NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 2019 Week 17 Recap

Episode Date: December 30, 2019

A room filled with heroes - Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler, Chris Wesseling and Gregg Rosenthal recap every game of week 17 starting with the SNF showdown between the 49ers and Seahawks (3:20). The Saints destroy the Panthers (11:55) and the Packers get a first round bye (17:52) while the Patriots do not for the first time this decade. (22:54). Stick around for the ramifications of the Bengals Browns game at the end of the show. (1:29:15)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. Hey, everybody. Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the 6th, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else.

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Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. The Around the NFL podcast. Knows you can beat Brady with pressure up the middle. That's true. That's true. Welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast.

And you can beat them next week, in fact. Presented by the United States of Marine Corps. My name is Dan Hansis, and I'm joined in a room filled with heroes. Mark Sessler, Chris Wessling, and Greg Rosenthal. What is up, please? Hey, Dan. Wow. 256 games in the can.

First year, or first Sunday night, rather, all year that were waited until the final Sunday night game of the season to talk podcast. and what a game to wait for. Absolutely. The Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers. It went down to the last play. Well, the second to last play and an accompanying video review

after a play that should have been reviewed but wasn't a review. We're going to get to all that. But let's start right here. The playoffs are set. Here they are. Wild card weekend. The number five-seated Buffalo Bills

head to Houston to face the Texans. That's a 435 start on ESPN slash ABC, Eastern time, of course. Also, the late game, the number six Tennessee Titans at the number three New England Patriots. The Patriots playing on Wild Card weekend for the first time in 10 years.

That's an 8.15 p.m. Eastern primetime game on CBS. You know what that means, Greg? What? Tony Romo and Jim Nance with a call. It means a lot of things, but... And then on Sunday, so all AFC on Saturday, NFC on Sunday, the number six, Minnesota Vikings at the number three, New Orleans Saints. That's the 105 Eastern Fox game with Charles Davis.

Joe Buck and Troy Aikman. Craig, what's going on? And the late game, the number five Seattle Seahawks at the number four. Philadelphia Eagles, that's a 440 p.m. Eastern kickoff on NBC, Al Chris and Michelle. Yes, playoff football is ready after week seven. and I couldn't be more excited. How about you guys?

Oh, yeah. Westivis, which you guys know is the annual since 2011 day of the Bengals losing on the first weekend of the playoffs. The Festival of Slites. Texans have officially overtaken them. This is six times in nine years. The Texan has played in that early Saturday time slot. All four times Bill O'Brien has made the playoffs, they've stuck them in Tex-Texivis, Texas. It's the Festival of Slights.

You stick them that early Saturday game. It's not a showing of respect. Not at all. But one of those teams are going to come out of that game with a chance to win the Super Bowl. They'll be in the Elite 8, as it were. We were wondering because it's the pretty rare occurrence of two AFC games on Saturday and two NFC on Sunday. I couldn't remember that it had ever happened, but apparently it happened in 2015. So, I mean, everything is just a mental haze at this point.

It's fine. So we're going to go through all the games. And like Greg said, we're changing it up a little bit. We always customarily handle the Sunday night football game. less because the stakes were both so high and also what it meant for the rest of the NFC and the seedings and all of that. We will start with Sunday night football, a huge game at the clink. Fort down. Here's your game. Here's Russell Wilson back. Wilson throws caught. Hollister's hit on the goal line and dropped by Drey Greenlaw. He is short. Forty-niners come away with

the ball. The 49ers have stopped Hollister on the goal line. The 49ers are going to win the game. They are the number one seed in the NFC. And that feels great, baby. What a football game that was. A great call. Great call by Greg Papa and Tim Ryan of KNBR. Yes, the road to Super Bowl 54 in the NFC. It's going to go through San Francisco.

It's been a while. In fact, it's been 22 years since you could say that. The 49ers get the stop at the goal line. Jacob Hollister catches a pass from Russell Wilson, but gets stood up by rookie line. linebacker, Drey Greenlaw, the fourth and goal play, ends the game after a review to make sure he just missed crossing the goal line. It was the right call on the field and they confirmed it. Final score after a QB sneak to end it. The Niners win, 26 to 21 over the Seahawks.

And as we said, that's the number one seed goes to the Niners. The Seahawks have to drop all the way down to five in play next week. And Greg, you know, it worked out because. the Niners, it did seem for most of this game were the better team. However, the Seahawks had it right in front of them, including Marsha and Lynch running onto the field at the goal line before Al Michaels called it one of the worst penalties of the season,

a delay of game that pushed him back ahead of that in completion to end the game. There were, there's so much to get to, and the 49ers deserve the number one seed. But to me, the fact that the end, NFL did not look at the potential pass interference. Got to look at it. On third and goal from the five-yard line with 15 seconds left to Jacob Hollister

was a total failure of the league and the system of replay that the league put in place for exactly this moment. I haven't criticized the replay process throughout the year because it just doesn't seem as important to me compared to what happens on the field but when you look at what happened in this game this was the reason they put that rule in place this play like this exact moment was the reason they put this rule in place and when you looked at the replay

it seemed clear and obvious to me that he held Hollister's arm back but even if you weren't going to overturn it the fact that they didn't look at it got to look at it totally inexcus what did we just spend our whole offseason in season four That was it.

So that opens up Pandora's box. If you look at the replay, what standard do you use? The one from week three, the one from week 13, or a new one that you're making up as you enter the playoff? And 49ers fans, all of you in my mentions who are saying, well, what about the delay a game? It looked like, oh, you know, when the Seahawks scored or what about the Ben Garland? Like, shut up. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about a failure of the system.

I was hoping the 49ers were going to win this game because I thought their season was better, that they deserved it, they're a more fun team. But that's not the point. Like, I'm more concerned about the process and the fact that the process completely failed in the biggest spot. What possible explanation can they offer? I have one.

All right. Mike Sando of the Athletic actually has one. The NFL resting Al Riveron ahead of the playoffs. Maybe it was one of those situations. What? That is not working for me. I thought you had the real answer.

That's not working for me. There's no answer. Go ahead, Mark. No, it's just a problem to Greg's point that for all the, drama and rather amazing play that happened for both sides, that that's the talking point. It's a totally inexcusable flub by the league.

At least in this room. Well, I mean, who's not going to be discussing that? I don't know. There's a lot else to talk about. And I don't know if we need to hammer that forever. It seemed pretty clear. The Seahawks, as Al Michael said, botching that situation with the delay of game

and using a timeout is a pretty big story. Marsha Lynch running onto the field. And who knows, they end up against. the delay of game. Maybe it has something with March John Lynch coming on the field late. We don't know. We'll get probably answers. Why was he in like a glowing green hat the entire time? I don't know. But the moment was so beautiful. Of course, the most infamous moment in Seahawks franchise history is the decision not to give it to Beast Mode. He comes out of retirement

for this game and it wouldn't have made the Super Bowl 49 right. But it was it was cinematic and then for them not to get the playoff, pushes them back five yards, no longer goal line situation. Lynch goes back to the sideline where he stays. That was a huge mistake. And then the Hollister play, he put, you know, Russell Wilson puts it on him. And like I said, the linebacker, you just got to give him credit. That's a great, great, great play in a huge spot that can save a team. And it could be the difference being the 49ers, winning the Super Bowl and being one and done in the playoffs. The NFL is so resistant to clarity and grand sweeping statements about what just happened. At the start of that drive, I wrote 49ers defense

ferocious in the first half of the season, but below average statistically, this is a big test here. And it feels like they passed the test because Greenlaw deceded Hollister right at the goal line. But all that happened in between there, there's no clarity. That game could have gone in so many different directions just by the vicissitudes of what was going on. Right. The stuff that you can practice in terms of situational football, I think should bother Pete Carroll. I had like I had a Smarme tweet, I'm glad I did not send out. But immediately, when they took that delay a game, I thought that's why Belichick didn't call the timeout in the Super Bowl.

Because Pete Carroll gets so over-excited about everything. They're just like, oh, what do we do here? Oh, let's get legit. Like, let's do that. They took a delay a game not after their injured player, George Fant, had to run up to the line and spike it, which was also a mistake. Ultimately, you only have four plays to win the game. You would love, and you have plenty of time.

You would love to call a play there and run it and throw a ball into the end zone. that after that spike, they still didn't have enough time. They also burned timeouts late in that spot when they got to the one yardland. They got a first down that went past the two and they didn't have a timeout to use because they just burned a couple of them. I mean, I would say also, though, Seattle in the second half, three straight long touchdown drives. They deserve credit for showing up with a banged up roster.

And, you know, a few little things go in the other direction. We're talking about Seattle having won this division. And that's why it's so crushing for the Seahawks to lose in this. manner and they're so banged up right now that they're really to me their only hope was to get a buy get a home game or two and use that clink advantage and they lose that now and to me they're not a team that you could expect to make a deep run uh i could see them going out as soon as you know six days from now well they only stopped the 49ers offense twice the entire seven days two puns and now you're going into philadelphia team that i'm not saying they're clicking on all cylinders on

offense, but they found something to hang their hat on over the past month. This is a big test. I didn't expect to think the Seahawks might be the underdog in their first playoff game. Right. Me neither. And yet you're so right, Mark, to point out, after they're scoreless at halftime, dominated, and they go touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, Jimmy G and his offensive line shows up. In a game where they didn't really run the ball well, a play stands out to me with about seven minutes left. They have third and five. That's the point where you think the Seahawks are going to get off the field, maybe force a field goal. And Jimmy G. has all day to throw, finds Debo Samuel for an easy first down where he beats

Shaquille Griffin, and they score a touchdown on the very next play. Their offense, for the most part, answered the bell time after time. The average 8.3 yards per play, which is outrageous. That's crazy. I mean, it's far more than the Seahawks. So it's just two really good teams. And one team in the Seahawks, it's been lucky over and over. over and over.

And sometimes when you're counting on luck, like it just doesn't go for you. And tonight they were unlucky. All right. So San Francisco gets it done. They're the one seed. Let's talk about a team that's going to actually be playing next week.

But you can argue that we might be talking about the greatest number three seed in NFL history. They are the Saints. So a third down in seven for the Saints. Panthers bring five. Breeze has time in the pocket. Throzen Hill wide over to the 40.

35, 30, 25, 30, 25, Blocker in front, 15 cuts back, 10, 5. Touchdown, Taysom Hill. What can't the man do? Who gets out in front for the block there? Mike Thomas. Michael Thomas springs a block down at the 10-yard line, and Taysom Hill does the rest, 45 yards.

Drew Brees to Taysam Hill. Zach Streep, Deuce McAllister, with a call for W.W.L. Tasim Hill delivered an exclamation point in sandwiches for Mark Sessler. Oh, yeah. With his eighth touchdown of the season, the final score. and the Seahawks 42 to 10 win over the Moorabund Carolina Panthers at the Superdome. As I said, the Saints entered Sunday hoping to get a buy

and be set up with the Superdome. It didn't work out that way. But Chris Wessling, despite that, and it is a bit of a bummer day. If you're a Saints fan or you're inside that building, they have to be feeling good about themselves as we turn the page to turn the calendar over to January. Yeah, it wasn't, it wasn't,

hard to see the juxtaposition, the contrast between the Saints and Packers. I thought watching this game, the Saints look like the grownups, sitting at the head of the table carving up roast beef at holiday time, and the Packers are relegated to the folding wobbly card table in the corner with the kids because they were messing around with the Lions while the Saints came in and just took care of business with the Panthers to the point where a few minutes into the game, the only suspense was, is Mark going to get his Tassum Hill sandwiches? and will Christian McCaffrey join the 1,000-1-000 club? Yes, that happened in the third quarter,

and Mark's Taysam sandwiches came in the fourth quarter. The Saints, this was a well-round-in-a-game. Once again, Camara had two T-Ds, and once again, he ran through a big hole with great blocking, and we don't know if he's back to his normal self or not. I'm not seeing a guy who's 2018 explosive, but this offense is getting it done right now. You go back to Week 10, where the Saints fell to Atlanta,

a 9 to 20, 26 to 9. Since then, their offense has been on fire. 34 points, 34 points, 26, 46, 34, 38. Wow. That's why I don't, I don't, yes, every team would like to have a buy. I don't have a problem with some teams having to go that extra game, that extra journey, and I think that they're going to wax Minnesota next week with very little issues.

Saints have, yeah, average 40 points per game over the final four weeks of the season. That is outrageous. and the way it's set up, they still are, you know, in the Packers lane because if they beat the Vikings, they will be going to Green Bay. So even though you wanted the home game, you still would like to be in the Packers Lane versus it could have worked out in a way where you were playing hosting the 49ers in the second week of the playoffs. This isn't that bad of a result.

That's the benefit when you talk about. the three seed or the four seed, the three seed means you avoid the one seed until the latest possible stage of the conference playoffs, which is the championship game. I mean, the Saints aren't the first team I'd want to throw into like negative 13 wind chill in Green Bay necessarily, but this is a little bit of a different Saints team. And you would think that even more if you saw the deep ball that Drew Brie's tried to throw to Tech again today where he put his whole body into it. And I don't know, I think he might have been Tray Boston had all day to run under it and interceptable.

I'm not doubting that guy after the last month of football. though. No, he's played well, and I believe if my calculations are correct, he has a career high in passer rating this year, 116.2. Biggest upset of the day, though, the leading receiver of this game, anyone want to guess? How about Brandon Zelstra? I saw that coming. Six for 96 for the Panthers, Kyle Allen coming in off the bench. Will Greer, this audition, this, that was not a good audition for Mr. Greer, and he went out of this game with a foot injury, you're correct?

Well, he, yes, it was ugly early. for him, and I think the Saints did him a favor by putting him out of the game. One of our listeners said he looked like he had a thousand yards stare coming off the field, and that was putting it mildly. Like a guy that had seen too much at war. Yes. That team crumbled about as ferociously as one could imagine. This Saints team's been through a lot.

The fact that they could go undefeated without Breeze, they lose two starting offensive linemen three weeks ago, four weeks ago. That hasn't slowed them down. They're unlucky that they get the 13 and 3. I don't know. It just is... They feel like they're as mentally, psychologically tough as any team in the league. And they get to take out some Minneapolis Miracle Revenge game next week.

That's nice. One quick note before we get to the Green Bay Packers, we have, for the first time ever, our own television. So on NFL Network that will premiere on Friday, this Friday. At what time, Greg? Three Pacifics, six Eastern. Six Eastern. and three Pacific, the around the NFL show

and NFL network. They're giving us 30 minutes each of the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, so three shows leading up to the conference championships. So that's very exciting. I feel like the network is finally into generating some ratings. And this is how you do it. And they're replaying it all the time. I mean, just

just season pass it, DVR it. Just watch every time they play it too. I love it. It's your job. All right, the Packers. We're going to head over to the kids table. Yeah. It's wobbly. The paper plates. Oh, no. And the styrofoam cups.

People are playing with their food. Yeah, the kids, you know, they're not even, they don't even appreciate what they have. There's a dog sitting at the table. And there's one crazy kid who won't even sit down and you want the other parents to be like, the kid's parents to be like, hey, put the boy in line. Get a beat on that child. His hands have cranberry on him. Now he's on the couch.

He says, my couch. That's the pack. This is why no one comes over to my house. Let's check it out. A house of four is a year ago. He has a chance. chance to win it for Green Bay. Here we go.

Down on one knee arm extended. Here's the snap, high snap placement made. Pick to the upright. It is good. It is good. Mason Crosby has done it. A dagger. And the Packers are into no worse than the number two seed in the NFC playoffs.

And a week off, Green Bay is into the divisional round of the playoffs. Wayne Larravee with the call for W. W-T-M-J. Yes, after Aaron Rogers' Aaron Jones' 31-yard catch and run, move the Packers into field goal range. Mason Crosby kicked a 33-yard field goal. This time expired.

It lifted the Packers to 23-20 win over the lines at Ford Field, the game that the Packers fell behind two touchdowns before finally waking up. And Mark, this was a game that Aaron Rogers could not look worse early on. His numbers were some of the worst of his career at halftime. But to the Packers' credit, they're not playing as well as some of these other superpowers. They found a way to get the job done. And that happened a lot this season, as their 13 and 3 record illustrates.

Yeah, I mean, maybe, you know, if you want to look at it from a positive standpoint, that they're working out the Kings finally before they head into this postseason journey. But Aaron Rogers, over the first 27 minutes of this horrific Packers' first half, had 29 air yards and just looked completely out of sync with his wideouts. And, you know, Detroit has made a cottage industry of blowing games. No team in the league has blown second half leads more than Detroit Lions under Matt Patricia. And so, you know, it was not surprising to see Green Bay kind of finally find the rhythm and get back into this. Rogers, you know, and I went on, we went on Sky Sports and I basically said how the Packers looked done to me.

And two seconds later, Rogers, you know, hits an absolute dart to Devante Adams for a touchdown. then hit Alan Lazard some beautiful throws. So it's like, I don't want to over-worry about the Packers. They don't feel to me like a 13-3 team. They don't. And I'd be a little bit concerned. Now, they have a break, which is nice, but they lost Brian Belaga to a concussion.

Bolaga. Corey Lindsley, their center, went out with a back injury. He was okay, apparently, after, but they were real banged up. You know, the Lions, to me, do not deserve to be toying with Green Bay for 30-plus minutes of this game the way that they were. I mean, you know, big day for the Blauha. almost, almost, but more adversity.

Hourshoes and hand grenades, my friend. This stat feels like who the Packers are. They have led for zero seconds against the Lions this year and won both games. That's crazy. It is. And, you know, Dan Orlovsky, who does a good job with this analysis on ESPN, said after the game, if you have to pick a quarterback likely to go bonkers in the playoffs, look for Aaron Rogers because, you know, he just missed a couple of, a series of beautiful throws on Sunday.

We say this almost every week. Exactly. He throws beautiful downfield passes, and they just miss a lot of them. That's not the issue. The issue is feast or famine. What do you do when you're not hitting those throws? And usually their offense goes in a tank for long stretches. And he was protected well, and he just didn't have an answer for it after the game.

He just said he was missing. Like some weeks he can't explain it. But, I mean, it was one of the worst games, as you mentioned, just in terms of accuracy of his career. ESPN tracked him for 16. overthrows that was the most in a game, or tied for the most since they've been keeping track of the stat in 2006, tied with Josh Freeman's one start for the Minnesota Vikings. Against the Giants on Monday Night Football, right?

Exactly. The worst games of all time. One of the worst performances ever. Not that Rogers was in that category, and they do get some credit for finding a way to actually win, but it's like, yeah, the Lions didn't even have Goladay in this game after a little while. I don't know if they're fools' gold because, I mean, they played a very complete game against.

the Vikings last week. So, you know, listen, I just, I would have no, no, not be surprised that they, if they were the team that in the, you know, the divisional round lost at home. Well, no one's going to, if the Saints beat the Vikings, no one's going to expect the Packers to win that game. Whether, whether, and no one, you know, that's off, the consensus is often wrong, but everyone is going to expect the Saints to go to Green Bay and beat that. It depends totally on what the weather is like.

Yeah, one of my last point about Green Bay. I feel the same as you, Mark, and I guess Greg, and I think we're all on the same page, can you kind of fake your way to 13 and 3? Or at a certain point, if they just get, they do a nice job closing out games, and that means they should be taken seriously. I mean, 13 and 3. It's just puzzling them. They just don't feel like a 13 and 3 teams.

Sure, but that's, you know, you don't take the, the, our next team, the Patriots seriously, at 12 and 4, and it is just about the eye test. And a lot of times the regular season I test doesn't carry over, and the Packers are what a four teams that get next week off. That is pretty huge. That is huge. All right. Let's move on. First down, Fitzpatrick, back to throw. Looking. Fires. Back in the Arizona. Touchdown. Mike Kisicki.

Unbelievable. With 24 seconds left. How about Mike Kisicki? Back in the end zone running right down the middle, back of the end zone. Fitzpatrick puts it right on the money. Holy smokes, what a drive. Oh, indeed. Oh, indeed. Jimmy Suppalo. Bob Greasy and Joe Rose with the call.

Ryan Fitzpatrick. More like Fitzpatrick. Am I right? Greg, threw a five-yard touchdown pass to Mike Dusciki. 24 seconds to play. The Dolphins stunned the Patriots, 27 to 24. A win that costs the Pats. The first round by for the first time in a decade.

Greg, first of all, this whole scenario was, foretold by someone on Thursday show. But who cares about that? After years of taking advantage of other teams' late season stumbles, the Patriots stumbled themselves, and it has cost them dearly. They're playing next week. Yeah, they are.

It reminds me at 2015, when they also lost in Week 17, lost home field advantage also to the Dolphins. And that was a team that felt like it was on their last legs. And offensively, this team is certainly that way. The fact that Tom Brady played his worst, game today, I think, was the most notable part of this result. The defense didn't play well. They didn't force a turnover. You give up a big drive at the end. Fitzpatrick was the best

quarterback in the division all year. He's better than Sam Darnold, better than Josh Allen. I think he was better than Tom Brady when you consider this game. But Brady's misthrows and seemingly the punishment that Bill Belichick was giving Brady or the offense by not even trying to score at the end of the first half. What was going on there? And not using timeouts. I think it was his way of saying, we don't want to give him. give the Dolphins the ball back, we don't really trust our offense. We're going to run a lot. And it was a very strange moment and a lack of confidence in this offense, which you can understand why there's a lack of confidence, but it seemed like cutting off his nose to spite

his face. Patriots desperately wanted this game. We heard Belichick tell his players the playoffs start this week. Of course. They played their hearts out and still lost. And credit Ryan Fitzpatrick, I feel like this game was the microcosm for a wild season. And this season was the microcosm for a wild career. It's just like everything came to a head in this game. He was supposed to be a tackling dummy. He was the old quarterback that was being sent out to slaughter on what was supposed to be the worst team of all time.

And week after week after week, he's been keeping this team in games and winning games. And yeah, this was the microcosm. This was the culmination of what, yes, a five and eleven is not what the dolphins wanted because they wanted to get Joe Burrow, whoever. the quarterback. Finish five and four. They beat two division winners in December. So the Patriots weren't the only team that's going to be hosting a game in the

playoffs and lost to the Dolphins in December. They beat the Eagles too. I saw someone note on Twitter that New England lost to the four best teams in AFC with Miami being one of them at this point. And you go back and you look at the journey for this team. Week one, losing 59 to 10. Week two to the Patriots, 43 to nothing. Week 3 to 3, 31 to 6, and they went on and on.

And it was like, they looked like, one of the most disgraceful operations around. And I guess I would trade in the whole first round pick thing for the concept and the idea and the belief that you have a really good coach in Brian Flores who did a lot with a little. He could have left Josh Rosenen for the season and said, hey, we know we're building,

we're not playing for this year. And instead he tried to win games. He tried to play a good football. And the last drive, 13 plays 75 yards. And that for all the struggles of Tom Brady in the offense and, you know, there's the one thing that Patriots have had all season is this defense, and it hasn't been as...

It hasn't been as historically dominant as it was in the first half when the paths were 8 and 0, and they finished 12 and 4, so even I could do the math they were a 500 team in the second half, and they couldn't get the stop, and even the great Stefan Gilmore,

who may win defensive player of the year, Devante Parker, he had his way with him. You were cackling in the newsroom. I mean, he had a big completion in the fourth quarter. This is the biggest moment of Dan's decade. I would say since we've had the podcast, except for that Ryan Fitzpatrick when they won,

oh, no, they lost in week 17, but they won 10 games that year. Maybe the Sanchez. This was the play out of my brain right now, Greg. Nice try. It's amazing since Fitzpatrick does this with no running game. I mean, they have absolutely no running game. I found it stunning.

Ryan Fitzpatrick ran the ball more this year on called passes than any quarterback in the league. more than Lamar Jackson more than anyone else and he was effective doing it and today was a great example why the Patriots had 29 hurries on Ryan Fitzpatrick so many times they got rushers a lot of times free rushers in his face

and he got out of the way of them a lot of what they've done defensively especially the cover zero where you're blitzing like crazy just hasn't worked that well in December and they've made a living off a turnover differential all year they didn't force a turnover they ended up minus

two. One of those was on the last play of the game. But even then, they were going to be minus one today. It was Tom Brady's pick six on a weird throw. And that was kind of the difference. In the end, Brady led them back from Ted. Nothing got the key touchdown. It was a full team loss, but not a, not one that was undeserved. These look like two very evenly match teams. The craziest statistic of the entire football season is that Ryan Fitzpatrick is the oldest player in NFL history to lead his team in rushing. And he had about 240-some. mounting yards rushing. To your point that the Dolphins cannot run the ball. He ran for his life all season and he stayed alive. And now factor in what he did with the Bucks offense last September.

And tell me this guy shouldn't be a starting quarterback in the NFL in 2020. I mean, he's under contract with the Dolphins, a team that's going to draft a rookie quarterback, draft a quarterback, and presumably want him to play immediately. I'm not ready to say goodbye to Ryan Fitzpatrick. He's seen, you know, one thing though, but I don't want to get too carried away because he always finds his way back into the starting lineup. I just would rather him go compete somewhere, but I don't know if teams are like that with him at this point where they're going to say, we'll bring in Fitzpatts for a chance to start. He might be better in Miami in like a two to roll and end up getting starts that way. It'd be surprising to see

someone want to trade for him. And there's no way that the dolphins, I mean, I guess someone would for a really low price, but you would expect him to be competing. Maybe it's with Tua. The dolphins didn't even lose any in their draft slot today by winning. So that was another bonus. They stayed at the number five pick. Obviously, they're going home in the Patriots is the bigger repercussion because this team, which was so limited all year, really needed that by, I think, more than any other team. And I kind of thought when they beat the bills, maybe that's their moment and their next big game is going to be against Kansas City, which was going to be a big time uphill battle.

Now, if they try to make it to the Super Bowl, you're going to have to win a very tough wildcard game. They'll try. You're going to have to win on the road in Kansas City. that seems like a death sentence, even for a team as resourceful as the Patriot? You got to win the first game. The sense of justice is that the AFC is correctly seated. The Patriots, I don't care about their record.

They are not the one of the two best teams and the AFC on any level. Well, said. I agree, and I feel like as a Patriots fan, A, it's really hard. It's hard to complain when you've just watched the greatest run, and they're still in it, that any American professional sports team has ever been on. You're going to whine because you've got a three-year-old. seed. I really do see, I really do see, I'm saying, okay, in our, in our lifetime, in our lifetime. And to me, in the NFL, it's such a unique thing to do it over 20 years. Nothing's been

close to that. But the fact that they've managed to scrape out 12 wins with a pretty bad team, like that somehow winning is such in their bones that they still manage to have a 12 win season, which for about 20 franchises in the league would be the best year they've had in a decade is almost, to me, a testament to how good they are, it doesn't make this team any better, though. They would have been 10 and 6 with a tougher record. So Greg's in denial, but he has a really good attitude on the surface. You are not, you have a positive outlook on the surface.

Not everyone is feeling as positive on the surface or beneath it. Here's Ricky Hollywood right after the game. Patriots stink. I can't believe you got this. How old are you, Erica? You're not allowed to ask a woman. You're in your mid-20s. You've known nothing.

Shut up, Doug. You've known nothing but glory. And after a season that ends 12 and 4, look at the Chiefs fan right next to you, Bartlett, too. 12 and 4, you're saying the Patriots stink. How about you eat some humble pie, lady? What do you mean? Just, you know, take the loss like a woman.

I got a text from my dad. Can't you just not wait until, like, Adam Gase or the Jets have like one 10-1 season so we can get back at Dan when it ends? How is a woman supposed to take a loss versus a man, Dan? Get to it. Won't hurt me today. Dan hurt me today. Did you see that stat, AFC East, Stand,

since week nine. Patriots are in last place. Oh. Heading in the run. Where are the Jets? Where are the Bengals? What about your Rams, West? Of course. I don't have a ram.

Yeah, the Browns are in great. What about your Broncos? Hit me where. I'm not walking around celebrating the Browns. Where's your head coach, Mark? All right. Oh, my goodness. We'll get to that.

Spoiler alert. And, you know, since we're here, I'm curious how Scott Zolak is taking that. Oh, I want to know. It's magic touchdown. So let's check that out. What a great day this is. Gisiki to the right. It's a fan who takes the snap.

He's looking to the middle. He throws to the back of the end zone. Caught by Gassiki. What a try. Touchdown Miami. 24 seconds to go. And the dolphins have taken the lead. What an unbelievable drive by Miami.

Credit Chad O'Shea and Ryan Fitzpatrick. More importantly, Devante Parker. Phenomenal playmaker down the right side. You get it going on a big 29-yarder. Gaseki, the pass-receiving tight end with the big touchdown catch to take the lead late. What is measured, professional, mature. I'm so annoyed that I didn't listen to this before we played it. I listen to it. He's a sportsman. He is. What growth? I don't know if maybe.

Greg's hurting right now. He's hissing at me. I'm saying maybe Zolak is in the same place. I am watching this game and it's like, I don't know. There is a piece to it. If they don't, if they're not a good team, they're not a good team. I don't think you and Zolak have ever been in the same place watching a future team. I thought the same thing Greg's saying or a similar thought that Zolak, you give, I give, I give, I give, him we give him a lot of heat but he's plugged in he knows that team that sounds like a guy that understands that this team isn't a great team i think one of the most jarring newsroom proclamations i've ever heard out of gregg's mouth was that the matter what this patriot's team does they'll always have week 16 against the bills all i said was made according to gregg that was their moment it was a nice moment for this team he's hurting that is so depressing

that's heard a lot of things yeah you know psychologically gregg is going through some stuff so i'm sure brady's going to put that week 16 win on his mantle next to the Lombardi team. And we get one more loss this season. Oh, it's coming. You know it's coming, Gregie. There's no parade this year. Let's move on. To one four-neill. Kick taking three yards deep in the end zone. Left side return. McCle Hardman. You can play that back on me if they win the Super Bowl. He's got some room at the 40. McCle Hardman up the sideline stays on his feet. 35, 30. Catch it back. 25, 20. McCall Hardman, 15, 10, 5. Touchdown. Kansas City.

104-yard kickoff return by the Pro Bowl return specialist, McCall Hardman. Mitch Halt is K-C-F-X with the call. Mitch does a good job. Nice, it is. Class, top glass. McCall Hardman gave the Chiefs a massive boost when they needed it most. Right after a Chargers go-ahead touchdown, got the people on Arrowhead nervous. 104 yards later, Kansas City is ahead to good.

3121 win over the Chargers suit of their credits showed up here but it wasn't enough with the game in hand the arrowhead crowd went into a frenzy when they learned that Ryan Fitzpatrick and the Dolphins had shocked the Patriots allowing KC now to grab that number two seed friend of the show Kevin Harlan by the way painted the picture calling two games at once in his latest masterwork do we have that meanwhile Miami has first and goal down by four 29 seconds left. Here, Bucker kicks the extra point. And Fitzpatrick throws in the end zone.

Touchdown, Miami! The Dolphins have just scored. Gisicki, the tight end, got a laser in the back of the end zone by Miami quarterback, Ryan Fitzpatrick, to take a lead with 24 seconds to go. And the crowd now knows it. What a throw by Fitzpatrick.

What a touchdown run by Williams. on the last weekend of the regular season in the NFL. If the Chiefs win and New England loses, the Chiefs will be the two-seed. They'll get the buy and they'll have a home game the next weekend. I'm getting confused. What game are you calling? I'm calling both games.

CBS is going to send you two checks this week. I think I'm breaking every FCC rule in the book. Oh, Kevin Harlan, friend of the show. And remember, when he was on our show, it was after his famous black cat call. where he was calling a Evan Ingram completion at the same time the cat was running. There's nobody else in the business

that can do with Kevin Harland does. And it's impossible to know how hard it is to even call what you're watching with your eyes down on the field in front of you, much less double-diffed the way he did. And there's no other play-by-play guy that over the course of every football season has four or five like intense signature moments.

You see his voice crescendos with that. That guy is drunk voice when he says, I'm calling both games. It was an interesting game because it was while the drama, was unfolding in Miami, the Chargers are hanging around, and the Chiefs, this was hardly their best game

offensively. In fact, they managed just 336 yards of offense. They were outgained by the Chargers just barely. They ran only 48 plays to 74 by the Chargers, but two huge plays. You heard the McCull Hardman kickoff return that gave them

the lead back after they had fallen behind early in the third quarter following a Patrick Mahomes interception. And then the next drive, Patrick Mahomes takes the ball, sticks it in Damien Williams' gut, and he goes 84 yards breaking a tackle and then taking it off down the near sideline for a touchdown. And I thought it was just kind of like symbolic and showed once again why I like this Chief's team's chances next month that that sequence, the kickoff return by Hardman, the run by Williams, it wasn't Patrick Mahomes.

And then the defense getting the job done, closing out the game. This is not a one-dimensional team. and that's why, armed with a buy and a home game that gets them to at least the AFC title game, perhaps they even get home field of the Ravens Stumble, that this team has a real shot. Well, sometimes you need some luck to break what's been an unbelievably unlucky and unsuccessful playoff history that the Chiefs have had the last, what, four decades now. and they are so close right now to setting up

what I think would be just on paper the most exciting AFC title game matchup in memory. If you get Lamar a second year MVP versus Mahomes a third year quarterback who's also the MVP like I can't think of another title game that would have more hype ahead of it. Maybe Farb Saints in 09 when he was with the Vikings

kind of reminds me of that. And this Chiefs team like you said at the end like The way, if they can win games like this when the offense isn't at their best, like I at least think they're going to get to that game. And as a football fan, I don't know. I think that would be exciting. I think another thing as a football fan, if you look at the history of the draft and the linking between Eli Manning and Philip Rivers,

that Philip Rivers after this game was asked basically about his future in Los Angeles and said, you know, this may not happen, but we'll find out, yeah. Well, let's hear what Rivers had to say. You could say better than me. Way to tee up. I think it's that I can say I gave it everything I had. I mean, every week, you know. So, you know, and maybe it means an interception on fourth and 18 when you're down 10.

Because I don't care that it's going to say two interceptions. You know, I really don't. It's just like I ain't quitting. So I think that, I think that, that doing it with so many guys over, you know, 14 years. And going to the locker room, win or lose, and I can say, that gummit, we're short. we fell short, or we won, you know, but shoot, I couldn't try it any harder. So I think two different kind of elements there, but I think that's the two things that come to my mind.

Does that sound to you, Greg, like a guy who knows a chapter in his book is closing here? Expecting it, at least. I don't know if anyone there totally knows what, like who's going to be there and who's not, but I think he's reading the tea leaves that this coaching staff might not be a huge fan. And he did say, if some other team will have me, I'll be starting game number 215 in a row in week one next year. So he says as long as one of the 32 teams sees me as a start. I think someone would. I was just going to mention that it's wild that we could see the end of Rivers with the Chargers and Eli Manning in the Giants

after the way that draft day thing went down on the same day, many, many, many years later. And Big Ben. Just because at this point with his injury, what we've heard, It's no lock that we'll see him again. I never heard that Rivers to the Colts connection until Dan brought it up last week, but now I'm seeing it all over the place. I hope that happens.

Influencer. Oh, yeah. That's the way I look at it. But I do think he could have good football, and he's a guy you root for and you want to see him have him, maybe a Montana final act where he goes to a team and it's fun and he has one more shot at it. It would stink if he somehow landed with a team that, you know,

pick a team, that was not a contender. Carolina Panthers? He just fades into oblivion with a Panthers-type team. Let's hope he lands on his feet somewhere and maybe it is still into charges. You never know. One thing with the Chiefs,

they, Juan Thornhill, who was a safety on my all-rooky team, had a knee injury today and Rappsheet reported that they think he's going to miss the playoffs with the injury. That's big. Ouch.

All right, let us move on now and check in on the NFC East, see how that all sorted out. Jones, calling for the football. He fumbled. it. He is hit, but football has fumbled. The Eagles are after it, and it has picked up again, and it is recovered down at the one by Fletcher Cox. Fletcher Cox. Then at the one-yard line, has Daniel Jones lost the football

for the 11th time this season? Too many times. Merrill Reese, WIP, with the call. I've heard a lot from Merrill Reese because the Eagles keep winning. Fletcher Cox scooped up Daniel Jones. fumble. It put the Eagles in control. And Boston Scott, who? Boston Scott had three touchdowns in well over 100 yards of scrimmage in place of an injured

Miles Sanders as the injury ravaged Eagles beat the Giants 34 to 17. The win, of course, clinches the NFC East title for the Eagles who are in the playoffs for the third straight year. It was a 4-0 closed to the season for Philadelphia and head

coach Doug Peterson, who deserves to me, coach of the year, consideration. John Harbao will probably get it, but what he was able to ring out of the roster that's been decimated by injuries week after week after week, and it happened again today with Sanders going out. Also, Zach Ertz not playing in this game. Guard Brandon Brooks goes out with a shoulder. Sanders had an ankle, and they just kept finding ways to make it worth. I work. I think it's a combination of Carson Wentz, a great young quarterback, kind of taking his game to the next level, which is what truly great quarterbacks do, and a coach who knew how to make the most of

a roster when it got to crunch time, Chris Wesley. And I think an Eagles team that's a veteran team with playoff experience, knowing that there was a sense of urgency, maximizing its roster, you know, and basically whatever talent they had left that was healthy, scratching its way into the postseason by hook or by crook in juxtaposition to the Cowboys who underperformed and let the season slip away. Yeah, I feel like there were a different type of coach of the year argument. There is the John Harbaugh who... I mean, Peterson wouldn't be in the top 10.

He wouldn't, but I would say this, that, like, what they... He had guys on the practice squad. I get it. They underachieved for half a season, and they went 9 and 7, and they beat the Giants Redskins, you know, at the end of the season. They did a great job, but some guys... His stock is up. I mean, come on.

I mean, it's like... But they were one of the most disappointing teams for half of the season. They also played their wrong players for me. Right. Right. And they did an unbelievable job getting it all together. get me wrong. But their defense, for the most part, has been healthy. They've been a very up and down team that got it together. Beat the Giants a couple of times, beat the Reds because they were all

close games. Wentz was been unbelievable. I mean, they have been resourceful. And it's nice to see a team that kind of has the DNA of playing well late in the season, no matter how that they got to that point, especially after that Giants game, it felt like, hey, we got here. Let's go win. And who knows? I mean, they are not pretty doing it. Like, this game was in question for vast amounts of time. This was my lock, and I thought this was the dumbest decision I made all year. Here's the stat that perfectly encapsulate what it means to be a franchise quarterback.

So, Wentz became the first player today in NFL history to throw for 4,000 yards at a season without a 500-yard wide receiver, which just tells you a couple things, tells you the injuries that hit this wide receiver group. group, they lost what, their top three wide receivers and Wentz staying healthy and continuing to find ways to make it work, especially in these last four games. Because, yes, you can't completely divorce the first three quarters of the season from the final quarter. But, you know, this is money time. We joked about it.

The season starts after Thanksgiving. But it's kind of true. And now here we are in January. And Eagles, I know they're probably not a Super Bowl team, but they're one of the teams I look forward to most watching play because I'm wondering. if this is a Cinderella situation in a different script from the one that led to their Super Bowl win. But again, is this

a team to completely count out? Not yet. Anyway, I'm not going to do it. We'll see who's healthy next week. That'll be a big factor. Miles Sanders, Brooks. I mean, those, Zacherts, those are players that they were going to be hoping that are available.

And, you know, if they're not, if nothing else, they're the class of the NFC East, I think that feels good, that you got cowboys to get rid of their coach, probably by the time people listen to this. We don't know this, but it'll happen. Like the giants, that could be the same too. The Redskins, they're changing coach. Like, the rest of the division is a mess.

And even with all these injuries, the Eagles end up on top. I would say plenty of Eagles fans would rather that Jason Garrett stay in Dallas, too. I'm glad you introduced that by saying Carson Wentz as a franchise quarterback, because every quarterback in the NFL goes through ups and downs. And we've had fans reach out to us on Twitter and say, When are you going to take Carson Wentz to task for not being a franchise quarterback? Look, we've seen him play at an MVP level. We saw him raise this team.

Next time he goes through a slump, we don't have to have it. And is this guy a franchise quarterback discussion? Because he's already proven it. I think part of it was even Eagles fans being a little salty about, because Foles is the one that closed out the last two seasons, which makes this run, even if it ends next week, all the more meaningful. That this was something Wence can put his signature on. All right.

So let us now move on. Yeah, the Dallas Cowboys, they were hoping to steal the division at 8 and 8. It didn't happen. Let's check in on that game. Snap out of the gun on third down. They block it up. Over the middle caught first down. Gallup kept his feet.

25 left sideline. 10, 5. Dancing in. Gallup walks the dog. Touchdown Cowboys. What an athletic play. And Gallup takes it into the end zone for the second time. His second touchdown of the game.

Brad Sham the Sham the Sham God. Uh-oh, crime spree Drop the pen This is what it is, Mark Forget a crime spree This is the natives No, no, to me, it's a I have decades-old cop drama

In like San Francisco streets Bring us the girl Here comes con through the treats That movie's not getting made in 2019 No, it's not I mean natives, we can't say natives anymore? Well, you have So

Bring the girl That also feels off-killed. That's natural. There were sacrifices. That was a thing. Don't try to erase history, Greg? You were answering a question I didn't ask. I don't know what you're talking about.

But I'd like to know what's in your head. Frank's still mad about the page. I'm not sure I do. No, I was talking about the Kong of it. I don't even, you took in another direction, but it was nice, as the kids say, a cell phone. I have no idea what you're doing. talking about. All right, here we go.

Dak Prescott threw four touchdown passes. Sacks. Three to 2019 breakout wide-up. Michael Gallup. 47-16, Cowboys win. A win that meant nothing when the Eagles beat the Giants. West, this game will further burnish all those impressive DVOA analytics for all those cowboy heads out there. But like this game, it ultimately means nothing. Eight and eight. Mark ended up covering this game, but I did see a Troy Eickman quote.

where he basically said the Cowboys are talented enough to beat any team in the league and fans out there will say, well, any team can say that. They can't. Any team cannot say that. They're not talented. The Cowboys have the talent to beat any team. They also can play as poorly as any team and lose to any team. And that's been their season all year long.

Yeah, this was the anti-Chiefs, Dolphins, Patriots, Kevin Harlan moment. Because as Dallas was romping over the Redskins, you know, in the fourth quarter, you could see that the Eagles were pulling away and that this win was utterly meaningless and to your point, West, before, about just their talent and how disappointing their season has been, they're different to me than the Eagles because this game showed flashes of total dominance

from Michael Gallup. I thought Zeke Elliott ran really, really well. Dak Prescott had a couple amazing throws and one Gallup where he broke away from a Redskins defender, ran into another one and stiff-armed the guy to the ground, and you just went against them. against a couple weeks against the Rams, when they explode and blow up

and do what they can do, you're looking at a playoff team. This, I would have taken Dallas at their peak as the NFC East team that could have won a playoff game. I don't feel that way about the Eagles the same way. I just think their ceiling is different, but the Cowboys are so wacky

that they're perfectly what you would consider an eight-and-eight team. One week this, one week this, things are good. Well, they're kind of an unusual eight-and-eight, and most eight-and-eight teams are just kind of mediocre middling teams that win one, lose one, win two, lose two. This team showed an elite ceiling and then a floor that was just like gross.

They finished the season with a plus 97 point differential, which is what you would expect out of a 12 and 4 type of team, 11 and 5 type of team. I do wonder just because sometimes how the season ends has an emotional impact, especially on such an emotional decision maker like Jerry Jones. If Michael Galb's big finish will have and Amari Cooper's disappointing finish on balance will have any impact on Amari Cooper's quest to become the highest paid wide receiver

in the league because all of this Dak Prescott messing around with his contract, I don't think has been a huge deal because it's not like Dak's going anywhere. But if you don't get the deal done now and Dak's got all the leverage in February, you can only franchise one of them. And if you can only franchise one of them, Amari Cooper's probably playing elsewhere this year. Maybe the Cowboys won't mind that. I don't know. But you can use the transition tag too. we'll see i mean yes you get an extra tag this year that right and jerry doesn't lose stars and we will you know we'll hold off in the jason garrett job security talk for the most part because tomorrow's show we'll have a special monday edition of the podcast black monday no excuse me new horizons

monday i like that podcast coming up tomorrow and we'll dig in on uh the fate of jason garrett which seems sealed but as of right now he's still employed uh well he's not under contract no he is not employed that was a nice job jerry doesn't even have to fire his favorite employee ever all right let's uh move back to the a fc there was a team that plays in national that had a chance to do two things to go nine and seven again but also make the playoffs did they get it done during the late game tonight as henry gets the carry he's to the 50 to the 45 to the 40 to the 30 to the 20 to the 10 to the 5 to the end So, Derek Henry, to the house, 53 yards. Touchdown, Titans.

He's over 200. He's over 1,500, and he is the baddest man at NRG Stadium today. Yes, Mike. WGFX, yes, you are a bad man. NFL rushing champion, Derek Henry, ran for season 9-11 yards and 3.000. touchdowns. I guess that hamstrings. Okay. The Titans beat up on the Texans reserves. 3514 is the final. The Texans, of course, resting many key players ahead of next week's playoff matchup with the bills. The win clinched a wildcard spot for the eternally 9 and 7

Titans. And here's the difference. Nine and seven was a bit of a scarlet letter for this team. But this team is different, right? West, this team feels dangerous. All of that is true and this team this game you know let's call it what it was the texans sat six starters and benched others throughout the game as the media carried water all week for for a coach who was going to perpetuate half truth as a pep talk for his team and the media just let him do it like they were like he was really going to play all his players you know who didn't let him do it though Chris Wesleying of the around they really didn't in Houston they even as early as like Thursday they said well they'll probably sit there don't take down Wes's we bought it nationally

A very solid national reporter was out at the forefront of this saying, he's going to play all his players. And, you know, said national reporters should have seen through it. Who was it? He works here, so, you know. No, no, no, he does not work here. Okay. Well, I saw one here, too.

You know. He works for ESPN, and he's graded. Anyway. Anyway, this was the game of the triplets, Ryan Tannahill, to my mind, who has a comeback player of the year, locked up. A.J. Brown, who has, I think, beaten Josh Jacobs by a nose at the finish line, by averaging 111 yards in a touchdown over the last six weeks. And Derek Henry, the NFL's rushing leader,

who went over 200 yards on a 53-yard touchdown to seal this game. And at that point, those are the Texans subs in the game. So take from it what you will. My thing on the Titans, they are scary for the Patriots. Very scary because of this offense. This averaging 30 points a game with Tannahill in 10 games. And Tana Hill, a note, first quarterback in 30 years since Joe Montana to complete 70% of his passes.

at nine yards an attempt. Just a great hyper-efficient showing by him this year. This team has defense issues, and they allowed A.J. McCarran to go down the field on the opening drive of the game, and they allowed him to go down the field on the opening drive of the second half. AJ McCarran's not good,

and he held the ball too long in the pocket. That should not be allowed to happen. The Titans have cornerback issues, they have pass-rush issues, and they have kicker issues. Yeah, it's not a great defense. So I think the Patriots think, you know, think, okay, this is, you know, a defense that made the playoffs that we can actually

score on. But the Titans' offense is so explosive. They've, I know it was a long time ago, but they beat the drum out of the Patriots a year ago. And I just think when you look at the whole playoff field, like if I was power ranking, uh, wait a second now, playoff field, I think the Titans are better than the Bills. I think they're better than the Texans. I think they're better than the Seahawks. I think they're better than the Eagles. And they're probably better than the Patriots. If it's a neutral field, I would say they're better than the Patriots. I think the Titans have that sort of upside. So this is not a normal nine and seven sneak into the wild card type of thing. You can definitely see a scenario where Bill Belichick closes this season,

having lost to two former employees. I imagine the desert will be feeling the Patriots win this game. But I don't think anybody would be shocked. And we'll get into this later. But I don't think anybody will be shocked if the Titans advance beyond the first round just because they're so explosive and we just saw what happened with the Patriots of course getting beat on a final drive that defense is not invincible anymore that

that is a not only the Patriots fall out of the by they kind of get a hellacious first round draw here right I think it because there's nothing you can do to coach up against to me AJ Brown's physical dominance and John Hussmith is

athleticism. Derek Henry And Tanna Hill's playing so great. It's definitely, they have weaknesses, certainly, on defense, but it's a pretty complete team. It's very, very different than the other 9 and 7 Titans teams. And you can look at it just by how they've scored, how they've played with Tana Hill, and their point differential on the year.

I mean, they don't have the profile of a 9 and 7 team. I understand people who haven't watched the Titans on a weekly basis would be skeptical of Tanna Hill as maybe a one-year wonder. But this guy is playing quarterback how we want it to be played. He is aggressive downfield. He is pulling the trigger on tight win. window throws. He has the athleticism to escape pressure and make plays out of the pocket. This is how we want swashbuckling quarterbacks to play football. Yeah, I think it's probably people just

can't get past what Tanna Hill was for so long in Miami, and that's completely changed. This team may have found a quarterback as a long-term answer, and this game coming up, and we've laughed at the Titans endlessly on this show, is one of the biggest games in franchise history. I mean, this could alter everything you, the current perception of the Titans for people aren't watching them weekly would totally change if they go into New England. You are mistaken. Left at the Titans, this is not that team. That's fine. But even when they were, yeah, even when they won a playoff game, they've knocked off the Chiefs, it didn't stick. Right. It didn't stick. You do wonder about the priority a little bit having Derek Henry in there. Obviously, even get tackled on that run

because they wanted to get him the rushing record. He had 32 carries that the history of guys coming off of games where you have more than 30 carries the next week is pretty dramatic in terms of a decline. And they had them out there because they wanted the rushing yard. He wasn't taking, he was dishing out more hits than he was taken in that second half. All right. Pittsburgh entered

Week 17, hoping to find a way in the playoffs. It didn't happen. They didn't even find a way to win to close the season. That's a problem as well. Ray was now offensively will have a chance to put it away. Barry from his five drops to snap, turns around his drop. Ball comes loose.

in the end zone. The Ravens recover. Touchdown Ravens. Coming up with the ball is Brendan Trawwick and falling on it in the end zone was Jordan Richards. And with 436 left the play in the ball game, the Hayes

in the barn. I was waiting man. What are you doing? I was trying to see you scored the touchdown. Oh, okay. It sounds like Jerry Sandusky and Dennis Pitta of WBAL are so used to winning that it's just like it just seems tiring. It didn't even need put the hay on the barn.

No, not even necessary anymore. Not a lot of barns in Baltimore, by the way. Just throwing that out there. It gets farming really quick, though. That is true. Sure, but not in the city limits of Baltimore. They're not many. Highly farmy.

It gets farming. This is Wire season six. It's on the farm. It would have been better than the way they ended it. A little wire talk. Same for the wire pod. Please. The Ravens rested their starters against the Steelers team playing for the postseason.

It didn't matter. Baltimore. Baltimore's defense shut down. Pittsburgh, 2810, the final. Ravens finished a regular season, a franchise record best 14 and 2. Up next to buy and prep for the divisional round. Greg, I'm sure John Harbaugh relished beating the rival Steelers in this fashion. He loved it. They were throwing bombs up 2810 with RG3 on first down. They're going for a fake punt on their own 11-yard line, down up 9.

points in the fourth quarter. And they converted it. I loved it. It was a very risky call. Wait, why did they do that? They were up nine. It was fourth and one from their own 11. They had it, they probably, it's one of those automatic checks where they saw, they just

hiked it right to the guy who ran for it. It kept the ball. That's my coach of the year. That, I mean, that is the coach of the year stuff. And he said after the game how much the rushing title meant to them, the rushing record. They broke a record that's been there since 1978. I know people say, okay, a lot of inflated numbers in today's NFL. Just the fact that they play 16 games and those teams only played 14 is one of them.

They almost... Fair point. I think they came in second for yards per game and it was very close West. So actually the team, the 78 Patriots, they had played 16 games too. Ooh, more bad news for the Patriots today. Yes. Sorry to what is his name? How many people even knew they had that record yesterday?

Sam Cunningham, Sam Bam Cunningham. What did they go that year? Back in 1978. I think they made the playoffs. I'll check that out. Go ahead, Greg. The Ravens are a defensive team, and they did rest a lot of key guys, but the secondary was almost all in there except for Earl Thomas.

Their pass rush was in there. And it was a treat to watch them just destroy Duck Hodges, 9 of 25. I don't know. I just like dominance. They're the best team I've ever seen since I've been covering football. Them and 07 Patriots would be the two, but they close the season much stronger than the 07 page. Well, when you say that RG3 was unfurring,

He had 96 yards on the case, so he wasn't completing it necessarily. This was an unfurling incompletion up 28 to 10 deep down the field, just like you could tell they were trying to rub it in. The Steelers deflated as a team when they realized Duck didn't have it in the Bills game, and I commend Greg for having his finger on the pulse of both of these teams going into this game. You said the Ravens' backups would take it to the Steelers, and they did. And I don't think that you meant the Steelers' defense has been bad all year. just that going into this game, they have been broken by their quarterbacks.

Right. And the Ravens running game, you know, Gus Edwards 130 yards, RG3 gets 50 on the ground. What a great sign without Mark Engra. I just think the system is so good that they're tough to stop. The 1978 Patriots went 11 and 5. Their quarterback was Steve Grogan, who had 15 touchdowns and 23 picks, completed exactly 50% of his past. It's a different world.

They went one and done, got wiped out by the Oilers on New Year's Eve, 1978. So there you go. Anything else in this game, Greg? No, I think that's it. T.J. Watt with another force fumble. Maybe helps him in his defensive player of the year race, especially on a really tough day for Stefan Gellner. Did have three penalties, too, T.J. Watt, but he does that thing where he punches the ball out, but sometimes he misses. He knows it well.

And he just swung and punched. Kills RG3 in the biceps so hard. I was like, God, that looks like the hard. He doesn't deserve that. That should be like a 30-yard penalty. That wasn't even a penalty. I mean, that's legal. You can punch guys in the arm if they have the ball.

You know what that should be reviewable, Wes. What do you think? No, punching in the arm, try to get a fumble. I want to see a pair of brothers in the history of the NFL win defensive player of the year. That would be amazing. I think Watt's got a pretty decent shot. T.J. Watt, plenty of teams deciding not to draft him. Nice move.

Good luck to you. Good luck to me on what? you want to see two brothers win defense play i hope that happens for you that is a goal of mine i mean it's a purely vicarious want let's move on car in the gun i'm pulling for you thank you car looks for the end zone throws the ball that is deflected and two-point conversion is nullified guess who shelby harris tiff past deflection of the season oh seven seconds left 16 15 Denver. Dave Logan, K-O-A

with the call. Derek Carr's potential game-winning two-point conversion tent, bat it down. Yeah, by you know who, Shelby Harris, who Greg alerted the group when it happened. He leads a league in those deflections. 10 on the year at the line of scrimmage.

16-15, the Broncos hold on beating the Raiders in the final game for both teams. Oakland did not get the outside help they needed. Remember the four coin tosses? Did they lose all four coin tosses? The Steelers lost. They needed that, right?

So one out of three is not going to get it done. One out of four here, yeah. They were one out of four, I ain't going to get it done. And their fate was decided by early in the fourth quarter, essentially. And good vibes around the Broncos. They finish strong at seven and nine. Drew Lockwins, four or five starts. Philip Lindsay becomes the first undrafted running back

in NFL history to go over 1,000 yards in back-to-back seasons to open a career. And it also had a charming little anecdote from the CBS broadcast team that Vic Fagio, who was spending Christmas alone because of the nature of the gig. Or lax friends. I mean, that's one of those two. I think he has friends. And Christmas Eve, he watched a hallmark Christmas movie alone in his easy chair. went to the facility, did his coach work, came home,

maybe grabbed a beer, I don't know what he's doing, sat back down, and then kept binging Hallmark Lifetime movies or Hallmark Channel Christmas movies. So that's just a nice little feel good. Do you imagine Vig Fongio away from the family, got that Christmas cheer anyway, and it's just a nice little, you look puzzled. Well, you know, so during the Super Bowl weeks,

when you get a chance to talk to these guys, Fangio was with the Niners at the time, and I sat down a lot. He was at a table with no one else. So I tried to sit down and ask him a couple questions in a row. It's my time to do that. I don't think I've ever met a grumpier man in my life. That's what they said on the telecast, too.

That it was the last guy in the NFL you'd ever think would be taken by Hallmark Christmas. Changes my impression. Not a man that's looking for intellectual stimulation with his entertainment outside of the game. But I understand it's a lot going on. Turn it off the brain. Yeah. Yeah. Turn it off the brain.

Just ease to unwind. No, this was a nice back half of the season, obviously, with the Broncos, who were totally lost in space in the first half. I believe they won six of eight to close the season. And it's still disappointing because the Denver Broncos thought they could, with Joe Flacco and all that, Joe Flacco feels like 100 years ago, that they would be a team that would be in contention and perhaps playing next week. That never came close to happening.

But, Wes, if you squint, you could maybe see the Denver Broncos with some pieces, Cortland Sutton among them as being a team that can be turning it around in a quick fashion of some things go their way. I agree, and I don't think they played better in the second half of the season. They just got luckier in close games. Right. This was a game where it's kind of abnormal for the year. The Raiders more than doubled their yardage.

They were competitive in almost every single game they played. And lost. The Raiders who had a lot of good fortune. This seventh win, though, does make them bowl eligible. They're going to face off next week on Saturday in the West Bowl. Broncos Cowboys. Saturday. They're just going to show up.

Both of those teams can look forward to next year. Anything else? Do you guys need to know about this game? Well, no, but I just think that we talk about this four coin toss thing for the Raiders. Like the Raiders have had one of the most disappointing final six weeks of any team in the league. And it starts with that Jacksonville loss at home. And it's sandwiched by a bunch of other totally deflating results that took a six and four squad that was something delightful at one point. And I don't know.

But did it really feel like stunning when the wheels came off? It felt like they were playing over their heads and they were a nice story. This felt more like reality. And even so, 7 and 9 for a team that was a disaster. No one had them went a year ago. Like, I'm back on Gruden, and I think that, you know, Mayock did an excellent job with the draft. So there's reasons to be hopeful. But it's got to be frustrating for the people in Oakland to have watched this team spiral out of control over the last month.

And there was a little moment right after the two-point conversion failed. Gruden didn't even seem that upset. It actually helped the team ultimately. He's smiling. He's smiling. He gave Paul Gunther pretty. his arm around him, and then he gave Derek Carr a really nice handshake, and it seemed like a nice moment between the two of them. I imagine they felt pretty good about how the season went,

that they found some players that they could build around, that they have a bunch of draft picks coming in the first round. And my boy, Hunter Renfro, Greg, 6 for 102. Darren Waller went over 100 yards again. You have, of course, Josh Jacobs, who the injuries kind of cost him the end of his season. Get Jonathan Abram back next year? Jonathan Abram coming back. Waller's going to win that comeback player of the year award, I bet. I bet it's Tannahill. Jimmy G will get more than Waller. You want to talk about narrative-based awards.

I mean, that's kind of what the comeback player of the year is. And this was a guy on Hard Knocks was going to AA meetings. Man, Tana Hill turned the whole Titans franchise around. I mean, the comeback player... Darren goes over 100 today to go over 90-something catches and 1100 yards of the season. Just pure stats-wise, one of the best... receiving tight-end seasons of all time. And we have no idea what comeback player of the year is.

It can be anything we want it to be. Pure stats-wise, Tanna Hill have one of the most efficient quarterback seasons. Why do you hate Darren Waller? I don't. I'm just saying it's way more impressive to turn a franchise around than to accrue stats. You have a good point out of it.

Crew stats. Both of them accrued stats. All right. Can you at least give me that Darren Waller is a triumph of the human spirit guy? I'm going to give you more than that. I wrote an article a month ago saying he's comeback player of the year, but things change and Tana Hill's the guy. You're going to give us a link?

link us. Well, no, that takes us to a jumble of articles, and we have to search through that, so. All right, let's see. Let's move on. Let us. Eddie Pignetto now from 22. He's hit three for three today from the right ash, high snap,

pulled down by O'Donnell. The kick is up, and the kick is good for Eddie Pignetto. Ten seconds to go, and the Bears, back in front, leading 2119. I love how Jeff Janiak hits the Pignero. That's good. Again, that's pros bro. That's a pro bro.

WBBM with the call. You drill that pinheiro. Eddie Pinheiro's fourth field goal of the game came from 22 yards out with 10 seconds to play. It gave the Bears, stop Bears, 2119 win over the Vikings who rested their regulars ahead of the playoffs. Wes, if you would have told Bears fans in August that their team won their final game of the season, with a field goal with seconds to play. They probably would have guessed

they had a parade coming up down the street of Chicago. Chicago. On the street of Chicago. It didn't quite work. Main Street in Chicago. Famous Main Street. Grand Park.

It didn't quite work out that way. No, and I think it's a major upset that Eddie Panero the entire season is the kicker. It is. He hung on. It was like they were afraid to go down that road

of trying to replace the guy mid-season. so they stuck through it because Pinheiro hardly had a great season. No, but there were more questions asked about the quarterback position and whether he was going to be yanked than whether the kicker was going to be in cover. And I feel like this was a fitting end here for Mitchell. Fourth and nine game in the balance, all the Vikings have to do to get a win with Sean Mannion as your quarterback. And Mike Boone against all the bear's starters is Stopped Trubisky on a fourth and nine.

But Trubisky makes a nice throw on a rollout. And now he's going to somehow convince the entire organization because of that throw that's worth bringing back next year. I say this. That was in the Gabbard zone, by the way, you know, against the Vikings' backups. It was not a great performance. I think this every year, but I can't take any team seriously as a Super Bowl contender if they enter the season with Sean Mannion as their number two quarterback. This guy's a third stringer at best, and that's been the case since he entered the league. Yakes.

Every time he plays, I'm thinking, how does this guy sell people on him as a backup? How about Mitch Trubisky is the backup? He should be a back guy in Minnesota. I hope that they handle that correctly. I don't want to hear an offseason of hoopla about, oh, we're working on his footwork, and Mitchell Tripiske's head is screwed back on straight. Leave me alone. It is.

Well, they're not coming after you personally. Well, no, but this is a nice day where you get to, you know, and you get to wave farewell to a couple of teams that desperately need to get out of our world. And this is one of them. Go away. I don't want to hear anything else from the Bears for many, many weeks or months. We can take a break from the bears. Yeah, we could certainly take a break.

And they have a decision to make, obviously. This was a second overall pick. It was his third season. But there's so much ugly baggage attached to it. What else do you say? It's almost like if he's not showing you and you don't want to be reminded forever and have this guy in your building,

just start fresh. I imagine that's what's going to happen, but we'll see how it plays out. It might play out with they bring in an Andy Dalton type and Ryan Fitzpatrick. And there's a quarterback competition. Big bearded man in the streets of Chicago. Let's move on.

Michigan Avenue. Michigan Avenue. Amazing Michigan Avenue. With the great architecture and one of the great cities, the second city. Go ahead, Erica. Do no hurry. Why would they be?

Play clock at four. Shotgun from Inchu. I went on that river tour, the architecture tour. Not on. Fires toward the end zone. That ball is going to be caught for the touchdown. How do you talk over the highlights? T.D.

Shut up. CD for the TV and the Jags score again. Frank Frangy and Tony Bisselli with the call. Like, you need to hear a Jaguars highlight in week 17. WOKV with the call there. Gardner-Mienchu turned in a really solid performance. It threw for 295 and three touchdowns, leading the Jaguars to a 38 to 20 win over the cults. Mean Shue stands to have, you know,

he stands a serious chance to be Jacksonville's opening day starter in 2020. The question is, of course, who will be his coach? Again, New Horizons Monday coming up. But this is, you can't avoid this subplot around Jacksonville right now. Rap sheet reported early Sunday, and this is always a weird thing whenever I see this out there, that today's game, the Week 17, meaningless game against an also-ran Colts team, could play a role in Jacksonville decision.

Jacksonville's decision. Well, they beat up on a Colts team that packed it in a couple weeks ago. So now do you feel better about Doug Maron? I just never understood that. I hope that's not actually what the front office is thinking. The same thing was happening in Cleveland. I agree that it's very awkward to suggest that this game of all games would be the referendum on Doug Marone or anyone else attached to the Jaguars. I thought it was Minchu's best game.

And it showed again why he fit in this sort of mostly broken down offense. much better than Foles, and it's not a knock on Foles, but he can move and he can escape, and he needs to do that in this, in this attack. To me, like the cults, geez, six and four at one point, they have been absolutely,

they are like the Raiders have just been lacerated down the stretch. And I left this game with additional questions about Jacoby Brissette, who walked into a couple sacks, had a terrible fumble in this game that really pivoted the contest in Jacksonville's favor. And, you know, I know they're banged up,

Marlon Mack looks great. I think he's the best player on the field for the Colts today. And here's a perfect example. And we've actually, you've mentioned it, Mark, before. Doug Peterson, you know, Frank Reich, you know, he leaves. And is Doug Peterson a guy I can do it on his own? Well, Doug Peterson, with the true franchise quarterback, was able to see their way through the wilderness.

Whereas the Colts with Jake Briscott, and I know Briscuit had the knee injury, when the injuries hit the Colts and they were a team at the crossroads, they went a different direction. It's very easy to end up going the direction. the Colts are going, which is why I think what Peterson and Winston did together was so special. I, you know, what team has been through more? You lose Andrew Luck in August and you have to turn around and they look to me like one of the

feisty or AFC clubs for a while, but the injuries have taken such a toll and their defense has given up in the last four games, 31, 38, 34, and then today, whatever the point total was today. And they had a nice game against the Panthers sandwiched in there, but that's ugly. 38 points today. 38. So that's, you know, that's not the way you. You want to cap that season.

One of the best performances by the Jaguar's offense all year, take note that Leonard Fournett was not on the field. Right. I'm just saying, do not make him the focal point of your office. No, we move on from Leonard Fernett. He won't be after this. He's under contract, but when he tweeted out, you know, yes, on Saturday that, you know, he hopes a lot of his teammates are back with him next year.

I was thinking, I don't know if Leonard Fournett's back next year. Right. Then again, it was a big win because, you know, you got the sixth win. And that's only the second time and seven years under David Caldwell, you got to six wins. So that's a big milestone. Why not bringing the whole gang back together? Great rookie class and DJ Chark became a star this year.

They do have some bright spots. That's fair, dog. That's fair. Josh Allen gets to the quarterback. They got some things. All right. Let us move on. Oh, you know, right around the time that the Patriots

fell on the Dolphins, this went down. Snap to Winston, dropping straight back, throws intercepted Dion Jones. and the ball game is over. And that's 30 picks for our boy Winston. And James Winston throws his 30th interception on the first play of overtime. And Atlanta wins the game, 28, 22. West Durham with the call.

It was Dave Archer that called James was an our boy. You know, that is patronizing, Dave Archer, WZGC. Dionne Jones intercepts James Winston on the first. First play of OT returns at 27 yards to the house. 2822, Falcons win. There's six victory in eight games to close the season. We learned Saturday that Dan Quinn would keep his job. That's correct, right?

That wasn't like a really sad dream that I had over the weekend. I believe that was actual. That's real. Yes. Thank you. And now Quinn and the Falcons can look to the offseason with some optimism after the one and seven start. Winston, yes, he did it.

He did it, he did it, he did it. The first quarterback ever to go 30-30. You were on that four or five weeks ago, by the way. That became a national story, yes. Not that it did 30 for 30-30, but that I was on it, yes. But Winston becomes the first Tampa Bay quarterback to pass for 5,000 yards in the season, but they don't go anywhere again with Winston as their quarterback. And Bruce Ariens, who nobody had a worst final two weeks than James, maybe Doug Hodges.

but like James Winston entering week 16 there was a report out there that oh yeah the bucks are ready to stay in business with James Winston and then he goes out and absolutely craps the bed in week 16 and 17 he threw his sixth and NFL record seventh pick six they lose both games and it makes the decision with you know Winston up for a new deal really difficult you play the exact same those two weeks as the entire year though if not better I mean with work receivers, that's what he is. That's simply not true. He was doing special things in that little three-week run-up to the last two weeks of the year. But he's throwing two picks a week every week. They lost at the buzzer. This is what they are. If they somehow fooled themselves into that that stretch was any different, they just had a couple of breaks.

Yeah, the last two weeks took a toll on Ariens. Let's hear what Ariens had to say. Yeah, I mean, that's just said. There's so much good. You look at there's so much good and there's so much outright terrible. Outright terrible. Do you know I think it hurt Aaron so much? Because he knows, if they re-up with Winston, he's going to enter next season with that scarlet ratio.

People are going to think of him as the 30-30 quarterback. They already think of him as this brilliant artist whose medium is turnovers. Like he's a fun quarterback to watch and he leaves his fingerprints all over football games, but it's sloppy art. He's not a winner. I mean, this has not been a winning team with him as their starter for four straight years. Super productive in one way, but what, what, what? team is winning game is when your quarterback is turning over it's not just the it's the

fumbles too it's not just even the interceptions I mean he thinks he has leverage we'll see I think he James Winston thinks he's leverage I think they really probably thinks a lot of things that that he would get that not only like that he would command a big salary that he's definitely going to get tagged

because there's no way they could afford to pay him a lot doesn't that depend on who else becomes available who's out there and what yeah that is a big factor but Tampa will have to make the decision before that well we'll have plenty of time. Also, considering his history, he's a person the owner would have to sign off on. Yep. And by the way, I... In the bucks, we know that they do. I misspoke. Winston has been here five years now. And their record in those five seasons, six and ten,

nine and seven, five and eleven, five and eleven, and seven and nine. So, I mean, I get, I mean, well, I would say that you know, who else has been there that long? The general manager who continues to, you know, stick around with the team when they're not growing. That's fair, dog. The Quinn decision, you like seeing some continuity. I think it really meant that they were keeping general manager Thomas Dimitrov. I feel like if they were going to blow it up, they were going to blow the whole thing up. But it is interesting.

To me, like the way you measure teams and players is in 16 game increments. And they went 7 and 9 in the last two years. So it's just, it's an oddity of football to me that because they got to 7 and 9 this way, that's somehow better. But it's not. It's no better. there's no correlation between finishing strong and the next season, period. It almost never happens. In fact, the Falcons are a great example.

So ultimately, a team that entered two years ago with a roster, we all said, was maybe the best roster in the entire NFL, has gone seven to nine two street years. Well, I think we know this about Demetrov after all these years. He can build an offense, but what can he do about his defense? And it Jerry Jones is potentially susceptible to making an emotional decision at coach. I think Arthur Blank, who has been extremely loyal to people in the past, is tied to the bitch-roffies. They want the happy ending.

They should have had a Super Bowl trophy with this regime, and they want a happier ending. No happy endings in the final game for the Rams at the Coliseum. Well, actually, kind of a happy ending, but that's it. The season's over. Let's check in on that game. Really nailed that one. Get the finish out of win.

Ooh, wooie. Looking right, throws the slainting. Middle of the end zone. It's Tyler Higney. With a December he'll never forget Touchdown, L.A. 2317, the Rams are back on the high side. That's our boy.

See, that's how you use our boy. J.B. Long with the call for KSP. Congrats to J.B. and his wife just had their second baby. Oh, damn. Well, he's right back to work. Great procreating, bro. Tyler Higby and Robert Woods caught touchdown passes from Jared Gough in the fourth quarter.

Yeah, Higby was a monster. this final month. And the Rams said goodbye to the Coliseum with a 31-24 win over the Cardinals. No playoffs of the Rams, but their third straight winning season, that's not nothing. Wes, this wasn't how the Rams envisioned it ending, but their offense put mostly good tape out there in the final month. That's something to build on. I think that's how they probably want to look at it,

that our offense finally gelled down the stretch. And I don't know what's going to happen with Todd Gurley next year. That is a huge question. but I do know that they can't allow Tyler Higby to just be a blocker again the rest of his career. He's got to be a big part of the passing game the way he's played. It's not just the numbers. He's looked good doing it. And in the Cardinals side, Kyler Murray didn't do enough for me for a rookie of the year.

He just wasn't special enough compared to other quarterbacks. But, you know, another game where he made a slew of impressive throws, he also made some turnover-worthy plays. overall, I think if you're a Cardinals fan, you're still pretty happy with the way the season ended. He put together a few good games, and he looks like a unique talent. Let's not forget about the Mike Silver report

mentioning that Wade Phillips, future in question, some issues potentially with the front office, some movement there. So, you know, I think there's a very intriguing, interesting offseason coming up for... They had their rise, and they stalled out a little bit,

and now they have to figure out what comes next. All right. Two notes in this game. Larry Fitzgerald says he'll take a little time before making a decision. But he also said this was the one of the most fun years he's played with the Cardinals. I think that has a lot to do with Kyler Murray and Cliff Kingsbury. And Chandler Jones had a couple of passes defense, tackle for loss, quarterback hit, but did not have a sack which allowed Shaq Barrett to lead the league in sacks.

Ooh, looks like he wasn't just kind of a flash on the pan there. Solid, solid player, good athlete. Great job. You happy for him? I am extremely happy for him. Not as happy as if brothers won the defensive players of the year. I want to be with Mark in Miami when they announce the defensive player of the year. Because it's the excitement that's going to be going through his body.

We spend all our time together literally every day, every week. What was that, Mark? Oh, yeah. He wants it. He wants it bad. All right, let's move on. Do you have two points? Second down the goal is not one yard line.

Donald. Play action again, flips it in the end zone. Jameson Cratters, got it. That's a jet touchdown. Off the play action fakes Sam Darnold. A little flip over the middle to Jameson Crowder. He makes the touchdown catch, and the Jets take the lead back, and they have scored the first touchdown of the game.

About 90 seconds gone by in the fourth quarter. Bob was choosing WEPN with the call. Yeah, not exactly a shootout in Orchard Park. Sam Donald to James Crowder. The only touchdown on Sunday. The end result of 13-6 win for the Jets over the bill's backups. The Jets finish the season, like the Falcons, 7-9 after 1-and-7 start.

That was so bad, you may recall, that there were reports that Adam Gase would be fired mid-season. He'll be back, it sounds like. That didn't happen. The Jets actually finished with their... This is bad. Their best record in a season since 2015. So, I guess, progress?

A cake schedule certainly helps. in the second half for the Jets. But, yeah, six and two after one and seven, that is a nice way to close, even if it means their draft pick isn't as good. I don't care as much about that stuff because, you know, the draft's a crapshoot anyway. Anyway, on the Bill's side,

the number one goal was staying healthy. They couldn't achieve that. Starting quarterback, Levi Wallace was ruled out after suffering a pretty nasty-looking ankle injury on an interception, offensive linemen tie. Nishik. Nishi. Nseki?

Maseki. He aggravated an ankle injury in his first action since week 11. So that was like the only thing the bills were trying to do is stay healthy. Of course, they're locked in for a playoff spot at the five seed. They couldn't do it. So hopefully those guys are able to play. I haven't gotten updates on where they're at. Josh Allen played one series.

And there really isn't much more to say about this game. It does feel to me, and this is not the first time this has happened, that the New York press has it in for gays to some degree it feels like there are some sort of weekly stuff coming out that paints them in a bad light and i don't know we talked about the minisian arc on thursday you know this is this is not the worst coaching coaching job the jets have ever experienced i don't didn't take a step forward and that's his job one so that's the biggest concern but yes as dan said we'll have all offseason to talk about the jets all right let us move on to the cleveland brown Dalton is shotgun

on third down and goal from the five the Bengals leading by six points Dalton drops back to throw from the 12 looking around scrambling out to the left being chased Andy trying to sprint get into the five dives for the pylon yes if this is

Andy Dalton's final game in a Cincinnati Bengals uniform he has a touchdown pass and a touchdown run Dave Hoard Dave Lapham that was Dave Lapham getting pumped. I love it. Dan Horde and Dave Lapham. Dan Horde, Dave Lapham.

As we used to say, the lap dog. The lap dog. He got excited there on Dalton's run. Yes, Andy Dalton did throw for a touchdown, ran for a score in what was likely his farewell as Cincinnati's franchise quarterback. It was a 33-23-23 win for the Bengals over the Browns. That's a 2-14 finish for the Bengals who will get the number one overall pick. And most likely that Joe Burrow guy seems pretty good. Anyway, the Cleveland Browns made headlines after the game when they fired Freddie Kitchens after one season on the sideline. Six and ten, the Browns were.

Let's start there. Mark, you know, it was last March, I believe it was, that we were at the owner's meetings and we had that sit down with Freddie Kitchens. And he was delightful. He was a guy's guy. He was a dude that, you know, he just seemed like a guy you could go get a steak with and have some drinks. And he'd be fun. And hopefully that would be something. translated as a head coach, that good old boy type vibe, but it certainly did not.

It wasn't a bad move by the Browns ultimately, wasn't. I think they had to do this. I feel like he lost this locker room a couple weeks ago, if not previous to that. And I couldn't agree with you more that one of the things that's so disappointing as a longtime Browns fan is that I kind of felt like the drive to get Freddie Kitchens and the way he sort of has carried himself that he might have been in a way from another angle the perfect guy to could have been a folk here right exactly and it went in completely the opposite direction i think it's a it's a case study and when you know if you look at his resume he really didn't have a lot

in his past suggesting that he was going to be a successful head coach it was you know the peter principal hired above his skill set for where he's at right now and then on top of it trying to be one of these guys that calls plays while trying to manage an NFL game at the same time and kind of always had an aura of being in over his head from the very first game until today when you there's no excuse with the talent on this roster to lose to the Bengals or to lose half the games they lost and you know if you look at the Rob Chudinsky is just a few coaches ago a one year one and done guy and the Browns under the Haslums have had so many coaches at this point and tried so many different types of coaches, but they've never really had the veteran guy that has come with a track record from

somewhere else. And I would imagine that that's what they're attracted to right now. We'll see. It could be, we'll get into that down the road. But, you know, they want the opposite of what they've just experienced in Freddie Kitchens, which is a young, in over his head guy trying to figure it out. Good guy? Yes, but the right guy to be head coach of this soup of players, no. It seemed like they settled on Kitchens last January against their better job. judgment because they just decided what he did with Baker Mayfield and setting a new rookie record for touchdowns and playing really well down the stretch, we just don't want to disrupt that.

Yeah, that was emotional, terrible leadership. And he was so genuine as to seem almost guileless. And then when you see reports Sunday night that he thought he had the backing of the Brown's front office, that is guileless to not even know that as undisciplined as your team was all year the lack of priorities every week that it wasn't about winning and losing it was about so many other things that you were so guileless to not know that you were going to be out on the street after this well he had someone who hired him and john dorsey that maybe he believed had his back he had an owner who took over in what 2012 was the first season yep and they're going to be hiring

their seventh head coach yep so this isn't on freddy kitchens freddy kitchens helped their offense improved last year as a position coach. Like this is the organization, this is ownership, just having another huge swing and a miss. There's nothing else other than that's their L. And I think any candidate has to look at this ownership group and have questions about this job versus no matter of the talent, because talent can go in two seasons. Also still a job that would be appetizing, I think, to a coach because of the talent level on the roster, which remains significant.

It is, but I mean, no one, they've had two coaches last for more than two seasons. Yeah, but Brown's coach is ugly as well. Yeah, that is, you know, that seems cursed at this point. I think one thing also to remember, it seems so long ago now after another NFL season that in our league. But how great Baker was, especially closing last season. So it might seem crazy now that they said, oh, we want to keep this guy in the building. But Baker was like ruling the world a little bit by the end of last season. And it was like, hey, he likes this guy.

I get it. He's our future. But that's why like, but no, maybe it was emotional. That's from our advantage point. I know, but it's also when you're as unsuccessful, profoundly unsuccessful as the Browns have been, when Baker does what he did to close out that season, I get how it happened. I totally do too, and I, you know, maybe I was the guileless one, but I thought that it was going to work, and I had a good feeling about him as a person in general,

and, you know, 95% of these things in Cleveland go totally ragingly south. So, chapter new, just another chapter of the same thing. It was sort of the easy decision to make. It was the one where you couldn't be faulted at the time for it because if Baker had struggled like you did this year under a different coach, they would have blamed that on ownership too. The end point is that Baker ended up with 22 touchdowns and 21 picks this year and took a pretty big step back.

And is onto his fourth head coach. The offense was significantly worse. Fourth? Well, I mean, I'm counting Greg Williams as a head coach during his time. Well, it's the culture. You've been there for two NFL seasons. back. It's funny because there's a Browns reporter, well, there's a Browns reporter out there that

asked around like various people who would they want and someone seriously mentioned Greg Williams, not that they're going to do it, but because that's how different of a sea change they want in their leader versus what Freddie Kitchens was doing this season, which we don't know 85% of what was going on behind the scenes. And that's just a quick peek at New Horizons Monday, which you'll catch in full. More like nuclear morning. Late, uh, it will go up. late Monday and we'll have a full update on all the

comings and goings on what is a somber day in the league year. Congrats Andy Dalton putting up 33 points. Good for him. And I hope he lands in a good spot too. And our boy, Freddie Kitchens. I hope he lands. He won't land as a head coach anywhere, but hopefully

he gets a paycheck somewhere else. He's getting paid for, he's double-dip him. Oh, yeah. The Haslums are going to be paying him millions and millions of dollars for the next three years. They're paying like 485. coaches right now. What did Chuck Pagano say?

They can't kill you. They can fire you, but they can't eat you. They can't eat. Freddie Kitchens will be all right. He might be happier doing something else. Yep. All right, boys. What did we learn today?

We learned so much. And just remember, again, we got the playoffs coming up. That's fun. Mark, 20 teams history. Bye, bye. Bye-bye. You know what?

A harsh farewell to them all. See you in late July. And now we got 12 dogs ready to rumble. Okay. and we, we, Greg, we achieve something here. We covered every game in the regular season. Oh. We did it all.

We covered every single game. I don't know if we ever did that before. Some games fell through the cracks in past seasons, whether it's a Saturday or a holiday. We got every single game. That's an achievement by the... I thought you were going to say that we got on NFL network finally. Friday, the Around the NFL show...

Hubba, hubba. When are we? Three Pacific. six Eastern or 3.30? It's in that hour. Set your DVR. Doesn't matter. Set your DVR. We are on three straight Fridays. It's going to be replayed up the wazoo.

Set your DVRs. We implore you to watch it. It will keep us. Glorious. If you like this podcast, keep us on the air and keep us employed by watching our around the NFL show on NFL network. We never had our own show before. So we're very excited about that. And yes, New Horizons Monday, spectacular podcast. On Monday.

The source is confirming it is 3 o'clock Pacific. Very good. Six Eastern, some people like to call it. Excellent. So make sure, again, set your DVR's New Horizons Monday podcast lands tomorrow. Check it out. And thank you to everybody for listening and following along all season. We're heading toward the home stretch now.

January football is coming your way. Dan Hans is signing off for the Quiet Storm, the Mailman, the old boss, Rick Hollywood, and the entire gang behind the glass. Till Monday. Hey everybody, Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move to Six, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters.

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