NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 2016 Wild Card review

Episode Date: January 9, 2017

A room filled with heroes – Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler, Chris Wesseling and Gregg Rosenthal – recap all the action from Wild Card Weekend which included the first career start for Raiders rookie quarterback Conor Cook, and a dominating 4-touchdown performance from Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers.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. The inventors of the man canon. 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 Wessling, and Greg Rosenthal.

What's up, boys? Hey, Dan. That could be misinterpreted in the wrong hands. Sure. By a listener that's not aware that the man can. Canon is one of Wes's go-to shirts ever since he got into a serious romantic relationship. Yeah, it's more like a shirt-slash-h hoodie, isn't it? Yeah, most hoodies are sweatshirts.

This is just a hooded shirt. It's a man-canon. Basically, one of the basic tenets of Wes's relationship or one of the requirements for Wes, his paramour said, out with the plaid, in with the stylish, you know, kind of like, hey, let's go over to the gap. Let's check out. What are some other places you went to in the mall? I don't even know what these stores are called anymore.

Well, whatever the stores are, the outfit needs to say, I'm more manly than you. That's what they say. I don't know about that. That's Greg reading into it. Greg feels you seem to be slightly threatened by Wes's new wardrobe. I'm just impressed. The word that was used was she told me my wardrobe was two country, which I think is code for. something read into that i just like the image of west you know going up and down the highway stopping

at a nice outlet mall going to l l bing for a while having a nice tuna fish sandwich as he restockes his wardrobe i mean this has been a total revamping so thousands of dollars i would yes um you know and if you're going to get honest oh what are you even talking about it's the for your first playoff podcast well don't blame us you know blame the wild card uh games which you know A bad week, bad weekend of wildcard football. Even Greg Rosenthal, the patron saint of, you know, spinning positive when it comes to bad football, would not be able to defend what we saw, which was, and Mark, as you know, tweeted all over the place. The four wildcard games had a total margin of victory of 76 points that 19 point average makes it the most lopsided wildcard weekend since 1981 per NFL research and many other places.

Spin, Greg, spin. No, no spinning. Bad weekend. Yeah, the Giants and Packers gave us an entertaining three quarters. Certainly a compelling game. I mean, there was fun things happening. But other than that, the other three games were awash. Yeah, I mean, the other three games, the kickoff announced garbage time.

Like, there was nothing fundamentally interesting about having any of them out of the gate. But make sure you listen to today's show. Yes, please do. Which is sponsored, of course, by Mr. F's, or Mr. Flames's, Thomas class in the Hague. Oh, spin-in positive. Here's what's... Here's the spin-in positive.

It sets up an incredible divisional round where you've got all the division winners and you've got three just heavyweight fights next week. So when you got the favorites winning, that helps. Not sure Mr. F got his due there. It just kind of got lawnmowered right over. There we go. That is, if you want to be positive,

because it was a letdown of a weekend, but you got rid of the lions, you got rid of the dolphins, you got rid of the Raiders and the Giants who could not keep pace. So you got those teams out and away we go. We're down to what, seven games left now? Does that make sense? What's the map? That's correct.

Seven games? I mean, unless that's under the assumption that Super Bowl 51 occurs. Yes. I thought it wasn't going to be completed. It might not happen at all. We won't have a winner. We'll discuss further. Is this another apocalypse scenario?

Millions upon millions of dead people? I just don't, I think saying there will be seven more full games is where I'd have an issue with what you said. Okay. So we're going to get four games. We're going to go through each one, really breaking it down. And that will be the focus of today's Sunday show. And then as we spin forward into next week, we will talk about the divisional playoffs. But for now we will focus on these games.

And why do we start with what was kind of billed is the main event? And, you know, Greg, it's funny. You said that that was the game to kind of hang your. hat on. This one ended up to be the one that had the biggest margin of victory for any of the winning teams. Shotgun snap. Rogers goes back four, packs his arm, throws a pass. Wide open, caught by Cab at the 10, the 5 on the hash mark, running into the end zone. Touchdown on a pass right down the middle, a 30-yard laser thrown by Aaron Rogers and the Packers have extended their lead 2013 over the Giants late third quarter. Yes, Kevin Harlan, Westwood.

would won sports. It took the Packers offense a while to get going, but when they did, it was all over for Big Blue. Aaron Rogers threw for over 300 yards, four touchdowns. Three of those to re- revitalized Randall Cobb and the Packers continued their late season surge with a 38 to 13 win

over the New York Giants. Oh, who locked it? Double lock it up. A double lock. Beautiful work, gentlemen. The Packers will head to Dallas to face the Cowboys next Sunday and Chris Wessling the Packers started slow here, but finished with a now familiar onslaught.

For anybody who didn't actually watch this game, it's going to be hard to believe how dominant the Giants' defense was in the first 18 minutes of this game. Packers had negative eight yards by three minutes into the second quarter, five for five on punts for the Packers' offense, which is something that nobody had done in the playoffs since 2010. That's how dominant the Giants were, and then quarterback wins happened.

It's a quarterback win. Aaron Rogers put that team on his back, carried them, manufactured offense out of nothing on those two Devante Adams throws, and then the Hail Mary to Randall Cobb to put a team up 14 to 6 at halftime that had been thoroughly outplayed. You put it well, Wes, because this was a game where there was no pulse for the Packers, and they lose Jordy Nelson to what was a very painful-looking body injury, ribs maybe. You don't know if we're going to see him again this season. And Roger said, don't care. I'll find other guys to get involved.

It was also just watching him put on a clinic where New York kind of reminded me a little bit of watching people try to chase around and get to John Elway back in the day where he just dances and moves and evades would-be sackers. It was just, it was Aaron Rogers when he got hot at really a peak performance. Yeah, but to say QB wins, Wes, in the end, Aaron Rogers played fantastic. but if the rest of the Giants team played better, I think it could be a very different game. If Odell Beckham and Sterling Shepard, you know, catch one of those touchdown passes. If Eli Apple and the four or five guys in the secondary,

you know, it's a great, he throws a great Hail Mary, but that's still a play that the defense needs to take care of. Then it's a different game. You know, as much as the final score was crazy, it was literally a one-point game with three minutes left in the third quarter. And the Giants defense held out as long as they could, And if the rest of the Giants, I don't think it was Eli's best game, but he played a pretty, a very strong first half, which we didn't expect to see.

And if the rest of the team played as well as Eli, you know, they could have won this game. You're tiptoeing around, of course, Boatgate. Boatgate. What are you? Which will be the rage in New York on Monday. But let's listen to really the Packers had woken up ready, but this was to me the true. Turning point in the game, a great first half for the Giants on defense got wiped away with one play. Shotgun snap to Rogers.

Back credits. Now winds up, moves up, arching spiral pass. It'll end up in the end zone. It's a jump ball and it's caught. It's caught. Back in the end zone. It's caught. Randall Cobb and over the shoulder catch on a jump ball under the crossbar.

The Packers have scored. 42-yard. Hail Mary touchdown. as time expires in the first half, Rogers, to Randall Cobb. And, Wes, that is the third time now in essentially 13 months that Aaron Rogers has hit a Hail Mary in a big spot, including twice in the playoffs. Well, part of that is because he throws a great Hail Mary.

Yeah, there's skill to it. There's no question. He dances around, and the timing is usually working out well for him, and, you know, probably 90% of it is luck. This one also was on New York's coverage on that. play letting the receiver get behind the past the guy in the secondary and there's a space for him to make the catch. Eli Apple won't, won't sleep. And back to what Greg was saying, Eli Manning had a poor season, but in a game where you expected, or I expected him to play better, he really did at least

in the first half and to see his receivers let him down. Odell Beckham set a career high with three drops in this game. And I was, you know, making light of boat gates. But here, here's the the problem that he has, and he'll have to live with this on his resume, is that I don't think anybody that has a sane viewpoint on young football players living in life will get on him for that. But then when you have your worst game, now it becomes part of New York sports law. And he has to deal with that and take that into next season. It's just a bad situation that he has to deal with. And he was, again, very emotional, apparently inconsolable in the locker room afterwards. He had a terrible game. And Eli, in one possession, hit Beckham in the end zone,

dropped hit sterling shepherd in the end zone dropped and when they should have been up 13 nothing in this game they instead it was 6 nothing it was 194 yards to 7 that's that's a crazy step pretty late in the second quarter i mean that is absolute it's absolute domination by the giants in the first half and they couldn't capitalize i thought eli manning came out of the gate with more zip on his throws than we've seen in a while i would not put this on him you know beckham had eight drops over a hundred and seven catchable passes this season. This has never been an issue for Odell Beckham on a week-to-week basis. I have to wonder if the weather, the temperature at Lambeau Field and the environment had

much more to do than anything that happened in Miami on a boat. I mean, I just. And he did a nice job, Beckham. He did a presser after the game. I don't know what happened in the locker room, but he's going to be a huge story in New York and in the tabloids, but it could have been worse. He said the right things. He said, there's no way something that happened seven days ago.

affected this. I didn't have a single drop in practice all week. It just, I had a bad day. And he did. That's it. I will say I was texting with a long time, very rational, level-headed Giants fan who's been through good and bad. And he was furious with O'Dell Beckham. And I think a lot of Giants fans are not going to let him off the hook the way that some people in the media might. So what's, he's still the best player on the team.

What are he going to do? Say, oh, we got to trade him? I mean, what is? It's deeply frustrating when you, one of the reasons your season ends is when you're best player. Sure. Yeah, it reminds me of last year when the last time I saw a wide receiver play this poorly, Larry Fitzgerald.

But, yeah, that's a fair point. But if you think about what the Giants struggled at all year, I mean, it showed up. They had good halves of offense, Washington last week, Detroit. Like, they would look competent for a half. And then it would just sort of go away where they wouldn't move the ball. We thought they were getting a running game going. They couldn't run the ball at all today. And the Packers, as, you know, I'm stealing this point from Troy Aikman.

You know, they're back in nickel coverage the whole time too deep. They're daring the Giants to run against six guys in the box, and they can't do it. So they're doubling, you know, Beckham, they're doubling Shepard sometimes. It's like it's what we saw all season out of it. Their whole running game when it finally came alive in December was shotgun draws against nickel defenses. I mean, it wasn't a real sustaining ground attack ever.

And yet this was the game that the four of us sitting down, I thought enjoyably watching it together, got us up out of our season, had certain people. I mean, we all were thinking, you know, there is no connection to 2007, but it had that feel of the 2011 giants storming into Green Bay and taking care of business before it all crumbled. You were dying for juice after the first three games.

Absolutely. When the Giants cut it to 1413 in the third quarter, you were thinking yourself, all right, this is going to be one of those games, and they never scored again. Then Rogers went 13 yards, 20 yards, 30 yards, touchdown. And it seemed like in two seconds. That was the moment of the game.

And it kind of goes to what we've been talking about all season, about offense, it's an offense league, offense greater than defense. You know, if they're the best defense in the league, you know, they don't totally cave in at the end. Dominique Rogers' cromarty injury really hurt them. I think it limits what they can do in terms of blitzes and everything. But if they're that dominant of defense,

you have a little bit of a pass rush. I mean, they had no pass rush, and you hold them into a closer game than that. Is this the last stand of the great defenses of 2016? that was the Giants' turn to be hoisted up as having this great defense. I guess the Texans have the number one defense. Seattle, yeah, that's a good point.

Yeah, that's not going to last much longer. Yeah, it's still around right now. Seattle's there. But the Giants, and the Giants have a good defense. It just, they could not. It just, I'd mark it down to, again, Aaron Rogers, playing at an amazing level. And once he got going, and the Giants did not take advantage

of the slow start of the Packers' offense, they would live to regret it, and they did. I feel like if you're Dallas, well, you were, whether it was Atlanta or, Green Bay coming into your building, you've got to be thinking this is the reward, the gift we get for having to do what we did all season, get the number one seed. And in comes Aaron Rogers, who looks like a beyond human type of player at this point. You got the home game.

And Wes, how big is it if Jordan Nelson can't play? If today's version of Randall Cobb shows up, you're in fine shape. I mean, but that's-1-16-3. That's his best game since 2014, and I don't think it's close. And Rogers talked him up before the game. He talked him up after the game saying we're a different team when 18's on the field. Look, and Geronimo Allison has played well lately, too.

I don't think you're just throwing some nobody in there. No, and that's the thing. The Giants were game for this. I mean, they avoid, he avoided Janoris Jenkins. Landon Collins had another monster came in a season of monster games. I mean, they made it. They made it fun. You know what we have next week called Kristen Michael Revenge game.

against the Cowboys who cut him, and then if they win, they could face another Christian Michael revenge game against the Seahawks are cut him. He has so many revenge games. He was pumped up, by the way. He always was like celebrating. At one point when they broke a runback,

I think in the second half, you see him kind of in the foreground shooting his finger in the air on a runback of like 36 yards. He was very excited. It almost reminded me of Leslie Nielsen being the umpire. It was like, okay, that was an average play,

but you're going crazy. He also outplayed Time Montgomery who got carried off the field with a leg injury and returned for one more carry, but you wonder if Time Montgomery that knee injury did not look like a minor one. Sea Woke? I mean, I'm talking starring role next week.

I mean, this is the guy. I know you think we talk him up too much, Dan, but this is one of our season-long themes, too. It started in late July. Here we are in the middle of January, and it's Seawoke's season. He's a big factor in these playoffs. I like the idea of Seawoke, the Seahawks leading rushing Russia this year facing the Seahawks

in the NFC title game. I like that idea. It sounds kind of fun. Before we get out of here, one interesting stat that I called before we got up here. You called it? This was we're getting out of here? This wild card weekend, out of this game into the next one, was the most lopsided wild card weekend since 1981. Not sure if you've heard that.

Wait, didn't Dan say that? Yeah, it's a great stat, though. It's a great figure. It's out there. It's just a bit because, I mean, I feel like it's been pounded into my brain over the last hour and a half. Thirty-eight yards for the Bengals. All right. So the Packers advance, that will be fun seeing them in Big D

and now let's move on. Congrats to Dom Tapers, by the way. Survived another season. We'll not get fired in almost certainty unless they give up like 500 total yards of office. We're not hoping for that, but right, let's see what happens.

There's more action to come. A one and done would have been damaging. But then again, he's Teflon. Oh, Stefan Dom. Speaking of it, I might as well throw this in. I mean, you know. Yeah, go ahead, buddy. That's four one and done for Eli Manning

in his career. Oh, look at you. I'm just saying. Well, Aaron Rogers has a few of them. No, no, no, I get it. I'm just saying everyone's like playoff Eli, non-playoff Eli. He's been to the playoffs six times, and they've been won and done four times. Hey, bro.

How about this? He's also got two. I got two, four and one. I'm just, okay? I'm just pointing that out. Four wins and then he won. He scored 25 points in a playoff game one time in his career. Alex Smith has scored over 30 three times.

Well, Alex Smith is a great playoff quarterback. People aren't noticing that yet. There you go. There are a lot down as we go. Nice try, Greg. You're never going to wipe it away. It's always going to be there. But I know you're happy.

about this you love it i'm i'm happy they're not they're not advancing i get it it's fine okay let's move on to the first playoff game of the weekend it occurred at nrg stadium home of super bowl 51 osweiler play action bootleg to the right osweiler trying to run for it zigzags in for the touchdown brock oswiler pater speaking of the lead playoffs are pulling away here in the fort yes brock oswiler yes that brock oswiler yes that brock While they threw for one score, ran for another, leading Chris Wessling. Oh, my gosh. The Houston Texan to a 2714 win.

I don't even debate that. Over the Oakland Raiders on Saturday. The Texans will take this bunny and head to Foxborough for a divisional round date with the Pats next weekend. Greg Rosenthal, you were at this game. I mean, look at you. You locked it up, by the way. Oh, I did lock it up.

Oh, the lock off. But somebody didn't. Yeah. Somebody said, I'm going to take the fourth round pick rookie on the road in his first start. And that was you, Marks. Yeah, it's like, here's a game that if I knew, if I could see the future, Connor Cook would throw the ball 45 times. That's a good recipe for a lock.

Anyway, Greg Rosenthal, you were at this game. The Texans were given the rarest of all playoff gifts. They got to face a rookie quarterback making his first NFL start. And they took advantage of it. They did it. I will never understand. I know this seems like a. small point why they didn't play Matt

McGloin. And Jack Del Rio said he wanted to go to McGloin late in the first half in the post-game press conference. And his coaches talked him out of it, which is strange. The whole... You never want to hear that, by the way. Story is strange, because they explained to him that there were other

factors in terms of why Cook was struggling. I mean, this was one of the worst played quarterback games of the season by Cook. Because it wasn't all just about turnovers. It was a lot of... Sometimes he would just step back, have all sorts of time. There'd be no one around him in the pocket.

And then eventually he would just kind of throw the ball out of nowhere to no one, possibly to the other team. I think that's because of Romeo Cornell who just mixed things up and they have a nice, deep secondary, and they've got two great players up front and merciless and clowny, and it's not a sexy team. But when you're playing the Raiders, that was enough. It was fun.

We really need to redefine the box score for football. Because you look at this game, it says Gidevian Clowny has one tackle. That was his impact on the game according to the box school. We need a better way to measure defensive players' effectiveness. It's crazy because, you know, I wrote almost totally about him after the game because I thought it was such a great moment for him to have that interception. You know, three years after he was taking number one overall, he's going up against Khalil Mackie.

You know, you said after the game when I asked him, he said it did mean more when you're going up against a guy in your own class. He knows how good Khalil Mack is, and he loved it. I mean, he was beaming, he's joking, he's got his kid on his shoulder. It's like this was his moment. If nothing else this season for them got you thinking. I mean, AJ Bouye said it after the game. It's like, just think of when he's like, all I think when I'm watching Clownie doing this is, think when 99 is back.

When we got Clowny, Merciless, and 99 together next year, I mean, that could be something. It's a great point. And I had the luck of watching this game next to Chris Wesleyan down at a 10. Tavern by the sea, and we were, now, Clownie got the pick, but at one point, he almost had had a turnover before that as well. He's utterly dominant out of the gate. And you kind of set the tone right away for the Texans. The double teams on him allow Whitney Merciless to re-cav it. And Connor Oro wrote it up, talked about the fact that they eventually started to double team merciless and had to go, had to do that to take care of him and let Clownie roam free as the game

went on. So you're right. There's no way to pick your poison. There were hurries, there were hits, there's just plays where he throws the offensive lineman into the backfield, gets in the way of the running back. He was big in the running game. I mean, the Raiders wanted to establish the run. They came out very conservative. They couldn't run the ball. It was tough to watch. I mean, I'll admit, for this to be a playoff game, it was tough to watch.

Is Whitney Merciless one of the more underrated defensive linemen in the league? He's officially an outside linebacker, but as far as pass rushers go, I think he only had six sackers. this year, so nobody's really going to pay attention to him. But he does wreak havoc. He's in the backfield quite a bit. He's good against the run, and he hurries a lot of quarterbacks, too. I think he's a guy that pro football focus will help you understand how good he is. I think also he had to go through the process of changing some perceptions about earlier in his

career where he was not effective to this degree at all. Rick Smith signed him to a very low-cost deal through, I think, like 2019 or something. So this group is going to be together for a while. They're pretty good in the secondary. Bouillet is going to be, you know, a free agent. But then again, like anyone could have beaten this Raiders team just about, I think. That's why I was confused about McGloin. By the way, Matt McIntyreve wasn't going to save the day.

Probably not. Probably not. But he started seven or eight games as a rookie and looked okay then. And it's just like he's a NFL quarterback that's been in this system a couple years. It would have been nice to see because this game was not totally a blowout. I want being there. what was your impression of the crowd at NRG Stadium? Oh, it was wild.

They're a great crowd. I've always thought Houston has a really good fan base, especially considering their teams have always kind of been right in the middle. I mean, they were loud. Were they stunned to see Osweiler not completely implode? I think they were ready to turn against Osweiler. They even started to after the third drive when the Raiders made it 10-7 and the Texans were playing.

it's so conservative. But it was 10-0 before the Raiders had to do anything. Their first two drives totaled 12 yards. That scored 10 points. They scored 10 points on 12 yards. It's like it was just a recipe for like, don't worry about it, Brock. You don't have to do it.

But he deserves, he does deserve credit for not blowing up the game by being terrible, which he's been doing all year. I think I can count only one like Brock pass where it was an awful pass that should have been picked. He even checked out of a running play. on the touchdown pass. Next level stuff.

Which obviously is not something you're supposed to get excited about for a $39 million quarterback or whatever. But the fact that he was able to do it in the playoffs and here they are now into the final eight teams, that's an achievement for how bad the season had gone for him. You know what is grotesque is that this wound up, we thought that after this game, well, this was a dud. It wound up being the closest of all the games this weekend.

Is there any stats out there for what it was internally? Well, while you guys were discussing, I did. We did a little compilation, went through the numbers, Pro Football Reference.com. What did you find? Well, I'm not going to go official with this, but I'm still working on. Results tell us that these are the most lopsided.

Breaking news. Most lopsided wild card around. You have to go all the way back to 1981 to find four games that were, they weren't four. Bro, that's 35 years ago. Yeah. That's crazy. So that's history.

That's a little bit of history that we've made this weekend. That's 35 years ago. Yeah. Wes Brock played well. Dan, did you know that I'm going to have a new column starting this week? You are. Get off my 100-yard lawn. Park came up with this title. And it's going to be a lot of why is this still a thing type of stuff?

Oh, I love it. Oh, Brock's ready for a comeback now. He's going to lead the Texans. He's back, baby. That's probably going to be. It's going to get grim next weekend. Judging by the sports radio and some of the media people talking, they talked to at the game, there was a little too much credit going to Brock Osweiler for this one.

It's like they had 16 drives in this game, I believe, which is an exceptionally high amount. And they actually had fewer than 300 yards. So they had less than their normal yardage total. But he was competent. And that's what was an easy storyline. He was solid. And the drive right before halftime where Bill O'Brien did an unbelievable job using his timeouts,

we kill coaches for not using their timeouts well, getting the ball back. And then Osweiler goes down the field in about four plays. Two of them, which were beautiful, throws to D'Andre Hopkins. He deserves credit. He had no turnovers. You're right. He just kind of stayed out of the way the rest of the time.

But he didn't do that much other than that. Competence is cool. Yeah. When you were in San Diego last week, I think you got down and spoke with some of the founding. Margaret Sue was her name in the article, something like that. Did you get down with the unwashed masses this time and talk with them? Sally Sue. Sally Sue from San Diego telling you about football.

That was for an article. You know, this time. No fan interaction. If I don't have to, no. Sure. Well, that's, okay. You know who had a big day? The NFL Network's great.

I'm the way into the game. If I don't have to, he says, I'm speaking with football. It was a joke. I actually did talk to a couple of Raiders fans because I was curious about their feel. And there really was kind of a feeling of like, hey, what are you going to do? We're here with Conner Cook. The hopes were pretty low. That's sad.

And, you know, speaking of the Raiders, you know, I got a admission to make here. And it was something that really stunned me when I stumbled across it. I got some more breaking news. What? The old Zeus are sitting on his couch with his wife. Watching a screener of La La Land, just, you know, kick him back. Good film. Deserves the theater treatment, but I get it.

You guys. I'm going to go see a musical in the theater. Let's calm down. I am. I'm going to go see it. I'll sit here. Whatever. I click into Derek Carr's Twitter profile.

This is where we're going. I got blood. me. What? Derek Carr, the star quarterback of the Raiders, the Raiders who, from August on, I pounded the table for- You've been backing this guy from day one. As a fun team that I love, and, you know, my pick as the team of ATL, never had a bad word to say about Derek.

He blocked me. He has a wonderful brother who works here. He's a co-worker of yours. I don't understand. We've never spoken before. Maybe things got misconstrued about something he wrote along the way. Who knows? I mean, that could be my only guess.

Unless, you know, maybe Dave Carr saw me and he saw me as a threat as the most handsome man on campus here and said, hey, Derek. Well, now we're going somewhere. That's completely unnecessary. Theories. I'm just saying theories and said, hey, hey, hey, Derek, little bro. This guy is a threat. ostracize him. That's my only theory.

This is what happens in their quarterback room. Matt McGloin, who did not hide his distaste for being benched by the. the end of that game just sitting there with his hat on his hands on his hips he was so annoyed he he has blocked almost the entire bay area media and most of their big time fans has been blocked by matt mcloin over the way he operates maybe he's maybe he's rubbing off on the kid derrick i don't know i'm going to i'm going to continue to look into us try to figure out what went wrong uh maybe i'll introduce himself to david and we could maybe he could be the guy the go-between to broker some type of peace can we expect a long form on this

wow you might need one i got a lot of digging to do first before i put pen to paper i got to do some work some journal work to figure out why derrick are blocked not the first person uh you know of note that's blocked you in the past so you met there may be some elements to your reporting or your character that are rubbing some the wrong way i don't find that right you can't you can't you can't you can't sit on the fence you got to be who you are and if people don't like you they don't like you but in derrick's case i i never we

never had an issue you saying it's not a shot at him made it feel more right i would never have taken it that way until the way you phrased that and now i'm going to block you and it's going to be done for you and me uh so we'll get to the bottom of that and finally a big a big game for uh j j watt of all people uh over all right actually closest without going over because had the video team actually cut this and you could read about it on the end around uh how many sideline cutaway shots to J.J. Watt during Saturday's telecast. We're open to guess.

Closest without going over. Mark, I'm going to go seven. Wes. I was also going to say seven. I'll go six. I can't pick six. I didn't see the telecast. I'll go 14. Sid. I was going to say 16. Oh my goodness.

La Cid nails it. Wow. New money. I was keyed in on the JJ walk. Cam 16. You love JJ Watt, right? Listen, I did love J.J. Watt, and then he got annoying about, I don't know,

JJ Watt Cam about 10. I felt for him a little bit. That's like four per quarter. That's ridiculous. And I think 10 were probably in the first half alone. I felt for him a little bit. You saw him in the locker room. You know, he was changing.

He must have worked out or something. And he's there. You're just kind of off to the side. You're usually the leader of the team. Everyone's kind of all happy. You're kind of quiet and not part. That's a tough decision. Derek Carr,

who, as everyone knows, block me. And I don't know why. He was in California watching a game with his family. JJ wants to be on the sideline with his teammates, but it does, but you're a weird spot because you're not part of the battle. Interesting. Wasn't there a report that he could have played if they hadn't put him on IR? Yeah, it was the sideline reporter said that he's coming along

because he also, not only we get 16 shots, we got a look Friday, a workout on the field of him doing some shuttle runs. So we even got some JJ works harder than everybody footage. And they said he was kind of coming. coming along nicely physically, but since he was moved to IR, he cannot come back. I mean, in an alternate universe, JJ Watt would have sacked Matt McLean at some point in this game. Before we move on, I'm going to give you a couple quick hot takes. I know we got to move on.

About Eric Card. No, it's about this game. It's about this game. Because I am not happy about it. You know, O'Dow Beckham's going to get a lot of grief. Come back to us, Michael Crabtree and Amari Cooper. Terrible game. That's bad, dog.

Especially Crabtree. That's happened a couple of times in here. That's fair. Big time drops. Help out your quarterback. David Amerson, also a little rough game. DeAndre Hopkins, give him a little love, bad season, but had a great game. Nice separation.

And then Khalil Mack, what a guy to watch in person. As great as clown he was, he was the best football player in that game. And I don't think it was that close. He was incredible. Mark, is a team that has bad quarterbacks all the time like I do. It's nothing more frustrating than a bad quarterback making an actual good throw, and then his receiver drops it. And that's what was happening in that game for Oakland.

Well, I think you and I are no strangers to that dynamic, I guess. All right, let's move on and check in on the other AFC playoff game that was played at Hinesfield. Dolphins showing blitz near edge, second and seven. Rathusberger sees the blitz, and he throws to Brown. Defender tumbles at the 50, and Brown explodes. Up to the 35, the 30, the 25, the 20. He waves his right hand at the trailing defender, and he soars into the end zone for a touchdown, posing with a hand on his hip, his second score of the day from 50 to now 62 yards.

6.50 remaining in the first quarter. The Steelers have a two touchdown advantage, 13 to nothing. John Sadek, Westwood won sports. The Pittsburgh Steelers entered Wild Card Weekend as the biggest favorite of the weekend. Then they went on the field and showed why overwhelming the Dolphins with touchdown drives in their first three possessions en route to a 30 to 12 win at Heinzfield. The Steelers will travel to Arrowhead next weekend in the divisional playoffs. And Mark Sessler, we finally got to see Big Ben, Antonio Brown, and Lev Bell on the field

in a playoff game, and they did not disappoint. Yeah, I mean, two of those players broke records. What were they? Well, Antonio Brown's 119 yards in the first quarter alone were the most by any player in the NFL since Minnesota's Gene Washington had 120 yards against Cleveland in what year? Try someone, try guessing. Don't ask Wes.

He'll get mad. No trivia. All right. Well, a very special year, 1969. I guess 70. And then, you know, Leveon Bell broke the team's single game playoff record for rushing. My favorite part of this game, and it felt over right away. I mean, at some point you've got to give up trying to root for these close games.

Just enjoy the wreckage. And it was an absolute destruction of Miami early on. That one point, they ran the ball on a drive with Leveon Bell 10 times in a row, I believe it was. And he went 83 yards, went in for the touchdown. They had to call it back. He got in on the two plays later. Just utter dominance, right? I thought that Pittsburgh was just basically saying,

we're like someone playing a newborn toddler in Madden. We're just going to run the same play over and over, and we're going to run right through you. And Miami could not stop it at all. It was for me a portrait of how powerful Pittsburgh could be if they can keep these guys healthy, and there are some concerns with Big Ben coming out of that game. But if he's fine and they play at this level,

I think they're a really tough out. Ten straight runs for Lev Bell was quite a statement. Yes, it was. It was zero respect for that. that Vance Joseph led Dolphins. You would think they would have more respect for the first ever human newborn toddler. Okay, baby expert.

Baby expert, Greg Rosenthal. How many times did you say, Mark, game over? Every time Pittsburgh touched the ball on the first half. You are now 93 and 0 in first quarter prediction. It's the only skill that I seem to have covering football because I do feel like the minute to happen, I knew the scheme is over. can try to talk Miami.

Miami was not a complete disaster. They did a couple things well. But Pittsburgh took their foot off the gas at some point in this game, too. It was like a bear toying with a baby rabbit, just, you know, or a toddler rabbit. Bingo. And if they needed to turn it on, if the dolphins actually did school. Because they, this game, and we talked to Handsome Hank at some point today when he came by to our area, you know, they had a chance to pull within one touchdown late in the first

half, strip sack fumble. they had another chance in Steelers territory in the third quarter and that led to a turnover as well and Henry put it well you know I was saying you know they could have made this a game if they executed better they killed themselves with mistakes Henry was like yeah but it always felt like even if that would have happened then the Steelers just would hit the accelerator a little harder this just seemed like two mismatched teams and it played out yeah

credit to James Harrison who really was the best defensive player in this game on either side is he working out with Tom Brady I don't know but he had more people pressures than the entire Dolphins defense, and he had more run stops than the entire Dolphins defense. Well, yeah, in the preview of the game, I talked about, well, Sue and Wake are just going to have to be crazy for them to have a chance. But Pittsburgh had by far the better pass rush.

I mean, Dupree had a big game. Harrison had a big game. Timmons had a couple tackles. Mike Mitchell had a couple quarterback. It's like they do have it going. The Dolphins offensive line is not great, so we'll see against Kansas. the city. Steelers lead the NFL in Sacks since week 11.

They have 30 since then. Their best is scary. You know what's crazy is Big Ben's not really playing that well? He's been okay. He started this game 12 for 12, but yeah. He's making some, but he didn't have to do that much. He didn't get hit till the third quarter. I mean, Pittsburgh's offensive line is under radio.

He's thrown a couple interceptions. He had a couple near interceptions. Even down the stretch, I'm not saying he's playing. Can I offer a counterpoint? Sure. From the end of the Ravens game to the start of this game, he went six straight drives with a touchdown. Sure, but you're picking, you're picking drives.

I'm saying he was good enough to beat the Ravens and come back in that game. But he was coming back because he threw two interceptions and he threw two interceptions in this game and had another that could have been picked off. All I'm saying is I don't think he's been at his very best this season. I think this has probably been his worst season and it's all relative. He's a top 10 quarterback in the last three or four years. By the way, Mike Tomlin. Maybe we could leave the lab here.

Mike Tomlin. Come back to us, buddy. You can come in the lab. I'm not comfortable. I like it up here. Let's sit upstairs. In the kitchen area. We kind of sit around the kitchen island.

And Mark and I, we drink greyhounds and eat pretzels. It's fun. But Mike Tomlin, come back to us. What does Big Ben in this game late in the game? Put Landry Jones in and you kind of spit in the sky. And what happens? Big Ben hurts his foot on the second to the last play of the game. Shows up at the press conference in a damn boot.

And Wes, we know the Golden Globes are tonight. and if Big Ben was nominated, he would surely win the award. He said, I'll be out there in Kansas City. But still, if he jacked up his foot in any tangible way, bad job by the coaching staff leaving him out there. He just wants you to know what he's going to have to go through in order to become the hero next week. Dance points right, though.

Why are they not just running the ball? Levelle getting the ball up. I was on a passing point, too. Danela Williams is one of the best backup running backs in the game. Put him in there, give him the ball. He's got fresh legs after missing the second half of the season. Love Bell had 29 carries. It's a lot of carries.

I agree. I mean, 10 in a row, it's a crazy workload in 2017. I'm not saying it's good or bad, but it just, it opens your eyes. When he's getting the ball late in the second half, I'm thinking to myself, like, what are you asking for here? What's to be achieved here? Landry Jones, who is not Big Ben, but he just showed when he beat the Browns, he could at least take snaps and hand it off. Let's be smarter here. They escape probably, but still.

It's the kind of thing that that kind of a coaching decision will get more heat from people than almost anything else. if you don't pull Ben early and he gets hurt. I want to talk one quickly about Matt Moore, though, because he is Matt Moore. We're not going to advertise him as something else, but he took a tremendous shot in this game. A helmet to the jaw, a bunch. But one that looked like you saw him just lying on the ground.

I thought he's not coming back in. We got T.J. Yates for the 18th year in a row in the playoffs. But one play later, more comes back on, leads the team to a field goal. And his final line is he was 29. of 36 for nearly 300 yards. Matt Moore was not, I don't know if Brian Tannanhill were in this game. No, it wasn't.

Those numbers were great in the first half. I mean, the turnovers with two of them, you know, blindside strip sacks. That happens. He threw a bad pick. But Matt Moore was not necessarily much worse than I think Ryan Tannahill would have been in this game. Yeah, I don't think, and Greg, you were making that point during the preview that it's a setback to have Tannhill out of the lineup.

But really the story was not about Matt Moore. It was just the Dolphins defense, which. just did not show up in the first quarter of this game and whether maybe there's no team out there that could slow down the Steelers when they're revving like that, but certainly the Dolvin's defense to do it. Right, and then game script completely pulls Jay Ajay out of the picture

and he couldn't run well any way today, but he had, I think, it was 1.12 yards going into deep into the second quarter. For all the Matt Moore, love, you can concentrate on stopping Jay Ajai when Matt Moore is the quarterback. You can sell out. Yeah, but I think you can do that with Tanna Hill. It's picking nits because this team was too flawed. They were missing their three best players in the secondary.

They don't have a very good offensive line. I think Ajai is a really good runner, one of the top 10 runners in the league. He had, I think, the third highest average yards after contact of any running back in the last 10 years. He runs hard. So I think it's the line when they're not producing. I mean, they got no linebacker. This team, the team had some issues more. I love me a little Matt more.

I love the back with the Panthers back in. I think a little Matt Moore. We don't need a lot, but a little son. He's a lot like Tony Romo to me. He did a very nice job filling in for Tanna Hill. And I think all those years on the bench, all that health accrued by not taking those hits, probably all got wiped away. I don't know how long you want to be in the NFL when you take the hit that he took today.

But Greg, I do have to ask you before we move on to the next game, I got to ask you a bunch of pants. And specifically, you take down the button in the fly and then, you know, wiggle down them pants and then we check out your underpants. How dry are they? Or how wet are they? Just hideous imagery. One, totally dry.

It's moving his hands around. No issue. The wiggle. Too bad we're not on a periscope today. No issue with moisture or any type of accident situation. Ten, your pants is soaked. Oh, my goodness. How embarrassing.

Straight through the underpants is soaked. The pants is soaked. It's a total mess situation. You've got to get in your car and get home because the Steelers are a threat. The Steelers are a threat of the throne of. Loveys. I went for a little song. They got a second bye week coming up.

What I'm worried about? The scale is three, but it was three going into today. The Steelers don't... I'm not convinced the Steelers will win in Kansas City, so I fully expect the Steelers to win this game. Yeah, this was a great performance. The Steelers would scare me more if they win in Kansas City, But I am not assuming that at all.

In fact, I kind of think that the chiefs are the favorite in that game. So today didn't change my mind. The Patriots are about as good a chance as they've been going into the place. If you're at a three, though, I just got to let you know because you said you're at a three. A little bit of dribble. Yeah, a little bit of dribble. A little moisture down there from NFL Network's baby toddler expert. My brother and my father are a factor into this, not because of dribbling genetics or anything.

They're going to this. They're going to the Super Bowl this year. And, you know, that, to me, puts a little more juice on. You're taking your brother? They better go. They're coming. I like that, Greg. I like when Greg, you know, reaches out and the family is all too.

I can't wait to see all the Rosenthal's together. It's going to be great. One last thing on the Dolphins, Greg, you called them a flawed team. I expected them to be a team full of mercenaries and quit halfway through the year. They showed a mental toughness this year and got more than their talent would suggest. Adam Gase had a great first season as coach. I think you can pat yourself on the back if you're the Dolphi. Well, we saw Handsome Hank after the game, and he was in fine mood for what happened.

I know my brother, Eric is a Dolphins fan forever. And that team – Eric with a C. Eric with a C. Those guys have been through utter hell as a fan base if you're under the age of 60. You really have. I think you have problems on the roster, but you have a great receiver group. You found a really good running back that's going to be around around. Those players love games.

Your coach looks strong. There's things to build up. you're going to get healthy. I mean, Rashad Jones is an all-pro. Byron Maxwell was a really good cornerback for them. You know, Abdul Caduce was that. They're going to get players back. There's some things.

I think if you're a bad team and they had a much better year than we would have ever expected when they started one and four. But when you make that transition, you come out of year one, win or lose in the playoffs, and you've found a coach that the whole organization buys into and believes in. Everything can begin to change at that point. Right.

And it's a good star for them. We'll see how it plays up. Certainly. It's hard to back it up, though. You know what I mean? Todd Haley, Brad Childress, your boy. Todd Bowles. Todd Bulls.

Yeah, it's hard. I was kind of hinting. I don't want to be negative about the Dolphins because the fans are very sensitive. And I do respect what they were able to do this season. And they are a distant number three in the dumpster fire rankings of the AFC East, non-Patriots. But we'll see what they can do next year. We'll see. By the way, before we go on to the next game, a little did you know.

Everybody loves a good dude. Drop it on us. Except for Wes. It hates trivia. The four wildcard games had a total margin of victory of 76 points. That 19-point average makes it the most lopsided wildcard weekend since the year. 1981, the year of our lord. You have to go back three and a half decades to find, you know, a week like this.

Carter ushered out, Reagan ushered in. Dan was one year old back then. I was just a toddler, I think. A newborn. A newborn. That is three and a half decades. What did you know? 35 years.

That's why people listen to this show. Let's move on to the Saturday evening affair at the clink. Fourth down and goal. The turn, the play fake, the look, the dump over the top, reaching back. Does he make the catch flag is down? Paul Richardson makes the catch for a touchdown. Seahawks. Holy mackerel!

He had a man in his face. What a catch, one hand, reaching around the defender, Wilson, and Paul Richardson interfered with and meets the catch with one hand, and the Seahawks go on top 6-0. Steve Rybill, K-I-R-O, Paul Richardson's one-handed catch won in a day of circus receptions for the wideout. Put the Seahawks ahead, a lead they would never relinquish in a 26-6 to 6. six win over the Lions, who win their season with four consecutive losses after a nine-and-four start, Marron. The Seahawks advanced to face the Falcons at the Georgia Dome next week. Chris Wessling, the Seahawks entered this game with big question marks, but this game featured some familiar hallmarks of past Seahawks playoff runs.

Yeah, I'm not ready to say the Seahawks are back just because they beat a fundamentally mediocre Lions team. and pretty convincingly. Thomas Rawls, I suspected that they would get the running game back on track because the talent is there when their offensive line is not playing against a front that it just out-talanced them like the Cardinals do and the Rams do. But this is a match-up-based Seahawks team to me. When their offensive line is credible against the defense, they can move the ball.

When they get overwhelmed, it shuts down the entire offense. Well, doesn't that bode well if you were a Seahawks optimist? because they're not exactly playing, you know, the 2000 Ravens this week in Atlanta, or frankly, when they play either of the two teams, especially Dallas, I guess not even, you know, this isn't a great NFC of defenses or pass rushes. It absolutely bodes well for Seahawks offense, but can their defense stop Matt Ryan when they've been leaving the middle of the field open for a while? I don't know.

I think that's a much different test than the Lions offense of the past month. Well, and we also, the three of us, excluding Greg, who was on the road, this together after West and I watched the early game. So some beers had been had. I mean, we mostly watched it. But I reviewed it again this morning. Smart move, by the way. Professional.

Very smart. I was going to say, yeah. At some point, it was like, listen, they're putting sense. Was some of it hazy? Was some of it hazy? Yeah. Some of it. Every time I looked up, Paul Richardson was making a diving catch.

I didn't know what was going on. Right. But it was much closer, I thought, going, then the score looks like, to be honest. I'm not saying that Detroit's, you know, on any level with Seattle, but this was Matthew Stafford had multiple chances, had he gone down the field and scored a touchdown with the Lions to tie the game at various points. I think it hurts Lions fans because their mistakes, they lost it for the first three quarters as much as the Seahawks won. As great as Thomas Rawls was, it's like they had three or four drives where literally it was a third down drop where the guy

was behind the sticks. I mean, it was, that's a drive killer. There was five or six drops total in the game. There was some crazy penalties. Anquan Bolden loses his head and kills him with a couple penalties. Yeah, I mean, there was a pass where Stafford threw a bullet to basically two lions wideouts and no one caught the ball. I can't think of a lion's game this season where Stafford was out of sync to this degree with his receivers. There was a personal foul on Holodinada that it was going to be third and eight for the Seahawks 10 to 6 in the fourth quarter. In the fourth quarter, this is not early in the game. and he gets that personal foul

and they wind up scoring the touchdown. This is why it sucks to be a alliance fan and this is why they had a very high ranking and our pain rankings and all that because they rarely get into the playoffs and they got robbed in the Dallas Cowboys game a couple of years ago and that's one way to get your heart ripped out

and you finally get back to the playoffs this year and your team basically doesn't show up and I think they made some stops on defense but like as you were saying Greg, so many drops. I mean, just to play small and to play one of your sloppiest games, that's just a level of frustration as a fan where you just start to question, why do I even invest myself when these guys are going to come up this small

when the stage is this big? Or when your offense is centered around Zach Zener. And I want to say it's centered around. Well, I mean, in the game yesterday, it seemed like all they could do was lean on hand. There was just no players were not getting it done on any level. Zener is funny, Patra, you know, and I wish we would have reached out to Kevin about this game. But, in fact, maybe we could try. Wow.

A little live, just audible. I like it. Maybe we can try. Maybe we could shoot a text and see if he's available to talk. But Patra predicted that Zennar would run for 38 yards in this game. He finished at 34. I mean, because that's, as Wes, we were talking about at the watering hole, it's kind of who Zach Zenter is.

So anybody that was starting to talk themselves into Xenner as being like this game changer, he is who he is and they needed the offense to come from other places. Well, I think when you take a look at this Lions team and how do you fix them next year, you're going to get Amir Abdullah and Theo Riddick back. And I think that's the most important way to fix their offense is by being healthy in that backfield.

Get someone else, though, that's between the tackles too. Yeah. Yeah, you need a power back. It doesn't have to be an every down guy, but a power back to throw in there. And then defensively, you just need playmakers. I don't think they have enough talent on defense. I feel bad for Lions fans because it was like a season

where they kept waiting for it to cave in on them. And then it did. I mean, at the very moment where everyone in this room started to be like, oh, wow, I guess the Lions really do have something. That's the moment where they beat the Saints. Right. And that's the moment where it did cave in. And you leave the season kind of feeling like, well, what was the point of all that?

We just got waxed three straight weeks, I think, by a total of about 60 points. So in the end, they didn't feel like they were a competitive team at all. Well, and you're keeping your coaching staff around. And I would imagine plenty of Lions fans are split on how they feel about Jim Caldwell and the staff in general. And, you know, they got to go out and get a better. Eat some backfield. but, you know, the Cooter shine is off. I'll tell you that.

I think he did a fine. Wasn't this Matthew Stafford's best season? Yeah, I think he did a good job. I'm just saying if you look at what happened and during this meltdown down the stretch, the offense became a major problem. Area Man rejects Cooter. Wow, yeah, in a big spot.

You got to give the C. He's going to block you next on Twitter, by the way. You got to give the Seahawks defense some credit. I mean, the guys that you kind of wanted to show up in this game showed up. I mean, it's the same guys. It's Avril. It's Clark. It's Bennett.

It's Wagner. It's right. I mean, they all had big games. They all played well. They all made you think like, okay, maybe we can do this again. Yes, Stafford avoided Richard Sherman as teams were, you know, a couple years back. I completely agree. I think the Atlanta Seattle matchup will be fascinating.

But I think the question with anyone dealing with Atlanta is, how do you keep up if they're playing the way? If they get off to the kind of start that typically have. Well, you'd love to run the ball like they did. They had the ball for 36, 37, I mean, they had some holes. I mean, it wasn't just Rawls running that, like, crazy. They had some holes. How about, oh, go ahead, Wes.

Well, if you want to check in with Kevin Patrick, I can hold this thought. No. Okay. Share the thought. Let's take the Raiders out of the picture because they were missing their MVP candidate quarterback. Out of the three other teams that lost the Giants, Dolphins, and Lions, who do you like best going into 2017? Who has a better chance of going farther in the playoffs next year?

I'd give the Giants. chance because I because of the defense even though Eli is up there it's ultimately a team that has a lot of players in their prime and I think they got more players than the lions do I think the Giants do have a championship level defense and and they got Otto Beckham and Sterling Shepard what if what if Eli's second half wasn't like the beginning of the end what if it was just a tired arm and what if they actually find somebody in the backfield that can run the ball and I'm not talking about Paul Perkins and Rashad Jennings it was frustrated That was another, we didn't get to that, but they did not run the ball at all.

I would say the Giants as well. The Dolphins are a team that had a nice season, but they're just like the Jets and Bills were all waiting out, Tom Brady, so they're in a tough spot to be a real contender still. And, yeah, the lines, I don't know, man. I think there's hope. They are what their record is, 9-8. I think there's hope in Miami.

And if you're Detroit, you're also in a great division as well. Let's try this. Let's try this. Patrick didn't get back to me on text. I just texted them in real time. Cold called the guy. But why don't we cold call? Yeah.

And if he picks up and he talks to us, we talk to him. If we get the voicemail, maybe we could leave, you know, condolence message to him. I like that. But another lost season. I think Patrick was approaching 30 now. He's starting. He's over 30.

He's that young. He's about 30. He's in that range and he's engaged now, I believe, or is he just in love? I think it's veering towards that way. I think he's probably latter is true. I'm not sure of the early part. Why am I even attempting to comment? I have no idea.

Okay, you can put on, we could listen in on this if, uh, yeah. All right. I mean, he could get angry too. This guy's known to get a little fired up. Mark, if we get the voice. You started up. Okay. We should be respectful.

He likes you the most. Yeah. There's a kinship there. Unconfirmed. I wonder what he's doing. What is it? from Chicago. Lifting weight.

9.16 p.m. He's working out. He's definitely lifting. His body is awesome. A lot of rings here. You've reached the voicemail of Kevin Petra. Please leave a message and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Thank you very much.

At the tone, please record your voice message. He deserves this. When you are finished recording, you may hang up or press tone for more options. Hey, Kevin, Mark Sessler here from, well, from work. Just wanted to say that, you know, tough loss. and I don't like people that, you know, right after a game, they say, hey, that sucked for you. I mean, I kind of let it marinate for a day, but feel for you.

As a guy who follows a really crappy team, I know that it's not easy to be an alliance fan either. We've got a few other people here that want to wish you well. Yeah, hey, Kev, this is Dan, the old Zooser. Hey, hang in there, man. You know, I know what it's like, too, as a Jets fan, and you deserve better than this, but you're going to bounce back from this,

and you could use this as hate fuel to continue to be. build, that incredible, amazing body. And it's summer season now you're going to start cutting weight and starting to get that slender muscular build. Time to get ripped. I'm very excited about that. So things are looking up in 2017, regardless of the lines. And that body's helping you.

You know, you got a lady in your life. This is Greg Rosen. Things are turning up. This thing might cut us off. How long the voicemail was. I don't know. Wes. Hey, Kevin.

This is Chris Wesley. I know you're in the gym right now because someone somewhere out there is gaining knowing you. Sid, do you have anything to say? Sorry, sorry, Kevin. Sorry. All right. See you later, Kev.

Love you, buddy. That, I don't think, I can't remember the last time I've actually left a message on someone's voicemail. Yeah, it's a dying. Right? But it gave me the kind of anxiety slash amazing feeling that when you're, like, when you're young and you're calling a girl and then you have to leave a message, I thought, God, I cannot F this up. Well, you always had the option of hitting three, which is a race and re-record, which I didn't. I don't think I had that during my early dating life. Is that universal that worked?

I didn't even know that that option existed. One was send. I think two might have been. See, it's been so long. A race and re-record. I wouldn't trust it. I'd be like she's hearing me give seven or eight versions of a message and it's over. I'll never see this person.

Because that could backfire. Right. It's just, it's a sign of a lack of confidence. I would love to say that I would send every voicemail to a woman and be like, yeah, nailed it, she's going to like this, dude. But sometimes I did the erase and re-record. Confessions. Breaking news.

Sometimes I did the erase and re-record. I'm not perfect. Perfect, I'm not. Right. Is that your problem, Derek Carr? I'm not perfect? I'm taking this well. It has really stuck in your car.

Of course it does. He's one of the most famous players of the NFL. about it. Also, it seems to be a really kind-hearted guy. I don't, the block thing for him kind of throws me off. Well, that might be why it's hitting Dan so hard, because he's clearly such a nice, good guy that it's making Dan question himself. If Derek R.C.R. sees something wrong in me.

Maybe. What have I done? But also, here's the thing. Supported him as team of ATL. Two weeks ago, I wrote a column about blasting the football gods or taking him out of the picture. maybe that did it. Maybe something got on his radar

and this is where maybe I got to get David involved. We got to get you guys together for a little comfab. Okay. Anything else, guys. That's that. That's that for that.

Way to go, Paul Richardson. Yeah. Way to go. The only person ever to have three, like when I heard the Twitter, I saw Twitter and then I looked at the box score, I was expecting him to have this monster game. Three catches for whatever it was,

47 yards, absolutely ridiculous visually stunning throwing of ease you lose tyler locket right yep paul richardson hey that's good drafting the first one shouldn't account he had a face mask and the referee is actually told told uh who'd they play again the lions the lions thank you i told jim caldwell that it should not have counted because of a face mask oh please whatever please you make a catch like that you can put your hand wherever you want exactly it's football All right, that's it.

We will be back on Tuesday with another episode of the Around the NFL podcast as we spin forward seven games remaining in the season. This will all, all leading to Houston less than a month from now, or is it exactly a month from now? It's the fifth, I believe, so, yeah. So yes, we'll be back Tuesday,

so make sure you check out that show. Until then. This is Dan Hanses. signing off for Quiet Storm. Good tidbit, by the way, Mark, about the point differential in these games. Yeah, biggest since 81. Hell, man, 35 years ago. The boss and new money behind the glass till Tuesday.

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