The Ringer NFL Show - Wild-Card Recap: Horrible Herbert, Lamar MV3, Josh & James COOK, and Abe Lincoln Stands Alone

Episode Date: January 13, 2025

The guys recap all things wild-card weekend, including a game-winning doink, the Packers-Eagles letdown, the dominant Bills, Herbert’s meltdown, and much more (2:25). Later, they react to Mike Vrabel becoming the next head coach for the New England Patriots, how he’ll impact Drake Maye, and what his hiring means for the team’s future (01:16:24). 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

What's happening? It's Todd McShay, and I'm back with a new home and a new show at the Ringer and Spotify. The McShay Show. It's a video and audio podcast coming to you year round with all my NFL draft information, big boards, mock drafts, and player movement. Plus, I'll be chatting with some of my best friends in football, including some of your favorite football analysts. During the week, we'll have episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays that will include discussions about my player rankings, who's rising, who's falling, and who your NFL team should be. keeping an eye on. Plus, we'll be reacting each week to the college football playoff polls and giving you previews and picks for each Saturday slate. In addition, I'll have episodes on Saturday nights with my immediate reaction to the full day in college football every week. So if you love the college game, the NFL, the draft, or all of it like me, make sure to like, follow, subscribe, and get ready for

the McShay show on the ringer, Spotify, and wherever you watch or listen to podcasts. Football show, my name is Danny Highton. I'm joined by Danny, Kaley, Craig, Worldbaker. We were going over all the games from Wild Card Weekend, except for the one on Monday because there's football games. It hasn't happened yet. Yeah, it hasn't happened yet. The other five that have happened,

we're going to go over all the Wild Card weekend, games, and just reminder, you know, we're the fantasy football show. We go over all the games in the playoffs, recaps and previews, in the NFL draft show, in the off season, and trades and coach hirings and coach firings and all that jazz. We'll get to Mike Vrable being hired by the page at the end of this episode. We ain't leaving it in mind.

What did you just say? So we ain't leaving. Oh yeah, sure. Yeah, we ain't leaving. Good call. So we're going to get in all these games. The one time I quote a movie that you guys watch all the time. You said we ain't leaving, but it's the quote is like, I'm not fucking leaving.

Yeah, it's the tone. It's everything. And he says, I'm not we. Well, where are we? All right. That's fine. All right. All right.

I fucked it up. Batched it. Botch. Show goes on. I want to need a wrecking crew to get me out of here. Okay, thank you. Yeah, wrecking crew. Saved my ass.

tackle Baker, but I kind of think that, I don't know, the big, I don't want to say the Bucks botched this at the end of this game, but there were a lot of botches that I feel like the Bucks could have walked away with the win. So we just watched this Sunday Night of football game. And Washington beat the, sorry, well, yeah, Washington beat the Buccaneers, 2320 with another walk-off field goal from the commanders. But the, I mean, Baker, they had that botched handoff deep in their own end zone after they had that goal line stand.

then they had the snap or the base, it seems like the center, Graham Barton, box the snap. And I'm like, I don't want to be dramatic. And I'm not trying to take away from the rest of the game,

which was really the best game, maybe the whole weekend. Yeah. But those two plays are the ones that most stand out in my mind. I'm not saying that that's the difference, but those are the ones where if you're the bucks, like I feel like you're going to think about those plays all off season.

Dude, it's brutal. I mean, it's like this is a great example of just like how slim the margins are in the NFL. It's like these two little. things that in theory should be so easy. But even in like, what is it, week 19 technically or whatever, like things

like this can still happen. The first play was Jalen McMillan was running across the formation on like a fake sweep looking thing and like ran into Baker Mayfield and he dropped the ball. It's just like the timing was slightly off by like half a second. And that might have been the center too because Collinsworth was on that real quick that it might have not even been Baker's fault that it might have been like

the snap was just late. And so the timing with Baker and the fake was late. It's just a great. It's another just a good example of how hard this shit is. It's so hard to just execute at an NFL level. Ultimately, I think the right team won, although I think the right team won every game this weekend. That's a great take.

I think this was... I think the teams that won deserve to win. The teams that scored more. But you know what I mean? Like, I believe that every team that won was the best team. You don't always feel the way. I thought this game tonight, Buck's Commanders, is the one game where I'm like,

I think these teams are actually quite even. Like watching the game, I mean, it ended up being so close. but I was going either way on which team I thought deserved to go on. But ultimately, it's way more fun to have Jaden Daniels than the next round. Yeah, I was really, I felt really fucking stupid for switching my pick in the middle of the show when I live in Washington, D.C. And I'm like, this Washington team is so much more fun. I don't know why. It was literally just you two picked Washington and I think I just didn't want to be on the side with you two.

But no, I mean, Washington, I mean, they played better. And again, it's just Jane Daniels is the best player in the game. And I really, I don't want to be dramatic and hyperbolic. and he doesn't deserve to be on the level of Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen or obviously Mahomes yet. You don't think he deserves to be on the same? No, I'm saying Mahomes is probably his own tier. And then Lamar and Josh, depending what you think,

whether they are on Mahomes' level just with the Super Bowls or not. I kind of think Jane Daniels is already in that third tier. Whatever you want to put a level below Josh and Lamar, I don't know who you're putting above Jayden Daniels right now. You know what especially after Justin Herbert and everything. We don't have to go through quarterback rankings right now. But I am just so continually impressed. No, let's do that.

Should we, yeah, just go through 132? But how many quarterbacks do you want over Jen Daniels? Like, watching this game? I'm like, how many would you really pick to win a game? Even in the playoffs over Jen Daniels? I feel like it's like six max. To be honest, I agree. The stuff with his legs tonight, he was good with his legs,

but I thought it was the stuff he did on like third longs to stick it in the pocket and like hitting McLaren over the middle and it was right on the money. That was, I was actually much more impressed with his poise as a thrower tonight than he was. He's always good as a runner. And I actually thought, they bottled him up nicely in a lot of ways,

and they were beating the shit out of him, especially early on. He had that one run out of bounds where he got like suplexed out of bounds. He's bleeding in Collinsworth is like, they're all they fixing the blood because he's just a quarterback. He's bleeding. I mean, he looks real skinny out there. There was that one play where the guy went into his knee

and they called the flag and that looks. Oh, that looks bad. Like something bad could have happened. He was fun. The fact that he was, he looked so mature for a rookie, sticking in the pocket, hitting all these guys on huge third downs,

third longs. It's amazing. I just implore you, Jay and Daniels, please stop jumping while you're about to get hit. This is part of the reason, like, you know, like the Looney Tunes things that he was doing at LSU. Yeah, he came back

tonight. Half of them were just like, he jumps at the wrong moment and then, because he's so light, he just literally gets like thrown. He's kind of like video game gravity. I think the wind blows him off the ground a little bit sometimes. It's kind of like Grand Theft Auto Ragdoll, like he looks like he gets hit by a car in GTA and he just like a

pedestrian just going flying. There was, there was in the pre-draft process, there was people that were comparing him to Lamar Jackson. And I kind of at the time scoffed at that a little because obviously, like, Lamar is one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL and multi-time MVP, you know, blah, blah, but there was times tonight and during the whole season really where I was like watching Jane Daniels. I'm like, they do kind of move similarly in the way that they like avoid the rush so effortlessly. Dude.

And kind of like keep, keep plays alive, by themselves an extra beat to get a throw off. like there's definitely some similarities there where I'm just like huh man that third down I should have been like way more excited about this guy coming into the to the league that third down well I mean you had them I mean I had him high but like I should have I mean in retrospect you should have been my top rank player probably

I mean look I mean that number that third down to seal the game where they got that like first down at the end of the game where Washington kind of just set up that last field goal and can see just the collagic can see for the bucks just comes right up the middle. And Jaden Daniels just, I feel like he stiffs arm and stiffs arms him and just buys him like what, a quarter of a second with a little push-off and just puts himself ever so slightly out of reach on a player. Just so effortless too. That's what it looks like. Everything looks easy. Honestly, how, maybe I'm being dumb, but how many plays did Jaden Daniels make this year that

looked hard? Yeah. But like nothing, like he never looks flummox. That to me is actually the main similarity with Lamar, where Lamar has this bizarre quality. We're going to talk about Cam Ward, a lot of the draft show. But, like, Lamar is this weird quality where even when Trey Hendrickson, the sack leader is like bearing down on Lamar, he just never looks like he's actually struggling. Yeah, that's exactly what I mean with the Jane Daniels thing. It's just like his ability to like operate in the pocket when it's muddied and there's guys all around him.

And he just, he stays calm. He just kind of, he just, he knows and trusts that he's like faster than everyone else around him. and he can just kind of like get out of it. He does the Lamar like pointing out blocks as he's about to scramble. You go here, you go there. I know where I'm going. I also think to be honest,

he's a better passer than Lamar was when Lamar came in the league. A hundred percent. He's a better. He's, his passing is better now than Lamar's probably was honestly even in the MVP. I don't know. Like, I don't know if Lamar in 2019 was as good of a passers.

There was a long time, even now every once in a while, you're like, man, Lamar, Jaden doesn't really have that. I feel like every time he makes a throw I'm like, it was a pretty good decision, pretty good throw out. That made sense. Yeah. I mean, he's he had that thrown to the end zone. The call that they did not give a PI to when they went to my

friend Terry McCauley in the booth. I feel like Jaded. Terry, Terry, was that a PI? Yep, that was a PI. Oh great. So they missed that call. Yeah, they missed that call. Back to you guys. Should have been on the one earlier. Okay, thanks Terry. Thanks, Terry. When Craig first pointed at that out, how annoying that was,

I was like, Craig, you're so wrong. And then every week it kind of, you ship away. More tweets come trickling it of people being like, wait, this is annoying that there's a ref in the booth just disagreeing with the refs on the field all the time. Wrong. But anyway, my point was that like, I even think on that play,

Jaden noticed nobody was open and he threw it to, was it Zach Ertz? I forget. He threw it that way because he knew he was getting held and he would get a PI. Yeah. And that's like, he's already operating on that level. Yes. Mahomes is the kick. Yeah, no, just everything Jaden Daniels has done from even week one, but

certainly since week two when they didn't freaking punt. versus the Giants. He has just been ahead of the curve the entire time. So, yeah, I mean, and then look, the other thing about this game, the other thing I think if you're the bucks and you're kind of rewing about this game is, I feel like Mike Evans was absolutely dominating Marshall and Latimore.

And they almost didn't take enough advantage of it. Like, I kind of can't believe. That was so one-sided. Yeah, it was wild. Like the, I don't know. I mean, it's so funny because we talk, I feel like you talk about cliches and all this stuff so much, third downs, red zones.

And then you kind of get a little tired of it sometimes. Like, oh, we get it. And then you get to the playoffs, you know what, man, you spend your whole offseason thinking about the third downs and the Redsend opportunities you didn't hit. And you're like, how did the Bucks only score 10 points in the first half when it's like, man, you feel like the Bucks like they were running it with Bucky and like Mike Evans had Lattimore.

And then it's like a play here and a play there and it doesn't happen. But you're, I mean, the fact that the Washington even convinced themselves they should put Lattimore one and one. It sounds like Lattimore convinced them. Collinsworth said on the broadcast that they didn't want to do it. Lattimore was like, no, I'm going one-on-one. They're like, all right. Like, dude, you played two games.

Like, I don't know how we convinced them to do that. Like, that almost cost them all game. Yeah, because he was getting torts. Mike Evans was open all night. They'd change it at halftime. But, like, I don't know if you're the box. I think you kind of almost wonder if you didn't take enough advantage of it. Yeah.

Mike Evans was great tonight. Well, they did go to him on the one yard line on, I think it was a first out when they threw the touchdown to him. Like, they could have easily just ran that in. But I think there was like an element of like, this is a little bit personal. Well, and they also hear that this isn't like some all-time Super Bowl play. but there is kind of like how there's a bunch of performances or amazing plays that got to race because they lost the game. Like, you know, the Julio Jones catch in the Super Bowl that Falcons lost

or the Marcus Page U.N.C. shot that got a race by Yukon. Mike Evans's catch falling backward extension for the first down. That was immediately followed up by Baker fumbling away. Like, we didn't get to linger on how incredible that play was. Well, that was also right after the fourth down, or sorry, the goal line stand by the Buccaneers defense when they had the commander's had a first and goal from the one and they kept him out in four plays.

And that's like, again, mind you, this is a team that was 87% on fourth down this last year. Unstoppable on four downs. I want to, Craig, I want to call you out for being a boomer real quick. I'm going to just read it. I'm going to just read a text you said. Bring it. Go ahead.

I stand by it. Okay. I'm that guy standing up in court. That meme. No, yeah, you were, you know, yeah, I think that's Abe Lincoln. Oh, is that Abe Lincoln? I didn't even know that. The guy's standing up.

Yeah, that's Abe Lincoln in the fucking scene. Yes. That's not Abe Lincoln, is it? Yes, it is. Oh, God, is it really? He kind of looks like a, what is this meme from? That's the contemporary painter who does those crazy pictures of presidents. I thought it was like Abe Lincoln.

Oh, I didn't, I didn't ever, that never crossed. I was by Norman Rockwell. Oh, if it's not Lincoln, I'm going to end this show. No, we're not going to have it. It depicts a scene from the 1942 Arlington town meeting in which Jim Edgerton, the lone to center in the town

town selectmen's announced plans. It's some random fucking like Anyway, Hyphitz, go ahead. Call me out right now for my text. Almost certainly not Abe Lincoln. Anyway, Hyphids, go ahead. Make fun of me for what I texted you? Yeah, go ahead.

Right. This is throwing your fancy football show. Thank you, D.K., thank you, Craig. Thank you for producing him at the end of the show. it's inspired by Franklin D. Roosevelt's State of the Union address. Just more L's pile on the L's. TK. I'm a band.

Name a band. We got to get out of here. Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. I'm in too deep. All right.

Whatever. Craig basically, you were like causing him watching it out. I think it ever so slightly looks like Abe Lincoln. He's wearing like modern clothes. Yes, he's wearing like a leather jacket or something. I thought it was that weird painter who does the modern things of the presidents. Like, they're all hanging out.

You know that one? It's like all the Republican president. hanging out, that weird painter? There's all the stuff. I don't know. Whatever, man. All right, well, I'll never recover. He does look like Abe Lincoln, doesn't he?

Look, hey, it's over. Find a new show. All right, fine, whatever. Anyway, so the point is weird painter. It's just AI. It was like Vincent Van Gogh. Anyway.

What were we talking about? Yeah. I don't know. So Washington. Hyviz was about to docks my take. I was going to docks you because when Washington went forward on a fourth down on the first time they did.

10 times. You said... Well, no, but you texted it the first time. Yeah. The first time you said, I don't understand why they're doing this. You're being greedy, basically like, just take the points. Yeah. Yeah.

And I think that this game is the perfect example of why you go front and fourth down when you are, again, hitting fourth downs this season better than Michael Jordan hit free throws. And so we're... 87%. Washington finished three or five on fourth down. And for all the fourth down conversations, I actually think the nerds and the end of the analytic people have made a super miscalculation and how they explain this to people.

The reason you do it is that two field goals are worth less than one touchdown, which never gets discussed. But that's the entire fucking point. More than double. Yeah, yeah. It's like, so if the first, so like they didn't go, they went for a fourth down the first

time. They didn't get it. And then they went back on the next drive. They went for a fourth down again. And they got a touchdown. That's seven points. If they took the field goal both times, that's six. points. And so, like, over the course of the game, if you get the two touchdowns, which they did

eventually get two touchdowns from fourth down conversions, that's 14 on the two. If you took the field goal all four times, that's 12. And I know, like, it's more. Even if you get in half the time, it's still more than 12. And so this to me was a good example of why you do it because you have, they went three of five. If they had gone, they would have had to go one of five for the math to ultimately not work out.

That implies your scoring every time you get a fourth down conversion on that. No, I'm saying if you make half of them to a touchdown, you get more points than taking the points every time. Assuming you make every field goal, hitting half the fourth downs gets more. That's what I'm trying to say. Are you done?

So when you're hitting it at 87% clip, sorry. Can I add something too before Craig? Yeah, go ahead. I'll put my mic down. The only thing I'm tilting for me is like I'm like I am a little less, uh, I'm more in the middle on this. I think I'm like less motivated by like,

Hyfitz's specific example where they got, they had four fourth downs. They got two of them that therefore they scored more points than they would have, if they would have just kicked four field goals. To me it's more just like this is what they did all year long. Why would they change now? Like this is in their DNA. This is,

this is what they're extremely good at. This is literally the reason I picked them. in this game is because I had in my mind an image of Jane Daniels stiff-arming a guy on third and short because he's a magician and he's awesome on third and short and fourth and short. And just keep doing what you're doing because this is how you got here. I don't know. It's like part of their identity to do this. It's part of their personality.

And so that's why I was like more in favor of them continuing to do this. I do understand Craig's point of view, though. Craig, why don't you give your point of view? Right, right. You know, first of all. Stand up like Abe Lincoln. This guy does look like Abe Lincoln. Is it my turn?

Yeah, sorry. Do it in JFK boys. First of all, you know, like, you know how a group text with your friends is just kind of people just like throwing things out and it doesn't always mean that they're like fully backing it with the force of a thousand opinions? I just kind of said that as an in-the-moment feeling

and then you two went on an analytical rant about why I'm technically wrong. So look, that's all well and good. All I'm saying is is that sometimes it's the playoffs and the Bucksie was all over, Jane Daniels, and they were going forward on like fourth and fours, fourth and five. I was like, hey, sometimes it's okay to take the points.

It's a lost start in this damn game. You know what I mean? Doug Peterson ruined the NFL by going forward on fourth down too much. It's like, yeah, if it's fourth and one and you have Jane Daniels and you can run a little run-pass option or whatever, and like that's probably going to work. And you have Brian Robinson, that's probably going to work,

fourth and one, sure. Playoffs, fourth and four, fourth and five. The long ones didn't convert. They didn't convert. Maybe take the points on a fourth and four, Dan. That's all I'm saying. I think for me viscerally, I reel and I get like, it makes me uncomfortable when I hear the words, take the points. Because it's so just like.

In five years, if you would have just said, if you would have just said, they should have kicked a field goal there. I'd probably been like, yeah, you're probably right. But you said, take the points. And I was just like, I don't like that term. It's just like it's coded. You know what I mean? Yes. I get the analytics.

But sometimes if it's fourth and five and you're on the 30 and it's a 47-yard field goal, you've got to convert a fourth and five. Just kick the field goal. I will say, though, so I mean, we'll get to the rest of the games in a second, but I do think Washington is actually connected to the rest of these teams in a lesser way. But so many of the teams that won this weekend and are like that we expect to win the Super Bowl, they all can run the ball and they all have this ability that they either have a crazy rushing quarterback who can bully, honestly.

And Washington's almost like the finesse version of it. But if you look at all these teams, Washington, but like really, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Buffalo, the Lions, and Kansas City, actually, not only can they pass the ball, obviously, but they all can have these like nine minute drives where even if they had a fourth and one, like, you're not even phased. And these teams have this ability to like physically dominate in the running game to the point where you're getting crazy time of possession. I mean, I think the Ravens had the ball for 40 minutes of the 60. The Eagles, sorry, the bills at the ball for 40 minutes of the 60. Like the bills had the most rushing yards in their first two drives in a playoff game in 10 years. The Ravens had a 13 play drive where all 13 plays were runs. You know what I mean?

Like Washington on all the fourth downs tonight and the best fourth down team, I mean, ever, basically. Again, 87% hit ran a fourth down. The Eagles ran for 2,000 yards of Sequan. Like all, I don't know if we've had a playoff since we've been doing this really where there's, like six, I'm not counting Washington as good as those teams, but Washington's like the finesse version, but we have four or five other power rushing teams this year. And it really feels like the defining aspect of like who's going to win the Super Bowl is like, who can run, who can stop, who can stop. But like that's the core identity of so many of these teams.

It's old school, you know, kind of like back when we used to kick field goals on four to take the points. Back we used to take the points. Run the ball, kick field goals. You know what? That's how they played with Abe Lincoln stood up at that town meeting. That's how they played football. I'm never going to get over the Abe Lincoln thing. Establing.

Dude, Dickie, that sounds so good. D.K., did that not feel incredible? Doesn't he look like Abe Lincoln? That was like an orgasm. Doesn't he look like Abe Lincoln? Look at this guy. We got to put this up on Spotify. Like a little.

He's a white guy. He looks a lot like Abe Lincoln. I just never considered why that would be Abe Lincoln. There's a painter that I confused him with that is obsessed with putting presidents in modern times. It's like Abe Lincoln before he got elected. Didn't he have a beard? He was a man. He had a fear.

Dude, yeah, thank you. No, this is before, this is like in his early presidency. He looks like A. Lincoln. Like late presidency. He's aged like 40 years because he had like the worst presidency of any. What's the best about Hyvitz is even if he does look like Abe Lincoln, Hyvitz had did not confirm this.

He did not actually know this. And yet he's so furiously told us that it was 100%. Can we do a Spotify poll? Was that better or worse than the imbop thing? As worse. It's still, It's way. Mbop, by the way.

Mbop is terrible. These pictures that Austin's sending do kind of look like this guy. He looks like Abe, like, whatever. All right. So the other game today,

Packers, Eagles. Eagles. A blinking. Dude, Packers Eagles kind of sucked. Eagles won 22 to 10. The Eagles just fucking drag you down to the mud. I,

dude. I mean, half the Packers' offense got injured. More than half. I mean, they were down Watson entering the game. Jane Reed got hurt at receiver.

Romo Dobbs got hurt. Josh Jacobs left. Josh Jacobs left. The center left, Josh Myers left. The left guard got hurt. The other left guard got... I mean, they're down six players. Maybe I'm just used to regular season football.

But man, I thought, especially in this Eagles Packers game, I can't remember the last time I have seen guys, like, going the extra mile to get an extra yard. Like, fighting for yards battling through people. I mean, in the Bucks game, Baker had a couple runs. Bucky Irvin was, like, doing everything he could, dragging dudes to get three more yards. I thought Josh Jacobs was incredible tonight

that his one almost touchdown where he dragged literally four guys 10 yards to get to the one yard line Dallas Goddard's touchdown he was like throwing dudes down multiple stiff arms I don't know what my take is but like man these guys are really trying out there they care you sound like Tom Brady

because he said the exact same thing and I was like this is a pretty good point no Brady was like not everybody on this Packers team is like looking that good but man Josh Jacobs and Jaden Reed just fighting just out there fighting and battling. It was like the opposite of what Herb Street said

watching the Steelers when he was like, this team has no fight. Like they don't care right now. There's no energy in this team. The Eagles Packers game was exactly the opposite. It's not just X's and O's actually. It is Jim's and Joe's. As Brady so articulately stated.

The, I have an X's and O's thing or I also kind of want to, I mean, we have to talk about AJ Brown reading a book on the sideline. Yeah. So I don't know if you guys saw this. There was an Eagles reporter

said he does this every game. Yeah, he said that. How has this never been caught before? He brings the book to every game and there's like highlighted sections and underlined sections and the book is beat up as it looks like it's been on the sidelines. James Lomber at Underdog tweeted out. Yeah, it's Jim Murphy's Inner Excellence subtitled, Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance in the Best Possible Life.

He's over here like reading self-help books. So can I read the line out loud? That's how frustrating it is to play with Gailenhurst. Dude, literally this is one of the lines in the first. pursuit of extraordinary performance, it's easy to succumb to anxiety and pressure because so much of it is out of your control. It's like, throw me the ball. He was open for that one touchdown and Hurts missed him.

Yeah. All right. I'm obviously I'm biased because I'm a Giants fan, but this was a weird game. It started with the kickoff. DK, you had a really funny tweet after the literally the Packers fumbled. Literally the opening kickoff in the first play of the game. I don't want to make too much. of like the beginning of the game because it's a long game.

But the opening, the opening, like, sequence of events was the Packers fumbled on the opening kickoff. The Eagles had a big Sequin run and then an easy touchdown pass. And I was like, there's this old tweet. It's like a classic tweet from Stefan Heck, like back in the day. This is like 2017 or something. It was like, mysterious old lady flips tarot card revealing a dude who looks exactly like me flying a hot air balloon into power lines.

me, is that good? It's like, it's just like, the omens here. Are these good omens for the Packers? Maybe the worst start I could have fucking imagined. It's good. It really did feel like the game ended right there.

That was weird. I also thought the Packers recovered that fumble. Am I crazy? I know. He did and then they actually stayed in the game. I feel like it looked like that they recovered it because they paused the video for so long on this freeze frame. I don't know. I mean a time tweeted the bangle, and it looked like the Packers guy had it.

It looked like it, but they paused the video forever. And it's like, but in slow, but in like real time, that moment was like half, like less than half a second. And I'm like, I don't, we don't want to live in a world where sky cams over turn and scrums. What did the network referee say? Yeah. Packers definitely recovered that fumble, Jim. Thanks, Terry. But.

So a weird thing about the Eagles is like, they had that touchdown on the first drive. that was gifted to them. They had the Dallas got it touchdown. They also had four drives in a row that gained a combined nine yards. The Packers' defense played well. I also don't think the Eagles off. I don't think if you're an Eagles fan, you feel an awesome about where the offense is.

I don't know. It was kind of strange. It was 10 to nothing at half. The Eagles were dominating and they didn't really have anything to show for it. It was 16 to 10 in the fourth quarter. The Packers really came, like the Packers, if they didn't lose half of their offense, might have came back to win

and the Packers played like shit. So it's kind of weird. It was very sloppy. I mean, they had three turnovers. They missed a kick. They had a bunch of penalties. They just like, they weren't super sharp.

The one thing I want to say, though, about this game is that, so Zach Bonn, who's this linebacker defensive lineman hybrid for the Eagles. I think that this is like the new, this doesn't discuss enough. We don't have a name for this or good name

for this position. Like, I'm sure there's a real one, but I want a fake name for this position. You know how like the tight end is like in theory, like a great tight end. like a George Kittle is supposed to mess with the defense because if you count for him as a tight end like a blocker,

then like, you know, Kyle Shannon can have him run a route and like screw up, you know, a linebacker can't cover him, but you put a defensive back on the field. George Kittle is going to block that guy into the sideline. Zach Bonn is like a tight end on defense where he can play linebacker, but he can also just walk up with his hand in the dirt be defensive linemen.

Yeah. And Leo Chanel does this for the chiefs. And it's like this new thing that I think is like a throwback to like 40 or maybe even like 40, 40 plus years ago in the NFL, that's just now a position again. And Zach, they didn't even know what to do with him on the Saints. Like, like, Zach Bonn was drafted by the Saints, they even had to do this guy. And now it's like, he is the, I don't want to say the key to the defense. I feel like you still want Jalen Carter.

But he does, like, Zach Bonn is absolutely essential to what they're doing, just like Leo Chanel for the Chiefs. And like, when we talk about flexibility and like your versatility, this is to me, it's the guy who allows you to switch everything on defense. Like the whole, the game within the game is who's on the field, how do we take advantage of it? And this is how defense is flipping the tide back on offense of actually whoever's out here, we're going to be able to defend you. And like, it just allows them to not have any weaknesses.

And it does remind me to switch everything in basketball where the whole NBA playoffs became like, don't have any weaknesses on defense at the end of the final 10 minutes of the game. And like that's where I think the Eagles defense has been incredible today. And Packers couldn't move the ball at all. Yeah, we're just merging. We're just slowly moving towards every. everybody on defense is just like kind of the same player. Just a levitational.

Positionless football is, this is something the ringer's been talking about for ages, just because it's so exciting and interesting is just like ways that teams have guys played multiple positions at once, essentially. Like you have a couple de-tackles, you have some corners, and then everybody else is kind of similar.

Yeah. The amoeba fronts, have you ever seen those? Where it's like everybody's just standing up and walking around? You're like, okay, where's the pressure coming from? Eagles defense was so good today. Like guys like Nolan Smith They were hitting

Flying around They were hitting You guys remember that time That the 2021 Georgia Bulldogs Had their best defense I've ever seen in college football And then the Eagles got half of them Just took all their guys

Remember that? Yeah yeah That was fucking crazy That they got half that team Anyway defense is good Broncos are at the Bills The bills The bills won 31 to 7

Craig got the money ball On this one You guys are behind We haven't mentioned it yet But I had a day I went four in one this weekend. Yeah, that was bad. Hit my money ball. Got a, got a hefty lead.

I'm thinking aisle. I'm thinking aisle. Hyfinsen Mir just like, fuck. And that's how it works, right? If you get first, you choose your seat. If you get second, you get the other seat. And then if you get last, you get the middle. You like the aisle over the window? Oh, absolutely. First access to pee. You don't, no one has to get up. Stretch your legs. Yeah, but then people are like banging into you and running into you all the time. What's going on in your aisles on your point?

No, it's true. If you miss, it's kind of bad. Planes are small. People run into your shoulder. No, people do that all the time, yeah. Oh, I would much rather. I hate being pinned inside two people in a window seat. Miserable. Can't stretch. No, I come over. Someone just comes over and stands. Not everybody has that luxury. I can't fall asleep on planes.

Like when someone needs to get by someone, they stand and like right in you, like put their crotch like right in your face. Yeah, or ass. Yeah. Still worth it. Like, if you're in a long flight, you got to get up to pee a couple times. You want to stretch the legs a couple times. Yeah, the length of the flight is very crucial.

I've already resigned myself that I'm going to lose this and get the middle. And again, if you guys have noted we're talking about, we're doing a picks contest against the spread for the whole playoffs. And then the loser has to sit middle seat and does like, has to, as the kids say now, Raw Dog, the flight, the whole way to Los Angeles. And we have to not, no TV, no distractions, no screen time, just sitting there with your own thoughts for the entire flight.

And I've already come to realize that, you know what? I'm going to flip this on you guys. And I'm actually excited to do it because it reminds me the Aaron Rogers Darkness Street, wherever it makes fun of it. And I'm kind of like, I can't remember the last time I was with my own thoughts

for four hours in a row. And I'm kind of, I would be, do you think people were wrong to make fun of the Aaron Rogers Darkness retreat? Do you think it paid off? And like,

it will it pay off for you in the same way? You're going to land and have the worst podcast of your life? It's going to get me and you fired, Craig. Hey, Fitz is going to get us fired. Well, yeah, he's like, yeah,

I saw what Aaron did. That actually looked great. I was going to retire. Then I was like, I'll come back. Wait, I have a quick question for, regarding.

this spread competition. Tampa Bay did it was they lost by three and the bucks were spread was three. They were favored by three. Oh my bad. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, no, no, no, they were getting three. I'm sorry, I forgot. I mixed it up. You're right. No, it was wrong. There's a lot of games left, all right? It's not over here. Yeah, we're for the record, we're doing this for the divisional end championship rounds as well. And the Super Bowl.

I won't, you will. Oh, and the ball. Speaking of doxing text. But no, but the flight is happening before the Super Bowl. Oh, that's true. You're right. But speaking of doxing texts, you asked us, are we doing it for just this round or not in the middle of the games? That was that an aneurysm? I was like, this is the playoffs, D.K. I was just checking. I can't remember. I don't always pay

the most attention. You know, I'll admit to that. D.K., as somebody who took the Broncos plus eight and a half, kind of what was going through your head during the game? I was like, I'm getting, I'm going to get the fucking middle seat here. I was starting to think about what I'm

going to think about. I'm building like a plan for sitting and staring for four hours straight. I was like, is there something productive I can do here or do I literally just have to sit and like think about? How quickly did you realize it was Jover? Because the interesting thing about this game was the first possession. The Broncos throw a bomb 50 yard touchdown to Cortland Sutton and it's 7-0 before you could even blink. It was Troy Franklin. Troy Franklin, sorry. I love this kind of game. The first rookie to rookie touchdown in playoff history, I believe this is. Yeah. Wow. That's crazy. I love the kind of game where the underdog comes comes out.

It's like 7-0. And then it throws a punch. 31 to 7, bitch. Like, it's kind of like, it's really funny. Nate Berlinson said it after the game. And I'm just because he was a big brother game. Like this was Scott Horlebeck tying Craig around a tree with caution tape. Craig comes out, throws a punch, lands it.

As he's tying it, I get a left hook off on him. Yeah. And then I'm tied to the tree for four hours. So the Broncos scored on their first drive. And they like marched down the field. it was like a really impressive drive. The rest of their possessions in the game. Punt, punt, miss field goal, punt, punt, punt,

downs, downs, like turnover on downs, turn over on downs. So not a great, not a great way to finish out that game. High Fitz, you mentioned it. The bills just absolutely just, it's like smothered them. They won the time of possession 41 to 18, almost 42 to 18. 41, 18 in a playoff game is wild. Yeah. They rush for 210,

yards in a touchdown. The most yards of Broncos had given up this season was 149. So they had 60 more yards essentially than the next closest game. I also saw this from from Golick Jr. According to next gen stats, the bills had six plus offensive

alignment on 22% of their snaps, which is the third highest rate of any team in any game this season. So they basically just like came out and were like stop us fuckers and the Broncos could not do that. The bills, the bills use sixth offensive linemen, which again,

I've always kind of wondered why this doesn't work. I guess it's because teams don't have enough linemen, but the bills use six offensive linemen more than any team in the NFL. And they use it so much that today something happened

I don't think I've ever seen. You know the whole like you have to come in as an eligible receipt, like the sixth lineman has to come in and declare himself to the refs and do the whole thing and that was the Lions Cowboys thing last year. The bills stayed in the game,

the sixth offensive linemen stayed in the game for the next play. And the refs threw a full black. And then they got confused. And they picked it up. And they're like, wait, he stayed on the field for a second play in a row. It's like some like trick play.

Yeah. They like couldn't believe that like they got the first and that he stayed in. And the rest are like, oh shit, he's still here. And I'm like, that's how often the bills use this extra man is like, they'll just like keep it until it doesn't work anymore. But no, the bill's dominant. Again, James Cook had 23 carries for 120 yards. I got to tell you, I didn't even, even last year.

I was, even this year, I was super. dubious that James Cook would necessarily be like a great in between the tackles runner. I wasn't sure about his vision. I wasn't sure if he worked. I kind of thought Ray Davis would have a bigger role in this team this season. I mean, I don't want to say unstoppable.

Obviously, James Cook's not Sequin or Derek Henry, but oh my God, like this rushing tack has been incredible. Yeah. Yeah. D.K., you've been high on James Cook for a while and he was awesome. This whole year, I mean, it quietly had a lot of touchdowns this year and he was awesome tonight. Also, another running back who was never mentioned in

just ever really is Ty Johnson, their third down back, who was amazing today. His name is too generic, I've decided. People don't like him because he's too generic. Ty is nice, though. Ty Johnson. There is a Tyler Johnson, right? The receiver? Yeah, he's on the, yeah, he's on the Rams.

But dude, Ty Johnson, not only, I mean, he made that incredible catch on fourth down in the end zone where he was like half his body was out of bounds, but it was levitated above the ground while his elbows were down inbounds. That was like the best catch I've seen in a month. And he made plays the whole night. crucial third downs. I mean, like, it's such an advantage

when you have a guy like that who's like outrunning routes against linebackers and catching balls with his hands and going down on crucial third downs. He is like quite the utility for the bills. I know Josh is super high on him. He calls him the best third down back in the league.

And I feel like no one's ever really put him on that level. But man, tonight, he showed me something tonight. I think he's like a great representation or sort of just like microcosm for the bills this year in terms of offense at least,

where they just got, like a bunch of guys that do their job and are like these little, um, not little, but like, you know, they're, they're not like superstars.

They're not even stars. Like Khalil Shakur, I think was the leading receiver on the team this year. And he's just like, he's good at some specific things. He's really reliable. He catches everything. He runs after the catch.

I think he led the NFL in yards after the catch. And they have, you know, like guys that will do just like specific role. It's like Ocean's 11 or something. It's like each guy has a specific job and they like each do their thing on offense. Um, and Ty Johnson, who, yeah, I don't know, like his career has been wild.

He's been in the league since 2019. He was on Detroit. He was on the Jets. And now he's on Buffalo. He's been on Buffalo. He's 27 years old, you know, and I think like the most yards he's ever had is like before this year. I guess he had 600 yards in 20 or 21.

But I don't know. He's just kind of like a, he's a jag. He's just been like, you know, the third running back on a several different teams throughout his career. But he also, and then every now and then he's like this incredible receiver downfield. He's Matt Damon in Ocean's 11. You'll be charming but not funny. Likeable, but forget you the moment you leave my sight.

It's just incredible. It's like the opposite of the Chargers who have a, like also it's just kind of an amalgamation of guys, but they all suck. The bills is like the good version of that where it's like up. It's like Matt Collins is actually making big catches and Dawson Knox and Kincaid together are a pretty good tight end duo. Matt Collins, if I have, well, I mean, if I have one regret from the show this year, it was thinking the guy from that name was Abe Blinken.

But if I have another one, if I have another one, we didn't talk enough this season about Matt Collins is like fucking crazy Matt Collins doesn't eat food He doesn't wear shoes I mean it does on the field but not Well on the field but I think because he has to He walks into this

stadium every week with his fucking bare feet He doesn't eat with utensils He only eats with his hands He's old school He doesn't use utensils Matt Collins takes the points He takes the points He uses the phrase cat bird seat

Like Matt Collins is fucking old school man. He likes to, he calls it, doesn't he call it grounding? He likes his feet on the ground wherever he's going. Yeah, he does. I like grounding. The buck's, I do grounding. Do you? What do you mean? What do you're podcasting? It's a, it's a thing. It's like you, uh, connecting with the earth.

Connect yourself to the magnetic, uh, what is it called? The magnetic field of the earth, which is how human beings evolved over however many years that we've been around. Um, and now think about, just think about this. When was the last time you stood on the earth? without shoes on. I do like walking barefoot outside. I get, I actually get it.

I, like, he takes it to kind of a ridiculous degree walking into a stadium. It's like, it's in the rain. He's doing that shit. I have a,

I have a ground mat that I sit on. Like, who is the same different? Did he come in today? Did he come in today? They're artificial turf to do it. He came in today, dressed as a Flintstone,

right? Did you see that? Did he really? What did he came? Or was that Halloween? And they like, it's tough to know what's, today or Halloween.

I don't know. Like, the second you guys didn't immediately corroborate that. This is another boomer take. It's just this outfit. No, look, he was definitely dressed in a fucking, he said yabba-dabba-doo as he walked in. It was today. It was today. I would love it if this was actually just an outfit. Oh, my God. He did dress his flip-flitstone. Yeah, he did. Oh, my God. Dude, this guy's wild. He didn't dress his head. He dressed as the. Oh, Barney.

Barney Rubble. Yeah, yeah. Trouble. Trouble. Hey, by the way, speaking of rhyming slang, do you guys remember when I was telling you about Cockney rhyming slang. And then you explain the Ocean's level. And I explained it to me. And I forgot to, I think I forgot to mention it was what he did on Ocean's 11. I can't remember. Yeah. Okay.

So, well, wait, last thing in Broncos bills is that Bill Vinovich, the ref coming over and personally apologizing to Josh Allen on the bench. What was that? I've never seen anything like that. Patrick Sertan, the cornerback on the Broncos, if you didn't see this. Committed a clear PI. They didn't call it. And the ref just staring straight.

The ref was just like, the ref was like the cop in the town. And all they were just looking at the cop is just like basically. The ref was like Bill Simmons at the WWE event. Just looking forward if you saw that video. Do not get like caught looking at anything. I'm staring ahead. I'm watching the show. Bill knew the stakes of that moment.

Look at the baby. But they cut the commercial and it comes back. And Bill Vinovich is on the sideline like really intimately discussing and apologizing to Josh Allen that he didn't make the call. And it ends with Bill Vinovich like patting the side of Josh Allen's helmet. And then Josh Allen kind of taps him on the torso. And I was like, this is so wrong. It should not be allowed. This is why everyone thinks NFL is rigged. Dude, Jomey here at the ringer was like, if that was, if they, the ref, if a ref did

that to Patrick Mahomes, there would be another January 6th. Seriously. Yeah. Can you imagine? Speaking of this, this is super random. I know we're going to get to this game later. I think it was in the Steelers game. But like, speaking of Blind dress. Well,

I just want to say, as long as we're talking about blind rest, there was a moment, I believe it was in the Steelers game, where someone on the defense of the Steelers was trying to call time out for truly it felt like 45 seconds. It probably was more like 10 seconds. He's like jumping up and down,

like doing the T motion with his hands like waving around. He's like trying to fucking. Yeah, exactly. He's trying to signal a fucking. plane. He's a flare gun. Yeah, to come get him from a,

like, this is a player that was in the middle of the game. Like, he's, he's the linebacker, I think. He's in the middle of the field. Everyone in the fucking stadium can see him doing this.

And it took him like, I don't know, literally a solid 10 seconds of doing that before the refs did anything. I was like, how could you not see this guy? We need a button or a flag or something. Can you imagine the history of sports? What is different?

Also, I think Craig, Craig's had a lot of great ideas in this show. but timeouts being a big red button is really high. It should be like, it should be like dealer or no dealer. Do you have how many outcomes of games have probably been altered because there was a coach trying to get a timeout

and the ref just happened to not be looking? That cannot be the most efficient way. Can you imagine they just had a button like a detonator or something? And it's just like, you know, and they just sort of like a big case blocks and they have to like move the glass box and just smash it. Yeah, like the whole stadium goes like red if you hit the red button. Also the other thing,

now I was just talking about stuff. but ever since he's like I'm actually you know what I think it I do I still think it is a blinking I'm back ever since we pointed out that the NF NBA shot clock when counts

down 24 seconds buzzes throughout the whole stadium with a giant red light of the backward and the end full play clock is like well did the rest see it small clock behind the goalpost that the ref is it meekly go

to double zeros. I don't even know if there's double zeros. It might just be one zero. One ref is to look. There's one guy's job. That rev conveniently gets like a crick in his neck whenever there's a good team that really needs to convert this fourth down.

He's like, creaking his neck. It's like Aiden O'Connell gets like 40.2 seconds and Mahomes gets like 41. I don't understand. They have the play clock on both sides of the stadium. Why do you need to turn around and look at it? The NFL is easily the dumbest sport.

It's so crazy. I can't unsee that now. I actually had never really thought about the fact that they could just like have a fucking buzzer go off. I like it. I think Hyfitz always says this. It's like the NFL is so popular and so big and so makes so much money that it just doesn't have to get better. It's like anti-capitalist. It's just like I don't, I just always think about that every time I see something stupid.

It's an animal with no predator. It fears for nothing. God, seriously. Oh, but everything the NFL does, no matter how dumb or stupid it is, like it just makes more money. It's like, oh, we have, we have 800 rules.

Oh, what happens when the play clock runs down? It's like, well, the ref just kind of has to look at the clock, and then he looks back. And if he kind of feels like blowing the whistle, he blows the whistle. You know those squirrels that aren't afraid of you? Is that like a specific breed of squirrel? Are you saying just in general?

Well, the city squirrels. Oh, sure. He's not afraid. They're just not phased. The New York, the New York birds are different. Don't diff. Pigeons. Fucking pigeon in New York.

We'll walk right up you and take your lunch. The hardest. In New York, smoking a cigar and a cigarette at the same time. Wait, there's a picture of, was it Dick, not Dick Bucket. It's Chuck Bednarc for the Eagles in the 50s smoking a cigar while ripping a Cig while they won the championship. Brady was like double fist in a cigar and a cigarette. I don't know if I've ever seen that. How old was Chuck in that photo?

Because he looked about 52. Probably 25. 30. on how... Based on that generation age. Anyway, so Steelers Ravens... So the Ravens won 20 to 14. It felt like it was 42 to 10.

Like this game... So I was at this game. I was in the press box. Oh, yeah. How was that? How was your experience? I mean, it was dominant, man. To be honest, it's hard not to get caught up in the moment.

Watching the Ravens in person with Lamar and Derek Henry, it was hard to think anyone is going to beat them. And I know that, like, you know, they have to go through the bills and the chiefs. Like, I would argue the Ravens might have the, and the bills probably have the hardest path to make the Super Bowl. Watching this game, it was hard to think anyone's going to beat the Ravens. In that stadium, I know they have to go to Buffalo now, so we'll see.

But the Derek Henry Lamar Jackson thing, if they go far enough, I think will actually be iconic. I mean, again, that drive where they had 13 plays and 13 runs, Lamar on the first drive, he had like, five straight runs. Basically, it opened the game. Derek,

like Lamar opened it, Derek Henry closed it. I could talk about this game forever. We could talk about the Ravens. I have a lot of thoughts on the Steelers, but overall, I, the Raven,

like, I, I really do think we're in a golden era of quarterbacks, and I really do think that, that the comp is that Mahomes was like Federer and he won these titles first. But I think Lamar and Josh Allen are really like Nadal and Jokovic,

And I don't know who's who, but the point is that three of the best six quarterbacks ever, or three of the best seven, however you count, or just all playing right now. And we're witnessing it. And it's absolutely insane. I think, yeah, and like you mentioned it earlier in the show, it's just like the way that so many of these teams are just running the football and dominating on the ground and dominating time of possession. Some of that is just teams deciding to go old school. But some of it is also very, like, new school. It's using the read option.

It's basically using your quarterback. I guess if you look far enough back, it's actually old school. It's like old school then became new school later because it like came back. But that's the John Harbour thing. It's not evolution. It's revolution. You're revolving back to the original game. It's like single wing stuff.

But like I think, you know, like they were talking about this during the Raven Steelers game the whole time was like the Steelers have to pick their poison. Are they going to stick with Henry or are they going to let Lamar run? And it's like both options are fucking terrible. Like you have no good option. How do you want to die? How do you want to die? It's just like and I remember thinking at the beginning of the game. It's like it feels like the Steelers have never seen anyone run a read option before.

They're in the fucking Ravens division. How are they this bad at it? And I was just like, no, it's because Derek Henry and Lamar Jackson are just the most unstoppable like duo, offensive duo. We've seen in a long time. And it's just so much fun to watch. The other thing that I wanted to mention on this is just like it's hilarious that, not hilarious. Sorry, Craig. I guess it's probably not that funny for you. No, it actually is funny for me.

Stephen Ruiz pointed this out, but like, back in 2013, Mike Tomlin, like, very aggressively and like assertively, confidently said they look forward to stamping out the read option. It's a, it's a flavor of the month play, like the wildcat. And this was literally like 15 years ago. Or 13 years ago. However long it was. It was 2013. How many years? How many years has that been 12 years, 13 years? but that's like RG3

Cam Newton, yeah. Yeah, it was I remember actually during the very first part of this game I was like, was this going to be one of those

Colin Kaepernick games? Remember Colin Kaepernick when he played the Packers in the playoffs and ran for like 200 yards or whatever it was? Yeah. I was just like,

this is what this is going to be. That Tomlin quote is funny because it's basically the entire Steelers have aged like that quote has and their entire scheme offensively and defensively is just in 2012

still. Yeah. I've been deep in the spin zone for a week already about the Steelers that I wanted them to get blown out. I thought they were going to get blown out. I took the Ravens minus nine and a half and that hopefully this is enough of a wake-up call for them to actually make a change rather than just run everything back and go nine and eight again next year. I don't think they should get rid of Mike Tomlin because I ultimately think that if you have a coach that is a leader and that players feel motivated by, Tomlin's that guy. If Tomlin got fired, 25 team, everybody's saying this, but like, I agree. If Tomlin got fired so many teams want to hire him immediately.

And I think if you can have a guy that players trust and feel motivated by and want to get up every day for, you got to keep that guy. It's everything else that needs to change. Like, don't let him hire the coordinators. Like, evolve offensively, evolve defensively. Like, just, like, the Steelers are not playing a modern game. They're playing old school football and they're sticking to some old reputation that they had. That's been dead for a long time. And I hope they make a change.

They haven't had a good quarterback in five years either, which that's not Mike Tomlin's fault. Do you hope they stopped taking the points? No, never. Tomlin actually never goes for it on fourth down. So I would like to see a change there, I will say. So Steelers have not had a lead since December 8th. Oh, wow.

You want to hear a stat? The Steelers, the last six playoff games, they were outscored 73 to zero in the first quarter. Brutal. And I believe they, yeah, so on that note, they haven't had a lead since December 8th? They have not led a game since December 8th. They have not had a lead in any of their last six playoff games. And I got this from Scott Casimir.

The Steelers have allowed in their last six playoff games. The Steelers have allowed 230 points, which is the most points in NFL history. And that's actually the other point to me is this is about the defense. And because like, here's the thing, the easy thing to say, I think the low-hanging fruit is Russell Wilson sucks. the offense sucks. They should probably take seriously investing in a quarterback. Tomlin should prioritize getting a real quarterback. They should have a real offensive of Matt Cand or Arthur Smith.

They should not be like messing up basic blocking assignments of the run game. It shouldn't look awful. Like that's easy. The difficult truth is the game is passing Mike Tomlin by on defense, which is a very tough thing to say. but I think after this game, it is absolutely true. Because what Tomlin still is, is a 10 out of 10 coach on what Craig said, motivation, getting players to buy in to what he's teaching.

What he's teaching has never seemed older and more out of touch. And I can- This is, I'm sorry to interrupt you. This is like exactly what Siak ban said about Pete Carroll. It is exactly like Pete Carroll. It's like you could just replace the names. It's a very similar. Like leader like culture

The program The game is just passed him by His defense is not good anymore And here And I'm like this is exactly what we were saying I feel very strongly about this And I can tell you I was in the Ravens locker room And I will know all I will say

I heard multiple members of the Ravens offense Talking about how they thought What the Steelers did on defense Was very thinly disguised And they kind of laughed about the ways that the Steelers were trying to quote unquote disguise. They were not fooled whatsoever. And basically, Mike Tomlin, it's like Pete Carroll is the nice way to say it.

Someone very smart to be positive. The other way to say is it's kind of like Gus Bradley, where you're like, you're going to line up, you're going to play cover three. And the philosophy of like Gus Bradley or Pete Carroll's, we're going to just beat you. We're going to be more discipline. We'll be more discipline. We'll execute. That's not how defense works right now.

Like offense pulled away from defense like the last five years. defense caught up by being complex, the illusion of complexity, where it's like, oh, it's not enough to just line up. Everything on offense with the motion, everything became, you know the game where they put up on the scoreboard at a baseball football game, like the helmets where the ball goes under one of them

and you move them all around? At the end of the day, that's all the motion is. They're just trying to confuse you a little bit about what is where and they're trying to make you think. And then defense was like, fuck it, we'll do that too. So Craig, do you remember that play in this game where I think it was late third quarter, Russell Wilson, he was like second down.

And Kyle Hamilton, like, right, late in the play clock, Kyle Hamilton, like, runs right up over the center, like he's going to blitz. Russell Wilson backs out and, like, changes the whole play. It snaps it. Kyle Hamilton runs back out, doesn't blitz, and then covers Friermouth.

Russell doesn't know what to do. Bails. This is what, yeah. And the Ravens get a sack. They had, they rushed the four down linemen rushed. And yet Russ was confused. A 12, 13-year veteran was confused by the four-down lineman rushing, took a sack.

Steelers never do anything like that, really. They don't disguise anything. And so anyway, all that's to say, I don't mean to be it a dead horse, but Tomlin schematically has to evolve on defense. And it's not just get a quarterback, get a real offense. Like, everything Tomlin's responsible for

other than Chris fucking Boswell is really behind right now. This is why I'm, this is why when it was 14-0 before I could go to the bathroom, I was like, this is a good thing. I hope this is a shock to the system for everybody in the organization and they make huge changes. I actually, I think it is a good thing.

You know why? Because the Ravens are, you know, it's such an arrogant thing when your gold state warrior said it. The owner, what's his face? Lake up? Joe Lakeup, when he said it in your times, we're light years ahead of everyone. The Ravens seemed light years ahead of Pittsburgh in this game. Like, 20 to 14, it felt like a mile away. And like, I think that the Steelers needed to get their shit rocked by the Ravens in the playoffs.

And I think they will have to make changes. I hope we get like Bob Sala. Dude. Well, we'll see. Really? Yeah. I mean, if Brian Flores doesn't get a head coaching job. If, would a coordinator, how often do coordinators leave to go be a coordinator somewhere else?

Is it only if they're promised more or something? I don't think it's like relatively rare because you have to technically get like a promo. Teams can block you if you're not getting a promotion. It's usually for. pay though. No. I think it has to be a title raise or like there has to be like something tangible like you're calling plates.

You can go from being an offensive coordinator that doesn't call plays to an offensive coordinator that does call plays. So you can't just leave to go be another coordinator somewhere that's not allowed? Well, you can't ask, but they can because you're under contract so they can block you. So like you, I mean, you can't even interview for the job. Like the Cowboys blocked what's his face? McCarthy. McCarthy.

From any lateral move has to get approved for you to even go into. interview for the team. Unless your contracts up. Unless your contracts up. Yes. But, well, McCarthy's contracts up,

it expires soon. And so even when your contract's up yet. Exactly. And so any lateral move, and some teams make exceptions, like I'm trying to, I can't remember who, but,

oh, Eric B. Enemy. Eventually the chiefs let Eric Bionteme take a lateral move because he wanted to call plays in Washington because they eventually wanted to see if he could get a job.

So the chiefs let him go. This is happening right now in Tennessee. I don't know if anyone cares. about this, but the Titans' GM job is really bizarre. We haven't talked about it, but they fired Rancartha and the GM. And then it turns out that the old Titans assistant general manager did the Dwight Shrewd and skipped from assistant GM, leaped over GM and just became president of football operations, was never the GM, was never VP, just the president of football operations.

And they put out this job description that's like, oh, come be the GM. But the president of football operations is like, yeah, you know, you'll cover college scouting and and pro scouting. And they're like, so direct your scouting. So this job description for Tennessee, they're like, the NFL now has to review.

Who's even allowed to interview for this? Because, but anyway, all that's, that's boring. And we'll probably cut this from the show. But the point being, no,

Abe Lincoln was not the guy in the photo. Oh, my God. You are literally that guy in the photo disputing who that guy is in the photo. It looks like Abe Lincoln. I should make that. I mean, I thought.

this person was Abe Lincoln. I still think it's Abe Lincoln. I still think it's Abe Lincoln. Should I tweet that? I contend. It's actually Abe Lincoln. Fuck. Okay, so the other game,

is that everything on Ravens Steel? Well, hold on. One more thing that I thought was really funny that I saw this tweet come up. It's from Ambient Cowboy. This is from several years ago. I'm sorry. Who is this from?

Ambient Cowboy. I don't know what that means. Lamar Jackson plays football. the other team is composed entirely of his nephews. I just freaking love that image. This is exactly what I was talking about with Jane Daniels, too. It's like he just is so like chill. He's just like,

like Gavin Newsom crossing up as kids in China. That's Lamar. Oh, can I tell you guys what covered the NFL is actually like? Yeah. I was at the press conference for Lamar Jackson. And I think, Chuck McDonald at Yahoo, he asked him basically how was the game. Like, what was it like playing with Derek Henry?

And Lamar Jackson's like, have you guys ever seen cars? Oh, this, yeah, this spoke to me. And I was like, fuck, I've never seen cars. You've never seen cars? No. What? And I was like, fuck, fuck, fuck, I've never seen cars. And then he was like, oh, it's like watching Lightning McQueen speed away.

And I'm like, oh, that's the red one, right? Anyway, I was like so embarrassed. And so you never seen cars You never seen cars? I've been No I've seen like all the cars movies and variants

and shorts and literally anything that is due with cars on Disney Plus I've seen it I learned the cars lore from that video of Stephen A. Smith arguing with someone about whether like was it

one of them having six pistons cup I learned everything I know about cars from Stephen A. Smith Cars is actually a really good show our movie. And all the like offshoots stuff. It's really funny. Calvin was obsessed with that for.

It's a great kid. Like a year. It's a great kid's picks our movie. It's also very merchandisable. They were smart. Can I give you one more, Steelers tweet before I move on? Yes.

Since Mike Tomlin's last playoff win, I saw this tweet, I apologize, I don't have the name, but whoever tweeted is good for you. Ambient Cowboy. Since Mike Tomlin's last playoff win, Doug Peterson was hired, won a Super Bowl,

fired, hired, won a playoff game, and fired again. Two full life cycles of a coach. Two full generations. He's just out here. Dude, he'll probably be your offensive coordinator next year. Good. He probably will be.

At least he'll go for it on fourth down. Oh, my God. He won't take the points. That's so funny. All right. The last game here, speaking to me, be wrong. I don't want to talk about this fucking. Chargers are at the Texans. It was funny because for 25 minutes, I was like, man, I nailed this game. So, I mean, this game, it was a, it was a blowout score, but I don't know if this, I don't know what the hell happened here.

So the Texans won 32 to 12. They won by 20. The Texas scored 25 points in the final, like 15 minutes of the game, basically, like, basically like two, two plays into the third quarter. seconds. So I thought this game was basically ping pong for fuck-ups. Like this was the most trading back and forth of mistakes I've seen in a playoff game. I've seen it in the regular season, but like obviously, charges blew it. So Justin Herbert more interceptions in this game than he had all regular season.

I'm sure people have seen that. Dude, that's wild. Lowest completion percentage Justin Herbert's had in any of his 81 games in his career at 44% completion in this game. I think on that side of the ball, the Texas defense, frankly, totally dominated the Chargers offense. It was not particularly close. I thought the Texans' defense was flying, and I would first like to give credit to Demico Ryan's,

who out-coached Jim Harbaugh, certainly out-coach Greg Roman. And, I mean, frankly, this was the most dominant performance that probably the entire weekend outside of, like, probably the Ravens' offense, was the Texans smashing the Chargers' offense. The Texans have some really fun defensive backs. Camarie Lasseter was really good in this game. He was another guy. He's like the Bucky.

I put this down. He's the Bucky Irving of cornerbacks because I remember during the draft process, I liked him a lot. I'm like, this guy is really good. He's super instinctive. Just always like in the hip pocket of a receiver. But then he's like small and he ran like a four six. And I was like, fuck. Like you just do not see four like guys at corner running four, five, four six.

It's just very, very rare because you have to be really fast. And so I moved him down. And I regret it so much because he's awesome. He's like a really good player. He's just super instinctual, just knows, kind of just like knows where the ball is going before it gets there. That interception that he made was really impressive because he,

he like picked up the receiver going across the field, did the thing where you like put your head down and run really fast so I catch up with him. And then he turned and looked because he knew the ball was coming and he looked at the right moment and caught it. And like that is like cornerback 101. Just get to where you need to go, look for the ball, find it, catch it, secure it.

And Derek Stingley on the other side's awesome. So they have a really cool corner, just duo. and obviously those guys came up huge in this game. I'm noticing that a lot more, D.K. I don't know why, but those plays where a linebacker or a corner sees they're getting beat, find their angle, put their head down, and sprint to get there. It is cool to watch. I agree.

The Texans defense is awesome. They've been really good all year. I feel like they've been getting better as the season's gone on too. They pressured the hell out of Herbert. It was like 50% of his snaps. He was under pressure. Yeah, Stroud played well. Again, in the first half, I was like, both these teams suck.

and don't deserve to be in the playoffs. Like, these are just two bad teams. Stroud played better. He made some good throws. I don't think he was, like, amazing, but I thought he made good throws. It's going to be, look, it's going to be hard for the Herbert Truthers out there like myself.

It's going to be a long off season. We're going to have to really, like, batten down the hatches, hunker down for winter, kind of get ready for battle, because I'm not selling a single share. And I'm willing to defend him in any way possible. No, you should buy the tip. By the tip.

100%. I will defend him. in any way possible. The guy has no receivers. This is buying Bitcoin after FTX collapsed. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Okay. Ladd-McConkie, his second round rookie wide receiver, had

200 yards, and the next guy on the team had 16. Will Dissley couldn't catch the ball. Quinn Johnson is generally, I'm sorry, Kai, legitimately one of the worst wide receivers in the league and cannot catch the football. It's a problem. You're not any good. DJ Chark is terrible. They don't have anybody. And if

you notice, Josh Palmer didn't play in this game. Maybe things have been different. I actually, yeah, there you go. I don't even think it's the receiver. I mean, I think it's the, I think the receivers are terrible. I think, I think ironically. I also couldn't run. No, they could not.

I mean, that's the part is the running backs aren't that good either. And the offensive line is also not getting a ton of push. So when you, yeah, look, when you have the chargers being held, a Jim Harbaugh team being held of 50 rushing yards and then 44% completion, it's about as bad as it gets. I would say that the irony is Justin Herbert, now has the same problem Lamar Jackson had

when he couldn't win the playoffs which is a horrible brother who believes too much in Greg Roman as a modern offensive coordinator Can't Can Lamar win in the playoffs yet? Are we like he beat the Steelers?

Yes I'm saying of course he can't I'm saying the problem was never was not really Lamar the problem was Greg Roman the office coordinator does not design modern passing concepts like it's not a thing like he still wants to play he's like Fred Flintstone is like, Mac Collins walking to the goddamn stadium.

Like, this is not a modern passing game. Like the Ravens with Greg Roman, they couldn't even sign free agents. That's why they had to draft. Markies Brown and Rashad Bates. Like, they could not sign free agents. Like, one of the reasons the Ravens wanted to bring Odell in and they paid him the money was because they had a signal to other receivers that like, we're not the fucking caveman era anymore for wide receivers.

Like, there was a belief among receivers you could never get a thousand yards. And like, your career would be financially hit if you went to Baltimore. Like, that was a belief. It just kept having to draft. guys in the first round. Yes. And so Greg Rome, like this, they just don't do normal shit. Like three weeks ago, the Chargers, I forget what week was.

I'm sorry, it's December. The Chargers had a concept. They had Herbert throwing, eight guys blocking, two routes. That's old school. What the fuck is that? Why are you ready? They're like, yeah, they're like one of like two or three

teams that has like a 280 pound full back. Yeah. They're like 300 pound full back. And so, anyway, so the I really do think Greg Roman's the problem there, and I would feel less weird. And again, Herbert didn't play well. I do think Herbert has his issues. We were confident in this team coming into the game, to be clear. Yeah.

There should be a little bit of a Mia Coppa here. We fucked up. They sucked. I, my mistake was believing in a Greg Roman offense being in the playoffs. I don't think we were wrong about the Texans offense. Like, I will not back down that, like, I still think Bobby, if they lose next week, I still think Bobby Sloke should be fired for the Texans. And here's why.

I will not capitulate on the Texans' offense. They had more turnovers in offense than touchdowns. Like, the Texas offense did not play well. Like, if you go through, the Texans' offense fumbled on their first fucking play of the game. And then the Texans defense, the defense won. They fumbled the first play, and then the defense held the charge to a field goal. And then the Texans offense fumbled again on the first drive of the second half, and the Texan defense got a fourth down stop.

And then C.J. Stroud would throw a pick. And then Justin Herbert threw a pick on the next play. And then the Texans offense goes through. and out, and then the Texas defense gets a pick six. It's like the Texas defense scored 10 points in like 150 seconds. They even got a two-point conversion block. Yeah. The Texas defense.

It was a, yeah, yeah, they were going for the PAT. The ball got knocked up into the air and their kicker. Dicker. Cameron Dicker tried to bat the ball down. He literally didn't know the rules. I think he thought, I actually get that in the moment when the ball in the air. But like, come on, man. That was a rare.

moment. I know, like, I mean, how often does that happen? Like, I actually understand. You tried to do like panicking in the money and just like batting out. How often does that happen? He's a kicker. I don't want to give him any credit for the for like for not for not for not. For not. For stupid play, but like that's a real deer in the headlights moment. All right. I understand. You know what? Okay. You can kick for you could kick for, you could kick for, you could kick for, you could. Spend the rest of the two or three hours of practice studying the playbook. Hyvitz is already getting too passionate about this. I don't care. We can. No, this is the same kicker. That was, they were so proud to like gloat about their preparedness for the fair catch kick that has not

happened since the 70s and you're going to and they're going to I do not want to hear from them that they don't know what to do when an extra point is blocked. He only does three fucking things kickoffs, field goals and extra points like two of those can be blocked. Like I don't know. It's not I don't know. Right. Kind of undoes the fair catch kick. At the same time though, I didn't know the rule. I don't know. I think that's like the most niche thing that could have happened and also, maybe he didn't know it. He's a kicker. He should know this shit.

Why would you put, what is the batting it down? That's only quarterbacks batting down to pass. What is that other instance of football field? This is like not knowing where to speak into a microphone as a podcast. Right. Who would do that? Also, I mean, isn't that a special teams coach problem? Maybe it's not Dicker's fault.

He's a rookie. Maybe somebody didn't fucking tell him. Was he second year? Nobody told him. Oh, yeah. Well, yeah. I'm not saying that says fault. That's a great excuse.

Nobody told me. Nobody told me. Catch me. Hyphids always makes me defend something. Hyphids always makes me defend something more passionately than I want to or even care to do. But now I'm like defending Cameron Dicker. Like maybe also he was like, you know what? If I catch this ball, someone's probably going to decapitate me.

So I'm going to try to swat it over that. Honestly, that's the right take. He's like, you know, he probably extended his career by like 10 years. He's cut and a half pretty bad. I get it. I defend Cameron Dicker. I understand in the moment thinking that if you swat it down, that would be okay. That would work.

Not only does that undo. the ick of the two point of the fair catch kick and like they kind of neutralize does the Texans getting the two points there undo the ick of them only getting two points versus the Ravens on Christmas Day no that was still nasty yeah yeah all right so that was still disgusting Herbert will be tough to tough to defend so what we got receiver you know we'll be all right I think that look this was the Chargers this season they went 11 and 6 year one with Harbaot I I still think you have to ultimately look at this as a win. This offense on paper is disgusting.

So next week, divisional round, I mean, working backwards from Sunday, we have Ravens Bills. Game of the year. Game of the year. We have game of the year, Ravens Bills. Not going to hold anyone to this. So the initial line, Bill's giving a point, which at home is, I mean, might as well be a pick-em. Gut take.

Who do you guys think win that game? D.K. it's in Buffalo. Yeah. I think everyone's going to be on the Ravens. Yeah. I think I'm going to pick the Ravens because I'm sticking to my take. I mean, the Ravens kicked the shit.

The Ravens did look very good. Yeah, they did. That was like, what, week four? Yeah, it was a long time ago, but the Ravens was the score of that game. It was... 3110, I think. Yeah, like, they could not... The bills could not stop Derek Henry.

I don't know if the bills have the personnel to stop the Ravens sending out two or three tight ends. I think that's really... I'll tell you what. This game is like the Super Bowl for... whichever quarterback loses, they're going to say he can't win, the big one. Yeah, it really is.

The beat the allegations bowl, if you will. Because Lamar, also, you know, Lamar's going to win the MVP. God shifted completely. Josh, I don't know minus 250. He's going to minus 250. He was, Lamar won the AP first team all pro. And the 50 voters, the Associated Press all team pro,

also the same voters for the MVP. So it would be quite the leap of logic for people to pick a different guy. Do you submit their votes for MVP? Yeah, they submit them all at the same time. So it's like Lamar probably one of you. You would literally have to have a sizable portion of people have listed Josh Allen its MVP, but Lamar is first female pro. So Lamar almost certainly won an MVP.

I can see it happening. People. That would make no sense for him to be for Lamar to be first team all pro and not win the MVP. I know these awards have weight. The more, the more I learn about this. business, the less impressed I am with most adults, but also a lot of these voters. The guy with the cowboy hat and Pat McAfee is an AP voter.

I did see that. How did that happen? Tone Diggs. I don't know. How come you're not one? Can we all be voters? I actually never cared about being one and should be one. I think I should be one. Should I do the Abe Lincoln meme and stand up?

I'm like, I should be an AP vote. You should be. I should vote for MVP. Oh my God. I Bill gets to vote for the NBA and Ressel

Yeah that makes sense Yeah yeah measures like that's that makes sense he's been covering basketball so fucking

Craig who would you vote for MVP if you're the AP voter Josh Allen okay fair enough I think everyone's gonna be

on Baltimore but I'm probably gonna take Buffalo that's probably good take this Craig is just this is just you so you the other ones

4 in 1 today baby we know and you're good at That's what makes me mad. We also have the Vibes Bowl next week on Saturday. Commander's Lions, the two like wonderful resurgence stories between these downtroddened franchises.

That's really fun. It's also a good way for Jedd Daniels to go out because either he's like a legend who kills the lion or like that's a pretty sick way for that season to end. It's like, all right, yeah, you guys can lose to Detroit and Detroit.

Totally. That's fine. Yeah. Texans chiefs, which I feel like I've seen a lot. And that'll be like a ritualistic. That game, I'm going to tell you got.

That game's going to be bowl. If the Texans beat the Chiefs, I'm not going to do the pod. I don't want anything to do it. The irony of Craig usually, like, zinging, whatever it else is zagging is that the Texans are going, like, Strowd is going to, like, go to the fucking Super Bowl. I can't deal with that. I would love to go back in time and just tell us in August that C.J. Stroud, if he beats Mahomes in the Super Bowl, everyone's going to be pissed. We're all going to be, like, so mad if C.C. Stroud goes to the Super Bowl. Oh my God

You know what the best thing ever would be Would be if the Texans beat the Chiefs And then Stroud at midfield Like daps up my home Put his hand It's like just stick with it man Like I know you may think your time is up And it's kind of my turn

But keep your head up Keep your head up Oh my God And then yeah We'll see if the Eagles play the Rams or Vikings We'll talk about that game later this week So And just reminder that when the season ends

will be going full-time ring-en-infeld draft show just covering the whole NFL off-season and everything. So the Patriots hired Mike Vrabel today. I have a lot of thoughts on this. I think multiple things can be true at once. Basically, I think this is a really good hire for New England, and it's the right hire, and it's the one they should have made last year.

And I also think the Patriots really made a total sham of the Rooney Rule. It was like, one of the more blatant ones that's happened in recent years, I mean, the Raiders John Gruden thing was like, that shit was so done so early. I mean, the Patriots went and hired, so you have to hire two black candidates, or sorry,

you have to interview two black candidates now to try to get diversity in the coaching ranks. Did you see that they tweeted that they had interviewed these two guys? Yeah, it was bad. It was bad. They tweeted like they put a photo of them together. Yeah,

it was tough. They didn't even give them individual tweets. We satisfied the Rudy rule. We did it. And it's like, mission accomplished. This could be its own podcast. episode, like the Rudy

rule and diversity in the NFL writ large, but it is tough that the wet people, they didn't even pretend. Like they interviewed basically anyone that could get in the door. Peppa Hamilton, who's not and Byron Leftwich, neither of which have coached in the last two seasons. Like these guys both have a coach since the

2022 season. They just took the first two people they could get to come in the door and like just check the box. And it's like they didn't even pretend. So, I mean, I think that's going to be very controversial. But the flip side of it is, well, Mike Vrable was the best coach and they got him and he's a fucking Patriots legend.

And like, yeah, he's the spiritual successor to Bill Belichick. Teddy Bruske and ESPN today put it really, who was pissed about how the Gerard Mayo was treated. And that I think also reflects in the New England thing. It's like they fired Gerard Mayo was the same pick guy and he was a black kid coach. Teddy Bruske was pissed about the Gerard Mayo firing and it's awkward for him because he played with Mike Vrable. But Teddy Bruske put it best.

Mike Vrable is actually halfway between Bill Belichick and Bill Parcells. because Vrable has the ability to talk with players directly in a way that Belichick kind of like doesn't Parcells had like the confrontation that Vrable has. I kind of think Vrable, Craig, I'm curious who you think? I think Mike Vrable working with Drake May reminds me a lot of Mike Tomlin being hired in 2007 to work at Ben Rothesburg.

I think it's a great call. They already have two of the three pieces you need, right? They have the quarterback, they have their coach, and then now they have a top five pick in the draft. You get your tackle. and you're off and running. You know, we, we thought Brable was probably one of the best candidates.

It came down to, like, him and Ben Johnson, possibly in terms of, like, who are the most exciting two candidates right now in, in this process? It's probably those two guys. It made obvious sense because of the history that he has with the organization. The command he respects, I think, from, like, both the media and the fan base and ownership. It's just, I think, that all fits together really well.

I don't know how he is with, like, quarterbacks. I think that is the one thing that we'll have to see. I think, you know, in his history, Brable's been really good, regardless of whether they've had a good quarterback or not. Like, I saw this stat out there. It was when he had Ryan Tannahill starting.

By the way, Ryan Tannahill was like a throwaway. Remember he was on the dolphins? Fourth round picked. Yeah. And they went 39. The Titans went 39 and 24 when they had Ryan Tannahill. They were,

weren't they the one seed one year? Yeah. And that's like. I think they went 14 and two. Yeah, like a huge testament to the coaching. and doing a lot with not as much as most other teams. And then even with like the combination of Will Levis, Josh Dobbs, Malik Willis,

Marcus Marriota, Blaine Gabbard, they went 15 and 21 in that stretch. And so, you know, I saw this stat actually from a Kevin Clark article at the ringer from like last year. Rodney Harrison said he's a good asshole. I love him. He's one of the best assholes I know. And I'm like, I think he'll be good. I imagine he'll be good. But he also, I think is one of those coaches.

that'll be like pretty direct and like he's like confrontational with players too and so it depends on how Drake May takes that I think he'll be good I think Drake May will take coaching but I don't know for sure I guess that's that's my only concern is like can he take hard coaching and is that

the type of coaching that Frable is going to give I assume so but we also have to figure out who their OC is going to be and all that yeah I mean I think the part of the TANHill thing is the offensive coordinator's Rayble had was what Matt Lafleur who did pretty good yeah and then Arthur

Smith like one of the best head coaches in the NFL yeah uh Mike if you want Arthur Smith he's available honestly is he is he is he gonna get fired or is he under I I can't I mean can't you imagine they brought it back you have to fire him dude if you really go into the fire people I don't have fired coaches if you go and take a point I know if you rewatch this game there were their Steelers Ravens game it's not just all the things that are obvious like there's a lot of just basic plays

where people just don't know who they block like darn know Washington's just going the wrong like there's just a lot like the most also didn't have very much talent on their offense which yeah but talent but a lack of talent does not excuse people not knowing blocking assignments in the playoffs

like it's it's week 19 and they don't know like that like even high schoolers should know what their fucking job is in week 19 of an NFL season. It doesn't matter. Also, the Titans were a 1-C, but they were not 14 and 2. You know what I was thinking of?

I was thinking of that Kerry Collins season on the Titans when they were 13 and 3. Oh, my God, the Jeff Fisher year? 2008. Yeah, 13 and 3. What's he doing? 2008, Jeff Fisher, 13 and 3. Memory Hold. Keith Bullock, middle linebacker.

Kerry Collins for 12 touchdowns that season and they were 13 and 3. That's a Daniel Jones-esque stat right there. Okay, so if you were with kids or listening out loud in your phone or in a general environment where there's not supposed to be cursing. There's about to be like a lot of cursing like more than usual.

Do with that what you will. Okay, back to the show. Kerry Collins is how, I've ever told you guys how I learned curse words? It's from my mom watching Gary Collins. Carrie Collins threw an interception in 2002. And my mom, I'm sorry, mom. My mom goes,

fuck shit piss moose cock what moose cock that's good in 2002 so you were seven seven you're my because Kerry Collins

I think it was against the Cardinals so she just kind of instinctively yelled cock balls she hated Carrie Collins cock balls what are the seven swear words you can't say on television your mom almost said all of them

yes she went four for seven what is it's the George Carlin joke it's like fuck shit piss Tits motherfucker cock or something. Cock sucker. I will say this about Mike Vrable. He has the most barrel chest of any human being I've ever seen in my life.

I think I've mentioned this before. When you see him in person, obviously, you see him on TV. He's still huge, but like that is a large person. Do you remember we were in Indianapolis at the combine? We were at a bar at two in the morning and I got up to get us another pitcher and a guy just barreled, like barreled

me over. Like just absolutely just drunk guy at the bar and I turn around. He looks like how I imagine like a world champion arm wrestler. Yeah, it looks like Tyson Bayesian's father. But I turn around and I went to go like, who barreled into me? Like me, Danny Hyfitz, who hit me and I turned around?

Made out of granite. I love that he was like, was he like a consultant for the Browns this year? Was that his official title? He was like out in practice like like fighting offensive linemen with like like on his own paddles. He could still play. He was a coach for them but he didn't

do Sunday game game day stuff because everyone involved thought it would be awkward because he would definitely be a head coach next year. Right. But he worked with them during the season. Yeah, he just like went home during games on Sunday. He like didn't travel with the team, right? He didn't fly with the team like Urban Meyer.

He'd go back to his favorite bar. He's like Urban Meyer actually kind of has it going on. I think he knows what he's doing. Wait, did Brable coached with Urban Meyer? Vrabel coach with Urban Meyer. It all makes sense. Wait, didn't Mike Grable tell a story about Urban or am I thinking of somebody else? No, he did.

Did you see this? This wasn't private, right? I'm going to tell the story. No, it was out there. It was like, Urban didn't know his name or didn't recognize it? Urban didn't know who Mike Frable was. He was like, I worked for you.

That was on Manning cast. Didn't he say that? Yes. Yes, but the question is, I didn't watch the clip. So I don't know like the verbal cues like if he was joking or if he was serious. So he might have been completely joking. I don't think. Urban Meyer didn't know what Aaron Donald was in the NFL.

I can't, I cannot get over that. Urban Meyer was like, who's this? The biggest. Urban Meyer might be the most successful man. I know for how little he actually. Urban Meyer, like the NFL. For how much to an idiot he is. Failing up.

Urban Meyer is better than anybody. The embodiment of when people say like as you get older, you just kind of like, yeah, people are idiots. Urban Meyer. Like, can you imagine being Urban Myers turning the table? Like, who's this 99 in the Rams? He spent two years as the defensive line coach for Urban Myers. Ohio State team.

Also, Mike Vrabel, like, one fucking three Super Bowls. He's a famous person. Well, it's just like if you employ so, I understand. He's the head coach of a division rival while Urban Meyer was in the NFL. Who worked for you. Also, like, I understand how Urban Meyer

could forget a random assistant. The coach of a division rival is. He won three super you hired the three times Super Bowl champion. Imagine if I just, like, didn't know who, like, Big Cat was. I never heard of That works for you

Pat McAvey, never heard of him It's like you've never heard of Bill Simmons You work for Bill Simmons Who? Oh my God, all right She could probably get out of here All right, thank you, DK, thank you, Craig Thank you for listening

Thank you, Austin, thank you Kai, Thank you Carlos, thank you everyone we're going to vote in the poll is the poll going to be did you think

go to Spotify you vote the poll did you think this person was Abe Lincoln or could it be like does this person kind of look a lot like Aiden Lincoln

How do you describe this meme the guy standing up and declaring something you know what's fucked up I realized now I thought it was the Abe Lincoln meme I call it Abe Lincoln meme

oh my head that's where I got Do we need to link to a tweet with the photo in the description so people can see it before they vote

no because that's just can you can't we can we not put a pickup i think we can put a photo near the in the in the spotify app we can put a photo near the pole close enough that if you scroll around we put a picture of uh the guy with a cigar and cigarette too he was 35 bednark yeah yeah yeah that guy was 35 which i was like the age of glen powell right now why why did they all look like that because they spoke and drank all day was working in the mines and he's in a coal mine when he was seven probably he yearns for the mind those are my favorite

dude these people yeah because they they were fucking living different than us we fucking sit at our computers and type all day Craig by the way are you going to watch sorry this is usually after we say goodbye type discussion are you going to watch that documentary by the guy that's like trying to live forever the billionaire guy I hate that guy but yeah

I saw the preview and I was like okay I kind of want to watch this is this the guy who had the company that was trying it stop aging and then he was like I'm going to stop selling that because I think it's actually advancing aging. I don't know if it's that guy. He just made a he just made a new doc about how like his routine getting he gets up in the morning he like takes a million pills he does like like infrared light his name is he stops eating at 11 a.m. every day he doesn't eat past 11 a.m. His name is ironically not ironically but hilariously Brian Johnson. Yeah, Brian Johnson.

That guy. Yeah. Brian Johnson. How old is this guy? He's 46 and he like kind of looks it, which is funny. I just saw this headline for the year. I didn't read this because I was watching the games, but I was scrolling and I saw that this headline came on and said, all I saw was the headline that said, Brian Johnson ditches longevity drug he took for years over concerns it could have aged him more. Cripes.

Which I thought was the funniest thing ever. like you spent your whole life trying to not die you're like oh i think i made it worse has ever has ever considered that living that like this he might as well be dead right what do you what do you live for why i can't do anything as much as none of us really want to die the idea of living forever is horrific just watching everyone you've ever loved come and die all the time also i love that this guy's trying to live forever and he lives in venice california in Los Angeles with some of the worst air quality

in the country. Not even, I'm saying this week, just in general, LA has terrible air quality, it's hilarious, that's where he chose to live. Why isn't he in a mountain somewhere in Montana? Yeah. Or like Switzerland. Yeah, right. Get out of America. Anyway, I want to watch that documentary. Yeah, I'll probably watch it too.

Yeah. We'll report back. We'll watch it on the plane when Hyph is in the middle seat. Fuck. Wait, did I do the thing? Oh, no. Did I think Lorne? I don't remember. No. Thank you, Lauren. Lauren. Thank you. Timothy Shalameh.

Oh, musical guests. Dude. That's a good call. I'm going to be, I presume he's singing Bob Dylan song. Craig, can you explain? In character? I, well, I mean, as Bob Dylan, that'd be weird if he turned off the voice for the first time.

He just sang as himself. No, he does, he does like Timothy Shalovey's like rendition of Bob Dylan song. Craig, can you explain? So Timothy Shalamey is hosting SNL. he's in a movie called A Complete Unknown where he plays Bob Dylan and he's hosting SNL but he's also the musical guest of S&L

and so... Kai said is he going to sing Wonka? Is he going to just sing Wonka? You're going to get Wonka. I bet they will. That's a good call, Kai. I bet they will get fucking Wonka. There might be a sketch about Wonka.

He's not going to sing Wonka, I promise you. He's trying to win an Oscar and this is the all-time flex on live television to win Best Actor over Adrian Brody who can't even really go on SNL because he did something kind of racist like 20 years ago when he hosted. Oh yeah.

He can't go back. And Chalemay's like, fuck you. I'm going to sing Bob Dylan live on camera and win best actor in front of the whole world. And I'm actually going. So I'm stoked. I've never been to S&L. This is like a dream come true. And, uh,

did you watch the episode of movie? Is that already out? Yeah, it's really good. I liked it a lot. I need to check that out. I need to watch that. 50th season? 50th season.

I think this might be like the second or second to last show before that special. That's just nuts. It's like, this has only happened a handful of times where, like, a non-singer is the musical guest. What is the history of that, actually? I forget that, I forget exactly who. Let me look it up. Oh, I feel like just, oh, I guess Timberlake doesn't count. Did you watch the brutalist?

Is that what it's called? That's the Adrian Brody movie. Yes, I have not seen it yet. The movie looked like, I read the description of that movie, and it sounded like the saddest movie of all time. Well, what all the awards. I didn't say, think. I was like, oh, let me watch this. It was like, oh, it sounds.

awful. You want to feel absolutely terrible. Watch this movie. It makes you tell me better. It's three and a half hours. Three and a half a... Dude, yeah. It's a tough fit.

This is what Brian Johnson does every day. He watches... So, uh... I want to live forever so I can watch this movie that makes you feel terrible. There's only been... Just keep using the Abe Lincoln be able to tweet of Brian Johnson. I actually want to die. There's only been four musical guests who aren't professional singers on S&L.

And so it's Chalemay now and then it's... it was Gary Busey. I have no memory of any of these. Gary Bucy. No way. Gary Bucy is saying on SNL. Lily Tomlin and Dionne Sanders. Of course.

Are you being serious? Yes. Dionne Sanders, what did he was the act? I don't know. He was the musical act. I have no, I don't know about that.

I did not know. Was that like a bit because he was playing baseball in the World Series and playing in the NFL at the same time? That's like a bit. Yeah, maybe.

That would be the all-time. Kelsey can try to do that. Gary Busey looks better for 80 than Brian Johnson does. Hold up. Which of those is more sure? Actually, I don't think that's true because I think current images of Gary Bucce are probably pretty scary. That's the meanest thing you can say about somebody. I was like just Google image searched him.

I'm like, some of these pictures are probably 10 years old. He looks pretty rough now, actually. Gary Bucy. Why have you Googled Gary Bucy's the third pictures? Think of him screaming. who says blooded sausage. Oh, that's his own Instagram. It's not even Photoshopped.

Oh, my God. I love the Gary Busy scene from entourage so much. Gary Busy, I used to represent you. He's like, you're a gut maggot with no guts. Is that when they're on the beach? They're on the beach. He's like, you're going to spin off this planet. I love it.

Keep at it. I think about that. That's like my Roman Empire. I think about that scene probably once a day. You're going to spin off this planet. I love it. Keep at it. Gary Busey is a great villain and lethal weapon.

Is that the... Which one? He was in a light. The first one? The end of the first... The weapon features Mel Gibson and Gary Bucy having a fist fight. That's the final scene of the movie, and it's awesome.

I think I forgot that he was in the first one. Yeah, I guess he's not the South African guy in the second one. No. And then Mel Gibson looks him in the eye. and goes, all the cops surround them, but nobody does anything, despite the fact that Gary Bussey's murdered like 30 people in the last 24 hours.

And they're on the lawn, and the cops let Mel Gibson fight Gary Busy and Mel Gibson looks him in the eyes and he goes, what do you say, Jack? You want a shot at the title? It's the fucking best. I say that all the time. What do you say, Jack?

You want a shot at the title? Good time. You like Mel Gibson's pod this week? His pod? Oh, yeah, with Rogan. they cured cancer with Ivermectin. You didn't see this? Oh, I did see a couple of clips of Mel.

Yeah. I'll have to check that out. I like, you know what I love about the theory that Ivermectin cures cancer is that the people at Ivermectin who make Ivermectin, like they're trying to keep that a secret. Right. Like the idea that some company has the rights to like the care for cancer. I don't think there's much money in curing cancer.

Yeah. They're just like the people like, like as if the same people are like making money from this. somehow. I don't know. Like, just the most loosely thought through idea I've ever heard. Anyway, now we could definitely go.

Or we can talk this out. I don't know. You want to keep going. Should we take some? Some ivermectin? Yeah. Like when people called it during the pandemic, they called it horse paste.

Horse pace. He fucking is horse face. It's just like such a funny way to put it. There are a lot of memes, but I like that people were like, there are like parents doing ivermectin because it's a horse dewormer and then the kids are all doing ketamine, which is like a horse fucking tranquilizer. And it's like everyone's on a horse drugs though. Horse paste. Horse paste for the parents. Goodbye everyone.

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