December 17, 2024 • 25 mins
On today’s episode, Jason discusses why Atlanta Falcons fans should have serious concerns about Kirk Cousins’ status as their QB1 moving forward, which NFL franchises could be in the market for a new starting quarterback (like Cousins or Sam Darnold) in 2025, how the Minnesota Vikings could wind up stealing the NFC North division from an injury-depleted Detroit Lions squad and the NFL's decision to schedule games head-to-head against the first round games of the College Football Playoff.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up, straight firefam, It's me Jason McIntyre. Straight
Fire for Tuesday, December seventeenth. You know, I complained the
other day about the doubleheader on Monday Night football in
the middle of December, and then the games were awful.
But oh my goodness, think gosh for gambling and fantasy football.
(00:33):
That's the only reason these two games were even remotely watchable.
I'm trying to get through Yellowstone this season. I'm, you know,
during football season, I can't watch any shows. It's tough
to watch movies. During Thanksgiving break, I watched some stuff
and I'm getting back into Yellowstone now is the NFL
season winds down. But I was at the point last
night where I'm like, you know what, these games are terrible.
(00:54):
Let me just let me just go to Yellowstone. I mean,
it's really riveting stuff. It's a final season, no spoilers. I'm,
you know, getting caught up on the final season. And
then a funny thing happened. I was down like forty
in the fantasy football playoffs in the Fox Digital League.
I had Keenan Allen and the Falcons defense, and within
like a bang bang moment. The Falcons defense had an
(01:16):
awesome play and they were up to like sixteen points,
and then Keenan Allen scores a touchdown and I'm like, oh,
I'm within striking distance and it got unbelievably close. The
interception on the hail Mary brought me down one and
a half points or whatever. It was less than two points,
and I ended up taking the l But it was
thrilling stuff. That's the only reason that game was interesting.
Now you know the Raiders, the inept pathetic Raiders were
(01:39):
trying to come in the back door. We'll start with
that game just because it was remotely close and the
Kirk Cousins situation is apparently at the boiling point. Let's
get started with this. The Atlanta Falcons are not a
good football team, period. Hard stop. Tampa Bay is a
better football team right now than Atlanta. Despite Atlanta beating
them twice, the Falcons survived the Raiders because of special teams.
(02:03):
They block two and a half kicks, which is weird
fantas the only game me two, and their special team's
defense is good. The special teams offense, they don't trust
their kicker who missed. I believe a thirty six or
forty six yarder that would have put the game out
of reach, and that gave the Raiders life. The Falcons
are gonna have to bring in some new kickers this week,
for sure. They do get a layup this week facing
(02:25):
the we call them the tanking Giants. It seems like
the Raiders and the Giants are in a race to
the bottom. For Shador Sanders, I feel like that's a
safe thing to say. The Falcons should beat the Giants.
Then the Falcons travel to Washington and then host the
Panthers in the final game of the season, so really
they should go two and three. The problem for Tampa
(02:48):
is they are let me see what their record is
right now, they are eight and six, so they're up
a game now. If they tie, obviously it goes to Atlanta.
Tampa has a slightly tougher schedule. They are at the
Cowboys in a game that I guess is slated for
Sunday night football. Now, I don't know if that's going
to change. Dallas feisty over the weekend. The defense had
(03:08):
a million sacks. And let me remind you, Kirk Cousins
is immobil He is not playing good quarterback football right now.
I mean, I will get to Kirk in a second.
Then the Bucks host Carolina, they will be favored, but
you know, Carolina's plucky and the last time they met.
What happened last Sunda they met? It was Oh, it
(03:30):
was a close game. That was a game that went
overtime just a few weeks ago. So I would not
expect the Panthers to totally roll over and then against
the Saints in the season finale. So I think the
Bucks take the division. But the real story is what
the hell happened to Kirk Cousins. I mean, folks, you
want to talk about falling off a cliff, I'm going
to read you this stat line. You tell me if
this was Desmond Ritter or Kirk Cousins. Twenty three of
(03:53):
thirty nine, two hundred eight yards, a touchdown and two picks.
That was Desmond Ritter. I don't know why he was
throwing thirty nine times, but you know they were trailing
the entire game. Kirk Cousins against the sad Sack Raiders defense,
which did not have Max Crosby. He's out for the season.
The Raiders have two wins. Okay, Kirk Cousins was eleven
(04:16):
of seventeen for one hundred and twelve yards, a touchdown
and a pick. He threw for one hundred and twelve
yards in primetime against the Raiders. Now I bet kirk
Cousins props. I went one and two. Not great, not great.
I had his longest completion over thirty five and a
half yards. He had the bomb to Drake Lennard. I
was like, oh, that's so far. Kirk's arm is so pathetic.
(04:36):
It went only thirty yards. I had over one and
a half touchdown passes. He only had one. The other.
Oh no, I only had two Kirk Cousins pross both
with the other I had was the Raiders team total
under I think it was nineteen and a half. There
was no way they were getting there with Desnonder anyways.
They were sentually relying on Bjon Robinson twenty two carries
and Tyler Algier who runs hard? Man who does he
(04:58):
run hard? But this is not not the kind of all, Like,
I don't want to see this team in the playoffs.
I don't. They're unwatchable with Kirk Cousins being this bad folks.
The kirk Cousins streak right now, I mean if you
look at it, You're like, holy hell, why is he still?
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Why is he still the starter? Last five games Kirk
Cousins one touchdown and four five, six, seven, eight, nine interceptions.
One touchdown, nine interceptions in his last five games. So
much for Oh, he's probably healed from the achilles.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Now.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
I don't know what the problem is. Rakhie Morris doesn't
know the problem. Now, four of the five games were
on the road. He could just be fatigued. It's possible
that he's just worn down long season, and you know,
I don't know if the Raheem Morris, whatever they're doing
offensively is like messing with Kirk. But outside of the
two Tap of Bay games where a few strip away
(05:52):
the four touchdowns he had in each of the meet
each of the games, every other opponent this season, Kirk
Cousins has no nine touchdowns and fourteen interceptions. I mean, honestly,
it's crazy. He threw for five hundred nine yards and
two hundred and seventy six so you're looking at like
seven hundred and eighty five yards against Tampa and in
(06:16):
the other games he has looks like two three hundred
yard games. That's it. Against Minnesota last week in a
losing effort against the Saints in a losing effort a
few weeks before that, like this is not a good
football team. And afterward, Reggie Morris is like, hey, we'd
need Kirk to play better, and he stopped short of
giving him the official. He's my quarterback. My gut tells
(06:36):
me they're gonna look hard at Pennox this week. But
here's the crappy thing. If you're Michael Pennix, bro I'm older.
I'm not some young, twenty one year old kid who's
out of college champion at the bit to get my chance.
I'm Michael Pennix. I started a billion games in college.
I played at Indiana and Washington. I'm twenty four years old.
(06:58):
I am a grown ass man ready to fling the
quarter We're ready to fring the ball like a quarterback should.
And that's got to be frustrated for him. You saw
him standing on the sideline helmet on like he put
me in coach, you know, And I feel bad. I mean,
if the Falcons missed the playoffs, what are they bringing
Kirk Cousins back for. And it's starting to really blow
(07:19):
up in their face. Remember this is a front office
that had Bill Belichick as a potential coach, and they
were like, we're good Bill. Thanks. You know, the owner
liked Bill. The front office wanting to keep their jobs
in relevance. We're like, no, no, we don't want Bill.
He's power hungry. We don't We don't want the guy
who's won more Super Bowls than any coach in NFL history.
(07:39):
We do not want him in here. We want Rahie
Morris back him here. He was here before. He's a
good guy. He's not gonna take any power from us.
And then the front office proceeded to give Kirk Cousins
the bag and then draft Michael Pennox in the top ten.
You just tell me what sense that makes, Guys I
called it at the time. I was like, what the
hell's going on? This does not sound smart at all.
(08:01):
It just doesn't. And it has backfired spectacularly because Kirk
Cousins looks washed. They're gonna have a huge dead cap hit.
They're gonna have to move off of him and go
to Peedicks next season. That's where it's headed unless Baker
and Tampa totally implode. It feels like Kirk Cousins' time
is over. In Atlanta. He has not been good down
(08:23):
the stretch. I suppose there's a chance they get in
the playoffs. They will beat the Giants this week, and
who knows, maybe Baker screws it up. But I just don't.
You cannot like what's brewing in Atlanta. And listen, they
got dudes, man, they got a roster Bjon Robbinson's very good.
Drake London is that guy's excellent. Rayburn McLeod has shown well.
Mooney's been okay. I mean, Kyle Pitts was the first
(08:45):
round pick. I would not pay him at all. The
offensive line was a bit of a letout. Could not
protect Cousins last night. And when you get an immobile quarterback,
it's like he's just a sitting duck back there.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
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Speaker 2 (09:10):
As for the Raiders, they did a hell of a
job in that performance, you know, keeping Shador Sanders in line.
That's essentially with this team. They're holding up signs about
tank for Shador Sanders. The Raiders have not won a
football game since they defeated the Cleveland Browns. Oh my gosh,
was this back in September. I mean it's eons ago.
(09:31):
It was September twenty ninth, back when Deshaun Watson was
playing quarterback and Gardner Minshew was the quarterback of the Raiders.
Alexander Madison was the running back. Like, so much has
changed for this team. You know, we had the report
last week that Shaduur Sanders will not play for the Giants,
(09:51):
and then some people, of course, after we talked about
on the pod, some of the listeners sent me messages, Oh,
oh look, there's Chaduur throwing to Malik Neighbors and New
New York. He's there for the Heisman who says he
doesn't want to play. Hey, just because he's throwing the
football to mylite neighbors doesn't mean that damn thing. Now,
My Laie Neighbors would be thrilled to get him, but
he'd be happy with cam Ward two. I got my
first mock draft coming out for Fox Sports this week,
(10:14):
and I do have Shadoor one, but I have cam
Woard two. I do think a second quarter a third
quarterback sneaks out of the top ten. It ain't gonna
be pretty, and a lot of people will disagree with it,
but folks were in a position right now where there
are so many teams without quarterbacks. I mean, we can
(10:34):
start with my Jets and I'm not gonna do the
Aaron Rodgers is playing well down the stretch. Crap, I'm
not doing that. I think right now, Cleveland has a
lot of unanswered questions. I know Deshaun Watson has a
lot of money coming his way, but I don't. I
don't know what's going on with the Browns. They absolutely
have to draft someone. Jamis ain't the guy. He might
be bench to sweep, maybe the bringing back who cares.
We know he's not the guy. I don't even know
if he's the backup. He seems like a good locker
(10:56):
room guy, but a good quarterback is not what Jamis is.
Stard to wonder if the Colts are going to have
to draft a quarterback or get somebody a free agency
because Anthony Richardson, my gosh, he is on the struggle
bus the Tennessee Titans, and Will Levis sounds like he's
getting benched. As we get into December and close to
the end of the season. Here Will Levis vomiting all
(11:17):
over himself against the Bengals, benched and Mason Rudolph comes
in looks competent. I thought they would give will Levis
another shot next year. I'm not so sure they're not
going to have to draft someone. Brian Callahan, he's gonna
want to keep his job. He needs to get a
new quarterback in there. And then you look at the
AFC West and the Raiders are in desperate need ten
losses in a row. They need a quarterback.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Now.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
The thing is in the NFC. The Giants certainly need
a quarterback. That's undeniable. They're two and twelve. They have
no offensive situation. It's good at all. Other than Malik
Neighbors a kid. Tracy was okay, the Minnesota Vikings have
JJ McCarthy waiting in the wings. I think they move
on from Dartel. I think everybody thinks that. And that's
(12:02):
where it gets interesting, because then you get down to
the Falcons and it's like, okay, we're turning the Pennis. Fine,
then Kirk Cousins is now on the market. You could
have Kirk Cousins on the market. You could have Aaron
Rodgers the Jets cut him loose. Gosh, I would love
for him to hit the market. Please just get the
hell out of Dodge, Sam Darnold. Do the Saints become
the landing spot for Sam Darnald kirk Cousins. I don't know.
(12:24):
I don't know what they're gonna do with the head
coaching spot there. And then the Panthers. You know, Bryce
Young has done some things here down the stretch. But
if you're Dave Canalis, you know we've now got a
couple of years of data on Bryce Young, and it's like, okay,
hit and miss. Do I want to You know, I've
been waiting my whole life to become a head coach
in the NFL? Do I want to really stake my
(12:46):
coaching head coaching career to Bryce Young? I mean, honestly, guys,
you really only get one chance at this some of
these guys, this is it. You get one shot. You
come in, you get your chance, and if you fail,
you go back to being a coordinator. Oh who knows what?
And remember Eric beenemy. I don't think they think we
talked about this on the pod. So Eric Enemy was
the offensive coordinator with the Chiefs. The media tried to
(13:08):
really really hard. Oh, he's got Eric the Enemy. He's
got to get a job. Is it racism? Why is
anybody hiring Eric the Enemy? And so eventually he interviews
apparently didn't interview well, and he lands up with the
UCLA Bruins as the OC. Okay, he got fired after
one year. One year at UCLA, Eric Enemy's gone. And
(13:29):
now you're like, okay, well, where's Eric Enemy gonna land?
Probably just go back to the Andy Reid Tree. Those
guys all stick together. But it's like he didn't even
get his at bat as a head coach. You want,
you want a shot, right, the enemy hasn't even gotten that.
I don't know that he'll get one. Is his window closed?
I don't know. Maybe too early for that. But anyways,
(13:49):
then you go to the NFC West and it's like, okay, Seattle,
it looks like this Geno Smith injury is probably gonna
cost them the division, especially if the Rams are healthy. Offensively,
because Sam Howell, as we know, he ain't the guy
we saw little of him Sunday night, and that guy
is not an NFL quarterback. There are some rumblings in
Arizona that they need to move on from Kyler. I
(14:10):
don't totally see that happening. And then there's Brock Purdy
in Sanfra. Now San Frans kind of an attractive spot
for say a Aaron Rodgers, if you will, could Sam
Donald return to San fran Shanahan's always been enamored with
Kirk Cousins. Sanfred's gonna have options. This brock Purty stuff,
We'll get into it, you know, in the next couple
of days. Off the games. I like to talk games,
(14:31):
but brock Perdy's camp planting stuff with Tom Pelasaro, essentially
saying he wants to reset the quarterback market. And when
Palasaro has nuggets like Lamar and dak are the last
two quarterbacks to reset the market. They have a combined
four playoff wins. Brock Purdy has four playoff wins himself,
(14:54):
and he's gonna reset the market. When you start talking
like that, I'm like, oh, no, thank you. And I
like brock Party a lot. You guys know that watching
the Herd listen to this, you know I'm a brock
Party guy, but absolutely not at sixty MILLI year an
absolutely not at fifty MILLI year. I mean, if you
want to win the Super Bowl. You're saying, hey, Brock,
(15:15):
we'll offer you thirty five mill. Maybe you bump up
to forty for the Daniel Jones money.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Whatever.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
You can't disrespect the guy that badly. We love you,
but that's our limit. And you know what, Unfortunately for you, Brock,
the quarterback market is somewhat robust. If Rogers hits the market,
if Cousins hits the market, Donald will hit the market.
But does he want a massive payday. I don't know.
If I'm Donald, I stick with the quarterback whispers, the
(15:41):
Kevin O'Connell's, the Kyle shanahan, the McVeigh, the Lafleur. Those
guys work magic. That tree is money and those guys
always deliver. Let's take this opportunity to pivot to Vikings
thirty Bears twelve. This game was rotten. Chicago's defense was
flying around. I'll give them that. The offense could do nothing.
This new guy. They fired Ebra flues bringing this new guy.
(16:02):
Bears go one for twelve on third down, four point
five yards for play, two hundred and eighty four total yards.
There was nineteen penalties in this game. It was boring,
you know it just it didn't have the Vikings. I
didn't even like the Vikings white jerseys. I like the purple.
I'm very partial to that. Vikings keeping the pressure on
the reeling Detroit Lions, and we'll get to the Lions shortly.
(16:24):
But how good is the NFC North? Are you ready
for this? Lions are twelve and two, Vikings are twelve
and two, Packers are ten and four. That is as
good as it gets. Three teams with double digit wins. Now,
this is what's spicy. The Lions who announced that David Montgomery,
(16:44):
one half of their incredible backfield, is out for the
season with an mcl injury. Two more players are on
the ir It's Allen McNeil on the defensive line and
Carlton Davis, who has I guess a broken jaw. They
think Davis could be back for like the NFC Championship
game at best. Okay, you just lost three starters on
(17:08):
a Monday as we approach week sixteen. That's not stuff
that you can easily bounce back from. Okay. Even my
buddy from The Great fox is Sons, big big, big
Lions fan. Okay, he actually had a party at his
house for you know, birthday party. Great Foxes and Lions
versus the Niners, and dude, he was riding high for
(17:28):
a while and then you know, things turned. But don't
feel for him. He's a Michigan he went Michigan Grad,
and he's you know, he's had some success in recent years.
But it's interesting because the Lions have to go to
Chicago this week, cold weather's outdoors. Then they go to
San fran probably gonna be crappy weather, pride tibe, and
(17:50):
then they wrap up at home against the Vikings in
a rematch, and the Vikings lost the last one thirty
two twenty nine. That game could be for the division,
and you start looking at you like, well, shoot, how
far could Detroit fall? They were the number one seed
and now all of a sudden, are they tumbling to
I don't know four. I mean, is that where we're headed.
(18:13):
It's just insane how quickly things can change on you.
And I'm just telling you Detroit, for I would say,
most of the season has looked like the best team
in the NFL. They've looked awesome, and now it's just
falling apart. Now. The tough news for the Vikings is
short week and you have a trip to the Northwest
outdoors to face Seattle. Seattle fighting for their life. Maybe
(18:35):
you catch a break and you face Sam Howell. After that, though,
Vikings host the Packers and the Packers are one of
the dangerous teams in the NFC, and then at Lions,
so I don't know what, but I don't know what's
gonna happen. I would lean Vikings at this point, but
that game against the Packers is very tough, much tougher
than the game at San Francisco. Uh for Detroit. The
(18:55):
team that's the big winner in this is the Philadelphia Eagles,
who if either of those two loses and the Eagles
went out, Philly's gonna get the number one seed and
the NFC Championship game will go through Philadelphia, which is
really bad news because you know what the link is like,
it's going to be juiced up and cold in January.
Big big edge to the Eagles.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
By the way, it's funny the Eagles sideline skirmish is
getting glossed over. So I was doing some reading about this.
If you guys saw it, I posted on the IG stories.
But so Sirianni was ticked off at Jalen Carter, who's
been playing awesome, for slapping a guy on the Steelers
in the head. And it was a fifteen yarder and
(19:49):
I guess an automatic first down. So Sirianni's yelling at
him as he comes off the field, and Sirianni's still
pissed a few moments later and then walks over to
go talk to him, and this hulking man hurt I
guess this is his name. He is a defensive line coach.
He steps in between Carter and Sirianni and is basically saying, no,
you're not talking to him, coach, we need him to
(20:10):
cool down. But the problem is you can see Carter
right behind him kind of laughing about it. He's talking
to a g man like smiling and laughing. Cool that
what are you talking about the fact that a defensive
line coach would tell Sirianni know, you can't talk to him,
don't go there. And Sirianni kind of took it. He's
the freaking head coach. I don't know, guys, we can
(20:33):
brush this off all we want, Oh, there's nothing, But
to me, that's a lack of respect for your head
coach from Carter and from the defensive line coach. If
the head coaches get over here, I don't care. If
you're making more money than the coach, you gotta get
over there. It's from great school on up. So I
don't know if they're just a really weird situation in Philadelphia.
(20:53):
But anyways, back to the Vikings game. I don't think
they'll get the number one seed, and I don't think
anybody's really scared of them. If you're ranking who are
you most scared of, I would say Eagles, Packers, then
Lions than Vikings. Like Vikings are really good, and the
Flores defense is playing out of its mind, but ultimately
Minnesota probably scares you the least because Donald is prone
(21:14):
to make it some mistakes and even last night, you know,
Donald was very, very good. It helps to have Justin Jefferson,
It helps to have Jordan Addison, helps to have TJ. Hawkinson,
like they got weapons galore and Aaron Jones was running well.
The Bears clearly playing the too high shell, keep everything
(21:34):
in front of him, nothing deep and the longest play
from scrimmage for the Vikings. They had one play over
twenty yards and that was justin Jefferson twenty one yards.
That's it. That's not an explosive offense. They can be explosive,
but you can bottle them up. And it was just
kind of a not going through the motions, but it
just felt like, Okay, Minnesota is the better team here,
(21:56):
but are they great? I don't know. Again, Sam Donald's
gonna have to prove it in the playoffs. No, that
should not surprise anybody if they want to take the
Viking seriously. So I am thankful to the NFL for
giving us the two games on Monday night football. I mean,
you know, obviously they didn't. It didn't go well for
me in fantasy. The gambling was good. I guess we
(22:16):
can close on this. The early report on the Patrick
Mahomes injury is high ankle sprain. Those can be anywhere
from two to four weeks. But depending on which reporter
you read, Rapaport, Schefter, whoever, it's either not that bad
or he's week to week. Okay, based on how this
(22:38):
game was lined, Houston Texans minus two and a half,
I'm going to go ahead and guess somebody believes Patrick
Mahomes is not playing. Now, Yes, I'm the I'm the
dummy who took de bait. I have already bet the
Texans minus two and a half, and wouldn't you know it? Yeah?
I mean, does this surprise you? Currently the line is
Texans minus two, but it's close to two and a half.
(23:01):
It's a minus one fifteen. Let me see what exactly
what I got? Yeah, I have a minus two and
a half and I think the Texans, I think they
can win this game. I'm certainly not afraid of Carson
friggin Wentz. Are you who's afraid of Carson Wentz? Come on,
he's not a good quarterback. We've seen Carson Wentz. I
(23:22):
don't think there's any fear at all. This is a
Houston team, though, the problem is how is CJ. Stroud
going to handle the pressure? He is don handled the
well this year. I'm hopeful Texans. By the way, how
good is Saturday? I didn't realize that this is the
lineup Saturday. So one o'clock you have Texans chiefs and
then I'm trying to transfer the time to Pacific time.
(23:48):
So I guess that's three point thirty. Damn it. Okay,
so ten Am you ten Am West Coast time, you
got Texans Chiefs. I can't believe I'm struggling with this
this early in the morning. And then at thirteen thirty. Yeah,
so that's one thirty you get Steelers Ravens. But that's
just the NFL. Don't forget. The college football playoff is
(24:12):
Saturday now. The early kickoff is SMU Penn State. Then
you have Clemson Texas, and the nightcap. The best game
is Tennessee Ohio State. That is going to be really good.
I'm fired up. Now Friday night you get to they
wet your beak with Indiana at Notre Dame. I think
I've already told you guys, I'm on a teaser that's
Notre Dame, Penn State, and Ohio State. I think they
(24:35):
all win, but I do believe they will be closed.
This is uncharted territory. That's what I love so much
about this. We just nobody knows what to expect in
a college football playoff. That's twelve team's home field advantage,
like we just haven't had that before. I'm so excited
it should because Saturday should be a phenomenal day. We'll
preview it all, we'll have all the best bets. Keep
(24:56):
it locked here on straight fire. Happy holidays, talk to
you tomorrow
This is straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up, straight firefam, It's me Jason McIntyre. Straight
Fire for Tuesday, December seventeenth. You know, I complained the
other day about the doubleheader on Monday Night football in
the middle of December, and then the games were awful.
But oh my goodness, think gosh for gambling and fantasy football.
(00:33):
That's the only reason these two games were even remotely watchable.
I'm trying to get through Yellowstone this season. I'm, you know,
during football season, I can't watch any shows. It's tough
to watch movies. During Thanksgiving break, I watched some stuff
and I'm getting back into Yellowstone now is the NFL
season winds down. But I was at the point last
night where I'm like, you know what, these games are terrible.
(00:54):
Let me just let me just go to Yellowstone. I mean,
it's really riveting stuff. It's a final season, no spoilers. I'm,
you know, getting caught up on the final season. And
then a funny thing happened. I was down like forty
in the fantasy football playoffs in the Fox Digital League.
I had Keenan Allen and the Falcons defense, and within
like a bang bang moment. The Falcons defense had an
(01:16):
awesome play and they were up to like sixteen points,
and then Keenan Allen scores a touchdown and I'm like, oh,
I'm within striking distance and it got unbelievably close. The
interception on the hail Mary brought me down one and
a half points or whatever. It was less than two points,
and I ended up taking the l But it was
thrilling stuff. That's the only reason that game was interesting.
Now you know the Raiders, the inept pathetic Raiders were
(01:39):
trying to come in the back door. We'll start with
that game just because it was remotely close and the
Kirk Cousins situation is apparently at the boiling point. Let's
get started with this. The Atlanta Falcons are not a
good football team, period. Hard stop. Tampa Bay is a
better football team right now than Atlanta. Despite Atlanta beating
them twice, the Falcons survived the Raiders because of special teams.
(02:03):
They block two and a half kicks, which is weird
fantas the only game me two, and their special team's
defense is good. The special teams offense, they don't trust
their kicker who missed. I believe a thirty six or
forty six yarder that would have put the game out
of reach, and that gave the Raiders life. The Falcons
are gonna have to bring in some new kickers this week,
for sure. They do get a layup this week facing
(02:25):
the we call them the tanking Giants. It seems like
the Raiders and the Giants are in a race to
the bottom. For Shador Sanders, I feel like that's a
safe thing to say. The Falcons should beat the Giants.
Then the Falcons travel to Washington and then host the
Panthers in the final game of the season, so really
they should go two and three. The problem for Tampa
(02:48):
is they are let me see what their record is
right now, they are eight and six, so they're up
a game now. If they tie, obviously it goes to Atlanta.
Tampa has a slightly tougher schedule. They are at the
Cowboys in a game that I guess is slated for
Sunday night football. Now, I don't know if that's going
to change. Dallas feisty over the weekend. The defense had
(03:08):
a million sacks. And let me remind you, Kirk Cousins
is immobil He is not playing good quarterback football right now.
I mean, I will get to Kirk in a second.
Then the Bucks host Carolina, they will be favored, but
you know, Carolina's plucky and the last time they met.
What happened last Sunda they met? It was Oh, it
(03:30):
was a close game. That was a game that went
overtime just a few weeks ago. So I would not
expect the Panthers to totally roll over and then against
the Saints in the season finale. So I think the
Bucks take the division. But the real story is what
the hell happened to Kirk Cousins. I mean, folks, you
want to talk about falling off a cliff, I'm going
to read you this stat line. You tell me if
this was Desmond Ritter or Kirk Cousins. Twenty three of
(03:53):
thirty nine, two hundred eight yards, a touchdown and two picks.
That was Desmond Ritter. I don't know why he was
throwing thirty nine times, but you know they were trailing
the entire game. Kirk Cousins against the sad Sack Raiders defense,
which did not have Max Crosby. He's out for the season.
The Raiders have two wins. Okay, Kirk Cousins was eleven
(04:16):
of seventeen for one hundred and twelve yards, a touchdown
and a pick. He threw for one hundred and twelve
yards in primetime against the Raiders. Now I bet kirk
Cousins props. I went one and two. Not great, not great.
I had his longest completion over thirty five and a
half yards. He had the bomb to Drake Lennard. I
was like, oh, that's so far. Kirk's arm is so pathetic.
(04:36):
It went only thirty yards. I had over one and
a half touchdown passes. He only had one. The other.
Oh no, I only had two Kirk Cousins pross both
with the other I had was the Raiders team total
under I think it was nineteen and a half. There
was no way they were getting there with Desnonder anyways.
They were sentually relying on Bjon Robinson twenty two carries
and Tyler Algier who runs hard? Man who does he
(04:58):
run hard? But this is not not the kind of all, Like,
I don't want to see this team in the playoffs.
I don't. They're unwatchable with Kirk Cousins being this bad folks.
The kirk Cousins streak right now, I mean if you
look at it, You're like, holy hell, why is he still?
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Why is he still the starter? Last five games Kirk
Cousins one touchdown and four five, six, seven, eight, nine interceptions.
One touchdown, nine interceptions in his last five games. So
much for Oh, he's probably healed from the achilles.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Now.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
I don't know what the problem is. Rakhie Morris doesn't
know the problem. Now, four of the five games were
on the road. He could just be fatigued. It's possible
that he's just worn down long season, and you know,
I don't know if the Raheem Morris, whatever they're doing
offensively is like messing with Kirk. But outside of the
two Tap of Bay games where a few strip away
(05:52):
the four touchdowns he had in each of the meet
each of the games, every other opponent this season, Kirk
Cousins has no nine touchdowns and fourteen interceptions. I mean, honestly,
it's crazy. He threw for five hundred nine yards and
two hundred and seventy six so you're looking at like
seven hundred and eighty five yards against Tampa and in
(06:16):
the other games he has looks like two three hundred
yard games. That's it. Against Minnesota last week in a
losing effort against the Saints in a losing effort a
few weeks before that, like this is not a good
football team. And afterward, Reggie Morris is like, hey, we'd
need Kirk to play better, and he stopped short of
giving him the official. He's my quarterback. My gut tells
(06:36):
me they're gonna look hard at Pennox this week. But
here's the crappy thing. If you're Michael Pennix, bro I'm older.
I'm not some young, twenty one year old kid who's
out of college champion at the bit to get my chance.
I'm Michael Pennix. I started a billion games in college.
I played at Indiana and Washington. I'm twenty four years old.
(06:58):
I am a grown ass man ready to fling the
quarter We're ready to fring the ball like a quarterback should.
And that's got to be frustrated for him. You saw
him standing on the sideline helmet on like he put
me in coach, you know, And I feel bad. I mean,
if the Falcons missed the playoffs, what are they bringing
Kirk Cousins back for. And it's starting to really blow
(07:19):
up in their face. Remember this is a front office
that had Bill Belichick as a potential coach, and they
were like, we're good Bill. Thanks. You know, the owner
liked Bill. The front office wanting to keep their jobs
in relevance. We're like, no, no, we don't want Bill.
He's power hungry. We don't We don't want the guy
who's won more Super Bowls than any coach in NFL history.
(07:39):
We do not want him in here. We want Rahie
Morris back him here. He was here before. He's a
good guy. He's not gonna take any power from us.
And then the front office proceeded to give Kirk Cousins
the bag and then draft Michael Pennox in the top ten.
You just tell me what sense that makes, Guys I
called it at the time. I was like, what the
hell's going on? This does not sound smart at all.
(08:01):
It just doesn't. And it has backfired spectacularly because Kirk
Cousins looks washed. They're gonna have a huge dead cap hit.
They're gonna have to move off of him and go
to Peedicks next season. That's where it's headed unless Baker
and Tampa totally implode. It feels like Kirk Cousins' time
is over. In Atlanta. He has not been good down
(08:23):
the stretch. I suppose there's a chance they get in
the playoffs. They will beat the Giants this week, and
who knows, maybe Baker screws it up. But I just don't.
You cannot like what's brewing in Atlanta. And listen, they
got dudes, man, they got a roster Bjon Robbinson's very good.
Drake London is that guy's excellent. Rayburn McLeod has shown well.
Mooney's been okay. I mean, Kyle Pitts was the first
(08:45):
round pick. I would not pay him at all. The
offensive line was a bit of a letout. Could not
protect Cousins last night. And when you get an immobile quarterback,
it's like he's just a sitting duck back there.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
As for the Raiders, they did a hell of a
job in that performance, you know, keeping Shador Sanders in line.
That's essentially with this team. They're holding up signs about
tank for Shador Sanders. The Raiders have not won a
football game since they defeated the Cleveland Browns. Oh my gosh,
was this back in September. I mean it's eons ago.
(09:31):
It was September twenty ninth, back when Deshaun Watson was
playing quarterback and Gardner Minshew was the quarterback of the Raiders.
Alexander Madison was the running back. Like, so much has
changed for this team. You know, we had the report
last week that Shaduur Sanders will not play for the Giants,
(09:51):
and then some people, of course, after we talked about
on the pod, some of the listeners sent me messages, Oh,
oh look, there's Chaduur throwing to Malik Neighbors and New
New York. He's there for the Heisman who says he
doesn't want to play. Hey, just because he's throwing the
football to mylite neighbors doesn't mean that damn thing. Now,
My Laie Neighbors would be thrilled to get him, but
he'd be happy with cam Ward two. I got my
first mock draft coming out for Fox Sports this week,
(10:14):
and I do have Shadoor one, but I have cam
Woard two. I do think a second quarter a third
quarterback sneaks out of the top ten. It ain't gonna
be pretty, and a lot of people will disagree with it,
but folks were in a position right now where there
are so many teams without quarterbacks. I mean, we can
(10:34):
start with my Jets and I'm not gonna do the
Aaron Rodgers is playing well down the stretch. Crap, I'm
not doing that. I think right now, Cleveland has a
lot of unanswered questions. I know Deshaun Watson has a
lot of money coming his way, but I don't. I
don't know what's going on with the Browns. They absolutely
have to draft someone. Jamis ain't the guy. He might
be bench to sweep, maybe the bringing back who cares.
We know he's not the guy. I don't even know
if he's the backup. He seems like a good locker
(10:56):
room guy, but a good quarterback is not what Jamis is.
Stard to wonder if the Colts are going to have
to draft a quarterback or get somebody a free agency
because Anthony Richardson, my gosh, he is on the struggle
bus the Tennessee Titans, and Will Levis sounds like he's
getting benched. As we get into December and close to
the end of the season. Here Will Levis vomiting all
(11:17):
over himself against the Bengals, benched and Mason Rudolph comes
in looks competent. I thought they would give will Levis
another shot next year. I'm not so sure they're not
going to have to draft someone. Brian Callahan, he's gonna
want to keep his job. He needs to get a
new quarterback in there. And then you look at the
AFC West and the Raiders are in desperate need ten
losses in a row. They need a quarterback.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Now.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
The thing is in the NFC. The Giants certainly need
a quarterback. That's undeniable. They're two and twelve. They have
no offensive situation. It's good at all. Other than Malik
Neighbors a kid. Tracy was okay, the Minnesota Vikings have
JJ McCarthy waiting in the wings. I think they move
on from Dartel. I think everybody thinks that. And that's
(12:02):
where it gets interesting, because then you get down to
the Falcons and it's like, okay, we're turning the Pennis. Fine,
then Kirk Cousins is now on the market. You could
have Kirk Cousins on the market. You could have Aaron
Rodgers the Jets cut him loose. Gosh, I would love
for him to hit the market. Please just get the
hell out of Dodge, Sam Darnold. Do the Saints become
the landing spot for Sam Darnald kirk Cousins. I don't know.
(12:24):
I don't know what they're gonna do with the head
coaching spot there. And then the Panthers. You know, Bryce
Young has done some things here down the stretch. But
if you're Dave Canalis, you know we've now got a
couple of years of data on Bryce Young, and it's like, okay,
hit and miss. Do I want to You know, I've
been waiting my whole life to become a head coach
in the NFL? Do I want to really stake my
(12:46):
coaching head coaching career to Bryce Young? I mean, honestly, guys,
you really only get one chance at this some of
these guys, this is it. You get one shot. You
come in, you get your chance, and if you fail,
you go back to being a coordinator. Oh who knows what?
And remember Eric beenemy. I don't think they think we
talked about this on the pod. So Eric Enemy was
the offensive coordinator with the Chiefs. The media tried to
(13:08):
really really hard. Oh, he's got Eric the Enemy. He's
got to get a job. Is it racism? Why is
anybody hiring Eric the Enemy? And so eventually he interviews
apparently didn't interview well, and he lands up with the
UCLA Bruins as the OC. Okay, he got fired after
one year. One year at UCLA, Eric Enemy's gone. And
(13:29):
now you're like, okay, well, where's Eric Enemy gonna land?
Probably just go back to the Andy Reid Tree. Those
guys all stick together. But it's like he didn't even
get his at bat as a head coach. You want,
you want a shot, right, the enemy hasn't even gotten that.
I don't know that he'll get one. Is his window closed?
I don't know. Maybe too early for that. But anyways,
(13:49):
then you go to the NFC West and it's like, okay, Seattle,
it looks like this Geno Smith injury is probably gonna
cost them the division, especially if the Rams are healthy. Offensively,
because Sam Howell, as we know, he ain't the guy
we saw little of him Sunday night, and that guy
is not an NFL quarterback. There are some rumblings in
Arizona that they need to move on from Kyler. I
(14:10):
don't totally see that happening. And then there's Brock Purdy
in Sanfra. Now San Frans kind of an attractive spot
for say a Aaron Rodgers, if you will, could Sam
Donald return to San fran Shanahan's always been enamored with
Kirk Cousins. Sanfred's gonna have options. This brock Purty stuff,
We'll get into it, you know, in the next couple
of days. Off the games. I like to talk games,
(14:31):
but brock Perdy's camp planting stuff with Tom Pelasaro, essentially
saying he wants to reset the quarterback market. And when
Palasaro has nuggets like Lamar and dak are the last
two quarterbacks to reset the market. They have a combined
four playoff wins. Brock Purdy has four playoff wins himself,
(14:54):
and he's gonna reset the market. When you start talking
like that, I'm like, oh, no, thank you. And I
like brock Party a lot. You guys know that watching
the Herd listen to this, you know I'm a brock
Party guy, but absolutely not at sixty MILLI year an
absolutely not at fifty MILLI year. I mean, if you
want to win the Super Bowl. You're saying, hey, Brock,
(15:15):
we'll offer you thirty five mill. Maybe you bump up
to forty for the Daniel Jones money.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Whatever.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
You can't disrespect the guy that badly. We love you,
but that's our limit. And you know what, Unfortunately for you, Brock,
the quarterback market is somewhat robust. If Rogers hits the market,
if Cousins hits the market, Donald will hit the market.
But does he want a massive payday. I don't know.
If I'm Donald, I stick with the quarterback whispers, the
(15:41):
Kevin O'Connell's, the Kyle shanahan, the McVeigh, the Lafleur. Those
guys work magic. That tree is money and those guys
always deliver. Let's take this opportunity to pivot to Vikings
thirty Bears twelve. This game was rotten. Chicago's defense was
flying around. I'll give them that. The offense could do nothing.
This new guy. They fired Ebra flues bringing this new guy.
(16:02):
Bears go one for twelve on third down, four point
five yards for play, two hundred and eighty four total yards.
There was nineteen penalties in this game. It was boring,
you know it just it didn't have the Vikings. I
didn't even like the Vikings white jerseys. I like the purple.
I'm very partial to that. Vikings keeping the pressure on
the reeling Detroit Lions, and we'll get to the Lions shortly.
(16:24):
But how good is the NFC North? Are you ready
for this? Lions are twelve and two, Vikings are twelve
and two, Packers are ten and four. That is as
good as it gets. Three teams with double digit wins. Now,
this is what's spicy. The Lions who announced that David Montgomery,
(16:44):
one half of their incredible backfield, is out for the
season with an mcl injury. Two more players are on
the ir It's Allen McNeil on the defensive line and
Carlton Davis, who has I guess a broken jaw. They
think Davis could be back for like the NFC Championship
game at best. Okay, you just lost three starters on
(17:08):
a Monday as we approach week sixteen. That's not stuff
that you can easily bounce back from. Okay. Even my
buddy from The Great fox is Sons, big big, big
Lions fan. Okay, he actually had a party at his
house for you know, birthday party. Great Foxes and Lions
versus the Niners, and dude, he was riding high for
(17:28):
a while and then you know, things turned. But don't
feel for him. He's a Michigan he went Michigan Grad,
and he's you know, he's had some success in recent years.
But it's interesting because the Lions have to go to
Chicago this week, cold weather's outdoors. Then they go to
San fran probably gonna be crappy weather, pride tibe, and
(17:50):
then they wrap up at home against the Vikings in
a rematch, and the Vikings lost the last one thirty
two twenty nine. That game could be for the division,
and you start looking at you like, well, shoot, how
far could Detroit fall? They were the number one seed
and now all of a sudden, are they tumbling to
I don't know four. I mean, is that where we're headed.
(18:13):
It's just insane how quickly things can change on you.
And I'm just telling you Detroit, for I would say,
most of the season has looked like the best team
in the NFL. They've looked awesome, and now it's just
falling apart. Now. The tough news for the Vikings is
short week and you have a trip to the Northwest
outdoors to face Seattle. Seattle fighting for their life. Maybe
(18:35):
you catch a break and you face Sam Howell. After that, though,
Vikings host the Packers and the Packers are one of
the dangerous teams in the NFC, and then at Lions,
so I don't know what, but I don't know what's
gonna happen. I would lean Vikings at this point, but
that game against the Packers is very tough, much tougher
than the game at San Francisco. Uh for Detroit. The
(18:55):
team that's the big winner in this is the Philadelphia Eagles,
who if either of those two loses and the Eagles
went out, Philly's gonna get the number one seed and
the NFC Championship game will go through Philadelphia, which is
really bad news because you know what the link is like,
it's going to be juiced up and cold in January.
Big big edge to the Eagles.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
By the way, it's funny the Eagles sideline skirmish is
getting glossed over. So I was doing some reading about this.
If you guys saw it, I posted on the IG stories.
But so Sirianni was ticked off at Jalen Carter, who's
been playing awesome, for slapping a guy on the Steelers
in the head. And it was a fifteen yarder and
(19:49):
I guess an automatic first down. So Sirianni's yelling at
him as he comes off the field, and Sirianni's still
pissed a few moments later and then walks over to
go talk to him, and this hulking man hurt I
guess this is his name. He is a defensive line coach.
He steps in between Carter and Sirianni and is basically saying, no,
you're not talking to him, coach, we need him to
(20:10):
cool down. But the problem is you can see Carter
right behind him kind of laughing about it. He's talking
to a g man like smiling and laughing. Cool that
what are you talking about the fact that a defensive
line coach would tell Sirianni know, you can't talk to him,
don't go there. And Sirianni kind of took it. He's
the freaking head coach. I don't know, guys, we can
(20:33):
brush this off all we want, Oh, there's nothing, But
to me, that's a lack of respect for your head
coach from Carter and from the defensive line coach. If
the head coaches get over here, I don't care. If
you're making more money than the coach, you gotta get
over there. It's from great school on up. So I
don't know if they're just a really weird situation in Philadelphia.
(20:53):
But anyways, back to the Vikings game. I don't think
they'll get the number one seed, and I don't think
anybody's really scared of them. If you're ranking who are
you most scared of, I would say Eagles, Packers, then
Lions than Vikings. Like Vikings are really good, and the
Flores defense is playing out of its mind, but ultimately
Minnesota probably scares you the least because Donald is prone
(21:14):
to make it some mistakes and even last night, you know,
Donald was very, very good. It helps to have Justin Jefferson,
It helps to have Jordan Addison, helps to have TJ. Hawkinson,
like they got weapons galore and Aaron Jones was running well.
The Bears clearly playing the too high shell, keep everything
(21:34):
in front of him, nothing deep and the longest play
from scrimmage for the Vikings. They had one play over
twenty yards and that was justin Jefferson twenty one yards.
That's it. That's not an explosive offense. They can be explosive,
but you can bottle them up. And it was just
kind of a not going through the motions, but it
just felt like, Okay, Minnesota is the better team here,
(21:56):
but are they great? I don't know. Again, Sam Donald's
gonna have to prove it in the playoffs. No, that
should not surprise anybody if they want to take the
Viking seriously. So I am thankful to the NFL for
giving us the two games on Monday night football. I mean,
you know, obviously they didn't. It didn't go well for
me in fantasy. The gambling was good. I guess we
(22:16):
can close on this. The early report on the Patrick
Mahomes injury is high ankle sprain. Those can be anywhere
from two to four weeks. But depending on which reporter
you read, Rapaport, Schefter, whoever, it's either not that bad
or he's week to week. Okay, based on how this
(22:38):
game was lined, Houston Texans minus two and a half,
I'm going to go ahead and guess somebody believes Patrick
Mahomes is not playing. Now, Yes, I'm the I'm the
dummy who took de bait. I have already bet the
Texans minus two and a half, and wouldn't you know it? Yeah?
I mean, does this surprise you? Currently the line is
Texans minus two, but it's close to two and a half.
(23:01):
It's a minus one fifteen. Let me see what exactly
what I got? Yeah, I have a minus two and
a half and I think the Texans, I think they
can win this game. I'm certainly not afraid of Carson
friggin Wentz. Are you who's afraid of Carson Wentz? Come on,
he's not a good quarterback. We've seen Carson Wentz. I
(23:22):
don't think there's any fear at all. This is a
Houston team, though, the problem is how is CJ. Stroud
going to handle the pressure? He is don handled the
well this year. I'm hopeful Texans. By the way, how
good is Saturday? I didn't realize that this is the
lineup Saturday. So one o'clock you have Texans chiefs and
then I'm trying to transfer the time to Pacific time.
(23:48):
So I guess that's three point thirty. Damn it. Okay,
so ten Am you ten Am West Coast time, you
got Texans Chiefs. I can't believe I'm struggling with this
this early in the morning. And then at thirteen thirty. Yeah,
so that's one thirty you get Steelers Ravens. But that's
just the NFL. Don't forget. The college football playoff is
(24:12):
Saturday now. The early kickoff is SMU Penn State. Then
you have Clemson Texas, and the nightcap. The best game
is Tennessee Ohio State. That is going to be really good.
I'm fired up. Now Friday night you get to they
wet your beak with Indiana at Notre Dame. I think
I've already told you guys, I'm on a teaser that's
Notre Dame, Penn State, and Ohio State. I think they
(24:35):
all win, but I do believe they will be closed.
This is uncharted territory. That's what I love so much
about this. We just nobody knows what to expect in
a college football playoff. That's twelve team's home field advantage,
like we just haven't had that before. I'm so excited
it should because Saturday should be a phenomenal day. We'll
preview it all, we'll have all the best bets. Keep
(24:56):
it locked here on straight fire. Happy holidays, talk to
you tomorrow
Host
Jason McIntyre
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