PTI - Gridiron Chaos: Wildcard Shockwaves, Eagles Collapse, and Hoosier's Football

Episode Date: January 12, 2026

Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser discuss the AFC and NFC wildcard games, The Eagles' downfall and Hoosier's Football. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, sports fans, the ESPN app has all of ESPN all in one place. The ESPN app is your home to thousands of live events, ESPN shows, and originals across every ESPN network and service. And now you can check if you already have ESPN Unlimited as part of your TV package for no additional calls. Visit activate.esPN.com to learn how to access your account or sign up, then start streaming in the ESPN app. It's all of ESPN all in one place. Sign up or activate now. Part of the interruption, but I'm Mike Wilbon. Tony, they tell me it's national hot tea day. I'm Tony Cornheiser, hot tea.

That's what the ladies used to call me back in college. All right. A long time ago. When I had hair. Hot tea. Not like now. You can be hot without hair. I can't be.

Maybe you can be. Try it. You ever given it the full shot, the full Monty? I have not. Welcome to PTI, boys and girls. In today's episode, Wilbon's Bears beat the Packers. The Bills topped the Jaguars and the Patriots stuffed the charges. But we begin today with the biggest surprise of the weekend's NFL wildcard playoff games.

San Francisco beating defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia in Philadelphia, where the Eagles had won five straight home playoff games. The 49ers lost tight end George Kittle to an Achilles tear in the second quarter. Still won, 23 to 19. 49ers scored 13 points in the third quarter and stopped the Eagles on a fourth and 11 on the last real play of the game. Wilbon, what is the fourth? focus, 49ers, winner, Eagles, lose. I think they scored that in the fourth quarter, right?

Not the third quarter. Yeah, and Tony, I don't know where to start this because I want to, I can't help myself, but to take a shot at the Eagles. Okay. In this way. I'm tired of them. I grew tired of them two of the weeks ago. You know, they had just drama.

Just every week, starting at like week four, drama and AJ Brown. I don't want to get out, just get out of our lives. And let a team go out there who has one injured player, after another, not just injured player like role player. You're really good players. Stars with like Fred Warner's been out. It seems like the entire year.

I know it has to be. Then they lose kiddle yesterday. No, the 49ers are to be admired. By the way, I think the Shanahan is coach of the year, regular season. I know yesterday doesn't count. But for how he kept that team going in the proper direction without drama all season long. So I guess I've come to praise the Niners more than I've. come to just heap criticism on the Eagles.

I had this completely wrong. I thought the Eagles were going to win comfortably. I thought they were going to do to the 49ers what the Seahawks had done to them a week before. Just grind them down. That's what I thought would happen. The 49ers scored first, as incidentally every winning team in the NFL scored first and then won the game.

But I thought that their defense would not hold up. And for a while, I think I was right. Philadelphia was up 13 to 10 by the end of the first half. They had two long sustained drives. They held the ball 19 minutes out of the 30 minutes, right? Which is a long time. But in the second half, they got nothing. Like every week.

They get nothing every week in the second half. That's right. They are averaging 9.5 points in the second half, and this time they only got six. Look, I give the 49ers a lot of credit here, and I give them special credit for that trick play at the beginning of the fourth quarter. where the wide receiver, help me out here, Juan Jennings. Who used to be a quarterback.

Okay, so he does the option pass to Christian McCaffrey who makes a great catch on a pass that is a little bit too long and a little bit too far right, right? And they end up. If he had a glove, it would have been Willie Mays for San Francisco reference. And then again, I'm looking at what the Eagles are going to do. And maybe you are referring to this as well. A.J. Brown drops passes.

Runs his mouth and doesn't perform. Devante Smith drops a pass. The Eagles dropped four third down passes. I don't think you can blame Jalen Hertz. I don't blame J. Brown. Get out already. You know, who was it? With Mike Singletary is talking about somebody else,

you can't win with him, you can't? You can't, no more with him, not this year. Can I give you a small note on Christian McCaffrey? Yeah. Okay, he had 114 yards from scrimmage and scored two receiving touchdowns. He has now gone his last five playoff games with over 100 yards from scrimmage. And all eight of his playoff games, all eight, he has scored at least one touchdown. It's the longest streak of anybody to start their career in the NFL in history.

You think Carolina feels bad trading him now? Because they should. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly know how to use them, apparently. Let's move to Sunday's two other games. Josh Allen earned his first road playoff win by powering his bills past the White Hot Jaguars 27-20. 24, and the Patriots stifled Justin Herbert and the Chargers allowed just 207 yards of offense in a 16-3 win, Tone. Which win did you find more impressive? I think it's the Bills.

They were facing a hotter team. Jacksonville, I think, had won eight in a row, and the bills were on the road. And can we be honest here? Yesterday, the Bills had nothing other than Josh Allen. They had nothing else. He willed them to win, and then he executed that. He put his body on the line. Every single play was out there.

He went to the blue tent twice, once because they thought he might have had a concussion, and once because he had a knee. He came back out. He leads them down the field. That last drive, who makes 10 yards on a quarterback sneak? I mean, he was. Well, if you have a guy carrying you six of them. So tough.

He was so tough. And as you said, he had been 0 and 4 in road playoff games. And you know the last time the bills won a road playoff game? I was there. It was against Miami and Dan Marino. In the 1992 season. That's a long time ago. That's a long time.

Let me shift to the other thing for a second year. You know, I mean, New England was very impressive. They were very solid. They had very good defense. But they were playing at home. And as I told you the other day, I don't think the Chargers are as good as Jacksonville. Everybody thought the New England Patriots would win that game. So, you know, is Justin Herbert all that?

Do you know what he is in the playoffs? He's now 0 and 3 with two touchdown passes and four interceptions. He had one bad game of those three. He threw four picks last year in the game. Tony, I thought... They lost a 27-0-0-need at one point. That means somebody defensively needs to be on the hook. Okay.

Okay, but Justin Herbert, I thought... I didn't think that was their fault. I thought the Patriots did... They were who we thought they'd be. Let's go back to Josh Allen. Josh Allen was a beast. He was not going to let his team lose. The Jaguars did not play poorly at all.

No. They didn't play quite well enough... Chance to win. ...to put that game away, and they had a chance to win. Chance to win to get the 10 pass at the end. That's right. But Josh Allen, man. I mean, for people who want to say, look, I don't think Josh Allen's team is good enough to get them past Denver in mile high circumstances.

Well, you didn't think they were going to be Jacksonville. No, I thought Jacksonville would win. That's right. I did. That's right. But Josh Allen, all praise to Josh Allen. So he's the most impressive to me. The Patriots wore who we thought they were.

It would be. I thought they would be. I also thought they played a team that is not. Okay. Jim Harbaugh has been there two years. Got to the playoffs both years. Lots of applause for that. You know what they've gone out by two years?

You know, the total combined score 48-15. They have only had one offensive touchdown in 22 possessions over those two years. They got some work to do in building that thing. But I don't want to blame Justin. I'm not throwing Justin Herbert out, right? I mean, there's some teams that would... So if I were to say to you that in the playoffs, he's sort of like Lamar Jackson, you would say no? He sort of like it.

And he doesn't have the two MVP's? He doesn't have the two MVP. He's right, Wilbon. We have waited until now to get to the Bears game and the Rams game from Saturday. The Rams beat Carolina in Carolina on a last-minute touchdown pass from Matthew Stafford to tight-end, Colby Parkinson. And your Bears spotted the Packers a 21-3 lead in the first half. And miraculously, as usual, came back to win. In which of Saturday's winners do you have more belief in the Rams or in the Bears?

The Rams have the MVP. You and others have declared that. Matthew Stafford. I vote from them. They got the offensive. player of the year in Pooka Nakua. Okay. They got this tight in who's a beast who caught that game-winning touchdown pass right at the pylon on Saturday.

He's a big. The Rams have everything, I'm told. The Rams have everything. And yet they can barely survive Carolina after losing the Carolina one. That's right. So if I have a hope going into Sunday's game in Soldier Field, it's that the Rams either, there's something up with their concentration level and important. They've lost three games.

They shouldn't have lost. They got beat at Carolina. But they're the more impressive team. Are you just saying that? They're the more impressive team. Are you saying that you want the bears to win so badly that you don't want to put them on the spotlight? I don't have any problem saying how badly I want the bears to win. Los Angeles has been more impressive, which is why they're a favorite in Vegas,

which is why everybody's picking them. Do we have an MVP on our team for the season? Tell me if we do. Has Los Angeles won seven different games while Trenton? railing in the last minute. Who has done that? We have. I think the Chicago Bears have done that.

Is that not the most impressive thing of the whole season? Tony, it's the damnedest thing I've ever seen. It is. Every week. They win every week. Every week it's something where you just, it's as if they set it up and say, okay, we've got to go further this week. We've got to go deeper into the game with a bigger margin of deficit,

and we're going to win it that way. And you just go, oh, my God, how do they keep doing this? I would say that all things being. equal. I am more impressed with the Rams. If you remember a few weeks back, we were asked to pick Super Bowl teams, I picked the Rams and you pick Seattle. All things being equal, I would say that. But I will also tell you

in the fourth quarter on Saturday, I thought they were going to lose in Carolina like they lost six weeks ago. Wow. I thought they were. And then Matthew Stafford, who yes, I think is the MVP this year, acted like the MVP. Here is his last drive. Six or seven, 71 yards, the pass it was incomplete, was dropped.

And he closed it out with 38 seconds to go. And prior to the drive, he had said, to Devante Adams, quote, let's go snatch these guys' hearts. That's another guy. So all things being equal. Here's what I don't think is equal. What I don't think is equal is that the bears pull off miracles every single week. Again, seven times this year they have won while trailing in the last minute.

They're going to play in Chicago against a Southern California team. The advance weather says there could be a low of eight. Oh, it's down to seven. Seven. Okay. Do I hear six? A Southern California team. How about three below?

So that's what I'm saying to you, that all things are not equal. Tony, you're right about that. All things are not equal. Let me say this in praise about my team. They must have hellacious belief in each other and their coach at this point. Seems that way. Because they go in there at halftime and they have nothing. I turned the game off.

You like millions of others went to bed. I said the game is over. Listen, listen, I was close to despair. Not all the way there yet. But they come out and defensively they put together. enough of an effort. They gave up one long touchdown drive. And they somehow, Tony,

they cobbled together these possessions where Caleb Williams goes from being, eh, for three quarters, to Joe Montana in the fourth. Unbelievable. You could not have thought at 21 to 3 that you were going to win that game. Against the Packers in a stadium

they're familiar with against a team they're familiar? No, you couldn't. Let's take a break. Coming up, what is the word for what Indiana did to Oregon? on Friday night. And where does the signing of Alex Bregman

put the cubbies and leave the socks? It's a miracle season for the Bears so far. It's a miracle. It's magical. You had them 0 and 5 at the beginning of the year. Completely magical. Yeah. I'm going to go freeze to honor them on Sunday. You should. Go freeze. Take your shirt off while you know. Of course, I might be

inside a suite. Yeah, well. I might be. A chance with Richard Dent. Others. Let's find out what's popping with the peeps in mail time. What's first? Am I going to read the first one? I'm going to tear the mail Watch down. You'll read. Come off the moorings.

What's the word for Indiana's win over Oregon? My word is unbelievable. My word for everything that has happened since they've gotten Kurt Signetti is unbelievable. They went over 100 years. Loss after loss after loss after loss. Kurt Signetti is now 26 and 2 and 15 and 0 this year. They rolled. You want to talk about rolled tide?

They rolled Alabama. 383. They were the only buy team in two years to win. Then they rolled Oregon, 56 to 22. Their combined scores against Oregon, Ohio State, and Alabama this year. I believe that's four games total, is 107 to 36, right? The Indiana defense cost the Oregon quarterback, Dante Moore, about $100 million. First play, pick six, and then two bad fumbles after that.

Meanwhile, Fernando Mendoza, that guy now has, in the two games he's played in the playoffs, he has more touchdowns eight than he has incompletions. Five, I'm going to give you a number now that is impossible to believe. The plus minus in 15 games for Indiana this year is plus 473. Let me repeat that. 473, that's not possible, right? You know why? Because it's unbelievable. There are other words, and they are in that line, fictional.

and cinematic. This is a movie script. You don't have this. We're Indiana, not the other football program in the state, Notre Dame. Indiana, they are pounding people.

Tony, the only thing I wonder, I'm going back to 1983 season, I think it was January 1st or 2nd of 84, when we had Nebraska, which was all powerful. And they played the U. And the U1,

that game on a Nebraska missed two-pointer. Irving Fryer dropped a pass. Nebraska had a history of winning national championships. Yes. It's not, it's, these people cannot ever let their foot off the gas because they've never won anything. Yeah, but I'm just talking about the one game nature of it.

So you're predicting Miami to win? No, I'm not predicting. I'm just saying when it's, when it's too good to be true, maybe it is. Indiana has pummeled people. Plus 4.73. I'll give you another one. Maybe it's Ali Liston.

I mean, you, you know where you just go, So these people have no chance. Right. Except they have a chance. So you're in the Big Ten. You pay attention to Big Ten. I do. I watch Indiana every snap. And how terrible have it been your whole life? There's only now, officially, one school that has more losses. I believe it's the Purple.

I don't want to say it out loud. I believe it's the purple. But you know, unlike other regions of the country where people hate their rivals and they won't. You don't hate it. I'm rooting for Indiana. You should. I am. That's Big Ten School.

What does Alex Breggman's signing say about the Cubs and where does it leave the Sox? I believe the socks with plenty of money to spend on somebody else. I don't know whether they want Bellinger or Tucker. The Red So the Red Sox go out and spend and they do what they want to spend. So I'm wasting no time on that. The Cubs going to get Bregman. I was angry. I'm one of those Cubs fans who said,

if you people don't do something in this off season that's major, right? You let Kyle Tucker walk. And I wouldn't have paid Kyle Tucker $300 million or whatever is going to be either. So I don't blame the Cubs for that. But they wouldn't got Bregman, who they flirted with last year. And now we have an infield of. Bregman, Swanson, Horner, and Michael Bush, which is probably the best defensive infield in baseball and may just be the best infield.

That's a big deal for the Cubs, which made the playoffs, lost a five-game series to Milwaukee last year in the playoffs. This is a big deal. So, I mean, I was thinking that the Red Sox could always go back to Raphael Devers at third, but you know why they can't? Because he was poisoned and they traded him away. Maybe he didn't go back and get him. He wasn't that great there.

I don't think he, I think that's a bridge too far Okay, maybe. So they went from two third basemen and no third baseman. They are the, I think the only team in the major leagues that has not signed a free agent so far. They'll do it tomorrow. The A's have done it. The Marlins have done it. The pirates have done it. Yeah, they have money. They have money. They have money. They have resources.

I'm going to yield all the things on the Cubs to you except to say this. That from an outsider's point of view, this feels sort of like a promise that was made in this regard. When you say to Craig Counsel, you leave Milwaukee, and you come to the Cubs. And we will make sure that we put a team out there and you take us home.

It feels to me like Bregman is part of that because Bregman is the real deal. Gregman has rings. And this is an important thing. He's an all-star. He's got rings. He's supposedly great in the clubhouse. That, to me, feels like a very big addition.

It's a huge addition. Yeah. I would have been okay if we wound up with Boba Shed as well, who's four years younger. But I'm not going to turn on my nose at Bregman, who apparently is a massive influence on the field and in the clubhouse. And, of course, most teams need that, particularly the Cubs.

They haven't won anything. Very excited. Well, they won a few years ago. They hadn't won anything in a hundred years. That's 10 years. That's 10 years. Not 100 years. Close.

Enough email. Let's take one last break. Still to come. Lane Kiffin, your boy, reportedly lands his quarterback for LSU. And who has to answer tonight between the Texans and the Steelers? The Bears have everybody's heart. Cubs had to do something, and they did.

They did. At the same time, at the same time, Caleb is throwing fourth and nine, the Cubs are getting Bregman. Happy time, people. Happy 44th birthday, Dantrell Willis. The left-handed starter whose delivery was a carcophony of arms and legs was rookie of the year in 2003 when he was 14 and 6th with a 3-30 ERA for the Marlins who beat the Yankees in the World Series. In his third season, the D-Train was 22 and 10 with a 263 ERA, the most wins in the National League. But after winning 46 games his first three seasons, Willis won only 26 his next six seasons and was more of a shooting star than a lasting one. After two All-Star appearances in his five seasons with the Marlins, Willis went to Detroit, Arizona, and Cincinnati, finished up 72 and 69 with a 4-170 RA for his career.

You can see and hear him now on the Dodgers broadcast and on Fox and Apple TV. He's great on television. He's just completely fun to listen to. I know he wished he'd squeeze out a few more wins or rings or whatever. But another career, he's great at this one too. Happy anniversary, Sean McVeigh. On this day, nine years ago, the Rams surprisingly named the 30-year-old offensive coordinator of the Washington football team as their new head coach.

McVeigh was the youngest head coach in modern NFL history. Less than a month later, McVeigh signed 37-year-old Matt LaFleur as his offensive coordinator. McVeigh has won four NFC West titles and a Super Bowl. In his first 100 games, McVeigh had a notable 61 and 39 record. McVeigh's NFL roots go back to his grandfather, John, who was a head coach in college and the pros, ultimately becoming the general manager of the 49ers. You could see McVeigh on Saturday afternoon pumping his fist into the air

when Matt Stafford threw the winning touchdown pass in Carolina with just 38 seconds to go. The floor's not going to become suddenly available, is he? I don't know. Could be. That's a bad loss. It seems unlikely. It's a bad loss.

We've both described it as impossible game to win. Yeah, yeah. Happy trails to golfing limbo from Brooks Kepka. The five-time major champion has been reinstated to the PGA tour as part of a new returning member program just weeks after leaving the Live Tour. Kepka will pay a $5 million charitable contribution and miss out on an estimated $50 to $85 million in potential bonuses from the player equity program and FedEx bonus pool. Kepta received a reported $125 million signing bonus for defecting to the Live Tour in 2022. And now we will see whether big names like Bryson DeCambeau and John Rom will follow. Golf, namely the PGA Tour, needs a steady diet of Kepka, DeChambo, Rom, and others.

They need them. Scotty Schaeffler, as great as he is on the golf course, is not a guy that the tour feels it can sell. He's not that sort of international ambassador. And so they need Scottie Schaeffler as an ensemble with these other guys. Let's see what happens. I don't think they need them. I think they'd like them. I don't think they need them.

Let's go to the big finish. LSU is expected to land Arizona State quarterback. Sam Levitt, is that a big deal? You know, I'd like to have them, but I don't know how big deal all these quarterbacks is a million quarterbacks. Speaking of which, Dylan Rayola is joining Oregon. What does that mean? It probably means that Dante Moore is going pro, and it's a bad game to live. on the game that he just had.

Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chandleros plans to file suit against the NCAA and state court in an attempt to get a sixth year of eligibility. Your thoughts? I like watching them. I wish the kid will. Easy to root for. But again, quarterbacks, there's another one coming through a portal every six or seven minutes. How many years in college?

Come on, six. How many years? Vanderbilt's men and women's basketball programs are combined 33 and oh. I know you're impressed. I'm very impressed. I also like Vanderbill. It's a really good academic. I'm rude for them.

Yeah, last one, wild card game tonight. Texans and Steelers, who you got? Texans, the Steelers are at home. It's not that cold, cold enough. Aaron Rogers wants to show people he can still do this, 42. I'm going to still take the Texans. Another guy you don't like. We're out of time.

We'll try to do better the next time. I'm Tony Corny. I'm Cheesehead. I'm Mike Wilbon. Same time tomorrow, knucklehead. And now to get yourself for Texan Steelers, here's Scott Van Pelt and the Countdown crew.