NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 2020 Week 15 Recap

Episode Date: December 21, 2020

A room filled with heroes - Dan Hanzus, Chris Wesseling, Marc Sessler and Gregg Rosenthal recap every game from Week 15 starting with the showdown between the Chiefs and Saints (2:42). The heroes recap the Saturday double header that went in the Bills (17:07) and Packers (11:05) favor before recapping the Jets first win of the season. We hear from Keith Hanzus for the first time this season too (31:42). Nick Shook joins the show to recap the Patriots (1:12:20) being knocked out of contention and the Dallas win over the 49ers (1:22:07). The Browns have won 10 games for the first time since 2008 and Marc is excited about it (1:27:22). Around the NFL is a part of the NFL Podcasts network.Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. The Around the NFL podcast is never a man down. Welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansis. I come to you from a room filled with virtual heroes. Mark Sessler, Greg Rosenthal, and Chris Wesleying.

What's up, boys? Hey, Dan. Hey, Wes. What's up, buddy. How are you doing? What a time. What a time to be alive. Week 15, flagship show.

It is getting real now. We are in it. It is the week before. for Christmas, and we had a wild day of games that we're going to make the last two weeks of the season a lot of fun to watch. We had a certain winless team finally get off the Schneide, and we'll discuss whether that's a good or bad thing. Of course, it's all subjective.

And we'll talk about the Kansas City Chiefs who continue to win, and maybe a Saints team that's taken on water at the wrong time of the year. Where are you at? Greggy, what are you thinking right now? I thought the afternoon games were as good, like, three games slate. I don't know. There probably have been some others. But you looked at it on paper, and you're just thinking this is one game,

as Chief Saints, which I think had a lot to sink your teeth into. But then Eagles, Cardinals, and Jets, Rams at the same time. It was a nice little entree for the day. Where's your energy level at? Let's pull back the curtain. As we record this, the Browns and Giants getting ready to kick off. Mark Sessler, you know, I just heard Steve Karnacki, I believe his name is, on NBC, let the audience know that the Browns lose, they're out of the playoffs for the time being. Where are you at right now? Take us through it.

Well, that would lead to nervousness. You know, I don't have years of trust to bank, to put in the bank when it comes to Cleveland. So I'm pins and needles. Basically, you know, we'll get into it, but it felt like all the whole AFC playoff field held serve today. So, you know, there is added pressure. It's not like eight, you know, eight people that they're competing with crumbled. They did the opposite. So take care of business against the Giants team that is not your equal, I would assume on paper.

We'll see what happens. Stay tuned to the end of the podcast. Let's get into all the games, starting with, yes, a game that could very well be a Super Bowl preview. Well, if the Saints can figure some things out, let's dig in. Sprint option, Mahomes keeps it, pitches it late, back to battle. At the right sideline, touchdown! Kansas City, sprint option. It was Texas Tech pitching to Michigan State.

And the Chiefs get the coveted two possession lead on a 13-yard sprint option running pitch by Mahomes. Bell finishes it off. Another great call by Mitch Holtus of WDAF. Yes, Drew Brees returned to the lineup for the Saints, but it wasn't enough to topple the mighty Chiefs, who improved to 13 and 1 with a 32 to 29 win at the Superdome. Patrick Mahomes through three touchdown passes,

had that nifty little lateral to Labion Bell for Kansas City's final TD in the fourth quarter. And despite the New Orleans offense coming to life in the second half, there are still plenty of reasons to be concerned if you're Sean Payton. Drew Brees came back west in this game. And he didn't look quite right. He looked like a guy that was rusty would be maybe the nice way to put it for most of this game. Yeah, it was a little worrisome when, beginning of fourth quarter, I was wondering who was going to have more yards for the afternoon,

the entire Saints offense, or Bears running back David Montgomery. That was the dire straits to Saints were in. And then a nice drive toward the end. Spice Racks boy, Little Jordan, Humphrey made a, made an appearance after they called him up from the practice squad, scored a touchdown, pulled the Saints back into the game, made a game out of it. But this was not an offense that scared any team watching at home.

Now, Michael Thomas was put on injured reserve before this game, which means he's out the rest of the regular season. Traquan Smith gets hurt during the game. It wasn't exactly a rocket ship of a passing game before that. And Brees came out, you know, looking, looking old, looking indecisive, not knowing where he wanted to throw it. You can't really put it on physically because I think he made the throws he wanted to make eventually. And he did play much better, I think, in the second half. It just wasted a pretty nice effort out of the Saints defense.

When you force Patrick Mahomes to punt five times in the first half, another time in the second half, and you, you know, force a fumble on him, they did enough. They did what they could do. they were out there fighting and the Saints just kept giving the ball back. And it was a day where I think it just reminded me that Mahomes is just better than everyone. I mean, he's the best player. I think he would be my MVP right now, but he's just like better because he had to make some ridiculous degree of difficulty plays for them to put up 32 points in this game.

Yeah, it does. It raises weekly concerns for me that this is a hollow exercise. I mentioned this before the entire autumn leading us to a known result. But the Chiefs, I mean, as West would call it, a little bit of a Pyrick victory in the sense that Clyde Edwards-Elair at the end went down with that knee injury. And then Lev Bell got hurt. We'll have to see what's up with Clyde Edwards-Elear. But I enjoyed Tyreek Hill drinking pickle juice on the sideline out of what looked like a little shot bottle. Is that what they said it was?

Well, I believe that's what it was. I mean, I thought it was there to raise discussions around the merits of pickle juice. A lot of people were into that. But the Chiefs just feel, I don't care. Like we kind of mentioned this on Thursday. It's like, sure, go play the number one scoring defense. Go play anything. It doesn't really matter.

They seem to outwit anything that comes up against them. And I know that we'll go through the exercise of they're not blowing teams out and X, Y, and Z. But this is the best the NFC has to offer in theory along with the Packers. And it didn't really seem like that much of a challenge to me for them. The last two weeks, they've faced two good defenses. And we came out of the game being like, oh, Miami-Doll. offense did more than enough to win this game. We say the same thing about the Saints here.

I agree. But meanwhile, the Chiefs put up 33 and 32 points in these two games, which again just speaks to the greatness of Mahomes and this offense. And my favorite play of the game was absolutely the scoring to throw. Only Mahomes can make this throw 823 to play in the third quarter. Nobody open. And Mahomes decides, I'm just going to throw a touch pass, float it into the back left corner where the pylon is.

And if McColl Hardman gets there, it's a touchdown. If he doesn't, nobody else does. And McColl Hardman got there because they have all these speedy guys that can do things other teams can't do. And it was just the genius of Mahomes on display. So, you know, they're not blown out teams, but it doesn't matter. They take care of business. I don't see a huge flaw in this team.

The Edwards-A-Layer, I don't think we're going to see him again. Who knows? But that did not look good. That injury. It was labeled as a leg and a hip injury. Levion Bell, that injury looked like more he was shaking up on a face mess. So you think he'll be all right. And although I think on balance, Bell has been kind of what I thought he was with the Jets,

which is not too impressive. It's a pretty nice pickup now if you're not going to have the rookie going forward. I think you can't underestimate like how difficult and how good a job that the Saints defense did. The Chiefs average 4.5 yards for play in this game. They ended up having 92 plays. Like, I was thoroughly entertained. I know, Mark, you say it's like an exercise that feels like we know the ending. And maybe that'll happen.

Maybe it won't. But man, it's entertaining on the way. I thought Mahomes made like seven or eight plays in this game that like were, that almost no one can make. And that he's sort of breaking football because the Saints have the best rush defense in the league. They're dropping back seven. They're sort of not. They're begging them to run.

and they still refused to run and some of it worked some of it didn't and it was just like no you can throw every defense back there to try to prevent us from passing we're going to still keep passing and another play that you know

that made me think of Dan was when Mahomes just starts backpedaling for 20, 25 yards on one third and long before he ends up finding someone it's like there's no defense for that I am I was thoroughly entertained even if we kind of felt like we knew what was going to happen and this wasn't the best Saints team

that they're going to have you would hope that Drew Breeze and the offense would be a little more in gear once he's back for a few weeks. Oh, I'm not arguing that they're unentertaining, by the way. And I don't mean to normalize what they do every week. It's just that they face a great defense. At one point, they were forced into punts four out of five drives. They still put up 32 points. Right. Because you kept giving it back. You got to play both sides. You got to play so well. You got to fall on the ball in the end zone when you have a chance when you get a fumble in special teams. Saints now 10 and 4. They've lost two straight. And of course, the Packers.

who are ahead of them by a game in the standings also now have the tiebreaker in addition. So it's going to take a Christmas miracle for the Saints to get that by and get home field advantage. Not happening. And the seats are happening. As we know, Wes, you don't want to put this New Orleans team in Lambo field with this version of Drew Brees. That's a huge setback not having home field advantage for the playoffs. I think I put more stock in this than somebody like Greg does.

I hate the idea of Drew Breeze in an outdoor game with any semblance of wind whatsoever. I just think it makes a huge difference, and his career has been reliant upon playing in a Dome Stadium. Now, I'm with you. I almost feel the same about Ben Rathesburg right now, and Drew Breeze is like that times two or three. And like you said, Greg, the Chiefs at 13 and 1. It looks like it's a lock that they're going to have home field advantage. And, you know, maybe you're right, Mark. was your comment that it's already decided the chiefs are going to win the Super Bowl?

I don't mean that to sound like to be sort of cynical or just sort of throw the whole thing away. Just that I can't find a team out there that's going to untrack the Chiefs. You have to put Mahomes into the center of hell. And even with a banged up offensive line, it doesn't seem to really matter that much. I invite a team to come to show me that they can prove me wrong on that. All right. Let's move on. And now that we know what happened with the Saints,

let's quickly dig into the Saturday games and the Packers, who, yes, are in the driver's seat in the NFC. Bridgewater under Center tries to go over top and knocked out of his head. It's scooped up by Kevin King to the 20, the 25 to 30. Outside the numbers, the 40, the 45, and he tackled over midfield. Bridgewater tried to launch on high, and he got spiked away. It was a volleyball swat that liberated the ball,

and the Packers pounced. They haven't in Panther territory when Carolina was on the doorstep inches away. Nice call by John Saddak of Westwood One. Rookie linebacker, Chris Barnes, poked that ball away from Teddy Bridgewater. Kevin Kink returned at 48 yards to set up a Packers touchdown. That was the swing play of the night in the Packers 2416 win at Lambo. Mark, this was the rare game this season where Green Bay had to find a way when Aaron Rogers wasn't dominant. Yeah, and I thought that he had to.

had pretty strong comments after the game. You know, we're on alert with the Saints. But it was Aaron Rogers who said, if we're going to play the way we did in the second half, I mean, this was a game that looked over to me at halftime. They had 6.2 yards per play in the first half, 2.1 in the second. And, you know, they just, to me,

do I come away having learned a ton about the Packers or what this really means? I don't think so. I think that they ran into a Panthers pass rush that was more lively than usual. Derek Brown got going, Brian Burns. I thought they caused disruption, and you just didn't get the normal full, like a full four quarters from Green Bay, which, you know, if you look at the Colts game, there's some shared DNA with what happened there a little bit. And, you know, for me, it's like these Panthers games seem to all come right down to the end, one way or another, and I'm with you, that turnover, this was, if you're going to go deal with Aaron Rogers, it's not that unlike dealing with the Chiefs.

Like, if you're the Panthers, they got a lot of production out of DJ Moore and other guys, but you can't make the killer mistake or two. They made it. They lost in a close one. Yeah, the next game the Packers play is against Tennessee. And that would be, you know, a great playoff tune-up because you win that game. Then you got the Bears in Week 17. You've already got the buy. The Packers, all they got to do is in one of their two final games.

So it's a big game for them. But if you know you have your week off, who knows if they're going to play starters or not. I'm not going to freak out too much that the offense had a bad half after they kind of took control of the game with their offense. It is disarming to see them have 96 net yards passing, though, against the Panthers, like a week after Drew Locke lit them up. It's surprising, but ultimately it's like they did what they needed to do to win the game. They got a huge lead early.

They got the yards that they needed late. Like, that's what good teams do. Yeah, it's a little alarming because it's a few times now that we've seen that. Mark mentioned the Colts game. You know, you saw it through the totality of the, the Bucks game where you think the packers can just turn it on at any point. And when they don't turn it on, it starts to get worrisome. Their guards are struggling right now, and you're used to seeing their offensive line

be so good. But after Corey Lindley got hurt, then you moved Jenkins to center, and the guards got ate up by Mark's boy, Derek Brown, and a couple others, F.A. Obata, the big sack. How about that? Every time F.A. Obata does something good, I know about it because Henry Hodgson tweets about immediately. That is a England's shining sun, so it's good to see him making plays week after week. I thought it was interesting. Matt Ruhl was at halftime, he told Melissa Stark, like, listen, we don't stick the ball out at the goal line, which is the old Bill Belichick

thing opening his criticism there of Teddy, but not in a mean-spirited way or anything. I think that's just a frustration because the Panthers at 4 and 10 this season. You know, they, I think they've been in eight one possession games now this season. And I think, I don't think it says anything bad about Rule or the Panthers, but four and ten probably not really what their record should be. And who knows of Christian McCaffrey's there, yesterday could have been a totally different game. I want to see, like, I don't know, a little more out of this Packers defense in general. I guess they did, again, in this game, they did a job.

I'm not sure if I'm at the point of trusting them in general. They're pretty weak up the middle. You can run on them. Their linebackers aren't great. Their pass rushers aren't quite the same as they were a year ago. So that makes the NFC fun. I feel like even though they're the one seat, I feel like every single team making the NFC has some big flaws.

I mean, some of those Panthers' one possession games have been like Joey Sly kicking the ball from like mid-court, you know, at the end of the game there. But I do think that that would be the takeaway for them because they've done a nice job developing young players. Their free agents have been productive. So there's something good going on, but you have to learn to close games because you could argue they should be like six, a six-seven win team right now.

Did anyone else think when Rule, and it had some people scratching their heads on Twitter, when Rule chose to kick the field goal to get it from 10 to 7 as opposed to try to get into the end zone? I like that. He did that so he wouldn't be in a situation where we were sending out Joey Sly for another 70-yard. Like, is it in his head at this point? At one point, Joey Sly has got to be like, dude. like I you know my ceiling like stop you know we've talked about this coach you can't send me out there I thought it was more that rule had had you know the Panthers you know plus eight and a half

that was what that was it it cut it cut it to eight and then they kicked that field goal I was like wow because you're at that point you're counting on and they did get the stop but you're counting on a stop a touchdown a two point conversion and winning in overtime which is that's a lot to ask for All right, let's check in on the other Saturday game, which decided a division. Now the snap. Broncos rush five. Josh gets away from pressure. Going to keep it and run with it.

Inside the 15, inside the 10. Headed for the end zone touchdown. Josh Allen, a 24-yard touchdown run for the Buffalo Bills. He made it look easy. Nobody touched him. Nobody touched him. Oh, goodness gracious. Calm down there, Steve Tasker.

I know. It's been a long, it's been 25 years, but, you know, let's be professional in that booth. Josh Allen accounted for four touchdowns, two on the ground and two through the air, leading the bills to an easy 4819 win over the Broncos to clinch Buffalo's first AFC title, East title, since, yes, 1995, when Wonderwall's on the charts. I mean, we're going back in time, Sessa. This is you on the Colorado River with your buddies in the flannel. To some degree.

Wes, the bills are getting more and more fearsome by the week. They are. We have expressed doubt about their defense at a certain point. I have expressed the sentiment that Smoke Brown is a bit of a jenga piece for this offense. We've worried about their running game. We've acted like the Broncos have a pretty good defense. Throw all those factors out the window because this was a absolute tail kicking from start to finish. Pay no attention to the school. would it should have been even worse than that.

And Josh Allen have one of the better games you'll see. Total QBR of 98.2. Total QBR doesn't go any higher really than 99, so that's how you know how good of a game he had. His throws were just unreal. I know the Broncos don't have any cornerbacks. You know, they're starting guys that they cut

and were on other teams earlier in the year. And, you know, that's part of it. But so many of these throws were against pressure. and they were just like, you know, the throw where he's falling down was amazing. Obviously, the touchdown to Kumero, and you see it with him and Herbert more than anyone. Arm strength matters in the sense most that, like, defenses don't have time to make plays. It creates, you know, touchdowns like that to Kumero where they can't catch up to it, but it also creates, you know, yards after the catch because the defense time's getting there for the tackle much worse.

And Alan is on a freaking roll. I mean, it is fun to watch right now. They are the team, more than any team, I feel like that is the peaking in December team. If that's the team you want to be, they are that team, even more than the Chiefs. I'm with you. They beat up bad teams. They hang out and win against good teams. We asked last week of Josh Allen as a star, and I think my definition is different than others.

I know what most of Western New York would say. I think that he has bloomed into something that no one expected his past off season. Superstar. Well, I mean, like, he's getting there. He's getting there. He's on that path. And, you know, there's different ways to measure these guys. But I just think he's playing with extreme confidence. The connection between him and Stefan Diggs is a huge victory for the organization.

They probably only have a couple more weeks with Brian Dayball, who has been an awesome play caller with Josh Allen. Maybe not so much at previous stops, but he fits here. There's just a lot of things that fit really well with the bills. I'm a little concerned about if they got into a scenario where they need their run game to thrive week after week. but who cares? Like, this team finds a way. That's funny you say that, Mark, because one thing that I took from yesterday's game,

and this has been building, it's not just what happened yesterday, is that, no, Josh Allen is not Patrick Mahomes, and the bills aren't the chiefs on offense necessarily. But they might be edging into that territory. It's like, who cares if the running game doesn't do much? Because what Josh Allen does, both as a passer and with his legs, they're fine.

They're always going to be able to score points, especially when you have Stefan Diggs doing what he's doing, And, oh, by the way, Cole Beasley, after another big game is knocking on the door of 1,000 yards, too. That's been a huge development for them. We talked about how John Brown, his loss was big. Beasley, stepped up in a big way. So even if they never do establish the running game, some teams you think to yourself, like, I'll use the Colts as an example. They need to figure out a running game to balance out their offense.

I think Josh Allen has hit this level, Wes, where they're going to be okay if he's just the man front and center all the time. Yeah, I think this is a relatively new idea in football circles, and the Chiefs started it in a lot of people's minds in the last couple of years that a run is almost a waste of a play when you've got Patrick Mahomes. And if you're a Bill's fan, I don't really want to see a run. Zach Moss does not excite me at all. Not one bit does that guy excite me. Josh Allen excites me.

Right, and you only need the run when you need it. I mean, I don't think it's too different from the first five years. of the Patriots, you know, 2010s. And they used the run when they needed to. Like, that's what I loved about this game. They ran the ball really well, actually, when they wanted to run, which just, they didn't bother. Because why would you want to?

When you have Josh Allen, you had Alan Moss and Singletary all rip off a few runs. Like, they sprinkled it in here and there. But I love when you have the lead and you just keep throwing. Also, like the mere threat of Allen on the ground, even if he doesn't run, is part of your running game where if you had, you know, Joe Flacco, back there in 2017, the defense is not going to view you in the same way.

I mean, not even within two universes of the same way. He's just been so good this year. It's one of the real storylines of this season where Alan came from. Think about where we were, and there's still playoffs to be played. But where we were, the conversations we were having about him this year after that meltdown against the Texans and the wildcard round of the 2019 playoffs. and now the guy looks like an absolutely a towering force.

All right. Now, the Bills are the AFCs champions. Congratulations to them. Let's now head to the bottom of the division where something weird happened. It is third down in six at the Rams 48-yard line. If the Jets get a first down on this play,

the game is over. They will have victory formation on the other side of the two-minute warning waiting for them. Darnold takes the snap, drops to throw, dumps it over the middle. It's caught. It's a first down. Frank Gore's got it.

A big fist pump from Frank Gore. He knows it. That secures a first down, and that should secure the jet victory. There he is. Bob was choosing. Great play-by-play man, completely absent on this program this year, because the Jets had never won a game. Until now, yes, Sam Darnold drop back. found old reliable Frankie Gore,

who took the ball across that first down marker to clinch a 23-20 win for. Yes, the Jets in the biggest upset of the season, at least according to the desert folk. With the win, the Jets avoid becoming the third 0-16 team in NFL history, but also fall behind the Jaguars on tiebreaker in the Trevor Lawrence sweepstakes. And we'll get to that in a second.

Greg, how did the Jets shock the Rams today? How did this happen? By giving the ball to Frank Gore, You know, everyone would have been chomping at the end of this game. Let's be real, though. Obviously, it wasn't the key to the game. But when it came down to it, you had to get a couple first downs to go win it. And if they had handed it to Frank Gore, giving him the ball five straight times like they did,

and it hadn't worked, all anyone would be doing is killing Adam Gay. So I enjoyed seeing, you know, my favorite player since we've been doing this podcast, have a big eight-yard run, pick up a first down on the ground, and then have that catch where he's just like, Colin, Sammy, throw me the ball. And you could see, and I watched some of the interviews afterwards, you know, Donald said it was an amazing feeling and Gore said it's going to be a happy Christmas. Like, these are all professionals. They mean, it means a lot to them. It was mostly the Jets defense. And it was, I think if you're a Jets fan, the best thing about this game is watching Quinn and Williams and Aaron Donald go back to back and forth kind of as these game wreckers. And Quinn and Williams until he got a concussion, unfortunately, or a check for a head injury was holding his own. and was dominating and it was a huge, huge part of this win. It really was about their defense. It was. It's unbelievable the Rams could not get anything going in the first half.

The Jets built a 13-0-0-0 lead. One of the weird stats of this season, the Jets have the worst offense in football, but now they have eight straight games or they've scored on their first possession. Go figure. They get on the board first to go 7-0 on a Ty Johnson screen pass touchdown. And I think that was huge because it I think tightened up Los Angeles.

It's like, oh, wait a second. Could this really happen? Is this happening? Is this happening? And even though a couple of crazy things in the second half, because you knew if you're, if you follow this team, the Jets all season, they've been in games at halftime. And then the adjustments are made and Gace gets his ass kicked in that department and the other team is going away. And that's what happened again here. The Rams offense figured it out at halftime came out at the half started putting up points, looked like they actually took the lead on a Cam Acres.

touchdown or we're about to with the PAT called back on holding. Then after a Jets three and out, they get the punt, they get a punt, they nearly take it to the house and the Jets punter, and maybe it's an infamous name now for Jets fans, depending where your perspective is, Braden Mann saves a go-ahead touchdown for the Rams on a punt return, and then the Jets are able to somehow miraculously close it out. It's a brutal loss for the Rams who see their chances to win the division, take a crushing hit. And if you're a Jets fan, you're trying to figure out how to make sense of this, although it's kind of like, in a way, the past election we just had. If you already had

decided where you came down on what the two options were here, you weren't going to change your mind now. I've been in the camp of, I hated this 0 and 16 thought. I thought it was completely unfair and terrible to think the only way to get the number one overall pick is to go 0 and 16. So it was like, it was a no-win situation. And then I thought to myself, why are the Jets even in this position? The Jets should still be a team that should have the number one overall pick. Who's finished 1 in 15 and didn't get the number one overall pick? Well, in a non-expansion year, could be the New York Jets for the first team ever, according to NFL research. Only one team did not have the first overall pick after going 1 in 15. It was the 2001 Panthers.

And that's because the Texans came into the league as the expansion team. And Mark, what that tells me, and Wes, you say it all the time. History is instructive. Minchu Mania, Chicago Bears next week. Come on, get it done. Do it, baby. The problem is, you know, I mean, if this relies on the positive sort of psychic connection between you and Gardner Minchew, I see a lot of problems and you're getting what you want. Not good. That won't be good. I'm with you that, I mean, the hope is you get out of here, one in 15, you get the first overall pick and you don't have the stink of 0 and 16, which having been through it, like, if the team gets good, no one talks about that season anymore. So it has almost no effect on me as a person, fan-wise. But I think

you and I might be in a little bit of a different camp on that. And I would hate to see them lose out on what is one of the most exciting quarterback prospects of the last 20 years because of Frank Gore and, you know, Adam Gase. But that said, I mean, let's see where it goes. Like Sean McVeigh, I thought after the game, he said this is going to be embarrassing. I'm sick to my stomach. And I do think that that is about as rugged a loss as you could take as an NFC or AFC contender to fall to a team like this at this point in the season. And the way they did in the whole thing. And they've got to package this thing away.

And, you know, West, they've got to bury that ball. Like, this is one of the weeks in the soft LA landscape. Dig a hole, put the ball in it, patch it up, move on. If you want to take time out of your week to do that. If you're even allowed to do that anymore, I'm not sure what we're allowed to do. No shovels anymore. Okay. I don't think you can count on the bears.

This team's averaging 31 points a game since they're bi-week four weeks ago. They're a different offense right now that bears are. All right. I'm not going to necessarily pack in my hopes because Mitch Trubisky's had a couple of nights ago. Yeah, you never know. Jags have been competitive with some good team. So it certainly wouldn't be a total stunner. They are trending in the wrong way, but so are the ramp.

I mean, the problem with this Rams game is that it looked too similar to a few others. So I think of the first half, there was a five-drive sequence where the Rams had two total first downs and an interception. I mean, the Rams defense actually did everything they could to keep them in this game. They basically shut down Darnold for a big chunk while the Rams' offense is just hand in the ball over in perfect scoring position. And it wasn't all on golf this time. The offensive line for the Rams was really bad. But that's a problem. Their interior line struggled.

Maybe when Whitworth comes back, that helps. I think the defense is solid, but it's an offensive league. The only thing I'd argue with you on Dan on anything is that this game was devastating for the Rams chances. They went out. They win the division. So that was the same coming in because they have the tiebreaker on Seattle. They obviously lose a margin for error here, but the big game is. next week. They got to regroup, though. I mean, you can't be losing to the Jets. I'm not saying

that's not embarrassing, but you beat the Seahawks and the Cardinals and you win the division. I just feel like with the Rams that you know about 10 minutes into a game, which version of the Rams you're going to get. Not every week, but it just kind of feels that way. They're either on or off, and I can't, like, there's a lot of reasons to like the Rams. Do I trust that they're going to get into the playoffs and destroy three people in a row? Not at all, but prove me wrong. Who would you in the NFC? I guess Greenware, maybe. Maybe the Packers, but you're right.

Greg, two things. Desert stuff. The Jets were at 17 points was the spread of this game. It's the second largest upset win for New York in the Super Bowl era. The only larger upset was what, Wes? Super Bowl 3. Correct. And if we're going to hear from Bob was choosing for the first time this season,

you're damn well right. hear from Keith Hansen. Oh, yeah. Dad. His name is Keith. He's dad's dad. No doubt about it. He's a big Jets man.

What is he going to say about the name today? What is he going to say about the name today? Well, the Jets upset the Rams today with a great victory. But I have to tell you, as one of the most diehard jet fans, today was one of the most difficult days where actually at the very end, I was rooting against my team, which I never do. So that to me was very strange, but I'm happy they won and we'll see what happens before the season ends. But that was a new one for me.

I mean, my dad is not into any of that stuff, like tanking and all this stuff. My dad is like tried and true fan of his team. He turns them on to see them win on Sunday. So for that to happen, tells you how strange and bizarre this was, yes, I'm hoping this guard of mienchu karma is going to come back to haunt me more. You are the exception, Dan, by the way. It really feels like Jets fans truly. were a route. If internet polls are to believe, Jets fans really did root against it. Oh, they're upset. They're totally pissed off. But one last thought. We don't know.

Trevor Lawrence could be amazing. The Jets could get Trevor Lawrence still. But Justin Fields could be better or whoever could be better. There's this assumption that you're missing out on Joe Montana. We don't know anything. So just try to live in the moment. I agree. I'm with you on this one. All right. Let's move on. So we talked about what happened with the bills. and the Jets. Now let's swing over to a former jet and his Seattle Seahawks. Giving the ball off to Hyde, and he breaks free inside the 40, down to the 30. He's on the run, 20, 15, 10, he's going to go in.

Touchdown! Seahawks! Steve Brable, K-I-R-O, Carlos Hyde ripped off a 50-R touchdown, and the Seahawks defense continued. Its second-half surge and a 2015 win over the Washington football team. The victory, as we know, we just heard, help Seattle immensely in the NFC West race, and it also represents the clinching of their ninth playoff berth in 11 seasons under Pete Carroll. What a run.

Greg, it felt like Washington's defense was going to make Seattle work in this one. That's what we talked about heading into this game. Is that how it played out? Yes and no. You know, I played to type, but it was also 20 to 3, you know, mid-third quarter, and it felt over. It was almost like the Seahawks ran the ball too well. And I, and you feel this creeping in on this team that Pete Carroll's more comfortable focusing on the running game. Russell Wilson, I think, had about 90-something yards on his first 20 dropbacks, if that. They were really, you know, playing good past defense, but Seattle was moving the ball. You know, the Washington offense looked terrible.

The biggest surprise was that the Seahawks offensive line, I thought, really controlled this game, you know, for the most part. They protected Wilson well, and they controlled the game on the ground. But then suddenly Haskins puts two nice drives together, gets the ball back even in the fourth quarter with a chance to go win the game. This is who the Washington football team kind of is, is that it looks ugly. And you can say, oh, this game looked over. It was a misbatch. Well, they got the ball back with four minutes to go and with a chance to win.

And this is kind of how Seattle's playing, where teams are playing tight to them. And Washington always finds a way to be in these games more than you expect them. It feels like a legit concern for the Seahawks that they're winning now by playing opposite of the way they were winning in September and October when we thought they were playing at their best and most imposing. And like you said, Greg, it's trending in a direction we don't want it to trend as far as their offense goes. Yeah, it's weird.

You know, in this game specifically, you know, he threw it 27 times for 121 yards. So, like, you couldn't even kill them for, you know, running so much. It was more effective for a chunk of the game. Their offensive line, I think, is better at doing that. You know, give Washington credit. They always find a way to make a couple plays, whether it's in the red zone or to force a turnover to make it look closer than it felt. But you're right.

This Seattle team, like, how confident are you, like, Mark, like in them winning three straight in the NFC? It's like, I don't know. Well, no, I think to your point before that it's hard to find. any team in that conference. But Seattle's, they're freaky enough that I've seen them do it before. They've got a little, they can get a little magical. But I mean, when you have D.K. Metcalf and Tyler Lockett combining for less than 80 yards, that's getting up to West's point. I think we're getting away from what built trust, in my opinion, in their explosiveness and their ability to win shootouts. I don't know if Carlos Hyde is what you're anchoring the efforts around heading into

a post-Christmas part of the season here. This does guarantee, by the way, that no NFC the East team leaves the regular season with a winning record, which I feel like, you know, was a safe gamble there. Speaking of destiny. Yeah. Yeah, I feel like that's ultimately what's going to, you know, cost Washington, right? Their offense, a stat flashed up before they woke up in the second half when they kind of went back to over the last two games and the offensive output had just been grisly.

As good as frisky as this defense is, they're going to muck up games like this and hang around and steal one occasionally. but they just need to get better on offense. Well, Haskins, I thought, was a step down, even from Alex Smith. Although Alex Smith was taken on water and I think was struggling more each week that he played. Haskins struggled, made some pretty bad decisions. They were struggling to pass the ball. But then he puts together two nice, you know, he put two nice drives late.

DJ Reed looked like Dorel Revis for the Seahawks in the defensive backfield. So they put together some nice games. But if the Seahawks offense is struggling, you get the Rams next week. that is a prime kind of playoff get ready test all right let's move on and check in on another NFC playoff

hopeful in fact two of them two seconds to go cardinals lead by seven ball on the cardinal 31 eagles out of timeouts hurts in the gun play clock at one snap to Hertz rolls to his left Hertz lobs it

middle of the end zone four guys down there pass is knocked away and complete Cardinals win. Byron Murphy got a piece of it. Cardinals get their eighth win. They hang on to beat the Eagles 33 to 26, and they can start to smell the postseason. But it wasn't easy, was it? You know, Ron, we cut these highlights. One of the reasons we do is for you, Wolfie, we want you to bring us some real interesting comments to that end of the call. We didn't get it today, but there's always next week, KTAR with the call.

Dave Pash also there. Jalen Hertz played valiantly, but his last second, Hell Mary, fell incomplete, clinching a 33-26 win for the Cardinals. Hertz was the focus on football Twitter in this one, but Kyler Murray returned to game-wrecking forum, and that's a big storyline going forward. Mark, this is a fun one between two exciting young quarterbacks. Yeah, this kind of reminded me back in the day when we'd be sitting at our desk,

you know, banging out these what we learns. And I was like thinking, if I had to write one of the first, on this game, I would have been quite annoyed because it was a game with like 45 different incredible things that happened. I would really suggest someone check this out on game pass for the quarterback, these two Oklahoma quarterbacks going back and forth. They made the share of mistakes, both of them, but I mean, Kyler Murray, I don't think that his game to me looks like his box score where he threw for 406 yards, but he kept producing. That's four touchdowns. Jalen Hertz will be the talk of the week because we've got the morning beginning with reports that

Carson Wentz doesn't want to be a backup quarterback to Jalen Hertz or anyone else in Philadelphia. So then it's like, will we see Wentz again this season or ever? Hertz comes in today and I just again brings total life to this offense. A week after he ran for 100 yards, he accounted for four touchdowns today, which something that Carson Wentz has not done since the beginning of the 2018 season. And all I can say is guys like Zach Ertz, Greg Ward, all these other players on the offense that have been ghosts and traveling like another world for so much of the season are involved now. And it was a fascinating game for that reason. And it was the Eagles lost their punter.

Excuse me. There were like four or five scenarios where they kept going forward on fourth down. I was like, what are they doing? Like five other things were happening during this game. And they lost their punter and their whole. and he serves as their holder as well. So Doug Peterson just trusted Hertz to go forward on fourth and six and in a couple other situations.

And he kept delivering. I mean, again, he made a few mistakes here and there. But this was sort of me, a quarterback duo that would not have happened 10 years ago. I don't think either one of these guys would have been put into this situation or even have been developed the same way that they are now. And, you know, Hertz went through a lot in college. His future appears very bright.

And part of me wonders, a lot's going to happen with the Eagles. Part of me wonders if he could even save Doug Peterson's job because Doug Peterson has looked a little bit more flexible and a little bit better during all this with Hertz in there doing what he's doing. So, you know, I think it just leaves the Eagles with immense, immense questions, you know,

and whispers between now and the rest of the season and then into a very huge offseason. And the Cardinals, if they get in, they deserve it. They're just enough. DeAndre Hopkins was amazing in the fourth quarter in this game. Their defense is not the greatest on the planet, but they disrupt. They cause turnovers.

Hassan Reddick had another huge game today. It seems to be two or three people popping up on that defense every week in Arizona. That report before the game, sometimes I think these agents, who I'm just going to assume it's coming from, you know, you don't know, but it's either an agent or the player that's saying that he's not happy. I think they're doing a disservice, you know, to their client. You know, they're putting it out there that... Well, it makes him look sort of petty, doesn't it? That he's not happy. And, hey, how about you go watch your teammates play a thousand times better without you?

Because that's going to hurt your value a lot more than your agent putting your value out there to get some team's interest. I'm not saying he wouldn't have interest or that his career is over, but let's just look at it. I'm not sure if Hertz can save Peterson if that is the direction they're going. if Peterson's the one that was pushing to keep Wentz in the lineup. Because if anything, it looks like he wasted a lot of time wasting so long with the dead quarterback when he had Hertz sitting there. I saw you tweet about that too. I got to push back on that one, Greg.

I just, I think it's so easy to say that now because Hertz has come in and he was okay last week and he was really good today. But again, it's that bigger picture of what Wentz was and what he represented entering this season. and the head coach that had loyalty to his starter for the past three years and was kind of waiting for that guy to come back and he just never did

and it submarine their season in a lot of ways but it was to me like one of those football things that it just happens like and there's no way to explain it if you would have asked a hundred of the smartest people in the football world entering the season nobody would have thought Carson once would have had the season he had and Peterson is in the very difficult position of navigating that in real time

so if you're saying he should should have put him in three weeks before he did. All right, but I guess these decisions don't get made in a vacuum. They're bigger than just, you know, stats. And in that situation specifically, Monty plays such a huge part of it, more than most quarterback controversies, because it's hard for the Eagles to get rid of Carson Wentz after this year. Trade, release, what have you.

It's just hard for him. So if you're the head coach, you got to, you got to, try to make it work. You do. It's just that he was so lost and Peterson used the reason that they're trying to win the division and that going to the backup is like, you know, sending a message they're giving up. Well, guess what? They're by far, you know, their two best offensive games of the year by far are since they bench went. By the way, they're not out of this NFC East race. I know that sounds crazy, but they play the Cowboys in Washington. So if you win those two games, all you need is to lose next week against Carolina.

Like, you don't need that much to happen if they can win those two games. They actually have a little bit of life. If they hadn't come into this game, losing three defensive back starters, their best three, on top of another offensive line. I'm like, who knows? This guy just put up 338 and 3. Passing 63 running, I'm just saying. It's about as good as it gets.

We've talked about that Eagles Washington game as potentially the primetime Sunday night affair in week 17, which people would have Gagled that a month ago. It just makes more sense now than ever before, shockingly. Al Michaels is going to be like, I'm going to take another week off just to be safe. You got this one, Mike. Let's move on. Another big game

with huge implications for the playoff race in the NFC went down in Minneapolis. Snap back to Kirk Cousins. He's moving. He's launching. He's going into the end zone. And the pass is batted away. The intercepted in the end zone. Sherrick McManus. I'm a tip.

Bears finish the deal. They take one in Minnesota. Faye, two black. You're still alive at 7-and-7 had a 33-27 win over Kirk Cousins and the Minnesota Vikings. Jeff Joniak with a called WBBM. See, like of all the things, a five-and-one start gives you so much rope that you can completely collapse for most of the season that follows. And then you get hot a little bit, and all of a sudden here we are, right in the middle of everything. Bears are. Kirk Cousins threw up a prayer, but there would be no Christmas miracle for the Vikings.

It became the latest team to feel the pain of Mitch Trubisky and the resurgent monsters of the Midway. Bears 33, Vikings 27. Yes, it was a loser goes home match and it was the Vikings who say goodbye to relevance in the NFL for another year. Greg, is something special happening in the Windy City? What exactly? What's happening here? I don't know about special, but the intonation in our play-by-play man's voice. forgetting the name, just told me everything I want to know. Like, they're getting back on the Mitch train. Like, they're getting into this. This game had everything I wanted from like a week 15 game with two flawed teams

fighting to eliminate the other and like all this backstories. At one point, the bears had scored six straight times, six straight possessions. And I was about to like, I had a tweet already. It's like, if you give up seven straight scores to the bears, like, you have to take the rest of the season off. But at that very moment, they intercepted Mitchell Trubisky in the red zone, in the end zone, when the game looked absolutely over. So for the ending, so for the ending to go Mitchell interception, then the Vikings can't pick up a third and one or a fourth and one with cousins backpedaling to ever, forever. And then Nagy doesn't trust Mitch at all, doesn't let

him even throw a pass. It says, oh, you know, we're going to just kick a field goal. Like, we don't even want Mitch to throw another pass. You try to go. a touchdown. And then Cousins setting up for a Hail Mary and throwing these short passes and it's tough with only a minute left and no time out. But after the game, he said, our entire goal was to set up for a Hail Mary. And we got to that. And sometimes Kirk Cousin says these things after the games. And I think about that. Wait, what? What are you talking about? There's 55 seconds if that was your whole goal, you got the ball at the 30. You only moved at 20 yards. Like, You only did. That was your goal? I don't get it. This Vikings team deserves to go bye-bye.

The one thing that really impresses me with the Bears, and if you go back to when they were falling off that five-and-one record into a total pit, they had huge corona issues along their offensive line. They had injuries along the line. And it sounds like from some stuff I read today that David Montgomery, who we're finding out what kind of running back he can be. because, you know, how many weeks and months in a row did we hear from the Bears? We, the run game matters to us. We want to establish the run game. Then they'd go run for 31 yards. And it's like, please shoot an arrow into my head if I hear that one more time from Matt Nagy. But here comes Bill Laser.

Here comes some combination of new play calling. And I think the line today sounded like they were pretty dominant against the Vikings. And it opened up big holes from Montgomery. And this is sort of closer to what the Bears have been advertising to us. Is it sustainable? I'd be concerned if we get too much too excited about this and keep all the parts in place but they're not boring at least

I mean that's sort of what when we're killing the bears it's not just that we want them to lose I'm tired of the bears being an eyesore and they are not over the last month you're getting back in on Mitch Mitch was your guy you getting back in no but for a quarter of the season now David Montgomery has averaged 144 yards

from scrimmage and a touchdown and a half per game. That is getting it done. That's huge. They did. He did have the open holes. He ran great. Mitchell ran great. It was exactly what Zimmer mentioned coming out of halftime is that we need to shut down Trubisky's legs, which really did create a lot on third down. He met Trubisky, you know, they only asked him to do so much. He only had about 21 throws here. But he, until that interception, and then he always leaves you with something, until that interception, he played terrific. I mean, he was accurate. Mooney and Robinson are a great one too. My boy, Darrell Mooney out of Tulane,

looking like a real keeper. Like, they're not bad. They're going to get to that week 17 game. I think they're going to beat the Jaguars. I think they're going to get to that week 17 game alive. They'll need some help them. They punt it on their first drive, and then they scored every other drive until that interception.

And it's just the unpredictability of sports and of the NFL that, you know, if this Mitchell-Tribisky saga ends with his fourth, season being this like crazy ride to take a playoff spot. I don't know what that does. And there's no sense really speculating on it because it can all go to hell next week. We've seen enough bad tape from Mitchell Trubisky to know not to put too much faith in him. But it would be kind of fitting if this kind of crazy soap opera around the Bears and what happened on draft day and then giving up on him entirely, not picking up the option and then saying Nick Foles, we want you to save us. I mean, you could, I guess, say, and I know Trubisky had a shoulder injury in there somewhere, Greg.

But you could, I guess, say that Nagy maybe would have been better having less loyalty for Nick Foles and getting Mitch in there sooner the way he's playing right now. Bears fans have certainly said that. Trubisky is a free agent. They didn't pick up the fifth year option. Just knowing this ownership, though, I think if they won out, I think that would save Nagy's job. You know, if they beat the Packers, there's no way they're firing Matt Nagy. Now, what they do with Trubisky, that'd be a little harder to figure out.

I also think I just wouldn't be shocked if Kirk Cousins' names comes up this offseason. We don't need to get into that conversation now. But this, to me, was like the opposite of the Mahomes game, where Mahomes, to me, looks so much better than the box score showed. This was a Cousins did not look as good as the box score showed. He did not play his best game here. All right. So, Chicago, they keep themselves in the mix.

Minnesota, bye-bye. And now the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, they look to solidify their playoff stand. Here's what went down in Atlanta. Transition. Step drop looks down if you'll once, all of it, those toward the end. Got a receiver open. It's Antonio Brown. Touchdown, Chappabay.

Buccaneers take the lead for the first time of the game. And Brown has his first touchdown as a Buccane. Dackleoff. WFU.S. with the call. God, I love that guy. I want Chris Wessling to write. This is what I want. I want Chris Wessling to write a book one day.

Okay? And I want Wes to be like that. like, I put so much time into this book. I'm not doing the voiceover, too. I'm not doing the audio book. Find somebody else. And then I'll say, we'll get Gene Decker off to do the Chris Wessling memoirs. What do you think, Wes?

A finer choice you could not make. Tom Brady connected with Antonio Brown on the go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter, leading the bucks to a 31-27 win over the Falcons. That moves Tampa Bay to the doorstep of a playoff berth. They're nine and five. The Brady to Brown connection marked the fifth consecutive scoring drive for Tampa Bank. And in the second half, they entered halftime trailing 17 nothing. And it was as bad as it looked.

Not only was the offense doing that thing that it does on occasion this season where, you know, Tom Brady looks out of sorts and somehow, despite all these weapons, we're not seeing a lot of separation. And it's just like, they're not getting the running game going. And it's just like, what's going on? here and then a flip got switched and they scored on five straight possessions after halftime, four touchdowns and a field goal. And so they were down 17 Zip. They come out of the locker room and they score a touchdown.

And then the defense lets down and gives up a touchdown right back to Matt Ryan, who played well, really well for most of this game. So it's back to a 17 point deficit a few minutes into the third quarter. And then the Bucks kind of took control of the game from that point. Atlanta failed to pick up a first down on four of its last five possessions. The only exception being a drive that ended with Young Hokute, Young Hokos, 52-yard field goal with 822 that gave the Falcons a 27-24 lead. But then Antonio Brown made the first big play of his Buck's career. So, you know, it's a game that you'll watch it in the first half.

You'd be like, oh, the Bucks are an afterthought when you talk about who are the real Super Bowl teams. and then you'll watch the second half to be like, okay, I mean, you can see it. You can see if they just, if they flipped the switch again and they got hot, like the way the bills are now and the way they were in October, maybe they would be a tough out in January. You got both sides of the coin today in Atlanta. I give them credit for being like consistently inconsistent or like consistently streaky because it seems like every game, you can pick two quarters. You know what they'll be, but they'll go to sleep and then there'll be another.

two quarters where you get this. I think I tweeted out at halftime, like the Buccaneers are boring because I feel that's the way I feel when I watch them when the light switches off, but then they make you look like a fool two hours later. And so I am completely flummoxed and have no idea what to make of this team or what its destiny will be. I mean, is it the sum of its parts on offense? No.

Sometimes. Well, it was in the second half. It was not in the first half. Yeah. I mean, they're not, I think you put it well consistently inconsistent. That's not usually what gets you. Super Bowl victories, but it was enough to beat the Falcons today. Well, they're boomer bust on both sides.

You know, even the defense is boom or bust. So it just leads to a lot of variance where they go on these streaks. It's been that way since like, since week two, really. Even week one. Like they have been that team. You're right, Mark, every step of the way. But for Falcons fans to watch Tom Brady come back on you. I mean, we, I know it's 2020 and these comebacks feel like they happen a lot.

I mean, this is the biggest bucks come back since 1982. And to watch Tom Brady come back like that while you still got the old, you got Matt Ryan back there going, you know, three and out punt, negative six yards, three and out, you get a field goal drive, another three and out, and out, and then four and out downs game over. I mean, as if these Falcons fans haven't been through enough, it's another kick in the groin why they rank high in the pain rankings. Well, if they're still watching these, then they're setting themselves up for this disappointment. I would, you know, there are things you could be doing outside, you know, walk around your town maybe, I don't know. Yeah, Rahim Morris is not keeping this job. And Matt Ryan is another interesting figure as you look ahead to the NFL and some of these veteran quarterbacks potentially at a crossroads. He was 34, 49, 356 yards, three touchdowns, this without Julio Jones who missed another game with that hamstring. But in kind of true Matt Ryan form and not to call back to 28.

a three again. But after he connects with Hayden Hurst for a seven-yard touchdown in the third quarter, it was basically lights out for the offense. It's just like a switch got flipped for them, too, or more like somebody pulled a, you know, a cord out of the wall and shut the whole operation down. So, you know, good, good for the Bucks. That would have been a bad loss this time a year. So the fact that they were able to turn it on, good for them. But at the same time, if you're a Bucks fan, and I know, I know one, my buddy Shilin, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, He's been up and down all season with his emotions about the team, and he's not alone. They're a hard team to kind of figure and a tough team to love, quite frankly.

Young Wai Koo deserves better. He's an all pro. He deserves better. I don't care what anybody, you know, just the Tucker's number of first team, but Young Wai Koo deserves it. He's been automatic. All right. Let's move to an intra-conference game.

I don't know. Play fake, Tanna Hill, deep drop, looking deep. Throwing deep, going for Davis. Davis has got it at the 30, at the 20, puts on a move to the 15 to the 10, another move to the 5, and move to the end zone. Okay, D, C, D, 75 yards, touchdown, Titans. Corey Davis, two.

The house. Make a move. Is it intro? Did anyone never decide this? We don't know. I can never figure it out. It's never, yeah, it's never going to stick with me. Just don't even say out of conference.

I always say out of conference. The problem is there's nowhere else in life where I need to know the definition. I mean, intra-conference is definitely inside the conference. Intra. That's inside. Cross-conference. How about cross-conference? That's just a conference game.

Why say intra-conference? Just say conference. Because sometimes with the language, it's just wanting to have the victory. And one day, the victory will be mine. I'm just not there yet. What about like an AFC-N-FC cross-pollination tilt? Ah, Mike Keith and Dave McGuinness with the call WGFX. Ryan Townhill ran for two touchdowns.

He threw three more. And Derek Henry ran for 147 yards and a score to move the Titans closer to the third playoff season in four years. They route the lines 4625 mark. Henry gets the pub and he deserves it and he still 2,000 yards is there for the taking if he delivers a couple more games like this. But Ryan Townhill has been nothing short of brilliant

in his two seasons in Nashville. Thank you. That was my takeaway, and I really just enjoy watching the Titans and who they are on offense, and it's a real pick-your-poison attack. We know that. They have a high floor. They produce week after week. It is Henry, but Tanna Hill is just completely fearless when it comes to taking a shot,

seeing someone down field, delivering the ball. The Corey Davis has been consistently great for them for much of this latter part of the season. Brown is there. Jonu Smith had a big catch today. They just look unstoppable on that side of the ball when they get going. And, you know, this game, I would say, raised a small alarm for me. I mean, the Lions eliminated today. So we don't need to worry about the bandwagon and all the other business with them. That thing went off a cliff into a hideous wilderness. But the Titans are alive. My one concern is that, you know, you have Matthew Stafford coming off a week where he didn't practice and Chase Daniel coming in and throwing for 430 yards on this defense that has

zero pass rush. I mean, the lions hung around because, and we saw this with Cleveland, and we saw this in games where Tennessee kind of gets worked over. I mean, they're going to have to win shootouts. They can do it, but at some point, you know, you'd like to see the Tennessee defense step up and do something. Today they had just no answers for an offense that's been better under Darrell Beville, at least much more watchable.

same story all year with the Titans defense keep waiting for the cornerbacks to play better I think we stopped waiting for any sort of pass rush whatsoever because it's just not happening you look up every game and it's zero sacks they're right there though I think with the Chiefs and the Packers is the best offense in the league some of this like the explosion the last couple weeks

is partly scheduled base but I believe I think those would end the bills sorry for uh sorry bills mafia for forgetting you know putting them in but that that's your top four you're already dead over the course of the entire season to me they are right there with the chiefs and the packers yeah their top gear is as high as anyone's and talked about it in the thursday preview show like derrick henry i think he needs about 300 yards uh to get to 2 000 uh which is obviously doable for him in the last two weeks since he's basically averaging that every week Ryan Tannenhill is on pace for like 37 touchdowns passing and like seven touchdowns rushing.

It's like pretty crazy. And then we all know A.J. Brown how special he is as a receiver. Corey Davis has had a nice season for them too. It is quite an attack they have. It really is impressive to watch. As bad as the defense is, that offense scores them out of holes all the time. I'm really curious. We'll see how next week goes because the Colts and the Titans both have really tough game.

The Colts of the Steelers and the Titans of the Packers. but depending on how you go into week 17 how much does a division championship matter to you when you know you are just going to be playing the next week and then how much does 2,000 yards matter to you for Derek Henry? Because if the Titans somehow clinched going into it

it's like I don't know why I don't even know if I would play for a division championship that's sort of an existential question in 2020 or would you worry about resting starters Before we move on, just to say a few words in respect of Alexander Myers, who was done away with by Derek Henry, stiff arm today. Let's listen to that because it sounded like a gunshot. And I know that this is an audio medium, but you could hear that stiff arm.

My goodness. He's unbelievable. It sounded like someone being hit across the head if they were wearing like a motorcycle helmet with a two by four. Right. We all don't get to pick what our legacy is and maybe Alexander Myers will go on to have a successful NFL career. But that might be his football tombstone right there.

Oh, he was the guy that got stiff-armed seven feet underneath the ground in week 15 and 2020. All right, let's move on. 28 seconds to go 4th and 5 game on the line Here we go Watson waiting on a shotgun snap Takes it looking fires upfield

It's a tight window Caught by Kiki Kuti He fumbled the ball He caught him They've bubbled into the end zone Who's got it Who's got the football There's a scrum for it

No signal yet The Colts have it It's a touchback The Colts have fumbled Recovered a fumble In the end zone Kiki Kuti had it And as he was crossing the goal line

the ball squirted up the field into the end zone and the Colts having it with Bobby O'Gareke. It happened again. Matt Taylor, WFNI with the call. With the Texans yards away from the potential game-time score, the Colts punched the ball away.

This time it's Kiki Kuti. And Indy fell on the ball in the end zone. They secure a 27 to 20 win. And it goes to show you, there's more than one way to skin a cat, and that's a bizarre saying because who would skin a cat? I mean, I don't like cats, but who would do such a thing? I thought that I don't like cats.

I'm allergic. Well, I'm allergic. It's different. So Tennessee, the Titans absolutely dismantle their opponent. The Colts win. They find a way to get it done against the Texans who are obviously always going to be a frisky opponent with the Sean Watson. And if you're Watson, you're like, you know, a couple weeks ago when the center fires the ball at his shins leading to the game to sign goal line. fumble against the Colts.

He sat on the bench for the next 10 minutes with a towel over his head. Just shocked that, you know, this season has gone so terribly and how crushing that loss was. This time he kind of had like a bemused look on his face like, hell, this is, this is not my year. This is not our year. Let's get the hell out of here and hit the reset button 2021. So a good fight by the Texans, but the Colts take care of business. They've won three straight. They retain a share of the AFC South lead with the Titans.

And they survive and they advance, Greg, even though maybe it's not the type of win Colts fans want to see against a lesser Texan team. Yeah, division games, they know each other so well, especially watching that game two weeks ago so closely. I'm not surprised because they looked about as even as can be. But DeForest Buckner, who got injured on Thursday, to play this game on limited snaps and hurt and get three sacks is... kind of underscores what he's meant to this team.

It hasn't always shown up in the box score. Today, it did, and he dominated. Well, and to see great players make great plays. Darius Leonard, the play he made on that fumble, to come from behind and swat it out, just punch that ball out. Perfect time and placement. Good for him, and that was the key in the game.

It's, I mean, it just shows you with the Texans. they lost by six in overtime to Tennessee. They lost to the cults by six and seven points. A year ago, when trailing at halftime, they were four and five in those games. Oh, and nine this year. In one score games, they were seven and three a year ago, two and six. And it's like you've got a quarterback operating at the highest levels, doing everything he possibly can.

He's had nobody's at wide receiver weeks in a row, and they're still hanging around. So, I mean, I think if you get a new coaching staff in here, like there is you could just say you have to Sean Watson we'll figure the rest of this thing out the Colts are a better football team this year I'm encouraged to see they can run the ball at this point in the year Jonathan Taylor had 16 carries for 83 yards and a touchdown he looked especially good early on in the game and he's just a you know a great tough runner and his rise has been important to them and it will continue to be important to them Philip Rivers he's you know he really does gain from that he was 22 of 28

228 yards and two scores. So you put that together. Darius Leonard makes the big play DeFaris Buckner has the huge game. It was, you know, the cults are a well-rounded team, and they have a great kicker in Rodrigo Blankenship, who kicked another Nails 50-plus-yard field goal. He's been doing that all year. It's just a great balance team,

and they are going to be trouble for somebody in the playoffs. They could be 12 and 4. They do not feel like a 12 and 14, but that is on the table right now. Absolutely. All right. Another team that is surging right now, the Baltimore Ravens, they got the Jacksonville Jaguars at home. It went as we thought it would. Jackson wants to throw.

Back pedaling at the 20. Now he'll dart over to the left, extends the play, fires to the end zone. Touchdown. Des Bryan, his first has a Raven. And he'll flash the X to the stands. I'm so happy for this man. Yeah, we were just talking about that mark on the Thursday night game last week. That would have been for a guy that made it all the way back

and then blue as Achilles with the Saints last year. And then for that ridiculous COVID designation he got hit with, not that it was ridiculous, but the timing of it with the Cowboys game coming up for him now to score his first touchdown in years. That's nice. Jerry Sandusky, W-B-A-L, no drama for the Ravens this week. Lamar Jackson threw three touchdown passes, ran for another score. Ravens built up a 26 point

halftime lead coasted to a 40 to 14 win Mark the Ravens are back There's no doubt about that now They are If you're going to get this version Of Baltimore and why aren't we going to get it This is who they are right now They led in yardage

221 to 60-61 at halftime And this is where I get a little bit concerned About your Gardner Minshu Hopes and Dreams Just because they just They had no chance in this game Lamar Jackson started a little rough and tumble He was picked off in the end zone on their first drive.

But then right away, the Ravens' defense stepped up and dropped Minchu for a safety. Then the Ravens just got going on their next drive. It was suddenly 9-0. And, like, you know, how we do this one is I'm just like, this game was over four minutes ago, but it's officially over right now. They ran all over Jacksonville. To me, you know, and I will say one weird thing. This game had a safety.

The Eagles game that I covered had a safety. and the Detroit game that I covered had a safety. I cannot remember a time in my life when I covered three games on a Sunday that all had safeties. I guarantee you that's never happened. Let me call Eli Sports Bureau. I'll call them up. Sure.

I'll call them up. Yeah, the Des Bryant was, to me, I think, a little bit of a little spice about what this team is right now. That thing could have gone differently, and it would just sort of show the Ravens. And, you know, Dan, you mentioned that you thought they were going to win out, and I'm with you. They're going to go 11 and 5, and they're a very dangerous team right now.

Yonik and Gokwe had a fumble recovery. It sort of seemed like everyone took out a lot of aggression and anger on the Jaguars today, who do not look to me any better than the Jets. Yeah, that's a big power rankings decision to make for the old loser. That's going to be, that'll keep you up at night. Speaking of, let's call the Associated Press on that. This is my favorite thing, by the way. Speaking of Gardner-Minchu, this is the greatest Gardner-Mintu stat line ever.

He's the best of them. 22 of 29, 226 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, a 121 pass-a-rating, final score 40 to 14. Ravens. He's good at that. His numbers always look good, even when the score doesn't look so good. Raven's got to feel good to just throwing the ball a little bit. They got to throw, they know who they are,

but they also need to have some efficiency throwing. So I don't care if it's against Jacksonville's B-teamers or what, just to get something going in terms of Lamar's, yards per attempt like he did you know in the crunch time against cleveland that's a good thing all right now it is that time yes where we say goodbye to one handsome bald man and say hello to another nick shook welcome to the show chris wessling any final thoughts before you sign off for another night it was good to make it through this was a tough one for me so uh shook bring that energy level up for the other guys there he goes thank you

Good job, West. See you. Great warrior. Merry Christmas, Mr. Wessling. The wife and I have a delivery headed into your way, Chris. So stay tuned. Stay by the door. Stare at the door.

That will give you something to do this week. All right. Let's continue to roll through the rest of the week 15 Sunday schedule. Up next, the throne of ease in trouble. They're going to go for it on 4,003. Dan Newton. Shotgun. It puts Myers in motion.

Blitz coming. And they got to him. They got it. It's Akba. His ninth sack of the year. I've been stuck on eight. Good to see him get nine. And what a great time to get it, Jimmy.

Just all but end the football game. Man. Jimmy. Ooh. The bongos. Oh, magnanimous of you. Eric. Jimmy Cephalo and Jason Taylor with the call.

WQ. AM. Yeah, the big stop at the game on Cam Newton clinched it. Undrafted rookie Salvin Ahmed and veteran Matt Breda combined for 208 yards rushing to leave the Dolphins to a 22 to 12 victory over the Patriots. The Patriots who have been eliminated from postseason contention. It's the first year. They will not be in the playoffs way back in 2008. That was the Tom Brady for an ACL season. How did this one go? 2212, a slog. Yeah, a little bit of a slog, especially in the first half. And kind of like what I wrote in what we learned for this, in a game between Bill Belichick and a guy who used to serve on his staff in Brian Flores, I mean, could we really expect anything other than that we're going to get, you know,

a total of 16 points by the late third quarter between these two teams? You know, pretty much I was like, yeah, all right, this makes sense. But the dolphins got to give them credit. give Tugo Vaila a lot of credit as well for picking it up in the fourth quarter. And the fun thing about watching the dolphins on a week-to-week basis with two at quarterback is every time you go through the course of a game, he makes a mistake early or he's just a little slow to react and it costs the dolphins in a key situation early. And then he runs into another similar situation later in that same game and learns from it

and applies what he's learned to make the best out of a situation. Whereas like in this game, for example, he was on New England's 3. he threw an interception. They didn't come away with any points there, obviously. They find themselves in the same situation. Early fourth quarter, he takes it himself, escapes the rush, gets across the goal line for the first of two rushing touchdowns for him.

So, you know, they kind of came to life as he got more comfortable, which is something that you see in a weekly basis with him, is throughout the course of the game he just gets more comfortable and kind of sparks their offense. Statistically, it's not there for him right now. But that's okay because they have a running game that they can rely on, you know, with Ahmed and Matt Breda, who, you know, 12 rushes for.

for 86 yards today looking as fast as ever. They played with some decisiveness offensively in the second half and really executed better than I thought that they would or that they have in a while. But yeah, we had to fight through a little bit of that mud in the first half between two very good defensive coaches. I mean, they're missing Grant, Parker, and Gassiki. And I came into this game thinking they're going to win

because Flores is the chosen one. And you watch this in terms of the, you know, the Belichick disciples, wasn't Manjew. and he's definitely not Patricia, wasn't McDaniels. Flores' team comes together. They're greater than the sum of their parts, like those 0-1 Patriots, Marks mentioned throughout. And isn't this such an O-1 Patriots type of game

where all your skill position guys are hurt? And you go win the game with Durham-Smith, Lynn Bowden, and Isaiah Ford as your top three. None of whom were teams that guys anyone really wanted. The Raiders gave up on Bodom. The Dolphins gave up on Ford. They traded him to the Dolphins. the Patriots a month ago.

They're only taking them back because they're in desperation mode. I'm just not surprised because you just watch them each week and I think they're really well coached. Maybe they have a low ceiling, but I don't know. In the AFC, like what does that even mean?

In a single game elimination tournament, you're telling me they wouldn't have a chance against anyone, maybe not the Chiefs, but against just about anyone else. Well, this is going to be really cliche, but they're winning with defense. And defense can win you a game in the playoffs if you get to the playoffs. And right now they're in a pretty good position.

And it's hard to argue with where they stand right now because week after week, whether it's against the Chiefs, they lost a close one last week because they were very competitive or it's against the Patriots who obviously aren't the Patriots of old but are still a team that you have to expect that you have to come out and play really good football in order to beat them. They've done it on a week-to-week basis. So yeah, I think you're right, Greg. The ceiling's not super high to us still a rookie. And they're missing those guys like you mentioned. but they're a team that you have to watch

and you have to take seriously because of how well coached there. And they got an attitude, man. They really play with an attitude, especially on the defensive side of the ball. They really embody their coach. What a turnaround. What a turnaround. I thought that really stood out when they got into,

you know, huge fights on the field a couple weeks ago. And it was Flores who led the charge marching out onto the field. I mean, I think I could tell you a lot of coaches are not going to do that. And they may not have the highest ceiling on defense or offense or special teams. But the floor for each of those is impressive. They're very watchable. They're very balanced. And yes, we've said it.

They're well-coached. And what a day. I mean, if I were to point to one thing because of injuries and other stuff that is not work for them, they could not support to a, with a ground game through so many of these weeks. And to today with all the guys you mentioned out of the lineup, the fluidity and flexibility to go run for 250 yards, that reminds me of the Patriots. When a bunch of guys are gone, we're just going to change who we are.

We're going to throw in an attack you a different way. Ahmed, who was actually, he's had a couple of people. couple good games. So, I mean, they find dudes to step up, and it's every week, it's different names. So I'm with you that in the AFC, they could pick off anyone. They made life difficult for Patrick Mahomes. It's not enough. But they, but one of the few teams that did that by, what was a 30-yard sack, the worst sack of Mahomes' career. I mean, so today they went and put it to an offense that has a putrid smell attached to it, New England. The Patriots have been sent off to the cornfields before Christmas.

It's kind of hard to believe after all these years. That's your Christmas gift, Dan, from us. How did Scott Zolak take it? And the snap back to Newton, it's fourth down. Cam's in trouble. Cam's going to get set. And... Not saying anything.

I'm not saying it. With 108 to go. It says it all. The dolphins are celebrating. So really it was a... It's the gift that keeps on. given. He's the jelly of the month club. What does that mean?

Jelly of the month club? Like a low wattage gift? Or I guess you keep getting it all year long? He said the gift that keeps on giving. So I'm guessing he's like talking about turnovers or giving away negative plays and you get one each week or month. I mean, you know, they didn't hire Zolak for his wordplay. It was just that, you know, that bright intelligence. All right. There's got to be more. Is there anything else, Ricky? Since 2008, last time the Patriots did not make the playoffs until this 2020 campaign.

That was gross. I mean, I'd rather take one like the Rams against the team that, okay, on paper and structure and coaching, they're a lot better than us right now. You can take it in your tough kick like that. Not from this on an unmaned team. Just took it to you down in South Florida. Oh, the disrespect of the dolphins.

Right. He referred to them as a unmanned team? Undermanned, undermaned, because they were banged up. You know, because they were missing, because they won in the same way. And that's why I've believed in them. They went in the same way every week and every losing team like goes away. Look at Greg trying to turn it away from the Patriots and back to the Dolphins. Take us through your thought process right now, Greg.

It's finally over. you're just another one of those teams this is it. This is it. I came into this game with living and dying on it and it hurts. It hurts. One of us. One of us. Well and he's

Zolak is saying he would rather lose to the Jets. We could arrange that two weeks from now. Mr. Zolak. I don't know. I guess I had so low. I'd rather not. I was never to it. You are more invested in this team than I have been and I'm happy for you, Dan. Well, I mean, listen. I get things all wrong all the time we all mess up but i had this one nailed i knew the patriots are in trouble

with cam newton and wait you told me all season that i was way you actually many times kept saying all season like you're way too down i don't know why you don't think they're contenders i was like i don't i think they're a six or seven win team like back in week three i have never come off my messaging that the patriots were a seven to nine win team that was not special and and and yeah and when everybody was going nuts about about cam and everything early in the season It never, I never caught on. Maybe I just, because I didn't want it to catch on, but it never did. And I think, you know, are we going to see Jared Stidham the rest of the year?

That's something to keep an eye on too. I think they think about Jared Stidham. Oh, that's true too. All right. And Scott, hang in there. I'm sure there's another generational quarterback right around the corner for you. All right. Let's move on.

Finally, San Francisco at Dallas. Dalton's under settled. He's going to give it a Pollard coming on the right side, first day. breaks a tackle. Pollard running away to the 15. 10. Tony Pollard. Streaks in.

40-yard touchdown run. Tony Pollard. Ziggio Elliott was a late scratch on Sunday. So Tony steps up and plays like a star. Scores twice, including that game icing 40-yard scamper. Late in the fourth quarter, they added another touchdown on a CD-LAM, on-side kick recovery. and the Cowboys keep their playoff hopes alive

with a 41-33 win over the 49ers. What a world, Nick Schuck. What a world. Yeah, what a world. I mean, you don't help yourself when you go down to Dallas. You're already underman. Speaking of underman, the Niners are probably the most underman team in football, or one of the three most underman.

And you immediately turn the ball over twice deep in your own territory and basically gift them two scores and you dig yourself a 14-0-0-0 before you can even blink. I mean, that's how fast it was. You don't give Nick Mullins the ball expecting him to throw you into a multi-score comeback win. And yet there they were right there in perfect position and then gave it away again. Mullins with a crushing interception late. And then C.D. Lam showing off his athleticism after they get a field goal to try to cut it to a one-score game.

And he takes the outside kickback for a touchdown. It entered the realm of the absurd by the end, capped by the Tony Pollard touchdown. It's probably not what we expected. We might have expected a lot of points or a decent amount of points from. the Niners, considering that Dallas's defense is still a mess, but you didn't expect it to blow up like this and have people celebrating on a Sunday in December and what could be a lost season if that division wasn't so bad. I had so much hope for this Niners team, and I think that they seem, you know, and it's understandable, sort of psychologically broken at this point. They've

used over 75 players this season. You know, it's easy to forget, but they were forced to move to a different city a couple weeks ago and I think it's just added up to be too much and it's too much to overcome and you know now it's we we learned today that not surprisingly the jimmy g won't play again this year why would he um but i wonder if he'll ever play again for them it's it's it's one of those lingering offseason questions and um i don't need the cowboys to go on a run here and make the playoffs and i would hope their fan base doesn't need that either but i'm sure they they say they do i'm not i'm not getting sucked in that the cowboys are going to follow this up with another big performance.

But, I mean, if you told Cowboys fans six weeks ago that you were going to enter week 16 with a chance to win the division, so you think, really? If you told them on Thanksgiving after they got destroyed in their building, that they were going to have a chance to win the division, however slim it may be. So, you know, you have that. You get to celebrate Christmas and then look ahead to a game that matters, which I don't think anybody predicted. Well, someone's got to win.

They play the Eagles. So one of them is going to win. win and then that is a true elimination game you don't get a ton of those not even just metaphorical like like the Vikings are you know technically still alive after loon that is a true elimination game and c. j bethirt by the way will be starting for the 49ers the final two weeks shanahan uh confirmed what was the what was it did he play the second hey no he came in for a junk drive but um what's his mullin's got hurt too yeah but he said regardless of the injuries going to give Bather to change.

No, Mullen's is killing you with two or three disastrous throws a game outside of being otherwise sort of productive. Yeah, that and the Niners, you know, with all the injuries and everything they dealt with, they also have not taken care of the ball. Negative 11 turnover differential. One of the worst in the league, and that's going to kill you no matter who's in the field. And Zeke missed with this calf injury that's been lingering. You know, he's a high-paid veteran running back coming off his worst season of his career.

any Wally Pip possibility here with Tony Pollard? Did you like the way Pollard look or was this seemed like a one-off for you, Shook? I mean, it depends. Do we take this seriously? Do you get sucked into the whole playoff hunt? Because is this a team, this is going to be my question earlier.

Is this a team that even if they made the playoffs? I mean, you're... No, I just mean, Pollard over Zique. Yeah, I mean, he had that nice touchdown run at the end of the game. He's a nice complimentary back to, I think, what Ezekiel Elliott is, which... He's a better back than Ezekiel.

When I saw Zika was out today, I thought that is going to help their offense. I don't think anyone watches the Cowboys can argue otherwise this year. Yeah, that's the thing. Zika's had a bad year. He's looked bad for the entirety of this season. And Tony Pollard, when you come to the change of pace, he's faster. He's shiftier. He's smaller.

Yeah, he's a better option right now, which is sad to say considering how much money they're paying, Zieg. But again, how much do we really, you know, how much stock are we putting into this? Are we paying attention to the Cowboys? Are we really watching closely? in the final couple weeks. You got to. They could have a home game in the playoffs. They're alive.

They're alive. And while I check over the cap.com to see what the salary situation is for Ziciel Elliott, we pause now before heading to Sunday night football. Oh, Sunday night. Jones in motion. Mayfield, moves right, throws to the back from Landry, who holds out for the touchdown. It was that easy for the Cleveland Brown. on Sunday night as Baker Mayfield finished 27 of 32 for two touchdowns, no interceptions,

297 yards, actually had 300 and lost another negative play, but that's the only negative thing for the Browns in a 20 to 6 win over the New York Giants taking Cleveland one step closer to their first playoff appearance in over a decade. Here we are with two of the biggest rounds fans you'll find, Nick Shook and Mark Sessler. Shook, I'll start with you. This is what they've done all year, Shoki. They take care of business. Yeah, I mean, another

complete performance. I'm a little concerned about their ability to stop the run. It showed up kind of early, but for the most part, I mean, they, Baker Mayfield with a solid game. You know, they had a good pace offensively. He was letting it rip. They were 9 for 13 on third down. You know, there's nothing to really complain

about when the Browns had the football. Even after they suffered an injury, a right guard when they lost Chris Hubbard, who was playing for white teller who was inactive and then the uh late round pick nick harris comes in i was a big fan of him out of washington it was nice to see him play well uh coming in and relief his first big time uh professional action in his first year so i mean you know this is what i expected this from the browns i'm sure a decent amount of people did um and they keep moving forward gregg you're smiling what's up well it's just it's just like the browns are it's like

making the playoffs for the first time in 13 years and it's just like ho-hum the brown you know it's just like moving forward it's almost like they're so good they're they're boring it's amazing wait i don't know did they clinch a spot today no but they're they're all but in you can put the brownies in well they so they could have slipped up here and that would have been um egregious on a day when everyone else that mattered in the aFC won and it kind of felt this game to me i mean part of it is because we tape part of our show and then you you dive into SNF when it's when we're done with that. But to me, sort of like when we used to go to work, we'd go to the office, and you'd

have a day like a random Wednesday that meant I don't have real memories from it. I didn't do anything terribly wrong. I got the job done for the most part. That felt like this Browns game. And it's weird that that's actually a win for them. I'm so with you, Shook, on the offensive line performance. Bill Callahan has been the secret sauce, the all-star for this coaching staff. and Nick Harris played really well,

and it was pointed out by Chris Collinsworth smartly. I don't know, my thing with the Browns is this. Like, when you get this version of Baker Mayfield where he's not making big mistakes and stuff, like they thrive. And it was sort of just a workman-like performance. And my concern, like the jaded Browns fan version of me, is just don't go in and drop these two games to New York

and have, like, this season end in total calamity. And so you're halfway from that not happening. That is what I've thought about deep in the middle of the night. That's where I'm at mentally. And so take care of your business and you move on for another week. Yeah, that's the point I was going to make is that old Browns, the old Browns would lose this game. The old Browns would, that fake field goal would work,

and the Giants would have scored a touchdown, and the old Browns would have fallen apart. They would have lost this one. It would have stretched into the next week. They would have lost to the Jets, and it would have fallen apart like Mark described. But that's not this team, which is exciting to see. it's ho-hum, you know, there was probably eight or nine minutes left in the fourth, and I was watching with my girlfriend, and I just looked her and said,

this game's over. Like, there's, we could do the majority of our recap right now, because the majority of this game is over. And that's a really good thing for the Browns, who have not been that team in 20 years, if not long. In most of your lifetime, I mean, like the vast majorities of your lifetime. I thought that Judge called this game for the Giants with an almost admirable level of desperation.

He knew he was in a lot of trouble here with Colt McCoy as his quarterback and Freddie Kitchens as his offensive coordinator. And you saw that when they go into the Red Zone three times in the first three possessions. But like we said, going for it on fourth down, that didn't work, trying a fake field goal. That didn't work. It was just not going to happen. And the way things are with Colt McCoy, yeah, he's had a good for Colt McCoy. set himself up for life over the last 10 years being a backup for most of those years. But he's a tough guy to watch, to be honest.

And that's why this game definitely fell very much in the bag once the Browns went up by two scores because the Giants just didn't have the firepower. Yeah, it came down to those two plays, the fake field goal and the failed fourth down in the red zone. But it just got me thinking this game. I mean, there was only 14 drives in the whole game. I'm big into drives. and like in two of them where the Giants kneeled on it once at the end of the second quarter

and then there was like a minute at the end where Garrett got a sack where the Giants weren't trying to do anything. It was really 12 drives in this game. For comparison, like the 49ers and the Cowboys each had 14 drives. And so I'm thinking back to 2020 and I'm thinking Mark Sessler fell in love with those old Callahan-Washington R-words. And he was just like, hey, they might be losing. but they go on these long drives, and they get Mark writing up to what we learned nice and early. And that's what these Browns are. Callahan, he heard Mark.

He went to Cleveland, and this is what they do each and every week. Their touchdown drives, 13 plays 75 yards, 10 plays 95 yards, 14 plays 115 yards. If you count the extra yards, they have to gain for penalties. Like, that's what the Browns do, and they kind of do it every week. They usually do it in the fourth quarter. Now they do it a little earlier, and they're doing it all for Mark Sessler. It really is, it just fits perfect. for Nick Shook and for Cleveland, and it's, to me, what the difference is with Kevin

Stefansky, and it's nice to watch the game. This time, Dan, I didn't watch it in the garage for a couple minutes I did. Then I went right back inside. I watched it with Simone, and Simone doesn't hate watching Kevin Stafansky coach a football game. I think there would be other people that would agree with that. But you're right, Greg, that Bill Callahan... You're saying your wife's hot for Stafansky? Is that what you're saying? To the point where, like, she likes watching the game more just because he's... I'm just saying she noted that he was not, you know, among the, there's the Vic Fangio's.

I'm not saying he's an older man. But then there's the Kevin Stefanski's of the world. Nobody pushes the Kevin Stefansky's sex god angle harder than Mark. You have to connect dots at a certain point. I don't know about that part of the God aspect, but I would say he's, you know, he's a new age, new wave coach, young. Oh, I don't have to gain 150 pounds because I'm coach. coaching a football team between August and December.

It's like I actually can keep my shape. I will keep my wits about me. I just, I think that he... No, flipside, if he gained 100 pounds, maybe they'd be undefeated right now. Did you think of it that way? No, I definitely did not think of it that way. That makes literally no sense to me.

Plus, you don't want to paint yourself in a corner. What if, like, year eight, you've got two Super Bowls under your belt and he just starts letting it go. Oh, he should at that point. I would love him to just balloon up. I think Nick Shook would balloon up. at that point. Two Super Bowls?

I think you already have ballooned up, if you know what I'm saying. I mean, at that point, you're just riding out, riding the wave, you're beyond it. But what's there to live for? You're already achieved the success. Might as well just engorge yourself until your base runs. All right. The train is off the tracks.

All right. So the Browns, 10 and 4, they are ready. They are ready for January. The Giants, not out of it. With the NFC East being the state that it's in, but obviously damaging loss to them. So we're going to see how that all plays out before we sign off. Let's check in on the lock of the week's standings.

Greg, finally takes an L. We needed that. We needed that. Greg had the 49ers. Bad job. You know, just go with your head and your heart. Just go against the Patriots. That's what I wanted to do.

I did it in other forums and didn't have the guts to do it here. You're still 12 and 3 on the season. Good job by you, Mark. You got behind your hometown team. Well, you're an opted hometown team. Well, you've never been in Cleveland before. But the Browns, and the Browns win. I took the Chiefs, the Chiefs win.

And Ricky, oh, Ricky joined me with the Chiefs and broke that curse as well. So good job. Everybody just tightened up the standings a little bit there, Greggy. And I know you act like it doesn't bother you, but you want it. You need it. You want that title. You want to go back to back? Back to back.

Well, the road just got a little trickier. Hey, it's always going to be, yeah, it's always going to come down of the final weeks, right? I guess it didn't last year, but, you know, that's what you expect with a bunch of competitors. You expect this thing to go to the end. Well, that's a professional answer. I liked it.

All right, good stuff. Shook. Thank you, good man. Look at you. Shook on top of the world. He's got a pricey condo, high rise in Cleveland with the girl of his dreams, eating popcorn and watching the Browns,

walk to a win on Sunday night, with a little thing in his pocket. He's ready to pop out on Christmas Eve, maybe even. Who knows? That's too cliche. I'm not sure what that means. Oh, you mean a ring? Okay.

Yeah, yeah. No Stefansky situation there. Okay. And we'll be back on Tuesday. We have one more game from Week 15 that we'll be breaking down. That's Steelers Bengals. And we have a Christmas week filled with content. So make sure you stick around for all that.

Thank you to all the listeners. And, of course, Chris Wessling, who again, week after week, shows up for this show when he's not at 100% or close to it and there's that's so commendable and we are proud to call him our friend. We love you, Wes. All right, this Stan Hansa, signing off for Quiet Storm, the old boss, Nick Shook, Ricky Hollywood behind the virtual glass. Until Tuesday.

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