Green Light with Chris Long - NFL Week 16 Recap. NFC East Up For Grabs. Colts/Steelers. Packers Roll. Rams in Trouble. ESPN's Stanford Steve.

Episode Date: December 28, 2020

(00:39) - Welcome, Chris' Hot Take, Raiders vs Dolphins and Steelers vs Colts. (45:00) - Stanford Steve and Chris on Week 16. (1:08:40) - Stanford Steve has 3 Questions for Chris. (1:29:37) - Chris has 3 Questions for Stanford Steve. Sign up for your DraftKings account at https://www.draftkings.com/sportsbook and use promo code : Greenlight Green Light with Chris Long: Subscribe and enjoy weekly content including podcasts, documentaries, live chats, celebrity interviews and more including hot news items, trending discussions from the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, NCAA are just a small part of what we will be sharing with you. http://bit.ly/chalknetwork Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Packers are your NFC Super Bowl favorite. And I'm not being somebody that rides the up and downs. I haven't fallen for the pump fakes before with the Packers. I've been pretty consistent about saying, listen, until they beat a bully, I just don't believe in it. Tonight they beat a bully. That's Tomcat off electric mud. That's the first time we've had that bad boy is the intro.

You heard it last week. we did the announcement. You might have missed it because it's Christmas and you weren't listening to podcasts on Christmas Day. I don't blame you. I appreciate, but I also feel like, what gives you're listening to our podcast on Christmas Day?

Hey, that song fucking slaps, dude. Slaps. Play that in your whip as loud as you can. I mean, that is, we are so privileged to have a legend like, Muddy Waters represented on the intro to this, to this podcast.

When my buddies, Dan and PFT got their podcast rolling, let's not forget, I was one of the first guests. I'm still waiting on like my royalty check or whatever equity. I don't know. When they had Electric Avenue, I was like, man, how'd they get that? When I have a podcast one day, I want to have some cool music. Mighty Waters. I'll take it.

We got Stanford Steve today. As usual Sunday night. Steve's got three questions for me. I have three for him. We're going to talk about Miami and Vegas. Steve's favorite team, the Dolphins, favorite quarterback Tua. And just one of the best ball games of the year, Saturday night.

And I love it. I love this week where, and I don't know if they're really doing that every game, but I love the Christmas, lights on the score on the bottom of the TV. I feel like we've gotten away from that a little bit. But growing up, I used to love and playing, like seeing those red and green Christmas lights

wrapped around the score of some week 16 NFL football game. It just makes it, it makes it feel like everybody's at home watching. and that's what Saturday was. It was awesome. Christmas football, Saturday night football, totally makes sense to me. Now that I'm out, it makes a lot more sense than going to work on Christmas

or being a kid and having your dad move Christmas and going to school and being like, Merry Christmas and people are like, Christmas was Sunday, your dad was working, he just told you it was Wednesday. It really did happen a few times, I think. We're going to talk about Miami, Vegas, obviously a huge win.

what's it mean to make that quarterback switch. Spoiler alert. I don't really have a fucking problem with it. Steve asked me what job I'd rather have. The Jets or the Texans, if I were in the head coaching market. Two, if I'm a Falcons player, do I want Rahim Morris?

And in actuality, does he have a shot at that job? Three, he asked me if the bears are back. The bears are back if you think they're back, I think is the general rule. And we'll dive into that in a little bit. I ask him if the NFC East shakes out the way the way he thought it would a couple weeks ago what he thinks happened Sunday. We have a couple

flexing of games and schedule mixing and matching Sunday to make the entertainment factory that is the NFC East achieve its maximum entertainment value and I cannot wait. I ask him if the Browns are, should we have to be? hold that against the Browns today. It's a very unfortunate situation what happened earlier today yesterday for the listener. But the question is, should we hold it against that football team and their resume? Whether they get in or don't get in, you know, tough way not to slide in if they end up

sitting at home and watching this January for that city and for this team, certainly, because their playoff caliber team. Certainly in the NFC they'd be in with or without a loss of the Jets. Three, speaking of a team that has lost the Jets in the last couple weeks, the L.A. Rams in that playoff spot. I'm pretty much asking

who should occupy that playoff spot in a perfect world. Who would you just, because we get the Jared Gough news, the fact they lost the Jets, the fact they looked so inept offensively. Talk about a waste of a championship level defense. My goodness. And I want to hit Steelers Colts before we get Steve on because that was just, it started off

ugly but ended beautifully if you were betting the Steelers, if you like the Steelers, if you want to see the Steelers make a run this year. Boy, oh boy, what a swing for them. And I'll talk about that in a bit. but first i want to wish everybody well you can't say merry christmas anymore i want to say i hope you had a merry christmas a happy holiday whatever you're celebrating if you were celebrating um don't take the tree down yet i'm a big like i'll leave that sucker up there the entire year swear to you now i hear that they lose their smell and my lovely wife's never allowed me to do that

because the tree dies obviously but keep it around man i can't keep it around through the new year i don't care jeff schwartz shout out to jeff schwartz he had his lovely wife dragging that thing out uh last week first day the first day it was like christmas at noon they were dragging that sucker like rough dragging it down the sidewalk out to the dumpster after everything that tree gave to you pretty unceremonious if you ask me i am a big proponent of keeping your tree in the house. Gio's pod, by the way, on a Christmas note that we aired last week, it was a lot of fun recording that.

It was a lot of fun hearing people and how much they enjoyed it. We talked about the GoFundMe, helping our buddy, Gio. We talked about the fact that the goal was $25,000 and the GoFundMe was well below that when you guys, the green light listeners first heard the pod. Well, that thing was jumping and it is at 27,000 right now. Keep donating.

We're going to match the 5K. We said we'd match as a podcast and excited to do it. Pleased to do it. He's a great dude. Obviously, if you didn't get a chance to go back and listen to the podcast that dropped last Wednesday, was me and Gio,

off the top of my head we had Ryan Kerrigan, we had Zach Ertz, we had D.K. Metcalf, we had Travis Kelsey, and we had Zach Moss, a number of great players, number of great topics,

and a great co-host. So shout out to GEO, and shout out to you, the Greenlight listeners. We blew that thing out of the water. And we should keep donating, and I appreciate you. Greenlight Pod Faith.

We did big work there. I got a hot take. Has nothing to do with Chris. just popped into my head this weekend. I think I saw the iconic Larry Allen running down that linebacker from the Saints play on the left sideline back in the 90s. Okay. Aikman, he's in the picture.

He's trying to make the run down too. I guess it was a pick. So Aikman wants to get on his horse and make tackle as well, but Larry Allen's a big athletic dude, right? Badass, one of the great all-time linemen that Dallas ever had and just, you know, physical freak. It's as, it's,

him being a physical freak is almost so synonymous with Larry Allen that you don't think about his actual skill as a football player. And he had plenty of that. There is a famous play though, where he runs down this presumably six foot four, 265 pound linebacker for, from the Saints. And we show it from time to time.

We're like, oh my God, listen, incredibly impressive. I mean, the guy's definitely faster than me. He's probably 10 years older than me. He can beat me in a foot race right now. He probably outweighs me about 100 pounds. Wherever he is,

wherever Larry Allen is, I want to apologize in advance, but I think that play is overrated. Not Larry Allen. Larry Allen's a bad motherfucker. Larry Allen's fast as fuck, faster than me. Can probably throw me through a window pretty easily.

He could probably beat me in a foot race, like I said. but that clip not as impressive as I've just always accepted it to be for a few reasons. The angle. Troy Aikman's also there.

The linebackers were probably slower than I thought. Maybe that guy was really fast. The Saints dude, number 58. I think it's number 58. But I doubt it. And on top of that,

I don't know. I feel like the fact that Larry Allen is a great football player, we took that situation, like if Eric Flowers ran down an interception and maybe I'm picking the wrong guy but I'm saying that to say we see big athletic dudes

making crazy plays and running people down pretty much every Sunday there's got to be one fucking clip in there that's a spectacular or better this season than seeing Larry Allen run down a guy that probably wouldn't play Mike Backer in the 2000s on a interception return

for a touchdown. Well, would be. But John points out, again, shout out to John behind the curtains, Wizard of Oz, that he thinks it's more about the laying out and making the play.

I just think, I'm not saying it's not remarkable, I'm just saying maybe we make a little too much of it. I'm going to get killed over this. Don't care. I really do believe this. All due respect to Larry Allen.

Listen, last week we were joking about we didn't want, Zadano Chara, my hockey trolling going wrong, Zadano Chara could fucking break in this building, break all our machinery, beat up Reed, I don't know, maybe make a run of beat me up. Definitely don't want Larry Allen to come in here. I don't feel good about that matchup. Not for Reed, at least.

I'm jumping out the window. I'm closer to the door. if Larry Allen's coming up the stairs because he hears that I said that play was overrated I'm getting the fuck out of here I see my exit right now that's my non-sunday football take my Sunday football take

in the immediacy of the aftermath of the Packers getting that big win is that the Packers are your NFC Super Bowl favorite and I'm not being somebody as you know that rides the up and downs.

I haven't fallen for the pump fakes before with the Packers. I've been pretty consistent about saying, listen, until they beat a bully, I just don't believe in them. Tonight they beat a bully, and they bullied a bully in the snow at home. And as you'll hear from much of the show with me and Steve, I thought the Titans live line was there.

Plus nine and a half. I also had the over. Just came up short. I got on a live over. it just the importance of this game if I was joking I'd say this was when their draft class paid off that's the joke everybody is is telling on the internet tonight but in all seriousness this was a statement for them you know this was a major line in the sand for them there's the first time they passed a test like this is kind of what I was alluding to I talked about this ad nauseum okay last year Niners made them look bad. Bucks, second half, bullied them. You know, you've got,

now the bucks are the one team and given trouble. If the Packers don't play the bucks in the playoffs, I feel pretty good about them getting there. Especially with home field advantage. That's huge. You know, like, come on, this tonight was a preview. It was like, come on down to Lambo field.

You're going to turn pink and you're going to have to fucking play in a, in a blizzard in front of nobody. and Aaron Rogers is going to be distributing piss missiles. Like, Macon text me during the game, he's like, literally when Devante Adams is not in the game, they run the ball.

When DeVante Adams is in the game, they just throw it to them. And there's nothing you can do to stop it. And I think this was that kind of win where not only did they check off beating a good team for the first time in a while, it felt like, because as we recounted their season,

like they had beaten the Saints earlier in the year. And I think since then there hadn't been anybody that good that they'd had a win over. And in fact, I don't think they'd beaten a lot of 500 teams. Well, the Packers tonight beat not only a 500 team, they beat a playoff team, and they beat a team that I thought matched up well against them. So they boat race the Titans and they make a statement. And I think they are the favorite to come out of the NFC as long as they don't see Tampa.

and as long as Tampa doesn't see New Orleans, I think it's wide open for those guys as well. I know everybody's been jumping off that ship. My biggest worry with the Packers has always been their physicality. Tonight, they stood up, they stood up at home, and I will admit. Well, I don't know that I was wrong because I was never wrong about the Packers' defense. They're playing better now. If the Packers' defense plays like it's played lately,

they're going to be tough to stop in the playoffs. And got to be excited if you're a Packers fan because they're about to get that buy and people are about to come up to Lambo in January. And guess what? When and if they get to the Super Bowl, they match up as well against the chiefs as anybody in the NFC.

And the other team that I would have said at their best would have been the Rams. Okay. well I don't think that's going to happen at this point could the ram sign Blake Bordels you know if you're if you've been living under an NFL rock you didn't see Jared Gough pop his thumb back into place another one

advantage of Jared Gough I've never seen Zadano Chara pop his thumb back in I mean he's got to wear a glove like a big thick glove Jared just popped that thing right back in fucking cow kid a cow kid just pop this thumb back in on national TV. Sports real, man.

But they're in trouble. And, you know, all types of, hey, are they going to sign Bortles? Like, I don't even know that they can sign people anymore that aren't on another team's practice squad roster, but, you know, a lot of names are being thrown out there. If the Rams sign like a Blake Bortles, chances are week 17,

they're still rolling the ball out. there with John Walford, who's their number two. Yes, John Walford. Of course, John Walford. The AAF, I don't even know what that's an acronym for. The American Association of Football, did I get that right, Cowboy Reed? AAF, Arena, something, Alliance. Somebody's going to make fun of me like, Chris doesn't watch any football. Like, when would I have time to watch that? No offense to that league. Yeah, this was the league before. for the last league? See, I missed that.

Yeah, like that league, it just didn't compute with me. I'm not going to remember John Walford, but John Walford, he can make himself memorable this weekend. I mean, he's got a real chance here. And listen,

the Rams could still get in even if they don't win, I believe, because the Packers take care of business against the Bears next Sunday, and I think the Rams are in no matter what.

I believe that's the case. But they're staring down the barrel of a playoff type game. They got a guy who's never taking an NFL snap and John Walford. If you're an OG Rams fan, you remember that the last time they won a Super Bowl, there was a guy that was famously bagging groceries and playing in the minor leagues and took Trent Green's job. And the rest was history. That guy's name is Kurt Warner, right?

Arena guy. I wouldn't look for the same outcome here. But it couldn't get much worse. I mean, like, they've looked really poor, dude. And I'm not even being, like, sensationalist. What's the worst that could happen? That pick in the high red, where, you know, the Rams are driving and he just floats it. I think before the happen.

Troy, you could just tell. You could hear it his voice. It was like, he saw a ghost. He was like, I don't know who he's throwing that too, Joe. Like, I've never heard two announcers that were just like, I'm dumbfounded at some of these plays. That's been sometimes what you get with Jared Gough. And that's why, you know, at times to coin the phrase, I don't stand on the table for Jared Gough. I lean on the table. I'll put my arm on the table. You know, I'll hang out there a while. I'll tell you,

I'll tell you, hey, I know there's a bunch of turnovers with the guy's been to the Super Bowl before and he's had high highs. The lows are tough, man. They're tough. So short of a Kurt Warner situation. Me and Steve are going to talk about who should probably have their playoff spot later. What a waste of a great defense, man. A defense is great. And 31 had a chance today

when you look back at this game one of the plays early. 31 jumped a route, I think, on Russell Wilson early in the game and I think the kid had two picks the first time they played. He could have had a pick at least possibly a pick six

drops it. Who knows how different that game is if they get up like that early. Because Seattle took them a while to get going. And once they did, they kind of had control of that football game. Now another guy that's on that roster behind John Walford, this could be a fun Sunday. Bryce Perkins. If you watch Virginia football last year, you know Bryce Perkins. Kick him ball. And who knows? I mean, you know, maybe you take a look at the kid with more upside. maybe you have packages for Bryce Perkins.

I bet you they have some packages for Bryce Perkins. You never know. I mean, I would look for them to get weird. Another thing you have to consider is, with this Jared Gough news of a broken thumb, dislocated thumb, four to six weeks until he's probably right, right? This is not, he's doubtful for week 17.

You think he's going to much better for wild card weekend and beyond? I would, if I were the Rams, I would bring somebody in. they may not because of COVID protocol be able to play like a Blake Bortles or somebody if you're willing to get more creative than that they're not going to have a shot to play this well they could play this Sunday but they wouldn't be able to practice much of the week

because of COVID protocols they'll be there wild card weekend if you don't like what you see week 17 from whoever you trot out there you end up with a win or you end up in somehow you know it would be nice to have another option the Eagles are eliminated

and shout out to their social media team for knowing when to put the period after their post. I've identified a thing. I think I'm the first on it. Or at least the first with a platform like this on it. Where when a team knows that they're not relaying good news via social media,

they always put a period after their posts. You look for that. Teams putting periods after their posts on the team accounts. Generally, it's not good news. Could be a bad loss. You could be eliminated. You could be like the Eagles and you could be just letting your fan base know that the game's been flexed Sunday to 820 or whatever it is. And the disappointment that we have to wait another seven and a half hours to get the beginning of the end of the season started,

that vibe is palpable in that post. I mean, there is a big fat period on the end of that post. But it is getting flexed. Giants, cowboys are going to be pulling for the Eagles this week because the Eagles are going to be playing Sunday night against Washington with a chance to ruin the best feel good story in football this year.

Short of that Dwayne Haskins chapter that we just got. through. And hopefully that's the end of it. Alex Smith suits up week 17 against the Eagles. I actually suspect Washington gets the win. I think Washington deserves to win. There's no such

thing as nobody deserves anything necessarily, but for all intents of course, they've been the better coach team this year. They've been the more consistent team this year. And let's face it, Alex Smith

is a guy who I would love to see in the playoffs. I mean, I would absolutely love to see him in the playoffs. I think you can't overstate how insane it is. Not only that he could take the hits he's taken this year, but also that he's been as competent of a football player and somebody who's gotten them into this position where as a franchise, you haven't been there in quite some time, and it's in such an unlikely circumstance.

You've got this coach that everybody loves. This is like, you know, shout out Damashek. Damashik talks about the Cowboys' Days as America's team should be long past numbered. Washington this year. In a lot of ways, drop the racist nickname, you know, hired a black president,

the team's first black president. You got Ron Rivera. You've got Alex Smith. It's a lot of reasons to love this team. Gosh, the D-Lines really love. likable. Really likable. I find them really likable. Um, so that should be a high drama game. And for the Eagles, I mean, they're eliminated, but the, not so fast in the period. If you like drama, there's going to be some drama Sunday night because everybody's playing and coaching

for their jobs, right? Like, and what's the, what's the future of the franchise? For as many guys that are going to be down and possibly maybe it's not the eagle's best shot, there's going to be a lot of guys playing for their futures. And there's going to be guys that like, okay, what do you think Doug Peterson? How do you think Doug Peterson wants Sunday to look like? Doug Peterson wants to win so bad. Jalen Hertz wants to win so bad. There's going to be guys playing their asses off. It is going to be a competitive football game. The first one got a little out of control, but I'm actually looking forward to this game.

And I also think Eagles fans should take a long, hard look at a guy like Jason Kelsey, who's played hurt, you know, for much of the last year, countless ailments, franchise fixture, the parade, the whole thing, keeps coming back. And it's been disappointing as a team. and he's never complained.

He had that great tanking speech a couple weeks ago, plays his ass off. You just never know, man. You just never know with guys, and it's week 17, and although you might be eliminated, you should lean in and pay attention to this one because you don't know.

You just don't know with a guy like Jason Kelsey. You don't know with Doug Peterson. I'm not saying Jason's going to get cut or something, but like, you know, he's more than 30 years old. Sometimes people just wake up one day, and they say, I don't want to do this shit anymore. Doug Peterson's coaching for his job. You've got different players playing for their jobs.

I mean, there's some people you're not going to ever see again in that uniform. So Sunday night, I actually think it's going to be a fun ball game for a lot of reasons. And from the scheduling standpoint, you know, that one being flex, the Giants and the Cowboys are going to be playing football at 1 p.m., along with Dolphins, Bills, Ravens, Bengals, Steelers, Browns, There's a lot of playoff implication type games. By the way, Steelers and Browns, if the Browns win they're in, if they don't, they're probably not in, right? High drama.

Those two teams Dallas and New York are gonna be playing not knowing what a win or a loss means, right? A loss means you're out of it, but a win, you could certainly be celebrating, but your ass is gonna be home in front of TV at 820, rooting for the Philadelphia Eagles. Right?

I suspect Dallas is feeling pretty good about themselves. I suspect Dallas might pull out a win, which makes no sense to me. And I also suspect that Washington wins a close ball game against the Eagles, and Washington goes to playoffs. And all is right, because they probably deserve it the most. And the Eagles were eliminated today. It is pretty wild that a team with that much talent in a lot of spots, which dissipated quickly due to injury and all sorts of things.

things are sitting here in the worst division and we're eliminated first and at the hands of the cowboys this year it's just been a bad year speaking of the eagle shout out to brandon graham getting a pro bowl so he doesn't have to go on radio shows the rest of his career and hear them flounder to like intro you i was joke about this where they're like and now joining us is uh all around good guy oh fuck dan he didn't make a pro bowl 2011 like NFL alumni association alignment of the year. Nah, BG is a pro bowler now.

Like they just, it rolls off the tongue for whatever it's worth, man, whatever you think about the award. Listen, snubs every year. Did I do my Trey Hendrickson rant yet, Reed? Have I ranted about Trey Hendrickson yet?

I've probably done it like three times. I just forgot about it. It's been a long week. I mean, it's a bullshit. it's a bullshit situation. Some of the snubs that go on here year to year. I mean like a guy like

Trey Henderson, 12 and a half sacks doesn't make the Pro Bowl. Guys with like five sacks are getting in. All right. BG has been snubbed before, not this year. And whether you think much of the award or not, it's just nice that that guy has

that word, you know, before his name. when he pops on a show, when he retires, or when he makes a play over the next three, four years. He wants to play until he's, you know, 15 years in the league. I think he's got it in him. And now, every time he gets introed, you can't not use that word when you talk about BG.

So I think that's pretty cool. And he just got to eight sacks. So he has a shot at double digits. I don't know if he's had double digits before. So great week for BG. Otherwise, kind of sucks for the Eagles. but there's a bit of positivity there for you. And as for the game, the scheduling one more time.

I mean, Eagles and Washington Sunday night, Cowboys, Giants, 1 o'clock, the reason they couldn't do this the other way is, you know, like, I wouldn't have minded all the games being played at once because I think there's some chaos and fun to that. But they had to separate them, right? They had to flex them with the markets and that sort of thing. the magnitude of the games. And you know,

you might say, why not Giants and Cowboys late? Well, I mean, what if Washington wins the one o'clock game? And then you've got an 8.20 that's worth nothing. So that's the only reason they're doing it this way, and it makes sense.

And it should get fucking nuts this weekend coming up. By the way, before I get into the Steelers Colts game, let me give you a quick update. I might as well on how the picks are, going you know we started doing this uh sunday picks thing a couple weeks back um i don't know i don't try real hard at it it's just something i do sometimes like i roll out of bed sunday where i'm like i think i'll just pick some games a lot of times reed has to remind me today i went eight and three

including uh the titans loss just happened a little bit ago so i'm eight and three you know would we like to have three of them back and be perfect yeah but you're not going to be perfect at the office every day stanford sieve said to me last week is the hardest week to to pick games, week 16, week 17, not to my team, not to the brain trust. I don't know who I'm referring to. It's just me that picks the games. In fact, my lovely wife picks as well. Meg went seven and four this week.

She's also very good at picking games. Makin went six and five, and his lovely wife, Kate, went five and six. Weekly reminder that if you're listening to any other podcast hosted by a dude and a dude, that podcast doesn't care about their wives as much as we care. about our wives, obviously, because we let our wives pick. And it's really not about letting them pick. They're great at picking games. They're a real asset to our little pick and pool.

And yeah, we started late, but I'm 26 and 20. 26, 20 and 2. My lovely wife, 23, 23 and 2. Kate, 20, 26, and 2, and Macon, bringing up the rear, 19, 27, and 2. making you got Thursday night football Sunday maybe not so much your day keep grinding

as far as Indy and the Steelers go real quick this game this game was such a do or die situation and Pittsburgh's going to the playoffs right but they lose this game

the way they got jumped in the beginning and it stood that way this team's confidence would have been shot going to the playoffs. And I really think that that matters a great deal. As bad as they've been the past three weeks, they had an opportunity today to write the ship. And you can turn things around relatively quick because for all the deficiencies you've had lately,

you were a team that some people talked about as the best team in football for much of the season. What's changed? Well, you've had some changes on defense, but what we're talking about is? offense. You're talking about the offense has just been in disarray. Sure, the defense didn't quite as good

when they were trying to close this game out, you know, today even to jump ahead, Indie's last drive, there were a few too many outroutes that were just kind of wide open. Nelson getting routed, falling down on the ground.

Like, just you're a little nervous about this group a little more so than you were last year about them. But still a very disruptive group. Three big plays I want you to keep your mind on as I go through this game real quick. T.J. Watts, strip sack in the first half.

Stefan Tuit sack out of the half to force Indy to kick that field goal rather than score a touchdown. And then the biggest defense of play of the game, the Claypool OPI. And I say defense to play the game because he turned into a defender. So those are the three plays I want you to keep your mind on,

besides the obvious out of the half offensive improvement. But I mean, for much of the first half of the game, I thought, you know, Indy is the team that Pittsburgh's supposed to be, okay? KG, veteran presence, quarterback that's distributing the football, tough wide receivers, run game, tough defense. Like, that's what I think about when I think about Pittsburgh traditionally, but that's not who they are this year. and it felt like

Pittsburgh was going to get buried by like the ghost of Pittsburgh passed or something. You know what I mean? Like early it was bad, okay? No run game, right off the bat, Snell third and one at midfield. You know, the early three and outs,

they mounted. You had like under 100 yards the first half. And the Colts looked physical, okay? Like I've talked about. And the Colts loses. this game. They're still just who they were before this, this, this game today. Like, they're still dangerous. They still beat the Packers a couple weeks ago. You know, they still, they can still hang with anybody, uh, you know, take away that Tennessee ass kicking where they were down

Buckner and Autry and all these guys. Listen, everybody has a bad day. In the Colts today, looked physical for much of the game. Even when they gifted Pitt that touchdown, uh, which was, you know, Pittsburgh only points of the first half was that T.J. Watt. Sack fumble. It's a defensive play of your caliber play where you literally keeping your team in the game. If it's not for that strip sack, it's 21-0.

You know, it's 21-0.5. That looks way fucking different. It feels way different. That's number one. I talked about that play. Even when they gifted that play, Indy came right back out with a physical drive. And it was like, damn, dude,

you get your break, they answer, and it's back to two scores. And the way this offense is going, two scores seems like a lot. And at some point, I think everybody, in the back of everybody's mind is like, when do they start talking about a quarterback change?

And I'm not a proponent of it. And the second half proved out why I wouldn't be, but, you know, people don't have a lot of patience, and there's been a lot of talk about Ben and his arm strength and the underneath stuff. All right, we had the second half. We good now.

He's got it in him. Let's see if he can get it out of him the rest of the year. But in the first half, I mean, there was a third down in particular, third and nine when they needed it. Because it felt like they needed everything at this point. They hit a crosser behind the line of scrimmage. Okay, a crosser, not like a screen, not a dump off, crosser. Behind a line of scrimmage, tackle for loss, okay? And at the end of the half,

you're sitting there, you're like, I can't tell if Mike Tomlin's not confident in Big Ben or if you miss an opportunity, but the Colts are up 21-7 with a minute left in the first half. They're backed up at second and 20. You know the situation if you watch a game. You're thinking to yourself,

damn, I'm down 21-7. I can be down 21-14th to half. Not to mention, I think the Colts get the ball first in the second half. So let's get a possession here. Let's steal one. I mean, they're backed up. They're not a team that's going to pick up a third and 17.

Minute 10 left. And Steelers keep their time out in their back pocket. And Romo's like, look at this gamesmanship. You know, they hustled to the line to make Pittsburgh think they're going to snap the ball on third and 17. Third and 17, do you know what defense is call on third and 17? They call fucking fence. Do you know what fence is? It's like rushing three and putting a bunch of DBs at 18 yards and playing

and building a wall and just saying like you're going to get 15 but we're not worried about it. You're going to get 14 on screen. You're going to get 12. Nobody's thinking geez, these guys are in their two minute drill

backed up with a minute to go in the second quarter, up 217. They're about to get the ball out of the half. They're going to go 90 yards in a fucking minute. Why are we not taking a time out? And at that point for a second, I thought he really doesn't believe

in Big Ben anymore. He really doesn't believe in Big Ben anymore. He really doesn't. He doesn't even want to steal a possession. But then I realized he probably just didn't, you know, didn't take the time out or forgot to take the time out because the Steelers got the ball with 19 seconds or whatever it was, could have had about a minute. And they're trying to take shots. So it was a terrible half, but second half turned around. I mean, the veteran leadership showed up. You know, we've been waiting for weeks for who's going to step up. When are they going to

turn it on. We're not going to take some shots. I can't tell if at the half Ben got something shot up. There's a lot of times like if you're not feeling right you get something shot up you come out and you and you play better. I think what's more than likely is Ben was like, I've had enough of this. We've been playing the NFL's longest game of possum. I know we're trying to keep me healthy. I know we've committed to this new look offense but it ain't working. We are 16 games in. We are we are 14 and a half games in

okay like we get one more game next week and that's playoff time we need to go chuck the fucking football down the field but before they got to do that the Colts go on an absolute

like throwback perfectly balanced football team vintage drive for a touchdown, right? Well, they're about to score a touchdown when Tewitt comes up with the sack. And so Colts out of the half could have had seven, could have been 28-7.

Instead, it's 24-7. Big difference. Tewit came up big there. It's a huge play. I mentioned that play. That keeps the game within reach for the Steelers. Because three touchdowns,

that was going to be tough sledding. But Pittsburgh answered immediately. Michael Irvin talked about it on the pregame Sunday morning I heard him Claypool, get him the ball where's he been since week 10 forced the ball to him that ball down to the 13 gave him life

obviously run game's not option their first and goal at like the one and they can't get in but the bottom line is they got confidence you saw how quickly they moved down the field you're like holy shit I mean they can stop here and get right back in it and that's what they did

they forced the punt Deonté for a touchdown they're in this game It's third quarter, you're down 10. You stretched the field, and then he did it again. And guess what happens when you throw the ball deep? Little yellow flags. They're all over the place. The next possession, they take a shot, right?

They take a shot. And you get DPI on James Washington, sets up an Ibron touchdown. Okay? This stuff doesn't happen if you don't take shots, man. Like, you can't get 35-yard plays where you don't complete a catch. if you don't even try. I think at some point, you're like, fuck it,

we got to burn the ships, and we got to throw the ball deep, and I don't care if Ben's going to get hit. And I don't care if Ben gets hurt at some point, because what's worse than us taking that chance? It's not taking the chance and looking like we do now. So taking those shots, every Sunday you see flags everywhere,

free plays. We bitched about the Byron Jones play. Okay? Those plays don't happen if you don't take shots. And the Ebron touchdown makes it 2421. And then once Webb comes in for Indy, you're down to your third tackle. You know, it's just everything swung the Steelers way. There's at one point the Steelers have almost as many first downs as the Colts have plays in the second half.

And this is like well into the third quarter. And then they lose their second tackle down to their third. Hayward destroys Philip Rivers. And you get the ball back again. and there's the Claypool huge OPI, which I just want to explain something. This was really an interesting play and probably why the receiver,

why the refs missed it. I'm not saying, you know, shouldn't have missed it or whatever, but, you know, you're looking at it and Claypool is not see the ball thrown behind him, but he's reading the break of a DB. And huge play, because I don't know if that gets picked or what or worse,

but the way that's going there, I would have killed your whole mojo. And to just get a little piece of him based on his break and not the ball, not even knowing the ball is behind you, that was huge. And he got away with it. Then you get ICT backside on a shot and finally, Juju touchdown. So yeah, I mean, as much as the end of the game, the defense wasn't, you know, up to snuff, in my opinion, or they make you a little bit nervous.

You know, in that two-minute situation, they're not what they once were maybe. you know you missed the linebackers they played really special last year they got a lot of turnovers on defense it's been hard they're tired right their offenses like how could you do less than you did last year lately it's been you might as well have Mason Rudolph out there that wins huge for them

it's huge to put some wind in their sales and it's huge to put that on tape I've been saying it for weeks put that shit on tape whether you won or lost the game today put it on tape because that's a whole other dimension that people have to

once you take those shots the Steelers start to look like a real football team offensively underneath stuff crossers outs 13 yard run from James Connor I was like I was out of my chair COTC a 13 yard run I'm like holy shit more of this please

why do you think that all of a sudden happened stretch the field so Pittsburgh, like I said, don't write them off. They're not the favorite anymore, but don't write those guys off. Throw the ball to Claypool. I mean, listen, my man, he's big, he looks like a possession receiver, but he runs 4-4.

Get him the ball. Vertical. See what they're doing with Waller? I know he's a tight end. Claypool's got that catch radius, man. Just take shots. All right, without further ado, let's get Stanford Steve on. While the holiday season may be winding down,

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We both got a lot of energy tonight, I feel like. I feel like we're rested up. I didn't drink much over Christmas. You? You shaved? I did shave. Wow. I don't want to, I'll show you.

you after the show I accidentally shaved my head too yeah right promise you I did we were just joking about this last week I'll have I pulled the audio Swerty how much you want to bet you shaved your head bro look at the side of my head with a one with all the way less than a one a number fucking four or whatever it is zero yeah because I was trying to get myself a haircut and I screwed up okay and I started looking you know all out of sorts

so I just did an impulse head shave and then from there I tried to just trim my mother because if you have short hair and, you know, and you're thinning and winning, which you've been there and you've accepted your faith. It's been a while for that, brother. If you're slightly thinning and winning, well, I got to have the beard game, right? So I go to trim the beard and piece my mustache. And now I look like literally, well, like you and me look the same.

Oh, it's, it's, you feel naked, dude. you, yeah, if that's what you want to call it, yeah, good. It is Christmas week. We've got snow. We're watching on TV a Blizzard game in Green Bay, go figure. It looks like due to the condensation on the camera that it's just on the edge, this is me doing my meteorologist thing. Love this guy. Just on the edge of just being dewy precipitation, which would probably bode well for the Titans, right? What do you say about gambling cold weather games and snow games. My dad always had an adage, Chris.

And he would be like snow, snow, snow, the lines are going to drop. And this is back of the day, local bookies, you know, the whole thing. He would always take the over. He's like, wide receivers know where they got to go. The DBs don't. Very simple. It's easier to throw in the snow than it is the wind or the rain. And the advantages on your side.

So as long as you feel like you have capable guys in that position, take the over. So I'm with you. to the people that took the over to them. Yeah, well, I took the over before I knew there was going to be a blizzard, but they say, people say, that's one problem you have it looking at lines when they come out. Yeah, but you know, there were some good ones too. I'm not just going to talk about the victories.

I'm going to talk about the defeats here, and it looks like I was on this game a little bit earlier as it is dumping a little bit of snow, wintry mix. And the total I got was, I think, at 54 right now. We're at 19-0 as we speak, 9-21 Sunday nights. We'll see how that game goes. I don't know, man. Green Bay knocking on the door.

Yeah, and this is the thing I said before this game, I'm like, if they find a way to not get bullied tonight and certainly the snow probably gives them an assist because I just don't, you know, you just don't trust Ryan the same. I mean, there's Ryan Tannhill statistically, but then there's big spot Ryan Tannhill,

bad weather, Aaron Rogers on the other sideline. If they could manage not to get bullied tonight, they are the favorite in the NFC. That's what I was asking you last week about New Orleans, and I know everybody's going crazy because Camara did what he did, but I still didn't like it all. And I know Michael Thomas wasn't out, Craig Client Smith was out for a breeze.

I just do not like what I see in that passing game, Chris. I don't. Well, either way, I love what I see in this passing game. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. And if they can find. He's just so damn versatile, man. Yep. And you make a great point about the field and the snow as we're watching.

Like, as a defensive player, and you knew this if you were playing Green Bay, you go to Green Bay, as they go up possibly 22 to nothing. Big block kick here. Run this bad boy back for a touchdown. It's chaos out there. Look at this.

He's going to the crib. He's going to the crib. I don't know. Big fat guy and the punter. They gang up on him. He's down at the 9-yard line and I got new life. I got the Titans and I got the over. I didn't tell you about the Titans

because I wasn't going to tell you the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I got the Titans too. I jumped on the live line. Nine and a half. We're knocking at the door. Who was knocking at the door you said a minute ago? Green Bay was.

Okay, well, we just, they had to turn around. They had somewhere to be. The Titans are knocking at the door right now. But the point is, Green Bay, in that situation at home, when you went up there and played at Lambo, the first thing coach has always said, get your cleats right. When you hear it, get your cleats right. Look at the Lamar Cleveland game the other night.

The Monday night came. I'm sitting there watching the game with Van Pell. I'm like, he's got the mold. I'm like, it's pretty obvious. He has the mold. Go put studs in and let's go. And then two seconds later, you see him bring the cleats out. Lamar was a different player.

He's been a different player since that game. Maybe it was the seven studs, you know, this time of year in that division. And that's what I'm saying. Like you guys in the NFL, you can play with two and a half inch cleats if you wanted. Dude, you're, you got them. It's pretty wild. Like, we can't wear baseball spikes. And for the people listening at home, like, when you say seven studs and molded,

like moldeds are like the rubber bottom cleats that generally you think you feel faster when you play in them. They're lighter. Especially on turf. You would never wear seven studs on artificial turf. And by that it's field turf. That's like, you know, like back in the day when they had real turf, like you play with like those King Griffey Jr. type molded bottoms. They're like baseball cleats almost like turf cleats.

The Deons, that sort of thing. Oh, wait, what that'll happen? Yeah, I got called back. We're still knocking on the door. We're still knocking on the door. Packers are probably going to. Yeah, we're just tapping at the door. Tap, tap, tap.

Edgar Allen Poe, The Raven. You know that one? Edgar Allan Poe spent some time in Charlottesville. It's probably why you don't know it. Mark Twain did in Connecticut. Did I fuck that whole thing up? Was Ed Graham and Poe? There was a poem about somebody at the door.

That's the Titans right now. But I would say, Lambo is the capital along with Chicago. So the NFC North, the AFC North, those are fields that you have to be very cognizant of what you're wearing on your feet. And when you go up to Green Bay, the players that always need them the most don't put them on they're the skill guys they're super

they're so right they don't want to feel slow so they're like they chants it with the molded and then three people fall down before the half and you're down 21 to the packers and then i would i would guess too like pregame you guys you have two hours to go out and get loose de linemen o linemen tight ends they walk out to the field with three pair of shoe whereas the skill guys got to go out you know, with their, you know, headphones on. So they just go out on the shoots that they're on. So then they got to go walk back to the locker room. And then they come back out.

Like, it's unbelievable. And everybody gets mad about stereotype and the diva positions. Like those are the things that guys in the locker room notice. And we don't feel bad for you. Right. When you could get something right and you refuse to do it the way you're supposed to. Does that make sense to you? No, it makes perfect sense to me.

Okay. There's usually the, as I said, the position groups that could use, a slip the least slip the most on Sunday late in the season in these situations. So to your point to put a bow on it, you know, and your dad is right, I think the onus

is on the defense in the snow game because you know, one slip and that could be six points. Now the other thing is you could be running out route and slip and DB could take it for six, but that's less likely than a defender falling down. And especially at this level, Chris,

these guys are so good at running routes like they know, you know, and that's what makes you mad. It's like, why, you tried it in pregame and you fell. Why didn't you make an adjustment? No, you're right. You're right. How about your favorite team? Because that game was Saturday night, Miami, Vegas, and that was one of the best games

I've seen all year long. Unbelievable. But we still got to talk about it. I know some people are probably like, that's old news, but I don't give a shit. I just, the, the big play, like you just, you always sit there and, you know, I said last week, I think it was on this one or our picks show, where I was just like, these are the two toughest weeks to gamble for me in the sport because you have Oakland, or I should say, Las Vegas.

Yeah. And, you know, they have the goods. You know, everybody's got a roster, but like you see the difference between Las Vegas last night and what you saw out of Detroit. Like, I saw Damien Woody said Detroit's already got their fish boat out in Cancun. Like, they already packed it in. Oh, yeah. They're gone.

on that little map that people are looking at with the Caribbean countries to see which ones are yellow, which ones are red, which ones are orange, and that's all case numbers. The Andy Dufrein map. Yeah, he's like, yeah, meet me here. It's going to be nice. I can't remember the name of the beach. It was way too long. But some real Shawshank heads could tell you.

But yeah, they're already planning their escape, for sure. Yeah, they have. And it looks like they're already there. But I just, Miami, we've talked about it. when they went to Denver, Flo pulls the plug on Tua, goes to the closer, brings in Fitsi, almost pulls it off. And it's just, I think it's an awesome dynamic to have because, all right, teams got to prepare for it now.

And you know he is going to take shots. And Miami has guys that can, you know, stretch the field, get open, have Twitch guys like Grant. Gaseki's been unbelievable. You saw how much he means to that offense. But my issue is it's a different play calling system when Fitsy is. rather than Tua. And if they're going to move forward with Tua in the future, I don't think Chang Galey could be calling plays

because it's like he's playing quarterback handcuffed. And it's not fair to the kid. I mean, the kid is built on anticipation. You saw when he can rip, when he wants to rip it, he rips them throws. And it's just a shame to me to see them not be true to him because he has the goods. There's no doubt he has it.

But tremendous win, what they were able to do. Standards, I mean, no one talks about that. Like, there's still some big pressure kicks. And the play by Gaskin is incredible, which is something that I always had a tough time doing. Huge block by Mack Collins. You're talking about that, that's slant-lade. You know, Mac had dropped the ball at the goal line that had an adverse effect on them points down there. And, you know, Mac has the Philly background.

He was an eagle for a year or two. and people in Philly were like, you know, fans. It's same thing. There's two receivers on the field last night making big plays from Philly. Nelson Aguilar, the 85-yarder, and he's a hell of a player. Okay, I don't care what anybody says. He had a tough year in Philly. And then Mac Collins, people were like, why is he even taking up a roster spot?

Listen, somebody was going to, like, somebody's got to catch the ball for Miami, but it's good to see Matt Collins making a big play at the end. Huge. No look past that even Patrick Mahomes wouldn't even attempt. That no look. I think I found the one pass that Pat Mahomes has, Patrick Mahomes has no interest in trying because it involves getting your C4 adjusted or whatever it is.

Is it the four? I always forget. It starts with the low numbers up top C4, C6 cervical spine. You don't get adjustments much, do you? Table that. No, no, I've been all right. Tor my trap back in a day. I still have issues with that.

Oh, it's, yeah. Oh, man. I didn't notice. I would think there'd be like one trap that. would be all deflated. It is. There is one. Well, I, I, I, I, I, I'm just, there's a lot, there's a lot of things deflated and inflated on this body there. We don't want to get into as far as the upper body goes. I'm glad you specified the upper body. That's why I said the upper body. You're a smart man. See, you know, these podcasting, uh, audiences are they. Yeah. Those clips, you guys are pretty

good with those clips. Yeah, we are good with the clips. Social. Speaking of, I think I saw three clips tweeted out and, uh, I think I went three and all this week. No, no big deal. Did you really? Well, I just want to tell you this And I, as the people here heard in the open And you said, I had this ringing in my ears I knew this was go time for me. You said this is the hardest two weeks to pick. Eight and two so far on the day, this guy here.

Okay? So that's been the kind of day it was. For Tua, listen, I'm with you. I think the thing that people are forgetting in this framing this whole conversation is I've seen a lot of people freaking out they can't just keep doing this. Well, for the first year,

they can kind of do whatever they want because it seems like they have an understanding and once you've done it one time and it wasn't the end of the world for Tua doing it a second time isn't like twice as bad for him it's even less of a big deal. This is just what we do in this situation

when we don't have the hot hand the only question for me and I am concerned a little bit about it is the three times that I see him throw the ball downfield I think he took their version of a shot off of a change of possession it was a low ball out into the right

about 15 yards down the field This is the only one that he really completed 15 yards on the field. The other one was nearly a pick to Gisaki. I think 26 broke it up. And then there was another shot that was nearly an interception as well. So something about they're not working it enough. The concepts aren't great for him. Or he's just not getting the reps.

Like, you know, that's making it show up on game day. I will say this, Chan Galey was a Ryan Fitzpatrick higher. So the difference that you see between Ryan Fitzpatrick and Tua, I think he's exacerbated by the fact that Ryan's got his guy. He's a crisis manager. He's been in these situations his whole career. Who the hell am I going to throw to is not an old question for him. And then for Tua, it's a brand new question, right?

You know, so not the perfect coordinator for your rookie quarterback, which is fine because they started the year and they wanted to win and Ryan was the guy. And then also not the talent level relative to his opposition that he's used to. So there is an adjustment here for Tua. And I thought Kurt Warner did an awesome job breaking that down because I think too will be the first person to tell you. He's got to learn that there's a different in Kurt Warner talked about being open in college football and then being open in NFL football. I just don't think there's a combination. He's still learning that and he doesn't have that guy.

Kurt Warner talked about. He goes, I came into the ramp system. I'm trying to guys that are wide open and Tori Holt, Isaac Bruce. And he's like, I didn't learn it until I went to the Arizona and I play with Larry Fitzgerald. Josh McCown told him, hey, that. That's Larry Fitzgerald. It's third and nine. And I know you think he's blanket.

That's Larry Fitzgerald. He's open. He'll catch it. And that's, yeah, it's a rep thing. And I think, I think it's great for what they're doing just because we know what they have possibly in the draft. And I just, I like it. I think Tua has to go.

He's a gambler man. And they're not letting them gamble. You look at the throws he made in college. He is a risk taker. He came in a national championship, threw a pick right away in like the first five snaps. Right. And bounce back and led the team in a national championship. So he has the guts to do it.

It's just I worry that the reins are too tight. But hey, they're there on the doorstep of the playoffs. The reins might not be, I mean, like, it's just two different types of football. It was like immediately when Fitsy came in, that shot down the seam to Gaseki, it just opens things up. Even though he doesn't hit the first one, the second one's there. And then, you know, with Fitsy, it's like people do, you know, want to play both sides. but Fitsy missed a throw in the end zone and Fitsy missed that scene ball

and right now in a situation like that when you got to get vertical and you can't play complimentary football he's your best bet. That's just what it is. That's why B-Flow has been a great coach and no sign of the locker room or Tua being discouraged by any of this.

So pretty good. It's awesome. And on the other side of it, by the way, and this is a great tidbit. You brought it up offline. The dolphins might have the third pick next year if what happens. The Texans lose next week to Tennessee.

Which they will. The dolphins get the third pick. So there you go. All this. And the 35th pick. And the dolphins, the dolphins who had their work cut out for them looking at it over three game stretch, you were like, man, they control their destiny. But like, that's a hell of a, you know, that's a hell of a tall task.

Everybody's looking at the dolphins. And they got a chance to finish with three wins in a row and sliding the playoffs. So great win for them. And honestly, for the Raiders, as much as people, And I get it. Gruden, big personality, lifetime deal. He's going to, like, you know, it's been underwhelming and disappointing at times.

Touchdown, Tennessee. Just wrapping at the door. You guys hear that? Just a tap. Just a tap. Just a knock when you don't want to wake people up and you want to be polite. That's what they're doing at the door right now. But as for the Raiders, John Gruden, he's an easy target in some ways.

I mean, in that he has a lifetime deal. He's a big voice on the Hooters commercials. You know, people saw him in the booth, which never makes you a popular guy. And, you know, some people think he's overrated. Okay, here's the deal. I don't think he got out coached as bad as people thought at the end of the game. I'm just going to go out and go ahead and say that.

I mean, your options were really to defend a touchdown with a minute left or a field goal with 19 left. And in either option, what you were defending against would beat you because of the missed extra point. You know, they were either going to be up six or they were going to be up two, I believe it was, no matter what. So people are really jumping on their ass how improbable. The same people who are jumping Gruden's ass on that decision are lauding how improbable that throw was. So the improbability, which you acknowledge, is the only way that they, I mean, and the 15-yard are on top of it.

Yes. You know what I mean? The chances of them fucking the coverage up, him just blindly winging the ball down to a wide open Matt Hollins who's catching a punt on the sideline, getting the 15 yards on top of that. And then making the field goal, it's like, dude, I don't know if I would have done things any different. Yeah, I mean, then the idea of it, like you said, if he doesn't get face masks, that ball goes in goes to the Las Vegas strip. Like, think about what had to happen. And you see all the visuals, you see all the still shots. And I'm not a big guy, you know, for capturing stuff like that.

But like, that's literally what it took for him to land the ball right there. And it's just, you know, the improbability of everything. I was happy that the dolphins win because I thought the PI call was brutal on Jones. I didn't, man, I was going back and forth. For five minutes, I was really afraid to say it. I didn't think it was as absurd as people made it sound. It depended on the angle. there was one angle you saw where it looked like Nellie's left shoulder got torched.

And I think what gave the ref the idea that it was P.I. Was that as Byron was trying to catch up and was draped on him, not pulling him backwards, but his hands were essentially on his shoulders. Nellie's side-adjusting the ball trying to turn over his left shoulder. And it looks like Bell turns and opens up his left shoulder. That to me was the conundrum that I think the ref was in in full time because although Bell might not have been pulling him back, Nelson's body turning made it look like he got pulled.

And that's my issue with everything is because he threw that flag in real time. Of course it's going to be interference on slow-mo replay. Everything is interference on slow-mo. That's the one thing I have in problem with all these sports and fans and now with social media is everybody gets to watch everything in slow motion. The game is not in slow motion. And I just wish the rest would consider the situation. situation and what's going on a little bit more. But, you know, it all worked out for Miami and that had to be a hell of a flight home with an extra day.

Absolutely. There's a great flight home. And I do want to say with Gruden to close the loop on that, it is weird to say he'd better pick it up when a guy really like for what, nobody, he can't get fired. So what is he better pick it up over? But you'd like to see more out of that team next year. And you'd like to see Gruden come home with. some better reviews at the end of 21 because it has been up and down. Now, the other guy who's in all the conversations there, and it was more of an afterthought of, you know, Derek Carr, is he going to be on the move? Is he not good enough for John Gruden?

Like, Derek Carr is buck trends this year. We've talked about it. And Derek Carr had a really gutsy performance. So, like, of all the losers and winners, Saturday night, Derek Carr was not a loser to me. Derek Carr. No, no way.

Playing hurt. playing hurt, playing with that groin, which last week you see how disappointed he was. You knew the gravity of that game last week and then this week. And I didn't know how he'd come out because with those groin injuries, I've had them damn near my whole career. They're one of the most frustrating things because you can't tough throw them. The minute you open up and do the wrong thing,

that thing can pop again or that thing can fatigue out again. And listen, the throws to Waller. Now, granted, Darren Waller is like a fucking Velcro. that dude. A Velcro sticker. The ball just sticks to him. If Tom Brady had Darren Waller throwing go routes to him,

oh my God, that's a match made in heaven. It's crazy. I think it was five for 112 he had. Every throw was contested with a hand inside of his hands. Yeah, Roe did a great job on a couple of them. And Roe's a big kid, dude.

Eric Roe is a big kid. He's a long kid. And he just didn't have enough length, enough size, enough skill. Oh, man. you could tell like Darren Waller when he caught that. And not even one bobble, Chris. And not at one-handed catch.

It was all two. Yes, dude. It was incredible. So strong with the ball. And he's perfect at running that route. I mean, it's the perfect situation you want to be in with, with somebody trailing him by a half yard.

Just fucking throw it there. Yep. And just a really nice game by him and Derek Carr as well. So the Raiders are out of it. But, you know, certainly some things to build on offensively. And I do want to say, Because Mike Mayock, who a lot of people made a lot of fun of coming out of the booth, right?

Because that was the, it was kind of a cool thing to do on Twitter. He's been pretty damn good there. Unbelievable. And I think they got a nice foundation for the future. But the coach has to be a little bit better, right? Yeah. I think it'll be the first person at me. Now, I mean, they did the same thing two years in a row.

I think last year they were five in one or six in one. It didn't make it. And then this year, you know, they're sky high. And, you know, that's how close this league is. Everybody was sky high. they talked about more about the Raiders than they did the Chiefs, and the Chiefs won that game on Sunday night, and they never recovered from that.

And it's just things that just tally up. And you talk about trying to get a win every week. Like they never recovered from that loss that everybody treated like a win, and that's why people can take their moral victories. And you can't go to the playoffs and moral victories. That's exactly what we talked about with those guys. So how about that was the marquee game Saturday, because the Arizona San Francisco game was a snoozer.

But hats off to San Francisco, who are people asked before the game. One of the questions I have for NFL next was, what are bad teams playing for? Well, besides the fact that it's a division rival, besides the fact that you have the bones of a championship team, you have 17 free agents who are getting ready to trot out there and try to make themselves some money.

You got to coach, a de-coordinator, who's essentially the most important, unrestricted free agent in the building and he went out and did a great job. So we'll talk about Robert Sala in a bit. All right. So you want to do three questions? Yeah, let's do three questions. You ready?

I'm ready. Are the bears back? The bears all the bears need to do is win periodically in their back, right? You're like fucking everybody with their sweaters and their dick you know

mustaches and survasses. and sweaters. What do you think? Chicago fans are, they're very endearing because they really do believe it. Oh, yeah, they do. The best thing about it was that they all thought they were going to lose today,

but they are, they're putting their chest out right now. They love it. Here, they're not, they're very cynical. They're very, they're tough on people, but they also, they'll fall for the pump. too. And I guess that's all fans. Yeah, that's a good way to put it.

Like, it's different. Like, I don't know. Philly, I feel like might be negative all the time, right? Like, you know, you'd have to prove to us why shit is not going to be wrong. We're Chicago. You just give us a little hope. We're jumping through the gym and the mustaches are coming out. I think this is a pump fake.

Yes, they're coming off of 30 points four games in a row. That's great. Detroit, Houston, Minnesota, and Jacksonville. Okay, I just saw New Orleans score like 60 points on Minnesota. You know, Houston just got beat by the Bengals and Brandon Allen. And Detroit just,

this is one of the worst defensive performances I've ever seen. Now, let's be honest, it's really hard to win without coaches in the NFL. I mean, that just goes to prove it. That game's probably a 24, 27 point game if you have all your coordinators, but it unraveled a bit. My point is that the Bears have not been doing this against good enough

competition. Now, listen, Rocky first half today, I did take the Jags. That was one of the biggest misses of the day, period, when you look at the line, it was like 9 or 10, and they lose by, I mean, they get boat race. Tribisky, over

the course of game, picking the end zone, drop pick, under through a touchdown, not perfect, and you're definitely not up at the half if Rayquand doesn't get that pick. So, on one hand, you're kind of looking at it and you're saying, nice win, but not as good as it looks on the surface.

And the yards per play have gone up since Nick Foles, even in the losses early. Detroit, Green Bay, Alan Robinson's back. He looked great. Eight first downs out of ten catches. He's awesome. He is so good.

I was just going to say, like, I'm really happy for Trubisky, and it's really seemed like it was like, hey, I got my guy. And when I'm in trouble or coach, you know, I got a first, if I got an option around here,

you want to go run a check with me, I know I got my guy 12, single them up on one side, keep him over there. So whenever I get one-on-one, I could give him whatever route I want to throw, and I got positive yardage. And I think it's been really cool. I think they have an absolute stud in that Cole come at the tight end from Notre Dame.

I think that dude's, he is serious. Could there be a guy who had a better draft night? He probably got drafted higher than people thought he was going to be drafted, right? Some people were like, oh, that's a reach. Notre Dame kid going to play in Chicago. Yeah. Listen, they're not contenders, but we do have to have a conversation now. And the conversation is about Mitch and Nagy.

And those are the questions for me. I've already heard the whispers. Nagy has evolved. That's the word being used a lot. You know, there's no doubt that they've improved. Him and Mitch seem to be on a better page. And I credit Nagy with that. And I credit Mitch with that.

I'm rooting for Mitch. Yeah, no. I think it's really been cool to see them come back because they were left for dead. And here they are, man. I think, I mean, the goals go to the playoffs. You know, they say getting the tournament every year, right? They're a win and they're in. And it looks like a distinct possibility, but it does beg the question.

You kind of get this question in Philly. It's damned if you do, if you don't. But like, when he made the move, everybody was tired of Mitch, but also they were like, hey, we're like five and one or whatever we are. Yeah. So that begs the question. I was way wrong about you going away from Mitch Trubisky the first time, Matt Nagy, but so were you.

Or maybe you were right. So that begs the question, like, should, you know, and I'm just a guy on the couch, and heavy is the head that wears the crown, and that's the headset. You know, like, I can be wrong about Nick Foles, but can you? And still at the end of the season,

make it like a victory, like, hey, look what I'm doing with Mitch Trubisky, unless you're telling me the only way that he would play better was to bench him for a long period of time hit the reset button. There are questions. And next week, they play the Packers.

They're going to need Arizona to lose if they lose. That's probably likely that they lose. I don't see that as a good matchup for them. We even saw new and improved Mitch. You know, it just wasn't much of a contest. But the question is going to be, if you're the Packers,

how much do you care that the Bears slide in? Think about some of the other teams that might get in. And I don't know. Are they going to be resting people? Brian Tanahill breaking off a 60 yarder for a touchdown. Hey, you hear that? It's not DoorDash. Tennessee Titans.

This is the Tennessee fucking Titans. Tighten up, baby. DoorDash goes to the front door, bro. You're going in the back door. Man, I've been waiting for Mike Brable to call me. Call your boy. I did like 100 push-ups the other day. You need pass rush?

Can they sign people this late in the season? Why not? Maybe next year. One of these playoff pushes, so call. It just looks so fun to play for the fucking Titans. I love the Titans, bro. Oh, look at these guys. They're going to fuck up the Packers' Week.

They are who we thought they were. They are who we thought they were. That has been said. 19 point lead in all. We'll see how it tracks. But this was a perfect spot for the Titans. 1913 with the extra point counted. But the big question is,

depending on what happens here. You know, like, what do you do if you're, your Green Bay? You know, how much do you rest your starters? How press you to win that game? And you could end up maybe letting the Bears in the playoffs. So that's going to be interesting next week. Total playoff atmosphere. Bears fans are going to be jumping out of the gym.

And the Packers are staying put in division. This is my question, Steve. If you're the Bears, does Tribisky give you a chance to beat the Packers? Does Tribisky give you a chance to beat the Packers? Does Tribeschi give you a chance to win that division? Are you satisfied with being the wildcar team every year? No. So then what are you doing?

Looking elsewhere. Yeah. I think Nagy could, I like, I like Nagy. I understand. I mean, I go back to the beginning of the season. You couldn't start Foles to start the season or else it's done. Right. You can't go back to him.

So I like the way he played it. I thought they've been, they've had a couple of crucial. injuries and I know it's part of the game, but like a guy like Therick Cohen who's so much part of their offense and the way he used them. Like I still think he is creative like that. Like he he does some things and gets guys in space that could do things. It's just a matter of getting the ball out. I have seen an improvement in Trubisky, but I don't think it's that. I would look out elsewhere, free agent, you know, moving up, you know, possibly in a draft, if that's possible. Yeah. But I just, I think it's running its course. I don't think they'll both be

there. Let's put it that way. Listen, and good news for Mitch is there's a lot of quarterback movement and vacancies and that sort of thing at the veteran level this year. I mean, maybe Mitch Trubisky ends up somewhere like the Jets. You know, like maybe Mitch Trubisky is that kind of serviceable veteran, you know, background kind of quarterback that gets brought in a la Marietta to be a really good two and might have an opportunity to compete to get back on a team as a one. you know so yeah and i think mitch has has shown the maturity and the work ethic to slide into that that spot just fine i want to say this about mitch trabisky and we've all gotten the jokes

off and whatnot and we know he's definitely not one of the quote unquote cool kids that people say is off limits to make fun of i'll put it that way the kid takes things in stride as good as anybody i mean consider him being a chicago uh athlete and i mean listen whatever Pro Bowl is worth, been to one, been to the playoffs. It's not like he's just been terrible, but he was a victim of that draft. Yeah, it's not his fault that Bears decided to take him over Patch from Holmes. Yeah. Or Deshaun Watson.

Who he out-dued. He out-dued Deshaun this year. Yeah. Put that notch under your belt there, Mitch Chibisky. Top of the resume. Bottom line is we're rooting for the guy. No doubt. All right.

So what's question two? Question two is, do you think Falcons, players want Rahim Morris to be the head coach moving forward. Ooh, it's such a interesting question. Of all the, first off, of all the quarterback situations, that thing could go a bunch of different ways. But I actually think it's most likely he stays because he's going to be hard to move. Matt.

So consider that. And I don't know how much say he's going to have because he's not the long-term future of the franchise anymore, possibly not. on one hand if you look at recent years and this was something the guy's pulled it's kind of what

what Rahim's been able to do has been kind of par for the course for an interim head coach although I really like him okay 270 win percentage for the head coach that gets fired the last like four or five years

390 for the interim so he's been better Aaron Jones with a touchdown it's good for the over and he's down at the two you can have everything you want, Steve. Don't let anybody tell you that in life you can't have everything. I could have a Titans win. I could have the over here. Snow games. Don't be afraid. Bet the over.

Stop snowing too. But the snow remains on the field, on the surface. Effectively, the DBs are still in peril. You know what I mean? They are. Best of both worlds for the Titans, you know, in my opinion. Okay, so 390 win percentage, that's the average. Out of those interim head coaches over the past three, four years. Eight interim coaches. One kept the job. Can you remember who that might be? Oh.

Tom Sula. No, but I love me some Tom Sula. I saw him today on the Dallas sideline. The author of one of the best press conferences of all time. The second thing I learned was, was, why not? All right. So it was actually Doug Marone,

who's at the end of his rope in Jackson. Wow. Yeah, he's gone 22 and 38. Of course, he had the big run for the Super Bowl and they haven't been back. The bottom line is, I think sometimes, and it's the same thing for players, that kind of like we've been abused here,

whether it was Matt Patricia or Bill O'Brien, Romeo Cornell comes in first weekend, they crush it. Bevel comes in, first weekend, they crush it. Rahim Morris, young guy, been there five, six years, organizational fixture, somebody who had a big role last year in the reset, the reshuffling of the responsibilities late in the year that allowed them to kind of turn the corner late, save Dan's job. On one hand, you're kind of like, holy shit, dude, he was instrumental last year. Players respect him. He's young. He's had a head coaching job before. Which game have they underperformed in? You know, they didn't underperform today. They damn never. won that game. They beat the shit of the Raiders. Every game, it's like

they don't disappoint with him as head coach. Now, they blew a lead, right? That's my point. That's my point. Is it still the bad taste? It's still the bad taste, man. And it's got to get old being that close, you know?

But the point is that much like we're getting, I think, sometimes swept away when we look at any interim coach with wishful thinking, and we say, well, his record's better. The team seems to get a Joel. like that's kind of what happens with every interim coach. Now we'll say this.

I am partial to, I like Rahim Morris a lot and I'd love for him to get another opportunity. I just know this is such a pivotal hire for them. And, you know, like, I know that it's been confirmed. They do interview him. And if the musical chairs don't go your way, here's an interesting thing you could do.

You could retain him for a year. If you don't get your guy, you could retain him for a year. You know, there's also something to players, not experiencing bad football under your big dollar long-term deal coach. Their cap situation's fucked up. You know, Matt's getting a year older.

You just don't know they're going to be that good next year, especially in that division. You know, like there are question marks in New Orleans, but Carolina's going to be better. Tampa Bay. I don't see why they're not going to be better. Tom's not fucking slowing down.

Tom will be back. So you're not trying to win the division next year necessarily. Maybe you don't get the coach you like. I'd take a hard look at him. but like, come on. A package deal with Dorsey and B. Enemy, I'm hearing about that. I like Sala a lot there. Keep an eye on Detroit. I know he was like born and deer born and all that stuff.

But, you know, if you haven't noticed, like, it's not like homecoming every time a coach gets a job. I think Robert Sala would be great there because it's kind of a culture reset. And the only thing that scares me a little bit is you just had your defensive head football coach. Yeah. And there's the precedent there. Came from the NFC West. But if you got your guy, what are the chances you fucked that up twice? You know, like at the, can you get a dynamic offensive coordinator and let this guy reset the culture and reset the defense?

Because that's been the problem, ironically, even under Dan. So that, yeah. Yeah. And the injuries on offense, Julio, we know how good he is at his best and stuff like that. To me, it's just how many guys are in that locker room that just can't do it anymore and want that full reset button? But I also, yeah, like if you have your wish list and they're not into it, yeah, right, right. He's fine.

He's totally competent. And the worst thing that happens is you find out that he's actually a pretty damn good head coach. You give him a full offseason this time around. I was just going to say, I guarantee, I mean, you go back to, you know, I read, you know, Ed Orrin's book just about how much he learned at, you know, failing as a head coach. Like, Rahim got humbled real fast in Tampa. Yeah. Real fast.

And I guarantee you he'll be the first person to tell you what exactly he did wrong and has learned from in that instance. So it's just interesting me because today I just watched them and they were that close. And again, they just can't pull the trigger. And, you know, Mr. Koo, the main man kicker. Young way. Hey, listen. Also, listen, didn't they fuck up a review near the goal line? I mean, I had one eye on that game late.

I don't think Kelsey was in on his touchdown. They gave it to him. Well, I don't think Atlanta had timeouts to give, and they challenged, I want to say, a pick. Yeah, he challenged the pick in the end. It was a bad, bad move. So, you know, the come from behind stuff, the bad decision making, like, the hard thing is, it's just like being a free agent and then some, right?

Because, you know, like, it's interim head coaches aren't necessarily going to go get a job somewhere else you really have to be lights out and I just think he's falling just short of that I hope he gets into a shot other names that they floated here are uh iberflus uh Arthur Smith um who else here we we talk about urban Meyer had said he's been approached by two teams I don't know I would think about because he already coached there Steve sarkesian oh wow I don't I'm not I'm not into that higher you are no yeah you are okay I think he's that good you think he's that good. They've also been snake bit by college coaches. Understood.

Understood. I was reminded by John, the Bobby Petrino, hire that chapter. Oh, God. Who hasn't been snake bit? They're also five in the 2021 draft as we sit. So, you know, they're going to have a chance to. Yeah. Just going back. Like, the interim head coach, quarterback at, you know, at the end. Like, there's so many ways they can go.

Yeah. Absolutely. All right. Hit me with your third. All right. You ready? Yeah, I'm so ready. It is clinched that the Jacksonville Jaguars will be the number one pick in the next draft. The Jets will have pick number two. We said this. If the Texans lose to the Titans next week, the Dolphins get the third pick because the Texans traded those two first and second rounders.

So the dolphins have three and 35 next year if the Texans lose to Tennessee. My question to you is, if you're a head coach, would you rather take the 10th and Texans for the Jets job. Steve, I would rather take the Jets job. I agree. Like, and listen, you know, people are going to turn this into a, what do you mean? You don't like this, Sean? Joe Douglas should hire Chris Long.

He wants the coach. Yeah, I do. I want to coach. Joe, I'll text him later. Okay, so really where you're choosing between Jets and Houston's top five quarterback, slam dunk, right? He's playing like it late in the year. They got nobody around him.

and a bottom five football situation or you know exactly who your GM is. He's, he has a Super Bowl experience. And in Houston, a total unknown. They've had Jack Easterby running that GM search. Jack Easterby, I love Jack. Jack, we used to eat breakfast in New England. He was the chaplain in New England, okay?

Man, my neck about broke when I heard he was going to hire the next head coach, basically, and Houstoner has a hand. and I'm like, okay, so that would scare me. You know, if you're hiring, I don't know how they're going to do this, GM first, coach first, but if you're thinking about Houston right now and you're getting your ducks in a row, you're like, what the fuck is going on there? Not just that. The Jets have nine draft picks in 2020.

Five of them in the first three rounds, projected have 45 million in cap space. Their 2021 free agents are pretty much DBs. they get the Baltimore linebacker back, Mosley. If people don't remember that guy, Joe Douglas got him out of Baltimore and said, come help us win football games. Joe knows what he's talking about. The guy opted out. They have their two tackle sign.

Mackay Beckton's a stud. They got a fan. I don't know how fans played. I got to be honest. I'm not positive. But you know, you at least have guys that you believe in there. And you have two young draft picks. in the de-tackle that people were calling a bust in Quentin Williams,

who was not a bust, who was a fucking stud, and Mackay Beckton, who I just mentioned. So a lot of young things to build on up front, and you have a quarterback on a rookie deal. You could possibly go out and snag a veteran backup, like I talked about earlier. 9-8 is the cap hit on Darnold this year. 9-6 is the dead cap hit.

So conversely, in Houston, over the cap. No picks, the first 64 picks. Willfo is a free agent. Cooks and Cobb are getting older. You're running back haven't given much. Tonsel's deal is huge. You got nobody on defense and I say that with respect to JJ Watt because they should free

him and put him back in Green Bay next year so he can finish his career in Wisconsin and win a Super Bowl maybe. It just feels too good to be true. There's just not a lot of pieces there and you can't be strapped for cash and have no draft picks. I'm sorry

Deshawn Watson is not enough to make me want to go there and be the guy that the internet yells at every week for ruining Deshawn Watson. Like, I'm just, I'm not interested. No, I agree. Yeah, Jets, go Jets. I'm calling Joe Douglas. I'm getting bored with this podcast and shit. I might, I might try to try my hand at it.

All right, so I got some questions for you, buddy. Yes, sir. Number one, how's this NFCE thing play out? Oh, man, I looked at it, and I, can't believe that if the Eagles beat Washington, which can happen, the winner of the Cowboys Giants game wins the division. I think Alex gets back. I know he wanted to play this week and was just too sore.

I think Washington goes to Philly and gets it done. If the thing I had a problem with that game is if they start Taylor Heineke, I think Washington could win that game. And I take it back. I take it back, okay? Last week we had this whole thing, and I could not believe it that I didn't stand on the table. I just put my arm on the table and leaned on the table for Duane Haskins.

Let the record try. I didn't stand on the table. I just said that Drew Locke was a worst quarterback, because you asked me who the worst quarterback that was starting last week was. It was a rhetorical question. You couldn't wait to get your Haskins take off. And you were right, and you were right for reasons. you had no idea you were right for.

That's also true. Not only is the play bad, but what he did over the last week and we've been doing feel good Christmas pods and shit, and I haven't had a chance to unload. Holy shit. The guy might not get another job. I don't see how. He's not good enough to do that.

Your head coach just got done doing chemo. You're not good enough to do that. You're not good enough to do that. That's the problem is like, listen, you're not just, you're auditioning for all the other teams out there. You're auditioning for all the other teams, not just the bare bones of like being a caring member of a team and being like, oh, my coach has cancer, maybe lap dances aren't the answer this week. By the way, you talk about awareness.

Like, this is one of the most mind-blowing things. You want him to see the safety as he's locked onto a receiver, but he doesn't see the flash on the camera phone right there. You want him to see? I mean, listen, and let me preface this all by saying, I've fucked up. done stupid things in my life. I also used to get drunk after losses. Okay, so a lot of people missed the point. It wasn't about partying after a loss.

It was about the blatant disregard for not only his head coach, who didn't throw him under the bus when six weeks ago, people levied all sorts of really serious accusations against Ron Rivera for what they imagined his motivations to be. People got mad at Ron, and Ron didn't even throw Dwayne under the bus and say, listen, this guy hadn't been preparing. This guy isn't even like, he's the last, guy in the building.

How about people on the internet just trust that there's more to it than you know in a football building from now on? That'd be a good place to start. I mean, fuck me, dude. I was so heated about that shit because look at what happened to Cleveland this week. Not just the Ron Rivera thing. That can happen to, you're in a playoff race.

You're in a playoff race. You're lucky to get another odd. addition. And that's what I'm saying. I think every player deserves a second chance, but the market's going to do what the market's going to do. And the market is not going to be real kind to a kid that showed that kind of disregard for his team. You can tell me I sound like an old man yelling at a cloud, but to go out there and then not play well this Sunday, it's going to be tough. Yeah.

Going to be tough. Agreed. But I think Alex comes back in Washington wins this week to answer your question. Yeah. I mean, I actually agree with that. I think I think they do get a win this week. It's just destiny. The Eagles are out of it. The Eagles are going to want to look great offensively because you've got a head coach that's playing for, you're coaching for a job.

You got a quarterback who, you know, there was a regression to the mean today, you know, in Dallas. Yeah. Got to take care of the football. That's something that, you know, all young quarterbacks go through and that sort of thing. They also didn't have McLaurin today, too.

That was huge. Absolutely. So, listen, and I was on the Panthers today. I just trust Teddy way more. I trust Wayne, but I think next week they get the win. Now, if they don't get the win, we got a playoff game. So what say you as far as, we got a playoff game, Dallas and the Giants, what say you as far as how they'll schedule out the Sunday from TV perspective? We have a couple scenarios.

We have a scenario where the Rams, Cardinals, and Bears are all in with a win. so and that is because the Rams are playing Arizona right so they could make that the standalone but they could also make Cowboys Giants Sunday night I don't know I don't know what I'd rather have I kind of as a as a fan it's interesting because you could get both games at the same time and obviously Washington is just trying to win the football game right but the two other teams are there video boards now because there's no fans in the stands

usually interesting thing we see these scenes unfold every week 16 week 17 where everybody's watching the Jumbotron there's no fans so there's no highlights you can't watch Red Zone on the giant TV those if those guys are playing each other and Washington's

playing Philly at the same time it's going to be nuts I'm trying to think of the game they put up the game on the Jumbotron today oh that's a good sign for a, well, it's not a good sign for those players because, oh, the cliche is going to be through the roof of don't pay attention.

Like, guys are going to get screamed at for checking the Washington score. Oh, you know what? It was Dallas. It was Dallas because Washington had lost. That's what it was. They put it up on the on the jumbo. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Put it up on there so next week, you know, possibly could mean something. Listen, I'm going to tell you what.

And I hate to say this. this NFC East is like a fucking roller coaster I said Josh Allen was a roller coaster on meth earlier this year the NFC East is the biggest roller coaster on meth I just hate Chris how much time we've spent analyzing it because of how bad it is like I'd like to spend more time talking about good things in the sport if it was the AFC South

Stephen A and those guys wouldn't make a peep but it's big markets man it's the drama and it continues to be good TV you got the Haskins drama this week all the teams have quarterback trouble you got the Eagles QB trouble Dallas is a walking soap opera by my count

I think it's the only division where all four teams had their second quarterback start at least the game you would know about you I mean you've been crunching numbers all day so well my brain is on fire when I get in here at night and all those notes yeah a lot of notes

I will say this it's all those teams have probably looked back and said, fuck, if we could just be all together at the same time or healthy, like the Eagles today, so the Eagles starting the game today, if they have all their

DBs, I'm thinking to myself, that's the team with the best chance to win a playoff game out of this whole group. Including Washington. Yeah, because of the way, because just Jalen gave you this upstart energy, you don't have a lot of tape on him, that sort of thing. Today the turnover's got to and they still moved

the ball well. And the D.E. was just depleted. So that's why I had the Cowboys today was. Listen, the defense was depleted. You lost all your D.Bs. But whether it's Philly saying, man, if we'd have made the Jalen switch earlier, or if the D.Bs had stayed healthier, or it's Dallas saying if DAC hadn't gotten hurt. Or, you know, Danny Dimes missed a couple games and Colton actually did a good job. Washington, if we started Alex Smith earlier, we'll probably not even have this conversation. So it's been one of those divisions that none of the teams have figured it out for more than a week. or two at a time. How about the difference that game took when our boy Fletch got hurt? Big difference, man. That guy makes a huge, huge difference. God, he's so good.

He's so good. And he's, I don't think people understand that, like, Fletch's, Fletch got, like, cryogenically frozen from the 90s. Fletch is a 1998, all pro three technique.

I'm just telling you. Like, he, Bill Parcell's, it's his kind of guy, right? You know, and he's just so physical and it's cool in a league of, hey, Aaron Donald's super physical in his own way. But Fletch doesn't backdoor anything. Fletch plays everything pretty honest. And he's a power rusher.

I love his game. I hate the fact that we didn't see enough Fletch in meaningful football games this year. I do think Washington gets the win. And I think Washington has an outside chance with Alex Smith at the helm. winning a playoff game depending on who they play okay they play Seattle or something like that it doesn't look like that that would be what would happen they got a shot so if the NFC's team right now sliding in what are they four seed they get a home game four seed they get a home game and they probably see what five five so who's five as we speak highest wild card the highest wild card

is probably going to be Tampa Tampa yeah that's that's bad news but I will tell you this. You get them at home in the cold. I'll tell you this. Washington at home in the cold to your point and a team that can hit Tom Brady, you just never know, bro. I don't know what the line will be, but at least look hard at Washington because I'm just telling you

that would be the vintage game that Brady gets hit a lot early, and it stays close. Detroit was, listen, as much as I do believe that's indicative of like Brady still got it and that sort of thing, like when you don't hit Brady, Brady still got it too. I mean, so that's what

you got a you got a man Washington Tampa wouldn't be kind of interesting I'm not saying they'd win the game okay do you blame the browns for what happened today no it's an absolute shit show what happened to that team this week and I thought they were in a tough spot off of the loss to Baltimore to go to New York last week and beat the Giants on what was that Sunday night football yeah I thought they accomplished a big thing that I really um you know we were just talking about what to Wayne Haskins done in Washington, I really appreciate what Baker Mayfield did after the game, just taking the onus saying, I failed this team because that's a tough situation. I understand it's a terrible loss, but you've got to look at what that team went through and what they lost in the last 48 hours

and to try and redo that thing offensively when you have such good players, you know, like Landry and those guys. And, you know, I love Austin Hooper more than anybody. He's a Stanford tight end. but like he's the focal point of your past game now today. Who isn't a Stanford tight end? There's, you know, we got to.

Those guys are, they started it as before. I just ride, I'm riding coattails on that one. But no, I don't, it's, it's, it's the NFL, man. You know, it's happened. It's happened to the, you know, the Rams lost to the, the jets, and they go on and lose another division game today. So I still think Cleasland has everything to play for. And it is the Browns.

We've talked about. this on how much we want. So no, I do not blame the Browns. It is this league and it's, it's just unfortunate. Listen, the Jets have done things offensively that people don't realize because nobody's probably watching them. But I've said for over a month now that I've rather watched the Jets play than the Eagles. Eagles had like seven false starts again. I can't wait to get the Jets job, bro. Yeah. I can't wait. Maybe you can get by the end of the podcast. Maybe I can. Maybe we just have Joe Douglas call in. And just fucking give me the job.

And it's not, there's no vacancy yet. Yeah, that's the only thing is Joe would have to say yes to know right now. Right now. Right fucking now. Here's the thing that you're not realizing in people. I'm not saying you. People aren't realizing about the Browns game unless you're a Browns fan. And I am sorry if you're a Browns fan.

But I'm sure you were laughing at Denver six weeks ago and you had to watch Hinton play quarterback, the kid from Wake Forest, until it happens to you. And you know what? the NFL stuck true to it. Not that the Browns' wide receiving core is that high profile unit that was going to fuck up the playoffs, but the Browns being the playoffs is good for the NFL. And we wondered about the plausibility of this happening again when it happened to Denver and saying, okay, it sounds good, but like, well, they do this when it's a key playoff race type team

losing a key position group. And Cleveland had to play. And they did not play well, but it wasn't just that. I knew the Jets were competent stopping the run. I just didn't think they'd be this good. There was a point at the half where like Pittsburgh and Cleveland combined for like nine

yards rushing. That's fucking insane. You think about those two teams and even as bad as Pittsburgh's been as good as the Browns have been they didn't have Teller and they didn't have wills and the run game really suffered for it. So 18 carries 45 yards when

their fourth and attempts and third in yards eighth and touchdowns and six. and yards of attempt. This is their hallmark, and they couldn't run the ball, and that's the value of those two guys. And it also says something about the Jets saying, fuck, we know they're not,

like especially early, we're going to make them beat us throwing these guys that just got off the bus. And great job. Great job by the Jets. Now, the Browns, they got the Steelers week 17. And I think the Steelers win that game,

and unfortunately, I don't think the Browns getting the playoffs. That would hurt. I think that's how it's going to go, man. Now, as you just explained to me before we got on the Zoom was Buffalo's got the two seed pretty much locked up. They just can't lose out. Exactly. Yes. So here's the deal. If Buffalo wins Monday night, then you know you can't have the two seat if you're Pittsburgh. Are you in jeopardy of being the four seat? I don't think so. I'd have to look. But let's say

hypothetically, you're a coach and you're Mike Tomlin and you're not playing for. You're not playing or anything next Sunday. What's your strategy going to the playoffs, especially playing a team like Cleveland who's in your division, and you might gift them a playoff berth by trotting Mason Rudolph out there in the second half or resting a certain amount of guys?

Imagine that. Mason Rudolph is going to play against the Browns again? Right. Well, I'll tell you one thing. If I'm the Pittsburgh Steelers, I'll tell you who I don't want to see. And I'll tell you if it came down to Cleveland and Baltimore, I'd probably not want to see the team that ran for 300 yards against us.

You know, and I don't know. I don't know if it's going to come down to that. It also could be Miami. Like there's a bunch of shit that could happen. But it's an interesting hypothetical when you look at now there's no buy weeks. This team had no buy weeks,

the Steelers. That's what I was saying. If there's one team that wants to take a week off and then they just let the chips fall where they may in playoffs and say, hey, whatever happens, there's no fans like, we're going to go attack this thing. We've got to get our minds right. it's Pittsburgh and I think no coach will get you know criticized leased or you know less than if Mike Tyler wants to do that more power to him he's earned that right there's no doubt about

that absolutely be it'd be interesting if that came back to bite them because chances are you know if the brown slide in you never know you might seem in the playoffs and oh that that would make for a hell of a hell of a story letting those guys in somehow and then they beat you in the playoffs. I still think the Steelers win. Who deserves the Rams playoff spot, Steve? Because the Rams, the Rams.

Not anyone in the NFC East. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Oh, God, there are just not good options. The NFC, I mean, we just went through all the AFC possibilities, and you look at the NFC. Like today, Chris, in the local market,

at 4 o'clock today here in D.C. The two games were the Eagles and the Cowboys. A lot of offense in that game. And Washington and Carolina. And I'm just saying, I'm like, I'm like, yeah, but how about a team? But you had your choice.

You had your choice. Let me watch a team that's over 500. But you see what the NFC East gave to you. They gave you offense on one TV and they gave you defense on another TV. Six and eight versus four and ten. And five. Five and nine. Let me tell you,

let me tell you who I would put in the playoffs. Let's see. I would put the Atlanta Falcons in the playoffs. I'd put the Niners because I love George Kittle. I love George Kittal too, but how much can I love George Kittle if the quarterback is whoever it is any given week in San Francisco?

It could be our boy, C.J. Bethard. I mean, so I don't want to disrespect him. But the way the Falcons have been playing, I don't think anybody would want to see the Falcons in the playoffs right now. Niners are more feared than the Falcons. They probably are from a competency standpoint, but they also can just show up and look like dog shit. Kittles back, though, it's a totally different ballgame.

Exactly. But Jared Goff, Juergolf broke his thumb in the game today. Popped it right back in. I've never seen a hockey player pop their thumb back in. Boy, here we go. Now we're calling hockey players up. Well, I agree with who should get a fake playoff spot

and are you in football players in hockey players? We are over our time limit, I think. You know, it's our bit. Yeah, we are. It's 10.30. And I'm watching Packers Live Line plus nine and a half slip away. But the over is right where we want them.

33 to 14 right now to start the fourth quarter. And with that, I'm going to let Steve watch this snow game in peace and drift off into winter wonderland. Steve, appreciate it. It was a fun week of football. I mean, we got, would you do that? Would you do that every week? Would you put Saturday you can't because of college football? Friday you can't, I guess, because of high school football.

Never mind. But sometimes do you catch yourself in these holiday situations like we should do this every week? Saturday night football. Chris, I don't know what I would have done if there weren't those games on this past weekend after being home for the holidays with everything that's going on. Like I was counting down the minutes to those games. Yeah. had two TVs in the living room all weekend. And we needed it.

We'll just say that. So yes, I'm all for it. We got to stay home, more games. Best bowl game coming up this week. Let's take Miami against Oklahoma State. Wow. And I believe it's the Cheez-It Bowl. But yeah, let's take Miami.

ACC, go ACC. And we talked about what was happening at the end of the Raiders. Dolphins game because of the analytics people saying Jacobs should not have scored. And at the same exact time, Liberty is trying not to score against Coastal and drags to get in the Amazon and fumbles the ball in the one yard line. It was a fumble. I thought the call was right. And the crazy thing is you realized how many people had Liberty in that game because they were so irate on social media.

And I couldn't believe it because I thought coastal, everybody would buy in the coastal, this, that. And it was absolutely one of the most amazing things and endings I've ever seen in a game ever. Like, not just bowl season. Like that game was nuts. Like those two teams were supposed to play earlier this year. BYU, you know, Liberty has the COVID issues.

BYU flies over. Game day's there. They play coastal. And then they get to match it up with Liberty and Coastal. That game was phenomenal. Is that coastal coach? Is he like a badass? he's got a thing there's some good old boy

badass from oh yeah he's from Tennessee isn't he I believe so I kind of like that guy oh yeah he said he said have you see you've seen their post game celebrations in the locker room stuff I haven't maybe I'm gonna like him even more oh you're gonna you'll lose it he said if it if he loses somehow a coaching gig he told Scott on the show that he uh he always wants to have Vince McMahon

in his in his eyes for all the promotion he does You have to look up their post game celebrations. I know I had good instincts with that. The mullets and everything. No, he's, uh, coach is awesome, dude. He's not long for Coastal Carolina. He just signed an extension though. Did he?

So, yeah. How long? I want to say seven years. Oh, well, then he is long for Coastal Carolina. Yeah, they all those coaches are good with their, with their agents on opt-outs and get out. You know that. Yeah, especially down.

Extension doesn't mean a hurdle like he used to do. Wherever the fuck that school is, he can get. They like to say Conway. They don't like. say Myrtle Beach. Yeah, well, I like to say Myrtle Beach. I've got a time share down there. Yeah, so that'll be.

You still have that one, huh? Yeah, I still got that. Rod Carrecker. Yeah, I was so worn out from the Dolphins game, and I had Liberty plus seven and a half that I realized that they couldn't possibly not cover even with overtime, so I just turned it off. But if it went to three turnt overtimes, you could not have covered because you have to go for two in a third overtime.

Oh, yeah. Well, I left that to chance. and I went to bed and I collected. I appreciate your loving to go to bed early. I really do. I love it. It's because we're working hard on Sunday night. Steve, thank you so much.

We'll see you next week. And happy New Year. We're almost there. Will I talk to you before the New Year? Yes. Okay, cool. We'll do the gambling show. Absolutely.

All right, buddy. Thanks. Thanks, bro. See you. squat you around