#22: Super Bowl!

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Let's take the show on the road. No longer are we.

Separated Eric at home by two thousand miles LA in Chicago. No, we're actually here together at the seventy fifth Reese's Senior Bowling after day one of practice.

Why don't we just do this like this?

Yeah, so much better this way. The connection is.

Real, it is. It's good to see you.

Good to see you too.

All right, we did the fist pump, all right, I'm on the screen here.

Only four teams that made it to the final weekend here, so much so that we didn't even make Eric write an article on your top four teams, including two that are making it to Las Vegas for the Super Bowl are as follows.

Shockingly, the two teams.

That make it Vegas for Super Bowl fifty eight are Teams one and two. The Niners are one, the Chiefs are two, followed by the Ravens and then the Troit Lions. I don't know how we sift through all of this, but let's do it here and let's talk about your number one team, Eric. It's a team that spent nine weeks at number one, more than the Ravens, more than the other two there, and one that eventually is representing the NFC.

But not without a lot of difficulty.

In the postseason, we had the Packers, could have, would have, should have yep, beating them in the Division A round after they had gone into Dallas and beaten the Cowboys. And then we had the forty nine Ers needing to rally from down seventeen at the half yea to somehow pull it out and to end the lions amazing run.

They are still your number one team.

They are, and for good reason. Obviously the first half didn't look so great. You know, Detroit was the dominant team, but I love you know, after the game, both here and from Rock Purty and Kyle Shanahan both sort of saying like, it's okay, we're down seventeen, we can win this thing. And I think that attitude has kind of

I think, you know, it's interesting because a lot of people picked the Niners and the Chiefs before the season. They were two chalk selections because they were two great teams. The route that each team took to get here is interesting, a route again that included the Niners being down seventeen and included in the first half.

We see the fourth quarter here when they put it away, but in the first half they were getting bullied. Oh, Dan Campbellton came in and bullied them. They were the more physical team until they weren't.

Yeah, this was a concern of mine. Obviously he's still heading into the Super Bowl. I think you have to worry again, can the Chiefs win that line of scrimmage and all that. But yeah, I mean the first half was pretty ugly.

We saw the.

Deficiencies and the run defense. We saw the offensive line not opening holes. So it was really a physical win for Detroit. And then again that script did flip and look, I mean I think they can be dominate at times.

Listen, we see Rock Purty there and we see his family yep. Can we get over the waiting for him to fail thing?

Now?

I admittedly did say last week that if Purdy hadn't rallied them back against the Packers, and the narrative would have been if they had gotten pushed out of the playoffs, well what do you do now? Cora's gonna move on, And honestly, to be fair, I still think we sit on that edge every week. But I think that is unfair to brock Purty. Why can't we celebrate the mister irrelevant to Super Bowl story? Why do we have to sit here and nitpick his game and wait for him to fail?

I don't get it.

I think there's a reasonable debate to be had about where he sits on the quarterback hierarchy. There Is he a low end starter? No, I don't think so. Does he play like one sometimes?

Maybe?

Is he a superstar?

No?

I don't think so either. But somewhere in the middle there is a very good quarterback who can be a little bit inconsistent from time to time, but also make plays, especially Andrew with his legs in the fourth quarters, second half, certainly against the lines. I really thought that was the difference in the game. Those three or four long scrambles, especially the one on third and four from the forty nine. You stop him there, Detroit has a much better chance

It's a guy that is not known for his legs, but when he needs to use him, he can. He had a twenty one yard scramble there, and you said low end. You know what, I'll quote tribe call quest the low end theory. I like his low end theory here.

I know we only have four teams.

Hey, look that is a power move when you get down to the final four.

And you know, even heading out of the game, we heard Joe Tooney wasn't gonna play. It was gonna be Nick Alaghretti, no Canarius Tony, other guys banged up. I really had my doubts, but for whatever reason, Baltimore got out of character offensively and the Chiefs took advantage, scoring on those first two drives and then that turnover to kind of put him in a tough spot. I know they didn't score after that, but just kept him in arms distance the entire game. And the Patrick Mahomes factor

I had a conversation with some people last night here in Mobile. All the NFL decision makers are here, and a late night conversation in a local watering hole about Steve Spagnolo and how great a job he has done in Spags We trust the T shirts there in the locker room after.

Of the game.

You know, he was a head coach fifteen years ago with the Saint Louis Ram.

The way his.

Defense is playing right now, you would think he'd get another shot. I think he's content where he is. It's as if Andy Reid has a second head coach there and this is and there's six straight trips to the conference championship game.

Their best defense by far.

Yep.

Absolutely, And think about a generation two ago when when he was in Philly, Andy Reid had great coordinators there and he had the great Jim Johnson, who I think had one head coaching interview in his life, just didn't really want to be a head coach. So I think we need to celebrate the Steve Spagnolo's of the world and the job that he does. And you know, he's been an integral part of their.

Success this season.

Think about how many times the offense struggled the defense bailed him out. I think they're gonna have an excellent chance to do some work against these Niners, as talent as they.

Are, and an all around good guy, and he has the talent on the edges there the corners, I mean the perimeter. Yep, he doesn't have as much talent on the edge as Charles Metta, who tore his acl in that game. He will not be able to play in the Super Bowl. His season is over. But they did really kind of sort of what the Browns did Week ten, who also have the corners. Right, We're gonna press you, we're gonna jam you, we're gonna make you throw over the top. Go ahead, if you do it, you do it,

Yep, yep.

I thought it was criminal for what the Ravens did. We can talk about that later, but obviously I think the Chiefs sort of played it by year and did a really good job. And obviously clutch plays like this, right, you know, you get burned on a long catch and then all of a sudden, Lugerius sneed one of the best corners in the NFL.

Is he gonna make money? Is he gonna make money in free agency come March eleven?

If he doesn't, it is criminal he will so yes, the answer is yes.

Yeah. The future is bright. Look for the Ravens.

Eight Flowers put together a very good year. He simply did not have his best day despite the early touchdown.

Let's turn now to those Ravens.

They are in your final four, ranked three, the two losers of the conference championship games coming in at three and four. We say every year that no team is going to be the same when the season ends right like this. This group is breaking up here Baltimore O'Dell Beckham junior one year contract. They paid him sixteen million. Don't know if he is going to be back. Really wasn't used a lot down the stretch.

JK. Dobbins wasn't here.

He too, is heading into free agency after a September injury. Had your queen is going to be a free agent here? They paid roponk and they paid two linebackers. The answer is unlikely to do that.

This just feels like such a horrible.

Missed opportunity for a team that dominated playoff competition during the regular.

Season yep, and looked great in the second half, dominated the Texans, and everybody felt like this was setting up for kind of their coronation of sorts. But I gotta say it, I thought Todd Munkins play calling was a little curious, off curious.

Look, you get the running back the ball six times, right, not the first quarter, the entire game.

Yes, Gus Edwards, three carries, three handoffs, one or one catchup.

I believe you are the number one rushing offense in football against the number eighteen rush defense.

I don't get it.

I tried not to think of it this way, but it almost felt like they were trying to bust a narrative.

About how they win games. Right. You mentioned the run.

As sort of their bread and butter, but it was almost like they came out trying to prove they could win with Lamar's arm, winning it and throwing in a different way than they did during the season.

I just didn't get it.

Edwards was great on a per touch bit basis, but just didn't get enough.

Give them ball, this is what they do again. The Chiefs had the personnel to match up. They have Trent McDuffie, they have Lujerious Snead, they have the talent on the perimeter. Lamar was great this year in the pocket. It helped to have Mark Andrews back, but he had some drop passes early. They didn't seem in sync, you know, when they went forward and fourth down. Then the next play came back and ran Guss for maybe fifteen or twenty. I thought, all right, there it is. There it is.

That's the Ravens teams turning it that we know.

And again, it's a what if here, because as much as I love Lamar Jackson, this is is not going to be like a disc track here. He's got to win more in the postseason. He has, as Kyle Brant pointed out on GMFB on Monday morning, he has now, assuming he wins at Honors next week, as many MVPs as playoff wins.

And this is almost it's probably the first time Lamar Jackson and Peyton I've ever been compared. But you remember how Manning's career started, right the questions about the playoffs could he win? We don't have those now we've obviously seen the second half of Peyton's career. I suspect that'll be the same for Lamar. I think at some point he's too gifted, too rare, too unusual not to succeed. But right now that question is legitimate, it's fair, and it's sort of being hung around his.

Neck a little.

And we need some playoff success in a very competitive the best division from my money in football. The Browns made it, the Ravens made it, the Steelers made it. Obviously they were one and done. It might have been different. You weren't going to get Foign, but look, Joe Burrow got hurt down the stretch. Jay Brown came in and played well. Regardless the Ravens move on to next year,

The team we may never get back here, right.

Which hats off to you, Dan for the stone hard, cold whatever you want to call it truth.

But man, they were this close. This was their chance.

I know, I really am of two minds here. The ambivalence is strong because you think, Okay, they are young, they have sixty one million in cap space next year, they have four picks in the top three rounds, and they have this young nucleus of talent. We just started seeing guys like Jameson Williams start to break through. He

Sure.

I love the young talent. I think this team has a lot more to left to say. But yeah, watching that thing slip away and the way it slipped away, Andrew with the drop passes, I thought, more so than the fourth down decis decisions, to me, the fumble by Gibbs and then also the fluky catch by Brandon and I off the face backs and Kendallvilldor that those plays to me were the ones that really really hurt the most.

And at that point, anyone launching like I know this is over. Yeah, they're not going to do it like I wish they did. People want to make Taylor Swift the story this week. Now the story is how badly everyone was rooting.

For the Lions.

I'm sorry, you know, are faithful America was rooting for the Lions here And to your point about how difficult it is, and Dan Campbell's point, how difficult it is to get back, that is what always stays with you, whether you're a fan, whether you're in the building, whether you're a player or a coach or whatever.

The finality of these moments in the postseason. It is so so.

So hard to get back yep, the amount of work it takes and the number of breaks you need to get back here. Man I tweeted after the game, like, I am sorry, fan, I am truly, from the bottom of my heart, I'm sorry.

And they're not the underdogs anymore. They're gonna have to be the favorites next year. People are expecting the Detroit Lions to be good, so they're gonna get everybody's best game too. Another tough division to assuming the Bears keep improving and Minnesota gets back to where they were. Yeah, this is gonna be tough.

Coming up, we're gonna rank the other twenty eight, just kidding. Coming up with the two remaining, we're gonna go to Vegas and rank our top five story lines for Super Bowl fifty eight. That's next on the NFL Power Ranking Show presented by Energizer. You're watching the NFL Power Ranking Show presented by Energizer. A friendly reminder, we are on

Yeah, it's a pretty good group to be a part of if he can win that third Super Bowl. Obviously Andy lost his first one, who was Eagles coach, but since then, obviously a ton of success with the Chiefs, brought them back to the game again and done different versions of the Chiefs teams too. Kind of reminds me of Belichick in the same way they won with defense, then they won with Brady. They always had different identities and to me this sort of puts him at a

What do we call it? The super Hall of Fame?

The elite.

Dion has always said, Dean Sanders, they need a special VIP room at the whole.

I'd give Andy a key if he wins this.

That's me though, Can I can I add this to it pathetically?

Here?

Maybe we could squeeze it in on the top of the car. Does he retire if he was a good question.

I hadn't thought about that, but there's there's absolutely a case they made that he could. And look, would be the end of an era We've already talked about. Sabin and Belichick and other coach is not going to be part of the Pete Carroll.

If Andy Reid walked away, it truly would.

Be the dawn of a new era with all the young coaches we have, and it would be sad, dude, we would lose James.

Honestly, I don't think he would. I've talked to enough people to think Eddie Reid.

Just what would he do?

You keep going?

Yeah, right, like the guy wants to coach. He's gonna sit in his basement with an Hawaiian shirt drawing out plays. Either ways, may as well go out there to the field and hand him to Patrick Mahomes and say, hey, what do you think of this? I don't think he's going to retire, but it's and I werecenting to keep an eye on and thank your pard number four Andie and Eric wrote this Kelsey and the Squire against the forty nine ers defense. Again, for the record, stop stop

I don't listen to.

Her music, but I have no problem with the young woman. She's obviously brought a ton of attention to the NFL into the key.

He's the most famous entertainer on this earth, right there, you go, right, and.

Look, this synergy has worked out pretty well, right I mean, they're winning games, they're.

Going to the super Bowl. She's got a show in Tokyo that she has a very tight window.

Is gonna make it. I think it is the international dateline. He explained the whole thing on game day morning.

We can do it because if it's a Saturday night, it really is like a like Friday night, right, seventeen hour different all Matt, you get it.

She's gonna be there, She's gonna support her man. And I think obviously Travis Kelce on the field is going to be a huge part of this game plan. You know the forty nine ers, they have the secondary, they have the linebackers to cover elite tight ends stuff. But I still think he's gonna give him some trouble, especially in the red zone. So what a great matchup against Kelsey, and we know Mahomes has to go to him at some point.

Yeah.

I said on NFL Game Day preview last week that we'd have more Jim Harbaugh cutaways than Taylor Swift cutaways. That was my Sunday statement. I almost was right because it didn't really show her that much.

They didn't know how about to the CBS pregame show. I digress. If you're sick of this topic already, I'm not.

By the way, I got twelve more days to talk about it. Topic number three. Mahomes takes another step towards goat status with a win remember when goat used to meet the person that messed up.

Now means the greatest of all.

Time, as long as we capitalize its long we make clear what we're saying here, Right, you can make a case, obviously, like we did for Andy Reid, but this championship would at least move him close to We always talk about Brady and the rings and everything else, and I think that's fair to mention. But you know, if we're just talking quarterback talent, Patrick has to be up there amongst the two or three.

Best ever, and you win a third super Bowl.

To go along with that, I think there's a legitimate argument that he could finish his career the best quarterback in the NFL history.

Listen, he doesn't have the six rings, yet he is working towards that, and obviously he worships Brady and he is working towards checking each in every one of those boxes. And it's an impressive resume that he has got. I mean, I don't know that he's ever going to meet it, but I'll say this, he has what Brady has in terms of being the immovable force, the immovable object with it, not only his conference and maybe the entire league that everyone has to go through Josh Allen hasn't done yet.

Yeah, I don't. I mean, look, if he beats this forty nine ers team we mentioned earlier, they've been the top of the power rankings almost have to see, and they've been a terrific team this year. If he does that without having had the best season this year, winning without your best stuff, I don't know what that's worth, but to me, it's worth quite a bit. He's been able to rally this team in ways that other quarterbacks simply cannot.

I think Jordan as a younger man when they won the other three at the end there at six and seven, at eighty, he wasn't slashed into the basket anymore. He was hitting that turnaround right from the corner and Mahomes it's not the deep ball anymore. He's learning to beat you in any in other ways, and he is doing it. Number two, brock Perdy hopes to become the unlikeliest winning quarterback.

For a Super Bowl in years.

Trent Dilfer, maybe, I mean, but he was a higher pick certainly than brock Perdy.

Rex Grossman almost won one. Obviously, didn't Payton you mentioned earlier? Did?

I mean?

Look, you almost have to go back to Brady and our colleague Kurt Warner as far as guys, as far as pedigree goes. Now, we've obviously talked about Perty plenty, and he's played lots of good football.

Over the last year and a half and deserves his Flower for that.

But you know, again, just a quarterback who slipped through the draft rank and you know it wasn't considered elite prospect, was probably better as a sophomore in college than he was as a senior. So just his journey to this point, especially after the elbow injury last year, adds a layer of intrigue to this whole thing. And if he does, it's an narrative buster. I really think it would change his perceptive or his perception nationwide and probably in his

And he has so many great weapons. It's why this team wins. Sure, he's a distributor, but he also makes plays. Don't just say he's a game manager. It's not a pejorative, right, I mean he was able to scramble and put that game away with his legs.

Not just a game manager.

But topic number one here the Chiefs defense against the Niners Big four.

Yeah, and this is truly a special matchup in my opinion, obviously with Steve Spagnol and what that group has done. You know, from Chris Jones to Nick Bolton to Lagarious Snead, every single layer has superstar players and the forty nine ers have the arguably best quartet.

In the league with Deebo. How big was he in the NFC Championship game. He was the difference I thought in some ways.

And George Kittle maybe a little banged up. We'll see how that toe is. Oh yep, Christian McCaffrey slowed early, can't hold him down for four quarters. And Brandon Ayuk, you know, made big catches besides the Fluke one, but also had to come down with that one in order for them to win.

Is it Brandon Ayuk's final game as a forty nine or as he heads towards free agency. If it is, he wants to go out with a ring at a party in Vegas. Imagine the post game party in Vegas for either team. Yeah, by the way, and for you as well. You know, come on down to a Legion stadium. Coming up next on the NFL Power Ranking Show, is that of my Energizer. We're gonna pick the game. Super Bowl prediction guaranteed to be active. It's the NFL Power Ranking Show for is that of my Energizer? We're at

My coin says twenty four eighteen. I think the Chiefs win this. I know the Niners are favored, but I just think that Kansas City defense in the end is going to be too much and the Mahomes factor too. Look, I think he's gonna he talked about last week, knowing when the defense is rolling, he could take a fewer chances. He could be smarter about how he plays, and I suspect this game to a certain degree is going.

To follow that script.

Now.

I know, I know that you know.

The run game was a little hit or miss, but I think they'll have a little more success doing that in this one. And I just think they're gonna be able to keep the forty nine ers in check more than the Lions did.

I have been burned two times previously.

I picked against the Chiefs in Buffalo, and then I kind of hedged. I did pick the Ravens to win or the better team. I thought, yeah, were at home, but then I kind of said, but my gut tells me the Chiefs.

That was cheating.

I'm not going to pick against the Chiefs this time. I'm gonna take Kansas City twenty seven to twenty one. I think that's a very traditional score, but maybe Jake Moody misses a fueld goal with in twenty seven to twenty four. I'm gonna go twenty seven to twenty one Kanzi City. You want to give me an MVP.

I do, and I'm gonna go a little off script here.

Now.

I'd love to pick the quarterback, but I wonder if Isaiah Pachecko isn't gonna have a little bit of a bigger game here.

He runs like he wants to bite people.

Yeah, and if you're in the super Bowl, that would imagine the stakes are pretty high. And having watched that defensive tape of the of the forty nine ers really struggling to contain David Montgomery and Engainmeer Gibbs early, I suspect Pachecko with extra rest too. You know, he's been bagged up down the stretch. He's gonna have a lot of opportunities and maybe more as a pass receiver. Two if they kind of spread everybody out and get him on the perimeter.

I wouldn't be shocked.

For the record, Isaibaha Checko said, I ain't no zombie. Those are his words, not mine. And I do think it's fitting to back in Vegas, you know, the fight capital of the world, Isaiaha Checko.

No relation doctor Burdy, but check I think this one sounds right. I'm with you. I like it.

I am gonna go, however, with Patrick Mahomes because of course it's it's quarterback. Yeah, did I just say how I've screwed it up throughout the playoffs. I'm not betting against the Chiefs, and I say, of course for recreational purposes only.

Yeah, even though you're going to be in Vegas and I'm not going to go against Patrick Mahomes.

Yeah, I mean why would I? What's the old saying? Keep it simple?

Stupid? Right?

You know that this is the kiss theory on on Patrick?

He's kiss gonna play too?

Oh? I would love that, right, like with Usher, I don't know that time show.

Yeah, Patrick Mahomes, I have him for his third one two, three m d ps. And I'm going to give the Chiefs my pick, my blessing like it means anything for the Super Bowl. Again, for recreational purposes only. There are no guarantees.

This has been fun. Yeah, that would do this?

Yeah, me too, Barrick at home, I'm Andrews Siciliano. Don't forget the Reese's Senior Bowl one pm Eastern Time on Saturday.

So Long from Bobile.

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