Ravens Lose, Chiefs and the Refs & Divisional Round Recap

Bobby Canavali. Watch Unstoppable now exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.

all the refs, every single one of those calls. Everyone's complaining about having when the Chiefs had the ball. The Texans big advantage is their defensive line. Their guy got sacked eight times their guy. So but that's fine. I part of me understands it because I will admit, during the midst of the Patriots dynasty, I felt like they got all the calls, so I empathize. But what was

tied to the Patriots. The feeling of the unfairness with the Patriots was the multiple documented cheating scandals that they lost half picks or had their quarterback suspended four so it was like, oh, it feels like it might not all be above board. The Chiefs invite a pop star to a game and people are like, man, the NFL's rigging it. By the way, how would that work. I'm just curious when they're like, the NFL is rigging it. We know the NFL is just thirty two owners of

other teams. They're like, guys, here's the plan. We're screwing our own team, and the Texans owners like, gosh darn it. All right, fine, I'm in on it, but I don't like it. Boys, but I'm in on it. So it's not the owner, So who is it? Roger Goodell, who works for the owners and makes sixty million a year. Sixty million a year, highest speed person in sports. More he might make all in more than show. Hey, and he's like, all right, at the risk of ruining the

greatest gig in sports, I just gotta tell you. I'm just gonna tell Cleate Blakeman fifty to fifty calls, give him to the chiefs every time, morons. We'll get to that in a moment, but first, demand's good to see you. We didn't talk this weekend, A tough spot for your ravens. Feel like we've been here before. We'll get to that in a moment, but we'll do the show as schedule as we normally do. Here's what missed the cut. This

is where I hate the producers. I have a very carefully curated social media feed to where I have avoided everything about this young man Rizzler. I don't know who he is. I don't know how he got famous. I know nothing about him. But now he's leading the show because he was at the football game. TikTok bandon unbanded. Oh okay, nice, I really don't know. Is that what he wore? I have no idea I thought for if you would have asked me three weeks ago. I thought

Baby Gronk's nickname was Rizzler. I didn't know these were two different kids who were gonna have be parents are taking advantage of them, and changes to the national spelling be have. I I'm on one today and I know people want the football commentaries grace football week in the year. Have I ever told the audience? Have I even ever told you demanse my spelling bee history?

my school spelling bee crushed. There was some like my local spelling bee, because then you advanced to like the you know, like the district or whatever, and then every single year at either sectionals or regionals before you got to the nationals, the biggest of the big stage not only would not win it, but would trip up over a word I got right before, like just disaster, year

after year after year. And then in my student newspaper at my school there was somebody took a shot at me, like made fun of me about like like yeah, yeah, exactly, and my and my mom and my sister, my mom and my sister, like it went. After this person came to my defense, was like this shouldn't be allowed. These are fellow student all of it all right, So I just made that whole story up. But in that story,

Lamar Jackson is me the speller. I'm the kid in the student newspaper, and everyone else in the media is my mom and my sister. Why are you being so mean? He does so well at the local level. Why are you pointing this out? So let's just have the conversation. They'll say it again.

One guy in me, who's like, I don't know, guys, I'd maybe pump the brakes on giving him all of the awards you can receive every year, and then everyone else in the media being like, oh, be nice. Come on, I gotta listen to Dan Orlovsky being like, if you blame anyone for the Ravens loss, you're a loser. Shut up. This is the listen. Go coach a team like they at the Well, we'll get to that in a minute, demons, Let's do the Ravens game.

But here is where the gambler and math part of my brain were just gonna actually tease this out. Guys. If Mark Andrews catches that two point conversion, what's the live money line? Because I think the Bills are minus four hundred. You know, like that's insane. Okay, well, let's talk it through. It would have been Bill's ball a minute thirty three left, two timeouts. What is the percent chance that you hold them to zero points? What is it?

Fifty percent? I think lower, but they had just driven all the way down the field and got into the one yard line. I say it's probably thirty percent, but let's call it fifty percent. You hold them to zero points, you have a coin flip chance at that, and then the game goes to overtime. That's a fifty to fifty proposition as well. With two teams this evenly matched, So you were a two point conversion away from being one in four at best to win the game at best.

So I'm not gonna kill Mark Andrews, but he was brutal, and I'm not gonna kill Lamar. But what I'm also not going to do is be gaslighted by other media members that have just changed the definitions of how we judge athletes for one specific player. I'm not going to do it. And I'm also not going to engage in the level of intellectual, in my opinion, dishonesty that folks are engaging in. And I want to say this on the front end. Almost every person I got into Twitter

exchange with yesterday. In fact, yeah, every person I got into Twitter exchange with yesterday I like. And one of them, Bill Barnwell, I have said for fifteen years since I was doing radio in Kansas City, I think he is the smartest person in the world that covers the NFL, which is what makes this stuff so disappointing to me. At its base base level, you have a player in

Lamar who all year long. It's not only that he just had four interceptions, it's that the folks who were arguing he should be MVP again would show you those four interceptions, and we've all seen the clips. None were his fault. Actually three of them hit the receiver's hands. So really, he went all year without a horrendous throw that was intercepted, and on the second drive of the

playoff game made his worst pass of the year. They would also tell you all year long he avoided the awful mistakes, and then on the third drive of the playoff game set the ball on the ground without anyone touching his upper body. And then they would also tell you that his escapability and maneuverability in the pocket and his ability to remain a pocket passer while avoiding the

rush is what differentiates him. And then on the fourth drive of the game, took a horrendous sack that took him out from the two yard line to the eight yard line, probably cost him four points. And then they would also tell you, because I remember it during Raven's Bengals, when Burrow was playing great, Lamar was playing great. Difference between Burrow and Lamar, one of them is Burrow couldn't

get those two point conversions that he needed. Lamar can get him with his arms, with his legs, with anything. And then not the Mark Andrew's two point conversion the one before after Derrick Henry gets you all the way down the field, they put the ball in Lamar's hands, he doesn't run, he tries to pass ball, gets batted down. All those things happened. None of those things were happening during the regular season. And I'm an a because I

think the guy's a different player in the postseason. The last time Lamar Jackson had multiple turnovers in a game, any guesses context clues, it makes into what I'm saying the last play the playoffs game against the Chiefs, the AFC Championship game. So he goes all year without a multi multi turnover game and then bang, first half happens.

Now again he rallied and played well. But it is so patronizing to the player for a guy who, if Aaron Rodgers retires, will have more First team All Pros than the rest of the quarterbacks in the the NFL combined. Who a guy, if Vegas is correct, is about to win his third MVP, So all time MVP list will be Peyton won, Aaron Rodgers two, Lamar Jackson three, same amount as Tom Brady, more than Patrick Mahomes or Joe Montana. That that guy gets judged on the same standard that

people were holding Brock Purty to last year in the playoffs. Yeah, he was brutal in the first half, but he rallied in the second and PTY at least won those games. And then we have folks twisting themselves in knots to argue, actually, he was good, and that's the part that I can't abide. And this is what Bill and Ben and Steven that I was arguing with on Twitter yesterday. We're arguing it wasn't that just that, Nick, It's just one game.

and you played really well. And the idea that we ever hold good but not great near the end of their career tight ends to the same standard as smack dab in the middle of your prime defending MVP likely repeat MVP quarterback is just dishonest. So let's go through the tweets and we'll start with my friend Ben Solak, who I think is excellent. And I said this at the front end on the front end, where Ben says, I'm very surprised he made such bad mistakes in the

first half, as he's avoided them those all season. Extremely unlike him. Pause, and this is demand's ware and listen, I know you don't like my Lamar opinions, and so maybe you'll maybe you're more with them than with me. But I think that's I think that first clause there is wrong. It's not extremely unlike him at all. In the playoffs, He's played eight playoff games, four of them he's had multiple turnovers. He's played ninety four regular season games,

fourteen of those he's had multiple turnovers. It is extremely unlike him in the regular season. Happens all the time in the playoffs. And then I Ben, and this to me is where guys are. They are smarter than their Lamar defense allows them to be. Because Ben wrights and we can say if we go back to that, Sorry, guys, of course, this is the difference between Mahomes and Alan Lamar Burrow everyone. Mahomes has nearly never failed in these moments,

whereas everyone else has a few. That's not the difference. It's not Mahomes versus these guys. It's that we have four right now, Mount rushmore current quarterbacks. Do we agree demanse those four Mahomes, Alan Burrow, Lamar everyone on the same page that those are the guys. Now. Jaden is trying to elbow his way in there, and we'll get to him in a moment, but those are the guys, right, those are the guys. Yes, Mahomes has elevated past the others, but what the others have is a playoff run or

two where they also answered the bell every time. So positioning it as it's not just about do you ever fail, it's do you ever not have your worst game of the season in the play playoffs. Burrows had played the playoff run in twenty twenty one and the playoff run in twenty twenty two. Burrow was good to very good every time. Josh Allen in twenty twenty one was superb in both those games. Josh Allen in twenty twenty three was superb and then good in both of those games.

So that's the differentiator. Now we'll keep going, We'll go through these because this is meaningful. And so I just explained that tweet. So let's we can go back to Ben and this is where I say, what are we doing well? I'd say Lamar was pretty good in this run. Say for exactly two plays, pause it. What is this run? Played two games? One of them was excellent, the other one the two plays lost your team the game. So that's not a to me, that is not a a an idea that exists.

that's legitimate. But that is totally different than he And let's go back to Ben's tweet, he was excellent in this game. Are in this run aside from two plays, and then this is where we get to I think just a fundamental misunderstanding of how you evaluate football, which is sample sized stuff. Excellent playoff run isn't super interesting to me when a player's career is six seasons old. It's seven. But that's fine, especially in a conference this stacked.

If you asked me for a market on Will Lamar of a consensus excellent playoff run at some point in his career, I'd price it at like minus one thousand, Lol. Okay, and Ben that the that's a if you'd price it at that, we can lay that wager because I don't that Peyton never did. I don't know that Marino ever did. And those are two of the greatest quarterbacks ever. So

let's just you guys and producers. We can just roll through these and I'll get to the and so he then responds to me he entered knuck led mode when he had spent all season avoiding it. Extremely frustrating. I just don't think it's nearly as predictive as of future postseason performance, and what possibly could be predictive of future

postseason performance than one's entire postseason career. Then, and maybe there is just a belief some people have that I do not share that playoff football is no different than regular season football. But I think we're seeing we have seen this this weekend. The quarterback with the better stats has not really fared that well, except for Commander's Lions. It's the it's the quarterback who's been able to avoid disaster. Now, at some point we'll have an old school quarterback duel

where both guys play great. We haven't had it yet. The weather gets tougher, the defenses get tougher, players get more nervous. And let's roll through Ben. Because I don't want to pick on Ben, but these were public tweets, the and the He said, it's not that it's hard to admit not admit, it's that's remarkably less meaningful to me than his body of work, which is legitimately six

seasons of legitimately unbelievable football. And so yeah, I I personally for quarterbacks value playoff performance disproportunately the regular season performance. And then Ben goes to the sample size stuff. Eight game sample, eight games in the NFL is a huge sample, guys, Eight games of playoff football. How many playoff games do you, guys think Dan Marino played in his career? Dan Marino again, one of the greatest quarterbacks ever. You know how many

playoff games he played? Eighteen? So eight games almost half of that. Joe Burrow, how many playoff games do you think he has played? The enter is seven, so eight games is meaningful. And then we'll wrap up with Ben and where because I make the point about the sample size stuff, and then this is where again guys just lose the plot. One thing that's also true specifically on Lamar is they had to spend time the first couple of seasons figuring out what weight running game usage they

wanted for him. He's more healthy in the playoffs. His body tap type in play style was is I don't know, yet more liable for deturation over twenty game season than Mahomes or Borrow or even Allen, which may mean he'll always be a little worse than The postseason was very healthy this year though, first year with Henry exactly. I

appreciate that we got there. Now we can put it on weight or but at the end of the day, it's like, oh, yeah, by the way, I agree, he's worse than the playoffs, okay, and now the and we'll go through these other ones faster. My buddy Bill Barnwell, who I texted Bill because I was listening to a pod from before this game where Bill said Lamar has been the best, the best quarterback in the NFL the last two years, the best, the best quarterback in the NFL the last two years. And I was like, you

got you gotta be kidding me, Bill. And this is where I'll just read Bill's tweet and full because it to be fair to him. But I just don't. I can't follow this reasoning. But even with the turn, Lamar was dot dot dot better than Patrick Mahomes yesterday, twenty points of QBR better. The offense scored more points, he moved the ball better and did that without his top wide receiver all game and with his top tight end

seemingly actively sabotaging the team. No arguing Mahomes has been better than Lamar in the postseason over the course of their careers, but over the last two years the window in which I'm talking about, their postseason numbers are dot

dot dot basically identical. But one guy's had his top wide receiver fumble away the ball at the one yard line of the AFC Championship game, and his top tight end fumble away along completion drop game tying two pointer, and the others receivers as urrific as they were in

the twenty twenty three season, haven't. Okay, So let's just disregard the fact, as I pointed out that everyone's you know, talks about, Zay Flowers fumbled the ball with the Ravens down ten at the one yard line, okay, because they had scored seven points, because the quarterback wasn't effective enough and the quarterback could turn the ball over, and on the very next drive the quarterback drew a pick. It's last year's game. The Chiefs in the round before fumbled

the ball at the one yard line. McCole Hardman, same type of player, same spot on the field in the fourth quarter, but the Chiefs survived it because the quarterback could played great up to that point. They had a three point lead. And then in the Super Bowl the Chiefs fumbled, not Mahomes, the Chiefs fumbled inside the ten yard line. I don't remember it was Pacheco or Clyde

who whoever it was running back fumbled. But the argument that hey, look at his QBR and in a game that the Ravens were favored, that everyone but me seemingly thought they had the advantage, and they had the more talented roster that they played from behind the entire time because of Lamar's two turnovers in the beginning that that game, he played better than a quarterback that understood exactly what

they needed to do. And in the critical moment, third and eleven in the red zone, up only one, the Texans have just scored throws a falling touchdown pass to Travis Kelsey is just bananas to me. A little more from Barnwell for me. Move on. Lamar did make two mistakes. That's different than the player who was during the regular season. Can't argue that. Yeah, the question is because both Ben and Bill eventually conceded the point. Next year, you're gonna make are you going to be like? But it'll be

different this year. And then he talks about Mahomes and that's fine, and are in the second half. And then if he says, if the goals to make the fuse mistakes, moms is better. If the goals should do the most on offense help your team win even given the mistakes, Lamar was better this weekend. I so there's just a fundamental disagreement between me and a friend. I the the you you can't separate the mistakes from the then second

half production, you just can't. And then will wrap up the bill stuff be where we get to Rui's and dan uh So, I said, let's take Patrick out of this. Who was better Lamar or Josh in that game? And he said he thought Lamar considerably. And then he said, in last year's Super Bowl, did Purty zero iront zero fumbles, one sack play better than Mahomes interception, fumble on a bobbled snap, three sacks because he made fewer mistakes? Of course not. So this is again, I just think intellectual

dishonesty from smart people. First of all, the fumble on a bobbled snap, Yes, there was a bobble snap that the Chiefs fumbled, that Mahomes fumbled, that he then picked up. Like that's not that's totally You're gonna include it as if that is anything like Lamar setting the ball on the ground and von Miller picking it up and running

fifty yards. But you are, you're conflating things here, because what you have is a player who avoided the critical mistake in Purty but did not make the plays necessary to win, and then a player who made one big mistake in Mahomes and then made all of the necessary plays to win. And you're somehow saying Lamar is like Mahomes, when Lamar had two or three critical mistakes and then did not make the necessary place to win. Now you

could say made the play to Mark Andrews. And that's where, again I remind you, that was not a two point conversion down one with one second left. That was a two point conversion down two with a minute and a half left. So I don't I don't know, I don't know what to what to do. And then just quickly the Stephen Ruiz thing, and then dan Orlovsky, so Stephen

Ruiz was said, for the record, I defended Mahome. Mahomes after that game, meaning the super Bowl, and after the Bengals game, you guys are essentially doing the same thing

you'd be frustrated with if it happened to Mahomes. And this is again, and I hate to use such harsh language, but this is intellectual dishonesty to me, because, as I explained, if Mahomes going into that Tampa Super Bowl wasn't on a five straight awesome playoff game winning streak and a Super Bowl champion already, he probably would have caught more heat.

And so then I brought up what I thought was a perfect analogy, and we can show it the uh you know, Okay, we don't have the whole thing, which is, would you treat the Times Steph Curry has come up short in the postseason remotely the same as how you would treat the Times James Harden has. I don't, even though they have very similar regular season resumes. And Steven Ruiz, who I think is awesome, right, come on, man, they're both in their mid thirties. Bro, that's not what we're

talking about. We're talking in twenty eighteen. In twoenty eighteen, when they were both in their Primes. If Steph Curry had a rough game in the postseason and James Harden, the league MVP, at a rough game in the postseason, do we treat it the same? Of course not, because everybody knows and everybody acts the same about all of this stuff, except for when it comes to this quarterback. And I will give Mike Silver credit because he actually said he was honest about where a lot of this

comes from. I'm gonna read Mike Silver directly. If I seem a little triggered by the Jackson bashing, I have my reasons. Critics have tried to marginalize him from the jump, even before he was in the league. Remember in February of twenty eighteen, two months before the Ravens drafted the former Louisville start with the last pick of the first round, when Hall of Fame general manager Bill Polian proclaimed on

ESPN that Jackson should switch to wide receiver. Poleon called the Heisman Trophy winner quote short and a little bit slight. Clearly clearly not the thrower the other guys are. The accuracy isn't there. So here's why I bring that up. And I've said this before and I will say it again, the initial Lamar Jackson discourse was toxic and not by Poleon necessarily, but by others oftentimes felt racist. That is undeniable.

Because of that, there have been, in my opinion, a lot of well meaning people who have felt like we can't and shouldn't criticize him, and it's patronizing to the player. And that is why. And it all is fruit of that Bill Poleian poisonous tree from February of twenty eighteen, because everyone during the when Lamar was taken the league

by storm crushed Pollion for what was incorrect analysis. But then when you read the quote that Mike Silver puts in there, what you will see is Lamar's biggest defenders echoing a piece of it short and a little bit slight. And my buddy Ben Solex like well, early in his career, they had to figure out his weight, clearly not the thrower of the football. Other guys, are you know what yesterday's commentary was, Why didn't they give the ball to

Derek Henry Moore? Why weren't there more Lamar Jackson designed runs? And nobody wants to be lumped in with the folks that were like, yeah, Bill Pollyan's right, the guys should change positions because those people were idiots, they were wrong, and oftentimes they felt racist. And so because of all of that, there is now folks twisting themselves in knots rather than simply saying guys. Reminds me a lot of

Peyton Manning. Not a single quarterback i'd rather have, maybe in the history of the league in the regular season, but in the biggest spots you're kind of holding your breath. That's all it is, that's all it's ever been. And he did have an opportunity Demons for a Peyton Manning moment. Yesterday Peyton or Sunday, Peyton Manning was down twenty one to three in the AFC Championship Game and didn't play great in the beginning of that game, and he didn't

almost come back. He came all the way back and they got the Super Bowl, and then the Super Bowl, he didn't play great again, Director Roswim, they won anyway. One day, Lamarro will have it. I would bet, But I just I don't I resent people. I shouldn't say resent people. I resent the idea that somehow this level of analysis that I've done for the last half hour

is lowbrow. That all that's morning talk show stuff. When guys, if you're explaining to me that actually, by success rate or EPA per play or QBR, Lamar was great on Sunday, I say this with no reservation. You are the one that doesn't understand football. If you thought Lamar played a great game on Sunday, you don't understand how football works.

And no fancy advanced metric is gonna teach you. Now, if you went on TV and said Lamar and I don't even want to say this because someone will just clip it fully out of context, so I'm gonna cover my face when I do it. Uh. If you went on TV and said Lamar is a playoff choker you'll never win. The guy stinks you're an idiot too, But nobody said that. That's a straw man that doesn't exist.

And if you if you have a job on those morning talk shows or afternoon talk shows and your take is it's nobody's fault they lost and any criticism makes you a loser, as Danie Rolofski's take was, then amen, I hope you get that offensive for their job you've been gunning for. Wow, something just broke. I don't even know what just happened? Is everything?

maybe coaching is what you're meant to do. Because as uncommfortable as it may be, and if you check your Twitter mentions, as angry as folks may get, our job is not it's not purely to criticize. But it's not purely to explain how great and awesome and wonderful everyone played and how man, none of it was their fault.

And I'll read the Verlovsky tweet in full for the audio audience, because man, he has so much courage when it comes to taking shots at other people in his current profession, because he is so unable to have even a modicum of criticism for folks in his previous profession. But quote. If you put the loss on Lamar tonight, respectfully, you're a loser. Mark Andrews, one of the all time Ravens had a brutal drop of a fumble. Yes, if you're gonna use that to crash him, respectfully, you're a loser.

understand what the job is. I I find it really I want to use the right word here telling that Orolovsky has all the smoke in the world for folks who do his current job in a way he thinks his subpar, but literally set on TV to Shannon Sharp a couple months ago that it's not his job to criticize folks who do his previous job NFL quarterback if they do it subpar. Not his job. That's not my job.

I'm not here for that. Okay, man, the kids would say, keep that same energy, but listen, when you're doing a job, because you're trying to get the coaching job, it's gonna be. It's everyone's great, everyone's always great, no one's at fault. And in fact, anyone that criticizes anyone, they're a loser. Got it, no problem? Uh, all right, I think we've got that pretty well covered. We'll talk Josh Allen on Thursday. Let's do the Chiefs. What demonse you want to say?

You you can whatever you want. Wet no, no, no, no, So.

focus on the roughing the passer calls. And we don't have video rights, you know, NFL highlight rights for the podcast, but we'll go through them. The first one, if you go back and watch the game in real time TV copy and just watch Mahomes. Don't watch when he throws the ball, Just watch Mahomes. That looks like as obvious of a roughing the passer call as you'll see in the league all year. It is a high hit to the head, his head snaps back. The ref who standing

behind it, throws the flag. The first replay we see, which is from the refs angle, it looks like an obvious roughing the passer call. The third replay we see, when it's from the side, you see that most of the contact did come to the chest and there was like grazing contact to Mahomes' face mask. Okay, now you can say Mahomes sold it. I suppose it's also Will Anderson, one of the fastest, best defensive players in football, hitting him full speed. My and that was a huge penalty.

I'm not gonna act like it wasn't because that was third down. The Chiefs kept the ball, they end up getting three points. What I am And this is where I think folks are intellectually dishonest. And I keep using that term. That call gets made in every game all year long. That's not a Chief's only thing. Every time the quarterback gets whacked and his head flings back and the hits high, that's a flag. And what I felt the broadcast missed was that play was reviewed and upheld

by New York. They saw it and they were like, yes, that's a penalty, or at the very least what they said is we can't overturn it because there was some contact to the helmet. So the first one, which did help the Chiefs pook points on the board, is a regular call, a regular, typical call. The second one, I understand people being annoyed by for two reasons. One is Mahomes baited them into it, and the other one was they hit each other, not him. That was a bad call.

There is no denying that was a bad call. My frustration with the focus on that is if they didn't flag that it was going to be second and six. That's the part of it that I don't follow. The outrage on was that wasn't on third down, That wasn't on It wasn't gonna be second or third. It wasn't on second and twenty five. It was first and ten. He ran for four yards, So that was a bad call. That also I think had minimal impact on the game.

I think I'm fine with that rule. I'm also fine with guys it's a penalty to flop on the sideline or in a scrum because you don't see it so much with quarterbacks, but the offensive line defensive linemen who jawed each other having in Bill's Ravens, and some bushroom was like, oh, I got shot. I'm fine with that

being a penalty. I'm good with all of it. But what is so What was to me like triple annoying about the discourse was the first penalty, which did lead to points, is a penalty all the time in the NFL, and they reviewed it and said, yes, it's a penalty. The second one, I think had minimal impact on the game, minimal. And then the other two parts of the discourse that killed me was if we are listing reasons the Texans lost and we're being honest, how many do we have

to list before we get to the refs. First reason is that Travis Kelcey destroyed them, right, That's the first reason. The second reason is they had a special team's abomination literally from the opening kickoff. The third reason is, and this is a pretty big one, you scored one touchdown on the road at Arrowhead against the Chiefs. Teams doing that are let me check, oh for life, since Mahome's been the starter, and if we want to say, and I would argue, the fourth reason is.

rank it. The other thing that frustrates me is people not caring about the data, not supporting this idea that the Chiefs get all the calls. On the last pod, we did the thing about how when it comes to roughing the passer penalties, there is one quarterback head and shoulders that gets more than anyone. It's Josh Allen and Mahomes is middle of the pack, and that's per game,

per pass, however you do it. But the the other thing is, and Josh debou Has of the Associated Press has been fighting the good fight on this, which is there is simply no data to suggest, no matter how you isolated, that the Chiefs get some hugely beneficial whistle. I'm not going to go through it all, but since Malmes has been there, they are dead last in the NFL and penalty yardage differential. People are like, oh, well, it's about It's not that. It's just during this dynasty run.

During the last three years, the Chiefs have been penalized for one hundred and forty seven more yards and their opponents in the last three seasons, that's the twelfth worst. Vikings actually have the best at their almost one thousand fewer than their opponents than People are like, no, we're talking about the fourth quarter or big spots. Let me find his tweet on that one where gosh darn it, I had it because somebody was talking about its high

leverage situations. So let me find it real quick. I apologize. I should have pulled this up beforehand. He tweeted a lot more than I thought he did. Maybe it's in his replies. Okay, here it is now do third down in the fourth quarter ups. So somebody wrote a third down in the first quarter up seven. It is not the same as a third down in the fourth quarter,

down three. Josha Bob the Associated Press, Chiefs opponents have gotten four more first downs, by penalty on third and fourth downs in the fourth quarter, in overtime in games decided by one score or less since Mahomes got there,

and so there's just no data to support this. Uh. But when teams are always in the biggest games, and when we're in an era where the best quarterbacks are hyper protected, this is you know, It's why Chiefs fans feel like Josh Allen gets all the calls, and it's why the rest of America feels like the Chiefs get all the calls. My last point on the refereeing and the biggest frustration on it there was, And this is where I just think everyone loses their ability to fairly reason.

There was one horrific call this weekend that you can say directly, maybe not only directly, led to points, maybe change the entire game. And everyone is so and it would have been the best argument to make by anyone during all of my Lamar Jackson ranting. But people are so used to bad calls it didn't even occur to him. They only stick out when it involves the Chiefs. Because the defensive pass interference penalty to Monsey against the Ravens at the end of the first half was the worst

call of the weekend and the most impactful. It's undeniable that was they maybe get three because of that, they definitely got seven. It takes a fourteen maybe seventeen to ten game to twenty one ten set at the table for all of it. That looked to me like offensive pass interference or a no call. They call defensive pass interference. Right. Also in that game, Lamar got whacked on the sideline.

But people are so tied to this narrative that no, the bad calls only favor one team in the league, and it's the Chiefs that like that to me, And I thought Buck and Aikman overdid the refereeing stuff in the Chiefs game. They were still talking about it when it's third and eleven and mahomes to Kelsey. The greatest playoff combination of the history of the league combines for what is the critical touchdown. There's still, you know, upset about the refereeing. I thought they overdid it a bit.

I thought Nance and Romo underdid it on that DPI that dB. Yeah, I couldn't believe it. And so that to me was, you know, that's what I'll say about the officiating. All right, and our long A block is pretty good. Uh, We're gonna have a much quicker B block and answer some listener questions. Quick break right back,

What's Right? Welcome back in What's Right with Nick Right This episode of What's Right when Nick Wright has brought to you by Deya Pizza featuring dairy free cheese made with their new DAYA oat cream blend dairy free cheese Come a long Way DAYA, leading the charge their pizzas off for the melt and stretch of traditional cheese without any dairy. Each day of Pizza starts with a perfectly crisp crust layered with savory, satisfying toppings, and finished with

cheese that melts and stretches beautifully. The DAYA oat cream blend delivers a creamy, cheesy texture that's indistinguishable from dairy based options. Just ask our guy Victor, who picks some up this weekend. In La, every pizza is crafted to be dairy free, making it a great choice for anyone seeking more inclusive meal options without compromising on taste. Data takes the concept of dairy free to a new level. Is my favorite part. Eliminating fau MoU fair of missing dairy.

It's not really an acronym anymore, like faum mol fair of missing help you guys get it moo like a calculm. It's pretty witty. You gotta admit. These pizzas delivered delicious taste and texture, making them perfect for any occasion, from casual dinners to game day spreads. Enjoy a foul move free pizza night with DAYA. Visit dayafoods dot com for more information, or find DAYA Pizza at retailers like Whole Foods, Kroger, Walmart. Follow Day on Instagram and TikTok for more updates and recipes.

All Right, Demon's that was one of our longest ay blocks. Is there anything that I felt like, you know, sometimes you're kind of boxed out a bit, but is there anything that you wanted to chime in on on either of those four move on to the other games.

was it to Travis? No, it wasn't to Travis. Who was it to McCole I don't even remember. Regardless, the reason Travis shoved Andy Reid was because he wasn't on the field on the fumble inside the ten and he felt like he would have held the block better. That's what happened. The point I'm bringing up is in the

Super Bowl, yes it was super thin margins. The Chiefs needed a drive to force overtime and then won in overtime, but they had already had their terrible luck, you know, with the fumble inside the ten in the previous in the second round against the Bills, they run a stupid play and McCall fumble's reach them for the pylon at the one yard line. They had a big enough, they already had a lead there, like you've got to build in.

It's gonna be hard to play a perfect game, and so now some of it is just unlucky bouncers or lucky bounces the opening kickoff of Chiefs Texans great kick return guy fumble, We've you know, samajp Ryan fell on it. Like that's good, that's good fortune. So yeah, some of this stuff isn't exactly fair. All right, next, let's get to the let's get to the other games.

And once he got injured. He could not move, and Sirianni saw that and on his second playback on the field after being injured, called a drop back into his own end zone where he's just a sitting dock and gets safety. Despite that, they recover, Saquon goes for eighty yards. They're up thirteen the Rams score. Now there's three minutes left.

It's second and seven. Saquan's just gone for three yards and he caught a play action rollout with his injured, immobile quarterback who hasn't who has not completed a big pass in hours, and they they end up having to punt like that, That second and seven pass call, honest to god's one of the worst play calls I've ever seen in my life. It's one of the worst play calls I've ever seen in my life. And it they

because of that. All of a sudden, Stafford's inside the twenty down six because Elliott missed the extra point like that would have been as horrifying a loss as exists. And aj Brown, you got to play better. For all the I'm reading the book, I like Jalen did make a great Yes, you're causing all this nonsense. Saquan's out there just crushing fools. We're talking about the Eagles and negative light because Aj Brown keeps we need to work

on passing. No, I always read books on the sideline, like what do you sometimes I I I I take cooking classes. Stop it and so the and it is so in the you know, now the authors at the game, he's getting interviewed about the book with the stop it. Uh and so listen. The the Eagles are able to overcome an injured quarterback and a ridiculous coach, and you gotta give in. I you know, had some questions about how Rosemand going into the year. You got to give

Rosemand credit. That's a hell of a roster they've built. They have talent everywhere. But yeah, so the right team did win. But man, oh man, you're supposed to lose playoff games. It's really hard. Like the Rams had the two turnovers, right, the two fumbles which let the Eagles take control. The Eagles mental errors and coaching errors plus a quarterback injury. It's supposed to cost you a playoff game. All right, let's talk about Detroit.

the Lions in the first round. He was out because of an injury in college. He then after his first year got suspended for gambling, then after his second year got suspended for steroids. While he was suspended for steroids, got pulled over by the cops, had guns in the car and was like, no, no, no, I played for the Lions. You gotta let me go. You know. It seems like they did let him go, and then that

story came out well. In this game, he scored a touchdown and then pretended to have deeply passionate sex with the end zone before the cameras pulled off. That's that's the player he is. Okay, that's who he is. Ben Johnson in the fourth quarter of the playoff game, at knowing who he was going into the game and then knowing an hour ago, this guy, I mean really aggressively

humped the end zone. You know what I think I should do ask him to make a critical on the fly decision about to throw a pass or not throw a pass. I mean that that was a problem and that lost him the game. Now maybe they would have lost anyway, but they were down ten and scoring every time that Golf didn't turn it over like they they were in the game. Not the time for that, bro, No,

not the time for that. If I have like a critical letter that needs to be delivered and I tie it around Dexter's my dog's neck and kick him in the ass out the door and like go boy, and it's like, I'm in letter didn't get delivered. Is it on him? I don't know, it's not. And so I

that was a banana's decision. And then so the defensive injuries, golf's hat trick of turnovers that mattered in the first half, fumble picked six where he got cracked, and then the pick in the end zone, and then the Jamison thing. And so I listen, I feel sick for Lions fans, I really do. And I'm not saying it's closed for them. I am saying there's a decent chance five years from now we're gonna say their best shot was last year. In this year, I think that's more than on the board.

All right, let's do Jaden.

with his style of play. That's that's the take. The take is not oh he's not good.

am I more right than anyone? If all off season I said, an NFC rookie quarterback is going to meet Patrick Mahomes in the Super Bowl, and everyone's like, you're crazy, rookie's never been there, conference stacked, whatever it is. And then in February, an NFC rookie quarterback meets Patrick Mahomes in the Super Bowl, but it was just the number two pick instead of the number one pick. Am I

wrong or am I more right than anyone? It's just a question people are asking, Uh, listen, Jaden's been unbelievable, and the top four quarterbacks in football Demonse Mahomes, Alan Borough lamore that fifth spot. It's like seven guys. You could argue. At various points over the last year and a half, people have argued the following names, just running through them, Dak Stafford, Purty, Love Hurts, Herbert.

I feel like a lot of people were saying something similar last year about CJ and maybe even Jordan Love, like, oh man, look at all this, you know, young guy, instant bactability progression in this league is not linear. And this is also when people are talking about the thin margins you were talking about with the Ravens Demonsey. There's also this Jayden's been unbelievable. If the Bucks rookie center doesn't screw up the snap count with two minutes left

in round one. We probably don't get any of this from Jayden. It doesn't make him any you know what I mean? Like that, that's how thin he's youre. They ended up selling for a field goal. Jayden then drove the field and then we saw that unbelievable game against Detroit right last one.

the MVP the ball so much? They should have given to someone else. That's all all right, I've got to do Colin in about an hour, very excited to hear the latest reason why Jmack thinks the Chiefs actually won't win when they just keep winning, and argue with Colin that the Chiefs should be ahead of the Bills in the hierarchy. I will see you guys on First Things versus Three. Good job, Demnse, Good job Blue Duck. Talk to you guys soon. What's right? Hey? Thanks for watching.

If you're still here, do me a favor. Hit the subscribe button, then hit the bell so you can be notified when we have new episodes. After you've done that, one more favor, go to your favorite audio platform of choice and subscribe there as well. Don't forget. We're live every Tuesday and Thursday ten thirty am Eastern Ish ten thirty five, ten forty. It sometimes changes, but that's why you hit the bell. You hit the bell so you're notified.

You subscribe so we can get to two hundred thousand followers. We're right around one hundred and fifty thousand. We'd love to get to two hundred thousand. Get demonsay another plaque, so like subscribe rate sen a rating to do all that cool stuff. Thanks guys,