The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 1475 - TOP 5: NFL Week 16 Recap

Episode Date: December 22, 2025

On today's show, Pat, Darius Butler, and the boys break down the biggest storylines from week 16 of the NFL season in the TOP 5. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Well, let's get away from college ball and let's talk about the NFL. Every single Monday, we get to a thing called the top five headlines that we saw coming out of the NFL slate. Now, normally that's just Sunday, but this past weekend, they blessed us. We had Thursday, Saturday, Sunday. Now we got Monday night football. The NFL is obviously crushing. College football is great. Here's our top five headlines driven by ram trucks.

Every time you push that gas pedal when you're sitting in a ram truck, you know that you're protected. You're going to be riding on clouds. It's going to have enough technology to keep. up with today and enough power to pull whatever. And when you hit that gas pedal, it's going to sound like ram, ram, ram, ram, ram our ass into the top five, top five. Number five headline from our perspective, from ass to class of the league. Here are some storylines from different cities that if your team has asked right now,

you can draw some inspiration, you can draw some optimism, you can draw some, you know what, maybe the future isn't going to be as ass as it is right now. Bears last couple of years. As. Carolina Panthers last couple years. As. Jacksonville Jaguars last couple years. As.

New England Patriots last couple years. As. Now, they're dancing, baby. And they're not just dancing. They got a real chance at this entire thing. Patriots, 4 and 13 last season. Now they're 12 and 3. Jaguars, 4 and 13 as well.

Liam Cohen, saying keep the narrative going that we're asked, please. Small market goes in. mile high. Denver's best team of football, right? Best team in football, they get a big time when they're 11 and 4. Bears, 5 and 12, let alone all the drama that has happened around the Chicago Bears. And then whenever you think about the Carolina Panthers team,

yeah, right. They should not be anywhere near this. If the football gods were to be holding karma against a team, everything that ownership in this team did to its fans over the last 10 years would be held against Carolina Panthers forever. There was one point where there was actually a thousand people

in the stands watching this Carolina Panthers team. It looked like D3 football is what the game environment was. They rolled out this virtual reality panther that was obviously a joke. They had ownership getting in fights with fans and store owners. Everything was bad.

Bad, bad, bad. And now they're going to win the NFC South. They are going to host a playoff game. Now, it's certainly still up for grabs. The bucks can still get it. But a huge win for the Carolina Panthers. And if your team stinks right now, look no further than Charlotte, North Carolina. Because the

Carolina Panthers can bring you some real hope for what the future could hold. It basically felt like the 9 or the Panthers were becoming what the Bucks used to be. Like even if you look at, you know, that last play by Bryce Young. That's a play you would see, you know, Baker Mayfield making to win the entire game. Tett is like a younger Mike Evans. Coker's turning into a younger Chris Godwin. Like it's insane kind of the comparisons between the two. And then when you look at this play, it really is like, oh, Baker Mayfield's going to go and win the game.

And that's what Bryce Young does. Gets away. Dodges another guy and then throws a touchdown pass. How many times have we seen Baker Mayfield make that exact same play to win the game? Not in the past, even just earlier in the year. Like the Panthers really are kind of a new team of that division. Shout out to the Panthers.

Shout to the Jags, too. They're for real, DeBunch. It feels like you've been wanting to talk about them a lot over the last four or five weeks. I think the world hasn't really wanted to talk about it. But it's real down there in Duval. And Trevor Lawrence, hey, everything they said he was seemingly becoming right in front of our eyes right now.

We talk about, you guys always mention it. It's just very, very hard to actually succeed on this level. So people want that instant success. And he was crowned as that guy, the prince that was promised since coming into the league. And now he's hitting his stride. You know, Liam Cohen comes over. He was a hot hire. A lot of people, especially after his introductory press conference, you know,

had some thoughts about him. I singled it. Absolutely. And rightfully so. But he's shown that he is a great football coach. And he's setting his quarterback up for great success. Also made a very good hire with Campanelli on the defensive side of the ball. because they're living and dying with their turnovers right now,

but Jaguars are blowing people away. And this was a huge, huge statement win in Denver, the number one-seated team in the AFC right now. And this is all without the number two overall pick that they still have. Here's some Hembo stats about this Jacksonville, Jaguar six-game win streak. They've outscored their opponents by 113 points, unbelievable. They spent more time leading by 25 points than trailing at all. And Trevor Lawrence has 14 touchdowns, zero turnovers in the last four games.

77.4 QBR. They are what we like to call rolling. And this is what they talked about in January, and we kind of mocked it a little bit because they lost right away to Jake Browning and the Bengals. But now, what, 10 weeks later, it kind of does feel like it's going to go on forever! Shout at the Shod Khan, obviously the owner for the Jacksonville Jaguars.

And Jarian Jones, or Jari and Jones, just a couple, you know, games removed here from Sacred I, Juan Barclay jumping over backwards his head. He's on a sideline. You know, some people get rolled up. Some people avoid, hey, straight up and over. Wow. The athleticism, like a damn cat right there.

I mean, that is spectacular. He'd go on and get a pick. Jackson's Jaguars win. In the old days of Jacksonville Jaguars, he potentially tears ACL. Yeah, for sure. He potentially tears Achilles. He certainly is getting speared to the ground and maybe taking out of trainer. Ninety-year-old doctors.

Ah, that is what Jacksonville Jaguars fans would probably expect in the past. Now you have a sick jump over. guy looks bad that got off balance and he looks like a stud and then oh yeah he's going to carry it on for the rest of the game Debutt seems like they're rolling down there in Duvall

I don't like it at all not good for the Averson at all not good for the Indianapolis Colts they got a quarterback who's young CJ's very young let's talk about young quarterback that can still go this Chicago Bears team hey

maybe whenever a coach is the bell of the ball there's a reason Yeah. You know, it may be a coach turns down years, multiple years worth of. Nah, I'm not going. Nah, I'm not going. It can maybe drive people to think, this drama. There's only 32 head coach and jobs in the NFL anyways.

What can this guy really do? Go better best, never let it rest of the good as better and better as best. He comes in there immediately changes the culture at the beginning, allegedly a little bit rocky, you know. Are him and Caleb going to be able to get along? Caleb wasn't even playing in preseason games, allegedly because he didn't really know the offense yet, and Ben Johnson didn't want to put him out there.

which led us all to think, wait, Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams ever going to get along? We heard Ben Johnson's an absolute dog. And we hear of Caleb Williams, obviously, a lot of moxie, a lot of swag, a lot of character. He has been very famous for a long time. Well, these two, yeah, they will. And he's about to break every quarterback record that Chicago Bears have. Ben Johnson's got the entire culture ready to win the NFC North, and they pick up a massive overtime dub over the Green Bay Packers

and make some huge plays in critical moments on both sides of the ball, including special teams where they get it onside. I kick. Wow. Geez. I don't know if I'm putting Guardian Cap guy out there. I don't know if I'm putting

Guardian Cap out there as the hands guy. Best hands with a team. Not with the Guardian Cap. I think the hands team have to have a certain level of fuck it to you. I think you have to have that.

Now I'm not saying Dobbs doesn't have that. Guardian Cap tells me does have at least summer reservations. So I don't know if that's necessarily who I put there. But great kick by Cairo,

great recovery by the Bears. And obviously they come back fourth quarter drive and then overtime. Winter as well, which has dropped in an absolute bucket. Chicago Bears culture was ass.

Team was shit. Now when the NFC North debuts and maybe the whole damn thing? Man, King of the North right now. You talk about prime time games delivering all weekend long. This is one of the best finishes I've ever seen. For a throw like that, that was obviously the icing on the cake, but just everything down the stretch.

And this is who Caleb Williams has been this year in second half's ballgame. Even some of the games that they lost, he has played great down the stretch. He's already has the most fourth quarter comebacks for he bears quarterback in history. He's just unbelievable. You talk about Ben Johnson, obviously the running game, the investments they made in the offensive line. But once again, when you talk about creating a culture, that's not only head coach, but it's also the staff, hiring

Dennis Allen on the defensive side, Al Harris as well. And they're bringing in some vets that can make big-time plays on both sides of the ball. Like, he is playing unbelievable right now. I'm calling him Iceman going forward. I love the mox. And then listen to Caleb talk. Yeah, that's his thing. And listening to him talk. He sounds like a, 12-year vent anytime like he's he's in front of the camera even after that type of moment like it was all class talking about the packers and the rivalry and then showing up and doing some stuff in the community with the cheese grader hat so I love everything that Caleb's doing and obviously it starts with your head coach yeah and even more so to the ice man just being cool as shit

throws that ball hands immediately go into the oh man it's almost like a step curry walkoff which we saw from drake may and the patriots yeah yeah yeah Chicago bears don't the North up there in the Bears world. Obviously, it was a midway miracle is how we framed it for the headline. Huge comeback late, obviously make plays whenever they need it. And the Green Bay Packers, more injuries here. Now, obviously, Jordan Love goes down with King Cush and Malik Willis goes down. It feels like the last couple weeks, the injury bug has hit you guys hard.

What does the rest of the season look like for the Packers, Ty Schmidt? Well, luckily, because the Lions lost yesterday, the Packers just need to win one of their last two games. They have Baltimore on Saturday this week, and then they end the season with the Vikings. If they win one of those two games, they'll get in. And right now, I mean, good question because it seems like concussions this year have been multi-week injuries, not usually just, hey,

that guy got concussed on Saturday. I mean, yeah, he took one on the button big time. So we'll see if he plays on Saturday, but it's looking like, for all intents and purposes, if the Packers can win one game, they'll get in with the seventh seed, and then they'll probably end up having to go back to Chicago and play the Bears again in the first. first round. And then the Patriots, the fourth Astor-Class team, and obviously saying the Patriots

and Asht together is leaving out the dynasty that they had for 20-plus years. This was the next chapter. Okay, this is when we were supposed to be celebrating New England, not having a good football team. This is when the rest of the fan bases around the NFL, we're supposed to point and laugh at the Revolution region. This is what life is like with a real football team. You're going to have to struggle. You're going to have to see the hard times. Now, when that parade comes back, you'll certainly enjoy it more. But this is what life is like. And then all of a sudden, Mike Vrable is still available somehow. He loves the Patriots more than maybe anybody into history.

Maybe he might love the Patriots. I mean, this just hit me as it was rolling out of my mouth. Top five for sure. Behind me, but top five. No, I'm talking to player coach-wise. Because there was a falling out, obviously, with a lot of different situations. Now, Tom, I think. He ends up in Tampa.

Julian Edmund, I think, maybe. Julianette. Jules for sure. Jules loves, whatever. the case, Vrable, whenever he gives his Hall of Fame induction speech, while coaching for another team is like, hey, this is the greatest place on our. I've seen other buildings. I work

at one right now. It is ass. Okay, compared to what you have here. The fans are set up, the ownership, everything. This is dream come true for football, basically. And he gets up there once again, culture, culture, culture, and has the perfect quarterback for it. And then he gets stars to buy in. I mean, Stefan Diggs coaching on the

sideline. Would we ever think that that's what we would be seeing this year from Stefan Diggs? I don't think so. So this Patriots team is unbelievable. Now, the other side we'll certainly talk about it here in a little bit with Baltimore, but Drake May, what a perfect guy for New England, and your team goes from Ask the Class of the League. Life is much better on this side.

Yeah, it's unbelievable. Not to mention, you know, Mike Vrable being a football, Savant, he also drafted four, five, maybe six Hall of Famers in this class that they just had. Kyle Williams, ridiculous touchdown, catchdown on the sideline. He's a rookie. Craig Woodson, Dibut actually texts me during the game. the rookie safety for New England. He's a Hall of Famer.

Will Campbell, not even playing. Let's keep that in mind, too. Drake May throws for 380 yards, down by 11 in the fourth quarter, goes on an 89-yard drive to win the game at the end of the game without your starting left tackle. Starting right tackle missed about a quarter and a half.

Starting running back, rookie, Treviani Henderson, going to be a Hall of Famer. He also, concussion leaves the game. I mean, there really isn't that much you can say about Drake May. He's the guy going forward. I think everybody knows, especially, you know, when you watch him. He's only 23 years old. He looks like he's 43.

He's 23. And then Stefan Diggs, after the game, saying, like, you know, I'll tell you what, he prepares. He prepares to play games like, and I don't want to say the guy's name, but he prepares, like, Tom Brady. Okay. Diggs wasn't going to say it, but everyone knows where he was going. He was walking you down. He's the next Tom Brady path. But we don't have to say it.

It's very obvious. I think it's hard to watch that game, especially after watching like a Caleb versus Packers game. being like, yeah, Caleb's cool. Jane Daniels is cool. All these young rookie quarterbacks are cool. Drake May isn't a different tier. He's ridiculous. He's the MVP.

MVP odds very high for Drake May. And once again, he's only in his second season, you know? It's only in a second season. Another great higher, Josh McDame. Unbelievable. And he'll be there forever. He's already down the whole coaching, head coach and run around. Loves the area.

D.C., go ahead. Who wants to be a head coach? You're going to come in D.C. for a little bit. Bobby Spillian's there, okay? Mike Ravel's calling plays. You're just hanging out for a little bit. Yeah, it's like the, opposite of what the chief's at, you know, for a long time.

Congrats to the, congrats, Patriots, and we can all, if our team becomes completely ass and a shite show, we can look to those four teams as like, hey, next season can be better. You need to make a lot of good hires, but next season can certainly be better. Let's go to number four headline coming out of the week. That's AFC North Football, baby. Coach Mike, Tom, win, and is it hard over in Baltimore? Oh, no.

It's getting a lot. it's getting lot in Baltimore Derek Henry scores another touchdown and doesn't touch the ball the hell are we doing has John Harbaugh lost his football sense has John Harbaugh lost the team

how come this team looks so different than in the years past is the message not getting home anymore and how are they blowing leads like this all the damn time is it a culture issue is it a talent issue is it a team issue is it a stale issue

is it coach Harbover in Baltimore, Dibush? I'm not going to call for his job. He's still a great football coach in my mind. But Baltimore Ravens fans, they are loud and have been loud because when you talk about both of these franchises that we just had up on the screen, the Ravens and the Steelers,

those are championship caliber franchises. And coming into this season, I think Ravens were, what, either a one or two. Okay, the Super Bowl favorite to win it. So to be looking at a place where you're almost not going to make the playoffs. Obviously, you have injuries at your quarterback, just critical fumbles.

Once again, Zay Flowers, South Florida guy, I love them. You can't fumble the ball in a big moment like that again. Derek Henry didn't touch the ball for the last 12 minutes, I think, with the backup quarterback in the game. That's insane, but he had another big fumble in this game as well. These are obviously a great play, chase it down and punched it out, but you can't have that in this game. And this is what you've seen over and over again with the Ravens.

You talked about blowing fourth quarter leads. They talked about it on teleclass last night. I think it was 12 games at that point with 7 plus leading the fourth quarter, and you lost them, like, that's historically bad. So something's got to change. That bums out butter and the boys are really. I mean, you have the lead and then you lose it. And this team was supposed to go Super Bowl.

A lot of people thought. I was excited to watch the Ravens. Continue to be excited to watch Ravens. Anytime I see their name on the screen, like, hey, we got a Ravens game. Sick. I'm able to see Lamar Jackson play football. I'm pumped about that. It started great, too.

They're making, really good. Zay a couple times, Derek running it. Lamar moving, spinning it. Yeah, defense doing their thing. It's like, all right, this is what we've been, waiting for. This is what everybody's been waiting for. Then he just bloat at the end again. And Lamar doesn't, he had his ankle taped. I saw that. Okay. So I didn't know. I don't know if we all knew, but I certainly didn't remember an ankle being a thing. But him coming on to the field

with his ankle and then he had to hamstring this year. Then he was sick. It was like, it feels like we haven't seen the electrifying Lamar Jackson all year either that we said through the air. He can certainly spin it. But whenever he was running, it just looked different this year the entire year. Is it because of injuries? What is next year look like? I mean, there's a lot of convos about that. And then the AFC North, there's one thing that's going to be as steady as death in taxes, brother. And that's Mike Tomlin, is going to Tom win. 19 consecutive non-losing seasons. That's 500 or better as a coach. Tom Landry had 20 winning seasons. He had one 500 season eight and eight or whatever. Bill Belichick obviously did what he did with New England

for so long. And Tomlin has 18 winning seasons with one eight and eight season. And then they have 22 in total as a team. Hey, we're used to winning football around here. Now, Tom Wynn gets a big one in Detroit. Steelers fans ecstatic, right? We're ready to go. More than ecstatic, Pat. Like, more than ecstatic. Like, because, you know, they won in Steelers fashion, it having to come down to the last play and the last drive and blowing a fourth quarter lead. That is how the Steelers do it. But the other rest of the game was not in Steelers fashion. They had almost 500 yards of total offense, 2.30 on the ground. Aaron was unbelievable. They only gave up

15 rushing yards to Sonic and Knuckles. I don't want to say their other nickname. Fifteen rushing yards. Oh, they're saying ass and cheeks. I think they are. Oh, no, Foxy. Why are you guys doing that? We cannot call these two running backs, ass and cheeks. If you want to call the offensive line,

ass and cheeks, go ahead. Oh, ass cheeks, ass. That's that being the starting five? Except for Pentee Soule. Don't touch him. Oh, sorry. As, cheeks. A little clip of Derek Harmon, you know, just dogging him, too. But, hey, we love Penny. We love Penny.

I know. I know. I would like, we do. I was like, I get a guy. Well, I don't mind a rigatone. Sure, man. Speaking of rigatones. Penet, Sue is, we are big fans of Penny.

Go ahead. You make it a rigatone and Sonic and Nuggle and As and Cheeks. Maybe Mario and Luigi and Kenneth Gainwell and Jalen Warren. They were both under over 100 yards total, each of them. They've been awesome the entire single year. Everything went well yesterday, except for, the fourth quarter, we decided to go into prevent defense with 12 minutes left. That's been kind of the thing over the last three games. Last year, though, the Steelers went into the

playoffs losing four straight. They've won three straight this year. So the momentum. That's a running back. Yes, it is. It is a running back. He has five games this year over 100 total scrimmage yards. He has won before this season. So Ken Gainwell has been unbelievable this year. Everything was awesome yesterday. Tomlin, last two weeks, five of five on fourth down. They only have 11 fourth down conversions on the entire year. Five in the last two. weeks. So he's coaching a little differently, a little more aggressively. Everything was great yesterday. Everyone feels really, really good about the Steelers right now, where they are, especially with the playoff picture. Yeah, can we win it all? Yeah, yes. I think we, yeah.

TJ's still not playing. Two wins without TJ. That's huge. That's very abnormal. This was without TJ, without Nick Herbig. Echols, the slot guy got hurt earlier in the game. Yes, there's some injuries going on. Hopefully our NFC brother and the Packers take care of business on Saturday night, or we can win on Sunday against the Browns and get in potentially see what the situation is week 18. But yes, I think, because like with the AFC, there are really, really good teams. Like the, we

talked about the Jags and the Patriots and the Broncos and the Chargers and the bills. Like those are all really, really good teams. But I don't know if there's like that team where you're like, oh, that's a definite loss. Like I think any of these teams in the AFC, no matter who's playing who, like feels like they have a chance this year. I think so, too.

Patriots are my only difference, just strictly because I see Vraibb's trying to get call flierier. Oh, yeah. the left side of his headset. Do you see that? He's not that thing trapped down the top of his thing. Need some pain. Yeah, he might, that legitimately might be what he's doing.

Because every time I see him, like, the guy, he's got to be, he's got to feel that. I mean, on your ears. Doesn't he coach with tax and his shoes? I didn't think about that probably. I mean, there's a chance. He's chewing on actual rocks over there, too, just keep his edge. So I think about the Patriots, I'm like, I think Patriots are going to win most games that they play. I think Josh Allen, tough to pick against Josh Allen.

But I think Aaron Rogers, Tomlin, everybody on that squad, especially if TJ is able to get back. which we're not saying he's going to. I don't think anybody really knows what's going to happen in that entire situation. We're hoping for it. It's like Steelers fans, I think rightfully so, thinking they can win it all. Now, if they don't,

quarterback, not probably, unless Aaron, you know, maybe he's playing right now. He is playing right now. The demon Adam Thielen? Yeah, Theelan's doing it. Scootie. Scott Miller got a ball the other day. I mean, now we've got to talk about,

obviously, the incident that took place with the blue hair in the stands. D.K. Metcalf. Grab shirt of fan from Detroit in second quarter. And then side angle shows shove shirt, but certainly in a very aggressive manner. Blue hair guy celebrates immediately upon it happening because he knows everything that he was hoping to accomplish,

certainly gets accomplished. There's certainly some physicality there from D.K. to old buddy. Now, old buddy told the Detroit Free Press that he called D.K. by his full name or something along those lines. Now, D.K.'s actual name on X is his full name, and then there was other reporters that have said, like, hey, I did a story on his name that seemingly not would get him this fired up to do this. Then, D.K., reach out to Ocho, and on nightcap, Ocho said that he said the N-word, I believe, and said something about his mother. Obviously, the Pittsburgh Steelers have not said anything yet. I think they are probably waiting. We have not talked to the Pittsburgh Steelers, but we are assuming the Pittsburgh Steelers. but we are assuming the Pittsburgh Steelers

are going to wait for the NFL to say something first and then the Pittsburgh Steelers were kind of just follow suit in the entirety. We assume that there's mics on DKK, because he's $30 million a year guy, D.K. Metcalf, Steelers on his hopeful Super Bowl push. Aaron Rogers' potential last season.

I assume there's a lot of mics on a lot of people and on the sidelines there's a lot of boom mics. So we assume there'll be some sort of investigation on what happened, how it happened, but obviously you can't be touching fans at games. This is a nightmare for the NFL. This is not great news. But I think there'll be a lot more clarity,

and I think everybody's probably waiting on that as it continues to roll on. I don't know if I missed anything there. Not a crazy situation. Obviously, you know, you talked about the Tom Pelliserra tweet, talked about the history there, and then I think some other fan nearby said they had the input. But right now, as he say, she's saying until we hear some audio, if we ever do.

And when I saw the reaction from D.K., that was the only thing I thought. It's only one word that I can see to get that type of reaction on the field. And then, hey, however you react, react but outside of that like you said as a professional athlete you got to kind of have some restraint and then fans you know it got to be some line there but what can it can't be said so we always talk about in public hey once we came back you can get punched in the mouth and that counts for people that are in uniform too so we'll see how it plays out and uh dk will see how it plays out

the NFL as well to that point about in real life a lot of people on the internet have gotten very comfortable being chatty you know that that has become something i think COVID expedited that because it was the only way to really communicate with people so people got real comfortable with the shit. And we gave a warning as COVID ended, like, hey, remember now, in real life, people weren't just about the tweets and scrolling. Like, they actually hear it, and they're there with you. And at first weekend back in live stadiums, boy, like the bodies hit the floor.

I mean, there was a lot of pent up a lot happening around there. And we're not saying that's how this should be, but we are saying there's like a moral code, I believe you have to, the fan code that you sign up for whenever you buy a ticket, it's in they run the entire thing so whenever they do and find out what it is not saying that you should ever be a fan should ever be grabbed okay performer and audience physicality not good cannot happen actually cannot happen but there are standards for both sides that are going to be obviously examined and uh to your point who knows if we ever find out what it is you know i saw a guy take a helmet off and i still have no idea yeah and everybody in there was miced so right i don't know if we'll ever

find out, but obviously this cannot be happening. Okay, let's go to our third headline. The refs are on contract here. Yeah. Okay. Are there? The reps are on contract here. So normally when you're on a contract here, D, but what are you trying to do? Put your best foot forward. Every time.

Trying to run that back up. Damn right. That's what we're trying to do, right? Is there a chance that these guys and girls are saying, let's show them what it could be like with ass officials? Let's remind them of what it was like whenever we had to replacement refs. Because it seems like, and now, granted, there's more primetime games, so there's going to be more eyes on all these calls.

There are some terrible calls that happen at 1 o'clock games that are slid into regional television than nobody really hears. More primetime games, we're going to see more stuff. But even if it is the right call, which we kind of agree with the right call because of the bygones, the three-minute talk on the field optically looks terrible, and then coming out of that, just cutting a heel promo, we don't think that's the best way to go about to it. We don't think that is necessarily the best way for a game to end. And then you talk about the Patriots game. The Patriots had multiple.

You had to have seen it by now. There's a pass interference where the guy is actually, I mean, he's actually hugging him. He's hugging his entire body. And the catch is made, I do believe. No, I'm sorry, sorry, should have been made. And then obviously, there's no call for pass interference. Marlon Humphrey had a pick in the game. Clearly, Passing interference.

What are you watching if you're not calling that? And then it wasn't even, and then it wasn't even just that in this game. There's also a roughing the passer that takes place that, I mean, I guess, there was contact chest to chest and face masks touched each other. But do we need to be calling a roughen the passer, which is a 15-yard penalty? A very, very, very gigantic penalty. I mean, 15 yards is a huge thing. A turnover, but also 15 seconds left.

I mean, just in that moment, calling that is just like a bad decision. So a little bit more self-awareness we'd like to have. And then obviously Thursday night, we didn't get a chance to chat about it. What a game. Yeah, insane. What a game. And then the two-point situation where it was a phone, and it wasn't a fight, it was deflected,

and then having the whole setup going back, and then going back in that moment in the time, it's like, can we work on the optics of some of these things? Even if you get it right, like we need it to be better just because you're representing the league, representing the game, let alone getting calls wrong, let alone having seemingly no football awareness on what should be called on what particular play.

But as we get in the most important time of year here, we need some awareness about what the game needs in what it doesn't need and how it needs it. Yeah, absolutely. The most important thing, obviously, is getting it right. But when you have that white cap on, you are, you know, you're representing the game. You're representing the league to, you know, the millions that are watching. But getting it right is the number one thing. We agree.

This play was unbelievable. This is something that I've never seen before. I don't know about you. The replay, I think the players on the field, especially the defense, because you've been around football a long time. We all have, we always preach, hey, pick up the ball, pick up the ball. And the fact that the Rams, nobody on the team thought about even going to the ball. ball on like a lateral type play because of it bouncing forward you know i think that kind of just

almost freezes you even on punts it like hey poison poison just get away from it don't worry about it but uh sharp and a head's up been aware picking the ball up and end up being the difference in this game so wouldn't that be considered sam darnald fumble he fumbles it because it was a backwards yes so then how can you advance a fumble there are so many intricacies which once again ref these are this is roll all this as opposed to saying uh touchdown Yeah, right. We're joking. Like, if you are representing the game, we think that needs to be talked about in the contract here with the refs as well. Yeah, and that makes no sense. But like, this is going to, this play right here is going to decide the one seed in the NFC. Like we're talking about the playoffs, a buy the most important thing some of these teams need, especially in an 18 week, 17 game season.

Like that buy week for the playoffs is massive. And this is the play that's going to most likely define who is the one seat in the NFC. primetime games a lot of eyes a lot of important outcomes good luck to the refs you're on a contract here remember we need your best shit and also the guy uh the big 12 crew that wrecked uh the Texas a&M Miami game let's get them in the NFL I don't know how we fast pass I don't know how we fast pass let's get them up there they seemingly understand ball all of them they have like a good feel for it and M fans might not agree why they didn't like the flag not been throwing the Torre hit on uh oh the helmet when he knocked himself out they what did it have matter? Would they change play call?

Well, they would have had a fresh set of downs up there. And they probably would have ran it. That's a big boo. Whatever the case. Certainly helmet to helmet, though. Let's get to number two headline coming out of the weekend. Philly flies over Fust, the back-to-back NFC titles. First time in 21 years, somebody has won the NFC East back-to-back times.

It is the Super Bowl champs. And when you talk about flying over fuss, it's every day. Yeah. It's every day with this team seemingly. And Nick Siriani and the boys somehow remain focused. I love the fact that Cooper Dijin is dropping to five, knuckle shuffle, especially with everything that was going on in his potential rumored life. And then Jalen Hertz playing ball, St. Juan Barclay doing his thing.

The commander is obviously interesting spot. But whenever you talk about going back to back in a division that hasn't had back to back, you have to respect it. A lot of primetime games, obviously very similar style of football year in, year out. Eagle is able to get it done. Do we think they can win a Super Bowl again and go back-to-back not only NFCs but also Super Bowl? You know, I'm a little bias here. I think so.

You know, I think you have a quarterback, you have a coach, a coaching staff. of defense. You have guys pretty much who have done it already. So I think they're battle tested. This was a battle too. This was a KG affair against a four-win Washington commanders team and they found the way to get it done. They'll have to find that running game back. And I think when Lane Johnson

gets back in there, it'll be a completely different run game. And Jalen Hertz has been looking better down the stretch. It was against what, the Raiders and the commanders now. You obviously be facing some good ball clubs down the stretch, but I think they have what it takes in the building to get it done in the playoffs. Devante Smith blocking down the field

here to free them. I mean, that's buying, that's commitment. Good for them in their biggest ball. And then the number one headline coming out of the weekend that was for the NFL, Merry Klinchmas. Hey, seven teams. That punched their ticket to the playoffs. Five in the NFC, two in the AFC. There's obviously a couple of teams lurking. Congrats to the

Seattle Seahawks. The Chicago Bears, Philadelphia Eagles, the Los Angeles Rams, and the San Francisco 49ers who are playing. Tonight, congrats to them. Yeah, congrats to the Broncos and to the Patriots. Way to go. Way to go. Thanks, guys. Thank you.

The seeds that would be there would be where they would be sitting, but obviously the seeds can all change and the top four seeds go to division champs. So, you know, that's just kind of where they're sitting at. Green Bay Packers, Detroit Lions, Carolina Panthers, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers can obviously still make it. Carolina Panthers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers,

who's going to win the NFC South? Then in the NFC North, who else is going to get in? Then the AFC, I think it's kind of figured out who's going to be there. Conman has an entire breakdown that he's going to do later. What? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. But there's still some teams lurking like the Indianapolis Colts who do a huge thing for their chances if they were to win tonight.