The Ringer NFL Show - The Unofficial Playoffs Are Officially Underway (Ep. 205)

Episode Date: December 19, 2017

The Ringer’s Robert Mays and Kevin Clark recap Week 15, including why the catch rule needs to stop deciding games (01:30), why the Patriots weren’t the better team Sunday (04:15), and how the Jaguars could spoil a Steelers-Patriots rematch in the AFC championship (13:00). Then, the guys discuss how the Rams achieved the biggest offensive turnaround in league history (19:15), which soon-to-be-open coaching job presents the best opportunity for instant success (22:30), and who the flavor of the week is in the NFC (29:30). Finally, Danny Kelly joins the show to break down the AFC playoff picture (46:15 ), including why the Chargers are still the most dangerous wild-card contender (48:45). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Ringer NFL show. Before we get started, we'd like to tell you about the Ringer's YouTube channel. Yep, we stepped up our game in 2017 with weekly videos like Cousin Sal's Best Bet, MBA desktop, no BS, table reads, directors commentary, and Captain Morgan's Make Believe Casino. There's also a really great NFL show called Slow News Day featuring Kevin. What? Yeah. There is? You were on that show.

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at YouTube.com slash The Ringer, especially Slow Newsday. Lock at the 35 when the members of 30. The 30, 20 cuts in sight, breaks and tackle 10, inside the number of the number of Five. Cavanté Freeman. Running, cutting, driving. 32-yard. Atlanta touchdown.

Welcome to the Ringer NFL show, part of the Ringer podcast network. I'm Robert Mays, joined as always by Kevin Clark. Kevin, how you doing, bud? I'm obsessed with Eli Manning coming out in favor of the catch rule. Of all the things I thought you possibly could have said right there,

that's not what I expected. I was scanning NFL.com this morning. And it just says, Eli Manning likes the catch rule. That's the trolliest thing that anyone's ever done. I mean, what just happened there? Is there anything in the world? What just happened?

What could you possibly? What is the motivation for that? To just say a rule that everyone hates and just be like, you know what? I'm into this. This is good. I can see if you're trying to be like a hot take guy. You know, you're just like, actually the catch rule is the best rule in sports. But Eli Manning has no dog in the fight, so to speak.

maybe we're just misconstruing this. Maybe Eli has the second act as a Skip Baylessian, you know, figure on television. Maybe that's what Eli's doing after this when he gets cut. He's going to embrace debate. That's right. That's amazing. And he's got just tons of catch rule takes. Oh, God.

We'll get to catch rules. But first, let's talk about that clip, that run, that game. The Falcons hung on to beat the Bucks Monday night, which just about does it for the Aaron Rogers comeback dream. It seems like Atlanta is. definitely in the driver's seat here and the NFC wildcard. I mean, the Falcons did not look that impressive last night against a team without any of its defensive players.

It's just kind of one of those things where you'd hope that they would go in and absolutely stump the bucks and they did not. I will say that Devante Freeman run made me very happy because it won me a fantasy week and got me the number one pick in the draft. So welcome, Sequin Barkley. Thank you very much. I hope you enjoy your new team. Yeah, look, they could have lost that game.

But on the other hand, I know it sounds just insanely cliche and lame, but at this point in this season, he's got a win. Like a win is a win. I know it's always a win, but I mean, it's just, there's all sorts of wacky results.

Got teams lose winnable games all the time, that this is, I was generally okay. This isn't college football. I didn't need to see the Falcons win by two touchdowns to put them in the playoffs. It's mathematics at this point. Yeah,

I think you're right. And I still feel like the last few weeks, we've kind of seen, you know, the firepower this offense can bring and what would make it dangerous, everything else. The NFC is so wide open, man.

And we're going to get to that some really interesting outcomes, you know, just all over the place from there. And just a lot to sort through from week 15. We're going to talk about the beat down the Rams, but on Seattle, how realistic the Rams Super Bowl chances are, which is just a conversation that I never thought we'd be having as Christmas is a week away. Danny's going to be here. We'll probably lament the Seahawks for a moment. But he'll also help us decide who is the best chance in the AFC wild card, which is similarly nuts. before that though, let's get going with our four downs, our four biggest stories from the weekend.

On first down, there's really no other place to start. Patriot Steelers build as the game of the year. And oh boy, did it come through in a big way? And of course, it couldn't be an NFL game of 2017 without a superstar getting hurt and all of us wondering what the hell a catch is. But amid all that craziness on Sunday in Pittsburgh, Kevin, what was your biggest takeaway? Well, my biggest takeaway is the conversation around the NFL is bigger than the game itself. Because, and I always think that the NFL likes this. They like the idea that there's eight things to talk about. One of them is what the hell is a catch?

Yep. One of them is, did the Patriots just clinched the AFC? But, I mean, I just think that the way they ensure there's going to be, there's going to be conversation is the reason they're a $13, $14 billion industry. Okay. I feel like the catch rule is something that we bring up every three weeks and we get angry about it. And it's sort of unwinnable for the NFL. If you liberalize the catch rule, there will,

just be fumbles all the time, which I guess you can argue the receivers would hate more. And if you say that anytime the ball hits the ground, it's incomplete. I saw some ideas about that. Just anytime the ball hits the ground, it's incomplete, the receivers would hate that more as well. So they're in kind of a tough spot. I guess the answer is just to more clearly define it. I know Eli Manning's okay with it. But I guess the main takeaway for me is that even in the absolute greatest games of the season, and this may have been the best game of the season, the NFL just knows exactly how to manufacture conversation. Let's start with the catch rule just very quickly.

I don't think it should be this difficult. If he had stopped, if Jesse James had stopped at the goal line, put the ball across, pulled it back, and someone had hit it out of his hands, that's a touchdown. So why, if you have possession of the ball and it crosses the goal line, is it not a touchdown? Isn't that just how simple it should be? if you have possession of the football and at any points it crosses the goal line, you get six points.

I understand how it should be. What's up? I said it seems pretty simple. Yeah, I don't understand. Like, I understand why it's a little more difficult on the sideline. And I think that that rule I actually understand, like you should have to complete the catch on, going to the ground on the sideline because you're sliding everything else. I think it's a little more nebulous over there.

But when it comes to the plane of the goal line, we see how this works. If the ball crosses it in any way when you're a runner, it's a touchdown. So why shouldn't the same thing be true when you're a receiver who has possession of the ball? It just doesn't seem like it should be this. So I was on the phone not too long ago with a referee, a former referee, excuse me. And we were talking about sort of the culture of refereeing at this point. And one of the things I've always been interested in is if the sport has just gotten too fast and too complicated to referee at all. But that's why we have replayed.

Are you right? Exactly. But then it gets into like we're replaying everything. Right. So like, but one of the things that this former referee said, and I think about this all the time, is the league office has gotten so involved in sort of Monday morning quarterbacking or Monday morning refereeing that they think that the referees just, you can see the wheels spinning in their heads. And they just overthink themselves 10 times over. and they just say, and they're not exactly sure.

It's not about, is it a touchdown? Is it a catch? It's more about what is the league office going to say. And so I think that's one of those things the NFL needs to figure out is sometimes I think these referees are too clever by half and just read way too much into these things. And it's kind of like what you said. It should just be a touchdown. I know part of that is just a rule book that's too big.

Yeah, that rule I just think is wrong at its core, I think. it's just incorrect and we should think about just a simpler way to do all of this. Let's get back to the outcome of the game and kind of what unfolded though. So I feel like that not being a touchdown is huge for one reason and it's that the Patriots are likely going to have homefield advantage. And them being able to play this game in Gillette if it happens again and we can get to whether it will in a second here is monstrous because the Steelers are so good at home. The Steelers look so good on Sunday.

Even without Antonio Brown, very impressive. So the fact that now, if these teams play again, we're going to have to do it in Foxborough. I mean, it's huge. I think that we own field advantage is overstated at certain points. Some teams have it. Some teams don't right now. But for these two teams in this setting, it is a massive difference. Yeah.

I mean, I don't even know what analysis needs to be said here. I mean, it's just, it's a huge difference. We knew that. We'd have been talking about that game for what? five or six weeks. Yeah. You could just see it coming on the horizon. I mean,

there's always a, well, and not just like, oh, here's two great teams, but this is for the game. Yeah. For the AFC champion,

for hosting the AFC championship game. And I obviously, as you said, we'll get to whether or not it's, it's written in stone, these two teams will play again because there are some complications in the AFC race.

But I mean, yeah, I mean, this is, I think I'll say this. We're going to be talking a lot about that Jesse, game's no catch in a couple weeks when we see the result of the ASEA championship game.

That's my general feeling now. Yeah, I totally agree. And, you know, the Steelers overall, I wrote about this in my Monday recap, just what we saw on Sunday that could kind of lead us to believe that this should happen again or, you know, how the playoffs will unfold. Pittsburgh looked really good. I mean, this team is clicking right now. And the fact that they did this without Brown was so impressive.

And really, the game kind of unfolded in the way I thought it would. you know, they, New England did, the Pittsburgh did a better job of slowing down the New England passing game. Burkhead getting hurt, I think, is part of that. But, you know, they really didn't throw the ball with the running backs very often. The problem was they played man and Gronk just toasted them. So, I mean, that was something I didn't necessarily see coming. I thought the Davis would be better matchup on Grunk than the linebackers would be on the running backs, but sometimes Grom could just take over a game.

But what Bryant and Juju did was just really important because that's, again, is the factor that was not in play last year for Pittsburgh. And the fact that now you have those guys and if Brown does come back, which he's supposed to, and you're Antonio Brown plus that other element, I still feel like even going into New England, Pittsburgh can win this game. I mean, this is a really good football team on offense right now. And they're playing to their pretty much their potential, which they haven't in so long. We've never really seen this offense fully formed.

And I think with Brian back and Rathesberg are playing like this, or Brown back, excuse me, and Rathsburger playing like this, we may see it for the first time. And that's exciting. I think they have a shot in a way I wouldn't have said they did last year. It's interesting because so for a couple years there, remember those stats about how Bell Brown and Rathusberger were kind of not on the field at the same time ever for very long. And Brian, you know, I think in 2014, 2015. Oh, yeah, Brian.

Bryant, obviously, I mean, Brian's a different animal because he was spent it for an entire year. But, I mean, just the idea that they would have all. of, I guess you'd say the killer bees together. And I assume, I mean, they say Brown's coming back for the playoffs. I assume he'll be fully healthy by then. I don't, I was, I was extremely confused by the Antonio Brown injury experience the other day. I was as soon as it happened. And as soon as I found out that it was like a deep muscle bruise, I said, you just sit

them. Put them on the shelf for the rest of the season. Don't even think about it. I mean, they're playing two terrible teams in the last two weeks of the year. They should win these games. Even without Antonio Brown. They beat the Patriots. without Antonio Brown.

So I feel like that was just a given. He's going to sit. Let's hopefully get the buy. So it's third week. That's not a guarantee anymore. We'll get to that. But I think that there's no good reason for him to play again, even if he can before the second round of the playoffs.

No. No. And I, you know, I feel like we've gotten away from resting starters for whatever reason. But, I mean, it's really smart. Even if he wasn't carried off the field in a dramatic way,

two days ago, it just reduces workload significantly. I mean, teams should be protecting their starters for the playoffs, full stop. Especially when you basically have a buy locked up when you look at the schedule. Let's get to that.

On second down, let's talk about the team that's kind of nipping at the Pittsburgh's heels in the AFC, and that's Jacksonville. I mean, one of the reasons they're not going to be able to throttle it down at all

is because the Jags are right there and they have the tiebreaker. So, Blake Portals, lit it up again on Sunday. 326 yards, three touchdowns. His third straight game with a rating over 100. I mean, looked fantastic.

Again, it's against the Houston defense that is just falling apart down the stretch here. But I don't care. Those guys get paid too and he looked really good again. I mean, well-placed balls. The really long throw to Keel and Cole on the sideline was excellent. The second touchdown pass to Mickens is like a well-placed ball in the red zone that is just really solid quarterback play that I'm. don't expect from him. I don't know what's happening right now. Always good to get the Bill O'Brien

is not quitting headlines that we saw this morning. Yeah. That's a good sign. Marvin Lewis is not going. Bill O'Brien's team is not quitting. It just seems like- Oh, we'll get to that. We'll get to, we'll get to O'Mar there. We certainly are. But it's definitely some teams are falling apart. My team did not look very inspired for its head coach last Saturday. Blake Bortles. I joked on maybe I wasn't joking. The world will never know that they should absolutely pick up his option for $19 million next year. And I said that my only rooting interest is Blake Bortles and in the entire NFL,

maybe in sports. Zealand magic or terrible right now. I'm all on the Bortles Express. Danny Kelly is joined me in this. We are both. We are both huge Bortles fans and we want Bortals to play well enough to get $100 million and sign the funniest contract of all time. I think that the Jaguars are a really freaking good team.

I think that when Fournett returns to full health, you'll see a very different version of this Jaguars team. But just the idea, look, is Blake Bortles what we saw on Sunday or is what Jadavian Clowny says he is, which is trash? The answer is somewhere in the middle. Yes, absolutely. But if they can do what they did earlier in the season,

and they can throw the ball, you know, I think he threw 14 times against Pittsburgh. If they play Pittsburgh again, they're not going to throw 14 times where they're not going to throw 38 times. Okay. So I think you're going to see sort of a hybrid of that. He gets out of the Pittsburgh with 22 attempts, something like that. Maybe he gets a high completion percentage and they ride Fournet and Ivory to a win. That's the recipe.

Is Bortle's making no more than three to four big throws a game and putting the ball in the hands of the guys we know can make it? I think that, you know, Bortle's playing like this. obviously is huge. The defense just being what the defense is is huge. But there are a little tiny elements of this Jacksonville team that are surprising and important. You know, Alan Robinson's not playing. Yeah. They lost their best receiver. Alan Hurons has not been a factor. The fact that you have Keel and Cole, who's an undrafted free agent from Kentucky Wesleyan coming in here and getting 167 yards receiving, this is when you start to build something fun. This is when things can get special, is when you have that defense and you're stumbling into the guys of Key and Cole. He's like, one of the

fastest players in the NFL, by the way. Oh, my God. He's so athletic. And there were some flashes earlier in the season. He made some really nice plays. And now it's like, okay, now we're cooking with gas. If that defense is healthy, which they are, and we get guys like Keywood. And we get guys like Keel and Cole coming out of the woodwork, Jacksonville starts to get interesting.

So let's also, let's get to their NFC counterpart here a little bit. In the NFC, the Rams dismantling Seattle. It might have been like the biggest beats out of the season. So with Jacksonville playing like this. and the Rams looking like they're looking. Both these teams eight months ago picked in the top five or the Rams would have

if they didn't trade the pick away. There's two games left in the season. How crazy is it that the Rams and Jags could meet in the Super Bowl? Is that realistic? I mean, it's crazy if you're looking at it through the eyes of September. But at this point,

when you look at this team, would I give the Jaguars a longer chance? Yes, only because the Patriots are in their conference. And the Steelers. But why can't, I mean, J. Boyer and yeah, AJ Boyer and Jalen Ramsey are at the very least, two of the top five cornerbacks in the NFL.

There are so, I mean, Callais Campbell is defensive player of the year candidate, full stop. Malice Jackson is really good. I mean, they just, I don't know. I wrote, I was writing today about the Jaguars defense a little bit on a story that I wrote for the ringer. And, you know, so many times we do the, is it the defensive line or the defensive secondary, making the other look good. And in Jacksonville, it is objectively both propping each other up

and creating an elite defense. And that's when defense has become really fun. It's the most complete past defense just from a top to bottom personnel standpoint that I can remember. I think that just in recent years. I feel like that the Broncos defenses were right there. You know,

I think you could probably make the case that they were better just because the linebackers were really good to, I mean, that's when Marshall was playing extremely well. And then, you know, obviously, you have the rushers with Miller and Ware and the guys inside were playing well too. And they have, they have Malik Jackson on a on a cheap contract. Yeah, they had Malik Jackson inside as well. I just feel like the pass rush package for Jacksonville, when they get Campbell, Jackson, and Gawke, and Fowler on the field at the same time.

Fowler's played fine. He's by far the worst player in that group. Like, the fact that In Gokwe might be a better pass rush. He's not bad. He's not bad. And Cleas Campbell is. the defense player of the year candidate? I mean, it's unbelievable.

And well, Ramsey and boy, or mostly Ramsey on Sunday, actually, they pretty much gave him Hopkins and let him go. I mean, Hopkins had 80 yards and a touchdown. He also had four catches on 13 targets. I mean, it's ridiculous how well these guys are playing. And then, you know, Barry Church gets the pick. And Barry Church is a good player.

The fact that Gibson is just not even talked about, even though he's playing extremely well. I mean, that's how you know you have a really good unit top the bottom. Yeah, I mean, the Rams are not as complete of a defense, but if you were saying who is like her to get to the Super Bowl, I would pick them for two reasons. Number one, just the quarterback. And number two is the conference. And those are the only two things I think really differentiate them, except for the fact that the Rams don't have just an incredible shutdown secondary like the Jaguars do. But I'm just, I'm impressed as hell at both of these teams.

and I definitely, definitely can see them, either of them in the Super Bowl. Yeah, absolutely. I think that the Rams have a better chance is because it feels a little more wide open. You know, we'll dig into that a little bit here soon. But I think that overall, you know, their defensive recipe is different. They don't have as complete of a team. They also have Wade Phillips. They also have Aaron Donald.

You know, there's one game rucker and just the best defensive coordinator in the NFL. So it's just not this blanket suffocating, you know, 11-man unit, but they do have the pieces to just completely dominate. a game, which they did on Sunday. And then you go to the other side of the ball and it's incredible. I just thank you so much, Sean McVeigh, for breathing life back into Todd Gurley. Like, if everything else you've done, I think that is the most beautiful. And I will hand you your coach of the year award in person.

I mean, there's no other person you can give it to at this point. This is one of the greatest turnarounds in the history of the league, let alone for this season. Wait, offensively, you know, offensively it is. Yes, it's the greatest turn of all time. Yes. The biggest turnaround in the history of football, just anecdotally, I'm not saying I buried Todd Gurley, but when you see a guy like Todd Gurley's struggle in the way he did,

I think he had under four yards per carry last year, I just didn't expect him to ever be Todd freaking Gurley again. Because I just, you know, when running backs start to slow, they typically don't pick it back up, especially when he was that athletic as rookie year. And what they've been able to do, it just goes back to how harmful. And I, you know, I don't mean that in a, in any way,

except realistically, quite frankly, how harmful Jeff Fisher was to the league. There were three guys on his roster in the summer of 2016 who will be starting playoff games at quarterback this year. And all of them looked bad under him. You have to take away the Jeff Fisher's of the league out of there. And beyond that, I mean, I just, Sean McVeigh is awesome full style.

I just love him. I love him. What they've done is just, it's unbelievable. I mean, it's literally unbelievable. And obviously we talk about the effect there's the personnel has changed everything else, but it's just impossible to overstate the job that he's done and where it stands in the history of the league.

I mean, it's just, this is something monumental that we've been able to watch. So let's get to the flip side of that. Let me ask you a question. Okay. If you combine those two, if you combine those two rosters, who's the best player?

Aaron Donald. What about Bortles? Bortals is second. Bortles. Yeah. It depends. Bortle says one more game. Bordles.

He did last week. I think I'd probably put him ahead of Aaron Donald. The big two. Is Bordle's going to make more money than that? Is Bordle's going to make more money than Aaron Donald next year? Is that going to be the most unfair thing you've ever heard? Yeah. Yep. I'm assuming you will.

All right. Let's get to third down here, which again is the flip side of the coaching coin. The carousel here is slowly starting to form, and that begins with Marvin Lewis in Cincinnati, just a bizarre series of events for the Bengals this week. Adam Schaefter reports last week that Lewis is leaving for other opportunities. Then Lewis said he wasn't leaving on Sunday.

Then he was asked yesterday if he would like to coach the Bengals next year. And he said, sure, which is just exactly the type of response you want to hear. My guess is that he's done in Cincinnati. I wish we had audio of that. I wish we could have an audio clip with him just saying, sure. My guess is he's done. Could you imagine? He's just like,

you know, if I can fit into my schedule, that's fine. Yeah, yeah, if I have the time. I'd love to coach the Bengals in 2018. I've got a thing. I've got a couple things I have to do. But yeah, I feel like I could do that. If he does leave, is that the most attractive job that could come open this year?

You know, it's interesting to me because how do you judge it? Because I think you've talked about it and a couple of other people have talked about it. Are the bears this year's ramps? It's the team that has the young quarterback. Are they the team with the young quarterback with the just insanely crappy coach

and talent on defense who can be turned into a playoff team next year? We kind of know what the bangles are. I'm not insanely optimistic on some of their picks this year. Like, I don't think, you know, the, the, unless John Ross balls out at cornerback or whatever, um, I don't, I don't know what's going on with him. And so I just, I'm not, I feel like for upside, there's going to be more talent available elsewhere is if Indianapolis can get Andrew luck healthy, that's a hell of an opening, especially with Chris Ballard calling the shots. So yeah,

I'm not, I mean, Tampa Bay with James Winston and let's assume that the Dirk cutter doesn't come back. I don't think Cincinnati is the top job. And I am also intrigued by Marvin Lewis thinking you can get a GM job. Yeah, that is really funny. I mean, I think he's going to try to sell that he did a lot of the picking of the players there, which is something that people have talked about. I don't know really how to handicap it. I think that there are arguments for a lot of these.

I feel like if Bill Bryan goes in Houston, getting to work with DeShon Watson, and the fact that you have that trio players on defense is intriguing. They're going to have more cap space and it seems like they should because of the guys they have on that roster. I think the reasons are obvious. JJ Watt makes $15 million, which if he's J.J. Watt again is an absolute bargain. So that's the type of stuff that you have some wiggle room there, but you also have some really nice building blocks. Chicago, I get the momentum that started to build about why they could be a big turnaround team.

They've lost a lot of close games. They have defensive talent. their defense is not even almost as good as the Rams defense was even before Wade Phillips. The Rams had a top 10 defense last year. You know, the Bears are kind of on the edges of that and they've been hurt a little bit. So you could make that argument. I still think that they would need a Wade Phillips S character running the defense. I mean, Vic Fangio is very good.

If you wanted to retain him, I wouldn't be upset about that and just bring in whoever the hot shot offensive coaches that works for me. And the other one, you know, that I think is kind of interesting is, again, And what happens with Indy? I think that that's just one where if you have luck, you know, that is going to come quicker than it seems. So I feel like there are a lot of them. And I kind of agree.

I just think that, you know, with Dalton, he's fine. You have AJ Green. There's some nice defensive pieces. That's just a limited upside play where the Bears and the Texans, I think the unknown, it becomes intriguing there. You just kind of think, all right, well, what could we have if these guys hit their ceiling? And that's similar to what happened with the Rams last year. So I understand the argument.

I just think that they're a little bit further away than that. I'm going to say something that I think is really interesting, which is an interesting trend to watch. Excuse me. I just said I'm going to say something I think is really interesting as if I was about to make a very interesting point. Like, you listen to me. I think an interesting trend to watch is the sort of McVeigh effect.

No one was talking about Sean McVeigh this time last year. He gets the job. He turns the job. He turns the team around to the tune of 17 points per game. Goes from the 32nd rank offense to the first offense. Okay. And I feel like you're going to see a lot of ownership groups who are saying, we're going to take a chance on this 34-year-old, you know, 37-year-old, whatever.

John Gruden had a similar effect on the league a couple of years ago. And those guys are a little, they have a much bigger miss rate than the 45. 50 year old guy or the or or the you know the guy who's who's on a second head coaching job you there the the ceiling is higher but the floor is significantly lower and so I'm intrigued to see how owners approach that um Patrick Doherty um had a really funny bit on Twitter the other day of guys like Marvin Lewis trying to pretend they're millennials just just to get a job because that's the only way you're going to do it that's really funny. Mark Trussman walking in and saying yeah how do you do fellow kids.

What is it? That shirt? It's a, oh, I can't remember what it says. I think it just says rock band on it. The whatever shirt. Yeah.

Steve Bouchemy is wearing and that. I own that shirt. I just forgot what it says. It's just going to be, it's going to be, it's going to be Mike Smith wearing Supreme. Mike Smith shouldn't get a defensive coordinator. This team is terrible.

Mike Smith's just wearing like easy, easy. choose to meet with Ursay? I mean, I think that you're totally right. And I think that, you know, guys like John D. Philippa are going to get a call, you know, that he will get a head coaching interview.

And I think a lot of guys in that vein will that people are going to dig deep for just offensive coaches they haven't thought about because of what has happened in LA. I just feel like it's absolutely going to have a ripple effect. All right. So no matter where all these guys land, one thing is certain, none of them in those jobs will outlast Julius Peppers. Panthers showing blitz.

Third down, make it fourth down at 14. Rogers takes the snap. Panthers come with four. Rogers back. He is hit. He is sacked back at the 40-yard line. Julius Peppers, the former Packer coming around the edge, gets the sack. All right.

Fourth down, let's get to those Panthers and the rest of the NFC playoff picture. RIP, the Aaron Rogers dream. It was pretty ugly. I just, you know, I'd seen him come back and do a lot of special stuff. He didn't look right. That underthroat to rot to Jordy just doesn't happen. You know, if he's 100%. Just some interesting decisions.

He was running for his life, a good portion of that game, which we thought could happen. Every time he took off, I just cringed. It's like, oh, no, please don't get hurt. It was kind of funny. When Pepper sacked him, it looks like Peppers was trying to, like, hold him up as he hit the ground. Because, I mean, those guys like each other a lot. I feel like there's a little conflicted. in that moment, which I think you should be.

So a lot of interesting stuff on Sunday with the NFC. The best moment of the week for me was watching Teddy Bridgewater walk out of the field of Minnesota. Like, that was an incredible... I cried yesterday when I was writing about it. I mean, that's just really, really cool. And that only happens because the Vikings

stomped the Bengals, just for another walkaway win, which they seem to get a lot of. Philly looks a little up and down against the Giants. You know, it wasn't Nick Foles. The defense played poorly. And then you see what the Rams are doing. I just feel like handicapping this race is getting more difficult by the week. I have absolutely no idea who I feel best about.

I don't know how you gauge it because every week we sit here and we have a different NFC team. We're excited about a couple weeks ago. Here come the Falcons. Last week, you know, last week's episode, the entire Friday episode needs to be sent to the moon because we spent the entire time talking about how the Packers and the Chargers were dangerous. Now neither team are going to make the play. Yeah, another charge. So please, if you, uh, if you listen to that, um, now, uh, it was satire.

And it was a bit that we were doing. I think that with the chargers that's that. You're going to have those games on the road against the division opponent. You're going to look like shit every once in a while. The problem for the chargers is they were one and five for. So you can't, you, you need those games. I mean, like, think about what the Patriots did against Miami. Those games exist.

And that's exactly what happened for the Chargers. But when you have no wiggle room, whatsoever, those games cost you your season. So we'll get to the Chiefs a little bit later. I know Danny weren't talking about the ASC. I mean, their recipe on Saturday was very nice. But again, I really don't know what to think about the NSC. I think that Carolina gets more interesting to me every time I watch them.

And Sunday, the variable in that was Greg Olson. The fact that he's just back, you know, he gives them so much. And then what McCaffrey has become for them, I think is very smart. Yep. You know, I don't think he should ever run the ball again. Just use him as a slot receiver, you know, the way he scored that touchdown. The moment between Cam and Clay Matthews was amazing. I assume you've seen the clip.

I have. I wrote about it today. Oh, yeah. I mean, that was just fantastic. And I think that, you know, that again, it's just little wrinkles. It's using him in a different way. You know, he's going to run that wheel. He comes back inside.

Greg Olson blatantly commits offensive pass interference and is not called for it. but this type of stuff you got to do in the red zone. So I really do think anybody could win this. I don't know who I would feel best about. I really don't. And I think that's a cop-out, I understand, but it's just going to be wild. And again, like New Orleans doesn't look great against the Jets, but they have all these players.

The fact that we don't even talk about Michael Thomas anymore, the guy's amazing. He destroyed that game. He scored three touchdowns and two of them were called back. It just feels like every team has these quills. quiet elements that could come up in the right moment and just ruin the game for the other team. I just, it's crazy. I really don't know where I've settled on it. I just really need to interrupt you really quickly.

Mike Duracchi, who covers the Cardinals out there in Arizona, just tweeted, Jeff Fisher wants to get back into the NFL next year and is eyeing three jobs. Could be eyeing three jobs. Cleveland, India, and Chicago. I'd be done. I'd be done. I'd be done forever. That would be it. Okay. All right. That's it. That's all I needed to say. All right, now, Carolina, I agree. I think this is. You just told me like one of my loved ones died.

You're going to move on from this in two seconds. Whenever I tell anybody bad news, I immediately start talking about Christian McCaffrey right after. Okay, that's fine. That'll make me feel better. Go for one second. All right. So McCaffrey, I said, you know, I said this last week, his destiny is to lead the league in screen grabs where there's like 10 guys who are selling out to stop him. Yes.

But, I mean, you can also, by the way, just get him the ball and he can score. And that's the thing. I agree with you. He should never, you know, he had trouble running between the tackles earlier in the season. They figured out what to do with them. I knew it was going to be a process. I talked to Mike Shula in training camp about this. And he basically said, you know, part of the problem with these flexible athletes who can play seemingly every position of a quarterback. And by the way, McCaffrey, they had a designed pass for him on Sunday and he didn't take it because he kept it.

He was draped. but, I mean, part of the problem is it takes a while for these guys to get built up. You can only take on so much, especially with the new CBA. You can't learn every position and learn every route there is automatically. And so that's, you know, McCaffrey told me a story when I talked to him earlier this year about, you know, how he was a running back and he started to gradually learn the receiver position in high school. And so he would just master one route, master two routes. and he clearly is sort of the kind of guy who wants to build on the thing he just learned.

And so I knew maybe would take half the season for him to get all of the components of the NFL game down. But he's got it, dude. Yeah. And this is a fun time in the year as well because now teams are starting to build on their playbook because you have tendencies. And as you get toward the playoffs, you got to play with them a little bit. I loved a lot of the stuff the Steelers did on Sunday. I mean, the touchdown to Rogers, I've never seen them do that, especially in the Red Zone. It was an RPO that Rathlisberger had to move like Carson Wentz, and it worked.

And it's just amazing. You know, the seal has never used play action. 9.6% of dropbacks the lowest rate in the league, which doesn't make any sense to me because you have levying on Bell. But they were three of four for 75 yards and 132 rating on Sunday. So now is the time we're like, all right, you think we're going to zig, we're going to zag. And it's going to be fascinating to watch.

All right, buddy. Let's get to your craziest headline from the weekend. What you got? Well, I was going to circle back on the Elon Manning thing. but I just want to talk about the report that Jeff Fisher wants to get back to the NFL. No.

Please don't. If you saw, if you're Jeff Fisher and let's, I, you know, you've seen photos of him at airports and at like grocery store

checkout lines and stuff. The one with the puppy is still my favorite thing about the entire year. I just him staring off into the distance. He looks like a man that's going to go deep

into the woods and never return. So let's assume he's gotten at least some brief updates and what's happening in the NFL. If you found, He learns about it. Keynham. And I think it's a very old time.

He goes to the general store in like Montana or wherever. Where is he? Is he in Montana? Probably. Somewhere that. Yeah, Montana sounds right. Like on Wednesdays, he goes on Wednesdays he goes down and gets the newspaper and read Sunday's scores.

He definitely doesn't have a television. No, no TV and he doesn't get a paper delivered to his house because it's not on the delivery route. He lives too far away. So he's got to go, yeah, once a week. He catches up on the news. Without it down. He doesn't want to pay for a data plan.

can't get it on his phone. No, he doesn't have a phone. Do we think a flip phone for Jeff Fisher? I don't think he has a cell phone. That'd be hard for me to believe. What else does he pick up when he goes to the general store? No, no, no, no. Robert, he has to have a phone.

He has to have a phone. If he doesn't have a phone, how is he going to call reporters and tell him he wants the bear's job? Well, he does it at the general store. Or he like goes to the bar and puts like 50 cents in the pay phone. He makes all his calls. He is or he has a, he has a, he makes all. He puts a. call in.

Yeah. Okay. So he uses the payphone at the bar 100%. I really do. I'm serious though. What do you think his other supplies are at the general store on Wednesday? Like what's his weekly hall that he gets with the paper? Um, conservative quarterbacks.

He gets a couple of those. Just throw them in. Yep. I could see him just like a couple hungry man dinners designed for, you know, like he picks out some nails that he never uses. Just like, now I'm going to build something this week, but it never happens. And when he tries, it just goes miserably. Yeah, like the Rams.

Exactly. But what I'm saying is if you saw the NFL this year and you saw that Case Kingdom and Jared Gough both became significantly better when they weren't under your tutelage, wouldn't you just decide to just do something else with your life? Yeah, probably. Again, it builds shoddy stuff in your cabin. Do you think that he could even get a defensive coordinator job? No. And why would he want one? a coordinator in a very, very long time.

How much money you think Jeff Fisher made on average per year as a head coach? Well, according to this tweet, which is extremely informative tweet, he made $16 million from just his Rams buyout. Okay. Perfect. Good example. Just from the Rams buyout, he made $16 million. Jeff Fisher started coaching the, where was he? He was a head coach starting in Houston at what age?

early, right? He was, he was the Tennessee Oilers coach in the Tennessee Titans. Yeah. So, I mean, he was a head coach. He also played in the NFL. Yeah. So he's been the head coach. He's been a head coach for 20 years.

So let's just say on average, you know, it's $2 million. And he gets $16 million from the buyout. Jeff Fisher's playing with some cash here. I have no idea why he would want to come back in coach. He's 60. Retire. Just go. You don't need.

to do this, Jeff, and we don't need you to do this. Lombardi and I did a video a couple weeks ago, and Lombardi said that he thinks that in the same way players sometimes just get too much money and sort of lose sight of their goals playing wise, he thinks that that happened with Jeff Fisher, which is not hired at 38 to be the head coach of the Oilers. But it's not crazy. I mean, at some point, you just get so much money that you're just like, yes, I'm. I'm going to carry a dog around.

Is it Montana? Is he in Montana? Can we get confirmation on that? I don't know, but I just, I'm on Jeff Fisher's profile reference page. Jeff Fisher's first challenge. It's Montana.

Montana, okay, good to know. Jeff Fisher's first challenge was on October 10th, 1999. He challenged a pass from Stony case that was complete to Patrick Johnson for 14 yards.

That was upheld. That's great. did not win the challenge. Patrick. Patrick Johnson, the, is that the USC guy? No, he went to Oregon. He was on the Ravens.

I do not remember him at all. I'm sorry. I should have known what Stony case. But of course, Jeff Fisher's first challenge ever was not overturned. I don't know who that is. I don't know who any of these people are.

No, Stony case, I remember. Wow. I know, no, I know who Stony case is. How could you forget Stony case? Of course. I mean, that would be travesty. All right. It's time for my ringer of the week. This one is not very difficult to understand.

It's pretty obvious. But Aaron Donald is really, really, really good. Danny wrote about it on Sunday night. I just think that he's the best player in the league. Like, I don't know if that's that hot of a take anymore. I don't know if it's that controversial. I think he's better at what he does than anyone else is at what they do. I just don't think there's a way to stop him anymore.

every single game. He is disruptive in just a ridiculous way. And he can do it from anywhere. He's just splitting double teams left and right. He had 10 pressures on Sunday. I don't care who it is. Again, this is the they get paid two argument. It doesn't matter that it's the Seattle offensive line.

He plays against the Seattle offensive line every year. And it's not necessarily this. I mean, I just don't understand how he does this. And like playing against him, guys are afraid, right? You have to be. I just can't imagine what like the hour before the game is. It's like that story that Gary Smith did of the TCU team that was about to play Jim Brown.

And he wrote about the picture of them in the locker room beforehand. I essentially think that any offensive line meeting the week that you're playing Aaron Donald looks like that. Because I don't know why it wouldn't. That's a great Gary Smith article. But listen, Pete Carroll said this the other day, which is essentially exactly what you said, which is you can't take him out of a game. No, there's nothing you can do. He'll just split a double team.

There's nothing you can do. I would like to see, you know what I would, you know what I would like to see? I would like to see Bill Belichick in a big game against Aaron Donald. Yeah. And guess what, buddy? I might. We might.

We might. That's a realistic. That is realistic. That can happen. He took a, a ram superstar out of a game. 17 years ago. That's very true, man.

That'd be awesome. What I mean by that is just, you know, Mr. matchup, Bill Belichick, against a guy who seems matchup proof and scheme proof at this point is a really interesting proposition to me. Yeah, I agree.

It was funny, you know, they're going to do that stuff to Antonio Brown and we knew they were. And it was kind of sad and like a little bit cruel that on the play, Antonio Brown got hurt. He was the second option on that play action pass. but he redirected his route back inside and suddenly became the best opportunity.

That's what makes him so good. And that it's not that, oh, Juju can play a little bit, so we'll probably be okay. He's literally unstoppable because it's not just that he can roast you on any given route, which he can, by the way. But it's that when the play breaks down, he always knows the exact right place to be. It makes him unstoppable. And I think that was a really, like, telling moment that the play he got hurt on, that's what happened. It was just kind of weird. It was like, oh, God, of course Antonio Brown's going to get hurt on this play,

where he almost scored a touchdown in a way that he never, ever should have. The entire Steelers offense fascinates me. And I think that, like you said, Juju is a really interesting wrinkle. And I think that, I mean, one of the things, I think Brown's injury, I did a pod with Bill and his dad on Friday. and Bill's dad pointed out that, you know, Levy on Bell went out in the first quarter of the last, the last matchup between the Steelers and the Patriots.

And now Brown goes out this time. And I'm intrigued to see the next time they play, and I think they will play how they match up and crunch time and what the Steelers are able to do against that Patriots defense if they have all of their weapons. Because I felt a little shortchanged, just in the sense that I didn't get to see that, the entire full octane Steelers offense against the Patriots defense in a big spot.

Yeah, I agree. I think that it's going to be fascinating. I think they will play again. And I think the answer to what can they do is whatever they want. I think the Patriots are going to score a lot of points. I agree with you. I mean, they should have won that game. Yes.

They should have won the game without Antonio Brown. So it's going to be fun. Just all the possible matchups. Like I'm just thinking about, I did that breakdown of Steelers Patriots before the game. And now I'm thinking about like, oh, God, the Jags play the Patriots.

Like, what are the matchups? How is it going to go? Like, where do you? It's just, it's going to be so fun down the stretch. This season has been garbage for a lot of different reasons. There are so many things looming here that I love. If Fournet doesn't play, Belichick's whole thing is taking away the number one weapon on offense, right?

Portals, baby. What? No, I'm just, I'm intrigued to see what, like, is Belichick just going to short circuit because there are no weapons to take away, but it's just portals? So Bortals is going to throw for 600 yards. Yeah, it's probably how it's going to go.

Yeah, it's just like, we don't know what to do. We're just not going to stop anybody because it's Bortles. Maybe that's it. Maybe that's the key to stopping the Patriots. It's just to have no weapons on offense. Belichick's going to fry a circuits. All right, it's now time to welcome in our good friend, Danny. Danny, how you doing, buddy?

Well, you know, as a Seahawks fan, I've been better, but otherwise, you know, things are going pretty well. I'm excited about the coming week. Yeah. It's, uh, I just got very animated. What did you think of that alien story? I knew we were going to talk about that. I thought that was awesome.

I'm, I'm, this, this is going to be kind of like, I don't know if this is going to be like a hot take, but I'm a believer in aliens. So, uh, I think that was pretty fun. Excuse me. What? Well, so is the New York Times, apparently. I feel like we, I feel like we moved on really quickly from that.

We went from like, on Sunday morning, like, ah, there's probably aliens. And then Sunday night, it was like, that damn catch rule. Nothing phases anyone anymore. Okay. I think we moved out too fast from Danny just saying, I believe in aliens. How long has this been a thing for you, Danny? Was this a revelation because of the story?

It's not that hot of a take. Okay, let me put it this way. I think the odds of alien life existing are very, very high. So, I don't know, that the fact that if they, came to Earth would I don't think it's that weird to be honest and if they didn't want to make contact with us that actually kind of makes a lot of sense so um yeah it's to me it's like just logic based on the amount of stars and galaxies and planets out there like there's got to be life out there i want to believe danny broke the seal danny broke the seal by saying ted gin was a sleeper for

this year and now he can just do his alien takes and then they seemed completely fine How many yards does Ginn have, by the way? I think he's not going to hit a thousand, but it's closer than I think maybe you guys thought. Well, and he's been hurt a little bit too. He had 10 yards in his last appearance, 27 before that. He's at 6.78. Damn.

It's not quite as good as I was hoping. Oh, well. He was on day. I'm with you like an alien thing, buddy. Hey, I'm not saying that I don't think they're aliens out there. I just think how casually Danny dropped that he believes in them was really great. That was a fun moment for me.

I mean, we could talk about ghosts next. Let's talk about playoffs. Yeah, let's talk about playoffs. Let's go ahead and not talk about ghosts. We'll save ghost talk for next week. For now, let's dig into the AFC wildcard a little bit. The Titans and the Chargers both lost.

The Ravens and the Bills both win. Tennessee and Buffalo currently have the wild card spots, which good Lord. Yeah. Danny, when you're looking at these teams, who do you think ends up being the five and six seed of the AFC? and does any of it really matter? I think if the Ravens get in,

it could make things interesting. I agree with you. I'm expecting them to get in. I think that they finish up the year, hosting the Colts and then playing the Bengals. I think they have two home games. They're going to win those games. And Tennessee, or excuse me, Buffalo is likely to lose to New England,

who still has to keep winning because they have the same record as the Steelers. So I just think the writing on the wall is that Buffalo is not going to get there. And the Ravens probably are. which if you're the Bills, and I tweeted about this on Sunday, and people were like, it wouldn't matter anyway. They wouldn't beat the Chargers. Okay, fine. You willingly gave away a game in the middle of a season,

and you haven't made the playoffs in 18 years. You're going to miss the playoffs by one spot. If I was a Bills fan, I would be rioting right now. Well, yeah, I totally agree. That's like so, to me, it's like unforgivable that that happened. It is unforgivable. If you willingly made your team worse in the middle of a playoff race when you haven't made the playoffs in two decades. Yeah.

I mean, that's just terrible. I think they could still make it. The question is, do you guys see the Titans winning either the Rams or the Jaguars games that they have on their schedule? Probably not. And if they don't, then things get interesting with the Chargers. Yeah. So there was actually, there was a tweet last night. You know, the meme, it's like the two people in bed, the women's thinking.

he's probably thinking about other women and then the guys like thinking about some like just something terrible and stupid it was like it was the ASC wildcard picture which is just total I tried to figure it out last night I was I was just like looking at all the scenarios there's like a hundred scenarios right now that have to happen for certain

you know for just like the 5 and 60 to kind of pan out there's so many different scenarios it's like a thousand right now so I don't even know how the hell it's gonna end up awful awful announcement had an article yesterday. The most likely Sunday flex game for week 17. Titans Jaguars on Sunday night, baby.

That's amazing. I absolutely love that. That is such trash and I love it so much. So if we're looking at this right now, Marron, it's Sunday night. You know, like the intro has like all the famous people on it, like to Sunday night football.

Right. You know, like all the people we've heard of like Aaron Rogers and JJ Watt and Vaughn Miller, are they going to have to like, refilm with Delaney Walker and Bortles. D-roll. Oh, God, that's so great. So right now, if the Rams game was in week 17,

it would be a little more interesting with the Titans because the Rams may have nothing to play for in week 17. If the Vikings win this week, then the Rams are penciled in as the division winner. Minnesota gets the buy. But because it's this week, and the buy is on the table for the Rams if the Vikings lose their last two,

which is unlikely, still possible. You think the Titans will lose to the Rams because they're worse and the Rams something to play for. And then the Jags in Week 17, they can still get the buy. Yeah, they can be going for the two seed. Yes. So both of those games will matter for the Titans opponent and they are worse than

them because the Titans are actively bad. So then if Buffalo loses to New England, which you assume they will because again, the Patriots of them somebody to play for, the Buffalo does not have the tiebreaker with the Chargers. So if the Chargers win their last two, they will be nine and seven. The Bills will likely have at least seven losses, and the Titans would have eight losses. So the Chargers would still get in. It's not out of the question that the Chargers can do this.

They're very much in play for a wild card based on the opponents of the other teams and the tiebreakers. Yeah, that would be ideal in my mind. Agreed. Although the Chargers really did just blow it this week. We're talking about it, though. Those games happen against a game. Divisional games. With talents, those games happen on the road.

The problem is you can't let them happen when you have been one in five at one point in this season. Right, right. You can't afford those games even though they're probably lingering somewhere. I still think the Charger would be the most dangerous AFC wildcard team. Oh, yeah. And it really is possible that they could get it. I mean, this is not that far fetched when you consider just all the pieces that are moving around right now. Oh my gosh.

Yeah, the AFC, this is crazy. So the Chiefs are almost surely going to make it. Yes. The Chiefs are pretty much penciled in because they're going to get the division almost certainly because they're two games ahead of the charges more or less, even though the one in the standings, they have the tiebreaker. So even if they lose, they're going to win the division. A couple of weeks ago, we were talking about how much we kind of hated the AFC playoff picture,

I think. And it's actually kind of shaping up to be more fun than I originally thought. Like if the Ravens get in, the way the Jaguars are playing on offense right now, it makes it more interesting. Yes. And I think that the Bravan's getting in and the charges getting in is ideal for just the quality of the games.

The reason that I did, I don't want the Titans to the game because the Titans are bad. And the Titans may not get in now. I'm more excited for the NFC on Wildcard weekend, but I'm more excited for the AFC on divisional weekend. How's that?

It's going to be really fun to see like the Steelers and Patriots take on the really good defense of the Jaguars and Ray. We were just talking about that. Just like the specter of that, that matchup as a football nerd really excites me. And I feel like that's going to be fun. I think it's going to be more competitive than people think.

And again, I think that if the Chargers do sneak in and it is very much on the table right now, they have a chance to give some teams some issues. I mean, I think they can play with anybody when it's going right. And then what's happening with Kansas City, and we talked about a little bit with Kevin, the recipe for the Chiefs is exactly what you saw on Saturday.

Justin Houston has a big game, bothers a quarterback. Marcus Peters starts playing. again, which he apparently wants to. They run the ball extremely well. They need to run the ball as the basis of their offense. That's when they were best at the beginning of the season.

And then you have the stray shot here and there to Tyree Kill and Travis Kelsey is still very good. This is the recipe. They need to keep Smith clean. And if they can do it against the Chargers, they can do it against anybody. So I feel like there's a lot of stuff in play here that we're maybe not considering

when we're just penciling in the Steelers and the Patriots of the AC Championship game again. Oh yeah, I definitely agree with that I think it's just gotten exponentially more interesting to me over the last like four weeks or something because even like a few weeks ago like two or three weeks ago I was looking at the Ravens

like this is an unwatchable team but they've gotten so much more interesting over the last few weeks their run games really picking up Flacco is playing well and then obviously the chargers have heated up yeah it's it's so much more interesting now I'm starting to actually get excited about the AFC

Let's thank Jimmy Garoppolo collectively for possibly keeping the Titans out of the playoffs. Jimmy, you have my heart. You already did, but this is just one more, you know, W in that column for you, but I really liked Kevin's tweet the other day. It was like, just give the 49ers a playoff spot. Just give it to them. There should be like one at large.

Who's against it? I'm not against it. I feel like we should just give them the Titan spot. That's what I was going to say. Well, you don't need to give them an NFC spot. The NFC spots are fine. You just give them. I have a question.

If you give them that succeed, I guess they'd play the Jaguars. They'd probably lose to the Jaguars right now, right? The 49ers are still a bad football team. Yeah, let's be clear about this. The 49ers still have very few good players. They got Jimmy Garoppolo. Bill hasn't was a top 10 quarterback.

I mean, already, how much of a freaking home run does that trade look like? Oh, man. I mean. Why does it always happen in the end of the first? C. West. That's what I want to know. I'm sorry, buddy. That's really trash look. I say that, but my team plays Aaron Rogers twice a year. So I don't really have any sympathy for you whatsoever. All right. I think that's it, Danny. We'll talk to you on Friday, buddy. Appreciate it. All right. Sounds good. All right, Casey, before we get out of here, let's offer our lasting impressions from week 15.

What's sticking with you? I just want to loop back on something. Chuck Pagano's talking right now. And he's talking about Andrew Luck. And he just said, you know how hurt he played. He's got grit. he's not soft like everybody else. Did he just call everyone on the planet soft except Andrew Luck? Do you just throw everybody else under the bus? Yeah, I mean, a lot of those guys have played for his team. So he has a lot of experience with that. I'm not sure who he's throwing under the bus here.

The guys who don't play hurt? I guess so. Or just everybody on the planet. We're getting very close to not having to deal with Chappagano anymore. So it's okay. He's going to be talking once a week as a defensive coordinator for the dolphins or whatever. Okay.

My lasting impression is that we're here. The Patriots and the Steelers sort of kick started what I would say is a couple weeks of unofficial playoff football and then we get here. I was talking to our editor-in-chief of the ringer Sean Fantasy a couple weeks ago. We talked about story ideas and just to peel back

the curtain a little bit. We were discussing you know different approaches and And he said, you know, late December into early January is the only time that everyone agrees that football is awesome. Yep. And we just talk about it and we love it. And you don't realize it in October and November when you're watching, you know, a crappy Thursday night game or whatever. But this is why we watch. It's for the sort of four or five week stretch through Divisional weekend.

and I just, we're here and it's going to be fun as hell. And we've been talking about the different scenarios for a couple weeks now. And, and I'm so excited to get to see a lot of these. I mean, the Jaguars going on the road to play the Steelers or the Patriots in the AFC championship game. Like, that's, we're football nerds. That's, this is what we want. This is, this is why we're here.

I am so pumped up about everything that's happened. And I think that game was, you're exactly right. It was the right combination of things to kind of kick it off. You know, you have the two best teams in football, most likely going at it in prime time. You have stars doing what they should do. Gronk and Brady just lighting it up and them being enough, even against a really good Steelers team. Brady kind of being like, yeah, it's my trophy. Like, you know, you will pry it from my cold dead hands.

Minnesota and just their defense playing the way that it did, everything that's happening with the Rams. It just feels like, you know, losing Wentz sucked. And it was a terrible moment and it took away something that really defined the season in a certain way. But now that we've kind of come out of the wake of that, there's still so much here to play with as we move down the stretch. I mean, every single team that's left has something just entrancing about them. Carolina, when Cam is on, there's really something fun to that. The fact that you have Brady's going to be around, what the Steelers have on offense. Minnesota's defense can take over a game.

Keenham's just slinging rockets in the red zone. Camara, Breeze, Aaron Donald destroying games. Everybody that is lingering right now has one or two elements that can win them a game, more or less. And I just think it's going to make for a wild, wild month. And I cannot wait to watch it. Let's get it. Let's do it, buddy. All right.

That's all we got. As always, guys, thanks for listening to the Ringer NFL show on the Ringer podcast network.