The Ringer NFL Show - Divisional Round Saturday Recap: Commanders Upset the Lions, Chiefs Outlast the Texans, and More

Episode Date: January 19, 2025

Sheil, Steven, and Diante get together to share their instant reactions to the Commanders' convincing win over the Lions on the first night of the divisional round playoffs. They then examine the Chiefs' gritty win over the Texans earlier in the day and talk about their confidence in Mahomes and Co. going forward in their quest for a three-peat (30:13). The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Sheil Kapadia, Steven Ruiz, and Diante Lee Producers: Chris Sutton, Tucker Tashjian, and Mark Panik Production Supervision: Conor Nevins, Arjuna Ramgopal, and Daniel Comer 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'll 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's 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. Welcome to the Ringer NFL show. Shield Capade here with Deontay Lee and Stephen Ruiz. Minutes after the biggest upset of the postseason so far, the Washington commanders and Jaden Daniels go to Detroit as eight and a half point underdogs and pull out the victory 45 to 31 in a game that in the fourth quarter didn't even feel that close. This game was mostly over midway through the fourth quarter, barring a miraculous comeback from the Detroit lines.

We're going to talk about that game. We're going to talk about Chiefs Texans also, which now comparing the two games, Deontes, it's like, oh, that game was pretty boring compared to what we just watched. But we're going to get to all of it during this episode. 1,000 percent. It's one of those things, and we've had weeks like this where we come on the show, and I'm like, the thing that happened in the earlier slate feels like it was a week ago because my head is still spinning from the last thing I just witnessed.

and it's probably going to take me all show for me to wrap my mind around what we just saw. We have 400 different angles, Ruiz, to go with with this Lions Commanders game. Is your head also spinning after watching that? Yeah, we talked on the preview show about how we thought Washington would have to play this high variance game because they were the underdogs. And if they were going to stand a chance against the superior team, they had to take some chances. But it almost felt like the Lions were playing like the underdog in this game. Like they were the team trying the trick plays. They were the team on defense.

I was selling out and blitzing all night long against the offense. And by the second half and by the early fourth quarter, it really felt like Washington was the better team in this game. And maybe that's just because the difference in quarterback play. Like on one side you had David Daniels playing just a masterful performance, not only for a rookie, just for any quarterback, any young quarterback playing in the playoffs on the road in that environment. And then Jared Gough, who I thought possibly was the worst player on the field today.

Yeah, there. So we can, there is an angle of this that the Lions shot, themselves in the foot. Let's get to that in a minute, but we have to start with the Washington commanders. You mentioned it. Jaden Daniels or rookie goes 22 for 31, 299 yards, two touchdowns. Does not take a sack in this football game, does not turn the football over, rushes for 51 yards. I mean, the commanders had a very small margin for error offensively coming into this game. You felt like they can't turn it over. They can't have, you know, a multiple three and outs. going to have to score on almost every possession. And what did they do? They scored on almost every

possession. I mean, this is a 97th percentile game for an offense this season. They had the ball nine times. They score five touchdowns, one field goal. They missed a field goal. They had the failed fourth down conversion on the first possession. And they punted one time. They punted one time and did not turn the football over on the road against a team that had been looked at as the favorites in the NFC all season long. Deontay, when you look at Jaden Daniels and we've talked about him a bunch this season, what is the most impressive part about what he just did? Honestly, this is one of the few times, and we talked a lot about how Jaden Daniels has been

a ceiling lifter, and there are definitely a lot of moments where he raised the ceiling of this team. I think the story is the marriage of Cliff Kingsbury and Jaden Daniels in this game. When we talked on the preview show, and I was laying out the case for how Washington could keep this game interesting, my biggest thing was that Cliff Kingsbury. needed to lean all the way into his spread identity, right? Don't spend so much time in 12 personnel on early downs. Don't run the ball into stack boxes. Get in spread where you can get those lighter boxes and make it a little bit more challenging on Detroit. And I thought that we saw that in this game.

I mean, there were points in this game where Cliff would run a play out of a formation and get right back on the ball in the same formation because he just knew based off of the personnel that was on the field and the coverages he was going to get from Aaron Glenn that they were going to be outflanked in certain ways. And I thought that that went a long way into neutralizing the blitz. And that to me, I think, was going to be the biggest factor in this offense staying healthy. When you have 70% of your first down runs coming out of 10, 11, 20 personnel, when Eckler and Robinson are on the field, you're running those RPOs with your screens. I think he had a negative air yards per attempt on his first down passes. Jaden Daniels did.

A lot of that is getting the ball out of his hands quickly. If they do load the box, if they do send pressure. And when they don't, now you're running into favorable situations. and that I think leads into what the ultimate game breaking piece of this was, which was the fact that Dan Quinn did an excellent job of managing his third and fourth down decision making. They end up going seven for 16 combined on third and fourth downs in this game. And it's because they continue to put themselves in position where they're within three yards of the sticks when they get to conversion downs. That to me, I think, is going to speak. It speaks volumes of his understanding of his team, how he needed to approach this game.

He was able to copy and paste a lot of the things that worked against the Buccaneers. and once it was time for Jaden Dembs to take those chances on second downs, on those conversion downs, you saw a poised quarterback who could get away from pressure, who was not rattled by all the man coverage and tight coverage he was seeing for the most part, and he was able to get the ball to his receiver, so I thought did an excellent job separating today, and that was a big question for me today as well.

It kind of felt like he was playing the Jared Goff style of quarterback, like in terms of like the role he played in the offense where he didn't have to throw it downfield. I think he had an A.D. just under six in this one. but instead of when he gets into third and short, he is the answer. For Derek Gough of the answer is usually Amun Ross. St. Brown are some scheme that Ben Johnson has drawn up or Sam LaPorter. It's like a skill player or the scheme.

With Jaden Daniels, when he gets into third and short, fourth and short, it's his late. Like that's the checkdown. And it's the best checkdown in the playoffs right now. I would say outside of Lamar Jackson, obviously, maybe the best checkdown in the NFC right now. And he doesn't have to complete a pass in order to access it. He could just run the football.

It's such a powerful weapon that I think Cliff Kingsbury has just done like a great job of leveraging. I mean, we have to give Cliff his flowers for this. But I know Jaden Daniels's a story. He's going to get his flowers all week long, maybe all offseason long. But this never really looked too hard for Jaden.

And I think like he contributed to that, but it was also Cliffs play calling. The offensive line played well and gave him protection all game long, despite the blitzing. The receivers did their thing. It was just a total team effort. And Jaden Daniels stands out just because he's so calm in that environment.

You can really give credit to anybody on the, really, when you go on the road and you're this big of a underdog against the Lions here and you turn in a performance like that, everyone absolutely deserves credit. I'm with you. Cliff Kingsbury was feeling it in this game. And then Jaden Daniels, and I mean, beautiful throw to Diami Brown with that 42-yarder on the right side there. And then his legs, I mean, those third and ones, those fourth and ones.

How many times have they run that? that play action, he boots out to the right. And if that corner's getting even just one step. And Terry and Arnold didn't play that well, play that play well. But we've seen them run that like so many times this season. And I swear he gets it every single time. He was able to use his mind to beat the blitz at times. And then there was just like a 14-yard scramble.

Oh, okay, we don't have something good for this one. I'm just going to take off and run. So I think it's the combination of the two. I feel like he missed maybe two throws both in the red zone, but other than that, I thought his accuracy was outstanding on the short stuff, on the intermediate stuff, on the downfield stuff. And he's just done, he just is in such command. You would never, not to use like the cliches you're going to hear all week long, but you really wouldn't know he's a rookie the way he's playing in a game like this.

So he continues to be an incredible story. I'm with you with Dan Quinn, Deontay. I mean, they fail on that first, fourth down conversion. And this is something we talked about on the preview show, like you have to be aggressive. You cannot. expect your defense to turn in a great performance. When you're in the red zone, you got to go for it. So they fail on the fourth one with the weird Marcus Marriota thing where you thought, uh-oh, if there's like two more of those, this could be a long day for the commanders. They come back, fourth and three in the second quarter, go for it, convert, leads to a touchdown. Fourth and two in the third quarter, go for it, convert, leads to a touchdown. Fourth and two in the fourth quarter again. Go for it,

converts, leads to a touchdown. So I think Dan Quinn deserves some credit. I mean, I'm looking at the sidelines here and there was all that drama and it was weird with Ben Johnson last off season about the commanders wanted him. Did he not want them? They're on the jet. It's like, all right, everybody settled down. Like, I'm not going to feel bad for billionaires wasting a little, you know, private jet money there. And they land on Dan Quinn and I think he's done a good job. You know, he's a defensive-minded head coach. And a lot of times those are the guys who are a little bit more conservative and say, all right, he understands his team. He knows what the strengths are, what the weaknesses are. And like, we've seen it two weeks in a row now. Just because you fail on one or

fail on two, he's going to keep going for it. He feels like it's going to give them an edge in the end. And it did. So Kingsbury, Dan Quinn, Jaden Daniels, Terry McLaren, Brian Robinson was running the ball well, the secondary and tertiary receivers. So I've been like, how are they winning with these guys? They made Diami Brown. I mean, they're making plays in this game. So it really is across the board. This is incredible that the Washington commanders, I mean, I always go back to like our takes in August. If somebody, we do shows where we're like, all right, it's a safe space here, you know, go ahead, give me your bold take that you wouldn't tell anyone else.

Even in those shows, no one was like, yeah, the Washington commanders, I think they can get to the NFC championship. So I had to schedule, Deonté, and it's like, who knows? We'll see what happens next week. They could be hosting the NFC championship game if the Rams beat the Eagles on Sunday. If not, they go to Philadelphia where they split. the two games and those two teams would be facing off for a third time. I mean, you laid out all the reasons why this game was impressive.

I do want to spend it to the other side. Like, to me, if you're Detroit, this is going to be one of those games where you have to watch the film. You have to go back and watch the film in full to actually get a picture of why everything went wrong. Because if you just go like situation by situation, if you just watch cutups, you're going to walk away from this feeling like, we should have won this game by 21.

They looked like when they weren't turning the ball over, Detroit looked like there were two weight classes. head of Washington when they had the football. I mean, they were averaging a ridiculous amount on the ground with their first down run. 60% early down success rate rushing and passing was the last time I checked before they went in a two-minute mode about halfway through the fourth quarter. So they were moving the ball basically at will in the first half when they wanted to. And then you get some inopportune turnovers and you obviously get that pick six in your own

territory. And I think that that's what really ignited Washington, right? That gave them the extra score that I think that they needed in order to be able to execute what they wanted to do game plan-wise. And then in the second half, you got to see the worst of Jared golf, the one that's pressing, the one that's not dealing with pressure very well. And you saw Ben Johnson, I think, pressing a bit. And that goes beyond just the reverse pass.

We didn't see the same level of adherence to whatever your original game plan was, of adjusting at halftime and saying, hey, maybe the past game is not here, or Jared's just not seeing it very well with all these soft zone shells. let's just lean on Jemir Gibbs and David Montgomery and we don't have to make it, we don't have to try to maximize the volume of possessions. We're just going to grind them down because they can't do anything with our front.

I'm really disappointed in how they approach this game from a play calling perspective. And that's before we even get to Jared Gough. Like Stephen said, I thought, was maybe the most costly player in the playoffs that we've seen so far this postseason. I had almost forgotten that Marcus Marietta and Teddy Bridgewater had gotten in this game,

to Dei's earlier point where it feels like that early game. game in Kansas City was like a month ago, and it feels like the first half was like three weeks ago. But yeah, we talked about Washington not having a margin for error, but they kind of did. They won the turnover battle five to nothing, and that eliminated Detroit's margin for error. And we've talked about this all season. They're a team that likes to play on the front foot. They like to be ahead of the chains. And when they're not ahead of the chains, that's when we've seen a few of the weaknesses in their offense.

Today, I just think we saw the worst version possible of it. But that tends to happen when you go to the playoffs and you do have eliminated. it quarterback. These guys get exposed eventually. And when you need A plus games three times in a row against playoff competition, eventually you're going to get exposed. I think that's kind of what happened here. If it didn't happen in this game, I think it would have happened down the line for Jared golf. I think the irony in it for this week is like usually when we say that about a quarterback, it's because the opponents did something that forced them to play left-handed.

I mean, I'm watching some of those turnovers from Jared Gough and I'm like, this is not a credit to Washington. This is just Jared Goff playing poorly. The pick six was just an awful throw, right? Like I think that there are going to be so many ways, like I said, they're going to go back and watch the film and say, this play call worked. Why do we not come back to this? Being in this personnel caused Washington this trouble, why do we lean so heavily on the passing game, even when we were trailing? I think that this would have been a great game to just play simple football. And to take the ball out of Jared Goff's hands, we had talked about it at a different points in the year, I think the stats have all been great. And like you said, Stephen, they've played on

their front foot so often. They have been the aggressor so often that we haven't had a lot of opportunities outside after the first month of the season to kind of critique some of the issues that golf was having. But you look at some of the inaccuracies when you get soft zones. Some of that stuff had been there this year. They've just been able to dictate the terms because of how efficient they are on early downs to where you don't see it as much. I can't say I'm surprised that Geragoff had this game. I'm more so surprised it. It didn't take necessarily a personality change from Washington to cause

Jared Goss's issues. They played their defense and Gough just gave the game away. The game did kind of get out of their hands quickly. You got out of hand quickly because they scored 28 points in the second quarter. So I think that kind of put more pressure on Ben Johnson to call certain types of plays, maybe go away

from certain types of plays. Like, Jamir Gibbs, he might have been the best player on the field. Anytime David Montgomery got the ball, I was like, if I'm a commander's fed. I'm like, thank God. I mean, Jemir Gibbs was running for 20. Every time he touched the ball, I was like, he might take it to the house. He was incredible in this game.

And the crazy thing is David Montgomery, like you look at the numbers, they weren't like they were bad. He was still a productive back. It was just that Jemir Gibbs was that good. And like before the game, I think Dan came, I think it was Jane Glazer reported that Montgomery was coming back. This was his first week back, but Jamir Gibbs was going

to remain the lead back. And I do think you can make the argument that they should have given him more carries, but the game did get out of hand. And I do wonder what that second half looks like if it's more of like a seven point game. Like Washington's pushing it from seven to ten rather than like a 14 to 17 point game. I thought Gibbs could have definitely touched the ball more. Yeah, I mean, it was 31, 21, and they got a stop to start off the third quarter. So I actually just feel like it was those turnovers killed them.

Like this is the recipe for how a favorite loses a game like this. You give the game away. I like Dan Campbell. I like Ben Johnson. I like Aaron Glenn. I do think there's a case that these guys got outcoached in this game, this group. I mean, when you look at, yeah, it reminds Ruiz like some of those Ravens games we talked about early in the season. We're like, man, they just shot themselves in the foot over and over again. I mean, if you look at this game, this was a 98th percentile offensive game based on a success rate,

which to explain to the listeners, that just means was it a positive play for the offense or not? So if it's third and seven and you pick up 10 yards, that's a positive play. That's treated the same as if it's third and seven and you pick up 40 yards. So it downgrades the explosives. And the turnovers, like an incompletion is treated the same as a turnover. And so they were moving the football. They had 521 yards in this game. I know they had some drives at the end there.

But even for most of the game, they had 30 first downs in this game. But those turnovers, it wasn't just the turnovers. It was like the costliness. The first fumble, you're in the red zone. Like you have a minimum of three points on the board there and you fumble the ball. The pick six, again, that turns directly into a touchdown there. End of the half. They're either in field goal range or approaching field goal range and you throw an interception

there. James, that Jameson Williams interception. I don't like, like my, any time there's a trick play like that and the guy who's supposed to throw the ball holes onto it for a second, my wife can attest to this because she was in the same. I go throw it away. I yell, throw it away if it's not there. And I understand. You only get so many opportunities if you're Jameson Williams. But it's like, I don't understand how you make that. I don't understand how that's the number one coaching point like 400. And maybe it is. And he just didn't listen.

But 400 times during the week that if it's not there, you have to throw it away. And he throws it. And that's an interception. So you add all those things up. You have a personal foul on the touchdown drive where Jaden Daniels hands the ball off. And Pascal blast him. How about fourth? and two in the red zone and you have 12 men on the field. Yeah. That was a high leverage of spot. That cost you. That cost you what would have been what you probably, maybe you get a stop there and you

force a field goal or you get the ball back. You know, if you don't have 12 men on the field, you have no idea what their strategy would have been in that situation. And you give them a free set of downs knowing that they have a numbers advantage because they can use their quarterback. That was inexplicable to me. D'i did this earlier. He said like he didn't really see Washington do anything to make Jericho play.

and I agree with that. I think it was just like a typical game in terms of generating pressure on the pocket. But you did see golf. And we have to like watch the All-22 and see people were open downfield. And that's why he was holding the ball. But we did see Washington be able to move him off his spot and make him make some throws off platform. He made a sidearm throw. Yeah.

He made a sidearm throw early in the game and he completed it. Then I felt like he like tried like five more for the rest of the game and didn't even come close for the rest of the game. So I do think they made him a more dynamic there. and we know that's his weakness. He's not a guy that can throw off platform. When you move him off his spot, when that offensive line isn't winning dominantly, this can happen.

This is in the range of outcomes. Yeah, I was thinking back to what Dan Campbell said after they lost in the playoffs last year where he came to the podium and said, I just told them you might never get back here. And then they have this season, and it's a very impressive season throughout the regular season. Like, they bounced back from that

and played at a very high level. But Dan Campbell was right. I mean, you know, Ruiz, you said, like, you need golf to play an 8-plus game three weeks in a row. They didn't really. They kind of needed him to play, like, you know, they just need him to not give the game away. I mean, if some of these mistakes are incompletions or tackles for loss,

like, you're still in this game at the end. You gave Washington an offense that could not be stopped all game. Now you gave him a defensive touchdown. Now you took points off the board and two other incentives. where you are in scoring reach, like it took all those things, you know, that that was going to take all those mistakes for you to lose this game and you made all those mistakes. So again, yeah, it just was not a crisp performance. It looked like a, I don't know if tight's the right word. I don't know the psychology of it, but they made a lot of mistakes in a big spot when they

were big favorites and they weren't playing, you know, as well or as crisp as they had for most of the season other than that, you know, that five interception game that Jared Gough had. there hadn't been a game quite like this. There had been some, you know, issues here and there. But like, they're usually able to overcome those because they can score so fast. Like, you know, you can have a bad possession. You come back, you score quickly. But between the injuries on defense, inability to get a stop, mistakes on defense, penalties,

and then you turn the ball over this many times. You just have no chance to win. It's the Shane Falco quicksand speech from the replacements. Like, that's what happened to the lines in this game. I feel like one, like a couple bad things happened in a row. And by the time you look up, they're down by double digits. And Jared Gough is pressing in a past first script. It's not how they play the game.

I don't know. If you're a Lions fan, this is a tough one. These two years, you had very good teams. You had a lot of fun moments in the regular season. Last year, you had a fun moment there in the first round of the playoffs. But I'm in the second round, I guess the first two rounds of the playoffs until that championship game against the Niners. But you come away from it like, you know, DJ.

just hope because now next year, I guess let's just have this conversation. Like, where do you go from here? Ben Johnson could be gone. We don't know if he definitely will be, but he could be. And I think we all agree that is a huge, huge deal. I have no idea who Dan Campbell would call on to coordinate that offense without him. So you have that. You still have a lot of good players on offense. I'm not saying you don't. But I do think that he was a difference making coordinator these past few years here. And I guess defensively, you see what happens with Aaron Glenn. And you hope, all right, let's just hope, for better injury luck next year. And you get some of these younger guys like Terry and Arnold,

and they can play better for you next year. I guess that's the path. So I'm not saying like the window is closed. But the Ben Johnson thing to me, Ruiz, is like the biggest thing sort of hanging over this about how well they can extend their window. I do think there's a chance that we're overvaluing Johnson. Okay.

They're still going to have that offensive line. And I think the thing that makes an offensive coordinator's job, the easiest is having a dominant offensive line. And I wonder like what Ben Johnson's offensive. it's going to look like without that, because you'd expect it to be different. You can't build the same offense when you don't have Sewell and all those guys

on the offensive line, those running backs. And Amon Rae St. Brown, who's such a unique receiver, especially in that scheme. So they're still going to have those guys, but to your injury luck point, I think they're definitely going to have better injury luck next year, but what if the injuries happen on the other side of the ball this year?

Like, there are fewer injuries, but you lose a key offensive lineman or two key offensive linemen, and now that strength isn't a strength anymore. Or maybe you lose Jared Golf, Maybe you use Luz St. Brown. So that's why Dan Campbell said what he said last year after the 49ers game. Which one is the more painful loss if you're a Lions fan?

I don't know which one I. This one is hard to stomach. Like as a Panthers fan, I will always remember the 2008 season. They were like the second team. It came into that that playoff dominant. They were playing a bad Cardinals team that like barely snuck into the playoffs and they just get steamrolled. Jake DeLone has like five interceptions in that game. And I just remember that being like the worst loss.

in my Panthers fan. Even worse than any Super Bowl, they lost. To me, this one's worse. I don't necessarily feel like, I think they had some circumstances that maybe worked against them a bit in the 49ers lost, but for the most part,

I didn't feel like they beat themselves as much as just like, you miss one play, right? You miss on one or two plays and that ends up ultimately being, you know, the balance in the game or what tips of balance in the game.

This one, there's nothing to hide from, right? There's no other reason why you don't blow out this commander team that you know you're more talented then, even with all the injuries, this was still the more talented football team walking into this game, and you lose by multiple possessions because you gave them ball five times,

force no turnovers on your own, and your quarterback was an issue. And I would say the offensive play calling was an issue as well. To me, I think that this is the one that's really going to stick with them. And then as you start to spin things forward, as Sheal was saying, this might be the last time you have both your coordinators under your own roof. And there's no guarantee that it's ever as good as it was while these guys are here. Even if you are beyond competent, even if you do still put up high level numbers in the years to come, just because the infrastructure is as strong as you were detailing Stephen, there's no guarantee that it's going to be this way. We know what the NFC North was this year. There's no guarantee it's not going

to be as competitive going forward. There are a lot of NFC teams that I think are just building up strong infrastructures in general. A slip, a step backwards. San Francisco making a pivot. it. You know, if the Rams are able to do something, if that defense takes a big leap forward in the coming years, there's no guarantee that this is going to be what it's like. This is as good as a window was ever going to get. And I don't really believe in Super Bowl windows to begin with. You're either good enough to win it in the year you're playing in or you're not.

This stuff is too fickle for you to act like you have multiple seasons and multiple cracks at the bat. And if you do, you're one of the fortunate teams. This is a golden opportunity for them to at least make a conference championship run and give themselves a chance to make it to New Orleans. they're going to be kicking themselves over this season going this way, I think, for a long, long time. Yeah, I agree. I think it's got to be this one because I always say the best point of fandom is when you have a season that exceeds your expectations or comes out of nowhere,

basically exactly what's happening to the commanders right now. So think about that commanders fans. Like, you can get caught in, oh, this is the start of something where we're going to be. It is hard to get to the final four in the NFL. I mean, it is very hard. Commanders fans know that. I don't have to tell them that they have had a long road since they've gotten there. But then you get stuck in that mind, oh, this is just the start of something. And then you look back three years later and it wasn't the start of something. That was it.

That was the time you had your best opportunity because between injuries and playoff paths and like you said, which quarterbacks are you facing? I mean, if you were in the AFC and it was Tom Brady and Pey Manning, it's just like, all right, this is going to be a lot harder. You know, does the NFC turn into that a little bit? So last year, remember, before last year, they had not won a playoff game since 1991. So I know like a lot of people liked the lions going into last year, but it was still like nothing had happened. There was nothing good. They had finished the previous season, 2022 well, and they were a trendy team, and they came through and they played really well, and they went 12 and 5. But that was the season that was probably, you know, all right, you lost in the conference championship, but you thought, all right, we'll be back here.

And you were back there. You went 15 and 2 this season and beat the Vikings in week 18 to get the buy and get home for. By the way, this one's at home also. At least she lost on the road last time. So there are, as we record this, there are fans in their cars, whatever mode of transportation they took. And they are just having these conversations about like, they can't believe it. They can't believe Jade and Daniels came in.

This is like Michael Vick going to Lambo. That was a Saturday night too, I think, where it's just like, all the stats about, you know, playing in Lambo in that weather. And Michael Vick went in there and they beat them. And that's really what, this is a, for commanders fans, like, this could be the best moment you have in the next, like, 20 years. It might not be. Like, Jayden Dale's, maybe he'll win a Super Bowl or whatever, but like these are the types of games that really stick with you. So commanders fans, enjoy it. Lions fans. I'm sorry, you know, it's not over. You still have a good team. You have a lot of good

players. But, you know, you never know what comes next year. And Washington, the journey continues. The dream season continues. So many moments. I mean, I can't. imagine as a fan just like having as many great single moments where you're like the group chats going nuts or whoever you're watching with. You're just like, this is amazing. And you had another one today just when you thought, all right, you're playing with house money, your big underdogs. You got another one today. So commanders move on. Jaden Daniels, incredible new character in the NFL, breakout character of the 2024 season. Love watching him play. Don't know what my list is, the favorite guys to watch right now, but man, he is on the short list of that.

And Ruiz is right. Give Cliff credit. Give Dan Quinn credit. Everybody gets credit for a victory like that when you win on the road as huge dog. So we'll see who they face next week, the Rams or the Philadelphia Eagles. Did I miss anything? Any closing, closing comments on commanders and lions, or are you ready to move on? I still don't feel any better about what I just witnessed. So, I mean, like, we can move on. There's no amount of conversation that's going to make it feel better. Exactly. Yeah, there you go. The Ringer NFL show is brought to you by Fandul from the first whistle to the final drive. FanDuel takes the NFL playoffs to the next level because right now new customers can bet $5 and get $300 bucks in bonus bets if you win.

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Kansas City Chiefs versus Houston Texans. Chiefs come out victorious. What else is new? 2314 in that game. Let's start with the Chief's side of this. Ruiz. We can start with you. Do you feel better, worse, or the same about the Chiefs after what you saw on Saturday afternoon?

I think you feel about the same. Maybe a little bit better because you saw Travis Kelsey kind of flip the switch. Like we thought he might be able to do. But when Father Time's working against you, you never know. It's a thing where he's like sleepwalking through the regular season. He's going to turn it on in the playoffs. Based on one game, it seems like he's going to turn it off in the playoffs. but it does seem like this was like an unsatisfying win.

And I don't know if that is really a thing in the playoffs. But Houston, like when you look at the numbers, and I think if you watch the game, Houston and Kansas City looked like equals in this game. Like Houston moved the ball just as well as Kansas City did. I thought they ran the ball a lot better than Kansas City did. I thought they passed the ball just as well as Patrick Holmes did. CJ shot, I thought had a pretty good game,

especially after he hurt his knee early on and he was scrambling around a lot. He gave them a chance in that game. So I don't know how I would feel optimistic about this result because you just went blow for blow with the Texan team that I don't think any of us believed in before the playoffs. But I do like the way that they kind of rediscovered Kelsey and kind of used him to work against what Houston does best. And they kind of mitigated Houston's aggressiveness because of that.

But it was still a concerning performance for the passing game and the run game. Deontay, do you agree? I think I'm with Stephen. I don't know if I feel any differently about the Chiefs. I will say some of the things that kind of came up as maybe yellow to orange flags, I wasn't necessarily expecting for the Chiefs. It was a little concerning to me that the offensive line looked the way that it did. And that's, you know, understanding the fact that you're dealing with DeNeil Hunter and Will Anderson, right?

And I think that's a big deal, the opponent. Yeah. To me, the most optimistic read on this, if you're a Chiefs fan is it was ugly on offense, but we're never going to face a pass rushing pair that's as talented as that is for the rest of the way. And we're not going to see an all pro corner that's as good as Derek. Stingley was that effectively just eliminates an entire side of the field because he really wasn't even looking to target Stingley at all today. So I think that's the most optimistic read. I will say, though, it does open some questions to me about with moving Tune, when moving Joe Tune out to left

tackle, I thought the interior of the offensive line struggled at times in ways that I wasn't necessarily expecting. I don't think that I was as wowed by Trey Smith. I think the Creed Humphrey was pretty was decent for the game during the game. But Juwant Taylor is still a problem. There are so many things I think that just came up. It was just like 23 days isn't enough time to fix some of the problems that they have. It doesn't mean that they're necessarily fatal flaws. I was just maybe hoping to see something a little bit better on early downs from this offense. So that way you did not have to rely so heavily on Patrick Mahomes on passing downs because of the kind of defense he was playing against.

I think you just say, hey, we beat a great defense. We knew the offense on the other side probably wasn't talented enough to be able to go punch or punch with us in the second half. and we just move on and play whoever comes out of tomorrow's games between the bills and Ravens. Okay, I don't want to get into the penalty stuff. I do think, like, the Texans were kind of screwed with a couple of these penalty calls. Oh, we got to get into that. Yeah, yeah.

I just don't want to make it like, oh, the chief, like the league loves the chiefs. And like, that's why this game was so disappointing. I think the game was disappointing because there's no, like, style from the chiefs right now. They're not winning in style. And I know, like, it's the playoffs. And you can say that all that matters is that we survive in advance. but they're not necessarily playing against the other 31-2 teams in the league right now. They're playing against history.

They're trying to do something historic and trying to go down as one of the best dynasties. Wow me. Like dazzle me. And I don't think they've done it all year long. I'm tired of them winning games because of these calls. Like I'm tired of these calls making so much of a difference because when you look at any sport throughout history, teams like this do get the benefit of the whistle. But usually those dominant teams don't need those whistles to win the game.

that's just like an added feature to their dynastic run. So I am kind of disappointing the chiefs just because they're not entertaining right now. And this is another game where I didn't get entertained. That I think is the key. Like when you said wow me, I'm like their job is not to wow us. Their job is to win. But the entertaining thing is absolutely true, especially after what we just watched in the next. It's a real stark difference between these two games when you watch the Chief's offense.

And then we just watched both the commanders and the Lions offense. And you're just like, this is incredible. Now, I do think a lot of that, where at least some of that has to do with the opponent. I mean, I came away from that Chief's offensive performance being like, well, we talked about on Friday that this Texans defense is legit. Ruiz, you wrote about it. And we thought, all right, there's a formula here for them to really ugly this up against the Chiefs. I mean, last week, they make Justin Herbert look bad earlier in the season. They make Josh Allen look bad. Like, they've been a defense that has kind of risen to the occasion every time they faced a good court.

Not every time. but a lot of the times they faced a good quarterback this season. So I look at that Chief's offensive performance, and I don't think it's quite as bad as the box score indicates. So they had 14 first downs, 212 yards. They only got the ball seven times in this game. And I know one of them with the short field, but they had two touchdowns, three field goals on those seven possessions.

If you look at it, EPA per drive, it was a 67th percentile game, which to your point, that's not wowing anyone. That's not incredible. but I do think against the top three defense, where towards the end of the game, they kind of felt like they were in control. It's not like the end of the world. Like, I feel like if they face the bills next week,

they could really, you know, put up a lot of points against them. So I feel like I'm giving more credit to the Texans defense. Ruiz, you look like you might disagree. But yeah, the reason they won this game, though, in my opinion, like when you look at everything on balance, it's because they won the field position battle by 20 yards. Their average drive started on the 40-yard line. They didn't have just one short field.

They had like three short fields. Several, yeah. And they went three and out more than the Texans did. They had a lower success rate, I believe, than Texans did. Texans moved the ball better than them. Like, that's why they won the game because a penalties in field position. Like, I don't know how you get excited when you're beating a bad AFC South. Not a bad team.

A flawed playoff team because of field position, which was mostly Houston's fault. I thought Houston gave away a lot of field position situations. I thought, D'Amico Ryan's, when he went for it on fourth and ten instead of punting the ball, pinning the chiefs back by their own goal line. Obviously, Straub gets sacked. And then the chiefs kind of reverse it on them. The chiefs go three and out, but they punt it and they pin them on the seven. That's kind of game over right there.

So it just wasn't an impressive win beyond even the fact that they got those penalties. They just didn't dominate the game in a way that I would want to see. Like I think the Ravens, if the Ravens played this Texan scene, we saw it a couple weeks ago, they dominated them. I think the bills would have dominated them, although I guess the earlier game contradicts what I just said there. But you want to see a Super Bowl contender dominate a team like that around this time of the year. Well, here's the stat from ESPN stats and info that backs up what you're saying. Texans are the first team to out gain an opponent by 100 plus yards, not commit a turnover and lose a playoff game.

Previous teams were 49 and O. So they outgamed the Chiefs, 336 to 212 in this game. I am with you on Kelsey though. Man, just like he looked fantastic in this game. seven catches on eight targets for 117 yards. So it's still that thing of like, wait, what version are we getting of Kelsey in the playoffs? And oh, there's that version of Kelsey that comes back once again. So Chief stay at home.

They get the win there and we'll see who they face. The other side of the ball, their defense, eight sacks, 14 quarterback hits, pressure CJ Stroud on 51% of his dropbacks. Deonti, what did you see kind of on that side of the ball, Chief's defense versus the Texans offense? I cannot watch the Bobby Sloak offense with CJ Stroud anymore. I can't do it anymore. It drove me crazy. It drove me crazy on so many different occasions, especially in the second half, when you could tell the Steve Spagnola kind of figured out where the protection holes were

and how he could call blitzes and pressures and stunts to be able to stress out this protection. I mean, you can look in that fourth quarter. I think, you know, Steve, and I was talking with some of our buddies about it, they have seven, six, seven guys in the protection. against five rushers and they're blowing the protection. And it's not like there is some, you know, complicated simulated pressure or, you know, this three-man twist where it's like, oh, okay, I see a guy gets picked, a guard falls down and you just open

up space to go run through. This is just guys getting their asses looked. You have Dalton Schultz on George Carloftus. I like Dalton Schultz a little bit as a receiving tight end. He can't block that guy. And Dario Guiloboale is an extra blocker on him. Can't block him either. It was so many things to me that are just.

of bad process for them in terms of how they look at their offensive line, how little they've developed this offensive line, given how much money and draft capital they've invested into the position. And to me, if you're the brain trust in Houston, you can't be, it's not objective for you to walk out of a meeting room and say anything other than, the reason why we are not Super Bowl contenders right now is because we have continued to fall short with our development of the offensive line.

You can't waste a performance like you got out of C.J. Strault today, especially while he was banged up. I mean, he comes to one of the first possessions of the game. He hurts his knee trying to scramble and extend plays. And he's able to stay on the field, knowing that he's limited and is still standing in, taking a beating, trying to deliver the ball, trying to beat the blitz with his arm when he couldn't with his legs. I think the fourth quarter was a little bit of a poor reflection. But to me, a lot of that falls upon the fact that he can't trust his offensive line to pick things up.

The offensive system is not built for him to be able to adjust protections. and a great defensive coordinator, a playoff level team, a Super Bowl contending team that knows what is doing on that side of the ball is going to pick on you time and time again. And we saw that throughout the regular season. And it's just the most frustrating to me because we said it in October and November that this is exactly how this team was going to get bounced out of the playoffs. And they actually were in a position where they might have been able to win this game, if not for their offensive line, being the problem and being the reason why they lost in this one. I'm with you on Stroud. I'll buy anyone C.J. Strow's stock. I think let's get some protection up front. And I don't, yeah, I hate to say, you need to fire the offensive coordinator.

They finished 31st in success rate this year ahead of the Cleveland Browns, 26th and offensive DVOA. You cannot run it back. The guy did not have the answers. Maybe he'll figure out the answers and have a great career after this. But you can't run it back on C.J. Stroud's third season on his rookie contract and keep this the same. I mean, I would be surprised not knowing anything about what D'Amico Ryan wants to do, but just, you know, looking at it from where we are, outside view looking in. You're right, Deont, I mean, the path towards them bouncing back. And I say bouncing back, you're right. They were in the divisional round.

Like, if we would have said before the season, they lose in the divisional round to the Chiefs, you would have said, all right, that's not a, that's an acceptable outcome. The way they did it is not acceptable with this offense, not even taking anything close to a step forward, instead taking a step back. So I think they got to figure out something with the offensive coordinator. They've got to figure stuff out up front. And I think C.J. Stroud would be positioned for a bounce back season next year. Ruiz, what do you think?

Yeah, I mean, you hired a guy to run the Shanahan system. And the focal point of the Shanahan system is to be able to run the football. And through two years, he has shown no ability to kind of get that established. They ran the football today well, which was surprising, actually. But throughout the two years that we've seen him, there have been a lack of adjustments. I feel like that's the main thing. We saw him get off to a fast start last year in 2023. Like over the first month or two, you're like, oh, Sloak might have something.

There might be something here. And then after that, teams kind of adjusted, and he never really adjusted again. He never made an adjustment to the adjustment. And it's been like that since last year in the playoffs against Baltimore. I feel like that was the game that kind of set the bar for him. And he just failed to clear it time and time again this season. And I think he's had plenty of opportunity to kind of make those changes. It's been obvious that this approach hasn't been working.

And that's like the most concerning thing is they're trying to do the same thing over and over and over again. No, I totally agree. So defensively, feel good about it. Will Anderson, DeNeil Hunter, Derek Stingley, Lasseter, Domeco Ryans in these games against good quarterbacks. Like, I feel very good about their defense. You can argue that was the best unit on the field in that game. I mean, they were flying around. I don't think you even have to make an argument.

Like Domeco Ryans, I thought he had a couple of strategic errors like the one I laid out earlier. but we talk so much about having a young offensive mind as a head coach because you don't want to lose that play caller. But I don't know how many coaches I would trade for Domeco Ryans right now. I feel like they can get that offense going and C.J. Straub can take some steps forward. Like he could kind of do the Belichick thing where you have this franchise quarterback, but you also have like the elite defensive mind kind of guiding you through the playoffs and gameplay and filling in whatever gaps you have on offense.

So, yeah, I feel very optimistic about Damiko Ryan's future. but I feel like the Bobby Sloak thing is such a great test early on. Like, don't fall into that track. That's the biggest hire. If you're not an offensive minded head coach, the biggest hire is the offensive coordinator. Can you nail it? Can you put your quarterback in position to succeed?

It's not easy because a lot of times you hire the guy. And then if the guy's good, then he's leaving for a head coaching job. He doesn't care about that. Just hire somebody who can give you a good offense next season. So it'll be interesting to see what he does there. You still have Nico Collins. I think you need to add, obviously,

wide receiver depth, offensive line help. Defensively, I don't think they need a lot of, you know, you really don't need to invest too much on that side of the ball. So, yeah, I think that's what the Texans offseason will most likely look like here. Last topic we got to get to because this one is going to dominate the, you know, online if you're on any social media. If you're watching any football shows on Sunday morning, I imagine this would be, we didn't lead with this topic.

You know, we went in different directions. imagine this will be a topic. They'll get to sooner than we did. Ruiz touched on it, how Patrick Mahomes is officiated. So three plays in this game. Personal foul on Will Anderson on the Chiefs' second drive. We're watching live, I thought it was a legit call. They showed the replay. It looked like it was a bad call. The Chiefs end up kicking a field goal on that drive rather than having to punt there. Third quarter, Mahomes runs around forever, slides late. Two Texans defenders, and what looked like a pretty dangerous play. Collide with each other helmet's helmet,

but they don't actually hit Mahomes with their helmet. Still gets a penalty there, 15 yards on a drive, which I believe they scored on there as well. And then I think the one that will be shown probably the most that I can't wait to hear what Deonté thinks about as a defensive guy is Mahomes running down the left side line, sort of tries to bait a little penalty there

with the shove out of bounds, goes flying, flops a little bit, doesn't get the call there, but still that on top of what we had seen previously. So Deontay, what are your thoughts or what will you be thinking when you hear everyone yelling about this? Not only on Sunday, but I think it'll be a pretty hot topic going into next week's AFC championship. I feel like maybe one of the few defensive-minded people who does not become emotionally unhinged. You're not outraged. Okay. I will say, honestly, the thing that bothers me more is to play on the sideline. That's the one thing that kills me. The baiting, the, I'm going to bounce around as a quarterback,

Fane like I might be out of bounds, okay, I'm going to juke back in bounds, and then when I see something I don't like, I'll drop, or I'm going to, on my way out of bounds, I'm going to throw my back, like, you know, a basketball player who has a clear lane for a layup, but I feel a hand, I feel a hand on the back of my shoulder, and that kind of contact is enough to send me flailing into the stanchet, right? Like, you see something like that in other sports. And to me, I can't be mad at Patrick Mahon,

because he gets the call. It's incentivized. And that's not just for him. That's for quarterback's period. I've seen Josh Allen, who is like maybe the largest, maybe the largest strongest quarterback pound for pound in the league, take contact that's relatively glancing,

given his size. And he goes, arm out, you know, full backflop. I'm going to hit the ground as hard as possible to roll around to see if I can get an extra 15. I think that for those, I don't know how you, I don't know how you change. change that or adjudicate that as a league because you are so hyper-conscious and concerned about

quarterback safety, I think the ones that were called earlier are probably a little bit easier to adjudicate in years to come, right? Like him bouncing around and then falling and the two Texans defenders collide with each other. To me, that's a reputation call. That's a, you guys as the Texans are known for hitting quarterback slate as they're sliding. And Patrick Mahomes is a sliding quarterback, and he's pretty good at, you know, kind of leaving just enough of his head up there to where it looks like it's questionable,

and he'll get that call. I think that they can do a little bit better job. Now with, I think, that automated replay that we've seen a lot more of this season, I think that there should be an opportunity for them to look at that and be a little bit more honest. I think we heard, you know, the broadcast booth

talk about like, hey, if they see any contact, they're not going to overturn it because it would be against the way the letter of the law is laid out. I would like to see that adjusted a bit. And then with the first play that you brought up, which was like the forcible contact of the head or neck area from Will Anderson early in the game, that one I think is probably at the bottom of the list for me in terms of ones I have a problem with. I just don't see it.

I don't see it called consistently enough. CJ Stroud, I think on the very next drive, he gets blistered as an unblocked pressure on a throat of Nico Collins, if I remember right, and he gets hit very similarly. It might not have been as forcefully as Will Anderson, because Will Anderson is just faster than, a lot of defensive ends, but he takes contact right to the front of his face mask as well, and that's not called. So it just leaves me, I think, as not only a viewer, but somebody who is

very concerned about, like, player safety, because I have to take what's happening around just the world of football and try to, you know, synthesize it in a way that helps me make the players that I'm coaching safer and better at, you know, meeting the rules as they continue to change. I would like to see that get a lot clearer from the NFL's perspective. Just so that way, we don't have to waste podcast time talking about whether or not officiating is unfair for quarterbacks. Because it just is what it is. I just want to see it done more clearly and efficiently from a referee crews across the league. Yeah, if the chiefs didn't want to hear us complain about this, that's what I'm saying,

win the game by more than like a possession or two. I feel like the chiefs playing all these close games allow us to kind of focus in on these calls and how they change the game. If they're blowing these teams out and Mahomes was still getting these calls, I don't think we would notice it as much. And the fact that the chiefs are winning like we're going to find something to kind of villainize them for as evident

Deonté brought up Josh Allen there's like a super cut of Josh Allen flopping over the last couple of years on Twitter right now floating around you can find it if you search for it he does it maybe more than Patrick Mulles more than anyone in the NFL and I would argue he might do it the most nobody complains about it because the bills haven't won anything yet if they started

winning Super Bowls we'd start complaining about it so I feel like they're kind of damned if they do damned if they don't and like honestly they could help out their I guess their look to the neutral fans if they started winning these games by more than a possession or two. Yeah, the two where Deonti, I'm with you on the two calls he gets, like, what's he supposed to do?

You know, like, Michael Jordan wasn't like, no, don't call that. You know, it's like, yeah, of course. That's the benefit of being the best players we've ever seen. Right. The best player in the NFL, you get those calls. So those, I don't have an issue with the tiptoeing and then flopping on the sideline. I think it's fair to be like,

come on, mate. You're already getting the calls. Like, I understand there's a line of, well, I'm just trying to be competitive and get a call here. But at the same time, then I think it's okay to be like, dude, what are you doing?

And also, I do wonder if like, because that clips get circulated, now if you're the league or officials and it's next week and you're like, this guy's really trying to, you know, take advantage of it. I just wonder if it changes anything. Probably not.

But I do think, you know, you're kind of trying to pull one over them in a sort of embarrassing way there. And good job by them in that spot that they didn't throw the flag. The flop was lame, but like the next play he throws the touchdown where he's falling over. And then I just totally forget him. This isn't Patrick Mahomes' fault. It's not Mahomes' fault. The same thing happened. I think I heard some frustration. I saw a little bit of frustration in the second game when a Pascoe blows up Jaden Daniels because he does kind of present his body in front of the defense in front of the defensive end. I like that call from the

league. You have to protect quarterbacks. He is more defenseless than he is, you know, somebody who is live and in the play. He got levels on that. Yeah, absolutely. On the other hand, the thing that I didn't like was the idea that they should have called an unnecessary roughness on the block on Jared Gough on the pick six. I know that got brought up in the broadcast as well. I'm like, by the letter of the, that's what I'm saying. But I think that again, this goes back to them being hyperconscious about quarterback safety. And it's a hard. line to toe. So I'm not going to pretend as though I have a perfect answer. I just think that sometimes the rationalization that we get for roughing the passers, for unnecessary roughness calls

for hits above the head, hits above the head or above the neck area. They almost feel disingenuous. Like, I can't even count off the amount of times. I've seen a pass rusher who was trying to bat the ball or go for a strip sack, happens to just tap a quarterback on the top of his helmet as he's releasing the ball. And now that's 15 yards and an automatic first. And it happens on like a second along or a third down. Like, what are you supposed to do with that if you're a defensive player? It doesn't mean that the NFL is not supposed to protect quarterbacks from getting hit in the head. But I do think it's a difficult line to tow.

And I guess that when quarterbacks are baiting calls, it's just that much more frustrating because we can't have honest and objective conversations about how to protect these guys in and out of the pocket because we're spending time talking about doing dishonorable things like flinging yourself as you feel contact on you as you're on the way out of balance. That's the stuff that just makes me roll my eyes. I also do not understand what you are allowed to say, you know, like, oh, New York reviewed

this and it's overturned. Like, when there's a catch and it's obviously not a catch and they rule it as a catch and New York chimes in, it's not a, it's great. Quick, all right, in guard. Why isn't that just the main way that you're saying? The face mask in the night game, it took one replay and it was obvious, not a face mask. That could have been a huge play.

If the Lions win that game, we're talking about that a lot in the first segment. That's a third down. They're trying to come back. It's not a face mask. They call a face mask. It's obvious, but that's not reviewable. Same thing. I mean, you could have made the same case for those Mahomes.

It's like it wasn't really a gray area. It was like they missed the call on the field, but it's not reviewable. And so now you just have to go for it. I don't understand why someone can't call it and be like, no, no, you miss that one. Move it back. I mean, I feel like most teams, most coaches would be on board with that overall. If it was adding time to the game and stuff, I understand. But I just feel like if it's clear, they have a good process for somehow communicating to the officials that know that was wrong.

Change it. And they change it. So I have no idea when they bring in the officiating expert and when he says, this can be overturned from New York or it can't be, I have no idea what those are. I will say, one of my favorite moments of either game was the Russell York versus Joe Buck and Troy Aikman. I love that. You sound on Buck and Akeman coming hot. That's not a catch. Yerke says, I don't think so.

This is why I'm here. I am the officiating expert. That's, that's, that's, he said it, I think he said it was a catch. Yeah, he said it was a catch. And the call comes in, catch confirmed. And Buck and Akeman have to backtrack. Now that's good broadcasting right there. I don't want everyone buddy, buddy.

Go out of Aikman. I like this version of Aikman. We need more confrontational. Yeah, yeah. Especially since I have no idea. who Russell Yerker is. I don't know where he is. I never heard of the guy before this year. Oh, yeah. By the way, where did he come? I like to have a rules expert with some Pinas with some star. That's what I'm saying, man. I feel like so many of the refs that they go to

now are almost trying to be part of the broadcast. But like they're evaluating how they feel about the play as much as they're telling you what, you know, what shouldn't, shouldn't be called by the letter of the law. I don't care how a former back judge or side judge used to feel or feels about his own read. Tell me, if it's a penalty or not. That's it. That's all you're here for and then go back to what you were doing before. Exactly. Macaulay has to say it within, within two seconds of your sentence, I should know whether what you think the ruling was. That's McCauley. These other guys, they must get paid by the word or they're like, I don't know when the next, they're talking about, well, you know,

in 97 I went on vacation and no, we want to know what you think about. Was it the right call or the wrong call? That's all we want to know. You can tell the reps that want to be like the star of the show. when they were on the field. Those are the type of reps. They can probably tell you like their best officiated games. Not theirs, like their favorite ones. Like they have like the,

the ref version of the ringer quarterback ranking somewhere. You remember Hockey and in the 2007 Super Bowl? I love that. Yes, they want to be the stars of the show. That is well said. All right. I think that's all I got. We'll see how the chiefs get officiated.

Next week, Chiefs host, the winner of Bill's Ravens, who, fingers crossed. We're recording this. late Saturday night. Let's get a classic on Sunday in the late window between the Ravens and Bills. Early game, Rams at Eagles, I can tell you, everyone's hitting up the grocery stores, snow is coming, and you look at the hour by hour, it almost looks like it's going to start at kickoff and end when the game end. So it could be like a full snow game the entire time. These

things change quickly. We know that, but we could get some snow football there. If the Eagles win, they host the commanders next week in Philadelphia. All right, that'll do it for this episode of the Ringer NFL show. Thank you to Christopher Sutton for producing. Thanks to T-Cruz for the video. This was live on YouTube. So if you want to watch it after the fact, you could do that at Ringer NFL on YouTube.

Additional Production Supervision by Connor Nevins, Arjuna Ramgopal, and Dan Comer. We will be back Sunday night with a regular pod. You can listen to that on Spotify or watch that Monday on Fandul TV. Hey, Shield Capadia back real quick. Made a mistake many times during the pod. I said the commanders could potentially host the Rams in the NFC championship game. That is not true.

They will be on the road at whoever wins between the Rams and the Eagles Sunday afternoon. So what do you want for me? It's after midnight. I'm old. Mistakes are going to happen. I'm sure some of you were yelling, yelling the mistake out. As you heard it. So I, the ringer, we regret the error.

I take full accountability. Everyone enjoyed the games on Sunday. We'll talk to you Sunday night on the ringer NFL show. Must be 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C. Gambling problem. Call 1-800-G-Hallor or visit RG-Help.com. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit

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