NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 2018 Week 14 Recap!

Episode Date: December 10, 2018

In a room filled with heroes – Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal, Marc Sessler and Chris Wesseling – react to a jaunty Week 14 of NFL action, including – Mahomes and KC overcoming the brutish Baltimore defense (3:10), the MIAMI MIRACLE (who would have though?) leaves New England flabbergasted (8:35), the Cowboys look like clear winners of the Amari Cooper trade after his monolithic performance versus Philly (22:40), Saquon eclipses 1k rushing defeating the intimidating tandem of Josh Johnson and Mark Sanchez (30:00) and Sam Darnold ekes out a win in a battle between rookie QBs (38:40). After, Wess revels in the Colts’ victory (43:45), Baker was feeling…dangerous…(48:40), ARod breaks another record and should the Falcons really consider parting ways with Dan Quinn (59:30) and lastly, 2018’s Team of ATL triumphs over the 2017 Team of ATL on SNF (1:13:00)!Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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rates may apply. The Around the NFL podcast is 25% Jack. The Ripper. Welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansis. I am joined in a room filled with heroes. Mark Sessler, Chris Wessling, and Greg Rosenthal. What is a boy's?

Hey, Dan. Actually not true, because when we were in London, Dan and I went on the tour, the Jack the Ripper tour, with Erica and discovered a theory that we stick to that Greg and Wes were a time-traveling duo that went back in time. and unfurled those crimes in England. Yeah, we were asked by a shadowy league figure to create content off going on that tour,

and that's what we got out of it. I got to tell you, if I was going back in time to travel, it wouldn't be to commit bizarre crimes in England. Yeah, nor would you admit to that. You got my dog, Mark would a C. That's exactly what somebody would say if they were coming up for being a time-traveling serial killer of the worst variety.

I feel like I'd have bigger fish to buy. You got this minute of content, you know, right in the middle of the best NFL Sunday in the years. How about that? Greg's like, no fun. Get right to the nerdy games. More likely to pull a biff. The biff back to the future.

Yeah. I like that one too. Sports Almanac, back to the future too. I mean, especially if Greg was in cahoots. I mean, imagine the gambling we could pull off with that. Greg's disease would be completely out of control. All right. Let's get to it, Greg.

Apologies personally to you, buddy. So sensitive, you guys. Incredible Sunday of action in the NFL. great endings. I mean, we're talking overtime touchdowns. We're talking Hail Mary's, all sorts of excitement in the league. And the playoff pictures, Greg, and this is money season for you now, Greg. In addition to the disease is also you know how to compute what's going on in the NFL

when it comes to playoff possibilities. And it's starting to get more and more interesting because things that you assume, it doesn't always play out the way we expect. and we saw that over and over again in week 14. Three weeks left, we don't know a lot. Know a few more things, but this stuff is a lot wide open. Very true. Do you want to get to it, please?

Do you want to talk more about the Jack the Ripper thing? No, I feel we wrap that up comprehensively. And the good back to the future, Part 2 ref, enjoyed that. Yeah. That's wrong. And Greg, you seem like you're in a good place. I'm in a great place. Let's get to it.

Starting at Arrowhead. Mahomes holding into the pocket. to the right side. Still scrambling. He throws it late. He's throwing for Tyree. Kail has got the catch. He's at the 20, at the 25-yard line.

Now inside the 15 and out of bounds, down at the Raven 12. Unreal. Unreal is right. Mitch Holtes, Chiefs Radio Network with the call, facing fourth and long with the game hanging in the balance. Patrick Mahomes added another line to his impeccable MVP resume. The Chiefs convert the first down. Mahomes ends that drive with a fourth-down touchdown pass,

then leads Casey to the eventual go-ahead field goal in overtime. That holds final score, 27-24 Chiefs over the Ravens. Greg, Baltimore gave Casey all it could handle, and the Chiefs still found a way. That is the mark of a special team. It is, and a mark of a special player, and this is right there with my favorite games of the year, and I'm trying not to be a prisoner of the moment,

but styles make fights, and the style of the Ravens' defense staying so aggressive after Mahomes and blitzing them and making them have to come up with answers on what they were doing with their pass rush again and again and the way that the Ravens were able to run the ball pretty well throughout most of the game against what Kansas City had to try to accomplish.

They forced Mahomes to be great. And I wanted to start the recap with that play because that's a play where Zadaria Smith wins clean. They don't blitz on that play, surprisingly. but the Daria Smith beats Eric Fisher Clean. Mahomes is sprinting to his right and to throw the ball 38 yards in the air while sprinting right and two guys coming after him

is just something we've never seen before. Tyreek Hill playing through an injury, coming back for the ball, and then just a couple of plays later making a very heady fourth down throw over Eric Weddell's helmet. There also was a no-look pass at one point during the game where he kind of looked off someone on a key play. It's just so much fun to watch this kid.

mature and just do things we've never seen. And I think this was a big hurdle for this Chief's team to win a game like this because it felt like a playoff game. Andy Reg called it Mahomes' best game of the year because he had so much respect for a Ravens defense that hit him 15 times in this game. I mean, that's the thing. They didn't protect him well. And for parts of the game, you know, the Ravens defense did a good job getting off

the field. I mean, he is the MVP. And I understand why Drew Brees, for some, is still in the conversation. but I factor in plays like this and the fact that this is someone who wasn't even starting a year ago and how quickly he's grown. And for Lamar Jackson, who played a fascinating game himself, some ups and downs,

this was a reminder that Justin Houston being back on this defense is a big thing for the Chiefs. It was not an easy game for their defense, but when he stripped-sacked Lamar Jackson essentially at the 35 seconds left, and then later on when you have Robert Griffin in there in the toughest circumstances, stands as possible.

That was a big difference. Thought you were going to do a nod to your past and call him Robert Griffin 3? I never know how to say his name. Who put a nice little throw out there? He came in a tough spot. Yeah, to back that up, yeah, Jackson had to leave the game with an injury late.

And the Ravens did have a 24 to 17 lead, and their defense couldn't quite finish it out. But Houston, it was a little misleading. I've heard some analysis of this game. It just kind of shows that, you know, the Ravens were pushing the Chiefs around up front. And I wouldn't totally agree with that. On the ground, yes.

And Lamar Jackson opens up the ground game and they were able to run the ball. But they still got pressure on Lamar Jackson on a number of key plays and made it uncomfortable for him to throw. And if I'm a Ravens fan, I'm bummed, obviously, because you came so close. And you really, fourth and nine,

fourth and goal from the three, and you just can't get that last time. And you had the ball around midfield with 35 seconds left in regulation with some timeouts. So there's a lot of, you know, what ifs to this game. But also you look at it as,

is a lot of people say, KC, they're the best team in the AFC. We just went to Arrowhead in December and went toe to toe to with them. And then everybody else in the AFC at the top of the AFC is flawed to me. So it's like the Ravens, if they could find a way in, and they're in seven and six, and it's a bit of a dogfight in the wildcard race. But also the AFC North is opening up, which you're going to get to in a bit. If the Ravens find a way in, you don't want to play them. It's almost as if because they've done this massive identity shift on offense,

it's fair and easy to see them as a completely different team. and for me, one that I have more faith in to cause some chaos in the playoffs than the Joe Flacco version. And I think their defense is playing better. They're a defense set up to stop the pass in a pass-happy league. Whoever gets that six-spot

should be a pretty intriguing, dangerous team because with all these teams in the mix, what? Not whoever. What if the dolphins are? Here's what I'm saying is I think the Ravens, there's enough good teams

that I think someone's going to get to 10 now. I kind of believe that. Like, the Ravens are in, by the way, if they get to 10 wins, they're in the playoffs right now. But the Colts? They've got to go 3-1 to do it, right? Basically, I'm thinking the Colts are the Ravens. Three and O. Yeah, they got to go 3-0 to do it.

It's not easy. They're going to go to the charges. We'll have time to talk about all that. But I think the way they're playing defense now even better than they were earlier in the season. All right. So that was a great ending. Here's an even better ending. Maybe the greatest ending of all time.

Daniel. Last shot, back control. They throw it down. They try to pitch it, and they do. Parker, Parker pitches it. And it's great, great, 30, 20. That counts he's got a tackle. Oh, no way!

No way! No way, no way, what's that? The Dolphys winner! Unbelievable! Are you kidding me? Jimmy Sempleo spent about half that call sleep. Yeah, really painting a picture with words. If you listen to that, you have no idea what happened.

But Cepelo woke up. Bob Greasy woke up. The Dolphins Radio Network going nuts, and so are the fans. Routing for the Dolphins anyway at Hard Rock Stadium. An incredible play to end it, called the miracle in Miami. On the final play of the game, the Dolphins connected on a downfield pass, executed the double lateral Kenyon Drake taking it the finals 52 yards of the house. And that was it, 34 to 33.

The Dolphins beat the Patriots unreal. The win keeps the dolphins alive in the wildcard race, as we just hinted at, and keeps New England from clinching its 10th consecutive AFCE's title. Greg, that was unexpected. That was unbelievable. I mean, I think that's the first, that's the longest game-winning touchdown from scrimmage since they've been keeping track in 1970. But it was of a piece of a Patriots game where they just didn't handle the details well.

you know, clock management, Tom Brady, not getting any points at the end of the first half because he took a sack, them not getting a wide open receiver on the play before that because the Dolphins dialed up a good pressure. Stephen Gaskowski missed an extra point. He missed a field goal. Both of those came in handy. And the Dolphins defense, let's give them credit. Whenever you thought that the Patriots were going to pull away in this game,

they played the good situational football. Frankor had one of his best games. Kenny Stills made plays. And while that play at the end is a little fluky, and I'm sure we'll talk about that, the Dolphins have been a big play team all year. They average more yards per play in this game with some help by the last one

than any play in their franchise history except for one earlier this season. They've been hitting on big plays all season long. I don't know how they do it, but they do it. In that final play, one thing watching it a couple times, the vision of Kenyon Drake, who, before he tore off down the field and away from people, was looking for someone else to lateral it to.

Because it never works. Right, it never was getting on him. And then he had to make the decision in traffic, I'm taking it the rest of the way. Right. And where you could get on Belichick a little bit. Well, the game has passed him by, so there's that. The Patriots coaching staff is they do put one player back there.

And by the way, it was a 69-yard touchdown. So how ironic that it was Rob Grunkowski, who was the last man who had a chance to save the day. And you could put it out there, because Tannahill with the bad shoulder and all that was not going to be airing it out 70 yards into the end zone. This was going to be, if it led to some type of crazy touchdown, these type of hook and lateral type plays.

And you saw it in action, Gronk, who doesn't move like he used to. Once Drake got into the open field, Gronk took a terrible angle because he's also not a defensive player, and then just got motored by. And he never had a chance to bring down Drake. So it was an incredible play. And if you're a Patriots fan,

You're kicking yourself because, and I mention this to Greg and Greg. You downplayed it because I know you don't want to think about it because it would get you mad. But there was a scenario 20 minutes before that play where the Chiefs were in a lot of trouble and the Patriots were in control. And if those two scores held, the Patriots would be an ownership of the number one seat in the AFC as we speak right now. And it all went to hell. It's a long way from the end of the season if that had happened. And the Chiefs didn't lose. but with all the criticism on Grunk

and he deserves it it was actually kind of a positive day watching the Patriots off I mean for Gronk they threw eight targets his way he caught eight for 107 yards I thought you were going to tell me it was a positive day for the Patriots

although they got help with the Texans losing with the Steelers losing so they don't really move at all in their buy situation there's no way they're going to get the one seed I mean people listening to this show know the results they have no idea on Sunday the problem with blaming

Gronk for that play is four other players missed tackles before that. And you got to have you. I'm just saying like, J.C. Jackson would make a play. Jason McCordy. You would have loved to have Devin McCordy on the field, obviously, other than instead of Rob Grinkowski. But it's an amazing collapse of a lot of things to give up that touchdown, not just having Gronk.

I mean, we talked with the stunsters. I know that he had a good game overall and it was a bounce back game for Gronk. But the way sports work, when we watch that clip over and over and Gronk is the last man there with a chance to take him down, that's. That's why people react the way they do. Logically, yes, there were other people that could have stopped the play. Right, but I'm thinking about the long game. As a Patriots fan, the defense today was so poor, but to see them go up and down the field,

have Gordon Edelman and Grangosky all have that sort of day. Tom Brady have one of his best games of the year. You're thinking, okay, well, that's something we haven't seen in a few weeks. That's good. And they have a banged-up Steelers next week, and then they have the bills and the jets. So at long game, there's not a lot to be super concerned about in terms of getting to January. From Greg's take out of this game. But you guys picked on me last year for saying I was the other way around

that I never admitted that they were good. So you're damned if you didn't change because of us. Right. Do you have the either way? I mean, we are essentially just hyper jealous of your fan experience. That's what it was. We should talk about the dolphins, though, who have found their way to seven wins, despite being outscored by 55 points this year.

I don't want to talk about the Patriots anymore. I'm saying give the team with the end. And I'm honestly thinking of one Twitter follower that said, Can you please just talk a little bit about the Dolphins? I know that, like, you know, we're not a fun team, but, like, can you let us have this win? This is a great moment, and it was set up by a lot of great plays earlier in the game, a lot of key spots for them. I think we can put the screws to the idea that, like, Ryan Danahill is only a little bit better than Brock Osweiler. Right.

Oh, that was a lot better than that. Absolutely. Let's hear from Ryan Dan Hill on that last play. I kind of had a great view of the whole thing. Came back inside. then I saw him and Gronk about 10 yards away I was like Gronk's on the field we got this you know That's funny

And then because you know a lot of As soon as the play happened And by the way this play happened Within 10 seconds of the Jets winning their game On a fourth in goal rush So in another lost season for me as a football fan That was nice But a lot

And the larger headline Yes exactly But the big The tweets I was getting right after this play was Oh we got to hear Zolak And none of us have heard this yet, just for the record. Hopefully, this leads to an exploding pet. Let's listen.

Tadillo throws down the middle, caught by stills, laterals back to Butler, or rather Parker, who flips it to Drake. He runs across the 40 of doing it, angling inside. He's the 30, 25, 20, 15. Teddy's going to win the foot race to the end zone. The dolphins are going to win it. I'm a lateral once than twice, and Drake takes it in. and the Patriots Dan stunned in disbelief.

Oh, we're Zolak? That was the O Jesus. He uttered. I think he essentially, his life might have ended there. I'm not sure what. He didn't speak again. He said, oh, Jesus. Maybe that's it.

Maybe that's the end of Scott. That's a nice final line from him if we never hear from him again. All right, let's move on. He's missed the 37-yard earlier today. Snap. Hold, he slipped. He slips. The Raiders win.

The Raiders win it. Can you believe it? The Raiders are a winner. Let the celebration begin, baby. You know, Brett Musburger, you could tell it in his voice. He's having a nice time in Vegas. As predicted. But let's have a good time out there.

Chris Boswell stuck his plan foot in the loose sod at Oakland Coliseum. Didn't hold. His slip and resulting field goal misfire. I think he hit it right into the defensive line. clinched a 24-21 Raiders win over the Steelers, and what may have been the biggest upset of the day. Let's face it, Mark, big Ben Rafflesberger began the second half on the bench with a rib injury, magically reappeared, and appeared to save the Steelers,

but Pittsburgh's defense wilted, a hideous loss. It's the kind of loss that when you want to get down on Pittsburgh, this sort of, these are the drapings because it's, they've gone to Oakland before and lost weird games. And I did not think this was the team with the DNA to do that this time around, but you lose Big Ben for a big chunk of the game. And he was sitting there on the sideline,

and we were like, he did not look superly in pain. And there was this sort of dramatic element where Big Ben came marching out onto the field. There's a billion Steelers fans in Oakland. And it was he received the ovation that I imagined in his mind he thought he would. And then he sort of was just nestled on the sideline and at one point bouncing around and jumping

and getting ready to make. go back in, but then they kept Josh Dobbs in there for, you know, a rash of hideous plays. Just to build up the drama a little bit more. Build it up. And then Big Ben comes in and creates this eight-play, 75-yard touchdown drive. And listen, the one thing about this game, we can get into the Steelers side of it on offense, is that the Steelers defense is a big part of what happened here. Because in Oakland offense that I have not believed in in a long time,

and a quarterback in Derrick Carr who seems every week to get hit about as hard as some any quarterback in the league, taking terrible, terrible sacks, orchestrated a pair of late touchdown drives. One of them was a 14-place 76-yarder that put them up, 17-14, with five minutes to go, took nearly eight minutes off the clock, and then answered Big Ben's return to the game touchdown drive with an eight-place-seven-five-yarder that put the, that drained the clock down to almost nothing, and then we had that incredible, nearly game-winning drive from the Steelers that had a second insane lateral play.

Yeah, Juju Smith-Schuster had a big play to put them in line to tie it and send it to overtime, but Boswell, who's, I don't know if I want to blame him for this, and I know Kent Brown can't blame him for that. Yeah, he works, Kent Brown who works for us, he's a big Steelers fan, and he had told me earlier in the day that they had an entire crew of Steelers personnel trucking in, cleats, to change out of because whatever cleats they had originally was not working, and that's because this is the last baseball football field in the field, apparently, is not up to snuff. I mean, I know.

You could see it with your eyes. Yeah, and I know, Mark, you were rooting for the Steelers to go down, and I think a lot of people like to see the Steelers lose because they win a lot. But I hate when a game gets decided like that. It just was kind of a bummer. The one thing that bugs me is because now, you know, there is, we have to find out what the rib injury for Big Ben, how serious it is. But there's no James Connor, and there's hope.

that he'll be back, but the ground game was not the same. They had, I think, five or six yards of rushing offense at halftime, and they never really got back on track. And so there are concerns if one of these two or both these two don't go into this New England game next week. The problem is I feel like that's the third or fourth time that's happened to the Steelers, where you finally deal with the Patriots, whether it's in the regular season or typically in the playoffs, and you're down one of your star players.

And it's a much bigger game for the Steelers than the Patriots, because the Steelers have to be worried about falling out of the game. the playoffs entirely. That's on the table now. They can't be considered the favorites in the AFC North right now. They have a half game lead. They're on a three game losing streak and they play the Patriots and Saints the next two weeks. Are they even a good team right now? I don't know. They keep losing these close. So that's three straight and they've all been close. I mean, they basically all right at the end. I think they should be a good team. They should be better. It's crazy how the Raiders, two have put together two nice offensive performances in a row out of nowhere.

I mean, Derek Carr, if he... With nobody. If he finishes this season out like this the next three weeks, I just think that could impact the way they think about, you know, whether he would be available in a trade or anything like that. Because he played well last week, too. It's still an offense that runs through Jared Cook, who's playing very well last couple weeks.

But then you got Seth Roberts. They've got those guys I've never heard of catching passes. I have a prediction to make for the upcoming week ahead of week 15 in the NFL. Coming off a third straight loss in a game in which Smith-Schuster went 8 for 1.30 and two touchdowns. and Antonio Brown went for five for 35 on seven targets. Antonio Brown will be heard from, whether it's in the media or missing on the practice field.

I think Tomlin's going to have to be heard from after he said we were in the rhythm and flow of the game is why they didn't put 10 in earlier. That makes no sense to me. Punt, turnover on downs, interception punt. And Josh Dobbs did not look ready for prime time. They threw nine throws. This is against the Raiders for 24 yards in a pick.

That's what Josh Dobbs did. So it does make you, just watching the game, it looked like they were trying to sneak a win out and you don't want to speculate what happened to Ben, but they say it's a rib injury, so you can pretty much put it together, that they're trying to get that win without risking him hurting it again,

and it didn't work out. And all that said, Big Ben did come in, put him back in the lead. Go play. And the Steelers, if you're a team that should be taken seriously at this juncture of the season, go win a game at that point. Get to stop and move on.

I'm going to do it. I think plenty of Steelers. fans agree with you. I'm stunned by this team losing three straight. I really am, because I think they were so strong up front. They might have the best line in the league. They have a good defensive line, but it hasn't happened. All right.

Let's move on to another great ending. Prescott and a gun. They look like they're going to blitz. Here comes everybody. Slant in the direction. Cooper caught up a bounce off the defender. Cooper walks into the end zone. Touchdown Cooper.

Cowboys win. How else would you settle this game besides the ball, bouncing off the defender into Amari Cooper's hands and him walking in for the winning score. A lot of ways. He's Brad Sham. He's the Sham God. Cowboys Radio Network. Amari Cooper went off for 2.17 and three touchdowns.

The final score on a deflected ball, the difference in the Cowboys, 29, 23, overtime win over the Eagles at Jero World. These two teams combined for 31 points in the fourth quarter as Dak Prescott and Carson Wentz flipped a switch late in this one. Greg, this won all but guarantees an NFCE's title for the Cowboys, but does it make you a believer in that Big D?

In what sense? They could win a playoff game, yes. I mean, I think they're... They're one of the most consistent teams. I mean, I thought we eliminated the phrase Big D from the program. I voted that down. It had to be unanimous. That was a request. That was a simple request. I would support that request.

They're only a week away from beating the Saints. Of course they can win a playoff game. Right. I mean, they, but this game, this game was a reminder that even when they play at their best, sometimes they just invite close games. And that's why it shouldn't have ended on a lucky tip because the, the Cowboys destroyed Philadelphia throughout this game. I mean, they had 576 yards to 256. Whoa.

They had 45 minutes time of possession to 22 for the Eagles. They were the better team from minute one through overtime. but because Dak Prescott had probably the worst 455, like 42, you know, three touchdown performance you'll ever want to see early by missing a lot of throws and that they played it a little tight to the vest and they expected their defense to finish it off. It was closer than it needed to be, but I'm impressed that Dak kind of put all that aside and Amari Cooper just became a star and he's been a star since he's been there. Amari Cooper carried Dak Prescott in this game.

Yes. and this guy, credit the Cowboys front office. They got a number four overall pick kind of talent, and they gave up a pick that's going to be in the 20s. That is a vast difference in value. And I know you have to sign him to a deal, but this was a great trade for the Cowboys, not just a almost a good trade or barely a good trade.

This was a home run trade. I mean, he's completely transformed their offense. And I don't even know if the Cowboys thought it could go this well because he has basically become the greatest version of what he was when he was a playmaker in Oakland and maybe even better and he simply was not that guy near the end of his tenure in Oakland and what he's done now is take remember what the Cowboys looked like before that trade where putrid anytime they fell behind they were banged

and now they have the ability to make big plays explosive plays and he's been at the center of every one of these big plays And the ability to deliver a key lock in week 14. Oh, yeah. That's Big Wes. He said you were sweating it. I think that was the most I've sweated a lock. They, I mean, the way Cooper talked about the game-winning catch after the game kind of says why he's so valuable.

He said they knew the slant was coming. So he stemmed the route. He kind of changed up the route a little bit. He's a very smart player. He's a great route runner. It also is a reminder that the Cowboys run these isolation routes where they're basically which not a lot of teams do anymore as much as the Cowboys where they're like, hey, get open.

You know, like go win your matchup. And he's the only guy in the team that can go win his matchup, and he does it time after time against the banged-up Eagle secondary. Yeah, he's winning matchups. He's great after the catch. He's scoring touchdowns. He's moving the chains. What more can you ask from a number one receiver?

This guy's doing everything. We were watching the Steelers' Raiders game at the same exact time that Cowboys, Eagles was blowing up. And there was a clip of, you know, John Gruden who finally did something here, you know, weeks away from Christmas, jogging down the field in Oakland, pumping his fists, you know, and waving to fans who will be in Las Vegas two years from now and not in Oakland. And then seconds later, Amari Cooper caps off the game the way he did.

And it's a reminder that as good as it's traded as it was for the Cowboys, the Raiders have traded away two of the best players in the league to teams that know how to use them. Right. It's not a good look right now. Zeke was awesome in this game, too. I haven't even mentioned his name. and I think he had 190 yards. That fourth down?

40 touches. And, yeah, 40 touches, a fourth down play where the Eagles won off the line, which they did here and there. The Eagles, for the first time almost, it felt like a last gasp, like the title, you know, the belt holder, right as he's about to lose the belt, starts fighting back, because we didn't think Carson Wentz would have had a drive left. No.

The only reason they had a touchdown in the first three and a half quarters in this game was because they took over the ball at a two-yard line after a Dak Prescott interception. And yet Wentz went up and down the field with two great touchdown drives, including some dimes, to make the Cowboys earn this NFC East, and they basically won. One thing I'd say, because we talked about two teams where coaching in the front office have held transform who they were mid-season.

It's the Ravens with Lamar Jackson and their new offense, and the Cowboys doing everything we just said. The Eagles are the team that could never figure out how to change what they were, which is a boring, underwhelming Super Bowl defending champion. And I think since we're in the post-mortem stage for the Eagles, because I think the Cowboys, according to the people that judge these things, are 99% favorites to win this division.

Eagles fans will argue with you that, hey, if we get the nine wins, we probably might get in the playoffs here as a wild card. Or if Dallas Scott wasn't called on it for pass interference on the If you're an Eagles fan, I'm just saying they could still have some hoax, but not much. When's the last time the Eagles played a good game? Yeah, that's why I don't agree.

It's been a long time. And Carson Wentz is a big part of that. He just hasn't looked sure. and he got hot at the end of this game, but he missed a lot of throws. Of course, he missed the end of last season during the Super Bowl run with the serious knee injury. He's a guy, not that I have doubts on him now, but I think he's going to be a guy next summer where he's going to have a lot of motivation to show where he's at and that he is a superstar-type guy because this was a disappointing season.

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And get that figured out. Hand off, Barkley. Runs left. He's got room. He's up to the 40. 50. It's a foot race. To the Redskins 30. No one's going to catch Berkeley. He raises his hand and celebrates. Touchdown Giants. Seventy eight yards. for the rookie sensation, Sequin Barclay. Bob Poppa, one of the best voices in the business, Giants Radio Network. Saquan Barclay, he's incredible. The Giants rookie went off for 170 yards on the ground.

On just 14 carries, that big one, the 78-yarder hammer dropper, as the Giants dismantled the Redskins 40 to 16 in Landover. He'll be built up a 34-zipped lead, heading into halftime and cruise to the finish line. and now we are joined by our boy just about to get a pump in Nick Shook Yeah, all pump, no guard Hey Shooky

The Giants woke up today feeling dangerous Yeah You know If there's one guy who's dangerous in that team Who's not named Sequin Barclay It might be Eli Manning Uh-oh Well, let's hear about it

Nees Nest 14 to 22 197 yards, three touchdowns and he's spreading the ball around Everyone not named O'Dell Beckham Since he didn't play Both Shepards caught a touchdown pass pass, and Benny Fowler, formerly of the Broncos, caught a touchdown pass as well.

Corey Coleman with a play. Yeah, and he almost scored one, too. He went out of bounds of the two-yard line. So this Giants' offense is playing a lot better lately. Obviously, it has a lot to do with Sequin Barclay and what he can do, and really punched the Redskins in the mouth. The Barclay touchdown is, you know, one cut, nice hole opened up by the O line, which has gotten so much better.

And, you know, Eli was getting killed for reason because he wasn't playing well, but he was getting no protection. This line has gotten a lot better, and they've won four or five because of it. And once he hit the hole, he's just gone. Yeah, absolutely. And he helps soften up a defense. I mean, it's a little bit harder to go after Eli Manning

when you've got to account for what Saquan can do in space. And he did it at every level today. I mean, whether it was a short run where he's running guys over and getting extra yards or he's going long or anywhere in between. He had a really good game. Go ahead, Greg. I just thought it was interesting after the game Eli Manning said, I think we're starting to figure out that the offense goes through Seiqua.

Yep. Which if you were... Have they not attempted to make that the case? I mean, I don't know. It couldn't run early in the year. Right. It seems like it always has been... If you thought that Eli Manning was the type of person to send a message this way, you would almost think like, hey, this happened on a day without ODB there.

But I don't think Eli Manning is that type of person where he's trying to send some message. No, I don't... Nor do I. Probably not. And what an epic disaster for the Redskins who's sees. and could not be a bigger mess right now. This chain of drives leading up until what must have been a garbage time scenario

in the fourth quarter. Punt, punt, punt, punt, interception, punt, punt, punt, punt, downs. Bye-bye. Mark Zanchez, 0.0 passer rating. The silver lining, Josh Johnson, gets to play next week. Was he named the starter already? He wasn't specifically named the starter, but...

He named himself the starter. starter yeah it's it's funny on on the dot com i wrote a piece this week about sancho just that i was happy that he got back he's back in the NFL and has a chance to maybe it's great give someone else you know show maybe it's not you know he's not all butt fumble maybe he could be in the middle of a race a little bit i didn't think he was necessarily going to play well but this is not going to cut it and that was probably there's a chance that's the last time you see mark's yeah it's not going to last long 14 attempts for 38 yards and two picks come on i mean You're just not even trying.

That's season. One of the picks was kids. The worst thing is he is trying. I mean, not him. I'm saying the Redskins as an organization. I don't know. Josh Johnson 11 of 16 here, I think this is a perfect setup for the San Diego fleet of that other league

where they're getting this guy warmed up in an NFL climate to go thrive for them. Well, that first round pick is looking even better. It's their budding star. Josh Johnson, come by tickets now. Imagine dominating at the NFL level and then you go to the AAF. Superstar. It's so rare to see an injury like Aller. Smith's where you knew right away it was not only ruining their chances to go to the playoffs this

year it was setting that franchise back a couple of years and they're going to miss a window here and by the way la letta uh Eli's backup came in went over five with a pick so Eli's not only preventing them from drafting his successor he's making sure people he's winning now by so much people can see that Laletta's not ready either well maybe he is mackey emily and Greg to your point I smell it now a three year 60 million dollar extension coming up in a about a month or so and let's move on out of a pistol showing a little fly sweet motion mullins pulls the ball back grows well wide open kiddle near side kiddle 40 kiddle leaves a black 50 kiddle got the block 30 he is gone stone cold kiddle 85 yards welcome to the thousand yard club

oh i like it nice job by you ted robinson k nvr with the call george kiddle Caught an 85-yard touchdown pass on his way to 210 yards receiving. He's the first Niners tight-ed to ever go over 1,000. Who would have thought that? All the great guys in their history. The San Francisco 49ers bury the Broncos. Well, they get out to a 20-0 lead and end up winning 2014. They beat the Denver Broncos Nick Shook in a game where you would think with the Broncos hanging in for a playoff spot

that they would take care of business other way around. Yeah, they came out. Like, they forgot that they had a game to play today. I can't happen in that spot. Well, it reflects really poorly on Vance Joseph, but before we go there, I mean, they, they simply did not come out to play football. They thought the Niners were going to lay down. That's the way they carried themselves the entire first half, and I know they were missing

Emmanuel Sanders on offense. They're missing a lot of people. I think Chris Harris of linemen, Chris Harris is a big part of it. Chris Harris is the other one, of course. But they looked unprepared. Not Chris Harris missed the game. Yeah. But they looked unprepared.

But don't forget their best cornerback, Chris Harris. Harris, come a Chris, not active today. Chris Harris, Jr. Yeah, I was going to say, don't forget about senior. All right, go ahead. Senior didn't play either. Shook's like, can I go home now? It's like, I waited around for this.

No, but, no, the Broncos came out flat. They put themselves in a huge hole at halftime. They had to try to spend the entire second half coming back. They fell short. They came up short on fourth down twice with some questionable play calling. It took them forever to get in the end zone. when they did score their second touchdown of the game, and they just were outplayed for the majority of it.

They didn't have enough time to come back because of what they did in the first day. I think it was the Kyle Shanahan stick it in Elway's ear factor, a little revenge game. Oh, I like this theory. For not hiring him as the Broncos coach, because he was a little too worried that Shanahan would be the type of guy who would want to have a lot of personnel say. And then Shanahan's out there making George Kittles,

the best tight end in the league right now. We'll give Kittle credit for that. but Jeffrey Wilson running for 90 yards and Nick Collins throwing for 3.30 and 2. I mean, it is crazy. They're somehow, I'm still just as impressed with Kyle Shannon, even though they're 3 and 10, I don't care. Yeah, I think we give him a pass for defense

because the 49ers defense has been awful ever since he got there. But there's no question he's one of the best offensive minds in football, and he would be scooped up immediately if the 49ers ever got rid of him. They probably could have won this game by another score, but they turned in, they shifted into play not to lose. mode until the end when they needed a first down. Real quick, what happened to Philip Lindsay today after such an incredible performance a week ago?

His carriers weren't consistent. They didn't get in the ball when you think they would. And then when they did, they saw some production, but it just wasn't enough. And they were playing from behind pretty early. There was a big fourth down and three, I believe, where they swung it out to him. It could not get the first down. One time it was a run, another time was a swing pass. Both times got the yard short. It's the problem with doing the schedule thing

with these six and six type of teams too far out because you're like, oh, Broncos have an easy schedule. But they're six and six for a reason. And even though they did lose a lot of players to injury it's like you gotta go on yeah you got to win he's out well chris so that's gonna hurt them next week against the browns well you got baker mayfield the guy who's to go downfield and who's missing chris harris harris let's move on empty backfield five wide for garnold on third down and a long five inside the 10 he drops back to throw looks over the middle

flushed out of the pocket rolling right extends the play pivots back to his left still scrambling gets to the 15 yard line hurls went into the end zone. It's caught. Touchdown. Robbie Anderson. What a play by Sam Darnold. Bob was choosing with the call. Jets Radio Network. Sam Darnold gave Jets fans something to believe on Sunday. His return to the lineup produced the desired effect for the Jets. Some life. The rookie led two second-a-half scoring drives. The second putting the Jets ahead for good late in the fourth quarter, a 27 to 23 win over the bills in a matchup of two top 10 picks behind center. Shook, it could not have started worse for the Jets as Donald comes out.

They get off slow start. He goes back to the locker room with what looks like a reaggravation of the foot injury, and you're thinking, oh, my God, it cannot get worse. He comes back out, and once he warms up, he does some special things. Yeah, he starts cooking and helps him overcome an early deficit and outshines. Josh Allen, and the second half was really Darnold's stage, and he performed pretty well for the most part. Now, he had that, you know, textbook

rookie mistake where he forces a ball and tries to do a little too much, which he's been doing since his USC days, but he also got the positive from his USC days, because he led that go-ahead touchdown drive, a beautiful throw to Robbie Anderson down the sideline. Earlier in that quarter, he had scrambled and threw in the touchdown that we

heard there on the clip, and overall, this is the type of production, I think, you want out of this guy. Now, it was a little peculiar and you think if maybe Todd Bowles is feeling a little more stable in his employment they might have not played him you'd think right because he's had this foot injury he missed three games once he goes to the locker room maybe it's just it's it's it's shut him down yeah to shut him down but you know Todd Bowles job you know it's a little unstable so I can understand why I think it's a lot it's so unstable that I don't care what the Jets do they

they have to go find someone to help Darnold grow and maximize him and they don't have that coaching step in the same same situation at the end of the game they're at the goal line it's fourth down it's a three point game And they could kick the field goal, but Bowles is probably in, you know, Hail Mary mode. They hand the ball off and get the touchdown. The interesting wrinkle on that play was bringing in extra linemen as a fullback to lead the way. And he took out two defenders and cleared enough space for Elijah McGuire.

And also- Get in a plug, by the way, for your offensive line piece. Oh, yeah. Go to NFL.com slash Ford to read my weekly behind the O-Line piece. Ford, as in the car, the truck. Should be slash shook, but whatever. Well, that exists too, but that's other stuff. You can find it there as well. But no, it was really a little bit interesting to me, too, that they trusted, you know, basically the game to an off-tackle handoff to Elijah McGuire.

Yeah, that was an interesting call. It worked out, but, yeah. Josh Allen ran for 100 yards, again, 101 yards. He had 99 around the halftime, so he's only the second quarterback in NFL history at top 90 yards rushing in three consecutive games. Joining Who, Wes, a Green Bay quarterback in 1951 named? Come on, you got this. Hold on. You could do this.

I'll give you the initials. You ready? Camille Edgerton. T.R. Tobin Rote. Bang, Tobin Rote, 1951. But he threw a bad interception as well. Oven Rote did?

Two of them. I'm sure he threw a lot, actually. Jermaine Johnson had both interceptions. And from the darnal angle, those turnovers do scare me because you hear that they were in college. When he scrambles, when there's pressure, sometimes he throws it up. You got to smooth that out. but he's making some throws in this game, and we've seen it out that there's reason for hope with Darnold.

This was the textbook Darnold game. I mean, this is everything good and bad about him, and luckily there was more good than bad and it produced a win for them today. Shook, please tell me that Matt Milano, who is Luke Keekly after taxes, is not seriously injured. I am a huge fan of him. After tax.

Is that good? Is he better or worse if it's after taxes? Well, it's less. You've made less money. The government is taken away in this case. I know that. He's Luke Keekly light. Okay.

Okay. It's like New York, too. Like, you know, there's a lot of taxes. Unless the bills just don't pay their taxes, and then he's the equal. He got carded off? Yeah, you got cut it off. I haven't checked up on the status of that at this point, but it looked pretty serious, which is a bummer because you're right.

He is an excellent player, and he's the heart of that defense. I'm glad that he's one of your favorite players. I think your vanity should be, I be shook. Is that how you'd say that, Eric? Probably not. Okay. Ouch, Eric, not paying attention there. Hey, Nick.

What? No, it was a bad tagline. I be shook. She's correcting my attention. I thought maybe you had nodded off. She was giving him a little bit of the business. She quickly responded with giving them the business. I be shook.

That's terrible, Mark. I didn't see, like, you're... It's better than just plain shook. Yeah. She's giving you the business. You already pinned them down, tempo, so you don't have to go back up to the top rope. I suspected it was faulty, so that's why I went to the jargon, the linguist of our younger... But then Dan goes, oh, she's asleep.

He took a shot. That was a bad job by me. Exactly. So I got to stick up for myself. Yeah, I agree. All right, Shook. Now that we've settled all that and we know that Chris Harris is out of action, we can say goodbye to you and you can get that pump on because I know you got that urge to pump.

Yeah, it's Sunday. It's chest day. Oh, yeah. That's a fun day. There goes Shook. Let us move on. Thanks, buddy. Throws in zone looking for a man.

He's got it. Touchdown. Zach Pascoe. Pascoe from 17 yards away. And the Colts now lead, 23. to 14. Oh, Pascal, the rascal.

Matt Taylor, Colts Radio Network with a call. Andrew Luck, threw for $3.99 and two touchdowns, including that big final score to Pascal. T.Y. Hilton went for $199. The Colts, a 24-21 road road win over the Texans. Houston's nine-game winning streak is kaput, and

the Colts get a win. They absolutely had to have. The biggest question, however, is Indies' prodigal son, Chris West back in the fold. This was a fun game. Is he back? Is he come home?

Yes, he is. I believe that they are a playoff team, yes. He's back. And a big part of it is how well their defense is playing, that they're overshadowed by the offense. But their defense played almost as well as the Jaguars did in the shutout last week. And then today, they really took out the Texans running game, which we talked about, was on fire averaging about 172 yards on the ground.

Tough loss. The past six weeks. The Zucer. And they really limited Lamar Miller and Alfred Blue to about 2.5 yards per carry today. Danico Autry has been awesome. Five sacks in the last couple of weeks. Margus Hunt made a few plays. Darius Leonard, of course, 12 more tackles.

Another sack. You knew that was coming. Breaking up a pass in the red zone to D'Andre Hopkins in coverage. It was a really good game by the defense. And then Andrew Luck, ball placement, and pocket movement were incredible today. T.Y. Hilton was more than Jonathan Joseph and Kareem Jackson could hand. Was it a game time decision, too? I guess.

Playing through a painful sure were injury. He has been on fire, averaging about 135 yards per game over the past month. The Colts outplayed the Texans, and this was after a first quarter in which the Texans dominated, and I don't think the Colts had a single first down. They went up-tempo in the second quarter, and Luck caught fire throwing for over 200 yards in that quarter. With Wes, one question, though, because they do, I'm with you. I think they're a fun team, but you do have the Cowboys and Titans.

with a better than before Giants team in the middle, and they're very banged up. Do you see them survive? They basically probably need to win out. Here's what I see is their biggest problem. They have a lot of conference losses, too, which hurts. Their biggest problem is that their running game has disappeared and their offensive line has not blocked well since Ryan Kelly,

their center went down with an injury. They, in the fourth quarter with when it should be clock killing time, they had to pass the ball to kill the clock, which is not a recipe for winning because they just can't. run. And I know Marlon Mack has talent, but he's not a power runner. He's not an inside runner. He's not a clock-killing guy. And he certainly can't do it without blocking. I know Wes loves this team because after the first quarter, you're kind of riding this team like a fan would, which I like to see out of Wes. It means that you're in on them.

And you are very down on them after one quarter thinking it's hopeless and then they come back. And to put up after, especially a quarter like that, to put up 436, to put up to afforded up that many yards in Houston, 24%. I mean, that's pretty impressive offensive performance to a Texan defense had been playing great. I think I ride that roller coaster because I know their strength and weaknesses so well. And this game was almost all luck in Hilton on offense. I mean, luck was incredible.

From the start of the second quarter on, he was just about unstoppable. He's the guy of that entire pack of teams fighting for the sixth spot that has the most ability to just put his team on his back. You're picking one player from all of those teams that's just going to say, hey, we're going to the playoffs because I'm just going to carry you there. He's that guy.

Yeah, the surrounding talent isn't that good. And Genevian Clowny, I know you want to get paid like one of the top edge rushers in football. Can't jump off sides in that spot. That clinched the game for the Colts. And Clowny, who's had a nice career, but maybe not as explosive as we've thought.

That's the moment when he's supposed to make the Aaron Donald play and win the game and he did the exact opposite. He's made some of them over the years. Yeah, what would you give his career, B plus? I think B minus. I mean, it depends. If you're grading on a number.

There's been some durability. If you're grading on a number one overall pick curve, then I guess it's not just that even. It was kind of like he got the LT hype too. That's all. Well, we saw him in person. He has one playoff games for them. I mean, yeah, it's, he's going to get paid. I know.

I don't want to. I'm not trying to kill the guy. Jedevian Clownie makes Nick Shook look the way Nick Shook makes me look. You feel a little Ron. You feel a little wronged by your Texans. You jumped off, you jumped back on. I never got off. They're still good.

I never got off the Texans. But it's a tough loss. I haven't been locking the luck. Yeah, that was not a good job by that. They did you wrong today. It is what it is. Let us move on. Newton's shotgun takes the snap.

Brown's coming out of blitz. They throw to the middle. It's picked off. They got it at the 50. It's to Marius Randall at the 47-yard line. And it's going to be all over. Jim Donovan, Browns Radio Network with a call. The Panthers slide into irrelevance continues.

Cam Newton once again fell short in the fourth quarter, outplayed by Brown's Rookie Baker-Mayfield in Cleveland's 26-20 win. That's five straight losses for the Panthers who suddenly find their playoff hopes on life support. Mark, you categorize Cleveland's playoff hope similarly, but hey, this is huge, undeniable progress in Cleveland this year. It is. And, I mean, part of the diagnosis. for what's shotgun Carolina out of contention is the shoulder injury to Cam Newton that you wanted to see today if it would be any improved. He came out of the gate and hit two kind of mid-range strikes that were well thrown, I thought. But then as the game wore on, again, they were in a

Hail Mary situation at the end of the half, and there comes Tyler Heineke in there. And then as the game went on, sometimes you can tell when Cam Newton is in clear pain or just discomfort, and you can see it on his face. And he was frustrated. and he was sailing past his high, and that pick at the end is one of them, but there was a chance for them to take the lead earlier in the end zone where he overshot Gerius right, where I think another version of Cam Newton, that's a trade of his, but another version of Cam Newton would have made that. So I don't know if it's all the shoulder thing or if it was also a frigid cold there,

but he was vastly out played by Baker Mayfield. And a Brown's offense to kind of slow down during at one point of this game, but then found a way with creativity, incredibly creative plays. use Jarvis Landry on a short touchdown run, then this second play that woke up the Brown's offense where Baker Mayfield had to do a sleight of hand and basically it was an interior type of run where Jarvis Landis shot up through the defense for 50-something yards to set up a touchdown. I don't want to gush over Baker Mayfield. You can go watch this yourself, but what I'm seeing is how much they trust him. Because there's all these little slight of hand

plays. There was a statue of liberty handoff to Nick Chubb, and he just seized the field because they were sending free rushers at him, and he's dumping it off to not the first or not trying to force it to the first guy, but finding the third or fourth option for positive yardage and positive plays.

And if you, I know we had the interceptions early last week where I think he's trying to make something happen and there was not his best throws, but if you take the second half of that game against the Texans and package it with this, it is a thing of beauty. And That is the reason I think that Cleveland has put so much in his hands.

He's mentally there every game and growing that they simply believe. I think sometimes when a quarterback plays this way, it's infectious for both sides of the ball. They just said, we're going to find a way to get it done. And this was a game where they would have lost this 19 out of 20 times with past Brown's teams, and they found a way to get rid of the Panthers today. I'm going to cue them up first on Game Pass again this week for the third straight week. this is two weeks in a row that Cam Newton it sounds like his arm strength really fell apart in the fourth quarter

maybe he only has so many throws in him each week I think that's well said because he started out I thought looking sharper than some of the stuff last week he fell off a lot of great throws last week especially early in the game but it doesn't seem like the heater is there when he goes to the outside as you've done have him on the injury report by the end of the week

and I know that's all sorts of mirrors with that but I mean we talked about it on Thursday and now I believe they have the Saints next week, the Panthers. They have the Saints twice coming up. At what point do you shut the guy down if he's a guy you can't even trust to throw at 50 yards? I think after next week. When they're officially eliminated, there's no way Ron Rivera with his job on the line should take Cam Newton out. It's just not how it's done.

But it's amazing to think we were talking downstairs like, are the Browns in it or not? Because if they actually get to eight wins, you know, you could see a lot of the teams in front of them because they're playing two of them falling off. And just the fact that we're having this conversation going into week 15 is pretty... The one thing I'd say, because how long it's been for them to enjoy football, the fans in that stadium, I've noticed that it has been insanely loud. I mean, it's late December, mid-December, and that stadium is what it... Right, it hasn't been that way for so. I mean, they've been a great fan base, but they have something legit to cheer for versus fake cheer.

I mean, it's a big play offense. They only ran 45 plays today. The first play was a 66-yard completion. A 50, you know, Landry had two different 51-year. You know, in Joku, Chub had a big play. It's like they're a big play offense. Ron Rivera's butt could be getting warm now. This is a turning really ugly for this team.

We'll see how this is going to play out for Rivera, but they're six and seven. They were once upon a time viewed as an NFC powerhouse, so we'll see what happens there. And one more note, Greg Williams, he improves the three and two in his five games as interim coach. He's already matched Hugh Jackson's win total over two plus seasons. Well, you can see it on the field.

I don't know if it's him or what, but they're well organized, which was never the case. That is an insane fact. It doesn't speak well for Hugh. That's like, it's a fact. Nothing that's happening speaks well. It's just a fact. And Hugh has another three or four losses since he switched teams.

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Fourth and three, Anger-O-A-N-R-A-B-T-S-P-E-S-R-R-R-L-E-L-E-R-L-E-R-L-E-E-R-L-E. And that's the kind of play. this team needed in this game. Put him at quarterback or tailback and let Taysam Hill show. Zach Strape, News McAllister, WWL with the call, Taysam Hill. The Saints, Mr. Do Everything, delivered a game-changing play on special teams, and the Saints' offense took it from there. A 2814 win over the Bucks at Rainy Ray J Stadium.

Mark, the Saints got off to another sluggish start, but Hill provided the wake-up call. They did. Three yards rushing in the first half, 105 yards, as a team. This has been one of the hardest working offenses. And I think what they kind of said was, look, last week's four quarters against the Cowboys in the first half year, we're going to take a nice little six-quarter nap before we wake up and get back to business in the business of winning the NFC potentially. That play changed everything. And it kind of reminds me of like

someone trying to get out of writer's block. Like you can't write for a couple weeks. You're in a funk. You're drinking too much. You're eating. You're not eating well. You're not getting along with anyone. And whatever happened, whatever happened again. Then something, then somehow you crack out of it and you deliver. Simone's telling you to come to bed. You deliver, you deliver. And you're back. You're like, I can't get that 300-word article about Terrell Suggs's knee injury.

I can't. How do I write it? How do I write it? So I'm just saying that was a, I think, I don't, they're not, something about them feels a little jiggy still. I'm not sure that they're completely back in action. But you're getting the Panthers next week. That should help.

Are you bringing back, Jackie? I didn't mean it that way. I think it's a division game on the road against a division opponent they've struggled with. Any way that you can win the game, especially going away by two scores, is a great win. Like, I don't think they need to be knocked at all for not putting up a ton of yards. Although 298 against Tampa is surprising. Tampa's been playing better on defense, no doubt, but it is surprising. I think their defense again put, it was partly because their defense played a solid game.

Mike Evans was sort of on and off the field. banged up and that took something away. Winston, Winston, it was two halves because they looked awesome in the first half and then it fell apart. By the way, I'm not giving the MVP to Mahomes. Three games is a ton in the NFL and I don't know why there's such a rush to like give, you know, to kind of decide or change every week. Drew Breeze has had an unbelievable season. I would give it to Mahomes right now, but three games is a lot and I think, I think it's close enough that he could win the MVP. I don't think it's a lock. I don't think anybody said it was a lock, but I feel like Mahomes over the past two weeks with

two more dynamic performances coupled with Breeze who has one touchdown in the last eight quarters. Right, but there's 12 quarters left, as I'm saying. And Drew Brie's season has been so exceptional that I think he's right there behind him if Mahomes slipped. Yeah, I mean, my thing is, as always, it seems like it's a bit of a story slash

narrative. And as you get more and more of these Mahomes plays doing things that no one's ever done, it's making it tougher for Drew Breeze to achieve. By the way, the bucks, this is a stat I guess a lot of people probably don't know, but it's you know, driven by total yardage and all that. They entered this game with the number one ranked offense.

They had just 81 yards in the second half here. So the Saints D, just like they did in Dallas, they showed up to play against Dallas. They showed up to play. So even when the offense hasn't been cooking the last two weeks. It shows you those yardage rankings are garbiz. We need to come up with a new way of doing it. All right. Let us move on.

Oh, by the way, Erica, can we check in with Zolak, see if there's anything else? Yeah, let me see if I can replay it. Maybe it just didn't play the right way. We'll cycle back to that a little bit later tonight. Sure. Drive success rate. That's what you want to use for offense. Do it.

Free on Football Outsiders website. NFL, hook it up. Where are the, let's find out where the bucks are on that. That'll be fun. I can find out real quick. All right. While you do that, let's listen to the highlights from our next game. Snap to Rogers.

Steps up. Loss it. Left side ends up. Touched. Yes. Touched. to Randall Cobb and the record all-time consecutive passes without an interception. Aaron Rogers, 359 in a row, and he does it in style.

Hey, in a lost season, you take what you can get. Nice record there. Wayne Larravee, Packers Radio Network, Aaron Rogers threw two touchdown passes. He set that NFL interception-free record as well. And the Packers beat the Falcons 3420. They win their first game under interim head coach Joe Philbin. If only Greenberry could play the flatlining Falcons every week. Wes, you saw a little extra life in old number 12 today.

Yeah, a lot of this is because of the opponent. And some of it is you can see tangible progress from Aaron Rogers as far as how he navigated the pocket, how he's moving on that knee, pressure that he couldn't escape earlier in the year. He escaped in this game. He had 44 yards rushing before the half, and this game was 34 to 7 by the middle of the third quarter. They had a season high in points by the middle of the third quarter.

I thought it was as good as Rogers has looked all year, and physically the best he's looked all year. With the Falcons real quick, I mean, Dan Quinn has been one of the better, has been one of the better coaches around the NFL for for a long time he's a friend of the show but like there are there any concerns he's getting friend of the shows that he was on our he was on our show it's very nice he's been on the show well he also west and i hadn't spent many minutes talking to him before you know i forgot he was on the show that's i put him in the same category with ron river and john harbill i have very in mike tomlin i have very little patience for talk about firing good coaches when

who are you going to replace him with a bunch of my friend on the show how about that Breg seems to have. You had a nice time in Seattle. No, he's great. I forgot he was on our podcast. That's my fault. That's why I locked it up against him. I locked it up against him.

Let's not scapegoat Dan Quinn for injuries. I mean, this team, both starting guards have been out for a while. You could react better to it than they have. They're starting running back. Sure. But what do you, I mean, why is firing the answer? No, I agree. Oh, it's not.

To me, that's. Admit that your chances were ruined by injuries. Who's firing him, though? A lot of people are asking about Dan Quinn. Really? That's why a sup bubbled up leading into this game today. And I'm with Wes. It's like you've got one of the better.

How about offense coordinator Steve Sarkisian? Because this is now two years where this off. He's fine too. Their offense has been good this year. It's been a bad like four or five weeks. By the way, Mark, your nightmare is not necessarily over here. The Vikings lose on Monday night, which would lock up a game for you. The Packers are just one game back in the wild.

Well, a nightmare for me to not include nailing my lock. With the Panthers falling apart and if the Vikings lost, lost that game. The Packers fans will at least go into that game Chicago next each, which I don't think that they could win, and they'll find a way to lose it. I am not rooting against. I am not, honestly, I'm done with the Packers. I'm not rooting for them to not squeaking at 8, 7-1, but you get what you ask for

if that's what happens. The Falcons have scored between 16 and 20 points for five straight weeks. It's not Steve Sarkeesian's fault that Matt Ryan threw a pick six and also threw a backwards pass when he tried to hold on to the ball that cost them a field goal. I mean, some of this is just, I mean, the three fumbles in the red zone that they had against the Saints, that's not Sarkisian's fault. This is in everything that could go. Who's fault is it then? Is it nobody's fault?

Well, it's absolutely not the offensive coordinator's fault that three guys are fumbling in the red zone. That's on the players. That's the definition of the player's fault. If you were a Falcons fan or maybe even an Eagles fan, like the only consolation you could have is like, this is in everything goes wrong season. Like everything that can go wrong is going wrong and it's just a waste, but there should be enough bones there to rebound next year. Oh, by the way, NFL coaches,

you don't have to challenge a generic first down in the first quarter. What did Philbin do? When they made this rule, that was always my concern that they're such control freaks that they can't just let a pass go in the first quarter of a game and save it for when it really matters. Joe Philbin blew both challenges on the opening drive within a minute and a half.

He was out of him. The fastest coach in NFL history to do that. I mean, it's just... Of course it was. No one else would ever think to do something. You Jackson wouldn't even do that. Whatever. I'm surprised Marvin Lewis is in time.

You know, you wake up this, you wake up in the morning. It's 4.30 a.m. You put on your Docker slacks and you say, I'm going to announce my authority when I get to that game. That's what Joey Philbin did. He's just letting people know, hey, I'm here. Is authority the word we're choosing? It's just like, hey, I'm here. Remember me.

Oh, by the way, our team just dropped a 30 burger. That's the way to do it. I think he threw the first red flag. on like the third or fourth play from scrimmage, even before, like, the replay was showing inside the stadium. And there's no way he even heard from anybody upstairs. He just threw it. Authority announcement.

He's like, yeah, he's like... I'm the guy here. He's like, yeah, I know. He's like, oh, the dockers with the cuffs. Oh, that's out of style? No, I'm bringing the cuffs back. I'll never forget, like, the combine walking by him. And he seems like a very nice guy,

but he had almost like those cords pants on. He's like... Vich, whiz, whizzy, whiz. What are we talking about Joey Fibb's pants so much? I know I'm the one that did it. Yeah, I can picture it. It's walking down that hallway. Nice stride to him, but you can stop thinking about it.

I remember you actually talked about that on a podcast. It was like a shocking sense that I just walked past like an IBM middle manager, but it was it was some, it was an NFL. Okay, Posey, please find that tape from some episode five years ago. Sure. She has just had it, and I don't blame her. A tough loss for the pets, huh? Yeah, I don't want to talk about it.

That was pretty bad. Yeah, it was. You'll be back. You got to just think, though, the playoffs are the only thing that matters. Did you really is true, though? Playoffs are all that matters. Almost everything before that. Not for everybody, but for the Patriots.

Did you cry? No, not today. I did throw my phone. Where? Like, threw it. Like how far and where? I was in my house. Did it break?

No, I wish. Because then I wouldn't see all my dumb mentions. Everyone just tweeting at me like dolphin emojis. Okay. Let's move on. In the shotgun, Rivers takes the snap. They got you. Still looking right.

Steps up in the pocket. Goes to the end zone. Caught. Touchdown. Chargers. 14 yards. What a beautiful wheel route from Keenan Allen. And the anticipation and touch from Philip Rivers.

I'm getting better than that. Matt Money Smith and another guy on KFI with the call. Bill Rivers threw for 220 and a touch. That strike you just heard to Keenan Allen as the charges held off the Bengals, 26-21. Chris Wesleying, the both scored touchdowns on each of their first two drives. But this game turned into his struggle. What happened here?

They couldn't pull away. In the second and third quarters, they averaged about 2.5 yards per play and totaled 65 yards over those two quarters. The Bengals' defense stiffened a little bit. And Joe Mixon, who we've talked about all year as being one of those three-down, really talented running backs. he is now a guy who's getting 130, 40 yards every week and looking good doing it. He was the best running back on the field.

Austin Echler, I appeared to injure his shoulder late in the game. So that'll be something to watch on a short week. There's talk of Melvin Gordon coming back to play Thursday. Talk of Eric Berry coming back to play Thursday. Joey Bosa looked really good in this game. His closing speed on Jeff Driscoll a couple of times looked impressive. and the Chargers shut down a couple of key two-point conversion attempts by the Bengals in this game. Their season would look a lot differently if they hadn't shut down a few two-point conversion attempts during the season.

They would have lost 25 to 26 instead of 21 to 20. Well, the whole end of the game, they had to on-side kick it so then they just gave the Chargers a field goal there. I'm not like going to knock them too much for barely beaten the Bengals. Ultimately, you get to 10 wins. No, I'm with you. You got to win some games to move on. Exactly. Would it be better if it was 37 to 17?

They were outgained by the Bengals. I would not have expected it. I mean, it's basically a tie in terms of yard. Trap games are real. And I think, again, not in the same way that the Sunday night game last week was a great showing for a franchise that's blown those games so many times. But this is also a game the charges have blown. And they found a way to get it done.

It wasn't pretty. But they come out of that at Steelers home to Bengal stretch with two wins. And now they go to Kansas City riding a three game winning streak, at 10 and 3, and they, this is what, just same thing. They got to the Steelers game where they needed to be. Now they got to the Chiefs game where they needed to be. Big test. And from that angle, that was their job.

It doesn't matter what happened against the Bengals today. Just be ready for next. If only, yeah, if the Chiefs had lost that game, then we would be cooking with fire. Because their chances of winning the division went down today because they're running out of weeks and they need the Chiefs to lose twice. But the Chiefs do go to Seattle. So if the Chargers, it would show something to go to Kansas City on a short week. I can't wait for that game.

Chiefs have owned them, though. I mean, that's important to point out. Including last year in a very similar spot where the Chargers had won five straight and we were all excited about them getting back in the mix and they put a hammer on them. Chargers do have a kicker. Michael Badgley, 59-yarder, which broke the franchise record. That guy, they cut him earlier in the year and had to re-sign him because he's better than the guy they signed in the off-season.

The Badger. Sure. The Badger's tough. It's a tough animal. Look, there are openings in the kicker tiers with Boswell and Ganon. struggling and Dan Bailey turning into a pumpkin at midnight? Does Erica realize that when she announces on the show that she was annoyed to get dolphin emojis,

that she's going to get now thousands of them and probably many of them in her DMs? Well, I wasn't before until you just said that. Let us move on. That's not all she's getting in her DMs. Oh, damn. Rosen's got it, straight drop, wants to throw. Looks, looks, looks, throws right side.

That is going to be kicked off the lines. Come back left side line, Gary's sleigh. Darius in a foot race at the 30. Darius 20. Darius 10. Darius 5. Darius Enzo. Pick six.

First touchdown of his Detroit Lion career. Touchdown Detroit Lions. Oh, yeah. Darius Slay picked off a Josh Rosen pass and returned at 67 jaunty yards to the house. Pretty much the only excitement to be found in the Lion's 17-3 win over the Arizona Cardinals, who came down to Earth after the... their upset at Lambo last week. The Lions salted this game away with a

seven-play, 75-yard drive that featured a lot of Zach Zner grinding, including a game-icing one-yard plunge with 409 to play. That is win number five for the Detroit Lions and the Arizona Cardinals on a day when the bottom of the NFL, the teams that entered Sunday

with the top three picks in the, in the draft, all won. The Raiders, the Niners, and the Jets. Well, now here are the Cardinals. Also at 3 and 10 with the Niners and Raiders. What a race it's going to be down the stretch. But the Lions get the win, and the Cardinals sink deeper into the abyss. Any more thoughts on this, Mark Sessler?

My favorite part of this game was when they showed a fan in the stands dressed up as Matt Patricia. And it was such a likeness that many people in the newsroom didn't realize that it was not Matt Patricia. It was Matt Patricia about 2% more handsome than Matt Patricia. That's it, Mark. What else? There's literally nothing else to say about that game. Okay, then let's move on. Hey, still in search of the perfect holiday gift. Nautica has got you covered when it comes to last minute gifts. Nautica has something for everyone on your list. Help friends and family stay cozy

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They'll thank you from Sandy Shores. Visit nautica.com to find a store near you. Use code football for 10% off your next purchase in store or online through December 24th. That's nautica.com code football. On to Sunday night football. In the backfield, Trubisky with Hicks. The fake handoff, Trubisky, pops the pass. The Bradley Soul. Touchdown! Touchdown Bears! And the tricks keep on coming. The tricks keep on coming. Indeed, the Chicago Bears, the team of around the NFL, use their suffocating defense.

They get a little assist from Mother Nature, which was cold and made things miserable for the Los Angeles Rams. And yes, a little trick play. Fat guy touchdowns galore. Defensive linemen, offensive linemen, all in the field. And they get the touchdown. The only touchdown pass in this game, a 15 to 6 win for the Bears over the Rams who fall to 11 and 2 could be a costly loss for them, Chris Wesleying.

But the Bears moved to 9 and 4. and this is the type of football that Dicka would love. You know, Chris Farley probably would have loved. And everybody in Chicago that likes their brat and they like their defense. Well, we've said we've said for almost two years now that you can't trust a great defense playing against a great offense in today's NFL. And in the last couple of weeks, we've seen the Cowboys shut down the Saints and the Bears shut down the Rams. Maybe you can start to trust some defenses. I think...

Resetting narrative. Even the Ravens today, I think, controlling and making it an ugly their style of game. Jaguar shutting out the Colts last week. In Kansas City, you can certainly do it, and you can just make the Rams' offense look shook. I mean, it wasn't just the fact that the Ravens... I'd be shook. The bears... That the bears were physical.

Blocking assignments are missed. Guys are running the wrong way. Goff is throwing to nowhere or throwing way behind receivers. he goth clearly had one of his worst games of his career and wasn't throwing accurately but just mentally they all seem fried and it's because the bears are so sound on defense you said shook i say shivering because this is that old story how is the team travel a southern california team jared goff looked cold out there 20 for 44 and i mean literally for 180 no touchdowns four interceptions todd girlie only gets 11 carries and you wonder why he wasn't more a part of the game plan but he only goes 20s yards. The leading receiver was Robert Woods who went for 61 yards. This is the Rams are talking about and they got completely shut down.

That was a Bears fever dream. Ten drives for the Rams that resulted in less than 20 yards. Every third March ended an interception. And you're so right, they cut to at one point in the game, these two like teeny boppy preteen girls

who were up there in the stands with their little winter hat and their coats and they were rocking. They were looking fun. They were having a good time. Then they cut to Jared Gough and he looks like He's been trapped in like a igloo for 14 weeks. Like, he did not look like he wanted to be there. And none of this. So you're saying like just healthy Midwestern girls.

Healthy midwestern females just say the weather doesn't bother us. We're here enjoying the team of ATL. And then they cut to golf and he looked. He looked like a hostage victim in, you know, deep Europe in the middle of winter. So it's not a good look at. A belly full of bratwurst and hot chocolate. The paramour is in Soldier Field braving the element. for this game.

She got tickets for that mess. That is ugly. I mean, the thing is, it's not like Mitchell Trubisky played any better at all. And that's the amazing thing about this. Wes mentioned it early in the game that this is like a Rex Grossman-era-level Bears' performance,

and it was in the best way possible. Because they got 110 yards out of Trubisky and 30 attempts and three interceptions, and you could tell that this Bears' defense was ready to go after that first interception sets the Rams up, I think inside the 10-yard line, definitely in the red zone. And they just stop them, three and out, force them to kick the field goal.

And in every other Rams game this season, they're running all these pre-snap motion. They couldn't get any of that going. And I do think there's more than just the cold and that they were playing the great Bears defense. This is two weeks coming out of the by where their offense has had two of their worst games of the year. Certainly Jared Goff's two worst games of the year.

and I don't know if it's the Cooper Cup factor or what it is, but their offense has not been playing well. The fact that they had that performance in Detroit, and then this is worrisome. On the other hand, I've been waiting for this Bears rushing game to show some signs of life, and Jordan Howard goes over 100. They

rushed 33 times for 196 yards on the game, and that's been the missing element to their team. Do you worry about the Rams at all? Are they a team? Because the one thing, and I would say I do not. There's a long way to go, but like, it was last that they got picked off by the Falcons at home in the playoffs.

And I wonder sometimes with this Rams team, because they haven't been together that long, this group of them, does it need to be almost like a perfect environment for them to make it happen? It's like you put them in this situation. It looked like a non-Rams team at all. First time I was bummed out

because I do like this Rams team and they're such an exciting team to watch. I think they're good for the league. They're good for Los Angeles. And they just did strike me tonight as a little bit soft. news for them is and for Rams fan and Lakeisha and everybody else that they still have things under control in terms of where they'll be playing. They'll either be playing in the playoffs with a buy still most likely in Southern California. Worst case scenario, maybe they're playing

in the Superdome. And if they get out of the NFC, they're going to go play in a dome in Atlanta. So I don't know if they're going to be playing some ice ball unless something crazy happens with the Bears. It's sometimes about matchups though. And maybe this matchup was tough for them. I think they're, I wouldn't not call them soft. I think the defense played pretty well. They have a good defensive front for the most part. But the offensive line got manhandled today by Chicago. And I think that's why you didn't see Gurley get the ball the much.

First of all, he had six yards on his first six carries. That was midway through the third quarter. And it's because they had no faith that they could push those big uglies. It's not just the Keem Hicks up front for the Bears. And maybe this is a tough matchup for them. And they have to worry about that because they could play the Bears again. It would be in L.A., most likely. but they could play the Bears again.

If you consider yourself a Super Bowl contender, playing poorly in back-to-back weeks is a concern. That's a right flag. On the other hand, the Saints have played poorly in back-to-back weeks. Well, the Saints win. And the Rams are 11 and 2. On some level, you're going to lose games during your season.

Losing on the road to the best defense in the NFL, a 9-4 team is not horrific in its own right, as long as you can turn it around. All right, there you go. There's Sunday Night Football, and that is all 13. Excuse me, 14 games played Sunday. We have one more Monday night game to go between who was?

Vikings and Seahawks. Ooh, big game. That's a big like that one. My lock is on the line. A couple of bits of, ooh, a couple bits of housekeeping. Greg, how'd you do on the Rainmaker this week? Well, the Rams did not help there. That was the second one.

Oh, we don't need this. Wait. We made a rain. The other one went bad too. Went one and two, yeah. Well, the Texans, I rained all over your lock, but that's about it. So you hit your batting. average yeah so you're one and four over the last two weeks uh yeah i'm four and four and five four and six

well here's the thing ripping families apart for our listenership four and six over a three or four week span you're not gonna freak out about i mean you're not canoe but anyone that took your advice and went to the bank with it they're freaking out right now i'm little worried because i like the segment and it's just yikes i'm a little shook and finally um we wanted to circle back to this by the way Don't pretend like you didn't know the result there. If it was two and one, there's no way you're calling. No, I can't keep track of it. There's so many picks that you make that I don't track it.

I honestly didn't know, but now I do. No, you did. You asked Erica. Come on. No, no way. I trust Dan's integrity. Here we go. I asked Ricky Hollywood.

I wanted to hear the entire Zolak Sochi call after the miracle in Miami. And she did great work with Cam downstairs digging it up. Let's listen in. And the Patriots stands stunned and disbelief. Come out, Scott. It makes sense to lay out on TV or you just want to see what you're on the radio. Scott? Mr. Zolak, let us know if you're okay.

I mean, he has a job to do that. I don't know what to say. 35.63 seconds of silence before Zolak chimed in with I don't know what to say. Well, I did listen to the rest of that. I do like listening to it, Greg, I've got to be honest. And he was very upset. He said this is how seasons are lost. But we'll see.

The Pats will be fine. They told me it's fine. Prisoner of the moment. Yeah. I'm just saying none of it for them. It doesn't matter, right? They're in the two seed. All that matters is the playoffs.

I feel like Zolok has some good times ahead of them still. I doubt they're going to, you know, win those playoffs, but I'd give them a shot. I'd put them at 50-50 to get a buy, maybe 60, 40 in their favor. They still seem okay. Today could have gone worse after that. You're right about that. You're ready? I'm ready.

I'm ready. Let's go. Stan Hans is. How about that? Did Jets and Browns win? That's how it's going to be for a long time. A male man. The old boss.

Ricky Hollywood. Until next week. This is an IHeart podcast.