NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - NFL ATL: Week 16 recap

Episode Date: December 23, 2013

A room full of heroes -- Gregg Rosenthal, Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler, Chris Wesseling,  and Kevin Patra -- recap all of the Week 16 action including the blowout “Sunday Night Football” matchup between the Chicago Bears and Philadelphia Eagles. Don’t miss the key takeaways and analysis from each game. Also, help the heroes by nominating them for the 2013 Stitcher Awards at stitcher.promotw.com. Join the conversation on Twitter: @NFL_ATL or #NFLATL.Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. The Around the League podcast. Openly fears Papa John. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the League podcast. My name is Dan Hansis, and I'm joined by a room filled with heroes. Chris Wessling, Greg Rosenthal, and Mark Sessler. What up, boys?

Hey, Dan. How are you? I'm doing pretty good. How are you guys? Week 16, a busy week 16. It doesn't get much better My favorite time of year Greg, I'm going to tee you up with this

One of the more underrated movies of the late 80s In terms of rom-com, Mr. Destiny But, you know, the thing about destiny is There's no such... You can't control Destiny, it's Destiny And that's why this week, this year The NFL has finally created The perfect playoff scenario for Week 17

four teams alive, none of them control their own destiny. It's just the NFL admitting finally, we don't know. We don't know anything. No one controls their destiny. It's true. It's exciting. The mystical barkeep in Mr. Destiny was played by Michael Kane. Oh, you're right.

I was going to guess Brian Brown. That's close. Yeah. All right. So let's get right into it with these destiny mongers across the NFL. and we start in Orchard Park where some weird happenings went down. Kyle Williams had two sacks as the Buffalo Bill set a single season record and put a dent into the Miami Dolphins' playoff chances

with a 19-0 shutout win on Sunday afternoon. Mark, it makes some sense of this to me because the dolphins coming off that great win against the Patriots, everything in the world to play for. Thad Lewis prominently involved, stink bomb. Well, and this is a team that's been swept by Thad Lewis this season. They're a playoff team except for when they're playing bad, Lewis. I don't think they're a playoff team

in any way, shape, or form except for the fact that the bottom end of the AFC hopefuls are such a collection of wasteoids that this is probably the team that will bounce in there if the things go right. Miami, really, right away,

they came out and just looked dead. They went 0 for 5 on third downs to start the game. They had something to, I think it was 50, yards to 200 and something for the bills at halftime. And I thought, I was telling you guys, this has the makings of Miami roaring back in the second half and proving that they got over whatever it was, made adjustments.

None of that happened. They couldn't get anything going. It was an ugly, ugly game. This is the grizzliest box score since the Jaguars' first half of the season, which was a grizzly box score every week. Six first downs for the dolphins in the entire game. game. They averaged two yards per play. Tannehill averaged three yards per pass, and they had

14 yards rushing as a team. That's about as bad an offensive performance as any team has had all year. I don't remember a team having as many rushing games under 25 yards as the dolphins have had this year. I think that's at least five, maybe six. My takeaway, because I think Miami, let's say they're done. Today proved they have a lot of work to do in the offseason. I would not have a problem with rebooting this entire backfield. Well, this sums up how crazy today was. They had one of the worst offensive performances of the

year. Mark Sessler hates them. You know, wants nothing to do with them. They actually moved up in the playoffs. I don't hate them. If the season ended today they don't play in a dome and Mark can't either that much. The Miami Dolphins are in the playoffs. If all the teams, everyone needs help next week, but the dolphins have the

easiest path in out of all the number 60s. Well, back the truck up. I don't hate them. My point is that there's so much attention given to the six team that gets in, and this has the look of no matter what happens next week, Miami is just not what we grew up watching in terms of playoff football at any level. They're a disaster, and then the next week, they're gritty. You don't hate them, but you would admit that they are on the list of teams that annoy you. This list being longer than your child's Christmas list.

It's getting long. It's getting long because it's just the amount of tension heap. Don mediocrity. Let's give the bill's defense at least a little bit of credit. They were outstanding. I mean, 200 yards rushing two, and then the defense is dominated. Put them in Buffalo, and that's a top five defense. By the way, seven sacks for the bills today. Ryan Tannahill, that obliterates the Dolphins record, right?

For sacks in a season. And it sets a franchise record for the bills as well. It shattered a franchise record. And one thing, there's so many times when we look at this, how will the bills pass rush come up against Miami's a bad offensive line. A lot of times it doesn't pan out. This one, right from the start, you realized this is going to be a major issue. I know we don't want to spend 10 minutes on the bills, but how about, you know, there's going to be a lot of coaching candidates up for grab,

a lot of coaching jobs up for grabs. How about Mike Petten as a coaching candidate? I'm reading this book called Collision Low Crossers. Put it on your Christmas list if you're looking for a last minute gift for the football fan because it's an instant classic. It's a great football book. It makes Mike Patton look like a future coach material. Look what he's done with Buffalo. And you started to think, like, he had a lot to do with those Jets defense. He was the Jets defensive coordinator for several years, and I didn't learn his last name wasn't pronounced Patini until about four weeks ago.

True story. Logan Ryan had two interceptions. Garrett Blunt scored twice in the playoffbound New England Patriots, breezed past the Baltimore Ravens 41-7 on Sunday, ending the Ravens' four-game winning streak and diminishing the postseason hopes of the defending champs. Greg, here's another team. This was a situation where you had two teams that wanted to win, but the Ravens needed the win more than the Patriots needed, and yet they don't even show up. Please make sense of it. It was not an easy game to make sense of. The Baltimore

Ravens outscored, I mean outgained the Patriots in this game, and they lost 41 to 7. The Patriots were very efficient in the first half. They got ahead 20 and nothing. Tom Brady, was throwing bullets. They ran the ball very well. Legerate Blunt's been a factor for this team. The Ravens' offense has been bad all season, and they have a very small margin for error. It is a crime that they were held scoreless through three quarters against this Patriots defense.

I thought that Joe Flacco, who we would never mistake as a mobile quarterback, but he is different today when he was essentially just stationed behind center. And New England just kept pushing him and attacking him right up the middle. and that's not a good interior line for the Ravens, and it affected them. Well, how was Flacco even moving? Well, he couldn't. I mean, he couldn't escape and get out of the pocket,

and I thought it changed their offense a little bit. He wasn't moving well. He wasn't as accurate, so maybe the injury was a factor. Let's also give a little credit to the new AFC East champion Patriots for the fifth straight year. There's a lot of records that... Fifth or 50th. Fifth straight, 10 out of 11.

It's been a tough road for you, Greg. Wesleyan said they're not even remotely Super Bowl. all contenders, but they can drop 41 to 7. A lot of records have been broken this year. Another record was broken today. The largest margin of victory in a hero pick game. 41 to 7. Keep giving me the Patriots hero picks.

Keeps giving me the Patriots hero picks. He's out of the chair. Yeah, what an underdog tale of Patriots have been this year. If I have to read one more thing like Tom Brady, like listen, all these division titles, they're all meaningful, but this one's special. Shut up. I was all prepared.

to issue an apology saying how much I underrated the Patriots. And then Greg told me that don't issue that apology until I watched this game during the week because they weren't all that impressive. Yeah, it wasn't as great as the score indicated. It was a solid victory, but they put up three touchdowns in the last two minutes in garbage then. So are the Ravens, where are the Ravens now in terms of the playoff scheme? Well, like everyone, they need to win, but the difference is they need win and help. But the difference is they have to go to Cincinnati and win. and Cincinnati is playing for a potential buy, so they're going to be playing hard.

That's a tough one. They need to win, and they also need the dolphins to lose. Speaking of Cincinnati, Andy Dalton threw four touchdown passes, and the Bengals pulled away with a 42-14 victory over the Minnesota Vikings who seemed sneaky, or they were a little frisky the last few weeks. This does not sound like a frisky performance. Wes, I ask you, time to recalibrate the Intuitive. entire 80s scale, yes or no.

No. No. He's... I don't know. He's Peyton Manning at home and Eli Manning on the road. Ooh. I like that. All right. The Bengals are one of three teams in NFL history to score 40 points in four consecutive home games.

Joining the 2,000 Rams and I believe the 51 lions. Wow. That's an amazing stat. They have been dominant at home. They haven't lost yet. I don't give the Ravens any chance of beating them next week because the Bengals are that good at home. And the Ravens just

made my list of teams that Mark is annoyed at. And the Bengals are set up if they can win that game to get the three seed most likely and play whatever team it is that slips into the playoffs in the EFC. The Bengals are underrated home team. They remain perfect

at home. And to Wes's point in the past four games at Paul Brown Stadium, Paul Brown Stadium right there. No. No. No, Mike Brown would not allow any corporateization of that name. In Dalton's past four games in that facility, he's thrown for five, three, three, and four touchdowns. He's Peyton Manning at whom. Do we believe in him, though?

No. No, I said if the Steelers somehow made it into the playoffs and played against the Bengals, of course I would pick Big Ben over Dalton in a playoff game. Yeah, I'm still not convinced that on the wrong day Cincinnati isn't the third best team in this division. Hmm. I can't give the Raven to any. credit whatsoever after what they did. For all the talk you're saying there's no good teams in the AFC, there's a

decent chance. This is weird, but five teams in the AFC could win 11 games or more. Isn't that crazy? They're good for one week, and then the next week they look like an abomination. Levion Bell scored a one-yard touchdown with 128 to play, and the Pittsburgh Steelers

withstood a Packers' last throw into the end zone dealing Green Bay's Playoff hopes. What seemed to be a possible death blow, a 3831 win on Sunday. for the Steelers. This is a wild game. A lot of things, a lot of things happening.

The Steelers seem to have it locked up, and then the Packers got a big kickoff return that put them back in business, and then they failed on the last play of the game. The Steelers, the biggest risk for us and the Fork Committee, is now the Pittsburgh Steelers, who still need a lot of things to work in their corner.

They need to win next week over the Cleveland Browns, which probably is a pretty safe bet. And then they need everyone else to lose. That would be, Greg, the Chargers, the Dolphins, and the Ravens, and the Ravens. Would all have to lose. And if those four things happen, one of the craziest scenarios that we put it on the site last week, actually, the most crazy scenarios you could come up with, and they made it through this week. They got the win.

They got the two losses they needed. It's starting to look feasible. Yeah. It's very feasible. The Jets could go into Miami and knock off the dolphins. Right. That would not surprise me at all. The Ravens aren't going to win in Cincinnati, I'm convinced of that.

And it depends on if the Chiefs rest their starters or not. The Chiefs have to beat the Chargers. Right. That, to me, is the key one. That can happen, and Cleveland will get waxed next week in Pittsburgh. It's interesting how it sets up with the times of the games, too, because the Chargers are either going to get eliminated early, or they could be lining up at 425 Eastern knowing winning in.

Chargers, that would be exciting. And by the way, and don't like Greg get away with us, us in this room, or listeners, or the NFL, he will send a four-digit check to... Four digits, I like that. Does that include the decimal? No, the comma does not count. I believe it's to the, what, the Symbianese Liberation Front of Eastern Pittsburgh. That's one of the candidates.

Oh, that's good. Greg did make the promise if we did get anything wrong in the Stick-a-Fork series. First of all, the series would become defunct, which would be devastating. But more importantly, Greg would need to take out his checkbook, as he's told us many, many times before. He did it last year. He did it last year out of the goodness of his heart. He's going to have to do it again.

Greg. If you love this series, you know, root against the Steelers next week because this is it. I'm not messing around. There's no... Yeah, but if you love charities, you would root for the Steelers. And then on the other side of the ball here, the Packers, they got the help they needed from the Chicago Bears who basically pulled a no-show in Philly

even though Philly didn't have anything to play for and that sets it up now where the Packers are alive going into Week 17 despite being 7-7-1 they have a chance to play for the NFC North two interesting things to or two injury tidbits to point out though Clay Matthews suffered a thumb injury it's the same thumb that set him back earlier in the season that he had surgery on, so who knows what his status is right now,

and Eddie Lacey re-injured his ankle. So if those two guys, and we're not going to get ahead of ourselves, but if those two guys cannot play next week, and who knows what's going on with Aaron Rogers, it might be a really uphill battle for the Packers still to make a playoff bid. Aaron Rogers, one, pick six, and 86 career starts. The Packers have three pick-sixes since his injury in week nine. Wow.

Flynn does give you the feeling, especially if Lacey's back, that I don't totally give this game to Chicago next week, and we'll talk about it during the week, but at least they've done something offensively the last few weeks that you feel like maybe they'd have a chance. They have to be right up there in the top three most interesting teams of the last two weeks. Their last two games have been crazy. Yeah.

That defense, though, is a disaster. Packers' chances of winning with Met Flynn versus Aaron Rogers' chances of playing again in 2013. Which one's higher? Push. Push sounds right. I'm going to say whatever the first one is, because I just have a gut feeling, and we don't know, but I feel like if Rogers hasn't played by now,

the odds on him playing again are slim. We talked about this downstairs. To me, it's like a concussion. It doesn't matter what Rogers wants. It doesn't matter what the Packers wants. It matters totally what that doctor sees on the scan. Right. And until he sees it healed, Rogers can't play.

The Packers lost, the Bears lost. It was all there for the Lions. Is it time to get Kevin Patcher on the phone? Kevin, are you there? I am here. Josh Brown's 45-yard field goal on the third drive of overtime, lifting the New York Giants to a 2320 win over the Lions on Sunday. The loss eliminates Detroit from postseason contention.

Of course, that is three consecutive losses in December for the Lions who are history. Patrick, your thoughts? What can you say? They had it in the bag, and Matt Stafford threw a pick six, and they had Green Bay losing at the time. They looked like they could have had their destiny in their own hands, right? Mr. Destiny.

Mr. Destiny in their own hands. And they couldn't get a stop at the end of the game on fourth down, fourth and seven. this is the Lions who we thought they were. They are who we thought they were. Patrick, tell me if this drove you as crazy as it drove me. All right, let's go back in time when the Lions had that

wild win to beat the Cowboys when they had to go on that miracle drive. I don't remember the specifics but they needed a touchdown in less than minutes of play. They got it. Tie game here. This is a team that again, I'll remind you, has Matthew Stafford one of the best arms in football, if

not the best. Calvin Johnson arguably one of the top five wide receivers to ever play the game in his prime 23 seconds to play in the game two timeouts Jim Schwartz the soon-to-be-departed Jim Schwartz takes the air out of the ball

what? You play scared you deserve to lose I don't disagree you give Matthew Stafford $75 million and then you take the ball out of his hands at the end of the game it's ridiculous and him yelling at the fans for booing at that time which you can see clearly yelling at the fans is ridiculous

it sounds like a man who knows he's out on his way out. It just does, it boggles the mind. I know that Megatron was hurt most of the game. He couldn't perform well. He's been dealing with the knee and ankle injury, but still, you still have some makers take one shot and then run the ball out.

I don't understand not giving, I don't know how you don't trust a strong-arm quarterback that you've paid so much money to give him one shot with the game tied. The worst thing they do is it's a punt, and they intercept it, and they get the ball at the 30-yard line. and then they kneel and you go to overtime anyway. Why do we always blame the coaches? I mean, they had six drives to end the game that didn't straight,

that didn't gain more than 10 yards. So, you know, it's too bad. They weren't aggressive there, but they had six drives with that offense against the giant that didn't gain more than 10 yards in a row. This is, it's insane. If one of the themes of today is the teams that get on each other's nerves, the lines get on my nerves,

and Reggie Bush is the face of this. The Reggie Bush hype train is, continues to roll. This guy, he was supposed to set all these records. The only record he said he fumbled for the fourth time this season, a career high. He was kind of sulking on the sideline.

Fox cameras had the camera trained on him. And then Joyc Bell was the Belkow guy for the rest of the day. I mean, that's the lines in a nutshell. All this talent, they have no idea what to do with it. I don't know. I will defend the decision to run, Joy, Bell. He was running over the giant's defense, and

Bush wasn't really gaining many yards up the middle. I, in that case, the fumble is what everyone will focus on, but I don't necessarily disagree. Joe Bell was just running off through tackles that game, the whole game. So what's next for the Lions, in your opinion? In my opinion, they'd say clean house with the coaching staff. I think they need to bring somebody in who can help get Matt Stafford to the next lover. You do pay him all that money to not progress,

and he's regressed in the last several weeks from what we saw earlier in the season. Yeah, we talked about his progress in the first. half of the year. In the last eight games, I believe it is, 13 touchdowns, 15 interceptions, and a completion percentage under 55. So if you reversed, if he had that to start out the year, he would have been the subject of so many articles of how much he's struggling. So a great first half and he struggles down the struggle. Kurt Warner said he is the worst fundamentals in the NFL. I think most fans believe that. And Jim Schwartz defends him every single week on the throwing sidearm thing, his release point. They never criticize him. They never work with him. They never work with

him to eliminate that, I think that's like the one major thing why you need a new coaching staff. Agreed. Sorry, Kevin. It's kind of a downer here. Sorry, Kev. But you know what? You're near home.

Your holidays are here. You're healthy. Things could be worse, right? The lions blew it in a perfect situation where they could have made some ground. It's everything's back to normal. Everything's back to normal. All right. It's the traditions of Christmas.

It's great. Merry Christmas, Kevin Batcher. It wouldn't be without it. all right man see you later i appreciate all right it's almost like you didn't want to get off the phone he just wanted to keep talking about it

and that would take him through a very difficult time in his life it's like being on the couch in your therapist office yeah k rich behind the glass did you notice that i did but you know who would not want to be in a roomful of heroes that's a good point so obviously patra has his leanings with the lions Chris Wessling, while he renounced himself as a Bengals fan, he definitely was high on rooting against a certain team.

That was the Oakland Raiders. Philip Rivers threw a go-head four-yard touchdown pass to Keenan Allen and the Chargers stayed alive in the playoff race by knocking off the Oakland Raiders, 2613. That is the 11th loss for the Raiders, correct? It's correct. And that means it has been clinched. Chris Wessling, you will not be eating your softball pants.

feel like there's a celebration in effect tonight i might have to break out the champagne a few days early just just one more time guys yeah will chris wessling eat his softball pants and that that could be yes definitively answered nope softball pants are safe i know everyone was looking for you maybe maybe just with that champagne just take a nibble see what it's like i don't have you know they got more wins than you thought i don't know What about next year? Can we come up with something to keep the softball pants, or have you tempted fate enough in the softball pants? I feel like I've tempted fate enough, but what's going to stop me in the heat of the moment from just, you know, loudly proclaiming, oh, if that happens, I'll eat my softball pants.

I mean, sometimes I can't just, I just can't shut my big mouth. I think we have to be, as a group, glad that this didn't happen because, you know, I was thinking about this the other night. If we actually had a regular-sized human like Chris Wesleyan here, eat what was 13 or 14? 14 meters of fabric. He would have died. He surely would have perished. Think of the ratings. That would get so many views.

People would download. Crystal, you were ruined. Greg, we don't put ratings over the human life of our friends. Crystal is really excited to cut. I think that's so funny that we're like, oh, but Wesley might go to the hospital. But Greg's like, but think of the rating. Honestly, I was hoping that he would eat his softball pants too. Yeah.

And I was hoping that we would do it in a safe way. You know, I wasn't rooting for him to eat the zipper all. other people in this room were. Mark Sessler? No, no, no. I've been saying for weeks that the zipper was out of play. But we also lost Greg's wife as a cook, and that, to me, that turned

ugly. Then we lost our compass. Yeah, right? It's true. I could see Crystal's eyes just lighting up, though, when she found out my wife was not really interested in participating in the cooking of the softball pan. Crystal just was ready to swoop in. She was...

Oh, oh, yes. Yeah, softball pants, soul food style. I would have tried that potentially. Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to bring out the softball pants from my bottom drawer. I wore them when we won the championship last week. That was put them away for the winter. Congratulations.

Bringing them back out tonight, put my arm around them, have a little champagne. We're going to celebrate. There you go. In real life football news, by the way, the Chargers with the win, that's their first three-game winning streak of the season. And they also got help, obviously, from Buffalo and beating the dolphins. and the Patriots who beat the Ravens, the Chargers still alive for a playoff spot.

Get excited, Southern California. And you made the case for the realistic scenario for the Steelers. I like that Chargers scenario. They need the win, and they need the Ravens and the Dolphins to lose, and they're in, and that'd be fun. Philip Rivers going to Cincinnati or something like that. Get your Bolo tie on. I'll be happy if either the Chargers or the Steelers are in the playoffs.

I'd much rather watch those teams than the Ravens or Dolphins. And how about our boy, Ryan Matthews? He came at one yard shy of becoming the first running back with six 100 yards games this year And he's averaging 30 touches a game the past three weeks He's carrying that offense Did I see a tweet that he was in a walking boot after the game? He was Should we be worried about that?

We'll find out tomorrow Yeah, see, that's the way life is You can't get too worked up about what you don't know Just enjoy what you do now All right, I like that Don't sweat the small stuff We should write a book about it Yeah, we should

Cam Newton threw a 14-yard touchdown pass the Dominic Hickson with 23 seconds to play lifting the Carolina Panthers to a 17-13 win over the New Orleans Saints clinching Carolina's first playoff birth since 2008 the Panthers can now wrap up the NFC South and a first round by in the playoffs with a win next Sunday at Atlanta

Greg this is a big win for the official ATL team of 2013 That's an understatement. You dig in on it. This was, you know, the biggest win for the Panthers, I believe, since their Super Bowl run, I thought it was the biggest moment in Cam Newton's career.

And everyone always gets over, they talk too much about, oh, can he do it in the clutch? Can he do it in the big moments? And this was the type of game if Tom Brady did it, people would be writing about it, like he is the most clutch god in the universe. because Cam Newton had one of his worst games of the year, but he got the ball back with just under a minute to go.

They hadn't done anything the entire game. 32 seconds later, he's in the end zone after three beautiful passes that not too many quarterbacks could have pulled off. So whatever you want to call that, I mean, it's about as good as it gets, and the Panthers just need to win next week in Atlanta, not a total gimmee, and they get a buy in the playoffs, and they win the division.

The knock on Cam Newton, his first two years in the league, was that he couldn't win close games. He had only two game-winning drives in his first two years combined. He has four this year. So either he's become clutch, which his teammates and coaches have said, that he's quarterbacking differently with the game on the line. He looks more confident. He's a leader now.

He's not throwing the ball away. He's actually playing smarter with the game on the line. So maybe there is something to that. Well, he also got helped out because the four. drives before that, three and out, three and out, three and out, three and out. Sean Peyton gets the ball back with over two minutes to go, and he calls three straight runs into the line. He does not give Drew Breeze one chance to throw the ball, to get a first down, to win the game. You have Drew Breeze back there. The same exact thing happened in the Patriots

game, and it came back to bite them. He decided to not take a chance, not let Drew Breeze throw the ball one time. He just wanted to get rid of the Panthers timeouts, take time off the clock and they lost because of it. This is the onside kick in the Super Bowl, Sean Payton. He had an onside kick in this game. Did he give any reasoning for this? The way their defense was playing at that point, he just thought getting the ball to Carolina with that little time on the clock would be enough. But they had good field position. It wasn't a good punt. He just thought a minute left that their defense would win it for him, basically. What about Luke Keekeley in this game? He was unbelievable.

Was it 24 tackles or something like that? First player since Derek Brooks. in over a decade with 20 plus tackles and an interception. There was so much going on in this game even though it was low scoring. Steve Smith got injured. Kenny Vaccaro looks like he's out for the year with a broken ankle. That's a big loss. Smith missed most of the game with the non-contact knee injury

which is not a good sign. Keekley had one of the defensive games of the year of unbelievable interception, all those tackles. Thomas Davis had a great interception. It was really those two linebackers I think kind of making a stand. It was really all about those two guys. I think if

Steve Smith just does a little ice up, son. He should be all right. And the Saints are just, they're not a January player, right? Well, can we be happy that the Panthers? I mean, we're getting the better team as the by team here. I guess. I mean, right?

I think these are two pretty even teams. The Saints just whacked them. They actually had, you know, a few weeks ago. The Saints had 20 first downs in this game. The Panthers had 10. They really controlled the game. The New Orleans Saints made a lot of errors that kept it closer than it should have.

Here's the thing, though. You talk about, let's say in theory one of these teams has to go to Seattle. NFC championship. I want to see Carolina take its shot. We already saw New Orleans try to take their shot. Oh, yeah. And who knows even if Seattle is in that building for that game or if they're even in that game at this point. But if you have to choose between the Niners, the Saints and the Panthers to win that game in the NFC title game on the road,

Saints are the first one you throw out. So probably won't have to worry about. record show around week six, we were talking playoff scenarios, and I told Greg, I hope the Saints get in on the wild card because the Panthers are winning that division. Nice. You did. I remember that. And the Saints, they might not even get in with the wild card. It is not clinch. They have to win next week to get into the playoffs. Let's move on. Carson Palmer overcame four interceptions to throw a 31-yard touchdown to Michael Floyd with 2.13 to play. And the Arizona Cardinals kept their playoff hopes alive with a stunning, I'll say stunning, 17-10 win over the Seahawks on Sunday.

Where, Wes? At Seattle. Century Link Field. Boom. Snapping the Seahawks 14-game winning streak at home in that building. Wes, this is one of the more impressive road performances by any team or the most impressive this season, right? You called it stunning. We should mention it stunning to everyone except.

Dave Damasek, who predicted this, yes. Yes, David. Carson Palmer. One of only two quarterbacks in the last three years to win a game with four interceptions. Seahawks' secondary played great. Cardinals' defense played even better. Russell Wilson had the worst QBR of his career, the lowest yards per attempt figure

of the career, lowest passer rating of his season. He was pressured as he has been all season, did not react well to the pressure, was not accurate. By the beginning of the fourth quarter, John Ryan, the punter, had as many puns as Russell Wilson had completions. Well, it doesn't matter, though, because they're already in the Super Bowl, right? I mean, so, I mean, Seahawk, there's no way anyone could possibly go into Seattle and win a game. That's impossible. Well, you know what is sad is that we very easily could see Arizona watching the playoffs from home while we're treated to a team like Dallas getting into the playoffs. Outrageous. I just, this is the whole, they hope,

I love that. You need to reseed this entire thing because Arizona is as good as anyone right now outside of Seattle and the NFC. That's wrong-headed thinking. Do you know why, by the way? Because the Dallas Cowboys, and they're going to lose next Sunday night, let's face it. But if they ever made into the playoffs, how would they not play some great game that went down to the last play and was lost in stunning, devastating fashion? That's fun football. I would like to see the Cowboys in the playoffs.

We're different, though. I don't want to see a mediocre 8-and-A team get into the playoffs. I would like to reseed it, and everyone, division winners get in, but the wild cards open it up by conference so that the Cardinals get in over one of these AFC teams. How about that? I'll buy that. I like that. It is unfair.

Imagine if they win this game, then they beat the 49ers next week. There's still a good chance they won't make the playoffs. Well, it's ugly. There's no better argument for saying we're ready to get into the postseason and then knock off Seattle and the Niners if they do that? Come on. Yeah, it'll be heartbreaking to keep them out of the playoffs if they beat Seattle and San Francisco back-to-back. They're a top eight team, I think, right now, but... Back-to-back coach of the year.

Sometimes you don't know which tiebreakers are going to get you in that New Orleans, Arizona game way back. I think in week five or six is probably what's going to take Arizona out. The Seahawks have one of the craziest stats I've ever heard in football. Their punt returns. they had given up 19 total punt return yards entering this game Patrick Peterson had six yards on nine returns That's a quarter of the punt returns That's a big day

Yeah, it's a quarter of the yards allowed by the Seahawks puns all year That's incredible, that's an amazing stat Peyton Manning has regained his NFL record For touchdown passes with 51 And the Denver Broncos have clinched the AFC West Manning through for 400 yards and four touchdowns Including three in the final fourth quarter to pass Tom Brady.

That's Greg's boy, Tom Brady, 50 touchdown passes that he threw in 2007. From a game standpoint, the Broncos won 37-13 over the Texans, extending Houston's franchise record losing streak to 13 games. Wes, Peyton Manning, what can he say about the guy at this point?

I mean, what a season. I thought the way this game went and the way he broke the record was just perfectly summed up what the Broncos are this year. They struggled the whole third quarter. quarter. Peyton got hit too many times. The Texans

defensive front was getting to him. They couldn't move the ball. And then you just see that onslaught that the Broncos have done all year where they have three touchdowns in like eight or nine minutes and you can't stop it. So they just, it seems like there's so many stops and starts with them, but when they turn it on, nobody

can stop them. I liked in this game that here on the West Coast, the early games begin at 10 a.m. And around 10.04, Greg was up out of his chair calling this the match Shob Christmas special and how it was going to be an upset

and by around 10-11 I never heard another word about that Shob was terrible that was a big Rosenthal talking point this week Oh I just thought it would be glorious I mean how exciting it would be to see that poor man with the receding hairline gets them

If the third and fourth quarter is perfectly sum up the Broncos offense one play summed up Matt Shob It was a boot action that you always see in the Texans' offense. He's got all day to throw, and he throws it sideways, hangs Greg Jones out to dry, throws to his fullback on a play where if he didn't hang the fullback out to dry, would have gone for three yards with all day to throw. This is who my job is now.

He's a machine. It's funny that this record did not, it wasn't that big of a deal. I mean, it didn't get played up that much relatively because there's so much crazy stuff. We talked about it all day. Like, this wasn't our lead story. This was just like, okay, he broke the all-time. Well, isn't the reason for that because I think it got a lot of attention. Went in around week six. You realized, wait, he's on pace to do everything. And he stayed on pace. And so, okay, now he did what we thought he'd be.

Whether it's football or baseball with home run chases, paces are, that's a fun part of the whole exercise. I just think that in West made a good point. Someone's going to come and break it next year. Yeah, I think that's just the way offense is now. We just expect records to go down. And they can break the points record, too, right? They need 18 points next week to break the points.

record, and Peyton Manning needs 265 yards to break the yards record. And they play the Raiders next week, and they move the Patriots game. This is interesting, to the late afternoon so that the number one seed would be on the line in the late afternoon. So Denver has to play to win. They can't sit Manning. They have to win that game against the Raiders to get home field of damage. Kudos schedule maker.

Good job. Yeah. And you know what my thoughts on it is? Because I agree that the 51 didn't get played up enough today or the buildup to it. I think collectively, as NFL fans, we don't appreciate Peyton Manning as much as we should. We really don't. What this guy did at this stage of his career is outrageous, and there should be a bigger deal being made of it. But I think it goes back to Peyton needs to get the second ring.

And until that, everything in the eyes of a lot of people rings hollow. He has all more fans than any player in the league. I think he gets exactly the credit he deserves. He probably gets too much blame. but he gets a lot of credit. And the record is not 40 years old. It's a record that any football fan remembers being set very recently. Let's be honest.

Records are for baseball. No one cares about stats and records and football. It's just not what people are into. They're not held up as sacred like baseball. That's true. One interesting thing, if you want to just try to wrap your head around this, it's considered great like on a quarterback throws. It's not great, but it's a nice season to throw 25 touchdowns in a season.

If you combine two seasons of Manning's career, 2004 and 2013, he's throwing 100 touchdown passes. He's all right, Dan. He's pretty good. It's not that great a stat, but it's just like kind of like guys throwing a lot of touchdown passes. It's interesting. He has two of the three greatest passing seasons in NFL history. It's got a future. You know, I just get excited about this ton of stuff.

Maybe I'm just a boy who loves the game. Well, when I said this record will probably be broken next year, Greg made a good point. Manning will probably break it himself again next year. Well, they'll have to franchise tag Decker or sign them to a long-term deal. But everyone else is coming back. Let's hope West Welker comes back. So you're saying that Matt Schaub, quarterbacking the Jets, will not break the record? I don't want to see him.

He's in the visor and clipboard stage of his career. Just let him go. Andrew Luck threw for 241 yards, and a touchdown is the Indianapolis Colts, beat the Kansas City Chiefs 23-7 on Sunday, and a potential preview of the AFC wildcard playoff game. You know what? I think Kevin Patra's still in line. He's still there, Kev?

Still listening. Wow. What a fan. So true or not, like, you didn't know if you were still on the show still, so you just figured, hey, this is a great podcast. I'm going to listen. Yeah, I was just listening, just catching up early. I told you, wait a second.

I said this earlier that it didn't sound like Kevin wanted to get off the phone because he had gone through such a traumatic experience. You're right. Kevin. So you heard us making fun of him like being on a psychiatrist's couch? We're here to support you, Kevin. I heard every word. Except for when we talk behind your back.

The Dolphets sound to your voice, like everything all right. Kevin, you could stay on as long as you want, and then after the podcast, if you want to call me, bud. You got me. So let's talk about this game, Kevin. I know you watch this one closely. We talked about it on Friday. You know, at least my opinion was that the cults needed some type of signature road win. And going into KC and getting a win, that's pretty.

pretty good, right? They did get it. Andrew Luck looked very good. Pephamoix and kind of took the wheels off in the second quarter. They had two, three, and out to start the game, and then he just kind of let Andrew Luck throw the ball. He went to, at one point he went ten consecutive downs with an attempted pass, accounting one that was called back for holding, so officially nine attempted passes in a row.

And their offense just moved the ball. It's much better when they let him throw the ball. Donald Brown had a nice catcher run on a great display. designed by Pett Hamilton for a touchdown, and he had one 51-yard run. Other than that, the ground game didn't really do much. Trent Richardson is who he thought he was. He's the same, get two yards and fall down. And the Chief's defense just did.

They didn't come to play again. They didn't have a pass rush against a very average to mediocre Colts offensive line that was reshuffled this week. They couldn't get in luck to space very much. They had a couple drives where they did in the second quarter, but other than that, he had all day to throw, and he picked him apart. Here's the thing that... Whalen had 80 yards.

I mean... Here's the thing that scares you if you're a Chiefs fan. Yes, the defense has been inconsistent for weeks now. And then you had the game like Alex Smith had today. You wonder what happens, or if it's going to happen in January. He threw for 153 yards, lost the fumble through two interceptions. You know, I don't know if I'm ready to trust Alex Smith in a big spot this season. What about you, Kevin?

It's tough because we were just praising him this past week, finally getting on board. and then he comes out and has one of these games where he's just check-down, check-down, check-down. And when he tried to go along, he honestly didn't that time. They had guys in his face. Robert Mathis had one play where he knocked the ball out of Alex Misand, and it was intercepted even though I would argue that it was a forward fumble that was caught in mid-air.

But Jamal-Charles, they went bang-bang, four plays. He had a 33-yard touchdown run, and after that, they didn't do anything. They didn't have over five plays on a drive until two minutes left in the first half. This was the Colts' first truly impressive game in two months. And I don't think it's a coincidence that Pep Hamilton has finally done what we've been begging him to do all year. Put the game in Andrew Luck's hands, not the running game. Lose that power running scheme.

Seriously, Andrew Luck is your franchise. He's your best player. Put the game in his hands like the Patriots do with Brady and the Broncos do with Manny. put it in Griff Whalen's hand. Andrew Luck can make him a player. If you want to extend the Peyton Manning to Andrew Luck, I mean making pretty decently average receivers do pretty well, leading them into passes, making great pros.

The Chiefs had some busted coverages, but he spreads it all around really well today. Griff Whalen is the new Blair White? I don't know. That's awesome. Blair White reference. He's Austin Colley compared to as well. I don't know what to make of this Colts team,

but of all the AFC teams, that are so up and down, I think they're the one team that has the profile of a Ravens or Giants or Cardinals that went to the Super Bowl and totally shocked people just because they have a quarterback and they have some surprising wins

and they have a good coach and they just, there's something that they're the one team out of that four bottom teams in the AFC that I think could surprise people. Especially after this win, this was the one that tells you, okay, maybe they are a little frisier

than they're letting on. Statement game? Yes. I don't think you're going to, Dang. No. Dan's the official committee. One-man statement committee.

Nate Washington scored on a 30-yard reception in the fourth quarter. And Tennessee got a much-needed defensive stop late. And the Titans ended a three-game losing streak with a 2016 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday. Kevin Patcher, I know you kept a close eye on this game. Do you have anything else to add, or can we just move on? You could probably move on. I wouldn't put this. I was Mike Muncheck.

send this game film in my ownership. But it might be the last one he ever has as a head coach. Perhaps. Even though they won, I didn't, they didn't do much. They had a good power running scheme in the second half, but the first half was still with terrible errors, and the Jags.

Chad Henney moved the ball pretty well on him. One in seven record for the Jaguars at home. That's not good. Kevin, so if you want to stay on the line, you can do it, buddy. But if you want to go to sleep now, you can do that. to. I never sleep. I love to listen, you guys.

Love it. Kevin Patrick, coming at you. A huge fan of the galleon quartet. Well, you might want to stay on the line for this because this is my favorite read of the day. Gino Smith threw two touchdown passes to David Nelson and ran for another score as the New York Jets topped the Cleveland Browns. Mark Sessler's boyhood team 2413 on Sunday in New York's home finale and possibly Rex Ryan's.

Home finale as the Jets head coach, he ran around slapping, high-fiving Jets fans on his way to the locker room tunnel. Of course, before the game, it was reported, and it's been backed up by other media outlets now that Rex had talked to his team the day before this game and said that word on the street, which had been getting phased out of cultural vernacular. So it's good that word on the street's back was that he was going to be fired. motivational ploy it sounds classic wrecks but he could also be shown in the door but who cares about any of that mark sessler and i had a big bet the winner of this game would get to dress the loser so mark sessler will wear a tim tibo official jet's jersey tucked into jeans all next sunday for probably about 12 hours you are a factory of sadness look i look forward to this because i do i'll tell you why Cleveland's

did not deserve this game. They have not looked good. We talked about them having a defense that had some interesting parts to it, challenging teams. They flat out looked bad today. But why would that make you look forward to wearing a tin Tivo Jet jersey? It's one thing if I promise to do this, and then Cleveland, as they are wont to do at times,

lose on some bizarre call where I feel like, you know, this could have gone another way. They just flat out. This is how they are in late December. it's shut it down time, close the curtains, get ready for spring, get excited about the draft and the free agency before we shatter your dreams next fall. Mark and I had a conversation downstairs. The Browns are going to Pittsburgh next week to finish their season. That will likely be a bloodbath. They will end up at 4 and 12. That will be six straight years

that the Browns have lost either 11 or 12 games, which is outrageous. And I mentioned to Mark, and Mark fought me on this, that Chud, no one's mentioned Chud as a hot seat candidate, and perhaps that's fair because of what he inherited, but from a Brown's perspective, there's just no progress here. You're just stuck in neutral forever and ever and ever. Well, wait, what I didn't say, hey, Chud has blown the doors off. What I was arguing was that the organization brought Chud in

to not just blow it up one year later like they've done over and over and over. There's absolutely literally no, it's not being written about or discussed because it's already known it won't happen this offseason. There's just no question. And listen, their coordinators have been better than they've had in years and years. Do they have the best passing numbers ever for any team that had three quarterbacks start at least three games? They've already gone over 4,000 passing yards and I think they have 25 or 26 passing touchdowns. Well, that is also tainted by the fact that they literally do not have a ground game on any level. All they do to move the ball is pass.

But with the cast of quarterbacks they have, that is interesting. You should wear, remember those belts like in the 90s where it was all like loopholes? Do you remember the belts I'm talking about? Yeah, it was like a weave. Yeah, it was like a weave. And then you pull it inside of itself. Yeah, and then you pull it inside. And then what happened, they went out of style and then dads kept wearing them for another 10 years or so.

I'm imagining a woman's belt. What is this? Well, that could also be in play. Is there a possibility you could wear one of those 90s belts with your tucked in jersey? Tight roll the jeans, too, I feel like would be a good move. Listen, I will carry this through to the end. Whatever you need me to do. I have to wear an ugly Jets hat, too, I believe.

You don't have to do that, but if you want to top it off. Wasn't so into the hat. And don't worry around the league listeners. We will get photographic evidence of this and put it on Twitter. Right, K. Rich, we're going to take care of that, right? We always take care of it. Thank you, Browns. You never know.

Maybe he's the Browns quarterback next year. And I'm, and you know, and I might put on that Brandon Weed in Jersey just for fun, too. Maybe we'll get a picture together. I like that. Because your team in other ways is equally pathetic. Yes, very much so. Moving on. Zach Stacey rushed for 104 yards in a touchdown and two other rookies.

Also had big games for the St. Louis Rams in their 2313 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Stedman Bailey scored on a 27-yard reverse. Alk Ogletree Force, two fumbles. Greg, is there anything else we need to know about this game? Just the one thing. Robert Quinn set the all-time Rams' sack record with three more. Defensive Player of the Year candidate had another big game. And Tampa's offensive line, I think, is the worst in the entire league overall.

Quinn now leads the NFL in sacks. I think he should be defensive player of the year. He's got my vote today. 18 sacks. He's got my vote. Oh, apparently the Rams wore their throwback jerseys from the 1999 Super Bowl title. middle. Ooh, la la.

NFC West has to be one of the best divisions this year that any division's been in a long time. Oh, yeah. I believe they're 39 and 20 collectively. They're unbelievable outside the division. To get that sort of record, because think of you're only 500 in the division, so to be that good out of the division, it's amazing.

Mark and Greg, I ask you guys, because you seemed confident of it two weeks ago, is Greg Shiano still in good shape to keep his job? Well, I think Greg made a good point, and you have to look again, it's not just, hey, compared to every other coach, is he good or bad? That organization doesn't knee-jerk. They had to get extremely frustrated with the last coach before they made a move.

And I don't think it happens for that reason, more than because he's this fantastic coach at his job. Yeah, and they have to play in New Orleans next week. That probably won't go well. But I do think he'd keep his job. Get him out of there. He's gone. He's gone. Right?

He's gone. I don't think so. Not the way that the bucks operate, no. I don't like the way you operate, Mark. Well, listen, I had to introduce some context into this, Dan, not just Dan's wonderful magic kingdom of who stays and who goes. Oh, well, I appreciate that. Moving on, Tony Romo threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to DeMarco Murray on fourth down

with 108 to play on Sunday, giving the Dallas Cowboys a 24-23 win over the Washington Redskins and setting up a winner-take-all regular season finale against the Eagles next week. this is why Tony Romo is impossible to figure out. Last week, obviously it wasn't all on him. The defense also melted down against the Packers, but Romo threw two late interceptions that sealed their fate. This time around, he saves the Cowboys. He engineers two scoring drives on their last two possessions in the fourth quarter.

And then to give the defense some credit, they did make a stand with over a minute to play, forced the four and out that clinch the game. So the Cowboys, just like we all thought would happen, it's going to end up in week 17 with it all in the line, and now they need to try to flip the script finally. It's not just the last two weeks. Any football writer, any smart fan knows you can make stats say anything.

Tony Romo is a choker, right? Only Peyton Manning has more game-winning drive since Romo entered the league in 2006. On the other hand, the Cowboys are 2 and 11 in week 17 since 2001, the worst record in the NFL over that span. And we get the... It's an annual game for Dallas, three straight years on Sunday night. Right, it was Fleck. They announced it at halftime today that that will be the Sunday night game.

And they also had an Eagles Cowboys game. I don't know if you remember it in 2008 where there was a wild card spot on the line. It was not Sunday night. But they've been in these do-or-die games. They've lost every one of them. They've actually lost one to every NFC East team. They went Eagles, Giants, Redskins, and so now they come back and they lose to the Eagles next week.

And Romo bailed out his coach. Jason Garrett, again, was set up for another title wave of criticism. His continued reluctance to commit to the run is beyond any sense of logic. DeMarco Murray was running the ball great. The Cowboys fell behind in the third quarter during a time where they refused to hand the ball to Murray. and by the way, DeMarco Murray, this kind of gets lost in the shuffle when we talk about this. Murray's playing the best football of his career right now.

He's healthy. He had a huge game today over 110 total yards, two touchdowns, and the game winning catch. They have a legit big three there with Romo, Dez, and Murray. They just got to, they have to figure out how to make the most of that. And when they do, they'll become a better team. I just don't know if Garrett will ever get it. We're a month and a half removed from reports that the Cowboys want to ship Murray out of town. that's a good point

I mean I don't think they I think that's one of the reasons we're seeing what we're seeing is they don't something internally they don't trust I thought it was more about not trusting him to stay healthy and they wanted another back to compliment him

sure well I think that does that does have to do with it but that's a big part of it and it's so the big three is when everyone buys into it's the big three and everyone killed them for taking Travis Frederick for that first round pick and he's been probably the biggest part of their run blocking

being so much better this year. I mean, you talked about it, Chris, last week. The Packers were afraid of their power run-blocking scheme, essentially. Their zone scheme is the best in the league, according to the Packers, and they were afraid of it. And they basically celebrated when the Cowboys stopped running and said, well, that's what the Cowboys always do. That's why they're the Cowboys.

Well, one thing on the Cowboys real quick, this idea that every week, no matter whether they win or lose, the eight posts and stories are all Tony Romo-based, Wait till Philadelphia's offense gets a chance to deal with Monty Kiffin's defense. That's the story. Seventy Burger, that would be a great way to go out. And just so you know, we don't need to spend a ton of time on the Redskins, but RG3 needn't worry about Kirk Cousins.

He's not a big-time quarterback. He's a suitable backup, and the Redskins have lost both games. He started both by one point, mind you. But still, it's not like the worst-case scenario for RG3, which would have been, cousin lights it up, and the Redskins win all these games, and then all of a sudden you have a whole offseason of ridiculous talk about, you know, what's the best move and Skip Bayless, you know, centering entire summer around that discussion. It won't happen, so.

Or the Redskins who don't have any draft picks had a chance to market a quarterback to a team stupid enough to make that trade. Well, that's off the table now, too. Well, we're going into the final week of the season, and there is still a chance that the Redskins pick that they traded away for, RG3 could be the number one overall pick. If the Texans win next week and the Redskins lose, it's not clinched, but it looks like it would be the Rams holding the number one pick. Dan, weep not for Skip Bayliss.

He will find something lame to talk about this summer, regardless of what happens. That's absolutely correct. And that takes us to the Sunday night game and also the Cowboys' opponent in week 17, the Philadelphia Eagles who this is a statement game in its own right because when you are playing

against a team that has everything to play for and you have really nothing to play for the Eagles were locked into that NFC East showdown next week and they put up a 50 burger on the bears who are not even competitive in the game

it tells you a lot about the NFC North which is terrible and it tells you a lot about how dangerous the Eagles are and I throw it to you K Rich because you got to be feeling real good tonight i'm feeling amazing i don't know about you guys but i'm feeling like we just chick kelly just came in for this last game and he implemented that upbeat tempo he we started

out amazing the touchdown the turnover and then we just kept on making plays the whole time and just like you said it's coming down a week 17 for us bears could have clinched but they didn't it's like oregon washington state and he just keeps scoring i love that they don't let up at all Every time I look up, there's a different cowboy with nothing but 60 yards ahead of him going straight to the end zone. What a love affair, too. Or a different Eagle, I mean. What a love affair between Eagles fans and Chip Kelly. It's almost K. Rich as if Seduction Sunday has entered the equation.

You guys already know it. And you know what? For everyone who doesn't know, we have a little blue room downstairs. That's where I work. And I don't know if it was a Giants fan that painted it blue, but I'm suggesting, because of this 50-plus pointer that we painted green. Eagles Nation, let's go. The Green Burger.

And I have to say, the crystal, you know, you're a woman of a thousand haircuts. And you've got a new style here today. You're such a guy. Thousand haircuts. Women don't get haircuts. All right. Style. Kay, Rich, you always go to Pete's Barbershop. I'm saying it's a little different today.

it's a pulled back but very high in the middle and maybe I'm wrong is it inspired by Connor Barwin's haircut it feels very Connor Barwin like to me well I do have I do have a high bun Connor does not have a high bun but a lot of his hair is in the middle so I do see what you're saying it's high but um you know I guess I'll just say thank you with a question mark um what all right so the the Eagles we are all impressed by what they're able to do offensively and we'll see what they do next week What about the bears? What do we take from this?

That Josh McCown is better for this offense than Jay Cutler? Yeah. I think Tressman deserves credit because he's stuck by, he's loyal, obviously, to Cutler, but you've got to go with the hot hand. You're heading down the stretch to try to get into the playoffs, and Cutler just, did everything just slow down with him in there? It just feels murky. Yeah, but what about the defensive effort?

Well, no, but the defense is a disaster. We already knew that. This is the fourth time they've given up at least 40 points this year. It wouldn't matter who was that quarterback. He brought in Josh McCown late in the game when it was a laffer. I doubt he will go back to McCown as a starter next week. But it's going to be a topic all week in Chicago. All right.

That does it for Sunday's edition of the Around the League podcast. Mark, by the way, did you want to say anything else about your party experience from last week? Why don't you say it for me? Oh, well, it was a joke. It was a joke. Mark Sessler was. I was extremely well-behaved to the game. the party I felt that I was a gentleman conversational got out of there at a decent hour

my entire recollection of your performance at the party was you singing the same song over and over again yeah it was in a good mood and then I got I had to be at work at 4 50 in the morning well it's award season and I feel like a nomination is coming for Sessler's performance there because we we got a lot of tweets we got a lot of people we were at your party Dan and one of your friends was like what did Mark do I mean everyone was wondering It's all because you just sold it, Mark. I got a text from a girl today. So what did Mark do at the party?

I was told that Greg sold it because he sounded genuinely perturbed slash disappointed. Mark, I can tell you Mark is an honest man on balance, but Mark is also one of the great liars I've ever known. Well, not a liar. I always tell you that. Yes. Please. You are a lie. Tall tail.

You're a deadpan liar. I don't lie and then stick to it. I'll come up with a scenario, then like 20 seconds later tell you it's not the case. Right. It's not like a negative character trait, but you like to tell tall tales. Yeah, I did. On Tybee, they would call it spinning a yarn, right? Span some yarn.

Let's go to the bar, spend some yarn. All right, so we will be back. When will we be back, Greg? Because I'm going to New York tomorrow. We will be back without Dan in the studio on Tuesday because, hey, it's Christmas Eve. Why not do a podcast? We're in at work anyways. Yeah.

So enjoy that. And, yeah, Merry Christmas to everyone that celebrates the holiday. And we'll be back on Tuesday. And then on Friday, right? Okay, good. So we got a nice big week coming up because week 17 is on the horizon and then the playoffs. So until then, this is Dan Hansa signing off for the mailman, the sizzler, the boss, K. Rich behind the glass, Kevin Patrick coming at you.

What a crew. Until Tuesday. You know, he's actually, he texted me. He's been listening to us the whole time. I turned his volume down, but I didn't hang up on him. Love you, Kevin. You're such a good guy. Is Kevin there?

Kevin, are you there? Hello? He wanted to listen to it live while he was doing whatever. I can hear you. This is an I-Heart podcast.