The Ringer NFL Show - NFL Week 16 Picks, Props, and Predictions! | Extra Point Taken

Episode Date: December 22, 2023

Ben is joined by the 'Dual Threat' crew, Nora Princiotti and Steven Ruiz, to preview Week 16 in the NFL. The Ravens and Niners are set to face off on Christmas night in a mega matchup which features the two best teams from their respective conferences. Which team has the advantage heading into the matchup? The high-powered Dolphins offense will face the Cowboys, who struggled last week but have been solid throughout the season. Will the Cowboys win a big game on the road? Plus, Monday Morning Headlines and picks for the week! The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out theringer.com/RG to find out more, or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Hosts: Ben Solak, Nora Princiotti and Steven Ruiz Producer: Cliff Augustin Additional Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal and Conor Nevins Musical Elements: Devon Renaldo Social: Eduardo Ocampo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The ringer gambling feat is your one-stop shop for all things betting throughout the NFL season. From week one all the way through Super Bowl 58 in Las Vegas, we have you covered every which way. We've got our favorite futures. We've got props. We'll discuss the lines. And, of course, we'll throw in a few parlets. That's a given. So whether you're a sharp or square better, we'll be breaking it down in terms.

Hopefully everybody can understand. We'll try to win some money along the way. So be sure to subscribe to the ring of gambling feed on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello and welcome to X Point Taken. I'm Ben Solac, which is not typically the boys you hear here at the top of this show. You usually hear Shil Kapadia, but Shil's not feeling too well. He's sick. He's off today.

Getting healthy for the holidays. We wish him all the best as I'm sure he listens to this and bemoans my introduction. You can't replace Shil Kapati with just one man. I've always said that. That's just science. You have to do it with two. So I brought on for the show today. the dual threat, the Brady and Belichick of podcasting.

I don't know which one's which. Ben. Nora Prisianni and Stephen Ruiz. The 2000s, the best football duo. That's what I was thinking of there. Not like prime era of Brady Belichick. No, I want to be Stephen. I want to be Belichick now.

I want to be the loser Belichick that's like mean. Nora, would you like to be straight off of endorsing FTX, Brady? Just endorsing FTAX, Brady? Just endorsing. fraudulent cryptocurrency schemes and ripping off Gardner Minshu takes on Instagram. All the football is bad these days. Yes. Okay.

When I said it, I was thinking prime Brady Belichick. Now I realize, yes, no, it is current Brady Belichick. Noropritsian Stephen Ruiz, the usual host of Dual Frat on the feed. Very great. She'll hopped on to help me out. What we're going to do today is we're going to do kind of the X Pointegan show, the usual Friday previews show. Not really. for those who care very deeply about mine and shields competition,

we will be updating you on picks and my picks on those later in the show. For now, we do have an unbelievable slate of games to preview. By unbelievable, I both mean it's excellent, and also it's happening for so many days, the whole weekend. There are three straight days in which are multiple games, both the 23rd Saturday, the 24th Sunday, and then Christmas Fun Day, which I understand why they're doing this, but this is maybe the worst thing that's ever happened to me.

like just in terms of my life and my desire to like get a break from football. It's a lot of football over Christmas weekend. So it's an unbelievable slate of games for that reason. But also we have on Monday at 8 o'clock Niners Ravens, which I don't know about you guys. To me, this is the regular season game. I've been most excited for like all year. It's all I want. It's all I want to see this weekend.

I don't even want to see my family. I just want to see the game. Ravens Niners is worthy of Christmas. I don't know if Tommy DeVito is worthy of Christmas. But Ravens Niners is worthy of Christmas. Yes. And it's 8.15, too. And so it's going to be like, it was a long day.

There's going to be moms and dads who woke kids up at 6 a.m. And they ate a big meal and all they want to do is fall asleep early. And the NFL is like, no, you will stay up until 1115 to watch this. And you will like it. The East Coast dads could be a tough one for the East Coast dads. Here's what I want to do for the A Block games. What I'm going to do is I want to pitch to you the best possible game script for the upcoming Dual Threat Monday show for the recap show,

which is it coming out Monday night that your show will be? Or no? Is it coming out Sunday? So it's going to come out Sunday. So we're not going to comment on those games. You're not going to come out of Ravens. But I'm going to pitch to you guys the optimal script. And then for when we do later, Cowboys, Dolphins,

this one will actually work. Or honestly, Ben, this is amazing because you're probably just saving us some work. I'm sure these will be so inspired. We can just, we'll cut and paste. We'll just throw it up on the feed there Tuesday morning. No one will know the difference. Here's what I think we're going to get Niners Ravens. And this is just particularly designed to ruin Stephen's life.

Ravens defense dominates with three and a half quarters, right? We're just talking like, Purdy's head is in a blender. Calh shanah's screaming on the sidelines. He's missing throws. Ravens are up like 14 to 3, 17 to 3. He's like a nice. They're putting together long, long running drives, eating the clock. And then with like eight minutes left, Purdy engineers like back to back,

beautiful statement drives. True MVP winning, award winning. He's the greatest quarterback ever drives that are mostly just like Brandon I. You can Debo Samuel making great plays. But that's how they get framed. And Stephen has to hop on the pond and be like, after he beats the party beats the Ravens, saves the night.

Like all the nighters is the best break of the season team. Embarrasses Mike McDonald. Steven has to come on the pond and like actually, no, he's still bad. And then has to deal with the, uh, the, uh, the, what's it, backlash? I was saying, I was thinking lashback. The backlash of that for like weeks on end. Lashback.

That to me is my optimal Niners Ravens game. Steven, any interest in that? No, not at all. And I'm already thinking about like what my argument would be. I'd be like, okay, why were they still in the game? Why was he, if he had such a bad first three quarters, how was he still in the game and able to engineer these comebacks or these drives? So that would be my response. But no, I think that's very much on the table.

I'm not, I'm not going to sit here and act like I think the Ravens are going to dominate Brock Purdy. and like he's going to get exposed or something. I think he's been playing well, and I think the argument like people that like me have been making is that the people around him, the sporting cast, the play calling and all that has just kind of propped him up a little bit. And people are embellishing his strength.

That's all I'll say about him. I don't think that's going to get exposed anytime soon because he still has those things around him. Steve, in the universe in which the Ravens have a good day against the Niners' offense, like win or lose, if we walk away from that game, you're like, okay, and that is we're dropping 30 on.

cats and they only had like 17 in this game. They have like a mid game. What do you think it is that Mike McDonald did, right? If you're sitting here on Friday prognosticating, I'd tell you, hey, on Monday, Ravens have the best defensive performance. We've seen this pretty Christian McCaffrey era of the Niners, like 20 games at this point. Nobody's really like fully gotten them without some injuries on the back end. And the Niners don't have that right now. What is it you think that Mike McDaniel will have done? I think it's the same conversation we were having after they played the Bengals in the wildcard game last year or when they've given the Bengals troubles anytime. And I think those are two different offenses, Cincinnati's offense and San Francisco's offense.

But the way you have to kind of disrupt them is similar. And that's changing the picture after the snap, presenting one thing before the ball is snapped and showing them another thing after the ball is snapped. And like, it's impossible to find a split where Purdy looks bad. Trust me, I've tried. I've tried. That's all I do. I stay up at night until 3 a.m. trying to expose. I did wake up to a text from Stephen one morning this week that was like, yo, you need to look at these tight window stats.

And I was like, Steve, go to bed, dude, sleep, go to bed. But anyway, like the one stat where he kind of struggles is when teams change the picture on him, when they go from two high safeties before the snap to one high safety after. And when they play zone, when they play cover three, because if they play cover one, it doesn't matter if his eyes are in the wrong spot because he has a matchup anywhere. If they're playing man coverage across the board, he's going to find a matchup. But if it's zoned, then that doesn't really work like that. And that's when he's kind of made his mistakes.

that's when he's thrown into coverage. And the Ravens just so happen to be the best team in the NFL at doing that. And that's by the numbers, by EPA. This is a pro-Myke McDonald podcast. I want to make that very clear. But if that happens, if the Ravens defense ends up limiting the Niners in a way that we haven't really seen this season, do you think we come out of it talking about the game plan, talking about the scheme, talking about the coordinator, or do you think we come out of it going,

Kyle Hamilton, Roquan, Patrick Queen, middle of the field defense for this Ravens team is something else. That's a good point. That's a good point. Because I think Kyle's going to be a big part of it. Kyle Hamilton. I think it will be both. I think it's always six of one and a half dozen the other. I remember when the dolphins played the Niners last year, right? And when we were like, no one has slowed down this Dolphins offense.

This was crazy. And then it was like, right, where they worked the middle of the field so well, and the Niners are Fred Warner, like, the Niners can be able to do something that they might be able to stop them in a way. that no other defense really could. And then they had a great game against them. Fred played awesome. We were like, all right,

took away the middle of the field. They were taking away all the timing routes, but they have Fred, right? And then the next week the Chargers went out there and put out the same game plan with no Fred and had success, right? And so while I do think that like if the Ravens are successful, Kyle Hamils was going to be an enormous part of it, Roco is going to be an enormous part of it.

There still has value to showing to the other 30 teams in the league, hey, like this is how you would do it if you had the guys that we have. You might need to figure out a different way to do it, but this is what it would look like. And I'm trying to avoid using the word blueprint because blueprint drives me nuts. But it starts to establish like, okay, if you can take away X and Y and Z falls away,

then you force them into like play in this sort of game. You force them into being a checkdown team. You force them into being like a goal ball on the outside team. You kind of just make the Niders be a little bit of a square peg in a round hole. That's what you can show if you have a good defensive performance, even if you don't have like the personnel for it.

You know what I mean? Yeah, and I think McDonald is so good that his game plans kind of stick out beyond the talent he has. Like, they'll do, like the Bengals game last year, I can't get out of my head. Like, they changed the techniques and how they play coverage so much that, like, you could see it. And I think a lot of people will be pointing this stuff out and like pointing out how

they disrupted the 49ers offense. And I think the fact that it's an island game is really going to help. Like that 49ers Dolphins game was at 4 o'clock. And not everybody watched. Most people watched, but maybe half the country didn't. I think in this case, the whole country is going to. to be tuned in and see it. And it's going to be something they talk about. I think Mike McDonald's been one of the better assistant coaches in the NFL. I think he's going to be

one of the top head coaching candidates in the offseason. I think whoever's broadcasting that game is going to spend some time on that. So I do think he's going to get his proper credit. Yeah. If it happens. I don't know if it's, I don't think it's going to happen, but if it happened. Nora, other side of the ball, Baltimore Ravens are holding it, 49ers defense, defending it. Niners are big rush with four team. The Ravens are big. If you rush with four, we're going to let Lamar hang around back here for about nine,

10 minutes. You're going to have a couple of coffees. He's going to dance around a little bit. 30-yard throat to Isaiah likely. This is the sort of defense that I look at. Lamar typically being really successful against, especially because when you get just like light boxes, or we're going to play too high,

the Ravens say, okay, we'll just, once you're going to run it. And we have the ultimate math adjuster. You think the Ravens can keep pace with the Niners, if this becomes a high-scoring affair, if the Niners are dropping 30, 35 on the way they've been doing.

You think the ravens can keep pace with that? So I think we'll get to the picks part later. In my heart of hearts, I'm a little, I don't know if I'd quite go there, but the thing that I am hoping for is that this is a real Lamar completely on one game. And the thing that I'm curious about if that happens is how much it's going to involve him running the ball. He's averaging 53 rushing yards per game, which is the lowest since his rookie year by more than 10 yards per game.

but this 49ers defense, as you've said, that's not really what they typically sell out to stop. And they gave up 50 yards on the ground to Kyler Murray last week. Lamar's a more threatening player in that mode than Kyler. And so I'm really curious, even though I've liked the elements of this Ravens offense that have involved Lamar running with the ball a little bit less, scrambling to throw maybe a little bit more

and just emphasizing the passing game. I'm curious if this ends up being a game where he just says like, screw it. This is vintage Lamar. He's using his legs. He's doing everything. And I think that's the world in which one, we get an awesome game. It's Christmas night.

Everyone's dialed in. And two, where they can really keep pace with this 49ers offense, which part of hearts, I probably trust a little bit more to score a whole bunch of points. but if the Ravens do it, it's because Lamar has a absolute statement game. Yeah, I think especially with, with Keaton Mitchell going down, right? So now they're down Mark Andrews,

they're down Keith Mitchell. Hate it. Hate it. Mitch Mitchell, it blows. And like, Mitchell wasn't a big name and like, oh, he's RB3. But he was an important player for them because he was like a walking explosive play, right? He was like, okay, we're going to do this little gimmicky play action,

little bubble thing. We're going to pick up 13 yards. That's such a handy player to have. And they lose him. And then Ronnie Stanley has been kind of in and out of the lineup. And so now you're dealing with, okay, we lost a back. And then we also lost a tackle on a pass protector and we're going up against this front. And it's like, okay, well, Keaton was your get rid of the ball quick guy.

Ronnie was your blindside protector, erase Chase Young guy. They're both handy dudes to have when you face this nine of a defensive line. Yeah, this isn't a Lamar Atlas game for sure. It's like the whole world is on your back and this one. I do think that like as important as Lamar is when he's holding the ball, the threat of Lamar is important because this would be an awesome game to just be able to give the ball to Gus Edwards 20 times. And just be able to say, we are going every drive we have, we are going to sit on this thing. We are going to take at least five minutes.

And that makes your margin smaller. You got to go get seven when you're down there. But this is not a good run defense for the Niners, right? Their bottom eight run defense by success rate by EPA drive. They have been all season. Like, no one can actually punish this because you can't stay in a good game script long enough to actually be able to run the ball. But with Lamar adding that extra number, if I'm in Baltimore, I'm like, listen. Of course, I want to be throwing like 50 yards in like every Lamar MVP moment, like incredible plays.

But I also kind of want to just let the Niders only have eight drives this game. And so sitting on this thing and they're well equipped to do that can like probably help out. You did say, yeah, Nora, we're going to get to picks here. I am curious. This is a five and a half point line, right, is where we got to. The Niders are at home. Like Steven said, it's an island game. This is on Christmas night.

The Niders are pretty substantial favorites. They've taken money pretty much all week as well. Steve, Nora, I'll start with you, Nora. Who do you think wins this? How much things they win it by? I think the 49ers win it. I think they win it by, I guess I'm sort of, I'm voting for the best possible game here.

I suppose they could win it by seven if it's a last minute touchdown. Yeah, you got a little 2720. What's the final score? Yeah, like 2720 feels good to me. See, even where are you at? I'm going to pick the Ravens. Yep. I'm gonna go job off the floor.

That's right. I'm gonna pick, I'm gonna go 2117. I think it's a Mike McDonald game. I think Lamar looks good within the context of his environment. I think he is the clear MVP after this. Maybe this is Cope.

Maybe it isn't. I don't know. I'm picking the Ravens. I think they, I think they're gonna win the game. Yeah. I would love for that to happen. If that happens,

I think we have some really interesting conversations across the board. I also think it would be very handy for that to happen. Because right now when people ask me like, hey, Niners, how do they get stopped in the end? Fc. How do they not make the Super Bowl? I'm like, well, if Dack has his best game ever, right? If the Eagles run the ball for 400 times. Like right now, like, it's very hard to lay it out. And I think that the easiest way to lay it out would be to actually see it. Like,

I got to see someone do something here against this office. I don't, I don't care what happens on Monday night. They're making the Super Bowl regardless. The Ravens have nothing to do that in my mind. Yeah. They're making the Super Bowl preview right here. This would be a very fun game, especially because I think if we're if we're banking on the young man Mike McDonald's stop this offense. I would like for him to get two cracks at it. And so it would be handy if he could get a look here, you know, get surprised by some stuff, losing some stuff, and then circle back in February and have a little bit of experience dealing with this offense. I think the Niners win it. I do think it is lower scoring than people expect that. I think it's like a 26-17, 27-17 sort

of a thing. I think that you're going to see this game slow down. I think you see a lot of running of the football. And we're not going to necessarily get like the fireworks from the quarterbacks that we want. But fortunately, we have other games for that. We're going to do some advertisements, and then we're going to come back and talk Dolphids Cowboys. As the weather gets cold, the NFL offers stay hot on Fandle. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets when your first $5 money line bet wins. This week, I do like the Bears minus four and a half at home against the Cardinals, Packers, minus four and a half on the road against the Panthers,

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Must be 211 plus and present in select states. $5 pregame money line wage are required. First online real money wager only, $10.1-2-disposit required. Bonus issued as non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire seven days after receipt. See terms at sportsbook.fandle.com. Hello, welcome back. I love ad breaks. I'm so good at them. I love hosting so much. It's the bomb. Dolphins Cowboys! This is actually a Sunday game, so you guys will be talking about this on the show. It's a 4 o'clock game.

It is in Miami. We have ourselves some injuries, okay? Both Zach Martin and Tyrant Smith did not practice on Thursday. We don't know what they're doing yet on Friday. Tyrant Smith had a back issue pop-up, so we might have the two best Cowboys offensive linemen out. It's never great. Let me read for you the Dolphins practice. report on Thursday. Three non-participants, Robert Hunt, Austin, Jackson, and Rahim Moster. So again, that's two starting offensive linemen. And then limited participants include Devon Acheon, Tarant, Armstead, Tyree Kill, Zavian Howard, Javon Halland, Liam, Keter Cahoe, Emmanuel Ogbaugh, Jalen Ramsey, Durham-Smith, Kamsmith, and Andrew Van Van Ginkle. So that's what they're dealing with in Miami. This team just cannot stay healthy.

Here's the game that I'd like to give for you guys. I think this is our fireworks game. I think this is our game where it's banana stuff offensively. You have a Shanahan disciple in Mike McDaniel for the Dolphins against Dan Quinn, the defense coordinator for the Cowboys. Now, as Richard Sherman very famously told us, Kyle Shanahan loves the Dan Quinn defense. Big fan of the Dan Quinn defense, huge fan of how he knows what he's playing on every single snap, thinks that's great.

I think that's very quaint. This is the sort of team, and if you've watched the Cowboys struggle against the run the last few weeks, struggle to tackle the last few weeks, this is the sort of game where Tua can have time to throw 0.6, and everything is just behind the line of scrimmage or 12 yards down the field because Tyree kills fast enough. And then they're just running scot-free in this secondary. I think this is an enormous, enormous offense performance by the Dolphins.

And then accordingly, I think it's Dak Prescott's job to keep this thing at pace. I'd be able to keep pace with the Dolphins offense. I think he can do it for much of the game, for a good part of the game. But this Dolphins offense, excuse me, this Dolphins defense has been really good over the course of the stretch, especially got Jail and Ramsey back. So I think we're at a 3427 fourth quarter. Dak Prescott has a potential game-winning drive in his hands, pushing the ball down the field.

He gets to about midfield, the Dolphins 40, first and 10, second and 10, third and 10. And then a fourth and 10, he throws like a Brandon Cook's quasi-drop interception, like hits him on enough hands. You can claim it's a drop if you want. If you want to do anti-Dak bad faith, this course, you can claim it wasn't a drop.

And it pops in in Javon Hollins, a waiting bit. and the dolphins win it. I think that's the game that we're getting. Then we're getting fireworks, last minute drive. Nora, do you like my pitch? No, I hate it. I like the fireworks part. I hate the like the every sports talk show hours and hours and hours of did DAC choke content.

That's not a thing that I need. Nothing better than ambiguous Dak Prescott moving goalpost discourse after an overall great season of DASH situation. I actually expressly do not want to. that I cannot believe that you were trying to intermingle this with my Christmas holiday. Christmas gift, Dak Prescott hands game to dolphins late in Hard Rock Stadium. No. No, I ate it.

I like the idea of this is a high scoring game. I think that would be fun. Normally, I would tell you, I really like this dolphin's defense and would expect them to have a better result than that. But we have no idea who's playing, and it seems like 90% of them. are hurt. So I like the pick. I like the prediction. The thing that I'm really curious about is when the dolphins have the ball, as you said, can maybe you're being a tad hyperbolic with the 0.6 seconds time to throw for Tua might might not be such a stretch. And we've seen this, this Cowboys defense struggle a little bit recently. But a lot of that has been against

the run and especially against like inside downhill head full esteem type runs and run games. That is not the dolphins. I don't know if you're familiar with dolphins offensive line, but they are attempting to be a playoff contender essentially without one. The dolphins are sort of post offensive line, so everything goes to the perimeter. And so it's different than what they dealt with with the bills. It's different from where they've been struggling. So I'm just curious to see the dolphins really test the limit because this is still,

I mean, Michael Parsons wasn't awesome last week, but this is still a Cowboys defense that can get after a quarterback and pressure quarterback. How far can we take this? How far post offensive line is it possible to be? Can Tua getting rid of the ball so, so fast, can this Dolphins running game really just trying to work the outsides, is that solid? Is that stable? And can it take advantage of the Cowboys defense as it's currently playing and have some of the same issues come up again? I don't know the answer to that, but that's the thing that I'm really interested to see happen because I think it

will say a lot about the dolphins more long-term chances. Yeah. It's funny. We like to talk about strength on strength. This is week on week because you have that dolphin's interior. against a Cowboys interior that would probably be missing Jonathan Hankins again, right? And that's the run stuffing defensive tackle who was very evidently absent against the Buffalo Bills. We were just watching that Bill's offense being like,

why is this happening? And then you realize the Cowboys don't have Jonathan Hankins out there and they just don't have another defensive tackle over 300 pounds we can play right now, right? Rookie Mazee Smith, they were hoping would be that. He hasn't been that, and so they're really liable up front. The other thing about that run defense,

they're right, nor like all that run to the perimeter, if we use some of these Niners games that Shanahan has played against the Cowboys over the years as an example. And certainly McDaniel was on those staffs in the past, they love Michael Parsons on the edge because they just unblock him and show him my candy, right? They just leave him unblocking and they send one guy speed out him this way, the other guy speed out him this way. And they say, well, we can't block you, so we're just going to put you in conflict, right? And then we're going to put the ball where you're not. And Parsons can handle that better than I think a lot of individual defensive players can. but still it's very challenging to do against this Dolphins overall team speed.

Steve, when you look at Cowboys defense without Hankins and with the way they've played in the last few weeks, you have to remember, like, they had the Seattle game. You know, like, there's, this has not been a, there's not just a one-off against Buffalo. You concern, as concerned as I'm about them against this Dolphins offense? I'm concerned in the passing game. I'm not so concerned about the running game. Nora's point when they've struggled in the run game. It hasn't just been downhill.

It's also been, there's been like a read option element. Like they made Josh Dobbs. It's a game that's easy to forget. But in September, they made Josh Dobbs and the Cardinals look like the 2019 Ravens. It's not a game that's easy to forget because I bet on the Cowboys Live four times in the second half.

How'd that go? Really poorly. Thanks for asking. But you have the same effect with Josh Allen and the bills and the bills started using Josh Allen more as a runner since Joe Brady's taken over. I'm not so concerned about that

with the dolphins. I don't think two is a threat to pull the ball and run and go 50 yards with him. And I also, my question is, who is the running back in this game for the dolphins? Like, who's the main running back? Who's the guy that you can run in between the tackles? Because a lot of their guys, to Norris Point again, they attack the perimeter with them.

They want to get A-chain. They want to get Mostered out to the edge and around the corner. They don't want them cutting back. They don't want them running downhill. So I'm not concerned there. And I think, like, with the perimeter stuff that you kind of mention where you leave Parsons unblocked, the Cowboys play a lot of dime defense. They have guys that can swarm on the second level.

It doesn't have to be a big Michael Parsons. game. By the way, I was looking at Michael Parsons, like, average depth of tackle. You want to guess what it is? He has 40 tackles on here. I mean, like, is it behind the line of scrimid? It can't be allowed. It's behind the line of scriments. That's four. He has 404 tackles, and his average tackle has come to at minus 0.4 yards. That's so obnoxious, it's insane. It's a tackle for loss every time. He's averaging a tackle for loss when he tackled a ball carry. But I think they have the guys on the second level that can swarm. They have like these defensive back linebacker hybrid types that can help in that area. My question is what

happens when they play cover one? What happens when they when they play cover three? They're going to be in single high. They're going to try to cover these guys man to man with Stefan Gilmore, who's a good player, but I don't think he can keep up with Waddle or I don't think you keep up with Hill. I mean, and I think the guys that are on the injury report are going to play this week. I think a big majority of them. So I'm not so concerned about that. I honestly think it's a mixture of the two games or the two scenarios you guys both laid out. And I think we see a lot of points from the Dolphins. I'm not so sure about the Cowboys. I think we get a bad DAC game. And I think we get a bad DAC discourse week. Why a bad DAC game in this one? Is it something with what? Vangio is doing.

Yeah, what in particular do you think is going to give DAC trouble? He's had trouble against Fangio in the past. Like, they played the Broncos a couple years ago and he just had a horrible game. It was one of those games where we were talking about DAC all week long, and it's the safety rotations and how Fangio kind of plays with the quarterback's mind. And he shows him one thing. It's kind of the same discussion as the Brock Purdy one we had in the last segment. I think he's going to, there's going to be a lot on Dax played in this game, like you predict it. And I think if it's like a 40 to 50 dropback game with a game script that demands him to push the ball downfield, I think we're going to see a couple of interceptions. Because you're going to get a couple of leads wrong against a Fangio defense,

especially when you're doing it at that volume. Yeah. It's a huge heat check moment for that defense because if you look since Ramsey's gone back, they've been the best defense in the league. They've also played over that stretch of time like multiple quarterbacks who are not real and are no longer employed, right? Like they had a Tim Boyle game, man.

Like they walked through a very, very nice schedule to get that high ranking. In general, this is an enormous, like, we're real. We're an actual contender game for both teams, right? the dolphins now at this point very famously. Oh, Mike McDaniel hasn't been anybody that actually has, like, you know, a substantial record, right? They lost to Buffalo. They lost to Philadelphia. They lost to Kansas City.

Dallas has had the same issue, right? They obviously got their win against Philadelphia two weeks ago, but they lost to Buffalo. They've lost to San Francisco. They haven't really had a marquee win yet on the season, the Seattle game, you know, the Eagle game, obviously, but like Seattle, even where they took them to the edge. Both of these teams have been criticized by the national media for not having a real win, which means one of them is going to win this game. and say, there it is, this is our real win. But everybody's going to be able to say, well, no, because they weren't real, because they didn't beat anybody.

So actually, you still haven't beat anybody. We're going to do a whole, just, well, snake eating its own tail of nobody's actually real. I think the pressures on the dolphins a little bit more heavily than the Cowboys. Dallas still needs to win games to keep the division from the Eagles. It's absolutely still a huge presence on them. But Miami's got a game in Week 18 against Buffalo that they would not like to be meaningful. I think that they're terrified of that game being potentially for the division. And so I think that at home, it's a very big effort for them.

I do think the dolphins win this, which feels weird. It feels squarely. I know you said a lot of their injuries, like, you know, those guys are going to play. They're missing two offensive linemen, Austin Jackson and Robert Hunt in this game. Like, I'm very worried about to his health and safety. I think it's a big mismatch. But I just think the team speed is too great. So I think it's like, I think it's like a lot riding on jujitsu.

Yeah, which, listen, it has been a year. for quarterback injuries. And you know who hasn't missed a snap? Two, talking about one, man. Yeah, it has been a year for quarterback injuries and Tua's been healthy. So he's doing something right.

I don't get it, but he's doing something right. Yeah, he rolled the other day. Yeah. The last game, he got pushed and he rolled over. It was pretty cool. I was completely serious when I said that. Oh, yeah.

It's working. Huge up. We should all, all right, at Super Bowl Jiu Jitsu class in Vegas. We're all doing it. We're all learning how to fall. Book it.

Book it. I like Dolphins 3428. Steve, what do you like? I'm going to go 34-24, Miami. All right. Nora, you're the lone Cowboys believer? 30-20, Dallas.

Oh, wow. Big performance for Dan Quinn. Yeah. Got to a game? The last time, the Dolphins scored 20, last time in week 11 against the Raiders. What the frick? Oh, yeah, I lost money on this game, too.

Had the dolphins against the spread. They had like three fumbles scoring territory. Now I remember. excuses. Welcome to The Ben Show, where all we do is talk about ways the benching of lost money in this NFL season. Shield's not here. I'm off the chain. All right.

We're going to do more advertisements. And then we're going to come back. We're going to talk some Monday morning headlines. Stop laughing on my ad tosses, no. Okay. We're back. Cowboys, Dolphins, and Niners Ravens, to me, the two most impressive and exciting games of the slate. However, there are still fun games.

We're going to do some Monday morning headlines where you guys predict. And then I'll also throw in a prediction what it is that we will be talking about on Monday. Obviously, a discourse that will be defined and directed by you guys leading NFL voices that you are. Nora, let's have you go first. What do you like for your Monday morning headline this week? Okay. So my Monday morning headline is specifically appearing in the at David Tepper. Please pay attention to this.

Please make sure you're reading this time. Okay. And the headline. A classic newspaper to which we also subscribe. Yes. Everyone's heard of it. The headline is sources, colon, personnel around the league discussing awareness of having heard that some owners have been told by sources that Lyon's offensive coordinator Ben Johnson's asking price is actually now even more than at or at least around $15 million for a head coach job. Because do you see what he just did for Jared Gough, live a little David, it's Christmas per sources. Now, Nora, why would you write a headline like that?

So unreasonable, so unlikely to be a sentence that is construed by a journalist or a writer. That's unbelievable. So here's the thing. Here's what happened. A couple days ago, Josina Anderson reported something similar, which was that the tweet was, I'm told personnel around the league are discussing their awareness that some owners have been told, hashtag lions, O.C. Ben Johnson's asking price is at or at least around $15 million a year for a head coach job per source. It's crazy because I was told the exact same thing, verbatim.

So this tweet made the rounds a little bit. People having some fun with the syntax, which I agree is bananas. There have been some people close to Ben Johnson who have said that this is not true and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Here's what I think. First of all, I think this is a great idea. Whether it's true or not, I think it is a brilliant thing to put out there because here's the thing. You know who is potentially interested in Ben Johnson's services? David Tepper of the Carolina Panthers. You know who is facing an uphill climb to luring the head coach of his choosing? David Tepper of the Carolina Panthers. Do you know who has just an absurd amount of money? David Tepper of the Carolina Panthers.

So if I were Ben Johnson, I think this is a great thing to do. I'm not saying he did it. This whole thing seems silly, but I think it would be an excellent strategy to wind up with a lot of money. Beyond that, Ben Johnson's team, the Detroit Lions, playing the Minnesota Vikings this weekend defensively coordinated by Brian Flores, Jared Garvey. the quarterback for the aforementioned Detroit Lions against Brian Flores's blitz. Historically, not good. I think we all remember the Rams Patriots Super Bowl. Also, the Rams faced the dolphins when Flores was with them in 2020.

He sent six or more rushers at Goff 13 times in that game resulted in two turnovers. Jared Goff has not fared well in these situations in the past. That said, I think right now, the Lions offensively have more talent than this Dolphins, Vikings defense, which has done a remarkable job of I'll play the shield role, doing more with less this year. I just think that the matchup is a little bit tougher. And I think that if Ben Johnson manages to bolster golf to the point where he can have a good performance in this situation where he has historically crumbled.

I think the narrative coming out of that game, lines are on the road. If they win it, which they very well could do, you know, Nick Mullins on the other side, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. If they win it and golf looks good, I think there's going to be a huge narrative about what Ben Johnson has been able to do for him. And if I were Ben Johnson in that situation, just keep cranking the number up, 20, 30? Right.

Just go for it. I know that Rams Patriots Super Bowl is mine and Steven's favorite game in history. Do you know why? Because of Jared Goff's performance in it? Yes, but before the performance, Mike Giardy of NFL Network, okay, I was doing a hit. Oh. Yeah. You're familiar? Oh, I'm completely familiar.

Yes. For those who are not, Mike Giardy of NFL Network was doing a hit. Stephen, I did a podcast pretty much exclusively about this hit in the summer. And he said, I was talking to us, some Patriots players and some Patriots coaches. And they, you know, believe that if they, you know, show Jared Gough some stuff that he hasn't seen. And if they are able to, you know, and what he wasn't saying, but what we would later learn what happened is if they were, if they changed the picture after the play clock hit 15 seconds, that Chalvin Finkin talked to him anymore. They basically said if we confuse Jared Gough, we can make him, and I swear to goodness, Mike you already said, it's an NFL network.

We can make him bleep in his pants. Like, he was quoting a guy if he couldn't say the whole thing. And that quote, that standing head interview makes Rams Patriot Super Bowl perhaps the most important game of the 21st century. It's my favorite report of all time. This is more important than like the Watergate scandal, like the Washington Post people that invested. This is the most important piece of journal. Wait. I just want to be honest here.

I thought you were talking about something completely different. Yes. I do remember this Mike G.R.D. report. It was fantastic. I'm glad it meant a lot to you. I'm now realizing that the timing of this would. have made sense. But what I thought you were referring to was the time that Mike Giardy, who by the way, I used to work with, not work with the same organization, but we covered the Patriots at the same time. And he is just like an A plus human being. Mike Giardy, during a hit talking about Rob Runkowski's health, slipped up on the phrase bulging disc.

And that is my favorite Mike Garty on-air moment of all time. But I hear you guys too. That's a good one. Mike Jardy is, I think, mine and Stephen's hero at this point, given the combined power of these two reports. My question is, what was the bleep? Because there's two options, and I need to know, because that's very important to me. It was on the second word of bulging disc. No, not yours.

No, no, I get that one. I'm talking about when he said he's going to bleep his pants. Talking number one or number two is what I'm asking. Our little hybrid coverage. No, this is true reporting. None of it, by the way, all of this is a game that Brian Flores with the Patriots, coach against Jared Gough with the Rams almost five years ago at this point. But still, it's a critical, critical moment.

It does matter. Because, like, do you remember the Rams' Dolphins game when he was the coach of the Dolphins and he just zero blitzed them like all game long? Yes. He turned it over like five times. This is bullying. He's been bullying Jared Gough his entire career, and I think it's going to continue. Yeah, so Jared Gough,

by success rate, the 15th quarterback against the Blitz. By EPP, drop back the 16th ranked quarterback against the Blitz. Jared Gough is like top 10, both these metrics without the blitz. This has been the thing that has hassled him. It's unsurprising that it has. The other thing that I think is really important for Flores against the Lions is not just the blitz aspect, but the drop eight aspect of it. Because when you show those guys at the line of scrimmage and then you drop them back,

your objective is to put the quarterback in a position where he feels like he has to throw hot. He feels like he has to throw his first read, feels like the ball's come out of his hands. And when you drop all that coverage underneath those routes, he has the potential to make mistakes and throw the ball directly to defenders. And when I say throw the ball directly to defenders, the quarterback who should come to your mind is Jared Goff. Like that is, like, that Goff's interceptions tend not to be like, I was trying to, you know, beat the safety. Like, oh, the outside, 50-50 ball, they tend to be like, I blacked out and didn't see a linebacker. And like, that's the thing that Flores is trying to elicit in all quarterbacks.

But he was trying to make all quarterbacks into Goff. And sometimes he runs in a real quarterback's, then he can't. But golf, he can make it a golf, no problem. Brian Flores is the official defensive coordinator of the quarterback rankings. Because he exposes the guppy quarterbacks for who they are. And then he exposes the good quarterbacks. Like when he played Justin Herbert and Justin Herbert just tore him to shreds and tore that strategy to shreds. He's the official DC. It's the, uh, it's Brian Flores and Prime Targets on Prime Vision on Thursday night, which highlights open receivers live on air. And so you're just seeing a quarterback drop back and he's got three green highlighted targets past the

sticks. He's just there like patting the ball. You're like, all right, you are not good. It is the ultimate bad quarterback exposed. The Jalen hurts. I think you're talking about. Shush. Okay, Nora, excellent headline. That took us to wonderful places. I was thinking about doing Lions Vikings as my headline because if the Lions win this game, they will secure the NFC North and subsequently secure the first home playoff game. For the Lions the last over 30 years. The last home playoff game they played was in 92. It was the 19th. 1991, 92 season. And I was like, all right, they're going to lock it down today, this game.

And then I was like, all right, maybe I want, they haven't played Flores yet. They play them twice the next three weeks. And then maybe I wait and see if they do it a little bit later down the stretch. So Steve, what is your Monday morning headline for us today? At first I thought Nora was going to steal my game when she started talking about David Tepper. But I'm going to go with the Panthers Packers and I'm going with Joe Bairied. I think this is the game where it ends. This is the game where Matt LaFloric finally is like, why have you?

I've been doing this for the last three years? Why Joe Barry, of all people? I'm kind of mad because we did our, we revisited our take capsule from earlier in the year, and I had picked the Packers to win the NFC North. And at the time, my one concern was the defensive coordinator and Joe Barry, who has never coordinated like a top 25 defense in his entire career. And he's been at DC, like, for a decade. Very impressive on his behalf. But I think this is the game. If he gets picked apart by Bryce Young and that Panthers offense. And it looks how it's looked for the past two weeks where he's given up,

I think he's giving up conference player of the year two weeks in a row. Tommy DeVito was the first one. Baker Mayfield last week. If he gives this up to Bryce Young and Bryce Young looks comfortable for the first time all season, I think that is the final straw.

And I think on Monday we're getting alerts, Joe Barry replaced, Joe Barry demoted. Whatever it is, I don't think he's calling plays the following week. I like how Stephen was like It's one thing to give up Conference Player of the Week to Tommy DeVito If you give it up to the first overall pick now

Okay if you give it up to Bryce Young Oh I thought you were talking about the Baker Mayfield part Both are equally offensive The Baker Mayfield player of the week It's just as offensive as Tommy defeated If you had to Steve it if you were a defensive coordinator And you had to give up offensive player or conference player of the week

To one of the three quarterbacks Davido Baker or Bryce Who whom would you choose DeVito Nobody notices? because it's Davido, they're doing the Italian thing. They're making jokes. You know that's objectively silly, right?

Nobody notices. Everyone notices. They love this guy for whatever reason. Yeah, but they're focused on him. They're not focused on you. Baker Mayfield and Bryce Young, you let the 5-10 guy do this to you. I don't know what. What are you supposed to do against Justin Herbert and Josh Allen?

Well, if you're Joe Barry, you don't even run into those quarterbacks. Good question to ask if you're the Panthers, by the way. Drafting the guy. Far enough in the postseason to, uh, to actually encounter these quarterbacks. Yeah, the Barry thing is like, it's a little bit of, okay, we thought we were having this conversation in week nine, instead we're having it in week 15. And like, maybe that's destined to like the talent that they drafted and developed.

Like, they've had these young corners out there since they traded Rasul and Jay Alexander and they've been successful with Corey Ballantine and Carrington Valentine, definitely two names that I get right all the time. And right up at the front, they've been really successful. So like they've staved this off. But it's the same Jewel Barry. nonsense that it's always been. It's when they lose, they lose because of cushion and they lose because of soft and generally scared play against quarterbacks who don't warrant it. And that is kind of

the look here for Bryce Young. Actual belief in Bryce Young offense to do anything, though, even against Joe Barry, that feels like a stretch. No, I don't think it is because I think any quarterback can survive against that type of defense. And I think a quarterback like Bryce Young in particular, I think that is not attacking his weakness, which is making him uncomfortable and forcing him in a scramble mode. I think it'll be fine. He'll be able to throw five-yard hitches all game long.

Put it in the newspaper. Stephen believes in the Panthers, Stephen Believes in the Panthers. Steve believes in Bryce Young, keep pounding. Panthers fan, Stephen. Stephen Ruiz, excited for a good offensive performance from the Carolina Panthers. My Monday morning headline, the Sunday night game on Christmas Eve,

which feels like it was supposed to be a banger, is Patriots at Broncos, which I would define as just decisively not a banger. However, my Monday morning headline is Russ and Peyton cannot work together in 2024 because we had the little Bronco score touchdown on second and goal, but then don't have the opportunity to challenge it because they hustle up to the line and they run a play on third in goal. And then that probably also gets in, but they don't challenge that one either. And then they gets a fourth and goal and then they can't run a play and then there's an off sides offensive off sides

offensive procedural penalty and then it was but it was a very bad call it was an actually off sides it was the center's head and Sean Payton is screaming losing his mind of the rest I was at this game by the way Peyton was going nuts it was sick he was so mad he's like he's like past the numbers losing his mind is yeah and then he as the camera's caught he gets to the sideline and he's peated at the refs and he can't yell the refs anymore so he just turns to Russ it just starts laying into him just starts shopping at Russ. And Russ is kind of like, I don't know what I did. And then, you know, there's, okay, they did mirror after the game.

It's not a big deal. I was angry and whatever, talking about the process. But the Payton Russ thing, like, there was this moment of like, the Broncos have won five games in a row. Like, Russ is fixed. And if you were watching this offense, you were like, nope. Like, they're running the ball and throwing screens. And usually on a Russ offense, they're running the ball.

They're throwing, you know, little screens, throw a little underneath passes, and then throwing shots. They're not even getting shots done, really. They're getting DPI's, but they're not actually connecting downfield besides, like, the occasional Cortland Sutton, I'm an absolute hero play. Like, this is, there's supposed to be big plays to Marvin Mims in this offense and Jerry Judy's offense, and they don't exist.

Then, like, they do the little gadget plays, their constraint plays to the tight ends in the backs, and they ask, like, Adam Troutman and Samajie P. Ryan to create explosives for them. It's just like a terrible, terrible world to live in. Russ is bad on play action this year, which was supposed to be the only thing that always helped him, that always saved him. Like, this is not working.

It looks like it's working because of the record. It is not working in terms of what you actually watch on the field. Meanwhile, the Broncos defensive performance, which was like, oh, well, that's really why they're winning a bunch of games.

No, that's also not actually that. Like, there was a ton of turnovers. That also wasn't working. This is the third worst defense by success rate. If you try to take out the Dolphins game or they gave it 70 points, this is still the fourth worst defense by success.

It's still bad. It wasn't just all the Dolphins game. And specifically, they're really bad against the run, right? They're really reliable to giving up explosive plays on the ground and losing to a ground and pound rushing attack. I would not be surprised, okay, if the Bill Belichick Bailey Zaffiratio's win this game. I legitimately think that, like,

Bill's going to look at this version of the Sean Payton offense, this version of Russ, with as good of a run defense that the Patriots have as the best run defense in the league right now and be like, oh, yeah, I'm about to get this guy to 19, 3rd, and 7s. They have no chance. I think like we're going to be at the third quarter. It's going to be six to nothing.

Patriots are winning. And the game's going to stay that way. I think that I think Belichick is about to drop like a classic on Russ and put it to a point where like Payton and Russ get fired up at one another again. And then after the game instead of like, you know, oh, Broncos playoffs, which like a month ago, look like we were on that path. It's going to be like, oh, how do we get out of Russ's contract again? Because offensively, I think they're about to get pretty nastily embarrassed on Christmas

Eve on a primetime game. I see something similar happening. And I'm with you. I think a lot of people thought Russ was playing better. But I think that little streak they had was a testament to Sean Payton's coaching and his offensive approach. But like you said, this offensive approach doesn't work. Sean Payton's ideal offensive approach just doesn't work with Russell Wilson at quarterback. You can't have this type of quarterback and run a Sean Payton offense.

I just don't see it. And like, we've seen what they've had to be this year. And it's worked and it's won some games for them. but like this is not a viable plan and I think this team and this game will be proof that coaching and like scheme there's an expiration date on it

and you have to have the dudes you have to have the quarterback and they don't have that. Nora, Belchak saves his job by beating Russ in Denver on national television on Christmas Eve. I wouldn't go quite that far but I'm interested in how this result

will impact one of Stephen's pet projects which is the Sean Payton coach of the year candidacy. I gave that up last week. Don't you remember? Who did I replace? Sean McVeigh has replaced Sean Payton as coach of the year. Dude.

I think the Belichick thing is done. How many points? How many turnovers Phil Belichick saves his job? Zero points, three turnovers. Saves his job? I've already negotiating here and not work with me. Give me an offer. Any offer?

Zero points for turnovers. there's a meeting of the upper levels of the craft organization during the way. Even that, I don't, I really just think it's done. But maybe that would give them something to think about. What if, what if, what if Russ bleeps his pants? What if my Garty's on? Well, it depends. Which bleep are we talking about?

That's what I was going to ask next. It's a very important question. I just, I just have a vision in my head of this game. And it is like, again, it's like seven to nothing, six to nothing. The Russ is thrown three picks. Like, all right, they still have a chance to win this game. And just a Belcher gets like a fourth quarter safety, right? Like they like sack him at the 13.

Fumble, ball bouncing into the end zone. A running back gets back on it. They tackle the running back. Russ is just like laying on the ground at the 10. Like he's not even in the play. Like terribly sad camera shot. Like he's just like horrible, pathetic day. And then the camera cuts to Bill on the sideline.

expressionless. Just not just walking away from the safety. No one around him, nobody's celebrating. I'll just very quietly to myself, like Cornelius Fudge in the Ministry of Magic, I'll just be like, he's back. Bill, he's, here he's him, he's back, he's in, baby, he's back in his mode, leave him as the coach. But they won't.

I understand that. It'll make me sad. All right. Stephen and Nora, thank you so much for helping me out on Action Point Take today. I really appreciate it. I was going to do the like, oh, tell the listeners where they can find your stuff. But you're on this feed. And so they've got to be able to find it.

If they can't find you, that's right here. Yep. But no, thank you so much for coming on. I appreciate it. You guys have a very happy holiday. Thank you. Likewise. Get better soon, Sheel. All righty. Thank you again. To Stephen and Nora, appreciate them coming on and helping me out. I did want to run through the extra point-taking prediction game challenge. Sheel sent me his picks earlier this week. He assures me that he spent a lot of time thinking about them in a very sober and non-tylonal affected mind. Last week, each of us scored a point. very sad week, if not for the fact that we had a week earlier where neither one of us scored a point. This would have been the worst week of the season. Shield's only win was the 49ers spread against the Cardinals. My only win was Rams at home against the commanders. Since Sheel isn't here, I get to whine about my losses and nobody can stop me.

I had Bears plus three against the Browns, man. They were up 17 to 7 in the fourth quarter. Lost that game by three, pushed. I had Eagles minus three against Drew Locke. They're up four in the fourth quarter. They lost a game-winning Drewlock touchdown. Lose that bet as well. Just the very, the saddest stuff.

Unbelievable, the things that I have to endure. And again, Schill's not here to correct me. On the season now, Schill's at 46 points. I am at 42 points. We will continue this, obviously, into the postseason. We have three weeks of the regular season left. Might change it a little bit in the postseason when we have fewer games. But right now, still a very tight race.

Shield's picks for the week. He is locking the Packers minus four and a half at the Panthers, which I am also on, by the way, we share that one this week. He has Jaguars plus three at Bucks. When he sent me his picks, the Jaguars were plus three at Tampa. At the time, it was expected that Trevor Lawrence wouldn't play with a concussion. We've since learned on Friday. He is practicing.

Head coach, Chuck Peterson says, better than a coin flip chance that he plays. So Sheal might have some great closing line value there on Jaguars plus three at the bucks. And then he likes bills minus 12 and a half at the Chargers. Chargers, obviously, would a interim coach. Shield's not buying the bump there. His prop of the week. is Jalen Warren over 44 and a half rushing yards. This is a Steelers Bengals.

It's the 4 o'clock game on Saturday. Mason Rudolph, the new starting quarterback for the Steelers. I actually have a same game parlay on the Fandle for this game. We have a ringer same game parley on Fandals up at the top in the parley's tab. You can scroll through and find the picture. So I encourage everybody on hop on that one with me. Make some money to start the holiday season. So Jalen Warren over 44 and a half rushing for Sheal.

And his long shot is Taylor Heineke to have at least 225 passing yards Falcons against the Colts, Falcons have benched as been ridder for the second time of the season, and they're starting Taylor Hineke for the second time this season, and Sheel thinks he's going to have a good day, 225 plus passing yards for his long shot. That's Sheal. Me, my pick's on the week to go through them quickly. I'm locking Brown's minus two and a half on the road against the Texans. Texans expected to not have CJ Stroud, who's still in the concussion protocol for this game.

I love the Brown's defense ability to really hassle Case Keenham, with whom I was not impressed in his performance against the Titans. So Brown's minus two and a half. I'm on the Packers, like I said, minus four and a half at the Panthers. Good, get right spot, mouthwash spot, beat up on the bad Panthers team. I know we talked about this earlier with Stephen and the potential for a Joe burying to happen, but I like the Packers here as the more talented team. And then Patriots, my headline, plus six and a half.

I think this is such a low scoring game. I think it's such a stinky game. And if you're going to give me a game where there's going to be 24, 27 total point score, that's what I'm thinking, then inherently plus six and a half. I'm going to like it a lot as the underdog there. So Patriots plus six and a half. That is the Sunday night game. Christmas Eve, 8 o'clock at the Broncos.

My prop of the week, A.J. Brown, over 75 and a half, receiving yards. He is the Eagles target against man coverage. The Giants are a very healthy man coverage team. They're on quite a lot of man. And A.J. is the one thing right now by this offense that's working. All the A.J. funnel targets are warranted, right? I think they're going to continue to hammer him, get him easier targets, get him yards after the catch. Let AJ kind of solve the offensive problems for them.

So I like AJ over 75 and a half. And then my long shot of the week, the Bears. minus four and a half at home right now against the Cardinals. I'm jacking that lineup to minus seven and a half plus 154 at home against the Cardinals. Bears been playing like a playoff team the last month. I love their matchup into a Cardinals team that I think is banged up on defense, won't be able to slow down fields in that rushing attack. Defensively, I think the Bears have proven that they're made a pretty staunch stuff since the Montess Sweat trade.

I like them with a big winning against the Cardinals, minus seven and a half for my long shot. So me, Brown's minus two and a half, Packers minus four and a half, Patriots plus six and a half. Bears minus seven and a half on the long shot. and AJ over 75 and a half receiving yards. Those are my picks. Those were Shields picks. I have my ringer same game parley,

which will be available for you in the Fandul app, already produced and ready to go. We were ready to start the holiday season right with a nice win. And so if you are betting on Fandall, check out the same game parley tabs at the top, and you'll be able to find the ringer same game parley from me for Bengals at Steelers. And that's our episodes. Thank you so much to everyone who listens. A very Merry Christmas to all of our expats out there,

of our extra point-taking listeners. We so very much appreciate it. We hope you have a great holiday season. A Merry Christmas to Clifford Augustine for producing this episode. A Merry Christmas to Edward Ocampo for his social video help on this episode. A very Merry Christmas, George, you know, Ram Gopal and Connor and Evans for their additional production supervision.

You will hear next on this feed, a dual threat. Nora and Stephen, you heard him today. You will hear them again. Monday morning, Christmas morning, a little gift under the tree for you. Their podcast after all the Sunday games. And then Sheel and I will be back on Tuesday morning. our podcast after all the Monday games. We will talk to you then. Have a very happy holiday.

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