The Ringer NFL Show - Making Sense of the NFC East | The Ringer NFL Show (Ep. 342)

Episode Date: November 12, 2018

The Cowboys and Eagles only muddied the water in the NFC East after Sunday night’s game, and the Redskins are now the favorite (3:00). After Week 10, the stock is up for the Titans, the Chiefs-Rams mega matchup coming next week, and the Bears (14:00), and the stock is down for the AFC wild-card teams, the Rams defense, and the Jets in general (27:30). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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See you at Seasbuss. To the Ringer NFL show. I'm Robert Mays, joined as always by Kevin Clark, who is sitting right next to me. In Las Vegas, Nevada. In a Las Vegas hotel room. How you do, buddy? I'm doing okay.

You went on a heater last night. I did okay. Yeah? Blackjack run. I had a blackjack run, unlike many that I've ever had in my entire life, and I'm going to take it because, as you know. How long are you going to not play after that? Because now you're just due.

Oh, I absolutely will not play before I leave. Right. I mean, you're not. Here's my thing. I actually don't have like a gambling thing. Like if I win, I can easily walk away. It's,

that is, it's the one vice that I really don't have. It doesn't pull me in is what I'll say. I will say that most of my friends have crippling gambling problems. And when that happens, I, I am extremely, I'm like you,

I'm not compulsive. I can just get up, but all of my friends will just stay at the table and then I'll sit back down and then lose money at one. Yeah, I'm very proud of it. It's the one thing where it's like, you know what? I do okay with this.

If I double my money, I get up and walk away. I'm not gambling this trip because it's the fourth time I've been in Las Vegas this year. I'm officially over it. You told me that this morning. I'm officially done with it. And I was horrified by that idea. I'm taking a break from gambling. It is the second time I've been in Las Vegas in 2018.

You end up, you know, it's a bachelor party. It's a birthday. It's a fight. Whatever it is. That's the reason. I came to one bachelor party and then I came to this. And that's the only two times I've been here. The only times I get excited about gambling or when I'm not here for like eight months and I talk myself into me being good at gambling.

You know what I'm saying? It's just like I forget how bad I am at it. And if I don't have that amnesia, I will just not gamble. It's very important to know that everyone is bad at gambling. The casinos are insanely good at gambling. Yeah, I came here during March Madness and it was very fun. But during that trip, I did not convince myself that I was good at gambling. So, definitely not good at gambling.

Speaking of who's good at gambling, Vegas oddmakers are extremely good at gambling. Today was all you need to know about the NFL today is that every single line was like six and a half for hire. It was just the really ugly day coming in and it turned out to be just as ugly. That favorite thing was like last week, it was all these stories like Vegas got slaughtered. And that's just sort of a backdoor way for Vegas to be like, come play, guys. Come on. It's great here.

They're basically like the haunting at Hillhouse. People are just like, come join us. Everybody's winning. And then meanwhile, everyone takes, you know, Chiefs Plus 16 and they get slaughtered. So here's what happened today. Everyone, the Chiefs Plus 16 happened. And even the people that won money,

which I was with some of them today, they won a bunch of money this morning on, like, dumb games, like Chargers minus 10, and everyone threw it away on the Eagles. Everyone. The line at the Caesar Sportsbook at like 5pm was almost around the corner.

Everyone threw the money away on the Eagles. It was amazing. I watched it happen, and I was like, I'm very sorry for all of you. So I will lead in to some more football here. I think that the most happy fan base walking around, Rissel and I recorded some stuff downstairs, the most exciting,

fan base today was the Washington Redskins fan base, and that's what we're going to start. I saw some Browns fans that were really enjoying themselves as well. But yes, I think those are the two. Well, those two teams are in different categories. One of them is going to win the NFC East, and one of them isn't a complete tire fire. All right. Let's talk about that. What the hell is going on with the Eagles?

Okay. So it was one of the strangest games because we've sat here for the past couple of weeks, and we've talked about just penciled them in. We just penciled them in. It's, and I'm watching that game today, or as I kind of thought about that game,

it was like, all right, well, you know, the Eagles are the Eagles, but the Cowboys defense is pretty good, but they can't, Dallas would not be able to score on them.

The fact that the Cowboys were able to just cook Rassoul Douglas the entire game is just like, I don't know. I just did not expect that to happen. I didn't account for how bad. the Eagles defense happens to be in spurts right now. So first of all, Jason Garrett is now Mr. Aggressive, which is really funny and I'm enjoying it.

And I can't wait to see weird about to get fired Jason Garrett, lash out of the NFL for the rest of the season. Now, Elliot Shore Parks made this point on Twitter. I agree with it. This is the first game this season where you can equally blame the offense and the defense. It was a strange game. They looked disjointed. I'm starting to think that, you know, it's funny,

because I wrote this on Friday, but Aaron Shats came out in the ESPN column and says everyone keeps talking about the Eagles and maybe even the Cowboys a little bit for the NFC East, but there's a couple of things to remember. Number one, statistically, the Redskins have a remarkably easy schedule

the rest of the way, and they have a one game lead and a one game lead in a 16-game sport is really important. Now they have a two-game lead. You watched that game last weekend against Atlanta. It's like, why are we even paying attention to this team whatsoever?

And then they do what they did today. and you think about the one game lead, you think about how bad the division has been, period. I cannot believe I have to watch the Redskins in a playoff game. I seriously can't believe it. I mean, I've been asked you a question. So they made the playoffs and lost your Green Bay a couple years ago. They had that...

Well, 2012 was the last time they... No, they made it in 2015. 2014 season. 2016. 2015 season 2016 playoffs. I've erased that from my memory. They played kind of an uninspiring game at home with Kirk Cousins. called the Washington Redskins.

They played an unspiring game, fill in the blank. I guess, you know, I would say the RG3 year, I was going to say maybe in the last 20 years, when was the last time you watched the Redskins in the playoffs and were excited about it? I would say the one RG3.

They were exciting in 2012. I mean, there were so many games they played. They, Kyle Shanahan, I mean, there were a lot of elements to that team and it's like, all right, I can watch this. That is not this team this year. So did you see this stat about the Redskins not having a lead change this year?

No. Okay. I just said it. I mean, the Redskins have not had a lead change. Oh, they've been... That's it. I thought you were exaggerating. No, that's...

They literally haven't had a lead change this season. That's the stat. That's the stack. We're going to look this up. Good Lord. All right. All right. Ready for this?

The Redskins from the NFL have played nine games without a single lead change. They've been wire-to-wire leading the entire time. That seems impossible. Or they've been wire-to-wire losing. They are the...

the first team with no lead changes through nine games since the 1954. The NFL put an ellipsis here, Redskins. This is a Redskins tradition, apparently. It's an Alex Smith tradition, not coming from behind. It's a running game tradition. It's what happens when you have a good run defense. I don't know what's going on. I think I'm having a stroke.

Their games are so weird. I mean, think about the games they've lost. So the three games they've lost in pretty decisive fashion, I guess the only three games they've lost. Yep. Are the Carolina game, the game against Atlanta, and that Saints game where they were disaster. Yeah. And they've won every other game this season. It's the strangest football team I can remember.

I just don't understand that. We're about to talk about the Titans in 10 minutes, buddy. It's a good point. So let's not go big on the hyperbole on a Titans on a Titan show. It's a very good point. So, yeah, I think, I think it is. It's a very strange season. I think that I'm done penciling in the Eagles as a good team.

Tonight was definitely the nail in that coffin. There's no reason to do that. You know, Scott Casmar makes the point. I completely, I mean, just changes the way I think about it, but it's obvious. This is the highest scoring season in the history of the NFL, and the Eagles have scored 24 points once. And tonight was the day I figure it out, guys. I really wanted them to put it together tonight. I thought that I didn't say this.

Golden Tates here. I thought it could have been a blowout. Yes. I thought it was going to be a two touchdown game. I absolutely. I thought it could have been like one of those embarrassing games where like, you know, it's like 42 to 10 in the fourth quarter and Al and Chris are just can't come a little thing to say. So the two kind of, I guess, divergent elements of it were the Eagles starting to put together in the second half the season.

And like this is the day where we realized Jason Garrett's getting fired. That's what I thought was going to do. Well, that didn't happen. Instead, we just found out the Redskins have never had a lead change. That's the big stat of the day. You know, Brian Boninger said this, and I don't know, you know, it's interesting to me because a couple of weeks ago,

I don't know if this is still the case, but a couple of weeks ago, the NFL was on pace for the most one-score games in the history of football. Yeah, everything's been close, man. Today was the opposite of that. Right, well, but, you know, when you think about that

and you think about all the things that come in with the luck factor, when there's a one-score game. I assume that they are still on track for that because they had such a big lead as far as NFL history and the one-score game thing. But at this point,

the Eagles have had a chance to win a game or blew a game against the Panthers, the Cowboys, and then who was the other team? That Jags game wasn't like a blowout. I mean, that was a marginally close game. Right.

It was, oh, it was the Titans. It was the Titans. So, no, that's right. So they've had three, they've had three,

chances that they haven't been able to close the deal. And I'm really intrigued by just the luck factor of it all, maybe the regression. You know, you get lucky. I'm not saying the Eagles got lucky last year, but, you know, every team who wins Super Bowl gets lucky in some way. But they were destroying teams last year. And they were fully healthy. Guys like Derek Cornett, they had a guy like Carson Wentz,

who was 100% healthy, who had in Tours ACO and wasn't grooving back into things. You could sneak up on teams schematically in the first year, everything else. but, and I don't want to turn this into a Bears podcast, guys, but that's what I liked about what the Bears have done this season, is that when, if you're a really good team, and Aaron talks about this all the time, and like the football outsiders number speak to this.

When you're a really good team, you beat the shit out of teams that are worse than you. Good teams destroy bad teams, and that's what you should do. It really speaks to the quality of who you are as a team in that season, and the Eagles just haven't been able to do it. Can I throw out a little more stat? It's completely unrelated to any of this, but I have to be, because it's as incredible.

Yeah, I saw, I saw this. It's as incredible as late on me. No, no, uh, Lee changed thing that Johnny Townsend, the Raiders punter on a fake punt. I did not know the Raiders, the Raiders punt was named Johnny Townsend, by the way. Well, I did. If you had told me his name was Johnny Townsend. I knew that for a very good reason. So, uh, he reached a top speed of 20.4 miles per hour on his 42-yard fake punt run.

That is faster than any. speed for Alvin and Kamara or Kareem Hunt as a ball carrier. I came away from this more impressed about Alvin Kamara and Kareemhunt to maximize their talents. I think that's more about that those guys just don't get into the open field that often. It might also be more about next-gen stats and their accuracy. You really think that's true? Do I think that that happened?

No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm joking. I think it's... By the way, I know that Johnny Townsend is the radio. as punter because he went to my high school. And middle school, I believe. That's a very good reason. But I think that's more about Johnny Townsend having like 30 yards of open field,

just be able to streak down. Dude, what, how fast could we go? Oh, not fast. Right now, I am not fast. Right now. When were you fast? Oh, here we go. I ran a sub 5040.

Here we go. I ran a sub 5040 when I was young. Okay. I cannot tell you what my 40s have to be right now. It would be slower than Jason Wittins. Okay. So, to wrap up, Redskins, percentage-wise, winning the NFC East. At least, like, 65?

75. Yeah. I mean, it's... It's kind of funny how completely flippant we were about the Redskins and how they weren't going to win the division like two weeks ago. Because they're bad football team. Wow. Like, I just, I know that it's embarrassing if you, like, went back and listened to it.

It just how we were, like, putting the Eagles in there. The Redskins are a bad football team. They allowed, they allowed, like, 501 yards the Redskins stay and then three points. They're not good. They're just not good, man. I cannot wait. We're not going to be in Vegas when this

happens. I was going to say I cannot wait to bet against the Redskins in a playoff game, but I'm not going to be in a spot where I can legally do it. 16 to 3. No lead changes here. All right. All right, let's quickly go to stocks up. Stocks up and stocks down. We're going to start with the Titans.

So weird Dionne Lewis, Revenge, game in which he calls the Pats cheap afterwards. They kind of are cheap though. But that's the point. Yes. It's so true.

But here's the thing. I understand, Dionne Lewis's frustration. As producer Craig points out, we are saying their name again. They're back. They're back. The Titans are allowed on the podcast.

We stop talking about them. So the Pats are cheap and I get why you don't want to pay Deon Lewis, but they also spent a first round pick on a running back. it's not as if the Patriots are some bastion of value. They're not value lords right now.

They are value lords and they that was in this step. But they lost by 24 points to a team that has not looked like an NFL team some weeks. This is, we just talked about the Redskins. We talked about the Redskins style of winning games.

Corey Davis 125 yards today. Corey Davis is really good. Yeah. I wish he was on a team that allowed him to be really good all the time. He's a fantastically talented player. But this reminded me of a weird Redskins win in the sense that there were no lead changes.

There were no lead changes. The Titans defense is good pretty much every week. Yeah. They get a lot of stops. They're very talented. They've played extremely well. I think that Dean Peas is criminally underrated as a defense coordinator. Like, I just do.

But they aren't good. It's the same thing with Washington. Every once in a while, you're going to have these games where the defense has a certain kind of a bar they clear every week in terms of how well they play. And then every once in a while, you also have NFL players on your offense and you're going to score some points. So that's what it reminded me up. Their defense has played well week in and week out. They have not gotten blown out this entire season. And every once in a while, an NFL offense is going to show up.

I don't necessarily believe in the Titans after this, but that's what it reminded me of. Did you see Vrable own Belichick on the double reverse thing? No. So someone's very excited outside. They're excited about our live show tomorrow. It's a Sunday night. They're excited about our live show here at Caesar's Palace.

So the Patriots ran just an amateur hour reverse play. I did see that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was the one that we're, no, Brady caught a reverse pass today, though. Yeah, so Vrable was asked why he did, why he also ran a double reverse. And he said, I wanted to see if it looked any better than theirs. Because Mariotta caught that ball. Yeah, he sure did.

They ran the same thing. Again, I think their defense has played extremely well. I think they have talent on defense. Really the only weak link has been, Malcolm Butler has played terrible. But for the most part, they have a lot of competent guys on that side of the ball. And every once in a while, I think you're going to stumble into a game like this. I didn't watch that game and think this team is better than the Texas. That was not my takeaway.

I just think that every once in a while when your defense is good, you can fall into a game like this. Do you think that giving Tom Brady more targets and more receptions rather than Chris Hogan is a bad strategy? Yes, I do. Okay. Do we want to talk about the Titans' chances or do we just think this is like I just like I just look? I need to see more. I mean, they beat a weird dead on arrival.

Cowboys team last week that looked like they were going to get Jason Garrett fired. And the Titans get you fired is essentially what's happening. Yeah, I don't think. I don't think Bill Belichick is. Every other team that the Titans get you fired that they're that team this season. Yeah, I have to see more from the Titans. I mean, do you still,

would you be more afraid of the Texans than you're on the Titans at this point? I guess so would I'd ask it. Would I be more afraid? If you were an AFC playoff team. If I'm an AFC playoff team, I would rather play. the Titans because I think that there's a Deshawn Watson heat check. There's a new

Deshawn Watson like JJ Watt element that does not exist. JJ Watt wrecking your shit. Deshawn Watson inexplicably throwing six incredible 40-yard touchdowns. We're on the same page. We've seen it before. Yeah. All right, before we move on, let's take a quick

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Shop now at Kavo.com and use promo code. for 20% off. That's C-A-A-V-O.com, promo code NFL. Now back to the show. Let's move on to our next stock up, the Chiefs Rams mega matchup. It's intact.

We didn't know if it was going to be intact. Two weird games from both of these teams. So this is the type of game. We've talked about this a lot with the Rams. And when they lost to the Saints last week, it kind of went away. But it's what I've been saying all year. You absolutely can lose that.

that game to against, yeah. Then there's so many, there are so many moments where you can lose that game. And they just don't. It's that Dante Fowler, strip sack, they get an easy touchdown as a result. It just seems like they've done this all season.

And I expected their defense to be better. Yeah. I did not expect it to be 36, 31 games left and right. But that's what they've done all year. And this Chiefs game, what, do you think that it was just a random kind of misstep, like rut from the chiefs today

or do you think that they were going to be capable of this type of game at some point over the second half? Do you think that you're going to see... You know, they won by two touchdowns. Well, yes, but their offense was not rolling the way it normally is.

Patrick Holmes is not going to tie the all-time record for 300-yard games. And what's funny to me is that we just... I don't know. I mean, like, that was a disappointment that he's not going to reach Drew Breese's all-time mark because his default

literally his default has been 300-yard games. Well, we just expect them to roll over everyone. Yeah. You expect them to have no roadblocks at all. I know that obviously Drew Breeze is a good comparison, but it actually reminds me of the Tebow Gators where he would just have... I'm excited by this.

Well, no, he would just have like two rushing... This is obviously not what Mahomes does, but he would have, like, Tebow would always have like six total touchdowns. And like... And Percy Harvin would have these like reverses for... And they would win every game. Did you see the Saints try to do the Tebow jump pass that?

Yeah, I did. I did. But you get in this default where, like, when Tebow would have two touchdowns and no interception instead of seven total touchdowns with three of them on the ground, we'd be like, what's up with the Gators? And I would do that because I hate the Florida Gators. And so every time they would beat Arkansas by like a touchdown, I'd be like, they're cracking, man.

They are cracking. And then we just win the national championship. Is that your hated Florida team growing up? Oh, no. both Florida and Florida State. Really? Yeah, it's a triangle of hate. So did you grow up as a Hurricanes fan or no?

I kind of grew up. I was a member of the resistance, the anti-Florida and Florida State resistance, so I aligned with Miami. My parents were not Gators or Seminole, so you end up just rooting against everybody. Because your dad taught at UCF, right? My dad teaches at UCF.

He teaches the Griffin Brothers at UCF. But no, both of them, my mom went to Maryland. Okay. Yeah. They're both weird. The Washington, D.C. area, but they're in hard Redskins fans. for obvious reasons.

I did not grow up as a college football fan, period, because I'm from Illinois and the Chicago suburbs where we have no college football. So it's either Notre Dame or nothing. That's a tough break for you, though. It's okay. My family actually has a lot of Notre Dame fans. My great-grandfather played football for Notre Dame.

Really? Yeah. And there are very few things I can learn about you at this point in our lives together. Yeah, when I went to Miami, there were a couple of folks in my sort of extended universe who thought that was a betrayal of this. Notre Dame lineage in my family.

It's good, Miami. Yeah. I was a Michigan sympathizer. That's how I would describe my youth. Is this like when you were a Tampa Bay Bucks fan because of John Lynch? No, I was a Tampa Bay Bucks fan because of Mike Alls thought. Oh my God. Okay.

He's from Chicago. That's the reason. All right. So the Chiefs in the Rams play next week. We're going to get really into it later later this week. I'm very pumped. But it's intact. There's no trap game.

They're going to score 100 points. No trap game. in the thin air. They score 100 points. The Rams are in Colorado Springs or something training for the thin air this week. Really? Yeah, Air Force Academy. Okay, yeah, so they're training in a thin area.

Adam Tifford had the note. I thought that was interesting. Both teams asked to play Denver this week. And the NFL said no. Teams are such next level now. Like, it's amazing. It's like when the show. Well, no, it's actually funny because those are two of the most forward-thinking franchises.

And so, like, if it was the lions, they would not have thought about that. No. But, like, when the Chargers went to Cleveland and then stayed and when they went to London, things like that. So, these are things teams who wouldn't have done five years ago. I mean, the teams have practiced the Greenbrier. I remember the Cardinals practiced at Greenbrier and they got their ass kicked by Landry Jones when they were really good, when they were really good.

That was one of the uglier football games I can ever remember. The only people who were there the entire week were me and Peter King and then the beatwriter. It was wild. I can't remember where I watched that game. I think I might have been in Los Angeles. And I think I watched it at the parlor in Hollywood. I just, it was such a terrible football game that I just remember it vividly.

It was an unwatchable game. Anything you're excited to watch for for this week as far as the preparation for this goes or anything like that before we start getting into the actual matchup this weekend? Not really. I think I'm excited about the particulars, how they're going to score, how both teams are going to attack each other. I mean, I just think that the Rams are going to.

going to be able to move the wall without any sort of like impediment. I think that you pick your, well, Cooper Cops hurt now. You feel hurt. You pick your wide receiver to pick on like which, on Marcus Peters, everything else. I just think that it's going to, you can't make the over under in that game high enough. Because the chiefs have, I think the, obviously this is hurt because teams are running against them late when they have to throw so the chiefs aren't defending the run. But their run defense is garbage.

I mean, Todd Gray always can be able to. do whatever he wants. We'll get into it later, but I'm very excited about watching that game. All right. Lastly, the Bears, Mitch Trubisky

is the best quarterback in history of football. Take it away. I needed this from them today. I mean, I said it. Emotionally or football wise? We were talking about

before we went on. I think that when you are a very, when you're a playoff team, when you're a real NFL team, you beat the shit out of teams that are worse than him. And the score today is closer than the actual game was.

They destroy them. the Lions today. And that's what you need. I just, I need easy Ellen Robinson touchdowns. I need sacks left and right. You should beat teams that are bad by at least two scores when you're a playoff team. And that's exactly what the bears have done over the last three weeks. There's six and three, man, with the point differential that's actually super impressive. Like, this is, I don't know, I'm starting to get a little bit excited about it. Next week's game is huge. They play the Vikings at home on Sunday night. and the Vikings are starting to put it together.

That's going to be one where I think I learn a lot, but this is the type of game I needed. They need to play like this against teams that are worse. That's it, flat out. And they've continued to do it. If they win that Miami game, they're seven and two. Speaking of the playoffs, let's get to our first stock down.

It's the sixth playoff spot in the AFC, currently held by the Cincinnati Bengals. Last scene, you know, I wrote this a couple weeks ago, but I want to bring it up. it was not about this, but I saw TV interview with the boxer Anthony Joshua a couple of months

ago, I think before we fought Joseph Parker. You watch so much weird boxing stuff. It's not just weird boxing stuff. I like the dumbest sports now. The amount of boxing information you intake is very similar to when I live with Rayf Bartholvio and he was watching weird fights that he had to stream at 1 a.m. The thing is, is I know as much about boxing as I do about golf or MMA

or even basketball. or even basketball. But the thing is, is it, the boxing stuff is so much more applicable because it's just like pure raw competition. That's fair. I mean, and the golf stuff is just being an old white person. Right. Now that we've hit our 30s and it makes sense.

There's never anything like that Matt Kutcher is going to say. Then I'm going to be like, this is exactly, this is exactly like this. You don't think Matt Kucher's that interesting? No, but I'm just saying from a competition standpoint. I understand. The fighting aspect of it is so interesting because it's just the most pure version competition. No, I get it.

And so the point. the point is that... God, you've gotten so weird. 25-year-old you would be so confused about your life. Now, I've always liked boxing. It's the golf. It's the problem.

The golf is the one. My favorite sports have always been football and basketball, and that remains true. The problem is, like, the fringe... I don't have any idea what's going on in baseball or hockey right now. Yeah, yeah.

But I could... I could tell you anything about golf, boxing, MMA, or even, like, some of the... Have you watched every magic game? This season? At least... Half. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah, they just pasted the Knicks. Pasted them. Absolutely pasted them. The tone with which you said that is incredible. Well, no. I mean,

I just feel like, I just feel like we're not giving. They're acting like, they just pasted the Knicks. We have people inside the ringer who like, whenever the magic winning game, they're calling for the coach, the opposing coach to be for the damn Titans.

And I just don't think we're that bad. So I was tweeting about this yesterday, about NBA jerseys. Yeah. The heat vice jerseys are awesome. and I just think they should wear them every game. Yeah, you called for a new job. Do you...

The jerseys are, do you think that the magic should just wear the pinstretched or not? But I heard you can't do that. You can't. So the NFL has a rule you can't go back to your old jerseys. Within a certain amount of time. That's why the Rams can't just wear the yellow

in every game. And so, well, no, I thought that you have to like change it a little bit. I thought that was... I don't know the particular way. I thought the rule in both sports was that you had to change it at least a little bit for marketing purposes so you can sell

the throwbacks. Or it might be an unofficial rule. The magic pinstripes are the correct jersey, though. You agree with those? Yeah, of course. But we have pinstripes on our current jersey. It's just a modified version. I'm going to look up that rule. It's one of the leagues, either the NBA or the NFL has a rule that you literally cannot go

back to your old jersey so you can sell the old jersey. Now, wait, I need to finish the point. I would love to hear what you think that who would you want as that six-a-fc team? Hold on. It's about the Bengals. I didn't People are going to be like he started a boxing point 20 minutes ago.

No, but it was his line that I think about a lot where he said that, he said that they said, what are you going for? He's the heavyweight champion of the world. And he's like, my goal in life, like the true mastery, true mastery, the definition of it is to make a professional look like an amateur. I should really like that. Yeah. You're not getting that from Justin Rose.

That just reminds me of GigiG fights like three years ago, but yeah. Or Anthony Joshua fights now. But the point is, when I watched that damn Saints Bengals game today, I got those vibes. That's exactly what it was. I mean, and this is, they weren't playing the Bills, who won, by the way. By a lot. They lost 51 to 14. They looked like they might be amateurs, dude.

It was not good. That game was really setting up to be like this. I was talking about it with Bill on his podcast last week. Every way that the Bengals could beat the Saints was not available to them today. So it's not surprising that it wasn't close. It's surprising it was 51-14. All right. So if we're looking at that sixth spot.

Oh, by the way, the second part of this is the dolphins got their ass kicked by the Packers. Who is the team you would like to? So essentially this is the team you don't want to watch on Wildcard weekend. Bangles, Titans, Dolphins, Ravens. the damn Colts and then the damn Browns, okay? This is insane that we're going to have to watch one of these teams in the playoffs. Here's here's here's

here's the thing. If the Patriots get the three seed and they will, right. No. If this Patriots or Steelers get the three seed, we're giving the Chiefs the one seat even though who knows. I mean, it's probably over man. I mean, the Patriots have three losses.

No, but I'm talking about the second seat. That's what I'm saying. The Chiefs is. The I think you can just write it in. No, no, right. But I'm saying that the Steelers have two losses right now. Oh, yeah. Right. So what I'm saying is that either the Steelers or the Patriots will be in that slot,

and they're going to beat whoever it is anyway. The concern is if somehow the Texans end up in that three seed. And then you're getting Texans bengals, which we've gotten before. Texans Titans. You remember that game? That was the T.J. Yeats, J.J. Yates, J.J. Witt. Texans, Titans, Dolphins, Texans. These are the types of games that should not be televised.

It's going to be hilarious when the Texans play the Bengals in that playoff game, and it gets a higher number than any NBA finals game. Which happened the other day with Rogers Brady, by the way. It's going to be great. All right. So anyway, no one watched that game. All right, real quick, Rams defense. What do you say?

220 rushing yards? So. Allowed, obviously. That. Dante Fowler, weird, even though he redeemed himself, weird personal foul. The 220 rushing yards, Wade Phillips is essentially punted on run defense for the last five years. And in this day and age, that's okay.

You'd much rather be a great pass defense, but when you also allow teams to do whatever they want through the air, then you can't just punt run defense. It's shocking how middling they've been. I am very surprised by it. But I also think that there are no good defenses in the NFL besides the one that plays for my team. So I just don't know if it matters.

Did you see Kalil Mack today? Yes, I did. I'm starting to think that's a good trade. I missed him and Alan Robinson so much. It's one of those things. You watch that bear's offense and they have so many weapons and they just throw the ball around to everybody. There's no target monsters.

There's no kind of focus and who gets the ball. And then Alan Robinson shows up today. It's like, oh yeah, Alan Robinson's like one of the 10 best receivers in the NFL. Did you see the quote that John Gruden, or not the John, you had the, uh, the Raiders quote from any match Schneiderman that one Raiders veteran said to the other, I got to get the fuck out of here. I can't believe that is.

Why haven't all of them said that? It just seems like that's something they would say to each other every single day. Well, now they're just saying it openly in the locker room. How about Aaron Donald and Justin Brick going out of it? So he was pissed. Did you see that play? Yeah, I saw it. I mean, he pushed him from behind.

And I, it's been a while since I've seen an NFL player react like that. Yeah. He really wanted to fight him. I love this though. I'm just watching this clip right now. The dapping up? He put his helmet on.

Oh no, but he also was dapping up guys. And then he was like, hold on, I got to go fight this guy real quick. He put his helmet back on just in case. Well, he's got his helmet on. Well, I don't, it's a smart choice. I just can't believe he. did that.

Aaron Donald is... I think that having your helmet on... I think having your helmet on... Signifies you don't want to actually fight. I get... No, it's... For me, it's more even in the playing field. Because every...

No, because if you take your helmet off, then you're like, you have to take your helmet off. And then once that happens, we're going to fight. It's like the, uh, Andre Johnson, uh, Quote and Finnegan type deal. Yeah, well, so have you... There's a, um, there's a... I saw Henry Rollins years ago on a, on a, on a,

speaking to her. And he's amazing. He does these fake stand-up things or just him bullshitting and they're amazing. But he was talking about how it was like when he was doing nothing but like punk rock stuff and it was awesome. But he's talking about how like the greatest change in a confrontation and especially on the road is as soon as the car door opens. Because once the car door opens, there is no coming back from that. You've escalated it to the point that anything can happen. If you keep the car door closed, there will be no confrontation. As soon as it goes,

there's a huge problem. It's the only time I've ever been like afraid of my dad. We opened the car door. Somebody came up to like somebody, we got a little like TIF in traffic and someone came up to the car door. And he was a very like, never would escalate a situation.

Yeah. But the guy started yelling at me in the passenger seat and my dad opened the car door. And the dude, like, my father was a huge band. And the guy just ran back to his car. The Aaron Donald of Road Ridge. It was hilarious. So, have you ever read our band Could Be Your Life?

The Michael Aswell. No, I have not. The Black Flagg chapter is just like next level stuff. Like what Henry Rollins has seen in his life. Yeah, that is the, him and Aaron Donald are on my top ten guys that would not want to ever fight. All right. Before we move on, let's take one more quick break. KiwiCo creates super cool hands-on projects for kids that make learning about Steam fun.

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Now back to the show. All right. Stock down, the Jets. That today was embarrassing. Yeah, that's pretty much it. I wouldn't be surprised if by the time this comes out, we don't have Todd Bulls as a coach anymore. I just want to speak generally. First of all, did you see the three holding penalties on one play?

Yes, it was incredible. It's, so we've talked about this a lot all season, right? it's the idea of if you draft a quarterback Yeah, I was going to say that. I just want to say that I was going to say that and then I remembered the three penalty thing and that was so much funnier to me

so I abandoned that very salient point. When you have, I mean, we watched what the Bears did, let's just bring into a better team, what the Rams did with golf. You have a guy you drafted first overall. You bring in a coach in order to maximize it.

And we've seen it all over the league. What the Bears have done with Trubisky, even though he's not good, they brought in the coach to essentially give him the best chance possible. And then you have the Jets, the Cardinals, and the Browns, I'll say. Draft quarterbacks in the top 10, they'd be like, good luck, buddy. That's more or less what's happened. And it's just...

Jeremy Bates, dude. It can't be possible. Are you serious with the Jeremy Bates? I know Donald didn't play today, but the infrastructure that... What am I doing in these tabs? I have my laptop open, just so the listener knows this. And I have Richard Nixon's Wikipedia page. That was amazing.

I was not expecting that. But yeah, it's, there's no way you can justify what the Jets have done with their top three pick at quarterback. Yeah. I mean, they made five trades or something like that in order to get up there. And they've thrown Darnell to this team. And it's just not okay. Like, you need to hire an offensive minded head coach and you need to start over. And it's, it was very clear today.

Or hire a defensive mind of head coach and hire like, competent offensive coordinator is not Jeremy Bates. I mean, that used to be okay and I I think Barnwell's written about this, but just the idea that even if you hire a defensive mind-head coach

often like jumps on offense will happen with a defensive mind-head coach if you hire the right coordinator. But I just think what's happened with McVeigh with Matt Nagy with everything else, that we're not going to see that.

But can I tell you the flip side of that? I don't know if it's necessarily about that. I think it's that just the best offensive minds now become head coaches. So if you're going to get the best offensive mind, he's not going to take a coordinator job because he's going to have three head coaching offers. If you're just crushing it right now as an offensive coordinator, you're going to have so many head coaching jobs that being the head, the offensive coordinator for the Jets under some sort of defensive wizard is not ideal in the least.

I'm with you. If you're, if you're, so, you know, a good example is like, you know, if maybe, maybe five years ago, someone like John D. That's the exact name I was going to be poached. And you'd say, you know what we're going to bring in John D. Philippo and we're going to install, I don't know, some, who is some hot defensive coordinator? There are none. There are none.

There are none. That's the problem. Football is just completely done. I'm trying to think here. There literally aren't any. The hot defensive coordinators, you know, the two best defenses in the NFL that I've watched this year, like Vic Fangio-in-in-head coaching jobs. Yeah, Vic Fangio, Wade Phillips, and like Wink Martindale. Oh, no, Wink Martindale.

I love that guy. I'm in. Those are the names. Those guys aren't getting head coaching jobs. We're going to pair Todd Monkin with Wink Martindale. All right. Speaking of Todd Mocken, let's get there. Let's get there.

So let's quickly do the challenge flags. Derek Cutter took over play calling responsibility from the, I'm just waiting for you to say it. From the top three offense coordinator. not this. I mean, he's been really good, but top three is, that's a hard kind of list of crap. If you don't include head coaches, maybe then. I think that that list is, okay, the point is, yeah, the point is, Norv Turner, John Di Filippo and Ham would probably have three names. Good, good offensive coordinator, Todd Monkner is no longer playing calling plays. He,

Dirk Cutter was asked about it and he said, I have my reasons. Dirk Cutter's reasons are, I'm going to get fired anyway and I don't care anymore. He clearly just hates Tom Monken, right? Like, that's the only reason you do that. So I wrote about this this week, just the Bucks coaching vacancy, which we assume will be vacant very soon. I think that if you're the Bucks, you should hire a defensive-minded head coach,

which we just talked about how that's not a thing anymore. They're going to hire Wade Phillips. Paring with Todd Munkin, it just happened. If you are, if you're the Bucs ownership right now, if you're the Glazers, you absolutely keep Todd Munkin as your offensive coordinator while hiring a defense-minded head coach, don't you?

Yeah, you do. I mean, why wouldn't you? I think that we've seen that work out a couple times recently. And the Bears are the best example. Matt Nagy comes in and he looked at the defense, it's just a good situation. I'm going to keep it. And I think that's what the buck should do.

I really do. And that's why there's so much irony in Dirk Cutter deciding that the offense is the problem with this team. You know, there's a lot of the glazer families having some trouble this year because they've got some Manchester United coaching issues as well. They lose today? It's immense. Oh, yeah, absolutely. It was one nothing less than a lot.

Oh, boy, did they ever? They're probably, it's one of those things where it's like those Michigan, Ohio State deals where, like, every once in a while, one team just gets a huge edge and they just go years without it. Like, that's sort of without a way. That's probably in the cards for the next few years. Have you watched the all or nothing? I have.

It's fantastic. I mean, it's, I'm a soccer person in a way that you're not. I don't watch it as much. But every time I engage with soccer content, I'm always sad I don't do it more. It's a hell of a time. It's probably because you lived your 20s on the West Coast. That's fair.

It's really hard. Yeah. I watched Liverpool Arsenal last week and I was like, why don't I do this more often? I really enjoy this. I obviously fell in love with the one I was living in Florida. And I was lucky enough to go to a handful of games when I was in high school. We would fly over there on spring break. And however, once you live in New York and there's just, you know, people on the street and there's bars for every team, that's when you really.

like I was my favorite it was my favorite sports I lived in London I mean I my my buddies over there he was a huge Liverpool fan and I said I got into it then and then for whatever reason it just vacillates and I also think that I can't watch more sports on the weekend that I do currently so it's that's the problem is that I feel like it would ruin my life you know you get into boxing the best part the best part of boxing no no no dude dude dude here's best for boxing it's true of them they too. You can be super up on the sport, at least the upper echelon of the sport, and you

watch like one fight every two weeks. It's insanely, it's insanely time consumption wise, it's very efficient. That's what I should do with soccer. I'll do, I'll do the one game a week at like 7 a.m. or Saturday. The problem is you can't really get a grasp of everything with that. Boxing, you do watch like every title

and fight and you're like, it takes an hour. I'm up at 7 a.m. now. I'm an old man, so it's totally fine. Okay. All right. The The box are, do we have any interests in them? I think that with the right head coach, they can be a reasonable team. I honestly do. I agree. They need to figure out the quarterback thing.

We have talked about that a lot too. And to me, it's about the quarterback thing. And I also think they will have a new general manager. They have good talent. They have good talent. They have a good talent. You know what else they have? They have a lot of huge freaking contracts, dude.

But they can get out from most of them. Yeah. Almost every single one, they're big deal. They don't have that much talent anymore. They either have... Nah, but a lot of those contracts are on defense. The JPP deal. I wouldn't cut...

I wouldn't cut Gerald McCoy, but they can cut JPM for no dead money, stuff like that. There are moves to be made. They just signed Allie Marpet to a deal, to a bigger deal. Allie Marpet, Ryan Jensen has a really big contract. I mean, they've doled out some cash.

Mr. Lait was trying to keep his job this year. All right. What's our other challenge like? The damn Atlanta, Falcons, Cleveland Browns had an amazing game today. All I wanted from the Falcons was for them to be the team they were last week in Washington. Instead, they let Nick Chubb. Well, that, I mean, Nick Chubb is just playing good.

He's really good. Nick Chub is just playing good. One of my favorite moments of the NFL season is that John Dorsey was so frustrated with the Nick Chub, Carlos Hyde situation that he literally just treated Carlos Hyde away. Just get him out. That's what he needed to do to get Nick Chub more carries. Just get him out. I kind of like that.

I love it. I mean, it makes total sense. But Nick Chub was the second most physically capable, most physically impressive running back of this draft. Behind Sequant. Yes. I mean, Sequant's generational. Sequins, once in a decade. Here we go.

I mean, physically. Yeah. I mean, and Nick Chub is not that far away. He's incredibly talented. And it's watching him and Baker with a real offensive. coordinator next year is going to be super enjoyable. I'm looking forward to it. Falcons offense, huh?

The way they played against Washington last week, you think, all right, maybe they're over the out of the dome stuff, maybe they can travel with that offense, maybe they're going to be kind of the scary lurking team in the NFC wildcard race. None of those things are true. Nope. Part of me when everything kind of went south, you know, two weeks into the year, and Debo goes down, Rico Allen gets hurt, and Keanu Neal. It's like, I just want them to lose every game.

And then they look like they've looked over the last couple of weeks. It's like, uh, maybe. I mean, who's the wildcard team in the NFC if it's not them and Seattle lost today, everything else? And then they play like they did today. And I just want them to lose every game because I want them to get a top seven pick because I think that they have so much talent. Are you still doing the guard thing?

No, they need a defensive player. But yes. I, I, I did the guard thing. I needed to for my own personal brand. You're a brand. No, I know. They definitely should pick a defensive player with like the eighth overall pick. All right. Tomorrow's headlines,

everybody gets fired. Yeah. This seemed like the week. Jets, uh, Bangle. I mean, what do you think it's going to happen with Marvin Lewis? It just seems like, uh, I mean, they have the sixth playoff spot right now, my man.

The way they play today, I just don't think you can do that. Even if they make this, even if they get the wild card, and even if they're the 16 in the AFC, can you honestly trot him, back out? Yes. How many, how many times

are we going to have to go through this? Yes, of course. They are completely shameless about this. But when was the last time they had a game like this, though?

When was the last time you can remember them getting embarrassed like they did today? I mean, they're the Bengals. They've been embarrassed a lot.

They've been solid over the last five years. Largely their brand. They've been solid over the last five years. They've been a reasonable NFL team. I think that Marvin Lewis

is a really good coach. And I would go as far as to say, I don't want to drop this take in minute 59 or whatever we're at because it's an incredible take. I would go as far to say that if I was a desperate franchise, I would hire Marvin Lewis for three years. I don't disagree with you. I understand your reasoning. It's because he can get you to competency very quickly.

I would like to see him at like, because if what he did to the Bengals he could do, and it's the horse is out of the bar now because if, it's, it's, the horse is out of the bar now. because of John Dorsey. But if the Browns had been like, Marvin fixed this. I think he could have done it and gotten them to eight wins. Here's your team and we'll bring them back around. What if Marvin Lewis took the Buccaneers job?

Yeah. That was my thought. I don't hate that. Did we just fix the Buccaneers? I think we did. And Marvin Lewis. And Marvin Lewis takes over Manchester United at the same time.

Could you imagine? I mean, it seems to be better than whatever they've got going on right now. Could you imagine they get to the championship final every year and just lose. Just lose. Just get blown out. What's the soccer equivalent of nine and seven

and losing in the first round of the playoffs? Well, unfortunately, it's not. You don't get to the playoffs in that situation. All right. Is that all we got? That's it. Come to the live show. Yeah, please come. If you're in Vegas,

nine o'clock tomorrow, Caesar's Palace, we will be talking about football. There are like ads in the casino. I saw that. It's very strange. I saw that. My life is something I never understood that we get to this place. But unfortunately, here we are.

Unfortunately? It's great. It's still odd. All right. That'll do it for the Ringar NFL show. We'll be back on Thursday. Today's show is sponsored by Cavo. The Cavill Control Center is the first truly universal remote control for your entire

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