Speaker 1: All right, we're getting close to the big showdown in Miami,
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl. Listen. If you are a Titans fan,
Speaker 1: if you are a Texans fan, if you are a
Speaker 1: Vikings fan, if you are someone who just watched the
Speaker 1: Seahawks beat the Eagles, then you need to get your
Speaker 1: butt down to Miami to watch our live show. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be the Thursday before the Super Bowl. Tickets going quick.
Speaker 1: All the information on their website. What is it, Dan,
Speaker 1: Miami improv dot com, slash Events, get it done. Who
Speaker 1: are you if you don't go to this thing? Nobody
Speaker 1: be Around the NFL Podcast. Ha ha, this is the
Speaker 1: podcast right here. Welcome to another edition of the Around
Speaker 1: the NFL Podcast. My name is Dan Hansas, coming to
Speaker 1: you from a room filled with heroes, Mark Sessler, Chris Westling,
Speaker 1: and Greg Rosenital What is up? Boys? Hey? Dan? Hey?
Speaker 1: Wild Card weekend in the books, and it was one
Speaker 1: for the books and that's today show. I'll see you
Speaker 1: seal it. And it was wild. It was wild until
Speaker 1: that last game, not really that wild. Wild is kind
Speaker 1: of sleepy. That one felt fourteen hours long to me.
Speaker 1: The other three magnificent. However, that game was a one
Speaker 1: possession game at the end. Yeah, as was every other
Speaker 1: game ended within a possession and two overtime games. And
Speaker 1: I think the greatest I call it a West of
Speaker 1: His miracle is what I call it. You got to
Speaker 1: me the best West of This game of all time,
Speaker 1: which you're gonna get too later. Well, I felt like
Speaker 1: the the fourth quarter and overtime version of Josh Allen
Speaker 1: was basically the entire Steelers Bengals game from a while ago,
Speaker 1: like the the complete insanity and unpredictable nature of whatever
Speaker 1: Josh Allen was going to do next. So to me,
Speaker 1: it's between those two games he felt the spirit of
Speaker 1: West of This and I you know, I thought about
Speaker 1: it the night before West of the West of This
Speaker 1: seve when you know we're all putting our kids to bed,
Speaker 1: and you know everyone's got dreams of West of This
Speaker 1: in their head. The only way that Bill O'Brien and
Speaker 1: the Texans could escape West of This is to win
Speaker 1: that game. And maybe Josh Allen doesn't. He just feel
Speaker 1: kind of like a guy that could be the face
Speaker 1: of West of Us. It's a lot of first round
Speaker 1: that's that's a grim prognostication for Bills fans. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think he'd be fortunate to be playing multiple playoff games.
Speaker 1: But that's just feeling after what happened this weekend. Um, yes,
Speaker 1: we're gonna get to all of the football and UM,
Speaker 1: by the way, thank you to everybody who reached out
Speaker 1: to us are around the NFL broadcast premiered on NFL
Speaker 1: Network on Friday. We were really happy with how it
Speaker 1: turned out, and everyone from fans too. Inside this building,
Speaker 1: two reporters that we work with, two colleagues outside. We
Speaker 1: got a lot of positive feedback and also just people
Speaker 1: wishing us well and that felt good. That was nice.
Speaker 1: Also hearing that it was the highest rated half an
Speaker 1: hour of programming in NFL Network history. Yeah, the three
Speaker 1: am verse should have been. There was like a lot
Speaker 1: of re plays and the three Am version they just
Speaker 1: said was monster. We're confused with college kids Stone late
Speaker 1: at night where basically Dave Letterman two level like impact
Speaker 1: on the youth. Alright, so thank you and everybody. In
Speaker 1: another show coming up Friday, six pm Eastern, three pm Pacific,
Speaker 1: breaking that divisional round. But before that, we gotta finish
Speaker 1: up wild Card and let's start. Let's go. Let's basically
Speaker 1: go backwards. In time, starting with a game that just ended.
Speaker 1: Let us head to the link more. Now is wide
Speaker 1: to the right side with a slot left for Russell.
Speaker 1: Those under center, now lock up those in motion. Russell
Speaker 1: play fake. Now he's gonna throw down the middle. Got
Speaker 1: a man. Calf makes a catch diving He is in
Speaker 1: for a touchdown. Shaws. What a play by a rookie
Speaker 1: t came midcaf gets in behind the secondary, takes a
Speaker 1: diving catch, hits the ground, gets back up him, then
Speaker 1: drags the defender to the end zone fifty three yards.
Speaker 1: What a play by number fourteen. Simply spectacular. This young
Speaker 1: man DK could he could go down as one of
Speaker 1: those all time draft misses going in the second round
Speaker 1: where everybody Peggham in the first Seahawks get him because
Speaker 1: good organizations make smart You know what the Eagles did.
Speaker 1: They drafted Jay y'all seven spots ahead of d K
Speaker 1: man Steve Rabel with the call for the Seahawks radio network, Yes,
Speaker 1: Russell and Will Russell Wilson threw a dart. DK Metcalf
Speaker 1: used every inch of that big frame, got it, rolled
Speaker 1: to the ground, got up, went into the end zone,
Speaker 1: and that made another huge catch to basically seal the
Speaker 1: win for the Eagles late in the fourth quarter, seventeen
Speaker 1: nine for the Seahawks, seventeen nine over the Eagles at
Speaker 1: the link, Seattle's defense piled up seven sacks on Josh
Speaker 1: McCown and Carson Wentz, who exited this game for good early.
Speaker 1: Uh in the game in the first quarter after a
Speaker 1: helmet at helmet hit by Jadeveon Clowney, nope dualty called
Speaker 1: mark the banged up Seahawks go on the road. They
Speaker 1: get it done. I felt like it DK Metcalf was
Speaker 1: so important because both offenses and the reason we called
Speaker 1: the game a little sleepy compared to the other three,
Speaker 1: just so sluggish in in both attacks, and they were
Speaker 1: just begging for someone to step up and play the
Speaker 1: star role. In Metcalf tame into full bloom. I think
Speaker 1: probably a vast majority of casual fans have no idea
Speaker 1: who this guy was, and you roll in and now
Speaker 1: he's a household name and he completely got it done.
Speaker 1: And you know, there my one thought after afterwards watching
Speaker 1: Josh McCown, uh, the only only the second forty plus
Speaker 1: year old quarterback to debut in the playoffs at forty plus,
Speaker 1: I mean, Sonny Jorgenson was the other you know, tears
Speaker 1: down his face at the end of this because who
Speaker 1: knows his career is essentially probably wrapped at this point,
Speaker 1: came very close. I thought he played. He played about
Speaker 1: as well as you could ask someone whose body is
Speaker 1: essentially um begging to break down at this point in
Speaker 1: freezing weather, and you know, he got hit a bunch,
Speaker 1: barely survived. At one point it looks like he pulled
Speaker 1: his butt. I don't know what happened, just was clutching
Speaker 1: for one seventy four though, like it really wasn't an
Speaker 1: embarrassing performance just once they got inside the fifteen yard lining,
Speaker 1: Well there was, But it's do you feel worse for
Speaker 1: him or Carson Wentz who had just I don't know
Speaker 1: the ghosts and the history of his his his run
Speaker 1: in January is just problematic. Let's we'll get to wins
Speaker 1: in a second, just since we're on the top of
Speaker 1: McNown because I think Chris Collinsworth uh, calling the game
Speaker 1: for NBC, made the point right before they went off
Speaker 1: the air that that fourth and seven right at the
Speaker 1: two minute warning there at the Seattle ten, they're down eight.
Speaker 1: But first of all, it felt like there was eighty
Speaker 1: yards between them and the goal line. It just didn't
Speaker 1: feel like they had that special moment with in them
Speaker 1: with accounted behind center, but the there's nobody open, A
Speaker 1: hole opens up in the offensive line. Josh McCown season
Speaker 1: and instinctually darts, but he's a guide with a some
Speaker 1: type of glute or hamstring injury. He's forty plus years old,
Speaker 1: and what he thought was an open path the end
Speaker 1: zone is immediately jadeveon Clowney grabbing him by the ankles
Speaker 1: of taking him down, and the game was effectively over
Speaker 1: at that point, and then the big completion to Metcalf
Speaker 1: sealed the game. But that's the limitations when you have
Speaker 1: h McCown and not Nick Foles and not Carson Wentz
Speaker 1: behind center. I thought that was one of the big
Speaker 1: themes from Wild Card weekend. Old quarterbacks in quicksand versus pressure,
Speaker 1: they're sort of doubly cursed because they hesitate to split
Speaker 1: second when they no longer no longer believe they can
Speaker 1: make the throw, and the hesitation ends up killing them
Speaker 1: when they have to escape pressure and they no longer
Speaker 1: have the agility to get there. It's funny because I mean,
Speaker 1: I remember McCown the early part of his career well
Speaker 1: in Arizona, was a lot of fun to watch. That
Speaker 1: was his problem back then, too, was leaving the pocket
Speaker 1: immediately to try to go make a play. But he
Speaker 1: had the sort of you know, extraordinary athleticism. Sometimes he
Speaker 1: pulled off, sometimes he didn't. But he was a lot
Speaker 1: of fun to watch. You know. He had the same
Speaker 1: rag tag unit around him that Carson Wentz did. And
Speaker 1: I don't think it should be lost that. I think
Speaker 1: there were six passing plays with Carson Wentz in the
Speaker 1: game and they gained two yards. And now that's a
Speaker 1: it's a tiny sample side, but Carson Wentz and this
Speaker 1: Eagles often scored nine points. The last time they played
Speaker 1: the Seahawks. They were a rough looking offense, uh for
Speaker 1: the last stretch until they played some of these cupcakes
Speaker 1: in the NFC East. It's just it's such a shame
Speaker 1: in a season where so many people went down and
Speaker 1: you never really got to know what this Eagles team
Speaker 1: would be that we didn't even get to see Wentz
Speaker 1: try to win this game, because who knows. It's not
Speaker 1: like Seattle's offense was rolling in this game and it
Speaker 1: would it would have been fun to see Carson Wentz
Speaker 1: at least give it a shot. And it's just a shame.
Speaker 1: It feels so bad for Wentz, absolutely, and it's just
Speaker 1: unbelievable because he he had worked so hard to get
Speaker 1: back to this stage after the injuries of the past
Speaker 1: two years and then to do what he did in
Speaker 1: December finally get there and then on a suspect hit, Mark,
Speaker 1: you and I were talking about a lot downstairs where
Speaker 1: Clowney essentially dives at Wentz as he's going down and
Speaker 1: it's a helmet to helmet shot. The lights get turned
Speaker 1: out on the season for him. Yeah, it's hard to
Speaker 1: diagnose what's going through defenders minds on these replays, but
Speaker 1: it looked to me that Clowney angled his head to,
Speaker 1: you know, use it in a way that the league
Speaker 1: does not want you to do. There was no flag
Speaker 1: on the playoff thought that was that was suspicious and
Speaker 1: it completely changed the game. And you're looking at an
Speaker 1: Eagles team that mind their way down to the eight
Speaker 1: yard line at one point, the twenty yard line and
Speaker 1: the ten and to your point, Dan, it felt like
Speaker 1: eighty yards versus eight, and it came up with six points.
Speaker 1: I mean, they came. So this has to be an
Speaker 1: extremely frustrating, frustrating result for Eagles chance because even with
Speaker 1: McCown in there, you had a chance. Although on some level,
Speaker 1: I think if you're an Eagles fan or you're on
Speaker 1: that team, you look at this season and you think,
Speaker 1: what more could we have done? It just wasn't gonna
Speaker 1: happen for us. The the luck which is so important,
Speaker 1: and you know, maybe they um they made their own
Speaker 1: luck a couple of years ago, but there's only so
Speaker 1: much that that you can do. The Clowney play, I
Speaker 1: think it will be the moment of this weekend that
Speaker 1: the NFL is most embarrassed about, not the Kyle Rudolph play,
Speaker 1: which I think ultimate lee. You know, we'll get to
Speaker 1: and they'll say that's how they want to officiate past interference.
Speaker 1: The Clowney one is one they will apologize for. I
Speaker 1: mean I fully expect it. They will find Jadevan Clowney.
Speaker 1: They will say they missed that call. It is was
Speaker 1: an obvious misscall. I mean, it's obvious He's gonna be
Speaker 1: pain for that. That's the exact reason the rules in place,
Speaker 1: and it's unfortunate for once and it's unfortunate for the
Speaker 1: Eagles too that they didn't get a fifteen yard penalty
Speaker 1: out of it. Hats off to the Eagles for making
Speaker 1: it this far, but they weren't going any further regardless.
Speaker 1: They were playing with a preseason roster out there that
Speaker 1: You've got Josh mccowm handing off to Boston Scott throwing
Speaker 1: passes to Deonte Burnett, Greg Ward and Robert Davis. We're
Speaker 1: all in practice squads in October. Shelton Gibson, the defense,
Speaker 1: you know, showed up and Fletcher Cox had one of
Speaker 1: the best games of his career, I thought, and they
Speaker 1: did a good job controlling Seattle. But there are injuries
Speaker 1: in the secondary showed up too. I mean, Jalen Mills
Speaker 1: had a terrible game. Avante Maddox had a terrible game.
Speaker 1: Cavan LeBlanc Um, who's been an injury replacement, didn't play
Speaker 1: well either. And that's why I love when it was
Speaker 1: third and ten at the end of the game, one
Speaker 1: forty left, the Eagles have one time out. The typical
Speaker 1: Brian Schottenheimer Pete Carroll move there might be make them
Speaker 1: use their last time out. Punted away and Dare Josh
Speaker 1: McCowen to go down the field and get six points
Speaker 1: and a two point conversion, because you know that's not likely.
Speaker 1: But no, they threw a deep shot to Metcalf over
Speaker 1: the top because to them that's like a they they're
Speaker 1: better at that than a ten yard out, Like, I
Speaker 1: trust them more to go way down the field to
Speaker 1: Metcalf than a ten yure it out. So they did
Speaker 1: what the Seahawks did, and that I feel like it's
Speaker 1: at least an appropriate and a more enjoyable ending to
Speaker 1: what was kind of a disappointing well. So, I would
Speaker 1: say the biggest subplot in this game, I can't believe
Speaker 1: we even gotten to it, is that coming into this
Speaker 1: affair bird versus Bird teams in the playoffs, the home
Speaker 1: bird team was ten and oh historically that is uh,
Speaker 1: that's huge, and now the record falls to ten and
Speaker 1: one because of what happened today. Anyone that had a
Speaker 1: negative tweet about the NBC animation of these said birds
Speaker 1: flying through the air the graphic I blocked them immediately
Speaker 1: from my not just a mute, you were blocked. It's
Speaker 1: offensive behavior to take on the They're in a large
Speaker 1: ground swell. Huge Russell Wilson, by the way, Uh uh
Speaker 1: what was that, Russell? Okay, I got you um through
Speaker 1: for three yards. He led the team with forty five
Speaker 1: yards rushing. This is not the iconic Russell Wilson game.
Speaker 1: But okay, but you understand that how important this guy
Speaker 1: is this team and why even though you know they'll
Speaker 1: be going to Green Bay to face the Packers, why
Speaker 1: the Seahawks, who are beat up, are not a team
Speaker 1: to discount in the divisional round, Because as long as
Speaker 1: he's on the field, magic can happen. In jadeveon Clowney,
Speaker 1: I've been on him a little bit because he's always
Speaker 1: hurt and you know he's gonna command a massive salary
Speaker 1: and I would be totally terrified if a team like
Speaker 1: the Jets were to do that. Uh come free agency.
Speaker 1: But again, and we've talked about this before, this guy
Speaker 1: does have a habit west of showing up in these
Speaker 1: big impact games. And he was a nuisance all day
Speaker 1: long for m Account and Wentz certainly went well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: playing against an offensive line missing a couple of starters,
Speaker 1: and like you said, to come back from injury and
Speaker 1: be a factor and back to Russell Wilson for a second,
Speaker 1: he still is still has the best sexiest deep bow
Speaker 1: in the league. And then I think back to that
Speaker 1: third and fifth team where he rushed for scramble for
Speaker 1: and that was a huge playing the game, I'm amazed.
Speaker 1: Like when Marshawn Lynch first got his carry in last
Speaker 1: week's game, it's like the whole newsrooms going wild, like people.
Speaker 1: People are so excited on Twitter for his first carry back.
Speaker 1: And then I think the reality is set in here
Speaker 1: that the Marshawn Lynch Trivis Homer duo combined for nineteen
Speaker 1: yards on seventeen carry. It's a big problem. But the
Speaker 1: kind of offense they want to be there, right so
Speaker 1: they're they're running game is is all is a little
Speaker 1: bit of a mess. You know, it was a tough
Speaker 1: matchup today against Philadelphia. They smartly threw it more one's
Speaker 1: bow legged and the other one's pot billing. At one
Speaker 1: point you had Marshawn Good, Marshawn Lynn, Robert Turban, and
Speaker 1: Josh McCown in this game. I mean, it felt like
Speaker 1: a time machine to eleven carries for twelve yards. Marshawn
Speaker 1: six verse seven did get that touchdown. He did, and
Speaker 1: it was nice. That was his long of the day
Speaker 1: of five yard rush. Um. That's seventeen rushes for nineteen yards.
Speaker 1: And by the way, Seattle, they did the same thing
Speaker 1: I've talked about on the podcast before h interviewing Pete
Speaker 1: Carroll the year that Russell Wilson got drafted, okay, and
Speaker 1: Matt Flynn was just signed to a free agent deal,
Speaker 1: and Cal's just like, don't you know, don't forget about
Speaker 1: this guy. We drafted this this kid is the real deal.
Speaker 1: He could play, and it sounded like a coach just
Speaker 1: being overly positive, and then he turned out to be
Speaker 1: a Hall of Fame quarterback. He was the same way
Speaker 1: with DK Metcalf all through the summer programs, like I'm installed,
Speaker 1: this guy is gonna be one of our top weapons.
Speaker 1: And usually you're like, oh, okay, the coaches being overly optimistic,
Speaker 1: but I think he's earned the benefit that when they
Speaker 1: see somebody that they feel like they've hit on and
Speaker 1: can make an immediate impact, it happens. This guy's a stud.
Speaker 1: Metcalf Lockett looks healthy. David Moore made a play today,
Speaker 1: Hollister's there. It's it's a passing game. With Wilson obviously
Speaker 1: being you know, the absolute key that can scare you
Speaker 1: like this is not they are a banged up team,
Speaker 1: but I think they're just because they lost their running backs.
Speaker 1: It's been a little overstated. If they could ever get
Speaker 1: Dwayne Brown back their left tackle, that would be huge.
Speaker 1: But for the most part, this is the Seahawks team
Speaker 1: that managed to win, you know, eleven twelve games this year.
Speaker 1: Now the other one score win. That's been sort of
Speaker 1: the tension of the Carol Russell Wilson era that Pete
Speaker 1: Carroll's formula is running the ball, but the offense is
Speaker 1: often at its best when they just let the play
Speaker 1: break down and let Russell Wilson throw the ball. I
Speaker 1: had noticed, you know, especially in that week's seventeen game,
Speaker 1: how much quick more quickly Russell Wilson was to run
Speaker 1: the ball, like he decided, just say the quarterback, okay,
Speaker 1: just stop it, um, I mean our sound board, Like
Speaker 1: he he decided in the second half of the forty
Speaker 1: Niners game, like enough of this, I've barely run this year.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna start running. And that was the key
Speaker 1: to them almost scoring four straight touchdowns against forty And
Speaker 1: he kept it up today, all right, So there you
Speaker 1: go one outcome. The Seahawks move on, as I said
Speaker 1: to Green Bay to face the Packers next week. Let's
Speaker 1: now check out the other Sunday ball game. It was
Speaker 1: a shocker third and goal from the floor. Kirk takes
Speaker 1: the snow, We'll try fade left end zone and it
Speaker 1: is cat catch. Do amazing decision by Kirk Cousins. He
Speaker 1: saw me all all Plich you knew he had Rudolph
Speaker 1: one on one with the corner, Rudy and just through
Speaker 1: the chump ball. What a beautiful throw. Blu Shore San
Speaker 1: Francisco and corra Wa New Orleans Saints, Paul Allen and
Speaker 1: beat versage of the Vikings radio network going some fun
Speaker 1: in the boot now? Why not because Kirk Cousins. Yes
Speaker 1: that Kirk Cousins connected with Kyle Rudolph for four yards
Speaker 1: score in the first possession of overtime. It wiped away
Speaker 1: both the Saints and a former reputation for somebody the
Speaker 1: final at the Superdome. Three plays before the Randolph game winner,
Speaker 1: Cousins through a perfect strike to Adam feeling Um after
Speaker 1: they won the overtime coin flip to set up Minnesota
Speaker 1: at first and goal, and boys, you know football man.
Speaker 1: It's funny. This is a funny sport. I mean, sports
Speaker 1: is why I love sports in general, because you could
Speaker 1: think you know everything and then reality sets in and
Speaker 1: we know, yes, Mark, we know nothing. But not not
Speaker 1: many people gave the Vikings a chance in this game,
Speaker 1: certainly nobody in this room. Um, I picked the Saints
Speaker 1: and win the damn Super Bowl. So my brackets pretty
Speaker 1: busted up. But they were, you know, the Vikings were.
Speaker 1: Clearly It's just a minor NFL ultimately, it's a brackets
Speaker 1: what I'm saying though, but they were. The Vikings are
Speaker 1: the better team on Sunday and Uh. And we're gonna
Speaker 1: get into Kirk Cousins because that was such a huge drive.
Speaker 1: And Greg, you have the great tweet which I banged
Speaker 1: you on a retweet that it seemed to be going
Speaker 1: all downhill in a bad way for the Vikings thirteen
Speaker 1: yards in their last three possessions of the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: They lose a ten point lead, but then he makes
Speaker 1: those two marvelous throws uh in overtime, including the game winner,
Speaker 1: which some people might have an issue with, and we'll
Speaker 1: get to that the the officiating on the play, but
Speaker 1: here was in one of the great locker room scenes
Speaker 1: of the season. Kirk Cousins after the game with his teammates, Hey,
Speaker 1: that's how we've won all year, te right was the
Speaker 1: chance at the end? I got three words for you?
Speaker 1: You like that? I know it's cheesy, Greg, but you
Speaker 1: know you gotta feel good for Kirk Cousins. I know
Speaker 1: I'm a cynic because my immediate thought was, like, you know,
Speaker 1: what's gonna fire up the guys? Like the three word
Speaker 1: catchphrase I had with the rest. I believe he called
Speaker 1: him a corn blank. It's a great one. He's a
Speaker 1: great He's a great one. What a performance? You know?
Speaker 1: Do your things? What were your thoughts as you watched? Uh?
Speaker 1: Kirk Cousins. He checks all the narrative boxes, which is
Speaker 1: why he's been a laughing stock on Twitter. Like every
Speaker 1: starting quarterback in the NFL, he it depends on week
Speaker 1: to week whether he's celebrated or vilified. They live this
Speaker 1: high wire act. Then when you sign that contract, it's
Speaker 1: even more of a microscope. Then when you fail in
Speaker 1: primetime games, when all the eyeballs are on you, it's
Speaker 1: even more of a microscope. And he has to earn
Speaker 1: the benefit of the doubt. And I think when Troykman
Speaker 1: said that's the best throw of his career right here,
Speaker 1: that's when he earned the benefit of the doubt from
Speaker 1: a lot of people. I've seen him in in that
Speaker 1: building before where he shook off a helmet, the helmet hit,
Speaker 1: and against the blitz in which he got clawbered nat
Speaker 1: a forty yard passed to Ryan Grant for a touchdown
Speaker 1: again the Saints in a big game a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago. And I've been a even since then because
Speaker 1: he's demonstrated the ability to do this. The only question
Speaker 1: is can you do it, as Dan has said when
Speaker 1: the lights are on? And he did it, and you
Speaker 1: could people contry this time, and and there's too many
Speaker 1: people on Twitter were like saying, oh Dan, you had
Speaker 1: it wrong. I never said he couldn't do it. I
Speaker 1: only said he never did do it. And it always
Speaker 1: seemed weird because he was such a prolific producer and
Speaker 1: he's a guy that stays on the field and and
Speaker 1: racks up yardage and touchdowns, so it never kind of
Speaker 1: made sense that he never was able to have a
Speaker 1: moment like this. And it took and it took a
Speaker 1: long time, but he got it. Anybody that moves the
Speaker 1: goalpost on him, now, I think it's wrong. I certainly
Speaker 1: won't because he did author the moment that alleviates douts.
Speaker 1: And it's a type of win seek Manning comma Eli
Speaker 1: that can put you on a big postseason run. Watch out.
Speaker 1: It's the I let it go man Dan. I think
Speaker 1: all along it's the drama you liked, like the the
Speaker 1: human interest story of this. Here here's the thing though,
Speaker 1: like it still takes a ton of luck that maybe
Speaker 1: he just didn't have in other games where he did
Speaker 1: play well. If Dalvin Cook, you know when we thought
Speaker 1: Dalvin Cook fumbled and the Saints returned it, you know,
Speaker 1: Cousins doesn't get that chance. If they lose the coin toss,
Speaker 1: Cousins doesn't get that chance. But he's not a different
Speaker 1: Kirk Cousins than he was before he made those plays.
Speaker 1: He was always a good quarterback. The thing I like that.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's changed, but I like that
Speaker 1: the Vikings showed some aggressiveness in overtime and throughout the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter in letting him throw, not always, but third
Speaker 1: and one in that overtime drive, they go shotgun and
Speaker 1: he throws. He throws it to Dalvin Cook, that throw
Speaker 1: to theling certainly, and then I'm thinking when of his
Speaker 1: thirteen ten midway through the third quarter, and and it
Speaker 1: just felt like the Vikings were dominating, but they were
Speaker 1: only up three points. And Cousins made a couple of
Speaker 1: throws on that drive, one for the third down near
Speaker 1: the goal line where he's on the run to Stephan Digs.
Speaker 1: Another really great throw to add uh feeling. And those
Speaker 1: to me are just as important almost as the overtime
Speaker 1: throws because it's set you up, and they were. They
Speaker 1: were beautiful plays, and he was clearly the better quarterback
Speaker 1: on the field today. Well, there there was a there
Speaker 1: was a section of the game though, where I thought
Speaker 1: the best quarterback on the field was Taysom Hill. And
Speaker 1: I'm not just saying that from my own leanings towards him.
Speaker 1: I find him be a fascinating player, shotgun down of
Speaker 1: you know, decades of old and he does a little
Speaker 1: bit of everything. And you know, Breeze had that killer fumble,
Speaker 1: very un characteristic, his first fumble of the year. But
Speaker 1: not everyone was so happy with this result. My son Luke,
Speaker 1: who is a Saints fan, all of a sudden over
Speaker 1: the past couple of months. Check out this reaction. I
Speaker 1: gotta see this. Saints Hall did a really epic cross
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, And you know, I just like because
Speaker 1: it's like I want them to the same way I
Speaker 1: did of my household find their own teams. And and
Speaker 1: Colton is an Eagles fan. So it's been a rough
Speaker 1: Sunday on the home front. Yes, it's like but it's
Speaker 1: you know, I I find this to be the thought
Speaker 1: that I had was I feel like every year it's
Speaker 1: Sean Payton having to endure these terrible, hideous playoff losses
Speaker 1: and how long the journey of this season is to
Speaker 1: think that you got to go back into mini camps
Speaker 1: all this nonsense to get back to this point again.
Speaker 1: And it's been twice against the Viking Vikings in a
Speaker 1: couple of years. That absolute really rough crusher of a
Speaker 1: loss for the Saints and the whole organization we are.
Speaker 1: You know, I do the pain Pain rankings, and I've
Speaker 1: always kept it to teams that are star crossed and
Speaker 1: never even can get off the ground at just a
Speaker 1: horrible fan experience. But there is the like second tier
Speaker 1: of pain rankings for teams like the Saints and Packers
Speaker 1: that have a lot of January heartbreak. This is three
Speaker 1: straight years that their season has ended on a walk
Speaker 1: off play. I have to mention the first forty years
Speaker 1: of their organization where they had up kiss and this
Speaker 1: season especially, and like I said, I picked him to
Speaker 1: win the Super Bowl because it just felt like everything
Speaker 1: was chriscend doing for this team. They had averaged forty
Speaker 1: points a game in the four weeks leading up to
Speaker 1: this game. You had a Vikings team that looked like
Speaker 1: it was coming in as a dead team walking and
Speaker 1: this felt like a number three seed that was going
Speaker 1: to be wreaking havoc on the NFC and now they're
Speaker 1: golfing right. Just it makes no sense not to mention that.
Speaker 1: The game, and you know, I understand you could be
Speaker 1: in either camp. The game ends on yet another questionable
Speaker 1: decision surrounding past interference. I just didn't have a problem
Speaker 1: with it. Well, Greg, I know you did. I didn't
Speaker 1: have a problem with it. But if I have a
Speaker 1: problem with the rule, if there's gonna be a rule,
Speaker 1: used the rule, they said, Okay, they looked at it.
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe I'll cover up. No, I know they did
Speaker 1: look at it. I mean It's not like I doubt
Speaker 1: that they looked at it just like we did. They
Speaker 1: had the time, but they quickly decided both both um
Speaker 1: the defender, you know, Williams and um kyl Rudolf, Kyle
Speaker 1: Rudolph you know, had some contact on the play. I mean, please,
Speaker 1: this has roots in the early nineties when Chris Carter
Speaker 1: and Michael Irvin and those guys were allowed to start
Speaker 1: pushing off and that wasn't a thing before the early right.
Speaker 1: So so Terry McAuley, the NBC rules analysts and the
Speaker 1: ESPN rules analysts both go on Twitter after the game.
Speaker 1: They say, that's offensive pass interference. I mean, you can't
Speaker 1: tell me. You can't tell me looking at it. If
Speaker 1: they had called it on the both of them said
Speaker 1: the same thing, which is what I thought. If they
Speaker 1: called it on the field, there's no way they would
Speaker 1: have overturned it the other way. I don't mind that
Speaker 1: they didn't overturn it, I just what is the rule
Speaker 1: there for? Then your issue with it ultimately is that
Speaker 1: they didn't have the stoppage to look at it formally.
Speaker 1: You didn't. It wasn't as drastic as the forty niners,
Speaker 1: uh Seahawks one. But I also think, as West has
Speaker 1: pointed out well all year, the the way they've officiated
Speaker 1: the rule has changed throughout the year, and so that
Speaker 1: creates a confusing sort of baseline. And if they're trying
Speaker 1: to overturn passing, like if we're in the review past interference,
Speaker 1: review past interference, it was past interference. I'm glad that
Speaker 1: though I thought that there was two guys jostling. It
Speaker 1: was a little bit of a push off, but it
Speaker 1: was pretty strong, like stiff arm there. Listen, these these
Speaker 1: are grown men fighting for a ball, and the way
Speaker 1: problems that it's that's the rule. Why does the rule exist?
Speaker 1: If it's if it's arbitrary, depending on you know, these
Speaker 1: cobble together officiating crews. At this point, they're not even
Speaker 1: the same. It is guys upset with the official on
Speaker 1: the field for missing it or I'm not. I'm not.
Speaker 1: I'm not that upset, but I'm set with the rule,
Speaker 1: like in general, of adding this extra layer of confusion
Speaker 1: in them not being consistent, because here's the reality. They
Speaker 1: have buzzed down and looked at far like less in
Speaker 1: fractions than that in the final two minutes of games
Speaker 1: right all season and guarantee it next week, it will
Speaker 1: happen again. I mean, they'll call it now. I think
Speaker 1: it almost feels like they've stepped back from they don't
Speaker 1: want this rule to be a big deal. They don't
Speaker 1: as not just pr but I think they look at
Speaker 1: it as like they don't want this to be the story,
Speaker 1: and they've taken a step back from the rule without
Speaker 1: actually changing the rules. Well, go ahead, I was just
Speaker 1: gonna say, let's get back into football analysis here. I
Speaker 1: just want to credit Everson Griffin and Danio Hunter for
Speaker 1: controlling whooping an offensive line that we said had the
Speaker 1: best tackle tandem in the NFL. And it has to
Speaker 1: be disturbing how old Drew Brees looked in that game
Speaker 1: where they could only move the ball when Tayso Hill
Speaker 1: was involved. Well, Griffin and Hunter are among the best
Speaker 1: duos in the entire NFL. And they said after the
Speaker 1: game they gave an assist to the Atlanta Falcons. How
Speaker 1: great a day it is for Atlanta Falcons fans. Not
Speaker 1: only do you get to see the Saints blow it again,
Speaker 1: but the Vikings called them out by saying, we saw
Speaker 1: what the Falcons did to them in terms of creating
Speaker 1: pressure in the middle, and we copied a lot of
Speaker 1: what they did because they really didn't beat the tackles
Speaker 1: too off and ram Check did have a couple of
Speaker 1: bad plays, including on the force fumble, which was a
Speaker 1: massive play, But for the most part, they got that
Speaker 1: pressure going over the guard. They moved Hunter and Griffin
Speaker 1: on the inside, and they really whooped Andrews, Pete and
Speaker 1: Wharford over and over again to give the falcons in well,
Speaker 1: you know, and you know the way to get Drew
Speaker 1: Brees uncomfortable, get pressure up the middle, getting face, get him,
Speaker 1: you know, at those feet moving. Uh yeah, I I
Speaker 1: thought Alvin Kamarrow was another guy that jumped out to
Speaker 1: me um West you you would pointed out that it
Speaker 1: didn't despite there being a bit of a narrative building
Speaker 1: that he was getting back to himself. He could not
Speaker 1: have looked any less explosive today. There were several plays
Speaker 1: that he left chunk plays on the field where he
Speaker 1: just couldn't keep his feet or make a linebacker miss.
Speaker 1: I mean, this guy was not the same player, and
Speaker 1: that's a major story why this they lost today. I
Speaker 1: think you can tell with him when he's used in
Speaker 1: the passing game to destroy linebackers. And he hasn't even
Speaker 1: been used like that in two months. They don't they
Speaker 1: just hand him the ball now, they don't really use
Speaker 1: him as a receiver like that. I mean, this is why,
Speaker 1: you know, I try not to get too carried away
Speaker 1: with moment like going into the playoffs, because they had
Speaker 1: scored thirty six and a half points a game over
Speaker 1: the last seven weeks. The Vikings, of course are coming
Speaker 1: off a really rough Week sixteen, but they got to
Speaker 1: sit in week seventeen, whereas the Saints were trying to
Speaker 1: get that by and you know, they could have easily
Speaker 1: been at home and waiting until the divisional round if
Speaker 1: the Lions have finished off the Packers, or if the
Speaker 1: Sea Hacks had gotten a break, or if thirteen and
Speaker 1: three had been enough for by which it would be
Speaker 1: almost any other year. But they got terrible luck. Uh
Speaker 1: in all those cases, like a lot of times, like
Speaker 1: it's not it doesn't come down to luck, but that
Speaker 1: that's it's such a big factor in who I think
Speaker 1: we should also slow down on the conclusions we come
Speaker 1: to sometimes during the week. I mean, I you know,
Speaker 1: I assumed that the Saints were gonna absolutely obliterate the Vikings,
Speaker 1: and it couldn't have been more wrong with I did.
Speaker 1: This is normally a greg territory item. But the Saints
Speaker 1: not using a time out with twenty one seconds left
Speaker 1: when there was the the penalty and the runoff and
Speaker 1: they wind up for the regulation ends having to kick
Speaker 1: a field goal and started instead of another shot at
Speaker 1: the end zone. It wasted another time out two with
Speaker 1: about five minutes left. They did not handle did that
Speaker 1: end situation? Well? They also didn't take the time out
Speaker 1: at two forty left, just you know, kind of the
Speaker 1: conventional way to do it, because that's you can really
Speaker 1: control the clock. And they waited till after the two
Speaker 1: For a veteran coach in a qb uh, it wasn't great,
Speaker 1: by the way. One last note, I mean very very
Speaker 1: fortunate that when the sky camp tumbled down from the
Speaker 1: UH wires and netting above the stadium that didn't land
Speaker 1: on like an entire offensive line or something. We should
Speaker 1: give uh yeah that that imagine If that didn't what
Speaker 1: would have happened on sandwiches somehow. Nice moment for Kevin Stefanski,
Speaker 1: by the way, if he's gonna get ahead of head
Speaker 1: coaching job, that last drive. It was pretty good. It's
Speaker 1: a reminder to this this Vikings team is you want
Speaker 1: me to agree with you right now, but I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna leave you on an island. I know. But you
Speaker 1: were bringing it up to It's like you said, Mark,
Speaker 1: you thought Cousins and Stefanski might be the best looking.
Speaker 1: You be well, I think Stefanski is the Stefanski is
Speaker 1: the power source there. I mean, he's he's probably the
Speaker 1: the two. But if you I'd have to go through
Speaker 1: the iteration. We know what Mark like, now, well, he's
Speaker 1: he You could sell that head coach Stefanski as a
Speaker 1: head coach to people pretty easily. Adam feeling we should
Speaker 1: point it might be the m v P of this game.
Speaker 1: I mean the two big players of the game were
Speaker 1: incredible catches from him, like the thirty four yard early on,
Speaker 1: early on, but he made a difference. I mean, their
Speaker 1: team is totally different with Land and Cook, which should
Speaker 1: be like an obvious point, but they suddenly they're going
Speaker 1: to San Francisco and they look pretty dangerous. He gets one,
Speaker 1: Cook goes for what over from scrimmage and two touchdowns
Speaker 1: Like that was the end into their offenses. Is there
Speaker 1: any scenario where Week one next year, Sean Payton and
Speaker 1: Taysom Hill are the coach and quarterback combination for the Saints.
Speaker 1: Tasom Hill, though Taysom Hill is going to get a
Speaker 1: starting shot somewhere, I don't know. Todaysom Hill had the
Speaker 1: biggest run for the team. He had the biggest pass
Speaker 1: for the team, and he had the second biggest catch
Speaker 1: for the team and the biggest catch blocker on Camara's touchdown,
Speaker 1: and the biggest catch was Deonte Harris. So it's very well.
Speaker 1: They almost had an iconic drive where they were driving
Speaker 1: to take the lead, and he was almost responsible for
Speaker 1: all the yardage, and that's when Drew Brees fumbled. He
Speaker 1: was supposed to be your moment away from Daniel Hunter
Speaker 1: took it away with that euro step pass ram check. Though.
Speaker 1: He's doing things that guys haven't done for literally a
Speaker 1: hundred years. It's like Jim Thorpe came back to life
Speaker 1: and he's sneaky old. He's turning thirty this year saying
Speaker 1: and someone should give him a shot at I would
Speaker 1: like that the Vikings and Seahawks fans have to feel
Speaker 1: like this NFC, even though that I'm not saying the
Speaker 1: forty Niners and Packers aren't like were good by teams.
Speaker 1: They have to feel like they got a shot here,
Speaker 1: that it's not a year where it's just predestined one
Speaker 1: of one of these by just beat Dan super Bowl team.
Speaker 1: So they got who is your super Bowl team? Well,
Speaker 1: I wasn't asked to do this exercise. I don't have
Speaker 1: a bracket. I mean back into September. What was it?
Speaker 1: I oh, I believe it was. Well, I know what
Speaker 1: it was. This is embarrassing. It was Brown's over Eagles.
Speaker 1: So you know why am I hired as an analyst?
Speaker 1: Let's start with that question. All right, let's uh, let's
Speaker 1: this is halftime. Now we're gonna get to the Saturday games.
Speaker 1: But before that, there was some news. It was classic Cowboys,
Speaker 1: uh dropped in the middle of an Eagles playoff game. Uh,
Speaker 1: the end of Jason Garrett. The awkward ending of Jason
Speaker 1: Garrett as head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. The team
Speaker 1: made it official on Sunday that UM they would be
Speaker 1: parting ways or be no agreement on a contract extension,
Speaker 1: not tip not uh, not a firing in the classic sense,
Speaker 1: but it is what it is. We have a missive
Speaker 1: here from Jara Jones, the owner and GM, we are
Speaker 1: extremely right. Jason Garrett for his more than twenty years
Speaker 1: of service of the Dallas Cowboys as a player, assistant
Speaker 1: coach and head coach. His tenure of leadership will be
Speaker 1: characterized by his ability to produce teams that always played
Speaker 1: with great effort, emotion, and passion. And he represented our
Speaker 1: organization with great pride, loyalty and respect. Sounds like West's uncle.
Speaker 1: He went on to add that his legacy in Dallas
Speaker 1: is always going to be as one that he strived
Speaker 1: for greatness and was a class act, which is all true.
Speaker 1: But ultimately West uh ten years there, uh nine and
Speaker 1: a half he took over for I guess what was it,
Speaker 1: Wade Phillips uh. And they never got to a Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: And they busted out this year and that was well overdue.
Speaker 1: Bill Poullian, who is a Hall of Fame general manager,
Speaker 1: built the built Super Bowl teams in Buffalo in Indianapolis.
Speaker 1: He has a book in which he outlines about eleven
Speaker 1: different qualities you look for in a head coach, and
Speaker 1: a lot of these are organization leadership, communication, emotional stability, character, work,
Speaker 1: ethic player, respect, public creations. Those are the things I
Speaker 1: feel like Jason Garrett does well. And then right in
Speaker 1: the middle are three three very important qualities. Vision. Do
Speaker 1: you have a clear picture of how you want your
Speaker 1: team to play and look and implement that vision and
Speaker 1: keep it there when the pressure is on? Strategy? Are
Speaker 1: you making the are you the one making the game
Speaker 1: management decisions with the game on the line? Flexibility? Can
Speaker 1: you adjust two trends around the league? I think these
Speaker 1: are the three areas where Jason Garrett struggles, and he's
Speaker 1: really good in the leadership areas and the player, the
Speaker 1: public relations areas, the character areas. He but I think
Speaker 1: most NFL coaches are good at that stuff. You want
Speaker 1: the ones who separate themselves with the strategy. Well, there's
Speaker 1: there's one more on the list for Jerry Jones and
Speaker 1: the Cowboys, which is be fine with everything Jerry Jones
Speaker 1: does and don't don't make us think about it. That's
Speaker 1: like the most important thing I think Jerry Jones looks
Speaker 1: for in a head coach is someone that just goes
Speaker 1: along with the owner being by far the most important
Speaker 1: voice and GM and everything else, and cover for it
Speaker 1: and like really can take the pr aspect of the
Speaker 1: job as a huge part of the job. So is
Speaker 1: this a good job when you factor in that that's
Speaker 1: a reality. The roster is so good that well, it
Speaker 1: depends can you a guy that can work? I like, like,
Speaker 1: I think if you were Bill Belichick at any point
Speaker 1: in his life, he would say no. Like now, boys
Speaker 1: didn't miss the playoffs this year because Jerry Jones uh
Speaker 1: mangles his way into situations. They miss the playoffs because
Speaker 1: they didn't play up to the talent. And I don't
Speaker 1: think that, you know, you look at the Bill Parcels
Speaker 1: running Dallas. He found a way to make it work
Speaker 1: with you. They weren't no, but there weren't immense power streeles.
Speaker 1: But I would say if you boys, you know playoff
Speaker 1: wins and Jason Garrett's right, but the Cowboys in general
Speaker 1: because and it's obviously always annoying to me that they
Speaker 1: could go to and fourteen and be put on five
Speaker 1: primetime games a year. That's been that's always that's always
Speaker 1: been tedious in my world. But you look at the NFC,
Speaker 1: and only two teams, the Lions and Redskins, have gone
Speaker 1: longer without an NFC title game appearance. Twenty seven years
Speaker 1: for those teams, twenty three for the Cowboys, and I
Speaker 1: get that half to play about half the color analysts
Speaker 1: like in the league or former Cowboys uh quarterbacks and
Speaker 1: fullbacks and everything else. But what has lost sometimes is
Speaker 1: the long consistent run of not doing enough in Dallas
Speaker 1: well getting there. I think this week is a great
Speaker 1: example of why I think it was. Jerry Jones purposefully
Speaker 1: kept this thing in the news all week because he
Speaker 1: thinks it's an infomercial about the power of the Cowboys brand.
Speaker 1: And then he waited until the Eagles are playing to
Speaker 1: drop the news like that is not an accident. He's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: are the NFC East is is? You know, isn't the
Speaker 1: best division, But I'm still gonna stick it to the
Speaker 1: Eagles by being the biggest story during this I'll tell
Speaker 1: you what. He might be happy with how this played
Speaker 1: out over the last week, but I thought it was
Speaker 1: a terrible look for the Cowboys that made them seem
Speaker 1: indecisive and downright silly at times when you're hearing all
Speaker 1: these reports of these people are interested in and you
Speaker 1: still got Garrett in the building and interviewed Marvin Lewis
Speaker 1: and Mike McCarthy. According to Marvin Lewis, that's going to
Speaker 1: be the guy you bring in to fix this. Oh
Speaker 1: my god, how is he? How is he different than
Speaker 1: Jason Garrett in terms of that list of qualities? He's not. Well,
Speaker 1: he would I think he would you go along with
Speaker 1: He would subscribe to that rule, go along with whatever
Speaker 1: Jerry wants. He also has a vision though with defense,
Speaker 1: whereas with Jason Garrett, I'm not sure what his vision is.
Speaker 1: A way a bad move, like and I don't typically
Speaker 1: cry for reporters, but having to drag the people like
Speaker 1: Jane Slater, our friends, dragging and through the mud for
Speaker 1: an entire you know, hunter in something hours, it's totally muddled,
Speaker 1: bizarre process. I don't know. It's like it's like it's
Speaker 1: you know, it's essentially the holidays still to some degree,
Speaker 1: I mean, what are we doing. It's like, I don't
Speaker 1: think it's fair. They didn't survive like a pow king.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that it's it's not it's not, you know,
Speaker 1: total hard luck scenario for these t job openings in Carolina, Cleveland,
Speaker 1: New York. Is Jason Garrett get a job? No, But
Speaker 1: you suggest that he takes a year off, but also
Speaker 1: noted that he's not getting paid like a lot of
Speaker 1: these are sabbatical. It's also rich as hell. Cleveland maybe
Speaker 1: interviewing him. I don't. I think Cleveland's moving quickly towards
Speaker 1: a coach from a team we'll talk about soon. I
Speaker 1: see Garrett as a guy that will do well, just
Speaker 1: like Mike McCarthy got some pop here by sitting out
Speaker 1: of here, and he'll get somebody else's job next year.
Speaker 1: But I also I'm curious to see if Mike McCarthy
Speaker 1: really did get pop and whether he gets another job.
Speaker 1: I've been I've been skeptical about from day one. That's
Speaker 1: fair dog, all right. I'm sure we'll talk about this
Speaker 1: more uh in the week ahead, but let's now get
Speaker 1: back to the NFL action Saturday. This is the day
Speaker 1: I liked. You can remember it. Brady in the end
Speaker 1: zone takes the snap, bare looks, fires passed, batted up
Speaker 1: in the air, intercepted, and return through a touch that
Speaker 1: titles with nine seconds to go batting get up in
Speaker 1: the air. I do believe was brock on a pass
Speaker 1: intended for snow and Logan Ryan has returned it for
Speaker 1: a touchdown. That's the first time in franchise history that
Speaker 1: they have returned an interception for a touchdown. Listen how
Speaker 1: quiet it is. That's an amazing Oh. Meanwhile, the throw
Speaker 1: to sleeves Bob Sochi, excuse me, that was of course
Speaker 1: Mark Vandermere. No, that was Mike Keith with the call
Speaker 1: too excited right now? Yes, former Patriot Logan Ryan snatched
Speaker 1: to deflected Tom Brady pass out of the air nine
Speaker 1: yards of the house. It was the clinching play in
Speaker 1: the Titans over the Patriots in Foxborough. Derrick Henry went
Speaker 1: over two d total yards of offense for the second
Speaker 1: straight week as the Tom Brady offense gradually declined into nothingness.
Speaker 1: It happened. It really did happen. West We watched this
Speaker 1: game together at Rocos Culver City, and it felt like
Speaker 1: the end of an era, didn't it. It did. And
Speaker 1: I looked back at sort of the last five years,
Speaker 1: and Brady looked finish against the Chiefs five years ago,
Speaker 1: when everybody panicked. He looked finished. The first half of
Speaker 1: the Falcon Super Bowl. He looked finished against the Titans
Speaker 1: last year in the regular season. They looked finished. For
Speaker 1: the past two months and I've never seen him look
Speaker 1: more finished than I did in this game against the Titans,
Speaker 1: where he looked to me like Kurt Warner or Brett
Speaker 1: Farve play in their last game against the Saints. It
Speaker 1: just seemed like it's time to go out. What a career.
Speaker 1: All the respect in the world, but he just couldn't
Speaker 1: do anything against the defense where a lot of teams
Speaker 1: have been doing things against them. They Yeah, they had
Speaker 1: a good plan that the Titans did. I thought they're
Speaker 1: forcing the Patriots to go down the field. There's no
Speaker 1: big play element. He had a couple of throws in
Speaker 1: this game. First of all, it's not the end of
Speaker 1: Tom Brady's career. He made that clear. He said he well,
Speaker 1: let's listen to Brady who who said he was what
Speaker 1: was the highly unlikely was his word about retirement. Yeah,
Speaker 1: here's a little Tom Brady. I love the Patriots. I
Speaker 1: mean they uh, you know, they got it. It's the
Speaker 1: greatest organization, and you know, playing for Mr Kraft all
Speaker 1: these years, and that for coach Belichick, I mean there's
Speaker 1: you know, there's nobody who's had a better career. I
Speaker 1: would say to me, like just being with them. So
Speaker 1: I'm very blessed. I don't know what the future looks like,
Speaker 1: so I'm not going to predict it. So by the
Speaker 1: way he said pretty unlikely, not highly unlikely, pretty unlikely.
Speaker 1: It's based on what people you know, the reporters that
Speaker 1: are closer to him, and those comments, it sounds like
Speaker 1: he fully expects to play next year at this point.
Speaker 1: I guess that could change. I think the you know,
Speaker 1: the best analysis on it, Mike Reece is saying like,
Speaker 1: there's no Brady has no idea what he wants to do.
Speaker 1: So everyone who's saying this, like I think he really
Speaker 1: is waiting was waiting till this all ends. But I
Speaker 1: think contractually it's gonna be a game of chicken, and
Speaker 1: we'll be talking about this so much in the future weeks.
Speaker 1: I think we can talk about this game more. But
Speaker 1: I think he knows that he has a lot of
Speaker 1: leverage because the Patriots have thirteen point five million dollars
Speaker 1: in a cap hit, a dead capit if he's not
Speaker 1: on the roster next year, whether he retires or he
Speaker 1: plays for another team, which is a huge amount of
Speaker 1: leverage because they don't want to be paying you know,
Speaker 1: the ghost of Tom Brady to not be on the
Speaker 1: team necessarily. I think they probably would be happy to
Speaker 1: have Brady back at a certain rate. But if he
Speaker 1: wants to max out all the money that he can,
Speaker 1: there might be better offers elsewhere. And it gets, you know,
Speaker 1: very complicated. But he has financial leverage. But what he
Speaker 1: doesn't have is I'm sure it's got to be in
Speaker 1: the back of his mind. He's one of the all
Speaker 1: time great competitors. He has to know, uh that he's
Speaker 1: not the same guy anymore, and he knows that. But
Speaker 1: I think there's such competitive people like him or Belichick,
Speaker 1: I think are such competitors that they'll look at the
Speaker 1: last couple of months or even the last few games,
Speaker 1: and they'll look at the great throws he made last night.
Speaker 1: I mean, he made more great throws in that game
Speaker 1: than Ryan Tannehill did. Certainly they outgame, uh, you know
Speaker 1: the Titans. He he had three or four throws that
Speaker 1: were just absolute dimes and then the rest of it
Speaker 1: they look slow, but they can say, well, that was
Speaker 1: the outside receiver. This has been a problem throughout the year,
Speaker 1: and maybe it's giving him too much credit. When three ago,
Speaker 1: when he was m v P, what did we say
Speaker 1: about him unlikely at age thirty nine that he suddenly
Speaker 1: got better in pocket movement. He he is moving away
Speaker 1: from pressure. He cannot escape pressure. He's like Eli right
Speaker 1: now when it comes to us, he can't. And I
Speaker 1: think one of the disappointing things from this game is
Speaker 1: that the offensive line played really well. I thought they
Speaker 1: controlled the game. They gave Brady time for the most part,
Speaker 1: they opened up polls in the running game. There were
Speaker 1: opportunities to be had throughout the game. But what stands
Speaker 1: out to me as a Patriots fan that very much
Speaker 1: that this era and I wouldn't be surprised if he's
Speaker 1: back next year, and it would be the most like
Speaker 1: Patriots thing ever if they're playing on wild Card weekend
Speaker 1: as the a f C champs again next year. Like,
Speaker 1: I just don't think that is that far out of
Speaker 1: the realm of possibility, because we've seen that it's more
Speaker 1: than just the quarterback this year. But the way that
Speaker 1: they went down meekly, Like think about the fourth downs
Speaker 1: that they didn't go for. They didn't go for a
Speaker 1: fourth and four on the thirty seven yard line, their
Speaker 1: own thirty seven with three seventeen left. They didn't go
Speaker 1: for a fourth and three on the Tennessee forty seven
Speaker 1: yard line in the fourth quarter. They didn't go for
Speaker 1: the fourth and three on the goal line after not
Speaker 1: being able to score from a foot out, and they
Speaker 1: were stuffed on fourth and one at midfield in the
Speaker 1: first half and didn't go for it then either. That's
Speaker 1: four different times that the Patriots offense said, no, we're
Speaker 1: gonna punt away to the best offense in the league
Speaker 1: right now because we trust their defense more than we
Speaker 1: trust Tom Brady to figure out how to get three.
Speaker 1: I'd say a bold statement. Logan Ryan won the game
Speaker 1: with a pick six. Brady is very lucky with the
Speaker 1: thirty seven attempts for two hundred nine yards in an
Speaker 1: interception that Logan Ryan didn't have a second pick six
Speaker 1: at the end, I have a drop pass. It was
Speaker 1: just kind of like, but I I just don't see
Speaker 1: Tom Brady, you liked Patriots are not. Is one of
Speaker 1: the most fascinating athletes of our entire lifetime, and I'm
Speaker 1: not sure he'll ever be top to quarterback again. I
Speaker 1: just don't I don't care about the young guys say
Speaker 1: his career is fascinating me and I don't want to
Speaker 1: watch two years of what I've seen, that's last couple
Speaker 1: of months. When they won the Super Bowl last year,
Speaker 1: I said I wanted him to retire. I mean when
Speaker 1: they won the Super in Seattle, I I sort of
Speaker 1: wanted him to retire because I was like, what I mean,
Speaker 1: do you want to see Tom Brady playing sixteen more
Speaker 1: games after what you've seen the last two three? I
Speaker 1: don't think he was healthy either. I'll throw that out there,
Speaker 1: but he's almost never would be Yeah, I would be
Speaker 1: very norious to see someone else playing, But I also
Speaker 1: I it wouldn't be I wouldn't mind, Like if they
Speaker 1: brought him back, it's like, what else are they gonna do?
Speaker 1: What other Patriots fans feel about it? Well, Ricky, how
Speaker 1: about you? You are someone that's lived and died, uh
Speaker 1: really with all glory for with a fandom of this team.
Speaker 1: Do you want Tom Brady back in or do you
Speaker 1: think it's time to move on? I mean, it's it's both.
Speaker 1: He's like you said, Mark, he's the greatest quarterback of
Speaker 1: all time and you and it's hurt to see him.
Speaker 1: And I was sitting there watching the game being like, wow,
Speaker 1: if that's his last throw in Gillette it's a pick
Speaker 1: six like that hurt me more than the loss because
Speaker 1: it's like his legacy is so cool, Greg, why are
Speaker 1: you smirking? No, I'm not. I'm just saying, like, okay,
Speaker 1: the last past thing like this her opinion, yea, she
Speaker 1: can also finish. So it's so it was upsetting. It
Speaker 1: was upsetting, but also it's like, look at all that
Speaker 1: he had. I know, it's like, oh, he didn't have
Speaker 1: enough weapons around him. His elbow looked better than with
Speaker 1: the throws that he was making from the past couple
Speaker 1: of months. You know, what's he gonna do? Check down
Speaker 1: to running backs, the whole there's no one to throw too.
Speaker 1: So if for some reason he could come back with
Speaker 1: more than just Edelman, I would want to give it one.
Speaker 1: I think ing jump out. I'll say this that this
Speaker 1: is the first year to me that Bellchick really and
Speaker 1: Greg you could probably point out a year here there
Speaker 1: over the last twenty where they just didn't do a
Speaker 1: good job helping him out. Because everyone the follows the
Speaker 1: sport looked at the week one roster and said, I
Speaker 1: don't know, man, that he doesn't have a lot worker
Speaker 1: from Gronk was out of the picture. And the Patriots
Speaker 1: told you they weren't confident about the situation either when
Speaker 1: they went out and got Antonio Brown. As nefarious as
Speaker 1: that move was, they didn't do a good job protecting
Speaker 1: him with weapons. And what I think, what if I
Speaker 1: had to guess what happens here and how this plays out,
Speaker 1: is that he does come back, and maybe they do
Speaker 1: try via free agency or the draft to surround him
Speaker 1: with better talent and see if that solves the issue
Speaker 1: or at least slows down what seems to be happening here.
Speaker 1: But also there's absolutely case to be made that the
Speaker 1: writing is on the wall here. It's just it's never
Speaker 1: gonna be clean with the way these things that can
Speaker 1: We move on to the Titans for a minute, because
Speaker 1: the one it's as weird and a crushing loss this
Speaker 1: was for New England and what it might signify for
Speaker 1: a team that actually has a lot of work to
Speaker 1: do the Patriots, I think on the roster, this was
Speaker 1: a franchise altering win for the Titans, who I think
Speaker 1: in this era have been laughed at, chuckled at, seen
Speaker 1: as just a little bit above average. A totally special
Speaker 1: season by Derrick Henry. I mean, what he did, and
Speaker 1: that you knew their leading receiver was Anthony Ferksler with
Speaker 1: twenty three yards off two catches. If you knew, if
Speaker 1: you looked at the box score of the receiving crew
Speaker 1: for Tennessee, you would think they're gonna get knocked around here.
Speaker 1: And Tannehill was seventy two yards. It was Derrick Henry
Speaker 1: and nothing else. And I had two yards of pick
Speaker 1: in a fumblell We've seen this in New England before
Speaker 1: because look Blunt used to do it to the Colts
Speaker 1: all the time, where you go for a touchdown. I
Speaker 1: just thought that this was a huge moment from Mike Rabel.
Speaker 1: And the one thing I felt about the Titans this
Speaker 1: whole game, and really the Dolphins the week before this
Speaker 1: is the new approach to my tow to New England
Speaker 1: is these teams had literally no fear of the Patriots.
Speaker 1: The Titans had no fear of New England all and
Speaker 1: went in there and put it on them. That's concerning.
Speaker 1: It's not just Tom Brady or no Tom Brady. They
Speaker 1: have a lot of work to do on this roster, right,
Speaker 1: But I totally agree it was. It was one of
Speaker 1: the worst Patriots teams of the last twenty years, like
Speaker 1: they but it was a team that made a playoff run.
Speaker 1: I was sort of surprised, you know. I picked the
Speaker 1: Titans because I thought they were the much better team.
Speaker 1: I was sort of surprised how winnable this game was
Speaker 1: for the Patriots. I mean, the Titans offense scored fourteen points.
Speaker 1: The running back running wild over they had, they had
Speaker 1: nine possessions and they went fourteen points. I think the
Speaker 1: plan was essentially to take away the play action game,
Speaker 1: which you spoke about beautifully on our show West, and
Speaker 1: they totally did it, and they didn't contain Henry as
Speaker 1: much as they would like. But they also only gave
Speaker 1: up two touchdowns in nine drives, which to me against
Speaker 1: the Titans offense, I was sort of stunned to see it.
Speaker 1: And it took a lot of self inflicted errors by
Speaker 1: the Patriots. If Julian like the Julian Edelman dropped in
Speaker 1: the in the the last offensive drive that they have,
Speaker 1: which just ended the ended that drive, and he led
Speaker 1: the league in drops this year. He was more banged
Speaker 1: up than Tom Brady at the end of the year,
Speaker 1: which I thought hurt them as much as anything. Ton
Speaker 1: Shack Mason a legal man downfield, which took them out
Speaker 1: of field goal range. Michelle tackle for loss, like they
Speaker 1: they had a first goal at the one yard line
Speaker 1: and didn't score. A lot of that was like was
Speaker 1: self inflicted errors, although you should get I do give
Speaker 1: credit to Rashaan Evans of the Titans who made a
Speaker 1: couple amazing play. That was the first time in the
Speaker 1: Patriots era that they had first in goal uh from
Speaker 1: that distance and did not get a touch. That had
Speaker 1: never happened in their playoff history with Brady. By the
Speaker 1: way back to the Titans doing absolutely nothing in their
Speaker 1: passing game, uh Tanne Hill throws for seventy two yards
Speaker 1: there leading receiver Anthony firks or two for twenty three
Speaker 1: on three targets A J. Brown, who were yeah, we're
Speaker 1: anointing as a you know, all time great one for
Speaker 1: four on one target. Did he get hurt? Did I
Speaker 1: what it? Now? He had Gilmore on him against the
Speaker 1: best secondary. Problem with the best secondary. But that was
Speaker 1: one of the things I want to talk about before
Speaker 1: this game, that Davante Parker is a much different kind
Speaker 1: of receiver than a J. Brown. He's a catch, point, leaper,
Speaker 1: jump ball specialist and he wanted to catch point against
Speaker 1: Stephon gilmour Hey J Brown to run after the catchers
Speaker 1: and in to Tannehill's credit, I know eight for fifteent yards.
Speaker 1: The touchdown throw was a third and long was perfect.
Speaker 1: The third and nine to basically put the game away.
Speaker 1: Uh was also a big time play. And Belichick kept
Speaker 1: playing of the defense and it kind of you could
Speaker 1: see with the entire offseason plan that this was what
Speaker 1: they were hoping to do, and they just thought the
Speaker 1: offense would would be better than this because you could
Speaker 1: see it in the resources they brought everyone back and
Speaker 1: in a year that they no one really expected that
Speaker 1: to happen, to keep Hye Tower, to keep mccordy, to
Speaker 1: have all this money in their defense, not spend nearly
Speaker 1: as much in the offense, and you kind of look
Speaker 1: at a game like this and you see, well, I
Speaker 1: guess that could have worked. The offense just needed to
Speaker 1: not completely fall through the ground, and it did. By
Speaker 1: the way, Tom Steyer, you're running for president, I think
Speaker 1: we get it. How many ads do we need to
Speaker 1: see over the course of the two games on Saturday,
Speaker 1: I'm not I think I saw thirty ads for Tom
Speaker 1: Styre running for president. Want t yeah back five years
Speaker 1: ago when Greg used to be our boss and the
Speaker 1: editor downstairs in the newsroom. He jumped in on news
Speaker 1: really and he wrote this about Tom Brady's father, predicting
Speaker 1: how it would end. It will end badly. It does
Speaker 1: end badly, And I know that because I know Tommy
Speaker 1: wants to do. He wants to play until he's seventy.
Speaker 1: It's a cold business. And for as much as you
Speaker 1: wanted to be familial, it isn't right. He's forty two.
Speaker 1: I think that's I mean, I guess it doesn't get lost.
Speaker 1: But he won a Super Bowl at forty one, thirty nine,
Speaker 1: and thirty seven. It's like, what right, what are we
Speaker 1: expecting here? I'm with you. I kind of let him go.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't mind. I wanted him to retire last year.
Speaker 1: I would be love for him. You're protecting him. Who's
Speaker 1: throwing the ball? Bet or Tom Brady or Josh McCown
Speaker 1: this weekend? I think Josh McCown. Josh McCown had some lasers,
Speaker 1: one more tight his note And of course the Titans,
Speaker 1: Uh now draw the chiefs at Arrowhead? Now excuse me,
Speaker 1: the Titans get Baltimore. Uh tough sits for Baltimore. I
Speaker 1: think they would have loved come in there. One thing
Speaker 1: you need to know is that Derrick Henry has had
Speaker 1: sixties seven touches in the last two weeks. Can he
Speaker 1: keep it up, can they make him the focal point
Speaker 1: at that level? And can he stay healthy? That's really
Speaker 1: the question I have. You know, these names become holy
Speaker 1: to us, but he's playing Earl Campbell football for the
Speaker 1: last two months. He's just imposing his right. I think
Speaker 1: the Patriots thought we can tackle better than other teams,
Speaker 1: and they did for most of the game, but like
Speaker 1: not enough, Like you cannot contain that guy. Ross Tucker
Speaker 1: has been saying it for a while. He thinks he's
Speaker 1: the hardest, like physical man, like specimen tackle in NFL history.
Speaker 1: There's been no one that big, that fast, that can
Speaker 1: get to the outside like that. You know, Dan before
Speaker 1: This is just goes back to kind of just the
Speaker 1: professionalism that loses out of us. When we did a
Speaker 1: segment on True You Technology, we had a chance to
Speaker 1: pick any type of Titans play, but we picked obviously
Speaker 1: Derrick Henry because he felt he'd have a big impact
Speaker 1: on the affair totally right, and you have good analysis
Speaker 1: that Henry would be a factor. Well, you know, listen,
Speaker 1: sometimes you can't get too cute. And you should know,
Speaker 1: Greg speaking of class acts, that I do have the
Speaker 1: Patriots radio call to pick six. But I know you've
Speaker 1: been through a lot, so I'm not I bring it on.
Speaker 1: I want to hear it. You know what, the the
Speaker 1: only annoyance are gonna be nice to Gregg. He's going
Speaker 1: through a lot, and you can hear it in his voice.
Speaker 1: Let's play it. Let's play it, all right, let's play it.
Speaker 1: What the hell I didn't I wasn't going to but
Speaker 1: she knew. In short motion with the writers, pretty takes
Speaker 1: the stap fires underneath for balls chick intercepted by Logan Line,
Speaker 1: who hopped it at the end zone here on the
Speaker 1: postseason with nine seconds to go. Although it is a
Speaker 1: seven point game, if your Mike Gramble, do you go
Speaker 1: for two? I think you do? You go for two
Speaker 1: to score a touchdown? Profession exactly doing it right now
Speaker 1: into the end zone. It's still gonna be over when
Speaker 1: uh Jared's did him gets Adam Gates fired in Week
Speaker 1: six next year, And you guys, you can't hurt me,
Speaker 1: not tonight, right, not this weekend. I love the sandwiches
Speaker 1: on Jared' said him. By the way it is, I
Speaker 1: have to s incredible right now. I thought of you
Speaker 1: more like it was a little checky because I missed
Speaker 1: the beginning of this game way I had promised like
Speaker 1: a socker, watched for with Walker, and then the overtime
Speaker 1: in the first game was a problem, and so I
Speaker 1: ended up watching you know, the rest of it with
Speaker 1: my son and in UH catching up later. And I
Speaker 1: was thinking, like doing this recap with you bothers me
Speaker 1: a lot more than doing this like to the game.
Speaker 1: The game is fine. It's kind of a relief because
Speaker 1: this was clearly not a championship UH team, and we're
Speaker 1: not gonna be able to watch them next week in person.
Speaker 1: Let's move on. Just with the football, I would suggest
Speaker 1: that you try to experience an O N sixteen Brown
Speaker 1: season and being on the show with Emergency podcast when
Speaker 1: the coaches fired left and right, you know, everyone's giggling
Speaker 1: and having a great time. That's not a whole lot.
Speaker 1: And I just have to say, it really has been
Speaker 1: since two thousand and one that team in that quarterback
Speaker 1: has ruled the a f C East, and now these
Speaker 1: they've ruled the NFL, the a f C, but especially
Speaker 1: the division. If you're a Jets, if you're a Bills,
Speaker 1: if you're a Dolphins fan. It is unreal the chaos
Speaker 1: that is unfurled over the last two decades. It's such
Speaker 1: a strange feeling to to be watching that game and
Speaker 1: sensing that division is about to open up again. And
Speaker 1: I mean the Patriots might reload and still dominate because
Speaker 1: they have the best decision makers, but things are changing.
Speaker 1: Patriots world certainly possible. All Right, see that. I'm not
Speaker 1: rubbing it in Greg, It's just there. There is a
Speaker 1: bit of a celebration that cannot be um avoided because
Speaker 1: it's been very hard. It's been very hard. I feel
Speaker 1: for you. We like to see Rome burn. I mean,
Speaker 1: you want to see these epic thists. Been very lucky
Speaker 1: football fan. I've said that so many times. Do you
Speaker 1: mocked how many times I've said it? I mean, it
Speaker 1: is That's That's sort of where I'm at on an
Speaker 1: unprecedented level. All Right, we have one more game to
Speaker 1: talk about. It was a dundee bring back Dandy. It's
Speaker 1: back in the Sean calling for the ball on second
Speaker 1: and six with the Bills forty four. Here's the snap,
Speaker 1: Here's a blintz Watson in trouble. Watson escapes to the
Speaker 1: right side. On Watson close at the Jones Trent againstide
Speaker 1: forty thirty five thirty with twenty five time of the
Speaker 1: Tan yard line. What a play? Checkon does it again?
Speaker 1: He finds Taiwan kills her a huge catching long to
Speaker 1: get the Texas didn't feel call range? What a play?
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness. Mark Vandermere with the call for the
Speaker 1: Texas Radio Network guest DeShawn Watson. That magic is real,
Speaker 1: the magician. I don't know if that's a thing, but
Speaker 1: all right. Watson was at his best in the second
Speaker 1: half in overtime against the Bills, making plays with his
Speaker 1: legs with his arm, leading the Texans to two to
Speaker 1: nineteen comeback win at Araucas Reliance Stadium. They did a
Speaker 1: nice job in that building. They did a nice job.
Speaker 1: Watson's escape act and completion Taiwan Jones set up the
Speaker 1: game winner by Coami fairbaron Um with four thirty two
Speaker 1: to play in overtime. Greg According to one metric I
Speaker 1: saw on Twitter, the Bills had a chance of victory.
Speaker 1: At one point in this game, they're up sixteen nothing
Speaker 1: of course, but the Texans found away. Yeah, that didn't
Speaker 1: take josh Allen into account. I mean, Josh Allen has
Speaker 1: a way of looking like one of the best quarterbacks possible.
Speaker 1: In the first half, I mean, he played even his
Speaker 1: incompletions were great throws or right on the money, like,
Speaker 1: made good decisions, as athletic as possible, and did as
Speaker 1: good a chance, you know, as as if he was
Speaker 1: trying to lose the game. In the second half, he
Speaker 1: was a total disaster. And so doesn't take that into account.
Speaker 1: And it doesn't take into account Sean McDermott and the Bills,
Speaker 1: I think, not being as aggressive as they could be,
Speaker 1: uh in the second half because there's some there're somehow
Speaker 1: afraid of what Josh Allen might do and then having
Speaker 1: their worst fears realized and not having kind of another move.
Speaker 1: You know, everyone who loves Sean McDermott as a coach
Speaker 1: has to admit you coach for sixty minutes and coaching
Speaker 1: is about adjustments and ultimately, like Romeo Cornell and Bill
Speaker 1: O'Brien and mostly Deshaun Watson figured out the Bills defense
Speaker 1: enough and Josh Allen gave the Texans a chance to win.
Speaker 1: I mean, if he doesn't fumble to start the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: they win. I don't know what, like it wasn't the J. J.
Speaker 1: Watt sack suddenly gave everyone life. I mean they kicked
Speaker 1: the field goal? Was it? J J? What? This team
Speaker 1: was dead? But JJ? I get it, but that was
Speaker 1: I get it. But it was third I I hear
Speaker 1: you the crowd was, but it was third and ten there.
Speaker 1: All they did was not picked that up. They hit
Speaker 1: the field goal all and Josh Allen gets the ball
Speaker 1: back and they still are in total control of that game.
Speaker 1: And then he fumbles and that was pivotal. Sell that
Speaker 1: as if J. J. Watts play did not fire up
Speaker 1: his team, you're denying reality. I don't know what was
Speaker 1: the the Josh Allen play that I'll remember the most.
Speaker 1: But I've rarely seen any player collapse the way he did.
Speaker 1: You could point to the lateral uh at midfield in
Speaker 1: the final the game. Uh that was he got bailed
Speaker 1: out because of bounds. That of bounds got swatted out
Speaker 1: of bounds. How about the bomb into double coverage to
Speaker 1: the fullback. I've never seen that play before in my life.
Speaker 1: The decision making the kid was on tilt. And then
Speaker 1: even the play takes a grounding pedal, they were in
Speaker 1: field goal range. Uh. This is earlier in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: He takes an intentional grounding, then takes a sack and
Speaker 1: four sack and fourth and twenty six when he had
Speaker 1: two dropped interceptions in in that whole final sequence too.
Speaker 1: That would have ended the game before And I'll just
Speaker 1: say this, this isn't a popular takes. I know. The
Speaker 1: general consensus was that he was great in the first half,
Speaker 1: and he certainly had moments, especially with his legs, but
Speaker 1: there was also a drop pick six in the first
Speaker 1: half and a very near miss on a fumble. So
Speaker 1: it was just it became to me an idea of
Speaker 1: he was playing with fire in the first half and
Speaker 1: it seemed to be breaking his way, and then it
Speaker 1: all came tumbling down when the pressure came. And if
Speaker 1: I'm a Bills fan, I'm totally spooked after what happened
Speaker 1: in this I spent this game with Bills fans early
Speaker 1: on at a I think we have some footage if
Speaker 1: you're watching the YouTube show up at Buzby's West, which
Speaker 1: I went there ten years ago from NFL dot com
Speaker 1: story and it was a smaller room of Bills fans.
Speaker 1: This was like a six room party, and these people
Speaker 1: were high flying. And I do think that what they
Speaker 1: witnessed in the first half was a Bills team with
Speaker 1: an awesome plan and they did this. They got as
Speaker 1: much as they could out of their limited roster on offense,
Speaker 1: and Josh Allen, actually I thought it gave you a
Speaker 1: lot of hope for the future. And he's a danger
Speaker 1: to deal with when he's on. But what happened in
Speaker 1: the second half, to Greg's point is I thought that
Speaker 1: Brian Dable and Sean McDermott looked at sixteen nothing lead
Speaker 1: and stopped being aggressive when you know that Deshaun Watson
Speaker 1: is at some point gonna start to break through. As
Speaker 1: ugly as that first half was, you could just feel
Speaker 1: everything start to turn. And before he had that pass
Speaker 1: to Taiwan Jones, he made an increative before excuse me,
Speaker 1: before he ran for that incredible twenty yard touchdown run,
Speaker 1: which was the thing of beauty. He made a throw
Speaker 1: to DeAndre Hopkins where two guys came in and essentially
Speaker 1: destroyed him. And he had the grit to get the
Speaker 1: ball out perfect dart to Hopkins and that saved that drive.
Speaker 1: I just thought that Houston figured out their problems in
Speaker 1: time and adjusted, as you mentioned, where the Bills completely
Speaker 1: fell plannedless in the second half, you know, combined with
Speaker 1: their own mistakes. I thought the first forty minutes were
Speaker 1: like an extreme example of my vision for the game,
Speaker 1: where it was going to be the matchups and the
Speaker 1: Bill's favor, the coaching and the Bill's favor, and then
Speaker 1: for the last thirty minutes the text, the text and
Speaker 1: star power took over, and Dan's like extreme version of
Speaker 1: his vision for the game where J. J. Watt, to
Speaker 1: Dan's credit, like what a he does, show up and
Speaker 1: play a big game, and he had the big tackle
Speaker 1: for loss on Frank Gore in a big spot. He
Speaker 1: had a third down rush that caused a bad throw
Speaker 1: on Josh Allen in another spot. He was huge and
Speaker 1: in all the credit in the world to him to
Speaker 1: to go out and you know, sort of author his
Speaker 1: own history here to change the course of his team's season,
Speaker 1: and rushing back from an injury when people told him
Speaker 1: he wouldn't even be able to make it back and
Speaker 1: it seemed like he was only in on pass rushing
Speaker 1: downs early on, and then by money time, the guys
Speaker 1: on the field making big plays in the running game.
Speaker 1: The play, the Deshaun Watson play, and I think it's
Speaker 1: to me the signature play of his career so far. Now, uh,
Speaker 1: the Taiwan Jones completion and Jones the service credit too,
Speaker 1: because he made a guy miss and then rumbled. The Jones,
Speaker 1: by the ways, had one. He's been in the league
Speaker 1: since two thousand and eleven, one year where he had
Speaker 1: a hundred yards receiving. Every other year, it's down like
Speaker 1: zero nine eleven forty. I mean they moved into cornerback
Speaker 1: at one point. Watch watch that play again. I actually
Speaker 1: oake it down on slow motion. I sent down a
Speaker 1: tweet earlier today, so you have, uh, apologies for if
Speaker 1: I mispronounced the name. But Siron Neil coming on one
Speaker 1: end and on blitz the safety on the other side
Speaker 1: it's Matt Mulano. So Watson senses at the very last
Speaker 1: second Neil and steps up and and it goes from
Speaker 1: a kill shot to a glancing blow but still pretty
Speaker 1: hard hit. But then Mulatto comes and it's a straight
Speaker 1: shot right in Watson's grill and he just bounces off him.
Speaker 1: He literally, Matt Mulatto, who's a big dude, a professional athlete, Uh,
Speaker 1: bounces off Watson, who then spins out and makes the past.
Speaker 1: I've just I've never seen a linebacker run into a
Speaker 1: wall like that. He's see Sarron neil Is is twisting
Speaker 1: Watson and throws Mlano. I think if only one of
Speaker 1: those guys comes free, he probably gets sent. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's a remarkable play by one of the great athletes,
Speaker 1: and the and and they made the call the quarter
Speaker 1: of the coach, the college coach, Sweeney or Swinny. He
Speaker 1: was the guy that said, this is Michael Jordan's don't
Speaker 1: pass on him. That's Jordan's stuff. It really is, absolutely
Speaker 1: and I think that you're going to see that play
Speaker 1: when he retires, and you know, God willing he stays healthy,
Speaker 1: goes in the Hall of Fame. That is a nightmare
Speaker 1: scenario for Micah Hyde, who's one of their best players
Speaker 1: and just completely whiffs on Tawan Jones in the open field.
Speaker 1: That play kills Sean McDermott. I'm sure. But the third
Speaker 1: and eighteen that they picked up on a very simple
Speaker 1: over the middle to a running back earlier in the drive,
Speaker 1: to me, is the bigger kill, and that's I guess.
Speaker 1: To me, the whole game was a reminder it's so
Speaker 1: hard to win if you don't have a reliable passing
Speaker 1: game like that's it. If you do not have a
Speaker 1: quarterback that can hit a variety of routes in a
Speaker 1: passing game that does not rely you know, rely on
Speaker 1: a bunch of trick plays and your quarterback running and
Speaker 1: shot plays for a guy who's not that accurate. It's
Speaker 1: really hard to win. Because, as West said, they did
Speaker 1: so many different things. But when push came to shove
Speaker 1: at the end of the game, what were they doing.
Speaker 1: They were just running Josh Allen most of the in
Speaker 1: the key spots of the game late, and some of
Speaker 1: it worked. I mean he ran for yards. It certainly worked.
Speaker 1: Early they were saying, okay, let's go to the slant
Speaker 1: for John Brown. They were saying, like, let's have Josh
Speaker 1: Allen run. And that instinct is partly why he fumbled.
Speaker 1: I mean that was on a scramble and it was
Speaker 1: partly out of a lack of faith in their own quarterback.
Speaker 1: And then you get into a situation where you should
Speaker 1: be up by more than sixteen nothing and it's still
Speaker 1: two thousand nineteen, and defenses have a hard time keeping
Speaker 1: you down all game. And at one sequence, you know,
Speaker 1: when when the Texans are rolling, they go touchdown, field goal, touchdown.
Speaker 1: I mean the defense still did blow a sixteen nothing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're putting a tough situation to one little note on
Speaker 1: that Taiwan Jones throw, Mike Silver wrote a pretty gate,
Speaker 1: pretty gray, pretty sorry, pretty awesome right up on this thing,
Speaker 1: and he Watson noted that Kevin Johnson, who's on the Bills,
Speaker 1: knew the Texans signals. He was a former Texan secondary
Speaker 1: player and like basically had to work around the fact
Speaker 1: that he knew that this player knew exactly what he
Speaker 1: was gonna do. And that's how the ball wound up
Speaker 1: in Taiwan Jones hands. So unbelievable, Evan Singletary like his performance,
Speaker 1: Like you look at the box score and you wouldn't.
Speaker 1: I mean, it still was pretty great. It was over
Speaker 1: a hundred and thirty yards from scrimmage. That's Frank Gore
Speaker 1: getting nine carries in this game, or nine touches. Sometimes
Speaker 1: every time it is unbelievable. How many like broken tackles.
Speaker 1: This was like the ultimate Twitter changed their mind from
Speaker 1: like the first if you read Twitter for the first
Speaker 1: three quarters. Bill O'Brien's the biggest idiot ever. Sean McDermott's
Speaker 1: a genius, Josh Allen is amazing. Deshaun Watson took too
Speaker 1: many hits during the season. Yeah, which doesn't it By
Speaker 1: the way, You're you're sort of telling on yourself there,
Speaker 1: because they past protected great all season and Deshaun Watson
Speaker 1: played absolutely terrible for the Like, it's weird that Watson's
Speaker 1: one of these guys because of himself, right, Watson's one
Speaker 1: of these guys that, for whatever reason, like people are
Speaker 1: afraid to say, play better. He came out and the
Speaker 1: moment felt a little too big for him, like he
Speaker 1: was trying to go hero ball, and he had probably
Speaker 1: about the worst two and a half quarters. Yet they
Speaker 1: didn't have a hundred yards until midway through the third quarter,
Speaker 1: and a lot of it was him just kind of
Speaker 1: not taking what was there and taking sacks that he
Speaker 1: didn't need to McDermott. In addition to going for it
Speaker 1: on fourth and twenty seven at Houston's forty two yard
Speaker 1: line and giving Frank are all due respect, Gregg eight touches.
Speaker 1: The Cold had a really nice season. And I don't
Speaker 1: know if he's beat up or what, but Duke Williams
Speaker 1: out snapped Cold Beasley like what. I don't know. Williams
Speaker 1: played well, Yeah, but Beasley was a great guy for them. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And after all that, it was it was first and
Speaker 1: ten at the forty three for the Bills in overtime.
Speaker 1: I mean, there was so many game management in this
Speaker 1: game that was fascinating. The Bill O'Brien, I think did
Speaker 1: a good thing taking the field goal, uh, going for
Speaker 1: the fourth down to go down five that ended up
Speaker 1: paying off pretty well. The fact that he went for fourth,
Speaker 1: I mean, all they needed was a foot in the
Speaker 1: game was over. I was gonna go play that soccer
Speaker 1: game walker at the forty five minutes later, the game's
Speaker 1: still going. The kickoff returned or the kickoff that was
Speaker 1: a touchdown originally. Uh. I don't want to hear Bills
Speaker 1: fans complaining about that because they want a game earlier
Speaker 1: this year, when it was ruled that trade Avis White
Speaker 1: gave himself up on an interception that the Bengals would
Speaker 1: have won the game if it wasn't ruled that way.
Speaker 1: They know about this rule that it's the referees discretion
Speaker 1: when a when a player gives himself up, and Mike
Speaker 1: Praira even said on that kickoff return, as soon as
Speaker 1: the guy tosses the ball to the official officials, know
Speaker 1: that means you're giving it. It happens all of every
Speaker 1: It was kind of like a perfect start to what
Speaker 1: was one of the wildest second half and then overtime
Speaker 1: playoff periods we've ever seen. I mean that was it
Speaker 1: was like the perfect start to what was about to come.
Speaker 1: I just I don't want to get two down on
Speaker 1: Sha mcdermottoll because it's like this is a learning curve.
Speaker 1: You're learning how to get out of these big games.
Speaker 1: I find the Bills fans quietly went through a lot
Speaker 1: of like coach GM drama for a long long time,
Speaker 1: and they've got their building something. I think they've got
Speaker 1: questions at the quarterback situation, but I don't question the coach.
Speaker 1: I don't, but it's it was not a great I
Speaker 1: get not especially the kind of things that get you
Speaker 1: all fired up. Yes, and it's understandable, but the game
Speaker 1: management was not great, but it's still it's a good
Speaker 1: terrifect job. I just would worry that just because you've
Speaker 1: built something doesn't mean a you're gonna be back here
Speaker 1: very often, or be that the flaw the reason you
Speaker 1: lost this game is going to change at all, and
Speaker 1: you don't want to waste that. Well. I think if
Speaker 1: you're a Bills fan, or if you even if you're
Speaker 1: in the Bills proNT office, you have to be thrilled
Speaker 1: with how the season went, and you have to be
Speaker 1: thrilled that Josh Allen showed some development this year. Let's
Speaker 1: give Josh l the final word. Every every loss is personal,
Speaker 1: and um, you know, if I can go out there
Speaker 1: next you differently in hindsight, but there's some things we
Speaker 1: should have, you know, hit on um, you know and
Speaker 1: put that on my shoulders, especially with hell well our
Speaker 1: defense played today. So UM, teams go out there, their
Speaker 1: quarterbacks usually go and um, I gotta be better for
Speaker 1: this team. And now the Texans go to Kansas City
Speaker 1: where will Fuller West. Hypothetically we'll be back on the field,
Speaker 1: which they obviously didn't. They beat the Chiefs and Kings
Speaker 1: when we were in London, like they've been chasing that
Speaker 1: performance all year. That was kind of their high water
Speaker 1: mark of the season was that win. Like the Chiefs
Speaker 1: have improved, sincin the Chiefs have well, But the Chiefs
Speaker 1: are the only team to my point, there's no guarantee
Speaker 1: of being back there next year. They're the only team
Speaker 1: that was in the Divisional Round a year ago that's
Speaker 1: back like that. Like that is how hard it is
Speaker 1: to read, like seven of eight of the teams did
Speaker 1: not make that. It's honestly surreal that we're going to
Speaker 1: be following Divisional Round football and the Patriots aren't involved.
Speaker 1: Surreal and for you and for others, slightly delightful. I mean,
Speaker 1: fresh blood is good. Not every team at Andrew Luck
Speaker 1: ret higher also, but that didn't help the call. All right,
Speaker 1: So let's uh again. I've mentioned these games and passing
Speaker 1: so far, but here's the schedule for next weekend. Minnesota
Speaker 1: at San Francisco forty five on SAT. Today, the late
Speaker 1: game Tennessee at Baltimore eight fifteen Eastern kick on Sunday,
Speaker 1: Houston and Kansas City three oh five kickoff, and then
Speaker 1: the late game Seattle at Green Bay six Forty're gonna
Speaker 1: be a cold one in Lambeau potentially market Mark. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I I guess you know. They put
Speaker 1: the one game on the West Coast as an early
Speaker 1: game and like a a such a scenario in Green
Speaker 1: Bay where it's gonna be like one degree with wind
Speaker 1: chill up to like you know, four dred miles an hour.
Speaker 1: So have a nice time with that, Seattle. Can I
Speaker 1: make a quick announcement absolutely, We have a lot of
Speaker 1: listeners down under in Australia and they are really battling
Speaker 1: some brush friars there that have gone crazy. I think
Speaker 1: five hundred thousand animals have already been lost. Um, you're
Speaker 1: all in our thoughts. We hope the best for you.
Speaker 1: And if people out there want to give to help
Speaker 1: out some of these animals and people who need the money,
Speaker 1: and for the fire crews that definitely needs some money.
Speaker 1: Some avenues are the Rural Fire Service, Wires Animal Rescue
Speaker 1: and the Austra Alien Red Cross. There you go help
Speaker 1: those people out and need uh. We will be back
Speaker 1: on Tuesday with another edition of the podcast. As we
Speaker 1: turn our attention, we're down to eight Now More Dirt Naps, Mark,
Speaker 1: More Dirt Naps. Johnny Manziel's Pro Football Reference page open.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna ask him. We're down to seven games unless
Speaker 1: you count the granddaddy of them, all of the Pro
Speaker 1: Bowl eight. We don't have to cover it, so I
Speaker 1: don't count it. That's the way I look at it. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll be back Tuesday. Uh than Thursday, will preview Divisional
Speaker 1: Round And a reminder, yes, the Around the NFL broadcast
Speaker 1: on NFL Network is back for our second episode. See
Speaker 1: it's that's everybody could do one episode, but now we
Speaker 1: got to go back and figure out how to fill another,
Speaker 1: you know, twenty two minutes. That's the challenge we face.
Speaker 1: I think we'll figure it out. It's different. We uh.
Speaker 1: That's that's the one thing I learned in the first week.
Speaker 1: It ain't the same we uh we it. We are
Speaker 1: on YouTube live almost right after these games, and we
Speaker 1: will The time will be later next week because the
Speaker 1: game is later. It's a what a six forty Eastern start.
Speaker 1: But so if you don't want to wait until you
Speaker 1: get the podcast, you can't check it out. Almost right
Speaker 1: after the final Packers Seahawks whistle sounds and Greg, remember,
Speaker 1: don't be mad it's over. Be happy that it haven't
Speaker 1: had it all. I'm happy. Maybe I left. Tom Brady
Speaker 1: walks into that, you know, like the Football Life opening
Speaker 1: animation of the man in the shadows walking in the tunnel.
Speaker 1: That that's where we're at, the tunnel man, Ricky. Can
Speaker 1: we get some Football Life music? Okay, she's not gonna
Speaker 1: play along with that. This is it, that's it, Let's
Speaker 1: go home. Dan hands a signing off for Quiet Storm,
Speaker 1: the mail Man. Yell, Boss Ricky, Hollywood, Ryan Bartlett and
Speaker 1: everybody behind the glass. Thank you till Tuesday.