Speaker 1: The Around the NFL Podcast is about to blow your mind.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to another edition of the Around the NFL Podcast.
Speaker 1: My name is Dan Hansis, and I am joined by
Speaker 1: a room filled with heroes. Mark Sessler, Chris Westling, Kevin
Speaker 1: Patra and Greg Rosatal. What's up, boys? Hey? Dan? Oh Greg?
Speaker 1: Here we are. Why do I have to be the focus? Oh?
Speaker 1: Why do you have to be the focus? Because we
Speaker 1: are all living on your throne of ease right now
Speaker 1: as the Cherubs circle. You never has has the nectar?
Speaker 1: Mark tasted this sweet after maybe the definitive Patriots victory
Speaker 1: in the Bill Belichick Tom Brady era, a thirty four
Speaker 1: overtime when uh, the biggest comeback in the history of
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl, the biggest comeback in the history of
Speaker 1: the Patriots period, a game that was twenty eight to
Speaker 1: three midway through the third quarter. Greg, I mean, this
Speaker 1: would be the good talent to retire as a fan
Speaker 1: because it will never get better than this. Five rings. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm done, I'm done. I'm retiring. I mean it was
Speaker 1: a little it was almost too much retired to the
Speaker 1: third quarter. By the way, we should all be flying
Speaker 1: high here. You know, I know you maybe a rooting
Speaker 1: different rooting interests here, but we all love football. It's
Speaker 1: one forty in the morning. We're all a little loopy.
Speaker 1: And if you like football even a little bit, or
Speaker 1: if you like sports even a little bit, to watch
Speaker 1: one of the greatest if not, you know, I would
Speaker 1: say the greatest ever to do it, to make a
Speaker 1: twenty five point comeback in the Super Bowl and witness
Speaker 1: that live. I mean, we we were all writing our stories.
Speaker 1: We everyone thought the game was over. It was almost
Speaker 1: like the beginning of the comeback snuck up on on
Speaker 1: us at the stadium, because you know, we're in we're
Speaker 1: in work mode. We're almost in postgame mode at that
Speaker 1: point when when it's three, when it's nine. Absolutely, I
Speaker 1: mean we were discussing back with our editors in l
Speaker 1: a story ideas. I was about seven hundred words into
Speaker 1: a feature about how the Patriots defense had utterly collapsed
Speaker 1: against the Falcons, but then they started to make one
Speaker 1: big play and one big stop, and then a turnover happened.
Speaker 1: I thought, this story is crumbling before my eyes. By
Speaker 1: the way, this mark you've been You're the king of
Speaker 1: pre writing things. Yeah, sometimes it leads to you getting
Speaker 1: a little angry in the newsroom during the season. Can
Speaker 1: this be? Can this Super Bowl fifty one collapse for
Speaker 1: the Falcons be the thing that finally gets you off
Speaker 1: writing stories in the middle of a game. Well, as
Speaker 1: is often the case, I was assigned this story, so
Speaker 1: I thought, I'm gonna get this thing in before deadline.
Speaker 1: But it is a fair point. I am never going
Speaker 1: to write again before something is that you know the
Speaker 1: game is done. Tonight was the lesson Wes. You carry
Speaker 1: that water up and down the hill for the Patriots,
Speaker 1: So this has to be sweet for you as well. Well.
Speaker 1: It is because I am I am a huge fan
Speaker 1: of people who are great at their jobs, and Bill
Speaker 1: Belichick is the greatest coach in the most sophisticated era
Speaker 1: of football. Tom Brady. Look at the numbers. He is
Speaker 1: the only quarterback in history to have over five record
Speaker 1: in games in which he's throwing the ball fifty or
Speaker 1: more times, and he's eighteen and nine in those games.
Speaker 1: No one else's even close. He's also got easily the
Speaker 1: best record in games in which his defense has allowed
Speaker 1: twenty one or more points. I think he's put so
Speaker 1: much distance between himself and any other quarterback now what
Speaker 1: do you think, Patrick, Yes, we have a microphone in
Speaker 1: situation here now we're west sharing with Patra, so Patrick
Speaker 1: can chime in whenever he feels he has a hot take.
Speaker 1: But really, Patrick, where are you in the camp to
Speaker 1: think a lot of people are now myself included, even
Speaker 1: as it pains me to say it that this stamps Brady,
Speaker 1: even if you kind of were on the fence before
Speaker 1: a fifth title. Uh, he's gonna have all the individual
Speaker 1: records if he plays another three to five years. And
Speaker 1: the nature by which he pulled it off this time
Speaker 1: the best. I was already in the camp that he
Speaker 1: was already the best. I don't think he needed a
Speaker 1: fifth super Bowl to prove that. If anybody who needed that,
Speaker 1: good for you. But I thought the way he came
Speaker 1: out of the gate kind of shaking in the first quarter,
Speaker 1: then he had then his wide receiver receivers had some drops.
Speaker 1: But then he just like turned flipped the switch in
Speaker 1: the second half and it was like it was over.
Speaker 1: And that's his greatness right there. I think people had
Speaker 1: previously said he didn't play that great in Super Bowls,
Speaker 1: and I think he shut every that argument up right there.
Speaker 1: The second half the thing that two In two of
Speaker 1: the last three years, he came back from ten points down,
Speaker 1: which at the time tied the biggest comeback in Super
Speaker 1: Bowl history, definitely the biggest uh you know, two touchdown
Speaker 1: fourth quarter comeback in super Bowl history against the greatest
Speaker 1: defense of his era. Then two years later he comes
Speaker 1: back from twenty to three against you know, one of
Speaker 1: the greatest offenses that we see. And he got a
Speaker 1: lot of help along the way. The Patriots scored on
Speaker 1: their last five possessions. If you don't you know, the
Speaker 1: basically the kneel down at the end of regulation and
Speaker 1: the Patriots defense prevented the Falcons from scoring on their
Speaker 1: last four possessions. So as great as Brady was, the
Speaker 1: Patriots defense in the second half limiting them to seven
Speaker 1: points on six possessions against that offense, you know, deserves
Speaker 1: deserves a huge part of the credit. He doesn't get mentioned.
Speaker 1: You know, he doesn't get you know, puffed up as
Speaker 1: as this big comeback king. If not for Trey Flowers
Speaker 1: and Donte high Tower and Map Patrician, all of them
Speaker 1: too quick losers from the evening one would be everyone
Speaker 1: out there that wants to create the clickbait offseason article
Speaker 1: about who's the best quarterback? That debate is over number
Speaker 1: two me because for the second Super Bowl show in
Speaker 1: a row, I cannot see Greg because there is a
Speaker 1: massive destruction between me and Greg. I'm just hearing his voice.
Speaker 1: This is what he looks, very self satisfied moment. I'm
Speaker 1: being honest. Let's see what Tom Brady had to say
Speaker 1: f after the game. Uh talking about really and I
Speaker 1: want to get to something about the Falcons in a second.
Speaker 1: But Brady's thoughts on the comeback. Coach talks about you
Speaker 1: never know which play it's gonna be in the super Bowl,
Speaker 1: and there was probably thirty of them tonight that any
Speaker 1: if any one of those would have been different, outcome
Speaker 1: could have been different. But I'm so proud of our guys,
Speaker 1: our coaches, the team. I was unbelievable. You know what
Speaker 1: these guys have accomplished all the season. I'm just proud to,
Speaker 1: you know, be a part of this great group. And
Speaker 1: Brady's right because this to me, there too is there
Speaker 1: are two stories here. One is the Patriots. You know,
Speaker 1: I hate it. We gotta give him credit one of
Speaker 1: the all time comebacks, maybe the greatest comeback ever in
Speaker 1: the history of the NFL. But this was also, to me,
Speaker 1: and I hate to say it, the biggest choke job
Speaker 1: in the history of the NFL, because the Falcons had
Speaker 1: to go way out of their way to find a
Speaker 1: way to lose this game up with, you know, maybe
Speaker 1: twenty game minutes to play and I you know, that
Speaker 1: steaks and what we can get into it later what
Speaker 1: the scene was down by the locker room. But what
Speaker 1: Brady said there is absolutely true, and it reminded me
Speaker 1: of the Packers Seahawks NFC title game from a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago when the Packers, and I remember writing
Speaker 1: a post about it, they had to eight things that
Speaker 1: they could have done. If they got one of them,
Speaker 1: they would have won that game against the Seahawks and
Speaker 1: and got into the Super Bowl to face the Patriots,
Speaker 1: and every single thing they failed to execute West And
Speaker 1: there you go. The same thing happened here with the Falcons.
Speaker 1: So many plays in this game, whether it was getting
Speaker 1: into field goal range after Julio Jones made that acrobatic
Speaker 1: catch in the fourth quarter, or after recovering the onside kick,
Speaker 1: or after this or after that, and every time they failed, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I kind of look at it differently. I really think
Speaker 1: that they earned the Patriots earned this one more than
Speaker 1: they earned the Seattle one. I feel like they were
Speaker 1: a little luckier in Seattle that that play call happened
Speaker 1: this one. I'm not a good enough play play manager
Speaker 1: two second guest guys when they're in the heat of
Speaker 1: the moment, when they're calling a pass instead of a
Speaker 1: run with five minutes left or whatever, I'm not that
Speaker 1: good at it. So I don't I don't go there,
Speaker 1: I don't go to that territory. A lot of things
Speaker 1: did happen. I thought the Falcons played really well for
Speaker 1: forty minutes, and I'm not going to think of this. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna look back and say this was a
Speaker 1: bad Falcons team or they should be disappointed. Certainly not.
Speaker 1: They're not a bad Falcons team, but they will go
Speaker 1: down in infamy as the team that blew lead in
Speaker 1: the second half, and they did it. All credits to
Speaker 1: the Patriots, but it does not happen if the Falcons disappear,
Speaker 1: including that historic offense when they needed in the moment.
Speaker 1: But there aren't the you know, I was thinking about
Speaker 1: doing a post similar to the one you did a
Speaker 1: few years ago. Like the things that Falcons did wrong.
Speaker 1: And you know what, there's not hugely memorable gaffs. Most
Speaker 1: of the mistakes that you can come up with, let's say,
Speaker 1: Matt Ryan kind of runs into that Trey Flowers sack.
Speaker 1: You know, Kyle sanhan called is a pass there. Most
Speaker 1: of them were the Patriots making those plays because Kyle
Speaker 1: Shanahan was lauded three plays earlier for going aggressive and
Speaker 1: throwing the ball in that situation. And something Logan Ryan
Speaker 1: said to me stood out, and I think he was right.
Speaker 1: He said, we thought we were playing pretty well in
Speaker 1: the first half. Most of the plays they're making against
Speaker 1: us were great plays, Like the Falcons played a great
Speaker 1: first half, and I think the Patriots most most of
Speaker 1: the plays that they made weren't about Atlanta failing. It
Speaker 1: was more about the Patriots making some hat if anything,
Speaker 1: at Lanta's defense, which I think we all agreed was
Speaker 1: the weak spot in this matchup and one that could
Speaker 1: have allowed New England to win, you know, potentially by
Speaker 1: more more than a than in a close game. They
Speaker 1: overachieved for so much of this game, and it looked
Speaker 1: like New England was completely asleep at the wheel on offense,
Speaker 1: in the first half. I I couldn't get a handle
Speaker 1: on what they were trying to do. JA. I did
Speaker 1: not believe in the James White experiment out of the gate,
Speaker 1: and the Patriots kind of proved all that wa of
Speaker 1: negativity that was on Twitter about what they were doing.
Speaker 1: They proved it wrong. All right, So that is the setup,
Speaker 1: and I think now a good thing for us all
Speaker 1: to do is kind of go through the game and Mark,
Speaker 1: you said it on the way back. We're taking a
Speaker 1: car to get to the station here at seven ninety a.
Speaker 1: M uh sports talk in Houston that you almost have
Speaker 1: to rewatch this game to truly comprehend what happened, especially
Speaker 1: if we were about five yards up in an auxiliary
Speaker 1: press box and energy stadium. I I have vertigo from
Speaker 1: being up there. But uh, but let's go through the
Speaker 1: game and and see how it got to where it was.
Speaker 1: Like I said, thirty four and uh and and Greg
Speaker 1: will start in the first quarter. Everyone predicted a shootout
Speaker 1: or something close to it. And what happens. The Patriots
Speaker 1: get the ball first, they don't go anywhere. The Falcons
Speaker 1: they don't go anywhere in their first possession, ending a
Speaker 1: streak of eight straight games without scores. Uh and uh.
Speaker 1: Nothing happened in the first quarter at all, no scoring.
Speaker 1: That's something no one predicted to going to this game. No.
Speaker 1: I thought the Patriots defense had really blown an opportunity
Speaker 1: that they had stopped. They had stopped Atlanta twice, and
Speaker 1: they didn't take advantage of it. Like even thinking, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm thinking back to it now at the top of
Speaker 1: my head, like what happened in the first quarter. It's like,
Speaker 1: that's the type of thing I need to rewatch it
Speaker 1: to to even remember. I mean, there were there were
Speaker 1: a few key plays that the Patriots didn't pick up
Speaker 1: a third and one, Like the defenses weren't that bad
Speaker 1: in this game despite the score. Well, the first five
Speaker 1: drives were four punts in a fumble. I mean, it
Speaker 1: will and you and the stat kept popping up that
Speaker 1: they with Brady and the Super Bowl, they've never scored
Speaker 1: a touchdown in the first quarter. I didn't think that
Speaker 1: would be the case in this game, especially not for
Speaker 1: the Falcons either. It was a very surprising opening stage.
Speaker 1: So this game goes punt, punt, punt. Then the Patriots
Speaker 1: makes some progress. They moved the ball down the field,
Speaker 1: but Legarrett Blunt then fumbles the ball Chris Westling and
Speaker 1: what happens. The Falcons used little bit of tempo speed
Speaker 1: things up, changed the pace on the Patriots, who really
Speaker 1: weren't clearly weren't ready for it. Five place, seventy one
Speaker 1: yards uh capped by a five yard touchdown run by
Speaker 1: Davanta Freeman. They'll hand it to Freeman inside Davante starts
Speaker 1: out what left He'll score standing into the end zone.
Speaker 1: He took up big lead and Atlanta has grapped the
Speaker 1: lead in Super Bowl and west this is and this
Speaker 1: is when that speed of Atlanta really started to show
Speaker 1: your show itself. And then you start to think yourself, oh,
Speaker 1: New England might be in trouble. Here I have my
Speaker 1: lead written. And it was all based on the Falcons
Speaker 1: being head and shoulders above the Patriots in athleticism and
Speaker 1: speed and Dion Jones was playing like a man possessed.
Speaker 1: In the first quarter, he made that trip happen on
Speaker 1: the Garrett blunt and that was a huge play in
Speaker 1: the game. The Patriots had a chance to take control.
Speaker 1: That was at least a ten points swing, if not more.
Speaker 1: In in the like Julio Jones, I was ready in
Speaker 1: one thing I wanted to write was like it was
Speaker 1: kind of great. Even though his numbers weren't insane, every
Speaker 1: catch that Julio Jones made was bananas like. It was
Speaker 1: the best receiver of his era making his best plays
Speaker 1: on the biggest stage and it and it was cool
Speaker 1: to see and Matt Ryan watching him live. You know,
Speaker 1: one of the things that you appreciate, he's throwing the
Speaker 1: ball like seconds before these guys break on their routes.
Speaker 1: The anticipation and the continuity and the just the synchronicity
Speaker 1: between you know, Ryan and Jones is just an amazing
Speaker 1: thing to see. And and it was taking plays like
Speaker 1: that to to beat good coverage from the Patriots. That
Speaker 1: was one of the things that was fun being in
Speaker 1: the stadium watching this because you've got a real good
Speaker 1: gauge both Tom Brady as well, just his arm strength
Speaker 1: and some of the throws that you maybe you don't
Speaker 1: you don't um fully appreciate on television. See the way
Speaker 1: they throw it across the field and how Tyler Palco
Speaker 1: is not making that throw let alone. You know, Ryan
Speaker 1: Fitzpatrick types, you have to be a special type guy.
Speaker 1: So then the Patriots get the ball back three and out.
Speaker 1: They go three and out. The Falcons get the ball
Speaker 1: and they go down the field again. And this is
Speaker 1: when now Greg's getting nervous, because Greg's like, wait a second.
Speaker 1: They got the ball back five place, sixty two yards
Speaker 1: and this time Matt Ryan was gunning for the end zone.
Speaker 1: Ryan takes a snap New England, gonna bring some pressure,
Speaker 1: Matt gonna reset Broper Hooper. He caught it, touched down
Speaker 1: at Latta and Matt Ryan absolutely shot a laser in
Speaker 1: there to the rookie patro What are you thinking at
Speaker 1: this stage? Well, my first thought at that time was
Speaker 1: that was a hell of a throw and to be
Speaker 1: nice self beeping there point that was I mean, he
Speaker 1: was anticipation. He had went to Hooper to play before
Speaker 1: and you could tell they were trying to pick on
Speaker 1: Patrick Chung and Row and I just thought, well, this
Speaker 1: is where the Falcons were stopped early kind of had
Speaker 1: jittery sense to them, and then they were just gonna
Speaker 1: roll roll on from there on out. Well, you know
Speaker 1: what I was thinking, one of the big winners of
Speaker 1: the night at that point. The Hidden Figure segment from
Speaker 1: the Thursday show, I mean, you got Austin Hooper hidden
Speaker 1: figure doing what we talked about. You got Mark's hidden figure.
Speaker 1: Brian Pool coming up a little later, and suddenly one
Speaker 1: of the most maligned segments in this country's history comes
Speaker 1: back in a bank spots hidden figure. Malcolm Mitchell to Baby,
Speaker 1: you had no he had a great game. Malcolm Mitchell,
Speaker 1: Baby sketches seventy. That's a hidden figure too. Is everyone
Speaker 1: rightly satisfied with themselves at this point? Uh? Yeah? So
Speaker 1: again we see the Patriots look slow and the Falcons
Speaker 1: look explosive, and things somehow, somehow, things are about to
Speaker 1: get worse, because what happens now the Patriots are trying
Speaker 1: to cut in to a fourteen nothing deficit in the
Speaker 1: second quarter, now midway a little deeper than that into
Speaker 1: the second quarter. They get, they get. It was a
Speaker 1: little weird. Three consecutive I believe defensive holding calls helped
Speaker 1: the Patriots slowly matriculate down the field into Atlanta territory.
Speaker 1: But still things didn't seem right for this New England offense,
Speaker 1: not at all. And then Tom Brady, facing pressure which
Speaker 1: a lot of people were not expecting, makes one of
Speaker 1: the worst throws of his postseason career. Brady gets a
Speaker 1: snap from Andrews Falcons trying to get the intercepted. Coming
Speaker 1: back up the field. It's Robert offered, offered forty thirty
Speaker 1: ten five and he will walk into the end zone
Speaker 1: on at eighty one yard pick six, Matro. Now it's
Speaker 1: twenty one nothing. Mark, Is this when you started writing? Well,
Speaker 1: I this is when I essentially told David Eliot editor,
Speaker 1: I said him in head down the locker room, this
Speaker 1: baby is looking like it's cooked, and I you know,
Speaker 1: you get it. You're you're getting close to halftime. And
Speaker 1: in one sense it's a victory because the Patriots have
Speaker 1: held Atlanta's offense to fourteen points. It stunned me to
Speaker 1: watch Tom Brady allow another seven points by with that throw.
Speaker 1: It was about Brady, the one thing about in that
Speaker 1: first half. I did not expect this at all. Atlanta
Speaker 1: crumbled the pocket and got to Brady and hit him.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't just the sacks. They disrupted him. He
Speaker 1: did not have that normal time to throw, and that
Speaker 1: that time to kind of scan the field the way
Speaker 1: he normally does. He was under a lot of pressure.
Speaker 1: I don't think a lot of people saw that coming.
Speaker 1: There was no sinc there was no rhythm. Uh, it's
Speaker 1: it took. It was too hard for everything the Patriots
Speaker 1: had to do, and it seemed like everything the Falcons
Speaker 1: were doing was too easy. And the Falcons defense was
Speaker 1: using the Jets, Broncos Giants formula against Brady in the
Speaker 1: playoffs in his face and frustrating. Well, they showed no
Speaker 1: respect to Edelman and Hogan and Amundola and Mitchell. They said,
Speaker 1: these guys are not gonna beat our guys one on one.
Speaker 1: They're just gonna get up in their faith. They played
Speaker 1: man to man and they were right. I mean, at
Speaker 1: least early in the game. And I mean Dwight Freeney
Speaker 1: was putting a clown suit on Nate Soldier. Dwight Freeney
Speaker 1: had an amazing game. Marcus Canton was surprising. It's very
Speaker 1: surprising Marcus Cannon was getting beaten. In general, they were winning,
Speaker 1: you know, the Falcons were winning all their battles up front.
Speaker 1: Early in the game. I mean, it made sense that
Speaker 1: that Brady was was getting bothered and starting to throw
Speaker 1: passes too early. Grady Jarrett was talking about getting a
Speaker 1: possible m v P in the of this game because
Speaker 1: he had three sacks and he was dominant inside where
Speaker 1: people have won against the Patriots all year. And yet,
Speaker 1: and yet, as all this is happening, there was something
Speaker 1: developing which we did talk about at halftime, which is
Speaker 1: that the Patriots put up a twelve play drive and
Speaker 1: eleven play drive to end that half, and they went
Speaker 1: into halftime. We haven't quite got there, but they went
Speaker 1: into half to more than doubling up the Falcons play total.
Speaker 1: They ended up doubling up the Falcons play total for
Speaker 1: the game ninety three to forty six. That's an outrageous
Speaker 1: Lee high number. And I think those drives at the
Speaker 1: end of the first half, you know, started to kind
Speaker 1: of set the groundwork of the Falcons Decons getting tired. Yeah,
Speaker 1: when they the Falcons were getting We'll get to that later.
Speaker 1: Falcons were absolutely gassed by the end of this game,
Speaker 1: and that this that played a role at absolutely that said,
Speaker 1: part of what scared me was the fact that two
Speaker 1: of the Falcon's touchdown drives in that first half were
Speaker 1: less than two minutes long. I mean, they have the
Speaker 1: ability to score so quickly that yes, you can keep
Speaker 1: him off the field. I I really wondered if this
Speaker 1: was going to be a forty Burger at some point
Speaker 1: and with New England on the wrong side of it,
Speaker 1: And one last note before we moved to the second
Speaker 1: half and the pet Patriots did go down the field
Speaker 1: and kick a field goal, and we went into the
Speaker 1: half at one three as Gaga took the stage. Very
Speaker 1: nice job by Gaga, great job. Not everyone in this
Speaker 1: not everyone in this room agrees, though, I don't think,
Speaker 1: but I want to hear Mark's appreciation because I haven't
Speaker 1: really heard this yet. You're you're a big Gaga guy
Speaker 1: after tonight. Well, I know I mentioned in the last
Speaker 1: show that I could you quite like Lady Gaga, and
Speaker 1: I thought that she knocked it out of the park
Speaker 1: for what she offers. She she gave you the full
Speaker 1: experience of what she does. I thought she was good,
Speaker 1: and I thought she made a nice not too on
Speaker 1: the nose statement opening with God Bless America. A little
Speaker 1: bit on the nose actually when you think about it,
Speaker 1: but not two points where people are going to go, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, going nuts. And also did this land is
Speaker 1: your land? By what he got? Three? But in a
Speaker 1: clutch catch. I mean, that's very people are going to
Speaker 1: remember that, very nice catch. But it was around this
Speaker 1: point to pick six West West is Yeah, someone's gonna
Speaker 1: have to explain to me why Lady Gaga was great.
Speaker 1: But we can we can do that. We don't have
Speaker 1: enough time in the world to try to get you
Speaker 1: on the page with that. Maybe Tuesday, But uh, this
Speaker 1: was around the time where my timeline, my timeline was
Speaker 1: a fascinating beast during the Super Bowl, where it was
Speaker 1: flooded with people congratulating me about being right about gradual
Speaker 1: decline hashtag slight regression which two quarters made you right? Well,
Speaker 1: people were having it was a lot of me and
Speaker 1: Dan tweet to both of us too, like what's the
Speaker 1: peace scale? Here's the pea scale? You got blacked pea scale? Well,
Speaker 1: really blocking people for pie scale. Maybe maybe muting depends
Speaker 1: depends on the way they framed. If it was just
Speaker 1: kind of a generic what's the peace scale, maybe you
Speaker 1: get a mute if it was kind of like if
Speaker 1: it had a little bit of bite to it, like
Speaker 1: a quick halftime note that that had been a really
Speaker 1: rough half for the Patriots, one of the roughest that
Speaker 1: I've seen watching with Greg since maybe that Kansas City
Speaker 1: wipe out from a few years ago, and Greg in
Speaker 1: a delightful mood like, honestly, he could not have been
Speaker 1: had it been me and my team in that situation.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have even been in the press box. He's
Speaker 1: a little detached. That's by success. And you had already
Speaker 1: in your mind decided that, hey, this is not the
Speaker 1: worst super Bowl to lose if we do. You already
Speaker 1: said this on Thursday show. So you were preparing yourself.
Speaker 1: I was royal inside. I was, you know, as the
Speaker 1: person sitting next to him, I can tell you conflicting. Report.
Speaker 1: Was extremely nervous. And when Greg gets nervous, Greg gets chatty. Okay,
Speaker 1: well Greg's always chatty. That's a fair point, especialty. You know,
Speaker 1: what did you? What did you? Where was your pie scale?
Speaker 1: By the way, at this point, I mean it was
Speaker 1: getting to the point I was practically giving up, but
Speaker 1: you asked me, I need to scale the peace scale
Speaker 1: to you, Greg, in case you don't know, listen, you
Speaker 1: just won the fifth super Bowl. You can't explain the
Speaker 1: pie scale. Give me something, Greg. One, your pants are dry.
Speaker 1: You win your nice suit that your wife got you
Speaker 1: and she said you look handsome in it, and she
Speaker 1: wants you to have that suit for a long time.
Speaker 1: Five got in Tokyo. I'm in trouble. Let's get a
Speaker 1: little soggy down there. Ten. Excuse me, wife, I need
Speaker 1: a new suit. Excuse me, wife. So you were are
Speaker 1: a man not confident in pronouncing my wife Emmaica's name? Cop? Alright,
Speaker 1: So alright, what we're gonna say? Uh? Yeah, I was
Speaker 1: probably about an eight. I mean I was. I was
Speaker 1: like Mark, I had about I had about seven, well
Speaker 1: over nine for the record, Yeah, you know this is half.
Speaker 1: You know, I will say, you could go check your
Speaker 1: slack channel. You uh you asked me at halftime, Dan
Speaker 1: think they have a comeback in them? I'm not, you know.
Speaker 1: And I asked that I would never count them out.
Speaker 1: What did I say? You said the same thing. Now
Speaker 1: you said you're not counting them out either. No, I wasn't.
Speaker 1: And so anyway, I was getting a lot of that,
Speaker 1: a lot of hashtag comments, and by the end of
Speaker 1: the game, you can guess what happened, it all came
Speaker 1: back the other way for like an hour and a half.
Speaker 1: So my my timeline was an absolute disaster of hashtags.
Speaker 1: Uh so everybody had fun. I guess you know, you
Speaker 1: come just a little annoyed by it. I could you
Speaker 1: come at the King, you know best not miss you
Speaker 1: can come with Tom Brady. You gotta be right, Okay,
Speaker 1: has been four minutes into the show. Here we go.
Speaker 1: That was totally unnecessary, you know. Anyway, here we are
Speaker 1: twenty one three in the third quarter. Um, and you think, oh,
Speaker 1: even more bad news. The Falcons get the ball in
Speaker 1: the third quarter there, you know, Billy boys favorite little
Speaker 1: trick of getting the ball last in the first half
Speaker 1: and then getting the ball again. He doesn't get to
Speaker 1: do that. And the third quarter. What happens. The Patriots
Speaker 1: get a stop and they're a little bit pumped up, Greg,
Speaker 1: aren't they? Little Dante Hi Tower Love. Sure, I thought
Speaker 1: that would be a big moment, and yet it didn't
Speaker 1: matter at all. Patriots, you know, blew it right. The
Speaker 1: next possession right, and then the Falcons take the ball over,
Speaker 1: take take it over. And with a thirty one to play,
Speaker 1: they marched eight plays eighty five yards over four minutes,
Speaker 1: and at the eight thirty one mark, now almost midway
Speaker 1: through the third quarter, Matt Matt Ryan throws his second
Speaker 1: and final touchdown pass of the game. Jones lined up
Speaker 1: here to the left Butch. Look right, Ryan gonna throw
Speaker 1: Here's Coleman at the five. He'll beat Nikovets to the ends.
Speaker 1: All touched out Atlanta. There's too many weapons. Last they
Speaker 1: got too many guys to pay attention to. To be clear,
Speaker 1: this is when I started to write feverishly on this
Speaker 1: article that no human This was the moment I will
Speaker 1: post one of the third qu I'll post this on
Speaker 1: a on a website that I've yet to launch, but
Speaker 1: this article. But this is when I thought everything that
Speaker 1: we thought about Atlanta's offense that we had been talking
Speaker 1: about for months was materializing. It was tangible, it was real,
Speaker 1: and the foul and the Patriots were the latest defense
Speaker 1: that couldn't hang with it. Taylor Gabriel had just got
Speaker 1: done embarrassing Malcolm Butler on Broke tell you should have
Speaker 1: held on to him. Mark Well, I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: know how many different networks and broadcasts need to educate
Speaker 1: us to the fact that he was once on the Browns.
Speaker 1: We get it, Thank you. Another classic mistake by the
Speaker 1: Browns organization accepted and for all the podcast fan fans.
Speaker 1: The eight part Browns and Jets off season preview starts Thursday. Thursday,
Speaker 1: on that uh. First week, the first episode is a
Speaker 1: big breakdown on John Morton, the new offensive coordinator of
Speaker 1: the Jets, and more of an analysis. Is he Johnny Morton?
Speaker 1: Is he older Johnny Morton that dropped the n why
Speaker 1: or excuse me? I E? I believe it was? Is
Speaker 1: that right, Patrick E? Or is it a different person?
Speaker 1: That is? The first episode will do an hour on
Speaker 1: that and what does the Falcon's collapse mean for Browns
Speaker 1: coach Hugh Jackson? So make sure you stay too. It's
Speaker 1: the off season. You know the Pods, they get fun
Speaker 1: when the off season comes. But so so so here
Speaker 1: we are soree and that's outrageous. There's there have been
Speaker 1: more than a ten point come back. People start spacing
Speaker 1: a little bit now, like we were talking about before
Speaker 1: the started. Now everyone is starting to process, Okay, the
Speaker 1: Falcons whip the Patriots, alright, how what From our job standpoint,
Speaker 1: we're trying to figure out how we're gonna cover it
Speaker 1: and twitter the game. It's everyone's kind of moved on
Speaker 1: from whether or not this is who's gonna win this game,
Speaker 1: and it's more into having fun with the Patriots demise
Speaker 1: and also talking about where the Falcons are historically, Uh,
Speaker 1: that's where we were. I think the mood in the
Speaker 1: building and the mood on Twitter was everybody was ready
Speaker 1: to be an expert and say I told you all
Speaker 1: that the Patriots just aren't athletic enough or fast enough
Speaker 1: to hang with this Falcons team. There's a tweet that
Speaker 1: alb Albert Brier had he spoke to an a FC
Speaker 1: executive and you know scouch talk. He's like the team
Speaker 1: in red his head and shoulders better in talent than
Speaker 1: the team in white. Absolutely, and in the building, which
Speaker 1: early on it was a Patriots crowd all week long
Speaker 1: in Houston, it's been heavy Patriots, but you could feel
Speaker 1: the Atlanta mob in their started pretty good. They absolutely
Speaker 1: were good, and they were they were about to they
Speaker 1: were beginning to celebrate something that they had never felt
Speaker 1: as Atlanta Falcons fans. And then it started to turn well,
Speaker 1: I want I want to point out, you know, on
Speaker 1: the next Patriots possession. You know, you know Brady mentioned
Speaker 1: there's thirty plays you could point out, and the first
Speaker 1: one you have to start with in the lowest moment
Speaker 1: on ESPN's little you know, what's the percentage that you
Speaker 1: win this game? I know you're sick of it. The
Speaker 1: lowest that the Patriots ever got was point three percent.
Speaker 1: That was the moment. I could be wrong here because
Speaker 1: off my memory after Julian Edelman through a pass on
Speaker 1: third and three on their own side of the field.
Speaker 1: And I know, I know, it seems obvious that you
Speaker 1: go for it on fourth and three down three in
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl. I don't know if every team goes
Speaker 1: for it. I just don't. I think coaches are just
Speaker 1: so wired into their normal way of thinking. They think, well,
Speaker 1: the game's over if if we don't get it, and
Speaker 1: and I don't think Belichick even thought twice about it.
Speaker 1: He goes for it on fourth and three. They hit
Speaker 1: Amondola on a great throw for seventeen yards, and that's
Speaker 1: one of those plays. If you don't get those three yards,
Speaker 1: there's no way they come back and win. That is
Speaker 1: your point that Bill Belichick is a talented coach. It's
Speaker 1: a good guy like him. Hey, one a side here, Mark,
Speaker 1: I'm in bad job with the Browns and Teller Gabriel,
Speaker 1: but also bad job of you once again, Mr f
Speaker 1: Super Bowl fifty one podcast, The Old Zeusler forgets it
Speaker 1: off the top. I need you to jump into the
Speaker 1: top of the show and remind me, well, I was
Speaker 1: saving it for a special moment to be honest, I mean,
Speaker 1: let's do it right now. Now that now that we've
Speaker 1: gotten into it, let's let's promote Mr F. We love
Speaker 1: Mr F. He's a great sponsor. He's been a wonderful sponsor.
Speaker 1: And this wasn't the most organic time to drop this in,
Speaker 1: but uh, we love you, Mr F. Anything else you'd
Speaker 1: like to add? Wes, Why would Mark lie to our
Speaker 1: audience like this? Mark never? I don't know if Marx
Speaker 1: ever lied. He's like the time, but I don't know
Speaker 1: about a bold faced lie. And there is a difference.
Speaker 1: This felt more like a lie. Though this was not
Speaker 1: a lie, was alternative preparing it in my mind and
Speaker 1: you know it. It has now been unleashed on the listener. Alright,
Speaker 1: So thank you Mr F for all you do. And
Speaker 1: if you if you are interested in the economics of
Speaker 1: the world, you head up to the Hague the Netherlands
Speaker 1: and there you go. Mr Flame's economics class will will
Speaker 1: treat you right. All right, now back to the game. Listen,
Speaker 1: what time is it? It's damn two twelve in the morning.
Speaker 1: You can't do everything right. The Patriots comeback starts now, uh,
Speaker 1: and it starts at of course, as the Patriots take
Speaker 1: the ball late in the third quarter, march thirteen plays
Speaker 1: and Greg, this is what you were getting at now
Speaker 1: Now it starts to really build here thirteen plays, seventy
Speaker 1: five yards in six minutes twenty five seconds. And it's
Speaker 1: a amazing how many more plays the Patriots ran. If
Speaker 1: somebody could look that up compared to the Falcons, it's
Speaker 1: like a historic split. Anyway, that is the number, Greg,
Speaker 1: Is that the first time it's been stated on the show?
Speaker 1: This is like, what was it? What was the thing
Speaker 1: we kept repeating the other week? No, I can't remember.
Speaker 1: Not asked me to remember things from the other week.
Speaker 1: Right now, it's two fourteen in the morning. Anyway, So
Speaker 1: they march all the way down the field and they
Speaker 1: finally finally get uh in the end zone for the
Speaker 1: first time all game. And Uh, the man that gets
Speaker 1: in is James White. But then Gastowski misses the extra
Speaker 1: point and that's a little familiar joinking it off the upright,
Speaker 1: Greg Rosenthal, So you settle for twenty eight nine? Uh,
Speaker 1: with where were we at this point two or six
Speaker 1: to play in the third quarter did the whole fourth
Speaker 1: quarter ads the Patriots were making their comeback. The biggest
Speaker 1: pit in my stomach was that the Patriots season could
Speaker 1: end for the second straight season because got Kowski missed
Speaker 1: the extra point and they and they were chasing it
Speaker 1: the whole time, and and now I think every every
Speaker 1: Patriots fan was probably thinking that once it got to
Speaker 1: the point where they had to get to two point conversion,
Speaker 1: because because Belichick push us for this rule. I love
Speaker 1: the rule. But then it comes back to bite him
Speaker 1: because his kicker has been missing extra point all right,
Speaker 1: which takes us to the next Atlanta possession, three and out.
Speaker 1: The Falcons go backwards actually negative fifteen yards. Patriots take
Speaker 1: over and here we go again. Here we go again.
Speaker 1: We talked about the Falcons getting uh starting the defense
Speaker 1: starting entire twelve place seventy two yards. This time they
Speaker 1: keep him out of the end zone though, um and
Speaker 1: after there was an onside kick attempt, I believe after
Speaker 1: the first touchdown and like, am I correct or? I
Speaker 1: have the timing right there? Yes, that's when they went
Speaker 1: backwards fifteen yards, so they didn't even get they didn't
Speaker 1: they pick up, they start the ball at the forty
Speaker 1: one and the greatest offense in the NFL, and this
Speaker 1: really starts what was a miserable fourth quarter for them.
Speaker 1: Four possessions, none of them went more than six plays
Speaker 1: to three and ounce and this one they went backwards.
Speaker 1: It was yeah, and what felt to me it felt
Speaker 1: like a desperate move by Belichick, but not necessarily the
Speaker 1: wrong move, the one that facing the Falcons, knowing that
Speaker 1: you need to start piling up some points. And when
Speaker 1: it backgards, it's another moment. It's like, oh, this is
Speaker 1: cute that they they tried this, but this game is
Speaker 1: still feels over at this point when the onside kick
Speaker 1: is recovered by the Falcons. Well, that's the thing because
Speaker 1: the Patriots took eleven and a half minutes to get
Speaker 1: those ten points on offense, So it didn't it kind
Speaker 1: of felt like they were playing into the Falcon's hands.
Speaker 1: It didn't feel like they were, you know, making this
Speaker 1: fast comeback at this point that even when it was nine,
Speaker 1: it's not like it felt like it was much of
Speaker 1: a game. So it's and they need to Yeah, the
Speaker 1: time's ticking away now, but then they need a break
Speaker 1: and they get it. They make their own break because uh,
Speaker 1: Matt Ryan drops back to pass or he's actually in
Speaker 1: the shotgun. This is another play that surprised me. On
Speaker 1: third and one. Uh, perfect situation where a couple of
Speaker 1: first downs burns off a good amount of clock time
Speaker 1: and put you in a good situation. But they dropped
Speaker 1: back the pass on third and one, and disaster strikes
Speaker 1: for the Falcons. Ryan waits on the staff and the
Speaker 1: staggered stance. He'll take it backs up. Uplitzer coming and
Speaker 1: high power gets to the quarterback, follows most you can't
Speaker 1: Friot's sackings and recovering up the putty far helln Branch
Speaker 1: comes away with the football fours on a fumble by
Speaker 1: Crian off a sack by high Tower. By the way,
Speaker 1: this is our first of many calls from Bob Socy
Speaker 1: and Scott Zolac of w BZ is gonna go flying
Speaker 1: a little bit? Oh absolutely, he doesn't even know what's coming.
Speaker 1: But if that Legarrett Blunt fumble in the first half
Speaker 1: felt like the you know, turning point of doom for
Speaker 1: the Patriots. This was the absolute lost opportunity for the Falcons.
Speaker 1: You could have played it safe here, You could have
Speaker 1: gotten a field goal instead that you get this this this,
Speaker 1: this strip sack happens and you can feel the game turning.
Speaker 1: The stadium itself started to change, the Patriots fans getting
Speaker 1: back into this, and you started to wonder, this thing
Speaker 1: is changing entirely. That was the believe moment for Patriots,
Speaker 1: and they they allowed themselves to give themselves over to
Speaker 1: the Patriots at that point in the game. Dante Dante
Speaker 1: High Tower is gonna go down with Patriots fans as
Speaker 1: making you know, two of the biggest plays in Super
Speaker 1: Bowl history that will probably be overshadowed in Super Bowl history.
Speaker 1: He's the guy that winds up tackling Marshawn Lynch at
Speaker 1: the goal line to set up Malcolm Butler. And he's
Speaker 1: the guy who who forces this fumble from Matt Ryan
Speaker 1: and it might be the last, you know, big play
Speaker 1: he makes as a New England Patriot's gonna be a
Speaker 1: free agent like a lot of these guys, and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, nine key free agents for this team and
Speaker 1: and some of them are gonna get paid huge. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's what. There's a lot of Bellowship Check disciples
Speaker 1: running other front offices now, too, right, and they'll sign
Speaker 1: eight players out of Rutgers and go right back to
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl. So not little problems here. And what
Speaker 1: happens now you really start to see the strain that's
Speaker 1: being put on the Atlanta defense as they start to
Speaker 1: break because after that fumble, uh, they need just five
Speaker 1: plays to go twenty five yards. The Patriots do and
Speaker 1: just to twenty eight o'clock time. And now with five
Speaker 1: five fifty six remaining in the fourth quarter, Tom Brady
Speaker 1: drops back to pass, looking to pull the paths closer.
Speaker 1: Tom takes the step, backs up, looks left, throws it
Speaker 1: for us Pats. Pats will go for two five fifty
Speaker 1: six to go. Here on the fourth Brady realigns at
Speaker 1: him an in short motion strect step to James White.
Speaker 1: What's up the middle for two? Brady faking guess a
Speaker 1: high step, but the full directly fit to one. She's
Speaker 1: just way forward. It's a game. How long will we
Speaker 1: seen that play being used in the Patriots playbook that
Speaker 1: goes back to Kevin Falk and they use that in
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl? I believe was it a two point
Speaker 1: conversion in the Super Bowl back in the day. I
Speaker 1: can't remember at the top of my head. Either way,
Speaker 1: they they've they've been using. It was kind of cool
Speaker 1: for them to go back to that at that moment.
Speaker 1: Think about it again again when you think about what
Speaker 1: needed to happen for the Patriots to get this game
Speaker 1: to overtime. And by the way, Mark, yes, sir, congratulations,
Speaker 1: Chop Chop when at the all time go get my
Speaker 1: lunch prop victories. You predicted. You might have predicted this
Speaker 1: last year, but that doesn't matter. You predicted that the
Speaker 1: first overtime Super Bowl game would occur on February seventeen,
Speaker 1: and you nailed it. My friend. Let me tell you
Speaker 1: one thing that is disgraceful is that I that has
Speaker 1: got to be for me the most ugly and eat well. No.
Speaker 1: I also said the game would have no winner. But
Speaker 1: in terms of a realist bet calling over time that
Speaker 1: all I had were you two measly people in here.
Speaker 1: I'm only getting two sandwiches out of it. Well, I
Speaker 1: normally could have gotten probably Sydney on board with that
Speaker 1: if we were back in the studio. I mean, what
Speaker 1: a joke, A real victim of timing. You are, yes,
Speaker 1: I am, but you don't like sandwiches. So at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, well is more than that. Well,
Speaker 1: it's too bad because Mark and I are leaving the
Speaker 1: hotel somewhere around five six in the morning, about three
Speaker 1: three and a half hours from now, and when we
Speaker 1: get to the airport, breakfast sandwich, AHOI, Mark, whatever you like?
Speaker 1: A breakfast sandwich is about the last thing I want
Speaker 1: to put in my body right now. But thank you.
Speaker 1: It's not called go get my breakfast. That's right, that's
Speaker 1: not It's hard to have a high oct He was
Speaker 1: the one who said sandwich at the can I say
Speaker 1: one thing about the Falcons defense at this point because
Speaker 1: I was watching this game through binoculars, and all right,
Speaker 1: I know that sounded ridiculous, but I was at some
Speaker 1: point they were so listen to my binoculars wisdom, everybody listen.
Speaker 1: I'll just say this that at this point, watching them
Speaker 1: in between plays, they were all kind of in their
Speaker 1: position but not looking at each other really or communicating much.
Speaker 1: They I think they were frozen, and they had been.
Speaker 1: And then you start to realize we're playing the Patriots
Speaker 1: and they've been here a thousand times before and we
Speaker 1: have not. Vick Beasley said he thought, I don't know
Speaker 1: what this means. He said, he thought that, you know,
Speaker 1: Brady kind of figured out their game plan and just
Speaker 1: started getting rid of the ball quickly. I don't know
Speaker 1: what that means, because that's not necessarily true. There were
Speaker 1: some deep drops in that in that comeback, but whatever
Speaker 1: it was, they stopped geting getting pressure on them. So
Speaker 1: here we were. Now we're late in the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: Atlanta now holding on, but still in good position. I mean,
Speaker 1: all the those silly probability win charts are probably soaring
Speaker 1: still in the favor of the Falcons with an eight
Speaker 1: point lead, because not only do you have the ball
Speaker 1: with under three minutes to go, uh you even if
Speaker 1: you give you a touch give up a touchdown, and
Speaker 1: you could still get out of this with a win
Speaker 1: if you get to stop on the two point conversion.
Speaker 1: And this is what I thought to myself. All right,
Speaker 1: Matt Ryan, you just got named league m v P.
Speaker 1: Take your team on the field, matriculate, get a couple
Speaker 1: of first downs, and we all go home. You don't
Speaker 1: even you don't even have to go We don't have
Speaker 1: to go crazy here. Just get down the field and
Speaker 1: win this game. Don't let your defense have to get
Speaker 1: on the field in a situation where Tom Brady can
Speaker 1: tie the game. You can't let it happen. It starts
Speaker 1: off very well actually because on the first play the
Speaker 1: Patriots and West this was and they had an excellent
Speaker 1: fourth quarter in defense, but this was a bad coverage
Speaker 1: of US because Freeman gets all by himself in the
Speaker 1: flat uh and takes it thirty nine yards to midfield.
Speaker 1: And the first play of the game, and once again
Speaker 1: you start to feel you feel like, all right, this
Speaker 1: is the Falcons game. So even at this point after
Speaker 1: that play, you're feeling like this is probably at Lanta's day,
Speaker 1: still commanding Uh, DeVonta Freeman, like you said, wide open.
Speaker 1: It was among the most wide open players you'll see
Speaker 1: in the Super Bowl. Goes thirty nine yards and they're
Speaker 1: they're all ready back in scoring range in one play.
Speaker 1: And and this this was the point Logan Ryan Uh
Speaker 1: set it in the press conference after the game. He
Speaker 1: he said they were essentially playing the Madden coverage like
Speaker 1: when you're on punt block, that they're going all out.
Speaker 1: That that Logan Ryan's taking one guy, Malcolm Butler has
Speaker 1: taken another. They're dublin, you know, they're they're putting those
Speaker 1: guys on an island. They changed their coverage up. They
Speaker 1: went to Matt Patricia asked for them to change and
Speaker 1: they're trying to get aggressive. So it's kind of a
Speaker 1: boomer or bust strategy that they're playing at the end
Speaker 1: of the game. Uh. And obviously they stepped up with
Speaker 1: it alright. So then they have a short run for
Speaker 1: two yards and then again and this is another situation
Speaker 1: you added to the list. When it looks like the
Speaker 1: Falcons have made the play to win the Super Bowl
Speaker 1: and the Patriots will get close, but no closer, Matt
Speaker 1: Ryan drops back and drops a beautiful pass just over
Speaker 1: the outstrated stretched arms of a defender into the hands
Speaker 1: of Julio Julian Julio Jones. Guys, it's to the morning
Speaker 1: who toe taps on the sideline and seven yard game,
Speaker 1: which means it is now first in ten at the
Speaker 1: New England twenty two with four forty two play in
Speaker 1: an eight point lead. This game is all but over.
Speaker 1: About that, Julio Jones catch just pause a moment to
Speaker 1: appreciate that that's his Lynn Swan play that in the
Speaker 1: future when they put him in Canton, they're running that
Speaker 1: play over and over again. It's on all the top
Speaker 1: ten lists for catches, And at this point, I think
Speaker 1: Julio Jones has been an injury prone guy, but I
Speaker 1: think these playoffs playing through what he did and the
Speaker 1: performances he had, He's in the Hall of Fame now,
Speaker 1: barring some catastrophic injury. Well how about this, I'll just
Speaker 1: counter Julio Jones four eight seven in this game, targeted
Speaker 1: four times. And you could give the Patriots a lot
Speaker 1: of credit for finding ways to make Ryan met Ryan
Speaker 1: look off, but four targets in the Super Bowl, maybe
Speaker 1: they're double and then even triple teaming him in And
Speaker 1: think about how hard I can They only threw the
Speaker 1: ball so nobody could cover them. I can't think. I
Speaker 1: can't think of the fourth, fourth catch. But three of
Speaker 1: those catches were outrageous where he wasn't open at all,
Speaker 1: two of them on the sidelines, one where he rips
Speaker 1: the ball away from the defender early in the game.
Speaker 1: I mean, he deserved better. And you know when Logan
Speaker 1: Ryan said after the game, you know all the writers
Speaker 1: were deleting their their articles and everything. That was the
Speaker 1: lead of a lot of their articles was that play.
Speaker 1: That that was that was the play. It was like
Speaker 1: the It was the Julio Jones and Matt Ryan make
Speaker 1: make their their hay play. Translation, that was the lead
Speaker 1: of Greg's how dare you? How dare you? All right?
Speaker 1: And now and you know is going to keep stopped writing.
Speaker 1: Then that's how you know it's true. That's how you know. Again, Greg,
Speaker 1: that one hurt you, that pierced you a little bit,
Speaker 1: nothing's hurting me right now? All right, this is when
Speaker 1: the agg commences in full. Now, this is where they go.
Speaker 1: The Falcons go full choke mode and uh shout out
Speaker 1: look listen, Greg, I'm not saying this to be a jerk.
Speaker 1: It just we gotta keep it real here. This will
Speaker 1: go down in history because, like I said, first and
Speaker 1: ten at the two field goal, game over, and you
Speaker 1: have DeVante Freeman who was chewing up the Patriots early
Speaker 1: in the game. In my mind, uh and take this
Speaker 1: from somebody used to have a herm ed Words as
Speaker 1: a head coach. So maybe this is instilled in me
Speaker 1: a little bit. Get a little safe, run the ball
Speaker 1: three times, choose some clock, make the Patriots use time outs.
Speaker 1: Maybe you get a touchdown, maybe you get five yards,
Speaker 1: maybe get no yards, but you're still lining up one
Speaker 1: of the best kickers in the league this season for
Speaker 1: a very makeable under forty yard kick. But what happens?
Speaker 1: One run, negative one yard? Gate? How about Gate? How
Speaker 1: about gate by that plan game? Three yards on that
Speaker 1: first run, then maybe then you get a second don't
Speaker 1: lose the yard? Well, obviously I mean execution, execution, but
Speaker 1: now don't go away from the plan, I guess is
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. Uh, if you trust your your offensive
Speaker 1: line and your backfield, try it again. Instead, they dropped
Speaker 1: mac Ryan into shotgun and he makes the biggest mistake
Speaker 1: of his career. He takes a sack, losing twelve yards.
Speaker 1: Mr Flowers, Flowers you want to make Flowers today takes
Speaker 1: him down and all of a sudden, uh, where a
Speaker 1: situation third and twenty three at the New England thirty
Speaker 1: five And now you're thinking, WHOA, they really jacked this
Speaker 1: up because they're gonna put be in a position potentially
Speaker 1: where they have to decide whether they want Matt Ryan
Speaker 1: to attempt a fifty yard field goal depending on how
Speaker 1: this next play turns out, and ended up getting even worse.
Speaker 1: I have a hard time with the play. Cara called
Speaker 1: criticism here. I saw it everywhere, and it's completely hindsight.
Speaker 1: I don't think anybody was questioning them. Right after DeVonta
Speaker 1: Freeman was wide open for thirty nine yards, Julio Jones
Speaker 1: makes a great catch. They're humming. They've been doing this
Speaker 1: all year. I don't think anybody in the moment was saying,
Speaker 1: oh God, why are why aren't they running it? It
Speaker 1: wasn't until I got I was. I'm just saying, even
Speaker 1: before Ryan got sacked, you was. I was surprised he
Speaker 1: was in shotgun. After that, they weren't gaining They didn't
Speaker 1: run the ball ton down the stretch, but they weren't
Speaker 1: gaining yards when they did run it. That was. That
Speaker 1: was a play where they had a little time before
Speaker 1: the play. Trey Flowers basically put his hand up said
Speaker 1: I want to be the guy who goes on a stunt.
Speaker 1: They were gonna call a stunt Alan Branch. It's kind
Speaker 1: of been the story of this this team. They've had
Speaker 1: good interior defensive tackles. We talked about it on the
Speaker 1: show on Thursday. Branch occupies two guys, he gets through
Speaker 1: to me. It was just a great play and a
Speaker 1: mistake by Matt Ryan kind of running into it. Trey
Speaker 1: Flowers had five quarterback hits and two and a half sacks.
Speaker 1: I mean that's a that's a much better game than
Speaker 1: some guys who have won Super Bowl m v P,
Speaker 1: like Malcolm Smith. Trey Flowers was the best play. This
Speaker 1: guy played one game as a fourth round pick as
Speaker 1: a rookie. He was the best defensive player on a
Speaker 1: Super Bowl champion this week eight. I mean, yeah, he
Speaker 1: came on big time. That's a Michael Bennett game. Um
Speaker 1: so now it goes in bad. Let me set the
Speaker 1: table again here. So now it's three fifty uh to
Speaker 1: play in the fourth quarter. Uh. New England has just
Speaker 1: called the time out, so they have two time outs
Speaker 1: to play. And then disaster strikes again for the Falcons
Speaker 1: who are not executing when it matters most. Matt Ryan
Speaker 1: dropped that connects with most a new for a nine
Speaker 1: yard game. That puts him back at the twenty six
Speaker 1: and back into say field goal range. But no, Jake
Speaker 1: Matthews gets hit with the biggest holding call of his
Speaker 1: life ten yards uh enforced at the thirty five, and
Speaker 1: now it's a third and thirty three at the New
Speaker 1: England forty five with three forty four to play. So
Speaker 1: let's say it again. It went from first and ten
Speaker 1: at the New England twenty two in a situation where
Speaker 1: you play for a field goal and you win the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl, to third and thirty three at the forty five.
Speaker 1: And then Matt Ryan, who heading it late in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter, Mark had a perfect passer rating. Uh So
Speaker 1: that just gives you an idea how great he was
Speaker 1: despite not having a lot of snaps. He sales went
Speaker 1: out of bounds trying to get it to Gabriel and
Speaker 1: it's fourth and thirty three punt by Bosher and the
Speaker 1: Patriots take over deep in their own territory. I think
Speaker 1: it's fair to go back to what Greg just said
Speaker 1: a word he used execution, because a number of Patriots
Speaker 1: players used that same exact word after the game that
Speaker 1: they acknowledged that they weren't doing that in the first half,
Speaker 1: but they have so much experience doing that, and the
Speaker 1: Falcons started to crumble. You saw killer penalties, weird decision making.
Speaker 1: I'm with you on the play calling, Chris. They are
Speaker 1: who they are, and they they trust themselves, but they
Speaker 1: did not get these plays made at the most critical
Speaker 1: times tonight, and you saw the Patriots that this is
Speaker 1: just their Patriots are at home in this situation. I'm
Speaker 1: not saying the Falcons are prone to this, but they
Speaker 1: did give up a almost impossible lead that earlier in
Speaker 1: the season at home to San Diego, so there was
Speaker 1: some there was some history there, and then the Patriots
Speaker 1: logan I talked about, look we've come back. It reminded
Speaker 1: me a lot of went back twenty four and nothing
Speaker 1: against the Broncos. If nothing else, you have to believe
Speaker 1: the cliches of all the defensive players that that said,
Speaker 1: we believe the whole time we could still win because
Speaker 1: they played that well. I wrote a piece after that
Speaker 1: exact same thing that they all this stuff that the
Speaker 1: Patriots say year after year, and it's easily ripped on
Speaker 1: and people find it kind of ridiculous and mechanical and robotic,
Speaker 1: except that they buy into it. And here's the thing,
Speaker 1: it actually produces results. So there is something to be
Speaker 1: said for do your job and all this is because
Speaker 1: it happens. They really went into the locker room at
Speaker 1: halftime and believed that if they got back on track,
Speaker 1: they could win this thing. Every player downstairs said that
Speaker 1: after this game, I tweeted right before they got the
Speaker 1: ball back here, I thought you could feel the buzz
Speaker 1: and the stadium at this point that every Patriots fan
Speaker 1: knew Brady was gonna get it done if they could
Speaker 1: just get the ball back to them down one score,
Speaker 1: and what happens ten plays yards and along the way,
Speaker 1: Greg Rosenthal, one of the most famous plays in Patriots history,
Speaker 1: shot that staff to pretty stands and throws download for
Speaker 1: Adam Ball's chip time be for as all for in
Speaker 1: front of the receiver adamant has itt? Did he make
Speaker 1: the catch? Who got How do we describe that? Kevin
Speaker 1: patra that play ridiculous, stupid, shouldn't be happening by physics.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think what uh West called it the
Speaker 1: ankle catch, which I told him we need to come
Speaker 1: up with a better word for that because it can't
Speaker 1: be known as the ankle catch forever and ever. This
Speaker 1: sounds like he caught it with his ankles, but he
Speaker 1: caught it off somebody else's ankle. Like that's the screaming
Speaker 1: headline in any other game, like this game was so insane,
Speaker 1: it's gonna take a little while for it to set in.
Speaker 1: I think for for everyone that watches football, like that
Speaker 1: that play alone would have been the biggest story in
Speaker 1: any super I don't even think we wrote a story
Speaker 1: on that play, you know what I mean, because it
Speaker 1: was one of a million different things that happened. You
Speaker 1: said at the time, you knew it. You said, that's
Speaker 1: that's the Tyree curse thing. And you don't have to
Speaker 1: be a Patriots fan to evoke those two names. It's
Speaker 1: and it's the same thing that happened against um the
Speaker 1: Patriots with Malcolm Butler right before the big interception with
Speaker 1: Chris Matthews. Was it curse er excuse me, a similarly
Speaker 1: circus freak catch that got lost in the in the
Speaker 1: lost into the ether because how the game turned out
Speaker 1: this but the receivers were awesome, by the way, I mean,
Speaker 1: that was a little bit of a flute play, although
Speaker 1: great after play Edelman, Hogan, Mitchell, they came back to
Speaker 1: the ball and we're making really tough catches for Brady
Speaker 1: in the second executed insanely well. After the game, Matthew
Speaker 1: Slater went on a riff and he was very humble
Speaker 1: and thankful. I think he Belichick loves Matthew Slater, but
Speaker 1: he basically said that all week long they heard everyone
Speaker 1: talking about their receiving corps versus the Falcons at the
Speaker 1: page it's a sieming corps, just a bunch of Jags,
Speaker 1: he's you know, but they struggled in the first half.
Speaker 1: He said, Basically, the Jags got it done. I know
Speaker 1: you don't like to hear that day. No, it's like
Speaker 1: who they disrespecting the Patriots wide receivers. They have a
Speaker 1: nice group. Maybe they do it, maybe a job of
Speaker 1: putting that chip on their shoulder when it's not actually there.
Speaker 1: I think Mark's right that they took a lot from that,
Speaker 1: but I think it's completely manufactured. I was in Falcon's
Speaker 1: camp all week and they you could tell they legitimately
Speaker 1: respect the Patriots receivers. How about Danny Amendola only shows
Speaker 1: up for Super Bowls lately? This guy is like, well
Speaker 1: that's a nice uh. He's like the Scott Brocious of
Speaker 1: the Patriots. It's incredible. If you can get to the
Speaker 1: nineteenth game of the season or whatever, he will thrive
Speaker 1: for you. You know, the Yankees Patriots, you know, they
Speaker 1: share a lot of DNA greg whether you like it
Speaker 1: or not. They used to, they used to. Why not anymore?
Speaker 1: Let's get into some Yankees. Tal Yankees aren't the Cubs.
Speaker 1: Dan oh, I see, I got it? Um okay, So
Speaker 1: here we go. Now, this is when it's over, by
Speaker 1: the way, as as someone that was divorced from the proceedings,
Speaker 1: and the game's over at this point once that catches made,
Speaker 1: the magic is in the air, and you know the
Speaker 1: Patriots are gonna win the game. It's just a matter
Speaker 1: of time of it playing out. So what happens. I
Speaker 1: wish I knew that at the time, well, because you
Speaker 1: were emotionally like when you're on the roller coaster. But
Speaker 1: first and ten at the forty one, twenty yards to
Speaker 1: a Mandola two minute warning. And now it gets crazy
Speaker 1: because Atlanta used up their time outs. So it gets
Speaker 1: to the point where where you think, oh, the Patriots
Speaker 1: would be trying to fight the clock, uh to get
Speaker 1: into the end zone to tie the game. But now
Speaker 1: it's a situation where they they're smarter to kind of
Speaker 1: take their time so Atlanta doesn't have any time left
Speaker 1: if the Patriots manages tie the game, and that's exactly
Speaker 1: what happens. After the two minute warning, they get it
Speaker 1: to the Atlanta eight, they get it to the Atlanta one,
Speaker 1: and then James White. We've heard this name before and
Speaker 1: we're gonna hear it again. Uh punches it in, Brady,
Speaker 1: We'll move under setter White behind him, at him into
Speaker 1: the right, Betett to the right. Brady surveys the defense,
Speaker 1: Tom takes the step. He backs up, hands at the
Speaker 1: White hats as drying with them. Two. It's Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: It's amazing how this team is never ted. The dead
Speaker 1: may never die. James White, I'm so I want to
Speaker 1: apologize for anything bad I ever said about James White
Speaker 1: on this podcast. I did not believe it is really
Speaker 1: outrageous that James White lad the game in yards from
Speaker 1: scrimmage in one of the best Super Bowls of all
Speaker 1: time fourteen catches a hundred ten yards, and that they
Speaker 1: chose for him to be the guy in this game
Speaker 1: that surprised me. He scored three t d s and
Speaker 1: a two point conversion with the game on the line,
Speaker 1: and he had the game winning set a record for reception.
Speaker 1: But were we not halftime one dreams? Where is Dion Lewis?
Speaker 1: One of the most explosive players in the entire a
Speaker 1: f C barely used in this game. Well, Pats fans
Speaker 1: blame James White for them losing to the Broncos last
Speaker 1: year for a couple of drops that if they had
Speaker 1: a Louis they would have thought they would have won
Speaker 1: that game. And then here you are a year later. Well,
Speaker 1: if you want to be a Patriots homer, here he
Speaker 1: is a good example of their coaching staff, you know,
Speaker 1: coaching players up because he was really was not a
Speaker 1: good NFL player. I don't think he was. The tape
Speaker 1: showed that he wasn't a very good player, That's what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. And then he gets to his third year,
Speaker 1: he had a really good year. This year he was
Speaker 1: a different, different player. And then it all comes together
Speaker 1: in this spot. And again, none of this, this beautiful
Speaker 1: little comeback story matters if Atlantic could just find a
Speaker 1: way to get a stop on the two point conversion.
Speaker 1: And yet another failure, and this one was an other
Speaker 1: one that was in the stars because once you saw
Speaker 1: the Patriots wide uh it was empty backfield, and you
Speaker 1: saw I think it was Edelman and Avendola on the
Speaker 1: left side. They're gonna do that little thing where the
Speaker 1: guy in the slot like juts out and it always works.
Speaker 1: And what happens they run the play seven seconds to
Speaker 1: go a two for the tide, trips to the luck
Speaker 1: Brandy under shut it, Tom picks and stuff, quick throw
Speaker 1: to amadol screens, luft a flag is he reaches across
Speaker 1: the cold side for a score. There is a pen
Speaker 1: ofy marker on the plays. Its damn suns for everybody.
Speaker 1: What are you looking at that beetle? I can't believe
Speaker 1: it about him yelling at he is high fiving fellow
Speaker 1: broadcasting technicians in the booth, completely nude at this point.
Speaker 1: There are no clothes on Scott Zolak at this point.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, that play has never not worked in the
Speaker 1: history of the page. And they should just run that
Speaker 1: place seventy times a week. And yet you know you
Speaker 1: asked about peace scale earlier. That play was about my
Speaker 1: peak peace scale because they just well right, I just
Speaker 1: had I was worried that during the whole comeback that
Speaker 1: it would be this great thing all leading to them
Speaker 1: failing on a two point conversion. It would just be
Speaker 1: this wet fart the game AFC title game last year
Speaker 1: a similar score, I believe too. Or they almost came
Speaker 1: back but couldn't get the two point conversion, and you
Speaker 1: know they got pressure on Brady and that play in
Speaker 1: Denver to win the AFC title, and that was something
Speaker 1: they were so gassed at this point in Atlanta that
Speaker 1: Brady was back to being what he had been for
Speaker 1: a lot of the season all day in the pocket,
Speaker 1: completely comfortable and just picking apart the secondary. I think
Speaker 1: at that point we looked at each other, or maybe
Speaker 1: it was even before then, and we said, he's in
Speaker 1: the zone, he's dialing in, and he is a cool
Speaker 1: blooded assassin. Yeah. That those were your exact words that.
Speaker 1: A couple of drives before that, you said that when
Speaker 1: on his touchdown drives and now and now the Falcons
Speaker 1: just need to be put down at this point because
Speaker 1: you know they still have second to play. They don't
Speaker 1: have any time outs. Uh, but something you would think
Speaker 1: an offense that we've been putting in the in the
Speaker 1: class of the all time greats, they can do something
Speaker 1: with fifty four seconds. Great offenses have done uh more
Speaker 1: with less time than that. To be quite honest with you,
Speaker 1: they've done it with that right season long. They've scored.
Speaker 1: Matt Ryan got his nickname from doing this about three
Speaker 1: times his rookie year, getting the ball with about a
Speaker 1: minute laft and setting up a field goal, and he
Speaker 1: did it against the Packers right earlier this year. I
Speaker 1: think he did it a few times, you're right, did
Speaker 1: against the Seahawks in the playoffs a couple of years ago.
Speaker 1: But they don't get help on special teams because Eric
Speaker 1: weims he might have been at the pub, I think, uh,
Speaker 1: watching Gaga because he he catches the ball near the
Speaker 1: goal line, and again maybe he was kind of close
Speaker 1: where he couldn't tell if he could kneel on it.
Speaker 1: He kind of stumbles towards the sideline, goes out abound
Speaker 1: at the eleven. So now they have terrible field possession
Speaker 1: position and they lost five seconds of clock time. And
Speaker 1: then Ryan again cannot move the offense. He gets a
Speaker 1: twelve yard games so new that a four yard game
Speaker 1: to Austin Hopper that kills them because the clock ticks
Speaker 1: on them and they spiked the ball. And then a
Speaker 1: incomplete deepass again to Hooper with flowers and coverage. It
Speaker 1: was ruled incomplete even though it was nearly an interception.
Speaker 1: And then a punt which sends us to overtime mark
Speaker 1: which then that's when you were flying high because you
Speaker 1: just made some Sangwiches. Well, you talked about your mentions.
Speaker 1: I haven't even gotten to mind. And I appreciate it's
Speaker 1: you know, uh, podcast listeners and zero point zero point
Speaker 1: one percent very confused other people, but they I, you know,
Speaker 1: this very unlikely thing happened in in my Twitter feed
Speaker 1: just exploded. We were so overdue. We went fifty straight
Speaker 1: Super Bowls without a single overtime game. This is the
Speaker 1: season where I believe there were three straight Sunday night
Speaker 1: overtime games. It was gonna happen, and it happened and
Speaker 1: made Mark some Sangwiches. You want to kill the Falcons coaches,
Speaker 1: in hindsight, kill them for not having any time outs there.
Speaker 1: That is a killer. I mean, I'd have to go back.
Speaker 1: I need to go back. This is where the blur
Speaker 1: of the moment and look at why all those time
Speaker 1: outs happened. But the Patriots had all three, which is
Speaker 1: one reason why, uh they I don't think milk the
Speaker 1: clock at the very end, because they could have maybe
Speaker 1: even gotten the ball back even if they didn't get
Speaker 1: the two point conversion, and the Falcons had none of it.
Speaker 1: And at that point, I think the fact that at
Speaker 1: that point, I think the game, like you said, almost
Speaker 1: was over because if it got to overtime. I think
Speaker 1: the Patriots defense, if they lose the coin toss, they're
Speaker 1: flying at that point, Logan Ryan Logan, Ryan said that
Speaker 1: they weren't. I said, well, you know, what were you feeling?
Speaker 1: Then he said, we were looking for our Malcolm Malcolm
Speaker 1: Butler moment. We wanted to pick him off and win
Speaker 1: the game on our own. That's what that's what we're thinking.
Speaker 1: So now you need a little luck. If you're the Falcons,
Speaker 1: maybe maybe win the coin toss, and somehow you write things,
Speaker 1: because what if you get If you get a uh,
Speaker 1: lose the coin toss, you know the defense is cooked.
Speaker 1: They've they've you don't even you can't even really get
Speaker 1: on them because they've been on the field for so much.
Speaker 1: What happens the Pats win the toss. Of course, they
Speaker 1: take the ball. I shouldn't say, of course, because last
Speaker 1: year they won the toss in overtime against the Jets
Speaker 1: and elected to kick off story for a different would
Speaker 1: of course, with a coin toss, it's very much a
Speaker 1: thing of chance. They went one for two tonight. So
Speaker 1: they take the ball, and what happens let's go home,
Speaker 1: guess eight place, seventy five yards. And it was never
Speaker 1: even in doubt. I'm looking at this. They never even
Speaker 1: got to third down. I would think about that. They
Speaker 1: go right down the field, they go six yards, fourteen yards,
Speaker 1: eighteen yards, They get a three yard loss on a
Speaker 1: screen fifteen yards, ten yards a p I call? Was
Speaker 1: that a good call? I didn't. I was kind of
Speaker 1: checking out emotionally. Okay, it was fine, Mark, Yeah, it
Speaker 1: certainly was not. No, it wasn't when they when I
Speaker 1: saw that call, because that's almost like ends the Super
Speaker 1: Bowl type of call. I was really hoping it was.
Speaker 1: It was a good call. It was a fine call.
Speaker 1: It wasn't. It could have been a no call, but
Speaker 1: it was a good call. And now it's just a
Speaker 1: matter of time. First and goal of the two. It
Speaker 1: gets a little dicey because Brady drops back to pass
Speaker 1: targets Martell's Martel's Bennett Vic Beasley gets his hand on
Speaker 1: the ball, unable to make an interception, but stops it.
Speaker 1: They give it to James White on second and goal
Speaker 1: from the two, and oh my god, the Patriots cap
Speaker 1: an amazing comeback second and goal to go from the two.
Speaker 1: Toss me White for James. White cuts it up in
Speaker 1: the red art, cuts it up fields driving forward, not
Speaker 1: a title. They have completed the greatest comeback in Super
Speaker 1: Bowl history? What by the greatest quarterback? Look at city
Speaker 1: in Super Bowl and NFL Adam James and a silver trophy.
Speaker 1: It's coming back to New England. Zo like at that
Speaker 1: point jumped out of the press box onto the field.
Speaker 1: You just swan dived onto the field. Uh, Sydney, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna you know it pains me, but let's put that
Speaker 1: into the discussion for the top ten calls of the year.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm not trying to be mean, and
Speaker 1: I swear to guy, I'm not trying to rub it in.
Speaker 1: But it was a historic play in Super Bowl history.
Speaker 1: Do you want to hear the Falcons call? Yeah? From West.
Speaker 1: I want to hear Joe Buck too, but I guess
Speaker 1: I'll wait till I get it home to get Joe's
Speaker 1: gotten better. He's had a nice bounce back. But do
Speaker 1: we need to hear Joe? I mean not right now?
Speaker 1: All right, we don't have anyway. Wester Durham and Dave
Speaker 1: Archer of w z g C. I've it I'll wait
Speaker 1: to go. In the first overtime, they'll toss it the
Speaker 1: white left all right side white, He'll cut back and
Speaker 1: he will get in touchdown. New England. The Patriots storm
Speaker 1: the field and James, why there's one the Super Bowl
Speaker 1: for New England that hurts um. Let's maybe a final
Speaker 1: takeaway from everyone, and mine will be this because it
Speaker 1: it dovetails off the sadness. Uh there that you heard
Speaker 1: in west Durham's voice. We didn't he even hear Dave Archer. Yeah,
Speaker 1: maybe he just passed out by that point. Uh, but
Speaker 1: this there is a new sheriff in town. It's a
Speaker 1: sad sheriff to be, but the most tortured sports city
Speaker 1: in America now with the Cubs winning a title, with
Speaker 1: Lebron bringing the Calves a title, it is Atlanta and
Speaker 1: I don't I don't think it's close. A hundred and
Speaker 1: seventy nine years. We talked about this on Thursday Show,
Speaker 1: A hundred and seventy nine seasons. I should say just
Speaker 1: one title, that being the Braves. And and now you
Speaker 1: have this where you came so close to winning a
Speaker 1: Super Bowl, where you're up three against an all time
Speaker 1: historic team in the in this Patriots with Brady and Belichick,
Speaker 1: and you have the biggest collapse in NFL history. So
Speaker 1: that is now the cherry on top of what is
Speaker 1: always been a kind of under the radar. They are
Speaker 1: to me the new tortured sports city. And I feel
Speaker 1: terribly for the Falcons fans because they were outnumbered heavily
Speaker 1: uh in Houston this week. But like we said, um,
Speaker 1: we had a doomed trip that we took to uh
Speaker 1: Papa Charlie's Barbecue UM in downtown Houston, where we we
Speaker 1: walked about fifteen minutes a group of a bunch of
Speaker 1: us and only to see that they were sold out
Speaker 1: of meat. I didn't know that happened, but it's Super
Speaker 1: Bowl week and we stubbled upon this little section of
Speaker 1: Houston that labeled itself Falcons Fan Headquarters. And they were
Speaker 1: having such a fun time on Saturday night. Uh. They
Speaker 1: were excited, they're happy, boisterous, and they were outnumbered in
Speaker 1: that stadium. But that stadium was allowed. And that's who
Speaker 1: I thought of, uh when when this game got away
Speaker 1: and and how the crush those fans must have been
Speaker 1: because this is to me the worst loss in NFL history. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I will never forget what you and Kevin and
Speaker 1: I saw down outside of the Falcons locker room, where
Speaker 1: owner our Arthur Blank was with family and just hugging
Speaker 1: what I believe was his grandson and the child was crying,
Speaker 1: but Arthur Blank just raw emotion because I I just
Speaker 1: think how close they came, and you, you rode the
Speaker 1: wave with the fans in the stands. My takeaway though,
Speaker 1: is that two years ago when the Patriots won and
Speaker 1: Greg I was standing next to you, and you you
Speaker 1: earnestly called it maybe just anything here on out his
Speaker 1: house money, and it was thought, maybe, you know, the
Speaker 1: Patriots may never get to do this again. My question
Speaker 1: now is not, hey, is this the last one? But
Speaker 1: why not two or three more of them? I'm not
Speaker 1: kidding because this was the last one. It is not.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you there's no reason to put these book
Speaker 1: ends on the Patriots this point. You've got the best
Speaker 1: quarterback in football who just at his age, shattered record
Speaker 1: book records. He shattered you passing yardage and played as
Speaker 1: well as he ever has. So I don't see any reason.
Speaker 1: I don't care what's happening with free agency. I don't
Speaker 1: care about any of that, there's no reason to think
Speaker 1: they can't be right back here again next year. There's
Speaker 1: no team to put above them right now. He just
Speaker 1: entered his prime. So that's the only thing I got,
Speaker 1: And I was getting a lot of a lot of
Speaker 1: tweets like, oh Dan, make sure Dan is gonna be dying.
Speaker 1: I I like Brady. I really do like Tom Brady.
Speaker 1: Like I feel like it's been like an honor being
Speaker 1: able to be at like these type of games, this one,
Speaker 1: the Seattle game. Um, I wasn't dying when that game ended.
Speaker 1: It was cool. I was happy because like my father,
Speaker 1: my brother in law were at the game, they got
Speaker 1: to see another classic game that was That was pretty cool.
Speaker 1: I mean, the only thing I got is that time
Speaker 1: keeps ticking. But what I learned and what I wasn't
Speaker 1: the only one that learned, is that Brady now is
Speaker 1: operating on his own time clock entirely. So I don't
Speaker 1: know how much it goes on from here, but yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, Mark, you're right in the sense that there's
Speaker 1: no reason to think Peyton Manning fall off the cliff
Speaker 1: is gonna happen. They can keep on reloading as long
Speaker 1: as they have that coach in that quarterback. My takeaway,
Speaker 1: let's stay with Brady. And you know, Aaron Rodgers is
Speaker 1: more talented, Brett Farve was more fun to watch. But
Speaker 1: Tom Brady, like these last two Super bowls of his
Speaker 1: in the last three years are to me like the
Speaker 1: last three years of the Jordan era with the Bulls
Speaker 1: where he came back and it's almost like a separate
Speaker 1: a separate career, and it's Michael Jordan with the game
Speaker 1: on the line two times in the last three Super
Speaker 1: Bowls of the building had an utmost, most, utmost confidence
Speaker 1: that Tom Brady was just gonna come through and carry
Speaker 1: the Patriots to victory. And I think this has cemented
Speaker 1: him as one of my favorite football players to watch. Well,
Speaker 1: this this era, Brady was better, I really think so.
Speaker 1: And the fact that he's a multiple champion now in
Speaker 1: this area eric kind of cements it. I mean, the
Speaker 1: gronk Arab Brady to me is is what's the greatest
Speaker 1: of all time? It's not the it's not the two
Speaker 1: thousand one to two thousand six six eraout the two
Speaker 1: thousand seven that was pretty good. Was that guy better
Speaker 1: than this guy? Well, I guess it's you're talking about
Speaker 1: this guy better. That guy was thrown to one of
Speaker 1: the greatest wide receivers in the NFL history, who made
Speaker 1: every quarterback better. Yeah, the fact that Gronk wasn't even
Speaker 1: playing in this game or even close to this playoff run,
Speaker 1: you have to add that to Brady's resume. Patrick, your
Speaker 1: your final thought, Well, I'll go with the Falcons, and
Speaker 1: just if it wasn't for Brady, we'll be talking right
Speaker 1: now about how great that young defense played today. We
Speaker 1: talked about Dion Jones, Grady Jarrett, h Kian O'Neil, and
Speaker 1: I think they have the base to come back. I
Speaker 1: was in that locker room and it was a sad moment,
Speaker 1: but it was a kind of a resolved moment. They
Speaker 1: answered all the questions without being dick. Nobody asked me
Speaker 1: how big my penis was. Well, that's good. You're right
Speaker 1: up right off the bat, you're well Patris, the rare
Speaker 1: guy who it was like hoping they did. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: start taking stripping off his clothes. Yeah, he's just ready.
Speaker 1: He's ready. I think I think with a few more
Speaker 1: pieces to this defense, I think that Falcons defense it's
Speaker 1: already athletic. It's already fast. I mean, you get a
Speaker 1: couple of pass rushers in there, it doesn't it doesn't
Speaker 1: have to go away. I see where you're going with that, Patra.
Speaker 1: And there's no reason to think that that these guys
Speaker 1: will all be so scarred emotionally that they'll never get
Speaker 1: close to the summit again. But I'll also say it's
Speaker 1: not unheard of in in sports, just not just football,
Speaker 1: that these type of losses can linger with a franchise.
Speaker 1: And I wouldn't be stunned if it had some type
Speaker 1: of effect long term on them. It was that bad
Speaker 1: a loss. To me, I would worry much more about
Speaker 1: losing Kyle Shanahan's mind than losing this game. I think
Speaker 1: bat Ryan has to prove he can play an m
Speaker 1: v P level without Kyle Shanahan, who, to my in
Speaker 1: my mind, is the best schemer and play caller in
Speaker 1: the NFL. Alright, boys. By the way, in the locker
Speaker 1: room after the game, I got some footage which you
Speaker 1: could check out on NFL dot com. Somebody stole Tom
Speaker 1: Brady's jersey, uh and Trump maybe they stole his jersey.
Speaker 1: I don't know who it is. If you are a listener, uh,
Speaker 1: the around the NFL jersey. Send the jersey. Uh, you
Speaker 1: don't have to label it where you're coming from, but
Speaker 1: send it to me and I will make sure it
Speaker 1: gets back to Tom personally. Wait a minute, back the
Speaker 1: truck up. You have exclusive footage of Tom Brady's jersey
Speaker 1: being stolen. Now you've put up a ruse for some
Speaker 1: listener unlabeled is gonna send you said jersey? I wonder
Speaker 1: who might have that jersey right now? Is he in
Speaker 1: the words that would be? That would be all time? Heils, No,
Speaker 1: I don't have footage of the jersey being stolen. I
Speaker 1: have footage. Interesting, that's why he's in such a good mood.
Speaker 1: Who's good you? I love good football. I love the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl. I love that we got to cover another one,
Speaker 1: our our our fourth together, six for market. You know
Speaker 1: what'll put you in even better first time? Yes, Mart,
Speaker 1: Greg me making my last point. Now, I think Greg
Speaker 1: was adding on to West's Poe. That was a conversation.
Speaker 1: You've got this is your night, but this will be quick.
Speaker 1: I'll try to be quick. It's a few things, but
Speaker 1: I'll still make him quick. Here we got a quick one.
Speaker 1: Let's not forget that last the game winning touchdown should
Speaker 1: not be overlooked. The guy got tackled at the two
Speaker 1: yard line and he ran through it like that is
Speaker 1: an all time Super Bowl play that's almost almost getting
Speaker 1: over like too quick. The Patriots. For as much as
Speaker 1: everyone kind of hates you know, a lot of people
Speaker 1: around the country hates the page, the quality of these
Speaker 1: bonkers games that they provide in the Super Bowl has
Speaker 1: been awesome for the sport and then providing someone for
Speaker 1: for everyone to hate. But I don't know what it
Speaker 1: is because it's not like they do this in the
Speaker 1: regular season. The super bowls they're in are are insane.
Speaker 1: Like six of the seven Super Bowls there have been
Speaker 1: in have been absolutely insane endings where by the end
Speaker 1: of the game someone wrote the column, this is the
Speaker 1: best super Bowl of all time. That has happened six
Speaker 1: times the Patriots are in the Super Bowl. This qualifies
Speaker 1: as a blowout for the Patriots. The six point margin
Speaker 1: of victory is the largest ever. Everything else has been
Speaker 1: four or less. And then finally, I just they kind
Speaker 1: of last. They came in as underdogs, like they're the
Speaker 1: way Brady and belich I kind of came on the scene.
Speaker 1: Especially Brady. It was it was as big an underdog
Speaker 1: story as possible. And there's no way the Patriots can
Speaker 1: kind of be underdogs anymore because they're the Patriots. But
Speaker 1: coming back from twenty eight to three, that is about
Speaker 1: as no one believed in us as you can ever get.
Speaker 1: That's that's as much of an underdog, if nothing else,
Speaker 1: improbable sort of story that you can ever get a
Speaker 1: little bit, a little bit like how they started that.
Speaker 1: This guy Tom Brady, I think when we think of him,
Speaker 1: he's going to be for doing the the improbable. This
Speaker 1: was the last look you had of him, and this
Speaker 1: at this stage, you know, so it was a special
Speaker 1: I wouldn't complain. I mean, it's it's been enough alright. Alright, boys,
Speaker 1: I think it's almost three o'clock here, uh in in Texas,
Speaker 1: and we all have to get back to California. Patrick,
Speaker 1: You've got to get back to your Jim in Chicago.
Speaker 1: Thank you for your help this weekend, and also you're
Speaker 1: helping the studio today. Really good to see you, buddy.
Speaker 1: Um But that's it, guys, great season, another one of
Speaker 1: the books. Where are you going next, Wes Whaler? Tomorrow
Speaker 1: afternoon I may be joining you. I'm running out of
Speaker 1: options here. I may be right there with you. All right,
Speaker 1: we gotta get out here. It's time to go back
Speaker 1: to l A. But thank you to everyone for listening,
Speaker 1: anybody that's stayed up late to listen to anybody's listens.
Speaker 1: Tomorrow or next week or the week after that, we
Speaker 1: love you. We'll be back on Thursday with our next
Speaker 1: all new shows, so thank you, and until then, this
Speaker 1: is Dan Hanzas signing up for The Quiet Storm, The Mailman,
Speaker 1: Kevin Patrick coming at You, the Boss, and New Money
Speaker 1: Behind the Glass The Thursday m