NFL Conference Championship Recap!!

Ready to level up?

Chumba Casino is your playbook to fun.

It's free to play with no purchase necessary.

Enjoy hundreds of online social games like Blackjack, Slots, and Solitaire anytime, anywhere, with fresh releases every week.

Whether you are at home or on the go, let Chumba Casino bring the excitement to you.

Plus, get free daily login bonuses and a free welcome bonus.

Join now for your chance to redeem some serious prizes.

Play Chumba Casino today.

No purchase necessary, VGW Group, Void War Prohibited by Law 21 Plus, TNCs Apply.

Tallow isn't a gimmick.

It's skin identical, vitamin rich, and wildly effective.

Grass-fed tallow mirrors your skin's natural biology, delivering nutrients in a way plant oils and synthetics just can't.

It's one of the most nourishing, skin-compatible ingredients on the planet.

And it's the foundation of Primely Pure's cult favorite balms and body butters.

These aren't just moisturizers, they're skin solutions.

Whether you're dealing with dryness, irritation, or just want a natural glow, your skin will recognize the difference.

Ready to try what your skin's been waiting for?

Discover why thousands are switching to tallow for a naturally radiant, healthy skin.

Head to primallypure.com.

That's P-R-I-M-A-L-L-Y-P-U-R-E.com.

Your skin will thank you.

Calling all hedonists.

I, Dan Hanses, and ye, Mark Sessler, are taking heed to call into the real world with a pair of live shows in New Orleans on Thursday, February 6th.

One at 5 p.m.

Central, a second show at 7 p.m.

Central.

You know, come to one show, come to both shows.

We don't care.

They won't be exactly the same.

Or maybe they will.

Mark, I don't know.

No, no, we're not going to AI our first show and just replay it on screen.

It's going to be new ideas.

It's going to be.

Is that an option, though?

Probably not.

Not from a budget standpoint or any other.

But it's also like, what mood will we be in by the second show?

Everything will change.

We're going to take you around the the league as we always do with depth, clarity, that's what the script says, and just a touch of mirth, Dan.

So come see the OG Heroes along with some familiar friends in person at SportsDrink, Colin Cafe and Comedy Club in New Orleans.

We are playing New Orleans.

Wow, you are really a natural at the prompter, Mark.

That's SportsDrink, Cafe and Comedy Club on Thursday, February 6th.

Get your tickets to the link in the podcast description.

Experience the show, the football cognacente

doesn't want you to see

the Heat the Call Podcast

Can't hide from the Chiefs and Eagles their back!

Oh my goodness, Super Bowl 59 is set, and yes,

despite the prayers

And the well-wishing

that maybe asked for a different matchup.

You get the two best teams in the end, and I think that's where we landed.

Chiefs, Eagles, playing in 59.

They heeded the call today.

Dan Hansis, Mark Sessler, with our every Sunday guest, Connor Orr, of course, not even a guest, just family.

And speaking of family, our Thursday hero, Jordan Rodriguez from the Athletic, helping us out on the Championship Sunday recap.

What's up, gang?

Hey, guys.

Connor, your backdrop is so nice.

Where are you right now?

This is a really nice courtyard, and I didn't think I would get here

making it from the game to here.

The Broad Street is very crowded.

We had an expert Uber driving on the way.

What is the read over there right now?

Because the image is not surprising that Philly in general, the region,

has been set afire by what's occurred today.

I would say that the people who made it to Broad Street to climb the poles and to do all the festivities, that was kind of the best and the brightest.

The folks that were still left by the stadium, it was apocalyptic.

Like it was just these sort of drunk lizards, and I couldn't even, like, they were just crawling on pavement to try to get somewhere.

Progladites.

Yeah.

Did they not?

Did they?

I thought they greased the poles there on Broad Street.

If they did, it didn't matter.

Yeah.

Everyone's still up there.

Yeah.

And we'll get to what happened in the NFC title game where the Eagles obviously took care of business in their best game of the year.

Great timing, trouncing the Commanders.

But let's start where we got to start.

And,

you know, Jordan Rodrigue,

you are a wizard when it comes to analyzing the game, and I have immense respect for you.

I would like to just get into this game by saying there's another element in sports and in life that sometimes opportunity knocks

and you have a chance to answer it.

And sometimes you do, and it changes the trajectory of your life.

And sometimes you fail to answer that knock.

And you get on a plane to go back to Western New York in a dark, dark place.

And there was opportunity knocking for the Buffalo Bills against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Shall we get into it?

Hell yeah, man.

Let's do it.

Let's go.

Justin, hit it.

I played the trumpet on myself.

Yes, that opportunity came in the fourth quarter.

With three minutes and 33 seconds to go.

I think there's something biblical to that, Sessdog.

The Bills take over with Patrick Mahomes stuck on the sideline.

Down three points, Buffalo.

They have a chance to go score a touchdown and finally get back to the big game.

But that drive stalls and the Chiefs do what the Chiefs, well, that's a nice way to put it.

If you're friends and family of Dalton Kinkape, we'll get to it.

The Chiefs get the ball back and the Chiefs show why they always win these games, converting the final two first downs to seal a 32-29 win win and a beautiful back-and-forth affair between two AFC Titans, the great Mahomes

and Andy Reid going to their third straight Super Bowl.

And yes, they have a chance,

Mark Sessler, to three-peat.

It's all in front of the Chiefs and the Bills.

Another year of what might have been.

I just think it's become sort of an annual tradition.

And I don't root for this.

In fact, it causes anxiety where where you know you're going to get to a point where you're looking down at Josh Allen

in a morose fashion with minutes to go, seconds to go, and some sort of playoff.

That final drive, you could just kind of feel it happening.

And to me, it was like the

first and 10, there's a dangerous throwdown feel, which he had a bunch of today.

The second pass is batted.

You connect with Damari Cooper.

You're at fourth and five.

The two morning hits.

And it's the strategy between Spagnola and the Bills.

And they showed it on that play.

That was the one, you know, they were not blitzing all day long, but they brought a blitzer from a wild part of the front seven and crushed Allen as he's trying to unfurl it.

Dalton Kincaid, it gets to him heroically, and he just misses that pass.

And then you know, at that point, the Chiefs are going to go do what they need to do.

You know, something that

was symptomatic of a larger issue, I think the Bills were facing too in the game, to your exact point right there, Mark, is it wasn't just that Spaggs brought this blitz.

As you know, he was going to send blitzes throughout the course of this game, but also he is on tape with tendency.

My friend Cody Alexander, who does great work over at match quarters, says this after almost every single Chiefs game is that if you align in a condensed formation against Steve Spagnolo on a known passing down, he is going to blitz you.

And this one was different than some of the looks that he showed previously, and they were spying Mahomes a lot.

So it almost looked like they were going to blitz, and then they dropped a linebacker.

But But this one was different because they sent the corners and Josh Allen was completely bottled up and funneled over to the right side where he missed the outlet that was built in to the play, which was

Khalil Shakir is open off of this orbit motion reverse into the flat.

And he's wide open, but Josh Allen cannot see him and couldn't possibly hope to get the ball to him because he's on the opposite side of where said Blitz is funneling the play because Steve Spagnolo is on tape doing this.

And it goes to a larger issue where they were running right into the Chiefs' tendencies.

This is a Bills team that has been so creative this year, but drove me absolutely crazy with some of the things that they were doing offensively in terms of just playing right into the Chiefs' hands and running these same certain plays ad nauseum.

We were texting about in our group chat all game.

And that was painful to watch that ball just get to Dalton Kinkade's fingertips and slip right through.

And that's not on, you know, I don't even consider that on Dalton Kincaid because if you're Joe Brady, you had a full complement of timeouts at that point, and you are running it like every play needs to be the play that you're going to, you know, you're going to succeed and get to that field goal.

Or in the goal to go situation on the drive before, you're leaving it up to Josh Allen to play hero ball, which just invites Spagnolo to do something exotic.

Spagnolo is a gambler.

He's always going to pick something and deal with the consequences.

And the way that you negate that is by marginal gains.

And you have all these great marginal gain players.

And I don't understand why in goal to go the drive before or to go tie the game or to win the game, all of a sudden we just abandon that.

And I don't know.

I thought that was on Joe Brady personally.

I thought there were moments in this game, especially in the second half.

And it started for me where it started to become really apparent or clear as someone watching from home was when they have the lead, Buffalo.

They're up one point.

They get the Chiefs off the field.

They get the ball to midfield.

And I thought on the fourth and short sneak, I thought that Allen got it.

And I think that was, if you get, if you're, if you, if it drives you mad that Kansas City seems to have that four-leaf clover in their pocket, that is the play where it's like, oh my God, like usually they're going to give you that.

And yet one official goes one way, the other guy goes a yard below, and then they spot it just short, and then they can't overturn it.

But I thought the way even Brady called that and the offense was just kind of like

you saw the way Kansas City's defense was stacked and ready for Allen.

You saw the same things in some of the two-point conversion struggles they had in this game where it felt like just being a little bit more inventive or just...

taking a little bit more of a chance, something, a little play action, a little dump out to Cook, who, by the way, didn't even touch the ball on the last possession of the game.

That's another Brady issue I have.

And that's what I think about this game, which is I have so much immense respect for the Chiefs, more than I even had going into this game.

So you got yet another example of why they win these games and the other teams don't.

And I'm not going to kill Dalton Kincaid, but that didn't just hit his fingertips.

That hit his hands.

And he, and like those,

and that's kind of the point I was getting at when I was mentioning Jordan with her great studying of the game, as you heard as she began the breakdown of this, that that's all true.

But sometimes, if you want to finally not be the Buffalo Bills that always come up short, you got to catch the ball.

And then you got to find a way when you still have three timeouts to get off the field.

And it was a Bills team that still hasn't quite figured out how to win these crucible moments at the highest levels.

And the Chiefs team, that might be the greatest team ever to do it.

Because two things happen, Mark.

After that controversial fourth-down stop,

the Chiefs take over, and they need five plays to go right down the field.

And Mahomes scrambles in the touchdown, right?

And then, like I said, after they get the break, and it was a break with a Kincaid throw drop, they then convert two first downs with really smart play calling when maybe a different offensive coordinator runs that ball three times and then holds on to their butts and hope the field goal kicker makes one.

That's not how the Chiefs operate, and this is why they win, win, win.

No,

it was a rapid, forceful five-play drive that changes everything.

And you haven't broken the bills at that point because I still felt like they're going to to get another chance, and they did.

But that fourth and one seemed to happen so often tonight.

And Allen had been successful.

And then there is the report that Spaggs is on the sideline screaming at his players, we have got to find a way to stop the run.

Because where I thought Buffalo really changed things was the drive where they open up with eight straight runs.

It's like, we're going to go do what we know we can do in this game.

And it was working.

And James Cook, who has been fantastic this entire time, was a big part of it.

And so I don't really have a problem with Allen going forward on that fourth fourth one or that being the play call.

I get what you're saying, but to your point, I think it was the wrong call by the officials.

I thought he made it.

Like, and I know there's different angles to this, and it's hard to overturn a call that starts that way on the field.

But that is another, if you're, and I'm not one of these Chiefs conspiracy theorist people, but it's like you've got two officials with different opinions.

We go to commercial break, we come back, and the entire season has changed for the Buffalo Bills.

And that's a little bit of an emotional take on it all, but it did come down to another one of these moments.

Yeah, one thing I was really impressed with the Bills about Mark was that they didn't totally just implode.

Like you felt it.

I felt it as just watching the game.

Like the wind got knocked out of you after that.

This is a direct quote by Gene Sarator, who's like standing in the corner of the broadcast booth or something, wherever they put him this time.

I felt like they gained it by a third of the football gym on that fourth down stick.

And I think what I had this thought while I was watching some of these like sim pressures that Spaggs was running on the NextGen Dots system, where there are microchips in all of the players' jerseys.

There's two tabs in the front where they hold these microchips that are literally GPS trackers.

And they're not the most like to the centimeter precise, but they can literally.

You can understand simulated pressure because you can get a half step back and a couple steps forward.

You can really track those things.

And I'm sitting there watching the way some of this pressure is designed before jumping on with you guys.

And I have this thought, like, how can we not get that right?

Or if it was wrong, how can we not see more clearly that it was wrong?

Or how can we not see more clearly that it was right when all we're seeing is Chris Jones is back and the ball disappears, and we don't have anything.

And I didn't even see the chains come out.

The broadcast didn't show them.

I don't know.

Someone at the stadium might have to say that, like, say what happened there or not.

I didn't even see a measurement.

And so that's where I'm like, man, we have so much.

This game gives so much.

But in officiating decision, whatever side you're on of it, I don't care about that so much.

I care that we have better ways to do this and they're just not being used.

Yeah, I just wish it didn't happen,

regardless of how it turned out, right?

Because this to me was a clear Chiefs' victory in that I thought Andy Reid did more in preparation to pick apart Sean McDermott's defense than Sean McDermott and Joe Brady did vice versa for the Chiefs.

And like, I think that was just a very clear-cut Chiefs' victory to me.

I thought they were a better prepared team going into this.

I was more impressed with what they did offensively, specifically.

But now, this casts a little bit of a conspiratorial pall over it, like so many of the Chiefs' games that we've had this year.

And I wish we could just throw that out the window and appreciate the fact that, like, Andy Reid was in his bag again today.

Like, this was a great Andy Reid game.

Like, he deserves all the credit in the world for this.

And yes, he also ended up getting like a mysterious call that everyone's going to freak out about.

Yeah, that's the same thing I was thinking, too, is that there will be, and there is a now a legion of Chiefs haters.

And it's funny, it's like, you know, just skip the decade.

There's always going to be the team, it seems, that everybody thinks always gets the breaks.

And maybe the Chiefs are in that place now.

But at the same time, yeah, I thought the Chiefs deserved to win this game.

But this is the, I felt the closest they've come to being knocked off.

And I said it for weeks and weeks and weeks on the show that I thought this would be the year that they got taken out in the AFC.

And to their credit, they just have this second gear.

And they had not scored 30 points in a game all year.

So, you know, to be able to turn it up the way they did and Jordan, their ability, I thought their defense, well, certainly not perfect, they gave up 29 points in this game.

Obviously, the big blitz that we talked about, but also how rigid they were near the goal line.

The fact that James Cook even scored that touchdown, I believe, in the third quarter was one of the most magnificent human acts I've seen all season because the Chiefs, the way they were able to lock in defensively, and you saw that, and I was thinking to myself, when the Buffalo takes that extra point off the board on an offsides, and then they ended up missing the two-point conversion, they missed a second one.

You think to yourself, again, like, if you're going to beat the Chiefs an arrowhead in the AFC title game, you cannot be leaving points on the field.

You can't be falling short in these type of situations.

And when you leave the door open, they always get you in the end.

I thought that the, and this is with all due respect to the Bills who I picked to win this game, who have been a total joyride all season, who, Connor, have been playing such efficient football for so much of the season that it drove you a little nuts to see the way that they just completely flipped ad nauseum, just like running, trying to run the grand battering ram that I mention all the time in Josh Allen through the stone wall that just is not moving.

Something kind of slipped into the broadcast that I thought was so telling of how

prepared these Chiefs are.

Not just Andy Reid, but Steve Spagnolo as well.

Two head coaches coaching their respective ecosystems.

And I don't know if whether it was Jim Nance or Tony Romo, because their voices sometimes just like blend together in a series of

groans to me, and his music.

But

I really,

it was that the Chiefs defense.

Yes.

The Chiefs defense.

were

my body shrivels up, but it's fine.

The Chiefs defense were talking.

Too many for you, Jim.

You asked for it.

I did.

I did.

I did.

You got it.

Oh, I got it.

The Chiefs defense

were talking all week in their broadcast meetings.

Again, that the broadcaster of a football game is privy to, to sit into, which is a whole other point.

But they were talking all week in these broadcasting meetings about how the Chiefs defense had specifically scouted that Josh Allen on these sneaks always runs to the left guard.

That is the tendency.

The data on that showed an overwhelming percentage that that was where they were going to move these tush pushes to the left side, through the left guard, through the center left gap.

And they did the first couple of times, and they kept stopping them.

And so the Chiefs, to me, to Connor's point, were just more prepared to stymies.

I'm not going to say it right, stymie, stymy, stymie, stymy,

words, sty me anything that the bills had previously put on tape and they had more answers in the end when the bills had less.

I would say look no further than the

that was not my finest bit of analysis.

Justin, rain it in.

Good thing we're live.

You're losing the analysts.

I texted him and asked him to do that.

Sorry.

That was my fault.

This is my favorite drop.

I have it on my computer and I play it for myself all the time.

Look no further, though, than this full house backfield that Andy Reid was running with Noah Gray and Travis Kelsey.

It just cut Sean McDermott's defense in half.

The defensive line chased the run action up front.

The linebackers chased the tight ends to the other side.

And all of a sudden, you have an option where Mahomes can just run it in, where Kareem Hunt can run it in.

And it's just like one of those things where it's like, yeah, man, like he just had the number.

Like he had it all game and good for him.

There was a huge injury in this game because I think when you lose Christian Benford and you've got to replace him with Kyira Lamb, because to hear Sean McDermott talk about Kyira Lamb coming out of halftime, it was kind of like a thousand-yard stare saying like, well, he's going to have to get it done.

But so many big plays track back to the fact that Benford was not on the field.

And, you know, DeMar Hamlin is also not the equal of any of that.

And so I think that compromised secondary created a lot of big plays that we haven't seen consistently from the Chiefs' offense, but we have in the more recent days because I thought the roster, and if you go look at who caught passes today and who made big plays, it's like these guys were not functionally a large part of the Chiefs' offense at the start of the season.

So it speaks to their ability to adjust.

But like the biggest play of the game comes late from Samajay Pirine.

Like this is not a central figure, but Mahomes did a great job spreading it out.

He's better than he's ever been on his feet.

I thought he absolutely changed this game with conversions on fourth down, especially.

When you're thinking Allen can do it, we know Mahomes can do it, but he did it so much tonight.

And that Bills defense was put on their heels.

It just seemed like outside of a couple,

a bit of a flat zone in the third quarter and the Mahomes fumble, they were basically unstoppable.

Yeah, Mahomes had another.

You know, he doesn't, it's been a while now since he put up the Gaudi stat lines.

That's not really his thing, but, you know, this game, 18 to 26,

245, throws a touchdown, rushes for two, and like Mark's saying, he moved really well in the pocket.

He didn't take any hits.

I thought there were a couple slides where it looked like the Buffalo Bills were terrified to go even near him, and I would be too, based on some of the things that have happened during this postseason.

But Mahomes played a very clean, typically Mahomes game in this setting.

I thought Josh Allen, I mean, you want to talk about...

Because I thought like the Lamar discourse predictably got a little out of control last week after Baltimore went down.

And the first two series of this game, it's a three and out on offense for Buffalo with Allen just chucking up two gimme interceptions, like gimme, like rookie year, Josh Allen.

And then they punt, and then Casey goes 90 yards on nine plays, ending with a Kareem Hunt touchdown,

a possession in which the Chiefs never reach third down on the march.

And I think at that point, you're thinking, oh my God, this is going to be a boat race.

So I credit the Bills in that building.

And that is,

you're sitting on your couch watching it, and you hear it like just radiating in your brain.

The crowd just going nuts.

Such a great home field advantage.

They were able to get the game calmed down.

And again, I go back to the two points in the game that really

I underline, which is after they got that stop and the Bills have the ball with the lead.

One point when I thought they played a little tight in that moment, and then, yes, they had the chance.

They had the chance and they couldn't do it.

Do we have that?

I just want to

do you have the Kincaid play?

And I understand.

30 seconds or so.

Okay, great.

And I understand, Jordan.

I'm not here to bury young Dalton Kincaid, okay?

No, he didn't heed the call, Dan.

He did not heed the call.

That's exactly it, Jordan.

That's why you're here today.

Thank you.

You have to heed the call to beat the Chiefs.

When the Bills beat the Chiefs earlier this season, they heeded the call, if you remember, and they were aggressive and they went for it and they found a way and they made the plays.

And I just, my heart kind of breaks.

I've always had

a warm place in my heart for the Bills and their fans.

And it's just like when you see that ball, and I know it's not going to be talked about maybe in the history books the way Mark Andrews' drop was, but here it is.

I mean,

oh, that is, that's right in the chest, off the arms, right off the forearms.

He has to come back for the ball, and you got to give a lot of credit to Josh Allen, who's got the whole house coming at him.

He gets a ball up.

He didn't throw that up for grabs.

He saw Kincaid and let it go, and he just did not make the catch.

And if he catches that ball, they're infield goal range with less than three minutes to go.

But sliding doors, man, sliding doors.

It is crazy.

I'm glad Mark brought up that sequence in the third quarter.

The key series was the Milano stop that held the Chiefs to a punt on their first possession.

And then James Cook kept hitting these outside runs to whichever the weak side of the formation was, which was the one thing that was really working so effectively that for some reason, I didn't see James Cook at all, like late in the game, but I digress.

And

Mark mentioned this, they ran the eight run plays in a row before they actually passed the ball, and they were sort of just asserting and imposing their will and just moving the Chiefs.

defensive line backward, the defensive line that had really had been taking the Chiefs, or the Bills' offensive line's lunch money and pass protection early on.

And for some reason, leaving Chris Jones unblocked on two-thirds or excuse me, undouble-teamed or solo-blocked on two-thirds of his pass rushes in the first half.

And it's this incredible show of what this Bills run game really has evolved and grown to be.

And I think that's why I'm so frustrated by the sequence of events because then they score James Cook's amazing feat of athleticism.

Like I've never seen a human being do that.

Like it was incredible.

Unbelievable.

Someone tweeted out the Space Jam scene where he's being, Michael Jordan's being held by two monsters, but his arm stretches out far enough to just like dunk the ball into the basket.

And like, it's the incredible pivotal scene.

But it's, it's like the two-point conversion, Chris Jones, of course, is solo blocked, blows up the two-point conversion.

They hold again to a punt.

And then this spot thing happens.

And then after that, the Kincaid, Josh Allen, Blitz things happen.

And it just feels like

sand slipping through your fingers at a certain point if you're the Bills.

And you just see these things flash by you, I think, after it's all said and done.

When you retire, these moments must come back in these flashes of just like really painful memories because

they just can't be on the other side of this for once.

Nope.

While we're destroying them and making them feel horrible about themselves, one more thing.

No, I don't want to do that.

I like that.

I do.

You got to heed the call, man.

The Bills had a chance.

They had Mahomes.

Connor, they had Mahomes on the sideline with three and a half minutes to go.

Your guys on the field.

This was your chance.

So if they never get the chance again, I'm not celebrating it, but you can't say you never actually had the chance.

And that's the bottom line.

They had a chance, Connor.

Eminem says that this opportunity only comes once in a lifetime, yo, but it's come like three times for them in May Queen.

Yeah, screwing it up.

That's right.

One more thing that I want to bang McDermott on real quick.

Bang him.

Okay.

In all of the Chiefs.

This is bald on bald crime right now.

I did shave it.

Did McDermott look tight?

Did anyone see under the cap today?

Did he look freshly shaved?

I did.

I took a razor right now.

He was half fishing.

I don't know.

He was half fishing.

Okay.

He might have been a little bit stubble.

That's not what we do here.

But in both of the Chiefs' Super Bowl wins, the last two, right?

49ers and Eagles, what does Andy Reid always do in those games that teams just seem blown away and totally surprised by?

He goes into the Mahomes mobility packages.

There was the one Super Bowl where they had the leftover Urban Meyer sprint option stuff from when Alex Smith was there, and they started running that, and it scared the shit out of everybody.

And then I think it was the Eagles game where they thought his ankle was all messed up, and he just starts leaving the pocket time and time again and starts designing stuff for Mahomes to get on the run.

Now, he's done it a little more subtly with his action in the backfield to kind of disguise it a little bit more.

But the fact that they weren't ready for that either, like, this guy can run, this guy can move, and then you have to put Matt Milano in the spy package, and then you're late in doing all this kind of stuff.

It's like, you got to be ready for this stuff.

Come on, like, it's driving me nuts.

I think it happened.

And it was a big play in two Super Bowls, plus multiple playoff games.

He had five first downs tonight.

So, right, it should not be a state secret or a surprise.

But they did.

I think the Milano plan was, it's the best plan you probably have there.

You're still, it's just like, he's not consistently stopped on the ground.

It's like his third superpower.

I'm seeing a lot of, and thank you to everybody that's on the live chat right now.

I'm like afraid to look.

Yeah, there's a lot of, predictably, there's a lot of frustration and people saying it's, let's see, like Ray Finkel, for instance.

I'll throw it up here.

Lame ass Super Bowl.

Like, I get it.

I get the frustration.

And we talked about it on Thursday, of course.

We're like, yeah, oh, man, Commander's Bills, I would be going off.

That would be great.

But here's the last thing I'll say.

And maybe everybody want to get their final thoughts in on this game, and then we'll take a break and hit the NFC.

But

we can get mad at the Chiefs, but again, they did what the other team could not in the crucible moments when the pressure's on, and their ability to do that makes them one of the more special teams that's ever existed in the NFL.

And now you could have tangible proof that they are one of the greatest, if not the greatest team in NFL history because they can win three chips in a row.

And you could talk about how it's going to be an annoying game because the Chiefs are in it again, and you're sick of seeing the Chiefs.

Well, if they win that game, you might be annoyed, but then you just witness history because no team in over half a century has ever even gotten the attempt to do what the Chiefs are trying to do right now.

So

I was hoping that the Bills are going to find a way, but Mark, I'm not pissed as a fan.

I think that they earned it again and they've proven.

What do we talk about all the time?

This AFC.

And we talk about the Burroughs, the Lamars, the Josh Allens, and all these these guys.

It's so hard to get there, but there's one guy that always gets there.

And that's worthy of appreciation.

Quite true.

I think you could say,

15 years from now, you can tell people that you were a vibrant, engaged football fan when this happened, if they win three in a row.

Now, my counter to that would be that there are tons of people that watched the Patriots do almost that, and it was like, that doesn't please me 12 years later.

But from a historical side, I'm with you.

I found myself warming up to it as the weekend went along because I also think these are just the two best teams.

Like the Commanders are a nice story.

We'll get to them.

But like that would, now that now we've seen what we've seen, like I want, I just want the two best teams and two very interesting, like the idea of Fangio versus Andy Reid, and we'll get into all the Eagles stuff.

Like there's some wild, intriguing things that make this different than the last time they played.

You have to look for the differences.

Yeah, I feel like it could be worse.

It could still be the Patriots, you know?

Well, that's fair.

They went nine times.

I like watching whatever magical like innovations and wrinkles.

Like Andy Reid also, like, he's amazing.

I love watching that guy coach.

I love watching Pat Mahomes play football.

I think the optics of some of the things that he's done over the last couple of weeks in the postseason, in terms of some of the flops and all of that, that's not great.

But I honestly don't think he's going to be doing those things next year.

I honestly think he cares so much about the legacy of this and what this looks like.

And you have to take advantages where you can against a flawed system, of course.

But I do think he cares a lot about

what he's going to be remembered by and what he's going to be known for.

And that's being the greatest quarterback that we've ever seen, really.

And so I think that

Andy Reid, I just love watching him coach because even with his scripts, and I'm sorry, I know this is like a big dork moment.

And like,

I'll shut up if you want me to, but

are you going to cry?

No, it's no, I have something in my throat.

God damn it.

I'll just for myself.

Are you about to talk about the playbook and is it going to get you emotional?

I'm actually not.

I'm done.

I'm not going to talk about it.

Oh, my God.

What a ride.

Are you sure I don't want to take away the platform?

Please, Jordan.

You want to come back to it?

We're going to come back to it at the end of the show.

Connor, final thoughts before we go to break?

I'm thrilled.

I know I said like maybe maybe four days ago that please, God, don't give me another Chiefs-Eagles Super Bowl.

But as we'll get to in this game,

I had a very real come to Jesus moment with the Eagles today.

And I kind of had that in the second half with the Chiefs, too, to the point where I'm like, I'm actually kind of overly jacked about this.

So let's do it.

All right.

We're evolving.

See, we're evolving.

All right.

Let's break right here.

Got one more game to get to.

We got to talk about it.

Kind of like contractually obligated to talk about it.

And so I must.

I'm excited.

I want to see you do it.

So I think all most of us do.

All right.

Let's take a break when we get back.

The NFC Championship game.

This episode of Heed the Call is brought to you by BetterHelp.

What do you want your 2025 story to be?

Maybe you're ready for a plot twist, or perhaps there's a part of your story even wanting to revise.

If you're struggling with a blank page and don't know where your story is heading, therapy can help.

Therapy empowers you to be the best version of yourself.

It's helpful for learning positive coping skills, how to set boundaries, and finding that motivation you've been lacking.

If you're thinking of starting therapy, join the over 5 million people who have given BetterHelp a try.

BetterHelp is fully online, making therapy affordable and convenient.

With BetterHelp, you have access to a diverse diverse network of more than 30,000 credentialed therapists with a wide range of specialties.

Plus, you you can easily switch therapists anytime at no extra cost.

Write your story with BetterHelp.

Visit betterhelp.com/slash htc today to get 10% off your first month.

That's betterhelphelp.com/slash htc.

With the NFL on a two-week hiatus until the big game, you may feel the void in your sports experience, but I have good news.

Never fear, there are so many other sports to satiate that longing.

NBA, college hoops, NHL, FIFA, even tennis, golf, and esports.

And Underdog has tons of fun ways to get in on the action, no matter the sport.

So scan the QR code on your screen to download the Underdog app or sign up with the code HTC.

That's us.

And new users can receive up to $1,000 in bonus cash when they deposit for our U.S.

audience only.

Nationwide is so much more than a great insurance company.

They're one of America's largest financial services companies.

Like, how I'm more than Saquon Barkley, the NFL's reigning leading rusher, I'm also the NFL's leading husher.

Hush up back there.

Wow, I might have just set the hushing record.

Well, almost.

For your insurance and financial needs, Nationwide is on your side.

Nationwide Investment Services Corporation member Finn Rick, Columbus, Ohio.

Every idea starts with a problem.

Warby Parker's was simple.

Glasses are too expensive.

So they set out to change that.

By designing glasses in-house and selling directly to customers, they're able to offer prescription eyewear that's expertly crafted and unexpectedly affordable.

Warby Parker glasses are made from premium materials like impact-resistant polycarbonate and custom acetate, and they start at just $95, including prescription lenses.

Get glasses made from the good stuff.

Stop by a Warby Parker store near you.

All right.

We are back.

Well, you know, this is Championship Sunday.

I guess we gotta gotta get on into that other game.

Anything else anybody wants to talk about?

Oh, I got something.

I have something else to talk about first.

He the Call is going to New Orleans.

And He the Call

will be live.

a live show from New Orleans the Thursday before the Super Bowl, February 6th.

We'll be at Sports Drink.

Really nice name there, a cafe and comedy club in New Orleans for two, two live in-person shows, one at 5 p.m.

Central, another at 7 p.m.

Central.

Check the link in the podcast description to get tickets to the show.

Sess Dog, it's going to be me and you and some very special guests.

Some on this chat right now, perhaps.

Yeah, Yeah, they could be joining us.

Is it overly appropriate that the place is just simply called Sports Drink?

I don't know.

It feels up our alley.

It's going to be like the fourth day we're in New Orleans.

So I think, you know, if you go to both, you don't know what's going to happen from one to the next.

Many different things could occur.

Yeah, there's a dangerousness to the live show.

And the fact, yes, the two things that are the central construct of our entire podcast and career, Mark, sports and drinking, it's all there.

It's all there in one venue.

Yes.

Con, are we going to see you at the Super Bowl?

God, I hope so.

Yeah.

I think I'm going to be there.

I think Jordan's going to be in New Orleans, too.

Yay.

Can't wait to see you guys.

Oh, my goodness.

Yes.

So make sure to check out the link in the description.

Also, if you're listening to the show, check out our social media on Twitter, Blue Sky, wherever we're at, Instagram.

We'll have links to get in there.

There's a limited number of tickets.

So get there and get your tickets before they sell out.

Heed the call.

Call it all hedonists.

This will be the first gathering of hedonists in the new era.

So please be part of it in New Orleans Thursday night before the Super Bowl.

All right.

Without further ado, anything else you guys want to talk about?

Literally anything else?

We could talk about.

Before we wrap the show, I think there is something else to discuss.

No, I'm saying, like, I know we have to get to that other thing, but is there anything else?

Like, Jordan, did you want to talk about the scheme before that you're getting emotional about?

Like, this would be a good time to really dig in, really give you the

never speak on anything ever again, actually.

We really want to give you, we want to give you some space to roam, like, a good 30 minutes right now.

All right.

Well,

all right.

We can talk about how dismayed I am by the lighting in this hotel, and I look like a ghost who has died here and is haunting the place.

So,

ghosts.

Like, the whole time, like, whenever I just kind of catch a a glimpse of myself, I'm like, this is what I would look like if I was dead and was haunting a hotel.

I am enlarging the, like, the four box here to the most possible size.

And I think you look good.

You look, you kind of like look

intricately lit.

I look good.

What's your routine?

Like, how you?

I look like I've sustained serious blood loss.

Like, I'm like, I'm pale, beyond pale.

Yeah.

It's bothering me.

Enlarging the four box, Mark, whatever you're into, I guess, you know?

Very cool.

Very cool.

Technical term, technical game.

Hell yeah.

Let's go.

And you're able to, Mark, you said you're able to maximize the screen and minimize it whenever you want.

That's cool.

Why?

You can't?

I could try.

Maybe we could each take turns checking out our

maximization, minimization abilities.

It was simply for just to take a look at Connor's message, like with more detail.

Do we want to talk about ghosts at all before?

Connor, do you exfoliate the top of your head?

Yeah, yeah.

How does that work?

So I'm glad you worked.

So I have like a two-part deal.

Like after you shave that, then there's a second thing because I like a shine on top, especially like when I hit the lighting.

Like I like the Steve Harvey.

I like to give off a little bit of headlights, you know?

And so

there's various creams.

The one that comes with the Harry's razor, I find the green one with the aloe gives off the best shine.

So that's like my weddings.

If I'm going out somewhere, you know, with some good lighting, that's what I go with.

So, not a matte finish guy.

Yeah, and a green cream can color correct.

I mean, we had this talk with Dan, like, when he first was getting his lighting going for Heed the Call, you know,

all of you guys looking man, it's like you never know with the lighting.

You all look like you have color in your face, like you're alive.

And I just, I don't know.

I don't know what's going on here.

So, cool.

Back to the drawing board, I guess.

Oh, that's just because I'm fighting back all my

natural hue of that.

Any other things with your grooming comments?

Not real.

God damn it, Justin.

Why did I draw the shorts draw today?

Dan, we run out of ethereal non-sports topics, I think.

All right.

Well, in that case,

there's nothing else to talk about.

Yeah, f to the NFC title game.

Listen, you can make the case that

the Eagles were not very impressive to this point in the playoffs, that perhaps the schedule broke the right way, perhaps they caught certain opponents on the right day or other opponents that might have given them more trouble or sent them on an airplane somewhere, got wiped away from existence.

But then Sunday happened, and I really can't say anything because the Philadelphia Eagles

decimate the Washington Commanders.

They drop a 50-burger on the Commanders, and as I said at the top of the show, the best Eagles performance all season.

And when

you win 55 to 23 in the NFC Championship game,

I must give you your flowers.

So, congratulations to Nick Siriani

and Jalen Hurts

and, of course, Aquan Barkley,

and that entire tremendous defense

and the coaching staff.

Vic Ragio.

I am impressed.

Were you impressed, Jordan?

I have loved the Eagles all year, Dan, so I will be happy to give them their flowers that they deserve.

And like Eagles fans, you are probably too drunk to be listening to this right now, or at least not coherently.

Maybe you're listening to it backwards, or maybe you've popped an Oedible and have Pink Floyd playing in the background.

Whatever floats your boat, man, 55 points.

That is so awesome.

I knew that this was going to be something special.

The second I saw Jeff freaking Stoutland on the broadcast in the tunnel before the game began, as players are running out, hold Saquon Barkley's helmet close to his face and said something to him.

Whatever magical whispers Jeff Stoutland, who is just like the wizard of offensive line coaching, can say.

And that microcosmically is what I love about the Eagles.

They are such a range of humanity, of personalities.

Their head coach can kind of be a weird asshole sometimes and other times he really galvanizes like his entire you know coaching staff and his players big dom is floating around on the sidelines checking on saquon barkley as he's got the theragon on his calf or he's on the bike um all of these different coaches that reach people in different ways all of these players that are such a range of talent and a range of personalities and it's just this like beautiful melting pot of badass run through your mouth we're just going to dominate you and wave over you and just suffocate you this young joyous upstart beautiful team in the commanders that are far ahead of schedule rant over eagles good job stoked for you i like how you put that because the image that was kind of

well you sorry we're gonna we're gonna have to go down this road dan they are they they were

dominant performance and everyone that you mentioned dan

like played their best game.

Like A.J.

Brown had been kind of a ghost.

Like we were talking about Jalen Hurts not actually looking like a quarterback in terms of like the passing attack other than Saquon.

They all showed up.

And then there's the image of like Landon Dickerson, who is in clear physical pain, this mammoth human walking up and down the sideline.

They're probably saying like, get out, you get out of this.

He's like, I'm not staying out.

He did come out for a little bit, but it was like he was, I thought, like a symbol of what this Eagles team is.

And if you want to say why they're different than a couple years ago, like Zach Bond, like Cooper DeGene, these guys just made incredible plays.

It was almost like it's one of those games where where like 67 to 80% of your roster showed up and did something impactful, which that just doesn't happen to teams.

And it does start with Vic Fangio.

I thought that what his game plan for this was pretty spectacular for a quarterback that fried him last time they showed up against each other.

My come to Jesus moment with this team, it happened all at once.

Like I just kept, it was like, like, I just kept watching the toss crack touchdown to Saquon Barkley over and over and over and over again.

And I'm looking at all these guys, like A.J.

Brown, like setting a pick on the play and the way that they motioned Devonta Smith to clear it all out.

And then I started looking at the similarities between the Super Bowl team in 2022 and this one in 2024.

Both of these teams finished first in rushing EPA.

So they were the best rushing team in the NFL.

The difference between these two teams is that back in 2022, AJ Brown and Devonta Smith had 145 and 139 targets, respectively.

This year, 97 and 89, but they've improved in almost all offensive categories.

They hold the ball for longer.

They have the same points per drive, but they have a slightly better yards per play.

So they've taken all the risk out of this offense and squeezed all the shittiness that can possibly happen out of it, and then just beat the crap out of you.

And I hated it for so long until today.

And then I was like, oh, shit, I get it.

Like, it makes total sense to me now.

And I was, I was crying and screaming, and it was great.

I got, I almost got kicked out.

It was amazing.

Wait, what do you mean?

No,

I made that point.

Oh, oh, from the press box.

That would have been amazing.

I was trying to describe a very deeply religious experience.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I got you.

You know what?

I think partly in what you're saying, or what I'm taking out of that, Connor, is that the Eagles are so well constructed.

And shout out to Howie that there's almost been a frustration watching them because you know you've seen them like attack through the air with great ferocity.

You know, obviously, they have a running back who's having one of the greatest seasons of all time, an elite offensive line in front of him.

You know, they have so much talent on defense.

And yet, you know, there have been not too many games that I remember where you kind of was all put together and you saw it all humming at the same time.

And when everything is humming at the same time, it's like you would be, you would be foolish not to think that the Eagles have a chance,

don't have a chance next in two weeks from tonight against the Chiefs because when this team is playing at its top gear, I don't really know how you stop them.

And I thought you knew Barkley, even in what seemed a somewhat compromised state, the offensive line dealing with injuries, the fact that Barkley was still able to turn 15 touches in this game, 16 with one catch, into 118 rushing yards, three touchdowns, three of what, seven rushing scores for the Eagles, which is an historic number in the playoffs.

It's just a remarkable performance, and what had been missing throughout the playoffs was any semblance, as we know, of a passing game.

So when Jalen Hurts not only comes into this game, you're wondering if he's going to be okay.

He takes off the knee brace after the first drive, and he plays...

I thought a really, really solid game, 20 of 28.

Almost all those completions were smart incompletions, where smart incompletions where he's flushed out by a pass rush and just sailed it out of bounds and Nick Siriani who I will I will say you know I always look because Siriani people are oh damn why what do you have against the Eagles so much of it was Siriani really rubbed me the wrong way with some of his antics through the years he has I don't know if anyone's noticed it it might be Dom might have threatened his life to be honest with you I I wonder big Dom

you he's very much toned down right now Siriani he's he's definitely in the background more than I feel like we've seen in the past and that's that's working well for this team here is Siriani

sans any extra bravado just talking about again what he's been talking about for so long that he's got a quarterback who wins football games and he loves them you know winning a quarterback is more important than any stat that you go through um

and i'm sure you know it'll be the same thing like oh he's got great players around him well you tell me a quarterback that's one like this that that has shit around him like it don't happen right uh You talk about Joe Montana, like, who is he throwing to?

Oh, Jerry Rice, but he wins.

He's a winner.

I don't want anyone else leading us other than Jalen Hurts.

And I'm proud of the way he went out there and battled today and played today.

And he don't care about anything other than winning.

I know that.

And that's selfless.

So.

Exactly to Siriani's point, let's talk about the A.J.

Brown touchdown because this is exactly what this is a full team thing, right?

This is viewed as like the, you know, it was a nice play.

You have A.J.

Brown in single coverage, but what they didn't show in the broadcast is Dallas Goddard is lined up inside A.J.

Brown, and A.J.

Brown sees, he's like, I got a guy on me, but you have a guy.

Get over.

And he just kept waving him.

He's like, get over to the other side of the line.

Get over to the other side of the line.

He just kept pushing him over.

And then finally, Goddard goes to the other side of the line.

Jeremy Chin follows him.

It clogs up the entire defensive backfield.

Hurts snaps the ball.

Devonta Smith runs right at the only other defensive player who can even come in the way of A.J.

Brown having single coverage.

And then all of a sudden, it's just one of the great receivers in the NFL singled up against a guy that's smaller, weaker, and slower than he is.

And this is exactly what Nick Siriani is talking about.

Hurts knows enough to get them the ball, but this offense is functioning at like a brainwave level that is just, it's incredible.

I was just blown away by it.

And you've got to find a way to take all those guys out.

And what's different than you can.

And I think when you're getting, like, Saquon Barkley, the way that he's playing right now, it's like you're just expecting him to kind of break your

defenses back and tire you out early and kind of break your spirit.

Like, he's been that kind of a player.

And I mean, to the human thing, again, like after he scored the first time and he was just trouncing down the Eagles sideline like a like a kid, it's like there is some,

I understand in general the Eagles and the Philadelphia sports worlds kind of got like, they can annoy people, but this is not an an annoying group of players.

Like that, that's all I'd say.

I think of anything to your Siriani thing,

he's a good delegator because he's allowed both of these coordinators to shine.

I mean, I think I saw Kellen Moore's face eight times on this broadcast.

They're cutting up to Vic Fanjio about seven.

Big Dom three or four times.

Sirigani was shown like twice.

It wasn't really the way you'd treat normally a head coach.

So maybe you're right.

He's in the background, but it's because they're getting awesome work from the rest of their coaching staff too.

And I thought today was like a masterclass in that.

It was super typical, too, when they would come up to Vic Penjio.

I pointed this out in a group chat as well.

He has like the worst mechanical pen.

Like, nobody wants that mechanical pencil that he uses.

Like, nobody, nobody buys that mechanical pencil.

If they're like, wow, why is an order of 6,000 of these little yellow, like twisty point mechanical pencils with the overly pink, plasticky, rubbery eraser that you have to like twist and then the lead disappears?

And who uses mechanical pencils anymore anyway um like erasable pens erasable pens are a thing people but it's like oh where are the why are these 6,000 pencils going to freaking Philadelphia of all plate well Vic Fangio has cornered the market with all of his little binders of other teams tendencies that he will use against you I thought one of the biggest stories of this game obviously was this defense.

They were able to rush four with such effectiveness and frequency that, well, that's a good point.

Engineers are very important to our society, and thank you for your work.

But also,

engineers would not use this specific mechanical pencil because it is fundamentally unsound in construction anyway.

Unlike the Eagles' defense, which was rushing four at...

for most of the game to the point where Vic Fangio did not have to leave his preferred sub-package, which is having Cooper Dejean, Dejean Parmesan in the star or their slot, their nickel position, to where they could keep their plus A or A plus plan on the field for most of the game.

And I think that in itself dictated the way that Jaden Daniels and the commanders had to play.

And this defense just swarmed to the ball.

21 points off of Washington turnovers.

Washington had not turned the ball over once in the playoffs to this point.

21 of those 55 points, including some that really swung the game, were off of turnovers by the commanders.

Yeah, I thought right off the bat, the huge one that Cooper DeGene forced on the reception over the middle kind of set the tone and put Washington on its heels.

And it felt like it knocked out a little bit of their swagger.

And I'll give the commanders credit because there were multiple points in this game, including obviously at the end of the first quarter, it's 14-3, where Washington claws its way back into the game.

But every time they seemed to be right about to break through, there was another killer.

They lost three fumbles in this game, and Austin Eckler had it.

Not only did Austin Eckler have a huge lost fumble in this game, he got Tom Brady on the telecast like doubling down.

Like, hey, everybody know he also has little hands?

Yeah, that felt like

didn't need it.

That's all I remember about him now.

Yeah, Austin Eckler has tiny hands now.

Now I can't stop thinking about it.

Seemed like it was piling on.

But yeah, like Washington, if they play their A game like we've seen earlier in the playoffs, this probably would have been, I thought, a very close game, but they didn't.

And you had to be perfect to beat this version of the Eagles.

And if you were far less than perfect, you can get boat raced.

And that's exactly what happened.

The only counter I'd have to that, and like the Jerry McNichols kick return fumble, there were these turning point moments where it was like this mistake.

They were big turning

there going to be a race, but because Jaden Daniels was not the fault here and he had to deal with a lot of pressure and he's missing his off a couple offensive linemen and it showed.

But I thought what Fanjio was trying to do, and they made the point on the telecast, which was a good one, like

we're not going to get beat by another Hail Mary late or one of these.

They took the big playaway for the most part down the field in terms of what they've been able to do with certain players in certain games.

And like

the Commanders had five turnovers, I think it was, the last time they played the Eagles.

So it's like they do understand how to work with this offense and this quarterback and create problems.

Let's hear from Jaden Daniels after the game.

An incredible rookie season for Jaden Daniels falls just short of the Super Bowl.

Obviously, man, it sucks, man.

It just sucks.

Excuse my language.

But just, I couldn't be prouder of the guys in the locker room.

You know, just

year one, everybody not really knowing each other.

Rookies, the vets did a tremendous job of, you know, bringing us in and helping us out.

And we all just meshed.

And, you know, we got to this point.

But at the end of the day, man, you know, we lost.

It sucks.

um

but we'll move on from this

did he say at the beginning it sucks excuse my language oh my god i love yeah he's a sweet boy oh

i feel like sucks you don't have to sucks you don't have to apologize jaden it's all right

it was more than that though wait justin justin has the final word is sucks something you have to apologize for yes mr producer irrelevant question he said this sucks right oh i missed that oh a little potty mouth well what a great, what a great, I loved how he was.

He was raised in the gutter, apparently.

He had so much fun through the course of this entire game, even when this game was so lopsided and they scored, you know, in the second quarter.

And he, I think it was the second quarter, it might have been the third quarter.

And he was just having a blast with his teammates.

He gives you a chance, even when this game was so far gone, you just couldn't help but think to yourself how far ahead the commanders are in their team building schedule because they found Jaden Daniels.

And I just, I I can't speak highly enough of the season he put together.

We all have throughout various points of the season.

I know we all are such huge fans of him here.

And it just is, it's just cool.

It's just cool to watch him go into that environment, like two just deadly environments to play football in for the visiting teams this weekend and just stay so poised.

He had a couple of throws early on where you could see that maybe he was a little rattled, but then there was like that seam shot to Diami Brown later in the game where it was like, you could not not put a better touch on that pass.

And it just, it just shows you he's just, he's the future, man.

It's awesome.

Yeah.

And there was their, I almost wanted, I think the touchdown they scored, they might have been down three scores and he scrambles it in and he goes into this extended dance.

And they're down two scores in the MC title game.

And like there was like the boomer heart.

part of me that was like, why is he dancing right now?

They're losing.

And like I had my Phil Mushnik column ready to write.

But ultimately I was like, nah, like let this kid like shine and enjoy like this special moment because how often can you not only have a rookie quarterback in the NFC title game, the team loses and makes a ton of mistakes, but it's not the quarterback that's a rookie that was making the mistakes.

So there's a frustration.

I think Commanders fans on balance.

You're in a really good place organizationally right now.

I mean, it keeps getting better.

There's a huge feature piece, I think, from Wickersham on ESBN across the weekend.

Like, Dan Snyder, super mad that the Commanders are good now.

It's like, I don't even need to click into that story.

That's, I get everything I need right there.

Like, the future is bright, but I guess the one frustration I would say, Conman, is when you, uh,

when you have this special year going to see the mistakes that they made, uh, it's a frustrating way to lose, but maybe it wasn't their day regardless.

The Eagles just, you know, they

stepped up in a huge way, Philly.

I don't know, man.

So, like, I'm sitting there, and then they do the towel wave, and they're playing, you know, gonna fly now.

And then all of a sudden, commanders get the eagles defer the commanders get the ball and they took the air out of that place and i loved the opening script from this like cliff kingsbury

yes oh my god yeah yeah cowboys could start interviewing him tomorrow by the way but they decided not to um and uh he just he did almost the i remember talking to dante scarnecki about this when they were playing aaron donnell in the super bowl it's the exact same thing they did to jalen carter they did a lot of lateral stuff to frustrate him and they did no huddle stuff to frustrate him because if you're Jalen Carter, you keep getting out of your stance and you're rushing the passer, but it means nothing because you can't do anything.

So they just keep messing with them over and over and over again.

Every third and five, they have an answer where Cliff gives them, here's Zach Ertz on a linebacker.

Go ahead.

You know, you're going to have three or four steps on the guy.

And they drive right down.

Now, I don't have a problem necessarily with Dan Quinn finally stopping, going for it, because you had two fourth downs, you had a couple third and middles.

You know, at some point, your luck's going to run out, take your points.

But this was a very confident Eagles fan base at the end of this game that was, you know, pooping their trousers here at the beginning of this game.

I love that.

Connor, okay, so I was pretty hard on Cliff Kingsbury at the beginning of the year because there's been a lot of just like sideways

accolades, I think, that before this year for him.

And we see this a lot with particularly like the young hot shot coordinators or head coaches that come up.

But no game really established Cliff Kingsbury being the next level of whoever he is supposed to be as a coach and probably a person because all of these guys coach as they are in life.

And I want to take a second, if you guys don't mind, because a few years ago, I was talking to a really bright young rising offensive coach at the summit where a bunch of coaches were coming together and talking about ideas and sort of incubating offense, defense, those types of things.

And everybody was talking about Vic Fangio and how it had stopped, you know, McVay because Belichick had borrowed it and Flores had borrowed elements of it and run it in a Super Bowl and stopped like the high-flying Rams team of that era, of that earlier in the 17 and 18 teams.

And it was this phrase that this coach said to me, and I'll never forget it in my life: to win against that defense, you have to call an egoless game.

You have to be okay with winning a game by dying a death from 1,000 paper cuts.

And that is exactly how Cliff Kingsbury and Jaden Daniels and this Commander's offense opened their script.

This is the planned call sequence, not the reactive sequence that happens later in the game.

This is the planned sequence.

This is the sequence that you sit down and you think, what do I want to show the world about what my team is and who I am right now and how I'm going to attack with my A-plus plan before any type of scoring or lopsided things happen that didn't shift your play calls and put you into your B C D E F plans all the the way to Z.

This was that plan.

This was pick and poke.

And what was it?

18 plays.

And I hated that they didn't go for it at the end.

I pleasantly disagree with you, Connor, because I think they had them.

I think that they were so gassed and so tired by the end of that after converting the two fourth downs and not changing who they are and being okay with picking up the tidbits and the little plays and just stretching things wide in little increments and then pushing the ball in little increments horizontally and really just dying every five plays by a thousand paper cuts.

And I think that that showed who Cliff Kingsbury is now and who he's willing to be for the betterment of the team versus let's spread the entire width of the field, go into empty and throw the ball downfield to the right side only.

Like this is awesome.

That was awesome to see.

I loved that for the Commanders and I love that for Jaden Daniels and for Cliff Kingsbury.

And there's something so dispiriting, right?

That you take, you go 18 plays, you settle for three, you make the kick.

Your kicker had a great game, by the way, Zayn Gonzalez.

Shout out.

And then the Eagles take the field, they pitch it to Saquon, and he's gone.

And it's like, you like there, and I think they made it seconds.

Yeah, and to have a big play offense that it's your running game that

makes up the big play offense, so unusual and one of one.

And that's because of Saquon Barkley.

So let's listen to Barkley on the field with Aaron Andrews after he wins a conference championship for the first time.

Giants fans dying.

You told me this season hasn't felt real.

How does this feel, Saquon?

I ain't gonna lie.

I try to downplay it in my head, but it's amazing, man.

It's amazing.

We're here.

Super Bowl.

But the goal wasn't just getting there.

The goals to win.

And we're going to celebrate and droid this and get right back to work.

Mark, final word on this one.

We're going to see the Commanders again.

And so that's why I feel like they're correctly slotted in all of this.

Like the better team won.

And I think that for the future of Jaden Daniels, and I hope he's with Dan Quinn and etc.

for a long time.

You know, I thought Zach Ertz said it best.

He's like, I wish I were 22.

I want to spend the next years with this guy.

And like, they're going to be from the owner on down, they're going to be like a magnet for free agents.

It's going to be a destination.

That has not been true since I was like in.

10th grade or something.

So that no team has changed as much over the course of one season.

The Eagles are just becoming a higher derivation of what they are and more powerful.

and that's interesting too.

But this division has changed because of what we saw this season from Jaden Daniels and friends.

Hey,

Pivot, are you playing on underdog yet?

There's so many ways to get in on the action, whether it's high or lower pickamentaries, daily drafts, or season-long tournaments.

Jordan, pay attention to this.

You know, you might, you never know when the bug grabs you.

You know, it's all around you.

Here we go.

And it's not just the NFL.

The NBA is back.

You got the NHL.

Who's your NHL team, Jordan?

Do the coyotes still play hockey?

No,

I think they got got.

I think the Phoenix Coyotes got got.

Anyway,

college sports, so many options.

So don't miss out.

Let us know in the comments if the Phoenix Coyote still exists.

Just scan the QR code on your screen.

I think they became the Winnipeg Jets.

And download and play on the Underdog app.

Yeah, the Winnipeg Jets went away, but I think they're back.

Oh, okay.

Or if you're not watching on YouTube, sign up with the code.

I have no idea.

I don't know anything about hockey.

With the code HTC, and you could receive up to $1,000 in bonus cash when you deposit.

Make the most of your sports fandom by playing along on underdog for our U.S.

audience only.

Yeah,

it is the worst, worst case scenario for Giants fans because now this is now going all the way.

This Barkley thing, I mean, Eagles fans think I'm like salty about the Eagles.

Whatever.

Like, good job.

They did it.

And now they're in the Super Bowl and I think they can win it.

Giants fans dying.

and this Barkley becoming one of the greatest players who has ever lived for the Eagles is one of the all-time

like shots in the nuts, like a real junk destroyer.

I think I threatened to fight Connor in our chat group over

something Saquon related today.

Oh, is that why you said it?

Because I was running down to the locker room at that point, and then I saw you say that I was, I just thought,

I'll say it.

I saw

Will Shipley scored a touchdown at the end of this game.

Stay on the goddamn sidelines and let Will Shipley do a Will Shipley thing.

You've had enough time in the end zone this year.

You can't speak on it much, Nick.

I'm just saying, like,

at what other point?

Will Shipley, by the way.

Will Shipley is an amazing person.

The commanders had that fake punt.

He snuffed it out and he was waving and he ran back to try to cut it off during the game.

I love Will.

He's my new favorite player, Will Shipley.

But he's

like, Frank Lubu.

Oh, Frankie Lubu is my favorite player.

I love that.

That was crazy.

Will Shipley scores.

Just leave him alone.

Let him do whatever he wants, and then it'll be back to you.

It'll be back to him.

Let a teammate celebrate with another teammate.

It's about hurting Shipley.

Where is it hurting?

Saquon Barkley's gotten to do this 150 times.

This is the one time Will Shipley in his life, and I, okay, yes, he was celebrating with him.

Not really, like, grabbed him, and he's like, oh, you know, let Will Shipley enjoy himself.

This is like, this is Will Shipley's moment.

Maybe he liked Clipper.

Oh, Connor just says crazy stuff.

Maybe, maybe some of us only get to get in at the end of games in high school and just want our own moments.

Okay.

Like maybe we've

touched it, Jordan.

We got there.

I was digging, Connor.

I had my little shovel and I was digging it and I was digging and I was trying to get to it.

The vein is out.

I love it.

I got it.

We are not inside the town and country, Mark Sessler.

We are outside the town and country 2016, and we are in some other car.

The transition's shot, there's a rusted hole in the passenger side where the feet go, and there is just venom shooting out of the muffler.

That is one of the most Connor arguments I've ever listened to, and I enjoy it, just to let you know.

I don't agree, but I do enjoy it.

All right, let's check in in Philadelphia, where, as Connor made an allusion, Broad Street was predictably very

active, active on Broadstreet.

Let's check this out if you're watching on YouTube.

Man, climbing the pole, reading his copy of Inner Excellence.

Idiots.

You know, that book.

I mean, can you even imagine?

This dude that Connor talked to the night this all went down.

Here we are now.

There you got two weeks of hype around Inner Excellence.

This guy's probably going to be at Radio Row.

And then if they win the Super Bowl, think about it.

That becomes part of Philly lore, like the Philly special.

And that guy, that book will sell more copies than the Bible.

Like that thing will last forever.

So those are the stakes for that.

What is the man's name again, Connor?

What's that?

The author's name again.

You threw me away.

You threw me off with the

Bible thing.

Connor's still in a dark place right now.

You're going to need to give him a minute.

Jim Murphy.

He's like, what is the Bible?

This is the other counter

i do not recognize the bible by the way a little info on that do you know how like they sold like a hundred and twelve thousand copies that's what i'm saying can you imagine connor what happens slightly less than the bible but yes connor if they go all the way that book becomes iconic in philly lorada level that you know

The guy's going to be a millionaire off it if he's not already.

I'm pretty sure he's doing all right.

Yeah.

All right.

Well, then they'll ask for a sequel, obviously.

So there's more to come.

One just came out.

It literally just like it came out as this was happening, which is wild.

Capitalism.

How about, oh, God, I'm tired.

Yes, you already.

I just want to say that in this lighting, all of you epitomize outer excellence as well.

Just wanted to say that.

Someone in the comments said I look like powder with eyebrows.

I mean, yeah, at least you got the eyebrows.

That's a deep pull.

That's definitely a millennial/slash Gen X reference, the 1996 drama Powder.

Here is, you want to hear Sad Josh Allen?

I was just going to say that was Tom Brady during Will Shipley's long run where he got caught from behind before he scored.

That was him voicing Will Shipley's thoughts.

Oh, God, I'm tired.

Thank you, Justin.

Great call by Tom.

Another excellent insight from Tom Brady.

Yeah, I didn't think he had a very good player.

Josh Allen

depressed after another playoff loss.

It's not fun.

But to beat the champs,

to beat the champs, you gotta beat the champs, and we didn't do it tonight.

He dropped a Ric Flair line.

Yeah, that's a tough one.

That's a tough beat.

He's gonna live with that.

Back to the Eagles.

with the game, with the game out of reach, I got a call,

a video call, a FaceTime call from Supi, Dan Campbell, from the band The Wonder Years.

He's in Scotland touring right now, and just a whole room of people in Eagles garb staring at me

and laughing at me.

And then

I can't.

And then Con and then

Dan then sent me this from their show in Scotland.

I don't know what he said, but do you anybody pick up on that?

Uh-uh.

I should ask what he said there.

Anyway,

go birds.

That sounded like go birds, maybe.

Should have been also something negative directed at you, Dan.

Right, was that a slight at you, do you think?

It could have been.

Yeah, let me see.

Let me.

What time is it in Scotland?

It's probably pretty late.

Probably like four o'clock in the morning.

Yeah.

Yeah.

All right.

If he responds, it'll be a rock star thing.

And if I wake him up, that's fine, too.

Here we go.

What did the crowd

and you say there okay oh no I sent that to Justin by accident hang on stand by

I don't know

live baby what else have we got Justin we got anything else in the uh in the files before we say goodbye yeah we got Travis Kelsey on the podium this was pretty good Taylor Swift watching on

what do you mean she's she's with him at the podium?

Well, she's like in the crowd on the front row, just like cheering her man, you know, like a great supportive girlfriend should do.

Right.

Yeah, okay.

Never satisfied, baby, when you play in front of Arrowhead Stadium like this every single AFC championship.

You kidding me?

Kansas City!

Hey, before you guys get out of here, just do a little dance,

make a little love.

Yeah,

get down tonight.

Thank you, Travis Patrick.

Oh, God.

Fing ass.

At least he finally put the Beastie Boy song to bed.

I could not hear him struggle to hit that high note one more time.

So now they're doing the what is that?

Make a little.

That's some septy song.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Connor, that's your ballywick, that era of music.

Who is that?

Make a little

get down tonight.

Is it comedy?

Cool and the gang?

Casey and the Sunshine Band.

They're

Get down tonight.

Why do I associate that song with the movie Stuart Little?

Isn't he in that movie?

It's got to be.

I don't know.

Justin is high as a kite.

He is in another world right now.

That's the last time you watched Stuart Little, Justin.

Very young.

Like, I don't know, four.

And by the way, the worst segment we did all year, and I underline it over and over again, that I do not care about it.

And yet, our producer seems at the top of every rundown,

he must put, oh, here's the latest graphic.

Justin, now that I had the Bills and the Commanders, although I thought I dropped the Commanders for the 49ers, so this never made sense to me.

You did, but then you re-picked up the Commanders on the following Sunday showers.

Oh, wow.

And that's when Connor

was dropping out for.

Anyway, nobody really cares, but Justin, congratulations for picking the Chiefs and Eagles to go to the Super Bowl.

Who would have thunk that could have happened?

Not Connor.

The worst part was

how big of a dick I was about the whole thing.

I was like incredulous at the idea of this team making the Super Bowl, but whatever.

You know what the good news is, Mark?

Here's the good news.

Now that because Justin picked both of those, I can't imagine he'll find another way to keep bringing the graphic back now.

Like, what's the payoff once he already has both the teams in it?

Oh, he'll find a way.

We also get, I mean, over the course of a weekend or a week, we are reminded by

on text,

17 or 18 times at this contest that I have completely forgotten about.

Yes, A.J.

Jones, Dan is annoyed, LOL.

Yes, and I've been open about it that Justin continuously throws a segment in our face, like four times a week in pre-production meetings, in live settings on the show.

Can we give you your flowers and can we just finally move away from it?

You've won.

You've won.

I actually have Nick Siriani talking about me.

He's a winner.

He wins.

Pretty great.

I like how I was trying to figure out how to get into the

little room that we have.

I did not know how.

And

I was asking repeated questions in our group chat, but it was sporadically interspersed with Justin doing his victory lap.

That was fun.

That was really good.

Not surprising.

I had to update the graphic before we could start the show, obviously.

Also, shout out to AJ Jones because AJ listen is an avid listener I've learned.

And

thank you guys for a really great postseason.

This is going to be so much fun over the next couple of weeks.

And this has been like one big, scary confidence

builder or trying to over the course of the last like 20 or so weeks.

And I know that like I fail a lot, but you guys are awesome with me.

And AJ has always reached out and like boosted the confidence.

So thank you, AJ, for doing that.

I appreciate it.

And Eagles fan also.

So suck it, Dan.

Unbelievable.

What a moment for everyone.

The Eagles have won.

The Eagles are going to the Super Bowl.

And so are the Chiefs.

And that will be our next game that we cover for Heed the Call two weeks from tonight.

Can you believe it?

And again, one last thing.

We will be in New Orleans the Thursday before the Super Bowl.

Mark, you know what?

Mark, you do the plug.

You're doing it too.

Take it away, baby.

I think

the demand for this, from what I'm hearing through back channels, is intense.

So you need to pursue these now.

And if you've never been to one of these shows, it's often been in London and stuff.

Those are great.

But this will be a different type of vibe.

It's your fault if you are in the area and decide to do anything else.

There's nothing else to do in New Orleans.

We get that.

There's nothing else to do.

Greg feelings.

He's going to be drunk and shirtless.

I can promise you guys that.

Well, I am working for my employer, so we'll see about that.

So, yeah, make sure you join us February 6th.

Get the tickets in the description of this YouTube video and check our socials.

You can also get it there.

Limited tickets for the two shows that night, Thursday, February 6th.

Everybody in the live chat, go ahead on the YouTube and just leave a quick comment for the algo.

And make sure you hit the subscribe.

If you haven't subscribed already,

we're inching towards 20,000 on the subs as we go towards our goal of hashtag 48.4.

Those who know, know.

All right.

Jordan, you're the best.

Thank you for coming in and

doing it on Sunday, what you've been doing all year on Thursday.

We love you.

I had a blast, guys.

Love you guys back.

Thank you.

Beat the call, Bills, please.

Yeah.

And Connor, safe journey.

You didn't take the town and country, I imagine, right?

God, no.

No, we keep that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's not the bang-up car, you know.

No, no.

Has it with him always?

All right, Super Bowl 59, two weeks from tonight.

We'll see who can heed the call.

Popsicles, sprinklers, a cool breeze.

Talk about refreshing.

You know what else is refreshing this summer?

A brand new phone with Verizon.

Yep, get a new phone on any plan with Select Phone Trade In MyPlan.

And lock down a low price for three years on any plan with MyPlan.

This is a deal for everyone, whether you're a new or existing customer.

Swing by Verizon today for our best phone deals.

Three-year price guarantee applies to then-current base monthly rate only.

Additional terms and conditions apply for all offers.

Listen.

That's the sound of the fully electric Audi Q6 e-tron.

The sound of captivating electric performance,

dynamic drive, and the quiet confidence of ultra-smooth handling.

The elevated interior reminds you this is more than an EV.

This is electric performance, redefined.

The fully electric Audi Q6 e-tron.

You're juggling a lot.

Full-time job, side hustle, maybe a family.

And now you're thinking about grad school?

That's not crazy.

That's ambitious.

At American Public University, we respect the hustle and we're built for it.

Our flexible online master's programs are made for real life because big dreams deserve a real path.

Learn more about APU's 40-plus career-relevant master's degrees and certificates at apu.apus.edu.

APU, built for the hustle.