The Fumblerooski Podcast - Going Wild Ep 415 The Fumblerooski Podcast

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

On today’s episode, Mike Whartenby from the Squawking Eagles Podcast joins the show to talk about Wild Card Weekend! Most intriguing matchups, predictions, and storylines heading into this weekend. Along with this we talk about more coach firings, Mike McDaniel gone from Miami and John Harbaugh out of Baltimore, possibility of McDaniel going to Philly? Should Harbaugh be the most sought after coach this cycle? Chris Costich, Adam Wright, and CJ Medeiros talk all this and more!

About to get into Wild Card weekend on today's episode of the Fumble Ruski podcast, along with a couple coach firings, John Harbaugh, out as Ravens Head Coach and the Dolphins, fire Mike McDaniel. All that and more. This is the Fumbaruski podcast. It may not have always showed it in the stat sheet, but you can see him making throws when he needs to make the throws. Back-to-back games where he has three touchdowns. Someone's got to get that six or seven spot.

He's an elite wide receiver as a rookie. Truly a lose-lose scenario for. both sides. Welcome to the Falmaruski podcast by Power 818 Radio and Secret Weapon Consulting. We got CJ Medeiros. We got Adam Wright from the depths of the producer role. We got our main man, special guest from Squawking Eagles podcast. Mike, thanks for joining us for today. Talk to some Eagles, talk some playoff football. Can't wait. Heck yeah. We'll get to the Eagles a little bit later, of course, and we'll spend a nice little bit on that. But let's get into the coach firings first. Which one do you guys want to start with?

The biggest one or the one that happened most recently? I would say Mr. Daniel. Yeah, I would say him, yeah. All right, McDaniel. Dolphins firing him yesterday. So that was the most recent firing that has happened. Bucks have been also, what the hell is that face, CJ? I was thinking, but yeah, I thought.

Well, Tampa did some changes today, yeah, but in terms of head coach. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That is the most recent. So Dolphins firing Mike McDaniel. This was, I mean, what we were calling this week two, week one, week three. It's right, it was on the wall for Mike McDaniel all year long. I think the biggest crime of this whole thing is that A, he lasted a whole season.

B, he lasted a day longer than John Harbaugh. and B, he didn't he didn't get fired on Monday. I think those three things are the biggest crimes for me. Not really, but I think that's just foul in general. Let's go around the table. Mike, your thoughts from this recent decision from the Dolphins and hey, we were just talked about it.

Who knows, maybe Mike McDaniel on the Eagles next year. Yeah, it's crazy to think that as an Eagles fan that we already want our new, we want a new offensive coordinator already because we've struggled all year with this guy. He pretty much is, pretty much is incompetent of calling any kind of play if it's not a delayed up the middle, pretty much.

That's all he likes to play or call. But seeing Mike McDaniel out there, yeah, it's great. But again, like, you got to remember, we have Vic Fangio as our defensive coordinator. Who was Mike McDaniel's defensive coordinator two years ago? Vic Fangio. So it didn't really work out between them. And a lot of talks, like, Eagles fans are crazy.

So they're saying fire Nick Siriani, fire Petulow, and bring in McDaniel and have him call the offense. I'm like, no, people are like nuts. They're nuts because they're not getting what they thought they were going to be getting with Petulow. They think they're going to get with McDaniel and get rid of two guys and bring in one. It's just not going to work. It didn't work in Miami. It's not going to work in Philadelphia. I like McDaniel.

I don't want him as an Eagles off as a coordinator and or head coach. I think one of the bigger reasons why it didn't work out for Vic was because he was a hard-nosed guy and, well, perfect for Philly. And we saw with Brian Flores as well as the head coach when he was head coach of Miami, he was a hard-nosed guy. And Miami didn't like it. Players didn't like it. So they got rid of him. So I think those are very, that's a very. a very reasonable reasoning to not want Mike McDaniel, that's for sure.

Yeah. Adam, C.J. One of you guys wanted to take the floor? Adam, you can. Mike, how is it that your fan base is so crazy, but you're, like, actually sane? I'm very curious. I'm very impressed. Yeah, I had two under this.

I began, okay, so last year, I wanted Nick Serrani on a plate. Like, I want him out of Philadelphia after the five week. I wanted him gone. And then he went on this tear for the rest of the season. And after they won the Super Bowl, I said, I'm not going to bad mouth Siriani for the rest of his career at Eagles and or Jalen Hertz. And so, yeah, I want to keep Seriani as long as possible. He's five years in the playoffs. He's got a winning record in the playoffs.

He has two Super Bowls with a Super Bowl win. I don't want to get rid of him. He's a good coach. He's not a good offensive play calling coach. That I know. That is not his forte. He needs to get a guy who can call the plays. and knows what he's doing, and, like, he can, you know, manage the players in the game on his own.

He doesn't have to worry about that. Once he did that last year with Cullen Moore, it was a totally different game. Like, he, they, Cullin Moore took over, and Nick kind of got out of the way, and you saw what happened. So, yeah, I'm saying, but, you know, the other guys on the podcast, they don't, they don't agree with me. They, they, they want to get Ciariani gone. They want to get Pertillo gone, definitely. But, like, tonight, we're going to record tonight. We're going to talk about this whole McDaniel coming to Philly thing.

I don't want to see. I don't know what that happened. It seems like he's the type of guy who's, he's really good as a coach when he has his head screwed on straight, but it's when he seems that he takes his eye off the ball really easily. And that's when they start to fall into some trouble. But it's when they start to hit some adversity where he puts on a regular, like, normal person face. Yeah.

And they start winning some games. And that's what they did all season long. He had, he was on the hot seat in the beginning of last season. They shaved his head and they went on a tear. Yeah. Like, yeah, they had Seekwon Barkley, but they had a talented team the season prior. And, you know, after starting 9 and 0, I think they won like one game at the end of the. Yeah, they went on a nice, they were, they were 9 and 0 and then he lost and it ended up being 11 and 6th that year.

That was a tough year. That was, that was a year where, again, Brian John. was the offensive coordinator. They fired the defensive coordinator in the middle of the year. They brought Matt Patricia in. It was a dumpster fire, to say the least. And I think they did the right thing by getting an older defensive coordinator and Vic Fangio, because you know he's going to be around.

He's not going anywhere. I'm in the age where, like, yeah, bring an offensive coordinator who doesn't want to be a head coach anytime anymore. Like a guy who's just going to be setting his ways and he knows how to play a call. and let's have Jalen Hertz have a coordinator for more than two years in a row. That would be nice. Yeah, and I'm just going to say, I think Mike McDaniel is a really good offensive mind. Sure. As far as a guy who can just sit there and call plays, not coach, not be a leader,

just kind of sit there and coordinate. Yeah. I think he's pretty good there. And he'll probably find another spot, whether that be with the Lions or wherever. or with the commanders, they're trying to get back on track with Jaden Daniels. But as far as Mike McDaniel being a head coach, his days are over at least for now. But I can very easily see this turning into another Josh McDaniels type of situation where he ends up being really good as an offensive mind again.

Yeah. And then he's getting head coach consideration already. I mean, look at Josh McDaniels right now. He's done such a good job that you're getting a couple of people. There's some talking heads on Twitter. We're like, was it really McDaniels? Was it just the Raiders? You couldn't turn them around?

But then also, was it the Broncos? You couldn't, yeah, like, I don't know. It's like, guys. It might be the Raiders. It probably was the Raiders. But I don't know. He's a great offensive mind. And again, I see Mike McDaniel the same way.

And he did do his best with Tua. I mean, I don't think two is that good of a quarterback, but I just don't think he's a very good head coach. He's not a leader. It seems like his whole demeanor is about just joking around and being laid back. And that's all fine and good when you're winning. When you're losing, it gets real old. And I think he's just, he's a good offensive mind who needs to just settle into an OC role.

And until like four years from now when he gets more head coach consideration. I'm trying to remember what coaching tree is he from. Is he from the Sean McFaillian coaching tree? He's from the Shanahan coaching tree. Shanahan, okay. He was on the Niners. Okay. CJ, your thoughts.

For those of you've been watching for a bit, you know I hate Mike McDaniel. So this was like Christmas all over again, just seeing his sad little face. getting fired. It's wonderful. And honestly, I think Adam hit the nail around the head. You know, he took the words out of my mouth. He's just a very unsurious guy. He runs a gimmick offense. He has a college-style playbook. The players don't respect him. The locker rooms and disarray. They're showing up to meetings late. And this all, of course, came out last year. And then there were rumors, oh, he went on a winning streak against tanking teams and that weird fluky bills game. And now he saved his job. And, you know, Dolphins fans,

that try to tell you he's not the problem. We're like, oh, but all the player report cards, he had the highest grade. It's like, well, yeah, because he wants to be their friend. He's not a coach. He's not a leader. He's not an alpha. He's not the leader of men.

I always said he's the ringmaster of a circus. That's always how it's bad. Like when you watch his offense and you see them resort to gadgets and gimmicks, it's like, wow, this is why you haven't won a playoff game. This is why your record against teams above 500, I think, is now 4 and 18. This is why you have not won a single game below 40 degrees. He's just, he's an absolute demon as an offensive coordinator. Great offensive mind.

This man should not be a head coach. And yeah, this season pretty much confirmed it. I have no doubt that he'll land on his feet, probably in a coordinating role somewhere, be it Philly, Detroit or wherever. But this was well deserved. And you what the funniest part was, allegedly he had saved his job. then Harbaugh got fired. And we're going to get to that soon.

But as soon as Harbaugh got fired, Josina Anderson from NFL Network put out a report that said, Miami's really infatuated with him. And all of a sudden, you know, McDaniel just got a lot less safe. So I think I'll get to it later. But yeah, I feel like if Harbaugh doesn't get fired, McDaniel probably doesn't either.

And, well, as soon as Harbaugh hit the market, they moved on from him fast. Hey, I do have to say the dolphins did have a better record than the Chiefs this year. True. There's that. There's that. I like that. I like that stat.

I like that stat a lot, too. Well, CJ mentioned him, so let's get into John Harbaugh, getting fired from the Ravens. So, well, that Sunday night football game, we were talking about last Friday. Well, this was the loser leaves game, and it truly was. now John Harbaugh is out as head coach for Baltimore Ravens. I heard a good take about this, and Mike, you probably can add a little insight as an Eagles fan. It's the Andy Reid situation, you know, like Andy Reid's a great coach,

but sometimes the message just doesn't get through anymore. Yeah, I agree with that. Yeah, definitely. That's what happened in Philly with Andy Reid. 100%. Granted, I don't think Andy Reid was also blowing eight, like had blown two score leads 18 times in his coaching tenure in Philly. Yeah, yeah.

No, he did not definitely do that. Yeah. But the thing with Harbaal, though, like Harbaal is, you know, Harbaugh is from the Annie Reed coaching tree. And he is a coach that's been in there for 18 years. And so I think a younger team is probably going to want to bring him in. People are saying the Giants, you know, the, those teams, like maybe, you know, I would see him like going to Las Vegas. like why not like that's that would be a great spot for him to go but i i can see why i was thinking if it was if it wasn't going to be hardball getting fired they were going to trade lamar jackson it was

it was one or the other that's why i thought was going to happen and so you know honestly like you know lamar jackson all the he's done he hasn't really won the big games right he's won the MVP and that's just you know kind of like an individual award he hasn't really won that's rule he hasn't even been to this rule. So, yeah, there's a lot to think about that. Yeah, and there is, like, you mentioned Lamar. There is to say that Lamar was a big reason why they lost a lot of those big games. But a lot of those big games, you can also solely pin on Harbaugh himself, too.

I think the Ravens also fired their defense coordinator, correct? I don't, I didn't see that. I haven't seen that. They should if they're not going to. I mean, whatever. I think they all probably will. They're all going to get fired. Yeah.

If the head coach is gone, they're all gone. Yeah, exactly. CJ, your thoughts? Well, I was the one who said, you know, for the Steelers Ravens game, I think the losing head coach gets canned. And well, wow, two for two. I'm really thrilled so far. And honestly, the thing what Harbaugh is,

if you listen to some of the older Ravens fans that are really set in their ways, They digging their heels and say, oh, well, he wasn't the problem. He has a ring. Lamar doesn't. I just got to say, I've said this before, and I'll say it again, just for time reference. I was in fifth grade when Harbaugh won his ring. So rings are nice. They're great for history, but they also have a shelf life.

And the NFL, what's the joke? What's the joke acronym they use for it? Not for long, right? The NFL is a what have you done for me lately league? And we can say Lamar has his flaws. He certainly does. But at the end of the day, Lamar doesn't play defense.

Why are you blowing these double digit two score, sometimes three score leads? Why? And one of the issues with Harbaugh is he's a stick by his guys coordinator, which that in and of itself is fine, but it's a double-edged sword. When one of his guys is Zach or the current, defensive coordinator and he's going to bat for him. At some point, you got to say, look,

dude, cut your losses. And honestly, I just think he needs to go. And I think some team will scoop him up and he can do an immediate turnaround. I think he's a solid, what's known as a tier four head coach, which is a guy who maybe you're sealing, maybe you do have a ceiling, but he can come in, he can set a culture, he can turn a place around. That's kind of how I view him. You feel like for anything, Harbaugh is definitely going to be the most sought after head coach in this cycle. That's for sure. Adam, would you agree? Yeah, and that's a great segue into my take because I just think that contrary to popular belief,

I think Harbaugh, wherever he lands, he will improve that organization. And I think as far as his clock management, his in-game decisions, benching Derek Henry, the whole nine yards, this guy has made some really bad decisions on the football field. And that doesn't mean he isn't a good culture setter. And I think that's what he's going to do to whichever team that he ends up coaching for. And look, I kind of disagree with the comparison to Andy Reid, because with Andy Reid, his issue was that he just didn't have the tools in order to win his championships yet. The best quarterbacks that he worked with were Donovan McNabb.

He had Michael Vick for that one year. He had Alex Smith. And then he had Patrick Mahomes. And that's when they started winning championships. So it's just that he needed the tools in order to do it. When it comes to John Harbaugh, he had that. He has Lamar Jackson. The issue is there's not enough discipline on the team.

they're not managing the game well enough. They're making mental errors. And they're really good at setting a winning culture, but it's not a disciplined one. And he doesn't make the right decisions on the football field. Again, I do believe whichever team he ends up with, he's going to improve that organization. That doesn't mean that he didn't have his flaws

and that he didn't cause his own firing. Because these Ravens teams have been loaded with, with talent, loaded to the gills with talent. And you know, you want to know what another thing is that I didn't, I really didn't like, it bothers me. And I'm sure Tuck would agree with this as well. He did not hire the right coordinators, like, ever. He does not know how to hire the right people.

Well, Mike McDonald. It's exception to the rule. All right. True. But he's not very good at it. So that's something that I look at. two things can be true at once he was fine as a head coach but he had so many flaws and he was very overrated

even when he was considered an elite head coach you also have to remember when he became the Ravens head coach he was only the Eagles special teams coordinator so he didn't you know he wasn't he wasn't definitely calling plays he wasn't calling plays on offense or defense so if he if he was truly going to be calling he'd be like great he didn't call He didn't pick the right guys to call those plays for him, except for him, McDaniel. But, you know, that could be a little bit of the case of, like, he kind of wasn't an experienced enough coach to be taken over a head coaching position at that time.

But, you know, he kind of like, you know, he had to grow into it. Like I say, he grew into a head coaching position as time went by. Which is a fair point. But at some point, you have to learn how to do it, especially when you've been a head coach for the Ravens for as long as you have, right? 18 years. It's a long time. At some point, you've got to learn how to hire the right people. Yeah. That's what the Eagles are struggling with. That's what the Eagles are struggling with.

They're struggling with picking the offensive coordinator. It's the same thing. You got to let somebody pick it. I want Howie to pick the offensive coordinator. I don't want Nick to do it. So maybe John Harbaal goes the next place. He doesn't pick these guys. He just lets the decision be made by the upper management.

Yeah. anything else we want to touch on from this all right let's move on we're going to take a quick break when we come back we'll get into the playoffs best time of the year best time of the year

all that more this is the phone moosec podcast it may not have always showed it in the stat sheet but you can see him making throws when he needs to make the throws back to back games where he has three touchdowns someone's got to get that six or seven spot He's an elite wide receiver as a rookie. Truly a lose-lose scenario for both sides.

Welcome back to the phone borosky podcast. C.J. Madero's Chris Kossack, Adam Wright, Mike Warrenby from Squawking. Eagles, special guest for us for today's Friday episode. This is easily the best time of the year for football. You got the college football playoff going on right now. NFL wild card. We're really just the end of the NFL season with all the drama. And now we're into the playoffs.

drama all season long. And now we get to this. Wall card round. We'll start with the first game on Saturday, which sees us with the highest point spread of the weekend, which is the Rams being 10.5 point favorites on the road to take on the Carolina Panthers, who got screwed out of potentially winning the NFC South. at that point last Saturday, but Falcons and the football God said,

not so fast you guys are getting in. But, you know, when you look at the Panthers and the rest of the NFC South, this is, well, you get what you get. That's for sure. Panthers have the lowest point differential of any playoff team. I think it's like minus 68 or something like that. It's something outrageous. but history is on the Panthers side.

Somehow, some way, history is on the Panthers side. You know why? Because in cases like this, the team that hosts, in terms of lowest point differential in this scenario, it's the Panthers, they are undefeated, undefeated. And we've seen this exact point spread from the same exact Panthers Rams game not that long ago in which the Panthers ended up winning at home against the Rams.

Now, the question is, can lightning strike twice? It could. It very well could. But it's also the NFL. It's hard to beat it. Never mind beating a team three times. It's hard to beat a team twice, especially in one season. Eagles did last year of the playoffs.

Yep, exactly. Three times. there you have it. Thoughts around the room here on this game. I feel like that most of America is going to be leaning the Rams here, but it's also the Panthers. You really never know. It's a team that never wins the games that they're favored in,

but they always get it done when they're double-digit underdogs. It's a little insane. I feel like you're leaning towards the Panthers here. I I that's the problem is that like with these statistics these niche statistics I I'm like oh man it's hard not to go that way yeah you know I I like to what I do during the year is I have I reformatted the NFL to geography have geographically correct divisions and so in my geography graphically correct divisions I don't think the Panthers even make the playoffs because of their eight and nine record. Because in my division, the whole NFC, West makes the division because it's the Raiders, not the Raiders, I'm sorry, the 49ers, the Chargers, the Chargers, the Rams, and the Seahawks. All four make the playoffs. And then the Lions, the Panthers don't even make the playoffs. So the NFL got what they wanted last week with making that week 18 meaningful, right?

Everybody was watching. Everybody was, all right, this is a meaningful because they got to get their money. But this week, Panthers, Rams, are you going to watch this game? Who's going to watch this game? I'll watch this game. I'm not watching this game. I love football. I love football.

I love football. I don't need to watch this game. If they win, then you're going to be heading a lot. If the Panthers win, the Panthers are not going to win this game. No way. No way. The Rams are a much. better team. Granted, they are also a more experienced team, too.

Yeah. You know, Stafford and with Puka Nakuwa. Now, if Nico Dowell goes crazy, then there's a whole different story, right? Because we know what the Rams' run defense looks like. We've seen what that has happened to them in the playoffs. But I don't see the Panthers winning in this game at all. How old game or not? Adam, CJ.

Yeah. So like in a weird way, and I'm definitely not going to argue whether or not they're going to win or not, whether they're going to win or not, because the chances are certainly slim. What I will say that in a weird way, not having experience can be an advantage because these young kids literally don't understand the gravity of these games. they're so in experience that they've they've never been there before so they just see it as a game they don't understand the magnitude of it and they've already beaten the rams once so it's a game where i feel like this is going to be a very sneaky close game i really do believe that the panthers are going to give the rams some problems they have the advantage of home of home fields although it's in carolina i mean being in charlotte not not sure how much of an advantage it gets, but you still get your own turf.

This is going to be a sneaky one. And the Bryce Young to Tedroa McMillan duo has been really nice. And that Rams secondary is getting more and more suspect as the season goes on. So I think that's going to give, I think that's going to give the Rams a lot of problems here. So an underrated, an underrated Panthers defense. I think this is going to be a little closer than we all may think. See, Josh? I don't trust the Rams, man.

I really don't. Like, it's not even about, like, their run defense and their defense in general outside of the pass rush, which, yeah, it's suspect all right. But what we also have to, like, really take into consideration is, yeah, I'm sorry. You got yourself into a shootout with the Cardinals? Yeah, I have news for you. ice cold. And that's just kind of how it's been ever since that Panthers game. They have just not looked the same.

And that Seahawks game really just solidified, okay, you're very good, you're very explosive, but you have flaws. That complete burnout to end the year is terrifying. Meanwhile, the Panthers, they're just a grab bag. What are you going to get week to week? Who knows? Are you going to get possible face of the first? franchise Bryce Young? Are you going to get recently benched like Bryce Young? Who knows? Nobody knows.

That's the fun. That's the joy of the Carolina Panthers. Or the heart palpitation of the Carolina Panthers if you're a fan. So honestly, I'm not going to lie. They caught lightning in a bottle. Can you do it twice? I don't know. I'm leaning no. I don't think so. But much like Adam, I have the sneaking suspicion that, this is going to be close. I think this game might be sneakily ugly. And I put with house money too. They're playing with house money too. I don't think anybody actually has faith in them.

And I think the Panthers know that. And again, like you said, CJ, the Rams, I mean, it's all on the Rams, isn't it? Like, they're the ones who are sitting there and saying, like, we better get it done. I mean, Matthew Stafford's getting older. We don't know how much longer he's going to be playing at a high level. They have the freaking Avengers on, like, everywhere you look. I mean, I see this sneakily being the 2020 wildcard round buccaneers visiting the command. They were called the football team at the time, if you guys remember that.

Watching the football. They called the football team. Yes. And sneaky one-score game, Taylor Heineke, if you guys remember, that was his first ever start. Ugly game, one-score game. Everyone knew that the Buccaneers were winning, but it's like, who is this kid? Actually played pretty well. I think we could get something like that.

Wow. You're definitely piquing by interest now to want to sit down and watch this game. I'm getting you to turn on the TV. You're getting me to turn the TV. Let me. I found the stat that I was talking about. So let me kind of re-clify what I was saying to minus 69 point differential. Nice.

The only playoff teams with a lower point differential. The 2010 Seahawks, the 2011 Broncos and the 2004 Rams, each of those teams won in the wallet card round. Of course, the Broncos beating the Steelers at home. home and Seahawks beating the Saints, the Beast Quake game. Oh, yeah, I remember that one. That's why I call it the wild card round. It's everything can happen, right?

That's why they call it that. Hell yeah. That's why I love football. All right. This is probably going to be the, sorry. Oh, you're good. What were you going to say? Well, I was going to say this is probably the, the craziest wild card round we're going

to get because in recent year like just in years past the wild card round has been a bit of a throwaway round it's like wake me wake me up when the divisional round starts and now like this year we have so many good wild card round matchups where it's like i really am excited for it and i never felt this way before most of the time the teams that are expected to win are going to win and the teams that sneak in they just know it's going to it's going to be over they're just glad they're here this year it feels like a lot of teams really have a challenge chance and I'm excited for it. I like it.

Let's get to the primetime game for Saturday night. The Bears and the Packers. Surprisingly enough, Bears opened up as favorites in this game by one and a half at home, but since Tuesday, the line has swung to

the Packers. Packers, one and a half point favorites on the road, which that's wild. That's wild. That's a little surprising to me. That's, like, I get, especially for a team who's, like, banged up, like, really.

I mean, yeah, you're getting Jordan Loveback, but what about the other injuries that we're looking at here? It's, like, yeah, you got. Yeah, it's all, I feel like all roads have to lead to the Bears on Las Vegas, freaking know something that we don't know about, which seems to be all the freaking time. but that's hey you know what that's what we're looking at here uh unfortunately Caleb Williams did not hit 4,000 passing yards he was damn close which hey always next year I believe he will get it next year but for this year I know that the Packers are favored but I like I said don't see the reason why bears should have this game in the bag this team has been granted

Cardiac Bears all season long, they've been in some wars, to say the least. And it's gone to them to this point. Ben Johnson has been that guy as the head coach. He's gone Caleb Williams to play as a quarterback that you can win because of, probably not to the fullest extent yet. But we're getting to see that part of Caleb Williams that, well, you're supposed to expect out of a number one quarterback. Bears have a good running back committee going as well. Kyle Munungi, DeAndre Swift. They've been dealing with injuries in the wide receiver core as well.

So I'm kind of curious to see how that ends up playing out. Maybe that's another reason. Maybe that's a reason why the spread flipped. But my gut feeling is bears. Adam or Mike you seem to like you were ready to go yeah I got to say you know last week the Bears the Bears wanted all he needed to do is win and they got they had number two seed right that's all they had to do and then the Eagles went ahead and lost to the to the commanders with their backups do you wish that the Eagles had actually had the starters for that game hindsight yes right because I I had a feeling that the Lions were going to beat the Bears anyway. So I was like, you know what? Eagles need to put their starters in

and win this game. Because everybody, you know, there's a lot of people in Philadelphia are like Tanner Bricky, Tanner McKee, he's the next God. He's the next God. So it's not, he's not. He's not, he's not him. So we saw it. And so now, you know, now they have to suffer with the third, the third seed. I would have loved to see them get the second seed because I would have liked to Eagles draw the Packers that first round because the Packers are beat up. They're a team really down and you know love i think has missed two two games i think so yeah i look i would have really liked to see the packers kind of come in here and uh just roll over pretty much that's why i think it's going to happen in chicago i don't think the packers can beat the bears i don't know why that line

is that so yeah c j yeah i mean i i i don't understand why these are the odds i i i i don't understand why these are the odds. I don't get it. Look, I'm not a better. I don't know. And like Chris said, there's a really legitimate shot that Vegas knows something we don't,

as is usually the case. But, I just, I don't see it. The Packers defense has been largely defanged ever since Michael Parsons' tour is ACL. Their receivers are all banged up, and even when they're healthy,

there's no real alpha in that room. There's no like, hey, this is the guy. Is it going to be Romeo Dubs? Is it going to be Christian Watson? Is it going to be Matthew Goldman? Is it going to be Jaden Reed? Or heck, maybe one day it's going to be Donatian Wicks. Who knows?

But I just, I don't see it. Yeah, I know the cardiac bears. That's a thing. And I know they've been fluky as hell this year. They just hibernate until the fourth quarter. And sometimes, as Evans with the Niners, and that's not enough. But this is one of those times where if they were fully healthy, I could maybe tilt towards Green Bay.

But all those injuries, I got to go with Chicago here. Adam? Well, what I will say is that I think the Packers have the advantage of quarterback. They have it where it counts. And when you look at the overall coaching matchup, I think it's closer than you might think. I think Ben Johnson is a better culture guy, whereas LaFleur is much more of a mind.

He's an offensive mind who's just serviceable as an actual coach. So the Packers do have it where it counts. I think the bears definitely have the advantage in the rest of the roster. And I'm not saying Caleb Williams can't play in that he may not eventually develop into a better quarterback than than Jordan Love. But I think he's about a year off. He's not quite there yet.

He's kind of, he's always, he's prancing around. He's trying to make big plays. He's holding onto the ball a really long time. And a lot of times he makes big plays. But most of the time he doesn't. And you can see that in his completion percentage. I mean, you see the highlight play in the highlight reels. But then when you watch, sit down and.

watch a game with Caleb Williams playing most of the game he's not all that good and I like him I do I think he's going to be good I just don't think he's fully developed yet and I think that's why Vegas is is looking at the Packers and saying well they have the experience uh Jordan Love has a I think he has one or two playoff wins I know he has at least one he has uh he beat the Cowboys year before last but like this past year I'm just trying to I'm trying to remember I don't have the numbers in front of me. They played. They played the Eagles last year. Yeah. They lost to him, obviously. Yeah. Round one. Okay. So they have, he has a playoff win under his belt, and he's been there an extra time. That's more than Caleb Williams has. So, I don't know. And he very,

he very nearly two years ago beat the 49ers going into, into San Francisco. They lost by only one score. And if a couple plays go right, they might be in the Super Bowl that year. So when you look at stuff like that, I can understand. I can kind of understand it. They have it where it counts. It's not all about the surrounding roster talent. Sometimes if you have the quarterback who can overcome a lot of the deficiencies, then you can get it done in the playoffs. We've seen it a lot of times many other quarterbacks on wider scales. I think you can see it right here for just this one little wild card round with Jordan Love.

Not making any picks here. I'll save that for got a bracket going soon later in this episode. But we'll see. I want to bring up another storyline real quick before we move on to the next game. That was kind of circulating Green Bay earlier this year. and a lot of people are calling for Matt Lafleur's job middle of the season. Could we potentially see some shock waves

if the Packers are one done here? I think so. There were some reports that there were at least two playoff teams that are interested in Harbaugh if they go one and done. They didn't say who, but I would imagine one is the Packers. Even with all the injuries they've had, You think they still lose his job because of that? I don't think so.

I don't know. Like the whole thing's weird because when you really look at LaFleur, right? Like he's made it to the NFC championship a couple times. Didn't do well in said NFC championship. In fact, one game he gave the ball right back to Tom Brady and didn't see the ball back the rest of the game. He hasn't made it back to the NFC championship since. Every season seems like it just ends underwhelmingly.

Granted, maybe he gets a little bit of leeway since he's on year three of Jordan Love being a starter, but also on year three of being of Jordan Love being the starter, should we be seeing something more out of the Packers at this point? Yeah, good point. Yeah, good point. maybe in a couple of years, but like you said, this is a guy who's been to multiple NFC championships. He's in the playoffs almost every year. In fact, I'm pretty sure he hasn't not been to the playoffs. Yeah. You talk about a guy who moved on from Aaron Rogers, an all-time great quarterback, and they're still getting production now to the next guy.

And even with these injuries, they're still in the playoffs. I think there's some value to that. And maybe people begin to say, okay, it's getting old, the fact that he doesn't really have much of a culture and he's not much of a coach. But there's still value to some of the things that he does as an offensive mind. He's not like a Mike McDaniel where he can't coach at all. And he's all offense, just all scheme. I think LaFleur is good enough so that he can stand on his own two feet. Fair enough.

Let's get into Sunday. Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. Thank you, Mike. Thank you for getting the reference. My dad says that all the time. I'm glad that he used to know it. Jaguars, Bills. Bills favored one and a half on the road against the Jaguars. I would say this is probably the most intriguing matchup, not because of, well, it's the Jaguars and Bills, but bills, I've never gone to one. win in the wild card on the road, especially with Josh Allen's quarterback. I think that's probably the most intriguing part about this. On top of the fact that the Jaguars are red hot right now, those are my takeaways.

Those are my takeaways. I think if we're looking at history, it says the Jaguars, which be very, very interesting to say the least. Oh, Packers did miss the playoffs in 2020. Thank you. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, because that was that was the first year without Rogers having his favorite toy. Yeah, right. Forgot about that.

Good poll. Anyways, back to Jaguar's Bills. Thoughts on this game? This is the year for Josh Allen, right? There's no Patrick Holmes. There's no Lamar Jackson. There's no Joe Burrow. This is his year, right?

And he's sixth. he's not he's not going to he's probably not going to have a home game right and so he's got to go to the jaguars and you have a one point one point uh one and a half uh favorites you know what kind of which Josh Allen you're going to get you know you're going to get Josh Allen who takes a sack that's about 40 yard sack out of field goal range against the Eagles or you're going to get him who who throws dimes in the snow like what are you going to get like I don't know uh And the Jaguars are hot, right? Jaguars are a team that is, like, they got, they're, like, they're playing with house money. They, they were not expected to be this good after, after last season, and with Liam Cohen being the first time coach this year. So after that Duval comment, like, who knows what they were going to do, right? So this is, I'm a toss up for me.

Like, I don't know, to be honest with you. I really don't know about this game. This is the game I'm interested in watching. Let me That one we can agree on. Let me re-clify my statistic real quick. Buffalo 0 and 5 on the roads in the playoffs under Sean McDermott, which evidently started with a 10 to 3 loss at Jacksonville in 2017 wildcard round.

They've lost eight straight games on the road in the postseason, starting against Miami in the 1992 AFC championship game. Oh, wow. Or pardon. 1992 AFC championship game was the last time they won on the road. Sorry.

CJ. This is truly the coin flip game. I feel like of all of them on maybe Eagles Niners, but this one's the one where it's like, all right, I got nothing. Like literally just flip a coin. The Jags are very young.

Trevor Lawrence is just pulling random BS out every week and winning. I don't know if they're hitting their stride or if they're playing over their head. Like I said, Lawrence has just become the most unpredictable, like just volatile quarterback we've seen in a good minute. But for the bills, I know they should be scary. Well, I have a question, are the bills scary or is Josh Allen scary? because when I look at Josh Allen and I look at the rest of the bills I just go,

really? Because the rest of your team really just seems to be James Cook. And we have seen that when James Cook has a lid put on him, Alan disappears. Like, I remember watching, like, games where James Cook is wrapped up and Alan can't do that. I mean, I feel like they work well off each other.

and if I'm their owner Terry Pagula, right, and I'm their GM Brandon Bean, I'm sitting down Sean McDermott and saying, you're coaching for your job. Mahomes has gone from our path, but now he's also gone from our excuses. If you do not win the Super Bowl this year, you are fired.

It's now or it's never. And I truly believe that if the, bills, specifically the Sean McDermott bills, because Al and I like, McDermott, I don't. If they don't win the Super Bowl this year, then I don't think they ever will with McDermott. So, hot take, I'm tilting towards Jacksonville here. I think it's going to be an insane game. It's going to be back and forth. And I think there's going to be some nonsense going in.

But I just, it's not an Allen thing. it's a McDermott thing. And this just might be the stage where Allen can't save him. Adam? Yeah, I'll give you, so I'll just give you one game. Because I do think Alan, when he has time to throw and he has a really good offensive line, can be dangerous. The Buccaneers visiting Buffalo. James Cook was limited to 48 rushing yards.

He had over 100 total yards, but through the air, it was Josh, Allen being able to help the team, essentially will the team to a victory. I mean, he had to, he had to score 44 points in order for them to win that game. They have a weirdly, really good record this year when games turn into shootouts. And since this is a warm weather game, I have a feeling that this is going to be one of those games, where it's just back and forth. This is going to be one of the more exciting, this is going to be one of the more exciting wildcard matchups in recent memory. I believe. Both teams have really good means to score. And when I say teams, I see one team and then Josh Allen.

I just have enough faith in Josh Allen that he'll be able to will them to at least this one win here. And I just overall, yes, the bills only have the advantage at the quarterback position. kind of the running back position. But we have seen time and time again in the postseason, that's kind of all you need. And I don't think this week is going to be an exception. I don't think Trevor Lawrence is a good enough quarterback so that he can win in the postseason just yet. He hasn't earned my trust quite yet. So I'm taking, I think I'm taking that into consideration.

I don't know because Trevor Lawrence also came back down 27 against the Chargers that one year almost knocked out Patrick Mahomes the next game

you look at Josh Allen and the bills all they do is rely on them and that ends up being the bill's biggest downfall is that they have to rely not that I'm saying relying on Josh Allen

is worst case scenario but when your entire world relies on Josh Allen and everyone else just decides, we have Josh Allen. We can't lose. That's when you lose. Well, his only playoff win revolved around Brandon Staley's defense, puking all over itself, and Justin Herbert, who's known to be one of the worst postseason performers in recent memory.

The bills remind me of the Eagles of the 90s because McDermott is from the Andy Reed coaching tree. And during those years, Doddick and Nab had a great running back, but never had a good wide receiver all those years, except for the year where they had Terrell Owens, that was it, you know, James Thrash, Todd Pinkston, like these guys, Freddie Mitchell, like these guys are grocery store guys names.

These guys don't play that football. This is what I see in the Buffalo Bills. They see in the 90s Buffalo Bill, the 90s Eagles where Josh Allen is great quarterback, great running back, But who is he throwing the ball to, to be honest with you? Keenan Coleman, he's out for the whole most. I think he's been out the whole year, most of the year, at least.

Yeah, because it was bad ads here. Yeah. And then Shakir, right, Shakir, he's a good, good guy, but he's not. He's a two. He's a two. He's on a one. So who's he throwing to? Yeah.

His best targets are the tight ends, pretty much. Yeah. And that was the same thing with Eagles. They had great tight ends. And the other thing, too, is when you don't have, I think, It's either when Dawson Knox or Dalton Kincaid doesn't play, their record is ass. I forget which tight end it is. I think it's Dawson Knox.

They're both virtually the same guy, too. It has to be really good. Let's move on to the next game, which is Mike's Eagles. They're taking on to 49ers. Eagles are favored by five and a half in this game. Mike, how are we feeling? I'm feeling great. I'm not afraid of any team in the NFC.

As an Eagles fan, I am not afraid of any of those teams. Granted, the Eagles have struggled offensively, but they have shown that their defense can, their Super Bowl caliber defense. So I am not worried about Brock Purdy running around like he was against the Bears. I'm not worried about Christian McCafferty. This is going to be a game where the Eagles are going to come in, like they did in the NFC championship game three years ago, two years ago.

and dominate these 49ers. The 49ers are banged up, too. We don't know if Trent Williams is going to play. Their defense is in shambles. They just signed Kaiser White off the street to come, and he's probably going to play on Sunday. This game, I'm happy to hear that the Eagles draw the 49ers. This is a game that the Eagles are going to show that they've just been a vanilla

defense, the vanilla offense all year, and we're going to see explosiveness here in the playoffs, like we did last year. That's what we're going to see. I'm confident with that win right here. Adam? Yeah. I really like the 49ers in the postseason,

but I also like the Eagles in the playoffs. These are two of the most winningest franchises in recent memory in the NFC. In the in the 2020s so far, these are the teams that are in the playoffs year in, year out. So experience on both sides is not. going to be a question mark. What I do think is a question mark is on the 49ers side on their, uh,

their well-roundedness. I don't think the 49ers are a complete team. This is a weird year where their defense is probably the worst part of their team. And, uh, Brock Purdy is kind of impressed me a little bit. I always thought he was a decent quarterback, but he was being propped up by elite weapons all. around him. Well, guess what? Braden Ayuk's not with the team anymore. Debo Samuel, not with

the team anymore. His best weapon is George Kittle, who's been in and out of the lineup. He was hurt for half the year. And yet they've still managed to win. And you can credit Kyle Shanahan as well, even when Brock Purdy was out for half the year. They were winning games with Mack Jones throwing to Kendrick Bourne. Nice little throwback to the old 2021 Patriots days. It was unbelievable. The 49ers are a well-oiled machine, but the way I see it, the Eagles are tougher. They know how to win at home. And there's a little theme that I'm starting to see that I really can't unsee anymore with Sunbelt or Dome teams, where if they travel to cold weather environments, they almost never win.

and I just think the Eagles are a much tougher team and Eagles take the edge in this one. It may be a close one because the 49ers are very experienced, but so are the Eagles. So Eagles advance to another round. See, guys. Ooh, honestly, I think this is going to come down to home field advantage. which is why I'm going to rip the Band-Aid off.

I'm going with Philly. I have my misgivings about Kevin Petullo. I've said some heinous things about him. And that's not changing, God damn it. It's not. But this might be the game where I think the Niners' injuries really catch up with them. I think Purdy's going to play well. I think McCaffrey's going to play well.

But sure, Kevin Petulow is going to be an anchor on offense. but the Niners' defense outside of like Diomador-Lonor is hurt. Their entire defense, as you know, was pillaged in pre-agency, and the rest of them who stayed got hurt. And that Niners defense, I just, I have no confidence in them at all. Brock Purdy's been playing out of his mind, but how much longer can he keep it up, especially without those weapons?

And, you know, when you're going from the warm Santa Clara area in Cali to the East Coast, where it's just cold all the time, like Adam said, you know, the weather advantage, I think things are tilting towards Philly's favor. I'm also tilting Philly as well. Last time these two teams played, of course, was 23 NFC championship. That was when Brock Purdy needed to get Tommy John afterwards. And they played they played after that yeah they did it was just not it wasn't a good it wasn't a good 20 23 season after that yeah um or 22 22 that's why no 22 they beat him in 22 and then 23 was the other way around right right my bad um but they're not going for uh important shanaanan apparently isn't going with the ebug quarterback this week stating that, well, it's happened to him once in 23 years and other people he's worked with once in 45. So the odds of taking away a roster spot just for an ebug isn't really the way to go. Part of this, I'm just looking at the ESPN preview, but apparently there's a

lot of restaurant owners in Philly that are denying 49ers fans requests to do bar takeovers. Yes, that has been a big thing this week. Last year there was a big bar takeover, the Hard Rock, the Washington commanders came in and took over the bar. I remember that. Eagles fans weren't even going to that bar. It wasn't really a takeover. So now this doesn't become a viral thing.

Now the viral thing is we're not accepting any 49ers fans into these bars for the takeover. That's the other way now. You're just being denied. Are there ways around that? I feel like you can just wear another jersey over that jersey. and then just everyone takes them off once you're there. Then they can, like, it's like a flash mob. Yeah, exactly.

Like, everyone's in, like, you know, you start off. Like, it's like a fake surrender. Like, then you just, whewsh. Or like, it's like a blitz. It's a Trojan horse. You can't. I hear you. They're going to throw you out.

Trust me, they are going to throw you out. They're like, they're like, Area 51 in 2019. Oh, I remember that. You can't stop us all. Yeah, but they did, though. They did. But they did. They didn't stop everybody.

Well, no one tried. Well, the groups that they, the small groups went. Oh, true, yeah. Yeah, they never had a chance. No, no, no. I just feel like if they try that, they're going to get thrown out. Yeah, they will. And that's why they're getting denied.

They don't, they don't want, they don't want the hassle with the whole, you know, took it over this bar in Philly. Trust me, like they, they'll do something to the Rocky statue, I'm sure, because they always do. And they'll keep, and they'll keep doing. Teams will keep doing that until eventually it works, but it doesn't work for the Eagles. Let's get into our Sunday night game. Patriots, three and a half point favorites at home against the Chargers.

All right, I'm just going to say it right now. As a Pat's fan, if I were to choose the scheduling of these games, I would not have put this as the Sunday night. I would have swapped Eagles Niners and swap Jaguars bills with Steelers, Texans. That's just my opinion. And that's my preview for Chargers, Pat's. No, I'm kidding. My preview for this game, Drake May.

Drake May. Drake May. Drake May. Drake May. Mike, this is probably the most Drake May glaze you'll see up close and personal. that you'll probably see and maybe until you come down to Gillette or New England, whenever that is.

Come up for a game. Yeah. Eagles Patriots. Maybe that'll have to happen. We'll have to do something with that. We should. Or other way around. Maybe we take a trip out to The Link.

We might get murdered. You might not make it. We're going to have to do that thing. We're going to have to buy our Eagles jersey and just run it. Only if they win. just that's it that's all you have to do there you go um look outside of Drake may right uh you know we can talk about MVP season all that in a bag of chips but you look at the chargers and it's this is another team that kind of uh kind of slowly limped to the finish line you look at

their offensive line dog shit um the worst offensive line in the league officially if we're going based off of PFF grades, which I don't like doing that a ton, and other players have been very much against the PFF grade. But I test, that test, you name it, worst offensive line in the league, and they're suffering from it. And you can literally see from it that Herbert has no time,

he doesn't have a single lick of a thought to throw football before a dudes in his face pause. and I just feel like with the Patriots, they're getting guys back at the right time, Milton Williams, Will Campbell, granted off the side of the football, still point being made.

Robert Spillane coming back. Guys are coming back at the right time. And I feel like, not saying that Herbert isn't going to have a terrible or a great game. Maybe he does have a good game. But I think that this New England defense, it's just going to overpower the charged offensive line. That's my take for this weekend.

I like your take. I know, I, I'm a bit of a Patriots fan because of Milton Williams. I'm a, you know, Milton Williams fan. What a player. What a player. Thank you, Mark. Yeah, it's too much money.

That's, it's, that's okay. But if you listen to our podcast, if a guy in our podcast, Mark, he loves anybody coming out of Oregon. And Herbert is an Oregon duck. And he just goes on and on on about Herbert this, Herbert this guy. He's not, he hasn't proved anything. Okay. He's, apparently, he's a great quarterback. Yeah, but he's not going to, he's not going to, he can't, I don't think he can win those really big games. Those really big games that are really meaningful. He could, like, he beat the, he beat the Eagles, but.

I think the Eagles beat the Eagles against the Chargers. Just Herbert didn't beat the Eagles. This is going to be a game that's going to be, again, I'm going to watch this. I'm going to watch this game. I want to watch this one. Nice. Thank you. You're welcome.

We're taking over a bar. I'm excited to see what Drake May can do, like playoff. Playoff Drake, make. I have a little fear of mine that I would like to share. And I don't think it's going to come to light. But Drake May is in the top two in MVP odds right now. And he can very well win it. And the winner has essentially already been decided.

They vote on Monday right after week 18. And what I'm afraid of is let's say the Patriots are won and done. And all of the schedule. allegations or the schedule concerns are confirmed. It turns out maybe this Patriots team was only good because of the schedule. I don't think they are. I think they're good and they had an easy schedule. But besides the point, let's say they are won and done.

And then he wins league MVP. That may be the most paper award that I would ever see of all time. We're talking about the award and you're out on wildcard weekend. Do you know how rare it is that an MVP loses on wildcard weekend? It almost never happens. In fact, if my history is correct, the last time it did happen was a running back, Adrian Peterson in 2012. And running backs, they don't play as big of a role on their team as quarterbacks do.

But that's just a little fear of mine. I just thought I'd get that out of the way. Refer to my take from the previous game. Sunbelt teams and dome teams almost never win on the road in a cold weather environment in the postseason. It almost never happens. Unless you're Tom Brady on the Buccaneers visiting the frozen tundra. But if you're going to use a quarterback who was previously playing in New England for 20 years,

than I think that you're... Yeah, it throws out the window. It's a little, it's a bit of an outlier. Yeah. But listen, I would rather have, I would rather, I'd, I'd much rather be an unknown with Drake May in the playoffs than be the stain of the postseason past of Justin Herbert, throwing four interceptions to just one touchdown last year. and a few years prior blowing a massive lead to the Jacksonville Jaguars of all teams.

I'd much rather be the Patriots that should go without saying. And you should expect them to win this game for many different reasons. Chris brought up the offensive line. I think that's a great point. It's probably one of the most obvious reasons that the Patriots should win this game,

because that interior defensive line, the Patriots, which is now healthy, Milton Williams and Christian Barmore versus that interior Chargers line, is going to be a mismatch. And I don't think Justin Herbert can survive that. Every dog has its day, and eventually Justin Herbert will finally win

his first postseason game. But how could you possibly make the argument to me that that's going to happen this week? and if it does, it is a massive choke job on the Patriots part. You should expect the Patriots to reach the divisional round. CJ, before you give your take, I have a couple other statistics for you boys. Patriots, three and one all time against the Chargers. The only time the Chargers have been the Patriots in the playoffs,

the AFL Championship in 1964. Drake Bay in primetime this season. 4-0, 73.4% completion percentage, 1,200 passing yards, five touchdowns to one interception. Justin Herbert in primetime this season, 5-0 record, 10-2 touchdown and interception, averaging about 271 total yard passing in rushing, 106.3 quarterback rate, 7.9 yards per attempt.

C.J. Oh, this game fills me with so much anxiety because there's a lot, like I said before, I'm just so tired of the anti-patriots trash talk. It's so ridiculous. All nine Chargers fans are creating their bot accounts and saying stuff right. Oh, you go and catch bell. Like, remember last season, we beat you 40 to 7?

It's like, wow, you beat a Gerard Mayo team with no O-Line. Shiver me, timbers. You're so scary. Like, okay, that doesn't mean anything. It's, oh, you lost to the Raiders. like, wow, counterpoint, it's week one, try harder. And like, there's just so much trash talk coming their way. And for the Patriots, I got to tell you, if you lose this game, every hater is right.

Then if you lose this game, you were scheduled merchants. May's not MVP. And I'm worried that if they go one and done, next year, they're going to crater. Because then their schedule is going to be harder. And honestly, if you want any kind of momentum, you got to build it now. Because if you go one and done that stews into next year, that could do a lot of horrible things to your psyche, kind of like 2021.

And yes, I know this year's different. So Adam, don't jump down my throat. That goes for you too, Chris. But I'm just saying like a one and done's a really bad look. So, but as a whole for the Chargers, they're a dome team playing in the cold. That does not bode well for them. second, I don't trust Justin Herbert in the playoffs.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, the Chargers beat the Pats 40 to 7. Justin Herbert's never won a playoff game. And if you can't beat Herbert with the worst offensive line in the league, then I don't know what to tell you. I mean, the only thing that scares me is at the Chargers defense with Tui Polotu, Mac, Derwin James, Tarib still. Like, I think they're good. They have a good defense, but.

New England's just, I mean, you got to be better. And I'm really, I'm really scared. Maybe I'm just listening to too much of the haters, but you don't want to let a team like the Chargers catch you nap in. Because worse, yeah, imagine being the team that Justin Herbert, aka If Man, gets his first playoff win against. Because next year, you're going to crater if you go one and done. But I also just, as much as I'm afraid, I just don't trust.

Justin Herbert. I really don't, at least not in the playoffs. Not to mention he's playing with a busted up hand as well. He's been playing with a busted hand the whole season. Yeah. Okay, but this is the playoffs. And also, half the season.

Sorry. But I'm just, another thing, too, is I've seen Chargers fans saying, huh, Pat's have no pass rush. Herbert's going to have all day. Like, talking like you don't have the worst offensive line in the NFL. And not to mention the Patriots are going to get healthy at the right. Or they're getting healthy at the right time. You know, they're getting all their guys back.

That's huge. But there's one more thing. Chargers fans have said, you may remember last week, all their starters didn't play. They rested their starters. They go, oh, pats are banged up. The Chargers are rested. I would actually counter with, are you going to be rested or are you going to be rusty? Because you might have just snuffed out any momentum you may have had.

like by sitting your starters for that game which like i get it the patriots could come could be coming in warmed up the chargers i don't know it's really important new england wins this game i just want them to win a playoff game because one and done i think could have really bad ramifications for next year but i'm still going with new england for the sole reason of i don't trust justin herbert all its negativity about one and done one and done that. The, CJ, for someone who's not, CJ,

for somebody, hold up, let me guess. You're going to do a 98.5 gotcha, aren't you? No. Oh,

I thought you were going to say, I thought you're going to compare me 98. You know a whole lot about what they're saying with their bot accounts and everything. Are you just, do you have a, do you have a Twitter account that we're doing?

No, this is all on IG. All I see is all 40 to 7. Oh, we're arrested. It's like, no. Where?

47 was last year. Where? You're not resting. What platform are you seeing that on? Instagram. Twitter. Instagram. I have said this.

Do you want me to say it a fourth time? Instagram. Yeah, I want to you say it a fifth time now. Instagram. But I'm just saying like, God, all nine Chargers fans have really bicked me off. And not only do I hope New England wins. I hope New England just curb stomps them. Because mark my words,

Chargers fans, New England could win this game, then losing the divisional round, I'm going to be insufferable towards you. I'm already have an if man rant lined up if New England wins. So please, I just, I hope the Chargers get, I just hope they get crushed. You said that the Patriots are going to have a hard time next year if they have a difficult schedule. Is that what you're saying? No, no, no, I mean, if they go, it's not just their schedule next year, which is very hard. I think it's like six hardest. But I still think they can win. You know, if you have a good quarterback, you can win.

And I do think Drake May is a good quarterback. I just think that on top of going one and done. I don't like that. This will be a carryover is what you're saying. Yeah. I'm just worried like the last time they went one and done in the playoffs. It was like an complete collapse. But that team was.

Mack Jones was the quarterback and Bill Belichick sabotaged everything. Yeah. I mean, I know. Like I said, it was different. But I don't know, man. Yeah. All your PTSD is. All your BTSP, you look at me on Chris Hapag.

I don't care, bro. I don't care, bro. The top two worst things that could possibly happen this postseason are, it's one of two things. It's one and done or losing in the Super Bowl. I think this is a type of young team where you want to do something that is not going to traumatize the young kid that is just developing. and I think it's poetic that the Patriots for Drake May's first postseason game, he's facing his pre-draft comp, which was Justin Herbert, a quarterback who is really good in the regular season,

who we don't trust in the postseason. I'm hoping that he's not, that Drake May is an unknown right now. I really, really hope that he isn't exactly Justin Herbert. I don't think he is. I don't think he is either. Herbert even struggles winning games in the regular season. He barely gets winning records year and year out. In Drake May's second full season, first full season, 14 and 3.

Drake May, Drake May has a pedigree, though. Like Herbert doesn't have his pedigree as much as Drake May. Drake May's dad was a football player, his mom was a basketball player, his brothers. Like, he's got a lot of athleticism in his background. Herbert, you don't really know I ain't be too much about where he's coming from. So, you know, I don't know if you guys, do you guys follow Brian Benchwormer

or Benchwormer Brian on... Oh, Benchformer brand. Yeah, I love that. Yeah. Yeah, he's does that whole Drake May. Like, Drake May, like, Drake May. Like, it cracks me up. I wanted, I always wanted to say, ask you guys if you know what that, why does he do the Drake May? All he speaks is Drake May.

Like, is Drake May his nickname or what is that? Literally it. His nickname. So if you had a nickname, just choose one from history. Like, let's just say Tom Brady, you could say Tom, TB12 Brady or Iran the Honey Badger Matthew, Peyton the Sheriff Manning, etc. Somebody just said, there's a meme page. You may have heard of it called Drake May lover, where the whole thing is Drake May is so cool as a need a nicknames. They just call him Drake, Drake May, May. So Benchwarmer Brand, who is a Patriots fan. Right. Yeah. It has him just whenever he's playing Drake May on his little skits just says, Drake May, he just speaks in Drake May.

It's very funny. All right. Let's get off the paths. We've been at it for a little bit. Drake Mae. Drake May. Drake, Wild card round Monday night football,

the final Monday night football game of the season. Steelers versus Texans. Steelers, three point underdogs at home against the Texan. It's Houston. It's Houston. That's all you need to know. It's going to be a sloppy one.

Maybe. I don't know. Maybe so. Fourth quarter, I could see some fireworks building up like it did with the Baltimore game for Pittsburgh Baltimore game. Great good. But Houston's defense is just straight fucking nails. Let's be real. Straight nails.

they're almost unstoppable. We talk about the Jaguars. Well, Texans are on just as much of a heater as the Jaguars are, if not better. It's just unfortunate that Houston guy hit with having to go to Pittsburgh on the road. But I don't know, actually. This just came to mind. Do we put the Dome team thing onto Houston as well? I mean, Houston hasn't been terrible in cold.

That's a good question. They do play, let's see, though, they can play an open, you know, that they're not always in a dome stadium. True, true. Open, so. Yeah, it does. You know, it doesn't get cold in Houston that often? Not that much, right? And when it does get cold, they end up closing the roof.

Exactly, yeah. So it's, it's iffy. Like, I know that I think last year they went to Kansas City. and they got they lost in the cold there. So I like Houston. I like to my, Dibico Ryans. I like him.

He's a former eagle. I like him a lot. Do I trust the Steelers? I don't know. It's a, it's a coin toss in my mind, really. But I like Houston. I like Houston.

Mike Tomlin, he never had a losing record, but his playoff, his playoff record is not great. He's what he wasn't the Super Bowl, but like was it really his team or was it was it uh cowers team like bill cowers team like i don't know but is interesting like is he going to get fired if he's wanted done that's another thing i think he does he hasn't want to playoff game since 2016 wow that long well it was technically 2017 it was the 2016 season yeah right yeah i remember they beat the kansas city chiefs because uh of like an off-sides

penalty or a false star or something all i know is the chiefs were going to win and they shot themselves in the foot it was eric fisher if i recall correctly doing a a false start i think it was three presidents ago barraq obama was in office oh jesus wow wait a minute yeah no tromba just gotten sworn in for the first time but all i know is i was no you're sworn in the 27th way like tom won a playoff game what I was a freshman in high school for reference when my Tom on a playoff game. Chris was a sophomore, Adam, you're either a sophomore or junior.

But yeah, so my point is we were all in high school when Tomlin went a playoff game. I was. I was, last year I was graduated college. So like, I was, I was,

I was graduate, both both by that time. But I'm just saying those. Just so we're all, just so we all understand, just for reference, it has been a while. And for the Steelers, I don't know how long you can hide behind the, he's never had a losing record stick.

Because, yeah, 9 and 8, is it a losing record? No. Do you want to be 9 and 8? Do you want to be 10 and 7? No, you don't. Especially when you're getting belt put to you and you sneak in as the 4th C. Or as a wild card team. Honestly, I think it's going to be ugly, but I got Houston.

This is going to be just an awful defensive showcase. but that Houston defense is going to send Rogers to the retirement home where he can collect his AARP checks to quote a line from our good friend, Justin Tucker. Yeah, he knows. I mean, I'm Brady, so I've used that for Rogers. That's the other storyline here. Who knows? Maybe this is the final time we see Aaron Rogers on a football field.

I think he's got one more year. I'm thinking Minnesota next year for him. Yeah. Yeah. The other big thing, too, is that Pittsburgh's going to be. getting D.K. Metcalf back as well, which they haven't had him in the last couple weeks. That's, that's been one of the bigger. He was suspended because of the whole, uh, the fans, right?

Slapping thing, uh, potentially racist, not racist. I don't know. Right. That stuff I like to leave alone. Don't go to this. Don't go near the stands. Just to stay on the sidelines. You don't have to go near the stands. Why? Yeah, I can do that.

Like, come on. I would just like to say that playing under a retractable. roof is essentially the same thing as being in a dome because what happens when the weather is bad? Yeah, close it up. So it's, I guess defense does travel, but the Steelers do have the advantage on offense. They have the better quarterback in this game. Even Rogers Olds, I'll take over C.J. Stroud. And D.K. Metcalf is back, so he has a toy to play with.

This will be a much closer game than I think. and I do think it's going to be sloppy. So it's going to be close and it's going to come down to those final moments. Let's just say the team, the game is close. No one, everyone's, it's late in the game. It's a one score game. No one's been able to score any points. And Rogers has the ball in his hands.

May be able to turn back the clock. CJ Stroud has the ball in his hands late in the game. How are we feeling? He looked good against. the Ravens that last game. He was troubled, like, pretty dying passes. So he could dial it in again. Sure. Yeah. I don't know about C-Chic. I don't know. I will say the one game that you could probably say the Texans played in that was a cold weather game that they won from this year was against the Chiefs back in 18, 17, week 14, and they won 20 to 10. That was at a Sunday night game. And they won 20 to 10. Yeah. So defense does try. travel. But the postseason is a much different animal than the regular season. So once you get,

once you get into that point, things are just different. So the Steelers and the Steelers and the Texans, I mean, Rogers has been there and done that for a decade and a half. The better part of close to 20 years, I'm pretty sure at this point. So he was drafted in 2005. He was drafted. but I mean it was three years before we finally started a game. I don't know. It's going to be cold. It's going to be 36 degrees. And the Texans can't really score any points.

So the Steelers defense is pretty suspect, but they've lucked out by going against C.J. Stroud and Nico Collins, where their best offensive players. That's something to consider there. Yeah, especially with Texan, like the run game for the Texans. They're just inconsistently healthy. I mean, never mind Joe Mixen, but, all right. Joe Mixon.

Yeah, Joe Mixon. I thought we would see him at some point. I thought they were at least a little bit, but not even once. I was hoping. All right. That is all the scheduled content that we have for today. But Adam does have one other thing real quick, and we're going to leave it to him.

He's going to do his playoff bracket. Adams bracket. There we go. All right. We got some music to hit up over here. We got a, it's like, I'll turn on for you. I'll turn on for you. I got some, I don't know.

All right. We're ready to go? You are a net negative on society. We have voice clips. Sorry about that. That wasn't me saying that was a voice clip. Go ahead and die. Talks about Patriots fans who are upset about Drake May.

Give me some rock. Give me something that is, it's not like the loafie. We don't need. Loaf. Who calls it Loaf? Oh, ew. That's disgusting, Chris. All right.

We don't need music. We're ready to go. Let's do us. All right. Let's start off. We're going to start with the AFC. We're going to work our way out. And then we're going to the NFC.

work our way out, and then we're going to get to the Super Bowl matchup. I choose the Super Bowl winner. All right. We're going to start with the Chargers at the Patriots. This is a mismatch on all fronts. The Chargers are a dome team. Patriots take care of business. All right.

We have the Bills visiting the Jaguars. I did slightly allude to it when we were doing our game picks, but I think Josh Allen is going to become too much. For the Jaguars, the Jaguars aren't, haven't historically been a very good postseason team, and Trevor Lawrence has really been no exception to that. He did have that one postseason win a few years ago, but like I said, that was against the Chargers,

who are historically, probably the worst postseason performing team of all time, and Brandon Staley and also Justin Herbert can't play in the postseason. So give me the bills. They advanced the divisional round. Going to the Texans who are visiting the Steelers, I took some time on this. I really did. And up until maybe 30 minutes before the show started, I was going to have the Texans winning this one. But I just think the Steelers are going to come out and win it.

Steelers have too much on offense. Now that D.K. Metcalf is back. Aaron Rogers is the most seasoned player in all of this playoff. picture. As far as post-season performance, as far as post-season experience, I think that's going to come a long way in this matchup. The Steelers, they head to New England. We're going to start with the Bills who are visiting the Broncos. Earlier this season, I had a take about visiting Denver in the postseason. And I still, for the most part, stand by that.

I think there is something about that place. The energy with how loud the stadium is, the thin air. It's an extremely hard place to play. But I don't, I think if anyone in this playoff picture is going to advance, it's going to be Josh Allen. I think he heads to the AFC championship game. All right. Patriots hosting the Steel.

Aaron Rogers postseason magic is going to run out. He's old. I think that defense is way too suspect. I think Drake May and company score at will on that defense. They get revenge from week three of the regular season. They advance to the AFC championship, and they host the Bills. We get as if we haven't gotten enough of Bill's Patriots, we get it a third time in the AFC championship. They can be horny, Adam.

Hey, yo. I'm trying to turn this into a real. We're just out here. I'm going to cut that up. I'm going to put that in there. You should. You should. Good, good.

Hey, no ditty. People can know about us. All right. As if it couldn't get any better, the point difference, head to head this year has been two points. Two point difference. These teams have been as evenly mash as it gets. But this is Josh Allen's year, and Alan has willed his way to victory's year-in and year-out, and he has a great record in shootouts.

I think they advance to the Super Bowl, and Josh Allen makes it for the first time. Drake May may have won league MVP, possibly. He may have made the AFC championship, but he's too young to get there just yet. just like Patrick Mahomes and you know things worked out pretty well in the years after that but some quarterbacks

are just too young to get there the Patriots have a lot of youth they have a great foundation I think this is the best scenario for the Patriots outside of winning a Super Bowl and that includes going there all right we get to the NFC we're going to start with

we're going to start with the Packers hosting the Bears I did say that the Packers have the advantage as far as quarterback and coach. But overall, I don't think it's going to be enough. I think Jordan Love is a better quarterback, but he's not an elite quarterback. He's not Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen, who can just will his way and be Superman and just win games. Jordan Love isn't that. bears

beers eke out just a little more magic and they advance to the divisional round 49ers at the Eagles Sunbelt team 49ers they are a very good team however give me the Eagles

Eagles are an easy one just saying that because I'm here are you? I've been following you guys Eagles winning in a cold weather game I know technically, listen, California is technically, it's a long state, but the weather out in San Francisco is really weird. It's not a cold weather place. That place, it's, if they go into Philadelphia across the country and have to face that, that wretched hornet's nest over there, then they have no chance.

I like that. I guess some pretty heinous things about Jell and Hertz recently. I'm not going to lie. both makes you feel any better. I just say heinous things about Kevin Petula. Yeah. It sounds like you're on the Swok Eagles podcast, CJ, because that's all we do there, too. Hey, I mean, look, I don't want to see good players getting wasted, so.

Yeah, agreed. All right. We have the Rams who are visiting the Panthers. I, listen, I did say this is going to be a close one. I think this is going to be a weirdly entertaining game and more on the, ugly side, but the Rams get it done. The Panthers just don't have the guns to do it. I like Teteroa McMillan.

He's much better than CJ and I thought that he would be going into this season. And Bryce Young is much better than I thought he would be. But it's not going to be enough. Rams advance. And that's where we are going to get into the divisional matchup between the Rams who are, visiting the Seattle Seahawks. And the reason I'm going to have the Rams advancing is one,

I have one name for you, Sam Darnold. I hate him as a postseason performer. I always have from, it's, he just feels like a choker to me. Not just feels. It's, we've seen it. But we have seen, even from his Jets days when he wasn't, we didn't know what he was. from that seeing ghost game back in 2019.

He is such a guy who's just, when he's under pressure, he's going to fall apart. So Rams, they advanced to the division, the AFC championship game. We have the Eagles who are visiting the Bears. Again, I like Caleb Williams. I really do. I promise you, I liked him coming out of the draft.

But he is such a galloping chicken. when it comes to when it comes to running around in the pocket trying to make the big play. He tries too hard. And I appreciate that effort. He doesn't have it. Not yet. And the Eagles are going to beat him with the experience.

They go to the NFC championship game. And there, the Eagles are going to host the Rams. I'm going to break my cardinal rule right here, right now, about dome teams. and I'm going to have the Rams going to the Super Bowl. I think Matthew Stafford, he's been there, he's done that. That hurts me. That hurts me. I'm sorry, Mike.

They're going to go to the Super Bowl. I'm going to break my Cardinal rule. Maybe it's going to be a nice day. Maybe that's going to be how it goes. But I just, with the way the offense is run over there in Philadelphia, I don't see it. So they go to the Super Bowl. It's going to be the Bills who are taking. on the Rams. I think the Rams win the Super Bowl. I think Josh Allen gets his shot, but

Josh Allen can do a lot. I don't think he can beat Matthew Stafford with this offense. There's no way you can keep up with that. And the defense for the Rams is just good enough. Give me the Rams to win the Super Bowl. Wow. Wow. We picked our Super Bowl. picks earlier in the year I picked Eagles bills that's not going to happen but I don't Eagles Rams Bills I don't is that a is that a thrilling Super Bowl the watch? How much of a thrilling Super Bowl is that

going to be? What do you think? For which teams? Bill Bills Rams That's is that a That would be a banger. You think so? Yeah. I think it would be pretty good again like Josh Allen Josh Allen can engage in shootouts

like he can just even if he doesn't have the weapons he can he can take over games and I just think Matthew Stafford will be able to answer the bell it's everything he's done with the Rams he's only missed the playoffs once in that one year he was

I'm pretty sure he was hurt all season like yep he's been awesome this year just in his career over with the Rams that was the best thing that ever happened to his career. Leva is being traded out of Detroit. Oh, for sure. So it'll be an entertaining one. And I think the Patriots, again, I love the Patriots. I think the, of course,

I love the Patriots. I think the Patriots will eventually break through. If my prediction is correct, then that means that Drake May does have the ice water in his veins to make a deep playoff run. And it just means his youth is going to be too much. I mean, like, they've been able to square off against the bills time and time again. But this is Josh Allen's year. This is the year he has to do it. And I think therefore he will. All right.

That is Adams bracket for the NFL playoffs. All opinions are his own. Not mine. Not mine, either. You probably have Drake May go to the Super Bowl. anyway. Oh, yeah, it's Drake May or nothing. Anyways, that is now all the scheduled content that we have for you today. Special guest, Mike, from Squawking English podcast. Thank you for joining us again.

Plug the pod, please. Yeah, thanks for having me. It's been, it was always a great time to come on with you guys. You have to come on to our podcast. It's just that we record so late. We record 11, 30, 12 o'clock at night. So I'm not sure if any of you guys are. Yeah. That's what we've been kind of doing. All right. All right. All right.

All right. Eagles Patriot. Yeah. Well, we work. We work nights. So like that's what's why. Well, we have guy works overnight.

So, uh, so yeah, if you go over the podcast, Squawk Eagles podcast, I just uploaded my interview with Ricky Waters, 49er, played with the Eagles,

play with the Seahawks. Had him, I talked to him over the summertime about the Eagles, about coming to Philadelphia, what it's like to be a running back in Philadelphia. And then what it was like to come back to Philadelphia after leaving the Eagles. So it was really great talking to him.

That's over on YouTube and on Spotify. Also, I joined Brian Dawkins and the Win Packed organization. And then you go ahead into winpac.org and you buy entries to win a Super Bowl 59 signed football by Cooper DeGine. So you go ahead of Winpacked.org And you can put in some entries to try and win a Super Bowl memorabilia for Brian Dawkins and Windpacked.

Game used, by the way. Game used football. You want to send us to the link to that and we'll put it into the description on YouTube. Sure will. Yeah, I'll send you the link. Yeah, so that's it. We're just, we hit our 200th episode this year, four years going.

Two Super Bowls in those four years. I can't complain. So it's great to be able to talk to you guys too and to pop on and talk it's really great always fun hell yeah we love having you on mike and we'll definitely try to let's try to get some schedule where we uh or we get some rip some takes about the eagles on you guys spot love it yeah love it that's all for us today uh thank you for tuning into another friday episode of fumble rusky podcast a new episode coming out on friday at tuesday at a m today's friday tuesday at a m be sure to subscribe subscribe to our youtube

channel and we also have all our episodes available on Spotify, Spreaker, Apple Podcast, iHeartRadio, Google Podcast, and so much more. Be sure to follow our Instagram, Pulmaruski underscore podcast, keep up the pot and the latest coverage on the NFL. And of course, give a follow, subscribe to the Squawking Eagles as well. Other than that, we'll see you on Tuesday over now.