NFL Week 16 Recap!!

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The Heed the Call Podcast.

Hands clinched?

Nothing.

Keep grinding, thick boys.

Welcome to Heed the Call the Flagship Program Week 16.

Dan Hands is here, joined by Mark Sessler, Connor Orr,

and Justin Graver to give you all the action that was in this Sunday

as the regular season winds down and Christmas approaches.

What's up, my thick boys?

It's appropriate.

Took me by surprise a little bit, you know.

We did.

We clinched nothing.

We don't clinch until...

What is clinching for our podcast?

I guess when the last day of the draft mark, that's like us clinching.

That's when we win the title and then we go on vacation or whatever.

Yeah, I mean, there's biorhythms.

And I would say,

like when you're flying flying home from,

if you're lucky enough to go to the Super Bowl and you're on that airplane home, that feels like a big transitional human moment that I always long for that trip home.

A thick boy release, if you will.

That's what we'd call it.

Yeah.

And

this Sunday is filled with a lot of action, a couple, well, not a ton of clinching scenarios, but a lot of teams got eliminated, I feel like, today.

And we're going to go through all of it and get you caught up to date.

And I don't know, I I think we should dive in because we've got a lot to get to, including two Saturday games, which we'll get to in just a little bit.

But let's start where we must.

The game of the day, the game that had big ramifications in the NFC and the NFC East.

It was the Eagles and Commanders.

Mark Sessler, get us going.

Hit the queue.

Send us.

We'll do.

Send us to Bethlehem.

Let's go.

Same for the Theology Podcast.

One quarter into this acid dip tussle between Philly and Washington, Saquon Barkley has 109 yards and two touchdowns.

It's 21-7 Eagles.

We're talking about Barkley breaking Eric Dickerson's record at some stage, and the commies feel doomed.

Brian Robinson blown up on fourth and one out of the gate.

Two fumbles by him early.

Five commanders' turnovers on the day.

I want my mommy.

But in the middle of this, the universe strikes.

Jalen Hurts is lost early with a concussion.

In comes Kenny Pickett, and the commanders make it clear, you're not beating us with Saquon.

You got to make this picket guy do it.

Stack box after stack box, pent-up field goal drives, a game-altering Devontae Smith drop with minutes to go, creating that feeling we get watching sports that Jaden Daniels is about to overcome it all.

Three touchdowns on the final four drives, five on the day.

Huge plays galore.

His teammates feel it, and we feel it too that Daniels needing one score in the final two minutes is absolutely going to drive them down the field and calmly hit Jameison Crowder with mere seconds to go.

Game of the year, Commanders 36, Eagles 33.

I mean,

that's what it, when you have someone special.

And who knows?

You never know.

We were talking the same way about CJ Stroud last year.

And then you fast forward to a year and you're just like, well, okay, maybe we should.

tap the brakes on the rookies and who they are and what they mean in the big picture.

But in the here and now, how can you not get excited?

Jaden Daniels, Mark, has an outrageous performance in this game and a performance that you need on a game where you turn the ball over five times, which leads to 13 points, and they come within, you know,

a whisker of

losing a game that they needed when the starting quarterback goes out in the first quarter.

They would have been kicking themselves and unable to sleep tonight.

But instead, Daniels lifts them up.

And yeah, the Devonta drop was massive, obviously, as well.

Yeah, that was Philly's doorway into victory there.

I mean, it's one of those games where, like, the crew kept saying, well, Washington should feel lucky to only be down by 10.

And you're like, you're right, because you turned the ball over so many times early.

And the way that the Eagles looked before Jalen Hurts went out, it looked like Saquon Barkley might run for 300 yards and Washington could not get out of their way.

But

the point of the whole thing is that none of it seemed to matter.

Like once Daniels got unhooked and there was this incredible fourth and 11 scenario where he blasted on with his legs to get the first.

Like he had 81 yards on the ground.

It was like the full Daniels experience.

Now before that winning drive, he threw a very killer pick and it was just a typical, it was the more like atypical kind of decision by Daniels where it just was a desperate decision.

They put a lot of pressure on him.

But he escaped pressure and kept making these monster throws And all sorts of like side characters stepped up to fillet the Eagles down the stretch.

There were some communication breakdowns.

CJ Gardner Johnson got tossed from the game.

I mean, it was just a wild affair.

And it made me think of the old NFL.com days because now when, you know, when we do this, we can all chime in.

But it was like the me of like 2013, if I had to do the write-up for this,

my head would have exploded into 14 parts because so many things were happening, but it had this cohesive feel at the end where it's just, this is what Washington is.

Like, to win a game like this, where they were so faulty and to find a way against the Eagles and get this thing done.

Like, it was a huge moment for Dan Quinn, and they were very fired up after the game.

My goodness.

Doug Williams.

Come in.

We said it it would take every fing one of us, everybody in this clock, come on, collect the mindset.

It did take fing everybody, right?

Congrats on number 10, man.

Heavy hitters now we're fing here.

Hey, I got a game ball to the first coach in his first season to get 10 wins in franchise history.

Oh, damn.

And he spikes it, Connor.

It was a good knowledge of statistics by Terry McLaurin.

Very nice.

Yeah, he must have just

thumbed through Twitter quick.

Or he has a subscription to a live PR guy got in his ear, maybe.

Yeah, anybody with ESPN stats and info can sound a little smarter.

And so anyway,

what I thought was really good was just sort of the narrative bending of this game where we had these classic moments like the Terry McLaurin touchdown that he caught.

I mean, Jaden Daniels just gets absolutely rocked on that play.

And we're always talking about durability concerns.

He also rushes for 80 yards.

And on the opposite end, you know, to Mark's point, I love when the game hits a stressor where you have Kenny Pickett, then you have the Eagles back down in the goal line, and you're running Saquon Barkley to try to do the jump pass.

And that's the moment where you're just like, holy shit, this game's going to take a completely wild, like hurricane-like turn.

And so, this was phenomenal from start to finish.

But Jaden Daniels at this point has got, you know, we flirted with the whole, oh, Bo Nick's rookie of the year thing.

Like, Jaden Daniels has got a headlock on this thing now.

He's done this over and over.

And it's like, you can just see,

think of how dejected this team was a year ago

There's a lot of turnover here, but just like these veteran players like seem to respond to Jaden Daniels in a way where there is this complete and total belief at the end of the game that they're going to go do it.

And it keeps happening.

So it's confirmed.

And just to underline,

obviously, how critical the Devonta Smith drop was, that was a pass where it's a bust in coverage.

It should have been the final nail in the coffin on a sloppy performance by Washington because there's no one around him.

But he can't hold on to the pass.

It was right at the two-minute warning.

I think it was like 201 or so.

201, right, sure.

The play started at 2.07, third and five.

He catches that ball.

Let's say if he gets tackled, then it's a two-minute warning.

They have one timeout, Washington.

So even if they keep him out of the end zone or hold him to the field goal, they probably get the ball down, what?

They would have been down.

Well, it was 30 to 28 when that play happened.

So they would have been down 33, 28, no timeouts between like 30 and 40 seconds to go on the the clock.

So I don't think the commanders pull this off in that situation.

So they got lucky there, but also the Eagles got lucky.

And I'll point out that the Eagles fumbled four times in this game themselves and fell on every one of those fumbles.

So not the most glorious game in terms of cleanliness, but certainly an exciting one, one of the best of the year.

And here is my own useless data point mark.

The Commanders' win probability was as low as 5.7% with 19 seconds to play in the third quarter.

Their chance of making the postseason jumped to 93% with the win, while the Eagles' NFC number one seed chance fell to 4%.

So a very costly loss for the Eagles, who'll be okay,

and a huge win for Washington, who, to me, in a way,

you kind of need, I want one more team to be a chaos agent in January.

And the commanders are interesting.

They're not a perfect team, but that kid's special, and he can make any matchup dangerous for a favorite in the playoffs.

I'll say one quick thing because

we'll wait and see where Jalen Hurts is.

When he initially got hit, he kind of like the situation with the ground, like he jumped right up, and I thought to myself, I think he's fine.

I think it's fine.

But then they put him to the tent, he's taken to the locker room, and he's just gone.

And there is not really an update on that.

But the thing that was worse was they just looked like a different team.

There was a moment where it was a fourth and one, and they chose not to do like the tush push because this is a different type of player with Kenny Pickett in there.

And Kenny Pickett was bending over in sheer pain.

I think it's ribs.

So he himself is banged up, and they almost almost brought the emergency quarterback in.

He got the snot knocked out of him in this game.

I love saying that, by the way.

And so I just wanted to chime in.

Get him back.

I like that.

The situational blitzing by Dan Quinn in this one was excellent.

Now, it always looks better against Kenny Pickett, but

it was like a horror movie.

Like he knew just when to pop the guy from behind the door.

And every time it seemed to be extraordinarily painful for Pickett to limit his mobility.

And he stopped going vertical really a lot after that, which I thought was kind of interesting, too.

Can I say one last little tiny, tiny thing?

But, like, just because I think it's like Marshawn Lattimore saw a ton of action.

He was all over AJ Brown in this game.

And on one, I think it was one drive, there were three massive pass interference calls.

Two of them seemed really shaky, but then he went out.

And I kind of thought that one might be lights out because AJ Brown was on fire in this game.

But like, the him versus Lattimore thing was a spicy watch.

I believe Lattimore got called for four DPIs in the second half of this game.

The flags in this, there was wild.

That's not what they got them for, but yeah.

All right.

And by the way, if there's an opposite of the Sky Rizzy Saints strobe light locker room celebration sound,

that's it.

We found it in Washington.

All right.

Thank you, Justin.

All right, let's move.

Game two that we're going to cover.

Speaking of the gravedigger, let's head to Seattle where the Vikings and Seahawks did battle.

Great moments are born from great opportunity.

Sam Darnold has taken his opportunity this season and turned it into great moment after great moment and Sunday was no exception.

After Seattle scored to go up 24-20 with 421 to play, Darnold had perhaps his best moment so far this year.

Stepping up to escape a collapsing pocket, heaving a ball down the left sideline to the best receiver in the world, with Darnold's pass just beating the cover two safety to the spot, and Justin Jefferson making a leaping, twirling grab to retake the lead for Minnesota.

And the Vikings held on from there, winning 27-24 to move to 13-2 on the season, maintaining their tie with the Lions for first before best record in the NFC.

And they are now 8-1 in one score games.

Yeah, a little bit of magic,

pixie dust on this Vikings team right now.

And sometimes as a Darnold defender over the years and now someone who's celebrating his success, I get frustrated.

And they even said it during the telecast after that go-ahead touchdown where

who was it?

Was it Sanchez?

Kind of said, yeah, just throw it up when you got Justin Jefferson.

Nah, man.

Like the play before that, he gets rolled up on.

they would have been in third and forever, by the way.

A sneaky big aspect of this game is after the Seahawks went ahead in the fourth quarter, Darnold,

it's incomplete, and then he takes a sack, or was it sack, and then another sack, but it was a very clear face mask.

So instead of third and forever, it's first down and 10 when he makes that throw.

But

he was hurting after that play.

So to the toughness to get up, they call the play.

He feels the pressure, and then he puts it exactly where it needs to be, like you said,

fitting it between the corner and the safety for the touchdown.

Just, it is, I think, it was the high moment for the Vikings.

And, Connor, for me, like, it's the, it's the first time I'm thinking to myself, this is more than just like a fun story and a nice comeback of the year type situation.

I think the idea of the Vikings in the NFC making a real run,

I think it's all there for them.

I think they have a chance.

I think Sam Darnold leading the way is a real thing.

And what a hell of a story it would be if that's what happens.

Queen Bea bitch.

And he did it against Gino, too.

Take that, baby.

Yeah, sure, right?

And we've been talking about this for a couple of weeks now.

And, you know, if we're talking about the long term,

Sam Darnold now, I think, interestingly, the price keeps going up.

I was like, okay, cool.

This is a Daniel Jones type of player.

Well, first it was a Baker Mayfield type contract.

Now it's a Daniel Jones type contract.

Now I'm like, he's going to get like $55 million here.

Like, has he now, I was thinking about this too, as the Dolphins were finishing off the 49ers.

Like, is his contract going to surpass a Brock Purdy contract now at this point?

Have we reached that stage?

Has he increased his

price tag by that level?

It's really a crazy story, really.

It is.

And

it creates an interesting,

really, it's going to be a test of how well coaches can self-examine.

And, you know,

if you're Kyle Shanahan or you're somebody else, it's like, would I rather Brock Purdy at this price or would I rather Sam Darnold?

And what can I do to help them?

What kind of personnel do we have?

But I think the other part of this, too, is, I mean, this defense still kind of blows my mind the way that they're just throwing, continuing to throw curveballs.

Like I saw some really fun, you know, double-A gap fake blitzes, and then Geno Smith all of a sudden had a look and then all of a sudden kind of stopped back and just kind of threw the ball deep into coverage.

And their ability still to just like, I love this.

It's, it's like a, it's like a virus where they learn how you function and then they kind of just crawl into your skin and short circuit you based on what you're doing well.

And, and, and that to me is the other component of this.

Like, this is a Super Bowl team.

I, I don't think there's any doubt about it.

Right, because we're just a couple years removed from when they also had the winning the most like one-score games on the history of the planet.

But that team I never really had any confidence in, and you just sort of were waiting for the door to get blown in at some point.

And I love what you just said about Brian Flores.

Like, you should send that to him and have him stick it on a wall because it's like that's what he does, and that's what he's been doing all year round.

And that's why I believe in them in the playoffs, because I think they're going to make life very difficult for an opposing quarterback.

And what Sam Darnold is doing is not at all a mirage.

He's more than good right now.

He's fun to watch, and he's like, there's something about him that just meshes so well with the rest of this offense that I'm with you.

I believe that they are, we know a couple teams in the NFC that feel like they could take out the Lions or the Eagles or really anyone on the right day.

Yeah, and I think it's interesting because the Vikings are going to have a coaching advantage in most.

I mean, there's a lot of great coordinators, especially in the NFC, but to have Kevin O'Connell on the offensive side and Brian Flores on the defensive side,

they are going to have a schematic advantage in most matchups that they could see in the playoffs.

And I think Flores is heading probably for a head coaching job at some point.

If not this upcoming cycle, definitely the one after that.

Kevin O'Connell should be definitely leading the talks for coach of the year, in my opinion, to have this team where the quarterback that you were expecting,

the guy they drafted.

gets hurt so early and Darnold was maybe going to start or maybe be a little bridge.

And to have them in the position they're in now is absolutely mind-blowing.

But for Seattle side, there are like some concerns.

Obviously, they're on a two-game losing streak now.

Geno Smith in this game, obviously coming back from that knee injury suffered last week, he didn't look very mobile.

I know he had a scramble at the end of the game where he picked up almost a first down, but the first time that the Vikings made him move off his spot in this game,

he was like rolling to his right and threw a bad interception, just didn't get anything on that throw.

And it felt like he kind of warmed up into this game.

And then he started dealing.

In the second half, he sort of caught fire, but threw a game losing interception.

And, you know, maybe it's on DK Metcalf for breaking off his route incorrectly.

Maybe it's on just the Vikings for getting pressure there and forcing Smith to throw it before he could read what Metcalf was doing in his route.

But the Seahawks also lose Ken Walker towards the end of this game to an ankle injury.

And remember, he's missed a bunch.

You know, he was out the last two weeks.

And now we'll see if he's even back.

And the Seahawks are in a desperate situation where if they lose next week and the Rams win, then the week 18 Rams-Seahawks matchup won't even matter because the Rams will already have a two-game advantage in the NFC West.

So Seattle, it's desperate times now.

They have to go beat.

I think it's Chicago next week.

I mean, are we itching to see the Seahawks in the postseason?

I don't think you have to worry about it.

I think they are down to a 17% chance.

This is a crushing loss for them,

falling to 8-7.

We'll talk about the Rams later, but they're now a full game clear.

The big play at the end, after the Darnold touchdown, the Seahawks take over.

They have a chance, but on the first play, that possession, as you said, it's a three-man rush.

And

I'm not sure who I'd like to credit him, but I don't have his name off the top of my head.

Immediately wins, gets right in Geno's face, which forces Geno to cut that throw off soon.

And I was watching a breakdown from Morlofsky where he pointed out that, like, it's not necessarily that DK Metcalf ran the wrong route.

It's that when your offensive line gets beat on a three-man rush, when you're running a downfield route, by the time he went to go turn, the ball was already out and the safety or the cornerback was able, Jihad Ward had the hit, was able to track it and make the play on it.

So obviously not how Seattle wanted that game to end.

And for the Darnold Truthers out there, it just keeps getting better.

And for the Vikings, very strange.

I can't remember ever this happening.

A team, it probably happened last year, let's be honest, but a team that is 13-2

sits right now as the five seed in the NFC.

However,

they win out.

They not only win the NFC North, they are the number one seed in the NFC.

So next week.

We'll see what happens.

You had a good little day, by the way, just because, you know, I'm kind of tracking.

Oh, did I?

Well, Well, did you happen to catch a jet game?

Well, no,

that to me is immaterial at this point.

But, like, just little campaigns that you've been on this season

took a nice positive turn for you today.

And maybe another for Justin.

Is there any other?

Well, yeah.

Like,

one that you're going to be able to do.

Let me know about my winning campaigns because maybe I do need that encouragement.

Because as much as I try to pretend like jet losses don't affect me, everyone hurts and makes me die a little bit more.

So not a total victory for the old Zeuser in week 16.

All right, let's move to our next game.

It was at Soldier Field.

Connor, take us to the Lions.

Are they going to get it figured out on defense?

Let's talk about it.

After three days, they finally found Ben Johnson, hands holding knees, rocking back and forth under his desk.

He reeked of coffee, cigarettes, and battery acid.

Around the office were scattered newspapers and magazines with various words circled, hidden messages he believed from NFL defenses trying to stop him.

And when they finally dragged him out into a cold shower, peeled the aluminum foil off his head, and slapped him into sobriety, he simply let out a low chuckle.

We're so good, he says, we're just gonna pretend to suck.

And that was the story in the 34-17 win over the Bears.

A play called Stumblebum, built around fake tripping in the backfield, served as a knockout blow in a game that never really felt contested.

Johnson, the mad scientist, looked across the sideline and said, Heard you guys have a job opening.

Man, by the way, first thing I thought after I saw this, I was like, oh, this is Connor's gonna write like a hundred and thousand words on this NSI.

This is this is what gets Connor Orr out of bed in the morning.

And for those that maybe don't know, can you explain the actual what this trick play was?

Because it's really the only thing I was thinking, honestly, Connor, was why the hell are we not using this to clinch the NFC title game or the Super Bowl?

I would have kept this one in the bag, but go ahead, explain it to the people.

So that's a great question.

I got that question from a lot of people.

And the reason why is because this play and this little flourish on it is really only effective against this defense, against this setup, and against these players in particular.

So this is really cool.

Ben Johnson saw the Packers run.

The concept here is called tight end leak.

It's a very popular play, especially from the Shanahan guys, where you're basically faking a hard run to one side, the tight end's blocking, and then he goes shallow and then vertical all of a sudden.

Like once the linebackers commit, you're going vertical, right?

So what happens here is that in this particular play, so Ben Johnson saw the Packers fumble a snap against the Bears last year.

And then all of a sudden he's like, so he goes to Jared Goff this week and says, can you pretend to fumble a ball and pick it back up?

And Goff's like, no.

So they settle on pretending to trip, which is incredible because if you're watching this game, you're like, oh, holy shit, like the two guys almost fell and then they had, you know, they scored a huge touchdown.

But then you go back and you look at it, and the trip is essential because this is Jonathan Owens, 36.

If you're watching this on YouTube, he was the safety.

He was down in the box, linebacker depth, and he's looking in the backfield like, what on earth is going on?

And Ben Johnson wanted to pray on this because their safeties and linebackers are actually really good against the run, right?

So they're all focused on what's happening in the backfield.

All of a sudden, Sam Laporta turns up field and Owens' head just snaps and he's like, whoa, like he has no chance of catching him.

And then they throw the easy touchdown.

So many wrinkles to this.

Tight end leak is an amazing play.

The Bills actually used it.

A couple weeks ago in that big Ty Johnson touchdown, but

they put a little running back pass and attached it to it.

So there's a lot of wrinkles here.

Very fun play.

Loved every minute of it.

I love that Ben Johnson's original idea was an actual fumble.

Like, this team is so out of pocket, as they say, just totally just madmen.

I love it.

But think about this.

Think where we're at.

Like, okay, so three or four weeks ago, the Buccaneers and the Giants played a game at the Meadowlands and there was a handoff.

We talked about this, right?

The ball was on the ground for 13 seconds and no one had a goddamn clue, okay?

That's half of the NFL.

The Lions are so good that they're able to fake tripping with two different people on a play and then score a touchdown on it.

Like if you're an owner and you're watching that and you're saying, like, there's a difference between our level of precision and this level of precision.

It's not even close.

Like

the coordination to be able to pull that off is mind-blowing.

It's amazing.

It's crazy.

Very cool.

And then also, like, just beyond this, the fact that you have the confidence, no matter who's in or out of the lineup, to just go execute this and kind of just enjoy life to such precision and to such amount, but also that the Lions who we've

fretted over on both sides of the ball,

come out today and they score on their first six drives.

There's a missed field goal and they score another touchdown.

It's like, I was concerned about the ground game, about what would happen, but then you have like Williams stepping up and looking like an absolute earth ender at wide receiver.

And Jameer Gibbs, I guess he can handle the whole 23 carries.

They don't need the two of them in some of these matchups.

This is the Bears, but I mean, how encouraging, probably psychologically, for them to come out and drop a hammer this way.

Gibbs was interesting.

So let's talk about that and then we can get to the defense.

With Gibbs, there was a goal line situation very early in this game, and he was stonewalled on two straight carries.

And so, you know, the broadcast makes the point, oh, well, this is where you want Montgomery.

Like, this is where you want Montgomery.

I thought he was in on one of those, but anyway, he gets the ball a third time and ends up hammering it in.

But in a more featured role, I think that he can actually be more devastating because you're not flipping him every other drive.

And there are just plays, you know, I said this to someone, he'll catch a ball and he'll make the move that we think he should make based on our view of the field, you know, we're like, wow, look at all this space that he can't possibly see, but he can just feel it.

And so I thought this was one of these great showcase games where him, he was dead to rights in the backfield like three times in this game, spun his way out, had some incredible positive yardage plays.

So

I think they might even be a little more dynamic with him in the lineup on an every down basis.

I mean, if you're the bears and i'm glad to see that caleb williams at least put up some numbers in this game connecting with keenan allen and and we're not going to totally flame out down the down the stretch um in terms of scoring points because they did put some points on the board here um but yeah like you said if you're watching ben johnson like you're thinking of him okay if we can't do something like trade for kyle shanahan this guy's the next best thing he would bring he would breathe life into the organization and then and you can imagine this is a conversation they're having behind the scenes in that building after getting lit up on Sunday.

One would think, right?

And I think that when you go back and you study the DNA of a lot of coach hirings, sometimes the genesis of this comes from when a team gets the shit kicked out of them by a coordinator from another team.

And, you know, the Seahawks are a great example.

Like, they got their butts kicked by the Ravens last year and Mike McDonald.

And they're like, I got to hire this guy, right?

And so I do think that there's something to that.

We don't know whether Ben Johnson's going to be a good head coach.

We don't know if wherever he goes, he's going to have the best offensive line in the NFL and five of the best skill position players in the NFL.

There's a lot of questions, but what there isn't a question on is his ability to see things and to think a step ahead of his opponents.

And so I think that's what's impressive with him.

But one note on Caleb.

So they did have two quick scoring drives after they were down 20-0,

one pretty long one and then a quick one.

Some coverage busts.

So Lions, mix of good and bad when they were trying to experiment defensively here.

But Caleb Williams now has the sixth longest single season interception list streak in the NFL.

And oddly,

he also now passed, he has the sixth best single season in Bears history for a quarterback.

He just passed today, he passed Jim Harbaugh, Mitch Trubisky, and Rex Grossman.

Yeah.

Says a lot about the Bears.

Yeah, that's along the lines of when I said last week how Rogers was having one of the best Jets QB seasons ever.

You got to understand the organization's history, which is tortured at the quarterback position.

One quick anecdote before we take a break about Ben Johnson and how quickly things

happen in the NFL.

Two years ago, two summers ago, I'm doing the Hard Knox Lions podcast with Connie Fox, or was it three, two or three?

And

we were kind of fixated on how much love Deuce Staley was getting on whenever they were talking about the offensive side of the ball.

It was all about Deuce, who I think was the running backs coach/slash assistant head coach.

And then we turned turned into a bit, Justin, I think you might remember you were producing at that time.

I remember that.

We're just like, who is the offensive coordinator of the Lions?

And finally, at the end of hard knocks, Ben Johnson kind of pokes out from a hole and be like, yeah, we want to learn more about that guy.

And now he's, you know, basically a household name about to write his own check in the NFL as the next head coach,

De Jour.

So,

listen,

he's having a moment.

Good for him.

All right, let's take a break and we'll hit the Saturday games when we come back.

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All right, we're back, Connor.

It's time to talk Saturday football.

It's that time of year.

By the way, anybody interested by the

so we know how the NFL, and I love the NFL.

I love what we do for a living.

It's not like I root against the NFL, but they are the big, the big bully, you know, the big, the big brother on the block.

And like they came for Christmas and took it away from the NBA, right?

For instance?

Yeah.

Interesting, and I know Justin,

because my father-in-law is from Texas and is a big college football fan, so I watched a lot of college football the last couple of days.

And

the advent of this college football playoff, nice little wrinkle for the first time.

Somebody can punch back.

College football can punch back against the NFL in these Saturday windows.

So I'd be interesting to see what kind of number

the NFL games did versus the college games.

And Justin, you'll have to spend the rest of the show sorting through the ratings of Nielsen for Notre Dame.

Weren't they mostly unwatchable games?

I saw a lot of negative reactions.

Unwatchable is strong, and I'm happy for Justin that his hook'em horns took care of business.

Notre Dame won, so I know Connor's happy.

Like, I'm sorry, Mark, it wasn't theater to you from a

checked out some of it, but I just think it's like wishing for someone to like, you know, cause ruffle up the NFL's feathers viewing-wise feels like a bit of a Joe-in-the-Arc scenario.

It does, I understand, but this feels like a little Ali Frazier thing.

Like, these are two heavyweights going head to head, and it's good to see the NFL actually have it's this isn't

Mike Tyson versus Little Mac, you know what I mean?

Anyway, with that said,

that was such a 1980s kid reference.

Let's head to Saturday football, starting with what went down in Baltimore.

Conman

tonight, our special is a four-course Russell Wilson tasting menu that offers the entire Mr.

Unlimited experience.

Cosmonaut, I'm gonna drop the accent.

I can't do French.

Getting absolutely obliterated by a free rusher and bravely standing in the pocket.

Course two, doing that really cool thing where he turns his back to the defense and runs in circles and nails Ben Skoronik right before he goes out of bounds.

Course three, having a moon ball with a 4% chance of completion brought in for the catch.

Course four, running with reckless abandon and diving heroically at the end zone for no reason before fumbling.

And our finale, a gutting pick six,

34-17 win for Baltimore.

That was the backbreaker, and it made all the difference.

Pushes Baltimore into the playoffs and sets them up for a chance to steal the division.

Devastating turnovers by Wilson.

The fumble inside the Baltimore five-yard line.

And as you said, the Marlon Humphrey 37-yard pick six for a touchdown, which was, you know, that and a healthy dose of Derrick Henry.

Connor, that was the difference in this one.

It was shocking.

I went back and re-watched this game again, and after a while, I saw so many missed tackles that I looked for like an official count.

There's almost 30 missed tackles in this game.

I think the Ravens, it was double their normal number, and the Steelers,

also like a huge outlier game for them.

And I don't know whether that's the weather.

I don't know whether it was Derrick Henry, but all like nobody could tackle in this game.

And

it was kind of a sloppy affair.

But, you know, I thought Baltimore really stood out.

I mean, they did a nice job getting after Russell Wilson without a lot of blitzing,

you know, really even stunting.

I think, you know, they only stunted on like eight or nine plays in this game and just kind of got that organic pressure.

And I think that made all the difference.

And Wilson just made a couple of boneheaded plays and was really buoyed by, like, I mean, Calvin Austin makes a catch of the year.

Some of these other got like two, really.

And he was, Russell Wilson was late on some of those throws.

Like, he should have thrown way sooner to Calvin Austin deep when he had him at that one point.

And so, just a lot of missed opportunities.

Not a great game from Russell Wilson all around.

It's like Derrick Henry had seven explosive runs,

and he's going to just beat you up.

I'm surprised that that would cow like a team like the Steelers, but that led the league

of any player this season in a game.

So, you know, I think that to me, speaks to how physical it can be down the stretch.

It's weird to me when we like spend a couple weeks in our preview shows saying, well, without George Pickens, like the Steelers' offense is completely different because then they find a way to get around it and prove you wrong and show the resourcefulness.

But they really just seem like we can't afford any mistakes type of attack right now.

And for me, it's like they're a bit limited.

And so to say that they're stealing, they could steal a division, the Ravens, like, they're just the better team right now.

Can I ask the question?

Like, is it out of,

as we've seen, I feel like the Steelers

ceiling, their glass ceiling be installed here the last two weeks.

Like, is it possible they don't win again this season?

I think that's possible.

I mean, they get the Chiefs and then the Bengals to close the season.

So Pittsburgh obviously put themselves in an incredible position by getting to 10-3,

but

it is not going to be an easy close.

And yeah, they just...

I don't know.

Like, I watched the Steelers, and they are better.

It's a better brand of football than we've seen in recent years, but it's still, they need pickings pickings back, and then they need a little bit more than that.

I just don't know if it's there.

I don't know if there's a higher gear that makes them an actual power player come January, but happy to be

like, Look at the two teams they lost to, like, what they want to do to a team like Pittsburgh.

And that's the concern for me, that they couldn't really steal out of any one of those.

And, you know, they were ripped apart by the Eagles in the final quarter of that game.

And then to see this happen, it's like, yeah, I'm with you.

I'm a little diminished on them.

I think if they got a home playoff game of any sort, they can win.

That I trust them to be a game.

I don't think they're getting one, though.

I think they're not going to get that.

No, they've taken that chance away.

61 to 30 outscored by the Eagles and Ravens in back-to-back losses.

We talked about it on the preview where the Steelers, the last time that they played the Ravens, they were begging.

They wanted Derrick Henry to get the ball because they were going after Lamar.

They didn't want Lamar to pull the ball like whenever they were doing zone read.

And they were doing that stuff again where Baltimore, I actually kind of saw like Lamar would sometimes pretend that it was a very obvious handoff and stand in a non-dynamic way just so he could pull the ball and carry it.

And the Steelers were all over Derrick Henry at the beginning of this game, but he just kept coming.

And I think that was the difference.

They got what they asked for.

I think they wanted to tire Derrick Henry out, wear him down, and then force Lamar Jackson to be one-dimensional.

But Henry just had another gear in this game.

Looking at the playoffs right now, it is still Pittsburgh right now, 10-5 in the three leading the division.

But yeah, now tied with the Ravens, and this is wide open.

We'll see how it plays out.

Let's check out the other Saturday game that was played at Arrowhead.

Listen, I'm not the biggest conspiracy theory guy.

Mark and I have talked about 112263 forever.

Another example, I absolutely take the federal government at their word when they tell us that the New Jersey drones were launched to distract us from Anthony Richardson's passing.

But I have to say, I feel bamboozled by the latest Patrick Mahomes has a debilitating high ankle sprain saga.

Mahomes practiced, then played on a short week, then scored touchdowns through the air and on the ground in a 27-19 win over the Texans.

At no point did the quarterback appear limited by the injury that was, you know, was being presented as a potentially multi-week injury last Monday morning.

Makes you think.

The 14-1 Chiefs can clinch the postseason by and home field advantage by beating the Steelers on Christmas Day, which would be their third game in 11 days.

So two games into this test, they've aced it and the quarterback is healthy or healthy enough to keep them on the right track.

I mean, what was more, what fits into this narrative

in potential conspiracy theory more than him openly running and using his legs on the opening drive and running for what, the 15-yard?

That's like a thumb in the eye of all the people.

Like thumb in the eye of everyone.

It really is.

The one thing I like about the Chiefs at this point is I think he's spreading the ball all over the place.

They have a lot of different types of players they can use.

But the idea that an injury concern is going to knock him out, this is the eighth time this has happened.

And I'm not, I don't buy this anymore, and I never will.

I mean, non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drugs exist.

You know, we can, we can just take, you can take a lot more Tylenol than you think you can.

That's all I'm going to say.

You know?

Yeah, I mean, I'm sure he was doped up to whatever the legal limit was and perhaps beyond that.

But in all seriousness, he's a tough, he's a tough dude.

And he's found his way onto the field at times when other quarterbacks probably would be knocked out of the game.

And

so while this wasn't, again, because they don't do that, they don't do overwhelming efforts.

In fact, this game was about to be 17-17

when the Houston Texans, just calamitous.

So they.

C.J.

Stroud looking actually frisky for the first time in a while, delivers a beautiful strike to the back of the end zone to Tank Dell

in, when was this, the third quarter, I believe.

Yeah, this was

with

1140 to play in the third quarter.

He hits Tank Dell for 30 yards.

Dell has a hideous collision in the back of the end zone, and you knew right away it was serious, and he was carted off.

You have CJ Stroud.

I don't know if I've ever seen this, openly sobbing, the quarterback of the Texans who was tight with Dell.

Yeah, Dell is obviously an important part of the team and also highly respected.

And we learned Sunday morning that it's a dislocated kneecap and I'm guessing shredded ligaments and all the bad stuff.

So we just hope we get Tank Dell back on the field next year.

And after that point, they missed the PAT, which is, come on, when your team is that low, do not shank the extra points.

So you're down 17, 16, and that's as close as they ever got.

And the Chiefs did what the Chiefs do, including on the final drive of the game, when it was time to close things out.

Seven plays, 46 yards, using up the final four minutes of game time.

And as frustrated as we can get about the Chiefs, you also got to respect they are the best

of anyone, perhaps that I've ever seen at just closing things out.

And that's why they're 14-1 and 8-0 at home.

Do I still think they're going to get picked off in January?

Yes, I still believe it.

I still feel it.

But if they don't, who could be surprised?

I mean,

I don't know where this picked off in January thing is coming from until I see it.

But

they're just.

Yeah, I mean, that's easy to say.

No, I know, but I'm just like,

they had the DNA to close these things out, and they diagnosed the opponent really well.

Their blitz rate against C.J.

Stroud was the second highest of any game they've had this year.

And I think that that's like we know we can do that to Houston.

It was a better performance by Stroud, but in the end, it's like you're going to get that version of Chris Jones and just playing the way that they do.

The Texans can't, in addition to now, they're down to just Nico Collins.

Right.

Stephon Diggs' history.

Collins was gone for a month.

Tank Dell is now gone for who knows how long.

And Joe Mixon is averaging like 50 yards a game over the last month and a half.

So the running game is not where it needs to be.

I just, the Texans refused to profile anything other than Cannon Fodder in the playoffs.

And I'd be surprised if it goes any other way.

Any other thoughts on this game, guys?

Connor?

So the Chiefs have 14 wins, right?

Correct.

And it was by a total of 30 points, I think, was the total between the 14 wins have amassed to that.

It's the fewest number of points for that many wins since, I have to make sure I get this right.

The 1925 Frankfurt Yellow Jackets.

And Sestog, that's where it's coming from.

You say, I don't know where it's coming from, this idea?

That's where it's yellow jackets.

Everyone knows the yellow jackets.

You got to go back to the Frankfurt Yellow Jackets.

Well, that suggests it is impressive, though.

It's certainly impressive.

It just means they are not for a 14-in-one team.

This is not the 1998 Vikings, for instance.

This is a team that's different.

They're much closer to that Vikings team you mentioned from a couple of years back than the 98 Vikings, but

they'll probably win the whole thing.

Come on.

14 wins with 30 or fewer points.

So not the

total,

it's not the closeness.

it's the kind of the lack of total scoring.

At what point do you think Taylor Swift stops going to the Chiefs games because her boyfriend goes three for 40 or

on his best day?

I'm sorry, three for like 32 like every game now?

Well,

this was more of a slap in the face to the particular city, but when they went to Cleveland, there was all this local hubbub that like Taylor Swift was going to show up, and she just completely no-showed.

No, she's not going to Cleveland.

What a waste of time.

We love our friends in Cleveland, but she ain't going to Cleveland.

All right, let's move back to the Sunday slate and head to the Meadowlands.

She's going to go to Jersey.

Oh, yeah, great song.

This is the T2

kind of sound alike.

Chord change.

Somebody corrected me.

I said it was a key change last week.

Chord change.

Nerds.

Have you heard the one about how West Coast teams struggle when they must fly to the the East Coast for an early kickoff?

How about the one about teams from temperate climates being adversely affected by frigid temperatures?

Well, those are cool, but they don't supersede this.

The Jets literally exist.

The Rams took advantage of two Jets turnovers in their own end,

and their defense put the clamps clamps on Aaron Rodgers

in the second half and a 19-9 win for the Los Angeles at MetLife Stadium.

That dump.

That tin can.

You know,

we're fighting

the infrastructure now.

That's a good moment for us.

Here's why I'm mad, because the Jets are 4-11.

If they would have won, who cares?

Just let me like enjoy the rest of the season, okay?

Aaron Rodgers, first possession in this game.

They take over on the one-yard line after a great punt play by Los Angeles.

And Rodgers, again, looking spry, looking healthy, looking confident, takes him 99 yards down the field, capped by another touchdown pass to Devontae Adams, his 499th touchdown pass.

And I'm thinking to myself, you know what?

This has been a shitty year, but I'm seeing quarterback played at a very high level right now, and they're playing close games every week.

I can enjoy these last couple weeks or whatever.

Fast forward, two hours, okay?

And I had my sons watching the game on the couch with me in the first half.

Late in the third quarter, my sons are gone.

The offense, Aaron Rodgers, after a fumble that led to the ceiling touchdown for the Rams, gets rolled up on.

And for the rest of the game after that, he's doing the old Aaron Rodgers thing we saw earlier the season when he wasn't healthy.

He was just throwing the ball immediately every time.

So they get, there's a totally horizontal passing game.

And then on top of it, like one of the only big important bright spots of the season, Fashionu, the number one pick, left tackle, that dump, that stadium, that horrible playing surface, something happens to his foot and he gets immediately carted off and ruled out.

And now you're just wondering, are you going to lose this potential franchise left tackle to a long-term injury going into the offseason?

So very frustrating.

On the Rams side, hey, good job.

That is not an, it was like 20 degrees.

You know, Connor, you're there right now.

20 degrees and getting colder and windier, but they can win like this.

They're from L.A., but they can win by running the football as they do.

They have Kyron Williams at 122 yards and a touchdown and 23 carries.

He's got 13 touchdowns this year.

And as Cooper Cup recedes from being a premier player, and even when Puka Naku and Matt Stafford aren't hooking up, they can win games with good defense and a great ground game, especially against a team like the Jets.

Grabs in control of the NFC West.

Can I ask one tactical question question about how this game unfolded?

Yes.

I'm really excited to view this soon.

But at one point, it was like a minute away from halftime, and my Eagles Commanders game was like the first quarter was ending.

I thought we were going to break a land speed record there for the...

You were jealous, weren't you?

I want one of those a year that's sort of a dreamy, like, you know.

It was the first game that I could remember watching where it was entering the fourth quarter before noon on the West Coast.

And the game slowed down a little bit in the fourth quarter with injuries.

But

yeah,

it was very quick.

And perhaps that's for the best for those fans that were freezing.

Was it weather-based, all of it?

Was it like we're just like, was it kind of like, let's get out of here?

No, long drives.

The Jets dominated time of possession in the first half.

And then the Rams had more of a ball control type offense as well.

It was just a combination of two things there.

So

there's really not

that much more to it, Mark, that I can give you.

But the game moved at a brisk pace.

There was a moment where I saw like Puka Nakua caught a ball, I think it was a third down, and he's just spinning and just driving his way through, you know, like 100 people and gaining extra yardage.

And then I want to say like two or three plays later, you know, another scenario where Kyron Williams catches the ball out of the backfield, breaks two tackles, gains like 11 yards.

Ashton Davis then like knocks him out, hits him hard hard out of bounds, and then stands there and does like the

flex thing.

And I'm like, you guys have allowed like 200 yards

after first contact.

Like, why are we celebrating this meaningless hard tackle?

Well, you could figure it out.

You know, the Rams benefited no Quinn and Williams in this game,

saw Gardner exit in the second half.

But Jets had seven penalties on their offensive line in this game.

I mentioned the Alu Fashionu injury, which is very disturbing.

And then this final stat.

And Rich Zamini has this, so ESPN, a man who's lived through hell.

The Jets day and season in a nutshell.

They did not punt, and they scored nine points.

The first team in the last 25 seasons to not punt in a game and be held under 10 points.

How many times this year?

This is the most disappointing year in the history of this cursed organization.

And the same week where Jeopardy used the Jets as a final Jeopardy question about, like, what's the one team that won the Super Bowl before the moon landing that hasn't been back to the game since?

Which, by the way, not for nothing, Sest Dog.

There are like a handful of teams that have never even been to the Super Bowl.

Why is it the Jets that have to be the butt of the joke on the final Jeopardy question?

At least we did win one.

Why wasn't it about the Lions who've never been to the Super Bowl?

Well, in that particular case.

Why did he get their chuckles in?

No, no, in that particular case, it's not a list five teams that haven't been or whatever.

There is a one particular special nugget related to the Jets.

And, you know, look, there's other bad teams out there, but this has been no fun for you.

I apologize for on behalf of Earth.

I know.

And the Rams, like we said, are now in sole possession of first place in the NFC West.

And shout out to

Tyler Higby, who had a gnarly knee injury in the wild card loss last year to the Lion.

Had one catch in this game.

It happened to be the go-ahead touchdown.

His first touchdown in nearly 400 days.

So he's another piece to add for the Rams, who are frisky, frisky.

All right, let's hit the other New York team.

Jesus.

But nobody's talking about that, man.

They're talking about the quarterback on the other side.

Connor, take us there to Atlanta.

All right, for Michael Pennix and his debut, nothing seemed hard, though the competition wasn't stiff.

In a 34-7 win over the Flaccid Giants, the rookie first-round pick had

a much better than the stats indicated debut, going 18 of 27 for 202 yards and a prick.

Sorry, a pick.

Meanwhile, Du Locke spotted his fellow QB a pair of pick sixes, which truly gave the Giants the shaft.

The loss drops the Giants to a franchise record, 10th straight loss and the number one pick in the NFL draft.

Atlanta, now winners of two straight, have won more than seven games for the first time since 2017.

Cockballs.

My mind is so immature that I picked up immediately on your innuendo.

Like immediately.

First thing you said.

I was all in.

Sorry.

Yeah, so Penix, I saw there was some glowing praise from

the Atlanta coaching staff that he played like a nearly flawless game.

So when you say that his stats don't quite match up with how he played, what exactly was he doing right in this game?

Like

if things worked out the way they should have, he should have had two touchdowns and no interceptions.

The one pick that he had, so they were driving right before the half, and he throws, I think it was his first ball to Kyle Pitts, and Kyle Pitts just like essentially takes the ball and just like shovel passes it to the

crazy.

And, you know, but everything about Penix was great.

And so keep in mind, you're playing one of the worst teams, if not the worst team in the NFL.

And Bijan Robinson was fantastic in this game.

A ton of yards after the catch.

He was untackleable.

That all helps, right?

All that said, the ball was out on time in the early window.

And if you combine the Saturday games, fastest snap to throw time of any quarterback in the NFL, but he stayed in.

His first completion, he actually hung back.

It was a little bit longer of a throw, got blasted by Kayvon Thibodeau and put the ball right on Ray Ray McLeod, but Ray Ray McLeod dropped it.

So five of his first nine attempts had drops by the Falcons wide receivers, which is gutting.

But I mean, so the Falcons have all of their historical issues, right?

They still exist, but Penix.

looked good and capable.

So it's like, how far can he take them when the team still drops a lot of passes, when there's still a lot of these mistakes?

They're missing a lot of field goals on the first drive.

They missed a field goal on that one too.

Do you think that

something like drops when you've got a quarterback that's in here that you've not been with in game situations all year round and

lesser practice snaps, some of that just like that could improve maybe dramatically?

There's not a lot of weaknesses.

Yeah, we're still waiting for Kyle Pitts to be even remotely special.

Well,

that play was a bit absurd.

But I mean, it seemed like they sort of, I don't know what the messaging was to Penix, but what I liked was like, go be aggressive.

This is why we put you in here.

And when I was watching this, it was like, they let him, he kind of let it rip.

And like, you take the drops away.

It's a very different afternoon.

So here's the other thing, Connor, like, and I'm, I, like many other people, have been very critical of Atlanta, which their leadership just, they seem to do everything ass backwards, including everything around the quarterback position.

And if it ends with Pennex being a stud, it lands in an okay place, even if you end up paying Kirk Cousins like $90 million to get him, to cut him uh which sounds like where the direction things are heading uh but the one thing i can absolutely unequivocally agree with is the way they handled this pulling the ripcord on cousins and getting him getting the rookie a start against the worst team in the world uh and so while that was smart and he gets his feet wet It'll be a different beast when he's on the road in Washington.

But still,

even if he flatlines in that game, now you're at least you're getting a look at this kid and getting him ready for whatever comes next

next year.

So let's see what happens.

But in terms of what you need to do to lay the groundwork, everything mission accomplished in this game.

100%.

Now, again, Drew Locke spots you, two pick sixes.

Brian Dable was just absolutely livid in this game, just like shaking while, you know, behind his play card, super frustrated.

I mean, on the on one of the pick sixes, Evan Neal, it's going to be kind of this, you know, viral moment where he goes to deliver a cut block and essentially just dives sideways to to nowhere.

And a player just comes up, bats the ball, Matthew Gidon gets it and runs for a touchdown.

All that said, you know, the Giants defensively did figure out some soft spots for the Falcons.

They pressured Pennix, but I think it was 14 pressures, but didn't take a single sack.

There was one where he had a guy wrapped around him, but he's really strong.

I mean, that's the thing.

He's probably one of the bigger, broader quarterbacks in this draft.

Kind of was able to shake the guy off and just throw an incomplete pass without getting the intentional grounding penalty.

So a ton of impressive stuff in that regard.

Super poised, didn't look flapped at all in this game, really.

And so, you know, that will change when you're not playing the Giants.

But again, I mean, you want him to have that runway before it gets done.

If I go back to the preseason when after they watched him play like one game, they're like, yep, he doesn't need to play again.

We're good.

I was impressed too that he was able to do the stuff that we gloated about in the preseason in the regular season because Caleb Williams was not.

Remember, like, we were like, wow, Caleb Williams's movement in the backfield is spectacular.

And then he tried that in a regular season and he got demolished.

Pennix had this one big play action where, you know, he's left-handed, right?

And so if he's faking a run to the left, he's going to have to turn around and throw back across his body, like the entire length of the field.

And he's putting them on guys like within an inch of exactly where it's supposed to be, right at the sideline.

He's incredibly accurate.

He's got a big arm and he did not run.

And I know he wants to be this this pocket guy, but the Falcons did nothing with his mobility in this one.

I think he had left the pocket twice.

And I don't think, you know, and that's encouraging because Bo Nix in his first few starts was running all over the place.

A lot of these guys have a tendency to escape the pocket.

Pennix wanted to hang in there as long as humanly possible.

And remember, all they have to do is tie the Tampa Bay Buccaneers

in record, and they will win the division on tiebreaker because they swept.

So we'll get to the Bucs a little bit later who are playing Sunday night.

But the Falcons took care of their business and now have a little more juice with the rookie at QB.

Let's take a break and we'll continue on.

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All right, we are back.

AFC East Tilt to Western New York with the SESTAR.

We all heard from one of these guys today.

He's sitting pretty in his fantasy league playoffs thanks to Josh Allen, set to drop five touchdowns on the barely living Patriots.

Then the frantic group texts begin about 44 minutes in.

Allen has 53 yards passing with a pick.

Said friend is asking about jumping from a moving vehicle.

Drake May looks like Otto Graham.

Two touchdown drives in.

What is happening?

Patriots in massive DJF mode.

Nice story, but Buffalo felt like I did that one time when I cooked rice and beans in a pot after a night out during a lost year in my 20s, fell asleep on the mattress, woke 30 minutes later with the room in a smoky haze and the fire department knocking on the door.

That was the Bills today.

They eventually woke up.

James Cook woke up.

The defense woke up.

But Josh Allen, with a banged-up hand, tweaked more than a few fantasy heads in this affair.

24-21 Bills over New England.

Yeah, the fantasy side, sure.

That was, especially if you were facing Josh Allen last week and you're like, oh, at least do that to everyone else.

And then the other move to do on your fantasy text thread there is make sure you're like, oh man, you see he's now shaking his hand.

Oh, there must be something up with Josh Allen's throwing hand.

Just really throw some panic in there.

But of course, he finishes the game because he's an ox.

And they take care of business.

I guess, Mark, they're not all going to be easy.

And

the Bills are starting to make you think they'd always be easy.

But as long as they win and just keep stacking, I can't get too upset about the way this played out.

No, same.

And I think for the, it's been weeks in a row where Buffalo's secondary is missing key people.

And their laundry list of injuries, I think, had a lot to do with...

And I think Drake May's just a good player.

And he can do things that are going to be interesting to watch for a long time.

But caught the Bills maybe a little bit.

A little bit off guard there because I can imagine this being the week where after all they've been through with these huge matchups that this would have been the one where you can get a little bit surprised.

But they really did turn it around in the second half.

They created a Ramondre Stevenson fumble.

Next drive, Drake May throws an end zone interception.

Next drive, Teron Armstead hops on a fumble in the end zone after like a botched lateral.

So it was one of these games where it was never in question, yet it was decided by a field goal.

And I did wonder, like Justin mentioned this, like this MVP race, like, does a game like this matter for Josh Allen in that way?

Or do we blow it off as like a bad day at the office?

It has nothing to do with what we really think about him.

Of course it does.

I mean, Lamar had a good, not great game, but Lamar leads the NFL in a lot of relevant categories.

So I think it got a little tighter, you know?

Like, if you line up those two seasons and, you know, these, like, the grids have been out there, it's pretty dramatic that Lamar leads in almost every one of the big categories.

Give me Joe Burrow.

Just kidding.

Well, he looked like one today.

We can get to that.

What else in this game?

James Cook.

man.

The one thing I love about the Bills is I think that they really can run the ball.

They've got a number of different guys, too, but James Cook just took, when the whole team was asleep, James Cook just took this game over.

And it's the speed, it's the power, it's that he can catch the ball and is such an asset in certain games like this when you get Allen a little bit off his...

off his grid.

Because I think Allen was really just in a funk in this thing.

And like there were a lot, there were some drop passes.

They were lucky that they didn't lose a big Khalil Shakira fumble, and they recovered it.

Like, this was the game where the Bills were recovering their own fumbles and mistakes, and the Patriots just melted down.

And then the afternoon sort of drifted away.

I don't know if there's like millions of other things to say other than the Bills get out of, they avoid disaster.

I do want to see what's going on with Josh Allen's hand, because he kept working with it on the sideline, and you could tell in the second drive he came in after he heard it, he was in real pain.

So I just don't know what part of it.

We have to find out what part of the hand is, but it's his throwing hand, and he seems to survive these things.

But it wasn't, it was, it looked painful.

It was also 10 degrees, right?

Uh, yes, so like I imagine having any type of malady on an appendage is going to hurt like hell.

Uh, we'll see.

He's he's, like I said, as tough as they come.

He's played through shoulder injuries, and but if it affects his grip, it could lead to issues.

So, they wipe out the 14-point deficit in this game, and uh, Ramondre Stevenson had a fumble, and then there was that backwards lateral.

It was a lateral that, first of all, Gregory Rousseau, so May throws it to the target, and Gregory Rousseau did the most incredible thing.

He just blew the guy up as the ball is cycling back into the end zone to take him out of the play.

So there was nothing but two bills close to the ball.

It was just a violent heads-up move where New England, I mean, that was essentially an axe coming through someone's head at that point.

It did not look fun.

And that's good for Buffalo because we're coming off one of the conversations around Buffalo is like, oh, they're doing amazing on offense, but look at the defense.

So the defense making making plays to put this away.

You could put that in your pipe and smoke it.

All right.

You want to move on?

Let's move on.

Up next, Justin, take us to Charlotte, Cardinals, Panthers.

Pinch me.

In the first NFL matchup of 5-foot, 10-inch or shorter quarterbacks since 1956, it was Bryce Young and the Panthers jumping out to a 20-3 lead before Arizona finally stopped shooting themselves in the foot with costly penalties, botched handoffs, and just started riding James Conner.

The Cardinals stormed back to make it 20-17 before halftime.

Connor accounting for 158 total yards and a touchdown in the first half.

But in the third quarter, disaster struck.

Some might say the Cardinals are cursed.

James Conner and Jonah Williams get hurt on back-to-back plays, and from there, the Cardinals' offense struggled.

Yes, Kyler Murray did make some magic happen with his legs and put Chad Ryland in a position to miraculously hit a career-long 58-yard field goal as time expired to force overtime.

But in overtime, the Cardinals ran seven plays for minus six total yards.

And then Chuba Hubbard broke free for back-to-back 20-plus yard runs.

The second was a 21-yard scamper into the end zone to give Carolina the 36-30 victory and knock the Cardinals out of the playoffs.

Good for Bryce Young.

We were on, Mark and I were on Sky Sports, as we are many Sundays, and we're really enjoying that, being part of the pregame coverage with Neil and the whole gang.

And the topic today was, hey, who has a lot on the line in the last games of the regular season?

I talked about Bryce Young because he had four turnovers the previous week in Dallas, and in general, made you think, oh, boy,

is there a chance he craters and plays himself right out of Charlotte?

This is the one where don't even ask any questions.

I think he has now progressed enough, including this like rubber stamping, a late December performance here,

where the Panthers can say, okay, what do we do to build around this guy?

Do we want to upgrade a backup quarterback as a safety net?

Yeah, that's fine to do.

But let's not think about using another lottery pick on a quarterback, or at least I hope that's where their headspace is.

So I think like, Justin, one of my,

you know,

in terms of like feel-good subplots of the NFL season is Young's second half in general and him going from lost cause to a guy who's going to get another shot at this, hopefully with better supporting cast and coaching in 2025.

Yeah, I think we've really seen growth from him under Dave Canalis this year.

And, you know, last week against the Cowboys, I had that game too for this show, and that was just a total team failure by Carolina.

A lot of the mistakes, like the turnovers you mentioned, were fumbles, which are, you know, a lot flukier than just poor, not reading the defense well and throwing bad interceptions.

But Bryce Young, if you look at the box score for this game, you may not be that impressed.

17 for 26, 158 yards, two touchdowns, took three sacks, but he really made some incredible throws.

The touchdown to David Moore that was right in the bread basket and Adam Thielen just being a reliable safety net.

Young also made a lot of plays with his legs in this game, and that stuck out like early on.

He was avoiding pass rushers and picking up yards.

He had a rushing touchdown, so he ended up with three total touchdowns on the day, and he actually ended up with 68 rushing yards on just five carries, including a 34-yard run.

So I was very impressed by Bryce Young, and I have been for most of the second half of this year.

Last week's game was really the only blip.

He's been playing really good football, and this Cardinals defense had been playing really good football coming into this game, and Bryce Young torched him.

Yeah, they've been putting a ton of heat on quarterbacks for the last month.

I think it's just like to have the week you have, and like heat, Bryce Young seemed like one young quarterback where you could see his confidence had been shaken for a long time.

And so then you have this good run.

And then is it, was that all not really who he is?

It's like to come out today and do this and to win the way they did, like in a really tight situation and to end Arizona's season.

And I know Jodavian Clowney was after the game, like annoyed about something that happened in the game.

He has always seemed sort of annoyed, but like he was like, good, I want those guys out of here.

Like they're going out and we're going out.

So I think it's a Panthers thing.

It's a canalis thing.

And it's certainly like the fact that Bryce Young came out and answered any little week-long talk show doubts that bubbled up, you know, nationwide.

And to your point there about him like losing his confidence, there were a couple of moments in this game where you can see that his demeanor is totally different than what it was earlier in the year.

He trucked a Panthers defender on a run early in this game and got up.

Like, he took a massive hit, but he laid the wood on that play and he got up smiling.

And there was another play later in the game where he like released the ball as he was being flattened.

And it was a perfect throw down the field.

And instead of like, you know, getting up gimpy and moving and wincing or whatever, he got up with the biggest grin on his face because he knew that he made an incredible play, even though he took that huge shot.

So I love seeing him play with joy instead of playing with what felt like, I don't know, fear earlier.

And I give Canel's a lot of credit for that because it is a tightrope to walk.

When a quarterback, a young quarterback is as lost as he was, you put him on the bench, All the discourse around is like, oh, are you going to trade him?

It's not even, is he going to be the guy of the future?

He's like, he's a failure.

So he was able to put him on the bench, not to delve into that Richardson Colts thing again.

It's okay to put a young quarterback on the bench to reset him, to get him in a place where maybe he could come back and get some of his mojo back.

And that's exactly what has happened.

So nice job by Canales, who walked that tightrope.

On the Cardinals side, I mean, I was texting with Jason Zumwalt, our buddy, the voice of God for HTC and a diehard Cardinals fan.

Like, how do you, that last possession in overtime, how do you watch the Cardinals this deep into the Kyler Murray experience and still think with any level of confidence that he's your guy?

I just, I know I'm not the only, I don't, I'm a little bit on an island sometimes on the show with this, but I don't, I just don't see it with this guy.

I just don't see it.

I don't think he's got the juice.

He made a lot of good plays in this game, but I mean, yeah, go ahead, Mark.

Well, now I'm with you on the Kyler Murray portion of it.

Like,

he can do something so well, but it seems like you're always going to kind of wind up in the same place.

I don't know what they would, what they would.

He's under contract, so it's like you got to like, you got to.

There's a lot of teams that would, you know, are looking for a quarterback.

We could put a pin in this.

And it's not like it's not the draft from what we're hearing that we're like six guys are coming out to.

So, Connor, I know you had something you wanted to say.

My only thing is, and just back to canals Canalis for one second, you know, you talk to all these people about what's going to happen this year, you know, in June, July, and all these coaches come in and they say, well, we're going to be a strong team.

We're going to be a physical team.

If you asked about a Canalis team, the answer that you would get right up until September is, we don't know.

We don't know what our offense is.

And it sounds like techie and stupid and like, we're going to have ping pong tables in the, you know, but this, they gave Bryce Young the chance to create something completely out of his own strengths.

And this is what Canalis did when he revived Geno Smith's career in Seattle.

This is what Canalis did when he revived Baker Mayfield's career in Tampa.

And now he's doing it again with Bryce Young.

And I think that's incredibly impressive.

And I don't know anybody who has a three-quarterback run like Dave Canalis right now.

That's true.

Let's head to Cincinnati, where the Bengals are looking to sneak in the back door, but they had to beat the Browns to keep it alive.

And frey McBride.

Are you okay, Justin?

I mean, I know Trey McBride didn't score a touchdown again, but that seemed like very aggressive.

No, it's not his fault.

It's just like, where was he today?

Three catches for 30 yards.

Like, to the point about Kyler, find your best players.

Just make good plays with your best players.

I don't know.

But you pointedly said f Trey McBride.

Well, I do have him on my fantasy team.

No, that always goes back to that.

How much time is left on this?

Yeah, let's respool that.

How much?

Anybody else you want to motherfuck on, Justin?

All right, go ahead.

Sussy.

Okay.

Mommy, mommy, there's a dead body on the field.

No, little Oliver, that's simply the offense of the Cleveland Browns.

Not deceased, a Bengals attack being run by the best quarterback in football, not named Josh or Lamar.

Joe Burrow threw a highly erotic touchdown pass on Sinseny's opening drive, unfurling the ball from a nearly vertical position to T.

Higgins.

An hour later, the juicy one evades waves of pressure and magically flips the ball upfield to Drew Sample.

I don't even know how to use words to describe this play.

Burrow later whips a rarefied laser to Andrei Yoshivas.

He's on a complete heater, and it's mathematically more likely we see the Colts or Finns in the playoffs.

Holy mother, Cleveland's defense put on a ton of heat later in the game, but Kevin Stefanski's offense is married to the idea of mind-boggling giveaways.

You got Dorian Thompson-Robinson throwing for 15 yards in the first half.

The game ends with back-to-back interceptions and two Browns drives that melt on downs.

I don't see the plan here.

Bengals 24, Browns six, not even close.

I saw

our old buddy Nick Shook

popped up in my timeline like, you know, I think I've seen enough to know that Dorian Thompson-Robinson's not the answer.

It's like, I don't know.

Do we need to see anything to know that he wasn't the answer?

It was,

i my takeaway was that joe burrow is just playing with anger intensity confidence fire and you know every one of these games these divisional games too but like cleveland it it looks like cleveland's defense didn't show up either they're trying to they just can't overcome for the eighth week in a row the nonsense that's occurring on the other side of the ball and i'm not i and i'm just not sure what the sell is for kevin stafansky for this particular season he's done good stuff in the past, but this is a disaster.

But there's no stopping Burrow when he's throwing the ball the way he was today.

And I think that's the way he's moving.

He evaded pressure on this one.

Drew Sample kind of ding up the field.

It was incredible.

And like he just seems to be playing at the highest level he's ever played.

That's why he's

a real MVT, MVP type quarterback.

And it's like, keep it together because their season is equally frustrating too.

But they put one on a bad team right now.

The Browns are a bad football team right now.

Dude, Chase Brown, since November, has been a completely different human being.

He looked great today.

There were some runs that I caught in this game, like whenever I would pass over, and I'm like, who's that?

You know, like, and I think he had the 120-yarder, I think, back in, what was it, November 3rd, when they just blew out the Raiders.

And since then, 86, 97, like, you know, he's had some really 65-yard receiving game last week against Dallas, I think, and a touchdown in that one, too.

Like, he looks like a completely different player, too.

100 or more scrimmage yards every week since November 17th.

God, yeah,

he's been on fire.

He was a big part early on because Cleveland, so Cleveland, Jerome Ford had a huge kick return to start the game.

They mine all the way down to the Bengals one

and then fumbled the ball at the one.

And so, in other Browns-Bengals games where they really had rattled Joe Burrow, weirdly, they had his number compared to other teams.

That would be a good place for something to to happen pro-Browns from their defense.

Instead, Burrow and friends, including Brown, like mine down the field on a 99-yard drive that winds up in that touchdown where Joe Burrow is like falling flat forward as he throws it to T.

Higgins.

And you just kind of can feel, I think you can do this with teams that you always watch.

Like, this thing is over.

Like, this thing is not, like, I'm monitoring this heavily and I'm watching it and I'm taking notes, but like, this is over and Cleveland's season is over.

They're one game.

They have one more win than the worst team in football right now.

It's just, it's a mess.

And

I'm with you, Dan.

Now, I kind of wish the Bengals had just stolen two other victories this season because they would be an absolute threat with their offense to take someone out.

At the very least, Mark, I think they profile as perhaps the greatest Berserker ever,

which is a team that doesn't make the playoffs but makes life miserable for everyone that's on their schedule down the stretch.

They get the Broncos next week and then they close at Pittsburgh.

There is a path for them to get to the playoffs, but they need to obviously win out and get help.

They still got to leapfrog Indy and Miami and then hope Pittsburgh or Denver collapse here

or Los Angeles.

And so it's, you know, it's possible, but when you start the season 0-3 and then you add another three-game losing streak in the mix to boot, you put yourself in an impossible situation.

But this is one of the stranger seasons in recent memory that I can recall to have a team that has this much ability and a quarterback that's at this level.

Let's listen to Joe Burrow talking about

what was it, his offensive line doing the job today

and a gift that they wanted.

Oh, yeah, it's just about where the inspiration for the samurai swords that he got them came from.

Oh, he got samurai swords?

Wow.

Nice.

Excellent.

All right, let's listen to this.

Cool.

Well,

they wanted guns.

And I was like, I don't know about guns, guys.

And so I was in the weapon mindset.

And I was like, what's a cool weapon?

Samurai swords, I think, are pretty dang cool.

And

Nicole, she works for me, and she was able to find them for me.

So she did a great job.

finding the best ones out there.

So I think guys are excited about that.

Oh my God.

Nicole, I need a personal assistant.

I'd be like, Nicole, I need samurai swords.

Seven of them.

Thank you.

What's the price range?

No price range.

Whatever it takes, the best on the market.

And then suddenly seven samurai swords are in the Cincinnati locker room.

That's one of my favorite quotes of the year.

Delivered by a man wearing like David Hasselhoff's blouse from season three of Baywatch.

In his offensive lineman's defense, I did a story a few years ago on the greatest intra-locker room gifts that were ever given back and forth.

And there were several instances of the giving of guns.

That's not an

thing that people want, I guess.

Hopefully that all the paperwork is checked out and everything.

But yeah,

that happens.

Did you know that Brock Purdy, we're going to get to Brock Purdy?

But he got all of

he's still on his contract and he's going to get paid, but he bought like 10 of his offensive lineman trucks for Christmas.

Yeah, like straight-up trucks, like Toyota trucks.

It's pretty hardcore.

That is impressive considering.

I thought he would have gotten them like pound cake or something.

He's a seventh round pick on his rookie deal, and he bought five Sequoias, five Tundras.

So he bought 10 trucks for his offensive line and other personnel, I guess.

He is one of the few people because now it's the hideous time where you've got the commercial, and we've discussed this, I think, once in the past, where the wife walks out the door in a blindfold, and the dad's or the husband's bought her, like a super expensive vehicle with a giant ribbon wrapped around it, and it's like, I'll be buying you some nail polish, probably, or like, I don't know, I don't know.

Are you trying to tell me I need to be buying a vehicle for someone?

Well, more than nail polish for Christmas, Mark.

Oh, I would be very generous, but I'm saying, like, when you're saying that the only acceptable gift is a massive like vehicle purchase in full at the dealership,

I understand that.

There's a great Beck Bennett,

Timothy Chalamet

Heidi Gardner sketch from SNL a couple years ago about an out-of-work, dirtbag dad who buys his wife Alexis.

And she's like, we can't afford this.

What are you doing?

Exactly.

Like, it's like, where am I parking this?

It's Alexis.

We don't have the money for this, Nathan.

All right.

Let's move on.

Let's see.

Come on, Cincinnati.

Keep winning.

Make this interesting.

Let's head to Miami.

Yeah, Brock Purdy bought 10 trucks.

And I know he's going to get paid.

I just don't know if he's going to get paid by the San Francisco 49ers who lost

on a day where they learned that they were

done

at a playoff contention in the NFC before before the game kicked off in Miami.

Then they go out and they lose once again, 29-17 to the Miami Dolphins who get to 7-8.

So they're still hanging around.

And it is the Niners.

Again, kind of hard to believe.

Before Christmas, they're out of the conversation.

It just snuck up on everybody.

So the Dolphins, meanwhile, still hope alive there.

2-3 for 215 and a touchdown.

Jason Sanders kicked five field goals.

And,

yeah, Purdy

struggled to points in this game.

I want to talk about,

because I don't think either of these teams, we know the Niners are cooked.

I don't think the Dolphins are going to make it either.

But Kyle Shanahan, I just want to note, watching this game,

the level of frustration.

You talked about Brian Dable, Connor,

and him looking like he was going to blow a gasket.

The looks of frustration just radiating off of Kyle Shanahan during this game as more offensive line injuries hit in this game.

Purdy misses Kittle in the red zone where he gets a pass deflected in the second quarter.

And Shanahan's like, come on, man, you got to find a way to get that pass of the line of scrimmage.

They missed the field goal in the third quarter, and Shanahan just like big mad, big mad.

And I just came out of the game thing.

And we'll talk about this later,

later in this

season and the offseason, about

what has changed perhaps for Kyle Shanahan and his thoughts about Brock Purdy now that they realize they have a lot of work to go.

They got a lot of work to do here, right, to figure this thing out.

So, San Francisco is minus 53 in the fourth quarter this year.

That jumps out to me.

That is the worst in the NFL point differential.

And here's one more crazy stat before I swing over to the Dolphins, guys.

The Niners eliminated from playoff contention, extending their streak of either making the NFC championship game or missing the playoffs for 22 seasons.

It's kind of like the craziest stat ever.

What?

So they've either missed the playoffs or at least gone to the NFC title game or the Super Bowl in every year for over two straight decades.

That's awesome.

This year is a miss the playoff year.

That blows my mind.

Yeah.

And on the Dolphins side of things,

they did get, I'll give them credit, Devon HN ended this game with a breakaway run, a 50-yard touchdown run, I believe it was, or thereabouts.

It was only the third

running play by the Miami Dolphins this season of over 20 yards.

Now, think about that.

And I've been watching a lot of the Dolphins this year, and it's hard to, and, you know, I know Raheem Mostert's been banged up this year, and A-chan is a really talented playmaker, but maybe not a between-the-tackles grinder.

But still, these are talented guys and ostensibly a really rich offensive scheme, and you would think they would have more success right at the top of the Dolphins offseason priority list is going to be like, how do we fix this running game and give ourselves some balance?

Because Connor, one thing I've seen, not that I'm like gifted in dissecting like playbooks, but because they can't run the ball, that's why all you ever see with this team are these screens and these design plays where the throws are right near the line of scrimmage.

They're essentially their running plays because they can't actually run the ball in a straight ahead manner.

And that just doesn't work.

So when we talk about why don't the Dolphins win in December, it's like, well, if they can't can't do what the Rams do, for instance, it puts them behind the eight ball.

They were able to win today, but this is a team that has flaws and they got to figure out what they're going to do with the roster.

Yeah, I feel like I've been writing for like two or three years, like, where's your power element?

And when we were talking about teams that were supposed to be in the Derrick Henry sweepstakes, I was like, why isn't Derrick?

Oh, that would have been

too easy for them.

Right.

I mean, and, you know, not to play fantasy football general manager at this point, but I mean, Derrick Henry was from Florida.

He, that scheme from the Titans that he ran with Arthur Smith was sort of inspired by the Matt LaFleur Shanahan.

You know, I mean, you could run a lot of the same stuff,

but this is years now going back to saying like they need a power element.

They need somebody to be able to push somebody around.

And they can't be so much of a finesse team, especially in, you know, a game like this, they end up winning.

But there was that play early on where Tua had Tyreek Hill all like, not all alone in the end zone, but with some distance.

And, you know, the 49ers quarterback jumps in and breaks it up.

And it's one of those things where if you miss those, like everything is so designed to hit those, and if you don't get them, you don't have the plan B.

And I think that's a criticism of a lot of the Shanahan guys.

There's no plan B, but especially with the Dolphins, where you know, you just can't lean back on toughness.

Um, all right, let's uh let's keep moving here, guys.

Let's take a break, and uh, when we get back, we finish out the week 16 Sunday slate.

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All right, we're back.

It's gravy time again.

Let's head to Indianapolis and talk some Titans football.

My favorite part

of everything.

I know.

Can't get enough of it.

When I say this was a wild game, I mean it was wild.

First, the Titans jump out to a 7-0 lead.

Then the Colts score 38 straight points

on the back of Jonathan Taylor, who ran for 218 yards and three touchdowns in an effort that I think was based solely on trying to erase last week's embarrassing debacle.

And Anthony Richardson had 70 yards and a touchdown on the ground himself.

That was enough to hold off a furious Titans comeback.

After allowing Indy to score 38 straight points, Tennessee scored 23 straight of their own and cut it to a one-possession game with just under three minutes remaining.

But they couldn't get the ball back with more than three seconds left after the Colts were able to ice the game again with that running game.

All in all, Indy ran for a franchise record 335 yards on the day,

50 rushing attempts, 50 at 6.7 yards per carry on

50 carries.

Sorry, that is crazy to me.

The final score,

38 to 30, and the Colts' slim playoff hopes are still alive.

Yeah, yeah, like we said,

we're team Cincinnati around these parts, so we want to get Miami and Indy

out of the way, but they both won to keep themselves in the mix.

And yeah,

I would imagine

if you could run the ball for over 300 yards, you're not going to worry about Anthony Richardson's issues throwing the ball because he didn't have to throw the ball much at all.

So this is a dream scenario.

If the Colts could do this every week, I'm sure they would.

I mean, but like he threw the ball 11 times and there was the touchdown march where they tied them up early.

They ran the ball every single time on that drive.

If it's working, it's working.

But we also went on Sky and talked about Anthony Richardson needing to show something over the next two weeks to really make it clear what we're doing with this guy.

And this tells me that Shane Steichen doesn't have an ounce of trust in him making it.

Oh, I disagree with that, Mark.

In this case,

I don't look at 12 attempts today and think to myself, oh no,

they're hiding 11.

I think it's just like this is like an unlike natural,

supernatural butt-kicking in the trenches.

And he was probably thinking to himself, Thank God, I don't have to answer questions about my quarterback this week because Jonathan Taylor and company can do all the work.

But yeah, I mean, Richardson is a conversation we're going to have down the stretch.

I think it's probably very

warm feeling for everyone on the Colts that they could just talk about the offense being highly functional without even have to worry about the quarterback for a week.

Well, it's a nice week off from that, sure.

But

I got a stat on that for you.

It's the

third time since the year 2000 that a team had less than 15 passing attempts with its offense scoring 38 or more points.

Just the third time.

Wild.

And they weren't buoyed by like pick sixes and, you know, Disaster Titans turnovers that lead to touchdowns.

It was just like, we're going to dominate you on the ground.

And Richardson as a runner was basically unstoppable in this game.

Obviously, Jonathan Taylor did a huge amount of damage.

It felt like the Titans started this comeback and the Colts were like, okay, we're just going to sit in the big soft shell, make you use up time.

If you score a couple times, whatever, we're winning 38-7.

And then it was like, okay, maybe we should get a little bit more worried here, but no, the Titans were never going to pull off that insane comeback.

That is the second most yards allowed by the Titans/slash Oilers in franchise history, Connor.

Pretty cool.

So, Shane Steichen, when he was with the Eagles, started doing, there was the RPO

phase, and then they started doing a lot of RPRO, where there was another run option that that was tacked onto it and it really helped Jalen Hurts out.

And one of the neat things in this game was I've never seen before a fake shovel pass keeper, which I did see from Anthony Richardson in this game, which was like very unique.

And at this point, a lot of what we're doing is you're competing in the margins.

Like if you're a coordinator or you're a coach with a guy like Anthony Richardson, you're trying to find a hundred different ways to get him positive yardage by running the ball that's keeping him relatively out of harm's way.

And so that's a really just like a neat little thing, right?

Like, you know, you're picking a shovel pass in space and you're taking the ball.

So I don't know.

I thought that was cool.

Mark, I gave you a sound cue for our penultimate game.

So I just want to let you know it's about to come up.

All right.

I'm going to point to you when it's time, okay?

Okay.

Because we're about to talk about

the biggest game of the week.

Let's head to the desert.

Uh, Jaunty!

Remember, like 20 years ago when Montecor, the tiger, attacked Roy from Siegfried and Roy?

Remember that?

Yeah.

That shit was crazy.

Imagine being at that show, like you're in Vegas on vacation, and you decide, oh, let's go see a show, and you pick the white tiger one at the Mirage because your daughter saw the billboard on the cab right from the airport.

And then one of the tigers tries to eat one of the Germans on stage?

Mark?

Manticore is a great cat.

Make sure no harm comes to Manticore.

Actual quote from Roy.

Nightmare, man.

Wickily disturbing.

I'm guessing only slightly more disturbing a Vegas experience than paying to watch the Jaguars and Raiders play football in late December, which happened today.

Aiden O'Connell and the Raiders toppled Mac Jones and the Jaguars 19 to 14.

Ask me anything.

That was a solid, like, like,

I like those ones where I'm guessing and then I'm like, oh, he landed the plane.

That was like, that was really, that was well done.

Well, also, Dan, you know, like, well, he'll, he texted me and said, you mind throwing this line out in a German accent.

And it was about five minutes later as we're about to, like, really to start the show.

I was like, I don't really know how to do a German accent.

Can we hear it again?

I just went like this.

I was like, Manticore is a great cat.

Make sure no harm comes to Manticore.

That's not really German, is it?

Just sort of like creepy European type.

I tend to do, and this is cliché, but I tend to do something a little angrier.

Manticore is a great cat.

Make sure no harm comes to Manticore.

I think you got closer.

Yeah, well.

Anyway, I don't know what you need to know about this game, but it is a victory for the Raiders, which, which, you know, good for all those guys.

They seemed happy that it happened, but it does take them one game behind the New York Giants for the first overall pick in the 2025 NFL draft.

That is notable.

And Mac Jones, Connor, I must report, unfortunately,

he did have a long touchdown pass in this game on a blown coverage, Brian Thomas Jr., his ninth touchdown of the year, I believe, which leads all rookie wide receivers.

But very little Riz display from Mac Jones.

So we didn't even get that.

But we did get a big handful of the Amir Abdullah Alexander Madison two-headed backfield in Las Vegas.

And that I'll be thinking about for a long time.

Mac Jones could have been up till 5 in the morning in Vegas, so we don't know.

Maybe there was a little bit less showboating and energy today.

Yeah, that breaks a 10-game losing streak for the Las Vegas Raiders, who are now 3-12, as are the Jacksonville Jaguars.

So

don't say there wasn't anything exciting about this game.

Ooh, good lead in the AP, Connor.

Raiders owner Mark Davis made the round Sunday to congratulate the players as music blared inside the locker room.

That's what we call setting the scene in J school.

Very nice.

Anything from Doug Peterson, who's just been my absolute favorite?

Thank you.

Thank you for teeing me up on that because because I was about to forget about it.

I did have a bit of a take, a hot take, about

the

usefulness or perhaps the superfluousness of the halftime interview.

But then things come along like the Doug Peterson halftime interview of a Jaguars Raiders game on December 22nd.

Two teams that are combining for six wins.

And it reaffirms that these need to continue.

Here's Doug.

Count the cliches, folks.

Coach Britton Strange, Tank Bidsby, with two bundles back-to-back stalling drives for you all.

What's your main messaging here at HAC to get something going in a second?

Yeah, the main message is

we've got to take care of ourselves.

We've got to just continue to execute.

We can't shoot ourselves in a foot.

It's not for lack of effort, but

right now

we're not executing and we got to stay on the field.

Thank you, Coach.

He actually did five in 30 seconds, Connor, and then ran out of him.

So he had to make one up, which was, we got to stay on the field.

That's what he closed with.

I mean, technically, correct.

My, my, I guess, follow-up hot take to this, and we can just cut me off whenever this becomes so painfully interesting.

Uh, but like, I, I really do kind of take offense to the way that he's handled the position towards the back end of the season and just the utter like haughtiness at the podium.

I think it was earlier in the week where someone asked him, what can Mac Jones do to be a better

passer?

And he's just like,

and, you know, like, he's, he, the Jacksonville Press Corps is not like a, it's not a crocodile den.

Like these are, you know, probably like five or six really, you know, good, God-fearing individuals here.

And, you know, this is not Philadelphia.

It's not Chicago where somebody's trying to eat your face off.

And you have to, there's only 32 of these jobs.

And I swear there's a hundred coaches that would like saw their legs off to be able to be in your position and to just be that flippant with it, I think.

And I may have said this before, so stop me if I'm rambling, but like it, it is like generally upsetting because I do think it's like, you know, someone's going to come in there and treat that seriously.

And I just, I don't think he's taking it seriously.

He melted in Philly towards the end, too.

I mean, his nucleus started to come out there.

But that was a little, I know, Connor, what you're saying is a great point because in Philly, he got

Angelo.

Yeah.

That was a tough ending because you're in a

really difficult market, obviously.

And

he had won a Super Bowl, and it just was an ugly ending.

This one, the writing's been on the wall.

It's a team that's completely irrelevant.

And there's a general, like, he's going through the motions.

Like, he knows that you know that he knows that he's going to be fired a week from Monday or two weeks from Monday.

And even that, when the halftime reporter begins asking the question, he's kind of got like a shit-inning grin on his face.

Like, you're actually going to ask me about this game?

It's like,

I mean, you can look at it two ways.

You're going to look at it as he's being disrespectful, or he's a guy that's resigned to his fate and is keeping things in perspective.

As Chuck Pagano once famously said, they can't eat you.

And he's like, you know what?

What do you want me to do?

You want me to live and die every second, knowing that I have no chance of continuing here?

I see both sides of it, but

I like it from that angle.

I mean, I can see it from that angle just because it's like, you're right, Connor, about different markets, but Doug Peterson doesn't have to totally care about the market being softer or more, you know, turmoil-laden as in Philly.

I just think he's got to be like, how hard is it to keep getting your ass kicked over and over and keep your composure?

But like step down, you know?

Well, but I was wondering why that didn't happen a while ago to some degree.

I guess, you know, it's not, that wouldn't be a good look either.

Doug Marone stopped.

He's just taking the bullets.

Yeah.

You know, and maybe that's part of it, too.

He's been through this once before, and he's like, all right, if you're going to have me take the bullets, even though I know you don't believe in me, you're going to fire me.

I'm going to go through the, I'm just going to go through this.

I'm not going to be totally invested.

I get it, though, kind Kyle.

I know where you're coming from.

Yeah.

I don't know.

I like your take.

It seemed,

it was clear-eyed, whereas if someone delivered a similar take on a different network, it would be screaming with a bulge of a vein coming from your neck.

I like your take better.

All right.

It's like when people, everybody was on the World Wide Leader.

Crazy stuff.

Like, everyone was getting so big mad at like.

Aaron Rodgers for whatever stupid thing he had said.

Like, and everybody was just standing on their soap boxes, pontificating on what a horrible man he is, and all this stuff.

And it's like, all right, good job, guys.

You've done it again.

Thanks for setting us straight on the morality necessary to do what you do and where Aaron falls short.

I got you.

It's simply a reflection of

I feel very lucky to have my job and I don't like to mail it in.

And, you know, I don't like when other people mail it in.

And I think that football is, it's, there's 32 of these jobs.

you can't you gotta you gotta do the fake thing where you care you you you have to at least fake it for me and that's what i want fake it for me i love it all right to sunday night football

sunday night

ow

listen

You could take the Mike McCarthy team out of the playoff picture,

but you can't take the heart from that team and their ability to fight to the very end.

The Dallas Cowboys behind a brilliant strip by Deron Bland in the final minutes of fumble recovery that stopped what seemed to be

a

certain Tampa Bay Bucks field goal drive to win the game.

Instead, the Cowboys hold on 26-24.

They improved to 7-8.

They are irrelevant in terms of the playoff talks.

And the Tampa Bay Bucks, now 8-7.

And my goodness, all of a sudden find their chances of making the playoffs in serious peril.

Mark Sessler,

we know that the Cowboys have been playing better

for the past, you know, four or five weeks, but I think we all kind of expected the Baker Mayfield-led Bucs to take care of business and yet they did not.

What a wild game here at this time of the year.

I think like the enduring image for me was Baker Mayfield dragging people as he flips that that final pass to Rashad White, and then he's blown up.

White is by Deron Bland, because that was what that secondary had been doing all night.

And Chris Collinsworth, I feel like we all just made love to Chris Collinsworth this evening.

Like, he was going out of his mind about the Dallas defense.

And I'm with you.

Like,

Connor and I were saying before,

I think he probably saved his job and will stick around Mike McCarthy.

Like, they're playing so hard for him and for Mike Zimmer, too.

And, I mean,

it's a little too late, too little too late, but it is like a pretty, a testament that they've not given up on them.

I mean, this, this is a crushing loss for the Bucs, but it tells you that the Cowboys, like, they're missing a ton of people, and that defense played, it's butt off.

I mean, they were, some of the hits in that game were wild.

This game pissed me off in a major way

for several different reasons.

I've been on like the NFL kind of,

like the quality is not what I would expect at this point for the most popular sports league in the country.

And there was a couple of things that really bother me down the stretch.

I mean, obviously, if you have the ball in a 50-50 situation in the end zone, you got to come down with it and not, you know, somersault onto your head and give it away.

If you're Rashad White and you get the ball from Baker Mayfield, immediately put two hands on it, like and carry it like the game is on the line.

And if you're Mike McCarthy on that possession before you punted it back to Tampa Bay, take more than a minute and 30 seconds off the clock and don't throw the ball twice.

Like these are rudimentary things that you can do to make it easier for yourself to win a game.

And I don't understand why, like, you know, like part of the appeal when we're like, wow, these are amazing things that are happening is because people aren't doing the basic things the right way that they should.

I get it.

That's fair.

I mean, the other side of it is these are two middle-of-the-road teams.

You know, it's it's not like this was a game that featured the best that the NFL has to offer and and we're seeing, you know, bonehead plays and and the like like I think we're we I think we kind of sold the Bucs as better than this so maybe that's a little kind of

talking out of both sides of my mouth but they were they were on a four-game winning streak and we had Mark kind of talked them up as a team that can make noise in the playoffs and they certainly can still do that but like I said earlier in the show now they dropped into a tie with the Falcons and they got swept by the Falcons so they now have to find a way to pick up a game on the Falcons or they don't win the division and if they don't win the division, they could be on the outside looking in entirely.

Well, terrible loss.

Right.

They created a terrible situation for themselves.

And I wonder if they created a roadmap where you can watch this.

I don't know about the Panthers next week, but you can watch this and say that I think Mike Zimmer came in with one kind of clear plan, which was like what Mike Evans did last week and what made us think that the Bucs could be next level explosive.

Like, just don't let that happen.

And there are all these other supporting cast members catching passes all over the place.

They succeeded at that.

And I think if you can do that to the Bucs, they become more one-dimensional.

That said, like, I mean, I don't, I feel like this is every Bucs game ever where you get like Baker Mayfield running all over the place, making some dangerous throws, making three or four incredible throws, always playing through pain, and it's coming down to the end.

And so, I mean, this to me, they ran into a team that's just simply doesn't care what their record is right now and didn't make enough plays.

I mean, Connor, I see where you're coming from with some of the stuff, but that one interception where they're roly-polling over each other was also like one of the only plays you'll see like that all year.

So that just had to do with human artistry and athleticism.

He was a great football play.

The play that allowed the Bucs to get the ball back before the calamitous turnover.

Vita Veya hauling ass to absolutely lay waste to a tight end.

And just that is, there was some like fun defensive elements to this game.

And that just a reminder of the incredible athleticism of Vita Veya.

It's kind of a shame that it kind of gets totally forgotten now, but Collinsworth was on top of that one, too.

That is something you just do not see a man his size move like that and lay the wood to a 250-pound tight end.

No, and I think, Mike, one quick thing.

Earlier in the game, there was the tackle where they, and it's a lot, there's a lot of pictures of it of like Vita Vea, who's 347 pounds,

kind of just grabbing Cavante Turpin, who's 153 pounds, like a teddy bear, and just kind of running him to the ground.

Like, I mean,

these two human beings are on the same field.

That is highly unusual.

I don't know that I've ever seen a defensive lineman cross the field in pass coverage like that.

Like sometimes you see them just do a short drop to like clog up a lane, but like he literally went to the other side of the field.

That was a good call by Bulls on that one for sure.

And speaking of Bowles, I wonder if, you know, with all the positive talk around Liam Cohen here and he's going to be somebody that's going to interview for a lot of head coaching jobs.

If the Bucs find themselves on the outside looking in, will that be enough for the management to say, Todd, no hard feelings, but we're going to kind of move in a different direction because we can't let this guy get out the building.

And if you're a Bucs fan, and I don't want to take you here because I know that's not what you're thinking, because three hours ago, you're thinking, oh, we can get in the NFC title game if a couple bounces go our way.

You know, if this ends with them somehow missing the playoffs and then Cohen taking over for Bulls, that could be a big picture positive outcome.

I guess I'm really spinning Connor a little bit, but I've been thinking about that.

Like, Bowles is a replacement-level head coach, in my opinion, and you have this guy that half or more of these teams looking for a coach are going to want to be all over.

That's going to be a tough loss unless you really believe in your head coach.

I think, too, if you take Dallas, let's imagine, because this game is significant on multiple levels.

Like, let's say Mike McCarthy plays himself into a second contract somehow.

That takes probably the second or third best job on the market off.

And all of a sudden, after the Bears and the Jaguars are done, if you're Tampa, you're sitting pretty is probably the third most attractive offering, maybe even the second most attractive job on the market.

Like, I do have to think that that's a possibility.

I mean, it's why we, in a very,

let me get this word right, prescient move in our hot butts show, moved Todd Bowles over a couple slots.

We slid him over a couple spots.

I was trying to find, and thank you to Justin for digging it up,

a way to figure out what this all meant for the Bucs tonight.

Greg Allman on Twitter.

This is the simplest way to explain the Bucs playoff situation even after tonight's loss.

If Tampa Bay beats the Panthers and Saints, their final two opponents, either one of two things puts them in the playoffs.

Falcons lose to Commanders week 17,

Commanders lose to Cowboys in week 18.

All plausible.

They're not cooked.

Well, yeah, the first Commanders part there feels very plausible.

They're not cooked, but this was a tough one.

These are the type of losses that stick to the ribs, and it's tough to enjoy the old Christmas ham, sess dog.

I know you're going to have a big old Christmas ham on your table

in a couple days.

So to speak.

Justin.

Hey.

He made like a ham, but really a dick reference there, so that would be a time to

reverse.

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

Oh,

oh, oh.

Justin's mind's elsewhere.

We'll explain more in a few days.

I'm saying O to fill the time while I look for the drop, so it's not just pure quietness.

But about to show business.

You got sex addiction?

You got a problem with sex?

You're addicted to sex?

A sex addiction or something?

All right, that's it for another flagship program.

We only got two of these left.

Oh!

It's wild.

For

all the teams, and then, of course, we're going to cover the playoffs as well.

But yeah, we are grinding to December, and we thank everyone who has been along for the ride

all season.

And please continue to do so to the finish line.

We love you.

And all right, we'll be back on Monday night with a recap of what game, Mark?

It is the Saints versus Somebody.

Gotcha.

All right, till then.

Saints versus Somebody.

Saints.

Keep the fuckers.

I've been trying to get you for weeks on that.

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