NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 2022 Divisional Round Recap: These are the four best teams

Episode Date: January 23, 2023

A room filled with some heroes - Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler, and Gregg Rosenthal recap a somewhat lackluster Divisional Round that saw the four best teams advance to the conference championships. We start in the AFC with the Bengals at Bills (3:28) followed by Jaguars at Chiefs (22:23). Then we hit Giants at Eagles (37:25) before finishing with Cowboys at 49ers (57:17). Note: timecodes approximate.NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. The Around the NFL podcast. Has it missed the playoffs in over 10 years? Iron Man. From the Chris Wesleying podcast studio. It's Around the NFL. If I sound intense, if I sound especially focused, it's because it's the divisional playoffs recap app.

Dan Hansis, Greg Rosenthal, Mark Sessler, let's go. So we talk about that this is a show about football, but with just a little bit of mirth. That's the touch. No mirth today. It's all football. This is serious. That's the way Greg likes it. Take the mirth part out, take anything having to not do with football out of the show.

Hardcore analysis. Dive into data. Analytics. Should he have gone for it? Should he have punted? That's what I want to talk about for the next 44 minutes. minutes. We actually might need a little like extra mirth because there weren't quite as many

crazy end of game situations as a normal division around. Just speaking as a spoiled little football baby here. As we, um, not a nepo baby though. As we hyped up heading into the weekend, this is traditionally the best weekend of football. And we saw there were exciting kind of outcomes, uh, that came out of this. let's say for instance we're going to get to it in just a minute Joe Burrow looking like a man possessed with one goal in mind that he will not be stopped

the Niners defense flexing on the you know after all the offensive flexing in recent weeks like we have four big time Super Bowl worthy teams playing next weekend but to Greg's point Mark maybe the game's not at the level we expect it suspense wise I don't always mean to come against like the the two of you's opinion on things,

but it's like, I don't need these games to be the... I don't need it to be the best weekend football because what I like about it is the four best teams won, absolutely. And there have been a couple AFC-NFC title game scenarios that have been a little flaky over the years

because someone surged into a place where they didn't totally belong. I think these four teams completely belong. I thought Niners Cowboys was an incredible... My kind of game. And I kind of like seeing a team like the Bengals just drop the hammer they did and basically announce who they are.

I mean, so there's different ways to evaluate it as a quality or non-quality product. We didn't know that you really liked that last game because you didn't watch it with us. We were in the theater, just me and Gregie. I'm sorry to miss it. I am absolutely excited about what's occurring. We kept a seat open for you. I find that the way to keep the show the freshest is to come in out of nowhere now and speak with you. It's true because when he's in the film room, so many Mark takes just flowing.

No, no, no. It's just that I, it's more than I'm hearing everyone else's takes the entire. entire time. So I've not had to. I'm coming in completely fresh. All right. Well, that's another way to look at it. And now we're going to dig into all the games.

And why don't we start with what I think was, even though it didn't end as like a barn burner, what felt like the most important game of the week, the one that everyone had circle, Bengals, Bills from Orchard Park. Let's go. Shotgun snap, short drop by Burrow. The pressure comes from the left. He throws a home. Oh, come on.

Chase straight ahead, into the end zone. Nice. Touchdown on the opening drive for Cincinnati. A 28-yard throw. Chase reached up at the 8, caught it, and race straight ahead into the end zone. So why would we pick the first real highlight of the game, the first touchdown? Because that kind of was the game. The Cincinnati Bengals went to Buffalo and made the bills look like a middling outfit. A 27 to 10 win, Joe Burrow connected on three touchdown passes.

and the Cincinnati defense, give it up for Captain Lou, who should be getting head coach interviews, but he's not. Absolutely made life hell for Josh Allen and company. And Greggie, it's Cincinnati. Back to the AFC title game. Mark, to your point at the top of the show, last year it was Cincinnati. They were the team that stormed the gates

and showed up championship weekend and then won a game in championship weekend. This time it's a different feel of Cincinnati. They feel like a powerhouse, Gregie, that is now cresting. becoming a league superpower. As that game wore on and it became obvious, the bills were not going to make that comeback, I just thought like, what a long way we are from Westavis.

The early morning slot where our friend Chris Wesleyan would root on his old team to lose because he just knew it was going to happen in a painful way to this team, which is now put together five playoff wins in the last two years, that you have ultra-confidence that they're not only going to rise to the level of the moment, but that their coaching staff will too. I mean, put me in a polo shirt for my analysis on Zach Taylor over the last couple of years. It's a good coaching staff.

I think this team won the game in the first quarter, to your point, 165 yards to 8. That touchdown to Chase was Burrow stepping up in the pocket. The next touchdown, all the attention goes to Chase in the red zone where they fake it to him. It's an easy pass to Hearst. They're just throwing every formation, it's motion, it's running out of pass sets, and the reverse. It's just a clinic.

And they're clearly the class of these two teams. I think they would have beat them a few weeks ago. We never got to find out, and they were set to prove it today. I thought that too. I thought this was the game we didn't get to see because that started out very similar because the Bengals are one of the best opening drive teams in the entire league. And I think that the coaching staff has grown. a year ago they had their O-line issues

and they couldn't adjust. And it was like Burrow saved them situation after situation. They have them all over again. You've got Jackson Carman who turned 23 today, first start ever left tackle. You've got Max Sharping in there and Akeemadenaji and then Ted Karris is playing banged up the entire

time. We went into this game thinking all week long that's the Achilles heel. This might undo the Bengals entirely. Instead, coming out of this game, the bills were pushed around entirely on both sides of the ball The Bengals, I thought, finally, on the ground. I mean, they've been efficient on the ground, but they were powerful on the ground as this thing went along.

Their secondary, the bill's secondary, because of all this, I thought, played one of their, they had injuries, but they played one of their worst games in a long time because you set up, you set up Burl for the shots down the field. Jamar Chase was brilliant. And in the end, like, I know the bills, they're at home. They were presumed all year long to truly be the best team in the AFC, if not once or twice, maybe taken over by Kansas City. They didn't show up. This is not a Bill's story. It's a Bengals one. And Joe Burrow, I think, is at the center of everything,

including the line holding up so well. He plays a major role there. And Cincinnati, you know, I think, and we're going to get to the Bills and what this loss means for them and where they are as an organization. But for Cincinnati, after coming so close to winning the Super Bowl last year, now to get back now to the AFC title game. And the level of confidence that this team plays with wherever they are,

whoever they're against is a direct reflection of the guy behind center who is one of one and I think a generational talent and a guy that I just don't picture losing a game this year after the game you want to talk about different motivations what teams use they weren't happy after the demar hamlin episode about how things worked out with the ravens and the the coin toss hokom and then not even being in the in the mix and the discussion about where you know how things shake out if there's an AFC title game like they're going to be in Kansas City. It would have been a neutral site game

if it was KC Buffalo like everyone presumed and I think they've used that as motivation. Here's Joe Burrow after the game talking to CBS about that very topic. For everyone talking about a neutral AFC championship game not even thinking about you guys how much did that motivate you coming

into this? You better send those refunds. I mean he's just I mean the whole team feeds off that guy he's pretty special. The accuracy was so good, and you're right that he makes that line look better. I think the snow helped. I think the snow...

Absolutely. Not that the Bengals wouldn't have won this game probably going away either way, but I just think it's harder to rush the passer. But then you look at the other side, and the Bengals had a better pass rush than Buffalo did. Their offensive line in Buffalo was certainly worse in terms of their run blocking

and their pass blocking, and it's Burrough's decision-making and figuring it all out that's different between him and Josh Allen. People want to go right into like, well, you've got to put Joe Burrow at number two, now Allen's at number three. Like, who cares?

In this game, like Burrow was clearly superior. And part of it is when the bills are in that two safety look, and Poirer's back there, he's had a couple bad games. He was very willing and able to find the open receivers quickly. And when he saw one safety back there, or he checked to the run play. Like, all the decisions were just spot on. Like, you're right, Dan.

Not that you're the only one to think that Joe Burrow is this special. But that's sort of what I get to when I think about the difference between now and Westavis. It's like they're the opposite of Westavis. They're clutch. Like, they're a, like, team that you just expect is going to show up in the big moments. I mean, he opened nine for nine. He didn't really throw an off ball until, I think it was a couple minutes into the fourth quarter, just to show up in this moment in a hostile environment.

with weather that can even everything. And to be what Joe Burrow was today, it's like, he is that guy, he's already arrived. 30 first downs in this game. And they would have had four more points if they had given Jamar Chase that touchdown. Jamar Chase should have, by the way. That drove me nuts.

That was a touch step. Because how are we actually overturning that? That was late in the first half. So it should have been really with Burrow having three touchdown passes to the first step. They didn't need the points anyway. And I don't want us to lose the big picture as well because while the offense deserves credit,

and Burrough deserves credit. The defense held one of the top offenses in the league to season low, 10 points in their building. And Tony Romo, you know, calling this game, he was pointing out that this was really going to, the conditions, the slick field was really going to hurt Buffalo's defense and their ability to react and play the defense that they wanted to play, play the scheme they wanted to. But that goes both ways. It wasn't like that disappeared when Buffalo had the ball. So Cincinnati had no problem shutting down Josh Allen and making the stops. And I thought that was notable too. Like this is the second year in a row.

Even last year, if we want to say that now the coaching staff deserves credit, even last year they found a way to make the most of what they had and they nearly won the Super Bowl. This is a total team effort, coaching staff. And I don't just, I don't see how this team going forward against the Kansas City Chiefs, a team that they've really outplayed. Well, they're underdogs. barely but I don't want to hear that this is when this stuff starts to not matter to me at all

because it's just simply the Kansas City reputation and we're going to get to it just one and a half points anything that's saying that on a neutral field of Bengals would be out of the past three in outer space one of the three past meetings against Kansas City including a game last month

this team is on fire and now it's turned to the bills because I want to share something I saw and reported after the game you saw Stefan Diggs on the fourth quarter kind of like shouting and he's an emotional guy who's seen this before shouting at Josh Allen

who kind of was just keeping his eyes on his iPad excuse me his Microsoft Surface tablet Good job company man Good brand incorrect Thank you on the bench and not even making eye contact like I've been here before

I'm just not going to I'm going to shut him out right now it was reported after the game that Diggs was so upset he was spotted leaving the locker room with much of his uniform on shortly after the game ended, but had to be coaxed back into the locker room by a teammate. And that is pure frustration. But then left quickly after that, supposedly.

Anyways. That is pure frustration for when you reach where the bills reached last year, they were perfectly set up as the team that's a team on the rise, a juggernaut on the rise that suffers a terrible loss where they play their hearts up and just barely get beat. And then the next step has to be the Super Bowl. And I think that weighed on this team throughout the season. And then you factor in the weird stuff with two games being affected by weather.

Of course, of course, Hamlin and everything that went on there. And there's no other way to look at it. This season is a big disappointment for Buffalo. And you get why Diggs was and I'm sure many other players the way they were after it was over. Yeah, I mean, and Josh Allen basically said, I don't care how anyone views it, it's a complete failure. Because when you become one of these teams, like there's nothing to take away. You aren't the Jacksonville Jaguars dancing into the offseason with a bunch of ribbons around your neck

because of what no one thought you'd get here. Bills have done less than we thought, and I find it kind of stunning the way they collapsed today because it is uncharacteristic in many of the categories. I mean, if anyone said the score, I would have thought, well, finally the Josh Allen turnovers probably caught them, caught up to them, cost them points, and helped Cincinnati with some short fields.

That wasn't the issue at all. He wasn't great. I mean, their big play offense downfield completely dried up. I think it's always easy to focus on Burrow, Jamar Chase, the offense, even the offensive line showing up when people thought that when it's this Bengals defense week after week, they completely turned Buffalo into a nothing.

Let's hear. Nothing operation. Nothing operation. I like that. Let's hear from Josh Allen. Our goal is to win a Super Bowl, all world championship, and we didn't accomplish that.

So everything that happened in this season is kind of knowing void in our minds. And it sucks. It's the old Steinbrenner doctrine. Anything short of a championship is failure. And that's pretty crazy when it's the bills we're talking about that have never won a Super Bowl. But that's kind of the position they're in.

It's kind of a tough airspace to live in. I think that's a hard place to be. And it's why even at the time that moment a year ago where all they have to do is have a veteran defense led by Sean McDermott that he's built up for years, get off the field in 13 seconds, yeah. And I think they would have won the Super Bowl. We'll never know because that team was peaking.

And to me, this doesn't change anything about how I feel about the bill's long term. I think they have certain decisions to make. I never thought that they were some overwhelming favorite this year. I thought they were one of about five teams that could win. Don't like their time, though. Right. Didn't it?

Because time runs out on this stuff. That's why. If not now, it's not just automatically we ticket you as the best team in football all over again. Sure. But as long as they have Josh Allen and this coaching staff in a good, solid base, I'm not worried about them being one of the contenders. Losing Von Miller was massive for it. them. Losing Micah Hyde was massive. Their defense was more disappointing, I think, today,

even than their offense. They could not get off the field. Like, we talked about the offensive line thing. Three quarterback hits for them, whereas the Bengals had eight. And scoring 10 with Allen is something McDermott complains about even when they win is that they just don't have a running game, and they definitely did not have a running game. And I just think they were out-coached. That's when I say when they have such a great coaching stuff. both offense and defense for Cincinnati changed up what they were doing every drive whether it was the disguise looks

whether it's blitzing and then not blitzing it's just like kept mixing it up and the bills never felt comfortable. Yeah, the Von Miller absence talked about it on Thursday how that could really hurt them potentially and the numbers, they dropped a data point during the telecast that they were I think top five in pass rush when he went out on Thanksgiving

against the Lions and they dipped to 27th after he had left. In this game they were dying for someone make a place someone get to burrow and and they just couldn't do it and again that's a credit also to that offensive line of cincinnati which put together an effort that nobody expected absolutely and they were dominant you know in blasting open holes in the run game but buffalo i thought early on looked kind of desperate to get that rush on burrow and that open wide open jemar chase touchdown to go up 7-0 was against the blitz and burrow's deadly against the blitz And it's like, I keep going back to what the Bills could have been

in that opening game that we went to against the Rams. And maybe it's because we were there in person. But all of that happened without blitzing. It was natural organic pass rush. And in this case, when you have to go do that against Burrow, he made them pay right away. I thought he set the tone. And you've got a Bill's team that has played in these elements.

I don't want to hear about this defense, not knowing how to react in snow. It's like you practice in this. You live in this. You walk down your drive. You walk down your driveway in this every day. So do the Bengals, though, too. They live in this weather, too. It's not like a team from Florida came up and did it.

To me, it was almost the run game defense that was even worse. And I do think that's where McDermott will have to, I don't know, he's not going to change who he is. But their defense has been a problem in the playoffs three straight years. I mean, that is the reason that they got the doors blown off them in the AFC championship game two years ago. It's what totally collapsed last year. That's why they paid Bonn Miller to address that. And they've been great in regular seasons. And if Allen had played a great game today and their offense had showed up,

I think it would have been a good game, I still wouldn't have much faith that they would have won, like even if Allen played well. I think the thing is like last year we came out in the defense, they were culpable for what happened. And yet it was like, oh, we've got to change the overtime. Everyone's freaking out, understandably about the overtime rule. And we didn't get to see Josh Allen go do it again.

This time it's like I can point to eight things that are just simply on the bills not showing up in this game. Yep. And behind the glass, our friend Parker is a big Bill's fan. And, you know, Mark, Greg always knows the right thing to say to people. Undoubtedly. And he made the comment that, you know, you never know. You might not be back for 10 years in the playoffs. And although, as usual, Greg could have used a softer touch.

The truth is the 13 seconds last year is a perfect example because then you see what happened this year. There are no promises how long your window. stays open and you hope if you're a Bill's fan that this will continue but man it doesn't there's only a few years you get here right with these cores me and all my friends are jerks look at history look at football history okay I think again like you you like whether you or not you think you can separate it your experience is the Patriots experience no I get it I'm the one who always says this and I agree with you and I did just say it that you might not be back but I do look at Josh Allen in a similar way to Burrow and Mahomes I don't think he's

at that level consistency-wise, but maybe a little closer to a John Elway, in that the window is open while Josh Allen is there. And I believe in the way they've built this team up and the coaching staff and everything. So they might have their ups and downs, but if you tell me, like, they finally get there in six years,

like, that's all a window. You're right. It's evergreen because of Allen, but then what were we saying 10 years ago about Aaron Rogers? Yeah, after offense. It's been open that whole time. It doesn't mean you get there.

They need to pick better. They haven't drafted that well later. Your innocence is lost now. They went from plucky Buffalo team to powerful Buffalo team, and we're still thinking, wow, this is young and new, and they can maybe win two or three of these. Now it's like... That's what Cincinnati is now.

Suddenly, you got usurped by Cincinnati, which is unlike, not nice. We're not young man anymore. Mark's even older than us. Well, I don't feel older than you. You blink, and he'll be 35 years old. I'm just saying, you know, the career you think it's forever. Right. But if this phase of bills doesn't work, they have to retool.

that it starts to build the pressure. It just, you hope they get there because the fan base deserves it. But this series, this season is a disappointment, no doubt about it. Joe Burrough said of the game, domination from start to finish. That's what we expected.

Jobs not finished, but let's give, who locked this up? West Bros. Ah, that's a nice lock. That's a great lock. And it's a locking from the heart. Good job by Nick making the executive decision because he sent us the text of the Cincinnati Zoo.

And yeah, they were all over. place. Amazingly, even one of the Wesleyan brothers picked the bills as a lock. That's why it's the zoo. Yeah, this is totally out of control. It's not amazing or surprising. It's an animal asylum. Let's give the last word to Zach Taylor, the head coach, who might be going to back-to-back

Super Bowls. He turned up the snark here and apologized for being a logistical pain in the ass to the NFL. For the neutral site, yeah, I mean, yeah, we just, we had our mindset to go play in Kansas City. and it is tough because they have to formulate the plans for coin tosses and they've got to formulate the plans for Neutrocyte games and we just keep screwed it up for everybody and I hate that for people that have to endure all those logistical issues and then we just keep screwing it up so I'm sorry.

Oh, Weisenheimer, Wisenheimer. Let's take a break and we'll talk about the team that they'll be playing in the AFC title game. Welcome back. I do not like high ankle sprains never had one myself yeah but i find them to be deeply annoying from a football fan experience and and it did it popped up in two games this weekend with two key players greggie maybe the most important figure in the nfl the presumptive MVP had to play through

a high ankle sprain but he would not be denied er her a little bit of a chris burman set up there to the highlight. Mahomes, again, that right ankle is the one that's bothering him. That's in front of the left, feet staggered. Mahomes now steps up in the pocket, throws late, wide open, back in the end zone. Touchdown! Kansas City, Marquez, Valdez, scantling on a six-yard touchdown. But Mahomes paid the price state in the pocket and a jump throw on that bad right ankle.

Patrick Mahomes on one good leg, got it done. with the call WDAF. Mahomes, after suffering that high ankle sprain threw for 195 yards and two touchdowns he finished with the second capping a 75-yard drive late in the fourth quarter and allowed the Chiefs to get past the Jaguars a 2720 win. My goodness, the Chiefs are on the AFC title game

for the fifth straight year. And Mark Sessler, obviously Mahomes' health is a major question mark going forward. expect him to play, but what level Patrick Mahomes will we get next week? That remains to be seen. I mean, if you want to take him at his word, he basically vowed that he'd play. I mean, I thought one thing that I do love about Mahomes is that his passion is not false. I think we feel that way with some athletes where it's like, you're doing a lot for the camera and stuff. With Mahomes, like, literally jawing with Andy Reid on the sideline, like, I want to go back in that thing. And Andrew

Reed's like, you got to go back and get, if it's negative, you're back in. And so that was where that Chad Hennie period came in. And Chad Hennie, this is what he does every couple of years, rolls into the divisional round, does enough good stuff to keep it employed. And he does it to the rounds. He did it to the Jaguars. And Mahomes came back in.

I just think it's like one of these things where, you know, there aren't that many guys like Mahomes on any level. We keep trying to find new ways to describe them. Here's a new one. He did it completely differently in this game. And I just look at this Chief's offense, which is so different in many ways than the past versions we've seen. And you guys got guys like Isaiah Pacheco

and Cadarius Tony making a bigger impact. They haven't even peaked yet. Their offense and who they are is still on a weekly basis adding new people to the mix. It was Travis Kelsey, and I think it was you could be a little concerned that you didn't have a wide receiver

really step up for big yardage in this, but they just got it done. I think these two teams were fairly slotted for where they wound up. Nice effort by the Jaguars, but the Chiefs just, they've been doing this all year. They're not going to blow your doors off psychologically

if you're a viewer. They're going to get it done. Right. I mean, the Chiefs are the number one offense in the league for the season by a decent amount based on basically any metric for a reason. And they started that game this way. They went to halftime, and yeah, Chad Henney played an entire series there. Touchdown field go touchdown.

And you have a quarterback in Mahomes who I think in this game showed how much he's matured since 2018 when, by the way, he was the best quarterback in the league then too, because I don't know if he wins this game the same sort of way because that first drive and a half, made more plays just completely on his own than I think any quarterback in the league could. I was listening to it initially on the radio. It was a little late coming home from the zoo. Zoo always takes a little longer than you think. Not the Cincinnati Zoo. Not the Cincinnati Zoo. The LA Zoo. Very underrated. Nice, family morning. Yeah, on the day of the divisional playoffs, I wouldn't take that risk.

I know. I blew it. I mean, you can catch up. You can catch up on game pass. And so I was listening on the first quarter listening to Trent Green. And it's like, you know. The hits keep coming. Didn't really make it sound like it was that crazy. And when I went back to watch the first quarter, I'm like every one of these Mahomes plays is insane. It was only because it was Patrick Mahomes.

They scored those 10 points. And then after that, it's the decision making and it's the maturity and getting rid of the ball out quickly. The fact to me that he could win the game in both kind of ways to speaks to his greatness and why I definitely am not counting them out this week. And like, it sounds like you're doing Dan right up at that. I mean, counting out is a strong thing to do with any team in the title game. And if Mahomes is involved even at 70% or whatever, I still give him a chance.

Do I like Cincinnati? Yes, I do like them to get to the Super Bowl. But, yeah, I thought, you know, the Mahomes side of it, did we mention Henney? He was the quarterback against the Browns a couple years ago. Yeah, sure. He shows up every divisional round every couple years. And so it's great to have a guy that you can count on, especially this time of year. if you need it.

But yeah, I thought for me, this game was like a reminder that they're not just Patrick Mahomes, you know, that this defense, which, you know, was facing a Jaguars team that was playing with house money that went in there, knowing nobody was going to pick them to win. And they had scored on five stray possessions in their previous game to have over a historic comeback. And they just shut, they shut down Trevor Lawrence and that offense for the most part. And I think there's a lot of credit that needs to be handed out to Chris Jones and that whole team as well.

on that side of the ball. I mean, if I, the Jaguar's side of it, like if you, there was a moment when Henny was in there and he threw that near interception to FOIA Luokon, had that been picked off, that would have changed this game. But that interception is dropped later in the game. Jamal Agnew, who was sensational as a kick returner and has been for a while and put them in position to make a difference, had that killer fumble that at the, at the chief's five or whatever, which basically changes that entire possession for Jacksonville.

They could have made it three with about eight minutes to go. And then you get the Lawrence, the next possession, you get the Trevor Lawrence interception, which just shows you, like, this is sometimes the Chiefs this year because it's like, had those things gone differently, just a couple inches here and there, Jacksonville is in this thing at the very end, and then they're a freaky operation. This was a winnable game. I think Jaguars are getting that bump from losing a playoff game like this. They went further than you could ever expect. They were three and seven. I get it. But this game in particular is frustrating because it was winnable.

That Chad Hennie drive, it showed great confidence in Andy Reed to throw the ball in first down out of his own end zone. You know, the pass was for a touchdown. He ultimately threw for three yards per attempt. The key person in that drive was Pacheco, picking up eight-yard gains on first down. He had the 39-yard run. And these are like power runs. So to your point, Dan, the pass rush was better than the Jaguars pass rush, where they've spent a lot of money. The chiefs was the running game, both teams ran the ball well.

but certainly the Chief's ability to run the ball kept them alive in that game in that drive. It was an entire team. And I think that that says to me that this can be a championship team and it's got to just be bittersweet right now for the Chiefs that at best,

Mahomes is going to be like 85%. Can you win next week? Because I thought it was impressive that you have Mahomes who can't move and he's just got to get the ball out quick for a big chunk of that game. That if you're, even if you're Jacksonville, good defense, they've evolved

over the course of the year, but you're catching up to that in real time and what Kansas City is going to do. I like Cincinnati's chances. If you're going to get immobilized Mahomes, I just assume he's going to magically be like 95% better because that seems to be what happens with Mahomes. I thought, again, Romo, when they're just at this point killing time at the end of the Bengals game talking about what's going on with Mahomes. And, you know, he said that he had suffered high ankle sprains before. And it's something that you can play through the day it happens. But then he was like the next day, like today, Mahomes probably can't even walk. He's probably on crutches and, you know, I missed my next game after a high ankle sprain.

Mahomes obviously is a different person. We then heard, like, later reporting that like Mahomes feels better and the chief said he feels better than the expected. Wait, what happened with you in your high ankle sprain? This will be notable, I think, to the... Who? Like, what happened with your body when you had a high ankle spree? I would like to know. I said at the top of this seg, I never suffered one.

I've never had. Oh, I did actually once. I thought you had suffered one. I had not. No. And that you skipped a week or something. No, I said Tony Romo, the CBS announcer. Well, I was starting to think you were talking about yourself.

All right, let's, but Romo basically said that, yeah, this is going to be a major issue, that he's going to be immobile if he plays. He will play. But I think that's obviously such a major subplot now moving forward. Let's hear from Mahones what he had to say after the game about his physical status. It feels better than I mean, it feels better than I thought it was going to be now. Obviously, I have a lot of adrenaline going on. right now, so we'll see how it feels, but I'll hop right in the treatment tonight and I try to do

whatever I can to be as close to 100% by next week, but luckily for us, we played the early game on Saturday, so we get an extra almost half a day that I can let that ankle rest. He's just like an excited kid. I like that about him, yeah. He's funny. He's like Trevor Lawrence on the other side, basically it looks at a central casting, like either like a villain in an 80s movie or like what you imagine, like a quarterback, a star quarterback, or should look like.

Mahomes looks different. Speaking of, and sounds different, speaking of Trevor Lawrence, here's what he had to say after the first playoff loss of his NFL career. We worked so hard to get here and nobody thought we were going to be here.

And, you know, we had our shot and that's what hurts, you know. So we'll be back. I'm confident in that. And this is more the beginning than it is the end of something. This is just getting started for us. So we got a taste of it.

and, I mean, the guys are already hungry to give this opportunity again. He's like, I don't know. If they did a varsity blues reboot, he's his mocks. He is, but I think this is so, like, I think it goes just dying laughing. First of all, like, the Jaguars are one of the better stories of the year. We have like eight or nine coach of the year candidates, but Peterson's got a suddenly became right. I mean, here's the thing. Are they pissed off about this loss?

Like, I think it's such a polar spectrum opposite, and it's rightfully so. Well, can I say something? We mentioned a couple years ago at the Browns, and. that feeling like a missed opportunity because you had Henny in the game and Mahomes out and they couldn't find a way that that day at Arrowhead, the Jags are thinking the same thing. Like we had this guy out of the game for the second quarter basically and then he was half of his usual self for the rest of the game and we couldn't steal these again. Again, the Jags, another team.

Like it feels like just the beginning for them. That's what Lawrence said. But at the same time, you never know when your opportunity to make that deep run to be the bangles of last year is and they didn't get it done in this spot. No, but the Browns had Baker-Mayfield and the Jaguars have Trevor Lawrence and even Trevor Lawrence has to be more excited about the Jaguars because they have Trevor Lawrence. Right. They couldn't get any shot plays throughout the game.

Until late in the game, Lawrence was averaging like under four yards per attempt. I thought they got away from the run like way too quickly, which is not something you would have expected out of Peterson. They averaged 7.6 yards per carry in that game. Like both teams for most of this game were averaging more yards on the ground per play than they were throwing the ball. Even the Chiefs were through like three quarters of this game. And Lawrence was like making like two quick decisions and the pass rush was winning for the Chiefs. And it did feel not like a teacher pupil thing, but it felt like the Chiefs were very zeroed in on where the Jaguars were bad, which was on the second level of their defense.

Like they drafted Devin Lloyd and they benched them halfway through the season. season for Chad Muma, and those two guys' heads were spinning, and they just were getting destroyed by Travis Kelsey. 14 catches, 98 yards, two touchdowns. I mean, just outrageous, caught every single pass to him that was, like, within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage, 13 for 13. It's one of the weird things that actually, like, meet out from the Thursday show where the Jaguars are the worst team in the league against tight ends,

and then Travis Kelsey goes completely nuclear on them. What about that Travis Kelsey versus Gronk conversation? stacking up these games in the playoffs too I find it I find it very annoying I know so I brought it up yeah it's a real conversation I think I don't think it is I don't think it is just because they were in the league

they were in the league at the same time and it's like one was you know clearly the best tight end in the league while the other one was pretty much at the peak of his powers yeah but you use the same argument to say that Brady's the best quarterback ever I actually that's where I wouldn't

it depends how you define it He's accomplished the most, but to me, Mahomes is already the best quarterback ever. Well, that's your opinion. Just in terms of, like, playing the position at the highest level possible. I guess I know who you're picking next week, then. I'm probably picking the Bengals. I don't know. I mean, just because we're all over the map here.

Who knows? Any other thoughts on this game? No. Let's, uh... Yeah, I think this went how we expected. Oh, yeah. Harrison Bucker, your boy. Yeah. What a massive game.

Wasn't even the top 10 of the kicker power ranking. It's not a good year for a house. Had a rough year. Great name. I think he was one of the key reasons they won this game. Didn't miss a kick. Two field goes to tackles, I mean, two extra points. But then the tackle on Agnew was a massive moment in this game.

He didn't really tackle. Got it done. Got it done. He missed the tackle and then Agnew accidentally his heel kicked under his face mask and he got tripped by a face mask. It all works. But he was in the way. Doesn't it help? It all counts in the box score.

If you're Harrison Butker and you've been having some struggles to have another kicker come into the world and have incredible struggles. We'll get to him later. Like, Bucker's like, no one even remembers that I was having issues. You know what I liked if we're still in this game

is the Lawrence moment in the alley on the way into the locker room where he like camps there and his high-fiving everyone as they come by and it's just like, that's a dude.

That's who you want. That's a dude. They're going to be okay. It wasn't for the cameras. He didn't know anyone was watching them there and like everyone, you could see what it meant to them as they were going by.

That's good. Take two. Let's get that one from another angle, please. Take two. Bigger smile, bigger smile. Make sure this kid get this kid over here. All right. I don't even know what you guys are talking about.

I don't recall it either. See, exactly. You guys don't know what to talk about it. Because that's how I know it was in stage. It was one local reporter caught it on her phone. And that was the only thing. He kind of camped out, I can't think of the word, as they're coming off the field to greet every single player.

By that stage, I was at the zoo. There it is. Bengals, Cheaps. at Arrowhead. It's great. That's one side. On the NFC side of things, we're going to start with the number one-seeded Eagles, who obviously by virtue of the dominant regular season record had the top seed. However, there were a lot of questions about what Eagles team would show up out of the buy against the upstart giants. Ooh, this one got ugly fast. Hertz and the gun. Hurts screens it out on the far side to Devonte Smith.

across the five into the end zone touchdown the Bonte Smith such a great job blocking by AJ Brown this dynamic duo they're as good as it gets it was so easy for the Eagles on Saturday night

that was Meryl Reese and Mike Quick WIP Jalen Hertz through two touchdown passes ran for another looking very healthy in the shoulder region as he did it and the Eagles just stroll past the Giants, 387 at the length. They built up a 28-0-0 half-time lead in the game.

There have only been four more lopsided first-half playout shutouts in NFL history. So that's where we're at on this game, Mark Sessler. The Eagles answered a lot of questions here. They absolutely did. It was a total purifying experience where it's like, let's just reset the board and remember that the Philadelphia Eagles have been doing this to teams all year long in so many different ways and the dominant fashion that they did it in,

to me, I can point to the offense that right away, the 40-yard bomb from Hertz to DeVanta Smith showed you the arm is fine. He was to making those throws even when he had the shoulder injury to begin with. But he also ran with power.

He ran into people when he needed to. Their ground game, it's the most yardage they piled up in a playoff game since the 1949 NFL championship game featured the Eagles. And it looked that way. And I thought the difference was also this Eagles defense. I mean, they're just like, again, where is the weakness here

if everyone's healthy? They, I think the Giants were the kind of team that needed to show up early or they could be broken in this and they really were broken by halftime. It was kind of one of those playoff games that like by about two minutes into the second quarter, I'm tracking it maybe with less strident note taking and just sort of let's see where we are later in this game. But the Giants on their first drive, turnover on downs when everything that's gone right for the Giants, the Brian Dable risk-taking, which is kind of part of the DNA of who've they been. It goes back to that week one win over the Titans. It's happened week after week is a complete disaster.

Daniel Jones has taken down on back-to-back sacks. Totally outclassed. Then the interception on the next drive, suddenly it's 21-0, and it's like, no, there's no way for this Giants team to climb back in. Saigon Barclay's gone invisible. Daniel Jones has regressed to, like, pre-Bryan-Dable levels, and there's no one here to rescue them. Well, no, in one game, I don't mean,

he looked like the old Daniel Jones for big chunks of last night, which is, that's what annoyed me because I liked what Daniel Jones has done this season. Yeah, that sequence, there was so little tension in this game that that sequence was memorable when they're on defense in the Giants' first drive, and it was second and five,

and Barclay gets to the outside, and Asan Reddick, who's like an edge player, gets him down to make it third and three, and then a sack by sweat and Reddick, and then another sack by Reddick, like their defensive line, is outrageous. Reddick had just an incredible season.

One of the best free agent pickups in a long time, especially for the money. He didn't even get paid that much. It's kind of crazy he was out there. And on offense, the Eagles do something against the Giants every time that I love, which Greg Olson talks about

too. You throw to win early and then you run to end the game. The throwing sets up the running, and they've done that every time they've played against the Giants, and none of them have been competitive. And there were concerns, obviously, entering this game about Jalen Hertz, would he be able to throw?

Would he be able to play aggressively? And he answered a lot of those questions. Here was Nick Siriani. We're going to get to Siriani in a second because what a Saturday night, Siriani. Absolutely. I've bumped into dudes like Siriani at DJs and Belmar at the clubs down in the early 2000s.

Like he was a pumped up boy. But let's start with Siriani on his quarterback. I know this is high parade, but to have him out there is like having, I shouldn't even go there but he's having like Michael Jordan out there like he's your leader he's your leader he's your guy there it is again hopefully that's the biggest respect

I can pay to him comparing to his ability to being on the field to a Michael Jordan type like this guy leads he brings this calmness to the entire team he plays great football

he's tough as as they come yeah I mean To me, there ain't nobody has played any better football than him this year. I'm going to channel Wes for a second here. Football is completely different than basketball. Apparently not, according to Nick Siriani. The moratorium on the MJ comparisons,

because unless you're talking about like the MJ who was a fierce competitor from like 84 to 90, but wasn't getting over the hump, what made Jordan Jordan was only with six titles and six tries. I mean, the West compared O'Dell Beckham to Michael Jordan. So he did it. too. I think a lot of people have done this. He probably wouldn't have wanted you to remind the people of that, but you know. That's where my MJ stuff came from. It's a stand in

for just saying that this is the guy that everybody pounds a table for. But I also don't think like he is like a standout amongst the rest of this team. I think this is the most loaded roster in the game, Gregie. I hear you, but I think what he was telling you, and the teammates of Jalen Hertz tell you it too, and they said this after this game that Hertz had some quote to all of them just how he was starving for it.

He's just starving for this title. And I think he is, amongst other things, an incredible leader. And that was what the people analyzing him coming out in the draft struggled with. That just like, this guy is like sort of talked about, like he's this Tim Tebow-like leader, except he actually has these athletic gifts. And if he can learn how to do a drop-back passing game and throw deep, and we've seen it, like he could just be next level. But you're right that he's set up by a great offensive line.

I mean, this was, I almost feel like this game was too easy for Philadelphia, but it's why you go, that's why the regular season matters. You get the one seed. You play a team that you're just so much better than, than you know, and that you know all their tendencies. And like, they set up in these heavy run formations and then they pass it. And then they set up in these spread passing formations, and then they run it.

And it's like they're mixing up what they do on defense really well, too. There was that play on offense. Remember, when they all lined up like they were going to do, double cheek push and the Giants were all ready for it and then they just flip it to the outside. It's just like they've got these great players and you're right, Hertz is put in position where like he just has to do his thing. Well, I think it is like that we're going to get a new coach who's going to completely flub his first press conference and it's going to be, you know, February, March, we're going

to rip on this guy and have our time with him. But Nick Siriani was a disaster PR-wise out of the gate, but I think they're such a well-coached team. They completely neutralized New York's pass rush, which was their selling point going into this thing, too, with that there's any chance to stop the Eagles. 17 pass-run snaps generated zero QB pressure in the first half, led to that dominance. Hertz and his three quickest times to throw games in his entire career have come against this year's Giants in three games. And the thing is that what they did to New York in week 14 before the Eagles were sitting people late and the Giants were sitting people, it's like they blew their doors off in similar fashion of this.

it looked very similar. They did a lot of the same stuff. New York knew that. And Brian Dable's a good coach. And Wink Martindale's been a good coach, and they couldn't counter it. It reminded me of like Patriots, Texans' divisional round, like in some of the Texans' lower years,

where it was like a light warm-up for the real games. And I think that's what's the most disappointing thing for Giants fans, because the idea was that coming off that dramatic win in Minnesota and how well they were playing that they were going to ride that wave, and then the wave just crashed on them within five minutes of the game starting. Here's what Brian Dable told, said that he told his team after the blowout loss. Told him to keep their heads up. They competed hard.

It's a crash landing in the playoffs. Anytime you lose, it hurts because of the amount of effort and energy you put into it each week. And when you lose this time of year, it hurts even more. There was a lot of talk after the game. I saw it on Twitter. I saw it on my New York buddies with text and everything. You know, ugly loss. going into this game too. Oh, very confident. But ugly loss, somewhat embarrassing loss,

but the future is really bright for the Giants. Maybe. I'll say this. Absolutely a great first year for Dable. But, you know, they got in the playoffs. They beat the Vikings who are frauds we know and the cults to clinch the playoff spot. And this kind of was a reminder how far away they still are. And these are things that they'll need to think about spinning forward with Daniel Jones, who certainly did not look like a impact player in this particular setting, Sequin Barclay, a running back getting closer to age 30. What kind of contract do you give him? How else do you build up this team? This isn't like go get Von Miller and we're ready to roll. The Giants still have a lot of work to do, even if you could see this season as a success.

I mean, if anything they went into this year with, I think their front office with Joe Shane is like they're not like rose colored glasses. Like they didn't even, they didn't even give the fifth year option to Jones. Saquan Barclay was a wait and see. And I do think games like this can change your offseason planning. I don't think it changes what they think about Daniel Jones. But any contract going his way can't get in the way of continuing to look for like the Eagles did that next quarterback.

They had Carson Wentz and they looked at Hertz and then suddenly look where we are. You're not still struggling trying to put the wrong guy in there. So Jones, I think great career season. You bring them back at the right price that works. But like there's no pressure. Are you insinuating that they should or might draft a quarterback high? Because I feel like that would be weird to give him a new deal. I'm not saying, I just like, it's the problem with these quarterback deals is they all kind of look too much alike where like even the middle tier is a ton of money.

But like if you do it where there's no guaranteed money very soon into it. Great pull because like if you if you listen to WIP on that day, like people hated that pick. Of course. They're like, why would we take a quarterback when we have a quarterback? I think Jones and I would throw Gino into this category are the type of like middle quarterback. and I think Gino's above that on some level, but you're still going to be looking for younger guys. And Daniel Jones was, you know, very circumspect.

Didn't really say anything, you know, when they talked about his future. Sequin was very big on, like, I can't imagine playing anywhere else. But it reminds me a lot of the Tyrod Bill season. So I don't know if Daniel Jones will be, like, they'll change quarterbacks like it. But I thought, like, McDermott and, you know,

their front office showed who they were, like, leading up to that tie rod season. we're a different bills team and they actually took a step back like the next year after that but it like showed who they were and they were a little ahead of schedule and i think to your point that's what joe shane and dable did it's it's a long-term thing but they have 12 starters out of their 22 starters are set to hit for agency maybe throwing a lot a little bit of cold water on the the daniel jones uprising in the last few weeks works out well for them in terms of decisions they make and money they end up spending we shall see um

We had some locks involved in this game, correct? Oh, yeah, we did. I locked it up. This is one of those locks you enjoy. You don't have to... You do a rocking chair game. You don't have to sweat it out. Oh, and to let our listeners...

I locked it up, too. Yeah, that's right. That's great. And Dan did not, which most of our listeners probably don't know now because I've got... The only annoying part about you switching your tweets is like, Drew, our producer thought, I won the lock championship.

He didn't know you switched. People don't follow these things? Well, how would they, unless they're like on top? People are following every tweet I send in the middle of like a week. I saw some people responding to what you've done. Certainly your Twitter follows, but that's a relatively, yeah. I'm joking. I'm sorry, Drew, all nine feet tall of you, I should have mentioned that I had switched my lock.

But I got a lot of tweets that were like, congrats on your lock championship. Well, I reverse. Yeah, like I stuck with my Giants pick, which I had no, I thought it was kind of fun. And, you know, as the season goes along, you say goodbye to teams, you say goodbye to news developments, you say goodbye to things that seem they'll never go away. And I'm saying goodbye to my lockstanding scenario here. We said goodbye to the West Coast officially, too, on that. Can I talk to you something?

You talk about something. Go ahead. My longtime friend, you know that I would never betray you. Your family or our alliance. And it brings me great. sorrow to know that you may feel that it deserted you in this time of need. Well, you must understand my

intentions were driven purely by survival. I couldn't remain in our New York Family Alliance. After coming to the realization that our enemy had set a trap in Philadelphia with the intention to lure us both to an early demise.

I will forge on in your honor, my friend. That's a huge victory for me. I guess I appreciate the sentiments. Is that what Lovie Smith said to his team when he played for a tie in week one? I did see. There was a lot of chatter on Twitter about it in my mentions just because of, I think you tagged us on some of this. But there was one of the, like, there was an image of like Mario brothers, Mario, like jumping safely to a cliff.

And he was holding on to one, like, another character and just like let it go. And he just disappears into a chap. The other character's eyes well up before he's dropped into a deathly Hades. And that's what happened to me over the weekend. I definitely, I had regrets about that. But I also, I was thinking about it. First of all, you gave me warning, though. I could have done a saying.

It would have felt an original. I got the trophy still in my house. Right. Yes. Too back. I don't need to be in a total place of desperation when Gregie's trying to trick us into picking the G men and end in the whole thing. What do you say? So I thought to myself.

You're giving me way too much credit here. I thought to myself. I said, okay, he took the Eagles. That's the right play, two games up. but I don't I'm not going to pick a team I don't believe in. I didn't believe in the Giants so I went elsewhere and as a result I am still alive with two weeks

to play. Yeah I don't hate on that at all I mean I think it's good to try to get your locks right and not take bad teams so that makes total sense it's just bad it's bad showmanship to confuse the listeners but I think it's the right pick well even sometimes it's good to keep them off balanced

playing for the tie you never want to do that but it's better than losing a lot of listeners don't understand that lock of the week is like the game you're most confident in they're like how is it a lock if you change it it's not like that's only problem about this season i could i don't think anyone could care less about that day we could revisit that down the line if it's something we want to say that they have to be binding on the day of the show but um i knew in my heart that i had to move and uh yes i can only tie gregg now but again the trophy's in my house and i didn't want to go out on

the giants i don't want to fall on that sword i don't blame you can i give you one quick media update because you know it was my, like we talked about the fact that I went on the little NFL.com picks. Oh, yeah. And I stress little. And I was, because you pick the giants. I picked the giants. And, you know, if that goes right,

suddenly, like, to the tri-state area is just like, you know, carrying you around town. Now I'm getting, like, a billion of those, when this happens, it's towards the old takes exposed. It's like, do I need this? It's just like, I just simply log off Twitter. I'll come back in, like, mid-April. Here's the thing, though, these social accounts have no accountability either.

They actually sent out an article for Bills.com showing all the expert predictions. And by the way, most of them were picking the bills. But they took one of my quotes saying where the bills are poor and sent that out on their main feed. And then I clicked the link. And by the way, like 12 out of 16 people in that link picked the bills. I was not one of them. Are they going to come back and apologize? Hey, you're right, actually.

Our shortcomings on the offensive line. Actually, I think they... Wide receivers, you were right. You were right. I think you can expect that. I think you can expect them to do that. I see you, Bills. Before we go on to the last game,

can we talk about Siriani in that game? He was extra. And I'm not going to kill him for it. Maybe when he looked into the camera in slow motion and shook his head like, yeah, I'm the mother of in there. That one was a little extra. But the whole game, he was super amped up and excited. I think it's because he saw his game plan being, you know,

unfurled and just perfection. But let's play that when they were out. I think that was when they were up by five touchdowns or something, four touchdowns. And they line up for two. And is that what we have here? Yeah. They line up for two. And then he calls timeout.

And this is what we saw and heard. I know what the fucking doing. And I'm allowed to be down here. I'm allowed to be down here. And then he had, he also had this to say, name checking an old friend of ours. Sometimes I have to hear like some things about. Jonathan Gannon like and I don't know if it's you guys it might be more that's their decent other people um I won't say names angelo right uh but this guy is an unbelievable

coordinator the fact that he doesn't get respect from our radio station blows my mind it blows my mind and I know you work at the radio station too so I'm not even to say anything about you but like it blows my mind this guy is an incredible coordinator people love to play for this guy like and I listen I don't am I you want me to keep going he's looking over to the PR guy that's Angelo Cataldi by the way who's been their morning guy there forever I think he's retiring at the end of this year is I mean is angelo the most powerful sports talk radio guy in the country right now is an old school sports town where sports talk radio is still king and it what those guys say really does matter and ears are tuned into it

cares about what Zolak's saying. I don't think Zola is an energy drink that comes to life. I mean, there are different situations. One last note on the MJ thing. Yeah. If let's calm down with MJ was a great teammate. He was brutal on a lot of his teammates. He was commanding.

He was sometimes demeaning. He could be cruel. He expected everyone to be as good as him, even though that was impossible. And I guess that made some guys better. But like Jalen Hertz, as far as I understand, and that is not the type of leader he is. No, Hertz, I think is much more like a consistent, super-motivated guy

that, like, draws every one-day, basically. But if you put it, but what we've lost a lot of the nuance of Michael Jordan, like, over the years. I get where he's coming from. I get that you don't like it, but this stuff's going to keep happening. As an old head, I want to keep, like, the actual, like, what MJ was, which is one of the great, not only the greatest player ever, but the greatest, like, sometimes nastiest competitor there ever was.

Right, but not a cancer. Yeah. He was too good. He fired that team up. I mean, they showed up in big moments over and over. So he found some balance there. To your point, that's like the fourth different quarterback that's been compared to Jordan on this show this year alone.

The thrill is completely different than basketball. I know. Mark said it. Let's move. Let's move to a break. Let's take a break. We'll be right back. All right. So the Eagles move on.

They will host the NFC title game next. The next weekend, their opponent, it had to be the Niners. You knew it was going to be the Niners. It is the Niners. Snaps it back to that, Prescott. He goes over the middle of the turpid. He gets hammered down by Jimmy Ward. The game is over.

When the boot partners are on their way to Philadelphia. What a way to end it. 49ers are going to the NFC title game for a third time in the last four years. This stuff is not easy. The Chief's going five years in a row. God, nobody wants to see here. Oh, Dan always brings it back to the Jets. The Jets have been to the AFC title game four times in my entire life.

I was born in 1980. To go five years in a row, to go three out of four years. These are major organizational achievements. Shout out to the Niners who get past the Dallas Cowboys, 19 to 12, largely because of their defense. Again, like the Philadelphia Eagles, loaded on both sides of the ball. And when one side doesn't have a big day,

you could still move forward because the other side could step up. We saw that there on that final play of the game. And Gregi, and we're going to get to the Dallas side of it because it's always filled with juice and it's almost like a Greek tragedy when you get to the Cowboys in January now.

But the Niners, they've showed through scoring in the last month that they could just destroy a team. This show, they could win this type of game too. That's valuable. I think you set it up perfectly. Thank you. The Eagles and the 49ers, for all the talk that it's like these AFC superpowers here, they got the best teams.

And I've been saying that because of their quarterbacks. The 49ers and the Eagles are the two teams that can win any type of game that you don't know what unit's going to show up, whether it's the defensive line or the secondary or their passing game or it's the running game. And the 49ers offense really didn't show up for much of this game. Credit to the Cowboys defense for their game. and their talent. But this game was there for the taking

if Dak Prescott and the Cowboys' offense could get anything done, and they just couldn't. And part of that is D'Amico Ryan's, his coaching. Part of it is this linebacker group, which is just so good. Fred Warner making plays down the field

in coverage. Al Shah here was everywhere. He's so good that they have to keep three linebackers on the field, which not many teams do. We know Dre Greenlaw is a beast. like he made great plays. They just confused the hell out of Dak when he was backing up to pass

and they were all over their receivers. They let C.D. Lamb get some catches and that's about it. And I just think if you kept playing this game as much as I want to pick on Mike McCarthy for not being aggressive, I don't think Dak and the Dallas offense would have delivered if he was aggressive. So I think they would have lost this game either way because of this 49ers. Yeah, I don't come out of it with a, with a time. to blame for Mike McCarthy or even the approach because

Dak Prescott did not look comfortable from the very word go. You know, the two interceptions, they only led to two field goals. That's not fatal. But in a game like this where it was 9-9 deep into the game, that's the difference. I mean, little moments like that because the big question was, well, we got pristine, Dak, who we could go. We got pristine Dallas Cowboys.

Is that who they are? Have they grown into that? No, they haven't. And the Niners find a way to make those versions, the better versions of their opponent disappear in a hurry. It's the defense. And then what I think happens with this Niners' offense because it's a different game than a week ago

when they were trailing Seattle at halftime. But just over the course of the game, they find a way for enough to happen on offense. In a game like this where it's so tight, Brock Purdy, who is just absolutely ice cold, like never seems to be razzled, frazzled on any level, like found George Kittle with that incredible catch. I thought that was the turning point, drive of the game.

And then you started to see Christian McCaffrey get through. Elijah Mitchell get through. And I just noticed the Dallas defense starting to tire because this wasn't a game like the Eagles against the Giants where the Niners on the ground produced a lot early. But they kept mentioning it. And you know that like Shanahan clearly stated it to the broadcast team. We want to be physical.

We want to run the ball. We're not looking to take a ton of shots downfield. We want to be able to do this against Dallas. It took a really long time. But in the last couple of drives, I'm not saying they were prolific, but you saw it and had Elijah Mitchell not run out of bounds. Like they would have iced it even minutes before. We wouldn't even gotten to that last absurd play

with Zeke Elliott snapping the ball and then the whole thing ends up in smoke. And Dalton Schultz made some terrible boneheaded his plays back to back on that last drive. It wasn't a great look for the Cowboys. But yeah, I think Dallas, just like last year, you came out of that game against, again, the 49ers, but it was in Arlington that game.

They didn't execute the way. they could. They didn't take advantage of opportunities. And it happened again here. And it must be so frustrating for a Cowboys fan because that big kiddle circus catch, you know, that sets up San Francisco on the Cowboys side of the field. But that becomes a touchdown drive because Trayvon Diggs has a ball just skip right into his breadbasket for what would have been a massive potentially game shifting interception. He can't hold on to the ball. There's a penalty in there as well that kept the drive alive. Right. Was it going to be third or fourth and 19 or something? And the San Francisco then, to their credit, takes advantage and gets in. And it's just like,

it's just the same things happen over and over again. I think McCarthy probably survives here, but at the same time, would it shock you with Sean Payton out there running for mayor if it ends very differently? Here is Gerra Jones, who you know, Jerry Jones, God bless him. You know, my feelings on Jerry are clear that we will miss him. when he's gone as a character in terms of what he, the entertainment value he brings. He went on to the field before the game to consult with Brett Maher after he missed a couple of field goals in warmups.

That's the GM slash owner of the Cowboys. And of course, he has thoughts on the Mike McCarthy decision to punt late in the game. I think what, Greg, about three minutes left or so, fourth and 10 deep in their own end. They do get the ball back, but the game for all intents and purposes is over by that point. A lot of criticism on McCarthy and the Cowboys. Here's what Jera had to say about that decision. They had a lot to say about it, but it appears today we're scheming pretty good out there

by their defensive coaches. We scheme them pretty good. So that was a big difference. We had it there for us probably right up until the last three or three minutes. We had it there for us to go. get a step farther to the championship but still i'm i'm sick uh don't have uh uh really anything material for important to listen to to say so was he saying that like the coaches essentially told him well the defense had it all over us at that point i mean that is what he's saying is to me

we were schemes pretty good out there by their defensive coaches i think what he's saying is we had no confidence we could pick up a fourth down, which is self-evident because there were three decisions late in that game. It was actually two minutes and five seconds left by the time they got that punt off. Oh, right. So it was right before the two-minute warning. It was fourth and ten from your own 18. Right, but that's your chance.

When they punted that, you know, we were in the film room. And I said, like, there's a really good chance they don't get the ball back here. And they wouldn't have if Elijah Mitchell stayed in bounds. And by the time they did get the ball back, it was a prayer. But earlier in the half, Dan, fourth and five at the 40. The 49ers 40, they decide to take a delay of game and punt it. And then the drive, even before that, granted they're on the 49ers 25, and it's only a 43-yard field goal for Maher, and it's a fourth and eight.

But I did think considering Maher, considering they needed a touchdown, they could have gone for it there if you were seeing anything out of the Cowboys' offense. but I think based on that Jones quote, they had no confidence. And I don't think it would have mattered because they shouldn't have had any confidence. And Greg, you are the president of the DAC fan club. So I want to hear your thoughts on this.

He played terribly. I mean, this was, he was brilliant on Monday night against the Bucks and you give him all the credit in the world for that. But that was the Bucks, an 8 and 9 team. If Dac wants to be seen as one of the best quarterbacks in the league, you need to deliver better than he did. He had two interceptions. he had a Drey Greenlaw could have out of his pick six late in this game that would have sealed it.

And that would have been on his tombstone, Dax. So he even got away with another killer throw. And just after that near pick six, he had a receiver deep that he misfired on, got the guy turned around. That could have been a big play. And he just didn't show up. And I think that informed some of the decision making by Mike McCarthy, who said, my defense is playing well. And I can't move the ball with my quarterback today. So I'm going to hope that that wins that way.

It's disappointing, to say the least, the game we got from the quarterback. I totally agree. It was a disaster. I actually thought the second half after the first two interceptions was worse. I don't know if they were in his head, but I thought it got worse, even though he didn't throw a pick in the second half. He could have. That ball to C.D. Lam down the seam that Fred Warner made the great play on. I mean, if he puts that out there a little more.

MJD in the film room with us spotted it right away. Put some air under that, let CED keep the afterburners on, that's six. That's a touchdown. The plays down the sideline. And then I actually, I'm almost haunted by the, there was a third and five. I think on their first drive of the second half, and Olson was all over this one too, was he went through his reads so fast, had no pressure on him, and threw a weird outlet pass to Zique that was not on target that had no chance for a first down.

And that was a panicked, poorly executed decision and throw. I mean, I think that's what San Francisco does to you. I look at a Cowboys team that had a chance, a major chance, when Ray Ray McLeod fumbled the punt, you're at San Francisco 21, you get out of there with a field goal. You can't do that against this Niners team. And, like, Dak Prescott completely disappointed. And I think there are similar images to the terrible loss

they suffered against the Niners a year ago. And I don't care about that final play, for instance. And we were saying during our break, like, oh, right, you're going to have to dial up something. It's going to probably be wacky. It's going to be wacky. But that said, I would rather just say, let's just go for the Hail Mary than had the seat. Last year it was Dak's scrambling, not getting the first, trying to down the ball, the time runs out, like the whole thing's a fiasco.

It's your final image of that Cowboys team. This was a good Cowboys team that a year later, it's Zeke Elliott, who's ruled ineligible, snapping the ball to Dak, who whips it to Turpin, and he's nailed to the ground, and the thing is over. It's like, that's a circus ending. Sean Payton's loving the way that game plays out. And the reason Zeke is all over the game plan is because Tony Pollard, who is such a special player for him this year, he goes out in the first half with a what's initially called a high ankle sprain. And then it's reported after the game that he suffered a fractured left fibula that will require surgery. Normally, according to Todd Archer, those require a three-month recovery.

Greg, as you said during the break, he's a free agent to be. just bad, bad misfortune for Pollard. Yeah, that's depressing. He still, to me, would be a great free agent pickup for anyone. But yeah, there's just these, they're not great in the details. And I saw this interview decked with Aaron Andrews before the game. And he was talking about how he didn't leave the house for two weeks after the last one. And that he actually rewatched the press conference from the post game loss to the 49ers.

this week, because, like, he didn't want to feel that again. And it just feels like, you don't want to get inside his head, but you put a lot on himself for this game, like that it's going to be different, and then for it to happen again is devastated. Here's C.D. Lamb, defending his quarterback. I mean, he's going to get criticized regardless, no matter how he played, unless he didn't throw two or zero interceptions. If he did threw zero interceptions, everybody would have been on his coach,

it just because he threw pigs, everybody's going to be. on him. That's fine. Everybody throws but he plays for Dallas Cowboys. He's number four. He's out starting quarterback, so that's what comes with it. I'm with my boy, and he knows that. So it is what it is. We're going to work. We're going to work.

C.D. Lamb, just like he defended Brett, or put through his support behind Brett Maher on the bench last week, supporting Dak, because he knows how good Dak can be. I think that's part of what made this so frustrating for Lamb and guys like Greg Rosenthal

that he didn't show up in this game. It will be a tough off season. It kind of mirrors to me like, wait, what happened to Daniel Jones and the Giants? Oh, you've faced a Eagles defense that basically has dismantled people left and right. The Niners have been doing this. Again, it's the focus on Brock Purdy, this rookie quarterback. Well, the defense has been destroying people week after week and turning good quarterbacks into lesser. I'm glad you brought up Purdy because we're going to have a whole week to talk about it.

But a little bit sobering for Purdy who gets large, although he did get better in the second half as their offense improved. He made the throws in the end. didn't have a big game by any means and now he has to go against a Philly defense that I think's even better than the Dallas defense so we'll see how that goes but ultimately San Francisco moves on there they have not lost in a very long time

and I don't think oh shoot I don't know I haven't thought it this is a tough one to pick by the way that's a tough one NTC title game is going to be a bonkers affair well as of this taping I think both lines next week are two points or

under, which is crazy. I saw some analytics site, which, like, put the percentage of which teams will win the Super Bowl, and, like, everyone's between 23 and 27 percent. It's pretty rare to have four teams that have their strengths and weaknesses, and the Mahomes injury looms, certainly, but that, like, feel like they're about all equal to win the Super Bowl. Are you confident that we got the four best teams? Is there any one, is there any debate? I think we're confident. I'm confident we do. There is one other big injury that Looms coming out of this game. Christian McCaffrey had a wrap on his cap. in the second half of this game

when they were trying to ice the game on their last possession. He gets the ball once on a weird wide receiver, like screen type thing. But otherwise it was Elijah Mitchell. He only had 10 carries in this game McCaffrey.

So what is his physical health going into the biggest game of his... I don't want Christian McCaffrey suffering another injury until they've won the Super Bowl and he like stubs his toe mowing the lawn and deal with that for two weeks. I don't think he's ever going to mow his lawn

ever again, if he ever has. You know what? He's kind of a Nepo baby. He drops a bag of... I'm just saying. Drops a bag of fives and tens and coins on his side. What? Well, I mean, it works too because his dad was an NFL player.

That's what I mean. But that's like a DNA... He's a better NFL player than... Has Christian McCaffrey ever mowed a lawn? Just answer the question. No, but I would say like the reason he's an NFL player is not because his dad's wealthy is because he's like his DNA and his genetics are superior to the vast majority of the population. And one thing I've noticed here, you know, working at NFL Network where a lot of,

these guys have their sons who are becoming great players. He has excellent instruction in, like, playing football all the time since you were four. Yeah. Because your dad, you know, it's like, that's an amazing advantage. Are you saying that Dalton Schultz's dad didn't play football? Is that what you're trying to say right now? He should have known. He didn't know the rules about not going back and then to not get that foot down.

We could have seen the Hail Mary. If Wes was here, I knew he would mention this. It would have been like the Cowboys in the divisional round throwing a Hail Mary. that is where the Hail Mary was born in a Cowboys Vikings game. But this Cowboys team does not afford us. They didn't even get to. They don't. So the Cowboys go home again.

It's been 30 years since they've been to the Tennessee title game. I think even more now. Is it? That's a bad streak. All right. So what do we learn? Football's still great. The football, we could have had, we didn't get a classic,

but we got it classic week of matchups coming up conference championship weekend let's look at it real quick here san francisco at philadelphia noon fox at the link as i said so that will be gregg olson who had an excellent game by the way that olson so good i do not want i don't think there's no way tom brady's retiring but if tom brady retires and starts his 350 million dollar fox contract and takes Greg Olson's number one spot. It's a travesty. You can't do that, but they also, here's the thing that you can't make it a three-man booth

and throw Brady into that either. Put him on the Bougar Mobile. I can't do that either. I want to put a sandwich on Brady never ends up taking that job. Completely. I wouldn't even take you on that because I don't see that happening. Because like, 350 million boys. Well, he'll either pass on that or it'll just be like the Murdox

get to bring him to corporate events and he shows up five times a year. You've had that theory, but I don't think that. That's why that's what's the direction there was. I'd be part of it. I know Tom has made a lot of money. He's, you know, but still nobody. He owes some more money than he used to do. Yeah, one of the reasons why he is rich is he's made good decisions financially.

So turning down $350 million because he's bored of the idea now, I don't see it. I just think like when it comes down to it, does he want to be at the nacho bar with Ross Tucker and the Tucker spreads, you know, before the game? You really think he's going to be sure. showing up to there are different levels to Kansas City and doing all this everything I just don't think

he's going to want him I think he's got to be like I have I know that's a lot of money but I've got a lot of money in the end I don't want to do this remember here when and it's been years now and now Dion is a major head coach

of a D1 program in college but Dion was different than all the other guys Dion amongst the analysts had his own green room that no one else could access yeah I didn't get that Brady

money though the money's different now but i'm just saying like brady's not going to be hanging out at a nacho line like i don't think that's just saying he has to be up there uh showing up at the games he doesn't eat nachos you see those guys this have no concern to tom brady the nacho line and all this stuff that the normal plebeians are participating in uh the other games he's got to have to get in that elevator like he's got to be in the elevator you're presuming he's going to be next to zach birman and beau wolf you're like he's like michael jackson and neverland ranch i mean And he's just flesh and blood. He's a man.

I just think he'll be too bored by it all, too. He's just not even going to want to bother. He thinks that's boring. Wait until he retires and see what else is out there. He did retire. How long did that take? Three weeks. This keeps you in the public eye, you know, involved with something that you love.

Everybody's saying you're the greatest, genuine, you know what? Who's talking about Troy Aikman had he decided he was too bored to do this? Like 30 years from now, Tom Brady will be like a historical, very large historical memory. Or he can be on television for the rest of his life. We wonder why it always can't take an elevator with other human beans. You can't be on the nacho line. Don't project. I'm not,

I am turning down your $350 million contract that I already signed because I don't want nachos. I don't think he, uh, it just wouldn't be in him. It just is not in him. I don't care. Uh, the Bengals. I know, we wonder why we always have a 90 minute show that we do a solid five minutes on a nacho line. The Bengals at the Chiefs 3.30 p.m. Eastern Arrowhead. 3.30 Pacific.

And I like that you went noon earlier because I think Pacific should start to be the standard time. 3 p.m. Eastern, game 1, 6.30 p.m. Eastern, game 2. And then right after that, you tune in to the around the NFL podcast streaming live and then you check out the audio show

because you've got to get it twice. Good stuff. Thank you to everybody for listening. You have any other thoughts, Mark? I mean, the music's playing. I think it's time to reassess where we're at in life and start over. We'll be back on Tuesday with our first look at championship weekend. Until then, you know what you got to do. He'd the call.

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