NFL fans, it's wild card weekend coming up. The playoffs are here. We have some great games coming up. We're going to have some big predictions to help you and your watching and viewing pleasure.

Ed Kleese is here to join us to help us with these picks and predictions and we're going to give you some great insight on these upcoming games. Ed, welcome back to the Pig Pen.

Hey, Darin. Happy New Year.

Happy New Year and happy postseason of the NFL.

Well, not for me necessarily, but certainly for you. So, so happy New Year to all of the insers out there.

Yeah, my post season started last weekend.

Yeah, no kidding. No kidding. And what a thrill it was. Yes.

Yeah, that was probably. That was a very emotional game. But we'll get to that in a little bit here. So. So what are some of your thoughts from the NFL season?

So I wanted to start by talking about the. We've talked a lot about the teams that didn't make the playoffs.

Right.

So I figured one last time this year we can talk about the teams that failed to make the playoffs, teams that had disappointing seasons. And I thought I'd do it in kind of a fun way, sort of like a reverse power rankings. So we had 18 teams that did not make the playoffs.

And I started to think, okay, of these 18 teams, who am I?

We don't know who some of the quarterbacks are going to be.

Okay, okay, we'll go, let's go. We'll build the drama, we'll go backwards.

And like I said, we don't have enough time to go into too deep into each of these teams, so feel free to jump in if you have a comment about any of these teams in particular. We'll start with number 18 and it's the jets. And that's probably all I really need to say.

I don't think anything happened for the jets this year that would lead you to believe that they are on the right track.

Yeah, I think that's a Jet that's been grounded, I think, for a while and it's not looking like it's getting much better.

You can't have much worse of a coaching debut than Aaron Glenn had this year and they somehow got worse at the end. Number 17. The Cardinals. They're going to go undergo a coaching change. They're most likely going to go under undergo a quarterback change.

There's not much on that roster that speaks to me. There's not a lot of strong organizational history there.

They're playing a very tough division, so I don't see the Cardinals having much chance to really bounce back next year. Moving right along. Similar reasons. I have the Titans. I do think Cam Ward made some strides this year, played pretty well.

He got better as the year went on. But they've got a ton of holes and I don't know how attractive of a job that is. So I didn't have the Titans very high at 15. We have the Browns.

It's funny because, you know, on one side of the ball they really are pretty good and pretty impressive.

But things are still a mess on offense and they still have the Desean Watson thing hanging over their heads with the 46 million they owe him next year. And they're. And they're the Browns. So they're the Browns. So I didn't want to put them too high on the list. Number 14.

This was maybe a team that's a little bit of a surprise. I have the Tampa Bay Bucks. That feels like a window that is closing quickly.

I'm not sure whether or not Bowles will be back or not that they were not good down the stretch really at all. Not impressive. We were talking about Baker as an MVP candidate in week four and five and.

And he looks very, very average kind of the rest of the year. Not a roster I love and just not a situation that I think is. Is going to be maybe as good as it appears on paper.

Yeah, that's true. I think ever since Bradley Cooper started mentioning him in the commercials for doordash or whatever he's doing, his. His season sort of went down.

I think there's a funny meme out there.

It's the life cycle of Baker, it's sort of like call out the haters, you know, have a MVP game play, throw four interceptions. It's like this cycle that you just kind of go through with him all the time. And I really thought he was past all that. I really did.

I thought that he had, he had escaped that. He also has had a new offensive coordinator pretty much every year, almost entire career.

But there's just something about that Tampa situation that I don't love right now. So we're going to stay in Florida. At number 13, I have the Dolphins. That's just another situation that I don't think is great.

It's like, fine, number 12. I have the Raiders a little higher, maybe on the list. The reason I have them a little higher is they do have the first pick in the draft.

And when you have the first pick in the draft, you have an opportunity, okay, you could get the next Drake May or Jaden Daniels or Miles Garrett or, you know, whoever might be there. You have a chance to, you have, you know, you get the first pick.

So you have the opportunity to potentially draft the best player in this draft that, you know, comes to you. And there's a very small part of me that likes the Brady connection in Las Vegas, too, Meaning the ultimate winner is involved with your team.

Sounds like he's going to be pretty involved with the coach search. You know, I, I, I think their fan base is pretty strong. Raider Nation.

There's just something about the Raiders that, that makes me think this may not be quite as bad as it looked this year.

I'm surprised that you have them that high. I think I would disagree with you on that one.

I think they should probably be more like 16, 17 in that range is what I feel, because I don't think one player is going to change it. Just asked Tennessee. They had a number one pick last year and didn't do so good. But, yeah, that's one right? I disagree with you on.

So then we go to number 11, and this is a no man's land team for me, and that's the Atlanta Falcons. There are certain things about Atlanta I like. There's certain things about Atlanta I don't like.

I kind of feel like we're talking about them in this kind of vein every year. They're going to switch coaches again. I don't have a whole lot of confidence they'll get it right this time, but it's not a terrible roster.

So I just kind of put them right in the middle, kind of right there at number 11.

Yeah, that was one of the more shocking fires. You know, the, the Harbaugh one is, I think is number one on everybody's list for shocking.

But Raheem Morris losing his job, they had a lot of games where it came down. Maybe if they had a better kicker, they wouldn't have been in that situation. They probably would have won that division.

So they were pretty close to winning the division. And to lose your job over that.

The problem I have with that, Darren, and that I think kind of speaks against Morris is they lost a game like that to the jets this year. Meaning, you know, it's not like the Falcons sort of just played to the level of every team they played.

You know, they beat the Bills, they lost to the jets, they lose a ton of close games. Very, very poor clock management both this year and last year. They had a really good chance to make playoffs last year and didn't make it this year.

I think that strong finish for them was a little misleading. I don't have any problem with them letting Morris go.

I don't think it was, you know, I don't think he was horrible, but I don't think there was any reason there. If you're a Falcons fan, I think we got the guy, you know, I think, you know, so they're just in a no man's land situation for me.

So I wouldn't be shocked if they're better next year. I wouldn't be shocked if they're worse. More likely they'll probably be the same exact team again.

Yeah.

Now number 10 is one team that I think has a real up arrow and that's the Saints. That's a team that finished strong and that I kind of like got to pump the brakes on. Shuck. It was half a season. He was pretty impressive.

So we don't, we don't know, you know, we'll have to see. But that is a team that clearly got better as the year progressed. Their defense got a lot better. They have a first year coach.

But the reason I don't have them a little bit higher is because of that Daniel Jones Achilles injury. You know, they ended so poorly.

And then your quarterback tears his Achilles, which is probably going to keep him out at least the first part of next year. So you're going to enter the guy.

The Colts are going to have a new starting Quarterback probably for week one next year again, and that is very difficult to continually overcome.

Yeah. You don't think that, like, Richardson will be bouncing back?

I mean, I don't.

Riley Leonard had a pretty good game. Yeah.

It's just. But it's.

Philip Rivers takes some Jared.

Maybe he'll be back. Yeah. So, yeah, that. I, you know, it was a very disappointing end of the season.

I don't think you can blame it all on the Achilles injury for Jones because they had started to go downhill a little bit before then as well. So that's an okay situation, you know, just kind of right in the middle as well. This is a team maybe you would have had higher.

I've got the Ravens at number eight. I don't think it's an awesome situation. And I think, you know, moving on from your coach for the first time in 18 years, there's some risk there.

And like we talked about a lot throughout the year, there was things that just weren't right with them this year. And I don't know if it was just time for Harbaugh to go. There's issues with Lamar, but that's just not, you know, the defense wasn't great either.

And there's just sort of. There's something about the Ravens that has me not loving their prospects entering next year.

I think I would even put them lower on that list because I have a feeling there's going to be some. Some player dumpings coming up, maybe some high salaries. Even Lamar, I don't think is off the table.

It's an older team and Derek Henry, you know, some of their defensive players. It's going to be a different team, and maybe a new regime comes in and rebuilds us to a more modern team.

You know, I don't know where the direction is going to go, but might not be the same Ravens that Baltimore fans have been used to.

You probably, you're. I could see that for sure.

At number seven, I've got the Bengals, who really probably haven't earned being this high on the list, but I'm going to defer a little bit to Burrow, because when he plays, they are good. They're. I mean, offensively, they're kind of awesome. Actually, not necessarily an awesome week 8, 19, final game last week.

But.

I think they definitely can be back, but they have so many holes in both sides of their trenches and that's where everything starts. I mean, I, I don't think their offensive line, it's improved over the last couple of years, but it's by far very porous.

That's why Burrows hurt all the time. He's running for his life.

He's getting, getting, you know, smacked around by, by defenders and playing in that, you know, the division he does with miles Garrett and T.J. watt and everybody else, it's kind of a bad situation. And their defensive line is in shambles. You know, it's like running through paper mache for any NFL team. And they got a lot of work.

They got to stop the run and be able to run to help her out.

And there's not a lot of history or precedent there for Bengals fans to trust that their front office is going to spend the money or make the moves necessary to get better. But I just think the bones are there for a quick turnaround if they could do it smartly.

And that's one coach that I'm surprised as of this recording is still intact because I think that's a little bit disappointing for Bengals fans to reached the super bowl and there was so much promise and you're not nowhere near it the last three or four years.

I was a little surprised he wasn't axed either. But again, they're. They're a team that moves very slowly. So now we're in the top six. So this would sort of be my.

Maybe the teams that I think could really bounce back next year. You'll have a theme here because 6, 4, 5 and 6 are from the same division. So number 6.

This is going to probably be way higher than most people would have them. I have the New York Giants. The Giants went 4 and 13 this year. They screwed themselves out of the number one pick by winning their last two games.

But that team probably should have won eight or nine games this year. So many blown games on the road that they completely had won against good teams like Denver and Chicago. I think there was.

There was at least another one in there that was real close that they blew Dallas. They had, they had Dallas beat early in the year. So. And I think there's an. And you know, I'm not anointing dart yet at all, but he did look good.

Malik Neighbors is very good when he'll be back next year. I can't think of the running backs name there. The Arizona State kid.

Oh, God.

You know what I'm talking about.

Yeah, I know.

Yes. So he'll be back next year as well. And there's, there's. There's a structure there, and I think it's.

It's an organization that hasn't been good for now, almost a decade, but I think it's still a pretty good. I think there's a pretty. There's some prestige with the Giants.

I think they're not going to have a trouble attracting a coach if they get the coach right. I think there's some, there's some stuff there that's good. They have a top five pick again.

So the Giants are one of those teams next year I could really see doing a Patriot like turnaround. Maybe not quite as dramatic, but I could see them winning 5, 6, 7 more games than they won this year.

Scatter Boo is a Scatter Boo. There you go.

Scatterbay. Thank you very much.

I think, you know, I think with the Giants, this would be my, my pick.

If I was a Giants fan rooting for who to pick as a coach, I'd want Kevin Stefanski because he is great with a young quarterback, great with having, you know, a feature back on his offense, and he's great by picking good coordinators, especially defensive coordinators, to. To beef up an already pretty strong defense. So if that was my. My desires, if I was a Giants fan, I'd want Stefanski.

Yeah, I've got some Giants fans in my life, and he's a name that's come up that I think they'd be pretty pleased with as well. Although, you know, they had that crazy streak in Cleveland of not scoring 20 points in a game, and I realized they've had some quarterback issues.

But part of me wonders, you know, Stefanski is an offensive guy, man. It's like at some point, dial something up, you know, that, that, that's. So that's one thing about him that gives me a little bit of concern.

Like, couldn't figure it out in two years, how to have like almost one good offensive game, you know, because they really didn't. They really did.

They were.

They were really poor.

Moving number five, maybe a little bit of a homer pick here, but I've got the commanders at number five, and it's based pretty much exclusively on this. Their quarterback offensive line situation going into next year is very strong. I'm a believer in Jane Daniels. I think this was an anomaly type year.

He's got to stay healthy, of course, but so does every other quarterback. You know what I mean? Every team needs their quarterback to be healthy.

He played 20 out of 20 games his rookie year and then had this in and out season this year where he didn't have any devastating injuries, but got nicked up a lot. Um, and the. And their offensive line is very good. It's actually deep.

And this is a team, I think that could pretty easily jump back into the nine to 11 win range in one off season. A lot of work on defense to come, but they also have like, I think the third or fourth most cap space in the league.

Yeah, I think they're an interesting team to watch and you don't know where they're going to go. You know, they could go. They could go up or they could go down in this rankings, you know, too.

But I think one thing they have to do, and it may be they're. They're biggest flaw is they may have to try to restrict what Jaden Daniels does a little bit.

You know, his game is his feet and, you know, being a threat to run. And they may have to try to reel him in a little bit to take some of that away. Much like, you know, Lamar was in his early career.

And I think it's almost like parallel to Lamar with he runs a lot, gets injured a lot. A Dak Prescott, you know, remember how much he used to run in it?

You know, these last couple of years he's sort of had to stay in a pocket and be a pocket passer, become very successful. Maybe something like that could happen. But I would be afraid if they were letting Jaden Daniels run like he has the first couple.

Well, that, that I think it's the main reason you saw Cliff Kingsbury get let go today because he did a really good job there. And the rumors were that there were some philosophical differences with Dan Quinn.

And to me the translation is Dan Quinn wants to run a little bit more for traditional offense. You know, in that playoff game last year in Detroit, Daniels destroyed the Lions from the pocket. He barely ran in that game at all.

He killed them from the pocket. They scored 45 points in that game. And it was almost all through the air, so he's capable.

I think Quinn probably echoes your thoughts a little bit and maybe didn't quite see all the way eye to eye with Cliff and probably wants to see an offense that's at least slightly more traditional. So I think that's probably what you're going to get next year.

Yeah, I think if I'm a Washington fan, I'd be having fears of like RG3 syndrome coming up, you know, to have that stellar rookie year and get hurt.

And, you know, just luckily the difference.

The difference here is, you know, RG3, also in college, had devastating knee injuries, so by the time he tore his late knee up with Washington his rookie year, he was already on his second or third ACL at this point in his career. Jayne Daniels has never had a serious injury to this point. I mean, this year he had a.

He dislocated his elbow, but it only kept him out a couple weeks. And then he had a strained hamstring and bruised knee. You know, I mean, so there's nothing here that should really hamper him.

But yes, self care is going to be a big thing for him. Moving. Moving forward. And also moving forward down to number four is. I've got the Cowboys, who. This isn't.

This isn't really a feather in their cap, per se. It's just that this is just where they always are.

Right.

You know, there's no reason for me to think that the Cowboys won't be able to win eight, nine, maybe 10 games next year because this is just where they live. Right? This is just where they are. I think they can probably get better on defense next year. They can't get much worse.

So they're just a team that I don't necessarily have super high hopes for, but I also would be surprised if they get any worse. And so you're probably looking at the difference of one or two wins. And Dallas could be a wild card team next year.

Yeah, most definitely. Their biggest bugaboo is their salary cap strap.

I mean, they have so much invested in three or four players and, you know, they're going to have to pay a wide receiver next year that they didn't have to do this year, you know, that CD Lamb they did. But you know that there's going to be another one that we want to sign to keep that up, to keep CD Lam, you know, open.

And if that's George Pickens or not, I don't know. But he's going to demand probably more money than CD Lamb, right?

Yeah. So. And.

And again, it's another team, another fan base that probably doesn't have a whole lot of reason to trust that they're going to do what they need to do. Now the one thing we do know is that Jerry won't sit on his hands.

They will probably do something and I would anticipate that we enter next year feeling similarly, similarly about Dallas as we did at the end of the year. And again, if you're an 8ish win team in the NFL, you're a field goal here, a first down here, you know, away from being an 11 win team.

So I would anticipate that they're going to be in that range again, moving on to the top three. I've got the Lions at number three again. There's some real issues there. We saw a real drop off this year.

That team was not anywhere nearly as good, but the talent kind of remains. Jared Goff's not going to get worse, I don't think at this point. You know, he kind of is what he is, which is a pretty good quarterback.

I would think that they'll probably figure out some ways to make the offense a little bit better. The defense could get a little bit better and again, even if they don't get a lot better, I'd be surprised if they get worse.

Yeah, I think they're going to get some, some health in know better health luck maybe next year. Their secondary was totally devastated most of the season. They're down in our third, fourth string receivers or DBs.

I mean their offensive line was sort of in shambles. They had sort of those two big losses.

One was kind of a surprise that he tried to come back in the middle of the season and just wasn't in football shape. I don't think so.

I think that they're going to have to put some draft capital and some free agency into that, build up that offensive line to protect Goff and let Gibbs and anybody else running the ball, you know, have some freedom and you know, they got a solid receiving core and very solid offense and they let go of their Johnny Morton, their offensive coordinator this year after one year. So they're trying to find that magic to get that offense.

Somebody will click with Goff and make them very more potent than they were this year, you know.

Yep, yep. Top two, number two. I just went to the. Well, it's got to be the Chiefs.

If Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes are your coach and quarterback combo to start the year.

You're going to have a chance and that is an organization that has proven themselves over the course of time that they'll probably be able to figure some stuff out and I don't know exactly what that is.

This isn't to say that I think they necessarily bounce back to being a 14 win team next year, but I kind of have a hard time believing that we're going to see them in that five to six, seven win range again, more likely than not. Especially if Reed comes back, which I think he will.

It would be weird for me to see him come back and then, oh wow, it's just going to be, they can be 5 and 12, 6 and 11 again. I think the Chiefs have a, have a really good chance to bounce back and chalk this up to their sort of transition year.

I, I, they're interesting one to think about too. I'm not so sure that they're going to be able to bounce back into the playoffs.

I think they'll be better than a five win team, but they're playing an extremely competitive division now.

You know, Denver and LA have really increased their prowess and I, I'm not sure that the Chiefs are going to catch up to either one of them next year. And that's a problem because that's four games on their, their docket.

You know, if you, if your predictions about the Raiders are right and they rise up a little bit, they could give the Chiefs some competition. So their own division is a very, their own worst nightmare.

And I'm not sure who, what divisions the AFC west plays next year, but you know, who knows, they could be playing the NFC west and they could be in trouble. You know, who, who knows?

But yeah, I just, I think I'm just kind of deferring to, yeah, give me a Hall of Fame quarterback and hall of Fame coach with something to prove and that's, and that's the spot they'll be in next year.

And of course I'm making some assumptions that they're going to make some personnel changes to give Steve Mahomes a little bit of help along the line and maybe at skill position as well. I'm assuming that they won't come back with the exact same unit they had this year, but I would, I think I would be.

And we need to make sure that Mahomes is ready to go by the start of next year. But assuming he is, I would, I would anticipate them being in the mix again.

Which brings me to Number one, which might be a surprise, is I've got the Minnesota Vikings. I thought Minnesota was the best team in the NFL this year that didn't make the playoffs and it was 100% due to their struggles at quarterback.

That defense was awesome, maybe the best in the entire league by the end of the year. And they've got some really nice skill position players as well.

They struggled on the O line a little bit and the quarterback situation was a nightmare. It was really bad. But I love Kevin o'. Connell.

Yeah, I think that's a pretty strong statement. I think you're right. I think they're good enough to get in there. That's a, you know, good pick.

I was wondering where you were going to go with that when we got into top five. But I was expecting Minnesota to be your number one.

There you go.

All right. Well, very interesting. We'll have to see how that plays out. So I guess maybe you could do some review of our week 18 picks.

Sure. We'll go through this kind of quickly so we can jump right into the playoffs. But we on the fir on the Saturday games, we were split.

We were head to head and then we split those games. So I had the Panthers, you had the Bucks, you win that one. I had the Seahawks, you had the Niners, I win that one. You also had the Lions.

I had that as well. We both got that right. And we both got the Steelers right.

So our so going at that point, we're tied and then we're going to go into the final pick, which I actually gave myself a zero because I had the Texans smoking the Colts and holding them to 13 or fewer points while the Texans did win the game. That game was 32 to 30, you know, at the very end there before the Shenanigans touchdown. And so I wasn't right. I didn't get that right.

So I got a zero on that. But I did give you one because you had the Bengals beating the Browns and Garrett setting the sack record. Browns won the game.

Garrett's at the record. I gave you one. That gives you seven for the week. I got six for the week. And that Leaves us at the end of the regular season.

Season with Darren at 85 and myself at 84. Wow.

It's been a roller coaster ride to her the whole season. We've had that lead go back and forth and been tied a bunch of times. So.

Yep. So heading. So heading into the playoffs.

And like I said, we can, you know, the one that we both got right there at the end, I guess we can both thank. Thank Tyler Loop because that was.

I thought about you many times in the last five minutes of that game because overall, that was not a great football game until, what was it, midway through the fourth quarter and then it became the greatest game ever played.

Just like.

Just like that. Very interesting. Super compelling. What a way to end the season.

And I'm assuming as a Steelers fan, you know, you survived your heart attack and you get to live another week, which is a great feeling.

Yeah, it was a emotional roller coaster the last few minutes of that game. But beating the Ravens anytime, sweeping them in a season, that's outstanding. So we'll take that.

And Pittsburgh is very happy this week, that's for sure.

I'm sure they are. So let's move right into our playoff picks. Okay.

I think this, this week, it's your.

Pick to go first.

And this week what we're going to do is we're going to each just pick the winner of the game of the six playoff games, and then we're each going to provide one bold prediction from each game. So that's a total of two per game. So there's a total on the board of potentially 12 points.

You get the winner right, you get your bowl prediction right, you get two. Okay, so we'll start. We'll just go in the order that the games are going to be played. So we're going to start with that Saturday afternoon game.

That's going to be the Rams at the Panthers. I wish I had something grand to offer in terms of analysis of this game, but I think this game is total chalk.

I think the rant the Rams are favored by 10. I think they're going to win by more than that. I think they're going to win. They're going to win easily.

I think it's going to be over at halftime, and my bold prediction for it is that they're going by 13 or more.

I don't think you're too far off on that. I totally agree with you.

I think the Rams probably roster wise, might be the strongest team in this whole field, including the teams that are off this week. I think they have a tremendous defense that causes turnovers. Their offense is extremely potent.

Everybody is, from what I understand is pretty healthy. I think they're going to really dominate the Panthers this week.

All right, so what's your bold on it?

My bold on this is I think LA is going to go plus two in the turnover department.

Plus two turnovers.

Got it.

Okay, moving on to Saturday night. What a fun, awesome classic. If it's anything like the first two games, we're probably in for a real treat.

And if you've been following the podcast all year, you're probably under no surprise of which way I'm going in this Green Bay Chicago game. Packers. I think the packers go in there, pull off the mile.

It's not even really an upset really though if you look at the spread at all, I think it's got a lot of people surprised. And what have I told you all year? If the public's all on one side, maybe look at the other side.

I think most people think that the Bears should be heavily favored in this game and they're not. So I think people are kind of leaning pretty heavily towards the Bears, especially with the poor way that the packers finished the season.

But I'm predicting that the packers win the game, a very close game and they hit a field goal with 60 seconds or less or overtime to win it. That is my bold part.

All right, well, here's where our first head to head going against because I do agree with the public, I think a team that I think would Green Bay lose the last four and since, since Micah went down, it seems like they have just sort of lost control. Love has been in and out of the lineup. They're a little bit shaky. I know you can't really count week 18 didn't really mean a whole lot to them.

But maybe to try to get them back on track. I live through my team losing their last four or five games last year going to the playoffs and got smoked.

I think that's what's going to happen again. Bears are going to win this. Caleb to Roma Duzay. Two touchdowns in that combination.

Caleb dunes a two touchdowns. Okay, Head to head. Love it. Love it. All right, let's go on to Sunday. Eyeballs in the Bills Jags game.

I think pull you to Jacksonville for a 17 game season. The Jaguars were a better team than the Bills and I don't think there's too much arguing that if you look at the totality of each team.

But I'm going to go with the quarterback in this one and I'M going to say this is a game that Josh Allen wins for Buffalo. So I'm picking the Bills and I'm picking some Allen magic with four or more touchdowns combined.

All right, I, I don't disagree with you on this one. I think Buffalo is going to beat the, beat the Jacksonville Jaguars. Jacksonville has been having really good defense against the run.

I think that might be their downfall because I think the running back is going to be the big difference for Buffalo in this. But that's not my bold prediction.

My bold prediction is that both Trevor Lawrence and Josh Allen are each going to score both by running the ball in the end zone and at least one pass in the end zone for both of them.

Got each of them have a run and pass touchdown. Okay. I would be very surprised if that game is not close as well.

Yeah, I think it will be, but I think Buffalo comes out.

All right, so the, the middle afternoon game, going with the heart here. I'm going to say that the 49ers finally end the run of the Eagles and pull off what would be a pretty considerable upset in Philly.

And I'm going to pick Christian McCaffrey to have 125 or more combined yards.

But another kind of lean for me in this game is that the Eagles have escaped all year, all year, and they're up against a really good head coach, a really good offense and the Eagles defense is excellent. But I think this is maybe their luck runs out a little bit and they're unable to escape on Sunday.

I wish I was more confident in it, but that's where I'm going.

I, I think I agree with you. I'm a little bit nervous about this, but I'm leaning towards the Niners in this too. I think they're gonna win this game.

I'm a little bit nervous after last week. I picked them to take out Seattle and the Seattle just sort of shut them down and their offense looked lost.

But I don't think Philadelphia has the firepower that Seattle does to do that, even though they're a very good defensive team. And I also think Purdy is going to have a really good game. And my bonus pick here is he's going to be a 100 plus QBR in this game.

That's going to be the difference.

100 plus QBR for Purdy. Okay, so so far we agree on three of the four. Let's see, let's see. I bet you we don't agree on this one.

This was the, the night game, the Sunday night game, the The Chargers Patriots was my hardest pick.

I really waffled on it because I'm doing something that I probably shouldn't do and I'm picking the lesser team to somehow win the game because New England's been better than San Diego this year. But I'm gonna pick another upset. I'm gonna say the Chargers go in on Sunday night and pull it off based on Justin Herbert's best game of his career.

He's going to really outshine Drake May in this game. I, that's my bold prediction is that Herbert wins it for the Chargers by outplaying May.

Okay.

I wish, you know, I would love to see that happen because I would love to see all the road teams in the AFC win and my team win at home and they would have another home playoff game. I, you know, I agree with the Buffalo, you know, winning. I don't know if I can take the against the Patriots.

I'm going to pick the Patriots on this because I don't think the Chargers have enough to outdo all the Patriots at home. And I think Drake May is going to be the superior quarterback because I have him down for four scores in this game, May.

Four touchdowns. Yeah. You know, this is one of those truth serum games.

I'm not sure if I believe the words that are coming out of my mouth, but there's part of me that thinks this is sort of Herbert's time, meaning he's been in the league long enough.

He's had a couple playoff disappointments and this is a big moment where he's got a little bit of the underdog going the offensive lines of mess there. Unfortunately for him, that could be a big, big problem.

But it's gonna mention that that's what.

I think the first rodeo for May and the Patriots. So, you know, there's a little more experience there with the, the Chargers.

I do trust Harbaugh in this kind of game, but I think, you know, this is the one of all the six that I'm least confident in. But I'll stick with it. Moving on to, I guess the grand finale Monday night. You get an extra day of rest to, to prep for this late night affair.

By the way, just as an aside, I love the super wild card weekend. I love the six games. I think it's great. I wish they do two triple headers and not have the Monday night game.

I wish we did a triple header on Saturday and a triple header on Sunday and just called it, called it a day. I don't love that. That Monday night game feels weird. To me in the playoffs, I don't, I don't love it, but that's where you're going to be playing.

And you know, the Texans are definitely the popular pick here.

I'm slightly hesitant, but I am going to go with the Texans and I think they're going to hold the Steelers to 17 or fewer and kind of win the game in the way that everyone probably kind of expects it to happen. And that is that the Houston defense will stifle Rodgers.

I'm like, they won't like embarrass him or completely shut him down, but there just won't be enough yardage there for him. I think that d' Amico Ryan's will have some answers for DK and he'll be back. And the Steelers.

And there's another part of me, Darren, that thinks, gosh, all the credit to the Steelers for their toughness and the way they've battled through the year and finding ways to win these late season games that have really mattered. But goodness gracious, it's been by the skin of their teeth. And this Houston team is a lot better than some of the teams they've been playing lately.

A lot less flawed at least.

And while I don't totally trust the Texans offense right now, and I think that's probably where you as a Steelers fan could have some confidence that maybe you can win a 16 to 13 game or a 17 to 15 type game, but I'm going to say the Texans win, their defense holds the Steelers to 17 or fewer and your dream ends on Monday night.

Well, I, I am going to be a little bit of a homer on this because it's not. But I think in my heart of hearts we've got a lot of history going on this.

The Steelers have not lost a home Monday Night Football game in, since the 90s.

We've talked about this. Yes, they have. Well, okay.

Real Monday. This is a real Monday Night Football party.

A scheduled Monday, a scheduled Monday Night Football previously scheduled Monday night so that.

The Houston Texans have not won a road playoff game ever in their history. Yep. So there's, there's two things going in the Steelers favor. I think you have a very motivated elderly Pittsburgh team.

Cam Hayward is playing like he, he's 24 years old.

I mean, he, he was probably the main difference in that game against Baltimore because he was just destroying anybody that the Ravens were putting up against them. I think the Ravens have a better offensive line and a bigger offensive line than the Texans do.

I think their, their offense is going to be in trouble and I think Steelers are going to be sending blitzes galore with, with their three headed monsters from the OLB's and I don't think the Texans are going to score many much points at all on them.

Defensively I'm a little bit worried about that but just like the defense has grown into this year and learned how to play without some of their superstars and learned how to play without Ramsey. Learned how to play, you know, when Derek Slay, they let him go. They figured some things out.

They're playing their best football right now on defense they're playing their best offensive football. Rodgers just had his best game of the year passing wise without DK Metcalf. They, he learned that he has other weapons.

Thielen has really come on and started to be part of the team. MVS is starting to do that and now you put them and the running game has been improved. I, I don't know.

I think that they're going to have some answers for, for Houston and that you know, very good outside linebackers on Houston. They put a lot of pressure on but you know the tackles, you know Dylan Cook has come in as a four string tackle and he has been so solid.

He played very well against Miles Garrett. He played very well against Van Noy last week. Good against Miami's pass rush. They're solid.

They're, you know, they're a second year tackle from Washington. I'm not going to go try to say his name because I'll mess it up. But he, he has been very solid.

I think they're learning how to play together and Rodgers has a lot of magic left in them and I would not count him out against a defense that's very aggressive and a guy that releases, you know, still one of the quickest releases in football. I don't know that their password is going to get there. So I think the Steelers are going to win this. It's going to be a low score, under 35 points.

A Boswell kick is going to make the difference in this game.

Steelers Boswell kick is your bold.

Yes.

Okay. Well, I had some pause with my pick. I don't, I don't feel crazy confident for a lot of the reasons that, that you mentioned.

But I'm, I'm gonna, I'm gonna oppose you on it but I'll be kind of pulling for you just as, just as a fellow fan come Monday night.

And we're also gonna here I hear we're gonna have a priest put holy water in both end zones this weekend.

You heard that?

Did you see that? They had.

I did not.

The. We're the kicker for the Ravens missed that end zone before the game. A Catholic priest was sprinkling holy water in that end zone.

They have it on, on.

Oh my God.

Mr. Rooney had him go down there and do that to bust the field or whatever. And that's the end zone that he kicked at and missed the kick. And Boswell missed. Extra point was blocked. They showed it today.

Somebody, that one guy got a hand on it. That's why it missed on her.

So I want to, I want to.

I did want to.

I did want to mention something about that game. Very specifically, the, the final kick that Luke missed was about 40 yards. What was it?

Yeah, it was 42. Okay, something.

I think it's a huge mistake by Harbaugh there. They had 12 seconds left after the likely catch, correct?

Yes.

Okay. And they had, I believe, two timeouts. And what they. I know they had one for sure.

They had, I believe they had two, but they had one for sure because they used it. So what they chose to do was they had about a 38ish yard field goal set up, something like that.

Maybe it was right around 36 and they had Lamar go about 2 yards backwards and take a knee to turn it into about a 440 yard field goal. Now, in the NFL, that's certainly a kick that any kicker should make, but that's not a gimme. That's a full 8 yards more than an extra point.

And that's a lot of extra pressure to put on your kicker. Now I realize that Derrick Henry's had some fumbling issues this year, but I think you got to trust him there.

I think you hand that ball off with 12 seconds left, right up the gut or off tackle or whatever, and you try to get an extra four, three, two, whatever, you know, get a couple extra yards. And then because they had two timeouts, they really could have probably done it twice, you know. And heck if you bust, you know, one for six yards.

Well, now it's a 27 yard field goal and even if he shanks it a little bit, maybe it shanks it after it's already gone through the uprights. So I think that was a mistake by Harbaugh there to be so willing to concede the distance on that field.

Yeah, I think you're right. But as far as he missed it by like 15 yards off the upright, I don't know if he would have been 20 yards closer. He would have made that one.

But, but, but, but what you don't know is that if it's, if it's 10 yards closer, maybe he relaxes more. You know, maybe the whole process is a little different. You know, maybe that little extra distance just had him little rattled or frazzled.

You know, I think, I just don't like, especially when you're losing the game, you know, maybe a little different if it's tied, but. Or roll Lamar out and tell him, you know, we get. Trust you on this one, Lamar. You can't do any, make any negative plays. If something's there, hit it.

If it's not, throw it away, clock it, you know, whatever.

But yeah, I just, I thought it was a little too conservative and a little too, A little too willing to just put all the pressure on your rookie kicker in that spot.

Yeah, that's an interesting thought, but I think the pressure got to him. He puckered up. You know, he did a Scott Norwood on it. You know, you, high pressure situation.

The season's on the line and, you know, it's a tough situation for somebody that's 21, 22 years old.

Exactly. So let's make it easier.

That's kind of my, that's kind of my thought, you know, what If Henry busts one for 20 yards, you know, and then there's three seconds left, you call timeout and now you're kicking a, you know, 19 yard field goal or something like that, you know, so that's, I don't know.

I thought of that immediately when he did it and thought about it again afterwards, and now I guess Harbaugh has all the time in the world to think about it.

Yeah, well, not necessarily.

He won't have too much. He won't have too long.

He's got a lot of interviews going on this week.

Yeah, he won't be out of work for long, that's for sure.

Yeah, that's. That's true. That's true. All right, well, we got some interesting picks. An interesting weekend coming up, a great weekend of football, both the NFL.

We got some great college football playoffs coming up too, which should be very interesting this week and might be one of my favorite weekends of the year that to have, you know, these eight games that should hold any football fans interest because they all kind of jealous.

We were here last year and hopefully we're back in 20, 26 or I guess 27 from a year.

Just as a football fan in general, though, you have, you know, these eight games that all mean something. Last week we had three games that meant something. Really, you know. Yeah.

It's good stuff, no doubt.

Yeah. So. Well, Ed, I wish you luck on your picks here and we'll talk to you again next week and pick on the next week.

Thanks, Darren. Good luck, Steelers.

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