish for.

No question. But I am going to focus on Lamar's answer there because, and I try to have very thick skin, I have taken something of a beating for being an alleged conspiracy theorist. Because I keep talking about this Lamar Harbaugh rift, and I have no evidence, and I don't know what I'm talking about, and I just have this platform because of my boyish good looks. Lamar Jackson does not want John Harbaugh back and if he wanted John Harbaugh back when he has asked

the final thing we are going to hear from Lamar Jackson all year at that podium do you want your coach back even if you kind of don't want him back but you just be like yeah of course coach my coach it's the only coach we've had I'm devastated but yeah Of course. No, and then behind the scenes, be like, get rid of him.

You didn't even do that. You could even do that. You're right. It was, I am not even going to give a superficial public vote of confidence because he doesn't have one. And I've been trying to tell America this for three months. And I don't know what the Ravens are going to do, by the way. That doesn't mean Harbaugh will be gone.

But Lamar Jackson made it very clear where he stands on that. Do you agree what's going to change? If they bring back hardball. Well, you're not going to be better than you were two years ago. Who the quarterback is. But I don't think they're going to do that. Vintage Rogers and a beat up Broussard. That's next on FS1 on the Fox Sports Channel on Sirius XM.

I'll tell you what could change. You're way below 500. Oh. It's always a risk to get a new coach. I mean, when you have a good guy, good coach. It's all led to this. In 24 hours, Stafford versus Drake versus Miles Garrick. And for a while versus JSM.

On the ballot. Maybe Sam Darnold. Wait, you're leaving out in office. Maybe the Prince. Yeah, buddy. He's gonna be on there. Tuesday. 3.30, right here on first thing.

A bruise ballot extravaganza tomorrow. Welcome back to show coach Van Jeannie is here with us. Steelers win. Rogers throws for nearly 300 yards. Leads two touchdown drives in the fourth quarter before a Boswell. Well, missed extra point, puts a scare into the Steelers. But the kicking karma looped back around as loops missed field goal put the Steelers into the playoffs. Here's Mike Tomlin.

I've admired him from afar for a long time. It's good to do it with him. But again, as I've said multiple times here in recent weeks, this was the vision in the spring when we pursued him. That's why you do business with a 41, 42-year-old guy. Been there, done that guy with a resume. made like his. He's not only capable, man. He thrives in it.

And I think he put that on display tonight. Are you surprised by Rogers? Surprised. Okay. Don't do it. Surprised. It was part of my 3 and O weekend. Which, by the way, tease for 5 o'clock,

my 3 and O'N O' and 3 weekend juxtaposed with Danny's O and 3 weekend. I was like, Brew, this matters to brew. He said I was fighting for the regulations honor. flip the picks competition to the three to five show from five to six. Major collapse. We'll get to that later. Major collapse. Major collapse.

But when we talked about it on Friday, does, is, he has not come through in a spot where the whole football world was watching him in five years since January of 21 that he had, since then he had a home conference championship game. to Brady. He had the home playoff loss to the Niners where they scored 10 points. The home loss to the Lions to get into the playoffs and then had not been in all the eyes of the football world on you. Can you come through? And it looks shaky for a while there. Kyle Hamilton going out helped. But like the other thing we said on Friday was, can he just make a couple huge plays? and the throw down the seam, was it to Thielen?

There was one to Thielen, and then there was one to Friermouth. To Friamuth right over the guys, as Collinsworth said, an earhole. And then the Calvin Austin play was open. But the, I mean, that's, the Friamoo throw was great. The Thielen throw was his best throw. It was weird to me, coach, that he kind of panicked when the headset went out because I was like, I thought you were calling your own plays anyway.

But regardless, yeah, this is the other throw. That's a hard. It's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. And he did just enough. And so I, no, I'm not surprised. And we're going to get into this in a minute. I think this seems a little scary.

Oh, why? And in part because coach, he's been a different guy his last five games. The first 11 games, there's six and five, 19 touchdowns, eight picks, 190 passing yards a game, last five, two of which with obviously one of them was terrible at the Browns game. But 250 passing yards, six touchdowns, no picks. He's playing his best football right now. This whole season for me, he's surprising.

And his whole approach, leaving the Jets and going to Pittsburgh, I didn't think it was going to work. I know you were a big believer in it. Obviously, didn't love what happened in New York, but since he's been there, and you heard him talk about on the broadcast, talked about him leading meetings in the building, leading meetings outside of the building,

making sure that everybody's on the same page. He hasn't had any issues with Arthur Smith. He's really only been a distraction one time when he called out the receivers for not going to the meeting. But now, in retrospect, maybe that was actually true. And it seems like what he was in New York,

he's taken this opportunity to scrub that away and try to redefine how the end of his career is going to go. And that's translated. I thought he had a chance to be an MVP or lead the Jets to the playoffs when he went to the Jets. And that wasn't the case. But now he's not reinvented himself or maybe just gone back to the guy that he used to be. And is very comfortable being part of the program as opposed to being the program. And this is translated into them getting this playoff opportunity.

Yeah, look, he was great. I was surprised because I didn't expect much from him, especially without D.K. Metcalf. And I thought you showed the great throws he made, Nick. But coach, watching that game, I was like, to me, he was dominating it with his mind, with his intelligence. Like he knew, he threw it down the field pretty well. But without Metcalf, like he used his running backs a lot and a lot of yards after the catch. He was just controlling the game. And I think the reason he was able to do it was because Baltimore couldn't get a pass rush.

So he was comfortable just sitting back there picking. you know, the defensive part with what he wanted to do. And so I thought he was great. He has been very good this year. And now with Metcalf coming back, they could be live in the ground. There's not a much bigger difference in pass rushes between Baltimore's and Houston. So that will be a lot of it was. That's why I was surprised that you're like, ooh, they're going to frisbee.

Well, I've got as you would say, stat of the month. Wow. Oh, coming up. Yeah, I mean, in this segment. Real soon. quickly stat of the three of this quarter hour. Can you put up Rogers just last night, Dusty, and look at this footnote, coach. 218 yards after the catch, so it was a good amount.

All of his yards that were not after the catch were those two throws we just showed and the Calvin Alls. So to me, coach, this is either great play calling because he had to pass the ball to nine receivers, including Gainwell. Gainwell's awesome. But so was this a brilliant offensive game plan? D.K. McCaff or was it just sort of a almost failed? Flaw failure of the Ravens defense. No, I think it was, to Brue's point about the pass rush,

part of the reason they couldn't get the pass rush is because they did take a lot of quick throws. So they weren't going to allow the Ravens the opportunity to run exotic blitzes, to bring a lot of different looks, and they were going to push the ball out to the perimeter. They were going to use wide receiver screens, tight end screens, a lot of those things, quick passes. to take away any advantage that they could gain from bringing pressure.

So I don't think it was a failure by the Ravens. I think it was more about Aaron recognizing where pressure was going to come, when it was going to come, and then saying, okay, we're not going to give you the opportunity to do that. We're going to throw it out here and then take our chances, you know, maybe a three-yard run becomes a 10-yard run. Ravens missed a lot of tackles. Yeah, and it worked.

And they were willing to stay with it, which sometimes isn't always the case either. Gainwell's awesome. Gainwell's, he won their team MVP award. I found that out during the broadcast. I didn't know it. He deserved it. I mean, he's awesome.

Steelers set up a home game against the Texans. Pittsburgh trying to break their playoff cold spell, 0 and 6 in their last six playoff tries. Here's Aaron Rogers. The belief level in the locker room after a win like this is exponentially greater, which is what you want to add. going into next week and then obviously we had DK back.

Okay. Are you starting to think Aaron and the Steelers can make a little run here, bro? I think they're going to lose to Houston. Like right now I'm feeling like I'm going to pick Houston because of the pass rush. Now, you might, maybe he can get rid of the ball so quickly that they nullify it. But with DeNeil Hunter, third in the league in sacks with 15, Will Anderson Jr. And the top 10 with 12, I just think whether they get to him or not, it's going to going to be pressure and he's not going to be as comfortable in the pocket as he was yesterday.

So I think that's going to cause problems. And if C.J. Stroud can generate any offense, then I think Houston will win. If they somehow beat Houston, then I just look at the field. And I like, I do like Jacksonville a lot. But I look at the quarterbacks are all, if it's other than Josh Allen, everybody's inexperienced. And that's where Rogers will have an advantage. So if they beat Houston, look, I don't think they'll get to the Super Bowl.

I will pick them not to get to the Super Bowl. But if they beat Houston and it's Bo Nix and other young Drake May young quarterbacks, then I think you have to at least give them a shot. Yeah, I'm not as optimistic. This is a flawed team who beat a flawed team. And the reason they were in this situation is because they blew it against the Browns the week before. So it's not like they're going into the playoffs red hot. They won four out of five.

They had won. They're not red hot. And they lost one game that was really bad. Really bad. And at a moment where they couldn't. And I understand D.K. wasn't there for that. And he wasn't there for this. But they're also a 40-yard field goal away from us having a completely radically different conversation as to should Mike Tomlin be there?

Well, Aaron Rogers come back. So there was an element of extreme luck against a team that was very flawed. And this team has been very flawed. So it's a nice story. Maybe they'll be able to capture some playoff magic, but I'm not as optimistic as Nick is. Well, listen, I have been as pessimistic about Rogers in general as anyone on the show basically since we've been on in the afternoons.

I did not believe in the Steelers going into this year. I got three reasons, though, that I believe in them this coming weekend, potentially. And if it's this weekend, and as Bruce said, then it's against Bo Nix, I've been betting against Bow Nicks all year. Why stop now? Reason one is this. I think Houston has looked a little creaky as of late and hasn't been quite as dominant.

And this weekend, I don't know how many people watching Texans Colts. And again, they took CJ out at halftime. But it was a game they didn't want to lose because of what it would mean for them in the playoff seating. So that's one, data point. Data point two.

I think Aaron Rogers will be willing to get hit in the playoffs. That's interesting. I think one of the reasons, and I don't blame him for this, that he was like, I want to be healthy for the playoffs. And so I think, again, I don't think he's going to be like old big Ben standing in there having guys fall off him. But I don't think it will be quite as quick of a trigger.

On third down late in this game, he took one of the biggest hits and he knew he was going to get hit. So I think that it. And then stat of the month. And I can't. And this is, coach, I thought you'd be all over this. because this has upset alert written all over it for you. Who's the greatest coach in NFL history, Wilde?

Well, Bill Belichick. Okay, if it's not Bill Belichick, who is it? Give me another name, who it could be. It's not Belichick. Vince Lombardy. Don would say, knowing you, Andy Reid, someone's saying, whatever. It's all wrong.

The answer is, Mike Tomlin on Monday nights. When's this game, America? Monday night. 22 and 3, never lost at home. We've been coached there 20 years. When's this game? Is it on Monday? Today, Josh, check for me.

Have they said it? Tomlin on a Monday? I like it. I like it. That's the stat of the month. I'm sorry. Never lost at home on Monday night. Never lost.

That's not bad. The stat I saw was one and five this season against playoff teams. The only playoff team they beat was New England. We have five turnovers. Every other playoff. Probably have. Stat of the month. Stat of the month.

Mike Tomlin over. In his last six playoff game. Outside of that. It is on Monday. Guess what? None of those games were on Monday. That's right. You guys, last time you guys did this was, you guys remember, Trevor on Saturdays going

into that playoff game against the Chargers. And you guys were all mocking me. He was unbelievable. And then it was second half, bro. A new sack record and a new coach. Wow. In Cleveland. Could it be Coach Prime?

Next time, first thing's first. Coach one. Four coaches gone today. Pete Carroll, leaving last. Las Vegas. Rahim Morris out in Atlanta. I'm surprised about Rahim. Yeah.

They ended with four straight wins. Jonathan Gannon, snake bitten in Arizona and Kevin Stofansky, gone in Cleveland after the wind got him to 5 and 12. So the question is, Brew, what does this mean for Shador Sanders? Some reports coming out that the Browns think he's their quarterback next year. Well, look, I feel like, and this is speculation, that what dooms DeFansky, who I think is a good coach, he's a two-time coached in the year, two of the three times coach they've made the playoffs. in the last this century, he made it twice.

So, but I think his handling of Shadur is what doomed him because I feel like, and look, I wasn't at practices. None of us were. You were hearing reports, but he probably should have had Shadur be the backup from the get-go. And once he was done with Flacco, go to Shadur, and you would have had all season or 11, 12 games, whatever, to see what he could do. He showed us just enough in his six games or whatever.

it was, where I do think Shadour earned a chance to start. Like next year going to training camp with, we'll see, but he's got a legit chance to start. He wasn't great. He had moments. He showed you some potential. But as far as the new coach, and I think we're all going to talk about this, Dion Sanders name out there, I would not, as greater coach as I think Dion is, I would not go that route

because if you hire Deon, you're committing to Sjouder. And he has not shown me enough to know, oh, he's my franchise guy for the next five to 10 years. Like, maybe he can show a little, we'll see. But if you hire his dad, he's your guy and he might not be good enough to be your guy. And I also don't know, I don't know, coach, how that works in the locker room when the head coaches the players. Well, nobody does because it's never happened. Right, right. So that could be straight.

But I would not go that route for that reason. I'm not ready to just give the franchise to Shadour. I mean, with Stefanski, I could see why they got rid of Miami. I mean, he was a two-time coach of the year in the last, what, six years. Yeah, six years. And a division that has two potential Hall of Fame coaches, and a division that has two of the best quarterbacks in the NFL, in a division that he's consistently been able to find a way to beat Pittsburgh.

And I'm sure it was his decision to bring to Sean Watson. And he was the GM, right? And the owner. And it was his decision. Didn't they draft another quarterback in the third round? So was that his decision? Is he the only one that made that decision to draft that quarterback? So you can kill him for the way things played out from a quarterback perspective.

But the GM gets to stay, and there's been a lot of – this is a very good draft class. So I understand the strength of that draft class. But are we forgetting about Deshaun Watson? Like, does that come into play? Was that a huge detriment to Stifan's? he's ability to be successful. What about Baker Mayfield? Was he the reason Baker Mayfield left or was that a GM type decision and an ownership type

decision? So it's maybe they're going to be able to go get someone better. And maybe it's Jim Schwartz. Maybe it's someone in-house. Obviously they played great on defense. He's got head coaching experience. They could have continuity on that side of the ball and then retain the offensive coordinator if they wanted to because I guess he's got a relationship with Shador.

A lot of Chador's potential next season comes back to how strongly ownership feels about him. So if he feels like that's the guy, then anybody they bring in as the head coach will probably come in with the understanding that Chador's got to get the first reps, which means they're probably going to either trade that second overall pick or they're going to draft another player. No, they have the fifth overall pick. Oh, it's a fifth overall. I'm sorry. Yeah. Which is, which complicates things.

Right, which makes it a little bit trickier. And so Jonathan Jones from CBS reported today that they expect Chodor to enter camp as the team's starting quarterback. It's very interesting because, listen, I really like Jonathan Jones, and I think he's a great reporter. But there's only a handful of people that could tell him that because the head coach isn't there anymore, and they're in a head coach in place right now. Which means whomever hires the head coach, the owner slash GM, I would imagine, has told a reporter, before they even start interviewing who the incumbent quarterback's going to be next year, which speaks to coach's point about Chador's incumbency, so to speak. I think there are two people on the Cleveland Browns that this season went well for.

Miles Garrett, we're going to talk about in a minute, and Chador. And this season went well for Chador, despite how poorly Chador played. Because Chador's numbers are what his numbers are. And the sample size is half a season. Among quarterbacks with as many starts as Shador, he was 35th in completion percentage, 29th in yards per game, 24th in yards per pass, which is not bad. Dead last in touchdown turnover ratio, second to last in passer rating, and 31st in sacks per game. Even by judge a rookie on a curve standards, those are not good numbers.

Well, it's the fancies fault. Well, but so, but because they won just enough games, did not have a... right. He won three. His record was the, yeah, that's right. He was on the field for three of them. Well, yeah. But no, but because they fell outside of the top three of the draft and picks one, two, and three are three quarterback needy teams, and it seems like it is a two quarterback draft we think right now.

And because Stafansky is now out, and I think it's fair to say, Stefanski, what didn't appear to be a huge should or guy, I think this worked out. perfectly for Shador, where the Browns are going to have very little optionality. Like, what are we going to do? Are we going to draft over-draft a quarterback as the third or fourth quarterback

taken with the fifth pick of the draft? Probably not. Are we going to spin the free agent quarterback wheel, which is, it seems like Malik Willis and who? Like Daniel Jones is a free agent, he tore as Achilles. There's

Mac Jones is not a free agent. So I am still a seller on the idea that Shador Sanders is going to be a long-term, even average, much less above-average starter in this league. But he's going to get a shot now. I think that with Stefansky gone,

with where they fell in the draft, he is going to get that off-season that he talked about after his first start. Imagine me with the full off-season. I think we're going to get to see it. Is there a coaching change happening in Baltimore. That's next on first things first. The foam neck braces are really so.

Well, I needed it. My neck is sore. New York. It's a show that's having a rough day for you, too. Pete Carroll fired from your Raiders. There's a bad pick. Ashton Gentie. All right. Is it finally the right? I almost texted Nick last night after Ashton Genties end of the season staff. I didn't. What was it 3.7? I just feel like we're beating up on Brut the whole day. The Buccaneers.

No, the Buccaneers are what I deserve. Really? No, I'm saying I deserve to be pilloryed for today. The Raiders have been dead for months. I was a bad pick by me. I just played to spread the wealth around. That's all. Yeah, I've been taking some games.

Second hour. But first, thanks for it. Today, Ravens trading in their chips and soda pop for fresh service and peanut colatas. That means they're on. on a occasion. Yeah. What's next for Baltimore?

Meanwhile, Brock Purdy was three wins away from the Super Bowl. Instead, scored three points. Is Bruce stressed out about his guy? What did you see what Nick texted me? Put a little Mac Jones emoji. How did you make that? But right now, a season of angst comes to an end

for Brew and the Ravens. Lamar had three touchdowns and did look more Lamar-like late in the game. Here he is answering questions about his future with the team. We just lost a game, you know, a division of game, you know, a game to put us in the playoffs. I'm not even thinking about that right now, to be honest with you. I'm still caught up in what just happened, you know? That's not my focus right now. What does this loss mean for Lamar's future?

I mean, again, he could have easily said, oh, yeah, I'm going to be back, you know. But look, I fully expect Lamar Jackson back. The only thing I think is going to change is the head coach. I think especially with the way he handled that question we showed earlier. So I think he'll have a new head coach, which I look, as much as I think they should move on from John Harbaugh, I have said on this show, and I believe fully, he has done a great deal for Lamar's career. Like when a lot of people in the league did not believe in him, we saw Lamar early. I'm talking about preseason games, but early as a rookie didn't look like he could handle the NFL

quarterbacking. And Harbaugh helped develop him, and he's become obviously a future Hall of Famer. So I do give Harbaugh some credit for that. But that's the only reason I would keep Harbaugh is if Lamar was adamant about it and like this is the guy I want here. And obviously that doesn't seem to be the case. So I just think for Lamar, I do not, I don't think there's any chance. he's leaving the Ravens.

I do think he's, it seems like he's going to be wanting to talk about a new contract. But again, he just had a great game that lends credence to the notion that he was just hurt. You know, in those five games where he didn't play well, but he'll be

the regular Lamar next season. And so I just think he'll have a new coach most likely and he'll be fine. Yeah, I don't think that's a fair time to ask Lamar that question. And I really sincerely believe that he's not thinking about that. He wasn't thinking about his future.

He wasn't thinking about Harbaugh's future. That's a terrible emotional loss. And you're asking the guy at the press conference afterwards, you know, about something that's down the road. I can't imagine they would think about moving on from two-time MVP, all the success he's had. And granted, it's been bumpy this season. But they're not even in a position where they can move on from easily.

They have a no trade clause. There's dead money that'll hit this year. Next year that's substantial. They do need to address his contract because it's $74 million, which would be 25% of the cap, where his cap number is 15% this year, so you can't really do anything with that. No, keep going.

And then in terms of Harbaugh. Well, can we wait on the Harbaugh piece? Just for a second. I want to stay on Lamar for a second. First of all, Wilde's spot bonus. For what? Edgar Allen. Edgar Allen Wows is, I don't know who did it.

Pretty good. And I noticed it, so you have to pay it. So 50 bucks. I pay five. Whichever our producers came up with that, they get it. So do you agree with what Bruce said that Lamar is coming off a great game? I thought it was an okay game. I didn't think it was great.

He had nine yards rushing. He was sacked three times for what, minus 16, so he had 25 actual running yards. So that's what? what I, so the, so that's, and the, I don't, the sack yards don't, the sack yards don't count against his rushing yards. And so, no, that's college stats. They, they don't, they don't count,

his sack yards don't count against his. Team rushing. They count, so when he had nine yards rushing, that's really, he really only had nine yards rushing. So that, because that's kind of what I, because I think how he looked this season has to, and this game, has to inform what we think about his future. So I thought Lamar had an unbelievable fourth quarter,

damn near heroic. Like, you know what I mean? Like almost saved the Raven season. I also think for the first three quarters of this game, it looked a lot like I'm used to seeing Lamar look in spots like this. Weird, indecisive, and a little shaky. And I thought that I know Wilde's you basically said, I don't want to misquote you,

you did not blame him seemingly at all for the interception. I think the interception was one of many bad passes he threw early in this game. I grade interceptions as like goth's interception, for example, like, what are you doing? And I thought Lamar's beat balls, too, were a little function of Pittsburgh's defense. I mean, that's wanting free. One of them was right. So the one guy, one time a guy's running free. But the fourth down one early was, yes, there was Jalen Ramsey bit on something.

But it was still he had to see it. He had to throw it was perfect. And the two other plays he made in the fourth quarter. the one where he avoided the sack and threw the touchdown to Hollywood was a 10 out of 10 play by, 15 out of 10 play by Lamar. And the fourth down throw to likely was as good of a throw in a catch as you're going to see. So I. But did you think, I don't think he was bad early.

I just think he was kind of, I mean, the interception was bad, but he, they didn't throw a lot. But that, the game plan, he threw six passes in the first half. That's not on him. That's on the game playing, which I wasn't that mad. I would like to even throw a little bit more, but they were just trying to run Derek Henry. So, Dust, I don't know if we can show his stats, quarters one through three versus the fourth quarter.

I did think he was bad the first three quarters. And one of the reasons. Third quarter, because he was four for six in the first half. Right. So he was one for four in the third quarter. And to, I think to coach's point, one of the reasons that, you know, you don't have more past attempts is, you don't get more first downs, you don't have more drives,

that his, the sacks that he took or the inability, I don't even even call it refusal. What right now seems like an inability to trust that he can break off a run, like the, it ended up being a great decision, but on the deep pass after you avoided the sack, Dilewood Brown, Tariko says, me and Chris are hitting each other saying Lamar run, because it was like third and five, and it looked like he could. he threw the past instead.

So I view Lamar as at this point, and I don't mean to sound, he's a human being, but in calculating terms, a depreciating asset. At 28 years old. He's 29 and two days. At 29 years. Yes, yes. He should have several years left in his prime.

But that's the thing that we always talk about with great running quarterbacks. You know, there's a lot of young ones, but there aren't a lot of great old ones, because over time, they slow down, their ability to do that decreases substantially. So what was this huge asset to Nick's point now becomes an asset that declines pretty dramatically. Were you going to ask me,

do I view the same feel, same way about Mahomes? Is that what you're going to say? A little bit because I'm viewing from 10,000 feet if someone who didn't know football and said, what happened to these three great teams that I've been reading about on the Internet? The chiefs, the Bengals, and the Raven, they're like, you know what? Their defense wasn't good or wasn't as good as it usually is, and their quarterback either got hurt or dealt with a little bit of injuries,

and they didn't have enough to get through the finish line. So in Lamar's, and it's been a trend over the last few years, his pivot from a guy who his ability to run is his fastball to his curveball. ball, but it is a devastating curve ball to it is like a rarely used ephus pitch. I think drastically changes how dangerous he is. I think the fact that this year he suffered five different injuries that you're attributing the decline in play to is a major concern. I think then when you add to it that there is, he is, we would think, maybe going to be dealing with a new head coach

and looking for a new top of the market contract after what it can only be called a failure of a year for the organization and for the player, that to me, Brew, is all very complicated stuff. Like, that's why I think Lamar's future is an interesting discussion. A few years ago, Joe Burrow played 10 games and looked bad. They looked just as good with Jake Brownie. He obviously came back.

holding that against him. Mahomes has not looked like Mahomes in three years. And I get it. His history is a resume much better than Lamar's, but still, like, I don't, I just think, and I think yesterday Lamar looked like Lamar. I get it.

If he can't run like he used to or even close, that does hinder him. But he has become a great passer. I mean, what he did yesterday, all those highlights were passes. Like, he can throw the football. Most of those highlights were passes that weren't on time. They weren't just the way they were designed. They were him running around and extending plays and making plays down the field.

They're not your traditional passing game. I think the other thing that happens with great running quarterbacks when they get paid, if you're making $75 million, your willingness to run with the ball declines dramatically because you don't want to get hurt. The amount of money. If he got another big contract, he wouldn't run as much. I'm just saying when you're making that kind of money, unless it's guaranteed, you're not going to take the same risk that you would take when you were searching for that money initially because there's too much. There's too much that you could lose.

He hadn't played in a game and a half. So I don't think we were looking at 100% Lamar last night. He started the season at 70 yards against the bills. It's not like he aged that much. And he's not like going under the knife. this off season. Think about it. He just got a hamstring and then that kind of

come down. You're based in his demise, if I may call it that, on five, a five game stretch. And he was bad, but early in the year he looked great. And yesterday he was very good. I'm not,

let me just respond to that real quick. It's not just the five game stretch. I have probably, I have probably, definitely been the most skeptical of Lamar Jackson's overall, He's obviously a first ballot hall of favor, the resume of that. But overall ability to perform in the biggest spots and make it to the fit.

Look in January the way he looks every September of everyone on the show. I certainly was the most skeptical. We now have a year of just from any angle you look at it. It's a disaster year when it was supposed to be. I think, not supposed to be, it was the year the Ravens came into the season for the first time as the standalone Super Bowl favorites. We're about to have a discussion about whether or not they're firing the head coach. And all offseason we're going to

have a discussion of Lamar Jackson, 65 million a year fully guaranteed for three or four years, added on to the deal he has, is that a good idea? And I am just saying when the thing we talked about Friday, every other quarterback who has as many rushing yards as Lamar had a short prime and their best years were either in their 20s or the very beginning of their 30s, that it to me is not the no-brainer that I think we would have thought going into this season extending Lamar, whatever it takes, top of the market, Lamar Jackson, I think it's complicated. And I think treating this year like even if we attribute all of it to injury, then you then say, okay, so three of the last five years were derailed because of Lamar injuries. Three of the five years of his prime derailed by injury.

That's not, that's the same number of Joe Burrow years derailed by injury. But he hadn't had, he hadn't been banged up as much as Burrow. He has not missed as many games as Burrow. No, he hasn't missed as many games. but in the last five years, the Bengals have made the playoffs twice, and three years, Joe Burrow got hurt. One year, actually, didn't get hurt.

Their defense was terrible. The last five years, the Baltimore Ravens, have made the playoffs twice, and three years, we're saying it's because of Lamar injury. That's wrong. They made the playoffs one year when he was hurt. He's played in the playoffs twice. It, to me, is a legitimate discussion

and a very interesting one for what the new head, if there is going to be a new head coach, what he thinks. What he thinks about, about Lamar's future? Yeah, about all of it. I think about all of it. When you get a franchise, you let's look in that division. Cleveland's been looking for a franchise quarterback forever.

Pittsburgh since Rothesberger left, they've been looking for it. Like, it is not easy to get a franchise guy. I don't think they're going to move on from it. It's just as he becomes less of a threat as a runner, the coverage has changed because you don't have to put as many people in the box. You don't have to count for him. And most of his wow plays are made as. off schedule. They're not traditional pocket passer plays. So as he becomes less effective in that area, has he improved enough in the pocket to still be an MVP type player and merit that

type of contract? And to be clear, if I had the option of just running it back with Lamar, changing nothing other than the contracts, converting some salary to bonus, so the cap hits not as good, but he's got these two years left, and maybe making coaching changes we're going to talk about, That's what I would do. I don't think the Ravens are going to have that option. I want to make that very clear. I do not think Lamar Jackson is going to play next year under the contract he has right now. And I wonder if part of this year was a function of that.

Well, I mean, yeah, I do too. On the coaching front, John Harbaugh misses the playoffs for just the second time in the last eight years. He was asked by a reporter if he wanted to run it back, and here's what he said. Are you feeling like you want another shot with these guys? Yeah, I love these guys. I love these guys. Harbaugh with the Ravens, 18 seasons, win 61% of his games. 12 playoff appearances, only three losing seasons. Mike Thomas says no good.

In 2012, do you think it would be a mistake, coach, if the Ravens moved on? Yeah, we're having this discussion because the field goal kicker missed a very makeable field goal that should have won the game. and if we're if if he makes that field goal we're not even we're not even remotely having this not no hold on but we are having this another way to phrase that coach is the reason we're having it today and not last monday was because the steelers choked against the browns though you know the ravens were in a position where they needed someone else to lose then so it wasn't it's been a disappointing season regard under achievement it has been a disappointing season so we just talked about lamar has he had a disappointing unashivor.

underachieving season. That's a big part of why this has been a disappointing underachieving season, but they still were a missed field goal away from winning the division and being in the playoffs. And you could look at it and say, okay, has he forgotten how to coach? He has won a Super Bowl. And he did, they drafted Lamar when most teams passed on him. He made that transition extremely successful. And you can go get somebody. different, but one of the great things about having consistency in an organization is there's efficiency. And when you transition out of a head coach, especially someone who's been there a long time,

so much has to change. The coaching staff, the way the scouts look at things, the way you look at free agency, every part of the organization, there's this dramatic makeover. And are they that far away from the talent that they have now, that they can't be in the mix? Let's say Lamar has a good season next year. or significantly better than this year, aren't they right back in the mix for the Super Bowl again?

But now you go get a new head coach. Maybe it's a rookie head coach. He makes a bunch of mistakes. I mean, it's easy to fire guys. But as we see, every year, it's hard to find the next guy. I do agree it's a risk. Just because you know Harbaugh is a good coach, you know, I can't even say there's a floor

because I would have never thought the floor was missing the playoffs coming in this year. But I just think, coach, 18 years, I said it before, Andy Reid, who's a great coach, was fired, Belichick, the Patriots moved on from him. Like, I just think he's been there that long. And I'm wondering what is going to change next year. If they bring back John Harbaugh, what changes?

Lamar, we assume he'll play better, but he played great the previous two years or three years, and they got nothing. Like, their seasons keep ending. in disappointing ways and underachievement, I would say, and we can point to some of the coaching issues, like against the Chiefs in the AFC Championship game at home. They don't, I get it's not all on hardball,

but they're beset by a ton of penalties. They have unsportsmanlike conduct penalties. Zay Flowers is taunting. They forget to run the ball in the second half. Like I think that stuff is coaching. It's the discipline or the organization. Last year, I can't blame them for the bills. But this year, just the way things have gone, I just think it's just time for a new voice.

And I get it. It is risky. I mean, imagine if Philly had kept Andy Reid. And let's say Andy was the reason they dropped it Patrick Mahomes. Say Philly has Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid. Are they now the greatest? Are they the best organization, you know, the greatest franchise in the modern era? Do they match New England and the Super Bowl?

The Philly argument, oddly, works in the other direction as well. They move on from Andy Reed, have fired a bunch of coaches since then, and two of them have won Super Bowls, even though both of them might kind of be dopes. And so the, but I... Right, won a Super Bowl than Andy has, right? No, well, correct. You're saying if they had Mawks. He won none in Philly.

I don't... I feel like in this discussion, we are, like, glossing over the most important. important piece of it. There was a hit piece written about Lamar Jackson that came from the Ravens organization that we spent a week talking about. I think a lot when they're talking about falling asleep in meetings, practice times, taking care of his body, the whole thing in the Baltimore Sun. We talked about it on here that that appeared to be a shot across the bow from someone within the organization at Lamar. I've got ideas on who that someone might be. It was someone trying, I would think, to if the thing goes down, try to keep their job.

Lamar Jackson is not a dumb human being. He saw that article. He probably has a lot of the same feelings that I have about where that article came from. The idea, Lamar Jackson was asked about John Harbaugh being his head coach next year at the end of his end of his end of season press conferences. He's like, I can't talk about that right now. I don't think it is tenable. for Lamar Jackson and John Harbaugh

to be the coach and the quarterback for the Baltimore Ravens next season. So maybe they don't move on from John Harbaugh. But that then means the only way to, I think, fix that relationship is the way I guess you fix a bunch of relationships with money,

like a ton of ton of money. Does that fix a lot of relationships? I think in sports and sometimes in life too. How are you saying things that came up in that article you categorically think are false? No, I think they're almost. almost all true. But I think that they still had to come from somebody.

Like the writer is not hanging out at Lamar's house. The writer is not in meetings. Well, Lamar said the sleeping in meetings things. He laughed at it. And in terms of John desperately trying to keep his job for the money, I think he's probably got enough money. Do we think he's going to be unemployed for very long? Or is he going to get one of these, his choice of the six jobs?

No, but the Ravens is a good job. The Ravens is a better job than these jobs open. With bad ownership, like the Ravens have good ownership. It's a really good job. I think, like, I think Tomlin would instantly get a job. The Steelers is great. You still want to keep the job that you have. If an article was written about your quarterback when you were coaching,

and you knew it was false, or you didn't feel that way about you, because they said an article that Harbaugh's tired of him. Yes. Sick of him. And Harbaugh just addressed it when he was asked, and it was kind. He shot it down, but it wasn't. He said, I love Lamar. Yeah.

I'm asking, would you come out? your own and say, look, there was an article written about our quarterback, sleeping in meetings, that I'm tired of him. I don't like him. None of that is true. I love Lamar. You know, would you come out? I'm just asking, how would you handle it?

Would you do it like? Because I thought Harbaugh's, it wasn't full-throated, like, this is ridiculous, a full-throated support of Lamar. Yeah, I don't know what you wanted him to, you just wanted him to be more. passing about it. I thought he was pretty pretty straightforward about how he felt about Lamar. You just didn't feel like it had enough emotion behind it. I'm just wondering if you would come out on your own to shoot it. Like if somebody said, I don't like Kevin Wiles. They wrote that. I would say come out and say that's ridiculous. This is, you know what I mean? Not true.

Miles breaks the record. That's next on first things first on FS1. Miles Garrett breaks the sack record. Tackles a turtling Joe Burrow for sack number 23. Also got a deal with Jordan Brand. Do you see that? Yeah. You know, he plays a lot of basketball. Yeah.

That's true. Against orthodontics. Yeah, right. Brown's win to finish year of five and 12. Brew will start with you. How will you remember Miles Garrett's record breaking season? It was a phenomenal season. Most of it, he had a four-game stretch with 13 sacks,

and that's when he did most of it. his damage. But just a great year. I think I have a graphic. I know you want to have one that's similar, I'm told Nick, but where his number of past plays that he faced. This is impressive.

This is mine. Yeah, I think they didn't use mine. Sorry, but they didn't make mine because of yours. You see that? That's, I mean.

So that's everyone with at least 21 sacks in a year. And so. It also puts to bed the like 17. Right. 17. Hey, look, he's playing for a bad. team, teams get up on them, and then they run the football. And so he didn't have as many opportunities

as Strayhand and T.J. Y, who held the record. So that just makes it even more impressive. Well, yeah, I mean, to me, coach, and leave that up just for a second, because the top three are all interesting. So Justin Houston, he entered week 17 that year with 18 sacks. And then in week 17, you know, got to have it win in your end game, had four sacks to get to 22. But the reason nobody even thinks of that is because it wasn't like on record watch you know what i mean throughout the year um reggie white's year is special because he played 12 games he had 21 sacks and 12 games and i have always thought that that reggie white season was the single best pure pass rushing season of my life i can't speak to deacon jones i don't like i i don't know

this to me coach is neck and neck with it like as far as a single season pass rushing excellence. This to me is right alongside what Reggie White did in 12 games as the most dominant year I've seen. And I thought the pass attempts is noteworthy because that's how many chances you're going to have and they obviously didn't.

White had more than just 12 games. Reggie White faced 511 pass attempts in 12 games. Yeah. Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah, look, I was really impressed by it And I was impressed by it because of the record. And I understand it is the extra game. And I do think the extra game does come into play to some degree in this discussion.

But really, the fact that they had the record that they had. And then typically they were chasing, you know, he was chasing past plays as opposed to having a competitive four-quarter game where you would traditionally see someone like this have a record like he was able to achieve. I thought he was amazing throughout the course of the season. And I understand there was some cynicism because he said he wanted to go to a winner and then he ended up signing back with the Browns. A solid point.

And I respect the fact that he was chasing the record even though the season wasn't bad because success was out of reach in terms of reaching the playoffs. So I don't mind him trying to achieve what he achieved in a really unfortunate year. I'm fine with it, but some people aren't. I'll be glass half full. I do wish that the record corresponded and translated more to just straight up wins. And he sacked Caleb, I think, multiple times, and the Bears put up 31 points. He sacked Drake five times in that games, and we just easily handled the Browns.

That being said, I'm trying to be glass half full. The Giants, when Strayan set the record, the Giants were seven and nine. They went 10 and six the next year and made the playoffs. When T.J. Watt tied Strayhan's record, they went 9 and 7. So hopefully, this is a sign that he can be on a winning team. I just, I like Miles Garrett. I just don't like legendary players playing in meaningless games. And having like a little two-game win streak, I wish it.

This sack was on a meaningful play where the Bengals were trying to drive, and we'll talk about it in a second. But I'll remember it is kind of like, I wish they won more. But don't you think part of being legendary is the ability to play at a high level? level even in meaningless games? Some people would be like, hey, I don't want to get hurt. I agree. I just wish, like, I want him to be. Chris Jones comes up with a huge play

in a great playoff game. Aaron Donald comes up with a sack and like clenches the Super Bowl. That's what I want. And I just like, oh, we did it. We got to five wins. They should, right. So let me just push back on that

a tiny bit. A lot of our legendary single season records in sports were not great teams. The like Megatron's record, that team was not that good. I'm not sure. I should have looked it up.

Eric Dickerson's records that still stands. Usain both. And so I, like a lot of those numbers are, a lot of the records Drew Brees still holds were on nine and seven teams. I think it is very rare to cross sports. Like Kobe's 81 point game and 35 point per game season

was on a seven-seed Laker team. Like a lot of our best individual performances come amidst when they're surrounded by mediocrity. It's like there's a reason Chris Jones does not, you know, has never come close to winning a defensive player of the year and doesn't have a bunch of, you know, double-digit sack seasons. Like that's not, that doesn't always go hand in.

in hand with, you know, individual dominance like that. So I don't think that's specific to Miles is, would be the defense. Also, that Reggie White number. That might be the set, the number of pass attempts. The Eagles faced all year, even in the games he missed. So that, so it might be more impressive. That's a lot. Yeah, I know that's.

I, as soon as you said it, I was doing it. I get really, yeah, yeah, but I'm hearing it out. Back in the day. On the flip side, Zach Taylor, Jemar Chase, we're not happy that the game action was stopped. to celebrate Miles Milestone. Oh, spot bonus for me. No.

Yeah, Ian, back on me. You owe me five bucks. Take a listen. Stack it to him. Oh, my. There's five minutes left in our season. We're playing for our lives here. And I was never told that we're going to stop the game.

And they said they tried to do it as quickly as possible. I didn't feel that. We didn't sub. We're trying to be on the ball and go and play with tempo. And the Empire just held the ball so that we couldn't do anything. I never knew you could let the whole team get on your field. That's like me catching my 10th pass and the whole team running on the field. We're going to get flagged.

You can't do that. They better stop the game when I do something in my back end. That's all I got to say about that one. I love this. Go ahead. I'll watch my 10th pass. Look, I will say that I'll salute Zach Taylor and the Bengals. This was a meaningless game for them.

But they took it seriously. I will give them that credit. And I also coach, I do kind of understand Zach Taylor being like they did the official should have let him know. Look, if he breaks the record, we're stopping the game. That said, I mean, come on, this celebrate the guy. I get it that the Bengals aren't going to celebrate him. But understand this is a huge record. It's existed for a quarter of a century.

So don't get been out of shape when they celebrate it. Yeah, fighting for your life. That's a little dramatic for that game. and I promise you if Jamar Chase breaks a record, he's going to want everybody. He's going to want it stopped and sign the ball. This was a really incredible moment. And to stop the game at that point, I think that's totally appropriate. I thought this was an indictment on Zach Taylor that he didn't realize that the moment justified stopping the game.

Where Emmett Smith was over there, like changing cleats in jerseys, they're going to stop the game. Drew Brees, they stopped the game for. You ever think the ref should tell them? I agree with you, but the rest should have it. Half the stadium was Browns fans there for that. He said they met with him for 90 minutes before the game. I don't know how long. That's got to come up.

But the ref should tell. The ref should say, look, I agree. I agree the refs should tell them. I also think that the, so the records you're talking about are career records. I watched the video of when Megatron beat Jerry Rice's single season record. Game stops. He goes over. I don't know if it's his dad.

He ends he gets the ball to some. older gentleman who walks on the field. I should have looked up if it was dead or not. But whoever, the game stops. There are not a lot of, and Jamar Chase being like, you know, they better stop the game for me. And he took a little shot at Miles. I don't know what he said on the back end.

Like this was a career achievement thing. It wasn't. This was a single season thing. And by the way, there aren't a lot of these records out there. Because any single season touchdown record, the game stops because you score a touchdown. Yeah. Like the, and so, and. When Peyton broke the record for single season passing yards, he actually did it on a touchdown,

so the game had to stop anyway. I couldn't find the tape of when Dickerson did it. But that's all the way. There's passing yards, rushing yards, receiving yards, and sacks. That's all your records. There's not a lot of them. This isn't going to be like, oh, we're going to have record creep where all of a sudden the game's going to be stopping all the time.

I don't think anybody was shocked by it. Like, were you shocked that they stopped? Of course they stopped the game. I would have been shocked if they didn't. Yeah, I would have been shocked if they didn't too. It needs to. They're just lying. Or did it want to 12 men on the field when they served.

I mean, I just, I thought it was, I take your helmet off. That's rivals. Don't you think that's, it was a state champion. It was a state champion. It was a state champion. Sal was great. Yeah, I think it, and I think this is the reason you like the story. I think that was a sign of a bigger problem with the Bengals.

Correct. Well, go ahead. Well, that's why this is just, it's my Rolling Stones, M&M's theory. That you just, if there's, if there's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, It's too long of a story. It's not a long story. It's a long story. It's a long story.

It's great. I don't know if I heard the story? No, it's partly apocryphal. Rolling Stones are traveling around the world, right? So they would have in their rider, hey, no blue M&M so they wouldn't have to go in there and check every light and every sound check. They would just look and see if there's blue M&Ms. And if they see that there's a blue M&M and M in there, they realize this place is not organizationally sound. Check the microphones.

And if they see there's no blue M&M&M's, this place is buttoned up. this place is buttoned up. So if you don't realize that half the Browns fans were going to see the regular, they're cheering for the Brown. Like, this is the record. Joe Burrow got it out. I had it somewhere. Joe Burrow was getting the ball out like Aaron Rogers,

the fastest game game. The game plan was don't get sacked. So the fact that you were shocked and that this didn't come up, or you didn't ask the refs, signs of an organizational issue. We used to put stuff in game plans. First person to read this gets $20. Make sure everybody was reading. Thanksgiving.

Now, I wanted to know there's going to be a turkey out there. You can have food on the field? Going on here. Yeah, there's a turkey on the field, okay? Well, we couldn't pay attention. There was delicious turkey wafting over. Good job, KW. Come on, take it.

Joe Burrow needs to get out of there. You almost weren't going to get there. You want everybody to leave everywhere. Sometimes take the ball and go score. It's not my job. My job is to be affable. I knew you had a great take. College Hoops double header.

No way. College Hoops triple header. Heck yeah. Michigan, Penn State, Texas Tech. Mahomes gonna be up for this one. Versus Houston. And then San Diego State. Kauai is gonna watch that one versus Nevada.

I don't know if the Clippers have a game to now, but if they don't. Colin Kaepernick? Kauai is average. To Nevada, right? Kauai was to see. Yeah, I was just saying. same pro. She said Mahomes going to watch Texas Tech. I was trying to figure out someone to watch

Nevada. Elijah Wines going to watch Houston. Oh, yeah. Well done. He played for their pro team, too. That's a good point. Sam Darnel of Seahawks are the number one seed after shutting down the high-powered 49ers offense. They'll be resting in the scenic Pacific Northwest, all those trees while the 49ers are headed to Philadelphia. We also arrested. Brew, did this game say more about Sam Darnold? Mr. 14 wins. yards, nothing to shake a stick at. Or Brock Purdy. You had three.

Now you want to talk Purdy. The last two weeks when he had five touchdowns in each game. We talked about it. I did. Nick did. You sat there quiet. He had three.

You had nothing to say now you're all loud. It's my job to read the news. The guy had three. Sam Donald. Look, he Trent Williams was out. Ricky Pearsall, who is not.

great, but he's one of their best receivers was out. He needs his weapon. That's a great defense. My answer is we know Purdy is not, the moment's not too big. He's played in the Super Bowl. He's been good in playoffs. He'll be fine. Darnold though, Wilds.

You just brought up in the break. Philip Rivers, 44 years old. Off the couch, on the couch of five years, comes in against this same Niners defense coach. He threw for 277 yards and two touchdowns.

Darnel threw for $198 and no touchdowns. And Caleb Williams threw for more than 300 yards, two touchdowns against this Niners defense. So look, Seattle's really good. They're great. The weak link is darn. I'm not saying he's

weak. He's a good quarterback. But he's the weak link and when you talk about them reaching the Super Bowl and he couldn't light up this Niners defense which is weak, that's prop. That's a scary. He was the issue. Not the guy had three points. He had 14 games.

He, purdy was facing a much better defense than Darna was. Yeah, to me, that's what it comes down. It was the two defenses. So Seattle now is six in sacks, six and takeaways, top ten in almost every defensive category, where San Francisco's dead last in sacks. I think they're 15th, middle the pack and takeaways. They just, It's not comparable in terms of the challenges that each side face. So I think you got a grade purdy with a little bit of a curve here versus Darnel. I thought Darnel was going to light him up a lot more than he lit him up like most people did, like the guy who came off the couch did.

And that was disappointing to me. My goodness. So, well. That's your guy. I want to hear you. Double-digit win is what I. No, listen, I think the C-Ax are incredibly dangerous. but that is somewhat

despite the concerns about Darnold. So I'll get to those a second. On Purdy, listen, Purdy is, he's allowed to have a bad game. He had had a bunch of really good games in a row and two exceptional games in a row. It is not lost on me. He's a decent amount of bad games over the last two years.

Say it again? Oh, I listen. No, but he was on a string of really good games. It's not lost on me that Christian McCaffrey finally has a bad game and the offense can't move the ball. Like that's, that was more my takeaway on it. Here is my concern, KW, for your guy, Sam Darnold.

And is he your guy? He's got to be somebody. He's got 14 wins. And listen. And I think the Seahawks can win the Super Bowl. I want to make it clear. I think they can. I don't think it's like, oh, he's destined to cost them.

What is true is, for half the season now, he's been very mediocre. Yes. If we cut the season in half before and after the Rams game, before the Rams game, he's cooking. And that's why when he had the bad Rams game, his teammate was like, man, he's the reason we're in this position, you know, with defending him. Since that Rams game, man,

eight touchdowns, 10 turnovers, and 83 rating. It speaks. Wait, how many turnovers they have in the rate? But that's in the after column. No, no, no. Where's the line of The before is everything leading up to the Rams game.

The after is the Rams game moving forward. So we had four in that game. All right, that's fine. Should we take those for out? No, but just like Jaylen's No, that's fine. Turnovers come in bunches. But KW, then it's eight touchdowns

in eight games with six turnovers. Even if we take that game out. But last year, the final game in the season, that was Detroit, right? Yes. And that wasn't very good. No.

This was better one. He's the number one seed guys. That's what I'm saying is the positive about this. Yes. He hasn't the reason they lost the game. And no, but Kevin, here's the challenge I think with Sam Darnold is, can he do what he did when the pressure wasn't on, when the pressure is on? And the upside of this year versus last year is he didn't do anything to kill him in this last game. And they do have the number one seed where they lost it, right, to Detroit the final game?

Last year. Yeah. So a year removed. At least we've taken that step. Yeah. Last two years, he has 28 wins, 8,300 yards, and 60 touchdowns. And now he went to a new team, was cast off, went to a new team, and now is the number one seed. I think he's pretty good.

He is. He is. And now he's got a chance in a big moment to prove really good. You can't be Mr. Quarterback wins. And be like, you know who I was impressed by the guy who scored three points? He's not Mr. Quarterback wins. You're a Mr. Quarterback wins.

But he's my friend. Should they put in Macdon? He sits next for me. No, I'm just saying. Sam Donald's just waiting. He scored 20. He's quarterback. So it's him and Brady are the only guys who win 14 games back.

Live for New York. First thing's first overtime. Today, can Aaron Rogers make a run to the Super Bowl? Remember, we got a new open. Meanwhile, uh-oh. Did the bears get exposed by the lions yet again, Danny? That one wasn't good. What did they prove?

I thought they proved. You guys can't get a 4,000-yard pass. Oh, yeah. Wait till next year. And finally. The 49ers ran into what might be the best defense in the league. A great defense. Are we surprised Purdy came up short and was outplayed by Sam Darnold,

who just has four. Former backup. Just has 28 wins in the last two years. No big deal. Alongside Danny Parkins, Nick Wright and Chris Broussardom, Kevin Wilde. Danny? Yes. Were you impressed with Sam Donald's performance with getting the one seat?

I thought Sam Darnold was fine. That defense, though. A real one seed. That is a one seed. That is. Well, what's wrong? Offensively. A shot at Bo Nix.

A little bit of a shot at Bo Nix. Why? Yeah, I just, that's an impressive statement win. It is. Can you imagine having the opportunity to put real American dollars on the Seahawks minus just one and a half in choosing not to do that? I can't. Are we talking gambling? Yeah.

It was a rough weekend. Danny, you lost your crown, your regular season crown? I mean, you had a. He had an overwhelming leave. Yes. And then with O for Week 17 and 18. Wow. Double and nothing for the playoffs.

What? Separate, buddy. Separate? Separate. Yeah. Separate. It does end after the regular season. Regular season.

Regular season and then there is a separate playoff. Chokes down the stretch. Choked. Very much like the Ravens. Ravens are done. Wow. Dealers are just getting started. Lamar threw three touchdowns, but Tyler Loop.

This is his first kick inside 50 yards all year. And the Ravens are headed home. Danny, what was the number one reason in your mind that the Ravens lost? John Harbaugh. Wow. Yeah. Out there kicking. So that's the thing.

He can't make the kick, but he can do everything to make the kick easier. And if Lamar Jackson is cooking in the fourth quarter, maybe put the ball in your MVP's hands and let him have a zone read or a one read pass. Hey, complete this pass. If it's not there, throw it away. give the ball to Derek Henry, do something to make the kick closer. And if you don't like that, I know he can't be the guy

who falls down in coverage and all of it, but I'm surprised it's 502. I'm surprised he's still employed right now. I'm just, it's 18 years. And the overarching trend, and I think it was reflected in this game, he has a Super Bowl, no doubt. He has all those playoff appearances,

only three losing seasons. He would have offers if he got fired. be a desirable coach. But sometimes it's just in the best interest of everyone to change. And one of the things that has been a defining characteristic of John Harbaugh since he's been in Baltimore is close losses. Like losses like yesterday. They have the most.

They have the most. In the last 18 years, no organization has more losses by five points or less than the Baltimore Ravens. And this year they were 0 and 4. And I think like one year or two years of that, it can be like random small sample. But if you keep losing the close games, that's that stuff in the margins that I do think is a reflection on coaching. They're not going to move on from Lamar Jackson. Something needs to be different.

So, yeah, I think it was Harbaugh in the game, and I think it's Harbaugh for the season. I agree with a lot of that on Harbaugh. That's not my answer as to why they lost the game. But all these losses, including yesterday, like when you have a team that consistently finds a way to lose, it's going to be something. And yesterday, the offense played well in the second half. The defense didn't. The defense played well in the first half. The offense really didn't.

I mean, Henry was huge. But they always find a way to lose, whether it's a lot of penalties, whether it's unsportsmanlike conduct penalties, whatever it might be. And that a lot of times does you reflect coaching. My answer to yes I mean they lost because the dude missed the kick And I'm not going to sit here

They didn't push Pittsburgh all over the field In fact, second half Pittsburgh bullied them So I'm not going to sit here and say You know If Lamar did this or you know it just It was a close hard fought game Both teams have a right to feel like they should have won the game If this guy and I hear what you say

I agree with Harbaugh and what he said, though, Danny. The risk of giving, I get how great Derek Henry is. But, and I don't think Nick, it's based on him fumbling a few times, four times this year. I just think there's a risk. Pittsburgh is great at punching out the ball. And if Derek Henry had fumbled, you gave him the ball, he ran for three yards and fumbled, all Hardball would hear about is why you. didn't kick the ball. It's a 44 yarder. He might have. You say you would have thought he wouldn't

have fumbled. He had a great game against buffalo in week one. But when you're in a fumble. But if your number one objective is don't fumble versus your number one objective of getting yards and also don't fumble. I think there's a 99.99.99% chance he doesn't. But if he did and it was 44 yards. I get it if it was 52 or something like that. Go ahead. It was 44 yards. He has to make that kick, Danny. I'm sorry. He has got to make that kick. You also could throw it.

You don't have to hand it off. You could throw it. And it's allowed. Make the kick. So you have a lot of options. You have 14 seconds one timeout. I would not have thrown it because, in all honesty, I don't, and this is not an indictment singularly on Lamar.

I'd feel the same way oddly about Josh Allen, who's the, no, what I was going to say is, I don't trust him not take a sack. It's not that he might the throw an intercept. Tip ball. It could be in a big. So I wouldn't have thrown it. I would have run the ball. And what I certainly wouldn't have done is call a play to make the field goal longer,

which is what they did. Two yards. They lost two yards. I mean, but I also think that, Brew, I feel a little differently than you about how easy a 44-yarder with the season on the line for a rookie kicker in the hardest stadium in the NFL to kick in, right after he just watched a great kicker, miss an extra point. And a very strange way.

I know it's a job. I know, Blue, I know it's the job, but it's a job that he's never been tested in. This is like, it's not, this wasn't. And he had the kickoff out of bounds earlier. The other thing I was going to say, he's already having a shaky game that also we didn't know, and I don't know if John Harbaugh knew out of the coaching staff knew,

but evidently Lamar yelled at him about the kickoff out of bounds. I don't even know that because Lamar said it. Lamar told us that because Lamar was at, asked, did you talk to the kicker after the game? He's like, no. That's probably a no-go. We got to ask coach about that. It was weird to me, but I, that like, don't do it.

Like, yeah, I know, man. He's, I don't think he said that. But Lamar did say he was like, yeah, I was livid, but then I told him I know he's going to get it back, like something. But I could. It was, yeah, I just got. I hear what you're saying. It is a tough situation. Yeah.

The kicker, that's a tough job. Most times you step out there It's life or death I mean you know what I mean In the football sense I get it but that's what you do But my point is if you're saying it's 99% Derek Henry doesn't fumble

Because I do think and the reason I think it was kind of I think it was It was cruel to the players And it feels awful But someone's going to leave this game feeling sick Because he makes that kick Chris Boswell who is a legitimately

Great player is a you know why cost it? Somebody's going to leave this game feeling terrible. This is how this Ravens season was supposed to end. The season started with Derek Henry fumbling in three straight games. It ends maybe because they don't give the ball to Derek Henry because they're afraid he's going to fumble. The season starts with the defense unable to get a stop.

It ends with the defense playing great for 10 weeks, whatever it was, until all of a sudden they can't get a stop. The season starts with Lamar playing great, them playing very, very, very, very. poorly for a stretch. This game, he does absolutely nothing for the first three quarters, then plays maybe the best quarter of his NFL life at the end. This Ravens team is 8 and 9. And you know what their record should be, 8 and 9? They were not going at no point this season. No point can you point to consecutive games where it's like, man, they are putting it all together.

So winning this game would have been consecutive games of them putting it all together. So like the Harbaugh piece, I agree with you in this. Not even because Lamar wasn't didn't play last week. You know what I'm saying? Oh yeah, I didn't even think about that. You're right. I didn't think about that. I just meant the team as a whole played great.

But you're right. I didn't think about that. I think assuming you are bringing Lamar back, which I assume they will do, that you can't just run it back. No. And that's why, and so it is very, if you just run it back, why would it be different? Can I just put it?

Quickly, just real quick, to what Danny said, that's culture. I talk about the defensive culture. They need a culture change. They need, their culture right now, the last few years, is we underachieve and we beat ourselves and we find a way to lose.

That's what it is. But if you were trying to, if I was, You're trying to fire me. Like, why shouldn't we fire you? Like, because Kyle Hamilton got hurt in the game and our guy missed a 44-4-4-8. We were 8-8 minute. And he was 29 for 29 under 50. I let him kick it thinking he's going to be 30 for 30.

He wasn't. He's 29 for 30. And our defensive star went down. So Aaron Rudd started to keep this apart. And if that didn't happen, we're in the playoffs. But I know the thousand butterfly. So you're John Harbaugh and I'm trying to fire you. You say that.

You know what? You're right. So ask me again why I'm firing. Why are you firing me? Because the AFC championship game two years ago. Yeah. Because you know what? Because like that was the moment.

Yeah. And we gave you a couple chances to come back from it. And so maybe this year's unfair. But that was the moment. And since then we have gotten each year progressively further from the goal. And each year progressively more excruciating losses. So now we got to move on. He's underachieved in Lamar's prime.

Right? Like the team as a whole in terms of winning in the playoffs have underachiev. achieved with Lamar. And now you don't get a chance to playoff. I think it's risky. You might end up higher. It's always risky.

He always got the dofus risk. By the way, at this point, he's probably coming back. If they haven't fired him by now. 18 years along, he's been the coach for longer than the Ravens have been. To me, as part of it. If he's, if I'm telling you guys right now, if he comes back, then there is a much bigger offseason story involving the Ravens we're going to be talking about for months, which is Lamar's fusion.

with the team. Yeah, if John Harbaugh. Rogers almost threw for 300 yards while leading two fourth quarter touchdowns drives. Steelers get themselves a date with the Texans in their pass, Ross. Danny, do you think they've got a shot at making a real run here? Absolutely not. This guy. They would be, there's 14 playoff teams.

They would be my 13th by head of just the Panthers. Yeah, sure. That's what you were going to say. Not by the Panthers. Right. But I don't, they have a low offensive ceiling. They have a defense that seems getable. They have a quarterback who is not mobile, who doesn't want to get hit,

whose path very likely could be to make a run. I count that as winning multiple playoff games, having to go through Denver's, or Houston's pass rush and then Denver's pass rush. How are their offenses? Not great. So how many points do you think you need to beat those teams? 24? Right.

So you don't think that's on the board. I don't. No. No, I don't. In back-to-back weeks in the playoffs, a lot of things needed to break their way in a weird spot. Guys needed to fall down. Guys needed to miss kicks. They also needed to be stuffed on the one-yard line. They also had things work against them. They got stuffed on the one-yard line, cost them seven points. That was a bad play. Oh, yes, but I'm saying like that, you know, that worked against them. They got stuffed on one of those fourth downs you love so very much early in the game. In a spot, Tomlin normally wouldn't do it. They missed an extra point. that also their defense just had two what the hell just happened coverage busts that you know what I mean

so they had their defense has not been very good though like they have the highest paid defense in the NFL that is underachieved all year so they they will go into the game with Houston with the worst of the two defenses and maybe the better offense by by a small margin by a small margin do you think it's fair this is what I wrote down because when we were doing predictions week it was So it was like the riskiest option was to think that Mike Tomlin was going to break the 500 streak. And yet again, we were all wrong 19 seasons. Not brew. Brew had him in the playoffs.

I did too. I did. I was like, you and me. This is it. We're wrong. And if he was six and oh in his last six playoff games, we'd be like, money in the bank. Because if you're 0 and 6 in your last six playoff games feels like.

That makes sense, though. What do you mean? We should take that into consideration. That's what I'm saying. So should we have the same confidence in him in the regular season? Should we have the same lack of confidence in the post? In fairness to him, he hasn't had very good teams. So just to get to the playoffs was an achievement, most of those six games.

And whatever we think of Rogers, you would agree, Brew. Rogers is the best quarterback he's had in the last five. Since Ben was still good. Since Ben's. Sure. I give you that. Look, I think they'll lose. Right now, I'm looking at Houston.

beating them. We'll see when we make our picks later in the week. But right now I think Houston beats them because of that pass rush. You know, they got two stone cold great rushers in Danil Hunter and Will Anderson, Jr. And one reason I thought Rogers was so great, particularly

without D.K. Metcalf, was he was comfortable yesterday. The Ravens have no pass rush. They couldn't make him uncomfortable. And so he could just dissect them the way he did. He's not going to be able to do that. Even if they don't sack a lot, he is going to be

pressured and getting rid of the ball quickly. We saw against Cleveland when he was under some pressure as far as the rush, he got rid of the ball too quickly. They only scored six points. So I do expect Houston right now the way I'm feeling to beat them. But if they do beat Houston, Danny,

I'm just looking at the experience level of the quarterbacks in the AFC. And if you take, I think Jacksonville has a good chance, spoiler alert, to beat Buffalo. And if that happens, then Josh Island's gone and Aaron Rogers has way more experience than the rest of the field combined. But if we're going to pick the playoffs based on quarterback experience, then they're just saying,

but he's playing smart. But hold on, but I don't want to pick the playoffs based on Super Bowl experience. I also don't want none of what's happened to matter. So here's why nobody, I don't know, I don't know anybody on TV that's been more pessimistic or maybe harder and some people have said very personal. haven't tried to be, about Aaron Rogers than me. But the way the last month has gone has to matter. The fact that they just, Danny and Brew both made the point all last week.

The Ravens defense, it was a pack stat. The Ravens' defense is awesome, actually. Best in the league is over this stretch up here, this stretch of time. You talked about it. Philly. Philly was, but the Ravens even was one of them. The Steelers just, without D.K. Metcalfe. Just scored 26 points, easily could have been more as getting stuffed at the one.

It's not because there was a bunch of turnovers. There was one turnover. They got three points off that turnover. It wasn't some special teams miracle. Rogers is playing his best ball of the year. All of those things have to matter as far as the ceiling we put on this offense. And the defense with T.J. Watt coming back, Cam Hayward looked pretty good to me yesterday. And, oh, by the way, I don't know if you know, the game's on Monday.

Mike Tomlin, LeVar Ball on Mondays at home, never lost 12 and 0. And so. This guy loves betting trends. I mean, I think 23 and 2 overall and 12 and 0 at home on Monday nights. It's not nothing. And so, yeah, I'm giving them a shot against a Texan team, 22 and 3, pardon me, against a Texan team that has not looked good the last couple weeks. That part is true.

and I've said it all week or all year, I'm going to say it all week. Every team in the playoff field has flaws. This isn't like a ringing endorsement of the Texans. I just think they've got a very low ceiling. All right. Head over to Chicago. Yeah, let's do it.

Bears lose to the Lions again. But with Philly also losing, they stay the number two seed. Bears were hibernating before waking up in the fourth, putting up 16 points and clawing their way back in the game. I thought we didn't do puns. This is just describing a bear. Oh, okay, thanks.

Before golf and Amon Ra set up a field goal to win it. Here's Caleb. Not good enough. Not good enough to win this game, not good enough to win the upcoming games. So we got to get better all sides of the ball. But speaking on offense, whatever happens on the other side of the ball, it's not something that we can control. So we have to control what we can.

And we've got to come out, starting fast, being better. And we'll do that here coming up. Are you concerned at all, Danny? No, no more so than I was before the game. Like, they are what I thought they were, to paraphrase Denny Green. Like, they, their offense is better than that. Ben Johnson apparently told Aaron Andrews it was our simplest game plan of the year. I thought it was a little weird to go into a game with like a vanilla game plan,

but play all of your starters. Yeah. It kind of sends mixed, like, are you going for it or are you not? It seems like he was trying to have a little bit of both there. So I know that that will not be the game plan for them against Green Bay. I think their offense will move the ball on Saturday night against the powers. They were trying not to score points? It's not that they were trying not to swear.

He just said it was a, he said it was a simple game plan that they did not execute well. But you know what? But the defense is bad. The defense is bad. And the offense is bad for three quarters. The offense is hot and cold. Caleb has improved greatly and shown superstar potential. No question about it.

But right now, I mean, the field is littered with young quarterbacks who haven't proven much. But he doesn't look good enough to lead them to the superiors. Super Bowl. Like, he's great in the fourth quarters. And they have to find a way to channel his fourth quarter play in the first three quarters if they want a legitimate chance of getting out of the NFC. Do you agree with this statement? The only reason this loss was not horrible is because Philly lost.

Like, if they had, they play their starters to secure the two seed. Philly rests there, guys, not caring about it. If you lose and Philly wins and now you fall to the three seed, which evidently you cared about by playing your starters, you're showing that, then it's a truly horrible loss because Philly ended up losing, then it takes a lot of the sting out of it. But this was, I mean, down 16-0 and tried,

the only silver lining I would say is it was a reminder, you're not always going to be able to pull it out of the fire. You know what I mean? Which is that you're not going to be able to do that. They came back, tied it, then lost. Ben Johnson clearly was caught on the sideline saying that he should have gone for it on the fourth and five instead of punting it away. I thought that was un-Ben Johnson-like. It was shocking.

It was almost blowing a 16-point lead in the final minutes. You know what's worse than that, Parco? What's that, Nick? I don't know. I mean, having a picks championship in your pocket. And then in week 17, doing that. Let me move out of the way. Let me just move out of the way.

Man. That's 0 and 3, but you still had a lead going into week 18. Let's see how that one went. Oh, that's 0.6 down the stretch, which then, of course, means with my 3 and 0 week 18, that we're back. So I have an announcement, KW. You're going to like this, KW. Because all year long.

Danny has worn this stupid crown when he's done the picks. I earned that. And you might say, Nick, are you now going to wear this crown? No, I'm not a child. However, wow. And I have been waiting for two years for a reason that I keep this in my drawer. Oh, man. Because we now, for the playoffs, have a hat more befitting you.

Gosh. KW. It's been waiting. You don't want to. It's been waiting. I've been trying to find a use. You know we have it. Yes, we have.

You bought that with your own money. I knew it would be useful. Let me go ahead and see. Danny, do not. Danny, do not. You let him do it. There we go. There we go.

That's what happens. O and six down the stretch. I wrapped the regulation, guys. I had our backs. Live by the silly hat, die by the city. I'll get you in the play. Sorry about that, Dan. To get you in the play.

Not great. Coming up next. Talk about your rights. Saturday said more about the Seahawks or the 49ers. That's true. It was rough. It was rough. It's not a good look for me.

No, he loves that hat. I love that. Welcome back. We've got Coach Manjini and Willie Colon hanging out. The Seahawks took care of the Niners, clenching the one seed. 49ers fall all the way to the six in a crazy game Saturday night. Brock Purdy could just not get it going against that Seattle defense with the Niners putting up just three points. Here's Brock Purdy on how he responds from the loss and the Niners moving forward.

We can't dwell on it. We have a pretty quick turnaround here and we got to go win next week. But our team has been through so much. Adversity, guys going down, next guy up. You know, people have counted us out and that's fine. And, you know, they could say what they want. But for us to go on the road and then find a way to win, we've done it before. And that's going to be our goal. So, you know, we've got to take it one day at a time, get better from this film, heal up. and go find a way. So guys, the question is, did that game say more about the Seahawks or the 49ers? And for me, it was Seattle, but in order to tell you about Seattle, I'm going to talk about the 49ers.

The 49ers were one of the best offenses in football since Brock Purdy came back. Kyle Shanahan is one of, if not the best offensive coaches in football. And Seattle just held San Francisco to the fewest yards in any game since Kyle Shanahan has been the coach of the Niners. Look at what the Niners' offense had been doing leading into that game, weeks 11 through 17 since Brock Purdy came back from the injury. They were the best offense in football,

basically any way you look at it. Points, third down, red zone, efficiency, everything. And they held them to three points. That was a physical game. I thought it was incredible. I thought it felt like a playoff game. But I came away from it so impressed with Seattle's defense because it was like,

If they can do that to Kyle Shanahan and Brock Purdy when they're playing like this, they can do it to anybody, coach. Yeah, when you look at it, so Seattle is sixth in sacks, sixth in takeaways at the end of the season, their top 10 in most defensive categories. So they had that. Where I was disappointed from a Seattle perspective is San Francisco's defense was nowhere near that. That's right. That's right.

In sacks, I think middle of the pack are lower in takeaways, 25th and past defense. and you look at a guy like Philip Rivers who goes out and lights him up. A lot of people have lit up that defense and for Seattle to not do that, to me was a concern. Now, the good news is... They were pretty efficient, though, right?

Donald was efficient. He was efficient, and the good news is last year when Sam Donald had a chance to secure the number one spot and the buy, he couldn't do it against Detroit. And this year, at least he didn't make any mistakes that then ended up losing him

the number one overall seat. So it's hard to say you're, the benefit or the progress that Sam Donald made is he didn't make any mistakes in the big moment. But it is progress from where he was last year at this time. Yeah, I'm with you, D.P. I learned a lot about Seattle. I think you have to credit Mike McDonald because as much as we want to talk about Brock Purdy and Sam Donald, this was two coaches who really played chess with each other, right?

And you talk about Kyle Shannon and tried to win with shift emotions. And McDonald really had this defense. step by step and really prepare for everything that happened on that field. And I think when you talk about what Seattle does well right now, they play defense. That's their identity. And they were able to run the ball that kept the office on time. And I know you don't want to highlight the fact that Sam played mistake-free football, but he needed this type of game to go into the playoffs because his resume as a

playoff quarterback is shaky. So everything aligned for the Seahawks. And I felt like, man, if there's a team that's ready to make a legit run, they needed a signature win, they got it, and now they're ready for the playoffs. I do think it's a little bit different, too, when you play within the division. You have so much more experience against division opponents. So that does lend itself to having games like this is the familiarity you have with your opponent. So obviously I didn't play the game, but it jumped off the screen how physical that game was.

That was a mugging both ways. And I thought San Francisco rose to the moment. And I know they get one extra day because it was a Saturday game and now they're playing on Sunday. But bouncing back from a game like that, if you're saying, Francisco. I feel like Philly's getting the Niners in a very good spot. Like, I don't know if that's like a true takeaway, but that's a tough game for San Francisco to bounce back from, I would think. Yeah, but I think I'm worried about from a health standpoint, Brock Purdy, he took a nasty hit at the end of that game. Yeah. Now they were talking about his stinger and if he could have, you know, if there was extra quarter, he could have gone back out there. But I don't know if anybody knows, Philly has a damn good defense too. And now the Niners are coming to play to, they're coming to play to Eagles. And, you know, I just feel like up front, the Niners have to be a lot better if they want a chance against the Eagles. And to me, Philly made some plus decisions and taking some rest here, where San Francisco was essentially playing a playoff-type game and the intensity from the regular season of playoffs.

And Willie can tell you this is so dramatically different. It's a big jump. So they're already at that level and had all that contact and emotion that went with it and a loss where Philly was able to take a week and take a step back. So I think it's going to be a big edge for Philly. Well, I really appreciate Willie's patience. letting us talk about this game before we get to Pittsburgh. And the Steelers get that AFC North Crown.

Two very clutch drives from Aaron Rogers, including, of course, the go-ahead touchdown. Then there was the missed field goal, of course, by the Ravens as time expired. Here is Aaron Rogers being philosophical on the win. I'm probably the way that we responded multiple times after they took a lead. And it just takes a little belief at this point in the season. There's 14 teams that'll be left. 18 will be playing their off season. It's good to be a part of the 14. After, you know, so many

years, you know, 22, we lost in the last game in the week's playoffs. 23 I was out. 24, we were terrible. So it's nice to be back in this position. Willie, do you think the Steelers feel vindicated by Aaron Rogers in that game yesterday? Yeah, I said, yeah. Listen, I said here Friday, I told you one aspect that Steelers had to win, when to have a shot was on third down. And they did that because I thought during the month of December, They struggled on third down. Going into this game, there was a lot better. They were 9 of 16.

And Baltimore gave up, I think, right now they gave up 24 first downs. But I think the vindication comes from not having your offer number one receiver in DK. Metcalfe, not having Mount Washington. You missed the field goal. You gave up three timeouts. Missed the extra point. I mean, there was so much that went wrong. You had five lead changes in the fourth quarter and you still came out to building with a W.

So it felt like the Steelers found out got back with their old girlfriend. name is destiny. This, you know, we talk about this team being destined to make a run. How can you not feel like that after everything I acquired that happened in this game and you did it with a 42 year old quarterback? So yeah, we do. We're back. Oh, wow. All the way all the way back. You see it the same way? No, no. Shocked. I see them being vindicated in the sense that Justin Fields goes to the Jets, gets $40 million, gets benched. Russell Wilson goes the Giants. He gets like $10 million. Get Spence. They go get Aaron Rogers. They pay him like $14 million. It's a fraction of what other starting

quarterbacks are getting. And I didn't think it would work. I didn't think you were going to get this version of Aaron Rogers. And he's done a great job working with Arthur Smith. I was really impressed the way they talked about him working with the receivers, both in the building and outside of the building. And it looks like he's trying to erase all of that negativity that's been surrounding him over the course the last couple years. glad you said that because other counterpart, Greg Jennings sat here and said, you know, Aaron Rogers wasn't pro here to, you know, the race to deficiencies at Pittsburgh Steelers. Yes, he was.

He was here to elevate the offense. He was here to pretty much allow this offensive unit to graduate in some aspects. And I thought we saw that in this game. I thought we finally saw, yeah, he was frustrated at times. But there's been games where we've seen him like pretty much like he was ready to tap because nobody can get on this level. As of late, you see you have MVS, Adam Thielen. You see Farahmov pop out the tape now.

So I think this offense is starting to arrive, and they're starting to get on this level from a mental standpoint. And schematically, they looked better last night. So I still have huge questions and, frankly, doubts about their ability to beat Houston and deal with that pass rush and certainly make any sort of run. Oh, we have one, too, by the way. What's that? We have a pass rush, too.

I don't know. Yeah, okay. But CJ Strouds in his mid-20s. Aaron Rogers doesn't seem to like being pressured. That's what they said last night. But he also. And he was sitting off chair. He wasn't pressured at all yet last night.

I would just say, In terms of the vindication, this has been a huge success. Aaron Rogers is playing his best football at the end of the year. They had a winning record. He went undefeated. He loves rivalries. He would always talk about Bears Packers as this great rivalry. He went 2-0 against the Ravens in the rivalry of the 21st century in the NFL.

He didn't lose Mike Tomlin's consecutive seasons without having a losing record. He got him back to the playoffs. He didn't go out as an embarrassment with the Jets. Like, whenever this ends this season, I think he's walking off. Wow. You are really, really kind on this vindication. Yeah, like, I think I thought there was a lot. You did too.

There was a lot of disaster potential. Both you got the dark class. For this year. And this, it wasn't a disaster. Yeah, they won 10 games and made the playoffs and won the division. You guys all waiting for the car crash. But hold on. They lost against the bronze last week to put themselves in the position they were

putting themselves in. And this to me felt like watching. Tampa, Carolina. Two flawed teams that it's, you know, you watch the game, it's an important game, it decides who wins the division, and probably next week it's not going to matter very much. Listen, I agree. I'll be picking Houston, but last night's game was it was it a good game or was it compelling theater? It was an Oscar worthy game. I don't know. It was compelling theater. I don't know. Why are you such a hater? Two flawed teams that, you know, missed kicks, guys falling down. Like, that wasn't great. What do you mean? You got to see old

The ball bar jacks, the old cowboy, Harry Rogers. Yeah, yeah, great theater. Defense showed up in last minutes. What do you want, miss field goals? He doesn't go up. It was just like this fireworks at the end of the game. Time now for he said, we said, you hear the best sound. Then we give you the analysis this morning.

The Browns fired their head coach Kevin Stefansky. This was Shador Sanders after their win in week 18 on his first NFL head coach. Take a listen. been real tough. He's been tough, you know, and it's good. I think I grew and I learned a lot from him. I think this week we had a conversation just about things, you know what I'm saying, just about things in general. And I feel like, you know, we grew to understand each other. I think this is a massive mistake by the Browns.

What? Who do you think you are? You're the Browns. If you're going to fire a coach who immediately is going to be the top candidate in New York and other places, who's a two-time coach of the year in six years with a couple of playoff appearances when he's had a handful of quarterbacks and a couple of GMs. Stafansky is not the problem in Cleveland. I'm shocked by the arrogance here of firing Kevin Stafansky. Well, I think the biggest problem with this organization is that, you know, you can't fault them at the time.

They brought on Deshawn Watson, and it never panned out. And so that set them back. And now you're forced with two rookie QBs to develop. Like Shador Sanders was supposed to be a redshirt uniform. And then turned into a crash course on how to play quarterback. And then Stifansky was forced to develop him and figure out how can I elevate this kid's game from a QB standpoint. And I thought over the last couple weeks, we saw Shadour get better and we started their relationship seem not as contentious. And they just didn't pan out well.

I like Kevin Stathansky, but I think some of the things that happened around were big into him and out of his jurisdiction. but it ultimately falls on the head coach. It does, but to your point, he's two-time head coach of the year within six years, right? So he's in a division with two head coaches that arguably have a chance to go to the Hall of Fame. He's in a division with two quarterbacks that are arguably two of the best quarterbacks in the entire league. He found a way to beat Pittsburgh, which you know how big that is for Cleveland, and how inconsistent they've been able to do that. So now you move on from them and you think, okay, we're going to go get better.

But you see it every single year where the grass is greener. The turnover. And you go get somebody else and it's a disaster. And to your point, there's Deshaun Watson, but they also moved on from Baker Mayfield. The draft this year, they draft two different quarterbacks. So there's a lot of personnel moves, too, that he was, I'm sure, a part of. But he ultimately didn't have the final decision making of whether or not to make that move came from ownership in the GM. Great situation.

Next up, here's Lamar Jackson immediately after a loss being asked about his future. Take a listen. We just lost a game, you know, a division of game, you know, a game to put us in the playoffs. I'm not even thinking about that right now, to be honest with you. I'm still caught up in what just happened, you know? That's not my focus right now. So I think the Ravens are going to be one of the biggest stories of the offseason because they were the biggest disappointment of the season.

My assumption is the easiest move here for change is to move on from John Harbaugh because it's easier to move on from the coach than the two-time MVP quarterback who turns 29 in a couple of days. But either way, they were the preseason Super Bowl favorites and they did not make the playoffs. They were the biggest disappointment in the NFL. So Lamar's not ready to talk about the future. Better get used to it because it's all we're going to talk about this offseason. Yeah, I didn't think it was fair to ask him that question in that moment. I imagine he was shell-shock.

Yeah, it's the game. that they missed a 40-yard field goal. And if they had made that field goal, we're having a pretty, a radically different conversation about Lamar and about Harbaugh's future. And again, you can move on from the head coach. But when you do that, especially a guy who's been there that long, there's so much change that goes into it.

And the organizations that have consistency typically have efficiency. And this team could be back in the Super Bowl mix next season very easily. where you change the head coach, you change the coordinators, you change the philosophy, all those things. Now you don't know what it's going to turn out to be. Could it be better? Maybe. Could it be a lot worse? Probably. Yeah, I don't agree with the firing of John Harbour. But I understand Baltimore's frustration, especially when you're looking across the street at the Pittsburgh Steelers. You think at one point this team was one and five and they can never write the ship. The defense went bad. Lamar, you know, he was on injury. Derek Henry was having ball control issues.

And then you look across the street to the Pittsburgh Steelers. This team, you know, Mike Tomlin was getting fire Mike Tomlin chance. They were booing renegade. They stopped that and they respond with three straight wins. And so if you're Baltimore, you're saying, man, like, we just need a coach to understand, like we need to write the ship when the ship's on fire. And Hallbaugh doesn't seem to have that enact to do so. So you can understand why they upset.

Really, right the ship. They lost to Cleveland a week ago. Coach, with ABC Championship, get over it. Yeah. What are you talking about? ABC North Champs. You weren't about Cleveland. Missed 49.

Get the sack. We had a historic wing that Baltimore. You're bringing up the Browns. You forget about it. What are you talking about the Browns for? He's not here to talk about old stuff. Your ship was taken on water, Willie. That thing was sinking.

We have a crowd. We didn't even have a team to put a crowd on. What are you talking about? He's not here to talk about the Browns. Ancient history. Thank you. Eight days ago. You don't even have a head coach.

You're talking about the Brown. Five. Kevin Stephesofiskees, a new contract. Please. Speaking of head coaches, Browns. Nick Siriani had a boldststststst.

heading into week 18. Did it backfire? Take a listen. I knew this was an outcome that these things could happen. Like I said to you guys, one thing I could guarantee was giving them rest. I couldn't guarantee anything else. And us being healthy and going into the playoffs healthy is a big deal for us. And, you know, that's served us well in the past. And so again, I know there'll be debate on that. But, you know, again, I have to do what's best, what I think is best for the football team moving forward. And that's what I did. So this isn't the hottest television take, but I thought what the Eagles did was totally

reasonable. And I thought what the Bears did was totally reasonable. Like the Bears controlled their path to the two seed. They win, they get it. The Eagles did not. They needed to win and have the Bears lose. So because they didn't totally control it, the Eagles, who are the Super Bowl champs who have a belief of we can go anywhere and beat anyone, they're going to prioritize rest. The team that actually controlled their own path, they just had to win. And said no we want the best possible seed now the Bears lost and so they got lucky that the Eagles also lost with their backups but I thought what Nick Siriani did was totally reasonable given his team's situation yeah I thought it was totally reasonable too and and since losing the number two seed getting a buy as well and that number one seed is so valuable so to take to be to give the guys a week off and how sick would you be if you lost Sakewan or you lost I mean take your pick AJ any of those key guys

and a game that, yeah, could have affected your seating, but now you go into the playoffs without one of your best players. To me, it made a lot of sense that they give the guys a week off. Yeah, I think it's a bunch of noise. I'm listening. They dropped to the three seed. They got the Nonders coming. And, you know, next week when they turn rhythm, you know,

turn rest into rhythm and they look efficient coming out early and hot, all of it falls into fruition. So I'm not worried about it. It was a smart move. I mean, in two weeks if the bracket holds and the divisional round is in Chicago, Philly will, should we have done it? But that's the scenario, because the game, the game would have been in Philly

instead of Chicago in the division rally. That's what they cost themselves a chance at. Yeah, but I think it goes to coach's point, the Niners playing the Seahawks. And Niners are playing playoff-style football, so they'll be ready for the fight. The Eagles have to prove that the rest was worth it, and they'll be ready for the fight coming out the gate. So that's my only. If they come out high, I think it is what it is.

And maybe Green Bay in Chicago, maybe Chicago is going to regret having Green Bay as their first. I certainly regret bringing up that hypothetical. I'm not ready to talk about that hypothetically. Until he still gets the game. Sure. It doesn't always go according to the bracket, but it's going to with the two-seat. Miles Garrett, historic season. We'll put it into context next.

Browns. Oh, wow. Sure, they fired their coach this morning, but it's not all bad for Cleveland. They got a record setter. Miles Garrett sets the record. Passes T.J. Watt. Michael Strayhan. Got Joe Burrow.

Doesn't look like Burrow took a sit down formally. I know that's not far of Strahan. It does. It was like a dude dove. Thank you. 100%. That is not a conventional sack. Can we show the sack?

They slid away from Garrett. He clearly beats the guy. Oh, he beats the guy. Nobody's saying that. But look at Burr respond immediately. Yeah, because he didn't want to get blown up in the last game of this. season. How many minutes from last year?

Coach, it's five minutes of o'clock in the fourth quarter and it's going on second down. How about you use your lays, which you have? He doesn't want to go into vacation with the big injury. Burrow gave him one. 100%. I don't even think it's. I think it's more. I think this is worse.

See, the far one, you can kind of, uh-uh, this one seems clear, clout. He threw him a sack. Oh, well, see, I think the far one, he, like, just rolled out right next to Michael's right. But this one feels to him beforehand. But this one feels no different to me. When I saw my initial reaction was that doesn't look like a normal sack. No, I agree. Wow, coach.

You guys are harsh. The guy's like. Tinfoil had. Put it on. You just laughed at this deal is losing to the Browns. This dude broke a record that's been in play for 20 plus years. Can we give him some credit for being outstanding? No, listen, Miles Garrett's probably, he's probably the best defensive player of my lifetime.

It's like, Dion Sanders, J.J. Watt, Miles Garrett is like, absolutely. And this I thought was the most impressive part about it. Like, because Michael Strayan was talking about 17 games for 16 games. just the number of snaps it took him to get to 23 sacks is remarkable. He's, I mean, the size speed combination of Miles Garrett. No one is knocking him the record this season. I'm not taking an accomplished. I just thought that Burrow was in.

I don't know. Well, the other thing is this is the, he had the worst record of any of any of those three guys. So it, what did they finish five? Yeah, not as many straight pass attempts. Yeah. Well, not just straight pass attempts. I'm just talking about in terms of overall record. T.J. Watts, year they were nine and seven.

Stray hands year. there were seven to nine. And now with him having to chase the record and a losing record, you're not getting as many of the opportunities that other guys would be. Yeah, listen, kudos to him, but you can't tell me Joe them throw them.

I'm just keeping a buck.