NFL Week 15 Recap!!

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The Heed the Call podcast

never drops a ball before crossing the goal line.

Ever.

Ever.

I like now that they announced things.

I don't know what compels these guys to feel the need to drop the bull.

All right.

Okay, we got it.

We got it.

Get it out.

Get it out.

Welcome to Heed the Call, the flagship program, week week 15.

A Sunday that was.

Dan Hans is here with Connor Orr, Justin Graeber, and my fabulous partner in crime, Mark Sessler.

Mark,

it is,

this is the dog days of the regular season.

I'm trying to prepare for the show today, and

a cavalcade of Christmas carolers start singing jingle bells.

And, you know, I had to stop and

I let the moment wash over me, and then it was proceeded straight downstairs to get to work because that's what we do because we're pros.

We are.

And, you know, you've got to weigh the responsibilities around friends, family, the concept of holidays, and the fact that we had like 22 football games unfurling at the same time today.

There's a lot to juggle, but we've done this for a number of seasons in a row.

And so even on a packed Sunday like this, I know that Connor's prepared.

I know that Justin's prepared to handle what's ahead.

I hope.

I think.

Absolutely.

I believe.

I believe in the heroes.

Carolers.

That's so good.

And I delight.

I believe in the heroes.

Was it delight?

Was it children carolers or was it a combination of adults and children?

There were some adult chaperones and children carolers.

I get concerned when it's all children.

You never know what they've got up their sleeve.

Okay.

Okay.

All right, let's get into it.

This was a big, busy Sunday

that included the game of the year, or so

we expected.

However, there's one team that you'll remember their performance, and it wasn't the home team.

Let's get it going with Justin Graver.

He's leading the show, and will he hit the sound cue for the music?

Everybody's wondering, everybody wants to know.

Let's get to it.

Sunday recap begins now.

What is real football?

Is it tough physical defensive battles, a team grinding out a win by imposing their will?

Or is it this?

The highest scoring game of the year.

90 total points, 1,080 total yards, 58 total first downs.

There was hardly a lick of defense played today in Detroit.

But who could blame these two units, each banged and battered and facing one of the best offenses in the league?

And as good as Jared Goff was, with over 500 total yards and five touchdowns, Josh Allen was simply better.

Unstoppable even.

The MVP, dare I say, the best football player in the world at this current moment.

Did the game turn on an ill-advised on-site kick by Detroit with 12 minutes remaining?

Maybe.

Would the Lions have stopped the Bills if they'd chosen to kick that one deep?

Probably not.

The Lions force just one punt on the day, and the Bills come out on top.

48 to 42.

Yes, not my favorite type of game.

I know some people love it, especially fantasy heads.

They're going to love that game

because of all the yardage and scores and all that.

But there was, and it spoke to me, guys, the desperation.

And I hated the move that Dan Campbell made there too.

With the onside kick in that spot.

That was

the move you do when time's running out.

And they still had, what, how much time was left in the game when that happened?

12 minutes.

12 minutes, yeah.

12 minutes to play.

And to compound matters, it gets not only recovered by the Bills, but they run it down into the 10-yard line.

And then all of a sudden, they score another touchdown.

And it's like...

That made me worry about the Detroit Lions.

And we'll get to that because I think there's a conversation to be had about this storybook around the Lions and whether it's going to be a happy ending with all the issues they have on one side of the ball.

But I agree with what you said there,

Justin, that Josh Allen, I think, is playing at a higher level than anyone else in the world right now at professional football.

I will also say this, Mark.

I'm thinking back in the history that we've been doing this show, and we've seen some incredible quarterback seasons.

But have I ever seen a guy dominate the league and play the position better than Allen does right now?

And I can't remember a guy that's toying with the league at this level in all aspects of the game.

So the Bills are in very good position with this quarterback.

Well, yeah,

it's the way that he does it because you could pinpoint a couple seasons by like a Drew Brees who breaks the completion percentage record and is an absolute surgeon.

But he wasn't this.

This is someone who, in the past two weeks alone, Josh Allen on the ground and through the air has accounted for 854 yards and 10 touchdowns.

I mean, that is insane.

And then, even on a day like today, where you get Lamar Jackson doing what he's doing, and we'll talk about that, I think that the MVP race is wrapped.

They face the Pats, the Jets, and the Pats over the next three weeks.

This was the game to go do it.

And it couldn't have happened with more emphasis from Josh Allen and just the offense in general.

He was awesome in this game, and so was Ty Johnson.

Like,

oh my goodness, the two catches that he made on that

early drive.

And, you know, Josh is always obviously like defying time and space.

Like, he's in a far corner of the field and he's making these throws.

But like, this is a guy out of the backfield that's making big-time catches in tight coverage.

And, like, man, like,

once you clear Stephan Diggs, like, there's been so much room for so many more people to develop in this offense.

And, God, it's been fun.

It was Khalil Shakir last week, you know, and like every week we're finding new weapons at some point.

Well, I think what was so impressive about the Bills attacking like the game plan in this one was they know Detroit's going to run a lot of man coverage, and they know the linebackers are banged up and you got backups in there.

And so they put these, they had these isolated matchups where they knew they were going to get the running back in space against a linebacker.

And Ty Johnson by himself had three or four catches of 20 plus yards.

And I think Ray Davis had one too.

And then Ray Davis had the touchdown that came right after the failed on-side kick attempt on a four-second touchdown drive by the Bills.

So that, I mean, it wasn't, they weren't getting those same explosive plays from the running backs in the passing game in the second half.

And I think that was an adjustment that Detroit made, but they did so much damage in the first half, and then they did damage around the goal line that they didn't need those explosive plays the same way in the second half.

But that was something like credit to Joe Brady for identifying that and scheming it up this week.

And that switch to Joe Brady looks, again, like one of the smartest things that Sean McDermott's ever done.

And I'm with you on the onside kick.

And I think there's two things happening here.

It's like

your head coach doesn't trust your defense, not only probably in general right now, but specifically in this situation.

So does it force already the most aggressive head coach in the conference, in the league, to even take it up a notch?

Because you kind of just sense that if you're going to kick it off to the Bills, they're going to go on like a six-minute drive that takes the entire game away.

I think that's, in context, that's why that wouldn't happen in another situation.

But here it was like, it's this or nothing, maybe, if you're Dan Campbell.

Yeah.

And that's, I guess that's what I didn't like about it.

First of all, you have to declare it now with the new rules, the stupid rules that they put in this year.

So there's no aspect of a surprise on it.

And it is an acknowledgement that we literally can't stop you.

And the only way we could possibly get back into this game is to steal the ball via a turnover and on-side kick.

And that just, it's eye-opening when you think about

who did that because the Detroit Lions obviously have been this team.

They were number one in our power rankings going into this game.

Don't think they're going to stay there, but stay tuned for the midweek show.

So it really, you know, the idea, and I'll give Belichick a little bit credit.

I know he's busy down there in Chapel Hill now, but like he called it a couple weeks ago.

That's like, just wait.

Like people are, the Lions are still getting to the quarterback and the defense looks like it's holding it together

post-Hutchinson and all their other injuries.

But you start playing big-time teams, you know, how's that defense going to look?

And it does not look good.

It's going to hobble them, I think, for the rest of the way.

And now I really, for the first time, I worry whether they'll be able to make it through the NFC

or they're going to have another bad day like this.

Now, there's only one Buffalo Bills team, Connor, and one Josh Allen right now.

But this defense, if it doesn't find some answers,

they're done.

They're going to get picked off in the playoffs by whether it's a Green Bay Packers team or a Monster Sam Darnold game or whatever it could be.

Detroit feels vulnerable to me for the first time.

They feel vulnerable if they don't decide to fundamentally change how they play.

And I know that their style is like an overall team compliment.

It's like, this is how we want to play because this is the kind of team we want to be.

But at some point, like Justin said, you're so thin at certain positions that you can't play a lot of man defense.

You can't play a lot of physical football.

And so, you know, Aaron Glenn was more of a coverage guy last year.

I mean, they were dropping back a lot more.

They were letting things come to them more.

I do wonder if they would kind of try to pivot more to like a, let's put an umbrella on this defense and let's just give our offense a chance to score 28, 29, 30 points a game.

All right.

So the Bills already have the division wrapped up.

Yes.

I just wanted to comment quickly on the Lions injury situation while we talk about their banged up defense because they came into this game actually getting a bunch of guys back.

DJ Reeder, Levi Awunza Rike, Josh Pascal, Elene McNeil, all set to return, all returned in this game.

And then Alim McNeil was ruled out with a knee injury in the second half.

And Carlton Davis left the game in the first half.

Dan Campbell said he doesn't feel good about either of those guys returning again this season.

And then Carlton Davis' backup,

Khalil Dorsey, was actually taken to the hospital after being carted off the field near the end of the first half in this game.

So not only is Detroit already super banged up, they lost two more huge key pieces on that defense potentially for the season.

It's crazy.

Yep, and they are now tied in the lost column with the Minnesota Vikings.

It's going to be a dogfight just to win that division.

So they have at Chicago, at San Francisco, and then home versus Vikings in week 18 in a game that's got maybe Sunday night football written all over it.

So we move forward.

The Lions fall to 12-2, and the Buffalo Bills, man,

God,

this just feels like it.

Feels like it's the

quick shout-out to Ed Oliver, by the way, who had 10 pressures in this game, the most by a defensive tackle in a game this season.

Anything else, Justin?

That's it.

All right.

I got a shout out to Oliver on a game like that.

We can't just pass it by.

Thank you, Justin.

We could not, and we did not.

Now we move on to the other big game on the schedule: intra-conference, inter-conference?

I don't know.

We've never figured that out.

Yeah, we haven't yet, and don't even try to help us because nothing sticks for some reason when it comes to it.

Anyway, Philly, Pittsburgh, Connor Orr.

Answering all the questions I had about this team in a dickish manner that only a group of people from Philadelphia could, the Philadelphia Eagles slapped the Pittsburgh Steelers around on Sunday like a ginned-up mommy after book club in a 27-13 pummeling that barely featured Saquon Barkley and saw an immediate and productive relationship between A.J.

Brown and Jalen Hurts.

Go figure.

Sometimes a hoagie can change its stripes.

With 10-40 remaining in this game, down by two scores, Mike Tomlin punted the ball away, unaware that he would never be on offense again.

21 plays, 88 yards, 10 minutes and 29 seconds.

Good night, Irene.

The Steelers lose.

Yeah,

and the Eagles win.

And shout out to the Eagles, man.

I think Connor, you and I were pretty hot on the idea of Pittsburgh maybe humbling Philly or potentially putting a stagger.

And there was some, you know,

some of the stuff that happened around Brandon Graham and the quarterback and the wide receiver.

And maybe this would be a situation where the Eagles lose their way.

And yet they just took care of business in this game.

And I thought that, you know, Connor, is this a game that

ever felt like it was in doubt?

Because from where I was watching it, it seemed like Philadelphia, even when the game was close in terms of the score,

they were just kind of toying with the Steelers, which is a team that hasn't been toyed with by anyone this year.

They were.

And what was cool about this game was I thought it was one of Kellen Moore's best games.

And you could see him using Saquon Barkley as a decoy a lot strategically.

Like a lot of times, he would put him in a motion in the backfield that would relay to Jalen Hurts kind of what kind of coverage is, you know, the reason you use motion.

But a lot of times it would suck a defender out of the gap, and then all of a sudden he'd put.

put the ball right on A.J.

Brown in that space, or he'd run a design run to Hurts.

And I thought that that was the real money-making scheme in this game was making them think that this was going to be another Saquon Barkley stomp fest, but then just using him all over the field as a little bit more of a decoy to get that passing game going.

And if you feed A.J.

Brown early, like he is a similarly dominant presence.

I mean, this guy was just crushing people in this game early, and they kept going back to that well.

I mean, they were 10 for 17 on third down.

That is unusual.

That just does not happen that often.

And, you know,

we're trying to watch this along with the other games.

Like it looked like one of their more complete passing performances, especially in the first half.

And you said that to do this without Saquon Barkley, who's been the guy to hammer people endlessly down the stretch and be used as much as anyone on the field

was huge.

And they overcame the gigantic day from TJ Watt before he got hurt at the very end because he had the strip sack.

He had the second major takedown of

Jalen Hurts.

And they survived those moments where you thought Pittsburgh could get back into the game.

And it's like, it's a leveler performance to me.

It's like, okay, Pittsburgh is back down where we think they are.

Because had they ever pulled this off, I'm like, what are the Steelers able to do?

Now I'm pretty sure what they're not able to do.

Let's see.

TJ Watt after the game, no boot or crutches for Watt post-game.

He said he rolled his ankle.

X-rays negative.

So that's a good sign for the Steelers.

They actually clinched a playoff berth today, even with the loss because of,

you know, losses by Indianapolis and Miami.

So Pittsburgh is going to be in the playoffs now.

It's just a matter of like staying healthy and trying to get there with some sense of momentum.

With Barkley, what was, because I know he went to the tent in this game.

Was that,

and you were saying they were using him as a diversion in some level.

Did he, was he really banged up or what's his status?

It looked like a hip thing, but he came back later on in the game.

Like he took some time off before the half, but like even last, uh, that last final drive, he was directly involved in eight of the 22 plays on that final drive.

So I think everything's okay with Saquon.

The other part of this, too, is that Kenneth Gamelo was having a really good game.

And so,

you know, I wonder if it's one of those situations, too, where as soon as Callum Moore got a feel for everything, like Gamelo had some big catches in this game and some big first downs.

And so you just get a feel for it.

And you just wonder if it's like, maybe this is a game where we don't have to run Saquon 30 times and put him at risk of getting hurt in the playoffs.

And, you know, once they kept him out for a couple series, that offense was still doing really well.

And I think that's what I needed to see personally.

Like, I thought they were just kind of using Saquon as a hammer to beat up some bad rushing defenses.

But this was the total team performance I think I was looking for.

And I'm sold now.

I feel, I feel like a huge dick not drafting them in the Super Bowl contender thing and making a big fuss about it because this team looks awesome.

Yeah, that Pittsburgh, did they, how often did they even have the ball in the second half?

I think it was six minutes of possession.

It totally

that one drive was insane.

I love driving.

And the craziest part about that final drive was like the Eagles were in like third and 13, third and 12, like third and 10, and they were just picking up these massive,

like gutting first downs.

It wasn't like this, it was, it wasn't like an army drive where you're just two or three yards at a time.

Like they needed some big passing plays.

And man, man, I mean, I completely changed the way I thought about this Eagles offense.

And to your point, like that 21-play drive to end it, but the two before it were a combined 26 plays, two 13-yard marches.

And that's unusual for the Steelers' defense.

Like, they were dominated, and that has to be concerning.

21 plays, and they didn't even score.

Here it is from Jimmy Kemski.

Just end the game.

Last three drives: 13 plays, 47 yards, 7.08 field goal.

13 plays, 74 yards, 633 touchdown.

21 plays, 88 yards, 10.29 of the clock.

End of game.

And Tomlin, and he had a funny moment with a referee that he was annoyed with in this game.

And if you're watching on YouTube, where you should be ingesting this program,

he obviously had to be very frustrated by this performance.

Look at him.

He's like, get the fk away from me.

You're allowed to say that, by the way.

Like in baseball, you dropped the F bomb like that.

You got tossed, but I guess they give the football coaches a longer leash.

He got conservative, too, before that final march of doom by Philadelphia, right, Connor?

Yeah, I mean, you know, you handed them the ball, and it was weird.

I mean, I thought that the Steelers' offense had some moments, but

a huge Najee Harris fumble in this game that I think really kind of turned the tide of this entire thing, and it just sucked out any

remaining momentum.

But nice, like a fun play call.

They had a, I've never seen a flea flicker off of a toss play where it was like a toss back, and then Jalen Warren ran toward the line and then threw it back to Russell Wilson, and then they threw the ball downfield.

So there were some

creative play calls and trying to kind of generate a little bit of offense, but you know, it just wasn't nearly enough.

I mean, these two teams are on a different tier at this point.

All right.

And one more thing, because this really just tickled me.

This shot of the Fox Booth during this game.

Let's check this out.

You'll like this comparison, Mark.

So you have Brady and Burkhart, they're in conversation.

And then in the back corner, in really kind of almost a creepy way, it's Dino Blandino

just hanging out there.

It's got, to me, it was giving me some real eyes wide shut vibes.

Okay, I can see that.

I mean, I would say the framing, whoever, it's almost like they're,

because isn't this the situation where Brady initially, like early in the year, didn't quite know how to interact with the creepy individual, whoever they placed in the back, whether it was Dean or fill in the blank.

It just seems like a very odd directional concept for a three-person type situation.

Now, you don't even slide him in like they used to do with Collinsworth and Al Michaels.

They got to stick him in the corner.

Right.

It's just very,

it's a little emasculating.

Do you know why Dean's in the corner, by the way?

I don't, but Burkhart here is committing a cardinal men's fashion sin, and it's one that appears a lot this time of year, and it drives me insane.

I love Connor fashion tips.

Go ahead.

Me of all people, right?

But it's when you wear the quarter zip and then you put the suit jacket over it.

You have to pick one.

And a lot of football types think that this is an acceptable maneuver this time of year, but you have to pick one.

It's either a quarter zip and a nice overcoat or it's the suit and tie combo like Brady.

Like Brady looks good.

Yeah, that's a layering concept you don't agree with.

I understand that.

Right.

I mean, I would say that I think it looks pretty sharp.

I mean, he's wearing his handsome boy suit, so he probably doesn't want to cover it with an overcoat.

So this is his way to be around it.

But the reason why Blendino is in the corner is because Dean likes to watch.

Well, yeah, I mean, leave it there.

Connect the dots.

Leave it there.

Oh!

All right.

Up next.

Another game with big playoff

ramifications in Houston.

Here we go.

Oh, you see?

Good job by the producer.

Justin moving up.

My favorite song in the rundown.

Turn this this up, my headphones.

Here we go.

Keychain.

Love it.

Anyway, the hopes of this intrepid Game Watcher were high around the prospect of a sneaky shootout in Houston on Sunday.

The Dolphins have moved the ball with proficiency since the return of Tua to the lineup, while the Texans, well, there's no real evidence of a looming offensive breakout for C.J.

Stroud and friends, but it does feel overdue.

Right?

Well, there was no shootout to be found in Texas.

Not at the stadium anyway.

In fact, it was the Houston defense led by the great Sting,

whose two fourth-quarter interceptions of Tungabiloa helped lock down a 20-12 win for the home team.

The Texans clinched a playoff spot later in the day when the Colts lost.

They win the AFC South, while the Dolphins and their playoff hopes have been moved from the ICU to hospice care.

Yeah,

you know.

I love Sting.

I know.

I know, Michael Schoen DeGar, and he was awesome.

Derek Stingley, his second interception forced, you know, ended the game, essentially.

And it came on a day where the offense had a season low, 190 yards.

So Houston getting the turnovers really allowed them to win this game.

So

if you look at Houston and

how do you

make sense of where they fit in the big picture when we talk about who can win the Super Bowl, I still find them to be just a supporting player that is, you know, primed to be picked off.

But

their defense has, and especially in the past month, had impact games and with turnovers and touchdowns and just having

timeliness to their impact plays that has really helped in a season where the offense just cannot get in gear.

We know the issues with CJ Stroud and how he has not developed as we thought he would in year two, but their running game is also continues to be kind of boomer bust, and it was again today where Joe Mixon was under 50 yards rushing for the third time since week nine.

So Houston,

it's a mixed bag for Houston.

They get the win on the Dolphins side.

It's just another year where the Dolphins,

they melt down and

they, you know, they were lucky to escape with the win against the lowly Jets last week at home.

In this game, Tua and the offense just was completely out of sync.

Tua had four turnovers in the game, and time and time again, they had opportunities to turn this game in a different direction, and the offense just was not able to do it.

So

their running game has been bad.

Tua had been very good until this game, and he was terrible.

And as a result, it looks like another dark January for the Dolphins.

And you can't blame the weather here because they played in the dome.

Yeah, I think the biggest concern, like holistically, for Miami is it's, yeah, you're not really a playoff team at this point.

You're not, we're not even talking about that.

But Mike McDaniel spent, you know, the better part, early part of seasons dominating people with speed and in fair weather.

But you went up against D'Amico Ryans, who knows you and knows your scheme and has known you inside the building back in San Francisco and understands what he's dealing with.

And while other people who don't know as well haven't been able to stop Tua, like they completely diagnose that offense.

Like Tua, who I think has looked really comfortable overall since he's returned, looked completely uncomfortable to me today.

And it turned into

big major turnovers.

And I do think Houston, like, they're going to win ugly.

I don't know if the Stroud thing gets fixed this year, but someone like Derek Stinley, like, you tried to throw the ball at him.

He allowed 30 yards on six receptions and got those two killer picks.

And so I believe in the D'Amico Ryan's defense as something that can change games and make people very uncomfortable.

But I'm with you.

I kind of feel like this is sort of a lukewarm playoff offering or division winner that I just, you know,

I'm disappointed with the thing I wanted most, which is C.J.

Stroud.

Yeah,

after the game, Houston coach Namiko Ryan said Stingley is playing just unbelievable football right now.

And in addition to the two interceptions, he really locked down Tyreek Hill.

I mean, it was a great performance.

And if he gets Defensive Player of the Week, it would not surprise me.

So, you know, I think

what happens next here for the Dolphins is interesting.

I wonder where Mike McDaniels is at.

I know he's probably fine, right?

But this is that these Miami teams all kind of seem similar under him, and they have moments where they're just exciting to watch, and then they tend to fizzle out.

And Connor, I don't know, do you feel like he's definitely safe at the end of this year right now, Mike McDaniel?

I think the Dolphins are always in that category where you put it under, and it's like a weird thing to talk about, but it just comes up a lot, which is like, well, their owner is kind of near death, you know, and it's like, you know, and it's like a weird thing because it's like, well, he wants to see a Super Bowl now, so he'll just do something silly and just, you know, like the whole concept of that is flawed, but I do think it comes up, especially when you're talking about the Dolphins.

But I, I mean, I really think that there's been so much more good.

I mean, you know, if you look at, and

understand this doesn't matter to a lot of people right now, but like the NFL PA survey, they're always like the number one favorite team to play for in the NFL, favorite team to work for.

Like there's a lot of good things that happen.

And so I think I would be completely shocked if they ended up moving on from him.

One other note, there was a very,

very scary injury in the third quarter.

Miami receiver Grant DeBose taken off the field on a stretcher after a nasty helmet-to-helmet hit over the middle.

Really bad, like cutting off his jersey, strapping his arms down on the board.

You know, they had wires and everything hooked up on him, and it was very concerning and scary, obviously.

But McDaniel said after the game that there's been some positive feedback related to some head-and-neck imaging,

he'll stay at the hospital overnight, and they're going to find out more on Monday.

So that shut down the game for 11 minutes, and it looked really scary.

And for the people that spend every day with him, I know it's cliché to be like, oh, it's hard to go out there and play again, but like, you just don't know how some of the people on that team maybe floated away mentally after that.

Yeah.

The Dolphins' playoff hopes, by the way, have nosedived.

I think they're down to 4%

playoff probability.

So that was a game they needed, and they came up really flat.

And yeah,

it just feels like the Dolphins in their current iteration are just stuck in the mud a little bit in terms of development and being able to unlock the next level.

McDaniel will probably get another chance next year, but this is a very disappointing outcome to this season.

One last stat from Next Gen.

The Dolphins generated negative 48 rushing yards over expectation against Houston.

The run game's been terrible.

Devon A.

Chain cannot get into open space and

in general, just a very disappointing game for Miami.

All right, let's take a break.

And when we get back, more, week 15.

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Heed the Call, Dan Hansis and Mark Sessler is on Underdog.

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audience only.

Charlie Sheen is an icon of decadence.

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

He's going the distance.

He was the highest paid TV star of all time.

When it started to change, it was quick.

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

Now, Charlie's sober.

He's going to tell you the truth.

How do I present this with any class?

I think we're past that, Charlie.

We're past that, yeah.

Somebody call action.

Yeah.

Aka Charlie Sheen.

Only on Netflix, September 10th.

All right, we are back.

Lots to get to.

So let's dive right back in.

Sess dog,

Take us to SoFi.

I know you'll love to go there.

Who are the Tampa Bay Buccaneers?

Every time I looked at Baker Mayfield's face today, it was beat red, like a wild, uninvited townie smashing beer cans on his own forehead inside a frat house.

It was everything Baker promises.

Three of the best throws you'll see all day, a killer interception, a near second pick, about 50 yards and rushing taken away by penalties, hobbling around early, then the fire of God in him

as points came raining down against the NFL's previously top-scoring defense.

Baker and Mike Evans, Rick and Cliff, Lewis and Clark, Ernie and Burt.

Okay, maybe not Ernie and Burt, but the kind of duo with the power to shock a playoff heavy.

Bucks 40, Chargers 17.

Wow.

I think this is one of the most surprising results of the month.

I totally lost track of this game, Mark.

Like, I didn't have it on, and then I just happened to catch the score bug at one point, and I saw the 40.

I was like, what the hell happened?

So what the hell happened?

It is even atypical for what this offense has been.

Mayfield had not thrown a true deep touchdown since week seven.

He had two today, and it had, I think part of it is that he was going up against Mike Evans up against an inexperienced aspect of the Chargers secondary and absolutely took control.

And it wasn't just him.

Jalen McMillan is a really good wide receiver on this Bucs offense as well.

And Baker was just on a heater.

He had one really bad pick.

And then on the next possession, they fumbled.

He didn't, but one of the running backs did.

And it seemed like the Chargers were going to be into this.

But the other side of the coin, while the Bucs were just going wild, and they can run the ball so much better under Liam Cohen, is that Justin Herbert Herbert and Mark Sanchez said it right away.

He's like, I was watching Justin Herbert before this game, and he does not look physically himself, not comfortable.

I mean, he was beat up against the Chiefs, and he couldn't really move, and that aspect to his game was diminished.

He moved a little bit, and it didn't look like a complete disaster.

But then the Bucs today stopped the run and started punishing Justin Herbert.

There were a couple hits he took that I thought could have been roughing the passers that weren't, but there might have been five or six instances where his teammates had to literally pull him off.

off the turf.

I mean, he was beaten up and they couldn't run the ball.

We were told that this is going to be one of the AFC's premier ground attacks, and the Bucs shut it down, put them in a bad spot.

And even though Lybakonki is, I think, arguably the most productive rookie wideout this season, like without him and beyond him,

he played well today.

But once they took that away, they don't have anywhere else to go.

And

they're like the team I'm concerned about as much as I'm about the Texans, where it's like, I think today showed that they can be completely controlled and overpowered by a certain type of offense and a certain type of defense.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That

the AFC playoff picture, you're trying to say, okay, how does this get juicy?

Well, Denver keeps winning.

We'll get to them later.

So they're in good position.

But yeah, you see an outcome like this.

And yeah, we're hearing now, like earlier in the season, Connor, that Herbert's beat up and they've had their injury issues, obviously.

The Chargers could be vulnerable here.

And Charger fans don't want to hear that because Charger's going to charge and all that.

That's supposed to go away with Jim Harbaugh.

But an outcome like this makes you wonder what they have left in the tank as we come down the stretch.

Yeah.

And I don't know.

Like when we get to this time of year, like we say, well, it all proves out and it means that this team is one thing or another.

And I just think that Los Angeles did take advantage of certain stretches of their schedule.

I think they're a little bit better than they were last year after gutting some talent.

But this is kind of who they are until they can put a serious weapon set around Justin Herbert and they can keep him upright reliably and they can give him some time to get healthy.

I mean, I don't think think this is like some sort of massive referendum.

I mean, I picked the Buccaneers in our Super Bowl draft a couple weeks ago because they can do this.

I mean, they did this to the Philadelphia Eagles early in the season.

They did it to the Detroit Lions.

Like, this is a team that can just go berserk and kick the crap out of you.

And especially with Mike Evans.

I mean, you know, it blows my mind how well Liam Cohn was able to utilize like Evans and Cade Otten to just create these massive bunches where fast receivers could run around them into wide open space.

Like he was on a heater today, too.

So it was, you know,

I don't worry about the Chargers because the Chargers were never really supposed to be that good this year anyway.

The one thing that Liam Cohen did today, which you like to see because it's how people just assume like a Shanahan is every game is that they got into a flow in the second half where they could do no wrong.

And I think it depends.

The Chargers have had a really good defense no matter what.

And like it didn't matter.

Like they just were absolutely getting everyone open and punishing with the ground game.

They didn't have that last year.

Gravedigger.

Yes, Mr.

Gravedigger.

Connor, what was that you said about picking the Bucs in our Super Bowl contender draft?

Uh-oh.

Did I pick the Bucs or no?

No.

You picked the Seahawks with your third pick.

Oh, I was killing.

Oh, boy.

Yeah.

It's embarrassing.

Can I do what Dan did and drop the Seahawks and pick up the Bucks?

Too late.

Yeah.

That's how that worked out for me.

I picked up the 49ers.

That was doomed as well.

What was a Patton Patton and Justin moment right there?

Just wanted to set the record straight.

We know

that's true, and that's honorable.

We know you like to set it straight.

We get that about you.

And now that I've introduced the idea of a Chargers collapse, let me try to set some Bolts fans' minds at ease.

And I'm sure you already know this, but they finish home Broncos at New England at Vegas.

So you should be okay.

But yeah,

there's a little doubt creeping in after that game.

All right.

Up next, we head to

Duval.

Connor.

Yeah.

The directive was clear from Jeff Ulbrick to his unit on Sunday.

Whatever you do, please don't lose to that squirrely little shit Mac Jones.

We're going to fake punts.

We're going to go for it on fourth down.

Whatever it takes.

And the team heard that message loud and clear.

You've got it, boss.

Let's come as close as humanly possible to losing to that squirrely little shit back jones before mounting an impressive but still fundamentally bizarre game winning drive jets 32 jags 25 devontae adams was unleashed nine balls for 198 yards and two touchdowns in the second half heyo and the jets for the first time won a regular season game with jeff vobrich danny who's gonna stop this team baby let's go oh man You know,

I

see

this version of Aaron Rodgers since the buy,

he's playing at such a higher level now that

it just makes you think.

You're almost there.

It makes you wonder if the idea of bringing Rodgers and Devontae Adams back.

Yeah.

I don't know.

I don't know.

Let's hear what Keith has to say.

His name is

Without a doubt, he's a big Jets fan.

What is he gonna say about Getting Green today?

What is he gonna say about Getting Green today?

Today,

today,

today.

What is he gonna say today?

Great win by the Jets today, 32-25.

A good comeback after a very quiet first half and another close nail biter.

But it was great to see both Rodgers and Devontae Adams get on the same page.

They were like spectacular together.

So I think that it gives a little, the fact that it's only their fourth win, that just shows how starved we are for victories.

The good thing that I could see is maybe there is a possibility for Rodgers next year to be with the Jets, not just based on this game, but also he might be able to help if the Jets do get get a quarterback that he could be helping the rookie do well or whoever they get do well.

All right.

I think that there's still hope.

So great performance by the Jets today.

We'll see how it goes.

Yeah, see, we're all Jets fans.

We're all kind of getting sucked in a little bit.

It doesn't take much because there's a lot of reasons why you do move on from Aaron Rodgers and why Devontae Adams should just be a one-year rental.

But

there's also this weird thing that if you look at Rodgers' stats now, he's up to 3,300 yards, 23 touchdowns, eight interceptions.

This is so dark, but it's one of the best jet quarterback seasons I've ever seen in my life.

So that tells you where the bar is.

And in general, Connor,

the way he scrambled for like 50 yards in this game, he just looked much more like the Rodgers that we know.

And it just, if nothing else,

it should be giving management pause and thinking about what is our plan and does he fit in, even if he's not the quarterback long-term at this point?

Well, can you do it the right way?

And I mean, they've had some good play.

Like their offensive line played really well today, right?

And that's something where Aaron Rodgers took the longest amount of time to throw the ball all season.

He had like a 3.14 time to throw, which is forever in his world, right?

And he only got pressure on like 10% of his drop backs, right?

So you get these games where he can get into a flow, where he can pick up the field and see it the way that he wants to see it, this is what you're going to get, you know?

But can you build it the right way and make this a consistent thing?

I mean, you know, you're not relying on older offensive linemen.

You're not relying on different things.

Like, you know, there's a way that this works.

There was always a way that this works, but there were fundamental flaws in the plan.

Well, I mean, I think the problem, and it's a...

It's a good experience for Jets fans to feel what you feel today.

And that, like, come on, we've been waiting for this.

But organizationally,

it's in a very jet situation where you're pondering the concept of bringing these two people back, but you don't have a general manager, you don't have a head coach, and you've got to voice.

That's the first thing that they have to say yes to is the Aaron Rodgers experience and everything that goes with it as part of day one.

I just, part of me is just like, this is such an important process for them.

Like, really?

I mean, like, we really think we're going to get this all next year from Aaron Rodgers.

Like, I just, I would almost say that it's not very fair to the next regime, whoever they are, to saddle them with this out of the gate.

Yeah, and that's certainly a fair way to look at it.

And I guess just the flip side is, but if he's a quarterback that's still playing at a pretty high level, doesn't that help the next regime also?

But, you know, if they do draft a rookie, it doesn't force them to put him on the field necessarily.

A lot of stuff to figure out on that end.

Before we move on, we should, we got to talk a little bit more about the Matt.

That's the only thing I really want to talk about is Mac Jones.

So good.

Connor, like, Mac Jones, I tweeted this, and I know we were like in lockstep as we were watching this game.

Like, I'm going to miss that guy when he's gone.

I don't know how much longer he hangs around in the league.

Who was on the call in this game?

It was.

I believe it was Schlerth.

Wasn't it Schlareth?

And

check that for us, Justin.

Here is the explanation of

at one point

a replay of a Mac Jones scramble, and I just loved it.

Was it Shalerith?

Yeah, it was Mark Shalerith and Chris Myers.

All right, so here's Schlareth explaining the essence of Mac Jones, the athlete, after a first-down scramble.

Mac Jones, not known for athleticism or arm talent, but only known for being a real smart guy.

Real smart guy.

So that play, just to describe to everybody what happened, like Mac Jones got out of the pocket and kind of attempted like a backward spin, but was basically just like throttling his body at a defender and almost got like helicoptered one way.

And he was so like, there was, he did so many funny things in this game.

And like, I don't know if there's any college basketball fans listening to this, but like Grayson Allen from Duke, who would just like punch guys in the balls all the time.

Like, that's what Mac Jones was doing.

Like, he ran to the sidelines to go out of bounds.

And I think it was him and Javon Kimlock came face to face and he wouldn't go out of bounds.

He just stood there, like in bounds, and then walked out like sarcastically.

And then there was another one where he should have thrown it away, by the way, also.

So it was a stupid decision on top of it.

There was another one where he

had a pretty decent scramble and then he's on the sideline, like whooping it up and like, you know, spinning his arms in the air.

And I was like, this, this rocks.

Like, this guy, look at this one.

Oh, my God.

Like, this guy, he needs to be a starting quarterback in the NFL again.

You know what I was thinking about, like, as I was watching him?

The way he moves, you don't see at the quarterback position anymore, especially guys that are not older guys, someone that looks that unathletic playing the game anymore.

Yeah.

He's definitely like a throwback to a 1980s type quarterback.

Even like his, it feels like his shoulder pads are a little too big for the era.

He's just, he just, he's like a, what are the, what is it, anacharistic?

How do you pronounce that?

It's like, there's a, he's a step, he's out of time with the world

that he exists within.

And

he's such a dick.

And it's like, it's good to have a guy like that around.

And it's also great to beat a guy like that.

Zach Rosenblatt, who covers the Jets for the Athletic, had a, because Sauce Gardner ended the game, it was third and one.

The Jets, after a questionable time clock management maneuver,

decided to score from in close instead of running the clock down and kicking a field goal.

Gave Jackson a little chance.

They are third and one near midfield, and Mac just throws a f ⁇ et ball downfield and it's intercepted by Sauce.

Rosenblatt's tweet after Sauce Gardner said it was a little extra special getting the interception off Mac Jones because of their history and then open parenthetical from Zach Rosenblatt.

Jones punched him in the nuts when he was with the Patriots.

Parenthetical.

He really is Grayson Allen.

Justin has a good note on the celebration.

Yeah, if you guys don't know what this is,

he's doing what they call the Rizzler, which the Rizzler is that guy that's often featured in the TikToks with the Costco brothers, AJ and Big Justice or whatever.

That only adds to the mythology that we're discussing here.

Like

he's a dick who knows he's a dick.

Yes.

But he also has no real ability to play the game.

But he's hanging around in the league.

And I would like him to hang around for another 10 to 15 years.

I have two more quick notes on this game.

You had mentioned Lad McConkey, Mark, as a candidate for best rookie wide receiver.

I think Brian Thomas is right on his heels.

Brian Thomas had another excellent game.

They put him everywhere.

The Jets could not cover him at all.

And the other thing just, you know, it just came to me, but like the Jags did a whole throwback thing today, and Doug Peterson had on the vintage V-neck Windbreaker with the

visor.

And that was just like

one of the coolest.

Like it looked like, and then Mac Jones, like you said, with the aesthetic, with the big shoulder pads.

Like, I felt like I was watching like the 1998 Tom Coughlin Jaguars, you know?

You don't get the sense you'll be watching Doug Peterson weird jags gear for much longer.

No, for too much longer.

No, but it was fun while it lasted, every minute of it.

Yeah.

All right.

And I'm glad that we got Keith on the show today because we were edging closer to not being able to have Keith talk about one Jets win this season.

So we check that box.

And shout out to my dad for his intrepid reporting, as always.

All right, let's move on.

Up next, we head to

drum roll, please.

I scramble.

To Denver.

Ha ha ha.

Oh, Jonathan Taylor, my man.

My dude.

You won a lot of fantasy leagues for people a few years back, but the years since have featured...

A distinct lack of, shall we say, memorable moments.

You changed that narrative on Sunday, but not in the way I imagine you you would have dreamt it up.

Yep, Jonathan Taylor became the latest NFL player to drop the ball before reaching the goal line on a walk-in score.

I don't know what compels these guys.

I don't know what it is, but they gotta drop the ball.

All right, we get it, buddy.

Anyway, it's a blunder that kept the Colts from going up either 13 or 14 points on the Broncos in the third quarter in this game.

Instead, Taylor's blooper was the catalyst for

an uprising for the home team and the beginning of the end for for Indiana's flickering playoff hopes as the Broncos scored the game's final 24 points after that

in a 31-13 win.

Just brutal.

Brutal.

Tough.

Colts, man.

They're a tough watch.

The Colts are a tough watch on offense, obviously, especially because they don't want...

to talk about it, but Anthony Richardson cannot throw the football, at least at not this stage of his career.

He had another one of his scattershot days where the stat line was hideous.

And could his receivers help him out?

Sure.

Would it have been nice if Alec Pierce could stay healthy?

He exited the game, I believe, with a concussion.

Sure.

But another sub-50%

completion percentage day for Richardson,

who was under 100 yards until, you know, picking up some garbage yardage late in the game.

He threw two interceptions in this one.

And yeah, Taylor

with the blunder that kind of will probably be how we remember this Colts season.

So the Colts drift away at 6-8 and the Broncos now have a chokehold on a playoff spot.

They're 9-5,

and they did it on a game.

Listen to this, Sess Dog.

They won.

They put up a 30-burger in this game.

They had 193 total yards of offense, averaging 3.2 yards per play in a game where Bo Nicks threw three interceptions.

So Indy's defense wasn't at fault on any level, but the offensive struggles, Taylor's mega blunder, and the Broncos making big plays and big spots got it done.

Well, and his third interception, you know, predates that critical moment in the game.

I mean, because when you've got your quarterback, and we all know where we are with the Anthony Richardson side of things, but some of the over, I feel like every time I look down, and his overthrows are different than anyone else's in the league.

Like, they're insane.

And, like,

the Broncos completely scrambled him in zone coverage today.

You mentioned the completion percentage in that situation.

It's like, he is not seeing the field or processing.

Like, on that first drive when he ran the ball, and it's like, that's why we like him.

But I almost feel like he's a...

She use him in like sub-packages or something because he's hurting you too often.

And you get three interceptions off of Bo Nicks.

And soon after that fumble happens, like, that's where I think you get a little outrage with Jonathan Taylor, where it's like, you've got to do everything you can to establish what would have been, what, a 20-7 lead against one of the, against the best score.

They became the best scoring defense, the Broncos today, because of what happened to the Chargers.

And they're legit and they're real, but they were hurting themselves with mistakes.

And the Colts just handed over their playoff berth.

Like season over with a lot of questions.

There was like a third down in this game where Anthony Richardson, it was like a third and seven, I think, and he had the ball in his own end zone.

And he went to throw it and it wasn't there.

And he tucked it.

And then he started to try to like back scramble and eventually did get himself out of the end zone.

But that was one of those, like you get four or five of those a game where you're just holding your breath, and you're like, God, what is he doing?

You know, and I guess when you're that big and you're that fast, like more often than not, it works out for you.

But I mean, at that point, they were leading.

It's like, just get rid of the ball, you know, just get rid of it, you know?

But he's not there.

And here, and here's the other thing with it is like, you know, at halftime,

you know, Steichen is interviewed and he did the same thing he did earlier in the season when the reporter asks,

you know, how do you get Anthony Richardson to go?

And he's like, I need to do a better job.

I need to, you know, come up with better plays for him.

And they're doing all they can to protect him.

But at the end of the day, it could be an isolating experience when you're the quarterback and your throws are what they are and they're not where they need to be.

What's up, Connor?

Is it just me or is it just late in the season or the time of the year?

But Shane Steichen sounds like Jimmy Stewart from It's a Wonderful Life.

And if you listen to it in a certain way, it's just like, we've got to help Anthony Richardson and keep Mr.

Potter away from getting the, you know, from taking all these people's homes.

And, you know, and like it's sometimes, I think it's all just running together for me, but he really does do like a smack on Jimmy Stewart.

And he, and yeah, Steich and Steichen also,

because the offense is not functional, the passing game, they, then they resort to trying to get cute, and that led to a total disaster in this game.

They're down 17-13 with 12-29 to play.

They call it a a double pass where it was

Richardson threw it to Adane Mitchell, who attempted to throw it back to Anthony Richardson.

What could go wrong?

And

Nick Benito, who's been having an awesome year, stepped in front of Richardson, picked it off in midair, went down as a fumble recovery.

It was taken to the house 50 yards for a touchdown.

And the game was pretty much over at that point.

So

why is Richard Hitch like he was in high school?

Why is AD Mitchell involved in that play to begin with?

And secondly, like, what are we doing here?

I mean,

I don't mind a creative approach to get out of a jam, but like, that was one of the more dangerous type of trick plays out there.

And, I mean, Benito made an incredible

saying, though, I think they, because they're running at, he's probably looking at that play sheet.

He's like, what can I call to move this offense?

Having a running back that doesn't hold on to the ball when he's near the goal line, a quarterback who can't hit the broadside of a barn.

So let me dial into my bag of trips to try to steal a touchdown here.

And, you know, everything's connected, I guess is what I mean.

So on the Denver side, yeah, not the prettiest game.

Nicks has now thrown, I think, five picks in the last two weeks.

Keep an eye on that.

But at the end of the day, they did a nice job taking control of this team and taking a game from a bad team.

The Colts are not a good team.

And thankfully, they will not be a team we have to watch after the end of the regular season.

All right.

Let's take a break.

And when we come back, more week 15.

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All right, we're back.

Sess Dog takes us to the Metalands.

224 feet above East Rutherford, New Jersey, a civilian aircraft drags a banner that reads, Mr.

Mara, enough.

We won't stop until you fire everyone.

The pilot is in another universe, thanks to a pure strain of electric Bolivian cocaine.

Down on Earth, the Giants float through the workday, allowing Lamar Jackson to blow the doors off everyone's favorite Tiffany franchise.

Five touchdowns, four incompletions, When he's not ripping through New York's confused front, he's making Rashad Bateman look like the love child of Tim Brown.

This is the Lamar Jackson who makes you believe.

Big plays, soul-crushing gallops, and deadly accuracy.

The game veers into hardcore garbage time by 3.03 p.m.

Eastern.

Our cocaine-fueled pilot lost forever over East Mariches Bay.

Ravens 35, Giants 14.

Yeah, do we have proof that he was on cocaine?

I don't want to get hit with a lawsuit.

You know?

Well, I didn't name names, but I have

got

strong sourcing on this.

This game meant more or less exactly how everyone expected Mark, huh?

It did, but what I would say is that Lamar Jackson was so perfect that I like it's not surprising.

He has more games with five touchdowns and zero picks than everyone but Drew Brees and Tom Brady know that was floating around out there.

But you know, when it was a 16.5 spread, it was like, oh, you might be able to nip in here if the Giants can hang around.

Like the Giants were just so completely out of it.

And Tommy DeVito, everything went wrong.

He got concussed

right before halftime.

And, you know, you're bringing in your third guy at this point.

Tommy Meatball's got concussed.

Tim Boyle.

Tim Boyle.

And Tim Boyle, like, here's the thing.

Tim Boyle, Tommy DeVito did not look terrible.

And nor did, nor did, like,

they did not.

They looked, they were passing the ball pretty well.

It was just that the Ravens' offense was so completely unstoppable.

They didn't even need to really use Derrick Henry much today.

It was very Lamar Jackson-based.

He did it on the ground.

He was absolutely precision passing through the air.

And then suddenly, like, Rashad Bateman wakes up, and I think the Giants just looked to me mentally, spiritually shot.

I want to say one little tiny thing about the Ravens that concerns me because I don't know what to take from a game like this.

You drop a hammer on a lost football team,

but there was one drive where the Giants were able to puncture the Ravens' defense, and it had what it only happened for one reason.

The Ravens' penalties.

And then it makes me think, there was

a crushing group of penalties where on the course of one series, there was a roughing the passer penalty that put the Giants right back into it.

Seconds later, a defensive pass interference on first and goal.

Seconds later, Tommy DeVito is sacked out.

Like as he's sacked and gets completely wiped out by hands to the face.

Then

they run in for a touchdown and they're only down 14-7 at that point.

It's like, that's fine.

I knew that wouldn't affect today, but like what happens when the most penalized defense in the league does this when it matters most against a real team?

It's just a little crack in the armor.

Otherwise, a pretty much perfect day for them.

Yeah.

You're a penalized guy, huh?

I like to go penalized, but maybe you're more secure.

I don't know.

If I could have it back, I'd go flagged.

Like, I don't really want to even go down the road of that word.

Yeah,

I tend to think that you keep hearing, and now Belichick obviously is off the board also.

Not that that seemed like it was ever realistic, but that

Joe Shane and Dable

are safe.

But I don't know.

Like, you know, these are embarrassing, ugly games week after week for the Giants.

And you just wonder.

You just wonder.

Also, to the credit of, I guess, Josh Allen, or maybe to the fact that everyone just wants Josh Allen to win the MVP this year, because Lamar already has two.

We can't rule out Lamar winning the MVP still.

And so, on this another amazing day from Josh Allen, who's on an all-time heater, Lamar casually throws five touchdowns and just four incompletions today.

So he could still win that thing, and he still, and he ran the ball better, probably listened to his mom's advice this week.

Like, Lamar is a bad man, and certainly that is not a, it's not a done deal, the MVP, if this guy's playing at this level.

We're really going to kowtoe to these dumbasses in the airplane, though.

Like, seriously.

Like, I mean,

like,

these Giants fans are upset because they're not winning games with their fourth string quarterback.

Like, grow up.

You know?

Yeah, what was the language again?

It seemed almost a little bit, you know.

Like, if you

don't, we will not stop.

Go ahead then,

fire everyone.

What?

Yeah, here it is.

Right.

It's very entitled.

It's Mr.

Mara.

I'd like to call it a Mr.

at least, but Mr.

Mara,

M-like enough.

We won't stop until you fire everyone.

Well, go.

Oh, we're so scared.

You know, the billionaire upstairs is like, oh, my God, there's a plane 300 yards above the stadium.

What am I going to do now?

They're going to keep doing it.

I think what would annoy Mara more is that there were a flood of photos

released from the stadium before halftime.

And this is not the way I grew up watching, like seeing the old Giants stadium.

It was more than half empty.

People were just bailing bailing on the on the experience.

But it's that time of year and the situation

is dire.

Like, yeah, like, I don't know.

I, I, this thing really touches a nerve with me.

Like, Giants fans are so entitled and so goddamn annoying.

Like, go ahead and keep flying that plane like an asshole for in perpetuity.

Like, Brian Dable is going to go 10 and 7 next year, and you're going to look like a freaking idiot.

You know?

Dable doesn't seem like the problem.

To me, I'm with you on that.

They have a lot of problems.

You're scoring touchdowns with Tim Boyle.

Like, the players who were supposed to be playing well are playing well.

All right,

let's keep moving on.

Up next, we head to

Cleveland.

Ooh, Jaunty.

The Chiefs may appear vulnerable in some respects, but here we are in mid-December and those stubborn SOBs are still still sitting on one loss.

Cue the Jesse Pinkman sound, gravedigger.

Love putting Justin on the spot, the big spot.

Scramble, scramble, scramble.

Scramble, scramble, scramble.

Oh, my God.

You can't keep getting away with it.

It was on like page 14.

Sunday was another take-care business affair for the defending champions who rode a dominating defensive effort and included six horse turnovers and five sacks of a certified frazzled Jameis Winston to a 21-7 win over the Browns who legitimately only play theatrical enjoyable football if they are in primetime.

The biggest story here is the health of Patrick Mahomes.

Mahomes suffered what was deemed to be a high ankle sprain on a high-low hit with eight minutes to play.

Carson Wentz finished out the game.

Mahomes reportedly week to week is what we're hearing out there.

And I think we have some sound

Mahomes on his injury right here.

Yeah, I mean, it's hard to say right now.

I mean, obviously, it's still adrenaline rolling, and usually it's kind of the day after when you kind of get a good sense of it.

But I feel like I could have finished the game in different circumstances.

But I thought the smart decision I think we talked about was to put Carson in.

And he's played a lot of football, and he finished the game well.

You know what you have to do to get back, and I think that's the most important thing.

And

now we just get back to the rehab part, the treatment part, and try to get ourselves ready on a short week against a good football team.

All right.

Cue the conspiracy.

Yep.

Fears that this is not a real injury.

We do know that Mahomes has experience in this realm.

He allegedly had a high ankle sprain in the Super Bowl a couple of years ago and had an incredible comeback win over the Eagles.

So now he's dealing, he's banged up.

So it's one more challenge for Kansas City.

And I guess, Mark, like when we talk about the Chiefs being vulnerable, the one thing that obviously could knock them out of the out of the Super Bowl mix is if Mahomes exits the picture.

But this is also a symptom of another one of their issues that you can't ignore, which is they haven't done a good job protecting Patrick Mahomes.

He's getting hit a lot, and he got hurt today as a result.

So just a little bit more doubt creeps in for Kansas City if you're inclined to look at it that way.

Well,

look at the Super Bowl.

They lost to the Bucs, and that came off of having issues at both tackle positions.

And they have him again.

He's been hit a lot the past couple of weeks.

I think it's probably taken a toll on his body.

I don't know how serious this is, but he was legit hobbling around.

And they've had to take Joe Tooney and move him from guard to tackle.

And they kept Miles Garrett very quiet in the first half.

And then Garrett had what looked like a scary eye injury.

But Garrett came back in the game and had like seven pressures on 20 pass rushes in the second half.

And that's when all this went down.

So, you know, the Chiefs find a way to win, but they win 21-7 against the Browns team that had four interceptions, a fumble, and a few big special teams issues.

It's like, look at, I mean, the Browns, I don't know if I watched a team all day that was like, we want you to win.

Like, we want to help you.

Like, we don't need to do this.

And I'm watching the defense play really well, for the most part, in a bad situation and an offense that cannot get out of its own way.

And it's like Jameis Winston went from being one of the better, I guess, stories, like we like the personality, to maybe sort of a fascinating concept of maybe sticking around in the offseason to, I think you're playing yourself out of any future starting gig anywhere.

It's too much of a liability.

You know, my feeling on this, I shared it after that Thursday night game.

It's kind of the best possible situation to help Browns' leadership have a clear-eyed view because I don't think Jameis Winston should be anybody's long-term answer quarterback.

I think he's up to 12 interceptions, and he took over the job in week eight.

The guy he is a.

He has 12 giveaways since week 12.

He's an iconic player.

He's actually 12 alone, the most NFL.

He's an iconic player in terms of being careless with the ball.

And some of the interceptions are just like

they're grotesque, but they're also beautiful.

And like

how horrific they are in terms of decision-making.

The one he threw into double coverage, it's like, how do you not see that?

I I thought you got Lasic.

Like,

he just throws the ball up for grabs way too much, and you can't roll with that guy beyond more,

you know, someone that could be a figure of entertainment on the right night.

So, you know, there's that end of it for the Browns.

And the other one I want to just touch on quickly here before we move is,

by the way, Jameis got benched in this game.

I should mention that.

And after the game, Stefanski didn't necessarily say we're rolling with Jameis next week.

Dorian Thompson Robinson is a former fifth-round pick last year, and I wonder if they're going to take a look at him with nothing to play for.

Drum Ford for the Browns went over 100 scrimmage yards in this game, including a 62-yard touchdown where he turned on the juice and was like, Yeah, you don't see that from the other guy who happens to be one of the best running backs in the foot and the league and Nick Chubb.

And Chubb got hurt again today.

He broke his head.

And he broke his foot.

Yeah.

And his season is over, and it was a difficult season for Chubb.

I just want to give the floor over to Stefansky to explain what's going on with Nick Chubb.

You know, I've told you guys this before, but I've gotten to be, I have a first row seat to what he's been able to do.

I can't tell you how much I respect him as a person,

what he means to this football team.

So really, really disappointed about this injury.

Does not change the fact that he's

continues to inspire this football team with how he approaches every single day.

And I know this is just another, you know, another obstacle that he will overcome.

Mark, that is obviously,

Chubb has so much respect of everybody in that locker room and was one of the best players in football before the knee injury last year.

You just wonder what his future holds after two kind of nightmare years for him.

Yeah, and I mean, he had had major knee surgery and

damage and injuries going back to college.

So he didn't look like the same guy.

This doesn't help.

And I think, you know, it's like months of loneliness because I think that's what you hear from these guys that when you're rehabbing, you're alone.

And it's just like, yeah, Chubb, it's two lost years in a row for someone who was the heart of the team.

And they haven't had a heart since then outside of Miles Garrett.

They just have not.

All right.

Let us move on.

And yeah, we'll keep an eye on the Mahomes situation.

We'll have an update after Monday Night Football tomorrow, most likely.

But he was pressured 21 times before leaving this game.

So the Chiefs, I'm telling you, 12 and 1 or whatever, 13 and 1, what are they now?

They are

ripe to be picked off this year, even at 13 and 1.

We'll see.

All right, up next, we move to the desert.

Mark Zessler, Pat's Carter.

Can a podcaster living in a rental apartment harness the power to curse a pro football team?

Not when that team is facing the 2024 New England Patriots.

You knew Mark was sitting pretty right out of the gate when the football gods allowed Greg Dorch's fumble into the end zone.

There it goes, about to dribble out of bounds to be snatched by big-body tackle Jonah Williams, touchdown Cardinals.

Not when Kyler Murray looks possibly murdered on a hit.

In comes Clayton Toon, but Kyler is back on the next drive as if touched by his guardian angels.

Not when the Patriots are nine players away from a serious stay at the office with the crafts going nuts up in their precious suite.

Are the Cardinals cursed?

Did the person speaking curse them?

He probably did.

Shit.

But not today, suckers.

Cardinals 30, the Patriots 17.

Hey, how to get it.

Needed it.

And

to the Cardinals' credit, Mark.

And

it was the ultimate test of the curse because if they would have got beat by the Patriots in their building, you knew the wheels are off.

So they take care of business.

You mentioned the suite, the precious suite of the crafts.

Do we have that clip, Justin?

Jonathan Kraft, Bob's son, and the other, you know, big guy in that organization.

At one point in the first half,

you could see him mouth the words, play calling is terrible.

And he's just being, you know, I just, you wonder, again, we've talked about the coaching staff in New England.

If they are safe,

that does not look like a happy, precious luxury suite.

There was also, after the game, someone asked Gerard Mayo about why Drake May wasn't running on a goal line play.

And then he said, well, you said it.

And so that's as clear of an indication as anybody.

Like, that's just hurling your offensive coordinator under the bus.

And he did a nice job.

Like, Alex Van Belt had a good chunk of the season.

Like, I mean, and all of a sudden, everyone's just turned on the poor guy.

I'd also say that hidden inside this ridiculous loss, that Drake May, and I don't know how else to say to this point, like, I don't know why they're so upset up in the suite, maybe in a particular moment, but he just looks to me like something that you absolutely build around.

So I think that raises even more questions about like, what's the best player we can get for this guy that looks real.

He had a drive and a couple of throws down the stretch to kind of, they were hanging around.

I wouldn't say hanging around.

They were, they had a couple productive drives where it's like...

He can throw the ball insanely.

And there was this one play where he was rushing towards the end zone and he was about to get smashed.

And he did like a Patrick Mahomes quick, quick flip into the end zone for a score.

And like the announcing crew was like, wait, what did we just see?

Like it looked pretty surreal from the camera angle.

And it's just that he knew what to do in the moment.

So that's your hope right there.

They've got to put people around him.

But they really are like, you know, they are like talent-wise.

They just get so outclassed.

Their left tackle was getting destroyed.

The Patriots.

And, you know, the Cardinals just, this was what they're good at.

They can be powerful.

You get enough from Kyler Murray.

And this is the one they win.

Now, do I think that it raises my standing in them?

I would say that my

overranking of the Cardinals was

probably going to go down as one of the

things people will remember about my ill predictions this season.

This was a respite.

This was a respite.

I do get that.

They got the win they needed.

They're seven and seven.

And yeah, to your Drake Maypoint, the one interception he had was a well-thrown ball to Kayshawn Booty, who not only drops the ball, it appears, at least from the camera angle that we saw when it's live, that he scoops it and then flips it to the Arizona defender.

It's like, you got to give

this kid some proper villains to play with

because, yeah, just not good enough.

Oh, man, Trey McBride still doesn't have a touchdown.

Guys, not only does he, Trey McBride, 10 targets in this game, nine catches on 10 targets for 87 yards, the man does not have a touchdown this year.

I can't believe it.

How many games can you have eight to 12 catches and not score a touchdown?

This is a historic season.

And they did a play that's like an an automatic touchdown-esque type of play from the one-yard line they ran the classic shovel pass like the the one the chiefs made famous with kelsey the the mcbride comes in motion in front of the quarterback and they shovel pass it to him and he got stuffed to hit the half inch line it was crazy he's projected to finish with 105 catches on 139 targets And as of right now, zero touchdowns.

He seems like a nice young man.

I don't want him to be saddled with that fate of, I can't imagine there's ever been a 100-yard pass catcher in NFL history that never scored a touchdown.

There's never, he has the most receptions right now in a season without a touchdown already before he gets to 100.

You could argue he's the best tight end in the league.

That's never scored a touchdown this season.

Yes.

I mean, that's, it's.

It's the craziest stat of the season, I think, that that man does not have a touchdown yet, and we'll be tracking it closely.

All right, Mark, good job.

You got a dub.

Let's take a break and we will finish out the week 15 sleep.

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All right, we are back.

Few more games to go in this loaded week 15.

Oh, it's Sky Rizzy time with Connor Orr.

I can't wait.

Down in the French quarter of New Orleans, they call it passion à d'ente.

Fiery passion.

But here in the Superdome, in Sky Rizzi's house, it's simply a way of life, a manner of business.

In a narrow 20 to 19 loss to the Commanders, we saw America's favorite interim fight like Attila the Hun, gamble like Kenny Rogers, and love like Sally Field and Forrest Gump.

He switched quarterbacks, perfectly utilized his timeouts, and it was nearly enough to pull off the upset of the week.

Yes, we should all be talking a little bit more about Jaden Daniels, but after this masterclass, I'm not even kidding, guys.

I'm dead serious.

It might be time to consider the possibility that Rizball is here to say,

come on.

Do we remember seven days ago, Connor, the locker room reaction to Sky Rizzi's excitement in New Jersey?

Dude, this guy.

I mean, and I'm not taking anything away from him.

I'm just saying, like,

that to me screamed like a team that's playing out the string with a guy that they're just ambivalent about.

But tell us why you find him to be a gifted

game manager?

Or where are you getting at here?

I mean, everything.

So the whole thing, so that you start Jake Hayner in this game, and it was an absolute disaster.

He was under pressure, put himself under pressure basically on all of his drop backs in the first half.

I think he put himself under pressure with his photo shoot that came into this week.

I mean, some of the greatest, most manicured eyebrows I've ever seen.

That's true.

But after, at halftime, Darren Rizzy had said, you know, during the week, I also gave Spencer Rattler the full buffet of the play calls, and I watched him.

I watched how he was handling everything, and I thought that there was a chance that he could give us a spark.

In the second half, Spencer Rattler neutralized the Commander's pass rush.

And I will say this.

Well, we can get to the gentle caressing of Jake Haner's hair at one point by Rizzy that just showed the love and the, you know,

look at this.

There's so many levels to him.

Wow.

Look at the squeezing and the.

Va-va-voom.

Yeah.

I mean, this is a kind of.

It's like a father in a

toddler-amas type.

Yeah.

Let's say a guy's been staring at the Jake Hayner photo gallery all week.

Okay.

But

here's what really impressed me.

So the Saints passed defense today were like berserkers.

Eight or nine sacks.

Like they had really, they had one of their best games of the season against Jaden Daniels.

But at the end of the game, it's within a touchdown, and he perfectly utilizes his timeouts because he starts them early, and then he backstops himself where the two-minute warning ends up being the third timeout.

Then you get the ball back for a touchdown drive, and what you can do that the commanders weren't prepared for was run a ton.

And so they were gashing the commanders with the run, set themselves up for the game-winning touchdown.

And I love the Kajones to go for it for two.

He said after the game, he was like, you know, I know the axiom, right?

When you're at home, you take the points.

When you're on the road, you go for two.

But he's like, I, you know, I believe in these guys.

And I loved it.

I thought they responded to him.

I thought they played well for him.

And I'll just say, in a general sense, he manages games better than like 15 of active head coaches in the NFL right now.

Like, he knows what he's doing.

I should point out that Sky Rizzi and the Saints were helped by a pretty big mess-up by the officiating crew with the clock, huh?

Well, the clock manager in this game was completely asleep with the wheel because there was two clock-related disasters.

Or he was high on cocaine.

Might have been.

He may have been the guy.

Correct.

Yeah.

Mars reporting.

High as balls over here.

So at the end of the third quarter, I think it was, the commanders were lining up for a field goal.

And Rizzi is over by the officials because he's thinking about challenging a play that happened the play before.

And he said he's literally talking to the official and he goes, quarter's going to end, quarter's going to end, quarter's going to end.

And the clock hits zero.

Six more seconds go off the play clock.

They allow the commanders to take a field goal.

He misses.

And then the officials go, oh, we missed it.

The quarter ended.

And he was allowed to kick again at the start of the next quarter.

And Rizzy is like, you know, I've been coaching kickers for 30 years.

If you give a guy a crack at it and he misses, he's going to hit the second one.

And so he flipped out and he went after the officials in his post-game, which I loved.

And

to a point, it wasn't aggressive, but he got asked another officiating question because three points were taken off the board on kind of a ticky-tacked field goal penalty.

And he said, well, I'm done talking about this because I'm already on thin ice.

But the Rizzler, man, he, I love it.

I love every minute of it.

And my question to you is, and the reason I said this, who the hell are the Saints going to get that's any better than this guy?

Like,

he's winning games.

Like, he's coaching well.

And you get to keep Clint Kubiak, who, again,

there was a point where they had two other players on this team that had more touchdown passes than Jake Haner in the first half.

Like, he was pulling it all out of the bag of tricks.

This is a decent coaching staff.

I always wonder if, like, Mickey Loomis would be like, wow, it's just easier to keep this guy than do an actual coaching search but it's so much easier than humiliating yourself because like and no offense to darren rizzi like i think he's a good head coach but like who the hell is going to want this job like i i don't want to say you know what i don't want to say anything else because i love this version of connor that views right uh sky rizzzi as a cross between like 1966 vince lombardi and 2007 bill belchick so i will say nothing other than i agree i i believe they should give him a 15-year extension Please.

Install him.

Rip off that interim label.

And the locker room's reaction after the extension is announced would sound like this.

Okay, get all those guys and send them out of town.

I want people who are going to play for the Rizzler in my building.

Let's go.

I love it.

I love it.

By the way, did you...

Wait, wait, did you address the

clock situation, though?

I know you mentioned the one with the field goal, but so Spencer Rattler hits Foster Moreau, tackled at Washington's one-yard line with nine seconds remaining.

It stayed at like nine seconds for like four seconds.

Side judge Jim Quirk ran to the ball and signaled for a clock stoppage, and the clock was stopped for at least four seconds and possibly five.

Yeah.

And that allowed the Saints to spike the ball.

If the commanders get beat on that, that would have been a massive story.

We can't get that wrong.

We got to write it.

My favorite part of it was Luke Johnson, who's great.

He's a Saints reporter down in New Orleans.

He was the poor reporter.

And so he asked, and the head of officiating was like, yeah, we messed it up.

You know, he thought he stopped the clock.

And then Luke was just kind of like, how the f does that happen?

And then the official just said, it's all I got for you, Luke.

Yeah, sometimes that's all that you can do.

That's all I got for you, man.

All right.

Let's move to Charlotte, where the Panthers were.

Favorites for the first time in a couple of years.

Justin, how to turn out.

I'm glad you said that because my open starts with the Panthers came into this game favored for the first time in nearly two full years.

But

the result was similar to the last time they were favored.

They did not really show up to play in this one.

Their pass rush, virtually non-existent.

Run defense, a total sieve.

And the Cowboys defense was kind of the opposite.

They harassed Bryce Young all day long.

Rico Dowdle led the NFL in rushing for the day, pending what happens on Sunday night night football.

With 149 yards on the ground, Cooper Rush was pretty good in this game.

CeeDee Lamb, especially, was on fire.

And the Cowboys leave Carolina with a 30-14 win, and playoff hopes still kind of alive.

I'm picturing later on tonight Justin sitting on the couch.

having a glass of wine with his lovely girlfriend, Jessica, and just venting about the show.

Hanses, you f ⁇ ing sandbagged me on my intro to the Cowboys Panthers.

Sandbag me.

He'll still be editing the show when that happens.

He's sitting on the glass with the wine at this point.

The Cowboys are indeed mathematically still alive in the NFC, which

is pretty insane.

Yeah, let's see.

Let me take a look at this.

Let's see if they're getting, when I check in on the ESBN page, do they get anything under the reason column?

Because that's when you need to start taking it seriously.

Nope, dash dash.

Double dash.

Double dash.

Six and eight.

So we're not there yet.

I was going to say one thing, Justin, that you point out.

Rico Datto, like over the last three weeks, because that's been like they can't run the ball.

Over the last three weeks, he's been like legit a real factor.

But I don't know what that means in the larger scheme of our earth after all of this, because that's not probably the permanent answer, but he did it again.

He runs hard.

He makes people miss.

He's a pretty talented guy.

I'm kind of surprised that nobody in the Cowboys organization realized that coming into the season.

And they tried to make Ezekiel Elliott still happen.

Maybe that was a Jerry Jones mandate.

I don't know.

It certainly feels like it.

But I also wonder in this game specifically how much of it was just Carolina looking more like first half of the season Carolina and a lot less like the recent Panthers that we've seen because they were just, I mean, they were bad across the board, offense and defense, outside of an 80-something-yard touchdown from to Jalen Coker caught and ran to the end zone, which was a nice play by Bryce Young.

And Jalen Coker, 83-yard touchdown.

Other than that, the Panthers' offense just didn't really show up in this game, and that happened pretty close to halftime.

It made it a 10-7 halftime game after Brandon Aubrey missed a 70-yard field goal.

Come on, we can't be sending my man out there for 70s.

You know, those percentages dictate contracts.

We keep sending them out.

This is not the first time they've sent them out for, you know, they're trying to break the record.

Yeah, I know, but 70, you put my man in a bad spot.

It's wild.

But it felt like a game at halftime, and then the Cowboys came out in the second half and just like kind of played like how the Cowboys sort of maybe expected to play entering this year and haven't done a lot this season.

But maybe it's because the game wasn't in Dallas and they just can't play well in Dallas this season.

But yeah, the Panthers defense was just, it was not good on any level.

It made all these guys for Dallas look better.

Cooper Rush, Rico Dowdle.

I don't want to say it made CeeDee Lamb look better, but it made him look better than he's looked most of this season.

Lamb,

he's coming off now back-to-back good games, and doesn't help me anymore because my fantasy team went up against Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen today.

CeeDee Lamb has, yeah, not good.

CeeDee Lamb, nine for 116 and a touchdown.

His chemistry with Cooper Rush was slow to start.

And let's give Cooper Rush some credit.

18 to 29, 214, three touchdowns, no picks.

He's been pretty good, actually.

Did that look like certainly, I think, the right play over Trey Lance.

Oh, no doubt.

He was good today, but again, the Panthers could not muster up a pass rush to save their life in this one.

So he had all day to sit in the pocket and pick them apart, which credit to him for doing that.

But again, like, I don't know what happened to the Panthers today.

Maybe they saw the game spread before they came in and they were like, oh, we're favored to win, so we don't have to try as hard.

I'm sure that's not what happened, but it felt a little bit like that.

May have been.

All right, I think uh we can move on from this game and uh give us give us one more.

Uh, let's head to Nashville because I know you have thoughts.

What a game!

10

combined turnovers,

223 combined penalty yards, a fumble, return for a touchdown that actually wasn't because

Jordan Battle re-fumbled the ball out the back of the end zone and gave it back to the Titans.

A 366-pound defensive tackle picked up a fumble, stiff-armed Alex Kappa to the netherworld and rumbled for 30 yards.

Joe Burrow, two interceptions.

Will Levis, three interceptions over the span of four pass attempts, including a pick six.

He was benched.

Get Mason Rudolph in there.

Mason Rudolph won the minutes that he played.

13-6.

Look at Mason Rudolph.

But the Bengals won this game by 10.

However, it was not that close because the Titans scored a completely meaningless touchdown as time expired.

So, like, they didn't even get to kick an extra point because time had ended and the game was over.

Final score, 37.

Bengals, 27 Titans.

10 combined turnovers, most in a game since 2007, and 223 combined penalty yards.

This game was such a chore to watch despite the 64 total points that were put up.

It was, it was,

I texted you guys.

This game was drunk because it was like,

Burrow throws a pick.

Oh, Levis throws a pick right back.

Burrow fumbles the ball.

Titans give it right back.

The Bengals pick up a fumble and are literally going to return it for a touchdown, but it's fumbled before he, like, it wasn't a Jonathan Taylor.

He just dropped it situation.

He was like running with it and just like lost it out the back of the end zone.

It was No, it wasn't the Malachi Corley situation.

It wasn't the Jonathan Taylor situation, but it was, he was beginning his celebration.

So as he was crossing over, he was like moving the ball from one hand to the other, needlessly, and he gets hit with a horrific gap of his own.

Yeah, your team sucks, dude.

They suck.

I wonder what happens.

with this whole regime too.

And Will Levis is

rubber stamping himself out of town, eight for 12, three interceptions.

Here's Brian Callahan after the game.

And again, we remember Callahan early in this season when Levis was doing the meme of the week every week, being furious with his QB.

He just sounds, at least reading this quote, I'm curious to listen to it now, like a guy that's just defeated.

It's not Will Levis' fault alone that the Titans suck, but Will Levis turning out not to be the guy he thought he was has really killed them in a lot of ways.

Yeah, I think there's definitely a lot of positives that

I do like and I am excited about.

It's just there's there's too many negatives that don't give us a chance to win the game.

And that's where we're at right now.

Too many negatives that don't give us a chance to win the game.

Well, how else do you say it?

That's an indictment.

How else do you say it?

And you went on to say that they're not getting enough positive plays in a row from the quarterback position specifically.

And one really interesting note, when Will Evis was benched in this game, he did not speak to Brian Callahan about it.

He was told by quarterbacks coach Bo Hardigree, you're not going back in.

And he was like wincing with his shoulder during pregame warm-ups.

There was a third and 12 in this game where the Titans called a read option and Levis got absolutely smoked on the play.

Didn't even come close to converting and a lot of like speculation that he may have re-aggravated his shoulder on that play.

But regardless, like I think you're 100% right.

Will Levis built up some goodwill over the last four to five games playing better football, not good, but better.

And then today happens and it's like, you can't trust this guy to drop back and throw a pass because he's not reading the field well.

He's inaccurate on some balls.

Like the second interception wasn't necessarily his fault.

It was a bad pass.

Nick Westbrook Aquino like gets a hand on it and just like tips it right into the defenders.

It was similar to Drake May's interception, but it was still a really inaccurate pass.

So it is Lovis's fault ultimately.

There was an actual quarterback in this game and he seemed quite peeved by at one point that that video that we have.

Yeah.

What was this about?

Because this was at the end of a game that they're comfortably leading by 16 points, one minute, nine seconds to play.

And this is a quote, again, lip reading here.

That was embarrassing.

That we suck today.

It's week after week.

It's my only thought, Mark, about like

keep an eye on this as we head towards the offseason for the Cincinnati Bengals.

Like, where's Joe Burrows' headspace at?

And if I was a Bengals fan, I'd just be a little nervous that, like, even at the end of a win, he just looks unhappy.

And you you wonder if that manifests itself in anything as we spin toward the end.

Yeah, I just wonder about like the relationship with his coach, quarterback coach, his coordinator, his head coach.

And it's like, is it the kind of thing?

And I think you mentioned this a while back where it's like the mantra of the offseason is we get Joe Burrow involved.

We make sure that we keep his guys around and we empower him the way that you would empower someone in a small market franchise that you don't want to somehow lose sooner than you should.

You want to keep him there for multiple contracts, multiple years.

And it seems like every week, you're talking about your Will Levis meme or whatever, but like we're getting this from Burrow on a weekly basis, it seems like irritation, agitation, frustration.

And they still haven't paid Jamar Chase, obviously.

They haven't paid T.

Higgins, so they have two big contracts they got to work out this offseason to keep Burrow happy.

But, and I don't know what he was pissed about.

They didn't really give us much context in the broadcast because, I mean, the Bengals put up 30 points on offense, 37 points total.

And their defense, who we've been asking to just like step up and play well for like once in your lives for six turnovers today and played pretty good football the titans put up 27 points but only 21 real points the last six again complete gar like worse than garbage time like post garbage time so the defense stepped up and played pretty well the offense was on fire like they have been this was a complete game for the bengals outside of the four turnovers they committed one of which was the fumble out the back of the end zone so you hardly count that um burrow did throw two picks that were like not not good passes the first one was, I don't know what he was looking at, and the second one was underthrown, and the safety dove in and picked it off.

But

yeah, I mean, the Bengals played well.

Like, they dominated this game, even though they only won by 10 points.

Just to note, six and eight, Cincinnati is, and they also, Mark, have the double dash next to

under the column for

what they need to go right for the playoffs.

But they finish

with,

let's see, they finish with

I don't need double dash.

Home Broncos at Steelers.

So they got to start by winning out and then hope the Chargers or the Broncos collapse.

Otherwise, the Chargers have to lose all three because the Chargers have a two-on-one two-game lead on Cincinnati, but it's essentially a three-game lead because they have the head-to-head tiebreaker.

So they have to win out and the Chargers have to lose out.

So very bleak indeed for Cincinnati, but still a flickering pulse.

All right, that takes us to Sunday night football.

Sunday night.

The Green Bay Packers.

That is a team that intrigues me.

Especially after the performance they put on on Sunday night football.

A 30-13 win over the Seattle Seahawks at Lumen Field.

A really thorough

piece of footballing.

by Matt LaFleur and his merry band of Marauders who put up 14 points unanswered in the first quarter and never really feel like this game ever comes in

any danger of slipping away.

So the Packers move to 10-4, and they look really good doing it.

And Seattle ends this game with questions how they're going to close the season and where Geno Smith fits in after he leaves this game with an injury, Mark Sessler.

Right,

that changes everything because while someone like Sam Howlu comes in, has starting experience, he also threw 21 interceptions a year ago, which led the NFL, and he's sort of a roller coaster ride.

And it kind of nullifies everything that the Seahawks hope to be with Geno Smith, which is consistent, which has been someone where it's like, he's not the star of the league, but he can carry you to this point in the season.

I just found the pressure they put on him.

This is not something that the Packers, you know, historically do to quarterbacks.

Like tonight they had seven sacks.

The first five came without actually blitzing.

That's pretty rare.

And like, they put them in a blender and they completely confuse Sam Howell.

And they're just a very complete team.

I'm with you.

Like, I'm just intrigued because it seems like there was a moment in the game when you had the Josh Jacobs, and he started so well, but you had the Josh Jacobs fumble.

Like, is this where a team starts to unravel a little bit and come on out and maybe have a team like Seattle at home climb back in?

And then they put the clamps on them.

So it's another kind of way to win a game for Green Bay.

And I'm really impressed.

And I think it's only annoying that the way we categorize playoff systems is that

their record aside doesn't necessarily put them where they should be seated-wise, but that's how they do it.

Can we talk about a punter for a second?

Sure.

That guy.

Dude.

So after the

Thanksgiving game, the Miami game, when the Dolphins return guy completely just lost the ball, I

kept looking for a, like, I wanted to see the trajectory of it.

And I watched the game over again.

I watched the all-22.

I couldn't see it.

And so I wrote in the power rankings that, you know, I could only just imagine what it looked like bearing down on them.

Well, tonight, we got a look at it.

And I was so happy.

For the first time, Chris Collinsworth did something that made me happy.

But you could see the way that that ball comes down, like cascading down, and it just keeps shifting, like hooking towards the sideline like that.

That is going to be a deadly weapon in a cold night game.

If they can possibly get an opponent at Lambeau Field at some point in the postseason, look out.

I mean, that is like,

how many air tactical just mistakes have we seen this week already?

Like

two guys this week dropped balls before they walked into the end zone.

There was a huge fumble punt in the Steelers Eagles game that could have turned the tide of that game.

And it's just like we're looking at these little moments and it's like, this guy is just like,

he's weaponized at this point.

Sometimes when a game slips away in terms of being good theater for the telecast, you'll see that telecast get kind of exposed and you kind of drag into the finish line.

One of the good things about, and I am a fan of this team, Tarico and Collinsworth, in fairness, but they get to dig into their bag of tricks, like in case of blowout, start talking about this stuff, and you'll get good nuggets like that.

And the great look at the ball and how it was like, you know, curling around his foot.

And I thought Collinsworth, yeah, did a good job explaining why that makes it difficult for the returner yeah seasons can be decided by something like a muff punt and and and green bay like they just feel mark very dangerous to me and i think they i i think they mentioned on the telecast as well and something i agree with i they don't need to be in lambeau field for me to think that they can make a lot of noise in the playoffs if they end up being the wild card which is a pretty good chance this is not a team that i want to see just like the cowboys didn't want to see him last year i i think this team with Jordan Love playing now and a much cleaner version of football and the balance that they have and the way the defense is so much better than it's been the last couple of years.

Like this, in an NFC where we just saw the Lions get lit up like a Christmas tree again by another contender, like the Packers have a shot in this conference and it makes it exciting when you think about January football.

Yeah, it matters where you are now.

And

it, you know, the Detroit of September, I wouldn't have felt that way about, but I'm watching also a Packers team with, like, mentioned tonight, like, they've got a bunch of people that are not playing right now, like Ajair Alexander and other players like that.

Edgar and Cooper, who's a rookie, the rookie linebacker out of Texas A ⁇ M and had an interception, almost had a second, had a sack.

Like, these are young players that are growing up before our eyes.

And then we've talked about the offensive side of it so much that it's kind of all happening at once.

I think it'd be structurally hard to keep everyone like two or three years from now.

But this is how Super Bowl teams occur and NFC championship teams occur with young guys filling in the role in December and January.

So they're really well coached on both sides of the ball.

You've got these secret weapons like Connor's mentioning, scientific things that come from like deep space, and a lot of good young players.

It's kind of like, all right, this is I, this is why they're scary, and it's very tangible and very real.

One thing I think you can tell, and you know, I was, I was, I watched a couple of their games back to back to back the other day, and the rise of Josh Jacobs and the violence in the way that he runs, it completely plays against the opposing linebackers now because the play action is so much better even than it was at the beginning of the season.

And you're getting linebackers that are sucked up almost to the line of scrimmage because that's the violence that you have to meet Josh Jacobs with.

And it's just opening massive swaths of field, you know, that Jordan Love can use to complete easy passes.

It was there earlier in the season, but I promise you, it's so much different.

If you go back and you watch play action the first couple weeks in Green May and you watch it now, it's different and it's going to mean something in the playoffs, I'm telling you.

And I love the Packers' aggression in this game.

They win the toss to start the game.

They elect to receive and then in their first four possessions,

they score.

They go

on drives of 63, 80, 51, and 83.

This is a Seattle team that, of course, entered this game on a four-game winning streak, but

you would not think that as you watch this, and it kind of gets the rubber stamp of that.

A beautiful catch by Romeo Dobbs in the back of the end zone, scooping it off the turf with 449 left to make it a laugher.

And the Gino injury now is the thing that we watch.

And Justin is checking out Twitter.

We're recording this just a few minutes after the game ended.

It was a knee injury.

He was hit low

with 712 to play, I believe, in the third quarter.

And

he left the field, came back at one point, warmed up, and it looked like he might be going back in the game.

But he ended up retreating back to the bench with his knee heavily wrapped.

So I don't need to tell you that the Seahawks are sunk if Geno Smith misses a lot of time.

Sam Howell has never been my favorite quarterback to watch.

And in this game, it was pretty rough.

It is a reminder.

And even when they...

They made a couple stops on defense in the second half, you know,

but when you have a backup quarterback who's not quite up to the challenge and he keeps throwing short of the sticks,

it can be very, very frustrating to watch.

So

if this is the case,

Seattle could be in trouble here if Geno's out for any extended stretch of time, but we don't know yet where he's at.

Did anyone have a problem?

It's 23.13.

There's about nine minutes and 40 seconds left, and Seattle has it at fourth and five.

They're at their own 37,

and they punt.

And I get it, like, you know,

at another point in the game, I wouldn't have a problem with that.

But you're going to give the ball back to Josh Jacobs and to Green Bay.

And the game felt over to me at that point with that decision to some degree.

And they showed, you know, McDonald walking up and down the field and kind of like hearing the crowd going utterly nuts.

And I was like, I would have maybe been more aggressive there.

How did that play out?

What happened on the ensuing drive?

They get the ball.

didn't they get the stop they were they were stopped too because that's where josh jacobs i believe was stopped on fourth and two after that but they chewed more time off the clock it's just like time really mattered there and i think being aggressive mattered but not everyone would agree that was the first time that i ever saw a coach respond to crowd noise in real time because you could see him mouth what do they want me to do it's four it's fourth and five like and they were backed up deep in their own territory but i've never seen it like I mean, I guess it was good camera work, maybe, right?

But you go right from the cascading crowd noise to Mike.

And I thought it was funny because he was taken aback by the reaction of the crowd, I think, which again is like something you don't really ever see before.

But I just, it was fascinating to watch him just be like, what do they want me to do?

Like, I have my backup quarterback.

Yeah, it ended up costing them

because Green Bay took over, had the ball for seven plays, covered 45 yards of ground, and then got stuffed on third and two incomplete pass where Reed slipped, and then they get stopped at fourth and two.

So I don't know, it would cost them a little under four minutes in clock time.

But, you know,

I tend to think the reason why McDonald's in that spot is because he doesn't obviously trust the quarterback to make the throw that he needs to make there.

And he was just trying to, he's kind of caught in between a little bit.

And sure enough, they take the ball back after getting that stop, and two blades later, Hal throws a terrible interception that more or less kind of puts the game away.

So, yeah,

Seattle's certainly in a little bit of trouble.

And we have an update here.

This is from our buddy, developing news from Michael Sean Dugar,

our Thursday compadre,

Brikar,

Amdham Brahal.

Geno Smith has a knee injury.

We'll do all the tests tomorrow.

Mike McDonald says structurally, it looks like it's okay.

He doesn't know whether Gino will have to miss time.

Tests will determine that.

Okay, so they think structurally structurally is okay, and now we just wait.

So let me check a look at this playoff picture, boys, before we sign off.

Now that you got Seattle taking an L, losing their quarterback.

And they've got the Vikings, Bears, and Rams.

That Rams game is massive.

All right.

So

Mark, you're an Arizona Cardinals dreamer, you and Zumwalt, and they are 7-7 and

behind Seattle directly right now.

And Seattle is on the outside looking in right now at 8-6 with a game behind Washington.

So,

yeah.

However, the NFC West, of course, is also the matter at hand for Seattle, which has two avenues to make the playoffs, and they're tied now with the Rams at 8-6.

Look at the Rams.

What a weird division that is.

Someone rises from the dead or collapses into ashes every week.

And this week, it's Seattle's turn.

So we'll see what happens.

All right.

Anything else, Connor?

We're positive that you, after the draft, were allowed to drop a team and pick up another team.

And me, two days after the draft, am not allowed to drop the Seahawks and pick up the Buccaneers.

Oh, well, if we're extending the process to after games have been played,

like if that's the case, then I'm gonna draft, I'm gonna drop the 49ers.

I could see where you're going with this.

I created a, there was an issue in our fantasy league where all of a sudden, like all our, everything locks at 1 p.m.

on Sunday for good.

You don't get to touch anything until after Monday.

And so we had Lad McConkey, who is out.

And so the guy that I co-owned the team with just texted the owner of the league.

And it's like it's a big money league.

And he's just like, this rule is dumb.

And the guy goes, you know what?

You're right.

And he just dropped a phantom player on the roster and gave us Josh Palmer in like right before the start of Sunday night football.

And everyone freaked the f out.

and so I can understand why you don't want to do this and there needs to be a hard cap but uh you know

yeah how about this

hold on I want to get involved I'm sure I've got a

list do we want to just for fun like after the Sunday games we could any of us can make one more move

well it would be a more updated list I think that's the the advantage we'd look less foolish so if you want to make one move do we do we have that list?

How are we deciding, though, that out-of-pocket

draft or dumb draft?

Yeah, so let's dig back in on this one.

I root for Connor's success, but why do we assume that Connor would make the first switch here?

Would we not randomize that?

I had to take the

last

pick in a draft that was only three rounds.

So even though we did snake it,

he only got the pick first in one round, and he had to pick last in two two rounds.

That's reasonable.

I found

my data points.

For some reason,

there's a line from Mark Gastono on the top.

Some reason.

I'm going to get my sack back.

Mark has the Lions,

the Vikings, and

no.

The Ravens, right?

The Lions.

Yeah, you guys traded the Ravens and the Vikings.

The Texans.

I don't need to touch that at all.

Okay, and Connor, you have the Packers.

That's looking good.

The Steelers, not so good.

And the Seahawks.

Woofoo.

Dirt nap.

Can I just get the Bucs instead of the Seahawks?

I would approve that.

I would approve that.

I don't think the Bucs or the Seahawks are going to win the Super Bowl, and therefore I don't have an issue with you swapping.

It just looks better.

And what I'll do is we'll just completely erase any memory of my 49ers

dalliance, and I will reassume control of the commanders.

And I drafted extremely well, so I'm going to stick with exactly the three teams I have: Chiefs, Eagles, Rams.

I'll give you something else to stick.

Right up, you old keystick.

Like this?

Dick it up the guy's ass, which I've done.

I've done it.

And And I'm not ashamed.

All right.

Reminder: in addition to this midweek show, having the Connor Orr Holiday Spectacular, Hallmark, Hallmark Holiday Spectacular, also the live stream of our Holiday Touchdown, A Chiefs' Love Story.

I cannot wait to watch this film.

No.

And we're going to do it live with the viewers.

www.patreon.com

slash heed heed the call.

So make sure you sign up in time for Wednesday when we do that.

And we'll see you for Monday Night Football.

A game between what teams, Mark?

Well, there's multiple games, so where do you want me to start with that?

Oh, Chris, you're right.

We got the Bears visiting the Vikings and a second game.

The Falcons and the Raiders.

I know, I'm just not mentioning it.

Falcons and the Raiders.

No, Mark handled that perfectly well.

We don't even need to reference it.

It's Fughesi, and we see what you're doing, 345 Park Avenue, and we don't like it.

We don't.

All right, good stuff.

Thank you to everybody for watching.

Hey, Fughesi, Fugazi.

It's a wonderful thing.

And listening, it's a

fairy dust.

It doesn't exist.

It's never landed.

It is no matter.

It's not on the element chart.

It's not real.

Okay, Matthew.

All right, signing off for everybody and Matthew McConaughey.

Have a great night, and on we go as we start to edge toward week 16.

Can you believe it?

All right, till next time.

Heed the call.