NFL Week 17 Recap!!

Charlie Sheen is an icon of decadence.

I lit the fuse and my life turns into everything it wasn't supposed to be.

He's going the distance.

He was the highest paid TV star of all time.

When it started to change, it was quick.

He kept saying, No, no, no, I'm in the hospital now, but next week I'll be ready for the show.

Now, Charlie's sober.

He's gonna tell you the truth.

How do I present this with any class?

I think we're past that, Charlie.

We're past that, yeah.

Somebody call action.

Yeah, aka Charlie Sheen, only on Netflix, September 10th.

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The Heed the Call Podcast

has a belly full of 40 burgers.

Save room for dessert, thick boys.

Now, come on.

Two weeks in a row.

Welcome to Heed the Call,

the flagship program, week 17.

And what a week it was.

Dan Hans is here with Mark Sessler, Connor Orr, Justin Graver on the ones and twos.

And I think, you know, a weird structuring to the week.

I feel like two to three games were played every day for the past three or four days.

And I think that's because that's exactly what happened.

But also, Mark, I know you like this.

When we get to the part of the season now, as we're in the penultimate week of the regular season, where you see it's fun to kind of watch bad teams disintegrate mentally,

which leads to a host of, said 40 burgers.

And conversely, the teams that have something to play for, unless you're the Indianapolis Colts which is an annual rite of passage now rise up leading to some grisly blowouts in week 17.

Well this was I mean and I and so we see we see versions of we see versions of this every year but um I thought today and I think Justin our producer pointed it out to us like this was

a little bit of an offshoot, a little bit of an outlier in terms of like absolute wipeouts occurring.

Like I don't remember as small of an early window because it's like a baseball schedule this week where it was like we're kind of scattering games like Monday through Sunday, but like a small helping of games that were so

they were slaughter fests.

And I will say because it was original and weird and gruesome that I did enjoy it.

I enjoyed it.

Yeah.

You love it.

I enjoy it.

Connor, there's something so human about it.

Just like this thing, oh, look, like you gave up.

Like you, you, you quit.

The human spirit has

been extinguished, and yet the world keeps moving on, but left in its wake are just the bones of the people who couldn't keep up with the herd.

What a metaphor for just everyday life for everybody, you know?

So true.

And here we are.

Thick boys, perhaps.

The holidays have been tough.

Getting thicker.

And yet, getting thicker.

And yet,

we soldier on with our 17 consecutive flagship program.

Let's get into it.

Starting with the game of the day.

It was an easy one to figure out this week.

the showdown in the NFC North.

Let's go.

Imagine having a head coach and play caller as young and talented as Kevin O'Connell.

Now imagine having a defensive coordinator as clever and motivated as Brian Flores.

Now imagine having a quarterback as revitalized and confident as Sam Darnold.

Now imagine having the greatest wide receiver in the world and one of the best home field advantages and the feeling that every one score game will go your way.

Nine out of ten have.

And now imagine this.

The Minnesota Vikings, a legitimate Super Bowl contender in every way, are one victory away next week in Detroit from the top seed.

in the conference.

It's all in front of Minnesota after a 27-25 win over the Packers.

This team is so much more, Connor Orr, than just a feel-good story.

I'll start with Brian Flores, who went from, I think, one of the least frequent man coverage defensive coordinators in the league to playing almost all straight man against Jordan Love and just being like, figure it out, buddy.

And, you know, choking out the run because that's obviously, you know, what the game plan was with Matt LaFlore.

I think it was something like 12 Josh Jacobs carries to like six Jordan Love completions.

It was like a two-to-one ratio early in that game.

And, you know, had the horses to do it, played really physical, and dared love to beat him with his arm, and he couldn't do it.

I mean, we knew coming in that the Vikings

were sort of a pass-funnel defense where they are going to shut down your running game and force you to win in different ways.

And that kind of felt like not the worst setup for the Packers based on their bevy of wide receivers.

And, you know, but Josh Jacobs has been a huge identity person for them.

And they just took Green Bay out of this.

This was a huge statement game for me with what Minnesota's coaching staff does each week.

And we really didn't know about Kevin O'Connell that well three years ago.

And it's like, here we are.

And it's like, this is, Dan, we went on Sky Sports this morning and we talked about Coach of the Year candidates.

And I think the most convincing new face is obviously Kevin O'Connell.

And to go in to deal with your own division the way they have and to do this today,

heading into the playoffs, because you're going to have to go, if you're Sam Darnold, you're probably going to have to go play Green Bay and Detroit again at some point

if this journey continues on.

And what a convincing win.

Yeah.

And,

you know, we talked about it on Sky.

I made a case for Andy Reid, who's somehow yet to win Coach of the Year with the Chiefs.

But I also said, you know, I'd be perfectly fine for the people that vote for Coach of the Year.

Whoever wins the NFC North, give it to that guy.

And we're heading toward one of the great regular season showdowns in recent memory.

Sam Darnold, my guy, and KOC's ace pupil.

Sam Darnold, MVP odds.

Sam Darnold, MVP odds.

Yeah, he's not going to win MVP.

However, he is having a remarkable season, and he continued that with a career-high 377 passing yards in this game, three touchdown passes, and he wasn't perfect, perfect.

There were some throws that were a little high.

He had a couple misses.

He most notably almost missed a wide open

Akers on the little floater that clinched the game in the final possession, but he did complete the pass.

And in general, it's, I thought, again, in what's been such an incredible season, and one of the great comeback stories

since we've been doing this podcast, Mark, and really, if you go back to this century, like guys where they were in their career to where they are now, the fact that he is the starting quarterback,

and, you know, I think approaching 35, 38, 40 touchdown passes for a team that is 14-2

from where he was in the football equivalent of the gutter a couple of years ago after the Jets were through with him.

And to see where he is now, it's unbelievable.

And again, you're not going to get great quotes from Sam Darnold in terms of what Connor Orr and his SI cohorts are looking for typically, although I bet Connor could draw it out of anybody.

But what you do, what I like to get, and what I've been noticing this season, get in that locker room in Minnesota.

And that's when Justin Graver comes in and pulls the clip for us.

Here is, and this is also why you should watch the show on YouTube.

Here is the Vikings greeting Sam Darnold after he finished his media responsibilities and got to the

locker room.

Man, it's easy to think back to when he was a 21-year-old kid seeing ghosts on Monday night football against the Patriots, and now to see where he is now.

He is the first quarterback in NFL history, Sess Dog, to post 14 wins in his first season with a new team.

And I can't wait to see what he does for a finale in the regular season.

He also has 13 games this season with a QB rating of 100 plus.

And that's fine if we were a couple years ago talking about Aaron Rodgers or Phil in the Blank, Tom Brady.

But this is Sam Darnold, who looked lost for the large majority of his career.

And I was doing some research on Kevin O'Connell this weekend.

And Sam Darnold went out of his way to say that Kevin O'Connell had created during like,

you know, minicamp in the offseason these positional contests between the teams where like they between inside the team where like they had barbecue contests and that Sam Darnold, when they lost J.J.

McCarthy, already felt so wedded to the team that he felt so much a part of it because of the team building that Kevin O'Connell had done, which I think some other coaches just aren't special at that.

And it's a little bit off topic, but it's just that like the Vikings, I think, put a lot of accountability into their players.

They put it in, they are a low-drama, high-production team.

It's the right kind of team for Sam Darnold because we're not going to get the money quote from him.

He's not going to go on a rant or something like that against someone else.

He's going to produce.

And I kind of just feel like this is the perfect spot for him.

And career high today, 377 yards.

And I don't know if there's a better story in the NFL right now.

Like, it's just the best story in the NFL in terms of a quarterback showing anyone, like, you could fail, you can fail, fail, but then you're going to come back and your career is not over yet.

And it's happening right now.

Darnold currently leads the NFL in completions, passing yards, and EPA on deep passes this season.

And another part of it, Connor, with him is you could try to dismiss his season as, well, yeah, he's just throwing it up for grabs to Justin Jefferson.

No, like, actually, the one part of the season where he got in trouble in the midpoint of the season is when he was trying to force it to Justin Jefferson.

He had, I think, a three-pick game when all three targets were at Jefferson.

Even in this game, you watch this game,

Jefferson's barely involved, at least making catches in the first half.

But because of the greatness of Jefferson, he opens up so many things for Naylor and Addison, who are good players in their own right, and Hawkinson, of course.

And you see Darnold just in almost a mechanical way.

And I thought he was more locked in today than I've seen him all year and going through his progressions, standing strong in the pockets, sometimes buying a little extra time with his underrated mobility, and then just hitting guys in strides with perfect spirals.

Just, man, he's having a hell of a year.

I'm proud of you, Sam.

There's difference between like there's movement and there's functional movement.

And like the king of functional pocket movement is Joe Burrow.

But if you would look at all the quarterbacks on some sort of sliding scale this year, I would say Darnold has moved way up top.

I mean, like he always has his eyes downfield, but has that athleticism to be able to, you know, escape to buy himself time, but in a way that he's always throwing from a platform.

He looks awesome right now.

And let's talk about the Packers before we move on, because for three three and a half quarters, it was a nightmare.

I mean, it was

what happened to this balanced team that we've been hyping up going into this game where they could beat you in so many different ways.

And Brian Flores putting, and Connor with the great point, changing up his scheme, putting Jordan Love in the

offense of Green Bay in a blender.

They do figure things out

in the fourth quarter and scored back-to-back touchdowns to make it a game.

And they actually even have three timeouts with them going into the two-minute warning when they kick the ball away.

But But just to the frustration of this game for Green Bay, even then, they just didn't have answers.

They didn't have answers for Flores and the defense until it was too late.

And then when they needed to get a stop on that last possession from Minnesota, Mark, they gave up two first downs and it was game over.

I mean, isn't it a concern for the rest of the NFC?

Because we've been talking about this, but it remains true that...

The complimentary nature of this coaching staff seems like they can find an antidote for anything that they face.

And,

you know, other teams we've seen melt away coaching-wise, where like whatever they were doing on tape gets figured out.

But Brian Flores, to me, schematically finds a way week after week to diagnose the opponent.

And I just trust the growth of this Vikings team.

And the Packers were the one team I thought might be blooming into something very dangerous.

And the result today matters a lot to me.

It matters.

They're going to get their 12th win next week, Connor, as we move on after this, like against the Bears.

And 12-5 is great, and they'll be a dangerous team in the playoff.

I'm not writing off the Packers, but it should be noted that they are 0-5 against the top three teams in the NFC, Eagles, Lions, Vikings.

So there is some mounting evidence that while they're a very good team and a dangerous team, they're a step below, and I thought that's what they looked like today.

Absolutely.

Especially when they got their secondary banged up.

Kevin O'Connell saw it right away.

He started going tempo, locking them on the field with maybe some players in positions that they didn't want to be in and started taking his shots.

My only other thing here is Matt LaFleur with the funniest passive-aggressive timeout in the NFL this year.

It was my favorite moment of the season, and the camera work was fantastic because they had him just walking over to their official and going, timeout, timeout, timeout, and then screaming in his ear, I call the timeout.

Oh, it was so, it was awful.

This is at the end of the half when they, he, a double ice on the field goal kicker was sandwiched by an offsides penalty by his own team.

It all ended with a 50-yard make by the Vikings.

This also did include the Tom Brady moment

where he did the Give a Man a Fish parable.

And I'm not sure Tom Brady even knows where that came from.

I'm not convinced of that, but he slightly botched that in a way that would be problematic, I think.

I think we should probably stick a pin because I know Connor and I both had some thoughts about Brady.

Maybe we'll save that for the midweek show, but I think we've gotten enough of

a resume for this season to share some thoughts at this point.

So

let's hold on that and instead move to Philadelphia where the Cowboys didn't have CeeDee Lamb, but the Eagles didn't have Jalen Hurts.

What would happen in a game the Eagles needed for positioning?

Take it away, Gravedigger.

O.J.

Simpson, Eric Dickerson, Barry Sanders, Terrell Davis, Jamal Lewis, Chris Johnson, Adrian Peterson, Derrick Henry, and now Saquon Barkley, the NFL running backs to eclipse 2,000 yards in a single season.

Barkley hit the mark on his last snap of the game, a 23-yard run with 1049 remaining, and he left the field to a standing ovation from Eagles fans.

Barkley now needs just 101 yards next week to break Eric Dickerson's single-season rushing record.

Oh, and the Eagles clinched the NFC East and the number two seed in the NFC with a 41-7 beatdown of the Dallas Cowboys.

I don't know about you, Connor, but men of a certain age, when Justin led with O.J.

Simpson.

He knew what he was doing there.

I went chronologically.

He was the first one to do it.

I thought it was O.J.

Simpson, not a Jew, but guess who is?

Hall of Famer Rakuru.

He converted.

Yeah, this game, in all ways, other ways is

not like the most exciting game.

It doesn't really make sense as the second game we talk about.

But like we said, a lot of grizzly blowouts.

So let's instead focus on the Eagles clinching that second seed and the greatness of Saquon Barkley,

Justin.

Let's hear from Barkley because now that, as you said, they're locked in to the number two seed.

They've won the NFC East.

There's nothing else they can do.

And Saquon Barkley obviously is the focal point of their offense and the key to any chance they have to

win the Super Bowl.

So it's like, do you go for Dickerson's record or do you just not play him at all?

Let's hear what

does Saquon Barkley want to do?

The way I look at it, if it's in God's plan, then it is.

I'm not

overly trying to go get it.

I'm not scared of it.

I would love to, but at the end of the day,

also, we got bigger things that we're focusing on, and we're able to

clinch the division right here.

And

whether it's we play next week or not and rest, I'm fine with that too because I didn't come here and sign here just to

rush for 2,000 or break a record.

I'm going to do something special and meaning special with the team.

I like the idea, at least from just like...

the power of it, of saying it's God's plan, but it's actually Nick Siriani's plan or maybe it's Dom's plan.

I'm curious.

The Eagles feel like, at least with this leadership, like they're going to want to have that pelt on the wall of the all-time leading rusher.

Let's see if it happens.

What's up, Mark?

How on earth can you go into next week and not have him break this record?

First of all, you break the spirit of the New York Giants for years and years.

This is decades of bragging rights.

But what do you say to the locker room if you don't have him go for this?

Also, it's not like he needs to get 212 yards.

It is a manageable workout.

Well, it's not like he has to get 12 yards either and also like the your comment about like bragging rights and all that stuff that's more about like fans i don't think the i players i know it's it's history we just justin just mentioned the names of history like you add him to that that i think it matters a ton and like you go fearlessly into it and you get him the record that that's what if he suffers a high ankle sprain i don't know i that's the thing sure sure

Yes, like that that's all true.

But like I just say you go for it because I think the spirit of the Eagles under Siriani, for whether we, and for all the foibles and Siriani's annoyances, like you just go for it.

And like you give it, you have a chance to break an NFL record that's been there for decades and decades.

We're worried about a high ankle sprain.

That's not how the Eagles should operate.

In my opinion, go for it.

I love how it's setting up for the perfect dance situation where it's like Sirianni's either a major league dumbass for putting him out there.

Well, if he's not going to leave, he'll win either way.

He'll win either way.

just mad at him for not

either way.

He'll win either way.

In all the years, in all the years of doing this show, I have never been more confident that something about Nixirani is going to happen between now and February that will, all the chickens will come home to roost.

Look at this guy.

Look at the other one.

Have we all not had a photo taken of us in the last year where you're like, my God, why did anyone take it?

It's like, that's what it is.

No, it's not.

It's not shaming him.

What is it, Connor?

Why did we have this photo up?

You chose it.

I think it's a lot of things.

It's the posture.

Like we have, like, the I'm a little teapot hands.

And then we have, like, and then we have the eyes.

And then, like, just like the shirt says ready to roll.

And it's kind of like, like, Nick is kind of like a big toddler boy.

And it's sort of like when you put a shirt on your son when he's three that says like heartbreaker, you know, and it's like, you know, it's just like cute in its own way.

So I think that there's a lot of things to like about this.

I think if they got balls, yeah.

I got big balls.

If they ever,

if they ever go

all the way this season, which, Jesus, that's a national nightmare on par with

insert the.

Not for me.

I drafted them, baby.

Yeah.

You drafted them for what?

Our very important Super Bowl teams draft that we did as a group.

So now you're rooting for the Eagles to win the Super Bowl baby.

Like, Justin, do you walk into a payoff?

Do you walk into a Wendy's and tell the person that you're like, do you tell them that you did that?

Like, what does it get you?

I don't understand the payoff on some level.

I take them in our worst segment of the season.

No, I was saying if they do go all the way, and I wouldn't be the only one that would be horrified by the notion, by the way, Mark.

It's not just me.

Knock down the Rocky statue and put that as, you know, just turn that into iron.

And put it up in town square.

It's you and my, it's not just you, but I'm not talking to the other people that are affected by it.

I'm talking to you more than I talk to any person I know, and you are

dismayed by the concept.

I think Connor is as well, if I'm not mistaken.

I might not be even alone on this chat right now.

Or has the has the bully mob in Philadelphia, you know, forced Connor into silence on the issue?

It sounds like maybe.

He seems a little less bullish now.

Or settling scores.

I was just such a dick about them not picking them and being like, who thinks this team could possibly go to a Super Bowl?

And then they ended up turning another gear and just whipping ass like unbelievably over the back half of the season.

You know, since you say that, I do think that's something to point out from this game since we haven't really talked much about it was such a beat blowout.

But the Eagles' machine, I think, was on full display here because Kenny Pickett obviously starts this game and...

They're still rolling with Kenny Pickett.

Yeah, they go three and out on their first two drives, and they had like the Cowboys had run 19 plays before the Eagles had run any on offense because Chauncey Gardner-Johnson had picked six on the Cowboys' first drive.

But once they like got into a bit of a groove, like in the third quarter when Pickett got hurt, they were already winning 24-7.

And then Tanner McKee comes in, and it's like they don't miss a beat.

I think that that is something to just mention.

They were at home, and they beat the Dallas Cowboys team that we all agree is not good, that didn't have Dak Prescott or CeeDee Lamb.

Well, but the CeeDee Dallas team just beat Tampa, though.

And I thought they'd have been playing very hard for.

I'm just saying.

That Tampa team, that Dallas team had CeeDee Lamb for.

The one thing I'd say to Justin's point, though, like three quarterbacks now in the course of two games have shown a connection with A.J.

Brown.

Like for Tanner McKee to come in and do what he did,

and he has zero experience.

Like there is something about the whole Eagles roster that found a way today.

Like they, it kind of was a good example of just how they're built.

Howie.

Right.

I do want to talk about that Tanner McKee touchdown to A.J.

All right, what do you got on it?

A.J.

Brown caught Tanner McKee's first touchdown pass and then, in celebration for scoring, turned around and launched the ball as far as he could into the stands.

I have a video to play with Kevin Burkhart talking through what happened.

Thinking about what this touchdown is.

This ball is just my latest touchdown.

Throws it as far as he can, and Tanner McKee's going to be thinking, oh, no, I really wanted that for my office, my shelf.

And they say, dude, that was Tanner's first touchdown.

You just threw it into the seats.

He said, oh, no.

He's telling him, I'll trade you my jersey if you get the ball back from my boy.

And they got security headed up there.

Look at this guy.

Big Dom's in the middle of it all on it.

What a moment.

Big Dom.

And A.J.

Brown followed through.

He did, after the game, give that fan a signed jersey that he was going to do.

My takeaway from this is that Big Dom's not nearly as busy as people seem to think.

That's really fair.

I think that's really fair.

Good job.

I'm glad everything is all sunshine and smiles for the Eagles as they dismantle a terrible Cowboys team without any of their best players.

Let's see what happens in January.

See, I'm not afraid of the bully mob.

Or, come on, come back to the side.

Go birds.

Let's move on to Tampa.

Speaking of which, where the Bucs are trying to get off the mat after a disappointing loss, and I believe they did, Mark.

Tampa.

Carolina.

The Bucks are a feeling, a sense of power.

Baker Mayfield, a glowing orb.

Bucky Irvin, the tangible ass kicker at the center of it all.

The reincarnation of Nick Chubb.

A 42-yard catch and run, and Irvin is alive.

The entire stadium chanting his name.

He crosses 1,000 yards rushing in quarter two.

Baker Mayfield, an assassin, five touchdowns.

Liam Cohen is the kid breakdancing in front of everyone at the school dance.

Jason Light, two solid drafts in a row, has built a roster that wants to kick you in the face, emphasized by a third-quarter block punt while an innocent little duck waddles on the field.

The Bucks are a Bukowski poem being read live by Bukowski in a drunken college auditorium in East Wagon, Pennsylvania.

Co-eds in pencil skirts, the men smoking unfiltered cigarettes.

We're going to come break up your family structure with words and power.

We need this team banging someone's dreams in January.

Bucks 48, Panthers 16.

That's a butt whipping.

A butt whipping by the Bucs.

Five touchdown passes for Baker, who is,

you know, we're all sometimes right about things.

We're all sometimes wrong about things.

It was very wrong about Baker.

Didn't think he had the comeback season of the last couple of years in him.

And now he's kind of leveled up even from that.

And you look at his numbers.

I mean, Jesus Christ.

He's like, these are numbers that Steve Young was winning MVPs with in the late 90s.

Like, he's been a monster.

And again,

it's important to keep in mind the opponents in these situations at the end of seasons.

And

as great as the Bucks look this week, they didn't look so hot last week.

So eyes wide open about them in terms of what they can really do.

But yeah, absolutely.

With Baker, they're dangerous.

I just think he's such a good fit with Liam Cohen, who we obviously worked with before, but it was utter domination.

Like, I just enjoy watching that once in a while.

They had 337 yards in the first two quarters, 44 plays.

Baker was just simply unstoppable, and he's aggressive, and they can run the ball well.

And it really wasn't even a Carolina thing.

They just absolutely exacted their plan.

And I really meant what I said about Jason Light because if you go and look at who's contributing, like their center is a rookie that just has stepped right in and he's an absolute power blocker.

I mean, they've got a bunch of first and second year guys where they've quietly, post-Tom Brady, rebuilt this team.

And Baker was sort of like, well, it's a step down from Brady.

We just accept that.

He's playing much better than Brady did in that final year of Tom Brady in Tampa.

And he fits much better with a lot of these weapons.

And I really do think that they are built in a weird way where if you get them on the wrong day, they've already beaten the Lions.

They've beaten the Eagles, I believe, this season.

Like they they could go take someone out, and they just look today like a blistering, powerful force.

And their offense is one that wants to go damage and hurt you.

And it looked that way today.

They took Carolina's defense out of this so quickly.

I just enjoyed it because it's like the couple days after Christmas.

I want to see something of note with an emphasis, with an asterisk, with a gigantic punch in the face.

And that's what this was.

It was, no, but you know, I'm like a little pro-Bucks, but like that,

this was exactly what they can be.

Can they do it like weeks in a row?

I don't know, but this was sort of like the advertisement for the Buccaneers on every level.

And they got to get to the playoffs first, right?

Because the way it's set up, and we're going to, we'll get to the Falcons a little bit later, and the Falcons have the tiebreaker

on the Bucs.

So this could end in a really anticlimactic fashion if things go against them.

But like if

this version of the Bucs shows up, yeah, absolutely.

And it's not just Baker in the offense.

Their defense is

absolutely

tore Carolina's offensive line to shreds in this game.

They pressured Bryce Young on 22 of his 35 dropbacks.

So while Carolina has the worst defense in football, so while not taking it away from the Bucs, like they did, they...

They did what they had to do in week 17 against a terrible defense.

What they did against an improved offensive line in Charlotte, like in Carolina, that really showed me something too, that they're just, they're coming, they're coming together at the right time after a tough loss last week.

Well, and I think we all see it.

Like, Vita Vea,

you know, they've had, he's, he's shown up big time in big games and island games, but like, he just wrecks people.

And like, they've got like Yaya Diablo, like, they've got a lot of young players, too.

And they're missing guys.

Like, their secondary is pretty battered.

And Bryce Young threw the ball really, really well early.

Like, it looked like it was going to be a shootout.

And then they were just smothered and taken out of the game.

I want to give one shout out to Bryce Young.

This is from David Newton of ESBN.com.

So at one point, speaking of that pressured rate,

he was,

yeah, so on 65% of snaps pressure rate.

He completed five of 10 attempts for 113 yards and two touchdowns.

So again, progress from Young hanging tough, even when the pass rush is coming to kill him.

So that is, I think that is for the Panthers, Panthers.

And we have one more game for them before their season ends.

They could not worry about the QB for now and just figure out how to improve that defense because, God, they are Swiss G's.

Swiss cheese.

Anything else in this one?

No, I just that we're at the point and there's a couple teams.

There's a team in the AFC we'll talk about, and this is the team in the NFC where like

you want to add fun to the playoff, to the postseason, they better make the playoffs.

Like, I will be really annoyed if they don't.

All right, let's take a break and we'll get into the Saturday games that played.

Stay right there.

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

This is electric performance redefined.

Macro stepping up and throwing deep down the far sideline.

Cut

into the end zone.

Touchdown, Jacoby Jones.

How does that happen in the Denver secondary?

Ah, one of the great holy shit moments in the history of the old newsroom in Culver City, Mark Sessler, when Joe Flacco hit Jacoby Jones in the final minute of the AFC title game in 2012.

The Ravens, of course, went on to win that Super Bowl.

And on the call there was Greg Gumbel, who really sad.

We learned over the weekend that he passed away on Friday at his home in Florida, 78 years old.

Cancer got Greg Gumbel, but he I feel like Gumbel, and we're kind of super into broadcasters and what they mean and how they connect us to the sport.

And Gumbel was kind of that guy, Connor, who didn't always get the big headlines when talking about who's the best, but there were very few guys as reliable and that made you feel like

you were just watching the game with somebody who was going to take you where he needed to go.

So, really sad news, but

he was a staple of football watching for our entire lives.

100%.

You know, just a great sense of how to call a game.

The never talk down to the listener.

You know, like you said, I mean, it felt like someone who had his arm around you the whole time, for sure.

Yeah, I grew up with like, well, I grew up watching Brian Gumbel on the Today Show with Jane Pauly.

And,

you know, Greg Gumble at that point was not really on the national scene so much.

But

listening just to the people that like today, each one of these broadcasts stopped down to talk about Greg Gumbel.

And it's like, you kind of get a sense of who someone is to other people when you get like the sideline reporter that sort of said he was the one person early in my career that stood up for me and accepted me and made me feel comfortable.

And so I think we get a sense that like he was beloved.

And,

you know,

they were different brothers, but Greg Gumble, Greg Gumbel has been around our whole lives.

You're right.

And I just, I feel like

he's suddenly gone.

I didn't realize that was all cooking.

Yeah.

CBS did a really nice job.

You know, we, for the coverage, we end up watching multiple CBS telecasts that are happening at the same time.

And each announcing team, you know, had their own

remembrance.

And one through line of it was apparently Gumble's a huge music fan.

He was a massive Rolling Stones fan.

And each telecast used a different song.

One.

The Romo Nance game was Miss You.

Waiting on a Friend was another game.

There was different choices for each one, which I thought was a nice touch as well.

So, rest in peace to Greg Gumbel,

who was the first black announcer to call a major sports championship in the United States, the 2001 Super Bowl.

2001?

Jesus.

Cheaper.

Come on.

Wow.

Anyway, all right.

There you go.

Greg Gumbel.

Rest in peace.

Let's get back into

the

rundown and let's move now to

the Saturday Games.

Starting with an absolute joy to watch Connor take us to Cincinnati.

Yeah.

What you'll hear from the NFL after Saturday night's 30 to 24 Bengals win in overtime.

Parody's at an all-time high.

Insane ending.

These teams need to go to a psychiatric hospital because they're so goddamn crazy.

The reality, it was kind of like watching two babies try and change each other's dirty diapers.

Like watching two toothless elderly feed each other porridge.

One coach can't manage the clock.

Another can't conjure the cajones to go for two, and his QB's begging for it.

Come on.

Meanwhile, we have an out-of-this-world performance from T.

Higgins, an MVP-worthy outing from Joe Burrow.

Again, Bo Nick slinging touchdowns to players less familiar to the world than the backup dancers from Wham.

Insane?

No.

Mildly interesting.

Possibly.

A game that would have been over by the end of Q1 if Joe Burrow was on the Lions?

You bet your ass.

Absolutely.

And, you know, Burrow is a personal favorite of mine, and I tweeted in a moment of, you know, excitement.

He's the best football player in the world, got slaughtered for it on my timeline.

And it's like, can we at least have...

Speaking of Cahonies, how about just the brains to understand that the Bengals record doesn't represent Joe Burrow?

And like you said,

if you put Burrow on one of these big-time teams,

it wouldn't even be a conversation.

I mean, that's without taking anything away from Josh Allen and Lamar, who have been brilliant this season.

But Burrow, his ability to drag this team now to the final week of the regular season in contention is an incredible feat.

And Connor, I'll say this.

That decision by Sean Payton not to go for two, it made me think, like, I know it's not going to happen.

And

like the Bengals even getting into the playoffs is far-fetched.

But like a sliding doors moment there with the way the Cincinnati season went.

To me, it was almost certain that they were going to get that two-point conversion in Denver to win that game because Cincinnati lost that game over and over again throughout this season.

Their decision to not do that, just

keep that in the back of your mind if somehow this Bengals season continues, that Sean Payton left the door open and the season continued as a result.

Very real chance, in my opinion.

I understand his rationale.

So the rationale is obviously like if they have a win or a tie, they go to the playoffs.

And he said that after the game.

He's like, that obviously factored into

my decision making.

But that also works both ways, right?

Because you have an easy game against a team the following week that's going to wrest their starters that you can go and win that game on.

And your rookie quarterback just threw one of the most amazing touchdowns.

It might end up being one of the most incredible touchdowns he ever throws in his life.

I think it was the most air yards of any touchdown this year by a quarter.

He was asking to go for T.

He's like, 2-2-2-2.

And then you just go and you kick the ball and you risk giving the ball back to Joe Burrow.

And again, I know that you can tie and go to the playoffs, but I thought that was a missed opportunity because you're going to have multiple opportunities to get into the postseason here.

But that was not the worst coaching decision of that game.

So, you know, there was a lot of this was not, this was a clinic and how not to do your job.

I thought it was interesting to hear like Zach Taylor talk about what was mentally processing through him and his coaching staff at the end of that too.

Like just trying to get them in a position to even have that opportunity.

Like some wild stuff occurring there.

To me, it's crazy.

Like you have the ball with about a minute, a little more than a minute and a half to go.

And, you know, even before that, like, you know, okay, so he instructs Chase Brown to slide if he gets near the end zone so they can run the clock out.

Chase Brown gets hurt, so you have to use an injury timeout.

And then the Broncos still have their timeout.

And then by then, Zach Taylor's thinking is, okay, let's just get into the end zone and then we'll see what happens.

And obviously Denver comes back down the field, throws that amazing touchdown pass.

But if you look at the, if you look at the time and you do the breakdown, I mean, you know, it was whatever it was,

138, I think, left on the clock.

If you would have just knelt the clock out and not run Chase Brown in the first place, you could have just kicked the field goal as time expired.

And then I guess, okay, your reasoning there is we're not totally confident in Cade York.

Well, you know, you kick Cade York on third down in overtime.

Like what?

Like, you know, I'm still not understanding how a lot of this, where the thought process bears out for Zach Taylor here.

I mean, you took the ball out of Joe Burrow's hands and you can give him an extra play in overtime.

And so this whole thing was, I mean, granted, it's a minefield when you're coaching in these situations, but I mean, you have the best player in the world.

Just let him do his job and go win the dang game, you know?

Yeah.

Burrow and Higgins and what might have been his last game in Cincinnati almost certainly seems like it might be to have the game that he had.

And the Bengals defense.

There's a good chance it's all too little, too late, but it's like that's why people want to see the Bengals in the playoffs because like the Bucs, but even to a more bigger, greater extent, I think, because of Burroughs' level of how special he is.

Like you want to throw them into the mix and introduce chaos because they kept on

getting the stops, Cincinnati, because you have the, they,

Cincinnati's first offensive possession, they won the toss in overtime.

Doesn't lead to anything.

They get off the field, and then York blows the 30-yard field goal attempt, and then all Denver has to do then is get a first down, and they could run the clock out.

They'll take the tie, and they clinch their playoff spot, and they get off the field, Cincinnati, which they hadn't been able to do all year.

Uh, so credit them, they did, you know, give up that touchdown at the end of regulation.

But in general, that was progress for a Cincinnati D that had let down that offense time after time this year.

Well, they have been, like, over the past month plus, the defense in certain metrics, it's been a better defense.

Um, and it took, it's about time, but it hasn't been the culprit that it was earlier on in the year.

But it, to me, like the Bengals to me feel like the best example, and this is never going to happen, but like a college selection committee of like, all right, here we are now, and forget your overall record.

Not that we're going to ignore your record, but like, who do we need to get into the postseason to make this the best product available?

Like, if they miss the playoffs for some sort of trash heap, like the Dolphins floating in from outer space, like nobody wins.

Like, this is what we need to see because I really do think at this point that voting for Joe Burrow, and I think the MVP voting is going to be all over the map, but like voting for Joe Burrow, there is no sin in that.

I don't think he'll get a vote.

I don't, but I think

that bothers me.

Yeah.

That bothers me, but I get why that might exactly be the case, but it's just like,

wow.

I mean, we are not watching another quarterback play this way right now.

I mean, Lamar, but like, to me, Burrow is

absolutely insanely wild.

Right.

Like, Burrow, it's like you have Allen and Lamar who are both having historically great seasons.

This MVP race is almost becoming,

it's making me nauseous.

It's talked about so often now, but I also like it.

But the way it is, you have these two guys on the two AFC Titans, and then you have the category of like the Darnolds, the Goffs.

I think Burrow is ahead of those guys, or he's kind of in this gray area because the team hasn't been as successful.

Before we move, we should talk about Denver because now they've had two chances to clinch this playoff spot.

The odds are still with them in multiple ways to

get that final playoff spot.

But I don't know, Connor, like I get a little bit, if I'm a Denver fan, you had both of these games you've lost.

You had chances to close them out, and you were in control at certain points, and you couldn't close it out.

And I understand the Chiefs might not be playing their guys at all or for long, but I don't think the Chiefs are going to roll over either.

So

it is, it's gut check time for that entire team because this would be a, you know, a total collapse if they somehow end up on the outside looking in.

Just before we get there, Josh Newton from the Bengals, Joseph Osai, and Jermaine Pratt were awesome in this game.

One person in the secondary, two guys in the front seven, completely, you know, played some of their best football of the year.

I think those were their best games of the year all at the same time, which was huge for them.

But yes, everyone seems to be speculating that the Chiefs are not going to play their starters.

However, that would mean 25 games or 25 days, I think, between starts for Patrick Mahomes.

So

is Andy Reid really going to do that?

Is he going to rest him for that long?

Is that the plan at this point?

And also, I mean, Andy Reid is a player's coach.

If Carson Wentz starts this game on a heater, which is not impossible, like I did re-watch the snaps that he took when Mahomes was out of the game a couple couple days ago.

He didn't look bad, you know?

And if, you know, all of a sudden Carson Wentz gets hot in this game, is Andy Reid going to pull the plug so that Sean Payton can get in the playoffs?

A divisional guy who's played him twice, and he absolutely does not want to see him again in the postseason?

I don't think so.

I'll just say this, though.

Like, not that that's how the Chiefs operate, but it makes sense to roll over because with all due respect to the Denver Broncos who have had a nice year.

Burrow has gone into Arrowhead in the playoffs and beat the Chiefs.

Like, they do not want Joe Burrow anywhere near the playoffs.

Absolutely.

So it really does behoove the Chiefs to lose in week 18 in a way that you very rarely see.

So I imagine that's going to factor into their strategy as well.

All right, let's move to the next Saturday game.

It went down right here at SoFi Stadium.

Listen, Sean McVay's Rams aren't the greatest show on turf.

Sometimes it's a show you might be tempted to turn off on the weeks, and there have been three straight of them now when the offense goes into hibernation mode and LA must instead resort to rugged, like hand-to-hand, like eyeball-to-eyeball, fight-to-the-death combat tactics.

But contrary to their Hollywood adjacent address, these Rams don't mind getting their calloused hands covered in mud if it gets the job done.

We saw that again on Saturday night at SoFi, where an acrobatic fourth-quarter pick by Akelo Witherspoon allowed the Rams to edge past the Cardinals 13-9 and take another big step towards an NFC West title.

And I'm going to let Mark explain all the ways that the Rams could clinch the NFC West title.

A number of permutations that can come together

even if they don't beat the Seahawks in week 18.

But I think the main point here about the Rams, Mark, is that they really do have that grittiness to them

even when the offense is in a funk.

Now the offense is going to have to wake up and figure out a way to score points again because they've been in the teens or less for three straight weeks.

They've made it work because they're well coached and they have a good defense.

But they're going to have to get that figured out.

But it does really tell you for a team that was one in four to now be where they are double-digit wins, they just know how to win football games.

And we saw it again, even when it wasn't pretty on Saturday night.

Well, and think how many times this team under McVay has had to change coordinators on both sides of the ball.

Like you're under, again, again, you're under a first-year defensive coordinator.

And guys like Brayden Fisk and Jared Verse are rising up as very young players and becoming the identity of the team because I think the offense is my concern right now.

Then they'll go have this game where Matthew Stafford goes nuts, but they're not spreading the ball out to a lot of different people.

Like it was like Puka Nakua had like 80, you know, 60% of their yardage during a big chunk of this game.

So that's my concern.

But when it comes to the playoff thing, like they,

they're a weird team right now where like strength of schedule affecting like five other people.

And I'm not going to explain it because there's like, we can just go, we can look that up and put a graphic up.

But like they, they really kind of need a lot to happen.

Yeah, Justin can handle that.

But like they need a lot to happen.

But I will say,

you can do what you want to do.

But like

to me, like the Rams are a very interesting team because they keep recreating themselves.

They're lucky that Aquila Wheelerspoon did what he did at the end there because they came very close to losing this game.

They're lucky that they're playing a team that apparently I did curse.

And I feel annoyed at myself because it's played out that way.

And the Cardinals have fallen off an absolute cliff into darkness.

And I don't know if you're running the Cardinals, what you do at this point with your quarterback and everyone else.

He didn't play terribly, but like this team cannot close games.

And the Rams found a way to do it.

And do I believe in them as a playoff heavy?

Not really.

But I do think that they're well coached.

And it's kind of a a proof of concept that they get this far after starting one and four.

I mean, how many times during

one second, Justin, how many times during this

meltdown, post-buy meltdown, did they find themselves in the red zone?

And just if they just execute and find ways, whether through the scrambling of this dual-threat quarterback and Kyler Murray or the weapons that they have on the field, headlined by this great young tight end and Trey McBride, who finally scored a touchdown, by the way, goddamn.

And Marvin Harrison Jr., this hyped-up rookie wide receiver.

And they failed so many times.

And that was to me when I think, how did their season get lost?

Just struggles in the red zone.

What do you got, Justin?

Commanders-Falcons, it's happening right now.

If the Commanders win, then everything else that happened already on Sunday gives the Rams that strength of schedule tiebreaker.

If the Falcons win, which by the time you're listening to this, you will know,

then

if San Francisco beats Detroit on Monday night, that would be the final thing that gives the Rams that tiebreaker.

Well done.

Well done.

So, yeah, I get your frustration, Mark.

And you got behind the Cardinals, but they just could not and would not figure it out.

Here's, Connor, here's how I'll set you up before we move off this game.

But, like,

they beat the Bills, the Rams.

So they've won five straight and nine of 11, right?

They beat the Bills 44-42 in that shootout a few weeks back.

Since then, three more wins, but 12-6 over the Niners, 19-9 over the Jets, 13-9 over the Cardinals.

So, like, your guess is as good as mine, like, what version of the Rams you're going to get moving forward.

Yeah.

I mean, two of those games you can kind of throw out the window as weird, not outlier games.

I mean, the one was like a rainstorm.

And so you kind of, you know, you try to play to that, that, you know, whatever's going to happen there.

And then one was that extreme cold weather game when they had to fly East Coast.

But, you know, all that said,

yeah, this one you thought was the one where they could at least kind of turn the Jets on here and score more than 20 20 points.

But I mean, outside of Puka Nikua, who had 10 catches, Cooper Cup with one, Jordan Whittington with one.

Like, there's no, uh, you know, sometimes there's no rhythm here, you know.

Yeah, Cooper Cup has really fallen off the map during this

little cold run for their offense.

All right, let's move to the third game on Saturday.

It was the first game played, it was in Foxborough, and it was grizzly.

Sestogen,

Chargers at Patriots.

What are you up to this weekend?

Well, says Jim Harbaugh, I was thinking of flying a football team across the country to a sleepy northeastern berg and kicking someone's ass in the next week.

Greetings, Boston.

We've got a nice little 40 burger for you to stick in your pants.

The Patriots at this point in time are a concept.

The Chargers are much closer.

A super early Belicheckian-like roster filled with non-household names and a few stalwarts.

Lad McConkey, passed on by the Patriots in the draft, torching New England and breaking Chargers records.

Justin Herbert doubling as a human tank.

Derwin James, a comic book hero.

Robert Kraft up in his little box saying, we're going to hit the strip club tonight, he tells his son Jonathan.

Whatever you say, Big Daddy, we're going to hit it hard, Kraft utters.

We're driving out to Deerfield Mass and we're going to find a place of comfort.

Life is brief.

We make choices.

You're on top of the world.

Then you're aging and alone.

You're not cool anymore.

You're not sexy.

You're just stuck with who you are.

Chargers 40.

Patriots 7.

And it looked that way.

Let's throw to the Chargers locker room after a big victory.

We got stuff to do.

We got stuff to do.

Hey!

And we're at 10.

We're in the playoffs.

But it's now.

It's now time for positioning.

And 11 sounds a heck of a lot better than 10.

Let's go get down.

I'm going to pull it down.

Who got it better than us?

Nobody.

Future us.

Future us.

What a butt kicking.

Like, I guess, you know, I was kind of waiting for the Chargers who I picked to go to the AFC title game, and now I would make that pick over again.

But to get to a place in the season where they're hammering teams, and you're playing a bad Patriots team.

But we get it that this is a roster on offense, especially relying on a couple guys to do a lot.

But you are getting the lights out, Justin Herbert, and you've got a very good defense.

And this was the game that I've waited for for two months.

And, you know, Drake May went out early in this.

That affected this, I thought, to some degree.

Did come back in.

And I'm not ever sure when these guys come back in from like a head injury check that they're fully there.

We don't know that.

He's a tough guy.

This team never found its way.

After a couple of promising performances, they took the Bills to the brink, but the the Chargers just squeezed the life out of them.

And

it was the kind of contest where by the second half, you're like, this is garbage.

This is hot garbage time.

It looked like it.

I mean, this was like that.

I somehow stumbled upon this game.

Like, I was driving through like back Pennsylvania roads, and it came on like some random, like it used to be like an alt-country station.

And all of a sudden, I got the play-by-play for it.

And I was like, ew, I don't want to listen to that.

You know, I'll watch it later on

fast forward 1.5 speed game.

Yeah, this is the type of game you could blow through.

And yeah, the vibes are bad in Foxborough.

The fan base has

had it

up to here with the coaching staff.

And even

the decision to, for instance, pass on McConkey to actually trade out of the pick to take a wide receiver who has less yardage

all season than McConkey had in this game.

And it's just like the Patriots need to get their house in order.

Now they're right now the number one overall pick after

the Giants did what the Giants did that we'll get to.

But there's not a lot of confidence with Elliott Wolf right now and Gerard Mayo to think that they have the right structure.

Now they have the quarterback, but everything else is a big question mark for me right now.

They did get the quarterback, though.

Right.

I know we keep saying that and that's great.

But like we

should you should know Mark as just as I should know, you could ruin a good quarterback by not having a good surrounding cast and good decision-making around it.

And I'm just, I'm just hitting pause and seeing if the Patriots have the ability to build around this kid, but he is talented.

There's no doubt about it.

I would ask Connor, I don't know if you like, I think the thing here is,

and not to always hit Kraft up of the suite week after week, but it is like, it is sort of annoying watching with the, but like, um,

I do wonder if there's temptation to just go wrest away Mike Rabel and make make him the head coach now, because it's not that Gerard Mayo is the problem necessarily, but it's like, this is your dude.

Like, I just wonder if a big switch is coming.

I mean, would you pass on him twice?

You're going to get, you got two shots at him.

You had last year, and that was the obvious, easy way to come in, bring him in to succeed Belichick, pair him with Elliott Wolfe, and hit the ground running.

You passed on that.

You saw what you had in Gerard Mayo.

That was your own test.

I mean, this is the biggest, most significant probably moment in the remaining tenureship of his owner, or the remaining tenure of his ownership.

It's just, you know, are you going to pass on Mike Frabel again?

I don't know.

I mean, that would be a tough, you know, the fact that he exists out there is a big thing.

Herbert played great in this game, and the Patriots didn't come near him.

He was pressured on only six of 40 drop backs, and he carved him up through three touchdown passes.

So you're getting Herbert playing at a high level.

Derwin James had two sacks in this game.

He's had a really nice bounce back season after last year.

And I think all these things do go back to coaching and Jim Harbaugh and what he brought to the Chargers.

And

he might be a bit of a strange guy, but he is kind of a genius at this.

And he has changed that organization.

Now they're going back to the playoffs.

All right, let's take a break.

And when we get back, we will get back to the action on Sunday.

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That right, we are back.

All right.

Back to Sunday.

And to Orchard Park we go.

Ooh, Jaunty.

Yes, watching today's NFL game in Orchard Park was like watching a bona fide Super Bowl contender accidentally play a hockey team.

Like a scenario in which the Winnipeg Jets and the New York Jets got home alone twosed at the airport.

And by the time everyone realized what had happened, It was too late to change out of the uniforms.

Honestly, the only thing that could make this historically miserable Jet season watchable at this point is Aaron Rodgers playing left wing against the Nashville Predators on Monday night.

Those Jets would lose two, but it would still be more competitive than the 40-14 butt-whipping delivered by the Mighty Bills, who at 13-3 clinched the number two seed in the AFC

again.

I think that's what, three years in a row they've done that?

Unbelievable.

This game

was 12-0

with 530 to play in the third quarter, and then 40-0

five minutes into the fourth quarter.

There were

all sorts of four straight touchdowns between

the offense and the defense.

And Aaron Rodgers didn't even get to put up any of the garbage time production that you got here.

Tyrod Taylor threw two lipstick on the pigs scores in the final period.

And this game

really felt like the Bills played it at half speed.

Whenever they faced any level of adversity, Allen would just connect on a third and long, or the Jets would commit another dumb penalty.

I really think Jeff Ulbrick has a seat at the table, and I'm not trying to be mean to the guy because he got put into a bad situation.

But the conversation of the worst interim coaches of all time: the Jets began the day with a league high, 153 penalties.

Today they had 16 for 120 yards, their most accepted penalties in a game since 2018.

That includes five personal fouls.

And that, obviously, to me is always a direct reflection of coaching.

And then you have things like this.

We know Garrett Wilson keeps mouthing off about being unhappy.

Anybody that will listen.

And then you have Sauce Gardner.

Fly this up.

This was on social media after the game.

After Gardner stood in front of his locker, after pulling himself out of the game in like the first quarter, citing a hamstring issue, which is the second week in a row he's done that.

Over T.

Higgins highlights, Sauce writes, pay the man.

And then someone writes, tell him to come to the Jets.

And then Sauce Gardner, ostensibly the face of the Jets, replies to this person online, I will not be telling him that.

I don't know

what else could possibly

better illustrate how bad things are for the Jets.

But also, like, if the Rats want to get off the ship, they can get off the ship.

And if the Jets, as talented as Sauce is, even though he's had not a great year, and Garrett Wilson are, if they're going to be guys that want to get out in this offseason, the Jets should, for a team that's so lost right now, they should just do that and try to get draft capital back for these players that don't want to be around and can openly mock or

demean the organization that pays for them.

And it's like, I'm not defending the Jets team.

I've been destroying the Jets as an organization all year, but it's like, if you're doing that on social media and the way Garrett Wilson has been talking

these last few weeks, it's like, you you got to figure out who actually is, who are the core guys that you want to build around to figure out what's happening.

And there was an Ian Rappaport report today, guys, that Garrett Wilson does not want to return to the Jets if Aaron Rodgers is back.

And that's notable, too.

And at some point, like Aaron Rodgers and his Enigma documentaries and all this stuff about searching for an inner meeting, at some point, maybe Aaron Rodgers should try to go to a darkness retreat and figure out why nobody likes him.

And everybody seems to be repelled away from him when they get in his orbit because that seems to be a trait that follows him wherever he goes.

Well, you got to drop it.

It's like, yeah, it's time to drop like a nuclear bomb on the entire thing.

But the only problem is that the Sauce Gardeners and Garrett Wilsons, and like you're coming from college, which is different than it was, you know, five years ago where they're getting paid and they're empowered and athletes are empowered and all that in general could be good.

But it's like

these are the young players that that apparently should be wanting to just be thankful to be on a team in general.

I know that's like probably just not how it works, but what, you're going to go get players two years younger that are going to suddenly want to be on the Jets?

It's like they got to come, they've got to go find someone to take over this whole thing that young players believe in.

Because I will say this for the Garrett Wilsons in the South Scar.

It's like, you've already been through so much transition and career havoc that like you're endangering your own profession by wanting to stay with an organization that shows no structure in how it's going to move forward.

There's no promise.

There's no identity.

The ownership is the core cancer here.

And these guys are too savvy and smart to want to be a part of this.

So it's like, I don't love it, but I kind of get it.

I think we all kind of get why they're reacting this way.

I get it.

Well, I think Sauce is wrong to do things like that because that just underlines a lot of the things that we're talking about.

Well, that's unnecessary because

he said people were checked out.

He talked to the press and said things that were notable.

But then when you're getting on and you're interacting with fans and it's like that to me is just like, really?

Okay.

okay but i can't wait for him to claim that he got taken out of context or say that he just didn't want to uh see that see that he was tampering and then just totally just

no one will punish him and he'll just get away with it totally scot-free uh the bills are locked in um

at the two seed josh allen has hit 40 plus touchdowns in five consecutive seasons how about that They have the most touchdowns of every any Bills team ever, which I just think for people of a certain age, like if you go back to those Jim Kelly, Marv Levy teams, that's a feat.

Those teams were beating people like 45 to 10.

And this is a year where they have more touchdowns to different players on their offense.

They've tied an NFL record with 13 different players.

So it kind of speaks to how they're able to score in different ways.

I've not been super impressed with them defensively lately.

They're a little bit of a concern, but they'll be all right.

Yeah, they were impressive in this game, though.

And

one last note

that Aaron Rodgers is still stuck on 499 touchdown passes.

And I think it would be a fitting final kind of insult to this entire era if somehow

he doesn't get it.

And almost it then puts him in a situation like, do I have to come back for another year to throw a 500 touchdown?

Who would retire on 499?

All of a sudden, there's an immense pressure on Rodgers to throw a touchdown next week against the Dolphins.

Just like there was immense pressure.

Tyrod Teller's in the game and Devontae Adams is still playing.

And I'm like, why is Devontae Adams still on the field?

It's like, oh, he's 25 yards away from 1,000.

All he wants to do is shut it down and pack up his belongings even before week 18.

But now he's got to play too.

Just good times, good times.

One funny thing from this game before we move on.

A ball got on the field.

You don't see this a lot.

A football gets on the field when they're trying to snap.

And the side judge, mega pissed.

Check this out.

Week really kind of changed the trajectory of the season when he got hurt, and he's played through it, but he's playing great football right now.

It just hasn't produced the wins.

And I don't think a football on the field is a good thing over there.

No, I'm going to pick it off.

Nor is a beach ball.

They're always tough to play when they're all out there.

Too many balls.

Too many for you, Jim.

Too many for you.

Too many balls for you, Jim.

Unless that Thanksgiving music is playing for Jim.

Then it's like, hey, come on in.

Come on in.

Too many balls.

I'll take all the balls you got.

Next up, we head to

the Meadowlands.

It is on in East Rutherford with Connor Orr.

Hit it, Connor.

Is this a song?

I don't know.

Is it?

Should he go?

Yeah, why not?

Rip.

Oh, okay.

Never mind.

Ah, there you go.

Oh, man, the Giants get this song.

This is the banger of all bangers.

Yeah, they do.

All right, go.

Great job, guys, Brian Dables said in the post-game locker room.

A 45-33 win over the in-contention Colts.

Drew Locke had three

first-half touchdowns and a perfect passer rating into the fourth quarter.

Hell yeah.

We had a kickoff return for a touchdown.

We had two Malik neighbors touchdowns and some unbelievable complimentary blocking guys.

This is the kind of performance we always wanted to see.

Proof of who we are.

Just one thing out of curiosity.

You couldn't do this when they were flying the planes?

I mean, just one other time this season against the goddamn Panthers.

The Saints?

Nobody?

All right.

Anyway,

this game was

wild.

Malik Neighbors and Tyrone Tracy became the sixth tandem in NFL history to put together a thousand scrimmage yards.

This is the first time in Giants history that the team had touchdown passes to three different players in a half.

Drew Locke had the sixth best EPA per play in a single game since 1999.

The only other players who were better than him, Peyton Manning twice, Phillip Rivers, Tom Brady, and Lamar Jackson.

Yeah,

amazing.

Yeah.

Jesus.

And like, and all due respect to Drew Locke and the Giants, you know, is, I mean, Giants fans, and I know this because I'm on a couple of text threads where Giants fans are just like in flames because they go from the number one overall pick in the 2025 draft to the number four pick.

They don't even, they drop out of the top three when it was all in front of them to have the pick of the draft.

And

but, you know, give it credit to the Giants because they were one loss away from being their 11th consecutive defeat and becoming the first team in NFL history to go 0-9 at home.

So the players were happy about that.

My question is, Connor, like, I know Chris Ballard will never get fired, but but like, at what point do real changes happen in Indianapolis when for the third time in four years, you have these collapses that aren't just like regular, like, oh, we got beat at the end of the season, tough, tough way to get out.

These are humiliating defeats, sometimes against the worst teams in football in at least two of the occasions.

And this one is grisly, absolutely terrible performance by the defense.

It's crazy because at first, though, I looked back at my notes and I'm like, you know, what won the Giants the game here?

And what I put put down was a lot of complimentary blocking.

Like you look at some of these big scores, it's like someone comes in with a huge block.

Like Daniel Bellinger had some great blocks.

Wandell Robinson freed Malik Neighbors.

But then you go back and you watch the plays again and you're just like, nobody was trying, you know?

Or like, you know, there was one that someone pointed out and, you know, I think someone who covers the Giants said, look at this great block by Evan Neal getting out there.

And I was like, yeah, but the guy that he was blocking just didn't even try to get around him.

He was just like, nah, you know, like, it was just this like collective flatness and indifference at least defensively like offensively they're keeping pace and this giants defense was a sieve and it just kept letting joe flacco bomb the ball to alec pierce and get back into this game but like my goodness gracious like

i've never seen a team come out that flat when there was still something to play for it was uh it was startling It surprises me because I've been like, I think we have been like pro Shane Steichen.

And he doesn't seem like the problem to me.

Seems like an asset if they can figure some things out.

But like the defense, especially, this was a complete and utter no-show.

And, you know, they showed like DeForest Buckner at the end.

He just looked defeated sitting on the bench.

It's just like, what an, I mean, I'm glad that they're not the team in the playoffs at this point.

I think we all felt that way.

But like, I don't know what it does for Shane Steichen going into the offseason that's that's anything but troubling because it's not what I would have expected from one of his teams.

And keeping Gus Bradley was a precursor to, like, that's why they liked the idea of bringing in Shane Steichen.

You would keep Gus Bradley, continuity on defense.

And so I think

a lot of the Ursae meddling here is starting to come into fruition and, you know, whatever Ballard's kind of deficiencies are.

But I think if you can pull those things apart and you can manage to put something together that actually works functionally, like I think Shane is the answer.

I just, I don't, I don't know about anything else around it because

this is a complete laydown.

Yeah, and we'll get, and Steichen's in a very now vulnerable position because if he survives this, then really his entire coaching career there is tied to Anthony Richardson becoming the quarterback in year three that they wanted him to be.

And that seems to be an uphill climb as well.

All right, let's move to the other team that needed a win in the AFC playoff picture to stay in the mix.

The Miami Dolphins, who drew a Cleveland Browns team that is struggling.

Well, the Miami Dolphins remain alive, thanks in part to a Browns team that has given up on the product?

Thrown out a yellow cab window like a call girl's heels on the Verrazano Bridge.

This once-proud organization is starting.

Not his fault, Dorian Thompson Robinson in December.

He steered 31 drives this month.

They've scored six points on those marches.

Nice setup to keep the Dolphins swimming when the Bengals are the goal.

This game was the friend in seventh grade who stays too long after a sleepover.

His workaholic dad is not involved.

His mom has a pill habit.

Your mom is now making him a peanut butter sandwich and chips for lunch at 1.11 p.m.

During this game, I peered across the room to our little pussycat named Larry Fitzgerald sitting in complete stillness and peace on a warm blanket, saying psychically to all, the world is a vapor.

Except for you, Miles Garrett.

Except for you.

Dolphins 20, Brown's 3.

Yeah.

And even Miles said last week, you know, you better figure something out before I want to start writing cryptic tweets, if you will.

Yeah, the Browns,

you know, I was texting earlier today, Mark.

You know, you get those Manic Pixie Dream Girl Browns games in prime time, but then there's so many of these where it's just like, and I had my eye on the game because, yeah, I think,

you know, a lot of us want this idea of, okay, Denver, fun.

Cincinnati, interesting.

Miami is the team that sneaks into the playoffs.

Maybe not as exciting if you're not a Dolphins fan, but they are very much alive and they get the Jets next week.

So, you know, I didn't see the Dolphins looking dominant in this game, but they also did it without their starting quarterback.

It's hard to get a read on the Dolphins when it's not two in there.

It was Tyler Huntley, and he actually, you know, statistically, like from a numbers angle, played well and they were okay.

And the Browns have just laid down.

But yeah,

this to me felt like late December football.

There's no no element to the Dolphins offense that looks like the Mike McDaniel offense when two is not in there.

And to me, that's sort of just like, this is a referendum on like him as him as well as a coach.

And like this, they won this game, but they really played a Browns offense that has fallen asleep to such a degree.

They cannot do anything.

And they are tanking.

I don't care what anyone says.

They are tanking.

They are sitting in the number three position right now on tankathon in the draft.

And that means, because it's the Patriots at number one, that someone someone like Cam Ward

is

on the target board for Cleveland.

I think they very much intend to lose next week, too, and see what their fate is.

And the Dolphins making the playoffs, that's fine.

But like, I don't have much faith in this Dolphins team doing literally anything at all.

So it feels like we're stuck with this seventh wildcard type team, if it's not Cincinnati, if it is Miami, where it's like,

I don't know why they created this playoff seventh seed position.

I don't need it.

It seems to be too much of a problem each year, year, and the Dolphins are emblematic of that.

Is Jameis Winston active right now?

What is his situation?

He's running around on the sidelines, talking to people.

They say he's got a shoulder injury, but it's like, that's what I mean.

But was he active as the number two quarterback in this game?

He's in pads, yes.

He's the number one.

I mean,

to your point, I guess, yeah, that would be one way of doing it.

They are tanking.

Because here's the thing, there's nothing to see with Dory.

There's no reason to think we're going to to discover something about DTR over the next four quarters that's going to change our mind.

We're not, like, they do not want to win these games.

And I don't know what the plan is behind the scenes because this, in many, many ways, from penalties to offensive metrics, like everything that Kevin Stefanski is selling, and I think he's a good coach, you know, in theory, like is not happening this year.

They're a disaster.

So it's like, what's hit?

Where is he in all this?

Like, it's frustrating.

Like, they don't want to win these games.

All right.

Weeks in a row.

The Dolphins do want to win.

Like we said,

if they win next week against the Jets and the Broncos stumble against the Chiefs one more time, the Dolphins get in.

If I'm not mistaken,

because they're ahead of Cincinnati in the tiebreaker, right?

They have the tiebreaker over Cincinnati.

So it's a pretty clear path to them.

They just need a little bit of help, and that could happen.

So we'll see what they do.

All All right, let us keep moving here and head to New Orleans.

Ooh, Raider Saints, Connor.

Take us to it.

Oh,

season two of the Antonio Pierce Show is cool, but the plot line is starting to get a little predictable.

When a handful of meaningless games down the stretch, like Sunday's 25-10 win over the Saints, tank the team's draft position.

The Raiders with the win drop to eighth.

Come on.

And make one player on the team look like a complete genius.

In this case, Brock Bowers, who set the Raiders single season reception record, the NFL's rookie tight end record, and the NFL's rookie reception record, despite catching the first two targets of the game and then disappearing until the last drive before the end of the half.

There's not much to say about this one, except for the fact that

If we want to do the Anthony Richardson thing for Spencer Rattler, he played awesome, but guys were dropping a bunch of passes and there was a lot of procedural penalties and all this stuff going on.

Otherwise, he looked freaking awesome, but we don't do that for anybody else.

So sorry, Spencer, you had a great game, but nobody gives a shit.

But, you know.

We only do that with Anthony.

We don't do that with other quarterbacks.

Spencer Rattler looked awesome for like very large portions of this game.

And they called a very cool,

like one of the coolest like toss backs.

It was like a toss and then threw it back to Spencer Rattler.

He hit hit Foster Moreau in the end zone.

It was very neat.

But this was closer than the score indicated.

I say that very much as a person who's in the tank for Darren Rizzy to get the full-time head coaching job.

But

it kind of hinged on kind of a big holding penalty.

I thought in the fourth quarter, Rattler had this really nice...

move to pick up a first down.

It gets called back.

And then he throws his only bad, really bad ball of the game, which is a pick.

And then it kind of set the Raiders up.

So

that's kind of my takeaway on this.

In the grand scheme of things, there's really not a whole lot to discuss.

I'm picturing, despite the groan, I'm picturing all the Saints players at the end of the season going into

Loomis's office and putting their jersey on the desk and be like, we're not playing unless you hire Sky Rizzy.

And then he's like, okay, I'll just fire you guys.

You're okay.

Well, here's the thing.

You're picturing

the beginning of this game, like, Cam Jordan, Cam Jordan's an animal.

Like, you know, and the Raiders are in the red zone, and he's just flying through the line of scrimmage.

They sacked the Raiders.

They beat them out of the,

like, right inside the five-yard line.

They beat them back out for a field goal.

And, like, the whole, you know, there was probably like 80 people in the Superdome, but those people were going nuts.

And, you know, you're thinking, all right, like, he's got, if he's got Cam Jordan playing well and DeMario Davis didn't have his best game, but if he's got these guys playing well, it's like, all right, you know, maybe we got something here.

But, you know, it went off the rails.

I find it interesting that we have a team in 2024 that it's essentially centering their entire attack around Amir Abdullah.

Like that, like I kept seeing Amir Abdullah updates and was like, wait, what?

What is this?

It's like...

It's like three years into NFL.com and he was like the big story back then.

So I don't know what, you know.

Amir Abdullah was awesome in this game, career high.

I think it was 141 yards from scrimmage.

And yeah, he was like, I mean, he's like the best-looking 32-year-old factor back in the NFL right now.

You know what the Raiders should have done?

They should have done

what the Bears did, but shouldn't have done is actually what the Raiders should have done because you've got to fire Antonio Pierce before

the games that don't matter against teams playing out the string or arresting their starters.

Pierce has those guys ready to roll against those teams, and this is now going to cost them dearly because they're going to beat the Chargers next week, too, who are going to be arresting all their starters.

Not even going to have a top 10 pick.

And this shitbag team that lost 10 straight games is going to end the season just like last year on a winning streak, a three-game winning streak that is going to probably still get Antonio Pierce fired.

I think there was reporting before the game today that he's very much, you know, on the rocks in terms of getting a second year.

It's not going to happen most likely.

And, but, you know.

three-game winning streak that will take them from having the number one overall pick when the streak began to maybe you know in you know at the bottom of the top 10, if this happens, like, God, I'd be so frustrated as a Raiders fan because you don't need this.

Oh, you'd, you'd be squarely in a position where, I mean, if you think about it, though, right?

Brock Bowers is a fun building piece.

And

I mean, are you attractive somewhat to a veteran quarterback?

I don't know.

I mean, probably not, but.

Aaron Rodgers,

Las Vegas Raiders.

It's starting to become one of the very few feasible options.

Make it happen, Captain.

All right, let's take a break and we'll finish this out.

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audience only.

All right, we are back.

Oh, this is what it's all been building to Justin Graver.

And we're going to get to Graver at some big news in his life.

Absolutely.

We're going to get to that at the end of the show.

So stay tuned for that.

But the real news, the most important thing that Justin had had going on this weekend was his duties to cover Titans Jaguars.

Hit it, buddy.

On Sunday in Jacksonville, the most interesting football was not being played on the field, but rather on the video screen in the corner of Everbank Stadium, where they were showing red zone to keep the, I don't know, 5,000 fans who showed up entertained.

Final score, Jags 20, Titans 13.

Fantasy Championship Week.

That's actually a nice move by the way.

Look at Justin's Titans write-ups have just become more and more curt and

hemmed in.

They had a plane.

That was a good one.

They had a plane that said fire bulky for Duval.

So they won.

Was the other Justin on your podcast, the Titans podcast, was he flying said plane?

Oh, no.

That was the Jags were flying the plane.

So how embarrassing for the Titans to lose to a team on a day that they were flying the plane asking for their GM to be fired.

Oh my God, it's even worse.

That's right.

It was at Jacksonville.

Not Doug Peterson.

He's fine.

But it did put the Titans up to the number two pick in the draft order currently.

So if the Patriots beat the Bills next week, who are locked into the two seed, I think Drake May can beat Mitch Drubisky, and the Titans lose to the Texans, which if they try to win that game, they should all be fired anyway.

It'll put the Titans at the number one pick.

Hey, there you go.

So there's something to look forward to.

That's progress.

In week 18.

Also looking forward to, because we're only going to get one more of these, perhaps ever, almost certainly.

Doug Peterson, halftime on-field interview.

Now he had five cliches last week, and then he invented a new one, which was, we just got to stay on the field, I think it was.

So let's see.

Can he beat?

Because we'll go five, and then we'll give him credit for that because he invented a cliché.

So six cliches in the going to the tunnel interview in week 16.

Can he beat it in week 17?

Hit it, Justin.

Coach, this is your first double-digit lead since London.

What do you need to see more of in the second half?

And what do you tell your team to make sure it holds on to this?

Yeah, we just got to keep playing the way we're playing.

I love the energy on the sideline.

Guys are engaged.

We've got the takeaway, which turned into points.

I think Mac is playing really good right now, getting the ball out of his hand.

We've got to figure out a way to get the run game going a little bit better.

But defense has a big stand coming up to start the third quarter.

We appreciate it.

Try off.

Championship.

Do you see Connor?

I know it's on your radar.

Do you see that wry look again at Adidi?

It's like, can you believe that we're doing this shit?

Yeah.

What's the line in Waterboy when Henry Winkler's character is just leaving the field at halftime of the bourbon bowl?

And he's like, I'm going to go get a hot pretzel.

That's what Doug Peterson's like.

It's just like, get me the fuck out of here, man.

Yeah.

I don't know.

Anything else on this one, bud?

No.

The Titans tried hard to win.

They're just really bad.

And the Jags, like,

good job.

Mac Jones?

Hey, Mac Jones.

Somebody need a bridge quarterback in 2025?

Mac Jones, not the worst option out there.

That's all I got.

Are we going to do the old ATN slash HTC cliche where we're like, hey, Mac Jones just bought another five years to his career.

It's a good backup.

I think he could do that.

I hope so.

Why not?

I hope so.

You know what?

I'm going to do that.

You like that one, Mark?

You like that old one?

Oh, wait, yes.

I mean,

we have heard that before.

Like, Dan, Dan,

you have the whole ground.

Like, you were Darnold on day one, believing in him.

So maybe I'll be the Mac Jones guy.

Could that be something?

Hell yeah.

And so every time he does something, I get to make it about, make it about, you know, me, you know?

Actually,

one real note on this game.

That's how you got to do it.

One real note on this game.

Brian Thomas Jr., he's very good.

And he now, he has had three straight weeks of

super production, huge in the fantasy playoffs, if anyone cares.

Fantasy-wise, he's up to wide receiver four on the season.

So

he's been

Mac Jones.

He's like a seven for 90 in a touch machine

this season.

Yeah, he's been great, and he was great again today.

No one could cover him.

And I think if nothing else about this Jag season has gone right, you can take solace in the fact that you have a wide receiver one, a true bona fide guy, and Brian Thomas Jr.

You know what's funny?

Brian Thomas Jr.

is the, for hashtag analysis,

what we do with the Patriots and Drake May.

It's like, man, they really suck, but they got somebody in Drake May.

Like all our analysis, and not just us, like everyone's like, man, Jacks suck, but man, Brian Thomas Jr., they got a good one.

It's like, all right, well, yeah.

Well, it's that time of year.

We've moved on to that part of the season.

Then Brian Thomas got the...

No,

the NFL

and us,

basically.

All of us have done that 100 times.

Yeah, we are ready.

We are ready to talk about other things.

All right, let's head to Sunday Night Football.

What's the line in A Star is Born?

I just want to get another look at you.

Is that it, Mark?

I don't know.

Perhaps.

A star is born.

A star has been born in Washington.

We've known that for some time, but games like Sunday Sunday night football underline what a great time it is to be a Washington Commanders fan because Jaden Daniels is running the show.

The rookie quarterback connected with Zach Ertz in overtime, his third touchdown pass of the game

to get the Commanders into the playoffs by beating the Falcons 30-24 in a great back-and-forth prime time game where you had Michael Pennix making big plays down the stretch and pushing the game into overtime.

Riley Patterson, that poor kicker on his 14th team, looks like he splits the uprights as time expires and regulation.

No, it falls short of the end zone, which gives Washington another crack at it, and they do not miss.

So with the win,

Washington, as I said, clinches the wild card.

The LA Rams, by strength of schedule and all that type of stuff, end up clinching the NFC West because of this outcome.

And the Falcons, yes, they drop a full game back of Tampa Bay and now need a win next week coupled with the Bucs loss or they go home after the regular season concludes.

So big outcomes in this game.

Mark Sessler, that was a lot of fun.

That's what the Commanders are at this point.

It feels like a bit of a photocopy of what we've seen multiple times.

And they were really dominant coming out of the half with three scoring drives of 10, 14, and 15 plays that just ate up up the clock.

And then Atlanta comes crawling back because they've got an exciting quarterback, too.

But I just, I'm at the point where I'm not surprised.

And

it's unusual with a rookie quarterback.

I'm not surprised to see what happened on that final drive with Jaden Daniels.

It doesn't need to be like a 64-yard connection that everyone electrifies.

It's like...

They just find a way with his legs and with matriculating the ball down the field with completions to just do what they did against the Eagles.

And I am thrilled that they're in the playoffs.

And it's crazy to imagine that we're in a world where Commanders fans are cheering on the owner of the team loudly inside the stadium.

It's a raw

cheering his name.

And like, it's like this is a completely different world.

But I will say this: if you're a Falcons fan, and I know Connor got hot under the collar about this, that there were a couple little moments here where the Falcons have to look at themselves in the eyes and say, we did not handle our chance to take this game the way we should have have from a clock management.

Yeah, I don't know where to start.

I mean, if you're Raheem, I mean, this is a team that didn't want to hire Bill Belichick.

And all of a sudden we have, you know, Raheem Morris coming down the stretch where 30 seconds come off the clock in a potential game-winning situation.

And you have not just one timeout, you have two timeouts, you know, and just the,

you know, and you can, you know, I saw some people blaming it on Michael Pennix's lack of awareness.

He's got to be more aware of that.

Raheem Morris has got to call a timeout and let them get set and get that in a position to kick a game-winning field goal.

But even before that, I mean, to put Bijan Robinson in Wildcat when you're down at the goal line in a critical situation, and if anyone looks where the ball placement was on that snap, Michael Pennix is just a little bit taller.

That center is still trying to get used to getting Michael Pennix the ball.

It's exactly where Michael Pennix needs the ball, and he should be in that position to try to win the game for him.

The throw that he made to put the tie the game was unbelievable on like nine different levels because you know you're running four verticals, right?

And he throws it to Kyle Pitts, who's matched up against Jeremy Chin, and that's the same player in the same matchup he had a couple throws earlier, and Pitts couldn't win it by himself in a critical spot.

And so Pennex has to throw an even more perfect ball in an even more perfect situation, and he does it.

And you're doing this kid a horrible disservice by not calling timeouts.

And it's an epidemic in this league, and it's driving me insane.

Like Matt Eberflus on Thanksgiving, like all these people who get this important job should learn how to use your goddamn timeouts.

Like that's crazy to me.

You know, it's funny.

During the,

what was the game that Brady and Burkhart were on?

Oh, Minnesota Green Bay today.

There was a similar situation where Brady was calling out that he wasn't happy with the time management at the end of the half.

And he said, like, the way he went by it as a quarterback, the greatest quarterback of all time, is if you got three timeouts and you're inside two minutes, you want to use one of those timeouts between one minute and two minutes.

You want to use another timeout over the next 30 seconds, and then you want to save the last one for the field goal kicker.

And he made the point specifically, and it's what I thought of when this happened: is like, if you're in a situation when you're inside 30 seconds or so and you have multiple timeouts remaining, you didn't handle it right.

And sure enough, they remember this isn't a young way

healthy and being the bull that he's been in the past.

This is a reserve, deep reserve kicker, journeyman.

And yeah, you didn't give yourself the best chance there.

And that's got to be frustrating for Falcons fans.

I'd agree.

And I mean, to go back to the Commanders, I mean,

it was about a month ago that we were wondering, does the Cliff Kingsbury experience have an expiration date?

And is this offense going to float away?

And has the Jaden Daniels, you know, world here kind of dried up and we're going to have to deal with a lot of like, who are they and what are they?

And like, i've got to give like the entire coaching staff credit here because i think cliff kingsbury has done an incredible job calling plays for his quarterback trusting him uh he's healthy now as quarterback right like jaden daniels on the ground is a massive factor i mean he is an absolutely game-crushing factor at the end of games and so I think Washington is one of these teams.

It's like, I don't want to deal with this team in the playoffs.

I don't care who I am because it's like no matter what trouble or morass they find themselves in, they find a way out of it.

And it's because their quarterback seems to be, I want to say not emotional, but just to have like this absolute beeline of, I know this can happen, this can happen with all of us.

And everyone around him who are not absolute stars outside of Terry McLaurin are just all lifted up.

Like Zacchaeus to me is like just become this incredible player as part of their offense.

So

to me, it's a big development that

there is, I guess, like collaborative and organized and dangerous as they are in these key moments in games, it's happening over and over.

And we should mention, Daniels ran for a season high, 127 yards.

He broke RG3's Washington record for quarterback rushing yards in a season.

And, you know, they, like we said, came back from a 10-point halftime deficit.

And you're right, his ability, his scramble ability.

It does remind me, I know people say, you know, because it's too easy and it could be seen as lazy just to connect

Jaden Daniels with a young Lamar Jackson.

But I see it, and I see it in the ways that I know Jaden Daniels isn't a finished product as a passer, but he's so quick and so slippery that he could turn plays where people are covered or busted plays or just even if he doesn't read the defense the right way, his athleticism can get them out of jams and create big plays and move chains.

And so even when you kind of scheme this team up right, he kills you.

And that's something that what makes you think about his potential is once he continues to grow and evolve as a player, marrying it with this athleticism.

It's such an exciting thought.

And time and time again, he would single-handedly just bail this team out of tricky situations.

I always think he's so calm and so collected, Connor, that he takes a nasty lick in the ribs right before the Earth's touchdown to end it.

And it made me think like I couldn't tell because they had called a timeout and he was kind of collecting his thoughts.

Or I was like, is he hurt?

And I thought the telecast could have done a better job.

They kept showing the replay, but Collinsworth and Tarico weren't like, man, he took a hellacious shot to his ribs, which, oh, by the way, when we were all like counting out Cliff Kingsbury, it was when the rookie quarterback had a bad rib and couldn't move and couldn't be the athlete that we see right now.

So something to keep an eye on to see if that is something that he actually hurt in the game because it certainly didn't come up in the telecast.

And if he is hurt, like you said, it removes a lot of the run action stuff that you want to do in the playbook and all the stuff that kind of marries your running and passing together, which

gives that playbook a little bit of added spice.

That was awesome, by the way, by Pennex, who after the

Yeah, and Connor, you laid it out great, that putting Bijan there was two cute by half.

The center fires it over his head.

Bijan also, kid, like scoop it up, throw it out of bounds.

Like you can throw the ball there, right?

Yeah.

He doesn't.

He takes, what, a 15, 20-yard loss.

And for Penix to coolly deliver one to London to get them back in striking range and then throw that ball and get it into Pitts, who's made very few big plays in his career.

So that was shocking in its own right,

really showed you something.

And that at the very least, even if, you know, we were just talking earlier in the show that we want to see the Bucs in it, and we love the Baker show.

But if this goes the other way and somehow the Bucs flatline next week and the Falcons get it done and they're in.

Okay, I can deal with that too.

They're different.

They're different.

Yep.

I agree.

It's special too because Pennex, if you remember, or Pitts, gave away Pennex's first potential NFL touchdown last week.

He threw it to Penix.

He basically was leaning towards the end zone, and then he just kind of threw the ball to the other team and gave it up.

And to trust him again in that situation, and again, that route, you have two single-coverage situations and then two double-coverage situations.

And you're depending on Pennex to not only only beat a defender inside and cross his face, but to get open and just show you that little window.

Like the percentage chance that he hits that is so small for a lot of other quarterbacks.

Really, really amazing.

And again, I mean, a guy that really boned you last week.

I mean, it, you know, shows where he's at.

And can we give a little shout out to Zach Ertz, by the way?

I thought his career was over.

I thought Ertz was on the way out.

He was bouncing around.

He was dealing with a lot of injuries.

And he has become like a security blanket for this quarterback.

And he's making big plays and he's

and it wasn't just the touchdown it was like the what it was the catch before where we trapped the ball in his leg slash groin area as Justin would call it I thought that was athletic so

classic Justin move to explain it as such

any other thoughts on this excellent fun game and very meaningful game in the big picture

Just like give me a good job.

Everybody needs to, like, we have to recertify as as drivers at a certain age, I'm guessing, right?

Don't the elderly have to retake their drivers?

Yes, they do.

They do.

Yeah.

Coaches every five years should get some sort of situational timeout and clock management exam, or else they just get fired.

It's just ridiculous.

One of the great things about

doing this this year is that we're on these, you know, we're on these text threads together, and you can tell when Connor's starting to heat up about something,

spin out on some level.

You knew this was going to be a topic tonight.

I enjoy that.

All right.

So now now spinning forward to week 18, the regular season finale.

As expected, the league announced it is Vikings Lions NBC Sunday night football.

Not just, this is so good.

Not just the NFC North on the line, but the number one seed in the NFC.

The bye week is on the line.

Homefield throughout.

The conference playoffs is on the line.

And if you don't win that game,

you dang drop all the way down to five.

And you're playing next week, and you're Road Warriors for as long as you're in the dance.

So that is quite a big difference.

Most likely, Road Warriors, depending on how things would shake out.

Anyway, Saturday, you get Cleveland, Baltimore.

You also get Cincinnati, Pittsburgh.

So Cincinnati.

Did they do that because of hard knocks, by the way?

I don't know.

I don't track that show in that way.

I'm not.

It's like it feels a bit.

But if they did, it wouldn't surprise me.

Cincinnati wins that game.

They then finish 9-8, and then they just got to hope and pray that the Denver Broncos playing Kansas City, resting a bunch of its starters, likely at 4.25 Eastern, gets beat by,

or Denver gets beat by the Chiefs in that game.

And then in terms of what else is on the line, let's see,

the Dolphins get the Jets.

So the Dolphins can make the playoffs if Denver loses to the Chiefs and Miami wins against the Jets.

Also,

anything else that I'm missing here in terms of playoff?

We talked about the NFC South is up for grabs.

Atlanta and Charlotte play or Carolina play at one.

And also New Orleans and Tampa Bay play at one.

Obviously, it would be great if Tampa Bay and Atlanta were playing, but it didn't shake out that way on the schedule for us.

But they will know their situation by 4 o'clock Eastern time next Sunday.

We'll know the division champ.

The only flip side to that is that there is a fair amount of drama around the number one draft pick, too, and it's kind of like

equally important for those fan bases to don't go win these games, lose or team.

Like, can we get that?

You know why we're hearing this?

Because Sestog knows that the Browns lose, and then I think there's two or three teams that have nothing to play for

against the other teams around the Browns.

There is a scenario where the Browns have the number one overall pick.

It is the Titans have to win, and the Patriots have to win.

So there's that scenario.

It's crazy to me,

not to go down this road again, but Cleveland came off a hopeful playoff team or a playoff season, and they have a chance.

There is a world where they get the number one pick.

Like, we're right back where we started from.

All right.

And you know what?

Let's end on

our, what is this, our pet ultimate show of 2024, the wildest year in the history of our podcast.

Let's end on

a message of hope and a story of joy.

Because on

Friday, and Mark and I were aware of this, we were plugged in, we were told that gravedigger, Justin Graeber, was going to make the move and finally end his,

you know, that pre, pre, pre-en engagement was finally going to end.

And it, in fact, did, because Justin proposed to the great Jessica,

and she said

she said yes, Sika.

Look at this.

Look at this.

Justin's also.

Oh, there's...

Oh, look at this.

So Justin hired a professional photographer to capture the moment in real time, which is something I think Mark Sessler is going to try in a couple of months.

So this is very important.

Now, let's now go live to Texas, where I believe the couple is together.

Let's see.

This is so corny and cute.

What?

Who is that?

Justin,

we got it with the montage.

Where are you?

Come back.

It's pre-made.

It's going to end in a sec.

I can't get it in my face.

Look at that.

Yay.

Hi, boys.

Oh, so happy.

So happy to get Justin.

Big congrats.

I'm very, you know, we're very happy for both of you guys.

You're a great couple.

And

we've, how long have we known each other now?

Like three, four years?

Yeah.

Yeah.

So we met, Jessica and I met a little before, I gotta move this.

I like this.

A little before

a little before I started at NFL, because we actually met at my previous job.

We were coworkers, but we didn't start dating.

Our first date, and longtime ATN fans, not even that long, but ATN fans will know that our first date was the NFL holiday party.

Oh, yes.

When

you got Mystery Woman X,

who was married.

Separated, but married, technically.

We don't need to dwell on that.

That is in the past, the deep past.

And now we spin forward.

And this is Jessica's first time on Heed the Call.

She was on the draft live stream.

What a night that was.

I'm surprised the relationship survived that evening.

You got to get close enough to it that people can hear you.

Jessica, people.

People want to know,

first of all,

they want to hear you say

the word that is spelled T-E-R-R-Y.

And people want to just say congratulations to both of you.

You're a wonderful couple, and we're so happy for you.

And are we all invited to the wedding?

Or is it going to be a big wedding?

Of course.

Oh, yeah.

Well, that's.

I'm going to be in Texas, so my grandparents can come.

You look ridiculous.

Oh, nice.

Look, you already sound like an old married couple.

What would I do without her?

All right.

A Texas wedding.

When?

Is it next year, this year?

What are we doing?

Probably spring or summer 26.

Cause, like,

we're we need time.

Yeah, we got we want to just like enjoy being engaged for a bit.

So we're not going to rush into planning anything for like we are pre-married right now.

Yeah, we're good.

We don't want to rush into anything

and make it a shotgun wedding.

We want to do it right.

And then if we like try to plan something for fall next season, then like, what are you guys going to do that weekend?

Well, fall's not ideal.

So we just hang a big like

a be right back wooden sign with paint and come back for a week, you know, seven.

Connor, any, as a married man, a man with a mortgage, anything you'd like to impart in terms of wisdom to Justin and Jessica, two people you've ever actually met in person?

Go ahead.

Mets in person at the Super Bowl when

Dan when Dan was like three and a half hours late.

Right, yeah.

We were sitting in a bar waiting for Dan for hours.

Yes, that's right.

Absolutely.

Oh, that night.

Yeah.

Well, we got lost.

We were trying to find the bar.

That's how I remembered it.

I would say that the old, all the old axioms hold true, right?

Never, truly, never go to bed angry and always be the first one to apologize.

And yes, dear gets you out of a god-awful amount of trouble.

So, you know, that's always the first move.

I will hold off on marriage advice at the moment, but I will say that like

it was.

Really?

but it was just a wonderful experience in London when we all went as a group to hang out with you two specifically like out in the parking lot outside the hotel because you were you enjoyed your smoking and your cigarettes.

So I'd come out with her a lot and like it was like I got to know you a little bit just away from the from the crowd.

And so I truly am very happy for you both and I have no doubts that you're going to knock it out of the park.

Can't wait.

Cannot wait for the wedding.

Can't wait to see what's next for you crazy kids.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

thank you

all right that was really nice you guys thanks

cool well that's cool a little sign in the back too you're all ready for this

the engagement party

i love it um all right there you go there's some happy news in the heed the call universe and uh we will be back on monday night with the final monday night football recap and uh connor uh will be joining us as will james palmer for our new year's eve show so make sure you're there for that where we share some new year's resolutions for NFL podcasters.

So a lot of fun stuff coming up.

Thank you to everybody.

Make sure you subscribe on YouTube.

youtube.com slash at heed the call

pod pod and leave comments please do it please help us the algo all

all of you hedonists out there we call on you to get us the hashtag 48.4 until next time

mark

heed that call.