The Ringer NFL Show - Week 15 Recap: The Bills Roll the Cowboys, Purdy's MVP Candidacy, and the Texans Grind Out a Win in OT | Dual Threat
Episode Date: December 18, 2023Nora and Steven recap Week 15, starting with the Bills' impressive win over the Cowboys. They talk about why the Bills' running game was so successful, what happened to the Cowboys, Dak Prescott’s M...VP candidacy, and more. Then, they run thorough their winners and losers of the week, including the Ravens, Bears, Niners, Falcons, and more (11:24). The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming, please checkout theringer.com/RG to find out more or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Hosts: Nora Princiotti and Steven Ruiz Producer: Isaiah Blakely Social: Kiera Givens and Eduardo Ocampo Additional Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal and Conor Nevins Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Hello and welcome to Full Threat.
I'm Norfolk Yachti.
I'm Steve McAree.
And it is Sunday night of week 15.
We are here to break down all of this week's games, all this week's Sunday games, at least.
But got some decent action Saturday.
And then we're gearing up for what should be an interesting Monday night football game.
Of course, we'll have that all covered on the feed throughout the week.
we are going to start with the headline game, and that is Bill's Cowboys.
The Bills continuing their push towards making the playoffs and potentially making some noise,
beat Dallas 31 to 10 ending a hot streak for the Cowboys and continuing some of Dallas's
struggles on the road.
Stephen, what was your biggest takeaway from this one?
The fact that they couldn't stop the run at all, the fact that they got bullied on the road
in a big spot.
And I thought after the Eagles game,
we were ready to put to bed, like the questions,
are these the same cowboys?
Like, when is it going to add?
When is the other shoe going to drop?
And the other shoe dropped.
And there's no way to like push back against that
without acknowledging that the Mike McCarthy,
like the dark cloud of Mike McCarthy hanging over this offense.
And even like, I'm a DAC supporter,
but even DAC has these games in him where he looks like a quarterback
that you can't, like, believe in.
And that was certainly one of those games.
I don't put this on McCarthy as much as I put it on deck.
Just from the live viewing, I didn't think he played a good game.
I thought he played a very poor game.
And I thought the defense didn't adjust.
And I thought those were the two main problems, was the defense not adjusting to the run
game of Buffalo.
And then Dak not playing his best game.
With Dak, what did you think was up with him?
He finishes 21 of 31 for 134 yards with an interception.
I believe at the time when Buffalo sat their starters.
in the fourth quarter,
the Cowboys had something like
115 total net yards.
I give some credit to this Bill's defense
that somehow, even though they are out like five key
starters at this point in the season,
is holding it together.
But what did you see from DAC that was contributing
to their inability to move the ball?
I mean, I think part of it was the game script.
They fell behind early.
And Buffalo was just able to play a lot of zone coverage,
a lot of, like,
conservative zone coverage and we're putting a roof over your passing game and you've got to
throw underneath. And being able to get out ahead, you couldn't see them. You never,
they never had to like take these risks with play calling on defense. They never really had to
blitz. They never really had to play man coverage. And I think like it's hard to create explosive
plays. And when you fall behind, the only way to get back into a game is create explosive plays.
I thought in the second half, you kind of saw DAC start to force it. And for me, it looked like a
20-22 game where they're down a bunch of points. He's desperate. And then he throws the
interception. He throws in a coverage. And then like at the end of the game, you're like, oh, we played a
reckless game. And I really don't think that was the problem. I think the problem, the issue where they
fell behind was that he didn't play an aggressive game. They played a short, quick passing game.
And it was kind of like what we saw earlier. This was the Texas coast offense, the dreaded Texas
coast. Is it, do you think they play the Texas coast on the road or something where they
get out of Texas and they're like, we got to, we got to bring a little bit of our local flavor.
We got to wrap it.
Yeah.
Let's bring it back.
I don't know what it is.
There's seven and no at home.
They score almost 40 points per game when they're in Dallas.
And then this Cowboys team has been three and four on the road.
They've, they've scored about half of that.
And again, I give a ton of credit to this bill's defense for not completely falling apart.
But they're not doing that with their, with the guys who.
they want to go to bat with.
They've been really, really injured this season.
They're still finding a way to hold it together.
It's Greg Russo.
It's Ed Oliver.
It's Leonard Floyd.
They're combining to sack DAC three times.
Obviously, the Zach Martin injury contributed, I think, to some of that Dallas
offensive line struggling a little bit and DAC maybe pushing as the game wore down.
I suppose in.
fairness, we should mention that while Dack didn't have all that much to say for himself in terms
of offensive output, Josh Allen threw for 94 yards in this game. He said after the game that
it was like it was like getting an A on a school project that you didn't do any of the work
for because all of a sudden the Bill's run game just totally emerged. James Cook ran for
179 yards on 25 carries.
Where did the run game come from?
I don't know, but it was on outside runs.
And 10 of his carries for 82 rushing yards came on outside runs to the left.
And that was something they attacked over and over again.
Total, he had 14 carries on outside runs for 113 yards.
So, like, that was the game.
And it wasn't, there were a couple, like, creative run calls by Joe Brady.
I don't want to take anything away from him.
But it just felt like they realized, wait, we could just run like,
inside and outside zone all game long, and they're not going to be able to do anything about it.
And I think part of that was Josh Allen being on the field. And like, that's the main concern.
And I think they wanted to play a lot of man coverage and they wanted to force tight window
throws. And they kind of gave up defense of the run game because of that. I think it was like
a conscious decision to sacrifice that. So the bills in terms of the playoffs, maybe let's start in the
Dallas side actually. The implication here, I believe, really has more to do with where the Eagles are,
because the Eagles can now afford to lose a game against either the Cardinals or the Seahawks
and still end up winning the division. If both teams somehow end up 13 and 4, they would be
tied in wins, head to head and division games, but the Eagles would end up winning by strength
of victory.
So in terms of that NFC East race, the result here is pretty significant.
Buffalo, obviously, they didn't have to win this game.
Their last three are pretty gentle.
It's Chargers, Patriots.
And then that Dolphins game, the final week of the season, could end up being for the division.
It's actually possible.
And regardless, just an impactful result for Buffalo, I hate making predictions with the
Bills.
They're such a chaotic team.
But it really just feels like this team deserves to be in the playoffs.
Because when they are on, they're really fun to watch.
And the fact that they can do this to a Dallas team that has had ups and downs,
but can be really dominant just, just makes me think like,
Come on.
We got to get this team in the playoffs.
Somehow, some way, let's make it happen.
And it seems like they're making it happen for themselves.
Yeah.
They need the Cowboys to win next week to have a chance at the division.
And that's a tough ass, especially after what we saw with that run defense,
going up against a Miami run game that has been good all year long.
And when that Miami run game is going, it's really hard to stop their passing game also.
So, like, it seems like on paper I think Buffalo can get back into it,
but I just don't think it's going to happen.
they just there's no margin for error.
I hope that last game matters though.
I think I hope I do too.
It would just be so much fun.
But you're,
and you're talking about the AFC East because it feels like the wild card.
It's such a jumble right now, obviously,
but they just seem like they seem focused.
It seems like they've got whatever screw is sometimes just a little bit loose with this team.
At least temporarily tightened.
And maybe I will totally regret that.
But again, clearly when this team is on, they're capable of playing a really competitive game against a good team.
And I'd like to see it in the playoffs.
All right.
Anything more from this or should we get to winners and losers?
One thing.
The Cowboys did not complete a single pass in the middle of the field over 10 yards.
Only one attempt.
And that attempt was almost intercepted in the fourth quarter.
I think that like is a real issue.
And like, I don't want to say like, I don't think Buffalo laid a blueprint, but like this is how you have to play them.
You have to take away the middle of the field.
And I thought them not playing man coverage allowed them to do that.
Just flood that middle with zone defenders.
That's what happened.
That's so interesting.
And again, I do, I do think that what they've managed to do defensively is impressive because they're doing that with, you know, Torell Bernard.
This is, that's the type of thing that earlier in the season when Matt Milano was healthy, when they had all their starters, we were.
were saying, oh my gosh, you know, look at that Miami game. Look how smart they were about taking
away the middle of the field. That was the type of thing that I didn't think they were necessarily
going to be able to pull off at this point with the number of injuries that they've dealt with. And it's
obviously not as potent as it was at the beginning of the year. No team can say that. But I do think
that they're really hanging in there. And, you know, that's, that's the name of the game at this point
in the season. Nobody is totally healthy. And I think they've done an impressive job. Yep. All right.
Quick break. Come back. Winters and losers.
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for winners and losers. Stephen, will you start us with your first winner?
My first winner is the Baltimore Ravens. They beat the Jaguars 23 to 7 on Sunday night.
Lamar Jackson's really the winner here. I think in a week where Josh Allen didn't put up numbers,
Dak Prescott has a bad game. I think he's the guy that kind of steps into the void of the
challenger to Brock Purdy, who I think like Brock Purdy separated himself from the pack. I don't
think Brock Purdy deserves to win it, obviously, but I think at this point he's going to win it if
he continues on his pace.
what it looks like. But Lamar, like tonight, like this was the best opportunity. He had this,
this platform. And then you saw after the game, his numbers weren't great. I don't even know what he
threw for, like 170 yards, 70 or 90 rushing yards. But watching the game, he was just in total
control. And it wasn't an easy game for them. He was pressured 45% of the time. And he was only
sacked four times, I believe. But he was able to create and he averaged nine yards per attempt
under pressure. And then we saw what he did in the run game. We saw.
how he closed out the game with his legs.
We saw what he did with his arm, just the sidearm deliveries.
The past Isaiah likely after he got out of pressure.
Just a great performance.
He had like Chris Collinsworth giggling the whole night.
Giddy, absolutely giddy, just a giddy Collinsworth.
It really was an amazing performance to watch, though,
because as you said, he faced all that pressure who's sacked four times.
It still felt kind of like they couldn't bring him down.
Like somehow both of those things.
things were true. There were some really critical sacks. The times it felt the most like the
Jags could have gotten back in that game and made something of it were like that the drive out
of halftime when it felt like Baltimore was really cooking and they end up getting them to punt
with a key sack and then scored points on the following possession. It felt like that's in some
always what was working for them, but then other times it was just he would extend plays.
He was scrambling.
It just seemed like no matter how much they closed in, it was really, really, really hard to
finish those plays.
That 49ers Ravens game on Christmas Eve, I wonder if that ends up kind of being for the MVP
award because it's a narrative thing.
I do think at this point, just the statistical case that Purdy has put together in terms of what is likely is probably going to be hard to beat.
But I do wonder if Lamar really comes out and puts on a show if that ends up being something that really sticks with people.
Yeah, that's why I don't think there's any point in debating this this week.
We have this game on Monday.
We know how much that's going to change.
I don't think there's any point in arguing like Lamar.
versus Purdy.
Because no matter what we say this week,
it's going to change on Monday night
based on what happens in that game.
If Purdy has a bad game,
Lamar has a good game,
it will flip.
The other way around,
Purdy's,
he's a lock at that point.
But this wasn't a great,
like,
game for Baltimore in terms of injuries.
They lose Keaton Mitchell
to a nasty knee injury.
Ron Stanley left the game too.
So even when it looks good for Baltimore,
it's always these little things.
They've already lost Mark A.
Andrews.
already lost Dobbins.
They just can't be 100% healthy going into the playoffs.
The Keaton Mitchell injury just stunk.
And he was rolled out with a knee pretty quickly.
I don't know if there's been an update on that yet,
but that didn't look great.
Ronnie Stanley went into the concussion protocol.
He's obviously dealt with a lot of health stuff this year.
So we'll see what happens there.
But it does always feel like injuries are an outsized part of their story.
I feel like we have to talk about Trevor Lauer.
in this game a little bit,
who when he was moving the ball,
I thought played a nice game.
And then a couple plays
were just some of the most boneheaded quarterbacking
that you'll see on a Sunday.
I mean, it's the fumble in the red zone
in the first half,
which was,
just like not forced by contact.
The ball just slipped out of his hands while he was running with it.
It seemed like.
I mean, I couldn't, I couldn't see any force that went onto the football that caused it to come out of his grasp.
And then there's the play before the half where he completes the amazing past to Zay Jones,
but then they've got first and goal at the five.
all of a sudden they're in shotgun.
He's not spiking the ball, which is one thing.
But then the ball gets snapped with 11 seconds left,
throws a pass to Parker Washington, who catches it in bounds and is stopped via forward
progress short of the end zone.
So then time expires, no field goal attempt, no nothing, no, no pass that completed or not
went into the end zone, which just like, I'm pretty quick to blame press Taylor.
and people who are not Trevor Lawrence for some of the things that go wrong with this offense.
But that that's Trevor's fault.
Like you can't.
He's not, you know, this isn't a rookie quarterback anymore.
You can't be doing that.
No, like the throw he chose to make.
There was no chance of him getting out of balance.
It was just a terrible.
And like it fit the first half of this team.
They put, they left at least 12, maybe 16 points on the board in the first half alone with
miss field goals and mistakes.
This was, I don't know, man.
This is what is this?
Three losses in a row.
This coaching staff, I feel like there needs to be some action.
Like, we're going to talk about the Eagles changing their defensive coordinator later.
Like, we need to, like, I don't think they should change their defensive coordinator.
But something with this play calling is just off.
Like, there was too much on Trevor's plate again tonight.
He accounted for half of the rushing yards they had tonight.
It was all on him.
And 40 of those yards came in garbage time.
Yeah.
at the end of the game when it was already decided.
So, I mean, it's easy to fault for, fault him because he does have those mistakes.
And like, there's no getting over those mistakes.
But there's so much pressure on him.
Those mistakes are bound to happen eventually.
Yeah, it is, I, it is sort of the easy thing.
But I mean, the fumble thing I don't get with him.
Like, it's, it's just, it's been such a consistent problem.
His hands, he's got plenty.
Arms are too long.
His arms are too long.
His hands are too far from his body.
They're too far away.
They're too far from his center of gravity.
It's like a weak Wi-Fi signal.
He's only got like two bars of Wi-Fi in his hands.
That's the problem.
All right.
I'll take that theory under consideration.
All right.
Here's a winner for you.
My first winner is sort of the Browns.
The Browns beat the Bears 20 to 17.
But really,
the winner here for me is Kevin Stifansky.
Just because when I look big picture at this Browns team,
I think the quarterbacking situation,
all of that drama,
there's been a lot of times this season
where the thought has occurred to me
at some point ahead is probably going to roll
for just the fact that big picture,
this is complicated and doesn't totally seem to be working out
in terms of the
aspirations of a team that traded for Dachshon Watson and gave him that contract and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And I would never have considered Kevin Stapansky the right choice were something like that to happen,
but he always seemed like he might have wound up the scapegoat.
And who knows what's going to happen there?
And when whatever this era of Brown's football is runs its course, I don't think that anyone's
going to be talking about a December 17th win against the Bears.
But I do think it's incredibly good evidence of the fact that he is doing a really good job
with this team because the Browns completed a 10-point comeback in the fourth quarter.
They are incredibly injured in particular on the offensive line.
Once Joel Botonia went out in the first half, they were down to.
one starting offensive
linemen
several of the backups
are not second stringers
but third stringers.
They've just rotated
through a ton of guys there.
Also, obviously,
a bunch of injuries on defense
and Joe Flacco is playing
quarterback.
And they're just making it happen.
Like Flago's ripping the ball
to Markey's Goodwin.
He's thrown the deep ball to David and Joku.
The bear's got a
ton of pressure throughout the game against that banged-up offensive line.
Flacco threw a couple terrible picks.
Yes.
But they still, I mean, the Bears' offense couldn't do anything, but they got 14 out of
17 points off of interceptions.
So Flacco gave some gifts, but he's just, he's throwing 45 passes a game, and they're
finding a way to do it, and they're nine and five, and like, that's a good coaching.
job. That's a darn good coaching job.
They had 29
net rushing yards today.
All that I said about Trevor, like, I'm
saying the Jags are putting too much on Trevor's plate.
The Browns are putting too much on Joe Flacco's plate.
But he's like, he's thrilled.
He's like, oh, you want me to throw a 50 yard pass?
Great.
Glad to do it. That's what I'm here for.
The thing with Flacco is there's a fine line between like a
terrible play and a good play.
Yeah. And that line is where that man lives.
Yeah.
He has permanent residence on that line.
That interception in the red zone, I think it was like near the goal line was the same throw he made on like the Amari Cooper touchdown late in the game.
Completely.
It's the same play.
Like I think we said this two weeks ago.
He kind of just like plays in a vacuum and like the game happens around him.
The game happens around him.
Like he doesn't determine his fate.
The game does.
The thing that I feel like hasn't happened yet in, I mean, he's had a couple, but hasn't happened yet in a big spot.
is the just like egregiously
overthrown
pass that ends up generating
defensive pass interference that like
completely changes a critical
fourth quarter of a game
and I just know it's coming. I absolutely know
it's coming. I hate how much I'm enjoying the Joe Flacco
experience but I'm loving it. I love every week of it.
I'm not sure that it's going to keep working
but I'm
personally having a great
time. And I give Kevin Stavansky a lot of credit, even though Joe Flacco is living in a
simulation and probably doesn't even know that anyone is there on the sidelines. Yeah.
Missed opportunity for Chicago. They could have gotten back in the playoff race with this one.
And they probably should have won this game. Well, I mean, they were, they were like two yards of a
bounce of a Hail Mary away from making it happen. That's true. Okay. Is that a drop? Let's,
Let's judge this.
With Mooney's drop, quote unquote, a drop on the Hail Mary, he's on the ground, on his back.
The ball kind of like gets tipped to him.
It's not a catch you expect someone to make, but I feel like he should have made the catch.
So it looked like the way that the ball was bouncing.
I just don't think that he ever had, it had a fair amount of velocity when it hits his hand and his glove.
So I don't really blame him for not totally corraling it.
If Trevor is allowed to have two bars of Wi-Fi in his long arms,
I can't complete this analogy.
I have no idea how that works.
But it seemed like it was coming at his chest with a lot of velocity.
So it would have been hard.
It would have been amazing if he'd done it, though.
I wouldn't call it a drop.
Yeah, same.
He didn't make the play.
He could have been the hero, but I wouldn't call it a drop.
But yes, there's a world in which the ending of this game is just absolutely spectacular for the Bears.
But they didn't quite come up with it, even though overall that defense continues to look really feisty.
Sweat had another great game.
But and they obviously benefited from some of the flaco, some of the flaco experience.
But the offense just didn't really have it in the same way that they have in the same way that they have.
in the last couple of games.
Shall we move on to a loser?
Let's do it.
My next loser is the Jets who have the dream is over.
Aaron Rogers isn't coming back.
I don't know.
Maybe it's still open.
Maybe it's still up for a debate.
But they have officially been eliminated from the playoffs,
which probably means we won't see Aaron Rogers again this year.
Zach Wilson also left this game.
At first it was because of dehydration.
I don't know what that was about.
But then apparently he went through the,
concussion protocol twice. And the second time they caught the concussion. And it wasn't dehydration.
It turns out. But it was going to be tough for him to get through this game anyway. The Dolphins just
pressured the hell out of him. 80% of his dropbacks in the first half. Insane. And by the time he
left the game was already like 17, 24 to nothing. So this one was a quick one. I mean,
there's not much you can say about Miami's offense. Like they were very efficient, but they just
weren't on the field for that long just because the game was already over. Jalen Waddle had a big game
with Tyree Killout.
I thought Tua played a really good game and the run game.
And I thought the game plan by Mike McDaniel really neutered that that pass rush for the Jets
and took away that advantage.
They called a lot of screen passes early.
That took the teeth out of that defense.
And I really thought it set the tone for the rest of the game.
Here's what I'm curious about.
What day of the week?
How soon are we getting the news of, oh, you know, Roger's,
could have come back.
He would have been cleared.
He's on the path.
He's completely completed the miraculous comeback.
But he's not going to be able to do it because the Jets are out of playoff contention.
So it doesn't matter.
And blah, blah, blah, blah.
Like, does it come on Tuesday?
Does it come?
No, absolutely not.
Does it come on the McAfee day?
Or do we get it closer to the weekend?
Like, what's the time?
Friday newsdom?
No, what's the opposite of a Friday news dump?
That's what Aaron Rogers likes.
He's going to do like it.
It's going to be like half time of Monday night.
There's going to be a Hail Mary at the end of the game
and Roger's going to be like, I'm not coming back.
Look at me instead.
My absolute favorite, one of my very, very, very favorite stories
of the entire season will be the Jets Beat writers
all reporting last week about how Rogers made an interception in practice.
Oh, yes, I forgot about this.
I will never forget about it.
First of all,
I don't mean to call out the Jets beat, but I need to know who threw the pass.
Like, that's burying the lead.
That should be the lead.
That's more important than Aaron Rogers getting the pick.
Who threw the past?
And please tell me it was Zach Wilson.
Yeah, we know the answer to that.
Yeah, we do.
We do.
It's a really beautiful sort of shot chaser diptic in this NFL season is going through that little,
that little news nugget.
during the week last week leading up to this game
and having the Jets get shut out
and eliminated from the playoffs.
Shout out Big Fangio though.
Good game for Miami's defense.
Since they've gotten Jalen Ramsey back,
she's been lights out.
And this was no Jalen Phillips,
obviously out for the year,
but they dominated on the line.
Christian Wilkins just dominated inside.
Bradley Chubb also.
They're looking good.
All right.
Another loser for me.
So the Chiefs beat the people.
Patriots. And I want to talk about the Chiefs in this, but this has to be a loser.
And here's the thing. The Chiefs beat the Patriots 27 to 17. They're the better team there.
Yes, that is the result of the game. Putting 27 points on the Patriots defense is absolutely
nothing to sneeze at. But I simply cannot give them a win here because the Chiefs have one
issue and it's their wide receiver group and they could not get through the game without a
significant amount of issues coming from the wide receiver position, particularly from
Canarias Tony, who had two drops in this game, one of which led to an interception the Patriots
scored off of. And in the non-drop category, he had two catches for five yards. He's already
been taken off punt return duty. I know they're not particularly deep at this position. And I'm,
you know, I'm sure Cadarious Tony's a nice young man.
But I don't know how they continue to play him.
I know they don't have a lot of options.
But this is going to be a team that goes into the playoffs as one with Super Bowl aspirations.
And I don't know what evidence there is that this guy can help them.
Or even more than that, that he's not going to seriously hurt them.
This game, whatever.
It's, you know, they still, they won by 10 points and this game was probably closer than it should have been.
But he has significantly contributed to two separate losses.
And it's not getting better.
It's the same stuff every week or at least some of the same stuff.
I think as far as I know, he lined up in the right places.
And I don't like to spend time totally piling on one player because just stuff happens.
And we're sitting here on Sunday nights and there's 32 teams and a bunch of games and all sorts of stuff is different.
And it's usually just it's coach speak, but it's almost never about one guy.
But I don't know how this is a tenable contributor to a playoff team.
that hopes to go to the Super Bowl.
I mean, it just speaks to their desperation to me for playmaking.
Yeah.
And explosive plays.
Like, they're not getting it from Kelsey at the moment.
And they really haven't gotten it from him since I would say the Broncos game,
the first Broncos loss.
Well, I mean, you can't blame him because Kelsey got mugged in the end zone.
I mean, that was unconscionable.
I didn't even see that play, but I believe you.
I take it.
The reps got something wrong.
No, Kelsey just, Kelsey did a little bit of a flop.
job and then the
broadcast immediately cut to Taylor in the box
and you just see her go
fuck that!
It was good stuff.
But no, he didn't.
But yeah, but I think that's why they
have to play Tony.
Because they need a guy that could take the ball
and score a 40-yard touchdown. I know like
Rice is doing that and Rice had another good
game. He had 90 yards.
Nine of nine for 91 yards.
And the fact that he's really
emerging and getting better chemistry with Mahomes definitely helps.
And maybe that gets,
gets Tony off the field a little bit more.
But it just, it's really scary to be in that spot and feel like someone in that role
is not just not contributing, but is a pretty significant liability.
They ran another one of those dumb plays.
I keep calling them dumb plays.
I'm over the red zone trickeration.
Like, just line up.
up and run a real play. I don't know what even to call that play they ran, but I didn't like it.
We're like a week removed from mass hysteria over one of the coolest plays that we'll see
not getting to count because of the penalty. And now it's like, don't do this stuff. Stop getting cute.
We can't take it anymore. No, that one's good. The Kelsey one, the little pitch, that's good.
The one with the line up in a wishbone type formation, you do all this stuff. Like, why are you trying
to trick the other team, beat the other team?
Isn't having your tight end throw the ball also trying to trick the other team?
I don't know.
This is not a serious take.
I like analyzing, though.
It's like my thing with the Chargers uniforms.
There's something, there's always a kernel of truth and things that resonate with us this way.
Yeah.
So look, the likelihood that anybody's opinions were going to change about the chiefs
one way or another in a significant way in this game.
were small and I think that's that's what happened.
But if every game presents some opportunity to soothe some concerns about what seems to be their
biggest problem, it did not exactly happen.
We're not getting another like chief's take game for the rest of the regular season.
They play the Raiders at home.
They play the Bengals at home.
And they play the Chargers on the road.
Like we're not going to learn anything about this team over the next three weeks.
It's going to be their first playoff game.
when they get tested again.
We'll see.
And after the,
after the Baltimore win,
it almost certainly means that
their path to the one seed is pretty tough.
I know it seems weird
just because they've hit this cold stretch,
but if,
you know,
if you're a fan of watching Steve Kornacki
break it all down on the whiteboard,
the percentages actually,
indicated that if Baltimore had lost the chiefs, it only would have been about 35%,
but the chiefs would have had the best chance of ending up with the top seat in the AFC.
Obviously, that changes, I think, in a pretty serious way after the Ravens result.
So that's a tough.
That's a, that's maybe not an unexpected result, but that's also a tough part of this week for them.
All right.
Next winner.
All right, I got to do it.
It's Brock Bertie.
It's the 49ers.
It's the future league MVP.
I've accepted it.
I mean, it's happening.
There's nothing I could, like, there's nothing I can say.
It's happening.
It's definitely happening at this point.
Like, barring Lamar, like throwing for 400 yards next week and then blowing out the 49ers,
which I don't think is going to happen.
Brock Ferti's going to win MVP.
Although, did you see that he endorsed Christian McCaffrey?
Yeah, he knows.
Like, that's what I've been saying about Brock Purdy.
I have nothing against Brock Bertie.
Because, like, when you hear him in interviews, he says all the stuff that I'm saying.
He's like, yeah, my job's so easy, man.
I just throw it to them and they do all the good stuff.
Like, he literally says this in all every postgame interviews.
I have nothing against him.
He's very self-aware.
It's his fans who are a little ridiculous.
There was a tweet today.
I'm not going to name him.
It's a 49ers beat report.
I'm not going to name them.
Uh-oh.
They asked, is Brock Brady the best quarterback in the NFL by far?
Or something along those lines.
That was the question, the sentiment.
It was basically like,
Them saying like, yes, he is.
Yeah, this Mahomes guy stinks.
It doesn't matter.
He threw four touchdowns today.
He averaged like 10 yards per attempt again.
12 A dot.
He's not even checking down.
This game solidified his MVP case in my mind,
but this game was also about Christian McCaffrey.
And this should have been the game where we were like,
all right, Christian McCaffrey might be the MVP of this team.
He certainly was of the game.
He just dominated from start to finish.
From the very first drive, you could tell this,
was going to be a Christian McCaffrey game.
He has seven touchdowns gets the Cardinals this season in two games.
Seven.
He had 115 yards on the ground, a touchdown.
72 yards through the air, a touchdown.
I thought Brock Purdy played well.
Like, he didn't have much to do, but the plays he had to make, he made.
So credit for him.
But there is another red flag from this game for the 49ers.
It's the run defense again.
The Cardinals ran for, I think it was 260 yards on the ground.
a lot of explosive running plays.
Arizona's run game is kind of underrated,
but this is a growing concern for the 49ers.
It looked like they may have figured it out a couple weeks ago,
but we're back in the same spot.
If there's any team that's going to test that problem,
it's Baltimore and Lamar Jackson,
so we'll find out next week.
Yeah, I'm so excited for that game.
I really, really hope that the health stuff for Baltimore
ends up being as inconsequential as possible.
Same thing with San Francisco because they've had a lot of guys sort of like on and off the injury report and questionable.
And obviously they were missing Hargrave and Eric Armstead.
And I think that was part of why they couldn't slow the Cardinals run game down too much.
I guess it was the first time they'd given up more than 200 yards on the ground since 2017, which seems kind of significant.
And yeah, it's not exactly what you want going into a game against Baltimore.
But I'm just so excited for that, for that game.
In terms of the NFC, it really feels like there's some pretty unquestioned dominance for the 49ers.
Yeah.
I don't know who's close.
It's definitely not the Cowboys.
And I didn't think that before this week, just because of how they match up.
And we've seen that movie before.
but like what's going on at Philly
that team's kind of on the brink of maybe
not collapsing but on the brink of something.
Yeah, mini crisis going on there.
Detroit is another team that has the record,
but I mean, I know Jared Goff played well
against the Broncos, but I'm not believing in that.
And then who is it after that?
It might be the Rams.
The Rams might be the biggest threat to this team
by the time we get to January.
I don't think it's that crazy of a thing to say.
Yeah, I mean, I don't quite,
know and probably for L.A. it's shaping up to be meaningful. Rams Niners is the last game of the
season for those teams, which means that from the San Francisco perspective, the last three weeks
of the season are pretty interesting. I mean, obviously, the Ravens game is huge and then the commanders.
And then finishing up with the Rams, again, unclear how much is going to be decided, how much
there's going to be to play for. But that looks like an interesting matchup.
So it's good that we'll get to see them down the stretch against quality competition.
But like you said, it's just hard to see in a year when so many teams have some really bad loss on their schedule or a few or just the ups and downs have been have felt very significant.
It's hard to see them not just being so clearly the team to beat.
But I guess we'll see.
and we'll see a little bit before the regular season's over
and then obviously in the playoffs.
All right, my turn?
Yeah, oh, one thing.
This was not a good game for Kyla Murray.
I will say that.
I thought he was given plenty of support.
I thought the Cardinals gave him a chance to win that game
and he blew every chance.
He wasn't pressured a lot by the 49ers defensive line.
He was kept clean on 75% of his dropbacks
and threw two interceptions on those plays,
an average five yards per attempt.
Not a good game for him.
Right.
Okay, my next winner is D'Amico Ryan's and the Texans, who, first of all, first things first, they go into Tennessee.
They beat the Titans in overtime 19 to 16.
The Titans have chosen to wear their Oilers throwback uniforms and, like, deck out their entire stadium in Oilers Throwback, decals, and, like, deck out their entire stadium in Oilers Throwback Logo decals.
And all the color schemes and then do all of that stuff, which felt like a choice.
Yeah.
But Houston ends up coming out of there with a victory.
And the way that this Texan season had been going, to me, it's a huge win for the coaching staff.
Because you've got no CJ Stratt is out with a concussion.
Eagle Collins has been hurt.
They're down a few defensive starters, including Willie Anderson.
And then they've got Case Keenham and Devin Singletary and Noah Brown just sort of figuring it out.
And the game plan from Bobby Sloick was to get Singletary the ball.
He had 121 yards and a touchdown on 26 carries, which ended up being just, I thought,
a really well-coached all-around performance against Mike Reble, who's a coach who I would consider a tough out.
That Titans team just like they have a way of dragging opponents down in the muck with
them. Obviously, it was a close game. Houston wins it on a 54-yard field goal in overtime, but the fact that they,
in a season where I think they would still get a lot of credit, just for how good CJ Stroud has looked,
and for how well the other draft picks seem to be working out, and just for all the progress,
they could have hit a wall with the injuries and kind of folded, and it would sort of still be okay.
but that's a moment when a really good coach says,
we still have a lot to play for.
Stroud might be able to come back next week.
He's still working through the protocol.
And they're right on the playoff bubble.
And this is an important game.
Let's go win it.
And the fact that they were able to do that on the road
against an experienced coach,
against a Titans team that is a flawed roster, certainly.
And you're playing against Will Levis.
but there are some real names on that team.
They really, really limited Derek Henry.
DeAndre Hopkins didn't cause them a bunch of trouble.
I just thought that in a tough spot because of the injury situation,
the coaching staff really came through there.
And almost felt like a Titans win from the past few years.
It's kind of ironic.
Like you want to cosplay as a Houston football team?
We're going to cosplay as you.
It's still in a game like you guys won one.
I thought the decision to start Case Keenum, although it didn't like ultimately work out per se,
I thought like it was smart thinking behind it.
They kind of explained it at the beginning of the game, the commentators, I'm assuming they were told this during production meetings that like the idea was they can adjust during the game with Case Keenom because he's a veteran.
And they can kind of have those discussions where when you have a young quarterback, you're not really getting the feedback of a guy who knows what he's seen out there where Case Keenom, he's seen a lot of defense, has seen a lot of coverage.
So I thought like that was a smart approach.
And you could kind of see they did adjust because they fell behind early.
Kiskeenum had an ugly pick six.
But you saw them figure things out and kind of slow down that Titans offense and get back into the game slowly.
And then they took it home in overtime.
I didn't think they were going to win that game.
It looked like nobody was going to score in that overtime period.
But they got it done.
I thought it was all coaching too.
I'm very grateful that game didn't end in a tie.
One thing the AFC playoff race just absolutely did.
not need was a couple of seven, six, and one teams or whatever it would have ended up as.
Like, we just absolutely didn't need that.
Especially the ASE South.
Get it away from me.
Just absolutely, I want no part of that.
So thank you to the Texans for getting that one done.
Good stuff.
All right.
Final losers.
My last loser, the commanders, a lot of losers in this game on their side of the ball.
Sam Howell gets benched, although, like, Sam, okay, let's lay this out.
Sam Howell gets bench in the fourth quarter.
The commanders are down 28 to 7 midway through the fourth quarter.
Jacoby percent comes in.
To that point, Hal is 11 for 26 for 102 yards with a interception.
Jacoby percent out gains him in half a quarter.
He goes eight of 10 for 124 yards, two touchdowns.
It was like five minutes.
The commanders end up losing.
But after the game, like if I saw that game and I saw what Jacoby Percette did,
in the same environment that Sam Howell was playing in, they both were pressured the same rate,
the same exact rate.
And Jacobi Peret did that.
But after the game, Ron Rivera says, no, I just took him out because I was protecting Sam Hal.
He's starting next week.
If I was in that locker room and I just saw what Jacoby Percette did,
And I was Terry McLaurin who's had trouble getting on the same page with Sam Howell.
And then I instantly connect with Reset and make these two big catches, including the touchdown,
including one that set up another touchdown.
I'm like, what the hell is going on?
Can we play the better quarterback?
Because it's clear, I don't think it was like a stretch to say that Jacoby Percette was the better quarterback going into this year.
But now it seems obvious.
And maybe this is a small sample size thing.
But Jacobi Percent is coming off a season when he was like top 10 in EPA and success rate.
Yeah.
in like a mediocre brown's offense.
Just weird.
Just weird.
And then like on top of that, the sequence before their last touchdown.
Let me just recap this because that's the only way to explain how dumb this was.
So Terry McClure catches a pass at the one yard line.
There's four minutes and 47 seconds left.
The commanders are down by 14 points.
They need two touchdowns.
447 left.
They don't score.
They don't get that one yard until 10.
two minutes later, three minutes later, actually.
They do the onside kick with a minute and 47 seconds left after getting the ball to the
one yard line with four minutes and 47 seconds left.
And here's why it gets even more annoying when I actually explain the play calling and
the time it took.
First play is a QB sneak.
The clock isn't running with four minutes and 47 seconds.
They QB sneak it.
They get stuff.
The next play, another QB sneak, they snap the ball with four seconds left on the play clock,
with the clock running.
Why does it take 36 seconds to just run the playback again?
And imagine you just hold down triangle.
Okay, the next play, they get offensive pass interference.
They call this play with two seconds left on the play clock with the clock running.
So the clock stops.
Right.
They do a goal line pass on third and goal.
That fails.
Has anyone seen Greg Roman recently?
Right.
The clock is running again.
And they snap it with three seconds left on the play clock this time.
So four seconds, two seconds.
two seconds, three seconds, where's the sense of urgency?
You guys are down by two scores with under five minutes left and you're just lolly gagging to the line of scrimmage.
And here's the fucked up thing.
On the plays where the clock wasn't running, like the game clock, they snapped the ball with like 15 seconds left on the play clock.
Why were you hurrying up when the clock wasn't running and going slow when the clock was running?
They get confused.
Anyway, on fourth down, they get a defensive pass interference.
The next play, first and goal again, from the one.
It's 227 left.
It's been two minutes and 20 seconds, and it's still first and goal from the one yard line.
And they run the ball.
They get stuffed again.
They let the clock run all the way down to the two minute warning.
They let 20 seconds run off the clock.
Three passes later, they finally get in.
It took three minutes to gain one yard.
Eric B. Enemy, he's from the Andy Reed tree.
This was an Andy Reed master class.
So is Ron Rueh.
Bravo, guys.
That's all I wanted to say about this game.
Matt Safford was amazing.
The running game was amazing.
Kairn Williams again.
The Rams offense is very good, but I don't even want to talk about it.
I just want to talk about this inept team.
Like, fold the franchise.
Start over.
But here's here is one thing, I will say.
If there's an argument for starting Sam Howell next week,
it is that this team should be trying to pick in the top four.
They have Rod Rivera coach.
They're going to pick in the top four no matter who's playing quarterback.
You don't have to worry about that.
Jacoby percent is pretty good.
You can't overcome a lot of it.
Ron Rivera as evidenced by this game in that sequence alone.
Yeah, it's really, it is, it's such a weird handling of, of the quarterbacks.
But I do think that like, I don't know, I think Rivera really tied himself to Howl just because
so much was going wrong.
But when he looked like he had a little something, that was sort of the thing that he could say,
I have something to show for the season.
The problem with that is they've run into some better defenses over the last
few weeks with the Cowboys, the Dolphins. And that Rams defense is young, but, but they're
building something. And it just seems like he cannot play on schedule. He cannot play within
structure. And then just the only way to make something happen is by going out of structure. And
he's not built to, I mean, no quarterback's built to do that as the only thing that they do. And
just, just the simple stuff is not there. And he's bailing on it way to.
too fast and just seems like when the defense has got a little bit better, there was a little bit
of a crumbling, which obviously also doesn't really speak terribly well of the coaching situation,
but it feels like this is more about, there are two quarterbacks and you spent most of the
season not playing the better one, which at this point, I think sort of flips and you don't play
the better one so that you are making sure that the pick stays a good pick.
But to your point, maybe it would happen regardless.
They should be fine by the league.
For what?
For the, for the, he's got a little Brock Purdy in him, quote.
No.
Or for for hoarding to Kobe percent.
When the rest of the league needs.
I think there should be like a hoarding.
Like at a certain point with all of the, the quarterback injuries, it shouldn't be allowed
to just like, for.
forced Jacoby Reset to languish behind Sam Howl and Washington.
This is what billionaires do.
It is.
It's like those crazy art collectors who buy Picasso's and then keep them in a bunker in
Switzerland or whatever.
So no, like, no one can see them.
That is what's happening.
Yeah.
That is.
Jacoby Reset is a Picasso and a Swiss bunker.
Who was the one guy that bought like the Wu Tang album?
It was like a one of one.
Martin Scrailey.
Yeah, that, that's who they are.
The pharma bro.
Like, give.
Give the Browns Jacoby Brissette back.
The Browns went and did something about it.
Like, as much as I, as much as I sort of, I delight in making fun of things like
Aaron Rogers intercepted a pass during Jets practice this week, we all lost out by not getting
to see the Jets with at least confident quarterbacking this year.
Like, why couldn't they have Jacoby?
percent. No one was using him.
Yeah. He's just hanging out. He's a good dude. He's like the nicest guy in the league.
Doesn't make sense. But the Rams have a 51% chance of making the playoffs now.
The Rams are good. New York Times. Sean McVeigh officially in the coach of the year conversation.
Yeah. He replaced Sean Payton. Sean Payton's gone. Finally gone. I mean, they, so this,
this game, like, probably should have, they should have put this away a little bit faster.
And obviously part of that is is that Brissette came in and was able to move the ball pretty quickly at the end of it.
But Carron Williams, who's still running really well, gave away two first half possessions with fumbles.
Young player.
That's that's just going to happen sometimes.
But I think they, I think when these Rams are on and when the offense is on, I think they, I think they.
I think they could hang with some of the better playoff teams.
It'll be interesting to see.
It'll be interesting to see that San Francisco game before the season's over.
Yeah.
They played them well in week two.
Like they only lost by seven points.
They missed a lot of opportunities on defense.
They don't get embarrassed.
They don't.
They don't.
And the way Matthew Stafford is playing,
let me give him a shout out.
He had a couple more unreal throws.
And I feel like he's just stacking them every week now.
And it's part of the offense.
The offense is built around his ability to make.
these throws that maybe two other quarterbacks can make, like the side-armed, outside the
numbers, throws under pressure. It's just insane. This is from Next-Gen stats. He was 16 of 17 on
throws win in rhythm between 2.5 and 4 seconds for 196 yards and two touchdowns. He leads to
the whole NFL and EPA on those plays. So like the rhythm plays are working, the out-of-structure
plays are working, the run game's working. This is a Super Bowl caliber offense. It's not a Super Bowl
caliber team, but the offensive side of the ball is good enough to like make a run.
All right.
Can I close us out with The Last Loser, which is a team that I think I have to finally admit
is not good enough to make a run of any kind, which is the flipping Atlanta Falcons who lost
to the Panthers, lost nine to seven to the Panthers.
This is like, this game was like if a tree falls in the forest, if the stupidest football game
of all time is played in a stadium in Charlotte where absolutely no one is attending a football
game. Like, does it count? Do we just cancel it? But we can't cancel it because the Falcons,
who still going into this game had a very real opportunity to continue a push towards winning the
NFC South and making the playoffs and taking care of business with their rossom.
which is, I maintain more talented than the other teams who are their competition.
Just like, they just, they just falconed.
They completely falconed.
They falconed in front of an audience of four people.
But they falconed none the less.
There was a Bijon Robinson fumble that set the Panthers up for a field goal.
Desmond Ritter through just an absolutely disgusting red zone intercept.
it was it was like sloppy and rainy and the weather was bad and it was the type of game
where you figure that Atlanta would have wanted to lean on the run game that's what they do
they're the Falcons blah blah blah blah blah the run game average 1.7 yards per carry on 31 attempts
like what just simply what are we doing here the Panthers are probably the worst team in the
NFL. They're certainly among them.
There is, again, just like not at the sea of blue chairs, just empty stands in this stadium was
really striking, which I, you know, that's the state of the Panthers and the Falcons
who have something absolutely real to play for, just like, can't get it done.
I just, this team is so frustrating.
they have the Colts of the Bears and the Saints left.
The Saints and the Bucks both won today.
So that hurts their playoff chances.
I don't know why I'm even talking about it because who cares?
Who cares?
They don't deserve my attention anymore.
They don't deserve my like weekly maintaining that water will find the right level.
And they're a better team.
So they'll they'll figure it out.
They just they can't.
do it. And it's time to accept that.
Why didn't it take this long? I have too many friends that have been emotionally invested into
the Falcons. They do this every year, every week, every game. This is from PFF Mo. The Falcons
win from a greater than 75% chance to win the division to a lower than 10% chance within
4.5 quarters.
It's so rude. In four and a half quarters, they lost 65.
percent percentage points you play off odds.
Here's another next-gen stats.
Desmond Ritter's interception was the worst interception of all time.
I made that up, but if there was a number you could put on it.
No, I think that's on next-gen stats.
I saw that on next-gen stats too.
Oh, you saw it too?
Yeah.
Yeah, I saw it there.
It's the worst one of all time.
I was saying before the show, like usually when you see one of these interceptions
live, like one of these terrible interceptions, you see the replay and then you're like,
oh, I get what they were going for.
It just didn't work out.
When I saw the replay, I got it even less.
I had no idea.
I still don't know where he was throwing the ball.
Yeah, he disassociated.
He missed like four different receivers by five yards.
He disassociated.
I will be disassociating from the Falcons for the time being until further notice.
They've only like picked the most exciting and dynamic skill player in the top 10 of the draft for like 800 years in a row.
and this is where we are.
It should be better than this, but it's not.
All right, I think that's it for winners and losers.
Shall we take another break and then come back and finish with the take purge?
Let's do it.
Welcome back to dual threat.
Last thing before we get out of here.
It's the take purge.
This is a little, I think, sort of hybrid take prediction purge,
but I will get us started because there will be.
was a little news item from today, from this afternoon, that the Eagles, the Philadelphia Eagles,
announced following some reports that Matt Patricia will take over the defensive play calling
for the team in time for Monday night football.
So Sean Desai is going to retain the title of defensive coordinator, but he is going to
move to the coach's booth.
And Matt Patricia will call plays from the sideline.
His title with the Eagles this year is senior defensive assistant.
They obviously hired him after a relatively unsuccessful stint as the co-offensive coordinator special assistant to the head coach in New England.
So I suppose that this is a step more rational than whatever happened there.
even ignoring my take here is that even if you sort of ignore the pros and cons of having Matt Patricia call your defense,
I just like the Eagles seem to be panicking in a way that really troubles me.
This is a 10-win team that could be an 11-win team a day for.
from, you know, 24 hours from when we're recording this pod,
uh, it seems like San Francisco's the team to beat in the, in the conference and has the
inside track to the buy and all of that, but this is a wildly competitive team.
Obviously, they've lost two games in a row and the defense is, is not performing and is
hurt. And I think they have serious problems that as we talked about last week,
definitely could get in the way of a Super Bowl break.
Again, this is a 10 and 3 football team in a season where the Cowboys just got blown out by the bills.
Basically every team, other than like the 49ers, who had their own losing streak in the middle of the season when they were affected by injuries, everyone has had some real blip.
Which is not to say that the Eagles problems aren't real, but also if you look around,
there is just simply no reason to be like,
we got to fire a coordinator,
like not fire, but we got to demote a coordinator.
And you know who we need, Matt Patricia.
Right.
That's who's going to save our season.
Like, it's just the thing that I don't like about it,
actually, surprisingly enough,
has very little to do with Matt Patricia.
It's just like, this is panic.
This is what panic looks like.
And I don't know that Desai was doing an awesome job.
I think it's more personnel related than the way that he was calling the defense what's been hard for them.
But the results obviously have not been very good lately.
But don't freak out.
You still have one of the best records in the entire league right now.
It's fine.
Just like chill out.
Things happen.
Yeah.
It seems like desperation.
And at this point in the season,
I agree. I think it's a personnel issue.
And I think if your issue with the size
that he's not utilizing his personnel well
with his play calling,
like that was the whole issue with Matt Patricia in Detroit
was that he played too much man coverage.
He didn't have the guys to play man coverage.
So it's not like you're replacing him
with some ace play caller.
The only time we've really seen Patricia do a good job at that,
he had the greatest defensive mind
in the history of the league overseeing.
So I just feel like it's desperation plus
a questionable move in the first place.
And I agree with you at this point in the season.
And like letting it get out and get reported just seems like another easy to avoid complication to this.
Yeah, it's just weird because it's like you're going to go through the last little less than a month at this point, last few weeks of the season and then into the playoffs, potentially with some like real weirdness in the coaching rooms, right?
Like I'm sure Desai is not happy about this.
Matt Patricia is not a guy who has a reputation for great.
communication and interpersonal skills.
And I don't know those guys' relationships.
So I'm totally speculating.
But you head into the playoffs.
You have people who are worried about, you know, their professional reputations,
what it means for their job prospects going forward, what it means for the team,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And there's just like potential for budding heads that it seems silly to me to invite at this
point if you don't have a little bit more.
confidence or basis for confidence that it's actually going to make a difference.
Especially with the guy who's had trouble managing locker rooms in the past.
Like, I don't know.
If there is like a little, I don't think there's any problems in the Eagles locker room.
But like their chemistry has been like a selling point for them or like a strength for them over the past couple of years.
So I don't know.
It's just a little, it's a little strange with the timing.
It is also a little bit funny just considering Matt Patricia as the defensive coordinator for the Patriots when the Eagles.
won that Super Bowl.
That's a good point.
It was not his finest hour.
Josh Dobbs gets benched,
another rocket scientist emerges.
Wow.
There must always be one.
Yeah, there's always one.
That's funny.
That's the better take.
That's a way better take purge.
There must always be one rocket scientist.
Mine isn't a take purge.
Mine's a take inception.
I'm just going to throw some facts at you.
And I want you to come up with a take.
on your own.
I'm ready.
After the loss today, the Jets are now sixth in the draft order, and there are only two
games out from the second pick in the NFL draft.
They also have the 11th pick in the draft as things stand.
So let's say they get up to the second pick, and you have Drake May, and he's sitting
there, and he's on the board, and you could draft him, or you could draft Marvin Harrison
Jr. Now, you can set your franchise up for the next 10 years by drafting the replacement for
Aaron Rogers, or you can give Aaron Rogers a weapon.
We're about to be back in 2020 again.
Oh my God.
I need this to happen.
First of all, if that happens, they have to draft Drake Bay.
They have to.
They have to.
It's like completely organizational malpractice if they don't drop Drake Bay in that situation.
Not only do they have to, Aaron Rogers undoubtedly will not understand it.
No, of course not.
Absolutely not.
I'm just throwing it out there.
I don't even have a take advantage to it.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, what's the Jets remaining schedule?
I mean, they have commanders, Browns.
Commanders are one of the teams in front of them, I believe.
So if the commanders, if they can, if the commanders beat them, and the Patriots beat them.
And the Patriots have beaten the Jets, I think like 15 times in a row.
So that's very much on the table, these two games.
And then the bears, I don't think the bears are ahead of them.
No, the bears are tied with them.
And the bears have been playing well recently.
I think the bears are going to close out strong.
So this is very possible.
Oh, my gosh.
I'm totally incepted.
That's delightful.
We're going to end the pod now because that just that made my evening.
Oh, what an incredible potential outcome for this season.
Delighted that you brought it up, Stephen.
This has been dual threat.
That was week 15.
A lot of fun breaking it all down.
We're going to be back on Thursday.
And next up on the speed, Sheel and Ben will have extra point taken.
Their deep dive of week 15 following Monday night football.
Thank you to Kiara Givens and Eduardo Ocampo for their work on socials and Isaiah Blatley for producing this episode with additional production supervision by Arjuna Rampapal and Connor Evans.
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