NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 2025 NFL Week 18 Recap: The Playoffs are set!

Episode Date: January 5, 2026

Gregg Rosenthal is joined by Jourdan Rodrigue, Patrick Claybon and Nick Shook to recap all of the Week 18 action from around the NFL starting with the Ravens at the Steelers followed by Chargers at Broncos (16:00), Titans at Jaguars (22:20), Colts at Texans (31:10), Dolphins at Patriots (41:10), Jets at Bills (46:50), Seahawks at 49ers (52:40), Panthers at Buccaneers (01:04:50), Saints at Falcons (01:16:30), Lions at Bears (01:27:40), Commanders at Eagles (01:31:45), Cardinals at Rams (01:38:15), Browns at Bengals (01:42:20), Packers at Vikings (01:49:55), Cowboys at Giants (01:57:08), and Chiefs at Raiders (02:00:50).  Note: time codes approximate. NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Welcome to NFL Daily, where they got us in the end. I'm Greg Rosenthal here in the Chris Wesleyan podcast studio. On YouTube live for the first time, and obviously in your ears, the morning after. One of the wildest Sunday night cappers to finish a regular. season. I'm with my friends, Jordan Rodrigue, and Patrick Claibon, who's going to give us a lesson in professionalism. Patrick, you warned me when Lamar Jackson hit that throw to Isaiah likely on

fourth down, down the field, and Isaiah likely is skying through the air to make what should have been the play of the game that we had a lot of ball game left. And unfortunately, we didn't have much left, But it was a give-up play, and it was a missed field goal by Tyler Loop that ends the Ravens season. And to shout out Greg Rosenthal, it's not hindsight. It was foresight to say, I don't like that. I don't like centering up the ball with that opportunity, with a guy who was 27-yard shy of leading the NFL in rushing, has more explosive runs almost than anybody in the last 40 years in Derek Henry to not give him one more shot. But hey, you know, congratulations to the...

But hey, you know what? I got to say, the Ravens and the Steelers. they give us stuff to talk about. In a world that's topsy, Turvy, you don't know what's going to happen. The Ravens Steelers, they always deliver. And we're going to get to recapping that Ravens and Steelers game. This is a full recap show that we're doing here live on YouTube.

And so what we're going to do, we're going to break it up. AFC first, because of that Ravens game, go through all the teams that made the playoffs, and then NFC after that with the Great Saturday games as well. But first, let's actually look at the playoffs schedule before we get into these games. And the matchups. Ooh.

Westivist. Yeah. You might be going to this, Jordan Rodriguez. We'll see that the traditional time that Andy Dalton and the Cincinnati Bengals would always play the early Saturday afternoon game. And our great friend that this podcast studio is named after Chris Wessling called it Westivis. Because that's when Marvin Lewis and Andy Dalton. And very often the Houston Texans go to play a little bit of football. And over the years, it's turned into a Texans game.

And here we are, Andy Dalton, as the backup quarterback for the Panthers against the Rams early. That shows what a good wildcard weekend it is, that they put the Rams in that game. Packers and Bears are the Saturday night game. That is on Prime Video. We're going to be recapping that game. It's going to be myself and Bill Barnwell Saturday night. On Sunday, we have the six-seated Buffalo Bills going to Jacksonville. That's a fun new matchup.

49ers and Eagles Sunday afternoon. on Fox and then Chargers and Patriots. What a spicy matchup Sunday night football on NBC. And then it wraps up with Texans. And now, yes, Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night, Aaron Rogers will play at least one more game in his career, at least one more game with the Steelers, although I think we're going to have more of Aaron Rogers.

This Steelers team, you just can't get rid of them. Let's get to the highlight. will decide the a fc north champion loop ready here's the snap here's the hole here's the boot by loop and that kick is no good no good right he missed it loop missed it and your Pittsburgh Steelers are AFC North champions. Woo! Oh,

baby! Oh, baby! What did we just witness here? Rob! Oh, my goodness. What we witnessed, and that was Rob King and Max

Starks on WDVE. Great call. Steelers are the AFC North Champs. What we witnessed was, maybe the last time Mike Tomlin and John Harbaugh ever face off. One of the most memorable Ravens-Steelers matchups that we've seen because for three-quarters, it was exactly what you expected.

Just ugly AFC Northball. This looked like maybe the 12th and 13th best team in the NFL, just trying to get into that number 13 spot, if we're going to put them over the AFC South. And then in the fourth quarter, it was highlight after highlight two 50-yard touchdowns by Lamar. Jackson, he gets him in position for the game winning field goal, but it's not enough. And we do, you know, we don't need to focus on Tyler Loop.

We can give these offenses in Pittsburgh Steelers, especially credit for actually get the touchdowns when they needed it, no timeouts late in the game. Yeah, it went back and forth in such a satisfying way, right? A way we hope that this Sunday night football game would devolve into the particular brand of chaos that we're used to seeing from these two teams. I can't help but think, and we all kind of voice this in the moments after this game ended, you know, after the complete and dead silence that filled the room. That would happen.

I don't know. This John Harbaugh game slash perhaps future, and it comes down to special team's errors. It's a Ronnie Stanley penalty that sets them back in a big way. It is Lamar and DeAndre Hopkins miscommunicating in the final. moments on a possible wide open touchdown at least a massive gain play it's all these little things the ravens have been struggling with all year in terms of these details that come back to haunt them in the end that that is what happens and to end on special team right and they he's a special team's coach and yeah they had a kick out of bounds earlier today and yet you know despite

those mistakes you got what you weren't getting a ton from lamar jackson this year which was the oh my god play the the 50 yard touchdown that he had where he had where he he breaks through two just completely unblack tackles. Let's actually listen to the Lamar Jackson play that kind of kicked off what was just an insane fourth quarter where it's Keanu Benton and Alex Highsmith just getting free to the quarterback before Lamar goes deep. Steelers with a four-man front, one deep safety. Lamar to throw in, he's going to step out of a sack, extends to the left,

throwing deep, looking for a man inside of five. He's got him. Save four. Touchdown Ravens! And the Ravens regain the lead with 842 left to play. And at that point, you kind of think, okay, maybe that's the big highlight of the game. And it turns out he ends up being the only the first quarterback

since Russell Wilson in 2017 to have two 50-yard touchdowns. But ultimately, the miss kick is kind of what we remember. That was Jerry Sundiski and Rod Woodson. As a Ravens fan, Patrick. like where is your ire headed first? Because I know you're not a happy man. I was thinking watching this game how this game was making

both fan bases miserable, which is kind of like how this season has been for these two teams. Well, a lot of stuff is just determined by the universe. Wiggins leaves the game. Of course, the major injury was Kyle Hamilton getting taken out by his teammate Aloy Gilman who was able to come back in the game. They both get evaluated for concussions,

but Hamilton took the worst of that as they were, there was a moment in this in the first half where Aaron Rogers was a little scattershot, was kind of sending players on missions. Unfortunately, it was two Ravens that got sent on a mission against each other on a pass over the middle there. So you can't be too upset with that because it's football and things happen. On the touchdown played,

Zayflowers that we just showed, it was the lasting image that I will have of this season is Daniel Fulele slowly turning around and looking at which player is going to sack Lamar Jackson. Fortunately, Lamar gets through there because there were two free ratchers on that play, but all of the things that have gone wrong, a lot of them went right. You had Isaiah likely make the catch in the closing moments.

You had Zay Flowers make all those catches. Get up field. No wiggly running today. You know, the smaller things that went wrong, went right, and you just haven't seen a, I don't think Tyler Loops kicked the ball out of bounds all season.

But it's just the wacky nature of Ackercher. If Chris Boswell's missing kicks, that's why I wasn't very confident in Loop from 44. So to back up in the fourth quarter, yeah, like there were two long Zayflower's touchdowns. The two Ravens touchdown drives were four for 71 and three for 73. And that's a 64-yarder for flowers and a 50-yarder, which is just outrageous. But that's the only way the Ravens were getting offense all year. And ultimately, I don't think this stopped the Ravens from going on a long playoff run,

but it would have been interesting to see them try. Ultimately, I think it would have been nice. Yeah, it would have been nice for you. But the Steelers fans are thinking, okay, now we got a shot. We got the Texans next week. And one thing I don't think should get lost in the miss kick is that Aaron Rogers and this Steelers offense. And yeah, they're going up against banged up secondary for Baltimore. But the front's pretty healthy and they're not getting a ton of pass rush. And both times in the fourth quarter, the Steelers got the ball. Once with

eight minutes, 40 seconds to go, needing a touchdown to take the lead, they get a touchdown. Then they get the ball with under 230 to go needing a touchdown and they get the touchdown. Let's listen to the Calvin Austin catch with 55 seconds left in this game.

Rogers gets a snap. Four man rush coming. Rogers back. Lofting left. Has a man right open. There's Calvin Austin. Touchdown. Pittsburgh Steelers with 55 seconds remaining. What? What? What? He was wide open, wafted there by Rogers. Welcome back to the lineup. Calvin Austin from injury, his third touchdown, and with 55 seconds left, the Steelers are up 2624 with Boswell on to try the extra point.

I mean, it's such a Ragtag Steelers receiver group going up against a Ragtag Ravens secondary, but also, Ultimately, like Kenny Gainwell, Calvin Austin, Thiel and Scotty Miller, like, they did make enough plays in this game and took advantage of a Ravens defense to me that was just not special. And the best players, in this case, Kyle Hamilton gets knocked out, but also Roquan Smith and everyone else that you're counting on to be difference makers weren't in a big spot. This was a Steelers offense that you knew was going to be so condensed down in shape and form and what it was able to do in the passing game, especially coming into the game. because, again, no D.K. Metcalf, again, no Darnel Washington, a couple of missed opportunities early on that we, Greg and I are turning to each other in the screening room thinking, yeah, Darnel Washington makes that play, comes down with that in the end zone. And instead, Aaron Rogers leaned on the running backs, both backs in the passing game, and he leaned on the yak plays. This was going to be the way. Steelers MVP, Kenny Gainwell, literally named the Steelers MVP this week by the rest of the team. Absolutely. And this was had to be the way. And it was their formula for any type of success they did have early in the season.

season. It was going to have to be the way that they attacked this decimated Ravens defense tonight. 217 of Aaron Rogers, 294 passing yards were after the catch. And that is every almost every, it's insane, first of all. It's every stealers, Dave. Every time they're setting up the opportunity to actually go and score those touchdowns that you're talking about, those yak plays. Yeah, 64% coming into the game of the Steelers passing yards were coming after the catch, which is most in the NFL. And, And two, I just want to credit Zach Orr for the performance this defense put up during that stretch run, well, before the actual Greg Rosenthal, TM stretch run, where they went five consecutive games, keeping opponents under 20 points with no pass rush to speak of. They were able to do this with absolutely no pass rush. Chidiya-Wousier comes back in the game after he leaves the game.

I'm wondering if that injury, especially with the injury to Wiggins, where he's not necessarily 100%, that's why he bites on the Calvin Austin double move there. and Collinsworth was talking about a slip. He was toast regardless whether he slipped. He could have just laid down for a nap at that point. And there were moments in this game. Like Cam Hayward had moments. Alex Highsmith had moments. T.J. Watt had the deflected interception,

which was kind of the moment I thought, oh, this is, this is such a Steelers game. If you're watching on YouTube, you can see that deflected interception by him. But through three quarters of this game, Lamar had five completions. And there was four passes defense, including that play where they keep knocking the ball up at the line of scrimmage. It's Cam Hayward often, which at a certain point, it's not luck.

It's happening over and over. It's a little lucky that it bounces off a Raven and Ronnie Stanley and then right to TJ Y. But four quarterback hits, four passes defense. There's like no offense going into the fourth quarter. And then it all happens. And it's just the story of the Ravens, this team that I picked to go win the Super Bowl and finishes with a losing record. and we can't spend the whole show on just this game, but it does make you wonder what's next for these two teams.

Two national insiders going into the day had joint Harbaugh-Tomlin reports, both Schefter and Rappaport. I noticed that Rappaport pointed out, Mike Tomlin, maybe he'll take a year off and do TV, which is the exact same thing that Mike Floreo said on NBC before the game. That's interesting. I don't know if winning the division would impact that.

or not. It was both insiders were very careful to say that John Harbaugh will not be fired and just kept saying, well, it's not a situation where he's going to get fired, but they'll have a conversation after. This is a different sort of conversation. Do they have a spreadsheet? Than the MVP conversation. And that just, it just stuck out to me leaving.

I was just like, does that mean that it's like a mutual parting of ways where they sort of, you know, they position it that way? It means there's a conversation. Yes. where he has to do... Hey, man, do you really want to come back? Do you really, really, really, really want to come back? That's how I...

Yeah, I'd be interested to know the stakes of the conversation. What's it play? What are the possible results from the conversation? If one side doesn't like the thing that the other side has to say regarding the conversation, I'd be interested to know. I hope we get quotes. Well, one of them has...

Oh, well, what's the point of the conversation? One of them has power. Well, it could sometimes be. You know, Doug Peterson had one of these in Philadelphia where it's like, you got to do this. this and this, and if the person's not willing to do it, then he's no longer with the team. Ultimately, I want to see at some point Lamar Jackson with a different head coach, but I feel like that's a show for a different day.

It just seems so fitting on a week 18 Sunday slate where it was like, man, there's not a ton to sink your teeth into that these two teams deliver and the poetry, unfortunately, for Ravens fans out there, that the season starts on Sunday night football, week one with an absolute classic that the Ravens just find a way to lose, like so many other Harbaugh big leads over the years. And then here we are. This was different in how it happened, but just another tough loss. And it makes you wonder about this future. Makes you wonder about the future of the Aaron Rogers Steelers, too. They're going to be hosting a really great defense. We're going to get to that game in just a minute. But what we'll do here, let's go through the AFC seeds now.

We know the AFC North, you know, the Ravens are locked in. In the late window, the Broncos took the field against the Chargers' backups, knowing that they needed to win to clinch home field advance. Chargers looking for their first down of the quarter. We're under four minutes in counting here. The Broncos have a three-nothing lead. Lance in the shotgun. Denver rushes four.

Lance in the pocket, throws a caution route. Deflecting and intercepted. Interceptive and down the west sideline. This is going to be inside the 15, inside the 10, and that is a touchdown for Jayquan McMillan. 45-yard touchdown return. Dave Logan's used to this on K-O-A. I mean, the Broncos defense is making big-time plays

and scoring points each and every week. Depending on how you want to measure defensive scoring, I mean, the Broncos defense kind of outscored the offense today. You know, they score that touchdown. They also set up a two-yard field goal drive. I'm giving those points to the defense. So the Broncos defense scores 10. The Broncos offense scores nine. And the Tray Lance Chargers offense scores three. Final score 19 to three. The Denver Broncos, Patrick, are 14 and three. And they are the number one seed in the

AFC. And they earned it because this team, what they do is they win rock fights. And yes, in a game where the Chargers are resting a lot of folks, Derwin James is over there iced out not playing. Kalil Mac over there hanging out watching the team play as Harbaugh has, you know, and the Chargers have nothing really to do. So it's a game where Trey Lance is going to come in and play. But when you have a Trebouchet like this Denver Broncos defense, you can win a rock fight every single time. Nick Benito making huge plays where if the Broncos fans, if those who are questioning the capacity of this team to compete in the postseason, they do this against everybody. I really don't care that it was the Chargers backups.

in this one, you feel great about them in their opportunity. I think it's more of a credit to Jesse Minter, the defensive coordinator for the Chargers and the backups, it wasn't all backups, but mostly backups for the Chargers that they were able to hold the Broncos offense to 9 points. There are things to be concerned about, but

these week 18 games are crazy. It's more of a feather in his cap because he's going to be going on some job interviews in the next couple weeks, perhaps even the next couple days. And all he's got to do is put this game plan right out there because he held the Broncos to only 24 40 yards total.

RJ Harvey finishes with 28 yards on 15 carries. And the Broncos crowd was actually booing the offense right before that field goal I was talking about. The score was 16 to 3 when they came off the field. Or they were about to kick a field go to 163. And the Broncos crowd was booing the offense before a celebration of what is a truly epic defense, perhaps a championship defense. Well, probably because they like myself have to just correct you, Greg, because I'm

not looking at any points by the Broncos. offense. I'm making it four Will Lutz field goals. Well, they went on long drives to get there. I know, I know. And Bo Nix, you know what, especially early on, Bo Nix was picking up some key conversions with his legs. They were playing, I think, efficient, no risk it. Get the job done. Football, lean on your special teams and your defense. I can't wait to see what both of these teams do in these next couple of weeks.

And hopefully we get at least an extended period of time to watch them. Because you can just tell, this was the type of game where you can hell. Nobody's showing too much. Obviously, charges rested most of their starters. And they're gathering themselves ready for the big push here. And I just think this is going to be fast. They took care of business. There was no point in the game where they thought they were in real jeopardy.

Trey Lance's completion percentage was like well under 50 for most of this game. Garrett Bowles, their left tackle who might make the all pro team this year, made our all pro team on NFL daily. That's what matters. Got injured, but came back in the game was celebrating afterwards. So it seems like he'll be fine. Keenan Allen.

I know you were watching this as you were on NFL Game Day Live. You were like, why is everyone in out for the Chargers except for Keenan Allen? And the answer was, Patrick?

Keenan Allen had some money to me. Both catches and yards. And he got them. Yes. This was Week 18 like ridiculousness. Everyone, they're trying to keep in bubble wrap. Kenan Allen's one of the oldest players

on the team, if not the oldest. they threw the ball to him. You want to know why Traylands couldn't get any completions? The whole plan was to get Keenan Allen a million dollars, which is a lot in incentives. He needed six catches to get $750,000. He only needed nine yards to get another $250, so he made a million dollars today.

But they had to throw the ball 13 times to him to get him 36 yards. It's just kind of ridiculous. Like what if he had gotten hurt during all that thing? Thankfully, he did. Maybe a cool scenario where ownership in certain times is like, know what, why don't you just take this? And then we won't worry about it in week 18. That's meaningless game.

Wouldn't that be better for them? I agree. The Chargers get a little bit of an advantage on the Patriots, I think, and that, like, I think it's great for them that so many guys, especially Justin Herbert, got to rest this week. So I don't want to lose sight of what an accomplishment it is for this Broncos team. Jordan, you had them in the off season as a real deal Super Bowl contender. You were absolutely right. However they got to this.

Wait, wait. What was that? You were absolutely right. Feels so good. I mean, they still got, you know, they are absolutely a contender, and they will, you know, I would assume be favored over, who knows, this could be a rematch. I do wonder if Harbao was out there with his, you know, defense playing that well and wondering, like, wow, if we had tried to win this game, we could have set up like another rematch with the Broncos. Maybe we know this team, but maybe they'll get them in a couple weeks. He's just doing his buddy, Jesse Minter is solid, you know. He's just doing all of his buddies and the longtime friends in the league, you know.

Fair point. And if you're curious why the Broncos are the one seed and the Patriots are the two seed, they both finish 14 and 3. It's because of common opponents. And you know what common opponent the Patriots lost to? The Las Vegas Raiders. And Gino freaking Smith in week one.

That's the difference between Denver getting home field and not. So the Patriots, they were playing at the same time, but they weren't worried about it. They were going to do everything they could to get that two seed or get a little help, which we now know, they did not. So this is third and 18 from the 45, four-man Rice. Alan drops the throw.

Checks it down. It was picked off. It is intercepting the Jags running back with Antonio Johnson. 40, 35, 20, 15, 10, 5. Touchdown. Antonio Johnson, with a pick six to Jagg and extended the lead. How good is that? That's better than a Patriots game.

It's a Jaguars win. More interesting. on Sunday afternoon was this AFC South, the early games. And we thought maybe the Titans could scare Jacksonville. They went into the day looking for the AFC South Crown to set up the pressure on Denver and New England later in the day. Ultimately, they walked 41 to 7 Jaguars win over the Titans.

That was Frank Frangy and Jeff Logman on WJXL. The Jacksonville Jaguars are your AFCC. South champions. Yeah, they are. Greg Rosenthal and myself, we picked them as our messy fun team. Now they're just fun. Also, Greg, it's okay. Patrick and I have been tracking this all season. You just have Foxborough on the brain. You just have your New England Patriots on the brain. So it's totally fine. But Cam Ward left this game in the first quarter and was ruled out by halftime with the shoulder injury. He'd scored a touchdown early and the Titans actually had a seven zero lead. Jeffrey Simmons was giving the entire Jaguars offense the business. But

That was only going to last so long, especially with Tennessee, playing Brandon Allen, former Jacksonville Jaguar, at quarterback. So including that pick six on Allen that you heard by Antonio Johnson. This game was 31-7 at halftime. And Trevor Lawrence became Jacksonville's new franchise touchdown leader. How about that? Already? Yeah, past Blake Bortles.

Someone had to, you know? I guess Mark Brunel didn't play that many years for Jacksonville and the touchdown inflation over the years. But he also went over 4,000 yards. Trevor Lawrence could be on an MVP ballot, maybe. I don't think he should be, but a writer I really respect and trust, John Shipley, who writes about the Jaguar, said, you know, he should get some MVP votes

and you get five votes. It's not that crazy. No, it's not crazy at all. I think you've got to count the first half of the season and he wasn't playing that well, I don't think, for half the season. That's important. But he's on quarterback island,

which is better than any MVP vote. And I would say if you were just going MVP second, half of the season. Remember how we did the first half? It really might be Trevor Lawrence. And so it's just wild. They take care of business in this game. So it's nothing like overly surprising. I'm a little

concerned that their running game still didn't look good even against the Tennessee Titans. But this has turned into a dangerous team. And basically like every team in the AFC, I think they have a legitimate chance to make the Super Bowl. But I feel like you're looking at that Jags-Bills game. And I don't want to spoil

our preview show, but I feel like Patrick's going to be circling the jaguars. Yeah, I think the Jags have a good pass rush. They have, you know, between Heinz Allen and Trouin Walker, the capacity and the athleticism, because you need guys on the edge that can bother Josh, where he just doesn't disregard them and go on his leisurely journeys to the sideline before he whips the ball down the field 50 yards. And also, I think they can cover. I think they're a very good thing. They scored 41 unanswered points. I wish Cam Ward was able to finish this game. I wish the Jags maybe, especially the key players, have played a little bit less in the second half, but Coach Cohen does

as Coach No one does. They are a very complete team in every phase and we've seen the run game work. So I actually believe that at some point this thing pops loose again and Bachelton. In a minute. I mean, it's like once every four weeks or so. Well, it's, they're on then they're due. They're right on time

for the playoffs. No, this is the thing. Their past game is so diverse and we've talked about this. It's so layered with Jacoby Myers getting into the building and becoming the stabilizing force basically right up the seam of that offense. When he runs the most inbreakers of anyone in the offense, Trevor Lawrence is the most productive quarterback in the NFL on those inbreakers,

specifically to Jacobi Myers. And every other piece around that spine of the offense falls into place in these very specific layers. That's exactly how Liam Cohen wants to run this system. And you see it with how every other player basically knows their role and is able to execute that very effectively. And I think a lot of this too is helps because of the defense and the way that their defense has been playing all year. It is not lost on me that we're going to get a Josh Allen versus Josh Hines out this week. Take the name back. We've been, we've been waiting for it. We've been waiting for it and we've been wanting it. And they also have the edge, in my opinion, on a lot of teams and special teams. It's not just Parker Washington's dynamism in the return game.

It's also Cam Little, a find who hits a 67-yard field goal today. I have to listen to it. I just have to. I love that he's getting all these records There's the hold There's the kick The 67-yard field goal From 67 Yards to end the half How good is that

There it is Jacksonville 31 Tennessee 7 Kevin has just set the franchise record for most points scored in a season with 135. Are you kidding me? What a lesson that Cam Little is. Cam Little says, get away from me.

I've got a celebration plan. I'm going to execute that celebration. I don't want you jumping all over me and ruining it. Just the vibes are immaculate. And for these franchises that haven't won as much lately like the Jaguars, Like a division championship means a lot. You saw all the players showing up to the game on defense with these Anthony Campanile T-shirts, which I really appreciated.

And you mentioned the defense. They are going into this week, and it's going to improve. They're seventh in DVOA on defense and 15th on offense. So for the course of the season, the defense has actually been more consistent, even better than this passing game in this offense, which has been peaking lately. But yes, the vibe's amazing. I think Trevor Lawrence's development has been one of the big stories. and before we get out of here,

we have to enjoy the, I guess, culmination of what's kind of been a meme in Jacksonville this week. I don't know if you guys were on this Trevor Lawrence grills watch that's been going on. But after the game, Jerry and Jones, gifted Trevor Lawrence.

I got something saying, you know, Trevor, because we appreciate you so much for everything you do. I just want you to know all of Jacksonville behind you. We know it's a meme that's kind of going viral, so we got to your own. Yes, Trev getting it done. And I guess it basically an image was going around,

an AI-created image of him with a grill, which makes me like this less. But back in our day... The Jaguars are anti-AI. Look at that. They did it for real. Yes. It's in real life.

We had Photoshop. I mean, that's the original way. And also a very brisk application of the grill by Trevor Lawrence. I don't think that's the first time. Oh. That, you know, famously Georgia resident and native... Love that. Trevor Long...

Oh, and he knew how to mean mug for the camera. He made it all happen. I love it. It's a really fun matchup that we'll be talking all week, Jaguars in Bills. And yeah, you mentioned the kids. Sam Ward injury. It was reported by Jeff Howe of the athletic that it was a grade three AC joint sprain.

We'll see. But that's the highest grade. And that means that that's a multi-month injury. We'll see if he needs surgery or not, but a really disappointing way for, I think, a promising rookie season to end. We'll see what they do with their coaching moves. After he comes out, that Brandon Allen snap was the first snap to a quarterback that wasn't Cam Ward.

Wow. Yeah. That's the 17th week comes back to bite him. Mike McCoy, the interim head coach was getting some questions on the play call because it was a called design run where he dives into the end zone. I think he had an option to hand it off on the play,

but I think ultimately it's just bad luck. You can't kill him for calling a football player or playing football. But as you say, the injury rate in this league is 100%. So with the Jaguars winning, the Texans were scoreboard watching. The game's happening at the same time. The Texans are hoping can we sneak in?

It gets out of hand with the Jaguars pretty early. But does that stop Davis Mills and C.J. Stroud? It doesn't stop them. Five seconds to go. First down, Colts at their 25. Leonard, over the middle. He goes to Josh Downs, takes it across the 30 ladders back to Pittman. Pitman throws it back to Leonard.

And Leonard is going to be sacked. He gets rid of the ball. Toggiye picks it up. Toggiye crossed the five. Toggiye into the end zone. Touchdown Tommy Toggiye to end the game. And the Texas win their 12. What a way to finish the season.

There was no going down for Tommy Toggiye. Tommy Toggiye was going to house that baby. And that's exactly what he did. You give me a Tommy Toggiye Mark Vandermere call to end the season? Santa's come late. 38 to 30, Texans win over the Colts. Yes, that was, as it's lovingly called, a pitchy, pitchy woo-woo play there by the Colts,

down two points at the end after my guy, Davis Mills, did something that he did for a third time this season, Patrick. He was given the ball with a chance to go on a game-winning drive. And you know what he did? He does what Davis Mills does. went on a game-winning drive and let Kaimi Fairbairn do the rest. Yeah. NFL

Daily kicking star Kaimi Fairburn. Don't need to highlight, you know, any other particular kicker. What do we make of this game where CJ Stroud plays the first half and they're watching the scoreboard, but

the game is close. Riley Leonard's playing well. Derek Stingley's getting cooked by Alec Pierce. Like a lot's going on. It was actually just a good football game. And And then the Texans kind of call off the dogs and take a lot of the starters out in the second half, but it still ends up going back and forth. I think, and again, you know, perhaps on bias and I don't necessarily like the Dave Canales of it all, take it off the scoreboard, not pay attention. We're doing all this other stuff.

To the, the antithesis of the Jacksonville Jaguars who were actually in that game, blowing out the Tennessee tight, you know, coach looks up and sees that it's 30, 35 to 7, I believe at that point, and says, all right, there's no need for us to have our start. and quarterback in the game. A lot of other guys going to the sideline, but they get everything they want. Jaden Higgins, his ascension has continued, where Nico Collins was chilling on the sideline and street close for this game. He had a nice touchdown.

They were able to get Lasseter some rest. He had a knee and ankle injury that leads to that first big Alec Pierce play because it's Tremont Smith over there. And as you said, Sting's having trouble covering Alec Pierce, breaking news, everybody's having trouble covering Alec Pierce who went off today.

And I think the major takeaway, other than, you know, Davis Mills performing excellently in Davis Mills's role is the benefit of hindsight to look back and say... I see that little backhanded compliment there. In Davis Mills' role. On a day where we were discussing, you know, Brandon Allen's rankings among the QB3s.

Some people were pretty excited about that. Not me, not you, but some people. Some people. No. But I do think, right, it's an opportunity to look back, not with hindsight because it was foresight for a lot of people. Riley Leonard should have started

more than this last game for the Indianapolis Colts in terms of he not only hit those deep shots which was something the offense really didn't have an option for Philip Rivers he had a keeper on the on the end line where he breaks a tackle

and gets into the end zone Riley Leonard had them in this game to a great extent where we were questioning if it was fair for him to make his first start against this Houston Texans defense you look pretty good today No, I think, I'm not going to second guess that they did the Philip Rivers thing to begin with. I think that's fair to do, considering how good Leonard looked in this game.

And Leonard did get hurt previously before that. Yeah, I think the knee was a bigger deal than they let on. I remember that was my game when we covered that. And it was the way that Riley Leonard wants to play, which he showed today and was really talented, in my opinion, especially with the ability to run. It was pretty clear that was going to be an. And they thought he might miss that one week. I do think, though, that they should have just had Riley Leonard ready to go last week because they knew there was a chance that they were going to get eliminated.

I actually think Riley Leonard played well enough to be in the conversation, to be their week one starter next year, to just be in the mix. Because Daniel Jones isn't going to be ready for the start next season. That's assuming he's even on the roster, which I'm not necessarily assuming. We have learned since this game ended that Chris. Ballard, their general manager, and Shane Steichen, their head coach, will be back. It was essentially announced by the team and sent out through all the insiders that both of them are going to be back. So you know Riley Leonard is going to be in this same offense. And it would have been really

valuable to get more data on him because he looked good enough. Patrick, you watch this game closer. Like, he looked good enough in this game running, passing, decision making to think, like, okay, maybe we get like an okay, like veteran that could be the week one starter, but actually there's a good chance it's Riley Leonard until Daniel Jones is back. And you'd feel a lot better making that evaluation if you had, let's say, three games of games to go through and see rather than just like this one incredible performance. And then you can figure out what we can attribute the bad plays to. Is that just a rookie having things go the other way?

because there was a play in this game where Leonard is trying to throw a jump pass and he checks wings on it, but the problem is he threw the ball backwards anyway. The Texans were able to recover within the five-yard line and C.J. Stroud has a rushing touchdown right after that to try to figure out, well, are these things the rookie is just doing because he's a rookie? Is this a long-term trend?

We don't know that because we got an extra opportunity to watch the Phillip Rivers play. It was fun, though. And who knows? It was reported by Ian Rappaport that multiple teams are potentially interested in Philip Rivers as a head coach. Now, potentially interesting? The Colts are not one of those teams because they're keeping,

they're keeping Shane Steichen. I don't know, that they want to talk to Philip Rivers. That was, that was a surprising report to say the least. Your boy, Alec Pierce, by the way, who's going to be very close to the top of the top 101 free agency list when it comes out.

Topped 100, I mean, a thousand yards on the season by going over 100 today. So he was their number. number one receiver, gets over 1,000 yards. He ended up averaging 21.3 yards per catch. In the year of Our Lord, 2025 slash six, I guess now. That was more than three and a half yards more than anyone else in the league. And it's on pretty good volume.

There's really no one else doing it quite like our guy, Alec Pierce, or of Davis Mills, for that matter, going three for nine, but getting his like third game winning drives. I'm joking. I'm joking. A little more pop in there. no one's doing it like him where he's going three for nine but getting another game winning drive and we thought you know as the volume would go up and alec pierce will become more of a part of the offense the short offense like oh well he's going to lose that opportunity no no no it gets

buckets deep and i i don't i don't take much out of the texans defense having some issues we'll talk about them during this week what do we think and i think we'll get into the conversation about the colts and deciding to keep stike in ballard a little deeper on monday show they're going to have a press conference and and we'll cover that but just quick reactions off of them keeping Stuyken and Ballard? I'm not surprised. As you know, I spent some time out there earlier this month for a profile on Carly or say Gordon, the owner who made ultimately the decision along with her two sisters who co-owned the team along with her.

It takes, I look at the landscape of this coaching cycle, and it's a lot of retread coaches, and it is a lot of really inexperienced coordinators who would be first-time coaches. I think Shane Steichen showed that he can, that he has a lot of potential when they do get the quarterback right. I think that Chris Ballard, because of what they've built, not only the incredibly, like,

open dialogue that they have with each other and with Shane Steichen, but also you don't want a coach coming in with a, you don't want to keep a coach and then bring in a new GM or vice versa. You don't want an overhang situation. And you also have, really, despite their lack of playoff wins, one of the deeper and more respected scouting and executive departments,

that all goes if Chris Ballard goes as well. And you have, I don't know that there's a GM candidate out there right now capable of building that as quickly as they want to win with this roster and potentially with, probably with Daniel Jones. Got to be able to acquire some more talent on the defensive side of the ball.

Get that sorted out. Have coach Lou with a chance to get some guys. Well, with all these losses, their draft pick gets high. Oh, wait, no. here's the thing Carly Gordnerce approved that

Soss Gardner trade and I didn't think it was an irrational big swing for the fences at the time this was the ultimate win now type of team because they're an aging roster a lot of contracts are coming up

this off season especially last off season I mean next off season so I think continuity does make sense especially because you have a real deal offensive coach in Stuyken and do you really want to start over

as a GM do you want to hire from within none of that really ended up making up sense. So they're going to be another win now team next year, but they go for continuity and they get the win. So we talk Texans, we talk Colts. Now let's get to those Patriots who are playing in the late window, knowing they needed to win because Jacksonville won earlier in the day

to at least get that two seed. Kyle wins, the rookie receiver left. High formation, first and ten gives. Stevenson, right through the middle. He comes to 20-20. Ten, half the five, split around, taken into the end zone, still on his feet with a Patriots touchdown. Unbelievable by Ramandre here in these last three weeks. The way this thing shakes out, if you do secure the number two C, you've got to give him a lot of credit here.

That's a good call by Scott Zolak and Bob Sochi on WBZ. They're all good calls. I shouldn't sound so surprised. Ramondri's return has been a thing. What a weird up-and-down career he has had for a fifth-year running back. Like, the highs have been exceptionally high. He got a monster contract. At times, he looks like a top 10 running back in the league.

The lows have been extremely low. Like, usually running backs don't get into such big slums. But he is on a heater right now. He is breaking a tackle, almost every touch. He touched the ball nine times on Sunday. And then he got 153 yards and three touchdowns. Mike Bramble didn't get the memo that you were supposed to be stat patting for Drake May's MVP candidate see because he just didn't need to. They just ran the ball down the Dolphins' throats all day long.

38 to 10 was the final score. They go for 400 and over 450 yards. The starters stayed in more or less throughout. Josh Dobbs came in very late in this game and they made sure they insured the two seed. And I think the running game is going to be really big for them in the playoffs and Trayvion Henderson also looked great in this game and I think it's not a small thing that Will Campbell was back on the left side road grading down the theater. There it is. Healed by Bakemus. Yes.

Will Campbell has earned the smile on Greg Rosenthal's face. He did it. Mission accomplished for the Patriots top 10 pick. See, Ramondre be the explosive part of the run game was nice because I don't think this was all the Finns kind of being. in Cancun on three mode. I don't know. It might have been early.

The first touchdown, yes. The first drive was three rushes and 65 yards. And one of those rushes was like a four yard touchdown. So it was like, you know, it was kind of ridiculous. They were just taking turns. Through their first two drives, they were averaging 13 yards per play. And I was like, oh, that must have fallen off big when you, you know, end up having 60 to 70 steps. Nope.

I mean, they were still over eight yards per play. on this game. And even though Drake May didn't light up like the box score, it actually was kind of a typical Drake May game. So if he does win MVP, he'll have done it in a unique way. He only throws the ball 18 times in this game. But he has a 30 yarder, a 32 yarder, another 30 yarder, a 191 yards. And he runs the ball for 40 yards in this game. That's why the comp for Drake May is not Josh Allen. The comp for Drake May is Lamar Jack. I agree. I agree. As a runner, it's not, but I agree. The way that he targets guys down the field and the way that the offense where there are big stretches of this game we're like, well, the dolphins are still in this. Hold on. And then all of a sudden, the Patriots have 40 points

because that's what they do. They score points in bunches. They get buckets and it's good football to watch. Yeah, he had four different plays of at least 20 yards. Efton Chisholm goes for a 35-yarder, like Stefan Diggs, goes down the field. And it kind of did feel like 1, 2, 3, Kankoon

for the Dolphins. defense. On the other side, you know, Quinn Ewers moved the ball very well for about two and a half quarters. It sort of fell off a cliff after that. He looked good, but they had no real running game. Milton Williams was also back on the field, which is a big deal. Yeah, huge deal for the Patriots because as explosive as their offense can be, their defense has really struggled. So having him back ahead of this playoff run that they make is going to be huge. And it does not escape me how tough of a matchup this game is coming up. I know we'll preview it on the show, but going up against Jesse Mentor's defense with the Los Angeles Chargers that do not allow explosive passing

plays. They have allowed, I think, three pass plays of 30 plus air yards this entire season, touchdowns, I mean, this entire season. They do not allow explosives. So the Patriots are going to have to lean on this reemerged run game. They're going to have to lean on biting away underneath and win in different ways, and that's what I think a real playoff team is going to be. Really fun matchup where I think both the Patriots and the Chargers

fans and the teams could be looking at the other and thinking, oh, that's the matchup I want. Yeah. Which is a weird place to be. It's never happened. But almost the entire AFC to me is just,

it's just like some dice in a in a jar. You know, you just, it doesn't really, you have no idea. I'm trying to think of that game, Bogle or whatever. I'm mixing metaphors here. Boggle!

You just don't know what's going to... You don't know what's going to pop up. Like, none of... There is no AFC result, literally, except for the Steelers making the Super Bowl. That would surprise me. Basically, that Steelers winning more than one game. That was...

Nothing else would remotely surprise me. But the Patriots get it done. And they've been very good down the stretch at just blowing bad teams out, one of the league leaders in point differential. So there's a lot of blowouts in the AFC. We're going to get to these big NFC games in a minute. But the Bills did say goodbye to Ralph Wilson Stadium on Sunday.

That's what we call it, the Ralph. And they did it in style, even if Josh Allen only took one snap. Eye formation here from the Bills, fourth and goal from the two. And now Gileum motions to the right wing. Motion for the tight end Lattu. Trubisky, back to pass. Looking right, now back to the left, back to the middle. And Gabe Davis just mothed the defender for a two.

A two-yard touchdown reception. He reached over him, pulled the ball back, and Gabe Davis is having his biggest night since he put the Bill's uniform back on this season. What are you laughing at? The Ralph from Gabe Davis. His little fists, just like he was so just, oh, that was great. Let Gabe Davis have his moment.

It was great, and Mitch Trubritsky, a part of the Ralph's legacy forever. He really is because, I mean, it's not a joke, Because this game will live forever, and it's great what this Bill's team did in a 35 to 8 win. They got out to a 35 to nothing lead against the Jets. And I know the Jets are one of the most pathetic teams I've ever seen down the stretch. I mean, they're literally the first team in the Super Bowl era to lose five straight games by at least 21 points. Just by scoring, which is how we measure things in this sport, they are the worst team in the final like five weeks of a season ever. But that said, the bills benched everyone. Their offensive

line wasn't playing. They weren't even active for this game. Josh Allen played one snap. James Cook had a couple carries to start the game. Then they benched him. Like no one was really playing in this game. And they put up 470 yards. And it was an absolute celebration for the last like quarter of this game. And I, I just think that was cool. Like after the game, they show Tredavius White looking up at the big board and they're playing iris Iris by the Goo Goo Goo Dolls Oh I welled up on that one

And everyone in the crowd is singing And they're showing So many different fans crying And it just wouldn't have hit the same way If they had lost that game So it turned out into like a three hour party So I thank Mitch Trubisky for his service Yeah 100%.

His contribution to the effort Does not go unnoticed or unvalued by the fine folks at NFL Daily um what a cool see to me week 18 i think has been stuff and nonsense for a lot of a lot of people and and some of these games feel so pointless at at times but that feeling and watching the fans get their moment fans who have shoveled snow out of those seats fans who have literally for this game which was very fitting they had the last call i get texts from the bills you know because i'm just on the notifications list or whatever. It's like $20 an hour.

Anyone want to come over to Highmark Stadium and start shoveling them? Absolutely. Fans who and our producer, Eric, is one of them, we're lucky to catch a game that has been at a place that has been such a part of their journey through their life and their partners' lives and their kids' lives and heartbreak in that stadium and joy in that stadium and watching them discover this superhuman quarterback and what he could do in that stadium and I just, you know, I love that they sent the Ralph out this way. I love that week 18 for as nonsensical as it can feel at times was just all feeling and such a joyride for those fans

with a little bitter sweetness tinged at the end too. And a great decision to to have the throwback red helmets. Yeah. On where everybody's decked out and, you know, you see all kinds of situations where you're critical of wearing old and weird jerseys where you could rock that J.P. Lossman, Bill's jersey. No, you can't. No, you can't. You're never allowed to rock the J.P. Lossman jersey. If you want to do E.J. Manuel, who carried himself well, and there were some moments, you can do it. J.P. Lossman, you're not allowed. Never.

J.P., I'm sorry. If you're listening to this, I did not know Greg was going to take a Tomahawk missile to you. You know, we're both two lane grads. We have that in common. There was a moment where they were doing Mr. Brightside and your friend Catherine Fitzgerald who covers the team she noted a very theatrical moment

where Spencer Brown the tackle had his cape ripped off right at the moment where they sing he takes off her dress now and it was like choreographed with all the players. It was just it was just a thing

and Ray Davis, shout out to Ray Davis 151 yards on the ground if you watch our great show game debut. That was my prop for the week that he goes over I think 29 yards. I mean, that's easy. First drive. First drive he had it. Now there's not much left to say

in this game because I want to save some time for all these great NFC games. Bill's Jaguars is going to be awesome and I think ultimately the bills have to feel really good about the fact that they got to rest Josh Allen and so many key players in this game and that Dalton Kincaid who was one of the

real starters played and played well in this game and is healthy entering the playoffs because he's been so important for them. Okay, that's the AFC. We've got the matchups all set. We hear, by the way, that Aaron Glenn is safe, according to the insiders. That's one where I just keep hearing it, and I don't know. I just, it wouldn't surprise me if that was a surprise one, but we keep hearing that he's safe, and so we'll have to assume until proven otherwise that that is true. One game that featured no coaches on the hot seat. In fact, two coaches that I think,

we're going against each other, potentially for the Coach of the Year award. There are a lot of great candidates. But to me, going into Week 18, the best two candidates were Mike McDonald and Kyle Shanahan. Let's go back to the Saturday game and set up how the entire NFC slate was broken down first with that battle for the number one seed. Charbonnet in the backfield on third down and two. Darnold under center. Long count, turns, hands to charts. Finds from running room, bounces it outside left.

Here he comes 20. 15 cuts back inside 10 5 touchdown seehawks Zach Charbonnet from 27 out his 12th rushing touchdown of the season fitting call who's the run game when the Seahawks can run the ball they look like the best team in football I mean they looked like the best team in football any old time

but when they run the ball they just look especially unstoppable The Seahawks win 13 to 3 in a score that doesn't flatter their offense. I think they were a little more effective than the score would indicate. That was Steve Rable, by the way. A little help from Dave Wyman on K-I-R-O. This was a game where the Seahawks defense made sure, Jordan, that they got the one seed. They are really as great as the Texans have been in the AFC. The Seahawks have been that good, maybe even better, in the NFC.

and this was their best performance. This defense, which is an absolute marvel to watch, has this incredible ability because of the way that they play in their sub-packages, a larger nickel, a larger dime personnel, a fast personnel in those perceived sub-packages. They stay in them the entire time, and they neutralize any sort of alternative, heavier personnel that you want to use on them, whether it is a fullback in Kyle Uschek and George Kittle in the tight end, or if you want to use two tight ends or anything that you throw at this Seattle group,

not only do they completely neutralize any of the little cutesy like trickeration scheme things that you want to do, but they just keep coming after you. It's like Michael Myers in one of these horror movies where you could literally run a bus into it and it will still keep coming after you. You could, hey, by the way, finally, if you're the 49ers, get inside the Seattle 30 yard line for the first time all game deep into the contest and yet here comes the Seattle defense because Brock Purdy made his best throw of the game to Joanne Jennings to get to the Seahawks nine yard line and a play later Christian McCaffrey bibles a pass it gets tipped it's intercepted if you go

down even one score to this Seattle team that is their a plus plan to keep you smothered whether it's their own ball control on offense or their defense and and you are are eliminated from the game before you can even get started. They're one of the best defenses, I think we've seen in a while. I almost hit Patrick there. Sorry. Their physicality in this game, it's not like the 49ers' offense didn't want it or anything, but they just weren't in a good position.

Like, they kept catching the ball, and then they would be absolutely leveled. Like, they could have two of the, like, all-pro team defensive tackles. DeMarcus DeMarcus could be in that mix. And then the secondary is outrageous. That Rick Wullen, who's just playing lights out down the stretch. their sixth defensive back, and as you mentioned, not leaving the field. What really stuck with me when I thought about this, like, big picture, Patrick, was like, this is literally the reason why Mike McDonald was hired.

It's why he's my coach of the year, is that it's so clearly his vision of how to play defense. He was supposed to be the Shanahan McVeigh stopper. And I know you can say, oh, well, they racked up all these yards on McDonald last time. They had situational big plays, but they also held them to under 250 yards. The other time they played the Rams. like he came with a job to do and like he did it holding this 49ers team to three points is just masterful only nine first downs CMC could not get it going on the ground there was really like nowhere that they could turn yeah and even when CMC did get free things went the other way where that was

not necessarily the game hinged on that play but the margins were so slim for the 49ers and they were coming in the game before I knew Trent Williams wasn't going to play I thought this was going to have to be a Kyle Shanahan masterpiece. He was going to have to be calling plays from the astral plane to do what they needed to do in this one where you mentioned the depth for the Seahawks and the talent for the Seahawks

where Leonard Williams only had to play 30 snaps. DeMarcus Lawrence only had to play 27 snaps. Wow. They have this capacity to be smothering and get guys in where it's Jaron Reed on like his fourth pass rush of the game getting a whole bunch of pressure on Brock Purdy

where the options were really limited for rock and they weren't necessarily getting the separation that they were used to during their streak of winning the game, scoring all those points. And because it was complimentary football, because the run game was great in this game. It wasn't like as consistent success rate wise, but still very

successful. Overall, they run for 180 yards. There was a key play where Kenneth Walker gets 18 yards on 3rd and 17 that to me just felt like an absolute backbreaker. And it's only 10 to 3 at that

portion of the game, but, man, Walker runs with such suddenness, and just Charbonnet gets 74 yards in this game, too, and breaks a lot of tackles and gets that touchdown. It's a great one-to punch, and it was without Charles Cross, who signed a big contract, by the way, on Sunday, and they expect them back for the playoffs. It's not a consistent offensive line, but I thought this was a good enough offensive performance, and they managed the game well against, you know, a lacklust of 49ers. Yeah, the point I made on social media was it's hard. to find a weakness in Seattle when they run the ball like this. That's a,

that's a key phrase there because running the ball like that, not only you could play total ball control and set up your defense to also do so against an offense and have that sort of handshake smothering principle that they do, but also you are hiding and you're mitigating pressure that could otherwise rattle your quarterback. And it's just a fact it has for Sam Darnold. Even in the first half of this game, I do not think he played a good first half of this game.

But the key is, is he doesn't have to play this, you know, crazy quarterback island worthy game, right? Like, he can run the offense in a way that is fantastic because they lean on him. They look to him to lead. You hear every player talking about it in the locker room post game. And I think it's a real credit where you don't have a quarterback who all the time feels like he has to play hero ball. He's playing the type of football that this team needs him to play right now. when the run game is working the way that it is, it is such a complete team.

They don't need to put up, you know, 25 points, 30 points a game because their defense is going to, it's a team built around the defense and their run game. This is a Kubiak, Mike McDonald team. It's built around the run game and the defense. You know how I know I'm a small person, like literally and figuratively?

It's because after the game, it really struck me as funny when they're like, it's like, the defense gave up, you know, in my mind, the defense gave up three points. They ran for 180 yards. And the big takeaway from the game was like, Sam Darnold did it.

What a story. Sam Darnold. Like he, he made us to do it. Not on this, Greg. With the defense that allowed nine first downs against the best offense in the league. The QB win, Greg. With 180 yards. But he was,

he played the right brand of football in the second half where he made some plays out of structure and he ran with his legs. I thought played a good game in the second half. And like I said, I thought the offense overall was kind of underrated in this game. Gray's Abel's best game. Yeah, they possessed the ball for most of the game, and he obviously is a big part of it. And to start the highlight with the Charbonnet rushing touchdown,

that's just a regular, if they want to run a run play and it's just a regular ISO play, it's Zach Charbonnet. When they need something weird to happen, it's Kenneth Walker, and that third down conversion, not fluky, third and long, Kenneth Walker has the most yards in the entire NFL on third and long. Wow. Third and seven or more, he averages 10.9 yards per carry.

He gets buckets. That's incredible. He's such a unique talent. He's a really interesting free agent coming up because I don't know if Seattle's going to pay him the top dollar when they have Charbonnet there. Maybe they think they can replace him. He's someone I would like to sign if I was running the team. Let's look at the picture after the game. Here's where Darnold really shine because I do believe that his teammates really love him.

I just thought this was a great selfie. I'm not great at taking selfies by Jalen Milro of just the three different types of quarterbacks that you can have. Jalen Milro, Sam Darnold, and Drew Locke. And, yeah, they were smoking cigars in that locker room. And everyone's having a good time. Sam Darnold, he's a leader of men. He is.

He's what? He's now the only quarterback who's won like 27 games in two years for two different teams. If not for a bad night in Minnesota, been back-to-back one seat for Sam Darnold. Listen, you're going to have to go through not just this Seattle defense, which again,

God forbid you even go down a field goal to these guys, right? Because anything, any neutral or advantage by points keeps them in their A-plus defensive plan,

but also you're going up against that Seattle crowd and the elements that are sure to have be unfolding as they host the ride on the way here. A lot of different ways that the NFC playoffs.

can shake out. For as much talk of that the AFC is wide open, I think that's true in terms of who makes it to the end. I'd still be a little surprise if it's not the Rams or Seahawks that win the NFC. But I do think on a matchup basis, it's pretty wide open. But there is one route, which wouldn't surprise me, where the Seahawks never play out of the NFC West, that the 49ers win this next weekend,

and it's the 49ers that come to Seattle for a rematch in two weeks. And then it's the Rams in the NFC championship game. It could be like an all-NFC West. run. This has really been an epic division. Jackson Smith and Jigba wrapped up a historic season, I would say, just absolutely ridiculous. And if you remember before the game, Diomano or Lenore talked about how he wanted to match up one-on-one throughout the game. That didn't really happen, but a couple times it happens, and JSN got a touchdown about it and was asked about Lenore's comment. Yeah, I mean, I definitely heard it.

You know, it's, it's hard to respond back to all my fans. But, you know, I knew that we were going to see him today and take care of business. It's the delivery, right? It's just amazing. Just the very small smile before he decides, I'm just going to let it rip. Different sides of the ball, different eras, different techniques. Yes. I can't respond to all my fans

get up to don't ever try me with a sorry receiver like Crabtrie. I think it was in terms of this rivalry. I love it. It's not going to live on that much. I mean, it'll live on. We're going to make sure it leaves. That is maybe the most famous post-game interview

of my lifetime that Richard Sherman, but that is a great callback. By the way, Jackson Smith & Jigua finishes with 119 catches and 1,793 yards. Just an outrageous performance by him and a great job. Again, Mike McDonald, he is my choice, partly because went for a fourth down early in this game. I think he knew what type of game it was.

He trusted his defense. It didn't work one time near the goal line, and it worked a different time, whereas Kyle Shanahan was punting around midfield on fourth and two. I don't think he trusted his offense, and who can blame him. So that was the Saturday night game. And that established, you know, the NFC West Championship and the one seat.

Let's go to the NFC South Championship, or was it, to Tampa? Three seconds left in the game. Buck's trying to keep our playoff and division title hopes alive. The snap, chest high, dropping young, looking young, over the middle, young, gets the catch made, the hook and lateral. They lateral to the ball back to the left side and a tenderole of McMillan footh. He throws it lowest fumble. It's fubble. It's loose.

Bucks come up with it, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Buccaneers have come up with the ball on the final play of the game. The final play of regulation, and Tampa Bay will beat Carolina, 16 to 14. Final game-winning call there by Gene Deckerhoff. You know, you guys know who went to the playoffs at this point. If you're listening to this recap show. But at the time, we didn't know if Gene Deckerhoff, the great radio man, was going to get another chance.

else. At least he's going out on a win. That was him on WFU.S. Buckaneers survived. 16 to 14. They stopped the slide. It was the result that I wanted because I wanted the NFC South to come down to Falcon Saints on Sunday afternoon. And it did. And we're going to do that game next. But to set that up, the Buccaneers had to go and get a win. And for the first time, and a long time Baker ball was rolling, baby? Um, sort of, I guess. A little.

Kind of. Kind of. I think so. Yeah. You know, I mean, he picked, he first quarter. He scrambled some too and he picked up some key yards. You know, made a couple perimeter throws that were good.

And I thought what he did a really nice job of early was taking what the defense was giving him. He wasn't trying to force the ball into bad spots. He wasn't making bad decisions with the football because what a Euro Evereaux defense likes to do as it likes to fool you and dare you to throw the explosive play where they actually do have two pretty good ball hawking corners on the perimeter. And instead, what it wants to do is make you bite away underneath their zone piece by piece. And Baker, I think, did a good job of that early on.

You know, he averaged almost 10 yards per throw in this game. He's got the first quarter touchdown. In fact, since this is the last time, we're going to hear from Gene. This was a great throw. Let's listen to Baker's touchdown to Cade Aten in a driving. rainstorm. Shotgun, look, belt high, snap,

Mayfield throws a dart. Cod ball, touchdowns, Tampa Bay. Keaton. Boy, what a pro by Baker Mayfield with the

Bucks are on top six for another. It's a great throw. It wasn't perfect, but, you know, they moved the ball. He gets 31 yards

on the ground. They rush for 140. They hold the ball for 37 minutes. The conditions were nasty. At a certain point,

I was like, let's just, can we just come back on Sunday and not, let the conditions decide it. There was that interception. In the second quarter, so Baker ball quit

rolling pretty quickly. Yeah, the conditions actually improved as the game went on. And in the second third and fourth quarter, Baker threw for 124 yards had a pick and a passer rating of 60. Okay. Where it seemed like, and again, I don't

know if it's just in my head. I could be. I am no doctor. I'm not going to diagnose Baker Mayfield by video like weirdos do on Twitter where no nobody no doctor's ever asking you for a video so stop doing that but baker starts the game looks good he's pumped he's lowering his shoulder running over people runs into mike jackson has an argument with him but what looked like the physical deterioration of baker mayfield happening in real time as the game went on to the extent where grisard the the the buck sideline apparently

was hiding baker mayfield what felt like for the rest of the game is the panthers defense started partly because he does dumb stuff like lowering his shoulder on a run like that when he's right next to the sideline and you love the competitiveness, obviously. I hated it. You've been hurt all season. Right. Like that he sometimes is his own worst enemy.

They did just look like the better team though. Like, in general they are much more talented. The collapse of the chiefs and the Ravens and the Bengals and even in the NFC you could look at the Lions

has sort of hidden the fact that the Bucks are one of the very most disappointing teams in the league. There's not a lot of excuses for why they've been this bad. Ultimately, they were punished for it, even though they won this game. Like, how they finished this season was kind of catastrophic. They will show you why they finished the season this way. It might seem like it's unexplainable when you look at the names on this roster, on both sides of the ball, when you look at, you know, the way that they started the season.

and when you look at some of the ability and the potential that they have failed to live up to through the second half of the season, and it all boils down to these little microcosmic moments that happened from game to game. A couple weeks ago, it's multiple false starts in a row. This last game, it is Baker running into his own running back,

Sean Tucker, knocking him down on the handoff, fumbling the exchange, killing the drive. It is Baker throwing a just completely just bad interception to Christian Roseboom, who's sitting in a cloudy zone that Giro Ever obeyed him into throwing by putting Christian Roseboom right where Baker needs to place the ball. And it's these types of things where they can't help themselves.

They just can't win for losing. And it doesn't just happen over the course of a game in totality. It happens in these little moments. And ever since, you know, they started on this skid, these little moments have compounded for them. They were six and two. They were six and two, and they finished two and seven down the stretch, despite getting healthier down the stretch. So the Panthers will be able to talk about them in their matchup against the Rams on Westavis and leading into that game.

This game was very concerning for them in general because I still just wonder what are they good at? Because they're not good at running the ball consistently. They're actually one of the very worst rushing teams in the NFL. they're bottom three in basically every stat since about week, I think 10 or 12, something like that. Bryce has had moments. Tederoa McMillan, I think, made a good closing case with a big long touchdown and another offensive, a pass interference that was a very questionable call. That should have been a long call.

That would have put him over 100 yards. He did go over 1,000 yards. They have a couple things, but like, I don't know what they're good at. To me, they're probably the 25th best team in the NFL or so, and they're making the playoffs. and the play calling with the flea flicker in the rain from the 20-yard line was special. It's a part of the collective disaster where late in this game, I would have swore up and down that the Buccaneers were going to lose the game on the virtue of the Panthers having a successful offense

that was just having things go wrong in the closing moment. So there's a solid young drive that starts with a touchback. They eventually get a Fitzgerald 54-yard field goal that he misses. The next drive, they have. the big play to Teterola McMillan where it's 32 yards, if it's a 32 yard play, the T-MAC drops,

it's not against the rules to discuss. But because it's a penalty and the Panthers made bad plays, it's against the rules to have an extensive discussion about the impact the penalty would have because there's other things. There are other plays in the football game where the Panthers could have had success. That was a significant

one. Also bad call. They don't get points on that drive. I think it was a bad call, but it also was a bad call that you understand when you watch the replay like why seen that live that it just looked violent enough that it was made and it's like mistakes happen. Yes, mistakes do happen.

They happen to the benefit of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in this game because the next drive after that so that's a potential scoring drive, miss a field goal, potential scoring drive penalty brings it back. Then the infamous flea flicker call in the red zone, which was catastrophic and then the next drive after that they do get a touchdown where we've seen this Panthers

offense be able to execute, it was just in weird moments, weird things happen in a weird football game and a weird division. It drives me freaking nuts because they do things that make so much sense and they do them in sequence and then they get too cute and then everything just implodes. And that's what drives me nuts because they have this like cohesiveness when it's clicking. It really clicks. This is them deciding that they're going to go under center where Tampa Bay has really

struggled against under center passing plays and under center runs and play action of late. So they're going under center and that's great and I'm thinking, wow, Dave Canales is keeping things simple right now. This is great. This is working. All of a sudden they go into the pistol. The play fails. Do

they go under center? No. They move a Bryce back further and he goes into the shotgun and then he throws a pick. Jacob Parris just jumped the route on Teteroa McMillian. Same thing. They convert their first third down in eons. And the next play after that is the flea flicker

that was, I think, intended to go to the player leaking into the flat, but everyone stops because the first part of the play fails, and so nothing looks like it works. Too cute! You've got to take the conditions into account. And all of that... Don't get cute in conditions.

All of that is true. And yet I got to keep going back to this running thing because I think it's important to think about intentions of how you want to build your team. The whole point of this team build was, we're going to win in the trenches. We're going to pay a lot of money to guards. We're going to build around this offensive line.

We're going to pay our backs. We're going to run the ball and support. That is literally our philosophy. And they had 19 yards on 14 carries. And it's part of a pretty long trend. And so that really worries me about them. Let's end the Bucks talk positively. Because we don't know if Todd Bowles and Jason Light are safe.

I have to assume Jason Light, done an incredible job as a GM in my mind is safe. We don't know if Todd Bowles is safe. In the Bucs history, the glazers have often taken a really long time to make any sort of decisions. And the insiders seem to believe that Boles is going to keep his job anyways.

I don't think we'd find out for a little while. But I do think based on the tone of the post-game speech from Levanti David after the game, that there's a real chance it's the last time we see Levanti David in a Buc's uniform. And so fitting in what might have been his last game, He actually tied, like, the guy that you think about when you think of Levanti David first, Derek Brooks, for the all-time lead in tackles. Let's listen to Levanti David in the locker room.

I love y'all, man. I love y'all of death. This is how you'd be in relationships. I have a relationship with each, every one of y'all in here. And that's what it's all about, man. I appreciate y'all, definitely. This was all right. This was all about, man.

Tyler, shit. This was all about, man. Family 03, one, two, three. Family. Oh, it was about a minute and a half long video, which if you're into those sort of things, I love these locker room things. I would recommend going to watch.

But what really caught my attention at the very end of it was some random buccaneer player just yelling out, Tyler Shuck! Like a cry of help and hope that Tyler Shuck, the man that has saved this saint's season, would save the bucks on Sunday afternoon and send them to the playoffs. Could he get it done in Atlanta? Let's go.

Torre and Pettus go to the left side. Johnson and another receiver here to the near side. That's Austin. Estimates the back. Shuck's going to throw. Quick shot. Intercept it. It's D.D.

De Offord 40. Midfield. He's got Tyler. Chuck to beat down the far side line out of bounds. He got edge down, and Atlanta gets the pick they need. I feel bad for using that at the highlight. It was the biggest play in the game. It was Tyler Shuck's biggest mistake in a big moment

since he took over as a starting quarterback. Chuck gets the ball back. They go right down the field, and he throws a miraculous touchdown ball to Ronnie Bell, and they make it close. They don't get the onside. and the Falcons win the game 19 to 17, sending the Panthers to the playoffs.

But the reason I feel bad is that Tyler Shuck heard that unnamed Bucks guy in the locker room. He played great today. I don't want him to win offensive rookie of the year because I just don't think it's right for a guy who missed half the season to win offensive rookie of the year unless you were like Dan Marino or just an insanely high level from a rookie quarterback. Chuck isn't that, but he was game, and they didn't have Chris Olavi in this game. We know they've been missing their running backs. Kelvin Banks, their left tackle, left early in this game with an ankle injury.

He's throwing to Ronnie Bell, like Tassum Hills lining up out wide, Kevin Austin Jr., Dante Pettis, and he's making some really impressive plays with his feet and his arm. So it's one I think you had to watch all the way through, and I did because I'm a sicko, and I love the NFC South, and this was just a stupid game. overall. I think he played his part, but ultimately the Falcons are just like a better football team overall by the end. And it wasn't about the quarterbacks. Yeah, even the Staley Sons limits Bichon to 33 yards on 15 carries where it's, it's still the shell game with Kurt Cousins. But the Falcons able to facilitate that, you know, on the virtue of this defense,

being able to make plays. James Pierce Jr. was huge in this game. Both he and Jalen Walker, having to contend with the athletic specimen that is Tyler Shuck week after week, we see him like even on the pick where it would have been a pick six a lot of times like Tyler Shuck had the angle and he could have turned around and tackled Alford facing him. Who was it that Chuck ran to the edge and at that point you were like, Shuck has not been caught on one of these runs all seats. It was Jalen Walker. That's right.

Like a top 10 pick athlete and you made. think when he came out in the draft, all Greg could think about was how old them legs and hips were. Well, not only old, but guilty. I'm guilty as well. No, I am too. Like, obviously he wasn't, I don't think, 100% healthy last year in general. He was getting

healthier. But also that maybe he protected himself with how he managed the pocket, because that's been a strength for him. There were parts of this game. He took a lot of sacks in this game where it reminded me of some of his bad college tape because, like, it was happening. And then he was just holding onto the ball

forever and just kind of waiting until the sack arrived. And that did happen a little bit, but he went on to make so many plays that I think his development was one of the biggest stories in the NFL. I think the Saints found a franchise quarterback in the early second round, which almost never happened. Derek Carr was one. Annie Dalton was one. Colin Kaepernick was one. It just doesn't happen that often. And he solved a major problem for them. I think his, his floor is like a pretty solid starting quarterback. And because of his athletic ability, like the ceiling is obviously much higher.

In this game, though, like we thought winning four straight to end the season would save Rahim Morris's job. Maybe Terry Fontana goes. That's what the insiders were saying going into the day. They're like, oh, Morris looks like he's probably safe. They beat the Rams. That's a big deal. But after the game early in the evening,

it was reported Rahim Morris and Terry Fontno are both out. Tough break, I think, for Rahim Morris. They finish eight and nine. They win four straight to end the season. They actually tie for the division lead. They were eliminated on December 7. So NFC so. There's no chance.

I mean, we'd have to get research. There's no chance that a team eliminated four weeks before the season was over has ever tied for the division lead, right? I mean, that's crazy. It's like, it's almost statistically impossible, but that is the NFC South. But unfortunately, it seems like Arthur Blank's mind was made up probably when they were four and nine and nothing was going to move them off of it. Yeah. And I think some of it's teams that are bad, that stay bad, that are set up to fail, whether you're the GM coming in with an overhang coach or you're the coach coming in with an overhang GM, whose job security was not set in stone even before hiring the coach.

They were incongruous in terms of their tenure there from the start. And you have to feel, you have to feel that the quarterback situation that they both made the decisions on, that they both pursued with Michael Pennex and Kirk Cousins and that contract, you have to think about how that major decision or sequence of decisions ultimately, set them up on this crash course, especially in light of the injuries. And it's tough. It's difficult because I know that Rahim Morris is really respected in that building.

And certainly he won't lack a job. Terry Fontno probably won't like a job either. He's well respected across the league. But the- If Patrick's hiring him, he did have him in the top 10. You couldn't leave one. You couldn't leave one and keep the other again.

You just couldn't do it. And I think it is absurd. to hire separate consulting firms the way that the Falcons are doing to make separately the decision on GM and head coach moving forward or to find those candidates. I think that is absurd.

And Matt Ryan. Like, what is Matt Ryan doing? But also just to start, just to start on even ground, like you cannot have this incongruous situation over and over and over again. I don't think as a matter of practice, it's crazy to let a GM hire a second coach.

if the first one doesn't work out. The problem is for that second coach that, yes, he's not going to get to hire a third and you're on a shorter leash. That's unfair to him. Because Rahe-Morris went, you know, eight, nine back-to-back years. It's not a great start.

But the problem with their team build is he coaches a very specific defense. Yeah. And the defense made sense this year. They've always wanted to sack the quarterback. You know what they did today? They set the all-time franchise record for sacking the quarterback. I don't like, I think Pierce's sack totals

are a little misleading, but he's a promising player. And that pick that he, that Terry Fonten who sent out the door that a lot of people made fun of him for, like Pierce is, like the next GM is now inheriting that. So it is how bad teams stay bad, especially the reports that Matt Ryan could be coming in

with a front office type of role. Quarterbacks always help their former front offices. It always works. Miami and John L. That's fine, but like what is Rich McKay doing? there maybe rich mackay who's been there forever the entire he's the team president now he's more on the business side but he you know he goes back to the vic days as like the gm maybe he's going to go to we don't know uh that would make more sense to me but yeah two different groups what are they

sports it's one group gregg partners is hiring uh i think the gm and sportsology is hiring the coach well and they're proud enough about this that they put it in the statement i'd be ashamed. It's like we don't know what we're doing. That's what that says. Well, why would, you know, Terry Fontno, anybody involved in the operation, evaluate the operation, when Sportsology, who specializes in maximizing growth of elite sporting organizations, a leading provider of premium knowledge, correct? Not just regular knowledge, premium knowledge, strategic advisory, and operational support in the sports industry focused on global leagues and federations

and institutional investors. You know what it sounds like to me? What's that? A grift. Yes. Like a way to extract money when you really aren't accomplishing anything because if you don't know how to hire your own head coach

and GM, like that's a problem that you don't have someone in the building and then you are paying a lot of people in the building a lot. It's a bad start to the off season, I think, for the Falcon. The best decision you can make this position, if you're McKay, if you're anybody in a position of leadership, is to hire the search firm, because

if you are the one that hires the search firm, the search firm is never going to say that you're the problem. And their values are curiosity, empathy, and challenge. And it's really, you think it's two search firms, but it's really possibly just Rich McKay in a giant trench coat. Okay.

By the way, I was wrong. It's ZRG partners. Got to correct this. That's doing the head coach. It's very important to clarify which search firm is doing the GM. search. And you, you checked out, I believe it was the site of sportsology. I'm on it right now. And they, they only had one quote. What do they call it? A testimonial. Yeah, you go to the testimonial section in sportsology plays because you think you get, well, they specialize in, you know, leading knowledge. Premier. It's Tom Pinn, president of the Los Angeles Football Club, is the only testimonial.

If you're going to have a testimonial page, you need more than one. That's a bad sign. Yeah, it's not a testimonial's page. It's a testimonial page. A shout out to LASC. It's a bad sign. You know what's crazy is Fontano, you know, had a good draft. Like, Xavier Watts was awesome in this game. Again, one of the biggest reasons why they won this game and the past rushers are going to be good. And yes, like I said, with acquiring talent, not important in terms of evaluating. You know who else had a good draft?

For your knowledge. It's why you always got to just try to survive one more year because you don't know what's going to happen that year. You know what had a good draft last year? Thank you, Loomis. Hey, I think. I think I can hear. I think I can hear him. his response to you, Greg, he says it's really hard to respond to all my fans.

Yes, exactly. Like Drake May was all that matters for the 2024 and 2025 Patriots. Tyler Shuck is all that matters with the Saints. And it's looking good. Let's go through the rest of these games a little quicker because those were the big playoff implication type of games. But we still have to figure out some seating in the rest of the NFC. Let's go to Chicago where the lions and bears were playing. And don't tell Dan Campbell a game is mean because he'll go win it. There it is.

Jack Fox, the spot. Bates with the kick. It is up and it is good. The Lions wined on the final play of the game. The Lions come into Chicago on week 18 and complete a season sweep of the Chicago Bears and put up their ninth victory of the season. Awesome win. Awesome call by Dan Miller.

Going to miss having the Lions potentially in the playoffs, WX, Y, T. We should have seen this coming. It's just very lion-y to have, like, a proud way to go out on the season. Big day for Jared Gough, Big Day for Amman Ra, St. Brown. I think we know who the Lions are. I want to ask you about the Bears and just if there was anything from this game that concerned you going into the playoffs for them. Yeah, it was them seeming to forget themselves.

a little bit. Forgetting how settled they'd been in these close games, forgetting how they've won these late games and in some cases come from behind games, in some cases clearing a tie. This Bears team sort of like frazzled out near the end because

the Bears entered the fourth quarter down 16 and 0. They had just 139 total yards to that point and they put together two scoring drives with two successful two point conversions to tie the game with five and a half minutes left. So then you're thinking, okay, these are bears that I've seen all season to this point. These are the bears that have gotten so good

at especially winning in the late parts of these games, in these comebacks, but they blew it. And that's the old bears because Detroit quarterback Jared Gough, who played great most of the game, but did try to force a ball to double coverage up the middle to I'm on Ross St. Brown on a third and 20. It was picked by Kevin Byard and Chicago had an opportunity to close the game. And in the subsequent two minutes and 11 seconds, and they wasted two downs. ahead of the two-minute warning. And then they had to get back, give back the ball via punt with a minute 55 left. The lions get the ball back.

And of course, it's Jared Gough on a short crosser. Yack play through Amun Ra, St. Brown. And it sets up that field goal. So the lions did the thing that the lions always have been able to do in this era. And the bears forgot themselves. And they were, for a moment, the old bears. It's two straight games where you're just reminded of how the bears have won this season. kind of reminds me how the Bucks won in the first half of the season.

The Bucks, by the way, played more games, five points or under than any team in the history of the NFL this year, like more close games. The Bears have been in a lot of close games this year, too, and they've won almost all of them. The last two weeks, they've had the ball with the chance to win the game, and if that keeps happening over and over and over and over, like, it's hard to do every single week, and they didn't get it done. Dan Campbell, he was more disappointed after winning this game than I expected. I thought it was kind of going to be a celebration of like the culture.

Yeah, the culture that they've brought that, you know, he beats Ben Johnson for all the Ben Johnson talk. Well, they beat the Lions twice. I mean, they beat the Bears twice. If nothing else, they swept the Bears this year. This is him after the game. It's, I mean, it's called it what it is. Pretty pissed all week, you know, and it's a bad feeling. And now we're going into playoffs and you get to watch everybody else go while you're sitting at home.

And it's frustrating. So that's what fuels you. we don't want to be doing that again next year that's not where we want to be you got to get in resolved resilient not celebrating I guess a game that to them probably was a little more

meaningless than that week 18 win which I think set off this mini era in Detroit over Green Bay and Aaron Rogers knocking them out of the playoffs in week 18 four years ago so they ran the ball really well today on the Bears and the Bears could not run the ball against them so that's something to watch next week

with the Bears' loss, and it was close the whole game. Both the Bears and the Eagles were going for the two-seed. And the Eagles weren't really going for the two-seed because they weren't playing a lot of their starters, but they thought maybe Tanner McKee and the backups could win that game against Washington. And there was a moment in this game that it looked like they could. We're going to go to Philadelphia.

And when we come back from this highlight here, we're going to have the man, Nick Shook. Finally join the show. Everyone's in the YouTube comments right now. Where is shook? He's right here. He's been with us the whole time. He's in Philadelphia.

Third and goal of the two in a tie game. Johnson under center. Roderick is the back. Brooks comes in motion closer to the line. Play action this time he's rolling left. Looking back. Now puts his head and he'll walk into the end zone. Touchdown.

Touchdown walking in. Josh Johnson, Masterclass score. Love that. Bram Weinstein had a masterclass all last season, calling big time moments. This wasn't the final big time moment that he wanted, but Josh Johnson running for a touchdown and like a two-score comeback in the fourth quarter against the Eagles.

It's kind of a fun way to end the season. Nick, you watch this game closely. The Eagles had the lead with Tanner McKee. They were closing in on what in the end would have been the two-seed, but at the end, Josh Johnson, the wily 17-year vet was too much. What were your big takeaways here? Yeah, in a fun way. Talk about an electric way for the Washington commanders,

the team that had really no reason to continue playing for the rest of the season. They're down to Josh Johnson. He's 39 years old. He hasn't thrown a touchdown pass since 2021. He puts him on the board with a dime to Jake Bates in the back of the end zone. Excuse me, that was different Bates, Brendan Bates. And suddenly, before you know it, actually, John Bates, now I got it right, third time around. Before you know what, the commanders are involved.

They're in this game, but they still have work to do. And that is where Josh Johnson channels the many years he spent in the NFL, 10, in fact. He's also been in other leagues with teams with names you can't remember. None of that mattered today because he led a drive that was aided by penalties, you know, committed by the Eagles backups, Keeley Ringo being a repeat offender on that one. But when the game came down to the goal line situation and it's third and one, and it seems like the commanders have been on the doorstep forever, the play action bootleg that we just played there,

Josh Johnson rolling to his left, faking a pump just enough to get Ringo to retreat and coverage, and then he gets to stroll into the end zone. This is, I wouldn't call it redemption. It's not Gino Smith. I didn't write back in Seattle, but it's glorious for Josh Johnson. And on the Eagles side,

it's, oh no, we played our backups and we lost the opportunity to claim a higher seed. Maybe we shouldn't have done that. That's basically the Eagles. Okay, let's actually listen to Nick Siriani, address that point after the game, asked if there was any regrets about resting his starters.

I knew this was an outcome that these things could happen. Like I said, to you guys, one thing I could guarantee was giving them rest. I couldn't guarantee anything else. And us being healthy and going into the playoffs healthy is a big deal for us. And, you know, that's served us well in the past. And so, again, I know there'll be debate on that. But, you know, again, I have to do what's best, what I think is best. for the football team moving forward.

And that's what I did. You know, I agree with Nick's theory. Yeah, he's right. I think it was just bad circumstance. I think they'll be more annoyed that they had a 17 to 10 lead going into the fourth quarter and that they give up two touchdowns.

Because the backups were obviously playing pretty well. Chuck, Jalick's Hunt had an interception in this game. He now has three. Of the Eagles players that matter, including like Devonte Smith and Jalick's Hunt, that played in this game, anything stand out to you that you kind of roll forward into next week that you found meaningful? Because as much as I'm happy that the commander season is over, I feel like I'm ready to stop talking about the 2025 commanders. I'm sorry. Same. You and me both.

This is a disappointing team that we need to leave in the rear view. Who I don't want to leave in the rear view is Tank Bigsby, who got the lion's share the carries today because obviously Sequin wasn't playing. He ran hard. He was running guys over. He was embodying his name of Tank today. I think he's been a favorite of this show for a while. When the Eagles acquired him, we were like, oh, that's a great move for depth. Could he play a key role for them? I don't know. They can't run the ball very well in most weeks.

We've seen that with Sequan's numbers, but he had a nice day. Like you said, Jalick's Hunt did. It was mentioned on the broadcast, third interception this year, and I was like, he has three interceptions. I look back, that's true. Third interception of the year, as crazy as that sounds for a guy who plays the position he plays. And Jeremiah Trotter Jr. also really played a nice

game, but you don't see him on the field that much. I think that there were some mistakes made within Vic Fangio system that they're going to want to clean up, but it's more of a, like, a systemic issue for them where it's just like, it's not something that you see week to week, but it's just like, how are you fitting into the scheme and are you executing? I think you see that from backups who are getting larger shares of time on the field than they usually do. But other than that, I can't really roll that much forward other than, no, I loved watching Jahan Dotson run routes day. It felt like an exhibition of how good a route runner Jahan Dotson is. That's about it.

It feels underused. Like when he had all those moments in the, in the Super Bowl and the NFC championship. I was like, oh, it's going to be more of a Jahan Dotson year in 2025, and it really wasn't. Jaylex Hunt, by the way, 24 quarterback hits, six and a half sacks, three interceptions, three more than a team that we're going to talk about a little later. I found it interesting. There were some insidery reports questioning whether Cliff Kingsbury would be back with the commandant. I was surprised to hear that. So more in this space in the coming days. But it sounds like they might be considering a change at offensive coordinator. And Josh Johnson will be turning 40 years old next year.

He absolutely earned another year in the NFL. He looked pretty good the last couple of weeks. So the Eagles lose, bears get the two seed, they play the Packers, Eagles get the three seed, they play the 49ers. Look, if those two teams play in the division round, that's a big if and the Eagles are on the road, that is a disadvantage that they, you know, I guess earned by losing this game. But that's a lot of ifs.

And I don't think that the 49ers are necessarily like a tougher matchup than the Packers. Anyways, so it's fine. Get healthy. Let's go to another team that's near and dear to your heart, Jordan. And my daughter's heart and my wife's heart. And maybe Nick shook's heart because he likes Matthew Stafford. Let's go to the Rams trying to get the five seed against the Cardinals. Matthew Stafford under center. Blake Corum the single back.

Pooka in motion. Here it comes. And goal. Play fake. Stand up to throw. Shoot it right side. Touchdown, L.A. Colby Parkinson's game.

Give Matthew. His MVP, a four-touchdown closing statement for the 37-year-old in his 17th season. The Rams are in the clear. They'll be the five-seat going to Carolina next week. Two objectives, I think, for the Rams. Get back on the winning track. Just feel better about your team. And then get Matthew Stafford some stats in that MVP conversation.

It sounds like they accomplished the Stafford part. What do you think about how this game played out and how they should be feeling the direction of the rest of the team? It's funny because I think it was a great example of how football could be a tale of two different halves. And for the first half, I was concerned about the Rams. Not necessarily because I didn't think they had the capability, but they just seemed like they were kind of sleepwalking.

It seemed like they were almost hung over from that loss to the Falcons a week earlier, which didn't make as much sense because their offensive line was at a better standing of strength than it was the week prior. Matthew Stafford had time to throw. They scored a touchdown just before halftime. But until that moment, I was worried that, oh, God, have the Rams peaked too soon?

Are they already on the downturn going into the playoffs? And then the second half arrived. And the second half presented the Rams with a little bit of a wake-up call, which is, hey, I know the Cardinals have three wins this year, but you still got to play football. It's still the NFL because the Cardinals jumped all over them. They threw a fake punt pass for a 28-yard game. The very next play, Jacoby Percette hits Michael Wilson with a deep shot. They score a touchdown.

They score another touchdown, Josiah DeGuara, another guy who hasn't scored since 2021. he's in the end zone and the Rams are trailing and at that point Sean McVeigh's team woke up remembered who they were and played excellent football from there on out Matthew Stafford leading the way with his arm you know we played the last touchdown pass he through but it was the one right before that Tyler Higby that reminded me of what this offense can be when it's near full strength because they still don't have Devante Adams and I was like you know what maybe they'll be just fine and they just need a little kick in the hind parts to remember who they are in the fact that they're going to the playoffs I always say that you can tell exactly who

Sean McVeigh is mad at by the roster decisions that he makes going into game to game. And in this case, leaving his secondary in for most of the game, is starting secondary that entered the game in through most of the game. And Jacoby Brissette at times really exploited them, especially with some of those perimeter throws. Michael Wilson had a great game. This was a, this is, the last few weeks, it has been a very pointed and specific effort to light a fire under a team that

knows how good it is and needs to remember it. And I think that's part of playing them today. We could tell it was Sean McFay saying, I'm mad at this team right now without actually saying it, being professional about it, but basically reminding them, if you play like

this, like they did last week, if you play like this, like they opened the half this week, they're not going very far. And it took a while, but he got there. And he sounded pretty fired up in the post-game press conference of just like, that was it. That was why we wanted to play this week, essentially, was to have a half like that, where we explode. And I think that's good to have, you got to, you're a coach, you got to have a feel

of their team. They've sat starters before. I do think the five seed turned out to be a big advantage, too. You get the Panthers, who I think are the weakest team in the entire playoff field. I know the Panthers beat them previously, but that's an advantage. And you never know, what if it's Rams 49ers, NFC championship again? Then the Rams get a home game because they won this game. Or Rams. Packers. I guess there's not that many scenarios as the five-seed whether you can host. So a big win, and it seemed like the defense was in the second half, at least, getting after it. Let's talk about a more important defensive player that was getting after it on Sunday.

This whole show has been preamble to Miles Garrett's moment. Nay, Andrew Siciliano's moment. That's who's the real star here. Let's go to Cleveland. 5.20 remaining in this game, rounds out of five. Bengals have it first out of the rounds, 45-yard line. Burrough Shotgun, Burrow to throw. Here goes, Miles. He got him! He got him!

There it is. Miles Garrett. Sack number 23, the new single season. Sack King and the Browns defense mobs their man at the Cincinnati 45-yard line. Browns go on to get the win, and we will hear the game-winning field goal call. But I thought it was really cool, Nick, that he got it on such a classic Garrett Sack, which defied all, like, how does a man move that fast, that big, in that bend? NGS had him as a 0.17 getoff, which I thought was maybe like a mistake with the chip.

But you can kind of see it that he essentially timed the snap perfectly and has a speed and a body control and just athleticism that maybe no one else has ever had. off the edge position. A very cool moment for your Browns and they kept it off with a win. Yeah, and I'm not going to deep dive on this tape here on this play specifically because it was a great moment in football history, but folks are going to complain that, oh, he took, Burrow took a dive like Brett Farve with Strahan. And I pushed back against that because of what you just said, the get off time was absurd. It was also one of the few times that Miles Garrett wasn't facing some sort of chip or double team. He got a one-on-one against Orlando Brown and just simply beat him

off the snap. In fact, I think Brown false started on that plane. It didn't even matter. and Burrough knew he was doomed. So congrats to Miles Garrett for getting it done. Also, if you look at the clock at that point, there's five minutes and four seconds left in the fourth quarter. Not only were the Browns in a rock fight with the Bengals and trying to win a game, but they were also getting really anxious that Miles Garrett might not do it. And he might finish at 22 sacks.

So it was great to see him get the job done. They paused the game. They kind of honored him on the sideline. They lifted him up on somebody's shoulders like he was John Madden who just won a Super Bowl. For a team that only won five games, one of those wins coming today. It was a nice moment for them in a historic season for Miles Garrett. It was kind of a classic. What is happening type of moment?

Zach Taylor after the game was not pleased with how they stopped the game. And I got the sense listening afterwards and watching it back that I'm not sure the officials really were sure if the game was going to stop. And I think in my mind, the Browns just kind of stopped the game themselves. And everyone had to just go along with it. And Zach Taylor was not pleased about that after the game. There's five minutes left in our season. We're playing for our lives here, and I was never told that we're going to stop the game, and in a critical moment like that, and the refs just said that they made a decision

that they were going to stop the game, and they said they tried to do it as quickly as possible. I didn't feel that. We didn't sub. We're trying to be on the ball and go and play with tempo, and the Empire just held the ball. The sound you're hearing is the world's tiniest violin. Well said. Just. Just don't.

I mean, come on. It is an unprecedented situation. It was funny when it happened in the game, it was like under five minutes to go and they're driving for a touchdown. And I get what he means. He's like, we're going to try to do it as quickly as possible

and they're literally carrying them on their shoulders. But Zach Taylor has to realize that that sound clip is going to be remembered as like loser behavior. And you just lost to the Browns. And you just went six and 11 on a season where Joe Burrow played a lot of games, bro. So just maybe just be quiet about it.

If he cut it off after they didn't let me know that they were going to stop the game, that's fair. It would have been great to, in the administration of the football game, tell the coach, hey, at this career NFL record that hasn't been broken for a long time, you know, we've had it tied, Miles could get it today, we're going to stop the game. That's fine. I don't know what schematic advantage you get after Joe Burrow got sacked to get back on the ball with the same personnel that just had Joe Burrow get sacked.

I don't really know, but. I guess you try to run as many plays as possible because you're trailing at that point, but usually... The clock stops the whole point. It's survival. It's survival. They're playing for their lives, man. Like you said, it's survival. It is life and death. Oh, my God. It was one of those moments that, like, everybody didn't know what to do.

Shelby Harris high five, the nearby official. Like, nobody knew what to do in that moment. That's amazing. I just get, here's the thing. I'm just going to need some more intestinal fortitude. Ooh. I'm just going to need more. The fortitude was by the Browns and by Larry Garrett,

Lawrence Garrett up there, violating the pay course stadium policy on camera lenses over six inches because he's up there with the telephoto in the stands, take a picture of his baby boy breaking the record. Great moment for the Brown. And you got to give, you know, in terms of intestinal fortitude, how about Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase on an ensuing drive that only started with like a couple of minutes left to go? They actually go down, take the lead with a touchdown. It looked like it was almost going to be perfect if you're a certain sort of Browns fan. You get, you keep the draft pick, but you get the moment and you move on. But no,

They get a field goal to finish the game. Hell, we're not going to hear Andrew again this year. Let's just listen to his game-winning field goal call. A 49-yard try with three seconds on the clock. Sunahara, Bohortez, Andre Schmidt, the snap, the hold, the kick to the uprights, and Andre Schmidt hits the kick. There's a flag. I think it's going to be leverage on the Bengals.

Alex Camp, who won the game? Tell me, please. I love that. The Cleveland Browns have won this football game. The Browns are celebrating. Andre Schmidt, 49. Your key winning field goal. The game goal is good.

So the Browns... Thanks for the help on the call, Strife. Yeah, they win a couple games late, which knocks them from, you know, the top two or three of the draft down to number six. We'll hit that in a second, and they win a game with only 200 yards of offense.

What a performance in tough circumstances. Let's get some shoutouts here, Greg. Let's give some quick shoutouts here. Andre Schmidt starts the season by missing a couple of key kicks and the Browns open with a loss to the Bengals in a game they could have won their defense played well. Book ends this season by beating the Bengals with a game-winning field goals. So congratulations.

Redemption are complete for you, Andre Schmidt. And also, you know, we just got to look back at Devin Bush's breakout season. Yes, it came late in his career, but he has the second pick six of the season and it went 97 yards. So eat your heart out, James Harrison. It wasn't the Super Bowl. It's January. I'm giving honors to people that won't matter next week.

What a play by Devin Bush. Speaking of which, I was surprised. I questioned our friend Ali Connolly putting Devin Bush as his second team all pro linebacker last week. Never questioned Ollie. And then immediately after he makes the big play here. So what a season for Devin Bush. What a season for Shook. I would like, you know, have an emotional goodbye.

It's our last, you know, big full scale recap. But you're literally on the show in about 12 hours. So get some sleep and we'll talk on what the artist. formerly known as Black Monday and talk a little Cochies on Monday. Thanks, Shook. Thanks for having me, guys. All right. I just say we're going to talk a little

coachies. Cochies. We've been on for a while. Let's go to Minnesota and finish out the last few games here, which did not have playoff ramifications, then we'll set up the draft order and we'll send you on your Sunday night.

Appreciate everyone, by the way, who's sticking with us live in the chat. You got to hear Greg say coaching. Of course, if you're listening to this, you can see all of our awkward interactions on YouTube later if you like to do both. Let's go to Minnesota.

Nailer in motion. Halo's behind Brosmer. Back to pass, looking right. Now he gets claustrophobic and he trips over Justin's school. Then he tried to end up and he dropped the ball and it was picked up by Baron Sorrell. No.

All right, brother. Good seeing you, my ma'am. Thanks for having me. God bless you, brother. God bless you, happy new year. Hey, Josh Demel has to lead. Say goodbye. Hey, Vikings fans, Vikings fans, there's always next year.

There's always next year. We are going to win a Super Bowl. It may not be this year, but it is going to be very soon. I'll probably see that. Love you, brother. Have a good day. That was Paul Allen and Josh Dumel. The Josh Dumel.

Famous-ish actor. Oh, wow. No, no, very famous on KFN. It's aged very well, might I say. That call almost didn't make it into the show. It is now the call of the year. I think that won. I mean, there's incredible.

I don't know if anything can possibly top that. The crazy thing is the Vikings won this game 16 to 3. So that was a tough moment there for our guy, Max Brosman. Hey, Josh Camel has to lead. Say goodbye. I love. even top five angry Paul Allen called. I don't know. That's up

there. No. That was more bemused, sarcastic laughing at the absurdity of life. Say goodbye. And yet this game was never even dependent. Poor Brosmer has been in a couple of the low lights of the season

which I feel bad about. He had the somersault fumble. I mean, Let's even it out. Let's give one right back to the Green Bay Packers. This came in a nutshell at one point near the end of the first half. Running back Emmanuel Wilson lost 19 yards on a tackle for loss on a carry, not an inspiring day for the Clayton-Tune led Green Bay Packers. Week 18 offense per ESPN research brought to us by Kevin Seifert.

That was the biggest loss by an NFL running back on a rushing play since 2007. This is a type of play that happens in youth football a lot. Like, if we watch high school football, that's happening more than once at every six years or whatever. Listen, we're just trying to be fair. Just trying to be fair. This was a game that happened in week 18 and now it's over. This was the most game that happened in week 18 and now that it's over game.

Because the Packers had 56 yards on a truly garbage time drive at the end that they kicked a field goal at the buzzer in this game. Were you guys aware of that to get some points? Um, if it wasn't for those 56 yards, they were held to, let's do the math. I believe about like 66 yards, uh, before it, 65 yards in the entire game before that. That's outrageous. That is the saddest field goal of the season in terms of the total game operation. Uh, just, just a rough one for, you know, two very good play callers.

I feel bad for the coaches. Well, I mean, look, Kevin O'Connell's moving the ball. It's, uh, it's Pat LaFle. and Clayton Tune that had 12 yards, I think, at half time. The artist formerly known as Matt LaFleur, Pat LaFleur, who has to call a Clayton Tune. Well, that's his alter ego, much like nine, who made an appearance in this game when the referee was trying to hold him back

after a taunting penalty. Oh, my gosh. Hilarity ensued. I will say, we talked about this with the Bills. They're week 18, it's ripe for games like this, but also stuff like what happened in the Bills game, where you get some really sweet moments, sometimes bittersweet sendoffs. Harrison Smith.

the safety, just a legend for that franchise. The send-off for him was really, really nice. Kevin O'Connell called Time Out so that they could give him a proper send-off. You can watch it on YouTube right now. He had sort of a Gatorade bottle shower. His family is in a sweet, classy touched by the Vikings, really totally heartwarming, headpats from all of his teammates and hugs. And they really took their time sending off somebody who is so beloved and respected

by this franchise and the crowd gave him a well-deserved standing ovation. This is most likely, if not definitely, his final season in the NFL. Yeah, a lot of big decisions for a lot of these players. Taylor Decker going back to the Lions game, had a

very emotional telling press conference where he talked about everything he had to go through to try to play this year. And so a lot of these players have been fighting through injuries and guys who have just been in a league long time like Harrison Smith making big decisions. We'll see if Brian Flores will be back. for the Minnesota Vikings, he's a coaching free agent, so that's intriguing.

This defense finished the season just on total fire. And I think the one real football point to take from this, nothing from the Packer's side, really, but from the Viking side, that that J.J. McCarthy didn't survive the game again. You know, he got hurt. And so that's five different games, I think, that he left during the game with an injury this season. And the positive play that he had when he did play later in the season, I think got undercut by him getting hurt a couple more times down the stretch.

So something, I think, to keep in mind. Yeah, and this game, he started while he was five for five. That's his longest streak of consecutive completions in his very short career so far. But then only went on to complete four of 11 passes. Some of them were so off target. And then he re-hurt the same hand he had previously injured. So the Vikings end up at 9 and 8.

I think it was Luke Braun on Blue Sky who wrote this. I couldn't believe that this was true. that if the Vikings had beaten the bears in November, I think the last time they played, and you don't change any other result, the Vikings are the NFC North champion. Wow. Now, obviously, everything would be different.

The world would be different because of that. You know, I'm just saying motivations would be different. The Packers would have played. Like, who knows what would have happened? Everything would be, you can't exactly do that. But that's how close in a way that they were. They did get to nine wins. They did get a winning record.

They got over their over under wind total. by winning five straight. It's kind of crazy how good this defense was, especially down the stretch. All right, let's go. Josh Dimmel last to leave, say goodbye. We really should have ended the show with that because I'm sorry Jackson Dart and the Giants.

You can't really top it. Third and 16, pressure. Dark gets it away to Beliger. He cuts inside to the 20. Bellinger to the 15 to the 10 to the 5. Touchdown Giants on a third and 16. Dark kept it alive. Belliger made himself available.

And the Giants with an improbable third-down conversion score. People ask me all the time, why do you do every game? Some of the games don't matter. You know, they all matter to us. And no one asked me that. That's just a thing that people say when they say something that they want to say. Usually the people don't ask them. You know what I mean?

On Twitter, it's like a lot of people were asking where my link is, to my article. Here it is. More people should be talking about how NFL Daily covers every single game. We just do it because every game, there's only 272 of these, right? And Bob Papa and Carl Banks got to call a Giants win. The Giants did the thing that the

Giants do, which is win late season games to ruin their draft stock. And I know you think that's unfair and it doesn't matter. Well, they could have Drake made, Patrick, if they hadn't done it a couple years ago. But Greg, they have Jackson Dart. So the problem is ultimately

Stahl of a great call by Bob and Carl there, but they called it an improbable play. But it was the most likely outcome against the 2025 Dallas Cowboys defense where Jackson Dart looks great. He throws a backhand pass on third and super long to Daniel Bellinger, and he houses it from 29 yards out because that's the type of play we expected from the Iberflux defense as the season's gone on. And, you know, the overall dark concern was, is he going to look good? Is it going to take care of himself?

He still put his body in harm's way several times in this game had a couple of design runs, a couple of scrambles as well. But I think the evaluation is Jackson Dart's pretty good, and they feel good about it going into 26. One of my issues with the Tyler Shuck rookie of the year thing is that if you're just looking at the numbers, like Jackson Dart's numbers are better. And he played a lot.

Like Jackson Dart's weirdly because of the concussion story. I don't think he's underrated in terms of how he played this year. but, like, he had a very promising season. I think it closed pretty well, too. He runs for 32 yards, but the last few weeks, he's just been steady. He gets Gunner Olshevsky over 100 years in this game. Afterwards, we heard from the Cowboys a report that it could take up to two weeks before they decide on their defensive coordinator for next year, which is interesting.

Matt Iberflus is expected to lose his job, but the Cowboys usually take their time. But, yeah, Dak Prescott played the first half of this game. I don't think they were winning at half time anyways and then they brought in Joe Milton and yeah they didn't really go all out to try to win this game and so they finished with seven wins on the season and yeah the Giants are four and two

in weeks 17 and 18 over the last three years and if you just start their record in week 17 week 18 three years ago they're four and 28 otherwise so that just not ideal. The newsroom was quiet for a stretch

and I was not watching this game. And all of a sudden, I just hear Patrick West. I just hear Patrick from behind his cubicle. We got Joe Milton. And that told me everything I needed to know about how the game was going. Joe Milton is playing in week 18 to help decide a top five pick where it's going to be is now an annual tradition. He knocked the Patriots down a couple spots.

They ended up with Will Campbell. The Giants get knocked down a couple of. spots. They're at the number five spot now. And that's about all we need to say on this game. Let's wrap up with the Raiders and the Chiefs. Pete Carroll before the game

was widely reported to be on the way out. Not a surprise, but all the insiders finally went in on that it was going to be Pete Carroll's last game as a head coach of the Raiders. Certainly he knew that going into the game, which made this ending all the more

satisfying. it'll be from 60 for the win Cole puts it down the kick is on its way and it draws up oh colson good from 60 and with eight seconds to go the Raiders have a lead and a chance to end the season on a line

Life is short. If you have the chance to scream at the top of your lungs like Jason Horowitz and Kirk Morrison did for a 14 to 12 Raiders victory over the Chiefs in week 18, you should scream. Like, you don't know what's promised tomorrow. Kyle Shanan said it. We may not be here for the wild card round. No, I'm kidding. I don't know.

Yeah. The world's going crazy. Raiders win and I got to say I kind of live for Aiden O'Connell throwing it to Tyler Lockett to set up a game winning field goal for Daniel Carlson in what could be Pete Carroll's last game like that to me is actually great week 18

theater Greg who were the quarterbacks in this game I know you have a list of them that was going to be the only notes I wrote for this game well Chris Ola Dukin. Yeah. He started the game. He was benched for Shane Bichelle, right? Yep.

On the other side, Kenny Pickett, who took some... Some tough hits. But he was benched for performance reasons for Aiden O'Connell. Who, if I'm going to make the lamest take ever, like should have been playing this whole time. He's obviously better at NFL football than Kenny Pickett. Fiery Week 18, late podcast takes from Greg Rosenberg. I mean, I got to say.

I guess he was hurt. That was right. He was hurt for most of the season and recently got healthy. But Aiden O'Connell is probably better than 2025 Gino Smith, I hate to admit. That's what Aiden O'Connell does is win late season games

against the Kansas City Chiefs. This time he threw for more yards, actually, in limited opportunity than the last time he beat the Chiefs late in the season. The only bummer was they showed Travis Kelsey after Carlson made the kick.

That was the only bummer about this game? The only one. Of that final result, yes. I mean, of that final kick, which was pretty joyous. Think about those Raiders fans. Those are the most expensive seats in the league to watch this Raiders team this year. They deserve it. They deserve a little fun.

So does Pete Carroll. What a career he has had. They're watching their team make history. They're selecting first overall in this year's draft. That made it even like more guilt-free because the Giants lost in the early window, which clinched the one pick for the Raiders. So they could win without even any mixed emotions. And I think it's cool.

Carol is an all-timer. I love me some Pete Carroll, and this season was a total disaster. But it just went on a way. I bet it meant a lot to him, don't you think, Patrick? So it means a lot to him. It means something. Yeah, he was out there. He wasn't out there to have a bad season like this, you know, devolved into hilarity.

But good for Pete, good for the Raiders, good for the fans, as you pointed out. They've been through a lot. That place was rocking when that came. It really was. And, yeah, Kelsey looked pretty emotional like a guy who, it might be his last game. I think he just had one catch for under 10 yards in this game, and it's a tough way to go out. I think he wanted that final just like good moment after,

obviously, has been a really tough season for the chief. And Pete said, I've been here longer. I call dibs on going out with a good moment. Fair. Yeah. The Chiefs will pick in the top 10. The Raiders are number one. The official draft order, you're curious.

The Jets did finish at number two. So they got some help today. And the Cardinals, number three. moved up a few spots during this nine-game losing streak to end the season. The Titans are next. Then the Giants who moved the most down in the last couple weeks are

to number five Browns and commanders round out the top seven. That's it. We did it. Week 18, live on YouTube. We did it live. We did it. We did it. We had coaches. We had lots of fun. And yes, we had the call of the

year. Should we hear Paul Allen like one more time. Now let's get out of here. We'll be back. We appreciate everyone checking us out live. We'll be going live on Saturday night in the playoffs, but we also have shows all week long

including a big coaching roundup on Monday with Nick Shuck. You can check us out then for Patrick Claibon, Jordan Roderick, and Nick Shuck. It was a treat. Hey! Josh Demel has to lead. Say goodbye. This is an I-Heart.

Podcasts. Guaranteed human.