The Ringer NFL Show - Divisional Recap: Rams End Caleb's Miracle, Seattle's Big D, Oh No Bo, Stroud's Meltdown, Josh Allen's Interception, and Michael Bay's Filmography

Episode Date: January 19, 2026

The guys unpack the Rams surviving Caleb Williams’ miracle magic, the Seahawks turning the 49ers into dust, and the Broncos stealing a wild one from the Bills in overtime. They argue about the Brandon Cooks interception, Bo Nix breaking his ankle, Josh Allen’s brutal turnovers, and why the Rams are apparently seasoning their feet with cayenne pepper. (00:00) Intro (00:47) Rams-Bears (20:25) Seahawks-49ers (28:11) Broncos-Bills (47:52) Fart or Shart (01:01:03) Intrusive Thoughts (01:25:42) DK has never seen 'Transformers' Discord link: https://discord.gg/Ge8bbYHrau Check out the 2025 Ringer Fantasy Football Rankings: https://fantasyfootball.theringer.com/ Email us! [e-mail] Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Producers: Kai Grady, Carlos Chiriboga, and Cameron Dinwiddie Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Football show. My name is Danny Hypertz, and I'm joined by Danny Kelly and Craig Horlebeck, and the conference championship games are set. Wow. The Denver Broncos and Jared Stidham at quarterback will be hosting the New England Patriots in the AFC championship game.

And TK, your Seattle Seahawks will be hosting the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC championship game. And we'll get to all that. But I mean, Rams, Bears just ended. The Rams beat the Bears in a walkoff 2017 game, almost all of overtime is used. And honestly, we're going to start with the losing team. Caleb Williams' fourth and four touchdown through to Cole Komet.

I thought God was real and that I was witnessing the rapture. D.K., I don't know where it was to start. I thought that was one of the most amazing football plays I've ever seen at any level in my entire life. I mean, it's the second straight week he's made one of the most improbable throws we've ever seen. It was such a Russell Wilson play. That's what I felt like in the moment. Like the way he backed up, like reverse story. He tried to reverse spin and then he didn't spin

and then he just kept backing up. He went almost to like the 50 yard line. I'll tell you. For the kids, Russell Wilson used to be cool. Yeah, right. That's true. The ball was snapped at the 14 yard line and he threw it at the 40. Yeah, classic.

So in the middle of that, so again, fourth and four, if you didn't see this play, you have to go watch it. But fourth and four, Caleb starts running backward. It was like vintage Russell Wilson in mid-2010s where he starts running backward and he does the run backward. Then he does the double back. You know what I mean? Like he makes like an M.

And when he went back. the second time he lost like 25 yards. I literally said out loud alone to myself. I was like, oh, Caleb. And I was like, no, no, no. Yes. Yes. It was the most no, no yes play of the entire year.

And I'm like, I think Caleb Williams, especially if the Bears won that came. I know. That was two of the best throws in the history of the NFL playoffs in back-to-back weeks between that and the fourth and eight in Green Bay last week. And then that one was kind of, I don't know if it was better or what, But I, it frankly, it's almost deflating that the bears ended up losing because that was. Yeah, they're ruining it for us.

They're ruining all the fun. Godless Los Angeles kills the vibes of this magic season. Yeah, if God is real, then DJ Moore is Satan because DJ Moore on that interception in overtime. I don't know. That wasn't the best throw by Caleb, but it also looked like DJ Moore stopped running or didn't know the ball was coming and just like didn't finish that route. And then the Rams guy picked it off. This is a bummer. I fell in love with the Bears this year,

and I really, I really wanted them to win this game. I think the right team won. I think the Rams are better. And I think the whole season, the Rams were better. And Ram Ciox are the two best teams. It felt inevitable. Yeah. Like, this is right.

Just like Jared Stead of him and Drake Mayer are the two best quarterbacks of the AFC. Like, it feels right. But I can't help but wish that that, you know, the throw is still incredible. I don't know what nickname anyone, what someone's going to give it. That throws so unbelievable. It's a bummer. They didn't win this game. I,

I think I saw, I have to tell you my intrusive thought, and this is the true intrusive thought I had, watching just the aftermath after that Colquemette touchdown, seeing Sean McVeigh, like, eyes bugging, how many crazy games can the Rams lose, seeing Stafford kind of like stone-faced. And I'm watching Caleb and how calm Caleb was. And I actually had this thought flashed across my mind.

I'm like, Caleb Williams is my favorite player in the NFL. And that happened. That happened during this game. And we talked so much about MVP. we should give out awards at the end of the season for MFB because I'm serious. I think going in next year, Caleb Williams is my favorite player in the NFL.

He's easily the most fun to watch. And he's new. It's like Mahomes still does crazy stuff. Josh Allen still does crazy stuff. But there's this something about Caleb. I think also the fact that Caleb is not perfect. And there are a lot of people out there who still think Caleb is not very good, which I think is crazy.

And I think doing what he has done in just one season with Ben Johnson, getting this close to the NFC championship shows how good and how high their ceiling is. But he does still just make boneheaded decisions. Like the pick on fourth down and earlier in the game was like, you could call it a mini punt. But he still does things that are a little bit questionable and will miss easy throws.

And then literally will make the greatest throw you've ever seen in your life, like back to back plays. But you can already see me growing. Like the beginning of the season to now, he has already gone from like it was 80, 20 in terms of 80% of it was dumb, 20% of it was great, now it's the opposite and 80% of it is fantastic and 20% of it is not. I was talking all season about how the regression was coming for the bears, which I suppose was true. However, the bears

are so clutch and what they did on that throw right before it went to commercial. So it was fourth and four with 27 seconds left in the fourth quarter. It cuts to commercial, but right before it does, the Rams called timeout, everyone goes to the sidelines. And Caleb is laughing and smiling, talking to somebody just on the side. And I noticed, I was like, man, it's for the four, and four, 27 seconds left and the season is on the line. It's like 10 degrees out. And he was laughing.

And it cut to commercial. It came back. And he has the Colquemette play. And to me, I'm like, that's all I need to see. Like, this guy has it. It's like shades of Joe Montana. I think it was Joe Montana. This famous story is like deep in the game.

He looked into the stands. It's like, hey, there's John Candy. John Candy. It was like, we should also say, was it Stafford last week against the Panthers? that was like, let's go rip their hearts out. So Steverard also has it. But Caleb as like the next generation coming in, clearly has it.

Born in the fight, like baptized in the fires of Rihanna, like just the Gen Z. I totally agree. I mean, again, I keep broken record. I no longer feel crazy. Caleb Williams is the next level of Aaron Rogers or at least he's the next version of Aaron Rogers.

And I don't feel crazy anymore after watching like the free plays he was getting after off sides in this game, all the throws. But again, to your point about, all right, you see a finished product yet. Like, because the interception at overtime, the truth is he had a lot of near interceptions in this game. The Rams were really close to a lot of balls. Like Caleb was probably forcing some throws that all got deflected.

But the overall demeanor, I mean, when you, one, compare him to where Aaron Rogers was through two seasons in his career. Aaron Rogers had never played yet. But to me, it's the really looking at how Caleb was today versus CJ Stroud. And I mean, Stroud has an extra season in the NFL. Also, how about the diversion ever since the CJ Stroud, Big Road, Caleb? Oh, my God. even though they both made it equally far to the playoffs. I don't know.

I mean, I guess the way I'd say it because we should eventually talk about the teams that won, I think it's sad that this bear season ended. It is very clear, like, it would have been just magical for the bears to continue winning. But the reality is like this season is not in vain. This season overall, one, I can't remember another losing season, the division around that will be remembered as fondly as this one in Chicago because even the lines last year, like that was disappointing. The truth is that this season for Chicago really,

invigorated football in Chicago. Like the bears have just totally re-sparked the love of the Chicago Bears in the city. And you see that happen sometimes and how it brings people together. Like, I hate to say it, but what the Philadelphia Eagles have done the last eight or nine years, like, people in Philadelphia are like closer to people from

Philadelphia now after what's happened. And you see that happens when teams get back to being competing. And I feel like people in Chicago, it is so cool to see that team in the stadium and how excited people are. It's too bad they didn't keep going, but I feel like, you know, you never know how far in the future, but Ben Johnson and Caleb, it just I think have a totally new thing going on now. Yeah, I agree with that. And I think a lot of times, you know, and this is something we've talked about with Dan Campbell.

A lot of times teams feel like, oh, this was their shot. Like they got this far. They may never get this far again. With the bears, it feels like they're an ascending team. Like this is just kind of the beginning. I think I said this back in like, we 17. that this team just feels like they're still a year away from like truly being a Super Bowl contender.

They obviously got very close here, but they just need to like grow up a little, get a little bit more weapons on both sides of football. I mean, like their defense actually played incredible. It was their first year. Their win total this year was eight. They were supposed to go eight and nine. Yeah.

So I just. It just. It just feels to me like they're the type of team. Yeah. It just feels to me like they're the type of team. That's just their, their trajectory is still going up. Whereas a lot of teams are like, oh man, I don't know if they'll be.

make it back here after yeah after that whatever you know um so that's exciting for them and then like flipping it to the other side like the Rams they I don't know I didn't I wasn't super impressed with the Rams in this game I think obviously it hurt that Stafford was had a finger issue and so like they couldn't really throw the ball very well it felt like a kind of a strange game plan from Sean McVay who you know they were running the ball well and then they just kind of like abandoned the run for whatever reason it was just a strange game from the Rams I do agree with Craig what he said earlier I think they're the better team certainly as a Seahawks fan, I'm more afraid of the Rams than I would have been of the Bears.

So that, you know, kind of sucked from my point of view. I'm like, I'd rather have, even with the Pope behind the Bears, I think I still would have rather had the Bears. But yeah, the Rams, you know, tough win on the road in overtime. Respect to that kicker for making that kick. I kind of thought he was going to miss that. I did too. So, you know, good for them to gut out a win even though it wasn't pretty.

Have you ever felt more confident about which game will be the late game next week than Seahawks Rams? I think they already announced it. I mean, I would put everything I own on that being the night game. Let's see. Let's see. Let's see. Let's see. Let's see.

Let's see. Yeah, you're right. So, D.K., you were more nervous about the Rams winning this game and you were rooting for the Bears for as a Seattle fan. Well, yes. And I, it's nothing really against the Bears. It's more just the Seahawks have a long history with the Rams and the Rams for whatever reason have even going back to when they fucking sucked. They were always kind of the thorn in the Seahawks side.

They always just put up really tough games against the Seahawks night. You're also talking about the Seahawks here. We also have to, I mean, we'll get to this all week. Sam Darnold versus the Rams in the last 53 weeks. I'm going to, in order here is one when he was with the Vikings. Sam Donald took nine sacks versus. Why do you have to bring it up right now? God.

In the wild card round. Then he played the Rams as a Seahawks. talk in the first game this year, and he threw four interceptions. Then they had that crazy game that Seattle ended up winning. But even in that one, Donald threw two picks, including, I think, one at the goal line. And after five chances to win the game and all these improbable ways, the jokes that ended up winning. But, yeah, I mean, Donald, I would say three of the worst five games of his career were against the Rands lost 53 weeks. And he has this oblique injury.

We should do, I have an idea. We should do this thing where we like guess, we guess the line of what the spread is going to be for the games next week. Interesting. Interesting concede here. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know what we call that, but we could try to guess the lines for next week. Like, do you think,

so the two Rams Seahawks games this year have been decided collectively by three points total? And like one yard. So you want to, you're saying guess, you want to like predict the spread or something? Yeah, like, you know, like right after the games tonight,

Vegas already puts out lines for the games next week. And I was like, what if we should just try to guess what those are. I would say right now if I had to guess that the Seahawks are going to be favored by a point in half. That's exactly what I was going to say, Craig. That's what I had in my mind. Maybe two and a half. But I would say, I would say one and a half is my guess.

One and a half yards. That's the line. What is it? It's two and a half. Two and a half. And that's just because the Seahawks won an absolutely fucking dominant fashion in the wait, I thought that was my guess.

I didn't look it up. You know, you guessed two and a half? Oh, okay. What is it? Oh, you're telling me it's one and a half? No, I said, what is it? You looked like you were looking at up. Why would I supposed to know?

I'm guessing. That would be cheating. I said, what is it? And you answer. I thought what I was supposed to give a guess before it is two and a half after all that fucking stuff. He knew that.

It is two and a half. He knew that. Dude, that's such bullshit. If I had looked it up, but then whatever, man. Doesn't matter. I got to say, this was a weird McVeigh game.

Oh, yeah. Didn't run the ball when they should, when it seemed like they just needed to get things going. They were throwing the ball three straight times in the middle of the field. And then when it got down to, you know, the important moments, uh,

they would run the ball and they, and they wouldn't throw it. I mean, there was a crazy moment in the fourth quarter where there's two minutes and seven seconds left in the game. And they run the ball and then just punt it back to the bear. It was third and ten. And there's two minutes and seven seconds left. And the bears had taken a timeout.

So the Rams would have the opportunity to throw the ball and try to get the first down, which would really, really almost end the game. Maybe there's would get the ball back or get the ball like 20 seconds left. Because there's no benefit to running because if you run on third and third. 10, it's just going to go seven seconds, two minute warning. And the bears, between the action of passing the ball and the punt, it's going to go to the two minute warning before the bears take the ball back anyway. So you think the Rams should pass it.

And instead, they just do a draw and get like three yards and they punt it back. Yeah. And they forego the opportunity to not give the bears the ball back. And then the bears came back and scored a freaking touchdown on tied the game, which would have been a huge issue. But overall, I agree. I think, first of all, we got to call Dennis Allen, the defensive coordinator for the Bears, out coach Sean McVeigh.

in this game. I don't know how else to say it. Unless you want to put the issues on Matt Stafford's little thingy being hurt and his back locking up after 20 weeks of it not locking up in the Chicago cold or what you want to say, but the Rams have a larger offensive line against the very, very, very overmatched Bears front seven. Frankly,

linebacking units as hurt and defensive lines as bad as the Bears this year don't make it this far. And the Rams offensive line, they poured a ton of money into bullying those kind of front sevens. And really, like, they talk, uh, not who was doing that game. They were talking about Jaquan Brisker. I don't understand what happened because the Bears, that was the pivot they made when the Packers started like 21-0 or whatever against

the Bears. And then Dennis Allen started doing that kind of like secondary, getting the cornerbacks and safety's involved in blitzes and that's kind of what threw the Packers off. I don't understand how it was so effective against the Rams when they had a whole week to look at that stuff. But Jaquan Brisker, but Dennis Allen out coach McVeigh in this game. I mean, there was all this talk during the week about how Stafford is not a cold weather quarterback. And like people, whether people trying to convince you one way or the other whether that was true or not obviously going back to like his time with Detroit people use that as an example but I mean he was 20 of 42 in this game less than less than 50% completions I think 258 yards he was great last year

against the Eagles in the fucking snow also who who's perfect in the snow like when it's 10 degrees and it's slash it's harder to throw in the snowing I'm like who's thrown 80% everyone's worse in the snow like Jesus hear like Tom Brady or something. He's 37 at a hurt finger and it's 10 degrees. Everyone's going to be worse in that scenario. Yeah, you try it. Like, people were treating it like it was the golf indoor outdoor stats.

Like, it's not at all. It's just really cold and it's going to be hard for everybody. That being said, day your offense kind of looked like shit. It did. Stavord didn't play well, but I don't think it's because like Stafford has never been able to play well in cold weather.

No, just everything was a little off. But at the end of the day, the rim's got 85 yards. It's not like Caleb was crushing it. Caleb was also like 20 for 40. I think he was weird. He was 20. three out of 42.

Yeah. They both sucked. The Rams got 85 yards in their first drive. And then they got like 89 yards in their next like six or seven drives. And I agree with what you said. I think what's weird is it took so long for the Rams to get their tight ends involved. I think that's really what's strange is the Rams are trying to chip and block all these blitzing DBs.

But maybe that's really what the Bears keyed in on is that was to me the Rams advantage in this game was that with all this three like 13 personnel stuff, it's kind of like the Niners. The Bears don't want their linebackers on the field. their linebackers are hurt. And so the backups all suck. And I kind of thought the rent, like Colby Parkinson and Ferguson were going to dominate.

And they eventually did get the explosives that got them that other touchdown drive was like Parkinson, a big rundown. But yeah, they couldn't do stuff in the middle. But overall, I don't know. It'll be fast. Considering how much the Seahawks beat the 49ers ass, like just what a high the Seahawks defense is on,

it is going to be pretty awesome. Like this rems Seahawks, I mean, for DKs, going to want to crawl into a hole watching the game. Don't talk to me until after the game. It's the ideal NFC championship, I would say. It feels representative of the season. I mean, it's objectively, I mean,

according to a lot of different things, the two best teams in the NFC. Yeah, so. You know, I think it, yeah, maybe in the league, maybe in the NFL, certainly feels like it's been inevitable. It feels like since week five, I've been saying, like it's gonna be the Seahawks versus the Rams and the end of this thing.

And so, yeah, I was, one of the thing to, before we move on, from the Rams. I saw this from Dan Pazuda. The Rams were in 11 personnel in this game, 85% of the time, which is a departure from what they've been doing. We talked so much about how they're playing 13 personnel and how that sort of

dictates terms to the, like, wondering what the strategy there, why they decided to do that. I don't get it because, and I'm not as smart as Sean McVeigh, but the whole thing is the Rams, the Bears secondary is their advantage. And again, what we're talking about is when the Rams put three tight ends on,

it's either you either match with linebackers or if you put smaller defensive backs out, then the Rams will run on you, which is why they're really effective running the ball. And so the Bears' defensive backs are their strength. They're really, really good at, like, talent-wise defensive back and Dennis Allen, the coordinator, that's a specialty. So you think the Rams would want to run more three tight-in sets

because the Bears linebackers are all hurt, and they're all like, you know, third, fourth, fifth stringers. I don't understand why they were doing that so much. I don't know what the idea was. I mean, obviously it didn't work. Like, the Rams almost lost this game because they couldn't move the ball. But, you know, they made it.

this game just felt like a, like a, just survive in advance. Both teams were messy. It was all over the place. It was just like everybody was dodging bullets left and right. There were tip passes all over the place that were almost intercepted. It just felt like you just got to survive. I would not say the Rams outplayed the Bears significantly. And yet I would agree that the Rams are the better team deserve to win.

Can we talk about one more thing before we move on from the Rams? So the Rams, as we agree, were affected by the elements. Do you do you guys think it's weird that the snow and the cold and the wind affected the Rams, even though it was very clearly reported that the Rams all put cayenne pepper in their socks to prepare, Julie and Call? Right. I haven't heard that one before. Is that a thing that people have talked about? It is a thing. What do you mean it's a thing? It's a thing in football that people put cayenne pepper in their socks in their socks.

Not in their jocks, though. I texted some friends of mine who played high school football because I only played my freshman year and I was kind of a fifth quarter type of player. But I asked, is the Kian Pepper thing real? And they were like, yeah. I got to tell you. I don't leave them. And I know it's a placebo, but I think it's really funny. And I got to tell you,

I think we're going to have, we got to try this. I think one of us for the soup bowl when we're together, we're going to have to put cayenne pepper in our socks. Fortunately, it's going to be like 75 degrees

so that won't be super fun. Yeah. Then you get like all sweaty. Yeah. When it mixes with the sweat. Oh God. I should have done that tonight, but I really want to put my feet.

Your feet are going to be raw. Yeah. How much? How much? How much? How much? That's what I'm wondering. Like how.

sprinkle. They also bought the cay and pepper that they showed. I don't know if they, uh, if the broadcast had one from the Rams or if they bought the run, but it was the whole foods kind. That's expensive. Whole food charges a lot. Bougy cayenne pepper. It looks full. I want to know. If you're the intern at the NFL who had to go buy that, please. They allow smelling salts, but they don't, but or they don't allow smelling salt salts, but now you can do cayenne pepper, willy nilly. What's that all about? What if you snort the cayenne pepper? Is that fine? And put the smelling salts in your feet. your feet. You get happy feet. That's not bad. Anyway, I just don't understand.

The Rams are worth like $8 billion and their players are putting cayenne pepper in their socks and they're like, oh, it doesn't really help. Whatever. DK, yeah, immediate, what is your, so Seahawks, we'll get to the game in a second. What is your immediate reaction to Seox playing the Rams other than just dread? I mean, it's just going to be a great game. It's going to be an awesome atmosphere. Like, if you look at what the atmosphere was like in Seattle against the 49ers, I imagine it's going to be very similar.

I mean, it's great. Playoff football in Seattle. Love it. Some of the best crowds. Tonight in Chicago and last night in Seattle. Seattle, the Niners Seahawk game sounded like a college game. Yeah. It was rocking and it's going to be super cool.

Yeah. Have some friends that went to the game, said the vibes were out of control good. It felt like the 49ers didn't travel that well, which is great. I mean, even going back to, the 49ers fans travel really well. And they were going to. They all got hurt. Well, you know what? It was the substation brought down all the 90s fit.

Right, right. Do you know, the Seahawks actually, to your point, I think what the Seahawks did is because obviously whether do you see a ticket holders sell their tickets or do you go? Oh yeah, right. I saw what Seattle did. So Seattle emailed them and politely told their season ticket holders. I forget with the exact language, but they were like, hey, just a reminder,

if we think that you're in the season ticket holder business to try. try to sell them as your primary goal, blah, blah, blah. Basically, they're like, if you sell your seats, we're, we got a whole list of people want. We're going to send a guy that looks like Big Dom to your door. Yes. If we get a sense that you might be selling those tickets. They're like, if we're going to look at every Niner fan on this camera in the stadium

and we're going to be like, what seats in the end? And we're going to get rid of your tickets. So, uh, it worked for the crowd. So, I mean, D.K. How quickly did you know that this game was over? It's 41 to 6. The Seahawks beat the Niners. BTA, as Michael Irvin would say, how quickly did you know it was a rap? this was one of the least stressful games I can remember

considering it's a playoff game against one of the probably the most hated rival I could imagine I mean the Rams are up there too but the 49ers there's just so much history and bad blood there considering the stakes and the opponent this was one of the least stressful games I can ever remember literally one of the least stressful Sioux games I can remember it was so much fun your whole line is always a familiar feeling after Seahawks win misery and it's not miserable for

one second of this game. In fact, they scored on the opening kickoff. And after that, I was like, this is just gonna be kind of this kind of game. Fun fact. The Seahuk scored seven points in the opening kickoff and the Niners did not score seven points in the entire game. Wow. It was like, Rashidhijid scores.

And then like the second play of the Niners, it looked like it was potentially a fumble return or immediately. And I was like, oh my God, this is going to be bad. And then like, it was zero. Oh my God. Immediately a turnover on downs and the Cirque's going to field goal. And then the Silk's going to touchdown and just, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, was an avalanche. It really was in both, first of all, the score margin was exactly the same as

the Super Bowl when the Seahawks destroyed the Broncos offense. That was like the best, Seahawks were the best modern defense. The Broncos broke every record for offense that year. And then defense with championships, they kicked the shit out of them. And this game was in terms of, it was over very similarly. It was immediately over. It felt just at the, no one, the nine has never had a chance. I mean, yeah. And if you look at, because look, the Seahawks played the 49ers two games in a row. It was kind of weird how the schedule kind of played out that way because they had the buy. But going back to the last, the last two games for the Seahawks, 54 to 9 total points. BTAs.

The eight straight quarters against the 49ers without allowing a touchdown. They obviously, like you said, the 49ers didn't even outscore the first play for the Seahawks in that game. The Seahawks defense had pretty and absolute hell. I think they just came in knowing that they were going to just kick the 49ers ass from the very beginning. And the 49ers really just couldn't do much at all. The Seahawks had, I saw this stat. I'm sorry, I don't remember who I saw it from, 47% pressure rate on a 10% blitz rate.

So they were just getting pressure without blitzing the entire game. It just makes it so difficult as a quarterback to deal with that. Another game with Purdy basically, you know, his passing chart looks like something Bryce Young would produce in terms of just like dump offs and small little throws. So another thing. I don't know like exactly what is going on with 49ers, but literally the last two games,

the CX played against 49ers, two of the three worst games by EPA per dropback of Kyle Shannon's coaching career with 409. I think the CX are what's going on with the 49ers. They're just absolutely freaking dominated. So yeah, I mean, this was this was a very fun game to watch. So I, you mentioned the Niners.

We have to mention so Christian McCaffrey, he heard his shoulder in this game. Jake Tonjus was actually playing really well with George Kittle torn his Achilles and then Jake Tongis himself got hurt. Jordan James, the rookie running back, got his first touch of the season in the second half of this game.

He played three stamps, I think, all year. Like the Niners, the substation. Katie Nolan posted on Blue Sky, Katie Nolan was like, we can all laugh about whether the substation, you know, EMFs raise or hurting the Niners, but like whether that's true or not, we do have to figure out what's going on with this team

because the Niners are just all destroyed. My personal theory is all the players that were hurt six years. ago are still on the team on the team and everyone's like still hurt uh but the niners that's going to be a whole offseason for them i i got to tell you i'm curious you guys think i think the team that was exposed in ceilocks niners is the eagles because the eagle's inability to move the ball at all on this nineers team with their fourth fifth and six string linebackers and the ease that the ceilks dominated all three phases of the game i think it actually makes the eagles loss look even

worse in retrospect? I don't know. I don't know Craig, you feel that way, but. Well, and I'm happy. I texted my dad is a huge Niners fan. I texted him after the game saying like, you know what, look, I think you have to look at the season as a win. This team was not a Super Bowl team, especially with how injured they were. But one thing you did do is you saved all of us collectively from having to watch more Eagles football. And thank you for that. I know. I did a service. I wouldn't have wanted to risk the Philadelphia potentially beating Seattle and inching closer to a possible Super Bowl, which is worst case scenario. So I agree. with you. It's remarkable that the Eagles couldn't do anything with all the talent

they had. Also, we didn't really talk about it, but the whole Sam Darnold saga, he got injured in practice like two days before the game. And I mean, we talked about a little bit on the previous show, the preview show. But yeah, that was like a whole different dialogue here. How did you think he looked? I think he looked pretty good. Honestly, like he didn't have to do a lot. He only threw 12, or he only had 12 completions in this game, but the few times that he kind of had to let it rip, There was that touchdown to JSN in the back front, which was an incredible throw across his body. He's drifting to his left, threw it to a spot in the very back corner of the end zone to JSN. I thought that was an amazing throw.

But overall, like Kenneth Walker, being able to run the hell out of the ball, like they didn't really have to do a whole lot with the passing game. And they didn't ask a lot of them. He had 124 yards passing. So with the defense doing what it did, the run game absolutely dominant. Kenneth Walker had three touchdowns on the ground, which is hilarious because the 49ers, for whatever reason, love to talk shit to Kenneth Walker. Lenore, their corner was chirping all year and like, what's his name? Joanne Jennings just like, you know, talking so much trash.

And then I felt great for Kenneth Walker to be able to go out there and do what he did because I think he was the target of a lot of their trash talk for whatever reason. But yeah, super fun game. And you should say that Zach Sharbonnet got hurt, hurt his knee. Zach Sharbonnet got hurt. He had a knee injury left for the rest of the game. It sounds like at least what I know right now, the indication is it's not season ending.

It's not structural. So that could be a good thing. But yeah, they don't have like a good backup. I mean, Vylus Jones Jr. was the guy who came in after Charbonnet went out. So, yeah, hopefully he, hopefully Sharpernay is not seriously injured for this next game. Okay. Well, speaking of season ending injuries, should we?

Yeah. I mean, the Denver Broncos stills game. There are so many bizarre things to talk about this game. And we could get into a lot of the refereeing with this game. But so the Broncos beat the bills 33 to 30 in overtime. But I actually think the craziest thing that happened on weekend was that while the Niners Seahawks game is going on, we find out that Bo Nix has a who gave the postgame interview.

Sean Payton does a post game press conference and then comes back. It does another one. And then it turns out Bo Nix broke his ankle on a kneel down. Wild. And then I go back and watch. No, he didn't break it on the deal. It was before the kneel down. You can see the play where it happened.

He's like kind of scrambling to the left and the defender like yanks his ankle. It doesn't look like anything bad. He kind of gets up and is fine. So I think he got hurt on that play a little. And then he throws the pass to Marvin Mims that gets past interference. Then they move down. And then I think he made it worse on the next play. I don't totally understand what happened.

But neither of them looked that bad. And again, like you said, he gave the post game interview. He seemed fine. And then, but you know, it's so funny. So that was with, I think, Tracy Wilson and CBS. And then she posted that someone had taken a photo of them talking. And Bo Nix actually was on one leg the entire inner conversation. But I don't think she knew because she's like five feet tall and she's just looking straight up at him.

But like he's just on one leg and kind of an agony. There was. So my buddy is a Broncos fan and he came over after the game to where we were watching the Seahawks game. And he was like, I don't know, man. There was a video of Bo Nix at the very end of the game where he's kind of trying to like jump up and down a little bit on the sideline. And you can see him wince. Yes. Very, very like extreme pain.

And my buddy was like, I don't know, man, you guys got to like look into this because he looked like he was really hurt. And then like a few minutes later, we found out he broke his ankle. So you could see it on the, you can see it on the broadcast. He had like this moment where he was like, oh, God, something is seriously wrong here. It's a massive bummer. I know that we like, blue balls. Don't make fun of Sean Payton and the whole thing. But this is such a rug pull for Denver fans.

It was such a huge win for them. I mean, the whole Jared Sidham thing is obviously depressing for like the larger. Super Bowl possibility of like, there's a world in which Drew Locke and Jared Stidham are playing each other in the Super Bowl in three weeks, which is fucking terrifying. Don't say that. I'm just saying, that is like relative.

I guess I would take the Super Bowl, I guess. I hope you have sons. But yeah, this is terrible. I mean, that was a great Broncos win. And it was cool to see a new team kind of ascending. I mean, I wanted Josh Allen. Oh, no, it wasn't. I was rooting for the bills and it was sad.

I was too. But like, I wasn't going to be upset if the Broncos were in the Super Bowl. I would have been like, this is cool. We have a new team. Yeah. We went, let's just say it. We went from Josh Allen to Jared Stidham. Yeah. It's a terrible fucking runout for everybody involved. No one is happy from the fall of this game. The Bill's fans are pissed and upset with their own team. They're mad at the referees. The referees are probably in hiding. And Broncos fans are like talking themselves into Jared Stidham. And they're looking, they're looking at Nick Foll's tweets about being like, don't worry. The Patriots can't be backup quarterbacks and Broncos fans under 40 are Googling Jeff Hostetler.

and like, you know what I mean? Like, it's really, it's grim and everyone involved in this, no one really came out that much better. I mean, the Broncos Super Bowl odds are lower now than they were before the Bill's Broncos game began. I mean, yeah. Starting quarterbacks are important. I mean, we saw, like, Richard, uh, sorry,

Roger Sherman tweeted this during the last part of the games that, I think ironically, the Broncos are the only team in the NFL who did not have their backup quarterback take a snap this season or last season. Or last season, yeah. So Stidham hasn't taken a regular season snap since before last season. It's a disaster. We're going to talk about Stidham a lot this week. I have a feeling.

But we have to get into this game and Bill's Broncos. And there's so much with this game. But we have to just get ready to it, which is 3330. The Broncos win in overtime. But there is a lot of calls that were questionable. We have to get right to it. The interception that the Brandon Cooks. People are still talking about this.

This is a huge thing. I talked to it. I got breakfast this morning. My waiter was talking about it. Yeah. I had a strong opinion. I have a very strong opinion. I lean a certain way.

Do you guys, do you want to just get into it? Did you think it should have been a catch or do you think it should have been an interception? Correct. I think it should have been an interception clearly. DK. My initial reaction watching the game was that they made the right call. And the more I've watched it, it's kind of like the bell curve meme. Like I went and I watched it a bunch and a lot of people were saying on Twitter like arguing for it or whatever.

The screenshots are rampant. Maybe it was a catch, whatever. I think ultimately it wasn't. interception, but I don't understand why other plays that are almost identical to this play have been called catches in both this. So this Bears Rams game, there was the Devante Adams catch. I don't understand how that was any different than the Cook's catch. It's completely different. How, how? He came, he recovered, or he went to the ground and, and what is it called? Survived the ground. He brought the ball to the ground with them and retained it through the play.

Brandon Cooks. I don't know about that, but here. I think a better one, a better example was the, was the Aaron Rogers play from earlier this year against the Ravens where he batted, the ball got batted, he caught it. And then the Ravens took it away from him almost instantly. They called him down. How was that any different? I also think to be totally honest, I don't think comparing a quarterback catching a pass is anything like a receiver catching a past 40 yards downfield. It's my point is this is really inconsistently. The simplest way for me to convince you that this is clearly the interception is if there were no defender there and it was just Brandon Cook's.

and the ball came out at the end, it's clearly an incomplete pass. Right. So why wouldn't it be an interception? Unfortunately, completely agree with Craig and the bills fans. I love the bills. Unfortunately.

I would love Josh out. I know, I just, I would love for Josh, not you. He's like, this doesn't make good TV that we're all pretty much agree.

I completely agree. I wanted the bills to win the game, but I was like, look, if there was no defender there, or if neither of them catch that ball, if it ends up at no one's hand, it's not a catch and a fumble.

It's an incomplete pass. I agree. I hate, I know people got mad about the screenshot. I implore if anyone's like listening to this being like, how is no one arguing against it? Watch the play in real time and do what Craig said and watch the play at full speed,

not slow-mo, not a screen shot, pretend the defender's not there. And look how quick... The ball comes out the moment Brandon Cook hits the ground. It's like not instantaneous, but might as well be instantly the second Brandon Cook hits the ground. The ball flies out. That happens every game in the NFL,

a defender, a receiver has the ball hits the ground. It's incomplete. It just looked weird because the ball ended up in the... the defender's hands that it looked like it looks strange. But if the, I agree, Craig. If the defender wasn't there, it would be simpler. Just to go in order because I know people were like,

oh, 54 yards in the final drive overtime. The first pass interference, so after, then it goes down, the bills from defense. The first pass interference, which was Taryn Johnson and Cortland Sutton was bullshit. That was a terrible call. Even that one kind of doesn't matter because Joey Bosa was also flagged for roughing the passer.

Very justified. So that was going to be like 15 yards, no matter what is the truth is, because Joey Bosa totally roughed him. And then the second pass interference, which was the big one, which was the Tradavis White getting flagged for Marvin Mims. That was a hundred percent pass interference. Tradavis White got fucking cooked by Marvin Mims. And he just grabbed him and like almost brought it, tackled him from behind because he just was going to give up a touchdown in the game.

So unfortunately, my take on the whole refereeing thing, the bills, like I know people were mad about the referee calls in overtime. The bills would not have been in overtime if Josh Allen did not hand Denver three points at the end of the half. and that totally changed the game. Was the two fumbles in three plays? They had five turnovers. That was the worst turnover of Josh Allen's recent career. Like him scrambling at the end of that half there with the ball just hanging out and fumbling that and just giving up an extra field goal going into halftime 23 to 10 was unforgivable.

And I think the bills have been screwed a lot, obviously historically. But even in the Josh Allen era, I think there are many other games that you can look to and be like, man, they got screwed there or it should have gone a different way. I mean, they changed the overtime rules because of the Chiefs' Bills game. This game, I don't think is one of the Pantheon Bills got screwed games, unfortunately. It's shaping up to go down like that, though, Craig. Like people are irate. No, because people are absolutely losing their mind over this play.

Bill's fans who are online, you just see people, Bill's fans that I know in real life understand. James Cook fumbled on the second drive in field goal range. Josh Allen threw a. pick four turnovers. Outside of field goal range. And it can't stress enough. He fumbled, like the, the fumble at the beginning of the second half was like a great play

by the Broncos. Still, a strip sack that led to a field goal. There was two fumbles and three plays that led to six points for Denver in a game that went to overtime. But the one before half is what Josh Allen, I think, is like weeping about at the press conference, which was horrible to watch, which is he's like crying and saying, I let the team down, which is terrible for a guy that obviously they would never be there without him.

But that play, people were mad. Well, why are the bills trying to score? with like 13 or 16 seconds left or whatever it is. What are you doing? The answer is... I didn't have a problem with that. No, you know why? They're trying to score

because they trust Josh to not do what he did. And here's my issue with Josh on that play. And I think Josh's issue... Hold the ball like a loaf of bread. Holding the ball like a loaf of bread. Why is... I love that expression, by the way. He's holding the ball.

It's so nonchalant. That I think is the problem. It's not fighting for yards. It's not doing what he did. He was holding it in a way that was so... It's very like dad at Thanksgiving, like, like, you know what I mean?

Backyard football. Like it was so nonchalant. It's like when you're going on a run at home like on the street and you're like carrying your phone. It was unprofessional. It was unprofessional. And the Hulk reason they're out there is, well, we know Josh. He hadn't turned the ball over in how many playoff games?

I think 200 past attempts like six playoff games. It was like an NFL record. He had gone 427 snaps without a turnover and he had two in the next three snaps. And he was like that all game. He actually almost got strip sack like seven times in this game. But like that one was, did it. So I feel terrible for him, but, um, the bills did it to themselves. Both teams were sloppy.

I mean, Broncos fumbled twice in their first two drives. The Bills didn't get either of them. You know what I mean? The Broncos, Pat Bryant got the first three catches from Bo Nix. He got hurt. Broncos' offense couldn't really move the same. I mean, also, the Bills defense played great because I know they gave up 33 points in this game, but I look at this game.

The Bills, unfortunately, the Broncos got two touchdowns in this game by just a defensive back on Buffalo got hurt. And then they came in and Sean Payton dialed up the perfect play to attack the defensive back on a double move that came in. And they scored twice on guys that defensive back just came in the game. That's just smart right there, man. I know. I actually like love the savagenessness, the brutal, the mercilessness of that doing that. It almost makes me like Sean Payton. Almost. It's sad. This is sad. This is a sad loss. I mean, look, Boe-nex made some in sick throws in this game too. Like that throw to to Marvin Mimms for a 10. touchdown late in the game was a dime.

So I don't know. Yeah. It's funny that we all kind of agree about that play. Oh, well. I know maybe people are screaming and there's something we're not thinking about, but I can't stress enough that you're right though, Craig, is if the defender wasn't there, watch it in full speed. He hits the ground.

The ball pops out. Like it's not a catch. It happened to be interception. It's weird. This is how every catch is. Like two feet in bounds matters, but then you have to continue through the rest of the play. you have to hold the ball through the tackle into the ground.

And if it pops out, that's not a catch. And people were showing it popped out into a defender's hands. So many screenshots of the NFL playbook the last 24 hours. I'm like literally reading all the five or six things you need for it to be a catch. This is one. I hate being the person who is defending the refs. But unfortunately, you need referees. They fix the catchable thing pretty well.

There's a lot of past attempts in every freaking game. I got to tell you that there's always going to be issues at the margins. I think they did a pretty good job from where they were 10 years ago. But the Devante Adams one from earlier. I know you brought it up, DK. He's on both, he's on two knees holding the ball, like fighting for yardage and got like, it's totally different. He survived the ground.

Like, I don't know. I disagree with that, but it doesn't really matter. I think ultimately they got that. He didn't even bobble in Devonte's hands. Like, he caught that. He had two feet down and he survived the ground. How was it not a catch? I would argue that he didn't survive the ground.

But it doesn't matter. We don't need to relitigate that. So I was, I just think it's inconsistently officiated when that's one of the problems with the league in general is and i think that's why people are so pissed um but ultimately it forced jean stere to post like 200 words he's tweeting through it yeah i actually yeah um it's very jargony and yeah well this is this is yeah i bristle a little bit about hyfit saying they fixed the catch rule because i don't think they did like i think it's 12 000 completions a year what do you want them to do you want none of them to be controversial i don't want it to be i don't want to

have to fucking talk about it every week, which it feels like we do. What do you want to do? There's always going to be called. I don't know. What it rule is. I don't know what the, I don't know what the like solution is. I'm just saying you saying it's fixed is not right. If it, I actually totally disagree because if it what it takes for a catch to be argued

about for three days is where receiver comes down and a defensive back has to reverse somersault come out like Willie Wonka and like actually I have the ball. And that's, yeah, that's a. weird play. It like never happens. That's what it took for us to be like, okay. It happens kind of, it's having like at least three times this year. Well, there's 12,000 fucking completions every year. It's hard to fucking decide the rule. I don't know. I think that the, if we're really getting into the nitty gritty, the, a football play technically is like too generic. You know what I mean? That's what I think we're, I just, I think we used to argue about this. I think when I started

the ringer in 2017, it was like, there were. like eight of these a week. I think if they had fixed the catch rule, we wouldn't be having this conversation. I disagree. We fucking talk about this every week. There used to be won a game, man. Yeah, but who's problem is that?

Is that the refs fall or is that ours at a certain point? Thank you, like everyone's arguing about it. It's like, well, the refs are just making calls and then we're pissed at home. Doesn't mean the refs call is wrong. Don't blame me for this, Craig. Also, I just at some point, and again, I think real bills fans understand,

they blew the game because they, Only the real bill. Take that interception. There are four other turnovers of the game. They fumble twice and three snaps. They gave the team six points. I don't know. I feel bad for the bills.

They had a shot in overtime. They had a possession. Josh Allen, I mean, honestly, the other one is that Josh Allen had the only throw. Josh had so many incredible throws. He missed Knox on the seam route. Yes.

At the end of regulation, the reason they kicked the field load overtime. He had, it wasn't like an easy throw, but it's Josh makes that throw all the time. Is he should have hit Knox for the touchdown. It would have been, bills take the lead in regulation.

Would have been like a legacy. Josh Allen drive or as Tony Romo says, legacy Mahomes drive. How dare you? How dare you? It's hard to announce a game. There's a lot of names. There's a lot of names.

Mahomes is always in the playoffs. There's a lot of names. He was playing the odds that it was Mahomes. Most of the time you're right. I actually understand why Romo in like back-to-back series called Josh Allen Mahomes and he also got the down wrong. And I understand why he did it both times. My dad can't even get me and my brother right.

You know, it's like it's hard. It's a fair point. Yeah, my dad's called a, my dad's called me his dad's name. Who's passed for years. But like I, they actually had a Josh versus Mahomes comparison graphic on like right before that play and then they faded it out. And then he called him the homes like while it was still, the text was still up and that everyone did it dirty.

And then the downs. They, the graphics, they got the downs wrong like when he got the down. But then no one, they clip it put it online and no one knows that. I don't know. I'm not going to be the one to make fun of someone for getting a name wrong. I feel like that's kind of my wheelhouse. Very brave of you. even though I guess I did make fun of them earlier.

Anyway, anything else in this Bill's Broncos game? I feel like I sound anti-bills, which I'm not. I wanted the bills to win desperately. I wanted Josh Allen and the AFC championship desperately, but I was like, look, that wasn't a catch. And Josh Allen had more mistakes than he usually does. I don't know what to say. He was a little sloppy.

Well, here's my question. D.K., Bill's fans are mixed. Do you think the bills should fire Sean McDermott, that gosh oh god that's a big question i don't know what did you guys make of the the presser after the game like oh he was pissed well sorry he's he was right this is the mistake the rest made they went through it really quickly they the the the real issue the rest made was they didn't take the time to properly review that catch that i agree that was insane that they didn't there's people that said because they went to overtime the NFL was like trying to hurry the game along

so they could get to the Seahawks, Seahawks' Niners game, which is just like the worst reason. It's the worst reason to rush that. I agree with that. And I also think that ends up being why it's so angry. Because if they had done the whole, hey, we're going to look at this four times thing. And then the referees came out and said, upon further review, he did not survive the grant, blah, blah, a lot.

But the lack of explaining it, I think, and that's what Sean McDerm was screaming about is, or not screaming, but at his presser. He was like, how do you not review that? He was angry. He was angry. They put the Niners Steelers game back 20 minutes. And they're like, we can't spend five minutes on this. play. I do think that's real. I think

to not to skirt your question, if I was going to fire anyone, I would fire the GM over, I would over firing McDermann if I was in position to run. Yeah. Why? Because Josh Allen is throwing to Tyrell Shavers and Brandon

Cooks, although Cooks kind of looks good in this game. But yeah, I think the fact that you're having to sign a guy off the street or whatever this late in the season, there's something wrong there. There's something that went awry in the Especially when you're yelling at the media for like not drafting a receiver and all that stuff. I got it.

Brandon Cooks didn't look bad. Although Brandon Cook has had some tough playoff moments over the last five, six years on like four different teams. But you know what? You know, the other GM I'm mad at? Omar Khan, Pittsburgh. Why wasn't Brandon Cooks on the fucking Steelers? I don't know. I don't understand.

Brandon Cooks looked like he's been. What the hell? He's a wily veteran that Aaron Rogers would like. Why would we have to get Mark Ketzel out of scaling out of him feeling? Brandon Cook's was good. I don't think they should fire Sean McDermott. I think you've got to run it back one more year. I agree.

I think it's the same thing like LaFleur. Like, take a week and realize that you're in still a pretty decent spot and you have a great team every single year and you've almost made the Super Bowl like every year. You don't want to be out here. No. Speaking of which, though, we got it. So the Broncos are going to advance with Jared Stidham and they're going to play the New England Patriots. Any chance they beat the Patriots?

With Jared Stidham? Yeah. I guess they're mathematically as a chance. Should we predict the spread? Technically speaking, yes, they could win that game. There will be 22 humans versus 22 other humans. Sure. What? Okay.

The spread? Oh, man. I already looked. I already looked. I'm going to say five and a half. No, I think if Vegas wants people to bet on Denver, they're going to have to give them. I'm going to say seven and a half. Yeah, maybe it's eight and a half instead them.

Hi Fitz, you should have followed your first instinct. Is it five and a half? It's five and a half. In the words of Bill Simmons, that's going to move. I was going to be seven and a half by Wednesday. Well, before we get to even the Patriots, we have to. Can we pick Ringer 107 right now? I'll take minus five and a half right now.

Can we lock that in? Time for first. Bringer 107. I think we, boys, we need a special emergency session here of America's favorite segment, though. Sure. Fart? we're sharp that's disgusting

I like the fuffa faf far or shard I love an air horn do you think Ted Sarandos knows that that is like on Netflix

it's just such a good radio bit it's such a radio show from the 90s I would get kicked off Netflix for that if it meant that

Ted Sarandos was 50 minutes into our show I would take that right now okay with that being said

Daniel Daniel Kelly Leave me alone Hey leave me alone for finally Okay C.J. Stroud

Stroud Stroud The Texans lost 28 to 16 today against the New England Patriots C.J. Stroud was 20 for 47

for 212 yards a touchdown and four picks all of them coming in the first half he was sacked three times in this game according to

our friend Matt Harmon at Yahoo. This CJ Stroud performance was the 10th lowest EPA per dropback for a starting quarterback in a playoff game since 2007. The 10th worst. Basically the 10th worst playoff performance in last 20 years.

What's funny is the number one worst is Rogers against the Texans last week. But kind of setting that aside. Brandon Cooks, where were you? Where were you, Brandon? We needed you. D.K. Metcalfe dropped that pass. A lot of people don't remember that.

So, D.K., I bring this to you. C.J. Stroud, who has just completed the third season of his young career. And he's three seasons in. Three seasons in entering his fourth. The Texans are going to have to think about picking up that fifth year option on C.J. Stroud. Where are you at? Was year two and three after a really promising rookie season where he had 23 touchdowns and five picks. He was the next guy in the NFL at quarterback.

The next two seasons, he's averaging 19 touchdowns and 10 picks per season, capping it off with the worst. game of his career today. CJ Stroud, basically the last two years of his career, I want to ask you. Fartter, Shart. This was the moment where I kind of turned on Stroud. I think obviously it was close last week, but he had five fumbles and five picks in the last two games.

And he lost two of those fumbles. And I was actually like, maybe this was super reactive in the moment or whatever, but I actually was thinking the Texans should bench him. in this game. I thought they should have gone to Davis Mills. I thought he looked like he was completely losing his mind. Like he was, couldn't,

he couldn't complete a pass in the second quarter of particular. He looked like he could not complete a pass. He was, he was like the darn old seeing ghosts thing. He was completely out of it. He'd lost it. I was like, man, they should just go to Davis Mills. And this was actually gonna be one of my intrusive thoughts later,

but I think teams should be more willing to bench their starter. Kind of like, you know, in the Major League Baseball, playoffs or whatever, whatever game where a starter just doesn't have his stuff that day. And they go to reliever after one inning. Yeah, like even less than an inning. And they just go to the reliever. This guy's not got his stuff. Let's go to the next guy. Like, they should do that in the NFL a little bit more. I understand the implications around it and what it would create over

the offseason. We got to like prove that we this is our guy and all that stuff. But man, the way he was playing in this game, they would have been way better off going to Davis Mills. I truly believe that. He was awful. He was so awful in this game. It looked like he had actually sharded and was trying to play through that. Right. I mean, he, you know, it's hard to kind of get into the mind of these guys, obviously, from watching at home, but he looked like he had lost his entire, every bit of his confidence was gone.

It's funny. He had four interceptions and it felt worse. Yeah. He was trying, he tried to throw about four or five more in the game and they just dropped him because it was rainy and crazy out. I mean, just incredibly inaccurate, really poor decision making. super flustered. His pocket awareness was bizarre.

The pick where he kind of got hit and the ball went up in the air. He was throwing the ball as if nobody was in front of him. He almost like didn't take the defender seriously and got intercepted. It was an incredibly weird game. It being the 10th worst playoff performance

in the last 20 years, if you look at all the other quarterbacks on that list, none of them were good quarterbacks. Four of them were Texans. It's like all the shitty Texans quarterback, Brock Osweiler and things like that. He's given a ton in common with that Brock Osweiler, Patriots,

lost in the divisional round. It had a lot in another elite Texans defense of like J.J. Wattitian, Chenevian Clowny on that team, like an incredible team that like just couldn't keep up. And Stroud looked like Brock Osweiler. Like if you just take away the name, you take away everything you know about Stroud,

you would assume that he was a backup quarterback today. And I think that's what I'm so frustrated. It's bad sign when you hope that the explanation for CCHI Straud's performances, maybe he, his hand was hurt or maybe broken and or the weather was worse than you think. And he's like, oh, yeah, from Los Angeles. Like, that's, those are the explanations. I think what frustrates me is that even if those things are true, even if his hands

banged up or maybe the weather, it's like the grip on the ball, it was like kind of like, you know, raining in the beginning and then snow. The problem was he wasn't playing at all. Like, it was slippery conditions and you have the best defense in the conference. I know. That what I think was so. Just putting the ball in danger on like every other play. It was the dumbest version of hero ball I've ever seen.

And I think it like, because he was refusing. to do what his job should be, which is if you're under pressure, don't turn the ball, take a sack. Like, I think they said the Patriots, Rabel's advice to Drake May was every, every drive ending with a kick is fine.

Field goals and punts are fine. Strad was playing like sacks were lava. Yeah. I know. And Stroud was playing like a sack was a turnover and he was trying to turn the ball over. Like he was trying to be hero ball,

which was insane. And the fact that the Texans defense was so good makes it worse. Because somehow, He threw, Stroud threw four picks. The Patriots didn't get any points off three of them. The only one the Patriots actually got points off of was the pick six, which I think makes it worse.

I think the craziest stat of the whole day is that Drake May had more picks and fumbles in this game than Stroud did. Yeah. Which is insane. Stroud was 20 or 47. Not lost fumbles. No. That's my point.

Is the bounce like fumble, like the Texans defense created so many opportunities. Dude, they made Drake fun. There was four times. The one bouncer roller that somehow the 10 yard line, the Texans couldn't pick it up and run in the end zone. I think that Bill Barnwell maybe made this, this joke early in the game or midway through the game. If the Texans had just punted on first down,

they could have maybe won this game. For sure. They legitimately were so good on defense. They had, they had Drake Mays, his like back swing of his hand. What is it called when you, whatever he's,

when he's going back to throw the football. They had that time perfectly. And they, they hit it out of his hands at least two. or three times. And in like incredibly cleanly. Like Will Anderson, his strips on Drake May, those would not have been called as a foul in basketball. They were so. Yeah. Right. It was just swiping only the ball. It was cool. It was like a coaching point this week or something because they were on it. I think that's the new peanut punch. I remember like 10 years ago when guys were just

punching the football out for force fumble. It was like, hey, we learned it from Charles Tillman. And now it's like a thing everywhere. I think this is the new thing where they're like, you actually don't have to sack the quarterback because you can be engaged with the linemen and just kind of bat the ball out. It's easier than, I think it's going to lead to more quarterbacks getting their fingers hit. But I mean, Dante Coppowitz Fleming had this stat that players who've had three sacks, only two players have ever had three sacks and two force fumbles in a playoff game since 2000. And it was both against Will Campbell and the Patriots of this playoffs. It was not a way for the church last week. And then Will Anderson for the Texans against the Patriots today.

So not good. That's one of them. We're like, all right, maybe we're a little harsh on everyone talking about Will Campbell's our length. at left tackle for the Patriots that take him forth overall in the draft and then now it's like, oh, everyone's just bull rushing Will Campbell back and then just knocking the ball

to Drake May's hand so effortlessly to the point to never happen. No one else has ever done in any playoff game what they've done to Will Campbell two weeks in a row. There was an interesting quote with one minute left in the game.

The game was over. And I love listening to Troy Aikman because he's like angry Chris Collinsworth. Like Collinsworth is usually just positive bitter across the board. And Akeman just speaks his mind. And it feels like he, sometimes he just says stuff

that you know is perhaps coming from conversations behind the scenes, things he's heard. He drops these little nuggets. He had a quote at the end of the game that I wrote down. He said, this is with a minute left in the game. The game's over. He says,

CJ Stroud has been chasing his rookie success for the last two years. He's not been the same player. We've not seen the development from him. And there's a reason for that and it has to be addressed. I found that to be very interesting. Nuggett. He started a podcast. Because he had a podcast.

Yeah. It was because he was big brothering everybody. So he basically like, rookie year. Chevy Chase. Like one year on SNL, he's like, I'm the goat. Fuck all you. See you guys later. I'm going to do my own thing and then it just completely didn't pan out. I think that is what happened. I don't think it's like

the same like level of selfishness. But I do think it is the same level of he is trying to have frankly be a hero and have a more active role. He doesn't know he's a game manager and I can't like that's what's frustrating so much of the first half. Your job is to not turn it over and let the best

defense of the year be like a legendary defense. And he kept And here's the part that frustrates me about what you're saying, Craig. C.J. Stroud fumbled five times one week ago. That's tied for the most in a playoff game ever. He fumbled five times versus Steelers.

And then what do you think they're doing for a week? What do you think they're talking about? Imagine if you were quarterback and you fumbled five times and you won by 23 points because of the defense. All you're thinking about it's snowing, you're like, I can't turn the ball of it. I was going to say, and it's like 20 degrees in snowing.

Yeah. This is what bugged me about the game in particular is because so Texans fans maybe will think Nico Collins is out he missed the game Dalton Schultz got hurt really in the game yes the weapons weren't there they're relying on these rookie guys terrible like maybe the worst like right now

currently maybe this was the worst offensive line running back tight end wide receiver collection in the entire NFL was perhaps what the Texans were I think that's howard that's a valid that's a valid point and a valid argument but I the decision making was still really horrific it was just it was just it's like

It was exactly what Hyphitz was saying. He was forcing it. Stop forcing it. Just protect the football. Your defense can win you this game and you're throwing it away. You're literally giving the other team the game. Just fucking eat it and take a sack. It just drives me nuts watching.

He looked like Max Brosmer. He looked like Max Brosmer. And it's on the place he bet. What plays where he was good, he looked like off brand Joe Burrow or Stroud from rookie ear. But the other place, he was like Max Brosmer. And so it's inexplicable, but I don't know. Maybe this is the whole pie he needs to get better.

But it's tough. because the reality is the Texans defense are so good because they're better than everyone. And the problem with that is when guys get hurt, suddenly everyone's not better than everybody. And that's the problem why defense is harder to year over year. It's not to be the whole depressing person who's like, they probably won't be as good on defense next year because it's going to regress. But like that's usually always true. And it's sad because like it's, I don't know, it's crazy to think that you could fumble five times in round one and then come out through four picks in the first half in round two. If you're looking for a silver lining, which this would be a very, very small one is he did play slightly better in the second half than he did in the first half.

He was falling apart in the first half. And I was like, they literally need to bench him. And he wasn't a complete disaster in the second half. I'm just again, I'm looking at very small silver linings here. I don't know if that generated enough momentum to sustain the offseason. Sure, sure, sure. Just trying to throw him a bone here, you know. We should Josh Allen's like I let the team down and C.

C. Stroud said the same thing. We should show Josh Allen C.G. Strouds game. You're like, look, Josh. You're good. You're okay, man. Don't worry, big guy. All right. I guess should we actually acknowledge the Patriots are playing? Can I tell you guys something? I think I've seen the future. I know what's going to happen. The Patriots are going to beat the Broncos go to the Super Bowl. No offense, D.K. The Rams are going to beat the Seahawks. They're going to go to the Super Bowl. The Ram's going to be favorites over the Patriots in the Super Bowl. And then the plucky underdog Patriots with their chippy second year quarterback and

quarterback the Patriots are going to as underdogs beat the Rams in the Super Bowl and we're going to have another 20 years in the fucking Patriots. It's going to add all time is a flat circle. The dynasty rebuilds from scratch. Stafford wins the MVP. It's the MVP Rams offense and then with their you know and just times a flat circle.

Don't love that. You know, how are we collectively as a trio here going to handle what's going on with the Patriots? I actually, I'm glad you asked Craig. Can I tell you my intrusive thought? I had an intrusive thought this week while we were texting.

My intrusive thought is Craig doesn't really hate the Patriots at all. You don't hit the Patriots enough, Craig? I don't. I don't hate the Patriots enough? No, you don't. I hate the when they had Tom Brady. Yeah, but now you kind of like them. Well, they haven't done anything yet. And I like Drake May.

And I like Mike Vrabel. I know, but you can like those people who still, I love Mike Vrabble and I love Drake May, but I hate them and I don't want them to win. And I think you're really soft than them. Well, I think there's a difference. Okay. So you guys are just talking shit about me behind my back,

about how do I hate the Patriots enough? Okay. How about this? Do I want the Patriots to win the Super Bowl? No. Are they my last pick out of the four remaining teams that I would want to win the Super Bowl? Yeah, they're dead last.

Does that mean I hate them? No, I don't hate them. I don't hate them. Dead last. What about the previous? I want the other three teams to win more than them. What about the divisional round? Out of the eight teams remaining?

Yeah, I don't know. Dika, do you get this sense that Craig doesn't hate them properly? He's not as upset. Was I supposed to? I'm confused. I was totally joking earlier, Craig. I feel like I don't really hate the Patriots either. I don't know.

Of all the people in this group, I should hate the fucking Patriots. The Seahawks lost on that the most horrific game ending play I've ever seen in my life. To be honest, this is representative of the entire Patriot season. I feel nothing towards them. That's kind of how I feel. It felt like they just beat the Jets. So I'm like, I don't know what I feel. think about this team. And then last week they beat Justin Herbert and the shitty

chargers and then they beat the shitty Texans and now they're going to beat the shitty Broncos. I don't know what to think about this team. This sucks. Rigged. I hit the NFL. That's what I really hate. They're going to, they're going to, I mean, honestly, the truth is Jared Stitt is almost definitely going to play better than Cedius Stroud this week. It's actually incredible the path that New England will have to the Super Bowl is fucking in. He is America. I think the Broncos have a shot in this game. I'm going to buy a Jared's. We should all by Jared Sidham jersey's midweek next week. We should be.

We probably should. I mean, it's the back of the, are they actually for sale? Can you buy one right now? I imagine you can't. Would you have to do custom? Right. Do it just get like a fan one? You got to go on Etsy?

Yeah. I'm curious, Bill right now is live on Netflix. And I'm like, what is the move if you're a Patriots fan? I think you have to acknowledge it and you have to go, look, we got super lucky. Our schedule is super easy. We've gotten super lucky in their playoffs. What are you going to do? I think that has to be the play.

You have to lean into it. Yeah, you got to be like, you're not apologizing. Sometimes it gets lucky. Sometimes it's like the Boston Celtics championship run. You know, sometimes it's just like a really easy opponent's the whole way through. I think they're going to know.

They're going to say they dominated all the time. Throw that grenade. Sometimes it's like the 2020, Boston Celtics championship running. It's just really easy. I don't know. I'm staying away from that one, but I do agree with you that you just kind of have to lean into it.

You can only play the teams that you play. They didn't choose their schedule. What are we going to do? I'm sorry that I don't hit the Patriots. enough high fits. I don't get why you hate the Patriots. You fucking beat them twice in the Super Bowl. I know, but I think when you spend so much time of your life, like Rudy, I spent a month of my life preparing to face the Patriots in the Super Bowl and then you like end up hating the team because you spend so much time doing that. And like, I guess it's not about

because I again, I like the Rable. I like, I love Rable. I like Jake Mame. I guess what I'm saying is. Okay, so you're also walking it back. No. What I'm saying is sounds like you love the Patriots. What about the 2024 Celtics championship? What do you think about that? I mean, we all, Oh, I feel about that. Yeah, I was, I mean, you know, I think it deserves an asterisk, really. But I know, I think, I guess someone made them, honestly, my thoughts were summed up by a meme that I don't know if someone sent this or they put it at us on this guy or whatever, but it was the Craig. It was the red carpet thing where Craig's giving, it's like someone's giving the interview. And they were like, that's Craig just complaining.

Like, I don't want Chiefs or Eagles fans in the Super Bowl this year. I'm tired of seeing the Chiefs and Eagles. And it was Jason Mamoa sneaking up behind it. Oh, it's a Henry Cavill and Jason Mamoa. Yeah, yeah. It's like the Patriots are just the team being like, we're back to this bitch. You didn't want Chiefs and Eagles?

All right, here you go. It's the Patriots again. I know. They were the villains all along. How much? So like, let's say the Pats make the Super Bowl, which I think we can all agree, they probably will.

If they beat the Rams or the Seahawks, will that be enough to make you say, okay, they're the best team? Yes. Because the problem is that they're likable. I think that that's the problem, is that they're likable. And I don't hate Drake May.

And they're like, the fucking Patriots. Fans get this again. They waited four bad seasons without Brady and then they have Drake May and Vrable and they're like, the team in the NFL set up for the next day. That's the problem is that they're good and cool

and young and gonna win. That's the whole issue. It also sucks that Drake May is like this soft-spoken silent type. Really nice. Everybody loves him. His wife's making fucking Christmas cookies every day. People are obsessed. I know. We'll get to the bottom of this.

Someone's going to have dirt on him. Oh. We don't have enough villains right now at course. No. Who is the biggest villain? I would have said that, yeah, it's Mahomes, but even he's like not super hateable. Personality-wise, he's fine. He's fine.

He's fine. He's fine. He's fine. He's got a weird voice. Everyone's too media trained now. Nobody wants to be a villain. I, yeah, God. Rogers is going to retire.

Who's going to be the source of or the target of all our ire, once Rogers is gone? I think there's a chance that Sean Payton. and Bo Nex could do it. Yeah, they're kind of there. I don't hate Bo Nix. I like Bo Nix I'm totally agnostic about. I think he was awesome in late in games this year. And I feel really terrible that he's hurt.

But I, yeah, Sean Peyton. Sean Payton and talk slower than anyone I've ever seen. That's why that's why Bo Nix was so mad about all the play calls. This is something I brought. This is, yeah, totally. This is something I brought up in a combine last year. He filibusters by talking extremely slowly.

The clock manager. And you ask him a question and it takes him 10 minutes to give you. answer. Yeah, he runs up the clock in the pressers. He's like 10 minutes. Cool. It's like three questions. God, it's like to it's like the, you know, basketball games when they don't have a shot clock, he just pass it back and forth like at half court for like two minutes. That's like him answering a question in a press conference or before the game. This is what made thought of is before the game he got interviewed. And he took like a minute to say absolutely nothing. I was just like, man. Talks like a 98 year old man. I'm bummed that Sean

Peyton and Ben Johnson are out of our lives for the rest of this NFL season because they're my two favorite coaches to listen to. Well, he's still, he's still, Peyton's still there. Oh, I guess, I guess God, I'm already rolling them out. You already eliminated them in your mind. I'm getting word, Sean Payton broke an ankle and he broke the game. It would be cool if he doubled down and like kept shit talking with Jared Stidham and he's like,

hell yeah. Not worried at all. Oh, God. He's going to be insufferable if Stidham can win this. Oh my God. You're going to hear a lot of a Jeff Hostelterler. Giants. All right.

I kind of think they could win though, legitimately. That's the thing is, of course they could win. Like Nick Folls made the Super Bowl. Yeah, but you guys are looking at it like a foregone conclusion. I'm not. Okay. I am. It's not foregone.

Craig, clearly you are since he's just said he's eliminated. Craig literally is. Okay. So you're fucking out. I'm fucking in. Any other, any other icks you guys had? Clearly, D.K.'sick is Sean Payton and Craig's ick is, you know, the Patriots, not playing any teams. I was shocked that during.

the Patriots Texans game. It was snowing or sleeting, whatever you want to call it in that game. Mike Vrable and D'emico Ryan's, no hat. Yeah. What? What? Mike, Mike Vrable's head at the end of that game

was soaking wet. I thought that was sick. It was snowing on his head for the entire game. Just a wet hair. It's an alpha. You're going to catch a cold, Mike. Well, you're right. And so what I realized then,

switching to the Rams, a Bears game, Sean McVeigh, and Ben Johnson, hats and beinis. Which then made me realize the offensive guys are softer than the defensive guys. The defensive dudes, no hat, snow on the head. The offensive gurus,

got to keep your head warm. Gotta keep that brain warm. You can fire up those plays. Defense is real man. Offense guys just wish they were up in the booth. That's right. What's the difference? I'm going to throw a curveball at you, Craig, here.

What's the difference between the visor cap that so many offensive play callers wear? Because that's not keeping your head warm. No, Josh McDaniel. In fact, it's designed to keep letting the rain come down on your head. Well,

I don't know if it's designed to let the rain hit your head. I don't know why else they took the top off. I think it is specifically designed for, for sun. Why did you take the top off? It is designed for sunshine. You had to physically go in and take the top off of the fucking visors. Why?

Answer me that. I bet you know why? I think Josh McDaniel before the game, because he had a visor on in the fucking snow. I think he threw on the hat. and Vrabel is like, you got to take the top of that hat off. You can wear a hat, no top. There's no top of hats in our building.

No one on the sidelines are allowed to wear a top hat. I can't believe Josh McDaniels were a visor in the snow. That's unbelievable wear a visor in the snow. Yeah. Because I guess it keeps the snow out of his eyes. The most nonsensical piece of clothing. He's like, I don't want it on my eyes, but I do want it on my hands. head.

The water can get in your hair and drip down your forehead. I can't stress this enough. Mike Vrable was soaking wet. Like he just did the ALS ice bucket challenge. That's what he looked like. This is something that we used to talk about with Pete Carroll all the time. It would be like raining. The rainiest game you could imagine in Seattle.

And Seattle rains a lot. And he's just sitting there with a mop, wet mop of hair. There was one game, I remember this in particular. He wore a beanie. And we were like, what's wrong with Pete? Is he okay? were worried about you. Why is he wearing a beanie?

Well, they don't have to see because they're not calling plays. Maybe that's part of it. Like, they're just kind of watch it. But I'm like, don't you have to watch the game? Yeah. What would you wear if you were a head coach, Craig? I would wear what if it was raining.

I would wear one of those, you know, those like personal umbrella hats? I would be like Bill Murray in Space Jam? Yeah. Imagine like Mike Brayball, it'd be badass. If he's like, I'm going to make that cool. I'm going to win wearing that. I want to have my get back coach

just hold the umbrella over my head. the entire game. You know the get back guys? Leashes, but they can't have someone holding an umbrella. Typhins, what about you? I kind of like the umbrella hat thing. It's pretty good. I don't know.

Just like the beer, the beer helmet. I would go suit. I'd bring back to Tom Landry full suit with the Don Draper hat. See, I can get behind that. Yeah. Or like an old, like a dress like the 50s,

like an old school raincoat. But I kind of like the idea of just bringing a suit back and just being soaking wet in your fucking suit. I want to have a coach where like one of those, I don't even know what it's called. the coveralls cover all. Cover all. Yeah, that's it.

Cover all. Just get, we got to get a coach coverall situation going on. You know, the old 80s ski coverall things with like, where the belt is a little bit in. I want something like that. Can you imagine if Mike Vrable was just holding an umbrella?

I kind of think it would be sick. He's not calling plays. He can do it. I think who is the coach most likely to? That's left? No, just in the league. He's not a coach right now,

but Mike McCarthy. I could see him with an umbrella. Yeah. You know, McVeigh, I think McVeigh might have to do it going forward. Maybe you couldn't see the place. McVey and Abini was kind of a Nick. Speaking of the rain, though,

so the other one is the Seleks defense is named the dark side, and one of the reasons is like it's dark in Seattle a lot. I got to say, Daniel, I wrote that down as a Nick. Yeah, I don't support that. that, by the way. Oh, okay. I don't, I don't think I'm accepting

that that's a thing. I was unaware of that until the game. They just made that up. I think they just realized that they, if they went to the Super Bowl, they were like, oh, we're like the Legion of Boom, but we don't have a nickname,

and they just really, really scrambled for a nickname toward the end. This reminds me of, like, the Sonic and Knuckles thing, where they tried to tell people to call them something. Well, David Montgomery and Gigriibis were like, called peanut butter jelly,

and they thought that was lame. So they're like, we're Sonic and Nuckles, and everyone's like, all right. And it's like, peanut butter and jelly you're like all right the dark side thing doesn't do it for me Leonard williams said the Seahawks defense just really wanted to differentiate itself from the legion of boom and then fellow edge rusher to marcus lorence said that the dark side signifies the unit cutting the lights off the opposing offense

as if darkness itself was the 12th defender on the field and seattle's also gloomate weather it's too much it's a star wars reference we're talking to explain it also if if one of the two defenses were to be called the dark side it's the legion of boom they were they were way more dark side energy. I feel like they were way meaner. Right. Way mean. They were meaner.

That's a good way near than the Seahawks defense. Way meaner. Yeah. We can keep workshopping that, guys. Let's do something different. My only other ick was the 49ers kicker on the opening kickoff trying to do, trying to trip Rashid Shaheed with like a soccer takeout, which I know I've argued for NFL players being allowed to trip.

But if you're going to try to. Off that. with slide tackle. You have to hit the guy. Craig, were you pro that play? If he would have done that, you would have been pro that.

Why not? It's football. If he doesn't, yeah, absolutely. Just running kick. First of all, if he stopped a touchdown,

that changes the game, maybe. But you can't whiff if you're going to be like, I'm taking his legs out. And if he had just kept running, he could have got him. Can I ask you a question,

DK? Mm-hmm. Why don't they use Rashid Shaheed more? I feel like every time he touches the ball, it's like a touchdown. And when he was on New Orleans last year, this year, he is a good capable receiver with Clint Kubiak last year in New Orleans. He was like a top 10 receiver in fantasy before he got injured. He gets like one target of game.

Yeah, I don't know. It's been kind of strange that they haven't been able to integrate him into their offense more. They gave him a reverse and he took it for like 30. I'm like, I don't know why they're not using him more. He's great. Yeah. It's I think a combination of a lot of things. things, you know, they're trying to run a lot of two tight end stuff. And so he's off the field, I think,

on those plays a lot of the time. He's not as good of the blocker as Cooper Cup. So Cooper Cup is playing in it. So there's like a number of different things. But it is kind of frustrating that he hasn't been integrated into the actual offense more than a lot of these trick plays. I think you can see, I think Shahid with the speed. I think defense has taken seriously and he can impact the game without getting the ball. But I also agree, he's been the spark plug for the team. The Rams game, the one the Cs one in a way that Cics have the one seed because they beat that the Rams in that game and like Rashid Shaheed getting like a huge I think it was a pun return or was one of the reasons the iconic Cal Michael's call.

Shaheed. Yeah. It's like that was totally changed. Sheikshed. Shaheed. Sheeds the fun. Fields the punt as Shaheed is like running into the end zone. Rashid.

Shaheed. Shaheed. Yeah. So I think Shaheed will get the ballboard that Rams game. Intrusive thoughts. I got one. Hit me. This hook and ladder works too well.

Why don't defense is fucking know this is coming? There's a lot of them these days. It's a much more common play. I mean, I think there should be way more. I agree. They're like nine for 10 success rate every time they use them. But it's like this is what I'm saying.

But it's like once a game that teams use them maybe. It's pretty hard to kind of know exactly what that's coming. But it's always in these situations where they desperately need 15 yards. Well, it's in man coverage. There's no way to stop. There's no way to practice. I can't they sniff them out like they sniff out screenplays. That's what I want to know.

Well, there's more of those. It's too obvious. I'm with Craig that there should just be there should be hook and ladder like all every game. You should be doing that. I mean, I agree with that. Like the fourth down revolution has come and gone. Now it's like the lateral.

Fourth down is lateraling. I agree. I think in 40 years, I think laterals, I think it's like options downfield. I think that just like pros have to do it because you can't do hook and ladders and it not work because you'll get fired. but like if it works in the NFL, that it'll actually trickle down as most football, it's like starts lower levels and the NFL steals it. But I agree that working in the NFL is good for everything matters.

I think it does remind me actually, as you guys are saying this, it reminds me a lot of the early days of the read option and how teams when they didn't prepare for it or didn't know it was coming were just they looked so lost. I don't know what to do at the best point. Because what am I supposed to do? Help me. It's just, yeah. It's also so funny because that's one of them when you watch a game with someone.

who doesn't watch football at all. And they're like, so why is that so hard to defend? You're like, you know, it's a great question. Like, just do it more. You're like, yeah. It's good every time. Weird. It does seem to work constantly.

My interest of thought is just I feel like the guardian caps get a little bit bigger every week. Just slightly. It's a bit. Slightly. Yeah. I think, I think Romeo Dobbs should be like the poster child for it. Like, I think he should own it and be like, I'm, I am the guy who wears the guardian cap.

Like, that's my thing. He's this spokesman. He will be. be. He's the guy I think of when it's a guardian cap. Who else is there? The most famous guardian cap guy's probably him. It's A-chan did it, but not for that long. Dobbs, I think was the first person. Oh, that's right. Did you know. Dobbs was the first guy, which matters because a lot of the concern with doing it was they were like players won't wear it. They think it's lame. But now way more players are doing it now than the beginning of last year. Maybe Vrabel could wear

that to block the rain. Oh, that's good. The coaches where they're great because you got to leadership comes from a top. Williams last week. Milton Williams hit him in the face. if he had a guardian cap, he would have Vrabel should just be in a helmet. I don't think they have a big enough guardian cap to fit on Vrabel's head. That's a good point. You're right. We should go back to baseball and like the coach should have to wear the pads and everything.

Pads in a helmet. But you wear the pads and helmet of your era. So Vrabel's got like the giant neck roll. And then if the game goes to overtime and the entire overtime period runs out and the game is still tied, then both of the coaches come out in their pads and they have to be Oklahoma drill. Yes. And that's how you decide who is.

Dude, Dimeco Ryan's versus Vrable Oklahoma drill. Vrabel would win. I know, old man's drink. But like that would be Brable would be to Diceko Ryan's. Those are probably the top two guys in the whole league.

I think those are one, two seeds. If you did an Oklahoma drill, like March. I think I would, I would take Domeco. I mean, he's younger.

He's not that much younger. Vrabel is huge. Who else is even in the conversation at this point? It's small. I mean, those are easily the number ones the number two seats.

Yeah, right. Who's the, who's the third guy? third guy. Let me go through this. Third seed. McDaniel. ,

Sean McVay was the, was the player of the year, I think, in Georgia high school over Calvin Johnson. That's the best fake thing that I don't want to debunk. How do you believe that? That sounds true. Wait, it's not true? It's not really true. What are you talking about?

What does that mean? We can look at it. Someone emails, we've gone through this before. It's not like, I don't think McVevent. I don't think that actually. Like he was a make-a-wish kid or something or what? What did Sean McVeigh do in high school? I don't think Calvin Johnson.

Just give me his stats. He's actually up for it. Okay. He was, he was, this is his Wikipedia. He was also named the Georgia 4A offensive player of the year over future NFL Hall of Fame while receiver Calvin Johnson. Well, you know what? Why don't we go back and find the voters who decided that?

Either way, I'm still not taking Sean McVeigh over. Oh, Dan Campbell would be third, right? Dan Campbell's Dan Campbell's up there. Dan Campbell versus, dude, dang. I'm going to throw one out for you. I'm going to throw one out for you. Okay. This is just pure physics.

Andy Reid fucking punt pass throw champion punt pass kick champion Andrew Reed I kind of think he would wreck shock He's like Vita Vaya he's just there He's like he's the fucking

Kool-Aid man He would imagine him versus McVeigh He would fucking destroy McVe Dude now I want to see I want to see this See Vrable This is a fun This is a fun

You know category or whatever We gotta come up with a bracket For this Here's the key obviously 30 coaches would ever do this. Mike Vrable and Dan Campbell

would actually do it. Mike Vrable loves hitting people at practice. He like loves it. I feel like Pete Carroll would do it. Yeah. He would do it. He wouldn't do it.

He wouldn't do well. Oh, dude, Harbaugh. Jim Harbaugh. Harba would do it. Harbaugh's too old at this point. No. What? Is he a heart surgery?

I would be worried about Hartbaugh. He goes, guy has one cardiac ablation and now you think you can't do an Oklahoma. I kind of think Mike Tomlin would have done well, but does he count anymore because he took the year off or whatever? You don't take plays off. You just take ears off. This is good.

Email us at Rear Fantasy Football at Gmail.com. We'll make a bracket. This is good. Okay. Mike McDaniel. Mike McDaniel. Honestly, he would not do well.

Probably last in the history of the NFL. I think like Belichick at 70 years old would be in a hired senior McDaniel. He plays, Belichick would play a good pad level. He'd play with good fundamentals. What were he saying? talking about? I don't know what's another intrusive thought of mine. It's kind of funny that the refs have to explain the rules of overtime out loud. This just goes to my point. I say at

every show. There's too many goddamn rules. Like what other sport does that? It's like overtime and basketball and the refs like, hold on. I'm going to be honest with you, Craig. I kind of want them to do it because I forget every time. It's just funny. Like just explaining the rules to the players to their faces right before they start. People still don't understand the rules. It's like dodge ball. It is like the dodgeball. Yeah. They explain the rule 8, 8,000, 8D or whatever.

They're like, all right, son death. I will say, I thought, you know, that's our job. I'd like to think I know a lot of the rules, not all them.

I don't know all the rules. Someone was like, what happens if the clock runs out? It's like, oh yeah. They just started over. And then I'm like trying to Google, like if there's more clock

does the possession end or does the possession continue? And I was like, I've never even thought of this. Yeah, because the, well, the phrase they use is, it's a new game.

So it's like that's why you get three timeouts. You're just starting the game over. So it's like basically now the first quarter again. Flip? So if the first quarter ends, the second quarter begins. And they kept saying it's a new game. So they would do another coin flip? After four quarters.

After the first overtime period? No, because it just then goes into the second quarter. It's a new game. Are you sure? I believe so. This is why they explain it. I actually never realized when Craig said that they're like, it's a new game.

I don't think I ever realized that that meant that they would go 15 minutes, 15 minutes, half time. And then that would end. I wonder if there would be a halftime. I mean, if they say they kept a half time three timeouts because it's a new game. They hit the showers. One day this will happen in some crazy game where it's two foresting quarterbacks in the rain or something. This is going to happen one day.

Oh my God. That's funny, though, they have to explain it. Okay. The only other thing I want to mention quote of the weekend, we mentioned Tony Romo saying Josh Hans Mahomes. I also want to mention Azizal Shep. I hear the Texans linebacker talking about since the Texans are gone. They asked him about his mindset for the week.

And he said, my mindset doesn't even matter. We have this thing called White Boy Wednesdays in the wait room where they play rock music. There's this one song. I don't even know the name, but I know the part where it goes like, in the end, it doesn't even matter. And I love the idea that Lincoln Park is just White Boy Wednesday, wait rooms in the Texans. That shit will fire you up.

Hell yeah. I love. You know, some like some 41. some 41 where did you pull that from that's a white boy wednesday it's the whitest boy that you can think of some 41 sort of like bulls on parades they're like this is incredible and in the end it didn't matter for the texans

because in the end actually it's super mattered actually well i guess really the beginning mattered with this interceptions but the only now they're numb because cj stroud is saying to himself look what i've done i don't actually know lyrics or songs titles enough you know but i know what you're doing what i've done is the end of transformers remember that no not really really optimist prime is like standing on the cliff and he's like looking out and it's like Craig i'm gonna be honest with you i do not i don't know if i've ever watched that full movie you never seen the first they're so terrible oh you just youtube mega

fox fixing a car the first one is is i mean i remember that part yeah yeah And he's like, Autobots roll out. And it's like, what I've done? That was my ringtone. Oh, my God. Oh. Oh. Dude, that original Transformers is a good movie.

Sam Witwiki. Isn't that Shailabu? Oh, yeah. Sam Whitwiki, yeah. Sam Whitwicky. That's his name in the movie? Yeah, it is, D.K. Wit Wiki?

Yeah. Sorry his name's not Legalis. Oh. I can't believe you haven't seen that film film don't call it a film how dare you besmirge Michael Baker of bad boys too like John Wick

you don't like Transformers It is insulting to call that a film It's insulting to other films to call it a film You haven't even seen it's a movie I've seen enough of it You saw the first 10 minutes when she's fixing the car I've seen enough Michael Bay movies to know that it sucks Is Armageddon not a movie?

Not a film? Well, that one's pretty good. Okay. That one's a film. All right. After I saw Pearl Harbor, I was like, nope. Is Bad Boys not a film? No.

The Rock. Bad Boys, too, is like, they're throwing cars. He's like, you think I don't see that. The Rock is good. What about ambulance on Netflix? I don't know. I'm not sure what that is. It's a Michael Bay.

Is it new? Maybe five years ago or something. What was the plot? Is an ambulance? driving around. Just a Michael Bay thing. Europe, I think, or something. It's always said he did that as a

basically. It's a lot of cars in Europe, I think. There was a, you know, the movie, Team America World Police? There's a whole song about how Pearl Harbor sucked and I miss you. And there's just like a bridge where he's like,

why does Michael pay get to keep on making movies? Because Pearl Harbor sucked. And I miss you. D.K. I think your homework. Greatest song of all times. Your homework before you come out to LA for the Super Bowl is you have to watch transfer.

God, there's so many movies on my list, Craig, that actually are good and worth watching. There are worse ways to spend two hours than watch Transformers. You've got a live post that. Craig, I think the alternative is if DK doesn't do this, we just keep sending your son, D.K., we just keep mailing him Transformers as gifts until he- Watch it with him. He likes Transformers, actually, yeah. Watch it with him. Is that too inappropriate?

It's probably a little scary for him at this point. I don't know. Okay. Watch that. How dare you just, you're calling it a film. Is it cinema? This is crazy.

So you're gatekeeping the format. Michael, Bay is the only one who understands. Are the Michael Bay defenders going to come for me? It'll be Michael Bay himself. It'll be Michael Bay himself. He's listening. Michael Bay, if you're listening,

email us at ringer fantasy football at gmail.com. I'd love nothing more than he gave you a platform. I believe he was attached like a year or two ago to make the skibbitty toilet movie. I rest my case. Seems like he backed off. Cooler heads prevailed. Pro Harbor sucked.

I can't wait to see what he does next. I miss you. All right, wait. There's one more quote here I want to get to you guys. I think the best announcer moment of the weekend. Okay. I know it's a divisional round weekend, but we can't let this moment go without passing,

which is Eric Collins, and the best announcer in the entire universe, had a great moment with the Charlotte Hornets. And Cam, if you don't mind playing. Oh, good, because I don't think I've heard this one. Has Nathan in the crosshairs, just a blowback. Wow, good balls of fire.

Great balls of fire. He hits a new octave. I've never heard Eric on that high. Yeah, that was like, he got scared. He wasn't ready for whatever happened. He was frightened by Lamello's crossover. Cam, can you play it one more time?

Comes quick. Has Hayton in the crosshairs. Just a blowout. Get in there. Wow, that was good. It's so good. Oh. Whatever he's making, it's not enough.

Double it. Oh, my God. That was more of a film. All right. I don't know what you're doing here. Against Michael Bay. I'm taking it. gonna stand, Craig.

Oh, my God. You like, I feel like you like bad boys in the rock and Armageddon. No, I like the rock and Armageddon. That's fine. The rock is amazing. Yeah, the rock's great. Not the one. I won't, I will not besmirch the rock or Armageddon.

Michael Bay ushered us into the modern action movie. Okay. Optimus Prime walked so Thor could run. Okay. I don't have the movie knowledge to, to debate you on this, but I'm a little cynical that that's correct. Well, luckily, you'll be watching it in the next two. All right. I'm going to watch it.

Wait, how many are there? Like, 52. There was like, what was the, there was another one that was Transformers-esque that had Rihanna in it. You're thinking of Pacific Rim? Yeah, it's like, well, I just. thought in terms of the action sequences and the crazy CGI. Let me guys tell you about film. But you guys liked Pacific Rim too.

You liked that film. Pacific Rim is a masterpiece. Let me tell you something. Pacific Rim was phenomenal. I haven't seen Pacific Rim. Pacific Rim is incredible. Cam points out Battleship too. Oh,

same kind of. Wait, no. Battleship is the one with Rihanna. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know if she was in Pacific Rim. No, Pacific Rim, I can tell you everything about Pacific Rim. Battleship, the movie based on the game we played as kids. All you need to know about.

Pacific Rim is that right? I don't actually know if it's real. No, that's true. That is true. I think they've probably inspired the Barbie movie. But the Pacific Rim, all you need to know is that they're giant robots that have to fight giant aliens that come out of the ocean. And Charlie Kelly is like the smartest person in the world. Charlie Day from It's Always Sunny is like the smart.

He's really flexing his acting chops then. That's good. It's incredible. So, DK, do you want to know how many transformers are? Yes. I need to know how much time I'm dedicating to it. You just have to watch the first one. So you have Transformers, the first one.

And then there's the Transformers 2 and 09. Then there's Transformers 3 in 2011. And then there's Transformers Age of Extinction where they replace Shia LeBuff with Mark Wahlberg. And then there's Transformers 5. And then there's a spin-off called Spinoff Bumblebee. I remember that. And then there's another one that came out in 2023 called Transformers Rise of the Beast. Did you watch all these?

No, I think I watched the first three. Maybe four. I think I saw the first Walbro. Were they all Michael Bay joints? No, he stopped directing them. And they replaced Megan Fox. He was probably an executive producer or whatever. Yeah.

They replaced Megan Fox with like some blonde chick and Mark Wahlberg. And I like turned back in my day. I was like, all right. It feels like you're agreeing with me deep down. The first Transformers is a classic. Then I turned 20 and I was like, all right. Dicke's like, oh, so 20. insinuating it's juvenile.

I was the perfect age when the first Transformers came out, which was 13. Craig and I, a lot of things happened when we were 13. But Megan Floss, he was fixing the car and then they released the Dark Night. And those are pretty seminal things for a generation. Well, I'm sorry to all the, to all the, you don't see very sorry. Really loyal fans of that movie franchise. Okay. Well, just a reminder, we do three episodes a week during the playoffs.

Covered all the way through the Super Bowl. After the Super Bowl, two episodes a week covering the off season. Danny Kelly, our draft expert, we're going to go through the NFL draft, free agency, trades, off season, the whole chabang, and then we do an episode a week, even after the draft. So we do it all year, stick with us all year and obviously preview fantasy football

before the season. So stick with us. We, I think during the week, we'll hit a lot of coach news and a lot of stuff. The Falcons hired Kevin Stefanski, the Giants, John Harbaugh, saga. We can hit all that this week. But the important thing we have to hit

before we got to hear is Craig, you promised us that you would explain with the dish eggs horole back would. be. Oh, right. Yeah, because Benedict and eggs. We talked about this guy named Eggs Manske, who invented basketball

and the forward pass. And football. No, Amos-A-Malzo stagg. Oh, right. Was like inventing football and invented the forward pass and the linebacker and then worked with the inventor of basketball and they had him playing the first basketball game ever. And it was nine-on-nine. He's like, I think

five-on-five is fine. So this guy just made basketball five-on-five. Then, on the 1940 championship 70 champion Bears eggs mansky was the last college football player to play without a helmet right which is uh

which maybe he was on to something we actually had a little umbrella on the yeah and eggs mansky sounded like a dish like eggs Benedict and then I told you guys that some of my friends call me egg as a joke right and then we were talking about eggs horoleck and how that sounds like a dish and then I decided to come up with what

that dish would be and here it is. Oh, hell yeah. So it's, so the eggs, Horrobeck would be a scramble, but it's not with scrambled eggs. You know when you order, you go to a breakfast place, you get a scramble and it's like sausage and scrambled eggs and whatever else. It is a scramble, but it's not with scrambled eggs. It is with sunny side up eggs that come with crispy hash browns and maybe a little bacon. And then what they do is they mix it all together. So the yolk from the sunny side up egg mixes in with the hash browns and the bacon. And they roll it up to you and they make it in front of you like a Caesar salad. You know what I mean?

They're doing it in front of you. What? Yeah, that's what it would be. Like guacamole at a Mexican restaurant? Yeah, they bring up, it's like you have the hash fries.

Like you have like a cart that they bring to your table? Yeah, it's an old Italian man brings it up to your table. On your plate, you have your hash browns and you bake it. And then they slap the two or three Sunnyside eggs on top. And then he just starts going to town. What about like doing it?

Like the Japanese hibachi grill restaurants or whatever, or not. Benihana? Yeah, yeah, yeah. where they all cook it and you sit around the grill. You know, I just went to a Benihana last week for the first time in 15 years. Does it still hold up? They use a lot of butter.

They use a lot of butter. Years old? Okay. The problem with, it's a heavy night. The problem with watching people cook your food at a restaurant when you're older is like half the joy of going to a restaurant is not knowing what it is in the food. He is slinging knobs of butter on that grill.

Like they are. That's good. That makes it. It tastes good. Well, it does. And then an hour later, you feel like you... It's going through you. Yeah.

You feel like you could compete against Andy Reid in the Oklahoma drill. Okay, so it is a... It's a scramble with sunny side-up eggs. I think this is, Craig, you're a man of culture and taste. And I love this dish. I do this all the time. I don't do scrambled eggs. I do, like, sunny side up or over easy eggs.

And, like, rice. I love having, like, leftover rice. Yeah. They'll do, like, a ginger rice. Wait, are there no English muffins involved in this? English muffins fucking suck. Oh, I don't know. I like English.

Oh, that's, that's a weird take. Please, I just couldn't. Sorry. That was, I, that was very good. Let me tell you about English muffins are delicious. Like the, like the basic English muffins that you buy the store, I think even those are solid. But if you have a fresh English muffin, it's really good.

Oh my God, I love English muffins. I don't. I would eat one every day if I could. You could add hot sauce on the eggs horrible back. That's fine. I'm into that. That's it. Craig, this is a great break.

Can I take us what I think I might do for breakfast tomorrow? We start to, you got to keep reading breakfast when we do emails. Well, I know. You're slacking. When you emails. us breakfast. Put the breakfast in your emails. We won't read your email unless you tell us what you have for breakfast. There you go. We'll have to do that policy.

Email us to put your breakfast in the email. We won't read it. You'll be breakfast. I give you breakfast. Jackie made some duck breasts and we have an extra and I think I might make a bucking. That's bougie. Duck fried right. I know. Well, some Christmas and it was like quite well for the high. There you go. You had caviar on the side. Yeah.

No, it was Christmas. It was left over and then we like froze and we never cooked over. You could have just said duck. Well, it's not what it fucking is. I'm just saying. of it's left over from Christmas. It's fine. It's good. It's good. You should buy duck. But I have Duck and I'm going to go fancy. I'm not a duck for breakfast like a

fucking king. Duck breast in like with some rice and some eggs or some shit. Hyphitz is going to have the gout in no time. My no time flat. Gout is a more pop more more common thing than you guys would think. I have multiple friends with gout. Gout it happens. Name them. No, I'm not naming them. They know who they are.

I name someone who I know. that had gout on the show and then I realized we had to cut it because I guess I shouldn't have announced their have medical diagnosis. Right. But a person I know who I care about who's watching this. What's his name rhyme with? Yeah. Got gout while we were together this summer and woke up.

Is it gout or the gout? That's what I want to know. I prefer the gout. The gout sounds funnier. Yeah. And that's what we say in L.A. The gout. Yeah.

Right. And this person's like 32. And I have the gout. So I have the gout. so I had to get on the 405 to go. That's what we do. Yeah, yeah.

The best part, though, is this person's fantasy football team name is Arby's. We have the meat. So then I just photoshopped it and I just made it Arbys, we have the cow. You know what's like

the least healthy breakfast of all time that I absolutely adore is a chicken fried steak. Dude, yeah. What does that mean? How do you chicken fry something? It's like a chicken cutlet. You based it in flour,

eggs and breadcrumbs or a bath. of sorts, then you fry it, but it's a steak. Chicken fried is like a whole-time. It's unreal. It's the best thing you can say of a chicken fried steak. Imagine just you're making chicken cutlets and then there's just a T-bone steak. Yeah.

It's really, really good. Like you can't, the rest of the days, it's shot. You just got to go home and like binge Transformers movies, but it's a great meal. Chicken fried steak is a once every like five or six years for me. Like if you think a hot dog is bad, you have, you have not met a chicken fried steak. You can have two hot dogs. of them things is like smoking a pack of cigarettes. Probably worse.

Yeah. I mean, the carcinogens are off the charts. Email us at ringer fantasy football at gmail.com. Put your breakfast in the email. Tell us what you had for breakfast that day. Shout out to that guy who had, um,

the energy drink and the vape and the bacon and egg and cheese and pizza. Um, thank you, DK, thank you, Craig. Thank you, thank you,

Kahn. Thank you, Kallis. Thank you, Kahners. Thank you, uh, Tensarandoz,

because you listened to Fartter-Sart or maybe and didn't take us off. So if we have another episode after this, thank you, Ted. If you're watching this, then you know. Yeah. Thank you, Lord. Lord. Thank you, LinkedIn.

Sorry. Lincoln Park. That was, wow. Wow. I felt like you were thinking about that for like five minutes. Lincoln Park. Lincoln Park. Oh, sorry about that.

I don't know who to apologize. LinkedIn or Lincoln Park. Probably apologize to Michael Bay. Yeah. Dick is just like now like, Dick is like, we're going to need LinkedIn after doing that. Don't!

I can't wait until you get to the final frame. An optimist. Oh, my God. Epilogue. Jesus Christ. Were you guys big in Lincoln, Lincoln Park people back in the day? Not really.

Lincoln Park. I feel like when my iPod, I got, too, there's a big deal to get an iPhone. I liked them, but you know. I feel like also Craig, I don't know of you, I feel like this is going to be our,

old people story that when we say it, it's like, oh, we're old. It's like having iPods is like a little trigger. An iPod. Yeah. An iPod. And dude, yeah, Lincoln Park, like, because, you know, it would skip some songs. The songs that were like corrupted on Limewire, it would like skip. And I had actually, like, we had actually bought with the iTunes gift cards,

the Lincoln Park song. So I feel like it would no matter what, like, I would always have the Lincoln Park music along with like Eminem and, um, randomly vertigo by YouTube, which is why I didn't know how to count in Spanish when I was young. But I remember really. liking the JZ Lincoln Park. Yeah, yeah. Those were numb and encore.

That was incredible. The H to the Izzo, like the, the, the Izzo, the JZ Lincoln Park stuff was. Were those real collaborations or were they just mashups that? No, those were real. They were official. It was an official JZ Lincoln Park like mashup. They were incredible. Does that count as White Boy Wednesday?

Yeah, I would say. Probably. But it was like Lincoln Park doing the beginning of the end. It was the original White Boy Wednesday. Yeah. yeah well dk you'll have to tell me what you think about what i've done the lincoln park song that plays at the end of transforming dude okay oh dude honestly you know my favorite lincoln park song ever is bleed it out i know i when i was a kid i knew every word to bleed it out i bet you still literally

i probably still do that stuff doesn't really they don't leave you know crazy how many things you forget and then i could probably if i hear the beginning i could probably uh it is weird to have like like innate memory about things that you've completely forgotten about or is not front of mind. It's like brain pathways and whatnot. Should I pull up the instrumental and see if I could do it? Or is that good at the show? Maybe we'll just make you do it in LA. There we go.

Yeah, you just point. You're like, go and I'll do. Yeah. Oh, that's good. That's good. Let's make him do karaoke. Yeah. That's not a good karaoke song.

What is your karaoke song? Well, the key people get karaoke songs wrong. Karaoke songs are not for you. They're for the crowd. Right. So if you get up and you do something that like you like your song. TK. Just like exhaling when Hivech starts to like tell him why karaoke's all wrong.

He's like, I actually agree with him though. So I'll let it slide. But when you said people get it wrong, I was just like, if I got up and it was like, everybody's wrong about this very popular thing. No, I love karaoke.

If I got up and it was like, I love bleed it out by Lake and Park. I'll do it at karaoke. I think it's people get stabbed. I would agree that it's better when people know the song that you're singing because it's fun to sing along. It's no different than being an actual artist. People want you to play those fucking hits. It's true. My go-toes are, uh, ain't no mountain high enough because it's everyone knows the words and it's short. It's like, it's like a minute

50. There's not like a minute interlude, instrumental interlude in the middle there. Yeah, like drops to Jupiter's great, but man, that is a less like six minutes. And then the other one I love is photographed by nickel back. Because it always is funny. Let's go on. Nickelback. Look at this photograph. Like ironically, a huge crowd pleaser. It is. You don't. And you don't have to sing to do it. Yeah.

Yeah. Nickelback would, they got screwed over. I don't, I don't even necessarily like their music, but the fact that everyone thinks they're the worst band is, is total bullshit. Dude, what's that bowler, Pete Weber? He's like, like, you hate me, you watched. Yeah. They're probably still touring at this point.

They were touring last year. Once you see, like, Springsteen a couple years ago. And then they're rich as hell. Yeah. All right. Craig's just like, what are we doing? Get the fuck out of here. I'm numb.

Craig's defending Michael Bay and I'm defending Nickelback. All right, well, we can end this encore. I'm not even like defending Michael Bay, but I'm like, Transformers is a perfectly good move. Goodbye, everyone.