The Ringer NFL Show - Week 15 Recap: Jags Storm Back to Shock Cowboys, Lions’ Playoff Hopes Rise, and Patriots Lose in Unbelievable Fashion | The Ringer NFL Recap Show

Episode Date: December 19, 2022

Nora and Steven are joined by Ben Solak to discuss the Jaguars’ comeback victory against the Cowboys (02:06). They delve into Dallas’ deficiencies on offense and project whether they're legitimate postseason contenders. They also talk about Trevor Lawrence’s performance and the Jaguars’ chances at making the playoffs. Then, Nora and Steven go over their winners and losers for the week, including the Lions, Commanders, and Bucs (28:25). Hosts: Nora Princiotti and Steven Ruiz Guest: Ben Solak Producer: Eduardo Ocampo Additional Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi, I'm Issa Kwanga. And I'm Ryan Hunt. And we co-host Stadio, a football podcast, on the Ring of Podcast Network. Twice a week, Musa and I talk about the goings-on in men's and women's football around Europe and sometimes around the world. We like to zoom in, we like to zoom out, we like to make some silly references. So if you like soccer or football, make sure you search for Stadio, a football podcast on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Think we got it? Yeah, that's good. The Bringer NFL Sunday recap show, week. An incredible week 15 Sundays in the books. I'm Norpins-Diati. I am joined, as always, by Stephen Ruiz and Benjamin Solac. We just witnessed an incredible day of football, one of the best in a long time. Three overtime games, some crazy plays, a really good Sunday night football game between the Giants of the commanders.

I log on to this Zoom where we're recording this podcast. And Ben and Stephen, who beat me to the Zoom, are locked in a conversation about Joe Lombardi's shortcoming. Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. Producer this week is not Isaiah Blakely, resident Jags fan, who would have a great time on this show, but is Eduardo Ocampo who's wearing his Justin Herbert jersey. No, you're not blaming this on Eduardo. You two are sick.

No, we are. The people need to know. It's his fault. It's his fault. Sorry, Edwarno. You have to take the hell here. No, because you're, you're, like, feeding into the Bengals fans and all the fans you think we just make excuses for Herbert.

I got a tweet today saying, how many excuses are you going to make about Joe Lombardi today? Well, how many? Herbert was bad, but we'll get to that later. I just would like to say that I always feel very bad that we don't get to talk to the producers during the pause and they just have to sit here and listen to us. So I talked to Eduardo about his NFL viewing day. I was polite and that's what happened. This is my story.

I'm sticking to it. All right. We're going to get to the headline. Ben's going to stay with us for that as usual. And Headlines is brought to you by the quarter pounder with cheese from McDonald's. That's right, folks, the QPC. It's the burger napkins we're made for. Each one famously features 100% fresh beef cooked when you order.

Topped with sliced onions, crunchy pickles, ketchup and mustard, and two slices of melting American cheese on a sesame seed bun. Order the fresh, juicy QPC. All right, so Jacksonville 40, Dallas 34. The Jags went in an overtime. Ray Sean Jenkins's pick six seals it for the Jaguars. two interceptions of Jack Prescott for the Jags. That's a week after they turned the Titans over four times.

So something to watch for that defense there. But Stephen, what was your biggest takeaway from this Jags game? I thought it was another example of an offense that has a good game plan that slows down to the Dallas rush. And I know there was injuries to their line today. But it was another example of that type of game plan, really giving this defense problems. Part of it was just Trevor Lawrence being. Trevor Lawrence, he might have escaped like five sacks. I think he was only sacked once or twice, but he was under pressure all day.

It didn't matter. He was still making plays. Really good performance from him. There was those two ugly turnovers, the first interception in, I think, a month and a half since October. Then he has the fumble late. He gets the ball back again, though, and gets the field goal. I thought it was a really good game from him, a really bounce back game.

And there was questions about him in clutch moments earlier in the season. But he was like out there smiling, and he was just, he, kept it loose. He was making throws. He was making plays. Outside of that one fumble, I really thought it was a game where he built on what he did the week before. And I think that's what you want to see out of a quarterback at this point in his development. It's interesting. You talked about what they did to negate that Dallas pass rush. This is from Next Gen stats. Trevor was 21 of 23 on passes under 10 air yards, got the ball out on those throws in 2.22 seconds. So just really, really fast. That in combination with that sack avoidance, which really from the beginning has always been something

that he's he's really shined in doing proved really effective. It seemed like in kind of taking the teeth out of the Cowboys a little bit. On the Dallas side, Ben, I know you were, you were thrown some tweets out about Kellyn Moore and what you thought the Cowboys were doing in this game. Walk us through that. Yeah. So the that, oh man, this is not good because it's a Lombardi comparison. It's a Lombardi Herbert comparison. It always comes back to him.

I've been had. I've been painted into a corner. Dack is so good from the pocket and Dax's extremely smart. Dack also, like, he knows the book on coverages and rotations and timing and everything. Dack, like, has been programmed.

Like, when they give you this, take that. That's why Dax throws so many seamboles, right? It's because constantly, Dak will get the snap, see the safety, drop middle of the field and go, all right, I'm ripping it. Dalton Schultz, I can't see 90% of them, but I'm going to put at that 10% where he can go get it, nobody else can't. I'm going to make these tough contested throws, right? The CD-Lam overs.

Like, he just, there's a bucket of throws, like mid-range twos that DAC has, a lot of quarterbacks don't have. And because Dax got that, Kellyn Moore calls offense around it. And the Cowboys have built for it, right? They have Michael Gallup as like their downfield X kind of jump ball one-on-one. player, but he's not necessarily like a speed guy, right? He's more of just like a contested cash street on the outside. They have their CD Lamb who, you know, is a downfield threat. It certainly can open up the tank, but he more so works on the sly.

He runs breaking stuff. And then they drafted Jalen Tolbert. That didn't really work. James Washington's been hurt. So Noah Brown had a good day. Is their third receiver? He's a blocking option, Dolton Schultz. And all of a sudden, all they've really got is just like intermediate guys, you know,

good route runners that gets of their spot, the timing is good. but they really don't have this like true vertical stretch element to the offense. They really don't like like shoot down the field, which is fine. It's okay. Like it's a very good passing offense. Dak executes it quite well. When the offensive line is holding it down, which offensive line had some trouble late in this game, they are surgical. I mean, at one point in the second quarter, their DAC was 17 for 19 for 200 yards,

two touchdowns and no picks. They were cooking with gas. It's just sometimes you wish they have the ability. to really stretch you out and use the full length of the field in a way that the elite offenses do. You think Alan and Mahomes certainly be also thinking about what Burrough and the Bengals

are able to do in terms of getting vertical stretches and getting down the field on you. There are other offenses with like second tier quarterbacks who get more space out of the vertical aspect of the field than the Cowboys do. And that's an area in which they're deficient. It doesn't show up too often, but when they lose oftentimes,

it's like, yeah, because Dax's trying to make this work with just like covered receivers in like the 8 to 15 yard area. And there's just not enough juice in that squeeze. So what do you, how does that relate to how Dax's been playing? Because I find the season that he's having kind of confounding. On plays when he's not turning the ball over,

he's one of the best quarterbacks in football. He again this week generated positive EPA on 60.6% of his dropbacks. That's his sixth game this season with 50% or more. more success rate this season. He's the, he's ahead of Mahomes in terms of what percentage of his plays are positive plays. But he's been, he's been throwing the ball to the other team in a way that's really hurt the Cowboys lately. And it's sort of hard for me to square why most of the time, and that was the case today,

it's really, really good. and then he does this one thing, which hasn't been a DAC characteristic normally, but he's doing this one thing that is really, really costly, and how do you think that's going to fare when they get into the playoffs? Yeah, so Mina,

Mina Kanzibian had a wonderful tweet to this exact effect during the Cowboys game. Amongst quarterbacks with at least 200 attempts, DAC leads the league in tight window throw rate. Last year, he was 24th. This isn't Dak criticism. It partially explains why so many of the picks have been tipped in such. Dax's trying to fit a football into a football-sized window, right?

The lack of separation, right? What does Amari Cooper do? Marry Cooper gets open, right? It's a big window. When you lose Amari Cooper and you fail to replace them, and you're living in a world where it was C.D. Lamb, Noah Brown, and then Michael Gallup got healthy, and then Dalton Schultz wasn't healthy.

So it was Jake Ferguson and Peyton Hendershot. When you're living in this world, and they're getting the backs involved in the receiving game more, which is nice because it's like underneath stuff and you're not really at risk for interception. But Dax's a true West Coast, right? He's working the progressions intermediate level of the field. When you're 24th and tight window throw rate,

you're just naturally throwing into less contested windows. It's going to be less bibles, going to be less tip-drill picks as the second pick was. Dach threw two picks in this day. One was second in 18. There's a first and 10 sack. So second in 18, he's trying to extend the play and make something happen. As out of the pocket, he gets hit from behind.

Ball comes out like a duck into the lap of, was it Jenkins on the first pick as well or was it Shack Griffin? I can't recall regardless. I use Jenkins both times. And then the second one was overtime, trying to pick up a key first down, tip drill interception. Paul goes off the receiver's hands in

into Rayshon Jenkins' lap once again, right? And so it's, this is why we talk about interceptable plays and turnover worthy plays. There's a lot of what DAC is getting in terms of interception numbers is the danger of tip drill, the bad luck, the issue with getting into these coin flip plays. But when you're the Cowboys,

and you go, how can we solve this? Right now, short term, get him some easier throws, get him some underneath throws, get Tony Pollard involved more underneath, get like, you know, your RPO and your play action game, get them to the flasters, which they're doing some of that. Long term, fix the receiving core. It's not bad, it's not wrong, but this is where there's a little bit of that charger's connection.

Get some team speed. Get the ability to have guys in space with quicks to open up that you're not always trying to hammer these tight windows. Because the Herbert interceptions are often much the same, right? where it's like Trevor Lawrence and the other side his interceptors are from much the same. They're really trying to hit football size windows and that's challenging to do.

The key for all of those offenses being if you get a really great separator, some of that is a little bit less necessary. Absolutely. Oh, I was also going to add, I just think that Kellyn Moore is putting him in tough spots with his second down play calling. I think that was the big issue today.

They were good on first down. They were good on third down. Second down, they just ran. the ball's too much. Second down is where it's had. I feel like that's where you see some of these offensive coordinators kind of falter and get too conservative. That's where it shows up is. And with Kellyn Moore, it's like I have this quarterback. I can trust if I get into third and four, if I avoid third and eight plus, we're going to be in good shape. So he calls runs. And they called a lot of runs on second down. They only had a 20% success rate. The average 2.7 yards per attempt.

That's why they lost the game at the end. I really think that that's why the offense stalled. and if you look at them over the course of the season on second in medium and second and short, they're under the expected pass rate. They're like 5% under, and they're 6% under on 3rd and medium. So this is a season-long thing. And I've been harping on this all season.

I really think Kellyn Moore is making it difficult on Dak Prescott by putting him in these situations where it's harder to throw. Like on 3rd and 5 plus, it's harder to throw. And you start to see some of these mistakes if he misreads a coverage, and it's easier to misread a coverage on third and long. You get interceptions,

and I think that's what we're seeing. Stephen, I feel like this is very avant-garde. Like, we always hear about first-down play calling or early-down play-calling in general, but you're isolating Kellyn Moore's performance and running 5% more on second-down than he should.

This is revolutionary stuff. I love it. I wouldn't be surprised, though, if the supercomputer quarterbacks, which I would say like, Dak, Herbert Lawrence, like pocket computer quarterbacks, I wouldn't be surprised if like a lot of those play callers

have similar second down tendencies, right? Where they're like... The box Brady. They're running too much on early times. Second and 10? Let's get to third and six. Let's get to third and six. Let's get to third and six.

We'll just execute. We'll pick it up. And that's just it because they have a supercomputer. He's always going to make us right. He's always going to get to the correct throw. We're just going to execute. And that's the great lie. The great lies,

we're just, we're going to execute. We're now at execute on every single. single play. You're just, you are forcing yourself to come to this challenge to get to this like, you know, 60% likelihood, 65% likely, whatever it is, this dice roll way more times than the other teams that go, hey, if we can just get a big play, like look at the dolphins. The dolphins go, hey, can we get you in one wrong call on defense? Can we get you in one bad look? If you do, 65 yard touchdown. What do teams with the supercomputers do? They got 12 yard first down. Now you got to do it five more times. So that's my serious thought. My, my not serious.

thought is that second down is not the litmus test down for play callers. It's first and one because the Bucks got a first and one in Bengel's territory in the second quarter of this game and ran the football. You should, I wouldn't be surprised if that was the moment at which the game turned. The Bengals went like 37 unanswered points after that. First and one. I passed the 50. Hand off.

What are you thinking? That's all this is my thoughts. That's hysterical. That's a hysterical moment. DAC is 21st and A dot on early downs on first and second down. Like throw the ball down field. If you're going to be a play action team, take shots on first and second down. Don't try to get into drop back situations on third down.

It just makes things too difficult on your quarterback. And I thought that's what they were doing with Cooper Rush. And he just falls back into being comfortable with this supercomputer at quarterback. And it's to his own detriment. I'm talking about Kellyn Moore. You guys are sounding a little lukewarm, I think, on the Cowboys here and obviously they lost, but they're pretty much locked in.

They secured a playoff spot with the losses. They're definitely in the playoffs. I think Well, they're locked into the playoffs and they're pretty much locked into the five seed, I think. I think it's mathematically pretty hard for anybody to catch them.

But where are you guys in terms of how potent this team is going to become playoff time? Because I still see them as look, the bad plays are rearing their heads, but DAC has otherwise been pretty spectacular in a lot of situations. And the defense still has players.

They are getting hit by some injuries. So what are you guys, how are you guys seeing this at this point? The defense does have players, but this is starting to be bad. Like, so, okay, Michael Parsons is a star, right? DeMarcus Lawrence is a star next to a star. I don't know what that is in terms of,

astronomy terms. A galaxy, a constellation. Star Part 2. They lost Corner 2, Anthony Brown, a couple weeks ago. About five weeks before that, they lost their nickel, Jordan Lewis. Both of them, solid players next to Trouin Diggs. This rookie, they got playing nickel, Doron Bland. Holy smokes, this guy could play.

He was awesome. The Jaguars went head hunting. First quarter, first and second quarter, every third down. Christian Kirk against the slot, Durrond, fifth round rookie, he's going to eat him alive. Dron Bland held his water, held his own tremendous. They got bland a couple times in the second half, but really in the second half, they started going after Kelvin Joseph, who's the replacement for the outside corner position. Second year player out of Kentucky, couldn't hang. The Trevor Lawrence extend the playout to his right, deep shot touchdown to Zay Jones, double move on Kelvin Joseph. Good route, beautiful throw. They eventually benched Kelvin Joseph for Nashon right. So they're still trying to figure out outside corner. Meanwhile, Donovan Lewis, safety out for this game. The middle linebacker,

Lane Van derrash out for this game. Geron Kirst, who's been banged up this year, had to leave this game for a moment and come back. Jonathan Hankins, nose tackle, who's the only big body they really have on the interior, traded for him from the Raiders to help solve the run defense on IR. They had multiple first and tens in this game in which they had one dude over 300 pounds on the down defense line.

Four down defense alignment. They had Carlos Watkins, who's like barely 300, playing one tech. And that's Osa Degazooa, 280, playing three tech of Michael Parsons. and Demarcus Lawrence on the outside. Jaguars at over 7 yards for carry. Some of that's like a Jamal Agnew reverse, but that second half,

the Jaguars were moving the football with Travis E.J.N. against very light fronts. And there's no lame vanderer solved the problem. So now you got Anthony Barr playing off ball. You have DeMond Clark, Jibril Cox. It's not, if you're going to play Parsons at the edge, is what they want to do. It's a weak linebacker core,

and they were devastated in the running game. So right now they have systemic issues in the running game at the front seven, right? This is how they've built the front to be like front four NASCAR penetrate and they're always going to be weak to the run. And then they've got death problems in the secondary. This defense is extremely liable

relative to the defense we saw in the first half of the season. That's much more of a concern to me than like Kellyn Moore and kind of the construction of the offense. And certainly as we go playoffs, if they want to make an NFC run, they got to go through Eagles and or Niners. You can't do that without a run defense. And we were talking about like the constraint plays

giving them problems and kind of like throwing off their pass rush. Those two teams are built even more so than Jaguars to run that type of offense. And that's how the Jaguars got back into this game. When they fell down 14 and nothing, Doug Peterson, the next drive, it was just all like reverses and screen passes and RPO's. And after that, the game changed. Doug was in a bag in that second half. He was having a hoon holler.

That's Doug's ideal game. It's just like nonsense reverse screen bananas. Unbelievable. And then at one point he got like Christian Kirk matched up with Anthony Barr and man coverage on a slot fade. Like, they got schemed up. And, like, that's a bad sign because you're going to have to go through Kyle Shanahan in the playoffs. And I think that defense is vulnerable to him.

Well, the good news is they're probably going to get to play the winner of the NFC South. NFC South first. So. Which if any team wants to win the NFC South, please feel free. Man, if ever there was an excuse for relegation in the NFL. stand up. There's still a chance we get one more

Andy Dalton playoff game before he retires. As we've all been hoping. You're sick, sick individual. One more Saturday wildcard, noon kickoff. No one else was thinking about that. Hey,

you keep, you put some respect on PFF sixth graded quarterback. You put some respect on his name. All right. Better than Herbert this year. All right. We're moving on before

Stephen goes on a Twitter a rampage. Let's talk with the Jags a little bit because they are now six and eight. They've got the Jets, Houston, and Tennessee left. They are a game behind the Titans who are at 7 and 7 and 7 and have Houston, Dallas, and then Jacksonville to finish out the season. Ben, you can start first. Who's winning the AFC South? The Jags, right? Yeah. I mean, okay, yeah. Jets, Houston and then Tennessee as you say, the Titans are. of Houston and then Dallas, which basically, you know, if the Jags are in a position where they're able to win this Jets game, then it's extremely likely that that week 18 game ends up being

for the division. This Jets game, short week coming into Thursday. You don't know who the quarterback's going to be for the Jets, given the way Mike White was talking in this past week. I'm assuming Mike White will play in this game. Did you catch on that broadcast that Mike White saw 10 doctors? Yes, he said he said he stood in front of. his locker and he was like, I was lying to medical professionals. He was like, I was saying whatever I needed to say. I was finding as many doctors as I could.

He was saying this on like Friday. He was going bananas. This is bad. Yeah, why don't condone this? This is not something a person with cracked ribs should be allowed to do. So, but independent of like the Jets quarterback situation and what it looks like, the Zach Wilson game, by the way, it was hilarious. He had like a 14-yard A-DOT.

It was the greatest game I've ever seen. Regardless, this. this Jets defense is very much like, hey, what if the Dallas defense, the Jaguars just beat soundly, was better, was good, had its horses, right? Is that penetration front?

But, you know, we're not going to be missing Doran's Armstrong and Jonathan Hankins. We're going to have our guys. There's a man coverage in your face defense. We're not going to be missing Jordan Lewis, Anthony Brown. We're going to have our guys, right? And so it's a big, hey, like, what you saw, you're going to see again, similar tree.

Just you got to step up. a little bit of a level up. And it's going to be desperation time. Jets have a, what, 30-odd percent chance to make the playoffs right now? Yeah. Jets are at 20 percent. This is when to go home for the Jets.

Their whole bag's going to be out. So this is a huge heat check on a very short week. I have been so impressed by what Doug Peterson's done with this team, especially like when they were down two and six, as a proud owner of Jags to win the AFC South tickets in the preseason, I cashed out that all right, we'll get them next year. I did not think they could circle the wagons on a team this young get the wins that they've won.

now it's short week against the desperate team with expectations. Extremely huge game. Shout out the NFL schedulers, man. Week 16 Thursday, I'm football going into the Christmas slate. They're like, you know who we need? Jags Jets, baby. They called it to play up this elimination game. They called this shot.

Stephen, what do you think? Yeah, I think the Jaguars are going to win this. And I thought like the Titans, they played about as well as you could expect, given their injuries on defense and they still lost. And then Tannahill injures his ankle. I don't know if that's going to limit him. I think he's going to play next week, but it's still going to limit his mobility.

And that's a bad combination for a quarterback that likes to hang in the pocket a little longer than most quarterbacks. Like he took some sacks today because he was not a moving target for the Chargers pass rush. So I think the Titans have a lot of issues to sort out. And these are issues that weren't issues coming into Sunday. The Jackson is just a better football team. I mean, all the underlying numbers suggest

they have a better point differential. I think they're better by DVOA. They're just a better team. We saw them just blow out the Titans a couple weeks ago. I think it's easy. I don't think the margin for error is as big as it was anymore too.

We know that week 18 games going to matter and we know based on the first matchup, which team is better. I will say the Jaguars, right, so they have this Jets game and then the week 18 Titans game will matter. Week 17 is, Houston, divisional game, a team they lost to this season for no freaking reason.

So you did a great job. So you turned it around. You're in the division. You can't look past. The Texas have been in it with Dallas. They've been in it with Kansas City. They've decided to be like weirdly functional of late. The dumbest most Jaguar's thing to do would be to give up that week 17 games.

So yes, I'm with you. The week 18 game absolutely 100% looks like it's going to matter. Just freaking handle the Texans. to handle business week in a week out and that's why I think Doug is just so important why are you bringing up old stuff

why are you bringing up old stuff that's in the past because the Texans have not won a game this year except for that one Not that old Titans still still mathematically favorites

to win the division but suddenly it's pretty close to a coin flip which at the midpoint of this year didn't feel like it was something that was going to happen

so credit to the Jags we'll move on to winners and losers, but before we let let Ben go, let's do a little whiteboard check-in. I'm seeing what looks like a greatest hits of NFL Week 15 officiating back there. Yes, it was defensive pass and

appearance. Chanon Sullivan scored. And then the one play that will never get discussed from this iconic Raiders Patriots game is Keelan Cole being emphatically out of bounds on a touchdown catch that was not only reviewed and stood, but reviewed and was confirmed, which

some rules analysts today, I can't remember who it was, said that confirms not a thing anymore. Everything is stands now. He was like, yeah, we don't do confirmed. And he said it, like, brazenly as if somebody had informed us in week one, we don't confirm things anymore. We just stand things. And then they're confirming.

Keogh's whole body was out of bounds. What was ridiculous? The white, like, paint from the sideline was spraying up. You can see it. It's not hard. I would be the best rules analyst. I did a big thing about rules analysts on, one of our pause, I can't remember.

But all these rules, Anas who come on and just prevaricate for like 25 seconds waiting for the ref on the field to make the calls. And so obviously it should stand, like after the actual umpire says it, I don't respect these people. Terry McClory is the only one who has my respect. He hops on NBC, he hops on Sunday night football. And Chris is like, Terry, this has got to be DPI, isn't it?

Terry's like, yes, it is, Chris. Thank you, Terry. Bring back Mike Carey. You remember Mike Carey? Are you a CBS guy? Yeah, that everyone said it was terrible. Yeah. I did like a statistical deep dive at my last job on Mike Carey.

And he wasn't, he actually wasn't that bad. It's just, that's a sicko sentence, by the way. I don't like it when you say things. Like, I did a statistical deep dive on Mike Carey. It's kind of like a DAC situation. You just had some ugly moments at bad times. Get me off this podcast. Nora, you're stuck with him for the rest of the night.

Absolutely sick. All right, Ben, thank you so much for joining us. That was Headlines. Headlines was brought to you by the quarter. pounder with cheese from McDonald's, the quarter pounder with cheese, the QPC is sort of like a QB. It's a star because it's surrounded by all the right teammates, 100% fresh beef cooked when you order, two slices of melted cheese, ketchup and mustard, sliced onions, and crunchy pickles. Order the fresh, juicy QPC. Santa Barclay is coming to town and he's delivering

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Stephen, who is your first winner of the day? My first winner is the best team in the NFC, the Eagles, 25 to 20 over the Bears. It wasn't a pretty game by any means. I think it might have hurt Jalen Hertz's MVP campaign, but he ends up making enough plays down the stretch to escape Chicago with a win. Jalen Hertz, he had some ugly misses early on. He had a couple of interceptions. But I thought when it came down to the fourth quarter,

he showed why he's such a good player and such a valuable player for this team because he has such a low floor. Because he's a good runner. He ran in three touchdowns. Whenever they got down to the red zone, they called his number and he came through. There was one that was, it was probably a bad play called by the bears. They had two guys in one gap and just like rolled out the red carpet for Hertz to score. But even later in the game,

he was forced to make throws to kind of kill the clock off and he made those throws. I do think this is going to give fuel to people like me, to be honest, that have criticized him or questioned his MVP resume and then what's going to happen when the Eagles have to lean on him as a dropback passer. Because he did look a lot like 2021 Jalen Hertz in this game. Like he was a little skittish in the pocket. The accuracy wasn't there. At least the accuracy that we've seen over the past month. the pocket presence we've seen over the past month. Those improvements we saw went out the window,

but I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. It was a cold Chicago day. It was windy. The kickers weren't kicking from long range. It was that windy. And again, he made the plays down the stretch. He made the winning play. So while it might have heard his MVP chances,

I do think this was a good game that showed the Eagles have a very high floor as a team, even when the quarterback's not playing well. They have a chance to go on the road, a tough game. Justin Fields played really well, and they still pulled out a win. Usually we see contenders like this drop games. We saw them lose to Washington, a similar game, but this time they pulled it out.

And I thought the difference was Jalen Hertz shook off that the poor performance over the first three quarters and came through with clutch plays. Yeah, it's the run game, the quarterback run game, Hertz has 13 rushing touchdowns on the year, which, by the way, is one shy of Cam Newton's record. I don't know how you feel about that, Stephen.

And then defensively, it's their pass rush. had six plus sacks for the fifth time this year. I know it's against the Bears, but, you know, for the fifth time this year, I think certainly says something. It's not their greatest game by any means, but that's the type of stuff that makes you feel like you can trust a team in the playoffs, I think,

and the Eagles, we talk every week about all the different ways that they have to win. It just seems like, I don't know if this team is going to win the Super Bowl, but I feel pretty. confident that they're not going to get blown out in a playoff game. I just don't see that happening. They have so many levers to pull.

They're like the NFC version of the Dolphins where even when the quarterback struggles, these receivers are just so good. AJ Brown, Devante Smith, they combined for, I think, over 300 yards, nine catches for AJ Brown for 181. He made a couple of big plays on just go balls. Hertz gave him a chance and he came down with the ball. Devante Smith made a couple plays. I think Devonte Smith had 100 yards by the time they were in the second quarter.

So this team is just too talented. I've been saying that for the last couple of weeks, even when the other team out game plans them. And I think that happened today. I think they got out coached by Chicago staff. It happens sometimes they're professional coaches. They can do that. And it didn't matter because they have so much talent.

And we've seen that over the last three weeks, even when there are question marks, even when they come up against a giant team that on paper seems like a bad matchup, they come out with another win. So it's getting harder and harder to doubt this team, just because like you said, they have so many buttons to push.

I'm not a doubter. I'm a believer. All right. My first winner, I'm also a believer in the Detroit Lions who beat the Jets 20 to 17. The Lions are a winner because this was the biggest game

they needed to win if they're going to make their way into the playoffs sort of similar to the Jaguars in a team that was essentially left for dead and now has a decent shot. They've got Carolina, Chicago, and Green Bay left. If they win those next three games, they're almost certainly in.

Two and one is a coin flip, essentially, and anything worse than that, they're probably out. But three winnable-looking games and the Lions are one of the hottest teams in the league right now. 20 points, relatively quiet for their offense, but that Jets D, even without Quinn and Williams, who didn't play today, is just really good. They had to essentially sacrifice DJ Chark to sauce. He had to go to Sauce Island and get lost in the sauce. He had one catch for 18 yards. I don't think they ever targeted Gardner. Win it on a 51 yarder to Brock Wright on fourth and inches.

Ben Johnson continuing to be well inside of his bag. Like Ben mentioned earlier, this was an eminently silly Zach Wilson game. A few brilliant moments. but also some really horrid ones. The best way that I can describe it is this was probably the most encouraging moments I've ever seen from Zach Wilson and simultaneously he had not one but two separate receivers on his team just absolutely livid with his performance and his ability to create for them.

So that's the Zach Wilson experience for the day. So obviously the Jets really impacted by those injuries. But no team has ever made the playoffs. after starting one and six. And the Lions seem like they've got a real shot at doing that. And this was probably the game that they most needed to have some version of their A game. Again, it's quiet offensively, relatively speaking. But I think they pulled it off.

And if they do make it in, this is a big reason why. Yeah, we're like at a point where I'm not even like just happy for the Lions for winning. like this is a game that they had to win to keep their playoffs hopes alive, but I'm at the point where I like just already considered them a playoff team and I'm nitpicking their performance. Like I come away thinking, there's still question marks about the quarterback.

They couldn't really run the ball. Jared Goff missed some throws. It was cold weather game. We've seen Derek Goff struggle in these situations. But the defense, like the defense has just completely turned it around. And I thought that was the biggest thing. And I know they gave up some big plays.

There were some good throws by Zach Wilson, some out of structure, created throws where his receiver went out and made a play. I'm not going to fault Aaron Glenn's defense for that. I think he had guys in position. They just didn't make them. But it's kind of cool to see this line team win in a different way. We've seen them do the shootout thing.

We've seen them have the big plays in the run game and the play action shots downfield. We haven't seen him win an ugly game like this. They've lost these games so far this year. So it's kind of cool to see them do that. And like Ben Johnson is so good. He's giving Cherogoff such a big margin for error. We saw him miss. on the one throw to James and Williams early on.

And then the last play, fourth and inches, wide open. No one within, I don't know, like 10 yards of the tight end and he's able to run it in. This is a well-coached football team. And well-coach football teams tend to win in January, and they tend to win in December. We're seeing that. Like, I don't know if they would, if they're going to win a game, it depends on what matchup they get in the playoffs. But this is a team that could, I think, gives the top of that conference and problems.

the defensive improvements you mentioned are really, really important. Particularly, I was surprised the Jets could not run on them. They got 50 yards on the ground on 22 carries and continually were trying to run on Detroit to just absolutely no success. I thought that was sort of a sneaky thing that decided the game was that the Jets just spent a lot of a lot of downs running into a wall. And that was not the Lions team that was on the field in the first couple of months of the season. And if they can carry that forward, particularly, even like Chicago, Green Bay, they'll get tests in that. And that would be a really significant feather in their cap if they do indeed make the playoffs and try to go on a little bit of run. Yeah. I think that Packers game's going to be big.

I know the Packers haven't had the best season, but they still have playoff hopes. they're still going to be trying to win, and I think they still have talent, and they've shown that they can compete with teams in any given week. So I think that's like a good limits test. After the offense kind of failed this one, I want to see them, you know, bounce back and have a good game against good competition

and a well-coached team, another well-coach team in Green Bay. Yeah, I think it'll just depend. I'm not sure what, it'll depend on what position Green Bay is in in week 18, right? Because I think mathematically that can still change. first loser? My first loser is the commanders.

They had this advantage built in. They had back-to-back games against the Giants. They had a bi-week in between. The Giants had to play the Eagles, the best team in the NFL by record. It was potential for a letdown game, or whatever the opposite of a trap game is. That's what the Eagles game was.

They had two weeks to gameplay, and they end up losing. They can't contain Sequan Barclay late. Now, the refs did play a big role in this game. Terry McLaren gets called for, I would say, an erroneous illegal formation call. He was checking with the sideline official,

making sure he was lined up on the line of scrimmage. I do think there was like an area of gray. He was kind of in between. It seemed like he might have been a yard off the line of scrimmage. But when you're checking in with the sideline official and they don't tell you you're off, I feel like you were hard done. And then the following play,

it looks like there's a pass interference on the Giants cornerback. he's holding the commander's receiver. He has both arms around him. Curtis Samuel can't jump, can't make a play on the ball. It goes incomplete game over. The commanders lose. A tough break, and it feels like over the last two weeks, they tied the Giants two weeks ago in New York.

They failed to protect home field. They failed to take advantage of the game plan advantage, having two weeks to do it. It just feels like a lost opportunity. And now this loss brings other teams into the wildcard chase. now Seattle has new life. Now Green Bay is still alive, like we just said. So this was a bad win for a commander's team that really needed a W.

They needed to make the playoffs this year. And I don't think it's going to happen at this point. The McLauran thing is fascinating. Because if you watch the, and there's part of me that wants to just say, all right, just make sure that you're on the line. Come on, man. You can step up. But he does step up.

He asks the line judge if he's good and then he inches forward. And then he looks back over at him. Ron Rivera's quote after the game was something like, don't ask me about the officials. I can't talk about it. I'm very curious to see what the, I'm sure they're doing a pool report there on all of that stuff. And the thing that cracks me up is that I think just because it becomes such a big deal,

the officials always stand by the call, even when it's like, we can see it on tape, guys. Like, just stop. Of course it was DPI. He was wrapping him in a warm embrace. So I'm very curious to see if we have a quote from Walt Anderson being like, no, it wasn't for reasons.

On the giant side, though, I mean, you kind of got to hand it to them. I did not think they had much of a chance in this game. If there was one way that they were going to pull something off, it was going to be with that pass rush that continues to emerge. And Kavon Tibido had... Superstar. Superstar. A superstar game.

I think the, and there's sort of no more emblematic way to describe it than he and Ojilari and their defensive front in general. They've come on strong lately, and apparently it's been strong enough that wink chilled out. Wink Martindale, like a 26% blitz rate in this game. You got to believe that is never before,

scene. Wink usually likes to live in the 40s, you know? And apparently that four man rush has impressed him enough that in this game against a very pressure sensitive quarterback in Taylor Heineke, he was like, no, no. The guys up front can get it done.

And mostly with Tibado, who you know, he scores the touchdown, which obviously this ends as a one score game. He also prevents the Heineke touchdown. He pushes him out of downs. That's a game deciding play. He won this game for them like four different times over.

So just an absolutely 12 tackles, three tackles for loss, sack. Just an absolute like, it's hard to say game of his life, right? He's a rookie, but a superstar making performance for Kvon Tibado. Obviously, Sequin was really significant for the commanders too. And Daniel Jones made a lot of plays. But this was for the Giants, I think, the Kavon Tibodeo game. It's Seiquan, like, we can all agree that the Seekwan pick was bad. It was a bad use of resources. It was probably a wasted pick. Is he the greatest wasted pick of all time?

Like, obviously, he's not providing value, but it's so fun to watch him. If I'm a Giants fan, I want him back on the team. Is it Sequin versus Jordan Love? Yeah, yeah. I think those are those two over the last five years. But Seekwon's such a cool player. I don't care. I don't care if running backs don't matter.

I don't care if he's not valuable or he shouldn't get paid a second contract. He's just a cool player. And then once again, Brian Daewa, another great game plan. I thought they made things easy on Daniel Jones early. And when they saw he was kind of losing steam and Washington was on what they were doing in the past game, they just turned it over to Saquant. And he led them to the promised land. Good game for those two.

I thought Daniel Jones's struggles late. you kind of saw Brian Dayball lose faith in him, especially on that third down when he tried to force like a quick out. I think he was like third and five, almost got intercepted. After that, they just turned the game over to Sequin. I don't think they trusted Daniel Jones in that spot.

And you can't blame him. And while this was a big game that probably, it doesn't clinch them a playoff berth, but it gets them close. Gets them really close. I thought that was a game where you're questioning Daniel Jones more so than you're feeling good about him going forward. Yeah.

Because of it ended. Because of how it ended. Because you had the clip, I think Melissa Stark reported in the third quarter or the fourth quarter, Dayball had told Daniel Jones, good players in these games are good quarterbacks make plays. You've got to keep making plays. Daniel Jones stopped making plays after that point.

So if Brian Dayball said that. That's coach speak. That's just who Daniel Jones is. I don't know that to me, the needle does not go up or down. It's just sort of, yeah, but they know that. even like, you know, they talk to,

the broadcast crew is saying every five minutes as they're, you know, winning a essentially, not quite win and in playoff game. Yeah. But a really, really, really significant game. The broadcast is mentioning like every five minutes,

well, this is really a rebuilding year, but hey, they've won a bunch of games and now they're on the doorstep. They know what Daniel Jones is. I've got to believe that. I'm less worried about this regime with him because he's just not, theirs, right? So they don't have that

sentimental attachment. Even though I think, look, he's he's played admirably, is I think the word that I will use. So where do you think we are? Where do you think we are? Do we think, like put it on a scale of 1 to 10, how confident are you that Daniel Jones will be the starting quarterback

in week one of 2023 for the Giants? How, so it just depends on it depends on who's available. It depends on who's interested. What I think they should do is absolutely look at every option to upgrade. Assuming that Daniel Jones is not expecting a ton of money, I have no issue with him as essentially an extended bridge quarterback.

If they were to draft someone, the window is definitely open for them to be a genuinely good team if they could get a good veteran quarterback in there. And I think they should attempt to do that. if that's not going to work, you can do worse. I absolutely do not believe that they should look at Daniel Jones and go, here's the franchise. But you can do quite a bit worse.

That's how I feel. So is that what? Is that 60, 40 somebody else stick with Jones? I don't know. That's roughly the range that it seems like to me. What do you think? I don't think they're like that far off from being able to cultivate an environment. that's similar to what the Eagles have built for Jalen Hertz.

They have very good pieces on the offensive line. They have to fix the interior, but the tackle spots they have down. Sequin is a very good weapon. He might not be valuable, but he's still a good weapon. They obviously have a good pass rush. We've seen that come on over the past month. The secondary has been hurt, but the defense has still been competitive. We know the coaching staff is good.

If they can just, like, add a receiver, a star receiver, and we've seen star receivers come available over the last couple of off seasons and then figure out the interior offense aligned. This could be a very good team. Even with Daniel Jones, I think they can make the offense good enough where you get average quarterback play and it looks like top 10 quarterback play just because everything around them is so good. Yeah.

I just think that if that's what you're, if that's the idea, draft someone. Draft someone too. They don't have to start right away. You can you can look at next year and go, we could have a top. 10 offense with Daniel Jones with the addition of you know somebody a few

orders of magnitude better than Rishi James, Isaiah Hodgins a word I can't say and like Darius Slayton because it's slim pickings there yeah I just

you just have to play a dangerous game which is not over committing to Jones because I think the eventual outcome of that is at some point

the team's just left going okay but he's not going to win us a Super Bowl and you got to find a way to strike that balance

but if if that means going after a young quarterback and trying to develop someone who has more upside and while that happens

sticking with Daniel Jones and continuing to improve the situation that he's in and believing that the Giants can be a playoff team while that's happening. I'm very comfortable with that. Yeah, I would be too.

Like, he's a useful player. That's what he's proven this year. He's a useful quarterback. He might not be a good quarterback, but he's useful. He's cut down the turnovers. He seems, I mean, look, they just, it's a, they're a tough team. Like, for all of the injuries that they've dealt with, I mean, I just listed the receivers.

Like, there's something worth seeing where it could go with a little bit more talent there. I agree with you there. On the commander's side, I mean, we just went through the Giants Receiving Corps.

I don't quite know how to describe it because it just leaves a little bit to be desired and it seems like whenever they get someone, whether it's Dotson, whether it's McLaurin, whether it's Brian Robinson running the ball, whenever they get someone going, it can look,

really good. That's a good group of skill position guys. But whenever somebody gets on a role, it's like it feels like they go away from them or it took until after halftime for the most obvious adjustment to just go to McLaurin a little bit more. Robinson has a really, really good first half. But when the game is getting really tight in the third and fourth quarter, it just didn't seem like they were leaning on him. And some of that stuff I just don't totally understand. I really, again, just looking at the lineups on paper, kind of thought that they were going to run away with this game. And while the Giants defensively made a ton of plays,

we talked about Tibido. Some of the play calling for Washington just confused me a little bit. Yeah, no, I think you could get more touches for, even like Curtis Samuel, a player like that, I don't think gets enough manufactured touches. McLaren is obviously high on that list. And it seems like in order to get big plays, they really have to lean into Heineke being that Yolo type of quarterback

who's just going to throw the ball up and give his receivers a chance. And it works because you have McLaurin, you have Dodson. But yeah, I want to see more schemed up home runs, ones that aren't relying on Heineke just being a madman and just throwing the ball up. And I do agree with that. But I do think it's hard because you don't have a quarterback who, you know is going to stand in the pocket and go through his progressions. You can't reliably ask him to find or utilize all three targets they have on a given play.

So you kind of have to like point and shoot for him. You have to like kind of direct him to the receiver that you want him to target. If it's not there, he's going to scramble. And then sometimes you see mistakes. You saw the sack fumble when they were in the red zone. They need a quarterback. This team is pretty good. Like the defensive line is really good.

Obviously when they get Chase Young back, it's going to be even. better. There's some good pieces on the defense. The receivers are there. They got two good running backs in Gibson and Robinson. You put a quarterback in there. You go out and you actually find one, not Carson Wentz. Don't try to take a shortcut this off season. I think you could put together a good offense. I agree with you. The pieces are there. Yeah. I don't know. I agree with you on that front. I just, even in the running game, right? Like Robinson was running really, really hard. And it just seemed like they went away from him in pivotal moments. And I don't totally get why those are pretty sloppy.

A lot of penalties for fumbles. They only lost two of them. But there was some sloppiness that I thought was a little bit disappointing in a situation where you know, you've had a week off, like you said, and have an opportunity not to seal a playoff berth, but to get pretty close. So they got hosed a little bit by the officiating stuff, but also did a lot to lose the game. Yeah.

All right. Speaking of doing a lot to lose the game, my first loser, the New England Patriots, lost 30 to 24 to the Raiders on Chandler Jones's walkoff, fumble return touchdown. The Patriots allowed 13 points in the final 32 seconds of the game. First on that touchdown to Keel and Cole that probably shouldn't have counted.

that we talked about with Ben. And then on the bizarre laterals with time expiring play where the game was tied, Ramandre Stevenson and Jacoby Myers just sort of malfunction. Ramondre passes the ball to

lateral the ball to Jacoby, who I think just brain farts or catches the first lateral and goes and just in some sort of lizard brain part of his psyche just goes,

okay, we're doing laterals now. Chucks the ball in the vague direction of Mack Jones. It gets grabbed by Chandler Jones, who stiff arms Mac into oblivion on his way to the end zone. Patriots obviously lose the game on the play. If, you know, if one of those players had just gone down, they at least get to go to overtime.

This is already after they came back from, a 17 to 3 deficit in an abysmal first half. Bad red zone performance. Blocked punt turned into an offensive touchdown for Las Vegas. Really, really bad game for Mack Jones, who continued to look sort of visibly upset with the way that the offense was running. But in this case, did very little to acquit his own sort of culpability in that. I'm not saying that there can't be blamed to go around there.

He was 13 to 31 for 112 yards. I think his worst completion percentage relative to expectation of the year. They lost a pretty big chance to solidify their playoff odds and are a real long shot now. One of the most embarrassing ways to lose a game and a costly loss in terms of any sort of push to make the postseason. Just kind of a low point for Bill Belichick. I don't think Bill Belichick is like washed up by any means. But if you are that type of person that thinks that, this is like the moment you capitalize on.

Because what were they known for during the dynasty? It was not making these plays, making the game winning plays, making or avoiding game losing mistakes. And then this is maybe the most bizarre loss I've ever seen. This might be the worst end of game playmaking instincts I've ever seen from any team. I've never seen anything like this. And then on top of that, it's Chandler Jones who catches the interception, stiff arms Mac Jones.

The guy, maybe Belichick's worst trade of his GM career in New England, giving away Chandler Jones. Yeah. And then Mack Jones, who is starting to look like a mistake of a first round pick so far, is the guy that misses the tackle and gets stiff armed, embarrassingly. So it's just like all of these elements and this one play just really look bad for Bill Belichick. as both the GM and a coach. And I'm still not questioning him.

I still think he's positive for the Patriots and having them. But like that's going to give fuel to fire people that do want to question him. Yeah. I mean, if we're talking about that, we're talking about the rest of the game, right? Because and Jacoby Myers, to his credit, was so accountable for just flubbing it. Yeah.

At the end here. But yeah. Yeah. And nobody, nobody cast any blame on anybody else. else, at least as far as the players go. Jacoby said that it was not a lateral play. It was not called that way. He knew that the score was tied.

So it wasn't like they thought the situation was different. Again, the only thing that I can think of is just that once the first lateral happened, he was like, this is what we're doing. But, you know, execution is on coaching to a degree. but it seems like that wasn't what the players were asked to do in that moment. So I don't know that we can totally hang that on. No. And Belichick, on Matt Patricia, on whoever.

The rest of the game, though, I mean, that was disgusting. And it's just for all of the things, the Patriots love to sort of shroud themselves in mystery, right? So when it's August and everybody's at training camp going, geez, what, it's trying to do outside zone? Like, what's going on here? This looks terrible. there's a lot of, well, you don't know, and we're just practicing and Belichick has his methods and trust the process and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Every possible negative outcome that seemed like it could come from that situation has affected the Patriot season. Their offensive line is sloppy. Matt Patricia is supposed to be coaching that, but he's coordinating the offense, which seems to keep. him fairly busy.

It seems like he's moments away from a fist fight with the quarterback on the sidelines at some point. I mean, between Garrett Wilson and Mack Jones, I don't know which, which AFC East player is going to win the, I'm upset with my circumstances bowl. But the team's just kind of a mess. And Max played so much worse than he did, at least in the first half of last year. I don't, I still think that the situation seems so bad that you want to see him, I don't know, freed from this system where they don't, you know, they do so little play action, they do so little motion,

they just don't seem to do the things that they're good at. I wonder if it could be better. But when he has a game like this, it seems less likely that that would be the case. So pretty bad, pretty bad all around. Yeah, he, I think he average it. under four yards per attempt. It was that bad. And I do think he could play better because we seen him play better.

We saw it last year. You have to give him a chance. And the one thing you could say, like, I wasn't high on him as a prospect, but I can recognize that he hasn't even been given a chance to succeed. Even last year, I didn't think the personnel fit who he is as a quarterback. I didn't think McDaniels got the most out of him as an offensive coordinator. And then obviously this year, the Matt Patricia thing has just been a failure. in every way we expected it to be.

And now you have Mack Jones, a second-year player who's just like openly pouting. He's almost like Aaron Rogers at this point. And it's not just the play calling, like it's the receivers and what they're doing and how they're adjusting post-snap. It's got to be frustrating for him. A quarterback who comes from Alabama,

who's used to winning, who came to this team that is known for doing the right thing and never beating themselves, it's hard for me to blame him totally. But I do think the one thing you can say after these two years, obviously there's a couple more weeks left, is that maybe he's not the type of quarterback who can elevate those around him, and that's what you want in the first round pick.

So I think it could be both things. You could be disappointed in what he's become, but at the same time, you can recognize not a lot of quarterbacks are going to succeed in this situation, especially those that are a little more dependent on what's around them. and don't have the physical talent to overcome that. Woof. All right.

Next winner? My next winner is the Kansas City Chiefs. They win in overtime, a game that was a lot closer than people expected. I think the pregame line was like 14 and a half. They end up going in overtime with the Texans. But this was like a weird game in that Patrick Mahomes was as good as I've seen him this year. I think at one point,

he completed 20 passes in a row. He only threw five incompletions on three. 41 attempts, 336 yards, two touchdowns. But this was a game, and we've seen these games from the Chiefs before in the past, where they just kind of beat themselves with penalties, with mistakes. Isaiah Pacheco had a fumble. He had a botched pass protection pickup where he gave up a sack. Juju Smith-Schuster fumbled.

There were some questionable calls that extended some drives for the Texans. There was just like a perfect storm of mistakes that led to this game being close, even though you got this master class performance from Patrick Mahomes. The defense was good enough. they shut down the run game for the Texans. They limited Davis Mills. They forced him into some mistakes, including the game losing fumble in overtime,

which Frank Clark forced. But I'm not worried about the Chiefs. Like on paper, you would see that they barely beat the Texans and they needed overtime to beat the worst team in the NFL. But they looked good. The offense looked good. The defense was fine. There were some issues tackling.

There were some penalties on key third downs. but other than that, this was a team that looks like it's hitting its stride, at least on offense as they head towards the playoffs. I would not be fooled by the score. They dominated this game. The Texans were very lucky to be in it. Kansas City, I still feel good about them. I still feel like they're either the best team in the AFC or they have to compete with the bills for that title.

Yeah, I mean, and they held Houston until 1.24 yards for play, right? and they still were experimenting with the quarterback platoon with Mills and Jeff Drisco a little bit. And that was effective against the Cowboys. And they seemed kind of like similar games, right? Because this Texan team suddenly kind of frisky is hanging in these contests with much better competition. But when you actually look at it, they were far, far, far more effective against Dallas. They had 4.34 yards per play there. So it really was just kind of a fluky turnover thing.

Obviously, we've seen, as you said, a little bit of sloppiness hurt the chiefs in the past. But it does seem like given how well Mahomes played as long as they don't do that, they should be fine. Yeah, Mahomes had a 92.4 QBR out of 100. Like, he was, he was perfect. I really think this was the week where he kind of showed the rest of the football world that he is the MVP. I thought Burrough didn't play so well. I didn't think Jalen Hertz played well. Meanwhile,

Mahomes was basically perfect. Yeah. And like the only time they didn't score, they made a mistake. Like the first drive, he made a mistake. He missed a wide open MVS on like a corner route that probably would have been a touchdown.

It was third and five. So they had the punt. Pacheco fumbles. Pacheco gives up a sack. Juju fumbles. Mahomes fumbles a shotgun snap and takes a sack. That was the game. And then Andy Reid,

another Andy Reid, just total error at the end of the game. They get into feet. goal range. They could milk away the clock. They could set up a last second field goal. Right when they get into field goal range, Reed gets conservative. He calls two straight runs. They get blown up. He calls a screen pass that gets blown up. They lose three yards. They push it back to a 51-yard field goal. And then Andy Reid is his own kicker. And then Harrison Bunkter misses the kick. That's why they have to go into overtime. Luckily, Davis is Davis Mills and gets strip sacked. But Andy Reid almost gave this game away.

A game that they should not have lost. This would have been like, the Jaguars losing to the Texans when they just dominated the game. But luckily, Andy Reid couldn't do that. Patrick Mowell's too good. I think Andy Reid, I used to zone kicker, an above average amount. I wonder if I could look that up somewhere. All right. My next winner, the Los Angeles Chargers beat the Titans 17 to 14.

Chargers are a winner because with this win, they move into the seventh seat in the AFC. So if the playoffs started today, Chargers in the playoffs. They are a winner on that account, despite the fact that a lot of what they did offensively was frustrating in this game. But when they had 44 seconds and needed points to win, Herbert does Herbert stuff, moves in 52 yards just effortlessly into field goal range where Cameron Dicker's kick could win it for them. I think if you're looking for a positive takeaway other than just the playoff seating for the Chargers, it's that their defense is looking better. They got four sacks.

It seems like they're trending in the right direction there, both performance-wise and health-wise. Derwin James is day-to-day, so could come back relatively soon. And if they can continue to add a little bit there, obviously it's frustrating to see their offense just continually get down really close to the red zone and just come away without points,

which happened on like four different drives. They were inside the 40 at least and didn't end up scoring. But defensively, it does seem like they're going in a positive direction that can overcome some of these types of games, which they might end up having to find a way to win, if they want to keep that playoff seating and potentially make any sort of run. It still is just like,

Herbert, when he has to do it, when they're forced to throw, he's just so good. And it makes it all the more frustrating that they won't do it. But it was enough. Yeah, it was barely enough. I really thought Mike Rable was going to go for two

after they score that. I guess it wouldn't have mattered because Herbert drove him down. That throw to Mike Williams. according to next gen stats, 0.8 yards of separation, 40 yards in the air, and he was running 14 miles per hour

when he made the throw. And it was 0.7 yards away from the sideline. There was like a 1.5 yard window to throw it in, 14 miles per hour. That's like a, if you ran 14 miles per hour, if you ran a mile, it would be four minutes and seven seconds. I looked this up.

That's how fast he was running. And he threw it 40 yards through the air into a 1.5 yard window for the win. That makes sense. That's crazy. And he had the throw to Keenan Allen. It was like a wheel route down the left sideline to score the first touchdown, or to score in the fourth quarter.

Just an amazing performance in the fourth quarter. But before that, I'm not going to blame this on LaBardi, even though I think his play calling could have been better. It was a bad game for Herbert. I'll be the first to admit it. This is the worst he's played all year. Made some bad decisions, missed some throws. I thought he was a little too antsy in the pocket.

It wasn't a good game, but it's good to see that the charters can win even when he's not elevating them. And Brandon Staley, that's two weeks in a row where he's come out with a great game plan. He shut down, and it was two different game plans. We saw them shut down the high-flying dolphins passing attack. Right. And then this was supposed to be the team on paper that was supposed to give this type of defense problems. We know about the run-game issues. We know they're not a tough team, that we know that they have issues tackling ball carriers.

And one of the hardest ball carriers to tackle in the NFL is Derek Henry. Derek Henry, he had a couple good runs. He had a couple like 10-yard, 15-yard runs. But it never felt like he dominated the game. It never felt like he was imposing his will on this team. And it really felt like the Chargers were the tougher team. And it's been a while since we've been able to say that about a Chargers team, especially against a team like the Titans who like hang their hat on being tougher than everyone.

So I thought this was a big win, especially with Herbert playing poorly. Long of 13 for Derek Henry. he got 104 yards but he was on 21 carries the Titans average 4.7 yards per rush so encouraging in some subtle ways

even though not a banner day until the fourth quarter for Herbert. All right. My final loser is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They lose 23 to 34

but they started this game on a 17 to 0 run. It was like the perfect first half. If you could draw it up. It was the perfect first half. They were controlling the clock. They were running their play action passing game. They were targeting the middle of the field. They were getting Mike Evans in one-on-ones. He was winning one-on-ones. The run game was going well. And then all of a sudden, the Bengals get that last field goal before the half. They cut it to 17 to 3. And then they scored 31 more

points in a row. The Buccaneers turned it over on four straight possessions to start the second half. The first one technically wasn't a turnover, but they fumbled a fake punt snap. And that gave the Bengals the ball within their own 20-yard line, or in the red zone. But four times the Bengals started a possession on the buck's side of the field. They end up scoring all those points in a row, and that's the end of the game. But I really felt like during that first half,

you heard Tony Romo talking about it was like, oh, like the bucks have figured it out. They're starting to push the right buttons just in time for the playoffs, and then they come out and have the worst possible half. This half looks like what we saw over the first half of the season. And I think this was the week where you realized, okay, I get Tom Brady has done a lot of miraculous things throughout his career and he's turned things around. I just don't think this team hasn't. And they're starting to get a little healthier.

I know they're still missing Vita Vayaa. They're still missing Jemel Dean, but they got Antoine Winfield back. They got Logan Ryan back. Their defense was playing really well. Carlton Davis was competing with Jamar Chase. This was a game they should have won and they let it get away and they let it get away in an embarrassing fashion with unforced errors. I, really think this game is more about the bucks than the bangles. I don't think we learned a lot about the bangles just because, one, the offense wasn't on the field for a lot of plays in that first half.

So I can't really even blame them for bad offensive performance. And then two in the second half, they're really just gifted points with the turnovers in the short fields. So it was a little concerning that the Bengals couldn't run because we've seen them be a really good run team. They've been one of the more efficient units in the NFL over the last month and a half. So maybe that's a concern going forward. But for me, this is about the Bucks and this is about the end of the Nair.

And I really think this Bucks team, this is it. I don't think they're going to win a playoff game. I don't think they have it in them to go on a run. They just don't have the guys anymore. They don't have the speed. They don't have the talent. It's just not scary playing them. So I'm with you that I don't believe in this Bucks team.

But it's, I think they have the first half happened. Right? Like that happened. I just am so, this coaching stuff, I think, it's done such a bad job. The answers seem obvious, and they just don't, they started to do it, right? Like, in the second half, the Bengals were able to get so much more pressure on Brady, and it's because they went away from play action, motion,

the things that always help him and the things that can help them overcome for their weaknesses on the offensive line. I just don't understand why they went away from that stuff, when they started running it a lot more on early down. again in the second, which has just been a really, really frustrating thing about their offense. I believe that they could be a lot better

and it would not be that hard to do, but they just seem to refuse to. And if you can't take the positive feedback of jumping up to a 17 to nothing lead and to stick with the things that are working, I just don't know when we should expect that they're going to sort of wake up and do it.

This is one of the worst coach teams in the league, I think. And this is like year three of us, like, questioning the offense and whether it's set up in the right way to take advantage of Brady. Like, we have these same questions about play action and motion in year one. They ended up, like, fixing it and winning the Super Bowl. But then the next year, you would think they learned that lesson

and they would apply it to the offense again. But same question marks last year. And then same question marks in year three with this offense. Yeah, I mean, I think it's got worse. Yeah, it's a poorly coach team. There's no way around it. That's what. And then.

this was like the ideal game for them. They've had problems protecting Tom Brady. Sam Hubbard was out. Hendrickson was out. The Bengals didn't have their two edge rushers. And then Joseph Asai comes in and dominates the game. He made like three game changing plays. Like they can't block anybody.

It's tough. I don't see how they turn this around. Even if they start calling the play action passes, I don't think the talent is there anymore. I just think they've aged out of it. All right. Well, continuing our segment of Nobody wants to win the NFC South.

Last loser of the day for me is the Falcons who lost 21 to 18 to the Saints. They're losers here because I think they, of anybody in the division, had the most to gain if they could have moved to 6 and 8 with a win instead of being 5 and 9 right now, particularly with the Bucks also losing.

this was Desmond Ritter's debut. It was okay. Not very good, but not horrible either. He was 13 of 26 for 97 yards, so not a lot of production. He did kind of settle into the game a little bit, started off with four straight incompletions and managed to pick things up. But overall seemed like he was processing kind of slowly. Maybe that picks up over time and with a few more reps. So, you know, I think certainly too soon to make a lot. any sweeping judgments there. But somebody's going to have to win this division. Atlanta had an opportunity to seize a little bit of position here. Didn't get it. Saints end up winning, but the Saints are also in that five and nine cluster as well as the Panthers. So we'll see, but someone's got to do it.

If the Saints didn't blow that lead against the bucks, they're in first place right now. A couple weeks ago. Just everybody in this division is a loser, essentially. Yeah. Just every chance they have to clinch, like, to build some padding in the standings. They never do it.

But like Ritter, this is a key stretch for him. I really feel like his career, his career might be on the line. That sounds dramatic, but this team is, hear me out. Hear me out. This team is seventh in draft order right now. If they lose out, they could potentially go into the top five.

If he has like three ugly games in a row, they're drafting a quarterback. But if he plays well over the next three games, I really think he can lock down being the week one starter. I think he should be given that opportunity. I really liked him as a prospect. I was surprised he didn't even go in the first round. But I think he needs to earn that shot.

If he has four bad games in a row to end the season and they have a top five pick, I really don't think he's getting another shot to start for this team. I think Arthur Smith just wants like, a sort of boring adult quarterback. I think he'll give them a shot. But look, to your point, the thing that as I'm going,

they're losers because they could have played themselves into a real shot at winning the division, and that's probably not going to be possible, is it even worth it, right? No. If you get in there, your draft position slots in amongst the playoff teams.

So that's a real big difference. And I don't know, at a certain point. 10 picks at least. Yeah. It's, you know, it's a third of a round, right? And God forbid you win a playoff game. Nightmare scenario. I don't know that they would have to worry about that.

But it may not be worth it. Maybe the Falcons are winners. Yeah. Just let the Panthers make the playoffs. Like, does Brady want to embarrass himself on national television? Just let the Panthers make the play. Like Tom Brady, Tom Brady playing on Nickelodeon. Come on now.

That's no way to end your career, Tom Brady. But the Panthers playing on Nickelodeon. This is you admitting that you're still a Panthers fan. Yes. Sam Donald was born to play on Nickelodeon. That man deserves an MVP. It's been a long time coming. All right.

I think that's it for us. This is usually when we do our non-headline story of the week. I think we've had so much to discuss that we'll just keep it quick. But I do have a question for you, Stephen. Did you watch the World Cup final this morning? I did. Yeah. Without a professional obligation to watch football and stay up to date on the football games,

when Fox was like, depending on the timing of the celebration, we're going to cut away to Bears Eagles or whatever it was. Would you have double screened it? Would you have stayed on World Cup coverage? Would you have just been like, nope, sorry, 1 p.m. It's football time. Goodbye soccer. See in four years. I was thinking about that.

The game I had on my TV was Cowboys Jaguars. I think I would have turned it to Jaguars Cowboys without even second screening it. I would have figured it out later. Who cares? It's the World Cup. I'm not going to see the final score. I appreciate your honesty. It was a great game though.

It was a great game though. But even that game, like maybe the greatest World Cup final ever didn't hold a candle to Jack's Cowboys. I appreciate your honesty. All right, this has been the Ringer NFL Sunday recap show. I'm Nora. Thank you to Stephen. Next up on the feed is Sheel and Ben with Extra Point Taken, their deep dive of week 15. Thank you to Eduardo Ocampo for production on this episode and to our Junoomgapal for additional production supervision.