NFL Daily with Gregg RosenthalGregg Rosenthal is joined by Patrick Claybon to recap the Christmas day doubleheader and preview the Week 17 action from around the NFL. First, a look at Chiefs at Steelers (01:27) and Ravens at Texans (10:30). After the break, previews of Chargers at Patriots (22:49), Broncos at Bengals (28:45), Cardinals at Rams (33:03), Jets at Bills (38:40), Titans at Jaguars (42:20), Packers at Vikings (43:51), Raiders at Saints (50:13), Colts at Giants (51:58), Panthers at Buccaneers (55:45), Dolphins at Browns (01:00:27), Cowboys at Eagles (01:03:45), Falcons at Commanders (01:09:15) and Lions at 49ers (01:16:03).
Note: time codes approximate.
Walk Up to NFL Daily presented by Draft Kings Sports Book, where we're never junior varsity. Back here in the Chris Wesleyan podcast studio on the morning after Christmas here on the West Coast with my friend Patrick claybaughn how was Christmas?
Christmas was great? They opened stuff, They had a great time. They jumped from toy to toy, they fall over toys. It's it's it's all you could hope for is to run back all the grief that you gave parents, including my son waking up at five thirty in the morning and then and then waking his sister up saying that Santa came. So that's what we get.
That's light work.
Walkers up that early every day, forget on Christmas. My family in Japan's there's a lot of a lot of face timing, but happy, Uh yeah that the kids and welcome up early and enjoin it.
That's that's the best stuff. I was gonna say.
We couldn't have asked for a better, you know, day of football, but we could have. It was it was not close games and that's fine.
Yeah, I couldn't have it was the exact results that I desired.
Oh, that's a good point. So this show is gonna be a little different than most. It is our Week seventeen preview show, and we're gonna get to all the games. But in the first block of our show, yeah, let's recap the two Christmas games. Let's go to Akerscher in Pittsburgh.
Kareem Hunt the running back, Chiefs up twelve twelve, forty four to go in the game, ball at the Steeler twelve yard line.
Mahomes will throw.
Again right side, with a little bit of room, slings it side of into the end zone.
Touchdown, Chanzas City.
A historic touchdown for Travis Kelsey is seventy seven touchdown reception and all time Kansas City Chiefs record, eclipsing the great Tony Gonzalez.
Oh yeah, it's Mitch Holtis.
It's a record breaking touchdown for the man, Travis Kelce twenty nine to ten. This Chiefs team, they're doing the Chiefs thing, although it really wasn't the Chiefs thing last year. They actually didn't play that well down the stretch. But they are absolutely playing their best football of the season at the time that the Steelers are playing their worst. This game, it looked like the final score twenty nine to ten. It looked like one team which is gearing up for another potential championship run and another potential early exit for the Steelers from the playoffs. We'll get to them in a second, but how impressive was it to watch Patrick Mahomes kind of at peak Patrick Mahomes power and.
It's something where Isaiah Pacheco has eighteen yards, Kareem Hunt has twenty yards in this game, and the Kansas City Chiefs essentially played like, okay, well, we're the best third down team in football with the best quarterback. A lot of folks, including the guy that's talking right now, i've ever seen why don't we just pretend like a third to all the time?
Right?
And so they did that and they executed greatly because that's how good they are, and they have the talent to do that now with Hollywood coming back. As much as it pains me to say, this is the best version of the Chiefs who look that good on defense as well, Greg without Chris Jones in this entire game, to where you've seen the flaws and you've seen just how bad things can go, and now it's like, where does that come from?
Who stops this at this point.
Well, I think the Bells are the Ravens could but more on the Ravens in a second. But now Kansas City will have home field advantage throughout the playoffs. They don't have to play in Week eighteen any of their starters who might be injured, or any starters at all that they feel like resting. It's tough, it's football. You can't just rest everyone all the time. But it wouldn't be surprising if Patrick Mahome gets a twenty four day break before the divisional round or twenty five if they put him on that Sunday. We will have to find out. I just go back to the second drive of this game. So they're already up seven to nothing. They had a very efficient first touchdown drive, typical Chiefs, but the second drive was the one where I started thinking.
Oh, they're really back.
There was that third and eleven play where Patrick Mahomes is flushed out.
For the most part, he's getting rid of the ball really quick.
Fastest time to throw in his career in this game and the last two weeks has been his too fastest you know, to throw in a few years. So let's keep doing that. But this was not a play where he got rid of the ball quickly. It's third and eleven. He's just trying to make something happen. He's rolling to his left and he sees Samaji p Ryan just on the ground, and this man is so amazing that he just flips the ball high enough in the air while he's running to his left to give p Ryan time to.
Get up and catch it. Great play.
Very next play, we see something that basically hasn't been happening all season for the Chiefs.
A go ball. Oh yeah.
Patrick Mahomes actually has a big arm and can throw the ball down.
The field if someone's open for him.
This time it was Justin Watson wide open for at forty nine yarder. That was against James Pierre. He's filling in for Joey Porter Junior. You saw that effect. Then to finish out that drive, I thought just as important of a play, Patrick Mahomes hits his foot at the back of his drop. He lets go of the ball on time on rhythm, a corner route with a lot of velocity.
Not an easy throw to make.
Again, Watson open in the corner at the end zone, And that one stuck out to me too, because they're sneaking up in a lot of those like kind of opposite hash impressive throws that look in the rhythm of the offense out of Mahomes this year. And so in that one drive alone, it was like I saw it all. And then by the end of the day, he's got over three hundred yard He's got three touchdowns, like fantasy owners that were knocked out before they ever got here. I'm wondering, it's like, we finally got fantasy Patrick Mahomes. Let's tell you we really know Patrick Mahomes is back.
Yeah, you get twenty twenty two fantasy Patrick Mahomes. Because the offenses look different. They have not looked this good in a while. They run play action fourteen times when Mahomes is dropping back. He completes twelve of those passes four hundred and sixty nine yards. But it was just as good without play action yesterday as well. And I know the Steelers defense has banged up. You mentioned Joey Porter Junior. I don't think TJ. Watt has been playing at one hundred percent for the past couple of weeks.
And I know there's the old adage, Well it's this week seventeen everybody has hurt.
Some guys are dealing with more than others, and some injuries are more significant than other ones. But that being said that, there was very little the Steelers defense could do yesterday. It's like Andy was in his bag and so was the quarterback.
They're just not special enough.
Ultimately, they've given up thirty points a game in the last three weeks to three of the best offenses in the league.
And I think they needed their defense to be special.
Now, if there wasn't a holding call that took seven points off the board, it looked like the right call took away a Jalen Warren touched. On the very next play, Russell Wilson makes the wrong read and throws in interception, and so that's seven missing points.
You're saying, maybe it's not the right one. Who knows it was a.
Clono Wason wasn't six seven? Yeah, I feel like it's a little more. It's like when the big man is outside and maybe gets called for travel that you know Steph's fair vegerable.
It just seemed they were they were gonna win anyways, but it would have been more matter in the play either it was right.
It was a rough one.
That's true, and it would have been a more competitive game. It would have been better for the Netflix. Uh you know people watching like me. Just so we wanted a close game. But ultimately, the Chiefs had a drop back success rate in this game of almost sixty percent, which is unbeatable. And the Steelers were much much worse on offense. And yeah, I mentioned the fastest time to throw. Mike Sando the Athletic had a crazy stat in the thirty one starts where Patrick Mahomes let go of the ball the fastest. So the thirty one fastest times to throw in his career, they're thirty and one. And when he holds the ball the longest, the nine games where he held the ball the longest he's won and eight that's Chiefs teams being one in eight. I think that's a pretty good one to one comparison. If he's holding onto the ball, the offense isn't working as well. Let's listen a little bit to Mike Tomlin after this game because I mentioned, Yeah, they give up ninety points over the last three weeks.
I'm putting them on fraud Watch.
We'll go back to that after this because they lost these games ninety to forty.
You know, you can look at it from a lot of angles. The bottom line is is junior varsity it's not good enough. We got to own that. But we also got to look at what it is we need to do different. We're not going to continue to do the same things and hope for a different result.
I know you're the co executor of fraud Watch. I mean, you get to the biggest point of the season, you play three great teams, and you get beaten soundly by all three.
What's your verdict that they're not because fraud Watch was reserved for teams that are abject frauds.
Yeah, as we mentioned there, you could change.
You could change a.
Few things about this game, and it turns out it turns out a little bit differently. Where the Steelers were still able both Nase and Jalen had over five yards of carry, they just got behind, and then in those opportunities to make plays and big plays in the passing game, they get George Pickens back to where you finally have hope that they're able to make those big plays.
They can't necessarily make those.
I'm interested in what Mike Tomlin is talking about as to how they do things differently.
There's something going on based on the postgame comment Patrick Queen saying that some things need to change, and there's something going on, and there's been all these different comments from defensive players, and there's there's sleuthing going on and the dark corners of Steelers Twitter and some of the reporters maybe something about responsibilities, who's doing what on a defense. There's guesswork, thinking Minka is in the middle of all this. Something to do with communication and like roles and guys not doing their assignments. It's unfair for me to even throughout this this guesswork. But they're not happy with something about how the defense is coaching or roles are happening. On offense, Russ's bailing a little early from the pocket. Had some bad throws in this game, missed Mike Williams. I think that was a big play, took a bad sack, and yeah, they had some bad fumble luck as well.
But uh, let's just give some credit to the Chiefs.
I had my Andy Reid Coach of the Year candidacy that I talked about early in the week. It's a real thing. I mean, they're sixteen and one with a lot of flaws. That's great coaching. I think he is a legitimate candidate. He's putting Xavier Worthy in the backfield. Like it's all going well for the Chiefs right now and they are cruising to the one seed. The Steelers losing early, then maybe they they got their streaming, you know, set up on the plane so that they could watch the Ravens and just hope that, you know, maybe the Ravens would lose in Houston and leave the division open.
Let's go to NRG Stadium.
Triangle formation in the backfield, Lamar a five yards deep, He'll fake the hand up to Henry comes to the right side, cross the forty, Lamar of the thirty.
He's gone twenty ten five touchdown Lamarge jack a forty eight yard run. And if Beyonce didn't wow you, Lamar Jackson just.
Did good job by Jerry Sandusky. And it's true the Ravens and Texans game second half just felt kind of anti climactic after what happened with Beyonce and what happened after that touchdown run forty eight yards later in the half, he becomes the all time NFL leader in rushing yardage. What a performance by Lamar Jackson thirty one to two. Your Ravens didn't even make you sweat. You got to kind of kick back. Who knows, maybe you weren't even watching.
By the end of the game.
I wouldn't have blamed you.
This was a complete blowout, the Texans getting their only two points on a safety.
Yeah, I was able to go do some more toy manipulation and hair because you know, if it's playing, I'm watching and slowly as that second half go and I'm like, all right, all right, coach, we've seen enough eight and twenty two. By the way, but Derrick Henry actually stayed in longer than Lamar did in this game that I was kind of on offense unmarred other than Derrick Henry doing his Derrick Henry thing on the goal line and which is trying to score ninety nine yard touchdowns. And he bounced that play that he probably not probably should shouldn't have bounced, and then the Texans get a safety, and then they get a stop after that, and there's people on the timeline talking about momentum, and it didn't necessarily work out for them because they go on to win to lose the game thirty one to two. But all of these things, it was a fun opportunity to see Lamar back on a consistent playing surface where he has only lost four games on his indoors, and it's been a while actually since he's had a loss indoors, but to see him on a couple of plays where Daniel Hunter was pretty much the victim on those play. There was a third down scramble where Hunter is running into the flat and he has the angle on Lamar, and Lamar hits the extra special gear yeah, that he only hits every every so often scrambles for that first down. He hits it again when Will Anderson takes takes Derrick Henry on the option give, and the past couple of weeks, Lamar is undefeated. Whatever the number is. I'm making the pole give decision with Derrick Henry. Good call, and it's he's been so on cue with that that it's made these run defenses look like like they're getting blasted.
But really he's just making the right call every time.
I think, are you talking about that?
It was a twenty five yard scramble on the very first drive of the game where he hit that turbo button. You're so right to point that out because I was just thinking, man, Lamar just looks like he's got that extra and then I think about it, It's like, oh yeah, he's not playing in the freezing cold on some grass there. There is a difference. Imagine his career if he played it durds the whole time. I mean, it looked unfair. He had what was his fastest time according to the next Gen stats on that touchdown, and he said after the game like he was jogging and he was right, like the seas opened up for him and he could have run even faster. If he had gotten more time to run on that scramble, he would have been he would have broken that record. But on that first drive also had a dot to Zay Flowers up the seams where he's so good throwing the ball. And then you saw some really special juice from Derrick Henry, who if you can have an underrated season at like eighteen hundred rushing yards that he is now most years, he'd be a legit MVP candidate. When I'm watching the postgame show and they're they're trying to you know, Jamie Erdall's trying to make them eat the football cake, and she's like how does it feel to be sitting next to the MVP. I'm sure Derrick Henry is not like me, but I thought for him in the second I was like, man, I'm.
Pretty good too.
I got nineteen hundred yards from scrimmage, I got four. I'm leaving the league in touches. I have seventeen hundred and eighty three rushing yards. It's like I could be the MVP, but he's not. Because of the plays that that Lamar is making, like that one with Danil Hunter in his face.
Let's actually listen to that. That's the touchdown to Isaiah Likely.
So Raven's come to the line on second down play action, Lamar rolls right, pumps once, pumps twice. Now he steps back, back pedalinks, fires to the end zone.
Touchdown Isaiah Likely, and Lamar Jackson does it again. Daniel Hunter was applying to pressure and Lamar just kept back pedaling, side stepping, salsa dancing.
That was It's outrageous. It's unfair.
He only threw fifteen passes in this game and ran it four times, and he had like nine great highlights out of those plays.
The problem for Daniel Hunter is not being able to see Oz in the back of his head there because it's it's Stingley on Isaiah. Likely it's going to be very difficult for him to to separate. Lamar just needs time, and once Danil makes that decision to dance with Lamar, it's kind of it's kind of over.
You're not gonna be able to go at them, just try.
And you're having to defend a part of the field that you can see, and he can see everything that you can't see, and so you kind of have to just pick a shoulder and go.
But it's very difficult to do.
When you did that, and Lamar already stopped and cut back, and so it's a bind where this Texans defense, as good as it is these past few weeks, has just been put in a position by their offense where they have to try to make plays and sometimes you just can't.
They remind me a lot of the Steelers. I think they're a worse version of the Steelers. And these two teams might play in the first round of the playoffs. I'd probably take Pittsburgh in that scenario. But it's hard to build around defense in the year twenty twenty four. I say it every year, and you get to the end of the season, and here they've They've basically been dominated twice in a row. Not as badly as their offense has been, and but they're not good enough to win games against great teams. They're one of the worst nine and seven teams I think we've seen in a little while. I actually think they're more that may be overstadian, but to me, all season they have felt like a sub five hundred team that has gotten by on schedule and a couple great things happening. And I know the defense has been good, but CJ. Stroud this was one of his worst games of his career. I've been trying to see the positive. I thought he played better coming out of the by and made a lot of good plays, but this game he took some bad sacks. If he holds the ball, it plays almost over. At least it was in this game. He was two for eight for thirty seven yards when he held the ball more than two and a half seconds. And the Ravens defensive improvement is here to stay. They more than doubled them up in yardage. They only allowed two hundred and eleven yards justin Tucker's hitting fifty yard.
Bombs through the middle.
Josh Johnson actually had a nice garbage time drive that got anyone out of there early. It was like a six minute long drive. Like it is all happening for them. And I do wonder what this Texans team, Like, Yeah, they should rest everyone next week because they're gonna have the playoffs in two weeks.
But they just had a bye week. I don't know. I'm almost torn.
It's like they need to I don't know, it's just they need to rese but they haven't shown any ability to reset.
All right, well, the reset right, the schedule has a factor in that. And I know that the loss to the Jets has agreed. Just this Ravens team lost to the Raiders, right, the losses here coming to Yeah, but ultimately, like my point, Kansas City, Baltimore, Detroit, Green Bay, Minnesota, like these losses other than the anomalies, aren't necessarily coming to our Lady of the Valley. And when you have the deficiencies on offense, especially the offensive line, because we could talk about Stroud struggles. One of those struggling throws into the flat. Upon further review, Larr mc tunseell is stepping on his upper calf kind of bending his ankle back and he didn't really play well after that. But the pressure, I'm not sure if it's in his head. I can't go into that, but he hasn't been put in great situations relative to last year to complete those downfield passes because he's such an aggressive passer, and then when they lose Tank Dell, the options become limited the downfield where it's it's Nico or nobody in defenses know that, and especially this Ravens defense where Nico had some opportunities but it just they're just warn't enough.
Yeah, Nico had one bad drop, but CJ missed them a couple of times.
He struggled with some of the out patterns.
Not to psychoanalyze, I think he's a he's an emotional player, CJ. And you see him like holding his helmet after all these stores, and he's a young player who I think is just going through some ups and downs and feeling it when it's not going well for him. The Texans are locked into the four seed, and so that's what I was mentioning about possibly resting people. No matter what happens, they are the four seed. The Baltimore Ravens are now in first place in the AFC North. If the Bills win on Sunday, the Bills will be locked into the two seed. If the Bills happen to lose to the Jets, and that could be up for grabs, but either way, the Ravens basically have a magic number of one here going to the final NAE week. They need to either win their game who do they play that they must play the Browns and then the Steelers have the Bengals in Week eighteen. If the Steelers lost to the Bengals, and I'm sure they'll have them play at the same time, and Baltimore wouldn't even need to win to win the division. They are one up. But things are really looking good for the Marlin Humphrey. Great game, are Darius Washington? Great game? And then I really want to just give a little bit of pop to Lamar Jackson breaking the all time quarterback rushing record.
Let's listen to Lamar after the game.
Great from Mancus, that's a record. As you know, it's a long time.
I just wanted to hear like the genuine appreciation there.
I know there's a lot going on in that locker room after the game, but I don't know if not enough has been made out of this, but this is a it's a great award, I mean a great record to break. For him to do it in his eighth season now or seventh season, Lamar Jackson is incredible and just just is a reminder of like, wow, this is an all time great right in the middle of his prime. Like he could add a lot of rushing yards to that record.
Yeah, and when you when you looked at that, and maybe that's why it's it's not getting the pop because we expected it, right, you get in the year six, year seven's, Oh, Lamar is gonna eventually catch and pass Michael Vick, Like what's it but to Lamar right to those who've grown up watching somebody and really what it means to play this position in your own particular way, Like there were people who came before that, Right, there's Steve Young's, the Randalls, the Mike Vicks. And to see that passed on and to see Lamar have that very genuine reaction after he wasn't able to see Beyonce at halftime, it means something to him and I think that's cool.
I think it's amazing because Lamar is is the best example of Yeah, the position has really changed. I mean even the baseline of how much you need to rush as a quarterback has totally changed. But Lamar is the greatest at that particular degular part of quarterbacking and he's an example of how the position has changed.
And it's awesome setting that record.
And yeah, we could talk beyond halftime show for another fifteen minutes, but we got to get onto our preview and that was that was an incredible performance.
Though. No, it's great, the production, the execution.
Perfect, maybe maybe better than any halftime show I've ever seen.
And that's no slight to Yeah, that's no slight to anyone.
And yes, justice for Sweet Honey, Bucket and Shaboozi in a big spot back in a couple of minutes back on NFL Network. Yeah, no, NFL Daily. It's a big week for NFL Network. Yes, actually we're on the NFL channel, not NFL Network. You can't watch Patrick and I on on your fast channels if you're into that sort of thing. But yes, Saturday, it's a triple header and NFL Network lucked out here because two of the three games are the biggest among the biggest of the week, and the first, one's got two of my favorite quarters.
Oh so much juice in this game.
We will go chronologically with our NFL Network triple header chronologically.
The root word there being chronos Greek for time.
Many folks think of mythology and the being Chronos and how he was once.
All that matters.
All that matters to Greg Rosenthal is Drake May his New England Patriots playing house two of the Chargers, who were four and a half point favorites. Yes, all these games on the NFL Network. Chris Rose, Ross Tucker, and Steve Weish on the call where Greg, we saw your Patriots give the Bills a very very close scare. And the past two weeks of the Chargers, it's kind of like, who are they the team that sees the Bucks go all over them in the second half or the team that pulls away from the Broncos late?
How do you see it going?
The most surprising part of the Chargers Broncos game was that they their defense didn't play well. Yeah, you know, they got some stops in the second half there, but their defense, which had been so good all year, is like quietly collapsing a little bit down the stretch. And I've been tracking what their DVOA is all season.
They were like one, two, three.
Now now they're down to thirteen, so you figure where they're at lately, and amazingly, the Patriots offense has been increasing efficiency shout out to Alex van Pelt as long as they're throwing backwards passes. They've gotten the running game going since the bye week, and the Chargers run defense has really struggled. So Ramandri and Antonio Gibson again when Romandre is not putting the ball on the ground, have been pretty efficient. And so I'm at the point now with how consistent May is from a week to week basis that I actually think their offense can keep them competitive most weeks. It's the other side of the ball that I'm more worried about for the Patriots at least.
Yeah, there's I look over it where Darwin is playing right now, which reminds me of where Kyle Hamilton was playing at the start of the season, right around the line of scrimmage. He's got Derwin's playing ten percent of his snaps around the line of scrimmage as a slot corner, as a safety, as a linebacker this season, where he's far up and I feel like they're having to move Derwin up because they're having some deficiencies probably in the linebacker position and on that first level where teams have been able to have success later on as the season goes, and on offense. The quarterback in Justin Herbert is the only quarterback in the entire NFL who has not thrown an interception when not pressured the whole season. He's got the lowest interception rate in the league. If Herbo has time and he's protected, the ball is pretty much going to go where he wants to go. Now, the Chargers receiving group leaves a lot to be desired. I don't know that that is well. I don't feel like it's not as much of a problem against this new England Patriots team.
No.
I do think Christian Gonzales is an All Pro candidate, certainly should be on the Pro Bowl and is in the mix with Certan as one of the best cornerbacks in the league. But the Chargers are a perfect example of it. Think, yeah, maybe he could fly around with McConkey.
That's yeah.
I don't know if he's going to go on the inside, but you can only take away one guy and Herbert will find the open guy.
We might have JK.
Dobbins back in this game he was practicing, which would be absolutely huge. The Chargers can clinch a playoff spot. They are not in the playoffs as of yet. They have a ninety four percent chance to make the playoffs according to next jen Stats. If they lose, they would only have an eighty four percent chance. They actually have an outside chance to climb up to the five seed and pass Pittsburgh. Now that Pittsburgh lost that game, and I think that five spot would be nice. It would be the difference of potentially going to Houston or going to Baltimore, and those are two very different potential outcomes, or even Buffalo there, so it does matter for them. Ian Rappaport reported that Patriots they want to keep drawd Mayo and as long as things don't collapse down the stretch, and they had a pretty good performance last week. I do worry as a Patriots fan about the lack of improvement. In fact, I think they've gotten worse on the defensive.
Side of the ball. Overall.
They don't communicate well, they're not great upfront, and they don't seem overly well coached to come up with a good game plan. But they did last week against Buffalo, so we'll see fun game. If you're gonna have a mismatch game, at least have two great quarterbacks and then have a broadcast crew which leads the league in knowing me the most of any broadcast crew that's ever existed, because I spend my Sunday nights in the film room there watching the Sunday night game with Chris Rose and done that for years.
Know him really well.
Started out with Ross Tucker in New York. We did a lot of things together at Roadal World, Yes Network, like back in early like blog days, and then Steve Weisch's on this show. This is my crew. I'm looking for it.
Yeah, this is the Greg. This is the Greg Rosenthal crew.
And you should in your career too. I mean maybe you don't know Ross. No, you don't know Ross. I do have.
Yeah, I got two out of the three in my phone.
And to give Ross a little bit of love, and we should move on. Ross has always known his stuff, but we're always trying to get better. I think I'm better than what I used to be. And Ross has become one of the best broadcasters in the game. Like in game broadcasters. He is absolutely one of my favorites. I think he's gotten better and better.
Over the years. Absolutely, here's Ross Tuckers in a big spot. Good good there. As we go to our second second NFL Network.
Game again, a Saturday tripleheader on NFL Network, it is the Denver Broncos at the Cincinnati Bengals. There was a tiny voice in the back of my head a couple of weeks ago that said, the Bengals aren't out of this and there is still there is still slight some things have to happen that yous have to try in week eighteen, something that kind of dooms the whole thing.
A slight chance. Did they make it to the playoffs?
Three and a half point favorites against the Denver Broncos team who just saw those Chargers pull away in the second half.
The over under is forty nine and a half.
Kevin Harlan on ANFL Network, which is my dream, Trent Green and Melanie Collins on the call. This Broncos team saw everything. The doubt creeps in, at least to me with the Broncos last week. How do they bounce back and do it against Cincinnati.
By playing the defense that they've played for most of the season. For them to get really picked apart by Herbert was quite surprising. They didn't get enough pressure. The Bengals look like they will have Orlando Brown and Amarius Mims back for this game. In the second half of that game against the Browns, they were down to like one starting offensive lineman and neither of their tackles because Mims got hurt in that game and Brown was not out there, and I was thinking their season is going to end against Denver.
Because of that.
But you get your tackles back against this Broncos pass rush, it gives Joe Burrow yet another chance of and if he can just raise a team that doesn't really deserve to be there, and yet on offense, like man Chase Brown is better than you think, he's playing really awesome. It does look like t Higgins is gonna be back for this game. So it's a big day for Joe Burrow. MVP ballot voting. He's not gonna win the MVP, but you got to vote for five guys now, and Joe Burrow can and will be on some of those ballots as the third, the fourth, the fifth guy. You go out there and you beat this Broncos team and you play well and you're gonna play Pittsburgh. I mean, it's gonna be one of the more impressive seasons ever for a team that has eight or nine losses.
Yeah, and I think the the benefit of twenty twenty four are there are years where this Joe Burrow year would have been lost and underappreciated, but more people see what he's accomplished with Jamore Chase is gonna win the Triple Crown.
If it was last year, I actually think there'd be a decent push for Burrow as like an MVP candidate, Like maybe he wouldn't have won it, but this year the candidates are just much better. It's just just how it happens. Like Lamar's year last year might have been fourth on this this crap, That's all I'm saying.
Yeah, and there needs to be a league wide, maybe planet wise discussion on MVP and what it means and how we have these discussions and like what the concept of a race looks like on a season long award and how vibes go into it. But don't let that take away from from what could be a fun game with two teams and I'm interested to see because when you look at the both the player location for Jamar Chase and for Patrick Ratan, it's not like either of these guys are locked into one spot. In fact, they're everywhere, and so we could see them going up. And then I think about T Higgins leaving the game. We think he's gonna play here, but Riley Moss hasn't played since before Thanksgiving.
He's practicing, though, sounds like he will be back for this game, So that's big.
Yeah, it is big if he's if he's back and healthy, because it ultimately could not matter what Patrick stan does with Jamar Chase if they can't cover T.
I think those lines crazy. Bengals favored by three and a half. I know Vegas has liked the Bengals generally all year, but I'm taking the Broncos straight up. The best case for the Bengals is that their defense has played better lately against some bad quarterbacks, but some of their young players Chris Jenkins, McKinley Jackson, Jordan Battle have made some plays lately. Nicks has two straight games under a PFF passing grade of sixty, which is the first time that's happened. For him since weeks one and two, so he needs to bounce back. Ultimately, I think they're a better team overall, and I think they win this game.
There is rain and wind in the forecast on Saturday, and so I don't know how that makes you feel about the rookie quarterback who's had the ups and downs.
We know Champagne's not hiding.
And it doesn't help Joe Burrow either. This is a high flying passing attack, but yeah, it might be an ugly one.
Football elements were real men or watching at home with their slippers on let's go to our final game on a NFL network.
It is a game that would have been so much bigger.
Things worked out differently for the Arizona Cardinals in the past couple of weeks. The Cardinals across the street at SOFI Stadium against the Rams, who were favored by six and a half points. After a dud of an offensive game against the Jets, the over under forty seven and a half. Rich Kurt and Jamie Arnall on the call. Jamie is traveling the globe right now. It's sorry downstairs in the green room. I thought she was doing GMFB from home or from the hotel room knows she was here.
Wow, there's a lot peak behind the curtain. There's going everywhere.
She's back out for this game where despite a bad offensive output last week, we're looking at a huge number for the Rams against the Cardinals GRG in the division.
By the way, I was surprised how the Rams are favored by six and a half.
And then you know, I did my homework. It's Christmas.
I'm putting in the work to be ready for this preview show as putting for the listeners. And the Cardinals are expected to be without both their starting tackles in this game. And Cynthia who maybe we'll talk about this on the Man Versus Mache show. I don't know if this will be one, but for her model, when you remove a tackle, it makes as big a difference as anything other than removing a quarterback. So you remove both your starting tackles for what had been a strength of this Cardinals team, and you're going up against Jared Verse and this Rams pass rush, and you think about how the Cardinals have struggled throwing the ball anyways, and then that six and a half starts to make a little more sense because I think I think it's fair to say Patrick, their passing game for Arizona, led by Kyler, is the most disappointing part of this team. That's what you thought would be the best part of the team and it's just been okay to a little less than okay, and that's disappointing.
Yeah, you go back these last few weeks.
Marvin Harrison hasn't had more than fifty nine yards since like Week eight, and the one game was when.
He had sixty. And it's not like the targets have gone away.
I mean a couple of weeks ago he had twelve targets, he had eight last week. And the places where you expect this passing game to be explosive, they're just not. And then you just want them to stay on schedule, convert some third downs, and they've had problems with that as well, and so it's hard to picture that getting better without the tackles against the Rams, I think it's going to be another slug fest. Will we rely the Cardinals rely on the search bar and hope that there's a bad weird Stafford game like last week where it throws for one hundred and ten yards.
Well, I've got a theory about that is Matthew Stafford an indoor cat. Oh, because if you look at some of the results this year, he had that game against San Francisco, they had that game against Chicago. You put Stafford there on the nice, you know, friendly environment of so FI and our producer Jason Kleman stepping in today in the big chair here people out sick, get better hide them soon, pointing out they're gonna have a real home crowd because this is Saturday night. It's the Cardinals don't travel that well. It's trying to not quite clinch a playoff spot, but basically clinch a playoff spot.
If they win the game.
There are some other results they're counting on for strength of victory that might happen even by the end of this weekend. And yeah, I think it'll be rocking there. But I do wonder if, like Matthew Stafford, maybe he just needs he just needs a nice environment. At this time, he's older, he hasn't played very well with pressure.
I don't know, like maybe there's something to it.
There might be he gets a consistent playing surface and met life traditionally not the.
Most well in the in the week before too, it's easy to forget though this was the game where Kyler went absolutely nuts. The first time around. Matthew's effort did not play great in that game either, and that was indoors in Arizona. They got smoked by the Cardinals the first time around, and the teams have changed a lot now. I think the main thing I think about the Rams are they're a Kirien Williams team. They are a run heavy team. It's weird because it's McVeigh, but he always wants to have a great running team, and I think if they can run the ball thirty five forty times, they will, And they've been pretty good at it lately, very good at it, no very.
Good, especially down the stretch where they've needed to make those plays. Both Blake Korm who had a big run call back by penalty, but Kiren especially. They've had to in these in these games, maybe like the one in MetLife where things have been bad playing surface wise and conditions have been great. But even even in the game indoors against against the New Orleans Saints, sure it was that second half run game from both of these guys that really powered them towards the win.
James Connor is practicing on Thursday, and so he is expected to play, and Trey Benson is also practicing, so there was some question about that. That's that's good news at least for the Cardinals. Ny I mentioned the playoff scenarios. How it comes down to is the Rams if they win this game, they all but win the divisi and they need four out of a potential seven other teams to win over the weekend to clinch the strength of victory. If that does not happen, they will have to wait until week eighteen.
Or the Chicago Bears could do the Rams as solid and.
That would help, but it actually wouldn't. Oh yeah, it would clinch it with it win. You're right, you're right, but you.
Know, depends on when you're listening to us with their cards to that. So the Rams get that win against the Jets. The Jets now go on the road to actually New York to take on the Buffalo Bills, who are favored by eight and a half points. The over under is forty seven. It's CDs Team one Jim, Tony and Tracy on the call, where Greg. The Bills are back at home. They survived a scare at home against the division opponent, could Aaron Rodgers and his division opponent provide a similar type of scare.
This week, they could Okay, they've been playing better offensively, right they have.
I'm I thought I was setting you up for something different.
There, but no could.
I mean, I don't expect they will. They have turned into the offense. And I know they only scored nine points against the Rams, but they moved the ball the whole day.
They didn't punt. There's that maximum.
It's like defenses now they want to make you just go on these long drives and eventually they'll make mistake and they won't catch it.
Like the Jets are of that offense.
They go on the long drives, but then they don't quite finish it off because of some sort of penalty. They won't be with Olu fashion U this week. They're left tackle, which is a big loss for them. So now I've tucked myself out of it. I think the Bills are gonna smoke them. They know they know this is this is kind of like what the Chiefs had on Saturday. If they can just win this game, they buy themselves, at least some of them a nice break because they'll clinch the two seed. They won't have the one seed, and Josh Allen and his MVP campaign will likely be over because they'll they'll likely sit some key players in Week eighteen.
They the key players being like like Josh Allen, James Cook, Greg Russo who's been great.
I think maybe that Ron Miller who had a good game quietly against the Patriots was one of the better games I think he's played all year.
Late stage, Vaughn still still producing, but Aaron Rodgers getting the ball, getting rid of the ball very quickly. That's been the case all season long. The big plays and the just the head scratchers from this team have kind of doomed them late. But there's there's an opportunity for DJ Reiden Sauce Gardner, who have been very good. The Bills, you know, rely on James on James Cook in this run game where the Jets have not been great against the run.
But what if they are? What if they can be no id all I can.
They could be Between them and the Bears. They're two of the best four and eleven teams I've ever seen. They should not be four and eleven, Neither one of these teams. Those teams should be six and nine.
Seven and eight.
They're really not that bad, but they found ways to lose. The last thing I'll say on this game is just Aaron Rodgers multiple times this week questioned what are already like pre coping about the Jets cutting him? Said on Pat McAfee, well, I've never been cut by a teenager before.
Those are fighting words.
He said that on McAfee, and then at the podium he sort of doubled down about it, like it's about, well, it's up to Woody whether I'm here next year. It's like, man, he's challenging them. He must he either knows he's gone or he's just trying to act like, well, you didn't fire me, I'm firing myself because he seems like he's firing himself, or.
He's a dodge consequences perplexingly for things that he's said for years, So like why would he be extra careful about his language at any point?
As always Patrick May just a great final point. Also, Garrett Wilson has kind there's been some grumbling unhappiness with Garrett Wilson that's picking up, so just not good vibes.
I take it back. Bills by forty.
Bills five million perug Greg, we'd like some points in this next game, because the last time we saw it a few weeks ago, there were not a lot of points. The Tennessee Titans at the Jacksonville Jaguars, who were favored by one. Shout out Matt Jones thirty nine and a half, the over underspiro ddis out of Arceleta and a D D ki kabwalla on the call. It's the Mason Rudolph edition of the Titans this time around, Greg, is that disrespect to Mason Rudolph?
The Jags are favored here, It is.
A little bit of disrespect. I'm taking the Titans is a big game for draft seeding. They are third and fourth in Tankathon. There are nine teams that have between two and four losses, only one that has two. So eight teams between the second and the ninth pick up three or four losses, so that you could fall far if you lose this game. This is probably Doug Peterson's last home game as a Jaguars coach. Shout out to Doug Peterson, got them competitive, got him to win a playoff game. Was a tough rebuild, and it's gone sour and not going well. For Brian Callahan, this is the worst Tennessee season. It feels like Tennessee has been bad a lot, but they haven't been this bad. This is their worst season in almost a decade, and it just keeps getting worse and worse. I think Mason Rudolph gets them a victory. Let's take a break. We're going to come back on the other side for the game that is saving the Sunday slate. Absolutely one of the best games of this NFL season because of where it comes.
That's Packers Vikings.
Back me.
So I said we were going in chronological order. I lied.
Sometimes a game is so good you've got to come out of the break with it. And it's the one game at four to twenty five on the East Coast, won twenty five out here on the best coast, And.
So the whole country's got to be watching Vikings.
And Packers, and they should because it's time for the game of the week.
Percented by DraftKings Sportsbook. The Green Bay Packers favored.
By one Wow.
Vikings, who are policit pushing for a chance to play the Lions in the final week of the season for the overall one seed in the entire conference. The over under forty eight and a half. Kevin Berkhart, Tom Brady, Aaron Andrews, and Tom Rinaldi on the call.
The Packers favored here, Greg, should they be?
No?
But I get it the numbers, I'll say the Packers are one of the best teams in the NFL. They are now up to third in DVOA that's total efficiency. That's ahead of the Bills and the Eagles. They're third. They're just behind the Lions and the Ravens. That's it since the buye the Packers. Any metric you look at. Offensively, they're in the top five. What's different is that they're in a number of magics to defensively in the top five and the rest in the top ten. And they really have forced a lot of turnovers without making big mistakes. The schedule has been part of that. And so that's why I say this is a perfect game at the perfect time of season. Because as good as the Packers have been, and you can make a pretty good argument they're one of the best five six teams in the NFL, they want to win one of these games. Yes, all their losses are to thirteen win teams or whatever, but it's like they want to win the Super Bowl.
So it's a perfect game for them.
They're going to be able to rest their starters next week probably either way, and they'll be locked in to where they are and so go win a game against another playoff team, maybe move up in the seedings, maybe not, but show that you can do it before you take a week off and get ready for the playoffs.
It was very difficult to pick this game. The initial thought was watching how Josh Jacobs in this Packers run game in offense can can really execute early, middle, late game it doesn't matter. But then I just keep picking against the Vikings because I'm thinking, Oh, we're gonna get to a moment and Sam Donald's not gonna make the play, keeps making the Playgreg he keeps making.
But the moment you jump off of that is when they do lose. Well, we shouldn't have picked them against the Seahawks.
That was because what happened. It was exactly what happened all season long. The Seahawks showed how good they can be. They also showed how bad they can be in key moments, and the Vikings just continue to execute. And when we forget I know Jamar is about to win the triple Crown. But like we forget what Justin can do, but Sam Sam doesn't, and he goes to him when he needs to. Like Sam Donald's averaging like nine yards adjusted yards per attempt. He's throwing past the sticks on forty five percent, not just of his throws on third down, of all of his throws, Like he's he's not being hidden, Kevin O'Connell's not working some magic.
This is just Sam Donald playing Sam Donald football.
These are two of the best six quarterbacks in the league based on how they've played over the last two months and based on the numbers. Jordan Love is not in your MVP conversation because the first half of the season matters and he was hurting all that And I think about this game the first time around, where he was just coming off the injury, didn't look right.
They started out slow and they end up scoring a lot.
I think the way to beat Brian Flores's defense you got to have someone back there, like a Gino.
Frankly that you don't need. Nate Tys has pointed this out.
You don't need to do all the play action that you have a quarterback that can just win by dropping back and throwing some missiles and knowing where to go with the ball, and that is Jordan Love to me. We'll see if he makes big mistakes. But the difference that as good as Aaron Jones looks and he's running downhill and it's a good enough running game, I think he's running very well. I don't think they're as dynamic upfront on the offensive line, and I don't think the run game scheme, and ultimately, just overall, I think this Packers running game is a little bit better better, and the Vikings defense is better overall too. So it all evens out there, very even, and I'm leaning Packers because I feel like they've got to get one of these signature wins the key.
Let's keep losing them. No, I don't know that's a stupid way to pick a game. No, I don't.
I definitely don't think it is. But we saw it late then, and Matt Leffleer knows it. He knew it in training camp when it was very limited. We didn't see a whole lot of Josh Jacobs earlier in the season. There wasn't a success, but they knew what he could bring to this team and that's why they they've treated him the way that they have this season, and that's why he wasn't playing towards the end, which which makes perfect sense. He just he's he makes this game in this team.
Different, absolutely, and it's a young group.
They're they're up front there there, guys haven't gotten a lot of pop. Zach Tom, I think is a guy that could be getting Pro Bowl consideration, kind of the star that group, Elton Jenkins been there for a long time. And then it's going up against this group that Minnesota has, who's blitzing less lately because Van Ginkle's over ten sacks now and Grenard has been an incredible pickup and they're getting home without having to blitz. Josh Mattelis has been great. We've mentioned these names before, but last week really pointed out to me, like these guys have been together now for a minute, and they're all playing at a high level, so you don't want to take them for granted. It's a great opportunity really for both teams and for Tom Brady, you know, in a big spot. If Minnesota loses this game, like they might not have a chance to get that one seed in the final week. So it really does matter a lot for them. Tom Brady is getting slagged on so much. I saw people complaining about him on Christmas and I was like, that's not Tom Brady.
I guess they thought JJ Watt was Tom Brady or something. I don't even know.
They're just like, I'm so probably was just one tweet I shouldn't be responding to. But I saw like people were like, man, get Tom Brady off my screen.
I was like, no, He's definitely not on your screen.
Maybe they were watching a different channel, they saw a commercial, or maybe.
They were watching eighty for Brady, an underrated movie. No, I've never seen Ady for Brady. But I support Sally Field in everything that she does in all Endeavors.
All right, that was our game of the week.
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The fans of the both Raiders and the Saints who support them in all Endeavors will be forced to watch. It's a very small broadcast window nationally, but around Las Vegas and Louisiana. You could see the Raiders favored by one and a half at the Superdome over under his thirty eight Adam and me and Mark Sanchez and Christina Pink I'll watch an Aidan O'Connell against Spencer Rattler. The Saints, the first team in twenty twenty four to be shut out last week, gregra.
Your guy, Aidan O'Connell. He's just a scrambling fool.
Now he can't be stopped. He's got a taste for blood.
Now you pointed out he had never scrambled, and now he's just scrambling all the time. He was kind of bad though in that game against the Jaguars, which they won anyways, but they are better with them. If I was writing and coming up with a way to get wholesale changes in New Orleans, and by that I mean getting rid of Mickey loomis like stopping this man from running this team like the.
Mafia, this is how you would do it.
You would have a primetime game where you get shut out and completely embarrassed, and then back that up with a loss at home to the Raiders. That is how you have wholesale changes. So if you're a Saints fan that actually want wholesale changes, I think this is exactly the spot for you to lose.
And I think they will. I'm picking the Raiders again, yeah.
I mean Saints fans thinking about and again we're in that situation where where teams are pulling for losses. Teams pulling for losses for change feels different to me than pulling for losses for hopes of draft value. But also it works in both of those capacities because that all those years of continued success precluded them from drafting early. Unless they're they're trading two first to go take Marcus down.
The wrong year, that'd go five and twelve, They're not gonna have the high a pick. The Raiders could fall out of the top like nine if they win this game.
It's crazy, all right.
To another team that is looking at the Tekafon rankings and feeling good right now, the New York Giants playing host to the Indianapolis Colts, who were favored by seven and a half. Gregt the over runners forty and a half. Kenny Albert, Jonathan Vilda, and Megan A. Levy On this call, Greg, where the Colts and Anthony Richardson and Jonathan Taylor ran all over the opposition last week, and here comes the Giants defense.
It's so funny good.
I remember back in Week four or five, when none of the spreads were over seven and a half or seven or something.
There's a week like that.
And now we've got a deeply flawed Colts team who just gave up thirty points to Mason Rudolph and have a losing record, and they're favored by seven and a half and it doesn't feel like enough. You can't come up with enough points against this Giants team. I don't think we know who's at quarterback? Is are we back to de Vito? Who knows it doesn't matter? Imagine if Richardson had a good defense. I was watching that game last week, That's what I was thinking about. It was the perfect Colts game. Fifty rushes for three hundred and thirty five yards on the ground, and you think about those long tailor runs. That's all true, but they had a plus fifty percent success rate against one of the better run teams in the league. And you just think about how much differently we would think about Anthony Richardson if they had like the number six defense in that league, because then they could work. This whole thing would make more sense and it would work.
But they don't.
They do have their center Ryan Kelly back, so they have Ryman and then Quintin Nelson was making some great blocks last week and Kelly. All together, that's a really good side, and they were running to that side, and Kelly hasn't played all year. I think that was a big deal for them. So I think they're a better team now. Buckner has been playing great, the defense has been a little bit better in terms of making big plays, and so I do think this is probably the best version of the Colts team. We don't really know because they're just playing the worst teams in the league. They're probably going to get to nine to eight here. They're the team that's going to get in if the Broncos lose out. It's not going to be the Bengals.
And so you pointed out him running the ball. Since Week eleven, he's been used on thirty two design runs. It's ten more than any other quarterback in the NFL. He's also forced a mistackle on twenty nine percent of those. He's special in space. I think this run game is an let's get them in the playoffs, because I want to see them against teams that aren't like the Giants.
I think there's a realistic chance that it happens.
Now.
That would mean that the Chiefs, potentially their backups would lose to the Broncos if the Broncos lose out. And again I'm talking out of both sides of my mouth because I think the Broncos will win this week, but obviously that's a coin flip type of game. I do think the Colts are much more likely than the Bengals or the Dolphins to get into the playoffs.
Let's just put it that way.
And I do want to point out, you know, because I'm sure a lot of the listeners are busy, they're wrapping presence. They didn't go back to grind that Colts and Titans tape. I thought it was a big moment for Anthony Richardson. They had blown that lead on defense and he had a third and eight just a straight drop back pass or else. They were giving the ball back to flying Mason Rudolph at the end of the game and he had to hit an out route to Michael Pittman that needed perfect accuracy. No play action, nothing like that, and he hit it to win the game. So those are the kind of moments I think as a young quarterback that you're looking for. And I'm sure Shane Steichen and Anthony Richardson when they were watching that playback felt awesome because it's like, that's what they're talking about. They need more of that, and he did it in the biggest of spots at the end of that game. So just a quiet, nice moment for him. Yeah, and not a lot of dropbacks in that game as well.
Stat watchers, if you want to, you know, grade his growth as a passers. Speaking of growth as a passer, we have a revenge game. Well, it depends on how you view that. The Carolina Panthers at the Tampa Bay Bys. We're favored by seven and a half despite falling apart on the on Prime time against the Dallas Cowboys forty eight and a half. It's Iron Eagle Charles Davis and Evan Washburn on this call.
Greg.
We've seen the ups and downs with both of these teams in the past couple of weeks, both related to the Dallas Cowboys.
On the down side, how does this one go?
I think the Bucks get it done seven and a half feels too much for the way that the Panthers are playing offense, But you do. I think of the Bucks as a good team, as a playoff team, and when you lose a game like that and you had a couple of games on the road, you come back, you would expect them to respond and play their best at home. Shout out to Iron Eagle though, talk about working a lot. I mean he was on that Netflix Game Rights every Thursday night. When I'm leaving work after we tape game debut, check it out on NFL Network. I hear I and Ross Tucker. That's where I've really enjoyed his work doing Thursday night football. I'll flip on some NBA on TNT on a Tuesday, there is there he is. And then if I'm on League Pass and I just want to catch some Cam Johnson action with the Nets. He's the home announcer for the Nets too. This is the hardest working man in show business. And have you ever heard him had a bad game? Like He's always bringing it, so I know he's bringing it to this game.
It's one of the reasons I took this game.
I'm going to be watching this on Sunday, because I think it matters so much for the Bucks. If they lost this game, it basically ruins their season. They need to win these two games and hope for a Falcons loss. And I watched it this game the first time around. It was very compelling. Bucks were very lucky to escape with a victory. I've enjoyed watching Bryce Baker and Mike Evans are a lot of fun. So I think this is actually the best game of the early window, and I took it.
It's very difficult because even though right because James Connor only had fifteen carries as well over on yards against this Bucks defense, I mean this Panthers defense where there's been no change like a zero. Everro's run defense all season long, including this game against Bucky Irving and the Buccaneers not too long ago.
He had one hundred and sixty three yards.
That's how they came back.
They did the rare two score like they did a comeback why running it which you don't see too much.
Yeah, and the difficulties there, it's tough to get any of those images out of my head. I think seven and a half, despite what Bryce and the Panthers have done, I think it feels right.
I do.
They have some weaknesses though, Tampa in terms of their defense, Levonte David has been getting picked on a little bit and coverage part of the reason. I think they have them closer to the line of scrimmage a lot of the time. Bryce is playing at a level now though, where I just feel like that's too much almost to give to I'm mean it, yeah, like if you have an above average quarterback and that's the way he's playing, like, that's a lot. And I remember before the season, ownership in Tampa said what do you need to see out of this team in terms of the coaching staff, and they said improvement And they went nine to eight last year and they made the playoffs, they won a game, and so I just think these two games are really important for Bowls in the future of that coaching staff. So it's a really compelling game bit of two fun sneaky, fun teams to watch all year.
So a fun opportunity.
And how about a great father son moment for Ian to have him call one game on Christmas Day and then Noah baby Bird calls the second game.
And I'm thinking back to where.
It was it was Noah and Nate on that first Nickelodeon broadcast and just how how far both have come career rise.
I was thinking of Noah unlike the Cincinnati Open on the Tennis channel, we lost a good one when he was coming up. It's like, you know, he was having the slummet doing some master's level tennis. I enjoyed him, and now we've lost him. I know we're out far a field here, but just thinking fatherhoods on Christmas spent apart, but they were kind of together. The best Christmas present I got was from my son Walker, who's been waking up around four or five in the morning in Tokyo and texting me because he's got text on his iPad now there, and he texted me, hey, listen to your pod with Shook.
It was good.
That was the best president I got. And he's like, Shook is funny. I was like, he is funny.
Walker's dialed in. He's diald in. I love it.
Let's go to the Miami Dolphins, who are favored by six and a half against the Cleveland Browns. Thirty nine and a half is the number. It's on CBS. Andrew Cattle on Tiki Barber, Jason mccordy and aj Ross on the call. We get to see Dorian Thompson Robinson play football again, much to the joy of Kevin Stefanski. This continues to happen, greg and the Dolphins have some hope.
Well, Jamis had a shoulder injury, which I didn't know about Little Mysterious Bailey ZAPPI was warming up to come into that game last week when dtr got hurt. I didn't know Jamis was listed as a shoulder injury, and that might be playing into the decision making there. But it's great news for the Dolphins, who need a lot of help to get into the playoffs but are still alive. Need the Broncos to lose out, will need the Colts to lose one of their two games too, and so it's going to be tough for them to make it.
I'd rather use this time.
Well, there's a few I find the Dolphins very interesting, but they finally ran well last week.
That was good.
I'm just gonna get rid of the positive sirst. Jordan Brooks has been a great pickup. That just struck me. It's been great. Bradley Chubb is not going to play football this year. That's just unfortunate coming back from his injury. They cut Shack Mason, I mean not Shack Mason, Shack Barrett on Thursday. He's been trying to return from retirement and they gave him his release so he could possibly sign with another team. That's interesting. If just Shaq Barrett joins the Lions, Let's say they could use a pass pressure chop Robinson with a late push for defensive Player of the Year. It's a pretty wide open field. It's not that crazy. He's looked really good. Okay, those are all the good things. Uh, the Tyreek Hill stuff is weird. Have you been tracking this the it is time for me to go coach? Yeah, and then he that was weird and he said that wasn't about anything, although he has one of those weird tweets that he has to explain every week, which is a bad sign.
Well, he's in Miami. Teddy Bridgewater just coached as his team to a state championship. We'll talk more Teddy later. I think maybe it was that.
Yeah, I don't think that was anything but the comments he made after last week's game where he blamed his lack of production on not practicing enough on Wednesdays with Tua. It's like these guys have practiced a lot together. They've been just something's odd. It was one of the worst games of Tyreek Hill's career last week. He is not winning in the same way that he has before. He's had he's had a bad season. And I don't think it's just the situation or too. It's he's had a bad season, and following some of the reporting around there, I just don't think there'd be like a shock if this is his last couple of games as a Dolphin, and so I'm just kind of tracking that weirdness.
Whatever's going on. He'd still have trade value.
Yeah, definitely have trade I'd wondered if he was playing through something there was.
He mentioned that too.
He mentioned the wrist injury that he suffered before the injury, but he just was made.
It's just been weird. It's been weird.
It's been a it's been a whole weird year.
Uh.
In Miami, where there's decisions to be made, but at least to us playing in that game, we could have a battle of backup quarterbacks coming. In the NFC East, the Dallas Cowboys at the Philadelphia Eagles were face by eight and a half with the number being forty one Joe Davis, g Rag and Pam Oliver on the call. Greg, But I feel like a lot of that changes if we don't know if number one is playing.
For the funny you say that, I was like, that does not seem to make sense if Jalen Hurts doesn't play. Since this document was printed just hours ago, the number is down to six and a half because we don't.
Know if Hurts is gonna play.
If Kenny Pickett is starting, that number is too big. I think the Cowboys have been one of the best pass rush teams in the NFL, if not the best, and one of the best pass defenses, and so you're gonna make the Eagles really one dimensional. I believe if Kenny Pickett is starting, and this could really be a competitive game. Heurts is still in the concussion protocol as we tape this, we don't know if he's gonna practice Thursday. Didn't practice Wednesday. Generally, if they're not practicing and then they're in the protocol, they don't play. Sometimes they're in the protocol but they are practicing, and then you get cleared on Friday or Saturday. It seems to be trending towards the former, but we don't know for sure. And that's it's a tricky game. I think with Kenny Pickett one I would think that Eagles could and should win, But a tricky game.
Nonetheless, Yeah, I guess the Cowboys team that just beat a Bucks team, that's right thick of the playoff hunt. It's not like the the Bucks Bucks were sleepwalking in there. The Dallas defense made plays to the extent where they were making plays with Dan Quinn and and now Zimmer's finally got the players.
Back, I think, which is the most important part.
But they're in positions now despite not even having the marve On overshown, which that that injury still.
Hurts DeMarcus Lawrence or Trayvon Diggs.
They like getting Deron blandback. Was was apparently enough? Where was it good?
Where they're they're able to make these plays and you know, a full it's tough to get the full dynamic of Kenny Pickett because the backup coming in right, you've got your preferred plays.
He runs those.
He hits aj Brown on the crossle for a big first down, tries to do the same thing Franky Luvu picks them off coming back a couple drives later where it's he did make plays late, and there were drops by j Brown, Saquon Barkley, the most notable one coming from Devontae Smith. I don't think those guys are gonna have those types of problems, but it is still scary.
It is, and yet, yeah, I wouldn't have expected you to be tuning in on Christmas Eve to shook an eye's recap. But Kenny Pickett did get my most controversial Captain Morgan Captain of the Week for his underrated play for when he came in, I thought he played pretty well and I think he I don't know if he's gonna always play that well, but it is the Eagles which have the perfect situation for a quarterback. Their defense lost them that game and a couple other mistakes on offense, they started blitzing like crazy. It was really a weird performance by the Eagles defense. I don't think it'll happen again. This should be a defense in Dallas. Even though they're second in EPA per play against the pass since Micah's return, there's still average to bad against the run, and that's against an Eagles team, So that you would think they'd be able to mash it as long as Nick Sirianni doesn't get into a fight with someone. A report on Thursday, Love This Philadelphia inquires Jeff McLain, who has been at it a long time one of the best to do it, reported that zach Ertz and Sirianni had to be separated by Big Dom after the game on Sunday, after Sirianni made some derogatory comments to Ertz about his play in the game and that Ertz understandably did not appreciate and Big Dom had to get in the mix. And then Nick Sirianni got on a Zoom call to apologize to zach Ertz. Can you just make it through a week, Nick, without being the main character?
Fum fact Big Dom actually did the it security on the call as well, just to make sure everybody was safe again a former Eagle where Nick Sirianni taking pressure off of office team once again by becoming a.
Story they could be the first team to make or like win the super Bowl that changed their coaches, like they could win the super Bowl and they're just like, actually, we're just gonna make Fangio, the head coach it's just be less drama.
But if it is not, Jalen Hurts, if can he Pickett starts this game, then Kellen Moore can get his backup quarterback revenge against Mike McCarthy and offer a you were holding me back all these things where I'm having to take another job with another quarterback, and then I get another job with another very good quarterback, but you this is all your fault. And the Eagles push with their back up.
That's why Patrick gets the big bucks. It's the showdown. Who can coach up their backup quarterback better? Kellen Moore revenge. I love that angle to this game because there's not much else. Philly's pretty boxed out of this top seed. They definitely want to win this game to guarantee at least the two seed and everything, but they're pretty boxed down out. Unless the Lions and the Vikings lose this weekend, let's take a break. We have two fun games to get to. That's gonna be it for our preview. But yes, Sunday Night Football.
It's a good.
One back on the only NFL daily ever to start with a recap and end with a preview. I don't know if there'll be anymore. I don't think so. This was a one of one, and so is this Sunday night football game.
It is because it's a big game and everything that had to happen to make this game important happen. The Atlanta Falcons make the decision to bench Kirk Cousins, put in Michael Pennocks junior, give him a game against the woeful Giants to get ready, because they knew the Dallas Cowboys were gonna beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and they were to have a big Sunday night football game Atlanta at Washington. Favored by four points, are the Commanders? Forty seven and a half is the number? Mike Rico, Chris Collinsworth and Melissa Stark on the call, Carrie Underwood in the pre game, and we get a great win greg with two rookie quarterbacks who are both very, very good.
I love it.
I want to speed through our recap show on Sunday night to watch as much as I can of this live. I think the number four is crazy. I think I'm leaning Falcons straight up now. If the Commanders had lost that game, which they probably should have against Philadelphia last week, this game might even have a little extra juice because Washington would be on the precibiss of falling out of the playoffs. But what if I told you Patrick, Okay, there's a real chance they fall out of the playoffs.
As it is, it's not that complicated.
The Falcons win this game, okay, Okay, the Buccaneers win out against two teams that have nine wins combined. So the Buccaneers beat the Panthers in the Saints, and so the Buccaneers win out.
Very reasonable, very reasonable.
Then we got the Falcons next week against the Panthers. They take care of that game. At that point, Washington needs to beat Dallas to win and make the playoffs next week. It's a win or go home scenario if all that happens, and all of that is quite realistic. So if you're a Commander's fan and you're down late in this game, you are looking at a very realistic possibility that you need to beat a pretty frisky Dallas team lately who already beat you once to make Week eighteen, you know, and to make the playoffs. So I like that this game has so much stakes in two rookie quarterbacks. The challenge, of course, for Michael Pennix is like, can I possibly measure up to in one of the best rookie quarterback seasons we've seen. Jayden Daniels has been awesome. It's gonna be tough for Penis.
Yeah, especially awesome.
Late against Vic Van Joe's defense that didn't have CJ. Gardner Johnson, and that's, you know, probably a reason that you end up with Zach vond on Jamison Crowder. But even then, if you go back and watch NFL Turning Point had a great breakdown of that throw from Jayden and Daniels. Jamison Crowder has barely passed the goal line on that and there is no part of Jamison crowded that's visible to Jade Daniels when he fires that ball into that window that ultimately goes to the game winning touchdown. He's thrown with anticipation. He's making plays with his feet. But there is a Falcons defense that has suddenly transformed after the by that's able to get pressure on quarterbacks. Jesse Bates back in space making plays. It's where they can set up and just we can see the full not full potential, because against it's just two games into.
Michael Fennick Junior's career.
But see a little bit more about what this Falcons team could have looked like, and maybe we'll be looking back and saying, Wow, if they start pennis earlier and they get into a better groove, they're in a better position here. But at least he has one one game of leeway before they did it.
Well, they could be in the playoffs. So you win three straight here and they'll be in. They are tied at the top of the division, but they have the tiebreaker and so it's up to them. And these are two teams that I've doubted to some degree during the season. Washington without beating a lot of good teams. Atlanta never really bought them in general. And I've thought this was Tampa's division all along. And yet because of what you say defense after the bye, I think Raheem Morris figured some things out, kind of like the Ravens. They're not making the big mistakes. And now you're seeing some of their players like Ebiketty is playing well, Kayden Ellis has been really good on Blitz' has been had a really good season, Jesse Bates obviously making plays that I think they have a real chance to win this game because I look at the two running games and I see, Yeah, Jayden Daniels is so dynamic, he could go for one hundred in this game scrambling. But if I'm look at the two running games, it's not a fair fight. They have not run the ball well Washington for a while. Brian Robinson. Last week even they put up thirty six points without running the ball to their running backs at all. And then you look at Bajohn Robinson, who to me is just like the best player in this game and is getting better and better every week. I think the run game makes more sense with Michael Pennix back there and him having a little more mobility to even get out to the edge on some of those outside zone but it's a lot of inside zone two and it's play action. It just makes more sense. And I just think Bajon is so good right now that I think they can go just win this game on the backs of an epic Bajhon Robinson performance.
Yeah, they can. This Commander's defense.
Since week eight, they're only allowing quarterbacks to complete fifty six percent of their passes. It's six point five yards per attempt. They've sacked the quarterback twenty times in that stretch. And as we talk about this Falcons defense getting better, the Commander's defense was woeful at the start of the year, but but their turnaround happened like in week five, six seven, they've been good and they've gotten even better of forty percent sex success rate in that stretch, and it's it's just a good game. It's a good game, and I'm I'm excited to see.
It is fun.
Like Jaden Daniels, he was trying to be more patient last week. I thought in the pocket before I know, he had all those scrambled yards, and yet he was hanging back there and waiting for guys to get open.
I thought that was really good. So the loser of this game is gonna be gonna be very very nervous, super nervous.
I mean Atlanta won't be I know Atlanta won't be out of it, but if they lose this game and Tampa wins, then they're suddenly on the outside looking in, and Washington could be too, don't don't. I know Commanders fans feel like it's different. It is different, and so they they probably will not lose out here. But I think this is a dangerous game. I think the falcon. They're catching the falcons at the wrong time.
It would be awful, especially if a member of the owner team in Magic Johnson, who tweeted that they had clinched after that emotional win ten wins.
Why not get you in. We'll see how things go.
And speaking of not getting in a team that's been eliminated after losing in the Super Bowl in the closing moments, the San Francisco forty nine ers, playing host to the Detroit Lions, were favored by three and a half on Monday Night Football, which means Joe Troy and Lisa on the call they looked better in spots against Miami.
Still lost though, Greg and the Lions are the.
Lions they are.
And you know, just as importantly it's MJD. Bridget Condon and myself on the call on Channel five kind of on the call. You know, we do the commercial breaking you're on the call, and then we're gonna come upstairs and do the podcast altogether as well. What a coup and so that'll be fun little programming note there.
Revenge game, This truly is.
I know they they set this up as the crown jewel of the Monday Night Football season. And unfortunately the forty nine ers are not in the mix here. But I really do think the Lions feel like they missed a major opportunity to go win the Super Bowl last year, to blow a lead like that in San Francisco. Now they can get a little bit of revenge, and I do want to see how their defense specifically responds against a legitimate offense. It's gonna get increasingly tougher. Last week we saw him against the Bears, and frankly, even though they made a couple big plays like that's about as good as Caleb Williams has looked all season, they gave up a lot of yards. This is gonna be tougher because I know the forty nine ers aren't what they used to be. They're very short on the offensive line. They had a couple more injuries happened this week, so they're down three four starters on the offensive line. Okay, take advantage of this forty nine ers offense, because if you don't Debo looked pretty good last week and it's still pretty back there. We got some real, you know, legitimate players. I want to see their defense play well. That'll make me feel better about them going into the playoffs.
Yeah, it was a It was an opportunity for Debo where when when Patrick Taylor is having to get to the majority of the carrieres, they just need Debo so much more now, perhaps in needing him, have utilized him in ways that that maybe could have been done earlier on in the season where it's it's Debo and George essentially in the passing game at a big game for Brock as well, because it's it's time and I think Brock's going to get his money from the forty nine ers. I don't think that there's something for Brock to prove necessarily to Kyle and and also to the folks upstairs in John Lynch, but just another chance to get out there on national TV, I gainst a really good team and show to everybody watching and to all those who may say, you know, he's a he's a metric.
He's a mechanic of.
This system and his coaching staff, and the opportunity that he's a pretty good quarterback as well, and.
I think he is.
I swear Deebo just got faster, though again last week he's like breaking tackles. That's the most yak he's had in the game, and I don't know how long he like looked looked like old Debo. Pretty amazing. I don't think it's gonna be, you know, a good matchup. On the other side of the ball, where the forty nine ers defensive line has been awful lately. Drake green Law is hurt and is not expected to play again this season. Nick Bosa and that crew I think are playing through some injuries and just haven't been able to get pressure. So you would just assume if the weather's okay, the Lions will put up more than enough points to cover that three and a half that is, that is tasty. If if I'm looking at the number there, the three and a half for the Lions, I think it's a great spot. Though, if you made it this far and brock Purty's on your roster in fantasy, for him to put up about three hundred and fifty yards while trying to catch up in like a forty eight to twenty seven loss, you know what I mean? Oh garbage, Tom Brocker, Well, just all game, they're just gonna have to throw, they're gonna be trailing, and he's gonna get protected better than he really should against this Lions defense. Which is not great shakes right now. And yeah, I think they could. They could put up some crooked numbers him and Debo and and the whole game. Why not even even like a forty eight to thirty one lost, something like that.
Forty eight to thirty one something to look forward to.
It gets a little wild there. Yes, that is it for NFL Daily on this Thursday. We did it, Patrick, first ever recap slash preview.
We cover all the bases because we've we've got a five tool player m right here?
Who's that?
No?
You Greg play? Play the music. We got Eric behind that.
Greg's carry team on his back.
No, we've We're not doing a Thursday night recap this week. Just a programming note. I can't believe we are here in the second to last week of the season.
Yes, when the next games are on
NFL Network triple header, you know football is back
