Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - AFC Squad: Week 13 AFC Recap, Which AFC Playoff Teams Would Best Represent In Super Bowl?

Episode Date: December 5, 2024

In this week's AFC Squad show, the crew recaps some of the Week 13 action from around the AFC including the Pittsburgh Steelers/Cincinnati Bengals shootout, Denver Broncos/Cleveland Browns Monday Night Thriller, the New York Jets latest loss, how the Baltimore Ravens will respond after their loss to the Eagles, and the Los Angeles Chargers positioning to upset the Kansas City Chiefs this week.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Omaha SteaksFrom legendary steaks to mouthwatering desserts and more, save 50% off site-wide for a limited time at OmahaSteaks.com. Plus, our listeners get an extra $30 off with Promo Code NFL. IceShakerCreated by and used by the Gronkowski brothers, IceShakers has sold over 1 million bottles. They have changed the game with workout bottles, and this is the gift you’ve been looking for… go to IceShaker.com and use the code LOCKEDONNFL at checkout to save 25% on your order. Skylight FrameGet $20 off a Skylight Frame when you go to SkylightFrame.com/NFL.Mint MobileTo get this new customer offer and your new 3-month premium wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to Mintmobile.com/lockedonnfl. Cut your wireless bill to 15 bucks a month at MINT MOBILE dot com slash lockedonnfl.Disclaimer: $45 upfront payment required (equivalent to $15/mo.). New customers on first 3 month plan only. Speeds slower above 40GB on Unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees, & restrictions apply. See MINT MOBILE for details.Hillsdale CollegeAll of Hillsdale’s courses are self-paced so that you can start whenever, and tune in wherever. Plus, you can go deeper with readings, quizzes, discussions - or just enjoy the lectures. Go right now to hillsdale.edu/lockedon to enroll. There’s no cost, and it’s easy to get started.PrizePicksDownload the app and use code lockedonnfl to win $50 instantly when you play $5. You don't even need to win to receive your $50 bonus, it's guaranteed! Prizepicks. Run Your Game.Click Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNFLGametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms Apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelYou can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. New customers can place a FIVE DOLLAR bet and you’ll get started with ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - if you win your first FIVE DOLLAR BET ! Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

Week 13 around the AFC had everything that you could have hoped for, and Jameis Winston just threw another interception. It's time for the AFC Squad. You are talking ball with the AFC Squad, sponsored by GameTime. From the Chiefs to the Bills, the Ravens to the Texans, and everyone else around the AFC, it's the local experts of the Locked On Podcast Network bringing you spooks, breakdowns, and the most comprehensive preview

of the upcoming weekend for hard-hitting AFC football with our harder-hitting takes. Buckle up. It's the AFC Squad, and we have a seat for you. No hurt feelings allowed. Squad up. You're part of the AFC Squad. What's up, everyone?

Welcome into an AFC Squad episode here. We're in the month of December. They've got us back. Obviously, a special thank you to our sponsor over there at Game Time. Today's AFC Squad show is also brought to you by our friends over there at FanDuel. Get a big return this season on FanDuel. New customers can place a $5 bet, and you'll get started with $150 in bonus bets if you win your first $5 bet.

Visit FanDuel.com to get started. Welcome into the AFC Squad. Sit back, grab your favorite beverage and join us as we get you ready for another wild week across the afc week 14 but before we can get to that we got to recap week 13 let's go around the horn here rapid fire fashion i'm cody work host of lockdown broncos joined today by star studded cash john butchko of locked on jets david droegemeyer of Locked On Chargers. Mike DeBate, Locked On Patriots.

Kevin Ostreicher, Locked On Ravens. And Chris Carter, Locked On Steelers. So you got some AFC West representation, AFC East representation, and the AFC North. This is, hey, this is fun. The South decided not to show up this week. But you know what? We're going to bring the heat here on today's show.

Let's go around the horn here. We'll kick things off. John Butchko, you know, the New York Jets had a very enigmatic performance against the Seattle Seahawks. A little bit of a high, like, oh, they're up 21-6. And then the Seahawks came storming back. Your quick thoughts, quick takeaway on what happened in that game, and we'll go around the horn. I mean, the Jets in that game returned to kickoff for a touchdown. They recovered two fumbles off kickoff. They blocked an extra point, so you can't blame the special teams. It's the story of the season for the Jets.

They just find new ways to lose every single week. When they get behind early, they get blown out. When they take a lead early, they find a way to blow the game. It's just a really, really bad football team. Anybody who was expecting anything different coming out of a bye, I think at this point was fooling themselves. This is a team that entered the season with sky

high expectations, and they're going to pick in the top 10 in the NFL draft, maybe the top five. Just a team, just an awful football team. Well, hopefully Mike Tannenbaum has no say in who they draft this off season. It's going to be wild there. But, you know, Arrow Riders has offered a solution here to New York Jets fans.

He's got a new documentary coming out on Netflix called Enigma, and he's encouraged people. You could take some ayahuasca with it, and you can go back and see exactly the darkness retreat, and maybe there's a vision you could find on the Jets season and what's lying ahead. John Butchko is going to have you covered every single day locked on Jets. Let's kick it over to David Droegemeier of locked on chargers, the chargers going on the road in and beating Kirk cousins and the Atlanta Falcons who were

coming off of a little bit of a bi-week. They maintain 1713 here in this game, a pick six, kind of a deciding factor in this game. And, uh, you know, it's got a lot of people in the NFC side wondering if Kirk cousins is finished. Did the chargers put the nail in the coffin? Yeah. Like James Winston, I'm sure Kirk Cousins is hoping

that everyone delivers him from pick sixes. And that was definitely a huge part of this game because he threw four interceptions in this game, including the one at the end by Derwin James that sealed a victory. The Chargers defense is the reason why they won this game. The Chargers offense was Ladd McConkie and Justin Herbert and then everybody else. Ladd McConkie had over 105 receiving yards at halftime and he slowed down a little bit towards the in the second half because he is dealing with some injuries. I mean it's it's a big thing for the Chargers. Their offense has

just been very sluggish. Thankfully this year they actually have a real defense that can back them up and can really pull them out of the deep water when they don't have it. So that's playing complementary football, and that's why they're sitting here at 8-4. AFC West is becoming a little interesting here, David. I know it's going to spice up a little bit towards the end stretch of the season. Let's kick it over now to Mike DeBate, Lockdown Patriots. Mike, Broncos country was hoping that the Patriots would find a way

against the Indianapolis Colts here. They lose 25-24. Just a little bit of a heartbreaker in the eyes of everyone in Denver there, Mike. What's going on in New England? Yeah, well, snatching victory from the hands of defeat, snatching defeat from the hands of victory, the New England Patriots had it in their grasp, Cody, and they just couldn't get it done,

not only for Broncos country, but for a lot of other hopefuls out there that were hopeful that the Patriots could put away the horseshoe and make it one less team contending for that final playoff spot. But, look, you can say all you want to about the New England Patriots being ill-prepared and having penalties be the problem. I preached that last week here on the squad, and not being able to rise to the challenge. But ultimately, I mean, you allow your opponent in your home stadium to march 80 yards, 19 plays, grind that final drive out, and then for good measure, put in a two-point conversion that not only gives the team the lead, but but the victory and then have to rely on a

Hail Mary type 68 yard field goal attempt from Joey Sly which was a near impossibility uh this is the reality for the New England Patriots John talked earlier about not a very good football team for the New York Jets they're seedlings of hope for the future for New England but not right now this is just a very poor football team with only a couple of bright spots to cheer for right now. Get Drake May some weapons. I'm going to be pounding the table for that all. Amen. Speaking of weapons, the Ravens lose one in Deontay Johnson.

Kevin Ostriker locked on Ravens in a battle of the two MVPs that we talked about last week. Saquon Barkley versus Lamar Jackson. The Ravens fall a little bit short, 24 to 19 to Jalen Hurts and Saquon Nair. I mean, obviously, this was a tough matchup. Regardless, it was fun. It was build there, you know, some back-and-forth action here. But how did the Ravens respond from this one? It's tough.

You know, the bye week, I know when you look at the schedule when it first comes out, you look at a week 14 bye week, and you're like, man, that's super late. Like, you got to go through all these games and get all these physical games under your belt before you actually get to a break. But speaking of weapons, Cody, the one that the Ravens seem to have lost is Justin Tucker. He's the worst kicker in the league this year. He's missed 10 kicks.

The Ravens lose by five against Philadelphia. He leaves seven points on the board. And in the Ravens five losses, it's been by a combined 22 points. Justin Tucker's missed a combined 22 points worth of kicks. Now, was it all on Justin Tucker? Of course not. Lamar Jackson and the offense stalled out and put Tucker in that position. But obviously if you're Justin Tucker, you do have to execute.

And so now you're kind of talking about like, what do you do now? Because I don't know about you guys, but the kickers out there, it's Randy Bullock, Cade York. Like you're not really going to be able to sign anybody in December that can take it to the promised land, let alone someone that has the resume of a Justin Tucker. So the Ravens are kind of stuck right now between a rock and a hard place because it's like, do you ride it out with someone who clearly is in his own head about everything? Or do you try to bring somebody else in, at least just for competition's sake?

So it's difficult because, you know, the Ravens for a decade plus, you could go, Justin Tucker on that field, regardless of where he was, you could put your groceries away, get them from the car. You come back, the Ravens would have three points. Doesn't matter where he is. But now even on extra points, you know how you kind of lean with the ball a little bit to see if it goes in or not. Like that's what we're experiencing here in Baltimore.

It's a very odd feeling. It's a very uncomfortable feeling. And it's just really sad to see Justin Tucker has met so much to the city and franchise struggle so badly. It's rough. Part of me also wants to wonder, is it a curse for Justin Tucker mocking Russell Wilson on the whole let's ride thing? Or is it the, uh uh is it the playoffs is

it the uh you know moving the the balls or like you know getting in the way of patrick mahomes and travis kelsey's it's a taylor swift curse is that matriculated down to justin tucker like everyone wants to know we'll do a research on that there'll be a 30 for 30 documentary on that one day we're gonna kick it over now to chris carter one of the hosts here on the show who also was in a game where there was some cardiac entertainment here back and forth to shoot out inside the AFC North they outlast the Bengals 44 to 38 and really kind of put the nail in the Bengals season it's not official yet but man it's we say it every week that life support it's like all right there's a breath but it's like is that the going breath or is it we still have hope breath I think the Steelers kind of delivered a little bit of a hard punch here.

No matter what Joe Burrow and that Bengals team tried to do, the Steelers just simply were too much and they outpowered them. Before I start about the Steelers, Cody, you got – it's the wrong curse. It's the Craven curse. Ever since Justin Tucker's appeared in that Craven commercial for that terrible-looking movie, that's what started all of these problems. There's a reason they released the first eight minutes on youtube of that movie just like hey just come get it when you can anyways the steelers had a huge win this past weekend it was a win that they that they needed to have but that when they delivered it it was such a finite punch against

what the bangles because now it's it's come out and saying, hey, everyone said, oh, this offense can't score against anybody. Now, all of a sudden, Darryl Lovsky is backing up and saying, well, I guess they could do it to the Bengals. But this is an offense that's shown like, hey, in years past, how many times did the Steelers play the worst defense in the league and still come up with 19, 20 points? Now they're putting up 44 points and now they're fine. Russell Wilson's reading there. And I think what people should take away from this is when you look at how the Steelers played in this game early on, you notice all the checkdowns,

the hitting the running backs early on, they were intentionally saying we're going to take what's there because the Bengals are coming up. They said, Hey, we're going to stuff the run and we're going to guard the jump ball because that's what you want to do. You want to throw deep balls, and you want to run the ball. So the Steelers said, okay, we'll take the underneath stuff. And then in the second half, the Bengals were like, I guess we've got to take away the underneath stuff.

And then all of a sudden, George Pickens gets a deep ball down the sideline, and you're starting to get Van Jefferson, Van Jefferson for 43 yards. Like that's how bad it got in that one. And I think what the Steelers are showing now on offense is that they can do multiple things in an efficient manner. They can run the ball. They've had three straight games with Najee Harris getting over 100 yards. And they had a really dominant day on the ground on this one.

They can throw the ball deep. They can throw the ball short. They can hit their tight ends, their receivers. And that's what's making them a really difficult team. And the problem is now they're the number 10 scoring team in the NFL which in my book I said they were going to be a problem if they got to 16 if they got to like middle of the league with their defense that's a problem in and of itself but now you're looking at a team that still has I think the sixth best

scoring defense in the NFL right now and they're about to get Alex Highsmith, a huge piece of their defense, that they've been missing for basically most of the season. This is a team that is incredibly balanced and I think is a lot more dangerous than anyone wanted to give them credit for all season long. And right now, if they can win this game Sunday against the Browns, they'll put themselves in prime position to only have to do a little bit more just to clinch the division. Now, Russell Wilson's playing well right now. It's nice to see him having success in Pittsburgh. And you mentioned the words Brown

and you mentioned prime. Well, the Browns, they ran into some primetime action. A Monday night football thriller, the Denver Broncos improved to eight and five match their win total from last year behind Bo Nix, who connected with Marvin Mims on the 93-yard touchdown. The Broncos' defense, for as bad as it was on Monday night football, found a way to make some terrific plays at the end. It was a little weird, allowing Jerry Judy to go off for a career high, and obviously he went from 30th ranked in terms of receiving yards in the NFL going into the game to now he's fifth after just one game here. They should have found a way to keep Pastor Town on him longer, but it was hard without Riley Moss there. But obviously the Broncos finding a way to be a resilient team. Bo Nix looking well. I know we talked about him last week. Denver's in a position right now.

They're in that seventh spot of the wildcard race, and they got a little bit of cushion there. So things are exciting in the Mile High City. That was an electrifying game there in the Broncos defense. Two pick sixes. I mean, that's tough to do there. High scoring game though. Broncos outlast the Browns. We recapped our teams that were obviously here on the AFC show from week 13. And now we're going to also ask the question here on today's AFC Squad Show. When you look at the division leaders right now in the AFC, is there a team right now who's leading the division

that will be a representative in the Super Bowl this year? We'll debate and discuss here on today's AFC Squad Show, part of Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Today's AFC Squad Show is brought to you by our friends over there at Mint Mobile. And with big wireless providers, what you see is never what you get. Somewhere between the store and your first month's bill, the price you thought you were paying magically skyrockets. With Mint Mobile, you'll never have to worry about gotchas ever again. When Mint Mobile says $15 a month when

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respective divisions across the AFC East, North, West, and South maintain their spot and maybe even represent in the Super Bowl in February? We'll throw that here on today's AFC Squatch. You're part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Just a reminder, you can get coverage of your favorite team every single day wherever you get your podcasts, also from the respective hosts that are here today on the show let's go a little rapid fire here gentlemen because right now obviously when you look at how the afc is broken down seeds one through four you're going to look at obviously kansas city's there the buffalo bills the pittsburgh steelers and the

houston texans and the afc south they're at the bottom of the four seed will any of these representatives be in the super bowl this year when you look at i think everyone's odds on favor you look at it a lot of people are going to say hey kansas city like a lot of people that maybe aren't fans of the teams that you guys cover gonna say hey yeah probably kansas city but when you look at it like the chiefs they were the favorite coming into the year what about the bills the steelers or the texans let's go rapid fire here john who do you think and then we'll throw it to Dave we'll just go in order we'll go rapid fire and then we'll even look at some of the teams

that are you know in those wild card spots do they also have a chance um I would go with Buffalo right now I think they've been the most consistent team through the season um their top six in scoring offense top six in scoring defense um they've got six wins by double digits so far this year. I know a lot of people will look at Kansas City, but the Chiefs aren't really – even though they keep eking out these wins, they're not playing at a super high level right now. I think the performances that get you by Carolina, the performances that get you by the Raiders,

they aren't going to get you by Buffalo. We saw that a couple weeks ago. Look, I understand Buffalo's got the history in the playoffs against Kansas City, but we've seen this through the history of the league. You always say this team can't win the big game until they do. People said this 20 years ago about the Colts, how they could never get through New England,

and then they did. People said in the 90s, the 49ers could never beat the Cowboys. In 94, they did. Look, it's going to be a really tough playoff. i think i think you know there are a lot of teams in the afc that could go far i think the getting the one seat is going to be really important this year and even though kansas city's got the lead right now i don't i kind of like buffalo's chances to get it the bills have a tough game in a couple weeks

at detroit but they fit they're finished their final three games are new england could be a preview and kansas city they still have to play the chargers they still have to play the steelers they still have to play the Chargers. They still have to play the Steelers. They still have to play Denver again in Denver. So I think Buffalo potentially could get the one seed, and that's going to be really important because that gets you out of the wild card round. And I think all three of the AFC wild card games are going to be really tough on the home team. Even if you win, you may face an opponent that takes a lot out of you. So, you know, look, a lot of ways this could go.

You can't count out Kansas City. You can't count out Pittsburgh. You can't count out a lot of a lot of ways this could go and you can't bet you can't count out Kansas City you can't count out Pittsburgh can't count out a lot of teams but I think Buffalo's the odds-on favorite David how are you feeling I mean we mentioned the Bills Steelers and Texans but even like right now you look at the wildcard teams it's the Ravens Chargers Broncos gonna throw here because we're in that category do the Chargers have a chance to represent in the Super Bowl this year how where are you gauging at with where they're at, considering where their offense has been? Yeah, I like the fact that the Chargers have a legitimate head coach here,

and it definitely has been a huge difference in the culture. The Chargers are a different football team than they were last year. They're a much more physical team. They're much more well-disciplined. They are prepared. Every single game they show up they don't look like you know they're out of place which I could not say in previous years so I like the direction that they are going I don't think they have enough firepower on the offensive

side to be able to put up the amount of points it's going to take in the playoffs for them to get there this year now next year after the Chargers have $100 million in cap space and a bunch of picks, then yeah, they can definitely load up and I think be in a much better position to go out there and vie for a Super Bowl. But I think for me on the AFC side, it's two teams. It's the Buffalo Bills and it's the Pittsburgh Steelers. So I think the Pittsburgh Steelers, now that they got things going offensively, they've always been physical. They've always been tough on the defensive side. Now that that offense is starting to match things up,

I mean, they're a scary opponent for anybody to go up against. And the Buffalo Bills, I think, has already shown that they can beat anybody. They beat the Kansas City Chiefs. And to me, the Kansas City Chiefs are finding ways to win games, but they don't look at anywhere as dominant as they have in the years before. Now, there is something to knowing how to win and going out there and finding ways to get things done. But in the manner in which they're doing it does not give me a lot of confidence that when, you know, the margin for error gets ratcheted all the way down,

that they're going to be able to put it together in those critical games against the opponents like you know the buffalo bills and the steelers that can score anytime they need to mike debater you're going to make it two for two on the afc east side and go with the buffalo bills here out of all the seven teams right now in the afc black picture who do you think will best represent who do you think will represent in the super bowl if you had to give a little bit of a too early prediction here yeah yeah i I'm going to go with John on this one, Cody. I definitely am going to go with the Buffalo Bills. Look, there is something to be said about to be the man,

you've got to beat the man, to quote Ric Flair. And I've done that several times here on the squad. Kansas City is still the defending champions, and they always have that chance. You've got Patrick Mahomes. You've got Travis Kelsey. You've got a phenomenal Spagnuolo defense. You still always have a chance to win any game you're in. So until they're officially eliminated and done,

I don't think anybody can count them out. But the one thing that I like about Buffalo that I'm seeing this year is a resilience that we haven't necessarily seen from them in recent years. Joe Marino talked about this a couple of weeks ago. This was supposed to be Buffalo's closed window. Everyone was talking about Miami, maybe even the Jets, taking the division from Buffalo this year because of the losses they sustained. They came back with a solid resolve,

and now that defense is starting to get healthy. Matt Milano's coming back in to provide some continuity and some stability to that defense. So you're getting this team now that looks to be, not only playing their best football, but their best football may still be ahead of them. And that's a scary thing for the teams in the AFC right now.

A lot of talented teams. You guys mentioned the Steelers. You guys mentioned, you know, obviously the Chargers are another team that I think could make a little bit of noise. I'm not counting the Ravens out of anything just yet. But when it comes to what the Buffalo Bills have done this year, I've seen it year after year here in New England. Yeah, there's something about the way that team is playing football this year

that makes me believe this is a team to be reckoned with in the coming weeks. Kevin Ostreicher, how are you feeling about it? I know we talked about it earlier, the struggles of Justin Tucker. We talked about how big and how important he is in the post season. Maybe this is something that just lingers in the regular season and maybe, Hey, the post season, Justin Tucker gets his groove back and he's got to ask Stella first. Yeah. I mean,

I like the Ravens will always have a chance as long as Lamar Jackson's on the field. He always gives you a chance to win. And now that you've added Derek Henry, that duo will give you as good of a chance as anybody, but the way that they're playing right now, they're not going to be able to represent the AFC. They have to definitely clean some things up, which is why, again, we were kind of here in Baltimore and saw this bye week is too late.

But now everybody's kind of thinking, well, this might be the best thing to happen to this team right now. So they can sort some stuff out and get ready for their stretch run. So the level of confidence right now in Baltimore is definitely low, especially after you lose two of three games. Obviously the Steelers and the Eagles being those two losses and kind of the way that you lose them with self-inflicted mistakes and essentially being out physical.

And that's been something that's given the Ravens fits all season when there's just a bigger, more physical defensive line in front of their offensive line. I mean, it happened with Philadelphia. It happened with Pittsburgh, Kansas city earlier in the season. It's like those fronts have given the Ravens issues, but then for a team like Buffalo, that really doesn't have the horses on the defensive line. Baltimore is able to dominate them. And you know, a team like Tampa who has beat Avea. But other than that, it's like, who else is on that line? And even Denver, who has some guys on that D line, Denver has some physical players, but they were even able to dominate over there as well. So I feel like to me, the Ravens have a

chance, but if they play the way that they're playing now in the playoffs, they will not get the job done. And matchups play a big factor too. I think Baltimore would run over Houston in the wildcard round if it was four or five. Like, I feel like a lot of wildcard teams want that Houston matchup as opposed to Buffalo, Kansas City or Pittsburgh or whoever wins the North or whatnot. But I feel like it's all matchup based here. And it usually is in the postseason because you might be running over teams one way or the other. But if you get that one bad matchup, it might be bad for you. Chris Carter locked on Steelers. I mean, locked on Steelers. I mean, obviously the Steelers' defense, the way that they're playing,

the way T.J. Watt is playing, and with Russell Wilson finding his groove right now, they're a dangerous team right now. Do you feel like they could represent in the Super Bowl here? I feel like they could. Like John and like Mike, I think that the Bills are still the clear favorite right now. They're playing the best football. They haven't lost since early October, and they've earned their wins. They've also been very confident in some of their wins.

I think that's the thing, though, is that Josh Allen knows what he's doing. He's got those guys locked up. But as Kevin brought up, styles make fights. And when they faced the Ravens back in late September, the Ravens destroyed them. And sure, you can say they've grown, the Ravens back in late September, the Ravens destroyed them. And sure, you can say they've grown, the Ravens have grown, that everyone's kind of a little bit different since then. But I do think there's something to the idea that there's going to be a team that knows how to run the football well that could be the team that represents the AFC,

just like the Lions are probably going to be the team that represent the NFC. They were my preseason pick in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to even win the Super Bowl I had with the Detroit Lions doing it this year. I think that there's – I've said for a while, the pendulum shift in the NFL was coming. I said it for years. People wanted to say, oh, Joe Burrow, Dr. Mahomes, they're just going to be throwing for 5,000 yards all the time, every time,

and everyone just needs to find the new Joe Burrow. That's not going to last you for so long. And look at it right now. Joe Burrow, he's throwing for 5,000. It doesn't matter. Teams that know how to control the pace of play with other parts of their team are winning right now. And that's what the Steelers are doing well.

I think the Bills do enough of that in their offense. They're not just solely relying on Josh Allen, though he is absolutely the star that makes the drink. And I think that right now he should be the MVP candidate. But I also look at how things could play out. Like you said, the Lions game isn't going to be easy. Did the Bills stumble at some point down the line here? I also think home field advantage could play a huge part in this. Cody, you guys were talking about it earlier. If the Bills stumble against the Lions and lose one other random game to like the Rams or the Patriots or the Jets, those seem unlikely. But, you know, if one of those happen, it could be the Chiefs

or it could be the Steelers who claim the number one seed in the AFC. What a wild event that would be. Listen, Kevin knows. We did our AFC North preview. I said they're making the playoffs, but I thought the Ravens would win the division. I thought the Steelers would be really good to get close at least to the point where they're at now. I just thought the Ravens would be a little bit above where they are.

I didn't think they'd have some of the losses they'd have on their schedule. But I do think when it gets to the playoffs, all bets are off. I think that this is going to be one of the best years of parity we've seen in the NFL. I think we're seeing that in college football right now, and I think it's going to make for a lot of fun when we get to January and the snow's flying and the teams are playing do or die football. You mentioned a run game, and right now, I mean, the Broncos are in a position to make the postseason, which I think is exceeding every expectation people had of them. The one thing they don't have is a good run game.

I set the Twitter world on fire. I called out a national analyst who said that Bo Nix was supported by a strong run game. And I was like, if anyone's been watching the Broncos, you know that they don't have a good run game. It's been 30 straight games since they've had a running back hit 100 yards. That was back when Jerry Rosberg was the interim head coach and Latavius Murray was the tailback of this team.

It's been a long, long time. Raven legend. Raven legend. See? A long, long time since that has been the case here. And so it's like for Denver with how good – like Bo Nix is playing really good football right now for them. They're not going to go far if they can't run.

And look, the more I look at it, the more I'm hoping the Bills get home field advantage because if Denver stays in that seventh spot, I kind of like a Broncos-Chiefs matchup in the wildcard round. I think that would be a tough matchup, I think, for the Chiefs. And I also think it would be a fun matchup to test where the Broncos are. And there could be a little bit of spoilers. They're not saying anything, but certainly that could be the case here. But, you know, obviously looking ahead here, we want to hear your input from your favorite NFL teams.

If we made a case for your team, make sure you lay it out there. If you want to make one, we didn't talk about your team enough, lay it out there and we'll try to address it here going forward. One thing we are going to preview as well is some Week 14 matchups here around the league. Do the Chargers have a shot to make a statement against the Kansas City Chiefs

this week? If they can, what will that statement be? We'll debate that much more here on today's AFC Squad Show, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Today's AFC Squad Show is brought to you by our friends over there at Fandu. As you all know, Fandu is America's number one sportsbook, and they want you to get ready to tackle week 14 around the NFL inside of the FanDuel Sportsbook app, where you can bet on money lines, point spreads, player props, and more all inside of their app. And right now, new customers can bet $5 and get $150 in bonus bets if you win.

The FanDuel Sportsbook app gives you everything that you need to place live bets on the NFL all in one place. So when you're watching the games, whether that's Thursday night, Sunday night, or Monday night football, you can check out the latest stats. You can view live play by play and so much more on the same page where you place your bets. Just visit fanduel.com to join today and you'll get started with $150 in bonus bets. If you win your first $5. That's Fanduel.com. Never waste a hunch and make every moment more with Fanduel, an official sportsbook partner of the NFL. Week 14 around the National Football League is here, and we're going to take a look at some of the bigger matchups

with some of the AFC teams as you go into it. A lot of playoff stakes right here. You have a couple teams on the back end still in the hunt there the bangles barely hanging on the miami dolphins obviously in a position right there they suffered a loss to the green bay packers on thanksgiving and then uh the indianapolis colts hang on for another week and keep their hopes alive while denver baltimore and the chargers round out those final three spots right there in terms of seeds five through seven uh really the biggest game of the week here right now in terms of the five through seven uh really the biggest game of the week here right now in terms of the afc side it's got to be chargers chiefs right we in agreeance

on that one let's go rapid fire here i want to go through bold predictions here chargers chiefs and then we're going to take a look at brown steelers i know chris that's going to be another afc north matchup the steelers looking for a little bit of redemption after losing on thursday night football there these feel like the two biggest games right now for the AFC Conference. Let's start off with John. John, your thoughts on maybe a key takeaway, bold prediction for either of these two games. I don't know if it's bold. I think the Steelers are going to run up the score on the Browns.

I think this is a revenge game after what happened on Thursday night a few weeks ago. Games in Pittsburgh. I would be really surprised if the Steelers didn't win and win pretty handily. David, we're going to throw it to you now. Yeah, so I think for this game with the Chargers and the Chiefs, last time these two teams played, Justin Herbert had a high ankle sprain he was still dealing with. There was no Rashawn Slater.

There was no Derwin James. He was suspended for that game. So, you know, this is a game where the Chargers are going to be in much better shape health wise. You know, the thing is, is who's going to step up on that offense? You know, because like, hey, we know with the Chiefs, if you want to beat them, you got to you got to finish with the ball. You got to finish in victory formation. You can't give them any time on the clock because they can score in 13 seconds, as they have showcased. So, you know, this is a team where, you know, this is a big statement game. This is really the last, you know, I wouldn't say the last, but it's one of the biggest opportunities of the week, of the year, really, for the Chargers to be able to plant their flag and say, hey, I am here. I am a team that you need to worry about, that you need to prepare for, that you should be worried about when the playoffs hit.

This is their chance. And up to this point, all of the games that they've had to play against, you know, the upper echelon teams in the AFC, they have not been able to get it done. So this is it. You know, if they're going to win this game, they're going to have to show it on the offensive side. They can't completely disappear in the second half of games. Like they have a lot this season. You can't do it against the

Kansas city chiefs or else you're going to lose. Well, Kevin, Mike, you, I mean, you two and I, we can enjoy the bi-week. We didn't watch all these games stress-free and have some fun here. So let it rip here on these bold predictions between these two games, Brown Steelers or the Chargers and Chiefs. Mike, where are you leaning? Well, if I'm going to be a little bit of a homer and I'm going to do that, I'm going to go with Patriot legend Jalen Rager maybe having an impact on the Chargers Chiefs. Look, bottom line, I know that's going to raise a lot of eyebrows and it's going to get a lot of people laughing at me, even in Los Angeles. But I did watch Jalen during training camp and

there is an ability that this kid has to rise to the occasion in moments where you don't think he has it in him. He has the speed to be able to get it done. One way to try to help neutralize that Kansas City defense is to maybe catch them off guard in a matter of what they weren't expecting it. Rager is someone that can make plays. So I'm not saying it's going to happen, but I'm just saying keep a sharp eye out because he is a guy that I think is capable of a lot more than he gets credit for it. So if you want a bold prediction, yeah, I think that's one of them. But more of my tame prediction, I think the Chargers give the Chiefs all they can handle this weekend. That's always a tough matchup for Kansas City. Los Angeles rises to the occasion. I think the Chargers give the Chiefs all they can handle this weekend. That's always a tough matchup for Kansas City.

Los Angeles rises to the occasion. I think they will this weekend. All righty. There you go. You heard it here first. Kevin Ostreicher, where are you leaning? Are you going to stick with the AFC North? Are you going to go with a little bit of an AFC West battle here? John and I are on the same wavelength because I agree.

I think that the Pittsburgh Steelers are going to handle business against Cleveland. A lot of that is because, obviously, we talked about the trap game a couple weeks ago and if it was won or not, and that happened. But now it's okay. Pittsburgh knows what now they're going up against, and Jameis Winston, and I feel like now it's like, okay, you got yours. Now we're going to go get ours back.

So I'm with John on that. The Chargers-Chiefs game, I'm going to say my bold prediction is Los Angeles beats Kansas City by two scores by two touchdowns actually I'll go to touchdown it's not that bold I think all of us are picking the Chargers but I'm going like blow out I'm going blow out like okay this is an arrowhead yeah I mean I think to me that it's it's like David said I think the Chargers they're gonna get up for this game because they know that this is the statement game. This is where David, I a hundred percent agree. It's like, Hey, everybody's talking about how the chiefs all pull out these close games. And like,

everybody's talking about two to three time chance back to back. No, Hey, we're in this division too, by the way, if you didn't know that, like this isn't just the chiefs West and Cody, I know you can kind of sympathize with that too, because everybody's talking about the chiefs in that division when you have two other good teams in that division, but it's almost just like they can't keep getting away with it. Right. They can't keep getting away with it. And then we say it every week and it happens.

So I'm going to say the Taylor, the Taylor Swift magic runs out this week and the charges get the job done and convincing fashion. All righty. Chris Carter throwing it to you now. Yeah. I don't mean to jump over. Did Kevin,

I just thought it was funny because this is like my third show where I've all righty chris carter throwing it to you now yeah i don't mean to jump over did uh kevin i just thought it was funny because this is like my third show where i've done a prediction on this and both times i was like this person's not gonna pick the the chargers they're gonna pick the chiefs and they're like no i'm picking the charge i'm like what the heck and so i thought i was on the limb and then i come on this show and you're picking the charges you're picking the charge and you're bringing the job we're like're picking the Chargers, you're picking the Chargers. We're like, well, this is not that unique after all. I'm just going with the wave here. So I'm right with you guys. I think the Chargers win this one.

Just the Chiefs have been eking out so many weird ways. I think eventually something crumbles there. And they might bounce back and still be the team to beat in the playoffs. I think this week is just the Chargers week. When it comes to the Steelers-Browns, y'all been saying it too. Like, that was the short week on the road. If you're going back and you watch the all 22, I want you to click on the end of the Steelers,

like first defensive possession in the second half and the beginning of the second defensive possession in the second half. It looked like a normal day and then blizzard. And it was just the lake effect snow just crushed that game. So you had the short week, the road game, the blizzard. You had George Pickens getting thrown to the ground by every angle all the time. Even on the Hail Mary, they just dragged him out of bounds when the ball was out in the air.

And it still took that for the Browns to win by five. I think the Steelers, Mike Tomlin is a good coach. He's a great coach in my opinion. I think one thing that he does is he gets his guys geared up for big moments. They were geared up on an offense for this game. If you go back and you watch the hard knocks for this week, you'll see him talking to Nick Herbig, who had that big sack strip fumble on Joe Burrow

that led to the touchdown the other way. I would be scared to be on the other side of Mike Tomlin this week because I think that he has got it into these players. This is a physical football team. They play really good defense. They want to run the ball on you. And now they can throw the ball on you, deep, short, tight end, receiver, running back, whatever.

The Browns are going to need Myles Garrett to completely go ballistic again in this game if they have any chance. If they do not, I think the Steelers dog walk them in this one, and that's where I have it going. I think my prediction right now is 33-16 Steelers. All right, multiple scores here at this point. And look, I don't disagree. I'm going to stay with the trend here. I don't know if I have anything bold to say necessarily, but i do think that the chargers are going to be a team

that hey right now look they don't have jk dobbins he's got the knee injury everyone's saying all right they're not going to have much here so you know lad mcconkey's banged up all right what do the chargers have this is where justin herbert i think in these matchups against patrick mahomes he rises to the occasion now you have the x factor factor of Jim Harbaugh there in the mix. I know they're going to have a really good game plan going into that game. I think the Chargers are going to win. I'm not going to say they're going to win by two scores like Kevin did, but I think the Chargers are going to eke out a win here.

Now all of a sudden the Buffalo Bills and Kansas Seeds are going to be vying for that number one seed at the end of the season here. I'm also to greens. I think that the Cleveland Browns just don't have enough steam in them. Monday night game, short week, and now you're playing an angry, fired-up Steelers team that Mike Tomlin's now mic'd up because of hard knocks. He doesn't like it.

But, man, it's going to be appointment viewing for all of us that love football. And obviously, if you're in the AFC North, it's going to be fun to watch regardless here. But one thing we all know is we're going to be watching week 14 around the NFL, in particular the AFC. I wanted to say thank you so much to everyone who makes us your first listen of the day or if you're an everydayer of the respective teams. Or if your team isn't here, if their host isn't here, we have a lockdown podcast for you.

So make sure you find it here on the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. That'll wrap up this week's edition of the AFC Squad Show. You know that. We'll be back next week for another episode of the show. We might have to hold some of these bold predictions to the fire. We'll see you then.