← The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Herd with Colin Cowherd
3 & Out - Seahawks DEFEAT 49ers to clinch NFC West & No. 1 seed in NFL Playoffs
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This is an iHeart podcast, guaranteed human if you only listen to one thing to make sense of the news this year, make it this the final episode of this season of Next Question pulls together the most important conversations of the year. You'll hear David Graham on Project 2025, Liz Oyer on the plethora of presidential pardons, Tina Brown on the year's biggest scandals here at home and across the pond, plus much, much more. It's a crash course in the last 12 months, how we made it through the year, and a look at what might be coming in 2026. Listen to next Question with me, Katie Couric on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
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The. What is going on, everybody? How are we doing? John Middelkopf 3&out podcast brought to you by my friends at Zone Pouches. Hopefully everyone is doing well. Maybe as well as the Seattle Seahawks, who are the number one overall seed in the NFC. Probably not as well as the 49ers. The who did not look good, who got destroyed physically, mentally and probably lost some players to injuries because that's usually what happens and are now probably going to be the 6 seed. I'm recording this late Saturday night. If the Rams win, rams will be 5, 9 or 6. Seattle 1. Now, the NFC west is a little different than the other division that we saw today, which felt kind of like a preseason game that, that was, that was tough to watch. So we'll, we'll talk the majority about the Niner Seattle game. Again, just crowning achievement for, for Sam, John Schneider, Mike McDonald. Pretty cool moment for that franchise and rough night for the Niners. Wow. Geez. We'll talk a little bit about the other game, but not much. I got a theory that not a theory, but a take that I think needs to get instituted moving forward when it comes to under 500 division champs. So make sure you subscribe to the podcast, make sure you subscribe to the YouTube and we'll be back again Sunday night after the Almost Ravens Steeler game. Looks like Lamar is going to play. Looks like TJ Watts going to play exciting. But let's just dive right into Seattle, give them their flowers because the Seattle Seahawks accomplished an incredible feat tonight, becoming the number one seed leading up to week one. They were a 5 to 1 underdog to win the division. The 49ers were favored. Obviously things changed throughout the course of the season with their injuries, but still, I mean they have Kyle Shanahan, they got Robert Sala, they were favored to win it. And right there with them was the Los Angeles Rams and the Seattle Seahawks with Sam Darnold, second year coach Mike McDonald and future hall of Fame general manager John Schneider are the number one seat. Right before I hopped on here, I googled, which is essentially AI and I said, when was the last time Seattle hosted a playoff game? And that was 2017. The Seattle Seahawks, who early on in Pete Carroll's tenure was, I would say, one of the best teams in the league. Well, people forget those last several years of Russell Wilson, even when he was playing pretty well, they were going on the road. They have not hosted a playoff game where it is a extremely tough place to play is a massive home field advantage. One of the really, like I would say, short list of teams that you would say have a collegiate feel in almost a decade, and they deserved it because they dominated the Niners tonight. They dominated them. Honestly, at half when it was 10 to 3, I went, the Niners should be, you know, doing cartwheels that this is a one score game. The Niners had three first downs in the first half. Seattle forex them on first downs. They almost had 200 yards of offense in the first half. And here's the thing, the 49ers had been playing the last couple of weeks, teams with no defense, and they eviscerated them. And tonight, and I've been saying this for A while, Mike McDonald, if he was an offensive coach, would be one of the toasts of the league. But he's a defensive guy and we just celebrate offense more. We just do. I mean, the league is built and the business is built now around offense. You are completely screwed as a defensive player when it comes to, you know, no matter how great you are, you don't get as much credit as the offensive guys. Obviously, from a playing standpoint and the officiating standpoint, you're at a huge disadvantage. And we talk a ton. I mean, obviously Andy's been toast to the league for the last half decade in Kyle and McVeigh and all the other offensive guys around the league, we talk about, and I'm guilty as anybody, nonstop, but I haven't beaten the drum for this guy. He's elite. And now his record and his ability against Kyle Shanahan kind of speaks for itself. I mean, the 49ers offense is built on running the ball. I think probably within the last year, Jay Gruden, you know, former NFL coach John's brother, came on this show and we were just BS and talking football and we talked about Kyle Shanahan and that offense. And he said from a pure passing standpoint, that's not what they do. Like, no one studies their offense for just drop back passing. It is an offense. Going back to his father, which ironically, Clint Kubiak, who's now the offensive coordinator for Seattle, who's the son of Gary, who played for Mike Shanahan, coach for Mike Shanahan, Kyle played for the Kubia. Kubiak might as well. That family might as well be the cousins of the Shanahan. The entire offense is predicated on running the ball. And when you can run the ball, you dominate in the passing game. Because the majority of their passes, if your quarterback is just competent, are layups. And then it's the NFL. So obviously they're going to be plays where you have to make. But how many times tonight Sam Darnold on these boots, is he just dumping it off? Because that's the job in this offense. And when you can run the ball, as Kubiak in Seattle did Tonight, they had 180 yards on the ground. You remove the nine yards Sam Darnold had. Their two running backs went for 171 yards. They dominated on the ground. Meanwhile, the 49ers, who you know, coming into this game, I would say Christian McCaffrey is widely considered not just one of the best running backs in the league, one of the best players had eight carries for 23 yards. They had 12 carries for 53 yards. If you told me the 49ers are going to have a game where they get 12 carries and they're playing a team like Seattle who has a good defense, they're going to have no chance to win. Also, if you would have told me that the 49ers would have three points, I'd be like, I bet Purdy throws a bunch of interceptions. That was not the case. Right. He obviously had the one at the goal line where McCaffrey dropped it. But like, Purdy was fine. Like, it wasn't. Like, he wasn't their problem. They can't run the ball. When they can't run the ball, their offense does not work. They're not built to play like that. And Mike McDonald now and like he was, it wasn't like he was at home last week. They played on the road, had to fly across the country and they physically manhandled the 49ers, shoved them around. It felt like every time they tackled him, guys went backwards. Troy Aikman even said it on a late run by McCaffrey. It looks like he's running into a brick wall. He has nowhere to go. Even if you put Barry Sanders in there tonight, maybe he gains a couple more yards juking a guy out. But there was no green grass. And the way this team was built physically from a defensive standpoint, I mean, all their DBs hit. You can't be a physical defense, in my opinion, just based off your defensive line, your secondary has to hit. In Seattle, the team that they are going to be remembered for forever is the lob Seattle Seahawks, right? One super bowl went to another. Well, part of the reason that defense was so feared, and I think they led the league in scoring defense four years in a row because their secondary hit like they were Ray Lewis or Brian Urlacher, obviously Earl Thomas and Cam Chancellor. But Earl Richard Sherman, to me, is the greatest tackling cornerback I had ever seen. And that's the way these guys Play. Now the 49ers DB's hit too. It's honestly the only reason their defense had a shot, because their defensive backs tackle. Their D line can't really do much right. And obviously they're linebackers. I mean, by the, by the end of the game, they're playing with guys that were free agents like three weeks ago. But Seattle deserved a win tonight. They manhandled this game from the jump. They went right down the field on the first drive of the game. And honestly, I thought Mike went for it on fourth down because everyone's kind of been saying, right, you're too conservative. And he's playing Kyle Shanahan, who their offense had been, I think, what scored 10 touchdowns in the last two weeks. So he's thinking like, hey, we got to score touchdowns. And it backfired. And then I think the next couple drives, he realized, we don't need to play this way. I, I, I need to do exactly what I've been doing, be conservative. Because the 49ers offense, best case was going to get to the low teens. It was not going to be a game when they scored many points. Their defensive line, I mean, that last play of the game, technically the last play of the game for the 49ers. I thought Brock Purdy was murdered. Honestly, I thought like, how did he just shatter his entire lower body? And all night long they beat the shit out of him. They hit him over and over and over again. And when they didn't hit him anyone, he threw to, they destroyed. And hell, Kittle's a good example. Typically in a game, George, and he had five catches for 30 yards. Typically, he's more like five or six for 70. And of those 70, maybe 30 or 30, five or 40 are after the catch because he'll break a tackle, he'll run over db, he'll throw a linebacker to the side. That was not taking place tonight. Seattle showed up to just shove the Niners around. And Mike McDonald owned Kyle Shanahan tonight. Kyle had no answers. The 49ers had one good drive, ended on a freak interception, but they had one good drive all night long. And it was a big play by Kittle, a big play by Purdy's legs, a big play by Juwan Jennings. Interception. Game over. It happened that fast? It was 13 to 3. Like, okay, the 49ers score here is 13 to 10. Low scoring, weird game, anything's possible. 10 minutes left in the game, interception happened, game over, Happened like that. And honestly the Niners were extremely fortunate to be in that position. Right. Myers had missed a field goal. They had gone for it on fourth down, you know, down deep in the red zone. You look at the statistics. To me, the stat that jumps out the most is they had 23 first downs. The 49ers had nine. That is a crazy statistic. The Niners offense had nine first downs. They only had three in the first half, they only had six in the second half. And four of them came on the one fucking drive. I mean it was, I mean From a Mike McDonald standpoint, what was on the line to be the number one overall seed, like a Picasso, like that was Chef Kiss moment on the season for him. I mean, what a, what a performance from his unit, from his team to come on the road and listen, you know, the 49ers defense is terrible. It's, it's no one's fault. It is what it is. It's a personnel standpoint. You could argue their best defensive player is a 5th round, 160 pound rookie slot corner. But they still have a lot of pride. They are still extremely well coached and to just dominate this game. And I think we also learned this the last couple of weeks, the 49ers had beat teams where they could just outscore them. It was almost like if you're a basketball team, we're going to get into games where it's like 130 to 120, we're comfortable in that environment. But if the game gets like in the high 80s or low 90s, which I haven't watched much NBA this year, but I don't think that happens anymore. Back in my day, get off my lawn moment used to happen a Lot. Hell, there used to be like NBA Finals in the 70s and 80s. The spurs used to do it a lot. But are you comfortable playing in those games? Do you have a good defense? And it turned out tonight the 40s are 49ers are not comfortable playing in a low scoring game because that means their defense can be on the field. And the time of possession of 37 to 22, technically 38 to 22 if you. I'm going to round up and round out. I mean that, that says it all. Because Seattle, Charbonnet and Kenneth Walker. I guess Seattle fans are down on Kenneth Walker. I know he can be a little hit or miss. I've always had a soft spot for him. After his performance at Michigan State got Mel Tucker an extension before he got caught having sexual relations with the chick. That speaks to the team about being careful about having sexual relations. But that's a conversation for a different day. Again, consensual, I thought, but again, I don't. I don't even care. But got Mel Tucker fired for cause. Not ideal when he had a $95 million contract because of Kenneth Walker. Charbonnet definitely always liked him. It was, it was extremely impressive. It really was. And let's face it, like, you know, coach of the year, Kyle Shanahan had a ton of momentum. Mike McDonald just destroyed that. Like, Kyle Shannon is not winning coach of the year now. He's just not. And you can be like, well, you can't. No, he's not winning coach of the year. Especially if Ben Johnson wins tomorrow and Mike Vrabel wins tomorrow and they're both the two seed. One of those two guys are getting it, you know, if not, they split it. But it ended at night for Kyle Shannon. And there also was a play tonight on a fourth down where the game was seven to nothing. And they ran a play action play that was a shot to Kittle that they never showed the replay on espn, but it was clear it was going to be play action. McCaffrey go to 85. And I don't know if the safety and the corner both ran with Kittle. I don't know if just the safety covered and Brock was afraid to throw a 5050 ball. But clearly the play did not work. And it was an extremely bad play call to have one option and then Purdy ends up dumping it off and it doesn't even get close to the first down. And so many times a night they ran plays and this is why they didn't have that many first downs where even if the guy I guess against like the team, like the Bears, maybe a Juwan Jennings or DeMarcus Robinson or even a George Kittle or use check and break a tackle and get a first down. But you can't do that against Seattle. They were just too good of a tackling team. Honestly, it reminded me a lot of Indiana and Miami over the course of the last several days, how they play defense, not just open field tackling. But when I tackle you, you're going to fucking feel it. And you know that. That's where the GM gets a lot of credit for drafting those players, for getting the right type guys. And one thing they know is this goes back to the lob days. They know the type guys from a physicality standpoint, from a mindset standpoint that play like that. And the 49ers do too. They, they just, they're all in the boxes because they got broken ankles or, you know, broken knees. So it was, it was a master class tonight on Defense. Today's show is brought to you by our presenting sponsor, Hard Rock Bet, the official sportsbook partner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Jacksonville Jaguars. It's week 18 and playoff spots are on the line. Think you know how it's going to play out? Build a same game parlay on Hard Rock Bet and turn game day into a payday. If you miss kickoff, don't worry. Hard Rock Bet is live in game betting so you're never too late to the action. 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If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-9 with it gambling problem call 1-800- gambler Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia. The other guy who's Been taking a lot of heat. And listen, I said it coming into this game. Advantage 49ers at quarterback. Honestly, I thought it was a big advantage. Sam Darnold had a bunch of interceptions. Aikman mentioned tonight, a lot of them come on, third down led the league and he had six fumbles. So he has 20 overall turnovers. Now. I texted a buddy this week. Some of those fumbles, at least that I've seen when I've been on my couch watching football on Sundays have been when he's getting hit from behind. So it's like he gets crushed for fumble turnovers. But if I'm about to throw and someone destroys me and the ball comes out, is that really my fault or is it one of the offensive lineman's fault? I tend to blame the offensive lineman, but who knows? Maybe quarterback coach or coordinator or the head coach would tell me different. But still, like, numbers are the numbers. He had 20 turnovers. I thought tonight, and again he played in a Shanahan Kubiak offense night, he'd be like, well, these numbers are not that great. Didn't throw for that. That's winning football. When your team is built like this and you go 20 of 26. I thought he only really made one questionable throw the entire night. And that was late in the game. He was rolling to his left. He throws it to Smith and Jigba, he kind of overthrows it a little bit, but it was so close to the sideline. Renardo Green technically caught it or picked it off, but he was so far out of bounds, didn't even matter. Now at that time, you're like, hey man, we can't put our balls. Next play they call a run, they're like, hey, we're not even messing with it. But over the course of the game, I thought precise, accurate, on time, in command. I, I do think over the course of the season, definitely the second half of the season, he gets a little sped up and he can be a little erratic. That's kind of the knock on him going back to the end of last year. He just gets frenetic, right? And that's usually what, that's the difference between the great quarterbacks. Always under, under control, always poised, always calm. And when Sam gets a little off kilter, like any quarterback that's not an elite, elite all time guy, you can start feeling him getting frenetic. Anyone that plays golf, when you start kind of pressing, you start going fast and it gets worse. No different with a quarterback in his feet. Saw it a couple times with Purdy tonight because he starts hearing footsteps. Don't even blame him. But you, you can't play like that. You have to be calm. And I thought for the most part he was really, really calm, did a great job, took what was there, was accurate, made some really good throws down the middle of the field. And listen, it doesn't end the questions like, I wouldn't put, you know, $10,000 on him to win playoff games. I would still be a little nervous. But if they can play in games where they can dictate the terms and if they're going to run the ball like that, they can win the nfc, they can run the ball like that. Now, some of these defenses will see how the, you know, the scheduling breaks and who wins and who they end up playing in the first round. But like, that is their formula. Run the ball, have Darnold Throw under 30 times and play defense. And I think they would tell you if we can play games where Darnold has less than 30 attempts, we can win the Super Bowl. If we play in a game where he's got to have 40 plus attempts, it's probably going to be hard for us to win that game or it just could get weird, right? And this goes back to. I'll never forget a buddy told me that was with the jets that when Sala interviewed, they liked Sam Darnold and they said they thought they could win with Sam Darnold and he was bringing lafleur from the 49ers. And the mindset was going to be around the offense, running the Shanahan offense, which Seattle does, which obviously the 49ers do, is play in games, dominate running the ball, build a good defense and have him play where his past attempts are between 25 and 30. And in those 25 to 30, 75% of them are going to be relatively easy throws, as you saw a lot of times tonight. And then they're going to be 10, 15% where he's just going to have to make a play, and he did tonight. It's why this offense is so good. When you run the ball now, you're not always going to run it for, you know, four and a half, 4.6 yards of carry and just the ease in which they did tonight. But if you can run 40 times for 150 yards, if you can control the clock and you have a good defense, it's a formula that has worked since the 60s. The 70s still works today, and it will always work no matter how much you want to get past happy and here's the other thing with Seattle, like there's a decent chance you get a rainy game. So whoever you are playing, you're probably not going to throw for 350 yards. Rain, wind, could be cold. The elements play in their style of football. If I'm them, I want it to be shitty weather. That translates. That will work. Now, depends on who they play. If they do get into a situation where they're down, anything's possible because obviously 11 is an elite player. But they do depend a lot on, you know, older Cooper cup who made a nice catch, a nice play tonight. And they're running backs. I mean, Walker had 16 carries, Charbonnet at 17, Walker at four catches, so he had 20 touches. Charbonnet at three, so he had. They had 40 touches with their two running backs like that. That was. McDonald's going to get a lot of credit because the defense dominated, rightfully so. But Kubiak tonight, that, that was in front of, you know, I'm sure one of his mentors, like I said, family, cousin, essentially, had to feel pretty good. Had to feel really, really good. And Congrats to Seattle. 14 and 3 signing Sam Darnold this off season. Let's face it, pretty polarizing there. There were a lot of people, I think the analytical community up until a couple weeks ago was trying to tell everyone Geno Smith is good. Geno Smith's a great story. Resurrected his career, ended up making a bunch of money, helped Seattle get to the playoffs. Post Russell Wilson. If you're trying to tell me Geno Smith is a good player, I don't know what to tell you. If you want Geno Smith to be your starting quarterback in 2025, like, I don't know what to tell you. Sam Darnold's a dramatic upgrade. Like, I watched, you know, Smith play the 49ers a lot. Look like every time, I mean, terrible, terrible. And Sam Darnold tonight, I mean, was in the driver's seat for that bad boy. I don't want to say like, led them, but was a big part of it. Made some big time plays. And honestly they could have put it on. I think everyone thought like, oh, there's Sam. Those first couple plays in the red zone and the first drive of the game, which I'm not going to argue weren't good. But over the course of the rest of the game, I thought he was really good. I thought he was really good. And if he plays well, this team is 100% a contender. And the 49ers, like I didn't think Purdy was that bad. He was 19 to 27. A couple of those incompletions late in the game. At one point in time, he was like 19 to 25 or 19 to 23. He was pretty accurate. They just didn't have the ball that often. I mean, how many plays did they run tonight? They had 42. Seattle had 25 more plays. The 49ers ran 42 plays. They just, they could never get in a position where it's like third and one. It always felt like it was third and four, third and five. They're so dependent on Kendrick Bourne and DeMarcus Robinson. In fairness, DeMarcus Robinson made a couple plays tonight, three catches for 24 yards. I think he had a couple first downs, but when McCaffrey. I don't even want to blame him, but just was not really a factor tonight. Had some catches on some dump downs, but that, that interception, like, that's. That's one of those where, you know, it goes on Purdy's record, but I know the ball was tipped and a little behind him. I think he'd be the first to tell you I have to catch that 100 out of 100 times. Now you could argue it's a little freaky. When he drops it, Brooks is right there, catches it, which is a nice defensive play. Seattle's executives all go nuts up there in the suite, but that was a killer. I mean, that. That felt like a nail in the back of the cranium. It's like this thing's fucking. This thing's a wrap. And he just. He was a guy who wasn't going to win the mvp, but if they were going to win this game, they were going to need an MVP type performance from him. They were going to need him to be brilliant and dominate, break tackles, be like superhuman. And maybe it's just because the accumulation of the amount of carries and touches he's had this season and fairness, he's had to have him. They've had to play like they've been playing. I mean, they won a game last week, 42 to 38. The previous week, Philip Rivers threw like multiple touchdowns. They were. They scored 27. The Colts scored 27 points. I mean, their defense is awful. They can't stop anybody. They. They did sack Darnold a couple times. So they end the season with 20 sacks at least a regular season, which is going to be last in the league. They don't gain pressure the one time they blitz and it works. D winners. I thought he Originally tore his Achilles. I think he just rolled his ankle really bad, but was right there. And that's where like the blitz was perfectly called. The offensive lineman split like the red sea, whole right up the gut. D winners who's a really good athlete fires right through. And you see this happen a lot, especially with like Lamar or Kyler or the high end running quarterbacks, they make those guys miss. But Darnold's a solid athlete. There has to be some sort of like in basketball when you sprint up to a guy, you don't just run right through him. Once you get close, you kind of shuffle your feet, you break down like D winner. He cannot run away from D winners. But if D winner is going to run in a vertical line full speed, which my guess, Dee winners probably like a 4, 6 guy. So he's hauling ass. All CM has to do is move over and then de winners rolls ankles probably out for the season. Sam runs for first down. That's where obviously you see it countless other times, but Fred Warner is the best blitzing linebacker in the league. That is 100% a seven or eight yard sack. If it's Fred Warner, well, it's his backup or a backup. You know, D winner is technically like a rotational starter depending on who's healthy. But whiffs Darnold goes and I think you saw that constantly tonight of just guys flying around that probably shouldn't be out there but you don't have a choice and they're just not good enough. And this is, I would say, you know, in college. Next man up, pre nil at places like Georgia, Bama, Texas, Oregon, all the good schools. Next man up could be like a five star retro freshman. So like yeah, we don't know who this is. Turns out it's Tyron Matthew. Turns out it's, you know, Kyle Pitts. You who knows, it could be great players. That's not the case in the NFL. It's just not. There's a huge drop off for backups. Trent Williams is a 12 time Pro Bowler. Austin Pleasant's never started a game in his NFL career. Clearly there is a drop off. Trent Williams, if I tied his legs together, you know, probably could be 50% of that guy. It's not even, it's not even comparable. Right. It's not even the 49ers wide receiver group. Listen, Ricky Piersall is an incredible story. He got shot at point blank, point blank range. The doctor, I think it's Stanford Medical said like 90 plus or maybe it was like 95 plus percent in that area, die, it kills you. He lived, fought him off, refused to give up his submariner. Fuck yeah, Ricky. But so it's like there's no one disputing his toughness again. Fought off a point blank Glock to the chest. Not only lived to tell about it, came back and played in the NFL as a rookie. But this year they're very dependent on Ricky Pierce. All why Ricky Pierce was a good player, high end player. Seattle. If Seattle had him healthy with Jackson Smith, their offense would be elite. Like he. He is a impact player, especially in the Shanahan offense. But he gets injured all the time if you remove the gut. Gunshot situation. When he showed up the 49ers, he had a shoulder. He's had hamstring. He's obviously dealt with a knee. Even today when his injury said knee, slash, ankle, I get it. Trent freak injury, running down a guy he's not used to running full speed. Hell, cross the starting left tackle for the Seattle Seahawks as a hamstring. It happens. Big guy, like, that's nothing you can do about it. The Ricky Piersol situation really bit the Niners in the ass tonight because you felt it offensively, especially against that secondary where you need a little juice. Juwan Jennings is an excellent player. He is a winning. He's a, he's a. He's what I call war daddy. Listen, I don't know what he's saying when he's talking shit to people. Some people think he's crossing the line. One dude on the Browns called him a hoe this year. He just said, hey, I'm just talking. Tonight. He took a guy for a ride into the, into the Gatorade buckets. He pisses people off, but he's a player. But if you're depending on him to be your number one wide receiver, it's going to be really hard at the highest level. It really is. He's not fast enough. So you need speed and just playmaking ability outside of him. Right. And they just didn't have that tonight. And a big reason is Ricky Pearsall. They drafted him in the first round. In the first freaking round. Meanwhile, the first rounds, players for the other team, like you're really feeling. The North Dakota State offensive lineman, Witherspoon's hitting like he's Richard Sherman. They were fucking laying the lumber, which I love. I mean, I, I love violence in terms of watching it. I'm not the, I'm not a violent individual. Don't have much violence in me. I'm not the biggest guy But I, I gravitate toward violence, especially in this sport. Love watching it. My favorite teams are violent physical teams. It's why, listen, I, I got married in Nashville, but I haven't spent that much time in the South. But I've gravitated to the SEC over the past 10, 12, 15 years. Why? It's the most violent conference. I love violent football teams and Seattle is. And when they're playing like that, they're really, really hard to be in. The Niners just couldn't match it. They're not built like that right now. And their guys, I don't know if they were clearly. McCaffrey's running empty a little bit. You know, Kittle's just, he's a badass. He's playing through an ankle injury. They just had no juice. Purdy's getting hit like he's, you know their defensive lines. Anthony Joshua and he's Jake Paul. Every play like, Jesus, get. Is Brock dead? You know, when Jake Paul got hit in the, in the mouth and you went down, you're like, is he going to get up? That's, that's how I felt in the last play. Like, is Brock? Then I looked at my wife, I'm like, well, they have a game next week. Like it's missing. Is it Mac Jones starting the playoff game and then Brock got up and his hands bleeding, he limping off and like, Jesus, this is one of those games where the 49ers, the whole team's going to be in the ice bath tomorrow. And that's, let's go big picture here. I don't, I think they're in trouble. I mean, there's no way around it. They are a team not built to just rattle off victories on the road. And if they get Philadelphia, who, you know, offense a little like Seattle, it's not great. Now you would say top to bottom, they got more impactful players. AJ Brown, Devonte Smith, Saquon Goddard, which I don't care how hit or miss their play calling. And Jalen can be in the passing game. You can just score some touchdowns on the Niners defense and you definitely can run it on them. But that's a tough game. And Kittle mentioned tonight, he's like the hard part for us. We're a West coast team, so if we have to play Chicago or even farther Philly, we got a long ass flight. And that's what a huge advantage it was for Seattle. Both their flights. If they got to go on the, if Seattle had to go play Philly or had to Go play Carolina or Tampa. Even those teams are easy. The Rams more than likely are going to have to play Carolina or Tampa. It's a long ass flight I've made. It sucks, takes forever and I'm just doing something, I don't know, vacation. I don't even know why. I haven't necessarily made it from LA to Tampa, but I've flown across country a bunch of times, lived in Philadelphia, flown from Florida out to the west coast. You're on the plane forever. I just flew this year to before football season to Hawaii. It was like a 5 hour and 20 minute flight from sky harbor to, to, to Maui and like two hours, three hours in I'm like how much longer do we have? And you look down, it's like two hours. I was just going there to booze and swim, not playing a football game. So it's, it's hard. That's why it was such, that's why this game was so huge for whoever won it because of the advantage. Clearly you get the buy is massive. But the travel aspect of the playoffs for these teams when the other teams that are making the playoffs are way far away. Right. So if you're Seattle never have to leave. I mean and your home field advantage huge. The rest component, you know, again it's hard. I haven't even. You have to know who wins to even know who they're going to play. I mean they could go anywhere from the Rams to, you know, who knows maybe would have Green Bay upsets Chicago, which I don't think is going to happen but if it does, it's happened before when Green Bay upset Dallas a couple of years ago. It doesn't even matter. They're coming to you and they've just played more than likely a knock then knock down, drag out game. Meanwhile the 49ers I would guess probably play next Sunday price Sunday one o' clock in Philadelphia. Again you'll have to see the matchups to kind of know but that would probably be my guess right now because I saw Peter Schrager thinking that the Monday night game will be whoever wins tomorrow ran Ravens or Steelers hosting probably the Houston Texans. And yeah my guess with the 49ers even either play that first game. You know they showed the thing tonight, Fox, cbs, Amazon. We just don't know who has what. But there's always an NFC game either on Sunday morning or Sunday afternoon for us. You know on the West Coast 10 o' clock or 1 o'. Clock. I would guess Philly Niners would be 1 o' clock. I don't know if the AFC would have a better game than that. And I could see Buffalo, Jacksonville at 10am Again, could be totally off on this. That, that would just be way too early guess, but I just don't. I mean, I think it would be a miracle right now if the 49ers won one playoff game. And I think that'd be an incredible accomplishment. I. You could argue going 12 and 5 and making the playoffs with that roster. I mean, part of the reason they're 12, 5, 49ers beat Seattle in Seattle, they beat the Rams in Los Angeles. I mean those are two of their wins and obviously one of the craziest games they've ever had against the Chicago Bears, who've had an incredible season. Chicago wins tomorrow. What are they, 13 win team. I want to get that wrong. Chicago right now, they'd be 12. So they beat a 13 win team, a 14 win team and a 12 win team. So like people like, oh, 49ers beating nobody. No, they beat three playoff teams. The number one seed, the number five seed, and probably the number two seed. But the problem was tonight the team that they played Seattle with was a lot different than the team they played Seattle with in Seattle. And Seattle knew it. And the coaching ability of Mike is just top notch. I, I'm just. That, that was, that was incredible. And that shit translates. It really does. I mean they, they were my pick a couple years ago to win the Super Bowl. I put one of the biggest bets of my life against the Chiefs, against him in that AFC Championship game. And it wasn't because of the defense. Lamar played like shit in that game. They lost 17 to 10. Pat Mahomes scored 17 points. I'm pretty sure they had 14 in the first half. Maybe all 17 if I remember correctly. But definitely 14. Definitely. The two touchdowns came in the first half. So McDonald's a stud. No way around it. Do I think I can win the Super Bowl? I don't know if I'd go that far, but I think it'd be shocking if they're not in the AFC champ or the NFC Championship game. But if it is Seattle, Chicago, Philly and the Rams play whatever one of these shitty teams makes the playoffs. Let's give the Rams that win. And let's say the Bears and Philly beats the Niners. Seattle would have to play the Rams in their first playoff game, which would suck. That's, that's. I think if you're Seattle, you would actually rather play Philly or Chicago. So you could argue getting the one seed in a weird way for Seattle is more difficult because I think if you're Seattle, if you were ranking your opponents that you would want to play in your first NFC championship game. You obviously play whoever. But your first playoff game in the divisional round and you have to play the Rams. Like I think we just pulled a bunch of GMs and pulled a bunch of NFL people. How would you rank the top four teams in the nfc? Because now you got to drop the Niners out of it based on their defensive performance the last several weeks. Just. It just sucks. You know, I. You would definitely have Seattle and the Rams be 1, 2. Some people might even be like, hey, if the Rams figured out tomorrow and get a little momentum in that first weekend, they're going to be tough. Philly, I mean they go three and out. Feels like every other drive. They had 17 yards in the second half last week. Chicago, their defense is basically the 49ers. I've been saying this forever. I don't watch high school football, but I'm going to stick with this at the highest levels of high school. Maybe high school is a little different. Definitely college and clearly the pros. You cannot win big if you do not play defense. It is impossible. There is no if I read one more article about Cliff Kingsbury becoming a head coach, I'm going to throw up in my mouth. These fucking people not watch football. Is this an agent driven story? What are we talking about? Head coach in the NFL? What? Cliff Kingsbury. Do you guys just witness what happened? And part of the dysfunction in Arizona in terms of his accountability and toughness, which translates to defense. It's kind of like a shittier version of Lincoln Riley. That does not work. What's winning in college football right now? Indiana destroying people on defense. Oregon dominating the defensive side of the ball. Miami crushing people. Ole Miss has got the little D2 guys making sweet plays. Obviously in the NFL defense matters a lot. Pass rush, DB play, physicality. Obviously your schemes within that. And if this like the Bears and their fans will be the first to tell you like your defense is the same as Niners. Maybe you got one or two bigger names on that side of the ball. But that does not work. That's why the Niners, I think every 49er fan be the first to admit we have no shot in the playoffs, none to make a run. Could you win an individual game? Could the 49ers beat the Eagles in a one off situation? 100%. Games are weird. You saw tonight, Seattle was kicking Their ass. And it was 10 to three at half. Like, how's this possible? Niners had three first down. That's football. And the 49ers at one point in time were a fumbled ball. If Cleveland Farrell drops, falls on it, who knows? All of a sudden they score tie game. It was 10 point swing. Football is weird that way, right? In an individual game, you could be a better team. I think you could pull 100 people that watched tonight and 100 people would say Seattle was the better team tonight. Yet at one point in time through in the third quarter, it's 10 to 3. And that's the thing about playoff games. I watched a lot of, I went to a lot of warriors in their heyday, playoff games, you can lose random games and series all the time. It happens in baseball all the time. It does not matter. In basketball, it definitely doesn't matter. Like, oh, it's got blown out in game three. Okay, two, one, who cares? In football, you have one bad half, you, you, you make two bad plays. The playoffs can be over. The other team makes one great play, some crazy ass kickoff return or some crazy ass missed tackle touchdown. All of a sudden it's like, I thought we were better than them. And we're down 20 to 10 in the third quarter. That's, that's what's so fun about the playoffs. But man, what a night. Incredible. Credible accomplishment by Seattle truly is, like I said, crowding achievement for John Schneider. Let's face it. I mean, there's Diana's article today. It's like, clearly the Raiders would like Pete to just retire. Like, hey man, we'll pay you the contract. We don't want to, quote, unquote, fire you, but just, just retire. You're 75. You refused to waive the white flag. You were the only guy we could hire because there were no other options. You're gonna get fired. But could if you just announced you're retired, it's easier to go that way. John Snyder won that big time because once Pete's gone, He's hired Mike McDonald. Two years later, they're the number one seed in the NFC. And that's against a team with, you know, I don't know how much the Eagles are spending on their team, but it's a shitload of money. You know, the Rams, I mean, we're beating them by 16 points in the fourth quarter. Three weeks ago, Seattle came back, beats Carolina, beats the Niners. Boom. Home playoff games. That's how fast it's, that's how fast it shifted. That's the crazy part about Seattle season is at that game, when they're down 16 points, Darnold looks like crap. You're like, yeah, man, make the playoffs, good season. And then it flipped. Shahid scored that touchdown. They've honestly never really looked back since that moment. I know it's technically three, three last week in Carolina, but Carolina sucks. My main takeaway from that game, and I've thought this for a while and I've never, ever believed this more strongly, that if you go 8 and 9 and win a division one that shows your division sucks. If you go 8, 9 and win the division, think about what it took for Seattle to win the division. They had to win 14 games. They're gonna have two other they're gonna have a 13 win team and a 12 win team in their own division relative to this other division with three, eight, nine teams potentially, if Atlanta wins. Atlanta's rattling off some late victories, obviously. The Saints rattled off some late victories as well. But that division has been terrible. It really has. Even if things went better for either Tampa or Atlanta, what are they, 10 win teams? You're clearly talking about the worst division winner in the conference. But if you go eight, nine or worse, if, who knows, you could have a year, maybe 7 and 10, if it goes really shitty, you should not be able to host a playoff game. You should give up that right? I'm okay with, hey, you win the division, you're automatically in the playoffs. But if you go under.500 to win the division, you should then be stacked with the playoff teams, which every single time would be seventh. That's how I would do it. So it's not like, oh, you get to play the four or five. No, you go to the seventh seed. I think that would be fair. I could live with, okay, they're just, they play the four or five game, but it goes to whoever they're playing gets the home game. I'd be cool with that. But I honestly think you should be slotted in the seven seed. You could make a whole other argument, like if you go under.500, should you even make the playoffs? I, we could make that argument if you wanted. I, I wouldn't argue against that person. But under no circumstances should one of those two teams that we witnessed playing today get to host a playoff game next week. That is an embarrassment toward the National Football League. It truly is. I like Jason Light. I think he's an excellent gm. I know they've had a weird season. They've had some injuries. His coach isn't Great. Clearly, you know, decent chance if Atlanta wins tomorrow, that I think Todd Bowles gets fired again. I don't know Todd well, but I worked with him. Whenever I see him at the combine, I have always. I've always liked him. He's always been really nice to me. But he's been atrocious this year. Their whole team has been really atrocious this year. And this is not shade because of the division, though that division does feel like the least interesting division in all of football. That game today had preseason vibes. It honestly did. It had vibes in the preseason. When you're watching, like, Miami or Philly or some of these east coast teams that, you know, play in these humid cities that starts pouring rain and the starters are playing, you know, late in the first quarter, the second quarter, like, oh, this. And you're just starved. You're just like a crack addict looking for a hit. So you're just sitting on your couch and like, mid August, you're like, hell, yeah. Baker Mayfield's on the field, Mike Evans, Vita Bear. But it's still a preseason game. And then all of a sudden, you look up, you go get a snack, and all the backups are in. You're like, this is bad, honey. You want to go watch a movie? I actually just watched a movie last night called Roofman. Pretty good flick. Channing Tatum, he a true story. This, I guess, guy broke into a bunch of McDonald's from the roof, got caught, broke out of jail, lived at a Toys R Us for, like, six months, starts dating a girl. I really enjoy the movie. Channing Tatum, kind of underrated actor. That game today had preseason vibes. It truly did. And given that no matter who, I guess Carolina won the game, they would have won the division. But it never crossed my mind Carolina was going to win that game. And if it wasn't for a last drive by Carolina, that they scored a touchdown, so the game looks closer than it actually was. I thought Tampa was clearly the better team. I'm not a Bryce Young guy. It's pretty clear for me, like, and I was coming out of college, so I'm not acting like I've never liked him. I. I loved him at Alabama. I. I'd followed his career, like, in high school, because he's a huge recruit. I was. I was rooting for him, but at this point in time, he's not good enough. You'd be like, well, his numbers are. I don't know, man. I. I don't see it. I know he made some throws. He no One throws an out route interception like Bryce Young. I don't know if it's a. Can't see. I don't know if it's. Timing's always off. But he throws one of the easier out route picks. I mean, for any guy that consistently starts, typically the guy that throws that pick all the time is a guy that doesn't start very long. I think Bryce Young is just average as the day is long. And that feels kind like I pick up his fifth year option. I don't even think is an option. Yeah, I mean, obviously Canales, Not sure how dynamic he is. Hard to judge a little with his quarterback. But the flea flicker in the rain when a running back, if you just think about it, the field's clearly slippery. It had been pouring rain in Tampa. A flea flicker takes one, two or three, whatever is coached up hard steps, selling the run. Then you have to stop, pivot, flip back. As Dowdle went to flip it back. He is parallel to the ground. It's almost like a movie scene when a guy, you know, I was. We watched Home Alone a couple weeks ago. They slip on the ice and they're parallel to the ground. That's what he looked like as he's been to the ground. And it's just. How do you call that play? And then I watched his answer about why he called that play after the game, he's like, yeah, we like to play. And even Orlovsky on the broadcast was like, they never showed a replay down the field. I don't think anyone was open. There was not. There was like one route being run. There wasn't even someone to dump it off to. What kind of play call is that? You know, Baker threw a bad pick. It was just an awful, awful game. I don't really know what to say. I don't want to spend too much time talking about it because I do think that Atlanta is going to win and Carolina is going to be in the playoffs, which is truly shameful. I mean, it truly is. And I believe this core of my soul. In no functioning society should the Carolina Panthers at 8, 9, the team that we've witnessed, I mean, they got work last week in the second half. Bryce. Through 54 yards against Seattle today, they are down whatever, nine points late in the game and they're going to host a playoff game because B John Robinson Tomorrow goes for 170 yards. What are we doing? Come on, Rogue. We gotta be better. This, this can't be tolerated. But it will. They'll host a game and hopefully the Rams kick their ass and we move on. If you tell me that it's Rams Carolina, my guess would be decent chance as the first playoff game. That's Saturday afternoon. Saturday afternoon. And that would be a lucky break for McVeigh because he probably get it rolling a little bit tomorrow against Arizona, who's just an atrocious football team with a million injuries. They're, they're terrible. I think they've lost by 20 and I was listening to some local television show like five of the last seven games or something. They are bad. And then you get Carolina, you might get some momentum. And again, like I said, if Seattle draws the Rams as their first playoff game since 2017 in Seattle, that's just a tough draw. It really is. I think if you let John Schneider and Mike McDonald pick, they would 100% pick Philly or obviously San Francisco or the Bears over the Rams. But that will be a fantastic, you know, week two playoff game if that's the way it shakes out. Other than that, we've gone got a little longer than I thought. But I was. It's a big night. I mean there was a lot on the line, learned a lot. Seattle's the 1 seed. Niners are in trouble and I, I guess we had to. I actually didn't. I turned the game on. I was a little late to the game playing golf, which was way more fun than watching the morning game and it was seven nothing. And I was like, what, this sucks. I don't even want to do this. Is there a bowl game on? It's like, I guess I kind of have to do this for my job kinda. I'm just, I was like, this is awful. What a, what an awful game. At least we had the night game, which I know it's low scoring, but it was fun. Adios. Have a great night and see you tomorrow. The volume Toyota is all in all season and with Toyota Game Day giveaways the official automotive partner of the NFL is giving football fans a chance to win big by making free predictions on which big plays will happen during the second half of of every Sunday night football game. Prizes include Brock Purdy's favorite Toyota Sequoia, NFL Shop gear and more. Visit toyota.com NFL to learn more. Toyota let's go places no purchase necessary void where prohibited ends 2826 open to legal residents of the 50 US states and DC 18 and over. For complete details, how to enter prizes and official rules, visit toyotasgamedaygiveaways.com if you.
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Only listen to one thing to make sense of the news this year. Make it this the final episode of this season of Next Question pulls together the most important conversations of the year. You'll hear David Graham on Project 2025, Liz Oyer on the plethora of presidential pardons, Tina Brown on the year's biggest scandals here at home and across the pond, plus much, much more. It's a crash course in the last 12 months, how we made it through the year, and a look at what might be coming in 2026. Listen to next Question with me, Katie Couric on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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This is an iHeart podcast.
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Guaranteed Human.