The Ringer NFL Show - Ravens-Cowboys Reactions, Dez Bryant Tests Positive for COVID-19, and Kevin Stefanski’s Success With the Browns

Episode Date: December 9, 2020

We discuss the Ravens' Tuesday night win against the Cowboys as well as the logistics behind Dez Bryant warming up on the field ahead of his positive COVID test. Later, we talk about Carson Wentz getting benched for Jalen Hurts (36:00), how the Steelers may finish the season (24:00), the success of the Browns (12:00), and more. Hosts: Warren Sharp and Chris Vernon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's Ringer NFL show, we talk about reactions to the Cowboys Ravens game, the Pittsburgh Steelers, Jalen Hertz starting in Philadelphia, and Baker Mayfield and Kevin Stefansky on the Browns coming up next. Welcome to the Ringer NFL show. I'm Chris Vernon and join him as he does weekly. It is Warren Sharp. What's up, Warren? What is up, Chris? Well, last night, the Cowboys played against the Baltimore Ravens. The Baltimore Ravens were able to get back on track as a fan of,

of a losing team, Warren. I will tell you, I view these games through a different prism. And so I can feel like I've got a pretty decent gauge on who the good teams are based upon how badly they beat the Cowboys. I got to tell you, I walked away from that game, not overly impressed with the Ravens or thinking that they got all right. I mean, they lined it up and they were able to run it down the Cowboys throat. Lamar had some nice plays.

Obviously, the great throw to Hollywood Brown in the back of the end zone. But I didn't come away, blown away by what the Ravens brought to the table. In fact, it made me more intrigued about their game coming up with the Browns this upcoming week. I don't know. What do you think? Did you walk away thinking, okay, the Ravens who had struggled recently are going to be okay? Or did you just think they were playing a rat team that they were able to run all over? A rat team.

I felt a combination of both. I mean, it was a little bit of a rat team, I guess. But I think more than anything, you know, you're getting Lamar back after COVID. And COVID affects a lot of different people differently. And you're getting, you're still missing several of their players. You have a wide receiver who they were probably planning to factor in in that game, surprisingly, as it may sound. But Des Bryant. And Des all of a sudden gets announced out, and I know you're going to talk about that momentarily.

But I think the Ravens are still trying to figure out what their identity is going to be after losing. I mean, we're talking about a number of pieces along the offensive line due to injury. We're talking about a key run blocking tight end. We're talking about Mark Andrews, who's one of their key receivers at tight end. Like, there is a lot of different pieces that this team was trying to reintegrate back. in there and also keep in mind they're playing on a little bit of a short rest. So I think that this team does absolutely, let's not make any excuses for them, have a long way to go if they're going to try to get back into the proper form that's going to defeat some playoff contenders here.

But I think I would be, as a coach, you're always going to be critical, right? We need improvement here, here, here, here. But I'd also walk away feeling a little bit of a sense of relief if I am then, okay we got this one out of the way uh let's move on to the next we've got we got a little bit of extra rest thankfully uh it's it's not it's still a short week but at least we're not playing um on sunday we got a monday night tilt with the cleveland browns now if you want to look at that uh cleveland browns game this is a team obviously baltimore has had success with in the past but i'm pulling up here what the spread was on this game before the season started um and the Cleveland Browns were supposed to be three and a half point home underdogs to the Baltimore

Ravens before the season started. And right now that line has adjusted all the way down so that Baltimore is only laying one point. That's a massive move from the beginning of the season. So I think the odds makers have adjusted appropriately to believe that, hey, this Cleveland Browns team might be a little bit better, but especially as Baltimore Ravens team doesn't look like the juggernaut everybody expected they would be at the beginning of the season. It was more, and honestly, to be fair, because the Cowboys' defense is so abysmal. It was more the Ravens' defense, which it took a long time for them ever to get to Andy Dalton.

They kept getting, the Cowboys were driving down the field every possession and then missing a Greg Zerline field goal, which I don't know what the hell happened to this guy. Greg the leg is no longer Greg the leg. He's now, I think, one of six from 50 plus yards. Now, you can argue with why are we still kicking 50 plus yard field goals? That's an argument for another day. Down 14 in the second half. He doesn't make those anymore.

And he used to be an automatic guy. But I just felt like the guy was moving the ball down the field over and over again. And then they would get, you know, then they would get a first and 10. They'd throw the ball, being in completion, second and 10. They run it for three yards, third and seven. and now it's Andy Dalton, and he's got to try to find somebody. They throw it two yards, and then they expect the guy to get five yards. But I just thought, like, if you got any kind of an offense, like, you could really move the ball in this Ravens defense for sure, because the Cowboys don't.

And they were able to move the ball down the field before stalling out. And I don't look at it. I don't know. Maybe it's just because I'm my team and I'm so negative about it. Like I didn't look at that and go, wow, the Ravens really, you know, nut up on defense when it matters most. I thought, this is stupid. Like, what are we doing here? Right.

Like, this team is not, this team is not stopping anybody. Not to mention an egregious non-call in the game in the first half where C.D. Lambs just, I mean, I'm about to roast their guy. And the referee is standing right in front of it. I suppose he's got money on the game. And he decides I'm not going to call this. You know, I don't know. I walked away from that game, and I know the score was bad,

but I was like, the Ravens aren't that good. I didn't walk away. There are some teams where I've walked away mega impressed with the opponent. I did not walk away mega impressed by them. A part of that was defense. Now, one of the things you mentioned I was going to say was, as a lifelong cowboy fan, I desperately wanted to see Des Bryant last night.

You know, I spent every Sunday for many years of my life. rooting for this guy. There are sometimes when players are on your team, especially for a long time, that no matter where they end up or what happens, you're always going to root for those guys. I felt this way when it came to DeMarcus Ware. I was so happy when he won the Super Bowl with the Denver Broncos. And I felt that way with Des Bryant. I will also tell you, I met him. He was staying at the same hotel as me for the NBA All-Star game last year. And I went up to him just as a stranger to go talk to him. He was the absolute nicest guy. I think people would think, like, maybe somebody like that would be an arrogant guy. He couldn't have been kinder about everything.

And so I just, I don't know, I'll always root for that guy and then seeing him out on the field before the game and he's warming up. And even though he was going to be the opponent, I was just excited to see him back in that stadium playing in the NFL, not giving up. And then just the strangest scenario ever, which is an incoclusive test. They test them right before the game and they pull them out of the game. I felt really like robbed of what was going to be a moment this season. That was that was awful, but it's, you know, I guess pure 2020, right? Yeah, it was pure 2020.

It would have been a great story. It would have been fun to watch. And I know it was disappointing to him. But I don't know what. it obviously wouldn't have made a difference in the game. It just would have been something interesting to watch. So from that perspective, yeah, it was, it was obviously disappointing. More than anything, though, I thought the whole logistics of the thing were kind of curious, you know, like with the negative test and they pull them out and really, do you have enough time? If the guy's already in warmups on

the football field, do you really have time to do all the contact tracing properly to figure out what was going on there? The good thing was he was warming up with his like face covered and whatnot. So I, I, he wasn't doing anything, any harm out on the football field from that perspective, if that's the stipulations that the league requires, you know, how many people are you in contact with without mask on? Did you see the tweet from that Ravens guy, a guy that works for the Ravens? And he had posted this tweet of Des hugging all his former teammates and here's the reunion or whatever.

And the guy deleted the tweet. Did he have his mask on, though? Like, I don't know what the, I think the least. league contact tracing for for whatever reason right or wrong. I don't know enough about the specifics, but I think their regulations are how close are you to other people when you don't have your mask on? That's that's so I mean, I don't know. Could he have spread it with with his mask on if he's hugging people? Like you would think maybe, but I don't I don't really know. So, but at any rate, I'm glad the whole game wasn't like canceled unless there really was.

a legitimate safety issue here. But hopefully that's, hopefully that's not the case. But it was just interesting to me to see them do the contact tracing that quickly and determine that everybody else is good to go and we could play. In fairness, it will be a lot better gauge of where the Ravens are when they play against the Browns this upcoming week.

And that's fascinating what you say about what that, I mean, that speak to how good the Browns have been and the job that Stefansky has done. when you look at what that line was projected to be before this season started and what that line is now. I think I have a Kevin Sopansky coach of the year 33 to one ticket in before the start of the season. I don't know if he's going to win it. Yes, I really do. I don't know if he's going to win it, but he was a guy.

What do you don't know if he's going to win it? They've been a losing team for 30 years. That is my logical argument, right? you've also have other issues that play here with a lot of other teams, and we should get into this down the road. It helps that. Like, I think we should spend maybe next week, show or the week after that or sometime before the end of the season hitting this is one of the topics so I can research a little bit more. But the fact that Mike Tomlin lost to Washington kind of doesn't take, like if he went undefeated, I think coach of the year would be in play for him during a pandemic if a coach goes undefeated. Like that's that guy de facto coach of the year.

But there's a number of other guys that are still in contention. But one of my primary reasons for doing it was, A, I spent a lot of time analyzing the schedule. I thought they would be in good shape for doing it. B, I understood the changes that Kevin Sopansky was likely to make. And I thought that those would work, especially for Baker Mayfield. I predicted that the meshing would occur and his style and his strategies would work really well with what Baker needed. And last but not least, your exact comment where this is an 0-16 team a couple of years ago. this is a terrible team and all of a sudden now they make the playoffs potentially and I did bet them to make the playoffs before the start of the season also by the way that I felt I felt like those were really good feathers in his cap to make great arguments that he could win the coach of the year so that's why I took him at such long odds.

Okay, let's go ahead and get to our Cleveland discussion. We're going to do it a little bit later in the pod. But let me make a disclaimer right off the bat. Okay, so I am friends with Ed Stepansky, who is the father of Kevin Stepansky. Ed has been a senior executive in the NBA for many, many years. He is now the president of the Detroit Pistons. But I got to know him very well over his years in Memphis. and Ed and I when he's one of those guys that every time he talks to you he's like how's the family has your son doing whatever else and so obviously you reciprocate that right and it's probably I don't know four years ago and he's like yeah my son got a job with the Minnesota Vikings and he's there he's coached I'm like wow Ed I was like your son's coaching the NFL you must be so proud you know and at that point he was like the quarterback's coach or whatever then Zimmer goes through all that stuff he moves to offensive coordinator

they say his name, and I'm like, Ed, this is unbelievable. I was like, your kid. Like, you know what I mean? Like, it's just like two guys talking about their kids. I'm like, your kid's going to be the offensive coordinator for an NFL team. He's like, yeah, can you believe it, whatever? Then, I mean, you want to talk about a fast ascension. And then this offseason, he ends up getting the head coaching job in Cleveland.

And so I root like hell for him because his father is one of my favorite people in sports. And he is the proudest of all fathers. And his kid has obviously done this amazing job. And so I have sneaky rooted for him on a personal level all this year and for Cleveland to be very good. So I want to get that out of the way. That being said, look, man, they were beating the absolute piss out of the Titans in the first half of that game.

And I know that score became close at the end. to Warren, but there's many football coaches that you can talk to that will tell you, once you get up by a thousand on a team and, you know, because they came out and they kicked a field goal at the beginning of the second half, I mean, and they're up by a million points now. Once you turn it off, it is hard to turn it back on. And so what stands out to me is they were good enough and amped up enough to come out and pop Tennessee in the mouth, prove their worth. Baker was awesome, and I was crazy impressed with that Browns performance over the weekend. I don't give it damn what the final score was.

And I know that the Titans came on late and made that a game. It should have never been. But I walked away thinking the Browns are absolutely for real. They were getting a lot of the, yeah, they've beaten a bunch of crappy team stuff, but that Titans team is not crappy at all. And they bottled Derek Henry up and just beat them to death in the first half of that game. And I don't know, man. I walked away super impressed by that.

What about you? A, I'm happy for your buddy. Obviously, Stefansky's done a great job. Yes, he certainly has ascended fast. And it's well deserving. And like I said, I knew before the start of the season that his style was going to mesh really well with Baker. So I'm happy that Baker has a shot with a good coach to show what he's capable of doing.

and I'm happy for Stefansky to execute like we expected that he would. Cleveland did an absolutely brilliant job of game planning here. This was, we talked about this prior to that game. This was the play action bowl. This was the play action bowl because both these teams led the NFL in utilizing play action. We pegged this game to a T. We thought the game would be high scoring. it was. We thought Cleveland would do really well offensively here. They did. The thing that I want to

talk about, though, as impressive as Cleveland was, and yes, I 100% agree. I don't give a crap what the Tennessee Titans do in the fourth quarter to come back in a game and make it look respectable. They did the same thing against Pittsburgh. That's great, you know, but the problem is when the other team is in, if you're talking postseason, it's going to be very unlikely that that team like Cleveland or like Pittsburgh on the other side is going to turn it off as early as they did going up massively. They're going to continue to stomp on your face and you have to change your game plan and your tactics far earlier than what Tennessee is doing. But I want to talk about what Tennessee is approaching these games with and why I'm just massively concerned for their ability to actually produce here. And I talked about

them being one of the most overrated teams like a couple of weeks ago, four weeks ago, a month ago. and I don't know that they're necessarily massively overrated at this point because I think the expectations have dropped a little bit. But look at what this team is doing. Their first quarter, first down run rate is absolutely absurd and continues to drop them in these holes that make it difficult for them to dig their way out of. They had three plays on first down in the first quarter. all three of those plays were handoffs to Derek Henry. Those plays gained 2.7 yards per carry. There was also a fumble.

They end up falling into a 17 to nothing hole very quickly in the game. And all of a sudden, your strategy of coming out and establishing the ground game and Derek Henry is out the window. They had seven plays in the first quarter. Five of them were runs that gained two yards per carry. Two of them were passes that gained nine yards per attempt. Then they had to completely flip it up in the second quarter and go majorly pass heavy, especially on first down, to try to dig their way back in the game. Guess what passes did? 10.8 yards per attempt. Why? Because you have a big edge passing the football.

Ryan Tannenhill is not a bad quarterback. Your receivers are all very good. The Browns are playing without multiple corners, multiple safeties. This is a weak linebacking court to begin with. Literally, the strength of the Cleveland Browns is their defense of line, their ability to pass the pass rush to quarterback, and you are choosing to attack that strength and not attack the weakness. And it's like ground hug day all over again. The rare times that it will work, it looks spectacular. Oh my God, you know, we completely stomped the Colts a couple weeks ago. Derek Henry went off in the first half. So, you know, we should just continue to do this. It reminds me, we got to keep doing this in the next game, in the next game, in the next game. But the fact of the matter is, over the course of the entire season, on early downs, since they're week three by, when they run the football in the first quarter, they're gaining just 4.1 yards per carry with a 44% success rate.

Both of those are well below average, yet they're the second most run heavy team on these early downs. And you can extend it all the way to the first half. They're the second most run heavy team on early downs in the first half, not just the first quarter. So Tennessee has a good running back. Tennessee has a strong run game. That does not mean that every single week you run the damn ball. Look at what these opposing defenses are thinking about. I mean, think about it from their perspective, right?

What do you think Kevin Sifansky is instructing his defensive coaching staff with? We cannot let Derek Henry beat us. What do you think the defensive coaching staff is telling their players? We got to fucking stop Derek Henry. We're going to figure out a way to stop Derek Henry. We're going to work on our run fits. These are the types of runs they like to do. We're going to make sure that we are prepared for these concepts.

We cannot let Derek Henry beat us in this game. Every single team is entering that game in the first quarter on early downs thinking, we're going to fucking stop Derek Henry. So why, on God's Green Earth, are you running the ball right into the teeth and doing it every single week of the season? You have to adapt. Well, and juxtapose that versus the other team, which is a hell of a running team, Warren. Right?

Yes. Hell of a running team. And you look at what they did. They didn't just sit there and hand the ball to Nick Chubb and Karim Hunt every down. Baker Mayfield went off in this game. Right? He did.

He absolutely did. Right. I mean, it just tells it's the story. It is, it's almost like a mirror image that that is a team that has been a play you close, control the clock, run-based team. But now they got into a game where they thought, all right, we're not just going to be able to hand this ball off to Nick Chubb and establish the run. I mean, that could have been a war of establishing the run, but instead, one of these teams decided

to start airing it out early and look at the success they have. Absolutely. And if you look at the Cleveland Browns here, they were very aggressive with their passing attack to attack the weakness of the Tennessee Titans. And do you know what the Cleveland Browns were doing on second down? They only needed, on average, in that first half of the game, 5.9 yards to go on second down. And they were bypassing third downs quite frequently, whereas the Tennessee Titans needed 7.3 yards to go on second down because they were very inefficient. They needed 5.7 yards to go on third down, whereas the Cleveland Browns had much shorter distance to go. The Brown's bottom line were just much more efficient. They understood what to do. And these two teams, you're exactly right.

They were like a mirror image. They have two quarterbacks that both coaches think are going to be better if there's a solid run game. It's better to sort of, quote, unquote, establish that run game early. And these guys are like the walking Spider-Man meme. My colleague, Rich Rebar was talking about these offenses were like the Spider-Man meme. They both want to run the ball. They have really good running attacks. Quarterbacks they like, but they don't love and wide receiving options that are good,

but aren't like all-world caliber, although A.J. Brown obviously is all-world caliber. And yet one of these coaching staffs decided we're going to get super aggressive. And one of the coaching staff said, we're going to be conservative here to start this game. And we see how that went. So in a game like this, you absolutely have to let it all hang out. And the Cleveland Browns did that. And I think Tennessee, the trap that they are going to fall into here, Chris, is that they play in a very easy schedule of run defenses the rest of the way.

So they're going to get a lot of success on some of these runs over the last four weeks of the season. you are then going to run into the playoffs, if they're capable of making it, we'll see. And you're going to run into a lot better run defenses at times. And you need to be ready and able to crank up that passing attack on early downs, on first down, in the first quarter of games, as opposed to falling behind and waiting to do that when you're trailing in the second half. I know you think Spansky's done a good job. Obviously, this was a great game playing against Tennessee, and Tennessee made their own error.

I'll just ask you flat out. Are you a Brown's believer? I believe their defense stinks, and I believe their offense is acceptable. I believe that they've played a schedule that benefits them, and I believe that they've got a great offensive coaching staff. So I don't know how you wrap all that up. I think this playoff –

Could they win a playoff game? They absolutely could, yes. I think this playoff slate is going to be the most – fascinating because more than any other year, and I cannot wait to record these shows during the postseason, and here is why. You won't have home field advantage this postseason, unlike most years, which is a major factor in the way that some of these games go. You're going to have a lot of underdogs that are going to be capable of upsetting the favorites. These playoffs is going to be completely, completely wide open. And I think more than any other year, it's going to be very

matchup driven, very matchup based. This coaching staff could defeat that coaching staff if they dial up the best game plan and execute it. So I think it's going to be a lot more this postseason on the coaches. I think it's not going to necessarily be, oh, well, this team is the best team with the best players. And so they're going to know, I think this year is going to be very different. I think it's going to be on the game plans and the coaching staffs and how they dial things up to defeat their opponent. I think it's going to be very much a week-to-week thing.

I would not be surprised if we saw a number of upsets along the way. If it weren't for the Steelers, and maybe even, like you look the rest of the way, certainly with the Steelers not looking great this past weekend,

I guess Cleveland still has a very long-shot chance of being a division winner and hosting a playoff game, but it looks, Pittsburgh's still in total pole position. Even though they do have a huge game coming up this weekend against the bills.

They got beat by the Washington football team this past week. And the Steelers have been an odd team for me this year because there's some weeks you watch them and they look devastating. And there's some weeks you watch them and you're like, what the hell is wrong with them? Are they not bringing their A game against somebody like the Cowboys and the football team and whoever else? and they are when they need to make a statement, or is this just a team that I don't, what do I make of them? Like there's weeks I watch them more in,

and I'm like, yeah, no wonder they're 11 and no, they're freaking awesome. I mean, they can play one week and Chase Claypool never gets a catch. Next week, you guys got like eight catches for 140 yards or something. Like they got weapons around that they've got,

obviously they've lost guys off their, defense that it's it's hurt a great deal right with devon bush being out for a time uh they just lost a bud um oh depre they just lost bud depre so i mean i know they've had their their their issues too um but i don't it's the weirdest 11-on-one team ever because typically if a team's 11 and 1 i'm just convinced you're awesome i'm not convinced i know that's going to make steelers fans mad but I don't know. Are they awesome? They're very good. They're not awesome. They're very good.

They have been the beneficiary of playing the second easiest schedule in the NFL by my metrics. They've been the beneficiary of facing a lot of quarterbacks that are below average. If you look at the last six weeks as to who this team has played, I'm going to rattle off the QBs. You ready? Yep. In reverse order, I believe. most recent first. Alex Smith, Robert Griffin III,

Jake Luton, Garrett Gilbert, Joe Burrow, and the Mar Jackson. I mean, we're not talking about a murderer's row of opposing QBs, of opposing passing offenses here. So this defense, we're going to see what they're capable of doing because let's look at the depth chart

when we're talking about linebackers. First, down goes Devin, Bush, then down goes Bud Dupree. Now you're losing Robert Splane. Now, a lot of people won't know who the hell Robert Spillane is. Robert Splane, if you've been watching the Steelers, has been making plays for them for several weeks, especially since Devin Bush went down. Robert Splane, if anybody remembers, I tweeted this out, this massive collision at the goal line where he stuffed Derek Henry on a key run play down at the goal line. That was Robert Splane. Robert Splane has been there been around the ball. I think he's got an interception. He's been great in like run cover,

run defense. So they're going to be missing him. They got a couple of other injuries there. So now on the offensive side of the football, you've got this extremely pass heavy offense. But the issue with being this past heavy is that they really are using this as a critical extension of the run. I mean, their running back has been out James Connor. So they've really gotten away from the run. This team was not this run heavy, sorry, not this pass heavy the first couple weeks of the season. They've become a lot more pass heavy. But so many of these passes are really short. And so Washington at a really good defensive game plan for how to deal with that, you know, getting rid of these passes behind the line of scrimmage is just rallying up and removing those

from being beneficial at all from the game. And the Steelers are going to have to pass the football down the field a little bit more. They're capable of doing that. If you look at the wide receivers that they've got. They've gotten very comfortable with just getting the ball out of Ben's hands super quickly, right? He's got the quickest release time in the NFL, time to throw the football, at least once he gets the ball snapped to him. So they're there, and all the media is talking about it. And so they're loving the fact that they're getting the ball out of Ben's hands that quickly, which is good, but you also have to balance up enough smartly timed deep shots. And I thought the first deep shot at the game, like I just don't love Randy Fitchner, the OC. They call, Ben doesn't

practice all week. It's a short week. Ben doesn't practice at all because of a knee and also just to rest them. I think the Steelers, smartly by Mike Tomlin, probably are going to be resting guys a little bit down the stretch. This was a team that did not have a buy at all. They also are playing three of their last four games, I believe, with short rest. So this is a team that's that's, that's dealing with some rest issues and never had a buy. I would be resting guys from practice, too if I was them. But you have this quarterback who hasn't practiced at all this week and the first play of the game. And they've been terrible with their deep shots too. And the first play of the game, you have Ben take, I think it was a three or five step drop from shotgun. And so he's pretty far back

to get enough time. And he throws a deep ball down the right side of the field and the ball is overthrown. It's out of bounds. And now a sudden you're in second and long against a team that likes to pass rush in the Washington football team. So I thought that probably was just stupid. I think they need to figure out a better strategy. I think that they've got enough talent. Their O line, I think is getting the starting center back. And they've got enough talent at receiver that they can be a good offense here. Ben can perform while they've been dropping a shitload of balls too. And this is a team that can play better than they are offensively. They just haven't put it out there, but I'm not convinced that their coaching staff is going to

optimally call plays down the stretching into the postseason for them to pull out some wins. But I think that they can be a dangerous team depending on how their defense returns to health maybe. I don't know how many of these guys are actually going to be out for an extended time. I watch them, and I think they're trying to not get him hit. End of story. They lived that life with Mason Rudolph last year. That's why they're getting the ball out early.

He can't move. Warren. He's a statue. He's not avoiding anything. And he's not even right now. When you watch him, he's not to the point where he just shakes guys off even. So that's why I think they're getting rid of the ball so fast all the time. And it's just, they're trying to not get him in. And I was convinced in that cowboy game that he was hurt. He was hurt. You mean entry the game or when he took that shot to the knee. He got hit in the knee. And it reminded me of, and I've seen this happen a lot in the NBA, like it would not shock me at all. We get to the end of the season and they end up telling you that Ben Rathesberger played the last 10 weeks on a torn meniscus.

I'm not kidding. It could, you know, you very well could be right. I think I would be expecting, my opinion only, but if I'm the coach, I'm doing some load management with this guy the rest of the season. I'm, because he's the only hope that they've got, right, of being a good

officer. I'm doing load management. I'm picking my spots. Well, and, and here's the thing. And I know that,

you know, the Steelers, oddly, people don't respect them. It doesn't seem like, like most teams that are 11 and 1

get respected. But look no further than Las Vegas. I mean, this is an 111 team. You just mentioned that Bill's game. The bills are

two and a half point favorite in that game. I mean, you know what I mean? We're talking about a being a playoff game. I mean, that's a playoff caliber opponent. And the Steelers aren't favored in that game. So you're right. In this game, that was really interesting. The Pittsburgh Steelers actually opened in the look-ahead number as a two and a half point favorite over the Buffalo bills. What ends up happening is that's the look ahead. So it's before last week's game. That was assuming Pittsburgh as like a seven and a half point favorite over Washington would win that game. And that's assuming that Buffalo, who was at the time like a pickum or even potentially a one point dog, depending on the book that you were at, was going to maybe lose the game to the 49ers.

Buffalo goes in convincingly defeats the 49ers. Pittsburgh goes in, loses outright to Washington. All of a sudden, you no longer have a team going for an undefeated record. and the line reopens at, I think it was a pickum in this game, Buffalo. Once the Sunday games ended, or the Monday games ended, the line reopens for the Buffalo Pittsburgh game at a pickum. And it's been bet towards Buffalo strongly. As you mentioned at the time of our recording here, Buffalo is favored by two and a half points.

So that's a very strong line move, right, from the look-ahead number to what it is currently. Today's ringer NFL show is brought to you by at Fandual Sportsbook. Add a little excitement to your sports watching experience by betting on all the action at Fanduals Sportsbook this football season. There's a reason why Fandual is America's number one sports book. Their app is simple to use. They've got great odds on all different betting markets, unique, fun bet types like same game parlays, and exclusive always on promotions to let you get more out of the action of every game. And if you win, they even get you your winning safely in as little as 24 hours. Right now, Fanduel is letting you place your first bet risk-free for up to $1,000. Just place a bet on any game, and Fanduil will refund up to $1,000 back if you don't win your first bet. Seriously, there's no strings attached. Just place any bet you want.

If you win, keep the cash. If you lose, get your entire bet, up to $1,000 back in sight credit. So I was looking at the lines for this weekend, and I like the bills. I think I'm going to lay that two and a half. I was mega impressed with them against the 49ers. And now they've got a game against the Steelers. The Steelers did not look very good against Washington. Ben looks a little hobble to me.

So I'm going to roll with what is a huge night game for Buffalo. I'm going to take Buffalo minus two and a half. And I'm taking the over because I think they can score a ton of points, especially with the Steelers' injuries. And the Steelers are going to score their share points too. So I'm going Buffalo and the over this weekend. If you've never tried FandualSportsbook, what are you waiting for? Download the Fandual Sportsbook app and get started and make sure you use the promo code

sharp so they know we sent you. That's Fandualsportsbook, promo code sharp. Disclaimer, 21 plus, and present in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois, West Virginia, Indiana, Colorado, Iowa, and Tennessee. First online real money wager only. Site credit is non-waddrawable and expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See sportsbook.

Fanduel.com for details. Gambling problem. Call 1-800-522-4700 in Colorado. 1-800 bets off in Iowa, 1-800-9 with it in Indiana, 1-800-Gambler in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Illinois, or the Tennessee Red Line in Tennessee, 1-8009-97-89, or you can visit

1-800-gambler.net in West Virginia. All right, let's move on to one of the big stories of the week that we have not talked about yet, which is Carson Wentz getting benched. Jalen Hertz is going to be the starter in Philly. Warren, you have been a Wentz truther. Are you done with him too, like the Philadelphia Eagles, who are obviously in a terrible spot because his extension doesn't even kick in until next year. So where do you stand on this move and kind of what it means for the Eagles going forward? It is interesting. I have been a believer, a defender of Carson Wentz. Something's just not clicking. I can't put my finger on it, truthfully, Chris. I cannot understand why he is not getting rid of the ball at times. And if the guys are covered, like, I can't remember the last time that Wentz just threw the ball away without taking an intentional grounding flag, just got rid of the football. It seems like he's holding on to the ball, taking sacks. switcher drive killers, not getting the ball away if the guys are covered, not, you know,

getting the ball delivered on time and accurately if the guys are actually open. So I can't really put my finger on it. And I think the coaching staff was just to the point where it's like, we could go four or five more weeks of this. But what's that say to the rest of the team? You know, you coach a football team to say we're going to put the best players in position to win these games. We're going to coach all the guys up equally. We're going to have our next man ready. And we've got expectations in terms of performance. And so I think it was the right move to stick at that point in time. Hurt's in there. And I think you wanted to see what he was going to do the first couple drives to see whether or not he was capable of handling it. And he certainly proved

that he was. And so I totally understood the reason why you would leave him in the game. And I totally understood or I totally understand why you would name him the starter for this week's game and design the game plan around him and his skill sets. I talked about this a couple weeks ago and I said this is going to come to a head with the whole Doug Peterson and is he going to make it through the season? Is he going to? And I told you that this always comes out with Jeffrey Lurie, not going to that Brown's game, that this is what happens in organizations, that when shit goes wrong, it becomes a blame game.

And the GM is saying, we got enough players to win these games or we're not win these games. The coach says, I ain't got the players to win these games. And so whoever's got the owner's ear. And now it feels like they'll both kind of be in unison with this. I feel like this is Peterson's chance to keep his job, his only chance to keep his job. Because now, guess what? The blame game moves, and it might be rightfully so, the blame game moves to the quarterback. So now if they go out and they can win some games, yeah, they can argue about they should have done it sooner, but they can all say, yep, it was whence.

See, Howie Roseby could say, see, I told you we had enough players to win these games. And Doug Peterson could say, look, I had to play the guy that you paid $125 million, right? Like, it's not me. I'm not a shitty coach, right? Like, I mean, you just, this is the situation I was in. And then they all get to go into Jeffrey Lurie and they get to say, look. See? We told you.

It was Carson's fault. Yeah, but the other side, the other side of the coin is, what if they play Hertz and Hertz doesn't look great? Are you suggesting that? Oh, then they're all dead. No, then they're all dead. So, they're all dead. Because, no, this is, that's what I'm saying.

This is the last gas because, yes, this is your, you better win because this is your chance. Because, right? Like, yeah, we'll be able to figure out the whole, yeah, we gave Carson Wentz over $120 billion thing. Like, we're going to have to figure that part out. But for Doug Peterson, he could say, look, this ain't on me, right? This is the, I have to play the guy that you guys paid $120 million. But look how good I am.

I can put Jalen Ertz in and win football game. So it's obviously not my coaching. That's the problem. We coach this guy the right way. He just stinks. And it's your fault. He paid him $125 million. I don't know.

It leads to a fascinating, you know what I mean? Like these hurts performances matter greatly towards these guys' jobs. Yeah, I do think it's going to be fascinating to see. I mean, the Saints, look, the Saints have a great defense. The Saints absolutely make QBs look silly. Whether it's a young guy who's not even really a quarterback making his first NFL start for the Denver Broncos, or it's a guy like Matt Ryan, right, like who absolutely looked silly, or it's a guy like Tom Brady. So you can move from the spectrum of like, this guy was a quarterback in college but never

thrown a pass in the NFL and was on a practice squad as a wide receiver to the goat. And both those guys look equally terrible against the Saints defense. So now we're talking about Hertz coming in. And I'll just want to say that there's a big difference with a guy. like Hertz coming in the game with, what was it, seven minutes left in the third quarter, down 20 to 3, and performing relatively well. He did, I mean, keep in the end, he was sad. Right.

Well, that's what I'm saying. I think people are going to remember his performance and be like, oh, my God, Jalen Hertz was great. But if you look at his statistics, they weren't necessarily great. he was sacked a number of times. His completion rate was very poor. He had a great pass on fourth and what was it, 17 for a touchdown, a fourth and 18 for a touchdown to Greg Ward, 32-yard deep shot when they were down 23 to 3 in the fourth quarter.

He was connecting on some passes that I don't think Carson Wentz would have been connecting on. So I'm not going to suggest that he was bad and it was a bad idea. to put him in there. I'm just saying that people who think that all of a sudden this guy is going to look outstanding in this offense. Let's pump the brakes a little bit. He's not a good pass. It's going to take a little bit of time. We've got to figure out what he's capable of doing. And it takes some coaching staffs several weeks to figure out what this guy's actual strengths are in the game. Because guys in practice can look one way. In the game, look a different way. What is he going to what is he going to excel most successfully at in the game?

And then how can we build on that? And unfortunately, you're going up against the Saints this week, one of the best defenses in the NFL. There's going to be a lot of growing pains here. Accuracy is so important in the NFL, and this kid is not accurate. He's not a good passer. He's a very good college football player.

But I would encourage anybody, go back and watch the national championship, against Georgia where they bring it where Nick Saban has to just cut the cord in the middle of the game and put in Tua in order to win the national championship right?

Like they just needed somebody that could complete a pass and that's Alabama and if you watch them they got you know literally six NFL all pro wide receivers at any given year. So it's not that hard of a place and I know we put up some good numbers in Oklahoma but in some of their big games too.

You just watch him. He's not an accurate passer. He can keep plays a lot. In his defense, in his defense, let's not kill the kid's career before it gets started. Let's let him get a few starts under his belt, see what he's capable of doing. And also, for the Eagles fans out there,

you know, it's not as if they've seen, like, brilliance from Carson Went. So even if Hurtz, even if Hurt's is, like, not the best, like, it may still be equivalent to slight, slash slightly better than what Carson Wentz has been delivering out on the football field. Oh, you were under the impression I give a shit about Eagles fans. I don't care about these Eagles fans. I know you know.

I hope they're miserable. I love this so much. I love this. So you know how many arguments I got in and Dak and Carson Wentz? One of them gets frigged benched before he could even kick into his contract. Give me a break. I don't want to hear about that. Not to mention they ruined my seat.

ruined my season last year. They've ruined a bunch of seasons for me. I am not going to, I'm not going to fate. I love this. I love it. To know Ed. What's happening? I'm sure you.

I'm sure you do. I'm sure you do. It's been so long removed since I was like a hardcore fan of any team in the NFL that, that I will say like I remember those days, but I'm certainly glad now that I don't have to like be devoted to a team. Oh, trust me. And go up and down the highs and the lows with them over the course of the season.

And, yeah, it's so nice not to have to do that. It's not healthy. I freely admit it's not healthy. Now, let me, I need you to put some respect on the division, though, Warren. I mean, you blew me off last week when I tried to bring up the NFC. We've already spent too much time talking about this. They called it the NFC least. It's now the NFC beast.

No chance. After just demolish you. the only undefeated team in the NFL. This is called division pride. And then the Giants hassling Russell Wilson the entire game and coming away with a win there. In all seriousness,

the Giants have been impressive for it. I mean, start off the season like they did. And then they're winning with like Cole McCoy and Alfred Morris. And obviously the Redskins, they're a boring team to watch. the Alex Smith story is good, but it's not so much fun watching what is an outstanding defensive line, no doubt about that, and Alex Smith throw the ball three yards down the field, thinking and Duncan.

But are either of the, are the Giants now in pole position right now? And the reason we got to bring this up is because somebody from this division is going to get a playoff seed. And they are going to host a home game. and it looks more plausible today than it did three days ago that somebody could go in there to one of those teams that actually lose, which that would have been ridiculous to think even three days ago. But after those wins that a couple of the teams got over the weekend, it's not completely out of the realm of possibility.

No, look, I don't want to spend too much time on this, but what I will say is for these, two teams, they're winning with strong defense. That's a sound fundamental defense. Washington is a little bit better at getting after the quarterback. The Giants are a little bit better at stuffing the run. And they're winning with offense that's doing enough. They're doing what it takes. They're not how overly spectacular. You're not going to get scared game planning against these guys, but they're just getting it done around the edges. Like they're making the little things matter in games. And if you look at the way that like Pittsburgh and Seattle both lost those games,

I mean, I could personally say that I felt like there were things at both of those teams, which are superior than the NFC East teams they played Washington and the Giants. Like Seattle and Pittsburgh could have won those games if they had just performed up to their expectations, but they both failed to hit their expectations and lost those games. Pittsburgh blows a 14 to nothing lead. And Seattle, their game, plan and strategy offensively was far from ideal. And I don't know what happened to the Seahawks run defense, which used to be the one thing on the defense you could depend on, getting gashed by guys that, you know, haven't been effective

in the NFL for a little while for the Giants on the ground. So I think you look down the rest of the schedule for the Giants and for Washington. They both play middle of the pack schedules based upon my metrics. So it's hard for me to say one of these two teams has a clear upper hand from a schedule perspective, Washington gets to face the Philadelphia Eagles week 17 and the Giants play the Dallas Cowboys week 17. So you got a couple of teams in the NFC East. But other than that, if you look at the non-divisional opponents, Washington this week has to go out to San Francisco. Then they play the Seahawks and then they play the Panthers. That's not the easiest schedule in the world,

but you do have a quarterback in Nick Mullins that is a guy that you may be after, may be able to get after. And then the Giants take on back-to-back games at home. And after they come back from Seattle, they play the Cardinals and the Cleveland Browns. And those are two games that they could be in. And then they got a game against the Ravens, which you weren't impressed with. So I don't want to spend too much time on this. I don't really know which of these two teams right now is going to walk away with the upper hand in the division. But like I said earlier in the pod, I absolutely think that these playoffs are going to be fascinating.

without home field advantage. I think anybody's game to win. And I think these two teams could cause problems for whoever ends up coming in to take them on as the division winner of the NFC. Both got awesome defensive lines. I'll give them that.

Right. And so if you're a little nicked up on the offensive line, you could be in trouble against them because they really get to the quarterback, both them. And that Chase Young, holy mac, did you see the clip of Tomlin? Talking to him this weekend in that game, there is a great clip that went around.

I would encourage people to see. So Tomlin grabs Chase Young in the middle of their game, and he goes, and I'm paraphrasing here, but it's basically like how awesome you are. And he's like, man, I hope I never lose enough games to get a guy as awesome as you. I mean, you've got to lose like 14, 15 games to get somebody like you. Man, I mean, he was really giving him a tremendous compliment. Tom was saying, you know, like the only way I'll never get a player like you because I've got to lose 14 or 15 games, but my God, are you awesome?

And he is. That guy is ferocious to just immediately walk right out of college and be as good as he is already. Some of these pass rushers are just freaky. You watch that Cleveland game, too, Miles Garrett. My God. Well, let me, I 100% agree. I will say, let me just put the final bit of spice on this comment on the NFC East and then let's move on. But if you look at each of the Washington team and the Giants, they've got five wins.

Three of those five are against NFC East opposition. One of the five for both is against the Cincinnati Bengals. And they've got one impressive win on the schedule for Washington. it was last week's game against the Steelers. And for the Giants, it was last week's game against the Seahawks. So are these teams rounding the corner at the right time here in December and going to be able to do a little bit damage down the stretch? Or both of those games, kind of things that they lucked their way into.

And we may see a team that reverts back to what they're capable of doing, which is beating teams in the NFC East and some of the worst teams in the NFL. I'm not entirely certain on that one. But yeah, let's move on. All right, yeah, before we get out of here, I do want to just ask you about, since you were talking about the playoffs being so awesome, the playoffs standards. So just for point of reference, let's just set aside who are the division winners right now. They might not end up all winning their divisions. But for this discussion, we'll say the Saints, the Packers, the Rams, and the Giants.

Okay. So those four teams are leading their divisions as of today. They are playoff teams. that would leave us with a bunch of teams that are five and seven or better. Watch the football team, as you mentioned, the 49ers, the lions and the bears in their division. But then you have really, we're talking about a group of teams that are trying to get the three spots that are outside of division winners. And those include Seattle, Tampa Bay, Minnesota, Arizona. Okay, so first I will ask you, who has the inside track in your mind when we get past,

let's just say Seattle or the Rams, they're both eight and four. So that's one of the spots. Are we sure on Tampa Bay becoming a playoff team? If so, that would take another spot. And then we would have one left. And so who would have the inside track for that when you look at the rest of the schedule for these teams and kind of what everybody's got left strength wise. So who would be the favorite to get another spot? And by the way, go ahead and disagree if you don't agree with Seattle and Tampa and the Rams, those three taking two of the spots or three of the spots.

Yeah, I think so looking at my strength of schedule metrics the rest of the way, which anybody can look. look at these up at sharp football stats.com. It's all free and you can check all things out there from a strength of schedule perspective. I've got the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with the third easiest schedule the rest of the way. The Arizona Cardinals have the seventh and the Seattle Seahawks have the eighth easiest schedule the rest of the way. So those three teams have easier schedules. The Minnesota Vikings have the fourth toughest schedule. So right now, while Minnesota is in that seventh spot slated to make the postseason. Certainly, if they go down to Tampa Bay this week and upset the Buccaneers, that goes a long way because that's supposed to be a

win for Tampa right now. I think that they are six and a half point favorites in the game. And so from a strength of schedule perspective, that clearly is is factoring in. I would be surprised if Minnesota wins this game, but they're certainly capable of it. If you look at Tampa, they're an interesting team to discuss, yes, from a scheduled perspective, they should be in the postseason, and I think that they will get there. But finally, finally, you have a team with a quarterback as intelligent who's seen a lot of stuff as Tom Brady, who can sit down during a buy week. They just had their by week 13 and discuss the offense with Bruce Ariens. They haven't been able to do that since the start of the season, and it was a shortened off season, and you had all these issues this off

season. So this is the opportunity. Let's see what this offense is going to be capable of down the stretch here. This team is not getting a first round buy. So this team is going to be playing week 18 in the wild card round. This buy being so late was good from a rest perspective, but they also needed to figure some shit out. And so I want to see what this team looks like after this buy against the Vikings. Then they get two games against the Falcons and a game against the Lions. These are all games at Tampa should win, but one of their weaknesses has been to the passing, especially over the top passing. Their secondary hasn't been quite as good. And you're still talking about Kurt cousins, I don't like Kurt as much as I like his wide receivers. And you're talking about Matt Ryan and

Matthew Stafford. So these are capable quarterbacks with receiving cores if Goladay's gets back up by week 16 that could be able to do some damage against the secondary. So I'm really interested to see how those games end up shaping out. But I think, I think Tampa, certainly is in. I am not like, I don't know, I'm not the biggest believer in Arizona. And then you got all these five and seven teams that are bunched up. Yeah, yeah. So that's what. All right, let me reframe this. Saints, Rams, Giants, Packers, Tampa, Seattle, Arizona. Really the only one we could be talking about is whether Arizona hangs on to that or not, right? Well, Arizona is certainly on the outside looking in. And if the Vikings truly do have the fourth most difficult schedule and they drop a couple of these games and they

fall out of the seventh seed, then you're talking about either would Arizona move in or could one of these five and seven teams move in? And those five and seven teams are- Well, the reason I put Arizona ahead of them is because of what you just told me about the schedule. You said they've got one of the easiest than the Vikings have one of the hardest. Right. Right. And all the other teams that are five and seven have more difficult schedules than Arizona. So you've got like the Chicago Bears, which are in the middle of the pack with the difficult schedule, the Detroit Lions. which have the hardest schedule in the NFL remaining. You've got the 49ers who don't have a quarterback.

They do have a slightly above average strength of schedule. And I think of those teams, if we're talking about the bears and the lions, I think the 49ers coaching staff is clearly the best. And then the Washington football team, which has an average strength of schedule. So I think the 49ers, like, aren't the loss to the, bills definitely hurt if they could have somehow won that game. But George Kittle has been saying, I'm coming back, I'm coming back, I'm coming back. And they've got a slightly above average

strength of schedule. But they've got a shot. And this is Robert Salas' opportunity to make this defense step up. They did not against the bills. But they could, he could really put on a performance to like cement his being like the number one top coaching candidate if this 49ers defense turns it on and they somehow get back to the postseason. He's not going to be the top candidate over your guy in Buffalo who's turned Josh Allen into frigging Joe Montana. Brian Dayball definitely deserves a ton of respect. And I was looking at his resume, and I guess I hadn't realized this,

but this is going to definitely appeal to a lot of owners. I believe he's a five-time NFL Super Bowl champion. He also won a title with the Alabama Crimson Tide in 20, So this guy has won championships. He's won with the New England Patriots back in the early years of Tom Brady in the 2000, 2001, 2002, he was in that stretch run where I think they won three Super Bowls. And then he came back later and won a couple more with them back in the, I want to say like the 2012, 13, 14 timeframe. And before he went down to Alabama. So his resume looks great.

But what I've really been impressed with Dayball over the last couple of weeks is how he has defies his game plans and been able to adjust. So you look at the game against the L.A. Chargers two weeks ago where that pass rush was getting all over his defense, his offensive line and getting to Josh Allen. And he made a couple of adjustments in the course of the game. I'm not talking about waiting to halftime like a lot of coordinators might do. He made adjustments after the second series to figure out a way to get the ball out from Josh Allen and to run the ball in certain spots and to produce efficient plays. And they put up a bunch of points in that game. They could have had even more than that and won that game convincingly.

Then they go out to San Francisco, well, Arizona in San Francisco and play a defense that, you know, all the buzz was about Robert Tala and he was going to go to the Detroit lines. and they were petitioning their Congress to get this guy in as the coaching candidate. And they had just come off this big win where they made Jerogoff look bad and their defense looked really good. And they're getting all these players back. And Brian Dayball goes in there and just whips the 49ers tail up and down the football field. I mean, they didn't punt until late in the game.

Just a great, great, great offensive performance from Brian Dayball. And Josh Allen and the players obviously executing it. But the strategy against what was a pretty difficult defense, it's hard to find a lot of edges, places to exploit now that they're healthy defensively. So, yeah, I think dayball has been phenomenal, phenomenal this season. Yeah, he'll probably get a job this offseason. He certainly put himself in that category of hot coaching candidates. Warren, have a great weekend watching all these games. We've got a lot of really great matchups.

And I know you have a great timing of these matchups, Chris. You know I'm a fan of the game timing. We have seven, one, first of all, no buys this week. Okay. So everybody who's watching no buys, every single team, your favorite team, the team you hate the most, everybody's going to be playing this week. And only seven of those, though, are at one o'clock. So we've seen games where we've had teams on buys and they still stick nine games at one o'clock. So even without buys and everybody's playing, only seven games at one o'clock is beautiful.

for everybody who's got the Sunday ticket because you got your eight box games and you're only going to have to stick seven of them on those on the eight box. And then we've got two games on the early kicks at four o'clock and four more games on the late kicks at four o'clock. So it's just a beautiful way that the NFL spread the games out. I get on their case a ton when they don't do this. And it's fun to do that. But we also have to give equal time here to when they,

make a good decision and compliment the hell out of them. Hopefully pat him on the back. Good job, buddy. Keep it up and maybe they'll do it again in the future. Because we need a schedule that's spaced out like this. This is what's going to make viewing more interesting. I was joking to my buddy yesterday. This past week with the Chargers notwithstanding, but I said,

I swear to God, every single week I'm watching Red Zone. And I get to watch the last two possessions of the Lions game and the Chargers game every week. I swear. It's like Andrew, Andrew Siciliano, because I got DirecTV, is going back. It's just toggling back and forth to the end of the Lions game and the end of the Chargers game. And it felt so awkward for the Chargers being beat 45 to nothing. And I'm like, hey, where's the Chargers game so I can watch them gag it at the end? Like usually it's like either Matt Stafford's going to come through or he's not. And then the Chargers are going to lose in some soul-crushing fashion.

the two things that I feel like I've been able to count on with Red Zone and the Chargers F that up last week. And the Chargers right now are two and a half point dogs. We didn't even talk about the Charters on this pot. I'm glad not to have to talk about them for a week. We spent too much time. They're two and a half point dogs against the Falcons so they could be in for another close game.

If you like them, maybe you tease in them because- Oh, that is a battle of who Fs it up. Yeah, that game, if you like the Charters, you now have a good opportunity to tease them through the three and the seven so that when they do lose inevitably by one score, you will win your teaser like there. I don't know, though.

They're playing the Falcons. That's tough. Because the Falcons want to lose by one score too. So one way or the other. Something terrible is happening at the end of that game. That's the only thing. Can I bet on that? Can I bet on somebody screwing that game up at the very end?

Well, you'll have to wait until in-game wagering. And then you can take a couple of bets, like a money line for the team that's down by, one score late in the game. Those types of things you absolutely could do. Whoever is winning with a minute left to go, I'm going to bet against them.

I don't know if I don't know if I have confidence that Anthony then will manage that final minute from a clock and timeout perspective to get his team down to win that game outright. But you've got to remember who's on the other sideline. It's the Falcons. They've got a history. They've got a history.

All right. Warren, enjoy this. weekend. I'll be listening to you in House on Friday. Make sure you listen to the regular NFL show throughout the week. Kevin Kark and the Gang will be back tomorrow. We will talk to you next Wednesday.