Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Geoff Explains The Ending of Cowboys vs. Niners, and Other Wild Card Round Takeaways

Episode Date: January 18, 2022

Geoff and Gabe are back to cut through the overreactions to the first weekend of the NFL playoffs, starting with explaining what the hell happened at the end of the Cowboys vs 49ers game on Sunday. Both teams tried their hardest to give the game away, but in the end, Mike McCarthy and the Cowboys were able to lean on their experience, finding a way to lose while still being able to blame the refs. Then, Gabe asks how many more trick plays Andy Reid has in his back pocket, and Geoff shares why the first quarter of the Chiefs-Steelers game made him sweat.On Moving the Line, Geoff says the Bengals are probably not going to win, Aaron Rodgers probably didn’t watch any football this weekend, and the media is definitely not going to stop talking about how old Tom Brady is.As always, follow and rate the podcast if you enjoyed the episode, and tweet your Over/Unders @geoffschwartz on Twitter for a chance to be featured on the show.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It's Tuesday, January 18th. I'm Jeff Schwartz alongside Gabe Gill and this is Jeff Schwartz. This morning you're powered by the Varsity Podcast Network. We are wrapping up a wildcard weekend that was not very wild, Gabe. Lots and lots of blowouts. We are watching the very end. It's not even the very end. It's just 28-0 Rams right now. So we decided to start recording. We'll go over the wildcard results with the eye a little bit toward the division around. There are plenty of things to talk about, even though the longest games weren't very close. One thing off the top of the head, Gabe, experience matters, right?

All the quarterbacks hadn't been here before, really, really struggled. The teams hadn't been here before, really, really struggled. But I don't think you struggled this weekend. How was your weekend, Gabe? Jeff, my weekend has been going on for almost two weeks. The COVID quarantine is endless. And luckily, thank goodness, everyone's healthy. And there's been football on almost every minute that I've been in quarantine. We've literally never had more football packed into a series of days than we've had in the last week.

It's been delightful. That's good. I'm glad you – everyone healthy,'s been delightful. That's good. I'm glad you, everyone, everyone healthy, good. Yeah, everyone's good.

Not, not, nothing to complain about, nothing to worry about, all good here. But we have football on nonstop. We've been watching games constantly. My, my boy is loving it.

I'm glad he likes it. You guys watched the Nickelodeon telecast yesterday. No, you know, he's not even old enough for the Nickelodeon telecast. His, his main thing is just, he knows he, A, never roots for the Patriots,

and B, never roots for Tom Brady. So every game that begins, we have to clarify, is Tom Brady playing? Are the Patriots playing? If they are, he's on the other side. He knows that. He's not even four yet. So you had a good and bad weekend for that.

That's right. That's right. Yeah, we split on that. And unfortunately, and we'll get to it soon, I think we're going to live through another weekend or two more of Tom Brady winning. But at least we got rid of the Patriots. Yes. Yes.

And where do you want to start? Because there's lots of storylines coming out of this weekend. We're going to touch on them all. And say, too, because I'm going to talk about what happened in the Dallas game at some point today. It's very important to discuss, and I got some insights on how we handle those situations. Well, let's start there then, and we can come back to the Rams and what they're going to face in the next round of this postseason

as that game concludes. Let's start with the Cowboys. So that was obviously the wildest game, both in reality and on Twitter. Takes were just flying all over the place. Jeff, you know my job on this show is to sort of be the face of Twitter. All the silliest takes that get thrown around for you to swat them away and make us a little bit smarter. So here goes. After an insane game that Jimmy G somehow allowed the Cowboys to get back into,

it came down to the final seconds. Dak Prescott scrambling for no apparent reason up the middle of the field and then trying to spike the ball in the final few seconds, running out of time, and then the whole world, everyone I follow, blaming it on the referees. Everyone is convinced the refs completely screwed the Cowboys.

The ref who had already penalized them 14 times that game then got in the way of them trying to spike the ball with one second to play for a 20-yard bomb people thought they would win the game on. Everyone's pissed. Straighten us out. All right. So everyone might just be Skip Bayless

who is on an epic Twitter tear. Look, the Cowboys lost this game 23-17. They did not lose this game because of the officiate. They lost this game because they're just not a well-coached team at times. They're undisciplined. Their offense this season at times has not been good. I texted you guys in the group text the other day. I said, I need you guys to keep me honest.

I'm not going to pick the Cowboys next season to do anything. I'm not going to do it. McCarthy's there. It's not happening, right? It was a poor offensive game plan. It was a poor execution. They didn't bring the physicality early in that game against the 49ers and then obviously try to come back late and make it happen.

Think about the weird things that happened. And by the way, that doesn't excuse Kyle Shanahan for some issues that he had during the game for game management and Jimmy Garoppolo, who the Niners win in spite of all the time. It's pretty incredible, right? I mean, he's not that good and they win in spite of him. And we'll get to more Niners in a second. Cowboys, okay. So think about the things they did in this game.

They ran a fake punt and then kept their punt team on the field to fool the Niners who were like in base defense. And then they rushed the team off. And when you substitute, you have to allow the defense to make subsequent changes. Otherwise, the offense could just run someone on, snap the ball, and the defense is out of sorts. It's one kind of unfair advantage for the offense. So if you ever watch the referee, really the umpire most often, stands over the ball, he's is out of sorts we're kind of unfair advantage for the offense so if you ever watch the referee really the umpire most often stands over the ball has got his arms out

wide then like a like a t the the referee as well is doing like everyone the field is doing that the officials that signals we're letting everyone substitute so if you're an offense and you substitute someone it can be one person or everyone else which they did, right? They subbed 11 on 11 off. You have to give the defense reasonable time to set their lineup as well. So defense is game. They know this, right? And they take their sweet ass time making their substitution.

So they practice too. They have a defensive tackle who just jogs ever so slowly to the sideline and his replacement jogs ever so slowly back in the field, all the way down. In this specific case, that didn't even matter because there was like five seconds left on the play clock.

So it didn't even matter that that's how most teams do it. So that's one kind of situation that was like, what, huh? The Cowboys also on offense at one point, and I am for the advancement of offensive linemen getting the ball more often. We saw Buffalo, we saw Kansas City

with some thick sixes, but they gave the two offensive linemen playing fullback in like an inverted wishbone formation, okay? And they did that or in the game they ran the football.

They ran a play-action pass with that, and they had two offensive linemen eight yards downfield turned around to Dak Prescott trying to catch the football they said learning that they're open instead Dak threw in a double coverage because guess what Gabe the Niners weren't fooled with two offensive linemen in a play-action pass like yeah no shit Cowboys so all these mistakes right they Randy Gregory their defensive lineman tackles an offensive lineman trying to pull. I think Gregory thought that he was the running back.

Like, it was just all these errors. And this is the very end of the game now. Okay. That was, by the way, that you just summarized all kinds of idiotic, weird coaching decisions. You didn't even mention a crazy trick play that was executed horribly. The 14 penalties that were called.

A bunch of teams have tried that trick play, right? The one where they're on third down where they run the middle of the field and throw it across behind. Yeah, the Jets did that this season. Got a first down. Other teams have done it as well. I don't know if you should steal plays from the Jets

when you're in the postseason, but get us to the end of the game. That's where it all fell apart. And also, too, again, that doesn't excuse Jimmy Garoppolo throwing a terrible interception that kept Dallas in this game or missing a kid wide open.

Or Jimmy Garoppolo, fourth and one, they move Trent Williams across the line of scrimmage, and he doesn't wait until Trent is set. They call a false start. That's wrong. It should be a legal shift. That's on Jimmy Garoppolo.

Wait until he's set and run the play. Okay, so final play of the game. All right, so generally speaking, we practice all these situations, okay? And generally speaking, you have 16 seconds to snap the ball, run a play, get up the line of scrimmage, and spike the ball. It's timed out. It's practiced about 16 seconds. And that's like a normal play, okay?

Like you run 10 yards. You throw it to the wide receiver. He catches the ball, declares himself down. Ball's set. Boom, spike the ball. Now, it's the Lions or Vikings. I want to say it was the Lions, though. Maybe the Vikings.

One of the two teams in the NFC North who a couple years ago ran a play in 14 seconds, spiked the ball, kicked the field goal. Now, that was a very specifically designed play. It was a ball thrown over the middle of the field, about 15 yards down the field, declared down, boom, spike for 13 seconds, right? So, a part of the mechanics of this play is that you have to hand the ball to the seconds, right? So, a part of the mechanics of this play is that you have to

hand the ball to the official, right? So, we're not even talking about yet the terrible play call, but the mechanics of the Cowboys design of the play

was terrible, right? So, Dak Prescott runs his quarterback draw, which is a terrible call in this situation because you're at the 40. If you get to the 27,

okay, you still need one shot at the end zone. If you just stay at the 40, you have two shots at the end zone, right? Like, why would you run the ball forward 13 yards, 15 yards for no reason? Then Dak Prescott runs the draw, and instead of declaring himself down to hand the ball to the umpire, again, the umpire has to set the ball where you are, you know, he's put the ball in place and get out of there before you set the ball to the umpire again the umpire has to set the ball where you are well he's put the ball in place and get out of there before you start the ball he slides and the slide eats up seconds because on a slide game the ball is marked where you start your slide not where you get hit so Dak slid about the 25 yard line and then slid forward to about the 22 23 right 23 22

so they tried to spot the ball themselves and they put the ball down on the 23. The umpire is like, no, no, no. The ball's back here. And then they blocked the umpire from getting to the ball. So like they said, they practiced this play, but very clearly they practice it incorrectly

or they didn't practice it well enough. It's just a complete cluster. And we talked about this game this weekend i like the i like the cowboys and i said that i was terrified of mike mccarthy screwing the game up and he did he just it was not well coached i don't want to say this too is that a lot of people blame mike mccarthy and so be it that's but for some reason we all know keellen Moore calls the plays. It's in charge of the offense. Why do we not give Kellen Moore any shit for how this offense played in times during the season?

It's very odd, Gabe. Preach Jeff. I've been asking you these questions all season long and telling you consistently, I don't see it. These guys don't have it. They aren't coached.

Well, they don't win in big spots. They haven't beaten good teams. They're great players. Just seem to shrink in certain moments certain moments. They pad stats when it doesn't matter. None of this surprised me. So let me go back to the final play of the game. If I'm going to take any of the folks who are complaining about this seriously, they would say the ref wasn't fast enough to get to the spot of the ball. And then Dak sort of alluded to that post game and sort of said he understood why fans were literally throwing garbage onto the field.

And then he knew why the ref sprinted off because of course they screwed up. That was what he was implying. Is there anything excusable in any of that? That was, that was, I was very surprised Dak Prescott went that way because he's absolutely wrong in that situation. And then encouraging things to be thrown in the field at the referees, I think, is not the way to handle the situation.

He would probably claim he didn't encourage it, but he was sort of winking at it. And friends of ours, Trey Wingo, said, look inward, not outward. Dallas earned this loss with horrible discipline and horrible game management. You agree with him, I assume. Yeah, I do.

So part of that play is it happened so fast that the umpire had to catch up, right? And because it happened in the middle of the field and the situation, it's hard to get there. Like if the ball is thrown anywhere and gets caught the umpire runs immediately right like the play's over he has to stay back there kind of see if there's a holding call anything else happens there but the as soon as the ball is thrown by dac if they threw the ball he just would have run right away and he would be able to get the ball again you have to hand the ball to

the official like if dac just turned around and handed to the umpire like maybe would have been able to get the ball. Again, you have to hand the ball to the official. Like, if Dak just turned around and handed it to the umpire, like, maybe it would have gone faster. But again, the 14 seconds part's important. I know he said they worked on it in practice. Well, in practice, you don't have the referee 50 freaking yards away. Everything works great in practice. You don't slide and have a player fall on top of you and kill a second and a half, right?

Oh, man, it just was, It just was indicative, I think. And we're seeing again more and more in these games this weekend how obviously coaching and quarterback matter. And now we have this game tonight. Arizona just scored 28-8. Flags everywhere in the field. It's been even more apparent the Cowboys are just not well coached. And I don't think it's going to change.

I mean, there is – once you become a certain age of Mike McCarthy, you're not really changing who you are, right? I mean, he fooled a lot of people. Oh, I bought a PFF subscription while I was out of coaching for a year. You're like, all right, well, but he's the same guy, right? And so what shows me he will change the style of coach he is? Nothing? Really? Now, Jerry's going to keep him, obviously,

but it just seems like futility. Like next year's going to be the same exact thing. They're going to have 10 or 11 games, they're going to have the best quarterback in the NFC East at the moment, and then fizzle out in the playoffs again. Can't talk you out of that. I guess I have to ask. Dan Quinn, one bright spot on that coaching staff,

seemed like he got a hell of a year out of two guys, Parsons and Diggs in particular. The stats were great. Who knows if they were really playing the positions correctly. But he did his job on defense. He's now being approached by a lot of teams. He could be one of the big names. He has past coaching experience, head coaching experience. If Dan Quinn's gone, are they even any good?

I mean, I know they got some players, but. Yeah, I mean, it depends who they hire at DC. But Dan Quinn, 100,000%. So try to check a job now before defensive variance comes back to bite him in the ass next year, right? And regression bites him in the ass. He 100,000%, if he gets

a job this year, be gone. Doesn't matter what it is. Jacksonville, Chicago, Minnesota, the Raiders, doesn't matter what you do. Take a job this year because you're going to hit regression next season. You're not going to have as many turnovers. It's not going to happen.

You're not going to have as many defensive scores. It's not all good. You're not going to be healthy the whole season like you were pretty. I know Lawrence was out a little bit, some pass rushers, but the secondary is pretty healthy. Parsons went wide back.

You're not going to have it next year, Gabe. Take a job now if you can because you will not be a head coaching candidate following next season. Yeah, I think he has to capitalize now. All right. So you think McCarthy sticks around? Jerry Jones says a bunch of stuff this offseason, blames everyone. Nothing major changes about the roster. They're probably the best team in the division again next year, and they probably do this again, which would be like the 12th year 12th playoff appearance in a row where they get in and then they can't make the conference championship game it's an

alarming stat they just keep getting there and keep fizzling out feels about right honestly yeah okay so jeff this is now official you've said it privately you're saying it publicly no matter what we should tell you stop trying to talk us into the cowboys jeff don't bet on them don't pick them to win anything they're not for real you want us to say that all next season right all right i do yes okay because i tried i tried to intervene you shouldn't no you shouldn't always take what i say in text messages as as how i feel oh look at that sagui out of you jeff so listen but you but but but but the cowboys yes okay well then let's go to the place where uh you had a momentary pants crapping moment that you

you exposed yourself to all of us who work on this show when you freaked out and basically said the chiefs are screwed josh allen is gonna to beat them next week. This can't work. It's over. And then... It's not exactly what I said, but sure. I'm paraphrasing. But then Pat put five scores up in about 11 minutes. The Chiefs look better than they've ever looked the whole rest of the way.

And everything was restored. But for a moment there, Jeff, you lost your shit. Which is it? Are you scared about the Chiefs or not? No, I'm not scared about the Chiefs. I'm scared about the Bills playing the Chiefs. Oh. Look, the Chiefs obviously, you know,

Pat Mahomes had the quietest 30 for 39 for 400 yards in NFL history in the playoffs. I mean, threw five touchdowns in the quickest time we've ever seen someone throw five touchdowns. They went from 7-0 with, I think, nine minutes left in the second quarter to 35-7 with eight minutes left in the third quarter. I mean, it was a very quick turnaround.

This is the Chiefs' season in a nutshell. That's why it's frustrating. They can look like the best team in the NFL and then just also not look like the best team in the NFL. And you try to figure out why, right? Like, why? And there's no great why. It's just like, offensively, just have weird lulls.

Guys aren't open. You know, Mahomes has been odd under pressure this year. Like, he just kind of of throws the ball in the dirt when there's people around him and doesn't want to throw an interception. I tweeted this last night. I'm not sure they ran the ball three times in a row the entire game.

They ran the ball fine. They had a 16-yard rush, the 13-yard rush, pass for minus one or zero yards. Just run the ball a bunch. Defensively, they were good until they just kind of gave up. The fourth quarter is pulling.

They're playing backups. They weren't playing hard on the fourth quarter. And I've said this from the start, Gabe. If the Chiefs play to their ability, they are going to win the Super Bowl. The problem is you can't start down 7-0 in the second quarter to the Buffalo Bills this weekend. Now, we'll talk a lot about Buffalo this week.

They played an incredible game. The perfect game, right? They got like every yard possible. They couldn't offense against the Patriots. It was fabulous. One of the best games of offense ever. They stuck it right in your boy's heart and Bill Belichick's heart. They ran trick plays and they threw the touchdown to a lineman.

Like, it was great. They were great. However, this is my one saving grace for this weekend with Chiefs and Bills. The Bills' variance, how often they play the same way each week, is 32nd in the NFL. One week they look great. Next week they don't. But even a slightly less than that version of Josh Allen,

they will beat the Chiefs. They will beat the Chiefs. Because the Chiefs, unless, again, unless the Chiefs don't have a quarter and a half lull. If they have a couple, you know, they start slow, whatever, fine, they can come back. But if Buffalo is playing that well man I'm not sure anyone NFL is going to beat them I

don't know if we're gonna see that against Kansas City but I'm very much here for it and this feels like the NCAA championship game on Sunday like I think the winner

of this game beats the Titans or the Bengals and I can't wait to watch it's gonna be fun okay so you have been Mr. Just take it easy. Take a deep breath.

We don't have to change our opinion wildly week to week. Just relax, everyone. And I've taken that to heart. So when you texted, Bills are going to dominate the Chiefs next weekend, we all got freaked out. Like, what's wrong with our guy? I'm a fan. I'm a fan. I i'm good i'm a fan i'm a fan

because i have a little bit i'm a fan so i was a little down seven nothing weren't playing well i was like come on guys it's pittsburgh big ben can't throw the ball like let's go let's figure it out but so so things that i've heard people say this week. Some of them smart, some of them not. Well, I don't know. Actually, you'll have to tell me. Josh Allen is great in cold weather. Seems obvious. Kansas City could be pretty cold and windy and crappy to play in. Maybe that favors him. Obviously, it's Pat's house. He's used to it. But the colder and windier it is, the better Josh Allen might be. You buy that? Well, he really hasn't been that way in his career which is what he broke against the patriots right he played much better in the cold and wind um you know the ability for him to use his legs is just he's just so good the way they the way they

scheme up his his quarterback runs are just so are just difficult to stop right i mean it's one extra blocker you have because your quarterback is now a runner um but also we're seeing pat mahomes a little bit more with his legs do you know i just saw a stat on twitter that pat mahomes i think either has 44 more or less yards than keller murray has rushing this season we're starting to see more of the mahomes and we're starting to see more of the the kind of out of the pocket throws that have made him so good over his career. But Josh Allen, the ability to run. And Josh Allen juked out like a defensive back. Like 13 fell at his feet.

And again, when Josh Allen's playing that way, which again has not been each week. It wasn't week 17 against or week 18 against your Jets. It wasn't there. It was against Jacksonville a month ago, six weeks ago. It wasn't New England the first time. When he's playing that way, it's hard to beat him. But the Chiefs have got to find ways, I think,

to limit his production with his legs. Like, it just, he makes so many plays, back-breaking plays with his legs. He's impressive when he's on, when he's on. Okay. Let me throw another thing at you that I saw and I agreed with. My buddy Matthew Berry, again paraphrasing here, basically tweeted after that crazy Kelsey Wildcat touchdown pass

that really wasn't needed. He said what I was thinking, which was, why are you showing him that? Save that for a game that matters. do you what are you pulling that play out of the playbook and you quickly were like no that's not how that works please explain yeah so um there's a couple things um one is andy reed has like 1700 of those plays like that's not he has a billion of those plays so there's two ways these plays go in for the week one is you practice them for five weeks in a row every friday you you run your trick plays knowing you might have some up you might not and by saturday or sunday you you get the game plan and you see which trick plays

are up and which aren't and i would say most often that's the way it is where you just you practice them for so many weeks in a row and you run them at some point in the season now that probably though because it was the red zone was a design play for that game was up for that game only game there was something they saw that they liked in that matchup that they were going to do that weekend but now what it does is next weekend against buffalo when they line Travis Kelsey up with a five yard line

in that formation guess what has to happen the safeties have to play a step back they have to they have to watch oh is is he keeping the ball

is he throwing the ball is he running the ball where's the ball at like they now have to think what split second is Kelsey going to throw that ball?

Because Kelsey ran, remember, he didn't just, he ran a line of scrimmage and threw kind of a jump pass, right? So next time they run this play, the Bills have to honor the pass, have to honor it. And that's why Andy did it. He just, also love Andy Reid too on the sidelines too. Like, he has an ever so slight smirk like under that mustache on one of those.

Like he looks pretty stoked, but he's kind of just like this tiny little smirk. Like, I got him. Like it's kind of fun to see what Andy's pretty excited about those plays. All right. So I buy that. First of all, you're sort of making Andy Reid

sound like the coach in the water boy. Like he thinks about faking. No, wait, he then he fakes. Like you're sort of sounding kooky like that the coach in The Waterboy. Like he thinks about faking. No, wait. Then he fakes. Like you're sort of sounding kooky like that. But really what you're saying is it's kind of like in a game of poker when you were bluffing and you win the pot and then you turn the cards over to show the other guy you bluffed him because now he's on tilt.

Now he doesn't know what the hell to react to. He can't figure out your betting pattern. You're saying it's kind of like that. It's exactly like that. And, again, like if you had it up for this week and you thought you're – and Andy Reid does this all the time. Andy Reid is a big fan of the – I call it like a human victory cigar play. Whether it's throwing to an offensive lineman or a play like this

or Don Terry Poe catching a touchdown pass or throwing a touchdown pass against him a couple years ago. He loves these plays because here's the thing about these games. They don't win and lose you a game. If you notice, he doesn't do these quite often in close football games

at the time he does these plays. But what it does, man, is the team freaking loves them. The whole team loves them. And it just makes you have this good feeling inside watching the film the next day

of this cool trick play you ran. And you just love your head coach. You love the play caller. And you're all happy about it, especially after you win. It's just fun. It's okay to have fun playing football. Andy Reid always says, let your personalities shine. Let your personalities show.

It's why I think his coaching tree is much better than Bill Belichick's coaching tree. And I love watching. Now, he did get a little too cute though, right? The Steelers' first touchdown was like, I wouldn't do McCall Hardman wildcat. But otherwise, he's pretty good at those things. All right. So you think there's something just sort of to firing up the troops and making everyone on the team feel good.

So here goes. I'm going to read you something our boy Hank put in here. Here's his conspiracy. This is to get him fired up. All this hard work he does on a rundown. It's all worth it, Hank, because I'm about to read this conspiracy.

He thinks Andy Reid left Jarek McKinnon on the bench all season on purpose so there would be no tape on him. So that right now when he needs him most, bam, nobody sees Jarek McKinnon coming. 18 touches, 142 yards, a touchdown, and he looked like a world beater. Hank got something here?

No. Okay. I don't even know like what, like, oh, when they ran screens the same amount of times they run a normal, it just was with a running back that just looked better than any running back they've had on the roster so far this year. Plus wasn't he hurt for like 15 weeks? Yeah.

I'm pretty sure he was not available to them, but I, Hey, listen, man, Hank threw it in there. Hank's like our fat guy catching a touchdown. I'm just giving him some love right now. Um, the game that we are recording during is essentially in hand, but, and it's, so it doesn't really matter. I don't think we need to recap Rams Cardinals, a bit of a dud. I would say this though, the big take I saw all first half was, oh, I guess OBJ wasn't the problem in Cleveland. And that's been sort of the sarcastic line people

have been saying for weeks, but he has made their offense a little bit better and scarier. So if I'm Tom Brady and these guys could be coming to my house, I'm not as confident as I am against some of my other potential matchups in the NFC. I don't like the idea of playing this defense and seeing an offense that can score as quick as the Rams can. Well, first off, I would like a pat on the back for telling everyone Cliff Kingsbury is a terrible coach. You have been saying that consistently. Again, showed that a guy that never succeeded in college, weirdly, like Texas Tech.

It wasn't like he was at Alabama, okay? Texas Tech. Yeah, we're going to fourth quarter 28-8 right now. Hope Buda Baker is okay, by the way. There was a scary incident where we were recording of, look, he got pretty bad uh hit to the head and neck area hope he's okay um the rams there's two teams the nfc side the rams and and the 49ers game that have to win at times in spite of their quarterback more liners in the r. And that feels very hard to do against Tampa Bay. Everyone's going to point to week three when they play each other.

Guys, that's an eternity ago. That was September. Okay, this is January, middle of January. That game is unimportant to this game. It means absolutely nothing. Do not talk about it this week. Do not cite it this week. Nothing matters in that game. It means absolutely nothing. Do not talk about it this week. Do not cite it this week. Nothing matters in that game.

They're two different teams now. I looked this up for an article for Fox Sports. Tom Brady lost his last home playoff game in New England, right? He was that beat up team that the Patriots have. Before that game,

he won nine. The pick six was his final throw there. I loved it. And then he's won a Super Before that game, he won nine. The pick six was his final throw there. I loved it. And then he's won a Super Bowl since then. He won nine straight playoff games before that at home. This year, they've dominated at home. And they've won seven in the last eight. The only was the Saints game.

And they covered, I think, seven of those eight. They're playing just good football at home. I wrote about this as well. It's hard to explain why Tom Brady can just show up and everyone plays better. Not just him, but the offensive line, a bunch of all pros, wide receivers, and the defense. And the defense looked great. The defense was flying. It was the healthiest they've been all season, flying around.

I can just come back to this. It's confidence, right? Because when you know, and the quarterback's most important position in all sports when you know you have tom brady a guy that continually has shown he will make it right if needed you just play faster you play looser you play with with more confidence so that if you screw up he'll make it right and there's a vibe they have. Like, they just came out and kicked the shit out of the Eagles. The Eagles aren't very good. I get it. But they just play with this energy.

I just don't know if the Rams can win, like, hoping their quarterback doesn't screw up. It's like, eh. Like, oh, yeah, we can win if our quarterback doesn't screw the game up. Eh, Gabe, I don't feel like a great feeling, right? Yeah, but their best player is Aaron Donald. Yeah, and

exactly. They're going to have to hit, they're going to have to do the classic Tom Brady thing. Hit Tom Brady. Aaron Donald and Von Miller have to hit him the entire game. Hands down to win that game. That's the have to hit him the entire game, hands down, to win that game. That's the key to the game. Well, so more importantly, and this is where you're the best guy I know at trying to correct this silly take I'm about to give,

the real issue for Tom Brady against Aaron Donald is that that's pressure up the middle, right? We always hear all about Tom Brady is he has a clean pocket. He gets rid of it quick. He doesn't roam around. He's just right there. He gets the ball out. You really can't get to him. But if you're coming straight up the middle, right in his face, which is kind of what Aaron Donald does, the edge rush isn't as important. You need to just close that pocket in on him and prevent his eye line, right? Isn't that kind of true? And isn't that why Aaron Donald's a real problem for him? Well, yes. It's interior pressure because it gets him off his spot right now.

So what I said was not totally idiotic? I get a little bit of like a half credit point for that? No, that's right. Oh, nice, dude. Okay. But Tom Brady knows this as well. So they design an offense where he throws the ball quickly, gets it out quickly, right?

And this is why he went to Tampa Bay, in my opinion. Their offensive line is a really good game. Like, really good. Now, they had some injuries. Tristan Wirfs at right tackle hurt his ankle, came back. He shouldn't have, but he should play. And then Ryan Jensen at center. I talked to Ryan.

We had him on our show before. Ryan's awesome. Tough SOB, man. I mean, he was, like, in tears and came back next drive. I couldn't believe it. He's a little beat up, obviously. But the Rams game plan kind of only works if they're ahead, Gabe.

I just... Like tonight, Stafford has to do nothing tonight. He threw the ball eight times the first half, I think. They're up 21-0. He doesn't do very much. And that's not going to cut against Tampa Bay. It's just not.

It really isn't. Now you're going to Tampa, warm weather outside. I don't buy the Rams. And I'm going to tell you what, man. We were texting earlier with Matt about this. We'll do our wagering show later in the week. Everyone's going to be on the Bengals and the Rams this week. And I cannot wait

to take the Titans and Bucs. Yeah, well, that's where you're also a sharp. So that's a great segue because I want to play our little over-under game, moving the line. And the first topic has to do

with people jumping on the Bengals bandwagon. We haven't talked about them yet somehow. So let's take a quick break, come back, do that, hit Aaron Rodgers, hit the Raiders coaching job. We got a bunch of stuff left. let's take a quick break come back do that hit aaron rogers hit the raiders coaching job we got a bunch of stuff left let's take a break all right jeff we're back it's time to move the line a little over under game we like to play

here so i'll get right into it bangles bandwagon jumpers over under all of Twitter this weekend. Oh, man. Think about this. The Bengals played a Raiders team. How many mistakes did the Raiders make all game? A billion mistakes in that game? I wouldn't say it was a clean game. And the Raiders had the ball at the end about to tie the game, 10 yards away from tying the game.

Joe Burrow, when we talk about Joe Burrow, again, I think Joe Burrow is one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. No doubt about it. He has electrified this team. Jamar Chase, it's all good. It's all great. Do you know how many yards he threw for on Sunday? I mean, you would think, like, what do you think it was? Well, the previous two games he threw for like 400 and 500.

So what was it? 300? 244. Okay. You don't like that? You're not good with 244 yards? I'm just saying, when we talk about him, you thought he was 800 yards this weekend.

Like, I think he's good. You're wrong. They also have left Ohio in like seven weeks. They're going to Tennessee this weekend. They have issues, I think, in this game. It's not Joe Burrow's issues. It's defensive line. One of the defensive tackles got hurt.

He's out for the season. Their best pass rusher got concussed. I think he'll play, but who knows. And offensive line-wise, man, they have to throw the ball so quickly because their offensive line is boo-boo. And Tennessee can rush the passer game. And they rush the passer without blitzing.

So I think, I understand it's fun to hate on Tennessee. Look, we've seen this before, right? The formula they have, probably unlikely to get them to the Super Bowl. It's possible. I mean, they're the one seed. They could definitely win. They have to play one less game than everyone else. But their formula is tough to imagine, not only winning the Super Bowl,

but just getting the Super Bowl. Well, I'm not going to try to talk you into that. I don't see it happening at all. I get the hesitancy to back them, to do those things. But I also think that they won a bunch of games against good football teams for a reason. They're well-coached. They're disciplined. They play really tough defense this season, much better than last year.

That's why they're a different team. I get Derrick Henry back. Now, their rushing numbers are exactly the same without him. But the difference is Ryan Tannehill has been kind of worse without him, right? And maybe that's as many run defenders in the box and just kind of teams just saying, hey, we're going to just not let Henry beat us and let Tannehill beat us. But with Henry back, we're going to see different offense, in my opinion.

See that Plaxha pass come back. I'd say they beat the Bengals. I think they're better, the Bengals. I think this game is, you know, 31-21, something like that. It doesn't mean the Bengals are bad. It doesn't mean I don't believe in Joe Burrow. He's a good quarterback.

Top seven, right? Five, seven, somewhere around there. But he's not Josh Allen but he's not josh allen or he's not pat mahomes yet yeah i think we can we can pretty much agree on that here's a titans scenario i was saying i don't see them getting to the super bowl but here's the scenario your boy yolo allen you know has the game of his life to knock off the chiefs the thing you're most worried about and then because they're so variant they're just they crap the bed the next week against the titans and then without

even realizing it the titans just walked into the super bowl that could happen well that and that's why the that's why the one seat's so important right you have to win one less game it's like that it's that easy um that's what people i just don't they were like well that's not important i'm like no it is important no that's i mean if the Chiefs get by the Bills, I think they roll the Titans, right? I mean, they don't roll them, but they win that game. But guess what, Bengals fans? I'm rooting for you all this weekend because I'd rather see the Bengals

come to Arrowhead than go to Tennessee. So, again, this feels like the AFC Championship game. They put it Sunday night, like last game of the weekend. I have to wait all weekend for my team to play. But I don't see the Bengals or Titans winning the AFC. Neither does Vegas, by the way. All right, I'm going to skip around through some quick ones here. I can't believe we've gone this far without mentioning the MVP,

the guy who leads the other one seed. So I want to know, over under five and a half minutes, Aaron Rodgers spent watching any other NFC team this weekend. He doesn't give a shit right now, does he? He knows his team is better. I think he watched football as a fan, right? No? You don't think he's a football guy, like outside of football?

Nah, I feel like he was watching some, like, moon landing conspiracy tapes or something. I don't think he was watching football this weekend. That's certainly possible. Is there a new QAnon movie out? I'm just guessing. He's got some weird stuff in his YouTube search. So it is funny, though.

There are a lot of players who don't actually watch football. They watch the film and they just don't watch football. I'm a football fan. I watch a ton of football. It's pretty clear you love football. I know there are guys who wouldn't watch if they didn't have to do it for a living. Aaron Rodgers looks like he watches film of the defense he's about to play. I don't think he's hanging out, having his scotch, watching the Rams right now.

He's got other stuff going on. So do you think Aaron Rodgers and the Packers are still just head and shoulders above the rest of the NFC with the one carve-out we all have to make, which is, but Tom Brady could beat him. We don't bet against Tom Brady. We all know that. Yes. Okay. Well, then let me go to Tom Brady and the cliches that are going to surround him. Over under 99% chance, we're going to have to hear all this reworked versions of Tom Brady's really, really old, but he's still got it. A whole week of that is coming, right?

99% chance. I don't think it will happen as much during the week of analysis as much as it will happen on the telecast it's getting to the point where it's like how many different ways do we have to say this guys he's older than 13 head coaches well okay yeah I got it I'm sick of it he's old that's not the stat I think

it's like playoff games played by players over 40 it was like 69 for tom brady or some crazy number or games nfl games played played maybe it wasn't playoff games nfl games played after 40 years old it was like tom brady with like 70 and then the rest of the nfl history 71 it's a crazy number like that it's like they have a whole team of pas just sitting there thinking up different ways to describe that he's 44 years old. We fully get it.

It's understood every network out there. Let me ask you this one over under 50% chance. Bisaccia survives until the airing of this podcast Raiders interim coach. I have not heard the news that he got the full-time job yet. I can't believe he hasn't. Is he going to be out because the GM is out now? Mayock's gone. Mayock is gone.

I would have to think he does not survive a new general manager being hired. Yeah, that's a bummer because it seems like he did everything right. Where does he go? Because he proved himself. He did something right. He might just stay there. Wasn't he like the special teams coach? Just stay there and be special teams coach.

You told me that, you know, what's his face? Dan Quinn needs to cash in now. It doesn't, Rich Passaccio needs to go. But he won't catch it to be head coach anywhere. That's the difference. Would he go? I don't know if it could even work this way. Is a college job a possibility for a guy like that?

Could he go get a head coaching job in college? I guess. I don't know why he'd want to step down. Why don't he just be – he'll make a million dollars, especially if he's coordinator of the NFL. Okay. Well, that does seem like a pretty good job. All right.

This one's crazy. This comes from your brother, the reason I'm asking it. Over under 20 20 chance you agree there was too much football this weekend can i read you the insane tweet your brother sent out yeah i'm gonna say it it's too much football i get that it's not usually this bad in terms of closeness of game but we're on like hour 13 in the last two days of only being able to watch one single game at once we have another four to five hours to go today and three to four tomorrow. It's a lot.

What the hell is he talking about? Yeah, Mitch is new to this. Last year he was hurt, but remember, he had to, like, go, you know, he's, like, kind of still in work mode. But this is now his first time of like watching football. I'll tell you what though. It is exhausting watching football

like being on Twitter watching playoff games. Like it can be, the discourse is a lot because everyone's watching the same game and we're just blasting out tweets, right? Like it can be intense. But I'd rather be watching football now

than like, I think about this all the time. Like this game tonight, it's a complete blowout. I'll watch every second because I'm going to miss watching football in April. Like,

this is why I watch football now. Yeah, I'd be doing bedtime if it weren't for this freaking football game. Give me all of it. I've watched so much football with my kids the last few days. I can't get enough of it. Let your kids watch football. My kids do not watch football with me. Oh me all of it. I've watched so much football with my kids the last few days. I can't get enough of it.

Let your kids watch football. My kids do not watch football with me. Oh, they love it. This take from your brother, I'm going to put it out there and name another guy you love. This take sucks more than when Dan Orlovsky tweets food takes. His food takes are world-class terrible. They're so bad.

Yeah, we got to get him on here this offseason, and you got to straighten him out on that because you're a bit of a foodie, and he's got the worst food. I mean, I'm no specialist when it comes to food. I like what I like. It's a pretty simple palate, but my God, he just says the craziest crap. I think he's trolling, but maybe not. No, I think he seriously believes his food takes.

They're really that bad. Like, he just wants to eat plain chicken all the time. All right. Last one I got for you. Over under.5 times you have attended a game as a fan while you were still rostered in the league. There's a reason I'm asking this. I know you've gone as a fan to watch your brother play since retiring.

Did you ever do it during? Yeah, like when I was an injured reserve, you mean? When you were a current NFL player on someone's team, did you go to an NFL game to root for a different team win the game? Oh, no, no, no. A game I wasn't playing it. Like, I'm on the Giants. I go watch Eagles Cowboys play. Sure. No. Would you-Cowboys play. Sure. No. Would you ever do that? No. Okay.

So unless we have our facts wrong and unless this picture was old or something, Ryan Fitzpatrick, there's a picture out there now of him at the Bills game, which I get it. He played in Buffalo. He had some good years there.

At the Bills game, shirtless, having a good old time with Bills Mafia, he's still in the league. Like, he could be a starting quarterback. But to be fair, isn't he a free agent, though? Like, isn't he, like, his time with Washington's up? I suppose with Ryan Fitzpatrick, he's always moving to the next team.

I mean, he's had, like, 11 of them. But it's a little strange, isn't it, to be at a Bills game when you're a current quarterback? I actually didn't think about that because I saw the picture of him. I'm like, I thought he was so tired, but he's still in Washington, right? Technically? Yeah, technically. I mean, somebody will surely get in our mentions.

But he's rooting for... Presumably he was rooting for the Bills because who wasn't in America? I mean, God bless him. He was on the right side of history. But it was weird. And this is not like Stefan Diggs went and saw his brother play. We get it. He'd already won that week.

He was going to support his brother. They're in a different conference. It makes perfect sense. It's a little bit strange. I didn't think about that. Now you're kind of throwing. Yeah, that is odd. I will agree with you.

That is odd. But, I mean, it looked like Ryan Fitzpatrick had fun. Of course he did. And everyone around him must have had fun because he would be one of my favorite people in the world to hang out with. I have hung out with him at a party. He was a delight. I had a great time with Ryan Fitzpatrick. I just thought it was kind of funny that he was at the Bills game.

Yeah, he looked like, and it was shirtless, right? And it was cold af man whoo yeah but hey you know he was part of bill's mafia maybe he'll show up again next week or maybe the whole thing was a joke and the picture was old and this is all nonsense but it caught me by surprise he was legit there he was legit there um yeah it's been a lot of parties man you're in los angeles i'm worried about the Super Bowl, buddy. I don't think there's going to be much happening. And I'm super pumped to come out to Los Angeles for festivities. My wife is excited. We've secured tickets to some events. And I just feel like, can you give the listeners who might come to Los Angeles for the Super Bowl an update on the lack of activities possible? might come to Los Angeles for a Super Bowl update on the lack of activities possible. I mean, I don't want to bum anyone out, but you're asking me to give people some reassurance that everything's okay in LA as I spend my like 14th straight day in COVID quarantine

that my whole family got. Again, everyone's okay. That's the only reason I'm able to joke about this. But like, no, I don't have any i don't have any good news to report it seems very real and very present in la right now at least for the people i associate with i'm i'm also concerned that it plans might have to change i hope the game stays here but i don't think the parties are going to be like they would in other years i know and uh we're planning on recording in person right monday i'm coming to

the studio i guess yeah yeah yeah oh i'm like buddy i'll be the safest guy in town but same with me we'll be we'll be boosted and and head covid um we gotta figure out the room situation though because last time we a little bit of an echo there. I can't do with Hank in person, though. Please, we're not inviting Hank. No, I don't want Hank around. I'd much prefer Hank to just be in the chat saying crazy things like he probably is right now. We forgot to talk about Cam Akers and his torn Achilles and a few other things he wanted us to bring up. But, you know, he had actually a pretty decent Baker Mayfield joke for, uh,

for Dan Orlovsky segment. You know, Hank does a good job. He does a good job. We got his, uh, we got his weird Jarek McKinnon take in there. That's good enough. Uh, we did get his Jarek McKinnon and we got, and we got the overrunners in there. So we got all of his takes in, um, the Cardinals, by the way, kicked the saddest field goal of all time, uh, down 31 to eight. Um, and, way, kicked the saddest field goal of all time down 31-8.

And they kicked a field goal. It's 31-13, guys. I don't think the Cardinals are going to win this game. You know what, though? You're the betting guy on this show, and I only know this because I was texting with a friend. I believe I saw 43 as a number on the over-under, and that field goal probably has some significance. Not yet. The numbers are 42.

But, yeah, I mean, if they get to – But, I mean, three – yeah. Oh. Oh. How about Eric Weddle playing for the Rams tonight who hasn't played in two years? Yeah, it's totally fitting. This is what's happening with my Rams.

I'll just say my rams since my chargers are my rams the total was near 50 okay well my rams have just signed any guy who wants to try to ring chase and so you're now you're on the rams bandwagon sure yeah yeah why not my rams that that's uh that's convenient for you you did no more jets no more chargers uh chargers we'll cycle back to them next year but uh for now just rams fans it's not like it's not like mets and yankees for about 49 49 49 and a half 50 was the total so there's still cushion here for a late a late touchdown by someone they're pretty impressive like can makers towards the kill isn, like, back out there,

but nothing happened. I don't think that any injuries are the way they used to be when we were kids any longer. I don't know what these doctors are doing to people. I don't know what guys are made of these days, but no longer will I listen

to any doctor who says it's going to take X number of weeks or months. They've been wrong pretty much consistently for the last two or three years. Everyone comes back faster. Oh, yeah.

I will watch the rest of this game because I have Sonny Michelle over 16 and a half yards. He's a 51. I have Kim Akers over. He's already way over. And I have Odell more receiving yards and Zach Ertz like plus 110. So I'm still good with that right now. And Stafford interception, which I want in the worst way, but it's not going to happen tonight.

Yeah, unfortunately, I think Zach Ertz is the number one junk time receiving yards guy out there in Odell and getting the ball the rest of the game. So good luck on those bets, Jeff. Make more of them on Thursday with Matt. Big weekend ahead. I hope it's not too much football for you and your brother. I'll be enjoying it all.

Surely not for me, buddy. I will watch as much football as I can. We'll be back on Thursday with our wagers. Please leave a comment. Please subscribe. Please share the podcast. We're powered by the Varsity Podcast Network. We'll be back with you guys on Thursday.

Take care, everybody.