The Ringer NFL Show - Week 16 Games of the Week, Gimmes, and Games That Need Games 

Episode Date: December 22, 2021

Benjamin, Kaelen, and Steven begin by dissecting the biggest matchups of the week, including Bills-Pats and Steelers-Chiefs, and highlight the Games That Need Games. Finally, they wrap everything up with Gimme a Reason, in which they deliver their takes on the rest of the Week 16 slate. Hosts: Benjamin Solak and Kaelen Jones Associate Producer: Stefan Anderson Additional Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I'm Derek Thompson, long-time writer with the Atlantic Magazine on tech, culture, and politics. There is a lot of noise out there, and my goal is to cut through the headlines, loud tweets, and hot takes in my new podcast, plain English. I'll talk to some of the smartest people I know to give you clear viewpoints and memorable takeaways. Plain English starts November 16th. Listen for free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello and welcome to the Friday edition of The Ringer NFL show. on a Wednesday between week 15 and week 16 because there's games on Tuesdays now. I'm Ben Solek as always hosting the show.

Join today by Kaylin Jones. Stephen is off on this one. So Kalyn, we're running, I was about to say solo with us, running duos on this one. How are you feeling, man? Good, good. I'm trying to abide by WWSD. What would Stephen do? Or WRD, what would Reese do?

I don't know. It's going to be a podcast full of just extremely lukewarm. warm takes, just general opinions, all of our predictions are going to be like, someone could win, because there's going to be nobody here to drag us out from the middle. Exactly. And take us be polarized on all these things.

I'm still canceling a team. I'm still doing a must-man game, because I feel like as an homage to Stephen, we must. I do want to say, right, the Tuesday games were played. I got to like remember which games we played at which days of the week. It's a possible. Eagles, Washington football team, Rams, Seahawks.

People are now convinced that the Eagles are a playoff team after they beat like a COVID-decimated Washington. team. I'm loving that personally because I've been here. We've seen this one before. I don't know if we should have this level of faith. And then the Rams handle it business

against the Seahawks. Jalen Ramsey does burping the baby or nursing the baby. The D.K. Maccalf and Sean McVeigh does it. Yeah. And I'll be honest, when Sean McBay did it, I was like that's not as cool. That feels kind of less cool. It's not as fun. That was how most of the internet took that.

And I still love it, though. I love it. Right. It is cool to be a player's coach, but also, like, let's be honest, he's shorter than Jaylon Ramsey. And so he makes it look like a fan, right? He's like, walk up and be like, yo, that's cool. Dan Campbell did. I'm like, yeah, Dan Campbell.

But Sean, he's too, he's too yuffy. He's a little too nerdy. Sorry, Sean. Coming from a yuffy nerd myself, uh, I appreciated it. And I generally appreciated another good look into the dissolution that is the Seahawks offense. But more on that later. Uh, we start as always with our games of the week because we are, before the Thursday game for this show.

We have literally every game on the docket. As of recording, it is Wednesday, noon, eastern time. We are going to go off of the COVID news that we have. We're going to go off of the schedule that we have. Something we say is going to be wrong, because that's where we're at right now in terms of league health and in terms of the schedule. But this is what we got in terms of Wednesday at noon.

We're going to start with one of the more COVID-impacted games of the upcoming week as of the information we have, which is the Steelers Chiefs game, a game that was already probably going to be a little bit weird in terms of a chief's team at the number one AFC slot against the Steelers team that is just so good at playing these really tough games. And then all of a sudden, there's the Chief's COVID news.

We know that both Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelsey, pretty much the whole Chiefs passing game offensively there, is currently on the COVID list. The new updated protocols make it easier for them, but do not guarantee that they will be able to test out of protocols and then get back to the game on Sunday. So, Kaelin, take it the direction you want, Steelers, Chiefs. We got news, we got good teams, we got changing teams.

What are you looking for? Yeah, no, I think the COVID factor, I mean, that's going to be the storyline for basically every single game that's impacted by them. But, I mean, specifically with the Chiefs, the timing couldn't be worse for Travis Kelsey in particular. Like, for him to come off the game that he had last week, you could sense, I mean, he's a competent guy in general. but you could sense like when you were listening to him, you know, speak post game. Like there was sort of a breakthrough. Like having that I am who I am, you know, whatever it was like 10, 191, two touchdowns, including the walkoff against the Chargers on Thursday and that football last week,

for him to potentially miss this matchup, considering, you know, the momentum that he has. And then the Chief's offense in general has is a little bit concerning. And so it makes me like wonder which player potentially. missing between Kelsey and then even Tyrie Kiel who's also on the COVID list for the Chiefs. Like which players more important to their passing game, in your opinion? Like, is it

Kelsey or is it Tyreek? Uh, man, six thousand or six of one, half thousand to the other? Yeah, what I mean? It's like, who's more important? I would say at this stage in where their offense is, right? It's Kelsey.

Um, because when you're getting so much too deep, right? and this is true of like all all passing offenses for years. This is nothing new. When you're getting so much too deep, if you're getting covered two zone, you just want like a, you know, let's call it like a West Welker,

which we'll kind of like deal with that archetype in a second. You want a West Welker who can just go, find a spot in the zone, sit down, always catch it, consistent hands, snaps to the ball, exactly where your quarterback's expecting to be, survives contact, because that's just free yards, right,

between the zones. And then if it's two man, well, we need a guy who can win option routes. I need a guy who can win in man coverage, break off of leverage, and win in their short areas. So again, like, you're West Welker type. The explosion of kind of, like, move tight ends and, like, tight ends get flexed out have led to them really filling that role.

Nobody more so than Travis Kelsey. Like, for years, the chief's answer to like, oh, you just want to play man? It's like, all right, well, who are you putting on Kelsey? Because he's better than him. And also, we let Kelsey run whatever routes he wants. And so Kelsey can beat him. However, there's room to beat him, right?

that's always felt like the solution for the chiefs. And then this year, a big part of their offense falling down a little bit was that Kelsey just wasn't playing to the levels we were used to seeing. Tyreek also wasn't. So again, it's really hard. She just kind of divorced those two, right? Next-Men stats is a really interesting thing where they can show that Tyreeks is not as fast off the line this year as he was in other years.

And it's like, is it a health thing? Is it a play style thing? Whatever. But they're again, like they're hand in hand with one another. but in general I think it's Kelsey, especially now when you go against a Steelers defense that at linebacker is so bad, right? Like Joe Schover and Devin Bush,

just not the coverage dudes that you want out there on the field. That forces you to either bring Minkupitzpatrick down from deep middle and put them on Kelsey. Huge advantage for the Chiefs, because that's the absolute last guy you want to see in the middle of the field, right? When the Steelers beat the bills in week one, the bills couldn't move. Minka. They couldn't take him out of the middle of the field, right? There was no reason for the

Steelers to do that, and then they couldn't throw him in the field because Mika's just sitting there. Or the other safety comes down, that's Torel Edmonds. And you like your matchup if you've got Kelsk against Kralmonds. So that's the thing is, to me, what it comes down to is if there's no Kelsey, then Minka just sits intermediate middle of the field and just takes away so much space to be so instinctive and he's so smart. He's got great zone eyes. And without that, I don't know how you get the ball deep. I don't know how you get it in the media. And all of a sudden, it's like, how many Mikul Hardman screens can we throw? And that's the real question for me is like, if it is no Kelsey and no Hill, what, what do you, like, what they have gadget players.

They don't have like, you know, backup receivers. They have gadget players for Hardman, Pringle, gadget players. I don't know what you do passing game wise. Yeah, that's the thing. Like they, they have Pringle, Hardman, and then, you know, what's left of Josh Gordon at this point in his career. Unfortunately, you know, he's not that. And we, we, we talked about it. We talked that when Odell Beckham became available, like whether the cheese would go get him, because again, they don't have that classic X type receiver that you can rely on the same way, like as a possession middle-the-field type guy. It's funny that you point out West Walker, like when you're referring to Kelsey because I think Justice tweet from like a few years ago,

Justin was skated from Eskney Nation. Like his tweet, it's burned in my brain whenever I watch Kelsey because he described him as being a slot receiver, like the way that you moves. And I asked Mahomes, like after the game last week about like, what makes Kelsey unique, like, as far as, like, being a route runner. And again, as he starts doing the shoulder roll, it was hilarious because he did it on stage. And, yeah, it's crazy because, like you said, I think Kelsey is a more important guy. Like, the way that I have this really, like, stupid analogy, I'm thinking of in my head right now. Like, there's a safe.

There's a million dollars inside. Like, Peak Mahomes is a million dollars inside. There's three ways to get into the safe. Like, one is a knob, right? Like, there's a handle, which is you just need to be functional, right? that's the offensive block. Just need to be functional. Then there's a digital

keypad with numbers and shit. And that's Tyree Kil. Like, you can get away with forgetting it if you have, like, you just might happen. You know, like, McCull Hardman is the like for like replacement. You have a chance to replace that. But if you have, like, there's a keyhole too. And Travis Kelsey is a keyhole.

Like, if you forget the key, your shit out of luck. Like, and I feel like, especially for right now, and considering how, bad the Chief's offense has been through the first, you know, not even the first half, like the past, what, four or five weeks, whatever this stretch has been, what haven't been playing at a high level.

A lot of that's coincided with Kelsey not playing at the level that we're used to seeing him play at. And again, part of that is, like you said, you can't divorce the fact that Tyree Kill isn't at the level that he's been at because of, again, how defense are playing the Chief's offense and forcing them to be more of a quick, high-tempo offense.

I'm curious to see if they lean on this rushing attack you know, you don't, like going into this matchup, I know that, you know, Clyde Edwards-Alair still coming along, but that office line is pretty good. Damien Williams has been serviceable. I don't think they're going to really have a choice because, again, they don't have the options in the past game if Tyreek and Travis Kelsey aren't there to really thrive.

Yeah, I think the running game is the interesting point because we watched the Steelers get mowed over by the Vikings a couple weeks ago. you watch that Titans game back and like Titans and scored a ton of points they had a ton of turnovers. They were running the ball generally successfully with like Donta Foreman and Dantrell Hilliard, right?

Steelers defense can be had in the running game. That's number one. Number two, what do you do when you feel like you can't pass protect? Which with the current Chiefs' Offensive Tackle situation against T.J. Watt, they should not feel like they can pass protect. You run the football. Let these guys come off the line.

Let your offensive line and play vertical. Right. And that's going to help them out. You're going to get the play action game going, whatever. all of this is like, all of this is like, all right, we should run it. But this is, this is to me such a good example of, like, where run past balance discourse falls away and, like, you know, like, you know, like we get into EPA discussions and whatever. You can't just click the run switch.

You can't just do it, right? It's the bills problem all year. Like, oh, just run it. Well, if you didn't bill for it, you didn't bill for it, man. And, like, you can kind of win on the margins a little bit. And the chiefs knew this. And they drafted a. first round running back in Clyde Edwards-Alaire.

And we talked a little bit about, like, what Jonathan Taylor would be to this team. If he was on it, like, could it be the same and whatever? That was a couple weeks ago. They brought in Orlando Brown. They brought in Joe Tunney. They drafted Trey Smith. They drafted Crette Humphrey. Like, they're bigger.

All of these guys can pull. They can run the football. And I put that in quotation marks. But in reality, when you're living with like three wide, four wide, and you're living out of shotgun, you can run six things, max. You know what I mean? Like, you watch the Eagles against Washington. They ran everything under the sun because they got multiple tight ends.

They got multiple backs. They got Jalen Hertz. They can go under the gun and they can go under in the pistol and they can go under center. And everything is available to them. That is not the case in Kansas City's playbook. And so do what the Titans and the Vikings did. They don't have the horses, man. They can't run outside zone from under center.

They've never done it. Like it's not an arrow they have in their quiver. And so yes, they should run it more. But that running game is going to look like Bill's running game. It's going to look like RPO's. It's going to look like, you know, a little bit of quarterback run, right? It's going to, like, some jet motion stuff. And yeah, you can get Blake Bell out on the field as much as you want.

There's diminishing returns there. And that's the thing is, like, could they stay ahead of the sticks enough, run the football enough that they don't have to worry about third and longs. They don't have to worry about as much too high. They don't have to worry about who wears our Travis Kelsey on third down. Like, sure. But they've been trying to do that for like a month. And they haven't really gotten there.

Yeah, I'm not sure Pittsburgh's the defense. You kind of get that going, you know what I mean? Exactly. And then you mentioned Blake Bell. I think he landed on the COVID list. And so they're short at tight end on top of the fact that, again, like you said, they don't have that in their arsenal because that's not how their offense is built. I know that the EPA numbers are generous. Like their third and success rate looks like 11th in Rush EP as well.

So statistically speaking, solid rushing attack. But again, when you don't have Travis Kelsey and Tyrakeel on the field, it's an entirely different ballgame. Steelers are going to be very happy. to line up and just let your solid rushing attack be your solid rushing attack and use more 19 points. Right? They'd be very fine with that.

Yeah. Other side of the ball, the only big COVID inavailability here is Rashad Fenton, who's currently on the list for the Chiefs. Chiefs' even playing better. Generally, did not have a great game against the Chargers. Obviously, the box score doesn't even fully reflect the degree to which the charge were hanging on them.

And then you have the Steelers' offense, which is just like the worst thing that's ever existed. My favorite stat, which I've already shared on these pods before, I'm doing it again, is that all 19 of Najee Harris's rushing yards against the Titans came after contact. She had 19 total rushing yards, and they were all after contact. It's just a horrible, horrible,

bad football, bad offense. But I am so worried about, you know, it's like going to be 16 to 11. Right. The Chiefs are going to be up. Yeah, and the Steelers are going to have the ball

with like four minutes left. And it's going to be a fourth and three prayer to chase Claypool and he's just able to get on top of the Chard Various Ward and all of a sudden they got the ball of the 24 and you're just like, yes, these are the Steelers. This feels so extremely trapped gaming for the Chiefs because the Steelers are so good at slowing your offense down. They're so good at generating turnovers by TJ Waugh is to me the defensive player of the year. They're going to be able to do that well. And then offensively, it's like, oh, it's not pretty. It's never been pretty. And they're still finding ways to win

games with like 15, 17, 18 points. And I hate it, but it's what they do. And so I don't know if there's like, like, okay, like the Chief's defensive lines probably their best unit right now. She, Sto's office lines the worst. Like, that's, that's nice. You feel good about that. But Pittsburgh just has this, this, like, a little parasite germ ability to just stick

around and survive anything and just always be around in the fourth quarter. So I don't see, like, you know, I think that Chiefs fans probably have a lot, a lot of energy right now, beat the race. Raiders, beat the Chargers, score a lot of points late against the Chargers. I don't see another big offensive performance for them, and I see the Seahos being able to keep this in one possession game. I think Chiefs win,

but I would not be surprised at all if the Seas take it in just a disgusting game. Yeah, again, I think all of what you just mentioned, I want to say it's a sign of a good coach, right? Like, I think Tomlin does enough, like he does enough, especially in-game, to keep them within games. But at the same time, I don't want to disbelieve in the Chiefs from,

momentum. And I'm not going to bet on Kelsey not playing since he's backed. And since the protocols allow him to come back, I'm going to bet on him showing up to play. I'm going to pick the Chiefs, but I'm not confident at all. Like I said, it's going to be ugly. I think it's going to be a close, ugly game that the Chiefs win if Kelsey and Hill

don't play. And if Kelsey and Hill do play, I think it's going to be a close ugly game that the Chiefs win. They do matter. It's just Pittsburgh, just at this point, is just like an inevitability. of the games they play and how they played. Our second game of the week belongs to me. This is the remix,

Bill's at Patriots, which is a really, really fascinating game to prepare for because I started to look at like what matters. And then I was like, oh, right, nothing from the first game is even remotely salient at all

because they played in a tornado. But we do our best with what we can. And the thing that I walked away from looking back at that first game, watching it through, reading the comments, reading the reflections on it, is that, yeah, like the bills probably should have won that game.

The bills had a lot of opportunities to win that game. In the second half, they were down, it was 14 to 7. They took a field goal from the 17-yard line, not the best analytics decision, but whatever, 14 to 10. Then they missed a field goal from the 15 after they had first and goal in the 6th. And then on their penultimate drive, they had a first and 10 at the 14, and subsequently had a turnover on downs on 4th and 14 from the 18.

So three trips, inside the 20, three total points in a game that ended up decided by four points. That sort of red zone performance is just that's what's going to cost you, right? Sean McDermott and Brian Daible both talked this week about needing to improve the red zone execution.

When you go back and you watch, they were like really, really sure that four verse was going to work. They ran it three times. It didn't work a single time. And like I get why. Like it's just pick a spot and throw it. But they just couldn't get a connection.

And I think that Alan Rush for like 110 yards in the game. It had one design quarterback run inside of the 20. Feels like probably that's going to get hammered a little bit more. But this goes back to the problem we brought up with the bills before. They don't have a ball winner. So you get to the tight area in the red zone and it's seam ball to Dawson Knox. And that's your best shot.

And that's fine. And Dawson Knox has got like eight receiving touchdowns on the year. But that's like that's not exactly where you want to be in terms of your red zone offense. We should note that the other really nice option for the bills in short areas is Cole B's leaves a very good separator. he is on the COVID-19 list, and I'm very certain that he's unvaccinated. And so he is out for at least 10 days.

That's from Tuesday when he tested positive. So he is definitely out for this upcoming game. He's had some nagging injury. They've replaced him with a little bit of Isaiah McKinsey, who's like a gadget player for them. And then Gabe Davis, it was a really, really nice game against the Panthers, especially in the Red Zone with two touchdowns. And Gabe Davis is the guy that they want to be this.

He's three, two, 12. They want him to be the ball winner, right? He got multiple targets against the Patriots, one of which went for a touchdown. on that little like glance RPO, right, that just everybody's in the box, like 13 personnel, fake a run, he's just running a little slant

right inside of the corner. And then Josh Allen throws the ball literally through his stomach and almost kills Gabe Davis, but he catches it and it's a touchdown. That's, to me, like,

that's going to be it, right? Gabe Davis has three receiving touchdowns last two games. This is the guy they're trying to figure out to solve their red zone problems. The bills are two and a half point dogs

in this game, and I don't, I don't really know why. They should have won the first game. It's projected, weather in Foxborough for this game. We've seen that teams are able to run the ball on the Patriots. We've seen the teams are able to throw the ball on the Patriots.

The Patriots defense is a good defense, but it's not an amazing defense. And then obviously, Mac is still a rookie. So you can get some, like the Browns game. You can get that game. Amazing. But you can also get the first half against the Colts. And when that happens, it's really tough for the Patriots to get going. So to me, like, the bills are the better team who probably should have won the first game.

But also, they're two and a half point dogs. And they're in Foxborough and it's Patriots in December. and it's like, you know what I mean? It's tough to get all the way there. So I watch it and I, I prepare for it and I say, Bill's the better team and they should win it. But at the same time, like it is, it's like with the Steelers,

the Patriots are really a tough team to discount. Yeah, and that's the thing. Like, it's the Patriots. So I think we're all still recovering from, what, 20 years of Brady, however long he was there. Right. And they've been, they've been running like a machine up until last week,

you know, against the Colts where Jonathan Taylor was just able to run all over them. And then like, but like you said, like the bills, for all intents, they don't have a running game. Like, this is going to be, this is going to require Josh Allen potentially to, you know, carried the ball 11 times, which I don't think, especially after the Buccaneers game, the way that he came out of that, where I think it was left foot, left ankle that he injured, where he's in the boot afterwards. I don't think, you know, the bills want to put in Josh Allen in that situation,

especially this late in the season. You're trying to get into the postseason. And, I mean, they'll probably unleash whatever they have to to get in. but it's a really tough ask for a really one-dimensional offense. And I think that's really what hampers them. I mean, yeah, the thing with like releasing Allen, though, is they are, if they win this game, 89% chance to win the division. If they lose it, zero percent chance to win the division.

So if you want a home playoff game, you empty the chain. This is everything, right? It's got to be. It hasn't be. Like, they don't have any other option. But my thing is they're so one-dimensional. I think the way that the bills pathway to win this, and I think their offense can perform a lot better,

like you said, especially in the red zone. Like you can't miss on critical chances against the Patriots, like of all teams in the red zone. You can't waste red zone opportunities. I think they'll be a little bit more successful in that area. But the other way, the other pathway, I think, for the bills to wind this is defensively. Like you said, for Matt Jones. Like for him, you only had what, three, was it three pass attempts?

or completions that he had in that first met. Three attempts. Three completion. Yeah. That's the thing. It's not a real football game. Yeah, that was not a real football game. Yeah.

Oh, what can we learn? Nothing. Zero things. And then the other thing, too, if they're able to slow down Damien Harris, they're able to slow down Ramande Stevenson, they're able to cycle this rushing attack, which probably is a pathway for the Patriots there.

And you force Matt Jones to be a more dropback passer, at least, you know, what, I don't know what the over, under for his attempts would be, or even completion. It's probably be like 10 or 11. It can't be high. But if you make him, you know, be the guy that makes the offense click, or if, you know, you force him into a few mistakes, then you have a much better opportunity, I think, if you're Buffalo to come away with a victory here. And that's why I'm shocked, like you said, two points. Even though New England is at home, I'm shocked.

So that's why I'm leaning Buffalo. Yeah, the, uh, the, uh, what the bills can. do against Mac becomes the really interesting thing that we just didn't see at all, right? Like, there are things you can draw from that game for everything that they were, right? Like, bills offensively had, uh, I'm pulling up my numbers, they had one late run to 11 late passes in terms of the down, right? So third or fourth down, one run to 11 late passes. The passes were significantly more effective than the runs shocking, right? But if you're just going to throw the ball on every third down and fourth down, why do they, why do you have 20 early down

runs, which they did with negative 0.48 EPA per play to 23 early down passive of the 0.13 EPA per play. If you're just going to throw it on third down, throw it on first down, right? Because third and three, third and two, and you're still throwing it, there's literally no reason to run on first down. It gives you nothing. So like there's stuff to draw. Where we are completely occluded is Bill's past defense against the Patriots offense without Tradavius White. Like we're nowhere on that. We didn't see anything with it, right? And we got our first look at Dane Jackson, who's the white replacement against the bucks. I thought he was impressive.

Tom tried to go out of multiple times, and he was one-on-one with Bronc, and Dane was fighting for his life, but like generally holding his water. That's impressive stuff, right? So, like, they have the guys. Like, they know, like Nelson Agler and Kendrick Bourne, both were not at practice on Wednesday, so it was Ramadre Stevenson, all not available. We don't know why yet, but, like, those guys weren't there. So you might be looking at Nikiel Harry and Jacobi Myers and Hunter Henry and John

Smith, being the whole aerial. deck. Bills have the dudes to match that. They should be able to take that away. And I would imagine they're able to sit in zones and get it done. They're that good of his own team and they have that good of safeties. Let's you keep eyes in the back, they'll let you play with seven. Like, it's great. It should all work.

It just, it, it feels tricky. It feels hard to commit to because we saw the paths with those ones. And then we're wondering again, like, you know, for how much this game carries division-wise and for how good Belichick is, what's going to happen. I also like Belichick off of a loss historically.

I don't know the numbers in front of me, but it's like bananas good, right? Like, you know, we had that, that stat the other day where, like, Tom Brady on consecutive losses, like, it's at, like, four times in his career. You know what I mean? That is also a Belichick stat. So there you go. So I think it's bills. I'm surprised their underdogs to the degree to which they are. But I get it because, like, yes, the Patriots got out physical by the Colts.

I don't think the bills are doing that. And we have to remember that before the Patriots got out of physical by the Colts, they won, like, seven games in a row or whatever it was. So I think the bills win it because of the desperation. I think the bills win it because of the more talented team. I think the bills throw the ball over the yard. I think Alan throws for 300. I think he runs for another 50. I think it's a very good game.

I will not be surprised if something else happens. So this is a tough one to figure out. And this is why we're happy Stephen's not on because Stephen would yell at me for that. That's the thing. That and then also he'd yell this for all. We're chalked now. We both pick the Chiefs and we both picked the bills. I'll pick the Patriots just for the sake of doing it.

What would Stephen Ruiz do? I'm going to pick the Patriots just for the sake of it. And that way no one can yell at us. Stephen would also be mad that we, you know, gave Mac credit for being a real quarterback instead of just immediately discounting him as not real. I mean, we pointed out, like, what, three passes the first game. That's not, that's fake quarterback, even in a sense.

Yeah. The Mac arc might be hilarious because Jamar Chase was so good that he was an offensive rookie of the year shoe in. And then, of the course of the last six weeks, he has just dropped down as he has been producing and Mac has flown up. Mac might win offensive rookie on the year on like four bad games in a row

to end the season. Just because Jamar Chase has been nowhere. He had one cat's for three yards. But Mac right now is like minus like a thousand or something in books. And he could literally live to the finish. It should be fine. So shout out to Mac Jones. All right.

Our second segment is as always, games that need games, which is where we talk about. The meat, the middle section of games, all interesting, especially since so many teams, have playoff leverage going on. We have seven on the docket because we have the full Sunday coming up.

We usually start traditionally with Stephen canceling the team. Stephen is not here. I am willing to cancel. A team, I'm pretty sure we were already canceled, which is the Tennessee Titans. The Titans now at this point are 9 and 5. They continue to deal with injury.

Agent Brown is unavailable. Julio Jones is unavailable. But they've been hanging around. There's still 94% chance to make the playoffs. They're still an 84% chance to win the division. It's all very impressive and very good, yada, yada, yada, yada, yada. But they were the old, we talked a lot about the Steelers at the top. It was the Steelers and the Titans in terms of just playing and winning these ugly one-score games.

And it was immovable force versus, or immovable object versus immovable object on Sunday. And the Titans got moved. They turned the ball over four times in the second half. They were absolutely abysmal situationally. And they lost that game. So they're now nine and five. They get San Francisco at home on Thursday night football. they probably lose that game.

San Francisco right now is playing really, really well. The Titans obviously have some talent, but it's a short week. They're not going to be able to get much healthier. They're probably lose that. Then they have Miami and Houston. Miami is a tough one. I expect them to be favored in that game,

but I could feel a goal probably a little bit more, and I expect them to win it. In the event that they lose it, they are losing this division to the Colts, right? Colts have Arizona, the Raiders, and the Jaguars. They lose to Arizona, and the Titans still can have, around, but I wouldn't be surprised with the Colts beat Arizona with how the Cardinals are playing.

Basically, when Derek Henry got injured, we all were like, all right, the Titans will still be fine. Lo and behold, the Titans actually need to like gut out one of these games here to get it done. And just they're so banged up on offense. They are horrendous right now. I don't think we can take the Titans seriously. No, not at all. They're one and three over the last four.

Their one win is against Urban Myers Jaguars. I mean, this is where I regret what like, what, what, week, six, seven, wherever it was that I decided... Yeah, to get on Titans Island. Like, I totally regret my one day there. I fully regret it. The final thing is you did later pivot to Colts Island, so no matter what, you are on the AFC South for the Winter Island.

I was on the, like, from the... I was like, the Colts were not as bad as the record. I think they started out, like, one and three or whatever. They weren't as bad as the record suggests. The Titans, meanwhile, this is where you could play devil's advocate for the Titans, is that, again, like, they're without Derek Henry. they're without, I mean, they've been without AJ Brown. Cleo Jones, I mean, you expected him to be hurt a lot, but he hasn't been healthy playing

at a high level. So that's where you can make the case for being like, okay, the Titans aren't healthy. Like, they should be a better team. And I totally agree with that, but at the same time, their record was still a little bit fool's death. And like you said, like it's going to be tough for them, especially going down the stretch. I think they're really going to have to gut it out against a Niners team that I think especially defensively is really clicking right now.

And I just, I don't see it happening. I think the Titans are going to be in real trouble where the Colts are going to be right with them going down to stretch with the division. How past is the winner of the AFC North going to be when they like fight through an absolute murderer's row of divisional games and then they just draw the Titans as the five seed in the wild card round of the playoffs with Derek Henry.

back. And it's like, what did we do to deserve this? Like, this is just unnecessary. Yeah. But that's like, that's the thing is for as canceled as the regular season Titans might be, playoff Titans might actually get Henry back and then all of a sudden it's a different conversation. Right, right, right. And that's the thing. It's kind of like, you know, how the Packers always get the NFC North every year. Like they've been beating up on the Bears, the lines and even the Vikings at times. But yeah, I mean, that's a great point too. Like Henry will come back. If they get into the postseason, then they will have a shot.

Because again, like you've mentioned it before, like those teams that are built you know, especially physically, like for, you know, cold weather football games, but other teams, like, you're not trying to be run over by Derek Henry in, like, minus five weather. That's, that doesn't sound fun. 100% well-rested, hasn't taken a hit in two months, Derek Henry in the playoffs. No, thank you. I pass. Give me something else.

All right, you have three games. Let's start with Colts at Cardinals talking about this AFC South. This is one of the two Saturday games of the week, because that's, That's the thing that's actually regular that we expect to do. Yes. And you have timeline therapy for this game. Please take it away. Oh, I have thoughts and prayers.

I was wondering why our juno, or the producer said. It is thoughts and prayers. This thoughts and prayers for the Cardinals' defense. Yes. This is what, I mean, like I spent last week, you know, I think when I had Rams the odds, I spent it rambling about how the Cardinals were not going to win the division. And look, if Dant's high tower and the Patriots defense can't contain Jonathan Taylor,

than, I mean, good luck to this Cardinals defense who, okay, so, really quick, you're from Pennsylvania, right? Yep. You ever heard of the vision to Kutztown University, Kootstown? Yeah, absolutely. I have a lot of friends might want to Kutztown. Oh, okay, no kidding. Okay, so that school has produced Andre Reid and Lines Practice Squad God, Craig Reynolds,

who's now official on the 53 man. The reason why he's on the 53 man is because he rushed for 100. 12 yards on 26 carries last week against the Cardinals. Same defense that just allowed Jared Gough to go 21 to 26, 21-26, 216, 23 touchdowns.

In Detroit last week, going into this week, they're 26 now, offensive rushing BVOA, and that's after they beat up on the Cardinals. So they were significantly worse before that.

This Cardinals team going down the stretch is in a tough spot. since losing JJ Watt in week 8, the Cardinals defense, which season long is like top three in EPA for play allowed, top five, top three in success rate allowed. Since losing Watt and week eight,

their 18th in EPA allowed and 20th and success rate allowed. They are an average defense without Watt. And Watt was integral to the run defense because it's called a spade of spade. Isaiah Simmons is still figuring this thing out. Right, right, right. Isaiah Simmons is still, every time I see Isaiah Simmons on the,

the field at linebacker. I'm like, the wide receiver is wrong. Put the wide receiver on the other side of the ball. So the body is just wrong. It's not built for that position. So he's just, is still struggling with NFL size. And they live in sub, right? They live with a nickel on the field. Also lost Robert Alford. He's on injured reserve. He was their best man cover corner. Brian Murphy's really good, but Alford can play out of his mind. This is, this, this team has got unhealthy at the wrong time. And Watt was a cornerstone piece that. It was tough to identify that because he was so new to the team and so many other players were playing well, but he's gone now and their interior really, really hurts.

So, yeah, the Colts. I don't know if you've heard, but Colts move people off the ball a little bit. It is just, it is a light front, right? Like it's Marcus Golden and Chandler Jones and Zach Allen and as he as is just a light box. I, like, I could see the Cardinals' offense being better, like another week, you know, figuring out with you with a D-Hop, Kyler's ankle maybe getting a little better, Chase Edmund's bag. I can see the offense being better, but man, I don't know how the Cardinals buy a stop in the running game.

They got a run blitz, the ever-living daylight set of everything. If you do, you just get RPO to death. So they're in a world of trouble right now against physical running teams, and that is exactly the Indianapolis goals. That's the thing. And we've talked about it before. Like, they're a multidimensional team, but the consistency hasn't been there. And I think there's a coaching edge when you talk about Frank Wright versus Kingsbury.

And I think Kingsbury is on a better job this year. but they started off 7 and 0 since then 3 and 4 you know for all the shit that we give the Chargers about being a cursed team I feel like every time the Cardinals or any Arizona sports team sorry Arizona sports fans

anytime there's like an Arizona team on the cusp of being great it seems to fall apart and even with Kyler's injury like they're 1 and 2 since he's come back so I don't know if there's any valid excuses for the Cardinals and I'm surprised they're face

Yeah, football guys would tell you this is why you don't draft like a 5 foot 10, 190 pound quarterback number one overall because that's got to be why Kyler's banged up. But it's just, we've talked about this before. Tyler's such an MVP. He's such a,

the whole thing runs on Kyler. That when Kyler's at 85% Kyler, there's no answer. So it's like, oh, our passing game is worse now. That's it. Oh, we can run more screen instead of whatever. If Kyler can't scramble,

right, especially with Rodney Hudson, who was also out for this game, so he was on the COVID list. the downfield passing game is shot because they just don't Kyle doesn't throw in rhythm they don't really have a lot of structure it's all air raid stuff so it's just

if he's not scrambling it's really tough for them to get the ball down in the field accurately alright my next game with new games I'll do a little timeline therapy actually because I have two of them this one is Ravens at Bengals

the Ravens Bengals game now is this bit well right so this game is going to be pretty much like I was about to say it's going to decide the AFC North it's not going to decide the AFC North because the AFC North is like six games in the next three weeks. They all play against each other.

And so this game will knock one of the two teams essentially out of contention for the AFC North, obviously barring like the Steelers results against the Chiefs. I think the Browns also the Chiefs later this week, later this season as well. So what have you? Now, the timeline therapy is this. Tyler Huntley is good, okay?

He is good. We knew he was good. We could see him being good. He was a really good college quarterback. We talked about on the Sunday show. He should have been in the combine. He should have been drafted. All that's a good backup.

there are people who think that Tyler Huntley being good should affect the Lamar Jackson contract conversation. Oh, wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There have been takes on the internet by people who have said that, like, I wonder the degree to which the offense working so well under Huntley should give the Ravens' pause about Lamar.

Number one, no. And the reason no is because of, this. Quarter to me, to me like big money quarterback is a very binary thing. Like it's nice to think like, oh, we can do like a Kirk Cousins deal where we try to be like a B level deal for B level quarterbacking and that works team building wise. It does not. And to me that is untenable.

That's such a narrow line to walk. It is not worth it. Either A, the quarterback is worth all of the money in the world and whatever you sign him to is a good deal. Or B, he isn't. to me it is it is literally binary. And then at that point, if it's 45 million or 42 million or 48 million, who cares?

Because if he's good, that that million doesn't matter. Like it is not going to detract away from the team at all because you have like an MVP caliber quarterback. Right. So that begs the question, is Lamar an MVP caliber quarterback? To which I have like a resounding answer of proof.

Yes, because he won it. And he was the sophomore in NFL when he did. right so I'm like positive that Lamar's that good so number one why would you like dither around and like you know at least from the Raven side like I know Lamar is kind of doing his own thing with his representation how he's doing his contract the Ravenside you're not going to be like let's bring the the two Tyler Huntley games to the table and see if we can get Lamar down three million like that doesn't matter at all that's number one number two is Tyler Huntley played well uh doing exactly

what Lamar does, not as good. Yeah. So, like, you could, if you wanted to, like, hypothetically, but A, you're betting Huntley can continue to do that. You've seen it for two games. He's done it for two and a half years. B, that's exactly what you want to back up.

This is the best situation to be in. What does everybody always say about Lamar, even though he's going to get hurt because he runs too much? Number one, he's like the best player in the league at avoiding contacts, but he's going to get hurt. You just got incontrovertible proof of concept that you, You have a backup that you can stick in and generally run a similar offense. They changed some stuff.

They weren't as heavy personnel. Honestly, they should take some of the stuff they did with Huntley and do it with Lamar, but whatever. But, like, generally run the same ideas, same routes for Mark Andrews, whatever, and score 30 points in the backers. You're in such a good spot. Why would you even bring this conversation up? So the Tyler Huntley good play is great news for Huntley.

It's great news for the Ravens. It's great news for Lamar. The Ravens are going to extend Lamar because it absolutely makes sense. because he's incredible. They're going to have Huntley be his backup for the next two years and it's going to be awesome. And then if Huntley wants to go somewhere else and try it, he can or if he wants to take a nice, healthy backup contract

and just chill behind Lamar, he can. But right now the Ravens are in a great spot. And the idea that, like, they would change anything about their current commitment to Lamar is just bananas because he has been so good this season and for his whole career. There were a lot of prisoner of the moment takes. Yes.

I thought you were going to bring up the Mark Gunnell's tweet where he was like, Lamar is the more dynamic athlete, but Huntley is still more athletic than 90% of quarterbacks, but Huntley is a better thrower of the football. Who said this? Yeah.

That tweet got dropped in like three different group chats that I was in. And I was just like, oh, like, there are a lot of bad tweets after. I mean, but that's the thing, like, shouts out to Tyler Huntley. Like, I remember watching him at Utah. Like, he's a good player, very good player. And like you said,

I'm surprised I never got any comment numbers because I was looking up on mock draft. we'll just see like what his stats were. Didn't get invited. I was shocked by that. Nope. But yeah, no. It should not impact a commitment to a guy who won a unanimous MVP at what,

22 years old, who again is, who is a better version of Michael Vick, bro. Like, Michael Vick has said he's a better player than him. Like, I don't understand. I don't understand people. Anyway, like, it's not hard. It doesn't make a sense to me. We're too far into Lamar Jackson's career. and especially considering how good he was at the start of season

for us to be still having this discussion about well, well, should the Ravens commit to him? Commits. Ravens freaking are it. We're one play away from beating the Steelers, one play away from beating the backers, still in the AMC North conversation. Also, like, I can't name half of their active roster. Ridiculous coaching job by John Harbaugh.

All right, next up for you. We've got to space out these timeline therapies. So buy or sell, Broncos Raiders. Ooh, okay, so here we go. Are you buying or selling Drew Lodagh? Chants the show himself as a franchise caliber quarterback over the next two or three weeks, however long Teddy Bridgewater is going to be out.

You would not be saying this if Stephen were on the show. I would not because he would not say a word. He would stare, stare daggers through the camera. Do that little like angry tongue click he does whenever he feels like something. No, absolutely not. He would be so mad. I have never gotten it with Drew Locke. I get it in the sense that, like,

the third down throw to Albert Oakway when I'm was nice. Like, he can throw an accurate ball. But a lot of quarterbacks can throw accurate balls. Like, it's like, like, Jared Stidham throws accurate balls, right? Like, it's like, that's what you do even get in this conversation, right? Stidham is my go-to example of, like, quarterback who's ungodly good in practice because he's accurate, he spins it and he's big. And then you put a defense in front of him and he just shut down, right?

And that's locked. It's just, yes, it's good when it's good. it's not good very often. And when it's bad, second and goal, it's really bad. I'm going to pull the ball on his own read with an unblocked defender right in front of me and then subsequently fumble it

and ergo fumble away the game, bad. Right? So, like, there's, they trade it for Teddy and Drew never had a chance, like he had a chance with that job, quote, and quote, but he never, like, actually pushed for that job in camp.

He's very clearly not as good of a player. I'm not buying anything, any Drew Locke stock moving forward. Anthony Gordon has been signed to the practice squad. Oh, yes. Now we have a conversation about undrafted Washington State, Anthony Gordon. Yeah, no, the Broncos are, we're already out and then Teddy out makes it even worse.

Yeah. All right. Next one for me. I'll do time on therapy part two. I don't care. I'll have two time left. Do you. Okay.

Browns at Packers. This is our other Saturday game. The Browns are on a five-day week with the hope to get 18 total players off of COVID as they play on Saturday. At Lambeaufield. I wrote the Monday column this week for The Ringer, and I wrote a piece about how there's no good teams and how that's kind of fun.

Also makes my job awful, and I hate trying to do my job in this current climate where no one is ever good or reliable. Obviously, a couple fan bases took on rich with that, none more so than the Packers, which is fair. Obviously, like, that piece would have hit a little harder if they hadn't,

if they, you know, the Ravens had converted the two-point conversion and hit Markey's Brown in the back of the end zone. But whatever. You did win that game. They are 11 and 2 since week one, right?

Their loss was like, you know, the Jordan Love game with no Aaron Rogers, you know, Darnel Savage dropped the pick, whatever. So yes, they've been quite good. I get that. Like, if you look at all quarterback stats since week two,

just very conveniently forgetting week one, Aaron Rogers is the runaway MVP. I get it. It is worth having the conversation. that the Packers' defense, which was really nice in November, has played the Justin Fields Bears and the Tyler Huntley Ravens

and has given up a lot of points. And I know that, like, you know, there are special teams plays in the Bears game, whatever. They are 24th in defensive EPA per play allowed over the last two weeks.

I think the Packers are playing better than anybody else in the league right now. I think Packers are the Super Bowl favorites, slight edge, I think Rogers is MVP, slight edge, whatever. But in the world of every team that looks good suddenly plays bad like two weeks later, I am not going to push my chips all the way in on the Packers.

Sorry Green Bay fans. Because this Joe Barry defense, like, oh, like, Rousseau Douglas playing amazing. Like, great, Devontra Campbell playing amazing. Great. That's always awesome. But then, like, Darnel Savage gets punked by Mark Andrews for four quarters. And it's just like, oh, that's a reminder that there actually isn't that much star talent. on this team. And like,

schematically, they're doing good stuff and that's great. And they're coalescing and they're taking to coaching. And that's all like awesome. I love that. But I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I like, the Packers are a championship defense. Because I think they can be and I think we've seen flashes of that. But then they gave up 30 to the Huntley Ravens.

And it's a reminder that nothing is good. Don't believe in anything. Everything is sad. 201 is evil. This is my take. That's a good take. I mean, everyone, I don't know too many people who are going to disagree with you on that. I know several people on the internet from Green Bay who would disagree with me. Oh, well, that's the thing.

They, you just got to take the lumps with that. I think the flaws, like you've noted with Green Bay, I think they were apparent, even like when they were going undefeated, or not undefeated, but they were going unbeaten since week one, when they went on that little stretch. I mean, their defense going into the postseason, if, you know, everything can come together. I think, I'm trying to, like, put in context,

like the fact that you've played a Justin Fields, the fact you've played a Tyler Huntley, like you've played two mobile quarterbacks. I'm thinking about like Brandon Staley's defenses, have they struggled at all with mobile quarterbacks. Is there something to that? I mean, there might be, but at the same time,

I think you're relying on the defense to just be competent, average. You just need that in the postseason because you have Aaron Rogers. And especially in tandem with that running game, assuming A.J. Dillon and Aaron Jones are both healthy. They should be fine going into the posting. should be a favorite. I think maybe out of the NFC, because, just because

like you said, there's so much parity, I'm not sure who else you would put at the top. I think they're the top by default. Yeah, and the best record and best quarterback, absolutely. Not overwhelming favorite. Right. Right. If you're forcing me to believe in a team, I'm believing in the Packers. But if an option is

believe in nobody, root for chaos. I am doing that this year. That is my that is my anger. Worth noting that Packers' defense is my concern. We get Jaira Alexander and Zadarius Smith back on the field. I'm willing to reassess and adjust my take accordingly. Jai is a very good player.

We'd very much like the team come back. Same with Zadarius. All right. Last one for you is your timeline therapy. This is Buccaneers at Panthers. I don't know what this topic is. What is it? Oh, well, 7.20 a.m. Pacific time on Monday.

It was tweeted that receiver, Chris Godwin, had suffered in MCL's split. And then Jeremy Fowler from ESPN even corroborated so that, you know, playoffs were still in play for him. Four hours later, SpongeBob Boys, Bruce Ariens was telling reporters that Chris Godwin tore his ACL. And so the reason why we're bringing to sub is because Godwin was one of three players total to get hurt on offense for the Buccaneers in their 9-0-0-0 lost St.

She got Godwin. Mike Evans tweaked his hamstring and now Leonard Frenette is out for the rest of the regular season with the hamstring injury. You could easily make the case that, like, Tom Brady is the luckiest athlete in history, right? Yeah. But that stretch or that game, especially

for them to lose 9-0, that might have been the unluckiest stretch of Tom Brady's career. And I'm curious to see how it affects Tampa Bay's offense moving forward. I know that they're expected to get Antonio Brown back. They just signed Levi-on-Bell. I'm excited to see Tyler Johnson

in an extended role within that offense. But, I mean, for Tampa Bay to be hitting, you know, the injury bug, which is the one thing, you know, everyone was talking about last year that they managed to avoid as they got into the postseason and for them to not be in position to win, you know, the buy, the NFC buy going into the postseason. I'm really concerned, especially because you have guys like Levanti David who've been banged up

Antonio Winfield, junior Richard Sherman's been banged up, Jamel Dean. Like, like, Avanti David is out to the playoffs, right? Yeah, that's the timeline. I'm slightly concerned for the Buccaneers, man. I brought this up on the Sunday show whenever we did those preseason previews oh the playoff teams the divisions whatever

we would get to the box and be like what's wrong with this team there's literally nothing wrong this is an ungodly unbelievable team the one thing was that last year they were the healthiest team they were the luckiest team in terms of help right they were number one and adjust the games lost from football outsiders that never stays but sometimes it like falls just down a little bit

like regress a little bit they're getting absolutely punch in the face of it at the absolute worst time. And I think if there's a quarterback you trust in this context, Brady, right, to like get Jalen Darden where he needs to be on his routes in like a week, you know what I mean? Like Brady can teach him that, right? Cool. And I think that Brady and Leftwich and Ariens very much benefit from going through the growing

process they did last year on offense where they like weren't anywhere. They were like trying to figure out their identity. They were kind of like a smattering of plays. And they were able to like sit down in the biweek and be like, we got to do X, Y, and Z. So they've kind of like had some experience turning the dials and pressing the buttons. I think that helps them too. But also like you got three weeks to onboard. Yeah.

A whole new approach. That's banana. So if the bucks can make any sort of playoff noise with like Tyler Johnson, Grong, Cameron Bray, Jalen Darden being the primary target of place. Oh, and Antonio Brown coming back. Like that's going to be honestly extremely impressive. Yeah, it would be. Scotty Miller too, shouts out.

Shouts out. Oh, big up Scotty. Green Bay first, end of. first act of you're up. All right. My final game is the muslin game of the week. This one is for Rams at Vikings. Uh, pretty much the Vikings playoff hopes ride on them winning one of the next two games. They get the Rams and the Packers. They've already beat the Packers once the season. So obviously that's still on the table. But there are a 29% chance right now to make the playoffs at 7 and 7. They go down to 11% with a loss. They go up to 50% with a win. Uh, so they're in,

and race with the Saints and a race with the Eagles. And the Eagles and the Saints are in a position where if they win out, they control their own destiny pretty much. The Vikings are not in that position. So they absolutely have to handle business and then hope for some Saints losses or for some Eagles losses. For the Rams, we just talked about where the Cardinals are.

Right now, both teams are 10 and 4. The Rams are going to know the result of the Cardinals game before they play, because remember the Cardinals play on Saturday against the Colts. The Rams division winner odds can go up to 58%. So they become the favorite to win the division. in the event that they just straight win this game, period. So it goes up to 58% if it beat the Vikings sick. If you throw in a Cardinals loss, that goes all the way up to 75%.

Rams can win the division three out of four times this. If they get a Cardinals loss, it's what we're expecting. And then a Vikings win as well. With that said, like the Rams had their nice win against the Cardinals. That was great. But against the Seahawks, they still are kind of just like a little discompobulated. And man, if there's a team in the league that just like you don't, want to just like let hang around to Minnesota because Minnesota can just randomly pour points on you.

I know like the game is the Bears is bad. But Minnesota's offense is just liable at any time. Just like get a good Kirk game and fly. And they might be going out and get back this week as well. Listen, listen, you're never going to catch me calling the Vikings good. But there are absolutely like stretches of two and a half quarters. You're like, just do this forever, Minnesota. And they're never able to. And so I, in terms of week 16, week 17 and now week 18 stupid upsets which inevitably come like Vikings beating the Rams like double digits would be like yeah why not

you know what I mean like we watched Lions beat the Cardinals last week like anything is real at this point so huge game for both teams Vikings keep their playoff hopes alive and then the Rams as well to keep the divisional look and the potential for a home playoff game alive which is a very surprising thing they wouldn't have expected a few weeks ago

yeah our final real quick like just put a bow on that like I am kind of nervous for the Rams of that because again like short I know it was short week last week, slow start against Seattle. We've mentioned it a few times here. Like, can you withstand Kirk Cousins, Justin Jefferson, potentially feeling, you know, punching you in the mouth, and can you come back? And we still haven't really seen that from the Rams this year,

where they withstanded an early flurried from an opponent and then been able to come back. So, yeah, that's my biggest concern for him still. My biggest concern for the Rams is that O'Dell Beckham Jr. and Van Jefferson both got one target, and Ben Sparrona got like seven. And that has nothing to do with. fantasy whatsoever. Thank you for your time. All right. Our final segment is give me a reason in which we go through

the final games of the week. We talk about the reasons to watch them. Usually I get Stephen and Kaelin. This week I get Kailen who is by far by more merciful audience member which I am very appreciative. We have six games on the docket still with like actual playoff leverage in some of these games because that's just the nature

of a very middle heavy lead this year at the additional playoffs by the additional week. A lot of these teams still have a chance to actually do something. But But still it's some shaking games. So six games on the list. Kaelin, what would you like? Let's start with your guys.

Giants at Eagles. Yeah, right. So the Eagles tried to lose to Washington. They fumbled the ball like twice in their first. They had two turnovers in the first three drives, which turned into 10 points. They did everything they could to lose. And then they remembered that they can actually run the football,

ran for over 150 yards for the seventh consecutive game. They're the first team to do that since the 1985 Bears. since then we've had I saw an Eagles radio guys say we need to get next year down to the coach of the year discussion I saw Dominic Fosberst of ESPN talk about Jaylon Hertz is a mini Lamar Jackson

and I saw Kevin Cole PFF and PFF Mooh talk about how the Jayla Hertz pick was a really, really good pick and it always was. Listen, Eagles in primetime beating the COVID, the league of Washington like I know we got to, we want to get some fakes off. I am begging.

you guys. This team lost to the Giants three weeks ago. They scored like nine points against the Giants. We got to let the Eagles do that. I know like the Doug Peterson Eagles would like always win in December. They made the playoffs. That was great. This is this is not, where it's not a bow on this thing, baby.

Speaking of which, yes, they want the Giants beat the Eagles 13 to seven. They have scored five offensive touchdowns in the last five weeks. Two of which came when they were already down to the Chargers by 20 or more points. So that's where they are at emotionally. Daniel Jones is shelved for the rest of the year. We do not yet know who's going to start between Mike Lennon and Jake Robb. This is an absolutely disgusting game. But I'll put it to you this way.

If you are a big Eagles to the playoffs believer, big Jalen Hertz is the guy believer, don't watch this game because it's going to hurt to see your dreams chatter in front of you, which inevitably is a thing that happens in Philadelphia. If you are not, however, and you want to see what the Eagles are able to do, against this giant's defense. If the Eagles actually are a playoff team, go ahead and give it a watch. I'm going to give you a buzzer here.

And it's because you told me to, though. It's because you told me to. Right. That's fair fair. This is the thing. I think the most measured take I saw was from Deonté Lee, our guy at PFO. Like he said,

Jaylen Hertz is the guy right now, and they've done a really good job, you know, setting up their office around them. But that doesn't mean, like, it's going to be the guy who ends up winning you a title or is, like, other World League quarterback. Chance he develops, non-zero chance so he does. But yeah, yeah.

Listen, keep running this thing. Anything that makes the Eagles more likely to actually draft the defensive player in the first round next year, I'm in for it. All I want in the entire world is the actual talent on defense. That's a buzzer. All right, five games left. What would we like, Caitlin? Let's go Bears at Seahawks. Ah, so the Bears are on a short week, six days rest.

The Seahawks run a short week, five days rest. Both of these teams are pitiful. I don't know if you watched both of these. these games. The Bears had every opportunity to beat the Vikings and just emotionally elected not due by never scoring once they got past the Vikings 40. The Seahawks had every opportunity to beat the Rams and just continued to run the football and then throw up third along for a D.K.

and back after it turns out Jalen Ramsey's quite good. Now, we know things are coming to the end here a little bit for one of the most key figures in recent football, much beleaguered, criticized, debated, you know, guys been to the playoffs, who's had some success. turned together some winning seasons, but just generally his time has come up. This might be your final opportunity to see both Matt Nagin coach the Bears

but also Russell Wilson quarterback for the Seahawks because Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated on Twitter Live, did you see this? He was getting questions on Periscope and somebody was like, oh, like, Daniel Jones could be the quarterback from the Giants next year and he was just scrolling through and he was like, Daniel Jones quarterback for the Giants,

nope, it's not going to happen. And like a couple of questions later was like, okay, well, who's going to quarterback the Giants? And just like in passing, And he was like, yeah, Russell Wilson, and then he just kept on scrolling and kept talking and just said it like, it was like, fact. Oh, boy.

Right? And we all know Russ is big on these like big markets, baby. Russ wants to be Mr. Unlimited in New York or whatever. And so listen, if you've enjoyed watching Matt Nagy on the Bears, you're a sick man. There's no reason to watch for that. That's going to end. We're all happy about that.

If you've enjoyed watching Russ on the Seahawks, that's much more reasonable. And according to, again, like, it's not like Albert, like, officially reported this. But Albert just dropped that live bomb in passing. And now I'm thinking about Russell Wilson and a Giants uniform form. So this might be one of your last opportunities. Watch Russ play for the Seahawks.

I'll give you a ding here. I'm interested to see what Russell Wilson's able to do against the Bears. I'm also curious to see, like, Justin Fields gets some more extended run. I thought he made some rookie mistakes in that Monday night game. But I'm curious to see him go up against the Seahawks defense. I had Jets fans just hailing down. Oh, look at Justin Fields. You see that Justin Fields, right?

The sack, Justin Fields this. While, like, fields, like, lacing together drives to try to, like, score. And then, like, you're getting, like, fumbles and, and failed fourth down conversions inside the 10. They're like, oh, Justin Fields. Like, yeah, are you watching currently the game? And we, with our eyes? Are we looking at it? That throw, I don't know who it was in the back of the end zone where he, like, had the way out for it.

And he was going on Mooney. Yeah, it was Mooney. Yeah, it was Mooney. Yeah, mooney. And then on the drive before, he had Jimmy Graham in both hands on third of him. Oh, my. Yeah. Anyway.

And Jimmy, yeah, and Jimmy was like, sorry, I can't catch the contact. Jimmy's the only reason you're here. Jimmy's the only reason you're here. You can't block,

you can't run routes. Your only reason you're here is catch a jump ball, Jimmy. It's your only reason. All right. Four games left. What would we like? Let's piss off some Jets fans.

Jack Wars of Jets. All right. So I kind of had a fun, like, you know, whatever thing with like, oh, Zach Wilson versus Trevor Lawrence and like figuring out,

you know, which fan base is going to panic more because obviously there's a lot of panic of both fan bases with their number one and number two overall picks. But from Adam Schaeffer earlier today, Wednesday, 15 jets out due to COVID-19, including wide receiver, Levera-Mor, Guard, Vera Tucker, Corner, Michael Carter, wide receiver with Jeff Smith, live receiver Vincent Smith, yeah, and head coach Robert Saleh as well. They are getting the outbreak there with the Jets, which really, really sucks.

It's going to make this game more difficult to play and make it even whacker than it already was. What is interesting is this. As I said, this was the number one, number two. this is the number one, number two rematch on terms of last year's picks. Last year, on December 27th, the Jaguars lost to the Bears, but the Jets, if you remember this game, it was a very weird game, beat the Browns, 23 to 16. And in doing so, secure the first overall pick for the Jaguars.

Lo and behold, here we are exactly one year later. And the Jets and the Jaguars are playing not like exactly 100% for the number one overall picked, the Jets are currently fourth and the Jaguars are currently first. But if the Jaguars lose this game, they mathematically secure the number one overall pick. Ergo, the Jets winning two consecutive years in late December may actually get the Jaguars back to back first round picks. That's not really a reason to watch the game.

It's just the best thing I could come up with in like a half hour after the Jets news broke. So there you go. That's what I was thinking, but I'm going to give you a buzzer. Great process. Great process. It's an interesting fact that you can share about the game. game while watching something else. Jaguars with

consecutive first overall picks would make them the first team in, I looked it up earlier, it's like 15, 20 years or something like that. Which is just, you know, another good encapsulation of how the Urban Meyer era went. Three games left. What would we like? Let's go fighting Dan Campbell's at

Falcons. Yeah, I don't know why this, this, this juggernaut of a team is here. This is reprehensible. All right, Detroit Lions, winners of two of their last three okay. Yeah. Beat 18 point win

against the Cardinals with the cut stand Chris Reynolds with backups in there. Jared Goff's on the COVID list. Hopefully he's able to come out. But really like legitimately,

an actual earnest cry here in week 16. Watch the Lions. Watch the Lions be the Falcons. Like what? The Lions are fun. Like the Lions are funny. Like firstly,

Jared Goff is playing quite well. Amon Ross St. Brown is really coming into his own. Josh Reynolds is looking like we all hope Josh Reynolds was going to look. This offensive line is great. Amani Arawaray is playing well on defense, right?

O'Clor is playing nice in the defensive line. Aline McNeil, like some of the young guys are working. Like, this is, this was the plan. It was, we're going to be bad, but we're going to try. We're going to play the young guys. They're going to improve. By the end of the year, we should feel like our arrow was pointing up. They just laid it on the Cardinals.

And they're like five-point dogs to the Falcons who have nothing, nothing in the trenches. Firstly, they're going to be the Falcons. Okay, we're betting on the Lions. We're doing it, baby. We're back to take the lines of the underdog. But number two, like, legit, like, if you miss

the Cardinals game, I watched a lot of that game because I had money on the Cardinals. I missed a lot. I watched a lot of that game. The Lions team is fun. Like, it is good golf. It is good Campbell. They are super jacked up by everything. They are, they are timely. They are aggressive. They are nasty. Watch the lines. Like, that is the reason. Watch the Detroit Lions.

I'm going to give you a ding. And you appealed to me, one, because, yeah, I like to see the Lions play football. They're fun. They're really fun to watch. That being said, Josh Reynolds, I feel vindicated on in a month, Ross St. Brown. Like that, that was one of my guys coming out last year.

So nice seeing them succeed. St. Brown has been it, right? Like, the book on St. Brown coming out of USC was like, oh, he's good at everything. And then he came to the league. And it's like, aha, well, guess what? He is good at everything, right? Which those are the players that are easy to miss on. She's like, what's their cardinal trait?

They're good. The cardinal trait is that they're good at, they're good. They're going to be good in the league and then they're good. And that's exactly what's happening, which is fun. I also like, I was a big Josh Reynolds guy. And I couldn't understand why the Rams couldn't get it to work. Dude. And here they are in Detroit.

Yeah. One explosive play per game. But I'm taking that as a win, baby. Same. Love Josh Reynolds. It's the single digit. That's what's doing it for it, man. I think we changed the rules.

You've got me. I'm fully buying in on the single digits now. All right. Two games left. Well, we like? Let's go Chargers at Texas. All right. You ready?

Justin Herb. Ding. Are you telling me You wish you would have You don't wish you were watching that Giants game When he threw that pass live Adam Amin on the call Just screaming Herbert at the top of his lungs

Adam Amina says about the best calls this year by the way He's like he's like you know I don't know like third on the Fox list or whatever And he keeps getting these games like aren't market games And then like amazing stuff happens He just goes nuts I very much appreciate Adam Amin but regardless Um

It's charge watch Justin Herbert Like this the charges are awesome Justin Herbert's one of the most fun players the league to watch, watch Justin Herbert. To me, that's that right. That is a ding. It's an automatic thing. All right.

Next. Thank you very much. Last and not least, Washington football team at the Dallas Cowboys. This is the Sunday night football game, which means it is a primetime game, which means as always, I win by default.

However, in this instance, right. This is kind of like the Eagle situation as well. This is a playoff team in the Dallas Cowboys who are trying to push up in the NFC North rankings. Right now the Cowboys are 10 and 4. They have in front of them, the Buccaneers who are 10 and 4.

They have the Packers who are 11 and 3. and then the Cardinals are also like 10 and 4, but figuring that out is weird, right? Rams are 10 and 4. They are thick in the mix of fighting for playoff seating. Like the Cowboys playing and winning these games may dictate whether they play in Tampa Bay or in Dallas in like the divisional round.

That's a huge deal. So number one, there's just like a lot on the table for the Dallas Cowboys who have secured the division, they have won it, and now they're just fighting for seating in the buy. Particularly for this game against Washington. DAC has not been great. right there's there's there just been injuries uh he's been banged up he seems to be missing a little bit more

than he was don't really know against washington last time they played i want to say three weeks ago they got a couple of early turnovers built out a huge lead deck never really had to do anything Washington actually kind of matches up nicely with dallas in terms of how many gevens of lamb and they can put on the field and whatever so i will say watch this game because a i expected to be good right if washington's back fully healthy taylor heineckee can play Washington has been more than plucky, right? They've beaten some pretty good teams here down the stretch. Number one, I expect like a good Sunday night game, watch for that reason.

But number two, watch because the continued Dach heat check is very important to understanding where Dallas is in the playoffs. I sat on our show a couple weeks ago. I thought that the Dallas could be as dangerous to anybody in the playoffs because defense and offense are both great. And Dap just really has not picked it up since then. So this is a, to me, like, if you want to predict playoffs, if you want to understand who's going to do well,

Like to me, like, the charges are my sleeper in the AFC and Dallas is my sleeper in the NFC, but it's all about DAC playing better down the stretch. So I'm doubted on this game because I want to see how well Dak plays against a good Washington defense. I would recommend you do as well. Yeah, I'm going to give you a dang. I was shocked, you know, when the schedule came out because there's so many divisional matchups at the end of the year, especially like these, like the NFC East, they're always good. And ends up being a good decision on the NFL's part.

Like I'm definitely going to watch, you know, Washington, Dallas, Philadelphia, and New England, like, maybe not this week. Billy New York, but yeah, it's going to be fun down the stretch. All that said, man. Dallas, yeah. Dallas has Washington and Arizona at home before Eagles on the road. And, like, those aren't pushovers, but, man, like, they can go legitimately 13-04. They just need DAC to just be, like, not an active detriment.

And I don't know why. I wish I could explain it. Like, it's one of the things that right now is just nagging me as I go into the postseason. I can't figure out what's going on. Like I said, like, no teams are good. Don't believe in anything. I can't figure out what's wrong with DAC in this passing game. It's just, like, little stuff.

everywhere. And it's, it pisses me off and it makes me upset. This could be a really, really good team. They were just fully peaked here by December, but they're not. Well, hopefully they figured out. Happy holidays are you, brother. Yeah. Yeah, thank you so much everybody for listening here. This was the Ringer Friday show on a Wednesday, between the Tuesday and Thursday games, Week 16, featuring Ben and Kaelin. A motley crew on a motley day, but that's what it is. We head into the holidays. And obviously, coming out of the holidays as well, we'll have a little bit of a different schedule. We'll have the Sunday recap show, as per usual, recapping whatever games again on the weekend.

We will adjust our schedule relative to any Monday or Tuesday games as those things arise accordingly. So basically what I'm saying here is subscribe to the bringer and it's all feed and whatever after your podcast, but it has to be Spotify. And then you won't miss any show whenever it comes out. But you should be looking Sunday, evening, Monday morning. That's when we expect our next show to come out. Thank you, as always to Kalen. Thank you as always to our man behind the curtain.

That's Stefan Anderson this week. As I can say, we put together a different crew for his production. And then, of course, his man behind the curtain, Arjuna Ram Cipoll for his productional supervision. we will be back different time, different casts, everything will change. But this show will still exist for Week 17. Talk to you.