 Happy New Year, big one tonight. I cannot wait bangles and the bills who I love as well. So we will hear from since he's lying back or Logan Wilson ahead of tonight's bills. Bangles game spoke to him recently and the playoff picture, conjecture, conchequeure. It's all over and rounding into beautiful form. Some teams eliminated and we had answers for week 18 and for the playoffs plus 14 year NFL veteran at quarterback Matt Castle joining us. Are the paths making the playoffs? I don't know about that, but the stealers might. Let's do it 2023. Are the stealers going to make the playoffs? How fun is this? The Packers definitely are. They might win the Super Bowl. How wild was season finale part one, aka week 17? Q, the playoff picture. It's what we do here on the Up and Atom show as we take a look at the NFC. The Eagles, let's set the table here. They're still atop at 13 of three. The one seed and the entire NFC East title still up for grabs after the loss to the Saints who are playing great football at the M&M and it doesn't matter. That is two shots, two shots that Eagles had at locking it up that failed. Oof, they miss Jalen, they need him back and they've got decisions to make in Philly. The Niners, as you can see, they move up to the two seed after beating the Raiders in overtime to capture their ninth straight win and they can take the one seed with the win and if the Eagles lose in week 18 and Bosa by the way runs the world, Vikings, woof, they drop down to the three seed. You couldn't do it Vikings. You had to be so excited, hopped up on everything. All these close games, you get blown out and killed by the Packers. They're the three seed now, the Bucks. You let them in, you did it, you did it, you idiots. What did you do here? The Buccaneers wrap up the South division title, 30 to 24, come back from behind win over the Panthers. They lock up the four and they host a team in the first round, probably this one, the Cowboys. They're in the five seed. They can still win the NFC East, wow. They gotta beat the commanders week 18 and have the Eagles lose to the Giants. They're also still alive for the one seed if both the Eagles and the Niners lose. Ipso facto carry the one, we're on a roll here on a Monday. The Giants, as you can see here, they clinched their first playoff birth since 2016. The infamous boat pictures, the Timbalands, all of it. They took down the Colts 38 to 10 yesterday afternoon and they're locked in. They cannot move from that six seed and that's important. Stay tuned. We'll tell you why. And the final wild card spot, still completely up for grabs. I mean, the Packers take it with a win over a feisty Lions team. And week 18, a team running through the wall for Dan Campbell. Dan Campbell's like, you are on the right. You are on the right to play in a meaningful game. And the Seahawks, they get the wild card and they'd win and be in if they get a W and the Packers lose. The Lions still somehow can grab that spot if they win and the Seahawks lose to the Rams. Sean McVeigh, think about this. Sean McVeigh may have the final say in whether or not Jared Goff takes this Detroit team, not just the team, the city, the entire Midwest, all of Michigan on his back into the playoffs. That is a twist of fate. I mean, give it to him, McVeigh. You gotta give it to him. What are we doing here? Tweet the show, add up an Adams show. And let's move on to the AFC side of things. All right. As you can see, Chiefs move up. They get the one seed. Oh boy, with their probable MVP with a win over the Broncos yesterday. But tonight, the game bangles Bills. The Bills can snatch that right back with a win over the three seeded Cincinnati squad. That's the Bengals. They can clinch the AFC North if they win tonight over the Bills. And they're in play still people. The Bengals are in play for the one seed as well. The Jags lead, oh, let's do it. Where are we at here? I think the Jags, I don't know what happened. But the Jags lead the AFC South at eight and eight following their 31 to three win over the Texans. The winner takes on, I believe, the Titans next week. And then they can earn that four seed. Now let me look at here. The Chargers, they move up to the five seed. They beat the Rams yesterday in our backyard here. The Ravens, what are we doing? What are we doing? They drop to the six after losing to the Steelers, but they can still win the North if the Bengals lose tonight and they're able to beat Sinsi next week. The Patriots, they're in the wildcard spot. That final wildcard spot, and they can lock it up if they beat the Bills next week. The Dolphins can snag it if they beat the Jets and the Pats losing the Steelers. Like I said, last week, credit to Tomlin. Some noise for Tomlin here. They're very much alive. It was about a 2% chance at some point last week while I was in Cabo drinking coconut water just for the hell of it, just for the Gram, I'll admit it. But that's wild, and we'll get to that in a moment. If they beat the Browns next week and the Patriots and the Dolphins both lose, Pittsburgh would be in. So there you have it. Sorry about the snafu there in the middle of it. I think it happened because it's crazy that the Jags and the Titans somehow are in it and can earn a four seed in this situation. I think my mind glitched on that one. So the table is officially set, guys, for week 18. As I bring in Matthew Hamilton. Hamilton, did I miss anything egregious? No, I think he hit it all on the head that Jags-Titans game is gonna be big. And there's actually still a weird scenario where both of those teams can get in. If the Titans beat the Jaguars and then the Patriots, Dolphins and Steelers all lose, then the Titans would be AFC South Champs and the Jaguars would get that last wild card spot. So there's still a little bit of a weirdness that we can see play out, but it's gonna be interesting. We did, we're still waiting on the Sunday slate of games and how that's all gonna shake out schedule-wise, but we did get the Saturday schedule released late last night. We're getting Chiefs Raiders at 4.30 on Saturday. And then that Titans, that aforementioned Titans Jaguars game is gonna be at 8.15, the de facto AFC South Championship game. So it's gonna be a lot of fun next week. It certainly will. So last year, I remember being like, I don't wanna like this 18, week 18 thing. And it actually mattered and it made the games and the playoffs all that better. Do you think it's shaping up that way this year? I think so. I think we could see some strange things happen. If the Chiefs are able to lock up the one seed on Saturday night, that could make the Bills potentially not have a lot to play for in that game against the Patriots and maybe the Bills rest some guys in the Patriots get an edge in that game, but which would be kind of catastrophic, but we'll see how that plays out. But I'm interested to see what they do with the Sunday night football game. I think everybody kind of thinks it's gonna be Packers Lions as of right now. I think that would be the natural choice, but there is a little bit of concern because if they make that the Sunday night game and the Seahawks win against the Rams earlier in the day, then the Lions would already be eliminated by the time we get to Sunday night football. That's the risk you run by making that move, but I think that has to be the game, right? Well, we were stewing over other options. This is like nerd stuff. Like this is a nerd, but we're like who's getting flexed? Who's trying to go into the beautiful minds of these schedule makers who are insanely intelligent and have all the algorithms and all of that, but you have to think the only other option would be Bangles Ravens, right? Yeah, and that really only comes into play if the Bangles lose tonight because if the Bangles beat the Bills tonight, that AFC North title's already decided, so that game kind of loses some of its luster because it'll only really be meaningful for the Bangles, maybe potentially being able to get the one seed, but I just can't see any game having more meaning than Lions Pack. Because even if the Lions are eliminated, you know that game is gonna mean a ton to that fan base to keep Aaron Rodgers out, especially. That was so true. He talked a lot of trash about the Lions over the last couple of weeks. Even after that first loss to Detroit, he was like, the Lions didn't beat me. I beat myself, so. You listened to his entire 15 minute post game. What were your thoughts? Aaron Rodgers. I did. I mean, I was just in Cabo and they were talking to me about like, and you know, I was looking at little experiences I could do just to put to the, not ayahuasca, but like something ritualistic on my New Year's Eve and you know, Temescal, I think you go into like a sweat lodge tent and do all this stuff, and then they're like, oh, we can do the frog venom thing for you. And I was like, frog venom, you know, like where they inject you with to clean your blood. Well, to do something and I'm like, that sounds like something Aaron would do. And so maybe I want to do, but I was like, but he didn't have a great season. He's probably not making the playoffs. And then this game yesterday, taking down the NFC New York champions, I'm like, give me the frog venom. I'm not saying he did frog venom. Or if that's okay, or like on some sort of list that's gonna get him popped for something. Is that what I'm saying? But it just seemed like something very Aaron Rodgers E to get frog venom put into your veins. No? Yeah, and he was talking a lot yesterday about the power of manifestation and how he believes in all that. And, you know, he, he's definitely enjoying the moment right now, I think. And well, I know you're gonna get into a little bit of that a little bit later and show some of that, but he's, he's, he's reveling in this right now, but there's still work to be done because the Lions are not just gonna roll over for this backer squad either. And it's so true, so we've got this Saturday thing where the Jags and Titans can both get in and they're fighting for the four seed and it's the AFC South championship. I admitted to you something before the show that I'm just gonna tell everybody. Up until I was like 14, maybe 15, maybe 17. I don't know, who's counting? I thought it was seat, like the one seat, not the one seed. Doesn't it make more sense? What the hell is a seed? Why do they call it a seed? It does. Like they got the two seed, the chiefs got the two, that means the second fiddle, the second seat in the NFL orchestra. That does make sense. But as we were talking about it this morning, I, you know, I kind of guess I was like, mate, it sounds like something tennis related. Like, I feel like the British came up with this in some form. It just seems very British to me. Conrad's making fun of me. I think I'm gonna call them six. There you go. You're just gonna do it, you're gonna change it. The one seat, what does a seed have to do with it? I don't know. Didn't you look it up on Wikipedia? Yeah, it says, well, seed has many meetings. Ooh. Yeah, we don't need to go that. The term, the one that's used in Game of Thrones very often, we're not gonna go there, but here's the sports term of it. It was first used in tennis, which you're a genius. You knew that. It's based on the idea of laying out a tournament ladder by arranging slips of paper with the names of players on them the way seeds or seedlings are arranged in a garden, which apparently, which no one knows, you have smaller plants up front and larger ones behind. Sure. What? It makes sense. I was right. It's seed. So we'll talk about, you know, we'll see that wildcard seed might be taken by the Patriots. Hey, we got a guest coming up right after this that you know pretty well. What should I talk to him about? We do. I can't wait to hear Mac Castle thoughts on the Patriots because they're very much alive now and big matchup, big win yesterday against the Dolphins, big matchup coming up with the Bills. I know he's pretty plugged in there as you are. So I'm very much looking forward to that chat. Very much looking forward to it. Hey, can we just start this right now? We're gonna do Aaron Rodgers' manifestation. DJ Reader tonight. Big game, big game from DJ Reader. Can we stop Josh Allen? Can we stop single Terry? Can we stop everybody from running a muck with that Bills offense there in Cincinnati tonight? DJ Reader, have yourself a game. Yeah, I'm looking at Logan Wilson too. I'm excited to hear what he has to say about stopping Josh Allen, but maybe they have him spying Josh a little bit to try to keep him under control. A little Wyoming on Wyoming action tonight. All right, we're talking about Sunday Night Football. Yeah, Wyoming, they were former teammates, so we'll talk about that. But you and I had a decision to make editorially last week and we said, do we wanna give space to the Panthers? Who we love, we were rooting for them. Sorry it didn't happen there officially eliminated after being taken down by the Bucks in crazy comeback fashion, we'll get to that. But we're also deciding what do we wanna do with our under reactions? We have a segment every week, what are we not talking about enough and it was gonna be the Panthers in the run? Or is it Mark Tomlin, the badass Mark Tomlin? Thanks, Hamilton, to talk to you in a bit. And we decided to give love to Tomlin with this run that the Steelers are on. So let's dig deeper to some of this and it was a dramatic 16 to 13 win last night in Baltimore, I was bored for the first quarter, but gosh, the second consecutive week, Kenny Pickett puts together engineers, puts together the Christmas Lego set to create a brilliant game winning drive. Are you kidding? Oh my gosh, this Najee Harris, go ahead, touchdown pass, unbelievable. And he didn't just leave the Steelers down the field on that drive, guys, he made three big time throws, the type of throws that set quarterbacks apart from other quarterbacks in classes, in ranks, in seedings, if you will. Coach Tomlin, last week coming off the field in a genuine moment, you know, mic'd up, it's talking about growing up, grow up moments last week. Pickett has had those moments over the course of this Steelers run and it's so obvious when you turn on any sort of tape, any sort of highlights on Pittsburgh, they're winning, they've won five of six. I'm at the point where I genuinely believe they're gonna get in. It was like a 2% chance and I'm here for this story. The Patriots, as Hamilton said, they have to go too buffalo in a game that almost certainly will have no matter to the Bills as far as seeding is concerned. The Dolphins, they're down to their third stringer at quarterback. We saw, we saw, we saw Skylar Thompson take on the defense already once this year and New York won 40 to 17. So if the Steelers can just beat the Browns and damn, I'm rooting for that. God, am I rooting for that? There is a strong chance that they're headed back to the postseason where they live. You know, birds fly south for the winner? Is that still true? I don't know. And Tomlin goes to the postseason because he is a wizard. But there's another team on a relatively improbable run that we need to get to as part of these takeaways. Green Bay, they blasted the Vikings. I mean, 41 to 17, their playoff hopes still very much alive in the matter of three weeks. It went from, oh, cute. That's so cute. They kind of still have a chance. I have two little nephews that are Packers fans. I'm so happy for them. They're wearing their Elm Lazar jerseys and like it might still happen. There's hope, holiday spirit. It went from that to, oh, okay. Well, they need some help, but it's Aaron Roth. He could somehow do this back to back MVP winner. And that all shifted to what is now a control your destiny with Mr. Manifestation Wizard, win and get in against the Lions in week 18 to finish the regular season. It is shocking when you think about where we stood on Thanksgiving weekend with the Packers at four and eight and the offense looking like an absolute mess. Now, a little over a month later, Aaron Rodgers is basking, really having a good time and enjoying the glow of the turnaround to glisten. You know, we've all seen some of the commentary outside as we went from four and eight to five and eight to six and eight and nobody's worried about the Packers and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Now what are you gonna say? I love that you cut your hair. That's what I wanna say. I'm so happy that you cut your hair, Aaron. I just need to say it. It looks great. Mwah, best haircut I've seen in a long time. And that might draw, be the impetus and the catalyst that they need to get this team to the Super Bowl. But seriously, what you're hearing Aaron Rodgers say is that he pays very close attention to what we're all saying. So I'm just glad that I never said to take this team behind the shed, old Yeller style and shoot it because that's something that he might hold on to and that would not be very good for this show or me when he does win said Super Bowl. Aaron has found a rhythm with his team, Christian Watson not looking maybe as good as he did for a bit of a stretch, but the run game is cooked, the defense has figured it out. Special teams, which is like this team's kryptonite over the last few years, suddenly a strength on this squad. I mean, Keisha Nixon, 105 year kickoff return. What is he the best player ever to play the game? Unbelievable. He had the big one against the Dolphins last week as well. He wasn't even supposed to suit up for this one. They also got right after a 75-yard pick six from Darnell Savage yesterday. I'm in the car listening to this on the way home from the airport like, what is this game? Aaron Rogers has done nothing in this game yet and they're crushing it. And that's what made this win so awesome and so terrifying for the rest of the NFC. It wasn't about Rogers. It wasn't Rogers back up against the wall, stepping up and going dracarys on everyone like we've seen him do throughout his entire career. It was literally every person on the team in every phase that made it happen. It was the true definition of a team win good coaching. I don't have complaints about the coaching the type of wins that have been Rogers hallmark wins were not this, right? And maybe this type of complete effort is ultimately what actually will give the Packers a chance to get in and do something in the postseason. There's another team though that has a say in all of this. Let's just let you listen to this and put it all in context. What we just did today is gonna put us in a high commodity come next week. We'll be at a hot game, all right? Because the fact of the matter is we just extended ourselves one more week for the playoffs. We just did. We just guaranteed ourselves one more week. That's not scary, buddy, yeah. Just gonna be amazing. Is it the Sunday night football game? Maybe. I don't care when it is. I don't care when it is. I will be up watching. Put it on, cut our World Cup hours and I will be up watching this. And so will you because this is going to be as intense and emotional like this season game as we've ever seen. Dan Campbell's crew has a chance to make their own miraculous run to a playoff but they need a little bit of help. And exercise, by the way, some major Lambo field demons in the process. And we're still waiting on the Sunday slate but it seems like there's a strong chance we see this one as game number 272. The Mr. Irrelevant but super relevant of the regular season slate to cap off what was an insane 2022 season. We're gonna get to the bucks. We gotta get to other stuff but we're gonna take a break here because we have Matt Castle joining the show. Brady's gonna win the Super Bowl. Are the Patriots gonna get in to the dance? How are they in the final wild card? How is Brady hosting a playoff game? Matt Castle's here, next. Oh boy, the Patriots control their destiny. Will they get in? They're locked, not locked there. Hanging on by a thread to the final wild card spot right now as we are joined by a 14 year NFL veteran, good friend of the show, Pro Bowl quarterback for the Chiefs as well co-hosting The Breakdown on Kansas City Sports Network along with our guy Hammer. Hey, happy new year, Mr. Matt Castle. Happy new year. How was your new year? Did you go out and rage a little bit? I did, you know, and I was in Cabo and it was so like, you know, I know but one resort has like this crazy music and it's so loud and then and everyone it just sounds like nothing. It just sounds like awful and not a good time. And no, I went to like a pretty lame dinner and was in bed before midnight. Is that not okay? That's totally fine. Cause I did very self-aware things to myself. You know what, I just, I didn't, I didn't do it. We got the fireworks. We bought like $300 worth of fireworks. So just boom, boom, boom everywhere where the kids were out and all that stuff. But I just couldn't stay up until that 12 o'clock hour. I'm getting a little bit older, you know. Me too. And I was like, and I was in Cabo that I wasn't watching TV. I wasn't, I was 20 seconds away from like carnival happening and having like all this fun but I was so not into it. But that's okay. Because I needed to get a good night's sleep for what happened on Sunday, which was insane. And then we got bills and bangles tonight. It's so great. Matt, I want to start with those Patriots, right? It's a team that you cover for NBC Sports in Boston. They took care of the Dolphins. It was a must win, it was a playoff game for them. They're the seventh seed heading into week 18 and it's against Buffalo who might rest everybody cause they might have no, nothing to play for. So from what you saw yesterday, what positives can you take away that gives anybody out there some confidence that they could pull off an upset and get it? Right. It's an uphill battle for sure. They're going up against the Buffalo Bills who have dominated this team since 2020. I mean, they're five and one against them. But when you look at the Patriots, they're offense still sputters at time but they were able to go down and believe it or not put together an opening drive touchdown drive. So they were able to go down the field and put points on the board, which they haven't done much all season long. In addition to that, the defense, even though there's a lot of attrition in the secondary, Jack Jones was out. I mean, you had Jalen Mills out. You had Marcus Jones out. You had a ton of corners out and you were worried about what the receiving court for the Miami Dolphins was going to do against the Patriots. But they stepped up and they made plays again. Kyle Duggar had an interception that was returning for a touchdown the second half. And then that offense stepped up and put together two drives in the fourth quarter. They kicked the field goal. Another great touchdown drive to really cap off the win. So look, this is a scrappy group. They're resilient group. They're well coached. And at the end of the day, they've got to go into Buffalo against a division rival. They've got everything to play for and they've got to win this game by any means necessary. Do you think they get it? If Buffalo maybe sits some of those guys, yes. They probably will. But this matchup, right, this matchup for the New England Patriots has been a difficult one with Josh Allen, Stefan Diggs, Gabe Davis. I mean, they really get after this group and the offense hasn't been able to produce this amount of points that they need to to keep pace with the Buffalo Bill. So I think it's, like I said, it's going to be a challenge. It's going to be a big challenge. But anything can happen, especially you never know what the weather's going to be like in Buffalo. If they get it, like what, I'm trying to think of the weight of this game beyond just the 2022 season for the Patriots. Is it going to affect at all changes that are made on that coaching staff or the noise from these New England fans that are saying maybe Bill, you need to step away. Maybe we need to inject some new energy in here. Like what, how meaningful will this game be in terms of that? Well, you know, as a player and as a coaching staff, you don't think about the noise on the outside. Honestly, you're inside that building. You got to get ready to go play the Buffalo Bills. Ultimately, your goal is to go to the playoffs each and every year, despite what the circumstances are, what your coaching situation is. You want to go win ball games to go to the playoffs and think about all that stuff after the season. I'm sure Coach Belichick is going to have to sit down, look himself in the mirror and say, how can we get better? What areas do we have to improve on? Is it on the coaching staff? It is, is it personnel? Is it players? How do we get better going into next season so we can compete with a team like the Buffalo Bills and the Miami Dolphins who both got much better from a personal standpoint? So that's going to be the focus, but that's after season. Right now, nobody's worried about that inside the building. Let's move down to the Buccaneers. This whole season, I'm like, what did Mike Evans do to Tom Brady? What did Tom Brady do to defend Mike Evans? Why is this friendship not clicking? Why is it not? And then I've been waiting for this big game to happen. And it was insane. 10 catches for Mike Evans, 207 yards. And I sort of was waiting for it all year to happen. Why do you think it finally clicked in such a big way? Now all of their goals are still ahead of them. Well, Carolina made the bad mistake of just going one-on-one on the outside with off coverage and letting Mike Evans just run right at those wide, I mean those cornerbacks and get behind them. And so Tom Brady recognized the matchup and he was able to go expose them against it and exploit them on that matchup. At the end of the day, though, they've been out of sync all season long. It's been an 11-game drought for Mike Evans and his ability to go up and get a touchdown pass. It was great to see them build a little bit of that chemistry that they had over the first two seasons together, but they just were not clicking this year for whatever reason. Tom Brady will take fault and they'll say, look, I missed him. Other times, Mike Evans has had some drops or he's not creating separation. He said that a few weeks ago, like, hey, I need to get more separation. I need to give him space to be able to deliver the ball. At the end of the day, though, it's good to see in a big game to clinch the NFC North and hopefully give them momentum going into the playoffs. It's so funny because it doesn't matter at all, right? We could say he could have had 10 catches all season and we'd make this huge storyline, but it really doesn't matter because it happened and it's only gonna carry over into the weeks that come, isn't it? And I guess my question to you is with somebody like Tom Brady, the greatest player to ever play a game, not one of the greatest player, when something is off and then it starts clicking or I guess the question is, is he like a grudge holder? How do you, when something goes wrong, like when Julian Edelman botched something in the wear time that he did, was it something that Tom festers or does he just really turn the page after the game is over? And how do you know when you're like back in the good with Tom? Well, I think with Tom Brady, his expectation level is always so high and so he holds everybody accountable and if whatever he has to do at practice or through the course of a week to try to refine his skills or get those small minute details that might make the difference in the game, he's gonna do that. At the same time, yes, he's got passion and he'll let you know out on the field and you'll see that frustration come out, but that's part of being a great competitor, that's part of being a leader, but at the end of the day, he knows that Mike Evans has been a guy that's been there constantly throughout his time in Tampa Bay and that it's like a shooter that's missing his three pointers. He's just gotta keep shooting and eventually it came up in a big way this week against Carolina. So hopefully that, again, builds momentum going into the playoffs. It's totally fair to say that everyone should be scared of the Bucks now because they're in it, they're gonna host a game and all of that. But it's also like a lazy thing to say, right? It's up Brady, but of course. Do you legitimately think, knowing what you know, seeing what you're seeing out there, are they a legit threat in the NFC? It's been such a crazy season watching this team, right? Because you sit there and there's moments like this where they go out and they come from, actually a two-score deficit behind. They had to grind in this game to get back in it. And then all of a sudden, they've got the dramatic fourth quarter comebacks against the teams like the LA Rams and stuff like that to win some ball games that maybe they shouldn't have won, but it hasn't been clicking for them all season long. However, you never count out, Tom Brady. And I know it's the lazy thing to say, but how can you two years ago, this same team with a lot of the same faces went out and won the Super Bowl? So these guys know they're battle tested. They've been in playoff games before and they know what it takes to win ball games. It's whether or not they can collectively come together in all three phases and put together a run. More dangerous for the playoffs. Packers or Bucks? That's a great question right now. I'd say the Bucks are just because defensively, I think that they're a better unit defensively than the Green Bay Packers. The Green Bay Packers on the defense has not played up to the level that anybody expected this year. And I know that they had a good game against the Minnesota Vikings, create a bunch of turnovers and all that, but that's an outlier compared to how they've played consistently throughout the course of this year. I mean, maybe Jair Alexander should always track the number one rider. Yeah, yeah, he should. Seemed to look pretty good yesterday. Call him out. Call him out. 200%. Mr. Barry, what are we talking about? Can you explain why I'm watching the game yesterday and I was like Kermit sipping my T because all I say is maybe Jair should always track our guy, Justin Jefferson. It seemed to work okay yesterday, Matt. 100%. I'd come out every week and just talk as much smack as possible about the opposing team. Motivate yourself, whatever it takes this time of year, but if you're gonna play like that and shut down Justin Jefferson and play in the fashion, the manner in which you did, if that motivates you, bro, go out there and do it every week. Just talk, smack, say, coach, just let me do my thing. I'll be ready. Yes. Oh, I love that. Okay, let's go to the Gardner Minshu. That's part of the Gardner Minshu. Time for the Gardner Minshu portion of the program here. The Eagles, they had two shots. One to woof, woof, whiff, whiff. They were unable to lock in the number one seed. They lose to the Saints. Philadelphia, now they have this interesting dilemma, right? They have to figure out when are we bringing back Jalen Hertz? Is it more important, do you think, to give him time to heal ahead of the playoffs or do you start to get him out there now if you're Nick Siriani? Like, are you starting him in week 18 or are you resting him? Again, it's really hard from a medical standpoint to say where he's at, because only he knows the medical staff, the coaches. But if he's close to 100%, I'm saying 100%, go out there and play this man, because he gives you the best opportunity to win. And at the same time, when you go into playoffs, say they do get that by, that'll be four weeks away from the game in which you're not out competing on Sundays. So when you think about that, there is a little rust involved in that. There is a little rhythm. At the same time, when you look at this game coming up, you wanna see him get out there and his ability to run the ball, to throw the ball, it's just, he's so dynamic and he's such a dual-threat quarterback that he gives them the best opportunity to win. And right now, the way in which the offense has struggled, they're feeling that, you know? And you need to build a little bit of momentum and have some success going into playoff to where you're playing your best football and all on the same page. And right now, this team isn't feeling that. And you need to have your best chance to lock up the one seed. And your best chance is not Gardner-Minshew. It is Jalen Hurt. So I think getting him out there, if he's healthy, of course, would be the move. We'll see what Siriani decides to do. If we stay in the East, Ron Rivera. I mean... Four guy. Four guy. I don't know what's going on, but he sits high in a key, right? He starts once. I'm like, I'm behind it. I'm just like, whatever. Yeah, I'm gonna root for Wenz, fine. Wenz looked good in the, you know, week 60, or yeah, week 16 action. And then Wenz gets out there yesterday, throws three picks, they lose to the Browns. It eliminates them from the playoffs. He didn't know that it would eliminate from them the playoffs. That's a whole other thing I don't actually really care about, but do you agree with Wenz? Did you agree with Wenz starting? And with him struggling, should they have gone to Heineke at some point in the second half, especially after he just benched Heineke the week before? Right, I've got a lot of respect for Ron Rivera as a coach and also as a person. He's an incredible man. But at the end of the day, this was a headscratcher for me in terms of what Taylor Heineke was able to come in and do. I know he's five, three and one and they were 0, two and one in the December month. But at the same time, they're playing the 49ers. They played the Giants twice. I mean, and those were close contests in which I thought he came in one, five in a row for him at one point in the season, gave them a spark and also his mobility and his ability to get outside the pocket and create plays is something that Carson Wenz hasn't shown. And then Carson Wenz goes in there and it's the worst case scenario, especially, you know, in his first series, he's staring down the wide receiver and he gets undercut, throws a really bad pick there. The second picks, third and seventh, he's trying to force the ball down the middle of the field but he under throws the wide receiver for another interception. It just, it puts your team in a really bad position. And if you're gonna make that decision the week before to bench Heineke, then why wouldn't you hold the same standard for Carson Wenz this last week? It was a headscratcher and it didn't work out the Washington commanders now eliminated though they did reveal a new mascot. No, I didn't even see that, what is it? A hog of some sort. Oh, nice. I think we have it. Love hogs. Conrad's good. We love hogs, nothing but respect for the hogs in the world. Do we have it? Do we have the hog? What's his name? Ham, Ham, Ham, Ham, Ham, Ham, Ham, Ham, Ham, Ham, Ham, Major Teddy, I don't know why I thought, Ham, oh my God, that's awful. Can we see him? Do we have him? Major Hammy, Major what? There he is. Okay, so this is, you know, of course an homage to their history, which I like, but what do you think? I mean, I actually really love the look. This looks like an old footage. Just love the look all together, just the, I mean, he looks like he's had two 12 packs of beer, he's a little bit bloated, he's just, you know, he's not the, yeah, he's an icon and a little tail in the back is really always a selling point for me. I didn't see the tail, I'm sure it's squiggly, I didn't see it. I'm sure, of course it has to be, it has to be interesting timing to do that. Week 17, Elimination Game, let's see. Elimination Game. Hey, this is all going on over here, look over here, hey, our new mascot. We're gonna distract the hell out of you over here, we're gonna distract the hell out of you, what's this mascot right here? Another head scratcher, but we enjoy it, but here's a head scratcher, when I heard this news, we're gonna move on here, where McDaniels decides to bench Derek Carr, get him away from Locker, I was like, and then I saw Sidham yesterday and I was like, oh, interesting. So it was the Niners, it was a loss, it was the number one defense though, Sidham looked so good, he had a phenomenal performance. Fallen. 365 yards, three touchdowns, and this is against this defense, from what you saw, do you think the Raiders might have fallen into their future quarterback? You know, you can never jump to that conclusion based off one performance, but just the stage itself, your first start of your NFL career against the 49ers, the number one defense in the league, and to go out and perform the way in which he did, he was calm, he was composed, he had complete control, he was even signaling stuff at the line of scrimmage, he was going through his checks, and then some of the throws that he made were just outstanding. I mean, the one thing I'll say about Jared Sim, you can tell that he's comfortable in this system, because since 2019, this is the only system that he's known because he was drafted by the New England Patriots in the fourth round, and Josh McDaniels has been his coordinator, so there's a confidence level in that, but at the same time, you gotta go out there and prove it and do it, and some of those throws that he made is particularly some of those throws to Devonte Adams down, the one that he dropped in the bucket, the one that he dropped in the bucket on the fade route, and then the win he extended to play out to his left, Nui is gonna get crushed and hit in the face by Fred Warner, and to release that ball and get another 65-yard touchdown, I mean, he kept them in that game all game, he battled, and I thought he played extremely well. Now, yeah, if the Bills beat this team, the Bengals tonight, they get the one seed back, but for now, it might be short-lived, the top dog in the AFC is your Kansas City Chiefs. Win over the Broncos, fairly unimpressive, sorry, but they did make the big plays they needed to when they had to and they did them. Nobody grinds more Chiefs tape than you do. Do you have any concerns about what seems like some recent close calls with bad opponents like the Broncos and the Texans? It's interesting, because when you watch the film, there are so many good things that this team's doing, and the way in which Patrick Mahomes is distributing the ball and the defense, they'll have some incredibly great statistical games, sacks, pressures, they'll have takeaways, but then again, they'll bend and then they'll break. They'll give up some easy scores that they shouldn't give up. The biggest concern that I have is they've had turnovers in four of the last five games. The other part of that is the special teams' units has not been playing well. Buckner, Bucker, excuse me, Harrison Bucker, their kicker has missed another field goal, missed the 51 yarder before the end of the half. In addition to that, Kaderis Tony on a punt return, fumbles, gives the ball to the Denver Broncos, very deep in their territory in which Denver Broncos able to capital. So it's the little things right now that this team's doing that are keeping these bad teams in the game, and they just can't do that going into playoffs against better competition, because that'll come back to bite you. And tonight with this game that could take away the one seed from the Chiefs. You've got the Bills and the Bengals here. It's in Cincinnati. It's Josh Allen. It's Joe Burrow. They've never played each other. It's the first time. Bengals are riding a seven game win streak. There's a lot of intriguing matchups in this one, but is there anything, your quarterback eyes, your lens that you're specifically looking at that's gonna make a difference tonight? I mean, you could look at so many little things specifically, whether it's D-Line player, who's gonna spy Allen when he goes and takes off and runs, but I mean, this is just one of those games you wanna sit back and watch. Because when you look at it, you've got two of the best young quarterbacks in the game, two of the best offenses. You've got Jermar Chase, T Higgins on one side, Stephon Diggs, Gabe Davis, all these guys on the other side. They're past first offenses, and these defenses are quality defenses. They're in the top 10. They keep opponents down and scoring. So it's gonna be one of those games that you can point to any little individual matchup, but it's not about that. It's about these two offenses, these two defenses, and two of the best teams in the AFC going head to head. And I can't wait to see what happens, because it will be an unbelievable game. What do you think wins? What's gonna happen? I think the Bengals will win, to be honest with you. It's road, incency, the way that they've been, I mean, they've won seven straight games. They're battle tested. I think Joe Burrow is playing at a really high level, even though I know the last few games he's had some interceptions, but so has Josh Allen. I think that's what it's gonna come down to is really the turnover battle. I'm so excited for this game. It'll be better than New Year's, literally. Better than our New Year's plan. So happy New Year to you, to your family, to everyone out there who were losers like us, getting their full eight hours of sleep. Make sure to catch Matt. Castle showed the breakdown on the Kansas City Sports Network. Happy New Year, and thank you, Matt. Thanks, that was great stuff. Happy New Year, as always. Have a great one. Well, the back after this. Wheels up to Cincinnati. Oh, that's a nice smile on Josh Allen's face. You love to see it. The hashtag builds Mafia, ladies and gentlemen. What a game tonight. I don't think we spend, what do I say, Brian, always in meetings. I say I don't wanna spend much time on the Thursday night game or the Monday night game, because there's so, well, Thursday night's different, but the Monday night game, we have so much to react to on Sunday. We do it. We had so much great stuff happen, but this is a special one. This is a special one tonight with the Bills, as you can see, headed to play the Bengals in Cincinnati hours from now. Looking at the matchups, looking at what this game means, the first time these two were ever facing each other. It reminds me of a conversation that I had not long ago with Bengals linebacker Logan Wilson, and I asked him about his experience playing with Bills' star quarterback, Josh Allen, back in college, and what it's going to be like going up against him tonight. Take a listen. How are you feeling? I'm good, how are you? I'm really, really good. Yeah, we're really welcome. We'll let you get it. Go, win. 10 of hits, that's forward. Logan Wilson's got it. Do you wanna talk Monday night football? Welcoming the Bills to town, and that's a guy, Josh Allen, you've played a game or two with at Wyoming. That'll be fun, for sure. We played together, I think, for three years when we were at Wyoming, so we had a lot of good times there, and he's still doing what he's doing in this league, and his development from when he was at Wyoming to where he's at now is unbelievable. We knew he had the ability to, but he was just so raw coming out that he got in a good position with the coaching staff there in Buffalo, and they developed him, and he's been playing at MVP level for the last few years. So when you're inevitably in a situation, Logan, where Josh is barreling towards you in the open field, what's gonna go through your mind? One, not to get hurtled. He's been known to hurtle some guys. He's a freak athlete, truthfully, and he'll also run you over, so I mean, you gotta worry about everything that he's gonna do with the ball in his hands. Logan Wilson with the bangles there, do not get hurt, and he said it right away. He knew right away, don't get hurt. And I think after that, it's not in this piece, but we talked for a good five minutes about how devastating it is to be on that highlight tape when you get hurtled as an NFL player. So good luck to Josh Allen. Good luck to Logan Wilson, to Joe Burrow. The thing about this game is that the number one seed, seed, seed, seed, seed, whatever you wanna say, it's up for grabs. How fun is that? How fun is that? The Bills, they're nothing to sneeze at here. Without Von Miller, they've won six straight, the bangles of one seven in a row, both have momentum. Who is the quarterback edge? I don't, I mean, I don't know. I just get the feeling this is a preview. This is, you know, the YouTube ad before you get to the video, you wanna really watch. And there's an even more meaningful battle to come in the post season. This is the first meeting between Joe Burrow and Josh Allen. And Burrow's best chance, by the way, to stake his claim for some MVP votes. Yeah, Mahomes, clear edge, absolutely. But Burrow beat Mahomes, and he boots Mahomes a lot. And if Joe can go off tonight, all eyes watching, number one seed up for grabs up against a dominant Bills defense and gets the bangles into contention for the one seed with wins over Mahomes, Allen and Brady on his resume. You can't tell me he doesn't have an awfully compelling case for that MVP. And there's so many implications in this one. I don't know that I've been more excited for an NFL game this year. I don't know. And it kind of matters, and it kind of doesn't. And a few things I'm going to be keeping my eye on, one of them, the guy I just talked to, Logan Wilson, keeping Josh Allen's legs under control. That's the problem. We look at this quarterback matchup, who's better? Joe doesn't really run that much. Josh can't, that kind of gives him a bit of an advantage here. Like let's get that going. DJ Reader, the Bills, craziest dad I saw. They've rushed for over 100 yards every game this season. I think they're the only NFL team that can say that they've done that. So can this bangle's defense much improve throughout the season? Can they win in the trenches? Can they make the Bills offense one dimensional, especially with that hurtling quarterback that they've got there? And then on the other side, you know, after the loss of L. Collins, can the bangle's offensive line keep it together? And well, let's just, you know, let's not, we're not thinking Swiss cheese. We're thinking Velveeta cheese block. Velveeta cheese block, nothing can run through it. No Swiss cheese. What other cheeses have holes in them? I don't know. I can't think of one. Hakim Adenagi, okay? Isaiah Prince, whoever ends up starting there, whatever ends up happening, what a task they have in front of them. This Bills pass rush is relentless, even without Von Miller. Collins, this was the guy in the addition that got everybody believing in this bangle's outline. It's a huge loss and this group is really gonna be tested in a matchup of this magnitude to do what they can do to stop what the Bills are going to bring. I can't wait. Who do I think's gonna win? I don't know. The bangle. Gotta get to some other games that we didn't get to. I loved stable after the win with the Giants. We gotta just love on that for a little bit. Huh, Hammy? Your team, baby. Oh, it was awesome to see the Giants get it done. Daniel Jones, you talked about him, how fantastic he's been here down the stretch. It's just a big moment for this year. He had like 100 rushing yards in this game. Yeah, four total touchdowns. It was exciting to see. And Brian Dable in his first year there with all the injuries they've had, with all the roster issues they've had to get this into the playoffs. He's, yeah, he made his case for coach of the year, for sure. Okay, so I mean, biggest performance had to happen with Daniel Jones. He looked great, two rushing touchdowns, which was amazing. What stood out to you? And now I understand they're firmly locked in. Why should I care? Yeah, and this gets really interesting because if you bring up that playoff picture, as you said, the Giants are locked into that number six seed. So if I'm Brian Dable, next week, with all the injuries we've had, I'm not letting Saquon Barkley anywhere near the field. I'm not letting Daniel Jones anywhere near the field against the Eagles. So could they potentially be handing that number one seed to the Eagles where they don't, maybe they start Jalen Hertz but only play him for a couple of series and then bring him out to rest him? Because if I'm the Giants, I don't care. I'll take the loss in that game and hand it to the Eagles. I'm gonna make sure my team is healthy for that first round matchup. But I can upset a few Cowboys fans here if the Giants just kind of hand that game over. The shock, the horror of the integrity of an NFC East rivalry. Yeah, not like we haven't seen that before with the Eagles in Washington a couple of years ago. So, you know, but yeah, it's gonna be interesting to see how they decide to play that and how the Eagles respond to it because, you know, do they look at it if the Giants announce they're gonna benched in and Jones benched Saquon? Do they look at it like, okay, you know what, let's roll out Minchu again and Sid Hertz. I would think they're probably gonna try to play Hertz for at least a couple of series, but yeah, it really does. But do you start with Hertz or do you start with Gardner and then if it's going poorly, then you do put in Hertz? That's a great question too. But Jalen was always involved in these weird like bent, like he's always in like, that's not new. Remember that crazy things that Ronnie did? We're all like, what, when was that? Two years ago? Yeah, yeah, so we might be up to some end of the season shenanigans once again. Well, the Giants haven't won a playoff game since Super Bowl 46. Since their win over the paint, they haven't won a playoff game since then. Congratulations to the Giants, to their fans, to Coach Dable, on all of that. And with where we are right now, they head to Minnesota for a rematch with the Vikings on Wild Card weekend. All right, Hamilton, great stuff. I think they'd have a good shot to win that. Just saying. Goodbye, goodbye, happy new year, happy new year, happy new year.