The Ringer NFL Show - ‘GM Street’ — Week 14 Rapid Reactions (Ep. 200)

Episode Date: December 11, 2017

The Ringer’s Michael Lombardi and Tate Frazier discuss the developing news about Carson Wentz's injury and what it could mean for the Eagles and the rest of the NFC (2:30), the Panthers' hard-fought win over the previously red-hot Vikings (9:12), the 49ers' second straight win with Jimmy Garoppolo at QB1 (24:35), the playoff picture (26:45), and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to GM3, part of the Winger Podcast Network. It is Week 14. I am Tate Frazier, and I am joined on this Sunday evening by Mr. Michael Lombardi. Lombardi, how you doing? I'm great. You know, you pull these shirts out, Mugsy Bogs. I love it, man. I love it.

It's so good. You know, did you remember those ABA balls? Of course. Oh, God. I love the ABA. That's one thing that you did know. When I was a kid growing up, you have an ABA ball, like somebody in the neighborhood, and it was like the coolest thing of all time.

That's pretty neat. I like it. The NBA gets a lot of credit for everything. thing the ABA started. We should just say that off the top. The ABA was great. Did they start a three-point shot? Of course.

Started a lot of things. A lot of traditions came out of the ABA. I like it. I like the Virginia Squires. You were the Carolina Cougars. You were the Carolina Cougars, of course. Oh, yeah. Larry Brown.

I love Larry. We got to get Larry on the pod. We're going to get Larry on this podcast. We got to get Larry on the pod. We may play like a BAB podcast. We're playing like strangers. We've got to get Larry on the pod. We will.

We will. Maybe when we go to Philadelphia. Oh, for the parade? We don't know if that's going to happen. And that's a good thing to start off at the top. Actually, let's start with the Steelers. So it's week 14. We just watched the Steelers.

Yeah, we just did. We had a nice little chat. We had a nice little thing. Yeah. Joel Solomon was invited. He stiffed us tonight. He said he was coming over. Didn't even reach out to us.

Didn't even, I didn't even get a text from him, Mr. Pittsburgh fan. I haven't heard from him. I don't even know if he watched. That was a great game. I mean, that was fun. I mean, the last, look, I think this was really just that this was a really good weekend for football. I mean, the officiating was horrible. Don't get me wrong.

But there was some great. I mean, I was a Tony Peace today. There was a lot of good games on. You know, you had Hugh Jackson leading those Cleveland Browns because he's coming back next year. Don't worry about that Cleveland fans. Cousin Sal, I feel so bad for you. But it's his own fault. You walk into that dungeon called Cleveland.

You get what you deserve, right? One week he's going to look like a genius. I mean, I bet you, what I'd like to know is what was Cousin Sal doing when he was up? What was he up? 21 to 7. 21 to 7, yeah. He's probably thinking, I got this one, right? In fact, I told Millie, I said, Cousin Sal is probably really happy.

right now. And then you could just feel it coming back. And then, you know, that game was on. And then we had Carolina. That was a great, that was a really good game going back and forth. You had the, you know, the misnomer of the day was the Giants Cowboy game. The Clapper looks like he's got a 20-point win. But that game was nip and tuck until the bitter end. So that was actually a good game too. And then San Francisco and Houston was a good. I mean, today was a good. Then the afternoon games, I thought were really good. So it was good. But let's go over. Okay. Let's start with Carson Wentz. Let's start with that. whole situation. So for people that didn't see this, obviously the Rams don't get a victory at home today.

They lose in this one, but the real big loss of this one is Carson Wentz goes down. And it is reported and is not confirmed yet. There will be an MRI tomorrow in Philadelphia that Carson Wins has torn his ACL, which obviously would lead to him being out for the rest of the season. Let's talk about what happened and how this whole thing played out. So he runs in for a touchdown. What would be a touchdown? He gets crunch between two guys. His two legs get kind of just, you know, sandwiched together. He gets back up. He looks shook, right? Right. No, he looks shook. I mean, I'm watching, I'm now, I'm no longer at Tony P's.

I'm at my house. I said, Emilio, that guy's hurt. You know, you could see he's hurt. He had that, his face was red. He went ghost almost. He kind of went ghost. And so they moved the ball back and they hand off the next point. For a holding penalty. A holding penalty, which was clearly a holding penalty. I'm sure nobody in Philly thought it was a holding penalty. And then they run it on, they run it on first down. And you can see he's rubbing his leg. You can kind of see him rubbing his leg. You know, like, from my vantage point on the couch, I know he's hurt.

Like, I can tell. And he looks like he's in a lot of pain. He's like grasping for breath. He runs it again. Then on third down, they call a pass. And he doesn't move an inch. He just throws it and it's incomplete. And then on fourth down, shockingly, they go for it, right? And they rush three,

which, you know, and he doesn't move an inch. He stays right there. And he throws it away, and he's thrown it to Aguilar, but Aguilar doesn't catch it and Jeffrey makes a hell of a catch for a touchdown. And, you know, it really saves everybody in Philly because to me at that point, like, I don't know why he didn't kick the field goal. I don't know why he didn't kick the field goal when you could see your quarterback really

wasn't the same that he should have been, right? But that's – Yeah, obviously didn't see that. Obviously he was attending a different – he was looking at a sheet calling, you know, and he comes off the field and you could see him rubbing his leg. And then the announced to the sideline reporter says, well, we think he has a concussion, which, you know, look, you know he doesn't. doesn't have a concussion. Like at some point, like, no, you could see it. Then he walks in,

and then we find out that he potentially could have a torn ACO. When they were waiting for that fourth down call to get, to get called in, to see if they're going to go for it or not. He was in a lot of pain. He had his, you know, his hands on his hips, and he takes a step and his knee just kind of like buckles a little bit. And I saw him looked down and that right then pretty much pointed to this is going to be a problem. You know, so what happens is they take him in. They, those guys, Dr. Deluca, the Philadelphia team doctor, wonderful man, great, great, great, surgeon. He, you know, he's been, obviously, he does the flyers. He does the 70s. I mean,

he doesn't do the 76ers. He does the flyers. He did the 76ers. He'd be a really busy man. Well, no, they would be out for 17 weeks. I mean, that would be it. You know, hemorrhoids out in the month, you know, I have a sore throat. I mean, could you imagine the 76ers were your parents and you didn't want to go to school? I have a sore throat. You're out for three weeks. You don't have to go to school. The 76ers would be the perfect parent. Anyway, I don't know how we get on that subject. But anyway, they'd be the perfect parents to have so you can miss school, right? Get to watch Mori at home, just hang out, watch Jerry Springer, Judge Judy. I'd have a lot to miss school, right? So anyway. Anyway, so when they do those tests, Tate Fraser,

they know pretty well. Like, they don't, like, usually... So they do a manual test. Right, and they check this, and they do it so often, they check the stability of the knee, right? Yeah. And you can move with an ACL, you can walk with an ACL, you just can't play football with an ACL tour. Now, Philip Rivers did it in a championship game years ago, but, you know, Philip Rivers didn't move around. Wence's whole game is movement, right? It's his whole game. Like, that game there was, to me, an example of, you know, people lose sight of how great Wence is. They think, well, it's the Eagles office. No, the Eagles offense is Wence. It was third and 11 on Sunday. Touchdown. Third and 12. Big pet. I mean, they're in more third downs than most every

team in the league and he makes a play because he can move his feet. I mean, Wade Phillips made the commentator made the comment to Troy Aikman. He brought it on the broadcast. He said, this guy's impossible to tackle. That's the problem. And, you know, the Eagles came back, won the game. Great win for the Eagles. Don't take anything away from him. I mean, the strip sack on Jared Gough was by Chris Long was

a great play. So that won the game for him. And now they got it. Now if Nick Foles has to move forward, it'll be interesting. It'll be some irony there too too because, you know, not too long ago, Nick Foles was the chosen son to be the Philadelphia quarterback to lead this team to a Super Bowl, you know, that's what everyone thought he could do. I mean, not quite Kevin

Cobb, but on a certain level they thought he could do that. Now it's, he's back, he's in this position. The Philadelphia fans are going to say he can carry this team. By the time that plane lands in Philadelphia tonight, if he's deemed out Philly, we can win it with Foles, but Foles, we can win it. I mean, look, if the

guy's an MVP candidate, you just don't take him out of your team and say we can compensate for him, especially considering the fact that your team is in the top five. The Buffalo's in this group. You're not in an esteemed company here offensively. You're in more third and sixes than any team in the national football league, which means you're not doing things consistently.

And Wentz has bailed you out. And Wentz, I think, unfortunately, Wence has not played the game. He's played reckless. This is the way he's played. I mean, he's played with no fear of his body. And unfortunately, he got hurt. I mean, you could see this was coming. I mean, I didn't predict it's coming, but you could see the way he plays.

He couldn't take these shots and keep standing. The worst part about it is that, you know, he died for the end zone on a play that it doesn't even matter because it's a holding penalty. So he takes this huge shot that I think probably led to, we're not sure what actually happened to leave the ACL, but I mean, pretty much all signs point to that. So he dives in, it's on a holding call. So it doesn't even count. The one thing I will say about Foles, the third down, the game selling third down, he does make a good throw to Aguilar. And that is some promise to show that maybe he does. have some things there. I mean, give credit to, you know, they threw the ball and that down.

They had to try to win the game there. Their defense was exhausted. And I think that, you know, they won the game. I mean, they didn't play well in the kicking game. Their defense gave up points. They're going to need a true team effort. I mean, they have a good enough team to, but they're going to have to rely on other people now because the main guy, if he's hurt and he's going to miss some time. I mean, I don't think he's playing next week, even if it's not a tour of ACL. But again, I would say, in my experience, you know, we all hope it's not. but those guys typically don't miss those injuries, the MRI usually reveals it's worse than reveals it's better. Yeah, absolutely. And I will say this.

You know, when Peters went down and Cox went down, all these guys kept falling down. But the thing you came back to was they still have the MVP. They still have the MVP. Right. And unfortunately, they don't have them anymore. We also have the Panthers. The Panthers had a big win.

Eight straight for the Vikings going into Carolina. The Panthers and Cam Newton. Cam Newton has this unbelievable 62-yard run where he fixed the hand off to John the Stewart, a game where they had an 11-point lead in the fourth quarter. The Vikings come all the way back.

The Panthers, you know, in a third-down situation, looked like they were reeling a little bit. Cam pulls off this great run, and then John the Stewart, you know, plugs it in for a touchdown. And then Cam after the game, so he gets tackled on like the eight-yard line.

Actually, may have been closer than that. He says after the game that he got tackled on purpose because he wanted to run the clock out and make the Vikings use their timeouts. I love you, Cam, but I know you did not do that. I know you didn't do that.

I love it. I thought that was a great game. I thought that was a really good game. I think there was so many chances that Minnesota could have just said, okay, we retreat, no, we retreat here, and they just kept battling back. You know, people want to count Case Keenham out. I mean, threw a bad interception early in the game. He ended up with two, but one was towards the end of the game.

But, you know, look, they battled. Carolina battled. It was a great game. It was a great game. It was back and forth. And when Carolina tied it up off the tip pass from McCaffrey, didn't catch the ball, it got tipped up in the air, and then he intercepted it.

You know, you're thinking, okay, they need to stop and Cam came through and made a play. So that was, and the motion on the sideline from Carolina was another indication that it was like a playoff game. You could see the intensity from both these two teams, just like you could see the intensity in the Philadelphia, Philadelphia, San Los Angeles game. The intensity in that game was really, really a high. It was a playoff atmosphere for sure. There was a playoff atmosphere for both teams. And I think the Rams realized now that, you know, they lose a lot of corners in their game.

Maybe they're not as good on defense. The Eagles offensive line. know, the thing I thought, the other thing going back to the Eagle game, which I found, you know, with Wence's ability to move, it's fascinating that they don't get called for more holding penalties as much as he moves. Usually when a guy leaves the pocket, you're always, you grab a guy, you don't want them. But for some reason, Foles came in, they got called for a couple holes right away because, you know, the linemen are grabbing, but Wens is able to kind of deter them from making the call. I don't know how he quite does it. But I think that's another area that's going to

creep up on Philadelphia. I think if you go back and watch the film on that game, I know we're right after, that hasn't quite happened yet. But if you just watch Robert Quinn on some of those plays, he was getting held quite a bit. I could see him going to officials. Like, come on, you guys see this. And there was a couple calls. That call in the, now we're retreating back to that game, but that call on Tremaine

Johnson on the taunting, I never got that one. And the same thing on the field goal, the temp. I never understood what they were calling there. They brought Mike Pereira in to explain it, and he couldn't explain it. Well, if he can't explain it, I can't explain it either. either. But I thought the Minnesota game, that was a great win for Carolina. And Minnesota, to me, is still a tough team. You know, the quarterback didn't melt down. Everybody's waiting for that. He didn't melt down. He played well. Their defense didn't play nearly to the level that they

needed them to play. And Funches played out his ass today. I mean, he was incredible. He looks like a number one receiver today. Today, he looked really good. And so I think that was a great win for him. I'm sorry for Sendejo. His ankles might be broken after what Cam Newton did to him on that run. That was tough. That was like a basketball play in football. We don't see that very often. about how big that man is when he does that move. You know, I mean, that's like, like, like, like, like, like, like, a brawl. Yeah, it really is.

He looked like LeBron going down the lane, like he did against my sixers the other night. It was a Euro step. Yeah. It was impressive. Let's keep it going. The Los Angeles Chargers, they look like the class of the AFC West. They get a huge win today. I mean, the Redskins are obviously beating up.

They were never in the game. That's not really the Chargers M.O. I mean, that's never been their thing. They usually let everyone creep around and stay close and they somehow lose some of those games. But right now, they're on a role. Yeah. I mean, this team, Washington is beat up. They don't have anything left. I think they've mailed it in. Their

seasons are over with. I mean, they've been eliminated from the playoffs again today. They've mailed it in. It's decision time coming in Washington. I mean, at some point, you know, they have to decide on really where are they going? Are they going with Kirk Cousins? What are they doing? I mean, they've got to try to get something where they can actually look like they're a legitimate playoff team. I mean, they had better examine their medical. They got guys down on the field all the time. But I thought the Chargers today played their best game of the season. Rivers was really good today. Rivers looked like rejuvenated today. Through the deep ball well, made a lot of throws. I mean, they brought Kellan Clemens in late

in the game. He's the one who throws the interception for the touchdown. But you know, you got to think the Chargers they have Kansas City this week coming up. You got to think that they are. Because the Raiders just flat out, look, Jack Del Rio got a contract extension. That's great for Jack. But this team, everybody got paid in Oakland except nobody's performing in Oakland, including car and all those guys. You got to think the Chargers, the way they've played and the way they're mounting this. They're probably a bigger threat to the Patriots than actually the Steelers are, who we just witnessed get the ball moved up and down the field on them.

And when you got Bosa on defense that can make plays, I mean, he's basically a guy that's in for the strip sack. It could happen at any time. But I just want to say the one-two punch of Rivers and Keenan Allen, it looks better than ever right now. Way better than ever. I mean, and Keenan Allen's making incredible plays. I mean, they just... He's making history. I mean, I think he was the first receiver to have three straight games with 10 catches in 100 yards.

and a touchdown. I think he was the first one to do that. I mean, he's been on a roll. He's been unbelievable. And, I mean, they've been moving the ball. They protected. I think Okun got hurt today. I'm not sure. I saw somebody go down. I don't know how bad. If he's hurt, that's really going to hurt them tremendously because they don't have another, they don't have anybody that could come in and do that, and that's going to affect rivers. But look, their defense with Ingram and Bosa, they're playing well. I think they'll be, I mean, Kansas City destroyed the Raiders today. The Raiders made amount of this comeback. I don't, I don't think it was an an indication of how good Kansas City is.

I think it was just how bad Oakland came out. Can you imagine coming out flat for that game? When you can get back in the race? Yeah, no. Especially for a team that's been beaten up like Kansas City. And now we have it. The Kansas City's their last two wins have been against Oakland. So they really could be on a complete spiral

if it weren't for the Raiders not showing it up in these games. Yeah. You know, it's funny, though. Everybody talks about Carr. Well, car is going to come back. Car's going to come back. Car last year averaged seven yards per pass attempt, right? They were built on running the football.

They were built on being able to control the line, play action. But it wasn't because Carr was making mad throws down the field. I mean, Carr gets rid of the ball. You compare Carr with the ball in his hand to Jimmy Garoppolo with the 49ers who waits for the last second before he throws it. Nobody watched the San Francisco Houston game except for me and Millie. You know, and this guy, Paul from Tony Pease. You know, we're high-fiving when Jimmy G's making throws. It's like unbelievable, right?

Was his name Paul Garapolo? No, it's not Paul. But he's a Patriot fan. He loves Garoppolo. like I do. I think he loves him as much as I do. Anyway, so, like, you know, it's like, Grappolo's getting a shit kicked out of him. He's waiting for the last second to make the throw. Carr doesn't do that. Like, if you're just objective and you just take your fan away from it and say, you're not allowed to say, like, Carr doesn't do that. Like, that's the magic that you see in Garoppolo.

You don't, Carr hasn't been able to do that yet. Didn't do it at Fresno State just for the record. Like, that's one of the knocks on him coming out. He wouldn't throw it down the field. He took the check down, and now he's doing it even worse. Well, he's more akin to Alex Smith than people want to admit. There's no doubt. There's no doubt, Dave Fraser. Let's talk about the Jaguars, too. So the Jaguars go and they get this huge win against the Seahawks.

We'll talk about the end of the game stuff. I mean, that was pretty crazy. Blake Bortles. Yeah, Blake Bortles time. He's back. He's finally done it. I mean, this was probably the best game that Bortles has played as a Jacksonville. It's a squad game for Bordles though, right?

Because he's playing, he's throwing against the defense that he throws against every day at training camp. So at least he didn't have to process, right? people I'm in my Twitter line. Lombardi, the Blake Bordle said a big day. Oh, enjoy it, please. Like, come on, really? He's not playing the Seahawks in the playoffs. Come on, enjoy it.

Really? Are you kidding me? All right. I mean, great win for Jacksonville. I think they needed that win. Great win. But, I mean, I'm not buying them yet. I mean, I'm buying Jacksonville the best team in the AFC South because I think, and I'll say it again, Tennessee is terrible.

Okay, Mariotta has regressed. They don't have a true offensive coordinator. Their offense stinks. don't have scrape. They're using my man of Dori Jackson as an offensive skill player, okay? Like, I love it. Nobody loved Dory Jackson more than I do. I love the guy. The guy's a good player, right? But if he're using him on your offensive's team, you got real problems. Tennessee's terrible. Tennessee, they go out to Arizona and lay a big fat egg. I think Jacksonville's the class, because we know it's not Indianapolis and we know it's not Houston.

I think they're the class by far. And when you look at the quick tangelo in Tennessee real quick, I mean, Mariotto after the game, he comes out and he says, you know, I, I have haven't lived up to my own expectations. You know, he has 10 touchdowns, I think 14 interceptions on the year, which is, I mean, that's alarming enough. But then Taylor Lawan, the offensive lineman, one of their best linemen comes out. I was like, I wouldn't, I don't want to play for another quarterback other than Marcus Mariotta.

So the team seems to be behind him. He's acknowledging his frustration. I mean, does that help in the locker room at all? At least he's saying, I know I've been bad. I need to be better. Okay, so you got to figure out why are they bad, right? And so, like, you know, Mariotta and Winston, let's throw Winston in this. These two guys are untouchable.

These guys are great players, right? well, Mariotta and Nor Winston have played to the level of their recognition. I think Winston's problems look so much like they saw in college. I think Mariotta has to, Tennessee has to find an offense that will be more conducive to him. And it's not really, it's not there. And he's not being coached at the level that he needs to get coached at to really excel. I think like golf improved with Sean McVeigh. I think Mariotta could improve, say Josh McDaniels was running the offense in Tennessee.

Would Mario would be better? Yeah, probably he would be much better. But their offense is terrible. They don't have skill players. Their offensive line isn't good. I think Tennessee is one of the most overrated teams. I've been saying it now all year, right? They draft a receiver, the fifth pick overall in the draft.

I think Tennessee is one of the most overrated teams in the league. And I just think each week they come out and prove me right. I hope they do. And let's talk about the end of this Jacksonville game real quick. The Seahawks are obviously frustrated. Michael Bennett dives at the legs of an offensive line. And it starts this whole little scuffle. and the Jacksonville players get off.

Leonard Fournett comes up and pushes Michael Bennett. And then after that, Jefferson for the Seahawks has a little scuffle with fans that were, and these fans are to throw and stuff at Jefferson. We don't know what they said or what they threw. There have been mixed reports on that. But regardless, this whole thing just blows up. And Bordals after the game said that teams are, you know, they don't want to get their ass kicked for 60 minutes by the Jaguar,

so they're upset when it happens. So they want to fight after the fact. All this to say is, I mean, What's the punishment that will come from this? And I mean, is that... Well, then the conversation, the guy, first of all, then Jefferson, I think he heard, but what I've heard is, see, there was a racial slurer said directed towards him, and he got pissed off as well as you should have, and he went after the fan in a stands,

which like, look, look, say what you want, you can boo players all you want, you pay you for your ticket, but you do that stuff. Yeah, you deserve. Like, he tried to climb up and, you know, it was a... You want to be an idiot? You're going to get, you're going to get treated like an idiot, right? Yeah, absolutely. And so they went after them.

But, I mean, look, look, Jacksonville, I mean, I think Jacksonville is a really good team if they can play their way. And they did against Seattle. Seattle had a couple opportunities, missed some field goals early, couldn't get the lead on them. You know, Seattle's another one of those teams that, you know, Seattle's offenses, they're not like, I mean, Philly's a better offense than Seattle. But there are, to a degree, Philly and Seattle are similar in the sense that the play breaks down. Russell Wilson runs around a mix of play. have a playmaker. He's our quarterback. Wence, the play doesn't quite break down, but he's able, Wence's ability to stay and be disciplined in the pocket and move in the pocket with his eye level

down the field is so freaking unique and it's so unbelievable that you can't really, it's really not part of the offense. Like it looks like it is, but nobody really does it. And he's been able to do it. Now, if he's injured with his knee, that could change. And if that changes, then all these third and this third down percentage that they have is going to go down. Same thing in Seattle. I mean, Seattle, it's Russell Wilson making a play. I mean, if you stop the loose plays from Seattle and say, Seattle, you beat us with your offense.

They don't have an offense to beat you with. Well, the thing that the Jaguars did today, I thought that was great with Bouillet and some of those guys. When those plays were breaking down, Russell Wilson's tendency is, you know, most people try to throw a dump off or a little dropout. He likes to go deep. And it's usually to Doug Baldwin, who is running like a little comeback route,

but then he sees the play breaks down. and so he goes deep. They were ready for it. I mean, he had two bad interceptions where he basically just threw it up deep, the ball one. But that's Seattle's offense, right? They knew it. That's Seattle's, that's how you play them.

So I think it was just one, you know, look, you can't get away with that consistently. It's going to catch up to you. It's going to catch up to you because the numbers are going to come back to the norm. I mean, what Philly's doing on third down has to come back to the norm because it's impossible. It's because of Wants. That's why he's going to be, which should be the MVP of the league.

And that's why I think that, you know, when Seattle can't move the ball consistently enough, that's really what it is. They got to find a running back. They really do. Do you think Antonio Brown's an MVP candidate? Why not? Yeah, I think he's in the conversation. I don't think he is the MVP.

I think the fact that Wins, if it comes out that he tore his ACL and the last play that we see Carson Wins this season is him throwing a touchdown pass with a torn ACL, sign him up. He's the MVP. I'd give him the MVP because they got 11 wins. I mean, you know, if they don't have him playing some of those, really, when you break them down and see how he does it, it's really remarkable. I don't know.

Antonio Brown to me is like, I heard the TV announcer say, well, the Baltimore Ravens, they copy the Patriots playbook and how they take away the receivers. Meanwhile, Brown's got over 200 yards. That's not. See, what people don't understand is,

if Belichick is pragmatic, he's going, he'll put three guys on Antonio Brown to take him away. He'll put three guys on him. And he's not, Antonio Brown, I could tell you, next weekend getting 250 yards against a steeler.

the Patriots. So, like, I don't know how you can give it to the guy as MVP. I think he's tremendous player. I think he's one of the best receivers. I mean, his route tree is better than Ernie Moss. He gets down the field. But remember this, Baltimore doesn't have any corners. And we, well, we talked about this while as we were watching the game. I mean, even when Antonio O'Brien had a pass thrown to him from Rathlisberger, it was a bad pass and they tried to say it was great defense. You know what I mean? He was wide open. Every single time he wanted to be open, he was wide open. And they were doing these trick play.

They were bringing them up to the line and putting in a motion. They didn't have to do that. He was already open. He's going to be like Humphrey can't cover him, okay? Car can't cover them. Like they can't cover them. I mean, Baltimore's horrible. Baltimore, there's a thing in the NFL, so we all understand.

It's called a good, a good bad team. Like there's some teams that are good. There's some teams that are great. There's some teams that are bad. And then there's the category of a good, bad team, okay? The Ravens are a good, bad team. All right. Detroit's a good bad team, right? The Jets at times have been a good bad team.

That's right. You see it at that they're good bad teams. But there's a lot of those good. And so don't ever think the Ravens are a really good team when they're just a good bad team. They proved it tonight. They're a good bad team. I mean, Tennessee's a good bad team. Oh, yes. And that might be, you know, that's the definition of a good bad team. They just happen to play in the South. They're a good, bad team. I get it. Jimmy Smith, if he was there on the Ravens, maybe he could have guarded Antonio.

Maybe he could have. Maybe he could have. Maybe. Do we want to talk about my man, Jimmy G. At all? Oh, we already did. I'll give you a few minutes. So Jimmy Garapolo, still undefeated as a starter in the National Football League. It was amazing. I mean, he threw an interception today.

He threw for over 300 yards. His poison in the pocket, his release, his delivery, his accuracy. I mean, if you're Billy O'Brien, you've got to be sitting over there. You pick the, and look, Billy O'Brien could, I mean, I don't know how long Billy O'Brien's going to be the head coach of the Houston, Texas. I'm not trying to report scoop here, but I would suspect it's a lot shorter than most people think. And it could be over within three weeks, I mean, because I think there's a lot of Hatfield of McCoy's going on between the front office and Billy and all that.

But he picked the guard, Xavier, and I can't pronounce his last name in the second round. We really thought when I was in New England, we really thought he was going to pick Jimmy Garapolo. So I'm sitting there thinking, what do you think Billy was thinking today watching Garapolo, like, that's my guy, you know, and didn't pick him. that's not going to make things much better in Houston at all. Can I just take a little tangent and do a little T.J. Yates talks, and you get to talk about Garapolo? I love T.J.

I'll talk about the other quarterback. The other side, T.J. Yates, a Texans legend. The only quarterback to win a playoff game in Texas. I love T.J. One of the smartest guys ever. North Carolina guy. 14 to 26, 175 yards. Two touchdowns.

He looked good. Savage got wrecked today and still try to come back. I mean, more power to him. I hope he's, you know, going to be okay. But T.J. Yates had 31 yards rushing. I mean, two touchdown. I don't want Savage to get hurt. It was a great game. But I don't want Savage to get hurt.

I don't mean this in any disrespect towards Savage. But I always had a saying when I was at the Raiders, we're always a couple injuries away from being a good team. You know, and Yates proved that sometimes you are a couple injuries away from being a good team. I mean, he actually made them better. He loves playing for the Texans. He's, I mean, I don't know how Yates isn't in the, like, there's some guys, like Yates isn't just dog awful.

I used to always say that Yates was a lot like Matt Schaub. I thought he was. And if he could be in a situation like Shab was when he had guys around him like an Arian Foster and skilled players, I could help him out like Andre Johnson, he's suitable. And you have a good defense, he can make things happen. And that's what he's doing. I was happy for him.

I'm happy for T.J.A. T.J. Nice little shout out for him. Let's talk about the playoff picture a little bit. Just big picture what's going on here. Vikings lose the day. So now they're the two seed. The Eagles win.

They take the number one seed back in the NFC. But if the Eagles don't have wince, the one seed isn't going to matter. It's right. I mean, home field, look, one thing you have to understand about the playoffs is two things don't matter. Home field and experience. Those two things, throw them out the freaking window, right? They don't matter, right?

It's how are you playing now and can you do things that the other team knows you need to do when you have to do them? Perfect example. The Cowboys last year playing the Packers. Exactly. It doesn't matter. Week off doesn't matter, right? Like rest doesn't matter. All that crap that we write about, well, they're going to be resting.

They got home field advantage. They got playoff experience. They got playoff experience. I mean, Belichick tells the story to the team every year. You know, we talk about playoff experience. Shit, Lawrence Taylor never played in a playoff game. And it was a goddamn life. And he went out there and stripped two sacks, had three fumbles his first playoff game.

It wasn't a bad, you know, he wasn't supposed to do that. He didn't know. He didn't know he wasn't supposed to do that, right? Just playing football. Playoff experience doesn't matter. Like, so like, let's put that in. So, and home field doesn't matter, right? So I think that the NFC

pending this MRI tomorrow is going to be way up in the air. It could be higher or low. Atlanta could be a dangerous team. They're right now the six seed after winning on Thursday. Atlanta should go on Craigslist and put an ad out for an office coordinator. That's what Atlanta should do. They should go to Craigslist in Atlanta, get a local guy, or Craigslist in most, and get like help us with, like if they had somebody to help them offensively.

Like, I'm not picking on Steve Sarkisian. I just think Steve Carseesian has. created this legendary, he's never called plays in the NFL, and for some reason we think he's going to be a guru. Like, he needs help setting up games because it's battleship football, right? Like, they could be a dangerous team in the playoffs if they could get their offense consistently moving. The Saints, I think the same thing.

They're the four seed right now. I think right now the seating's going to be all messed up because of that seating is going to be determined by that MRI this week. Yeah, and right now, so the way it plays out, just to map it out. The Panthers are the five seed, Saints are the Four Seeds. seed. The Rams will still be the three-seeded, you know, in the West, and then the Falcons would be the six-seed. So that's how the NFL's out of it right now. Yeah, Seattle. But Seattle has the Rams again. Yep, Seattle's eight and five. The Rams are nine and four. Yep. So they have again. So Seattle's

sitting there saying we can win the West. Well, all we got to do is beat the Rams one more time at home, which I'm sure they probably think they can. I mean, the Rams took, one thing about the Rams game and the Eagle game today, the Pittsburgh, Baltimore game. I think the Minnesota Carolina game. I think those games, there was a lot of blood left on the field, and those games are going to be hard to recover from. Pittsburgh was struggling against Baltimore. I don't think Pittsburgh's defense is that bad where Joe Flacco can move the ball at will against them. I think they were recovering from the Monday night game. And now they've got to play another game. I think there's a war of attrition going on here right now in the league. I think that's what's

going to catch up to, you know, the Rams probably feel like this week, that was a hard game for them. They're coming off. They lose. They're coming off the, you know, there's not. Some of these teams haven't played enough hard games back to back in a row. Including the Patriots, they haven't played enough of them. Yeah, absolutely. And then we'll look at the AFC too. We have Steelers are now the one seed. The Patriots will play Monday night against the Dolphins and could get back to that one-seat spot.

And then you have the Ravens are the six seed now. The Titans are the Fifth Sea, the Jaguars are the three-seat, and the Chiefs are the four-seat. So that's how all things are mapped out. And the Chargers aren't in it, yeah. The Chargers and the Bills are both seven and six, and they're both looming. The Raiders are at six and seven. They can count the Raiders. The Raiders are done.

I mean, the Raiders, the Chargers play the Chiefs this week, which could flip everything, right? So it could, they're both. That's Saturday. We should say that. That's Saturday. We have Saturday football this week. Yeah, love it. So, yeah, that's going to change a lot of things.

So I think there's, look, let's face it, there's a lot of, there's two teams in the AFC. I'm not sure the two teams aren't now after watching Pittsburgh. They aren't New England and San Diego. And San Diego might not make it. That's how bad the AFC. is right here. I think they're going to pull out the West. I do too, but I'm just saying that there's really two good teams. I'm not counting Pittsburgh right now because Pittsburgh to me is a wounded duck right now. Absolutely. Should we move on to guess the narratives? Yeah, let's guess. Well,

we've already guessed them. I mean, let's face it. Yeah, let's be honest. Guest the narratives, it's not going to be that fun this week. It's going to be pretty self-expansatory. There will be more satellites at Dovercare Center tomorrow than they will be in Washington, D.C. I mean, you know, that's the narrative of the week. How this all. all shapes out. And I think the key thing here is how it all shapes out predicated by if he doesn't play and he's out for the year, how the Eagles offense has to change. And now the burden is going to have to be on their offensive line and how can they block people. And that's a capital age with the he, because we're talking about Carson Wins, who was a god in Philadelphia. I mean, he is everything to

their football team right now. And he should be. I mean, the guy's great. I mean, look, the guy has played this year way better. To me, watching that game, Goff went one, Wentz went two. That's not close. That's not close. Yeah, it's definitely not close. Wentz is by far the better player. Especially when it came down late in that game in that situation.

That's when you can really tell how you feel about Goff because once he had the ball and they were trying to make a run, it was like, I don't feel like the Rams are going going to make running. I've been hard on golf and I'm wrong on Goff being a bust in terms of being, you know, like I was wrong on that. where I think I am right on golf is the faster he has to play, the less effective he is. So when he plays against fronts that Mac McVeigh can't control with their play action and with all the things, to me, Todd Gurley is the driving force of their offense, not golf.

Everything Goff does. He's an MVP candidate. He should be an MVP. No one is saying that, but he leads the league in touchdowns. And, I mean, he basically sets a tone of the offense. If he gets seven to 10 yards, I mean. He is their guy. Yeah.

And what you saw is when Goff has time, he can check the run. there's at first and third, he can make the throws. But Wynce carries the Eagles, golf doesn't carry the Rams. And he doesn't have to, which is a luxury. Right. Absolutely. But besides that, I mean, is this going to be a whole week where we get the whole spin zone with Wintz where we can win with, they can't, they can't, they can't, they can't, they can't, they can't, they can still win with foals. They still have the pieces in place.

Oh, you're going to get that. Oh, you're going to get that. They'll be delusional. It'll be so good. It'll be, you know, they can't. I hope they're still playing the parade. That's all I want to know. Do you know they are?

I mean, they have to, I mean, look, I walk the dogs on the beach. There are more Eagle fans. I saw more Eagle fans than everything. You've seen them all over LA. Oh, I went to a comedy show Saturday night, and I had four people behind me in line. This is Saturday. It's not the game. They're still decked out on Eagles gear.

Eagles had Eagles shirt. I asked the guys if they were excited for the games. They're like, oh, home field advantage. That's what they're saying. I was at Tony Pease today, and I swear there must have been 25 Donovan McNabs in the place. I don't know how. I can't believe that there are that many McNabb's jersey. He did get a rough time there.

There was a ton of McNabb jerseys in that place. Trust me, a ton of them. Now, you know what happens? Most people buy their jersey don't give them up, so, but there was a ton of them. I love a Brian Westberg jersey. That's what I respect. When I see the 36, I'm like, that's a real fan. Let's do some awards.

It was probably our favorite thing to do. And the first one, we have time to go into land. Oh, you want to do Fred first? I love Fred. Let's do Fred. Not Tony. Not Tony P. Fred Palermo Award.

Actually, yeah, not Tony. Yeah, not Tony. My man, Fred, look, you've got to give a little love the Chicago Bears and Mitchell Trubisky going in there and... I wanted you to bring it up. Howard coming out. Oh, yeah, I want to be to bring up Mitchell Trubisky.

Just kicking this shit out of Cincinnati. I mean, look, if you're Mike Brown and this has happened, I mean, Marvin Lewis has had his run in Cincinnati and sometimes maybe you stay too long. He can't get Hugh Jackson because, you know, Hugh's coming back to Cleveland in 2018 because, you know... He's a hot commodity. When you're one in 28, everybody wants you, right?

Don't ever forget that. So, you know, I mean, look, take your hat off, Chicago. Everybody was killing them this week. Bad job. John Fox isn't going to keep his job. But at least the team came out there and played. You could evaluate him. I'd give him credit. We'll have a toast for him. That was pretty good. And Gio Bernard shows him signs of life for the Bengals.

He's a really good player. I think sometimes the Bengals have too many guys. Like, I think Gio Bernard should be the main back. You know, like he is Camara. He could be Camara for him if they really wanted to. I saw Isaiah McCarramaking appearance today, too. Absolutely. A little tape.

You know who was jealous of that, Hugh Jack? Oh, man. Yeah. Can we talk about Hugh? Yeah, please. It was so good today. It was just so perfect that, you know, first of all, Brett Hunley is not an NFL quarterback. I'm just going to go on record to tell you that right now. They were doing a really good job of the Brett Huntley PR move. It's what they did with Matt Flynn when he was there with the Packers. He comes in. He's obviously running the Aaron Rogers' offense.

And then they're like, Brett Huntley making a case for being a starting quarterback somewhere else in the league. So the score is 14 to 7. Do you watch any of this? Yes, of course. All right, so it's... Can't miss the Browns. Third and one, I think it's that the Packers have the ball at the Browns six, right? It's like four minutes to go in the third quarter. I mean, it's early in the...

It's not like desperation time, right? And it's third and six, third and one, and they run it, and they get stuff for no gain. McCarthy decides to go for it. Why, I don't know. I have no idea. He goes for it. And he calls a great play. He calls a great play.

The only problem is, he calls the play and Brett goes the wrong way. Brett would have executed the play that they called. They had it blocked perfectly. The back would have probably walked in the end zone. Brett went the wrong way and it fell apart. So now the Browns get the ball and they drive it all the way down the field to go up 21 to 14. Okay?

217. 217, yeah. Okay. We get a little bit of drive, a couple de-slants, bubble screens. We get it now. It's 2114. We get it back in there. The Browns don't do anything with it.

They move it down the field. And now we've got like about three minutes to go in the game. And it's 21 to 14 and the Packers get the ball, right? And they don't do anything with it. And McCarthy punts from like midfee punts. Like I'm like, you can't, you have to go for it. It's like third and five. You got to go for it.

He doesn't. But he's going to get bailed out. Because not only do the brownies not get the first down, they throw an incomplete pass, which stops the clock, just magnifies poor Sal. Sal, I feel so bad talking about this. And then they punt. Okay.

Now, on the first drive of the game, the Packers ran a fake punt for the kept the drive alive. Now Davis takes the punt and goes all the way back to the Brownies 20. Now, at this point, you know, just put the ball in the end zone. You know it's going to be an overtime game. Of course, naturally they do. They score. Make it 21 for 21.

Clock runs out. Browns get the ball to start the half. They sack Kaiser Soso. The ball goes straight up in the air. They pick it off. How he throws that ball when he's getting... But it's not Hughes. It's not.

It's not Hughes fault. No, it's not. It's not Hughes's done a great job. Great coaching. That was all in the player. And then Devante Adams, we should say. And I'm all about celebrations. I love celebrations.

He knows he's playing the Browns, right? So he just wants to get out of here. He wants to go home. He's embarrassed that he's in overtime. So he scores the game when he touchdown. And he just runs straight to the locker room. And then Randall Cobb sees that he's going. He's like, I might as well just follow him.

They just run straight to the locker room. They're embarrassed and they're in the position. You know what I found interesting about that game? Aaron Rogers. He was coaching. You know why? Because I think Aaron Rogers felt like, and this is just Michael Lombardi hypothetical, I think Aaron Rogers felt like this was the most important game in his career.

And it was important for this sense because if they won, their hopes were alive, right? So they could then challenge. these other teams in the NFC because he knows he's coming back. The sheriff's back in town. We can run the table, right? But if we lose to the brownies, no matter what I do coming back, I think I'm going to be caught short.

So I think he really got into the game. More of a, I don't mean in a disrespectful way towards him, more of a, this preserves my chance to help my team. And he was coaching his ass off and I loved it. Oh, yeah. I mean, he was telling Hundley. So when they tied the game up, they needed to spike the ball and then they were going to have the third down

to try to throw the touchdown. fast. I mean, he's telling Huntley on the sideline, like, what he needs to do, you know, the time management situation. If this happens, do this. And like McCarthy's there. I mean, it looked like Rogers was basically coaching the game. And I loved it. And I think the reason he was doing that is because he realized how important that game was for his year. If they lose that game, it's over for him. They got no chance, right? And so now they go into Cleveland and we're a place that, you know, with a bad quarterback, you know, and win the game in overtime. So, second overtime win since he's been hurt, right? And they kept their season alive. I give him a lot

of credit. Absolutely. Let's do the KGB Award, and that's going to go to the New York Jets. Gangrene. Tough day for them. They go out there, they get shut out. Really tough day. Sorry, Mick, but they did a tough, tough time. Denver reared their ugly head. I think certain teams have a hard time handling success. And I think that, you know, the game last week against Kansas City took a lot out of the Jets. The Jets just really weren't ever in this game. Yeah, McCallon took some big shots today. McCallin broke his left arm. I don't know how he's going to be able to play with a broken left arm. So it could be Bryce Petty and Christian Hackenberg might actually be active for a game.

So this will give the Jets a chance to have a look. To really evaluate this guys. And McCallon, look, McCallon has played great all year. He took a lot of hits today. Absolutely. Some big shots from that Denver defense. We have time to go in the Lamb and it's going to be Tampa Bay, right? I mean, they go to the Lamb.

I mean, it's ridiculous. I mean, Turk, look, this franchise has fired Tony Dungey. This franchise is fired John Grude. this franchise has fired. If they don't like the direction they're going, they're going to make a change. They're fired Lovie Smith. They're going to make another shame. Rahim Morris.

Yeah, they're going to fire it. They're going to make changes. You know, this, to me, Tampa Bay is sloppy. They don't do really anything very well. Detroit went in there and won. They fought back. But, I mean, look, Detroit's no great team. I mean, people are talking about Caldwell only got an extension of 2018.

I mean, if you had Detroit in the mix, if you had Houston in the mix looking for coaches, I don't know where all these coaches are going to come from. But I know one thing, Tampa's going to. open up. Absolutely. And Detroit kept their playoff hopes alive. Barely. Barely. Next time we have Can't Tell My Courage from my desperation. And I think we're going to do the snow game,

right? The Buffalo Bills. I loved it. Yeah, the snow game. Look, the question you have to, you know you're going to play in the snow, right? So did you practice in the snow? Right? Adam Vitutieri, I mean, it was a hard ball to kick, right? So this is the perfect example, Tate Frazier, of teams making the biggest mistake

when they get a break near the end of a game. So the Colts intercept Joe Webb. Your man, Joe Webb play today, right? I love Joe Webb. And they got an opportunity in regulation. They get the ball. They're in Buffalo field goal range. Oh, yeah. But what is field goal range in the snow, right?

It's not. I mean, an extra point was tough. I mean, the extra point he made was a huge ordeal. Oh, my God. He hooked one from, like, it was like unbelievable, right? So, but so they settle for it. Like, they let time run off the clock. They settle for it. And then they try the field goal. And naturally, they miss it and then they lose the game in overtime.

I mean, it's just like, and keep their bills' hopes alive. I mean, it was so bad. And you've got to ask yourself, did you practice with cold balls? No, did you kick cold balls? Like, there's just stuff that's so elementary you should do that they don't do. It was amazing to watch the Bills fans, I mean, because they had all the snows. And as soon

as LaShawn ran, it was a great run by LaShawn McCoy, we should say, to still the game. It gets outside, and Barquivis Mingo gets lost on the gap control, and he scores a touchdown, and then the crowd's just throwing snow in the air, and, you know, LaShawn's throwing snow. There's snowball fights.

It was great. It was really, it was like a backyard football game. It was great. It was really good. I mean, it was fun to look at. I mean, it was like the Army Navy game. It was going to be a lot of running, no passing.

Absolutely. Last one, if you don't know, now you know. The NFC's wide open if that MRI comes back negative. I mean, look, I think the NFC would be, I think Minnesota's still a good team, but I think Philadelphia now, you know, has come back to the pack. If, depending on that MRI,

now we're going to have to know about that. So you're saying there's a chance the parade may not, happen? You know, look, there's a reason the guy's the most valuable player in the league, and you just don't replace them. Like, you just don't take those play. Like, there's always eight or nine plays in a game that, like, they're wild plays. Like, if you ask Wade Phillips tonight, a couple of, like, Wade Phillips was dialing up

the heat all game, okay? And he was coming after him. And Wynne stayed in there and kept his eye level down. Guys are bouncing off them. Like, they can't get him on the ground. They had Robert Quinn hit him on the arm one time. And there's no other person in it. Maybe Rafflesberger five years ago, and he just shook it off and made the past down field.

It was unbelievable. Those plays aren't happening anymore. Just take them away from you. And so I think now we'll find out really it's going to be interesting to see what Seattle's made of too. I think that's going to be another thing. Seattle's got three games to go. They got eight wins. They're going to have to try to figure out a way to get to 11 and 5.

We'll see what they can do. Absolutely. Monday night, football tomorrow night. We've got the Patriots taken on the dolphins. Is there any way we see the dolphins pulling upset? Look, Miami always plays them tough down. I know. That's always a game where I feel like it's a sneaky game.

I think the first quarter, I mean, Sue will be charged out there, but I would suspect New England go a lot of no huddle. New England try to up-tempo the game a little bit. I think New England's got to try to keep Brady upright, get the ball out, and double, they'll take Landry away from the game. Kenyon Drake's going to be the backs. They've got to handle the screens. Damon Williams is out.

But I think the game, they don't have Kyle Van Nuoy. They don't have a couple of their good players, too. I think it'll be a good, it always is a good game down there. The Patriots are going to have to find a way to win with their kicking game and with their ability to not turn the ball. all over. They got to control the defensive front of the, of the Dolphins. All right, well, there you go. Mike Lombardi. Anything else, GM Street? Anything else we need to know on this Sunday night?

No, good day. Great day. Great day for football. Some great games. We hope Carson wins. Hope is not the worst. But we will see. Yep. All right. This has been another edition of GM Street, part of the Ringar Podcast Network. I'm Tate Frazier. Thank you, Michael, Bardi. Thank you, Tate Fraser.