NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 2016 Week 15 review

Episode Date: December 19, 2016

A room filled with heroes – Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler, Chris Wesseling, and Gregg Rosenthal – go game-by-game breaking down all the Week 15 action which included a showing from the one and only Tom Savage after Texans head coach Bill O’Brien decided to bench Brock Osweiler mid-game. Plus, a close Sunday night matchup between the Cowboys and the surging Tampa Bay Buccaneers.Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. The Around the NFL podcast has proof that Tom Savage is not a hologram. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansis, and I am joined by a room filled with heroes. Mark Sessler, Chris Westling, and Greg Rosenthal. What's up, boys? Hey, Dan. What's happening?

What's happening is if you're lucky enough to be watching this. Live on Periscope right now, you see what the rest of us see, which is Mark Sessler, in one of the finest holiday sweaters I have ever seen. It's a Cleveland Brown sweater and a sweater that really is gorgeous, quite frankly. Yeah, I think it reflects where the team is at right now and where my voice is at. My voice is an absolute mess. Your voice has been fine all day. What's happening?

I don't know. It's a late day crumble. I don't know what's going to happen to me during this show. You wore the sweater at a holiday party last night. Did you get judged at the party at all? It's a Cleveland Browns. Yeah, it's an NFL sanctioned sweater. You can go buy it.

It's one of those. You can buy it. I did not knit it myself. It is available to you through normal channels. Mark, in the holiday spirit. Even if the Browns, well, the Browns are the season of giving in a lot of ways. Yes, they are week after week. This is our last...

Line up and take from them. We'll get to the Browns a little bit. bit later, as they attempt to avoid going 116, it's getting, starting to get really uncomfortable there. But so many games to get to today in the NFL. And Greg, this is now, this is your time. It is time. You put down the calculator.

The calculations. Computations, tabulations. Permutations. It's Greg time. That's it? It's just Greg time? Oh, that's why you're waiting for me to talk. I got Sydney working overtime right at the top of the show.

We are starting to figure some things out, you know, more than how excited it gets. More than two weeks out, you know, there's too many different scenarios. But now you pretty much can lock it all in. It's also Greg time because Greg's favorite team is surging towards the Super Bowl for like the 18th time in his lifetime. Yes, and we will get to that as well. So a lot of reasons why it's great to be NFL Network's Greg Rosenthal right now. No, it can't be. That's NFL Network's Greg Rosenthal.

That was a different one. Yeah, so you mix it up. Let's start. We will talk about Greg's Patriots, but let's start with the biggest news of the day in a game where there was a benching, all sorts of stuff going on. Let's go to Houston, the first game of the day.

Bordles to the middle of the field. It's picked off. Quentin and he wisely goes down at the 25-yard line. 16th interception this season for Blake Bortals, and the Texans can kill the clock and beat Jacksonville for the sixth straight time. Blake Bortals is a terrible quarterback. Andrew Catalan of CBS with that call, Tom Savage replaced an ineffective Brock Oswald.

Yeah, I said Tom Savage. Tom Savage is real. And helped spark a big comeback for the Texans who wiped out a 13-point deficit in a 21-to-20 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. And, you know, we'll get into the Houston QB saga in a moment. But let's start with the announcement shortly after the game that the Jaguars fired Gus Bradley after nearly four seasons of absolute ineptitude. Chris Wessling, I start with you a move overdue for a lot of the fan base, but still the

timing, interesting. Interesting timing. I would think you'd just have him close out the season. For him, it's an early Christmas gift as they're a lot of. owners said because he doesn't have to game plan for Blake Bortles the next two weeks. It's impossible to win a game with Blake Bortles at

quarterback. He joined them on the flight home, which I find very, well, highly awkward. I've never heard of anything like that. He's so well liked, you can almost imagine that it's not a long flight, but it turned into a little bit of a goodbye for him and

all his players. I mean, people love Gus Bradley. Doesn't mean he did a good job. His defense was finally coming together a little bit this year. But the problem I have in that statement, and I think this gets to the problem of what's going on in Jacksonville. Oh, that statement. The final statement, I'm not even going to talk about the fact that they said it was a Christmas

gift for Bradley. The last line where he says, I feel like is an extremely talented team. So they're looking for a new head coach to lead an extremely talented team. Dave Caldwell, the current GM, is going to do that. This team has won 14 games in four years. All we ever hear is how talented. they are. They've convinced themselves or the general managers convince the owner how talented they are. I mean, the record shows they are as talent poor as any team in the league over the last

four years. I know there's some good players on it, but they're not that talented. Yeah, but if you're the owner and you're putting, you know, a billion plus dollars of your own money into it, you want to see the positive. You want to find a coach that you want to pick on Gus Bradley about one thing. It's that you could argue a lot of high picks and players with physical talent have not reached their peak performance at all under that regime. I just mean take a look in the mirror. Take an honest look instead of trying to convince yourself that you're great, which they've been doing every single year. But this isn't the 2013 or 14 roster. This is a 2016 roster. And we know that players like Alan Robinson and Julius Thomas are talented. They just haven't been able to produce

with Blake Bortles. I hated the timing of the firing. You know, the statement bothered me a lot. You know, we're going to give them time to spend time with this family at Christmas. The fact that they put them on the charter flight is a fired head coach. You can't wait until tomorrow morning. Come back to us, Jaguars. But this is what we're talking about with this team.

It's been, can't get out of their own way. And even when they were the popular darling pick in August to be frisky in the AFC, they've been worse than ever. So it's been well overdue for Gus Bradley to be out of town. He lasted essentially four years when most coaches get fired after two. He has the lowest winning percentage in NFL history, and it's not that close. For coaches in the Super Bowl era that have over 50 games, your boy, Dave Shula's second. It's not that close in terms of percentage.

Well, one last thing. Everyone always bad teams complain about stop turning over so much. We want consistency. Give coach X, player X, way more time. Sometimes this is where it gets you. Right. That is a flip side. Now, let's talk about the Texans.

And I want to start going back to the CBS telecast because when the move was made, Brock Osweiler had thrown interceptions in successive possessions, both of them bad and classic Osweiler picks. I can't believe it. One where he scrambled, set his feet, and then threw high to Will Fuller

who couldn't bring in him for a pick, and then a second where he just didn't see a linebacker. And this is the way Houston fans reacted when they saw Tom Savage come on the field. And look at this. Osweiler is better. Tom Savage is coming into the game and the fans here in Houston go nuts

They were going It's real, three years setting up this bit It finally pays off Tom Savage is real One more Tom Savage is real And what does Tom Savage do? He takes over that position Takes him down to the goal line

They don't convert on a fourth and goal From the one terrible play calling by Bill O'Brien botched that situation But they fought back. They had four scoring drives, I believe, under Tom Savage and got the game-winning touchdown on a Lamar Miller run and then held on defense at the end, which is what you heard. So they did the job. And I don't see, Mark, any way that you go back to Brock Osweiler.

And I just don't see it. And I think we have audio, Sid, of what Bill O'Brien said about the game, said about the switch. At that point in time, I just felt like that was the best decision at that point in time for. the team and i think we've got three really talented quarterbacks here i really do is that familiar west you can call BS on that you can say whatever you want i do we have really talented quarterback room and we don't make decisions on you know how much a guy gets paid we make decisions on how what's the best way to win a game and uh that was the decision we made today and i thought uh you know today it worked out okay mark i mean yeah you asked do you go back to him you've got two games left against

the Bengals and a week 17 showdown with the Titans that probably decides this division. So if you get anything out of Tom Savage, no, you don't sit them because you were getting sub-zero-nothing from Brock Osweiler. I understand the patience, but it got too far. They finished out this game in stirring fashion. I know it's the Jaguars, but this is a team in a playoff race that scored the last 13 points of the game to have a big time comeback. It would seem crazy to go away from Savage at that point.

And because of this win, this was huge for them. They can lose that game on Christmas Eve. Are you doing tabulations? Done some tabulations. Okay, what do you got? And really, for them, they have a margin of error. They're 5 and 0 in the division. They just got to beat the Titans.

They beat the Titans. They win the division. Next week doesn't matter. They could lose 100 to nothing or win 100 to nothing. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter for them necessarily. It matters for the Titans. They got to make sure they don't lose the Jaguars.

They can also lose their first playoff game, which they will do if they get into the playoffs. And you've got to win in Tennessee, and they could clinch next week. It still could matter. All they have to do is beat the best team in the division with a quarterback making a second career start. Right. It's not going to be easy. I'm saying next week not as big for them. When it comes to this quarterback room that Bill O'Brien's always talking about,

I don't trust a word he says not even hello. He's a liar, and he can't make a decision. Their owner, Bob McNair called this a gutsy move after the game. A gutsy move would have been making this decision in week nine during their buy before a three-game losing streak that forces them now to have to beat the Titans in week seven. Preach, Wes. Your boy, or my boy, I guess. Jadavene and Clownie, you said had a big game team.

You're going to fall in love. You might have to stay seated for a while when you watch the game tape, Greg. That's all I'm going to say. Clownie had a big game in this matchup. Let's move on to the throne of ease. Snap to Brady, give to blood, runs it up the middle, fighting his way to the goal line. Is that Wes? He breaks the play.

And he breaks a Patriot record. The 15th rushing touchdown of the year. What's for LaGarrett Blunt? Oh, come on. Fifteen touchdowns for LaGarrett Blunt? What world am I in? This is life on the throne of ease. Legarrett Blunt ran for his league leading 15th touchdown of the season

as Bob Sosci. WBZ said. And the Patriots completely shut down Trevor Simeon in the Broncos' offense. The final score, I believe it was 16 to 3. Yes, it was at mile high. The Patriots have clinched an NFL record, eighth consecutive division title. They extend their NFL record with their seventh consecutive playoff by.

Congrats, Greg. Thanks. Feels good. How does it feel? I mean, honestly, half the people in this room don't know. Oh, no. Right off the bat, we have a someone picked against the. Pat's in a lock scenario.

Connie Fox. Oh, Connie. Connie's been doing so well lately. She had gotten big in all three of it. Yeah. Go ahead. The buy situation feels great. To me, that says it all.

The post-Gronk era is far more dominant than they were pre-Gronk, even though they haven't won the titles, just in terms of regular season dominance. And this one feels terrific because they're doing it with defense. They're doing it with complementary football, and they're playing their best football now in December. out what have been their toughest AFC foes over the last five years or so in Baltimore and Denver in successive weeks. To win in Denver for them is a big deal.

Do you foresee any time in your life when you undergo any sort of struggle in terms of being a football fan or personally? Well, my personal life isn't all, you know, I'm just sunshine and roses. The second Tom Brady retires. I thought the story of this game was really encapsulated by a report. from Tracy Wolfson, that Josh McDaniels in their meeting asked the offensive players, stand up if you were part of this game in the AFC championship game loss. And he said if you weren't part of the game, most of the room stood up because that offensive line was a liability and they were mostly injured last year.

Stephen Jackson was starting at running back, I believe. The wide receivers were different. In this game, Brady had a healthy offensive line and was not harassed that much. part of that was the game plan where it was a run heavy game plan and when he did drop back the patriots were not going to let von miller be the decisive factor in this game they got rid of the ball so fast von miller had one hurry in this game well that was game plan that is it a guy that almost single-handedly won the a fc championship game and that's why they interviewed marcus cannonette for the post game interview well that's that's a nice job by the telecast there because they got what was the real difference in this game

but again, I think the only team that has any chance here to stop them as the Steelers, and they're not a perfect beast either. There is such a difference between the team right now, even without Grunk and the team last year that lost to Denver, and it's because they can protect Brady. If you protect Brady, you're just not going to beat the Patriots. They did really well with protecting Brady today. Joe Tuny, the rookie guard, gave up his first two sacks on Brady of the season.

But other than that, there were even plays where Brady had four or five seconds to scan the field and hit his receivers. and then the defense, the front seven lately with Trey Flowers leading, Jabal Shurg, even Kyle Van Nuoy, who they got in the trade at midseason from the Lions are playing well. Malcolm Butler has really emerged as one of the best all-around cornerbacks in the NFL. He erased Emmanuel Sanders in this game. We talked on Thursday about watching Tennessee barrel through Denver's defense

and that maybe that boated well for New England. Was it the same type of approach? I mean, the results look fantastic, but do they have the – the same level of ease the Tennessee did. It was much different in this way. The Titans came out and put it on the Broncos, 140 yards in the first half on the ground. The Patriots really struggled on offense in the first quarter. It was Tom Brady's least effective first quarter in 13 years.

And the running game, Dionne Lewis eventually got going and flirted with 100 yards, but it was a lot more hard fought than the Titans last week. But that Dionne Lewis performance to me is telling that he ended up with more carries than Blunt and he's looked better each and every week. and their running game is so important. And I, you know, Mike Rees, who I think does a great job, thought this was their most impressive, complete performance of the year.

And when you listen to Belichick, I think he feels that way, too, because you've got to have different ways to win in January. And this defense, they haven't played any good quarterbacks. So that's a problem. Like, it's hard to figure out what, how big a factor that is. They haven't really played other than Russell Wilson, any good quarterbacks.

But when you look at the players, Flowers is playing awesome. You know, you mentioned. Butler. McCordy's had a big couple games. Malcolm Brown, their first round. They're starting to win it with defense and running in addition to not just Brady, and that's what's making me feel good.

I'm happy for you, Greg. I like you. How could you not be? But this is one of the Patriots get on my radar every few weeks or so. It's just something that I really hate. What do you mean every few? What do you mean every week? I'm being honest, like truly on my radar where I like I like football less because they don't stop winning.

Like today's a perfect example. What a horrible boring game. The AFC late game on a week 15, you look for a nice taught affair between two rivals. And what do you get? A snooze fest, 603. That's the Broncos fault, not the Patriots. Well, you know, I'm just saying I want some exciting

games in the AFC and I might not get one this season. You might not. I mean, this is a Bill Belichick dream this game. He loves this. Yeah. He absolutely loves that. And the Broncos are in trouble now. I mean, they've got two tough games.

They've scored one touchdown in their last 10 quarters on offense. So they fell apart, you know, they didn't do anything with Paxton Lynch. Not going to kill them for that. But they scored one touchdown against the Titans, not exactly a shutdown defense. Patriots are now first in the league in scoring defense, which is crazy. But this is not a shutdown Patriots defense. And you end up with three points. It's not crazy that the number one.

If you're the Broncos, the season is absolutely lying. You have the chiefs on the road, then you close with the Raiders. That is a rough scenario. And you have to win both of them. You're outside the playoff picture right now along with the Titans and Raiders. or whoever that second AFC South team is and AFC North team. Let's move on and check in on the Titans. Cute team.

Brinkley to snap, turn to hold, snap, set, kick on the way. Good! Oh! Ryan Suckup has given the title a 19 to 17 win at Arrowhead. Oh my goodness! Oh, 186 has not. never felt better. Oh.

And I don't think Ryan Suckup has ever felt better. Oh, Mike Keith WGFX. Oh, that goes straight into the top 10 with a bullet. Wow. Feeling his onion. Top 10 calls will reveal them in January or our favorite calls or maybe February of the season. And Mike Keith just clinched a spot.

And he's in the running for number one. Wow. Ryan Suckup Revenge game really took center stage there. Ryan Suckups, 53-yard field goals, time expired, lifted the Titans to a dramatic 19 to 17 win over the Chiefs at Arrowhead. Suckups make came moments after his first attempt fell several yards short

but didn't count because Andy Reid called a timeout icing. Enough with the icing, Greg. The Chiefs got way too safe in the second half and the Titans made them pay in the end. Marcus Marriota had to me a defining fourth quarter in his development. These are new situations for him. He has two turnover.

in the first three quarters. Both of them really on him. The Chief's defense doing a good job, and he leads three different scoring drives in the fourth quarter. One of them's an 84-yard drive, an 88-yard drive, where he hits a third and long, hits another third-and-long, hits a beautiful fourth-and-five pass. The game's over if he doesn't make that pass.

After one of his receivers dropped the pass the game of four, gets the touchdown. They go for two. It doesn't work. Didn't like that call. And they get the ball back, and he leads him in position for the field goal again. So with money, you know, just the playoff spot on the line,

it was just a big time effort from Mario to late. It was a cute game, Dan. I was wrong. That's all right. The first person to do wrong here, and I was. Where are you now with the Titans? I'm in. Listen, the Broncos game last week,

I wasn't as amped about because I don't really believe in Denver this season, but this was an awesome comeback. I mean, the Chiefs really, really had a chance to put this game away. and good teams take advantage of other teams not finishing the job. I feel bad for you because the deal wasn't that you can't jump on the bandwagon this year. It's that when they go 13 and 3 next year, it's right. You're not allowed on the bandwagon.

That's right. I forgot. Well, the good news is for me is that I'm a Jets fan, so, you know, I don't really care. However, you know what? I underestimated them. But I have to say, Mark, I don't know how closely you watch a game or anybody here, but the Chiefs are up 14 nothing. Well, I wasn't trying to sell you down the river.

No, I mean, it's, you know, it's a fair question and you're right to be suspicious. 14-0-0 lead for the Chiefs at home, Greg. Finish it. They had, the recipe was all there. They did the things that they've done every week. They won the turnover battle three to one. They got the big plays from their playmaker, Tyree Kill with a 68-yard touchdown. Eric Barry forces a fumble. But the game, to me, turned on Alex Smith, who had been playing awesome, really good game out of Alex Smith,

threw a god-awful pick in the red zone that was two different times that they went inside the 10 didn't get a single point they were stuck on the goal line one time and when you win games like that every week on these kind of these these margins sometimes it kind of comes back the other way on you it's their formula i see in this line i highlighted the phrase missed opportunities that you wrote they rely on creating opportunities right and if you're going to miss the ones you have they're not they're not good enough to just walk all over a team like the titan it And sometimes it's little plays like the Anthony Thomas drops a third and nine in the fourth quarter that would have extended a drive. It was just totally on him. You know, who knows if he catches that, but they made those sort of mistakes. Sometimes it's big decisions like Andy Reid icing the kicker. And where's the logic there? And I got it. That's one of my least favorite things in football is icing the kicker.

In this case, it was a 53-yard field goal in single- one-degree weather. One-degree weather. And you're icing the kicker when it's literally ice outside. You don't need to do anything like that. And all it did, as I think, Wes, you pointed out downstairs. It just let him know, hey, you've got to kick it harder the second time because the first one landed at the base of the goalpost, if I'm not mistaken.

I saw a tweet about suckup where he said after the game, it allowed me to say, hey, I'm going to abandon my technique. There you go. Because I don't have enough leg if I keep my technique and just boom it. It's in a year where the kicker's mindset has been such an issue, you're giving him more information in another opportunity. You're warming up. It was the first line in your write-up, Greg.

Abolish the icing the kicker scenario, and you know what? It's a legitimate request. I love Andy Reid. I think he's a great coach and underrated coach, but he cost his team the game. Well, it was a bad day for his coach of the year thing. Not only that, if they win the game, if they convert a third and three, when they got the ball back, you know, after Tennessee missed the two-point conversion, which was a ballsie call. And they run an option play with Alex Smith, and I just, I don't know, I hated that call. But go Titan's defense.

We've been killing them a lot. Held the Chiefs scoreless in the second half. They were really the reason they could come back. I thought the defense looked good against Denver last week, and it's kind of jelling at the perfect time. And, you know, until this very moment, Wes, I forgot the stakes were this high. Like, I'm not looking to get on another bandwagon,

but this is pretty high stakes. I can never get on the bandwagon now. Wait, ever? Ever? In the Marioo era? I believe so, right? Well, I think there is a penance you can do to get back in good grade. Not interested.

You're not interested. Of Taitunes fans. Let's move on. Rivers will work from the gun. Here they come. Irvin with a contact and that pass is intercepted. Picked off by Reggie Nelson. Nelson will stumble forward just shy of the 10.

And the Raiders and their fans can taste it. Bruce Irvin brought the pressure. Reggie Nelson made the play and the Raiders clinched the playoffs. with a 1916 win over the chargers in front of, as you heard, thousands of silver and black supporters in San Diego, Spiro Detus of CBS with the call. Mark Sessler, the Raiders, are going to the playoffs for the first time since 2002,

and they did it with a gutty little effort against the frisky balls. Yeah, congratulations to, you know, we live here in Southern California, and I feel like any time you go out to a sports bar, but really anywhere, that's a fan base, the Raiders fans that wear their jerseys out to fancy dinner. They don't care what anyone thinks. And I'm happy for them. What fancy dinners you go out there lately? I'm just saying you see them anywhere.

That's true. They travel and we've taken that team to town many times on this show. Deservedly. Deservedly. This year they deserve our utter respect. And it's for winning a game like they did today. It did not go according to the typical silver and black script from this season. You know, they have been a team that only the Falcons have scored 30 points or more in a game

than the Raiders this season. They've done it seven times. Last couple weeks, they've struggled, and I don't blame it on Derek Carr's dislocated Pinky. He looked fine throwing the ball out of the shotgun again. I think it's San Diego's defense is, you know, for a team with 16 players on Injured Reserve, they did not give up on their coach. They played this thing right down to the end like they were still in the playoff hunt. They gave the Raiders, you know, all they could handle.

But I think that Oakland has two things positive that came out of this. One, Carr's health still looks fine. And B, they got out of some. jams with their ground game and they're going to need to do that on the road they're going to need to do that in cold weather if they plan to get through january so it was not a remarkable win but it was an incredibly gutsy road win that essentially completely put them into a much better position than they were a day ago in the a fc they they basically at this point have the second seed wrapped up they've got to take care of the cults and then the broncos well that's not wrapped up

i don't think the raiders can be assumed to win i'm not saying wrapped up but if you if you if you if you take care of the cults next week and that's a big yeah which cults show up that's all that matter and which raiders show up this this team as much as i love the fact that they never abandon the run when they're playing from behind they always stick to the run and that's great but for stretches of each of the last three games they have been shut down by defenses i just look at the rest of the teams we're discussing outside of the Steelers and this to me is the team that is clearly the second best team in the aFC to me and that's why that's why that's That suck-up kick is so big because the Chiefs now fall all the way down to the five-seed.

And you're right. I don't think the Raiders are a cinch to beat Indianapolis or to win in Denver, certainly, in week 17. But that is a huge jump to get up to the point where now they're in the mix for the number one seed. They're in the mix for the buy. I'm interested in that, Mark. You think that even the Chiefs swept the Raiders, you think the Raiders are the clear number two in this conference. I, you know, I'm not going to go back on this kill the Chiefs thing. I just think that the chiefs are, do I trust the chiefs to go through the playoffs without a buy

to somehow go on the road and pull their act through to the Super Bowl? Absolutely not. You think the Raiders basically comes down to. I think the Raiders, listen, some of this is not scientific. They're best game. I know we want to make everything super scientific. It's not about science. I think the Raiders have a little bit.

Again, today, Del Rio did a couple things that said he does not, he is going to go for whatever it takes to put your team in a position to win. and I think the Raiders kind of have a little bit of magic to him, too, more than the Chiefs. You're looking at me like I'm crazy or something, but... No, I'm not. I was just thinking. No, and they know how to close out games. I mean, Bruce Irvin, Khalil Mack, late in this game again.

And then I feel bad for Philip Rivers. After the game, he said they went to a silent count the whole game. Like, it was a road game. And they said he's dealt with a similar crowd before, you know, when he plays in Oakland. Well, if you didn't blow so many games this year, you'd have more fans in your building in week 15. Probably not. I don't know. Probably maybe.

All right, let's move on. Andrew with a long count, fakes it to Turbin, drops to throw. He's got Dorset wide open down the field. He's got it, and he scores. 50 on a pass play at a Dorset. And the Colts have broken this one open. Dorset with a big, big play, and the Colts are up by 30 points. Whoa.

Bob Lamy, WFNI, with the call. I got news for you, Bob Lamy. The Colts broke that game open way before that play. Who can figure out the cults, not the Vikings, who got embarrassed in a 34-6 home loss that felt like the death knell of a strange season. The cults, meanwhile, once again looked like world beaters a week after laying an egg at home against the Texans. Wes, who are the Indianapolis cults? This was one of the most comprehensive dismantlings of two fairly equal teams that you will ever see. The Colts were up 27 to nothing at halftime

It had a time of possession of almost 24 to 6 The Vikings could do nothing That was the Colts best performance of the year In the ground attack, the offensive line, And the defense by far Everything the Colts did work Nothing the Vikings did wait I'm glad I wasn't here on Thursday

Just because I probably would have locked this up or something Yeah, you would have been honking Well, Mark likes to say none of the science will tell you this or that None of the science would tell you that a ferocious Vikings front seven would be completely shut down by the Colts offensive line. And this is the game where Adrian Peterson returned to the lineup West. Number one, did he look like Adrian Peterson? And number two, I guess because they fell behind so quickly, it didn't matter anyway, right? It's impossible to tell because behind that offensive line, he didn't get to the second level.

He never had a chance to get out of first gear. He had one 13-yard run, which he fought for extra yards, and Mike Adams stripped him of the ball in the red zone. But he's averaging two yards per carry this year. In three games. To me, you asked, like, who are these Colts? You know, we can't figure out. To me, these are these Colts. These are the Chuck Bogano Colts.

You know, they're going to make it out. Like, no one believed in us. And we stepped up and we're always going to keep fighting. And they're going to be all excited about this win. They put together a complete performance. Like, they're not going to give up on their goal. And it's like, okay, well, who cares? And then they'll ask the bed next week.

It's kind of like, okay, that's great. Like, they were really happy. They kept fighting back from tough circumstances last year. And, okay, you're 7 and 7 still. And the other events in the AFC South really banged them today. They did. I had to change my entire basic takeaway from this game. The Colts are right back in the heat of the AFC South.

And then after that, both the Titans and the Texans came back for dramatic comebacks. But this Colts team, the one I think identity they have, the one thing you can count on is if Andrew Luck is protected, they're hard to be. Any permutations for the AFC South that you can give us. Well, I talked about the Texans that they can afford a loss. Texans are 5 and 0 in the division. That's all you need to know. Here's one permutation in the scenario.

I knew I'd get you in. Well, I tried to think of something off the top of my head. Colts are not out of this. They're going to have to win in Oakland, which is very difficult. But if they can get into a two-way tie with the Titans at 9 and 7, if that's how it shakes out. And you could see the Texans losing these next two. That's very viable.

They get in because they, because they, They swept the Titans. I don't think beating the Raiders in Oakland is like beating the Patriots in New England. I agree. I just, I refuse to, I know every other week it's like, let's celebrate the cults. What a fantastic Andrew Luck led team. They're about to go eight and eight, and I don't want these teams in the playoffs. I'm going to be stubborn about it.

I know we got to go, but we should say goodbye to the Vikings here. I apologize as the last person on this sinking. You don't need to apologize. Not apologize. I mean, I think you should. The last person on this sinking, Chip, I never saw this thing coming. This is crazy. We clearly, you know, it didn't work out, but that's life.

You make wrong choices. And here is, here's the irony of it all. The four finals. I've given up is my point. Yeah, that's fine. The four finalists for Team of ATL were the Vikings, the Titans, the Buccaneers, and the Raiders. We had a 75% chance of getting this one right. Well, take that.

And, you know, it's like by the time where in our 60s, we're going to remembers this, that one of us voted for the Vikings and wanted it. We all voted for the Vikings. This was a disaster. If I remember any of this. A disastrous move. I know that I certainly spearheaded it, but I said all along, I would rather do it on my own because I don't want the jibber jabber and the nonsense and the white noise from the rest of the room.

So now it's over. I can tell you that much. When I'm 60 years old, I will remember that it was marked on one of the Vikings. It is utter nonsense how you look back on this with revisionist history. I won't remember this by next year at this time. All right. This segment won't exist next year. I like this phrase from Greg.

You make the wrong choices sometimes to explain away. I think you should be put in charge of any time a team fires a coach. You release the statement. It just says, hey, sometimes you make the wrong choice. I feel like that any defense attorney should use that for their closing arguments in a court of law. Let's move on. Manning calls out signals, takes the snap, looks, throws one right, throws one right. Don't makes the catch one-handed, heading to the end zone for a touchdown.

a little speed out to O'Dell Beckham, Jr., and he reeled it in with one hand, and the Giants respond in a big way with 547 to go. Bob Poppe, WF, A.N. O'Dell Beckham's 10th touchdown of the year, and remember, you didn't have one until week five, gave the Giants the cushion they needed in an eventual 17-to-6 win over the Detroit Lions that moves Big Blue to 10 and 4 in Ben McAdoo's first season. this was another tremendous effort by the New York defense that forced two turnovers held the lines to just 324 total yards and Greg I got to say well a couple

things first of all you know I got it wrong with the Titans West winter's here John Spencer 11th yeah the defense and O'Dell Beckham have been enough to overcome an offense that still is not very good. Eli Manning still not playing well, but the defense now is one of the best defenses in the NFL, and O'Dell Beckham is special. That everything you said is correct. Eli had a nice drive that he led them on, but they still, and he threw two touchdowns, his stat line looks better than the way he played. They still had only 300, 325 yards of total offense. And now I'll turn to Greg, and Greg, it's time with JPP on the shelf. In this game, Jack Rabbit Jenkins suffered some type of internal.

injury and missed most of the second half. Steve Spagnola, spags, your boy. You have trash bags on a wild level on this show. He is one of the best de-coordinators in football right now. How about that? I completely agree. I'm going to show you some notes from just last night. Show your work.

And sometimes. Can we hold this up? No, I mean, no one's going to be able. I can see that on Periscope. But, you know, this helps me. Is that a hieroglyphics? It helps remind me of maybe some things to talk about on the podcast.

Look at this. So good at blitzing third and long. Get credit to Spacks, exclamation point. I said, give some credit to Spags. He's been awesome. Can we get in tight on this? That's impossible. There's no abuse of language in this.

It's like Charlie Day. It's a picture of a sock in the sun. Got a close up. Look at that handwriting. That is Charlie writing right there. I don't know if you saw the film seven. Wait, where does it say? What does it say?

I mean, it says right here, credit to Spags, exclamation point. There you go. It's highly resemblance. Kevin Spacey's journal from the movie, the movie seven. So I'm a little, you know, Greg, we're concerned about you. So here you go. Good luck to you. They have the players, Landon Collins, with another big game.

They've shown they have the depth to survive injuries to key players. And week after week, they are beating teams with good offenses. This time, Detroit, who again, we talked about on Thursday, they better watch out now. Everybody's excited about Detroit. But they have a very real chance. of going 9 and 7 after being 9 and 4. We'll see how they respond to this.

So that's my big takeaways from the game. Eli and the offense a little better, but still far off from being a Super Bowl-type team. The defense is now, and we've been talking about who's the best defense in league with about 57 teams this year, but it might be the Giants after all this, the way they're playing. And one play, guys, that really, to me,

cemented and run me like the old Bill Parcell's days, four minutes to play. They have the two-score lead, and six, they just run the ball into the line of scrimmage, take the ball out of Eli's hands, even with Beckham on the field and say, D, go win this game. What happens? They get an interception on the next drive, and away we go. Did that last week, too, and it worked. We like to talk about the history of the recent giants. It was under a different

coach. But getting into the playoffs and upsetting teams along the way to two Super Bowl wins, I typically don't think that has any traction at all into what a current team in New York is doing. But it's just weird because, you know, New York, York, when you have this kind of a defense, what's to say they couldn't deal with a team like maybe Seattle that occasionally drops total stink bombs on offense and you win a game 10 to 9 the way that the Vikings almost beat the Seahawks last year when their defense was on fire? I mean, it's not crazy. They've beaten the Cowboys twice.

Second straight year where a defense has to overcome a manning at quarterback. Sure. It'll work last year. And they're all but in now, too. I mean, they went in Philadelphia on Thursday night and they're officially in. I mean, even if they lost these last two at 10 and 6, they're probably, and you're right. If you think about the three, four seeds in the NFC,

those are games you're not going to think the wild card, which assuming the Giants are one of them, are going to be some big underdog. Those are going to be even games. One thing we call this the legitimacy bull, at least I did anyway. That's right. The Lions now have to play.

You can use the Loyal Wii. That's fine. Okay. The Lions now have to go into Dallas on Monday Night Football and then close with the Packers. The Packers are in control of this division now. If they went out, they win the division, and you wonder if the Lions will even make the play.

I would say. say that we've also talked about Green Bay for a couple weeks now as the team in that division that we buy. All right. Let's talk about the Green Bay Packers. More info. Rogers will take the shotgun snap. Five on the plate.

Is that a guess? Looking left. I have some time. He's going to air it out deep down the middle of the field. He's got Jordan Nelson. He caught it inside the 20. He slips and falls down at the 15 with 25 seconds to go.

59 yards on the pickup. Oh, what a dagger shot. by Aaron Rogers to Jordan Nelson, Kevin Lee of Westwood won sports with the call. Rogers' beautiful deep ball connection with Nelson set up. The game-winning kick from Mason Crosby in the final seconds, securing a 30-27 win for the Packers over the Bears at a frigid soldier field.

Chris Wesleyan, the Packers got 226 yards and three touchdowns from their running game in this one. Is it time for the rest of the NFC to be very afraid of Green Bay? Oh, I think it was time last week to be very afraid of Green Bay. Bay, and now that they found a running game, Ty Montgomery looked like a first-round draft pick that you just found in your locker room. And Kristen Michael had one of those shot out of a cannon runs, too.

They go over 200 yards combined between a two-old. But I have to say that last play, Aaron Rogers' 60-yard pass, you're watching that game, and I think a lot of people are thinking on 3rd and 11 get the first down. Aaron Rogers is thinking with the clock running down, I'm going for the field goal right now, so we don't have to go to overtime, and he hit it. It was a ballsy throw, and we said a couple of weeks ago when they were playing the Texans, Aaron Rogers, because of the size of his hands and his throwing ability and his mobility, he is a great cold weather quarterback in the elements, and you saw it on that throw.

His longest completion of the season and second longest the last two years behind that Hail Mary, hell Mary against the line. It wasn't just the throw either because this happens. They have no timeouts, clock running. He hit, what was it, 60 yards, whatever it was. that 60. 60 downfield makes the completion. Then they got to get all the way. The entire team's got to get down the field.

Rogers has come down. He sees some Packers players coming on a personnel shift. He says, get the F off the field, so he's in control of everything. He gets them all the way down the field, gets everybody set, and then spikes the ball with three seconds to play. It was precision play by Aaron Rogers, who was being maligned as the new Brian Hoyer at week six. Where is he in the MVP talk? Because he is carrying the team into Super Bowl. To me, he's not in it.

He's not in it. Really? Oh, he's in it whether you believe it or not. He's going to have close to 40 touchdowns. We'll see when the votes are saying because this isn't a one, two, three voting thing. Just one person gets a vote. And to me, it's crazy to make the case that he's at a better season than Tom Brady, Ryan, or Zeke. Those are three strong guys ahead of him.

He's in it. He had a bad half a season. That's half the season where he didn't play well. He has brought his team roaring back. But you have to consider what he's had around him. He's had no running game for the entire season. He has the best pass protection in football. He also has more touchdowns than any quarterback in football.

He's been great. This isn't about Rogers. It's just talking about the other guys having great years. You said the Packers are scary, and they are on offense. They gave up 450 yards, 29 first downs, and 27 points in a big-time combat. That's what you deal with Matt Barkley? Barclay's good, and I think there's more weapons on this team than people realize now, especially with Jeffrey and Cameron Merritt is playing well.

But that's a terrible showing by the defense. If you allow Matt Barclay to sit there in a spread attack in a comeback mode, we've seen for how many weeks in a row now that he'll pick your defense apart. Yeah, we shouldn't kind of overlook the fact that this game was a laffer. What was it at the highest deficit? 27 to 10 in the third quarter. And they got it all the way. They tied it up.

They even had the ball, I think, first and goal with the chance to take the lead. But it's a competitive game. It was 10-10 at halftime. It was kind of a back-and-forth game. It was definitely competitive. And as much as the bear showed you could still pass on the Packer's secondary, Four takeaways for the Packers' defense. That's pretty darn good.

All right, let's move on and check in on the Baltimore Ravens who are looking for a playoff spot. Carson Wentz will set in the gun. He has Byron Marshall to his right for the Ravens, arguably, the season on the line. Wence takes the snap, throws across the middle, deflected, incomplete. The conversion is no good.

The Hayes in the Bard, and the Ravens' playoff home, stay alive. Jerry Sandusky, W-B-A-L-L-E-L. The Eagles attempt to steal the game with a two-point conversion did not go as planned, and the Ravens escaped with a 27-26 win that keeps them in the playoff picture. Mark Sessler, the Ravens showed some balance on offense and got to 8 and 6, but they're very fortunate that they didn't blow their season against a mediocre Eagles team. This was very ugly. I need to say one thing.

I have a close friend and a podcast listener named Matt Hogan who I stepped out of my comfort zone in that Green Bay game and played part in suggesting that he not start Ty Montgomery, but start Jordan Matthews, who was in this Eagles game. I'm not sure we will speak again. I hope we will. But this game, man, this, you know, you get this in this December month, but the first half, again, it was another game where weather was one of the characters involved.

The wind and the driving rain absolutely wreaked havoc on Joe Flacco and Carson Wentz early on. Got a little better later on. but it forced both teams, I think, to take a long look at the ground game. And the Ravens, 151 yards on the ground, they talked all week about getting balanced. And I think, you know, look at the Eagles, their season is heading towards over. But if you're Baltimore and you want to be taken seriously in the AFC, you've got to try to find a way to run the ball as well.

And I think that we saw Kenneth Dixon last week start to emerge as an interesting running back. He did that again. It doesn't look that way in the box score. He had a dominant drive that helped put them up. a bit in this and Terrence West look great he looked fast and so we've seen that before from him but they do have two running backs they can use. Flacco

he'll throw two beautiful passes a game but he also there are problems with their passing game absolute problems they have been inconsistent all season with Joe Flacco and that remains a problem I'm taking a look at their path at 8 and 6 they've been consistently bad

except for that one game where got excited they are they have finished the home portion of their schedule at 6 and 2 so that's not where their problems have been. They struggled on the road and they end up with two division matchups at Pittsburgh at Cincinnati.

That's it. It's Christmas Day. It's Christmas Day. It's an NFL network only game. You know, the corporate show. Oh, wow. That's got to be the best. It's got to be the best.

Give them a lollipop. It's got to be the most important best NFL network only game they've ever had. I would have to imagine because that decides. Sell it, Greg. That decides the EFC North. It's one of the best rivalries.

ball and it decides the EFC North. Get that bonus. Pittsburgh wins. They win the division. Baltimore wins. They still got to win out. They got a win in Cincinnati, but they'll have control of the division if they win that. I want to watch this one again, too, because with Pittsburgh coming up and what they can do on the ground, the Ravens, the league's best runoff defense allowed Ryan Matthews,

128 yards, and he ran well. He ran for big chunks. You know, and they essentially said we're shutting down the passing game for part of the. of this thing and just let Ryan Matthews take over. And it was the best performance we've seen outside of a week two game where I think Isaiah Crowell had about 133. They have not allowed any running backs really do that outside of Ezekiel Elliott who had about 97, 98.

How challenging is the kicking position in the NFL? Justin Tucker is the only the second kicker ever to make 10 field goals over 50 yards in a season. The other one was 2012 Blair Walsh, who was now out of the league. Wow. What a position. uh let's move on and we couldn't move on as a podcast without this man mr flame and of course is economics class in the hague the netherlands for all your needs for all your needs in economics throughout the world head to the hague the netherland get in that classroom so many needs enroll flameclass dot net we got to get mr flame class dot com yes maybe he could bike over here somehow uh thank you mr flameclass Let's check in on those Pittsburgh Steelers in the Cincinnati Bengals.

And in the shotgun on second and long. He wants to throw. He waits. He throws it down the middle of the field. It's caught in the end zone for a touchdown for the Pittsburgh Steelers. A diving grab by Eli Rogers. All day long, Eli has been. Open underneath.

Ben had enough time to order a pizza and wait for it to be delivered. Did anyone else hear the screaming people in agony as Ben was dropping back to pass in that play? It sounded like the women running after me in the sound draft. What women? You mean these women? It's NFL Network's Greg Rosenthal. Bill Hargrove and Tunch Ilkin. WDV. Nailed it.

With the call. Eli Rogers is 24-yard touchdown reception. Put the Steelers ahead for the first time. And it stayed that way in a 24-20 win over the Bengals in Cincinnati. Credit belongs to the Pittsburgh defense, which held the Bengals to just 38 yards in the second half. Greg, Steelers have won five in a row. And we're able to shake a...

Uh-oh. Who locked it up? Right here, baby. Oh. One lollipop for you, baby. Ooh, good thing. Good thing I've repealed my Cincinnati lock. Why did you?

Close call. Very close call. Four weeks in a row. Anyway, you're on a four-game winning show. Oh, yeah. Keep it in the vault. Lock it up. See you on Sunday.

Greg, your thoughts about this game. I thought it was a really impressive second half performance by a team who did not play well coming out of the gates, who were down 173, been totally dominated. It's kind of like Cincinnati was like, this is our Super Bowl. We're going to play our best 20 minutes. of football all year, just whitewashing the Steelers. After halftime, as you mentioned, 38 yards in four drives. That's what the defense did, four stops.

Here's what the offense did. They scored every single possession, and then they ended the game on a six-minute, you know, 14, 15-play drive to close it out. So they settled for field goals all day. It kept out. It was a slow chipping away, but they finally got the touchdown in the fourth. And to me, it was like the second half was almost perfect. A team with their backs against the wall played pretty perfect on both sides of the ball to go get a tough win.

I was a little discouraged by the Steelers start in this game, but they end up allowing only 222 yards, which their defense really has impressed me over the past five weeks. And it's going to be tough for them. Stefan, Two, it left three plays into the game. Their best defensive player over the last month. And they're thin. I think they only had four other defensive linemen even up. so they're thin at that position

but eventually Harrison had a big game almost seems like every week Ryan Shazir made some big plays Tim and had the interception and overall they just put the clamps down on Andy Dalton

I mean Pittsburgh allowed 38 yards in the second half that's crazy I said that earlier I think I said it actually West is the only one not to say it just wanted to magnify the points

that you both made that's the only role that I serve here and this wasn't like the best levy on bell game either but then you just start you appreciate how you can go to him to grind it out and then suddenly at the end of the game you realize he has 131 yards from scrimmage

is one of those guys it's just like David Johnson in that way which is a lot more than the 38 yards allowed by Pittsburgh in the second half over the final 30 minutes of this game and that's five straight wins for the Stellars oh yeah terrible job by the Beggles defense the same spot where everyone killed them for

all the sloppiness last year much of the last drop where Pittsburgh closed it all out were penalties from the Bengals keeping the drive going. I think it was four penalties on that drive. It's who they are. And as you said, the big matchup Christmas Day against the Ravens and the Steelers close out home against the Browns and what could be a historic situation for Cleveland. So Pittsburgh in good position right now to go double-digit wins and take that division.

Let's check in with another team that's hoping to make the playoffs in the AFC and a game that was played on Saturday night. Lockland Edwards, who punted away, lets it go from his own 30, and it's blocked. Locked away. The ball rolling free. This is an opportunity for a score, and it is a score. Touchdown. Walt Aikins into the end zone on the block. He got the block and the score for the Dolphins.

Great call by Scott Graham and Mike Mayock. I didn't hear Mike there. Westwood won sports. Matt Moore threw for four touchdowns in his first start in place of Ryan Tannel and the jets melted down with a series of blunders in the second half. The final score 3413 in favor of the Dolphins. At the Meadowlands, this was a game, you know, nice showing by Miami here, which they overcame a slow start.

Jets were up 7-0 after their first possession and going back into the red zone in their second possession. They force a Bryce Petty fumble, and then they kind of went to work. And I think they scored 34, the next 37 points, and away we go. And here's a nice stat for all you Jets fans out there. And as someone that was at the fake spike game on November 27, 1994, for Matt Moore, the first offense QB to throw for four touchdowns against the Jets since Dan Marino in the fake spike game. Wow.

Great job by Moore. And Wes, we talked about it on Thursday. Ken Matt Moore still plays. He's been so rusty in mothballs. He proved in this game he's not going to be this good every game, but he can do it. Yeah, I thought he made some really impressive touch passes. I want to see his arm strength against a better defense. Well, the interception came when he underthrew and he had one other pretty bad underthrow.

He doesn't have a big arm. He's Tony Romo light. You know, that's kind of his style. But he can make those plays where he extends a little bit and he throws it across his body, a touch pass, and the tight win. He made some tough throws in this game. I thought he, watching the Cardinals game from last week when he came in,

he had one money throw that kept them in that game that they needed to win. So maybe the DNA was there to a small degree, but it was completely understandable to want to have to see a full game from him. That's what you ask a backup quarterback to do, yet we're surprised when it happens. And you only need one more win probably now with Denver losing that game. That was big for them. They're going to be in Buffalo.

That's a big game for Miami. But Miami's winning, you know, a defense. I mean, Cameron Wake's having a great year. Sue was great in that game, too. Their secondaries playing well, kind of a no-name secondary, but Xavier and Howard and Tony Lippet, you know, they play well. Here's my only concern now is that Matt Moore, again, when we're playing the Jets team that's kind of packed it in for the season,

and decent guys can look good, good guys could look amazing. We'll see what Matt Moore looks like when the competition stiffens, but also Jay Ajai had another kind of mediocre game. He has come down to Earth a little bit in the last few years. And that makes you wonder if you're going to try to make the playoffs and perhaps advance possibly, and you have no running game and Matt Moore,

quarterback. And by the way, we're not going to see Ryan Tannihill this season. I'm sorry, they showed him on the sideline with a cane, and they said that he has a plaster cast from his head. hip to his ankle. When you have sprains in your ACL and MCL, that means you have tears in your ACL. Well, it also was reported that his MCL tore off the bone. It's like, this guy ain't coming back week 17.

I'm sorry. I was listening to you not to pivot here too much, but. Go ahead, pivot. These Jets games at home don't even feel like NFL games right now. And that makes me think of something you said earlier. You think now Todd Bulls may be in a little more trouble than you imagine. Again, he's not quite out of the woods. I think if you had to go to the desert and take a guess,

I would say he'll be back. But this, again, was another embarrassing effort in front of a sparse home crowd. But it's not his fault. I mean, there is no talent on the scene. The Jets are the rare double-double that you don't want. They're a talent-poor roster that also has been amongst the most injured rosters in the league. And when you take those two things, you're going to lose a lot of games. Do you trust the owner who, you know, this is an owner that likes shiny things.

We've seen that he's gone after certain things before. because they make him feel good in terms of the roster and the coaching staff. Do you think that he could be, well, we get one of these bizarre reports where, you know, Woody Johnson reached out to Jim Harbaugh or reached out to person X. I wouldn't be surprised. I mean, I think what you're saying, Greg, is right in the sense that apathy is taken hold in the fan base.

These fans are angry. And then because of the just Bryce Petty, who's been very spotty so far, to get that crushing double hit from Indomkin's, Sue and Cameron Wake, I hope we at least get to see him the rest of the season because I've seen enough of Ryan Fitzpatrick, me and Keith, my dad on the phone this morning. We could, I mean, seeing him come back on the field kind of like a smirk on his face because even he gets the joke that why am I in the game again. It's just a sad, one of the most depressing jet seasons in my lifetime, and that is saying

something. And Keith wanted me to relay the message. The jets deserve zero time. Oh. So let's cut it right now. Go ahead. Also, the idea that the dolphins only need one more win, neither of those games is, I don't know, I won't consider them a favorite in Buffalo or against the Patriots to close out the season. All right. Speaking of Buffalo, let's check in.

The snap. Tyrod fires into the end zone, got a man wide open, Charles Clay, and it is touchdown. Touchdown. Touchdown, Buffalo. They waited a long time, but they signal touchdown on a sliding catch by the tight end, Charles Clay, his second touchdown in his many weeks. John Murphy, think it was a touchdown? Bro. WGR Rex Ryan might be a dead man walking, as one report had it earlier this morning.

But his players haven't quit on the coach. The bills took care of business with a 33-13 win over the Browns in Orchard Park, keeps Buffalo's flickering playoff hopes alive and sent Cleveland to 0.14 with two games to play. Mark, there was a depressing glow all around this game on both sides, wasn't there? Well, yes, I would say that Buffalo, though, made it very clear. You know, every week it's, what's the team Cleveland might beat? Maybe it's Buffalo in Buffalo this week.

Nope. Not happening. And it's not going to happen all season, I don't think, because Buffalo is clearly the better team. And every game the Browns play, you find out how much better other NFL teams are than you. And this game went pretty much according to the script you'd imagine. LaShawn McCoy ran right through them.

The defense battered Robert Griffin with five sacks. And I, you know, for me, I don't know why the bills want to fire Rex Ryan unless there's a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes. I don't see them as a team that is quitting on their coach, which was an issue last year in Buffalo. I don't see that. They want a systemic change from within, it sounds like.

Sure. It sounds like Whaley. Power battle. He'll win this power battle and get one more shot at it, which Greg is a little surprising to me. It's unusual. Come on. It'll be the third coach that he's at least part of the hiring. He wasn't officially the guy for Chan Galey.

I don't believe, or I'm mixing up all these bills coaches. There's been so many. Understandable. But it really sounds like he's the one, I mean, who knows, but he's the one winning the battle, as he said. But what has he done to earn all this rope? I don't know what's going on in this organization, because they have a chance to go nine and seven,

and they went eight and eight last year. They're not an embarrassing franchise, but I think ownership, and its new ownership, Wes, thinks that this team is way better than eight, eight, nine, and seven. And that's not necessarily true, and they might not be the right people to be able to know this. Yeah, I don't think that this organization is close to overtaking the Patriots in the AFC East.

I don't know what they're, I don't know, why don't you stay with Rex? Well, it's strange, because you look at this organization's history, and they have one winning record since 2004. So if Rex makes it here two years without a losing record, and that was Doug Marone, by the way. If they make, if, you know, Rex is kind of keeping it going, it hasn't been too bad. Is Doug the interim coach and Jacks? Is his plan? Oh, my gosh.

Oh, my gosh. Tell me it to focus now? They said they'll announce it. I mean, if you look at that staff, slow play it. It makes sense. It makes sense that that would be the guy. All right, Mark, you, again, you're wearing the brown sweater. I'm telling you your headspace is really good, better than I'd expect it to be right now.

And the fact that you're even playfully wearing a brown sweater, you are you're okay still with what's going on here i well in terms of what the team is trying to do well no no small picture that small you're really now o and 16 has a better chance of happening than not it does and i you know again there's only so many things in life you can control i tweeted a couple things out about the team over the weekend i'll say this uh browns fans are incredibly passionate i i am i think it's pretty honorable that they're still as plugged in as they are about the future and everything i can't imagine i mean i'm going through it as a fan, but to be someone that maybe goes to that stadium week after week, I just think it's

unbelievable, not just this year, but what they put up with the entire century, not to mention what happened for the last 20 years before the century. Incredible. It's, I mean, we talk about all these fan bases that get put through the ringer. There are a number of them, Cincinnati, San Diego, a whole bunch. And I just say, you know, hang with it. You've got no other choice. Well, the NFL's the only league in the world.

You can even get away with that. Absolutely. Because the Browns don't deserve these fans. The Browns are a travesty in general. I mean, if you're looking at the long life of them, they don't deserve to be supported. The only reason they even exist is because of these fans. I've just never met one that midship jumped to another team.

I think their loyalty maybe is to a fault, but it is incredible loyalty. And from the bigger picture perspective, and I read a Mary Kay Cabot column last week that she felt strongly that there should. be a person with real personnel abilities ahead of Sashi that oversees the football operation. You can make the argument this year one of Sashi has been bad because he went through the machinations of cutting all those veterans. But you still, you've got to leave enough on the bone to avoid O and 16.

You can't put your organization through this. It's also like with all these teams, you look back and say, why didn't they resign Player X? Player X was never going to resign with this team, ever. I mean, they lost guys that were so far. out of the building by the time last off season happened. Do you think there needs to be a tweak in the front office? No, I don't, I don't, there are, there are multiple people in there

with long histories of personnel evaluation. They don't need to add more cooks to the kitchen. Got to have two high picks now. That eagle's pick gets worse every week. I've seen enough of RG3 in the NFL. I'm with you. I have never seen a quarterback with poor instincts for protecting his body. When that clown ran out of bounds

into the kicking net, I'm like, what is this guy even doing? I don't think he will start. You're not winning in Pittsburgh. So they got one real chance here, and that's home next week to San Diego. Try to put the other players who don't want 0-16 on them for the rest of their lives. Try to help them out. Think about that.

I totally agree. And I think that comes down to the coach saying, we thought this was going to work. It's not. There's one team that you could argue is worse than the Browns. It is the 49ers. Let's see how they fared against the Atlanta Falcons on the road. Empty set for Ryan. 49ers is trying to heat him up.

Matt going to loop it for the end zone. Hooper there! caught it touchdown he took the big rookie all the way up the ladder arch i'll tell you how they fair they didn't even get on the plane west durham w z gc matt ryan threw for 286 yards and two scores and devante freeman went over 100 yards with three touchdowns so the falcons roll to a 4113 win over the 49ers um you know we we divvy up the games a little peak uh and pull back the curtain. You pull back the

curtain and you'll let the people know how you make the sausage. Okay. I was assigned to watching this game. What just happened? I don't know. I was assigned to watching this game

and once it hit 21 nothing in the first quarter, I was like, screw this. You know what? You know the Browns fans don't deserve have to put up with their team? The old Zusser doesn't have to watch the 49ers. So I bailed and I have no

regrets because this was basically a practice for the Falcons to wipe out a 49ers team that's given up. They're going to clean house all through the organization, both on the roster and in the front office and the head coach. So why would I plug in on this game, which doesn't teach me anything? I don't think you can have any major takeaways from the Falcons after the last two weeks against the Rams and 49ers, but it does, the way they've played reinforces the notion that Matt Ryan is so good and Kyle Shannon is so good about spreading this offense around. Right. And make, even without Julio Jones,

Aldrich Robinson and Taylor Gabriel and then the backfield duo is phenomenal that this offense isn't just dependent on Julio Jones they had nine different pass catchers in this game they're the best offense in the NFL and they have been all season gift from the scheduling gods that you know they had lost two of those three things are going down a little bit and you and but they did what great teams do is they waxed them early

and Wes you and I were in lockstep on sit Julio Jones in this game you got a perfect opportunity the next day Atlanta announced it And what happens? Algric Robinson goes for 4 for 111. Taylor Gabriel, three for 60 and a touch. Taylor Gabriel is their Tyreek Hill on offense. He can take any touch to the house, and he makes a lot of guys miss. Let's move on and check out two also runs the Saints and the Cardinals.

Nothing person. Three stops. And you're right. Looks, fires, man, open down to that. This is a results-based business. The 10 to 5. In for a touchdown for the Saints is Brandon Cooks. The youngster out of Oregon State got behind everybody.

And as Brady would say, you keep running the ball, play fake. Everybody sucks up, and there goes the throw behind the secondary for 65 yards. Is that what Brady says? And Mubreez gets it right back. Very concise description. How did Saints Cardinals turn into the last game mentioned on a week 15 podcast? I'm just saying, shame on them. Shame on them.

Not only that. to go to we're going to go we're going to pause here and we're going to check in on the the upcoming scorpion episode that's how much disdain got it for the efforts of these teams it was the monday before christmas in a quaint forest valley you want to keep breathing you'll forget you ever saw this there's some well-armed bad guys that was a gunshot crashed the scorpion winter finale some guys try to put this man down for a long winter's nap but what did wondering i should appear i thought you did turn of geniuses who'd strike back without fear they're all officially on the naughty list.

Wait, who is the target audience? Now they're just messing with us. They actually know this is a bit, and they're like, let's raise the stakes. I think out of my seven brothers, at least five of them could be writers for this show. This is by far my favorite show that I've never seen. I'm going to plug in soon.

Well, you might as well watch, binge watch, you know, three or four episodes. 9 p.m. 8 Central, only on CBS. Brandon Cooks went off for 186 yards. And they're not a sponsor, by the way. I just want to say, I'm just really excited about Scorpion's season so far as we head towards the winter for now. So excited that you've never watched an episode. The commercials are great. Brandon Cooks went off for 186 yards and two of Drew Brees as four touchdown passes and a 48 to 41 win over the Cardinals that counted as the NFL's highest scoring game in 2016.

By the way, the Saints were a part of 2015's high scoring game as well. Does anybody remember the game? Kent to Panzer, Caroline and Panthers. Incorrect. Total guess. Saints, Giants, I believe it was 51-48. Nailed it. Back when the Giants had an offense.

Greg, no defense. Isn't it funny? Greg, another quote-unquote great defense gets exposed this time. Well, that you took the point right out of my mouth. No, it's beautiful. It's the one positive thing from this game. Enough with the top ranked Cardinals' defense. Cardinals' defense is fine.

We don't need, they were, you know, people were saying, ooh, Breeze put 48 points on the next. number one ranked defense. This is not the number one ranked demons. And you know what? The Saints knew it. So they put up as many yards and points as possible to knock them out of that spot because it's a joke to call them. Cardinals are not a shutdown defense. They gave 38 up to the Falcons.

They've been giving up plenty lately. And the Saints, this is a game almost both teams lose because this just reminds Saints fans. Oh, what happened to this offense the last two weeks when they did absolutely nothing in the two biggest games of the year? Two biggest takeaways for me. David Johnson breaks the record for most consecutive games over 100 yards from scrimmage.

Great season. And second thing, the notion that came out of nowhere that Carson Palmer might retire after the season, he said he wants to come back next year. He's planning on coming back next year. Yeah, that's big. Is there any reason why they would say we're good, Carson? They can't really because of all.

His contract is fully guaranteed. They're not going to come up with a quarterback than Carson Palmer. And I would think that would lead to Larry Fitzgerald coming back as well, because he's not coming back to catch passes from Stan. And it's not late December, by the way, unless there's some wacky Sean Payton coaching rumors going on in national reports. It's always a little sketchy how this is. What's the rumor?

Well, this was a report, not even going to say where. It was not a particularly believable report, but it's just interesting that it's out there. It said that they might be willing to trade him. It's just like, what's going on here? What happened to coaching trades? I thought that wasn't an option anymore. It seems like there's some kind of technicality that they can get it under.

I don't know. That's it for that game. Let's move on to Sunday Night Football. Oh, Sunday night. Second down and goal. Elliot. And Elliot, into the end zone. I love watching great offensive lines, work together and just carve out that big hole.

And then you go jump and promote a very good cause down there. in zone salvation army everybody throw something in because there's a good chance of zekele elliott's going to be in there zeke elliott 159 yards on the ground with that touchdown that you just heard and dac press got 32 for 36 279 yards and a touchdown rushing the dallas cowboys a 26 to 20 winner over the Tampa bay buccaneers on sunda oh we locked it up oh oh he failed the first lockoff in a big spot. Chris Wessling, I repealed two locks to get where I needed to be,

and I felt good that Cowboys beat your bucks. Oh, yeah, they are my bucks. I took them over from Greg for a week. You can have them back. This lollipop I hold? This is for me. I haven't gotten one yet. There's one for you.

Now, what are they going to Dallas? What do you expect? Here it goes, they're in this game. I locked them up. I expected a win. Oh, they were in this game. The Cowboys got out to a 17-6 lead, but the Timpe Bucks outscored the Cowboys 14 Zip in the third quarter

and entered the fourth of the lead. But Daniel Bailey ended up kicking, I call him Daniel. Some people call him Dan. Kick three field goals in the fourth period and the Cowboys defense tightened Mark Sessler, giving the Cowboys the victory. You are correct. Oh, Sunday night.

There's a drummer. Wow. Whoa. What is this? I have literally. no voice at this point, so I'm going to let you guys break it down, but I want to tell you one thing. We are entering

Week 16 and only one defense in the NFL has done what we've said over and over all these other teams would do to Dallas, and that's the New York Giants, the only team that shut this team down. Enough with trying to project all these teams to take them out. Not going to happen.

Vikings pretty much. They did not take them out at all. A beautiful vocal. Just incredible. Is that Dave Grohl on drums? Yeah. I paid for Dave Grohl with all my new money. That's way better than the chick.

I don't know who she is who does the real Sunday night. Whoa, whoa, whoa. I love this when Wes pretends not to know. The West pretend not to know pop culture guy is one of my favorite pets. It's like the country lady who thinks she's pop who has nice legs. That's all I know about. Oh. You know, women are more than just their body parts.

Wait a minute. Anyway, that doesn't have nice legs? Oh, we're getting in deep. Listen, she's a beautiful woman, but it's not just about that. She's a great singer and a charismatic young individual. It's a horrible wretched song. Sidney's is much better. It is the same song.

Dak Prescott. I'll tell you what about Dak. 32 and 36, you do the math. I can't, but that is the second best percentage in the history of the NFL in one game, minimum of 30 pass attempts. Any talk. Sorry, Skip. Sorry, Shannon.

that Tony Romo will be playing for performance reasons related to Dak Prescott out the window in this game, Greg, in my opinion, because in a big spot, Dak Prescott looked as good as he's looked. He played like he's played the rest of the season. I mean, they're not going deep down the field. He's making smart decision. He's going through his read. He's getting protected pretty well.

I mean, he completed 32 passes and it doesn't go over 300 yards. You've compared him to Russell Wilson before? To me, that's a Russell Wilson type of stat line, too, you know? 20 yards rushing with the rushing touchdown, and no mistakes, no mistakes at all. That's the Russell Wilson blueprint. That's how they developed him in Seattle, lean on the running game in the defense. And the defense, David Irving, who hasn't been playing every down snaps this year, but when they do play him, he's their most disruptive guy as a pass rusher.

Two sacks, five quarterback hits, and a batted pass at the line of scrimmage in this game. He was everywhere in the second half. He's got to be on the field more, you would think. For a team that's one of their weaknesses is getting a real consistent pass rush. He just looked like one of the biggest, most intimidating guys on the field. He looks like a superhero.

You want more of that, dude. He looks like a peak Julius Peppers. And he was the key. You know, Dak Prescott had a great game and all. But the defense won them the game. It is rare to see a team like the Bucks get the ball five times in the fourth quarter with a chance to score a touchdown.

or to take the lead. Five times, here's what they did. Three and out, three and out, three and out, three and out, three and out, interception. That's wild. They had five yards total on those five drives. So Dallas didn't really need to go crazy putting this game away. They just need to kick some field goals and let the defense.

I feel like in that Saints game last week, though, we've seen indications that this Bucks offense is as interesting in dynamics as it can be at times. it can also go very, very quiet because of their offensive line. All right, let's be careful here now, Bucks. The excitement of that five-game winning streak now in the rearview mirror, you got at Saints, and you don't know who you're going to get with the Saints on Christmas Eve. You're either going to get the offense that cannot be stopped, as we saw on Sunday,

putting up a 50 burger almost against the Cardinals. But in New Orleans, that's not going to be an easy matchup. Then they end up home against the Panthers. At 8 and 6, they're still, you would say, good position here but it's a are they going to the playoffs gregg i'll ask you is the biggest buck supporter in the room i tend to say no because i don't think they are in a good position they're behind the redskins and the packers now i mean let's let's assume the redskins win those are two good teams with pretty manageable schedules that are now ahead of them so even if they won those two

games the bucks are are far from guaranteed to get in zeke aliott in in the thick of the MVP race, season high, career high, whatever you want to call, 159 rushing yards, now only 258 with two games left to play to break Eric Dickerson's rookie rushing record. It's wild. He'll get it.

He will. All right. Cowboys back on the winning track. We'll see if they can close out and get that number one seed. That is it for the Sunday recap show. Great work. Gentlemen and gentle lady behind the glass.

Gentle lady never caught on in society It's not going to happen You would assume that a lady is gentle If we're calling her a lady typically No, that's a good point Maybe not true, but I mean it'd be an assumption Christmas week We will have our Tuesday show

And then our Thursday show And then you'll hear from us On Saturday Not Sunday So that's a schedule for the upcoming week Let's go home for now Mark, does that sweater come out again now Or is that it?

You will never see this article of clothing ever again. Really? Come on. You should wear it ironically if they go 0-16. Bring it back for next year at the very least. Maybe it is festive. It is festive. I cannot deny that. It can be a new sort of holiday tradition.

Okay, I will not ban it nor will I promise that it returns. And Wes, before we go, I should mention that Westivis officially canceled. Like Christmas being canceled, it's unthinkable, but Westivis canceled this year. Cincinnati eliminated from playoff contention today. December 18th it's like the year without Santa Claus I mean it's really bumming me out that's a it's a sad thing it's a sad thing all right sorry but thank you for that gesture mark mark just gave west a lollipop west refuses it I don't deserve it in a noble way let's go home this is Dan Hansa signing off for oh this a little shout out

to Debbie the beautiful educated talented Lil Debbie fan of the Oakland Raiders do we still have the rights to this we're not sure about that yeah everything's clear okay stand to signing off for Quiet Storm, the mailman, the boss, and new money behind the glass. I'd love a banger that was Lil Debbie featuring new money. Oh, my God. Oh, yeah. Explitiv-laden.

All right. That's it. Until Tuesday. Bye. Bye. I've been licking for the real bang. Is you ready? Yes, you ready. If I told you that I'm ready for the real, what's a deal, how you feel, what you tell me, what you're time, what you're the time.

Maybe you're the only one who stood out out of all the shit. Trying to get me. This is an eye heart This is an I heart This is an I-heart podcast This is an I-heart podcast.