The Ringer NFL Show - Wild-Card Weekend May Not Be That Wild (Ep. 214)

Episode Date: January 5, 2018

The Ringer’s Robert Mays and Kevin Clark get you set for the wild-card round, including explaining why the Titans must over-perform on defense to have a shot in Kansas City (02:15), how the Rams can expose the flaws in the Falcons D (13:00), and why teal-colored hamburgers is a bad idea in Jacksonville (22:30). Then, the guys discuss the one thing the Panthers must do better than the Saints (35:15) and why the story about the drama between the biggest names in New England isn’t news to the Patriots (42:00). Plus, Danny Kelly joins the show with X factors for each wild-card matchup (48:30), including why there might actually be some hope for the Bills (51:00). Finally, the guys predict the winners of each game (59:15), and talk about the matchups for next week’s divisional round (01:01:30). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's the Ringer NFL show, Kevin Clark here with Robert Mays, and we want to start the show by telling the folks about Seatkeek. Yeah, over the next month, we will be breaking down and reacting to every single playoff matchup, and you can be at those games in person with some sweet seats from Seatkeek. Yeah, you can use their mobile app to buy tickets in two taps. Seekek saves you time and money by searching multiple ticket sites to compare prices and find amazing deals. They also have comedy and theater tickets available, and your favorite, Robert, concert tickets. Hey man, I'm going to some concerts this month too. What do you got? Even though we have all this stuff going on.

What do you got, Bob? I don't know. I think I might, there's a show at Navy Pier I might go to in February. That's after the season's over. This month is going to be a little tough. But I bought Governor's Ball tickets this week. So if you missed out on those and you need them secondhand, go buy them on Seekek. I mean, there's really no other place.

It is a rad service and our listeners get $20 off to get your 20-hour rebate on tickets. Download the Seek app. Go to the Settings tab. and click add a promo code. Enter promo code Ringer NFL. Seek will send you $20 after you've made your first ticket purchase. Download the Seatkeek app and enter promo code Ringer NFL today. Welcome to the Ringer NFL show, part of the Ringer Podcast Network.

I'm Kevin Clark, joined by Robert Mays. Robert, I think it's time we talk about your affiliation with Alex Guerrero. If you've ever seen how terrible a shape I'm currently in, and also what I eat, I'm currently in Minneapolis. right now and they're kind of one of their local cuisines is a burger that's just stuffed with cheese and I took a picture of it yesterday.

I guarantee you that is not on the TB12 diet so you never have to worry about me and my affiliation with Alex Guerrero. I can promise you that. We're no longer allowing him to stand in the podcast studio and just treat random people. Just creepily in the background like in the shadows. No one can

actually see anything but his feet. Yep, that's it. It's Wild Card Weekend. We're going to get to the Patriots story, the bombshell from ESPN after the games. Both of those things deserve attention, obviously. But it is wildcard weekend. We're going to break down all four

matchups. And then we're going to get to the crazy New England report. Let's get into the four. Let's not waste any time. The people deserve a breakdown. Let's do this. I'm ready. All right. Titans at Chiefs. I have many thoughts. Why don't you start us out, Robert? I mean, it just feels like, you know, the Titans

were the team to limp in. You know, no one really feels good about this team. I think that they're easily, you know, the weakest team in the playoff field in some ways. I feel like even though the bills may not have as much roster talent as Tennessee does, I still feel better about the bills like a weird upside considering the fact that they have Tyra Taylor. You know, if like Sean McCoy plays, it seems like there's a little bit of volatility with that team that Tennessee just doesn't have. I mean, I don't think anybody can really feel good about this Tennessee team. And with Kansas City, they're in a weird place. I mean, I don't really know where you would place them. Are they the team

that we saw over the first month of the season that was the best team in the league? No. Are they as bad as they were in losing to the Giants and that kind of little rut they went through in the second half of the season? They're not that team either. They're somewhere in the middle and I feel like trying to find exactly where they fall in this

AFC hierarchy is going to be more difficult than we think. And even after this game I'm not sure we're going to know very much. I want to talk about the Titans offense for a second. Let's do it. And the Titans in general because they're so, The team has been so uninspiring this year. And I understand, I mean, I guess Malarkey saved his job and all that.

I wrote a story today for the ringer.com about Andy Reid and the way the offense has changed forever this year with legitimate spread concepts coming into the NFL. You can read it on the website. Todd Pinkston is mentioned at one point. So, I mean, that's that's all you need to know. And Michael Vick is mentioned. So that's it. That's all you need to know about that story. But it was funny because yesterday I was finishing it up.

And I was mentioning that basically every team runs an electrifying package of plays with the spread, except the most electric spread quarterback in history of college football. Now, Marcus Marriott does run the read option. It happens. And as scrambling has been good, there are some spread elements. But the idea that we're not accepted. excited about Marcus Marriota and what he can do just either with his legs or just with the reed game or or that stuff or the RPO's that falls on Mike Malarkey and that's what's disappointing with this particular matchup is in a perfect world Marcus Marriota has a great coach and

we're going to see some awesome schemes and we're not going to see that no I mean we're not going to see that at all and I feel like that's one of the just disappointing elements of the entire season is what this team has been on offense, considering the amount of talent they've accrued both in the running game and in their receiving core. I like the players that are catching passes for this team. I feel like this overall, they should just be seven times better than they are. And the fact that the Titans managed to sneak into the playoffs, I feel like is a disservice to the Titans. Because if they don't and you look at what this team was, I mean, they are outscored by 22 points in the season. If they miss the playoffs in a very watered down AFC South, I, I, I

just feel like that you take a long look at whether Mike McCart, Mike McCarthy, that's another thing. The fact that I said that is telling, whether you think Mike Markey should be the coach there. And we're not going to do that because they managed to sneak in. I don't think they would have taken a long look at all. They would have let him go. But I think that that's a situation where, and we've seen this a couple of times, Ron Rivera saved his job a couple years ago by making the playoffs.

And if I'm not mistaken, Mike Smith lost his job because he lost one game, a kind of winner in game. And so I think that we probably evaluate the wrong things as far as, you know, one win in a week AFC determines whether or not you keep your job. But I've been extremely disappointed. I think the talent, look, the talent is not of a 14 win team, but it's not of this. And so again, I just as a football fan, I'm disappointed. We're not. Andy Reid is a significantly better practitioner of the spread than Mike Belarkey. And Andy Reid does not have Marcus Marriota. And, and. and that's what upsets me. Now, having said that, I think this Chiefs team is going to be fun as hell

in the playoffs. Really? You think they're just kind of kind of be back? Well, what makes you say that? I'm not disagreeing. I'm just curious why you believe that.

So first of all, I don't think they're going to do anything more than win this game and then go vaguely, quietly into the night next week. They will not win a second playoff game. That's correct. They will not win a second playoff game.

Having said that, Andy Reid is is feeding the beast as far as Cream Hunt. The targets are off the charts right now. I think Cream Hunt found his footing a little bit. Obviously, there was an entire offensive lull in the middle of the season. And that's understandable when they started so hot. And so much of their success was based on a package of plays that no one had ever seen before.

And there was a little bit of regression to the mean once that stuff was on tape. It's like a wonky pitcher, you know, as soon as, I mean, when you see the wonky pitcher go through once through the league, you can react to it a little bit. And once you put that stuff on film, it's easier to have a plan for it. Right. But having said that, you know, I did a lot of tape study of the chiefs this week. And some of their stuff, I mean, it's not even, you know, we talk a lot about RPO's. I wrote a big RPO story in the summer. And it's not RPO's. And that stands for run-pass option if you don't know. And it's pretty common around the league. It's just really creative option stuff. And I think against, you know, a good example is they run this sort of weird triple option or the third option is sort of an outlet lateral pass to Jason Kelsey. I think when you. It's to Travis Kelsey. If it was to Jason Kelsey, that would be amazing.

Would that be, that would be the most creative Andy Reid play ever. Oh, just a little pass to the center. Yeah. No, to the center on the Eagles. Yeah, exactly. That would just be the best Andy Reid throwback possible. Bringing in the Eagle Center for one play and running the triple option with it. Unbelievable innovation from Andy Reid.

I've seen Jason Kelsey move. I'd love to see him with the ball in his hands. Okay. So obviously the triple option ends in Travis Kelsey, not Jason Kelsey, catching the ball. And, you know, I saw I was running Evan Silva's column this morning and he was talking about how many fantasy points that the Tennessee secondary is given up. this year. And I just think that there's a lot of opportunity for an athletic team like the Chiefs to just run rampant on Tennessee. I agree. And I think that that's what Tennessee's weakness

has been all season defensively. They've stopped the run reasonably well. And I think that that's going to be a matchup to watch on both sides. We'll get into that in a second. Just where these teams are good and bad, kind of in intriguing and contrasting ways is how they run and stop the run. But Tennessee's defense. We've seen this all year. I mean, it was the worst all season against Houston. And that one game where Deshaun Watson just burned them down. I mean, there was just no discipline whatsoever going on in that secondary. And that's not, that's, that was the nadir. But you see elements of that pretty consistently. And this chief's team is another offense where if you blink for a second, they'll be standing in the end zone with the ball. I mean, that's what you

have with Tyree Kill. I mean, Albert Wilson's been kind of an, you know, a fun downfield. threat for them. They have those players to really make you pay. And I just feel like that's what Tennessee, that's what's going to happen. The only real hope Tennessee has on defense was kind of what you saw when they played Jacksonville last week. You know, you get some pressure with Iraq Po. You hope that he can beat up Eric Fisher a little bit and you have a guy like Kevin Byard in the back end and take the ball away. The problem with that recipe against the Chiefs is the Chiefs that turn the ball over, I think 11 times on the season. They don't give you the ball. I mean, that's the exact opposite of what they're offense is. So I just feel like it's going to be really, it's going to be a tough day for the

Titans offense because this is not the type of team that they have success against. No, not at all. I mean, and let's back up here. What do the Titans do well? Nothing. Yeah, exactly. And so that's my, that's my incredible blah team. They don't do anything in above. They, they run the ball reasonably well, but not as well as they should. Right. And they're banged up. So for me, when I look at, when I look at how an upset happens, it's that a team does something really well and they do it effectively and over and over and over again.

And I just don't see that path with the Titans. The only way they win this game, I think, is if they get just a little bit of pressure on the outside. The Chiefs haven't passed protected extremely well all season. You can get to individual guys on that line. There are players on the interior that you can maybe take advantage of,

maybe Jerell Casey makes a play. But the other side of it is the Chiefs running, the Chiefs run defense is very bad. You know, it's one of the worst in the league. I believe they rank 31st in DVOA. 32nd, excuse me, dead last in rushing defense. Derek Henry is going to touch the ball 30 times in this game. That is how the Titans can stand a chance,

as if they keep the Chief's offense off the field by maintaining ball control and really just stuffing it down their throats for four straight quarters. That is not going to be a fun game, but that is the only way they can possibly win. Couldn't wait for, I can't wait for that game. Oh, yeah. It's going to be thrilling.

It's going to be a really enjoyable game. And the other side of that, again, I alluded this early a little bit, I feel like a huge part of what has kind of given the Chief's life again here later in the season is their ability to run the ball. And the Titans are actually a pretty solid run defense. That's what they do in a reasonable clip on that side of the ball. So if the Chiefs fail to get anything going on the ground, I think that's when we've seen their offense stagnate at times over the second half.

So that's the recipe for me is if the Titans can get something going and the Chiefs fail to get something going with their running backs. Yep. And Lord help us from a fan standpoint if that happens. This is not going to be a fun game

unless the Chiefs do some ridiculous stuff. I think the Chiefs might put on a nice little show. That's fine. I wouldn't rule out having fun watching this game. Again, I am not excited that the Titans are here. I don't think I've been shy about making that. known.

All right. Let's move on mercifully. Falcons at Rams. I saw a really interesting stat the other day. That obviously Todd Gurley is Todd Gurley. And the Atlanta Falcons have given up the most receptions to running backs in the NFL. That seems like a particularly disastrous recipe. That's a weird thing when you consider how the Falcons defense is built.

You know? I mean, they're really, athleticly. They're so speedy. It just feels like they, wouldn't that wouldn't be one of their weaknesses. They're 21st and running back DVOA, so it's not as if it's just a volume play. You know, teams do get something going on those plays.

Yeah. 52.6 yards per game, which is about middle of the pack. That's not good. That's not great. You know, it's really interesting because in order, you have to have, it's exactly what you said,

you have to have athletic linebackers who can match up with Todd Gurley because this is going to be a nightmare. I don't want to harp back too much to the story I wrote. today, but one of the things we talked about was the sort of jet action sweep. And essentially, the hash marks are so different in the NFL that a jet sweep, not to get too granular here, but a jet sweep cannot have, be nearly as effective as it would at the high

school or college level. So why do you run a jet sweep? And why do the Rams run so many jet sweeps at the NFL? Well, the reason is because all they're trying to do is just stretch the defense horizontally. spot influence. Yeah, and so then you find the vertical alleys and then what do the Rams do with that? They send Todd Gurley on a seam route up the middle

and then they hit Todd Gurley. That's why you run jet action. And they do that a lot and they do it effectively. And if you don't have the horses to match up with Todd Gurley when he's running full speed ahead after jet action when the defense is spread thin, that's a freaking nightmare, dude. And what they do.

Essentially, it comes, essentially, it comes down to can those guys and we know there's a lot of speed in that defense are they that fast? The best thing that the Rams do and it's not even, I don't even think it's a matter of how athletic are the linebackers. I think it's, are they even going to be involved in these plays? Because that's what the Rams do better than anybody else in the league right now. They take players out of the equation so it doesn't even matter how talented those guys are, how influential those guys can be. Remember that Tennessee game, just the amount of play, play, screens that they ran.

And two of them went for big yardage, but I mean, they used them consistently. And that's why Sean McVeigh is the coach of the year. Two ways to help your quarterback are screens and play action passes. Okay. How can we do both of those? How can we wrinkle those together in order to make devastating concepts that the linebackers aren't even involved in the play?

I mean, Dion Jones can't make the tackle if he's nowhere near the ball carrier. So that's what they do well. And I just feel like that's going to be the question. Can the Falcons be disciplined enough on defense to kind of combat so many of the things that the Rams do? And the one thing that gives me hope about that and I think gives the Falcons a little bit of a chance is that they've been very good against teams that use some of that window dressing. The Falcons have played two of their best games defensively against the Saints. So you're thinking about what Kamara does everything else. I feel like it's more about getting your guys in the right spots and being prepared than it is about do you have the horses on that side.

Yeah. I mean, that's that I think that scheme wise, this is the most interesting game to me. And I'm really intrigued to see what what, what, what Sean McVeigh comes up with. There have been a critical mass of Sean McVe pieces this week. There's one of the Washington Post today. Oh, yeah. They're all coming. It's, it's Sean McVeigh time, baby.

Why not? Well, I mean, you know, I don't know. Why not indeed, I guess? So, again, this is the matchup. I think more than any that just gets me excited. I think the Rams are going to win. I probably 60% sure the Rams are going to win, but nothing would surprise me. Yeah, nothing would surprise me either.

I just feel like the Rams top to bottom are a better team. And Atlanta certainly has, you know, what, takes on that side is on offense, you know, to give teams problems. But I just think the Rams defense is playing so well. And, you know, if we're going to continue to pump up the stuff we wrote this week, I wrote about Aaron Donald this week. And just kind of digging into what makes Aaron Donald, Aaron Donald makes me afraid for the Falcons. I mean, that's really simple as it gets. You know, I think that right now he's the best player in the league, in any position, you know, in a non-Aaron Rogers world, I don't know if anyone's playing their spot better than Aaron Donald is.

and when you consider that the Falcons are not going to have their entire starting to offensive line, Andy Lovietra's hurt, he was, Donald was going to be a problem anyway. It just feels like he's impossible to account for right now, and he can wreck a game. And I'm starting to think based on who the Falcons are going to have out there, that this is one of the games he's going to wreck. You don't need to convince me. You do not need to convince me. I mean, this could be a nightmare game for Matt Ryan.

It really could. And I could see this. As much as I say I could expect anything, one of the scenarios, that Aaron Donald and that Rams defense just wreck their lives? Yeah. I mean, I think that there are still pieces in the Rams defense that you can take advantage of. You know, I'd like to see the Falcons try to isolate AlgoGletree a little bit, use the running backs in the passing game, you know, that kind of thing.

The Rams have been very solid against running backs coming out of the backfield. They're ninth in running back DVOA. But I still believe that there are certain plays where you can take advantage of them. So we'll see about that. And I also, at the very least, this is one of those games where let's scheme Julio to get him 20 targets. I mean, there's no shame in that. This is not this spread it around Matt Ryan plays point guard falcons offense that we've seen in the past. I just feel like against a team that's significantly better than you, you really just have to rely on your best dudes.

And if Julio is not a monstrous part of this game plan, I don't understand what's going on. If Julio is not a monstrous part of this game plan, just more evidence that, teams should be able to borrow pieces for the playoffs and they should have brought in Kyle Shanahan. Yeah, I agree. I think there should be a coach and player draft. I mean, just one week. I want Kyle Shanahan to have his time off, you know? He deserves it. He's probably hanging out with his family. That's fine. But one more week. That's all I ask. But what about like Garoppolo coming into the playoffs? Which team would put Garoppolo on? Jacksonville. Jacksonville Jaguars. Yeah. God, that'd be fun.

If you get, if you put Garapolo on the Jaguars on Monday, gave him six days to run the offense, who scores more points? The Bordel's version of the Garoppolo version. The Gropolo version. What are you talking about? No, no, no, no. The handicap there is the Garoppel has to learn the offense

and learn his teammates and stuff. Done. Garapolo. Okay. Okay. No, that's, I mean, I'm not asking who's better between Garapolo and Bordals. I'm asking about the particular situation in my mind. How many points?

Ten more points? Yeah, I'd say around there. I think Garapolo could put up 28 on the bills with a week. All right. Well, we're going to find out when that happens. One other thing I wanted to mention is that, you know, the Mark Barron plays a little bit in the middle for the Rams. He's dealing with that Achilles.

So I feel like he's another one of those guys that they may be able to take advantage of. I think that, you know, with Ogletree, it's more about discipline. It's trying to get him in the wrong spots. But with Barron, it may just be that he's limited. and Coleman is an athlete. I mean, I feel like if they try to use him that way, which they have not enough, then it could be something they could hit over and over again.

You know, Michael David Smith, I think, just tweeted this out that there's a lot of tickets available on Ticketmaster. I'm curious to see the atmosphere because it's Saturday night. You'd expect L.A. to rally around this team. It's hard for me to gauge it. I haven't seen a lot of Rambuzz, Riley McAtee, our fine ringer colleague is a Rams fan, but I don't know any of the Rams fans,

nor do I see Rams fans, really ever. So I'm intrigued to see if L.A. shows up on Saturday night for what should be a cool game. Yeah. I mean, this is my favorite game of the weekend, probably. So I would hope that people would want to see it live if they care about this team. It's pretty tough to get to.

I've got to be honest with you. L.A. I don't know if you've heard about L.A. traffic. Yeah. it's not as bad as the Stubbub Center well yeah Stubbub Center is like 20,000 people go in there

yeah I guess that's fair 80,000 I guess let's be clear Kevin it's never fun to go anywhere in Los Angeles that's true yeah maybe they should get from the Rams facility to the airport down the 405 last Friday it was like hell on earth so trust me I understand why people would want to stay home

I'm intrigued to see if there's a home field advantage for the Rams because I definitely haven't seen it in the times I've been to the Coliseum before. But that was against sort of marquee teams like the Eagles. So I don't know. All right, Bill's the Jaguars. I want to bring up something. So on last week's pod,

we did not know the name of the Buffalo Bills backup running back. I knew his name. We just briefly discussed the depth chart. And we did not have a full grasp. on the situation. No, but I know him because I watched him at Mizzou.

That's the sole reason I don't know who Marcus Murphy is. But we did not, the point is we did not have a firm grasp on the depth chart of the Buffalo Bill's running backs. And we had some people, and this always happens

when we admit that we don't know everything about every single roster in the NFL is we have these people saying, how are you employed to talk about football? I should take your job, that kind of thing. And, which is true.

all the time. Yeah, that is true. No, I don't, I see no lies. But I saw something funny, sent it to you, Robert, over the week, over the week, rather, that, uh, the Jaguarie's defensive coordinator was asked, what do you think about Marcus Murphy? And he said, uh, who? Who's that? So if you want, if, to be fair to talk, wash, if you have those players on your defense,

you don't really have to care. I know, the Twitter people who are roasting us direct all your complaints to Todd Wash who's a very smart guy. We love Todd Wash. I assume you love Todd Wash. I love Todd Wash. And he does not know who Marcus Murphy is. Do we know if LaShaul McCoy is playing in this game?

No, no clue. Why is there? You know how so? I feel like sometimes we just have stories where there's just no updates of any substance. You know what I'm saying? Like, why are we not just constantly talking about whether or not Sean McCoy is going to play in this playoff game?

I mean, didn't Adam Schaeffer report earlier this week that he's a game time decision? I haven't heard anything new about that. I haven't heard anything new. Yeah, I mean, it'll be a close call is what he reported earlier in the week. But I haven't heard anything since then. Wasn't that like we should cancel this game if that's true? They should postpone it until he's ready. Everyone saved their.

like just save your time and money. They should make it like a concert. Like whenever he's ready, he'll come out. Oh, God. It's like Axel Rose. The game starts at 2 a.m. Yeah, exactly. Isn't that what started the riot in Montreal?

Yeah. Axel Rose wouldn't come out until like full in the morning. After, what's his name? After James got his hand burned up, Axel just refused to come on. So they started a riot. We're perilously close to Metallica talk here. So we got to move on. I just said, what's his name when referring to James Hetfield?

So I'm definitely off my game today. I know. It's fine. It's the fog of war. It's the postseason. So exactly. So I wrote about Blake Portals this week. I don't expect a whole lot out of them.

I think that this is, I think there's a couple things here. I think that relying on the Jaguar's defense to make huge plays and even maybe scoring a touchdown as a dangerous game and probably. be unsustainable. Having said that, I absolutely am relying on the Jaguar's defensive defense making plays and maybe scoring a touchdown. That's how I view this game. I think they'll probably win comfortably because I think the run game will be at least okay. I think Bortles can make two plays. I think they can limit his volume to the point he doesn't have any backbreaking turnovers. And then I think Jalen Ramsey or something makes a huge play. That's how I see this

game playing out. I think they'll try to limit Bortles. I mean, I absolutely do, but I also think that this is the type of defense that can bother Blake Bortals. The bills don't get much pressure. They actually have the second lowest pressure rate in the league after Tampa Bay, which, you know what? I really, in a world that is so unpredictable and uncertain and chaotic, I really appreciate that every single year, one thing I can rely on is the Bucks having the worst pass rush in the NFL. It's so comforting to know that some things never change. But coming in second this year were the Buffalo Bills who don't get to

the quarterback very often, but they still have Jerry Hughes who can make some stuff happen. We saw that last week. And then that bill's secondary. Jordan Poyer, I'll take it away from you, man. So will Micahide. I mean, there are players back there that are hungry for the ball. And trust me, no one wants to give it away more than Blake does. So I would

really be careful if I were the Jags this week. I'm thinking 12 past attempts. White's back there. Yes. No, I mean, the other two guys have more picks, don't they? Yeah, no, but I'm just saying he's really, I mean, he was, he's a very good player. Yes. He was just named the PFF rookie of the year. I'm still going to go, how was he better than Marshall-Ladamore? I don't understand that. I think that, so first of all, I think that he had a higher grade. I don't have in front of me. I think he had a higher grade than Lattimore.

Lattimore had that one terrible game at the end of the season. Maybe that was why. We also started slow. I mean, I, we wrote that a couple times. I mean, the St. Secondary was a tire fire for the first couple weeks of the season. So I think there might be collateral damage from that. Also, Latimo only played 13 games. So it's a little... That's fair, I guess. I think if we were projecting careers right now,

we're both going to take Latimore, but this is a 2017 rookie award. So the point here is that the bill's secondary is very good, which it is. I mean, that's a really solid unit. E.J. Gaines is the forgotten man there. They got him as a throw in in the Sammy Watkins trade. He's had a really nice season. The issue for Buffalo is

you should never throw the ball against the bills because they have the second worst run defensive football. So if you're Jacksonville, Blake Bortles is throwing the ball eight times in this game. I just don't understand how you can have any other game plan. That's a little aggressive eight times. I'm making a point.

I'm saying it should not be a lot of times. No, no, no. I meant that's too many. Again, I'm not feeling so good. It's a little hard for me to pick up on me sometimes today. It's fine. It's fine. It's way too many times. I like Blake Bordals.

I think the fact that he's here is a really funny wrinkle. And obviously, the thing I wrote about, the thing I wrote about was sort of the jokes and the toll that they've taken on the people around him. And the answer for Blake is it's taken no toll. Blake does not care about the jokes. Blake's count his money. I'm sure he's fine.

I don't think Blake does count his money, quite frankly. That was one of the things that came out in the story is that he, no one around him thinks, he knows how much he makes. He's very... I know what you're saying. I didn't mean he's actually counting it. I mean, Blake's doing just fine.

I mean, his life seems like it's going all right. The one element of the passing game that I felt like we should mention, because this is a new thing late in the season. Alan Hurons was back last week. So, I mean, he's a good receiver. And he's going to be working in the slot mostly. That's what he does in this version of the offense.

And that's the weakest part of the bill's secondary is Leonard Johnson, the slot corner. So if you are looking for an advantage that the Jags have in that area, that would be the one. I'm going to tell you a story. I don't want to be mean here, but when I was reporting the Bordal story,

I was asking one of the receivers, I talked to every one of them and there's six of them who are really good there. And I said, I said, what do you think about Blake this year? And the guy goes, I don't say his name. He goes, he's been really good, decent.

He stopped in mid-good. I've never had that before. I've never had that before. This is even really good, decent. Decent. That's how I described my performance on this podcast most weeks. It was good, decent. It was incredible.

I was listening to tape the other day. I listened to the tape like maybe three times just to just to get the full grasp on it. Wonderful. What's the, what's the path for for the bills here? I think it's interceptions. I think it's turnovers. You know,

if they can get a couple on that side and then you hope that. Offensively, just shady McCoy in your opinion? If he doesn't play it. It really is because at this point, you know, the Bill's defense, obviously this is the Marcel Darius

revenge game. The Bills, or the Jags run defense has been much better, you know, down the stretch than it was early in the season. But if you're looking for the path of least resistance, it's still running the ball

against this team. Yeah. I mean, I feel like if they try to throw it a lot, even as good as Tyrod is, is avoiding pressure, you know, avoiding negative plays, which he does a remarkable job of doing, you still don't want to deal with that pass rush.

And the bill's offensive line and is still a pretty mediocre unit overall. So I feel like you try to run the ball as much you can. And if McCoy is not healthy, then it's really hard for me to build a case. Totally agree. Totally agree. I'm really excited about a couple things.

Number one, the Jaguars are serving teal beer and teal burgers. I don't understand why this has to be like a college St. Patrick State Party. It's a playoff game. Act like you've been here before, which you have. The Jaguars have been in the playoffs before. The teal burgers are a step too far from me.

the teal beer I get because you know I'm sure you've had green beer I've I've had it I've never had green burgers I've had a lot of green beer on unofficial St. Patrick's Day at University of Illinois I don't need any more green beer in my life also you're from Chicago that's all they do like all of March is just green holidays you love drinking holidays and dying things green like rivers are you even Irish Mays? I don't know what my dad's side is. My dad always described his

ethnicity as Hick. Because we're from like the backwoods of Virginia from like the 1700s on. Mays is kind of hard to pin down. I'm sure I could find out, but we've never made the effort. A little English. It might be English, yeah.

I bet there's, I think there's some Irish lumped in there somewhere. I honestly don't know the answer. My family is a bunch of Southside Irish people going way back, but I don't do the whole I'm Chicago Irish stick. I mean, are you from Chicago? What's that?

Yeah, Chicago. Oh, Southside Chicago. Yeah, like for like four generations, we were Southside Irish in Chicago, but I don't do that whole thing, that whole stick. No, that's fine. I mean, I'm more Italian than I am anything,

so that's kind of what I stick with. Anyway, the teal beer. Not going to have it. Okay. Not a fan. So, but the other thing is, I'm just so, this game sold out. I know there's some weird stuff about the remaining 300 tickets

or whatever, the bills and the Jaguars are fighting over who didn't sell their tickets. But overall, this game is going to be sold out. The tarps are going to be removed. Jacksonville, I don't think people remember this. Jacksonville in the mid-90s was an absolute madhouse of a stadium. It was always packed. It was loud. The Jaguars are really good.

And it was really fun. And I'm not saying it's automatically going to return like that. I mean, it took, I remember not, not this is a one-to-one analogy, but when the magic got good again with the Dwight Howard teams, it had been 14 years since that building had been loud when they had Shaq and Penny and all that stuff. And it took about a year and a half for the fans to remember what to do, if that makes sense. It makes sense. You know, because it's like, you know, Bill talks about this a lot with NBA crowds. It's like crowds, crowds get tired, you know, or like they, they don't remember, you know, when, when to get loud, when to save your energy or whatever. Like, there's a rhythm. Good, good crowds know exactly what, like the Patriots fans, not that they're the loudest fans in the world, but they at least know how to root for a big game.

And so, I know it sounds silly, but you got to understand it if you've been there. It doesn't take long. I mean, in 2015, it took into the second half of the cup season when like, there was like the we are a good thing for people to understand what to do again. It's a thing. It happens. Yeah, but baseball. Baseball is different because. it is a game every day. That's true. Yeah, you're right.

There's going to be one Jaguar's home playoff game. There won't be one until next year. Yeah. So this is Jacksonville's one chance to impress me. I'm kidding. I don't care. And they've also impressed. I went to a couple of Jaguars games when I was a kid.

And they were very, very fun. All right. Let's get to our last one here. Panthers of Saints. I think that just by the quality of the teams, is the most even matchup. I'm expecting a Saints win, but let's start us off. Where do you see this game headed?

It's tough for me to build a case for the Panthers if they can't run the ball. That's the one advantage they have here in my mind. I mean, I think their passing game is kind of such a disaster right now. And you look at how well the Saints have played against the past this year, if Carolina can grind something out on the ground and that can be the foundation of who they are offensively, whether that's, you know, Cam making some stuff happen, keeping the ball and some option plays, whatever. That's really the only

kernel I see to lead them to have any shot at an upset. If they can't, then I just feel like the Saints top to bottom are a much better team. It's interesting analysis the other day about Cam Newton and how the Cam Newton

offense is built for him to be perfect. If they're not, if they're not perfect, the offense just completely sputters. And the problem with Cam Newton, you know, actually, Roger Sherman wrote something a little similar the other day. And it's the problem with Cam Newton is, you know, he still is a bit of a flawed player and he has down weeks, obviously like everybody. And the issue is that they need to build

a more sustainable offense because he's still an inconsistent guy. I mean, I don't know how to put that any easier, they need to run a system in which Christian McCaffrey can carry the load of Cam Newton is out. Or they can just, even if it's McCaffrey, you know, they did a little bit against the Patriots where McCaffrey runs the decoy and he opens up space for the running game on the other side. Stuff like that. I think Mike Schuller needs to do a little better job because right now I'm expecting if Cam Newton doesn't play the perfect game, there's not a lot. The Panthers would be able to do. Here's my issue with this. We've been having this conversation for like two years.

This isn't a new thought. The Panthers have pushed the ball down the field. They've really relied on Cam's arm strength, tight windows. A lot of this stuff is just commonplace with this offense. We expected with McCaffrey coming in that was going to change a little bit, and it hasn't enough. When I was watching them play against Atlanta last week, I'm watching McCaffrey line up out wide on so many of these plays.

And yeah, that's cool. You're using him in a unique way, but let's get him a little closer to the quarterback. Let's not make these throws so difficult. And it's just the middle of the field is where they were struggling without that sort of option. And now they have it and they're not using him in that way. Even with Greg Olson, like, I just don't understand how CAM isn't getting easier sets of throws. And maybe this is a CAM thing.

People don't really understand that quarterbacks have a hand in the game plan often. You know, they will go over with their offensive coordinator. What plays they like? what plays they don't. They'll throw out stuff that they're not comfortable doing. And at a certain point, you know, maybe this is partly Cam saying this is how I want to play. There's no way to know that.

But something has to change. Sure. Very quickly, the piece I was talking about was by Derek Klausen at football outsiders. I couldn't find it immediately. I didn't want to steal a take. But yeah, he had a great piece on just how. What's that? I've said that pretty regularly.

I mean, I think that that's, It's a good thought, but I think that that's something that a lot of people have kind of noticed. He's right. Yeah. No, I mean, it's just the offense needs a little retooling. Although, you know, I think Mike Chula has over time gotten a little more criticism than he deserves. But I think in this situation, it's, it's super warranted. They have to figure some stuff out.

McCaffrey is as valuable piece as there is on that team. And they're just not, they're not using him. in a way that helps Cam Newton at this point. I agree. So here's the thing with me. I feel like, and yeah, you're looking at it,

9.5 air yards per target, second highest rate in the league for Carolina. I mean, that's the type of stuff we're talking about. There's just a lot of downfield ideas and elements, and it puts a huge burden on Newton. So the other thing I'm looking at here, in terms of if you're building,

you know, an upset case for Carolina, their defensive line is the biggest wrench they could throw into this game. You know, they led the league in a, adjusted sack rate, fifth and pressure rate, 31.3% of dropbacks. The Saints don't really allow pressure. That's kind of what the Saints passing game has been designed to do for years with Breeze, is that they get the ball quickly. It's about interior pocket stability. So it's going to be a problem.

I think that, you know, the Saints interior of their offensive line is very solid and Kewan Short's not going to be able to run a muck in this game like he usually can. So if they can't get pressure on Breeze, I feel like that's when it all starts to fall apart. In Carolina, year it's kind of been interesting they for a long time under mcdermit and under uh Rivera were kind of conservative you know they ran they've rushed for you know about three quarters of the time that's what they've done in most seasons they've blitzed a lot this year they'd high highest brits inside they did a sorry they had the highest blitz rate in the league so we're going to see that they're going to do what they can they're going to send as many bodies as they

can to try to bother breeze and if they can't then i think that this is going to be a problem if they can't. That's 100% true. I also think, I mean, Kamara adds such different dimension. And one of the things that's interesting about Kamara is he went right back, right back to his receiving numbers when he returned from his injury. The rushing numbers are not there yet. I mean, he's only gone over 100 yards once this season on the ground. That's not his thing. His thing is six to seven receptions a game and just consistently good place. And I think that when

you have a guy like that, it's almost, I mean, it's a safety valve. And Breeze is Breeze, but I mean, Kamara, Kamara adds a almost defense proof in the passing game adds a defense proof element that is really, really going to give the Panthers some trouble. I agree. I mean, he just keeps chipping away at you and eventually they're going to find a big player to. Let's move on to something that broke at 1 a.m. Eastern time last night that has probably been breaking

every day for the past decade because you sort of hear the rumblings about it from New England just from a 30,000 foot viewpoint. And it's the tension that apparently exists between Bill Belichick, Robert Kraft, and Tom Brady. And

by extension, Jimmy Groplo, although Gropolo seemed sort of on the fringes of this particular story. Seth Wicker-Sham wrote it for ESPN. It came out today. It's really good. You should read it. Robert, we'll start with this. The ESPN piece sort of suggests this is the beginning of the end for the Patriots dynasty.

I think that there's a couple of different ways to approach that. Number one is they're probably going to make the Super Bowl again this year. So if it's the end, it's a hell of an end. Yeah, Tom Brady's 40. Tom Brady's 40 years old. Bill Belichick is old enough to retire in literally every industry, except this one. So I guess the question is, is this the end? And what did you think of the news coming out of New England?

It's not surprising. I mean, I think that this is something that it's more remarkable to me that they've been able to stave this off for so long. Because, I mean, Pat Riley talked about it, you know, 25. 30 years ago. I mean, just the idea of me. The disease of me. And it's just that happens when you consistently win. And I think that's been the most impressive part of who the Patriots are is that they've been able to so consistently block that off. I mean, it's almost since they've been in quarantine for the last two decades. So it's more so that that we've gone this long, that it's been five Super Bowls, that it's been a nonstop on just relentless train of success. And

that that's that to me is what's weirder about this is that we're only hearing this now is the only surprising part a couple of years ago i wrote a story i'm gonna try to i have to kind of tread carefully here to not reveal who said what and what happened but a couple of years ago i wrote a story essentially crediting someone in the patriots with an idea and the next day i got a very angry call from another person who was not mentioned the story who said, oh, by the way, that was my idea. Sure. And I think that I've written like 80 stories in The Patriots,

so I'm thinking now, I'm covered on this. But I think that that just happens when there's a lot of success. Oh, this was my idea. I mean, how often, you know, you read stories about movies. or TV shows and people are just fighting over who came up with what idea or what, you know, what scene was improvised and which one was scripted. I mean,

this happens when there's a lot of success. I mean, it's the old thing, you know, defeat is an orphan victory. Victory has many fathers. Everybody wants to think they're the reason. And that's what happens when there's a lot of confident people.

Even though the story suggested everybody was not confident actually and quite insecure. But, but when you have a lot of success with people under one roof, there's a lot of fighting. And the fact, I think that the way you can approach this news is the miracle that this all worked together so well for 18 years. Yeah. I mean, if this is the end for the Patriots, then okay. I mean, it's been 20 years of success.

And they could absolutely win a sixth Super Bowl this year. And also, is there any reason to think that these psychos over there aren't going to use this and just have it be one more thing that keeps them going? I don't have any reason to believe that. I just assume that Brady's going to try, like somehow translate this into his maniacal Brady stuff. And they're going to be ridiculous again down the stretch. Yeah, I have no doubt that this will either be used as a motivation or they're just, there's not going to care. I don't think that the airing of these particular grievances is going to have any tangible effect on what happens against the chiefs and the Steelers and then probably the Vikings, right? So I just-

It's festive season anyway, man. this is essentially really interesting really well-reported gossip and what I mean by that is it's not disparage the the story I just mean it's it's for us it's juicy for us and juicy for the fans but I don't I think that everybody inside that building knows what's going on because the story was about what's going on inside the building if there was something else where you know there was some ulterior motive or you know Belichick you know, traded Garapolo because he's about to go buy the Niners or something. That's a different scenario.

But, you know, everyone, when you just air the grievances inside the building, everybody knows all that stuff already. This is inside the building. So this is a story for the fans, the story for the media. It's an incredible story. Seth did a great job on it. I don't think it changes much as far as the on the field of product next month. It really only changes how Seth's next 24 hours are going to go.

And they're not even playing. They're not even playing a game. They're not playing a game. FYI. Yes. Coming up, Danny Kelly will help us dive even deeper into these crazy matchups with some X factors that could be huge this weekend.

Plus, we're going to offer our predictions and tell you who you'll see next week in the divisional round. It's the Ringer NFL show on the Ringer podcast network. Robert, speaking of picking games between the NFL playoffs and bowl season, people should really be cashing it on the action with my bookie. Yeah.

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Join now on MyBooky will match your deposit with up to a 50% bonus. Use promo code Ringer NFL to activate offer. Check out MyBooky.ag today. You play, you win, you get paid. Time to welcome in, Danny Kelly. Danny, it's a sad week. And that's not just because the Seahawks are, not playing this weekend.

It's because there's no dark nights this week. I know, man. It's crazy. What are we going to do all offseason with no dark nights? I'm not to find something new to do, I guess. I'm not sure how I'm going to go on, but somehow we'll find a way. All right, Danny,

we've been through these mashups for all the major storylines, but you've got some X factors for us. It could be game changers. Hit us. Yeah. So for the Titans and the Chiefs, I think the X factor in that game is going to be, the deep ball.

And I say that because if there's one thing that I think is kind of a strength for the Titans, it's their rush defense. And so I think that the Chiefs could have to kind of go away from this balance approach

that they've had over the last few weeks with, you know, cream hunt kind of being the foundation of their offense again. If that run game can't really get going, I think they're going to rely on Alex Smith. And I dug up some of his,

you know, deep ball passing stats this year. And I wrote about it today on the ringer.com. He kind of tossed aside the narrative that he's a checkdown artist this year. And I'm sure, you know, we've talked about it a couple of times over the season. But he finished the season with 12 deep touchdown passes, which tied for a tops in the league. He led the NFL with 1,34 yards on deep passes, an NFL best 56.5 completion percentage and 131.4 rating,

which was about 20 points higher than the next closest player. So, I mean, obviously with Tyree Hill and, you know, just the way that they pass deep, I think that's going to be. potentially the way that they can, you know, like score points when if the run game is not really clicking this weekend. Yeah, we talked about that a little bit. I just feel like, you know, the Titans have been liable to give up some huge plays in the passing game. And that's where they're weakest.

I feel like their secondary is not very stable. I mean, they can make some plays. Kevin, you wrote about, or excuse me, Danny, you wrote about Kevin Byard this week. You know, they can take it away from you, but I think that you can also create as many big plays as they're going to.

So I agree with you. I feel like there are going to be some shots. to be taken for the chiefs. And I just think there are too many options and too many routes they can go offensively. Yeah, I think, and, you know, I think that if the Titans have to do two things, essentially, they have to stop the run,

which I think they can do. And then, like I said, they have to stop the deep ball, which I'm just less, you know, I'm less certain about that. I'm dubious about that. So I think that's going to be a big fact for them. Yeah, I totally agree.

In the Falcons Rams game, maize, you're going to, I'm sure you've been thinking about this already, but there's two guys that really stand out to me for the Falcons this week that are going to be big X factors. And that's linebacker Dion Jones and guard Ben Garland. For Jones, it's going to be all about defending Todd Gurley as a pass catcher out of the backfield.

I think if you look at the stats, the Falcons actually, for the second straight year, have given up more perceptions to running backs than any team in the league. They finished 21st in football outsiders DVOA, defending past, catching backs out of the backfield. So I feel like that's going to be a huge, huge matchup for them. And they're going to really rely on Jones, his speed, his range, and all that to kind of try and keep girly in check, which has been a really difficult proposition all year. So that's big.

And then on the other side of the ball, you know, Ben Garland coming in for Andy Levitre, who went to the IR this week. And, you know, he gets to face Aaron Donald, which is just, you know, the most fun thing you can do as an offensive alignment. So those two guys are players that I'm really going to be watching this weekend. Yeah. And Donald does a lot of his damage working on the left side. Obviously, where he lines up is a product of over under fronts, everything else. I assume he'll get more work against Garland just to give him a better matchup. And what I wrote about this week in part was that it's really hard double team Aaron Donald.

Because what you do is you would slide the center that way. And he's so good at knowing how quickly he needs to jump between those two guys that he can, and he has such good lateral quickness, that he can almost. move side to side fast enough to single team himself on the center because the guard jumped out too quickly. It's honestly insane to watch. It looks like it's doctored footage. And that's what they're going to try to do. They're going to try to slide Alex Mack that way. And they're going to have to consciously make an effort to ensure that Garland does not jump out too fast on those plays. Can you stay inside out enough where he's not going to get to your edge, but you also

give Mac a chance to get over there? That's the number one focus they have to have. Yeah, and I mean, we've called Donald a game wrecker all year long. I mean, I think that's just the best way to describe him. And so the fact that he's going up against a backup guard in a lot of these situations, I know that Garland's played pretty well this year. And I think he has three starts this year in relief. So, you know, it's not like he's inexperienced, never, you know, had never had to start in his life before.

But yeah, that to me is just a huge factor to watch this weekend. And it could be, you know, the reason that, you know, the Falcons can't run their office. quite as well as they usually do. It doesn't matter. I'm not saying Ben Garland's a bad player. I was talking to starting guards last week. And I talked to Marshall Yonda. And I'm talking to Roger Saffel who's been excellent.

And Jamon Brown, I think, said it the best. He was talking about Aaron Donald. And he goes, can you block him? I don't know. We could argue that. And the tone is so clearly that you absolutely cannot. I mean, there's just, it's no, there's no shame in admitting that. It's only a matter of time.

So the fact that you're even taking, if it's the best backup guard in the league, it doesn't matter because there's no player in the NFL that can single team him for any length of time. So it's more about how they're going to handle him with other guys. And even that stuff, he just destroys. All right, Danny, let's get to Bill's Jags. The one thing I'm looking at for the X Factor in this game,

I mean, there's, on paper, this looks like it's heavily tilted towards the Jags, obviously, but the run defense for the Jaguars this year has been really up and down. Obviously, early on, the year they were terrible. I think through seven weeks I wrote about this today at the ringer. 30th and rushing yards allowed dead last in yards per carry 5.16 and then they'd give it up five touchdowns which was 19th. So then they traded for Marcel Darius and things kind of turned around almost immediately through the next four weeks. They were eighth in yards, fourth in yards per carry and just gave up one rush rush touchdown in that time. But over the last month,

the run DIA has kind of regressed again. I I think over the last four games, they're 23rd and rushing yards allowed, 20th and yards per carry. So it's kind of falling off. And against the Bill's team whose identity is centered kind of around that run game, obviously we don't yet know what's going on with McCoy, but Tyra Taylor can run. You know, I'm hoping McCoy can play because that'll make it a little more interesting.

And so with those two guys, if they can run the ball consistently take, you know, keep the ball, take care of the ball, run the clock, that kind of thing, is that going to be enough to neutralize, you know, Jacksonville is what is their most, you know, important thing is their absurd past events. They just, is it going to be enough to kind of get by, I guess, is the question. So that's a huge factor I'm looking at. I don't know the answer to that. Danny, how many times should Blake Bortles throw in this game?

How many times? Ideal would be probably like 16, 15 or 16. That's twice as many as I suggested earlier. And that and that and Maze is twice as many as I suggested. Kevin went with four, I went with eight. So you're feeling real ambitious about Blake's chances here. Yeah, I mean, that is, it's the weakest part. I mean, that's the spot you have to hammer the most,

but it's still much better than it was early in the season. So it's not necessarily this glaring problem that it was in week five. But if you're looking for just any opening, that's the one that you have to just go after. All right, Danny, Carolina, New Orleans hit us. I mean, this isn't going to be blowing anybody's minds here, but I really think that Cam Newton, his legs are going to be the X-Fact in this game.

I think he needs to run the ball well. And essentially, what that does, one, it kind of insulates him against having a bad passing game, which he's had plenty of this year. I actually just looked it out. In his last four games, he's got a 73 passer rating, which is, you know, that's the sub-bordal sub-oswiler line there. So, you know, he just hasn't,

been good passing the ball lately other than one game. So that kind of insulates the Panthers from, you know, his struggles in the passing game, number one. And number two, it really is important for them in terms of their their time of possession. The Panthers finished third in the NFL this year in the time of possession, third in average time of possession per drive. So, you know, his legs, his ability to pick up first downs, his ability to extend drives, get explosive runs.

And especially in the red zone when, you know, he's an extra runner for that defense this has to have to account for. That's huge. And so, yeah, I mean, obviously it's been something that we've talked about his whole career in terms of should he run less. You know, is he going to be able to take this for, you know, a 10, 15 year career?

I think he's going to have to run a ton this week in order for the Panthers to get the upset. Yeah, that's really just the biggest. I mean, I think that there are two game-changing things, two things that are hard to account for and could swing things for the Panthers. One is what we talked, and Kevin and I talked about earlier

is the past rush for Carolina. And the other is just how volatile that offense can be when Cam runs. It's hard to account for. I think the linebackers on the Saints are easily their weakest part. That's the weakest position they have on defense. So having one of those guys have to account

for Cam moving around is difficult. So you can see that. You can kind of trace that. But I still feel like overall, the Carolina's offense just has too many holes right now for me to feel good about them. Yeah. I mean, I was

a couple weeks ago, I was starting to look at their run offense or rushing offense and thought, you know, that could be a reason that they're dangerous in the playoffs because they'd really kind of pick that up. But, I mean, man, if Stewart's not all, if he's not 100%, that hurts them. Obviously, McCaffrey's been more of kind of a receiving back this year. They really, again, I just think they really need a big, big game in the run game in order to to get the upside.

Just because, yeah, I agree with you. Their passing game has just been so bad over the last month. that's, you know, just hard to see them scoring points if they can't run the ball. I agree. Thank you, Danny. Thanks, buddy. All right, thanks, guys. Okay, Bob, moment of truth.

We have to make our picks. We've both had the same pick for every game, but let's not ruin the drama. Start us out with Titans Chiefs. I'm going with the Chiefs. I think that they're just a better team overall. I also think they're going to cover. It's a seven and a half right now, I believe. I just think they're that much better.

And there's going to be enough big plays to be had. and I think the Titans, even if they can run the ball a little bit, are not going to be able to sustain enough on offense to keep pace. Same. Falcons or Rams? I'm going with the Rams. I think that right now they're playing as well as anybody. Top to bottom, their roster is just really complete.

It's hard to find holes in who they are and what they do. I like them. I think that they can make a little bit of a run here. They're the type of team you don't want to play right now. Exactly the same. Bills are Jags. I'm going with the Jags. I think that we can, you know, we've talked about what the bills can do to kind of shock people in this game.

It's going to depend on taking the ball away. I still just think that Jacksonville's defense is going to be too much. I will say it's seven and a half. That's a little high for me. I think this could be kind of a lower scoring game. So I would be inclined to take the bills and the points, but I think that the Jaguars do win the game. I see it like 1713. That's kind of what I'm thinking too.

I think it's going to be ugly, which, you know, you would have to, assume gives the bills a better shot. I mean, obviously, if it's a low scoring game, one play could swing it. But I think it's the type of like five, six point game where it never feels in doubt. Strong agree. Yeah, 17, 13, something like that. All right, Panthers Saints. Saints. I just think that the Saints are a better team. I'm still, we just talked about Carolina, how much I'm worried about them. You know, New Orleans just has too much at home. You know, it's six. I would feel comfortable with that. I think they win by at least a touchdown. I am hoping next week we have some difference in our picks.

I mean, look at the spreads, man. I mean, the lowest spread in the wildcard weekend is five and a half points. These are not good games. We knew that as soon as the field was set, that this was not going to be a very intriguing set. Yep. We're all chalked up. All right.

So it's all chalked this weekend. That will set us up for an amazing divisional round where the Patriots hosted chiefs, the Steelers, host the Jaguars, and then the Eagles host New Orleans. Then the Vikings are Rams. Boom. That's a great game.

Yeah, no, I know. I mean, this is some interesting stuff. Who's your early favorite matchup for those? Vikings Rams. I would love to be at that game. I just think that that's a really fun one. I mean, those two teams, they played earlier, and the Vikings got the best of them.

I think that the Rams would like another shot. That one's really fun. Steelers Jaguars has a sneaky chance to be fun. And I also think that, Patriots revenge game on week one against the Chiefs could be interesting too. Steelers revenge game against the Jags. I mean, well, yeah.

That's true. But I mean, the Patriots, the Patriots, I mean, that was a scheme thing with the Chiefs. And what I'm interested in as just as a football nerd is this idea that Belichick will have made adjustments against some of that, some of the concepts he saw on week one. He will not let Alex Smith be, uh,

turn into, to Drew Brees. Agreed. a second time. All right. That's it for today. Enjoy Wildcard weekend. We will.

We're going to be back on Tuesday to break down all the action. As always, thanks for listening to the Ringer-Ren-Fell Show on the Ringer Podcast Network. Thanks, guys.