Transcript of 2024 Week 13 Recap

Welcome to NFL Daily, where we already got our Christmas tree up. I'm Greg Rosenthal here in the Chris Wesling podcast studio with my friend Patrick Claybon. My other friend, nick Shook, joining live from Cleveland. We're past Thanksgiving. Football has officially started, and Patrick's looking around for the Christmas tree here. I know I'm talking about my house for the first time ever. I got it up the day after Thanksgiving, and I'm feeling proud. You cook Thanksgiving dinner. You're a real man before even coming into work, Patrick.

Well, the objective is to get it done. And we were able to get Thanksgiving done, get into work, do some football. And also, Greg, go get a tree, although we didn't do it the next day. But we did get out there Saturday. Trees up, it'll be dead before Christmas. But hey, we're here.

I We also went official, a real tree for the first time, too. We've got to fake forever. So we did the whole thing. Shuki, we're waiting for him to get on the line here. I have a suspicion. He was watching the end of the Cavs Celtic game, but I'm not going to hold that against you, nick, for the rest of this show. We got games to go to.

I kicked the score and I was like, oh, Cavalanch happened.

Okay. I thought you just wanted to stick it to me. You got one win today. Let's see if Patrick's team got their win. In one of the most important games of the year, two of the best teams in the NFL. Head to Baltimore. Hearst and 10, Eagles.

Ball at the 25 of the Ravens. Clock ticking. Hearst put Barkley to his left. Hearst, this time to Barkley off the right side. Greats the tackle. He's at the 15 to 10 to 5. Touchdown. Save, Juan Barkley. He drove it 25 yards.

He is special. He is special. He That's also Merrill Reece on the call. Wip. The Eagles win the game, 24 to 19 in Baltimore, helped by a drive that was all Saquon Barkley. A couple of runs for Saquon Barkley, a pass to Saquon Barkley, a Jalen Hertz run, where they faked giving the ball to Saquon Barkley. And then, yes, Saquon Barkley finishes it off. The Eagles have won eight straight games. They are 10 and 2. The Ravens are 8 and 5. Saquon Barkley in the fourth quarter of games this year, 7.4 yards per carry. That's pretty good. Leads the NFL in yards in the fourth quarter. Not a surprise there. Patrick, when they got that ball back after yet another Justin Tucker miss, it did feel like Saquon time. It's been the most reliable, really, aspect to any offense in the NFL the last couple of months.

And the Baltimore Ravens had been able to hold them to a couple of three and outs in the second half. Before that drive started, the Philadelphia Eagles had three yards in the second half against the Baltimore Ravens. They actually get a third down. Brandon Stevens can't quite get Dallas Goddard on a crosser. From then, it was essentially over. The Eagles kept getting yards in chunks. The Eagles doing this with Yohann Dotson out in the pattern where Devante Smith would generally be. The Eagles able to use their talent to get past the Baltimore on the road in this game without one of their top five players. In Devante Smith, Quinian Mitchell leaves this game. It's just a sign as much as I would love to make this about the Ravens and Justin Tucker missing kicks. Philadelphia is a very good team that is very hot.

Yeah, we'll get to the Raven side and Tucker, nick, but I don't need to see anymore. This Eagles's defense is playing the best in the entire league. Every week, it's something. And today, they just made everything hard. It felt like the only play Baltimore could make was Lamar just improvising and making some magic.

Yeah, they did a good job of containing the run. They did a good job of keeping Lamar contained in the pocket for the most part. I mean, 39 of his 79 rushing yards came in that garbage time run late in the fourth quarter that didn't really matter. I mean, it was an excellent job, but really what it has been is the Eagles's defense doing a great job. Vic Fangio doing a great job of adjusting in-game. They've done this over the last three weeks. They did it against Washington, where they stack up points offensively because they keep getting stops defensively. Same thing happens today. They go down 9 to nothing, and just like that, they're back up 14 to 9 because the Eagles defense getting the stops and affording the offense more opportunities. And in the second half, it was a near perfect performance. Cooper Djean making that tackle on Derek Henry in the open field in third down. That's the clip you're going to see on the Internet, but that personifies this Eagle's defense. Since week six, They've allowed 29 point... No, that's the offensive side. Sorry, we'll go back to the defensive side later.

But they've allowed 15.3 points per game since week 6. That's the second fewest in the NFL, according to NFL research. And before that, they allowed 24 points a game. So if you want some hard numbers to demonstrate the difference between then and now and the start of this winning streak, it's right there. And they're playing the most complementary football of any team outside of maybe Detroit. And they have a strong case that they're playing even better than them. So this is a win that they need to get tested. Road environment, Baltimore is a good team. Now they've officially proven themselves. I'm taking them very seriously.

Right. And we're doing the thing where you talk all good about the winning team and all bad about the losing team. But I watched this game, and these two teams seemed very even to me for most of the game, three, three and a half quarters. Justin Tucker's three miss kicks proved massive. But that doesn't change the fact that everything was hard for the Ravens. Two of those field goals were from long distance, one because they got a sack to push Lamar Jackson back. Ravens started fast in the first quarter, but after that, they had three straight three and outs. And like I said, just everything was hard. Even one of those miss field goal drives was a 14 play, 47-yard drive. And that's what the Eagles defense can do. They played zone on 88% of their snaps today. That's the highest number that they've done all season. It's because you don't want to play man against Baltimore and Lamar Jackson in his running game. And they did a good enough job making Baltimore really earn it. Their offense was a little disjointed. It almost felt like they're waiting for the fourth quarter to get there and take on to do something, and then it happened.

It's a formula that's worked.

Yeah, just provide Saquon with the opportunities. Eventually, he's going to get there. But Baltimore, there were two drives in the first half. It was nine to nothing. Lamar had Isiah likely wide open, running a corner route. Isiah likely chops his feet, changes the angle. Lamar throws. It was a bad throw regardless, but he misses him there. And then after a great punt by the Eagles, the Ravens are pinned deep. Lamar has Zé flowers on a ball to the sideline, and he short arms it. Those two possessions wound up being huge for the Ravens there because the game script played out the way that it did, and the opportunities really dwindled as the game went on, where they realized that out wide, talent-wise, even with Reid Blanketship leaving the game, the Ravens don't have the talent necessary on the outside. And then they lose a wide receiver in terms of... Zay flowers had 73 yards. It's Rashaad Bateman goes down with a knee injury, we don't even see their trade deadline acquisition for the remainder of the game. He gone. I'm not sure if they don't trust him or what's going on, but he's not even involved, and there's just not enough talent out there.

I think we can add up the different Deontay Johnson teams that have gotten frustrated with him in Pittsburgh and Carolina, and then just look at what's happened when he's been on the field so far for Baltimore, where he's been a part of some ugly plays, and surmise, they just don't trust him right now because they're playing Tyler Wallace ahead of him. Nelson Aguilar got targeted on two deep passes, one of which was a dime, and he couldn't pull it in. I don't know if I want to call it a drop. Maybe I'll call it a drop. It's good defense. They needed to play perfect football, and they didn't. You mentioned that Dajine play where they probably were going to get Derrick Henry down, but the fact that he pile drove him, that was special. Come on, give him some love.

It started down. There's another defender in the back.

It's just the fact that you pick up Derrick Henry. You got to celebrate the wins, Patrick in life.

No, Cooper Dajine is a very good... He got Jamar Chase in the open field. We don't need to celebrate when LeBron tries to take a charge and somebody dunks, and it's like, Oh, my God! He dunked on LeBron. It's just like, okay, Derrick Henry got got. It was a nice play by Cooper Dujine. Wasn't even the best play he made in this game.

So Saquon's MVP candidacy moves forward. And it's not about just, Oh, this team won this game, and Lamar lost it. I do think Lamar has not been as otherworldly the last three or four games. He's been good. He hasn't been as great. Saquon is just the engine of the hottest team in the league, the best team in the league. And so we still got a ways to go in this thing, but they're 10 and 2, and another big spot where Saquon in this offensive line. It's all together to me. If you gave a Running Back an MVP award, it's representative of the offensive line and the whole team. And I think that would be absolutely fair, nick. I thought Siriani might lose them this game. I really regret not taking the Eagles in it because they have been a better team. I think it's just obvious on balance. And I picked the Ravens to win. And I was wrong thinking the coaching would make a decision, the difference. But the coaching has been fantastic for the Eagles this season, especially on defense. And Justin Tucker's miss, let's have the conversation quickly. His misses prevented the audience from really enjoying the fourth quarter of this game.

We got robbed because Tucker's miss kicks could be the difference right now with Baltimore in big games. Now they're at five losses. We'll see how the Steelers did, but they're not doing as well in the AFC North here. Do you think about benching Justin Tucker? There's no way they're going to cut him, people. But do you think about bringing another kicker?

I definitely think about working out another kicker because we've talked about this for the entire season now. I've written two separate posts about a month apart about Justin Tucker needing to work on his fundamentals and his technique, and it's just something that he can up, and he's obviously not cleaning up. And the worst part, in my opinion, I'm no Jay Healey. I'm not a kicking expert here, but he's hooking kicks left. He's missing them to the right. There's no consistency in any... Even the kicks he makes, they're like, Oh, it squeezing in there. And this was a Ravens team that played well enough to win. Otherwise, They cleaned up a lot of their issues. They cleaned up the penalties. They only had four penalties accepted to them against them, as opposed to usually leaning the double digits in previous weeks. They outgained Philly by 120 yards. They won time of possession, but they didn't get the points that they were in position to get because their kicker is not there. And if this team ends up making a deep run into the AFC playoffs, and it comes down to a kick, are you going to regret not trying out another kicker beforehand?

And if Tucker misses that kick and you lose that game in a heartbreaker.

Yeah, 120 yards feels misleading to me. You mentioned the garbage time, 70-yard drive, but that does point out to me, it looked like a pretty even game. It was. I do think that the Barkley-Herts combination, it's not quite as difficult in terms of the RPOs to deal with as Henry and Lamar. And Henry He did have 82 yards in this game, but they were trailing there at the end. But it's pretty darn hard because when Hertz decides to run up the middle, that's where he is at his best as a runner. They had some really important conflicts that they put the Ravens defense in throughout the day. I thought the Ravens defense played well. I think the Ravens defensive improvement is there. But forget about the one seed for the Ravens. They have a lot of work to do to win the AFC North. Eagles, on the other hand, still got a shot Got it that one seed, and they're closing in on an NFC East title. Let's go to the Ravens rival in the AFC North, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati. Is this the final? They better win this week, or it's really, really, really over game for the Bengals.

Yosefash in motion to the left.

Burwell gets a snap. Here comes the stealer's pressure. And Herbie, the strip sack is picked up by Wilson. And Wilson is going to go in for the score.

Payton Wilson, TD, Pittsburgh Stealers on the strip Oh, nick Herbie.

What a great job of coming around the corner, getting a blitz, and being able to strip that ball. And you got the pain train, Payton Wilson scooping that thing up. Scoop and score. Right now, we're seeing an exodus of He's leaving.

Nate Erbick, big-time play. Rob King, Craig Wolfley, WDVE on a day where the Pittsburgh Stealers went over 500 yards of It was a couple of defensive plays that felt like it might have been the difference in a game that's going back and forth and back and forth. Joe Burrow, awesome day, but was a part of three turnovers, and that score there seemed to put it away. The Bengals made another comeback in this game. It ends up 44 to 38, but Pittsburgh gets out of Cincinnati with a win. They're at nine and three, up a couple of games in the lost column on those Ravens, and the Bengals officially buried here at four and eight.

Yeah, we can stop saying it. We talked about it before the show on our game day view that it's been must win every single week, and the Cincinnati Bengals seem to come up short every single week, often in heartbreaking fashion. After that, Chris Boswell extra point after the Wilson return, TD, it's a 17-point game. The bangles come back. The final score, 44-38. They had a late TD from Andre Yosefas after Jamar Chase got loose deep. But this was a game that started with a Kam Taylor-Britt pick six. And that was essentially it in terms of bad plays for Russell Wilson. And I'll even give him that one because Cam Taylor-Britt got very physical with George Pickens at the line of scrimage, grabbed the back of his helmet, ultimately beat him to the inside on the Saint on the slant because of that and took that interception all the way back to the house. But Russell Wilson was simply unfaced in this game. 414 yards, the best throw I've seen him make this year, changing his arm angle and hitting Pat Freier move up the middle of the field, which Russell Wilson can do, everybody. Now, not just on that play, he hit Calvin Austin for a countdown in the middle of the field as well, but ducked under the rush, changed his arm angle.

Russ cooking today, Greg.

I love to hear it. I'd like to look in the Pittsburgh box score sometimes, just at the long reception for different receivers because they're a big play offense. Seven different receivers had a... Or eight different receivers had a reception of over 20 yards. You never see that. George Pickens, Friermouth, Jalen Warren, Najah Harris, Van Jefferson, Corderelle Patterson, Calvin Austin, and even Ben Skoronic got in there.

When Van Jefferson's going off, that's when you know. Okay.

When Skoronic is getting the plus 20. I mean, even Michael Pruitt had a plus 18, so this is an old Cool, deep down the field type of offense that Russell Wilson was born to run. Let's listen to the Freiermuth TD.

Russell Wilson steps to the line of scrimage, communicates to his team as Harris to his right in the shotgun.

30 seconds remaining.

Third quarters, Wilson gets a snap.

Looking now under Duras will fling to his right, find Freiermuth inside to five, and a TD for Pat Freiermuth. Who's better to get Luffy than the Freiermuth? Love that call there by Craig Wolfley. When you're hearing the Mouth in Cincinnati, you know the division is over, right? Or at least the bangles season is over. That's a rough one for the bangles defense, nick.

Yeah, I gave a silent fist pump just because, look, we are at this point in the season now where these bangles are who they are. And as much as I love Joe Burrow and think he's played outstanding for the majority of the season, they are never going to overcome that defense. And it's time to move on from saying, well, if they mount a run late, you never know, because today was the type of environment which they had to prove themselves against the Steeler's offense that just continues to ascend. And by the way, a Steeler's offense that if they needed a day to prove themselves, they were going to do it against the bangles defense, which can't stop a nosebleed for most of this season. So yeah, we'll put them to bed. Happy to see that. But I'll tell you what, I knew I had to come Jesus moment, not this past Thursday, but the Thursday before, at Huntington Bank field in downtown Cleveland, where I realized that Russell Wilson was going to be effective like this for as long as he's in the Steeler's uniform. And it was when he threw that Georgetown pass over the middle of Calvin Austin as Snow is just falling hard on everybody.

He just throws it with ease. He made the same throw today in great conditions. He's good. He's good in this offense. They're doing everything that they should to surround him with the right scheme and the right players. They're a balanced attack, and they're to be able to do something like this on a given week. I'm telling you, man, watch out for them. They're very good. Another good complementary football team.

Fourteen missed tackles for this bangles defense, giving up 91 yards. They just are hemorrhaging on that side of the football Let's listen to Jamar Chase after the game answering them questions about that defense.

Did you feel like offensively, you all had to score every drive, given how the game was going, especially early? Did you feel you all pressing to get as many points as possible, given how the back and forth was? I I got to get my expectations now. How tough is that to play on a game in and game out basis, knowing you as an offense don't really have much of a margin for error? Got to find a way. Jamar, are you surprised your defense has struggled with a way of passing?

I don't know.

They need to find a way. We got to find a way.

That's tough. Yeah.

He held it through almost until the end. He They just got out of there without being overly critical, and then at the end. That's what they expect, which makes sense. That's how it's been.

They know it. I don't know what it means when a locker room is divided in such a way that the offense is maybe blaming the defense for what's happening. How does that even manifest or affect them negatively? I don't really know because the defense can't play any worse than they've played, and they all know it. The defense all knows it. Luana Rumo shows up for work. He knows it. They all know that that's what's cost them what could be a magical season from Joe Burrow. He has some of the best numbers in terms of over 30 touch downs and five interceptions or less of any quarterback in the last handful of years, and they're freaking four and eight. It's absolutely outrageous. Now, his turnovers contributed. The offensive line did not play well in this game. Tj Watt had a monster game, two sacks, five quarterback hits, a tackle for loss, 11 quarterback hits total and four sacks. So the Steeler's defense made a bunch of big plays. The crazy thing, Patrick, and you watch this game closer to me is that, okay, George Pickens is always a main character. He was taunting. He's making plays down the field.

He was part of that pick six, actually, as the intended receiver. But I saw pretty early in this game, for a while, Russ's average depth of target was only 2.8 yards. So were they hitting him with body shots early and then went over the top late? Because it's crazy to me that the Steeler's offense can be this good. I know it's against against the bangles, but I still think that's impressive that they can be this good against a bad defense.

Well, the initial George Pickens' shutdown after they came back to answer the pick six was on a swing out where George Pickens made a guy miss around the line of scrimage. It wasn't necessarily dinking and dunking earlier. It was just a balanced offense. Najee Harris left the game, I believe, with a ham string. He would ultimately come back. But there was a good Cordero drive where Cordero Patterson was operating pretty well in the run game as well. But Russ finding Pat Freier move. He targeted him seven times. He caught six of those. It was just a balanced offensive attack against a defense, as Jamar Chase expects, that gives up a whole lot of-It's funny because everyone was saying, Well, wait till the Steelers get to the back end of their schedule.

It gets a lot harder, and that's probably when they're going to lose this division lead or not be as much of a factor. All they've done in the back half since their bye week is beat the commanders, beat the Ravens, win in Cincinnati. Their only loss was attended by nick Shook against the Brown. So you just can't predict this stuff. But up to losses on the Ravens. They do go to Philadelphia next week, and then they go to Baltimore the week after. So as much as I'm just giving them some credit for playing well at this point in the schedule, two of the toughest games you could ask for coming up. If they can just split one of those two games, they're going to be in great shape to win the division. If they lose them both, we will see. And yes, Cincinnati, even if you win out, you only get to nine and eight. That probably will not get you into the playoffs, and there's no reason to think this defense can help you win five straight games.

On the Pick-ins Bananas Index, though, this game was about a three, considering the no call that led to the pick six. He gets hit for a taunting call, which I'm still looking for the first good taunting call in NFL history. And then he got finger guns. He got finger guns on another one. So he didn't come off the top rope and hit anybody. A relatively calm Pickens game.

I mean, the fact that he's by far their best wide receiver, you can forgive a lot, and it adds a lot of enjoyment for me just as a viewer. So keep bringing it, George Pickens. You're making me look good for having you number 2 in that draft class coming out of the draft, although I still don't know if you'd go number 2. Let's go to Minnesota, where the Cardinals and the Vikings played a fun one. Here it is. The game's on the line against the Arizona Cardinals, fourth and for Kyler Murray facing a five-man rush. Kyler, back to pass, throws right, intercepted. Jack Griffin has won the game, and it's a high five for the Minnesota Vikings.

They've won five consecutive games. The final score, 23-22, Minnesota.

Oh, great call there for Paul Allen on K A-F-A-N. How does he roll that G there? I can't do that. Big time defensive play by the Minnesota Vikings on a day where their defense just bend it and bend it and bend it, but they didn't break in the end. And the more I watch this team shook, the more it's starting to remind me of the 2022 Vikings, where they win all those games at the end. It hasn't been as lucky as that season. Or maybe it's the 2017 Vikings with Cace Keenum and a massive It's a magical ride. You're making faces. Either way, this team is 10 and 2, and they're finding ways to win games they're supposed to. And then in this case, nick, I would say they found a way to win a game that they shouldn't have won. Most of the day was dominated by Arizona.

Yeah. Well, first off, the 2022 reference. Let's hope it's not necessarily that because we don't want them upset at home in the playoffs. But sure, we can get on board with this because they are finding ways to win these close games, and they're stringing them together, which is a very positive outcome. Of course, you want to stack wins. Sam Darnold, solid. You know, leveling out, not doing a little bit of a rise and fall that he was doing. He had a couple of clunkers along the way. Not today. Not today. But I got to ask Claybon this, what happened to the search bar, man? How are you up 19 to 6 in the third quarter? The search bar defense goes missing.

How dare you?

Yeah, well, the search bar, it eventually gave out. Justin Jefferson slow throughout the game, funnel coverage his way. And Sam Darnold being streaky, nick. Like, really, there was a point there in this game where I'm thinking about what we're going to afterwards, and it felt like the difference was in terms of the quarterback play. But then Sam Darnold hits a plus. He has a great ball to Jordan Addison down the sideline with rushers in his face, hits Jefferson on multiple targets. I think Justin Jefferson finished with 99 yards, and he beat the search bar. You got to make plays to beat the search bar, and Sam Darnold made those plays today.

Well, it's funny to say how for a while it felt like the difference was going to be the quarterbacks. And then in the end, you might say the difference was the quarterbacks. Darnold faced pressure on 53.8% of his dropbacks today, which is an exceptionally high number. So the search bar was getting after it. And like he's done all season, very against type to what he was previously, He did well, 10 of 15 against pressure for 119 yards and two touch downs. And Kyler Murray, who we noted in the preview show, has struggled against the blitz all year. Well, he ends up facing blitzes on 52% of of his dropbacks. He only has five yards per attempt on those dropbacks with two interceptions. And that was a difference because on the plays that they weren't blitzing, his numbers are great. And they forced him into a couple of mistakes, and they really bogged down in the red zone. I think they got down there. What was it? They settled for five Chad Rylan field goals, and a lot of them were just chip shots. A 23-yarder, a 24-yarder, a 31-yarder, a 32 two-yarder and a 40-yarder.

So they were moving the ball. Kyler had some plays on the ground, and yet they couldn't finish it off. This game at 19:16 with 4:17 to go, nick The Cardinals had a first and goal from the five-yard line up three. And that was like it was all day. They end up moving backwards with a penalty, a bad run, and the Vikings end up forcing the field goal. At that point, they had a 91 1% chance to win, according to next Gen stats. Later on the Vikings drive to go take the lead, they have a fourth and 7. The Cardinals send the blitz, so it's one of those stats that I just referred to. Sam Darnold against the blitz. They didn't blitz much in this game. I think it was like 5 for 7, but against pressure, and he hits a perfect pass on fourth and 7 to keep the drive going. Then he eventually gets a go-ahead countdown. Let's listen to that. Second and 2 from the Cardinals Five, takes the snap.

Four-man rush.

Sam to the right, caught and... Tunstown. He's showtime. And touch down. He's Showtime. Aaron Jones saved his best for last.

We're tied at 22.

Is Aaron Jones Showtime? Is that his nickname?

Yeah, it's Showtime 33. Is that on social media?

I should know this. I should have that memorized. Yeah, Aaron Jones had a couple of fumbles in this game. He got benched for a portion of it. He lost one of those fumbles and only ends up with 28 total yards or yards from scrimmage on eight touches, but he gets that important interception. This division is wide open in the NFC North. We get the packers win to stay afloat in the division. Obviously, they're going to the playoff, and the Vikings here are at 10 and 2. They have a chance to be the one seed.

They do. And because of late efforts, and Aaron Jones had the fumble at the start of the game, that's why he's doing prayers in the end after that breakdown, because the Vikings had a good start, ended with an Aaron Jones fumble, but a good finish. And the defense made plays. I think the biggest play in this game, there was a third and 10 in the start of the fourth quarter where the blitz comes on Kyler. Michael Wilson's running towards the sideline. He sees Kyler in trouble, and he starts to work back towards him. Well, Kyler's dealing with people, so he throws the sideline route. Byron Murphy sees that, gets to the ball before he does, intercepts, and that's really the best opportunity that the Cardinals had late. This Vikings defense just makes place. The offense picking them up when they need to.

Yeah, the Cardinals, this is a tough one because it's a road game against a playoff team, and you really felt like you outplayed them for much of the game. They haven't had many close losses. Their losses have tended to be decisive, but they fall to 6-6. After being in first place for a couple of weeks, they are no longer because the team in Seattle, they got it done in a Gino revenge game. Oh, he said it was a revenge game.

Third down and seven from the Seattle 9. Blitz is coming, throw inside. It's picked off. Leo Williams coming near side. He's running like a racehorse. He's at midfield, turns up field, has blockers. Holy smox are you kidding? Leo Williams is going to take it in for a countdown. Seahawks. The Seahawks mess up a kick return. They dump it on the defense, and Leo Williams says, I got you covered. Picks it off as he drops back into coverage. Comes up the near sidelines in front of the bench, picks up blockers, and takes it all the way in for a countdown.

Are you kidding me? K-i-r-o. Steve Rable. I think he was about as tired halfway through that call as Leonard Williams was. It made his voice crack. That's how good of a play it was. That was part of a 26 to 21 victory by the Seahawks, which was absolutely keyed by that defense. And yes, a little bit of luck. That was the key sequence of the entire game, even though it came in the second quarter because just one play before that, Aaron Rodgers had what should have been a gimme walking, TD to Garrett Wilson, where I don't know if it was just an or he was confused on the route, but Aaron Rodgers sails it out of bounds after Wilson absolutely toast the defender on that play. Very next play, pick six, Leonard Williams. Give this man a Defensive Player of the Week award. You didn't give it to him last week. I gave him the Captain Morgan's Captain of the Week. I couldn't believe he didn't get it. That was a thick pick. He got two sacs in this game. This defense to finish the game, shook in eight straight drives did not give up a point.

They forced two turnovers and two turnovers on downs. This is really a month, I would say, where Seattle's offense has been good enough, but I would say up and down. But their defense has kept them in games for long enough for Gino Smith to finally get the fourth quarter shutdown drive at the end.

Yeah, that's where the Seahawks season has shifted toward the positive, at least in our collective opinion, is that Gino has not had to carry them. At times, he's put them in bad spots, and the defense has consistently over the last few weeks been good, been better, kept them in games. Now it's getting them back into games and affording them more opportunities to take advantage of it. And Leonard Williams, he is going to get that defensive player of the week, hopefully, after not getting it last week. But Greg, good call on you for spotting him last week. He was overlooked because nobody's going to overlook him this week. And nobody's going to overlook these Seahawks. I know they just beat the Jets, but the fashion in which they went to beat the Jets is what's going to resonate with a lot of people in a tightly packed, messy NFC West. It seems like they're the team that's building steam late as we go into December, figuring it all out and putting it together and playing balanced football well enough to go win on the road, to go overcome a 21 to 7 deficit when you just gave up a 99 yard kick return, to be able to bounce back and still fight and fight and fight and then end up dominating defensively to the point where the other team has no chance to erase even a five-point deficit.

And you come away with yet another victory and a big one, considering what happened with the Cardinals.

Yeah, having to fight in two phases because the third phase completely went out of the window. A kickoff return They fumbled. They had two separate kick returns. Two separate kick returners fumbled on kick returns. They had the Jets have that kick return for the countdown. Then Michael Dixon goes down. They have to go for it on fourth and one because Jason Myers was getting ready to punt. Coach Mike didn't know who was going to be able to punt the ball, so they go for it deep in their own territory. Fortunately, a penalty bails them out. They had a fourth and goal to go where Gino took a sack. So much went wrong for the Seahawks in this one. I do agree that they're a good team, but they don't escape if they're not playing a miserable institution like the New York Jets.

Yeah, they were lucky today. This game was so crazy. You mentioned the kick return fumbles that they lost. They lost two of them, and they fumbled another one for good measure, and they gave up the kick return. Touched out. And so people were like, Wow, that is a absolutely brutal special team's day. That ignores the other kick returns that they gave up. Xavier Gibson went 2 for 81 on his kick returns. Nwong Wu, who had the touch down, added another 57 yards in terms of kick returns. It is insane, the field position that they were giving up, play after play. And yes, you mentioned the Dixon injury. So it does remind you when teams go for crazy fourth downs, sometimes it really would help you because the exact scenarios that they went for it on the game-winning drive, they went for a fourth and six on their own 33, in which the Jets committed a penalty. So that set up a fourth and one, which they converted. On the field goal drive before that, they also went for a fourth and six on their own 44, and again got bailed out. That was a play you're talking about by penalty.

It felt like there were a lot of moments in this game where they were bailed out by penalty. Gino was solid in this game and certainly made some nice throws down the field to Dike Metgap, who was in and out and banged up. Jackson Smith and Jigba had some really important catches. They do seem to play their best when it matters the most, but it was more that their offense was competent, whereas Aaron Rodgers in this Jets offense, which came out of the gates looking really good. They played a good couple of first drives. I was like, This is the best I've seen Devante Adams and Rodgers looked. Rodgers looked a little faster today. And then after that first quarter, it was brutal. Twelve targets for Adams. He has a terrible drop and a key penalty. Garrett Wilson had 10 targets, and Rodgers just kept missing him. Rodgers averaged under 5 yards per attempt. It's just dink and dunk and missing everything deep, not accurate. It's just rough out here if you're Aaron Rodgers. After the game, Jeff Ulbrich, the Jets coach, was asked if he'd consider benching Rodgers. This was the week.

I know Aaron was looking forward to it. He was off the injured board. He was healthy. You said he was healthy. He's been in quite some time and statistically didn't do well at all. Had some trouble with his accuracy.

He picked Would you ever consider making a change at that position now?

Not as of today. Good thing we got the preface in for that question.

Yeah. I don't know. He was a little more certain about it, nick, in the past. It makes you wonder if he knows that there's at least a chance he could get pressure from above. According to Diana Racina, the athletic, the owner wanted Roger's bench at some point.

Yeah, and that's the thing with this Jets team is it's not that you're three and nine. It's It's not just that you're trudging toward a dark winter in a hopeless season and you lose games like this. It's the fact that the Roger's cloud is now hanging over you, and you have no idea what the future looks like. In fact, many Jets fans probably don't even want him involved. It sounds like the organization, some of them might not want him involved.

He will not be involved.

Where do you go from here?

There's no way. I thought he played better for time's sake, but there's no way you bring him back.

What do you mean?

You think there is?

He's been calling the shots the whole time. So You give him that much leeway.

It's funny because now they've lost so many games that I do have to point out. This is one of the better three and nine football teams I've seen in a long while. They are in all these games, and I can see them convincing themselves. It's like, we're so close. Hang the banner. They had a good defensive game plan for most of this, and they just lose. They have loser vibes where they find ways to lose. That is the opposite of what Gino Smith does every time he faces a team that let him go. Now, five and one, my favorite research note from Dante in our NextGen stats research Department, points out, Gino Smith has that best record of all time against teams that have gotten rid of him. Five and one for quarterbacks that have played over five times. Let's see the tweet that Gino had. If you're watching on YouTube, you know which one I'm talking about.

It's the meme of the guy doing the fit check at his biggest hater's funeral. Yes.

That's how Eugene feels about the focus. That's why I assigned myself this game, and I will forever or more. If Gino Smith is playing in the meta lands against the Jets, that's the ultimate revenge game. And he got the revenge for a first-place Seahaw.

So did Leonard Williams, by the way.

Yes. Yeah, I was going to say, so did Leonard Williams. Let's not forget him.

Team revenge.

I mean, yeah. I don't know if the Jets and Leonard Williams had a bad thing, and then he played pretty well for the Giants. Really underrated career, Leonard Williams.

Revenge against MetLife Stadium. Yes.

Gino Smith getting it done. Let's take a quick break, and let's head to What annually is one of my favorite? Guilty Pleasures, I would say. The NFC South.

Robinson to his left.

Looking middle of the field. No pressure. Throws and intercepted.

Derwin James ends the game. Do it, Derwin. And due to their defense, the bolts are going to get on a plane back to Los Angeles with a victory.

K-y-s-r. Matt Money Smith, our guy, with a great call for the great Derwin James. Kind of nice to see Derwin James playing meaningful football in December and making big plays. Finally, he's got a better defense and a better team around him. The chargers are eight and four. They win at 17 to 13, and that was is Kirk Cousins' fourth interception of the game. Third, nick, of the second half, second in the fourth quarter, back to back drives. Kirk O'Chains, tell me it was better than the box score shows.

No, it wasn't. In fact, it might have been worse than the box score. I mean, they moved the football well between the 20s. They got to the red zone a number of times, and Kirk, he had a few really ugly interceptions, including that Derwin James one. But the one that he threw in the red zone prior when they had their best opportunity to score, it to take the lead was the worst, just most ill-advised throw I've seen in a long time. He never had a shot of making it happen. That defined his day. They wasted so many opportunities. I don't want to talk about the losers first, but their defense played its best game of the season. They got five sacks when they entered the game with 10 combined as a team on the whole year. They got five today, and they did nothing with it offensively, and a lot of it had to do with Kirk Cousins not taking advantage of the opportunity. Bichon goes for 102 yards. He scores a rushing shutdown. They're up seven, nothing. They'd already missed a field goal earlier. They It could have been 10, nothing. And then they could do nothing with it from there.

It's a frustrating game for them, but another good win for the Chargers, whose defense, I think, made a statement after giving up 30 points in that loss of the Ravens. They come back, they hold the Falcons to 13. They stiffen up in the red zone a few times It's a bend but not break group that really did a great job of confusing Kirk Cousins in the second half. Jesse Minners' coaching really well right now. And they did just enough offensively, and Cameron Dicker made just enough field goals for them to win this game on the road and get to eight and four and just prove that, Hey, we're not going anywhere. We Yeah, we lost the Ravens, but we're not going anywhere.

Yeah, nick, you had eyes on this closer. Explain to me how the chargers had 187 yards on the game. That's outrageous. That's one of the most surprising things I've seen all day. The fact that they could lose that game must be driving them absolutely crazy because it's the opposite of how they've played the rest of the year, the Falcons, that is.

Yeah, that's why I said wasted opportunities because they had a million in front of them. I mean, they were shutting down this chargers' offense. Justin Herbert had no time really operate all day. It looked disjointed the entire day. The running game wasn't there. Lad McConkey was the only guy making plays. Then he left the game with a knee injury. I mean, they barely had the ball. They lost time of possession by nearly 12 minutes. It was 11 minutes and 55 seconds. It's just that the Falcons never finished off any of their drives. A lot of it was the Kirkpicks, but it was also just not finishing the drive. So that's how it happens right there. But you know what? If you come away with a win like that, you got to be feeling good because you have to feel like you stole one with a lot of that being credit to your defense.

Yeah, you saw David on Yamata got a sack. Arnold Abikady got a couple of sacs in this game. A Falcons defense that hasn't been able to sack the quarterback at all this season. And Hassan Askins had a fumble to start the game, which got the Falcons that breakdown. But this game, it's one of those games where you can look at the box score and see exactly what went wrong. Those Kuttsons four interceptions were brutal. He has eight shutdowns and one interception against the Tampa Bay Bucaneers this season. He has twelve interceptions in non-Bucaneers games, where you've really gone to a standpoint of, we're talking about Rodgers getting benched. Perhaps the Falcons should go to the rookie quarterback at this point.

Yeah, let's talk about it because I think it's very much something that needs to happen right now.

Let's listen to Raheem Chris, who was asked about it. But you'll stick with Corket quarterback. You don't have any questions about that.

Yeah, we got no issues with that, man. I don't think that's going to be the issue around here. That guy's carried us. That guy's got us to the point where we're 6-6, first place in the division, still got everything in front of us, despite what happens today. As It's up to us to bounce back and find a way to win football games, and there's no better man in 18 to go do that for us.

Strong on it. I have a response. Please. For you, Rahim. Okay, according to NFL research, since week 10, Kirk Cousins has posted three straight games with a negative expected points added. His negative 24.6 EPA in that span ranked third lowest among quarterbacks. I'm not done. Kirk Cousins is the first player with 100 plus passing attempts, zero passing, TD, six or more interceptions, and at least one pick six in a three-game span since Brett Favre in weeks 14 through 16 of the 2005 season with the packers. Now, Brett Favre is in the Hall of Fame. Kirk Cousins isn't going to be in the Hall of Fame, but if the Falcons want to get to the playoffs, they may need to take a closer look at the situation right now because he's just not helping them. He's hurting them.

I get all that, but I get why Raheem Morris is going to stick with him for as long as he can. He's moved the ball well this year. He's been a turnover machine lately. That's what nine picks in the last six games, but he's also fumbled quite a bit. He fumbled today as well. That would have ended the game, but the Falcons fell on the fumble, so they got some luck there. I don't know what to think, because if the Falcons went into the bye week and came out with a much more competent defense and pass rush, they might just win this division despite everything. They're not a great team. These two teams define, to me, borderline playoff team, but the Chargers, as we talked about going into it, Patrick, were just going to be the team less likely to shoot themselves in the foot, and that's exactly what happened.

Yeah. No J. K. Dobbins is a real issue. Then you take, as Shook mentioned, Lad McConkey off the field, and it gets to a point where it's hopeless for this Chargers team looking to make plays, even with their generationally gifted quarterback. They need the pieces there. But to see, because I was I'm so pleased with the boost that this Ravens pass rush had in Sofye Stadium against the Chargers. But now I'm seeing the Falcons get off against the Chargers' offensive line, and it's like, wait a second. Perhaps what we saw was not necessarily improvement from Baltimore. Maybe there's problems on this chargers often.

There absolutely are. It's on the interior, especially. But even the tackles, maybe not quite as strong as you would expect it. It's just caving in. And yeah, McConkey went 9 for 117. The next closest receiver had 12 yards, Quitten Johnson on four targets. And yet this chargers team's got a little bit of magic. When I have an excuse to listen to Matt Money Smith for a second time in a game, I'm going to do it. It was the defense scoring the points for the chargers. Kyle Pitz left Bijon in the backfield. They take the snap. Looking right, throwing right.

Intercepted.

Left sideline, 30, 20.

Tar, heave, still. Touchdown, Chargers. Fear the turtle.

We looked it up, and Tarheep still did go to the University of Maryland. A great win there by the Chargers to get to 8 and 4. It's going to be tough to keep them out of the playoffs. If you look at their schedule, it's a fun one next week against Kansas City. We'll put a pin in that one. I think there's only one team making the playoffs from the NFC South. Is it going to be the Falcons or is it going to be the Bucks? It's time for the Sunday Drive presented by the all-new Hybrid Toyota Camry. Let's head to Carolina. Need a good snap.

The spot a little low. The kick is airborne.

It is airborne. It's airborne. It is good.

Bucks win. Bucks win. Bucks beat the Carolina Panthers in overtime.

Jean Deckerhoff, W-F-U-S, Chase McGloughlin. On a day where some kickers struggled in big spots, he was massive, hitting a kick to force overtime after a late drive. And then, yes, that short field goal to win it, 26 to 23 in a game. Frankly, I didn't think the Bucks quite deserved. I thought the Panthers outplayed them for most of the day, but the kickers were a huge difference. Eddie Pinero, who at one point in the day was the number one overall kicker-Of all time.of all time, according to field goal percentage, misses two short ones in the first half. The Panthers bogged down in the red zone over and over again, included a drop by Adam Thielen on a potential TD. There were a couple drops, a nice Bryce Young throws. Bryce Young leads what could have been a game winning, TD drive, maybe the best moment of his young career. I don't care that they lost the game. That, to me, was the story. Very calm and composed. He gets the ball back with three minutes to go down for needing a TD, gets it all the way down to the 25-yard line. But do they play it safe and go slow?

No. Did they get the game? Go ahead, TD to Adam Thielen. Let's listen.

Bucks, rush 4. Bryce in the pocket steps up, eludes the rush, throws, end zone, caught. Adam Thelen. Touchdown, Carolina. The Panthers take the lead with 30 seconds.

Awesome performance by Bryce Young. I was watching him and Baker Mayfield and thinking of all the similarities that they have and seeing Bryce Young outplayed Baker Mayfield, and this would have been a great win for them. But I got to think Panthers fans and Bryce Young fans like yourself, as disappointed as you must be, Patrick, man, it's just cool to watch him playing this well. Stacking better weeks on top of better weeks every week.

Yeah. Maybe the only issue with these past two weeks with the Carolina Panthers both at home is scoring too fast in those closing moments. I mean, you can't blame him. That one happened with 30 seconds. Just a brutal let down to let Baker Mayfield and Mike Evans connect, eventually leading to that big McAfflin field goal to send the game into overtime. But Bryce nails again. I think he's had highlight reels on his incompletions these past few weeks, where he's making throws, putting the ball in the right spot, making the right decision. I know people are going to credit him sitting down for it. I think just like if we want to look at Kirk Cousins in these past few games. So Kirk Cousins was on a countdown streak. He had seven touch downs and one interception after beating the Dallas Cowboys. And so are we saying that the Dallas Cowboys defense is what led? I just think price has talent. We're seeing it play out. The Carolina Panthers are playing better. Jonathan Brooks had his best game in his young career and his limited opportunities He's, of course, a brutal fumble by Chuba Hubbard, but overall, the team is better.

And I think people have a better idea of what Bryce can do.

Yeah, they were in position to win this game a couple of times in overtime, or rather, a couple of times in the game, right at the end of regulation, as I mentioned, they played from ahead for a good chunk of the game before the Bucks made a fourth-quarter comeback. And then, yes, he has one of his best throws of the year, Bryce Young, that is, on third down. And it really points out what he's been doing well. The Bucks send basically a zero blitz at him. He stands in there, knows he's going to take a hit, throws a pass to Adam Thielen way before Thielen makes his break. And then Thielen, who Who ends up with 8 for 99. This guy is ageless, and the countdown, that dropped. Just a one salty reminder of the day, but otherwise, he was absolutely fantastic. Makes a ridiculous one-handed catch. And that's what Bryce has been doing. It's been next-level anticipation throws. They're in position to win the game, and Chuba Hubbard fumbles on the very next play. Unfortunately, Bucks go down and get the win. I do want to give a lot of credit to the Bucks for hanging in there and winning a game that maybe in the past, they wouldn't have.

Bucky Irving, nick, ends up 25 for 152, also 33 yards on the ground. What if I told you that Bucky Irving has 424 yards over the last three games? That's absolutely ridiculous. Three touch downs, and he looks good doing it. He makes so many people miss. He's now better in the receiving game. He, to me, was the difference. When they came back in this game, it wasn't because of Baker Mayfield, who eventually made a few good plays, but otherwise had one of his worst games of the season. It was because their running game and their red zone defense kept them in it.

Yeah, it seemed like every time you looked up, you saw Bucky Irving gripping off a long run. It's nice to see him taking the leadback role in this offense because for the first half of the season, Todd Bulls was like, I want to play both of them, him and Rashaad White. I'm not sure. Bucky gets 25 carries, Rashaad gets 11 today. I think we know who the number one back in that room is. But you know what, Greg? You are a true pro. You know how I know you're a true pro? Because you totally sidestepped on a perfect opportunity as king of all Baker Mayfield haters to hate on Baker Mayfield in a game in which he went through two interceptions that were both predetermined, the anticipatory throws. He basically gave the Panthers opportunities to build this lead and then came back and was able to lead them on that field goal drive. Chase McAfflin misses the first field goal in overtime, gives the Panthers an opportunity, then they come down and Baker leads them down again. I can't believe you didn't swing for the fences on that.

I would have gotten there eventually. Thank you, nick, for setting me up. I did say it was one of his worst games of the season. The interesting part of that is I would have said that before the interception. He was in Baker Create Mode, and it was like, Baker Create Mode gone wrong. And that's where I saw the comparisons between him and Bryce Young, because Bryce Young throw it with so much anticipation. And when he went Create Mode today and stepped up in the pocket, he had such a good feel for things, whereas Baker was doing the thing where he would spin around, but then spin right into a sack and create more problems than was initially even there. He got hurt at one point. It looked serious. He was in the medical tent for an entire Panthers Drive and then missed a couple of plays. And then he comes out on third down. It's Baker Mayfield, the hero. And that's when he throws his second interception, which didn't have anything to do with his health. It was just he didn't see the underneath defender in zone coverage, which happens a lot with Baker. So it wasn't a good game for him.

And you're really seeing that their offense is all about 10 yards and under. He was 6 for 13 on throws over 10 yards, and that's been the case for much of the season. But the reason I didn't hit it hard, nick, is those last couple of drives, actually, he did well. So it's like his defense in his running game gave him a chance, but he did make some good plays at the end to win it, and they do have a knack of doing that.

Including a big run on that final drive in regulation to give Chase McAfflin a chance to do it. I think the leg might have had a little impact on his performance late, especially. He comes back in immediately, throws that interception.

He might have been better late, though. He was awful in the first half of this game. I'm telling you.

Yeah, I feel like he got stepped on. I'm not sure. They showed the replay. It didn't look like anything happened on the play, but then at the end of the play, he got stepped on. His ankle went in a weird direction. I was gimpy on that big run, but enough to get a win.

Huge win. I was thinking, what a brutal loss it's going to be for them because they don't have the tiebreaker against Atlanta. This would be another division loss for the Bucaneers. But instead, you get this victory. You're 6 and 6. You're now tied with the Falcons. The schedule is more forgiving for them. Right now, you'd have to say the Bucaneers are the slight favorite to win that division. But we got five weeks of sloppy NFC South football to go. Disappointing for the Panthers because they legitimately could have felt like, Are we in this division race? You never know. They are definitely playing better. And I think they're a tough out. Sometimes it's not about your strength of schedule. It's when you play a team. And if you're playing the Panthers now, you're playing a reborn, Bryce Young. Maybe we'll talk about him for Cuby Island this week. Oh. Maybe not. I'm just saying. He's playing that football over the last month. Just saying that. That was the Sunday Drive presented by the all-new Hybrid Toyota Camry. Whatever your vibe, it's a Camry vibe. Learn more at Toyota. Com/camry. So the Bucks, the Falcons, they're keeping an eye on the Commanders because if there's going to be another wild card spot available, maybe it would be because of a Commander's slide.

We'll see if that continued in Landover. Third and goal.

Tennessee's got six across the line.

A quick throw. Terry McClorn caught it. Touchdown.

Touchdown, Washington.

His second of the half. Def, Texas in Terry McClorn winning on the slack. Book it. And that's exactly what he did to get in the end zone for the second time in this game against the Tennessee Titans.

Oh, London Fletcher. One of the great Washington football team players. You know what I'm getting at. Yeah. Commanders get the win 42 to 19. Bram Weinstein and WBIG also involved there. Yes, Terry McClorn. That was his second countdown of the day. And look, Jaden Daniels came out. He was accurate, and they got a win with a 27 to nothing lead here, Shook, and never looked back.

Yeah, the Titans did just about everything they could to put themselves in a very deep hole. I mean, essentially, their first four possessions were not great. Let's go punt, punt, fumble. We're down 21 points. Let's fumbl the ensuing kickoff return. Now we're down 28 points. Oh, God, we're down four touchdowns. What are we going to do? I felt like Will Levis never really had much of a chance to get going. By the time they were down 21 to nothing, they'd run 10 plays. They'd run 10 total plays by the time they were down by three scores. You know what happens to game script when that happens. They did do a good job of fighting back eventually, but the commanders They're back in stride. They take advantage of turnovers. They produce points. Jaden Daniels looks good again. He's ripping the ball over the field. He's finding Terry McLaurin for two touch downs in the first half. Everything's flowing. Brian Robinson slices through that defense like it's a hot knife through butter for the first breakdown. Everything He's rolling for them. The rumors of a Cliff Kingsbury late-season slide. Oh, they're way overblown because they're playing the Titans.

It was a good day for them. It was good for them to get back on the right track and play solid team football. They did let the Titans get back into it in the second half, but it was never really in doubt and finished strong, and good for them to get to eight and five.

Yeah, that's a big win for them. But Cliff got the run game going, or at least the players got the run game going. I don't know we have to put it all in the offensive corner. But nick, for them to go for 267 yards on the ground and right off the bat when Robinson ripped that 40-yard countdown, and that's on their first drive of the game. That was before any mistakes by Tennessee offensively. To me, that showed something a little different because this has been a tough Titans team to run against. And Chris Rodriguez goes for 94. Robinson ends up with 103. Jeremy McNickels, when he's out there, 5.3 yards per carry. They're not throwing the ball down the field almost at all. All of Jane Daniels' yards almost were on 10 yards and under throw. So it's back to their formula at the beginning of the season. But if they're running the ball like that and they did it against a good team, they have a chance to remain scary down the stretch.

Yeah. And this is a necessary reset for them because I think they felt a little bit too in love with throwing the ball downfield or trying to during that stretch of losses. So shortening the passing game was good. But you can only do that if you're running the ball well. And we can give Cliff some credit because the Titans were one of the toughest teams to run against. Like you said, they were allowing less than a yard per carry before contact on design runs. Today, they came up a ton. I mean, obviously, we saw the 246 yards and three touch downs on design runs, including 78 yards over expected. And get this, 2.8 yards before contact per carry. That's two whole yards per carry more than the Titans were allowing coming in here. So credit to the offensive line in the scheme, at least. I don't know if it's necessarily Cliff to get that going, which really balanced out their offense, allowed them to operate in the short passing game, and run away with the thing so much that they rested on their laurels in the third quarter before they woke up and finished the thing off.

Future Chicago Bayer's head coach, Cliff Kingsbury? Who knows? We'll hold that talk for a minute later. They're 8 and 5. They finally got to their bye week. I thought this was a big game for them because they have a couple of games where they will be favored significantly against the Saints and the Cowboys down the stretch. They probably just need to get to 10 wins. This was a big one to get.

Yeah, and they keep their quarterback clean in doing so. I know we had put the rib concerns away for Jaden a couple of weeks ago, but this, clearly, this rushing performance and passing performance, I think he only had five incompletions in this game. I will give Cliff credit because it wasn't like a late-game, 'Hale Mary' type situation. We saw Terry McLaren on the right side of the field. Hey. Another TD today in the middle of the game. But not in a weird scenario. I don't think it's a situation like in the bangles game where Terry called the play. I think this was Cliff. And so the adjustment in the late-season Cliff meter goes back down. And yeah, a plus performance by Cliff Kingsbury against the Titans. A team that was fun in Dan Quinn's defense, as well as Cliff Kingsbury's offense, drained all the fun away from the late-season Titan.

Yeah, Levis threw seven passes in terms of his attempts of over 20 yards. On the day. Jaden only attempted six throws over 10 yards on the day. So that's the types of different types of offense, and the score certainly was part of that. They didn't need to do more. Terry ends up with two touch downs, eight for 73 through the air. He was fired up after the game. This is courtesy of the Commanders on Twitter.

Hey, that's a good, good team win, man. That's a great team win. Hey, we put the standard out there today, bro.

Ain't no excuse why we don't come out every single week like that from practice, the energy, the practice, the preparation, all of it, man.

That's what it take to do what we do.

Let's go.

I'm ready to play.

There's something about Terry McLaurin when he speaks. Just the look in his eyes, it's like, Oh, yeah. I would follow that man anywhere. That dude is the dude. And like I mentioned with Derwin James earlier with the chargers, even more so with Terry McLaurin, it is cool to see him playing meaningful December football. So the commander is trying to get a wild card spot in the NFC. Same is true for the Colts in the AFC. Let's go to Foxborough, and let's start at the end. Fourth and three, 17 seconds left. Anthony Richardson with the game on the line.

Shot and snap for Richardson, backs to throw. Looking left, fires into the end zone. It's a breakdown. Got him. Touchdown, Colts. He's going for two, Matt. It's Alec pierce.

He's going for two.

What great poise and precision. Conversion on the pass. Anthony Richardson to pierce in the left side of the end zone, and it's now 24, 23. Anthony Richardson out of the gun. Jonathan Taylor is his back left.

Go to Pitman.

Shot and snap for Richardson, and he's trying to crash upfield.

He got it. And he is. He's in. He's in. He's in. He's in. The two-point conversion is good. Two points for the Kult.

An eight-point possession. Give it to your best player on offense, and he delivers.

Kult back on top.

25, 24, 12 ticks to go.

Oh, never in doubt, Matt Taylor and Rick Venturi, WFNI. An ending so good. We had to play two plays. Anthony Richardson, yes, gets the the countdown when he needs it to Alec pierce. Mister clutch this year, Alec pierce. Spice Rack was right all those years ago on the Around the NFL podcast Coming into the draft, saying Alec pierce was going to be a guy, and he's turned into a guy. And yes, the huevos and the trust of Shane Steiken in that moment to know that two yards out, Anthony Richardson running the ball. You're not going to get a better chance to go ahead and win the game. You don't want to go to overtime with Drake May anyways. Let's let Anthony Richardson run it in. Patriots actually got in position to potentially steal one, but the Colts get it done in the end, Patrick.

And they get it done mainly with a lot of the supporting cast for Indianapolis coming up short. Late in the fourth quarter, AD Mitchell on Anthony Richardson's best throw of the day down the sideline had a drop. Kyland Granson on the final drive had another huge drop. And you wonder what was going to be the ultimate storyline in another game where the Colts coming into it. You look at the box score, say Anthony Richardson can't make these completions late. Alex pierce comes up with that catch. And then we heard the result Anthony Richardson going in in an up and down game that started with the Patriots having an incredible drive. I'm thinking in the back of my head, I'm hearing Greg Rosenthal's voice talking about Alex Van Pelt a couple of weeks ago. He's dialing it up. Ramon J. Stevenson has a 32-yard run. Drake May goes Drake May, and then they get into the red zone and things clog up. They had a third of goal on that first drive of the game. Ultimately run mesh. You're playing against the Colts, so Gus Bradley's got everybody sitting in the zone against all the crossers.

Drake May has nothing going there. Gets sacked. And that's the theme. The Patriots have a ton of red zone possessions, a lot of them resulting in field goals. When they do make the plays, Anthony Richardson and the Colts came back and ultimately got this win on a great call by Shane Steigen. And great play by the second-year quarterback out of Florida.

Yeah, the Patriots go two for six in the red zone. They have one of their best offensive games of the season, not just 24 points, which for them is a big number, but 422 yards. They out He gained the Colts by over 150 yards, and that includes a final drive. They almost left too much time for Drake May. They give him 12 seconds. They do the gutless, totally idiotic touchback thing. Coaches, this is just such an obvious mistake that coaches keep making. This is the exact scenario where you kick it short of the end zone. You might end up tackling them before the 30 anyways, and you burn some clock, but instead, they give the ball to the Patriots at the 30. That gives them time to actually have an incompletion where it goes off Hunter Henry's hands. But then May sets up a bomb of a field goal attempt. Joey Slive from 68 yards out after a couple throws to Hunter Henry. The kick comes up short from Joey Sligh. We did check to see if that was a fun call from Zolak. He was subdued, actually, in that moment. But I am happy to tell you that the two-point conversion try that Anthony Richardson hit was a good one.

So let's listen to that.

The Colts are going to go for the win.

They're going to go for it here.

Look at this. So scratch those remarks about an extra point in overtime. Shane Steik, the head coach of the Colts, is playing for the win right here, right now. Twelve seconds to go.

24, 23, New England. Richardson in the gun. Taylor to his left.

A two-point drive for the win. Two receivers left to right.

Fake to Taylor. Run off the middle.

Richardson He's on his way forward. He breaks the plane. He's in for the touch. Two-point run. And the Colts. Man, it takes Paul off.

But on the field, celebrating from the near sideline as they've taken the lead, 25 He got 24 with 12 seconds to go.

Credit to them. That takes balls. That takes big ones. Normally, we use euphemism, Scott.

Yeah, I like it. I like it. He was giving them credit in a big spot. They're like, game recognizes game. Zolak, 6-7. Chucky, they get to their buy, both these teams. They both just felt like they needed a buy. And what a big victory for Indianapolis, because it really would have felt like this thing's over if you lose in Foxborough. So It would have just been a much different feel going into the buy. But now you get to win. And who knows? I've seen teams reset, especially with this late buy where the last four games, they were a little bit of a different team, and they try to figure some things out, and they're at 6-7. They're in the mix.

Yeah, I was monitoring the score, I'm just like, Man, this would be such a face plant if they lost this game today, considering where they are. But it does set up for them really well. You come out of that buy, you go on the road to Denver. That's a challenging game, of course. But then you get Tennessee at home. You're at the Giants at MetLife, where we know they're notoriously bad. Then they come home and they play Jacksonville Jaguars in week 18. You can win those last three games. I'm picking you in those last three games right now. So if you can get past Denver and you go 4-0, we know what we're talking about, baby. That's 10 and 7, something along those lines. I can't even do math in my head right now because I'm so I'm surprised by the outcome. Yes, 10 and 7, 11 and 7, math, whatever it is.9.

And 8.18 games.9 and 8 might get it done. If you can win the division games, we will see. We keep winning games here on NFL Daily. People said, Greg, you really going to go survivor pick against Drake May? Isn't that tempting fate? You're really going to be that bold? Are the Colts really that good? We had faith, Patrick. We did it.

Yeah, never in There was so much doubt, Greg. There were significant amounts of doubt.

I thought it was over. The other one we were debating was Seattle, which they were in trouble all game, too. You know what? We were picking between two winners. But sometimes in life and in NFL seasons, you need a little bit of luck. The Colts got some today.

It works out. I remember the two-point conversion for the Baltimore Ravens late, where they pull guards, the guards trip over themselves, and then Lamar has nowhere to go. Here, you get to see the other side where Quentin Nelson is the puller. He comes across to Christian Barmore on the two-point conversion and absolutely flattens. Anthony Richardson goes in the end zone. Just a great call, great execution by the Colts, helping us survive.

I'm looking forward to watching this closer on the old NFL Plus, maybe a little NFL Pro, depending on how I'm feeling. Both.double screen.

Give me your very short, Drake May. Just I can't wait to find out your May review for the day because a good day offensively for them. I'm I'm still thinking, anytime they're out gaining opponents by 150 yards and their two leading receivers by far are Hunter Henry and Austin Hooper, you must have something pretty good at quarterback.

Yeah. With the Austin Hooper shutdown, the streak continues of Drake May's passes going to different receivers.

What is the streak? I didn't know the streak.

Almost every… I think there's only one common recipient of Drake made TD passes, which has been the story. He's spreading the ball around. Just a fun player to watch on a team that is lacking talent-wise, where you get a lot of consternation from a fan base that expects excellence. Some of those excellent players are elsewhere right now.

Yeah, they are, and they're 3 and 10. I was trying to explain to my dad, Tom Rosenthal, who was probably watching this game at my house. Great Thanksgiving visit, came in for a little NFL Daily, and I was just telling him, Don't worry about all this, this week-to-week stuff. The only thing that matters this season is Drake May. I'm already calling the victory. This is a 10 out of 10 draft pick. You might as well get a higher pick for next year. As long as he keeps building and looking better each and every week, that's all that really matters for this team. Let's take a quick break. We will see if the Colts division rival, Texans, came through in Jackson on the other side.

Cj will get up to the line of scrimmage. I formation third down and five across the Houston 49-yard line. Nixon, the tailback. Here's the toss to Joe. Running left.

Has room. He's got it.

Across the 42 to the 41. That's going to do it. The Texans will kill the clock, and they will beat Jacksonville today.

They did it. Yes, Joe Mixon sealed the victory. Thought that was an important moment for this team late. As the walls are caving in, you're blowing a big lead to Mac Jones and the Jaguars. More on that in a second. It was the running game, a revised running game in the second half of this game that got them over the finish line. Yes, Joe Mixon goes 101 yards on 20, carries their success rate was pretty high, 45 %. And throughout the second half of this game, their offense did move the ball. No team in the NFL, I believe, needs a buy week more than this Houston Texans team to just reset, get healthy, figure things out. They get into the buy at eight and five It was a little up and down, shook, but Nico Collins goes eight for 119, and Stroud didn't look great to me. He wasn't pressured that much in this game, and yet he looked a little skittish, and yet I was really encouraged that even against the Jaguars, at least you were able to run the ball in the second half of this game, which you just were not able to in the first half or really the first half of this whole season.

Yeah, that's probably what prevented them from blowing this game, if you think about it. I mean, it's beyond that last play that we just played, which, by the way, shout out to Robert Woods, who's not much of a factor in the passing game, but made a big block on that play to get the edge. Nice call. So the Joe basically got first down. That's a veteran move right there. Good job out of Bobby Trees. Yeah, you're right. I think they definitely need this by week. We've seen how up and down they are this season. We've seen how they've struggled with the pass protection. Even on a day in which they really protected better than usual, they still struggled offensively. I don't know if a week is going to fix them, but it would have been much worse if you left Jacksonville with a loss because then you're soul searching. Then you're looking at it and saying, How did we lose to a Jaguar's team that lost Trevor Lawrence to injury in a game? And Mac Jones comes in and throws two touch downs on us. They had this frantic comeback. That would have been terrible.

So it's good that you get out of there with that win. It's good that Nico Collins is still doing Nico Collins things, which, God, even the most optimistic projectors for him coming out of Michigan. Never would have seen him be this good in the NFL. He's awesome. But still, there's still a couple steps away from being the Texans team that I think we want them to be because of pass protection, but really because of offensive rhythm and flow in general. So good time to go into the bio with a win, and that's pretty much it.

This reminded me of so many Texans games while Nico Collins was hurt, and I just was watching it thinking, Oh, they'd lose this game without Nico Collins. It is that big of a difference because on offense, they have six points at halftime, a couple short fields field goal drives, but otherwise struggling. But like I said, in the second half, for the most part, they moved the ball, and they moved it well, and so did Mac Jones. Let's get to the reason why he was in this game, though. Trevor Lawrence takes a really rough late hit from Aziz Al-Shair, who was immediately ejected from the game. Jerrion Jones, the Jaguar's quarterback, comes in and tries to protect or stick up for his quarterback. He ends up getting ejected, too. So there was offsetting penalties, the injury, and the penalty didn't even really hurt the Texans. It helped them because it took Trevor Lawrence out of the game. I am curious what the NFL will do with this one, It feels like he might get suspended beyond this week because it basically is everything you don't want to see, a super late hit. And you saw Lawrence there in the fencing position, and it was a concussion after the game.

Doug Peterson talked about it. Let's lets us.

Well, I was excited for Trevor to get back out there and start for our team and lead our football team this week. That was always the goal was to shoot for the Houston game and get him back out there. Again, it's unfortunate. It's a play that really has no business being in our league. Al Shier, at this point, this is not It was our first time in an involvement where people are questioning his commitment to the type of atmosphere that we would like to see in an NFL game.

A clip of him taking Tom braided out in the neck when he when braided was on the box. That was floating out there.

I can understand people saying it's a difficult spot for a defender when the quarterback is in this sliding motion there. But there's no reason to launch and to bring your arm up, which is protected by a giant brace directly at the head and neck area. The quarterback, as Trevor Lawrence's head gets bounced off the ground there. Because the fight, which is understandably, Evan Ingram grabbed a hold of Alshier, did not let go for at least 14 seconds after that. Of course, Jones and Al Shier get run after that. But it just took a whole lot of time to get Al Shier off the field. Or they came back from the break and he was still in the game. I was just wondering, aside from breaking up the fight, why is it such a difficult thing to remove the player from the stadium at that point? Because things still went on. Brandon Sheerf and him are jawing. A lot of this is going while Trevor's lying motionless on the ground. It's just a real tough way to go about watching this football game. But yeah, you could make all the excuses for Al Shia there. It was a very, very unnecessary play and a dangerous one that we don't want.

Especially when you have a history of doing it. And yeah, when he left the field, some of the Jaguars fans Let him know about it. We're throwing some things at him, and it was ugly.

Which is a circumstance, do you make worse by having him stay on the field for that amount of time?

Yeah. And who knows what the game would have been like if Lawrence stayed in there. It's worth noting, they were struggling offensively. Both offenses were struggling. When Trevor was out there, he was a little off in terms of his timing. I would say with his receiver, had one really nice throw that you were like, Oh, that's a Trevor Lawrence type of throw, but also had some big misses in an interception on drives he was out there. Doug Peterson said after the game that it's too early to determine whether he will be out for the rest of the season. But the fact that that question is even being asked, he's playing through this shoulder injury, it'd be surprising to see him in the upcoming week, certainly. So big win for the Texans, but definitely marred on a day where, yeah, like I mentioned, C. J. Stroud only had... There was only one quick pressure for the Jaguars on the entire game, and I went back to make sure I was right about this. It was their very first play because I was like, Man, that first play, he got absolutely smashed by Devin Lloyd, and that was the one quick pressure, and it was such a big hit.

I almost felt like it affected Stroud for the rest of the day. He's not as comfortable right now in the pocket. He made a lot of really nice throws, and he made a lot of just rushed throws where he sacked himself. It's just not the C. J. Stroud we are used to seeing. Like I said, I hope a buy week can help him reset. Let's to the NFC, where the Rams and the Saints were playing in a game I dubbed the Give us one more week bowl. Give us one more week where we feel relevant, whether it's the Rams or the Saints who comes out on top. Stafford in the shotgun.

eighth play of the drive in a 14 all-time.

Angle from the seven. They shoot it down the line.

Right side, Pukas got it. He finds his way in behind his blocks. Cooper Cup, Kolby Parkinson paving the way to Paydard.

Touchdown, Pukas Nakuwa. Touchdown, LA. Oh, J. B. Long popping those P's. A little bit of alliteration. A little bit of showing the listener a picture of the blocking that goes on. That's what makes the Rams special. What they have left that is special on offense. They've been a little up and down. It is that blocking from the edge receivers and the tight ends. They get out of New Orleans. Rizzie Ball is dangerous with a 21 to 14 victory. Saints had a 6-0 lead early in this game, and the Rams come out of halftime. They've been doing a lot. Shook have a big stretch of the game where it's just taking a while to crank it up, but then they do. And usually it's Pukunakuwa right in the middle of it, and that was a very Pukenakuwa-heavy drive, which eventually gave them the lead. That was with a little under nine minutes to go.

Yeah, it's funny because of their scoring drives. They had an 11-play drive, they had an eight-play drive. Then in between there, there was a foreplay drive. It ended with a DeMarcus Robinson shutdown catch. But otherwise, yeah, that's who this offense is. They're not this overly explosive big play passing game that you maybe would expect from a team with Cooper Cup and Pukina Kua involved. But it's still better than the alternative, which is what we saw when they played Miami and what we've seen when they played the Eagles, which is struggling to hit the throws that you expect Matt Stafford to throw. At this point, we can't pin him down. We really can't pin the Rams down unless Kyram Williams breaks 100 yards on the ground, which is what he did today on 15 attempts, scores a You know, it's funny because you say, Give us one more week. It's the give us one more week bowl. Well, Greg, they're 6 and 6. They're right there in this division. That's true. Nobody wants to win.

But my logic with that was, that is true. But my logic with that one was if they lose in New Orleans and likely fall two games back in the division. They're just not a team that we're taking seriously. Now, I thought they would win this game ultimately because we call them the best bad team, maybe. Or they're a good bad team. They're at 6 and 6. I do I feel like I can peg them, and they might change who they are, but to me, they are a 6-6 team. They are who their record says they are. They have enough talent on both sides of the ball that they can get it done against bad teams. And ultimately, New Orleans is that.

Yeah, they can do that in a weird game script where it starts off. First of all, the Saints have lengthy possessions late in the second quarter, and Matt Stafford has less than 30 passing yards. Wow. Blake Coram is out carrying Kyron Williams. Then you fast forward to the end of the game, and they're electric in the second half, and Kyron Williams goes 15, carries over 100 yards. I think averages 9 yards of carry in this game, including the one that ices the game. Well, I don't want to say that ice the game because the rookie all everything, Edge Rusher, winds up icing the game on defense. The Saints have a fourth and goal situation. Derek Carr holds onto the ball way too long. Jared Verste is able to get to him, knock the ball away. Rams win.

Yeah. I heard from Jordan, who was there at the game, saying he wanted to... Jared Verste wanted to hold himself accountable. He told Jordan in the press there that after the game, he ends up with seven pressures on this game, and that was a big one. Apparently, McVay said he was really impressed with Verste's attitude throughout the week, that he humbled himself after maybe feeling himself a little too much after really getting it going. This is a young team. They've had ups and downs. Apparently, players and coaches were very vocal in the locker room at halftime to just start running the damn ball, and they did. Ultimately, Stafford gets it going enough. They get to 6-6, and I'll miss Rizzie Ball. We still got the rest of the season, Shook, but if they had won this game, it's like they would have been back in the NFC South race, and they were not given one more week. One thing that will stand out to me in this game is Tateam Hill left on a cart, and the reaction of the fans there, chanting Tateam Hill's name as he was helped off. Derek Carr spoke afterwards, and it was a little emotional just about that reaction that Taysam Hill got.

So you feel for him, and hopefully Taysam Hill, who we've seen is the key to this offense, weirdly, we hope he'll be better down the stretch.

Decidedly before There are an after moments in this game before the Taysam injury and after the Taysam injury because he's heavily involved in so many things that the Saints do. Really an emotional hit to the crowd and the team as well to see Taysam go down like that. Nfl Network insider Ian Rappaport saying that still got the MRI coming up, but they fear that that's going to be it for number seven for the Saints this year.

That would be a big letdown and a big subtraction just in terms of what a value add Taysam Hill has been for these Saints games. A lost season for the Saints now. Almost officially feels like they're out of it, although there's not a lot that's official, even after 13 straight weeks. But there is one team, just one, that's officially eliminated from playoff contention. There is one team that officially punched their ticket to the playoffs. That actually happened on Friday. Let's go to Arrowhead. This has got to be either on the sideline or a quick throw.

They stopped it. O'neill wasn't ready.

The ball's on the turf, and the Chiefs have the football. There's a flag down. Please be a false start.

Otherwise, this game is over.

I think it's their ball. Yeah. Chris Johnson celebrating already.

A legal shift on the offense.

The affidavit is declined.

The Chiefs did recover the backwards pass and take over for staff. That is a heartbreaker. In a season full of punch losses.

This is the most heartbreaking.

Oh, my goodness.

Oh, you feel for the Raiders, Mason Crosby, Aiden O'Kunal, and even Jason Horowitz and Lincoln Kennedy there in the booth for a KRLV. The Raiders fumble a chance on a bad snap in field goal range in Arrowhead as time was ticking down. Thought they played well enough to win. Aiden O'Kunal throws for 340 yards. The Raiders defense gets them the ball back a couple times. Late as the Raiders can't finish off those offensive drives. But the Chiefs are the first team into the playoffs in 2024. Get the win, 19 to 17. It feels like every week, nick, the Chiefs win, and they look worse doing it, and the vibes and the conversation afterwards are almost probably more frustrating for Chiefs fans and Chiefs players. It really is starting to give you 2023 eagles vibes. I don't think it's like that, but the way these wins keep getting worse and worse, they really were outplayed. The Raiders put up over 400 yards of them and easily outgained them on the day, but ultimately, the Chiefs get the win.

I push back on that a little bit. The reason is the Raiders on the scoreboard were nonexistent until the third quarter when Brock Bauer's made that phenomenal catch for a shutdown pass, a reception, to make it 16 to 10. And then you had Trey Tucker in motion around the end for a 58-yard countdown pass, and suddenly they're in the lead. Because before that, this is one of those rare moments since I've been remote over the last five years, where I felt like I was sitting in the newsroom with Patrick again, watching the games like it's 2017 again. Because he and I are both sending each other messages on social media about how Aiden O'Kunal refuses to scramble. And I'm just sitting there going, he's got room to run. He's throwing the ball really well, and yet they're getting nothing out of it. They get a turnover on downs in Chief's territory. They're just a bunch of missed opportunities early. And then suddenly they explode and they have the lead. But it felt that whole time like, well, that's not going to last. And then the Chiefs get an opportunity, and they have to settle for a field goal, which goes back to what they've been all year.

Their red zone offense, by the way, guys, really, really concerning. It seems to get worse every week just with the rest of their performances, and yet they're 11 and one because They still get the job done. Deandre Hopkins dropped a pass on third down. That Patrick Mahomes made a heroic play. He gets out of a Max Crosby sac. He escapes. He's falling forward and throws into a wide open Hopkins. He drops it over the middle. They missed Xavier worthy on a third down call where they tried to throw it over a defense that was very much prepared for the run. They did a lot of things to lose this game, but I didn't feel like the Raiders necessarily were in a position that they could say, Hey, we outplayed you. We outplayed you for about 12 minutes in the second half, and we were in position to win. But then again, we are the Raiders. And that last play really drove me up a wall because they break the huddle with like six seconds on the play clock. Of course, there's going to be operational confusion. Of course, that snap is going to happen early.

And it points to the lack of experience for Aiden O'Neill and a rookie in center, Jackson Power Johnson. Just a tough scene for them.

With the Turner contingency up Upstairs, getting the play in, perhaps a touch second late for the Raiders. But my chief's quite... It's not 2023 eagles in the sense that there's blown coverages and weird stuff going on in the secondary. They give it up a ton of points in December. Sincere McCormick, who I literally just had to Google again just now to remember his first name, had 5.3 yards per carry. Aiden O'Neill throws for 340. We saw the Bills score 30. Bryce and the Panthers almost did it. And then until he took the lid off the rim there, Shook, because we're tracking Aiden O'Neill's scramble yards, which he has none in his career. He had a scramble that got called back for a hold in this game, so he still hasn't done it. But after that, he was unlocked. He was unconscious the rest of the game because he hit the shutdown there. It's the shutdown to Bowers. He finishes with those two touch downs, 23 or 35. The Chief's defense has a problem right now, Greg.

Yeah, they do. The second Derry, I think, got worse by putting McDuffie on the outside. He's a good outside corner, but he's not a special outside corner. He was special on the inside. That made the inside position worse, where they're really struggling. The other outside position is getting torched. Some of it in this game was Brock Bauer's just being special, but he's beating their cornerbacks. He goes for 10 for 140. Jacobi Myers had a strong game, started out really well in this game, especially in the first half. Tucker had that 58-yard catch. And so, okay, that's one thing that's a problem. I saw the line of scrimmage, as you mentioned, getting pushed back against the worst running team in the league, although they have been better offensively overall since the turn eye took over. They really have turned this thing around.They've done a good job. The only reason I said they deserve to win is because in the key part of the game, after those two quick touch downs, it's fourth quarter, you bow up in the red zone to force a field goal by the Chiefs who keep struggling in the red zone. You're down by a couple of points.

And the Raiders do get back in field goal range. Carlson misses one. It's one of three misses on the date. They were all really long in cold weather, so it's not the field goals that you want. And so you give the Chiefs defense some credit there. But the Chiefs He also go two and out, I mean, three and out, twice in that sequence, where a couple of first downs win the game, and they just can't do it. I'm glad you mentioned that D-Hop drop, because I just haven't seen Mahomes so frustrated. He was so frustrated about a Wanya Morris penalty. That's another problem that's happening. A lot of pressure. Four sacks against the Raiders. A lot of pressure a week ago. And that sequence was crazy to me because Mahomes made two magical plays. One is under extreme pressure that he dumps off to Kareem Hunt, and they losing five yards because his offensive line stinks, but he's magical. And then the next play, same thing. The offensive line stinks. He's magical, and it's a drop. And you could just really see the frustration setting in a little bit. They did get some good news, nick, back that Hollywood Brown is trending towards a week 16 or week 17 return, according to Ian Rappaport.

So that's awesome. And they can absolutely play better, but they're not playing well, and they're lucky to have the number one seed right now.

So last year, everybody's talked about this ad nauseam. Andy Reid mentioned it after they won the Super Bowl. The loss to the Chiefs, or to the Raiders, excuse me, on Christmas, was the moment they needed to wake up. It was the moment where they realized, Okay, we got to be better. We got to be tougher. And they went on the run. They win the Super Bowl. I got that same feeling in this game, but not for the same reasons, mainly because suddenly they were like... The Raiders were applying pressure, and it's almost as if they were shocked that the Raiders were suddenly in the lead. At one point, they showed somebody on the sideland. I don't know if it was Wanda Morris or somebody else who just said, Wake the F up, shouting at his teammates on the sideline like, Hey, yeah, we're the Chiefs. We've won back to back Super Bowl, but just because we put these uniforms on doesn't mean we're just going to go win. Wake up now. So I wonder if this is going to be the wake up call for them over the next five weeks going into the playoffs or not, because there are so many other problems that you guys just described and explained that I don't think get fixed quickly.

But then again, it's the Chiefs. And all I've been taught over the last two years and really over the last four or five years is that they're going to be there. So until they're not, I won't believe otherwise. I need to see a greater sense of urgency from them than I have. Right.

But I thought being a two-point conversion away against a really banged-up Bucs team was the wake-up call. Then the Broncos game where they're trailing and need a block kick, is that a wake-up call? How about when you lose by nine to the bills. Is that a wake-up call? You get at the end of the Panthers. It's like, this is a string of games where they're not playing their best, but we know that they can turn around. I just think right now, it's absolutely fair to say that they're not playing at a Super Bowl winning level. That's all.

I just You get concerned with the idea of turning it around when the players that you need to turn it around are Wanya Morris, right? Yeah. And Joshua Williams. My concerns aren't Patrick Mahomes and Chris Jones, the guys in Travis, Kelsey, that have won all these Super Bowl and do the things that we count on them to do. It's the guys that we haven't necessarily seen executed at high level. And with so much turnover, especially at the tackle position throughout Patrick Mahomes career, I just wonder, why It's quite so hard to be cheap at this position with this quarterback? It seems counterproductive, and it's a thing that has been going for way too long.

Because they've gotten away with it. That's why.

Well, it's one of the highest paid offensive lines in the league, including Juan Taylor, who's that right tackle, and is almost as big a problem as Morris. Morris and Sua Mateo were day two picks. I mean, those are real investments. It just they haven't worked. My issue is more that they're trying to plug a lot of different holes. The defensive backfield. Now the run defense is struggling, the tackles, and I think team speed. That said, Pacheco gets back in this game, gives them a little bit of juice. I think they'll trust him to have more and more work. Hollywood Brown is coming back. We don't need to panic either. They have some interesting games down the stretch. They're not playing any other superpowers, but they do have the Chargers and the Broncos and the Steelers down the stretch in their final five games, so they will be tested. Now, since we last talked, there's been a coaching change, and I guess we could have guessed on this. If you listened to my recap with Will Gavin late on Thanksgiving night, we wondered if Matt Iberfluss would make it, and he went in at a press conference the next day, so we thought he made it, and then he didn't make it.

Thomas Brown will be the interim head coach of the bears. Not often we talk about a coach being fired on Sunday night recap. That happened a day before nick, a couple of days before nick, but the timing of it was a first in Chicago Bear's history. It's one of the most interesting jobs that's going to be open because of Caleb Williams, and it just felt like from all the reporting there in Detroit, that the situation between the players and Eber Fluss and their frustration probably made it untenable, where Ryan Polls or whoever really made this decision had no other choice but to make a change for the last five weeks.

It the fashion in which they lost that game on Thanksgiving. That really, I think, was the final straw for them to essentially make him walk the plank before getting rid of him, which is what they did on Friday. Now, my friend at Fox Sports, Carmen Vitale, I thought, summarized it very well, which is that the bears broke trend by... They broke the standard by firing a coach in season for the first time in their 105-year history as a franchise. They're going to have to continue to break trends in order to get to where they want to go. They have to continue to operate in a fashion that they haven't over the last, I don't know, 10, 15, 20, 25 years. And maybe this is the first step. Caleb talked about this last week about how if he had Thomas Brown as his Osi the whole year, where could they have been? Because the familiarity, the reps and everything that you get in training camp and early in the season and just the time spent together, you can't get that back when you make a change in season and you've seen them take that jump. So I think we knew this was going to happen eventually.

The fact that it happens in season doesn't really make a big difference for me. If anything, it buys you extra time to start searching the coaching market. You try out Thomas Brown in this job. You figure out where you want to go from here and make the best of this season. It could have been worse. You could have waited, I guess, until the end of the season and not gotten that head start, but we knew this was inevitable based on how they were playing.

Yeah.

Shout out to the season of Fluce Glow Up. It was fun while it lasted. Yeah, ultimately-The fashion of it all, the hair, the beard, all of it.

It didn't necessarily mean anything, but it gave us something to be excited about. And the idea that, Hey, this is going to be something different. But no, five and during his run as the Chicago Bear's head coach in one-score games. And really, it wasn't just the way that it happened. It was the timeout and the not calling the timeout, the fact that he finishes his career without that final timeout going out there. And it seemed like between the quarterback, the coach, the play collar, the players standing next to him during that process, nobody knew what was going on. The facilitation of how things were supposed to operate from everything, from the offseason and being able to evaluate Shane Waldron as a play collar, decisions were always made too late, and Matt Iberflus finally just ran out.

I don't think he ever really had an idea of how to make the offense and coach up offense. You feel bad because I listened to Chris Long talk about this, too, and I thought he was even handed talking about the Caleb Williams part of it, too. It's like, it does suck. Your career, if you're Matt Iberflus, ends that way, and it's going to be remembered forever. Caleb Williams needs to know not to be changing plays with 16 seconds left. It's like an out. He will never do that again in his career. But you can also point to that being partly on the coaching. But no one was ready for that moment. Most importantly, Matt Iberfluss was never ready for those moments, no matter who was the quarterback.

The quarterback's head just got bounced off the ground. He's getting a play call in his ear. He's trying to get guys set with 10 seconds to go. Players besides Matt Iberfluss jumping up and down, screaming. Four seconds elaps after that, before the ball gets snapped. During any one of those four seconds, he could have called time out. He chose not to.

It's such a brutal way for a coaching career to end. I'm curious if Ryan Polls will be making the next head coach hiring, the idea is he probably will. I asked around about this. People don't think he has any chance that he would be gone. It's murky of how much was Iberfluss his decision to hire or not. He was hired before him, but in the same round of cycles, and maybe he got a chance to rubber stamp that hiring, but maybe it wasn't really his guy. There was pretty reliable reporting that he stood on the table and said he believed Matt Iberfluss was the man to do it coming back this year. I think there is a case to be made that's a fireable offense, and that you're where you're redoing this whole cycle where the coach and the GM and the quarterback are not aligned that just keeps happening over and over and over in Chicago. And so if you're going to let Ryan Polls stay, let him truly choose the coach. Don't be getting yourself involved that much on an ownership level. Let Ryan Polls do it, because if it ends up being the ownership coach, then you're going to be firing Ryan Polls in a year or two, and the coach will still be there, and we're just going to keep doing this thing over and over and over again.

It's happened for 15 years. It's an organizational thing. You can see certain organizations make the same mistakes over and over. That's what worries me, even though Polls has had a solid track record and obviously had the trade that got him, Caleb Williams. I don't know. Just let the GM do his job.

The Bairs.

That's going to be it for the Patrick Claybon portion of the program. Always one of my favorite portions of the program, the biggest portion of the program.In.

Terms of size?Yes. I guess the weight here in the Chris West studio.In.

Importance, frankly, if we're only talking two segments and I had to lose either the whole thing before Sunday Night Football or for Sunday Night Football. I will do Sunday Night Football, I would lose Sunday Night Football. But I can't wait to talk a little Sunday Night Football with nick Shooka. You guys enjoy that. We will. All right. It's a Sunday Night. First and a goal from the seven, Allen Undercenter takes a snap.

Quick hitter, thrown behind, but somehow caught. And now lateral to Allen and reaching for the pylon.

Are you kidding me? It's a countdown. Unbelievable.

A catch by Amari Cooper.

A lateral to Josh Allen, and he runs the remaining five yards for the score. Have you ever seen that one before?

I have not, Chris Brown of WGR in Buffalo. Josh Allen with a receiving countdown and a He's passing a passing countdown on the very same play. He added a rushing countdown later in the second half to complete the trifecta. He goes over 100 yards on the ground. No one is playing better football right now at quarterback than Josh Allen, 35 to 10. The Bills pulverize the 49ers in the snow. They are built for it, Shuki. I mean, a guy who can pass, a guy who can catch, although it was a lateral, a guy who can get to a Hollywood starlet during his bye week and then show up and be the hero on Sunday night football. I mean, what can't this man do?

My guy's just winning in every facet, in every single way. Passing, rushing, rushing, receiving, It all... He's just winning. The Bills are just winning. They're 10 and 2 now. They take down the 49ers with the ultimate home field advantage of incredible amounts of snow in Western New York. Just how that's a neutralizer on the field, except for people like Josh Allen, who is the Essentially a legitimate buck. He's a deer running out there, so he's built for the snow. To make plays like that, a lopsided victory for them. Could have anticipated it before the snow got involved. Now you just see the difference between these two teams. One team heading up, the other one heading down. And that play, I'll tell you what, you said you've never seen it before. I think Marcus Mariotta once did that off a deflected pass one time.

That's a little different, though. A little different. That's the deflection. I just didn't know the ruling that you get credit for a receiving the shutdown after getting the lateral and the still shot of Allen flying through the air with the snow. It is just beautiful. I know the people who say, I just want football to be played at its highest level. And ultimately, the snow is a distraction, and it prevents people from playing their best. I get that in the biggest of spots, but I like variety shook in life. So sprinkle in these games. It's not going to be every single game, but sprinkle it in. Occasionally, you find a team like the 49ers who just are not ready for it. They came out of the gates looking ready for it, but they were slipping and sliding all over the place. Three huge fumbles in the game. Brock Purdy, not a snow guy game. Josh Allen and this Bill's Running attack, definitely snow guys.

Which is crazy because Purdy definitely played some nasty weather games at Ames, Iowa, when he was in the state back then. God knows he was there forever. He had to have played at least one bad weather game. But it is. That's essentially what this is. This is why I think that football, you talk about it being played at the highest level. I think that it's not just for variety. This is football in its purest form. That shot of Josh Allen diving with the snow all around him, and there's a guy in an NFL beanie, looks like he's part of the the ball boys or something, just staring intently, watching magic happen before his eyes. That is football. How can you not fall in love with that? That's going to be framed in Canton. I'm going to go to the Canton this summer. It's going to be on a frame somewhere. It's going to be on a play, and it should be because that's football at its core.

You know what's crazy is the 49ers actually ran the ball quite well in this game. Christian McCafree leaves with a knee injury. Kyle Shanehan announces after the game that it's a potentially season-ending knee injury. Really disappointing for McCafee and really disappointing, obviously, for the 49ers who get Purdy back, but did not have Bosa back. We're missing five starters on defense. We're missing with Trent Williams. And yet, they actually ran 7.6 yards per carry when they gave it to McCafree. Jordan Mason had a number of positive runs early in this game. Ends up 13 for 78. Their success rate is really high, and they're setting up for a field goal to make it 7, 6, about midway through the second quarter, and they're moving the ball, and it seems like a normal football game. They miss the kick, and the very next play, Cook takes it, what was it? 65 yards for a countdown. And after that, it was just as one-sided as it gets. And you just think if Josh Allen and the Bills are hosting games in the snow or in tough weather, he really is built for it. Now, they didn't try to throw the ball too much.

He only threw it 17 times, but he ripped a couple of passes right through the air, whereas Purdy, guys were slipping. He had a couple of decent throws, but Debo's fallen all over the place and fumbles it. Purdy fumbles it because he can't hold on to it. He throws the ball 18 times for 94 yards. Any penetration by defense happened by Buffalo in this game. Their offensive line was much better. They're just a tough team, and it's one reason why I think they have a real chance to win the Super Bowl this year. To make my prediction look good, it's because every aspect of the game they can Excel in, whether that's running, passing, run defense, or pass defense. Depending on the week, they can do different things. They've just been through so many wars that games like this, it's no problem for They are the AFC East champions here with five weeks left of the season. It's crazy.

Yeah, Week 13 clenchers. It's been a long time since that's happened that quickly, but that also goes to show what the AFC East is, the bills of the superior team. Way more superior than any of us had anticipated them being this year. Yet that's who they are. But it makes me think about two things. I think back to when the Bengals beat the Bills in the playoffs a few years ago in a snowy game, and Bills fans complained about the snow neutralizing their pass rush, and that's why the bangles were able to beat them. That's the beauty of a snow game is that it neutralizes the pass rush. You look at the pressure right here. Five pressures for the nine. There's seven pressures for the Bills. There's a clip of Josh Allen, I think in the third or fourth quarter, driving back, and he's got all day to throw and just rips one right down the middle of the field for a completion inside the red zone. And I was blown away by the fact that he just could stand there and just pat and bounce and pat and bounce until he found somebody. It was because of the snow.

It's also because of this offensive line, which is getting better and is coming around. But it also speaks to their evolution as an offense since Joe braided took over last year, which is that they figured out how to run the ball traditionally. Instead of just relying on Josh Allen as the only runner on the field, they can now lean on James Cooke, 14 for 107, Ray Davis, 11 for 63. Each of them had a countdown. Josh Allen chips in, three for 18. He has a countdown. This is a team that you just said can beat you in a number of different ways. This is the way that they can win in a snow game at home in the playhouse if they get it. Right now, they're in one of the prime positions to get the AFC's top seat or at least be in contention for it. Everything's coming up bills right now.

It is a team that I look forward to watching. I don't know if they technically deserve to be AFC East champions, I'm just going to have a little point of order. How can they be deemed AFC East champions if they've never even played against Drake May? I mean, I just feel like they got two more games down the stretch. Everyone I'm not saying the Bills have an easy schedule down the stretch. They actually haven't played the Patriots. How can you be the division champ if you haven't even played the Patriots?

Well, we're going to get that twice here down the stretch, and I expect them to win both games.

It can't go any worse than it did at the end of the Belichick era, even when they were making the playoffs, they literally didn't get a stop back then. This team is absolutely awesome. I can't believe a thing that actually happened in Buffalo tonight was Josh Allen and Sean McDermick doing snow angels on the field after the game together. That's when you know things are going well for the Bills. Fun week, fun game. Yes, over, I believe, 20 inches of snow around the stadium. It was up to three feet in some areas of Buffalo, and a couple inches were happening. A lot of the fans at the game were just standing the whole time because they couldn't sit down. Very cool. And at this point, you can't even say long, tortured Bills fans. We got Eric Roberts back here who's a fan of a Dodger's winning the Super Bowl, and he's been rooted for one of the best teams in the NFL. I don't want to hear about tortured. You guys have been good for seven or eight years. I was around for the tortured. You got to be talking about my niece and nephew.

They only know Josh Allen. I was at the Nathan Petermann five interception game. I've been around for... The next generation of Bills fans, you can say because-All I'm saying is this is an extended, beautiful run of success. It's been fun. That should only continue, but I do know that until you make the Super Bowl, win a Super Bowl, it feels like something is missing. But these are the good old days, is what I'm trying to say. So enjoy. No, I am. Trust me. I am. And I am as well. This was a beautiful show. Chucky, I want to get you back to everything that's going on in Cincinnati. Celebrate your Cavs victory. Get ready for Monday night football because we're talking about your Brownies in a big spot. Once again, I'm fine with the Browns being in primetime compared to these 49ers games, are there any coming up that we need to get out? Week 17, they're playing the lions. They're not going to flex them out of that. We got week 15 against the Rams. It's crazy how done this 49ers team feels because of the injuries. It's the first time since 2015 that they've lost 25 by 25 points in back-to-back weeks.

Only the fourth time in the history of this proud franchise that's ever happened. They do not feel like they are coming back from this down two games, and the injuries are just too much.

Yeah, they're mounting. Just the hits keep coming. As soon as you get one guy back, you lose another, you lose another, you lose another. It's too steep of a hill to climb. I know that NFC West is still very much for the taking, but they don't feel like a team that's on the rise. It's unfortunate for a team that made the Super Bowl and lost in heartbreaking fashion in overtime last year, but that's just the fact of the matter with them.

No, I saw the bears on the schedule next week, and I'm thinking, Well, that's a good spot, but it's a good shot for both teams. That's it for our recap show, Week 13 in the books. As I said, Shuki and I will be back on Monday night. Talk a little Browns, talk a little Broncos, talk a little news of the day. I want to thank everyone that helped throughout the Thanksgiving week. A lot of extra hours. Eric behind the glass, Chris doing a bang-up job when Josh Allen is going snow beast, snow angels, you know football is back.