John Middlekauff (3:33)
What is going on, everybody? How are we doing? Hopefully everyone is doing well, enjoying life, doing great. Obviously we're brought to you by my friends and at Zone Pouches and we just is pretty late. Somehow the Denver Broncos pulled that off. Marcus Mariota, as Collinsworth was saying, just would not die. But the Broncos are now 10 and 2 tied for the best record in the NFL, have a commanding lead in the AFC west, and look poised to compete for the number one seed, even though their quarterback and offense can be very, very hit or miss. Their defense was a little off as well tonight, but a lot of other stuff going on. The NFC West Wide Open, Mike Tomlin and the Steelers in shambles and even, I mean they were the ones saying it. Not. Not me. And Lane Kiffin is an LSU Tiger. So we'll, we'll dive into it all. Busy week. We, we had a lot of content. We, we did a podcast after the the Thanksgiving games. We did a podcast after the Black Friday game and, and now we're rocking and rolling here on Sunday night and we'll be back again Monday night. So hopefully everyone had a good day, good weekend, enjoyed friends and family. And now it's time to, you know, get to get, get back to get back to real life. Get back to reality, I guess. Obviously. Subscribe to the podcast if you listen on Collins feed. Appreciate everyone subscribe to the YouTube channel. You never miss a thing. We go live after all these, these primetime games and, and yeah, that, that'll be the game plan. But before we dive into any football, you know, I gotta tell you about my friends at Zone Pouches. This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical. Underage SALE prohibited. If you're as competitive as I am, you're always looking for something to help you stay dialed in. And for me, that thing is Zone Nicotine Pouches. You won't catch me without a can, a citrus dragon, fruit or mint. Been rocking them all. Not to mention 20 pouches per can versus the 15 the other guys offer. Choose Zone and dominate the day. Use promo code 3 and out 20 on nicokick.com for 20% off at checkout. It's been a long weekend, but let's just start with the Denver Broncos. Who I, I, I don't even, I have a philosophy when, as you know, you get late November, early December, I think we will see this tomorrow on Monday Night Football. When you take a team that's 10 and one or 11 and two and you're playing a team that's a three or four win team that is headed toward potentially drafting in the top five or six, right? These are human beings. So when you look at your opponent, you just don't take them as seriously. And one thing, if you watch a lot of NFL football on Sunday, don't blame you if you did. Not unlike the guys that play on Thursday, they don't eat their Thanksgiving meal till after the game. I do think there's like the tryptophan kind of lack of focus. I thought it was pretty spotty play throughout the league today and it kind of carried into the night game where it just feels a little something's missing, especially from Denver, who still has a lot to play for. I mean, getting a home field, the number one seed, you know, in Denver is a huge, huge swing moment for teams going to Mile High, right? And you're watching tonight, you go, is there a team with a bigger variance in the NFL that's a good team than the Denver Broncos? I mean, you can watch them on individual series when you're like, their defense is incredible. Hu Funga was just a plug in play, looks like an all Pro. Their pass rush is awesome. Obviously your tan's back in the mix. He's one of the best defensive backs in the league. But then they got Riley Moss, who Marcus Mariota. Made him look like he should be on a practice squad. I mean, Riley Moss, it's, it is very, very difficult in this modern free agency era to have a perfect defense or a perfect offense. You're typically going to have a liability somewhere, right? A guy that you would like to replace. But it's just, it's hard. You're not going to have all 11 high end starters. It's like, yeah, we got 11 Pro Bowlers. Like, this isn't the mid-90s and it's the Cowboys or the 49ers. This is the free agency era. You're just going to have some individuals who are on the field with some limitations. And clearly when it comes to Riley Moss, like if you're going to do anything, that's who you're going to throw after. And they just went after him relentlessly tonight and you know he's just targeted constantly throughout this entire season. A couple of weeks ago I remember watching the game, I don't know if that's still the case. Led the league in pass interferences tonight with the game on the line. Debo Samuel, who isn't exactly Jerry Rice or Marvin Harrison, not, not Junior but senior when it comes to route running and when the ball is not in his hands, I wouldn't consider Debo to play fast. Goes right by him. I mean almost, almost scored. Ended up leading to what would have been the game tying touchdown in overtime. But obviously they went for two instead of kicking the field goal and Mariota didn't get it. Now I do believe that Mariota tonight looked really good through for basically 300 yards. I mean you watch games like tonight like Mariota is a high end backup and the athletic ability to keep plays alive with his legs. Little inaccurate at times but has a pretty explosive arm. Just a good player, really high level guy. People love him and was playing really well like was giving Denver all that they could handle. But I go back to these are human beings and when you go into a game against a team that is 3 and 8 whose star quarterback is watching the game from a box, whose team is just not played very well, you don't take them as seriously. And that's what I just wonder. Denver coming into this game now there's an entire other element where Bo Nix is a giant wild card. Like there were, there were series like at the end of the first half the what was the score? They had just Washington scored a touchdown to made it 7 to 6 and Denver got the ball back with a little over two minutes to go and you went, you know what, you want to get some points. So at least you have a lead going in the halftime. Maybe it's nine to six. In a perfect world you get a touchdown and you go up, you know, 13 to 7 and bo nix gets the ball, leads him right down the field on touchdown drive. You're like, well that's the good Bo Knicks. And then in the second half there's a play where he throws it right to Bobby Wagner who Bobby Wagner didn't even move. He basically took a step back from where he was lined up pre snap and Bo immediately grabs his helmet like this. For those of you listening, he just puts his helmet or puts his hands on his helmet. Obviously many of you are probably watching the game and it's like that can't happen. And you could convince me that Denver could win the AFC pretty easily. If they get number one seed, win both games and be the representation in the Super Bowl, I have a ticket on them to go to the Super Bowl. You could also convince me they could lose in the first round. Right. If New England gets the number one seed, they're the two seed depending on who they play as a seven seed. It would not shock me at all if Bo Nick just has a game where throws a couple picks, their offense doesn't do much and they just lose a game like 15 to 13 that would 100% be on the table. That's why I think that there is not a team with the high end and the low end that is going to be in the playoffs like the Denver Broncos. And it kind of goes to Bo Nix. And I also think sometimes Sean Payton plays a role in this. We'll talk about the Panther game a little bit later, but when we discussed that game when they played the 49ers, it was like, why didn't you run the ball more? How did you only have 13 carries in a game where your quarterback was just a little hit or miss? And tonight like RJ Harvey had 13 carries, you got. Well, John, he only had 35 yards, averaging, you know, under three yards of carry. Well, that's part of being an offensive coach. Just slow down the game a little bit and eventually your guy's going to break one. Maybe not for 50 yards, but if it's 20 yards or 30 yards or even 15 yards, there's a level of, you know, controlling the clock and establishing a physicality on offense and also taking some of the pressure off your quarterback. Because Bo Nix gets in these streaks where he's like running around skipping balls at guys feet and you're like, this is what is going on. And there probably hasn't been a more frustrating player throughout this season on a good team than Bo Nix for the Broncos. It's like you watch individual series, you go, that's really impressive. Then you watch individual series and you go, that's terrible. You could leave this game and make the argument that Mario downplayed him tonight. You know, I'm not even just factoring in numbers. Mariota was a little less accurate. They basically threw similar yardage. Mariota threw for one more touchdown. Now granted it came in the, in the overtime session, but they both threw an interception. Mariota was sacked twice, Bo Nix was sacked once. They both kind of scramble around kind of similar players I would say Bo Nix's arms a little bit better though. I think Mariota's arm was, looked pretty strong tonight. But one major difference is the, the Commanders ran for like 60 more yards and they just, they had 10 more carries. Like that just helps an offense just settle down. And I think Sean Payton, for whatever reason gets into these positions with his quarterback where he's like trying to prove, I told you this is my next Drew Brees who can move. I told you this is the guy that can lead us to a Super Bowl. It's like, yeah, maybe that inevitably happens, but why are you trying to prove it on this individual series when things aren't going well? Settle everything down, call some more runs, help call quarterback runs for him, but it just feels like he's hesitant to do that or he just refuses to do that. But at the end of the day, only New England has, you know, as many wins as they do. And assuming New England beats the Giants tomorrow, like the Broncos are easily ahead of Jacksonville and Indianapolis, who are both 8 and 4. The Chargers are currently 8 and 4, but their quarterback is going to have surgery on his hand tomorrow. Now I'm pretty sure it's his non throwing hand. And even Herbert said that he expects to play in the Monday Night Football game against the Eagles coming up this week. But that's a pretty big wild card. The Chiefs are currently 6 and 6, the Ravens and the Steelers are 6 and 6. So this thing is wide open. Now I do think Denver has a better roster than the New England Patriots, but it would be hard to argue that you would have more faith in Bo Nix than Drake May, given the way the two guys have played this year. So I think, listen this, the AFC hasn't been this wide open in a long, long time. You could make the argument in like decades because for 20 plus years it was mainly New England with a little bit of Peyton mixed in. And the last five years has been Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid with Baltimore and Buffalo basically beating everyone else. Well now Buffalo is also 8 and 4, but they got a million injuries and they don't look great. You have the Ravens, who in any other season would be up three games in that division. Steelers are in their circle in the drain. I have zero faith. I mean Indianapolis is playing a quarterback with a broken fibula and he's like, well, healthy enough to play. And the doctors cleared me. It's like that's a great sign. They're, they're clearly leaking major oil. I have no faith in Jacksonville. You could Argue Houston is one of the hottest teams in the league, and who knows if they can dig themselves out of that Owen three hole. I mean, they're, they're attempting to, but Jacksonville and Indy, I'm pretty sure haven't even played yet. But like Denver, if they, if their quarterback play was more consistent, I think everyone would be picking them to win the AFC because their defense wasn't that great tonight. But the totality of the season, it has been excellent. And really, for two straight years, it's been really, really good. And then from a weapon standpoint, I mean, Sutton, Ingram, R.J. harvey out of the backfield, Franklin's an explosive player. Like, they do have enough weapons. Now you lose J.K. dobbins, the running game. Is their coach going to be willing to call enough runs? That, that, that is definitely up for debate. I just. I don't know, man. The AFC is in complete shambles right now, and Sean Payton anointed this team at the beginning of the year, saying, I've, throughout my. However many two decades of being a head coach, I've had a handful of teams that I knew in training camp had a chance, right? And this was one of them. And like, I do think the way that it's broken with the injuries, with the Chiefs being in shambles with the Ravens and how they've played with Burrow getting injured, it's. It's all for them to take now. Do you have faith that they can take it? I don't, but I don't know who else I would pick. You know, we'll see New England tomorrow. I just. I'm still hesitant to think, are they good enough? You know, I think they're a year away. Kind of like last year when Washington made it to the NFC Championship game, it was like, is this the least talented team ever to be in a championship game? But their quarterback was just playing out of his mind. And there's a little bit of that element with New England, though, you know, Travion Henderson has added an explosive element now that he's played over the course of the last month. Clearly their coach is pretty accomplished guy. A lot like Dan Quinn last year. Like, he had taken a team to a Super Bowl. He had some pelts on the wall as a coach, but I do think this thing's pretty wide open. Today's show is brought to you by our new presenting sponsor, Hard Rock bet. The Hard Rock Bet Sportsbook app is the only legal sports book for whenever you're in Florida. It's also live in Arizona, Ohio, New Jersey, Indiana, Tennessee, Virginia, Illinois and Colorado. Coming soon to more states too. Sign up today and you could win 150 in bonus bets. Just place a five dollar bet and if it hits you not only get your winnings, but you also get 150 in extra bonus bets. Plus Hard Rock Bet offers new promos daily plus big legendary reward drops every single Thursday. 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