2021 Super Wild Card Weekend Recap - Westivus

he took care of business time. Sometimes the money drop is like perfectly timed for the night dropping it when you just put a forty burger on the line, doesn't It's like our producer watched like the first like minutes of the late game on Sunday and said, oh, that will work the Steelers win. It's a conversation starter. And when I'm going through all the lists of money drops and how they're labeled, I'm like, Patrick Mahomes has a couple of turnovers, but you guys have zero because you're

perfect all the time. Well we so we don't don't clinically have the look at like this sort of hot topic that was sent in around week eight. Let's use that one. Let's go yeah. But also also this, I thought you'd be like, Okay, hey, this is a perfect way to start Patrick Mahomes. How many turnovers did he have tonight? And it'd be like he didn't he had a way better getting like you, you could have rolled

with it. So you wanted us to lead with one of the more like least noteworthy games of the weekend. It's a one off. Also, it's a compliment to you guys. You guys don't have any turnovers. I feel, so we should just start the show over. It almost feels like, I mean, I don't know how we dig out of this hole. Speaking of turnovers, a Ricky turnover to start the show. Um, Erica, thank you. I see. Don't stop dreaming with your dreams because they're very they're important. This

dream is dead. This dream turned out to a nightmare for the rest of the audience and us. But we're gonna push forward. Wild Card Weekend in the books. There's of course, one more game to be played in this round of the playoffs, Cardinals Rams on Monday night. But all the weekend games are in the books, and we will dig in on every one of them. Some really good stuff. Um to get through here, not a week mark, not a weekend of incredible upsets necessarily, but memorable moments

for sure. Yeah, yeah, I mean, it's three of the games were um, they were all watchable because it's the playoffs and they feel a little different but totally non competitive. Uh to the other two, I don't know, there's something obviously be nostalgic we can get into about the Bengals uh situation. And the Cowboys Niners game, to me was

thoroughly enjoyable and honestly aesthetically beautiful. Between the uniform matchup and the way that the sun splashed field presented itself to the viewer, I thought it was a perfect a perfect time of day to play that game. Although the sun did obviously cause stands yeah blinded at the home team's receiver on a crucial third down and the giant video wall knocked down a punt by the It totally

stopped the Cowboys drive that really accepting that they should canto. Yeah, it was, you know, it's like a a mediocre wild card weekend. It happens. I think you had two good games, one very interesting game forty Niners Cowboys, which I don't know if it was a classic, but it was interesting, and I think the Bills Pats actually qualified as into my theory that some blowouts are entertaining, Like you will

remember that perfect I agree on that. I agree on that right that game like that, I don't think that game was a worse game than Bengals Raiders necessarily like it provided a lot and then to two sleepers. I never like quite like bought into the theory that you guys put out there about how blowouts can be a lot of fun. Until the Patriots were on the wrong side of one in prime time on Saturday. You were enjoying that so much. I mean, we were all texting, and I was like Dan is rolling right now and

just adoring this experience that blowout. Sometimes where I love about it, there's just utter dominance unfurled on. Someone stop

it with that sound. But and we and we just went through, um our first regular season without West and and Saturday obviously began our first postseason without him, and I thought there was just, uh, something like cosmically so right about how it all the way all things work together here and um and it it turned into the Bengals kicking things off in the traditional West of his

time slot. Uh. And obviously it was kind of like a nod to West's memory, but also something I don't know, Man, it was beautiful how the idea of what West of His was transformed on Saturday because, Uh, it kind of started with West and from this the cynical celebration of Bengals futility, and then West shared that with the world and it became like one of the more enduring bits

on the podcast. Uh two, you know, this celebrating this exciting young ascendant team, this organization that West fell in love with as a boy, and it kind of that's it was the Bengals of the old days that made West love football. And all of a sudden, they're playing in this game, Greg and they're winning the game, and Cincinnati is celebrating, and the head coaches walking through local bars handing out game balls, and it just felt so perfect.

Uh when you think about West and that, that is, uh, that's the biggest memory for me, and I'm sure you guys as well. Yeah, next week, they're right back in the West of the slot first first Saturday. I mean, I guess it's not West of Us anymore, but you could have like you could have run that the simulation of where they put these games a million times. And they're putting Bengals Titans in the first Saturday afternoon slot. That's yeah. I don't know. I don't know. I don't

know what I figured we're getting. We're getting to the Bengals game. Honestly, I was like I enjoyed it, but I also was pissed, Like I had a hard time with it. I think this month is gonna be hard on some level. I mean that's just you know, being real, Like, like I I enjoyed the Bengals of it all. They're a fun team and it was fun. It's fun to text with Nick and everything. But I'm also just like pissed, you know, pist he's not here to enjoy it. And you know, you see the picture of Link like Link

like that is bitter sweet. And in one picture, I look at that picture of Link, He's so beautiful, wearying that Bengal shore. I just wish, you know, Chris is sitting there, sitting there watching it with them. But it's it's we're all we're all rooting for the Bengals. Now, we're all Bengals fans. I think one thing about it. You know, we all wore the white shoes that we wore at West's wedding and texting with Phil and Nick throughout the day. Um it added layers to it, and

I'm with you. I mean, obviously we all agreed that there's this intense sort of bitter sweet nature to it. But like Lukisha was rooting so hard for the Bengals that it's just um even seeing on Twitter people responding to a couple of west of Hiss tweets, it's just like this continues to be someone who's impact. I think he never would have even understood. He would have never imagined it would be as big as it was, and it it goes beyond the opponents, the games, the time

slot or anything. And I can't help but think that wherever west is, like, there's a little bit of you know, he might be might have had a football got in the headlock to make this happen, and I kind of love that he did. It's funny too, because it's been five years since the Bengals actually made it to the playoffs.

So it was a tradition for four Street years early in our podcast, uh and it's been so long and yet like the strength of the branding has has lasted with five years of no west Of this is until this, un til this And you know, if you know Lakisha at all, she's a spiritual woman. And you know, ever since West passed, she's made note of butterflies around her. Uh and the the cameras actually catch butterflies on the field.

A butterfly on the field when Evan McPherson was out on the field attacking on points for the bank Lets, it was just kind of like, man, yes, it's it's it's it's messed up that West isn't with us, but it's just it's it's nice to think about him, um and um and remember him and how much he meant to all of us. So that was a butterfly in like twenty one degree weather. Um does feel kind of spiritual to me. That's not a normal hangout for a butterfly.

So there's something bigger going on here. That was a good breakdown. What do they call what is the study of insects? Etymology? I believe so, but not my field. So we're gonna throw it to you on the etymology corner throughout today's episode. We're gonna get into all the games.

Definitely is it etymology? Maybe I don't know, you should, um, So why don't we start right here on Saturday with the Cincinnati Bengals hosting their first playoff game and sometime and looking for their first win in thirty one years. Here come the Raiders. Let's dig in the play clock at three shotgun snap car throws down the traffic. N inter Septs. Jermaine football now Sam bam bam, how about that? Love it? Oh? Yeah, of course the bond goes with the Bengals. Dan Horde w c k Y and that.

You know, that's one of my favorite tropes of the radio guys, when the color guys are just screaming. They they're no longer doing their job on a fundamental level, and they're just cheering in the press box wildly. I love it, Dave Lap them doing that. Jermaine Pratt sealed it with the fourth down interception of the final seconds, sealing the first playoff victory in thirty one years for the Cincinnati Bengals nineteen over the Las Vegas Raiders in

the wild card opener from Cincinnati. Joe Burrow led the way for an efficient offense. They scored on six strives, and when the offense stalled in the fourth quarter, the defense rised up just in time, raised up just in time to ensure that first victory in thirty one years mark, Um, because the Raiders were involved. It wasn't gonna be easy, because the Raiders showed us time and time again over these last five weeks that they were going to be game and hang around. But in the end, the better

team won this game. Yeah, And I think it's clearly the team that I was ready to see move on because I know that the Bengals had their troubles on offense. Uh in this I mean Borrow early On looked dialed

in and was throwing some beautiful passes. Jamaar Chase had a big game, but it seemed like they became a little bit more unhinged as the game went on, and in the Las Vegas defense responded, I'd like to see you know next week that the Bengals aren't kicking field goals from the thirteen, twelve and ten yard line, that they complete those drives. I think they will, Um, But I mean I come out of it a little concern for them on defense too, because Trey Hendrickson, who was

such a difference maker, left with a concussion. Mike dan Els was hurt, Larry Ogan job and I think that changed that tender of the game a little bit. Too, because they were so reduced on defense, and we don't really know exactly what's gonna happen with those three guys too. But I'll let you guys unfold the whole Whistlegate business.

I mean, the game turned truly bizarre, and I mean, honestly, is it I thought, speaking of west of this because it looked early on like it was just gonna be a Bengals roll on, roll on to victory type scenario. It got a little too close for comfort, and I thought it just started to have a West of His field to in the third quarter going onto the fourth until they closed the job. I would like to see them not have to punt the ball inside two minutes also and give the ball back to the Raiders for

what almost became a topsy turvy game winning drive there. Yeah, I thought Zack Taylor got a little tight in the second half. You know, there's a couple of times he he punted. He chose to you know, run the ball instead of really trusting Burrow to to finish the game out um on you know, first and second down with a couple of minutes to go. The Raiders have to look at this game as a missed opportunity. I mean, you're playing you're playing a team that couldn't rush the

passer all day, including with Hendrickson. I mean, they had a couple of plays early, but for the most part they weren't getting pressure on and the second half was was as little pass rush as you'll see out of an NFL team for half of a game. That that what you'll see in an entire year. I mean, there was literally no pass rush. You're missing, They're missing all these players, and the Raiders still couldn't punch it in. I know it's they've overachieved, but they were like a

sloppy team. They were terrible in turnovers and penalties for the whole year. And Derek Carr knows you don't get chances like this too often. This was his first game in a long career. UH. And I think as great as they they played to get there, at least like as much guts they showed, I think they'll look at this as a missed opportunity, like this was a game they could have won. The play the Mark is talking

about is uh. Late in the first half, Joe Burrow rolls right to avoid pressure as he's closing in on the sideline, he gets the ball off, Um, you hear a whistle and uh, the whistle was I guess Burrows stepping out of bounds. Tyler Boyd catches the ten yard passed in the back of the end zone, builds it

to lead, and we love Mike Rico. Uh, and we don't love Drew Brees so much, who had a rough playoff debut, I thought in the booth, But the the NBC team goes silent on the issue, even though everyone's thinking the same thing, including Ricky Hollywood, who texted us moments before they came back on air fifteen minutes later and said, oh, by the way, yeah, there was a

whistle thing. And they throw to the referee in the in the booth and he says, yeah, that should have been a dead ball at that point because they're there though no one heard it there like that. I think that was why they're in the crowd. I think I think Breeze said he heard it. I think he said he heard it after the fact, and I have the day of the television copy too. I mean, I get why the crowd would and they got people in their ear. They have a whole truck and it was a terrible

job by the broadcast, let's face it. But here's the one thing I think a little a little bit overblown because the whistle was so late and strange that it wasn't right when he was down the sideline. It was when the ball was out of his hand, it was already crossed the plane of the goal line. Boyd was just about to catch it. I don't think it changes anything, uh, personally, and I don't when I think about the Raiders, like should they have won this game and they got screwed?

That's not how I look at It's just unfortunate that the officials had such a poor game. Well they had such a bad game that the Jerome Boger crew. And you know, Dan, I thought you had a great comment because we've talked about this before when we were texting that why did they cobble these playoff crews together as a reward for the best officials, because who was not rewarded? We aren't like that was the sloppy ist playoff game

official rating wise in a while. And I mean it was just they seemed to be so out of sorts. I mean, honestly, if they were just to blow the whistle because they thought he was out of bounds. The replay is not show him even being close to out of bounds. Secondly, right, there's an emphasis with these refs, you know, especially because it's so controversial and we can replay everything. Don't blow the whistle in these situations because let replay or something else take care of it. It

was just the box job. I thought it was a bad situation for the Raiders, but I'm with you. I don't know if it totally changed the game because he wasn't out a bounds. I'll use like a basketball analogy here, and let's use the MILW Milwaukee Bucks ins there defending champions, Like, would you rather take the starting five of the Bucks having played together all season in a one and done playoff game, or just like a collection of like some of the best players in the conference to go against

the Bucks for one game. Now, maybe that collection of great players beats the Bucks, but there's something to be said for a crew working together all season and all the rhythms that go through that. That's it that always

struck me as odd. But there's there's also something to be said for not giving Jerome Boger a playoff game which he almost never gets I didn't I wouldn't have known those off of grading though, isn't it why we only had a handful over the over the years, and and I guess almost never like to the divisional round is when they start um advancing. By the way, etymology is the study of words. I knew, I knew something seems wrong. Entomology. You guys misheard me, I said, entomology. Okay,

there we No, I didn't know that. I almost got it right. That counts. It's like a Mark Sesssler prop bet it's almost buried us in this text thread to the right of my screen here saying that I forgot the end. I was just, yeah, that's my mark, my vouch, alright, I just you know, I just anyway, so uh yeah, so you have that situation. But ultimately, you know, Zach Taylor, like I agree, Greg, he got a little tight there.

They ran the ball twice when they had a chance to kill the game, and then didn't convert on third down, kick the ball away, and then not only do they give up a comp Leshan right away for fifteen yards, they also get a late hit, so all of a sudden blank, it's thirty yards and the Raiders are at the thirty five um of the Bengals. But you gotta give Cincinnati credit. They stepped up, they got the stop

at the end, and it really did. It set off like a It's interesting because last year the field good story was the Browns and in the city of Cleveland, UM, and now this year it's almost like Cincinnati has taken that spot where people are really appreciating that city and that the underdog nature of it and how they had been the lesser than for so many years in that division, and now it feels like there's a lot of public sentiment behind the Cincinnati and the Bengals as a team

to get behind in the a f C. I thought they also, I mean, you know, I've kind of in the past because when your team is winning three games a year, it might not be the most rough and tumble throng of viewers of all time inside the stadium, they have not been a place that you were scared to go play. I thought they made life very difficult

for Derek Carr yesterday UM obviously was super emotional. Was the biggest Bengals home crowd for a playoff game ever, and I kind of thought had the same thought as you, Dan, like, wow, I kind of wish things could have flipped, not for the Browns but for West who one of the last shows we did with him was after that Brown's playoff game, that he could have Witnen witnessed this instead of that. I mean, he was very um, you know, kind about all that, and I think he knew what it meant

to me into the show to some degree. But I would rather have him see a Bengals win than a Browns win. That The Bengals crowd was awesome. I mean, they made a huge difference. Car was pretty rattled. Car really finished the season. I think struggling. I wouldn't say Saturday was his worst game, but it was more like the things that you think of him as strengths, poise, you know, ability to control the you know what's going on at the line of scrimmage, things like that that

he was struggling with. Whether it was like delay of games, not getting the plays out, like managing the situations, throwing short of the sticks by the way on the last play of the game. I mean, that's kind of unforgivable. Um. He ended up with sixteen turnovers and twelve touchdowns in his last eleven games, so that's like a pretty long stretch. And there was a report from Ian rappaport Uh that his future will be tied to the next coach. And the way I read that is, you know, the ownership,

Like who else is that even talking about? You know what I mean? Like that has to be coming from the highest of levels and ownership there has been I think the key to why car has been part of these reports year after year. I mean Gruden was part of it too, but I mean literally, Mark Davis spoke publicly about wanting to get Tom Brady in front of Derek Carr a couple of years ago. I'll never I'll

never forget that. And the fact that these reports are coming out it's just like one more quarterback to throw on this pile and maybe none of them get moved. But the fact that raps sheet put that report out before this game, not after, but before this game, Um, I don't think it's it's not come me out of nowhere. I mean, that's a good, that's a good like scoop and nugget for Ian to put out there on game day.

But like then you take a step back and think, all right, let's say the Raiders don't want to have Derek Carr on their team anymore because he's the reason why they're not a better team. Who's the upgrade from Derek Carr for them? It doesn't sound like Russell Wilson's going anywhere anyway. We have plenty of time to talk about what happens next to that team. Let's hear from Zach Taylor, who, by the way, that was not I

wasn't exaggerating. He actually late into the night was going to different Cincinnati bars, handing out game balls and giving speeches to drunk Cincinnati. Uh, what do you call Cincinnatians Cincinnata taie? Oh? I like that etymology. I don't know, let's play that ricky for some of them made on understand the significance of what happened today. I think this this city can finally exhale and just enjoy this team for what it is and take that pressure off those

those last thirty one years. And you know, I think that's today was significant for a lot of people. Alright, So Cincinnati moves on. They get the Tennessee Titans. As Greg said in the early window, Saturday one thirty pm kickoff from Nissan Stadium in Nashville, and uh, we'll see where the public is. I wonder where the desert is. Greg I'm gonna say, let me see early line. Let's say close close to a pick them. I'll say one and a half. Tennessee's laying one and a half. I

think it's well, no, yeah, the Tennessee. I think by three that's coming down. People are gonna get people are hot about the Cincinnati team. I think it was actually two and a half and at least initially, and then it's moved up to three at least one little one little nugget um for those who for those Cincinnatians or whatever we're calling them. Do you want to know the three bars that he went to Zach Taylor? Yeah, of course, like died bars. We'd like to hear about that stuff.

It was the Pontiac, it was Walt's hitching Post and Mount Lookout Tavern nice we um we uh, like I said, haven't had a West of us in five years, but we I think we did four different podcasts on the West of this weekends. Usually they come on the Sundays, and we do have a clip from from West from the last one. This was the west of Us to

end all west of him. I mean, you could not script a more fascinating ending unless it was that if Vontes Perfect wasn't touched down and he really did just run out the end zone and get penalized, that would have been the best way to end it. But like

all the way to the locker room. But this was a pretty good ending, just the total and comprehensive meltdown of discipline from two players who have been known to have meltdowns of disciplines in the in the past, and Vontes Perfect, who plays out of control frankly and I think has been for a couple of years the dirtiest player in the NFL. He left to kill Perfect, he did, and he said it right the West said right there in the west of us to end all west of usiness.

So maybe that was the final chapter there and it's now turned into something else. We love you, Chris Westling. All right, let's move on. We have more games to get to, So coming up next, we're gonna move to the Sunday slate and the game in Dallas who the Shanahan's are flying. Two receivers go left and curtain Tony politic to designed roun for Dak Prescott thirty five gets it from behind by Ze south Shire. I gotta get up and clock the ball five four three two Dach.

We'll go on to get it off in time. One second to go to the spike cap all in time he did out. The forty Niners have won the game. What do you got, Alex Camp? Did he spike it in time? Forty Niners are Jimmy Ward's got his helmet. Offer to the celebrate, Alex Camp? Is the game over? Let's end of the game. Hey, it was over. The forty Nighters of one. They're on their way to Lambo. Oh my goodness, Greg Papa with a call, K and

b are with tim Ron in there. Yes, Dac on a design running play, runs up the middle, slides down. They spot the ball, but it was the Cowboys that spotted the ball. Not a game official the game Pitsial has to run up, he taps the ball. He's getting in the way of everything, and by the time they finally get the snap off, it was triple zeros and the Dallas Cowboys at home once again come up short and a huge spot. The forty Niners hold on for win over America's team, who go yet another year without

a Super Bowl appearance. I think it's up to seven now. Greg This always profiled as a bad matchup for the Cowboys because the forty Niners, the way they played the game, the victory they were coming off against the Rams. But for the for the most of this game, I think what really struck me was just how much better the forty Niners looked than Dallas, which is kind of a role reversal from what most of the season was. Right,

it was not two teams that looked evenly matched. You know, for most of the game, you know, the forty Niners average two more yards for play than the Cowboys. That that changed a little bit towards the end, but it almost further highlighted the game management fiasco at the end because it was on both sides. I feel like that that ending was kind of perfect for this game because it was both teams struggling in terms of situational football. For for the Cowboys, it was mostly penalties, I mean

just crazy penalties. The Randy Gregory penalty I know on Sky that kept the forty Niners on the field, all the holding calls that took back big plays by the Cowboys. But in that final situation, I do kind of want to start there since that's where the play is. What what is going on? Like it is it is sort of like a cliche. I don't know if this is true,

but they always say this, players always say this. It's like if it's under sick, if it's under sixteen seconds or so, then you gotta get it out of it, Like you don't end up running another play inbounds, Like you don't feel comfortable that you're gonna have enough time to get up spike it in all of that, and for him to for Dack to do that on a design run from the forty when they had fourteen seconds left made no sense at all, because you could have

gone to hail Mary's there or whatever you wanna call two throws into the end one so you get two bites at the apple in that situation, or if you want, you could try to move it forward two different times. You could have gotten three plays in there by going to the sidelines. And yet that like it was just a totally illogical play. All right, Do you want to hear from Mike McCarthy on this, because Zaddie Mac had something to say about what they were thinking here. Let's

listen to Daddie Mac. It's like anything else you do. You want to be running a hail Mary play from the fifth year old lid or you want to be running five verticals from the l So that's the decision. It's the right decision. Um, you know, it's just like anything. It's you know, the execution between us and the officiaty spotting the ball obviously wasn't into it wasn't you know, we shouldn't have had any problem get the ball squatted there, Well,

just there you're looking for. So Mark McCarthy saying, there we we knew what we were doing. This is McCarthy. This is McCarthy. Always makes these little lines like when people do that, like you weren't at the fifty years. In fairness, I think he's saying, once you finish the seventh step drop back or however far you have to set up a hell Mary, you're throwing at fifty yard air yards. But Mark at the same time, like he's not giving any inch here, he's putting the game on

the officials entirely, entirely there. I don't think that was the right play. I thought their response, UM, Dak Prescott's postgame presser and and just most especially Mike McCarthy's. UM told me so much about the Cowboys. I heard no accountability. It's it's blame, it's looking elsewhere. Um, this was a totally bizarre final play. Mike Silver said. It was called

by Kelln Moore. I mean, I think the thing is, if you're Dak Prescott, if anything, you slide earlier, you get the ball spotted, spiked, and bang you go from there. But I'm with you, Greg, I just think you take as many shots as you can at the end zone. And it capped off a totally sloppy performance, where again it raises questions for me about Mike McCarthy. You seemed totally out of his element. I know he gets a lot of you know, fire, but at this point, it's like,

what this This was the biggest moment. Jerry Jones called it the worst, one of the worst losses he can ever recall it. It's like, I know, he's all hyperbole, but this was meant to be the team that was never gonna do this, and then all from the first minute on it felt like a total collapse job. It

wasn't this kind of predictable. I mean, you and I pick the Niners for that reason, because it's not just well, yes, the Cowboys as an entity or have been prone to this for decades now, but even this team, the way they played down the stretch, it always felt like this was in them to come up small in a moment

like this, like they were a flat track bully. And now here are the big bad San Francisco for the Niners who go into the building with ninety thousand people going nuts and say, we don't care, We're not afraid of these guys, and they go right down the field, score, go right down the field, score again. And to Dallas's credit, they at least were able to stop the bleeding enough to make it a game again. And Jimmy g played

a role in that. He played overall solid game, but through another one of those Garoppolo picks that I think is eventually gonna get him killed, one of the you know, down the stretch in the playoffs this year, Garoppolo will make a mistake that end San Francisco season, but not yet, because the Cowboys weren't able to come back and really make the Niners pay. I think with Greg without without

stressing the Dallas side of things too much. I think that's such a juicy storyline to take out of this game. Just the utter flatness that they showed up for a playoff game with all, after all the build up through the season. It was just so on brand and so disappointing. Right, Well, this was a forty Niners defense game to me, and and that is showing the Cowboys offense to be the front runners that you're talking about. Like if the if the match up here was Cowboys offense, you know needs

to carry the day. They were no match for most of this game for San Francisco's defense, which locked lost Nick Bosa fairly early. He was having a good game early leaves with a concussion, and the defensive line for the forty Niners terrorized them. I mean they hit. I mean this this felt like a playoff game. They were hitting.

The Cowboys defense I thought was pretty physical too. They settled down once they got almost a little over aggressive, and Shannah had had some great play calls and Jimmy g and and some conservatism by Shanahan helped them stay in it. But like they were hitting, and until the very end of that game, the Cowboys offense never got going.

I mean, this was supposed to be the strength of their team, Dak Amari Ceedee Lamb going up against some guys on the outside for San Francisco who should be attackable, and yet Dak just didn't have the time. Dak wasn't very accurate, like, wasn't making good decisions, didn't have time back there, and they were just bum rushed. It wasn't It didn't feel like they were. They were too evenly matched teams. You would not have thought that the Cowboys

were the favorites or in the home team. And I think you got Deebo Samuel emerging again as the most watchable player in the league. I mean, they just use him in fascinating ways. He's so powerful and I know that interception was such a on brand mistake by Jimmy g but he early on, especially on third down like two, Juan Jennings and others just made a couple of super money throws and some great catches to Brandon Aiyuk. That whole crew played at their best. Where someone who is

who you know? How do we explain how Ceedee Lamb was essentially kidnapped before the game. The guy is a no show in this performance, and all week long it's talking about how the Cowboys wide receivers are going to dominate San Francisco. It makes total sense and it doesn't happen at all. It's like San Francisco is more than some other parts on defense. But yeah, Deebo Samuel, it's amazing sing It's hard to do this. He scores a touchdown every week, whether it's as a receiver or as

a rusher, sometimes as a passer. He's a remarkable player. And it's like, yeah, you you miss most you miss Nick Bosa for most of this game. Uh, George Kittles

held to one catch, and yet you still dominate. So you have to feel really good as a forty Niners fan coming out of this game that you this could be a potential uh deep run in the playoffs, because I don't I don't really imagine as we look ahead at their schedule, they're heading to Green Bay, UH and they'll be playing uh primetime on Fox on Saturday night. I don't think that's a team that goes into Green

Bay and is intimidated. I think I think the only thing that holds them back is is Garoppolo able to keep up with Aaron Rodgers. He doesn't have to keep up, but limit the mistakes because the rest of the team is peaking at the right time. On offense and defense, they're really dangerous right now. Right the the offense seems to play good for about a half at a time. Yeah,

that's been for a month. Three the Tennessee game, the Houston game, the Rams game, this game, it's tough to get four quarters out of this offense, especially with Jimmy g He could have put the game away with that. With overthrowing Ayuk who was wide open earlier in the fourth quarter when they took the false start to give the Cowboys the ball back like that was him being a little to just jumpy and not letting his offensive lineman get set before the snap, and they take a

penalty there. So their offense, to me, has great athletes and they can put together a good half. But I think what's making them special right now is their defense and their coaching. Their defensive coaching specifically, like Damiko Ryan's called the blitz at at the perfect time there at the end of that game. But there's something about the way that they coach guys up front really in the front seven that year after year, it doesn't matter who it is, like you bring in a guy like Abacom

ends up making a huge impact. They bringing oh Omena who from Houston. Halfway through the season. He had an awesome game. Armstead was awesome. Dre Greenlaw, who's been good for them miss the entire season, came back two weeks ago. Alsha here. Fred Warner like to me, that's kind of where they won this game. They and that's where you could, you know, keep the Packers under wraps at least next week. Two uh. Before we move on to telecast related notes.

One UH, CBS gets Jimmy Garoppolo immediately after the game tra Tracy Wolfson does the interview and Jimmy G's and full Patriot waye mode says nothing interesting, and then as soon as the interview ends, they keep the camera on him with the parabolic mics around and Garoppolo screaming into the stands we own this place, this is our house.

I just love It's funny. You would say nothing into the microphone, but when the cameras right on him fourteen seconds later, he's screaming that the Niners now own Geral World and my other telecast note is, uh, can we get Jay Feely out of here? Can I just can I play my favorite? My favorite? I'm sorry, Greg, I don't want to step on the toes of anyone in your industry, but can can we listen to Jay Pheeley's

analysis on field goals today? All right, Jay, he's already made one from outside fifty This is fifty two this time. Hopefully you didn't jenk some Jim talk, Jim talking about how successful he's bad. There's a kid, and the gold rush continues for San Francisco. Nance is waiting. He makes a comment about jenx ing and then Nance leaves the mic open. Jay say something, who are throwing it to

you for some type of information? Nothing? Nothing? Isn't part of the problem that like a separate analyst just to discuss field goals. I know that's a specialty and that's how the US and it's like I get it, it's okay, but like the topic does not stir my imagination to begin with. I don't need a separate analyst to come

in and hit me with that. Like, now, that's different than the Kickers of Kickers club is interesting and it's well, it was it's like, Okay, we thought, you know, they put Pereira on the game that was that was a great idea, and now you've got the rules experts on everything. So they're trying to go to the next I think they could use an analytics person if it was the right person in some spots, that could be something. But they tried to get cute with this kicking thing with Feeley,

and it's it's not. Well, it's possible too, and I don't want to pile on Jay Feely. It's possible of maybe another former kicker was doing the same job. You might get something out of it. I just think it's yeah, it's just it's too niche, Like I don't need it in my ear during the game necessarily. I can Kyle say, Anyhan, you're such a good he's such a good coach, like such a good play color obviously good at like the organizational aspect, because I think it's a credit to him

that the coaching staff does so well. If I know he's not a defensive coach, but like the fact that he's restocked that group and they that's he gets credit for that too. But let's go for some four than ones now and then I mean, you're early in the game, they have the Cowboys on their heels and he instead of you know, going for fourth and one so close in the red zone, he kicks a field goal, and then late in the game, where you basically need a yard to put the Cowboys away, he punts it back there.

It would be one thing if your offense wasn't rolling, but but they were. Let's let's uh. I wonder if they and him are weirdly conservative when it comes to that. I wonder if that's sometimes, you know, Mike Shanahan, his father in his head, you know, a little bit more old schoolly, because it certainly flies in the face of

what we're seeing from almost everyone else there. Working out to him and McVeigh, it ended up working out because they Dac missed on that deep shot to Cedric Wilson, which that would have if he could connect on that. That's a huge play. Who was under pressure obviously, But before that, yeah, they're at midfield, fourth and one, Deebo Samuel sneezes and he gets three yards. Like, let's just let's not overthink this. In the future, Kyle, you gotta

be a little more aggressive on offense. But who we to say that the Niners now have eleven wins, feeling good going into Lambeau. All right, let us move on. These games are saucy and now let's head to Orchard Park where a blood bath went down. The snap Josh gonna throw. It takes three steps back, has all day long to scan the field, waiting. Waiting still has time, runs to his right. Now he's pressure, gets away from it, fires one into the end zone and it is caught.

Dawson Knox makes the catch in the end zone. It's at Buffalo touchdown. How did he make that happen? Josh Havon had forever to wait for Dawson Knocks to come open. Touchdown, Buffalo. That's how it started, and it just never stopped for the Bills. John Murphy with the call w g R. Josh Allen set a team playoff record with five touchdown passes,

including two to Dawson Knox. Devin Singletary ran for two scores in the first half, and the Bills put on one of the greatest offensive clinics you'll ever see postseason or otherwise. At seventeen decimation of the rival Patriots in the wild card playoff game. This is the crazy thing, Greg, Let's start here, because the Bills rang up four hundred and eighty yards of offense on fifty one snaps before

Mitch Drobinsky finished the game with three kneel downs. This is one of those games where it's so historically dominant that there's just tons of stats. One, the Bills never got to fourth down the entire game. That's wild. Number Two, that four d eighty yards of total offense that they had, it was actually the maximum amount of yards they could have had because they scored every time they took the ball.

They went all the way down the field on seven straight possessions, so they had the possibility of gaining four and eighty yards in those possessions, and they scored every last one of those yards One of the most unbelievable performances ever. And you know Bill Belichick and the Patriots. What can you say? I think it was the greatest performance offensively, I mean efficiency wise, it's the greatest performance

in NFL history. How could how could you get better than being the first team to ever have a game without any punts, field goals or turnovers like that is they are the first team ever in going back to the Usually there's some weird game in like nineteen twenty when like you know, like Bronco, you know, Nagurski or

something somehow like seventy seven touchdowns or whatever. Like they're untouched to the end zone times, right, Like the highest scoring game is weirdly from one like seventy to forty one. But now they're the first team ever to do it. It's like they beat Navy when all the guys were at war in the Pacific. Like they didn't have a turnover, they didn't turn over and downs. I mean there was that stack coming out of the last game. Bill check and never coached the team that didn't force a punt.

I mean an opponent didn't punt against him. And they now just did it two times in a row. They just had two perfect games essentially against Bill Belichick in a row. And you know, West was on our minds on Saturday with with West of Us and and I think he would love Joe Burrow. You know, we we've we talked about that. And that was a great performance by Burrow. It was like a sneaky great. He didn't have that many chances to be great, and every time he was. But I think he would have really loved

Josh Allen and this performance too. He was always a believer in Josh Allen and and didn't like that we were. I was throwing dirt on him early in his career and thought he could be great. And this is a guy Josh Allen just at the absolute pinnacle I believe of his craft. And he was like that again against

the Patriots just a month ago. And to do it two times in a row against the Patriots defense that had been highly competitive all year is like one of the most impressive things we've seen in this entire season. I mean, it was like a perfectly worded poem. Um, it was like a novel that devastates you. Was from start to finish. It was flawless and like, uh, you know, I cannot believe that even forty eight hours ago, I was still involved in these um theoretical Patriots first bills

whose better war? Because I mean I was oft and taken out behind the wood shed about five minutes into this game. I texted you after the first touchdown game over, and I like to do that sometimes, and I think my record is spotty in a lot of areas, but my game overs Um sometimes are accurate. It was accurate this time. I love something if it makes you feel better. Mark, we even could tell the last when you got behind the Bills or the Pats one last time on Thursday show,

we could tell you didn't even believe it anymore. So now I was because I mean, really I don't. I didn't well, I don't think Mark believed in the Bills so much. But it seemed like your Patriots hope had been I didn't expect the Bills to do what they did here, and I think that in a in a weird a f c Um was it was a resounding note. I think though, if you look at the last five weeks for the Patriots, their defense has fallen off, their pass rush has fallen off. They can't stop the run.

I mean, if you if you want to just look at the way that most Patriots teams under Bill Belichick would finish the season. This was the counter opposite to that. And I just want to read one quick thing that Tim Graham. I love this writer from the Athletic cover the Bills forever Um. This was a note his opener, it's it's it's brief. It said it was four degrees at High Marks Stadium seventeen in Greenland, in Moscow in thirteen and nom Alaska, the temperature was about fifty degrees

where the Buffalo Bills left to New England Patriots. That's the year round temperature six ft underground. I read that, dude. That's such a great line. Uh, And yeah, that's it. And you know it did it did make me think. And the and the after the game, the Bills players they talked about it. They were super annoyed with that win the game, that Monday night game, and how the

media presented that game. And I just find it interesting how like, you know, there was a narrative about how the great Belichick had outschemed Sean McDermott, Like where is the talk on the other side after yesterday's game? Because that wasn't that was not just the plan on field clinic by the Bills. Was a coaching clinic by the Bills who totally changed some of their strategies. They were very aggressive in the past as opposed to going run heavy.

They attacked the Patriots and then New England never made any adjustments or never made any that made any difference to give up seven straight touchdowns that It's almost unfathomable when you think about Bill Belichick and the Patriots that we've known, uh for this to have happened. But they just they had no answers. There was nothing they could do well. Their defensive line was soft. For the last four or five weeks this season. They were pretty routinely bullied,

including by Miami. I thought that was in a game that they made it clear that they really wanted to win, that they were saying they were treating like a playoff game and got pushed around physically. Judeon ended up. You know, I've been on him lately not playing that much in this game. Apparently has been struggling with an injury. He played twenty snaps in this game. That that that helps

a little from his vantage point. They were missing, you know, they're starting one of their starting cornerbacks, um who got covid uh and uh the replacement John Williams, which is one of many of the failed second round cornerbacks Belichick's taken over the years, got filed on on one of the touchdown throws to Emmanuel Sanders. I mean it was it was also just like one of those nights like one team has Josh Allen and the other team doesn't.

One team is in like year four or five of building this thing up, and I think was just very comfortable in this matchup because how could you not be win three weeks ago. You just had the best game I thought by any quarterback potentially of the entire NFL season until this game. Josh Allen just did it two times in a row. I mean, he's on such fire that he was trying to throw that ball away to Knox the second time around. I mean he he said that after the game he was trying to throw it away.

Was he had turned around to go back to the huddle, and then he heard the crowd go nuts, right, and and even that ended up turning into a touchdown. I think that was a third down dated actually, so he was if maybe I'm mistaken, I think he was going to the bench and he didn't realize it. Uh. It's really crazy, But like the game essentially fell over on that Micah Hyde interception, which was one of the best

defensive plays of the year. So you're right, it was a great coaching job this This team has done a great job table and on the defensive side. But it's it was also like great playmakers making plays. Uh. We we texted back and forth about that. Dan and into me like that hyde play was just a sensational play that you kind of got to tip your hat to the guy. I was. I was a little harsh on mac Jones, uh in the immediate aftermath of that, But then you watch it again and it was you know,

it was just a great play. A guy flies into the pick sure right before it gets there. And I thought the interest you know, um, I know, but I thought what I thought this was gonna be a one side of game in favor of the Bills. But I thought it was gonna be the defense throttling down on mac Jones. Like mac Jones was far from the problem in this game. It seemed like if the if the Patriots defense could have just been competitive, it's this could have been a different game. Uh. And yet they weren't.

And I think it it sends you into usually, if you're the Patriots or any team, if you go into a season with a rookie quarterback and you win double digit games and you get to the playoffs, even if you lose, it's a it's a success. But to lose this way, and knowing the standard of excellence up there. I I wonder. I don't think it's gonna be sweeping changes, but perhaps we see more changes than we think. On the defensive side of the ball at the very least, well,

I think they had a lot. I agree they had a lot to change on defense. I mean, and that's a like donta high tower in both of these Bills games. I think was it was a problem and that my free agent, he that might have been his last game. Kyle van Noy, you know Jamie Collins. Actually I thought Collins played pretty well when they brought him back. Laurence guy, all these guys have been around it. It was a slow offense that couldn't get it done. J C. Jackson's

free agent. I think they need to make some changes, but I think they feel I feel at least like it's a successful you're just because of Mac, and that they need to just juice up the offense because it's an offense first League, and to me, this game was a reminder that like, no matter how good you think your defense is gonna be, you can get creamed. You mentioned like Mac Jones not being the problem, like they

only had eight drives in this game. Dan, it took the Chiefs about six or seven drives to warm up on on Sunday night. If it if it had taken the Patriots that long, they would have been shut out. Literally, I mean the game would was over. They the Chiefs had eight drives in the first half of that game, and like the Bills didn't even have that many of the whole games. Since you're right, Dan, when when they when they won the when the Patriots won that first

contest in bizarre weather? Uh? And I I fell victim to this because I just have thought this about Belichick for so long that it was a masterful master class of coaching. And then when when the last two Bills romps um, where's the Sean McDermott praise, It's like, I hear you and I think that he's got Leslie Fraser never gets talked about. He's done an awesome job. I mean, Brian dable to adjust the offense and tinker it and come in with a new approach. I mean he's gonna

be a head coaching. Um. Alan running is so huge. Just I know we we hit this before, but it's one of the reasons West love Josh Allen was because at the end of that rookie year when he just started running like crazy and like taking over the league quietly for a month like that's been a huge difference since the Tampa game is Josh Allen running at will and it really makes them hard to stop him. On those first couple of drives, especially on third downs, he

killed him. And it's a it's a testament to organization, organizational stability that Josh Allen came in very raw. Um was not good at all his first year, even if he showed maybe some um strides at the end of that first year. Second year ended with strides, but a really bad playoff exit against Houston. As you guys no doubt remember. But they they kept the coaching, they built an offense around him. They they adapted the offense as

they learned more about their quarterback. And all of a sudden, now you have something really special up there in Western New York. And now we're gonna get something really special, which is Buffalo at Kansas City, Josh Allen against Patrick Mahomes on Sunday, the late game, the uh, the Gym and Tony game, uh next week, So buckle up. That's gonna be wild. By the way. You know how. First of all, yes, I was enjoying the game, of course I am. You have to understand this is this is

basically what I have. It's it's I don't I'm not trying to rub it into Patriots fans listening in. It's just like when you see a team dominate your life in a lot of ways, to see them get a come up in there in such a public way, it kind of feels good. It's why I have to detat Patriots. I wouldn't be able to tolerate you. You know, I know these threads and stuff. I understand he's really got in your head. Then Greg, if that's your actual strategy,

that's it's not intention though. But you know I had side effect. I had those field good vibes from from West of this and I had a couple of Tito's. And then that game rolled on, and then I watched the the New Oasis documentary about their net Worth concert last night, and I was just like, this is a nice Saturday. I got a little just got better and better. As as it's better to lose in a blow, I believe as because I think when you lose to a

team that's unquestionably better and it's not even close. It's like, what do you do with that? There's nothing, I think, But you don't want to You don't want to have a historically bad performance. I take it from me. My team has had a lot of those. You just don't want to be in the history three books, right. I wonder if Hart agrees with your Patriots take that it was great to get absolutely your house blown up by a nuclear better better than blowing it in a painful way.

Where it's like we should have done they should They shouldn't have done anything more, unfortunately than they did this year. This is what they should have done. Maybe maybe what they should have done is have the Chargers win in week eighteen, uh and then they think they would have had a chance to win a playoff game, but when when they got sent to Buffalo, it was over. This is when you don't think that you think the Raiders were competitive in Cincinnati, and that there's no way the

Patriots would have been competitive. It's a it's a different situation. Team that showed up for a wild card weekend. Yeah, they looked like they did not belong. Actually looked freezing. He just looked freezing. And he was like, how can I get this? What? How much fabric can I put over my face? You better be free How could he not be freezing? Well, I mean I know, but you know how like the people that are out there getting their stump, you're thinking, like how quickly did we get

on a plane. I'll be in the Bahamas four days from now. It's like it's getting colder and colder. If you're winning, you know, if you're the bills and you've been taking those pills they've been talking about, you're warm, You're good, um the pills, Ricky here in the twilight of your twenties. I just want you to know that this is this is probably how it's going to be from that on. What that The Patriots are like losing, so I'm okay with it, Like I I it's it sucked.

And like the group chat with my friends from home like was starting off very very funny, and then it like the texts got funnier and funnier as time went on. And sort of I see where Gregg's coming from with the sentiment, because I did, like, you know, poor cocktail and I'm laying on on the couch and I'm like literally laughing out loud, like it was laughable, like people are saying, and I was like tweeting and like having a great time, like going off on Twitter, and people

are like, you're such a like miserable paths. I'm like, I had a great time, Like there was you were just drunk? No, I wasn't. I mean maybe by the end early on, I don't know if you were having a great time, you know, if there's still something novel about it for Patriots fans though, for those that find enjoyment in that moment, I get what you're saying. When that's like eighteen nineteen years ago in a row, it becomes a little less, it becomes less novel, it becomes

more tiresome. All of a sudden, I'm like dragging out my a's and that happens, I'm like, make a damn stop. They can't stop anything. I found that I know a lot of people from New England that maybe relocate and you hang out with them and that accent will pop out after a few drinks. Or Brian Kelly for instance, could we could be a New England or that ghosts in Nelson and a new dialect. I feel like I was lower on this Patriots team than you know, throughout,

than than some Patriots fans. But I think I'm higher on Mac Jones than than most than than them, Like I feel like it was a successful season because I really do believe that Mac Jones is going to be like a top ten type of quarterback for most of his career. And and I know it's early, and I'm counting on him to get into that Joe Burrow plan that he somehow made his arms way stronger in year two because he because Mac Jones needs that and like build up his his body because that's that's not there.

But the fact that they found a quarterback, I'm like, okay, and a great defensive tackle on the second that that matters more to me. Not great, but I think that's like, that's a huge win. Before we move on, Dan, I sent a text um yesterday at six thirty one pm, so still relatively holy, where it's like, you know, there's still time left in this game. I sent a text to Greg have you ever seen a more embarrassing game with like four hundred question marks? And he responds, yes, plenty. Okay,

I'm like, okay, I'm not going to text you. I mean oh nine, Ravens is because you have to, you have to adjust for expect tions romantic. You just want to spend out, can't. I can't. Hey, you know what I would love? By the way, you know how if you go on YouTube and there's a listen to Bohemian Rap City but only Freddie Mercury's vocals, and you're just like, Wow, that guy was an amazing talent. I want the radio telecast of the Patriots from yesterday, but it's only Zolac.

Could anyone do that for me? I will, I will pay you, or at least say thank you on Twitter. I guess is it's like the Drew Brees version of that on NBC. Just silence for most of the broadcast. Total silence. Not a great not a great game for Drew. All right, let's take a break and then hit the rest of the weekend games in the pocket step prop firing the ten and the end of the ends touched on Kurds City on a tight rope catch and run on forty yards on Ford and with teage seconds remaining

in the second quarter. Oh yes, the Kansas City Chiefs started slow, but when that team turns it on, they still are special. In the second quarter, cap by that late touchdown by Travis Kelsey, they had twenty one more in the second half. Final score Chiefs forty two, Steelers twenty one. The zombie Steelers are no more. Finally a double tap you gott you guys gotta shoot him in the head, and the Chiefs did it and uh Marcus.

Was a game that started out as a potential nightmare for Kansas City because the offense couldn't quite get in gear. Pittsburgh's offense was doing nothing as we expected. But then disaster strikes a U interception by Beholmes on a tip pass and then a sack fum or a running back fumble recovered and score a touchdown by t J. Watt and all of a sudden you got the defensive score. You're lose thing as and as halftime nears, But that

all got quickly wiped away once Kansas City woke up. Yeah, and I think, like, you know, watching this because we were, I guess we were. Why why do we even have to qualify that we were texting during Andy. We're texting all the time about everything every day, so just especially now that they won't let us do the show Togea. Well, that's very We gotta we gotta, we gotta make a

stand here. We gotta get back into the studio. Man, well, we need to come you know, we need to come up with our own plan and maybe gotta get Foucci on us. So we've gotta get Fauci on the horn and have Faucci tell the shadowy league figures, just like let the guys in the studio, like got him in the studio, let him do the show. Fauci, Frank Signetti, anyone that can help us out and give us a little bit of an edge here. I mean, I think the game was just got a head coaching job. I

don't know. I know he's busy. We'll see how long he keeps that. But you're right, I liked him in well, I liked him in his other role. I'm saying he's so valuable. Who said he's not still doing that? He's definitely he's still moonlighting as a private eye. Frank Signetti's on the As long as he's still doing it, that's all I'm saying. Just don't ditch that thing. What we were going to say to each other, we were enjoying

the game. I think because it was like, Okay, we knew, I think the end result was always going to probably be a romp, but it didn't look that way early, and it was like, is this game getting weirder and weirder by the minute? And then suddenly, uh, Patrick Mahomes throws five touchdowns in the span of ten minutes and thirty seconds, which is obviously never happened before in the NFL playoffs. Yes, yes, I mean it's insane. It's insane.

I mean to the point where I mean we tracked these games, but I was like eating tacos and kind of wandering around the house and changing shirts during like the third fourth quarter because it's like this thing is so far cooked and the Steelers are such an unwatchable mess on offense, and it was big Ben's final performance. Um,

but it was sad to me. It was a reminder of like, and I know that there's you know, people just disliked big Ben in general, but if you are a quarterback that's cooked, don't come back for that final season because you know what. The Steelers actually, I think had a pretty enjoyable campaign for Steelers fans, but big Ben watching him, I just found it depressing. I mean it was inspiring. Like the other fans loved it though

they really did like one of his favorites. But my friend Anthony I do the podcast with, he was the same way. They they like loved this season, like it was almost like this proves that Tomlin can never have a losing season, and that like they were, they should have been like a four win team and here they are. So I get that as a fan, It's easy to see why it was enjoyable. I'm just speaking that like

something about watching Big Ben. If you look at his throat chart, it was like a smattering of a hundred and fifty passes at the line of scrimmage, like they just they're defending. It happens. It happened. This is how it happens for most guys. It's just like people. It's like Tom Brady has it makes it feel like this

is something that doesn't happen. But it happened to Eli Manning, it happened to Peyton Manning, it happened to Big Ben, it happened to you name the quarterback, and just about every guy has kind of that, Like you wish he would have retired a year or two earlier, and then you have that one last season and like if big Ben would yeah, he was just right first round one and done throughout. It was very good. He was right,

but he was he was like he did it. He was Okay, you gotta admit, you gotta admit he did it the year people he was deeply okay, he was. But yes, you're right, he might have been really bad if he came back. That's that's fair. But yeah, I just think like he has to get out of here now because he would have hung around one more year. It would have been like this is how we're gonna

remember the guy. It's like, uh, I think I've used this analogy before, but how the Simpsons being on the air still and being just uh, to me subpar for now almost like fifteen twenty years. It kind of like reframes and you don't realize that it was like one of the greatest shows of all time for the first eight years or so of its existence. So Ben needed

to go. They need to obviously, they have a lot of work to do, the Steelers because they got to find a quarterback not on the roster, and they gotta add to the blocking obviously just needs to be better. They had twenty carries for fifty six yards in this game. Naj Harris, who otherwise had a very good rookie year, twelve for twenty nine in this game. Um so the offense just kind of needs a real jolt and getting Big Ben out the door of a help. Right, That's

that's the issue with tom Win. They have not been the same since Mike Monchak left that their offensive line coach. And that's that's something Tomlin hasn't necessarily shown that right now he has the wherewithal to fix is their offense and the right uh coaching decisions, because yeah, they had a chance to win this game. They they stopped the

Chiefs for five drives, scoreless and forced two turnovers. So five drives usually gets you to halftime, one of those turnovers resulting in a touchdown, right, so we should like five drives usually gets you to halftime as a defense, So you score seven points, you gave up zero, you forced another turnover to put them in plus territory like

they they really could have been in this game. And yet instead when Mahomes got going, I mean it really got going, and that it just reminded me of those other Chiefs playoffs wins that they had when they were really rolling. I'm sure they're gonna think that too, that it's like, oh, this is just like that Texans game. It's just like that Titans game. We can spot anyone. You don't want to be spotting the Bills next week. But if if they do like they're gonna feel like

they can do anything, and people can. To your point, this was how Pittsburgh's offense went when the game was still in doubt. This is their drive chart. Three play zero yards, three plays two yards, three plays negative three yards, Then they get the interception. They go five plays eight yards. Then they go six plays twenty yards. Then they forced the fumble and score the touchdowns and now they're winning,

uh seven nothing. Somehow immediately give up seventy eight yard touchdown, drive go three three place eight yards, the next drive, give up another touchdown, three place five yards, give up another touchdown, halftime game over. They were much better than the Mike Glennon Giants by the end. By the last three or four weeks, they were about the number twenty nine, number thirty offense in the league. That's why I mean a chance to win. The defense gave them that chance

early and then the floor falls out. I thought one thing for the Chiefs going forward. Jerick McKinnon, who you know has been an afterthought for years, played a really good game and fits really well into that offense, and they need someone out of the backfield to be a spark plug like that and like that, I just think he has a bigger role than expected depending on who's available.

I mean, hundred and forty three yards. They've been waiting two years for Clyde Edwards Silaire to make a big impact and or stay healthy, and maybe he's back next week.

But I'm with you, like McKinnon, you know, it's it's funny like they with the great Mahomes at the controls and you have all that speed with Hardman and Tyreek Hill how and of course Travis Kelsey is on the field like this I think was in general this these last three or four weeks, they still have it like that's still in their DNA and they can go on a heat or now, and it's why I think they're the best team in the a f C. Um and I think they're I think they're probably if I had to, like,

who's gonna win the a f C was gonna come out of this in the next three weeks. The Chiefs are might pick because they're special on that level. Um, but it's gonna be wild because I think all these teams that have survived now and the Titans of course, now the Bengals, the Bills, these are all I think, really good teams. It's gonna be fun to see how this AFC shakes out. I'm glad we're getting Chiefs spills.

On one hand, I was like, oh, I wish that was the championship game, but then I thought, no, that's stupid, because then that game might not you might not even get it. And like, I'm just glad we're getting it, Like it's great to have alan like these are the two guys who are fighting for a f C supremacy. And I know maybe that's maybe the winner of Titans Bengals makes the Super Bowl. We'll see, but these two

guys have been the guys. The Chiefs are trying to get to their fourth grade a f C title game. That's incredible. McKinnon just quickly. I think it's kind of an amazing story. He missed two entire years, he tours a c L, missed the entire next season two, like Shanahan believed in him enough to give him that huge conference. He had twelve carries this year, he had more. He had more touches tonight than he had in the entire season,

and he was electric in that game. I'm with you that he should be a big time factor next year. And shout out to a Travis Kelsey's mom for making it to both her kids games. She was somehow at the Eagles game and made it to the Chiefs game by like the fourth quarter, in time to see Travis throw the touchdown. Because I don't want to be a jerk, but did she fly commercial or private? I don't know that she flew private. You know, check your privilege. What do you want to do to throw a party? My

guess is she probably you through commercial. I only know this because, like the NFL Twitter account was sending this nonsense out, I interviewed her once very um engaging, uh interesting woman. There are certain Mark Sessler projects that you hear a lot about the Mark Sessler Mother's Day the show. It was largely a disaster because one of the moms was the mom to a player that got um embedded in such a large controversy that we had to pull his part out of the story, and it was probably

like it. And we had an executive that used to work at our company that said that blame me for the whole thing and said why are you a child? Or something like that, or just like why why did I ever sign up for this hideous assignment? First of all, Yeah, Mark only had like six projects, so we hear about him a lot. You know. It's like those these little long forms, these long forms, I think, so I don't I think we hear the Mother's the Mother's day. One has gotten a lot of juice, for sure, and like

three uber to the airport. She's definitely in commercial and coach that I gotta give it up. There she is. She's flying commercial. That's Donna Kelsey. And I don't know if she's in the extended leg room section, but that's that doesn't matter. That's not are there. That flight doesn't look like it even has it. That's a great mom. I mean, mom, you wonder what you want her to be riding like luggage basically to earn your approval. Then commercial,

we're still still not good enough. Stick them with the dogs, you know. I'm wondering the John Candy U haul from home alone, just just rumbling across the Midwest. Uh no, all right, so there you go. So the Chiefs rollan, Like I said, we are set up for a glorious matchup Bill's Chiefs next week at Kansas City. But let's roll on, all right, Let's take a break. The final game of the weekend, the early game on Sunday. It was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, beginning the defense of their

championship in the playoffs. It went to plan. Here's the play, dropping to throw, Brady looks towards the end, Zona tolls caud baul evage hes got a Tampa Bay touched on. That's a summersault and a box. Put the dagger in the heart of the Eagles. Gen Decker ha w f Us with the call. The Buccaneers started hot and coasted to the finish against an over overmatched Eagles team. Final score thirty one fifteen. Tampa Bay sept the tempo from the very beginning. Brady Tom Brady led a pair of

long touchdown drives in the opening quarter. They built this built a seventeen nothing lead by halftime, coast to the finish line. A little sloppy there in the fourth quarter allowed the Eagles do that thing the Eagles did in the beginning of the year, remember, and they had all those garbage time points. They did it again here, put up fifteen and the fourth to make it look somewhat presentable.

But Mark, this was this was a Bucks team ready to chase that Lombardi again, an Eagles team that was you know, probably shouldn't have been here in the first place, let's be honest. Yeah, I mean this is the one that got a lot of along with the Steelers game, a lot of like why do we have a seventh seed operating at this time of year? And I mean I get it. Um, you know, the Bucks were a six seed last year, so you know it can go

both ways. But I thought this was all about Tampa's defense, and um, you know a Todd Bowls authored Jim absolutely beautiful and like they you know, I love that. They basically asked him like, are you concerned about Philly's ground game and he said, no, just I'm simply not concerned at all. And the guys like Jordan's Whitehead, Antoine Winfield just shut it down early on. And the thing for me that lead that I'd be concerned with going forward?

Is this that after Tristan Worths went out that I thought that Brady was hit a lot, um he was hassled, And yeah, they went on and scored their points, but if you look at their drive chart post warths injury, they were pretty much taken out of their offense was not the same on any level. And you know, and Brady's fine throwing to a bunch of guys who would be like third or fourth stringers on other teams because

of their injuries. But I don't know if that's survivable if he's operating as one of the Dave Damnishek sort of Jenda type pieces. Yeah, Ryan Jensen to the center got hurt and then came back and seemed to play pretty well when he returned, but worse is a huge loss. You go from a uh, was he first team O Pro this year? I think he might have been played every snap for them, So so you go from the

very best to a backup that struggled. Brady had the lowest time to throw of any game by a quarterback this year, so he was just getting rid of that ball. I think that was the game play anyway, any quarterback or I believe by any quarterback. Yeah, of any game this year two point one second, like just getting it getting rid of the ball. And then he also had the lowest you know ad average depth of target of any Bucks game this year, So they were throwing it short.

I think that was the game plan, but it also cranked up because of the offensive line. It made sense this week, but that's it's a Bruce Arians offense. You need to be able to drop back seven steps sometimes when you want to and throw it deep, and they're gonna need to I think in future weeks. So I think that's well said. But they manage games as well as any team I've ever seen. Like you can look at this box score at the end and the yards

or play look kind of even. And this happens a lot with Box Bucks games, but when you watch the game, they really control it. There's such a veteran team and veteran coaches that I think the box scores sometimes lie with the lie when it comes to the Bucks, And definitely with this game, it was such a take care of business game. It was Yeah, there was just there was just a general vibe around it that you know they're they're playing the Milton borough game. We're you know,

we're gonna show it. We need to show to take care of business, move on. It reminds me of like Grand Slam tennis matches this NFL weekend in like the higher seeds, like sometimes you're like watching the early rounds almost to just get information on what you think for the next rounds. The NFL is not supposed to be like that, you know, like, you know, I'm looking at it and thinking, who was timing with Tyler Johnson is a little off? You know, that's not a great sign

for the future. But okay, the defense is healthy, now, that's a great sign for the future. Should be just worried about this week, and that's not how the playoffs are supposed to be. I don't know, do you think if you're Philly, because you know, you've got teams like Baltimore out there that like, we are a run team. We're gonna that's our identity because of our quarterback X Y and Z. I don't know if Philly comes back next year with the same exact offense that they turned into,

you know a third of the way into the year. Maybe, but it seems to limit them at times in a big way. I mean, they made the playoffs by beating a bunch of bad teams late, and I just thought, once you like them, they're the last team you wanted to go down. Nobody wants to go down to touchdowns early, but like they needed to. It had to be their run game that that really dictated a lot of things in this game. And when they couldn't do that, you

put everything on Jalen Hurts. And I know with those late scores it made it look much better statistically, but I thought Hurts was a little overwhelmed in this game. Brian Baldy, we did some great Sky Sports work today with Neil and the gang over there, and and Baldy had the same takeaway that it just felt like the game was a little too big for Hurts. I almost thought, I wonder if Mark's boy Minshew gets in this game

to try to spark him. But ultimately I guess they decided they're better off with Hurts, who, by the way, and teams hide this stuff all the time. And after the game, he's wearing that walking boot again and he acknowledged, like, yeah, man, that ankle injury I suffered a month ago that that banged me up and you could see it, like when he's scrambling um on Sunday, he's not moving with the same explosive in this that he had earlier in the season. So once you take that element away from this team,

they become very ordinary on offense. They only ran the bon nine times other than Hurts his runs. I mean, it was it was seventeen nothing, and it was a lot of you know, before you knew it, and it was a lot of short drives. So that's how that happens. But that's that's a disaster scenario for the Eagles. The Bucks dominated them. You're right, it was one of Hurtz's worst games. He wasn't accurate, he was a little late

on decisions. Troy Aikman was annoyed because I think he was worried this was what was going to happen to the Eagles. He was annoyed he didn't get the Cowboys game that apparently CBS paid for that time slot like extra money to have the Sunday afternoon playoff spot, and basically, whatever the best game is, they're going to give that to him. And it's not just it's not just I think with Troy and we have the sounds so I wanted because Troy eventually bubbled over, and no, no, that

you did a nice job setting up. He eventually bubbled over in the fourth quarter. But it wasn't just that. There was some shenanigans and some payola involved with CBS getting the best NFC game in the first round of playoffs. It's at the tone. He got it Romo, the Cowboys quarterback that doesn't have any rings, and here I'm Aikman,

I'm Aikman, I got three and I'm chopped liver. Let's listen to Troy Aikman boil over because he got stuck with the bad NFC game on Sunday and that game coming up, which is on CBS, which is the Dallas Cowboys hosting the San Francisco forty Niners. We saw San Francisco with that overtime win in l A last weekend. That's gonna be a good game. It's gonna be a great game. I'm in a really good game. I think there's a lot of people who like to be calling that game. But it should be a lot of fun.

Did you see Aikman's looking at bucks. It's gonna be a great game, and he's looking at him, He's thinking, should I say it? Should I say what I've been yelling about behind the scenes for days now? Screwed, I'm gonna say it. I wish we were calling that game. It was funny. His his exasperation was was one the more entertaining parts of this. I'm I never liked the seventh seed because I just thought twelve was the perfect number.

But I think arguing against the seven seed just because these two games were bad, uh, is the wrong argument, just because I think that's that's random. You watch, it's such a small samples as you watch games on any given weekend, and usually this would be a pretty good game, and usually they're closer. It didn't work out that way, But like, you could have too great to seven games next year very easily, and then will everyone be back on board. I like because twelve made sense to me,

But but I think it's a little random. We got you need like a ten year sample size before we judged the seventh seed. But I I three out of four games have have stunk, by the way, the Saints bear stunk. Bill's Colts was actually the best game maybe a wild card weekend last year. It's it's time consuming. You're asking people to sit down for three and a half hours and watching a game that has zero competitive value. And it's the playoffs. It's not it's not the same

as Week eight or Week twelve. It should it shouldn't be. And so it is an eyesore and like it if you get three or four years into this and that's the way it is. It's not a good product for the NFL. And I think they you know, they're never going to change it. They'll probably add two more playoff teams if anything. Well I know is the Steelers. We're a mediocre team with the worst quarterback in the league. Um, this team, this Eagles team was a deeply middling team.

The Matt Naggy like post year one Bears team made the playoffs last year and they were completely forgettable. That Colts team, I know Greg loves them because Philip Rivers was on it, but that is not a very memorable team. And they went out that was a good team. I mean they were ahead and a buffalo in the fourth quarter against the two there. But Greg, for you wanting sample size there the aberration, right, No, no, you're right. I mean, if I guess what I'm saying it's a

little random. It's like we could have easily had the Chargers and you know, in that seventh spot, and then maybe that's the game of the weekend. A lot of this just comes to write. It just it just increases the chances tenfold that a team that shouldn't be playing in the bracket is in the bracket. But guess what, it makes more money for the league. And we're also told that it makes the end of the regular season more competitive with their being uh not only one team

getting the buy. I don't know if that's true or not, but that we're that's what we're told. You know, we're told a lot of things as humans that we just do what we're told and hope things work out, and they don't always work out. I'm a good little boy, and I will say I think it's a good product. To keep doing it. Make it make the season another three or four weeks long, add four more playoff teams. Have the season start in late July and go until early April. It's also weird the but we don't know

who the Bucks are are playing. You know, they're playing the Monday Night winner. But it's just weird. On Sunday night. We don't know who they're playing, but that will be a great game. And I loved as a as a as someone who likes this Bucks team, like to see the defense show up. They just look like a team that was ready for the playoffs to start. And that

was the defense that we saw from a year ago. Yeah, Todd Bowls all week was hearing about how dangerous this Eagles running game is and this is upset city and and and the Bulls of Sons. Was just like, bro, just wait, wait, all right now, you guys gotta wait a couple of days before you hear us again. Tuesday, we're gonna be on the scene, uh for Monday Night Football, the primetime game between the Rams and the Cardinals. I like, whoever comes out of that game, barring some type of

like mystical performance, I'm gonna pick the Bucks. But that pass rush, that offensive line issue for the Bucks is gonna be trouble. I'm thinking about Aaron Donald and Don Miller potentially or Chandler Joe. I mean interesting, look what look what it did to the Chiefs a year ago. So I mean it's like very good point. These tackles are gold. It was a long time ago. But the Rams should have some confidence. Uh pretty pretty soundly beating the Bucks way back and what was that week three?

If if they get through, I'm not I'm not counting anything, especially after Mark apparently switched his lock. I thought he got his lack right. I thought you got the forty Niners right, But then you sent the tweet out after the forty Niners had one. Confusedly, which didn't I lock the Cardinals at the end of our show or am I misremembering that I switched it to the Cardinals. You did say that. I did hear you say that at some point, but it's hard to keep track of all.

I think that means that you locked four different teams, right. Well, it's not a great feeling because I kind of forgot who I had previously locked it was. Did I mean, I have to go back and listen to the show now because I thought I went Patriots, Niners, then Cardinals, um. But to find out that according to the to the to the official guy the site that like I had picked the Niners and then moved off that in the had one. What am I doing here but lock it Up?

It Up? His name is lock it Up? Unlock it up. That's what I'll call him, lock it up. Uh No, you did pick three. I think we can get to the bottom of this right now, Mark, because you initially you got hot in the pants. Ricky nailed that lock. By the way, while you're trying to figure this, good job, rick, She's she's locked two in a row, Bills over Patriots.

You've really got a good beat on this on this matchup here, I think you got super hot in the pants and locked up the Bengals, I think, and then you move to the Patriots, and then you know, I think it's started with the Patriots. We'll have to check Theriots and the Niners, then the Niners, and then I do think you switched to the Cardinals at the very end, and when I'm gonna be there, and so I have

something now. I'm not roote, you know, I am contractually obligated to say pretty things about the Rams, but um, I'm not really rooting for either team, but i'd like I would like to make it clear the rest of us on the podcast, we are not contractually obligated to say nice things about the right. That's the way in your head. Mark, It's like my kids are Rams fans, and I can't even like get it in me to like be particularly like a big family. I'm like, I'm

happy for them. You can choose to believe me them. So you need the Cardinals to win in l A or the comp is pretty much over. It's funny you referred back at some point. I don't remember what program it was or what of Like you off handedly mentioned how you had locked up the Cardinals, and I was like, did you I don't. I never was there for that. Someone else checked the tape. I don't have time check it by tomorrow night. I think we should just let

it stand as Cardinals and we move forward, right. It takes the stakes of that game say that after listen, I'm just taking care of business. I don't after watching uh the Balls of Sounds. Finally Todd Bowles comes through for me. Um, it actually wasn't. It was not Todd's fault the way things went to New York. He does deserve a second big chair. You have to hurt you when when Troy just like out of nowhere had a sniper fire of like, oh, you can't count Todd Bowles

the time in New York. That's a mess of an organization like you, but they are who said that more than me on this podcast. When people say that and then they go, oh sorry, Dan, it's like, dude, I know the Jets suck and our run poorly. No one knows better than me. Well maybe your dad, but no one beyond your dad. At least the old man got to see Nameth. But we don't need to talk about the Jets right now. The Jets don't exist right now. Only a few teams are left and we're gonna get

to him. Uh So Tuesday you'll hear from us again, do you around? The NFL broadcast will be back at the end of next week, and of course we have a preview show, So another big week for the podcast. Thank you everybody for listening. Um, congratulations Cincinnati and all the Westlings, who, by the way, locked up the Bengals successfully. I think we all hit on our locks leading into this Monday night game. So a lot to be excited about and thank you for listening. And that's it till Tuesday. Yes,