The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Week 14 Recap: Bears-Packers delivers, Jaguars and Steelers make big moves, and holy cow, Josh Allen

Episode Date: December 8, 2025

If you caught the Week 14 preview episode of The Athletic Football Show, you know we were excited about this Sunday. Bears-Packers, Colts-Jaguars, Texans-Chiefs, Steelers-Ravens and Bengals-Bills. Welp, the day lived up to the expectations, and the some. Robert Mays, Dave Helman and Derrik Klassen dive deep into an awesome day of football—and consider its implications—on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.Rundown (timestamps are approximate)0:00 Welcome to the show0:45 Texans-Chiefs11:15 Andy Reid20:30 Jags-Colts20:45 Trevor Lawrence27:00 Colts lose Daniel Jones34:50 Packers-Bears35:30 Caleb Williams & Bears offense45:45 Jordan Love & Packers offense52:30 Bills-Bengals1:05:30 Steelers-Ravens1:12:50 John Harbaugh’s future1:17:00 Buccaneers-Saints1:27:15 Romantic: Josh Allen1:28:45 Romantic: Puka Nacua1:30:00 Minnesota Vikings/JJ McCarthy1:34:30 What did we learn today?Connect with The Athletic Football ShowYT: https://www.youtube.com/@TAFootballShowPodcasts: https://podfollow.com/the-athletic-football-show/viewX: https://x.com/TA_FootballShowIG: https://www.instagram.com/tafootballshowTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tafootballshowDiscord: http://discord.gg/theathleticfootballshowCall us: 847-448-0701Email us: [e-mail]: Robert MaysCo-Hosts: Derrik Klassen and Dave HelmanExecutive Producer: Michael BellerVideo Producer: Katy DuffyAudio Producer: Michael BellerSocial Producer: Scott KrinchFollow Robert on Bluesky: @robertmays.bsky.socialFollow Derrik on Bluesky: @qbklass.bsky.socialFollow Dave on Bluesky: @davehelman.bsky.socialFollow Robert on X: @robertmaysFollow Derrik on X: @QBKlassFollow Dave on X: @davehelman_Theme song: HauntedWritten by Dylan Slocum, Trevor Dietrich, Ruben Duarte, Kyle McAulay, and Meredith VanWoert / Performed by Spanish Love SongsCourtesy of Pure Noise / By arrangement with Bank Robber Music, LLC Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the Athletic Football Show. I'm Robert Mays. One hell of a week 14, boy. We were excited about it coming in, and it did not disappoint. Started things off to get into the Sunday night game and Kansas City Chiefs season that, I don't know, guys, feels pretty over at this point.

Chiefs probably out of the playoffs. The Texans are now looking like a playoff team. A lot to chew on there. A fun group of games from you have my attention. Maybe the best game of Trevor Lawrence's career in a game where the, Colts season was potentially put to bed. The Packers and Bears do not disappoint.

Come up with a very entertaining, kind of stand-alone late afternoon slate game that was very enjoyable. Josh Allen with a massive game against the Cincinnati Bengals and the snow. And a couple of WTF moments from the Ravens and Bucks. And then a few fun things that made us feel romantic in week 14. Let's get to that with me, Derek Classen, and Dave Hellman right now. When we did the week 14 preview on Friday, we really pumped this thing up. I think we really thought it was going to be a good week of football.

We were excited about it. It was a slate with a lot of impactful games. I love one in NFL Sunday actually delivers. Derek was saying that when he was watching games, he was like pacing today. Like that's how much he was enjoying this thing. I was standing up like at my, so my home setup is I've got my couple of monitors here. I throw on my laptop with like red zone and all that. And I was like standing in front of my desk in a way that I never do on a Sunday at home.

Every now and then I'll maybe pace around the office when we're there. But when I'm at home, I usually am sitting down. But something about the end of that early window. I was gasped up. We got everything you could possibly ask for. Like the games we highlighted were, we're entertaining, we're good, got some crazy results, some upsets we can get into, some surprisingly good games. Like we put Titans Browns in Sicko Street because it was.

supposed to be that disgusting and it's like a 31-29 back-and-forth affair just all down the line. Very, very fun Sunday of NFL football. Quick heads up about that. We're going to hit Titans Browns on the Hangover tomorrow along with Commander's Vikings. Those are going to be our two games that we're going to dig into in earnest tomorrow because we have so much stuff that we want to hit tonight. Let's kick things off with the game that just ended. The Houston Texans knock off the Kansas City Chiefs in.

a monumental game for both teams. With that loss, according to the athletics playoff numbers per Austin Mock, the Chiefs now have a 16% chance to make the playoffs, and the Houston Texans with that win go to 92%. What a place we've arrived at here 14 weeks into the season. You shouldn't do this live during the show, but I wish I knew what the Texans number was heading into that Thursday night Bill's game where nobody was taking them seriously.

Even the comeback against the jags. Just think about all the little coin flip moments that have brought them to this place and now they're very likely going to be a playoff team. It's been an incredible turnaround. I don't know. What's more interesting to you in the immediate aftermath of this? Like the Texans turnaround or are you willing to say

that it's over for the chiefs? The math says it's not, but how willing are you? I'm willing to say it's over for the chiefs. They're not good enough to warrant faith in them running the table and enough stuff falling into place for them for this to happen. Do you think that's unfair, Derek? Like, why would I believe that this team, as currently constructed, playing the way that they are, has any chance of pulling out of this when it feels impossible at this point?

No, the offense tonight outside of Patrick Mahomes, had like two good players on the field. Like, Travis Kelsey is okay, I guess, and some of the interior players when they're healthy or good. But the tackles, they're down to like left tackle four, which in this game of all games is an absolute nightmare. Rashid Rice that's coming back has not been very good for them. Like, they've tried to feed him the ball underneath, but anytime that they've done anything other than some of the screens with him, it really hasn't done a whole lot.

And then all the other guys are role players. Xavier Worthy can do some stuff underneath, but doesn't really give you anything down the field. Tyquine Thornton every now and then is going to give you some deep plays down the field. But even in this game, against the good defenses, a guy like Camarie Lasser is going to come up and break up a pass when you think that you're going to hit that deep post for a touchdown. So I just, I still think that like Mahomes is Mahomes. I just don't think the pieces around him are good enough right now,

especially with the way that the tackle situation is with the injuries. I don't relish in this because they've been so good for so long. And it's like one of the all-time greatest pairings in NFL history. But it's so poetic the way that it officially ended for the chiefs in this game where what you get to, I mean, it's last gas, 340 to play, you're down by seven. You've got to drive the whole field. So not even saying it would have worked. Mahomes finds Kelsey very open on that outbreaker and it would have picked up 15, 16 yards and

gotten them out toward, you know, closer to midfield where you have a chance to do this. And it was behind Kelsey, but how many times have you seen him do stuff like that over the course of his time in Kansas City? And he bibles it and can't come down with it cleanly and Houston picks it off. And it was just, it was very striking and sobering. Just like, damn, they, you really can't do this forever. even even the hall of famers get to that moment where they're not that guy anymore and that's more so about kelsey than patrick mahomes obviously but but these have been two of the faces of this of this run

of success and it it kind of uh maybe it's too firm to say it felt like a chapter ending but that was my immediate impression where i was just like man we're we're coming to the end of this iteration of the chiefs one way or the other i think that's totally fair and i don't think we have to throw dirt on like what the 2026 chiefs are going to look like. This is still a team that has a ton of potential on offense. There were just a lot of coin flip moments over the course of this season that didn't go their way in ways that it has in previous years. You talk about the pick from Kelsey.

There was a fourth and fourth that Rishi Rice drops on the previous drive. Yeah. Like all of those moments that it felt like went their way so often in these high levered situations with a game on the line consistently over the last four or five years. They didn't go their way. year, whether it was a call here, a call there, just a flub in terms of execution where maybe they would make a play deep into these games and they weren't doing it this year. Like, I think this is the ending of a chapter with the chief simply because even if they're

going to be fine potentially in the future, because Patrick Mahomes is their quarterback, they've won the AFC West. How many years in a row? They've been to the AFC championship game how many years in a row. Like, this absolutely is the end of something, even if we don't have. have to destroy what they might look like next season. I like that framing of it because I feel a okay about the chiefs moving forward. Like I'm going to be in on them in 2026. They need to do some self-reflecting. They do. They need to make some real changes about the types of personnel they seek

out, what they want their identity to be on offense, how easy they want things to be. There are some real changes that need to be made. I think if they ask themselves some of those hard questions, a lot of which we've talked about, can you be more of a downhill run team? Can you be more of an center team? Can you be more flexible offensively? Can you go find maybe one or two more pieces along the defensive line to jumpstart that pass rushes? Chris Jones gets a little bit older. All of those deficiencies that we've talked about all season, if they address a couple of those, especially the structure offensively, I have a lot of faith in what this can be moving forward, but there's no denying, Derek, that this has felt very different with this team this year than we're used to it

feeling with the chiefs. Yeah, it's, I mean, Dave brings up the point of The Travis Kelsey, like, dropped interception, you bring up the Rice thing. Nobody is making plays for Mahomes. And I understand that he's Mahomes and he can do a lot for you. But nobody is making plays for the quarterback. Whereas I watch this, we'll talk about this game a little bit later. You watch some of the plays that guys like T. Higgins can make for Joe Burrow. And obviously Joe Burroughs great.

But the fact that he has some of those guys that can help him push the offense along, whereas at this stage without Kelsey not being what he's being. And Rice not even being what he was as a rookie, I think you have that frustration of it. I come back to a lot of also, I'm still frustrated that there's nobody big in this offense. Like your biggest player is Travis Kelsey, who at this point is not really like, was never really like a contested catch kind of guy. He was more of like a move tight end type of piece. And then defensively, I almost think this game was more frustrating because you got vintage Chris Jones.

Like this is, in your mind, like when you think of what the chiefs are supposed to be, you get, okay, Mahomet's going to make a couple of special plays. One or two guys are going to make a play to help him out. And then Chris Jones is going to win the game on the other side. He did his part and he really made the Texans offense work for what they were getting. Like, CJ Stroud had to play out of his mind on like 10 different snaps in order to get them to win this game. And it just didn't matter in the end, which is kind of a crazy spot to be in. Do you think it's a problem that I noticed like a change in the gear the chiefs were playing at when they realized their season was on the line?

I was thinking about that. Yes. Part of me is... Do you think that's a problem? I think that's a problem. Part of me is charmed. Part of me is charmed by the idea that they can still look like that when they want to. but ultimately you're right that it shouldn't matter anymore.

It should not take until you are at the brink for that to come out. And I saw this. It's not an original thought by me, but I think it's worth bringing up to, these guys look so tired. And if you want to call that an excuse, fine. But like this run that they've been on, three straight Super Bowls, three straight years of all those extra games, all these deep playoff runs, all, like, I'm sure that takes a toll.

And the goal is to overcome it anyway. And so many times they've been able to do it. But I'd go as far as to say, I think it's, I think it's understandable if your will to keep taking everybody's best shot all the way through to the final game of the year. If you finally can't do that every week at the level that you're used to, I don't think it makes any Chiefs fans feel better.

And if they miss the playoffs, it is certainly, it's unacceptable to miss the playoffs with Patrick Mahomes. But, But I find some understanding there where I'm just like that this has been an incredible run. Y'all have been on and eventually something's got to give. I think attributing like real human elements to this is fine. The whole point to this was that they were supposed to be different.

They were supposed to be what the Patriots were, where you had this resilience. And the word I would come back to was just this discipline where every single year you were able to kind of lock in in these moments. And the Patriots never had a season like this while Tom Brady was healthy. They missed the playoffs once from 2003 through 2019. And that season where they missed the playoffs, they were 11 and 5. And Tom shredded his knee in week one. Yes. Yeah.

And so that was not when he was even playing. And so I think this goes far beyond Patrick Mahomes. But I do think some of this falls at Andy Reed's feet. And I think this idea that he was just kind of cruising and like running up the score on his legacy as one of the greatest coaches ever. Like when I say the hard questions that need to be asked and need to be answered, like I think what this offense is and what that staff is building and what they're trying to be, that's one of the biggest, hardest questions that they have to answer.

And you take it beyond like offensive structure and play calling and all that, the numbers actually say going forward on that fourth and one at their own 30 yard line was the correct move. If you look at like the next gen, whether you should go for it model. I don't know how you feel there. both of us were sitting there in the moment being like, this team that you're playing against can't move the ball and you're going to give them the ball in field goal range

in the fourth quarter during a tie game. Like I'm as aggressive as anybody in those moments. In that particular situation, I can't get behind that one. I kind of thought about it the other way. I think I was fine with them taking that with the idea of like, they can't move the ball. We can probably stop them for a field goal here.

And then obviously you're still losing the game, but I did not think it was that crazy. I don't know if I love the club. of going getting into the gun and throwing the ball the way that they did but i i didn't really hate the call i just can't give them i can't give the other team the ball on field goal range when they have not shown the ability to string together more than like three plays over the course of the entire half that's hard for me to do chris jones almost ruined it anyway like i mean what it was the way playing at that point in the game exactly stroud stroud was all the way back on his 40

when he got out of that pressure and obviously he did and and he converted and it was a great That's the problem is that if they make one play, then the entire game swings. And so that's one where I'm playing that like a coward every single time, given the way the Texans were playing on offense. I mean, if they were moving the ball with more success, maybe I feel differently. But yeah. We know what the Texans defense is. I don't want to spend this entire conversation talking about the chiefs because that's the wrong way to handle this.

The Texans have done an incredible job of pulling their season out of, I don't know, tailspin might be hard, but they pulled up on the plane and they look, like they're going to land this thing. We know what the defense is. And what I thought was impressive today is that the pass rush didn't destroy the game in the way that we might have expected. But that's the cool part about this defense, Derek, is that it's not just those couple guys up front.

They've got these gremlins all over the place. Petrie just laying wood on people. Lasseter comes up with a massive interception. You have guys at the second level that are just flying around. This is a complete group top to bottom. and if Will Anderson and Neil Hunter didn't dominate the game in the way that we expected, there were enough other guys to make a handful of plays over the course of this thing to put the Texans in a position to win even when their offense felt so anemic.

Yeah, like I thought the secondary was incredible today. Like they have probably to me the best pass rush in the league and I think they obviously get a lot of the run for that. But the secondary is like top five in the league, if not better than that. Like Stingley, the incredible breakup on the Rice target on one of those fourth downs. That was an incredible play by him. Jalen Petrie has the like tips and interception to himself where he's trailing one of those crossing routes. I just forgot about that.

Tips it up, wheels back around and finds it, which I was like, oh my God, man. And I thought he was going to be done. And then no, a few drives later, he ends up taking somebody completely out. It was Rashid Rice on one of those crossing routes. Like he was amazing all game. And then Lasseter, not only does he have the running punchout on the deep post where he just like somehow flies up to that, which by the way is really funny for a guy who like the whole thing with him is he tested really slow. and like coming out of college

and then he just runs up and catches that poster out and then he had the interception down the less sideline like I just thought the DBs today were incredible and that's all without like not that Caleb Bullock was bad but like he's made place for them

in previous games and so for the fact that he didn't even really have to have a huge game today was just like they've just got so many dudes I really love that Petrie in particular he's been such a sicko hipster favorite for most of his career and to get a spotlight moment like this yeah

good shout on the interception. And then Derek, you mentioned Rice's drop. You cannot convince me that that, like that happened because Jalen Petrie lit rice up earlier in the game. He exploded him. Like just completely decleted him. That had something to do with the drop. Like whether it was residual effect of the hit or just hearing footsteps and not wanting

to have it happen again, that is, that's the effect of physicality. And why I hate how a lot of it's been taken out of the game. and I love seeing defensive plays like that. We know what the Texans defenses. The question now, as it seems like the Texans are probably going to make the playoffs, is does the offense have enough to give them a real shot in some of these games? Does what you saw in the second half tonight make you a little bit worried about that, Derek? So here's how I'm going to try to parse this out.

I think C.J. Stroud has enough. I think Nico Collins, and even to a lesser stank cut, kind of Jaden Higgins, have enough. I still don't trust the offensive line and I think you saw in a lot of moments in this game especially in the middle of it when Spag started to heat things up when Chris Jones was really getting going the play calling just felt a little scared

and I kind of get that because you on the other side of the ball your defense is kicking the Chief's ass so you don't feel like you maybe have to to really ramp this thing up and invite the volatility on that end but I just thought that you saw in moments like they felt a little bit puckered up in the middle of this game and so I would like to see them find some ways where they can unleash CJ Stroud

because again, he made, I know he only completed like half his passes in this game, but half of the ones he did complete were incredible efforts. Like I thought he was really good in this game. So I still trust the quarterback. And I trust the skill players probably now more than I did coming into this season with the way that Higgins has been playing. I think Marks had been good when he was healthy. Obviously, he left this game.

But the offensive line, this was one of their toughest games as of late. It feels like this team is going to need another year before their offense is ready for prime time. And I think that's okay. You know, it's a year one of a new play car, you have an entirely new offensive line. The problem with that is when we try to do this where it's like, well, next year is when the offense is going to take a step. There's no guaranteeing that your defense is going to be this year after year. I know they've been good for multiple years, but you get a couple injuries here, a couple

injuries there. You go from being the best defense in the league to the seventh best defense in the league. That kind of changes the calculus here. And so I do think that right now it's probably not going to all to come together in the way that it needs to. but I feel like that's probably to be expected given how this team came into the year offensively. It's funny. The Texans have rounded into the team we had the table debate about in August. Like they started off so bad that it became a moot point and we pulled them and justifiably so with where they, you know,

they fell so far below 500 and the offense was that bad. But this is kind of what you envisioned in August where you were just like, how good, like, how good can the offense possibly be and is it going to waste a defense like this. And this is kind of the vision I had in mind of what the Texans might look like. It just took them to December to round into that. I'll tell you this, though. I can't imagine the Texans winning four playoff games in a row. But who can't they beat in a one-off? And this is the weirdest thing about the AFC playoff specifically. Who in the AFC wouldn't be freaking terrified to have to play this team in the playoffs? Right now, here are the AFC playoff teams. I'm not on the athletics playoffs.

similar and I apologize, but the other one I'm looking at right now. Here are the AFC playoff teams with more than a 50% chance to make the playoffs. The Denver Broncos, the New England Patriots, the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Buffalo Bills, Los Angeles, I almost at San Diego Chargers, and the Houston Texans. Those are the seven teams in the AFC playoffs. This is weird as hell. It's weird. I think that's a great point, though.

Dave, because I probably also, as if, like, in a vacuum, don't necessarily trust the Texans win four games in a row. But I don't know if I trust any of those teams to do that. I mean, that's totally fair. Like if maybe I had to pick one, you just pick Josh Allen out of default, right? But like, if I don't trust any of them to actually do it, somebody has to, right? And so if when you have a defense that good, like, why not? I don't know.

Think back through the Texan schedule. Like, I mean, they took the Rams to hell in the season opener. They held the Rams to 14 points. Stafford was fighting for his life on every completion. They split with the Jags. They made it very weird on the Seahawks. in the second half of that game. The Broncos barely escaped them,

and that was in the game where Stroud got hurt. We know what they did to Josh Allen. They beat the Colts when Daniel Jones was healthy-ish. He was at least playing. And they just did this to the Chiefs. Like I said, like who in the AFC, they've either already beaten them or at least made their lives miserable in a loss.

Like I would not want to deal with this in a one-off game where if a ball gets batted and picked off, it could change the trajectory of the whole thing. and you don't get a do-over, that sounds terrifying. I would want no part of it. The AFC playoffs are set up to be weird as hell, and I personally am looking forward to what that's going to be. All right, before we move on,

we're going to take one quick break. The Texans are now very much in the AFC South Race. Let's get to the other game that may have helped swing at the AFC South race. It is time for you have my attention. Gentlemen, you have my curiosity. Now you have my attention. The Jacksonville Jaguars knock off the Indianapolis Colts 30s.

to 19. The Jags are now 9 and 4. They have 96% chance to make the playoffs. They are in the driver's seat in the AFC South. Derek, here's what I want to get into this conversation about the Jags. Is this the best game you've ever seen Trevor Lawrence play in the NFL? I think it might be. It is at least in the conversation. When I watched the game, I was like, okay, this is the best game he's played this year. And then I had to kind of undeniable. Yeah, that is undeniable. But I was looking back to everything else. And I was like, I think this might be the best game. I've ever seen him play. And we'll talk in about some of the nuances of that.

But I'm curious about your opinion because you are the Trevor historian among us. The other one that always comes into my mind is that the Ravens game that he played like three years ago. He was out of his mind in that game. And so that one has always to me. That was the day I became like a true believer. It's unfortunately lingered for too long. So you backed away though.

You faded into the distance and went up and down. Derek's been here this entire time. That's right. Derek is steadfast. So that game was probably the bar for. a long time, but I thought this game was insane. Like the seam ball he throws to Brian Thomas Jr. early in the game was awesome. He throws a go ball to Brian Thomas Jr. down the right side line that also incredible one-handed catch by Brian Thomas Jr. But it was in the only

spot that he could put it over on the outside shoulder. Like that was a really, really nice play. Like he just, he made, you know what was funny where it really felt like Trevor was playing like the guy that we thought he could be coming out of college? Is coming out of college. One of his superpowers was when he was rolling left, he could throw this shit out of the ball. Like he just had this weird flexibility in like his hips and his core and he could throw the ball really comfortably. He made two or three throws rolling to his left down the field in this game that were like, that's the guy who won the national championship at Clemson. And so for him to do that on top of some of the plays that he was making inside a structure, he was just, he was awesome today.

I really enjoyed watching him play. Is one of the ones you're talking about, the one to Tim Patrick where that was the incredible. That was so sick when he beat Cam Byan him on the Blitz. So just for context, that was Trevor's fifth best game ever by EPA per dropback according to next gen stats. Three of those games, he had an air yards per attempt of less than six and a half yards. Today it was 11.2. He was chucking it. So that's kind of what I mean. Maybe not the best game he's ever played, but the most impressive game he's ever played.

Because I think that there have been games where he's been really efficient. but the degree of difficulty and the aggressiveness on some of the plays that he's making. You mentioned that deep ball down the right sideline to Brian Thomas Jr. makes that incredible one-handed catch. The deep ball he hits to Tim Patrick on the double move down the left side line. It was an incredible throw. He throws a beautiful back foot, ball out, slot fade to Brian Thomas Jr. For a chunk play in this game.

And then the play that I come back to where it's just like, okay, this felt a little bit different is the one that you guys just, mentioned. It's about 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter. Cam Bynum comes unblocked off the edge. Trevor spins out to his left and he finds Tim Patrick on that play. And my favorite part about that play is not even necessarily the play itself. It's the reaction from him and from everybody else. Like him and Liam Cohen like nearly headbutting each other on the sideline celebrating that play, it really does feel like the quarterback and this offense are playing like with a real amount of confidence in a way that it just didn't exist over the first half of the season. And so you can just feel that.

You can feel the answers. You can feel the trust when he's letting some of these balls rip, the looseness that he's playing with. Like this right now feels like the best version of him that we've ever got, I think, in part because of some of those intangible things that are bleeding into the way that he's playing. I couldn't agree more. Like he's just just playing very confident right now.

And there were even a couple of throws that he made in this game that got dropped. And so I know his completion percentage isn't that great. I think he was 17 to 30, but Jacoby Myers had dropped one right before that out and up to Tim Patrick. Tim Patrick actually dropped a touchdown on like they kind of moved everyone to the right. And Patrick was coming as like the late crosser from the left side. Trevor like whipped back across his body and hit him and Patrick dropped that one. There was like an under center play action stop route right out of the third quarter that he hits on Brian Thomas Jr. In the hands, but he kind of does a poor job coming back to it.

Like even on some of the incompletions, Trevor was incredible. And so I just thought he played really, really well. And then I think on top of, I know I just mentioned Brian Thomas Jr. had that drop. I think you seeing the confidence in him and him being more willing to even do stuff. Like him catching that scene ball today, I was like, you didn't do that in week three. I saw you drop those passes in week three. And so the fact that he was comfortable doing that, Trevor being as confident as he is. And you can just feel the play calling opening up.

Like I think early in the year, they weren't sure what they wanted to do. There was a lot of safety and some stuff. And I think now they're like, all right, we got all of our guys back. Let's let it rip. Derek, that was, I mean, you set it up perfectly, dude. It was a great shout by you that Brian Thomas Jr. just looks so much more comfortable being a more vertical receiver. He had seven deep routes today, which is his third highest single game total of the year,

four deep targets more than any other game this year. And that's 25% of his deep target total for the year, which is kind of shocking to me. Like, why would it take so long to do that more often? and I know Jacoby Meyer is getting there has an effect on it, but that's what he's good at is tracking the ball down the field outside of the numbers. He looked really good at it today. He just looks like such a more confident player. It was cool to see that bear fruit in this game.

On the other side, obviously this thing gets out of hand pretty quickly because you have the Daniel Jones interception from Devin Lloyd on the first drive. And then when the Jags are already at 14 to 7, you have the fumble from Jonathan Taylor. And they immediately punch in a 28-yard touchdown to Travis E.T.N. The block by Brenton Strange on the Travis E.T.N. Touchdown is disgustingly good. And so we talk about Strange. He leads up on Jermaine Pratt. Not only does he get a piece of him, but drives him out of the hole to give E.T.N. the crease for him to finish that

thing off. And so we've talked about Strange being a reliable pass catcher within this offense, but his blocking being back in the mix, I also think, is something to mention with all the pieces of the offense kind of coming together at the same time here. And so that makes it 21 to 7. And at that point, you know, the game is over. And then you have the Daniel Jones Achilles. And now the Colts season is, I don't know, I think done. Like, I mean, did you have any faith now in the Colts being able to somehow pull this thing together?

I don't know why you would. I don't want to take any credit away from a big Jags moment. And Trevor was so awesome in this game. And obviously, the Jags offense is not going against the Colts offense. So, like, that is independent of it. But that's why I wanted to start there. Yeah. But looking like working back through this game while we were getting ready for the show,

I found myself thinking like how much did it diminish my ability to like take something away from this game to lose Daniel Jones? I mean, Devin Lloyd made a great play to pick him off on his first attempt. I think it's completely reasonable to think the Jags win this game anyway. But when Riley Leonard comes in on their third possession of the day, it just sort of skis. what I'm able to learn about the Jags in totality. That has nothing to do with the way Trevor played. But yeah, you lose your starting quarterback. And I mean, the Colts, the Colts look screwed.

I think I said it at the end of the preview show, I said the Colts chance of making the playoffs would dip into the 50s with a loss. But the playoff simulator accounts for the Daniel Jones injury. And it's down at like 28% now. It's over. It feels so over for them. I mean, they, Anthony Richardson is still on IR because he suffered that pregame injury.

So it's it's Riley Leonard or I think Brett Rippin is hanging around. Does that do anything for you? No. I'm not sure that it gives me any more faith in the ability to pull out of this thing. A couple years ago, I might have been interested in the Brett Rippin of it all. But I think I'm a little bit over to that. The only thing I want to give the Jags credit for, I know the back of the roster quarterback I love for no reason.

I will say the Jags DBs, didn't it feel like they smelled blood in the water when Riley Leonard was in the game? Like they were closing on. everything. They were like, yeah, I love the way the whole back seven played. They were awesome today. I thought the linebackers were phenomenal against the run in this game specifically. Jonathan Taylor had a 33% rushing

success rate, and if you go back and you watch a lot of those run stuff, the degree to which both Foy and Devin Lloyd were either taking on pullers, just with real intensity and kind of condensing space, and then also just playing downhill when

they were free runners in the run game, I was incredibly impressed with that. And so for them to be as stout as they were against, even a Colts team missing their starting quarterback, but against Jonathan Taylor on the ground, that's kind of the last point I wanted to make about the Jags. But I think we need to kind of sit in what this means for the Colts, not only the fact that they're probably staring at the outside

looking in for the playoffs, but this is a team that they pushed a lot of chips into the middle here. I mean, how could you, it's kind of staggering to think about how poorly everything has gone from the moment they decided that they were ready to make a decision like that. Like they make the trade. I mean, sauce. Everything.

Every single sliding doors moment has gone against them. It's crazy to think about. And depressing and I mean, like I even, we said at the time, I didn't love the sauce trade. Like I didn't love the idea of committing and just knowing for sure, like we're not going to have first round picks to spend on a quarterback if we need to. We're basically committing to Daniel Jones. Two first round picks is a lot. lot for any cornerback.

I didn't see it. I thought that we would know that we felt bad about it in a year or two. I didn't see it just collapsing like this. I mean, how could you? Like, they made that trade when they were on top of the AFC and looking like they could get over the top and factor into this thing. And now I feel pretty confident saying they're not going to make the playoffs. And now I think it goes beyond that.

They're likely not going to make the playoffs this year. one of the downsides to making that move for Soss Gardner is that you had fewer pathways to a quarterback and you were kind of boxing yourself in to Daniel Jones now being your guy over the next couple years. And I think there's a path where that's okay. You know, if Daniel Jones is making the Sam Darnold deal, he's making 30-ish million a year, he has a pretty low cap it in 2026. You can still build a really good team around him. You maybe bring Alex Pierce back. I think you can be competitive. We've seen what this team can do at their highest gear.

Well, now you are still backed into that exact same corner you were, and he's probably not going to be healthy at the start of next year. And even if he is healthy, we have seen what it takes for quarterbacks to come back from that Achilles. It's usually a two-year recovery. So now you're into 2027 by the time this guy that you probably have to be your quarterback is ready to play at a level that justifies your level of aggressiveness at the trade deadline. That's horrific. The timeline on his injury is like, I think what makes this tricky too. Because I think the other thing is too, we talked about right, that some of what Daniel Jones was doing early in the year was not sustainable. Like his play under pressure and his pressure to sack rate and the fact that he wasn't taking negative plays.

We all knew that would come back down to earth. But it only really started coming back down to earth as he also got hurt. So it was kind of hard to untangle all of that and figure out like what is their normal supposed to actually look like with Daniel Jones. and now if his season's going to kind of be in jeopardy and he's not going to be fully healthy for next year, I don't know if we're going to really get a good look at what that's supposed to look like next year either. And so it's just a very,

they're in a really complicated situation now with where he's at. You realize we're probably just back to where they were in the summer where like Anthony Richardson is still hanging out on the roster. Daniel Jones isn't all the way healthy enough to like Daniel Jones. Even if he's ready faster than we might give him credit for, he's not going to like he'll be on a pitch count in training camp or just not like on you know on the on the on the pup list at the start of training camp like you'll be dealing with all of that and so I would guess you hold on to Anthony Richardson and give him a chance to take it and run with it one more time I don't know I mean that's just me thinking about it off the top of my head but how many other options do you have such a depressing place to land like the only thing that has really changed is that I think the guys in charge it probably bought themselves a little bit of breathing room in a way that they didn't have coming into this season because of how high the highs were. I don't think guys get fired at the end of this even if they missed the playoffs.

Other than that, we're kind of back to the status quo for this team. And it's just a tough, tough thing to be facing when you were, what, eight and one? And cruising to be like the number one seed in the ASC? It's a level of whiplash that if you're a fan of this team, holy shit. It sends me into a rabbit hole just thinking about it. Just, I mean, it's like. It was this flash of, it was like a supernova for the briefest of moments. And I mean, I was talking to you about it during once we knew that it was a serious injury

and we were just kind of talking through it during the early window. Like Ballard was my vote for mid-year executive of the year. We talked about JT as potential player, offensive player of the year, Daniel Jones. By mid-season, I don't think anybody was talking about Daniel Jones as MVP, but certainly over the first five or six weeks of the season. season and all of that is going to feel like it never happened in another few weeks if it doesn't already feel that way right now. And again, to land up, to wind up essentially in the same place after all of that, if you're a

fan of this team, it's going to be a long night, I think a long rest of the season as you're sitting here kind of sitting with all of this. All right, let's get to our next one here. The Chicago Bears lose to the Green Bay Packers 28 to 21, but we got a hell of a game. And so that's where we're sitting right now. Bears Packers, just as an experience, when we really wanted a lot out of this game,

you justifiably had our attention. Very literally, by the way. Like the Rams Cardinals game was a blowout. Nobody was watching Broncos Raiders. I'm sorry. And so this was it. A lot was riding on this game being good. Otherwise, we're just sitting there for three hours.

And it was looking dicey early on. It sure was. You're so right, by the way. Like, I mean, at halftime, I remember, Derek, I wish you were here, man, because it was me and all the Bears fans. And at halftime of this game, I was just like, it's some you were like put upon. It was fun. Not, no, I had a great. No, I was worried for y'all, though.

Like, at halftime, I was like, man, it could get bleak in here if this doesn't pick up. Like, I don't want to, I don't want to have to sit here watching y'all watch like a 25 point loss. So I'm glad it picked up and got competitive. But yeah, what a, what a fantastic game. I mean, I said for better for worse, coming into it, that this was the game I'm most upset that I was not there for. Like, I just thought the experience of watching that would have been awesome. And also, like, on top of just the Bears part of it all,

I think my experience watching this, every running back and linebacker in this game wanted to kill each other. And it was awesome. Like, they all were trying to knock off paint from each other's helmets. Like, it was a really hard-ass game to watch. Yes, they literally did on the Munangai Cooper hit. before before we go into the nitty gritty of the game itself can we just get this out of the way because i feel like people are curious robert not all that demonstrative of like of intense bears game

watch i'm not demonstrative like if you are at home wondering how robert handled a very dramatic and heartbreaking bears loss you would be underwhelmed because even even the interception that sealed this thing robert didn't say a word like he just He just watched it happen. I think he walked over to the kitchen to like grab a drink after it was over. And I was just like, wow, all right. Pretty well adjusted. Like, I think you would be disappointed by what it actually looked like.

There were a couple. I'm very withdrawn while watching even important Bears games. That's always how it's been. When they came back, like you had, you had a few moments that, like, when they had a good play, you would like, you know, give us a yeah. Or there was one when they fumbled, they fumbled like an insubble. doing kickoff, right? Or they fumbled very quickly after, like, on a play. And it looked like the game was going to get away from them. And when they said, like, they ruled like, no, no turnover. You were like,

oh, gee, like, Jesus Christ, like digging it out of the ditch. But other than, other than like two or three moments, I think you would be underwhelmed by what it looked like. I mean, I'm just like white knuckling at the entire time. And the quarterback, I said it literally out loud while we were watching the game. He's taking years off my life. Like that sequence where he throws the touchdown to Olmeida Zakias in the right corner of the end zone after making that throw to Cole commit. Like he is taking years off my life. And it's exciting and it's fun.

But my God, is it a stressful experience? And today was no exception to that. He is he is cigarettes as a quarterback. If you're a fan, if you're just a neutral observer like me, he's incredible, which is he played an extremely like talented young quarterback type of game today.

The first half, he was terrible. Like he was just not. the offense was terrible. Yeah, the whole operation was not good in the first half. And then the second half, you got a number of, I think Ben Johnson called a handful of nice plays. And then also Caleb made three or four unbelievable plays outside of the pocket. But he also had a couple of weird moments.

Like there was one, I think it was either a second or third in one where he's rolling to his left. And he has the sticks if he just runs for it and scrambles. And instead he throws it away. And he just has a couple of those moments that are like, like, it's just like he's not aware of where he's at every now and then. I think we've talked about this all year. I think some of his situational awareness is lacking. And that's the exact moment that we talked about when it was happening. And so I felt like this was a lot of erratic playmaking in a good way in the second half

where there are a lot of those kind of coin flip moments that came up in their favor. I thought that the change in the plan in the second half is one of the reasons that the bears were able to climb back into this thing. I was looking it up because even in the moment, I was like, this seems extreme. The Bears in the second half of this game had a 78% play action rate on their dropbacks. 78%. So it was 18 of their 23 dropbacks for play action. And even that is skewed because two of the other throws that they had in the second half of that game are screens,

including the third and eight completion to loot their burden. And so their ability to stay ahead of the sticks over the course of this game or the course of the second half is the reason that they were able to stay in this thing. And there were a couple, like, he looks good throwing those middle of the field routes off play action, because that's the exact type of thrower that he is. He is a very good line drive on a line thrower in the middle of the field throwing those types of things. I mean, the stop route to burden was fantastic. The crossing route he hits to Devinanay is just a ridiculous play. And so that was the basis of the offense because in the first half, whenever they were getting into any sort of pure dropback situation, and to me, this is

the difference in the game. This is what swings the game. In those pure dropback situations, the bears had no answer early on for a lot of the pressure stuff that Jeff Hathley was doing to them. Some of that was blitzing. Some of it was simulated where they're dropping guys out. They're overloading another side. The bears consistently struggle with that in the first half. And on the other side of the ball, the bears could do absolutely nothing to get after the quarterback even when they were sending extra bodies at him. The stat of the day for me, the Bears had an 18% pressure rate when blitzing per next gen stats. That's just never going to work when you have to blitz to get pressure.

And even if they clawed their way back into the game, that's what created the hole that made this thing hard to dig out of. That's a really good point, too, about all the play action and all the like boots and stuff they had in the second half. I also noticed they were going into a lot of like full house formations where you have a tight end basically to one side of the quarterback or to, and you have a titan on either side of the quarterback or if they're under center, they both look like offset fullbacks.

So they did a lot of that too. I think throw off like, okay, where the past protection bodies come from, you add that on top of the play action element. That's how you start to make some easier throws for Caleb and make him feel like he can be protected. Because like you mentioned, anytime they weren't doing that, either Parsons was getting through or they were using Parsons as a weapon to get other people through, whether it was using him as a looper or they were putting him to one side, dropping him out and firing a bunch of guys from the other side so that the line was sliding to Parsons. Just stuff like that. I thought they did a really good job. And again, you mentioned it on the other side that the Packers were able to handle it from the first drive.

I think it was the first third down of the game. The Bears get a free rusher in Jordan Love's face. And he just against man coverage, like across his body, whips a crossing route to Luke Musgrave. Like him being able to do that in those moments compared to the bears not feeling like they could tap into that. I do think that went a long way in this game. I also think they did a great job of picking that stuff up. Like, if you look at some of like the checks and just some of the ways they picked up some of those blitzes, I can't remember which play it was on.

There was a huge chunk play. I wish I had in my notes where Brooks does a fantastic job picking up a blitzer. It might have been on the Watson touchdown, maybe. It was one of the two deep touchdowns, yeah. It was, I think it was on the Watson touchdown on the big bender where the bears brought a cover zero. Oh, excuse me, that was on, that big bender was actually on a simulated where they ran cover two behind it. And they, that was like a bender that Kevin Bired, or Brisker couldn't stay with Watson on that big crosser. And Jalen Johnson didn't spill back as like the.

deep half defender on that play. But either way, anytime the Bears are bringing pressure, simulated, I think the Packers did a fantastic job of picking that stuff up over the course of the entire game. Yeah, so that's it.

It's on the Watson kind of like big crosser that he hits against Brisker, or against Brisker, Brooks does a fantastic job picking up the Blitzer on that play. And so that was a huge gap for me in terms of how quickly and how efficiently the Packers were able

to get pressure in those pure dropback situations. This is the second week in a row where we've seen them be really creative, with their pressure plans in some of those moments, that's the version of this defense I want. Because that's the version of this defense that felt like it had something special last year that it could bottle. And now you add Micah Parsons to that mix.

And I think that's where they get really scary. The bear's ability to kind of control the game script in the second half and take that away is really one of the only reasons they were in this thing. And so that, the kind of disparate feel of what the Packers pressure panel looked like and what the Bears pressure plan looked like. That, to me, is a huge comparison in this game. The other one, this game comes down in part to two third and short runs. The Packers on third and two, Montez Sweat strings out a play on the right side.

Josh Jacobs somehow does not get tackled by Gravon Dexter and DeMarco Jackson and takes it 21 yards and swings the game in part. And a lot of people are going to spend a ton of time. We can do it in a second, breaking down that fourth and one play call by Ben Johnson, the fourth and one throw by Caleb Williams, none of that matters if Kingsley-Annec-Barre does not make a ridiculous play for no gain on that third and one scraping across the line of scrimmage. So those two third and short runs, the Packers get theirs,

the Bears don't get theirs, and that goes a long way in determining how this thing ends. Very fitting that Green Bay was able to make that play. And you talk about mitigating the Packers pressure plan, like the ability to just have, like, ability to successfully run the football, particularly in the second half. We talked about that. Like down to down, you can get the Packers. And I thought DeAndre Swift and Kyle Monongai's willingness to just play that type of game. Like they're a 17-yard drive or 17 play drive. They didn't have

a single run over nine yards. Their long of the night was nine. Thank you. That was the stat I focused on too. And we mentioned, I don't remember which back it was that hit Cooper and chipped his freaking helmet. It was Monongai. That's the, I mean, that's the day that you're signing up. for and they did it and it if you can do that to green bay that i mean football one-on-one but that's how you mitigate pass rushers like micah parsons and so it's very fitting that with the success that the bears were able to have for a lot of the second half green bay manages to bow up and make a play like that when they need it most the other element of this that i think you know is a huge part of it is that the bears just don't really have a place to turn defensively when it comes to what they want to do and

how they want to attack you because i think if they want to play you because i think if they want to play some soft zone. They're not really good at that. If they want to play man, this is a Green Bay team that has sliced and diced teams playing man coverage. And today was no exception. In this game, Jordan Love finishes 8 of 11 for 126 yards against man coverage. And they won a lot of one-on-ones. I mean, that Christian Watson touchdown, where Love gives him a little hand signal, Watson absolutely dust CJ Gardner Johnson off the line of scrimmage and it's an easy touchdown. It's the exact type of play that was keeping me up at night coming into this game. and it's the exact type of play that Packers are capable of making right now.

Their offense as constructed is kind of in a weird place because right now, if you look at the lineup of and just the rotation of receivers in this game, it was Watson, Jaden Reed, who you felt his presence being back from some of those scheme touches and Dobbs. And I think right now that's the best collection of past catchers they have based on how Christian Watson is playing. They spent a first round pick on Matthew Golden. So it's kind of a nice thing that Watson's play.

playing so well that you can kind of construct the passing game around him as the number one option. But Derek, this is just kind of a weird place to have reached with their personnel, considering we thought coming into the season, Tucker Kraft and Matthew Golden might be the two most important players on this offense outside of Jordan Love. And you know what? On top of Christian, again, I've said it before, the Christian Watson thing is crazy because he's coming off of injury and looks as best as he's ever played, which is crazy. The Jaden Reed stuff, I think is a huge point. And he was always their scheme touch guy when they wanted it to be. And for a lot of this year, had to be Savianne Williams,

which I think none of those touches have really worked well. And so I think you felt Jaden Reed in that sense. But also even on the Bow Melton touchdown, who we haven't talked about. But again, the fact that a guy like that can score a touchdown, Jaden Reed is kind of tying the safety to the far side of the field down on that side because he's running a little shorter crosser. Bowelmilton runs the deep post over on top of that.

And he's able to hit him. And so you have that element of it. And then honestly, you mentioned how weird it is, that some of these players are really playing to this kind of level and giving them this level of flexibility. I think Luke Musgrave probably played his best game as a pro today. Like I know he had the deep drop on like the huge over they were trying to throw to the left side.

But other than that, I think he actually made a number of plays, especially against man coverage, where we talked about coming into the week. They were so good against man early in the year because Tucker Kraft was awesome against man early in the year. And so even if Luke Musgrave isn't going to be that, if he can at least be 70% of that, and now we're going to have Christian Watson being what he's being, Wix in the lineup when he's healthy, Reed,

dubs playing well, like they've got a lot in this offense. And so them going from early in the year where it felt like, we're just trying to get into our right plays and be efficient, the fact that they had spent so much time getting good at that and now can be explosive, I'm all the way back in on this Packers offense. Let's talk about the last play of the game, that fourth and one.

I don't mind the play call, even if it was a similar play call to last week. getting your quarterback on the move, giving him a bunch of options in that situation, I'm usually okay with that. If Caleb throws that ball almost immediately after flipping his hips, understanding that DeAndre Swift in the flat probably isn't going to be an option, Kokomat is open on that play. The biggest problem I have with that play in the way that it unfolded is that he gets to that

throw late, and that's the reason that Keishon Nixon is able to sink underneath it. And so for the most part, that decision to run that play on a fourth and one, and even him going to Cole Commet on that play, I think, is correct. But he waits half a beat too long, and that's one of the reasons that Nixon can get under that and make a play. It's also a great play by Kishon Nixon. That happened earlier in the game as well. Actually, it comes back to me now because I'm not taking notes on your reactions, but there was a play. I think it was a throwaway where I think Zakias flashed open, like down by the goal line,

and Caleb just didn't, he didn't pull the trigger on it. And being either reluctant to do it or slow to see it is a theme for him. It's not to say it can't get better, but we've seen it all season long. The passing game isn't where it needs to be. Full stop. That is just the current state of the Chicago Bears. I think that there's a lot to be really excited about with what they're building, with what the structure of the offense looks like.

They consistently have a plan. I feel very good about the overall trajectory of this thing. As it currently stands right now, they are too inconsistent throwing the football. And I think the quarterback is part of that. I think that this is still a process. I think that they're asking him to do a lot that he's never been asked to do before. It's a very young group overall. And I think that you're going to feel these fits and starts and you're going to feel

these inconsistencies, whether it's play to play, half to half, all of that. And I think that's where this team sits right now. And I think having your expectations be realistic while understanding that is going to be an important part of properly interfacing with this team over the rest of this season. Do you think this is, I've gone back and forth about this since the game. And now that like the all 22 angles are out, I don't think he gets there if he runs on this one. I don't think so either. And that's in the moment I was like, oh no, Caleb, you did it again.

Like Derek brought up the third and one where he threw instead of running for the sticks. In the moment I was like, you did it again, like just run and get the first and live for another down. Looking at it in the full totality, I don't think there's any shot with with Quay Walker and Edger and Cooper crashing. down on him. I don't think he gets there. So, yeah, I don't think his options were as diverse as a lot of people might have thought in the moment. I said it as the game was happening. And this is kind of the fine point I'll put on the end of this. The fact that this team never really folds up shop, I think is something that you can really be excited about. The fact that they kind of keep coming and keep coming and keep coming

brings me to a place where this game was closer than it seemed like it was going to be over the first half and this team plays again in a couple weeks. Like the fact that they were able to kind of keep on coming over the course of this game I think gives me, makes me feel good and excited about what the final month is going to look like. They've got some work to do. Like there is absolutely still a chance this team misses the playoffs based on the Lions still hanging around.

Another game against the Packers. They're playing against the Niners who were a good team. But I think this was an encouraging outing on the bear side. And I think a reminder of the gap between where. they are and where a team like Green Bay is that I think has a real chance to do this thing and be a major player over the course of the playoffs. It's nice to see the Packers looking more like the team that we all thought that they could be and they have here for most of the last month.

It's a quarterback playing well and I think it's the defense tapping into a lot of the things that made them scary last season. I think both of those things have happened over the last two weeks. Let's get to our last one here. The Buffalo Bills knock off the Cincinnati Bengals, 39 to 3.9 to 3.000. 34, just a spectacularly entertaining snow game. Josh Allen, ridiculous over the course of this thing. We'll dig into some of the specific moments,

but I think that's where I want to focus my attention here is that Josh Allen and the superhero type performance we saw from him today in a lot of big moments. In an AFC where some of the other elite quarterbacks, most of the other elite quarterbacks are not going to be playing into January, Josh Allen stands alone here as they, that guy in that conference. And after today, he firmly has my attention. This was Josh's third four touchdown game of the season, which a few guys have done that.

Mahomes, Stafford, and Dak have all done that. But going back to 2021, this is 16th four touchdown game, which is four more than the next best guy, which would be Lamar Jackson. But the regularity with which he has games like this, like the regularity with, which Josh Allen can pile up somewhere between four and six touchdowns is just stupid. And I mean, like the, we can get into it in more detail, but he had a handful of just what the fuck throws. I'm thinking about the fourth and four to Khalil Shakir.

It's just an insane play. I watched it 20 times. It doesn't make any sense. During half time of the Texans Chiefs game, I still don't understand how that ball gets completed on a multiple different levels. One, if you watch where he is on the right sideline, there are like two defensive players standing in his general area plus one of his offensive linemen. He has to bend the arm angle around his own offensive lineman. The ball goes through, I want to say it was Miles Murphy's hands that are up directly through them.

If you look at it from the end zone angle, the ball goes right, I think it's Demetrius Knight. The ball goes immediately past his helmet. Yeah. and hits Khalil Shakir in the hands. So how many things needed to happen for that ball to even get to Khalil Shakir on that play, let alone him extending and bouncing outside in the flat to make that play possible is ridiculous. That's my favorite part of it, really. Other than, yeah, I mean, the ball literally zooms right past Demetrius Knight's earhole.

But he gets out into the flat and I think it's BJ Hill chasing him. And he tries to like put the head. on him and you would think that would work against a D tackle like he sort of tries to shake him does not work on B.J. Hill and like you see in the moment Josh Allen being like, ah shit, all right, I guess I got to try something else. And he like, he sort of throttles down to make the throw and then makes one of the sickest throws of the day. But buying that time is the only reason that that window even exists to make that throw. And then by the way, the other thing I was going to say is he had a 40-yard touchdown run in this game. That's the thing with him.

those scrambles and those like chunk scrambles in these games, that to me is where he feels like a force of nature. We're like it, I mean, this is a perfect example of it. When he is at his scariest, Josh Allen, it feels like any time he drops back to pass in plus territory, he can do this. It's a 30-yard scramble touchdown. It's a 25-yard scramble touchdown. Here it's a 40-yard scramble touchdown.

That is when he feels the most dangerous is when he's going to make three or four plays with his arm over the course of this game, but he's going to have that one. just absolutely back-breaking play with his legs. And that's the one that we got today. And he clearly turned it on in the second half of this game, by the way. He had like two actual carries in the first half. He had a third that was a Neil, whatever. So he had two actual runs and neither of them really amounted to anything.

And in the second half, he had six actual carries and ran for almost 80 yards, including the one that we just put on the screen where he's just like, the fact that a guy who was like 6-5-235 can just haul ass like that down the field. Like he looks like a, I don't know, he just looks like a defensive end who can run like that. It's kind of insane. So you got, I think this was the most beautiful version of the bill's offense because you got superhero Josh Allen when you absolutely needed him. You had the run game, I think was probably had some fits and starts, especially early on.

But you got a number of explosive runs out of Ty Johnson had one before he slipped and fell. James Cook had a number of really impressive runs. He had one that actually got called back. that might have been my favorite of the day in terms of just his balance on the one where he is kind of squeezing down the right sideline and dives over the pylon that gets called back a little bit, but I thought that play was incredible. So you had the run game being what it was supposed to be. And then I thought some of their play calling was really awesome.

Like on the first drive, they realized, hey, the Bengals defense versus tight ends is the worst in the league. Let's find a way to get those guys activated. They had a really nice play action concept where they pulled the left guard to the right. So the defense is biting down that way. Dawson Knox, I believe it was a tight end, a line to the right. He runs a deep crosser the other way behind him. It felt like they had a really good cohesive plan today. And then Josh Allen did things that it seems like only he can do at that regularity.

One other player on the offense I want to point out before we talk about what the defense did to help the bills win this game. On the fourth and four, excuse me, on the 40-yard touchdown scramble, Dionne Dawkins does an incredible job on that play. they're bringing a pressure. He picks off the inside blitzer, leaves the furthest guy outside, gives Josh just enough of a crease to be able to make that play happen.

So Dion Dawkins is doing that, and that moment's incredible. In the first half, when they were down 14-3, there was a fourth and four where Josh escapes to his left and finds Gabe Davis. Go back and watch what Dion Dawkins does

on that fourth down on this spin move versus Joseph Osai. Oh, he's sat on him. He buries him. Yeah. Gives Josh just enough space to be able to leak out of the pockets of the left, find Gabe Davis for a huge conversion. Which I'm glad that you're bringing that up.

And we already talked about the Khalil Shakir throw. But same drive. Two fourth and fours. Same drive. Bengals have scored on their first two possessions. It's 14 to 3. You're screwed if this doesn't go your way based on the way Joe Burrow was playing in the beginning of this game. To not just convert both of them,

but in very silly, only three guys on the planet can make this play ways. You start to turn the tide of this game. It was awesome. And then the other kind of decision, you know, you go for those two fourth and fours that benefits you. Sean McDermott going for the jugular and not and going for that fourth down late in the game instead of trying to kick the field goal to go up what would it have been. It would have gone up six, right? They were up 30.

They were up 32, 28. 3228. So they were gone up seven. Yeah. Oh, that's what we were joking about. One of my all-time favorite football things is, and it didn't happen in this situation, but when a bunch of goofy shit happens and like the score is all out of whack because you're going for two, like it was it was 21 to 11 at one point in this game.

And had they kicked, it would have been 35, 28. I just love when a goofy game just winds up on a very boring score. The thing about this game is Josh Allen needed to do all that shit. because the Bengals offense looked incredible for a huge chunk of this game. Joe Burrow, until those two interceptions, and I know that's a big if, but, I mean, those two interceptions, one, Christian Benford comes flying off the left side. It's a fantastic play by Christian Benford. Joe Burrow just doesn't put enough air under it.

The DB blitz is in this game where some of the best thing the bills did. That play swings the game. They had a sack earlier in the game with Benford screaming off the left side. So Benford makes that pick. But other than those two kind of out. at the line of scrimmage interceptions for the Bengals, Joe Burrow and T. Higgins were phenomenal for almost this entire game. Joe Burrow was cooking, man.

You go ahead, Dave. He's your guy. He's your guy. You go ahead. What I was going to say is I just, and he is my guy. And I hope you can believe I'm not biased about the result. I don't care that the bills won this game. I hate that we were robbed of like a trick shot,

two guys playing horse ending to this game. Like that's what we were headed for. Seven and a half minutes left. It's what was it? It was 2835 and the bills had just scored and it's like, okay, Joe, how are you going to hold serve? What are we going to do? And you could just tell that this was going to be a classic ending between two

amazing quarterbacks who couldn't miss. And I mean, it's, it's Joe's fault. It looked like the pick six might have slipped out of his hand or whatever. And then the other one was batted. Not to absolve him of that. I just wanted the crazy dramatic finish. I wanted it to be last man with the ball wins. For this, the bill scored 21 points in four and a half minutes of game time.

Like they were trailing with seven and a half minutes to play and with three minutes on the clock, they were up 39, 28. Like the whole game just got completely out of whack in the blink of an eye. And I really want, I just, I wanted that drama. And the shitty thing too, not shitty. Congratulations to the bills. Josh Allen's. awesome but they still had a chance they still had a chance to get Joe the ball and I even remember

they sacked Josh Allen and I kind of sat up in my seat I was like oh I thought this was over but it might not be over third and 15 surely the bingles are going to get off the field and give Joe Burrow another chance and then Josh did it again and scrambled for 17 yards and that's all she wrote and they just they have a actual buffalo playing quarterback for them and he's very good funny thing about the AFC playoffs is that you have kind of these puzzle piece teams that are polar opposites of one another. The bill's defense is a train wreck, right? It's a train wreck. How could you possibly feel good about this unit in a playoff game? But on the other side, you have one of the best players in the world. And all of these other teams that they're going to

play against, you know, not all of them, but you think about the Broncos, you think about the Texans, who have these fantastic defenses and we're not sure exactly how to feel about the offenses. And that's why this playoff field is so compelling because you have all these imperfect teams that have warts and they're different types of warts and now we're going to get to see how it all plays out when those two very different sorts of teams play against each other with the season on the line if i'm josh allen i'm in the locker room telling christian benford and a jepinessa do that for me once a sunday and i'll handle the rest i need one and i'll do the rest of this myself. And I shit, I feel like that would, that would inspire me as a defense. Like, as bad as it can

look, if we can make like one meaningful play per Sunday, 17 is going to give us a chance against almost anybody. I don't think we have to do like what this means for the Bengals thing. They most likely weren't going to make the playoffs anyway. We're going to have plenty of time between now and the end of the season to have some existential conversations about the Bengals. Although those don't interest me that much because a lot of them are the same ones that we've been having about the Bengals for like three years. That's fair. Okay. Okay. We don't have to do that. But real quickly, some really cool shit happened for the Bengals that just gets wiped away in a heartbreaking loss. Chase Brown's catch at the goal line where like, you know,

Joe improvised. He got flushed out of the pocket. Chase Brown does his best Jamar Chase impression. That was sick. And then to keep the Bengals in the game, because they went back and scored to make it 3935 in the blink of an eye, Mike Gaseki made a disgusting one-handed catch on that seam ball. it was just a bender down the seam and Joe put it there perfectly, but he brought it in one-handed. The Bengals offense was turnt with the exception of two awful back-breaking plays. I mean, the sequence in the fourth quarter, the bills brought six on a third and six,

and Joe bought just enough time to find Higgins on like this crosser, and then that drive ends, the bills bring a cover zero. He makes an unblocked defender miss and then finds Kassiki for the touchdown. It's unfortunate that like this game is going to probably be remembered for the two interceptions that he throws him back to back plays because for 95% of of this game, he was absolutely phenomenal. And it's a reminder of how much of a tragedy it is that the rest of this team is so garbage that once again, and obviously he was hurt for a good chunk of the year, but it's another season where we watch this version of Joe Burrow late in the

year and we will not have him playing in the postseason for Bengals-esque reasons. One must imagine. Let's take one more quick break. to the other side of the coin from week 14. It is time for what the fuck. What the fuck? The Baltimore Ravens lose to the Pittsburgh Steelers, 27 to 22 today. The Ravens, who seem to have like a better than 60% chance to make the playoffs the entire year, even when they were one and whatever they were, because we thought, oh, well, the

AFC North, you know, the Steelers aren't a very good team. The Bengals are imploding. This Ravens team will figure it out. They'll write the ship. They'll correct course. get there. Well, now the Ravens are sitting at six and seven. Our numbers have them with a 31% chance to make the playoffs. The Steelers now have the inside track to win the AFC North. And now we're sitting here wondering what this all means for the Ravens, for John Harbaugh. And so a season we all

expected, many people expected, the Ravens to somehow pull out of the fire is now slipping away. Baltimore Ravens, what the fuck? I would like that. I would like that. I would like. like to pose a question. What, what was the most frustrating part about this loss to you? Because I have a very clear answer, but I kind of, I kind of want to go around the room and see what it was. It's a great question because I have it might, the first line in my notes is so many unforced errors. Yes. And I have like six of them. So which one do you want to pick? And okay. So I think we can go through some of the unforced errors. And a lot of them were like four point plays. And that to me was one of the most irritating things about this. They get an unnecessary, the Ravens special teams gets an

unnecessary roughing on a field goal late in the second quarter. And Pittsburgh immediately scores after that. So you have a four point swing there. And then there was a four point swing in my mind, basically, of Rashad Bateman having a drop later in the game on like a third and something where they end up having to kick a field goal instead of me able to. Yeah. A third and four.

And he's like running, he's running a little shallow from right to left. And he springs open. Lamar Jackson has to jump around a little bit in the pocket. And so it's not a perfect throw. Like it's a little bit out in front of him. But that is an extremely catchable ball. he drops that. So that ends up being a four point play for them there.

They miss an extra point in this game, which I think also matter with how close this one was, likely drops the touchdown in the end zone that would have won them the game if he caught it. Like it just, they made so many ridiculous errors in the red zone in particular in this game. Like I really didn't think they were moving the ball that poorly. And I really think on defense, like,

this is actually why I wanted to ask the question. To me, the most frustrating part of this is I watched this game and I went, wow, you really just let Aaron Rogers throw like four go balls on you and win the game. That was it. Well, that's one of the other frustrating parts of this. And so beyond the likely touchdown that was not, and we can talk about that if we want to, that's one of those things to me where like, I think that's a touchdown. Like I understand why it's not by the letter of the rule.

But I think him extend, if you look at the actual like what the law says, what the rule says, it is you need to make a football move even after getting two feet in, even if it's in the end zone. extending the ball is considered a football move. So him extending the ball the way that he does there, I understand he doesn't get the third foot down, but the end zone to me just feels like we do officiate it slightly differently in these moments. If you catch a ball in the end zone and you don't move, it's a touchdown. And so I just think that I understand why it was reversed.

That's one of those moments to me where when he doesn't knock the ball out on like the first two swipes and likely extends the ball, that feels like it should be a touchdown. I understand why it was not. I get why it's not. It is interesting. I feel like there's inconsistency with the end zone of like when a play is just immediately dead versus when it's not. Yes.

And listen, hang on to the ball. I understand the frustration there, but that's one of those plays where it's just like, I don't know, man. That kind of feels like a touchdown. But after that play, after they do not score on that play, they get a first down. They have a third and two inside the five. And then they botch a zone read where they lose three. yards and have to care.

And then they go for on fourth and five and they don't get it. And so that play did not end the drive. They shot themselves in the foot again on that drive. A couple more. Okay. Talked about the field goal penalty. Talked about the third and four bateman drop on the final drive of the game. They have a, they get the ball on the minus 44 with a minute and 56 seconds left.

There's a hold on the punt return that takes them back to the 26 yard line. They get a holding penalty on the first play. And then they get a minute of time ticks off for them to get back to the 26 yard line. So how they handled that drive was extremely frustrating. And Derek mentioned it. Coming into this game, Aaron Rogers had seven completions of 20 plus air yards this season. Seven for 245 yards. He had three for 121 yards in this game.

You don't deserve to win if you're allowing that to happen. He started the game that way. His first pass attempt of the day was, I'm just going to rip a go ball down the right side to DK Metcalf. And I think they immediately learned, oh, maybe we can just keep doing that. And he hit another one to DK. Three of them he hit in this game were insane. They were, it was vintage. Really quickly, it kicked ass. Like the first, Derek, first one to DK. When he like, when he did his little Aaron Rogers hitch that he does when you know he's about to uncork it, I got, I got so excited. It's been a theme for me all season where I'm just like, Steelers are not particularly good nor entertaining,

but I'm here for like the random flash of old Aaron Rogers. Like it just brings out the fan in me because I loved watching him play in his prime so much. That one down the sidelines to D.K. was disgusting. To me, his best throw of the game was a third and five with five minutes left in the third quarter. And he just flips it to Calvin Austin down the left sideline to convert that third and five. And then almost immediately after on a third and four, Mike Green does not peel off with Jalen Warren heading into the right flat. Rogers dumps it to him, it's a touchdown. And so that throw to Calvin Austin swings an entire drive and gets the Steelers a touchdown.

And so those plays, they earned every single one of those, but the fact that the Ravens gave up three explosive passes to a team that did not have any of them over the course of this season, just one more area of frustration for the Ravens. Yeah, it was just like to lose that game in the one way that that team can beat you, well, I think was the most frustrating aspect of it. to answer your question, Derek, for me, ironically, I don't think that's the right word. It's late at night. But the final drive pissed me off so much. It was infuriating. Between the penalties. And I just felt like nothing about the way the Ravens did the final drive suggested that they were, this season was on the line in the final minute of the game.

Like the pace was very slow. They're like chatting at the line about what to do. It didn't feel like the urgency was up at all. And Tony Romo even was like bemused where he was just like, we just got a lot of seconds coming off the clock here, guys. Like we got less than a minute before this game is over. And yeah, to go from 152 with one timeout to fourth and two with 47 seconds and no timeouts. And just so like I said, nonchalant and roundabout and annoying. and it didn't feel like one of the best players in the world was trying to save his team's season to me.

We've spent a lot of time over the last week or so talking about Mike Tomlin, talking about the Steelers' future, talking about running into roadblocks and whether or not you want to consider making some changes. Where are you at with a John Harbaugh-era Ravens, Derek? I'm still fine with the John Harbaugh-era Ravens. I think I would need this to go on at least one more year, if not two, at this level. because I think they are still a very good team. I think a lot of the reasons they were struggling early on was all the injuries on defense. And I think even this year, like Lamar being as banged up as he has been.

And I've still, I think Lamar being as banged up as he's been has made it clear that almost in the way that the chiefs are, the receiving room is just still not good enough and is consistently made to look better than it is by the quarterback play. But when he's only playing it 80%, I think you start to feel that everybody else is a little bit kind of taken down. down in quality. And I think Mark Andrews is only getting older. I know they just extended him, which I thought was a little interesting, given his age and given the likely he's a much younger player about to be up on the market. But I'm still fine with the John Hobra era. I think every now and then even these great teams just have a weird year. And I think for a number of reasons, that's where we've arrived. But I think they fix one or two pieces on the offensive line. This team is probably going to be back to where we think they should be. I don't disagree with that. I think that they were

snake bit this year in like different ways and different stretches of. the season. The defense was a mess and then Lamar was hurt and then he's banged up. And then this is, I thought offensively in terms of like what they look like down to down, this is one of the better games that they've had since he's been back in the lineup. And then we just mentioned like the four or five ridiculous mistakes that ended up swinging this game. We didn't even mention the Aaron Rogers tipped interception that he catches somehow, which is a great play by Aaron Rogers, by the way. And then he gets called down and the Ravens don't get the turnover. And so this is one of those games that I actually was less frustrated by

what the offense looked like and what the Ravens felt like that I had been in previous games but there are four or five, six moments over the course of this thing that there aren't there isn't any coming back from. Last thing, I want to mention like three specific plays by the Steelers defense that end up becoming huge in a game that gets really close.

In the first half here, with nine minutes left when Lamar throws the pick to James Pierre, the Steelers drop into like a funky version of cover two and it seems like they were expecting man coverage to great kind of change up call and partially the reason that he ends up throwing that interception. They had a play in the first quarter where Brandon Eccles did a fantastic job where

it was a third and four, the Raven sent Zay in motion, and they anticipated getting man coverage. And the pass off from Pierre to Eccles is fantastic on that play. They end up getting a PBO forcing a punt. And then Eccles had, I think he had a sack early in this game or like an unblocked pressure early in the game. And so those like three. drive-ending plays from the Steelers defense in a game that ends up becoming very close,

loom large, even if they seem kind of insignificant in the moment. So I don't want to make this say the Ravens shot themselves on the foot over and over again. That's the reason they lost the game. The Steelers defense came up with enough big plays in high-levered situations for them to make this thing hard and have the Ravens dig themselves a hole. It might have been hard for them to pull it off anyway, given the field position and the time left. but Alex Highsmith calling game against Ronnie Stanley was also very fun. Like when I saw that happen in the immediate moment, you're like,

oh, where was the breakdown? Who did he take advantage of? And you watch it back and you're like, oh, that was Ronnie Stanley. Cool. Steelers' defense, still capable of some moments. When this team does like a few funky things a game and they make things a little bit harder on the opposition, I don't mind watching them. They just don't do it very often.

All right. let's get to our next one here. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who in theory had the inside track in the NFC South, lose to the New Orleans Saints, 24 to 20. The Bucks still, per the athletics numbers, have a 67% chance to make the playoffs,

but they are tied with the Carolina Panthers at 7 and 6 in the NFC South. They lose to the 3 and 10 New Orleans Saints. Bucks, what the fuck? This game, We can talk about all the reasons that it was even like close-ish to begin with. But the reason the bucks fall on the wrong side of the coin flip here, if you want to say it for one score games, they were awful on fourth down. They had a bunch of them in this game and they got stopped a number of times.

Like there was, I think it was the second drive of the first quarter. They get, it's second and six. They get a run kind of blown up a little bit by Chase Young to the left-hand side. It goes for three. Then the third and three run fails. And they end up in fourth and one. They try to pitch it to the right-hand side gets run down by, uh, Granderson, Carl Granderson, and that gets stopped.

And that was their first fourth down to the game. And it never really got better from there. Like, they failed a number of the ones after that. And I think the one that really, to me, spoke to the way that this game felt in what was going on. Early in the fourth quarter, there's a, I think it's a fourth and three. Baker steps up versus a pretty well-picked up linebacker blitz. And he actually does a really good job buying time for himself in the pocket.

Bales to his right, finds Chris Godwin on the right sideline. He starts to catch it. and Kool-Aid McKinstree flies down and hits the hell out of him, knocks the ball out, they have to turn over on downs. And then immediately after that, when the Saints got the ball, it was a third and eight. Tyler Shuck checks the ball down to the right-hand side, in the backfield, by the way,

and the Bucks can't tackle anybody, they convert and move it. And it's just like the fact that the Bucks consistently failed on our, can we stay on the field plays, and the Saints just made a few of them, was kind of the difference in this game. Very quietly, and I hate to do this. He's one of the best linebackers of his generation. I think he deserves Hall of Fame consideration,

even if Bobby Wagner and some other guys and Fred Warner got a lot more accolades. Levanti David, the third and eight you're talking about, Derek, like Levanti David had a shot at Devin Neal and he doesn't get it. The Saints get a first down deep in the red zone. And then Tyler Shuck does his Houdini nonsense where he escapes Logan Hall and scores a touchdown. Levante David also gave up the alley to Tyler Shuck on the 34-yard read option keeper. And similar to what we were saying about Travis Kelsey earlier, I was watching this game. And I was like, oh, Levanti, David, we're not, we're not young anymore, man.

Father time comes for everybody. Yeah, those, unfortunately, it bummed me out typing that in my notes where I was just like, Levanti David makes plays like this in his sleep for most of his career. and they're two very quietly big misses for the Buccaneers in a game that you lose. The middle of the defense for the bucks in this game, if you look at some of the windows and options that Tyler Shuck had over the middle of the field, it made me go look it up. On throws between the hashes, so directly down the middle,

this was the third most EPA generated by a quarterback in a game this season by Tyler Shuck. He was 5 of 5 for 65 yards on those throws. that it would be five, five completions, that's the third most. You know how that's a tiny window of space? Like, you do not have that many throws over the course of an NFL game that are thrown between the hashes, but that's exactly how you can attack this buck's defense. And the saints did a very good job of consistently doing that on top of the keepers and what he was able to do with his legs over the course of this game.

So the middle of the field attacking, Shuck's ability to create, make plays as a runner, that was enough to fuel the Saints offense. And then the fourth down stuff, that ultimately did the Bucks offense in. You mentioned the drop, Derek, the fourth and one stuff for Carl Granderson. The one with 240 left in the second quarter, DeMario Davis, bring up the Mario Davis. He flies downhill and makes that play in the backfield, just a crazy play by DeMario Davis. Maybe Father Time doesn't come for everybody because he's still doing crazy.

Nominal play by him. the play before it was a third and one. So they had a third and one and a fourth and one. They didn't get the third and one because Brian Bersie beats the backup left tackle inside for no gain. And then Derek, you mentioned the fourth and two they didn't get. On a third and two, they were on a simile, the fourth,

on the play before the Godwin drop or the Goblin Bobble, the Godwin Bobble. There's a third and two. And Demerio Davis on a simulated pressure blows up Bucky Irving to torpedo that play to send them into the fourth and two. you combine that with two Granderson had the fourth downstop but he also had like a five yard TFL

that torpedoed another drive and so the Saints defense came to play in this game I was actually pretty impressed Do you all remember? Sorry Derek, go ahead I was just gonna say this was maybe the most impressed I've been with the Saints defense all year like it was obviously a bunch of the guys up front

were making plays but like a lot there was a Lante Taylor had an awesome third down breakup like over the back of Chris Godwin where he's running like I think it was a little slain he just dives over the back incredible play by him. And I think like there was a little,

that wasn't sandwich in between a sequence that I also thought spoke to how this game went. Early in the second quarter, Baker, and I think it was McMillan maybe, we're just like barely off on this outbreaker to the sticks on a third and 13, which is another like the Bucks really struggled to get there. We need to stay on the field plays. The next drive was Alante Taylor on a third down,

breaking that one up over Godwin, so again they're off the field. And then the next drive, they only convert their third and eight because Baker scrambled. That was one of their only three third down conversions of the day on 13 attempts. It was because Baker scrambled. The Baker scrambles were cool when it was a tool on top of the five other things the offense did really well.

It was all they had today. It was all they had today. And it's like against the Saints, really? I don't know. That's crazy. We've reached a pretty troubling place with the Bucks offense. They just seemed so out of sorts. I mean, we didn't even mention there was a play in the fourth quarter late in the fourth quarter where he has a Meccaabuka wide open on a double move.

for a touchdown and that ball is a tick high and Abuka can't hang on to it. It's a bad ball, but it should have been caught. That's twice in this game. I think the third and 13 that Derek was referring to with McMillan, I think that was at Bucca too, where the ball is in the vicinity where he can catch it. And so all of those 50-50 balls, all of those like kind of high wire act plays that were going the Bucks way early in the season, they're getting none of those right now. And it has brought the offense into a pretty worrying place.

I wonder how much of that had to do with the monsoon that they were playing when it's hard to know for sure. But I mean, you got to make those plays. The touchdown, the would be touchdown was egregious. I mean, it's a bad throw from Baker considering how wide ass open Ibuka was. It's also a catch, I expect, a first round pick who's had a fantastic rookie season to make. So, yeah, and it's crazy to think like for everything that went wrong with the Bucks, you make that play, you might. get out of here with a win. And did we mention the Dion Jones dropped interception that would have given them a chance to win this at the end?

Like the Saints, I thought quietly, Tyler Shuck did a fantastic job completing third downs in the four minutes situation. You get to two. And it seems small, but you complete a third down with four minutes to play. You complete a third down with a little bit more than two minutes to play. All of a sudden, you're punting to the bucks down with like under the two months. minute warning as opposed to punting to the bucks with four minutes to play. But on that last third down before they punt, he throws it to Devon Vele in the flat and he tipped, he bobbles it.

The bubble gets popped up in the air. And Dion Jones had it at the sideline and it would have put the bucks at the 50 yard line with a chance to go and win the game from 50 yards away instead of 80. And he can't hang on to it. They punt and the bucks don't go anywhere. Like it was just, it was that kind of day where everything was just one. tick off for the Bucks. It was very frustrating to watch. But very cool for the Saints. I wanted to shout this out too. Do you remember completely uninteresting game, but in week eight, the Bucks

win this game by 20? But the Saints had a goal line stand in that game and just generally made life miserable for them. Like, I love it. Like as a team, they're overmatched, but they do not care in this matchup at all. They take it to them. The Bucks are kind of in the place that they've been over the last few weeks where I think there's still a good chance they win the NFC South. No one is afraid of what this Bucks team looks like right now. And I think it's a tough place to have reached considering how dangerous they felt over the first four or five weeks. The Saints almost feel like a more interesting conversation.

We don't have to dig into that right now. But you win this game, you knock yourself a little bit further down the draft order. And by doing this in this game, Tyler Shuck like legitimately by virtue of like him being justified as the starter next year because he's playing well. but also by cutting off pathways to alternatives, like Tyler Shuck potentially playing himself into a job next year. No qualifiers. He looked good today.

Yeah, he looked good. It's the ideal outcome for him. He's playing them out of a quarterback, but also into like taking a wide receiver at like seventh overall or something. Well, we'll talk about that over the next month or so about like what the Saints should actually do. But I think this was a, this was one in the Tyler Shuck column in terms of him being able to kind of hang on to this.

thing moving forward. One more note. The Saints and Falcons are both officially mathematically eliminated. So only the Bucks or Panthers can win the NFC South. Whichever one doesn't will have lost their home game to the Tyler Shuck Saints.

So like whichever team it is that is sitting at home saying how the f*** did we not win this division, they can point to losing to the Tyler Shuck Saints in their own building, both of them. What a great league. What a great division. What a great week. Let's talk about some of our favorite moments from week 14.

It's time for how can you not be romantic about football? I mean, this thing was a thing of beauty. Derek, what made you feel romantic about football in week 14? Mine is very simple, and we already talked about it a little bit already. There is something that just feels like we are getting into the point of football, meaning something when Josh Allen is running around in the snow. Like him making the place that he's making, deciding to turn it on, you can see the snow, kicking up.

Like, that is like watching the bills, watching Josh Allen turn it on in the snow is like, we're here. This is when football starts to get really good and important. I totally agree. I mean, it was funny because yesterday I was watching TV and we were between bowl games and the 22 divisional round game between these two teams and the snow popped on. And so when I woke up today and we turned on the game and I realized it was a snow game, I was like, oh, we're here.

It's December. These games are important. I hadn't thought about that until right now, but. We're on like at least three years running of Josh having an insane game in like snowy, wintery conditions because obviously, like today, obviously the famous San Francisco game last year. And then one of my favorite Josh Allen games ever was a loss, the overtime loss to Philly in 2003, where he was just doing everything he can to drag them over the finish line.

And all of these games, yeah, you're so right. Like they happened late November, early December, when the weather starts to suck. feels it feels good it feels right my how can you not be romantic about football as pukua is uh one of the coolest football players i've ever seen in my entire life he was insane in this game the final stat line is incredible right i think he had was it eight for 167 and two touchdowns i think seven for 167 and two touchdowns to me it's not about the production it's that every single one of his catches seem to like one up the one before in terms of terms of overall ridiculousness. He catches a dagger in the first quarter, which is like a full

extension play with a cornerback hanging on him for 18 yards. He catches a big dig later in the first quarter. He makes a spinning catch behind him, somehow gets his balance back, and gets 10 yards of additional yak after making that spinning catch in the middle of the field. Later in the game, late in the second quarter, he stabs an in-breaker that. Matthew Stafford puts between like three people. And again, this is like a beautiful synchronicity between the willingness of the quarterback to make these throws and the receiver justifying that aggressiveness. It's a beautiful marriage. That play is a perfect example of it.

Stafford has like a rifle shot for 28 yards on a corner out at the end of the half where Puka spins again in midair makes the play falling down at the sideline. And then to me, the craziest play of the entire game. The touchdown he scores late in the third quarter is obnoxious. He wins on a double move down the left sideline. He's open by a lot. Stafford under throws the ball. So Puka has to twist back to it. He pulls the ball off of Will Johnson's helmet.

And if that isn't enough, somehow, while backing into the end zone, keeps his balance and then just never hits the ground. If that play happened in the field of play, he would have turned and run for a touchdown. Like the overall strength, toughness, balance, the fact that so many of these contested plays or twisting, ridiculous acrobatic plays, turn into yak opportunities for this person,

he's insane. Like, I have not enjoyed watching a receiver because the physicality they bring to the position, I don't think, since, like, Anquam Bolden. Like, that is the last guy I think I enjoyed on this level the way, that I enjoy watching Pooka Nakuwa play. Stafford in this game reminded me of like,

like guys will do trick catches in the pool, like with a football where you and your boys are at the pool and he's like, I'm going to throw it behind your head. Or like, we can dunk it through the goalpost. They were doing that in a real football game today. Like it felt like every series,

Stafford was like, all right, let's try this one and see if you can pull it off. And he did every time. It was crazy. I just, I love watching him play. He is the most fearless.

Anquan Bolden, he is the last guy who it felt like he truly believed that he could not be hurt out on that football field, which is funny because the thing is that like Puka gets banged up all the time because all the hits that he takes. But he truly like there's no hit that he's afraid of because you'll see even some of the other best receivers. They'll slow down in some moments because they know they're going to get hit. They try to brace for it, protect themselves, protect the ball. You just never see Puka move at a different speed. Like he is just full speed all the time. It's incredible.

Dave, what made you feel romantic in week 14? the cliche is that the NFL is a week to week league and it's so true even if it is a cliche and what could represent that better than the Minnesota Vikings coming off of a 26 to nothing shutout loss turn around seven days later after that trip to Seattle and they beat Washington 31 to nothing they are the first NFL team in 33 years to get shut out and then pitch a shutout a week later that's the 1992 Denver Broncos, if you were curious. And what else could, like, what else but the NFL? Can you get your ass beat that bad and be the bad vibes leaders in the clubhouse and then turn around and beat somebody 31 to nothing? And on top of that, turns out J.J. McCarthy can still do the Michigan game plan. Like if you can run the shit out of the football and get up to a nice lead and not ask

him to throw a shitload of passes, he can play pretty. well. I say that tongue and cheek, but in all honesty and with earnestness, it was nice to see JJ McCarthy have a genuinely nice game. I mean, I know the commanders are abysmal. They are near the very bottom of the league and all of the metrics that people use to measure defense. But he made some nice throws in this game, particularly he had a couple really nice throws to Jordan Addison. When you all dig into this for the hangover, you can go look at him. But he had a couple really nice throws to Jordan Addison and just didn't have the egregious head scratching misses that we've seen in a few of these games over the last four or five weeks and he didn't have a

turnover which is a nice change of pace for him so even if we're not making any bold proclamations like this it has to have been an incredibly rough six weeks for a 22 23 year old guy so it was it was nice to see him have a fun successful NFL moment I mean, talk about being the bad vibes kings. That goes week to week as well. And I think Washington might be fighting for that title right now, which we'll be digging into tomorrow. Do you realize Washington hasn't won a game since October 5th?

Like, I knew they were bad, but they have the longest losing streak in the NFL. Let's dig into this because this plays into what did I learn this week? I think I've learned something today. Each week, each show, we like to kind of wrap things up with a little lesson we learned from the week in the NFL. What I learned in week 14 is, it's a long, long season.

And I think when you think about it, it's 17 games, right? It feels like it goes by pretty quickly. It doesn't feel like there are that many games. And then you think about how much things change over the course of those 17 games and how teams can look just drastically different from the middle of October to the middle of December. It's only two months. And they feel like different football teams. A couple examples here for you.

the Miami Dolphins and the Kansas City Chiefs have the same record. No way. Holy shit, he's right. The Miami Dolphins and the Kansas City Chiefs have the same record. Think about where the dolphins were at like the six week mark.

And think about how much faith we still had in the Chiefs. Okay, that's one of them. On October 19th, the Indianapolis Colts beat up on the Los Angeles Chargers to go to six and one. On October 20th, the Houston Texans played the Seattle Seahawks on a Monday night, and it felt like their season was over.

Today, the Indianapolis Colts essentially missed out on a chance of the playoffs, and the Houston Texans are now going to make the playoffs. I know they lost today, but the bear season seemed D-O-A. Their offense looked awful for the first four weeks of the season. They were one of the worst offenses in the league. Now they're probably a playoff team. They're going toe-to-to-to-with the Packers in, like, massively important games. The Packers had a two-game stretch where they lost to the Panthers and then couldn't move the ball

against the Eagles, they suddenly once again look like one of the best teams in the NFL. Things just changed so dramatically. And it almost does feel like we have these like mini seasons that exist within the broader season. And I thought that this week specifically was a really good reminder of that. Like whatever you were by the midway point, whatever awards we've handed out, whatever proclamations we're making, that shit probably isn't going to matter by the time we get to the middle of December.

And this season has been one of the more dramatic examples of that I can remember. Doesn't that make you appreciate the Rams? Like, I know they've lost a couple of games, but the Rams have been the Rams for the entire season, which is kind of crazy. They are. I believe they're still number one in DVOA variance over the course of the season. I believe they're still number one. It makes me appreciate the Rams, but also to tie it back to the beginning of the show, what a privilege it is to be able to reasonably count on your team to have.

seasons like that on a regular basis. And I'm thinking about the Chiefs, like for for most of this run, how rare and nice to be one of those teams where you're going to have your ebbs and lulls and your highs and your lows. But for the most part, you can just kind of count on double digit plus wins. And when that goes away and you're faced with the reality that this is really hard and really volatile for most of the league, that's pretty sobering. The Ravens are in the same place. Yeah.

Both the Ravens and the Chiefs are in that place. So we'll want things on this. The Los Angeles Rams are number one in variance per FTN's numbers, which means they are the most consistent team in the league week to week. Number two, the Tennessee Titans. So the worst team in the league and the best team in the league are the most consistent teams in the league. Do you know who is dead last? Dead last in variance.

It's got to be like the Falcons or the Panthers or something. I was going to say Atlanta. It is the Carolina Panthers. Yeah. Same division. And that's the South, baby. The team that beat the Los Angeles Rams last week. It has been one hell of a season in the NFL.

And I'm telling you guys right now, it's not getting any less interesting as we move toward the home stretch here. We will be back tomorrow with me and Derek digging into the hangover. Again, we're hitting Washington and the Vikings and also digging into the game I cannot remember right now. What was the other one?

Titans Browns. Titans. Thank you very much. Speaking of those Tennessee Titans. So very much looking forward to that for now. That's all we got. Appreciate you guys listening. We'll talk to you very soon.