The Ringer NFL Show - Week 17 Recap: Eagles and Vikings Lose, Niners Win in Overtime, and the Giants Are Back in the Playoffs | The Ringer NFL Recap Show

Episode Date: January 2, 2023

Nora and Steven are joined by Ben Solak to do a confidence check-in on the top teams in the NFC after the Eagles and Vikings lose and the Niners beat the Raiders in overtime (1:57). Then Nora and Steven pick out their winners and losers from the week, including the Giants, Bucs, and Commanders (30:27). Hosts: Nora Princiotti and Steven Ruiz Guest: Ben Solak Associate Producer: Isaiah Blakely Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Learn more about the albums you love with Dissect, a music analysis podcast hosted by me, Cole Kushna, a lifelong musician and composer. Each season of Dissect dives deep into a single album, forensically dissecting the music, lyrics, and meaning of one song per episode. Our newest season is covering Tyler the creator's Igor, a beautifully honest album in which Tyler explores love, communication, masculinity, and truth. Listen to Dissect today only on Spotify, because great art deserves more than a swipe. recap show. I'm Nora Pintiotti. Week 17 Sunday is almost in the books. We're recording in the

middle of Sunday night football. I am here, as always, with Stephen Ruiz and Benjamin Solac joining us for the headline. Benjamin, happy new year. Oh, happy new year. Go birds, it was a bad Sunday for me. You guys are going to be surprised to hear this. It was a terrible sickening Sunday for me. I tried to tell you to stop pounding. I tried to tell you stop pounding was around the corner and indeed the pounding stopped. That's not the reason. Not that... Uh-uh, uh-uh.

I received a message from Steven. Okay, let me finish the anecdote. Okay. Because you're about to reveal it. I'm not mad that they lost. I'm mad at myself because at one point, the Panthers forced to fumble and recovered it, and I did a fist pump.

He felt it. The remaining Carolinian strands of DNA in Stephen, and Stephen's arm took over, and he fist pumped a fumble recovery. in that moment, the panther season was over. It was the first time I had felt an emotion about the panthers since at least like 2018.

Guys, the headline's not about the Panthers. It's about whether or not Stephen had a good Sunday. Yes. That's what it's always about. All right, but here's what we're going to talk about. We're talking about the NFC. The 49ers beat the Raiders in overtime. The Vikings got crushed by the Packers.

The Eagles go bird. in go birdsish fashion lost to the saints, loosened their grip on the number one seed. So let's start with the 49ers who squeaked by the Jared Stidham Raiders, but suddenly do have a shot at the number one seed in the NFC and a first round by. So they win 37, 34 with all of this movement in the conference. Ben, how are you feeling about San Francisco right now and after this game?

So over the past couple of weeks, I've liked San Francisco as the team to come out of the NFC. Just as the Eagles have gotten more and more injured, like independent of Cowboys losses and Saints losses, like they're just getting hurt at the wrong time. And I think the Niners match up with them super well. So I've liked the Niners to come out of the NFC. Less after you give up 365 passing yards and don't sack Jared Stidham. That changes how I feel a little bit. Indeed.

Yeah. It is an oversimplification to say that the Niners really rely on an elite pass rush, because most defenses really rely on an elite pass rush, even in the NFC. You look at Philadelphia. Should you be so lucky? Yeah, you look at San Francisco, and it's just like, yeah, all of these teams are built to win with the front, and when they're in the front, they're great. But the day that Darren Waller had, three for 72 in a touchdown,

and working through the middle of the field, they had Foster Morobi successful in the middle of the field. They had a 20-yard completion of Matt Collins working in the middle of the field, getting some more space with Sidem throwing the ball quickly from the pocket in that area, right? They got the defense of pass interference on Fred.

Just like, well, usually was the strength of the Niners, wasn't too much in this game. And then, it turns out Devante is still really good at this.

And the hope for the Niners was that in bringing in Charverius Ward to play man coverage, they would have a little bit better of a wide receiver one answer. And the Raiders were just able to play hide-and-seek with Devante Adams.

They were get him in, a better matchups, they're able to get him down the field, and then he won these contested catches. And you wonder for the Niners, which typically when the Niners have struggled under Domingo Rines, even under Robert Salo, it was with wide receiver ones, Triverius Wars kind of, they really wanted him to be their solution to this. And you wonder if this team runs into C.D. Lamb, who spends a lot of time in the slot, runs into a team like the Eagles with AJ Brown and Devante Smith, two wide receiver ones. Are we going to see more games like Devonte, 7, 153, and two touchdowns, 11 targets, the primary target, the downfield guy, the hero.

Is that going to be the issue for the Niners? You can get rid of the ball quickly enough that you beat the pass rush, find enough space in the middle, and then critically, that wide receiver won. What's it going to look like when the Niners get those players in their playoff run? How much do you think that had in common with their game against the Chiefs? Because before this, Kansas City was the only offense that had burned them for more than 358 yards or 28 points, right? Like, Kansas City was the only offense that we'd seen play this 49ers defense and really rack up. yards and points. So do you think that those two things kind of go together

or was there a separate formula from this one, then against Kansas City? I think the Chiefs put 44 on the 49ers because Patrick Mahomes can put 44 in anybody in any given time. Day ends and why. Like, you know, to me that that's, you know, if ever I'm looking for like a offensive blueprinting as a certain defense,

I'm never watching a Mahomes game. There's just no useful information for me to glean as a mortal from the behavior of the demigod. That was when the 49ers, defense was still like getting back healthy. I think they had some guys back, but it was still like ramping them up. They were on their way. Yeah. The other thing that you'll see is just, like this is a really interesting conversation to have relative to how well the Packers played against the Vikings and how the Packers gave up one catch to 15 yards for Justin Jefferson

against the Vikings, right? Like the Niners, we know to be an assignment sound, aggressive, really well-tackling defense. The Joe Barry defense with the Packers, we know to be a little bit more liable. is a bad tackles, some knucklehead mistakes, some odd deployments of personnel, so on and so forth. But when you live in this general family of defenses. It's called it a bozo defense. Yeah.

Oh, but when you live in this family of defenses, right, like coaching makes a huge difference no matter what scheme you're running. But when you live in this family of split field and quarters and light boxes and, yeah, sometimes in bozo stuff, when you run this family of defenses, there's a lot of opportunity for miscommunication.

There's a lot of communication that has to happen on the field. opportunity for coverage bus, and then you'll find explosive plays out of that. I'm like less concerned about the 49ers defense. I think sometimes you just get out game planned. And I like the Packers comparison is a good one. Like they held Justin Jefferson to whatever they held them to. But the Packers season was on the line. And I think they were going all out for this game.

Whereas the 49ers are kind of going through the motions right now. Obviously this was a game they had to win if they wanted to win the one seed. But I'm less concerned. And I think you could put this. performance kind of in that same bucket as like the Patrick Holmes can do that to you bucket. Sometimes Devante Adams just goes for 150 yards and two touchdowns. Right. It's worth emphasizing that nobody should ever make the catch that Devante Adams made to

score 34 points. There was more than one of a one of those. Yeah. Like these were contested tight window catches that were like amazing and only like two other guys make. So I'm less concerned. I think this is just one of those late season games that happened. I agree with Stephen.

I think I bring up the Chiefs game sort of to make the the inverse of the point that we kind of cross off the Chiefs result because it's different. They have Mahomes. It's not useful. No one else has to, if we if we cross that out, nobody else has done this to them. Yeah. And nobody else has neutralized or not been affected by the 49ers pass rush like this in a game. I'm just not willing to say that that's going to happen again. This game was weird.

So many of the passes that Adams was catching were just like, that's not like number one receiver stuff. That's just like Devante Adams stuff. I just don't think that it's going to happen again. Stidham was completing passes that probably have like a 4% chance of getting completed. The game ended exactly how you would expect it to, right? So like Nick Bosa gets pressure, forces him to throw up. a duck gets picked, sets up the game-winning field goal.

Other than the overtime part of that, that's exactly the type of play that you think is going to kind of define this game. It's just that it took until overtime to get there. I still think you play this game 10 times. This is the only one of them that's that close. So I am, because the result makes it genuinely possible that they could squeeze their way into the number one seed, I think the 49ers are in a better position now than they were at the beginning of the day. And I'm just sort of willing to be like, look, I don't think Jared Stidham's ever going to play like this again. So I'm happy to extend that to San Francisco.

I'm all the way in on every single backup quarterback just being able to play extremely well. Just bring me more of this. Stidham versus Pertie was like Allen versus Mahomes in last year's playoffs for mediocre backup quarterbacks. They're like hidden everything. to bring this up, but Gardner Minshue? Well, I was thinking, no, no, no. Gardner against the Cowboys, first week out, great. Gardner looked awesome. Shooting, running the offense, pushing the ball down the field.

Next week, pumpkin. I love this. I love, like, we talk a lot about how it's just, just for one game is what you're saying. I don't want to know the number. I completely moving target. I love that I have not been able to figure out a thing this NFL season, man. Everything that happens is confusing to me. is it has been just bends stumbling through the darkness.

And a large part of it is because like the floor of quarterbacking, we talk about how it's been raised by this West Coast dominance, raised by raised by Shanahan, so on and so forth. We're now at the point where like anybody at any time against any defense in any weird context of benching the veteran to maybe cut him at a later time. And also we don't know if we're going to go all in or not. And you might just be here because the coach knew you from your old team. anyone 350 yards and three touchdowns.

I love it. Skyler Thompson, Sam Ellenger, and for that matter, kind of Teddy Bridgewater beg to differ. Nick Foles, baby. Nick Fools, who's the defining person of this sort of a run just walks out and it's immediately can't do anything.

He created this beast, and now it's unchained, it's beyond him. No, if he doesn't get hurt today, he throws for 400 yards. Okay, I accept that. The Giants got lucky. The Giants got lucky.

All right. Let's talk about the Vikings and the Packers here in an effort to get this back on the rails. So the Packers are potentially surging into the playoff picture. They absolutely trounce to the Vikings, 41 to 17. They would get the seven seed. They're in a win and in situation next week at home against the Lions. So they win that game for the seven seed. This is after they left Philadelphia in week 12 at,

four and eight. They've now won four straight games. They beat a Vikings team that is still 12 and 4 and has a negative 19 point differential going into the playoffs. And there was a point during this game in which Green Bay had 14 points and also 14 total yards of offense. So Stephen, what do you simply what do you make of this? Kirk Cousins is always going to be Kirk Cousins. Someone read me the stat line. I want someone to hear it in my headphones. Someone read it to me. 18 for 31, 205 yards. Yes. One touchdown. How many intersections did he throw? Two sacks. And a fumble loss. Don't, don't short-changing. Oh, let me scroll down. Two fumbles.

One lost. Kirk Cousins is always going to be Kirk Cousins. Like we have, it's so funny how we always like relitigate Kirk Cousins like every month. And it goes, it's like the Kirk Cousin cycle. He starts out a little questionable. He finds his stride midseason and people start going, oh, Kirk's not that bad. Everyone's always questioning Kirk. And then he, you know, he just puts up numbers and wins games. And then in any big game, this is what happens. Every time, he's, I can't trust the team.

I don't care how many wins they have. I don't care, even if they beat the bills in Buffalo. It doesn't matter. This team, this team is a non-threat. There are four losses. So we know that they're 11 and 0 in one-score games. The Vikings four losses. are 24 to 7 to the Eagles, 40 to 3 to the Cowboys,

34 to 23 to Detroit, and then 41 to 17 today. So when they win, they absolutely squeaked out. Like it or not, they're still a playoff team. How many, so say the first matchup is the Giants. Who's favored in that game, Ben? You're our betting. for giants. Yeah, one thing that's important to note off of the, like, Kirk being Kirk, Vikings being

what we thought they were being so on and so forth. The lack of Garrett Bradbury has hurt this team quite a bit. Kenny Clark had a season high seven pressures in this game. This from Next Gen stats, the Vikings, since Garrett Bradbury has gone down four weeks ago, they have had six different defensive tackles on opposing teams, record at least five pressures in the game they've played. So when you have Ezra Cleveland, Austin Schlotman, and then rookie Ed Ingram as your interior, and you're trying to live in a drop-back world, right?

Like, again, we talked about this a lot in the first half of the year. We thought they'd kind of come in and run the golf stuff for Kirk because Kirk is a golf, golf is a Kirk, and Kevin O'Connell's from McVeigh. And like, it all kind of made sense. And this is how they've always run offense. They came and they ran the Stafford stuff, right? And do you remember that stretch in the middle of the 2021 season for the Rams where they had some offensive line injuries and they play like the Niners and the Titans?

and Stafford was just getting deleted. Right? They had a three touchdown loss. The horrible Titans game like multiple turnovers. This is where the Vikings have ended up a little bit, where they cannot handle the interior of the pocket. They cannot provide pocket depth. They kind of give Kirk room to step up.

And man, when you throw a grain of sand into Kirk Cousin's wheels, when you make things muddy, he is liable for some extremely interesting plays. Some very good play. Some weirdly good contested catch plays. also a lot of not so much. So that's part of it there. And then the second part of it is just

with every successive week, there's just been an awesome pendulum swing of like a couple weeks of incredible Justin Jefferson games and then a couple weeks of quiet games when like defenses catch up to okay, how are they playing hide and see with him this time? What routes are they using him on?

How are they trying to release him? What are the stacks? What are the RPO's? And then a couple of quiet Jefferson weeks. And then a couple of good weeks when Kevin O'Connell does some new stuff. And then a couple of quiet weeks when defenses catch up, there's just been this like chess match, this race of like

how many tendencies do I have with Justin Jefferson? How often can I break them? What can I do to break them? What match if can you win? What matches can you win? And the longer that season goes, it's still sinosoidal. It's still kind of like up and down, you know, back and forth oscillating. But it generally trends towards defense.

The more film there is, the more stuff you do, the less novel you can be, the more teams like the Eagles who've played you once before and now have 18 weeks of film, the Cowboys who've played you once before, I've 18 weeks of film, the Giants who have played you once before and have 18 weeks of film, the more of these teams are going to be comfortable with solutions to Jefferson. And when you solve Jefferson, you solve the Vikings, period. Yeah, they don't have an Odell. They don't have an Odell to protect Cooper Cup like the Rams did.

Very good. Yeah, excellent metaphor, yeah. And then Hawkinson, like I put him in the same category as Mark Andrews. Like, he's a good tight end, a very good tight end. I don't know if he's a reliable tight end at the catch point. He just seems like a guy that doesn't always make the play in crunch time. Your tight end can't be the secondary guy in terms of hiding Jefferson. He needs to be a receiver. He needs to be a dude.

You can flex out wide. Unless he's Kelsey, who's a receiver. Right. Kelsey plays receiver. He needs to be a guy you can put it in the same alignments as Jefferson and run the same routes as Jefferson. Not to the same degree, not to the same efficacy. But he has to be able to fill the shoes so that Jefferson can go somewhere else

and do something else. T.J. can't. Like, their roles don't overlap enough that he actually provides the cover that Jefferson needs. When they played in week one, obviously a big story. from that game was Jaya Alexander not shadowing Jefferson. He pretty much did that in this game. And as

you mentioned, Ben, one catch for 15 yards. And so next-gen stats had Alexander head-to-head on Jefferson on 20 of his 31 roots. And on those the catch, somebody else was lined up against him,

the one catch that he had. So just to your point, it's very easy to see teams going, okay, here's the wrinkle. Here's how we want to match up. Obviously, this was, this was pretty stark because the way that the Packers played them in week one was confusing in its own right. So it sort of feels like they're just sort of writing the ship there. But it's interesting to hear you describe that because that ebb and flow, look, maybe they catch an ebb, right? Like maybe they got a playoff game and whatever defense they're playing is not ready

for how they choose to deploy Jefferson. And we've obviously seen plenty of times what can happen. But it's a fascinating part of the chess match. And seeing the Packers defense get the upper hand there in this game was interesting because that's been such a disappointing unit. But they were pretty good in this game. And if we talk about Green Bay as a team that, you know, they're not, they're not assured a playoff spot yet,

but a team that could sneak in and you're sort of wondering, okay, how much should other teams fear them? A thing that I'm really curious about is how this defense will continue to look, right? Because you started to get more big plays from the players who they've been hoping would be more impactful this season. So Kenny Clark has the strip sack. Obviously, Alexander did a really, really good job on Jefferson. and Darnel Savage had the pick six, which was part of how they jumped out to that lead

when the offense hadn't started clicking at all. So I'm just very curious to see, obviously, next week they're going to have to handle Detroit. That's a really, really good test to see if they are making any sort of real progress there defensively because it's not like, look, those are still good players, but for most of this season, the full picture has not been particularly impressive.

And if that changes, obviously the headline is always going to be, always going to be Aaron Rogers, always going to be the Packers offense. But if that changes, then they start to resemble a little bit more the team that they seemed more likely to be at the beginning of the season. So that, I think, will be the most interesting part of that Lions game and the most interesting part of seeing, one, if they can just get into the playoffs, but two, how much you worry about them when and if they're there. Yeah, I remain largely suspicious of the Packers overall as a team

and a team that could win a playoff game and a team that is interesting in the playoffs. And it's because defensively, when I see the lift, when I see the improvement over the last month, last six weeks, I see first round players winning matches. I see good players winning. I don't see structural and schematic changes. Jaya Alexander getting to shadow Justin Jefferson nonwithstanding. that really lead me to believe Joe Barry's turned a corner.

And the Jair Alexander should follow Justin Jefferson thing, given what he did to them in week one, is about as like low of a bar as we can get. We got to do this one, man. We got it. Here we go. Imagine if he hadn't. Yeah.

I think the Packers can still be run on like crazy. And I think they can still be beat by play action in a big way. Lions are going to test that, as you said. And if the Lions don't and like the Lions are good, but the Packers still beat them. if the Packers beat the lines are in the playoffs, okay, well, if you get Dallas, I mean, Dallas, if you get the Giants,

you get the Eagles, get the Niners, these teams can do it to you. So I'm wholly unconvinced by the Packers Renaissance. And it's been fun, though, because it was like, you know, and everybody, oh, Rogers in the playoffs, here we go. Now, watch them play. I'm not into it. I kind of look at this game, like I looked at the 49ers versus the Raiders.

Sometimes you just have a good game plan. Like, I think they took Jefferson away. And if you take Jefferson away, stopping this Vikings' offense, isn't that impressive. They can't run the ball. They can't protect, like Ben said. Adam Thieland can't run anymore.

I mean, if Jefferson's out of the game and you're bracketing him or you shutting him down with Jair Alexander, I don't think it's all that impressive. That's fair. The most exciting thing is going to be, look, if they make it, Rogers is going to say some things.

And I think that's something we can all get behind. I do think the Packers could win a game because I think that the offense has figured something out. It's not like this is going to be the type of offense we've seen in Green Bay over the last couple of years when they've been like an elite unit. But I do think they've found a formula and they're figuring out how to hit their beats or figuring out how to throw play action over the middle. They're getting the ball in their playmaker's hands. I think it's a decent offense. I can win a game. But like Ben said, they match up so poorly with the top crust of the

conference that I don't think it's going to matter. They might win a wild card game, but it's not going beyond that. I will say in terms of dangerous weapons that I'm worried about in the NFC playoffs, Keishon Nixon's one. Holy Moses. I didn't know we could still do this. I didn't know we had kick returners still ripping off 40 plus yarders with regularity, scoring touchdowns.

The Packers special teams out of nowhere. Rich Vasatia, baby. Culture. Like a couple of weeks ago, Aaron Rogers said he was the first kick returner that I, like, trust to take the ball out of the end zone. If you can get Aaron Rogers to change his mind, pretty good player. Pretty good player. Somebody gives Keishon Nixon some information about like some political and some science things.

So very basic science goes for Aaron Rogers. All right. Ben, you mentioned the rest of the cream of the crop of the NFC. Let's talk about those Eagles. Lose 20 to 10 to the Saints. They're still without hurts. Stephen, because you are not, you are not soiled by fandom in the way that our darling Benjamin Solak is.

What did what are, how are you feeling about the Eagles right now? Obviously without hurts, they could have him back in time for week 18. Um, not totally sure on, on that front. But what is your sense of confidence in Philadelphia now that they still haven't locked up the number one seed and could possibly lose it if they lose and San Francisco wins next week. I haven't really lost confidence in the offense unless like Gardner Minchu is playing into the playoffs, which I don't think is going to happen. My concern with this team is still the defense because you're going to go up against some good offenses in the NFC at the top of the NFC,

some good play callers, some play callers that know how to take advantage of a structure that I think doesn't really give offenses problems. It's not. a moving target. And if you give Kellan Moore, who I think is a good offensive coordinator and Kyle Shanahan, who's one of the best to ever do it, that type of defense, I really think that's a bad matchup for this team. And it's a matchup that will probably end their

season if their offense isn't playing its A plus game. It's not even like good play callers. Like, it's a quarterback who understands how to find the space, right? Like, I'll never forget the run they had last year, Derek Carr and Justin Herbert were like both them completed over 90% of their passes.

Gannon is the most. passive defensive coordinator in the league, period. Like, Lovey Smith and the Tampa 2 baby ain't like this. Like, it's, he is so comfortable sitting in a defense that the opposing offense expects, losing the same matchups over and over again.

Like the past two weeks, Dak and Andy Dahl and I found Kaiser White on every passing down, 43, weekside linebacker and just hammered it. Just hammered the matchup. There's always space. There's always room. The receiver's always open.

And Gannon will just sit there and, wait for the pass rush to solve the problem. And if you play the Vikings with their bad interior, you're going to be okay. You play the, even like the Niners. Like Kyle Shanan can scheme it up,

but like, you know, you pressure Brock a little bit, like go get the rookie, maybe it'll work. But if you, if you run into like Dak, if you weren't into golf,

like golf's good enough to do this. Yeah, golf is smart enough to find the guy circled on the sheet. Where's four three? There he is. Here we go. Like,

because you can get a Monra Saint-Brown on the slot over Kaiser, and the Eagles will let you have it. They'll let you have it for drive after drive after drive. So that the defense is very liable. Offensively, I agree with Stephen. Like, Jalen Hertz solves like all of the problems they had in this game. They couldn't, they weren't running readoption stuff, so they didn't get as many handoffs as they should.

They had, Minchew took five sacks in the first half, six on the game. They'd never taken more than four in a season in a game this season. Minchie was just hitching up into pressure, Hitching up pressure, Hertz doesn't do that. They fail on a third and one, on a third and three, on a third and four, on a third and four, and then on a fourth and one. Like, Hertz is your short yardage guy. Like, Hertz solves so many of their problems.

So, like, if you get 100% Hertz, you're feeling fine. Eagles are like 14-point favorites over the Giants. The Giants might rest all their starters. Eagles are almost certainly still going to have the one seat, and I've been saying that for three weeks, so it feels a little sketchy, but they're almost certainly going to have the one seat. I fully believe it. Get the bi-week.

Hertz is healthy. It's great. But they're going to, run into good passing games and they're going to have to win a shootout if the defense keeps playing like this. If they can avoid Dallas, it's huge for them because I think if they play the Cowboys a third time, I think Dak's going to slice them up. Yeah. What good defensive coordinators do is like present space free snap and then take it away post snap. And like you never feel a defense like this is doing that. It makes it really easy on quarterbacks. And I think it makes it really easy on

play callers, especially good play callers. That's that's my concern. And I, and I, It's a big concern. All right. At this point, end of week 17, going into the playoffs in the NFC, team you feel most confident in to be the NFC Super Bowl representative, Stephen. 49ers. I put the Cowboys and Eagles tied for a second.

And then the Vikings, I wouldn't even put them on my list. 49ers. 49ers for both of you. Ben, Cowboys next for you? Eagles. I think Eagles still. I mean, Eagles and Cowboys are both really beat up. It's tricky. It's a health thing there. I think I still put Eagles two and then Cowboys three.

I would say, and then right, the rest of the NFC field is extremely weird. If I, like with the Seahawks and the Lions and the Packers all kind of sitting on the fringe right now, and I as an Eagles fan trying to figure out, right, who would I like to enter this field? I don't want to see the Lions. The Lions are the team I would like to see to get him to miss. If the team's going to make a stupid run, just like extremely irritating, why are you doing this run? It's going to be the Lions with like 40 points in every single game because this offense has that potential. So like, I rate Niners, Eagles, Cowboys, and then after that, it's a mess.

And somebody out of that mess might show up. And if they do, it'll be a ton of fun. Jared Stidham, baby. That's what this season's all about. That weird stuff. Happy 2023. All right. Thank you so much, Ben.

Thank you, Stephen. Stephen's obviously going to hang around for winners and losers. Let's get to that right now. It's the last Monday night of the regular season, so make sure you make every moment tonight by downloading Fandall America's number one sports book. Fandall is now live in Ohio for a huge matchup between Cincinnati and Buffalo. There's no better way to get involved than with the same game parlay.

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We are only doing six this week, narrowing down the field, because we were able to talk about a bunch of teams in the headline. But Stephen, who is your first winner of the day? My first winner is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, sadly for a Panthers fan like me, the Panthers finally stopped pounding this year. But, uh, wow. Tom Brady did not stop pounding. He did not stop pounding the Panthers cornerbacks. It didn't matter who was on Mike Evans. Tom Brady just threw it deep to him.

He caught seemingly every pass. Brady throws for three touchdowns. I think he averaged over 10 yards per attempt. Mike Evans catches three touchdowns of 63 yards, 57 yards, 30 yards. It was a bad game for the Panthers fan that were fans that were trying to talk themselves into Sam Darnold and Steve Wilkes coming back. I would say I would put the loss on those two guys

as Wilkes didn't really help out his cornerbacks. And that was the big concern going into this matchup, how the Panthers underman cornerbacks after losing J.C. Horn would match up with Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. Both of those guys had pretty good games. Sam Darnold started off really well. The Panthers got out to a 14-0 lead. They weren't really running the ball well, but the bucks were like selling out to stop to run so much that they were leaving a lot of space in the secondary and Sam Darnold took advantage of it to his credit. He was making some good throws.

And then all of a sudden, once the first bad play happened, you could kind of feel bad Sam Darnold come back and he turned the ball over a couple times. He wasn't making the throws. He was making. earlier in the game and Carolina just ran out of out of firepower. They just didn't have the offensive weapons to keep up. And the bucks clinched the NFC South. The end of this game when Donald was going to try, or I guess they went laterals in the last play, when they had those two plays to essentially try for Hail Mary at the very end of the game, I forget who the announcer was, but at the very end, I'd clicked back onto this game. I forgot what else I'd been watching.

And all I here was, it's time to find out how much arm strength Sam Darnold really had. It's just like, oh, God. And this is a play that is like essentially to win the NFC South. It's just dark stuff. Yeah, I think the commentator was like, I don't know if he's going to make it. Like the analyst was saying it was not a lot of hope in the Sam Darnold Hill Mary. And they were right. He only threw it like 10 yards downfields and they tried the ladders.

I got nervous for the bucks. I guess it was in the third quarter after they went on that really long drive and then got the field goal blocked and the Panthers had had a really good defensive series and like Derek Brown had kind of, I don't, he'd like run into Brady after a play and Brady got really, really pissed. And it, the Panthers went on that good drive afterwards. They go up 21 to 10. It really seemed like it could have happened.

And the bucks were just so infuriating like they've been all season. The way that they were operating offensively just felt. like when Brady was connecting on these incredible deep passes, they were just leaving so much on the table. And mercifully, at some point, I think we've asked so many times sort of like, where is the line where Left Witch and Bowls sort of go, okay, we have to just let Brady throw it. And I think we found the line. We eventually found the line after like, I don't know if it was the first Deep Evans touchdown or the second one. Eventually it was like, all right, just going to let him let him throw.

Yeah, like watching the game, it felt, it kind of felt like only a matter of time because when they were throwing the ball, like Brady was completing every pass. Yeah, they were getting whatever they wanted. So it was like, hopefully they keep running on second and long and the Panthers will be able to pull this game out. But once they went into like must pass mode, and that's been a theme throughout the season, right? Whenever like they've needed a score, Tom Brady has generally come through in the clutch this year.

And he did it once again. And then you would hope that the coaching staff with. see this and be like, maybe we should just lean on Tom Brady a little more. But through 17 weeks, it really hasn't happened unless they were desperate. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. On some level, right, it's like, why do I keep convincing myself that this could be different? It did feel like the damn broke a little bit. Like, midway through the fourth quarter, they went on that really, really up-tempo drive. And it seemed like they knew that they needed it. And Brady finally is like six of six for 61 yards. He hasn't had an incompletion. And then he had,

the third deep touchdown to Evans. And that to me felt like the turning points because it just felt like they were like, okay, this is what we do now. So maybe look, don't look back, right? Because the bucks are going to the playoffs because of this win. And I'm not going to talk myself into thinking that they're like actually frisky, but they are a far better team when they commit to passing the ball. These are still like Brady's not as good as he used to be, but Brady's still Brady

on some level. Mike Evans, those two have an incredible connection, obviously. They are a much better team when they do this. So in the name of watching good playoff football, I hope they keep doing it. Yeah, I mean, it kind of felt like the offense, for the offense at least, not the defense, but it felt like the offense we had seen the past two years.

Like they were hitting those deep shots on the outside of Mike Evans. They were hitting like the crossers and the inbreakers over the middle off of play action. The one concern with this, team. And the reason why I think we're both hesitant to call them frisky or even like dangerous in the playoffs is the defense doesn't scare you in the same ways it has in the past two years. Like you're not afraid to run on them as much as you were in the past. I mean, Carolina had trouble running on them. But in the past, like, you couldn't run at all on them. And then when you get to third down, they're not

nearly as scary even with the blitz stuff that bowl still does. So I'm with you. Like I'm hesitant to call them like frisky at all. But there were some good, some good positive signs from this for the offense. Yeah, I'm with you on the point about the defense. I want to just be very clear. The reason I will not call them frisky is I think that this is one of the worst coached teams in football. Yes. Yes. That is my issue with them above anything else. All right. My first winner is the New York Giants who clinched their first playoff birth since 2016. They beat the Colts 38 to 10. The Giants are actually in kind of a fascinating spot because they're locked in. into the six seed. They'll go on the road to play the three seed. So that's, that's probably

Minnesota or San Francisco, depending on what happens in week 18. They don't really have anything to play for, but also we've seen Giants teams. Like, they're just sort of an old fashioned franchise. So sometimes they do stuff like that. So we'll see if they, they rest the starters or not in week 18. This was a, this was a beat down. the Colts are terrible. Everything looked good, but mainly this is just a huge win for a franchise that has come an awful long way in a season. And I do think, even though I'm being careful here to not give any overblown praise for beating the Colts, who had to turn to Sam Ellinger in this one, because Foles.

hurt his rib, not that Foles was lighting the world on fire before that point, but it was kind of emblematic of the key ways in which Daniel Jones in particular has just really, really done so much better under Brian Dibble this season, which I think present the best case for them to try to win a playoff game, which was that one, he just played a clean game. So he had two rushing touchdowns and two passing touchdowns, but no turnovers, very efficient. And then he rushed for 91 yards. He was his leading,

their leading rusher. And the way that they've developed his mobility and just leaned on it so much more this season than he'd been asked to do in past seasons, I just think it's been so critical for them. Obviously, they have not committed, as you suggested, to running a full-blown option offense. But they've come closer than I think a lot of people really anticipated at the beginning of the year.

So that and the combination, so that in combination with the fact that they've just cleaned it up in terms of turning the ball over, which they did the most in the league last season with 30 and are down to tied for least at 15 at this point. I think those two things are just so emblematic of how they've been able to improve their records so much and break that play after out this season. I really, look, if I'm in New York, I'm really hoping that they get matched up against the Vikings.

Yes. I think that would be very nice. I can't sit here and honestly tell you that for all that they have accomplished, I would be super excited about playing the 49ers. But look, they've made the playoffs. It's a huge accomplishment considering where the team was last season. And I wouldn't count them out of winning at least a game, particularly if the matchup ends up being Minnesota, a team with a minus 19 point differential.

Yes. Like it feels like anytime they play a team that has like comparable talent to them, they have a chance to win the game. And I would say like the Vikings, when you look past Justin Jefferson, who's just one player, he's like the superstar in that matchup, I think the, the talent is kind of equal for these two teams. Like the Vikings have very serious problems on offense. the Giants have figured out something that works for them on offense.

And I'm at the Vikings defense. But this just shows like how good this coaching staff is. And I think you really have to consider an asset going forward. And we know in the playoffs coaching matters, game plans matter. So I agree with you. Like if they get matched up with the right team, they're capable of winning a playoff game. And I think they're even capable of giving a team like the Eagles. Let's say Jalen Hertz doesn't come back or isn't at full strength when he comes back.

I think they even have a chance against them. 49ers, I mean, that might be a bridge too far because they have so much talent. But the Giants are in a good spot right now. I think that so I'm totally with you there, but I do think that what we're saying about if they play a team with comparable talent, I think that sort of illustrates how good of a coaching job this has been this year because I'm not sure that they actually are. Like I feel the same way, but the Vikings, Vikings still have feeling, Hawkinson. They've gotten hurt on the offensive line, but at the beginning of the year, at least,

those guys had a starting offensive line with bigger names and better players. You'd still look. I think you'd still take cousins over Daniel Jones. Like they are doing this. Yes, they have Sequin. Yes, the defense is looking more and more like it's got stars. But they're getting this stuff done with Richie James. And like a lot of guys who were not necessarily.

starting caliber players in the NFL, not even at the beginning of the season, but in the middle of the season. So I think because it's such a competent organization and such a well-run and well-coached team, we're sort of lulled into this like, oh, yeah, this is an even talent disparity. I'm just not sure that it is.

Yeah, that is a good point. Which, unfortunately, I guess, is sort of part of why it's fair to have a lot of trepidation about how they'll fare in the playoffs. But I just think it's been a very, very cool thing to see this year. When you have a quarterback like Daniel Jones, anything is possible. The ultimate weapon, Daniel Jones. Maybe they'll run the option in the playoffs.

We'll just fully commit to it. That would be a nice little change up. Yeah. Yeah, totally. Got to pull out all the stops. All right. Loser time. Who's your first loser?

Let's stay in New York, our guest in New Jersey. The Jets are my first loser. They get eliminated from the playoffs. And Robert Sala has a lot of receipts. A lot of receipts he doesn't need anymore that he should throw away. I know he was saving those from earlier in the year. But the Jets season comes to. You ever do that?

You had a receipt. And you're like, oh, I should save this in case I need it later. And then three months later, you're just like, all right, well, that's sat on my bedside table for three months for no reason. I'm going to throw this out now. I blame our parents. I feel like our parents kept receipts for everything. And, like, they kind of passed that down to it. Like, I've saved a lot of receipts and I've never used the receipt again.

Never once. But neither will Robert Sala this year because I was going to say I blame my parents for the New York Jets too. So that's, yeah, that's a good point. But we did get a good game from Gino Smith after there were some questions about if he was going to be able to sustain his good play from earlier in the year. And the Seahawks figured out a way to run the ball against this impressive Jets front to stick or stay alive in the playoff race. They now need the Packers to lose next week and they need a win. if that happens they're in. But this game, I think, was kind of a sobering moment for Jets fans who had kind of turned

Mike White into this, I don't know, he did like the savior for their season. It felt like everything. Yeah, like it was almost like a security blanket too. Like they had an adult head quarterback for the like for really the first time all year. But I mean, you saw the limits of his skill set. He's just not a playmaker. He doesn't have like top tier arm talent. He is like kind of.

accurate and you can get through a progression, but you're not going to win anything with Mike White. And I think this game kind of proved that. And like, I'm, I'm feeling good about the Seahawks team. The defense has quietly played three good games in a row. I know they lost to Kansas City and San Francisco, but those are very, two very good offenses and they kind of, like, held their own in that game. And then now they just totally shut out a Jets offense that had been fine when Mike White had been playing in the path. Like they put points up on, on better teams before. This is a game where I think Seattle

re-inserted itself into that conversation about teams that might be a little frisky in the playoffs. If they can continue with this defensive momentum and if Gino Smith continues to play well, the offensive line looked a lot better. The run game looked a lot better. They got Tyler Lockett back. This is a team with some talent.

I think they could give one of these higher seeds a good game in the wild card round. And they've refound the pass rush a little bit, right? which I think has been the number one thing defensively that's kind of ebbed and flowed this season. For sacks, I think that's really encouraging. Jets' offensive line, nothing to write home about necessarily,

but still, that's a really, really good development because that was the thing that when they'd been clicking, and after the first month of the season, when they made those schematic adjustments, that was what they were really able to find in their offensive, their defensive front was the ability to generate pressure, and then that had gone away.

So if they are able to get into the playoffs, if they can keep that going, I think it is going to be really critical because the defense has been the thing that that has been more volatile, certainly than the offense here. And I think that really, really helps them just get into their fronts and be the unit that they want to end up being. I think for the Jets, we can pretty safely say, um, White Lotus Mike White had the better year than Jets Mike White. I think that was a little bit undecided for, for a bit, but I'm ready to bang the gavel on that one.

No, I agree with you. I just finished the second season like yesterday. I'm, I'm, I'm with you, Mike White. He's officially Mike White of the year, the HBO one, not the Jets one. Congratulations to HBO's Mike White.

Mike White of the year. Um, unfortunately for Jets Mike White. Better luck next time. I think that the, I don't know if there will be next time just because, look, if you're looking for a silver lining, I do think that this, this sort of crushed any, I don't know, maybe give Mike White a chance. See what Mike White's got to offer. No, go sign Tom Brady. Go figure something else out. This is still a good team, but Mike White is just not going to get it done. I did want to note that I think we saw a little bit of defensive coordinator. from Sala in this game. I couldn't believe that he punted on fourth and two down 14 points in the fourth quarter

of a potential elimination from playoff game. Like, come on, man. I know the offense wasn't doing very much, but you can't, you cannot be that conservative in that situation. I think he's done a good job coaching the team. But if we're putting in our little notebooks, ways to improve for next year, I think that would be one of them. No, I agree.

I think that's the case with all these defensive. defensive coaches. Just go for it on fourth. Just once. Like Pete Carroll did it too. They had like a fourth and one down near the red zone and he, I think he kicked a field goal. Enough. Keep the quarterbacks on the field. It's also, I'm about to talk about the commanders. After something that happened after that game, all of the coaches were on, do you know that your team might be able to get kicked out of the playoff picture today? Watch. That's not a very pithy watch. We'll come up with a better name. But it just, I don't think that that was the case, obviously, but just for a second, I was like, do you know, do you know the situation that you're in? Apparently, that's not a given. Anyway, commanders, my next loser. The Browns completed nine passes in this game in one, 24 to 10. Man.

It's upsetting. It's just upset. Well, how many passes, how many passers did the commanders complete to the Browns? three, I believe. Three interceptions from Carson Wentz, who absolutely stunk. As I mentioned about the Jets thing, after this game, there was a weird interaction with Ron Rivera and a reporter where Rivera seemed like he didn't know that they could be eliminated from playoff contention this week, which they did end up being as the result of this loss

and the Packers win. there's now some spin going on about, well, why does that matter? Of course, all he was thinking about was the situation in which they win. Why would it be relevant for him to think about what would happen if they lose? Fine. I don't care. Whatever. I still think you would know.

I still think it's weird not to know. I think most living people would know. I knew. I can't coach a football team. That would be a horrible idea. Like, I'm not in for pretending that it's reasonable. to be like, he can only think about winning so much that he would have no idea that this would be the case. He also didn't do that thing either. He did, if he was focused on winning another bad job by him, because they lost.

Right. More importantly, the team looked absolutely terrible. And Carson Wentz, who was starting essentially because of Rivera, absolutely stunk. And I'm not saying that I didn't get switching away from Heineke. I don't know that I thought it was going to go any better than this necessarily, but Heidi Kyi wasn't playing well either, and he wasn't, and he was turning the ball over, and he had that job because you're hoping that he wasn't going to turn the ball over. And when that goes away, fine, whatever, don't care. But Rivera has made it very clear that Wence is sort of his guy and that he's, he was pulling for Wence to get back in there.

And it happened, and it went really badly. And this team that a month and a half ago seemed like, They had a pretty good shot at getting into the playoffs, is not going to do it. They have no idea who their quarterback is. I'm not sure they have a good head coach. They unveiled today their mascot, Major Tuddy, who is a pig, which is fine.

In the press release about it, I couldn't help but notice that they listed him as 6'5 and like 235 pounds, which are Carson Wentz's measurements. Oh, no. Which I guess has to be a coincidence. Because if it's not, it's insane. It has to be a coincidence. We know it's a coincidence because the coach doesn't even know the playoff

scenarios. Of course, they're not thinking at that level. I don't know. I just, they're so, like, it seemed for the last month there that they wanted to get Wentz back in there so badly that I Galaxy brand myself into being like,

Is this a, is this like a, like a tribute? Is this a tribute to Carson Wentz? Is this supposed to make him feel good? Well, I got to say, this is great timing for Carson Wentz. Because after that performance, I don't think he's going to get this starting job back. And now he could just be the mascot. He's going to fit the costume. Maybe that's why they made it.

They're like, we got to pay him anyway. We want to get some good use out of him. He'll fit the costume next year. That's actually a great idea. I changed my mind. This is a win for Washington. They've found a job for Carson. There was a report from ESPN that said the commanders were considering bringing back Carson Wentz next year and like picking up like signing him again.

Maybe this is their plan. They're going to sign him, but he will be tutty. Who says no? Anyway, this was bad. That's my list of things that were disturbing about this game. And that about puts a bow on it for a very strange commander season. Yeah. I mean, honestly, I like the mascot.

If you get rid of the commander helmet, I like the mascot. I like the homage to the hogs. Yeah, it's a good. I don't know about the name. It's a little weird. I don't know. Mascots are weird. I'm not one of those people who's like, I hate mascots.

Mascots are scary except for the weird dolphin. Not all of the dolphins mascots, but they have this one that like rocks back and forth. I've talked about this before. He's terrifying. Hans my dreams. In general, I'm not, I'm neither pro nor anti-mascot, but. The NFL has bad mascots. The NFL has bad mascots.

There are no famous NFL mascots. That I guess is true. They don't have a Philly fanatic. They don't have a gritty. They don't have a maybe Major Tutty could like fill that void. He could be the star that that brings a spotlight to NFL mascots. But I doubt it. Producer Isaiah says the Jags mascot is good.

Who's the name the Jags mascot, Isaiah. The Jack's mascot is not good. The Jack's mascot used to get on like beefs in Twitter or get on Twitter and getting into beefs. And then where was the Jags mascot on January 6th? That's all I'm saying. All right. Moving on. Who's your next winner, Stephen?

My next winner is the Kansas City Chiefs who went to the top of the AFC stand. He's the first AFC team to get to 13 wins. They beat the Broncos 27 to 24. It wasn't the best game for Patrick Mahomes. And he said that in the interview after the game. But I do think this was a good sign for this team because while Travis Kelsey did catch a lot of passes, I think he caught seven passes on 10 target.

He only had 43 yards. So the Broncos had a good plan for him. They kind of shut him down. But the Chiefs just have so many other weapons now that they've replaced Tyreek Hill with kind of by committee. They have Cadarius Tony who had a pretty big game. He had like two big plays, had 71 yards receiving. Jerich McKenon scored twice.

Pacheco found the end zone. They still have MVS. Juju had a quiet game, but he's been good all year. So I feel like this team just has so many plans they can go to based on what the defense is doing. if you double Kelsey and you try to take him out of the game, they have four other options. And in the past, when we've talked about this offense, when it has struggled, there's always been this missing piece behind Tyree Kill and Travis Kelsey, the wide receiver two spot.

Sammy Watkins was good in that role when they won the Super Bowl. But after that, they've kind of had trouble replacing him. They went after like Josh Gordon. That didn't really work out. But now I think they figured it out and they have a well-balanced offense. They can run. They can throw deep shots. They can throw quick game.

They can run screens. They can do RPO. They can push so many buttons now. And Patrick Mahomes is so good. And he's at this level we've never really seen from a quarterback. This offense is good. And so even despite this close game that seemed a lot closer than it should have been, I really like this Chief's team.

And then the pass rush on the other side of the ball. The pass rush continues to be productive. It really won them the game. Chris Jones comes up with the big sack on fourth and two that ended the game. I really like the chief team. and I think they're the favorites to win the Super Bowl right now. I think the Chiefs have more than earned the benefit of the doubt on offense. You just sort of give them a game.

And I agree with you. I do think that in some ways they're even more, they're even scarier than they've been in past years, even when they had Tyree Kill just because of the variety of options Mahomes has and how he's proven that he has good connections with those guys so quickly. The concern from this game to me is if there's going to be a moment in the playoffs. when special teams cost them. Because that's been messy for them all season.

And this game, so Tommy Townsend the punter messes up a hold on an extra point. Cadarius Tony fumbled a punt return that set up a touchdown for Denver. And then Harrison Bucker missed a 51-yard field goal. He's obviously had injury issues this season. I don't know if there's anything residuals. from that, 51 is not necessarily automatic. It also might have been tipped, I guess. But that adds up, right?

Like, that's three really messy special teams plays that you'd like to have back. And that is the type of stuff that pops up in playoff games. So much more so than them having a slightly sleepy game offensively. I am putting a little asterisk next to is the special teams unit super crisp. But other than that, you know, actually honestly thought it was more interesting that the Broncos seemed like they kind of had a little bit of life in their first game after Nathaniel Hackett's firing. But with Kansas City, I think the only thing that was super notable or might have moved the needle was just that special teams stay a little bit concerning. Yeah, I thought Denver's offense was kind of interesting. thing. It was Justin Outen's first game calling plays. He had been the offense coordinator,

but Hackett was calling plays. And I like the plan. They got Russ involved in the run game. Like they had him do some zone read stuff. He scored a touchdown on his own read. I think it was the first touchdown of the game. It looked a lot like Seattle's offense when Russ first got there. Like a lot of undercenter runs on undercenter play action, the zone read stuff. It was a good plan. But even still, like Russ looked kind of good. But then you look at the stats and he actually, averages under six yards per attempt. He turns over the ball twice. He wasn't accurate.

He created some plays on the move, but it wasn't like vintage Russ. So it's hard to feel optimistic about this game. Even with positive signs for the offense, it's still not looking good. And Russ still looks really washed up. I agree with like, I think we sort of know that we're there with Russ. The thing that was encouraging was that it just seemed like finally their offensive play calling showed a little bit of self-awareness. like just getting Russ on the move somewhat,

calling a little bit more play action and then just taking those downfield shots. Some of them aren't going to work, right? But just we've had a decade with this guy to understand what he wants to do and to just let him throw those yolo balls a little bit. I just went, oh, my God, I think I'm living in the same reality

as the Denver Broncos offense today. And that has not been a common feeling on Sundays watching them. So it's a step in the right direction. Yeah, they ran the Russ offense. And that's been the story with this guy, like you said, for a decade. He always runs this offense. It always devolves back into this style of play. It took the Broncos a while to get there.

I don't think it would have made a difference if they got there earlier, like in October or anything. This team wasn't very good. But it seems like this coaching staff after Hackens firing at least understands the personnel. I just, it probably doesn't matter because they won't be around next year. Sure. All right. You gave a winner. This is our last team.

This is our last award. out. I'm going loser. For the Miami Dolphins, who lost 23 to 21 to the Patriots, this is an L for the last five weeks of Dolphins football. Because five weeks ago, this team was 8 and 3.

They're now 8 and 8. It's not so much an L for losing the Patriots when Teddy Bridgewater starts, but then is replaced by Skyler Thompson after Teddy broke a finger on his throwing hand. He's probably not playing next week, by the way. setting up a very exciting Mike White, Skyler Thompson Showdown. Is that the second one of the year?

Didn't they? I don't know who's in that. Oh my God, yes. Terrible. The new Manning versus Brady. I await the 30 for 30. This has just got to be, I mean, this is a collapse for the ages. What's happened to this team.

I kind of can't believe it with where they were with what their offense looked like, how exciting it was, what a good job it's. seemed like McDaniel did offensively. And then just as a collective with this team, they seemed like they got through the first blip when Tua was out with the concussion for the first time. Obviously, really scary that he's dealing with that again. And it's just got to not be a super exciting atmosphere to be a part of right now

because they still have a chance to make the playoffs. but need some help and need a win next week. And I know they've gotten super injured. You know, they didn't have Tua. They also didn't have Toronto Armstead, Damien Howard, Bradley Chub, Byron, Brandon Jones, Ogba, Trey Flowers, I think was also out. Still, it's just shocking when we think about the fact that in the middle of the season they were the team that was sort of taking everything by storm, that they and the Jets could be,

paving the way for Mac Jones and the Patriots to squeak into the playoffs. So just kind of a bummer of a season. It's looking like it's shaping up to be for the dolphins. Obviously, not done yet, but I couldn't imagine this season ending on this sour of a note in the middle of it. No, like five weeks ago, it felt like not only did the Dolphins, maybe not fine like their star quarterback, but they found a quarterback that they could go for, move forward with. And then they, it, it felt like they finally found a head coach they could believe in. And five weeks later, all of that has been undone. And I think there's a lot of question marks about this team. And obviously like Mike McDaniel will be back. I think Tua will be back. I don't think they're going to try to replace him unless, you know,

the concussions matter a little bit more than we realize right now. But I, I, I, I, I agree with you. You start eight and three. It doesn't matter about the injuries. It doesn't matter about like the schedule getting harder. And none of these losses until this week probably have been overly egregious. But in total, it feels like this was a missed opportunity to end a playoff trout. They haven't won a playoff game in a long time. This franchise needed a year like this, the first half of the year. And they, letting this opportunity slip to their hands is a real, real bummer for them. And I remember after that, 49ers game, like we kind of talked about how much we were panicking about the team. And I made this really convoluted metaphor about like it being like a strike in bowling. And like the next few games would tell us how much this 49ers game mattered. It's safe to say that 49ers game mattered. They threw like five straight gutter balls after that 49ers game. It was bad.

It's bad. I'm still not sure what this has to do with bowling. Just to be clear. I'm going to make the same metaphor next week. I'm going to bring it back every week. Is the metaphor that like you do one thing? And then the next thing is determined by the thing before. Isn't that also like dominoes or the butterfly effect?

I guess the butterfly effect is a little different. Sure. Sure. I don't know. I don't know what any of this means. I'm not good at making metaphors. All right. Well, that's winners and losers.

Our non-headline story of this week is a little playoff picture check-in, which got more interesting when the Steelers beat the Raven 16 to 13 on Sunday night of football. The Steelers are still in the conversation for a playoff spot. They, with a win next week against Cleveland and a Patriots loss and a Dolphins loss would be assured a playoff spot. The other team that this impacts is the Jaguars who could get in even with a loss. If they beat Tennessee next week, they're in. But even with a loss to Tennessee, they could still get in with a Steelers loss, Patriots loss, and a Dolphins loss. So some shakeups in the bottom part of the AFC playoff picture.

On the Raven side, the only thing that changes is the Week 18 matchup with the Bengals will only be for the AFC North if the Bengals lose to Buffalo. Stephen Ruiz, did I get all of that right? I think you did. I think you did. I really hope so. Did you have to complicate things? It would have been so simple if Kenny Pickett didn't intervene.

This was such an easy segment if Kenny Pickett didn't decide to go on, you know, a legacy drive for the season. Way to ruin our nights. Thanks, Kenny. The thing that I really want to point out here before we go, look, we just laid out the path. I still think the Steelers are probably not going to be able to. Well, actually, the things they need to go right seem eminently possible. The bills are going to be playing for the number one seed. So you figure they're going to try against the Patriots.

The dolphins obviously lost Teddy Bridgewater for week 18 today with the broken finger. So the stuff that they need to go right seems like it could definitely go right. That said, math says it is unlikely the Steelers make the playoffs. I don't think they would be particularly competitive once they were there if they did that. That said, the thing that is wild about this to me, Steelers are 8 and 8. If they win next week, or tie, for that matter, whether they get the help they need or not, Mike Tomlin has kept the no losing season's record alive, something that just did not seem possible with this team at the beginning of the season.

They just, his teams do not underachieve. And I think it is one of the most impressive feats in football and perhaps in professional sports. We should have known when he did this with Duck Hodges and Mason Rudolph, that combination. He could do it with with Kenny Pickett, who Stephen called 35 years old before this podcast began. He's 36 years old. I'm going to add a year to it every time I reference his age. 24 years old. There is that clip of Tomlin, like walking through the tunnel and like the fan is like, hey, go for a win today. And Tomlin's like, I'm effing. I'm effing doing.

my job, man. Have you seen that clip when he snaps at the fan? Yes. It was like from three weeks ago. I understand it now. This guy has been working his ass off to get this team back to 500 with Kenny Pickett and he did it. Like he deserves to go off on that fan. He was working his ass off. He's never had an underachieving team. He's had really good teams. He said worse teams, but he's never had an underachieving team. No. And like I remember saying earlier in the year that like I don't know if Tomlin's the ideal coach for a rebuild. But this just shows you how much he raises the floor. Like you're you are never losing more than 10 games if you have him as your

coach. And I think that's very valuable. And I know they haven't capitalized on some talent they've had in the past like back in the the heyday of Ben Rothesberger and Levyon Bell. But he's a good football coach. Don't get rid of him. Like keep him around. Give him a lifetime contract. He deserves it. Firing that man as your head coach would be so eminently stupid. I can't believe it's a discussion. It's like a real discussion that this fan base has every year. And it's it's crazy. every year. No. Absolutely not.

I won't allow it. I'm going to get involved. Greg Roman on the other hand. That may have been the worst, like, I don't want to call it a two minute drill because they only had like a minute left, no timeouts. But the sequence where Huntley didn't know whether to spike the ball or call the play, that's just an indictment of Greg Roman, who has had problems with pre-snap operation

and getting the play call in on time. And this, in one of the biggest moments of the season, the division is on. the line for it to happen, that's inexcusable. And if that's not the moment where the Ravens realize they need a new offensive coordinator next year, obviously they're not going to do it at this point. I don't know what else they need. Yeah, he's got a languid clock operation going on there. It's, I imagine that came from San Francisco, which over the years and actually continuing into the Shanahan era, I think the 49ers are able to use that really strategically and often because they have these teams that kind of do want to, want to grind out a lot of clock.

They will operate that way. But I think it's, it's bled into a real weakness for. Yeah. Greg Roman, just not being able to get the operation, working quickly when it needs to and really taking his time with that. And it's definitely an issue for them. Especially for a team that seems to like care about the little edges you can pick up. Like obviously with the analytics influence in that front office, that they would

recognize that is a very big problem that's. costing them probably win probability percentages every week. Okay, so New Year's resolution for the Ravens is to care less about their undefeated preseason streak, right? And maybe a little bit more about getting your plays off earlier in the play clock. Let's get to the line of skirmish with 10 seconds left on the play clock from now on. It's a great idea. It's a great idea. All right. Stephen, you on the other hand have no issues with clock operation. Fabulous as always.

Thank you so much. This has been the Ringer NFL Sunday recap show. I'm Norprinciotti. He's Stephen Ruiz. Thank you so much for listening. We will be back next Sunday. In the meantime, Sheel and Ben will have you covered on Monday

with extra point taken, recapping all the games from week 17, including Monday night football, which would be a great game. Thank you, as always, to Isaiah Blakely for production on this episode and to Arjuna Ramgapal for additional production supervision.