The Josh Innes Show - Take The Points

Episode Date: January 26, 2026

I enjoy that Sean Payton screwed himself by passing up a FG early in the game. Did the Rams make the right choice going for the touchdown late in the NFC game? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So, AFC championship game, Denver was never going to win that thing, whether it's snowed or not. Because at the end of it, they couldn't move the ball. And it was going to always be that type of game. That game was always going to be knocked down, drag out, punch each other in the dick, rock fight game. That's just how it was going to be, and that's what it was. And the Patriots hung on. And what I love about that is because the Patriots games have been low scoring the last couple weeks. Everybody just assumes that Seattle's going to beat things.

shit out of them. It's like, oh, look out Seattle's going to kick the shit out of the Patriots. Are they? Why? Because the Patriots have played tough football games against two of the better defenses in the NFL. Like, do you not recall that the Texans had the number one defense in the NFL? Do you not recall that Denver is one of the top defenses in the NFL? So like because that game, because the last two Patriots games have been playoff football, kick each other in the balls, rock fight games. Now we just assume that the Seahawks are just going to roll over the Patriots. Bullshit.

Did you forget? Mike Rable's a pretty good fucking coach. So I don't buy that at all. And I think the spreads four and a half, five points. I mean, that's a relatively large favorite for Seattle. But again, look at who the Patriots have played the last two weeks. That matters. Does it not?

It matters when you're playing two weeks. of the two of the top three or four defenses in the league. It also matters when you're playing the Texans who big picture, you were going to be risk averse against those guys, even though you did take risk and you did turn the ball over. You're going to be more risk averse because you didn't believe the Texans were going to score. That was another huge factor in that too.

The Texans were giving you the ball so many times if you're the Patriots that the Patriots didn't have to go out and sling it for a ton of yards. They had to do just enough to win the game. And that's the same kind of thing they were dealing with in that game. game yesterday. So I say it's the idea that the Patriots are just going to get smoked as stupid. In fact, I may take the money line. I may take Patriots money line. What is the money line in that game? Let's see here. Patriots money line. Let's see. So the Patriots money line, if there are five, what is it, four and a half, five points? There are four and a half point dog. They're plus 188.

I don't know why the Patriots couldn't win it. Are they as good as Seattle? Probably not. But could they win that game? Sure. I just think people writing them off as stupid. Now, the NFC championship game yesterday, well actually, let me go back. Actually, no, let's look at this one now. Okay, we looked at the AFC. Let's look at the NFC. So you've got Sam Darnold who's exercised every demon he's ever had, whatever those demons may be, playoff demons, five interception demons, whatever it is. Sam Darnold has exercised those demons and Sam Darnold is taking a team to the Super Bowl, which pigs have flown, right? Like, wow, how does that happen? Fascinating thing, though, here is I'm in Detroit. And as you know, Jared Gough quarterback here in Detroit. And I'm fairly convinced that Detroit

Lions fans are pretty clueless on a lot of things. One of those is Jared Gough. So, So last night, Sam Darnold beats Matt Stafford. He's going to the Super Bowl. And all over Twitter, you get people saying that are Detroit Lions fans. You get people saying, wow, if Sam Darnold can do it, I don't want to hear any excuses for why Jared Gough can't make it to the Super Bowl. If Sam Darnold can do it, Jared Gough can do it. well, something that's lost in that message is that

Jared Goff has already been to a Super Bowl. I did not need to see Sam Darnold make it to the Super Bowl to know that Jared Goff can make it to the Super Bowl because Jared Goff has already done it. Like I'm fairly certain that some of these people just started watching football 10 minutes ago. Like that's the one thing about social media

or one of the things about social media is social media reveals that people are fucking morons, right? Like we know this, right? Like people are stupid and they say dumb shit, and we know this about people on social media. This is not new, this is not a new development. People are absolute dipshits on social media. And people just say dumb shit and you're like,

the fuck planet do you live on? What world do, like what planet do you live on? But when you see that, you're like, wait a minute. You had to see Sam Darnold go to a social, Super Bowl to know that Jared Goff is good enough to go to a Super Bowl when Jared Goff has already gone to the Super Bowl. The dipshit idiotic takes that people have are truly mind-blowing. It is wild to see just how stupid people are. Just absolute dipshit morons you get. It's like it fascinates me to see how stupid people can be. Like the, like the

takes like obviously we're getting trolled by people right like like bots and everything else like the internet is a cesspool we know the internet is a cesspool we know social media is a cesspool it's terrible right so we know all this shit this isn't new but when you see some of the dumb shit people say it's like huh there's no way any human can truly be that stupid but then what you end up with is more stupid people so that's what we're uh we're running into is that people just continue to get dumber and dumber and now we can just see how dumb these people are. I just watch to look let me tell you if uh if Sam Darnold can make it to the Super Bowl there's no fucking excuse for the Lions and Jared Goff. I know he's already been to a Super Bowl.

You know the reason the Lions didn't make it to the playoffs is their offensive line is dog shit and their defense isn't very good and their coach goes for it on fourth down 10 times a game. Speaking of that, I enjoyed the way Sean Payton fumbled that one away. That one brought me joy to watch Sean Payton in a game like that where it came down to field goals. And in the second half, the snow played such a giant role in the field goal game that Sean Peyton passing up a field goal earlier in the game cost them. And I loved it. I loved it.

I loved it. I thoroughly enjoy watching Sean Payton lose. And as I tell you every time we talk about it, five years from now, that opinion will be different. Ten years from now that will be different. Ten years from now, I will love Sean Payton and I will think of all the great things the Saints did. And I'll conveniently forget that they blew five, six playoff games to teams they shouldn't have lost to. But right now, all I can think about is the fact that Sean Peyton blew multiple playoff games to teams they shouldn't have lost to. And all I can think about is Sean Payton taunting the Minnesota Vikings fans right before the Minnesota Miracle.

and all I can think about is Sean Payton doing the choke signal to these guys. That's all I can think of. And then you watch Sean Payton whiff on the opportunity to kick a field goal earlier in the game that could have had his team sitting in decent position, and that brings me happiness. It brings me happiness to see Sean Payton and his decisions kick him in the balls. And look, we saw, look, you want to look at the other game. same thing can be said for the uh for shaw the two shans s e a n shons the two shans had two opportunities to kick field goals and had they kicked them their fates could have been considerably different all sean peyton needed to do was kick that field goal earlier in the game and you're probably staring at a 10 to 10 game in that weather and who knows how the game ends who knows how it works out all sean mcvay had to do his decision was a little bit tougher because you're talking five minutes or in a game and like I get that there are elements that are his decision was tougher early in a

ball game that you know it's going to be a rock fight and I've used rock fight a lot today but early in a game that you know is going to be a rock fight to not kick that field goal as negligence and it's stupid and it caused to the game that was an obvious decision I would argue that the McVeigh play was not an obvious decision right like McVeigh in that spot there's about four minutes five minutes to go, I believe they had all three timeouts. So I think they had all three timeouts and the two minute warning. If you kick the field goal there, you're down one. So you kick a field goal, you're down one. And I think that totally changes the outlook of the rest of that game and the way Seattle has to play that. You kick that field goal. You're down one with five minutes to go. And when you eventually

get the ball back, now think about this. Now, obviously, not all things would have worked out the way they worked out. But let's say you get the ball back. Let's say it all works out the way it worked out and you're down one point and you get the ball back with 25 seconds. If you have that situation, and let's say Puka makes that catch where he makes that catch, maybe have a shot at a long field goal. Who knows? I mean, that's a way long field goal. But it changes your strategy in that last 25 seconds because in that last 25 seconds, you're just trying to get into range to kick a long field goal to win it. But I also think it obviously, and this is an obvious statement. but if you're up or down one in that spot,

it totally changes the approach from Seattle as well. Because what is Seattle going to do in that spot? How do they approach that situation? How do they handle that situation? You know, they call plays differently in a one-point game versus a four-point game. So you whiffed on that.