NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 2020 Week 14 Recap; Sunday Blues

Episode Date: December 14, 2020

A virtual room filled with heroes - Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler, Gregg Rosenthal and Chris Wesseling break down every game from week 14 starting with Jalen Hurts big start (2:35) and Aaron Rodgers cementing his MVP run (8:23). The heroes discuss Tom Brady and team rolling over the Vikings (13:45) and the Giants falling flat against the Cardinals (20:18). Jonathan Taylor finally had the breakout game we were looking for (40:47) and Mitch Trubisky had himself a day (59:37). Nick Shook joins the show to discuss the Broncos (1:10:35) and Cowboys wins (1:16:09). Stay until the end of the show where the heroes break down the Steelers loss to the Buffalo Bills during Sunday Night Football (1:21:09).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.

It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sunday. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Around the NFL podcast. The only podcast where the most talented person only does the intro. Welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansis. I come to you from a virtual room filled with heroes. Mark Sessler, Greg Rosenthal. And yes, Chris Wessling, what is up, boys? Hey, Dan. What's the laughter? Why are the smiles?

We will have none of that in week 14. No smiles. It's all business. We're strictly football, and we have no senses of humor. I'm laughing at Matt Money Smith's very factual suggestion that the only, the person with the most talent is the person doing that little sound bite. I wonder if you added the four of our talents together, would we be, well, we wouldn't have as many jobs as Matt Money Smith if you had the four of us together. Well, you are the number one Matt Money Smith fan in Los Angeles now because you are a daily listener to his drive time show

as well. But I'd like to think that being attached to our show has lifted his brand. I'd say seven to tenfold. We would like to think that. I'm not sure that's true, but we would like to think that. Well, I do. Welcome to everyone. Welcome everyone to the, yes, week 14 recap episode. We are going to go through every game that was played on Sunday, and listen, they can't all be beautiful. They can't all be gorgeous. In fact, if I had to come up with one sound effect that would neatly sum up the Sunday slate today, it would be this. Am I wrong?

No, they weren't competitive. They look great on paper, but it didn't. It doesn't usually work out. that way, you know, we'll see. We're taping this and we'll see if the prime time game save us. Those were the best matchups on paper going in. That's true. I was driving around with Luke and that exact sound effect played randomly in a commercial on the radio. And he was like, what does that sound effect mean? I now have a new, more clear explanation to offer. It means week 14 Sunday. All right. Let's get into it. We'll start obviously now. Every team after

this week is going to have three games to play, which means. the playoffs are really starting to come into focus. We'll start today's show by digging through the NFC and what happened because there was a lot of change right to the very top.

There's Hertz. He's back. He is floating to football. It is caught. Touchdown. Touchdown. He gets it over to Alshon Jeffrey. Mike Reese, WIP with the call.

Yes, Jalen Hertz, NFL, starting debut was supposed to be a bloodbath. Instead, Hertz ran for 100 yards, through a touchdown pass, which you just heard, and helped lead the Eagles to a stunning 24 to 21 win over the Saints. Greg, we'll get to what this means for the Saints in a moment, and it's not good. But what did you see from Hertz in the Eagles offensive? I saw a guy whose legs and decisiveness gave them a little life. I mean, the Eagles are barely alive in the NFC East.

We'll get to that for one more week, but the fact that after 55 games of the Saints not allowing a hundred-yard rusher, Jalen Hertz goes over 100. And oh, by the way, Miles Sanders goes over 100. And I think the Eagles rushing game got a little boost from Jalen Hertz because of the read option and also just having to account for him. So many times in this game on third and four, third and five, Hertz just picked it up with his legs. He made good decisions, throwing the ball most of the day. And in the first half, when, you know, you're watching these two teams and you're thinking, wow, these two quarterbacks have pretty similar styles, it was a knockout. The Eagles' offense was moving the ball up and down the field.

The Eagles' offensive line kind of dominated this game. That was shocking. And the Eagles defensive line played great, too. It was a pretty thorough beating, despite it only being a three-point final score. When's the last time a quarterback and a running back in Philadelphia, both ran for 100 yards. I was watching this one pretty closely, Greg, and I just felt like, I kind of even for the few snaps

that we saw J.O. and Hertz and some of these other games, that there was just a little bit of a different energy, and that's maybe one of the unexplainable things in football and sports, but, you know, some of us wanted this change to happen earlier. I get why it was complex and why it didn't, but the Eagles are not dead, and it is not impossible to look ahead at this Washington-Filly game in Week 17

and wonder if it could still just like these TV people like to do put a little NFC East matchup flex it into that week 17 night game it could be very important Philly obviously still on the ropes at 4, 8 and 1 Washington and we're going to get to them

obviously a little bit later up to 6 and 7 so Philly has to do something really special I guess I didn't see enough from Jalen Hertz to think that this is about to be some type of Cinderella run but this was obviously something they needed because had gotten so stale with Carson wins. And on the Saints side of things, this is a tough loss.

This is a bad loss. This is a loss that drops them to 10 and 3. It ends that long winning streak. And with a Packers win, they're now tied record-wise, but the Packers have the tiebreaker on the Saints. So right now, the Saints have lost the number one seed West in the NFC. And Tassum Hill, I talked about this in our Thursday show. I thought this was a big start for him in terms of planting that seed.

in Sean Payton's mind, because we knew Drew Brieze is going to come back, but we didn't know how he's going to play, and we still don't know. But this is not probably the performance that Taysam Hill wants to leave with his head coach going down the stretch. Right. Not a disastrous start by any means, but some little things. Taking sacks in the wrong places, overthrowing or throwing behind receivers on third downs, key plays that he couldn't come up with that ended up being factors in the outcome

of the game. And like you said, if we were going to put that little birdie in Sean Peyton's mind, it's not going to happen after that one. Well, and he's probably going to start next week against the Chiefs. So everyone in the NFC is looking at this. It's not just it's not just Green Bay, who's, you know, the Packers are very excited, but the Seahawks and the Rams got to be looking at list that they're not out of it either. They're only one back, especially thinking that the Saints are going to now have an uphill battle, certainly not insurmountable to beat the Chiefs next week. Drew Breeze

sounds like he's iffy and Hill, you know, they didn't score in the first half for the longest time and they had five first downs in six drives and you know when he gets a fourth down key spot late in the game

against an Eagles defense that lost Darius Slay Rodney McLeod and Avanty Maddox. Basically their best three players in the secondary he holds the ball too long which has been a for him. He fumbled, which has been an even bigger problem for him. And that kind of, to me, was the key sequence because the Saints defense, after playing a rough first half stood up, gave the offense a chance to come back. Didn't quite happen. I don't think Hill's been a disaster

by any means. But I don't think he's shown nearly enough. There's certainly no controversy this year. They need Drew Breeze back. And I'm sure they'd love to get him back in the regular season to get some snaps before whatever type of postseason run they have. That was Tasem Hill's 10th fumble of the season. And it was a huge one. They were down three points in the opponent's territory with a chance to tie or take the lead. And once Hill loses that fumble, it was the fourth fumble he's lost this year. The defense then lets down, gives up the touchdown. And that was more or less it.

There was a late touchdown for cosmetic purposes and then a near recovery on an onside kick. But the right team won this game. And the Saints, obviously, if they end up playing on the first week of the postseason, they will look at this game and kick themselves. speaking of the Green Bay Packers. Rogers takes the snap and shotgun, looks around, scrambles to his left. He could take it himself to the end zone on the run. Touchdown!

No, Wayne Larravey, WTMJ with the call. I love gold. Aaron Rogers ran for a score and threw three more touchdown passes to lead the Packers to a 31-24 win over the stubborn Detroit Lions. At Ford Field, the win combined with the Saints, lost to the Eagles, moves the Packers, as I said, into the number one seat in the NFC. It also clinches the division for the Packers. So another big time year for the bearded boy on the sidelines.

And Aaron Rogers, who just may have, I don't want to say, sewn it up because there's still three weeks to play. But on the day when Patrick McGa Holmes's statistical line takes a dip with the three interceptions today, Rogers has another just awesome performance. He started the game with 10 straight completions. He hooked up with Devanti Adams for a touchdown for the eighth straight game and was just in total control. He's playing the game at such a level of mastery right now that you can't help but admire it.

So the Packers get another win and they are stacking wins and they are in position now to have that buy if they can just keep winning until the regular season runs out. I love the Packers getting some production. out of Rashon Gary. That's been something that's happened now each and every week. Like you'd like to see them blow out a Lions team. Chase Daniel ends up coming in for Matthew Stafford

and had a touchdown nullified on a pretty courageous attempt. That would have been his first rushing touchdown of his whole career. And it was right after he threw an absolute dime on under pressure on third and long. I was like, what is happening here? Is Chase Daniel going to make this interesting? Didn't happen. But I like that the Packers are getting more. production out of Roshan Gary, because they need their pass rush. To me, that's kind of their

X factor. And, you know, today against the Lions isn't the best test, but they got it done. I mean, Stafford looked like he really banged up those ribs pretty bad in lot. Devonte Adams, we talked to them a little bit on the preview show. I don't know what else to say about them. Today, eight straight games with a touchdown broke the franchise record held by Don Hudson, who is not played football in quite a while. So that record has been out there. I don't know what you guys said on the pregame show but I'm sorry for DeAndre Hopkins because Devante Adams and Tyreek Hill

are the all-pro receivers this year in my opinion Devonte Adams is like George Kittle last year he takes the fight to you every game he beat you in every way he beat you at the catch point after the catch he's reliable he gets in the end zone I just love the way he's playing with so much confidence. And I really believe that this, Aaron Rogers has had some great all-time great

seasons. This might be his best one. He's been practically perfect this year. He has been practically perfect. 2011 was like, I put that with any, like ahead of any Peyton Manning or Brady season, which they got to be it. Until the New York Giants found him in January. Right, but I'm, I'm just counting the regular season. But it is been awesome. He would have my MVP vote. He had it coming into this game. I don't think it's anywhere close to over because three weeks is a in eternity, and Mahomes has been incredible, but he's got the edge right now. He's got the box game, and he has been just about perfect with his throws. Wes, you nailed it, I believe it was Wes last week when you said

that the Packers have surrounded him with just enough talent. If it was, if maybe Robert Tonnian wasn't there, or MVS didn't make, made a couple less plays, or Devante Adams got banged up a little bit more. Alan Azard. Alan Lazard there. You got Aaron Jones healthy now. It's not a, it's not like a bounty of gifts like Patrick Mahomes has, which I think you have to factor in when you're talking to the MVP conversation as well.

But it's enough. And then he maxes out all those guys. Robert Tonian has nine touchdowns this year. The most sense. Much better line though, like a great line, like a top three or four line with two. Which makes a big difference. Very fair. He has nine, nine touchdowns, the most by a Packers tight end since 2001.

Who was it? Baba Franks. Correct. How about that right off the top? Good job by you, Greggy. Yes, and Matthew Stafford, he hurts his ribs. A tough thing for Detroit because they were fighting hard in this game. They fell behind early, pulled even to 14-14, but then the Packers just almost used their power of will

to just kind of take themselves to the finish line and then get the W. So a big, big win for the Packers who were 10 and 3. They went 13 and 3 last year. So the bearded boy, Matt LaFleur, even I can do this math. They are 23 and 6. Wow. And two seasons, the regular season so far. That's pretty damn good.

Week 16, Packers Titans is one of the bigger games left on this little slate of games we have. I'd also say, like, for the doubting of them, I doubted them last year. I just didn't see them as their record. I don't have those feelings this year because I think the NFC is weak and they could beat anyone in that conference. All right, so we talked about the top of the NFC playoff picture. Let's see who's fighting for the sixth and seventh seeds down below, starting with a trip to Tampa. How about a gun? Brady takes the snap pass, protection, looks up field.

Those a deep ball down field. Oh, Scotty Miller, Miller, Kerry makes the catch, touch to Tampa Bay. Run, Scotty, run, fire the cannons. Dean Decker off, WFUS, with the call. Scotty Miller, remember him? You have a nice little season and they go get Antonio Brown and you forget all about him.

Well, maybe it's time to get Scotty back involved. The slot man helped Tom Brady break out of his deep ball slump and a nightmare performance by Viking singer Dan Bailey helped the Bucks get their season back on track a 26 to 14 win. A nice game from the defense here, boys.

Tampa Bay, I know, Greg, you've been talking to Bolzac's all year, but I thought in addition to the offensive struggles, the defense had been in a little bit of a funk, not here. They sacked Kirk Cousin six times. The last one produced a fumble that basically ended this game

in terms of a competition. And after a rough start in the first quarter for the defense against the run, I mean, this is a great run defense, as we know. And the Vikings put up 71 yards in the first quarter alone, and you're thinking, uh-oh, and Brady's air mailing passes the gronk and Chris Godwin, and you're thinking they've seen. sleptwalk through the by, and they came out of it still looking like a mess.

But then they kind of got it together. The Miller touchdown was big. They got things calmed down with Dalvin Cook, who still crossed 100 yards, but it seemed like it was going to be a much bigger day. And then, like I said, I mean, this was, we see it. We saw it in week one with Stephen Koskowski. Hell, it happened with the Jets with Sergio Castilla today. Sometimes these kickers, you could tell the moment just crushes them, and they couldn't

kick a 20-yarder if they had to. and that's what happened to Dan Bailey in a big spot. He misses all four of his kicks, an extra point, and then three field goals. Two of them, very makeable, the third one, a long kick. But essentially cost them, you know, 10 points and took them out of the game. I know Zimmer likes Bailey, and Bailey has been having a pretty good season. What's not to like? Before the last two weeks, he's been pretty good for them.

But I don't know how you move forward with him when you're trying to get a playoff spot, and your kicker just basically cost you a game. He's had such a weird career. At one point, he was the guy that Justin Tucker had to take his throne. Right. And then he went through a bad spot where Dallas released him because he seemed to lose some leg strength. Comes to Minnesota, struggles right off the bat.

And then hits like a nice sweet spot in Minnesota where he starts nailing all his kicks again. He's had four different seasons where he's only missed two field goals. Justin Tucker can't say that. You got all those Bailey stats off the top of your head? I mean, what's going on here? Hey, Dan's not the only one who knows kickers. Oh, he knows it.

Well, I have to ask, like, Dan, what happens with the, you know, this kicker club is a complex environment? It sounds like some kickers aren't necessarily just allowed in because they're a kicker. Dan Bailey, I would imagine, it's posted up to the bar in the past and, you know, whistle Dixie about his skills. But after a day like today, is the club nice to them? Or do they, you know, like it's kind of like your friend. if you're kind of a materialist and your friend falls on tough times, you kind of look past them to the other cooler friends. What happens with someone like Bailey in this situation?

So in the case of Bailey, as a veteran that's been around for a long time, he has admission to the club. When things are going really well, he's going to be in the champagne room, he's going to have bottle service, everything's going to be cool. After last week, when he struggled some, he got kicked out of bottle service and was just belly up at the bar. And after today, we had to ask him to leave. Not for good, but, you know, we can't be having that.

You can't miss all four of your kicks when your team's fighting for a playoff spot. And, you know, the Vikings are a team that I was high on as a team that was going to make a run to the playoffs. They definitely started to get me nervous the last couple of weeks, even though they were still winning. And now, you know, after today's game, things, it's going to be stacked up against them. They got to win out most likely. And I don't know, based on what we've seen in the last three weeks, to have a lot of confidence about that. But, man, Vikings' fandom is tough. It's one of the toughest fan bases to have to deal with your team because bad things happened.

But the curse of the Vikings kicker, it is absolutely real. You just go through the years. It feels like every three to five years, there's a calamity that costs them a season or a Super Bowl trip. And it's happening again. This was a game. No one's going to forget this one in Minnesota. I mean, they had 40 minutes time of possession, which is in an overrated stat. It's like guys like Mike Zimmer love it, except you're just short in the game for you to lose.

They had eight possessions in this game. Like that's half as many as the 49ers had, for instance, in their game. They move the ball pretty well. But ultimately, Kirk Cousins gets sacks six times. The Vikings don't have any sacks. JPP's had a nice season. He's had a nice career. I mean, I've always loved watching him play.

He is all effort all the time. You can't run a screen against him. And this season especially, it feels like he comes up with one monster play. every week and he had it with the force fumble late. He almost just grabbed that out of Kirk Cousin's hand. Almost. He nearly did. And Wes, go ahead, Wes.

Mark, Dan Bailey is like Whiskey Pete. Okay. He's, you know, he's over in the corner. There once was a day where after the game, he's the guy everybody wants to be around. He's holding court. He's got all the jokes flying. Everybody's having a grand time.

Drinks are flying. Whiskey piece. It's the place to be. And then, you know, flash forward 10 years down the line, Whiskey Pete's just telling about the good old days. Never shuts up and all he's doing is drinking whiskey all day and drinking whiskey all night. Nobody wants to be around him.

Yeah, drinking outside my club is what he's doing. Also, Wes, he was born January 26, 1988. You were coming at me a little bit on the kicker knowledge, so I had to drop his birthday for you. Just to reassert myself. You googled his birthday. We're supposed to give you credit for that? My producer sent me a private...

Does you have any nicknames on pro football reference that you while you're on that page during those graphics? Whiskey Pete. Whiskey Pete, it is. All right, let's move on and check in on another team fighting for a wildcard spot. Snap to Murray, backing up in trouble, throws it back of the end zone. Arnold jumps up into the air and catches it for a touchdown. There are four giants in the area.

It looked like Murray might be just throwing that ball away. When pigs fly, baby. What does that mean? Ron Wolfie is like reached a point as a broadcaster where he doesn't need to make sense and we all just like, oh, that sounded cool and fun. When Pigs fly, baby. Yeah, that was Wolfie with Dave Pash of KTAR, Kyler Murray connected on that, floated that scoring past the Dan Arnold.

And Hassan Reddick, my goodness, had a franchise record, five sacks and three-force fumble. as the Cardinals moved back into the NFC playoff spot with a 26-7 win over the Giants. Mark Daniel Jones returned to the lineup for the G-Men, but he did not look like he was ready for Reddick or the Cardinals. Yeah, I'm not sure he, did he dress for work today? It's unclear to me. He couldn't have been worse in this spot.

It was a real, I thought, deflating event for the Giants, who were one of the stories of the week, sacked eight times, as you mentioned, five by Hassan Reddick, who I think, you know, hearing him after the game, he was stunned that that happened. It was a franchise record. But it was Marcus Golden that got it going early.

Daniel Jones up to his old tricks, had a strip sack, Marcus Golden, returned at 30 yards. Now that was where I wondered if New York was going to hang tough in this game because they had it deep in Giants territory. They held Kyler Murray in the offense to a goal-line stand, but then the turnovers kept coming.

Dionne Lewis for the Giants, lost a kick-return fumble, a weird play where the ball was sort of inadvertently kicked out by a defender, which is unreviewable. But that led to the Dan Arnold touchdown from the replay right there. And then Daniel Jones had a second loss fumble. And it allowed, I thought, the Cardinals enough time to kind of get warmer on offense. Early on, it looked like Kyler Murray had been confused as a la Russell Wilson to some degree by some of these giants disguised blitzes and tactics.

But the offense, you know, for the New York, just a total disaster. One of the worst fourth quarter offenses in the league. They went in in tough territories to begin with. Daniel Jones had 15 net yards passing at half. It looked like it. And to the point where Joe Judge basically told the Fox crew, yeah, we're looking to potentially just put Colt McCoy in this game. And Daniel Jones got a little banged up and Colt McCoy did finish.

But Colt McCoy had been warming up during parts of the second half. So, you know, I don't think it. it's going to lead to a quarterback switch because McCoy came in and was no more serviceable necessarily. But it reminds you that these NFC East teams, the records reflect a lack of completion roster-wise. And this Giants offense, which I thought, you know, the ground game got going in recent weeks. You could kind of trust that. And Wayne Galman looked like a much better version of previous years, Wayne Galman's. Not today.

DeAndre Hopkins did enough for the Cardinals. Dan Arnold, who shows up every week for that team with big plays, helped Kyler Murray, who ran the ball 10 times today. And so he got going, and that was a part of their offense. I wouldn't say it was as killers. It's been in the past, but they didn't shy away from it. So they're hanging on by Deer Life in that NFC. But the NFC is not like the AFC.

I could see a 7 and 9 or 8-and-8-type team grabbing that last wildcard spot if these inconsistent operations don't get on a hot streak. Well, they got the Eagles. 49ers and Rams. You win those first two. You're in. There was some criticism that Daniel Jones hamstring wasn't ready. And that's why you see Hassan Reddick get five sacks. You see eight sacks because he shouldn't have been playing. Well, it's also a terrible offensive line. I mean, I think it's all mixed in there. Did he look spry and healthy? Not necessarily because his mobility is a big part of his game. You didn't see that today. But the offensive line also,

I thought, gave him very little room to operate. I mean, they were, this is not a car. Cardinals team that does that every week. So it's, it tells you that New York's line is a big old hot mess. I mean, Giants got flexed into prime time next week against the Browns and the fact that Jones was not healthy in this game. And Joe Judge said he didn't have regrets playing Daniel Jones in this game. But it's something they're going to have to monitor their season is, you know, on the brink at five and eight here. And they, they're going to need, they're going to need a couple wins here, including potentially the one against Cleveland. So is Colt McCoy potentially the answer behind center?

Ooh. Colt McCoy against the Browns in primetime Sunday night, week 15? You got to be kidding me. Who would have thunk it? Who would have thunk it? Give the Cardinals some credit. I know Jones isn't healthy, but to go 390 yards to 159 to have a total full-scale beatdown, we haven't really seen this out of this Cardinals team against anyone.

that's as surprising a result as I think we had today the way that they were playing to just totally dismantle the Giants. They get some credit and they're the favorites now. All I'd say is when you watch this, tell me if you think it looked like a beat down from first quarter through fourth. In terms of the Cardinals' offense, I just don't totally, yardage aside,

I just struggle to buy them going forward. But it was a better showing than it's been of late. It was a must win for the Cardinals. They got it. The Giants fall out of first place in the NFC East. Let's talk about the team that sits there all alone. Pocket collapsed on him. He threw a pick right down the sideline to Cameron Curl.

He gets a block from James Smith. Williams. He's still going. 30, 25, 20, 15, 10, 5. Touchdown. Touchdown, Washington. Second defensive score of the game for Washington. Woo-wee.

Carmen Curl, jumped the route, gathered the Nick Mullen's pass, took it to the house. Washington's second defensive score in the game and a 2315 win over the 49ers. Yes, Washington now sole possession of first place in NFC East with three games to play. Mark Chase Young was also a monster in this game. He had the other defensive score. This football team defense wins games. Chase Young, I thought, produced one of the best rookie outings I've ever seen. seen by a rookie defender.

I mean, you could kind of feel this coming at some point for him. He just took over the game. And I think it started early on a play, which was real. It showed how kind of mentally tuned in he is too. With Nick Mullins kind of hanging around in the pocket, Chase Young watched Justin's school come at him and basically said, I'm not going to rush the passer. And then bang, eyes off of Chase Young, he's left alone. He darts at Mullins and dropped him to the turf.

And it was, you know, they brought it up and showed it on replay a couple of times because it was a really interesting approach. He then blew up Jeff Wilson on a forced fumble that gave washing the ball at San Francisco's 25. At one point, like Nick Mullins had a weird shuffle pass. Chase Young, like, bent his body to tip it down to the ground. And then the touchdown came, the fumble recovery touchdown for 47 yards. And he did not look like a defensive lineman to me running down that sideline. He looked more like a big old running back, with wheels. I mean, he's just a next level athlete. He took them completely out of this game.

But because it's the Niners that kind of fought back. And at one point, Alex Smith suffered a calf injury right before half. So Dwayne Haskins came in. Did Dwayne Haskins things. I thought he looked okay on an opening about 70-something yard drive where they went for a field goal. That helped them out. But then the offense kind of fell apart. They're just not the same offense without Antonio Gibson. They aren't. And they weren't as able to be as creative today. The Niners gutted this out. I mean, I look at this Niners team, and we forked them and they're gone. But this is a team playing in Arizona Stadium with the Cardinals' logo and name in the end zone. I just think it's been as much of bad luck a team could face in one campaign the Niners have.

Washington's defense is super legit, and I would give them a chance to win this division if they can get anything out of their offense and if Alex Smith is healthy. We're talking about Jimmy Garoppolo and whether Kyle Shanhan wants to move forward with him. I think they've got to redo that quarterback room. Nick Mullins is just, I think he's... But it's one thing to, like, lose everything that they've lost. And then you come into the game and you lose Debo and you lose Debo right away and then you lose Moester and you're playing this Washington team. Ultimately, like, their offense was no different than Washington's offense.

Washington had the ball 14 times and scored nine points. They had 95 yards and 35 dropback. So it's like he's not a... I think he's a good backup, actually. I think he's played fine. I really do. Ballins has started like 16 games and never thrown for less than 250 yards in any one of them, it's the turnovers.

Right. Who cares about yards? It's like, he seems to be addicted to atomic mistakes. That's all. I think he's productive, but he doesn't protect the ball. But it's the same thing as last week with Debo out. They never really got into their flow. Mostert came back. But, you know, it's one thing after another with this team. Like, you got four or five guys getting injured every game this Washington team they're they're in first but how depending how you know serious it's Alex Smith injury and even with Alex Smith I mean his numbers were even worse than Haskins Smith dropped back 20 times had 57 yards and got sacked and threw a pick so they made life tough on him I think they're going to find a way to get into the playoffs if you know if I if you

had to pick one but they are limited this is the game I'm least looking forward to on game past 29 drives in this game. Well, no, like this was my anti, I wanted it going in, but there was 10 minutes left in the second half while every other game was in halftime. I thought to myself, what has gone on here? You can sell that one with Chase Young because I watched quite a bit of this game

and that was as close as you see to Lawrence Taylor. Exactly. He was beautiful. In a week without, in a year without many great defensive rookies And even, you know, Chase Young was, you know, not productive for a long stretch. I think he went two months without a quarterback hit or a sack. This type of game might be enough if he finishes strong to go get that rookie. I think he's healthy now. This hip injury.

I mean, he looked healthy. Breaking news here, this from the New York Times, following years of protests from fans and Native American groups, the Cleveland Indians have decided to change their team name, moving away from a moniker that has long been criticized as racist. Three people familiar with the decision and said Sunday, why do I bring it up? Because the move follows a decision by the Washington football team in the NFL in July to stop using a name long considered a racial slur.

And obviously, this has all been part of a larger national conversation. A lot of things have changed in 2020. The Indians now join the Redskins in the dustbin of history. How about that? All it took was Washington being threatened with losing $500 million worth of endorsements, and they're now having like an ownership battle behind the scenes that is in the courts. And now they're in first place. I think I think they're keeping that name.

They're going to be the football team forever. All right. Let's move on. Let's now move over to the AFC starting with, yes, the number one seed over in that conference. Left-footed punter taken by Hardman. First time he's going to return today. And he's got an edge at the 40, 45. Hardman in midfield, 45, 40.

Two blocks, 30. 25, jet fuel, 15, 10, 5, get your boarding pass. The jet is taking into the end zone. Touchdown! Kansas City, punt return for a touchdown, the first in the career of McColl Hardman to go with his kickoff returns for touchdowns. Mitch Holtus with a call, WDAF. I mean, how crazy is it that the Chief's offense?

They have a guy that they call the Jet, and it's not even Tyree Killer. That doesn't seem fair. Nicole Hardman, 67. yard punt return, the final touchdown and a run of 30 straight points for the Chiefs who clinched another AFC West title in a 33 to 27 win over the Dolphins

in the same building where they claimed Super Bowl 54 this February. Greg, the Chiefs started and finished slowly in this game, but that surge in the middle was just too much. Yeah, it reminded me so much of the playoffs last year where they spot

an opponent 10 points, but you felt like it could have been more. Miami he missed a kick, and Devante Parker dropped a potential touchdown. You know, you add those up, maybe it was 17-0-0. You somehow forced Patrick Mahomes into three turnovers. One of them, he just dropped a fumble, but, you know, he throws three interceptions, and you still lose. Like, you do all these things right.

You have them scrambled. They thought they were going to come with the blitz. They didn't really early in the game. They're doing a good job. And yet you lose going away because it's Kansas City. And I know, like, Mahomes maybe lost a little in the MVP race, but he still made, I would say, four plays in this game that, I mean, you just, like, marvel at that were just unreal throw.

I mean, I know he didn't, he had the turnovers, but he also put up 390 yards and just had some unreal plays. Right. And this game is most likely 37 to 10 if Hardman doesn't fumble when they're going in for a score after that safety. And then things changed and give credit to Tua. and the Dolphins who showed a lot of fight here, and they're a team that is easy to respect.

But the 33, 27, it sometimes makes me think that the Chiefs have reached that level and they're 12 and 1, obviously, this year, and they, when they go 12 and 4, 13 and 3 last year, won the Super Bowl, won their last eight games, that they can get bored. And then when they get a little bit of scare put into them, like a 10-0 score in this game,

They wake up. They just kick ass for about an hour and a half real time. And then once they get into that zone, like Greg, you had mentioned on Thursday, it's time for the Chiefs to blow out a team. I think it's because some of their focus wanes a little bit sometimes. This is just a wild theory. But it kind of checks out when you watch a game like this. I agree because if you think of the two moments where they went into the game,

I mean, look, they're trying hard. They're professionals. Of course, they're intense every game. But the two spots where it was like, ooh, this is the big game for the Chiefs going in. that come to mind to me was the Ravens in week two or three and the Bucs game where they both come out and they blow the doors off. When they are needing to be at their very best, they are.

And Miami fans are probably saying, but we didn't have all of our players. And that is totally worth pointing out. Not only did they lose Miles Gaskin, who's been great for them when he's played, right before the game with COVID-19. They didn't have Kyle Van Nuoy, who was defensive player the week last week.

They didn't have a Landon Roberts. And then they lose Devante Parker and Joaquin Grant in this game. He had, he, like, Tua had played fairly well. This was a game I appreciated having Tony Romo on the call, because I think he helped point out the ways that Tua played well. I'm not saying he was, like, great, but he does a lot of good things for a rookie.

And so this wasn't a discouraging game, I don't think, for Tua. Did you mention Deseki? And he, yeah, he left late. He had a nice game before that, and yeah, he heard his shoulder, and if that's serious, that's really going to hurt him, too, in the fourth quarter. That was rough when it came to the Dolphins. You could point to Miami, though, is the team that has people that gave Mahomes issues in the past when they faced New England. Some of those people are in Miami, and they gave him trouble today.

I mean, I think it's very easy to decipher the difference between these two teams and the tears between them. But this is what Miami does every week. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But they cause all sorts of problems with people that most people hadn't heard of a year or two years ago. So I, you know, I stick with what kind of I was saying on Thursday. I think they're really well coached. I said they were up for anything. Anything means playing well and then losing, too.

So that is something that they were up for today. But I... Oh, you meant literally anything. Oh, that makes sense. It's like you don't come in with a hard agenda. And they, you know, but I do think the future is very bright. Every week they seem to game plan well for the team that they're playing. Not just, hey, we're going to stick everyone into what we do,

the same thing every week. They seem flexible on that front. I had some hope that they were going to hang around in this thing. But the Chiefs, man, when they hit that gas pedal like you're saying, Dan, nights out. It's all over. Goodbye. Wes, I like talking 80s baseball with you.

It's so great to have a lefty quarterback back in the league. Bloomer Asiason was one of my favorite players ever. I'm sure he has a special place in your heart as well. And now I think part of what I like about, too, is not just that he's a lefty, because there's been plenty of crummy lefty quarterbacks.

It has to be more than that. I just like his throwing motion and how fluid he is. It reminds me of like Will Clark. Remember that beautiful sweet lefty stroke of Will the thrill? Absolutely. Sometimes with lefties and there's a little bit of lefty jealousy, anybody that's played sports can attest to. It just looks better and it just looks so good coming out of his arm.

He's such an athlete and a great thrower of the football. Will Clark, baseball's greatest red ass He was an ultimate ass He meant to be a total jerk Well he's a red ass Which is different But in the same Category

In the 30 for 30 to describe his red ass As He'd go and play you in poker Not even care if he won or not Just as long as he could tell you at the end of the game That he beat your ass in poker Even if he lost money He just wanted to win

Just so he could shut at his face All the overseas listeners are like What is a red ass Must look it up on Urban Tishari. A.J. Persinski, a great red ass. It's like the Cockney section of our audience, apparently. Pete Rose, a red ass. All-timer.

Any other thoughts on this game, Wes? Did you track this one at all? I did, and I would push back a little bit on saying that Tua played well. Two had played well in the second half. I thought he was not ready for prime time in the first half, and that was when they had a chance to really stomp. on the Chiefs when the defense was making all those plays, it looked to me like one team had a great offense and the other team was still learning to find its sea legs. And that's not to say

that the two is not going to grow every week. In fact, he grew throughout the game and that's a very promising sign. But I thought that the difference in the game was that the Dolphins' offense wasn't ready to compete in the first half. No. When Parker dropped that touchdown, and I thought, like, they're not going to win this game. They've got to play close to perfect. And when you're leading receivers are Lynn Bowden and Matt Collins, and your leading running back is DeAndre Washington, and you're eight and five and in the playoff race.

It's like, okay, I mean, just let's try to win some games. Congratulations for being competitive and move forward, maybe a big game against the Patriots next week for the Dolphins. It feels like Tua's, like, improves, because he seems to have these sort of halves where he vanishes. When he's kind of like fancy free and they're just kind of going for it. Well, he's not that physically gifted. And so that is a tough thread, I think, not to cut you off.

Sorry, Mark. It's okay. I just mean like if he's relying on going through his progressions and his eyes and stuff like that, that's like advanced stuff for a rookie to have to try to like really look great. And everyone is talking T.J. Watt, Aaron Donald, Miles Garrett, defensive player of the year. Xavier Howard now has nine interceptions. and five picks in the last five weeks. That's pretty damn good.

And one of the best. Interception was insane. Insane. It's pretty damn good to pull off what he was doing. That was one-on-one coverage against Tyree Kill, and he came up with that pick. All right. In other playoff matters in the AFC. The left will sweep it right side to Jonathan Taylor.

Huge hole 45, 50, 45, 40, down the far side line. Out sprinting everybody, 10, 5. Jonathan Taylor, touchdown, I, N, D, Y, Y, Y, a 60, two-yard run for the rookie out of Wisconsin, his longest rush of the season. And now the Colts lead at 26 to 17. Maddie Taylor, WFNI. Johnny Taylor, have a day. The rookie running back rush for two scores, including that 62-yard breakaway dash

and the Colts 44-27 win over the fading Raiders in Vegas. Indy was dominant. on offense in this one, piling up nearly 300 yards by halftime, finishing with over 450 yards total and a win that keeps them tied with the Titans atop the AFC South with three weeks to play. Meanwhile, for the Raiders,

that's three consecutive lackluster performances, two of them losses. Probably should have lost the Jets game as well. And the Raiders, they look a lot like the John Gruden team that limped to the golf course last December. And it seemed like this year, year was going to be different, but I don't think it is. Jonathan Taylor is interesting.

When Cam Newton got COVID, came back and really hasn't been the same quarterback he was earlier in the year, Jonathan Taylor comes back from COVID and plays lights out. He played way better in the last few weeks than he did before he had COVID. What's up with that? So you're coming up with a theory that the COVID helped. He does look better. He is running like crazy. It's not a hard theory it doesn't sound like, but it's percolating in Wes's mind.

It could be like he's just decided, okay, I've just had a life and death experience. Let's just forget all these things that don't matter at all. Push all these self-doubts out the window and go play like I know how to play. How different they are when their ground game is doing what it's doing. I mean, they scored on seven of eight drives before they took a knee to end the thing. Phillip Rivers, I think, in the last four or five weeks, has produced maybe three of his best games. And it gives you some hope. I mean, I was ready to count them out because of their offense seems so limited.

But suddenly, T.Y. Hilton has risen from the dead. So, you know, there's a couple factors at play here. I mean, they're going to win 11 games. They don't feel quite like an 11-5 team. I'm with you. But they do deserve, they are a tough offense, I think, to prepare for. And they definitely have players on defense. and they're going to win 11 games.

Like, signing Philip Rivers, I'm ready to say, is an unqualified success. What else were you going to do? You could have signed Cam Newton, for instance, and it probably would have been a huge mistake, and a lot of people thought that the cult should have win that direction. And yes, I think Rivers, and I was one of many people that had some reservations,

whether this was going to work, but he has been, for the most part, very good for them. But the Jonathan Taylor situation, and Nahim Himes, who's a nice, guy in the mix as well. That's so important for them. I mean, I view them obviously as a tier below the true contenders. I think that I like the Titans better than them, but maybe the cults have more balance ultimately, but the Titans are just a little bit of a higher ceiling for me, but it wouldn't surprise me if either of those teams end up winning the division.

So I like the Colts. I just, they're a hard team to kind of fall in love with. He showed up, though. Between them and the Titans, it's like who's healthier, that week. Right. They both have really tough week 16 games on the road where the Colts are at the Steelers and the Titans are at the Packers. Now, a million things can happen,

but the other spots on the schedule all look pretty doable. Those teams are both going to the playoffs, though. And I'm sort of, I'm not saying it hurts the end of the regular season, but I'm not so sure seating matters that much. You know, there's no home field advantage. I think the opponent you get,

Like, you should match up well with the opponent, not the seed. I'm not, you know, it's not, you have a nice moment. You win a division, but whether the Colts are the five or the six seed or whether the three or the four seed, is it really going to make a big difference in their playoff front? Who the hell knows? Interesting thing happened on the Colts offensive line early in this game. So Anthony Costanzo, who sprained his MCL on his knee a couple weeks back, he returned to the lineup, leaves the game after a series.

They put in a person named Chaz Green. as his replacement. And I mean, some people, and I mean no disrespect to the Green family, but sometimes you just know it's not going to work out. Chaz Green is not going to be a great blindside protector for Philip Rivers. And indeed, he wasn't. In fact, he was so bad in his one series that they pulled him out of the game. So Frank Reich said, uh, Quentin and put Quentin Nelson at left tackle for a little bit

until Costanza came back in the game. What were you, are you had a, you had a Chaz Green take there, Wes? Oh, I mean, this is the guy Adrian Claiborne took down eight sacks on. He's proven by, he's the guy who single-handedly sabotaged the Colts offense last week when he had to play. Well, the Cowboys fans still call that the Chas Green game. It was that Falcons game, yeah, where he just, that was it. There's first string, there's second string, there's third string, and then there's Chas Green string, which is off the roster. Oh, no.

Kenny Moore had an incredible O'Dell Beckham Jr. like interception. in this game. And the Colts defense in general, that's one of the things that they do well. They forced three more turnovers. They have 22 this season.

So, you know, they ball hawk a bit on defense and rivers can carve you up if you protect them still and TY's getting hot. And if the running game gets going, okay, I can talk myself into these cult a little bit.

Split with the Titans, beat the Packers, beat the Raiders. They've ultimately done what they needed to do to get to the dance. All right. What is he going to say? Let's Mark Smiley.

telling about. I don't know. Greg's just, I appreciate Greg's zeal for these playoff races where this is the point of the year where there are three or four teams that are going to make the playoffs that I've not been as vocal this time around. I just simply don't buy in any level. Colts are one of them. I think they're tough, but Greg seems to be more into the, who gets in?

How does it happen mathematically? They're all special and like some of them to me are special in a different way. And some of them are not special at all. Right now, if you feel good about putting the Browns in the playoffs, and you probably should, and you feel good about the Colts. Well, you don't feel good about that, but, I mean, if you're going to look at it mathematically, you should. What do you mean? They're 9 and 3.

Well, because you're on a big lockoff Monday night. What a night. They'll be fine. They're going to get beat on Monday, and they'll be okay, 9 and 4. They can take a loss and survive. Browns, Colts, slash Titans, the other wild card. That leaves one more, so it's going to come down to the dolphins, the Ravens. And I mean, the Raiders are deep in the Raiders.

The Raiders play two of those teams, I think. I think they play the Dolphins and someone else. And your Patriots. And Rosenthal is just happy. He didn't have to do the recap with anyone else. He could do it with his own little private hive on Thursday night. So good for him. All right.

Let's talk about the Titans. He's waiting for Greg to return fire. Nothing. He's going to run Henry at right guard. Big hole, 30, 25, 20, 15, 10, 5. end zone. The Yuley Bulldozer. Touchdown! Titan!

The Yuley Bulldozer. I like that. Mike Keith, of course. The great Mike Keith, WGFX. Derek Henry ran for 2.15 and two touchdowns, and the Tennessee Titans dominated. Jacksonville 3110. That's 12 straight losses for the Jaguars.

He stank. Mark, when Henry gets into the zone, the zone that he's in now, and it's usually in December, there's no one in football. quite like him. No, and it seems to, in some of these games, happen in the first half, and you can tell right away that he's in that zone, that he's dialed in, and a team like the Jaguars has literally no chance. I feel like I've watched this Titans game that happened today about six times, because it's the same thing. It's one or two magical shots to A.J. Brown. It's a lot of Henry, and it's

simply over by halftime. You've left the team that you're playing so flummoxed, and I think in this game, the defense, they shut down James Robinson early. They made life real tough on Mike Glennon. Mike Glennon was pulled for Gardner Minchew. Gardner Minchew brought a little life to the offense. The running game got going, but they were way too deep in a hole for any of that to matter. I mean, this was a game where the Jaguars basically, I thought eight minutes into this thing. Now, I watched every minute of it, but I would have bet everything inside of my house that they were going to get waxed and they were waxed. What's the value there?

I mean, it's not excessive, but I am a Spartan, sort of more of a Spartan type personality, so it would be doing me a favor on some level just to push all these objects out onto the street. Someone comes by, picks them off, but we have to probably buy some stuff. Anyways, I would just say that where you're talking about the cults, like honestly, if someone has a cult's fetish,

I would be much closer with that on the Titans. I just think the Titans, when they are on, are unstoppable. Then they'll have a game. You know, a week from now where all these other issues crop up and they don't get in that flow early and you can nip them. But this team powerful, like in terms of pure offensive power, I think can lay it to anyone in the AFC and the only concern I'd have to be with the same kind of game script we saw against the Chiefs last year. But, I mean, Henry is an MVP candidate to me. I'll say it every week. I just think he is.

Henry is 468 yards away from joining the 2000 club. There's only seven running back. He's going to do it, I think. Whoa. 468 divided by three. Somebody, somebody, 150 yards or something? He needs 100 in, it's like 154. Let's say 156 yards.

That is obviously. within range and I would not rule it out because Wes when this guy gets going and it's this time of year and it's a good Titans team so you're running the clock a lot running the ball a lot to run clock and try to close out games and teams tired and beat up in December he is such a weapon this time of year this time of year and on a team with AJ Brown and really Corey Davis has stepped up this year on pace for about a thousand yards but AJ Brown like to open that game with that one-handed catch was just phenomenal. That guy seems to get better every week.

I still go back and forth among Terry McClure and A.J. Brown and DJ Metcalf over who's the best receiver in that draft class because they're all three absolute studs and they change their offenses. The Titans' offense is pretty loaded. It is good. And they're also different, which I think helps

that there's really not many power running teams like them. and there's certainly not two guys on the outside. It's not like these little guys in the slot. Humphreys, I think, is now out for the year, actually. It's two guys on the outside, one of which, Corey Davis, as you mentioned, came into the game with more numbers than A.J. Brown this year, which I think would surprise a lot of people

that Davis has been that good. He's not the number one receiver, I don't think, but for him to go 1,000, 1,000, they're tough to prepare for. It was Henry's fourth game with at least 200 yards and two scores. that sets an NFL record that he had previously held with Hall of Famers. Listen to these names. Jim Brown, Barry Sanders, Ladanian Tomlinson.

He's a Hall of Fame level player. Now he just needs the longevity, and I guess that's the hardest part. But 2,000 yards, you put that on the resume too, and we are flying, Wes. We're flying. History. They put him back in there. They put him back in there to get the 200. That kind of thing when he's getting these 26 carries, 30 carries.

He seems indestructible, but I don't know. That worries me. Also, he's run over 100 yards in nine straight road games. Like, who does this? That's crazy. Awesome. All right. Let's now dig into some more grisly affairs on the schedule.

Quick toss near sideball is caught into the end zone. It's Dissley. No selling this. Touchdown. Seahawks. Playfactor Carlos Hyde. Will Dissley comes across into the right flat, makes the catch, turns up field. And welcome back, Uncle Will.

Touchdown, Seahawks, 29. now Seattle over the Jets. Yes, Russell Wilson threw four touchdown passes, including that dart to Will Disley, before giving way to the legend, Gino Smith, Gino Smith revenge game. Late in the third quarter,

the Seahawks laughed their way to a 40-the-three win over the Jets at the stadium, formerly known as the Clink. We knew this game would be a shameless blowout, but that almost doesn't give it enough credit for the total absence of competition in this one. This was not an NFL game.

This was the Seattle Seahawks against, you know, our ladies of perpetual misery, you know, based in Hoboken. Like, this was not a real game. And get credit to Pete Carroll for understanding that. So that's why he got Russell Wilson out of the game in the third quarter. Jamal Adams chased Sam Donald out of bounds behind the line of scrimbage, which gave him eight and a half. F. Sacks, which gives him the record for defensive backs in a season. Then they got him out of the

game. It was basically a glorified exhibition for Seattle. The only thing missing was the fans to enjoy it all. You can tell the Seahawks players certainly did. So they keep pace with the Rams and they have a trip to Washington next week and then a big showdown with the Rams in week 16. The only tension here was Pete Carroll going to let Gino throw it there in the red zone. I had to flip it over to see what was going to happen. Incredible. This is a big moment for you. They like, ran it on third and goal at the 10. I was like, come on, let Gino cook.

I mean, he went four for five, 33 yards. You know, they went down the field. Let him try to get a touchdown. What's his revenge for, by the way? Like, utterly flopping as a second round pick? I don't know what the revenge aspect is. Well, I think him in the head coach going back and forth

publicly ever since, you know. I guess, yeah, he would want revenge on Rex. but Rex is ancient history, obviously there. So, like a game like this, I don't know how much to take out of it for Seattle. All I can tell you is that, you know, it's a nice little get-right game. There is an issue there on the offensive line.

Brandon Schell, he returned from a high ankle sprain in this game, but then he left at halftime and didn't return. Carol said that Shell tweaked it a couple times. So you have to watch that in terms of them, because the offensive line hasn't always been there, been there for them. And the Jets, of course, are now 0 and 13. Jacksonville seems committed to this.

So it might take O'N 16 to get the number one overall pick, which is obviously not ideal. I've looked at the schedule for both teams. My greatest hope, I guess, is the Jaguars have the bears. The bears are playing better the last couple weeks. But when I looked at this a couple weeks ago, I said, okay, could the Jaguars, especially if your boy Minchu is as great as everybody thinks,

Can they knock off the bears in Trubisky to finish 2 and 14? It doesn't seem impossible. You know, you need to get on the Minshu bandwagon. He gives them a better chance to win, and you can lace in all the little slights that you wish, but he's going to give you what you want so that you have a quarterback that you can be poetic. Why was he even playing this week? What happened to that narrative? Well, I don't think the coaches are tanking.

I mean, I think we've established, like the front office could probably say we'd like to see this person, but you think Doug Marone's thinking I want a tank so I can get fired to the next coach can get a great quarterback like I don't think that's saying that's why it wasn't a tank it wasn't a tank situation I'm just saying now minch you I'd say the same for Adam Gase though that Adam Gase just simply isn't talented

I mean Adam Gase isn't part of some deep state plot to tank the Jets and then you know receive offshore money somewhere maybe he is that's maybe the Jets are tanking by keeping Joe Flacco on the bench let's see their best quarterback in New York Why did we need to see three games of Mike Lennon to prove that he's still Mike Lennon? Well, we did it. At least the C...

Hey, if I was a Seattle fan, I think there is a difference between their defense right now, and I know it's the Jets, but it's like the Jets just put up a ton of yards and points against the Raiders who are a dog defense. This is the type of thing that dog defenses don't do. They just throttle one of the, you know, the worst team in the league. So I think they are making some progress on that side. Well, they lead the league in Sacks since week nine going into this week. Yeah. I mean, it's not coming from places you'd expect. It's not your number one dominating edge rusher, but they've found a way to make it happen.

All right. So if Minchu is indeed a big upgrade, can you guys give me one win at Ravens, home bears, at Colts? Can you give me one? That's a tough slate. They did beat the Colts in week one, and they know them well. But I think the Bears, you're right, is their best bet there. Yes or no. Can you give me a win? What were the other games? I'm not giving it to you. At Ravens, home bears, at Colts. Give me one. I mean, I'm arguing that Gardner Minshu is the best option for them and a 10-year backup.

I don't think he can win games alone. They're going to need a lot to go right. I mean, they haven't allowed less than 21 points since, like, week one or something. So their defense is the bigger issue, not just which quarterback starts. I mean, the Jets are going to take this thing home unless the Patriots' Week 17 feels like. the only way that they're getting, they're possibly even going to get one. Enjoy all your little jet digs at slights because it's going to change sooner than you think. We're not digging on them.

Mark my words. We've been like totally respectful to the Jets this during a tough season. I don't know who you're talking. Who you talking to? Yourself? Enjoy it while you can. Let's move on. Mitch Trimisky goes into a shotgun.

Drags a receiver in motion to the right out of the gun. He sticks in the belly of Montgomery. Crack turns into a canyon. outside left at the 40 45 to the 50 nobody's going to get them 20 15 10 5 skipping into the end zone david montgomery a first snap 80 yard gallop for six and the bears lead the texans on their first snap for the game offensively oh jeff johnniac wbm david montgomery set the tone with a long t-d run and mitchell tribusky through three touchdown passes this first matchup opposite to sean Watson, as the bear stomped the Texans 36-7, ending a six-game losing streak.

Greg, I know the Texans are missing many of their playmakers at this juncture, but did Mitch really outplayed with Sean in this one? Did that happen today? Sure. I guess. I guess it was a good pick by Ryan Pace. After all. I mean, I take it back.

Bring everyone back. They have scored 10 straight touchdowns in the Red Zone, the Chicago Bears. How about that? Wouldn't have expected that. I mean, this was more about the Texans defense, but absolutely Mitch and Nagy were on some 2018 stuff where guys were open and they moved the ball very well. Watson actually played pretty well for a while in this game

despite the score, but he was just holding the ball waiting for some receiver to come open. And, you know, when Chad Hanson is your number one, Brandon Cooks was a late scratch for this game. So remember how we were like, well, you know, this Texans receiver courts, you know, they don't have DeAndre, but they've got four pretty good guys. That was like three weeks ago. They don't have any of those four guys.

It was rough. They're all gone. The Bearsack Watson seven times, including a safety by Khalil Mack, you know, on the same day that Rosenthal was burying Kalil Mack on Twitter. So maybe that was a response. It was a bad job. I just noted he hasn't been that productive here with the quarterback hits and sacks. I wish I had added Robert Quinn into that mix. It's just they have the highest paid defensive and, you know, tandem in the league.

And I think they have a combined 15 sack, you know, quarterback hits in sacks. Quinn has three and Mac had 12. But Mac had a nice force fumble early in this game, which kind of set the tone. He got the safety. His best game in a while. Alan Robinson played one of the best games of his career. He was awesome. And the Bears aren't out of it.

They play the Vikings next week. If they hadn't blown that Lions game in horrific fashion, they'd be seven and six. and tied for that last spot right now. But that Bears Vikings game is basically an elimination game and one of those two teams next week is going to get to seven and seven and still be in the mix, whether we like it or not. I mean, this is what they were meant to be. And I'd start with someone like David Montgomery

that everyone I know that's a Bears fan has been telling me how great he is. And it's like, okay, he's been productive the last couple of weeks. But here's a little bit of a fly in the ointment. Your head coach, didn't he give up play calling here? I mean, it's Bill Laser making these calls. Designing this office. They have been better, and Montgomery has run better. He has, but it's like, is it a great selling point that the coach you brought in to run a high-powered offense?

It becomes high-powered for the first time in, like, 700 sundowns since he stopped calling the plays. It just seems like a little bit of a tough navigational point. Take what you can get at this point. I mean, they were going to get kicked, you know, that was going to be the last, it still might be the last three games of Matt Nagy, but whatever gets it done, if it's the lasers show. You're playing against the Houston Texans who have been the worst run defense all year long. You're right. That helped.

But no, he really has run. I thought he was, like, getting to be a capital B bust, and he's run well the last four weeks. He's made people miss. He's made some good reads. The low point, I think, of a pretty low Texan season was Romeo Cornell telling the sideline reporter coming out of halftime that they were lucky,

to only be down 23 to Mitchell Chubisky. Oh, man, man, we're lucky to be down 23. Yikes. And since people like to do this, and we brought up Khalil Mack, who won the trade? Everybody wants to always know who won the trade. I don't know. So the Bears in that famous trade with the Raiders back in 2018, I guess it was. They got Khalil Mack, a 20-20-second round pick, which became Colquimette.

They got a seventh round pick in 2020 that was a lineman named Arlington. Hambright and then they gave up a first round pick in 2019 that became Josh Jacobs they gave up a six round pick that became I guess was traded away they gave they got a first round pick Damon Arnett cornerback the Raiders and the Raiders also drafted Brian Edwards in the third round 81st overall so like and then the Bears gave Cleo Mac a massive extension so who won that trade Wes so far who knows who cares. It feels like it's, I mean, it feels like it's neutral.

It feels like, not a clear. I feel like the Bears did because they had a, you know, Mac was the key in them having a chance, like, he did everything they needed to do the first two years of those, that deal. Right. If not for double doink, he's taking them to the Super Bowl. But it was bad, it was bad, he's taking, I mean, that was a first round game. You think the, Mitchell Jrabisky's going to the Super Bowl? Why not?

Well, he's taking them to the next round of the playoffs. How about that? It's because, yeah, I don't know. I'm not buying that. If Mitchell Trebisky is one double dog from the Super Bowl, give him an extension. He's still young. We got a shot here. He has played a little bit better.

And like I said, not only do they have the Vikings, but they have the Jaguars after that, the Bears are not quite out of this if they could somehow beat the Vikings. I mean, Trebisky is building himself, not unlike the Colt McCoys of the world, like a 10-year career. I mean, he won't be a starter, but he'll make excellent money. And there'll be some seasons where he doesn't play at all. and lives in a gigantic house in like Outer Indianapolis or Los Angeles. It could be a beautiful future. You're kind of like our beat guy, Mark, for who's going to have 10-year backup careers.

Well, I mean, it's a very attractive concept. Let's move on. It's a very attractive concept. Outer Indianapolis. What's Matt Flan up to these days? I want to be the emergency COVID for him. He made that money. Pick is up and it is good.

Chargers win. Mike Badgley. with the game-winning field goal. Oh, good for money, KYSR. Because all season long, when there's been big moments at the end of the game, there's some shenanigans with game officials or something otherwise that gets messed up and he's unable to make a clean call. There he's able to do it.

Chargers special teams get the glory in this one. Michael Badgeley drilled a 43-yard kick as time expired. The Chargers bounced back from that humiliation last week against the Patriots with a 2017 road win over the Falcon City. They don't even get music. That's how Savage charges some of the seasons become. Los Angeles put itself in position for the game-winning kick because Michael Davis picked off Matt Ryan with 36 seconds to play, Greg.

I bet this one felt good for Anthony Lynn. It had to have, especially after all the focus on his game management struggles, which probably reached Nadir at the end of the first half, which one of the biggest fiascas I've ever seen. They just left points on the field. So to get a win in a game where it looked like Justin Herbert had just given it away, a moment after Matt Ryan had just given it away, in the final four minutes alone, the Falcons were in field goal range.

Ryan throws an interception. Herbert gets the ball back, throws an interception, and then Matt Ryan gets him back into field goal range and throws an interception right back. And then Herbert, without Keenan Allen on the field, does move it down the field with one of the prettiest. throws you'll see to set up that field goal. So it's nice for the chargers to have nice things finally.

That was embarrassing at halftime. That was tough. To paint the picture, it was 22 seconds left, third and one, inside the 10, I think it was about at the eight-yard line. And they come out of a timeout, and they run the ball with no timeout, and then there's no, there's confusion, and they don't decide what they're going to do. It takes too long, and then they run the field goal kicker onto the field too late. And so there's 22 seconds left at the eight-yard line, and all they got was a gain of no, you know, no gain out of it.

They never got the field goal attempt. They never got a chance. It was tough. This was after Anthony Lynn had taken over special teams duties. Sure. Well, I'm still really. To his credit, this was easily their best special teams day of the year. They had a nice kick return, and they could get the kick, game-winning touchdown.

touchdown. Are these, does this team not employ the same department that 31 other teams appear to employ that tell you, like, do this with a minute and half? Well, I don't know. Essentially, like, Greg in your ear? I don't know if Herbert changed the play, because Lynn acted like you can't run in that situation as if he, like, didn't know what was happening. But even then, your team needs to be well coached of, like, what happens right here,

22 seconds is plenty, actually, to run a play and then run the field goal team on if things go wrong and they just were totally unprepared but hey the Falcons were even worse no points after half time Ryan got picked off three times he had eight interceptions the whole season and he got picked off three times in a row in the second half

if you ever watched that Belichick Sabin HBO documentary don't imagine that will be queued up immediately for this evening but there's like a three minute uninterrupted clip of Belichick gathering like 15 players around him and quizzing these like freaked out offensive linemen on situational football and

they are not breaking that huddle until everyone gets it right. And it's all these little things that get under your skin every week, Greg. All right. It is time. It is that time of Sunday night where one handsome bald man is replaced by another. Nick Shook jumps on now and he will take the baton from the great Chris Wessling. Wes, any parting words for tonight. Leave the show in good hands with my boy, Nick Shook.

I appreciate that. You could hear the confidence and the gravitas in Wes's voice. Yes. Chris, thank you. You are a warrior and we love you. See, Wes. Feeling is mutual. See you all.

All right. All right. Now with Shook on board, let us hit the final two games ahead of Sunday night football. Very high kick. Spencer settles underneath it at the 17, avoids one tackler, runs into a blocker. And now he's loose. Spencer under 25, 30. Here we go, 35, 40.

Spencer, foot, race, 45, midfield. 40, 35, 30, Deontes Spencer, 20, 15, 10, 5, touchdown, Denver. Hello, Deiante Spencer got things going for the Broncos with a long punt return for his score. And Drew Locke was, well, you know, locked in, throwing four touchdowns in a 32 to 27 win over the Panthers who have dropped seven of eight. Shook, Drew Locke played like a guy who wanted Broncos fans back. in his corner for another offseason. Yeah, he had a nice little second half there, too. Really pushed the ball on the field and helped the offense put some points on the board.

But I tell you what, man, there were a couple times there where they tried to give it away. I got to credit their defense for playing pretty solidly in the first half in limiting what Carolina could do and really frustrating them while allowing Drew Locke the time necessary to build a little bit of a lead. At one point, it was 19 to 70. He hooked up with K.J. Hamler for a couple long touchdowns. It's nice to see him get involved as a rookie. But, yeah, I mean, it was a return to the promise that you would see out of Drew Locke.

I mean, a fantastic stat line, 21 and 27, 280 yards, four touchdowns, a pass a rating near 150. That's what you want out of a guy who you think is supposed to be your quarterback of the future, which he has not looked like for a good amount of this season prior to this week. So you could call it a lucky draw with Carolina, but Carolina's been a scrappy bunch for the majority of this season. So it's not like it was just an easy game to play. and he did well. I get worried about these late December games where a quarterback of high suspicion goes nuts

and then everyone inside the organization starts to think like maybe we need to dig back in. But it is, you know, like any signs of life from Denver's offense is intriguing just because we had such high hopes of... What happened with Teddy Bridgewater here at the end, though? I saw a lot of comments from Rule about he took a delay of game penalty

and then he rushed for on a third down right before the two minute warning and it kind of deep six them when that's not how Matt Rule wanted to organize those final few minutes of the game there yeah and then on fourth down he had a one yard pass to Curtis Samuel

fourth and eight that's not going to get the job done so it was a tough day for Teddy I know statistically he looks fairly solid 30 or 40 but there were a lot of times there whether it was the pressure that Denver was bringing or just decision making he just didn't look like he was in a situation where he didn't look like he was comfortable for most of the game wasn't in much of a rhythm for most of the game even though you know they managed to make

it close at the end it was just it just wasn't his best outing i think of this year and it's kind of like you know we talked with our our editor david ely um you know known panthers fan uh they are going to be in the market for i think a quarterback in the draft in the first three rounds uh right going forward it's this is not a long term plan for them but that was that i think based on his contract, he was actually the lowest paid veteran quarterback, like with a multi-year deal. I think that was always the plan. And if he surprised them, then they could change it. And he has guaranteed money almost all of it into next year.

So he's going to be there next year with someone else. But he's played much more poorly over his last four games. This has been a trend. He's been struggling. He's had the, the Panthers have had the ball a ton with the ball with a chance to win. And, man, they'd almost like they never win. They were three and two at one point. And they just, it's been kind of a snake-bitten season for them.

Yeah, whether they leave it up to Joey Slide to try to hit a record breaker of a field goal. Every week. Every week. Exactly. Or they end up, you know, with the ball in Teddy's hands and you can't execute. It's one thing or another. It's kind of annoying, though, because you do see the potential of Joe Brady's offense. It's just, it has to be executed better.

They set the groundwork. No one was, you know, it was disappointing how it's gone. But they've set the groundwork. Yeah, for sure. Maddie Ruh was pretty pumped up about it. It could have been coached me. but he was pretty pumped about Teddy Bridgewater entering the season. I would think if you asked him privately,

he would tell he's a little disappointed how this played out because I don't know if the salary, they got him at a good value for obvious reasons with Teddy's background, but I think they thought maybe they were going to get a little bit more. Is that fair to say? Maybe, but I think the first half of the season, if anything, I mean, you couldn't have said he was below any expectations. No, he was fine.

So it's really, yeah, these last, he's kind of taken on water a little bit down the story. Their offense has been watchable, much more so than I think I thought or many others did going into the year. Their wide receivers have been good. Christian McCaffrey missed his 10th game and 11 games, quad injuries suffered during the byweek, aggravated it in Wednesday's practice. That has been a major issue for him. He's going to end up missing almost the entire year after having that record-breaking season. So that needs to be talked about too when you're talking about Teddy because he thought he was going to have the best running back in the league on his side and he really hasn't. All right, let's roll on.

Snap to Dalton throws it right to slant to Cooper at the goal line and he's got it for the Cowboys touchdown. Brad Sham, the Sham God, KRLD. This was not an Andy Dalton revenge game. There was no revenge to be had for Dalton against the Bengals, but I'm sure it felt good for the veteran QB

to throw for two scores, including that connection to Mari Cooper and a 30 to 7 win shook. The Cowboys looked like a defeated team on Tuesday. night. They showed some fight here. Yeah, you know, it always helps when you run into the Bengals who were quarterbacked by Brandon Allen. You know, they didn't have all that much fight in them

themselves. They didn't help themselves at all either by fumbling the ball away three times in the first two quarters. They had three total turnovers in the game, but they dug themselves a hole, and it kind of made things easier for Andy Dalton. You know, it's not like the pressure was really on him. Their first score of the game, their first touchdown of the game

was a fumble return for a touchdown by Alden Smith. So it was 10-0 before, kind of before you knew. and Andy Dalton didn't really have to do much of the work to get there. And then you kind of let the Bengals just, you know, trip over themselves a few times. I mean, they're still a couple years away, and they're much worse without Joe Burrow.

I mean, he was really elevating them before he got hurt. T. Higgins had a little bit of a rough day and five catches for 49 yards. We had a couple drops, and it was really like the type of drop that it wasn't a contested catch. It's just like his mind wasn't completely there. He just wasn't fully focused on hauling the pass. And I think that's where the Bengals are at this point. So while we thought the Cowboys were also at this point, the Cowboys are still the more talented team.

And when you get two teams that run into each other like that, and maybe they have a little bit of a source of motivation to get their backup quarterback a win in the place that he used to call home, this is usually the type of result you see. And it was just the difference, the margin of victory was multiplied by those turnovers, those mistakes that the Bengals made. So it wasn't necessarily the most unwatchable game, but it was a very lopsided game for the majority of it.

And every time, you know, you got three games on at once. Every time I would turn and watch a player or two, I just found myself chuckling at what was going on in the field, usually when Bengals had the ball because it was just like, oh, man, like the end of the season cannot come fast enough for this time. I know this is, I think it's because of COVID is a big part of it. But, man, it feels like it's been week 17 for some of these teams already for a couple weeks. Like, football seasons like that.

Like, it's long. The winter comes. There's injuries. Like, they take, you know, they get, but it's come early. I mean, this is why you're. making the big bucks shook coming in. I know you saw Cowboys Bengals on the schedule and you say they're going to give me this

game and I'm going to have to make it sing and I'm going to because I'm Nick Shuck. It's funny I was talking with Elia yet about game assignments and I was like well in the early window it's uh, I'm going to go down to Cincinnati and catch that

Dalton Revenge game for the guys in the podcast. Does he play ball with you or is he doing tough manager? real stuff. Oh, no. Oh, no. We play ball. What it is, is I'll pick the lead game that I really want, and then I bounce back with what you guys want, and then I just take on, like, three games at once, and we just roll with it. Yeah. I mean, you could put everything on Nick Shook's shoulders. Humor me for a second. The Cowboys, and let's give Cowboys a little bit credit,

because we were all talking about on Wednesday, and even Troy Aikman was crying in a soup about this, but what happened to the Cowboys, they're not even trying, the seasons, a disgrace, and then they can at least get off the mat and beat up on a team, which I wouldn't even have assumed they could have done that. So they did do that. They're four and nine. They have three games left. Listen, I'm not saying I'm in on the Cowboys.

I'm just saying, home 49ers winnable. The Niners are, you know, not having a good year. Home Eagles. I mean, let's not go crazy about the Eagles. At Giants. So you, let's say you win out. Unfortunately, Washington has the tie breaker on you. So you need to win out and then hope Washington collapses.

And I think that's the path. Not even collapses. I guess you do. The Washington's six and seven. So they got to lose out. That's where the cowboys are right now. I mean, I feel like a nuclear bomb was dropped on that path some time ago. I understand the optimism.

But I do see it's. If Washington hadn't won today, then you'd have something. But too bad. They got to win out. Washington's got to lose out. It's that simple. That's it. I'm not sure this cowboy.

boys team wants to play an extra game you'd have to sell me on that first and then they also were outgained by the brandon allen bengals even though it was 30 to 7 and i haven't watched this game at all just looking at that i'm gonna say you know they they got a little lucky it was as bad as it looked in the score in the in the stat sheet his parents were in the stands they kept cutting to them you know they're wearing their number eight bangles masks i was sad for him but they have a paper bag on their head no that'll be the people a section over because of social distancing dan if you if that actually happens not the whole washington collapsed, but the Cowboys winning out.

You know what you're setting us up for, right? An entire off season of the Cowboys are for real. They're getting Dak back. Super Bowl favorite again, which we've gone through for the last two years. Nick, that's happening either way. It doesn't matter how the season ends. People will be talking up the Cowboys as a bounce back team. That's true.

Oh, Dax back and oh, what a great draft. It's hard to get a read on what they even were last season. It's like Mike McCarthy just paid extra for a PFF elite account. They're really going to go for. All right, let's move on to Sunday night football. Oh, Sunday night. May you 273. He threw a pick back the other way from Buffalo.

Terran Johnson will score. Touchdown bills. Tron Johnson with the pick six of Ben Routlessberger. Of course, Mike Tariko with the call for NBC. It was the turning point of the night for the Buffalo Bills, who pretty much coasts from there. 26 to 15 over the Pittsburgh Steelers who have now followed 11 consecutive wins to start the season with back-to-back losses. And that now puts them behind the Chiefs as the number two seed in the AFC.

And on the bill side of things, shook more of the same from last week. A lot of good vibes came out of their game last week with Josh Allen was lights out of the Niners, and this is more of a total team effort by the bills. Yeah, no doubt. The defense creating turnover is getting stops in this. And really from the final moments of the first half all the way through the end of the game, a key interception at the end of the game to kind of undercut any comeback hopes for the Steelers. And then, of course, Josh Allen, like you said, just lights out again.

And, you know, he's got to be thanking the heavens for that offseason trade for Stefan Diggs, who absolutely torched the Steelers defense, specifically in that key sequence at the end of the second quarter into the third quarter when they ran out. I think it was 23 unanswered that they scored. You know, it really does wonders when you have a number one receiver, but especially when you have a number one receiver who can hit you in all levels of the field. And Stefan digs that, did that. You know, his yards after catch had to be astronomical.

I haven't seen the exact numbers. But he was great with, you know, getting open, finding soft spots in the zone, and also picking up the extra yards and really kicking this offense from first gear, struggling to get out of first gear all the way into fifth gear and rolling. And if they play like this going forward, I mean, they're a team to definitely watch. It definitely be a tough matchup for other teams. I love that seven-minute drive to end the game. I love stuff like that.

I mean, when a team can do that against a number one defense, just finish the game with the ball in your hands, get Mark Sessler, you know, to the recap. We're all rooting for the bills to be moving the ball at that time. But that's like, to me, that's the NFL. Like, that's the point in which your team has basically just exerted its will. And in the second half, the Bills had 231 yards. The Steelers at 80. This game's totally on the Steelers' offense.

I know Josh Allen will get a lot of attention, but it was the mismatch of the Bill's defense versus the Steelers' offense that really was decisive. I'm with you. They had 13 drives. I'll let it play out. It's no less tedious than it was four years ago in the studio. but 13 drives. One of them went over 34 yards.

Seven of them went under 10 yards. This is not a balanced offense, and this is weeks in a row. And I don't know who body replaced James Connor with little Jimmy Connor, who's never played a football game. But, I mean, they can't establish the ground game. You throw in Deonti Johnson drops. They had drops in their last outing. They just seem out of sync.

And I get that they've transitioned to a quick strike, if you want to call it that, offense with Big Ben. But I don't think it's really what suits the Big Ben that we knew of old. I mean, it's what he has to do now. But teams are adjusting. I mean, if you can't take them seriously on the ground. And, like, their defense played absolutely awesome, I thought, in the first half. But you're going to break a defense when you can't respond.

They had their four drives in the second half. Three of them were three and outs. Maybe it was every man tennis star Jimmy Connors, who's now the running back. He's about 66, which would, you know, check out for the way anybody in the backfield for the Steelers looks. But it's very depressing to watch the Steelers right now on offense because when this quick, quick shot attack isn't working, it just feels like such a waste with all the skill players on the field with Deonti Johnson, who I know is having issues with drops. but, you know, James Washington, Juju Smith-Schuster, and Chase Claypool has become an afterthought in this offense all of a sudden, oh, by the way,

during this run where they're struggling to win games now. So, yes, when it works, the Steelers' offense, out of his hand quickly, get the ball in the hands of the receivers, and they make plays. Nobody had anything to say, but there seems something almost pathetic about it for large stretches of this game, and it makes you wonder if the Steelers' offense has the ability

to pivot and not obviously go back to the way they were five years ago with Ben Ralthusberger, but to create some balance in the passing attack, so it's not always the same thing over and over, because it really is a drag over and over these little five-yard passes, these slants, these screens, just nothing explosive about it. Yeah, but you know what? Bill Walsh built an offense around that, you know, almost 40 years ago.

Well, not the version of the Steelers' office. Yeah, but they had a great running game. They had a great running game. Yeah, and the problem with that, too, is that they're simply not executing on those short passes, like, you know, the drop. So there was Eric Ebron last week. Deonté Johnson this week and a couple weeks prior, it's completely short-circuited their offense. And you're right, Greg, they don't have a running game.

You know, we thought last week, but they didn't have James Connor, so that's why they couldn't run the ball. They had James Connor tonight, and they still couldn't run the football. And they haven't been able to run the ball for a while. It's putting too much pressure on their defense. Like you said, Mark, they had a fantastic first quarter and a half. And really, the whole first half. And they gave up 100 yards and gave up three points to Josh Allen. I mean, that should be enough to carry you through where you have a chance to win the game.

And then Big Ben puts it on a platter with the pick six and puts them in a hole and they never get out of it. I mean, from there, it just started an avalanche. I know that this is something that a lot of people have said, and I know maybe it was an overreaction last week. But the Steelers have not looked like a one seed or a two seed for a while now. And things aren't going to get any easier for them down the stretch heading into the playoffs. I wonder if we're seeing the beginning of a meltdown. Well, it all changed after that COVID meltdown. Really, they haven't been the same team since the COVID Wednesday game.

It's been three weeks. Right, right. Well, they're in an interesting spot. They'll get the Bengals, and we'll see what happens with the Browns game. Like, whether, you know, we'll see what happens with the Chiefs. I don't think a two game losing. I don't, like, count them out of it. I don't think they can, I think they can rebound.

Their defense has to be so dominant, though. And now when you don't have Hayden, Bush has been gone a while, Vince Williams and Dupree. I mean, that's now four of your key guys. It's not just like one or two. Now, hopefully you get, you know, Hayden and Vince Williams back. But I think about the Patriots in 2018 when they lost two in a row and everyone thought they were kind of dogs and they won the Super Bowl that year. I think of the Broncos when they lost two in a row in mid-December and they won the Super Bowl. People kind of thought they were dogs.

So it's possible. that one seed feels like so far away and they're now in the in the lower tier of like they are going to have to figure some things out and get lucky along the way and win road games which is tough i mean i think the problem was the the undefeated record shown a spotlight on them and we have certain thoughts about an undefeated team that's you know deep in november early december and then you had the chief sitting out there in these comparisons that highly annoyed steelers fans um i think to Greg, you mentioned Nadir, like earlier. Like, tonight has to be the peak world of doubt for Steelers fans,

wondering if, like so many other very promising Steelers teams, ultra tough, rugged, able to work themselves out of a corner or two, but will it end in January, like so many other Steelers teams under Mike Tomlin where good but not great. And you've got, we're watching another team in the AFC looks just 10 times more powerful in Kansas City. Yeah, and the bills. I mean, the bills are... The bills, sure.

I think Chiefs fans have to look at the bills as like, that's the team that scares you the most. And they basically won the AFC East tonight, by the way. I mean, like, that's not a small thing. The bills are not... The bills are going to win this division now. That's a big deal. That is a huge deal.

We talked about the Cleol Mack trade and who won that trade earlier tonight. It is one of the best trades. It could go down as one of the greatest trades of all time in terms of helping both teams, the Vikings, The Bills, the bills send a first round pick to the Vikings, the Vikings draft Justin Jefferson. Everyone wins in that situation.

So the bills are hot. They're peaking at the right time. And now we wait and see what the Steelers are going to do, how they pivot off this kind of cul-de-sac they've parked themselves into. Very interesting. And we didn't get a very good, I mean, it was a cool outcome of the Steelers going down. There's some interest there and the bills on the rise. but, man, we were hoping for a good game Sunday night to salvage Sunday. We just couldn't get it.

We just searched for it all day. We just couldn't find it. There was a moment. Week 14 is messy. Well, it's up to you, Mark. I mean, you know, Baker and like the people on the field, like, yeah, they matter a little bit. I would most rather put that into Nick's hands than myself. I mean, if someone has to play an actual on-field role, I think Nick Shook would be the better person to pick than myself.

What am I going to do? Listen, miss a 10-yard field goal? We've discussed. We've discussed the mystery of what happened to me with the Browns, but the greater... No, we haven't. We've never really discussed it. We've alluded to it.

The non-mystery is the fact that I would never stand a chance with those guys. After spending many, many on-field hours with those guys, no, not a chance. Interesting. Interesting. We're going to get to the bottom of that. One day, Nick Shook's mysterious departure from the Browns. Real quick, the Raiders fire, defensive coordinator, Paul Gunther. I was going to make note of that during the game,

because Greg had teased, he thought a big change was coming, but then wouldn't say what it was, and wouldn't say it was the head coach or the quarterback. I did say, I said say coordinator. So I thought maybe it would be the ball boy or something. But it was, it's Paul Gunther who goes. So I guess everything is on Paul, poor Paul G. And we'll see if they can respond from that.

And before we go, let's check in on the locks. Greg, another W for Rosenthal. He picks the bucks and locks him up. Chris Wessling down goes west. He took the 49ers who did not get it done. And then, of course, yes, if the game itself isn't enough, a lockoff for the ages, the old Zusser is getting behind the Baltimore Ravens, Mark, and, and this is what I call the kiss of death,

Erica, get behind the Cleveland Browns. At least she's getting in before 11 minutes into the game. Right. Well, I think Erica's on a hot streak, potentially. I don't know why you'd be doubting or a producer, anyone here. Like, I think she's capable of sky high achievements. I don't know. I never doubt Erica as a producer, but as a picker of locks and fantasy teams, you know, and real teams. Then it gets a little busy. All right. Good stuff. Great to hear from Wes again. We'll be back on Tuesday. with our recap of that big Monday night football game and look ahead to week 15. How about that? How about that, Sessler?

We're getting there. I will absolutely, if the Browns get torched tomorrow night, I will look forward to Tuesday with the way I would look forward to like an axe being thrown from 100 yards away into the center of my head. I'm not going to be excited for that conversation, but I'm sure everyone will handle it with grandiose. You know, manners, so it'll be fine. Mark, have you been taking victory laps?

Have I been missing something here? No, I never have. That's not in your character. I mean, if they won the Super Bowl, I told you I will set 35 automobiles on fire. Even then it's not decided, even if they win. It's never decided with them. Did anybody, did any of our listeners reach out to you, Shook, about, you know, the thing that you're doing with a girl, the thing of a thing? No.

They're all good people. And I also, like I said, keep my Instagram private. So there might be like 200 requests sitting there unanswered, but whatever. Very good. All right. Let's get out of here. This is Dan Hansa signing off for Nick Shook, the sizzler, the old boss, and Ricky Hollywood in the shadows. Ricky stays in the shadows there.

You always wonder what's going on with her when she doesn't pop in. That was her decision. Until Tuesday. Thank you. 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. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else. It's everything you need to understand the way. why behind what happens on Sunday. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast.