The Kevin Sheehan Show - Blough's Offense + Wild Wildcard Weekend

Episode Date: January 13, 2026

Kevin opened with his thoughts on the David Blough hire and took a guess about what his Commanders' 2026 offense will look like. Kevin recapped the wild "Wildcard NFL Playoff Weekend" before Steve Czaban jumped on with his thoughts on the NFL Playoffs as well as some of the ancillary "announcer" discussion around some of the games played over the weekend. For all your football betting needs: DCRELOAD at MyBookie for a 50% Deposit Match Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. Reggie Gilliam, fullback, big on the push push. There he is, shoving, and Alan's got it. Not to be tonight.

He's still going. Look at this. A full thorough bread. And they say touchdown. I think Josh Allen was this weekend's best player. That fourth and one sneak slash push push made it down to the half yard line set up the go-ahead touchdown on the following play. There was a lot of strategy on scoring like Buffalo did with still a minute to go in the game.

I'll get into that and this incredible just-completed weekend of wild card playoff football that continues and concludes tonight in Pittsburgh. The show's presenting sponsor is always Windon Nation 86690 Nation, Window Nation.com if you need new windows. Steve Zabin's going to join me on this show today. We'll get into his thoughts on the games and everything that went with them, the coaching decisions, the announcers. We'll talk about the press conference following the Bill's Jags game,

where a credentialed reporter comforted Jacksonville head coach Liam Cohen instead of asking an actual question, a moment that went super viral last night and into today. I'll get Zave's thoughts on that, and I'll weigh in with my thoughts on that as well. But lots of football to talk about. I'll get to all five of the weekend games in the next segment. But first, I'll start with what an awful smell test from over the weekend.

It was bound to happen. and four so far. Be glad that I didn't give out all of the games that I was close to giving out. There were another three on the list. I considered Philadelphia, that would have been a loser.

Jacksonville, that would have been a loser. And the under in the Rams Panthers game, that would have been a loser. So I was close to an 0.7 weekend. But I still have Pittsburgh tonight plus the three. to try to make it a one and four weekend. So if you're interested in shorting me,

I gave the Steelers out on Friday show, plus three for tonight's final wild card playoff round game. This from Jackson. Jackson writes, Kevin, Indiana went over the number by themselves. Nice job. Yeah, I not only had Oregon plus three, and a half. I had the under in that game. That

game was pretty much almost over the total at half time. Yeah, that one wasn't close, Jackson. This from Ronnie R. Ronnie writes, Kevin, the first time in two months you didn't warn us that it's time to fade your picks,

and look what happened. I guess you were overconfident. Yeah, that was it, Ronnie. But you're right. I don't think I did. I think people got sick of me saying for about two months, be careful. It's about to turn. I'm probably going to end up having a terrible weekend one of these weekends. And it just never happened. And people started getting annoyed by me warning them. But I probably should have kept up with

it. Maybe it would have prevented what happened over the weekend. How about this from Jimmy? Jimmy writes, please don't take this the wrong way, Kevin. But I think it's much easier to pick winners in the regular season. Your playoff picks were so bad, total choke job. Not sure why I didn't think about that before the game started, so I could have gone against your picks. Yeah, Jimmy, you should have, man. You should have thought about that.

The difficulty of playoff wagering versus regular season wagering. I'm being sarcastic right now for those that are not following along, and I know many of you don't bet and don't know much about betting. But let me just assure you that I think Jimmy may have been joking around or trolling. But if he wasn't, it's a pretty dumb take because there's literally no difference between regular season betting and playoff betting. None. Your odds aren't any different. There's no difference between preseason betting and playoff betting when it comes to your chances of winning. They are the exact same.

But yeah, Jimmy and others a little angry with the picks over the weekend. Man, I am so sorry. I am so sorry to have provided a season like the one I did in the regular season. You know, 117, 65, and 13, 64.3 percent only to fall flat on my face here early, early in the postseason. You know, what's interesting, I have this guy, his name's Sylvester. Sylvester kind of gives me every once in a while a recap of my smell test, not just this year, but over the years. But like for this year, he'll say, you've had this team this many times. And he provided me with this long email. I may have

referenced it maybe two or three months ago where it was like, you know, chronicling this smell test for like the last seven or eight years. Um, and Sylvester, I appreciate the fact that you listen and you care about it. I think I said this when I first read your email and I think I referenced it on the air. I think a lot of it was not totally accurate. You had me one year like 41 and 31, I think something like that. Um, I've never had a year with that. few number of plays. I mean, this year, I'm 117, 65, and 13. So how many is that?

117 and 65 is 182 and 13, 195. So 195 total plays before the postseason. That's typically the number, you know, is I'm somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 season plays, not, you know, 72. So anyway, thank you for your interest. But Sylvester it out once that I've performed very well in the playoffs because he sent me this thing that said your March Madness and your NFL playoff picks have always done very well. And I forget what the percent was. And again, I'm not even sure he's totally right. But I think actually March Madness, it's like four years in a row that I've given out more winners than losers. And I think Sylvester's right. I've usually done pretty well in the playoffs. But not so.

far. Oh and four, that's a tough hole to climb out of when you have so few opportunities left. But again, I apologize for this past weekend. I'll try to do better. Hopefully, hopefully Pittsburgh hits tonight, but I'm conflicted about tonight because I have Houston, a personal wager on Houston to win the AFC championship game. But I will hedge big time with the state. Steelers tonight on the money line. FYI. All right. David Blow as the O-C.

The news broke during my recording of Friday's show. David Blow is 30 years old, and he's never done it before. He's never been an offensive coordinator. In fact, I mean, he was the assistant quarterback's coach here under Tevita Pritchard. And then when Pritchard left to be the head coach at Stanford, David Blow would, I guess elevated, although they didn't put a press release out changing his title. But this is a bold move by Dan Quinn, but also not that much of a surprise. You know, I think Tuesday or Wednesday last week, you know, I said that I considered Blow to be a co-favorite with Mike McDaniel. But look, you know, two weeks ago, three weeks ago, I mean, the Kingsbury thing would have been a major surprise. I've been told, now after this weekend that a couple of things. Number one is they really like him. They see him as someone they couldn't let leave the building. He's too smart. He's too totally spot on instinctually.

And he was too sought after from other teams outside of Ashburn. I was reminded by the way, by somebody who I was talking to this morning, that last year there were multiple, teams that were interested in interviewing him, but Washington blocked those interviews. We know the Lions this year, this offseason, requested permission to interview him for their open offensive coordinator position, and the team declined that request. So before I get into what to expect from Blau, which is kind of hard, you can only base that on, you know, the exposure he's had in football. which is primarily Cliff Kingsbury, Ben Johnson, and Kevin O'Connell to a certain degree.

But I want to say this before I get into just a few thoughts on what to expect from David Blow as the team's offensive coordinator. So I do think that there's a really good chance. This was the guy all along. In fact, I'm not so sure that if David Blow had been somewhere else the last two years, that Cliff Kingsbury wouldn't still be here. Now, I think there's a chance that Cliff wanted to make a run at a head coaching vacancy this particular offseason. He didn't do it last year.

Probably could have gotten the New Orleans job last year. There's a lot of vacancies, large number of openings. I don't know if he'll get a head coaching job. He was interviewed by Baltimore today. Baltimore was his interview today. So I think that's what three head coach. coaching vacancy interviews for Cliff so far. Maybe he thinks that this is the best chance to be a head coach again.

But I think if not for David Blow being here for the last two years, the urgency, and that may be a bit overstated, but the desire that Quinn eventually had to move on from Cliff wouldn't have been as strong. They like Blow a lot. Yes, I think Mike McDaniel's availability was probably, I don't know this for a fact at all, but I'm assuming that it had to be interesting to Dan Quinn. But they would have had to wait for Mike McDaniel because Mike McDaniel's not interested in being an OC right now. He's interested in being a head coach and he's getting interviewed to be a head coach.

It's possible that he eventually turns his attention to being an offensive coordinator if he strikes out or isn't offered. or isn't offered and accepts a head coaching opening. But I think for our team, waiting for him would have been a risk because they could have lost Blow in the process. So they like him a lot. I think it's likely that it was Blow kind of all along, no matter who became available. They just really like him.

So a few things about David Blow. First of all, he was a really good college quarterback in 2018 in his final year at Purdue. He played for Jeff Brom, excellent offensive head coach. That Purdue team back in 2018 was an explosive team offensively. And they beat number two undefeated Ohio State who came into West Lafayette, number two team in the country, undefeated, beat him 49 to 20 behind 378 and three touchdowns from David Blow. By the way, in that game, Dwayne Haskins was the starting quarterback for Ohio State. He set an Ohio State record that still exists today for the most pass attempts in an Ohio State game by a quarterback, 73.

He threw the ball 73 times in that game, in that 49 to 20 loss. Terry McLaren six catches that day. So Terry McClure and David Blow familiar with each other even before Blow arrived here because they played football against each other in college in the Big Ten. David Blow also set the Big Ten record that year. it was earlier in this season with 590 combined yards, 572 passing, 18 rushing. That was in the moment a Big 10 record for the most combined yards. 572 passing and 18 rushing 590 total in a 40 to 37 loss against Missouri.

He was a good, really good. college quarterback under Jeff Brom at Purdue. And then, you know, came into the NFL, undrafted, free agent, you know, signed with Cleveland actually initially in 2019. And then he got traded to Detroit in August of 2019 training camp that also included like a swap of conditional seventh round picks. And then following injuries to Matt Stafford and Jeff Driscoll, Blow was named the starting quarterback for the Lions

for their game on Thanksgiving Day 2019 against the Chicago Bears. In that game, they lost to the Bears 24 to 20. He was 22 of 38 for 280 yards, two touchdowns, one pick. He started five straight football games with Stafford and Driscoll both hurt. Didn't win any of them. Lost all five, only a couple of them were close. And for him in that particular season of five starts, he completed 54% of his passes for 984 yards, four touchdowns, and six interceptions.

So it was not a great, you know, opportunity. He was a young quarterback, a rookie quarterback, but he got five starts as a rookie. Then the following season, he got some playing time and a loss, but not a start. His next start didn't come until January 1st, 2023, and then January 1st, 8th, 2023 in the final two games of Arizona's 22 regular season, coached by Cliff Kingsbury, and Colt McCoy, who was the starting quarterback at the end of that year, because Kyler Murray was already out, he got hurt with a concussion, and Blow came in and started two games for Cliff to end the 2023 season.

before Cliff, you know, got fired. And in those games, not bad. Overall, he threw for 402 yards in two games, two touchdowns, two picks, and a 70% completion percentage. Good college quarterback, not much of an opportunity in the pros for David Blow. But, yeah, I didn't know until I was looking at it after. the show on Friday about, I remembered Blow as a quarterback at Purdue. I remembered that he was okay. I didn't realize he held the Big Ten record for combined yards in a game. And that Ohio State game, I did remember it when I found it, but man, I didn't remember him lighting the

Buckeye defense up the way he did in that particular game. All right. So what's David Blow's offense going to look like when he begins coordinating it and calling it next year and hopefully beyond next year. It's a tough question to answer really because it's not like we have a lot to point back to. You know, it's not like, oh, when he was the offensive coordinator in Carolina in 2022, this is what it looked like. Or, you know, when he was in Vegas in 2023 and they fired the offensive coordinator and he was the interim offensive coordinator over the final four or five games, We don't have any of that to reference back to. He's never done this before.

So you have to extract clues from the places he's been and the coaches that he coached for, the experiences that he's had. And I would say primarily the NFL experiences that he's had, although Jeff Brom, I would assume, was very influential over Blau as his college coach, as an offensive head coach, and as really one of the respected offensive minds in college football. But let's stick with the pro experience. We know that he's had two years with Cliff.

Prior to that, he had some time with Ben Johnson and even some time with Kevin O'Connell in Minnesota. When he started those final five games in 2019, Darryl Beville was the offensive coordinator under Matt Patricia, who was the head coach of the Lions. an interesting name, Daryl Bevel. Remember, that was a name that got floated around after Cliff was let go last week. Darryl Bevel was David Blow's offensive coordinator in Detroit. Daryl Bevel was just with Mike McDaniel in Miami. So he's looking for work. So I'm going to mention him in a few minutes because Ben Standing brought something up to me today on radio. that I found interesting as it relates to Daryl Bevel.

More on that in a few minutes. I think there's one thing more than any other that I am expecting from the David Blow experience as an offensive coordinator. I've thought about this. I've gone back to the O'Connell, the Ben Johnson experiences for him considered the cliff two years. But I think the number one thing that we can count on from him, is that the run game will be married to the past game,

specifically a play action passing offense in particular. I think that's going to be a major focus that wasn't necessarily the major focus of Cliff's offense. Will that happen under Center more? I don't know. That's an open-ended question for me. I've already talked about in previous shows. I think the under center thing is a bit overrated. And if Jaden's more comfortable in shotgun or specifically pistol,

you can still run the ball and play action off of it in pistol. But my hunch is more under center. But my more than hunch is that we're going to see a run game and a play action pass game as a big part of the attack. the two will be married together. And that's not something that we really saw a lot with Cliff's offense. So I think what I'm thinking in terms of what I would be surprised if we don't see as a big part of his offense, I think will really come from Ben Johnson and from Kevin O'Connell. Cliff Kingsbury's offenses in Washington, 28th this past season in play action. Last year,

with Jaden playing all 17 regular season games. They were 20th, 20th, excuse me, in play action pass attempts. By contrast, Detroit last year with Ben Johnson at the helm in 2024, number one in the league in play action pass attempts. They were number three this year without Ben Johnson, but Johnny Morton kind of continued the Ben Johnson offense. Dan Campbell eventually took over for Morton just in time for the Washington defense. but they were third this year, first last year with Ben Johnson.

Chicago this year, number two in the regular season in play action pass attempts with, obviously, Ben Johnson is the head coach and play caller with Caleb Williams. Kevin O'Connell, another experience that David Blow had. Third last year in play action pass attempts. 11th this year, they had some quarterback issues this year. But I think the number one, for me, the number one conclusion that I've come to as far as what the offense will look like and specifically what will be different about David Blow's offense versus Cliff Kingsbury's offense. I think we're going to see much more of a focus on a run game married to a play action pass game. Number one, I think it's perfect for Jaden.

Number two, I think it's what Quinn prefers. Number three, these are experiences that Blow has had. And they were very good experiences with Ben Johnson and with Kevin O'Connell. So I think that's what we're going to see. I do. I'm not exactly sure what the run game will look like specifically or how much of it will be from under center versus you know, pistol or shotgun. But I think the Washington football team next year will be somewhere in the top 10 worst case

in play action pass attempts, which would be a major difference from the last two seasons. Now, I mentioned Daryl Bevel's name. So on radio today, Ben Standing mentioned Daryl Bevel as a potential guy, somebody like Daryl Bevel, that they could bring in with a. very inexperienced first-time offensive coordinator to be either a quarterback's coach or an offensive consultant. Another person in the mix, Ben thinks there's still a possibility of that. I did not give that thought on Friday after they named Blow as the

offensive coordinator, but Beville is a guy that he's got experience with as a quarterback starting games in the NFL with Bevel as the offensive coordinator. The interesting thing about Bevel is that he does have the recent experience with Mike McDaniel in Miami, but really he cut his teeth in Seattle, where Dan Quinn was the defensive coordinator, with a quarterback who he had as dual threat, Russell Wilson. That was really where we started to hear Darrell Bevel's name for the first time. It was like he was copying what Kyle and Mike were doing here, and he implemented that, you know, read option, zone read part of the offense in Seattle and Russell Wilson was phenomenal as a dual threat quarterback. So that's really the one thing that I feel

confident in saying, that I'd be surprised if we don't see more of run game, married to a play action passing game. Look, I think this guy's going to take some of Ben Johnson's creativity and trick plays, etc. And we'll see some of that as well. Yeah, that's kind of as deep as I feel confident enough in going to. Now, back to the decision that Dan Quinn has made here, which is a bold one, you know, given right now the feeling, at least, that the seat is a bit warm for him to go with a first-time coordinator and play caller

is a decision that Dan Quinn needs to be right about, you know? Moving on from a guy like Cliff Kingsbury after two seasons, two seasons which, you know, in aggregate were pretty good, you know, a very successful season in year one. And I've said this many times, I know it annoys some of you, but a season two in which I think he got more out of less, You know, moving on from that and going to a first time guy, Dan Quinn needs to be right.

He really does. You know, forget to talk about his job security for a moment. For this franchise, and it's soon to be third year quarterback, you don't want a throwaway year, you know, if the decision turns out to be one that doesn't work out. You can't afford for this to be the wrong decision because you're taking now two straight, years of not getting enough production out of your quarterback, one year because of injuries,

let's assume he's healthy next year, the next year because you had the wrong coordinator. Dan's got to be right about this one. All right, let's get to some of the incredible football from over the weekend. We'll do that after these words from a few of our sponsors. Guys, I introduced you to Goldbelly about a year ago. It's an amazing site that I order from now all the time. where you can get the most iconic famous foods from restaurants all across the country, they'll ship it to you no matter where you are. Goldbelly ships you iconic Chicago deep dish

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Please support this show and tell them that I sent you. Skymore again. A little tricker. Who's thrown it before. Going deep with Caffrey. He's got it. Touchdown 49ers. Christian McCaffrey, 29 yards from Joanne Jennings on a razzled dazzled, dazzle throw to open up the fourth quarter. San Francisco took a 17 to 16 lead. They went on to beat Philadelphia. The defending

champs are done. 2319, the final. There was a lot to that game. There was a lot to all of the football in the NFL from over the weekend. I will get to each of the five games coming up here momentarily after I tell you about MyBooky. If you want to bet on sports, my recommendation is to do it at MyBooky, go to MyBooky.com or MyBooky.orgy.orgy.org. Use my promo code when you make a deposit as an existing customer or you sign up as a new customer. My promo code is DC Reload. D-C. R-E-L-A-D. You'll get a 50% cash bonus when you do that. What does that mean? If you deposit $100, they'll put an extra 50 into your account. If you deposit $800, they'll put an extra $400 into your account. Deposit $1,000 you get another $500 into your account. Even if you've got another spot where you're betting

on sports, take the free money. Very rarely this time of year are sports books offering this kind of incentive, this kind of bonus. And my listeners get access to it, whether you're a new customer or an existing customer. You just have to use my promo code, DC Reload. So, five games into Wild Card Weekend and 12 fourth quarter lead changes among those five games. Really, we had four incredible games,

and then we had last night's one-sided game that actually still was a one-score game going into the fourth quarter, but man, the Chargers. You know, I can start right there real quickly because there wasn't much to this. Justin Herbert took an absolute beating. The New England defense was phenomenal. The New England defense pulled off something that hasn't happened since the 85 bears did it.

No touchdowns, rushing yards less than 100, net passing yards less than 150 in a playoff game. The last time it happened, the 85 Bears did it against. the New York Giants in the divisional round of those playoffs. The Patriots were defensive led last night against a Charger team with a decimated offensive line. That's been their issue all year long. And Herbert was absolutely ravaged all night long. What a beating he took. The Charger defense kept him in the game.

The Charger defense was the best New England's faced since they faced Cleveland. earlier in the year. I said on Friday show that this is, you know, where you got to wonder, can New England do it against a team with a winning record, a team with a really good defense? And they did. They survived 16 to 3.

Their defense was outstanding. They lost the turnover battle and won the game. Drake May had an interception that was deflected. He had two fumbles in the game, one that he lost. One was nearly a scoop and score with about four minutes to go. in the game. Let me just say this, though. While New England won that game defensively more than any other reason, Drake May was still very good in the game. He was battling through a very tough

defense, and yes, they had a running game. Stevenson was outstanding at over five yards per carry. Travion Henderson got nine carries, I think, you know, in the game. Drake May, as a runner, was great, and he made just enough throws, including a touchdown throw for the only touchdown of the game in the fourth quarter to Hunter Henry. Yes, it's true that New England was led by its defense last night, but that's not to take anything away from Drake May and Ramondri Stevenson and Hunter Henry and Stefan Diggs because they made plays too. But that was the only game of the weekend that wasn't competitive. If we go back to Saturday, the Rams and the Panthers, you got to give the Panthers credit.

They're down 14-0-0 in this game. They come back, and that was, you know, an incredible first game where we saw in the fourth quarter four different lead changes. And then with Matt Stafford hurting, that finger got hurt. He was 8 for 9 when he got hurt. I went 2 for 12 on the 14 pass attempts following it. But when he took over from their own 29-yard line, with four minutes or so left down 3127.

That was their season. This is a Super Bowl pick for a lot of people, including yours truly. I've thought for a while that the Rams were the best team in the league. Now recently, not as much, but they got it done on the road and they beat Carolina 34, 31. What a catch by the tight end Parkinson for the touchdown.

Great throw, great catch. Puka Nakuwa was an absolute beast. And I have to say, Bryce Young, I thought was impressive in the game. They should pick up his option for sure. I think that there was some question before the season started about picking up his fifth year option. You can do a lot worse than Bryce Young. I know he's a small quarterback, but he's now comfortable where you're seeing a lot of what you saw at Bama, which is him kind of creating off schedule as a smaller quarterback with eyes always.

down the field. They've got some talent on that team as well. So yeah, I thought that was one hell of a game to kick off a wild card weekend, especially considering that the Rams were 10 and a half point favorites going into that game. But they survive. Matt Stafford throws for 304, three touchdowns. Pooka Naku is an absolute beast. The Rams end up moving on to face the Bears on Sunday, they are favored, by the way, by three and a half at my bookie. The Bears had the most dramatic game because they were getting their ass kicked at halftime, 21 to 3. So I have a lot from this game. I'm going to start with this. Caleb Williams deserves so much credit, so much credit. And Ben Johnson's done a phenomenal job. Yes, he completed 50%

of his passes. Yes, he's inaccurate a lot. Hence the 58% completion percentage for the year, which is very low, but he is such an athlete and such a playmaker. And the plays he makes in the clutch in crunch time have been amazing all season long. Here's a guy that went 50% completion percentage 2448 and through for 361. Unbelievable. The throw on fourth and eight to Adunzei was insanity. It's the kind of play he always made, you know, at USC. So that's the kind of stuff you expected. He's only 24. The completion percentage increasing will come. Ben Johnson and the offense fits him. He made big time plays. But I'll go back to the beginning of the second half. half in this game. To me, this game was winnable or made winnable because of Chicago's defense.

This is a game that started out with the Packers going nine plays 85 yards touchdown, 10 plays 87 yards touchdown. Eight plays 32 yards after Ben Johnson went for a fourth and five from his own 32. Man, some of these fourth down calls over the weekend were more reckless than aggressive in my opinion. That is example number one. I don't care how bad your defense is in the moment. It's the middle of the second quarter. It's 14 to 3 and you're at your own 32 yard line with a fourth and five. Why hand them a 213 lead? Why made no sense to me? But then on that last drive, they actually got in field goal range and missed a field goal at the end of the half. Field goals and extra points were a big part of this game. But 21-3, and unstoppable Green Bay, was offensively.

And then the Chicago defense, which hasn't been very good, but has been good in the takeaway area. All right, here they go with the best defensive stretch of football in a long time. Three and out, three and out, five and out, three and out. That's Green Bay's first four possessions of the second half. You cannot come back in the NFL down 18 without your defense making a lot of plays. It's impossible. Now, you know, 18, 21 to 3, it wasn't 35 to 17, you know, which would have felt a little bit different. 213 is an absolute blasting. And it felt that way, watching it. You have to be defensively. good enough to create the number of opportunities and the number of opportunities in the period

of time you need them. Like Green Bay could have won this game if, as an example, instead of three, three and outs in their first four drives, and the other drive being a five and out, if they had gone eight plays, 47 yards and punted, the next one, nine plays and 50 yards and punted, that would have eaten up enough clock where Chicago wouldn't have gotten enough opportunities. So not only did they need to force punts or take the ball away, they needed to do it in short order. Green Bay held the ball over their first four drives of the second half, which extended into the fourth quarter. They held the ball for six minutes total. That was it. It was their defense, Chicago's defense, and perhaps the Green Bay offense was culpable as well.

Now, a couple of things about the end of the game. Let me just also quickly interject. I'm going to talk to Zabe about this. Al Michaels, I loved him. He was the best ever. Can't do it anymore. He just can't. He can't see it.

He can't, I don't think, comprehend it. The game is just too fast for him. They missed the significance of that Green Bay interception that cost him 28 yards of field position. He didn't pick up on the significance of the miss. missed extra point when it was 27 to 16. That was a huge missed extra point. He didn't pick up on Packers' timeouts used on defense, and neither he nor Herb Street picked up on, I thought, a crucial moment on Green Bay's final drive down 31-27. There was a completion to read for about 20 yards down to the Chicago 23-yard line. The play ended with 38 seconds.

left. There was a player down for the Packers, injured behind the play. They let the clock run down to 32, stopped it, and then took the 10 second runoff from 32 to 22. The player was clearly injured. People were turning around, including Jordan Love at the end of that play. They should have whistled that play dead sooner than 32 seconds. It ended at 38. And Green Bay would have had more time after the 10-second runoff. The other part of that is they weren't ready to snap the ball at 22 seconds after the 10-second runoff. They snapped it at 20 seconds. You can't do that.

You have to know the clock's going to roll. There was an opportunity, obviously, for Green Bay at the end. I think that final play, by the way, Jordan Love was going to throw it out towards the sideline for 8 to 10 yards, the way Chicago was playing it in that moment. But the snap was a bad snap. He had to go to the ground. He had to run around. And Chicago won another incredible comeback victory.

It was insane. It's been insane what they've done all year. Look, there's similarities to Washington season last year. One big exception. Washington really was so much more offensive lead and quarterback led than even Chicago. Chicago's defense isn't good, but they've been among the league leaders in takeaways, which has helped them all season long. Chicago hosting the Rams next Sunday, no time quite yet.

That'll all be determined after the game tonight between Pittsburgh and Houston. And the Rams are three and a half point favorites. It'll be cold. It'll be outdoors. That Soldier Field crowd was awesome. Bear fans, I mean, they got to be feeling it for the first time in a long time. But what a win. How about that handshake with Lafleur and with Ben Johnson?

and Ben Johnson's locker room, you know, F the Packers, you know, I can do without, especially publicly. I don't care how he addresses it. That the handshake, they hate, they just hate each other, LaFleur and Ben Johnson. Again, I mean, I think it was their defense as much as it was their offense. They scored 25 points in the fourth quarter. I'm fully aware of that, but they have no chance to come back if they don't get all those stops. And in short order, that was the key.

is that they happened quickly. They kept getting the ball back quickly. And yeah, they messed up in the red zone a bunch too. Chicago did. All right, let's go to yesterday's early game, which included, I think, the performance of the weekend. I don't even think it was close. Josh Allen was the best player of the five wildcard weekend games.

I never thought for a moment watching the Buffalo Jacksonville game, that Buffalo was as good as Jacksonville. I didn't discount the possibility of them winning the game because they have Josh Allen. But I knew, and you could tell early on in that game, Jacksonville was legit good. I had Ross Tucker on radio last week. He said he thought the winner of this game would go to the Super Bowl. That's how good he thought Jacksonville was and people didn't know it. I was really impressed with Jacksonville at various times during the season.

but yesterday they just appeared to be better. Now, I think they screwed up by not running the ball more. Their two backs, E.TN and Tootin, the kid from Virginia Tech, they were averaging into the third quarter, each of them, over 12 yards per carry, 12, and they only had eight carries in total between the two of them. I thought they didn't need to throw the ball as much. And Trevor Lawrence had a pick early, had a couple of other near picks, and then had to pick at the end.

I don't think they needed Lawrence to do as much. Now, you could tell a lot of the plays were Lawrence checking out of runs, I believe, into throws. But at some point, maybe they should have just said, yeah, we're not going to allow you to check out of 12 yards per carry. Like, that was silly. They threw the ball 30 times. They ran it 23 times in a game in which they averaged,

Ultimately, if you factor in Trevor Lawrence's scrambles and a couple of reverses to Parker Washington, they average 6.7 yards per carry. The two running backs, Tutan ended up 12.8 yards per carry. I think he got banged up in the game and didn't come back in. An ETN was 6.7 yards per carry when all was said and done. They didn't need to throw it that much. This was a game where I was like, oh my God, if Buffalo makes one error in this game, one, it's over. They can't punt in this game. Now, they did punt in the first half a couple of times. In the second half, their drives were 11 plays 45 yards field goal.

Then they had their one bad drive, three and out where he got sacked. Alan got sacked for the only time of the day. Their last two drives, nine plays 65 yards touchdown, and then needing it with 403 left down 24. to 20. Nine plays 66 yards with the drama at the end. The fourth and one keeper. First of all, we got to outlaw carrying players. You can't do that. You're not allowed to pull players by rule. I think we're going to see some massive rules changes in the offseason. Terry McCauley, the NBC ref basically tweeted out that they've got to stop allowing the pushing, the pulling, and the picking up and lifting and

carrying. And I think that'll be part and parcel to the, I think, the abolishing of the tush push. But look, Josh Allen doesn't need to help, but he turned a fourth and one at the 11 into a 10-yard run that they called a touchdown initially on. Then they put the ball back at about the half-yard line. And then became, and then we had, excuse me, some drama, right? We had, okay, what should Buffalo do here? They're down 24-20. They've got. got Josh Allen. They've got first and goal inside the one. They have plenty of timeouts left. In Jacksonville now has no timeouts left with a minute four left. Well, everybody came to the conclusion on social media and beyond that they should have taken a knee on that first down and

run 40 seconds off. Here's part of the thinking. They have a kicker, Cam Little, who's kicked a 68 and a 67-yarder. It would have been hardly anything to get in field goal range down 27-24 to tie the game and put the game into overtime. But you've got a chance to run the clock down to almost nothing and score and leave them with not enough time to get into field goal range. My view on it is this. First of all, there are some context here with the score. If they're down by six or down by even five,

then I think you absolutely have to take the time off. Reason being, when you score the touch, down, a field goal beat you. Down 24-20, a field goal ties you. Worst case is overtime. Best case is win, as they did by getting an interception. But if you're down six, say, 24 to 18, then I'm taking not a knee, but I'm going to tell Josh Allen, try to sneak it to get it back to the line of scrimmage. You don't want to lose a yard. I mean, second and goal from the two is, is not second and goal from the one. But I think down six, down five even,

where you'd have the option to go for two to extend it, extend it to a three-point lead, but no guarantee. Down six or five, I am definitely running the clock down on the next play, not by taking the knee and a loss of yardage, but by Allen taking the snap and going forward just a bit and then stopping. Now, Jacksonville let them score, which I think was their best strategy in that moment, given their kicker and the opportunity to come back and tie the game,

because you do have to assume if you're Jacksonville that with Josh Allen in particular, they're going to score a touchdown. It's just a matter of when do they want to score a touchdown. So they let them score, and Buffalo took the score. Now, the challenges of just saying you've got to go down, you've got to burn the clock, is that what if on seconding goal from the one, got a false start. And it's second a goal from the six. We see it all the time in the goal line, you know, on a tush push. You know, we see offensive off sides, false start. Now you're

really messing with it if you don't score when you can score when you're down four. You know, look, if you're down two or down one or even down three, you probably burn that clock and kick a, you know, game-winning field goal, or you try for the touchdown with a lot less time on the clock. Down four, you can't mess around. You've got to score a touchdown. So I think down six or five, I am definitely burning the clock. There's no doubt. You know, down one or two, obviously you're taking that clock down.

Down three, you're taking the clock down and trying to score a touchdown after you burn clock. But down four in that spot, you just don't want to be. and second and goal from the six after a five-yard penalty, or second-and-goal from the two if you were to take a knee. Taking a knee would have been stupid. There's no reason to take lost yardage on a play in which you're trying to burn clock. So it's not, I know that social media declared it

is an absolute no-brainer, terrible decision to score there. I think that they'd be killing McDermott. Imagine they'd be killing McDermott. if on second and goal from the one, they had a five-yard penalty, and they ultimately didn't score. Do I think the odds were better if they took time off the clock? I do, and I think Josh Allen's part of that equation. But it's not a slam dunk. It's not a slam dunk down four. It's a slam dunk down six or five. That's different because a field goal beat you. unbelievable football game. The Philadelphia San Francisco game,

look, there are so many things to this game, but I'm going to net it out for you this way. Philadelphia is predictable. They're bad on offense, and they've got a wide receiver who put on an absolute gutless performance. A.J. Brown, you could tell, did not want to participate.

He hasn't wanted to be an eagle all year. I believe that. But yesterday in a playoff game, he alligator armed a pass on that final drive. And the two deep balls that he didn't even go for in the first half where Nick Siriani got after him on the sideline, I couldn't believe Michael Strayhan and company got after Siriani at halftime. I'm like, what are you talking about? The receiver literally did not try to lay out and make catches from the quarterback,

who I didn't think played that poorly. They clearly got to get a new offensive coordinator. And I don't know what they'll do with A.J. Brown. He's got a huge dead cap hit. But he's not, he's a great talent. And he has played games in his career where he's taking games over. He clearly doesn't want to be there. San Francisco on the flip side, wow.

Kyle Shanahan. Brock Purdy. Look, they struggled at times to move the football. They had a couple of big chunk plays. You know, early on, they had the big ones. to DeMarcus Robinson. They had that big one to Joanne Jennings. It's pretty much that their overall yardage came really on like three plays.

But Kyle Shanahan and what he's able to overcome, they overcame the loss of George Kittle during the game. He's a great coach. I've said this about the 49ers. This is the exception to the rule, but they have extended that exception for at least another week where they will have a rematch with the team that completely. completely dominated them in the game for the one seed, you know, a week and a half ago.

Very impressed with San Francisco, really, really unimpressed, as we were all year long with Philly's offense. Philly's defense was good. They gave up some big plays, though. But if Philly's offense had been decent, you, you know, you're probably in a game that you can win even by giving up a couple of big plays to the 49ers. The 49er defense was terrible coming in. Philadelphia didn't take advantage of it.

Look, the missed extra point early was big. The missed extra point at the end was big. You know, if Elliott makes the extra point early and they missed the extra point late, the 49ers do, Philly can kick the field goal. Philly should not have gone for two down seven to six when it got to 13.7. It was too early for a two-point conversion, and they didn't. I don't know what will happen in Philly. Siriani is just interesting, man.

I just don't get it. But clearly he has done something right there because they've been an incredible football team that's been to multiple Super Bowls and won one with him and won a lot of football games. But God, they are so predictable on offense. They've got to fix that. You can't be that predictable.

You can last year because your offensive line is dominant and it wasn't this year. Philly Dunn, San Francisco on defense. face Seattle. They are a seven point underdog. That, look, Sam Darnold, I don't trust him, but that defense, what Seattle did to San Francisco's offense last weekend, that was impressive. We get Denver and Buffalo, Buffalo's favored there on Saturday, and then on Sunday, we'll get the winner of tonight's game at New England.

Yeah. All right. Let's get to Steve Zabin next, after these words from a few of our sponsors. Hey guys, Chime is changing the way people bank. It's fee-free and smarter banking built for most of us, not the 1%. Chime's not just another banking app. Chime Unlocked Smarter Banking for everyday people with products like MyPay, giving you access to up to $500 of your paycheck anytime and getting paid up to two days early with direct deposit. Some old banks still don't do this. Forget overdraft fees, forget minimum balance fees and monthly fees, and CHIME can earn you up to 3.5% APY on savings. That's eight times higher than a traditional bank. Chime's been rated five stars by USA Today for customer service. You get real humans

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Jumping on with me right now is Steve Zabin. At Zabin on X. on Twitter. Zab's been doing some work recently for JFK, WJFK, 106.7. You can listen to his podcast, wherever you get your podcast. It's called the Zabcast. It's excellent. I was thinking about you because I was on radio with you yesterday before the games started. And we had another three games to add to the two on Saturday. And I know that these big weekends, for you, it's about the games, but it's also about a lot of other things. So let's start with your list.

Give me the top thing that you couldn't wait to, you know, really get after, especially if you had a show today from 4 to 7 with Andy, what would be after the games themselves? What would be at the top of that list? Oh, I think the coaching questions with both, you know, Green Bay, obviously. and, you know, Suryani is not going to get fired, but more and more people are asking,

what is it that you do around here, exactly? And then when it comes to coordinators like this Petulow guy, who is ready to be tarred and feathered and run out of Philly by those savages, that's a whole other fascinating thing. I think today, Kevin, is the greatest day in sports radio on the calendar. I used to think it was the Monday after the bracket reveal. I'm not realizing.

This day's great. You know why? It just dawned on me. Okay? So every year, you go to the whole NFL season, and every week there's 16 games or less because of buys, right? So everyone's attention is a bit diffused across a broader slate of games. All right?

But then those games end, and we get down to four, in this case, six games this weekend, five this weekend, one tonight. And it's like combining the late. are streams in a sci-fi movie. So the intensity of NFL Twitter on Monday today, because we've all watched intensely the exact five games so far. And we have lots of things to talk about and notice, and so it makes Twitter and social media and sports radio on this Monday even better

because everyone's focused on the same things, and they're digging up little Easter eggs, and they're saying, did you see this? and they're replaying clips of, why didn't Keenan Allen just raise his hands to catch this ball kind of thing? Stuff you would otherwise miss in the run of a normal NFL week. Does that make sense? Oh, total sense. And it's, yeah, everybody, on a Monday and October, everybody hasn't watched every game.

And in a lot of cases, and I've said this for years, and I don't know if you feel the same way, I think our fans, and when I say our fans, the fans of the skins here in this town, they don't watch the rest of the league as much. They're really dialed in on their team and that's it. But once that season's over and the playoffs happen, and this is arguably one of the great weekends of the sports calendar, because you get the two college games on Thursday and Friday night leading into the six wild card games. So it's a great weekend. But I totally agree with that. Can I add to that whole thing about fan bases?

So you're right. I think every fan base in general only cares about and only knows their own team. I think some cities, though, are more insulated and only care about their own team than others. And I would argue that Packer fans are one of the worst when it comes to just not even knowing anything that's going on otherwise in the league. I think our fan base is the same. You think commanders are two? Okay, well... Well, don't say commanders.

You don't like saying commanders, and I don't like saying commanders. You don't have to say commanders on this show. We can say skins, redskins, or just Washington. However, you want to do it. By the way, it's been a while since I've talked to you. I love that you have now taken this more hardline stance. What do you talk? You say that all the time.

It's pain... The whole thing is the silliest thing ever. I know. I know. I know, I know, I know. But here's the thing. I call them the commanders only because I wrestled with this decision, and I said, you know what? This is what they've decided to call them,

and I'm going to call them what they are called. As dumb as it may be. Okay. Skin fans. Skin fans are only care about their own team. I get that. I think Packer fans are the same because I was going out with a bunch of Packer fans who are bemoaning the, oh, everything was going great until Michael Parsons got hurt.

And, whoa, us, we can't deal with you. I'm like, yeah, well, you're up 21-3 without Michael Parsons and all the injuries. So don't start pulling that out as a retro excuse for throwing that game away. And then the same thing with, hey, you say how many injuries you've had, have you seen San Francisco? Are you aware of all they've lost? It would buckle your knees. So just stop it with the injuries. Okay, that's all I want to say.

Well, I want to go back to the officiating thing, or I'm sorry, the coaching decisions, because that was your number one. but let me just say this about the injuries. San Francisco is so much the exception to the rule. I mean, in fact, the last, you know, even the Kyle Shanahan is brilliant. He can, he does this with injuries. Well, the year after they went to the Super Bowl for the first time, 2019, and then the 2020 season, decimated by injuries, 6 and 10.

Last year, a year after going to the Super Bowl, decimated by injuries, 6 and 11. This is truly the exception. In the NFL, you and I talked about this on the show you were doing yesterday. In Washington's case, when you don't have your starting quarterback for 13 of your 17 games start to finish, you're doomed. And then you take away wide receiver one, running back one, wide receiver two, three, defensive end one, two, three, corner one. You can't overcome that.

I'm very impressed with what Kyle Shanahan's done. don't get me wrong, but it is so the exception to the rule. Don't forget. Look at Indy this year. I know. Yeah. Well, but Indy lost the quarterback. Exactly.

And they were seven and two, and then they ended up with a losing record. Right. But at least the Niners, they had a bridge quarterback. They got them through for about four games in Mac Jones. Yes. And then they got Bernie back. You're right. It is probably the exception.

But I would also say that you mentioned the two years after the Super Bowl, the Super Bowl loser hangover is one of the realist trends out there. If you look historically, the loser of the Super Bowl does not do well the next year. Just saying. I know. But they completely cratered the next two years because they didn't have their players. They didn't have players. So let's go back to you're getting ready to do four to seven, which I wish you were doing.

But that's another story altogether. Let me just tell you something. I've told you this before privately, but I don't think I've said this publicly. I miss so much this time of year and during football season in particular, not that I didn't listen a lot when it wasn't football season, but I participated so much more as an active listener to the station that I'm on back in the day. And look, everybody on the station, I like them, and they're doing great work.

But you and whatever iteration of the show, obviously, with Andy for the longest period of time, it's a big miss for me in the afternoon. I end up listening to, you know, mad dog, if I'm on the car. But anyway, I appreciate that, bro. Yes, I understand the feeling, and I definitely echo that. So, if I were doing a show today, if I were doing a show today, In D.C. It'd be interesting because on the one hand, you want to keep it local.

But on the other hand, other than beating up the David Blow hire and then jerking off to who's going to be the new D.C. And what we're going to pick in the draft, it's kind of, it's not as compelling as some of the other things to talk about. I do think that it's fascinating the way certain coaches, their styles, and the way they coach and how aggressive they are. And sometimes they do the most idiotic things. I thought Ben Johnson going for it on fourth and five at his own 32 was absurd. In a 14 to 3 game, and it definitely hurt him because they ended upscore a touchdown.

I'd have a 21-to-3. That's the Dan Campbell Meadhead approach. I also thought that when McVeigh did the same thing, swapping out a field goal for a go-for-it on a fourth and medium in field-goal territory. He then kicked the field goal on another fourth-and-a-field goal. medium and about the same yard line in the late third quarter when it was 20 to 17. And I said, well, if you're going to be aggressive, you have to keep being aggressive to reap

the benefits of your statistical strategy. You can't pull out at that point. You know, you've got to keep going for it, but whatever. And I also didn't like it because that score to make it 2017 was not going to be the winning score. So I just thought it was like, okay, whatever. The other coaching, you know, fascination to me was the conundrum that was presented to the guy in Buffalo with the Jaguars. McTermott.

Sean McDurman. So I'd never really seen this before. They've got first and goal at the half-yard line after the Tush-push got reviewed. We can talk about what should be done with that play and how the bills executed, which is damn near unfair. because they kind of lift Josh Allen up. Yeah, I carried him. Like he's in a wedding, like he's in a fucking wedding chair, and they carry him as far as they can.

Right. But I've never really seen this before, not to my at least recollection, that you had a real conundrum. The other team's out of timeouts. There's a minute and change. You need a touchdown to take the lead. A field goal is no good for you there.

You've got all your timeouts. What do you do? Do you dick around and take a knee on first down and let the clock bleed down to like 20 seconds. Okay, now it's first, it's second and goal from the two. The two is more than the half gets harder and harder. Oh, shoot, we just had a alignment jump. Yeah, how it's second and goal from the seven.

And oh, crap, there's 11 seconds left now. And so I'm like, hmm, a lot of people are like, you should have just taken a knee, you still have had three pushers to get it in, and then the Jaguars would have no time. And I get that strategy, but my feeling was get the touchdown first. Don't F around because you never know what could happen. I'd rather play defense and win it that way, which they did.

But I saw it as both sides of the strategy consideration were valid. It was more of a personal choice of how much can you count on a touchdown at the one or the two-yard line. Where did you come down on that? Yeah, I talked a lot about this. and I agree with you. This is not a slam dunk, you know, try to, and it's not even taking a knee because you don't want to take a knee and be back at the two-yard line. You've got to take the snap and you've got to go forward back to the line of scrimmage, which means Josh Allen's got to get low. He's got to go underneath his center a little bit.

There's going to be a pile, all that shit. I think that, you know, ultimately, I think it's a debatable thing. Now, let me just say this. If they had been down by six, that's a different situation because going up by one and having a field goal beat you on the other end factors into it. But I think going up by three and knowing that Cam Little from 70 yards might just force overtime as your worst case scenario is where it becomes debatable. I still think, Zabe, the odds are probably you got to figure out a way. way to burn 40 seconds on your next play without scoring, but without losing yardage. But to your point, and this is what a lot of people who just declared it was stupid,

is how many times do we see a false start? I mean, if you're second and goal to six after a second, you know, a timeout with 20 seconds to go and then you false start, you'd be praying for that opportunity to go in against a team that let them score on first down. You don't want to be faced with that. So, yeah. They called an illegal formation on Ronnie Stanley or the Ravens on their final drive when it was a matter of squinting to go as he really lined up. Right.

So if that can happen, you have to at least consider something bad could happen. Also, I bring you back, Kevin, to November of 2022, Orchard Park, New York. The bills fumble a snap at their own goal lines against the Vikings. against the Vikings. Yes. And they end up losing that game. I believe 1,000 percent that is in the scar tissue of McDermott and the bills, and it factored into their consideration.

Similarly, Ben Johnson and the Bears were sort of marching down for the dagger against the Packers and didn't waste any time. They got the first good look they could get a wonderfully designed play to DJ more, and they scored the touchdown. They said, we're going to play defense and figure it out, and they won the game. I generally default to that. I think touchdowns are fucking hard, even when you're at the one-yard line. So you better get what you need first.

When you are down by more than a field goal to fuck around with when you're going to score that touchdown is really dangerous business. If you're down, if you're down by one or two and you don't take the knee and play for the field goal and the walk-off field goal, that's stupid. That's why I said malpractice. Yeah. Now, that would be malpractice there. Yeah. Exactly right. I also think, Kevin, it is, and I'm not superstitious, but I'm a little stitious.

Thank you, Michael. Yeah. Yes. Yes. I think it is carmically bad juju to start fucking around, assuming you're going to get a touchdown on second, third, or fourth down. Yeah. Look, you could.

Just me. You could actually make the case, not a good one for Jacksonville letting him score, but that, hey, let's just stop them. The problem is the context is it's Josh Allen, you know, that's going to be running the quarterback sneak. So you've got about an 85 to 90% chance of that

going well for them. So letting them score and having time to tie the game made sense. No, it was yeah, there was a lot of that over the weekend, a lot of that over the weekend. You know, question.

Question. Do you, do you see this version of the as a more tolerable version than Belichick and Brady that can you kind of ride, not root for per se, but can you ride better with Rabel and Drake May? Because I think I can. Well, you're assuming that I didn't like Brady and Belichick in that combo, and I did. I enjoyed that. I didn't mind them. I didn't mind about, but okay, okay, let's say. By the way, I love Rabel. I love Rabel and I like Drake May. I mean, I didn't. didn't love, I didn't, I didn't love Drake May anywhere near as much as I love

Jaden Daniels coming out, but man, he looks the part. Well, it's going to be an interesting, it's going to be an interesting race the next, say, three years between the top three picks of the draft to see who really is the best of the lot because, I mean, I still think Phillips third out of three right now because he's just too inaccurate, but his athleticism is absurd and it won on the game. So at least there's that. And I'm still a JD-5 fan, maybe even a state. but, you know, it's like you start getting a little bit nervous about the echoes and shades of

RG3. That's all. I think he's a lot different player than RG3 and a better person than RG3, but still, thin, quarterback prone to getting injured, doesn't know how to protect himself. Yeh. A little bit icy. Well, he's definitely a better player, and he's definitely a completely different personality for the better. But three injuries costing him the majority of this season, you know, and putting that side by side with what happened 12, 13 years ago, I understand the concern. Even though he didn't miss but two college games and didn't miss a game last year as a rookie.

But the frame, et cetera, is, you know, reason for, I think, justifiable concern. All right, I want to get to a few more things with you, including the Tony Romo response from fans that were dialed in on the games this weekend. And something that went viral after the Buffalo Jacksonville game during the Jacksonville head coach Liam Cohen's post game press conference. We'll get to that more after these words from a few of our sponsors. We continue with Save. I want to talk announcers right now because there's no weekend like this one, next one, the one after, and then the Super Bowl. where you get more people weighing in on play-by-play and analysts. So give me your big pick.

You know, because we're all listening. We're not just kind of background-noising a lot of these games. And when you listen, you're like, wait a minute. What? Why did you say that? Romo is one of the most fascinating case studies where now it's beyond just, hey, his party trick of guests in the plays before they happened has run out. and so he's not as good.

It's truly a matter of what's wrong with this guy? Like literally, what's wrong with him? And I also, in a fascinating way, would love to know, love to be a fly on the wall inside the brain of one Jim Nance. What he's thinking. Is Jim Nance thinking, this guy's going to sink me? Like, I got to, at some point, I'm going to have to go to my bosses and say, the intervention didn't work from a year or two ago.

He's just a goofball who does. doesn't pay attention to anything. Tell everybody what the intervention was, because I'm familiar with it, too. It came down to his preparation. Two years ago, the network brass did something they almost never do with these high-paid guys. They almost never coach it. Because God, who are you going to tell me, you know, Troy Aikman, how to do my job? You're the one who paid me $20 million or Romo or whatever.

But they actually intervened with Romo and said, look, man, here's where you are at your best. could you do more of this? Could you do less of that? And according to reports, Romo took it to heart. And there might have been a bit of a correction, but he is just so all over the place. I think you've got to be ADD, and I don't know if his meds are always right.

Like, to me, one of the worst things I heard was after the bill scored the first touchdown, Romo jumps in, unprompted, and says, oh my God, Jim, I just saw a referee. He came in waving like there's no play. Why would he be saying there's no play? What's going on? and you at home are hostage to whatever pictures, the director.

This was the first Josh Allen touchdown run, yes. Yes. And so you're at home, you are super keyed up if you're a Bill's fan or a Jags fan or a guy that's got a $1,000 three-team parlay, draft king's promo code Sheehan for that. What would be my bookie promo code, DC Reload now? My bookie, Dave. Yes, exactly.

You know, you're keyed up. It's the first game of the day. You can't see everything they're seeing. And wrong was interjecting with that. And there's this pit in your stomach. Like, what? No, what the... And then it just sort of fizzles.

Yeah, they're lining up to pick the extra point. No, Nancy said they're lining it up in the normal spot for the extra point. It's a touchdown. He didn't do anything to clean it up. I felt like it was such a mess. Such a vomit. of unnecessary wrong information from Romo that he, dance couldn't even clean it up in real time.

Like that can't happen. Like, I would hope CBS is having a meeting today saying, we can't happen. Like, you guys are the A team. You're getting paid this. We got to tighten up. People, the listeners want to know what's going on. You're their eyes and ears. Don't just blurt out stuff guessing at things.

But that's what Romo does. He guesses. Like on the catch that was overturned. He's like, don't worry, Bill's fans, it's a catch. And then Starrantor's like, well, not so fast. I actually thought that was a catch. I did too. Yeah.

I did too, but this is the nature of replay. You see what you see. So I just think. Speaking. It's amazing, the money that Romo got. Amazing. And it is confounding how off the rails he is now. and I'm fascinated to wonder if Jim Nance is not quietly gone.

Look, man, this is going to hurt, but I got to do something here. Al Michaels used to be, I think, arguably the best that there was. I think Toriko's that now, but Al Michaels, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, 20 years ago, in terms of understanding the game, game situations all over it. What do you think the issue is with him? Is it age or is it vision? Yes. How about that? Yes. The answer to that is yes. The answer is yes. Age, vision, energy, the time of night that he's got to do games, he's 80 freaking two.

And good for him that he's still able to kind of do it. He actually was not terrible on Saturday night to my ears. I've heard him worse. I don't know what you thought. I thought there were so many moments. I'm like, oh my God, Al, please. He didn't pay. up on the interception that costs the Packers 28 yards of field position. They talked about it when they came back. He didn't pick up on... Nor Herbie talked about the timeout blowing by the floor, which heard of... At the end of the defense, they didn't pick up on the significance of the missed extra point at 27 to 16. It was massive how big that extra point was.

11 versus 12 is a big... I know. Yeah. And you would think Al being a big gambler would be a 14 to what numbers matter and what one stone. I guess what it is, Sheon, I have written that level of analysis off from 82-year-old legend Al Michaels who just doesn't want to go to a rocking chair and old folks home, and I don't blame them for that. I just, I don't even count that anymore. I just want him to call the plays with enough tempo and energy that fits the moment, which has always been my biggest complaint,

that when you listen to Al Michaels and an amazing play happens, you oftentimes don't even know how amazing it is because Michael's underselling it or is missing a boat. He looks, he looks, he sounds bored. Now, given that you are so plugged in to Packers Nation, is there any bitching and griping about the 10-second runoff? Because that play ended at 38 seconds. The injury, even if you notice it a couple of seconds afterwards,

they ran it from 32 down to 22. Now, let me just tell you, I bet the Packers on Saturday night, so I really wanted them to score. But I went back right after the game, and I think that stopping of the clock was late, and hence the 10-second runoff should have been from maybe not 38, but from like 36 to 26. That's another snap, you know? So wait, this is the one where their final drop.

Love got hit from behind and ended up fumbling it out of bounds. No, no, no, no. This is at the end of the game when he hits Reed and there's an injury. Was it their center that got hurt? Yeah, the O'Linman's injured, the play, they've got no timeouts. They already used that last time out at 44 seconds. And the balls down at the Chicago 20-yard line after that completion, the play ends with 38 seconds. They ended up running from 32 to 22 with the 10-second runoff. While the lineman was writhing around.

Yeah, it was very noticeable. Immediately love and people are looking back, but it sounds like no, is the answer. I would say this. I don't know what the mechanic is by the officials, whether with no timeouts, if you're entitled to immediate injury time. You're probably not. It's based on when they stop the clock for the injury, but it took them too long to stop the clock for the injury, is my opinion.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it probably did. but my feelings on that are, well, you know what, LaFleur, you fucked up because you had no time out. So you get what you get. All right, I know you're limited on time, so I've got two more to finish up with. First of all, your reaction, because I know you guys would have played it today, the Jacksonville reporter after the game consoling Liam Cohen during a press conference. For those that haven't heard it, I'm going to play it for you right now. This woman's name is Lynn Jones.

She's a longtime Jacksonville newspaper reporter. I forget the name of the newspaper. But she was credentialed to cover the game yesterday. And during the postgame, presser, Liam Cohen, the head coach from Jacksonville, walks in, takes a few questions. And then it was Ms. Jones's turn. Here's what she said. How you doing today? Lynn Jones, Jacksonville, Free Press News.

I just want to tell you, congratulations on your success, young man. Thank you. You hold your head up, all right? You guys have had a most magnificent season. Thank you. He did a great job out there today. So you just hold your head up, okay? And ladies and gentlemen, Duval, you're the one, all right?

You keep it going. We've got another season, okay? I appreciate it. Take care of much continued success to you and the entire team. Thank you, ma'am. So for those of you who haven't seen this, watched it because it has gone incredibly viral on social media. Liam Cohen's reaction was genuinely appreciative. I mean, you could tell that he was very, very touched by this woman's words.

With that said, the reason it went viral is you've got this debate of what she doing, not asking questions, but instead sort of, you know, cheering on the home team in a professional setting. So I'll ask you for your reaction. What did you make of this and the reaction to it? This is what I call a great sports radio topic because it doesn't have one answer. And it's not clear. It's very gray area. Yes, not appropriate to be consoling the coach as the hometown newspaper about a great season.

I get it. On the other hand, so many other these questions from these. dipshits. They're not all of them. Some are sharp guys, but there's a lot of dipships that cover the NFL. So many of their questions suck anyway. So who cares if there's one quick question? You know, then, hey, Liam, you did a great job. Way to go, son. We love you here down at Jacksonville. So I'm a little bit conflicted in that regard. By the letter of the law, by the concept of who should be credentialed, yeah, it was out of bounds. I mean, come on. You can't ask that. But there was no question. There was no question. There was just consoling.

Right. It was just a, hey, you did a good job keeping your head up. The other thing is, you know, this black woman, this black woman, she's been with that local newspaper, which is a black-owned newspaper in Jacksonville for like 20 years. Yeah. So it had a strong community angle to it. I guess part of me, Sheen feels like, man, we live in a world that's got way too many negative headlines and stuff going on. We'll survive this one question. If it's every team, every press conference, and there's a dedicated, hey, keep your chin up person, then no, then I'm going to bitch about it. But for this one thing, I think we can get away with it. How's that for a mediumish take?

Well, what I said on radio, and I'll say it now with you because I save this for you is nobody's going to die over this. Everybody's going to continue to breathe. It's not a worldender. With that said, that wasn't the place for it. You know, she's got to understand as a long-time reporter that people are there credentialed to work and ask questions, not to console the head coach with pom-poms waving. She could have done that to the side when the press conference was over. I also think this is one of those things that can happen, you know, in Jacksonville, but would never happen in New York, Boston, Philly, or even here. Anyway, all right. Last question for you. Who's going to win the Super Bowl? If I had to bet now on my bookie.com, promo code, Dave, Charlie Zulu Alpha Bravo Echo,

if you could get lost it all your promo codes for Kevin's account there. If I had a bet right now, the money says Seattle, New England. I'm not a full believer in Denver. All right, Seattle and New England, and who wins it? Yeah, it's tough. I've got to go this far ahead right now? No, you don't. No, Seattle.

Seattle over New England. They get revenge from 2014 or whatever year that was. The numbers nerds are saying Seattle is all the best metrics. So I'm going to go with that. All right, thanks. They'll talk to you soon. They got a quarterback that sees ghosts from time to time. He does.

That would be the one concern, no doubt. All right, I'll talk to you later. Thanks. All right, I'll talk to you. Steve Zabin, everybody. Done for the day back tomorrow with Tommy.