NFL Week 16 Preview!!

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The Heed the Call Podcast.

I'm going to get my sack back, Brett.

Hey, I'm Mark Sessler.

Today I'm here on Heed the Call with our producer of note, Justin Graver.

And what's the reason for this?

Well, our fearless host, Dan Hansis, is at what I incorrectly called a children's fair, but it's apparently like the children, his children, are at school singing

some sort of Christmas type song.

So we're very excited for the entire family.

He hopes to join us later today, and I hope this isn't a personal 9-11 for the listener in his absence.

But Justin, how you doing?

I'm doing good.

You know, Dan is doing his best.

He's got stuff to do, and the show has to go on.

We can't just not.

record on time.

We have beat writers who join us on Thursdays who have practices to get to.

So we just got to make it work.

And that's what we're doing.

We've got to make it work.

We're here in week, you know, a very important week of football, week 16, and there is a lot happening.

I do think one thing, Justin, like, I don't remember a season where you get this late in the year, but there isn't a lot of playoff drama.

We kind of know for the most part who the teams are, and there's some wild cards slotting, but it's like there isn't like, wow, the next three weeks are going to create massive turmoil and, you know, new trajectories.

Yeah, somebody's going to have to get hurt on one of these teams that's locked in, and that team's going to have to go on like a three-game losing streak to close the the season for anything to change in the current playoff picture, especially in the AFC.

The NFC, you know, the NFC West is up for grabs, and that's going to dictate a lot of who makes the playoffs at the end of the day.

The NFC North, that game between the Vikings and the Lions in week 18 looms, but that's going to determine the seeding order more so than the actual teams who make the playoffs.

It does, and it's kind of fortunate and lucky.

It always is, but especially now that we've got two NFC West hardcore beat writers, Jordan Rodrigue and Mike Dugar.

Welcome on in, guys.

Can we get by without Dan, do you think?

How are we feeling about this?

We have no choice.

He's the queen bee, bitch.

He really is.

He really is.

But you guys were extremely patient with me this morning with my sound.

I'm the queen bee, bitch.

Thanks, Dan.

That's one of my favorite drops.

You guys were great with me this morning on my technical difficulties.

So we basically, we have no Dan and like half a Jordan.

So it's good.

It's all fine.

We have 300% Mark and Mike and Gordon.

Yeah, and that could be way too much of Mark.

I'm sure people will be commenting on that.

Well, we might as well dive in.

You're going to have sound of me on top of me and Dan on top of me.

So that's how it works, Justin.

You're Justin's power.

Justin's just going to, he has got, there's no one in control of Justin, and we know what he's been doing all morning before we kicked off here.

So big problems ahead.

Well, let's just, we'll start with these primetime games.

Tampa Bay at Dallas.

How are we feeling about that, Jordan?

I mean, I've loved the Bucs all year.

I think they've put together a really fun season.

And what I like about what the Bucs offense has done this year, and particularly what Liam Cohen, who is definitely going to get some calls this head coaching cycle, and you hear some excitement about him, start sort of murmuring out from where all these whispers come from this time of year

from the stork.

So he has put together like a really fun

problem-solving type of offense this year.

They create explosive plays.

They run the ball well.

They pass the ball well, despite having God knows who at receiver sometimes during the middle of the season when Chris Godwin and Mike Evans were out and Jalen McMillan had to be the go-to guy and a couple of guys had to step up.

And it's been fun.

I think that's what's more so than anything going to get Liam Cohen those interviews and those calls is not just because he's run an effective and explosive offense, but also because he's solved a bunch of problems in a bunch of different scenarios.

They've won different ways this year.

I'm excited to watch this game.

I think it'll be fun.

It's interesting that Baker Mayfield helped Dave Canalis get a job after last season.

And now it's, I just, on the top of my notes, I was like, is Liam Cohen about to get his phone ring off the hook for like what he's done?

Baker Mayfield quietly sits behind only Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow in terms of touchdowns.

That is an upset because I think people thought he's good.

He's slotted correctly somewhere outside of the top 10, but look at the way he's playing.

They were dominant last week.

Mike, do the Cowboys, can they upset the apple cart here?

Oh, probably not.

No, their offense.

I don't like watching.

I don't like watching their offense at all.

I'm with Jordan, though.

I do really enjoy watching the Bucs.

They feel like a...

They remind me a little bit of the Lions currently minus the coach going on the radio swearing because they got decimated by injuries on defense earlier in the year.

They were just putting putting whoever out there for a second.

And then it happened on offense, and they were just fine.

They were just like, we'll just find new guys to make plays.

Every team has to go through that to some extent.

But we are seeing some teams handle it a lot better than others.

Like the Bucs are handling it way better than the Niners, for instance, particularly on offense.

Like when they didn't have Mike and they didn't have Chris, and they still don't have Chris, they were like, all right, cool, Kay Doden, can you just be Gronk for like a month?

And he was like, yeah, yeah, I can, you know, and then Mike came back and they were fine.

So, I really, I think I mentioned it like a few shows ago.

Like, there are some teams whose quarterback just looks really comfortable when you're just like, hey, man, your arm is how we're going to get it done today, in part because of how they played in college.

Like, Baker is very clearly comfortable throwing 60 times a game, throwing lasers, maybe to his team, maybe to your team, but he's comfortable with that.

And I've been really impressed by how often he's, like you mentioned, getting it in the end zone.

I do like, we talked about the Cowboys defense last week.

Man, they're like quietly up to like 10th or an EPA per play play since Micah's been back to leading the league in pressure rate since then.

I think that's since week nine.

Micah is back to being like, if you don't block him, you will die.

You know, I felt so bad for Bryce Young last week when I just looked up.

I re-watched the game later, but in real time, I just looked up like, well, there's number 11 on Bryce again.

All right, let me go back to doing something else because that drive is killed.

So I do think if they have a chance, I don't think the Cowboys do, but if they are going to have a chance, it's just going to be because number 11 is all over our screen just killing baker yeah they lead the league in sacks over the past five weeks they really do and like i think the one thing though they struggle against the run and i think liam cohen jordan has really changed the the narrative on the bucks like ground attack like buck like i i watching bucky irvin like i really love this player and like i really think that's a way that they it's balance around baker he's been well protected they can run the ball they're very they're very interesting heading into the playoffs it's so interesting too by the way mike evans is 251 251 yards away from hitting his streak.

We were

concerned.

We were so concerned like a week ago that maybe then he went off for 159 yards.

We were texting about this in our group chat.

It's just, he is, I, I will never get tired or take for granted watching Mike Evans play football.

I so hope he gets the streak.

I don't care about the 17-game argument.

Get the streak, Mike.

Like he would tie Jerry Rice's record of 11 consecutive seasons with at least a thousand receiving yards.

But to your point, Mark, and really to Mike's point too, this is kind of the inverted vibes Lions team, right?

Like it really is.

They both have been decimated by injuries.

And one has a head coach who's like so fired up.

And that's a great, that's great.

His team responds to it.

And the other has a head coach who is so chill.

He's so calm.

And you never know what dastardly pressure he's going to send at you, which they just had.

Sometimes they can have these quarterbacks in absolute knots with some of the things that Todd Bowles likes to do.

And Todd Bowles was even in the media.

I think it was this this brief, this week, you know, reporters were asking him, like, how are you going to get your team like fired up for the playoff?

Because they're so chill.

And it's so funny to me that a Baker Mayfield-led team is like neutralized vibes-wise by Liam Cohen and Todd Bowles as a combination.

I think that's so funny to me because Baker, we know, is like one of the most fired up individuals on the planet.

And Todd Bowles was like, well, we have the right people who can like talk a little smack.

to people behind the scenes.

And I was like, I want to see that.

Like, I want to be a fly on the wall for that as they prepare for this playoff run.

Yeah, I was mentioning like watching that Bucs game, and I put it in my write-up, my post-game write-up, that Baker's face just seemed like beat red.

He was just on fire.

And like, he just is, I love his passion.

And when he's, you know, when he's at the top of his game, like he was, like, it, it kind of seems like the team just loves him.

He just, he just had a baby.

Like, he's just in the right place in life right now.

So that's Sunday night, Monday night.

I feel like we're seeing the Green Bay Packers all the time on prime time, and I don't have a problem with it right now.

But the Saints, a bit of a floating corpse, roll into Green Bay on Monday night football.

Michael, how do we feel about this?

Oh, I like floating corpse.

Speaking of the Saints, I actually just looked at the schedule.

Mike Evans' last game is against the Saints, and I was like, oh, that's great.

If he needs the thousand, you know, Marshawn Lattimore will like dedicate his life to making sure he doesn't get it.

And then I forgot he's not commanders now.

Yeah, that's a shame because that would be, I guarantee you, Marshawn would not let him get a catch.

If the thousand was on the line, that would be great.

I was really impressed by the Packers, though, when I saw them

on Sunday night against Seattle.

Matt LaFleur was really arrogant in his play calling.

I thought that was like enjoyable as a neutral observer.

Obviously, Seahawks fans not happy about that.

And like an example of what I mean, so the Seahawks, you guys, if anyone's watching the Seahawks, you notice JSN scores on like, or he gets a lot of like little tunnel screens in the middle of the field.

That's kind of his bag.

That was literally the Packers' first play of the game.

was the tunnel screen that the Seahawks have been running all year.

And that's after the Packers won the coin toss and then took the ball on the road to start the game.

That's like really ballsy to take the ball and then call your opponents like go-to play to start the game.

It only got a few yards, but I was like, oh, okay.

Matt LaFleur is kind of, he's in one of those modes.

And when they get in one of those modes,

they are really, really tough to stop.

Like the Saints' defense is actually pretty feisty, like top 10 red zone defense.

So this won't be like walk in the park, I don't think, depending on Saints, you know, corpse situation.

But like the Packers, I've been skeptical of that whole, we don't need a wide receiver one thing.

And I still kind of am, but I'm just seeing it week after week that sometimes it just doesn't matter because Matt LaFleur is a badass.

And like Jordan, you, you know Matt LaFleur pretty well from all your play callers work.

And

what's different about him this year?

Because I just see like, I feel like he's just ultra confident to Mike's point.

Yeah, sometimes people get in a groove.

I think actually very, I don't see enough talk about this, so we're going to talk about it.

I think that the offensive line for the Packers has not just done an extraordinary job of really establishing what this team wants to be particularly this time of year it's settled their head coach down because he can build whatever he wants out of that offensive line they're all homegrown middle round picks with the exception of one or two guys who sometimes don't haven't been playing for them and they are like

just on they're in they're so in sync they have played their own positions the entire year which is ultra rare to do in the league and so important and they can build whatever they want in run or pass out of this offensive line but I think the most important thing that this offensive line has done is they've settled their head coach into a groove, similar to how you see a really good offensive line settle a running back into a groove or settle a quarterback into a groove, which is also happening, by the way, because when they can get their run game going, then Jordan Love gets really efficient, really fast.

Otherwise, when you can get pressure on him early, he gets erratic.

So the quarterback settles in early.

And then the play caller gets into his bag.

And Mike, I'm so glad you wrote up that tunnel screen.

Okay,

I know this is not the Seahawks segment segment.

That's fine.

Ryan Grubb has gotten his right of passions.

Welcome to the league.

He has been Shanahan.

He's been treated because all of those guys ran that

tunnel screen last week.

Like that same one.

And I asked Sean where he, he said he stole it.

I said, where'd you steal it from?

and he said Seattle they run it with JSN and I was like I know

Yeah, so it's sick man.

They like they're all stealing from each other, but that's how you know that Matt LaFleur to your point mark that is how you know that Matt LaFleur is in his bag right now and in his rhythm as a play caller I think he really clicks with that DC they have a history together as well when Matt LaFleur calls an aggressive game Jeff Hafley also steps up and calls an aggressive game.

And you could see that.

I mean Seattle's offensive line is atrocious.

We know that.

but they did not let off the gas.

They got pressure early and often.

They got Geno off his spot.

And this is the type of aggressive play calling when balanced by a counterpart as complete as what this offense looks like with its run game, when the quarterback is settled, and when Matt LaFleur is calling the type of game he is.

Like, don't maybe don't challenge anything, Matt LaFleur, because you're 0 for 6 on that.

But like, definitely, definitely, all of these things build a completeness that really carries a team into the postseason.

And I've been saying this, but I think that the Packers are bona fide contenders in this postseason.

Oh, I think so too.

It's very inconvenient for the rest of the NFC to see what they're doing.

They've won four of five.

The loss was to the Lions by three points.

And you go and they are like blowing people out and not allowing a lot of points.

Like the Jeff Hafley coordinator switch absolutely is working.

They're seventh in points per game, fourth in yards per game.

They can beat you in so many different ways.

So it's like, you know, you start to feel differently about some of these teams, like as the season progresses, obviously.

And the Packers, to me, were kind of just there in the first half of the season.

And now it's like they're there, but they're throwing punches and they're knocking people out.

And like, I would, it, I, winning multiple playoff games is not even out of the picture.

And what's what's happening with Detroit?

It kind of feels like two ships in the night going in different directions here.

Um, that will be a great one.

Uh, maybe not for the Saints, though.

Uh, so here we go.

We're gonna move into the games that we um cannot wait to watch.

Justin, if you're ready for that part of the show, um,

Jordan, yes, Mark, raise your hand.

Yeah, Yes, I raised my finger.

You're doing a great job, Mark.

I just wonder if you're not going to be able to do that.

I feel like Sam Howell at the end of the last Seahawks game right now, but I'll know.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

You are doing it.

You're doing a great job.

We're just directing traffic, but we are.

I rebuke that one, Mark, as someone who watched Sam in person with these eyes.

No, no, no, no, no.

You are doing a better job.

Well, you are.

I'll take your authority on that.

Thank you.

Mark, take the compliment.

My God.

Okay.

Well, look who I'm talking to.

You and I are no different on that front.

It is, yeah, like

there weren't a lot of these games to pick from this week.

I think we're in that part of the year.

So we included the Saturday slate as eligible contenders.

Mike, I know that you picked one of those.

Where are we going?

Yeah.

Honestly, I didn't even know these games were Saturday at one point.

Isn't that a treat, like, to blow up your entire weekend with the.

Mike's like deep in week 16.

Team is scrambling to keep season afloat, beat writer mode.

Like,

can't really keep it.

You also did not get into the document until like the 11th hour.

I noticed that.

I understand that happens sometimes.

Yeah, I got to cram all my like, not all my work, but a lot of my like pre-podcast work until Wednesday night because of just like child and beat writer duties.

But also, that reminds me, yeah, Mark, you're right.

Generally, there's not a lot of playoff drama, but boy, don't tell the teams that Jordan and I cover that there's no playoff drama.

There are some jobs on the line.

Maybe not head coach jobs, but there are jobs for players and coaches on the line, probably in both markets over these next three weeks.

These are huge three weeks for the Seahawks and Rams who are on like a collision course for the biggest game of the season in week 18.

But anyway, my game that I can't wait to watch that I learned is on Saturday

is the Texans at the Chiefs.

I think I picked the Texans last week too against the Dolphins.

And I re-watched that game.

I watched it live and I re-watched that game last night.

And it made me feel

really a lot better about the Texans defense.

They're like a top 10 defense.

Oh, top five defense right now.

They got a bunch of turnovers.

Again, you know, Tua was on a heater, you know, before that game, and then he just looked like the guy

Brian Flores thought he was in that game.

Four total turnovers, three picks.

All of the picks were bad.

They weren't like the fluky kind, you know.

They were like, well, actually, I guess the last one at the end of the game was a great play by number 24 for the Texans.

I do know his name.

I just don't feel like saying it right now.

But a great play by him.

But the Texans are worried about some.

You worry about him.

Strong stance there?

Just going to

leave it out for now.

Oh, my goodness.

I love that.

I do really like Derek Steve.

I love Jr.

No doubt.

No doubt about it.

No doubt about it.

He was so good.

He was so good in this game.

But it isn't just him.

I've been critical of their safeties all year because for a while it was like they all just kind of learned how to play quarters like right there before kickoff and it just kind of looked like it in game but they're playing a lot better now They were confusing the hell out of Tua.

And then with their pass rush, it has been killer.

Even without Aziz, like they were fine in the middle.

So, and then I think the whole team is 13th in turnover margin or plus 13 in turnover margin behind only the Bills and Steelers.

So, like, they're really opportunistic.

And you're seeing how they're getting it.

It isn't a lot of fluky stuff.

It's like we can cover really well.

And if that ball is not perfect, you will be screwed.

And then to transition that to the Chiefs, like they have guys who get open, but only kind of sort of, but not really.

Like I was watching that Chiefs game and I was like, oh, I recognize Travis.

This is relatable content.

That's exactly how I look trying to run routes.

Like his hips don't move.

He can't make nobody miss no more.

I was like, hey, man, I feel it.

You're just out there, just out there vibing, you know?

And you just, that I think is going to make this a really, really good matchup.

Actually, both defenses are really feisty.

The Chiefs Spags is still very much locked in as a defensive coordinator.

And the Chiefs' offense is not like no scrub.

But the Texans, it makes me feel really good about them

as like a team, as a potential contender, kind of view them in the same light that I guess the Packers are in the NFC, where it's like, when you're cooking, it can work, but you do kind of have some issues.

Like, I think the Packers is that if you get them to third down, like Jordan mentioned, Jordan Love is like, that's a mixed bag.

He can get real farvey.

And then

for the Texans, excuse me, what you might see in this game is CJ's interior O-line might get him killed.

And this is the type of game where you could get killed because the other team has number 95 for the Chiefs, whose name I will say very confidently, Chris Jones, who is a game record.

Yeah,

you have to set doubles on him like the entire game.

If you can set more than a double on him, which I don't think the Texans can, and they don't often use their protections in a way that makes sense anyway.

So I don't know what they're going to do for Chris Jones.

But where CJ Stroud is in danger on the interior, Pat Mahomes is still in danger on the exterior because DJ Humphreys, who they signed to help fix their glaring issues at left tackle that they've had all season, whether due to injury or just insufficient caliber of play.

DJ Humphreys is not practicing.

Now, I think Pat Mahomes is going to try to play.

I mean, he has been listed as a practice participant, and he said that this injury was not as bad as the previous one that he suffered.

I think it was in the Jacksonville game, you know, a little while ago.

I don't remember if it was last year, the year before.

Forgive me, listeners, on that.

But

this, so it's like, okay, good news, bad news situation.

It's a hobbled Patrick Mahomes, who's still Patrick freaking Mahomes,

but he has no protection on the outsides of his offensive line, and he's going against a really tough Texans team.

I don't know what, I mean, what would you do if you're the Andy Reid, Mark?

Would you try to protect this guy from himself, knowing what a lead that they have in general, not necessarily in the FC, but like in general, what, you know, they're kind of sitting in a comfortable spot to rest him a little bit?

It's a good question because, you know, he's the son of a like former pro baseball player, and I think he's got a special DNA because it's kind of a joke that you don't take it seriously when he gets hurt.

I mean, he looked seriously banged up and immobile like after that injury last week against Cleveland, but here he is practicing, and I think he sort of just has this like unbendable will.

And I think if you're Andy Reid, you work with Mahomes.

But here's, they've got the weird schedule where they're the team that plays on every day of the week this year except for Tuesday.

Now, that speaks to the NFL's greed on some level.

But I think from another angle, it's like they play five days later on Christmas.

And so is this the spot?

I don't love it against Houston, but is the spot where you sit Mahomes or give him rest?

I just think he's not going to want to do that.

Like along with the DJ Humphrey things, I think watching against the Browns too, it's like he's walked into, and

that sounds like not complimentary complimentary enough for Mahomes, but he's created some problems for himself walking into some of this pressure.

But you are dealing with two tackles that

have been hot water non-stop.

They might get Marquise Brown back for this game.

It sounds like that's a possibility.

So you suddenly are a team that we didn't know, we thought you have nobody.

You've got DeAndre Hopkins and potentially Marquise Brown added to this offense.

So I like that a lot, but you are right, Mike, that like...

I thought last week, because we're waiting for CJ Stroud and the offense to awaken, I'm kind of over that mission mentally, but the defense looked really well coached.

And I know that you'd been down on their secondary, but like Derek Stingley alone can change games.

And it's like you could see if you have to stick Carson Wentz in there, Derek Stingley could wreak havoc.

Like this might be an opportunity where I'm waiting for the Chiefs to drop one of these games.

Is it this one?

At this point, I don't know.

It might just happen in the playoffs.

But Mahomes being in there, I wouldn't be surprised if he plays.

I just think that's who he is.

Yeah, I mean, I would play him.

I mean, selfishly for fantasy purposes.

You know, I need

to be concerned with.

That's what it's all about.

Well, I think this is, this is a chance for them, though, if they do play him, like, to get lean a little bit more into their run game because they got, I think they had a stretch against the Browns where I think he had like nine incompletions in a row or something like that.

And they were up two scores in the second half.

And it was just throw here, throw there, throw here, throw there.

And I was like, I was watching it.

I was like, what are you doing, man?

You got Pacheco.

You got Kareem Hunt.

Like, you can run the ball pretty well.

Even when he got hurt, I think they threw it on like third and three and then went for it on fourth and three.

And then he like jumps in the air to try to throw it to Juju.

And I was like,

did you forget you can run the ball?

You know, it's kind of cliche.

I feel like running is the answer all the time when a team is struggling on offense.

But in that case, I felt like it was, particularly because they were up multiple touchdowns on a Browns team that had no interest in winning the game.

They were just giving, they find new ways to give the ball to the other team seemingly every week.

So if they are going to play Mahomes, this is probably like a, I don't want to say blessing in disguise, but that's kind of what it is.

Maybe if Andy's like, all right, Mahomes isn't magical today, so let's use our other guys like i think that's if if they do if they do play him i think that should be the plan and i'm glad that we that you're on the show mike because it's the game you can't wait to watch you weren't aware that it was on saturday it might have just been sunday morning and you would have missed the entire thing so we're we're helping you as well um let's go let's move on here jordan you have a game that you cannot wait to watch and we cannot wait to hear which one that is and my clever and totally intentional manipulation of the document all season means that i get to watch one of my favorite teams to watch and now i I get to watch both of two of my favorite teams to watch.

The Philadelphia Eagles, number two, in the Heed the Call Power Rankings, at the Washington Commanders, number nine.

This is, again, my favorite crew, the Davis Olson, Pam Oliver crew, legends.

Okay, I've spent a lot of time and a lot of like air minutes talking about the schematic evolution of the Philadelphia Eagles on defense.

I actually would like to spend some time talking about the potential metaphysical ramifications of the Philadelphia Eagles.

Because Mark, are you attempting the subtle yet classic undermining move of the late season curse transfer?

Because I saw that you were wearing an Eagles sweatshirt on a show, and I feel like you are trying to send that curse for the Cardinals into the transfer portal.

to another certain bird team that happens to be very hot right now.

I like the theory.

I'm going to be completely honest this time around.

This Eagles sweatshirt, which was just sent to me before before the season i have no affiliation with the eagles was hanging in our bathroom and i had taken a shower i was like i'll just wear that on the show today so it there was no nefarious curse making involved there although um if anything i had eagles fans who are you know they're an interesting group um texting me or not texting me they know my number but like tweeting saying like yeah you understand football because you're wearing an eagle sweatshirt it's like it's that easy to just you know get them back on your side so i just like to play people against each other and you know i think that it scared dan and it scared connor because they've been a little anti-eagles that maybe I was supporting them.

But then I was like, what if we're, it could be a curse.

It could be.

And then it's like, that's, that's chess versus checker.

So anyways, the reason I'm rambling is because I don't really have an answer for that question.

One thing I love is that Connor and Dan immediately thought you were trolling them.

Like because they had some truly, truly awful Eagles takes previously this season.

So,

okay, so about the Eagles in general, I mean, it's probably something that I personally need to dig deeper in into therapy, but I'm starting to really, really dig their like self-motivating methods of creating their own relatively small yet briefly seismic problems and then solving them in front of everybody while simultaneously creating new small problems.

So, and I earnestly mean that.

Like, I am getting such a kick out of that this season because after the NFL world was buzzing about the Jalen Hurts, A.J.

Brown situation all week last week, they got their passing game off the ground.

They looked awesome.

Jalen Hurts completed 78% of his passes through two touchdowns.

One was to A.J.

Brown.

They did a nice little friendship dance afterward.

And A.J.

Brown had 110 yards off eight catches while simultaneously Clint Hurt is like getting between barricading himself between one of his players and Nick Sariani.

Like, as all that's happening,

all the solutions are happening.

They're creating yet another like very small issue.

So I genuinely love the vibe with the Eagles.

I feel like they've got so much of that extra like competitive energy.

It just has to like spurt out in different directions.

And that's kind of what you see with this darkly chaotic, yet schematically very, very sound Eagles team.

And on the commander side, I mean, this is going to be a fun and dynamic game because it's going to be a challenge for Jaden Daniels against this Vic Fangio defense that has been streaking.

Had a little ball security, a couple ball security issues.

But at the same time, like, you know, this defense is always going to be a challenge, especially for a young quarterback trying to navigate some of the structures that they're going to

play against him.

And a fun commander's note, Washington did not have kickers Zane Gonzalez or their backup, Greg Joseph, at practice on Wednesday because both kickers' wives were giving birth.

So there's like some cool metaphysical universal energy happening between these teams right now.

This is going to be a fun game.

I can't freaking wait to watch.

I can't think of a NFL moment in time where two special, two kickers both had babies.

Well,

from different women, obviously, but

in the same week.

So that's very strange.

But like, you're right.

That's a good note.

One thing I do, I'm really with you on the Eagles because I know like it's it's almost cliché to praise Howie Roseman.

To me, though, it's like this is a team that went from Carson Wentz to Nick Foles to no more Carson Wentz to Jalen Hurts, and they did it pretty smoothly without like a five-year abyss.

They went from Chip Kelly to Doug Peterson, who wins a Super Bowl, and then they don't stick around with him that long when things aren't going right or when there's clashing about what to do with assistant coaches and the direction of the coaching staff.

You get Nick Siriani, he goes to the Super Super Bowl.

They have a bad last half of the year, last year.

They're now the best team in the NFC, in my opinion, at this moment in time.

They seem to operate really well in chaos and, to your point, create, suddenly they're creating chaos for the opponent.

And, you know, this was the game where

Daniels had the rib injury, and

that didn't go so well.

I like the idea that he's healthy this time around.

What have they learned about Jaden Daniels?

What have they learned about the Eagles?

And so it's an interesting clash.

Mike, is there a team here that you feel is absolutely going to dominate, or is it going to be close?

I think it should be close.

This was a game I had to go and re-watch.

I didn't get to watch much live.

And so my first note when I re-watched it was, in all caps, bullying works.

Because, so I didn't recognize the sequencing of everything.

I was aware of all the drama last week or whatever, but then I saw that the Eagles came out and empty on their first opening drive and then we're just throwing it.

They're like, throw it, man.

I mean,

bullying works sometimes.

I know, you know, we had the anti-bully campaigns campaigns in middle school and in high school, but you know what?

Sometimes

it can be effective.

It can be effective.

Well, yeah, it got bad by the time I was in high school.

At my middle school, we had, I went to a uniform middle school that was K through eight, and we used to have like a free dress day on Fridays, and then we couldn't anymore because kids were getting bullied for what type of clothes they had on.

Like it was a lot of like brand wear shaming.

So then they switched it to, all right, you have to wear a uniform on Friday, but you can wear whatever shoes you want.

Well, that went the same way.

That didn't work out.

Like, kids were getting clowned for what type of shoes they had, whether they were real or fake or whatever.

So then we got it.

You had to wear a uniform and black shoes, but they could be whatever black shoes you wanted.

And that kind of started to go the same way, but I guess kids ran out of jokes.

How many can you have for black shoes?

So, yeah, that's my Mike bullying childhood story.

Anyway, my shoes, my shoes were fine, by the way.

My parents made sure of anything.

Never in doubt.

No doubt.

I had cool shoes, which is why now my closet is full of shoes that cost hundreds of dollars now from childhood.

Anyway, but that

stood out to me right away when I watched the Eagles game.

I was like, oh my goodness.

Like, they just came out and said, you know what, AJ, here, damn, here's the ball.

But the funny part about it is that's a good strategy is throwing the ball to AJ a bunch.

Like, sometimes football is just really simple in that way.

And when they're on like that, you know, I have some questions about Jalen Hurts as like a pocket guy because the design stuff to him doesn't look like super great.

I think it only really worked once on a non-tush-push thing against the Steelers, but he looked really good.

And it really was, it's a dangerous game to play, Philly, because they played it last year too.

They were like, all right, Devontae, you complained.

So here,

in the first 15, you get six passes.

All right, Dallas Goddard's complaining now.

Well, he gets some action to start the game.

Oh, well, now AJ is in the coach's office.

Well, we got to feed him the ball.

Like, you can't really play that game too much, but I thought that was really funny in this game.

And so I think that's why the Eagles are going to win because they can kind of just do whatever they want to you on offense if they so choose.

And then Jordan's favorite coordinator, I think, Fangio, just has them really locked in.

That old bastard.

I guess this is a Howie compliment, I would say.

Howie, it feels like has, this is the other note I had in there.

It's like Howie Roseman has the type of D-line that Deion Sanders got in trouble for saying he wanted.

He just has a lot of like dogs up there, like guys who are just like, man, these are badasses up front.

And Jalen Carter has, I think, elevated into that space of like, oh, if you don't have a problem for him, or excuse me, an answer for him, like we were talking about with Chris Jones, you're going to lose.

Like, he is very, very good.

And then if you get good Darius Slay from the Eagles, oh, man, you're cooking.

But as we've seen this year, like, Darius, the bad Darius Slay can literally cost you a game.

So, but I do like, I do like Philly and this one on the road.

Do you worry or is it like an over

dramatic, nonsensical item?

the moment where Nick Siriani is trying to approach Jalen Carter and friends and the assistants getting up in his face and you got big dom right behind him kind of like do we worry about that or is that just like this is just what happens during these games I just think it's just who they are at this point and I guess I don't worry about it because I've seen them handle it you know like I've seen it there's a picture um our friend Zach Berman at phly.com he shared out a picture of Nick Siriani and like Zach is like, if you're going to have like a comedy duo, like he's the straight man, right?

Like he, he, he had no idea he was sharing out this photo that would be memed instantly.

But it was like, Nick Siriani looked like someone who would like help ship you across the river sticks, right?

Like he was equally haunted and then doing the haunting, right?

Like it was very, it was quite a photo.

But I'm like, okay, well, yeah, man, the dude's exhausted because in part, you know, some of his own energy creates issues.

But then also in part, like he's holding this wildly cool, like really interesting, psychologically interesting and

just very multiple ecosystem together.

I mean, there is every personality, but like every football team has this, right?

But they're out in the open with it.

Like they are living out loud right now with all of the different personalities from Saquon Barkley saying he doesn't want to break a record because he wants younger players to get the ball late in a game to other players saying, I want to get the ball.

I want it more.

And we have to fix our passing game and we got beef.

And like, I just, I like all of it because it's working.

If they can understand just how to like steer that energy, just barely just move that needle just a little bit and channel it all into that functional direction, like there can be success within a little bit of that chaos.

And you always hear these stories.

I would love to go spend some time there for a while because you always hear these stories about these ultra elite competitors who build these demons in their own head, that they build their own enemies, they create their own problems because that gives them something to solve.

It gives them motivation to solve these things.

I think they're all doing it together and they're kind of trauma bonding over it.

So I think it's lovely.

It's wonderful.

I want to share my final note.

It's a very quick one from that game.

I couldn't think of who Jalen Hurts looked like post-game with the hat and the outfit.

He looked like Rick Fox and he got game.

I can't remember Rick's character's name, but he's the one

that took Ray Allen on the visit to the university where he had a really great time and then didn't commit there.

But yes, Rick, shout out to Jalen.

Rick Fox and He Guy Game look alike.

I think his name was Tech.

I want to switch to the next one.

This is where we do Miss Dan's film input on films and TV in general.

Wait, have none of you guys seen He Guy Game?

Oh, yeah.

Oh, okay.

I think that's an interesting, that's a good comp.

And I love when you're trying to figure out what someone looks like and then it clicks.

Like, that's a good feeling.

Like Mark and Matthew Stafford.

I do not look like Matthew Stafford.

I'm not buying that one.

Here's a team that got its butt kicked by the Eagles, especially in that last drive, 22 plays, just to run the clock out.

The Pittsburgh Steelers going to Baltimore.

That is my game.

And I jumped in the document, like, I didn't even have to think twice because it was about a month plus ago when I compared this game to like a big old drunk.

aunt rolling up in a car and like finding some sort of niece or nephew.

It was a niece.

And they just pull her hair by her hair down on the yard and then just like kicking each other's butts.

And they got like children rolling up on bikes and throwing stones and sticks at them and, you know, egging them on.

So I think that was apt.

That game played out that way.

I think it was 18 to 16 Pittsburgh.

And I just never assume that one of these teams is going to automatically just sweep the other.

And I think you're going into Baltimore and watching, I covered the Giants Ravens game, and I get that it's the Giants.

I get that.

But it doesn't matter who it is.

When you play the way that Baltimore did, almost effortlessly perfect.

Lamar Jackson, I thought, played one of the most supremely confident and pristine games of his career.

He was just in his groove.

It's at the right time.

I think Lamar Jackson is just driven to kill narratives, kill January narratives, and they really operated in concert.

This is still a team, though, and in that game, and I mentioned on Sunday night, I think the defensive penalties are going to kill them at some point.

They just come in heaps and bundles, and the Giants made it 14-7 at one point because of a penalty-laden drive by the Ravens defense that just concerned me for like later on.

But tactically, I really wonder if if you're Pittsburgh, you are looking at the health of your players.

It's obviously TJ Watt.

I think we could see TJ Watt on the field.

It sounds like that's possible.

What version of him?

Also, it's like, I don't think there is anything but one version of TJ Watt.

I know he's not having like the greatest season, but he has been the guy that's been able to put the clamps on Lamar Jackson and change what Jackson's had to do.

So that's absolutely critical.

And I don't think so.

George Pickens, like Mike or Tomlin will not rule him out, but it's also like, he has like a grade two hamstring injury.

Like, I don't know what version of him you get, but when they have not had him on the field, they've tumbled to 29th in success rate, 30th in offensive EPA, 27th in drop back success rate.

That's what we saw against the Eagles.

I think they're very different, and it changes Russell Wilson, and it really changes like the world of Najee Harris, who's not the same guy with it.

So, the health of the Steelers matters so much.

They're actually a game up on Baltimore.

This is a massive, massive AFC North contest.

This also is happening on Saturday.

So, tune into that.

And there we go.

What do you guys think?

It is interesting because, with some teams, like the Lions, who are really banged up, because they already have built in so many different layers to their offense that they could already beat you in multiple ways

and resoundingly so, that some of the injuries you maybe worry a little bit less about.

You still worry, but like they still showed they can beat you in different ways.

The Steelers, with George Pickens with this soft tissue, the dramatic effect of when he's on the field for Russell Wilson to throw some of the mid-range to deeper passes to versus not is striking, as you noted, Mark, but it is it is almost shrinking down their offense into a space that Russell Wilson does not want to play in.

He wants to unfurl the moon ball.

He wants to get the receiver working downfield and

at the perimeter, and he wants to have them go up and make these impossible catches that George Pickens does so well.

And with the hamstring, because those are the types of concepts that George Pickens is being utilized on, it almost makes you extra worried about the hamstring because what is the worst thing you could possibly do for a hamstring is stretch the field.

Literally, you cannot, um, you can't move that way when you have a limitation of a soft tissue muscle like that.

And so I think that this one

player, this one injury has had such a ripple effect on all the things we've liked watching about the Steelers offense and the Resaissance so far because it literally shrinks down the layers of what they're able to build with this offense and it puts Russell Wilson into this much tinier, like less workable space where he cannot puncture out of it the way that he had when he had Pickens on the field.

I love Resaissance.

That's great.

You thought of that, I think, Mike.

Didn't you think of that?

I don't know.

If so, well, I'm great.

If not, I'm great.

It's great.

I like that.

Either way, Mark, we were on the same page.

We were all on on the same page, but I had in one of my notes for this game, I applauded Pittsburgh before, but without Pickens, yuck.

Yeah, without Pickens, this offense does not move me.

I knew he would matter, but I didn't think, to Jordan's point, he would matter that much.

Not to say he's not that good.

Actually, I've always liked Pickens.

I thought if the Titans were going to trade AJ, he is who they should have taken instead of Traylon Burks.

So I was like, He's a good player, but man, he's like everything for them.

And that's problematic.

If you need him to be everything not just because of the talent but also just like he's very clearly unstable like he just might just go like chokehold a dv you know on any given play and get thrown out wwe figure it's awesome yeah like it's definitely awesome unless you're like a steelers fan and your season kind of depends on him and that was my other note uh going back to our open of the show about the kind of the drama list uh aspect that's true generally for the season but this game right here this thing this is the this is the season for both teams yes i do think the team that gets the wild card is probably not just going to go on a run to New Orleans for the Super Bowl.

I really don't think so.

I think the team that wins the division has a much greater chance.

I'm sure there's some nerds who can crunch some numbers and give us the odds of each team doing that, winning the Super Bowl versus winning or losing this game.

But I will just confidently say, with no numbers, the team that loses this game is cooked.

They're not going to win the Super Bowl.

And I think

that makes this game massive.

Arguably, looking at the slate, probably the biggest game of

the schedule.

I would say in week 16, because

both quarterbacks, like there's a lot on the line there, and both coaches are really like, man, I need to get back to the big joint, you know, like the Super Bowl.

I mean, like, it feels like there's so much on the line in this particular game.

And then my final note, I think, Mark, you mentioned this too.

I just have Ravens got to beat these guys eventually, right?

You know, like, it feels like they eventually just got to beat them.

I don't have a ton of rhyme or reason other than I kind of think they might be better without pickings.

But I just feel like the Ravens got to beat these dudes at some point.

Yeah, it's been like there's been these seasons where Lamar was injured at the end of the year and some of those games went that way because of that.

But you're right.

Like if Pittsburgh were to sweep Baltimore, lights out.

Like it's just, it's, and I think Pittsburgh, even more than Baltimore, needs to have home playoff games because that's a completely rowdy impossible atmosphere.

We are going to go take a little bit of a break.

And, you know, during these breaks, we really, we really enjoy ourselves.

A lot happens during these breaks, Justin.

You know that.

So we'll be back in a minute.

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Okay, we are back.

Back in action, and we're going to go to that place that we go to on these wonderful Thursdays.

It's a wet place.

It's moist.

It has scents.

Justin, let's go to the gravy boat.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

Justin's so nice.

He gives me a thumbs up when it's safe to put my headphones back in, even though I am wounding him every time I rip my headphones out.

That is what a nice human, Justin is.

Oh, it's nothing.

All right, let's get going.

Giants at Falcons.

It's Michael Pennock's time.

Baby, Raheem Morris finally admits, in a sense, at least, that Kirk Cousins can't really move and therefore cannot run the offense at a functional level.

And the Falcons need to win some football games down the stretch to have a shot at the postseason still.

Now, interesting, this Giants' defense has actually been pretty good in the passing game.

you know, last week when they got shredded, notwithstanding.

So this will be an interesting first start opportunity for the rookie.

Yeah, I I feel like I'm suddenly intrigued by the Falcons after months of feeling that they were an absolute snooze fest.

Jordan, how do you feel about the move?

Yeah, well, it's multiple things being true, right?

It's the right move, and it is also so logistically difficult.

I talked about this

at a higher volume last week because it is so non-ideal when you are not getting reps in practice as a backup quarterback.

That's just how it works, guys.

And when

you are game planning week over week with the margins of your season like on the line, literally on the line and so thin every week, it is extremely unideal that now is the time that you make that change.

I think Mike Tomlin provided a great blueprint.

And one of Raheem Morris's good friends and mentors provided a great blueprint on when you're supposed to make this change, like not when everything is so razor thin.

And, but Kirk Cousins' play, it was inexcusable.

You can't keep him on the field.

So that's, that's also a truth.

So they're just going to have to deal with it.

I think one thing that the Falcons have a slight advantage or at least past precedent to lean on was getting Baker Mayfield ready.

Zach Robinson got Baker Mayfield ready for a Thursday night football game.

When Baker Mayfield landed in Los Angeles in 2022, on a Tuesday, they got him ready to go kick the shit out of the Raiders on Thursday night football.

And like this, this is...

going to be so tough for this staff to do.

And it puts an enormous amount of weight on Michael Penix's shoulders.

But as someone who, you know, got to cover him and talked to him quite a bit for a couple quarterback related stories I did before the draft and through the summer and left-handed quarterback's role, by the way,

he is so calm.

He is so composed.

This is not too big for him.

Now, there's a lot that could go sideways and still might, but in terms of who he is as a person, this is not too big for him.

And further, forgive me, one of my theories here is that they knew Kirk would hit a a wall, but there was no way of knowing when that wall would happen.

The contract is still inexcusable, right?

It is.

It gets a little bit better after this year.

But in terms of the timeline of events of all of this happening and adding panics, which I think around the NFL, you guys were a fan of the move, which I thought was the correct take at the time because you knew that a wall was coming for Kirk after that injury and plus his age.

They just didn't know when, so they had to be ready for the win.

I don't think anybody expected it to happen this abruptly and this this much into a crater because he's always been streaky, but this is a crater.

And they were ready for it.

So it's it's a it's a lot of things are true at the same time.

I'm excited to see Mike Pennix go out and sling the ball around.

Yeah, I think like I appreciate the boldness of the move and the we all see we all saw Kirk Cousins.

It happened in

the right spot where it was like, you know, in an island situation where his body's broken.

So you have to do it.

But Mike, I cannot think, I was trying to think of situations where a team that could still make the playoffs.

Like they're very in that division.

It's viable.

They're around.

Like to make a quarterback switch to a rookie this late in the year, it's pretty units like this wasn't, it's not like Colin Kaepernick that started off of an injury and they wanted to play him.

It's like that happened at a different time in the year.

It's like, this is pretty unknown, pretty unprecedented.

Yeah, it is.

But yeah, it's necessary.

I really liked, I almost felt proud of Raheem, you know, because I saw Cousins Live in week seven.

And I remember on my podcast, me and my co-hosts were like, oh, that dude, he can't move better than me and you me and my co-host chris uh and so when rahim finally to justin's point in the intro kind of acknowledged what we've all been seeing it kind of felt like that old person in your family who finally acknowledges they shouldn't drive anymore like all right here's my keys you guys are right you know like my my grandmother just got to that point i wouldn't say like a couple years ago i think during covet at some point she was just like you know what I don't need to drive that car anymore.

I'm old.

You know, that's pretty much Kirk.

Kirk had to get the keys taken from him, which is probably something people listening can relate to.

You sometimes you have to take the keys from grandma or grandpa or uncle or aunt or maybe the aunts that were slapboxing each other in Mark's Pittsburgh Ravens preview.

Oh, they should have that driving.

They're never sober.

Yeah, exactly.

You know,

that was Kirk.

That was Kirk.

And he, I don't even know if this will work, really.

I never liked to pay Kirk that much money and then draft Pennex that high.

I just thought it was a lose-lose.

I've always kind of thought that.

I thought either you draft,

either you, you pay too much for Kirk and he's not good enough, or you drafted Penix super high and you can't even use him.

And I thought that was too much of a luxury for a Falcons roster that at the time had no defenders, which is why they then since had to go trade for Judon, go get one of their safeties.

And they still stink on defense.

So, but yeah, credit to Raheem for finally taking Grandma's keys

because it was probably a couple weeks overdue.

Yeah, then we've got Justin who wants to put like Joe Biden on a motorcycle, like on edibles.

Anyways, next game, Justin.

Okay.

Cardinals at Panthers.

It's almost like the NFL schedulers are testing the power of Mark's voodoo curse.

Last week, they gave the Cardinals the Patriots.

Okay, we found out.

The curse is not quite strong enough to overpower a team that bad.

But what about the Panthers?

Can the curse lift them up enough to beat Arizona?

An actual football note for this game, the Panthers linebackers are extremely banged up.

Two more guys headed to IR this week.

James Connor is going to go off in this game.

If you got him in the fantasy playoffs, congrats.

If you're playing against him, I'm sorry.

I think that the curse is on hold.

You're right, because of the schedule.

And I said as much on Sunday night that like curses don't hold up against the 2024 New England Patriots, Christian Gonzalez notwithstanding.

Here we go.

I think what happened to the Panthers a week ago

That shakes that kind of shook up the Panthers comeback narrative a little bit in terms of like the quarterback being rock solid now and everything around him.

They really are depleted on defense, too.

So I think if Arizona, this time of year, you want to be physical, you want to smash people with the run.

We saw that last week.

James Conner is playing at a completely awesome level.

To me, it's like they did that without even really getting Marvin Harrison involved.

He had a couple drops in the end zone that could have changed his stat line last week, but they're able to win certain games without everyone needing to be at the highest level.

I think they'd take care of business.

They'd be eight and seven, and then they'd have the Rams and the 49ers, two massive games for both the Rams there and the Cardinals.

Like, they're alive in the sense of, like, if they can get out of their own way, that's been the story for them.

Get out of your own way.

It's a softer schedule than some, so we will see.

And that's my news preview on that.

We'll go to the next game right now, Justin.

Nice one, Mark.

News preview.

Where was I born?

Lions at Bears.

Now, Dan Campbell said on a radio appearance that we played on this show earlier in the week that the slew of injuries they've suffered is exactly what they needed.

I'd argue that playing this version of the Chicago Bears is exactly what the Lions need to stay in the lead for the first round by.

How are we feeling, Jordan?

Yeah, I mean, you got to feel for the Bears at this point, right?

Because

what else can they do?

They're sort of just hamstrung at this point.

And you would think that, like, right now, because they've made the moves that they did and they're putting together probably their candidate lists, and you're starting to hear rumors, even Troy Aikman floating, you know, the possibility of trading for a head coach.

Now, I will say, like, I don't hate that idea for the Bears.

And I don't hate it because this is considered by people who are experts on these things and all the whispers, conjurers of the world, and Connor Orr, who is quite indeed a bona fide expert on this topic,

that this is a really thin coaching candidate pool.

And so it's almost like the Bears are either going to maybe take a chance on somebody who is a year away and have them grow in,

hey, Dan, and grow into a role.

But the problem is, you are multiple years, at least two years behind all of the other high caliber coaches in the NFC North and even more in some cases.

And so why not actually swing for the fence and go try to trade for a high-caliber, experienced, proven coach, Kevin Stefansky,

and actually like kind of try to keep pace with these people who are just like kicking the crap out of you just as an organization and in terms of their

organizational functionality and are lapping you at this point.

Like, why not make a move like that?

Why not take a swing like that?

And I could see it on the other side.

I could see like Liam Cohen getting a call from the Chicago Bears, for example, because they want someone to come in on offense.

But if you're going to be an organization that's serious about

actually having us talk about the game when we talk about the Lions versus the Bears game and actually have this be a fun matchup to think about and to watch instead of maybe just like a steamroll situation, like you have to make that big move.

You have to take a swing for a proven commodity, such as a proven head coach.

And I wouldn't be surprised if they did it.

Well,

yeah, I wonder like the Bears' ownership has the,

They don't strike me as a team that really can even pull a move here and get a big guy like that.

I don't know what you'd even trade for a Kevin Stefanski at this point, but it is interesting.

It's time for the Bears to make, like, to go do something they've never done and don't get the third or fourth guy on the list.

And it is time for that.

I have no trust in that organization to do it.

Justin.

All right.

We didn't really talk about Bears-Lions there, but yes, good stuff on the Bears.

Next game.

I'll own that.

I'll own that because I just, what else can we say about the Bears at this point, Honestly.

I mean, the Lions have to win this game, banged up or not.

They're seven-point, almost seven-point favorites.

Like, just go beat your division rival.

And don't do what you did last year, where you almost got beat and then did get beat by this Bears team.

Yeah.

And when Dan Campbell said, win with your special teams, win ugly.

He's going to smile if they win.

So

to your point, sorry, listeners.

Maybe next year these games will be more competitive with the Bears.

Next game, Titans at Colts.

You can say a lot of things about the Titans.

You can say they suck.

They do.

That they're a bad team.

They're non-competitive.

But you better not call them soft or Brian Callahan will get emotional about it.

Anyway, Mason Rudolph starting here.

Will Levis benched probably for his career, definitely this season against Anthony Richardson.

Who's excited for this game?

Well,

I want to ask you, Mike, like with the Anthony Richardson thing, like, is he, is this kind of a trial for what happens in this offseason?

Like, do you automatically just go back to him after what we've seen?

This is one of the most erratic, accuracy-averse quarterbacks I've watched.

But it gifts aside.

Yeah, it's kind of been interesting also how he's kind of been,

how, how the coverage has been over there.

And Indy just kind of seems like he's getting a lot of benefit of the doubt for like some of the worst stat lines I've ever seen.

One of my homies joked that his stat lines would be looking like tour dates.

You know, it's like, they look really bad.

You know, like it'd be like 11 of 20 or something like that, like 11 of 30.

I forget what he was.

This was like 17 of something, I think, really bad.

You know, it's just hard for me to give the benefit of the doubt to a guy completing 40-something percent of his passes or whatever.

It can't just be drops.

It can't just be the coordinator.

It can't just be everyone else when you're that, that, that, that bad.

But yes, I think what would give me some reason for optimism is I think between his last college season and his rookie season, I forget who he worked with, but his footwork was a lot better going into his rookie year.

I remember like I was thinking, oh, okay, he looked good.

I think in their first game, I forget who it was, the Jags, maybe.

I was like, oh, he looks all right.

He's like accurate.

And then something happened with this last offseason in the shoulder.

Maybe he regressed.

I'm not sure.

But now he just doesn't look like he knows his feet are supposed to point towards who you're throwing to.

You know, it just makes it really hard.

But it seems like that could be fixable.

We've seen some guys fix their foot stuff.

Jordan, what's the QB thing that they do?

Biomechanics.

Bang.

Yes.

AR.

Call them.

Please.

Yeah,

he works with them.

He just couldn't last year because he was recovering from a shoulder injury.

So I would like to see him get a full off-season of this type of work because it is proven to be effective.

Now, this is a dramatic project to undertake, right?

More dramatic perhaps than some of the even the worst Josh Allen

mess that we saw early in his career because he also went to these same people to become a more efficient biomechanically sound thrower.

So we'll see.

I'd like to see him get a full offseason of all of this type of training and then come back next year and see how he looks.

And Justin, quickly on the Titans, I mean, I think most of American civilization is ready to see them float away into the offseason at this point.

But the coach spoke.

He's, what's the state of Callahan at this point?

All right, Callahan was asked about some people calling the Titans soft in the media.

What is his response to hearing that his team may have been called soft?

I mean, you really want to get me going today?

Yeah, I think, to be honest with you, I think that's complete and total bullshit, if you want my honest opinion.

These guys are tough f ⁇ ers, man.

They go after it every day.

They play hard as hell.

And there's at no point, at no point have we ever put on tape at any point this season that this is a soft football team.

I can't even wrap my mind around how that would even be a conversation.

I mean, just because we don't win games doesn't mean we're soft.

These guys play their ass off.

They play hard.

They play physical.

You can ask any team that plays against us that when they come off the field, they know they played us.

Yeah, that makes me relatively angry that that would be some presumption.

That means you just don't watch the shit.

You don't do anything about it, that you don't know what you're talking about.

You don't know what you're looking at.

So

I won't stand for, I'm not going to stand for anybody calling his football team soft.

I think that's bullshit.

So if there's opinions out there that feel that way, then

they don't know anything about anything about NFL football.

So I'd like you to walk in there and call one of these guys soft and see what happens.

You know,

this is not a soft football team at all, mentally or physically.

And I think one of the things mentally that's really been impressive about the team is that the way that they keep fighting through the way this season has gone.

They've not shown at any point that they're not up to the task.

They come out every day and work.

They have,

I mean, I'm really

guys come out here and they do everything possible to win games.

And if there's any assumption anywhere that's outside of this building, again, we don't focus on all those things, but

there's no possible explanation to say this team is soft any way, shape, or form, mentally or physically.

And the way that they go about their work is insane.

You got to hear the last comment.

I mean, do we?

Everyone that works here.

So, you know, I'm not that

no chance ever in hell would I ever admit that to be the case, and uh, neither would anybody in this locker room.

So you can kind of shove that one right up your ass, to be honest.

So,

I mean, Justin, first of all, if you're watching this on youtube

yeah if you're watching this on youtube while he's not going on one of the longest um soliloquics we've ever had up by a coach on the show there's these nice little christmas lights over him too so it's a very cute scene but i think we needed that from bill from from callahan from brian callahan didn't we justin we did but it my response to this is your team is mentally soft your team beat houston to move to three and eight on the season and then came out and got waxed the next week and said oh i think we were hung over from success You were hung over from success as a three and eight football team.

That's not success.

So I don't, they are mentally soft.

Sorry, David.

Justin Graeber, I know we have to move, but I have to ask you guys this one question.

Have you guys, I was recently taught a new term by my friends at the Saints Block Party podcast.

Have you guys heard of the term hat-fished?

Hat-fished or cat-fished?

Hat-fished?

Hat-fished.

Like someone looks a certain way in a hat

and then they take the hat off.

Completely different without

that is what I could not stop thinking of as that man was talking.

Okay.

I can see that.

I agree with that.

I've experienced that with people with sunglasses more than hats.

Like sometimes I've only known someone or I just associate them with sunglasses and then I see them without them and I'm like, oh, that's what you look like.

Or clothing.

I don't know.

Yeah, I was thinking, glass fished, maybe?

I don't know.

It it sounds like a bar

and i can say that because i am a hat fisher

so you have the right

next game rams at jets the rams are on a roll winners of three straight and four of their last five the jets just snapped a four-game losing streak the aaron rogers documentary is out he's doing ayahuasca in the forest and apparently Woody Johnson uses Madden ratings to evaluate NFL players.

Yeah, well, there's a pretty interesting athletic piece out right now where the headline simply says, Woody Johnson's Jets, it's the most dysfunctional place imaginable.

Right now, Dan at a children's concert, you can tell his ears are buzzing.

He doesn't like this conversation.

But I mean, you know, the Jets side of it aside, like Jordan, the Rams, like absolutely massive game for them.

They all are, but it's like, you've got to go take care of business on the road.

Yeah, true.

And also, I'm concerned for on the Rams side of things.

It's a really long trip.

It is going to be very cold.

It is a hard turf, bad playing surface.

I know they changed it out at MetLife a little while ago, but still a bad playing surface, a very hard turf, hard on players' bodies.

They've got a couple old guys on this team that absolutely are crucial that they play well down the stretch.

So this is sneakily dangerous for the Rams, in my opinion.

The Jets are also playing, like all the outside chaos aside, and you guys gotta go read that report at the athletic.

Zach Rosenblatt, Diana Rossini, and Mike Silver collaborated on it.

And it is wild.

Some of the stuff that that dude reportedly is doing, like letting his kids and their friends into the locker room and then disparaging players as guests in a lot, like that is just, that is a sacred place.

And a lot of people work really hard to earn the right to be in there and to respect the environment.

And that sucks.

And so I'm like, you know, this is crazy.

But aside from that.

Jordan, where do you think they're going to rank?

What kind of rating do you think they're going to get on that poll they do every year about how much you like playing for the team that you're playing for?

Oh, the NFLPA poll?

Yeah.

The NFLPA poll?

I mean, this is something that the NFLPA, I mean, where the hell are they in all of this?

You know, like they're trying to get, you know, move camera and all that stuff.

And that's fair to do.

But like, where are they on this type of thing, too?

Anyway, I could go on forever on this.

But,

well, to the point, the Jets are playing well.

That's the thing.

They're actually playing like solid football football right now.

And that's kind of getting buried under all of this chaotic mess, whether it's, you know, Rogers on TV, like Smack Talking people who are criticizing his takes and it's like a take war back and forth, or it's like Woody Johnson mess, or it's, hey, they're going to interview John Robinson,

or, oh, they're, you know, Mike Tannenbaum is running their GM server.

Like it's all this noise around them.

And quiet, very, very quietly, they're actually playing good football.

So this could be a dangerous spot for the Rams.

I will, before we move on, there was a tweet from Dan just for fair and balanced reporting.

He wrote, Woody Johnson is a goddamn moron.

I'm so happy I'm allowed to actually say that now.

Justin, next game.

All right, next game.

Also, if the Jets hire John Robinson, Garrett Wilson will probably get his wish of being traded away because that's what John Robinson does to star receivers that are used to play with the game.

Okay, next throwback.

Next game.

Browns at Bengals.

Another QB change.

This is our third of the week.

Jameis Winston has been benched for Dorian Thompson Robinson because the Browns are desperate for anything to go right.

Also a desperate team, the Cincinnati Bengals, whose playoff hopes have hung in the balance in basically every game they've played since October.

Mike, you mentioned it.

The Cleveland begged to give away that game last week.

I don't like the situation for them or what this offseason might look like for them in general.

But

of these two franchises, who has the chance to steal this game?

I think I know the answer.

Yeah, probably the Bengals.

I do like we got to this game right after the Jets discourse because Jerry Judy had a funny tweet in response to that Jets article because his Madden rating was the one in question in the opening of the story.

And he tweeted and said, I blame Ocho Sinko, who, of course, does the thing with Madden where he bumps guys' ratings up.

I thought that was kind of funny.

Judy also has to probably be really upset about this quarterback change because he was probably the only person benefiting from Jameis starting.

Like Jerry Judy went from like, ah, he's just a guy, you know, to quote Steve Smith, to like, oh, you should probably be in the Pro Bowl and crack a thousand yards, going off every week.

I think he had like 100 yards last week in that game against the Chiefs.

He was going off.

This went from like, oh, this could be fun to unwatchable when they decided to go with DTR.

But I do appreciate with Raheem, although not to the same extent with Brian Callahan, with Kevin Stefansky.

Eventually, throwing the ball to the other team is just, you just can't tolerate that shit no more, man.

Like, sometimes you can do that hey

dude look at this back from the child fair just as we wrapped up talking about the jets yeah perfect how did it go dan

um sorry how did it go

how did it go first

about the child fair did you guys just yeah did you guys uh just finish talking about the jets for real we

wanted to bring you back can i just say something that i was not allowed to say for 13 years we already read your tweet we already read the tweet yeah we did okay so let me now speak it into a microphone woody johnson Johnson is a idiot.

I've always thought this.

Couldn't say it.

He came after our podcast a couple of months back.

That's right.

And he is the biggest fool.

And the Jets will never, ever compete for a Super Bowl while that jackass and his progeny is involved with this show.

Our show, their show, any show.

He is a fail son of the highest order and a disgrace to the New York Jets.

Now, it was a great concert.

Seamless.

The concert

was enjoyable, cute.

You know, some of the songs for ostensibly a holiday concert, you know, it's like winter cold, unspecified celebration lights.

You know, I don't know.

Listen, I thought Mark went a little bit hard with his blistering op-ed in the latest edition of I Dream and Red about bringing Christmas and keeping Christ in Christmas and all that.

I did not, that is in it.

That's the newsletter about the inauguration of something, right?

I thought you went a little hard in the paint on that, Mark.

But it was still, it was very nice.

If anyone actually were to take the time to read that newsletter, they are going to be stunned with your reporting on it.

It couldn't be farther away from accuracy.

Anyway, don't mind me.

Go back to, and I'll figure out, I'll find my way into the show.

We've got a couple more in the in the gravy world, and then we have your game, too.

How is Justin?

How is Mark doing as the pilot here?

I'd say Mark's doing an excellent job.

He's been keeping us on pace.

We did breeze right over three sound clips we had prepped that now would feel weird to go back and play.

So we missed those, but that's okay.

That's okay.

That's okay.

As long as we got the Brian Callahan in one, that was probably the best of all of those.

Oh, so you're telling me that the Titan sound clip, that got into the show.

We found a way to discuss the Titans longer than any other team again.

Yeah, no, I made sure the two-minute Brian Callian clip got in the show, but we did miss Kyler Murray talking about the weather and Michael Pennix talking about hot dogs at Costco.

Dan,

I need to ask you this question.

Dan, are you do you know what the term hat fishing is?

Hat-fished?

I've never heard the term hat-fished, no.

Okay, it is when somebody,

present company I excluded, is wearing a hat and they look good in the hat and then they take the hat off and you're like, holy fing shit.

Typically worse.

Oh, like a catfish.

Yes, yes.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, I like that.

I like that.

Okay.

Just checking for no specific reason.

Is someone saying that you're hat fishing right now?

Or what is the...

No, nobody's saying that nor implying it.

It was Brian Callahan.

There's only one person I see potentially in the hatfish scenario right now.

You guys like my new hat?

I do like it.

Yeah.

You're always repping the athletic and I'm sure the company is very happy about that.

All right, next game.

Jaguars and Raiders.

Let's get Jordan an underdog winter cap.

We should.

Maybe it'll be a lucky Ram Super Bowl cap if she wears it on Christmas Day.

Send it to her editor.

All right.

I'm so sorry.

I missed the watch yesterday, too.

Anyway, so I'm derailing the show more than it needs to be.

Sorry.

It's on tape.

You can watch it.

And Mike, what did Mark refer to

a school Christmas concert or holiday concert as?

Or a winter thing?

The child fair.

Such an alien response, like, what do the humans call

a school concert?

I didn't know what type of youth event was, so that seemed pretty broad.

All right, on with the show.

All right, on with the show.

Next game, Jaguars at Raiders.

Ugh, you want to know what it's like being in that Saints locker room?

Watch this game.

until I got Jags Raiders.

Give me a break.

It's kind of hard to get.

You're back in the saddle, Dan, here, to toss these out to the crew.

Oh, right.

What's the game again?

Jags Raiders.

Jags Raiders.

Oh, what a nightmare.

What a nightmare.

Although, I will say, as someone whose team got to play the Jaguars last week, as Connor and I, you know, just had a ball watching this game because Mac Jones is such a little shit.

There's entertainment value to any Jaguars game that actually, to me, supersedes watching the former number one overall pick Trevor Lawrence, watching Mac Jones do like gritty-type dances

and be legitimately like a Steve DeBerg level athlete in the modern NFL.

It's just a fun thing to watch.

Steve DeBerg.

He's the Berg.

49ers at Dolphins.

Is this how the show goes now?

We actually don't talk about the games.

You guys have changed.

No, we've been doing like one-person talks per gravy boat game so we can move things along.

Okay.

We're at the very end of the boat, so

getting back.

We got two games left.

Okay, 49ers at Dolphins.

This matchup is actually interesting to me because if I told you in September that these two teams would meet in late December and both of them would be two games under 500, what would you say to that?

It's crazy how our perception of a team changes so much in just a few months.

Absolutely.

And

I thought it was, I got to give Tyreek Hill some credit.

Can you fly up to Tyreek tweet?

I've never seen Tyreek Hill as like a guy that could turn your brain into a pretzel with his words.

But

his tweet, and he's having a down year.

And Mark, we're going to be on Sky Sports this weekend again.

And the topic we're going to discuss is

players who are in kind of a big spot with three games to go in the regular season.

I'm wondering about Tyreek Hill's future and if he ends up being a top guy that ends up on a different team next year.

And his tweet here, it's time for me to go, coach.

And Jordan, this could be read three different ways.

It could mean it's time for me to go coach, like he's going to retire and go like the Mike Vick route or whatever.

I doubt that.

It's time for me to go coach.

Like, it's time to go.

Feed me the rock.

Let me be the guy that I've always been, even though I haven't been this year.

Or it's time for me to go, coach.

Like, get me out of here.

I don't want to be on the team anymore.

Here was Mike McDaniel, how he was

asked to discuss this tweet by his star wide receiver.

So, yeah,

I know that he tweeted something because

of my outstanding

prep,

but

otherwise, I wouldn't.

I'm losing patience for this guy, by the day, by the way.

I guess I

read it as he's talking about coaching.

There's

not a comma,

but

probably when he's typing his comma.

I don't know.

He's in great spirits and walkthrough.

So

maybe he just wanted you to ask me in my press conference.

But that's, yeah,

you'll have to ask him exactly what he meant, but I think,

you know, it would have made more sense if he would have said, sir, you know, because that's what he usually calls me.

All right.

Jordan, your thoughts on the comments.

Yeah, he was looking at his PR director, Ann Nolan.

She's, she's pretty great.

She dealt with a lot over there this year.

But,

yeah, so the

I read it as like he's ready to go off.

I don't know.

I don't, maybe I'm just missing because I like when I was out there for a while last year doing something, a project on that motion that everyone was stealing from them.

And Tyreek is just he's he likes to have fun he's a unique guy um he's got he sort of just says what he thinks he's got great energy in that way when I saw it I didn't even think twice of it and maybe it's just because I'm naive or I'm just not you know paying enough close attention to the vibes around the dolphins right now because they kind of are like floating away into the sunset but you know i think i'm more concerned about what the structure of that coaching staff in front office is going to look like next year but to me it was like it felt like you know he he's going against the 49ers.

This is Kyle Shanahan.

Like, this is Mike's old boss.

Like, I kind of read it as like, it's time for him to go off.

Like, he feels like he's ready to go off.

But maybe I'm wrong on that.

Yeah, I think that's fair.

And by the way, those of us in the fantasy world, the Isaac Garendo is going to secretly win my league camp.

He had the knee injury at the end of the first game.

And then now he has a hamstring injury, and it looks like he's not going to play.

So the curse of the San Francisco running backs continues unabated.

So obviously both teams are on life support.

The team that loses, Mark, we could say bye-bye.

Yeah, absolutely.

I'm already saying bye-bye to both of them

at this moment.

It doesn't feel like it's the year for the Niners.

And Dan, I should note that I spent all of my psychoanalysis powers on the Eagles today.

Oh, you did?

Okay.

I'm looking forward to hearing that.

That's good.

I cannot wait for Dan to listen to this.

I know know that I will be in the crosshairs at some point for some aspect of what went down.

I think it was

probably more what I didn't do, but like it's like, you know, but I would say in general, like

it's been a workman-like effort.

And thanks to Jordan and Mike, we're where we're going.

You will get a

Dan.

Mark has done a great job.

I would like to see all of your notes, but Mark has done an awesome job.

Mark will get a strongly worded email if I feel that he didn't live up to it.

But I have no doubts.

I think, if anything, on the old show,

I used to be like, if I'm missing a show, I want Sestog leading it.

You never got the chance.

And this was,

for me, this is a Can't Miss Podcast.

I can't wait till this thing goes live because I got to get it.

Well, just keep the expectations that

are at a lower place.

Up here.

Okay.

Up here.

And if they're down here,

strongly worded email with bullet points.

Shit.

What a monster.

All right, let's go.

Keep moving.

All right, last game in the gravy boat before we get to Dan's game.

We can't wait to watch.

Oh, you did that?

Is that how we played it?

I didn't really anticipate it.

I don't have anything prepped

for that game, so we just waited to hoping you would check before we got through.

All right.

All right.

Patriots at Bills.

The Bills have scored 30 or more points in eight straight games, tying the longest streak in NFL history.

They are going to break that record and extend their streak to nine games against New England on Sunday.

Mike, that sounds fair.

That's a lot of wood, 14 points, but the Bills at home with Allen playing at the highest level we've ever seen him, this does feel like

the only fear, at least if you're in your fantasy semifinals or whatever,

is that they don't even have him in the game midway through the third quarter because it could be that grizzly, right?

Well, I mean, I don't think the Bills work like that.

They just, I feel like they like the idea.

I think Sean McDermott for sure has Josh Allen on his fantasy team because they just have that dude do everything.

I'm only in the semis in one of my leagues because I could withstand my opponent having Josh, Khalil Shakir, and Kyron Kyron Williams in that game a couple weeks ago.

Jesus.

Anyway,

this was actually

what I didn't use this prediction, but I don't think we've had a shutout this season.

I don't believe.

Yeah, I don't think so.

Me and Justin can maybe look at that, but I don't think we have.

I was going to predict that this weekend, this was the game I had in mind because the Bills are just, they're just rolling right now.

But I do like Drake May enough to respect him to, I think, this won't be in my money mic picks, but I do like the Patriots plus 14 because, as you guys know, when there's a spread that big, unless it involves the Lions, I'm willing to take the dog in that.

But yeah, this could get ugly.

That's fair.

I wonder, Jordan, do you get the vibe that

the coaching staff in New England should have head on a swivel these last three games and it would behoove them not to get blown out repeatedly after the Jonathan Kraft luxury suite incident last weekend?

Yeah, I think, you know, they already sort of were open and committed to the fact that Groudon Mayo is going to be learning as he goes on this.

You know, they already made it very clear that they saw in him the qualities to develop into, you know, their future and their long-term future as a coach.

So I do think that they get more time together.

I also think it's important to remember that the GM structure and the front office and executive structure did not come to fruition until very late in what the league calendar normally is.

And so you're sort of behind on all kinds of different things that go into behind the scenes of roster building and getting a language installed for your draft process and your pro personnel process and those types of things.

So developing synchronicity is the first step in my opinion.

And then, okay, maybe we don't put our foot in our mouth so many times throughout the course of a season.

And maybe we figure out what we want to do about the OC.

If we don't like him anymore,

you know, nice stable guy for Drake May to have early on in his career.

But if you want someone with a little more pop to him, maybe you decide decide that.

And then, you know, get your situational football handled, get your coaching handled, figure out your fundamentals and what you want to be and how you want to be that thing and go do it.

And I think that that's what you're going to see as an impetus on that group as a whole over the coming months.

All right.

There we go.

Let's hop out of the gravy boat and we'll take a quick break.

We'll hit the game.

I can't wait to watch.

I'm so excited to watch this game that we put it on hold and we're going to have to circle back.

So we're going to hit that and then our fearless predictions, little money mic, stay right there.

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All right.

We're back.

Hey-oh!

I am here.

The winter child gathering meeting, as Mark called it, is wrapped.

You have a real pep in your step.

I have noticed that.

It's fiction.

The human, the little humans, gather to sing for the adults.

Perfect time for attack.

The game, I cannot.

I don't think that at all.

I cannot wait.

I mean,

I cannot.

I literally cannot wait to watch the number five Minnesota Vikings traveling to Seattle to face the number 15 Seahawks.

I can't,

Mike.

I can't get a handle on the Seahawks.

Should we believe in the Seahawks?

Should we totally disregard the Seahawks?

They are, to me, the prototypical, for me, Twilight Zone team.

When we do power rankings, stick them at 13 and just forget about it because I don't know what to make of them.

Because depending on what week we're talking about them, sometimes it's like, oh, Mike McDonald, he's figured this thing out on defense and they got all these parts on offense.

And then you get to the weeks like this where it's like, I mean, is the defense that great?

Like, is Geno Smith even the quarterback of the future of this team?

Like, where are we at with the Seahawks right now with Houston coming to town?

I do think that

they are kind of weird.

They're appropriately ranked in the Heat the Call power rankings of record.

15 is about right.

They're just kind of average.

You know, the defense, I do think, is really good.

They only gave up, I think, 10 points in that second half.

And one of those was when the Packers started in their territory because Sam Howell just is not very good.

Mike McDonald, he actually is really good at adjusting in-game, figured some stuff out.

He just started off poorly because Matt LaFleur has been doing this for a while.

Matt LaFleur is a really good coordinator, really handsome guy, and sometimes, you know, he can hand your coach an L.

You know, I think those two things work hand in hand when he does that.

The real concern and why the Seahawks are 15th, I would imagine, is their offense.

It's just jekyll and high, man.

Sometimes they're really good.

Sometimes Gino's on fire.

Sometimes they can run the ball.

Sometimes they can't.

Sometimes DK gets the ball.

Sometimes he doesn't.

Anyone who has Ken Walker in fantasy, I think he'll play this week for what that's worth.

But like, you know how frustrating his season has been.

Sometimes he goes off, sometimes he doesn't, you know, and that they're, they're a very sometimey team.

You know, I think that's the best way to describe them.

And this is the wrong time of year to be sometimey.

You know, we talked to Dan to open the show how Mark was mentioning there's not much drama with the playoff, like who's going to make it and who's not.

Everyone.

Like the whole AFC seems pretty much locked for the most part.

And then the NFC seems to have like maybe one or two spots up for grabs.

So it's kind of a drama-less season in December in that regard.

Seattle is one of the few exceptions, Seattle and Los Angeles.

Like Seattle, these next three weeks are everything.

You know, Mike McDonald is trying to set a tone here in year one.

And last week was really embarrassing, not just because of the score.

You could hear GoPack Goat Chance in the stadium.

You could hear it on the broadcast.

I later learned when I went back and watched.

If you're a first-year coach of the Seattle Seahawks, the night games here used to be a thing.

Like a really big deal.

Like teams are just, they forget how to play ball because of the noise, false starts, everything.

The Packers were getting GoPack Go chance in the first quarter.

Like, that's embarrassing.

And that's the type of stuff ownership takes notice of when you're a first year or however long you've been there, but particularly when you first show up.

So, not only do they need to win, but they need their fans to show out, and they got to give their fans something to give a damn about because last week was embarrassing on a lot of levels.

And on the other side, Mark, you got this is kind of like the Woody Johnson sucks ass bowl because you got Sam Darnold against Geno Smith, two guys that the Jets ruined that went on to have really solid careers.

Obviously, Darnold, this is the first year he's done it, but his next touchdown pass will be his 30th of the season.

He was a little bit off on Monday night, but playing a terrible team, obviously.

And

has he, for you, risen above the level of we've got to keep an eye on him week to week, or you just figure like Darnold is going to deliver here?

Obviously, Minnesota needs the game because they now have a chance to steal the division and even the number one seed in the NFC.

So the urgency should be through the roof for the Vikings in this game as well.

There has been,

I wouldn't call it concerning, but more variance in Darnold's play after a really hot start.

It doesn't concern me in this environment because I think Kevin O'Connell and the offensive roster in general, they're very healthy.

Unlike I think Seattle's got a lot of guys that seem banged up right now.

The Vikings are very healthy and they find a way to overcome his up and down moments.

And I think it's coaching.

It's like you talk, you know, you can point to the Jets for the two quarterbacks that they don't have.

It's also the fact that like the Vikings found a way, they hit on the head coach, They've hit on the defensive coordinator.

I think right now, Darnold can play at an 85, 80% level, and they can still win games.

Now, I think in general,

you're going to run out of luck at some point there, but this may be the number one team in the NFC when we're done with this.

The road is just theirs.

If they win out, they're the team.

Jordan, how about Kevin O'Connell?

I know you've studied him.

And I would, even as someone who's, you know, queen bee, bitch, of the Darnold Hive, like

you have to look at Kirk Cousins, where his career is at, and everything's being tied to, obviously, the Achilles and age, why he's now on the bench over there.

But he came from Minnesota, where O'Connell was his coach and scheming up the offense.

Darnold's career has been rejuvenated.

I'd be a little bit noised to go give Darnold a ton of money, and you don't get to have Kevin O'Connell come with you.

So it just, it speaks volumes.

Again, yeah, hitting on that coach, and I would feel good about, you know, J.J.

McCarthy as a result.

The Vikings feel like they're in a really good place overall.

Yeah, I've been saying this and I harken back to that feature that Alec Lewis and I wrote about Kevin O'Connell.

Meant a lot to me that you guys shared it and talked about it.

Like that really did mean a lot to me.

So thank you for doing that.

And it was

at that time he was coach of the year material.

Still, he's coach of the year material because he raises quarterbacks floors.

You saw this with Kirk.

Now Kirk's floor has turned out to be like in the seventh circle of hell.

It's hard to figure out him, but yeah.

Yeah, but like because of the injury.

But he raises quarterbacks' floors.

I think that's one of the most important things you could possibly do as a coach.

And I know I say it so much, I should have it across my hat, but like that is the most important thing that an offensive or quarterback-minded coach can do.

Sam Darnold, I think, is way less, he's still streaky at times, but he's way less streaky than he used to be.

His highs are higher and his lows are higher as well.

And, you know, know, he still struggles against zone coverage.

I think, you know, even though the Seahawks and Mike can talk about this in much more detail than I can, I'm sure, but like they mix their coverages a lot.

They're able to do a lot of different things, especially when their front is clicking the way that they need it to.

But Sam Darnold, even though he's seeing so much zone coverage, the eighth most in the league this year, he's also throwing interceptions against zone.

Like he is, he does have that variance specifically against zone coverage.

Nine of his 10 interceptions were against zone looks per next-gen stat.

So I think that the Seattle defense could potentially give him problems if they run certain coverage looks that they've seen on tape be successful against Sam, which because they've looked malleable to me as a defense, they might be able to do.

So, but still,

I could not be more impressed with what Kevin O'Connell and Sam Darnold have done together this season.

It's been a really cool thing to watch.

And

it makes you believe like, you know, it's never too late to like get on the right track with things.

If you find the right people in your life, if you are open about your flaws or anything, like you, you really, if you're a player in this league and you pair and you match into the right environment and you get mentally healthy, it is really cool to watch when players feel good, when people feel good, when they're with good people, like just how successful they can be.

Well said.

And one of those people also, it's not just Kevin O'Connell for Sam Darnold, Justin Jefferson.

I just want to give a shout out to Jefferson because I've watched every Vikings game and I don't even feel like he's having a vintage Justin Jefferson, like top-tier Jefferson year, but he's still on pace.

I just looked it up for 100 for 1,510.

Like, he's one of those special guys.

Like, just,

and you don't get to bring him with you either.

So,

Jordan Addison, too.

Yeah, he's a very good number, too.

All right.

Let's head over to Money Mike Corner.

How do we do in week 15?

Oh, no.

Oh, no.

Oh, no.

If you're listening to the show, Mike just is rubbing his face in agony with two hands.

Check us out on YouTube, though, and subscribe.

Go ahead, Justin.

The week 15 parlay.

Bills money line.

Winner.

Packers money line.

Winner.

And

Panthers Money Line.

Not a winner.

Hit him.

In fact, a loser.

Hit him.

That'd be the last time, I believe, in the Panthers, I think, this season.

They finally were favored.

The first time in like, oh, my God.

You a fields of gold guy with with Sting, or is it brand new day?

You like more like Turn of the Millennium Sting?

Like, with your soft rock from English songwriters born in the early 1960s, like where do you come down or late 50s?

I don't even want to mention that name ever again.

He doesn't even say his name on the show.

He doesn't even say the corner's name on the show anymore.

Dan,

when he was doing his game, he would call him by his number because he didn't want the drink.

I love Sting.

It just hurts so much.

It hurts so much.

I wanted to believe in Dave Cannells' guy so bad this week.

They were finally favored.

They got a decent matchup.

The Cowboys aren't that great.

And then

they just peed down their leg.

They cost me money.

That was unfortunate.

They cost me a little reputation, too.

We're going to bounce back this week, though.

We're going to go with the G-Reg from the seventh floor, three-legger, again.

And we're going to stay with the theme of threes.

We're getting a lot of teams that have their spreads around three points.

I think like five or six games.

Let's take three of them.

Seahawks plus three.

Commanders plus three and a half.

Houston Texans with their corner, number 24, plus three and a half.

Let's go win some money, folks.

This is a big one because now we're in a situation, people that are following along with you, Money Mike, it's Christmas week coming up and we need to, we need to win.

I know.

That's why I'm trying to take teams I actually feel decent about.

Two of them are at home.

Like, because the Panthers really hurt me.

This could

dictate thousands of children like Santa coming this year or not.

I want you guys to be able to get your kids, you know, new bikes, be able to take them to the child fair, and they can show off all the new toys.

Yeah, the children at that concert.

I see them gathering in the auditorium.

What are they doing?

Why do they smile?

I mean, I have children, so I'm not completely, you know, out of pocket when it comes to that, Dad.

Why were you not at the child fair this year?

you stop all right uh let's do fearless predictions let's take a look at how we did in week 15.

um i you know now it's i'm almost impressed at a certain point like me missing it every week many times by the smallest of margins is more impressive than just being you know having five wins or whatever so i'm embracing this bills lions

exactly bills lions combined for 800 plus yards and margin of victory no more than three points i think they had maybe close to a thousand yards right over a thousand yards, yeah.

Over a thousand yards, but the margin of defeat was, what, six or whatever?

Yeah, come on.

You came close.

That's messed up.

Mark Zessler, a non-QB scores four touchdowns.

No.

Negative.

Jordan Rodrigue, teams with non-human animal mascots will score 260 plus points combined this week.

Okay, we need to talk about this.

All right, let's talk.

Oh, we do?

Oh, how do you do that?

And before we get into this, remember that we kind of gave Jordan Jordan one last week.

So it might be a little more hard.

I asked you guys to increase my total.

I forgot one of the non-human animals.

I'll wear that.

I forgot

the non-animal.

Oh, I forgot the seahawk.

What are the non-human animals?

The bears.

The bears don't score points.

But they did score points in that effect.

They did score points.

Okay.

They are non-human animals.

To be fair, I had cleared it.

The total that you guys set.

No, that's perfectly fair.

Well, before that.

If we look at just the 13.

But I fed up because I forgot about the Seahawks as non-human animal teams.

Can we do it this way?

Because it's very human-like.

Because I remember based off of what she said verbally, because the line itself is correct.

Right, right.

So if we take the 13 non-human animal teams

that she mentioned and just leave the Seahawks and bears out of it, she crushed this number.

341 was the total, well over 260.

And if we include the Seahawks and Bears, just for the sake of including them, we're at 366, which if you divide that by 15, it's still 24.4 points per non-human animal mascot team, which the floor that we had set was 20 points.

So

she blew this out of the water.

No comment.

It's a win.

I also think, thank you, Justin.

I also think that none of us, and we all talked about it too, guys, like

none of us expected yet another highest scoring game of all time, like between two non-human animal teams, you know?

Yeah, so um Mike, what do you think?

You okay with it, Mike?

Uh, as long so if we include the two teams that were omitted originally, it still hits the average that we set.

Yeah, clears it very, very handily.

But another thing

the Bills, there's been pushback that the Bills are actually named after Buffalo Bill and not the Bills.

That I wanted to talk about.

They are actually?

Yeah.

That I wanted to talk about because I don't actually know the answer to that question.

And I did get a message about that.

And so, what is it if we remove, even remove the bills?

No, you know what?

Don't worry about it, John.

Because if it was really named after Buffalo Bill,

the logo would be some old dead white guy's craggy face.

But it's not.

It's like we didn't flag that.

We didn't flag that last week.

They scored 48 points.

The 13 teams you named scored 341, so you still clear 260 by a lot.

You got it.

This is zero controversy.

Yeah, let's move on.

Grave digger, Jamar Chase, and Derrick Henry combined for 350 plus scrimmage yards.

Not even close.

161.

Yeah, Henry did not have the game we expected.

Michael Sean Dugar,

who, you know, very clearly, if you're watching the show, knows how to play this game.

Safeties will account for five plus interceptions and at least one touchdown of any kind.

I feel like we let him get away with one here because safeties combined for 11 interceptions.

That's on us.

But only one touchdown, I believe, came from a safety.

Almost two, but yes.

The Geno Stone picked six was the only one.

I think Mike put us in a Tyreek Hill mind pretzel, and we just gave it to him.

But let's pay attention on him this week.

That's why I added the touchdown because think about it.

It's hard for safeties to score.

Because if you look at all the interceptions that they had, a lot of them didn't even get yards after their returns.

A lot of them had to fall down.

They're deeper in the field.

Deep jumping routes.

Yeah, the only two people who came close was Caleb Bullock of the the Texas.

He only picked six Tua, and then Geno Stone did pick six Will Levis.

And Jordan Battle fumbled the ball as he crossed the goal line, so he didn't score.

But again, none of us flagged it when he brought it up.

So it's like, no.

And Dan, does it bother you even more that A, mine was unnecessarily complicated and I still nailed it?

And B,

Mike's was like kind of subtle in the way that you tried to be subtle with yours and Mike nailed his and you did not nail yours.

Oh, no, I'm sorry, guys.

That's me at your door to kill you for bringing that up.

Loser, loser, double, loser, as if whatever, get the picture, doi.

I also think I made mine a little difficult, even tougher because I removed Nichols from that situation, too.

A lot of Nichols had picks.

And you also,

and this is an example of why Mike's good at this.

He subtly, Mark, Mark, dropped into the conversation earlier that episode, like, man, safety play is bad this year.

Safeties can't play this year.

And then he bangs us.

Right.

Psychological warfare.

I mean, I think in general, you know, these happen at the end of the show, and it's our longest show of the week.

And there can be some like kind of, you could mental

weight at the end where you're kind of like, it's the last little segment we do.

And some, you know, the wise ones are getting things beyond.

You and I are failing comprehensively.

I was going to say, Jordan's been missing for a long time.

I'm worried who's at the door.

Okay, she's back now.

All right, let's make Mike get us going.

What, Jordan, glad to see that you came in?

This is who is at the door.

I lived, bitch.

Oh, who's at the door?

Ah.

Deary!

All right, Mike, your fearless prediction.

And let's really plug in and pay attention to every word Mike says here because we're going to get a gotcha on him.

All right.

So

this is going to the theme of a story that I was working on this week.

Actually, it's out now.

I was talking to Jackson Smith and Jigba of the Seahawks about this receiver duo matchup of Seahawks Vikings.

It features

two of the three most productive receiver duos in the league,

Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison, and DK Metcalf and JSN, the two of the top three receivers in yardage.

Jackson said he and DK take pride in being the best receiver duo, and he believes the Seahawks have the best receiver room in the NFL.

So, I'm going to ride with JSN this week.

My week 16 prediction is that Seattle's receiver room will be the highest producing receiving group by yardage this week.

Against the Vikings.

How many, when you say group, do you mean two players, three players?

No, the entire because Jackson thinks they have the best room, top to bottom.

Jake Bobo, Tyler, DK, including.

So yes, they're receiving

all produce running backs.

No running backs.

No tight ends.

All the receiver, just receiver yardage.

And if you're curious, the Vikings

have allowed the most receiver yardage this season.

Them and the Lions are one and two.

So that's my prediction.

Riding with Jackson, and I'm kind of focusing it on one game.

As Dan has mentioned, that I usually give the whole league.

This is more a single game focus.

Interesting.

How about you, Ceci?

So if memory recalls,

I picked

a situation where four teams win by at least 20 points.

So four mega blowouts.

Oh, four teams win by at least 20 points or more.

Yeah, I think I stunned the audience.

Yeah, like four major blowouts.

I feel like every game, no matter what, it's a blowout early, and everyone climbs back in, and everyone's like,

you know, going down to...

No, this is where I think the bow breaks and we got four

hammers the head.

We do have three double-digit spreads this week.

So this is...

I mean, not

20 points.

All three of those, ostensibly, they don't have to, but they will go go that way.

It doesn't always work out.

It's okay.

It also, it has literally no effect on the human race, whether I win or lose.

So I have no chance of

that.

Jordan, to what you were talking about earlier, I mean, you and Mike and Justin are so far gone in the competition.

Now I'm just trying to chase Mark.

So it's really just me versus Mark and the loser bowl at this point.

Jordan, you're up.

Okay, so we have three games that look like one team will just totally steamroll the other.

Buffalo, New England, Rams Jets, Chicago, Detroit.

I am guessing one of those turns into a trap game and is an upset.

Okay.

Oh, just straight up, like winner.

Straight up.

Okay.

Yeah.

Like it.

I would talk about the money line.

Oh, here we go.

But I will need a reiterated definition.

What's gambling?

I don't even know what you speak of.

You are picking the money line, so the mooney lawn?

Wait.

What?

We get it, Jordan.

You're very, very earnest and not connected to the gambling world in any way.

Never would dream of it.

This is like a round-robin money line, I guess, technically.

I don't know.

Whenever

we'd have to explain round-robin, I don't flag doing that.

Whenever gambling comes up, I picture those fairy tales where the fair maiden is up at the tower and she's just looking down upon all the filth below.

Pure.

That's how your mind works.

I know how yours does.

All right, let's go with Justin's pick.

My prediction is that, so Mike Evans last week, you talked about Mike Evans earlier.

I wanted to say stick a pin in that because I'm coming back to it.

Mike Evans set his season high in receiving yards last week, 159 yards.

My prediction is that he will do that again.

He will set a new season high in receiving yards this week on his way to yet another 1,000-yard season.

So he needs at least 160 receiving yards.

Yeah, I won't reiterate it because I'm sure you guys are on the same page, but I feel a lot better about Mike Evans keeping his streak alive because it seems like he's not.

That's exactly what we agreed on.

Yes.

I will go with,

it's time.

It's going to happen.

Trey McBride currently 89 catches this year for 938 yards, 10 and a half yards a catch.

He's on pace to be targeted 141 times this year.

He's scoring a touchdown this week.

And again,

this is when it happens.

And not only is his streak going to end here, his

lamentable, like embarrassing streak, so will mine.

So it'll be a massive, we don't know each other.

We'll never talk about it.

But when he crosses the end zone with the football in his hands or picks it up, I mean, he could recover.

I heard he did recover a fumble for a touchdown this year.

That doesn't count.

He has to actually have a receiving touchdown this year or a rushing.

And if it happens, we both celebrate.

Trey Trey McBride, it ends in week 16.

He scores a touchdown.

I mean, can I just say one thing?

He's catching like 10 passes a game.

It's not like

the offense.

No, I mean, I get

a quirky situation that he's in.

It's almost stunning that he hasn't.

But considering your place in the standings, I think if you were up vying for the number one spot, I would suggest it's a little bit

not fearless.

I'm literally predicting him to do something that he has not done all year zero you're predicting him to make a bingo yeah i'm predicting

pause i'll give it to you cecily you know what i mean which you have done i'll give it to you

me leave me alone are we done with the guy's ass which i've i've done yes

all right good stuff

be careful with that drop justin we're just getting off the ground here the show's the show is gaining traction.

We've had a great rookie year.

I don't need one drop ending everything.

I didn't say that.

You said that on a show.

That's where it came from.

You'll be back at Fox, and Mark and I will be at a homeless shelter.

Right.

All right, great stuff.

Thank you to Jordan and Money Mike.

All year, you guys have delivered excellent work, and

we appreciate you.

And

tonight we'll get the Thursday night recap, Mark.

And then Friday morning, the draft on Patreon with Connor.

And then Sunday night, we recap every game we just previewed here.

So thanks to everybody.

And until next time, heed the call.

Careful, Justin.

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