The Ringer NFL Show - Divisional-Round Recap: Mark Andrews Drops, Mahomes Flops, Jayden Tames Lions, and Mann’s Snatch

Episode Date: January 20, 2025

The guys recap all things divisional round, including a Mark Andrews disaster class, the Vibes Game of the Year, snowy football, the ongoing Chiefs villain antics, and much more (1:14). Check out our 2024 Ringer Fantasy Football Rankings here! Email us! [e-mail] The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Social: Kiera Givens Producers: Kai Grady and Carlos Chiriboga Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is Bill Simmons. I am thrilled to announce our newest YouTube channel. It's called Ringer Movies. If you're a fan of our movie coverage here at The Ringer, then you're in luck because every episode of The Rwatchables and the Big Picture, now on YouTube. Like Bill said, Ringer Movies will feature full episodes of my show, The Big Picture, the Rewatchables,

as well as special live episodes, deep dives into movie history, and a bunch of other fun stuff featuring other movie-loving Ringer personalities. Search Ringer Movies on YouTube and Experience the Joy, Chris Ryan impersonating Wayne Jenkins on camera. Fantasy Football Show. My name is Danny Hypoena. I'm joined by Danny Kelly and Craig Worldbeck, and we are recapping all the games from the divisional round. I don't know if I have goosebumps, but I actually feel a mix of like anxiety, energy, deep uncomfortness after

watching Ravens' Bills. The Bills just beat the Ravens 27 to 25. We're going to go through all four games from the weekend. Talk a little bit about the conference title games coming up. But right now, D.K., I just feel anxiety for Mark Andrews. This was the Mark Andrews game. And I actually actually just, I feel so uncomfortable after the end of that game. The Joe Pesci meme from Goodfellas. Mark Andrews, man, it was Zayflowers last year.

It's so fumbled. And now it's Mark Andrews this year. I think this one was worse than Zayflowers. I really do. Oh, you think? You think? Oh, my God. I feel terrible. I like Mark Andrews and I feel for him.

But just to recap, obviously. So, I mean, one, in the fourth quarter, He had that fumble where he's basically on the logo, and now it's going to get meme to death. But I had issues with the fumble for two reasons. One, there's all the memes now already of people making it where it's like the freeze frame and you'll never believe which direction he went. And it's like clear feel toward the end zone.

I don't love those. Those are annoying because it's like, you know, it's like he was going like one miles an hour probably and the other two defenders were running at like 20 and he could see that coming and tried to reverse direction. Those are always pretty tough on the player. It was it was a tough fumble. and like Craig, you've noted correctly that like players are definitely, like kind of how receivers are better at catching now than ever. Players are better at forcing fumbles.

But I have to say, I can't remember a fumble certainly ever in a big moment where it was kind of like one-on-one mono-mono eye contact. Like Mark Andrews just stared at this guy coming. And then the only thing that happened was he just punched the ball out. They didn't make any other contact. And like that alone was terrible. And then he drops the two-point conversion that honestly,

I never ever, ever want to say this. I'm not even saying I could catch it, but if one of the three of us would get it if we had that. Like it was in his, like, it was in his God, it was in his belly button. It was a slippery ball today, as Romo was saying. It was a greased up ball. Football is such a funny sport that sometimes

the ball in the game you are playing can literally be slippery. What a weird sport. Yeah, you guys are the ones that like the Dome games, or not the non-Dome. games. You like the weather games, the snow games, the slippery, wet, ridiculous game like this. I mean, like Lamar's fumble, too, was absolutely ridiculous. He's just like spinning around and it went, whoop and went out of his hand. A bar of soap. Yeah, literally, Craig literally was like a bar

of freaking soap. Just went whoop. Stafford's too. Yeah, I mean, we'll get to that game in a moment. But yeah, no, the snow. Dick, are you out on the snow? No. I still think it's fun. But today was really unfortunate for me. I am on an all-time cooler role here. I have done so incredibly terrible at picking these playoff games. I think I'm officially locked into the middle seat competition. Is that correct?

No, not officially. You have to go perfect next week and then I have to go imperfect next week. Yeah, I'm saying but it's not between you two. So, I mean, just off the top of my head, I'm sure that, you know, Bill Simmons will start his show with like a perfect list of everyone who's ever blown a game that wasn't just a quarterback, like a non-quarterback, but like, I

and I don't even think this is fair but I did tweet it out because it's true. It's the Mark Andrews game. And like I don't know. But like I, and we'll get to Lamar in a moment. But like this to me is like a top tier fair or not will be remembered as this guy kind of ended like a Super Bowl season. And it is kind of fair, I feel like.

He also had a drop in the game. He had a terrible game. He had a terrible game. Worst game of his career. I mean, he literally dropped what would have been the game tying play. Like it would have been so much fun to see this tank game potentially go to overtime. Would have really loved to see. that universe, where that went

in that universe. But unfortunately and this is something that Romo was saying during the game too. It's like you still have to catch the ball. You still have to snap it. When the ball's so slippery, all these very typically very easy things to do like the stuff you don't even really think about become much more difficult. And so

God, so brutal. Of course it had to be Mark Andrews too. And Craig, you made the point right before on that drive. So again, the Ravens were down eight, which that's a whole other conversation we're getting to it moment. Like, wow, the Ravens ended up down eight, but they were down eight. And Craig, you text us, you're like, this is the legacy drive of all legacy drives for Lamar Jackson. And they got, you know, a return that was holding.

So they got at the 12-yard line. And Lamar did it. Lamar made it look really easy. Yeah, they marched right down the field. A lot of, like, just really smart plays by Lamar playing safe. Romo commented a couple times about him checking down when it just kind of taking the five yards instead of kind of extending the play and potentially making a, taking a huge risk. Yeah, it was great.

He worked his way right down the field. I feel so bad for Lamar, I really, really do. The only thing that gets me through feeling bad for Lamar is feeling happy for Josh. It was like this weird Sophie's choice of this game is that one of these guys has got to lose and I'm going to feel happy for whoever won. I think both guys deserve to go on to the next round. I thought Lamar played a better game than Josh Allen, but he made more mistakes. He fumbled you through a pick. And that was kind of the story of this game.

I thought the Ravens played better than the Bills. They just made more mistakes. Three turnovers to zero. five penalties to one. They out gained them by like 150 yards. They moved the ball better. They ran it better. They did everything better.

They just had more mistakes. The turnovers were really the big thing. And we saw two turnovers in the first half, Lamar, through a pick. And then he had that fumble. They came back. And then obviously Mark Andrews had the fumble as well. I'm like, in a game like this, on the road, three turnovers, you're not going to win very many of those games.

It's crazy when you look at Josh Allen's numbers, 16 to 22, 127 yards. And then when you see that, you're like, oh, well, maybe he ran for a bunch of yards and did all this crazy stuff. He did have two rushing touchdowns. It's a Jalen Hertz-ass stat line. Yes, he had 20 yards rushing and 127 yards passing. It's like, wow, I would not have expected a win out of that. The first half, the bills got 21 points. And I think it was very even.

The first touchdown they got, the bills earned. Like the bills earned went down on their opening drive and took seven points. The second touchdown was given to them by the Ravens with the fumble by Lamar. And then he picked it up and then, you know, got stripped. And the bills basically went and were. handed another touchdown by the Ravens. Honestly, the third touchdown and ultimately the margin of victory, honestly, was kind of handed to the bills by the refs.

I don't know how you guys feel, but just to jog everyone's memory. At the end of the second quarter, right down half, the bills are kind of like doing this clock-eating drive and they get to, I want to say it's like third and five. And that was when they ran that really conservative play out of the TV timeout. I think it was like a minute and 20 minute, 13 seconds left. And they run the ball and Tony Romo's like, what are you doing? Running the ball there? Like that's so conservative.

Third and five. And then Josh just tosses like a go route up to rookie key. Coleman against Tradavius White, who, you know, has knee issues, but like he was all pro a couple years ago. And Keog Coleman shows Tradavius White the quarterback to the ground. Like, I can't believe it was an offensive pass interference. And they throw the flag and they put it on the defense. And honestly, the bills were kind of handed seven right there. And I don't know if I was a Ravens, the Ravens made too many mistakes to linger on that. But that was a, that, there were a lot of bad calls throughout the weekend, which we will get to as well. But like that one, I thought was

a tough pill to swallow heading in a half time. Yeah. I agree. That was a terrible call, but you can't play that game. I mean, there was also an egregious holding call on the bills that killed their drive that they were marching on as well. That Romo was just like openly criticizing the Ress. Romo was like, that is a horrible call. So it goes both ways. There was a late hit on Lamar that didn't call. I think Baltimore definitely got more unlucky in this game from a ref perspective.

And to be honest, I actually thought the bills called a really shitty game in the second half. Like McDermott and Brady were so safe and conservative. It was like Shanahan Falcons-esque. They were running the ball a ton trying to, you know, I guess match physicality and the running was working to a degree, but Romo was saying it's the whole second half. Like, put the ball in Josh Allen's hands.

They kind of didn't. I mean, they were running two out of every three plays in the second half and I hated it. DK., did you agree with what Romo's saying? I thought Romo nailed that end of the end of game exchange with the bills in that final drive, but basically the bills have third and one and they're at like the two yard line

and they basically are in this situation. I'll pull up the actual other thing just to get it right. But it's third and one from the goal line and there is four minutes and change left. And Roma was like, just push it twice. It wasn't third and one. I believe it was third and goal from the two. Third and goal from the two.

Yes. Three and goal from the two. Right. And like, would you, do you think that they should have tush pushed and then even gone for it again on the one, even if you're like fourth and goal from the one

and just go for the touchdown there? Because like I agree that once they lost yardage, it was hard to go front of fourth and two. I, yes, I probably would have done that. But I don't know, man. ultimately it worked it shouldn't have worked but it worked

I don't know yeah it's one of those things where you can kind of second guess these types of things both directions after the game you know what I mean like they did make the Ravens go for two by scoring that field goal right like it created a much more difficult situation and the Ravens could not execute it

you know what I liked about it here's what I liked the Ravens were marching the ball down the field the whole second half and so you knew whether or not they scored, the Bells scored or didn't score it. Like the Ravens were going to march down the field. Josh Allen and the Bills has a history of poor Josh

not getting the ball back after the other team scores. Right. And kicking that field goal guaranteed that Josh Allen is going to touch the ball again no matter what. Unless they won the game. That's an interesting way to put it. Yeah, yeah. I like that actually.

So going down, going up eight is like, you know what? Even if Lamar marches down, they score, they get the two-point conversion. At least the game's not over. And once again, it's like Josh march the team down and he's not going to get the ball back. So I actually, that decision was fine with me. And that's the other thing too that can I,

I don't think this will make Ravens fans feel better, but you do have to remember, even if they get the two point, Bill's had 90 seconds left to go down. There was a lot of time left. The only thing I'll say, and I don't mean to be a dick, but it's kind of like in fantasy football,

I feel like losing your championship or whenever your season ends, it's actually easier to get over it if you lose by 40 and there was no starts that you could have made to make your life better. as opposed to like you made the wrong decision. Honestly, if Mark Andrews catches that ball, I feel like Josh Schauntlet goes down against the field goal and you lose anyway.

It's not like the Ravens had the timeouts to stop the clock. So I think the bills kind of were going to beat him no matter what because they just made, the Ravens just made too many mistakes. And again, Derek Henry, honestly, outside of the third quarter, didn't have a huge impact on this game.

The bills really like narrowed in on getting him. And the Ravens kind of just literally fumbled away too many possessions for the couple drives where Derek Henry was like unstoppable for it to really impact the game. I don't know if the right team won. I think both teams deserve to win. I just didn't like that the bills were getting points at home.

Nancy said it on the pot during the game. The bills had not been underdogs at home in the last 42 home games. Really? Like, come on. Wow. I don't know. I had a lot riding on the Ravens in terms of like our bets and, you know, Super Bowl tickets. You might have a lot of time to think about this on the flight home from the Orleans.

Skippy had a Super Bowl ticket on the Ravens, too, and she bought from the preseason. Oh, wow. It would have been nice to see the Ravens win. However, I don't know. When you turn the ball three times, turn the ball over three times, I'm just like, you don't deserve a win. It's a lot like the Texans Chiefs game, where the Texan Chiefs game, the officiating was horrific at times.

I actually think two of the, I mean, the Ravens Bill's game almost surpassed Texan Chiefs, almost as the worst officiated game of the playoffs. But it's also like the Texans made so many mistakes. It's like, okay, you gave up eight sacks and you, like, gave up seven points just in the kicking game. you gave up a 70-yard return. Like basically 10 points of special teams and eight sacks.

Yeah, the refs that screwed it up. But it's not like you can point to that when you make that many mistakes. It's really what it's about. But yeah, not a great, not a great weekend. I'm getting an incredible amount of tweets about Ix, about Mark Andrews, about volleyball sets. It wasn't. I, I, set it into the stands. You got to change teams.

You got to go into witness protection. We need to put them on cringe. Honestly, Isaiah likely is so much better than Mark Andrews. Dude, I'm sorry. Isaiah likely, ironically, ironically, Isaiah likely is everything Dalton Kincaid was supposed to be. When the bills traded up to draft Dalton Kincaid, the entire point was the bills wanted to play more two tight end sets.

And the idea was, well, we'll be able to run and bully and then all, but he's going to be a good enough receiver that like, you know, we're going to be able to have our kick you need it too. And the problem with that is if you're not actually a good enough receiver to win one-on-one consistently when they got the personnel group of choosing on there, or if they don't have to respect your blocking, you're just a big slow receiver. Like, they don't have to respect you.

It doesn't work. Isaiah likely actually is the guy who creates a conundrum for the defense where, like, no matter how you treat him, like you really can put him outside one-on-one and when he's fast enough in a way that Kincaid isn't really able to win. So, I mean, likely to me is like a special player.

Dude, likely has had a rough goat. Do you remember a week one against the Chiefs? He had what would have been the game tying touchdown. Oh, my God. And then his back, it was like his toes or something. we're on the backline and it was it got reversed and then this one he would have been the hero you know

they would have been the hero the hero and then of course everyone's just going to remember that mark andrews dropped the two-point conversion and the one the thing i'll say and it just to button this game up is that lamar i i do think we can drop the lamar you know can't get it done in the playoffs thing i mean lamar i i don't want to hear about the turnovers like lamar that's a silver lining that's a silver lining it was he played well he made the drive he did the drive he passed like that pass to Mark Andrews was a good pass. He just dropped it. There's a great drive. And the credit to Craig's best football observation

of all time, which is way more snow on the final drive than you think. Just looking at it. Like there was so much snow in the end of that game when they went and like all those, he was just ripping passes through like a lot of snowfall and they were all perfect. And so, I don't know. He went, he went 88 yards.

He also had such incredible protection. He was just sitting back there for 12 seconds at a time. He's creating it though. Like, like, he's just, I don't. I I mean, yeah, I mean, the touchdown in particular, I forget, I forget who caught it, but the touchdown, I think he had seven or eight seconds and probably could have had another five if he wanted him. Yeah.

Everyone was falling down. Likely touchdown at the end? Yeah, likely touchdown. He was just like hanging out back there. He was crazy. So yeah, I mean, legacy stuff. I mean, so Josh Allen goes on to play the Chiefs. And I mean, again, it's just that we said it on Friday, but this game, like the

winner of this game gets to go and exercise their demons. And it's like the bills have been eliminated by the Chiefs three of the last four seasons. And even though they've beaten in the last. the regular season four times in the last four years. So it's like, I mean, either Mahomes like gets to be Michael Jordan over and the bills are just like, I don't know, the fucking 90s Knicks or Josh Allen actually gets to go to a super bowl. You mean the bills are the 90s bills? Right, yeah, so that's a better way to put it.

Yeah, like, yeah, the 90s bills if they just, you know, could even make the Super Bowl. Yeah. Any other thoughts on this game before we move on? I think the game in general was a little bit of a letdown. I don't know if it was going to say the same. It was not a very memorable game for how close the score was. the last drive was honestly the only really entertaining part of the game to me I think there was a lot of yeah I mean I think there was a lot of good defense but

frankly yeah I think the mistakes were the most memorable parts the most memorable parts were the Lamar pick I was like what the hell was that the Lamar pick was bizarre I still don't really understand what happened on that play the Lamar fumble was also weird we just dropped it and then like was frazzled the Andrews like but yeah and even again the the first drive the bills had was electric I know he was on fire at that one after that to me, I was annoyed at various things happening in the drives. It was like Sean McDermott conversant, like just being really conservative and kind of the rest being bailing him out.

But those did enough, man. Boring, boring ass successful game plan. It is kind of brutal that for Lamar and for Justin Herbert, the two guys in the NFL this year that were the most efficient in terms of not turning the ball over, scoring a ton of touchdowns, just started making inexplicable. like turnovers in the playoffs immediately. It's kind of a bummer. But I don't think,

I don't think that's what Lamar will be remembered for for this game because of what he did late in the game. I agree. If it wasn't for that last drive, I think the, like, Lamar chokes in the playoff thing might have come back because of the pick and the fumble. But that last drive, you know. Kind of washed that away. Yeah, I agree.

Yeah, the Ravens probably, it seems like the Ravens outplayed him, but they also kind of play themselves. But speaking of snow and affecting tournaments and things, Eagles Rams. Eagles won 28 to 22. I can't believe that. And this game, if you didn't see it,

first of all, so much snow. Like, so much snow fell and stuck in this game. I was, I don't know if you guys, we haven't talked since this game, obviously. I was shocked that the Rams were actually about to win this game. Like, I don't know if I had considered a game moreover that actually almost flipped the result.

I can't even remember the last time. shocked that a game was actually about to change leads as I was when the Eagles had that Sequin like mirror image of the Sunday night football game a couple months ago where they put the Rams away. It was like the same plate. And I'm like, oh, the Eagles are up 14, a few minutes left. And then I look up and the Rams are just on the 25 yard line, like actually threatening to take the lead in regulation. No, they didn't go up 14 because they missed the extra point on that. Were you guys like, that was my main emotion was I was, I feel like I spent so much of today stressed or shocked. Like I actually could not believe what

I was watching on that final drive. When Pukinukua caught that pass on the sideline. Oh, my God. Yeah, that was great play. If the Rams scored there at the end, I think this would have been up there for me as one of the best playoff games I've ever watched. I genuinely thought the entire game was fascinating

from a million perspectives. I thought the Sequin thing and how amazing he was, he had like two 60-yard-plus runs in the game today. The snow was insane. The game started out. It just looked chilly. By the end of the game, it looked like a blizzard. I was so impressed with the rancers.

Rams, like their defense, their toughness. Both quarterbacks are getting sacked a bunch. Also, I mean, this was like this game was a war. Everybody was getting injured out there. I mean, it was a battlefield. Jalen hurts hurt his knee. Yeah, Stafford hurt his ribs. Quinyon Mitchell went out with an injury.

Braden Fiske went out with an injury. Sequin heard his hand, and I think he's had a shoulder injury all year that he's been nursing. Pooka Nukua and A.J. Brown are grimacing every time they're getting up. I mean, this was like a fucking war. You know how they talk about everything hurts more when it's cold? Yeah. You ever taking a football of the year? the cold, the worst feeling in the world.

Yeah, that specifically seems like it would hurt a lot. But that was how I felt watching this game is every time a guy got hit, it was like, he just kind of stopped there for a minute. It was like, fuck, oh, that hurt, you know, before I'd get up. It was like every

play somebody was doing this. And both teams, to their credit, were really hitting hard, like a very, very well-played defensive game from both teams. There was 12 to sacks in this game. The Rams have they in two games had 15 sacks, which is one of the most for any team in any playoffs ever,

and they only play two games. It's up there, I think, top five or whatever of teams in terms of total sacks in the playoff run. The Rams had 38 sacks this season. It's just insane. 15 sacks in two playoff games. That was unbelievable. The Rams defense, I can't say enough about it.

They kept this game from being a blowout. Like, if the Rams defense played slightly worse in a handful of situations this game gets out of hand. I mean, just like to put it in perspective, Kyron Williams almost fumbled the game away, and then the Rams defense holds the Eagles of all teams at the goal to a goal line stand holds it to a field goal. And then Stafford fumbled,

and the Rams defense held them to a field goal in the Renzota. And then the Rams defense got a safety. And then the Rams sacked Jalen Hertz out of field goal range twice. Like, all together, that's 16 points, like very tangible points. Like this game is 28 to 22. If those, if they don't make a play, in all those situations.

This game is literally 42 to 20, and it's a blowout. Totally. The real winner of this game was the snow to me. Like, I don't know if I left this game being like, the Eagles are great. We're like, man, the Rams are amazing and they should have won. I just thought Snow won the game.

And it's so hard. It's so weird in football because, like, it just completely changes the game. It's like playing basketball outdoors on a windy day. It's just completely different. Like, I don't know who does. deserved to win or what. It's just like, the Eagles didn't really have a turnover. They could run the ball

better D-line. But yeah, it's like the snow just changes everything. If this game is indoors, the Rams could have put up 45 for all I know. It's just wild. I got to I got to say the elements. 2025, snow and fire are winning 2025. Wow. I thought this was such a

perfect example of, it was just a cliche playoff game because it came down to both quarterbacks were turning the ball over and getting sacked a ton. It was It came down to the stretch, which team could run, and which team, ultimately at the very end, it was the Eagles that pulled it out because their fucking pass rush is elite.

Jalen Carter? They just could not, the Rams just could not stop the Eagles pass rush. Jalen Carter, the last two plays, the second to last play, he got a sacked on a play that, and I saw Dan O'Rolloski drew this up, the Rams had like a touchdown on that play. Like they're, I think a tight end was running like a little crosser over the middle and he was open.

But Jalen Carter came right up the middle. and sacked him. The next play, Jalen Carter did this little, like, quick move, went right past the center and was right in Stafford's face, basically made him rush the pass,

and he missed the pass, and that was the game. It was basically like, but to me it's like such a cliche, run the ball, protect the football, and pass rush at the end when you have a lead

are like the three huge elements and obviously like playing at home, playing in the cold, this is your home field, you're used to these elements. This is a dome team. It's like right back to Bill's play. off manifesto. This dome team comes into Philly and just can't hang. I mean, they obviously made it

really close. But I was just thinking, man, the pass rush coming through in the end there for the Eagles, that's why it's so important to have that defensive line. That's why it's so important to have so many guys because you lose guys. You need someone else to step up. Jalen Carter and Nolan Smith were absolutely dominant in this game. Do you remember a couple years ago when we were talking about how great of a first round the Eagles had and everyone was like, stop glazing the Eagles. Oh, look what happened. The fucking Eagles who picked all the Georgia defenders, they come through the end and basically won them this game at the very end. I mean, it came down to a rookie ram center having to block Jalen Carter and he went the wrong way. He went the wrong way. I don't know if it's because

Stafford told him the wrong thing or he knew the wrong protection. But yeah, he literally turned the wrong way and then you'll leashed the frugal one of the best defense tackles the NFL up the gullet for nothing. Stafford had one of the soap ball things happened to on his own. Oh yeah. Out of his Oh, yeah. That was tough. He's just like turning around and just fell out of his hand. Stafford's never looked older to me outside of like when he couldn't like walk a few years ago.

I like that he scrambled once and cracked his ribs. Literally like one time and you're like, I'm too old for this shit. Also because it's like, oh, he's so old. And then it was like, Quinn and Mitchell got hurt too. I was like, really? Damn, dude. But the, but I agree though, Craig that the snow won. I will admit, I love snow games.

Nature wins. I think I bullied D.K. out of like hating snowy games and I don't know what you really feel deep inside but I think I bullied you out of saying it on this show. I think I don't mind these games in the playoffs.

When it's fantasy, I'm a little annoyed because the offense stinks so much. It's so fun to watch but it's just a completely different game. So it's like, I don't know. If you're a Rams fan, you're probably annoyed.

But I guess hey, look, if you're Philly, you're in a cold weather city, you build your team for that. If you're the Rams, you don't. And if you're a higher seed and you get to play at home, I guess that's what the higher

she deserves. It's like it's the Chiefs Dolphins game from a couple years ago where the dolphins come in. It was literally a hundred degree difference from one of their games earlier in the year. A hundred degree difference. It didn't work. It was a hundred degrees. No, it was

150. Because they played a game in 120 on the other team's sideline was 120 and that game was a wind chill of negative 30. It was negative 30. Oh my God. It was 150. It was negative 34. Four, wind chill.

Yeah. Wow. Like, Oh, multiple cheese fans went to the hospital with frostbite. Multiple chiefs fans, I think a couple of fans

lost fingers being at that fucking game. Good God. But yeah, I'll admit watching this like, Valley Forge. I was kind of like, I'll admit this product

is probably a little different than usual. And I was like, I get when people get it mad. But I don't know. I still feel that like, one, it is a little magical and just cool.

And like, it was amazing. It was cinematic, man. On housing that run. So, oh my God. God.

That was insane. But then it's the ultimate, like, suck the air out of the arena when he, or the stadium, when he scores and it's like games over. And then Stever just marches down and scores and everyone's like, holy shit, this is a six-point game. And then Saryani on second down decides to not give the ball to Sakewon and roll out Jalen Hertz with a hurt knee, takes a sack. Crazy. Jaylen-Hertz was pretty rough in this game. I guess that's not Seryon. Hertz.

Well, after the game, Hertz, I think they definitely gave Hertz fan killers because his post-game interview was like anything. Was he speaking in a Southern accent? It was like that. You know what Jaylen hurts? Yeah, dude, I'll never get over the Rodgers. That was the best. Did we win? I'm feeling great.

Dude, you know how Jalen Hertz is kind of like the master of, I think he's the most boring athlete interview that's ever been? He's worse than Russ, dude. He's worse than Russell Wilson. Like Russell Wilson gives more humanity. Jalen Hertz is just like a human cliche, it became sentient. Jalen hurts in the, you guys see the post game interview.

He literally was like, what? And they were like, Jail, what did you think of all the snowed? He's like, I love the snow. I used to play video games as a kid. I love video games. And I used to turn up the snow to like 100% snow. I just love, I had so much fun that I'm doing great.

And I'm like, I've never seen. You're high as a fucking kite. He's so good. You're going to spin off this planet. I love it. Oh, my God. Keep at it. I've never heard Jaylor with no guts.

Can I just say, if we get the Chiefs and the Eagles in the Super Bowl again, I think I'm going to boycott New Orleans. I won't go. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do a week of it. No.

The idea of either another Philadelphia championship or a Chiefs three Pete is pretty daunting. It could be Bill's commanders. Oh, that's the dream. Imagine a world. Do you ever feel like the world or fate or something is conspiring against you? That's how I feel in this playoffs so far, especially with this Mark Andrews thing. I'm like, come on. It is pretty poetic.

The bet that you so desperately needed to avoid the middle seats came down to Mark Andrews. Dropped by fucking Mark Andrews. Oh, my God. And for the people who don't know what we're talking about. So we're doing this bet. So when we're in New Orleans for Super Bowl week, we're going to be doing our post-super Bowl show in Los Angeles together. We're going to fly for New Orleans to L.A.

And we literally have already booked three seats in a row. And the loser of whoever picks the worst against the spread has to raw dog a middle flight seat, like literally sit in between the other two of us. And like no phone, no movies, no book. literally you have to sit there and just stare ahead for the entire flight for your own Phila. I'm not going to lie right now, DK needs a minor miracle.

Oh, and I will say, just to put this on the radar, you can't beat me this week. You can tie me. Right. And then we've got to figure out a tiebreaker. So I kind of think should we,

the tiebreaker, should it be the Pro Bowl? Honest question. Do they still have a Pro Bowl? I haven't watched Pro Bowl festivities in like a decade. What if we do Pro Bowl like Dodge Bowl or one of the events they have? There we go. I think what we do is, is if you guys tie,

we have you both run a 40 in New Orleans. We go to like some riverboat casino and just make one bet for all the marbles. Oh, we just do roulette? Yeah. I think we have you run a 40 down Bourbon Street. That'd be like that. Oh, my God. Okay.

We'll figure something out. Let's see if D.K. Too old for this shit, Craig. The Sequin thing I do want to mention. So, I mean, first of all, Seekwan. I mean, oh my God. So Seekwon finished this game, 26 carries for 205 yards. Seekon rules, man.

Sequin's the best. Back of the napkin math, against the Rams this year, Sequin had 500 rushing yards. He had four 60-yard touchdowns. Four-60-plus-yard touchdowns against the Rams. Sequin tied the most rushing yards in a playoff game since he broke by Steve Van Buren in 1949. Wasn't Mill or Cloyce?

No, Steve Van Buren. Wow. So the 1949 Eagles include Bosch, Pritchard. sure Clyde Scott a different Neil Armstrong the other Neil

are you sure are you sure it wasn't the actual Neil Armstrong yeah he just that was his like day job by the way can I add on to that statue

so Seacon had had all those 60 yard runs against the against the ramps so Sequin has had as many 62 plus yard touchdown runs as the Pittsburgh

Steelers have had in the last 19 years Cool The Steelers The last two were Jalen Warren last season and Willie Parker in Super Bowl 40 Willie Parker Fast Willie Parker

That's That is so long ago That I think that Willie Parker Super Bowl was the first episode of Bill and Sally I ever listened to That's how long ago that's Super Bowl Wait so that's their last two four

That's not you said what is it 260 or touchdowns That's their last two 62 plus yard rushing touchdowns. Pretty crazy. That's pretty, that's nuts. Oh my God. It's a good way.

It's a good context for how rare those are. And the fact that Sequin has four of them this year is pretty wild. And that to me is the thing that he's fully back because there was a couple years of the giants. What in the cars? Go back. When he gets a like a little head start, oh my God. He was, nothing better. He was as fired up if I've ever seen him.

And he's clearly, I know, unfortunately, I've had a lot. He's having a fucking blast this season. When he turned to Jalen Hertz at the end, and I guess he said, watch this. I don't think he did. I watched that a million times. I think he was asking Jalen Hertz if he needs to. He said, what's the play?

I think he was like, something about switching sides for the protection. It looked as though he was asking a question, and Hertz responded. That's what I was wondering, too. At first I thought he said, I thought he said, I got this, or I wasn't sure what he was saying,

but watch this would be cooler, which means it's probably wrong. I think it was something about, like, which side should I be on, I think. that's not as cool I know I actually think he said shut the fuck up don't ruin this

people suck at lip reading I gotta say I feel like everyone's always wrong at it people just throw at anything these things the accuracy rates like 45% something like that the only person is good at it in the world is John Boy

John Boy's the only person who just nails it you're like wow that's definitely what he said you watch a John Boy video you're like fuck that's so accurate the other thing I wanted to mention about this game sorry did you want to talk about Sequin some more or do I want to know Do I feel like I should?

Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I mean, he's the best running back. I mean, honestly, coming back around to what Bill said six years ago, is the best running back we've ever seen. His second gear is just unbelievable. And like, again, I think that the irony of the whole thing is that the Giants had kept them, nothing would have changed about their season. They would have won like one more damn max.

But like clearly a great running back behind a great lines, a force multiplier. And it's like Henry and Baltimore with Lamar, really. And then like Sequin and Hertz in this offensive line, it is, we're really stretching the boundaries of what happens in the football because you literally took the best running back or top two, top three, whatever, in the NFL with the best line. And you look at it, I mean, it feels unstoppable.

Yeah, he had 205 yards. And then like a month and a half ago against steam, he had 250 yards against the Rams. Like, I mean, he's he's now the third in terms of regular season end playoffs. He has 2,300 yards, 23, 29 yards. He has the third most for any running back ever. Only Torrell Davis has two seasons better in 98, 97. I believe those are the two years that Broncos won the Super Bowl. it's pretty cool that

of the four teams remaining you could argue that each team four teams remaining and I would argue it's the four best storylines in the NFL. It's Saquan with the Eagles. It's Jane Daniels with the commanders. Give or take, Josh or Lamar both would have been fine

and qualified and then the Chiefs three beat. Like it is kind of cool that each one carries something so significant from the season. And we have to pour one out for the Lions. Should we just get to this game right now? Before we move from this game, I do want to talk about the Lions. We got to talk about Braden Man. Oh, the

hunter holder. Had the most incredible feat of athleticism I've ever seen in my life. He did this twice. I think the second one was insanely, insanely impressive. The snap at the, it was at a field goal, I think, late in the game.

The snap was like a rocket. It was a missing. And it was way out in front of him. And he just plucked that thing like it was nothing. Mark Andrews could never. It was the most impressive catch I've ever seen. He plucked it. If they had thrown...

Like it was nothing. If the Ravens had thrown the two point to the Eagles holder, then they would have won the game. It was the... So it was the field goal, I think, in the fourth quarter that put them up 22 to 15. What was your name? I already forgot his name. Braided Man.

I think that's his name. I think that's his name. I don't... What was more impressive? Brayden Man's snatch on the snap or... Wow. Frazing. Yeah. Braid and...

I like his last name's man, too. Man Snatch. Braden Man Snatch. That's honestly better than anything I was going to ask, so we can move on. Man with two ends. Man snatch wins Eagles. Shot at the title. His snatch was an all-timer today.

I'm telling you. Man snatch wins games. Oh, is that? Oh, is that going to mean the title of our episode? Probably. Oh, that's hilarious. Anyway, that was like, I'm not even kidding. I think that was the most I got excited today.

Watching him snatch that ball out of the air, it's a fucking missile, a piss rod. And it was like, it didn't even move. He just grabbed it. Most athletic feet you've seen. Is it that or Sequan's reverse hurdle? It's close, honestly, close. When they showed it, I kind of,

I never thought about the impact on the, snow on the hole that I was kind of like wow they're crushing it showing this right now I actually really loved watching the team make the like move the snow out of the way that was really really nice also the best dude I think this is one of the dumbest reasons that football beats the other sports is there so much dumb shit

that happens where we do watch a ridiculously weird sport this is our job I don't want to speak no one on the sidelines is allowed to brush the snow only the players on the field shuffle around like penguins you can't use a towel only the players of the field and I'm like they can't use

towel, I'm like, you're telling me that means that at some point people used to use towels and they actually had a meeting and they were like, no more towels. They're like carrying shovels out there. What are the player currently on the field? Because you know some quarterbacks like keep a towel in their back pockets and they use that? No, you can't fucking use it, Craig. Can't use it. Put it away.

What if you take off your glove? Does that become a towel or no? What is a towel? That's a great point. If you ain't cheating, you ain't cheating and you ain't trying, Craig. The idea, you know what's so, I will say, that was the one thing where NBC really dropped the ball because unlike the holder.

But NBC really dropped the ball because each time that this happened where the Eagles were just like clearing out, they did a replay. They didn't show us all 11th, all 10 guys like just frantically like. It's like a bunch of penguins huddling together for warps in the Arctic like wind.

It was just so funny looking. It was like a bunch of eight-year-olds digging a hole at a beach. Where are you guys digging a hole for? I don't know. We're going to go to dig a big hole. digging a hole. We're going to go Barry Braden.

Dude, and the kicker was standing over at like a proud dad, like, good job, boys. I'm like, you get down there.

So fucking weird. This is the weirdest sport. The sport makes $20 billion a year. And they're like, only your hands for the snow. It is funny. I think it should be only players on the field and the head coach.

How awesome would that be? I agree. Like, you know, someone to come in here? It's like peeky blinders. It's like a calorie. Why don't you guys do something?

out here. Oh my God. You know what? The other thing is the defense should be allowed to throw snow back. Ooh, that's amazing. Put up like a wall. You have to put like a wall. Yeah, it's like you can clear it.

You have the offensive line that's standing front. Jared versus like building snowballs and throwing them at the kicker. What are they going to do? Called the lay a game? Oh my God. That'd be going to be like elf. Just like riflet it. You can't do that, right?

There's a rule against throwing snowballs in the game of football. I never thought of it. Probably. If not, then like someone should have figured that out today. Because also, and you know what would be funny if the players see that from the sideline, you know,

like then at least Jimmy Garoppi could do something of use. Can you imagine Stafford just takes a snowball to the face? Fred throws a pig. I'm blind. It's like Pirates of the Caribbean. You show the dirt in his face. You're like, pirate.

That would make the game so much better. Wow. That's old school. That's how Steve Van Buren did it. The Vambierin boys. the Vampier employees. Oh, also wait, one of these guys in the 50 and the 49 Eagles, the guard was named Bucko Kilroy.

Sure. Bucco Kilroy. Let's get to this other game that was played in a dome and had nothing visually, aesthetically in common with any of these other games. Commanders beat the Lions this weekend, 45 to 31. I was shocked. Craig, you said it on Friday, and it thought it was perfect.

You said, it's not the Lions time to go. yet. I thought that was the perfect description of the game going into it. And I felt like I was watching a TV show where a character I love died way before I ever thought. It was like, it's so true. We're in the text chain. I'm like, wow, the lions are really going to lose. This is really happening. I couldn't believe it. I mean, I actually am very excited for the commanders. It's a super fun team to watch. Obviously, Jane Daniels is, you know, maybe the best rookie quarterback I've ever seen in my life. He's so freaking good. And I'm excited to watch them in the championship round. But yeah, the Lions. It is another, Craig, like you said, Sophie's choice. It's just hard to choose a team that you want to win this game because I love both of them.

It's like Washington beating the lions. You know, it's like the other guys when he's like, you shot Jeter, you should have shot A-Rod. I'm like, couldn't they've beat the Eagles? I know, that's the thing. The Lions losing sucked enough. I know. Like, it being the commanders, I guess,

is a little bit of a silver lining because this is so fun. If they had lost to the Eagles, it would have been twice as bad because nobody would have been happy. And the thing with Detroit, though, is no. But Detroit, look, it's the same thing with the refs where it's like, you know, and the other games like, oh, well, yeah, the rest are bad. You made a bunch of mistakes, though. And it's like, I'm sad the lines lost because I wanted them to be the best team.

But, dude, they died the way they lived. Like, how many games can you have five turnovers and, like, win the game? You did that. You use that card already. Like, everybody gets one. Like, you know, it's funny about that? It was exactly nine weeks apart. Nine weeks into the season, Gough throws five picks.

Exactly nine weeks later, Gough has four turnovers. And so, but, yeah, it's just so that was brutal. And then frankly, like the lines, like they died the way they lived. Like, you know, the trick plays, you know, that they, we were, you know, now the trick place kind of seemed fucked up, like Jameson Williams. I think that's the lasting image of this game. Yeah, it's going to be Jameson Williams. The ultimate too much dip on the chip.

Too much dip on the chip. What are you doing? And even if it's not fair, it will taint everything we remember about how the lines did the cool trick plays. And Ben Johnson, it's going to be like, remember when James and Williams threw a pick with your season on the line? To me, the Jameson Williams play is, it's kind of insane to do that. Yeah.

Are you trusting James and Williams to throw football? Do you think before the plague, Goff or whoever is like, hey, if it's not there, throw it away, or is that not a part of the calculus? If they didn't tell him that, I would put thousands of dollars.

He was told that at some point. I mean, that's basically like the first thing they did go, when they go through the play, they're like, yeah, if you see this and this, like,

you're supposed to throw it away, whether anyone have reminded him and whether he, like, retained the information, I think is a different question. But, you know, it's like the Jurassic Park. He just had images of a touchdown pass in his mind,

and that's all he was. was thinking about. Yeah, and it's exactly. And it's like, it's the Jurassic Park. Like, you know, you spend so much time wondering if you can do something. You don't really stop to ask whether you should. And it's like, should you have James and Williams throw the ball at this season? And the line, probably not.

But again, it's like, the game was lost. I don't want to say Jared Goff. Like, it's weird because the offense put up 31 points with the five turnovers. Like, they scored 31 points. That's usually enough to win a football game. The problem, to me, it's like a mix of two things. The Lions defense got shredded, dude. Like, the Lions defense got shredded.

And again, I've been annoying about this whole year. But it's like, the teams that make. the Super Bowl don't look like the Detroit Lions. You usually have 20 of your 22 starters healthy. The Lions had like 15. The Lions are down 13 of their 22 defenders in this game. Like that's just not what teams

look like. Having, and they lost Amic Robertson on like the first or second drive to like an arm injury Brian Branch was in and out of the game. The time you look up another lion is just like on the ground riding and pain. It's ridiculous. But having said that, there was like a borderline stubbornness pride if you will like

of the way the lion's insane. insisted on going down playing man coverage and blitzing the shit out of the ball, which is just like, again, man coverage, it's like when you lose all your pass rushers, you have to guard for longer. When your cornerbacks go down, you have worse players having to guard for longer. You know what I mean? And so eventually, you're just kind of asking to lose. I feel like Jane Daniels has been beating man coverage blitzes since week three and that Monday night football walk off against Bengals and Joe Burrow.

And I'm like, this dude's been beating this the whole year. Tom Brady, as much as we make fun of him, begging, begging, begging Aaron Glenn at the defensive coordinator at halftime to just play zone, play a soft zone like the rest of the world does and like make them dink and dunk your way down the field. And then Tom Brady actually made a joke for once. He was like, since I said that, they did four straight man blitzes. I don't think they're listening to me. But like I think that was, I don't know about you guys, but that was tough for me to watch. And I know it's hard when you have so many guys down, but it felt like there was no adaptation to Jaden Daniels just shredding them. Yeah. I think it's like one of those things

where it reminds me on the movie Major League. You know, Eddie Harris, I think his name is, he's the junk ball pitcher. He's just an old guy. He doesn't have any, he can't throw with any velocity. So he just puts Vaseline and whatever, Vagicil on the ball to like make it move different. I kind of feel like there's a similarity there where it's just like a down. Is that what pictures put on the ball? That was a joke in the game, I believe, or in the movie.

I don't think they actually put Vagicil on it. But anyway, there's a, there's an element of that where, it's like you have so many guys that are gone. You just have to just, you're just trying your hardest to come up with different ways to, you know, confuse the quarterback. And if you actually just drop back in zone, you're just going to get shredded too.

I think there's something to that where it's just, they didn't have any of their guys, so they had to, like, throw everything in the kitchen sink at it and hope for the best. But, I mean, Jane Daniels, he had no sacks, no turnovers. He was basically perfect other than a couple different plays. They failed on a fourth downplay. That was like a fuck up, I think, by the running back.

and, you know. It was like Mario, yeah, Moriota came in and it did a push. Oh, right. He wasn't even involved in that. Like, he was trying to pitch it to Jaden

and he got like seat belted. Oh, we didn't talk about that with Josh Allen where he, Josh Allen's like actually on the play where he got caught up the goal line. He tried to pitch it to James Cook

and he was restrained like Mario was actually. It was a good thing that he was restrained. That would have gone terribly. Honestly, it's funny. I actually, I hope someone has like asked Josh about that play since.

But it's crazy how like Josh Allen's whole legacy might have changed if he actually was not physically restrained from throwing the ball at the goal line away. But ironically, that kind of saved Washington, too. If we want to do a little overreaction theater here, if I could have picked any team to win the Super Bowl this year, it would have been the Lions. They were the best vibe.

They were the best team all year. They were the best story. They're the most likable team. Do you think the vibes have significantly shifted for this franchise are only minorly? Because I think immediately there are like weird Jared Gough questions where it's like, does everything need to be perfect for Jared Gough to work? Is this kind of like where he was on?

the Rams the year before he got traded from the Rams now where it's like we tried a few times. Is he going to have to reinvent himself a third time in his career? Right. They're going to lose both coordinators to head coaching jobs. So now it's like, okay, we're kind of running this back with Jared Goff after a four turnover game. Ben Johnson, the guru's gone. Our defensive coordinator's gone.

How do we feel now? Like, are the Lions going to be top two or three Super Bowl favorites heading into next year? Or is it kind of like this window has closed a little bit? Is that an overreaction? I don't know. I think the big question for me is less about the defensive coordinator leaving. Although I know he's very, very highly respected.

Because they got super hurt. I mean, you could probably just write this all off to them being injured. Yeah, those 13 of 22 defenders. I'm very, very curious to see how big of an impact losing Ben Johnson is going to be. Because if he's as good as I think his reputation says he is, this could be a massive, massive downgrade for their offense. And I mean, like, some of the plays he was doing, he literally got Tom Brady,

Ben Johnson got Tom Brady to be like, I've never seen anything like that in my life. Tom Brady's going to hire him. Tom Brady's going to hire him as Ben Johnson's the Raiders head coach. That pitch play. So they got that actually from Antoine Randall L from the Steelers back. Yeah, Craig. Like a 2004 play where they did like a toss play and then a shovel pass. And it was so cool and it worked really well.

And Tom Brady was like freaking out everybody. The quarterback to the running back and then the running back shovels it. forward to the receiver or the tight end who's kind of crossing in front of the offensive lines. Yeah. But I think that's a microcosm for something that we saw every week. Just really creative. Tons of different little wrinkles and all the offensive stuff they do. His sequencing, his play sequencing is so good.

The way that he married the run game with past game and play action. I think we're going to find out just how good Ben Johnson was. If this offense falls off a lot next year, I think it'll be very clearly because Ben Johnson's gone. you know, and then maybe there's a world in which Ben Johnson goes to whatever team and isn't very good. And we're like, oh, maybe they just have a really ridiculous group of players in Detroit and they're just a really good team. I also think there's something to just like, I bet you it's really nice to be an offensive coordinator and all you got to do is focus on calling plays. One thing. It's like with Washington, it's working right now because you have the hard-nosed old school head coach and Dan Quinn and you have the guru OC who doesn't have to worry about anything except mixing up potions in the booth.

And that is what the Lions have right now. And now Ben Johnson, it's like, it works sometimes. You get the Shanahan's and the McVeys, the guys who can, like, kind of do both. But that's always the fear, right? Is like if the offensive play caller or the guru has to now do everything, can they still do both well? Yeah. And we'll see. I mean, again, if he goes to the Raiders, we can talk about that more at length.

But I agree where it's like, I mean, so much of the head coaching job is just not what you're actually doing as a coordinator. Again, it's not your job to think about a bunch of these things. But they might lose more than just their coordinators, too. Like they might lose other members of their coach stuff. You could be starting with, you know, five or six or seven new coaches next year. This is what they say.

This is what happened with the Ravens. The brain drain. Yeah, the brain drain and you lose front office people. I mean, not to mention defenders. Obviously, the lion's defense was an issue this year, but it's not like just getting all the same guys healthy back.

Like, you know, golf salary goes up a bunch in a couple years. Like, this was their window. Well, the irony is, kind of feel like the lions are a Matt Stafford away from winning a Super Bowl. Imagine if they had Stafford. Like, they should just send them back, you know,

because the Rams are kind of young. again, you know? It's like Stafford doesn't really fit the Rams timeline. It's like maybe just, you know, if they need logs and they need logs. Stafford and cough. Just send it back. No, I mean, we should do commanders here now.

I mean, we've talked to obviously. Yeah, sorry. Yeah, the RAP to the Lions. The last thing I'll just say on the Lions is it's a real culture test for Dan Campbell. Basically, how do you go forward from this? And the culture is really cool to build the winning culture when you're winning and it stays. But like, whether the culture can survive a dip is

a big thing. But yeah, for the commanders and Jane Daniels, I mean, I don't think it's hyperbole anymore. I think that this is the best rookie season in the history of the NFL. And I actually think that even if he doesn't go to the Super Bowl, I think it is. If he goes to the Super Bowl, it's unquestionably the best rookie season in the history of the NFL. And again, like, if you just look at other rookies that have made the NFC championship game, it's just basically Ben Rothesberger with this like Stacks Steelers team. Yeah. Yeah, just all teams that were carried there by just absolutely unbelievable team. You know what I mean? Like, you know, whether it's Russell Wilson, Legion of Boom, Tom Brady.

with that first Patriots run. It's all guys that were just like and this Washington team is frankly a bunch of guys that we thought Washington's O line was a bottom five unit it was a rag tag defensive group. Like the Washington was not thought

they would be picking in the top ten again not one of the final four teams. Yeah. This is a, the supporting cast to me is a bunch of just a guys and cabled together veteran castoffs like actors. Bobby Wagner,

Austin Eckler. I mean, Echler to an extent. I think he's so good obviously, but he's obviously kind of like not at his peak. They got him for $4 million. It's like he's passing to Diami Brown, who they drafted like four years ago. Alameda Zakias.

Zakias. Jameson Crowder, who's on his second stint with the team. He's like an old veteran. You look at the supporting cast. And for any other quarterback, I think we would be like, this supporting cast sucks off him. McLaurin's good. But he is elevating this entire offense.

And I'm talking about Jane Daniels, obviously. He's elevating the guys around him. He's making them believe. he's making me believe. I think he's the truth. Like he is so, so good. I can't even believe how good he is. We got a lot of tweets of people being like,

we said this about Stroud last year, so like bite your tongue. I don't give a shit. It's not even fucking close. It's not even close. It doesn't mean this is going to happen with him too. We did not say any of this stuff. We said Stroud was like really, really,

really playing really well as a rookie. I will say this about Jan Daniels. And I'm genuinely curious. Anyone email us or answers at ringerfincy football at gmail.com. Jane Daniels is the top five quarterback right now. I agree. He just is. Best quarterback in the NFC.

He is. And if people are balk at that, if people balk at that, I ask you this question. If you need one drive to do what Lamar Jackson just did, if you have to go 90 yards to win a game and get the two-point conversion, the players you would pick in order are Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, that's it. And Jaden Daniels.

And if you want to quibble and like, well, I'd put Stafford there. Maybe. Yeah. Stafford, sure. Like, you could put Stratford there. I'm like, I don't know how you could pick anyone else at this point because Jaden Daniels is basically a top three rusher as a quarterback in the NFL with Lamar and Josh in terms of the slipperiness.

If you need a fourth and two with his legs, with the decision making at what he's doing as a passer, I think it might be unprecedented or at the very least it's clear that like the 24-year-old, he doesn't play like a rookie. There's nothing like him about as a rookie. And I actually have a ton of thoughts on this, but like about why he's like that. but do you they converted 81% of their fourth downs this year

yeah I mean they they re they they adopted a new philosophy in a new system around him around his talents around his skills and they just decided to fuck it

we're gonna go for fourth downs every time and they converted 81% of them Austin Gail pointed this out that's better that's a better percentage like success rate

than the Eagles push when the NFL was like should we outlaw this thing because it's like two, automatic is 14% better than the tush push

last year. So I mean, it's not even, I feel like it's not even to take anymore. It's just an observation that he's the fifth best quarterback in the NFL.

And I, that's wild to say that. And I'm trying to think of like a way to, I know that some people are like, oh, this is reactionary. And I'm like,

it's not. But I'm like, Stafford is the only one I would entertain, but it's him. Not DAC. No. No one on the Giants.

Not too. I think Hurts. Hertz is, um, no, give me a break. I mean, hurts. Harts the way that they designed their offense around him in the run game and the

Tush, I think. If it's a two-minute drill? I'm not saying that that's where I'm not saying he's in anywhere near the same stratosphere. I'm just saying like the way that they designed their offense around him and they've had so much success around him, I think you could make the argument. I'm not doing that right now, but.

If Jalen Hertz is on the commanders, they probably don't make the playoffs. If they, and if you flip it, Jaden Daniels on the Eagles, I think Sequin probably runs for 2,500 yards. Yeah. And Jaden Daniels, like, I actually, I'm serious. I think if Jaden, Gatos's on the Eagles. I don't think they lose again.

Jordan Love fell off. Darnold collapsed. No one on the Falcons. Pernick's might be good someday. It's a top five quarterback. And again, maybe he falls up. Mayfield? No.

You don't think it's Derek Carr? Maybe. So throw the ball away on fourth down, Derek Carr. Dude, they scored 45 points. They had the most points in a road postseason game ever. A rookie did that. In Washington history. They're going to be mad.

We're not mentioning Purdy, but. Oh, yeah. In Washington history, yes. They had four wins last year. The commanders had four wins last year. They're the second pick in the draft and they're in the NFC championship the next year. They had four wins. This is a great.

It's also a story of how quickly life comes at you in the NFL where you're the lions, you're the toast of the town. You're the number one seat in the NFC. And it's like last year, Dan Campbell gave this speech in the locker room of just like, you know, hey, boys, it's going to be harder to come back next year. And then they're here. They get the number one seed. They get everything they want.

They get the home game in Detroit. It's so loud. And then you lose. And guess who has the best Super Bowl window in the entire NFL, even if they get washed away by Eagles next week. Washington. Jaden Daniels is going to make $7 million over the next three years. Like

you know what I mean? Like Jason Beck is getting $4 million from the University of Miami to be the quarterback. Like Jaden Gannels is going to make twice that over a three year period. You know what I mean? Is that right? That's the rookie contract now. It's like that seems wild. Let me pull it up exactly. You're saying $7 million per year, right? His cap numbers are small.

8, 10, 12. In terms of future. cash payments. Like, yeah, it's not that simple, but like they paid him $24 million. So going forward, yeah, he's going to get paid. It's a salary, $4 million next year. It's the cap. His cap is $6.8 million. But in terms of Jaden Daniels cash, like his income next year from the team, it's the same as the University of Miami. And I, like, as Carson Beck. Like, and it's, it's a little more complicated. Does he have any big, uh, advertisements or whatever, like the, his first NIL deal was a fucking injury attorney. That's why we were so

freaked out about him. It was like a personal injury He needs to have like a massive massive contract for something. He needs a nickname now too. And you know I was thinking he you know he's probably like the one of the skinniest quarterbacks ever right? Yeah. I think he should be the slim reaper

not Kevin Durant. Kevin Durant doesn't deserve that nickname. I agree. They also call that Devonte Smith kind of has that nickname too. Yeah. They call him the Slim Reaper? Yeah. He's not he's not good enough. He's not good enough and he's very good. Well he won the Hysman. He was good in college.

That was when he was in college. You need, like, to be elite in the NFL for a nickname in my name. I agree. I think Slinger Reaper for Jinn-Dainils is pretty good. Emails at Ringer Fantasy Football, Gmail.com if you think, JANDA, if you have a nickname for you. It's so cool that Washington's good. I mean, I feel the same way about Detroit. My whole life, Detroit was horrible.

They got good. It's just so weird to, like, see a good Detroit football team. I feel the same way about Washington. It's just bizarre that next year, like, the Detroit lines and the Washington commanders are like, and the Eagles, I guess, are like the three favorites in the NFC. It's crazy. The commanders might win the Super Bowl. It's wild.

like it's insane would it be that shocking gift to commanders won the super war no I might pick no not anymore yeah I and so the last thing I want to say about Jan Daniels is just I think Jen Daniels at this point is probably the story of the season like if we're being honest like a rookie quarterback being good and I think the story of Jan Daniels being so good and we're going to talk about this a lot this all season is virtual reality and like there's a lot of reasons he's good yeah but he is doing there's this German company that he started this is last year at LSU where he just basically German company. Why are we not ban this?

Well, yeah, we should, but it's like the whole VR headset, and he is just doing, he's playing the games in his head, like he's actually going through, he's hearing the play calls, and he's sending it, and he's doing it at 1.75 speed, like it's a fucking podcast, and he's playing, so he's getting hundreds of extra mental reps every week. And if you just look at his progress as a player from the beginning of last season at LSU through down, you're like, why does it seem like the game is slowed down from so much? It's because he's going to play. the game at like two acts. He already did it. Yeah, he took the donut

off the bat and everything's slow. Yes. And I think that I don't want to be dramatic, but I also think when someone is playing the best rookie season in the history of the sport ever and then you keep asking them, why does this work? And you're like, well, it's this VR thing I keep doing. And I keep

looking at this and I keep wondering it. I actually think this might be a revolution for treating quarterbacks. Like J.G. McCarthy, I'm curious. Apparently, J.G. McCarthy's been doing VR the whole time to keep mental reps up while he's been rehabbing his knee. And I keep wondering about you know, Michael, like in the NBA

in the late 80s and early 90s, players used to show up to training camp out of shape and they would use training camp to get in shape. And then Michael Jordan started showing up in shape on the first day of camp and it was like, oh fuck. And then like the whole game, the whole league changed. And now you got LeBron spending $2 million a year in his body or whatever. And it's like, I'm not, and obviously I'm not saying that like everyone became Michael Jordan, but Michael Jordan didn't change the way it

happen. I know Jaden Daniels is clearly special, but I do kind of wonder if this is a similar thing where there is going to be a before and after moment of players and quarterbacks trading with virtual reality because the bottleneck is reps in practice. And how often we talk about how unprepared backup quarterbacks are to play in these games. And I do think these virtual reality reps could totally change our concept of how the learning curve is for young quarterbacks in the NFL and how quickly they can accelerate during the season because clearly Jen Dianos is onto something right here. Well, because these things have been around for a while.

I feel like I remember Carson Palmer doing, talking about VR. It's not a new thing. Like 2015, yeah. Yeah, but I guess there's a point in time where it becomes sort of ubiquitous and all the quarterbacks have to start using it like you're talking about. And it's such an important way to get more reps for guys that are backups. They're coming through and maybe they're stuck behind someone. Or maybe they're like trying to, you know, catch on with a new team.

team or whatever because they got benched on their first time around. I think that's very interesting. Yeah, why is Zuck not on this? With all the investment in the metaverse or whatever, he should have done this. Is it the Oculus? Yeah. It's funny that VR, you know, was tattered as this thing to improve the fan experience so much. In reality, it's like, more than anything, it looks like it could improve the actual

players experience on the field. And it is like, I guess watching a game on the sideline at home. I mean, I thought the whole thing was just going to be for porn. And now it turns out, okay, well, just poor Kno los dose. Yeah, exactly. Maybe that's what he's using it for. Sure, it's crazy. I mean, the fact that you can just like run a rep, even if it's not one-to-one, it's pretty

close. And it's like, oh, if you screw up on a play, you can just like run it back. You can have tiny changes and not have to have all these players with you on the field. It makes too much sense, to be honest. When you hear about it now, you're like, why wasn't this? This feels like a no-brainer. A hundred percent. And there's all these little things, too.

But D.K. You're talking about Carson Palmer. In terms of widespread adoption, I think that, you're talking about, you're It's like Jordan. It's like, you know what? You could have showed up in shape before Michael Jordan did it. But then you're like, oh, fuck, no, I have to do it, don't I? Because if he's doing it, I'll never beat him if I don't.

This just goes back to what we've always talked about, too, where it's the guys that have played more in college, generally speaking, are just better prepared to deal with the wild shit you see as a quarterback in the NFL where guys are running around at full speed. It's just good to have those mental reps, have those live fire reps. And this is a way to sort of recreate that if you're not a guy who's played five years in college. We talked about this with Trey Lance.

He had more, you know, he had. He had, I don't know what it was, like 800 total pass attempts in high school and college. Tom Brady threw more passes in his final season with Tampa Bay than Trey Lance did in high school college in the NFL combined. That just matters. I don't care who, I don't care who you are. That just matters so much. Yeah. Yeah, it's, it's absolutely insane.

So, yeah, we will be talking about Jen Daniels a lot this week. Anything else about this game? Tom Brady? How about Tom Brady? I saw multiple different people on Twitter saying Tom Brady was phenomenal in this game, Craig. What's your take on that? Those are all bots paid by Tom Brady. Yeah.

I was getting texts from friends being like, man, the more, at first. You've ruined Tom Brady for everyone. Dude, a couple. He's just so bad at improvising. It's like, maybe if he just took his words and put him into Tony Romo's mouth, it would sound better. But it's a, it's a really lethal combination of what he doesn't say anything. And his actual cadence.

He meanders. And the way he speaks is so weird and phony. And his, him. Wow, Craig. What a great point. After the James' touchdown, there was like back-to-back big touchdowns in the game. And he goes, this is crazy.

This is crazy. And I'm like, you are not a person. Like, you're pretending to be excited right now. This is so weird. I think we got the answer, though, to why he's like this. Because the thing I kept coming back to is it's easy to say, oh, he's a robot. He's like an AI.

But the reality is you hear him on these other podcast or whatever, like, earliest like this year when he rants, when he's mad about like football or something, rule changes or protecting quarterbacks. He needs to go full boomers. I know he's not around to say stuff because of his job with the Raiders. And I actually understand it. That's totally fine.

They asked him about Ben Johnson. And he gave like the like he gave as much of a zero answer as I've ever heard. He said nothing because he can't. Interviewed Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn for a job. And he was asked, what did you learn about the interviews, Tom? And he was like, they're nice guys. Yeah. And I actually was like, this is bad producing.

Why ask him the question? Yeah, why even have it come on? I thought that was stupid. I think they're humiliating. at like, and this is the answer to what's happening, this is what it's all about, is he cannot, he runs the team, I think, more than we even realize. Like, he is in charge of, he is doing it day to day.

But that's fine. If he can't criticize the refs, if he can't talk about hiring practices or whatever, that's, that's one thing. He's terrible at improvising. A couple quotes from, from the game yesterday, he's got a lot of options. There are a lot of options at his disposal.

He's got options. That was a sentence, he said. Talking about fucking Zacherts, He goes, these got to have it moments when you got to have it is Zach Ertz. And I'm like, look, that's not because he's a part owner of the Raiders. It's not. I'm sorry. It's so reminiscent of Jason Witten.

When James and Williams threw that pick and Kevin Burkart goes, Tom, run me through what happened now. Tell me what he saw. Tom Brady goes, they tried a bit of a trick play there, which, yep, thanks Tom. We knew that. Hand it off to the receiver, tries to force a throw. He's not a thrower, just tries to force something in there. That was his analysis of the play. And like, when you see Collinsworth and Romo and Akeman, they're wiping the floor.

It's such a stark difference to me, at least. I don't know. The irony of this is this is also why Ben Johnson might not be good as a head coach because you're like, oh, well, Ben Johnson, best offense coordinator in the NFL. He could run a team, right? You're like, Tom Brady, that guy could talk about football, right? I think you know. Apparently not.

You never know. And I think he makes Burkhart worse because I'm not starting to think Burkart's also bad, but I think Brady is dragging him down to his level and trying to meet. Berker is trying to meet him at whatever alien level he's on. Brady's like the Steelers now. He just drags everyone down. Jackie asked him this weekend.

He was like, so is this guy also dumb or what's going on here? This is crazy. I think it's the problem is, well, there's a lot of problems, but the problem is they just forced him right into the number one role. Like,

he forced himself so he could get the link. He wouldn't have been upset if he was like the number five team doing the Jags versus the Titans. or whatever, you know, but it's, they're trying to make him into something like that commercial we saw before the season where he's, you know, getting strapped up and, and getting ready for war. It's like some weird variation of like nepotism, but where they just jammed him in there and he's not any good. And I know they do it a lot.

I know other guys have had opportunities, but like Witton got canned. Drew Brees was terrible. They're not going to can Tom Brady. Here's the deal. He's the deal. He's not good. What happened was Fox was embarrassed that Romo became a sensation and that they were going to lose Troy Aikman and Joe Buck to ESPN.

And so they literally wanted Brady because I think Murdoch's kid announced it like on an earnings call. Like it was literally there like we'll pay in this contract and like whether he does the job or not like it's going to help the overall stock

of the whole company. Like that was the level of everything he got it on. Brady used the money to finance buying the fucking Raiders. Like you know what I mean? Even Tom Brady's not that liquid especially the FTX thing.

So I mean like everyone kind of got and like now this is just a weird obligation he is to fulfill in front of you know 25, million bewildered people every week that the greatest player in the history of the sport, like, cannot talk about the sport. There's an old Mitch Headberg joke where he's basically like, comedy is really hard. I feel like I'm good at comedy.

But when you get to L.A., everyone wants you to do other stuff. You're like, you're really good at comedy. Can you act? And he's like, it's like asking a chef, you're a really good chef. Can you farm? It's like he, Brady, obviously, all time, greatest player of all time, whatever. But it doesn't mean that you're going to be good at this very other, like, specific thing where you have to think on your feet

and be a really good, you know, just bullshitter, essentially, for three hours a row. Is that right? He doesn't drink? I don't think so. Well, he was hammered when he threw the Lombardian trophy. Oh, that's a good point. That was a hammered. I'm drunk. I just think he doesn't drink while he announces, though. That's probably

the problem. He probably like, you know, if you had the Rome or Akeman diet, he'd be fine. Gotta have it moments when you got to have it. Oh, my God. All right. So that's the only upside, though. I'm going to roll that off my back. Yeah, I got to get that off me in the shower. So here's the next game.

So the last game here is Chiefs Texans. Yeah. And the only upside for the Chiefs may be going back to the Super Bowl. She's won 23 to 14. I feel like we have to just start here. I think that this game specifically was the one where the Kansas City Chiefs became villains in this game. You think I feel like they've been there. No, I agree with that.

I think the people who already thought that felt certain and they saw everyone. who was kind of in the neutral zone. Like everyone joined. If it was like the balloon pop thing with the dating, everyone popped their fucking balloons on the Chiefs being the villains today. Like I didn't feel that way. And then I watched this game. I'm like,

all right, yeah, I get it. Like these guys got together and decided, yeah, we actually do hate the Chiefs. You know what's funny about the eyes? They got us to go. They got us to go. You know what's funny about that? I watched this game in an airport.

I was flying back from Oregon. I was in Sacramento on a layover. And I watched it with my buddy in an airport. And it's like, I guess Sacramento, you could argue that maybe there are Niner fans or something. So they hate him a little. little extra. But I was just at a random, like, restaurant in the airport, and the game was on, and the

bartenders, the waiters, and everybody sitting, eating and drinking at this bar, all of them collectively were just hating Patrick Mahomes. Yes, dude. And he absolutely crossed the Rubicon. Like, he's absolutely a villain now. And, like, again, I know that the back to like Super Bowls, but, like, I really think the average person, like, was radicalized by this game because there were a bunch of calls we can go through all of them.

The rest were terrible in this game. But there was a moment. There was a very specific moment. It was the flop. The flop was bad. He slowed down, trying to go out of bounds so he could try and get somebody to hit him and draw a foul. It was a Duke ass thing to do. It was the Duke basketball like borderline Grayson Allen shit.

Yeah. For Mahomes. And Troy Aikman called him on his bullshit immediately. Troy Aikman, the fucking goat was like, I don't agree with that at all. I mean, look, I have to be slowing down just to draw the flag. Oh, on the flop. This is horses shit. Did you see Vontes Burfax?

tweeted, if this gets 100,000 likes, I'll come back into league and end this man's career. It was just like a replay Was that really him? I don't know. You know, who knows? We'll go with it. We'll go with the legend. We're getting close to like NBA territory here

where we need to start instituting a rule where maybe it's not a penalty on the first flop, but there should be like a warning or something to Mahomes saying if you do that again, we're going to call penalty. I think they should actually. I actually totally, they really should because he's making, there are two things I think that would make a lot of the refereing better next year.

And I know that I've been keying like, oh, the refs are better. And to be clear, I'm not saying the referees are necessarily better in the field, but that the expedited replay was like a revelation where, like, we used to waste all this fucking time looking at touchdowns and all these things that we don't anymore. They clearly, clearly need to expand the expedited replay thing where they, instead of the rest making a call and then they replay it. And they're like, well, we have to go with the rest by default. The rest, basically, the new system is like expedited replay. They're like, we didn't fucking see what happened and we're going to admit it.

And then like, if they have an angle, that'd be great. and like they take 20 seconds to pause, they clearly need to expand that to the safety related penalties for face masks, roughing the passer, all these things clearly like, because I mean,

there's so many, let me pull up the list. The Phantom Will Anderson roughing the passer on Mahomes, which was terrible. And then Russell Yurk does the thing I can't stop on seeing with Craig now where Russell Yurk,

the ESPN ref comes in and says, yeah, it was a bad call. I don't see anything there. I'm like, all right, thanks, Russ. Yeah,

they probably should change that. That happens like once a game now. It does. Yeah. And so Steve Palo Zola at the 33nd tweeted out that that one call changed the win probably for the game 4%. Which for a penalty is like that's about as big as it gets. It's not like a 40-yard PI. The Xavier Hutchinson on the Texans was ruled short of the sticks.

I don't know how there was a drop tackle in Dalton Schultz that wasn't flagged. The Mahomes, the worst was the late slide. Yeah. Where he's like waiting long enough that it's almost like he wants to get clocked, Trevor Lawrence style. He's doing rober. Yeah, he really is ropa doping. And then the Texans... He's ropa doping these guys run into each other.

It was kind of like a sketch. It was like a fucking... Yeah, they took each other out. They Texans took each other out. And then they threw a flag on it. It was kind of like, it was like a bit. It was actually crazy. And then they threw the flag and I'm like,

oh, they took a long to do it. I'm like, they're going to pick this up. And then they just call it. And I'm like, this... And then after all that for him to flop, I really, I turned on him to. And I've been his biggest defender. And I'm like...

I completely agree with you, Hyven. So I felt like, like we crossed an inflection point with Mahomes where everyone is like, fuck this guy. This is great, though. You have to respect it. You need a villain. It was Tom Brady and now it's Patrick Mahomes. And this is great.

This is what you want. I totally agree. And like, I will say, again, I still love him. I want to draw a line. I get white people hate him. I get white people. That's really,

I get white people hate him. Like, I see it. And like, I want to be clear, the people were like, oh, it's rigged for the chiefs. No,

it's not. Like, no, it's not. Did you see what the, how the Texans played? Come on. Yeah, that's, well, that's the thing.

In this game, and like, Damika Ryan said it really well, which was like, I knew we wouldn't get the calls, which that we can talk about. But again, they get, I mean, just to list all the Texans thing, they missed an extra point. They missed a field goal. They had another field goal blocked. That right there is seven points. By the way, those three things put together cost me, it was a four point swing, right?

Because you got the, in terms of our middle seat bet, because you got the money ball because the Texans failed to cover there. All time. Did not deserve that. All time cover. They got the fucking kick blocked. And then they had a set. They took a safety.

The safety. Oh my God. We did the line eight and a half. Eight and a half. It ended up being nine and a half. All time. It was like a line all time like back to our cover or whatever. But God.

I will never forgive the Texan special teams. There's two teams on my shit list now. The Vikings for allowing Alvin Camara to score six touchdowns in a game on Christmas Day. I will never forgive you for that. I will never forgive the Texan special teams for being such fuck ups in this game. we were texting right before the play and High Fitz was like oh this is good the Texans are going to cover this they deserve

to cover I didn't deserve to win the money ball on this because whatever because the Chiefs didn't play very well and then I was like hold on something weird's going to happen and then right after that they fucking blocked the kick and I was just like you gotta be kidding I gotta say this might have been Apex Mountain this year we didn't do this on the fantasy every watch was what we should have I think this was Apex Mountain this year for showing

special teams coordinators on camera 100% yeah the Texans guy now they're showing him The Steelers guy. The Steelers guy. Who is the Steelers guy? Jimmy something? Dean Smith?

Jimmy Smith? Danny. Danny something. Danny Smith. The Texans, the first play when Chris Boyd shows the Texan special teams coordinator in the first play. And I'm like, oh my God. So Frank Ross was like losing his mind the entire game.

Yeah. Unhinged. Maybe it's because they gave up, they lost 10 points on special teams. But yeah, I mean, between, again. So brutal. Missed extra point, missed field goal. Another field goal block. That's seven.

They took like eight sacks. Yeah. And the opening kickoff, they let go 70 yards. Chiefs basically went three and out or whatever and then kicked the field goal. So that's 10 points in special teams. And then that's the other thing. Bobby Sloick lost the game for Steve Spagnolo. And like they lost two phases of the game.

Steve Spagnolo Chiefs defensive coordinator rocked the Texans. And again, Texan give up eight sacks. And then George Karloftus, a first round defensive end for the Kansas City Chiefs. Got three sacks. All three sacks. He was scheme to be on Dalton Schultz, the starting tight end for the Texans. That is what it's like when Steve Spaggnollo. That's what you have Chris Jones.

That's also. Well, that too. But also that's what a sick. Chris Jones allows a 64-year-old Steve Spagnolo to just kind of like smack around like Bobby Sloke, 37, whatever he is. That's where the three decades comes out. The final car left is sack too.

They finally tried to figure it out. They sent a back and a tight end to block him. They sent two guys to block one guy, and he still got a sack. The other play I wanted to talk about, which was absolutely disastrous, was the fourth down play where I can't remember exactly where they were on the fields,

like just past the 50-yard line or something like that. They broke the huddle with six, seconds on the play clock and still tried to run the play on fourth down. And they didn't get it. They got sacked, I believe. And it was just like, call time out, dude. You don't get to save those for the next week. D'emico Ryan's. Six seconds

on the play clock. D'emico Ryan's, the head coach of the Texans did such an amazing job with this defense and the Texans team the last two weeks. That was his biggest failure as head coach. That was tough. Was that was like in that situation, I understand obviously you don't want to burn the time out.

You have to do it there. Taking the huddle with six seconds to go, sometimes actually getting the playoff is worse than like. And it was a total disaster play too. Like, of course you'd expect it to be. Exactly. And like it ended up. So, so. So, so.

So, and then it was so. And that one, what happens? Stroud took that ridiculous sack, right? I believe, yes. I'm trying to. Self-inflicted wounds. I think he took a sack on that play. And so, yeah, just the whole thing was pretty tough.

Um, but yeah. So, but again, I, but I also totally acknowledge. And again, I will just say also, the Texans offense. line was a mess. It was a mess the whole season. No one knew their job and who to block the whole season. And again, they died as they lived. I think that's Bobby Sloke. I think frankly, should probably be replaced for the Texans next season. We'll see. I don't know how you bring him back.

But I still admit the refs were bad. Having said that, as soon as the most chiefs thing ever was Mahomes doing that flop and the next fucking play, Patrick Holmes midsack falling down, throws the ball to Travis Kelsey. Like an iconic play. Catches it just stares down one defender on the ground while the defender behind him, just like, surrender Cobra on his helmet. And I'm like, that's the Chiefs. That's the Chiefs. Everything you need to do about, but the Kansas City Chiefs is those two plays.

Mahomes flopping, not getting it, and then out of pure anger, throws a touchdown pass parallel with the ground. I wanted the Chiefs to win this game. And I don't want them to win the Super Bowl, but I wanted to win this game because they're just like, you need them to be in the mix. They are the villain that

you want to lose, but you want them to also be in the game. You know what I mean? Like, I wanted it to be Josh Allen versus Mahomes or Lamar versus Mahomes. So even though it's like, I desperately don't want them to win the Super Bowl, I think, I don't know, maybe I even would be okay with it. Like we'd watch a three-peat. We'd be witnessing something. So our producer Carlos really wants or is rooting for Mahomes because he's like,

I like to witness greatness. It was probably awesome to watch MJ go to do the double three-peat. So I'm like in this weird zone where I really don't want them to win. I would love for the bills or the commanders to win, not really the Eagles. But I don't know, part of me is also like, I don't know if they do three in a row and there's this Travis Kelsey Renaissance in the playoffs like this is also kind of cool.

Craig there's a there's a feeling and this is from someone who lived through like the you know I was you guys were alive I think but just barely during the Michael Jordan three Pete's not the first one but yeah it does feel like you're part of history or something like that you're living

it's like the Berlin Walls coming down it's something that's like momentous from a sports point of view obviously but like it it does have this thing where you can pin where you were at that time when the the We're winning their three titles in a row, or whatever, two different times.

And I feel that way a little bit about the Patriots. Like the Patriots were the defining team, you know, of the 2000, those two decades, basically. And I don't know, it is kind of cool to be like a part of that or to like witness it. So I kind of am the same. Like, it wouldn't be a total disappointment to me if the Chiefs went to the Super Bowl

and won and we saw it to repeat. We're like witnessing history. But it's also just kind of like boring. I'm kind of sick of it. There's Chief Eagles. Well, that's the thing, though. It's like, I talked about this with your friend Jackson the other day of just like hegemony where it's weird because imagine in 20 years, 25 years, if some like snot-nosed 16-year-old kid tries to compare someone that just won a Super Bowl to Tom Brady. You'd freak out, right?

Like you're going to lose your mind. You're like, you have no idea what you're talking about. I didn't like love watching Tom Brady win. But like I will defend it because to your point, there's something in your DNA where you don't, you want to rebel against greatness while it's happening to you. but you also want your prime to have aligned with some important thing. And it's not just sports, it's anything. Like you want to allow.

So it's this weird thing where people are rooting against Mahomes, but you also like later in your life will absolutely argue for how great it was. Like there's a reason people like Bill are never going to like relent that Jordan was the best. But also I don't know if people were necessarily, I mean, it depends. It's different.

But like it's weird how people decide which greatness to attach themselves to in the moment versus later. If a different team wins is a Super Bowl every year, that's fun. That is spread out. And that's one thing. But also, if the Chiefs win three in a row, when I'm 65 years old and I'm bouncing my grandchildren on my knee, like, I think I would rather be like, yeah, I was in my 20s when Patrick Mahomes was like setting records in the Chiefs for the supervillains of the NFL rather than, oh, yeah, a different team won the Super Bowl every year for my 20s. To that point, Craig, I want to just give a quick recap.

I think it's easy to forget what Mahomes has done. But in his career as a starting quarterback, 2018, lost in the AFC championship, he was a team. championship game in overtime. 2019, wins Super Bowl. 2020, 2020, loses Super Bowl.

2021, loses an AFC championship game in overtime. 2022, wins Super Bowl. 2023, wins Super Bowl.

Now he's in the AFC championship game again. If he literally has not, he's not not made it to the AFC championship. If he loses the championship game in regulation, it would be the worst outcome of his career. Right. It's actually insane what he's doing,

you know, witnessing greatness. The only, the difference this year is it's just more annoying. because of the way they're winning. They're not dominating. They're like eking these things out. Even the game yesterday against the Texans.

The Texans, I saw this stat from ESPN stats and info. Our buddy Ben Solac retweeted this. The Texans are the first team to outgain their opponent by 100 plus yards, not turn the ball over and lose in the playoffs. Previous teams are 49 and 0. Yeah. Yeah. This is crazy.

That's Chief Football. It is. And also it's the Texans fucking up 10 points and extra points. But also, and that's the thing. It's like they pull it out. but also it's coaching. And that's part of the reason they get the calls since it's Mahomes being a little too smart

and a little too much like trying to get the flags. But also it's coaching. Leo Chanel blocked the extra point. He blocked the Broncos kick. You know what I mean? Like their coaching is really good on this chief's team. Especially now that the Lions lose both their coordinators. Like they have an infrastructure in this league

where I believe there are no offensive coordinators taking out the head calling the play calling head coaches. There are no play calling offensive coordinators who have been with your team. since before 2020. Yeah, like more than two years. Andy Reid, motherfucker has been there for like longer than he's been with the Eagles at this point.

Like, Andy Reid's been there since 2013. And like there's just, and Steve Spagdolo, again, most Super Bowl wins of any coordinator ever, going to be with the Chiefs forever because no one wants to hire him, even though, because he did get a couple of interviews, didn't he? Yeah, they're not going to hire him. They should, though. But.

Because they're going to be in the Super Bowl and other teams are going to be like, ah, we got to hire somebody. Yep. But like, again, the Mahomes thing, I do want to go back to the greatness conversation just because I think it's interesting because there's such a difference, and we've talked to with this between like March Madness, team sports and individual sports. March Madness, everyone wants to, you know, unless you're a psychopath, everyone wants the younger, you know, the lower seeds to win. Like everyone's rooting for the

16 to beat the one unless you have some rooting interest with the one. And then in team sports, it's somewhere else. But then individual sports, there's this weird thing that happens where if you are like a tennis fan and like, whether it's Federer, Nadal Djokovic in the day, Al-Karez now, if you go to a tennis match, you go to a tennis match and you root for Carlos Al-Karez or Nadal or anyone, or Jokovic to lose in the first round, you are a psychopath, you are, like, ostracized. Like, people think you're an alien. Like, rooting for the underdog in an individual sport is, like, crazy.

It's not a thing. Like, people were not, like, Tiger Woods, like, Phil Mickelson, like, people do not want the nobodies to upset the great players in individual sports because you want the individual greatness. People do want to bask in the individual greatness. And it gets complicated. Yeah, like, during Tigers run of, yeah, I totally get that. Tiger Woods was in a.

playoff. One day, Monday, U.S. Open playoff against Rocco Mediate, who was just like this wonderful, crazy story, and everyone wanted Tiger Woods to win, which is crazy. But if it was March Madness, no one does that. Team sports are somewhere in between. People like, fuck Duke.

Dude, even after all the stuff came out about Tiger Woods, the year he won the Masters, everybody was thrilled. Yeah. No one wants the other people to win, but like, I don't know. So the Chiefs thing is like, I think exactly halfway between how we feel about like college basketball, And, you know, those individual sports where it's like we do want to have seen Mahomes,

but there is also like something about like, oh, but fuck these guys. I don't know. It's a weird thing. Can I give you one more weird stat from the weekend? Please. Yeah. Our buddy Derek Thompson, who has a podcast at the ringer, playing English, tweeted this. Great podcast.

Love that podcast. NFL teams with the most total yards went 0 and 4 this weekend. Yeah. It's all turnovers, baby. That's unbelievable. Don't turn the ball over. Lions turned over five. Honestly, the lion's turning the ball over five times and still getting 31 points.

It's crazy. They also, they interviewed Sequin and asked what he said to Jalen Hertz, and he said that he was asking for the play call. Wow. So he did kind of call a shot. Yeah. Get out of here. Oh, he was asking what it was.

Yes. I thought you meant he asked to run a specific play. No, no. He was asking Hertz. Like, what are we doing here? What am I supposed to go? I want to know where to go. Run that way.

It's like force. get out of here. I also want to know Josh Allen try to flip that ball away. The last thing I want to say before we get out of here, unless we find out what Josh Allen said about if he tried to flip the ball away to go on. DK, we cannot go another episode. Can you do your thing on the farmer's dog commercials? The farmer's dog commercials are the organic dog food? Oh, yeah. Organic dog food. I think I draw the line at organic food when it comes to dog food. Okay. Especially my dog specifically who a dog, love George to death.

Great dog. He eats his own shit. I'm not going to spend a whole bunch more money to get him not, like to get him organic food when he's literally eating his own shit. You know what I mean? He wants to eat rocks. He'll eat whatever. And I love George.

I mean, a baby will eat glue that doesn't mean you should get it to it. Yeah, but it's a dawn. I don't know. I was like in my like grumpy mode. I was like, yeah, here's the deal. The palms not taking reservations. He's a fucking dog. I understand so-and-so as a new chef.

Also, here's the deal. You're a fucking dog. I'm like, I refuse to, like, I barely buy organic food for my family. I'm not doing it for my dog. I'm sorry. I love my dog. Process, rock-hard kibble.

Couldn't name a single, couldn't read, I couldn't pronounce a single ingredient in it. I'm not trying to poison my dog, but you know what? I draw the line at getting him or being a dog. We once had to postpone an episode. episode because D.K. was like, sorry, my dog threw up, ate the throw up, but now his diarrhea with the throw. No, he, he ate his own shit and then he threw up his shit in the house. So it was shit throw up in my house. Well, maybe if you got a, you know, farmer's dog, he wouldn't

be throwing up the shit. If organic food would make him stop eating his own shit, I would definitely buy it. Well, I could be worth a shot. What if he, we give him. these pills that are, they're called like no poo or something like that, pills. We give him pills that are supposed to stop him from eating his own shit, but he just greedily laps it up regardless. He just loves it. Healthy bacteria.

He turns around and he'll turn around. Right after it's out, he'll turn around and eat it. I feel like Gwyneth Paltrow is like one year away from eating her own poop. So maybe he's ahead of the game. He's like a new California health craze. Yeah, it's like a gut health thing. A lot of healthy bacteria in your feces. Should that be our farmer's dog? Just farmer's shit.

just sell the farmer's dog shit I'm gonna get a lot of I'm gonna get pet owners that are very upset with me I suppose no I think there's gonna be a lot more pet owners dog food it's like normal dog food I have a prediction

what is in dog fantasy football Gmail.com if you have thoughts and DKs on what you would feed your dog I think that for every person who's mad at you you will have 10 times more people relieved that another person's like I'm not fucking paying for this kind of buying organic dog food I'm sorry what is dog food just like like

like dried processed like meats and veggies and things. And there's wet food too. Yeah, but I'm saying like classic dog kibble. Is that just like dehydrated dry like meats and chemicals and that's the prime. Don't think about it. He's a healthy boy. He's a healthy young boy.

And he's doing fine. Yeah, he seems to be doing all right. He's great. Eating his own shit, having a good time. Love his life. Yeah. I give him treats. I give him, you know, I give him the poo pills, which he likes.

They're like these chewable. Of course. He likes anything. He looks at me. He cannot wait to get those poo pills. They're not pills. They're like little treats. And I give him, there's a few different foods that every time I like open up the refrigerator

and pull out a specific drawer, he like runs over to me because he knows he's going to get some. I give him cheese because he got trained on cheese so he loves cheese. I give him pieces of my toast sometimes. He gets plenty of good foods. Do you think this is how the Titans talk about Will Levin? She's shelling out for organic dog food.

This is the Titans talking about what Levis. They're like, we give him pills so he doesn't eat his own shit, but he keeps eating his own shit. We give James, we give James no pick six pills. I think we need to double our dosage. It's not working. Now he's throwing up the shit. Yeah, he just loves him. All over the field.

Oh, my God. Anyway, I treat George well, I think. I hope. He would work for farmer's dog and wants to like, you know, make the case for farmer's dog. email sereniceteple at gmail.com I mean, it's probably more healthy, let's be honest. Yes. But I eat

processed food too, so maybe I'm just a terrible person. You guys, next week, so the championship week is set, the matchups are set, it's going to be next Sunday. I, once again, am going to be in New York City recording from a hotel room. No way!

You make a noise complaint? Yeah, I'm trying to figure out if the hotel has like a media room or something that I can tape in because it's also gonna be super late and this time I'm gonna be with my wife Liz so I genuinely don't know how that's good I'm definitely gonna get a noise complaint from Liz

if not the other people on my floor Well the games are it's six six six 30 So like it'll be it'll be earlier than usual It'll be a Sunday night at like tennis Which is like right when people are probably going to bed Yeah that's kind of true You can't do a media center and take a noise complaint out of play I feel like the best possible outcome

is you get another noise complaint Yeah and then I just bring the mic over to them. But it's a tricky situation when you're with your partner because like what else is she going to do? Like she just has to sit there and listen to me. She just joined the pod. And for people confused, Craig literally got a noise complaint.

Craig literally got a noise complaint in New York. Honestly, it's one of the funniest things that's ever happened in the show is Craig got a noise complaint recording a show from a hotel room in New York. And the afterward is so it's some of the best. We can re-up the clip on Twitter. Craig big time, dude. He dropped the ringer on him. Yeah.

He was vaguely aware of Bill Simmons in the ringer. So that kind of gave me some brownie points. He was very nice guy. That guy was super chill, actually. He was like, I don't know what you're doing, man. I know you're passionate about football, but. Screaming about. What were we screaming about again?

I said, I declare bankruptcy. I was screaming that. I was like, hey, man, I don't know if this makes. He declared bankruptcy. We were arguing about my Stevie Nix idea for a vampire juvebox musical of a Twilight. Craig's screaming. I declared bankruptcy.

Craig's like yelling at me about my vampire musical idea. And I really felt compelled to make sure this man knew that I was not just doing this, like, on the phone with my friend for fun, that this was technically for my job. He's quoting the office. God, that's good. So we'll see part two coming next Sunday. If anyone can find that guy, please email us. I would love. I hope he's a listener of the pod now.

We made a listener for life. Email us for your fantasy football at gmail.com. If you have thoughts on the farmer's dog, farmer's dog shit, if anyone wants to invest in farmer's dog shit, that could be like parent company with gentlemen's Piss Club, you know, there's like something there. There we go. And then hotel room guy, if anyone can figure out who had that noise complaint from Craig, please find us. Thank you, D.K., thank you, Craig. Thank you

to all, thank you to the refs for the content. Thank you, Carlos. Thank you, Kai. Thank you, Austin. Thank you, Aaron for listening. Three games left. That's crazy. Thank you, Lorne. Lauren. Thank you, Roy Orbison. Nice. Blue by you. Never. I was trying to come up

with a dog thing, and it was like blanking. I think I've already said three dog night. What? Roy Orbison sounds like someone to play with Steve Van Buren and Bucco. Yeah, he's a little cool. He's like from the like 50s and 60s. He has a song called Blue by you that I bet you know, Hyvitz. Blue by you, okay.

Anything you want. This guy looks like someone who is just like ripping darts with Truman Capote or something. Yeah. He kind of looks like Troy Orbison is like one of the other people on the Dewey Cox movie. probably you know he grew up in that era I know that Dewey Cox movie was like a parody but like that's time that's like the crew I think yeah you don't want any of this shit Dewey

what are you trying marijuana does it give you a hangover? No it doesn't give you a hangover wow it sounds like it must be really expensive it's the cheapest drug there is that's like honestly maybe the best scene from any movie ever. It's the cheapest drug there is.

The Titanic sex better. It's the Titanic scene on the door with Rose and Jack and then that. I think I kind of want it. That and Jalen Hurts. You don't want any of the shit, do we? Spit off this planet. All right, goodbye everyone. Must be 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas

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