Green Light with Chris Long - NFL Wild Card Recap with ESPN's Stanford Steve. Browns/Steelers, Ohio State/Alabama with James Laurinaitis.

Episode Date: January 11, 2021

(01:06) - Welcome. (02:08) - Chris and Steve Recap Saturday's NFL Wild Card Games. (46:51) - Chris and Steve Recap Sunday's NFL Wild Card Games. (1:02:59) - James Laurinaitis on Browns vs Steelers and Ohio State vs Alabama. 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

Jimmy Graham! Let's go! I love the Bears. He can't kick the extra point? Doesn't matter, because I bought up to 14.5. Look at his catch! Oh! Two teasers. Alive, baby.

We're alive. We're kicking. Here we go, Steelers. Here we go. Happy Monday morning. I got a super wildcar weekend hangover. not just because it was fun at times, but also because it was like 20 hours of football.

So we got to get right into it. We got a lot to talk about. We're going to hit all the games this weekend. I'm going to have Stanford Steve on to do that. And on tail end, Stanford Steve, myself, are going to be joined by a special guest, James Laronitis, my old teammate, one of my favorites. Great football mind.

And not only does he live in Columbus, so he got to feel this whole, Brown's experience all over the place in his hometown. But we've got a big college football game coming up tonight. Let's not forget National Championship, Ohio State, Bama. We'll see if James thinks the Buckeyes have a fighting chance and kind of shoot the shit. I haven't talked to James in a while on this podcast, so it'll be great to have him on. So Stanford Steve now, James on tail end. Enjoy. All right, Steve, I'm, I'm pretty beat, man. I'll just say that. It's, I mean, I worked all weekend and it is pretty, I don't, impressive's not the right word.

I would say, oh, man, the endurance factor that the super wild card round brought to people is, is astounding. You nailed it last week when you said the two four o'clock games were your perfect nap time games. Yeah, I should have taken a nap. You could have taken a nap after the pick six by the Rams. And yesterday in New Orleans, like, oh, my Lord. Like, you can have that. I mean, I know we're going to talk about New Orleans moving forward. But like, it's just that knowing the anticipation that all of the die-hard fans of the sport knowing how they're probably rooting for Cleveland, knowing what Cleveland has that stake.

You're just waiting and waiting and waiting. And then the whole idea of Mitchell going 99.9 yard, like, you couldn't have a longer drive in the history of the NFL. Hey, listen. Oh, my God. Spoiler alert, that was the one positive about my weekend. I'll tell you about it when we get to the Bears game. But I agree with you, like, you can have those two games back.

I wish they were one o'clock so I could nap because they're not like waking up after a nap and it's dark outside. Total mind fuck for me, not going to sleep at night. If it weren't for me doing this job for a living, no chance I'm watching those games. And I tweeted last night and I was half joking. This is a job for you? Yes, sort of. I tell my lovely wife it is. So like after, you know, I think before the Pittsburgh game, I tweeted something in fact of,

I don't know if I like football enough to do this. every year. And I was half joking, but if you consider what you do on a Sunday, you come and you go, you watch your favorite team, you go grab a bite to eat, you hang out with the kids, you maybe don't watch Sunday night, you have the luxury of choosing. You don't have the luxury of choosing. These are playoff football games. We just saw guys play 256 games in a pandemic. I felt like I had to watch it and it's nine hours, 10 hours each day, two days in a row. That's exhausting. And I couldn't sleep last night. It was like my brain was just fried from all the football. Well, here's a couple things is I've welcome, welcome to the business, first of all, okay? Because now since

since we've got the permanent NFL game on Thursday night, right? You know, other companies have tried to move a league or two in college football to Friday night. And there's been good Friday night games. So that gives you Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday. We all know how, you know, college football is a longer day than NFL football. And now this NFL thing with the way Sunday night has gone and the effect Sunday night games have had. We talked about last week, the Philly game. We talked about the week before. Aaron Rogers basically winning the MVP because he played great in a beautiful snow game. But like Sunday night football has been unbelievable. And you rewind us this past Saturday night.

you know, with the high-and-key factor and that game and Brady going up against that to try and advance and doing what that's what they needed in Tampa. It is an absolute marathon. And what really, I think, made it longer was people were so excited. And Saturday went from game and Bill's Colts ends, kickoff in Seattle. There was no break. And then yesterday, our lull. after Baltimore, Tennessee, and I think that really lowed people because we all didn't want to face it. We all hope for the best for Drew Brees and that Saints offense, but I am so tired of watching that offense. It's not even funny. So that definitely elongated things.

And then what could possibly happen to make it longer? The underdog takes in a monster lead in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh makes a fight out of it. Like you knew it was coming. It was 10 o'clock in the first quarter. Yeah. And it was the classic game. And by the way, for those of you listening, as I alluded to earlier,

we have a special guest for all things, Ohio football and Ohio State football. Coming on in a bit, James Laronitis, we're going to save all Cleveland talk for him. But I know all three of us are excited about the Natty later tonight. My old teammate, we'll talk a little bit of Rams. We'll talk a little bit of Cleveland. And, you know, he's a Columbus guy now. He lives in Columbus with his lovely family. So, yeah, it was, that game was the classic.

hate watch. It was just like once it got down, you know, I should have gone to bed, but I stayed up. I stayed up for the entire game. We just got teased and teased and teased with a comeback. And I thought one of the biggest travesties about that game, and the entire

weekend. I'll give the game, or the weekend, rather, an incomplete grade because I don't know what it's like to watch all those games in front of fans, like the atmosphere that fans brought. When I turned on the TV, to watch Buffalo indie,

which we're going to get into here first and the second, there were fans in the stands. I mean, it wasn't a ton, but it felt like, oh my God, it's sports. Like, people give a shit about this,

and there's an atmosphere here. What it would have been like full. Good Lord. Oh, my God. But it still, it was a nice little atmosphere. And I think that, you know,

we got robbed of seeing Cleveland do that in front of a full house of Steelers fans, which people say, who gives a shit? They're on the road. that experience of winning on the road in the NFL in the playoffs is I only got to do it one time right because our Super Bowl run we were we were the number one seat and then the next year when we when we had the double-doin throw ride there pretty good one to have in

your hip pocket there listen that atmosphere was so fucking live and when you play on the road and you find a way to win it's more rewarding than winning at home because because of that silence. Forever. No matter what level. Little League Baseball, the whole thing. There's nothing better than winning on the road. There's nothing better than, you know, if I'm watching a game and I'm pulling for a team

and the cameras panning around at the shocked faces, the surrender cobras, you know, the people crying into their terrible towels. It would have been last night. And Baker running up and down the field, you know, winding his arm around like, you know, in a circle and the yelling. I mean, that's what winning on the road is about in the NFL or in any level of football or sports. And we got robbed of that a little bit and the atmospheres for the home team. So Buffalo Indy right off the bat, one of the best games of the weekend.

And that's not saying much in my opinion, not to shit on the entire slate. But very entertaining. Absolutely. It had everything. From the jump, you saw the Colts come out and do what they need to do, move the football. I thought there were a couple huge key drops, a couple by Jonathan Taylor, who is still trying to involve his game. We know he's in Wisconsin running back,

but he's shown he could catch the ball. I thought he dropped a couple monster passes that would have moved the change, and it got him in the open field, and you never know what happens when he does that. But, you know, everybody wants to point to the going forward on fourth down by Frank Reich, because, you know, everybody's momentum switched on that one.

I don't hate that at all. I like that. We can talk about the third down call. Saw it before that. You saw with six minutes left when Indy gets the ball, they pan to Josh Allen after he, I mean, Darius Leonard stood him up. Oh, that was worth the price of admission right there. Oh, my Lord.

And he's giving up, he's giving up like 30 pounds of that guy. And of course, Josh didn't go down because he's an absolute maniac. But Darius stood still wide open in the middle of the hash is third and eight. He's two yards from the sticks and that's a collision. And you see. It was just, I mean, that game, all the pad noise and snorting and man noises, I don't know what it was, but it was just amplified. They need to do the Madden sound effects off that game.

And also the Baltimore, Tennessee game had some pretty nice sound effects too. AFC football, early AFC football. Hey, dude, I'm so with you. The Taylor drops were big, you know, and that hit was, like you said, just the magnitude of not just the collision, but the skill of those two players, the size of those two players. And Leonard's only 215.

They made a point to say it, but he's long and he plays like he's 250. And it's so funny to me, what was probably going through those two guys' heads as they're approaching each other? They're naked out there in the middle of the field. Like all the eyes in the football universe are on those two guys.

And they're like, in a moment's notice, we're all thinking, oh, what a bonus. We could see these guys in the, in the open field. I'll tell you what made that moment is both guys wanted that. Yes, they do. You don't see that. You don't see it, especially out of that position with the guy at the ball in his hands.

And what makes him so awesome and different. But that was, that was huge. But right after that play, they panned the Josh Allen on the sidelines and he drops the F-bomb. You could see the frustration because the Colts did everything they were supposed to do. They had awesome field position. And Josh's drives, I mean, they were, I don't think he's, started outside the 20-yard line in the whole first half. The average start for them was their own eight.

And if it weren't for Josh using his legs, 54 yards on 11 carries on the day, they're cooked in the first half because to your point, the Colts were rolling. They were playing like all three-phase football. From the beginning, it was like if they didn't have midfield field position, they found a way to get that one chunk play to start

and get those guys on their heels. You know, Alan making plays off script early, throws on the run to Davis, you know, on the sideline. Davis has been just a stud on the sideline all year long, pumping people off their feet, throwing touchdowns on, I think, design run plays. Have we figured out if that was a design run or what? Yeah, see, I disagreed.

I disagreed with that broadcast. I think that was just an over-extended jump pass. Jump pass. It just got money. And he was just waiting and waiting. And then, of course, he waits too long, but he's so strong that he just shovels it. out there because

on on at some point on a design quarterback run guys are going down field whether it's a zone scheme and you're going to the next level to get the linebacker that's you know arcing outside right at some point but those guys all held the whole old line held firm he's running to me that was a pass the whole time

he's running into the right tackle two yards in the backfield it looked like sprint right or something or some sort of yeah and you know what the old linemen are doing there I mean they're just sitting on there holding on for dear life come on throw the ball, man. But you're right. The Colts came up short on drives, man.

Like they won time of possession. They were terrific on third down, 9 of 17. They stayed in third and manageable all game long. All game long. You know, like it was just like perpetually third and five. But they came up two of five in the red zone. I mean, there were 6.2 yards per play. They were balling out.

But it was just a matter of, you know, them not being able to capitalize and Josh being able to make plays with his feet. and the huge, huge moment that we alluded to earlier that people were talking about was Frank Reich going for it on fourth down. I have no problem with it. I've said this all along. You have to score with the bills. You have to score with them. You can't settle for field goals. You have to be opportunistic.

People had an issue with the third down call in the toss. Jeff Schwartz made a great point about it. Toss is the right play against man. It was just the fact that they sent somebody in motion and he didn't go. I think they switched. And then, you know, they toss and they got one extra man over there. So you couldn't have foreseen that. I got no problem with it.

Really, that doesn't burn them so bad. If Tarray doesn't jump off sides on fourth and three and extend that drive and turn it into a touchdown. I mean, that's the story of the weekend to me, Chris, guys jumping off. Yeah, I mean, we're going to talk about the Bears game. I don't really want to talk about the Bears game. Yeah, I know.

Eddie Jackson Jump, Washington. But there's this analyst on CBS now. Kyle Long, I think his name is. He made a good point about the, the third down call by Reich. Like if you're going to run it and he said the same thing, tosses a good play against man, blah, blah, blah, but if you're going to run it, go behind 56, please.

Yeah, I mean, just run behind 56. That's the whole thing and we'll get to, you know, like, Vrabel in a bit, but like, hey, him not going for it on fourth and two, whatever, but how about the play before if you're not, you know, giving the ball to your stud who just repped off an eight-yard run? I mean, there's always going to be that, give the ball to your best player angle and run behind your best offensive line angle,

but I don't think anybody saw the toss coming. I certainly didn't have that drawn up. And it was probably not as bad a call as people are. Now, the second half going for two, I didn't love that. I'm not a huge fan of in that situation just playing the numbers. I think it's kind of ignoring the context of the game. A couple things to me that were enormous were you saw on the drive that ended with the doink, miss field goal.

Rivers made a couple throws like he threw Trey Burton open once on a deep out that was awesome but the play before the miss field goal he has Pittman wide open on a slant on a third and four to move the change it's going to be like first and goal I want to say

from the six and he is the worst throw of the day and that's the thing and he just drills them in the chest right there you got first down now you got your whole playbook and you got you talk about momentum now you're bleeding clock and you got a chance to score. touchdown. You mentioned that you mentioned that miss. Blankenship makes the field goal in the second

half. Nobody's talking about they're driving for the win late. I mean, they'd still be talking about the fourth down decision, but they're essentially driving for the win late. You talked about bad throws by Phil. He had his share. The worst one for your boy here was missing Pittman in the corner of the end zone. I had Pittman 9 to 1, 100 yards in a touchdown. Didn't have 100 yards. I don't think all year. I just had a feeling. Ends up with 91, basically in the first half. That ball off his hands there was a killer for your boy. And I just want to mention this, Darrell Williams,

who made a great point before the game. I disagree with him that if Josh Allen doesn't win the MVP, it's rigged. Aaron Rogers is the MVP. It's just the wrong year to be great, in my opinion. But when you think about Josh Allen, Josh Allen doesn't have, I mean, he's got Stefan Diggs.

The big difference is he doesn't have Aaron. Jones. So I would say like Josh with his legs because he is their run game when they get in trouble and they're going to be in trouble in the run game department next week, maybe a little bit with Moss getting carded off. He does so much for them. There is an argument to be made

but Darrell Williams who I just mentioned making that point, the fumble recovery when Josh relapsed and went back to old Josh at midfield, 27, 24, 340 to go play the game. Fumble if they win a Super Bowl, that's the fumble recovery, the most important offensive linemen diving on a football in recent history. Definitely in

Buffalo Bill's history because the Colts ran out of time. That was it. I mean, they ran out of time. And we can talk about that call, actually. Let's talk about that Paskill call. It's got, I mean, I've been looking all weekend. It's got to be up there for longest replay decision ever in a playoff game. For no reason. Oh, my Lord. But they buffalo wild wings it. I said, can somebody Buffalo Wild Wings this shit? Because we're all robbed.

I mean, this was like a classic. I mean, this was like for the first game of Super Wildcar weekend, I was like, oh my gosh, they're killing it with this. And then for him to get up and pour you to come in and punch the ball out, to me, it was clearly a fumble. So I don't know what they're looking at. I mean, you could see where his hand hits his back. Yeah.

But there's space in it on the. other angle where you, where it looked, you know, one angle from straight behind, it does look like the hands on his back. And when you look to the side, it's not. It's just like the catch by Sims in the end zone for Washington, for the cover. Like, I don't know how they didn't overturn that one. But going back to the fumble, what was really eye-opening to me and showed how good McDermott is, is after that fumble, Chris, you know the stakes there.

They got to get some kind of yardage. And I thought there was 26 seconds left, no timeouts. Indy's got to use the middle. That's your only time to use the middle of the field on first down. Yeah. You have to do that. And I don't care if you spike it on second down. Yeah.

And then you run one more play. But you have, that's your only chance. And what McDermott did in defending a team, we see it all the time in this sport. And that's why this was so impressive to me is that no timeouts, okay? You know they just need yardage. They didn't get one yard. They took away the sidelines. they, you know, bracketed everything.

I mean, it was genius. I hated that sequence for the Colts. It's like what. I really thought Buffalo, you know, we talk about situational football all the time and, you know, special cat and things you do in practice. That was really, really detailed defense to me by Buffalo. And it just, it's one of those things that might get overlooked down the road. But I thought it was damn impressive because if you give up, if you give up six yards,

seven yards, now it's inside 50 or 60 yards. 55, 55, 50. 57 yards. You do never know. And I thought that was, to your point, you know, Steve's calling it special categories or whatever you want to call it like when you're practicing, you know, you do end of game, end of half, you know, midfield end of game, defend the sidelines, like third and extremely long. These are the situations that, to Steve's point, like, McDermott is a great football coach, you know, by my judgment so far. And they've done such a nice job, a good, honest build.

and the defense is coming back around that we were like shitting on the first half of the year. The linebackers are healthy. Edmunds made some great plays on that last drive. That guy. He's awesome. I think he's like 20 years old too.

He's so young, dude. Like he's... And when they drafted him, I was like, there's no way he's a backer. Yeah. And then you just, you're like, as soon as the camera pans, like, they break a huddle or whatever,

you're like, all right, who's that guy? Yeah. So what are we doing with Rivers? That's the big question next year. You got easing under contract. That's it. River seems to want to play in 21. But consider, they had the easiest schedule in the league.

And, you know, they were good passing the football, but not great. I mean, considering everything. So what do you do? To me, I put all three guys. And it was the last stand guys for me this weekend, Chris. And it's breeze. It's Rathosberger and it's Rivers. And, you know, they've all been around for about the same period of time.

and I just think they limit you, man. They limit you and so much we do. I know we're going to talk Pittsburgh, but like they don't even have a threat of a run game anymore. New Orleans, you could say what you want, but like even, you know, with the ribs issue, but I still think there's an arm issue with Drew and extending the field because now he has Michael back.

Jared Cook seems like their deep threat. But with the Coltsman, I like a lot of those pieces. He's not like Pittman, awesome sign. You know, draft pick this year. Pascal's a do-it-all guy. Ty-Y still, I think you can't use him in a way that he scares people because you can't throw over the top. Right.

And that's where that's, I mean, that's where TY made is living with Andrew Luck. So to me, I think it's time, man. I know, you know, things got emotional in Pittsburgh last night, but I just, I just think these teams are limiting themselves. And then I, you know, I'm not a big salary cap guy, but I can imagine what those salary cap hits. I know Rivers was one year, 25 million or whatever, but like, you know, book it Ben and, and, you know, Drew already said he's done. But I just, I think you have so much youth on that team.

You look at the defense led by Leonard on how awesome he is. You got Jonathan Taylor. You got pieces. And I just feel like you need somebody that's going to accentuate all those pieces and make you that much more feared. And how many true Pocket passers are there in the league right now? Like True just sit in the pocket and throw the ball.

It's only the older dudes, of which there were like five, six this weekend. And by the way, the funniest shit in the world is Baker is the oldest quarterback in the AFC left. So I mean, you know, it's just, I think these guys are going by the wayside. They've had tremendous runs.

The game's changing a little bit. So like if you're going to be just a pocket passer, you have to be exceptionally effective right now in this game. And, you know, I would agree with you. I think it's run its course. And really a great year for them, a great year. But they know they left some things on the field. You mentioned the Pittman third down.

You know, if you're a pocket passer who's older and you're on a one year, you've got to hit the throws. Yeah. You know, so. That's a big part of it. Let's talk quarterback controversy because I think in Seattle or in L.A. rather the Seattle, L.A. game is what we're going to dive into now, but I think there is a bit of a controversy there, and I'll tell you why. You know, if they knew that golf was that competent

throwing the ball, I'm not saying he was good, but it didn't look a lot worse than golf a couple weeks ago. I know he had thumb surgery at this point two weeks ago, 12 days ago as of the game. somebody made a great point about this and it's something you think about because play action is so prominent in what they do. Him under center taking snaps was a real worry, in my opinion.

There was plenty of reason to sit him if you thought he couldn't physically throw the football but he could throw the football a little bit. So I think they just went with Walford. I really do think they just went with Walford. I didn't know what to make of it.

I ended up driving in the work at the end of the one o'clock game. So I'm sitting there and I'm watching, you know, during the review of the, of the Buffalo fumble, the Colts fumble, I was, I saw videos of golf throwing a ball 60 yards, 50 yards, 40 yards in pregame in Seattle. So I'm like, huh, I'm like, oh, wow, they're, they're going to, they're going to go with them. And then all of a sudden I get in the car and they're talking about the Rams first drive and Wolford's under center.

I'm like, what the heck is going on? So to your point, yeah, I think they just said, it was moving the ball. I think they said at this point, hey, we're going with the guy we think gives us a better chance to win when things break down. And I wonder what the implications are there. And I wonder what the implications are going to be next week. We'll talk about that later. But, I mean, it's just one of those things now where Jared Goff, if he can make a run, golly, he's pretty mentally tough. I've always respected him as being tough and mentally tough.

you know we can talk about his skill level his decision making being prone to turn the ball over i mean he's a tough kid and you know you could tell he was uncomfortable grabbing his towel a lot uh you know keeping his you know his hands nice and drag is it's hard to grab i got a really bad thumb i drop things all the time it's fused i you know i literally dropping cartons of milk you know whatever around the house it really i could only imagine being a quarterback off thumb surgery so for him to come out there and play just well enough. The 45-yard bomb the cup was huge.

Right over Jamal Adams. The dump off to Acres. Yeah, and Acres was huge for them. I mean, the way their play action is, or would be right now with Cam Acres, if golf was healthy, healthy, and again, I'm kind of double-talking here because maybe he's not as unhealthy as we think,

and they were just playing this up to put the guy in that they wanted to. or if they just had serviceable quarterback play, they're a fucking Super Bowl team kind of. Yeah, no doubt. The run game's going, the defense is great. And, you know, again, we'll see you this weekend, but the Walford hit, Jamal Adams,

that wasn't a dirty hit, in my opinion. It maybe could have been flagged, but my thing is if you're running with the ball out in the open field, fucking slide or get tackled like everybody else. I just, I don't know how, like, do we think like somebody has a button on these defensive guys that's going to make him like pause like you know like we're playing freestag or something like at some point these guys are holding I mean he tries to turn to with the shoulder like I don't know and you saw him tap

you know dab each other up when Wolford's going off the field like he knew yeah no you know Wolfer wasn't worried about it Wolfer wasn't worried about it Jamal Adams not a dirty player and and listen I mean I was worried about him because he'd grab him the front of his neck I mean, that's a little scary. I don't know what that was. So I'm glad he's okay, but it's one of those things where I just don't feel like if we're going to have more athletic quarterbacks in this game

and quarterbacks are going to be tucking the ball and running, whether it's Heineckee or Wofford or Lamar Jackson or these are runners now. You know, so if you strip the, you know, the logos off the uniforms, you could only see the outlines of two helmets. Usually the helmet that's going lower first is the offensive player. And so defensive players have to adjust. Darius Williams, three picks now against the Hawks this year. And Russ forcing that ball to decay after that sideline deal,

I thought it was a forced touch. No doubt about it. It was. Like, hey, okay, we'll get you a touch. Here you go. You happy now? You're happy now? That killed him.

That killed him. And it also killed the under. I had the under 56 different ways. So. I'm there with you. So, yeah. Russ just seems to struggle without play action. I think we know that now.

I mean, he's one of the generation's greatest quarterbacks, but he still needs play action to be the best Russ. And so does Tom Brady. But Russ even more so just seems to, and the Rams always get after him up there, back from like when we were there. I mean, like we used to free money on Russ. It is crazy how different he looks

against every other team in the league, Chris, in that D-line. Yeah. It's amazing. I just, and, you know, we've talked about the D.K. And, you know, we've talked about the D.K. and Jalen Ramsey thing. We talked about the effect of 99. I still haven't seen anything about him.

Like, I hope he's all right. Yeah. I think he's good. I think he's good. That's my inclination. But that, I mean, I didn't go back and watch it yet. But to me, start going with Wolford, it almost made me feel like I want to go back and see what Seattle came out in because it's almost like McVeigh was like, all right, we're going to go with

Walford here because we're going to scheme him up in the run game because if they don't account for him, then we're going to use him as the run game. And then we go up 7-0 and then we got this right exactly where we want. Right. You know? And then what do you know? They go down the field. He gets hurt. They only get a field goal. But the precedent was set, I think, and I don't know what it is, man. I guess it's that division thing. But I think it's division, but I think it's also Guys that can rush with power and speed. They have all those guys. Like if you're just a speed rush team and, you know, your ends run the hump at 10 yards,

Russ is going to every time climb, move to the right, to the left, find that, you know, stack the end, the rusher on the edge. And use that to when plays break down, throw a floater to D.K. Which, by the way, DK with his, you know, big catch and run for a touchdown, there was almost another bomb that hit as well. And Aaron, along with his two sacks and like back-to-back plays, also negated a touchdown with that pressure. So he's so valuable.

But I just like, when you can rush him with power and speed across the board, because all those guys can do all those things. Like Leonard Floyd has come on great. What a year. What a year for him. I really liked him in Chicago. I couldn't. And it also goes to show you like,

sometimes I think people overrate rushing opposite somebody. Well, why wouldn't Leonard Floyd go for 10? He's rushing opposite Khalil Mack. It doesn't necessarily always work that way. So good for him. And the trend continues with Russ. The defense in Seattle, though, deserves a ton of blame. In that game, if I'm a defense and you're playing a backup quarterback, an arena football league guy,

and you own this team anyways with their starter, like the points are going to be down. I am looking at that defense and saying, okay, you flip the identity. Jamal Adams says you're the best defense elite. you bring Carlos Dunlap, you're a different team. Prove it. Fucking prove it. Do you just, like, do you need the 12s? Like, is that the only way you're dominant in the postseason on defense?

Because, you know, to, now I know the pick six didn't help and the offense wasn't great, but you have to strain and dominate that team. And turns out Seattle was kind of a, was kind of a mirage the entire year. Yeah, I mean, I believe all the stuff at the beginning with Russ. I thought it was different. They looked different. D.K. looked like he was ready to take that next step. But, you know, you mentioned it.

You say all this stuff. Go out and do it. You're at home. You're the better team. You just beat the team two weeks ago with a healthy quarterback. But I thought it was really, really telling. And you mentioned golf with the mental toughness. Him mentioning after the game, hey, you saw those guys.

lighting up cigars because they won a division two weeks ago. Kind of quietly, like, not making a big deal about it. They didn't forget about that, man. And then Aaron Donald said to, I forgot who, I think it was an ESPN reporter last week. And they were like, all right, so you know you're going to be going up to Seattle. And he just looked right in the camera. He said, yeah, that's what we want it.

Yeah. And I'm like, no, and that's, you said it. You said it. A little scarier when AD says it, like, when Aaron looks you. Yeah. But,

but like the special teams took a turn to the, the punch out on the return. there, Ebukam with the punchout, turnover, late. It's over at that point. So, like, Pete can certainly lay blame on the offense. He kind of backed the bus up over them, but that's your defense. And your defense didn't perform, and now you don't have a ton of cap room. You don't have a ton of draft picks.

And, you know, I wonder at what point does Pete get off easy for losses like this. Do we look at him and say, what if Malcolm Butler, you know, doesn't jump it. What if Malcolm Butler doesn't pick that ball off? You got two Super Bowls, I know, but every other run they've had has had a moment of disappointment, I feel like. They sometimes they just lay eggs.

Reggie Bush now in the field at USC against Texas, going for it on fourth down. Go back and look. Pete's had some rough ones, man. Yeah, he's had some rough ones. There's some really rough ones. Anyways, let's get to Tampa and Washington. And coming in this game,

I just felt like looking at it, and I was on Washington, is one of the few bets I won this weekend. Since 2007 and eight win teams have been just fine in the playoffs. 2004, two teams won, 06 Saints. They lost close to the Eagles, 08, San Diego, was 4 and 8, won 4 straight, and then beat Peyton Manning in the playoffs, if you remember that. 2010, Beastquake, everybody knows that.

Tebow, over the Steelers in 2011. That's one of those remember where you were when that happened. Where were you exactly? I was in Scottsdale, Arizona because it was right before Oregon-Auburn National Championship. It was a Saturday before. I was in New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl with A.J. Feeley and my buddy Tom Santee, and I was waking up from a drunk nap, turn the game on first play I saw Demarius Thomas. So, I mean, Bruce Aaron's even lost a seven-win team, but they have.

had, they lost the cam and they had Carolina. Linley. Yeah. So there's an asterisk there. First thing, can we give Bruce Ariens back his face shield? What was that? You, I couldn't stop laughing at your tweet when you said there's no way that could be him. It can't be.

And then, because then I started thinking, I'm like, if that could be Bruce Ariens, the Browns could definitely hide Stefansky on the sideline. Like, we got wool hats. We're in Pittsburgh, like Parker's. You could definitely hide Stefansky if they really wanted to. I felt like I saw his sideburns. I've never seen his sideburns before. I don't know how he looks so different.

Yeah. And the hair out of the back of the neck. I don't know. I mean, Rissillo had the tweet earlier in the year when he went with the Mandalorian. Oh, the Mandalorian. I thought that was a great Rissillo tweet, by the way. I thought it was a great Riscilla tweet. So it's just, and then, you know, our guy, Big Cat's coming out.

Hey, Bruce, maybe you want to make the glasses smaller. the mass bigger. Like it just had everything. Hey, quick tease real, because you mentioned those two guys. We're going to be, us three are going to be popping on green light this Wednesday. It's going to be electric. We're going to be doing, yeah, I'm excited about this one. We're going to be, we're going to be acting as if we're college.

Are you revisiting confidence in quarterbacks? No, we're not. No, I wonder how we did there. But I, well, Foles is, I don't know, Foles didn't make it. Well, here's the fucking, I come. I come on that show, I can never tell if it's going to be a bit or not. Like, I always text Dan and I'm like, so what are we doing today? Like, and my brain is buzzing thinking about like how he might, they might fuck with me.

It might be one big dick joke or one big like, you know, marijuana joke. But they literally were trying to. Yeah. Well, they tried to rank quarterbacks. And the first pick, E, which I didn't know I'm not supposed to call me, a bunch of the, the tape. I heard that slip. It's not a slip. What is that?

Like when you're in a play and you call somebody in the play, the real name and everybody freaks out, like is that breaking character? Is that what they were mad about? It's a slip. That's what I call. I call him Eric. I know you don't.

I call him Eric. But he drafted Nick Falls first. And I look at Dan and I'm like, dude, Dan, I thought you told me this was a serious fucking show I'm on today. He goes, no, serious. I don't know what he's doing. I don't know what he's doing. So they can't even make up their mind.

Wednesday, we're going to draft college coaches that remind us. the most of each other. College football coaches. So basically who is Ryan Rissillo in college football? Who is Dan in college football? So that's a little tease, a look ahead for people here. The boys are back together and we're going to be doing a pod. So check that out Wednesday.

The game, okay? Let's start with Heineke. He did look great. I thought he gave him a better chance to win. A lot of people were panicking if you were on Washington's side. No doubt. And that proved to be true. I mean third and five in the red zone,

Ducks under JPP beats Levanté David to the pylon. That's his iconic play. I mean, saw him pump guys off their feet, saw him make some really nice throws too. Right after that pump play, he hits a third and eight off his back foot, outside the numbers.

The touchdown to get him within five was huge, his best ball of the night. So a lot of good things for this guy. A lot of good things. They end up over midfield with 2.30 to go down eight before the Levante David sack, and the McKissick drop is what killed him. But that's a game.

It was the weirdest game because in your brain you were like, they can't win this game, but it was never out of reach. No, no. And I say it because I can't believe it. But watching that game, I thought to my Washington lost this game because of their defense. Absolutely. They could not get a stop when they needed one. Whether it was after a turnover early, they got the turnover, you know, late.

And that's what showed the Heineke run. I still think he got hurt on the touchdown run. If you go back and look, he is fully extended with the ball, touches the pile on. All five foot 11 of them. Yeah. And then he lands hard on that, on that AC on the left shoulder. And anybody's ahead of AC.

Yeah. God, I don't know. I mean, him hanging in there and knowing that guys are coming for him and still trying to make throws was absolutely incredible. The blind throws. Like I just thought I thought of like, you know, back in the day with Doug Flutty. Like I really think that's why Flutty struggled in his early times in the league

because he couldn't make the blind. Russell Wilson does it all the time. As these guys just throw, all right, hey, I know I got, you know, five coming week. I got to throw this, you know, eight yard out to extend the drive, but it's going to be blind because these guys are going to have their hands up. And I'm just thrown to a spot. Yeah. He did it on the corner route to Sims late, which, you know, we talked about,

which I thought was a babble, but, you know, they end up not overturning. And that's a touchdown. but the things he did, you always talk about a gamer, right? Like, you know, you want a gamer. McCloren says after the game, he'll take him on his team any day of the week the way he played. To me, it's the maturation process. And how does a guy, everybody's happy he got an opportunity? But the guy hung around the league for six years.

Yeah, he's got experience. He's got experience. You look up and you're like, oh, shit, this guy's almost 30. I thought, like, you know, the way they were making it sound, he was like 23. member of the St. Louis Battlehawks. Also, after the game, him standing with Brady, to my point earlier,

I had no idea. Standing with or, oh, did you see him trying to track them down? Yeah, to dab them up. To dab them up. And Tom, Tom shook hands there, so he must really respect Heineke. Also, very,

very on brand letting somebody storm the Capitol like that, telling Washington's defense to just storm the Capitol for a MAGA guy there by Heineke. I just had to get that in there. but he was very he was very good he gave him a chance to win uh Brady though to your point was the reason they won this game and for all the people that said Brady was washed all the people riding the first take wave all the performance artists this year that every time Brady loses a game because you don't like him okay I get why you might not like him uh but he's still balling dude the Mike Evans throw that gave him three now they did they dried up in the red zone a lot but at the end of the game to my point that took the pressure off the defense, and they were able to really heat Heineke up

and play that two-minute drill a little bit different. Brady won that game. He was awesome. They hadn't beaten a top 10 DVOA team all year. They did it for the people who are into those metrics. Play action was great. They looked more like a Brady team. A lot of play action. Like I said, the Crossers Godwin with Darby behind him.

I mean, that's where he makes his money. So they're starting to look more like a team that Brady can win with in the postseason. This was a big test. You said they couldn't beat a good defense. Well, they torched them. And at the end of the game, I'm thinking to myself, if Heineke leads them to game-tying driving, they win in overtime 37-31,

the performance artists will still fucking shit on Brady on Monday as if it was his fault when it's the Tampa defense that didn't really show up in spots to me. And that's the part that I'm concerned about down the road. What Tampa defense shows up for them week to week, all the Chase Young talk and listen I'm a big Chase Young fan

I'm a fan of that D-Line I've said it all year Brady cooked him I mean you know that's the best quarterbacking game against that Washington defense all year and he didn't rush

you might have thought Tom was going to get the ball out quick you know what Tom did he actually snapped to release was one of his slower times all year he was 2.7 and some change all year he's 2.5 on the on the nose so play action holding the ball back there uh they blocked those guys up well gronk blocked his ass off i mean you're talking it's block on the goal line

for a touchdown run oh my lord um yeah i thought they did a good job mixing up protections but yeah i mean Tampa did what they wanted for most part of the night and that's what i couldn't believe like i you know i said i was looking more at the matchup of the tampa defense because I thought they were going to need to lean on them to win more. But Tampa O line, man, wow. I mean, running the ball, mixing up protections, keeping Tom, you know, Tom's jersey clean, really, really impressive. And yeah, I have plenty of thoughts of that game next week in New Orleans.

But you got to feel good about Tampa because, I mean, Godwin played his worst game of the year. There's huge drops he had. Right. And that's a, that's almost, I mean, he makes a couple of those early catches. That's a, that's a double digit game. Yes. For most of the game.

Yes. You know. Yeah. So that's, Tampa, Tampa pumped to get the win. I know it's been a long time. You know, you talk about having all the pressure on you. You talk about Washington playing with house money. You have all that.

And you've got to go to their place. Like that's not supposed to be. Yeah, that was a really tough spot. All the things I just mentioned is like seven and eight win teams are nothing to sneeze. that in the playoffs. This is just like if it's week 17 and you're playing an eight-win team, you know, that line is always going to be inside a touchdown.

I mean, it's just December, January football. It extends into the playoffs and things get even louder. As for the future of, you know, the Washington quarterbacking situation, I think this kid, you keep him in the building, you try

to see what you got next year. I'm not a big fan. I've learned in my two years out of football watching it. of just hitching your wagon to a kid that had a nice game his first game. You know, because we saw Jalen Hertz, who I still like, you know, there was a regression of the mean.

Taylor Heineke, the best thing could happen for him is he gets a spot start and looks great after, you know, Dwayne Haskins, not spot start, but he sees action after Dwayne Haskins. I could look good after Dwayne Haskins last month of the season with everything that was going on.

And then this weekend, you know, kind of the sucker, punch surprise element of it, the athleticism. Let's see what happens through, you know, this off season. And they have to, in my opinion, bring in a veteran. You've got to cash in with this young defensive core, McLaurin, Gibson, you know, we both like those guys a lot. This team is ready to win now. So if I'm Ron Rivera, I'm not being developmental. If I can get a Stafford, if I can get, you know, somebody who's proven they can win in the building, I don't care that. That would be awesome. Right. I don't care if it's two, three years. Let's win now because you got all these good

players on rookie deals and then seeing Ryan Carrigan walk out of the tunnel one last time in front of an empty stadium, which is, you know, standard operating procedure though for Washington football team players like that. But Ryan Carrigan wasted a lot of greatness there. So go get a ring, man. Go get a ring somewhere. Don't feel bad. Fly the coop. You know, get your wings. Go. Absolutely. You nailed that. Yeah, no, he's the man. I love Ryan.

And I, it sucks for him that that's how it ends. He never gets to see the other side of the, you know, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. What if they win next year? That's the thing. It's like, he's going to be somewhere else. He might not get to enjoy it. So Baltimore, Tennessee. Mm-hmm.

The game, this is this game lived up to it. Mm-hmm. It definitely lived up to it. It was different than I think a lot of people thought. I laughed because I saw. Diana Rossini tweeted something about that people on the Titans said this is a good matchup for them defensively. All her

mentions were full of fucking know-it-alls laughing at the Titans that would say that. The worry was about the Titans' offense, to me, not the defense, and that proved out to be true. And it wasn't perfect for Lamar. We've talked about this. He did not play

perfect. But man, I was happy for him. I was really happy for him to get that first playoff wins, so we can stop talking about that. Yeah, please. Yeah, let's stop talking about it. He's pretty young. He didn't get going until the end of the first. I mean, he didn't get going until he hit Andrews on the sideline,

had a nice ball to Hollywood Brown, who they need to play like this if they want to be competitive. Yeah. Right? I had no problem with him running off the field. Oh. People had a problem with it. I also think people made a big deal about the Tom thing.

Like, yes, the Tom thing's petty. That's how he wants to be. If Tom doesn't want to be a, you know, if he wants to be a sore loser and not shake hands, and it depends on who the quarterback is and if it's a guy that beaches. That's up to him. You know, he's got to live with that. You know, it's also not like he kicked the baby. It's just he didn't shake hands after a football game.

Lamar Jackson just beat a team that, unbeknownst to a lot of people that were on his ass after the game, stomped on their logo before the game as a group. So then people see the Ravens stop in the logo as if it's kind of out of nowhere. And then he's running off the field because there's only one team that can get guys to spend if there's a scuffle after the game. And that was that kind of game. I'm just telling you. There's a lot of bad blood. It's north of a division rivalry there.

No, they can't stand each other. You saw it after the game in Baltimore. We know what happened in the playoffs last year. There was a lot at stake here, Chris. And I thought the most telling thing we talked about on the show is John Harbaugh said this is the best. biggest win he's ever been a part of. He's won a Super Bowl. That just tells you

how much this meant to that locker room. I mean, it feels like we're talking about locker room all podcasts on, but that stuff matters, man. Locker room podcast. Keep it in here. Without the language. Yeah. What stays in the locker. Without the talk.

But, I mean, you mentioned it. We knew it wasn't going to be pretty. This is the healthiest Baltimore's defense has been. I really think I do have a theory about Vrable. We talk about how much we love them. And I always, you know, you can't get away from it, Vrable, Belichick, you know, that whole thing. But I will say this, you know, the punt and, you know, the fourth and two.

And Derek Henry gets eight yards on first down. You know, then there's an incomplete pass. And then the Johnny Smith drop. So it's fourth and two. I do wonder something. And we saw, we've seen what Vrabel is. done with the delay of games in the past and, you know, you know, illegal substitution penalties, you know, to help things later in the game.

I do wonder sometimes if he can possibly outthink himself. Yeah. Because I think of the same thing with Belichick all the time. And I go back to this about, and I'm not saying this is the most successful thing, but Bill Belichick teams, to me, seeing them for 20 plus years, always seem to just elongate, elongate the game, elongate the game,

and just wait for the other team to screw up. And this had that kind of feeling to me, this decision. You nailed it. This decision. And I just feel like the Ravens took advantage of it. Like they didn't make that mistake that the Patriots and even Brable is done in Tennessee.

Tennessee plays that they just run the game. All right, we're just going to keep playing. The other team's going to screw it up. We're going to go down. kick a field goal and we're going to win. Like look at the opening week this year against Denver. Gaskowski missed how many field goals? A bunch.

And then they still do. But that's to me what I think. I wonder if he overthrthing stuff. I know it's been super successful. And he's not going to change. But overthinking that right there. And then, you know,

there's 10 minutes left in the game. I think he'll learn from that. I think he'll learn from that. No, no. As much as, and I think you nailed it, because I think at times I'm marvel at how, it's almost like he doesn't,

panic to a point of like, okay, what are you proving here, not panicking? You know, like some people would say, we don't blink, we go for it on fourth and two. In his mind, he's not blinking because I'm just going to stick to what the fuck we do. We're going to pin them. We're going to play physical. We've been stringing these guys out

all game, although in the second half, first down especially, I thought in the first half, Tennessee did a great job on first down. Yep. Second half, Tennessee's defense did not do such a great job. Rather, Roman, Lamar made adjustments, got the ball on the perimeter. got Hollywood involved like it was a run game,

got, you know, quarterback run. I think that Vrable overestimated and didn't feel the flow of the game well enough. I think sometimes we make it, like, we underestimate how much is going through a coach's head each play, that you can lose, like, what's happened the entire day. And lately, I, you know, in the second half at that point, I did not trust Tennessee's defense. If that were the second quarter,

the way in a vacuum and they were playing the way they had, I'd say okay, but the context of the situation was not only is it fourth and two, which begs the question, why are you throwing on third and two if we're considering, I guess he wasn't considering. Derek Henry just ripped off an eight-yard run. That was his longest run basically the day. I felt like, okay, here it comes.

But instead, they punt, and you kind of knew it. It's the same thing with Tomlin, which we'll talk about in a minute with James, is like, I said it to Meg, my lovely wife Meg, who was staying awake just with me to watch this game. And she said, in addition to me saying ballgame seven times and her being like, Chris, you've said ball game a million times.

The game is over. It's been over. As soon as he punted, I knew they're going to eat five minutes and this game's over. They're going to eat five minutes off the clock, maybe score. This game is over. And that was what happened to Mike Vrable. I think he'll probably learn from it. But I think you nailed it because it's such a panicless mindset.

They did it against the Steelers. the Steelers got up big. They just ran the ball. You know, the Ravens got up. They just kept doing what they were doing. Derek Henry, 50 yards to three quarters. Well, he busted open in the fourth and overtime. It's not going to happen every day.

And I thought this was such a big opportunity for them to win a game and go on a run because you don't know what this team's going to look like after Arthur Smith gets a job. And conversely, I don't know what it's going to look like when Arthur Smith gets a job because he's had this X factor making his offense look like. look better than maybe it is. So two questions. Are you excited about hiring Arthur Smith if you have a bunch of options in this head coaching

cycle? And two, do you think it makes a big difference with him leaving? Is Tennessee ever going to look the same offensively? Oh, as long as 22's there, I think they still look the same. I think they do have some nice pieces. I think, you know, I wonder how healthy Saffold was. He left week 17 when it would have anchor.

You know, they lost Conklin in the offseason. I think they could do better on the offensive line. But Arthur Smith, I worry about not having head coaching experience, although, you know, certain guys have stepped into this role pretty easily. I know the names are Joe Brady and Bianamy. So, you know, are the Jets going to, you know, go after Arthur. I'm just so worried that it's one of those things where you're in a room full of three people and it's successful and who's the X factor. Well, the guy that most obviously seems like the biggest outlier is 22.

So, you know, that's what would scare me there. Yeah, I just, I don't know how you excite a fan base with the hiring the office coordinator to Tennessee Titans. I just, the wild factor. I think it's probably. Arthur Smith, I mean, unbelievable what he's done, obviously, you look at him he's done, schematically and what the pieces he has, but there's zero wow factor. I hope next cycle. I hope next cycle for him and I hope next cycle for the Titans.

I love the Bears. He can't kick the extra point? Doesn't matter because I bought up to 14.5. Look at his catch. Oh, two teasers. Alive, baby. We're alive. Real quick, the only thing we're hitting on this Chicago game,

You just heard my reaction. That was pure joy, and that was like for a guy that's pretty flatline most of the day, that was just childish, childlike, you know, charisma from your boy here. Because I won basically my only bet of the weekend. I bought up to 14 and a half. People say buying points is for sucker. They had Washington, too. I had Washington, too.

Okay, I won that bet, too. To be fair, I won the second half of Steelers and second half over in the Steelers. Steelers game. I mean, that was stealing, but it was a bad weekend. That saved my bacon. And when I say there was no redeeming factor to watch in that fucking football game until that moment, I am dead serious and I'm not going to dignify it by breaking it down extensively. I will say one thing. All the people about Nagy, go back to look at the last third down the Bears have before the half. And they run a ride and decide with a quarterback counter with Komet pulling opposite.

He gives the ball and they get stuffed for no yardage. If he kept that ball, he runs for a 70-yard touchdown and watch it back and everybody's crushing Nagy for being conservative. If you look back, he hands the

ball off, takes three steps, looks at the alley he has and Komet. Komet goes free release to the third level. There's nobody to block. And Komet turns and looks at him. and then Trubesky's looking at him and it's just like,

what are we doing right there? And then the fourth down run where he avoids somebody to go out of bounds and he's out of that. Like, I just, and here's the thing. You said least inspiring effort until the last time.

The Bears. Yeah. The Bears. The Bears. The Bears. That was just such an, it's not competitive. And at times it was like

there were flat once they got down. And I don't blame him because eventually you're like, what's going on at quarterback? Golly, dude, you can only take so much. The whimsdrop was huge. The whimsdrop was, you know, made him the hollow man. The whimsdrop is huge. That game is totally different well into the third and fourth quarter

because it's 7-7 or 14-7 or and Eddie Jackson jumping off sides and it becomes a, you know, it's not a game anymore. My man, 39, too. Yeah, I love him. I love him. And it happens to all of us. But I kind of wonder, my biggest question in this entire game is very relevant here. what is Garner Johnson saying to guys

Mike Thomas that's my that's my whole point Miller what is he doing to press that button this goes all the way back to his own teammate the best player on their team besides Camara he got him that mad so

I'm hearing from sources that is nothing groundbreak I'm hearing it's he's just so persistent He's so persistent and he's really good. He's a wing nut. He's just a out of character wing nut. He's crazy. Whatever he's saying.

I mean, he's like an MVP for these guys. So shout out to him. He must just go right for the jugular. That's all we'll say about that game. Thank goodness for Jimmy Graham. Thank goodness for Sean Payton kicking that ball. You're not kicking that ball. I don't want to call it hubris,

because I respect, when they ran the score up on us, I had no problem with it. I thought it was dumb to sneak. Drew Bree, shorter arms. I mean, short arms. Short arms. Yeah. Everything had to go right for that. And Mitch Trubisky, who cares about my family, it turns out, executing that drive.

I can only imagine the dread on Chicagoans faces when they realized that instead of having at least one thing go right and a backdoor cover, they're not kicking the extra point. they lost money and the game and the bears don't look any better in the future. You got to stop with the Trubesky thing. I think he needs a fresh start. You got to start it over. Don't fall for this fool's gold shit.

Been staying there for a couple weeks. Next week, Green Bay, Green Bay, L.A., Buffalo, Baltimore, Tampa Bay, New Orleans, and who am I forgetting? Cleveland, Kansas City. In order of excitement, real quick, before we get to James,

what do you like? The AFC games dwarf the NFC games to me. Yeah. They really do. The quarterbacks alone in the AFC, look what you have. Look at Baker Mayfield against Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen against Lamar Jackson. Are you kidding me? Yeah, it's fun.

Because there's some unknown there. There's some unknown. And you look at the other side, yeah, I'm pumped for Jalen Ramsey to strap it up against DeMonte Adams. It's going to be awesome. Yeah. But I got Aaron. Rogers against who.

Against that defense, though, still though, against that's going to be understood. Understood. They'll give them fits. But it's to the credit

of the AFC and kind of how entertaining they are that we're not like immediately circling Drew Brees, Tom Brady. I'm sorry. I got fatigue.

I got fatigue. Guys have fatigue. Dudes have fatigue. I do. If I had to rank it. I will say this. I will say this. Just because of the

recency bias. Everyone's going to bet Tampa. No doubt about it. Everybody. No doubt about it. Which sucks because I wanted to bet Tampa. Because I thought that a month ago, if they saw each other in the playoffs, everybody would be on New Orleans.

A month ago, a month ago, before they started getting things together offensive. How happy is Tommy gets to go to the dome. Oh, hey, listen, that's going to be fun. Baltimore Buffalo is my number one. I'm really excited about that game. No, no doubt about Saturday night, bro. Oh, it's going to be amazing. I got a drink again.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry, liver. I quit the other day. Super Wildcar weekend was too much. Speaking of things I have fatigue about. Me quitting drinking. Yes. Gambling.

All right. Let's get to James Laronitis and hear from him on the Browns and the Bucks. While the holiday season may be over, the sports calendar is in full swing this week. From college to pro sports, there is no shortage of action, and there is no better place to get in all of this action. Then with Draft King's Sportsbook,

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Restrictions apply Ced draft tanks.com slash sportsbook for details. Gambling problem call 1,800 gambler. Or in Indiana, 1,8009 with it. James Laronitis. Wow. Yeah. What's up? He's already dressed for game day. Bro, what's amazing is that we do picks on our show here in Columbus all the time and for the NFL

against the spread. And I was like 28 games over 500. And I'm like, I should actually bet. I should actually bet. But you know the way it happens. Once I bet next year, then I'm going to be awful. and be 28 games under. No, here's what's going to happen.

I'm going to be bothering you for your picks now. But he's such a good dude that he, like, you know, like gambling is just too seedy for him. Even if he could make a ton of money, he's just turning it down. Steve, did you know what I do remember though? I do remember Ohio State Northwestern. I remember that so well. I mean, and I remember it was the game where,

what was it the kickoff at the end of the game or something? And Northwestern fumbled it or ladled it in Ohio State gets a touchdown, and that's how they covered. And I lost a hundred. dollars to you. Yes. And I remember you screaming in the hotel. And I wouldn't even, I wouldn't go near anybody. I was so irate that they weren't going to cover. And then that play happens. And it was like pure euphoria. Because I don't bet. And so the fact that that happened. I remember. I lost, I lost, I lost bets to you and Jolon. Steve, you remember that game.

That's right. It's the play that's in our bad beats open every week. Dude, it's literally on the highlight reel. And I'll never forget that. It was at home. We were playing at home the next day in St. Louis, downtown Hilton. And, I literally, I couldn't hold it together. That was one of the worst beats of all time. James. Actually, Steve, have you ever, I was talking about what a great guy, James is? Have you ever heard the story about what I did to his car?

I have not. James, not to put you on the spot. Can you tell the story? Yeah, so I don't know. I don't know what's more embarrassing. The fact that this actually got done to me and I didn't do anything back. He's a real good Christian. He's like a real gun.

But the, or the, or the fact that I didn't even, I was so naive, I didn't recognize the biggest hint that you were one of the culprits of it. But anyway, Steve, what this young man did was they took, they took my, uh, my car during camp. And at the end of the day, I'm like, where's my car? It's not in the parking lot. I can't find it anywhere. Um, someone gives me a hint. It's in the indoor. So I got in the indoor. The worst part is the cheerleaders are out there practicing. So I have to, I see it. It's wrapped in like bubble wrap or saran wrap or whatever. And I'm like, okay. So I walk out there. I cut it. I open up, I open up the door.

Packaging peanuts fall out. And I'm like, oh, well, this is just a nuisance. Standard. But I'm like, but I'm like, this isn't bad because I really just feel bad for the, you know, for the Rams Park crew that has to pick it up. So I'm like throwing all this stuff. So you were going to make this. Well, I was late. And I thought recovery.

I thought recovery was maybe more important. That's so. But it gets better because I just get more. J. Jay, J. Watt would have cleaned it up. Yes, he would have. Yes, he would have.

but not all of us can be that spectacular. I mean, there's levels, right? There's levels to this shit. I'm certainly not there. But the worst part is that I start hearing cricket noises. And this dude put, how many crickets did you put in there? Well, don't, let's not just do this, dude. There was another assailant.

His name was William Hayes. We put 10,000 crickets in there. So what happened was, Steve, James said he was mean to us. He, like, didn't give us a call or something. Or he can't, you know what he did? He probably called. like fence or some stupid call where we didn't get to rush. You know what I probably

did was I probably did a Jaws stunt which means, you know, everyone take up the inside gap so James can run free. So James can scrape and make 150 tackles and me and Robert and Robert are like, well, I want to rush the passer and I'm like, why? It's second down and three. They're going to run it. I don't care.

Fuck you, man. It's a passing lead. It's a passing league. So what we did is naturally me and William Hayes, we went down to the local FedEx shop because we wanted to get packing peanuts to fill his car up with. And then when we got there, we heard a bunch of crickets. And the people at the mail shop were fans of the Rams, naturally, prolific team, right

in our backyard. So they're like, you want to come back to the back? This guy with the bait shop just got his shipment in today. I go, when's he coming by? So my man comes by, we wait 30 minutes for him, and we barter. We trade him tickets for crickets. Tickets for crickets, which I think is illegal. Uh, next thing, you know, we have 10,000 crickets.

We put them in there with the packing peanuts. Tell them the, tell them the result of the story, though. Well, the worst part is, is that I, I'm, you know, trying to figure out, I'm like, okay, I can't, I can't clean all these out. So I pay Silky at the facility. Like, so will you get this thing shot at the silk? Can you get this thing cleaned out, vacuum the crickets out? And you know, you know, you know, silky. I got you player.

I got you player. I get this crickets out. I know how to get crickets out of a car. appreciate yeah sure done this before yeah so we get it done so I pay so lucky to do that Chris is like dude this sucks

I'll give you a ride you know back and I'm like all right appreciate you bro like I really was like thanks man because I won't have my car tonight at this point it's 10 o'clock and he doesn't know it's me I was out there

so I'm out there Steve after meetings I come out to see if James sees his car he's out there looking sad huddled around his Audi and and so I'm like fuck did I feel kind of bad. I'm going to help him clean it out, act like I didn't do anything, and I'm going to give him a ride home. So I go to give him a ride home back to the hotel. Jesus, bro. He just kissed me

on the cheek. He just said, bro, he gives me a ride. And what I don't notice, Steve, is that my suit is in the back of his range rover at that time hanging up on the clothes right behind his head. Right behind my head. So the whole time, when he gets in the car, I'm looking to my right. And I'm like, oh, shit, he's going to see his suit right behind his ears. And so he, we, I give him. I him a ride all the way home. He's, he's like, man, thanks for helping me clean it up. And at that point, I actually felt bad. And I was like, I was like, man, whoever did this, we're going to find out, too, James. He hit you with that. And then I had to go to, I had to go to Larry Clarico, who's our film guy, and there's a, there's a security camera in there. And I can see these guys

driving the car into the indoor. I can see Chris, Kendall, and Will all walking together. And Chris is the only one that realizes a camera. He, like, looks up and points at it. You can see his face go. Like, oh, no. And the worst part is I bring that film down to everybody. And Will Hayes, what's the first thing he says? Oh, you can't use that in court. You can't tell us to me.

William Hayes, who knows the laws of the land. Here's the worst part about it. Once we got busted on CCTV, James also figured out that smell from all the crickets that died in his air vents. They died in my AC vents. They aren't going away ever. He had to sell his outy. And you almost got me back by doing what? Do you remember?

I was going to put buck cent into like a syringe and inject them into your headrests and just had that awful bucks. You were going to ship my fucking car to London. We played in London. That was too pricey. He was trying to ship my car over there and have it on the practice field when we went out for our first walkthrough. So all-time great prank, uh, James, I just want to apologize officially. I had a C-Long contract. I would have shipped it to London, but I got that invoice.

Oh, poor me. Poor little of me. Well, you should have been born a pass rush. I mean, you were a tackle machine. They just don't pay those guys the same. I mean, nobody feels sorry for you. I just Googled your net worth. I think it's like it's a whole lot.

You had enough money to get a new car. And I don't feel bad for you anymore. I just wanted to come clean on the pod and be classy and apologize. I've never officially apologized. How many years later is this? I forgave you a long time ago, Chris. I don't even remember. Eight years ago.

You know, Judas kissed you on the cheek, but I know you're a good Christian, so you just turned the other cheek. And I knew you do that, so I appreciate you. Just keep it moving. James, big, big Ohio football 48 hours, dude. Oh, man. Do the Cleveland fans have it in their livers to keep this thing going through tonight?

I'm sure they do. Absolutely. Of course they do. I mean, those guys up there, the city of Cleveland, for one, I can't imagine how bad they feel right now, but they're powering through. Maybe it's nap time. You know, a lot of, yeah, pediolite. You got a crush on PEDA light.

It is a farce. But, you know, that's what they'll be doing. Steve, you don't drink Pedia light for hangovers, do you? I have in the past. I think, yeah, maybe it's mental, but I did feel better. Doesn't work? No, I don't think so. I think science supports it.

It doesn't work. Science. It's a science. James, were people screaming in your neighborhood last night? No, we didn't have any of that. We didn't have any screaming in the neighborhood. But, you know, Shelly's from up near Cleveland. So a lot of her family obviously geeked out.

This is just something that doesn't happen to the Browns. So I think that's for Cleveland sports to have this happen to them, it's almost bittersweet because what you expect is like some grand celebration. And yet we're still in a midst of a pandemic. So people are celebrating. But yet it's kind of like the first thing that Browns fans would say is like, well, of course they'd make a run when you can't even celebrate. Same with the bills.

Yeah. Me and Steve were just talking about this. One of the biggest things that they get robbed of last night was hearing the silence. He's like winning on the road. You know what I mean? Yeah. All right. So last night, Stefanski, coaching from his basement.

Steve, what are we making of that? Did you hear what he was doing? Is there any content that's leaked out, like footage of him in his basement? I mean, how was he absorbing the game? Have we heard anything? I haven't seen anything. I just saw that I know Prefer called him on the phone after the game. then the locker room Zoom, like celebrated with Stefanski.

I know after the game. But no, in game, I have no idea. I've just, it's become like a thing where these coaches, like it started, I think, with Nick Saban, like when he had to watch the game from home and then Ryan Day actually had to, like these guys just, their feelings are absolute torture. Like every coach, it feels like says the same thing on how help, they've never felt more helpless watching a game on TV. And it's crazy, man.

like you got guys that have been doing this forever and the idea that they had to watch a game that they're the head of on TV is is mind boggling. Especially when you lay 28 on your rival and you lost 38 to 6 earlier than the year. And everybody knows like Kevin's the reason they're good. It's not that like and also I think it showed up quarters two through four when they stopped being so on. You know, if Kevin was in the building, I think they cruise, you know, a lot more handily. but the minute they were off script

it just didn't look quite the same and you know Pittsburgh was coming back and coming back yeah everything seemed to start snowballing and then like I know Cleveland people weren't going to be you know getting ahead of themselves because they've seen so many things happen but when it's 28 nothing and you move you lose your right tackle Jack Conklin

like that you had to start you know starting to formulate things but maybe they hopefully they just went to the refrigerator and got another beverage but yeah I mean, James could speak on that as much as a bro. The story, the story that like the guy who came in at left guard after their replacement left guard played, they hadn't even met him.

Like Baker introduced himself in the locker room before the game. So there's layers to this. I thought Van Pelt did a nice job, Chris, later on. Like everyone just thought, I was thinking at home, hey, give it the chub, give it the chub. And he kept trusting Baker with the play action game. And Baker was being decisive on that one drive where they ate up some time in the fourth quarter

to get that last touchdown. I thought that was a gutsy of him to kind of go to that because everyone's thinking just give it to Chub or Hunt and let him run. Instead, he was able to. And then even early in the second quarter, remember that third and six, Pittsburgh had just scored. I think it made it 287 and you're saying, oh gosh, it's third and six. Baker gets it. He scrambles, puts his head down and gets the first down, like right at the marker. If that's a three and out and they punt, you almost kind of felt like, okay, it's going to be 28, 14 at half.

Pittsburgh's going to take a deep breath. And this thing could get dicey. It wasn't easy. They're in like, the Browns have corner five through seven out there with the guys that they have out. Denzel Ward didn't play. There's a lot of what ifs around here about me, Grady Williams has played all year. Grant dealt with Tours Achilles and Camp. They both, actually Greedy and Grant both got hurt in camp on the same day.

So that's, I mean, realistically, three of your four starters all year have been dealing with injuries. They had to play, everything had to go right for them. They had to play a ton of zone, make Ben, check it down. They did. but then still through for 500 yards. Pouncey had to try to snap the ball through the uprights. Like was it Max Garcia in the Super Bowl? Remember when you and me were probably rooting against the Seahawks

in that Super Bowl, James? Like these motherfuckers, we beat them every year. They're about to just drag somebody on the world's biggest stage. It snowballed the same way. Once you saw that snap, you were like, oh my God, dude. Because this was a game. Me and Steve were talking about it. I know you're a big gambler.

We were like, ah, everybody was like, it's an under night. Steve was crushing the unders this weekend. But that game, if you were going to win a close, low-scoring ball game, that just totally flipped it on his head. I don't know. What do you think about this, James, Steve, resting people. We talked about this week 17. You got to be careful.

Not only resting people because they came out flat, but also letting a team in from your division, you know that you're going to have to beat two weeks in a row. Have we all learned our lesson on this now? I honestly, when I saw it, that's what I said last night to Shell. I was just like, the ironic thing about this whole thing is, is that by Pittsburgh resting guys, they basically just said, go ahead, Cleveland, get in

and had almost like an arrogance that we can beat them full strength. Now, I don't know, I don't know if you notice this. I noticed about like, and Ben can say whatever he wants, but a couple months ago, I noticed him like in, in games, he had somebody who kept rubbing his elbow. And like during the game and he started thinking to yourself, okay, either he's doing it, like he's not doing it to stay warm.

So there has to be some discomfort because you can put a hot pack on your elbow. Right, right, right. So, but he always had somebody on the staff kind of rubbing it. He would always be moving it. And he made some throws last night that were good. He made some that were bad. Not every interception was on him. No.

The one was off the receiver's hands. One was batted up, a nice play by the B-Lignment. But I just, you wonder if that was Tomlin's, saying to Ben, hey, do you need a rest? Do you need a week off? Would you like one? You know, get some reps off you. We'll never know unless run that locker room. The more surprising thing was I thought that the Steelers D-line a week ago, you know, week 17 pushed the Browns around a little bit, even though in the game they lost, they pushed them around. Yeah. Where this old line, missing Betonio, you're thinking, oh goodness, how are they going to do it against Cam Hayward and

with lot back and all this? And yet the Browns-O line was more physical from the jump. Yeah. And the Steelers were flat. I don't know what happened to this defense, man. You know, last year, me and Steve talked about this before where it's like, I don't know if, and you can attest, when you know your offense isn't scoring, sometimes you put the death grips on things.

And I feel like they were in that mode. But look at what happened to Pittsburgh's defense. The last eight playoff losses, they gave up 48, 45, 36, 23, 30, 29, 31, 31. That flips the whole steel curtain defense cliche on its head. It almost makes last year feel like it was an hour, alt-lier. And since week 11, they were getting up 10 more points a game.

So even with Ben's struggles, again, I talked about this when we were just talking about L.A. and Seattle. I'm looking at Russ, but I'm looking at the Seattle defense, too. You know, and obviously, I still respect Cleveland and that sort of thing, but to come out here and give

up that many points, if you're just competitive, you might win that game. I mean, and since week 11, I mentioned that like Devin Bush, Bud Dupree, these are big loss. as they missed Joe Hayden. So when I talked to a dude in the league last night, he said that, and I agree with this,

outside of rushing the passer, Bud Dupree is as good at everything that Watt does. And obviously, that's a big outside of asterix, because that's what makes you money and changes games. But Bud Dupree was such an engine for that defense. And in the middle of the field, you mentioned this. I don't want to see Spillane on, all due respect to Spillane, Blaine, I don't want to see him guarding Jus Landry on big conversion situations.

He killed them in the middle of the field, killed him. And he is one of the most underrated players in the game, period. Even as much as we talk about him, I mean, the smarts he has to not blow up Spillane on that big run into their territory late in the game. I mean, he's just like a complete football player. I love him, dude. And he was like their most valuable dude last night. I think he's set the culture up there.

If you remember the hard knocks when everything was dysfunctional and he had that whole rant about it's contagious. Yeah. But like his whole point was taking the rep seriously, giving everything you had. And that was at a point where, and we've been on losing locker rooms, like you need people to try to really demonstrate how you flip things around. And he's been consistent. Early in the year, he wasn't getting much production. They were asking him like a new coaching staff comes in. And basically he goes from this main producer and they're asking him, hey, can you block?

Can you strain on the outside? that we want to establish this run game. There was no noise about him being complaining at all about who's getting the rock. Let's go. Let's just compete. And you see that week in, week out from him. He's competitive. And I think he's been a culture setter for Stefansky and those guys in that locker room.

It's one more thing on the whole narrative, too, when they beat the Steelers, it was almost like the Browns won the Super Bowl in town. Like Brown's media was like, finally, the curse is over. We made the playoffs. I think there was a natural exhale. Like, all right, we accomplished our goals. We made the playoffs. Everyone got off our back in Cleveland. But as Stefanski got COVID, as you found out Denzel War might not be back,

but Tonyo's out, the narrative changed from like happiness to, oh, Brown's don't stand a chance. They're going to get smoked. And I think it almost refocused the group I do to where it went from like, because you can say all you want. Like when you've been in a drought that long, you can say, oh, no, that's just another game. We're just happy, you know, we're looking to that. That's not our end goal. Okay. But that's a place that's been in the playoffs and forever.

You're playing with house money now. You're playing with house money now. And like getting that win, it was huge. And, you know, I'll start with Steve, Elder Statesman here. But you've been around ball a long time. You've seen all the, you know, when you played and analyzing the game, it's the, the bulletin board stuff, juju. We just went through this whole thing with the dancing on the logo.

felt like he had to get that one thing in. I know some people out there are these like snarky people that are like, well, it doesn't change anything on the field. How does that change anything on the field? All right, take it for three guys that have played football. I have a feeling James is going to say it matters. I think it matters

because the Browns told you it mattered. Left and right. What do you think, Steve? I mean, we talked about it earlier. I think it totally matters. Jared Goff bringing up, you know, two weeks ago losing this and watching those guys smoke cigars in the press conference. Like those guys knew they had another chance to get a crack at them.

That stuff matters. You know, the Titans and the Ravens doing with that thing. You know, it definitely like the day, especially like it doesn't mean anything, but like look at social media after and I can't stand it. I refuse to do it during games. But after games, it's like, oh my God, I love how this happened. And did you see Baker say the Browns is the Browns after the game? And, you know, like it's stuff that people hang on to and they can, you know,

keep making it live on social media. So even if you're not on it, you're going to see it. And it's just the way these people, you know, keep, you know, keep bringing up, you know, the bad and the good. So, yeah, it's the old school bulletin board material. But now with social media, it just lives on more platforms and sees more eyes. So it's, it's everywhere. It's in your face.

It's in your face. You can't get away with it. And to James's point about Cleveland, like I said last week when we knew the matchups here, you know, normally you're like, oh, my God, we got over the hump. And, you know, we made the playoffs, but oh, we got to play Pittsburgh again. And they've been our nemesis. Like I totally thought the opposite. I thought Cleveland with Baker and Juice Landry just having that new identity as a team

being like, you know, screw that. Like this is our opportunity. And nobody thinks we could do it. because of this BS that happened in years prior when none of us were here. We know what we got here. Let's go do it. And it was really, really cool to see how strong. I mean, that's a locker room game, man.

Nobody thought they could do what they did. And only the guys in that locker room, you know, could do it. And it's awesome. Good for them. We've been wrong about them. Sorry, Coucho. We've been wrong. We've been wrong about them.

No, no doubt about it. And, you know, you and I picked apart them in the Colts resumes. all year. Who did they beat? Have they beaten? You know, what's their best win? And, you know, you're just trying to, you know, you're obviously rooting for the best for the guys. And to me, when you get to that stage and this, you know, I'm sure we're going to talk about, you know, the national championship. When they get to the stage, the Browns are at this, you know, you know, peak of this season. They're going to Pittsburgh. You know what's at stake. I want these teams to play well, man. You work all this time and you get to this point and they did,

you know, and I always say, if you play well, things are going to happen. It's just, you know, you get some of those breaks and Pittsburgh didn't get them and Cleveland capitalized because they capitalized. Pittsburgh gave him a break late with that fourth down to Tomlin, we haven't even talked about that. I'm fucking, I'm going for it 10 out of 10 there. And I know hindsight, but I mean, I'm sitting there like, did I really watch this game for three hours hoping for a comeback to see some drama? And we just, we just gave up on it? Like, what are we doing? That game could have been a lot closer at the end. I, I think we know that.

But yeah, good for the Browns. You've got Cleveland coming up, or you've got Kansas City coming up, rather. I don't think anybody's going to give them a shot there either. But can their O-line do enough in the run game to keep that thing close? I mean, matched up with the Chris Jones is the Frank Clarks of the world. James, when you see Kansas City's defense, can they, and this lends itself to the conversation we often have.

If you're playing Kansas City, do you think that you try to play keep away or do you attack? Well, I mean, you try to play keepaway, but here's the problem. You can win the time of possession against the Chiefs and they don't care. Right. Because they're so explosive. So for me, it's more so can the Brown's defense get any way to get takeaways or even it stops in this game? Because you can pound the rock and you can get a ton of grounds game.

You can get down there and score all those things on offense. Keep the ball out in the home's hand. But he gets in its four plays and in the end zone. It's like, it's pointless. So what's interesting to me is that, you know, can the Browns, for one, what's, what's botonio status? What's Conklin status? I don't think, boy, the deeper you get in the playoff run, and you would know this more than

me going through the run. As you get deeper in the playoffs, you're room for air. I mean, you can't go into this thinking you're going to get gifts that the Steelers just gave you. Right. And so you can't assume Mahomes is going to be inaccurate. It's going to go off a receiver's hand. You're going to get picks.

You need to go in there and say, hey, we need to, can we beat this team? team without getting takeaways, probably not. They probably can't. They're going to have to find ways to get some. Offensively, their identity is what it is. They're going to run the football and they're going to hit play action off it. They're going to do bootlegs off of it. I just don't know. I don't think it makes a difference when it comes to Mahomes.

Now, we mentioned resting people and you rest some of those guys week 17 and then they have a buy. But then we saw the Texas. The hard thing was I was on the sidelines last year for Westwood 1 when the Texas jumped on the cheese. Were you really? Yes. And I'm like, oh my goodness.

happening and then all of a sudden you felt and look early in the game there was a there was a bust in spaggs defense you know we know how complicated that defense is how much you have to talk um what greg used to say to us you take them i got them nobody's covered them so you wouldn't know like new england if you didn't like all those fucking calls hey let me tell you something your ears it's like two seconds after the snap they're like roger roger like some bullshit and i'm like dude i'm already running here like you can't keep me a call yeah it's over now i used to break my neck my neck my next still hurts from turning around asking James for the call. I was such a panic.

The amount of adjustments, my rookie year, when you get into like college call, would be like, hey, field nine, ready break, no adjustments after that. Just line up, maybe move with motion to over 43 Tahoe,

alert smash. I'm like, wait, what? I played that defense for six years. Not six years. It was only a couple with spags, but like,

I still to this day, have no idea what smash is. It's a fire zone. Yeah, good. I heard it. A million times. Good for you guys. Just tell me what the fuck to do. I agree with you. That layoff is scary with them. And by the way, me and Steve were together when you were on the sideline

at Westwood One. That was our last big trip. Me and Steve were down in New Orleans, tearing it up for the Natty. That's what scares you about the Chiefs, the variability, the sleepwalking. And, you know, when you get that by, Houston got up big, but Houston didn't have a chub. No, they didn't have chub. They definitely didn't have a chub after the game after what they would happen. No, no they did. You know, Al Michael said it best last night. The longer the game goes, the stronger the chub gets. And so, and so you just have to, you, did you really say that? Well, he said, the longer the game goes, the stronger chub gets. I put it, you know, but still, after, after Jim Nance was talking about just the tip, the entire afternoon with Romo, I was like,

What are we doing here, guys? I think it'll be interesting at the very least. Mahomes avenging that 66-59 Texas Tech loss. That's the big revenge game theme this weekend. What do we think about the Natty, guys? I'm going to let you guys explain to me what's going to happen tonight. I mean, the man has the man's hair with a hat on. And he's got the tattoo, show him the silver bullet tattoo, bro.

I got long sleeves on, bro. Oh, of course you do. That's a bad sign for the silver bullets tonight. No, it's not. There's no, there's no superstition in here. Anyway, the, the hard thing for me is what's the, what's the available. Once the availability report comes out tonight, it's been rumored all week that Ohio State has two starting D line out,

not what you want to hear going against this O line and Najee Harris. And, uh, yeah, uh, I do. I, I think that really the winning team's going to have to have a four in front of the score. I think it's going to be explosive. These teams are reflections of each other. What's unique is the parallels to 2014 for me is 2014, right? Ohio State wins a national championship.

Cardale Jones comes out of nowhere. It goes on a three-game magical run. You're like, what in the world is this? Trace Sermon has come out of nowhere for Ohio State. Trace Sermon early in the year, I remember distinctly, it was like after Nebraska, which was week one, after Rutgers, people were like, can we see more of Marcus Crowley and still chambers? instead of this obviously sermon's knees not right.

And then all of a sudden he has a nice game against Michigan State, makes a few missed tackles. And you're like, okay, there's something there. Northwestern he explodes, keeps it going against Clemson. And now you're saying to yourself, gosh, did we get robbed out of a full year of Trey Sermon and what he could have been for Ohio State? I think he's a difference maker for them. Ultimately, though, Chris and Steve, for me, when you beat Nick Saban,

look at the quarterbacks who have done it. You're talking, you're talking to Sean Watson. You're talking Joe Burrow. These are elite guys. Justin's going to have to. If he's fully healthy, he's going to have to make plays, obviously, with his arm. But can he make those improv plays where Saban has an unblocked blitzer and he makes the guy miss? And maybe it's a 10-yard scramble on a third Nate.

You know, it's not the glorious stuff, but can he make those plays that Sabin defenses have typically struggle with? Quarterbacks who are athletic can make stuff happen with their legs as well as their arm. I think Justin's the best quarterback to ever play at Ohio State. Um, he's going to be put in a weird context because if they win the night, they're only eight no on the year. So how do you measure his stats to Dwayne Haskins? How do you measure stats to a Troy Smith?

Some of the guys who have come through, but this is the first time in the history of our school, Chris, where you've had a quarterback this height before the season, true Heisman height and loves by colleges, but also thought of as a top five pick. Troy was a Heisman guy, but no one thought Troy would be an NFL quarterback. Dwayne Haskins wasn't really on the scene for anybody. He had a nice run, got there with a huge season. But even his evaluation process, it was, you know, Danny Dimes. And it was all these other guys came into it.

And you're like, what about Dwayne? They said, well, he's throwing a wide open, you know, Ohio Statewide receivers. Oh, we found out there were some other stuff too. I mean, you guys. There's some other stuff too. There's no doubt. But Justin Fields to me is the first guy that, I mean, gosh, maybe going back to Arch Leicester, where you had, stop it.

to where you have... Did you pay for those tattoos? I paid for my tattoos. I only had two in college. Were you up there in the PlayStation room where they were giving you tattoos? You'd play mad in 2000, whatever you guys were doing back in the day.

Go ahead. Keep going. I just had to do that. I paid for my tattoos. For eight years, I asked this guy if he paid for his tattoos. I didn't get most of my tattoos until I got to the NFL because they're...

I mean, they're not cheap. I don't know where those guys were going. You and I have spent a lot of money on looking like idiots the rest of our lives or bikers or something. It's all right I don't even notice them anymore I used to like when I first got the sleeve

I used to like be weary of how people looked at me and now it's like You should see Steve's leg sleeve bro Steve's leg sleeve is so cool Yeah, I'll listen to him James It's so cool it's a big drag There's no no ink over here Okay

All right I'm just telling you Luke fickle by linebacker coach And the head coach of Cincinnati now He had his high school mascot Which was like a panther crawling up his calf No he didn't That's the only tattoo he has

And we used to crush him because he's like a tough, Luke's like a tough cat, like four-time state champ at Ohio wrestling. Like, he had the Ohio State, like, um,

record for, you know, consecutive stars. His, his high school wrestling highlight film is insane. He loves Luke fickle. It's, oh,

I love fickle. He's incredible, man. But we used to crush him. Whenever he get fired up, we'd be like, that's a sexy cat on your calf coach. He gets so fired up at us.

You can't pay for an individual, too. Presumably a black, Panther, it's hard to erase black ink. You can't laser removals come a long way, but not that far. Steve, so James, are you predicting an Ohio State

win because of the quarterback X factor? I think they'll cover. So I'll full of disclosure I picked Clemson last week. I picked Clemson 3834, which obviously was off. You should just keep against them. Well, no, I just don't understand.

Like, I didn't know how to judge the team. How do you judge a team that's six games and then they play? then they're off and they play. There's no rhythm. And the last time he saw him, look, Northwestern was tough. They beat Auburn, but let's be honest.

If Brian Day had every single player on both rosters, he might take two Northwestern cats over his own. And they both play in the secondary. I mean, he's not playing with a lot of those guys. So they didn't play well in the title game. They avenged, obviously, a year ago to Clemson. I do think Ohio State will win.

I think it'll be like 42-38. Wow. So he likes the over? Yeah. Steve. Steve, what about you? To me, I love what James said about because to me with Ohio State, I thought they could definitely compete. But you know, you brought up Trey Sermon, right?

Trey Sermon is a guy that left Oklahoma, okay? And the only reason he left Oklahoma is because another kid, you know, sort of, you know, had a better year. And then what happens? That kid, Keele and Bradford, he opts out this year. Right. So Trey Sermon obviously could have stayed at Oklahoma. and played. But to me, the Trace Sermon story, and I don't want to say it gets me upset, but it needs to be looked at further because to me, you talked about the Michigan State game,

James, you talked about, which was an absolutely incredible effort by Justin Fields. It's one of the best things I've ever seen because he didn't know where any snap was going. He had a kid who never played center snapping the ball to him. And for him to make plays and score 40 plus in that game was amazing. But to me, it's the Ohio State offensive line. These guys together have maybe played two and a half games together, three, you know? So to me, when you watch the Big Ten title game, like, Sermon's running free to the second level. You look at the touchdown run against Clemson, you know, they did an unbelievable job of coming out of huddles and not inventables, you know, steal the signs. You know, it's seven nothing. They come out. They come out.

Clemson obviously miss a line. Sermon runs free. It doesn't get touched for that touchdown to go to the tie the game at 7-7, which is a game changer because now you got your confidence and you got everything. But for an offensive line with all the zone schemes that they run, it's so critical to practice together, to get reps, to learn each other's footwork. And coaches will always say it drives me nuts as being a former offensive guy.

We'd be like, all right, you know, let's go hurry up. You know, the defense will be misaligned. Well, that screws it up because. Because all week, I'm like, all right, do I have the five technique or do nine? You know, all right, don't worry about it. Just run this way and pick up whoever. That's so hard to do, man. But like Wyatt Davis, like, those guys coming back and playing together, it really makes

me think Ohio State could do things offensively. You have two absolute assassins of play callers in Ryan Day and Steve Sarkeesian going at it, which is fascinating to me. You have the Jalen Wattle factor. I think he's going to play. If Saban's bringing this up, then I don't think that's, you know, Saban's thing because he wants everything to be in, you know, we're going to see pregame.

But I totally expect him to play, which changes Alabama's offense to something that we haven't seen since the first three games of the year. Right. I was talking to Missouri's head coach, Eli Drinkwitz, who played Alabama in the first game of the year. And he talked about laughing at the fact, that in their opening game this year, his defense, like you can only, you know, you pick your poison, you know, they run over, you know, they run past the zone and you can't stay

with him. A man. And he was like, they were talking about like how they tried to funnel things towards Devante Smith, who ends up being the Hypat trophy winner because he was that fearful of Waddle. That's so I mean, in a nutshell, though. Yeah. These guys are just coming out of the woodwork. Like, there's a picture of all those guys, Jerry Judy, Devante Smith, Who else? I mean, there were four, four dudes walking off the field together. Henry Ruggs. Like that picture that was floating around the internet,

like all of them there at the same time, all the backs that show up being great in the NFL that are better pros than they were. Look at your boy in Vegas. I mean, Jacobs. Like, they hide people. You don't even know. So to me and James could speak. I remember James,

I heard an interview with him a couple years ago when Shiano was still calling the defense and he was losing his mind about what they were doing schematically. but Ohio State to me like I expected Wade to play better against Clemson I didn't think he played well I thought Banks actually played better but those guys got to be on their A game

this you know in this game and I just look at you know I mentioned Ryan Day and I because I expect him to use Trey Sermin in the past game to create mismatch problems I think Sarkesian is going to do the same thing you know when when these teams you know try and fit that you know

Alabama will go max protect but then they'll you know they'll run two-man routes and they got guys that could run every route in the book. So what do they do? You know, you try and fit up on that run. And that's where they get Najay Harris, you know, running all the short stuff around. And then he makes a guy miss and it's off to the races. Yeah.

Yeah. So a lot of pressure on Ohio State's linebackers, I think, in this game. I do think the corners on each team are better in the safeties. So how can these guys get the play calling to take advantage of the, like the kid Billingsley for Alabama, who's technically their title. end. He returns kicks. He also is on the kickoff team. Like it's just, it's amazing what they do. He's the kid that looks like a wide receiver that they've clearly just made. He's 19. Yeah. Jalil Billings. Yeah. He's phenomenal. Yeah. He's really coming to his own too, obviously,

since the wattle injury. So to me, there's a, there's a lot of pressure on the defense. I wasn't sure about Ohio State's defense. We know they have talent. And, you know, we mentioned the guys up front. And they took it to Clemson up front. I mean, we really saw how, overmatch Clemson was and maybe how they got the benefit of the doubt all year. But Ohio State manhandle them up front. To me, it's on the Ohio State secondary and in the back end. Can they keep guys in front

of them? Can they tackle in space? That's the game to me. But I do think Ohio State has the goods to hang around and definitely cover. So one last question before we get out of here. James, if Ryan Day is on the move, what happens?

What if he leaves Ohio State? I don't know. So that's been one of the biggest questions. He's the first coach here in a while that has no Ohio ties. So it's been like everyone and he hasn't, all he says is look, I want to be at Ohio State for a long time. It's all he says, right?

He's not giving any hints. A couple months is a long time depending on how you look at it. It is. He's a northeastern guy. Yep. He's been, his history is in the NFL. He'll be highly coveted with Urban Meyer getting attention.

Ryan Day is going to get attention. attention. Because Ryan has that, that's been the unique thing is that nobody thought he could keep this momentum going because Urban was the celebrity coach recruited out of his mind. And Ryan's even taken it somewhere to where they have Kyle McCord who had to drive by Penn State to come to Ohio State next year's class, the top five QB. They just took Quinn Ewers, number one overall recruit out of Texas, away from Texas for the next year's class.

So he's finally getting to where Ohio State is becoming. a quarterback developing type university. I just don't know, Chris, like, what kind of life you want to live? Do you want to recruit for the next 10 years and have that 24-7 stress or do you want to go to the league where, yeah,

they're stressed, but it's also, I mean, how many times would Fish be in Montana for a month? Yeah, dude, fish is out there. I'm like, how are you sending me these pictures?

Like, aren't you all in meetings? Like, hey, be careful saying quarterback, you know, like, you almost like,

you almost said quarterback factory. And you don't, you don't want to say that because you know what happens. happens after say quarterback factory. I'm talking about Philly, of course. That'll be interesting because I think it's compelling what you're saying. Steve, you think he stays or goes?

I think he's saying. I do think he, when you have to real, like Ohio, James mentioned all the ties that people have had to Ohio. And like, I think Ryan Day really, really, really appreciates the opportunity Gene Smith gave him. Like, Ryan, he never had a head. coaching job. Right. And to be, now I think Ryan, they earned that, knowing how, you know, in-depth he is and how good of a guy is and how good of a football coach and motivator,

recruiter, and that whole thing. But I do think he feels like, you know what, these people looked at me to take over here. And they gave me, you talk about, you know, a kitchen being full and all the cabinets being full of everything. Like, it was pretty good. You know, we talked about Stefanski. I think he walked into the Brown's locker and was like, you know what, this is pretty good. We just got to tighten up this and this. Like, I got talent here. Ryan Day is like every cabinet's overfilled with talent. So I'm going to make the most of this and do this. Like I gave the people my word about, you know, being here for a while.

I'm going to do that. So I don't think a threat to the NFL right now is a question. Would that be good news? And I think he likes that. I think he likes the control part too, because being at other places where he's been without naming teams, he said, you know, you don't have control over what players they give you as you're coaching in the NFL. You know, something he's talking about position coach.

He's like, you don't have control over the guys who tell you to work with or who they draft or who in college, you got control of everything. Yeah. I can set who, what kind of player we want to recruit? I can get them. And that's going to be a challenge for Urban. If he does take the Jacksonville job is like, this isn't recruiting. You can't go get every five star out of college, you know, and tell them to come to your team. You got to be selective in the draft process and all that.

It's a total different, different feel. And I agree with you. I think Ryan Day stays. And you can't be a hard o when you get to league as a coach. You just, the hardo thing, it's just not going to work. Hey guys, going to be fun tonight. So much football. Ohio's the happening place, man.

Right now, the center of the universe. One of the most important football people in Ohio, James Laronitis. Appreciate you joining us today, man. Come visit me when we get this vaccine, okay? You've been talking about it for four years. You don't love me anymore. You don't care about me. You only cared about me when I was scraping into the A-gap

so you could make plays behind me. That's not true. Okay, we'll prove it. Bring your lovely family to Charlottesville. All right, man. Okay, buddy. Talk soon.