 Never good thing to be talking kickers after big games that we've, of course, our Adam Vinitieri will be here to break down Mahir, the missed extra points where they go from here. Cowboys taken down the goat. Where does he go from here? All wrapping up a super wild card weekend. Everybody K-Adams here on Up and Atoms and I love nothing more than when players shut everybody up all week, probably longer than a week. Just leading up to any Cowboys game this season with Jack Prescott under center, especially with this playoff game up against the goat. What are we gonna see? Which Jack Prescott will show up on the field? Will he avoid those costly turnovers that have haunted him all season? How far can he take this team into the playoffs? Well, he dominated from pretty much the start to finish on their way to this 31-14. Never really got interesting. It was sort of weird. It was a rare NFL viewing experience where you're like this. All right, I think we collectively, we know what's up here. Like let's call it a night, shall we? We don't have to stay out here and play the rest of this thing. There was no turnaround. There was no 28 to three vibe to this at all. And Jack Prescott and Michael McCarthy and Micah and CD and Van Der Roos, all of them, they oust the goat. Five touchdowns. How many turnovers? None that has shut up material. That's pretty good. And now his not first, not second, but his third trip to the divisional round. So here is a very self-aware Jack Prescott talking about his personal turnaround from that terrible, dismal week 18 performance against the commanders that had everybody riled up and worried about last night. I got away from the way that I play this game, got greedy, tried to just force some throws, tried to take the big ones. And that's not who I've been throughout my career. Obviously just taking what they give me, waiting on the big shot. And I think it was uncharacteristic. So yeah, sure it was a way for me to just dial back in. But at the sense, I mean, I wiped that clean and just I knew what this game meant. I knew how important it was for us. And just as I said, prepared. Okay, to be fair, it looked like the struggles might continue. Those misfires on three straight passes to open up the game. But once he got those out of the way, little rust, little whatever, he barely missed again. Dak leads the league in regular interceptions though, okay, he does. Nope, not last night, near perfect passer rating. Everyone can zip it. We can all shut up. They scored the first, I mean, the 24 points of the entire game, four straight touchdowns on the road. And I'm already sitting here like, oh man, I need to eat my words on what I was saying about San Francisco yesterday being unstoppable and no one can play them. If the Cowboys play like this, it'll be a game. It'll be a game on the road in the Bay Area this week in the divisional round. But they do have to figure out the kicking situation that everyone's talking about. Never good in everybody's talking kicking after a big game. It just is not. And Brett Maher missed a playoff record four extra points. So Adam Vinitieri has agreed to hop on and give his thoughts in a bit. No one's more clutch than him. We'll get into the mental side of it. And also what happens this week? What are the discussions happening? Who trusts who and doesn't? And what should the Cowboys do? What does McCarthy do in this situation when history is made in dismal kicking performances despite a win? Now let's get to the McCarthy part of this because this coach deserves some love this morning. So many questions, so much criticism about his job over the past year. And really from the moment that Sean Payton stepped away from the Saints, the connective tissue was going on between Sean Payton taking this job in Dallas. Eventually Jerry Jones loving Sean Payton, wanting that. And it always sort of felt like Mike McCarthy, the world is on your shoulders. You mess up. You wear a Vince Lombardi coat. You show up to Lambeau wearing that. You're going down. Your job is over. And you could see what I love to see is relief when things happen for people and that you saw that from the moment that the game ended. I mean, Kirk Cousins, shield your eyes. This is what we saw. I mean, this is, yeah, there we go. Look at this. All love in this Cowboys locker room. Man, they really looked so good last night. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Packard's fans are like this morning. I don't know, he's a pretty good coach. It looks like, man, this guy that's dancing. By the way, what is that? Can we see that again? They're re-racking it, everybody. That's TV lingo. Okay, so he gets the chain. Everybody's celebrating. I would never take my shirt off in the locker room knowing there's cameras in there. Everybody's running around. Oh, ho, ho, ho, ho. It's amazing. It's like a guy at a bowling alley when he hits a strike and that's like the dance move that he makes. This guy went four and one with Cooper Rush. Double digit wins and back-to-back seasons. Doesn't happen for Cowboys. Coaches of late. He beat Tom Brady with all that pressure mounting about his job. So have yourself a day, McCarty. You go hit the bowling alley in the arcade. Get yourself some wings. Let's keep this thing going. On the buck side of things, this game played out the way most of their season has the offense completely out of sorts. Brady did things that were head-scratching inexplicable. I always know where I'm at with Tom Brady. I no longer do. This throw, huh? This is his first Red Zone Interception since 2019. He and Evans, I mean, you heard Troy, what is going on? They seemed like they were on totally different pages again after we thought, no, no, no, they're back and he had a tune to your game. He had a touchdown. He had a touchdown. Now they're like, lovey-dovey again. Everything's good. No. And the defense also talented did not play up to their potential in this one either. So the speculation, the takeaway is that it's over and it's all going to happen. Just like it is with Aaron Rodgers, but in a different way. Because we saw him leave Brady the field and he's at home. He's kissed. There's his parents, kissing his parents that we're all going to speculate. And we should. There's a lot going on. And he leads us on to believe different things. We didn't see this though last year. I was at that game and we went back and watched the highlights because I never even saw the broadcast of it. I was in Tampa for this one. He, I remember got beat up by the Rams, loses to the Rams, his face was bleeding at one point and he left the field and it was just, I don't know. I don't, there was no parents in the field. There were no pictures being taken, none of that. And he sat at the podium and he said, or stood at the podium rather and said, I need to figure out what I'm doing. I need some time. This feels different. And it's fair to, you know, he said, I want to play until I'm 45. Like, okay, well there's 45 birthday candles on the cake. You did it kid. The question for Tom Brady is, is it enough? Is it enough? And I think, do we have the Tom Brady sound? We do. Let's go to him post game and hear what he had to say after this loss. I just want to say thank you guys for everything this year. I really appreciate all your effort. And I know it's hard for you guys too. It's hard for us players to make it through and you guys got a tough job. And I appreciate all that you guys do to cover us and everyone who watches and is a big fan of the sport. We're very grateful for everyone's support. And you know, hopefully, you know, I love this organization. It's a great place to be. And thank you everybody for welcoming me. All you regulars and just very grateful for the respect and I hope I gave the same thing back to you guys. So thank you very much. Appreciate it. You hope you gave the same thing back after like this season? It seems like a goodbye, right? It's hard to imagine Brady staying there as well with how they're playing, what they look like. And it's also hard to imagine him wanting to go out on that type of performance. That's the question. What is enough? What if you never get back there? Are we going to have to bring a shepherd's hook in and take you out? Because you're going to want to leave on top. And if Brady goes somewhere else, Raiders, great. You're going to go to the AFC West and contend with what's going on with Justin Herbert and Patrick Mahomes out there. Like, and maybe somebody comes in and turns to listen around like, will you win then? And let's say you do go to the AFC West or any division, any team and you win. Is that going to, are you finally then going to be like, okay, I won at 46, I won at 47 and now I'm good to walk away. Are you going to have that same adrenaline and say like, I still like, how does this movie end? We don't know. I'd love to know how everybody else thinks I will say, I listened to his Let's Go podcast radio that he does with Jim Gray and Larry Fitzgerald was on yesterday and hearing Brady before the game. It was just very, not nonchalant but optimistic, almost like, I'm just going to go enjoy it. Like, we got to play the game, we're ready, we're prepared. Like, let's go out there and do it. It was very like, oh, let's walk through the casino, put 20 on black, oh, I lost 20 bucks. Like, let me walk out. It was different. It just all felt different. And I'm not going to go into the personal life part of it because none of us know that. None of it, like all these like Giselle gifts, like you're all idiots for putting those up just wasting your own time. We don't know anything about that and what that would play into or not play into we will not know unless he were to tell us. But we're all just speculating, I guess, on what he wants and what is enough. It used to be what does he want, what would make him happy. Playing football makes him happy. We know that from him, we know that from his actions, we know that from his close friends like Rob Gronkowski who'll be on our show tomorrow and we'll ask him the same thing. He just wants to be happy, playing football makes him happy. How does it end? That's the question. What and when is enough? For now though, let's focus on what we do know and the divisional round schedule is finally cemented. It's that baby Saturday, Jacksonville at Kansas City, 430 Eastern, Giants at Eagles in the nightcap, 815 Marissa, are you feeling good? You're good? Oh, super confident. We like it then Sunday. We have Bengals, Bills at 3 Eastern, how are you feeling about that one, Brian? I like that. Brian's a Bills fan, he likes it. Okay, great analysis here on the program. Cowboys, Niners at 630 to finish out the weekend. You know, I also like the Bengals game, actually. Thank you, even without a pencil. I will say, we told Andrew Whitworth. We had a fight for him. I had spotters at the airport. He did not show up, he's easy to spot. Andrew Whitworth. There's a direct flight to Buffalo too, direct. There's a direct flight to Buffalo? Okay, well, hold on. He's gonna just get to the game, he can make it. He wrote back to us. He did, I saw it this morning, and he said something about, I think, he was asked about it, maybe on Good Morning Football a couple of weeks ago. But this is now. This is three, you know, three offensive linemen later. Now we've got a real problem here. And now you're in the playoffs, and now you're playing, like, you're a couple games from winning another Super Bowl. So I think the game has changed, and he made it, see, what did he write? Let's check. Can anybody look and read me what Andrew Whitworth wrote? Maybe we can fly it in. I swear, did I dream that he, maybe wouldn't that be funny? Did he respond? What did he say? Can you guys fly it in? How does that work? How does that machine, the magic machine work? He said, yeah, I don't know. Maybe he didn't write to me. Where? Oh, I hear UK, but as I told Peter Schrager, I'm assuming on Good Morning Football, my heart and mind say yes, but these giraffe slash skinny jean legs say no thanks. What is, he has skinny jean legs with the hoodie and blazer look? I don't, I don't quite, I don't, I just need you to stand there and block Basham and company. Like, I don't need to, we don't need to know what we're talking about here. We'll see. All right, we got Darius Butler joining the show. I understand Lombardi's out in LA. So in my head, breaking news, they're keeping Staley. Where does Sean Payton go? All of that with Darius Butler after this. So they're just gonna clean house and keep Staley. 36 yarder from the right hash to win the game. Patterson's kick is up. The field goal is... Wait a minute, the guy with your four interceptions in the first half of this game, unbelievable wild card weekend time to hit the lights where we spotlight. Someone around the league deserves a little more attention. Now, I think Doug Peterson's getting his. He's coach of the year candidate. Then you have Trevor Lawrence, who's everybody's talking about what a performance by him, what a turnaround. And he's scary going into the next round. But today, let's focus on something that I see is sort of changing. And I like, of course, one of my favorite things is when people in the NFL, figures, whether it's a player or coach, whatever, a team rewriting their narrative, changing things around. When things are bad and they get good or different things happen and they get to sort of change how they're viewed by people because it's not easy to accomplish in the National Football League and it never has been. And I'm seeing a lot of love for a certain Trent Balkie. So let's focus on the Jags GM here. 12 months ago, Dooble hated him. It's just true. There was a literal, it was called the clown out movement, okay? This is the fan base's form of protest. This is a rowdy fan base, trust me. They exploded. Fans were saying shotgun, Tony Khan, fire Balkie, okay? We got a clean house here. The Remire thing was a disaster. Get away from Balkie. They wanted to distance the franchise as much as possible from the Meyer disaster. Khan said, nope, I'm sticking by my GM and it's paid off guys. Balkie's first move was what? Bring in Doug Peterson. Give this Super Bowl caliber, visor wearing head coach's shot. And really not everybody was in love with the decision at the time, but undeniable success. Peterson's completely fixed Trevor Lawrence. Not that he was broken, but gave him opportunities, did some things. And he is in the thick of that convo when it comes to coach of the year. Then he rewarded Khan's confidence by swing and beg and press my swing. How weak. Listen, Tret handed out what were viewed largely as controversial contracts to a former Cardinal named Christian Kirk, who went on to lead the team in receiving with 1,100 yards and eight touchdowns. A big reason why they are here. And really value-wise, Al produced his crazy contract so everybody could just zip it. Former Falcons linebacker, Foyer Olu Khan, okay? He leads the entire NFL with tackles this year. We talked to TJ Edwards on the Eagles. This week we're gonna show you guys the interview. He has the fourth most tackles. They've got the highest tackler in the national football league. Nobody, everybody was like, mwah, mwah, bad deal. Best deal ever. He also brought in, if you think about it, talking to Ray Sean Jenkins last week. And I said, what is a J-villain? I don't quite get it. They're the J-villains. They really are. Trent brought in a bunch of guys who were written off elsewhere to rewrite their narratives. How much do we love this on the show? Evan Angrum. How much hate and venom did Evan Angrum get for being the draft choice of those giants? Zay Jones. Zay Jones never can remember. Arden Key. They've all had career years in Jacksonville. He made that sneaky little deadline situation for Calvin Ridley happen, right? These are the J-villains. And while I can't give him too much credit for picking Trevor Lawrence, Denver, and overall, he did land key pieces like Travis E.D. and Devin Lloyd in that draft as well to make things happen. So these additions, the Kirk's, the Angrums, the Zay Joneses of the world, they all found the end zone during the Jags comeback on Saturday night. And I cannot imagine how that must have felt for him. Watching all of it come to fruition after facing so much scrutiny, having to show up to work knowing people are going to be wearing clown hats, masks, and saying, get rid of you. There's a movement about you against you, like, oh, not good. And if this video after the game is any indication, bulky's riding high, take a look. My two least favorite things, a performance vest, a dad vest and a visor, but those two things work beautifully together. And this is remarkable redemption of the highest honor. Maybe top five if I were to rank them and I'm sure we will in the post season. If we have shows, when we have shows, I don't know what's happening here. But yeah, I think as we look at that, I don't know what's going on here, guys. I think if we look at that, we'll see if they can continue, he'll deserve plenty more attention for what's been such a dramatic turnaround. All right, we're gonna take a break here. I think we have Darius Butler on our show after this. And I also think we have Adam Venetieri. Are you not playing your internet bills? What's up here? You're looking lean, D-butt. You're doing too many, okay. You're looking lean. Talking coaching here. The Chargers say they've hearted ways with OC Joel Lombardi and passing game coordinator, Shane Day. All right, let's check in with the sheriff of Shutdown City and of all safeties and corners. Of course, our friend, Darius Butler is here. And we're gonna talk about that. Darius, what's up with your internet this morning? How are we feeling? I'm mad. You know, I'm pretty pissed off right now. We're a person of your case. A lot of teams pissed off on my internet. Technology given, and it take it away. It will be all right. Hopefully you can hear me. I can hear you. Maybe McAfee can just next week send that PJ and you can just come here to LA and kick it for once, you know? That could work too. That could work for sure. Well, I see you. It's super cool. You know how much Starlink said. Well, I'll definitely be out there. I'll be out there. Do some fan doing fan fest stuff. Do some other things. I'll be out of busy week. Create a phone week out on HD. Okay, well, I'll have to see you. I can't wait for that. You just saw the Chargers news. They get rid of Lombardi. I don't know if I like this because they, I think should be maybe looking at a way to upgrade from Brandon Staley. Get them a little further than they've been getting. Even though Brandon Staley deserves a lot of love for turning this team around, of course, getting some of the demons. Anthony Lund deserves some love for that as well. What do you make of this news? Because they're not saying they're keeping Staley, but it seems like they're keeping Staley. Yeah, it sounds like when you fired the coordinator first. But, you know, you look, everybody looks and talks about Justin Herbert's incredible numbers over his first three years, as they should. Lombardi was his coach with OC for two of those years. But somebody's got to take, somebody's got to bite the bullet. And unfortunately it's Lombardi. Staley, I think, you know, he's getting bailed out here. You know, you can't lose a game up 27-0. You got aggressive. That was your brand last year. All your team bought in, everybody bought in. And then you go and kick a field, go to go up 13 points instead of going forward and trying to score with eight minutes left from the clock. A lot of big mistakes made by Staley, I think, especially with Sean Payton being out there. A lot of people were connected to him to this job. Not surprised to see Lombardi go. A lot of people have been calling for his job for whatever reasons. I don't think he's a problem there, but we'll see where they go forward from here. You got Justin Herbert, so you got to build a championship around, a roster around him quickly. Yeah, you got to, they have a roster, I think, but they need, you know, they sort of hire these coaches who are developing coaches. You know, like first-time head coaches or whatever. You would love to see, I would love to see them go for it. Like really go for somebody that's really experienced. But that's a price tag and that's draft picks for Sean Payton. That's the storyline. And I love that, I don't know this, but Sean Payton wants to be wind and dined. He's like, send the plane, take me to French Laundry. Like give me the bumps of caviar in my hand at the restaurants that we're going to. Like who wants me and who wants me the most? But then you're looking at Dallas was the landing spot, right? And then it was, I mean, what McCarthy did, they can't get rid of him now, right? So... Now, Dallas, Dallas, it was, you know, obviously it was, it was taught from Dallas from the day he stepped in to the same job. They were connecting him and Jerry Jones and I'm sure Mike McCarthy heard those, heard it. I'm sure he felt their pressure. And they came out to put on an excellent performance last night, Mike McCarthy in that. So I don't think it'll beat Dallas anymore. So where is he going to go? I like him to go to, I tell you last week when I came on the show, my best available head coach spot is still the Arizona Cardinals. Because with all those things that you can say about Carla Murray, and obviously he's banged up now, he'll be injured to start the season most likely, but he's still a very, very supremely talented quarterback just entering his prime. And then with Sean Payton coming in, he has instant credibility at the door. So I don't think it'll be any clashing or any power struggles there with Carla Murray. And, you know, he's obviously put up incredible numbers with Drew Brees in the past and won a Super Bowl and done all these things. And it'll be a warm weather place. I think they have the picks to be able to trade. So I still think that's the spot right now. If I was Sean Payton, that would be the spot I would want to take. Yeah, or spin zone. I'm just gonna leave this here. Does he stay in New Orleans? Does he go back to New Orleans? Does something there, you know? Is it grass is greener situation? He took it rough. Does he say, this is where I love. I've got control here. Dennis Allen did a great job, especially to end the season. I still want to, I'm just saying, I don't know that I see the slam dunk place for him to go because I think Kyler is a big question mark. He is a big question mark, but talent and coaches have egos, right? And you see a guy that talented in that skill and that athletic. And you say, as a great offensive mind, as a great coach, hey, I can work with that guy. Hey, these teams, these weapons, maybe we can figure something out and keep D-Hop happy and keep him there. But you have some good pieces on that team. And I think that'll still be a good team. And I always, if I have the talent, I can work with anything else if I'm a coach. And I believe Collin Murray, his talent is undeniable. I still top five at the position in the league when you're talking about just skill set. And that's what he did with James, right? He saw James and saw a guy and it's like, he was trying to dunk in my head on Bruce Arians. Like, you couldn't do it, but I think that's ego. That's what you're talking about. The confidence of, I see the talent. Cliff couldn't do it. I can come in here and do it. I think lots of coaches that are successful do have that mentality. All right, let's talk wild card games here. Were you surprised by this beat down by the Cowboys to Tom Brady? And is this Tom Brady's last game, you think, as an NFL quarterback? It's so hard to say, but obviously, everything that he went through personally this year to come back, we were all assumed to play the game. It'll be crazy for him to now walk away from it and go to that booth in Fox. But after what we saw last night, it looks like that's where he needs to head, honestly. Obviously out there in Vegas, you got great weapons. You got great talent surrounding him. Josh McDaz was former coach. He'll be out there. So that will be a fit. But outside of that, what we saw last night, I think it should be done for Tom Brady, but I don't think Tom Brady thinks like any of us. So I think he'll be back on the football field next year, but definitely not in Tampa. I was surprised by the beat down. Tampa hasn't looked great all year, but you still expect to, hey, Tom Brady at home, playoff game. Okay, it's a new season, blah, blah, blah. Dallas hasn't been playing great. And then that just went out there and just flipped all those narratives on his head and played great football from wire to wire. Michael Parsons, unbelievable per usual, and Tampa just couldn't get anything done. They fired left which after the game, which was interesting. It is super interesting. And maybe you'll be getting some phone call. Maybe that's why your internet's not working because it's too much traffic. People are trying to call Darius Butler to get on these coaching staff. Maybe, I'm probably missing it. Yeah, and they should. Baltimore loses to Cincinnati, of course. J.K. Dobbins, I wanted to play this for you. He was very vocal about how he felt about how he was used and how much he was used in this game. Let's take a listen. Not being the guy down at the goal. I should be the guy. I'm tired of holding that back. Tired of that. 12 is the playoffs. Tired of holding that back. Let's go win the game. I'm tired of holding back on that. I'm tired of that. Did you say that to anybody? Yeah, I did. I'm tired of it. I'm tired of it. I'm tired of it. I'm tired of it. I'm tired of it. Like, I'm a playmaker. I'm a guy that my teammates feed off me when I'm on the field. I should be out there all the time. He had zero rushes in the red zone. Is he right? Hey, points were made, K. Points were made. You drafted him there. You brought him there for a reason. You have this run-heavy scheme. This run-heavy offense. So much so, where a lot of times you don't even have five eligible receivers out in the past concepts because of the fullback you have with Patrick McCart, who's a great fullback in the run game. So yeah, feed him. This dude came back and went to the front office, went to the trainers and told him, hey, I need another surgery. Need to get some things cleaned up. And now he's out there fighting. And like he said, it's the playoffs. This is why you played through whatever injuries you played through throughout the season to get a chance to punch your ticket to the dance. And he wants to be involved. He wants carries. Obviously the game turning and the game changing play in that game was that I felt quarterback's team by Huntley where Hover went and ran it back for a touchdown. You hand it off to your running backs, even if it's not J.K., but yeah. I feel J.K. 100%. But the vibes are off in Baltimore. You don't typically see these type of things coming out of Baltimore, locker room in Baltimore culture. You have Eric Wedlow on it a lot. He knows a ton about that culture. And everybody that's left there, at least my time in the league, spoke very, very highly from it. So this is very uncharacteristic, the J.K. stuff, the Lamar stuff. So something to definitely keep an eye on up there in Maryland. I was trying to think of while you were talking, how am I going to ask? It just seems off. The vibes are off. The vibes are off. And with Harbaugh with Melissa Stark, all of it was just off. And you mentioned, that was weird, but it was weird. It's not how, it's weird. And then with Lamar, you know, he posts the statement explaining, having to explain to himself, because he knows it's important, that he's not out there, that he's not able to play. But then we're hearing that he didn't travel with the team, which I think is a little vibey-off-y, sure. And then there's these cryptic quotes. I don't know if you've seen these. What is Lamar trying to say here? When you have something good, you don't play with it. You don't take chances of losing it. You don't neglect it. When you have something good, you pour into it. You appreciate it because when you take care of something good, that good thing takes care of you too. Uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh. You know, we live in a world of the sub-tweets and sub-quotes and posts and things like that. But you know, this is him just speaking his mind and he's right on point. You know, obviously you look around the league and you look at the guys that have been taken care of that have accomplished a lot less than Lamar Jackson. So they need to take care of his guy. And obviously he's missed some time. He's been banged up in the narratives and the things that have kind of been leaked. You know how this game goes. Things start to leak out of that building but I kind of like, hey, you know, Lamar, this was the timeline we expected. He's still not out there. He's still not practicing. He's not doing this. And you have teammates like Marlon Humphrey speaking up. Like, hey, I see Lamar still limping around. So like you said earlier, it just seems off in there. And obviously Lamar wants his money and hopefully this doesn't continue to be a messy situation. But at the same time, Lamar has been the nice guy the whole time. I think even too much though, even coming into this season, I think he had a chance to turn kind of healed and be an asshole and be about his business. And he was and he showed up, he practiced, he played, he went to training camp, he did all those things. And then, you know, it's a cutthroat business. So he has to get his money, he has to get taken care of because any given snap, it can definitely all be taken care of. He's been too much the nice guy. I actually like that take a lot. And that post reminds me of like Pete K. Adams College Myspace. Breaking that like boyfriend about to break up with him or like me changing the song on my Myspace to something like sad. Taking him out of your top eight. He was out of my top eight and I would post me. I think he used to put a song on there. It would turn from like, it would be like, wait, why did she change her song to that? And I would be, that was the OG subtweet was doing that. But yeah, he needs to sort of navigate. Would you advise him to get an agent? You know, it is times like this, times like these were an agent were helped. And we've sought with Kyla Murray, putting out an agent, put out that long paragraph that nobody read except the cardinals. But that's you fighting that fight kind of in public in the court of public opinion. You saw it to Sean Watson's agent was able to get him as far as contracting money wise. This is the time where you, cause these are the games that these organizations and front offices and GM's and they play and have played for a long time. And as a player, as a young player, you're kind of, I guess, outmatched. Even having to feel like he needs to tweet out his full injury status. Like, hey, this is what's going on. Unstable, swelling here is this and that. Like that's, you don't ever see that from players, especially in our franchise quarterback. So I would advise him to definitely have, you know, some, some representation and some help on that side. You also, even just if it's, even just if it's, even just if it's advice, I feel like just, it's a, it's a lot to handle. And you would love to see the Ravens tweeting the same sort of support for him saying, he is hurt. He's not feeling, and that's not happening either. And you know, like, maybe DeCosta won't do that. Maybe Beshadi won't do that. But when they were in the off season talking about this contract, they were saying, he's the best. He doesn't care about money. He cares about winning a superbook. Where is that support now? If that, you want that to be your guy. It's getting messy. You hate to see it. Let's talk a little bit more about these things. Even on the broadcast, he mentioned he didn't make a trip. Like, he didn't make a trip because of treatment or whatnot, but it just kind of left it up there. Like, oh, it was not on the sideline, playoff game, like, okay. Weird, I didn't like that. But I like that you like how he's handled himself. And I'm a huge fan. I just hope he gets paid. I want to see the best for him. Divisional round. Eagles, start hot. Some injuries. You got Jalen, you got Lane Johnson. Are we thinking they'll be okay in this game? Because that team, the Giants, are spooky AF. Hey, the Giants are rolling right now. Resting their starters week 18. Looks like it was the right decision. Daniel Jones looked unbelievable. The job that Mike Kafka and Brian Debaugh has been able to do with him has been great, taking care of the ball, using his legs, making throws. So a lot of guys that we didn't know coming into this year by Jal Hodgens, balling as well. Saquon Barley doing this thing, or not a ton of touches either. So it's not even like they're running them into the ground. But to JK's point, it is that time of the season where they're going to need to. But I think the Eagles will be just fine. I think they'll kind of pick off, hopefully, not where they left off on week 18, but where they left off before Jalen Hertz got hurt. And they got this extra time to get healthy. CJGJ may be returning to that second area. Oh! So that'll be a big bump for that defense. So I think the Eagles, it's tough to be the team three times in the same season. Yeah. Especially the, you know, the regional opponent, but I like the Eagles to hit the ground running in this one. We're going to go to shutdown city in a minute, but this is the divisional round schedule. And we got to get your upset pick. So the Eagles aren't it. Is there a team that you think might pull an upset this week? Well, who's favorite in, I believe the Cowboy was the favorite in that Niners game, right? I believe so. The Niners are slightly favored. I think three and a half is what I saw. And I can't believe that I know that. Oh, look at you, K. Look at you. Dang, I don't know. See, I don't even have the lines in these games yet. I need to know who's actually done it. Do you think the favorite, Twin? No, we're definitely going to have some upsets. I got to see who's favorite. If we can get the lines or somebody just put them in your ear, my ear real quick. Can somebody put them in my ear? I don't think K.C. wins. I mean, I don't think K.C. gets upset. I'm sorry. All three of those games, the other three games can go either way, honestly. Is anybody back there working? Anybody back there? They took the day off by my hand. Yeah, they're not listening. It's okay. Let's go to Shutdown City. Nobody's listening. It's what it is. Let's go. Let's hit the road. Shutdown City, let's go. With no internet in Shutdown City today, we still got a side tape. Samuel Jr., he's home. So he'll be able to enjoy this. But three interceptions in the first half, unbelievable. Obviously the team couldn't finish it. But three interceptions, three picks on 11 targets. Two PBU's, unbelievable. So he had to get in Shutdown City, even though he's home. And then out there in San Fran, 38, young boy. Lenore, look at his break. Look at his anticipation. I see what a plan to put the young boy in the lineup. He's been playing his tail off. So he's making his way to Shutdown City as well. And then out there in New York, your old hometown. New York, those giants, man. Justin Jefferson, obviously big bad Justin Jefferson, been gritting all over every secondary league this year. Dory Jackson and company locked him down. And just every time he caught the ball, he was stable to the ground immediately, did not give up the big play at all. You see this last game, this last play of the game when they threw a little check down to TJ Hodgeson. That was because Justin Jefferson was double team once again, and that's what Kurt wanted to go with the ball. So they came in with a game plan to Shutdown, Justin Jefferson, and they executed that game plan. So shout out to Dory Jackson and his New York Giants team. So everybody's the mayor in that New York Giants secondary, Xavier McKinney, Dory, Julian Love. They all played their tails off. So it's really a city council instead of a mayor. I like it. See, there you go. There you go. But Dory gets to sit at the desk. He followed Justin Jefferson, left white all day long. All right, well, we don't have the odds still somehow, but it's not like we're owned by a sports betting company. And I'm sure our CEO is watching this and saying, what is going on? We don't have it, but we love you. And we'll see you at Super Bowl, and we'll talk to you next week. And thank you for being such a champ through the issues. You know, you got to fight. You got to persevere. Thank you for having me. Thank you, as always. You're the best. Man to man podcast this week and support our guy, Chris Seuss. We apologize. We'll have the odds figured out by the time we get back from the break. Bye guys. First playoff game down. On to the next. Stephen A, watch them all. We're still in the dance. And we're going to keep dance. One, two, three, go, go, go, go. You guys enjoy that game? Yeah. This one goes down. It's one of the greatest, greatest, greatest victories I've ever had. I am proud of everybody in this room. You guys found a way to get that done. Each week's going to be harder and harder. Let's just keep doing it. No matter how we win, it's if we win. We need you next week in Buffalo. Find a way to get it. One, two, three. Be brave. They're in the bar, will never not make me laugh. I love it. Coming up, we've got more on the division around matchups. Taking a look at him here. We have Adam Ventieri on the show, a four-time Super Bowl champ. Most clutch kicker. What happened to Maher yesterday is going to have to help us. I appreciate Darius Butler joining the show. Gronkowski will be on, of course. We've got Mark Ingram. We've got plenty of guests all week, but we have a very special one right now. 24 NFL seasons. That's so crazy. 24 as the kicker for the New England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts. He became the NFL's all-time leading scorer and has kicked the most field goals in NFL history. Please welcome four-time Super Bowl champion and future Hall of Famer Adam Ventieri. How are you? I'm doing very well, so thank you for having me on. It's so great to see you. 24 years is unbelievable, and you're the perfect guest to have on after what happened, unfortunate history made last night. What happened with Brett Maher? Four extra points missed. What went down? Tough day for him, obviously. Anybody can miss the new extra points. I shouldn't say to you they've been five, six years now, but it's a distance that can be missed if you're not, I guess if you're, if you do something wrong, you can miss one, obviously. And unfortunately, I think once you miss one, you start thinking about a little bit more and it's a snowballed on him, unfortunately. I've watched him for years. He's a very good kicker, missed one right and pushed another one right. And then the third one, you're almost guaranteed to compensate and aim less because you, and then it's just from there. My goodness, it was a tough day, but thankfully for his team, they were playing so well that the Cowboys were moving the ball and scoring touchdowns. So ultimately it didn't affect the outcome for his team. But yeah, you obviously want to win that game, but you want to put your stamp on helping the team and not doing it that way. But that's the life of a kicker. For us, the job is 90% mental and not as physically demanding as a lot of other positions, but playoffs is when you make your bread and butter and unfortunately that's a tough day for him. It's so true and I tried to look back at when you had ever missed two in a row and I think it only happened maybe once ever. And I think maybe I felt, when I was looking at that, I was like, man, I don't give enough credit to kickers who miss and then don't miss again because I would probably miss every time if I was out there, if I was in my head about it. So what's the key to staying mentally tough when attempting that next kick after you miss? Well, I think that's one of the most difficult kicks is after you've missed one, you've got a lot of stuff running through your mind, you really just have to let the process take care of itself. I mean, anybody that makes it to the NFL has kicked a million footballs in their day and they've done it from every position and every situation and circumstance. So you really almost just have to get out of your own mind. I think that's the biggest issue is trust the guys upfront, trust your snap and hold that it's gonna be there where it's supposed to be. And then you've done it so many times, just let your body take over. And I think when a miss happens, if you can forget about that and move forward, I think it's probably the biggest key to being successful at that point. You start thinking about it and you're letting that into your mind and then self doubt gets in there a little bit and then you're, I mean, gosh, he's probably made a million 33 yard field goals, but now all of a sudden when it's in a game like that and you've missed one or two, the next one becomes ultimately much more difficult, which shouldn't be, but you just gotta get out of your mind at that point. Yeah, he made one, which is great, but I'm trying to think this flight home, I was watching footage of them landing, they did win, like, hello, they won, right? They won the game and I liked Jack Prescott, they were asking him about it and Jack said, I played like crap last week. So like, you have some bad games and you bounce back for them. What is the process between a kicker and coaches and their team now? Because there's gotta be a confidence discussion and the unfortunate truth, and it's not fair because it's really the only position that it's like with this, is that do the Cowboys have to do some due diligence? And you know, there's Twitter telling me that they're probably gonna have to think about bringing somebody in. What's the process and what are the conversations happening in that Cowboys organization right now? Well, unlike what Jack said, you know, everybody has a tough game. Myself included, we've all had games that we'd like to forget about. You hope that it's on a winning situation in the middle of the season, but all of a sudden, now you get to the playoffs and games are, you win or you go home and the competition is amongst, you know, really good teams. So the margin of error just shrinks that much more. You know, you don't have a lot of opportunity for a bad play here or there. And honestly, if you go back to a lot of games in the playoffs, you know, that's one pivotal play that makes a difference in the outcome of a game. And so, yeah, you know, if it's a confidence thing for him or for the team, then they may decide to make a move. If they think that, hey, you know what, he's fine. He'll be good next week. I think as a kicker, you want to have an opportunity next week right away, get that monkey off your back and get it behind you and keep going the longer that you have to wait the harder it is. You know, you never want to miss a kick at the end of the season, because now you've got six months to wait until the next opportunity. So, you know, it's one of those things being, if it wasn't a playoffs, I think he's got a longer leash. The fact that it's in the playoffs and they're going to the next game that's even more important, they've got to be clicking on all cylinders or you're in trouble. What should the Cowboys do, Adam? No, I'm glad I don't have to make that decision. You know, honestly, you know, it's one of those things if you have trust and belief that Brett is going to get it done, then you don't do anything. By bringing in more kickers, it only puts a little bit more stress on it. So if you think that you have to make a move, then you jump on those other, you know, the waiver wire and see who's out there and you know, you do a bunch of tryouts and see who you're going to do. But if your idea is to keep Brett for the remainder, you know, next week on, then you probably don't do that because that's just going to make it that much more stressful for him and the whole organization. You bring somebody in, you're adding pressure on the new guy and on Brett and then the guys are available on the waiver wire at this point in the season for a reason as well. So there's, it's a tough, you know, I'm with you, Adam. I'm glad we don't have to wait. I feel like if there was guys out there that were better than him, they would already be on that team. So I'm not saying that you don't. Again, it's way above my pay scale. You know, it's a tough decision. You know, we've all been through tough games, but you know, the good ones have a bad game and then they bounce back. So I guess time will see, you know, time will tell, let's see what they're going to do. You were the best one. I wonder quickly, are you so clutch in every aspect of your life, like everyday life, like proposals, stuff with your kids, like randoms? Like, are you just clutch always? No pressure? Well, I enjoy pressure situations, I think. You know, it's always been one of those things for me. I've been, I think McAfee said it best. Pat McAfee, I said, Adam's the most competitive guy I've ever seen in my life. So when you're in that situation, I think everything's a game and you always want to win. And I looked at some of my former teammates that are Hall of Famers. You know, the paint man is in the Tom Brady's and the go on down the list, you know, these guys always wanted to be in the middle of the game. They wanted to be the reason why we won or lost. And I think ultimately I was in that same situation. I think the thing that drove me the most crazy in my career is standing on the sideline with two seconds left and watching their kicker be out there. It drove me crazy. I wanted to be the guy that it came down to my foot because I was confident enough that ultimately I'm going to make almost all of those and we're going to win. So being helpless on the sideline drove me crazy. I love that. And I remember you retiring like on McAfee show and he was like, wait, what is going on here? So it's all sort of come full circle. And he of course, part of the Fanduel family and you're sort of involved as I understand as well. We're talking pressure. We're talking big kicks. You have been tasked with helping Rob Wronkowski with his kick of destiny for Fanduel. He's kicking a field goal live during the Super Bowl. I still laugh about this. $10 million in Fanduel free bets on the line. How is Gronk? I asked him about your advice. Is he taking it? Well, first of all, lots of things to say about that. Love Fanduel, love Gronk. When they call and ask me to be a part of it, I'm like, absolutely. There's not a better man for the job to get Rob mentally and physically ready to make a big kick is how I thought it. Now, obviously Rob's got a million Super Bowl moments. He's a future Hall of Famer. This dude is awesome. And you know what? I've met him a handful of times but actually getting to spend days working with him. He is so much fun. I love to do it. He's full of energy. He's funny. You never know if he's joking or being serious but when it came right down to it, he is a perfectionist and he absolutely wants to make this kick. Everything that you see, like if he didn't make it, he's frustrated. He's asking like, what am I gonna do? And it's sincere. It's genuine. So it's a lot of fun and it's just been a great campaign. You know, to think that this is Van Duel's first ever Super Bowl campaign and I'm gonna be a part of it. It is so much fun. I'm excited. It's not an easy thing. Obviously look at the game last night. Making kicks in high-pressure situations is not an easy thing. Especially if you're a person that doesn't do it professionally. Obviously Rob scored millions of points in the National Football League and a lot of them during the Super Bowl but this will be a new one for him and I'm really excited to see how he does. It's gonna be awesome. With you coaching it, it's a can't miss in my opinion. Okay, one last one for you. We only have a minute left in the whole show but you've kicked 29 game winners including two in the Super Bowl. I hope those numbers are right. In your career, what is the most pressure you've ever felt on one kick? Probably similar to what Rob will be feeling on Super Bowl Sunday. I would say definitely in the divisional game against the Raiders and the Snow the infamous tough rule game. That was one that, you know, you missed this kick, you're cleaning out your locker and the season's over and just with the sheer difficulty of X amount of inches on the ground, of lizard, you know, 45 yard field goal, everything about that was a difficult thing. I still don't know. I watch it now and I get new sponsor. I still laugh not knowing how the heck I made that kick but to be sure that was the one that's the most difficult and probably the one that I'm the most proud of and when you get to say you've got a couple game winners and Super Bowls at saying something. It's true. That one's pretty impressive even for me. You know, Brady's not doing anything. Now, maybe he can come in with a snow machine and we can relive that in the commercial. You, Brady and Rob Gronkowski, Adam Vinitieri, you are an absolute legend and you're swole. Like what is it? We have to talk about this next time we're on.