The Fumblerooski Podcast - Ruling the Pride -Ep 326 The Fumblerooski Podcast

Episode Date: January 8, 2025

The Lions spank the Vikings and secure the #1 Seed and the NFC North, the Vikings drop down to the #5 Seed. Can Sam Darnold be trusted to get the job done in big moments? Black Monday came and went, but it was more like a Black Sunday, Monday and Tuesday with teams making business decisions on all of those days. Adam Wright, CJ Medeiros, Justin Tucker, and Chris Costich talk all this, including our most interesting playoff matchups and the Week 18 Top 3 Bottom 3!

wild card weekend matchups are set the lions clinch the number one seed over the vikings in decisive fashion and coaches plenty of them fired many interviews scheduled on black monday i'm adam wright this is the fumble ruski 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 Fumble Rooski podcast by Power 88 and Secret Weapon Consulting, Adam Wright,

with CJ Medeiros, Justin Tucker, and Chris Kostic. We have a full house today now that the Ravens won and clinched the number three seed. Big show. We are about to start the 2024 NFL playoffs. I guess 25, but it's the 2024 season. Wild card weekend. matchups are set and I'll go over them just real quick. Saturday, January 11th, day one of wildcard weekend, 4.30 PM Eastern standard time. We have the Chargers visiting the Texans. Yes, the Chargers visiting the Texans. Right after that on prime primetime, this will be on Prime Video.

So the last one, Chargers-Texans is on Paramount+. On Prime Video, on primetime, 8 o'clock p.m., Steelers visiting the Ravens. Then on Sunday, January 12th, my birthday, birthday broncos visiting the bills at 1 p.m that's going to be on paramount plus as well i'm not subscribed to that so i'm gonna have to illegally stream it somehow cbs it's cbs it just says paramount cbs slash paramount plus but yeah like we need to stop with the streaming invasion it's just getting ridiculous uh then packers at eagles that's at 4 30 p.m on fox thank god commanders are visiting the buccaneers that's at eight o'clock p.m., NBC and Peacock.

And then Monday, January 13th, we've got Vikings visiting the Rams. So a lot of good matchups. We'll get into that. But overall, the postseason could not have gotten here any sooner. The regular season was egregiously long and the quality of play for football games was terrible hopefully with all of the bad teams removed from the mix maybe just maybe we'll get some better football and we'll end this season with a bang because this is a this has been an egregiously bad season overall. It was so top-heavy, and there were so many bad teams.

And teams that probably should not have had 14-15 wins ended up with that high of a win total because of how many bad teams there were in the league. It's been a bad year. And the postseason could not come any sooner. But speaking of which which on the last game of the regular season on sunday night football we got what was probably considered one of the most highly anticipated regular season matchups in recent memory um and this being when the Vikings visited the Lions.

And I got to say, it kind of flopped. This was very much indicative of how the entire season went in general in terms of quality of play. High expectations, but just failed to live up to them. The Lions beat the Vikings 31-9, and this was a close game at first. Um, and Detroit led through the entire game. This was close up until I'd say the last two minutes of the third quarter. And then they ran away with it it and it was all because of jameer gibbs 23

carries 139 rushing yards three touchdowns as far as the rushing side and he added another touchdown on the receiving end as well so the guy absolutely went off the thing about jameer gibbs is he is a back he is one of the best backs in the league. He, in terms of efficiency, in terms of being able to score in terms of durability, this kid can play problem is he's been stuck splitting carries with, uh, with David Montgomery. Granted, David Montgomery is a very good back. So it's good to run with a committee. Just sometimes it pisses off a few fantasy football owners because we know what he can be. However, Jameer Gibbs is a stud. He showed it. And right off the bat, my first takeaway is that this shows that Detroit can blow you out in multiple different ways. Jared Goff didn't have the best game.

He threw two picks in this matchup. He threw one touchdown pass to Jameer Gibbs, but overall, this was a game that was one off defense and running the ball. And the thing is, this isn't the best that we've seen out of Detroit because we know they could run it. They could win playing vertically as well and just out-coaching you. So this is a great win for Detroit. I know that their passing offense left a lot to be desired, but overall, good game from Detroit. If you're a Lions fan, you should be very excited heading into the postseason because you know that they can play better than this.

And if this is a bad game for them, winning just off running the ball, then how does a good game look? Where you're going in and you have a bye, by the way. You have the number one seed. So all good things coming out of Detroit. Minnesota leaves a little bit to be desired, to say the least. But I'll leave it to you guys. CJ, I'll let you start.

Yeah. The Vikings, one of the reasons I picked them to win the game was, like I said, they just had a lot of ways they could attack, you know, ground, air, stifling defense. But the Lions, they didn't outrunrun them they didn't outflash them they just out physicaled them and i saw uh what's the name of that uh guy they had on jefferson absolutely locked him up um like eric something oh yeah but anyway he absolutely shut down justin jefferson i think only had like what four catches for 50 something yards on the entire day three catches oh three

catches thank you uh i don't but yeah so i i don't i don't know like But, yeah, so I don't know. The fact that the Lions, by the way, they lost Terryon Arnold in that game. He was carded off, if I recall correctly. And the Lions just still won. You had their backup DBs. You had Alex Anzalone coming off like a broken forearm, if you can believe it. And despite that, they just shut everyone down. And the way is, like I said, they played physical.

In fact, there's a perfect comparison in this game. By the way, it was Amik Robertson. That's the one that absolutely put the clamps on Jefferson. So you have Amik Robertson and Alex Anzalone playing lights out against these guys, locking up TJ Hawkinson, locking up Justin Jefferson. Literally the entire team didn't do anything. Sam Darnold seeing ghosts again, for crying out loud. And what this reminds me of was this 2003 playoff game

between the New England Patriots and the indianapolis cults where the cults you know with an up-and-coming peyton manning you know they had all the flash in the league with reggie wayne and marvin harrison in fact we were talking about this in the chat or at least me and chris were and new england's solution was just play physical they had ty law and otis smith just straight up mug them at the line of scrimmage. Like every play, like they were, for lack of a better term, just beating them up nonstop. And that's what the Lions did.

They played physical. And that mentality translated itself to the offensive side of the ball, where down near on every play, especially the fourth quarter, they'd hand up the ball to Jameer Gibbs and say, hey, run, man, run. Do your thing. And he had four touchdowns on the game. Vikings defense, and they absolutely carved up that stout Vikings defense, you know, led by perhaps future head coach candidate Brian Flores.

Just like I said, it wasn't a flashy win. It felt closer than what the scoreboard actually showed. But at the end of the day, the Vikings, honestly, the only way I can describe this loss is just a punch in the mouth. The Lions came out, played physical. You didn't. You relied on flash, and the Lions relied relied on muscle and you just got pushed around the entire night they flat out got bullied be it through press coverage or be it on the ground

that's the only takeaway and until the vikings figure out or try to adjust that physical brand of football then i don't know maybe the playoffs could be a little harsh for him adam yeah say something maybe the playoffs could be a little harsh for him. Adam, did you say something? Talk. Oh, okay. I couldn't hear you. First things first, congratulations to the Detroit Lions for keeping and maintaining the number one overall seed.

They now have a bye going into the the divisional round second off congratulations to sam donald even though he didn't have the best game uh let last sunday i think he played overall well for the season that they've had but looking at the game himself it was clear he didn't feel comfortable all night he felt pressured he felt like he was getting sacked every other play he He felt like he was being moved off his spots. He couldn't get the ball cleanly to receivers. He just didn't look like Sam Donald throughout the whole season. He looked like Sam Donald of old. And overall, I think that was the difference. And even though they turned it up in the second half with Jameer Gibbs having those four touchdowns, I really do think Minnesota could have won that game, specifically with how Jared Goff was playing with those two interceptions.

It was really nip and tuck until they turned it on in the second half. But overall, I think this was a good, solid win for a division rivalry, and it was good for them to secure the number one overall seed, specifically with all the injuries that they have. So it's good for them to secure the number one overall seed, specifically with all the injuries that they have. So it's nice for them to be able to rust up for the next round. And for the Minnesota Vikings, this is kind of a blow. They went from potentially having a first-round bye to now going on the road to face the Packers? The Rams.

The Rams, okay. The Rams, and they're no easy team to beat either with Matthew Stafford and Sean McVay as the head coach and quarterbacks. So overall, I think it was a solid game. It may not be the most explosive game or spectacular game, but I think it was a good one for the Detroit Lions. This is a great win for the lines of course and good for them and the fact that they almost lost terry on arnold and now he's day-to-day so they're not going to miss him for the entirety of the

playoffs most likely um and now you got the buy to rest up a lot of these guys and everything just seems to be looking great for them in terms of some of these guys that could potentially come back. Like David Montgomery could potentially be back for the NFC Championship. Same thing with Sam Hutchinson. So all roads are pointing in the right direction for Detroit. Played very physical ball. They got Sam Darnold a lot. They weren't getting sacks.

They were getting in his face and causing a bunch of incompletions, which is why Sam Donald ended up being 18 for 41 on the day. I thought running the ball wise Vikings were good, but it's the two goal to go scenarios where they ended up with zero points. And that kind of do it for me at this point. I'll, I'll read it off for you. So end of the, so we're in the third quarter, start of the third quarter. They have first and goal, 1331 left in the third quarter.

Cam Akers up the middle for no gain. Second and goal at the Detroit 5. Sam Darnold, short pass left to Aaron Jones, stopped at the Detroit 2, out of bounds for a gain of 3. Third and goal. Sam Darnold, incomplete pass. Fourth and goal. Incomplete pass.

Hmm. You only ran the ball once in a goal-to-go situation. And you even had third and goal from the 2. Okay, that's fine. Let's actually go back into the second quarter and see how they did on that cam acres left tackled to the three yard line that was first and goal from the five second goal from the three sam donald pass incomplete okay third and goal at the detroit three pass incomplete fourth and goal at the Detroit three pass incomplete six pass plays

and only two run plays in goal to go scenario for the Vikings play calling was lacking in probably in short of a better term it was lacking to say the least play calling was not very good for the vikings like running the ball they did fine i'm surprised they didn't try to run more when they were in goal to go they probably would have ended up with at least six points in those two in those two goal to go scenarios and they're only down 17 to 9 going into the fourth quarter yeah the lions scored again via guess who jameer Gibbs, because he scored all four touchdowns for the Lions. But they're in position to make this a game. And realistically, if they got these two touchdowns, it's an eight-point.

We're looking at potentially an eight-point game heading into the last couple drives of the game. Like the Vikings were able to move down the field but not in the way that they have been all season long they weren't really able to push the ball at the momentum and the rate that they have been all season them pushing the ball down the field was basically 20 yard passes to Jalen Nay, not going for the deep shot to Justin Jefferson or Jordan Addison. And there was a lot of miscues for the Vikings as well. I was very shocked with how good of an offensive mind Kevin O'Connell is and some of the play calling that they had in this game.

Now, Sam Darnold didn't have a great game, but you're not going to have a great game when you have a guy in your face every other throw that you try to make. And on top of that, too, like, yeah, Jared Goff on not a great day. Like, he had one interception that he overthrew his guy by 10 yards, and Harrison Smith had, like, probably the easiest interception of his career. So I think that as good of a win for this as it was for the Lions, there is some stuff that they need to look at themselves and say, well, it wasn't our best day, but it's not how you start.

It's how you finish sometimes, which is fine and all, but you still have to play 60 minutes. Still got to play 60 minutes. Lions were able to get it done in the fourth quarter and hold off the Vikings for all four court like I'm very surprised this wasn't the game that it ended up being but I think this also goes to more of the atmosphere of Detroit as well and how underrated of a playoff atmosphere that Detroit is going to be in two weeks.

Like this game this past Sunday was basically a playoff type of atmosphere. And the only reason why I say underrated is because the Lions have had two home playoff games in the last 20 years. Like we don't see the Lions in big time games at home at all, unless it's Thanksgiving. But even then on Thanksgiving, it's even not even that big of a game and they always end up losing anyways. So all in all lions are in a great spot.

Vikings. I think that they'll still be able to pull out a win against the Rams, but after that, they got to fly back home on Tuesday and then right back on a flight on Saturday if they do end up winning against the Rams. So it's a very, very big missed opportunity for Minnesota. But lick your wounds, get back at it on Monday.

I mean, my only problem with the Vikings is that you have as good of a passing offense as you do. Why weren't you able to take advantage? You faced better defenses earlier this season and were able to take advantage and you didn't really get anything out of it um maybe you could chalk this up to a bad game but boy was this a bad time to have a bad game all of these all these weeks throughout the regular season, Sam Darnold has balled out. And then the one game he chose to have a bad day was the one where you absolutely had to have it. This is part of why I was a little skeptical of Sam Darnold. This is a guy who has never really done it before as far as having

success in the NFL. and I was skeptical. And I still am. I'm not jumping to any conclusions, but it's a bit of a red flag that on a game when it really mattered against a division rival, battle for a number one seed, it's not that you just lost like you did earlier to them in the season where it was close, lost by a field goal. They beat you down. And the only reason it was relatively close is because the other sideline

had a bad day too in the passing game, but at least they could get their running game going, and that's what killed you. You couldn't do any of that. So I was a little worried there, and I guess we'll have to see what happens. I expect, I would expect that the Vikings can make it out of the first round of the playoffs, but we'll see. A little nervous for Sam Darnold there.

And just the fact that they're strongly considering sticking with Sam Darnold going forward after this year is, if this is what we're getting in games that matter most, then that's a little concerning. Just a little concerning there. Especially with everything you have going right for you. Again, name the negative on that team. Name the negative on that roster, their coaching staff,

their general manager is awesome with drafting. They pluck all of these journeyman quarterbacks and just plug them into this system. They're always, throughout their history, able to produce results with these guys. Name the negative. It all comes back to Sam Darnold. So that's what I'm worried about.

I don't know if you can really scarf this up to being that this is Sam Darnold being the reason that they lost, though. This is like Sam Darnold only did so much, and he can't control guys being in his face every other throw.

But he can control getting it to his playmakers, which he has like four of them. And they also couldn't get open as me and CJ just described that they were getting mugged on the line, every route that they ran. Yeah. I like, I feel like this just goes off to the lions being great on defense and we're

able to like, yeah, I'm not going to sit here and say that Sam Darnold had a great day. He did not have a great day by any means, but I don't think that we can scrap this up and say that it's entirely Sam Darnold's fault. But again, name the negative on this team. Like we can't, are we really going to say that Justin Jefferson is the, is the, the player that you look at and you say, Oh, I'm, I'm worried about him. I'm not worried about Justin Jefferson. I'm not worried about Jordan Addison. I'm not worried

about TJ Hawkinson. What I am worried about is Sam Darnold, who is the one guy who doesn't have experience with being able to perform at a high level like ever. And I understand he didn't have anything over there, but this is the other extreme where everything is working in your favor now maybe the other guys were having a bad night too but that doesn't mean you you have a good you don't have a bad night either so i'm i'm not i'm not jumping to conclusions here i'm not saying yeah i'm not saying that sam darnold is a bad quarterback i think a decent system, he's still a decent quarterback. But it's just pay attention to him this postseason. That's all I'm saying.

And if you're the Vikings front office, you should be looking at him too because you have J.J. McCarthy on your sideline who you were planning to go with after Sam Darnold. So don't throw away those plans just yet because I don't know what Sam Darnold really So don't throw away those plans just yet, because I don't know what Sam Darnold really is as a quarterback. Is he a 35 touchdown a year quarterback? I just don't think so. That's all. Um, maybe he's still solid. Um, but the fact that he was good all season long and the one time he gets punched in the mouth, he turtles.

Just, just keep an eye on it. That's all I'm saying. All right, we're going to move on. Lots of head coaching fires, coordinator fires. GMs are out.

Black Monday was, I guess, a little bit quiet, but we, it's, it's, can we call this also a Black Tuesday as well and Black Sunday right after the game? Freaking Gerard Mayo. That's all next. This is the Fumble Rooski 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 Fumble Rooski Podcast. Adam Wright, CJ Medeiros, Justin Tucker, Chris Kostic.

Again, full house today. Ravens won. All right. So going over some of what has happened, just to kind of sum it up, we'll bring up the Patriots did fire head coach Gerard Mayo less than 90 minutes after the conclusion of their game on Sunday. And I mean, there's a lot of debate to how it happened, but listen, the writing was on the wall. The question is why did they do it 90 minutes after the game? And I think a lot of it had to do, I believe, with the fact that the fans were already pissed off. Not something they can control, that you lost the number one overall pick. What are you going to do? Are you going to tell your own players to lose the game?

And if you're advocating for a coach who's telling your own players to lose, then what kind of a culture are you really going for? I understand being upset. That's all I'm going to say there. But all I'm saying is whether it's justified or not, the fans were already pissed off. You had a bad season. The cherry on top of a shit stain of a year

is that you lost the number one overall pick. And fans were a little worried that they were going to keep their head coach after it as well. It made a little more sense that they did it right away. Just to add, just to get a few points with a passionate boston sports fan base that is has not been happy with their franchise for the past few years

um so change is coming they're interviewing some guys they've already interviewed a few pieces byron leftwich pep hamilton was another guy. Uh, they're about, they're supposed to, uh, to interview Ben Johnson, the offensive coordinator for the lions. It was arguably the biggest name out of all the head coaching candidates. Definitely the biggest name out of the rookie head coaching candidates. Um, the biggest name out there for the head coaching candidates, definitely the biggest name out of the rookie head coaching candidates. The biggest name out there for the Patriots, that is. The most favorable name is Mike Vrabel, former head coach for the Titans. He obviously, this isn't his first rodeo.

He was the head coach for the Titans for a few years until he got fired. But he was a very good head coach for him. He was competitive. But this is... Listen, the writing was on the wall. And I understand that this was just one year for him. And I hear a lot of... I hear a lot of comparisons to Dan Campbell's first year, where they went 3-13-1.

And to that, what about when Zach Taylor goes 12-4 in 2022 for the Bengals? A lot of people want Zach Taylor out of there. Mike McCarthy's had some pretty good seasons as well, record-wise. My point is, team record doesn't always correlate to coaching. If you have a good record and you have just a ton of talent, that could just correlate to good talent and they're winning in spite of you and you're just not getting the way of it. If you have a bad record that could also be mean just a lack of talent the coaching was there but the talent just wasn't or the talent little talent you did have like almond raw saint brown was underdeveloped not there yet with dan campbell i go option b it was they didn't have the talent coaching was not the issue in detroit in 2021 Dan Campbell, I go option B. It was, they didn't have the talent.

Coaching was not the issue in Detroit in 2021. But for the Patriots in 2024, the four and 13 New England Patriots, that was a coaching issue. Just don't look at the regular season record. Look at what actually happened. Yes, talent was an issue too, but also the way that the talent was conveyed, the scheme, the overall coaching plan,

it was not good. It did not work out. You took a 4-13 team from last year, added a quarterback who is ahead of schedule in his development, by the way, and you finished with the same record. That's not a good year. Now there's a lot of problems with this Patriots team, but coaching is one of them. And I like that they were proactive and took him out.

He seems like a really good guy. It seems like the players love him. He's not the right guy for the head coaching job. And I hope that they hit a home run for this next coaching pick, because if you have to fire another one next year, then that's on you as an organization for cutting corners in your hiring process. Because I think they did last year. I think they did. They, they put too much of an investment on Gerard Mayo. They didn't interview him. They just went and gave him the job without hiring, without interviewing anybody else, which was on them. So correct your mistakes this year. But, um, this is the most notable that I have of out, out of the hirings that I have in firings that I have out of the hirings and firings that I've found.

Doug Peterson is out as the Jaguars head coach. Kind of saw it coming, although I feel like they should have let go of Press Taylor, their offensive coordinator, first. He's probably out anyways because usually when you hire a new head coach, they bring in their own coordinators. Lou Anarumo out as the Bengals' defensive coordinator. Ryan Grubb out as Seattle's offensive coordinator. That's the second one-off they've had in a row.

And then the Indianapolis Colts, they fired defensive coordinator Gus Bradley, head coach Shane Steichen, and general manager Chris Ballard are going to stay. That's interesting. Can't say I agree with that one. And this morning, the Tennessee Titans fired general manager Ryan Carthen. This is an interesting one because they went on a spending spree last offseason, building around Will Levis, and it failed miserably. They now have the number one overall pick. And you look at the GM when that happens.

It makes sense that he's out. And they probably should not have committed to Will Levis, at least by surrounding him with lots of talent. You found out very quickly they got the kid could not play he had no excuses but still um let's leave the instead of going around the table let's leave this as an open discussion because there's a lot of different hirings and firings let's discuss where where do we even begin i don't know i i guess i'll start with rod mayo since that's

we're all we're all pats fans besides talk so we might as well just get mayo out of the way look the big thing from you can talk about all the on feel are all the actual football related stuff that i think Mayo screwed up on. I thought there was a lot of decisions that was like, I don't like that. I don't like that at all. The one decision that I think that Mayo actually made that was good was calling his two timeouts in overtime

when his defense was getting railed by the Titans, and they were just driving down the field and he was trying to give them an extra breath. Like, that was probably the only good game decision that Mayo had actually made all season long. Yeah, like, the biggest thing, I think, in terms of the whole Mayo thing is that when you look at the off the field stuff,

him in press conferences, even the first one where he made the, his opening press conference, he made it about race. I don't really care. Like no offense, Tuck. I don't care about race.

Okay. All right. Oh, CJ, you're muted but um look like I just said that was a way to go yeah it was a way to go but the problem I have the opening press conferences whatever the problem I have is the many times where he would say something and then take it back the next day, throwing his own coaches under the bus. Even little things like saying you're benching or not starting Ramondre Stevenson and then going with Antonio Gibson

and then either one game you – and he did it on two occasions. We're not counting week 18 because week 18 is week 18. But even on one occasion against the Dolphins where you said you were going to start Gibson, which you did, but you still gave the majority of the carries to Ramondre Stevenson. And then a couple weeks ago you said that you're gonna start antonio gibson again over stevenson because of fumbling issues you still ended up starting remandre stevenson anyways and it's like how can i take you seriously

when you're not even following up on your word how can I take you seriously at that point um and yeah like Adam said the writing was on the wall at this point and it just there's nothing like I hate the fact that Mayo got fired because of it's him in his first season. And the roster was easily the worst roster put together in the league. If you don't count the Giants, maybe, or the Browns. But there was just nothing that Mayo did that said he's going to be a good head coach. And maybe it's just not his time altogether.

Or maybe it's the fact that he wasn't even a coordinator prior to him being hired as the head coach. He was only a position coach, a linebackers position coach at that for the Patriots prior to it wasn't even the defensive coordinator last year. So I don't know. Doug Peterson, same thing. Writing was on the wall. Same kind of idea. He was throwing people under the bus left and right. And his time was up, which, which sucked because it was off to a good start when they had that comeback playoff victory against the Chargers, but his time is up. Lou Anarumo, I mean,

the Bengals defense was ass all year long, and you got to point the finger at this guy. Ryan Grubb, he is the main reason why the Seahawks made me want to tear my hair out all the time because they just refused to run the ball with Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet. I don't know why. And Gus Bradley. I thought the Colts defense wasn't even – there were some times where the Colts defense was bad,

but it wasn't that bad. There's a lot of other guys that they should should have taken out of there and yeah you you brought this up chris i believe it was last week they did a really bad job at a lot of players were late to practices not showing up and i don't know who you mentioned said something about well yeah we could discipline our players better when they are the guys who are supposed to be doing that. Shane Steichen instead said that. And he's still there. Yeah.

I'm sorry, but the fact that what I was angry about the most is earlier on this season, Anthony Richardson took himself out of the game. They benched him, rightfully so. I said, that's a great way to discipline your young kid. You have to learn to be a leader. You're not leading by example for the rest of your offense and your defense, the whole roster. You're the quarterback. You're the leader. You're not a good leader if you're taking yourself out of a game that you're losing because you're tired. And I thought that was the right move to make. Two weeks later, he was back in the starting lineup. I thought that was a terrible way, a terrible, terrible way

to discipline your player. Just because Joe Flacco, the guy you replaced him with, was bad, doesn't mean you put the guy back in who you're trying to discipline. Either leave the guy in who you put in for him or go to your third string but you're trying to develop a quarterback in order to eventually become a contender and win some games if you're if you're trying to discipline your quarterback who's a young kid do it don't do these half measures where you're like well he gives us the best chance to win because of his talent when he's being an immature little bitch. Like commit to it. It's not good leadership as a head coach. If you're not going, if you're doing these half measures and disciplining your players, you're allowing guys to show up late to practices. You're turning a blind eye when they don't show

up to practice. You miss the playoffs miraculously on the second to last week of the season after all of this bullshit that happened and you're going to keep shane steichen as your head coach are you kidding me yeah that's as bad as it gets they should also fire their gm too chris ballard chris ballard needs to be fired he is the reason. He is another reason why this Colts team is just a bunch of chokers for the last however many years. When you think

of the Colts, you just think of choke jobs left and right. Tuck, you're shaking your head. Let us know how you're feeling. I don't know how I feel about the Colts. On the one hand, I feel like they should be contending for the at least for the AFC South. They were. They were until they went up against the Giants and

gave up 45. I don't know. Like we call them contenders and then they give up 45 to a Giants team that couldn't score 30. Like, what are we doing here? And I saw pat mcafee said i was like yeah they kind of look like a bunch of losers and that's hard for me to say because quentin nelson's on that team kenny moore's on that team i'm looking john jonathan taylor's on that team they have some quality players on that team forest buckner it's like they have players on that team like you look around you see certain players on that team it's like these have players on that team. Like, you look around, you see certain players on that team. It's like, these guys shouldn't be playing like this. They shouldn't be 8-9, but they have coaches that allow them to get away with certain loser or lazy tendencies.

Like, it's unbelievable some of the things that are going on over there, and it's just ridiculous. And the fact that the head coach isn't fired, nor the GM, it seems like they're going to have another season like this at the rate they're going. And it seems like Colts fans don't want to go to the games. Pat McAfee sure doesn't want to go to them. It's just a bad situation for them as a whole. I'm happy the patriots got rid of their head coach even though i don't think he got a fair shake of it to be honest i just don't think he should have gotten fired but i understand why he had to be let go but as far as him going and not the colts head coach ridiculous and then they blame it all on gus bradley i i summed it up pretty well last friday tuck you missed it but i think the irony of this whole thing is that 10 years ago a certain

patriots running back who made the sports illustrated cover his name's jonas gray who got done running for 250 on said colts and that was the sports Illustrated cover of him blasting through an Indianapolis Colts D-line that the hole opened up like the Red Sea. And two weeks later, he misses his alarm late to practice. He gets cut the next day. And I think that's the irony of this whole thing is the difference between two organizations. One that's willing to make winning moves and the other that just sits on their thumb all day.

And it's like, why can't we do it? Why can't we win? Why can't we win? Why is our culture suck ass? It's been 10 years since they made the AFC championship game. When was the last time they won their division? I think it's been since that's actually fully healthy? I think it's been since that season.

Andrew Luck is actually fully healthy. I think it's been since, what, 2014 since they won the division? Because I'm doing the math in my head, and I think it's been around that time. Didn't they win it with Andrew Luck that won last season? No. They didn't win it in the 2018 season. That was his last season. And I'm pretty sure the Texans were the AFC South champions.

Last time the Colts won the division was, in fact, 2014. Jeez. Good pull, Scott. Good pull. They've got to fix that organization from top to bottom. And it says a lot that Peyton Manning still goes to Broncos games, but he'll never go to a Colts game. He still hasn't forgiven me.

Yep. Andrew Luck won't step foot in Indianapolis, I can tell you that much. Yeah. So when it comes to all these teams, first of all, I want to take a shot at Mayo here. I think he's a great guy, but he's just not a good coach. And if you watch Robert Kraft's press conference yesterday, he said outright, this is on me. Mayo was not ready to be a head coach. He was very green.

He didn't have any experience. He just wasn't qualified. And you have all these people saying, oh, he got screwed. And maybe that's true. But at the end of the day, you can whine about the roster all you want. And it's true. It is the worst roster in the league. You have no blue chip talent outside of Christian Gonzalez, maybe Drake May, hopefully, unless you kill him. But there's one thing that he didn't have. And this is a hill I'm going to die on. And I will go to war with anyone who disagrees.

Leadership. He was not a leader. He did not have control in the locker room. Players were losing faith in him left and right. In fact, a report from Mike Giardi literally at a Patriots veteran saying, quote, I lost faith that we were headed in the right direction in the spring. It felt like he or they were making it up as they went along. It was amazing how one day would be this and the next it was something completely different. That's what it was. And he has another quality that a head coach needs that he just didn't have

he couldn't master the media the media played him like a fiddle in every press conference he just answers every question truthfully which is if you're a head coach is what you don't do he was so inconsistent with the stevenson benching but me, it was the very first press conferences, introductory press conference where he immediately walked something back and how every goddamn week he would say something and then walk it back. Oh, this is a soft team or who could forget my favorite. We're going to burn some cash. And they just proceeded not to, which also you're the head coach. Why are you saying we're going to burn burn some cash you have very little say in that and i'm sorry look i get the roster argument i do but the leadership and the media savvy just wasn't there the players weren't responding you have players laughing

and joking after getting their backs blown out by miami i remember that and drake was the only one that was upset what'd you say chris i was saying i do too i remember that yeah yeah and and look you could say oh we only got fired because they didn't lose their last game which honestly i don't think that was true i think the writing was on the wall regardless and for people that say, oh, he's a good coach, he doesn't have the roster, that is a stupid, just low IQ, intellectually lazy argument. And if you genuinely think that, you should actually feel bad. And your parents should write you an apology letter for having birthed you. That is a stupid argument. He is not a leader.

I think he's a great guy, but he should not have been a coach. He was never even a defensive signal caller, which we're now just finding out that was Bill Belichick's son, Steve, who was doing it. And yeah, Adam, calm down. What? I have some breaking news. Oh, Lordy. The Las Vegas Raiders have fired head coach Antonio Pierce. Wow. After the press conference? Well, it's about goddamn time. You know what?

Hey, guys, guys, for everyone listening at home, I guess you could say the Raiders made a business decision. That's my takeaway. Remember that? He was calling out players by name to the media and said, oh, yeah, they were making business decisions. We're going to. Well, guess what, Antonio? The Raiders just made a business decision.

Your ass is out of here. And look, don't get me wrong, fellas. I'm going to get a post out about that while I'm going on there. I'm going to be on some Adam Schefter type of stuff. You know how it is. Hell yeah. Yay. But I also want to talk about the Jaguars.

We can talk about Doug Pearson being fired all day long, and you'd be right to. But Press Taylor, a guy that me and Adam have bashed week in and week out, is still there. Why? I can assume that he's probably gone, though, because of Doug Peterson being gone. Maybe.

You have to wonder if maybe that he was still there because Peterson insisted that he stayed. Because that's really the only possible explanation for it. Because their offense was so underwhelming. And, I mean, Trevor Lawrence was supposed to be the next up-and-coming guy, and I don't even know what to think about him anymore. Because on one hand, you could say he's an underwhelming prospect. Maybe he was overrated by the media. I don't

know. But on another hand, you can't really, you can't really rule out that maybe this was coaching that just messed it up, set the team in the wrong direction, put the team in the wrong kind of scheme. Um, but the Jaguars have some hiring to do. But yeah, Adam, Adam, I do want to touch on one thing though about the Jags. Sure. You can go after Taylor and Peterson and whoever, but the million dollar question in my eyes is why the hell is bulky still there?

This man is consistently ranked among the worst of the worst as far as NFL GMs go. And you just, by the way, most people, even Adam Schefter himself was surprised that he wasn't fired. And yet, and yet here he is. He's still there wasting your time. CJ, I got a great, I got a great one for you. What's up?

Shad Khan, the Jaguars owner says. Oh yeah, is this about the video call? He'll fire Trent Balk if a new coach gives him a good reason to, with Balk sitting on the call with him. Yeah, but apparently no one's given him that much of a reason, so I don't see Trent Balky getting canned. I just wanted to end. Let's end the segment with one last thought. Looking at the Patriots' next head coaching candidates, it seems like it's only down to two,

and that is Mike Rabel and Ben Johnson. And listen, I think both of them are good candidates. I got to say I'm skeptical. I'm skeptical of Mike Vrabel, who's probably going to be the guy. Let's be real. I think it's going to be Mike Vrabel. I'd like to think that it's a toss-up between the two, that they're actually going to be a thorough interviewing process.

I'm worried that this is just a formality. But I'm a little skeptical because i think while he is the safest head coach i also think he has a reasonably low ceiling for how good of a head coach he is reasonably low i think as far as ben john goes, that's a home run swing. He's a little riskier because he's a rookie head coach. But you can't tell me that the pairing of Drake May and Ben Johnson, and let's spend some money on free agency on that line, you can't tell me that that's not going to attract a couple of targets in free agency.

If you put those two together, you no longer have to pay the suck tax to get Tee Higgins here. Suddenly, players want to play for you. I'm not saying they wouldn't with Rabel, but I think my only problem with Rabel, I'll tell you what the problem is. My only gripe with Vrabel is with the Titans, with the way that offense was designed, they were towards the top of the league in rush attempts. They were towards the bottom of the league, and this is every single year he was there.

They were towards the bottom of the league in pass attempts. Drake May is not a dink and dunk guy. You should not be handing the ball off when you have Drake May. At least not that often. Because Drake May, you should be running this offense through this kid. But if you're going to be a dink and dunk team with Drake May, who has a beautiful deep ball, then I'm a little skeptical there.

I think he can succeed in Vrabel's offense, but I think it would be a massive underutilization of his skill set because I think you should be going and getting an offensive mind who can utilize Drake Mays skills in the way that Doug Peterson and Joe Brady utilize Josh Allen's skills, right? I think they become all, again, I think they'll be fine with Rabel. He's a safe option, but I want the best option too. I want to hit the home run. I don't want to be just a good team. I don't, you might be a playoff team with Vrabel, but I want more than just that. I want to win championships again. I want to be the mighty new England Patriots again. And I think that happens when you bring in Ben Johnson, not Mike Vrabel.

That's all. And I think they're going to be fine either way. But I want to let you know why I'm skeptical. I'm getting a little nervous. Their head coaching needs to improve. I think they'll both be fine. But I think I have a slight edge on Ben Johnson over Mike Vrabel. I think the problem that you're not mentioning here is the fact that Vrabel was able to utilize the skill set of Ryan Tannehill

and make him into actually a good quarterback, which we didn't see when he was in Miami. He was able to get three solid years out of Tannehill until he kicked the can. Until A.J. Brown was traded away, three solid years out of Tannehill until he kicked the can. Until, until AJ Brown was traded away. And suddenly Mike, suddenly Ryan Tannehill turned back into a pumpkin and the Titans never sniffed

the playoffs again. But the thing is, what makes you think that Mike Rabel isn't going to be able to develop, help developed Drake man to what he can become or develop a playbook that utilizes all of Drake May's skill sets because great coaches, from what we have seen, is able to adapt to the times. And I think Mike Rabel can do that along.

And the biggest thing, too, is that Mike Rabel's going to bring back that Patriots culture back into the locker room because he's one of the OGs he's one of the OGs he was a part of the original three Super Bowl dynasty that the Patriots had in the early 2000s and I think that's the biggest thing that you're looking for when you look when you're looking at these two, I feel like. To your point, Adam, I would be happy with having Rabel or Ben Johnson, but I feel like the one that just makes the most sense is going to end up being Rabel, never mind with football reasons, but to bring the culture back to the Patriots locker room.

And it's probably going to be Vrabel. But the only thing I blatantly disagree with you on from what you said is that he's going to help develop Drake May because I think Drake May's already developed. I think this is a matter of him – because I can't believe – whoever helped to develop Drake may and managed to turn him into a finished, finished product in one, in one season, promote, identify that individual and promote, promote him immediately in your, in your organization. Wasn't it a job? Wasn't it

fucking Ben McAdoo? It might've been Ben McAdoo. I'm hearing a lot about Pep Hamilton, but I don't, I don't know whoever it was promote them immediately because not only did they, not only did they, did they do well with Drake May, but Joe Milton turned into a, from what we saw in week 18, a decent quarterback. And if he continues, if he continues to look the way he looked holy crap and i can understand that this rookie class jake elliott uh not jake elliott wolf jesus christ uh elliott wolf from his ties in green bay what is that team known for as far as drafting they're known for finding quarterbacks i'm not going to say that elliot wolf uh didn't have a that he didn't have a slam dunk pick in drake may at three overall

but clearly he knew what he was doing um the only thing i'm worried about is their development of wide receivers because green bay they were also fantastic about finding their receivers on day two and three of the draft. They never found them in round one. Never since Sterling Sharp back in the 90s. Adam, I just want to point out for everyone listening at home, the Antonio Pierce news is up. Oh, by the way, the Raiders are also retaining GM Tom Telesco.

But, yeah, so Pierce is out. Everyone go like the post. And, by the way, with the Raiders' head coaching vacancy, a parent just read there was reason to believe that the Patriots might have some competition for Mike Vrabel. And, you know, Brady and Vrabel are really tight, and Brady is expected to do everything he can to lure Vrabel to the Raiders. So you've got to be careful, because if you're New England

and you don't play your cards right, Ben Johnson might get snapped up before you can even blink. Ball's in your court, New England. don't screw it up maybe maybe i i don't love from reports that diana russini put out mike vrabel wants mike vrabel wants a team that either has a quarterback or has a planet quarterback and it's a it's an atomic wasteland out there yeah that goes especially since they won too many games at the end of the season they uh they had the number two overall pick they had the number one pick at one point they lost it and they're all the way they fell all the way to what, eighth? Seventh, eighth?

You're not finding a quarterback there. Unless you trade up or you go and trade for J.J. McCarthy, you don't have anybody there. So listen, we can entertain that if it becomes a serious issue. But all I'm saying with regards to Mike Vrabel versus Ben Johnson is I think, Mike, we know what we're going to get with Mike Vrabel. And in some ways, that's a good thing. In others, it's good. But don't you think that Drake May is a lot better than a guy who can just hand the ball off and play dink and dunk? I don't want him throwing screen, doing screen plays.

I don't want him dumping the ball off. I want him chucking it on all over the field because he can do that. I want to become more vertical because that's the play style that Drake May thrives in. In the few times that he throws the ball deep, besides a couple of throws, he does really well. And there are some that end up getting dropped where it's, oh my God, how did he make that throw? I'm just saying, if you have Ben Johnson,

you'll probably lure in a couple of free agents. You might be able to get Travis Hunter at number four. I think that offense thrives. I think that's a good offense. Again, they're both good. They're both good candidates. I'm just a little skeptical because I feel like you won't be able to play to your fullest potential with mike rabel i don't know i still think that you'll still be able to get what you're looking for with mike rabel i feel like

but that's just me oh Oh, Adam's dying. Yeah. It, everyone who I've spoken to got sick on new years. Like literally everybody. It's been insane. Yeah. Same here.

Yeah. It's a fun day to get sick on the day where you're supposed to be having a good time and enjoying yourself. But I feel good now. My cold went away pretty quickly. It went away. Just, I have a cough that is sort of lingering around and it's not fun, not fun,

especially when you're trying to sleep at night, you know? Yeah. When the night will get busted out, it does, but even the night will can't suppress this cough. It's, it's not fun. right we're gonna go over

we're gonna go around on the uh discuss the nfl playoff picture we're each going to give the matchup that intrigues each of us the most um that's next this is fumble ruski 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 Fumble Rooski Podcast by Power 88 and Secret Weapon Consulting. I'm Adam Wright with CJ Medeiros, Justin Tucker, and Chris Kostic. Now, we're each going to go around the table and we're going to name the matchup that intrigues each of us the most

and kind of go over the ins and outs of why this is one that this is one matchup to watch and i'm gonna start and i'm gonna go with the packers who are visiting the eagles obviously the eagles turn things around from the beginning of the year and they've gotten better and better as the season has gone on they look so much more like the 2022 eagles than they do the 2023 team. And they've been awesome, man. They know how to utilize Saquon Barkley. They're a run first offense. It was in their blood.

It just took them some time. And they have A.J. Brown. They have Devontae Smith. They have Jalen Hurts. They got to rest all their starters. That's huge for them for week 18. What I'm most intrigued by is the Green Bay Packers in this matchup. And if you guys remember, this matchup was opening night during week one in Brazil, and the Eagles won that game as well. It was a close one,

but I don't think it's going to be as close as it once was. Not to sort of, what's the word, telegraph my pick, but Green Bay, they are 11-6, but they are as shaky as an 11-6 as possible. You don't have Christian Watson anymore. You're without Jair Alexander basically for the season. He's on IR. And your starting quarterback, Jordan Love, has been in and out of the lineup

or just hampered by injuries all season long long either he's had to play through injuries or he's been out with injury um in spite of all of that they're 11 and 6 uh some of that is thanks to uh malik willis but this green bay team looks a lot of it's not their fault because they got hit by the injury bug. But they look as shaky as ever, and I am sure they're going to try their best, obviously. But I can't imagine that they're itching to get, if they do lose, that they are itching to get into the offseason to improve this roster,

make it a little deeper than it was. Um, because overall they were as shaky as it gets. Um, and it's going to be tough for them to beat a Philadelphia Eagles team that is armored to the teeth in both sides of the ball. So maybe this is a competitive one. Jordan Love is a solid quarterback. He's having a rough year as far as health goes. But I'm a little worried about Green Bay. I'll say that much. I'm worried about Green Bay going into the postseason they look shaky they've been getting they've been getting shakier as the sea as the offseason has gone on they got their doors blown off by minnesota a couple weeks ago and i can't say that i i can't see it continuing but cj your matchup all right so the matchup that intrigues me most is probably the Los Angeles Chargers going to the Lone Star State to take on the Houston Texans. So when you look at the AFC, and, you know, obviously the top four seeds goes to the division winners. In record and in the eye test, far and away, the Houston Texans have got to be the weakest division winner. In fact, one can argue that the only reason they won the division is solely because that the rest of the AFC South is a literal clown show. You got

the Indianapolis Colts, who appear to be medically incapable of disciplining their players. You have the Jacksonville Jaguars, who refuse to fire Trent Balke, which is like opting not to get a tumor carved out of you. And then, of course, there's the Titans. That is all. But you got to look at who they're go up against in the wild card round the jags i mean not the jazz wow because i was thinking about the jaguars

and trend bulky sorry gang but the chargers another team with yellow and blue as their primary colors the chargers are interesting because they're not the sexiest team on paper, but they're getting healthy. J.K. Dobbins is back. Vlad McConkie's playing better than ever. And get this, they finally, after all these years, have a real head coach. And his name is Jim Harbaugh. And you may remember, he was a pretty darn good coach in the

NFL. And yeah, and when you consider the fact that Justin Herbert is adjusting really well to Harbaugh's scheme, and then of course, you know, you compare that to C.J. Stroud, who's having a nasty sophomore slump. This might be one of perhaps the only matchup all wildcard weekend where the wildcard team, like the team that didn't win the division, might actually win. Because in the AFC, you know, I don't really see any of the wildcard teams winning. And maybe the NFC, I don't know, maybe the commanders can upset the Buccaneers, which is very possible. But I would say this is far more likely. And after they beat the Texans, honestly, the Chargers, they could be very, very dangerous. Because they, like I said, they're not flashy, but they are fundamentally sound.

So that's really about it. It's not the most flashy matchup on paper, but I had to pick it, like I said, and I will die on those hills because this is the game where the away team, you know, the team that didn't win the division is most likely going to win. Chris? You mentioned, CJ, you mentioned Bucks Commanders. That's my game that I think is going to be one of the more interesting games this year. Week one rematch.

And the reason I picked this game is because you look at Washington. This was the only loss that they had this year where it was a complete blowout. 37 to 20 was the final score. And you saw some inklings of how good Jaden Daniels could be. Didn't have any touchdown passes. He had two rushing touchdowns, 88 yards on 16 carries, 17 for 24, only 184 passing yards. But there was inklings of what he could potentially be.

Baker Mayfield, amazing game, 24 for 30, four touchdowns, 289 yards. You could kind of see Bucky Irving was starting to get into that Bill Cowell role for the Bucs. Chris Godwin was still around. Mike Evans had a good day with two touchdowns. But now you don't have Chris Godwin anymore. Washington team also beefed up on defense with Marshawn Lattimore. And Lattimore and Mike Evans both have had wild, wild battles in the NFC South

when Lattimore was still with the Saints. And this Washington team and Bucs team, they're both not the same teams from week one either. Like, I'm just thinking about the Bucs last week alone and how they played against the Saints and how they were down 16-6 at halftime. They lost to the Cowboys three weeks ago, 26-24. They also had a four-game losing streak

when they didn't have Mike Evans or Chris Godwin. Now they got Mike Evans back, and they ended up winning six of their last seven, which was fantastic. But some of these games were a little dicey. They also had really impressive games like being the Chargers 40-17. But like I said, this is not the same Bucs team as week one. Ampered with some injuries here and there.

You look at Washington, and this is a team that is either blowing you out or if they're going to be losing, they're going to, they're going to take you down with them. Look at some of these losses. They lost to the Ravens by seven. They lost to the Steelers only by one. They lost to the Eagles the first time around by eight in Philly, in Philly.

And they held to, they held Philly under 20 points up until the last two minutes of the game. They lost to the Cowboys in a game that they probably should have won. But boy, did they make it a fight the entire 60 minutes. Lost. They beat the shit out of the Titans. That's the Titans. They beat the Eagles 36-33. They won a wild primetime game against the Falcons 30-24. They beat the shit out of Titans. That's the Titans. They beat the Eagles 36 to 33. They won a wild primetime game against the Falcons 30 to 24.

And they beat the Cowboys last week in a meaningless week 18 game that Marcus Mariota did pretty solid. I am a little worried about how Washington is going to deal with some really good D-line in the likes of Vita Vea because Jayden Daniels was getting beat to shit against the Cowboys on Sunday. And I kind of figured that was a big reason why he got taken out. But like CJ said, I wouldn't be surprised if Washington were to come out on top this time around.

I think that this has potential to be probably one of the best games this weekend or next weekend. Tuck? For me, the one I'm most intrigued by is Broncos at Buffalo. Everyone's thinking, oh, it should be Ravens versus Steelers. I look at it like this. The Ravens have won their last four or five games.

The Steelers have lost their last four. If we don't win this game, we don't deserve to be in the playoffs. I'm going to just be honest with you. These Steelers do not look good enough to beat us. We have momentum. We have home field just be honest with you. These Steelers do not look good enough to beat us. We have momentum. We have home field. We should beat them. I don't care who the quarterback is. I don't care who's on the field. I don't care if that defense looks good. They do not deserve to be on the same field as at this moment in time. They started off 10 and three. They finished 10 and seven. We should beat them. That's how I feel about that. And if we lose that game,

I want John Harbaugh fired. I don't want him around. We shouldn't lose that game. So to me, that game, we should win. So the next best game to me is the Broncos versus the Bills. I think it'll be a true test for Josh Allen to go up against that Broncos defense. They have momentum. They look solid. They look dominant. And I'm not going to lie to you. I'm liking this Broncos offense more than I expected. Bo Nix is actually playing like a dog. I did not expect this for him during his rookie season. Now that he's playing like this, this might be an actual challenge for the Bills because their receivers are going to have to play tough. They're going to have to be able to move the ball, which is very tough against this Broncos

defense. They are very well coached. And I want to see Josh Allen be able to pull this one off. I expect the Bills to win, but I do think this is going to be a close dogfight. And the other one was commanders and Bucks, but you took that one away from me. So I will be looking at every single game to see where we match up and who we face. But I'm going to be looking at the Broncos and Bills one very closely. I guess a special – since we've gone through all the other matchups besides Vikings-Rams, yeah, I guess a special shout-out to the Steelers visiting the Ravens. And like Tuck said, this should be one that the Ravens win.

This is one that is probably the more lopsided of all the matchups. The Steelers have been looking worse and worse as the season's gone on. They've lost four straight. They may be knocked out with a fifth on wildcard weekend. Vikings-Rams, that's one that's kind of intriguing because I think the Rams have the better quarterback. He may be older. Darnold has more to prove. But the Vikings have the overall better team and you have to wonder how much does the quarterback make up for that the offenses the vikings still have the edge but don't sleep on

the rams because they have cooper cup puka nakua kyron williams their offensive line is so so it's much better than it was a couple years ago, right after they won that Super Bowl. But this is another one that's probably pretty lopsided. Vikings win. Vikings will probably take it. It's going to come down to

the Vikings defense against the Rams offense. It's going to be one of those games. Breaking news! Vikings have signed Daniel Jones to the active roster and waived Brett Ripon. Why? Imagine

Sam Donald gets hurt and they have to bring somebody in. And it's 80 times. And then he takes them to a Super Bowl. Like Nick Foles style. That'd be sick. That'd be crazy.

If I was a Giants fan. I'd be absolutely disgusted if that happens. I'd be so sick. Alright. We're going to deviate from this. And get to our final part of the segment. Probably quickly. Since we're at an

hour and 15 uh chris your final week your final top three bottom three week 18 kick us off i don't know adam is this the final top three bottom three I was thinking of a roundabout of the whole season top three, bottom three. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. It would have just been whoever's the bottom three in the draft and the top three of this season. But it would still be bottom three Patriots. I don't care that they have the fourth overall pick.

The fact that you won a game that you shouldn't have won. Just start. Anyways, week 18, top three, bottom three. Adam basically just said it. Bottom three, Pats. This is the one game that you needed to lose, and you won. And, I mean, for granted, like, you also did what you could to lose. You had Joe Milton going into the game,

but Joe Milton looked like freaking prime Tom Brady all of a sudden. And the receivers were actually catching the ball. And the Bills were actively trying to lose the game. Everything about this went south for New England. And the only thing that he could have that basically made it up was firing Gerard Mayo after he did his postgame presser

but then it makes people wonder like why the fuck didn't you fire Mayo before the game even started so because they probably would have lost at that point if Mayo wasn't even the coach but we've we hampered that a little because they probably would have lost at that point if Mayo wasn't even the coach. But we've we hampered that a little too much now.

First team on the top three, the Chargers. And this is more of like for me, the Chargers. This is more of an overall consensus of how they're able to lock up the five seed. At this point, it took them to week 18 to lock it up but you know you start out this three game winning streak to end the season after losing three of four in a very tough stretch of schedule where you lost the Ravens by a score you lost to the Chiefs by a score you beat the Falcons in a absolute bloodbath. And you got blown out by the Buccaneers. And you responded by beating the Broncos on Thursday Night Football. You beat the shit out of the Patriots on the road.

And then you beat the Raiders this past weekend to get the 5-seed. Granted, you needed some help from the Steelers to lose. But you still got the job done. Granted, you needed some help from the Steelers to lose, but you still got the job done. Still got the job done. And that brings us to our next bottom three team, the Steelers. Four game losing streak to end the season. And I don't know. The thing with the Steelers is that all roads were going to lead to a 10 and seven or nine and eight record.

And I don't know, have you got, did you guys see the meme where it's the, the cow that is going in that as like two directions to go into, but it all leads to the same thing. And in this case, it's one side that's like start own four. And the other side is start four and O or

whatever the Steelers started with or good start to the season, bad start to the season. And it all leads to a 10 and seven season. I don't know if you guys saw that meme, but I thought that was pretty comical, but yeah, it didn't help that George Pickens was out, but when one guy's your entire offense, that just spells a lot of

trouble. And George Pickens also had an extremely, extremely bad day where he only got one catch for no yards. And he had three drops, all of which being on six targets. And this was also a week after it was very notable that Russell Wilson and George Pickens were not on the same page. So good job, guys. You did it again. You did it again. Second team on the top three, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Now, you were already in the top spot for the NFC South, but at that point, it's in your hands.

It's in your hands. What are you going to do with it? You got an NFC South division rival in the New Orleans Saints that's coming into town, and all of a sudden, you're down 16-6, and it's like, oh, shit. We actually got to wake the fuck up. We're at home on the verge of losing the division. And if we lose, we got to hope that the Panthers can show up, which they did.

The Panthers did beat the Falcons in overtime anyways. But you don't want to let it come down to that. You want the ball to be in your court. And the Buccaneers persevered. And on top of that, God, Mike Evans, his thousand yard receiving season on the last play of the game,

30, whatever seconds left on first down. Every other team, the league is kneeing this ball down, except if you're the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, because you need Mike Evans to get that thousand yard receiving season. I love it. I love it.

Dies Jerry Rice for most consecutive thousand yard receiving seasons at 11. And you can bet your ass. He's most likely going to break it next year as well. All right. Rounding out the top three and the bottom three, we're going to look at the Lions and the Vikings. We already talked about it a lot to start the show, but obviously the Lions, it was their day.

The Vikings, it was not their day. Lions, amazing defensive game plan, only held a very good Vikings offense to nine points while also putting up 31. And it was a real rock'em sock'em type of game up until the fourth quarter when you were able to pull away the Vikings it's hard to compete when your quarterback is on their ass every other play but I think play calling in those two goal to go scenarios where you ended up having a turnover on downs on those two spots

was really what killed you in the end. And I will say Sam Donald had a couple throws where they were not pretty, a couple overthrows to Justin Jefferson. But I think the play calling in those spots need to be better. And that is the final Week 18 top three, bottom three. Thank you for paying attention to the post that CJ beautifully puts out. Thank you to you fellas for letting me have this as a topic starting last season. I'm glad that we're able to continue it for hopefully many more seasons to come, but thoughts from you fellas

on, at the very least, some of these teams that we didn't really talk about. Obviously, we talked about the Lions and the Vikings. Spoke about the Steelers a little bit. But Buccaneers and Chargers. Two teams that were kind of on the cusp. Buccaneers and chargers, two teams that were kind of on the cusp. Buccaneers were on the cusp of being eliminated, but fought their way right back into it. Unless you guys just want to talk about other teams that I mentioned,

but floor's yours to end the show. Uh, as far as the books are concerned, I think they're underrated. They can beat Detroit cause they have beaten Detroit, Detroit. They can beat anyone in this NFC playoff picture. It just comes down to health and consistency on offense and whether or not the defense will actually show up. Outside of that, they are a true threat. I will say, Tuck, I think that goes to kind of my point from when I was talking about Washington and Tampa.

I think Tampa is just also a much different team than what they were in the first couple weeks of the season when they beat the shit out of Washington and got the big win against Detroit on the road. But I think that this Tampa team still has the tools to get the job done as well. I've talked up the Chargers all season long, not as a Super Bowl contender,

but as a team that is ahead in their rebuild. Literally just yesterday, like five seconds ago, not yesterday, but hyperbole, five minutes ago, you blew up your roster. You got rid of Keenan Allen. You let Mike Williams walk in free agency. I mean, you had a lot of work to do. Austin Eckler, gone. And you bring in younger players.

You completely one-aided your offensive line to the point where it's a pretty decent line now. You replace Austin Eckler with J.K. Dobbins. Thank God for them that he's back in the lineup because he's kind of the focal point of their offense as far as the design for how their offense is meant to go. Ladd McConkie, new wide receiver one, new head coach is massive. I think this team isn't built to win the Super Bowl now, but give them some time,

give them one more off season, and I think they could be in contention as soon as next year. I didn't even expect them to make the playoffs this year. I didn't. But they had some players in later rounds who did really well. And coaching stabilized for once in LA. So good stuff coming from them. I mean, even Justin Herbert, he didn't even have the flashiest quarterback season,

but probably also one of the more productive for what he had, like top 10 in passing yards, and he only had three interceptions this year. That's a pretty damn good season. Not the flashiest, but it's still a very good quarterback season. It's fine. It's fine.

It has more to do with they didn't have many offensive weapons. They had Vlad McConkie and that's it. And then a few wide receiver threes. They're a wide receiver one away from being extremely good. They have one in Latin America. Maybe a T. Higgins away.

Maybe a T. Higgins, yeah. I would not rule him out being a charger. But overall, listen, I'm not saying it was a bad year. I'm saying they were good. They were a good team this year, and I didn't expect that. I expected them to be a good team next year. Now I expect them to be a contender next year if they make the right moves.

I think they need to add some more on the offense. Their offensive line is pretty much a finished product. Their running game is perfectly fine. Maybe another piece for J.K. Dobbins because I don't think, I mean, I hate to say it, but I don't know if he has the durability. He just keeps getting hurt. But thankfully, he made it to the other side of that Achilles tear, which never happens with running backs.

Usually Achilles tear, end of career with running backs. Usually Achilles tear end of career or journeyman. He's still a superstar. They just need another player to kind of supplement that. Um, and maybe more on the defense, I guess, but overall very solid year from the chargers did not expect it. All right. We got to end the show. Any other thoughts before we end the show tonight? Call it a day. All right. Well, that'll do it. I love you, boys.

Thank you guys all for tuning in for the 2024 season. It was a tough season to get through. There were some positives to the year. Great year from the Vikings. Awesome year from the Lions. The Chiefs working their voodoo Taylor Swift magic. I don't know what's going on with them. But overall, fun year.

Lots of ups and downs. Massive roller coaster, but thank you guys for hanging around and we hope you stay tuned through the post season and into the, some off season coverage through the draft. We do our football coverage year round, so we'll be around, but that'll do it for us tonight.

Thank you for listening to us. We have new episodes out on Tuesdays at 7 30 PM Eastern standard time and Fridays at five, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel. We have all our episodes available on Spotify, Spreaker, Apple podcasts, I heart radio, Google podcasts, and so much more. Also be sure to follow our Instagram at fumble Ruski underscore podcast to keep up with our podcast and the latest coverage on the NFL otherwise we'll see you next week over and out