The Josh Innes Show - NFL Playoffs Recap

Episode Date: January 13, 2025

We start with news that Caitlyn Clark has a stalker. While stalking is not a good thing, at least the WNBA players now have stalkers. PROGRESS!! With that said, we now take a look at the weekend playoff results. I enjoyed watching Payton get his ass kicked. The Eagles still have a massive hole at QB. Lamar v. Josh Allen will essentially be a racial topic all week. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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I just saw this headline. Let me read this headline to you. Texas man arrested, charged with stalking fevers, Caitlin Clark. People say we haven't made much progress in this country they say there's still so much you know misogyny and sexual discrepancies and racial issues let me tell you something when we got dudes in Texas who are stalking WNBA players some may view that as a negative some may view that as progress that's real advancement for the WNBA because I'm going to guess that like Cheryl Swoops or Rebecca Lobo never had stalkers so Caitlin Clark has really ascended now you know that's going to happen is

you're going to get all those dipshits on TV saying well why can't the rest of the WNBA have stalkers then? Why is it just Caitlin Clark? It's not fair. You see, they all want the glory, but they don't want the negative that comes with it. The whole WNBA should be the time person of the year, they say. Well, then the whole WNBA should get stalked by some wacko in Texas. He's 55 years old. I'm going to presume he's a white guy.

55-year-old Texas man was arrested on a felony stalking charge in Indianapolis on Sunday after he allegedly sent threats and sexually violent messages to the Indiana Fever star, Caitlin Clark, via social media. Police records show that Michael Lewis of Denton, Texas was charged with a level five felony. I'm going to guess it's on a scale of one to five, so that's probably not good. After he was arrested at a hotel in Indianapolis, he is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday morning. Lewis could face up to six years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears said the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department first spoke to Lewis on Wednesday about his alleged messages to Clark on X, formerly known as Twitter. I feel like we don't have to keep saying formerly known as Twitter in these stories. I think by now we know what X is, and ultimately, does it really matter? It's like their way of saying, we miss Twitter. We miss when the liberals ran it all, you fucks. Some of these messages include, been driving around your house three times a day,

Lewis messaged to Clark, according to documents, but don't call the law just yet. That actually just sounds like the song Driver's License by Olivia Rodrigo, if we're being fair. Oh, it's cute when the little cute girlie does it, but when 55-year-old Texas man Michael Lewis of Denton drives around your house three times, it's not cute.

But today I drove through the suburbs crying because the lesbos aren't around. But don't call the law just yet. Not just yet. Now, do you think that's a sign that he's like saying, hey, hear me out. Don't call the law just yet. Just hold out. Let me tell you.

Let me express my love to you. Maybe he was going to show up at her house with a boombox. Oh, when Lloyd Dobler shows up outside Diane Court's house with a boombox blaring in your eyes, it's romantic. But when Michael Lewis of Denton, Texas shows up at the WNBA player's house, he's crazy. I'm getting tickets. I'm sitting behind the bench, read another message. See, more progress. Presumably old white guy, middle-aged white guy, buying WNBA tickets. We're making progress, people. It's a big day, man.

You guys got to start to acknowledge what we're witnessing here is the true growth of the WNBA. We got stalkers now. We got shoes. Magazine covers. Other messages were sexually violent, according to court documents. Clark told police that she feared for her safety, I would imagine, even before Lewis arrived in Indianapolis and had even altered her appearance in public. Well, I would imagine she would have to do that anyway, because she's fairly popular, probably in Indianapolis. So I don't know if she

like goes out wearing like, you know out wearing a wig and a fake beard. That would be the play. Put on a beard. Walk around with a beard on. Nobody would recognize you. It takes a lot of courage for women to come forward in these cases, which is why many don't. In doing so, the victim is setting an example for all women who deserve to live and work in Indianapolis without the threat of sexual violence. Well, I'm going to guess that the vast majority of women in Indianapolis do live and work in Indianapolis without the threat of sexual violence. Well, I'm going to guess that the vast majority of women in Indianapolis do live and work in Indianapolis without the threat of sexual violence because not everybody is the most famous person in Indianapolis. We commend Pacer Sports and Entertainment and the Marion County Sheriff's Office for the swift and

serious action that led to this weekend's arrest. According to the Indianapolis Stars, prosecutors have moved to ban Lewis from Hinkey Fieldhouse and Gainbridge Fieldhouse. The Fever play at both arenas. Well, I would imagine that would be the move now, wouldn't it? If a guy is driving around your house multiple times and sending sexually threatening messages and stands to face like six years in jail and a $10,000 fine, I feel like the least you could do is be like, hey, you can't come to the basketball matches anymore.

In December, a 40-year-old man from Oregon received a one-year suspended sentence and three years probation after he pleaded guilty to a second-degree charge following his arrest for stalking basketball star Paige Beckers. Look, more progress. Paige Beckers also got stalked. So look, the WNBA is really thriving. Now, of course, this may be looked at as a negative because you could say

that seemingly only the white girls are getting stalked and that's showing a stalking bias. Like, why wouldn't you stalk Angel Reese? I know why, because you're racist, you fucks. Anyway, that's the latest from the WNBA, if you were wondering. All right, let's play some commercials, and then we'll look at some of these NFL games from over the weekend, see how these played out. We already talked about the Texans game, so there's no need to go into a full-on breakdown of that. But we'll look at the other games,

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One per new customer. Bonus award. It is non-withdrawable pick six credits that expire in 14 days. Limited time offer. See terms at picksix.draftkings.com slash promos. All right, so Texans beat the shit out of the Chargers. Not totally a shock that they won. Totally a shock that they beat the shit out of the Chargers. Not totally a shock that they won. Totally a shock that they beat the shit out of them and did it the way they did it.

So they will face Kansas City, and I think they have a legit shot to go win that. Will they? Who knows, but I think they got a shot. All right, so after that, you got Baltimore and Pittsburgh. That was the other Saturday game. Not a shocker. This game wasn't really competitive. The final score is actually not really indicative of how much of a blowout this was. Nothing interesting happened in this game. It was not exciting. And then after the game, he talked about the kind of progress the team was making on offense.

And the reporter asks, hey, did that give you kind of hope for the future? To which George says, nah. So things are going swimmingly in Pittsburgh. Of course, there's always talk about whether or not you should fire Mike Tomlin. Tomlin's an interesting case. And I was talking with AJ about this, and he put it very eloquently. There's an interesting ceiling for Mike Tomlin. Tomlin's an interesting case. And I was talking with AJ about this and he put it very eloquently. There's an interesting ceiling for Mike Tomlin because Mike Tomlin can take a team that should win six or seven and win 10, but he can also take a team that can win 13 and win 10. That's just who Mike Tomlin is. Hasn't won a playoff game in eight years. So if you look at

Mike Tomlin, you look at a coach who got fired today. Mike McCarthy got fired today. Mike McCarthy wins 10, 11 games virtually every year and loses playoff games. Went to Dallas, won one playoff game in the years he was there, and now he is fired. Now, Dallas is a totally different universe than Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh's had three head coaches in 100 years. So we know all that. We understand all that. But I'm curious to see at what point they look at Tomlin and go, all right, you've done a really good job.

You've won a Super Bowl. Haven't won a playoff game in nine years. At what point do they say, you don't suck, but maybe it's time to just try something new for us, which is not really a thing that Pittsburgh does. They haven't done it. So I'd be curious. Tomlin's fine, and I guarantee if you fired him,

you would go from winning 10 games to probably falling behind that, and it would be easy to say, ha, you shouldn't have fired him. But at some point, aren't you playing to try to win championships? Pittsburgh is a non-threat for that. They got blown out by Baltimore. Baltimore's going to have Lamar forever. You look around the AFC. Baltimore is going to be there forever.

Buffalo is going to be there forever. The Bengals are going to be there forever. Denver is seemingly better. The Chiefs are there. Like, where is Pittsburgh? Pittsburgh's kind of like the St. Louis Cardinals of the last decade. They're living off of what they once were, and they're never really terrible outside of the last two years, the Cardinals have been terrible. But for the most

part, they kind of hang around and they'll win a division and you'll go, ah, see. But then are they really moving forward? Are they really progressing? And that's where Pittsburgh is right now. You look at Pittsburgh and you're like, eh, they're fine. But nobody thought Pittsburgh was going to put up a competitive effort against Baltimore and they didn't because Baltimore, Cincinnati, Buffalo, teams like that are just at a different level than Pittsburgh. But on the other hand, do you want to stop winning 10 games every year and win six every year? And like, would Mike Tomlin go to another place and do that? I don't know.

Like if the Saints hired Mike Tomlin today, would the Saints become a 10-win team? I don't think so. If the Cowboys hired Mike Tomlin, would he go there and win? Well, probably win because I think Mike McCarthy won with what he had there. So probably Mike Tomlin goes in and wins, but he's not an offensive-minded coach like McCarthy was. If he inherits Dak, would he win 10?

Probably, because that division just traditionally is very good, although it's gotten better with Washington emerging. But what would they do? So I don't know how great Tomlin is. His record would indicate that he's really solid, and he hasn't had that elite quarterback. Roethlisberger was not an elite quarterback. He was very good, but he wasn't Brady or Mahomes or at this point Burrow and guys like that. Not a next level

transcendent talent at the position. So I don't know what Pittsburgh wants to do. But now Baltimore advances and they get the game against Buffalo because Buffalo beat the shit out of Denver. Thanks, Buffalo. I really couldn't handle Sean Payton pulling an upset. I'm glad he didn't because I hate Sean Payton for the time being, with the caveat, of course, that one day I will love him again when he's in the ring of honor for the Saints so we can talk about the Super Bowl and the onside kick and all the play Payton because he abandoned the Saints, and I want nothing more than to see him have a miserable football existence. And as we sit here today, he's had a nice run with Denver, but he got his ass beaten to death last night by Buffalo, and I appreciate that. Thank you very much, Buffalo. So you get the Buffalo-Baltimore matchup, which is essentially a pick-em, and it's going down in Buffalo. So that has potential to be a, I mean, just a back and forth.

It also has a potential for this week to be a gigantic discussion about race, where basically they're going to talk about the MVP. And what's going to happen is a bunch of black guys are going to tell you that Lamar is the MVP, and a bunch of white guys are going to tell you that Lamar is the MVP and a bunch of white guys are going to tell you that Josh Allen's the MVP. And I mean, look, don't bother with X on this because everything is going to be about race as it relates to the two MVP candidates. So that's what you're going to get out of this one this week. A lot of white versus black in the Allen and Lamar debate. You look top to bottom and I still feel like the better talent is in Baltimore. Even without Zay Flowers, I think talent-wise, they're still better. I mean, I think that really Allen has done a lot with a lot of guys that just aren't that great.

They're fine. Like, he's got nice players. But you still look at the weapons that you have in Baltimore. You still have the King. Mark Andrews has obviously been very good. Likely can be very good. Bateman can be very good. I don't think that either one of them have like elite wide receiver talent around them. They have fine players around them, but I don't think you look top to bottom and go, boy, these are two quarterbacks that are loaded with studs at the

position. They're not. Both of them, I think, are actually better at the tight end position. That's pretty obvious. But looking at that matchup, it's not too sexy, you know, loaded with wide receiver talent teams like, you know, elite number one receiver dudes. They don't really exist on either one of those squads. So I think this game is going to be fun. I think it's pretty obvious it's going to be fun. It should be fun. The Eagles beat Green Bay. It was a 12-point game, but really it wasn't that close. No one in the world ever thought Green Bay had a shot of winning that game. The story that comes out of this one is people are going to say that Jordan Love sucks. And because I bet on him and I was angry yesterday, I too said he sucked. I don't think he sucks. I think you overreact to that. I think he dealt with a lot of injuries on the road. He himself has been dealing with injuries. I mean, virtually every play, another one of his

playmakers would go down. So that's a factor. The biggest story is still that you almost have to start giving some level of credit to Sirianni that you don't want to give him because they're winning a lot of football games, despite the fact their quarterback's not good. And we can sit here and talk about Jalen Hurts and all he does is win, blah, blah, blah. He ain't good. And fortunately for the Eagles, their defense was nasty and salty and forced some turnovers early that made life very difficult. Hurts ain't good. He's fine. He ain't good.

I mean, he talked about it. He's the opposite. He's the opposite of Lamar and Josh Allen and to a degree, I guess you talk about it like he's the opposite like he's the opposite of Lamar and Josh Allen and to a degree I guess you could say Pat Mahomes whereas like those guys although Pat Mahomes has more weapons now but you look at guys like Josh Allen who don't have a ton of dynamic playmakers and you look at guys that uh you know like Lamar who does not have elite number one wide receiver guys you look at Cincinnati you got two elite number one wide receiver guys. You look at Cincinnati, you got two elite number one level receivers playing with Joe Burrow. You look in Minnesota and you got Justin Jefferson. You look

in New York, you got Malik Neighbors. Now I'm just naming LSU guys because I'm a homer. But you don't have those guys in a lot of those places. And those guys, you don't have that or you do have that. Some places, where the hell am I going here? Point is, there are some teams that do have elite receivers and some teams who don't. And sometimes the quarterbacks are elevated by those elite guys. And sometimes they're just really good players. In the case of the Eagles, the Eagles have elite level dudes everywhere on the field. A.J. Brown is an elite number one receiver. They cannot get him the ball. Devontae Smith is a game-breaking type guy, and they struggle to get him the ball. I think you kind of have to start looking at Sirianni and going, instead of saying the guy fucking sucks, and look, I get he's got a punchable

face, he's annoying, but you look at that dude and you go, dude won 14 games so far this year, however many games they've won, a ton of games after a bad start and people wanted him fired, and they keep winning despite the fact the quarterback's not good. He's just middling. So the fact that they keep winning these games the way they're winning them, obviously Saquon is a huge part of that. But you look at the way they're doing shit, it's remarkable. And I think the guy deserves a lot of credit for that. He doesn't have Joe Burrow back there. He doesn't have Mahomes back there. He doesn't have Lamar or Josh Allen back there. He has Jalen Hurts, who every day that goes by, it is revealed that Hurts ain't it, but all he does is keeps winning. Like if the Eagles had any one of those other quarterbacks, I think the Eagles might coast in the NFC. It's remarkable.

But that game really wasn't interesting. I get that it kind of hovered around a one-score game, but no one ever thought Green Bay was going to really make a play in that one. And then Dickhead, Jordan Love, needed to throw for six more yards for me to hit his passing yards. Comes out of the two-minute warning, throws a bomb to the goddamn end zone that gets intercepted, so you can kick rocks, asshole. So now you've got Philly advancing, and then you've got Washington.

That was a good game last night, Washington and Tampa. Tampa had every opportunity. Washington tried to give them the game multiple times by passing up points, going for it on fourth down, failing multiple times on fourth down, but then right when you thought Tampa had made the play that was going to change the game they fumble on like an option type play finally Washington cashes in with the touchdown which took forever to do look you know I'm a Jaden guy Jane Daniels is a tough motherfucker he makes plays like you watch him come into the league and like Jane Daniels is what I think that Philly fans want to convince themselves they have with with Jalen Hurts.

Dude, Jayden Daniels has all the weapons, all the tools to do it, man. Like that dude can ball. You know, he's made a team that wasn't very good, better. Everybody keeps showing the graphics and saying, oh, wow, look at what Dan Quinn has been able to do. And yes, he deserves credit. He's the coach. But more importantly, look what's happened since you brought in a legit quarterback, a leader. And that's what you're getting out of Jayden Daniels. Fucking love the dude. Dude's a beast. Dude's a tough dude. He never seems rattled by

anything. He doesn't let shitty situations, a turnover, a pick, a failed fourth down. Because when they failed on that fourth down, you give the ball back to Tampa. Tampa's got an opportunity to go to work on you. And what does Tampa do? They turn it over. You get the ball right back. What does Jaden do?

Finds himself in a fourth down situation. Boom, makes the big throw. Dude is a beast. I also, and Baker, I thought, played fine. But I enjoy watching Tampa lose. Fuck Mike Evans too. I enjoyed watching his rage on the sideline after the game. I enjoy watching Mike Evans lose, so take that L, dog. And then tonight you got Minnesota and the Rams. I'm taking the Rams to win. They're plus two and a half, but why the hell not? Game's being played in Arizona. We saw what can be done to Minnesota if you get to them defensively. I'm going to go all in on Puka to do some big shit tonight.

I know that Minnesota blitzes a lot, and Brian Flores loves to blitz. Matt Stafford loves to beat the blitz. So I think this should be a good game tonight, and I'm taking the Rams to win the ballgame tonight. For the most part, it was a dull weekend of football. When you're talking about four of the games were decided, so far at least, four of the five that we've seen were decided by double digits. You got a 20-point spread, a 14-point spread, a 24-point spread, and a 12-point spread. Thank you, Washington, for making it interesting. Tonight shouldn't be a blowout.

Tonight should be a better game. So I'm taking the Rams. I think Puka's going to put up a lot of yards. And I'm looking forward to watching this game. So there you go. All right, more to come.