The Ryen Russillo Podcast - NFL Round 2 Recap With Chris Long | The Ryen Russillo Podcast

Episode Date: January 14, 2020

Russillo is joined by two-time Super Bowl champion Chris Long on the ground in New Orleans just before the CFP National Championship Game to recap the divisional round of the NFL playoffs, discuss restaurant etiquette, describe game day in New Orleans, and share thoughts on the upcoming National Championship Game. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

what's good let's try this again uh today's episode of the ryan rossolo show with chris long we never did the rossolo podcast that would have made more sense week one or two if i come up with that uh part of our ringer podcast network is brought to you by State Farm. And just like basketball, the game of life is unpredictable. Talk to a State Farm agent today and get a teammate who can help you navigate the unexpected. Like, if your podcast that you taped a few hours ago

didn't work. Always good to have these road deals here. Just like the heat on the road. A good team, a lot of depth, a lot of options that they can throw at you. But you look at those road splits, Chris, those net ratings, really good. Second best in the NBA at home, not so much on the road. And, you know, it's just something to think about.

That's also unpredictable. Get a teammate who can help you navigate the unexpected. Talk to a State Farm agent today. All right, so this is the deal. We're live in New Orleans from the hotel here right on Canal Street. We tried this about five hours ago and we hit send on it and we get the bat phone. It's like, hey, that podcast sucked because no one can hear anything. So there may be sirens in the background.

Yeah, we're making our way over to the national championship game in a very short amount of time. We're going to recap the weekend. We're going to talk about NFL. But yeah, we're in a weird mood here because we already did this before. My weird mood here. Let's let's put this out there. I mean, your boy here left his podcast dad at about noon thinking we had the hay was

in the barn like we're good. Yep. Yep. Your boy then had to go to an ESPN tailgate party where I did not run into Danny Cannell. And I had three orange Clemson margaritas. Oh, okay. Then I'm trying to get the, you know, the heebie jeebies off me from last night. Cause we were out late last night as well. Yeah. It was, it was a late one, but it was sort of an adult late one. I think whenever you, I went home cause I wanted to do this.

Now I could have stayed out all night long. It wouldn't even matter where, you know, you coaxed me into staying out late and you were drinking water and I was drinking, uh, six to eight Stella's on top of a nice base of four nice tequilas. I did pull the, Oh yeah, yeah, no, no, we're good. And then you're like, wait a minute, did you not eat or did you not drink at all during dinner speaking of dinner um shout out to desi vegas big shout out uh unbelievable dinner here in new orleans i remember going there when the super bowl was here about seven years ago uh there's the first time he's a friend of a friend obviously brandon

walk-ons who hooked us up with um again the restaurants at desi vegas and it's an unbelievable steakhouse here but every new orleans place it has a little bit of that louisiana flavor in it they they bring out all sorts of stuff much like your own personal bowl of calamari oh no i had a couple bowls calamari two separate app bowls of calamari i loved it the conversation is know, table etiquette. Yeah. If I order a fucking appetizer, it's my appetizer. I don't want people reaching in with their fork and their germs to stab my calamari, like especially Desi Vegas calamari. This is like elite calamari. So I ordered two to ensure that, you know, I got my fill.

I don't know where you are on that. I'm not a big family style guy uh whenever there's an appetizer i really want it probably means that i'll want to eat it all by myself um you know we're we're not in the same weight class but we're we're not small guys shrinking you are shrinking what's your actual weight i was 230 last week we ain't that far off at one point i'm not 230 today though whenever i'm away for a few days the the weight drops off pretty dramatic yeah i i can i mean i'm not trying to i wish i could have the opposite problem you have a hard time losing weight no i have no okay we have the same problem i have a really hard time keeping weight on yeah yeah yeah

we have the same i could drop 10 pounds in two days if I wanted to. Yeah. Yeah. But, but I do feel like, you know, 12 to 16 hours in new Orleans and I feel like a bloated. Yeah. Just piece of shit. Yep. The police are back here and they're not looking for the Houston Texans. I do want to take this,

this opportunity to shout out the, uh, new Orleans first responders. Uh, they're all over the place. They're working hard. They're responding and they're responding first. Nobody. Hey, listen, listen to them out there yep right down right down the street a lot to respond to out there yeah it's mayhem and we're gonna we're gonna get out there and head over to

this game okay of all the things that happened this weekend uh and i want to get to last night a little bit but the games themselves the reason why we do this, I think Kansas City being down 24-0 and coming back and outscoring Houston 51-7 and having their offense back, whether it's the offensive linemen, the receivers, collectively their entire offense hasn't been together really much the second half of the season. And they do what they did. I think it's a reminder of what Mahomes is that that team you know if it weren't for an offsides is in the super bowl last year you know maybe we're talking about mahomes trying to go back to back here because i think they would have beaten the rams if they had played in the super

bowl of all the things that happened if all the things that happened i just look at that as like the kind of wake up reminder we should scare you type of stuff going on and by the way that that caravan that just went past us that that was LSU's football team. That was Ed O. Yep. Ed O was in there. That was the team. Go Tiger.

I saw him at Raising Cane's. I had to go to the mall this weekend. Of all the places to eat. Yeah, I love Raising Cane's. No, but I mean like, you know, you're in New Orleans and Ed O and you are going to Raising Cane's? Well, not together, but I know he's. Have you been to the team hotel yet?

Check on things or sit at the bar awkwardly and check on your boys? Eat peanuts and look over your shoulder like you're an agent or something? Like you're getting ready to fleece a college athlete? No, we went to... We're not going to name names here. We had a good crew, a deep crew last night. We can say some of the guys that were in the crew, but we're not going to say who ghosted us. Because there was a guy that ghosted Irish Goodbye, and there was some concern because he's not really a guy that

would do that i'll let you guys figure it out okay i'm gonna name i'm gonna name the names fuck it all right we had dan katz yeah of barstool sports yep he's uh up and coming up and coming blogger yeah uh evidently a lot of people know who he is a lot of people do that's one of his favorite things ever is that when he gets a picture taken he's like hey this is ryan rossillo just in case you didn't know he really likes that show do that just twist the knife well i don't think you do you want his demo um my demo is a little different but yeah that's uh your demo is the grown-up version of his demo yeah but there but there's some young guys that like me, too. There's young guys that like me, too. We play pickup.

Right. Also, Jay Cutler was in the mix. He had an aggressive deep V. You know Jay Cutler, right? I know Jay because he was like a big brother. Did Kyle live with him? Kyle pseudo-lived with him. I mean, even if Kyle rests his head somewhere else,

he was at the Cutler residence. You know, Kristen, Christy. Is it Christy or Kristen? Cavalieri? Yeah. It's Kristen. Kristen. You know, that was like his second, you know, his second mom, you know, like Jay was his big brother. They really, they took him in, they took care of him. They, you know, they basically had a six foot seven, 330 pound son. And so I know Jay from FaceTime with Kyle and from playing against him, you know they basically had a six foot seven 330 pound son and so i know jay from facetime with kyle and from playing against him you know we played against each other a few times last night we hung out jay's the man like people give jay a lot of shit because they don't like his personality jay's living his life and does not care what you think yeah so i never with his

deep v i never hung out down to the sternum that was the deepest v ever but he had kind of a cashmere beige p uh p coat it wasn't really a p coat but it was kind of because it was a shorter one but it was like a car coat it was wide open i mean we're talking it was closer to the belly button than it was to the nipples i thought it was a bit when i walked up and i was like it was the look i was like jay and i gotta be honest taco meets out it kind of worked oh yeah and uh and got great great lettuce up top you know uh jay for a lot of people that give jay shit i'm just telling you he is unfazed and his life is pretty awesome yeah that's what the guys i remember at espn 1000 when i was like what's this guy's story and they go you know he's just incredibly like unapologetic like this is me this is the way i'm going to carry myself and if you don't like it it's really now i could see how last night i gotta know the mix that well

and then when you came out of the bathroom you guys like tackled each other yeah i was like okay that was a huge surprise for me seeing jay i was nobody said hey you're gonna see jay yeah last time i i hugged jay i sacked the shit out of him. You know, like now here we are in New Orleans and the war is over. It's great to run into guys that you used to play against, especially a guy like Jay who took good care of my brother. And it's just fun to be around and observe. Yeah, because he was great. It was great.

And we were at the blackjack table and it was a bad setup for everybody because because everybody was was trying to figure out like you know what was going on and then the girls because of the the cavalry show um you know you could see some off to the side freaking out and then you know there's another ex-nfl quarterback that was in the mix whose passion is turquoise um but we're not gonna name we're not gonna name names and guys cooler than yeah great god not cool not a criticism um but he you know if you if you like the american southwest you like turquoise everybody knows that has it on lock so um a girl came running up and barged through all of us and then put her arms around like big cat sort of like was trying

to do like a a picture where she was going to be next to him without him knowing. But she didn't know that Big Cat wasn't Jay Cutler. And so she pushed right past Jay Cutler, and her friend is screaming, not him, not him. It's so easy to get mixed up. It happens a lot, I guess.

They look very similar. We were talking about the Chiefs, but before we get back to the Chiefs, let's get back there. I have not eaten food since dinner last night. Okay. It is what time right now for the listeners? It is 520 local. That's 620 Eastern.

I had three chicken and waffles at the tailgate, but that doesn't really count. No, we'll do something about that. Maybe walk-ons on the way over to the stadium. Okay, Chiefs, wake-up call. Houston, 24-0. Yeah. O'Brien criticized for the fourth-and-one field goal attempt and not going for it, made it 24-0,

and then the fake punt on his own end. I mean, this thing was 24-0, 11 or so, 10-plus minutes to go in the second quarter, and then, like I said his own end. I mean, this thing was 24 nothing, 11 or so, 10 plus minutes to go in the second quarter. And then, like I said, that 51-7 run and it was 21 points like that. I don't look at anything that Houston could have done. I just think Kansas City is this special. I really do. I think if Houston's up 28 nothing and they don't go for the field goal and they convert on the fourth down and they get a touchdown, I still think they might lose this game because they were up 28-0 so quickly. And once Mahomes decides, I'm spreading it out,

and I'm going to beat you all over the place, and all the drops they had early, they had a bunch of drops early on some third downs. I believe Kelsey had a big drop. Another receiver had a big drop. And then Kelsey has a huge game. Williams has a huge game. And I look at Kansas City going, all right,

I know the Tennessee time, last time they matched up, and we'll get to that game, obviously, on the other side of the AFC. But I'm I'm just that impressed with Kansas City. And I think everybody should be because what they did is insane and historic. Titans, you know, are my favorite team right now. Tennessee. Listen, but if the Chiefs beat the Titans, I like them to win the Super Bowl. I mean, that's as tough a matchup for them. They lost the last two games they played against them.

They find a way by them and play either Green Bay or San Francisco. I like the matchup for them. So big hurdle for them, you know, 24-0, 28-0. You can go back and forth about would they score, you know, would they outscore them had they converted on fourth and inches and punched it in for a touchdown. I actually think they don't go for it, and they miss an opportunity to bury the Chiefs.

I know that they scored like 41 unanswered, but you can't think that way when you're on the sideline. Even if you're at home, down four scores, it's way different. People bury their heads a little bit, and they say, like, fuck, this is going to be a lot harder to come back from. So although they would have come back anyways mathematically, I think the game changes had they converted. And that's where Bill being conservative there and then backed up, fake punt,

it just doesn't, like, make sense to people. I mean, I think that's the biggest thing with Bill. There's no rhyme or reason. He seems like he's overcompensating. Yeah, the public has shifted now where the numbers tell you that everybody wants everyone to be aggressive all the time.

They want you to go forward and fourth down. And that came up in the Green Bay-Seattle game, which we'll get to obviously as well, that I've actually seen more criticism of not going forward on the fourth and one in the field goal attempt. And then his justification of it is that we didn't really have a play that we liked and they had called a timeout.

I just think that, look, I'm not going to sit here and die on the Bill O'Brien hill, but the football world, the social media football world, does not like Bill O'Brien. He's in the meme portal. Yeah, and he's absolutely in the meme portal because he's calling plays and because he's their personnel guy on top of everything else with the odd turnover that he had in the front office. And I'm not telling you he's this amazing coach. I'm just saying that I don't want to hear, like I was watching some of the TV stuff and it's like Houston choked, Houston did this, okay, fine, fine. you can't like it starts with what Kansas City did to be the first team down 20 ever in a playoff game and come back and win by 20 like what happened like that should be a big deal you should be going up to strangers today saying did you see the Chiefs what do you think because that's

how special I thought that win was yeah I mean I do think we do this too often we talk about the team that uh there's negative swirling around after a game like that and I do it all the time sometimes I think it's justified, but not on this one. It's like on the Ravens game. We'll get to that. But the story should be the Titans. Lamar Jackson's human. Okay.

Deshaun Watson can't overcome his defense being absolute dog shit. I mean, and Kansas City on their side, it is terrifying. They do so many things. And Jeff Schwartz pointed this out window dressing just to get to four verts or you know just everybody running straight down the field they they stress you at the second level so much and uh and houston just didn't have an answer uh and and that's why i don't trust houston because they are so mercurial. Nice. Good use of that word. All right, so let's do also Kansas City, 25 minutes of time possession,

and they score three touchdowns in three minutes. To score that much and that efficiently, it was like I've never seen anything like it. Let's talk Tennessee-Baltimore. Yeah, sure. After the game, Logan Ryan, defensive back for Tennessee, said, quote, everyone's like, well, how are you going to spy Jackson, meaning Lamar? Well, you can outrun almost every spy. This is from Albert Brewer's piece on Monday Morning Quarterback.

So our whole thing was we wanted to give him loaded boxes, pack the paint, play the receivers inside out, make him throw comebacks, have eight, nine in the box, play quarters coverage, man coverage, play cat coverage, where we say you have this cat, I have this cat. So basically, as you read on more and more, it's trying to get throws outside of the box, play quarters coverage, man coverage, play cat coverage, where we say you have this cat, I have this cat. So basically, as you read on more and more, it's trying to get throws outside of the numbers. They felt like it was something that Buffalo did. And then, of course, Buffalo's like, that's not exactly what we did. So these blueprint games, I don't think it's some unbelievable scheme to go, you know what we need to do? Really find out against a good team if

Lamar in a playoff game can throw it this many times. Because the raw numbers are pretty incredible. They had 530 yards of offense, the Ravens did, but think of this stat, six times in Tennessee territory without scoring. Six possessions where they didn't score, which I believe is tied. I got to double check

that. This is a Ravens team that was the second best red zone offense in football, but there's only one other playoff game in the last 20 years where an offense made it to the opposing side of the field and failed to score more than six times. Dude, it was the perfect storm. And that's why I'm not surprised Tennessee won

because everything went right for them and everything went wrong for the Ravens. You know, Ingram being hurt really hurts them. You look at him on the sideline. He's got the heat pack on his ankle. The no Ingram thing has to be like, I should have said it earlier. So good call by you.

But that's the biggest thing is, you know, a lot like a lot of other offenses, most quarterbacks in the league, although we love Lamar, there has to be a certain, some semblance of context around him that allows him to do what he does effectively. That's not a knock on him. There's very few quarterbacks, right? Yeah. Like 30 out of 32, even at this point.

And so I think losing that, the biggest free agent signing offensively in the league, potentially, because had he been healthy, I don't know how that game looks. It might look different, but the problem with the Ravens is they're riding this 12-game winning streak, and they get the week off, and they don't have a core that's used to making the most of the bye. They have coaches that know. But if you don't have players, like when I was up in New England, we got the bye. We knew what to do with it. You just could tell guys knew what to do with it. And I'm not saying that they didn't know, but sometimes it's better for a team that's really hot like that to just sprint right into the playoffs.

Maybe wild card round, they might have rather had that extra game. I'll be honest. Those are some of the things I don't like about the NFL. I don't like that a team can be 9-7 and make the Super Bowl. I don't like the Ravens thing. It's the story. You do? Yeah.

No, I think most people do. I think most people look at me and say you're wrong, but what you wouldn't have is you wouldn't have a 65-win NBA team be like, all right, you're out like a day later. And that's the part where – Is it an okay boomer? Yeah. No, I don't even know if I am an okay boomer on that one.

I just go like, what's the point of playing the 16 games if you're the one seed and you win all these games, you have this incredible offense. If I'm a ravens fan you're just i mean the emptiness that you feel right now going are you serious this is already over and i'm not telling you you know reformat the whole thing and do best i'm not even telling you i'm just saying that the the product is far different because i guess people do like the wide openness and a chance that no matter what happens, getting the parity, man. Yeah. P-A-R-I-T-Y, not P-A-R-O-D-Y. Common misconception that it's spelled that way. I'm really good at spelling. Parity is what makes the NFL great, in my opinion. I mean, you look at whether you're looking at the college football playoff, they can't,

whatever they do, the first round and the championship game has not been consistently competitive and wild card weekend was one of the most competitive of all time i mean i think for the first time consecutively for two years you had two six seeds advance you know uh you had multiple games like four out of the last seven games or something like that it could be fucking it up because you know i've been out all day now and this is this is time number two doing this podcast are you some would say but four of the last seven games there have been a few overtimes the last few playoff games um so so just on the ravens thing alone though because i i think lamar people are salivating for this no but i like the lamar thing is difficult and it's and it's like a very specific reason all

right lamar is someone that because it was doubt whether it was in the draft and again his own team that passed on them three times um yeah but they figured it out they knew yeah they knew at that point now we'll take them after we pass on them uh that it became you know a really it became a racial debate when maybe it shouldn't have been about race. Like my thing is always as a white guy, be like, you think I'm criticizing this guy for this? Like,

do you want a list of all the white quarterbacks? That suck. Right. That I've, there are so many, just all of a sudden it's like, I say one thing about Cam Newton and it's like, Oh,

you know, here we go again. And you go, all right, so what do we, what do we want to do about the other ones? You do like trying to tell me that Jay Cutler of all people didn't face a ton of criticism and nobody liked, you know what I mean?ony romo the whole thing like there's so

i mean i do think with lamar and here we go talking race four or five margaritas deep i said three i mean maybe i was lying sure um sounds like a good idea then yeah um i think there are a lot of people have been waiting to pounce on this for the wrong reasons um could we agree on that it could only be though like because anybody that went like look i was somebody that watched him and said i think he's inaccurate on some easy throws and then this year he puts up these numbers he is the mvp i'd vote for him for mvp it's one of the best stories we've had in football in a long time reasonable though you're not being there's people in my mentions about lamar jackson that say, he'll never be good. He's, he's trash.

Like that's the hyperbole. Listen, I'm not sitting here claiming he's going to be a hall of famer. I'm just claiming that you're going to have to deal with him for the next five to seven years. No doubt. No doubt. But I just, I, they're going to be on that stage again. And there's a whole list. I don't know if you actually find this.

We did it on the earlier podcast. Let me pull out my notes again. These are the guys. These are quarterbacks that we all respect, right? On this list. And they had to wait X amount of years to win their first playoff game. And I think that the age of Twitter and 24 hour news cycle dictates that we're going to just parse this thing

at every turn. And Drew Brees, six years until he won his first playoff game. Peyton Manning, six years. Owen Three, prior. Can you imagine what Twitter would have done to Peyton Manning, as fucked up as that sounds? Jim Kelly, six years. Aaron Rodgers, six years, third as a starter.

Elway, fourth year, was Owen Two. McNair, fifth year. Randall Cunningham, eighth year. Owen Three, Fouts, eighth year oh and three fouts eighth year oh and one now i know that sounds like cherry picking but i'm just saying you can reasonably make up an argument that says lamar has a lot to work on he does like a lot of quarterbacks like 30 out of 32 quarterbacks but him not winning his first two playoff games is not disqualifying at all for him being great. That's my problem. Don't lead with that argument. Give me something compelling. The uncertainty, like they ran the football well last year, they played good defense and I was like,

okay, but is this real? And the Chargers game was terrible. And then going into this year, I still wasn't sure. Major improvement across the board. Still thought there were some throws in there where I'm like, all right, if you're going to be, look, he's going to win MVP and year i still wasn't sure major improvement across the board still thought there were some throws in there where i'm like all right if you're going to be look he's going to win mvp and he deserves to win mvp if you're going into like this guy can be a top five quarterback for 10 years and it looks the way it did in the playoff weekend and you're like okay what what is real here and that's that's how i feel about all young unproven quarterbacks where i can't even call him unproven when you go ahead and win an mvp but there's just something where it just takes me longer to go absolute buy-in again and I don't know if it's

just the pick look at the fumble the two picks you could just chalk it up to the losing the turnover battle I mean Tannehill threw for 80 yards again yes dude and lose Tannehill one you're losing to a quarterback who hasn't thrown for over 100 and back-to-back playoff games who played better Tannehill or Lamar uh you know Lamar's first pick was tipped uh Lamar missed a lot of throws he was off undeniably but he was and I'm a big Tannehill Titans fan fan boy listen you're Mr. Titans right yeah Mr. Titans but but Tannehill it's been ugly at times in the playoffs I I mean, under 100 yards both games and has made the throws he had to make when he had to make them. And the game has always been in phase because Derrick Henry is running right down people's throats. And another thing about that game is this thing with his usage.

35 carries the wild card round. Four running backs previously had north of 30 carries in the wildcard round in history. None had gone for 100 or 25 carries the next week. And I don't know how many carries he got, but he definitely had 100 yards. I don't think they're worried about spelling him. I think that it's like burn the ships for them every week. We're going to run them into the ground. We'll figure it out next week. Yeah, I mean, Lamar also ran it for 143 in this game. I mean, when you look at just the raw numbers for Lamar and you're like, wait a minute, he threw 365, 31 at 59.

365, 143. A lot of them playing catch up. I mean, we're 500 yards. Yeah, I know. But it is a weird box score game versus watching it because in the moment, I'm like, man, this doesn't look very good. And yet, it's part of the turnovers. But Derek Henry, he went 30 for 195.

Yeah, so he broke the mold there because you're not supposed to be able to do that the week after you have that kind of load. And on the other side of things, in the run game, obviously, they don't have Mark. But a lot of their quarterback option stuff, I question the reads. I don't think their reads were that crisp. I don't know what Tennessee was doing to confuse them.

But it looked like a lot of their quarterback option stuff was just quarterback run stuff. And getting cleaner on those reads, I don't know what Tennessee was doing to muddy it up. It did not look like the rest of the year. It did not look like they were running a really crisp operation, their option offense. So, you know, tight end stuff didn't,

didn't seem to come as easy as it usually does. And that's a big safety valve for him. And Logan, Logan Ryan, as you mentioned, talked about throwing outside the hashes and that's what they made him do. And that's a real thing for any quarterback. We don't know if it's a blueprint thing from now on.

Hey, this is how it's going to be played. And we're going to look back at this Lamar year and be like, hey, is it fluky? I wouldn't think that because the improvement from the first year to the second year. But, you know, Tennessee is a different team right now. Since Tannehill came in, I think week 11, was it? 30 plus points a game.

Yeah. And the red zone stuff. Red zone. Oh, excuse me. Week seven, he comes in, and since that point, the Titans are 87% on red zone touchdown possessions. That's a massive number. That's insane.

And when you look at that compared to everybody else, so even though the Ravens were the second-best red zone offense overall, that's the whole regular season, the Titans' run was off the charts, and the second-best team was Tampa at 72 percent over that same period so that's a massive gap there and the Henry story is worth kind of correcting because I feel like the people are talking about Henry as if he's always been this guy and he really wasn't his first two years in the hundreds and carries you know not massive yardage numbers he went over a

thousand last year but he's been a completely different guy I think and can carry an offense that's not not gotten anything from tannahill tannahill's numbers are nuts here to throw for less than 200 yards win two playoff games hasn't been done since terry bradshaw but um if it's not for ryan they're not in the playoff so at the same time yeah it's undeniable the infusion of energy and like confidence he's given that team but henry is the perfect back for them i mean the physical tone that he sets with rabel's attitude with the attitude of the leadership of that team they were always kind of like a rudderless ship with like this physical identity

they didn't know how to maximize it and now with tannahill and Vrabel they have multiplied that factor of we don't give a shit we're physical we're like uh you know we're like gamblers out there like we like to take chances and they have that personality and having Derek Henry as that safety valve has unlocked this different level um of offense for them but Tannehill is is the guy that's given them the confidence to think when there needs to be a third and eight at the end of the New England game or a throw the other night, he's going to make it. You didn't know that with Marcus. No, the Mariota stuff.

It would be like a decent thing here, and then people were still grasping at it. But you should just watch it long enough. And you had to go ahead and make that decision. And here's the thing. When the NFL, when a team goes, hey, we don't want to give you an extension and you're a first-round pick and you're a pick that high, and same thing happened to Jameis,

if those guys inside the building are like, we're good, then that's really all you kind of have to know with some of these guys. Yeah, because coaches will put themselves in a pretzel over trying to improve a quarterback or any player really like coaches have egos so if a coach gives up on you at the quarterback position um look at james winston i guarantee you if they don't franchise him he'll get paid somewhere if not there and you know all the mistakes he's made you think you you know a guy guess what you do but coaches they always feel like they can change who the person is.

And that's the whole thing. But if an Arian system wins since throwing 30 picks, I mean, how many other coaches are going to go, I'll clean this up. I'm just telling you, ego with these coaches, they can fix anything they think. Let's get to the NFC before we do that, though. Conference Championship week is here.

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Bonus comprised of a first deposit bonus and a first bet match, each up to $500. Deposit bonus requires 25-time playthrough. Restrictions apply. See DraftKings.com slash Sportsbook for details. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or in Indiana, 1-800-9-WITH-IT. Okay, let's talk the NFC games because I don't think there's as much to do on Vikings-Niners.

We will get to it, but it's the Green Bay game. And after Seattle beat Philadelphia, the biggest impression that I had from that game was I don't think Seattle's that good uh despite my love for Russell Wilson the quarterback and you know the Marshawn thing is totally overblown um it's a nice story it's funny has good quotes really didn't do much um running the football short yardage yes chickens though man take care of your chickens I will not there's no hey listen not this slander but this isn't slander who no no i'm saying it's not like let's not mistake that for i mean more than anything i think he'd tell you this i mean what are you expecting to do coming off the couch i mean he's retired twice now but i think everybody acted like okay now they have marsh on you're like oh no i gave him uh probably a lift from a morale

standpoint and in short yardage he doesn't exactly have to go through a full off off season to still be like very physically imposing um now the homer kid I think they might have something there like from a depth perspective or even you know developmental perspective but to overcome Carson and Penny especially because he was coming on this would have, if they'd have won that game, the Seahawks' most improbable run ever. I mean, like their team this year was not that good. It was all Russell.

No, and then you're sitting there going, okay, they're down. They're down big. They're not in this game. And then you're like, are you kidding? And they go for the two-point conversion, which would have made it 28-25. They don't get that. But you're like, they're right back in this go for the two-point conversion, which would have made it 28-25. They don't get that, but you're like, they're right back in this.

This is a one-possession game. And then in the two-minute-plus mark, they've got a decision. They've got their timeouts. They punt it. And that's the one where everybody today is like, why give the ball back to Green Bay? Are they saying that?

Oh, yeah. I'm convinced now that everybody wants everybody to go on fourth down now. I'm convinced of that. I did not read the room. Yeah, I mean, you can never be right punting the ball these days you know people really hate punting but i would i would argue that that's one where if you're a green bay fan you're psyched they're punting and then still rogers has to make two throws a third and eighth throw to vante is unbelievable

and then you've got the spot on the first down which the more he dug into it it looked like the yellow line was wrong yeah he actually it was a first down where on TV it was like, wait a minute, he's short. Then they didn't overturn it. And then you see everything the next day. I'm still not a huge screen grab justice guy. Yeah, but you know what? Like on both those things. First off, I absolutely would have gone for it.

I mean, I know you're at like the 40 or 36 or whatever. First off, I wouldn't have took a sack on third down that was yeah russell wilson of all people to take that that was a you know low-key you know he gets a lot of times but he's usually the guy that knows he knows when anybody he knows how to play chicken right and he did not play chicken there i mean that sorry i keep leaning back in my seat for those of of you listening, it's. Yeah, that thing cut me open today, that chair. Did it?

Yeah. Blood? Bad. Immediately, my hand, I was like, that doesn't feel right. Just gushing blood. So if you ever stay at the hotel. Watch out for those chairs. There's blood on the floor. That was Brian Rosillo's blood.

So with Russ, I would have trusted the guy that is the only person playing well on the whole field i mean either side of the ball it's a good rule lock it to lock it i like it's incredible i would have gone to lock it um or you know obviously metcalf can't leave him out no so russ and the receivers am i picking between russ and the receivers or playing defense which you haven't done effectively the entire game. Secondaries look lost. They don't want to tackle soft spots in zone. It just was one of those games where I did not trust the defense.

I was sitting there going, first off, you don't take that sack. It's maybe fourth and manageable or you have a first down. But even if it was like fourth and three or fourth and eight which it was or fourth and ten whatever it was it's fourth and eleven i would rather deal with that than try to play defense and then the spot i think it was all about the uh the tv line which people even after the fact just ran with that the marker is a half yard short yeah there was a there's a pylon cam that's actually on the first down marker so those pylon cams you see in the corner of the end zone in the front you know there's obviously ones in the back too but uh they have them you'll notice it on the

marker on the you know line to gain type thing and when i saw that part of it it was like you know what i think he has it because originally it was like oh was he tackled but his body wasn't on the ground everybody's trying to figure it out and obviously everybody's just arguing their side of it. It was like, you know what? I think he has it. Because originally it was like, oh, was he tackled but his body wasn't on the ground and everybody's trying to figure it out. And obviously everybody's just arguing their side of it. But one of the things I think is the most interesting about the Packers is that it feels more balanced. Your boys,

the Smith brothers, continue to wreak havoc. And yet after the... Aaron Rodgers, I don't know what his deal is, but he seems like the most upset of any of the stars in the NFL. Like he's very pissed off and he kept bringing it up. And I guess like, do you, can you think of any times you were on a team and you felt like, okay, everybody's dumping on us? Or did you read the room wrong and take it more personally because it was you and your team?

Because that's what it feels like a little bit. Like unless everybody's just picking the Packers to beat everybody um and they haven't been as good as the niners i don't think they're as good as the niners no i'm not smashed them by the way too when they play crushed them but um aaron's playing better i mean just off of yesterday for stretches there they looked like very good Yeah. I'm going to start that over. So Aaron's playing better. You know, yesterday for a few stretches, he looked very good. He looked like vintage Aaron Rodgers. Now, Aaron Jones was the key of that whole game.

I mean, to me, he's the key to them winning two more. You're not going to be able to just lean on Aaron to be Aaron and do Aaron things. You know how much I love Aaron Rodgers. I don't trust the Packers. I just don't. Because so many things have to go right outside of Aaron for them to win. And last night, it was kind of a perfect storm. They played a team that kind of limped in.

And although I thought Seattle would win, really dug themselves a hole early. So the big matchup when they play the Niners is going to be the protection for Green Bay. And they have two very good tackles. If Balag is healthy, and I don't know what's going on with him, didn't he have to leave yesterday? Yeah, he left at one point. So, you know, you've got Bakhtiari,

who is really an elite tackle in our game. And then those matchups on the edge for me are going to be huge. Because if Aaron's back there baking a cake, he finds a soft spot. And he did that all yesterday because Clowney didn't get it done for them. The entire group, the rush has been a concern all year for Seattle. They were like towards the bottom and pass rush and pass protection. That's their way. If they want to beat the Niners, they have to protect really well. And honestly, I feel like they have a much better chance than they did the first time.

I still don't trust them. I think, unfortunately, it's going to be San Francisco and it's not going to be that, that exciting a game. You say, unfortunately, like what I don't,

well, I'd like to see, they beat him 37, eight last time. I'd like to see a competitive game. All right, let's talk San Francisco then, because they dominated that game against Minnesota seven 7-7 in the first quarter.

You're thinking, okay, how does this game feel? And what it felt like was that despite Garoppolo going 11 to 19, it was two things. They absolutely shut down Dalvin Cook, which means you shut down Kirk Cousins. The Vikings failed to pick up a first down on seven of their first nine possessions. They had a total of four first downs the first 40. So that's

four first downs the first 55 minutes of the game. I think this that's even worse or more impressive for San Francisco, depending on how you're looking at it. There was a stretch of seven possessions in a row where the Niners allowed a total of eight yards and one first down. They ran the football 30 of 36, I believe the last 36. So at some point it was like, okay, 30 of the next 36 plays were run plays for San Francisco.

Like they were some point was like, OK, 30 of the next 36 plays are run plays for San Francisco. And, you know, this is kind of the Minnesota that, you know, I didn't expect to go down and win in New Orleans. And that's a great win to get that thing down here where we're at now. But I'm also not surprised I saw a version of Vikings that look like this against a better San Francisco team. Yeah, you can't get Cook going. You're, you're screwed if you're Minnesota. I mean like everything for them has been predicated from, you know, the line of scrimmage forward. Um, if they can't get that going, play action, can't get going yards for a temp, go way down. You saw some stats they put up during the game, you know, Kirk's yards for a temp or like under, under easily under five yards. Um, and Dalvin not being able to get going shocked me. That was the one thing San Francisco for me.

Um, I thought their D lines been really good, but they had to answer the bell and I was wrong. I thought that Minnesota's the ends, their edge guys would put more of a stamp on the game from a pass rush standpoint, but they never had to but they never had the opportunity to get it going because San Francisco controlled that game from the beginning. And San Fran, everything they did, like the window dressing on the runs, screens, et cetera, that was all predicated on slowing down Griffin and Hunter and those guys, and they did it. You could tell they were worried about it. They never had to confront that. And Bosa and Dee Ford. Dee Ford was a huge deal. I think a lot of people got on

his case because of the offsides thing in Kansas City, but him going to San Francisco, he was kind of like, not the straw that serves the drink, that's probably Bosa, but his element that he adds from a standpoint of getting speed on the edge, they didn't have that recently probably Bosa. But his element that he adds from a standpoint of getting speed on the edge, they didn't have that recently. Bosa is a power player. I love Buckner inside. Armstead, who people were calling a bust, has been terrific. They're a complete group and they stopped the run as well. And they showed up. They answered the hype. They answered the bell. They lived up to it. Yeah. For a you know defensively was right there kind of with new england at least statistically and i'd always liked their personnel better than new england um you know it was slipping it was slipping across

the board but it was also because of the schedule and it could also be attrition but then you get ford back and you have this kind of performance and when you can make minnesota one-dimensional like this isn't a huge surprise. I love that San Francisco, Mostert has been terrific for him, and then he got in, obviously, but then it was more Tevin Coleman yesterday. They run it 40-plus times for the game.

There's just not a lot. I don't have a lot out of this or anything surprising. It was such a boring game. Kansas City is like, oh, my God. Baltimore, you're starting to go, okay, wait a minute. How am I going to feel about them next year? Is Tennessee real? Are the Packers real? And you know what?

Is Seattle even that good to begin with? All of those things are like more questionable outcomes. This one was not, at least I was not surprised by it. I think San Francisco is going to the Super Bowl, and that's as much about them as it is the opponent. And I just think they can, you know, Garoppolo, you'd like more out of him, but this team has proven it doesn't really need him to be a stud,

even though he's had moments where he's carried the team. But he's not the guy carrying him for 16 games and then a win in the playoffs. And that's despite, you know, there's two ways of looking at that. It's a negative that Garoppolo isn't better and the ceiling isn't higher, or it's a positive because it's like, hey, we don't even need this guy to be us. He can complete 11 passes and we can dominate a good Vikings team. Yeah, and we talked about this in the first podcast.

We talked about this in the first podcast. That'll be for real hardcore people, release that one. We talked about the fact that Shanahan does a great job of picking his spots to be dynamic and then picking his spots to just punch you in the mouth. And I think a lot of people famously got the 28 to three Super Bowl misconception that he doesn't run the ball because he picked a bad time to abandon it. But all they do is their identity starts with that. And that stretch where they were in 21 and they just said,

we're going to line up and you can't stop us. That's a bad feeling when you literally cannot stop a group from running the ball down your throat. The scheme I'm not a fan of being head up on those tight ends. I wish they would have made an adjustment. Griffin and Hunter are not run stopping guys. And guess who's a run blocking tight end george kittle uh and whether it was a cutoff backside and that backside c gap on a cutback got big or on the

edge and staley you know will bump you know hip check the the edge guy which is really hard one of the hardest things to do for an end is to hold up head up on tight end get the bump from the tight end still keep your hat inside and then make the play when it bounces. It's impossible. You just end up outside and too far away. You end up even knocked outside or washed and the edge. I mean, so that was your biggest strength to me on defense for the Vikings is your edge guys.

And they're negated through scheme and through matchups and through the context of the game which is they never had a chance to impose their will before we get to our night the rest of our night here on our podcast i want to remind you that uh butcher box gets it done every month butcher box because i was upset i wasn't getting the best steak tips i had a place back home and i said to butcher box hey what's your steak tip situation? They said, we've got it covered. Every month, ButcherBox ships a box with nine to 11 pounds of high quality meat right to my house.

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What are your expectations? So you've, uh, you were here for what? Bama LSU. Yeah. Like eight, 10 years ago,

10 years ago. I was, it was, it was, uh, no, it was like 10 years ago. Oh,

I know it was, it was 2011 season. Okay. Nevermind. Right. Nine years ago. No, I know it was. It was 2011 season. Okay, never mind. Nine years ago. So I was here. It was Tebow mania. It was, you know, Tebow, Steelers, long touchdown, Demarius Thomas.

That's right. Yeah. Woke up. I was down here with AJ Feely and my buddy Tom Sani, and we were on Bourbon Street just living it up and, you know, got my afternoon nap in. You know, when you wake up, it's dark in New Orleans from a nap. Yeah, you double check and stuff. It's what you have to do.

I turn on TV and Tebow throws that touchdown pass. Then we go to the game. LSU, it's a home game. And I know Dabo complains about everything, but he's got a point. You know, like i'd rather him just not complain there's a lot of clemson people here though it's not like it's you know it's not like they're playing some school from alaska dude it's a shout out to first responders out there you hear that siren um the single siren single that's just move out of the way

let's just get out of the way yeah yeah that's. That's not like a, that's not a. There's not an emergency. No, no. That's code for. You're about to get arrested. That's code for can you put your pants back on. Yeah, can you stop shitting in the street. Yeah. You're not a horse.

You're not a police horse. That's also frowned upon out here. Also, when you have shoes in New Orleans, you should probably throw them away when you leave. That or, I don't understand the kid thing. Like if you're, you get a kid in a stroller yeah no no kids here no like city of 400 000 when you're walking around with uh you don't see a lot of kids here shouldn't be shouldn't be a lot of kids there should just be a thing where if you show up with a kid in the city limits like the old westerns where you'd have to check your firearm

check there should be there should be like some sort of daycare where it's just it's a metairie it's on the outskirts metairie yeah you know that you know the land well gretna is another area yeah a lot of people like to bring up gretna what's wrong with gretna i don't know what's wrong with gretna but whenever i mention it people are like what what do they say about gretna say you know i don't know i i haven't spent enough time in gretna apparently but um i'd rather you know who's from gretna alfred payton oh really yeah so how about yeah uh you think we end up in gretna tonight probably not i'm gonna guess i guess we don't end up in gretna no west bank golly what happens in the like i just want to go out and see like the swamps bro down i wanted to go down i want to get in a fan boat and whatever

i've done the fan boat thing down here what's it like it's just what you'd expect and then we had a tour guide and he couldn't understand anything he was a bit of an exaggerator though like every time we did the crocodile one to croc and gator deal where there's crocs down here yeah so you like roll it's just gators is it just gators that's fine all right crocodiles are like uh you know north africa other places but not i'm gonna go ahead and i'm gonna get their it guys on this right now there are no crocodiles in louisiana i think there's central american crocodiles i don't think there's crocodiles in the continental united states but i could be wrong maybe zoos you know well if if it's a zoo then it doesn't count. Yeah, look this up. By the IT guys, it means we're in a hotel room Googling this shit.

Yeah. Alligators, not crocodiles. There you go. Nice work. I know my animals. Yeah, it's all gators down here, bro. All right. Alligators live in...

You can distinguish alligator and crocodile by paying attention to whether the animal sees you later or in a while. Ha. I didn't even mean to read that. You read the whole thing. It was a real scientific tidbit. So anyway, we were down looking at gators, and the guy in the boat was like,

he goes, you see that gator right there? That's an E-foot gator. And I was like, no, it's like two feet. Three feet. Right, so every time we pulled up to a gator, he wasn't just like off by a foot he just oh hey hey guy get over here see that gator that's a 10-foot gator look at that look at the size and we're like are we is he drunker than we are like what is he talking about

like is this is this what this tour is about and he's just that good of a salesman that every time you saw anything in the water, you can't even see his full body in the back. That's a big gator right there. And we're like, these are the smallest gators ever. Smallest gators. We went on the small gator lie tour. Two stars.

Yeah, two stars with Yelp immediately. This guy's eyesight is terrible. Do you read Yelp before you go on a gator tour or do you wing it? You got to wing that. Is Yelp before you go on a gator tour or do you wing it? You got to wing that. Is Yelp even useful? I was pushing for it because this is a shout out to the youngins who listen to the pod. When you start doing these, you'll do these trips if you have friends. If you don't have any friends, you probably won't get invited. If you take care of your chickens.

Yeah, take care of your chickens. You'll do this trip where you get together with 10 buddies, maybe 20 buddies. Maybe you have even more friends or maybe you don't, like I said, but you're going to do these trips. Okay, not to have friends. Yeah, but it'd be nice to have a couple, right? A couple to do some stuff with. But you always do this thing. Like, we always had a few guys in our group that'd be like, hey, we got a 7 a.m. tea time.

We're like, you know what? Can you not do a 7 a.m. tea time? Can you stop planning? Right. Because that means we have to be up at 6 and then there's a shuttle. Yeah, I'm here not to get up hours after we went to bed i don't want to do that that's not that's not fun because then you're tired and then you get to do the midday thing and then some guys get after it too early and then you're ruining the

whole night so i during that trip pushed for i go i think we should do a gator tour yeah we try something different it's perfect it's perfect yeah i'm sorry i'm sorry to hear that there was a lot of exaggeration a lot of exaggeration yeah and so um that's just you know again that's just something that you need to be be on top of there who are you picking in the title game the over that's all you care about just give me give me points the over 70 what'd you get it at i think it's like i haven't gotten it yet i was gonna i was gonna check it out before the game i should probably stay away yesterday i had the hawks and i bought half a point big cat told me buying points is for suckers i was gonna buy two points which would have made hawks plus six and big cat cost me a sum of money so today it would be better if i stayed away but of course i won't

yeah you're um i think you're replacing the competition of every sunday or every weekend today it would be better if I stayed away, but of course I won't. Yeah. You're, um, I think you're replacing the competition of every Sunday or every weekend that you've had since you were in junior high with, uh, with, uh, yeah, you got to just something to wet the beak. Right. Not too much. I think that's what you miss. Cause when anybody asks me if you miss playing in the NFL, I say no, but I think you miss, you miss some juice. You're addicted to the yeah i'm yeah i'm an addict i'm gonna you know i gotta feel the uh the blood sweat and tears and you know uh you know better play any cards last night though huh i don't i'm not a casino guy i'm not a game of chance guy i don't play 21 i don't play

i know how to play war they do that anywhere they do it in some casinos i don't know if they do it here or not who are the guys who are the guys at a slot machine at a new orleans harris okay so some people think slots are the best i don't smoke cigarettes so i don't think i'm a good fit it's a prerequisite right oh yeah they actually come up to you and be like do you want to start smoking? Because here's some Parliament lights and here's some quarters. Yeah, here they are. Right.

Wait a minute. Is that guy? They're like, hey, can we get security over there? He's not smoking. Dude, a casino can be a very sad place. It wasn't sad last night. It was festive. It was good to go.

It was actually packed with Clemson people. Packed with Clemson people. Because they were out-of-towners. But I would imagine if it's not Mardi Gras or it's not National Championship or a Saints game, a regular night at a non-Vegas casino, whether that's Atlantic City or anywhere, it can be a little depressing to me. think it ruins the night i think more often than not because there's always a couple guys in the crew that are really really into the card playing thing it's actually not as social like you can get a table if you're all playing the same hands at a blackjack table that's kind of what we had close to last night but i feel like you should always find a like if you still want to hang out with everybody you shouldn't do the casino now the casino thing can be weird and then you're still

sort of when i'm the only one standing there behind you guys you guys are playing cards and if by chance they recognize me and not all the media moguls uh they're gonna be like what the fuck is that guy doing standing there creepy by the table not playing maybe he didn't do that well maybe he didn't hit his incentives that's why he's afraid to even put some money down because he didn't yeah yeah probably he's not doing so well yeah maybe he should stop giving all this money away why would you not donate to the Harrahs in New Orleans? Why is he funding schools? And not Harrahs?

Because that's what would happen. I could lose money so fast at a table. All right, so we are headed over into the beast. We will update this. I'm flying back to L.A. tomorrow, and that'll do it for us here. Recapping the second round of the playoffs in the NFL and a little preview here in New Orleans.

For Chris Long, Ryan Rosillo, please subscribe, rate and review to the podcast as much as you possibly can. And we will be back next Monday. And I have a couple of things planned, including the author of the Bruce Lee biography, Matthew Pauly. That's an incredible interview. Not only talking Bruce Lee, but this dude, the author just told his dad like,

hey, I'm going to go study with the Shaolin monks, Shaolin temple. He just showed up with a bag. interview um not only talking bruce lee but this dude the author just told his dad like hey i'm gonna go study with the shaolin monks shaolin temple he just showed up with a bag was like i'm in is that hard to break into apparently no you just need to have money like it's it's run by a ticket or yak no no just you show up to the shaolin deal and they're like to get up there yeah yeah basically like he thought it was really funny and i don't want to give away too much of the interview but he goes you know i showed up and i thought maybe they would test my metal and i'd have to like sleep outside for a month he's like nope you have like here's the wi-fi code yeah they're like you have american dollars okay this is

this is your coffee maker and you're good to go for for zen like experience yeah yeah it's basically a spa where you feel shitty about yourself because these guys are so awesome yeah pretty much pretty much so um if you were looking to get into that whole shallon thing make sure you check out that interview and tell your friends okay we'll talk to you uh chris and i next week and then the rest of the schedule for two more podcasts here part of the ringer network you