Ed, welcome back to the Pig Pen.

Hey, Darin, I would say, how are you doing? But I feel like I already know the answer.

I'm a little melancholy, I'm a little lost right now.

You know, we here in Western Pennsylvania, we took a couple lumps this week and it's something that we're used to, playoff lumps, but not losing a coach.

Yeah, and yeah, yeah, it's a double whammy and we'll talk about that a little bit more.

But you know, we've talked many times about Madden and Summerall and as a, as a, as a young kid growing up, you know, Madden was sort of my football Yoda and it's the first time I'd ever heard the word finality.

And at the playoffs he used to, at the end of a playoff game, the CBS and then Fox cameras would always show the losing sideline, usually the guys sitting on the bench, kind of like, you know, head in hands, you know, looking forlorn.

And Madden would talk about the empty feeling of being eliminated in that final game and not making it and the finality of it and how it all sets in and how, you know, at the time that, you know, as a fan, this routine you've been in all year and these dreams you've had of your team, you know, going and keeping going and, and advancing are over.

But then also for the players and coaches, of course, a lot of them, you know, might be their last game ever, might be time to retire, might be the last time this guy, you know, and even if they're not going to retire, you never know. Are you going to.

I remember when Washington got eliminated last year in the NFC Championship Game, it was Bobby Wagner and Zach Ertz in the locker room and they looked so devastated. And I think it was in large part because they're probably both thinking, that was my last shot.

And you know, they both came back to play this year and maybe they'll both come back to play another year, but that may have been their last shot, their true last shot. So we see that all over the league this week. You're feeling it.

And that's something that's always stuck out to me, was that finality of the playoffs via John Madden's analysis.

Yeah, I think Nobody experienced any worse than John Madden in his coaching career. I had to rip your heart out to be on that side of the Immaculate Reception game.

So he spoke from experience. Yep.

Yeah, most definitely. Well, let's, why don't we get into the games here. Let's talk a little bit about what happened last week and maybe give our results.

Yeah, we'll just go through our results and as we're going we'll just kind of go in the order that the games are played and there's a lot to talk about.

The other thing that I really like about this time of the year is, you know, when we do our, our weekly pods during the season, there's just too much going on to spend too much time in the minutia of any one game or moment. But that's what I love about the playoffs is that we can get into this.

Boy, you know, we're going to talk about this 30 second stanza that may have decided the game or this one decision or this one play. So I think we're going to get into a lot of that.

So we'll start right with the first game and we both are going to get one point for the first game and by the skin of our teeth for both of us, really, because not only. So I had the rams winning by 13 or more points and you had the Rams winning and also winning the turnover ratio by + 2.

Neither of us got our, our bonus there and we barely got the win. And I will say that that was very, that was very.

That was actually the most surprising thing to me of the whole weekend was how close the Rams came to being eliminated. That, that was. You know, whenever you have a ten and a half point spread, you know that there's always a chance somebody's going to keep it close.

You know that, that, that's not. But like they really, truly almost lost that game and that was. That really stuck out, especially after getting ahead 14 nothing.

Well, I can think of another game. Maybe it was more shocking and close than that, but not the game I was involved in but another game where we'll talk about in a second here.

But yeah, I thought that was an excellent played game. I think the Panthers were a lot more prepared for the playoff game than I gave them credit for last week.

They played their tails off but I think the better team ended up winning the game. I think they got wise right when they had to and pulled it out.

Yeah, and I was continuing to root for the Rams even after all of my. For example, if you bet on the Rams you had lost your bet long before that game was over, so there was no saving it.

But I was still rooting for the Rams at the end of the game. It's some of the.

I know we all like, if you're a basketball fan, the NCAA tournament, how it's always fun to root for the 15 seed, the 16 seed in the first round, but then there's always the second round. Right. Then it's not so fun when we watch St. Mary's or, you know, Hofstra or whoever play again.

Right.

And so I was thinking, you know what, this would be a really amazing story for the Panthers, but do I really want to watch them next week again? When you know, the glass slipper often doesn't fit nearly as nicely. So it was nice. Like you said, I think the better team won the game.

And I'll be honest, I don't necessarily think it's a red flag situation for the Rams, really. I think it's just sometimes games unravel a little bit.

You find yourself in a dogfight and you got to find a way to win it, and it doesn't necessarily carry over to the next week.

Yeah, that's very true. But I, I think the Rams are well coached. I think they're pretty solid with talented players on both sides of the ball.

And who knows, they can go a long ways in these playoffs.

Yeah, so, yeah, so they survived. I think we got. It sets up better matchups for the second round, the divisional round. But yeah, we both were just.

We both barely survived by getting a point in that game. Moving on to the Saturday night game. Boy, I have a lot to say about this. You kind of alluded to it as well.

I've got some very specific things to talk about, but first we'll go over the points. I got zero because I picked the packers to win, which they should have.

And I had them winning on a walk off field goal, which, you know, could have happened, but I got zero.

They walked off.

They walked off.

All right.

And then you had the Bears winning. So you do get the one point. Your bold prediction was that a dunes they would. Would catch two touchdowns. He did not. He did not catch one.

I don't even know if he caught two passes.

Yeah, not really. He was. He was not a factor in the game. So you're going to be ahead of me. You get one point. I get zero there. But what I really wanted.

There's so much to unpack in that game. No, no pun intended. Is I want to fast so we can obviously, when you're up 21 to 3. You have to win that game.

I'd also say when you're up 27 to 16 with six minutes left, you have to win that game. But I'm going to fast forward all the way to where they had the three point lead and they're.

They.

They got a couple crucial first downs. There's about three minutes left in the game, and they are nearing the Bears red zone. They run a play on first down. I believe the Bears call timeout.

I can't remember exactly on second down and 10. So you got a picture. Packers are up by three.

First downs in this situation are almost as valuable as scoring because you called the ball, you force timeouts, you bleed the clock, you're winning the game. So if you can do that like twice, you win the game, right? And you avoid having to give the ball back at all or, you know, you slowly move it down.

So on second down, they take a shot at the end zone, which you could say, hey, they were going for the kill shot. They just didn't want to take any chances. But that's obviously a very low percentage play. All right, so it's incomplete. So now I'm sorry. Yes.

So after second now. So then the packers call a timeout. Now the clock is stopped, so that's not a problem.

But they use one of their timeouts because they want to get their third and 10 play right. Then what happens after the timeout, Darren? Delay of game. After the timeout, they go five yards back. So now you can never let that happen.

That's bad.

So now you've thrown an incomplete pass on a low percentage play. You've called the timeout, and you've suffered a delay of game penalty all before the next snap of the ball. And then on third down, they do it again.

They go to the end zone again. A very low percentage pass to Dobbs in the corner of the end zone. That's nowhere close to being complete.

And it's so again, you don't force the Bears to call a timeout. You stop the clock and you don't gain any yardage for your kicker who then misses by a few yards. That is malpractice. So.

So now instead of being up 6 at the worst, you're up 3. We all see how it goes. The packers get the ball back with plenty of time if. What.

What a difference it would have made if they had that timeout, right? So that is just beyond all of the things in that game that you can say, what were the packers doing. And there was plenty before that.

And we can talk about the Bears here in a minute because I don't want to just totally dismiss them, but that ending stanza by the packers is, I am not reactionary, Darren. I am not a fire the coach guy. I'm a big picture person.

In that moment I was thinking, you know, they should fire the floor because I don't know how you. You can't. Come on. You know, two years ago they blew the, the playoff game badly in San Francisco. Badly.

They had that game one, they blew it last year they kind of a no show in the, in the Eagles playoff loss. And then this year they completely fall apart against their rivals and embarrass themselves. So I don't know where you go from here.

You know, like, that was so bad.

Yeah, I think there's like an NFL culture and I think sort of Dan Campbell of Detroit sort of epitomizes it where you have these gambler coaches. You know, maybe it started with Ron Rivera when he coached, you know, Gamble and Ron, they called him.

And they just take some really risky chances instead of using common sense, especially at the end of halves, especially end of the game in a playoff game, like you said, you know, why, why not on second and third down, throw a safe pass, like a screen pass or something you can complete with a high percentage that the clock. You're in bounds, let the clock run. You still have great field position for your kicker to kick a field goal and you know, just eat the clock.

You're right. You're battling the clock at that point, you're winning this game and you got to have that kill mentality.

But you can't take two kill shots in the hopes that somebody's going to catch one in the back of the end zone when, you know, it's not like the Bear secondaries like Paper Mache. They have some decent defensive backs there that can handle some of that. And I was just as surprised as you were.

But again, because of our pick, I was rooting for the Bears, so I was kind of happy about it. But yeah, it was foolish.

As to your point, there's a very fine line, maybe it's not that fine, between aggressive and reckless. And what frustrated me, as you know, ultimately I'm a neutral observer in the game. You know, I don't really care.

But what frustrates me, just as a fan of watching the game, was I felt that the packers really bailed out Ben Johnson because now Ben Johnson deserves a ton of credit for where the Bears are this year. I don't take anything away from him at all. It looks like he's going to be a really good hire. But he coached a terrible game. He was terrible.

That team, that offense was bad for the most part of the game. They were not very well prepared. And his fourth down, you know, there's no reason to. It was just stupid, okay?

Going for it on 4th and 5 in the first half from your own 32 is actually just stupid, okay? It's just a dumb thing to do. It's not aggressive, it's not tough. It's not playing the analytics. It's not just dumb, okay?

We can sometimes just say something is dumb. And so he was being, he was kind of coaching a dumb game and somehow the packers like outdumbed him in the end. Now for all the Bears fans as.

Are you going to say anything nice about us? I mean, wow, Caleb. I mean again, I think it's a mark of a very good player to perhaps not play a great game, but. And in a great way.

You know, we've seen that with some great quarterbacks over the years and he was just stellar down, down the stretch. Now I think that fourth down pass, while absolute laser, was also maybe pretty low. I don't think that's how they drew it up, Darren.

I don't think it was like, see that pile of eight guys right there? Thread the needle in between all of them and hit him right between the numbers. I mean, which is what he did. So I mean, fantastic job there.

And then he was very cool in the final drive. Those are big moments for quarterbacks and he outplayed love at the very end. So hats off to him.

But that was two coaches to me that were just bumbling and stumbling all over the field all night, which created a very compelling and interesting game. But I kind of almost didn't want to give credit to anybody because it felt reckless.

Yeah, I mean there was some recklessness to it, but I agree with you. I think there's something and we sort of alluded to it all season long.

You know, we, we had many conversations about the Bears and Caleb and you know, his development and something happened mid season that took him from being a newer quarterback, a second year quarterback to being an all out gunslinger. And the dudes like, you know, when he has to take chances, he starts taking chances.

Now I think he was a little bit reluctant when he was earlier on in his career because maybe last year throwing some, some picks that maybe he knew he shouldn't throw some passes but now he knows when the game's on the line and he has the arm to do it. He's going to like Brett Favre, John Elway, balls into holes that nobody should be attempting to throw a pass to. And I think that was.

That fourth down play was an example of that. And you know, to his credit, you got to take the chance to get the glory. And I think he does it and he pushed it, knows how to push that envelope.

And he's going to be a pretty, pretty good pick for them that they did two years ago as the number one pick.

Oh, yeah. I mean, if you're a Bears fan right now, you're just doing cartwheels for a franchise that has been, you know, quarterback poor first, you know.

Well, really? Yeah. Probably since Sammy Baugh.

Yeah. I mean, really forever.

I'm sorry.

Yeah. Sammy Ball was a skin.

Don't.

Don't take him away from us.

Sid Luckman.

Yeah. So, you know, you know, with.

With very, very brief pockets of, you know, Jim McMahon, Jay Cutler having, you know, moderate success, you know, here and there. But yeah, they've been quarterback needy for, you know, like you were saying, like, like 75 years.

And to, to see a second year guy make these strides with.

Coupled with the team success that they're having that it doesn't really matter right now if some of it is lucky or, you know, just things really falling their way, which it has. It's okay that two things can be true at once. Right.

You know, Caleb can be very impressive and playing very well, and the Bears can be very lucky at the same time. You know, there was something that happened to my team last year. Jayn Daniels was phenomenal and we got lucky.

You know, things went our way, you know, so that, that happens sometimes.

I think the Patriots lived on that for 20 years. They had a very good quarterback, some very good players, and they had a lot of luck, a lot of.

Well, I was over. I'll say this time erases luck for me.

So right now the Bear, like Washington last year, was in a very tight little window where everything was going well. The Bears are this year. If the Bears do this again next year and win wild games and then two years from now they win wild games.

At that point, I'll just say, well, this is who they are. This is just. They've the.

They have a big enough sample now to where we can say, that's why I never really bought into the Brady luck part because it's like, well, he's been doing this for 20 years, so at some point we just Say no. He just knows how to win all the time.

So if, if, if 17 years from now, Darren, you and I are doing a pod and we're talking about Caleb Williams pulling off another miracle in the playoffs. I will not call it luck.

Well, the instance. I'm talking. I'm not talking with that Brady having his hands on the ball.

I'm talking about Russell Wilson throwing an interception at the goal line when you have Marshawn Lynch. I'm talking about, you know, a Steelers call, Jesse James going over the. The goal line and, and they call it a. No, not a touchdown. You know, I'm.

That's what I'm talking about.

That's the kind of like the Edelman catch in the super bowl against the Falcons.

Right, Right. Yeah.

The tuck rule. Yeah, yeah, that. But I'll say if, if you put yourself in position every year, you know, then, you know, you know, what is it?

Luck favors the prepared. Whatever. The. I can't even think of this. Luck favors the well prepared or something like that.

You know, I'm a football guy, not a literary guy, so, you know, so there's some of that. But. So if the Bears can get here again and again and again, then I will stop using the word luck right now. It does feel a little Lucky charms.

Ish to me.

I think they're. They're a pretty solid team and I think they've got a good coach now. And that's. That.

That's the biggest difference this year from last year to this year for the Bears.

And we've seen it every year all over the league, forever. Quarterback, coach, combo wins.

Right?

Yeah, we'll see. Well, you ready to move on to the Sunday games? Okay. Yeah. So we were. We wind up going three for free. Three, four, three.

As viewers with that Bills Jags game, which of all the games, that one wound up feeling to me like the most well played. That. That felt like two. That, that felt like a heavyweight game to me. I liked how it had a move.

I think. I think it felt like that for Josh Allen, too. Like.

Yeah, he's. He's. He's just.

We'll talk about.

He's. He's. He's incredible. He's the best quarterback in the NFL. And what I liked about that game is it kind of had a. It kind of had a. It ascended right.

They were kind of feeling each other out a little bit. It was, you know, it's like.

It's like the second quarter was a little bit better than the first quarter, and then the third quarter was a little bit better than the second quarter. And then the fourth quarter exploded and, you know, it was really. So it was like this gradual build in that game where you kind of feel it coming.

There was a couple moments early in the game where the Jags may have been able to that fourth down that Lawrence didn't get after the fumbled kickoff. So, you know, it's seven to three. Jacksonville, they kick off Buffalo fumbles.

And after that possession, it's still 7:3 because they go forward on fourth, they don't get it. So it doesn't cost the Bills any points. You know, it's totally different game if it's 14 to 3 or even 10 to 3. You know, it kind of gave Allen.

Allen took a little while to get going, right?

But.

But the score stayed tight, so by the time he got going, they were in position to win it. And so we're both going to get one point for that game because we both took the Bills. You had both quarterbacks passing and running for a touchdown.

You came close because Alan did both and Lawrence threw one, but he didn't. Didn't run one. So one for you.

He should have ran one.

Yeah, probably. And then I came close because I had four touchdowns for Allen. He went up a three. So we both get the 11 point there.

But yeah, Josh Allen is the best quarterback in the NFL. I don't really have any hesitation in saying that at this point. And I will also say this.

Football, ultimately, sports, they are supposed to be what they're supposed to be fun. And Josh Allen is so fun. He's one of my favorite non Washington players to ever watch.

He is.

He plays the game with just this unparalleled toughness. He's so physical. He's. He seems like a great dude and he's a great leader and he's a total winner.

And people might say, well, he hasn't even gone to the super bowl yet.

He's got a hot wife.

He's winning all over the place.

Yeah, he's winning like life, even just like me. Darren.

Yeah, my wife listens. So he, He's. He's just phenomenal. He's. He's just special. And I find myself now, my mom's family is all from Buffalo, and I've always said this.

I don't have a second favorite team, okay? I have a one favorite team. And then I have varying levels of disdain for the other 31 teams. Okay. I can come up with a reason to hate all of them.

We've never got that sense from you. That you have. You've never gotten that.

You've never. The bitter. The bitterness.

I've never seen the bitterness in you, Ed.

The bitterness and the anger and the frustration doesn't come through.

Yeah, I've never seen the saltiness. I've never seen that.

Nice. But I do have a little bit of a warm spot in my heart for Buffalo again. My mom's family's from there. She roots for the Bills and the. The Bills.

And my mom made this point when I was talking to her this week that the Bills are very much like the Oklahoma City Thunder here, which we're huge fans of. Season ticket holders thunder up in that there's a just real special connection between the team and the city. And, you know, you saw.

I'm sure you saw some of the highlights from their last game at High Mark, which was Rich Stadium. The Bills mean so much to Buffalo, and Josh Allen, I think, understands that. And I think he wants it so bad for the city, and they love him.

And it can't. I can't help but root for him, too, because, you know, it's.

You want to see that eventually, you know, come to fruition and at least get to the Super Bowl. And he's got a tough road because you have to do it on the road twice more if they're going to do it.

But.

But that was a great win. I don't take anything away from the Jags. They sort of just got Josh Allen. I do think you can say he definitely outplayed Lawrence.

You know, Lawrence was, I would say, okay in the game. He wasn't great, he wasn't bad, but he just wasn't as good as Alan. And that was probably the difference. The better team did not win that game.

The better quarterback did. Yeah.

And especially he. He made more trips to the blue tent than, you know, girl scouts at summer camp. Outs. You know, it's.

It was.

And the guy has a. It looks like maybe a concussion.

He has a finger injury after hitting a helmet of the pass and his leg is, like twisted into some ungodly way that, you know, probably you or I would be hospitalized. And he comes out and is throwing touchdown passes. Unbelievable.

He's so impressive. And that was. That was a really, really fun game to watch.

And then the fourth game of the week, I thought was probably the fourth best game of the week kind of went in order almost. And this game was ugly. You know, this was the Eagles 49ers game, which we're also both going to get a point. We both had the upset there.

So we both pulled the upset with one point. With the Niners you had Purdy with a 100 QB rating. He was much lower than that because the interceptions killed him. But we can talk about it.

He actually I thought played pretty well and then I had McCaffrey going for 125 combined. He went up a 114. So it came up a little short there. So we both got one point there, but we both got the call right.

And I think maybe we both deserve a little bit of a bow there because I think what we both saw, you can confirm this, is that just all year long the Eagles never gave reason to think that they were going to get any better. They every game Eagles played all year, with the exception of a couple of blowouts or easy wins over bad teams was the same. Every game was the same.

Generally marked by very good to great defense and puzzling, confusing, inconsistent and ultimately not good enough offense. And that was the same deal again on Sunday where they had plenty of chances to either put that game away or take charge of it.

The office just wouldn't do it. And the 49ers were able to make that final drive. And then when the Eagles got the ball back, I'm thinking they need a touchdown here.

I don't think they're going to get it because they didn't give us any reason all year to think that when they the offense really needed to come through that they would.

Yeah, I, I think the biggest difference in that game and I mean you, you started hitting on early with the Eagles. I bought into it. I drank your Kool aid and started believing at the end and including last week, I don't think they play as a team.

I think they lost a little bit of that magic. I mean when you have your star receivers dropped what, two really crucial passes. I think he dropped the third one that would have really helped.

And then he's arguing with the coach who's trying to coach the team to win. I mean what the heck is going on in Philadelphia on the sideline where you look at the 49ers, they look like a weld oil machine. They were prepared.

They are lose. They have lost probably more star players than anybody including in game and losing.

Kittle, you know, early in that game and they, it didn't look like they missed a beat. They because they were prepared. They had a game plan. They played as a unit on all three phases and they looked really good in beating the Eagles.

Yeah.

And I think if you ask 32 GMs or 31 exclude the teams that were asked that had, that were asking if you'd rather have Sirianni or Shanahan's head coach. I think, you know, 30 are saying Shanahan.

I don't think there's any doubt that despite some of the success Sirianni's had, and he probably deserves a little more credit than I give him and some other people give him, but he's not like that special kind of coach that Shanahan is. If, if the Niners were healthy even close, then I would, I would really strongly consider them as the favorite to win the Super Bowl.

Their biggest drawback right now is they're just missing so many guys still and then they just want a road playoff game. They're just a smart, tough team. They max out and yeah, that was just, you know, the Eagles, like you said, they just weren't, it's hard to repeat.

They were way better last year. They were way, they were way more consistent last year and they do it. They've got a quarterback question because, you know, what did I say earlier?

Two things can be true at once. Jalen Hurts was a Super Bowl MVP and he deserved it. And he will be the Super Bowl MVP and a two time super bowl participant for the rest of his life.

And he will, he should be very proud of that. And he's a solid NFL quarterback.

But the other thing that I think is true is that he's just not in that class of the other quarterbacks in the league like Josh Allen. I mean, he's not even on the same plan.

But do you really think he had that bad of a game?

I mean, I think.

Those passes that he threw that Brown dropped, I mean those were crucial, especially the one in the fourth quarter when those were very catchable passes.

The Brown pass for sure. And like you said, they don't play a lot of complimentary football.

So it's almost like Brown messes this up and then maybe Hurts misses him on the next one. So if they were just sync up on one of them, it would have been fine.

But here's what I don't know and you probably need to get somebody that really understands the all 22 or is really breaking it down is there's so many plays where the Eagles drop Hertz back and he gives up on the play. It's like a rollout that ends up in a 1 yard run or he throws it away to the sideline.

And what I don't know, you know, I'm not educated enough to know is what is There on those plays or not. There is Hertz missing stuff on these go nowhere plays. Is it offensive coordinator? Is it receivers not getting open? Are they not blocking it up?

Right. Is it not schemed? Right. But he's certainly not making play. He's not making chicken salad out of chicken.

You know what, he's not really ever doing that.

Right.

It's like he's not doing anything special. It's almost like, well, I'm going to drop back. If my guy's open, I'll throw it to him. If he's not, I'll throw it away.

And I was like, okay, well, now it's second and 10, you know, and it's like it just. There's so much of that.

They led the league in three and outs and, you know, so it's hard to piece together what percentage of the blame pie goes to the quarterback in that situation. But I'm a little uncomfortable saying that Jalen Hurts is an elite quarterback or even a great quarterback.

I don't think he's top five in the league right now, but I think he's very, very good quarterback.

He'd be.

He'd be a franchise quarterback on most teams.

I don't know that. I'm not sure about that. You know, because the, the. I don't. I need to see more before I, I. Like I said, I see both. I see both things.

I see this success at last year and then I see the struggles this year, and it's a little confusing to figure out exactly who he is or what he is. And also, why is he not making more plays with his feet right now? You know, they're like, there's never let.

Oh, it's third and six and Hertz gets away and scrambles for the. It's more like, oh, he threw it away again. You know, it's just kind of like, okay, all right. Just the Eagles offense is so boring.

But we don't have to worry about it anymore this year. We don't have to talk about the Eagles until next year. Cry, Eagles, cry.

Oh, boy. Okay, I'll send everybody. If you don't email me, I'll send you Ed's email.

Please do. I'm happy. I've got all kinds of memes I can share about the Eagle. Yeah, I've been eating it up this week again. There's that bitterness for you.

So moving on to the Sunday night game, this is where I'm gonna get a big zero. Wow. You're gonna get it correctly. Neither of us really seem to have the, the flow of this game pegged, right? But you had the winner, right?

You had the Patriots winning. I had the Chargers playing upset. I wasn't close. I had Herbert out playing May. That didn't happen. You had made with four TDs and that didn't happen.

So you're going to wind up with a point for that. I'm going to get a zero. And I don't have a whole lot to say about this game other than I'm going to be hard on another quarterback here.

I thought Collinsworth did a nice job or fairly early in the game, saying, hey, look, Herbert doesn't have a lot of help out here, but he actually hasn't been under duress that much. Now, about midway through the third quarter, the floodgates opened and it was ridiculous. He had no, it was, you know, he was under siege every snap.

But there are times early in that game where he did have time and they were doing nothing. He was, he was terrible in the game. He was not good. It is concerning now that this is his third playoff run.

He's 0 and 3 and last year he threw four interceptions. This year he does nothing and gets demolished.

And then in his first game, you know, they had the good first half against the Jags and they gave up the 30 point lead. So it's worrisome. You're not moving on from him or anything like that. But it's also like, dude, that was a playoff game and that's what you gave us.

Yeah, it was a little bit disappointing that the Chargers only scored three points. I think it was evident right after was that within 24 hours the offensive coordinator got canned.

So probably deservedly so, because he got fired by the other Harbaugh too. So, yeah, for, for much the same reason in a playoff game of underperforming with a, a potent offense.

But I think it tells you that maybe the Patriots defense is improving and a little bit better than most people give him credit for because they played a pretty solid game and I think they played like their coach did. They played like variable, you know, that's, they, they emulated his play. And I, I thought that was a pretty good game.

And yeah, May didn't have the, the big game that I thought he did, but I thought he played respectfully.

He was under a little bit of pressure himself and played pretty, pretty solid for, you know, being the first time in a high pressure situation, you know, in a playoff game like that that I thought he did all right. You know, I thought May played well.

In the second Half. And now the other thing that I thought he did pretty well was that they flipped while they weren't scoring. They were flipping the field a lot.

You know, there was a couple times where they were backed up in their own end zone and they may not have scored on the drive, but they got out to like the 50 and then they punted and pinned the Chargers back.

And they weren't going for it on 4th and 5. Right?

Exactly. They were playing smart football. Right. So they were, they were just kind of playing to the tone of the game and the context of the game very well.

And I thought May was fine. He made a couple of dumb mistakes, but, you know, that's fine. They were over, they overcame them.

You know, we didn't know at the time there was this out of nowhere quarterback that nobody here that was filling in for Drew Bledsoe.

I, I, we didn't really know anything about the Patriots other than that they keep winning and oh my gosh, the Patriots are in the divisional round of the playoffs. It's like, well, okay, I guess we got to take them seriously.

And it kind of reminds me of, similar to, to that sort of like, you know, I wonder if this is going to be the first Patriots team again, you know, 10 years from now. I'd be like, oh yeah, the 20, 25 Patriots. Remember, they weren't quite as known and now everybody knows them, everybody hates them.

Just like the, just like the, the Brady teams. I mean, it's a long way to go before we get there, but I see some similarities.

Yeah, there's some similarities there.

So yeah, that's how the, that's how the, that's how those dynasties started. Those first few teams weren't dominant. They were kind of tough and gritty and kind of got the job done.

Late in the game kind of surprised people and then, you know, whatever it was, you know, four or five years into the run, that's when they started. Okay, they're 13 and three. Every year they scoring 50 points.

You know, now everybody knows they're a juggernaut, but it was a little bit of a slow build for the Patriots and gosh, we might be seeing it again.

I don't know if they're going to have. Not having the, the.

The evil genius with there to play the games he did in the draft of, you know, always trading back and getting extra draft capital and, you know, I don't know that they were going to be that brave.

So things will probably catch up with them, you know, drawing it, you know, late 20s in the draft this year and you know, if they do it a couple of years in a row, that can hurt you pretty good too. Just look what it did to the Chiefs, right?

Sure. Well, do you want to even. You want to just be done?

Yeah. I thought that was the end of the playoffs. Was there any other game?

Well, I told you I didn't really like that they played Monday playoff games, so. But I guess we'll talk about it. Darren, I'm going to get two for this. I'm the. It was the only game that either of us got both parts right.

I said the Texans were going to win and I said they were going to hold the Steelers to 17 or less. You said the Steelers would win and that Boswell would kick him to victory.

And I'll let you know, as our, as our Steelers fan here, I'll let you kind of take the mic.

But my quick observation, I think if I'm a Steelers fan, the most glaring thing and the most frustrating thing and the most deflating thing is I'm not kidding when I say this, Darren. I would have graded C.J. stroud in that game as an F. An actual F, meaning the winning quarterback was an F and they won the game by 24 points.

That's how crazy of a poor effort it was for the Steelers offense is that the opposing quarterback was horrendous. C.J. straw was terrible in that game, just terrible. I don't know what he was doing. He fumbled five times.

Now, they didn't lose them all, but he fumbled five times through a terrible interception, was missing guys all over the place and they still walk away with a 24 point win.

Yeah, I mean, I think the 24 point differential is a little bit aggravated, you know, because some of it was the garbage time. The, the pick six at the end. I think it was. The game was over.

That's fair.

And I don't think they. The effort was put in for the Steelers offensive players to tackle them. Okay.

But I think that the defensive lines of both teams dominated the offensive lines of both teams. It was extremely disappointing of. For.

As a Steelers fan thinking, hey, we Got this young group of players and these two tackles that are young that are, you know, playing one guy's four string when he started the year, but he's playing pretty solid. But our number one pick from last year is whiffed on a play.

I don't know how the hell he.

Whiffed as bad as he did. Didn't touch the guy. I think, you know, any you or I could at least got a hand on a guy so he didn't, you know, go at Rogers like that.

Rodgers, I kind of felt bad for, because he had no time at all for him. And, you know, I hate to say it, but here's one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. Might be his last play.

Might be a pick six, and he's gotta walk.

I'm sorry.

He will now.

Yeah, if he wanted to do the Flacco thing and be a backup somewhere, he could do that. He's capable of that role, but I don't think that's what he wants. And there's just no team in the NFL that should turn their keys over to.

I don't see any team in the league that's like, boy, if they just had a competent quarterback, they would win the super bowl next year. There's nobody really in that situation. So what's he gonna do? Is he gonna go play quarterback for the Browns or, You know what I mean?

And, you know, well, like, what's, What's. What's next? He can't be in Pittsburgh anymore. I felt bad for him.

You know, he was under siege in that game, and there really wasn't much there, but he also can't move at all. So one way to. To. To.

And we'll talk about it when we talk about our matchups this week, one way to maybe hurt a defense like Houston is to, you know, quarterback scrambling around a little bit, extending plays, you know, running for first down. He just can't move.

Yeah, I. I mean, I think you're right. He. He had his tool too old to move around like he used to.

That, of course, that ACL injury had two years ago, I think, just sort of just took away any mobility that he had. And I don't even know if a mobile quarterback was going to escape that because that was just an onslaught.

You know, like I said, I think both defensive lines and edge rushers had great games on both sides. The Texans are. They're just beasts. I mean, they're. They're strong up the middle, they're strong on the edges, and it's.

It's a tough task for line, but I don't think my team played, had a very good effort against these guys. I think they were intimidated and it showed.

And yeah, it was, it was, it was, that was just a, it was a mismatch. The, the Steelers, like I said, the Steelers defense really kept the minute, hung tough.

Stroud was orbiting another planet doing whatever he was doing to help keep the Steelers in the game too.

And it was 7, 6 at the end of the third quarter.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was, it was, yeah, it was absolutely. It was there. It was there.

I mean, the Steelers were one play away from taking like a seven point lead early in the fourth quarter, but that just wasn't gonna happen there. That, that Texans defense wasn't gonna allow it. I don't think the Steelers were capable of it. And when you look at it, it's just like.

And they had their shots in the first half. I mean, Metcalf dropping that pass was like, been like at least a 25 yard gain down the right sideline.

Maybe he even scores on that because he's far enough ahead and maybe can beat the safety to the end zone. You know, there's things like that very reminiscent of what AJ Brown did.

You know, dropping a similar pass, a crucial moment, and that could have been a game changer. But you know, C.J. stroud, like you said, he, I mean, he was not handling snaps well.

Actually, I think the, the one, the first fumble recovery, the one where Hawaii Black got, that might have been an interception. I'm not, I'm not so sure that wasn't a tuck rule play there, but either way it was a Steelers ball, so.

But yeah, all year long this, it's very hard to, to play offense and to win in the NFL if your margins are that tight on offense. But like the Steelers were. All year, they, the Steelers had some good games this year.

They had some days where the offense seemed to work pretty well and kind of got the job done. But at no point where you're like, whoa, this Steelers offense is humming. You know what I mean? There was none of that ever.

It was always like, oh, you know what, they, they had a good drive there, or Rogers made a nice player, that's a good throw, or DK got open. You know, it was, it was such a struggle. And, and there were so many times throughout the. And, and that's where you're like, you know what?

This, this is just not sustainable with the 42 year old quarterback.

Right.

Like, because what's next? You know, he's just gonna be your older, you know, so it's.

It.

It Tomlin, and you can, you can speak about him. I think he gave your franchise a great gift at the end here. I really do, because I think it was time.

And my guess is that Rooney wanted this to happen if you, if you hooked him up to truth serum or the lie detector test, but he wasn't going to fire him. And maybe, like in his heart, he didn't really want him to leave, but kind of knew that maybe he should.

So by Tomlin walking, he takes the pressure off the owners to make the hard decision. He saves them the money that they would have had to pay him, fire him. And I believe.

Right.

They retain his rights.

So I believe next year, if he does decide to coach, which at some point he's going to coach again, somebody has to negotiate with the Rooneys to get him. So I feel like Tomlin did a very classy thing in a lot of ways and he made the tough decision for the organization.

Well, I don't think the Rooneys. I mean, this is, this is unbelievable that most fans don't understand, but I'm 59 years old and I only know of three coaches from my franchise.

Haven't fired one since 68.

Right. Yeah, I was. Yeah, they have not fired one. Right. Mo left when he wanted to cower, left on his own, Tomlin left on his own.

I don't think Rooneys were going to fire him because you have, you have three guys that they hired as guys that were in their mid-30s defensive backgrounds, and he all stayed for, you know, more than a decade and a half, all won a Super Bowl. It all went to multiple Super Bowls, took their teams to multiple Super Bowls. So. And it's not like, I mean, Tom.

The teams weren't playing bad people in Pittsburgh yelling the fire Tomlin thing, I thought that was ridiculous. There's. I mean, the guy hasn't had a losing season in 19 seasons. I mean, this is an unbelievable stat.

He only, in 19 seasons, he only had two games where there weren't a playoff implication involved. Think about that for a second. Right? I mean, either you have a really crappy season and you don't have.

You have games that don't mean anything, or you, I guess on the other end, you didn't dominate your division where you can just rest players into it. Only two of them. It didn't. Didn't matter. Think about how many games that is.

It's crazy. And I don't think the Rooneys were going to fire him either. Darren. I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is that they probably should have.

Meaning it was just time to go. It was. Sometimes this happens, right. It's nobody's fault. It doesn't mean it, it's just time. It's gotten stale. It's time for a change for all parties.

And it's almost like Tomlin was the mature one and saw it and was like, you know what guys, you're not going to have to do this. You don't, you can, you can retain the never fired a coach badge because let's be honest, Darren Art, right. The, the he should have probably fired.

No, I mean, he may have held on a decade too long. You know, like they were not good all throughout the 80s, but that was.

In the era where you did keep a coach and gave Right. Longevity. I mean, look at Shula, Landry, Noel. They were there for, you know, damn near two decades, all of them. I mean, Landry, 29 years.

You know, Tomlin's probably tired. I'm sure he's recognized it this year in the last couple years in the playoff failures and the poor quarterback play probably took a toll on him.

It was just time. It was just time.

He'll be back somewhere and this gives the Steelers a chance to start over and we'll see if the next guy can last the rest of your life.

Maybe it's actually genius by Rooney if, I mean, because if you look at Denver last year had to give New Orleans or two years ago, had to give New Orleans a first and a second round pick to have the rights for Sean Payton.

Yep.

Maybe it paid off for them. They have a pretty good team right now. Do you think that Mike Tomlin would maybe even get more, they'd get more from Mike Tomlin.

I don't know.

It's possible being in two Super Bowls.

Yeah, it's possible.

One Super Bowl. Yeah. They make it two number one picks for this two years from now.

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised. Yeah. It also depends on what the market's going to be, you know, this year they probably wouldn't with the 10 openings, so.

But maybe next year it'll be different.

With the harbor out there and you know, Stefanski and the guy from Miami and the Cowboys. Former, former coach.

You know, there's a lot of former coaches out there that won, you know, one Super Bowls out there, you know, right now and yeah, probably wouldn't.

But I don't think Tomlin wants to coach this coming year because I, I, I knew there Was rumors he was talking to some networks about being television analyst.

Sometimes you need a break. 19 years doing the same thing. I also read that, you know, he.

He started his coaching career the year after he Left College in 95 and has coached every year since. That's a long time. So, you know, it's, you know, break.

To put it in perspective, Tomlin started coaching before the original iPhone was released.

That's wild. That's wild. Yeah, we'll see. We'll see. Next Steelers coach has got a lot to live up to.

Yeah, yeah, he definitely does. Some big shoes, but hopefully they'll stay. They'll stay true. And it'll be.

If they stay true, it'll be someone in their mid-30s that was a coordinator that sort of comes out of nowhere and has a defensive background.

And yeah, that would be the. That would be the.

That's the formula. Hey, let's stick with it till it doesn't work.

It's worked for 60 years. So. So, yeah, that gives the total. That was. It was a fun wild card weekend. The games got a little bit worse as it went along, but that.

We both wound up with five points. I caught you there at the end. Which retains your one point lead on the season. It's now 90 to 89 as we enter the divisional round.

Okay. Still tight. Still tight.

Very tight.

All right. All right. Well, I believe it. Is it your pick this week?

I'll start.

Okay. Yeah, go ahead and start.

So we're just going to go in order and what we're going to do this week is we're going to pick a winner and two bold predictions for each game. So a total of three for each game. So another total of a potential total for 12. Okay, so one for each. You got to get the bold part exactly right.

So we're going to start in Denver and, you know, the game's basically a pick them. It feels like a pick them. It's the second week in a row. I think you are choosing between the better team or the better quarterback.

Josh Allen is objectively better than Bo Nicks. It's not close. You can't even argue any other way.

No doubt.

And I also don't think you can argue that the Broncos are not the better. The Broncos are absolutely a better team than the Bills. Their defense is better. They're probably more balanced overall. They're at home.

Broncos are better than Buffalo. Allen is better than Knicks. Weigh it. Which one do you think? Which way it's going to go. I'm sort of tossing the coin.

I'm going to go with Superman again. I'm going to say that Josh Allen leads him to another victory. The Bills win that this time.

My two bowl predictions are the Allen accounts for three touchdowns against a good defense, a really good defense and that Bo Nix makes a critical error sometime in the second half of that game that helps swing the game in Buffalo's favor. Whether that's a fumble and interception, a wide open mission somewhere. Knicks is going to have a, some second year quarterback jitters issues.

Allen's going to put some pressure on him and Knicks is going to make a big error.

All right. Interesting, interesting. I'm, I'm going to agree with you. I think the Bills are going to win this game for the first part of that.

It's going to be, it's going to be a close game. Josh Allen is going to have some fourth quarter heroics again like he always does. That's not part of my bold prediction.

My bold predictions are James Cook's going to have three explosive runs. So three runs of plus 20 in the game and I'm going to go on the other side.

I'm going to say that Denver is going to end up having three successful field goals in the game for count for their point total.

Denver, three field goals.

Okay. And they regret it because maybe they're going to wish they would have went forward on a fourth down or something to get, get the extra four points.

I think that's going to be that close of a game.

Okay. Of the four games, that's the one I'm looking forward to the most as well. Also, this is something where the NFL needs to do better.

That game should be Sunday and the Rams Bears game should be Saturday. I realize they work these things out for networks, but the Rams and the Bears both played on Saturday last week. Now they're both playing on Sunday.

The Broncos have had two weeks off. The Bills played on Sunday, now they're playing on Saturday.

So you're unnecessarily giving the Bills a short week when you easily could have just done Rams, Bears and avoided that.

It would have been worse if they would had the Texans play on Saturday.

Right? Well that's part of the thing. The Monday team can't play. The Monday winner has to play Sunday. That is like a rule they have.

So that by having the Monday game that makes things a little more difficult. This is which goes back to my thing last week. They should do triple header Saturday triple headers. They don't often listen to me though there.

I think they should go Back to the old days and play everything on Sunday.

Yeah, no, I don't want. I don't want overlapping. I don't want overlapping. I don't want to have to balance two games at once.

All right. I do.

Well, no, but my whole life they've always. They've never done that for the last 40 years. They've always done Saturday, Sunday.

I think in the 70s. I don't remember.

Maybe the 70s. Maybe the 70s.

70S.

I'm not that old, Darren. I was born.

Of course, you didn't have wild card teams back then.

Right, right, right, right. Yeah.

No, I don't want.

Oh, I don't want playoff games overlapping, but I also don't want them on Monday. So we'll move on to the. The next game. This one is hard for me.

I'm going to pick the Seahawks to beat the Niners and I'm going to pick them to win the game by 10 or more points. And I'm also going to say that Sam Darnold does not throw an interception in the game. I'm gonna put a little caveat on this one, though.

I feel like it's a little shaky because I really, really love Kyle Shanahan and what they're doing there. And it wouldn't shock me if they could. They can dial something up, but they are beat up. We saw these two teams play just two weeks ago.

The San Francisco, San Francisco office had no answers for Seattle and I'm not sure what they're going to figure out in two weeks. Going on the road now without Kittle, who was available in the first game.

I just think it's going to be one of those games that maybe stays pretty close. The 49ers scratch and claw to stay in it and they just can't.

I don't think it's going to be a close game at the end. I mean, I think your 10 point thing is probably pretty accurate. I also have Seattle winning.

People were saying, you know, well, you know, San Francisco did good. You know, Kiddo got hurt early in a game. They did good against the Eagles, who have a good defense. Well, true.

But here's the importance of KD in the Seattle game against Seattle this year. He has 14 receptions, three touchdowns in those two games against Seattle. That's, that's 21 points, you know, really that he accounts for. And there.

Can they make that up? Maybe a little bit of it. But it's not like they have their full receiver staff either. You know, who knows if personal is going to play or what.

Condition he's going to be if he does play. You know, they've had guys that haven't played all year long at wide receivers.

They were Counting on Can McAffrey, you know, do everything all game long. Again, he's playing a very aggressive defense that's, that's tough all the way around, maybe even a little bit better than Philadelphia.

And Seattle also has a very good offense that usually doesn't stumble too much, that can put pressure on you where you have to go and score. I think that's a little bit too much to overcome.

I think my bold predictions on this the two are, I think Purdy's going to get picked off twice in this game because he's going to have to push the ball. And I think Seattle is going to hold the lead the entire second half. It won't even be close in the second half. Seattle leads.

Okay, gotcha. So we're pretty much aligned so far going on to the early Sunday game. Stroud has.

He's rattled me because I think my initial gut was actually to maybe pull an upset here behind the strength of that Texans defense.

But after seeing what I saw Monday night and thinking that Nico Collins very well could be out, that looked like a real concussion and that's a short week. So I, I'd be a little surprised if he plays, which is big.

I'm going with the Patriots and I'm going to say that unlike Aaron Rodgers, Drake May is going to find some success against the Houston defense with his legs to keep some, you know, create some. Create some yards scrambling running. And I'm gonna say he goes for 40 or more rushing yards in the game. That is. That is important.

And I'm going to say that Houston scores two or fewer touchdowns in the game.

Interesting. Well, here's where it starts to get interesting because I do not agree with you in this. I think C.J. stroud is going to bounce back in this game.

I think the Texans defense is just too nasty. I think Nico Collins is going to get out of protocol and he is going to play and have an impact. So Texans are going to beat. Beat the Pats.

My, my two other predictions are I think Houston is going to score a safety in this game. Their defense is so good, and I think they're going to force three turnovers of the Patriots.

Okay, so you think their defense keeps on rolling and just keeps team? Well, I mean, they've been great all year.

And I'm not saying this. I think Stroud and the offense are going to do some, some things too, but.

Gotcha.

We know the Patriots have a good defense, so it's not gonna.

That just rattled me a little. I. I was really high on the Texans community playoffs and I'm lower on them than I was even after the win. So I just. I'm not. I'm not seeing it.

So our final game, we're gonna go Rams, Bears, and I just. We'll just keep it going. We'll just. Let me just keep. Let me just keep this Bears train rolling. They just keep winning.

I'll keep being wrong, and Chicago can celebrate every time I make a pick because I'm picking the Rams again. And I'm not saying a blowout. I don't think that's happening. But I'm going to say a somewhat comfortable Rams win.

I think Stafford goes for 300 plus yards and that the Bears defense sacks Caleb three or more.

The Rams defense.

Rams. I'm sorry. The Rams defense sacks Caleb three or more times. That Bears secondary is a little shaky. That's a little bit of.

They're pretty good up front and they've gotten better. But that secondary, Scott, some holes sometimes and they give up some big plays.

And you know, like again, that drive that they had to have when they, when they were down by three, they actually really weren't stopping the Packers. The packers converted some huge pass plays until they decided to, you know, throw the Hail Mary's for some reason.

So I'm going to say Stafford takes advantage of that.

I am a little wary of the weather if, you know, it doesn't look like they're really calling for snow, but there sounds like maybe some brutal cold and we kind of know what that sometimes does. The quarterbacks and passing games. I'm a little. A little wary of that. Although Stafford was excellent in the snow in Philly last year. But.

So that's my predictions. The rams win Stafford 300 or more and three sacks from the Rams defense.

All right, well, I'm going to agree with you again here. I think the Rams. I think the Rams are the best team in the NFL this year. I think they're the most consistent. They have.

They're solid on both sides of the lines. They have good cooking game, they're well coached. I think they're going to beat the Bears.

My two predictions are Kyron Williams is going to go over 100 yards and Puk over 100 yards each of them. Total offense got. I think Puk is going to run the ball and I think Williams is going to catch the ball a few times.

Pook is awesome, man. He's, he's, I think he's the best receiver in the NFL right now. And yeah, and that's also, it's also a nod for me to McVeigh.

They, they escaped last week. They, they, they got away with one. And I think they're going to be really well prepared.

I think they're going to have some answers on both sides of the ball and it's going to be one of those, the better team wins the game.

I don't think it's going to be, you know, whitewashing or a massacre or anything like that, but I think it'll be sort of a solid win and it'll set up. We're both predicting a Rams Seahawks Round three is what we're predicting for the NFC championship.

And I'm predicting a Bills Patriots, AFC East, AFC championship game. And you're seeing Buffalo. I'm sorry, you're saying you're sending Buffalo to Houston.

So there you go.

Should be fun. Well, I, I, I think the NFL world should be rooting for Josh Allen and the Bills.

I don't necessarily think we want a Broncos Patriots or Broncos Texans AFC championship game. The Bills and Allen would be so much more intriguing and interesting and fun. Sorry, Denver.

Yeah, I, I think that the NFL would love to have the Texans in there so they have a different team in the mix. It's not the Bills, it's not the Broncos, it's not the Patriots, you know, all the time. It's, you know, the Rams recently won.

I think that would be probably the best thing for the NFL to have that.

The NFL wants the quarterback, Darren. The nf, the NFL wants, the NFL wants the quarterback. Trust me.

They want one of the largest cities in the country to have a chance of championship and which Houston definitely is. So yeah, I think they want that too. They want, they want market, they want money. So that's, but I don't think it's going to come down to that.

I think the Texans are going to be a better team here and win that. But.

Well, we'll see. We're, we're pretty aligned.

Yeah, most definitely. But we do have some differences in those, those two extra picks will make it really interesting.

And we also have a national championship coming up this week. That'll be our Monday night game. That's right.

You know, having a national championship with the high flying Hoosiers coming out of nowhere and playing Miami who has had a resurgence of, you know, they're goodness.

So it's too long. I agree with a Lot of the coaches that complained about the schedule. I'm out of college football mode completely already. It's like, what, this?

Oh, yeah. It's like I have to keep reminding myself, oh my gosh, that's right. The national championship game is Monday. I've stopped.

It's like I stopped caring about college football on New Year's Day. So it's, they need to change. They've got a lot of coaches have spoken out about that. Figuring out a way to maybe start the season earlier.

Maybe like, like August 20th, something like that. And then having this game played on New Year's Day, that's probably what needs to happen.

Because this doesn't feel right at all to me that we're still talking about college football. It's out of the consciousness.

I'm not concerned about that because I kind of like it. I like it being this late and, you know, ending in middle of January, which it has for the last 20 years.

It's, you know, we have national championship games played in mid January, but this.

Is the first, this is, it's the first time it's this late. It used to be like the 8th, 9th, 10th, now we're at the 19th.

But I'm okay with that. My, my problem is put the best 12 teams in the tournament. That's what they should do.

I don't want to have these teams that are, you know, don't, you know, they're good teams, but they're not 12 best in the country playing. You know, that's what I think they need.

I disagree with that. So we disagree with each other on that because to me, then those teams shouldn't be FBS.

We should shrink the FBS down to like 50 teams and start a new division.

Because if you can go undefeated or win your conference and not get a chance at the playoffs, then what's the point, you know, because they're non conference.

Games, they could schedule somebody that is a competent team instead of.

Well, they don't.

But they won double a team. You know that.

That's not the small. It's not the small schools that are reluctant to schedule the big schools. The big schools don't want to schedule James Madison.

It's too big of a threat. So, you know, Oregon doesn't want to play JMU in September because there's no benefit to Oregon there.

You know, if they win, they don't get a whole lot of credit for it. But JMU is kind of a dangerous team. So they're not. So that's the problem.

But, but that's where the, the NCAA can step in and say, or the college football gurus playoffs, hey, we expect you to have this thing, you know, do it on. You know, I'm not saying use the Dunkle system, but use something like that where you have a power ranking.

You know, hey, these teams played teams that were competent that in the last five years have been in the top 10 or whatever. You know, to do it, you don't have to have it just for that year, but have it so competent.

You know, JMU and tulane, that's the two that went in 12, they didn't play anybody and they, they got in.

But then like I said then they shouldn't, they shouldn't.

We should announce that before the year that this is like a different division and if you play Tulane in the regular season, you don't get credit for it. If they can't play in your playoff, then if you beat them, you don't get a win for it. It's just like a preseason game. That's what it's.

But you know, the, but the thing was actually the ACC screwed us up. But the they, but they, the rule was, is to have the top five to five conference winners have to go in. That's what they're saying.

So there wasn't five conference winners because the ACC had an eight and five team play whatever three loss team for their championship. When Miami is sitting at home and not in a conference championship, which is unbelievable to me. It's ridiculous.

I guess they're, they're trying to fix that to, you know, unbelievable. So if Miami is in there, then you do have a Notre Dame or a Texas or somebody that deserves to be in there more so than a JMU or a Tulane.

One of those teams is out.

To me it's just like the NCAA tournament. That's what, that's the beauty of it is that we get representation from across the country.

Everybody knows that the 16 seed isn't as good as the 12th place team in the Big 12. But you know, you win your little tiny conference, you get a shot at the big boy.

And that's kind of the way it's, that's kind of the way it's, it's set up.

And I, I like that college football's introduced that, you know, be, you know, just be better if you're one of the Power 5 schools, you know, just you have to, when you're, when you're, when your conference just like the little school did. That's kind of how I look at it. But anyway, that's a whole nother podcast, Darren. I think we've set a record with length on this one already.

Okay. All right, Ed.

Well, we will see what happens this week and with our predictions and we'll talk about it next week and make our picks for the championship games coming up. So look forward to that and look forward to talking to you next week.

Thanks for having me, Darren.

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