CFB Semis and Wacky Wildcard Weekend

In this week's edition of the Paw and Pony podcast, we dive headfirst into the crazy world of Wild Card Weekend! We break down all the big games, from the Texans' massive upset over the Chargers to the Ravens steamrolling the Steelers. Join us as we discuss the Packers' frustrating loss to the Eagles, the Commanders' shocking walk-off win against the Buccaneers, and the Rams' surprising domination of the Vikings. Plus, insight into the upcoming divisional round matchups, including Chiefs vs. Texans, Lions vs. Commanders, Rams vs. Eagles, and Ravens vs. Bills. All this and some fun facts and speculation on the MVP debate with Derrick Henry, Aaron Rodgers, and Josh Allen. Don't miss out!

Chapters

• 1:18 Virtual Golf League by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy
• 5:35 Fun Facts and NFL Player Movements
• 28:03 College Football Playoff Highlights
• 35:31 Chargers vs Texans
• 39:00 Steelers vs Ravens
• 43:21 Broncos vs Bills
• 47:31 Packers vs Eagles
• 54:54 Commanders vs Buccaneers
• 58:41 Rams vs Viking
• 1:02:08 Divisional Round Preview
• 1:11:52 Closing Thoughts and Contact Info

Transcript

0:00

Welcome, welcome, welcome to another edition of the Paw and Pony podcast. It is me, the OG, with my good friend, the fantasy uncle. What's happening Persian? Howdy, howdy. Glad to be back. Can't hear you. There we go. Am I on? Yeah. Oh, okay. Howdy, howdy. Glad to be back. Some pretty lopsided football games that I watched this weekend. And I guess one really good one. So that was cool. I'm sure we'll get into all that. Wow. One really good one. And the Packers game was, was close. Most of the game. Was that the one really good one? No, I, I really liked the Bucks, the Bucks commanders game. That was pretty good. Yeah. Nonetheless, nonetheless, we are going to discuss both playoffs that are happening right now and a list of fun facts. So with that being said, let's start the show. The Pied Pony Podcast. All right, so Before we got on the episode tonight. I I don't know if Persian if you've heard about this it is The new golf league that is that is It's a virtual league Virtual yeah, and it's like real players and I Guess it's like tomorrow golf league or whatever. I don't Tmrw golf league Anyway, it was put together by Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy. And so what it is, is they have teams and it's a, it's a season and this is week two of the season and they have a course, they have a like team and then they have singles matches and they have three T pads. One's a bunker with real sand. One's like a rough and one's like a fairway, you know, type surface. And they hit into this giant IMAX screen with like fans hooting and hollering around them. Like music's playing, like, like it's crazy. And that's their tea shot. And then their fairway shot. And then there's a green in the stadium, in the arena, in the arena that they chip and put on, and they basically play against each other in teams. Like, it's pretty cool. Wow. So this is like a more I don't know like a step up from what you would do at top golf Right, but this is like professional golfers like tiger woods, right? Yeah, tiger woods people who are very good at it against like justin rose and colin murakawa Like do you know these guys are legit pg and like they're having a blast Like the fans in the arena are like heckling them like when they hit a bad shot like it's great. It's good stuff This is pretty cool. Does this fall under the umbrella of e sports? I don't know, but I'm, I'm assuming that Tiger and that, like, their goal with this was to try to, like, get some sort of actual, like, e sports, like, put this in an e sport arena of some sort and have, like, tournaments, like, for real. I don't know. It's crazy. And it's a very innovative way to get the younger generation into a sport that was kind of not getting the younger generation into it. Yeah. So, yeah, I, I think it's, it's pretty cool. It's one of those things where it's like, Hey, why not? You know what I mean? Some people probably will prefer this. I'm sure there's a lot of golfers that won't, but it's also like, Cool. That's another Avenue for people to have fun with golf. It was, I think it was only like two hours long, so, you know, it doesn't take up a long time and most of the matches are in prime time. I don't know if you'll be able to watch all of the matches at once. Cause I know they have a couple of different teams playing each other throughout, like, you know, like a normal sport, like they have, you know, several teams and Like that, I don't know. So far I've only seen two televised matches and both of them have been on ESPN or ESPN plus. So that's kind of the bummer is like, if you're, if you're like me and you're canceled your YouTube TV subscription, because NFL is over, you know, you might have to subscribe to ESPN plus if you want to watch it or, you know, try to find a streaming service or site that, you know, gives it to you for free. We'll see. We'll see. I'll try to figure that out. I've got a couple of places to check. We'll, we'll check it out. Nonetheless, I just wanted to bring that up because I thought it was really cool. And everyone should watch it. So let's get into the fun facts portion of the episode. So this is the 11th straight season of the Packers or the Eagles are making the divisional round. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. That's pretty impressive. Pretty impressive. Deontay Johnson has moved four different times in less than a year. He started the year as a Steeler, Ha ha ha ha moved to the Panthers, then the Ravens, and finished off as a Texans where he has been cut. Wait, did he get cut from the Texans? Yes, he is no longer even on the Texans. Oh my god. So needless to say, I don't know how many more chances he could possibly get. This guy can't even stick on a team more than a couple months. Man, imagine how much this He was picked up on the Texans last month in December, dropped in January. He's already got, like He was picked up for the playoff push. And, I, man, imagine how toxic this is. How toxic this guy must be. He he's picked up for the playoff push. They actually win their first playoff game. So they're still pushing and they cut him anyway. Like, geez, I mean, that's a team that needs receiver help and they're still in it and they're like, nah, dude, you got to go imagine how, like, think about how much this says about the Steelers and Tomlin though. Like as soon as. As soon as Antonio Brown was, was gone, nobody can handle him. Soon as Martavius Bryant is gone, nobody can handle him. Soon as Deontay Johnson is gone, nobody can handle him. It's like, man. As soon as George Pickens is gone, no one can handle him. Nobody's gonna be able to handle him. Yeah. Well, that's funny well, one quick thing. Yeah, this guy was on three playoff teams this season. Yeah. Couldn't hang around. But it's funny that you brought up Mike Tomlin because since Mike Tomlin's last playoff win, this is what has happened. Leave Tomlin alone. Dan Quinn has taken the Falcons to the Superbowl. Dan Quinn was fired by the Falcons. Dan Quinn was a DC in Dallas for three years. Dan Quinn then got hired by the commanders. Dan Quinn has now taken the commanders to the playoffs and won a playoff game before Mike Tomlin, since Mike Tomlin's won his last playoff game. However, though, with that being said to all these people sitting here saying he should be fired, that is no, because there's no one out there for you to get number one. Number two. He hasn't had a legit quarterback since Ben Roethlisberger. Like they've given him nobody. It's like they've been shopping at Timu for their quarterbacks and they need to go out and what I think they should do is Minnesota could be in. Quarterback, it could be interesting quarterback situation there They could pick up either one of those guys and at least get see what Sam Darnold could do or if JJ McCarthy's worth it Because right now they're not in draft spots or really get a legit QB Yeah and then or or number two would be trade up try to get give maybe the Raiders George Pickens and A Couple of picks or something And get Shadur. Yeah. I think they should take Shadur. Yeah. A little Cordell Stewart esque. I I think that in a way Tomlin has been a victim of his own consistency because they're, they're always lacking at the quarterback position, or at least since, since Roethlisberger was in his prime, right? And yet they're able to eke out a winning record, you know, famously every season. And so. Even though they're not a good enough squad to make a legit Super Bowl run there are also not a bad enough squad to pick in that top ten and so Even like last year when there's like six different QBs flying off the board They still were picking way after all the viable QBs were gone, you know, I mean, oh, yeah That's what I was also gonna say is like Look at what he's done with what he has been given. I mean, the corpse of Russell Wilson and Justin Fields, who's been passed on, got them to a 10 win season when, when what they're over under was like five. Yeah. And I mean, it's been a string of like the Trubisky's Rudolf's, you know, obviously it's picket was the most recent sort of shot at things. And it's just I think it said maybe, maybe Deshaun Watson will, will like to come over there. I think, I think you were onto something with the Minnesota situation, because the thing is like If Minnesota decides that they want to pay Darnold, which I don't know, I don't know if I would do after the last couple games he had. But let's say that they decide to do that. Well, you got to think they're open to trading away JJ McCarthy. They would probably rather recruit. recoup a nice pick back for him rather than just have him sit there after they spent a first on him, you know? So right. I would definitely try to do something like that. You know, I didn't, they got to do something, man. They can't, they cannot bring back Russell Wilson and Justin Fields. And expect this team to go any further than a one round exit again, because unless if they're going to bring back Russell Wilson, then they need to go out and get a, a number one, or if they're going to get rid of George Pickens, a number one and a number two, why they need to either. Yeah, they need, I don't know what their cash space is looking like right now, but they need to be aggressive and bring in more than what they got. You know, pickings is good when he's not being weird, whatever kind of psychological issues he's dealing with. I think it might just be literally immaturity, but at any rate, when he's playing, he's good. But it's like, he has a pretty limited role where he's a good down the field sort of guy, he he'll stretch the field for you. He'll play well on the boundaries. They need a guy to replace that Deontay Johnson sort of role. And I think that. You know, they could, they could certainly sign a guy like T Higgins. The question is, does T Higgins even want to go there? Because T Higgins is either going to stay in Cincinnati or he's going to have like 15 different options. And you got to think if, if there, if he sees how well some of these young quarterbacks have played, you know, Drake may needs, Oh, number one ride receiver, he could go there, play with a quarterback that he Plus Mike Rabel's there. That, plus Mike Frabel's there. Fraby baby. He's gonna bring back, he's gonna bring back, what's his name? The OC. Man, did you hear Coach Prime is the, the leading candidate for the Cowboys job? Do you think that's real? You think he would really sign Prime? I feel like their personalities would clash like a motherfucker. I don't think Prime wants to go to Dallas. He's, he's interviewing. He's literally interviewing. Yeah, I know, but he also said like he loves, Colorado Yeah, but they all say that though. There has to be like a legit there has to be like a legitimate mindset in his in his brain that says I Want to show people that I can coach and have a winning team in Colorado without my son on the team without Travis Yeah Because like right now that he's had those guys on his on all his teams And I think the truth is that to a large degree chador and travis really did carry the The the buffalos and you gotta think there's a part of them that wants to be like, hey I don't want to be underneath my dad's wing every every step of the way Right in football, right? Because they're not going to go to Dallas and even if Prime goes to Dallas, those guys aren't going to be around for Dallas to draft. Right. I think the more feasible thing would be that he could, he could coach the Raiders and the Raiders might be in position to take Shador, but I don't think, I don't think the Cowboys are taking Shador no matter what, because they're locked into Prescott, you know? Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. We'll, we'll see. We'll have plenty of time to discuss all of that before the draft. That's right. So anyway, moving on from the Steelers debacle and their situation, The seven seeds have lost to the two seeds nine times. Only won once out of the 10 games that we've had Some would say maybe we should go back to the old format where What is it six teams? Yeah, two teams get a bye But that'll never happen because that means one less game or two less games. So two less TV revenue, the ad money, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. If anything, they would add another playoff team to give to two top teams of buy. But anyway and then another interesting fact that I thought on one spectrum, we're getting, we're saying the guy's an MVP on the other spectrum. We're saying he's old. He's washed up. Let's take a look at their stats. Aaron Rogers has 3, 897 passing yards this season with 28 touchdowns, 11 interceptions in a 63% I guess that was a pass rating or completion percentage, completion percentage. Josh Allen. It has 3, 731 passing yards, 28 touchdowns, 6 interceptions, and a 63. 6 percent completion rating. The only difference is, one team sucked for no reason, they couldn't do it, the difference is Aaron Rodgers interceptions were at the worst possible times in the game, which caused them to lose games. Yeah, but that's crazy that they have basically identical stats and one is being considered for an mvp Well, I think that the the stats are a little bit misleading in that the the bills were very run heavy this season and so Josh allen's passing stats are actually more efficient if you think about it in terms of the fact that rogers threw the ball a lot You know, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean that's that's fair, but completion percentage Yeah, but I, I think the impress, I think the impressive part about, okay, go ahead. I mean, I will say this for Rogers though. He did much better the second half of the season. I will definitely give him his due. He did make adjustments or he did something. Maybe it was just the fact that Devante Adams. Finally was able to sort of get comfortable with what whatever offense was going on in New York, I guess, but he did absolutely have a better second half of the season that he did first half of the season. He did indeed. And I think if you would have asked me like week seven or week eight. Is Rogers coming back next season? I would have said no way in hell. He's donezo, but now I feel like maybe. I'm not sure. Well, he's, he's doing another darkness retreat to find out. Of course. Maybe he should do this because this is what I'm now doing. I have discovered What you are doing? Yeah, I've discovered this cereal mix that is legit. It is the Kelsey mix. It is a pre mixed box of cereal that consists of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Reese's Puffs, and Lucky Charms. Sounds disgusting. And it is, it is absolute fire. It is so good. Wow. It's so good. Tell the truth. It's disgusting. It, I'm, I'm literally, can't wait to go to the store to buy my second box, my second box of this stuff. It is. What is not to like? Peanut butter and chocolate, marshmallow, little graham cracker, that's like a s'more. We already have like a s'more with a little cinnamon, cinnamon sprinkle on it. What's that look like? Those things are fine, but you're not supposed to mix them all together. Dude, I mix cereals. Like bro, if you got one, one bag of cereal, like let's say you I love buffalo sauce. I'm not putting buffalo sauce in my milk. No, no one As asking you to put buffalo sauce in your milk. No, i'm just making the example that just no That's a terrible doesn't mean it should go in your cereal. No, no Cereal, that's a terrible example. But let's so at the end of like one bag of cereal, right? You got you got like a little bit but you don't have like enough for a full bowl And so you're like when you go to the store you get a nut you're like, all right I'm gonna get a different one. So then you get that and then that little bit left you pour on top Of the new stuff. Yeah, I've done that before. And it's like, ooh, whoa. That's a combination that I could get down with. So, get out of here with your non mixing cereal. No, but it's normally not good. Like, I've done that before, but usually it's like, aw, damn. Dude, you ain't getting a good cereal then. You probably eating like oat brands or something like that. Some old man senile cereal or something. Yeah, I get that cheap generic one where they sell like eight pounds of it in the plastic bag. Oh bro, dino bites? What are you talking about? Those are the best. They're good, aren't they? They're like fruity pebbles, but they're not as expensive. Anyway, so the, that's all I got for fun facts. As far as news and speculation, I only got one piece of news. Jair Alexander. Avoided speaking to the media and he had this to say that he Was probably gonna be his last time and that he didn't have anything to say anyway so Homeboy's salty. He doesn't want to say thank you to all of the Green Bay fans for supporting me these past few years So it looks like his time is up in Green Bay and what I would like for Green Bay to do With this piece is trade him away for Max Crosby for the Oakland Raiders Because Max Crosby is disgruntled in Oakland. He wants out and Then when the Jets cut Devontae Adams because of his contract Green Bay picks him up For a veteran presence in the wide receiver room because lord We need that because these cats Cannot catch the fucking ball man, I I don't know if we're gonna get to this later in the pod anyway, but man, I gotta tell you It is frustrating watching them not use Jaden Reed enough. Like, I feel like their, their pass, their receivers keep making mistakes and dropping the ball. And I feel like whenever they give Jaden Reed opportunities, he makes plays, and they do not reward him with more opportunities. When he's the one that's making the plays when he gets the chance, like look, look, man, look, Matt LaFleur called a very conservative season when it came to a lot of play calls. So we'll get into that when we get to the Packers Eagles breakdown. Yeah. And then the last little bit of news, I guess, is Mike McCarthy got fired despite the fact that they denied him access to be interviewed by the bears. And saying that he wasn't going to get fired. Really? Yes. Why would anybody want to be the coach? Why would anybody want to be the coach? Listen, I think something fishy is going on. Who's the coach? I don't know if you have heard of this rumor yet, but word on the street is that there's interest in Bill Belichick and even though he's in with the NC shit, he has not put together his coaching staff. And the rumor on the street is that Jerry Jones is deciding whether or not he wants to pay the 10 million buyout so that Bill Belichick could come coach the Cowboys. I don't know how in the world that would work because Bill Belichick likes to have all the money. Control and power and Lord knows Jared Jones does too. So I don't know how the fuck that's going to work. Jared Jones also in an interview, he admitted, I think for the first time ever, I mean, we all kind of knew this anyways, he said I did not buy the Dallas Cowboys as an investment opportunity to leave to my children and the next generation, I bought it so that I could be the GM. I was like, damn, this motherfucker just said it. He literally just said it out loud. Like I wanted to play GM. And so I bought myself a football team. I mean, that's what most, that's what most rich people do. Like, I mean, I worked at a restaurant where the guy said, I remember as a child going to the beach and eating a cheeseburger, and I thought it'd be cool to own a restaurant and be able to go to the beach and eat a cheeseburger at my place. Yeah. I mean, that's literally what rich people do is they just, they just, they, they spend life playing like what other people like, what would a normal job be? Let's, let's do that. Let's play that. But I'll own the team instead. Right. Right. Anyway, so with that being said let's let's hit up the college football playoff this past weekend What a weekend it was or week I guess is when the games played They got these games playing on a weird days and times Thursdays and Fridays But nonetheless the we'll start off with the Texas and Ohio State game Did you, did you check out any of that game? Yeah, I saw a little bit of it. You did? Yeah. This was Will Howard, right? Yeah. Yeah. I thought that he looked pretty good. I thought he was an interesting fella, a bigger guy plays physical at sometimes seems to play with a lot of confidence, which I thought it was. It's kind of cool. Haven't really heard about him as far as like a prospect goes. I'm assuming he's going back to school next year. Haven't heard much about him like as far as like a, a prospect to the NFL, but I kind of liked what I saw from him and I'm sure he's, he's got to leave. He's got no more eligibility. So, oh, he is going into draft. He's got no choice. Oh, okay. But Well that guy I think was a little bit interesting just because I hadn't really seen Ohio state I hadn't heard much about him, but I was kind of impressed by the way that he played. Yeah, he'll be replaced by Alabama former alabama five star Oh five star. Yeah. Yeah. Oh Julian saying Yeah, julian saying is a redshirt freshman Yeah. Yeah, I thought, I thought it was a pretty good game. I thought both teams were actually playing pretty well for the most part. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it was, it was back to fourth game, the whole, the whole game up until the fourth quarter, which historically is the last three Texas games. This is where they have faltered and teams have either been able to come back on them in the fourth quarter or Extend the lead which is exactly what OSU did. They slammed the door shut scoring two times in the fourth to win the game 28 21 you know, I didn't really watch that game as much because because I kind of Figured this is this is how the game would go the game. I did watch though Second half, Penn State, Notre Dame, wild ending to that game. So with 33 seconds left, tie ball game, Penn State decides to, to, you know, let's, let's start slinging the ball down the field some more. Throws an interception, Notre Dame kicks a field goal to win the game. Now. Mind you, this decision was made to throw the ball with 33 seconds left, tie game, where we could have just went into overtime. Where No wide receivers caught a single reception the entire game. What? Not a, if they, if the ball was caught, it wasn't caught by a wide receiver. It was caught by either a tight end or a running back. So this guy has literally been assed the entire game and you're, you're pushing the ball downfield with 33 seconds left? That is poor coaching, which is why the Penn State defensive coordinator probably left for Clemson. Was that yours? No, no, no. This is the, the Penn State guy. What's his name? Oh, Drew, right? Aller, yeah. Drew Allar or whatever. Drew Allar, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so he, needless to say, if he was thinking about coming to the NFL draft He should go back for another year. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's a bad look. I think even if he had a great season, that's going to plummet his draft stock right there. I mean, it's just crazy. Cause he completed 12 passes, but just not to a single wide receiver. Yeah. Well, he does have that hot shot tight end. Right. So he's probably just leaning on him. That's fair, but still it's just like Warren's right. Jerry, Jerry cross. No, doesn't he have a tyler warren doesn't he play for penn state? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah I he's basically like this game. He's he had six receptions. So he had half the receptions Yeah, I mean, he, they basically use, use him the same way that Georgia would use like Brock Bowers or something. Right. But still, I get, I get your point well, you know, clearly this guy's strength is not to throw it, be thrown it down the field and why do that with the game on the line at the very end when it hasn't worked all game? That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying, man. And you, I mean, nothing was working all game clear, I mean, I mean, yeah, he's the run and the running back had three touchdowns, 84 yards and 15 carries. Just hand it off to him, man. They got two good running backs, don't they? Yeah, I think so. Singleton. I don't know who the other guy is. It's like all train or all, I can't remember. K tron, K tron Allen. Yeah, he had, he had 82 yards for 19 carries. Yeah. Like the K tron Allen guy is going, he's going to the NFL. He's saying, but at any rate, yeah, the Notre Dame, I think, was a heavy sort of underdog, weren't they? I cannot remember. I mean, they were 14. Well, they weren't a heavy underdog. They were just an underdog. Texas was the heavy underdog. Pretty cool that leaves us with the final matchup being Ohio State versus Notre Dame for all the marbles Second year in a row. No SEC team is in the final Yeah, make sure we get that out there fun fact one fact Fun fact no SEC team man. I don't really need you know Oh, yes, you is looking pretty pretty stacked but Notre Dame look pretty good, too. So Yeah, this should be a good matchup on the 20th. So we got to wait seven days. Wow, or six days. They're really dragging this playoff. Yeah. Yeah, they're dragging this shit out. And yeah, so we'll, we'll talk about that game when it comes out. Ohio State's an eight point favorite and I will say neither one of these teams would have made, would have been in the playoffs. Last year, while, so it seems like it's already working. So it seems like the playoffs are doing exactly what they supposed to do. And the sec is just a big bunch of crying babies because they didn't get their way and ESPN and them are taking their ball and going home. Hey, I love it. You gotta earn it. You gotta earn it. You gotta earn it. You, you're gonna have to win three games in a row in the playoffs or what, whatever it is. And you, you know what? It, it didn't happen two years in a row. It didn't happen for any SEC team. So it is what it is, man. Yep. And last, last we'll touch on college. Penn State's defensive coordinator has left Penn State after one season. He's now Clemson's defensive coordinator. And then and I don't, I don't, I don't know if this is, but one of their players on defense has already hit the portal. I don't know if he's going to go to Clemson, but that would, if so, that would be cool because that would be our fourth portal player. That's right. Clemson has three portal players now. Oh man. Racking them up all of a sudden. Yeah. Hey, racking them boys up. So but yeah, and then we have. You know a good good, you know, everybody on offense is gonna come back kade everybody so, you know Should be looking for a good season next year Yeah, that being said the You want to go to the nfl the quarterback? I forgot his name the kade club nick Yeah, he had a pretty solid year, right? Yeah. Yeah, it wasn't the offense. The defense at the end of the season just really could not Hold anybody. And then the offense couldn't score enough to keep up in some cases. But I, I love how, you know, this kid had himself a pretty good year and he's just going to return to Clemson and they could kind of like keep him in the fold as he develops. Yeah. Pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah. So, all right, let's, let's hit up the NFL. So let's start with this ass whooping That was received by the chargers It the texans gave Oh, man that game Felt like it was drunk because I've never seen so many turnovers or Could have been turnovers. I mean before justin herbert threw his first pick He threw at least two of them that the guys dropped Yeah, before he successfully threw a pick, he tried to throw three or four of them. Yeah, I was just like, bro, he is only throwing the ball to Houston. This was not only Like clearly Herbert's worst game of the season, but I think that this was probably just the worst game I've ever seen from Herbert. It was really bad. It was awful. I don't know what happened. I don't know if he was dealing with some kind of injury or something. They were like, not letting the media watch his, watch his portion of the practices, which I, I thought was weird. It could be because they're trying to keep top secret some special play that they're working on or something. But they didn't throw any special plays out there, so it's kind of like, I wonder if they just didn't want word to get out that he actually was dealing with something. You know what I mean? We did see right after the playoffs were over that Bo Nix Was playing through a broken back or whatever I think that this happens more often than we realize that these oh sure these Players and teams decide to let their guys play through it or whatever but either way Laid a, laid a huge fucking egg and the Chargers started off this game looking like they were the better team. And by the time this game was over, they were crying, Uncle. Like, it was the most Chargers going Charger sort of game you could imagine. Yeah, but you know what? I mean, they weren't projected to even be there. No one thought Lab McConkey was gonna be who he was except for, you know, the Conk a nites. Except for the Pied Pony Podcast, okay? Except for the Konkanites on the pod. You know, he had nine receptions for a buck ninety seven. Whoo! Yeah. And he like, he looked good too. I mean, he, not only was he getting open, he was making plays after the catch. Like, yeah, yeah. Like you know, there was a lot of different skill sets that I liked about him coming out of college, but I, I did not necessarily think he was going to be so good as a runner just as. As a ball carrier. And man, I gotta tell you, I, he may be even better than I expected him to be as a pro. I love it. We, well, you know, speaking of that, I got, you know, I'll save it till later. I got, I got a confession I have to make,'cause the season's over now, so. Oh man. We'll have to, we will have to check that out later. 15. Oh man. Stay tuned. Teaser teaser. Father Persian loves confession time. Oh man. Next game. A game that played tough, but wasn't really a game. Steelers Ravens, you know, 2814 was the final. It was close for a good portion of this, but Derek Henry was dropping his nuts all over this team. Yeah. And Lamar, like they had no answer for Lamar's running abilities. For Derek Henry Derek Henry, I think at one point was popping off 9. 2 yards per carry Average it was it was not even And he looked faster. It was like he looked like he was faster. Oh, yeah like He was running away from Secondary like not just the defense but like cornerbacks and safeties He was running away from he should be the mvp I'm locking it in. I've tossed and turned Derek Henry should be after that game So after that game, it shouldn't be lamar. It shouldn't be josh allen, right? I I don't I don't think it should be lamar. If anything it should be between josh allen saquon and derek henry I think it should be Josh Allen and Aaron Rodgers. Almost similar stats to Josh. That's funny. Yeah, yeah. I, I, I, I do think that this game was kind of over by halftime and like, like you said, it, you know, that the Steelers showed some gumption, they made some adjustments at halftime. They did do a. Better job of dealing with Derek Henry in the second half. But the thing is just, they were completely demoralized by the time that halftime rolled around. They were demoralized at the start of this game. It literally had no polls. It literally looked like a particularly on defense. That they stopped even trying to stop Derek Henry. Like it was, yeah, it was bad. Yeah. I mean just getting completely And actually you said it best, you know You sent us a text as the game was happening saying they're getting bullied and I was like, yeah That's that's a great description of it It's not even like they're getting beat like as far as like, you know I'm i'm just beating this defender off the line and i'm past protecting that well like You It wasn't that they were getting beat skill wise they were just getting pushed around like they were just getting bullied It's oh, yeah, completely. There was a couple stiff arms that were just brutal looking. Yeah Yeah, I mean it was it was it was bad. Yeah So, you know, I mean as we said earlier, you know that that brings some changes that are definitely needed in pittsburgh not necessarily I think with the coaching staff just maybe in a little bit of their philosophy on Whether they're going to make a trade in the offseason or it's going to be a big trade or you know What they're going to try to do. I think they've really got to prioritize Bringing in some pass catchers. Yeah, they got Pickens Who I question as a one. I think he's probably better as a field stretching two But either way, the fact is they don't have a two, three, four, five They don't have I mean they they literally are rolling out I Anthony Miller, like Jesus, dude. Like exactly. It's like, they got Anthony Miller back from the dead playing real snaps in a meaningful game. Like, bro, this is a desperate situation. Like I'm, I'm throwing money at just whoever, you know, whoever's on the free free agent market. I've taken shots at guys in the third and fourth round of this draft. They cannot come back out with Van Jefferson and Calvin Austin and this shit, Mike Williams. And the corpse of Mike Williams. Hey, he had a catch and it was for like 20 yards. Next game we're going to talk about is woof. Stinker. Swoof. The Broncos versus the Bills. I mean, Broncos come right out. We're texting back and forth, Nay, this man Pete is on. Already getting them cheeks clapped up. And boy. Who knew that would be the only five minutes of fun. Who knew that would be the only, I don't even think I've watched the rest of this game because it was so bad. Well, I'll tell you that we, we hung tough in the first half. In fact, if it wasn't for that loud ass doink, we would have been 10 to 10 at halftime. It was, it was, should have been a tie game at halftime, but I got to tell you The bills came out and started whooping our ass in the second half. It was brutal. It was brutal. We couldn't, we couldn't get more than two yards on a run play. We couldn't complete a pass more than three or four yards down the field. And then Josh Allen and. James cook, we're just ripping off huge plays left and right. It was, it was bad. I mean, the coaching staff needs to look at what, whatever the fuck went wrong in that second half, you know, and they, they really need to figure out how the hell, well, hold, let's hold a hold on. Hold on. Cause first of all, they over achieved by so far with this team. That's true. That's true. They, they obviously need more pieces and they know they need more pieces. So, so I mean, they're like, this was not expected for them to be in the playoffs. So I will say it is like, as you got the big piece as a Broncos fan that had pretty low expectations for the season. It was a pleasant surprise to see that we were competitive. quarterback doesn't suck, right? Right. It, the, he got his guy and I said, look, you're gonna, you're gonna overdraft this guy, you're going to boot out Russell Wilson and you're going to say, don't worry, this is my guy. Then it needs to work with him then. And. For the most part, it has worked with him. So I'll give him credit. He's doing it his way and he is making improvements to this team. Also, we got a couple of different guys on defense that seemed to hit as rookies. And that's great because we didn't actually spend any more money on defense in the off season. And we had. A top three rushing defense and a top three passing defense. So I'm really happy with that. Now we just need to get more pieces around Bo Nix. We need to, we need to make sure that we've got more options. These running backs ain't it. These pass catchers outside of Sutton ain't it. You know, the, you don't like Mims. Like you can give Mims a couple more years. Well, you could use Mims as a gadget guy, like, he's good with the ball in his hands if he has space to run and make plays, but Mims sucks as a receiver that actually runs routes and gets open, like, Mims is very limited, like, he's had some big plays, they've all been, like, screen type plays, where he just runs really far after the catch. It's not that he's making, you know, Plays down the field like we need some better number two options. That'll actually get open maybe we can draft ourselves a Tyler Warren or a Colston Loveland like Peyton has had good good success with tight ends in the past and we really sorely need a pass catching tight end So maybe something like that could help out a lot, but we'll we'll see either way We've got to add on offense, you know Right, right. Yeah, well, I mean So that was a boring game to watch, you know. Bills did their thing though. Good for them Just destroyed you on the run game, the pass game, the every game. Yeah And then the next game that we had up was the Packers and Eagles game And well, the Packers started the season the way they ended the season or ended the season the way they started the season by losing to the Eagles. It started out rough. I thought, I, I won't say that the referees are why we lost this game because we had our opportunities despite some of the bad calls but man that was not a fumble and that spotted them seven points and so it's hard to Yeah, that, that was really, that was really weird because they kept showing the replay and every time they would show the replay, you could literally see that he he's basically laying on the ball. He has it back. His body's all up on it and it's crotch like, and so I guess at some point after the fact that he got it back, someone took it away from him. And the refs are like, Oh, well, yeah. Like somebody else turned up with the ball. It's like, bro. You're not going to like take a look at that. And then what was really weird is that the, they did a review of some aspect of the play and they still come back without mentioning the fact that he had the ball back in possession, because they're, what they're saying is, is that in the video shots that we saw that he didn't have the ball long enough for it to be considered possession. And that's what I said, and that's what everyone else is saying. I don't think anyone watches that play and thinks, Oh, yeah, no, he didn't get it back. Yeah, he got it the fuck back, bro. Like, yeah, so that started off the game just in a terrible way. And then, you know, I think Jordan love tried to, you know, put the game on his back a little bit and he threw some Picks the third one is that's at the end of the game that like that was just a desperation. Yeah. Yeah One of them was like bro. What the fuck? Yeah, but I think there was just you know Second year in the system in doing this and that and I think at one point You He realized in the season that he was throwing too many picks. So then he started to try to play a little bit more conservative and then he tries to come back and then we're, you know, he's like, well now I gotta like, let's sling the ball around. And it's like, you kind of caught yourself in the middle of the two things and now you're just playing shit. So. And then of course, you know, not having wide receivers. I, you know, Christian Watson's down, then Dobbs goes down then, then Reed goes down, then Reed goes down. Yeah. You know, Josh Jacobs is limping around, went down right then, you know. Yeah. Then your offensive line guy goes down. You're start, I mean, it's like, you know, it is like everybody who was important to you got injured throughout that game. And the one last point I wanna make about the Packers is. For all of the shitty gameplay and all of the mistakes we made We were still in that game pretty much until the fourth midway through the fourth quarter and the eagles should be They should be very concerned the the defense really impressed me I thought you guys were playing really good defense and this is without jair. This is without jair Yeah, I don't know what change they made I felt like the coverage on the back end was really good Like when I was watching the plays where hertz was kind of holding the ball not throwing downfield But I think it's because he didn't have people open and it was it was pretty good coverage I felt like some of the blitzes that were dialed up and I and I'm forgetting his name you guys got like a new DC this past offseason Jeff Jeff Hathaway. Yeah, I the blitzes that he was dialing up were Really well varied and it did seem like they were catching them off guard. Like it's not that the That the offensive line for the eagles wasn't blocking well It's that they were they were they were getting caught off guard with some of these blitzes they were they were successfully getting pressure to hurts in a lot of these blitz situations and The defense just played so well, and it was so frustrating to see that the defense was Shutting down finally the defense was shutting down the eagles, which is not It does not happen very often this season They're they're the eagles offense has done almost what they've wanted to, whether it's run, pass, whatever, to everybody. And they did a really good job of, of basically limiting Saquon Barkley. He, you know, he had some good runs, but for the most part, he was just getting the, the three yards, four yards, not a big deal, not a big deal. And they just did so well on defense that it was frustrating to see that they had such a good defensive performance and still lost the game. I don't know what was going on with the offense. I know there were some injuries, but it was like, I feel like they should have just Let josh jacobs do more. I felt like he was playing really well And I feel like they could have let him do more and make more plays, especially with other guys going down around him and it seemed like It seemed like jordan love was kind of pressing Like he felt more It was almost like he was playing as if they were down three scores when they weren't When they, they didn't need to, they didn't need to desperation throw it and they didn't need to play extreme catch up or anything like that. I felt like they went into two minute offense mode, like early in the game. And you know, I just wish they would have just, just run it more with Jacobs. This was such a winnable game and you know, it became too predictable. I mean, we, you know, it seemed like a really conservative offensive. And then anytime you got anything. Sort of like, Oh, you get a first down. Oh, sorry. Holding first in false start first and 20, you know, blah, blah, blah. Well, I mean, we had to, they had to overcome two first and twenties on the same drive back to back. Like, so that's where I'm saying any off season, I think one of the most important things that they need is veteran presence to like say to these younger cats, man, Hey. Show cuz we still had like other personal fouls like for pushing people down and stuff. It's like me. Come on. You don't need to do Yeah The bonehead penalty thing is just ridiculous like once it wasn't Quay Walker Right? It was other people getting in on the act. Yeah, man. But hey, you know what? Anyway, the one where was already like five yards out of pounds. That one was dumb. Yeah, that was really stupid. But let's let's move on. The eagles ended the Packers. You know, we'll see the Eagles should be concerned. We'll see what happens. The last game of the Sunday night was commanders and Buccaneers and the doink walk off field goal for the, for the commanders. What a game, huh? This was a great game. This was a really good game. The commanders had like four different, really long drives. It felt like they were just always on the field and the Buccaneers offense. Wasn't even bad like it was like I felt like they were actually pretty efficient, but they just They were just on the sideline the whole fucking game. It felt like yeah, I mean Baker only missed three throws Yeah, Baker look good. He looked good. He he literally had like a 83 percent completion percentage this was the most efficient that he's been as far as like a EPA per play as a buccaneer. This was literally his best game but like I said He was on the sideline the whole fucking game because the commanders were having these like 10 minute drives. It was, it was, it was crazy. And then, oh yeah. I mean, commander's possession was 35 minutes to 24 minutes. Yeah. Yeah. And it felt, it felt like maybe even more than that, but the thing is that as well as the Buccaneers offense played and particularly Baker looked really good, but then toward the end of the game, When it's like the game is really on the line, he has a fumble. He has a miscue with Jalen McMillan, where he's basically faking. The sort of jet suite play, he's not really wanting to hand it off to him, but he accidentally basically fumbles it on Jalen, Jalen McMillan, McMillan's arm. The commanders get it back with about four minutes left. And I'm telling you at that point, I was like, they're going to lose this game. I was like, the commanders are going to have the ball for the next four minutes and kick a field goal, which is exactly what happened. The Buccaneers defense. Gave up third down after third down after third down this whole game. Yeah, it was basically, it was the classic situation where the team that converted the most third downs and didn't turn the ball over won the game. And I'll give credit where credit's due because. Even though this team does not have a bunch of superstars on it, they are a really disciplined team. Like, Dan Quinn really does have this team playing good ball. You know, the guys are playing hard. The guys are playing smart. You got to respect it. I feel like the better team did not actually win this game, but it's hard to say that they don't deserve it because they They didn't turn the ball over. They converted on the every single third and four, whatever, you know, so credit where credit's due. Jalen Daniels made some really important plays where he should, you know, in most situations, most quarterbacks would be sacked and he was able to get out of it and make a positive play out of it. Really, really big high leverage sort of situations where instead of a drive being completely killed Instead they got a first down those sort of things are huge And I think the future is bright for the commanders right now because they they're deficient in talent And and they have a ton of cap space and yet they made it to the playoffs and already won a game, you know Absolutely couldn't couldn't agree more couldn't agree more moving on to the final game of Super Wild Card Weekend, which was another blowout, which was very surprising. It looks like Stafford Company, which, confession number one, I counted this team out. I said there's no way they are making the playoffs. Yeah. And here they are. Yeah winning beating the vikings so two of the three of what some would say was one of the toughest divisions in in The nfc are out boom And and so people were talking about receding After because of the vikings 14 and 3 having to go la But really they ended up in arizona You And they sold a bunch of tickets. So it was a neutral site game and they got the doors blown off of them. Yeah, man, what do you think about this game? I thought Stafford looked really damn good. I feel like the second half of the season, for the most part, Stafford has looked like blah, like whatever. But I felt like he just looked really good in this game. Just really zipping it in there. Some, some sort of close small windows threatened the needle sort of passes that he was making. I was really impressed by the sort of pass rush that the Rams were able to, to produce like Jared verse, Braden Fisk, these young guys that they got basically to replace what Aaron Donald was doing. I feel like it's working out for them. But I, I, They were just giving Sam Darnold hell the entire game. And I think that was the biggest part of their win was like all of the past rush. They were, they were able to successfully pressure Darnold over and over again, making things really hard for him. He had open receivers. He just didn't have time to get the ball to you. Yep. Yep. Yeah. I mean I didn't really check this game out because once I saw that it was kind of 14 to nothing or whatever it was starting to kind of get out of hand. I was like, all right, I'm, I'm done with this one. I'm going to watch Monday Night Raw. Yeah. Well, I will say that like Sam Donald had another stinker. So this is At least two in a row. Yeah. And these are like the most important games of the season. So I feel like he's just feeding into this narrative. Yeah. But how many did Kirk Cousins have for this team? Yeah. And they booted him. They, they, they have to like 20 million gazillion dollars. Yeah, that's true. But I, I don't know. I think that everyone had, had just kind of like, said, Oh, I'm sure they're bringing Sam Donald back. Like I'm sure it will be back, whatever. But the way that things fizzled out, man, I don't know if I'm the Vikings. Do I really want to pay Sam Donald 50 million a year? Whatever he's going to cost. Like, ah, man, I don't know. It's going to be interesting decision. That's for sure. They did they did win 14 games, which is I don't want to dismiss that but Man, I don't know. We did a lot of dismissing of it earlier in the year. Anyway, so yeah, that's true All good. All good. All right, so Next week we got the divisional round games Starting off with the Saturday games at the 430 slot the Texans versus the Chiefs The chiefs are an eight point favorite with a 41 and a half over under man. Eight point favorite. That is disrespectful to, to the Texans. Like, I mean, look. The Chiefs are defending Super Bowl champions, but they haven't been like dogging people this whole season. Like, come on. Not only that, but I think that the Texans defense keeps getting overlooked. Like, Stingley Jr. Will Anderson, they're, they've got some really good playmakers on that defense. At least this season, these guys have stepped up and, you know, D'Amico Ryan's a defensive sort of guru sort of guy before he took over that job anyway. So, I mean, I just feel like, you know, I don't know, I, I, I could see this game being closer than that. And you know, what else my home says similar stats to Aaron Rogers. So, you know, I mean, Yeah, like you could go as far as to say is he's just as bad as Aaron Rodgers. Should Mahomes be MVP or Derrick Henry? That's the question the Pine Pony podcast will leave you with. Oh man who, who you, who do you like in this game? I don't know. Who do you think is going to win? I like the Chiefs. I know last week we already talked about it, but I expect that the Chiefs are going to turn it on for the postseason. We're going to get the best play out of these guys. I think they've been preserving their Some of their guys, DeAndre Hopkins, Travis Kelsey. And of course they got Hollywood Brown back in the fold. And I think Pacheco is going to be that much healthier. I think that things are looking up for them at a time where obviously it's advantageous to look up. And so I, I think that the, that the chiefs win the game, but I, I don't think the type that's. The Texans should be dismissed though. I, I think that people see them as, Oh, they only got in because there's seven teams that are allowed to get in. They suck. They don't deserve to be in. They look like the real deal though. At least the defense did against the Chargers. And I would not be surprised if they, if that defense comes to play yet again. Yeah, I am unfortunately going to go with the Chiefs, despite the fact that I will not be mad if the Texas decide to win this game. Next game up got the commanders versus the lions and the eight o'clock slot. The lions are a nine and a half point favorite with a 55 and a half point over under. Yeesh, man. Wow. Wow. Jared golf stats are better than Jared and Josh Allen. So maybe he should be MVP. But I mean, I don't see how you're going to stop golfing Gibbs, man. Those two have been on just unstoppable the last couple of weeks. So I think the lions will win this game. Yeah. I, like I was saying earlier, I do think that this is a. Well coached team. I do think that they play discipline ball, that being the commanders. But at the end of the day, there's a really big talent disparity between the lines and the commanders. And I think that you're going to see that come out. Just like how the Broncos didn't make any huge mistakes, but they, they eventually got bopped by the bills because they just got better players. I think that that's, what's going to happen to the commanders here is that they're, they're not going to be able to hang with the lines for a full game. I, I do think like if you're looking at individual player props and stuff, I, I really like the McLaurin overs. I think that they're going to have no choice but to try to play catch up. And they're usually something on the conservative side as far as offense goes. But in the times when they do need to play catch up, they take a lot of shots to McLaurin down the field. And obviously he's a good receiver. So he'll capitalize on some of that. Right, right, right. I agree. All right. Moving on to Rams versus Eagles the Sunday three o'clock game Eagles are a six point favorite forty three and a half point over under Based on what I just saw If the Rams defense can can pull a game together here. I think the Rams could win this game What do you think? If they could get pressure on Hurts the way that they got pressure off Darnold, I don't see why they're not in this game. I mean, they, they still got Kyron Williams healthy, they still got Cooper Cup healthy, they still got Puka Nakua and Matthew Stafford healthy. I think that they can, they can hang offensively. I think they could put up points, and if they could get a ton of pressure on Hurts, Hertz does not do well under pressure. Luckily for Hertz, he's got like the best offensive line in the game, but we saw that Green Bay was able to, to sort of switch things up on them, catch him off guard, get a lot of pressure on the Hertz. He did not respond. Well, I could see the Rams doing the same thing. I mean, the Rams, they, they do blitz at a pretty high rate. And I think this could turn into a pretty interesting game if they do successfully get hurts to throw a pick or two, you know? So you got Rams taking a flyer on the Rams. I'm doing it, man. I'm saying the Rams pull off the upset, baby. Upset at home, upset on the road. All right. And then the final game, which I think this should be the best game of the weekend, Ravens versus bills. Baltimore is a one and a half point favorite on the, or a one point favorite on the road with a 51, 51 and a half over under. Wow, I thought that they were going to have Buffalo be like a one or two point favorite because it's in Buffalo, right? Yeah, oh yeah, it's in Buffalo. That's wild, that's Man. We're really gonna see who the MVP is now. I think Vegas saw the Josh Allman, Aaron Rodgers stats and they said, no way, we can't do it. They said these guys are the same. Yeah. These guys are the same. He's like, no man, Lamar Jackson better than Aaron Rodgers. I mean, if we're sitting here just comparing stats, like if we're just looking at it for face value, I mean, Lamar Jackson's like 4, 172 passing yards, 41 touchdowns, four interceptions. I mean, he blows them out of the water. But the reason why I can't give him the MVP is because he doesn't get those stats without Derek Henry fucking mowing people down. Yeah, and also I think Zay Flowers and Rashad Bateman are each probably the best receiver if they were on the bills. Like, I don't think Josh Allen has As good as an offensive line, he doesn't have like James Cook is not as good as Derrick Henry. I don't think that Mac Hollins is as good as Rashad Bateman. And I don't think Shakir is as good as a flowers. I don't even think Dalton Kincaid or Dawson Knox are as good as Isaiah likely in Mark Andrews. So no, I don't think those are probably the best duo tight ends in the league right now, outside of. You know, Tucker Craft, Luke Musgrave, like those, that's a good duo, Kelsey and Gray. Yeah, Kelsey, Noah Gray is low key kind of good, yeah. But, I, that's why I think that, that Josh Allen has, Has been more so the better MVP candidate than Lamar Jackson, but that's not to take anything away from Lamar Jackson. He is a good player and he has played damn well this season. But as far as this game goes, this was really hard for me when I was sitting and I was thinking about like how, how I think this game goes, but I, I actually do agree with them. I think the Ravens have the more complete team and. I think that they do, I think that they do, I don't want to say pull off the upset because apparently they already are favored, but I think they get the win. I think that the Ravens get the win here. Wow. But I don't feel that confident about it. Like I agree with you though One thing I do feel confident about is that this is going to be the marquee game of the week and i'm Definitely not gonna miss it. I'm gonna watch this whole game Yeah, the whole game the whole game all of it live. I'm watching it live Well, that's it That's the scoops we got this week And you know, if you want to holler at us, you can hit us up at the Pine Pony podcast 22 at gmail. com or on threads and Instagram Pine Pony podcast. Other one note, you know, as always, we are going, we'll post some, maybe some props and stuff later on in the week with our signup expert. com backslash Pine Pony link and all that jazz. So. Make sure you try to cash in on all that at the end of the season. With that being said, that's all we got. So we're out of here. Adios. Adios.